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 At this point in politics in Illinois and on the national level, its important we have Democrats in office that are going to fight for working-class families and its important to have women in office who can have a seat at the table when laws are being passed that concern womens bodies, said Tom Elliott, communications director for the Illinois Senate Democratic Victory Fund. Collison has previously said that since the boards decision to opt out, the issue has been on her mind. A number of full-time workers in Northbrook told Collison that not only do they not receive paid sick days, but that if they miss work for more than three days in a year, for whatever reason, they would be fired, she said. Gary Jet Center and B. Coleman Aviation are the two fixed base operators at the airport that bring in the biggest share of the airports revenue. Both have made significant investments in hangars and terminal improvements in the past few years. Sometimes a particular event, the fate of a particular individual, becomes a symbol of a global, historical trend. The reported murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, in a consulate in Istanbul is one of those moments. It symbolizes the departure of the United States as a restraining force against evil actors in the world. Saudi Arabia is a small nation that cannot defend itself without the support of the United States, and therefore no Saudi leader would have made such a brazen move without confidence that Washington, once the leader of the liberal world order, would do nothing. There have been many other similar warning signs: Chinas arrest of the head of Interpol; Myanmars military campaign of genocide against the Rohingya; the systematic and deliberate slaughter of civilians in Syria, including by outlawed chemical weapons; the Russian invasion of Ukraine and seizure of Crimea. Nor are the rise of right-wing nationalist forces in Europe and elsewhere unrelated to the loss of strength and vitality among the democratic nations. Doubts about America have been reverberating across the globe for more than a decade, and others have been responding accordingly. When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban spoke out to celebrate the illiberal state a few years ago, he claimed he was only responding to new realities: the great redistribution of global financial, economic, commercial, political and military power that became obvious in 2008. So welcome to the breakdown of the liberal world order the United States once upheld. Youre seeing just the beginning. World order is one of those things people dont think about until it is gone. Thats what Americans learned in the 1930s, as what had remained of the old European order collapsed and the United States refused to step in either to prop it up or to replace it. Thats when Americans discovered that there are always dangerous people out there, lacking only the power and opportunity to achieve their destiny. They can be suppressed by a reasonably stable international order, whether of a Rome, a united Christendom, a European concert of powers, or whatever might pass for civilization at a given time and place. During such times, they live under the rocks, but they are never gone. When the prevailing order breaks down, when the rocks are overturned, the things living beneath them, the darkest elements of the human spirit, crawl out. That was what happened in the first half of the 20th century. The circumstances in which Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini rose to power a world in which no nation was willing or able to sustain any kind of international order gave them ample opportunity to show what they were capable of. Had there been an order in place to blunt those ambitions, we might never have come to know them as tyrants, aggressors and mass killers. Today the rocks are being overturned again. Those who have been arguing that we should pull back from the world and show greater restraint tell us we need to accept the world as it is. But they have no idea what the world as it is really looks like. They grew up inside the bubble of protection provided by U.S. power and the liberal world order it sustained, a world in which other nations were forced to adjust their behavior to those realities of power. Russian behavior was shaped by what Russian leaders believed the United States would or had to tolerate, as well as by their sense of the liberal orders strength and cohesion. The same was true of Chinas behavior, and Irans, and Saudi Arabias, and that of every other nation or nonstate actor that might seek to disrupt or topple the existing order. All would have behaved differently if America had behaved differently, and so would Americas allies and the rest of the world. We want to believe that Hitler and Stalin were bizarre products of another era. But the Hitlers and Stalins are all around us, waiting to reveal themselves if given half a chance. Today we know a Vladimir Putin who has grand ambitions but not yet the capacity to realize them. He reveres Stalin, but he is not Stalin. But what would a less constrained Putin be? Today a more powerful China is abandoning the cautious foreign policies of Deng Xiaopings weaker China. What will an even less constrained China be like? Who can say whether either of these powers might in time become a threat on a par with those we faced in the past if they are allowed to expand their regional and global influence by military means? And how quickly might this happen? Quicker than we think. A character in Hemingways The Sun Also Rises, asked how he went bankrupt, responds, Gradually and then suddenly. That is a fair description of how the world order collapsed before the two world wars, and of how it likely will collapse in our own time. Welcome to the jungle. Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His latest book is The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World. Air safety plan wont be ready until 2022 BANGKOK: Air transport officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) said yesterday (Oct 9) that they will have an official air safety master plan, but not before 2022. accidentstransportSafety By Bangkok Post Wednesday 10 October 2018, 09:32AM Thai Airways Internationals Flight TG679 from Guangzhou ploughed off the Suvarnabhumi runway on Monday night after landing in heavy rain. Photo: via Twitter/@AeroChapter The 2022 deadline for the air safety plan was revealed yesterday. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has been monitoring the Thai authority closely to ensure it comes up with measures to reduce risk. This news coincided with the excursion off the Suvarnabhumi airport runway late Monday (Oct 8) of a Thai Airways International 747 with 115 people aboard. Stuck in mud off the runway, the Boeing jumbo jet blocked and delayed at least 179 arriving and 264 departing flights until it was finally hauled back onto blocked runway 19/17 at 2:30pm yesterday, and the area was cleared for normal airport traffic. An official report by the Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Ltd on the incident said five other flights had to be re-routed away from Bangkok because of the heavy traffic. CAAT director-general Chula Sukmanop announced the deadline for the safety plan after the aviation authoritys fifth meeting of the year yesterday. He said the authority had floated the idea among government officials and airlines in preparation for mandatory safety policies to be enforced. The ICAO, the United Nations aviation watchdog, is developing a 2020-2022 global safety plan for civil aviation. Mr Chula said Thailand must adhere to it in full. Mr Chula said the Thai master plan will feature new performance indexes that air operators must satisfy and will apply to all aviation authorities in the country including Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Ltd, the state-run air traffic operator. One key addition will be that authorities must immediately inform the CAAT of any mistakes they make, or face penalties. Mr Chula said this is designed to pre-empt cases of negligence that could lead to accidents. Were holding talks with authorities concerned as it could take a while to get the law changed, he said. Next month we will hold another meeting to discuss matters in greater detail and talk about what new standards the CAAT will observe. At present, the CAAT adhered to its National Civil Aviation Security Program, which was last updated in 2016. This requires aircraft operators to submit their security measures to the CAAT for approval. Aircraft businesses must at present abide by the Air Navigation Act BE 2497 (1954). The act contains penalties for safety violations, such as a failure to submit a journey logbook, or submitting an incomplete logbook to the CAAT. In such cases, the air operator would be fined up to B80,000, face a maximum jail sentence of two years, or both. These policies are quite outdated. We need to make changes to conform with the internationally accepted ICAO standards, Mr Chula said. The ICAO red-flagged Thailand in June 2015 after it uncovered safety concerns and organisational issues in the countrys aviation industry. It prohibited Thai airlines from establishing new international routes. It lifted the status in October 2017 after an ICAO audit was conducted on Thailand the previous month. The ICAOs latest audit shows the country ranks below the global average in all eight effective implementation categories. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given Thailand Category 2 status since December 2015, shortly after the ICAO imposed its red flag. The FAA said the country has fallen short in terms of various international standards, for example pilot qualifications. Read original story here. Man confesses to beating wife to death PHUKET: The man apprehended after his car plunged down Patong Hill after hitting a motorbike on Monday (Oct 8) has confessed to beating his wife to death, police have confirmed. murderhomicidepolice By Tavee Adam Wednesday 10 October 2018, 01:27PM Police in front of the rented room in Kathu where Watsana Dorlao, 31, had been found bludgeoned to death. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Bancha Jaichan, 42, from Nan province, was pulled from his white Krabi-registered Toyota Vios halfway down Patong Hill by rescue workers at about 11:30am on Monday after the car had ploughed about 30 metres down the steep slope after striking a motorbike. Bancha was unconscious and trapped inside the vehicle. He was rushed to Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town. Meanwhile, while police were responding to the accident, other Kathu Police officers had been called to a rented room on Soi Bangwad, Kathu, where the body of Watsana Dorlao, 31, had been found. She had been bludgeoned to death. Only after police questioned Ms Watsanas neighbours did officers learn that Ms Watsana was Banchas wide and that the couple lived in the room together. Neighbours reported that the couple had been fighting over Ms Watsana having an affair with another man, and that Bancha was seen leaving the room and driving off in his white Vios earlier that morning. (See story here.) Bancha later regained consciousness at the hospital, Capt Chalermsak Aksornpein of the Kathu Police explained today (Oct 10). When we confronted him with what we had learned from investigation Ms Watsanas death, he confessed to killing her, Capt Chalermsak said. He said he was angered over her having a lover. He admitted that he beat her to death with a mortar*, he added. Bancha was subsequently discharged from hospital care and taken to Kathu Police Station, where he was charged with murder, Capt Chalermsak confirmed. Regarding why Bancha was involved in the accident on Patong Hill, Capt Chalermsak said, Bancha said he was confused. He was driving toward Patong but then turned around to go back to his rented room. He said he was not trying to run away. * Correction: Not a pestle, as orignally reported. The error is regretted. Phuket rubbish collector killed in road accident PHUKET: A Phuket rubbish collector died in the early hours of this morning when he was hit by a car on Thapkasattri Rd in Muang Mai with the impact of the crash tearing his body apart. accidentsdeathpolicealcoholtransportSafety By Eakkapop Thongtub Wednesday 10 October 2018, 11:08AM A rescue worker inspects the damaged Phuket-registered Mercedes-Benz C250. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Capt Warawud Sansop of the Thalang Police was notified of an accident on Thepkrasattri Rd northbound in Muang Mai at 4:45am today (Oct 10). The accident happened opposite the PTT petrol station. Capt Warawud arrived at the scene to find a black Phuket-registered Mercedes-Benz C250 parked at the side of the road. The driver of the Mercedes, British national Paul John Mercer, age not reported, had sustained injuries so was taken to Bangkok Hospital Phuket. Officers were also to request that hospital staff check the alcohol level Mr Mercers blood. Near the vehicle police found body parts spread across the area. A worker from the PTT petrol station who witnessed the accident said that the deceased was a man who always collected sellable rubbish from the area. At the time of the accident he was collecting plastic bottles from the side of the road when the car crashed into him and dragged him about 40 metres before coming to a stop. Police are currently investigating the incident further. Phuket to hold mass ceremonies to honour Rama 9 PHUKET: People across Phuket are invited to join memorial activities to honour the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama 9 of the Chakri Dynasty, at Saphan Hin on Saturday (Oct 13). culture By The Phuket News Wednesday 10 October 2018, 04:34PM Memorial services to honour the deeply revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej will be held at Saphan Hin this Saturday (Oct 13). Photo: Royal Household Bureau Watertown episode of HBO's 'We're Here' airs Monday After filming an episode of "We're Here" in Watertown this summer, HBO is ready to air the state's first episode Monday. The brewery has been in operation at 1442 E. 85th Place since August 2017. The taproom, scheduled to open Nov. 1, will be adjacent to the brewery at 8618-8622 Louisiana Place. The buildings are located just south of Southlake Mall. The African American Achievers Youth Corps, Inc. will sponsor its 11th Annual Kings of Gospel concert in observance of the 10th anniversary of the Glen Theater at 7 p.m. Saturday at 20 W. Ridge Road, Gary. The program will be held in conjunction with the Fifth Annual Gary Greats Awards Program. During the event three 2018 Gary Great Awards will be presented to Councilwoman Mary Brown, Dr. Michael McGee and Dr. Reuben Rutland. Tickets are $15 and are available at Beautiful Things, 3570 Village Court, Gary. Admission at the door is $20. More information is at 219-887-2046. EDMONTONDespite findings presented in a new United Nations climate change report that underscores the importance of a price on carbon in alleviating the problems of a warming planet, Jason Kenney reiterated his opposition to Albertas carbon tax policy. The leader of Albertas official opposition, the United Conservative Party, called Albertas carbon tax all economic pain and no environmental gain, while speaking to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Monday. Kenney added that the taxs positive effects were negligible for a cold, sparsely populated northern economy. It punishes people for not doing something thats a vice driving people to work, living normal lives, running small businesses, Kenney said. But the major international report, released by the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), painted a grim picture of a world warmed to 2 C, compared to one curbed at half a degree less. It said that would mean the decimation of coral reefs compared to a 70 to 90 per cent loss; sea levels rising 10 centimetres higher than the alternative; and an iceless Arctic Ocean in the summer every 100 years, as opposed to every decade. The Paris Agreement, of which Canada is a signatory, aimed to keep climbing global temperatures to less than 2 C above pre-industrial levels. According to the panels report, one of the keys to keep warming below 1.5 C an increase the planet is expected to hit between 2030 and 2052 includes policies that price carbon, either through direct taxes or regulations, but at a pretty penny. Best estimates in the report call for a per-ton price of $135 (U.S.) to $5,500 (U.S.) by 2030, a far cry from the current federal price, which sits at $10 (Canadian) per tonne and includes scheduled increases up to $50 per tonne by 2022. Canadas federal carbon plan follows the reports estimates for a 2 C increase, pegged at $10 (U.S.) to $200 (U.S.) by 2030. Kenney has already promised that the first bill introduced by a UCP government, if elected next year, would aim to repeal Albertas carbon tax. The current provincial tax costs $20 (Canadian) per tonne on carbon emissions, and will rise to $30 per tonne at the beginning of next year. In place of this tax, Kenney believes it would be more effective to increase natural gas exports to markets such as China and India, so these countries can reduce their reliance on coal and other forms of energy that cause more greenhouse gas emissions. He also called for a levy on major carbon emitters to encourage further research on technology that can mitigate the effects of climate change. Consuming energy to heat your home and live normal lives in a cold northern economy is not a negative externality. Its just normal, he said. But Sara Hastings-Simon, managing director of the Alberta clean economy program with the Pembina Institute, questioned what she called a simplification of the debate surrounding the need for carbon pricing. Technology is certainly going to be one part of the solution, she said. Its not an either-or. We need the technology, but we need policy and the market signals that actually get people to deploy them. Carbon pricing is one of the ways that you ensure those technologies get used. By setting a graduated price on carbon, Hastings-Simon explained, policy-makers are giving businesses and consumers room to come up with their own solutions to reduce emissions and, in effect, costs. Youre sending a signal so that companies can begin to develop and offer the offerings consumers and business can implement to reduce emissions, so that by the time the price is higher, they reduce their emissions and they are not paying any more at that higher price. Kenney criticized Albertas carbon levy and the planned federal policy at a Scrap the Carbon Tax rally in Calgary on Friday night with Ontario Premier Doug Ford. The IPCC report, which came on the heels of the rally, urged immediate action to limit global warming. On top of that, Monday saw a pair of economists awarded a Nobel Prize for their work on the economics of climate change advocating for the effectiveness of carbon tax policies globally. But according to Kenney, while serious efforts are needed to reduce emissions, the world is moving in the opposite direction of carbon taxes. Whenever this is put on the ballot in Canada, it has lost. China is not imposing a carbon tax, India is not imposing a carbon tax, and they are the worlds major and growing emitters, Kenney said. Our policy will not be calibrated to appeal to a small number of people in corporate executive offices, but to average Albertans who are wondering why theyre being punished to fill up their gas tanks to drive to work or to heat their homes. Trevor Tombe, an economist at the University of Calgary, disagreed with the argument that the provinces carbon levy is a regressive tax that hurts average Albertans, citing the rebate system built into the program. In Alberta, the carbon tax is implemented in a way where a large share of its revenue was used to finance income transfers to lower-income folks, Tombe explained. The bottom third of Alberta households receive an income transfer that exceeds the expected carbon costs for them, and an additional third receives a transfer that is partially offset. Of course, Tombe added, enacting a carbon tax, like any other, is a political challenge because the cost is visible, whereas the price tag attached to regulations on emissions are often hidden. Comparing the provinces soon-to-be $30-per-tonne price to the estimates outlined for a 1.5 C increase in the report, Kenney dismissed Albertas carbon tax as a ridiculous environmental policy, and questioned the role Alberta has to play in a global effort, compared to other emitters. You can divide up any country into its states or pieces that are small, and through that logic nobody should have to act, Hastings-Simon said, noting that Alberta is the countrys highest carbon emitter. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, Alberta was the countrys top greenhouse gas emitter in 2016, pumping out about 269 megatonnes. Were a province that, when theres a challenge to tackle, we see that challenge and we take it up, she said. Read more about: EDMONTONThe email started with an innocent Hiya, but the words that followed set off a chain of events that would tarnish a universitys reputation and send investigators on a months-long chase across the ocean and back. Its been just over a year since MacEwan University was blindsided by an $11.8-million fraud. While the ruse itself was simple, the case that followed was anything but. Police had to navigate a complex money-laundering scheme that funnelled some of the stolen public funds through various accounts in two continents before reinvesting it in a real-estate deal in Richmond, B.C. By scouring court documents from cities across the country that tracked investigations in Edmonton, Vancouver, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, StarMetro has pieced together the most comprehensive picture of the case ever published and uncovered new details about how the money was stolen and where it went. It began in the summer of 2017, when MacEwan was in the midst of constructing the $180-million Allard Hall: a state-of-the-art building boasting music studios and dance halls with room for 1,800 students. Emails detailing transactions worth millions of dollars were pinging back and forth between school staff and vendors. As a result, one particular email, sent June 27, didnt set off any alarms. Sent by a James Ellis of Clark Builders, a construction company working on the project, the email opened with the affable Hiya before asking the schools accounts receivable department to reroute payments to a new National Bank of Canada account. A supporting letter attached to the email appeared to have been signed by Marc Timberman, the companys chief financial officer. Read more: Edmontons MacEwan University recovers more than $10 million lost to phishing attack Albertas MacEwan University loses $11.8M after being fooled by email phishing scam Udeni Jayasinghe, an accounting technician with the university, changed the banking information on file. Exactly a month later, MacEwan wired $1.9 million into the new National Bank of Canada account. Oddly, the payment bounced back. The universitys bank confirmed the transfer didnt go through because the account didnt exist. Concerned, Jayasinghe replied to the email asking for updated banking co-ordinates. A response four days later provided new banking information, this time to an account with TD Bank. The email was accompanied by a revised letter that once again appeared to have been signed by Timberman. In just over a week, the university made three payments into the TD Bank account totalling more than $11.8 million. It would be almost two months before the university would learn the awful truth: Clark Builders never received these payments, no James Ellis had worked for the company for at least eight years and the real Timberman had no knowledge of the letters using his name. StarMetro follows the money stolen from MacEwan University funneled through international accounts and reinvested in Vancouver real estate. The email was a fraud. Over the course of a month, MacEwan University lost the equivalent of $622 for every part-time and full-time student enrolled. Thats enough to cover a year of tuition for more than 2,600 students pursuing bachelors degrees, or more than one-eighth of the total amount the university took in through tuition and fees during the 2016-2017 academic year. MacEwan had been fooled by what Const. William Lewadniuk, with the Red Deer RCMP financial crimes unit, called a spear phishing scheme. Its targeted to a specific individual, said Lewadniuk. Generally with a spear phishing scheme you would spoof the email address and try to get them to send you money, so you would pretend to be a contractor or a persons boss. The fraud was only discovered when Serge LAbbe, senior project manager with Clark Builders, contacted the university on Aug. 23, 2017 to inquire about the missing money. The university immediately started investigating, according to a sworn statement filed in court in Montreal by Stuart McLean, associate vice-president of facilities with Grant MacEwans board of governors. They quickly discovered that while the email appeared to have been sent by accounts.receiveable@clarkbuilders.com the email address had been spoofed. The display name of the email was different than the actual originating account. The universitys first break came on Aug. 25, 2017 when a Montreal Superior Court justice issued a seizure order and took back $6.3 million from the TD account, recovering more than half of the missing funds. The account had been opened under the name of Mono Shoes Inc., a company registered to a fifth-floor apartment near downtown Montreal. Before MacEwans millions of dollars poured in, according to documents filed in court, the account had a balance of less than $70. But this was just the beginning of the trail, not the end. In another plot twist, the man identified by a corporate registry search as president, sole director and shareholder of Mono Shoes Jehad Albatniji claimed he, too, had been a victim of fraud. In September, while he was in Jordan, Albatniji exchanged emails with one of MacEwans lawyers. He alleged a man in Montreal introduced him to another man in Toronto the main culprit, Albatniji said, who had access to an account in Hong Kong. Here the story enters its second major theatre: East Asia. From the Mono Shoes TD account, investigators were able to track a trail of transactions to accounts based in Hong Kong. Lewadniuk who has worked with the RCMPs financial crimes unit in Red Deer for three years, with expertise in money laundering involving the proceeds of crime said the money stolen in these types of schemes typically doesnt stick around. More and more, the money doesnt stay in Canada, he said. Theyll try to get it sent out to a country outside of Canada because it is harder for us to recover the funds or follow up. In cases like this, Lewadniuk said, finding out exactly who is responsible and building a case strong enough to lay criminal charges is rare. Criminals often create shell companies with corporate accounts, sometimes using stolen identities, to shuffle money around while concealing the identity of the people controlling the accounts. They want to make it as hard as possible for people to be able to trace where the money goes, so you go from account to account to account through so many countries, said Lewadniuk. Just one day after MacEwan wired $1.9 million to the Mono Shoes account, $1.4 million of the stolen funds was sent from the Mono Shoes account to an account supposedly operated by a company called Kinglong Commerce Development Ltd., based in Hong Kong. So began a series of transactions that would see the money moved from account to account before it was reinvested in a legitimate real-estate deal back on Canadian soil. Around the same time the fraud was unfolding in Edmonton, Vancouver-based company Hoi Fu Enterprises Ltd., owned by mother Jin Lan Feng and son John Yuan, was in the process of acquiring land in Richmond, B.C. The property at 4008 Stolberg St. was valued at over $25 million, but Hoi Fu Enterprises did not have the funds to purchase it outright. According to documents filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia, the seller offered them a short-term mortgage to finance part of the purchase. The sale was completed on July 12, 2017, with Hoi Fu Enterprises Ltd. acquiring the property through a holding company. To pay back the mortgage, Hoi Fu Enterprises borrowed money from Yangjiang City Jixie Zhulu Engineering Ltd. in China. The registered legal representative and shareholder of that company is Yuans uncle. However, to lend Hoi Fu Enterprises the money, Yangjiang City Jixie Zhulu Engineering had to find a way to convert the funds from Chinese currency and send the money to Hoi Fu in Canada. This is how the stolen funds get involved. Yangjiang City Jixie Zhulu Engineering was then introduced to two individuals, Shao Xiong Ma and Shao Yun Ma, who claimed they could help purchase Canadian funds and move them from China to Canada, according to a statement filed on behalf of Hoi Fu Enterprises. Yangjiang City Jixie Zhulu Engineering agreed to lend the Mas the money in the form of Chinese renminbi on the condition that they repay their loan in Canadian dollars to Hoi Fu Enterprises in Canada. Between June and July of 2017, Yangjiang City Jixie Zhulu Engineering made four payments to the Mas totalling 6.7 million, which would have been worth approximately $1.2 million. In August, Hoi Fu Enterprises received three wire transfers totalling $1 million. What Hoi Fu Enterprises said it didnt know was that the Mas had made a side deal with Kinglong Commerce Development. The Mas would make payments totalling 5.3 million approximately $1 million to four individuals and one company in China. In exchange, the Kinglong Commerce Development account, which had previously received $1.4 million in funds stolen during the MacEwan fraud, would transfer $1 million to Hoi Fu Enterprises. Kibben Jackson, a Vancouver-based lawyer who represented Hoi Fu Enterprises during MacEwans investigation and subsequent civil suits, said the owners contend they never knew the money they would eventually use to repay their mortgage on the property deal in Richmond was stolen from MacEwan University. Jackson said that after MacEwan threatened to seize $1 million from Hoi Fu Enterprises, the company settled the lawsuit in March 2018. He could not disclose how much money Hoi Fu Enterprises offered to MacEwan. While the case may have been complex, it was certainly not unique, according to experts in the field. Financial crimes specialist Garry Clement, who did not work on the case, said criminal networks between Canada and Asia have been well established over decades. Clement previously worked with police for 34 years, going undercover to chase some of the highest levels of organized crime in Canada. He was also formerly the national director for the RCMPs Proceeds of Crime Program. Clement said that, prior to 1997, there wasnt a specific charge under the Criminal Code of Canada for being a member of an organized crime group, as there is under Hong Kong law. Without an equivalent on the books, immigrants with that kind of criminal history wouldnt be automatically precluded from entering Canada. As a result, we did end up with our fair share of known organized-crime figures in Canada, said Clement. This allowed criminals to set up networks between the two countries that have persisted to this day. Youve created a network, and that network enables you to do a lot of things through various company formations, said Clement. That is essentially what you are seeing in China: Money is flowing that has been defrauded. Clement said it is not uncommon for the proceeds of crime to end up in legitimate investments as criminals look to keep their money safe and out of reach of authorities. An investment of choice, said Clement, is real estate, given its relative stability and the large sums of money involved. Nobody asks the genesis of the money, Clement said. Through legal action in Hong Kong, the university was able to recover nearly $3.8 million from another individual not named in court documents available in Vancouver or Montreal who had also been transferred stolen MacEwan funds from the Mono Shoes TD Bank account. In all, MacEwan University announced on April 4, 2018 that it had successfully recovered $10.9 million of the $11.8 million lost to the scam. More than $960,000 remains missing a stinging loss that has prompted change at the university and beyond. Taxpayers rightly expect that the money we give to universities is spent on educating our students and isnt lost because of poor financial controls that are in place, Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt told StarMetro in a recent interview. We all have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that the money is spent properly. After finding out it had been defrauded, the university waited a week before alerting the public to the loss. A press release assured students that the universitys IT systems were secure and that it had already begun tracking the majority of the stolen funds with the help of legal counsel in Montreal, London and Hong Kong. MacEwan University president Deborah Saucier was not made available for comment. When the administration credited the swift response and diligent efforts of staff, legal counsel, investigators and the banks for seeing the return of 92 per cent of the lost funds, it revealed few details about where the money went or how it was recovered. That was by design. A presentation to the 2018 Canadian Association of University Business Officers Conference reveals university officials feared significant political fallout and loss of reputation in the wake of the scam. University executives, according to the document, refused to provide media with access to Saucier and employed a disciplined communications strategy, despite public promises of transparency. In a statement posted online in October 2017, Saucier said the fraud did shine spotlights on two glaring gaps in our organization. An internal audit revealed there were inadequate controls in place for changing payment information. There was no requirement for a manager or supervisor to review changes to payment information on file. It also found employees didnt bother to contact the vendor in any way to confirm the request was valid. The press release sent out in April outlined some of the measures administration took to ensure they wouldnt be fooled again. Employees are now required to verify all changes to vendor files by phone and a followup email, and all financial changes must first be reviewed by a supervisor, manager or director. A supplied audit report system was also implemented, tracking every change made to vendor files. The university has made employee training in social engineering attacks, phishing and other online scams mandatory. Minister Schmidt praised MacEwan for making changes to its financial department, including some staff changes at the highest levels, which was a good first step. Brent Quinton, who was the universitys vice-president of finance and administration at the time of the fraud, resigned from his position three weeks after the fraud was discovered, walking away with a $540,000 severance payout. No staff members were fired, though some were placed in different positions. Harry Oosteroff, executive director of the MacEwan Staff Association, said our members were treated appropriately. The provincial government is taking steps to prevent such costly, embarrassing mistakes in the future. The Ministry of Advanced Educations senior financial officer is now leading a team tasked with identifying ways that we can help build capacity at institutions to improve their financial controls so public dollars allocated for the benefit of post-secondary students dont end up in the wrong hands. There are always improvements that can be made, and our department is working with institutions to continually improve the financial systems that are used to protect the taxpayers dollars, Schmidt said. After all, this isnt the first time a post-secondary institution in Alberta has been fooled. An investigation into a similar fraud at the University of Lethbridge found that while the university had such controls in place, staff werent following them. The University of Lethbridge sent $368,000 to scammers over a two-month period in 2016, when payments owing to an external vendor of the university were sent through a process of misdirection to an alternative, nonauthentic bank account, said Mike Mahon, president and vice-chancellor, in a statement in December 2016. Const. Lewadniuk said low-tech solutions, such as having two people sign off on financial transactions or following up on emails with a phone call to the person or company in question, can be key in avoiding high-tech fraud. There are institutional changes on the horizon as well. Clement, the financial crimes specialist, is eager to see stronger regulations around identifying beneficial ownership of property, corporations and bank accounts. Beneficial ownership is an arrangement in which the person who enjoys the benefits of the property or bank accounts, such as profits, isnt necessarily the person listed on the title. Clement said that, until recently, numbered companies would have one or two directors listed, but there was not that requirement to drill down to see who is actually the beneficial owners of that money. Finance ministers across Canada entered an agreement to strengthen such regulations and bring them into force by July 1, 2019. The regulations seek to curb the misuse of corporations and other legal entities being exploited for tax evasion, money laundering, corruption and financing terrorism. But until those regulations are brought into force and investigators are given the resources they need to chase down these types of crime, Clement fears such financial crime will continue unabated. If you stem the flow of money and stem their ability to make that profit, you can curb a lot of activity, said Clement. But as long as theres that profit to be made, people are going to gamble. With files from Michael Mui Read more about: EDMONTONThe Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton announced sexual misconduct allegations against a priest Wednesday while urging other victims to come forward. Archbishop Richard Smith said the Vancouver archdiocese recently received a report alleging sexual misconduct by Father Peter Hung Con Tran towards a minor and an adult when he was associate pastor of a Vancouver parish from 1998 to 2003. Tran served at Queen of Martyrs Parish in Edmonton from 2007 to 2016, and most recently at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Calgary. He has been removed following the allegations. Tran is not to be confused with a different Peter Tran, who is currently chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of St. Paul. The Edmonton archdiocese released the allegations the same day it addressed an updated strategy to work with abuse victims. The update is based on a 184-page Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) document, Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse, released last week. Read more: Edmonton Catholics calling for inquiry into potential clergy abuse Accused priests. Millions in quiet payouts. And it was all kept on a list Outcast from traditional congregations, LGBTQ followers find community in Edmonton Catholics today, as they become aware of these things and reminded of these things, are deeply embarrassed. Theyre deeply shocked, theyre full of shame, Smith said. And we want opportunities to say to others that we are ashamed by this, we are deeply sorry. We want to walk with you and we want to heal. Smith said six Edmonton priests have been charged and convicted with sex crimes in the past, going back decades. He said the archdiocese will compile those records to post on its website and will consider posting other credible and substantiated allegations that never went to criminal court. He encouraged others to come forward and said he will not hold victims to confidentiality agreements they may have signed in the past. My goal would be whatever is going to be allowable in terms of applicable law, we want to make that available to people to be as absolutely transparent as we can, he said. The CCCB document calls on bishops to recognize that the sexual abuse crisis is a symptom of a disorder in the church. It makes 69 recommendations to help dioceses across Canada weed out abusers and rebuild trust with the public after a long string of sexual abuse revelations around the world. In August, a Pennsylvania grand jury report revealed more than 300 Catholic priests in the state abused more than 1,000 children and were shielded by church leaders. Smith acknowledged the church has kept allegations secret in the past and has warned victims not to speak out, or required confidentiality agreements in exchange for compensation or counselling. There were many reasons for this secrecy. Among them, a misplaced desire to protect the reputations of individuals and the church as a whole, a desire among clergy to protect their brothers, and a fear of alerting other victims and raising more allegations, Smith said. He said Edmonton parents today are often hesitant to leave their kids alone with priests for confession. In those cases, children are able to do their confession out in the open where they are visible to others, but far enough away that no one hears what they are saying. Smith said Edmonton already goes above and beyond the CCCB guidelines and has been working with Praesidium, a company that specializes in abuse risk management, since 2011. He said he believes trust can be rebuilt, but it will take time. Teresa Kellendonk oversees all abuse investigations in the Edmonton archdiocese. She said she has handled one sexual abuse complaint against a volunteer, in which the victims mother ultimately chose not to press charges, but has not received any complaints against clergy. Kellendonk said the archdiocese will always contact police immediately if allegations involve a minor, and will encourage adult victims to go to police as well. Nobody gets a free ride. No bishop, no priest, no volunteer, she said. Patricia Grell, a former Edmonton Catholic Schools trustee who has called for a Canada-wide inquiry into clergy abuse, said the call for more victims to come forward is a step in the right direction. Without an outside investigation, however, she fears little will change. It shouldnt be left to the victims to keep coming forward, Grell said. My concern is the safety of the public that when all of this is kept quiet, without it being investigated properly, those people are still out there, able to continue. The CCCB guidelines call for dioceses to better understand the impact of sexual assault, implement clear processes for handling complaints, co-operate with law authorities and improve hiring and training practices. Grell said thats wishful thinking. Its very disappointing, she said. Structural changes need to happen. The Edmonton archdiocese has harboured abusers in the past. The late Rev. Barry Donald Glendinning pleaded guilty in 1974 to six counts of gross indecency involving children in London, Ont. Two years later, he was hired at Newman Theological College in Edmonton. Archdiocese spokesperson Lorraine Turchansky confirmed to StarMetro that Glendinning was a member of the Newman faculty from 1976 to 1982. The Roman Catholic Diocese of London wound up settling with three more of Glendinnings accusers in 2004, who said he repeatedly sexually assaulted them when they were 6, 8, and 10 years old, for almost $2.5 million. A handful of local clergy abuse allegations have been made public in recent years. In 2016, Smith removed Father Ashok Mascarenhas from Our Lady of Angels Parish in Fort Saskatchewan after RCMP began investigating a complaint by a minor against Mascarenhas. No criminal charges were laid. Father Albert Laisnez, who was a priest in Edmonton until 1996, appeared in court in 2015 to speak to charges of multiple counts of sexual assault for alleged offences dating back to the 1980s, including an accusation of performing oral sex on a 6-year-old boy. Those charges were later stayed. Father Patrick ONeill, who worked throughout Alberta, pleaded guilty in separate indecent assault cases in 1998 and 2002 dating back to the 1970s. Correction Oct. 11, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Teresa Kellendonks surname. Read more about: HALIFAXA Nova Scotia woman has been arrested and a United Kingdom man has been charged with child pornography and other sex-related offences. In a media release Wednesday, Nova Scotia RCMP said the 40-year-old Digby County woman was arrested without incident by Meteghan RCMP on Oct. 4. She is facing charges of making child porn and making arrangements to commit offences of sexual interference and sexual assault. The woman was released on conditions. Shes scheduled to appear in Yarmouth provincial court on Jan. 4, 2019. On Oct. 5, the day after the womans arrest, Halifax Regional Police arrested Leon Paul Fraser, 44, of Algarkirk, U.K. without incident at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. He has been charged with making child porn and making arrangements to commit offences of sexual interference and sexual assault. He was remanded into custody and is scheduled to appear in Dartmouth provincial court on Oct. 11. In an interview, Nova Scotia RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Jennifer Clarke said there is one child victim who is from Digby County. It is mandatory for anyone to report suspected child pornography. Anyone who sees it must report it to police, Clarke said. Thats the boilerplate and that still stands. Its in everyones best interest to make sure these people are held accountable. The investigation is ongoing. Police remind citizens that failing to report suspicious activity and materials could result in penalties similar to failure to report child abuse set out in the Child and Family Services Act. The RCMP encourages citizens to be a voice for children who are victims of sexual exploitation by reporting any suspected offences to local police or by using Canadas National Tip Line for reporting online sexual exploitation of children at www.cybertip.ca. Yvette dEntremont is a Halifax-based reporter focusing on health and environment. Follow her on Twitter: @ydentremont Read more about: VICTORIABritish Columbias auditor general says politicians need to pay more attention to the billions of dollars they provide every year in tax breaks to support government programs and policies. Carol Bellringer said Tuesday in a report that the breaks in the form of tax expenditures can continue on for decades without oversight on either their effectiveness or if theyre still required. She said the governments reporting of tax expenditures and how they relate to spending has been largely unchanged for the past 25 years. B.C. government tax breaks were estimated at $7 billion in the 2016-2017 budget year, the report says. The governments direct spending total in the budget for programs such as health care and education was $48.7 billion. Tax expenditures are a significant component of government fiscal plans but legislators may not have all the information they need to determine whether tax expenditures continue to achieve governments policy objectives, Bellringer said in a telephone news conference. She said the tax breaks give support to government social, economic and environmental policy objectives but providing those benefits comes at a cost of lost revenues. Essentially, a tax expenditure is forgone revenue, Bellringer said. Its money government doesnt collect from taxpayers, but could if it didnt offer the tax breaks. Tax exemptions, allowances, rate reductions, deferrals and credits are all types of tax expenditures. She said the government decided not to charge provincial sales tax on the purchase of new bicycles to help meet its environmental goals, but that means it gives up about $23 million in taxes every year. Bellringer said B.C.s homeowner grant introduced in 1957 to relieve the pressure of rising property taxes and encourage home construction is a decades-old tax expenditure that has undergone few changes or reviews since its introduction. It may no longer be effective in supporting governments policy objectives, she said. Bellringer pointed to the federal government as an example of a progressive approach to addressing the issue by clearly posting its most recent eight years of tax expenditures. B.C.s tax expenditures are included in an appendix section of its most recent budget, she noted. Theyre accepting it year after year and it rolls forward and continues to be in the program, Bellringer said. Its important for (politicians) to appreciate when they are voting on the budget for the year that the numbers for program expenses do not include tax expenditures. B.C.s Ministry of Finance said in a statement Tuesday it is important that politicians and others have access to complete information relating to B.C.s tax expenditures and it will consider improvements to the reporting of such expenditures. TOP STORIES. IN YOUR INBOX: For the days top news from the Stars award-winning journalists, sign up for our daily headlines newsletter. Read more about: OTTAWAThe Canadian and Quebec governments announced Tuesday they are pulling their support for former governor general Michaelle Jean to remain atop the international organization of French-speaking nations, backing instead the consensus candidate from Africa. Jean who has held the top position since 2014 is up against Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo when members choose a new secretary general at la Francophonies summit in Armenia on Oct. 11 to 12. The ex-governor general was considered a long shot to keep her position after France and the African Union publicly backed Mushikiwabo. Quebec premier-designate Francois Legault tweeted Tuesday that his government would not support Jean and would join what he called the African consensus. Hours before he was scheduled to board Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus plane for the summit, Legault released a written statement saying, Africa has enormous potential, both for our economy and for the future of the French language. That is why I intend to support a candidacy from this continent. Mushikiwabo reacted to Legaults statement by tweeting, Quebecs support for the African candidacy is highly appreciated; it is the illustration of positive solidarity in the French-speaking world! Read more: Ex-governor general Michaelle Jeans reign as head of la Francophonie may be nearing a controversial end Trudeau tells Francophonie they must speak truth on LGBTQ rights A spokesperson for the federal minister responsible for la Francophonie, Melanie Joly, said in an email Tuesday that Canada would also support the consensus candidate. Canada is ready to rally around the consensus, which is the way la Francophonie wants to go about it, wrote Jeremy Ghio. Jeans spokesman, Bertin Leblanc, told The Canadian Press Tuesday there would be a reaction from Jean no doubt calmly, tomorrow morning. On the weekend, he said Jean was not planning on dropping out of the race. Ill confirm shell be there until the end and probably beyond, Leblanc said at the time. Jean has been dogged by accusations of excessive spending during her time as head of la Francophonie. Quebecor media outlets reported she spent $500,000 renovating her rented Paris residence, as well as $20,000 on a piano. Read more about: YEREVAN, ARMENIADelegations from Canada and Quebec arrived in Armenia Wednesday ahead of the summit of la Francophonie, intent on putting the controversy over the election of a secretary general behind them. But Michaelle Jean, the former governor general and current holder of the top job at the international body, showed no signs of abandoning her candidacy despite losing the support of her home country and province. Jean, who has been secretary general of the organization of French-speaking nations since 2014, is seeking a second term and will be up against Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo when members make their choice this week. The Canadian and Quebec governments announced Tuesday they were withdrawing support for Jeans bid to remain in the job, backing instead the consensus candidate, Mushikiwabo. Jean still does not seem to believe her fate is sealed, suggesting through a spokesman on the eve of the two-day summit in the Armenian capital of Yerevan that no such consensus exists. A consensus implies a debate that is held according to the standards, Jean spokesman Bertin Leblanc said. With the summit beginning (Thursday), no doubt this discussion will take place among the heads of state and of governments behind closed doors. Read more: B.C. could provide clues as to how New Brunswick electoral results shake out Ex-governor general Michaelle Jeans reign as head of la Francophonie may be nearing a controversial end Leblanc said on the weekend that Jean had no intention of dropping out. Jocelyn Coulon, a political scientist at the Universite de Montreal, said Jean finds herself completely isolated. Among la Francophonies 54 full members, only Haiti her country of birth continues to back her, he said. I imagine that Madame Jean thinks that she has to prove herself, and shes doing this on principle, Coulon said. She thinks shes the best to continue in this job, and shes convinced that she will be able on Friday morning, when she meets with the heads of state, to change their minds. But I doubt that. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who travelled to Yerevan with Quebec premier-designate Francois Legault, met with Jean soon after landing Wednesday. Trudeaus office did not tell the media about the meeting beforehand and would not say what was discussed. But a government source said the message has not changed: Ottawa will endorse the consensus choice that emerges from the summit. Several federal government sources recently told The Canadian Press the re-election of Jean, who was chosen in 2014 in part due to the absence of a clear African front-runner, would be difficult. They said that if a consensus emerged, Canada would join it to avoid having the summit overshadowed by a fight for the top job. Traditionally, the selection of a secretary general is by agreement, not through a vote. Mushikiwabo has support from France and the African Union countries, leaving Jeans chances of retaining the top job slim, particularly without Canada and Quebec in her corner. Sources said the Canadian government tried unsuccessfully to convince Jean that re-election was improbable. Legault tweeted Tuesday that his government would not support Jean and would join what he called the African consensus. He said it was time for a new style of management in the organization. A spokesman for the federal minister responsible for la Francophonie, Melanie Joly, said in an email Tuesday that Canada was ready to rally around the consensus. Jean has been dogged by accusations of excessive spending during her time as head of la Francophonie. Quebecor media outlets reported she spent $500,000 renovating her rented Paris residence, as well as $20,000 on a piano, but shes defended the spending in interviews. The Rwandan candidate is not without critics. French President Emmanuel Macron has backed her, but four former French ministers responsible for the la Francophonie signed an open letter last month saying Mushikiwabo has no place at the head of the organization. The candidacy is controversial because of Rwandas poor human-rights record and the fact Rwanda replaced French with English in its education curriculum in 2010. Canada may have chosen to abandon Jean partly for geopolitical and strategic reasons as it tries to secure a seat on the UN Security Council in 2020. With files from Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal Read more about: Toronto street artists are teaming up and painting murals in Kensington market of a well-known artist who died in a hit-and-run Monday morning. Andre Alexander, who was known by many in the citys art circle, was riding his skateboard early Monday morning when he was hit by a car in North York on Sheppard Ave. E. and Bonnington Place at around 1:10 a.m. Police said witnesses saw the female driver step out of her car and check on him, before driving away. She is described as an Asian woman in her 40s with short, black hair. Police said the car is described as a silver or grey Toyota Yaris, and was reported to have a child in the back seat. According to his friend Chris Hughes, Alexander had just moved into the North York neighbourhood a week ago. His other friend, Christian Caezar, said he was going out to enjoy the scenery. He really loved his neighbourhood. Friends and fellow artists remembered Alexander for his talent and his hustle, where painting and creating was his full-time job and a way to support his 5-year-old daughter. The late 34-year-old artist would dedicate six to eight hours to painting everyday, his friend Chris Hughes said, honing his craft so that it would catch the eyes of pedestrians walking by his sidewalk setup in Kensington market. His work took inspiration from the likes of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He reflected his love for hip-hop, streetwear and the city in his artwork, incorporating what Caezar calls hip pop art. Scrolling through his Instagram, there are images of Lauryn Hill, Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, even Rolex watches and Air Jordan 1s stamped across the canvas. He did art for passion and survival, Hughes said. He would set up his pieces on a sidewalk and set a goal for that day, though it wasnt uncommon for him to give away a piece for free. Caezar said his main goal was to get his artwork into peoples homes and offices. As he gained prominence in the art community, he was commissioned by Brimz Hat Boutique, a local shop that features designs and apparel from Toronto creators. On top of that, he was known for giving back to his community. He would do art workshops with kids and donated his pieces to Sick Kids. Outside of the art sphere, he was someone people would come to for advice. He was very introspective and had a lot of foresight, Caezar said. He would talk to you from morning to night, if you gave him the time. Caezar added Alexander enjoyed yoga and was spontaneous, travelling to Miami to create and sell his work. But what mattered to him most was his daughter. His daughter, who Caezar describes as smart with an extensive vocabulary, loves ballet. He always loved to take her to ballet class. Hughes has started a Gofundme page to help support Alexanders daughter. With files from Premila DSa. TORONTOThe case of Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard, who faces three sex-related charges, has been put over to next month. After a brief hearing in Toronto on Wednesday, a new court date was set for Nov. 7. The singer was arrested in July and charged with one count of sexual interference and two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm. Police have said the charges relate to three separate incidents involving a woman and a girl under the age of 16 that allegedly occurred in the Toronto area in 2016. Hoggard, 34, has previously denied engaging in non-consensual sexual behaviour but has said he acted in a way that objectifies women. Allegations of sexual misconduct emerged before the charges were laid, prompting Hedley to go on indefinite hiatus. Read more: Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard arrested and charged with sexual assault Why police say they released Jacob Hoggards mug shot, but not Bruce McArthurs Toronto police sex crimes unit investigating Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard The Clerks Office confirmed the power went out at the Hebron early voting location around 2:30 p.m., but there was no confirmation on whether they could get it back on to finish the last hour of early voting for the day. Defence lawyers are asking a Toronto jury to find sex worker Moka Dawkins not guilty of second-degree murder because she was acting in self-defence when she fatally stabbed a client with a violent history. The defence position is that a drunken Jamie Foster stabbed Dawkins, a transgender woman who was sworn in under the name Curtis Gordon Dawkins, in the face because he was upset that she was trying to leave his Rose Ave. apartment on the night of Aug. 3, 2015. (Dawkins) manages to get the knife ... and stabs him to stop him from coming at her. To save her life. To defend herself. She believes that he was going to kill her, Jennifer Penman said during her final arguments. Jurors will have three options, the lawyer explained: guilty as charged of second-degree murder, not guilty of second-degree murder but guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty of any criminal offence. Penman also went over Fosters rap sheet, which included three convictions for domestic violence and a fourth conviction of assault with a weapon after he pulled a knife and stabbed someone who declined to give him a lighter. Although Ms. Dawkins didnt know of Fosters violent past, you can use the evidence of his violent past when considering whether Moka was telling the truth when she said that Mr. Foster attacked her with the knife, Penman said. Read more: Sex worker testifies killing was self defence, talks of perilous experiences She also asked the jury to consider the backdrop to the case. Dawkins, 28, grew up in a rough Montreal neighbourhood where she experienced violence after she started publicly identifying as a female. The violence intensified after she started working as a transgender sex worker there and in Toronto, Penman said. Clearly she lives in a world that Im going to guess is foreign to most if not all of us, she said. If the self-defence argument is rejected, the jurors will also have the option of finding Dawkins did what she did because she was provoked after being suddenly stabbed in the face, Penman said. It is our position that Ms. Dawkins acted in self-defence. But if you reject that argument, and find that she reacted suddenly to Mr. Fosters attack, in the heat of the moment before she regained her self-control, you would find her not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter. The jury is expected to begin deliberations next week. Industrial loggers are banned from clear-cutting the boreal forest near Grassy Narrows, leaders of the First Nation have declared in a land sovereignty claim meant to help the community recover from decades of pollution. There is currently no ongoing industrial logging in the part of the Whiskey Jack Forest that sits in territory Grassy Narrows leaders say is their peoples. Though the provincial government has decided who can log and where, the community announced a moratorium in 2007 and there has been no harvesting since the company operating in the area agreed to leave shortly after. Then, in 2017, Ontarios previous government promised no cutting for at least five more years. Grassy Narrows leaders fear the new Doug Ford government will re-open the forest to business. A spokesperson for Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry Jeff Yurek said we cannot comment on a document we ourselves have not yet received. We are the Indigenous people of this land. ... Industrial logging makes our ongoing mercury crisis worse, said the declaration signed by Chief Rudy Turtle and council. We will make our own decisions and there will be no industrial logging on our Anishinabe Territory. Between 1962 and 1970 a Dryden, Ont., paper plant dumped 10 tonnes of mercury, a potent neurotoxin, in the Wabigoon River. The site of the plant, now under different ownership, is upstream from Grassy Narrows. The mercury contaminated the fish and poisoned the people who ate the fish. They developed tremors, loss of muscle co-ordination, slurred speech and tunnel vision, and still suffer today. Read more: Landmark study reveals clear evidence of mercurys toll on health in Grassy Narrows Opinion | Is Grassy Narrows poisoning a crime against humanity? I started to have seizures at the age of 2. Ontario residents describe the ravages of mercury exposure Logging could lead to more mercury being released to the environment, scientists have said, adding toxic insult to injury for a First Nation already devastated by industrial mercury dumping decades ago. Over the past two years, the Star and scientists have revealed that fish downstream near Grassy Narrows remain the most contaminated in the province, that there is mercury-contaminated soil and river sediment at or near the site of the old mill, and the provincial government knew in the 1990s that mercury was visible in soil under that site and never told anyone in Grassy Narrows or nearby Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) Independent Nations. Scientists strongly suspect that old mercury still contaminates the mill site and is polluting the river. The Star obtained data from several individuals and it supports what the people here have been saying for decades: Residents have been exposed to dangerously high levels of mercury and younger generations have probably been affected as well. (The Toronto Star) Clear-cut logging threatens to add another source of mercury to the water. Heres how it happens: Mercury gets released into the atmosphere from coal-fired power plants and incinerators and later rains down in forests where it gets trapped in the soil. When a forested area is clear-cut (a large number of trees in one area are uniformly cut down), mercury can run off into lakes and rivers, where its potency gets magnified in aquatic life and travels up the food chain. Since 2002, some Grassy Narrows members have maintained a blockade of a main road that prevents industrial access to woodlots near their community. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde was in the community north of Kenora Tuesday and signed the declaration as a witness. I support their Declaration and their goals of reconciliation, restoration and reparations, Bellegarde said in a prepared statement. All governments must recognize, respect and honour our rights and responsibilities to our traditional territories. This includes the right to decide what happens in our territories. Top environment ministry officials had serious concerns about a plan to clear-cut near Grassy Narrows, the Star has previously reported. Yes, logging introduces Hg (mercury)! one scientist wrote to a colleague in an internal email. In another email, the former director of the branch that oversees scientists charged with monitoring Ontarios environment observed that no one is tracking the downstream implications of the provinces logging plan. A logging, or forest management, plan determines how much and where tree harvesting can occur, where roads can be built and how much forest will be renewed. The plan is renewed every 10 years after consultations with stakeholders. Despite the worries of environment officials, the ministry in 2014 rejected a request by Grassy Narrows for an environmental assessment of the potential impact of the 10-year logging plan in effect then. Grassy Narrows lawyers asked for a judicial review of the ministrys rejection and the plan itself but then suspended their court fight when former natural resources and forestry minister Kathryn McGarry said there would be no logging in that area for the remaining five years of the plan. Next year the provincial government is scheduled to begin discussions for the 2022-2032 plan, according to a 2017 letter from the provincial government to Grassy Narrows. Meanwhile, more than four decades after mercury was dumped by the mill upstream, the physical and mental health of the people in Grassy Narrows is by many key measures considerably worse than that of other First Nations in Canada, according to a landmark government-funded survey that was released earlier this year. While what Grassy Narrows is declaring could at first glance seem like a radical demand asserting their sovereignty over their traditional territories it is a reasonable and necessary step to take given the more than half-century of neglect and destruction of their environment ... as a result of failure of governments to respect their rights, said Craig Benjamin of Amnesty International. Whos in the best position to make the decisions for the future of Grassy Narrows? said Benjamin, who is Amnestys campaigner for Indigenous rights. (Government) failures are apparent. And its not just one failure. It has been decade after decade they have failed the people of Grassy Narrows. The land declaration also bans mineral staking and mining, hydro damming and oil and gas extraction. Our way of life has been under attack by residential schools, ... mercury pollution, and racism, the statement says. Now our fish are unsafe, the moose and caribou are nearly gone, we have less marten, wild rice and blueberries. Our medicines are tainted. Our sovereignty and our rights have been repeatedly violated by harmful decisions forced on our people by government and industry. Last year, the provincial government committed $85 million to clean up the river, and the federal government has pledged to help build a mercury care home that will help some of the sickest residents. The declaration demands compensation for the logging of roughly 20 million trees over a 20-year period. The declaration will be enforced under Grassy Narrows own authority, though Grassy leaders invited the provincial and federal governments to recognize and enforce it through legislation that places similar restrictions on land use and management. Decisions forced on our people have poisoned our fish and degraded our forest through industrial logging, said Chief Turtle. Moving forward we will make our own decisions to protect what is left of our way of life. Read more about: Corey Lewis first noticed the woman as he crossed the Walmart parking lot in Marietta, Georgia, on Sunday afternoon. She was sitting in a Kia sedan, he said, as he led the two children he was baby-sitting back to his car. By the time he had them buckled up and ready to go, he had his phone out and was livestreaming on Facebook as he narrated a story about how the strange woman had begun stalking them after he refused to let her talk to the children, Lewis, 27, said in an interview. She followed him out of the parking lot, to the gas station across the street, and to his home, where Lewis, who is Black, was questioned by a Cobb County police officer about why he had with him two young children, who are white. I didnt know what was going on, what she wanted to do, Lewis said Tuesday, believing that the woman had called the police because he was a Black man walking around with two white children. I felt like my character was being criminalized. Sgt. Wayne Delk confirmed the incident, saying that an officer had responded to a call from a woman on Sunday afternoon. The police did not say whether they knew her identity. In a series of live videos on Facebook, Lewis recorded the incident, which began in a Walmart parking lot and ended as the latest instance of a Black person being reported to the police while doing a lawful activity, like golfing, napping, shopping or even canvassing. Read more: Toronto restaurant ordered to pay $10,000 after asking Black patrons to prepay for their meals Black Airbnb guests, including Toronto filmmaker, reported to California police as burglars A Black lawmaker was campaigning door to door in her Oregon district. A constituent called 911 For Lewis, the episode was particularly troubling because it happened while he was working. Lewis owns his own business, Inspired By Lewis, in which he takes care of children five days a week as part of the youth mentoring program he created three years ago. His clientele is mainly white, he said, but up until Sunday, it had never occurred to him would give someone a reason to call the police on him. He said he had spent that afternoon watching 6-year-old Nicholas and 10-year-old Addison while their parents were out. After taking them to an indoor play area, he took them to Walmart to eat at the Subway, he said. After leaving the store, he and the children were hanging out by his car when the woman pulled up and asked if the children were all right. Confused, Lewis replied, Why wouldnt they be OK? She shrugged before driving off, he said, only to return to ask to speak to Addison. Lewis said he told her no, and she insisted on getting his license plate number before driving away, only to stop within sight. Lewis said he drove to a nearby gas station, where she followed him. Instead of taking the children home, he drove them to his house, where he knew people would be outside. Lewis continued to record as a police car pulled up, and the officer asked him what was going on. Im being followed and harassed, he says, to which the officer replied, Ive heard. The confrontation ended without issue, with the officer seemingly convinced that the children who offered similar explanations for what occurred were fine, but he asked if he could check in with their parents, Lewis said. It just knocked us out of our chair, David Parker, their father, said Tuesday. We felt horrible for Corey. Parker and his wife, Dana Mango, were at dinner when they received the call, and his wife had to be convinced that it was not a prank, he said. Lewis is a family friend and well known in the community for working with children, Parker said, describing him as an All-American guy. Parker said that he wanted to give the woman the benefit of doubt, but that his children were having a good time with Lewis, and they were not in any apparent danger. Lewis was also wearing his signature shirt a bright green T-shirt bearing his companys logo. I dont think you have to watch too many Law & Order episodes to realize kidnappers dont usually wear fluorescent green shirts, he said, adding that he felt Lewis had handled the situation well. Parker said he had a proud moment when, during an interview with a reporter, his daughter was asked if she had anything she wanted to say to the woman. She said that, I would just ask her to next time, try to see us as three people rather than three skin colors because we mightve been Mr. Lewis adopted children,' he recalled. On Tuesday, Lewis was back working with children, saying he was not going to let the episode keep him from doing his job. You see these things, but theyre like from a distance, he said. But then for it to actually happen to you, its unbelievable. NEW YORKDark circles formed like warning signs beneath Yu Fen Wangs eyes as she worked 12-hour graveyard shifts in a Queens, New York, maternity centre that operated on the margins of legality. Her family said she had grown gaunt, could not sleep and told her husband she no longer wanted to live. Her employers, however, said they needed her to work. And her family needed the money. She earned less than $100 (U.S.) a day, they said, working in a private house that had been converted into a combined nursery and hotel for newborn babies and their mothers. An open secret in the Flushing community, the centre was part of an underground industry catering to a demanding clientele: local mothers resting after childbirth and Chinese visitors coming to have their babies in the United States, a practice known as birth tourism. On Sept. 21, at 3:40 a.m., these dangers collided to near-fatal effect when, the police say, Wang stabbed three babies sleeping in bassinets on the first floor all girls and two adults. She then turned the knife on her own neck and wrists. The victims all survived. But the horrific act turned a spotlight on a pocket of immigrant New York, where a loose network of businesses tend to mothers and infants in the crucial, fragile month after childbirth but operate without any government oversight. The centre, Mei Xin Care, is one of dozens in the area that vary widely in amenities and quality, leaving workers with few avenues for complaint, and families with little to guide them other than word-of-mouth, internet advertisements and blind trust. There are victims at all sides of the spectrum, said Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Democrat who represents Queens. Centres like this one which was alternately known as Mei Bao, or beautiful baby in Chinese provide two services. The first is for newly-arrived immigrant mothers practicing a Chinese tradition some 1,000 years old in which they recuperate for a month after childbirth while other women, often called aunties, care for their infants. Authorities said the centres also provide assistance to women from China who wish to give birth in the United States in order to obtain instant citizenship for their children, which is legal under immigration law. There are some 40 such maternity centres in private homes and apartments advertising their services online in the New York and New Jersey area, and nearly 20 in the Flushing neighbourhood. Read more: Woman stabs three newborn baby girls, two others at unlicensed New York nursery Nova Scotia launching immigration program aimed at luring daycare workers Front-line workers draw on tradition to help Indigenous mothers heal from intergenerational trauma At Mei Xin Care, employees were paid off the books, Wangs family said. One of its nannies, Darong Wang, 63, got the job despite being arrested in May for promoting prostitution at a massage parlour in downtown Flushing. She was slashed in the attack, requiring 20 stitches on her face; a father of one of the children was stabbed in the leg and wrist. Stuffy and cramped The crime took place in a three-floor brick apartment house with white metal lattice balconies on the outskirts of Flushing. Its only advertisement existed on the internet, on a Craigslist of sorts for the local Chinese immigrant community. Mei Xin Care appears to be a combination of the names of two owners: Meiying Gao and Xuexin Lin. Local employment agencies said the owners had been in the business for about a decade but opened their latest location in 2016, when city records show they bought the building for $1.5 million. Reached by phone, the owners declined to comment. One neighbour said in an interview that she saw a steady stream of clients arriving, sometimes in fancy cars. Some of them would have been following the custom of a month-long rest after childbirth. The period culminates in a red egg celebration to mark the babys survival of its fragile first weeks, said Margaret M. Chin, a professor of sociology in the Asian American Studies program at Hunter College. The centres are an alternative to obtaining visas so family members can fly to the United States, or returning to China, where health care is often less sophisticated. For several thousand dollars, new mothers have access to 24-hour nannies and cooks. Michael Cheng and his Shanghai-born wife, who live in Flushing, considered using the centre for her recuperation period. They toured the facility twice in the spring and were quoted a fee of $4,800 in cash. Cheng said babies were sleeping on the first floor, while their mothers slept in small bedrooms on the second and third floors. He remembered seeing five to six workers, whom he estimated to be in their 40s and 50s. They were working 24 hours in shifts, he said. I can imagine that it was a very high-stress job. Cheng said his wife, who did not want to give her name, spoke with some of the residents on the upper floors, one from China and another who was a New Yorker. Before we walked out, I was like, Are you sure you like this place? to my wife, Cheng said in an interview. To me, it felt stuffy in there. He was skeptical and asked to see a license. The owners sent a copy of a generic business operation certificate and another for maternity nutrition. In hindsight, he said, if there was more talk about these places, and people knew if you go to one of these centres that they had to hang their licenses right out in front, some kind of regulations around that, maybe it would help. Ultimately, the couple felt uneasy about Mei Xin Care and opted to spend the month at Chengs parents home on Long Island after their daughter was born. They got their $800 deposit back when another mother quickly filled the spot. A shortcut to U.S. citizenship After the stabbings occurred, Flushing was in an uproar. At temples, in food courts and on the streets beneath bright signs in Chinese, residents worried that the incident would stir up anti-immigrant attitudes toward their community. Others decried the centres second purpose, easing the path for birth tourism. They should not come through loopholes, said Catherine Chan, 50, a bar owner in Queens who used to work on Wall Street. She came to the United States from China when she was 6, after a long process involving family sponsorship, she said. There is no shortcut. Birth tourism is a well-known phenomenon. In recent years, it has drawn mostly well-off mothers from China, Korea, Russia, Turkey, Egypt and Nigeria to the United States for birthright citizenship, which U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate. It can be legal, as long as pregnant foreigners applying for visas state their intention to give birth when they are in the United States and prove that they can cover the cost. If they conceal their real purpose for travelling they could be subject to visa fraud. Once U.S. citizens turn 21, they are eligible to sponsor a parent for a green card, giving their parents the option of eventually settling there. Parents do not always use that opportunity, and immigration officials could deny a green card, claiming the parents had willingly defrauded the American government. Many are more concerned about securing the future of their children who, as American citizens, have the option of schooling in the United States or in competitive private Chinese schools that have lower entry standards for foreign students. They can travel to other countries without having to apply for a visa. It is seen as a status symbol in China. For Chinese birth tourists, Los Angeles is the marquee destination. Centres compete with each other by advertising stays at plush hotels, shopping extravaganzas in nearby malls, and state-of-the-art hospitals. Fees can range from $50,000 to $80,000. In 2015, immigration enforcement authorities raided the Los Angeles centres, saying owners had avoided paying taxes. Still, the raids did not deter business owners who saw an opportunity. As Chinese internet services like Weibo and WeChat expanded, so did advertisements for birth tourism services in New York. In the New York metropolitan area, more upscale maternity centres tend to exist in New Jersey and Long Island suburbs. The ones in Flushing appear to be smaller, and less expensive, options, where mothers stay in rooms that often have been subdivided. Annie Gao, the owner of one upscale birth centre in Center Moriches, on Long Island, expressed disdain for the cramped and somewhat secretive operations of the Flushing centres. Gao, who opened her centre in Flushing in 2004, said that several years ago she tried to convince other owners to join an association that could self-regulate and keep out cut-rate, potentially unsafe, centres. Gao thought that some centres skimped on food quality and cleaning services, noting that ones she had seen looked dirty. But those owners disagreed, she said. These centres elude city and state licensing categories and zoning codes. They do not qualify as daycare centres because mothers are on-site; they do not need a medical license because owners offer Chinese nutritional practices. There isnt a real category for these type of activities, and they were able to leverage it and apply for a general business license and pretend that was OK for their clients, Kim, the assemblyman, said. Although neighbours of Mei Xin Care filed complaints that it was operating as a hotel, city buildings inspectors were denied access three times, which automatically closes the complaint. Neighbours can file an affidavit to warrant a full inspection, but city records show that did not happen. The state Office of Child and Family Services, the citys administration for Childrens Services, the state Department of Health and the city Department of Health all said such centres did not fall under their purview. The police shut down Mei Xin Care after the stabbing, but less than three weeks later, the centre seemed to have reopened. Women could be seen through the windows, and a pile of diapers sat outside. She wanted to die After spending most of her life in poor, southeastern Fujian province in China, Yu Fen Wang, 52, sought a better future. When her husband, Peter, secured an employment visa, he brought his two adult sons and wife to New York in 2010. There, the Wangs became immersed in a bustling community of Fujianese immigrants. Peter worked in restaurants, as did his two sons. Yu Fen Wang began cleaning homes and taking care of children privately for families. About two years later, she began working at Mei Xin Cares first location near downtown Flushing. Her husband suffered leg pain that made it too difficult to work, he said, so the burden of providing for their family fell on Wang. When she came home after tending newborns, she also took care of her three small grandchildren. Their son Danny said that about six months ago, the family noticed a change in Wang. She kept forgetting her keys and her phone at home. She became unfocused and unable to sleep. She lost a lot of weight. At a different maternity centre where Wang briefly worked in June so she could do a day shift, one mother saw her napping on couches when the babies were sleeping, telling infants to drink faster when nursing, and complaining about changing diapers. She looked tired, and her impatience also suggested she was very tired, that mother, Jane, 36, said in an interview. She declined to give her last name because she feared repercussions from the owners. That centre fired Wang after just two days, and she returned to the graveyard shift at Mei Xin Care. By then, her mental state had visibly declined, according to her family. About two or three months ago, Wang told her husband that her life had no meaning and she wanted to die, her son said. Peter Wang insisted she take two weeks off. They all knew that her older sister back in China had tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide. Danny Wang said his mother saw a doctor who prescribed her sleeping medication and a tranquilizer. That is when the owners of Mei Xin called her to come back to work on the 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. shift, her family said. She felt obligated, despite the protestations of her husband and sons. Fair or not fair, we cant do anything about it, Danny said. Its just reality. Wang appeared to live in her own darker reality. Her lawyer, Jean Wang, who is not related to her client, said she intended to pursue an insanity defence. It was left untreated, and finally it just blew, the lawyer said. Charged with five counts of attempted murder, Wang pleaded not guilty and is under suicide watch at Rikers Island. In jail, her family and lawyer said, Wang has become even more isolated and distraught. She tried to kill herself by smashing her head against the cell. A spokeswoman for the citys correctional health services said she could not comment on Wangs mental state because of privacy laws. When that first attempt failed, Wangs lawyer said, she tried to bite her tongue off, a distinctively Chinese form of suicide. She did not succeed. BRUSSELSThe European Unions chief Brexit negotiator said Wednesday that an agreement on Britains exit is within reach, if negotiations make progress before a summit next week. Michel Barnier said that up to 85 per cent of the work is done on the deal for the U.Ks departure and post-Brexit relationship with the EU, but the issue of ensuring a transparent border on the island of Ireland remains to be addressed. He offered suggestions to make sure border checks are be kept to a minimum. Yet he also warned that some British proposals for future trade, as they stood, would give the U.K. too much of a competitive trade advantage. With goodwill from both sides, he said an agreement is within reach as British Prime Minister Theresa May and her 27 counterparts in the bloc get ready to meet in Brussels on Oct. 17. EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told reporters Wednesday that Barnier and his team are working day and night to reach a deal. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was pleased to see the intensive work being done in Brussels, but also sounded a note of caution. I hope for progress and there is progress, but the devil is in the details, as they say, said Merkel, who was in The Hague for talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Everything is solved when a solution is on paper. Britain is leaving the EU on March 29 and the possibility of there being no deal on future relations particularly trade is worrying businesses and politicians. As part of the EU, Britain benefits from seamless trade with the bloc, its biggest trading partner. The key question is how to let Britain exit the EU without too much disruption to trade and without reinstalling a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Britains Northern Ireland. The EUs proposed solution to keep Northern Ireland inside the blocs single market and customs union after the rest of the U.K. leaves is fiercely opposed by the Democratic Unionist Party, a pro-British Northern Ireland party that props up Mays minority government. DUP leader Arlene Foster has said a deal must not breach its red line that there can be no new barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. The party is threatening to vote against the governments budget potentially toppling Mays administration later this month if it doesnt get its way, according to British broadcasters. Mays Conservative Party is also divided over how close an economic relationship to seek with the EU after Brexit, leaving the prime minister in a precarious position. She has to get any deal agreed with the EU through Parliament, and the numbers arent in her favour. On Wednesday, May urged lawmakers from all parties to put the national interest first and support the deal she is trying to negotiate with the EU. Read more about: ISTANBULTurkish media published images Wednesday of an alleged 15-member Saudi assassination squad and video of suspicious movements at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul following journalist Jamal Khashoggis disappearance a week ago, putting new pressure on the kingdom amid growing international concern for the writer. Saudi Arabia remained silent as the images, though not offering definitive proof about Khashoggis fate, played across television networks in Turkey and around the world. Turkish officials fear the team killed Khashoggi, who wrote critically of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The kingdom dismisses the allegation as baseless. However, Saudi Arabia has offered no evidence to support its contention that the writer left the consulate unharmed and vanished into Istanbul while his fiancee waited impatiently outside. Politicians in the United States, Riyadhs main ally, have warned that any harm done to the Washington Post contributor will jeopardize Americas relations with the worlds largest oil exporter. State-run broadcaster TRT aired video purportedly showing the Saudis arriving by private jet and then leaving a hotel. The footage shows Khashoggi entering the consulate on Oct. 2. An hour and 54 minutes later, according to the time stamp, a black Mercedes Vito with diplomatic license plates, which resembled a van parked outside of the consulate when the writer walked in, drives some 2 kilometres to the consuls home, where it parks inside a garage. The footage all seemed to come from surveillance cameras, which would have been posted throughout the district housing the Saudi consulate and other diplomatic missions. No one has produced any such footage of Khashoggi leaving the consulate. Turkeys Hurriyet newspaper and other media alleged Wednesday that the Saudi Consulates 28 local staff were given leave on Oct. 2 on grounds that a diplomats meeting would be held there on that day. The reports did not cite a source and there was no official confirmation of the claim. Read more: Turkey to search Saudi Consulate for missing journalist Turkish investigators say missing journalist was killed in Saudi Consulate The Sabah newspaper, which is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published images of what it referred to as the assassination squad apparently taken at passport control. It said they checked into two hotels in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and left later that day. Turkeys private NTV news channel identified one member of the alleged 15-member team as the head of a Saudi forensic science agency. It alleged he may have been responsible for cleaning up any incriminating evidence. The station did not cite a source for its report. Khashoggi had written a series of columns for the Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Arabias assertive Prince Mohammed, who has led a widely publicized drive to reform the conservative Sunni monarchy but has also presided over the arrests of activists and businessmen. Erdogan has not accused Saudi Arabia of being responsible for Khashoggis disappearance but has said that if the Saudis have footage of him leaving the consulate they should release it. Saudi Arabia is a major investor in Turkey, despite Ankaras support for the Gulf nation of Qatar, which is under a blockade led by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations. Police and investigators in Turkey typically release video and information through state-run or otherwise government-friendly media outlets, as opposed to holding briefings like those common in Western nations. On Wednesday, the Post published a column by Khashoggis fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. She said the writer first visited the consulate on Sept. 28 despite being somewhat concerned that he could be in danger. He later returned Oct. 2 after being promised the necessary paperwork so the two could be married. At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance, Cengiz wrote. I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate. She added: Although this incident could potentially fuel a political crisis between the two nations, let us not lose sight of the human aspect of what happened. Khashoggi had sought to become a U.S. citizen after living in self-imposed exile since last year, fearing repercussions for his criticism of the prince, Cengiz wrote. Trump, who took his first overseas trip as U.S. president to the kingdom and whose son-in-law Jared Kushner has close ties to Prince Mohammed, said Tuesday he had not yet talked to the Saudis about Khashoggi, but I will be at some point, without elaborating. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said Tuesday that Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were open to co-operation and would allow the consulate building to be searched. Its unclear when such a search would take place. Embassies and consulates under the Vienna Convention are technically foreign soil and must be protected by host nations. Saudi Arabia may have agreed to the search in order to reassure its Western allies and the international community. Read more about: SEOUL, KOREASouth Korea is considering lifting some of its unilateral sanctions against North Korea to create more momentum for diplomacy aimed at improving relations and defusing the nuclear crisis, the Souths foreign minister said Wednesday. During a parliamentary audit of her ministry, Kang Kyung-wha said the government is reviewing whether to lift sanctions South Korea imposed on the North in 2010 following a deadly attack on a warship that killed 45 South Korean sailors. South Korea then effectively shut down all cross-border economic co-operation except for a jointly run factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, which was shuttered in February 2016 after a North Korean nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. The so-called May 24 measures of 2010 also banned North Korea from using shipping lanes in South Korean territory. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has mostly stayed firm on sanctions despite actively engaging with North Korea and floating the possibility of huge investments and joint economic projects in return for the Norths relinquishment of its nuclear weapons. A move by South Korea to lift its unilateral sanctions would have little immediate effect since U.S.-led international sanctions remain in place. But its clear Seoul is preparing to restart joint economic projects if the larger nuclear negotiations between the United States and North Korea begin yielding results. Many parts of the May 24 measures now duplicate with the United Nations sanctions (against North Korea), Kang said. As negotiations continue to improve ties between the South and North and achieve denuclearization, theres a need to flexibly review (lifting the measures) as long as it doesnt damage the larger framework of sanctions against the North. Read more: Seoul says Kim Jong Un wants Pope Francis to visit North Korea Opinion | Thomas Walkom: Many winners if the Korean War is officially declared over Pompeo cites progress made with Kim Jong Un on North Korea trip Moon has described inter-Korean engagement as crucial to resolving the nuclear standoff. A large number of South Korean business leaders accompanied Moon last month to Pyongyang, North Koreas capital, where he and leader Kim Jong Un agreed to normalize operations at the Kaesong factory park and resume joint tours to North Korea when possible, voicing optimism the international sanctions could end and allow such projects. The North and South also announced measures to reduce conventional military threats, such as creating buffer zones along their land and sea boundaries and a no-fly zone above the border. The North also said it would dismantle its main nuclear facility in Nyongbyon if the United States takes unspecified corresponding measures. The fast pace in inter-Korean engagement appears to have created a level of unease in Washington, which insists that efforts to improve relations between the Koreas should move in tandem with efforts to denuclearize the North. Kang also said Wednesday that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed displeasure over the military agreement between the Koreas. Kang did not specify what Pompeo was unhappy about, but said he asked multiple questions about the agreements content. Kangs comments are likely to fuel speculation that Washington wasnt fully on board before Seoul signed the agreement. Despite meeting Moon three times and holding a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June, Kim has yet to provide a convincing sign that hes ready to deal away his nuclear weapons, which he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival. Pompeo recently visited Kim in Pyongyang in an effort to set up another summit between him and Trump following months of friction in lower-level talks that saw North Korea accuse Washington of gangster-like demands on denuclearization. Despite the current mood of detente and negotiation between the Koreas, the removal of sanctions will be a difficult decision for Seouls government. South Koreans are deeply divided along ideological lines and many people still harbour deep anger over North Koreas 1950 attack that started the Korean War, killing and injuring millions. There has been occasional bloodshed ever since the 2010 attack on the warship was followed months later by North Koreas shelling of a South Korean border island that killed four and gutted homes. Kangs comments drew an angry reaction from conservative opposition lawmakers. Chung Jin-suk of the Liberty Korea Party demanded that Moons government consult with the families of the sailors who died in 2010 before making any decision on sanctions. Kangs ministry later tried to downplay her comments, saying in a statement that no decision was imminent. During her conversation with lawmakers, Kang described Seouls unilateral sanctions as a key obstacle in restarting South Korean tourism to the Norths Diamond Mountain resort, which was suspended in 2008 following the shooting death of a South Korean woman there. But the removal of such sanctions wouldnt be enough to get the tours back on, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seouls Dongguk University and a policy adviser to Moon. While U.N. sanctions against North Korea dont ban tourism, they do place strict restrictions on the transfer of funds, he said. Still, the lifting of the 2010 sanctions could offer at least some tangible benefits to the North. For North Korea, the most meaningful result from the lifting of the May 24 measures would be that its ships will be able to travel through Jeju Strait again, said Koh, referring to waters between South Koreas mainland and the southern island of Jeju. This will allow them to save time and fuel. As part of the agreements reached during Moon and Kims meetings, a liaison office between the countries opened in Kaesong last month. Seouls Unification Ministry said Tuesday that water being supplied to the office is being provided to the towns residents as well. Using a facility that draws from a reservoir near the factory park, South Korea has been pumping 1,000 to 2,000 tons of water to the liaison office and about 15,000 tons to the rest of the city every day, ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said. He said the resumption of the water supply does not violate sanctions. The closure of the factory park had deprived Kaesong residents of what had been a steady supply of water and electricity. South Korea is providing electricity to the liaison office, but not to the towns residents. There are also humanitarian considerations as the residents of Kaesong have to rely on the parks facility for water, Baik said. This has nothing to do with restarting the Kaesong factory park. Other moves by the Koreas to reduce tensions include temporary reunions between war-separated relatives and military agreements that call for reducing weaponry and guards at the border and demining sections of the Demilitarized Zone. Read more about: FORT MYERS, FLA. Authorities say two men were killed and a woman was wounded in a shooting at a Florida outdoor mall. Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said during a news conference Wednesday that 56-year-old Kevin Robinson and 22-year-old Javarcia Riggins were fatally shot Tuesday night at the Bell Tower Shops in Fort Myers. Marceno says the men were part of a group that was targeted while walking from a restaurant to their cars. A woman with the group was hospitalized with a gunshot wound, and another man sustained minor injuries from glass. Authorities havent identified any suspects, but Marceno was emphatic that the shooting was not random. Detectives are seeking help from the public for any information about the shooting. BEIJINGA bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers wants U.S. President Donald Trump to help Muslims respond to a sweeping crackdown in Chinas northwest. The group proposed legislation on Wednesday that would urge Trump to condemn gross violations of human rights in the Xinjiang region, where the U.N. estimates that as many as 1 million Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities are being held in arbitrary detention. It would call on Trump to press his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to close the political re-education camps immediately. The legislation, proposed by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, would also support an existing push for sanctions against Xinjiang Communist Party chief Chen Quanguo and other officials under the Magnitsky Act, which would prevent Chen from entering the U.S. and freeze any assets he has in U.S. banks. Other sanctions raised for consideration by the proposed act include a ban on sales or provision of U.S.-made goods or services to Xinjiang state agents and the barring of certain Chinese entities including the Xinjiang police bureau from purchasing U.S.-made equipment that could be used for surveillance. The bipartisan congressional commission monitors human rights and the rule of law in China. Chinese authorities have denied that the internment camps exist but say petty criminals are sent to employment training centres. On Tuesday, the Xinjiang government revised legislation to officially permit the use of education and training centres to reform people influenced by extremism. Read more: China separates Uyghur kids from their families and treats them like orphans U.S. weighs sanctions against Chinese officials over Muslim detention camps Eleven dead, 44 injured after China vehicle attack to get revenge on society A new clause directs the centres to teach the Mandarin language, occupational and legal education, as well as ideological education, psychological rehabilitation and behaviour correction. Australian scholar James Leibold called the move a retrospective justification for mass detentions. Its a new form of re-education thats unprecedented and doesnt really have a legal basis, and I see them scrambling to try to create a legal basis for this policy, said Leibold, an expert on Chinese ethnic policies at Melbournes La Trobe University. Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that no tweaks in national or regional rules can change the nature of the camps. Without due process, Xinjiangs political education centres remain arbitrary and abusive, Wang said. The ruling Communist Party says heightened security is necessary to combat extremism in Xinjiang. The measures proposed by U.S. lawmakers come as U.S.-Chinese relations have deteriorated amid a growing tariff dispute over American complaints about Beijings technology policy. Last week, U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence accused Beijing of trying to influence the outcome of November elections. The Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected that as groundlessly accusing and slandering China. Beijing has spent decades trying to suppress pro-independence sentiment in Xinjiang fuelled in part by frustration about an influx of migrants from Chinas Han majority. Authorities say extremists there have ties to foreign terror groups but have given little evidence to support that. The congressional measure calls for the creation of a State Department post to co-ordinate financial and diplomatic responses, a database for U.S. residents to provide details about missing family members and an expedited asylum process for the affected minority groups. The congressional commission also warned in an annual report Wednesday of the long arm of an ascendant and increasingly aggressive China. The 300-page report describes a downward trajectory on human rights since Xi took power in 2012. It says the ruling party is trying to redefine human rights and basic human dignity. Chinas authoritarianism at home directly threatens our freedoms as well as our most deeply held values and national interests, said a statement by Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, and U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican of New Jersey. The European Union expressed similar concern about Xinjiang last week. The EU is deeply concerned by credible reports pointing to a serious deterioration of human rights, said a statement by the 28-nation blocs chief foreign policy official, Federica Mogherini. Mogherini called on all countries to carefully consider asylum requests. Omir Bekali , who was profiled by The Associated Press in May, is named in the proposed legislation as among those who have testified to the indoctrination, humiliation and indefinite detention of internees. Detainees were ordered to chant Thank the Party! Thank the Motherland! before meals, according to Bekali, a Chinese-born citizen of the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. The congressional commission is also seeking information from the FBI on Chinese activity on U.S. soil. American citizens and Chinese students and other U.S. residents say they have been harassed over Xinjiang, the commission said in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray. Uighurs in Istanbul , Turkey, told the AP this year that Chinese authorities asked them to spy on fellow Uighurs abroad in exchange for information about family members in Xinjiang. Read more about: Who drew it, asks the president? Ninety-one leading scientists from 40 countries who together examined more than 6,000 scientific studies. Specialists like Katharine Mach, who studies new approaches to climate assessment at Stanford University; Tor Arve Benjaminsen, a human geographer at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences; and Raman Sukumar, an ecologist at the Indian Institute of Science. They are among the members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to make recommendations to world leaders. Their report, issued Monday, warns of environmental catastrophe as early as 2040 and advises that the worst can only be staved off if civilization is transformed more profoundly than at any point in recorded history. U.S. President Donald Trump, in comments to reporters Wednesday on the South Lawn, seemed unaware of the IPCC, as the body is known, and expressed doubts about its determinations. The remarks put him at odds with most world leaders, as well as with scientific fact a familiar position for the brash former businessman who has long ridiculed concerns about the climate. It was given to me. It was given to me, and I want to look at who drew, you know, which group drew it, the president said, as Hurricane Michael edged closer to the Floridas northern Gulf Coast, threatening devastating flooding, which scientists say is exacerbated by rising sea levels. Trump said some reports were good, while others were less good. Read more: Trump to lift restrictions on ethanol Trump silent on UN climate warning UN report on global warming carries life-or-death warning Because I can give you reports that are fabulous, and I can give you reports that arent so good, he added. The 700-page report includes drawings of sorts graphs and other visual renderings. But it is mostly detailed analysis, dense with citations, of the impacts of surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming over preindustrial levels. A 33-page summary for policy-makers includes four main points, A through D, each with an elaborate set of sub points, arranged in digestible paragraphs. It anticipates skepticism. For each finding, the authors report a level of confidence, from very low to very high, grounded in an evaluation of underlying evidence and agreement. For instance, the scientists have high confidence that human activities are contributing to significant warming and very high confidence that partnerships with nonstate actors, such as the banking system and scientific institutions, would help limit warming to livable levels. Trump assured reporters: But I will be looking at it, absolutely. Yet he famously doesnt read much, so the chances he will look at it, let alone read it, are in question. He has scorned climate science and promised to yank the United States from the Paris climate agreement, which gave rise to the report issued this week. Meanwhile, he has pledged to speed up the burning of coal, which the report warns would block pathways to keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. And just Monday, the Trump administration announced that the Environmental Protection Agency would be changing a rule to allow year-round sales of E15, or fuel that is 15 per cent ethanol by volume. I want more industry. I want more energy. I want more, Trump told reporters Wednesday before leaving for a rally in Iowa. He said he was dissatisfied with the current price of crude oil per barrel, $74. I want low prices, so Im OK with it, he added. You know, its an amazing substance. You look at the Indy cars. They run 100 per cent on ethanol. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, hailed the plan to lift the ban on summer sales of high-ethanol blends, calling the long-expected White House announcement a very good victory for agriculture. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley has just finished leading the Republicans in a successful battle to install Brett Kavanaugh, Trumps embattled nominee, on the Supreme Court. Trump called the notion that year-round sales have a negative impact the EPA previously cited smog concerns a misnomer, which is actually a misnomer, meaning an inaccurate use of a term. Conspiracy theories about the climate fill Trumps Twitter page. He has called global warming a canard, speculated about global cooling and, on Election Day in 2012, claimed that global warming was created by and for the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. He frequently cites weather reports about rain and snow to argue, contrary to scientific consensus, that the planet cant be warming. By the way, its supposed to be 70 degrees today. Its freezing. Speaking of global warming, where is we need some global warming! he shouted in April 2016 during a rally in Rochester, New York. The EPAs acting administrator, Andrew Wheeler, told The Post recently that the U.S. would remain engaged in UN work on climate change, despite Trumps stated plan to withdraw from the Paris accord. But he declined to specify a level at which the country would seek to keep warming. Meanwhile, the administration has made climate predictions of its own. A 500-page impact statement drawn up over the summer by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration assumed that the planet would warm a calamitous seven degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. The statement, meant to rationalize Trumps decision to freeze certain fuel-efficiency standards, argued that temperatures would rise that amount over the average between 1986 and 2005 whether or not the Obama-era guidelines in question were stalled. From preindustrial levels, the analysis assumed a rise of roughly four degrees Celsius, or seven degrees Fahrenheit, vastly more than the UN panel says is sustainable. This sort of increase, scientists say, would have hellish consequences. It could put parts of Manhattan and Miami underwater, while causing heat waves that suffocate whole swaths of the globe. Read more about: In those days, they sent you home with a wish and prayer, said Peters, who said she was diagnosed with Stage 2 metastatic breast cancer. I was 32 and aware of how it would affect me and my family. Its not clear whats become of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist and leading critic of the Saudi government. At best, he has been silenced. At worst, he has been murdered, the victim of a bizarre and brutal operation carried out by agents of his own government. Thats what his supporters fear and Turkish security officials allege. They say Khashoggi was killed and his body dismembered by a hit squad from Riyadh inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. What is certain is that he hasnt been seen since he entered the building more than a week ago. The assassination if that is indeed what it is of a journalist is always a tragedy. Governments that silence their journalistic critics are attempting to muzzle all those who raise their voices through the media and to intimidate those who might do so in future. This is especially troubling in the context of increasingly open hostility toward the news media from governments that once at least paid lip service to its legitimate role. The Trump administration, to cite the most egregious offender, has unleashed unprecedented attacks on the media, labelling them fake news and even enemies of the people. In August, two experts on freedom of expression appointed by the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights warned that this kind of rhetoric could have real-world impact. We are especially concerned that these attacks increase the risk of journalists being targeted with violence, they said. Just weeks later, here we are. If Khashoggi has indeed been murdered in such vicious fashion, it may be in part because the Saudi government feels it has less reason to fear blow-back from a government in Washington that was once known as a defender of a free press around the world. Hundreds of other journalists have been killed as a result of their work in countries ranging from, most recently, Bulgaria and Slovakia to Russia, Syria, Iraq, Mexico, the Philippines and many more. Governments, gangs and others will undoubtedly feel freer to silence their critics if they believe they can do so with impunity. Trumps assault on so-called fake news feeds exactly that sort of climate. Governments around the world, including decent elements within the U.S. government, must make it clear to the Saudis that this kind of brutality violates every norm of behaviour among nations. Otherwise, more journalists will die and more critical voices will fall silent. Read more about: Ford, Kenney rail against carbon tax, Oct. 7 On Friday, Doug Ford joined hands with Jason Kenney to proclaim that carbon taxation doesnt work. On Monday, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize to economists William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for showing that carbon taxation is the most effective way to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Who to believe? The claims of politicians or the research of those who have studied the subject for years? Peter Bursztyn, Barrie Why is Ford wasting taxpayers money on a futile court challenge with the federal government? Ontarians should pay attention to science. Diane Sullivan, Toronto Read more about: OTTAWAThe politics of climate change just got hotter. On Sunday night, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) dropped a bombshell report. If humanity is to avoid the catastrophic extremes of global warming widespread extinctions and species loss; an Arctic without sea ice; the disappearance of coral reefs; mass displacement from rising oceans and extreme weather then governments around the world need to ramp up their efforts to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, the report concludes. Citing evidence from more than 6,000 scientific references, the reports 91 authors outline the path to limiting global warming by 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial temperatures by 2100 the target set under the 2015 Paris Agreement. Global greenhouse gases will need to fall by about 45 per cent below 2010 levels within the next 12 years, and then reach net zero by 2050, the report says. This would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, such as transportation, energy use and more, as well as the advent of as yet-unproven means of sucking GHGs out of the atmosphere, the IPCC says. Its an astonishing prescription, to be sure but, here in Canada, many expect the IPCCs alarm to intensify what is already one of the most divisive political issues of our time: climate change and what to do about it. Read more: Climate change hit poorest Canadians the hardest, say experts Ontarios environmental commissioner slams Ford government over gutted climate change policies Editorial | Now theres even more evidence to show politicians are wrong to oppose climate change plans An issue like climate change, as it is now cast in almost apocalyptic possibilities that can be very emotionally engaging, said Frank Graves, president of EKOS Research in Ottawa. The latest reports on climate change, and just how imminent the risk is, are only going to reinforce what we see as a rising concern with this. The IPCC report comes as the Trudeau government grapples with provincial blowback on its plan to curb GHGs by imposing an emissions tax in provinces and territories that dont have their own, equally strong carbon-pricing schemes in place. Last week, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister announced he would pull his support for the climate change plan because Ottawa wouldnt agree to let the province set a $25-per-tonne emission tax without raising it to $50 by 2022, as prescribed by the Trudeau government. Albertas NDP government also said it wont raise its existing carbon tax on Trudeaus schedule, after a federal court quashed approval for construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in August. And Ontario joined Saskatchewans court challenge of the constitutionality of Ottawas carbon price plan, after Premier Doug Ford announced he would scrap the cap-and-trade program set up under the previous Liberal government. Meanwhile, on the federal level, Andrew Scheers Conservative Party rails against the governments carbon price virtually every day, accusing the Liberals of masking a tax grab in the dishonest garb of environmentalism. Scheer says he will unveil his own climate plan before the next general election, though hes clear that it wont include a price on emissions. Ive always believed that meaningful action has been required. And thats one of the things thats frustrated me about the Liberal plan of just slapping a carbon tax on and hoping it works, Scheer said in an interview with the Star on Tuesday from India, where he met with the countrys prime minister to discuss selling more Canadian oil and gas to the subcontinent. If anything, their singular focus on one particular proposal has shown that they dont take it seriously, Scheer said. Catherine McKenna, Canadas environment minister, was not available for an interview Tuesday. But in an emailed statement to the Star, she underscored the urgency to act that the report implies, while boasting about the Liberal governments efforts to reduce emissions and create jobs. She also fired right back at Conservatives, whom she frequently accuses of having no plan to address global warming. Climate action should not be a partisan issue, she said. Its time for Conservative politicians to stop playing games with our kids future. But the report also inspired criticism of the Liberals from the left, where politicians and climate activists argue the Trudeau government needs to do more to confront what may be a defining challenge of the 21st century. NDP MP Niki Ashton attacked the Liberals for maintaining GHG reduction targets set under Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, and questioned the governments decision to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion this summer. Our collective future depends on us doing the right thing, right now, Ashton wrote on Twitter. Dale Marshall, national program director for the activist organization Environmental Defence, said the IPCC report underscores how Canadas emissions target of a 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 which Canada is on track to miss, according to government projections is already inadequate. The federal carbon tax would also need to be ramped up if Canada is to push harder on stricter emissions reductions called for in the report, Marshall said. Weve been sounding the alarm forever and a lot of people keep pushing the snooze button, Marshall said. If theres anything thats going to move the needle, I think this report does it. But while Graves said his polling with EKOS suggests a majority of Canadians already rank climate change and the environment amongst their top concerns, he said there is still a solid base of voters receptive to the Conservative attack on the carbon tax. The fact that were still in that situation in Canada is really discouraging and sad, because if this report makes anything clear, its that getting to the limit of 1.5 (degrees global warming) is going to be challenging, but it is possible, said Catherine Abreu, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada. The one thing standing in our way is political will. With files from Alex Boutilier Read more about: In his new book, Stephen Harper warns that standing up for the environment makes for bad politics, especially in a populist age when parties are looking for the votes of ordinary people. Political parties, including mine, have won elections just by opposing a carbon tax, the former prime minister writes in the newly released Right Here, Right Now. The reason is simple. It is ordinary voters who pay carbon taxes. Not surprisingly perhaps, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May holds exactly the opposite view. In a speech to her partys convention in Vancouver last month, May said ordinary Canadian voters are more than ready to hear the truth about the climate crisis in the 2019 campaign. We really do need to level with Canadians, May said. If the one issue is survival, its kind of the issue. She intends to build her campaign around the idea that Canadians are ready, even eager, to have politicians telling the truth to them, and climate change is a perfect entry into that discussion. If the campaign does turn into a referendum on climate change and what to do about it as politicians on both sides of the issue seem to be saying these days Harper and May have effectively staked out the extremes of the debates spectrum. Whats less clear is how a climate-change debate in the federal election would shake out when it comes to the old political wisdom about selling hope and fear. Read more: Climate politics heating up after the UN releases bombshell report on global warming Who drew it, Trump asks of dire climate report, appearing to mistrust 91 scientific experts Ontarios environmental commissioner slams Ford government over gutted climate change policies May says climate change can be presented as a hope issue to the Canadian electorate, but it might just be the hope of avoiding a fearful future, as laid out in the new and disturbing report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC.) The report warned that the world has only about 12 years to get its act together to avoid climate catastrophe. Or, to look at it in political terms, about three federal election cycles. That means that some of the people currently sitting in Parliament or vying for office in 2019 could still be in the Commons when it becomes too late to act for the survival of the planet. Were no longer talking about future generations, May said in an interview yesterday. Were talking about the life span of our own children, who are alive right now. As an issue, the fight against climate change has never been easy to package in the political-marketing terms that now dominate elections. Its complex, hard to distil into slogans, and many of its core messages are anti-consumer. Political marketers, on the other hand, see voters as consumers who are constantly on the lookout for lower prices. Harper, a pioneer in political marketing in this country, frames this point in his book as advice to business. He writes that there are few things more toxic in politics than advocating higher taxes for others. It is the antithesis of rebuilding public trust. Clearly, that view has eager disciples at the provincial level. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Albertas United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney held an anti-carbon-tax rally last Friday night, and more provinces are abandoning Justin Trudeaus old carbon-pricing consensus. Canadas politics have been more resistant to the rampant polarization infecting the United States at the moment, but climate change may be the great polarizer of 2019, or so it seems right now. May, in her recent speech, talked about this prospect. The other parties are immersed in conventional wisdom that wants to come up with election slogans that have to do with lying to people as effectively as possible, she said. May wonders why the IPCC report cannot become the Dunkirk of the current generation a call for citizens and government to work together for a common aim. In the darkest hour of the Second World War, she said, people came together to fight a common enemy. May believes that citizens are ready to hear the same message when it comes to saving the planet within the next dozen years. I reject the idea that this generation of Canadians is less generous than our grandparents generation, she said. For all their differences, Harper and May are both saying the debate over climate change will come down to how you view the voters and what theyre willing to do. Are Canadians ordinary voters, or up for extraordinary measures? Susan Delacourt is the Star's Ottawa bureau chief and a columnist covering national politics. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt Read more about: Ontarios Progressive Conservative government is blessed with the best bench strength in recent memory. Whatever Doug Fords weaknesses flying solo in the premiers office, there is surely strength in (cabinet) numbers. Thats what Tories and many voters across the province told themselves when holding their noses June 7. That, at least, was the plan. The problem with power, however, is that it tends to flow in the opposite direction. Towards the centre. There is one cabinet veteran who could have led the way forward for Ford a former health minister in the government of Mike Harris, a former interim leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Spare a thought for Economic Development and Trade Minister Jim Wilson, a man of substance who has lost his way by succumbing to the premiers hyperbole and hypocrisy. Consider Wilsons transformation from serious policymaker to simplistic partisan in these three areas: When Statistics Canada announced last Friday that Ontarios unemployment had inched up to 5.9 per cent from 5.7, Wilson counter-intuitively claimed credit for Fords economic stewardship: In just a few short months, the PC government has enacted legislation and policy changes in an effort to create and protect jobs in Ontario, he chirped brightly. Those efforts are evident in todays release of the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, which shows significant growth in Ontarios labour force with 36,100 new jobs. Fair enough. Anyone who has studied labour economics understands the seasonal ups and downs of Statistics Canadas numbers, and that it is possible for new jobs to be created even as more jobless people are looking for work. But one month before, rather than finding a glimmer of good news, Wilson found grounds to excoriate ex-premier Kathleen Wynne for a similar increase in the unemployment rate (0.3 percentage points in the August gloom, versus 0.2 points in Septembers glory): The latest job numbers are a reminder of the Wynne Liberals 15-year legacy of scandal, waste and mismanagement, he scowled, linking elections to economics with remarkable alacrity. Setting aside Wilsons statistical games, consider his political gamesmanship in the wake of the high stakes NAFTA negotiations. Where once Wilson promised to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ottawa in dodging bullets from Donald Trump, he started firing blanks at the federal government as soon as the ink was dry on a deal. Wilson mischievously claimed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberals had thrown Ontarios dairy farmers under the bus. Yet for all his references to roadkill, Wilson appeared to be suffering from political amnesia, given that the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper had already paved the way with similar concessions for the Trans Pacific Partnership with Asian countries. Perhaps the most disheartening and heartless of Wilsons word games relate to the minimum wage earners he keeps throwing under the bus while Ontario takes a U-turn from the $15 hourly pay that was to take effect next Jan. 1 under current law. Thanks to the change election that brought the Tories to power, the minimum wage has been frozen at $14 an hour, which Wilson argues is an economic necessity to spare the province further joblessness. That claim ignores the steady decline in Ontarios unemployment rate in the months since the hourly minimum jumped from $11.60 to $14 last January. Wilson appears oblivious to the scholarship from labour economists who cite empirical evidence that higher wages for low-paid people have emphatically not led to greater joblessness (unemployment rates are more sensitive to outside factors, such as overall consumer demand). Neither economic realities nor trade negotiations have curbed Wilsons political spin, for we live in an age of ideological beliefs, not economic facts. Talking points, not statistical data. Many Ontarians were hoping for greater rigour from a more robust Progressive Conservative cabinet. But rather than ministers restraining the premier, he is constraining their ministries. Far from decentralizing decision-making, Ford is centralizing authority in the premiers office. And homogenizing the sloganeering. Read more about: VANCOUVERIndependent mayoral candidate Shauna Sylvester said Tuesday that the current focus on disclosing donor lists is distracting people from seeing the way big money is still influencing the 2018 campaign. Sylvesters comments follow an open letter released Monday outlining her concerns about outsized corporate and union contributions continuing to drive civic elections in the province. Its really important not to just talk about integrity and call out people to disclose their donors, Sylvester said in an interview. You have to really demonstrate that (integrity). And that means full transparency. Sylvester said parties including the NPA and independent mayoral candidate Kennedy Stewart have found ways to bring more financial heft to their campaigns by skirting regulations intended to ban big donors from B.C. elections. Under those new rules, corporate and union donations are banned, and caps on individual donations are set at $1,200 per person, though only for campaigning. Stewart, who released his fifth and latest contribution disclosure on Oct. 2, challenged Vancouvers competing candidates in late September to release their own donor lists before the first day of advance voting began Oct. 10. The practice follows a precedent from the 2014 election, when some mayoral candidates and campaigns laid out their campaign donor lists ahead of election day. Stewarts latest donor statement shows a total of 1,356 donors have so far contributed $151,794 to his election bid an average of just under $112 per contribution. The NPA Stewarts closest competition, according to a Tuesday poll met Stewarts challenge, releasing its own list of cumulative donations Tuesday. That list shows the NPA has raised more than $837,000 from 4,460 individuals, at an average of roughly $188 per contribution. The NPA did not respond to a request for comment. But Stewarts endorsement by the Vancouver and District Labour Council (VDLC) has spurred criticism from Sylvester that the support with VDLC putting man hours toward flyer distribution and other efforts amounts to an exploitation of a loophole regarding the ban on union donations. Stewart, meanwhile, said Sylvester had likewise sought (and failed to secure) the VDLCs endorsement, suggesting her condemnation is perhaps a bit of sour grapes. He also offered his own critique of her transparency. Ms. Sylvester says she is not going to disclose her donors, Stewart said in an interview, which should raise a red flag for voters. But Sylvester said she is still considering disclosing her donor list, adding Stewarts criticism in a sense proves her point. The only person thats calling for (disclosure) is Kennedy Stewart, she said. And the reason hes calling for it is its not the full picture. Sylvester said its clear the individuals hired by the VDLC to work or volunteer in support of Stewarts candidacy make the election an uneven playing field. But Stewart said he has been advocating for tighter municipal election laws for years and wanted rules governing campaigning to become even stricter than they already are. He also called the VDLCs endorsement a milestone for his campaign, saying he was proud to have the support of Vancouvers working people. This is the first civic election conducted under the new campaign finance regulations, Sylvester pointed out, and those regulations will undoubtedly require tweaking to avoid a repeat of such conflicts in further elections. But in the run-up to Oct. 20, she said, she feels confident voters will parse the difference between candidates who act only within the letter of the law and those who also act within the spirit of the law. The real story is all the disclosure thats not happening, she said. Thats my issue. And no amount of individual donor release is going to shed any light on that. With files from Jen St. Denis Perrin Grauer is a Vancouver-based reporter covering Canadas cannabis economy. Follow him on Twitter: perringrauer Read more about: VANCOUVERA United Nations climate report has renewed criticisms of British Columbias decision to develop a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Kitimat in the face of potentially devastating climate change. The report, written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), examined the impact of the climate warming 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. Countries around the world committed to limit climate warming to 2 C under the Paris agreement. The reports 91 authors conclude it is still technically possible to limit warming to 1.5 C, but only if countries around the world take much more ambitious action. Their conclusion calls into question B.C.s recent decision to move forward with the development of a liquefied natural gas industry, which critics say will make it significantly more difficult to meet the provinces existing climate targets. It is pretty much impossible to reconcile Canadas commitment which we agreed to in the Paris climate agreement to avoiding two degrees and hopefully 1.5 degrees of warming, with decisions to expand the LNG industry, said Simon Donner, a climate scientist at the University of British Columbia. The math just doesnt work well. The Paris agreement signatories committed to work toward limiting warming to 1.5 C, and the IPCC report found that catastrophic impacts could be avoided if they succeed. The sea level would rise by 10 cm less by 2100, ice-free summers in the Arctic Ocean would be significantly less frequent, and coral reefs would decline by 70 to 90 per cent instead of disappearing entirely, the report said. For some, it could be the difference between life or death, climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, a lead author on the report, told The Associated Press. Half as many people would face water shortages and fewer people would die or become ill because of smog or infectious disease. Currently, the world is on track to hit an average increase of 1.5 C by 2040. While British Columbia could never turn the tide of warming alone, climate change is a collective problem that requires a collective response, said Donner. Gillian Robinson, a spokesperson for the BC LNG Alliance, which represents seven LNG proponents in B.C., argued that liquefied natural gas developed in B.C. has climate benefits when viewed from a global perspective. For example, natural gas from one large LNG facility in B.C., exported to Asia, could provide enough energy to replace or displace up to 34 coal-fired power plants with cleaner-burning natural gas, Robinson said. David Karn, a spokesperson for B.C.s Ministry of Environment, said We have been clear that any LNG development in B.C. must fit within B.C.s climate goals. That is not negotiable. Meeting our climate targets will not be easy with or without further natural gas development but we are committed to developing a climate strategy to meet those goals, he said in a statement. Ultimately, Donner said, Canada will need to shift its resource-based industries to the industries of the future. Canada could be an energy superpower using wind, water and solar, he said. Greg Flato, a senior scientist with Environment Canadas climate research division and one of the IPCC special reports authors, said the report shows emissions from all sectors will have to reduce rapidly in order to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees. In particular, the energy that is produced and consumed from fossil fuels has to change, and there has to be a transition towards renewable energy sources that dont lead to greenhouse gas emissions, Flato said, adding that the impacts of climate change will increase as global temperatures rise. In the wake of two of B.C.s worst wildfire seasons, Donner asked people to imagine what it will be like when B.C.s two or three degrees even warmer than that, and fires are triggered more easily or spread more easily as a result. If we allow sea level rise to continue unabated, well be having to move back from or spend extremely large sums of money to continue living as close to the coast as much of the Lower Mainland does. But the take-home for Donner from this report is the consequences for other parts of the world if warming exceeds 1.5 C. Its not just about us: Its about the recognition that 1.5 degrees of warming is going to cause serious damage in a lot of parts of the world. In some cases it may not be very recoverable, he said. With files from The Associated Press Read more about: Hammond detectives want to make it clear that continuing efforts will be made to stop prostitution and all offenders will be prosecuted and the public will be made aware of all arrests, a post on the departments Facebook post states. New York Sears Holdings Corp. is adding a restructuring expert to its board, suggesting the ailing retailer may be preparing to take significant actions to survive or to protect its remaining assets. The Hoffman Estates, Ill., company, which also owns Kmart, said Tuesday it was bringing on board Alan Carr, managing member and CEO of Drivetrain LLC, a restructuring advisory firm. In a release, Sears said Carr has significant experience as a principal, investor and adviser leading complex financial restructurings, as well as serving as a director of reorganized businesses in the U.S. and Europe. Carr was previously an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Ravin, Sarasohn, Baumgarten, Fisch & Rosen. The announcement was made as Sears, led by CEO and Chairman Eddie Lampert, is nearing a key debt repayment in less than a week. "I don't think it is an immediate drive to bankruptcy, but clearly the options are limited," said David Tawil, president and co-founder of Maglan Capital, which follows distressed companies. He says he thinks Sears could be looking at a big liquidity infusion or restructuring debt. Last month, ESL Investment, the hedge fund owned by Lampert, urged the retailer to sell $1.5 billion more in real estate and restructure $1.1 billion in debt to avoid bankruptcy, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lampert is the company's biggest shareholder. In August, the board said it was weighing an offer from Lampert that Sears should sell its Kenmore brand and said ESL might offer to buy it if it was willing to sell. The company has closed hundreds of stores and has put other famous brands on the block as it burns through money and sees more customers abandon its often-neglected stores. On Tuesday, Sears shares lost 5.9 percent to close at 59 cents. Cookbook covers can be like optical illusions. Take Microwave Cooking for One, which features the author, Marie T. Smith, alone with some platters of color-saturated food. Some readers may see desolation and gloom behind her smile. Some, a dusty meme. Others see a triumphant model of practicality and self-care. Chef Anita Lo was aware of these polarities when she wrote Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One, a book celebrating the simple act of cooking for yourself, and only yourself, that will be published this month by Knopf. Her recipes are tailored to feed one and, in most cases, the steps are minimal and require few pots and pans. In other words, its a cookbook that speaks directly to a growing number of single Americans, with strategic, small-portion recipes, and tips for shopping, stocking the pantry and storing food in a single-person household. Lo first landed on the project after a brainstorming session of funny cookbook titles with her name in it (including the rejected Lo Cal). I originally told my publishers that the cover should be me and my cat, Lo said. But they thought it was too sad. Instead, the cover is a cheerful illustration by Julia Rothman, whose line drawings fill the compact books pages. Los book is part of a far-reaching canon of cooking for one. Nigella Lawson has written about her solitary indulgences, as have James Beard and M.F.K. Fisher. Editor Judith Jones wrote a pioneering text in the genre called The Pleasures of Cooking for One, published in 2009. Jones took a characteristically precise approach to cooking for herself, but other cooks describe the task as a form of daily self-care. There are plenty of other benefits, too. They note how flavors and textures often can become more delicious because theyre working with such small quantities, and how little to no food can be wasted. Although Lo read Jones book and appreciated her approach, she found the recipes from blueberry soup to blanquette de veau somewhat dated. Lo, who grew up in Michigan and ran her West Village restaurant Annisa for 17 years before it closed last year, carefully stocks her own kitchen with kimchi, tahini and dried anchovies. A touch of any of these ingredients can change the direction of a dish. Take Los recipe for pan-roasted cauliflower, which relies on a store-bought spice mix tangy with dried mango and black salt to effortlessly turn the vegetable into a quick, South Asian-style chaat. The cauliflower is broken into florets and browned in a saucepan (an impossible task when cooking a large amount), then seasoned with a sauce of cilantro, yogurt and green chiles. To make the garnish, Lo warms chopped almonds in the toaster oven, which she considers a valuable and versatile tool in any small, efficient kitchen. In her book, Jones wrote that the secret of making cooking for one fun and creative is not to think of a meal as self-contained but to understand that home cooking is an ongoing process, one dish leading to another. This is distinct from leftovers, warmed up as they are. Lo builds on the beauty of that idea, using the raw cauliflower scraps left over from preparing her chaat to start a new dish by pickling them, always minimizing waste and maximizing creativity. To preserve vegetables when cooking in small amounts, Lo cuts them with care. If youre cutting an onion, you cut it from the growth side, not the root side, she said. And you leave the brown paper skin on so it holds the moisture. Then you cut off what youre going to use and only peel and chop that part. From shopping to prepping to eating, cooking for one requires more efficiency to avoid waste or a mountain of leftovers. I think a lot of learning to cook for yourself is about portions and just making sure youre cooking the amount youre going to eat, Lo added. Eric Kim, an editor at the website Food52, finds himself in his apartment kitchen in New York almost every night, after he gets home late from after-work drinks with friends. I cook with a lot of intention, he said. Theres so much pleasure in not having anything left over and in eating something new each time. He recently wrote about the satisfaction of cooking exactly one portion of risotto for himself and eating it in bed, using the same wooden spoon that he cooked it with. Afterward, he received direct messages on Instagram from readers who were making the dish just for themselves, sending him photos and notes of their luxurious solo dinners. People want more recipes for one, said Kim, who usually pours himself a glass of wine and plays an episode of the Netflix show BoJack Horseman on his laptop while he cooks. Cooking for myself is part of my ritual, he said. It keeps me sane. Kim also believes that cooking on a smaller scale happens to yield more delicious food. I think its a volume situation, he said. If youre making a huge batch, its hard to make it taste the way you want. Author Klancy Miller leads classes teaching people how to cook for themselves and helped found a book club at the Brooklyn location of the Wing, a co-working space for women. In her first cookbook, Cooking Solo: The Fun of Cooking for Yourself, Miller champions cooking as an act of self-care. Its a way to nurture yourself and nourish yourself, Miller said. Millers approach is exact. One thing I believe strongly in is buying small quantities of food so you dont end up wasting ingredients, she said. When she buys something big, like a whole chicken, Miller might roast it and use the meat for four consecutive recipes, cooking each one differently but still using up every part of the bird. Otherwise, shell portion meat or fish individually and pack them in the freezer. Getting good at using your freezer is key, Miller said. (Likewise, Lo vacuum-seals bacon in packages of two slices so she can grab a single portion from the freezer.) Miller also uses ice cube trays to freeze sauces, such as chimichurri, and to store any excess herbs in olive oil before they have the chance to spoil in the fridge. Later shell pop out the herb cubes one at a time to finish a soup or stew. She first began cooking for herself when she lived in Paris while attending culinary school. She started small, with rice and sauteed vegetables from the market, but later, at a restaurant called Mama Shelter, she tasted a shepherds pie made with duck and decided to recreate it at home, just for herself, using mashed potatoes and a piece of store-bought, fat-encased duck confit. Most people are taught from a young age to be kind and generous to other people, Miller said. Why not turn some of that kindness and generosity toward yourself? Cauliflower Chaat for One Yield: 1 serving Total time: 30 minutes For the cauliflower: 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil small head cauliflower, cut into florets Salt to taste 2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger 2 teaspoons finely chopped jalapeno pepper 1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro teaspoon lemon juice 2 teaspoons chaat masala For the sauce and serving: 1 cup cilantro jalapeno pepper small white onion small garlic clove 1 Tablespoons plain, full-fat Greek yogurt Pinch of cumin 1 teaspoon lemon juice Salt and pepper, to taste 1 Tablespoon roughly chopped roasted almonds Cooked rice or store-bought flatbread, for serving Cook the cauliflower: Heat the oil in a saute pan on high heat, until the oil starts to smoke in small wisps. Add the cauliflower florets and lower the heat to medium-high. Sprinkle with salt and allow the florets to brown in the pan, then stir and turn the heat down to medium. Cook for another minute, then add ginger and jalapeno. Stir well, add cilantro, lemon juice and chaat masala, and stir again. Remove pan from heat. Prepare the sauce: Place all ingredients plus 2 Tablespoons water in a small food processor and puree until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides and get everything incorporated. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle sauce over the cauliflower and sprinkle with almonds. Serve with rice or flatbread. JERSEYVILLE Jerseyville Carpet & Furniture Galleries in conjunction with Jersey County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children) will again host the annual Taste of the Tri-County to benefit recruit, train and support volunteer advocates for CASA. The event will be held at Jerseyville Carpet & Furniture Galleries, 1672 South St., Jerseyville, on Thursday, Nov. 1 from 5-7 p.m. Cost is $25 at the door. Participants will enjoy an evening of hearty hors doeuvres provided by local restaurants. In addition, wine and beer will be available for sampling, and guests will enjoy an acoustic evening with Brett Lemarr of LedSled. Not only will attendees support a worthwhile cause, but also enjoy shopping extended hours at Jerseyville Carpet & Furniture Galleries. Mohawks SmartStrand Sorona carpet will be on display and put to the test, with a License to Spill Carpet Showdown. Attendees are invited to spill everything from ketchup and Kool-Aid to wine and coffee on SmartStrand Sorona carpet to see if it will come clean with just water. There is no other carpet like Mohawks SmartStrand with DuPont Sorona, said Jerrod Capps of Jerseyville Carpet & Furniture Galleries. Weve seen Mohawk put this carpet through many challenges. They even installed it in the cage of a black rhino at the Birmingham Zoo. After two weeks of abuse, I didnt believe it would come clean, but it did and it looked like new. Todays households are busy, said Capps. People need a carpet they can depend on to be durable and stain resistant. I know that seeing is believing, so Im holding a License to Spill/Taste Of The Tri-County event so consumers can experience Mohawks SmartStrand Sorona for themselves. In addition to being extremely durable and stain resistant, the carpet is also environmentally friendly. It is made, in part, with annually renewable plant-based ingredients instead of more limited petroleum based ingredients. Manufacturer representatives from Mohawk, Flexsteel, and LaZboy will also be on hand providing guest information and showcasing the latest styles and design trends in the flooring and furniture Industry. Jerseyville Carpet & Furniture Galleries offers Mohawks SmartStrand Sorona in a full range of textures, patterns and colors. They also carry the newest member of the SmartStrand family of products, SmartStrand Silk, as the worlds most luxuriously soft carpet. CASA in Jersey County is presently advocating for 40 of the 57 children placed in foster care by Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) through Jersey County Juvenile Court, according to CASA. Last year, 14 Jersey County CASA Advocates volunteered 729 hours, submitted 47 court reports, on behalf of the best interests of 65 children, and attended 138 court hearings to serve as the childs voice in court. Advocates are independent officers of the court. They make at a minimum, monthly face-to-face contact with child abuse/neglect victims and their foster parents, in addition to frequent contact with caseworkers, and parents. This past year 38 percent of our children were below the age of 5 and 83 percent were age 11 or younger. It costs Illinois taxpayers an average of $5,698.90 per month to maintain a child in foster care. Children with a CASA Advocate spend an average of eight months less in foster care, experience 1/3 less moves in foster placement, are 80 percent less likely to re-enter the foster care system, and have a 98 percent reduction in instances of re-abuse. Studies have clearly shown that the quality of life for these most at risk children from our community is enhanced and the savings to the taxpayers is reduced when a CASA Advocate is appointed. More Information IF YOU GO What: Taste of the Tri County When: 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 Where: Jerseyville Carpet & Furniture Galleries, 1672 S. State St., Jerseyville Why: Fundraiser for CASA of Jersey County See More Collapse For additional information about CASA or this event, contact the CASA office at 498-5571, ext. 152, email jerseyvillecasa@gtec.com, or visit Jerseyville CASA on Facebook. That became the basis of Wiesenthal. The audience acts as the final group that comes to his documentation center in 2003, the day of his retirement, Dugan said. Wiesenthal used his sense of humor to keep his audience engaged. I was able to utilize Wiesenthals sense of humor in the play, which has been such a gift. The play has been so successful largely because its an uplifting show. He noted that audiences spend a large portion of the 90-minute show laughing because of Wiesenthals sense of humor. EDWARDSVILLE Madison County officials reopened Buchta Road last week in Fort Russell Township following the replacement of Heeren Bridge. The road and bridge, which are located west of South Moreland Road and crosses over Indian Creek, reopened Friday after being shut down for nearly seven months. We are pleased in the fact that the bridge repair opened ahead of schedule, County Board member Tom McRae of Bethalto, chair of the Transportation Committee, said. In February, the County Board awarded a $1.08 million contract to RCS Construction Inc. of Wood River to renovate the single-span bridge that averages 1,000 vehicles per day. The bridge had several structural deficiencies prior to its replacement. The structure, which had a load limit of 17 tons, and flooded several times per year is now a three span, steel wide flange beam structure with concrete deck. The county funded 75 percent of the project from its Bridge Fund, and Fort Russell Township funded the remaining 25 percent. McRae said the re-opening of the road and bridge would relieve some of the traffic congestion along Illinois routes 140 and 143. He said that with the shutdown of Buchta Road and the Illinois Department of Transportation doing bridge construction on Route 143 at Indian Creek had motorists taking alternative routes and increasing traffic along those roadways. Matt Kitzmiller, the countys construction engineer, said that work on the bridge began March 12 and the contractor completed the project under the 80 working-day period. The bridge was done within 76 working days, Kitzmiller said. Fort Russell Township also resurfaced Buchta Road west of Illinois Route 159 and east of South Moreland Road. County Board member Mick Madison of Bethalto said he is pleased the road has been improved and reopened. It was a much needed improvement and I am happy it was completed ahead of schedule, Madison said. ALTON As part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, area residents will again take to the streets for the Fifth Annual Walk Against Domestic Violence sponsored by the Alton Police Department. The walk, from SS Peter and Paul Church on State Street in Alton to the Liberty Bank Amphitheater, will start at 6:30 p.m. today, Thursday. After meeting at the amphitheater at about 5:30 p.m., participants will be bused to the church for a short program. The group will then march down State Street to Broadway, then back to the amphitheater. There is a $10 cost per walker, with all proceeds benefiting local domestic violence prevention programs. The program will include several speakers, including a domestic violence survivor, then a song and closing prayer. At about 7:10 p.m. the walk will start. Last year, about 100 people participated in the walk itself, with about 200 at the service, according to Alton Police Chief Jason Jake Simmons. Its really a very moving memorial service, he said. Weve expanded and improved on it over the years. Simmons noted the importance of bringing attention to domestic violence, and that a woman is assaulted or abused every nine seconds in America. Between 5-7 percent of all (police) service calls are domestic related, he said. It is very important to get the word out that no longer is it taboo to talk about it. For more information about domestic violence, visit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence website at ncadv.org. They also operate the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at www.thehotline.org, or by calling 1-800-799-7233 or 800-787-3224 (TTY). Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447. GRAFTON Pere Marquette State Park will play host to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Fishing and Night Hike Program on three Fridays this fall, the first on Oct. 12. Meet at the Visitor Center for an educational program on fish and fishing at 5 p.m., with urban fishing coordinator Scott Isringhausen. Following the talk, young kids can fish at the bluegill pond that sits right next to the visitor center. ALTON The Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau (formerly known as the Alton Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau) has launched a new website showcasing more than 50 cities throughout Madison, Jersey, Calhoun and Macoupin counties. The website, RiversandRoutes.com, offers fresh visuals and stories along with the best elements of the region, according to Brett Stawar, President and CEO of Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau. We are the only spot in the U.S. where the Mother Road of Route 66 meets the Great River Road. And our new website highlights that great diversity, Stawar said. The website is an ideal way to promote the great attributes of our region which now includes Route 66, Looking for Lincoln National Heritage Area, The Great River Road in Illinois and The National Road along with the Meeting of the Great Rivers National Scenic Byway and our three great rivers. We can now present all the fun, scenic, historic adventures we offer in one portal for visitors. From famous roads and small-town charm to celebrated rivers and natural marvels, the website provides great travel ideas for potential visitors. Visitors to the site can explore the region before they visit. The site now includes sections: Seasonal Trip Ideas, Deals, Events, and The Latest stories and news from the region. The website joins the Tourism Bureaus family of sites which includes VisitAlton.com, EnjoyGrafton.com and EnjoyCalhounCounty.com among others. In addition to the new website, Great Rivers and Routes is now on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RiversAndRoutes; Twitter at www.twitter.com/RiversAndRoutes; and Instagram at: www.instagram.com/riversandroutes The Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau is the destination marketing organization serving Madison, Jersey, Macoupin and Calhoun counties. The Tourism Bureau is an expansion of the Alton Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau and is certified by the Illinois Office of Tourism and accredited as a bureau by Destinations International. CARLINVILLE Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau recently announced plans for the 4th Annual Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference in Carlinville. The conference will run from Thursday to Sunday, Oct. 25-28. Additional sponsors of the event are Carlinville Tourism, Macoupin County, Blackburn College, the City of Gillespie, Blue Carpet Corridor Coalition, and Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway. Friday and Saturdays conference sessions, keynote speaker, and roster of presenters, plus the Friday evening banquet and band and the Saturday afternoon one-act play premiere, are all scheduled to take place at Blackburn College. Featured speakers include: David Clark (Chicago), Roamin Rich Dinkela (St. Louis), Nick Gerlich, Ph.D. (Canyon, Texas), Jim Hinckley (Kingman Arizona), Cheryl Eichar Jett (Edwardsville), Geoff Ladd (Lincoln, Illinois), Jerry McClanahan (Chandler, Texas), David Schwartz (Cleveland, Ohio), Anne Maro Slanina, Ph.D. (Harrisville, Pennsylvania), Sharon Smith (St. Louis), Lisa Hicks Snell (Tahlequah, Oklahoma), Joe Sonderman (St. Louis), and Bill Thomas (Atlanta, Illinois), plus Carlinville historians and speakers Andrea Duncan, Tom Emery, Dan Hauter, and Deborah Young. In addition, six panel discussions will address Route 66 tourism topics, led by moderators Larry Bloemker (Hamel), Debyjo Ericksen (Joliet, Illinois), Nick Gerlich, Ph.D. (Canyon, Texas), Bill Kelly (Chatham, Illinois), and Bill Thomas (Atlanta, Illinois). The welcome to Carlinville will be given by Mayor Deanna Demuzio and the welcome to Blackburn College will be given by Interim President Jennifer Braaten, Ph.D. Brett Stawar, CEO and President of Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau, will give the keynote address. On Thursday afternoon, registration check-in will be at Blackburn College. An optional three-hour bus tour of Historic Carlinville, with stops at the Million Dollar Courthouse, Anderson Mansion, Sears Home, and Blackburn College, featuring guide Deb Young, Carlinville Tourism President, will be available. On Thursday evening, the City of Gillespie will host Mining on Route 66 with an open house and tours at the new Illinois Coal Museum. The evening will include three showings of Coliseum Ballroom Memories, a short documentary about the legendary ballroom, and nearby restaurants will be open, all on Gillespies stretch of historic Route 66. On Friday evening, a banquet will be served in Woodson Hall on the Blackburn College campus, followed by a concert and dance featuring popular oldies band, the Robert Perry Band with the Original Mojos. On Saturday evening, the City of Carlinvilles annual Halloween Parade with this years theme of Get your kicks on Route 66 will proceed around the historic Carlinville Square. A Halloween Costume Party with a buffet, cash bar, and guest DJ Joe Sonderman is scheduled at the former Crabbys Supper Club on the south side of Carlinville. On Sunday morning, an optional three-hour bus tour of The Haunts of 66 from Carlinville and back will go in search of ghosts and ghost roads, spirits and their haunts, miners, mobsters, and murderers, presented by InSites Tours and featuring guide David Clark, the Windy City Road Warrior. A conference weekend package, as well as a one-day special Essentials of Route 66 Tourism package, are available for registration at the conference website route66milesofpossibility.com. Add-ons and single tickets for various activities are also available, and complete schedule, lodging information, and speaker bios can be found on the website. For more information call Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau at (800) 258-6645. I relished the opportunity to see the new version of A Star is Born on the strength of its trailer highlighting some electric chemistry between Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. That idea in and of itself is a blessing when you pause to consider that this movie is a third remake of a Fredric March film from 1937. Kinship-wise, it shares more of its DNA with Barbra Streisands 1976 re-telling, but I would argue to say that its the best attempt thus far, and Cooper totally nails it with his directing debut. His star was already pretty high after three consecutive Best Actor nominations earlier this decade, but here he also co-writes the script and handles producing duties. He might even be credited for helping his co-star to be considered a breakout despite her already having conquered the recording industry to the tune of 27 million albums sold and six career Grammys. Theyre both brilliant in this amazing picture and several supporting performances ground its celebrity story in real lifes authentic way. Given his rep and his artistic hand all over the movie, its easily understandable to think of A Star is Born as Coopers film. In reality, though, his Jackson Maine is a true co-lead who even is at times outshined by the titular star of the movie, Ally (Gaga), an unknown songwriter who catches Jacks eye and heart one night at an open mic event at a drag show. In fact, one of the drag queens approaches Maine with a great line early in the picture when he asks which song to sing for the house. Whatever, baby, as long as you look at me while you do it. That was when I knew this movie had its hooks in me and wasnt going to let go. Jack is at a stalling point in his career where the arenas are still packed for his country-laced rock shows, but the tinnitus and the booze are starting to making performing a lot more like work that any musician ever expects it to be. Hes down to stringing himself along with pills and gin, staying one step ahead of his taskmaster manager/older brother, Bobby (Sam Elliot). And theres the story, one generationally-arranged to give us the hard look at a relationship between a fading star and one whose cache is rising. Smitten with Ally and bringing her on tour to duet with him is medicinal for Jack. He falls for her as fast as she falls for the glamorous lifestyle of their tragic, opposing trajectories. Jack staves off failure when he couples his fortunes with hers. Ally takes off like a rocket due to her pop reinvention, hair color change, and plum SNL performance (kudos for the Alec Baldwin appearance). Its when she becomes a bigger name than him that the old addictions start to return. He cant handle the fame he helped her achieve and falls back to his dirty habits despite some well-intentioned advice from friends old (Dave Chappelle, playing Jacks childhood friend) and new (Andrew Dice Clay, a straight man vision as Allys wannabe crooner father). These two performances are aces for both actors, but sadly too brief to be considered more than amazing cameos that left me wanting more. The music in this movie is all original and a few of the tracks are quite good. They fit the plot nicely, but none have the earworm nature to exist outside of the auditorium. Musicals often do this better, such as City of Stars from La La Land, but that may be the defining reason to consider A Star is Born a great drama first and a musical only secondarily. If the movie is good (and it is), and Cooper is great (for sure!), then the real prize is Lady Gaga. She absolutely brings down the house with a performance that is assured and deft despite being her first fully fleshed out dramatic performance on the big screen. Whatre they going to do next? A Star is Born runs 136 minutes and is rated R for language throughout, some sexuality/nudity, and substance abuse. I give this film three and a half stars out of four. WOOD RIVER Riverbend Family Ministries is hosting their 2nd Annual Celebration Dinner on Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Best Western Premier Alton-St. Louis Area Hotel. This years dinner will highlight achievements made by Riverbend Family Ministries (RFM) throughout the year, including remarks from RFMs executive director, Tammy Iskarous. The keynote speaker is Michelle Raby, a Southern Illinois native and author of the book, To Be Known. Her book tells her story on how broken beginnings can be redefined into breathtaking purpose and promise. We are blessed to have Michelle Raby as our keynote speaker this year, said Iskarous. Ive watched her grow from the brokenness of her past hurts to the boldness of her present faith. She has a warriors heart for those most vulnerable and leads with a humble grace that radiates God love and her identity in Him. I am blessed to call her friend and cant wait for you to hear her incredible story of growth and healing. Its such an honor to be coming back to a place that once gave me hope, said Raby. A place I found healing through serving. Im proud to be a part of an organization that advocates for children and their families. Michelle Raby now resides in California with her family and is an Outreach Pastor at Capital Christian Center. Because of Riverbend Family Ministries people from all walks of life are saying YES! Yes, to volunteering, yes to hope and yes to kids and their families. After recently relocating back to the area I am so excited to be involved again and know that what our community does truly will make an impact. Its so exciting to see it come full circle, said Raby. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6 p.m.; attendance is free to the public. RSVP by going to www.RiverbendFamilyMinistries.com. If it were possible, the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Bachelor of Music in musical theater program would take a bow for being named number nine on the Onstage Blogs Top 10 List. This is a great program that equips our students to have a breadth of expertise in music, dance and theater when they graduate, said Marc Schapman, DM, associate professor in CAS Department of Music and director of the musical theater program. OnStage is a blog dedicated to Broadway and community theater show reviews and highlights of famous stage directors, actors and technicians. According to OnStage Blog, people experienced in specific fields determine its rankings. Our research staff includes current and former educators, students, alumni and working professionals in the areas of dance, design and technology, and performing, noted the Blog. Also, as opposed to other college ranking publications, colleges dont pay us to be ranked. These rankings are focused on what is most important to those pursuing a career in the theatrical arts by those who know these industries. Rankings are based on the following criteria: Quality of facilities Cost and scholarship opportunities Quality of faculty (terminal degrees, professional experience, and full-time versus adjunct) Admissions, auditions and selectivity Quality of curriculum Career and alumni support Performance opportunities The Departments of Music and Theater and Dance decided within the last five years to collaborate and set the stage for success for students in the musical theater program, according to Schapman. Our two departments worked well together and did a magnificent job on Summer Showbiz and other collaborative productions, he said. When we did Fame in 2012, we sold out. The students were so excited about it, and we said, lets figure out how to make this work as a degree. We redesigned the curriculum, continued Schapman. In the redesign, courses were added like Broadway style dance, history of American theater and a seminar in audition techniques. Now, students get to work on actual productions, which increases opportunities to perform. In November (7-11), we are doing Chicago. This program is unique. Our professors celebrate our individuality as artists, and we are not trained to be cookie-cutter performers, said senior Zora Vredeveld. I came into this program a completely different person, and I have grown into a much more confident and well-rounded performer. SIUEs musical theater program gives students the opportunity to train in musical theater, as well as opera, modern dance and many other styles. I also entered this program because of the amazing faculty, added Vredeveld. After I graduate in May, I plan to move to New York City to begin my career in performing. College of Arts and Sciences: Central to SIUEs exceptional and comprehensive education, the College of Arts and Sciences has 19 departments and 85 areas of study. More than 300 full-time faculty/instructors deliver classes to more than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Faculty help students explore diverse ideas and experiences, while learning to think and live as fulfilled, productive members of the global community. Study abroad, service-learning, internships, and other experiential learning opportunities better prepare SIUE students not only to succeed in our regions workplaces, but also to become valuable leaders who make important contributions to our communities. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Chancellor Randy Pembrook presented his third annual State of the University Address to the campus community on Wednesday, Oct. 10 in the Morris University Center Meridian Ballroom. The address theme related to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s question about our compelling responsibilities - fulfilling the tasks we are called to address. Visit siue.edu/tv to view the presentation. Pembrook noted that this was the 42nd State of the University Address, a tradition initiated by then-President Kenneth Buzz Shaw. I am proud of our institution and how it has progressed in many areas discussed in those early State of the University addresses, including academic quality, recruitment, retention and external relations, Pembrook said. Pembrook began by addressing enrollment and the introduction of new or expanded programs to meet marketplace needs and demands. He pointed to online offerings such as a masters in criminal justice policy, a masters in healthcare informatics, the School of Nursings growing RN to BS program and the medical technology specialization in biological sciences as success stories. He also noted bachelors programs in integrative studies, international studies, mechatronics and robotics, and nutrition, along with the introduction of a masters of fine arts in creative writing and a masters in pharmaceutical sciences as programs meeting student demand. We will continue to be innovative, efficient, responsible, and diverse in order to provide access to those who need us to be all of those things, Pembrook said. To compete for prospective students, SIUE added additional recruiting personnel both in Chicago and internationally, implemented a domestic tuition rate for all students, increased scholarship funding, and created a research and analysis unit within enrollment management. SIUE also has partnered with Royall and Co. to support traditional student recruitment and Academic Partnerships to aid the School of Business masters of business administration (MBA) efforts. Pembrook celebrated the successes of the 2017-18 academic year, including numerous faculty and staff honors and grants, successful community collaborative partnerships, innovation grant initiatives, student achievements, enrollment accomplishments despite the overall drop in total enrollment, academic advancements and facilities improvements. We will continue to pursue excellence regardless of circumstances, said Pembrook, who touched upon the state allocation conversation that occurred throughout the 2017-18 academic year and the change in system leadership. He also introduced the steering committee for revising the Universitys strategic plan. Among the 2018-19 goals, Pembrook focused on completing Phase II of the enrollment management plan and development of the academic strategic plan. He also is looking forward to completing the Center for Faculty and Innovation, round three of the innovation grants process and increasing salaries to the degree that enrollment and state budgets will allow. SIUEs facilities upgrades continue with the already in progress Founders Hall renovation and planning for an expansion of Alumni Hall. Other projects to anticipate are Morris University Center upgrades, a performing arts center, East St. Louis Charter High School improvements and University Park expansion. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provides students with a high quality, affordable education that prepares them for successful careers and lives of purpose to shape a changing world. Built on the foundation of a broad-based liberal education, and enhanced by hands-on research and real-world experiences, the academic preparation SIUE students receive equips them to thrive in the global marketplace and make our communities better places to live. Situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi Rivers rich bottomland and only a short drive from downtown St. Louis, the SIUE campus is home to a diverse student body of more than 13,000. The owner-occupied building will include four two-bedroom and four three-bedroom units, according to the site plan. It will also have nine interior parking spaces with one possibly being used for a commercial employee. The plan also calls for two residential parking spaces at the rear of the building. Driving west through Pennsylvania on Interstate 80, I peeled off at three in the morning for a cup of java at Einhorns All-Night Truck-Stop Cafe, where they serve Bunkhouse Joes Black Dog Coffee, a beverage which will kickstart a corpse. My daughter, who years ago worked at a diner in Chicago, once informed me that male customers given to cheeky joking with a waitress are obnoxious. Also, years ago I learned from Oscar Wilde that the only way to overcome a temptation is to give in to it. So when the waitress asked me what I wanted with my scrambled eggs, I replied, Grits with possum gravy, whereupon the female cop sitting at the counter on the seat next to mine, a young Hispanic, leaned over and whispered, Ill eat coon, but I wont eat possum. I told her that when she got hungry enough, she would eat anything a rifle could bring down turkey buzzards, squirrels, possum, raccoon, whatever. Growing up during the Great Depression, I spent summers in Upper Michigan, where the farmers could not afford to buy Keds for the kids when school opened in the fall. I hung out with their children, one teenage boy in particular. He went barefoot all summer and wore one pair of overalls, which always smelled of milk. I learned from him the meaning of poverty. I also learned the meaning of hard work the first day I helped his father harvest the hay. A city boy from Detroit, choking on tractor fumes, holding the rail of the bouncing trailer with one blistered palm and a pitchfork with the other. I thought I was going to die. I also discovered the power of cold buttermilk from the springhouse to renew tired muscles. These farmers were second-generation Finnish, Lithuanian, and Scotch-Irish. The land they plowed was not friendly, but it was theirs. They owned it, and they also owned the fresh breeze of American hope which cooled the porch in the evening, where they sat on the swing with a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade. The bank owned the house and barn, but they were winning the battle to buy them back. Sure its a problem, they would say, when the stony soil went hard in a drought, but well figure it out. And they did. Unlike the Dust Bowl Okies in Steinbecks novel The Grapes of Wrath, they were not pulling up stakes in California. The lakes in the Upper Peninsula are so full of walleyes and muskies that no one starves. Troll any lake or cast a plug from any shore, and you will catch something. For immigrants, We will figure it out is the essence of the American dream, and so is the epic trek to the Golden Land in the West. Immigration pumps fresh energy into America the Beautiful, and the fact that the man now in the Oval Office does not acknowledge this truth or defend it is enough to gag a maggot. The SS Trump is sinking. It must go down, and when it does, the band will not be playing Nearer My God to Thee. Go to the polls in November. Colin Campbell Elsah The thrilling confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court fulfills the vision of Phyllis Schlafly in her early endorsement of Trump. By trouncing the radical feminists in this high-stakes battle for the Supreme Court, President Trump has transformed the Republican Party just as Phyllis wanted. Kavanaughs 50-48 confirmation by the Senate was also a victory for the rule of law over rule by a mob. You dont hand matches to an arsonist, Trump declared afterwards, and you dont give power to an angry leftwing mob. It was a close call, when you consider that one woman on George Soros payroll almost succeeded in bringing Kavanaugh down by screaming at Jeff Flake while he was trapped in an elevator as cameras rolled. Ana Maria Archila, the woman who confronted Senator Flake, reportedly draws a six-figure salary from a Soros-funded outfit called the Center for Popular Democracy, which grew out of the wreckage of the now-defunct ACORN. But Christine Blasey Fords uncorroborated accusations were simply not credible to the fair-minded Senators. Their reigning moderate, Susan Collins, delivered a compelling hour-long speech detailing the many deficiencies. Fords accusations against Kavanaugh were worse than being implausible. They were also unworthy of the heightened attention given to them by the liberal media and the 48 Democratic Senators who voted against him. Even if Fords accusations had some basis in fact, they were not serious enough to be considered at this late date. The Senate demeaned itself by forcing Kavanaugh to explain what he meant in his writings as a 17-year-old in his personal diary and his high school yearbook. By her own account, Ford said she attended and drank beer at an unsupervised house party along with older teenage drunken boys. She alleges that at some point she was groped by two of the boys, whose identities remain unknown, but she admitted that everyone was fully clothed at all times. If such a complaint had been made then, the police would not have even bothered to pursue it. It would have been such a minor, unprovable infraction that criminal charges would never have been brought. The complete silence by Ford for 29 years afterwards suggests that even if it did happen, it was not particularly significant to her. Most likely it did not happen at all. Yet while talking to a therapist nearly three decades later, Ford supposedly recovered a memory that could easily exaggerate key details and make mistakes of identity. On the basis of her recovered memory, she tried to bring down Brett Kavanaughs career, while keeping her own identity secret in order to avoid the risk of cross-examination. There is a moment when a movement loses its initial credibility with the general public, and this Kavanaugh confirmation may be that moment for the #MeToo movement. The collapse of support for the reelection of Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who ultimately voted against Kavanaugh, illustrates the backlash against doubtful accusations publicized by radical feminists. Forty years ago, in the 1970s, an earlier wave of feminism called womens liberation was cresting. Led by then-ACLU attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the feminists came close to putting their harmful equal rights amendment (ERA) into the U.S. Constitution. But then the feminists also overplayed their hand, much as they just did with Kavanaugh. With a special appropriation of federal tax money in 1977, they held 50 state conventions for women, culminating in a national convention in Houston to promote International Womens Year. The nation watched in dismay as a parade of angry liberal women screamed and screeched their demands, primarily about lesbian rights and taxpayer-funded abortions. The public turned away, the ERA never garnered another state, and five states that had hastily ratified it then rescinded their previous ratifications. A similar fate awaits the overly hyped #MeToo movement, which started a year ago in response to the lurid accusations against Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and others. Ostensibly a protest against the proverbial casting couch, which has always existed in Hollywood, the #MeToo movement is a double standard as it does not complain about many women who willingly use sex to advance their show-biz careers. Meanwhile, our nation benefits from the new respect for ancient legal safeguards against false accusations. These include innocent until proven guilty, the right to confront your accuser, and the need for a short statute of limitations on accusations of sexual assault. When Phyllis Schlafly met Donald Trump on March 11, 2016, before introducing him to a cheering crowd of thousands of supporters in St. Louis, she asked the candidate to appoint judges who would defend the Constitution. With the seating of Justice Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, President Trump has honored his pledge in a spectacular way. John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016). Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Ian Sairic, president of Unifin, said the company was founded in 2011 in a basement with only a few partners. He called the growth of the company explosive. When the company first moved into Skokie office space, it had about 15 employees but has grown to more than 100 employees, he said. Two warring promoter families of YES BANK are believed to be in talks to settle their differences and a meeting of representatives from both sides is likely on Wednesday, sources said. The tussle is between the families of YES BANK foundersRana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur. After the death of Ashok Kapur, his wife, Madhu Kapur, wanted her daughter, Shagun Kapur Gogia, to be nominated on the bank's board but the proposal was rejected, following which the matter reached the Bombay High Court. Shagun Kapur Gogia and YES BANK Senior Group President Rajat Mongaon behalf of Kapoormay have a meeting on Wednesday, sources told PTI on Tuesday. The meeting was to happen last Friday, they added. "The promoter and founding member families are believed to be in talks to resolve the matter at the earliest, keeping behind the past, as it would be in the interest of all the stakeholders as well as the 20,000-plus employees of YES BANK," sources said. The meeting may take place this week, possibly Wednesday, said sources. Madhu Kapur had moved the Bombay High Court in June 2013, seeking to quash the appointment of three directors on the board of YES BANK and also alleged that Kapoor was attempting to deprive her and her children a place on the board as the legal heir of late Ashok Kapur. As on June 30, 2018, the promoter and promoter group had a total 19.98 per cent shareholding in YES BANK. Of this, Rana Kapoor owns 4.34 per cent and Madhu Kapur 7.62 per cent, respectively, in their individual capacities. "The single bench of the Bombay High Court has settled most of the points, so the court order [whenever it comes] could serve as the common ground for the truce," according to sources. "Rana Kapoor is keen on resolving the issue as soon as possible as the long-pending legal battle between the two promoter group families is not doing any good to anybody," they said. Following an RBI directive on non-continuance of Kapoor as CEO beyond January 2019, the YES BANK board has sought more time from the regulator till September for a suitable successor. The board of YES BANK has formed a five-member panel, including two members from outside the bank, to find a successor to founder CEO Rana Kapoor. Former IRDA chief T.S. Vijayan and former SBI chief O.P. Bhatt have been appointed as external members in the search committee for the new CEO of YES BANK. The panel will also consist of board members Brahm Dutt, Lt Gen (retired) Mukesh Sabharwal and S.C. Kalia. The MD selection panel will hold its first meeting on October 11. The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite... With cyclonic storm 'Titli' moving towards the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh coast, the Odisha government on Tuesday geared up to face the situation, setting a target of "zero casualty". The Odisha government has ordered closure of schools, colleges and anganwadi centres in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri and Jagtsinghpur from Wednesday. The government said Titli was likely to make landfall early on Thursday morning. Meanwhile, the IMD issued a red alert in Odisha for Wednesday and Thursday, forecasting "heavy to very heavy rainfall" at several places and "extremely heavy rainfall" at isolated areas in the state. The state has put the districts on high alert and asked the authorities to evacuate those living in low-lying areas and in 'kutchha' houses along the coast. "Zero casualty is part of the state government's disaster management policy. Stocking of food and shifting of people to cyclone shelters are also included in the policy," Chief Secretary A.P. Padhi told PTI. During previous cyclones such as Phailin in 2013 and Hudhud in 2014, the Odisha government had ensured zero casualties and earned laurels from the United Nations for successful disaster management. On Tuesday, Padhi reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting on Titli attended by all secretaries, special relief commissioner (SRC) and officers of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). Padhi said the IMD has forecast wind speed during Titli would be 100 to 110kmph, gusting to 125kmph. IMD has also mentioned that the cyclone Titli will further intensify into a severe cyclonic storm on Wednesday. On Tuesday night, Titli lay centred about 510km southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha and 460km east-southeast of Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, Deputy Special Relief Commissioner P.K. Mohapatra said around 300 motor boats have been arranged to assist in the rescue operations related to Titli. He said teams of NDRF and Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) along with Fire Service personnel have been sent to various districts. All the 879 cyclone and flood shelters have been kept in a state of preparedness for Titli, the officer added. In a joint operation, the Punjab Police and the Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday arrested three students and busted a module of the Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) in Jalandhar. The students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar, Director General of Police Suresh Arora said in a statement. The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early on Wednesday morning, also seized two weapons, including an assault rifle, and explosives from the hostel room of a second-year B.Tech student, Zahid Gulzar, a resident of Rajpora, Srinagar. Zahid was arrested along with Mohd. Idriss Shah alias Nadeem, resident of Pulwama, and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, resident of Noorpura, Pulwama. The DGP said the arrests followed the development and corroboration of various leads/inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organisations/individuals operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. A case has been registered in PS Sadar Jalandhar in this regard. Further investigations are in progress and the Punjab Police is working closely with the Jammu and Kashmir Police to unravel the entire conspiracy and networks built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, said the DGP. He said the busting of the terror module belonging to AGH and the seizure of weapons in Jalandhar was indicative of efforts by Pakistan's ISI to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border. Gazi Ahmad Malik, resident of Shopian, was recently picked up by the Punjab Police from Banur, Patiala, where he was studying in Aryans Group Polytechnic College. Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a Jammu and Kashmir Police special police officer who had fled with seven rifles from the residence of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA in Srinagar and was suspected to have joined Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant group. Gazi was later handed over to the Jammu and Kashmir Police for further investigations. As a Catholic school the academic piece is incredibility important to us, she said. For us as a Catholic school we get to focus on that whole other piece, of raising good people who will go out into the world. At the end of the day, if we havent raised, in partnership with our parents, people who think about others, who are loving and respectful and faithful, then I feel we failed. A Bangladeshi court on Wednesday sentenced former premier Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman, 50, and 18 others to life imprisonment and 19 others to death sentence in the 2004 grenade attack that killed 24 people and injured 500 others, including the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina. Hasina survived the August 21, 2004 attack which targetted an Awami League rally. She suffered partial hearing loss and went on to become the prime minister of Bangladesh in 2009. Rahman, the BNP's senior vice president, was tried in absentia and the court declared him a "fugitive". He lives in exile in London where he sought asylum. Rahman, two former ministers including Babar and former top police and intelligence officials of the then BNP-led four-party alliance government were among 49 accused in the cases. Former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar is among 19 people who were sentenced to death by the court on Wednesday. Investigators said Hasina was the main target of the attack. Hasina was injured in the attack while party's women front chief and former president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman were among the dead. Investigations found an influential quarter of the then BNP-led government, including Rahman, masterminded and sponsored the attackersthe operatives of militant Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI). The Tatas contribution to the world of art and culture cannot go unnoticed. From bequeathing the largest collection of works to a museum, to starting one of south east Asias premier cultural organisations, to engaging with the tribals, the Tatas have been instrumental in shaping Indian taste for the finer aspects of life. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director general and secretary, board of trustees, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), in his article The Tata Collection, writes about the cosmopolitan taste of the Tata family, and how they went about acquiring art from around the world. The Tata collection on display in CSMVS records 5161 objects from the Tata collection, making it the largest bequest in its 88 years of existence, he writes. Mukherjee goes on to quote Moti Chandra, former director of CSMVS, who says, it would not be an exaggeration to say that had not the distinguished members of the Tata family made it a point to collect art objects from different parts of Asia and Europe, the public of Bombay [Mumbai] would have been deprived of the benefit of seeing the arts of other countries which is very essential for liberal education and widening of international understanding, at least in the field of art. This fondness for acquiring art dates back to Jamsetjis father, Nusserwanji Tata, who, after his recovery from a serious illness, made a trip to China and Japan from where he brought back several cases of porcelain and curios, novel to his country. With these he adorned his house, and laid the foundation of a collection of oriental ware and art, an expensive hobby in which his son and grandsons also indulged, writes Frank Harris in Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata: A Chronicle of His Life. From European and Indian paintings to metal ware to textiles, numerous pieces of art were bequeathed to CSMVS by Jamsetjis sons Sir Dorabji Tata and Sir Ratanji Tata. In fact, it constitutes a big bulk of the art section at CSMVS, writes Mukherjee. He goes on to point out how only a few museums in India have significant collections of Chinese or Japanese art. However, the Tatas association with arts didnt stop after the demise of Jamsetjis sons. Art and Culture, through the efforts of the Tatas, continue to make India a richer place in myriad ways. A shining example of it is the National Centre for Performing Arts, (NCPA) in Mumbai. The brainchild of J.R.D. Tata and Jamshed Bhabha (brother of Homi Bhabha), the NCPA rose up on reclaimed land in Mumbai. J.J. Bhabha was the springboard for the endeavour, says NCPA chairman Khushroo Suntook. Bhabha wanted eight acres of land in the middle of the city, but that wasnt easy to come by. What he got instead was a piece of the sea, which took eight years to fill. The seed money and support came from J.R.D. Tata and Jamshed Bhabha. NCPA, which was designed by postmodernist architect Philip Johnson, finally opened its doors on June 8, 1966. Today, not only does NCPA preserve and promote theatre, dance, music, literature and photography, it is also the venue of choice for several Indian as well as international artists, thanks to its state-of-the-art theatres, auditoriums and acoustics. Besides, it also boasts libraries, galleries and restaurants. Besides, the NCPA, a member organisation of the International Music Council, founded by UNESCO in 1949, also flaunts a library of music [which] is one of the most amazing in Asia, says Suntook. Though the Tatas provided the infrastructure, running it artistically is not easy, and it is much more tempting to give it for shows, says Suntook. However, one thing he realised was that the NCPA lacked an important elementa professional symphony orchestra. So, along with violin virtuoso Marat Bisengaliev he co-founded the Symphony Orchestra of India (SoI) in 2006. We also have a resident chamber orchestraa small one where Russians and Kazakhs play, says Suntook. But thats not all. He is very proud of their Advanced School of Music where students from the age of 8-14 are enrolled. They have to learn not one but two musical instruments, and solfege (a novel way to learn pitch and transcribe music by ear). Our kids give amazing concerts, he says. Jamshed Bhabhas commitment to NCPA is best seen through the lens of an incident in 1995. The Jamshed Bhabha Theatre (JBT) had burned down, and he didnt let a day go to waste. He announced that construction would start the next day. Even before embers had died down, reconstruction of the JBT commenced, recalls Suntook. Now that the NCPAs golden jubilee is just around the corner, and with stalwarts such as Zakir Hussain as a member of their council, Asias leading arts centre is on a roll. As for the artists, the list just keeps getting better. November 15, Birsa Mundas birthday, is also celebrated as Jharkhands statehood day. Four days of activities in the form of Sanwad, a tribal conclave, is a norm in their state. Last year, there were 1230 participants, almost 60-65 tribes, from 20-23 different states. People from four countriesCanada, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Kenyaattended, says Sourav Roy, chief of Corporate Social Responsibility, Tata Steel Limited. Sanwad has a theme each year. Last year was leadership, and the year before that was healers. The aim of Sanwad is to provide an apolitical platform to the tribal communities, explains Roy. The first part of the day is spent on workshops or on introspection, and the second half is typically a celebration involving music and dance. We have performances from all over, and it happens right in the centre of Jamshedpur, says Roy. They also try and organise smaller two-day events, and they team up with partner organisations who have similar DNAs, says Roy. And we make sure that there is a contribution from their end too, he says. They also try to get some contemporary voices for the events. Last year Muhammad Yunus, of the Grameen Bank fame, had attended. The Tribal Centres Heritage Hall boasts some beautiful exhibits. On display are not just artefacts used by the four main tribes of Jharkhandin the form of clothes and household utensilsthere are even some musical instruments on display. A lot of our work goes towards celebrating tribal icons and preserving their symbols and rituals, says Jiren Topno, a member of Tata Steels CSR team, who plays a big role in helping the Tata group keep the tribal art and culture alive. (Eds: Disclaimer: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PR Newswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.) GREATER NOIDA, India, October 10, 2018/PRNewswire/ -- Keen Global and Local Participation, Foreign Investments & Technology Breakthroughs Marked the Show UBM India successfully concluded the 12th edition of Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo, the three day (18th - 20th September, 2018) show at the India Expo Center, Greater Noida. This year, the show focused on approaching renewables in a more holistic manner, with due consideration to wind, hydropower and biomass along with solar energy. The expo witnessed over 750+ exhibitors participation from 45 countries, with over 1,000 delegates and 225 speakers at the 37 conference sessions. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/675607/UBMLogo.jpg ) (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/742909/REILogo.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/766756/OnthefloorREI2018.jpg ) The event was well supported by European Union India - Clean Energy & Climate Days and Business Beyond Borders (BBB), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Skill Council for Green Jobs (SCGJ), European Business Technology Center (EBTC), Euro Chambers, Bloomberg News Energy Finance, Bridge to India, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Indo-German Energy Forum (IGEF), Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), Asian Photovoltaic Industry Association (APVIA), TFE Consulting GmbH, PV magazine and Indian Biogass Association and German Biogass Association (IBA and GBA), among others, joining in the rich conference domain themed 'Accelerating Momentum...From Ambition to Action'. The event witnessed new product showcases including charging stations, frameless glass to glass panels, solar inverters, solar kit solutions, bi-facial modules and testing lab facilities. There was an increased presence of floating solar equipment makers, demonstrating the growing demand for such projects in the country. Business to Business (B2B) meetings were facilitated in two separate zones to enable focused and well-directed match-making. Various subjects ranging from viability of manufacturing, large-scale project development challenges caused by land and transmission bottlenecks, Rooftop challenges caused by DISCOM's, low bids, payment issues, net-metering, and financing were discussed. REI 2018 also showcased bolstering Start-ups and SMEs with the launch of Sunrisers Pavilion, Session on Advantage Telangana, crucial industry dialogues in the form of CEO Roundtable, Financial Leadership Forum, Quality & Future Round Table, 5th Indo-German Energy Symposium, EU - India Clean Energy & Climate Days and International Matchmaking, and the 4th edition of Renewable Energy India Awards to recognize the Innovation & Excellence in the field of Renewable Energy. Commenting on the successful conclusion of the show, Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India, said, "Over the years, REI has duly acquired a unique dynamism and influence as a comprehensive global platform for the RE domain addressing these challenges and aiding India's green mission. This year was remarkable, with intense global participation in the form of renowned forums such as Business Beyond Borders, European Business Technology Center (EBTC), European Commission, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Indo-German Energy Forum (IGEF), European Union, and more. REI also witnessed a pre-bidding meet by the Govt. of Madhya Pradesh for its project RESCO and a session - Advantage Telangana by the Govt. Of Telangana which made it one of the must-attend event for green energy professionals in India and across the globe." Industry Speaks and New Launches at REI 2018: Nitin Sharma, Raychem RPG said, "This past year has been fairly tumultuous and at the same time exciting for the industry. We are particularly excited by the progress we have made in expanding our portfolio and strengthening our partnerships. We commissioned India's first MW scale Energy Storage Project - Integrating Grid, Solar and Diesel generator to provide quality and stable power to load and partnered with Dynapower, USA for Energy Storage Power Conversion System for technology collaboration. We were nominated as Knowledge Partner to International Solar Alliance (ISA) for Energy Storage System. We also launched an integrated Small Scale Energy Storage System - upto 15 KW, Launched Solar and Energy Storage Kits upto 20 KW installation & eBOS for larger applications and engineered solutions like Optimizer, DG-PV Controller and other interesting products for customers. Through REI, we connected and demonstrated exciting solution ranges to leap into brighter and sunnier future." Saurabh Bhandari, Chief Executive Officer, SolarMaxx said, "REI, as in the past, proved to be a tremendous platform for the RE sector to come together and witness new technology and product launches. Our brand, SolarMaxx, once again received an overwhelming response from the industry. Our high efficiency modules, especially the half-cut cell modules were particularly appreciated. We look forward to many more such events by UBM. " Mr. Rishi Seth, Joint Managing Director, HPL Electric & Power Ltd said , "REI Expo layers an outstanding platform to showcase our latest BOS (Balance of System) product range and offerings in renewable energy, along with the hands on experience of our latest technology. REI Expo is also a meeting place for some of the major suppliers, consultants and industry experts, even what also amazes us is that the relevant people from different states and power utilities are present to witness the showcased products." He further added, "We are showcasing two new products at the expo namely Solar home Light Solution and Solar Inverter equipped with latest technology and modern designs. Our Solar home light solution is an energy solution which is specially designed for remote and rural areas. It is a highly portable product that requires negligible maintenance and perfect for outdoor activities. The second product which we are displaying at the Expo, Solar Inverter is a transformer less Inverter with 97% Efficiency. It comes with remote monitoring features enabling the user to operate the device wherever they are located and also ensure the greater security & better performance. This exceptional product has a twin MPPT charge controller in order to optimize sun light utilization at all times and is embedded with IP 65 which makes it suitable for outdoor application. Being a battery less inverter, it is quite cost effective as compared to OFF Grid invertors." Mr. Vinay Shetty, Managing Director, Canadian Solar Energy Private Limited said, "In line with its global policy to offer highest quality premium modules to its customers world wide with a sole objective to make solar energy more and more affordable and continuously drive down the LCOE, Canadiansolar has launched their most premium highest efficiency module - HiKu series 405Wp Poly PERC Module, HiDM series modules - 410Wp Mono PERC Module and 365Wp BiKu series Poly PERC Bifacial Modules in REI Expo 2018." To demonstrate their commitment to Indian customers, they are the first company to announce BIS Certification in India for their China and Thailand factory made modules. As per BTI, Canadiansolar Ranks No.1 in India for the period of October 2017 to September 2018. As per Canadiansolar, Poly PERC is more sustainable product compared to Mono PERC, in terms of lower manufacturing cost, systems cost, higher energy yield and lower LCOE. "With the increasing deployment of solar energy in India, the quality of each and every component matters to help ensure investment stability for all stakeholders to continue investing in this form of energy for long term. Our vast experience in the global solar industry enables us to bring market leading PV materials that provide high efficiency, high reliability solutions to our customers," said Rajaram Pai, Business Leader - South Asia & ASEAN, DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions. "Winning the REI Award 2018 for International Excellence is of great significance to us as we continue to work together with industry partners to help build a robust quality infrastructure for India's sustainable clean energy future," Pai added. Mr. Jamie Yang, Director, Can Solar Inc. said, "At REI 2018, we displayed the Solar Storage system - 'Solar Power Bank for Home' - 2kW / 2.5kWh and a Solar DC combiner box that doesn't require wiring. REI Expo's new International Matchmaking feature helped us set up meetings prior to the show. Also, the visitors that showed up, says a lot about the blooming Renewable market in India." RenewSys, the first integrated manufacturer of Solar PV Modules and its key components launched India's first and only such initiative, the RenewSys Module Wellness Programme that will allow customers to test their PV module health at the RenewSys' Reliability Lab at Zero cost. About UBM Asia: UBM Asia recently became part of Informa PLC, a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B Events organiser in the world. Please visit http://www.ubm.com/asia for more information about our presence in Asia. About Renewable Energy India (REI)Expo: REI is organised by UBM, which in June 2018 combined with Informa PLC to become a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B Events organiser in the world. Please visit http://www.ubm.com/india for more information about our presence in India. PWR PWR Mumbai, Oct 10 (PTI) Actor Tanushree Dutta Wednesday visited suburban Oshiwara police to record her statement in connection with a complaint of sexual harassment filed by her against actor Nana Patekar, a police official said. Dutta has accused Patekar of touching her inappropriately on the sets of a Bollywood film in 2008. "Dutta reached the police station at around 7:30 PM to record her statement in the matter. The process is on," the official said without elaborating. In her complaint filed on Saturday, Dutta claimed that during the shooting of a song sequence for the film, she was inappropriately touched by Patekar even after she had clearly mentioned that she will not perform lewd, vulgar or uncomfortable steps. Dutta had also claimed that she had complained to the song's choreographer Ganesh Acharya, but she was forced to do scenes which were intimate and included Patekar touching her inappropriately. After she decided to walk out of the film, her car was vandalised by goons who, she alleged, were from the Raj Thackeray-led MNS, Dutta had stated. The Maharashtra State Commission for Women on Tuesday issued notices to Patekar, producer Samee Siddiqui, Acharya and director Rakesh Sarang. The commission also wrote to Mumbai police, seeking information on the action it had taken on Dutta's complaint. Patekar has denied he misbehaved with Dutta on the sets of the film, calling her claims a "lie". The 67-year-old actor's lawyer has sent a legal notice to Dutta. PTI AVI NSK ABH ABH Mumbai, Oct 10 (PTI) Alok Nath's lawyer Wednesday termed allegations of rape and harassment against the actor by writer-director Vinta Nanda as "false", saying it was an attempt to "purposely to malign his image". Nanda, in a lengthy Facebook post on Monday who worked with the actor on hit '90s show "Tara", accused Nath of raping her 19 years ago. Responding to the allegations, Nath's lawyer Ashok Sarogi said, "All the complaints are false and there is no merit in it." "A person waits for 19 years and then comes out with the case and after that to support her case, other persons join her. This by itself indicates that something is being done purposely, only to malign his image and nothing beyond that," he told reporters here. Sarogi said they are planning to file a defamation suit against Nanda and others who have made such allegations. "We take all these allegations as defamatory statements made against him without any reason. We are planning to file a defamation suit," he said. He said if required, they may file a suit for the recovery of amount for the damage caused to Nath's reputation. Asked why the actor was not coming out in open to respond to the allegations, Sarogi said, "Everybody is entitled to put up messages on WhatsApp and Facebook and get it circulated. But that is not required to be responded immediately by the person concerned." As and when any legal action starts, the actor will definitely come forward, he added. Nanda gave a detailed account of the alleged assaults in her Facebook post, the latest expose in the #MeToo movement sweeping India. Reacting to the allegations, Nath had earlier told ABP News, "Neither I am denying this nor do I would agree with it. It (rape) must have happened, but someone else would have done it. Well, I do not want to talk much about it as for the matter if it has come out, it will be stretched." Nanda alleged that Nath sexually assaulted her on more than one occasion after he was fired from the 1993 show for misbehaving with its lead actor, Navneet Nishan. Nishan said she empathises with the "terrible pain" Nanda has gone through. Without naming Nath, she said she also suffered because of this man's "power trip". PTI AVI GK RB BK BK Mumbai, Oct 10 (PTI) Federation of Western Cine India Employees (FWCIE) on Wedesday assured that film personalities Alok Nath, Nana Patekar and Vikas Bahl will face a boycott from its members if they do not respond to their respective show cause notices in the given period. All three of them have been asked to respond to the notices within 10 days of their respective release. "Anyone, who is found guilty of harassment of any kind, will be boycotted by the federation. No one from the federation will work with that person, howsoever he or she is powerful," Ashoke Pandit, FWICE chief advisor, told reporters here. "If Nana Patekar, Vikas Bahl and Alok Nath fail to respond to our show cause notices within 10 days, the federation will boycott them," he added. Indian Film & Television Directors' Association (IFTDA) on Tuesday sent a show cause notice to Bahl after allegations of sexual harassment resurfaced against the director. Last year, a woman employee at the now dissolved Phantom Films, which had Bahl as one of the partners alongside Anurag Kashap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena, had alleged that Bahl behaved inappropriately with her during a trip to Goa. FWICE said it has set up a women grievances redressal cell. "The redressal committee will sit with the survivors and also provide them legal support," Pandit said. The three-member all-women committee will be headed by celebrated TV and film director Swapna Waghmare Joshi as chairperson, with Bhavna Talwar as convenor and Priyanka Ghatak as co-convenor and will be supported by IFTDA's executive committee. "We want to create a fear psychosis so that no one even dares to think about misusing his or her power. At the same time, we want to listen to the other party as well. So, we will give them time to respond. If they fail to respond, our workers will not work with them," Pandit added. After Patekar and Bahl, Nath is the latest celebrity from Hindi cinema to have been accused of sexual harassment. Days after writer-director Vinta Nanda accused Nath, who worked with her on '90s hit show "Tara", of rape, Sandhya Mridul alleged sexual harassment at the hands of the actor during the shooting of a telefilm in the beginning of her career. PTI JUR RDS RDS Mumbai, Oct 10 (PTI) Comic Kaneez Surka Wednesday accused Aditi Mittal of sexual harassment, claiming the fellow comic "forcibly kissed" her on the mouth two years ago at a comedy show. The popular improv artiste, alleged Mittal violated her boundaries of personal choice and "humiliated" her in front of an audience of 100 and many comedians. In the account shared on Twitter, Surka said, "Two years ago, at a comedy show, I was hosting at Andheri Base, in the presence of an audience of 100 and many comedians, Aditi Mittal walked up on the stage and forcibly kissed me on my mouth out of the blue and put her tongue in my mouth, while I was still on the stage and without my consent. "It left me humiliated, shocked and completely stripped of choice. Every person is entitled to choice and boundaries and she violated mine." The comic, who recently appeared as one of the judges on Amazon Prime Video's "Comicstaan", said when she mustered the courage to reach out to Mittal a year ago, she first apologised but soon turned hostile towards her, leaving her confused and hurt. Surka said seeing Mittal's name all over social media as "a champion of the cause" had been troubling her for some time. Surka said she once again spoke to Mittal Tuesday via a mutual friend to come out with a public apology and let her keep her identity secret. But this time Mittal "denied kissing me on the mouth, gaslighted me and asked to cross check". "I have proof but I thought we believe the victim. Her actions yesterday have hurt me further and burdened me with the task of having to do this but I don't want to be silent anymore," she added. A public apology for violating her consent would bring her closure, Surka said. Mittal retweeted Surka's post but has not issued any statement. The comic has been reached out for a comment. In the #MeToo movement which is surging ahead, Mittal is the first woman to have been named for sexual harassment. The campaign first hit the comedy industry last week when Utsav Chakraborty was accused by multiple women for harassment with AIB co-founder Gursimran Khamba been directly accused of misconduct. AIB's Tanmay Bhat has stepped away from the comedy collective and Khamba has been sent on "temporary leave of absence". PTI RDS RDS Mumbai, Oct 10 (PTI) Parineeti Chopra Wednesday said if people continue to ignore sexual harassment in the Hindi film industry, it would only encourage predators. In the onslaught of #MeToo, names such as Nana Patekar, Alok Nath, Vikas Bahl and Kailash Kher have cropped up with women accusing them of sexual harassment, rape and misconduct. Parineeti said if serial offenders kept getting work in the industry, it would send a wrong message. "The moment you know something, take an action. If you are quiet, you are allowing this to happen. When I know you are not the greatest man, why should I continue making films with you, acting with you? Because then you're enabling that person and he thinks 'great, I've gotten away with this. Amazing! I can do it five more times," the actor told PTI. "I am sure they (industry people) will not be working with those who have been named. "Unfortunately what has happened is, anybody who is aware that somebody was sexually offending, they continued to work with that guy. That's where those people are wrong." Parineeti said boycotting the sexual harassers was the "smallest step". "According to me, these people need to be in jail. These people are worse than terrorists and murderers. Doing such a thing to a woman, violating her, I actually cannot think of something worse," she added. The actor, however, said the process to ensure a safe working environment does not necessarily depend on external factors but internal behaviour. "What people are not understanding is, there are no rules that can be put in place. There is an unwritten rule: do not sexually harass people you are working with, or otherwise. What can we do to make it safe? Speak up when it happens, report it, take an action against that person. Keep eliminating as and when it comes. "There are no rules or laws we can put. Am I going to give you 24-hour security on set? That's always there. Am I going to be vigilante? I am always that. What do you do when I pack up and go back alone in my hotel and someone enters the room? There will be no law that will help me," she added. The actor will be next seen in "Namaste England", co-staring Arjun Kapoor. Directed by Vipul Shah, the film is scheduled to release on October 19. PTI JUR RDS RDS Mumbai, Oct 10 (PTI) Streaming giant Netflix said it is assessing its options ahead of the shoot of "Sacred Games" season two in the wake of a controversy surrounding Phantom Films and the show's writer Varun Grover. Kashyap and Motwane had helmed the highly acclaimed first season of "Sacred Games" which had Varun Grover as one of its writers. Amid speculations regarding the show's future, Netflix said in a statement, "At this time we are evaluating options on the path forward." Last year, a woman employee at Phantom Films, which had Vikas Bahl as one of the partners along side Kashyap, Motwane and Madhu Mantena, had alleged that Bahl behaved inappropriately with her during a trip to Goa in 2025. Before the victim's account went public in a recent interview, Kashyap and Motwane put out statements and announced that their production house Phantom Films stands dissolved. Writer-lyricist Grover was anonymously accused of sexually harassing a junior in Banaras Hindu University (BHU), a charge he categorically denied. PTI JUR AAR Colombo, Oct 10 (PTI) Sri Lanka has yet to fully restore civilian ownership of thousands of acres of land taken over during the civil war with the LTTE for military purposes, according to a US-based human rights group. The Human Rights Watch, in a report published this week, said the progress, particularly since the election of a new government in 2015, has been hindered by broad military claims of national security and the lack of a transparent process. "The Sri Lankan government has yet to fully restore civilian ownership of land and property nearly a decade since the end of the civil war in 2009," said the 80-page report titled "'Why Can't We Go Home?': Military Occupation of Land in Sri Lanka." The report identifies the lack of transparency and due process, failure to map occupied land, inadequate support to affected people and communities, and prolonged delays in providing appropriate reparations for decades of loss and suffering. The military has also used some confiscated lands for commercial profit rather than national security and returned damaged or destroyed property to owners without compensation, the report said. The HRW report is based on over 100 interviews between August 2017 to May 2018 with members of affected communities, activists, local officials, and lawyers. It looks into cases of military occupation and land release in 20 areas in six districts, primarily in Sri Lanka's north and east. The three-decade long civil war in Sri Lanka ended with the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009. Large areas, including those previously held by the LTTE in the north and east, came under military control after the war. While the then president Mahinda Rajapaksa released some land to its original owners, the military retained control over large areas, the report said. The new government led by President Maithripala Sirisena took some steps to release civilian land held by the security forces, it added. At the United Nations Human Rights Council in October 2015, the Sri Lankan government promised to address conflict-related issues, including returning land to its original owners. However, the government's response has fallen far short of its promises, it added. Sirisena has asked his officials to complete the return of lands to civilians by the end of this year, it noted. Human Rights Watch has documented a number of cases in which properties were destroyed while held by the military after the war, including temples, churches, mosques, and Buddhist shrines. PTI CORR ZH ZH London, Oct 10 (PTI) British authorities have banned a physics teacher from the classroom for life after he flew to Bangladesh to marry a 13-year-old girl in 2006, media reports said Wednesday. Joshim Nur was 22 when he began teaching at the London Nautical School, Lambeth, in 2006, a teaching disciplinary panel heard. Nur, now 34, claimed he thought the girl was 18 but a written statement from the girl showed she had told him her age before the arranged marriage. He also had a sexual relationship with the child, the panel heard. He flew to Bangladesh during a summer break and returned to the UK with the girl, named by the panel as Child A. In evidence, the girl told a Teaching Regulation Agency panel that sexual activity started shortly after her marriage to Nur in the summer of 2006. She also confirmed that she was taken to an appointment at a family planning clinic in 2007 and that she took contraceptive pills every day. The panel ruled that the Nur had a relationship with the girl from August 2006 to April 2009 in "circumstances when he should have known she was under the age of 16". Three days before the wedding, the girl had written to Nur to tell him she was 13 and in year 8 at school, the panel heard, the BBC reported. In written evidence, Nur said that he was '"deceived" by the girl's family as to his wife's age when they wed. Panel chairman Dr Robert Cawley said: "The panel did not find it plausible that Mr Nur could have mistaken a 13-year-old child for an 18-year-old, and that this misconception continued over a four-year period. "The panel was particularly concerned in light of the fact that he worked in a secondary school and had daily interactions with children of this age." Nur was found guilty of engaging in a relationship with the child and of having sex on more than one occasion when she was under 16 - charges he denied. The relationship ended in 2009, when the girl was 16. Nur's headteacher told the panel he was a "good teacher" and a "gifted and valued member of staff". The ruling branded Nur's behaviour as lacking "any insight into his actions or their impact on Child A." Decision maker Alan Meyrick said: "In my judgement, the lack of insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour." He then prohibited Nur from teaching indefinitely and said he shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach. Nur is not being prosecuted as the marriage took place abroad, not under the UK jurisdiction, the Daily Express reported. PTI AKJ AKJ Panama City, Oct 10 (AFP) Hurricane Michael closed in on Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday as an "extremely dangerous" category four storm packing powerful winds and a huge sea surge, US forecasters said. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said the storm, which local forecasters are calling an "unprecedented" weather event for the area, is expected to slam ashore later in the day with "life-threatening" storm surges. Top winds were swirling at 230 kilometers per hour, with the NHC warning the storm could grow stronger still, as outer rain bands from the storm lashed the coast. A storm surge of up to 14 feet and up to a foot of rain was expected in some areas. "Water is going to come up, it's going to cover your roof. You do not have a chance to survive that, so I'm very concerned," Governor Rick Scott told Fox News. "It's too late to evacuate now on the coast... Hunker down, and be careful, listen to locals. Don't go out in the middle of this. You are not going to survive it. It's deadly." An estimated 375,000 people in more than 20 counties were ordered or advised to evacuate. The National Weather Service office in the state capital Tallahassee issued a dramatic appeal for people to comply with evacuation orders. "Hurricane Michael is an unprecedented event and cannot be compared to any of our previous events. Do not risk your life, leave NOW if you were told to do so," it said. The storm was forecast to make landfall somewhere along the Florida Panhandle -- a finger-shaped strip of land in the Gulf of Mexico. It was expected to bring hurricane force winds and heavy rainfall, the NHC said. It will then move across the southeastern US for another day or so as it heads toward the Atlantic. The NWS office in Tallahassee said it had found no record of any previous category four hurricanes that made landfall in the panhandle or the "Big Bend" coastal region. "This situation has NEVER happened before," it said on Twitter. Category four is the second highest level on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Scott, who has activated 2,500 members of the National Guard, warned Michael could be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida Panhandle in decades. President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration for the state, freeing up federal funds for relief operations and providing the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. State officials issued disaster declarations in Alabama and Georgia, both of which are also expected to feel the impact from the storm. As of 1200 GMT, Michael was about 90 miles southwest of Panama City and moving north at 13 miles per hour. The heavy rains could cause flash floods, the NHC said, and spawn tornados in northwestern Florida. About 120,000 residents were under mandatory evacuation orders in Bay County in the Panhandle, a low-lying area of beachfront resorts and retirement communities. In other areas, residents of mobile homes were urged to leave. Michael was forecast to have the power to uproot trees, block roads and knock out power for days when it hits Florida. It is expected to weaken as it moves up into the southeastern United States. Drivers waited in long lines at gas stations and residents hurried to fill sandbags. Tolls were suspended on some roads to aid movement ahead of the storm's landfall. "Since 6:00 am it's been backed up. We're just now running out of regular (gasoline)," Danny Hess, an employee at a gas station in Panama City, told local WJHG television. The Carolinas are still recovering from Hurricane Florence, which left dozens dead and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage last month. It made landfall on the coast as a Category 1 hurricane on September 14 and drenched some parts of the state with 40 inches (101 centimeters) of rain. Last year saw a string of catastrophic storms batter the western Atlantic -- including Irma, Maria and Harvey, which caused a record-equaling USD 125 billion in damage when it flooded the Houston metropolitan area. Scientists have long warned that global warming will make storms more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible. (AFP) PMS PMS Mayor creates order for all new city employees to be vaccinated Raipur, Oct 10 (PTI) Two employees, who were critically injured in an explosion at the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh, succumbed to injuries at a hospital, taking the death toll in the blast to 11, an official said Wednesday. On Tuesday, nine people had died and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at the plant of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Durg district, located around 30 km away from here. Of the 14 injured people admitted to the burns unit of the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai, two succumbed Tuesday late night, a public relations officer of the Bhilai Steel Plant told PTI. "The two had received over 80 per cent burns," he said, adding that a few other injured people were also in a critical condition. The explosion had taken place in the gas pipeline connected to the coke oven section of the plant during a maintenance job, the SAIL had said. Of the nine people who died on Tuesday, six worked in the plant's energy management department, while three were employees of its fire brigade unit, the official said. Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh are scheduled to visit the hospital in Bhilai to see the injured people admitted there, an official said. They will also take stock of the incident from the plant management and the Durg district administration. Inspector General of Police (Durg Range) G P Singh had said earlier that after receiving the postmortem report of the deceased, a case under the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) will be registered followed by an inquiry into the incident. Union Minister of State for Steel Vishnudeo Sai had said Tuesday that a four-member high-level committee was constituted by SAIL to probe the incident. Adequate compensation will be given to families of the deceased, Sai had said, adding that the injured were being provided the best possible medical treatment. In June 2014, six persons, including two deputy general managers, were killed and many others affected when a poisonous gas leaked in the plant, he said. PTI TKP GK KJ KJ KJ New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) India and Australia Wednesday held the second '2+2' secretary-level dialogue in Canberra during which key issues related to their strategic and defence ties were discussed and the two countries underlined the need for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra held the Foreign Secretaries and Defence Secretaries dialogue with their Australian counterparts Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Frances Adamson and Secretary of Department of Defence Greg Moriarty. "All aspects of bilateral relations with focus on strategic and defence relations between the two countries were reviewed," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. At the meeting, both sides underlined the growing convergence on a number of strategic perspectives, including the need for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, the MEA said. During the visit, the Indian delegation met Australia's Director General of the Office of National Assessment and senior officials of Australia's Department of Defence. India and Australia share warm and multi-faceted bilateral relations based on shared democratic values and pluralism. The inaugural '2+2' dialogue between India and Australia was held in New Delhi in December last year. PTI ASK ASK ABH ABH ABH New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) The Election Commission on Wednesday made it compulsory for candidates contesting polls to advertise their criminal antecedents in TV and newspapers at least three times during electioneering. According to directions issued Wednesday, political parties too will have to give publicity to the criminal records of candidates fielded by them. This means that candidates and parties contesting the elections to be held in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana in November-December will have to publicise their criminal records at least on three different dates in widely circulated newspapers and popular TV channels during campaign period. Candidates who do not have records have to mention that. The candidates will now have to fill up an amended form (number 26). They will have to inform parties about their antecedents such as cases in which they have been convicted and cases pending against them. The parties, the EC said, will be "obliged" to put the information about the candidates on their websites. Though the EC direction is silent on whether the candidates will have to pay from their pocket for the publicity, a senior functionary said since it's a poll-related expenditure, the candidates will have to bear the cost. Parties which fail to comply, face the prospects of getting their recognition withdrawn or suspended. Candidates have to submit clippings of their declaration published in papers and parties have to submit details about the number of such candidates in a state. The poll panel's directions are based on a Supreme Court order which said that candidates contesting polls should repeatedly advertise their criminal antecedents in print and electronic media after filing nomination papers so that the people can make an informed decision. PTI NAB ZMN New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will begin a three-day visit to France on Thursday during which both sides are expected to deliberate on further boosting their already close defence and security ties. Sitharaman's visit comes in the backdrop of a huge controversy over the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation. Officials sources said Sitharaman will hold wide-ranging talks with her French counterpart Florence Parly on ways to deepen strategic cooperation between the two countries and also deliberate on major regional and global issues of mutual interests. They said Sitharaman will also take stock of progress in the supply of 36 Rafale jets by Dassault to the Indian Air Force under a Rs 58,000 crore deal. There was indication that she may even visit the facility where the jets are being manufactured. In their talks, Sitharaman and Parly are expected to deliberate on joint production of military platforms and weapons by the two countries. Earlier this year, France was pitching for starting negotiations for procurement of another batch of 36 Rafale jets by India. However, New Delhi was not keen on pursuing it. In April, the Indian Air Force started the process to acquire a fleet of 114 fighter jets and Dassault Aviation has emerged as one of the key contenders for the contract. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after talks with the then French President Francois Hollande on April 10, 2015 in Paris. The final deal was sealed on September 23, 2016. The Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, saying the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government when it was negotiating the deal. The Congress has also been targeting the government over selection of Reliance Defence as an offset partner for Dassault. Last month, Hollande was quoted by French publication 'Mediapart' as saying that France was given "no choice" on selection of the Indian partner for Dassault and the Indian government proposed the name of Reliance to partner with the French aerospace giant. The former French president's comments triggered a massive political row. The government has vehemently rejected the allegations and asserted that it did not have any role in the selection of Reliance Defence. Sources said Sitharaman will discuss with Parly ways to expand Indo-French maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. French President Emmanuel Macron had visited India in March during which the two countries decided to expand strategic ties and deepen counter-terror cooperation. The two sides also inked a strategic pact providing for the use of each other's military facilities including opening naval bases to warships. PTI MPB MPB RT RT Hyderabad, Oct 10 (PTI) AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday demanded removal of M J Akbar from the Union Council of Ministers following allegations of sexual harassment against him. As the #MeToo campaign gathered momentum in India, some women journalists have come out and accused Akbar, a former editor and now the minister of state for external affairs, of sexually harassing them during his stint as a journalist. "@mjakbar shame on you and you stood in parliament during T Talaaq Bill & spoke about Muslim women empowerment & to stop their exploitation..," the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief tweeted. "@PMOIndia sack this Minister of yours if you truly believe in Beti Bachao," the Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP said in another tweet. PTI GDK BN RT RT New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) The bodies of a couple and their daughter was found with stab injuries at their residence Wednesday in Kishangarh area of Vasant Kunj in southwest Delhi, police said. The police, who are on the spot, are probing the matter. Further details awaited, they said. PTI AMP KJ KJ New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) Zika virus has been found in some mosquitoes taken as samples from Shastri Nagar in Jaipur, leading to suspicion they are behind the infection, experts said Wednesday, as the number of Zika patients in the area rose to 32. Dr Neena Valecha, director of National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), said the virus appears to be locally transmitted. An NIMR team has visited the colony from where cases were reported and has given its report to the health ministry. At least 32 people, including three pregnant women, have tested positive for Zika in Jaipur and the health ministry has said the outbreak was under control. The Zika virus, transmitted through the Aedes aegypti mosquito, causes fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain. It is harmful to pregnant women, as it can lead to microcephaly, a condition in which a baby's head is significantly smaller than expected, in newborn children. In India, the first outbreak was reported in Ahmedabad in January 2017 and the second was reported in July that year from Krishnagiri District in Tamil Nadu. Rajasthan officials have said blood samples of 450 people, including 168 pregnant women, were taken for tests, and 29 of them tested positive for Zika virus during the recent outbreak. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Monday sought a comprehensive report from the Health Ministry on the outbreak. A seven-member high-level central team is in Jaipur to assist the state government and a control room has been activated at the National Centre for Disease Control for monitoring of the situation, according to the health ministry. As one of those affected in Jaipur hailed from Bihar and visited his Siwan home recently, the eastern state has issued advisories to all its 38 districts to keep a close watch on people showing symptoms similar to Zika virus infection. The state government has been supplied with information, education and communication (IEC) material prepared to create awareness about Zika virus and its prevention strategies, the ministry said. The number of monitoring team has been increased from 50 to 170 and a special isolation ward has been created at Hira Bagh Training Centre, according to a state government release. PTI PLB PLB ABH ABH New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) The Indian Navy will host the 'Goa Maritime Symposium', aimed at establishing academic excellence and sharing of ideas with the country's maritime neighbours, on October 16, the Navy said Wednesday. The event is a follow-on to the maiden Goa Maritime Conclave held in 2017. It is likely to be attended by senior naval officers and representatives from 16 Indian Ocean littoral countries, which include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand from South East Asia; Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka from India's immediate neighbourhood. It also includes the island nations of Seychelles, Mauritius and Maldives; Oman in West Asia; and South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique from Africa. The Navy said with the Indian Ocean becoming the locus of the 21st century strategic landscape, the symposium will play a constructive role in bringing together stakeholders that have a role in evolving strategies, policies and implementation mechanisms in the maritime domain. The theme for the one-day symposium is 'Building Stronger Maritime Partnerships in IOR'. The focus of the symposium is on capacity building among IOR navies to tackle emerging maritime threats, as well as discussing cooperative strategies for enhancing interoperability among partner maritime agencies, it said. The event will witness eminent speakers articulating their views on these important issues, which will be followed by theme based discussions. Informal meetings and social engagements are also planned to build synergy and address common concerns with greater engagement, transparency and, more importantly, friendship, it said. The symposium will be inaugurated by Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of Naval Staff, the statement added. PTI PR AAR New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) A Delhi court has extended till November 1 the judicial custody of a man accused of sending Rs 25 lakh cash to a senior Congress leader's residence in connection with the over Rs 5,000 crore-bank loan fraud case involving Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora, who had earlier issued open-ended non-bailable warrants against pharma firm's directors, including Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara and Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, extended the custody of Ranjit Malik alias Johny after he was produced before the court. An "open-ended NBW" does not carry a time limit for execution unlike non-bailable warrants (NBW). Special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana and advocate A R Aditya, appearing for the ED, told the court that further extension of the custody was required as the probe was at a crucial stage. Malik was arrested by the agency for allegedly sending Rs 25 lakh through one Rakesh Chandra to the politician's residence in the national capital. The ED in its charge sheet had told the court that the probe will continue in the matter and supplementary charge sheet is likely to be filed. The charge sheet against Malik also named Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan, who was arrested earlier in the case and is currently out on bail. Malik was allegedly a middleman for Dhawan. Besides Sandesra brother, the court had also issued NBW against Chetan's wife Dipti Sandesara, also a director in the firm, and her brother Hiteshkumar Narendrabhai Patel. The open-ended NBWs were issued after ED told the court that the four accused were likely to have left the country. In its charge sheet, the ED had told the court that the directors of the firm, along with others, had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which turned into non-performing asset (NPA) or bad loan. The ED registered a money laundering case in this instance after taking cognisance of an FIR filed earlier by the CBI. The CBI had booked Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech, its directors Nitin, Chetan, Dipti, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case. According to the FIR, the total pending dues of the group of companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016. PTI UK PKS RT New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted two more weeks to 20 states and union territories (UTs) and their respective high courts to furnish complete updated information about the status of pending and fresh criminal cases against the lawmakers. Out of 36 states and UTs, only 16 of them have so far filed their replies giving information like the status of 1,581 criminal cases which were pending in 2014 against MPs and MLAs. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also asked the Centre not to wait for the responses of the state governments and provide infrastructure and other facilities to establish special additional courts for expeditious disposal of cases involving the lawmakers. The bench, also comprising justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, meanwhile appointed senior advocate Vijay Hansaria as amicus curiae for assisting it and asked him to prepare a report within a week on the measures needed to effectively deal with the criminal cases against MPs and MLAs. Senior advocate Dinesh Dwivedi, appearing for BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay who has filed the PIL, sought a detailed hearing on the prayer seeking inflicting of life time ban on convicted politicians. The court said that it may hear this aspect in November. Earlier, the apex court had asked the 25 states and UTs and the high courts to place before it "full and complete updated information" about the status of cases pending against MPs and MLAs. It had also the states, UTs and registrars general of all high courts to place before it the "precise number" of cases which are currently pending and are required to be transferred to the special courts, set up to deal exclusively with cases involving MPs and MLAs. It had noted that 12 special courts have already been set up in 11 states and said the information should be placed before it by today. The bench had also made it clear that on receipt of the information, the top court would, if needed, monitor compliance of its orders by clubbing a number of states together for being separately taken up on each date of hearing. Upadhyay had referred to the affidavit filed by the Department of Justice and had said 12 special courts have been set up in 11 states but there was no material to show how many cases have been transferred to these courts. As per the government's affidavit, the total number of cases transferred, disposed of and pending in these special courts are 1233, 136 and 1,097 respectively. The apex court in its November last year's order had also sought details as to whether any further criminal cases have been lodged against any present or former MPs and MLAs between 2014 and 2017, along with their details. The Department of Justice, in their latest affidavit, has said that one special court each has been set up in states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Telengana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal whereas two such courts have been set up in National Capital Territory of Delhi. The affidavit has further said that information from the remaining states and high courts has not yet been received. Out of the 12 special courts, six have been set up at the sessions court level, five at the magistrate level, while the class of the court in Tamil Nadu has not been indicated, it said. It said that states where the criminal cases against MPs and MLAs were less than 65, regular courts would try these matters on a fast-track mode. With regard to the setting up of courts in addition to the 12 notified, the department has said the high courts of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Patna, Calcutta and Kerala have negated any such requirement, while the Bombay High Court has expressed the requirement for additional courts without specifying any particular number. On August 21, the apex court had sought details about the special courts, including the number of cases pending before each of these courts, along with a break-up of magisterial and sessions triable cases. The top court's order was passed on a petition filed by Upadhyay seeking to declare the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, which bar convicted politician from contesting elections for six years after serving jail term, as ultra vires of the Constitution. PTI SJK ABA MNL RKS ZMN New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) The Supreme Court Wednesday asked the Centre to provide details of the decision making process in the Rafale fighter jet deal in a sealed cover. The apex court bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, however, made it clear it does not want information on pricing and technical details of the deal with France. The court was hearing various petitions seeking directions, including asking the Centre to reveal details of the Rafale deal and the comparative prices during the UPA and NDA rule in a sealed cover to the apex court. PTI MNL SJK URD LLP LLP MIN MIN Bengaluru, Oct 10 (PTI) The ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition leadership would decide on Karnataka cabinet expansion after the November 3 bypolls to Assembly and parliamentary seats in the state, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said on Wednesday. He also accused the opposition of continuing with its efforts to "destabilise" the government, and said the saffron party was facing "disappointment." On cabinet expansion, he said, "Seven positions in the cabinet are vacant, definitely we will expand the cabinet to fill them, but when we will do it... if there was no by-election, by now that exercise would have been completed." "After the bye election, the leadership will take some decision," Parameshwara told reporters here. The expansion of the H D Kumaraswamy-led government's cabinet and appointment of MLAs as heads of boards and corporations were expected to take place this week, but it has now been delayed following announcement of Assembly and parliamentary bypolls in the state. The decision to delay the exercise has even given rise to voice of dissent within the Congress, with a few aspirants demanding that the expansion be taken up at the earliest. In the earlier such exercise on June 6, Kumaraswamy had inducted 25 ministers, taking the ministry's strength to 27. There are six vacant ministerial positions for the Congress and one for the JD(S). Under the power-sharing arrangement reached by the two parties, the Congress will have 22 ministers and JD(S) 12. On selection of candidates for the bypolls, Parameshwara said the party has almost finalised the candidates for the assembly constituencies, but for parliamentary seats the names of nominees would be decided in a couple of days. Seat sharing has also been discussed between the coalition partners, he said, adding, "We will take the decision on candidates in a couple of days." The ruling coalition had yesterday decided to put up a united fight against the BJP in the bypolls. They also said the Congress would fight in Ballari and Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituencies and the JD(S)in Mandya, its traditional stronghold in the Vokkaliga belt of old Mysuru region. For the Assembly bypolls, the Congress will contest from Jamakhandi and the JD(S) from Ramanagara, which chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had won but gave up after retaining Channapatna, the other segment bagged by him in the May Assembly elections. The Election Commission had on Saturday announced the bypolls to Shivamogga, Ballari and Mandya Lok Sabha constituencies, and to Ramanagara and Jamkhandi assembly segments. Counting of votes will be held on November 6. The bypolls were necessitated after BJP's B S Yeddyurappa (Shivamogga) and B Sriramalu (Ballari), and C S Puttaraju of JD(S) (Mandya) resigned as MPs on their election to the Karnataka Assembly in May this year. Bye-elections to Jamkhandi Assembly seat was required following the death of Congress MLA Siddu Nyamagouda, while Ramanagara fell vacant after Kumaraswamy gave up the seat preferring Channapatna. Responding to a question, Parameshwara accused the BJP of continuing with its efforts to destabilise the coalition government in the state and said "they are facing disappointment." "Disappointment because no one from us (Congress) are in a position to go along with them as soon as they call, and also they will lose their membership if they do it," he said. Conceding that some Congress MLAs had openly expressed their dissent on certain issues, he said, "But no one will leave (the party) and go (to the BJP)." PTI KSU RA BN NSD NSD New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) A 23-year-old suspected burglar, who was inspired by the character portrayed by actor John Abraham in the film 'Dhoom', was arrested from near Uttam Nagar area, police said Wednesday. The accused was identified as Jitender, they said. Acting on a tip-off, a trap was laid at around 6.40 pm on Monday and a biker was intercepted, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse. During interrogation, Jitender revealed that he had carried out several burglaries in Uttam Nagar, Bindapur and Dabri area. Jitender is a notorious criminal and has been arrested earlier in several other cases, the DCP said, adding that the accused kept a loaded fire-arm with him during burglaries. An avid movie lover, he was inspired by the character Kabir portrayed by Abraham in the film 'Dhoom', Alphonse added. A motorcycle, one country-made pistol and a live round of 8 mm were seized from his possession, he said. PTI NIT SLB SNE SNE New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) A retried Air Force officer has donated Rs 17 lakh to a school where his wife taught for more than two decades, the Defence Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. Wing Commander (retd) JP Baduni lost his wife Vidhu Baduni due to a cardiac arrest in February this year. Vidhu Baduni was a teacher in the Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute at Subroto Park in Delhi for a period of 21 Years. "In her memory, her husband Wg Cdr (Retd) JP Baduni donated a sum of Rs 17 lakh to the school she had served," the statement said. Poonam S Rampal, principal of the Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute, said part of the donation, Rs 10 lakh, would be used for awarding scholarships and prizes to students of classes V to XI, achieving meritorious excellence in the field of academics every year. The other part would go towards the infrastructure development of the primary wing of the school. "The money was exclusively from the savings of his late wife which she had accumulated over the years from the service rendered at the school. He also hoped that this would be a befitting homage to his late wife and would help the deserving students in their pursuance of excellence," the statement added. PTI PR CK New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) A 26-year-old criminal, who carried a bounty of Rs 50,000 on his head, was arrested on Wednesday after a brief exchange of fire in south Delhi's Lado Sarai area, police said. The encounter took place near Lado Sarai's Children's Park at 6 pm, they said. The accused, identified as Manjeet Dalal, is a sharp shooter of Neeraj Bawana and Amit Bhura gang, they added. Dalal was wanted in a case of firing at a popular Pishori restaurant in Lajpat Nagar. Two persons were seriously injured in the firing which took place on March 3, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P S Kushwah said. Previously, Dalal was involved in nine criminal cases, including those of extortion and attempt to murder, in Delhi and UP, he said. In 2017, Dalal, along with his associates had demanded Rs 1 crore from a doctor based in Uttar Pradesh's Deoband at the behest of Amit Bhura. When the doctor refused to pay, they opened fire at him, the police said. PTI AMP DIV DIV New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) Pinjra Tod, a students' collective, staged a protest Wednesday asking all the colleges of Delhi University to have no curfews for women students. Members of the group marched through all colleges of North Campus to give a strong message to the administration that "we are not going to stop until our demands are met", they said. "We entered Stephens, Hindu, Ramjas, DRC, Miranda and Khalsa. The Miranda House principal Pratibha Jolly was pressured to come out and speak to the students who had stormed through the front gate," they claimed. They said Jolly agreed to put out a notice in the hostel Thursday saying wardens are not allowed to call up parents without a student's consent, they will not make sexist comments and there will be no curfew on food delivery. According to the notice, clean drinking water and good food will also be ensured, they added. "The principal also said she is too 'liberal' to not agree to our demands and that she will address our removal of curfew demand by October 30," they claimed. Taking forward what happened in Miranda House, Pinjra Tod is giving a deadline to the Delhi University authorities to remove the curfew by October 30 or face indefinite protest and defial of curfew in all DU hostels, they said. The students' collective had staged an all-night protest Monday demanding curfew-less nights for women students. PTI SLB AAR New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) After getting rebuked for flying kites, a 19-year-old man allegedly killed his parents and sister in southwest Delhi Wednesday, police said, adding that he was arrested. Suraj alias Sarnam Verma allegedly killed his father Mithilesh, mother Siya and sister in the early hours and then ransacked the house to make it look like robbery, they said. According to police, the accused had decided on August 15 this year that he would "teach his family a lesson". Suraj said the accused had come with an intention to commit robbery but no valuables were found missing, Devender Arya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) said. He said they found it suspicious that the robbers spared Suraj. The team from the Forensic Science Laboratory found that Suraj had washed his footprints from the bathroom and also the knife used to kill the family, he added. Suraj was holding a grudge against them since his parents raised an objection about his lifestyle and his disinterest in studies. He had flunked his Class 12 exams and was scolded by them. "He felt he failed his Boards since his father had asked him to supervise the construction of their house. He was upset about being blamed," said another officer privy to the probe. Police said his father had got him admission to a private institute in Gurgaon for a diploma in civil engineering so that he could become a contractor like him. On August 15, he was scolded by his family for wasting time on kite-flying and then he decided he would do something. He was upset with his sister since he felt his parents preferred her over him and she used to "leak details about his personal life" to their parents. On Tuesday, he had gone with his friends to Mehrauli and while returning, bought a knife and a pair of scissors to execute the killings. He behaved normally and even saw photo albums with his parents till midnight. He woke up at 3 am and stabbed his father multiple times. Awakened by the commotion, his mother who was sleeping in the same room raised an alarm but he stabbed her once, police said. He then went to his sister's room and stabbed her in the neck. His mother came there and tried to save her daughter but he stabbed her and even stabbed his sister in the stomach, they added. He then ransacked the house and washed off his fingerprints from the knife and then alerted neighbours. Police said a few years back, he had staged a fake kidnapping and fled the house but developed cold feet after he thought how he would sustain without money, police said. PTI SLB CK You are here: Arts The opening ceremony of the 70th Frankfurt Book Fair kicked off Tuesday evening in Frankfurt, Germany. With Georgia as its Guest of Honour, the fair is hosting a cultural nation with thousands of years of history. The Georgian "characters", the 33 ornately looping letters of the country's unique alphabet, are part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity."Our alphabet is a cornerstone of our culture," said Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze at the ceremony. This year in Frankfurt, about 7,500 exhibitors from 110 countries and regions will showcase their products and markets, an increase of almost 3 percent over the previous year. The rights and licensing business is flourishing: This year, the Literary Agents & Scouts Centre (LitAg) grew by about 6 percent, according to organizers. The fair unofficially started Tuesday, with The Markets pre-conference, and officially runs from Oct. 10 to 14. The 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair is the international publishing industry's biggest trade fair with around 286,000 visitors, over 4,000 events. Since 1976, the book fair has featured an annual Guest of Honour country, which showcases its book market, literature and culture to attendees in a variety of ways. The Competition and Markets Authority said it was probing the accountancy industry Britains Big Four accountants could be broken up by the competition watchdog after it launched a review of the auditing sector. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was probing the embattled industry amid widespread concern that poor-quality audits were putting companies, savings and pensions at risk. Its move comes after a string of scandals, including the collapse of retailer BHS and outsourcer Carillion. The Big Four Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers audit 98 per cent of FTSE 350 companies but have been criticised for failing to spot warning signs at doomed firms. A report by MPs accused them of feasting on Carillion in the months before it went bust, hoovering up millions of pounds in fees. The CMAs review dramatically raises the stakes for the firms at a time when the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is already bearing down on lucrative consulting work. In a separate review for the Government, the performance of the FRC itself is also under scrutiny. Yesterday the CMA warned it would consider all options if it found the auditing market was not working properly, with critics demanding the separation of the Big Fours auditing divisions from their other businesses. They claim this would prevent conflicts of interest which make auditors reluctant to challenge clients over fears of losing out on work. Responding to the review, Bill Michael, chairman of KPMG UK, said: I have been honest that the industry faces challenges. Personally I believe we all want to build trust in corporate Britain and be part of an environment that delivers the right results for capital markets, investors and society. KPMG was singled out recently by the FRC for an unacceptable drop in the quality of its audits. The accountancy group is the subject of five separate investigations by the regulator. Duped on eBay: Peter and Karen Ellwood A couple tricked into handing over 5,499 to scammers have finally won a refund following a two-year battle with NatWest. They had discovered that the bank could have prevented their loss if it had acted sooner to close down an account being used by fraudsters. Karen and Peter Ellwood, from Portsmouth, had transferred the money to pay for a second-hand car for sale on eBay. By the time they realised the car did not exist and they were in fact the victims of a scam, the money was gone. And because they had authorised the payment, their bank, Lloyds, would not refund them. Scouring the internet for similar cases, the couple found a Facebook post by a fraud expert about an eBay seller with the same name. It quickly emerged they were not the first people to fall for this scam. But even worse, they discovered NatWest had been warned two days before the couple made the transfer that the receiving account was being used by fraudsters. This meant that, had the bank acted faster and put a block on the account, the Ellwoods never would have lost their savings. Yet when the couple complained to NatWest, it refused to take responsibility and refund the money. 'NatWest knew the account was suspicious and still let us transfer money into it,' says Karen, 42, a flight attendant. 'We made the payment and we take responsibility for that. But NatWest could have prevented this if it had acted on the information it was sent.' Last month, Money Mail launched a campaign for fairer treatment and compensation for victims of so-called 'authorised push-payment fraud'. We called on banks to do more to stop criminals opening bank accounts in which to store stolen funds. Around 145 million was lost to this type of fraud in the first half of 2018. A common scam is purchase fraud, where crooks advertise fictitious cars, concert tickets and even holiday villas on social media or online marketplaces such as eBay. Victims are then convinced to pay in advance for the goods, which they never get or don't exist. In the first six months of this year, there were 21,483 reported cases of purchase fraud, with victims losing a total of 19.4 million, according to data from banking trade body UK Finance. Typically victims are denied refunds because they approved the payments. Karen and Peter had been searching for a second hand Range Rover. When they saw one on eBay for just 5,499, they thought they had found a bargain (file picture) Karen and Peter had been searching for a Range Rover they could take on holidays to France. When they saw one on eBay for just 5,499, they thought they had found a bargain and rang the number advertised. Peter, 51, a project manager, says the seller, Steve, was warm and personable and explained that he lived in Ireland and his wife was due to relocate there, so no longer needed the vehicle. It was cheap as she was keen to sell it as quickly as possible, he added. Steve said he would courier the car to them, but would first need a copy of Peter's passport to check his identity. In return, he sent what he claimed was a copy of his wife's passport. He then sent them what looked like a PayPal invoice, which instructed them to transfer 5,499 to his NatWest bank account. But after they had paid, the car never turned up. When they tried to contact Steve, the number had gone dead. The couple reported the fraud to the police and to Lloyds. But it wasn't until they found the seller's name mentioned online by a scam expert that they started to make any progress. The Ellwoods had transferred the money on November 16, 2016. Fraud expert Buster Jack, who specialises in helping to recover victims' money, told the couple he had written to NatWest two days earlier, on November 14, to warn it that the account was being used by crooks. In an email to NatWest, its chief executive, Ross McEwan, and the Financial Conduct Authority, he set out the fraudster's name, account number and sort code. 'Above, you will find details of a money mule account at NatWest,' he wrote. 'Investigation, suspension and closure required today. It is being used for the laundering of proceeds of online vehicle scams.' Buster Jack said he received an automated response from NatWest acknowledging the email that same day. But when the Ellwoods asked if NatWest would refund them, given it had failed to act on this information, the bank refused. Karen says: 'NatWest missed an opportunity to stop thousands of pounds being stolen. It had a responsibility to know its customer, which it clearly didn't.' When the couple complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service in 2017, they were told it would investigate. But eight months on, the Ombudsman backtracked and said it did not have the authority to deal with complaints about banks that have received funds in cases of fraud. It could only consider whether the victim's own bank had done anything wrong. Arun Chauhan, director of Tenet Compliance & Litigation, a law firm that provides advice on financial crime, says: 'If banks cannot communicate internally swiftly on a report of fraud or stop an account when notified, that is for them to fix. 'Legally, there is an argument the bank knew about this account and could be liable for the loss.' It was only after Money Mail intervened that NatWest agreed to refund the Ellwoods 'as a gesture of goodwill'. A NatWest spokesman says: 'We take fraud and scams seriously and where a report of fraud is made, we deal with these reports on a case-by-case basis. Where accounts are suspected of being involved in fraudulent activity, they are promptly investigated.' A spokesman for the Financial Conduct Authority says it expects firms to investigate concerns voiced by members of the public and to close suspicious accounts. Crash test investigators have uncovered a number of 'very suspicious' car parts that have been marked 'for crash test only' in family vehicles, an alarming new report reveals. It has raised fears vigorously denied by motor industry bosses that cars may in the past have been fitted with parts specifically designed to help cheat consumer crash tests to score higher ratings. Both Euro NCAP and Thatcham Research which carries out the crash-tests in the UK - found airbags and ISOFIX points marked 'for crash test only' after safety assessments, the motoring magazine Auto Express said on Wednesday. Crash test concerns: Airbags and ISOFIX points were found to be marked 'for crash test only' following vehicle audits after the safety assessments Car safety experts admitted the findings were 'very suspicious' after discovering the components fitted to cars submitted for testing and all-important crash star-ratings which heavily influence consumer sales. When challenged, car-makers came up with a variety of excuses, said safety chiefs. Matthew Avery, head of research for UK safety company Thatcham Research, told Auto Express: 'Before now we have found components on vehicles marked as 'Euro NCAP only, for crash test only'. Avery said such markings have been found on cars from several makers. Auto Express said these findings were confirmed by Euro NCAP (the body responsible for setting test criteria), which told the magazine it had 'come across partsairbags, seat foams etc which have unusual or suspicious labelling'. All mass-production cars sold in the EU are crashed following set procedures during NCAP testing. After these tests, researchers from organisations such as Thatcham, which assess vehicles in conjunction with NCAP, periodically conduct a so-called 'strip-down audit' which involves inspecting individual components. A new report released this week says vehicle safety investigators have found some cars submitted for official tests have parts marked with 'for crash test only' on them, raising suspicion of manufacturers gaming the system It was during these audits that researchers from Thatcham and NCAP found marked parts. Mr Avery said: 'Sometimes we've tested a vehicle and we will see on the back of a module it says 'Euro NCAP test'. Airbag modules are quite common... That feels very, very suspicious to us.' He said that while a lot of these components came from third party suppliers, Thatcham and NCAP have asked ask car makers directly for explanations after such markings were found. Mr Avery said: 'There are lots of excuses. We're told 'well no, that's a genuine component, that's an early version', whatever.' He revealed: 'They're not stamping it, they're writing it in marker pen; it's marked crudelyAlarm bells ring when we see that.' EuroNCAP has also interrogated companies after finding these markings. A spokesman told Auto Express: 'In all cases where this has happened, we have followed up on it.' These investigations can involve visits to car factories or parts suppliers, and vehicles are also retested. EuroNCAP testers shared one explanation manufacturers have provided for the markings. It said: 'Our batch of cars is ordered internally by the safety departments and they sometimes use 'Euro NCAP' as a reference, as deadlines are tight and production slots cannot be missed. 'In some cases, this reference is written onto parts, in order to ensure that production is not delayed.' Asked if it considered it had ever caught outright manufacturers deliberately attempting to 'optimise' cars for safety tests, Euro NCAP said its audits had 'never shown a deliberate attempt to cheat our tests'. Euro NCAP said its audits had never shown a deliberate attempt to cheat its tests before Mr Avery said: 'I'm sure 99 times out of 100 there's a legitimate reason,' but admitted that Thatcham hasn't 'seen everything' and was sure it had 'missed some things'. 'I don't think we've ever had a manufacturer clearly trying to pull the wool over our eyes. Not in recent years, anyway. It may have happened previously, but it's difficult to tell,' he continued. He said the last deliberate attempt may have been about a decade ago. NCAP said it hasn't seen a marked part in the last year or two. There is no evidence of any malpractice in safety testing and to imply otherwise shows a failure to understand the manufacturing and certification process Mike Hawes, SMMT Mr Avery added on marked parts: 'We get a couple of instances a year. It used to be more prevalent.' Mr Avery also suggested nervousness recent emission scandals may be behind the declining frequency of marked parts: 'Dieselgate has made [car companies] look at their internal processes to be comfortable with what they're saying.' He concluded: 'Many of them have learned that we're very hot on this it's keeping manufacturers on notice that I think is the important thing.' But car makers denied any impropriety and insisted there were reasonable reasons why some parts may be marked. Auto Express editor Steve Fowler said: 'In a post-dieselgate world, any suspicion that a car manufacturer is cheating or trying to game a test is worrying. There is no absolute proof. 'But concerns and suspicions about marked parts have been raised by safety and crash test officials. And that is a concern. There are questions that need answering.' Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers (SMMT), said marked parts are a normal part of the production process, adding: 'SMMT strongly refutes these suggestions. There is no evidence of any malpractice in safety testing and to imply otherwise shows a failure to understand the manufacturing and certification process. 'Such remarks cast unwarranted aspersions on the automotive industry, for which safety is the number one priority.' He added: 'All vehicles undergo strict regulatory safety tests before they can be approved for sale and manufacturers can also choose to undertake additional voluntary Euro NCAP testing for consumer information. 'Because this sometimes happens before full production begins, it can be necessary to identify certain safety-critical components in order to confirm they are the latest, approved specification parts, as well as for tracking and analysis. 'This should in no way be considered unusual.' Britain's automotive industry has launched a 'Brexit Readiness Programme' to help safeguard its supply chain in the event of a 'no deal' exit from the European Union. Bosses at the industry body - who said a bad Brexit deal could have 'devastating consequences' for the sector - will offer the support of legal and accountancy firms to provide advice on trade and tax arrangements outside of the EU, customs procedures and adapting to regulation changes from chemicals to data protection, employment law and immigration. Carmakers are worried that port and motorway hold-ups could slow the movement of components and finished models, crippling output and adding costs, if Britain fails to reach agreement with the European Union over its departure from the bloc on March 29. Brexit contingency plan: The SMMT has today launched a Brexit Readiness Programme to help automotive businesses after March 29 The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the UK industry's trade body, said its programme highlighted 'a contingency planning minefield', with changes to regulations, onerous customs processes, tariffs and restricted access to talent among the challenges facing the sector in a 'no deal' scenario. The SMMT said its programme was particularly aimed at providing support for small and medium-sized companies, who make-up the vast majority of Britain's automotive supply chain. The first stage will focus on legal advice, which will be provided by large specialist outfits like Deloitte and PwC. Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said, 'A strong local supply chain is the backbone of any manufacturing sector, and ours has thrived thanks to massive reshoring efforts and the ability to trade freely and frictionlessly with the EU. 'A "no-deal" Brexit could have devastating consequences. 'With the clock ticking on negotiations, businesses must plan for all eventualities, including the worst. 'Our new support package seeks to mitigate the threat of "no-deal" by helping businesses navigate the complex trade realities of a post-Brexit landscape.' Motor businesses will be offered the help of legal and accountancy firms to prepare for changes to tax and customs procedures The SMMT added that the UK's automotive supply chain supports 82,000 jobs and contributes 4.9billion to the economy. The body's Brexit Readiness Programme was launched on Wednesday at the Society's Midlands Regional Forum in Derby as part of nationwide engagement to help support businesses of all sizes across the country. The SMMT highlighted that the Midlands is one area in particular that's at high risk from the impacts of Brexit. It claimed that 39 per cent of automotive jobs are in the area, while one in 11 UK-made cars is built in Derby - mainly Toyota's Burnaston plant where Auris models are manufactured. An advert for the Nissan Leaf electric car has been banned for misleading consumers about the time the manufacturer claims it will take to charge the vehicle. Nissan's UK website for the Leaf said: 'Quick charge on the move up to 80 per cent in 40 to 60 minutes**', with a link to a footnote stating that the time was dependent on charging conditions including the charger type and condition, battery temperature and size as well as ambient temperature. Three complainants, who understood that the car sometimes took longer than 60 minutes to charge and was designed to accept only one fast charge per day, said the time claim was misleading - an opinion that was shared by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Nissan ad banned: The Advertising Standards Authority has forced the Japanese car maker to remove this advert from its website Nissan said the ad did not specifically state that the battery would be charged to 80 per cent in 60 minutes, and it was clearly qualified with a visible footnote explaining that timings could be dependent on other factors and conditions. The carmaker said that, following feedback from consumers, it had updated the website with the wording: 'Plug your New Leaf into a CHAdeMO rapid charger and get from 20 per cent to 80 per cent charge in around 60 minutes.' Nissan said the car could take more than one rapid charge per day but the time needed to complete these charges could increase if several were done in a day due to increases in the temperature of the battery after successive long periods of driving. The ASA said consumers would understand that they could usually increase the car's battery charge by 80%, or close to 80%, within 40 to 60 minutes when using a CHAdeMO charger. It acknowledged that charge times were dependent on a number of factors and welcomed Nissan updating its website but said the ad still did not convey the potential degree of variability in achieving a certain amount of charge. Nissan said it was 'very disappointed' with the ASA's ruling that the ad was misleading for consumers The ASA said: 'Therefore, because the ad did not clearly convey the degree of variability in the time that may be required to deliver a certain amount of charge, we concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and were likely to mislead.' Nissan said: 'We were very disappointed with the ruling made by the ASA, although of course we will respect their decision. 'We constantly review and react to customer feedback to ensure that we are giving the very best possible service and information.' Who is championing Britains Post Offices? They are a vital, trusted hub in local communities particularly in our rural towns and villages. And with banks abandoning the High Street at a rate of around 60 branches a month, they should be cherished. Yet, as we reveal, the Government is intent on pushing pensioners towards banks instead. When Post Office card accounts were introduced 15 years ago they were hailed as an important lifeline for vulnerable customers who were looking for an alternative to conventional bank accounts. Threat: Any loss of income to Post Offices could mean more closures and would be yet another blow to our struggling High Streets The take-up was beyond what anyone expected, with one million accounts still being used today. The Government says people who open a current account with a bank can continue to collect their pension at the Post Office, as many allow you to carry out basic banking transactions. But people love the simplicity of the card account. Unlike a bank account you cant set up any direct debits, there is no overdraft and no pushy staff trying to get you to download a mobile app you dont want. And, as readers tell us, they just dont want to be at the mercy of banks. Meanwhile, if everyone ditches the card account, the Post Offices contract with the Government will likely be scrapped. Any loss of income to Post Offices could mean more closures and would be yet another blow to our struggling High Streets. So dont be fooled: no one has to give up their card account. The letters sent out are wildly misleading and fail to mention that pensioners can keep their accounts until at least 2021, and possibly beyond. (By the way, since when is it advisable to send people letters out of the blue demanding they reply with their bank details?) Instead of trying to strong-arm people into closing accounts they trust, perhaps the Government should listen to customers and consider how else the Post Offices role could be enhanced. Post Offices are the lifeblood of our towns and villages. Lets resolve to keep it that way. Benefit shambles The taxman has finally started to come clean over just how many families have been let down by its shambolic management of the child benefit system since means testing was introduced in 2013. Around 100,000 parents face demands for thousands of pounds. Some are being chased for money from years ago after the taxman repeatedly failed to notice they were wrongly claiming the benefit. After Money Mail exposed the growing fiasco last month, HMRC has now belatedly held its hands up and promised to stop fining families whove been caught out. It says it is also looking at ways to improve communications further and asking half a million employers to remind staff to check their annual earnings. But surely there is more the taxman can do. HMRC has all the pay data from P60s and administers child benefit. This means it ought to be able to match people on higher incomes with child benefit records and tell people what they owe at the end of the year. And what about those families who have already paid the penalties? Will they be getting a refund? Write to us at moneymail@daily mail.co.uk if youve been affected. Slam the scams We promised we would not let the banks off the hook in our fight against fraud. And, as you can see, we have every intention of keeping our word. In the meantime, please, please keep telling us your stories. As one reader wrote to me: Victims and near-victims should ignore any embarrassment and talk to others, because this is what scammers dont want you to do. He also asked if I would promote National Trading Standards Friends Against Scams campaign. Im happy to do so. This brilliant scheme is designed to educate all of us about different types of scams and encourage us to share this knowledge with family, friends and neighbours. You need to attend a short awareness course near you or you can complete it online. To sign up, visit friendsagainst scams.org.uk, or write to Friends Against Scams, St Marys House, St Leonards Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 3UU. v.bischoff@dailymail.co.uk Chinese author Mai Jia appeared at Mai Jia's Night event in Frankfurt on Oct 9, the day when the world's first biggest book fair opened. It's the first time a Chinese author is featured at such a themed event during the Frankfurt Book Fair, signaling wider interest in Chinese original storytelling. More than 100 publishers from 20 countries interested in copyright cooperation on his books attended the event. Mai Jia's Decoded, a page-turning story about an orphaned math genius devoted to cryptography and deciphering, first took the world with its Spanish version published by Planeta. The English version was published in 2014 by Penguin and was called one of "the 20 best spy novels of all time" by The Daily Telegraph. Its copyright was sold in 33 languages worldwide. Alongside the success of the English version of In the Dark, another of his spy novels, what was focused at the author's night is his third book from the Trilogy, The Message. The Message generated keen interest in foreign publishers. "Basically, it's 'escaping from a secret room' like story that happened in the 1940s," Mai Jia said. Four people are trapped in a secret room, with one of them an agent undercover for the Communist Party and he/she has an important message to send out. Head of Zeus, the British publisher of Liu Cixin's Three Body trilogy, bought the right to the English version. A deal was also signed that night to sell the novel in the Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, and Finnish markets. Olivia Milburn, the English translator of Mai Jia's trilogy, said: "Decoded and In the Dark are one kind of book; The Message is differentit is a crime story in which all the witnesses are lying...it is a puzzle story, and readers will enjoy trying to discover what has happened." Literary agent Tan Guanglei said Mai Jia's works appeal greatly to foreign readers with the kinds of stories they are familiar with and would love to read, but in some sense it's also so unique and different. UK Finance chief Stephen Jones gives evidence to the Treasury committee UK Finance chief Stephen Jones, who's caused a stink by claiming banks shouldn't foot the bill for compensating fraud victims, is a contender for the chief executive's office at TSB. His CV reads well senior positions at Santander, Citigroup and Barclays. While at the latter, he caught the eye of Bob Diamond who encouraged him to dye his grizzled locks. Rascally Bob confided with one of his trademark wolfish grins: 'Mine's straight outta the bottle.' Patisserie Valerie's potentially fraudulent accounting scandal is embarrassing for chairman and majority shareholder, Luke Johnson, who claimed only last May the firm had a 'strong balance sheet'. Doubly so, since the fingers-in-every-pie entrepreneur's newspaper column last month confidently advised readers: 'How to spot the next swindle.' Johnson is said to be paid 100,000 for his highly readable musings. Unilever chief Paul Polman will be hurt by revelations he's based in tax-friendly Switzerland. The self-styled humanitarian once said he was ashamed of his 10.3million remuneration and would do the job for free. His pal, U2 warbler and anti-poverty campaigner Bono, felt similarly bruised when it was revealed he repatriated 500million to the Netherlands to avoid tax on royalties. Perhaps a heart-rending duet from these poor, misunderstood souls is in order? Re. tax, carrot-topped pop hobbit Ed Sheeran handed over more money to the Exchequer last year (5.29million) than Paypal (4.13million). Extraordinary, no? Economist and ex-Monetary Policy Committee member David Blanchflower's Twitter continues to foam with anger. He's called Michael Gove a 'clueless backstabber', the Tories 'evil' and Melania Trump 'a bloody idiot'. Yesterday, he said a speech on wages by the Bank of England's polite chief economist Andy Haldane was embarrassing, idiotic and clueless. Surely Twitter's not good for his blood pressure? Goldman Sachs partner Dina Powell is favourite to be Donald Trump's next UN ambassador. Sharp-as-a-tack Powell, 45, was briefly a White House security adviser before returning to Goldman, and is one of the few members of Trump's staff Democrats respect. The Donald would much rather appoint daughter Ivanka. At the end of a river cruise in France this May, we were informed that the flight we were booked on with KLM had been cancelled and replaced with an Air France one the following day. We had to leave our ship and book into a hotel near Marseille airport for the night, but were told we would receive compensation. We phoned Air France and were told to write and provide original documents regarding flights, accommodation and meals. We sent these to its headquarters in Paris on May 11 at a cost of 9.95. The documents were acknowledged, but we were told the claim would not be dealt with in the firm's usual timeframe. We have heard nothing since. We are two retired couples who are out of pocket by 210.10 in our case and 187 in our friends' case. F. P., Newcastle-upon-Tyne Marooned: A couple's dream cruise was rudely knocked off course when KLM cancelled their flight home One potential error leapt out from your letter. Why did you apply to Air France for the money when it was KLM which cancelled your flight? They are both part of the same group, but I suspect it would have made things much simpler had you applied directly to KLM for compensation. However, if Air France in Paris felt it was not its responsibility to deal with your problem, then it should have been a simple matter for the airline to suggest you make contact with KLM. If Air France was happy to deal with it, the firm should have done so, or arranged to pass the documentation along to KLM. The attitude I received from KLM's press office was in complete contrast to the way you had been shrugged off by Air France in Paris. KLM sprang into action, sorting out the issue in a couple of days. Its press office provided a statement from Air France, apologising for your experience. 'Our team have investigated the case and we have now offered Mr P. and his companions compensation of 250 (219) per person, in addition to the full reimbursement of hotel charges. 'We hope this is a satisfying resolution.' Very satisfying, thank you. If you want bureaucracy, go to the French; if you want efficiency, try the Dutch. You have YOUR say Every week, Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some from our article about fraudsters calling and texting victims from numbers that appear to belong to their banks: The banks themselves are to blame. They are constantly closing branches and cash machines, forcing customers into the Wild West of the internet. If we all stopped using online banking, they'd be forced to act on this kind of fraud. F. G., Maidstone, Kent. A year ago, I received a text from my bank which I suspected was a scam. It asked me to call due to suspected fraudulent activity. I felt it was odd, but I did phone the number and it was my bank. I don't know what I would do if the same thing happened again. P. P., Newport. Remember cheque books and 50 cheque cards? Not so long ago you could actually visit your branch and speak to a real bank manager. There's certainly something to be said for the old ways of doing things. S. M., Ely, Cambs. I have a hard-and-fast rule: never reply to, or comply with, any texts, calls, or emails from your bank directly. Just take the time to contact it yourself. If the message is genuine, it will be understanding of the fact you want to be cautious. L.U., Guildford, Surrey. Fraudsters targeted my mother last month. A call came in from a number which looked like it belonged to her bank. They took 26,000 just like that. Fortunately, the cash had been transferred to another account with the same bank, but she had a week of hell waiting. T. S., Wakefield, W. Yorks. My bank doesn't have any branches, it's telephone banking only. I've never received a call from it, but if I did, I'd say I would call back. Then I would phone from a different line. If it was a genuine call, the bank would have notes on its system to say someone had called you. L. W., Glasgow. My 85-year-old friend has had a Sky account for 11 or 12 years, paying by direct debit. She has no savings and struggles on the state pension with a bank overdraft. Last year, she stopped most of her channels but kept sport. However, about a week ago, with debts piling up, she phoned to close the account entirely and was told she was under contract until next February. She says she did not sign a contract. Can you help? J. A., Glenrothes. When your friend downgraded her TV subscription last August, the adviser told her that the change would activate a new 18month minimum term. Sky says a letter was sent out outlining the changes. It also says it tried to phone on three occasions to check she was happy, but could not get through perhaps she has some form of call minder system or, like me, ignores numbers she does not recognise. Your friend phoned again in May this year to close the account, which was when she was told about the minimum term again. I feel this letter highlights one of the issues with these 18-month minimum terms. Surely downgrading your subscription is a sign you are trying to cut costs and should not automatically trigger a new contract, especially in the case of elderly people whose circumstances can change in a relatively short time. Sky says that while it feels there was no fault or error in its engagement with your friend, it is open to individual requests when there are extenuating circumstances. It has, therefore, spoken to your friend and removed the minimum term and balance owing on her account as a gesture of goodwill and will close her account. A spokesman says: 'At Sky we take every customer issue seriously and we always try to give our customers the best possible experience. Having heard about this lady's extenuating circumstances, we have contacted her and, as a gesture of goodwill, we have removed the remaining term on balance from her account.' Straight to the point My five-year interest-free Help to Buy government loan is coming to an end. Who should I call for advice? S. B., by email. If you want to speak to government Help to Buy representatives in England, call 0345 848 0235. In Wales, the number is 08000 937 937. For Scottish Help to Buy homeowners, it depends where you live. For the Highlands and Shetland Islands, it's 01463 701 271; for Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray it's 01224 202900; and anywhere else it's 08450 020 163. *** When I signed up for a Solarplicity energy deal in February, the offer stated I was entitled to free LED light bulbs. Despite emailing the firm's customer services 17 times, I haven't been sent any. G. K., by email. Your order was not processed because you tried to order 20 light bulbs when you were entitled to only eight. Solarplicity admits it should have corrected your order. Your new bulbs should be delivered within ten working days. *** I received a letter from insurer Hastings Direct informing me I was owed a refund due to a miscalculation of my no-claims discount. I had to confirm the refund through a link, but I don't have a computer. When I rang, it said it had no record of the refund. Is this a scam? R. T., Dyfed, Wales. Hastings Direct confirmed to me that your refund is legitimate. You had nine years of no claims, not eight as it had recorded, and so should have paid 23.67 less for your insurance. It says a system error held up the issue of your cheque. A spokesman says: 'We've apologised and issued the refund; we have also paid 30 in compensation for the inconvenience caused.' *** I won a trip to the London Science Museum in June after entering a Mr Kipling prize draw. I entered the winning code on its website and it emailed me confirmation I had won. But the firm refuses to give me the prize. M. S., by email. To claim your prize you must provide proof of purchase. Mr Kipling asks entrants to keep hold of their cake packaging and receipt to validate entries. You say you sent the packaging, but Mr Kipling says it never received it. It adds that it must insist on proof of purchase because it received around 80 entries from your email address using similar codes, many of which do not match up to those it randomly generates. My late mother-in-law had accounts for her grandchildren, including my son, with Cheshire Building Society, which was taken over by Nationwide. My son has tried to access his account without success. Nationwide says it is closed, but we have the book, a copy of which I have enclosed. S. A., Preston, Lancs. A recurring theme in my postbag is old passbook accounts. People often stumble across one that appears to have cash in it. But I'd say nine times out of ten this is not the case. So I was not surprised when Nationwide's search came up with nothing. There are no records for your son or this account. This means it was closed prior to the merger, says Nationwide. The difficulty with old passbook accounts is that they can show a balance even when all the money has been withdrawn. This may be because it has been converted to another account, the cash has been transferred to a higher-paying account, or the account has been closed none of which requires the passbook to be shown or updated. Terry Smith has more than doubled the size of his new fund the Smithson Investment Trust Veteran fund manager Terry Smith has more than doubled the size of his new fund and is planning to invest 600million in small companies around the world. The Smithson Investment Trust, which is listing on the London Stock Exchange this month, had originally set out to raise a comparatively small 250million of savers' money. But after experiencing 'very significant demand' from institutional investors, wealth managers and individuals, it decided to increase its upper limit. The figures highlight the popularity of Smith, 65, who is based in Mauritius. Smith's original Fundsmith Equity fund, which launched eight years ago, is worth around 17billion. An investor who put 1,000 in at launch would have more than 4,000, while the same amount placed with its average competitor in the same time would have turned into just over 2,000. Smith said he launched Smithson after monitoring a lot of smaller companies which were performing better than his Fundsmith portfolio because of their size. Bailed: Former City trader Kweku Adoboli, TRADER BAIL Former City trader Kweku Adoboli, who gambled away 1.4bn in the UKs biggest banking fraud, has been bailed from detention pending a decision over his deportation to Ghana. The 38-year-old was jailed for seven years in 2012 after bringing Swiss bank UBS to its knees by exceeding his trading limits. Despite living in the UK since he was 12, as a foreign national sentenced to more than four years in jail Adoboli is subject to automatic deportation under UK immigration laws. A group of friends appeared at Hatton Cross tribunal centre to provide a surety of 120,000. OFFICES SHUT Struggling estate agent Foxtons has closed its flagship office on Park Lane in central London as well as its branch in Barnes, south-west London, amid a slowdown in the property market in the capital. RULE WARNING Ross McEwan, the boss of bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland, has warned against restrictive regulations that could make Britain less competitive than other countries. The 61-year-old said: We need to be careful now that we stay competitive with other regulatory frameworks around the world. Natwest owner RBS brought the British economy to the brink of collapse in 2008 after years of reckless growth, forcing taxpayers to rescue it with 46billion. STUDIO EXIT Broadcaster ITV is leaving its television studios on Londons Southbank after 40 years. The broadcaster moved out of the London Studios site temporarily last year so a redevelopment could take place, but now says it will be sold. FIZZING WINE Investment group Cult Wines, which invests savers money in fine wines, has seen its revenue rocket by 54 per cent to 52million over the last year. Founder Tom Gearing, a former finalist in the BBCs The Apprentice, said the biggest increase in sales was in South East Asia. PROFITS SURGE Payments firm Wirecard expects an eightfold rise in profits over the next six years as contactless payments take off and consumers ditch cash. WATCHDOG BACKED Fund manager Blackrock has backed tainted City watchdog the Financial Reporting Council, which is battling to avoid closure in a Government review of its future. Shares in WPP stuttered after it lost a prestigious contract with Ford Motor Company. The advertising group's stock slumped 1.4 per cent, or 15p, to 1095p after the US car maker appointed Omnicom Group's BBDO as its lead advertising partner. It was a major blow to boss Mark Read, who took over from founder Sir Martin Sorrell after he was ousted amid allegations he paid a prostitute with company money. Sorrell, who has since set up competitor S4 Capital, has maintained that the allegations which led to his departure are untrue. FTSE 100-listed WPP had worked with Ford for more than 70 years. WPP's stock slumped 1.4 per cent, or 15p, to 1095p after the US car maker appointed Omnicom Group's BBDO as its lead advertising partner The future of the contract was being closely watched by investors and analysts, who were using it as a bellwether of client sentiment following the departure of WPP's totemic head. Ford said it would retain WPP for 'activation', including media planning and buying and digital work, but that the new arrangement would save the car maker 114million per year. Analysts at Liberum said while the contract loss was a 'blow to prestige' for WPP, 'the actual financial impact from the loss is limited'. They added the work would have probably been low margin, since it was creative, and the loss of business would allow WPP to bid 'more aggressively for other motor contracts'. Gambling firm Paddy Power Betfair also took a hit after Ireland's finance minister Paschal Donohoe announced plans to double the country's tax on betting to 2 per cent. Stock Watch - Serica Shares in energy company Serica climbed after it moved closer to buying three key North Sea gas fields from BP. It is buying Bruce, Keith and Rhum. But uncertainty surrounds the deal after President Trump slapped sanctions on Iran as Rhum is co-owned by the Iranian Oil company. The US agreed to approve the sale, as long as any money paid to Iranian Oil is held by a third party for as long as the sanctions are in place. Sericas shares rocketed 42.9pc, or 33p, to 110p. Shares dipped 5 per cent, or 325p, to 6175p as Sharon Byrne, a spokesman for the Irish Bookmakers Association, said the increase would 'kill the industry'. Despite the weighty falls, the FTSE 100 edged up 0.06 per cent, or 4.26 points, to 7237.59. The index recovered slightly after hitting a six-month low in the early afternoon, following the International Monetary Fund's announcement that it had slashed global growth forecasts. Among the FTSE's smaller companies, Kin & Carta the business formerly known as St Ives proved it still had some work to do in convincing investors of its new strategy. Shares in the business, which was once a printing firm but is now moving into digital marketing, dipped 4 per cent, or 4p, to 97p as it released full-year results and an update on its strategy. Even though revenue was up 9 per cent to 178.4million, and profit before tax climbed 38 per cent to 18.5million, shareholders seemed unconvinced by chief executive J Schwan's assertion that 'the future for Kin & Carta is very bright'. Investors ridiculed the company last week when it rebranded, saying the name made it sound 'like a folk duo'. Shares have slipped 5.7 per cent since the unveiling. On London's junior market, pollster You Gov slipped even though it hiked its dividend after profits rose 49 per cent to 11.8million. The firm, which boasted of its ability to analyse data in real-time as it is collected, said dividends would rise 50 per cent to 3p per share. Analysts at Berenberg have previously described You Gov as 'misunderstood', claiming that many observers don't realise that the business does much more than conduct general election polls. And the firm's chief executive Stephan Shakespeare added that the firm was breaking 'new ground in our industry'. But shares edged down by 1.3 per cent, or 6p, to 466p. Law firm Knights, one of the handful in its industry to have listed on the public markets, made its first deal since floating on the London Stock Exchange as it scooped up Spearing Waite. Knights (down 0.25 per cent, or 0.49p, to 197p) paid 5.3million for Leicester's biggest law firm, which will rebrand as Knights in January. It is 60 years since the British Overseas Airways Corporation which would later become British Airways launched the first ever passenger flight from London to New York. But it has taken a relatively unknown budget airline from Scandinavia just over four years to steal BAs transatlantic crown. Official figures reveal Norwegian Air has overtaken Britains flagship carrier as the biggest non US airline flying to and from New York. The number of passengers who flew with Norwegian on the key transatlantic route from London to New York more than doubled in just a year from around three quarters of a million The Oslo-based airline flew 1.67m passengers in the 12 months to July 2018, while BA flew 1.63m passengers, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The number of passengers who flew with Norwegian on the key transatlantic route more than doubled in just a year from around three quarters of a million. The airline, which launched its inaugural flight from London Gatwick to JFK airport on July 3, 2014, said its meteoric rise underlined the strong demand for lower fares. However, a BA spokesman said: Our commitment to New York is as strong as ever. The FCA has set out plans to minimise disruption if Britain leaves the EU without a deal BANK REASSURANCE The City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, has set out plans to minimise disruption if Britain leaves the EU without a deal, giving temporary permission to Continental banks so they can carry on operating in London for up to three years without any changes. BANKRUPTCY THREAT The 125-year-old US department store Sears could be pushed into bankruptcy within days after it hired advisers to work on a potential filing while it continues trying to find other options. It has 866 stores in the US, and has a 101million debt payment due to be paid on Monday. SEX PROBE A second sexual assault probe has been opened by Swiss lender UBS as the bank investigates claims by a former employee. It is alleged that a senior staff member at the London office touched the woman inappropriately on a work night out. TRUST VOW Rebuilding trust in bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland will take another decade, its chief executive Ross McEwan has said, after its reputation was deeply tarnished by the financial crisis. PROFITS UP A rebound in the UKs white collar job market is set to boost overall profits at recruiter Page Group by 19.7 per cent to 207.7million in the third quarter of 2018 compared to a year earlier. ELECTRIC CASH A top Tesla shareholder, Baillie Gifford, has ploughed nearly 400million into a Chinese rival of the electric car maker, taking an 11.4 per cent stake in Shanghai-based Nio. HE'S BACK Martin Gilbert, 63, has resumed his position as senior independent director of Glencore. He was given time off to deal with the takeover battle at Sky, where he was deputy chairman. FINANCE ROLE David Bauernfeind, 50, has been hired by Dominos Pizza as finance boss. HEADING OUT Chief marketing officer Andrew Gray will be leaving British American Tobacco next year after more than 32 years at the company. BUYOUT CASH German lender Deutsche Bank is backing a management buyout of rental flat company The Collective Old Oak. Deutsche and fellow investor Catalina Re are financing a 125million deal. Business rates are holding back British industry and stifling investment, one of the country's largest car makers has warned. Bosses at Vauxhall said the tax punishes firms which want to create more jobs and boost productivity. In a highly unusual intervention, it hit out at rates for charging businesses extra when they expand or buy equipment to make a factory more efficient. It follows widespread fears that massive rates bills are killing trade by wiping out shops' profits. Bosses at Vauxhall said the business rates punish firms which want to create more jobs and boost productivity Helen Foord, Vauxhall's head of government relations and public policy, said: 'We've tried to push for wholesale manufacturing business rates reform for a while. We've lost some investments because of it. 'Business rates impact business decisions on whether or not to invest in this country because it is a fixed cost.' The rates are based on the estimated rental value of a property. If a building's occupiers invest in making it more productive or bigger, this increases the likely rental value and rates go up. Adding machinery such as an air conditioning unit or indoor crane also pushes up rates. Manufacturers claim this stifles investment because improvements mean they are immediately stung with a higher bill. Foord said: 'Around 20 per cent of our business rates bill is linked to our plant and machinery, and when we invest in this our business rates go up. That is wholeheartedly a disincentive to invest.' International firms' factories such as the 1,900-worker Vauxhall site in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, must compete against other countries for new business, such as the right to make the latest model of car. These decisions are often finely balanced and high business rates can tip the scales against Britain, meaning the investment and jobs go elsewhere. Foord said that Vauxhall's German owner Opel tried to bring a major supplier to Ellesmere Port, adding: 'We were going to bring a company over to supply us and others. It was a very close call but business rates tipped the decision the wrong way.' The plea for reform comes as politicians seek to end a productivity crisis which is holding back pay growth. Research has found many companies are reluctant to invest in more efficient machinery that would allow their workers to produce more goods and could boost wages. The EEF manufacturers' association believes business rates are part of the problem. Chris Richards, head of business environment policy, said: 'You might start thinking about foreign locations where you can get a better return. 'It's a perverse concept you invest in kit to improve your productivity, then your business rates go up because of it.' The taxman is expected to rake in 30.8billion from business rates in this financial year. Coupled with housing and inheritance charges, this gives Britain the highest property taxes of any country among the OECD economic group of developed nations. A Treasury spokesman said: 'We've introduced more than 10billion of business rates support to help British businesses, including those in the motor industry.' Boss Brandon Truaxe claimed 'Almost everyone at Deciem has been involved in a major criminal activity' Beauty business Deciem, which owns cult skincare brand The Ordinary, has descended into chaos after a shock announcement by its founder in which he alleged major criminal activity at the firm. Brandon Truaxe appeared in a video on Instagram on Monday saying: We will shut down all operations until further notice, which will be about two months. 'Almost everyone at Deciem has been involved in a major criminal activity which includes financial crimes and much other. 'You have no idea what a soldier Ive been for more than 13 years. Deciem has stores in the US and Australia as well as in, London. Fans of its The Ordinary brand include Kim Kardashian. Truaxe emailed UK employees telling them to close all UK stores, bar one in London. Estee Lauder bought a stake in 2017 and said it was deeply concerned by the material posted. Luxury goods are having a shabby time on the stock market. Some of Europes biggest names in fashion including the UKs Burberry and Mulberry sank after investment bank Morgan Stanley released a damning report on the sector. LVMH, the heavyweight owner of brands such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, reported stronger-than-expected sales in its fashion and leather goods divisions late on Tuesday. But a warning from the firm over what it described as an uncertain geopolitical and monetary context put investors in flight. Fashion victims: Burberry shares slumped by 8.1 per cent, or 152p, to 1728p, while handbag maker Mulberry fell 5.2 per cent, or 16p, to 289.5p LVMH and other renowned fashion houses have increasingly relied on big-spending Chinese consumers to boost their figures. But the trade war between Donald Trump and the Chinese has thrown doubt on whether demand in the country will last. Morgan Stanley downgraded the luxury sector to underweight, advising investors to decrease the proportion of shares in luxury fashion companies that they own in their portfolio. Burberry shares slumped by 8.1 per cent, or 152p, to 1728p, while handbag maker Mulberry fell 5.2 per cent, or 16p, to 289.5p. On the continent, 9billion was wiped off titan LVMH as it plummeted 7.1 per cent. Gucci owner Kering and high-end skiwear company Moncler plunged by 9.6 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively. Stock Watch - Advanced Oncotherapy Cancer treatment company Advanced Oncotherapy was on the up after announcing another breakthrough for its proton beam therapy system. The treatment is designed to be cheaper and more efficient than any currently available in the UK. The firm added that work to create the first proton therapy centre, on Londons Harley Street, was on track to complete by the second half of 2020. Shares flew by 27.3 per cent, or 9p, to 42p. London-focused housebuilder Telford Homes might have been wishing it hadnt brought up Brexit, as its shares tumbled after it issued a trading update. Though the firm said it had just 90 homes left to sell by March in order to achieve profits of 50million, it warned that plans for Britain to leave the EU were pushing down London property prices. Recent negative commentary around the outcome of Brexit was adding to a more general downturn in the market for expensive prime homes in London, Telford said. Though the company focuses on more affordable properties with an average price of 540,000, which it believes will continue to be in demand, shares still flopped 7 per cent, or 27.5p, to 366.5p. Telfords pessimism infected the UKs other housebuilders, as nearly all ended the day with their share price in the red. The FTSE 100 slid 1.3 per cent, or 91.9 points, to 7145.74 as Burberry pushed the index lower. Packaging giants Mondi, DS Smith and Smurfit Kappa also weighed heavily, after four industry competitors joined forces to create a new sustainable company. Bway, Mauser Group, National Container Group and Industrial Container Services have merged to create a new threat to the FTSE players. Mondi fell 8.7 per cent, or 170p, to 1775.5p, DS Smith dropped 6.5 per cent, or 29p, to 418.2p and Smurfit Kappa tumbled 5.7 per cent, or 156p, to 2580p. Newly listed online lender Funding Circle, whose shares had slumped after it floated last week, finally began picking up after it emerged that fund managers Invesco and Merian took sizeable stakes in the business. Shares climbed by 9.9 per cent, or 34.7p, to 384.7p, though this was still a way off the original listing price of 440p. Aston Martin, which floated on the same day, is still miles below its debut price of 1900p even after climbing 1 per cent, or 16p, yesterday to 1610p. Mining company Vast Resources shot up 10.3 per cent, or 0.06p, to 0.64p as it was granted approval from Romanias government to open the Baita Plai metals mine. It is the first time such a licence has been granted in Romania for 19 years. Vasts 80 per cent stake in the mine is thought to be worth 37.6million, and currently the company itself is only trading at a value of 35million. China will channel more energy into mass entrepreneurship and innovation to push forward high-quality development, said Premier Li Keqiang. Li made the remarks in a written instruction to the opening ceremony of the national mass entrepreneurship and innovation week, held Tuesday in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. China's emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation has played a positive role in unleashing innovation potential, stimulating market vitality, and creating jobs in recent years, Li said, adding more efforts are required to better implement the country's innovation-driven development strategy and help realize quality development. He said the governments will work to further streamline administration and improve services, step up protection of intellectual property rights, and build a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized environment for entrepreneurs and innovators. The premier also highlights Internet technology in improving public services and inspiring creativity, and expects it to play a greater role in fostering new growth drivers and improving national creative power and economic competitiveness. Vice Premier Han Zheng attended the opening ceremony. Han said that as the Chinese economy moves from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development, China should step up implementing the strategy of innovation-driven development and accelerate the upgrading of growth momentum to promote stable and sound economic development. He stressed improving the development environment and moving forward with a negative list for market access, adding China will expand fiscal and tax support, improve financial services and build up a service and management system for intellectual property rights. He said that China would make more effort to encourage and support entrepreneurship and innovation, speed up the construction of national innovation centers and facilitate technology transfer and application of sci-tech achievements of colleges and universities. The opening ceremony assembled about 400 people, including officials and entrepreneurs. High street cafe chain Patisserie Valerie is fighting for survival after discovering a 20million black hole in its accounts and an unpaid tax bill. The company, part-owned by Pizza Express tycoon Luke Johnson, said it was investigating significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities. More than 20million could be unaccounted for and the Serious Fraud Office is now investigating. Black hole: Patisserie Valerie said it was investigating significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities The discovery prompted the suspension of Chris Marsh, Patisserie Valeries long-serving finance chief, and the London Stock Exchange halted trading in its shares. There is no suggestion that Marsh is accused of any wrongdoing. Bosses revealed they had only just learned of a bid by tax officials to have their company wound up over 1.14million owed to HM Revenue and Customs. Auditors in spotlight Events at Patisserie Valerie sent shockwaves through Britains auditing sector. A day after UK competition officials announced a review, Grant Thornton faces questions over work for the cake shop chain, it has audited since 2007. The accountant said: Given our duty of client confidentiality it would be inappropriate for us to comment. Prem Sikka, an accounting expert based at Essex University, tweeted: What did the auditors do? Russ Mould, at AJ Bell, added: This is incredibly damaging for investor sentiment towards corporate reporting transparency in general. The company, which has more than 2,000 staff, now faces a High Court hearing in less than three weeks over the bill. Johnson, who is Patisserie Valeries chairman and has a 37 per cent stake worth 166million, said: We are all deeply concerned about this news and the potential impact on the business. It is understood Patisserie Valerie, which has more than 200 cafes across the UK, has not yet reported the possible fraud to the police. Executives were informed about the missing money on Tuesday and have brought in lawyers and advisers to comb through the finances. The company added: This has significantly impacted the companys cash position and may lead to a material change in its overall financial position. The company has requested that its shares be suspended from trading while it conducts a full investigation. Marsh, 44, has been a director at Patisserie Valerie since 2007. He is part of the management team that has transformed the chain from a business with just eight cafes 12 years ago. Swiss taxes: Unilever Chief executive Paul Polman The boss behind Unilever's plot to ditch Britain is a tax resident in Switzerland. Chief executive Paul Polman, who spearheaded a failed attempt to axe the Marmite maker's UK headquarters and base it solely in the Netherlands, has lived in Switzerland for 20 years and the country is his tax base. Unilever revealed the 62-year-old's status in a statement last night. It insisted that he pays taxes on his income from the company in Holland and the UK. However, Unilever refused to say exactly how much tax he paid on his huge earnings and where. Polman was paid 10.2million last year alone, taking his earnings since he started the Unilever job in 2009 to 62.7million. There is no suggestion that Polman has broken any laws. But Alex Cobham, of the Tax Justice Network, said: 'I would hope that he and the company are living by their words about social responsibility. 'The way to show that would be by being transparent.' A Unilever spokesman said: 'Polman is tax resident in Switzerland, where he has lived for nearly 20 years, and therefore pays a portion of his taxes in Switzerland. 'Having joined Unilever as chief executive in 2009, he also pays taxes in the UK and the Netherlands with respect to his board roles and employment with Unilever.' Thousands of pensioners are being 'bullied' into closing Post Office card accounts they have held for up to 15 years. Retirees say they have been sent multiple letters by the Government urging them to open a bank account so their state pension can be paid into that instead. But these letters fail to mention that customers can refuse to do so, and continue receiving their pension into their Post Office card account as usual. Experts say it is unacceptable to try to force people into opening a bank account they do not want. If it ain't broke: Around one million people use Post Office card accounts, which were launched in 2003 as a simple way for people to receive pensions and benefits Around one million people use Post Office card accounts, which were launched in 2003 as a simple way for people to receive pensions and benefits. The accounts have no overdraft facility or charges, making it impossible to get into debt, which many pensioners find reassuring. Yet in 2015, the Government began a mailing campaign, putting pressure on pensioners to open bank accounts for their pension payments instead. Since then it has written to 900,000 card account customers. The letters read: 'We currently pay your pension into a Post Office card account. We want to pay your money into a bank, building society or credit union account instead.' It adds that card accounts are intended only for people who are unable to open or use a bank account, and that there are now fewer barriers to prevent people from accessing standard banking. It also says paying pensions into a bank account is more 'cost-effective' for the Government. Customers are told they will still be able to use a local Post Office to collect their money, as you can access most bank accounts in Post Office branches. But pensioners are outraged at being informed they should no longer use the trusted card accounts they have relied on for years. Retired Army bomb disposal officer Peter Townsend, 82, has used the card account to collect his pension since they were set up in 2003. Retired Army bomb disposal officer Peter Townsend, 82, left and retired nurse Janet Bailey, right, want to continue using their Post Office cards He says collecting his pension in cash using the card account is the perfect routine for him: 'I walk down to my local branch on a Monday morning, get my pension in cash, a loaf of bread and the newspaper.' Peter, a widower who lives in Sheffield, says: 'I worry for those people who rely on every penny of their state pension to live and need an account they can rely on. 'They don't want to be at the mercy of banks' IT systems that crash, stopping them from drawing their pension. And having a Post Office in virtually every town means that when you go on holiday, you know you're always near one to draw your pension.' He adds that the letter makes it sound as though there is no other option but to open a bank account. 'It just asks for details of where you want your pension to be paid, and gives an October deadline,' says Peter. 'I get scam calls all the time, so I'm not going to put any bank account details down on a form and post it off,' he adds. Janet Bailey, 73, from Middleton, Greater Manchester, received the first of two letters in March. 'It made me angry,' she says. 'It's like they are saying: 'Do this or else.' ' Janet, a retired nurse who has been using her Post Office account for 13 years, ignored the first one. When the next letter arrived in May, Janet went into her local Post Office branch to ask why she was being pressured into opening a bank account. 'They said I could still use the Post Office to pick up my state pension, but it would be paid into a bank account instead,' she says. But Janet doesn't want to open a bank account. 'A bank once charged me 80 because I went over my credit limit by a few pennies, after being assured a temporary overdraft had been put in place,' she says. 'It took me forever to sort it out.' Experts say it is unacceptable to try to force people into opening a bank account they do not want Experts are urging anyone who receives the letters to 'shred' them because the Government cannot force pensioners into switching to a bank account. Martyn James, of complaints website Resolver, says: 'The Department for Work and Pensions is using bullying tactics to get pensioners to give up on their Post Office card accounts, which is misleading and unfair.' Ros Altmann, former pensions minister and champion for older workers, says: 'There are also issues about the security of this process. It's understandable that people are suspicious of a letter asking them to send off sensitive information in the post.' She says the Government is obliged by law to pay people's pensions and cannot force them to switch to a bank account. 'Pensioners who want to go on having their money paid into a Post Office card account should simply shred these letters and forget about them, no matter how many they receive,' she adds. Retired business owner Brigid Shepherd, 74, and her husband Anthony, 79, have received three letters between them. 'I have no intention of opening a bank account,' says Brigid, from Worcestershire. 'The letter doesn't say you have an option. I got the impression you had to do this.' Baroness Altmann adds: 'The DWP wants to encourage people to use bank accounts because the cost of administering Post Office card accounts is higher. 'But many elderly people simply don't trust banks or don't feel comfortable using them. I don't think it is right to force them to switch to bank or credit union accounts if they feel frightened about doing so.' A DWP spokesman says: 'We will continue to maintain Post Office card accounts until 2021 [when the Government's contract with the Post Office is reviewed] and will ensure that anyone affected will be able to access their money via a suitable replacement service after this date.' A spokesman for Post Office says: 'Currently, for those customers who are not able to open a bank account, they can continue to access their cash through their Post Office card account.' s.partington@dailymail.co.uk A flagship Tory pledge to cut income tax for millions of working people could be ditched to help pay for the NHS. Chancellor Philip Hammond is poised to postpone or even scrap the manifesto promise to raise the starting threshold for both the basic and 40p rates of income tax in this months Budget. A senior Tory source said the pledge was up for grabs following Theresa Mays decision to announce a 20billion-a-year funding boost for the NHS. Freezing income tax thresholds could raise 2billion a year. Philip Hammond is poised to postpone or even scrap the manifesto promise to raise the starting threshold for both the basic and 40p rates of income tax in this months Budget Everything is on the table now, the source said. If you are looking for guidance on tax policy I would not look to the manifesto. We will always be a party of low tax. But the Prime Ministers priorities have changed. We have made a huge spending commitment here, which will be transformational for the NHS. But it has to be paid for and the Budget will reflect that. Mr Hammond is also considering reviving a controversial VAT change for small business, which could raise a further 2billion. But Treasury sources played down speculation that he will go ahead with a raid on the pensions of the better-off. The proposal to ditch the income tax pledge was discussed by senior ministers yesterday but has not yet been signed off by the Prime Minister. A Whitehall source denied that No 10 was at war with the Treasury over the issue. But the source confirmed that Mrs May is under pressure from her Chancellor to move on the issue after acknowledging that her NHS plan would require tax rises. In 2015, the Conservatives pledged to raise the personal allowance for income tax to 12,500 by 2020, with the threshold for paying higher rate tax rising to 50,000 by the same date. Last years Tory manifesto re-committed the party to the pledge, saying: The Conservatives will always be the party that keeps tax as low as possible and spends the proceeds responsibly. It is our firm intention to reduce taxes on Britains businesses and working families. By 2020, we will, as promised, increase the personal allowance to 12,500 and the higher rate to 50,000. Treasury sources played down speculation that he will go ahead with a raid on pensions The freeze would deny tax cuts promised to millions of voters. The current personal tax allowance the amount people can earn before they start paying income tax stands at 11,850 a year. Failure to raise it to 12,500 would cost every basic rate taxpayer 130 a year. The 40p tax rate starts at incomes above 46,350. Failure to raise it to 50,000 would cost higher rate taxpayers 730 a year. Mrs May threw the Chancellors Budget calculations up in the air in June when she announced plans for a major NHS funding increase. The 70th birthday present will be worth 20billion a year in additional funding by 2023. Treasury analysis suggests the pledge will cost 84billion over a five-year period. Mr Hammond is also under pressure to release more cash for defence, social care and the police, while still grappling with the deficit left by the last Labour government. And Mrs May has declared the end of austerity, including an end to the public sector pay freeze. Theresa May has declared the end of austerity, including an end to the public sector pay freeze The PM said the NHS increase would be funded in part from a Brexit dividend. But she acknowledged that taxpayers would have to contribute a bit more a pledge Mr Hammond is now determined to keep her to. Former Tory minister Robert Halfon last night warned against dropping the tax cut pledge, unless the money was going to be diverted to help other low income families, such as those on universal credit. Mr Halfon said: It is absolutely vital that we are the cutting-the-cost-of-living party, particularly for those on lower incomes. That should be our number one priority for government and it is hard to see how you would square that with abandoning this promise. Fellow Tory Neil OBrien said he would be surprised if Mr Hammond went ahead with the move and urged him to focus on measures that would not hit working families, such as trimming Britains 14billion foreign aid budget. He added: The Chancellor has a tricky balancing act. Id love to see more investment in things like law and order and care for older people. Raising the personal allowance was the flagship policy of David Camerons coalition government. The allowance rose from 6,475 in 2010 to 10,600 five years later, saving basic rate taxpayers 825 a year. But critics say the policy has not helped the poorest in society. And Mr Hammond has privately questioned the political value of going further. Mr Hammond is also considering slashing the VAT threshold for small firms. Cutting the threshold from 85,000 to 43,000 would hit half a million firms and boost Treasury receipts by 1billion to 1.5billion a year. Mike Cherry, of the Federation of Small Businesses, warned Mr Hammond against a blatant tax grab. 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. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at contact@marketbeat.com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. CEMEX SAB de CV engages in the production, distribution, marketing, and sale of cement, ready-mix concrete, and aggregates. It operates though the following geographical segments: Mexico; United States; Europe; South, Central America and the Caribbean (SCA&C); Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA); and Others. The Europe segment covers United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, and Czech Republic, Poland and Latvia, as well as trading activities in Scandinavia, and Finland. The SCA&C segment includes Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Caribbean TCL, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Jamaica, the Caribbean, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The EMEA segment comprises of Egypt, Israel, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. The Others segment refers to the cement trade maritime operations, information technology solutions business, and other corporate entities as well as other minor subsidiaries with different lines of business. The company was founded by Lorenzo Zambrano Gutierrez in 1906 and is headquartered in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico. Read More Command Security Corporation provides uniformed security officers and aviation security services in the United States. It operates through Security and Aviation Safeguards divisions. The Security division offers armed and unarmed uniformed security personnel for access control, loss prevention, mobile patrols, traffic control, security console/system operators, and fire safety directors, as well as personnel for reception, concierge, and front desk/doorman operations. This division serves governmental, quasi-governmental, and financial institutions; colleges and universities; healthcare facilities; residential communities; and commercial real estate, industrial, distribution, logistics, and retail customers. The Aviation Safeguards division provides various uniformed services for domestic and international air carriers, including security for airlines, aircraft, passengers, and cargo; and baggage screening, wheelchair escort, special escort, and skycap services. This division serves approximately 150 domestic and international airlines, airports, airport authorities, and the general aviation community at approximately 9 international airports. The company also offers labor and operations management services, such as scheduling, reporting, payroll, billing, and training management services. Command Security Corporation was founded in 1980 and is based in Herndon, Virginia. Read More There is not enough analysis data for BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust. 4.1 Community Rank Outperform Votes BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust has received 262 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust has received 155 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust has received 62.83% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about BlackRock Enhanced Global Dividend Trust and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe BOE will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe BOE will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next A huge container ship named CMA CGM Congo arrived at Lebanese port of Tripoli on Tuesday to open a new shipping line between China and the port. "The vessel is the first to hold 10,000 containers. It will unload 1000 containers in Tripoli port for the local market, and the rest will go to other ports in the region," said Ahmad Tamer, manager of Tripoli port. Tamer said that this new line, Beks, is characterized by its capacity to host big-size cargo vessels that can reach 50 meters in width and 300 meters in length. Beks will contribute to doubling the volume of products coming from China to the port, said Tamer. Tamer added that the remarkable improvement of the port resulted from Lebanon's efforts and the Chinese contribution to supporting the port's development plan. Tripoli is located on the Mediterranean coast, about 80 kilometers from the Lebanese capital Beirut, and about 30 kilometers from the Syrian-Lebanese border. China Harbor Engineering Company has worked on rehabilitating Tripoli's port since 2012 for it to be ready to receive all big vessels. Tripoli port has expanded its terminal to receive the largest types of vessels in addition to creating a terminal to receive Chinese cranes capable of lifting and transporting more than 700 containers a day. Attention is turning to this port nowadays for the role that it can play in the reconstruction of Syria which has been torn by a seven-year civil war. 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. Continental Building Products Inc (NYSE:CBPX) released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November, 12th. The construction company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.01. The construction company had revenue of $127.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $127.16 million. Continental Building Products had a net margin of 12.12% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 18.84%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.51 earnings per share. View Continental Building Products' earnings history. Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma and his family have been ranked No 1 on the Hurun China Rich List 2018, according to the latest version of the list. Jack Ma, chairman of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, is speaking during a Keynote Program at Gateway'17 in Detroit, US, June 20, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua] With 270 billion yuan ($39 billion) in wealth, Jack Ma's family became the richest in China, dethroning Evergrande Chairman Xu Jiayin, whose wealth fell 40 billion yuan to 250 billion yuan. Tencent Chairman and CEO Ma Huateng, with 240 billion yuan in wealth, took the third spot on the list. The richest woman in China, Yang Huiyan, vice-chairwoman of Country Garden, grabbed fourth place with 150 billion yuan in personal wealth. A great disparity of wealth remains between the top three, whose total wealth reached 760 billion yuan, and the others on the top 10 list, who have a total wealth of 995 billion yuan but, respectively, less than 160 billion yuan in wealth each. Newcomer Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi, and returning Wang Wenyin, chairman of Amer International Group, and his family both shared 10th place with the same wealth of 110 billion yuan. E-commerce, fintech and internet service industries show strong momentum to generate wealth in China as two of the top three work in these industries. The real estate industry provides wealth for three of the top 10, including Xu Jiayin, Yang Huiyan and Dalian Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin and family. The ages of China's richest range from 32 to 76 with Yan Hao, chairman of the board of Pacific Construction Group, as the youngest and He Xiangjian, founder of Midea Group, as the oldest. NORRISTOWN A Franconia man was sent to jail after he admitted to stealing landscaping equipment from several businesses in Montgomery and Bucks counties. Brian Thomas Gragg, 44, of the 600 block of Morwood Road, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 111/2 to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of theft by unlawful taking in connection with incidents that occurred in May 2017. Judge William R. Carpenter also ordered Gragg to complete three years probation following parole, meaning Gragg will be under court supervision for about five years. The judge said Gragg must pay $6,534 in restitution to the seven theft victims. The victims or the companies they worked for were located in Upper Gwynedd, Lower Salford and Towamencin townships in Montgomery County and in New Britain Township in Bucks County, according to court papers. Additionally, Judge Carpenter ordered Gragg to stay away from the victims as a condition of the sentence. An investigation began on May 23, 2017, after Lower Salford police received a report of the theft of three backpack blowers from a Telford area landscapers trailer that was parked in the 300 block of Hamilton Drive while workers were cutting grass at the Rosecliff Manor development. The three blowers were valued at $600 each, according to court papers. Investigators obtained video surveillance footage from residents of the development that depicted a male operating a Dodge Durango who was in the area at the time the blowers were stolen, according to the criminal complaint. When police distributed an attempt to identify flyer containing two of the surveillance photos they received a tip that led them to Gragg. It was soon determined that Upper Gwynedd police were investigating multiple reports of landscaping equipment being stolen from landscapers trailers while they were parked at job sites in the township between May 15 and May 17, 2017, according to the criminal complaint. Witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man in the area, who was driving a blue SUV, at the time of the thefts. When police placed Graggs residence under surveillance they observed him operating a blue Dodge Durango which fit the description of the vehicle depicted in the surveillance video that recorded the May 23 theft in Lower Salford. Police subsequently learned that police in New Britain Township, Bucks County, and in Towamencin Township, also were investigating similar thefts of landscaping equipment during the same time period, according to court documents. Cellphone analysis eventually determined that Graggs phone was in the vicinity of several of the thefts when they occurred. When Gragg was confronted with the thefts he admitted to several of them. However, when questioned he couldnt recall being on the streets where some of the others occurred. Gragg allegedly told investigators, It doesnt mean I didnt do it, but I dont remember doing that one, according to court papers. Investigators also uncovered a May 23 text conversation on Graggs cellphone during which he asked a man if he was interested in buying landscaping equipment, specifically, five blowers, according to the criminal complaint. The U.S. government is not too much associated these days with border-erasing, multinational cultural projects. Which perhaps makes Ladama's existence even more compelling. According to their website bio, the group's core members met in 2014 "while touring Los Angeles, Arizona, and New Mexico as part of the prestigious OneBeat Program." For those not familiar with it, OneBeat is, according to Wikipedia, a "program that brings together musicians from around the world to share and collaborate musical ideas and projects" and is partly sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. For those who wonder if their tax dollars are paying for anything positive, perhaps here is a small bit if light. While on that 2014 tour, which involved both performing and leading workshops and public music-making events, the four women of Ladama Lara Klaus, Daniela Serna, Mafer Bandola and Sara Lucas, who are from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and the United States "uncovered a common dream of building communities through sound and empowering women and youth through music," their website. Their sound, which the band calls "Latin alternative," has been described as a fusion of "sounds from South America and the Caribbean with soul, R&B, and pop." Their website states Ladama's artistic aim is to prove "that borders are meaningless, transporting us to a future where the world communicates across continents and cultures, through sound and story." A noble mission, many would say. 7 p.m. Friday. $20. Sanctuary for Independent Media. 3361 Sixth Ave., Troy. 272-2390. mediasanctuary.org. Albany It's hard to fathom such high drama over such seemingly low stakes, but Albany's public access TV station has been embroiled for the past three years in personality clashes and internal squabbles that knocked it off the air for an extended hiatus. With minimal programming and a tiny viewership that registered as a blip on the oversaturated cable TV lineup, Channel Albany managed to carry on with outsize contretemps. There was intense infighting among unpaid board members. Some quit. There were complaints that camera equipment went missing, which were unfounded. The cops were called to break up fist fights in the control room of its bunker-like space in the basement of the Albany Public Library main branch on Washington Avenue. At times Channel Albany had the air of a sitcom gone amok, something akin to "WKRP in Cincinnati," but with a harder edge. The ongoing brouhaha did not sit well with the station's landlord, the Albany Public Library, which provides Channel Albany its space free of charge. Library staff got fed up with complaints, conflicts and security being summoned. "There were a lot of issues and problems in the past, but we have addressed those and we have a good plan going forward," said Melanie Metzger, treasurer of the Channel Albany board and assistant director of the Albany Public Library. Library officials insisted on a formal agreement for the first time with the Channel Albany board that lays out policies and procedures for the station and guidelines for vetting, training and supervising community volunteers. The new agreement allows for either party to terminate the pact if there is dissatisfaction. "We are happy to provide the space free of charge because we see the value of the station for the community," said Metzger. Discussions are under way about relocating Channel Albany to a more accessible and appealing space than the basement. "We believe the new agreement makes sense for everyone because it improves the relationship between the library and Channel Albany in order to better serve the community," Metzger said. Channel Albany's leaders vow that they have turned the page on past conflicts with new leadership on the board, a new studio coordinator in place and a renewed pledge to be a vox populi that will serve underserved communities. "We've put the past behind us," said Donald Hyman, vice chair of the board and an actor who hosts Channel Albany's longest-running program, "Albany Tempo Spectrum," a public affairs show in its eighth year. "There is no finger-pointing and no looking back," Hyman said. "Everyone involved now is 100 percent committed. We are of the community, by the community and for the community." "There was some friction among personalities in the past, all good people with good intentions," said Mary Rozak, chair of the 11-member volunteer board, called the Public Education and Government Access Oversight Board. Its job is to monitor station operations. There are currently nine board members and they are seeking two more to reach full strength. "We had some people who were like oil and water, but we have gotten beyond all that now," said Rozak, who is director of communications for Albany County Executive Dan McCoy. "We are at the very earliest stages. We need to crawl before we can walk or run." Board members and Channel Albany hosts, producers and supporters are inviting the public to on open house and community day at the station at the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Ave., on Saturday, Oct. 20 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be studio tours and discussions about the station's future direction. More Information Contact Paul Grondahl at 518-454-5623 or email pgrondahl@timesunion.com See More Collapse Limited funding has been a challenge for Channel Albany since it was established in 2012. It received a pledge of $19,000 this year from the city's Common Council and it has received annual grants of $20,000 in the past for the studio coordinator, a part-time position. By comparison, when a plan was discussed to turn over Channel Albany operations to Open Stage Media, an affiliate of Proctors that runs public access programming in Schenectady and surrounding towns, Open Stage Media proposed an annual budget of $100,000. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Currently, the only paid employee of Channel Albany is Kirk Daniels, a part-time studio coordinator who retired after many years as a technician at WTEN-Channel 10. "It feels like starting over down here," Daniels said. "We have all the equipment back. It's not new, but it is functional." The gear includes three studio cameras and two cameras for loan, all digital. Currently, the only shows airing on Channel Albany are "Albany Tempo Spectrum," "The Jewish View," "Words Make People," "Citizens for Public Transportation" and "Solarize Capital Region." Daniels said there are no statistics available on viewership, but he concedes it is low. "I would like to see the station's audience grow and for the community to take pride in revamping the station," he said. "There are a lot of opportunities here for young people to get involved," said Lisbeth Calandrino, a business consultant and longtime volunteer who used to produce her own show on healthy living. Rachel D'Amico, a senior communications major at The College of Saint Rose, is grateful for an internship at the station. "It's a great place to get more experience," she said. The station's board is trying to restore the lapsed involvement of Saint Rose faculty, who used to offer free video workshops for people interested in producing programming for Channel Albany. Channel Albany has about $206,000 left in an account that Time Warner Cable set up to purchase equipment when the public access station was initially established. That money can be tapped only for new equipment and studio upgrades, after a full assessment is made. Hyman conceded Channel Albany has a long way to go to meet the standards of other local public access stations. Their aspiration is to develop the sort of community engagement they found on a recent visit to a Brooklyn cable access TV station. "Our goal is to give a new voice to the community," Hyman said. "We want to give coverage and exposure to local events that the mainstream media does not cover." Paul Grondahl is the director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpaul@gmail.com. COHOES Two brothers, each of whom claimed to be the other, will face a judge next week to answer several charges, State Police said When stopped Thursday on Route 787 in Cohoes, neither Shahyer, 25, nor Nauman Hussain, 24, of Gansevoort had identification and were "adamant: in their claims that they were each other, troopers said. The Shanghai municipal government released a negative list for cross-border service trade on Tuesday, the first of its kind in China. A total of 159 detailed regulations have been included in the new negative list, covering 31 industries. The new list defined cross-border service trade as "commercial activities delivered by overseas service providers to consumers in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone". There will be three major business models covered by the new list, including cross-border service directly delivered to the FTZ, overseas service provided to consumers in the FTZ and overseas service delivered via natural persons in the FTZ. Different from service trade negative lists adopted in other parts of the world, which are compiled in descriptive wordings, the new list introduced in the Shanghai FTZ is based on industries. In this sense, the list in Shanghai will be more transparent and can be implemented more easily, said Shen Weihua, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce. Countries and regions which have signed free trade agreements with more favorable opening-up polices for service trade, Closer Economic Partnership Agreement, or Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, should stick to the previous regulations. Wu Qing, vice-mayor of Shanghai, said the newly released negative list will help to speed up the supply-side reform for ongoing service trade in Shanghai and promote the upgrading of foreign trade. For the next step, the municipal government will look to further opening-up in tourism, education, telecommunications, professional services and qualifications for professional technicians in certain areas. "The manufacturing industry has become more service-oriented and the service industry has become more high-end by involving more outsourcing, digitalization and integration with other industries. In this sense, the service trade has become the new driving force of world trade," said Wu. "The introduction of the negative list for cross-border service trade will help China better cope with global economic and trade changes and further integrate into the world value chain. "Given the sluggish world economy and rising trade protectionism, the negative list will help to remove the barriers in service trade and create a more open and free market," he added. Statistics provided by the Ministry of Commerce showed that China's total volume of service trade amounted to $695.68 billion in 2017, up 5.1 percent year-on-year. Shanghai surpassed all other cities in the nation in terms of the transaction volume of service trade, with the number coming at $195.5 billion. Service trade contributed up to 29.1 percent to the city's total outbound trade volume last year. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Shanghai FTZ. The form of negative list, which was first introduced in the Shanghai FTZ in September 2013, has been promoted nationwide. On top of that, there have been 127 reform and innovative policies adopted in the city or all over the country. Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang said at a meeting in late September that the Shanghai FTZ has taken the lead in the country in terms of further reform and opening-up since its establishment. Efforts should be made to accelerate the opening-up in key areas, including the integration between commodity trade and service trade, in order to create an equal, united and highly efficient market environment. ALBANY Advocates are urging Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to sign legislation that would connect rural agricultural businesses in New York with new funding streams. The Rural and Agricultural Jobs Act, sponsored by Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, and state Sen. James Seward, R-Oneonta, was approved by both houses of the Legislature in June. The bill creates a $100 million fund, raised from private investors, to bolster small businesses involved in the manufacturing, processing, or marketing of agricultural products, aquatic products and farm supplies. "The practice of agriculture is deeply embedded in the economic and cultural fabric of New York state, and that legacy lives on in our rural communities," said Woerner, who chairs the Assembly Subcommittee on Agricultural Production and Technology. "Small farms and other family-owned rural businesses create jobs and boost our economy, and I am proud to help them succeed now and for generations to come." Revive Rural New York, which advocates for rural farmers, has been promoting the bill by targeting agriculturally oriented audiences at county fairs, and through an extensive social media campaign effort. Matt Baumgartner, who recently launched June Farms, a farm-to-table concept located in Rensselaer County, said he believes access to capital is a key element to his future growth and vitality. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. "We fall into a gray area with farm banks and commercial banks," Baumgartner said. "Farm banks don't see us as a working farm, because we don't have enough animals. Commercial banks see us as a farm, so they don't lend to agricultural purposes. A fund dedicated to filling that niche can serve as a springboard to expansion." To encourage investment in rural businesses, the bill will also allow some taxpayers who are investors to claim future tax credits over a three-year period. "It is imperative that we attract private venture and growth capital to invest in rural and upstate New York, matching state incentives with private capital," Seward said. "It is time we recognize all of the resources and opportunities that lay dormant." A spokesperson for Cuomo's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NISKAYUNA - A local animal hospital owner at the center of a controversial resolution to make the town's dog barking law stricter submitted plans to build a new business in Clifton Park before the Town Board announced it would reconsider the resolution. Dr. Matthew Pike, the owner of Aqueduct Animal Hospital, presented a concept plan with an initial application to the Clifton Park planning department on June 12 and a revised plan on Oct. 1, according to John Scavo, Clifton Park's planning department director. Pike proposed an 8,290-square-foot single-story, one-building animal hospital and boarding facility at the intersection of Balltown Road and Riverview Road, just over a mile from the business' current location. The site is on an empty lot around 200 feet from a cancer treatment center and across the road from a Stewart's and a golf course. Scavo said there are existing and newly proposed animal hospitals in Clifton Park with no problems. "We have not had the level of complaints in Niskayuna but I don't think there's a project for homes that are put directly adjacent to it," Scavo said. Pike's plan will be reviewed at the Clifton Park Planning Board's Oct. 23 meeting although there will be no vote on that day. Pike had previously submitted proposals to the Niskayuna Planning Board to expand his business and abate dog barking after neighbor complaints, but changes would have required a variance in zoning law. "That was always the hope with it, to be able to build something new. My original plan was more or less to make the town happy and to provide better quality care. If I can build it new, that's better than refurbishing the 50-year-old building," Pike said. "I had to consider an alternative place, but I can't move an animal hospital very far away or I'm essentially starting over." During a heated public hearing on Sept. 26, Pike told the Niskayuna Town Board a proposed change in the town's barking law would threaten his 60-year-old business. Town Supervisor Yasmine Syed said that after the hearing the Town decided not to pursue enacting the proposed code change but discuss, at the committee level, a less ambiguous change. "I wish Dr. Pike all the best in his endeavors to move into a space that better suits his thriving practice," Town Supervisor Yasmine Syed said. "From a planning perspective, it makes sense for Dr. Pike to move into a building that is properly zoned for an animal hospital. Aqueduct Animal Hospital is currently classified pre-existing non-conforming use. As such, zoning laws limit the Town; we can only allow up to a 10% increase in the size of the current structure." Town Board member John Della Ratta said he was sorry to hear the news of Pike's move. "I met with Dr. Pike a number of times and in my last meeting I committed to trying to help him upgrade his property," Della Ratta said. "In fact, one of my colleagues met with the Town Planner last Thursday to discuss how best to work collaboratively with Dr. Pike. I wish him all the best and hope he knows my door always remains open to him." Neighbor Noney Grier, who met with Pike and Town Supervisor Yasmine Syed in April to address complaints about barking, said her issue was never with Pike but with the growth of his business. "It was not an issue when I bought that home," Grier, who has lived neighboring the animal hospital for three years, said. "I wish him luck. I think it's a good thing as it's only two minutes door to door. It should be sufficient." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Current Niskayuna law fines owners if dogs barks for 15 minutes or more without a gap of 30 seconds and can be heard anywhere beyond the owner's property. The proposed resolution would have cut the barking time to 10 minutes and fined owners if their dogs barked intermittently over a period of 20 minutes at night and 30 minutes during the day. Fines are $50 for the first offense, $100 for the second offense and $250 for the third and following offenses. Niskayuna Town Attorney Rob Hess said the town had received more than 100 complaints about dog barking in the last two years from 50 different sources. Town officials and residents said the current law is difficult to enforce. "Quite frankly, I don't know what a change in an ordinance will ever do. It's not a whole lot different and we have an ordinance now that's not being enforced," Grier said. Two dozen residents spoke during a packed 90-minute public hearing at the Niskayuna Town Board meeting on Sept. 26 on the proposed change, some brought to tears before the Town Board. Most were loyal clients of the animal hospital who expressed their support for the business and opposition to the proposed changes. Some said "intermittently" hasn't been defined and feared that neighbors could call the cops on them if their dogs barked once or twice over the course of 20 minutes. Others faulted the town Planning Board for allowing a developer to build a housing development beside an animal hospital and blamed homeowners for buying there and then complaining. Three neighbors voiced their frustrations and expressed hope they could work together for a solution. All are dog owners and one is also a client of the animal hospital. The end of the meeting saw Pike meeting with a neighbor and expressing gratitude that they could come together. In his new business, Pike hopes to have a 1,000 square feet outdoor play area, separate cats and dogs, and utilize the latest shelter medicine to minimize animals' fear and anxiety. He said Clifton Park's Planning Board "has been very welcoming to his business." ALBANY The city's new police Chief Eric Hawkins acknowledged video footage police have to corroborate an Albany detective shooting 19-year-old Ellazar Williams is "inconclusive." But for some residents, the snippet is clear as day - Williams was running away from police when he was shot in the back. "That officer was not scared for his life. That officer was running to him," Clinton Avenue resident Anthony Muhammad said during a Common Council Public Safety Committee meeting Tuesday. "If we are honest with ourselves and slow the video down, you clearly see he never turned toward the officer." Controversy continues to swirl around the Aug. 20 shooting after an internal police investigation that determined Detective James Olsen was justified in shooting Williams during a foot pursuit. Police say Olsen feared for his life when Williams went to "rearm" himself with a knife he reportedly dropped during the chase, describing his movements as "fluid." Officials initially said Williams was running toward Olsen when he was shot behind a school on Elk Street in the West Hill neighborhood. According to police, Williams ran from them following a disturbance at a nearby Central Avenue convenience store where a gun allegedly was displayed. Williams allegedly had a knife when Olsen chased and shot him, according to police. The Albany teen was paralyzed from the chest down from the wound, which police say was a shot to the shoulder, but others have argued was Williams' back. Council members hosted the police chief as well as civil rights leader Alice Green to share their perspectives on the shooting that has some in the community, including Green, seeking more details. Hawkins on Tuesday reaffirmed the report's conclusion. "Based upon the information we had the investigation was procedurally sound," he said. Councilman Derek Johnson, who represents the 2nd Ward in the South End, also was adamant about what the video showed. "It clearly shows the young man was trying to flee police," Johnson said. "The video doesn't show imminent danger." The two-hour meeting consisted of police showing a recording of the September news conference that cleared Olsen using still photos, short video clips and audio leading up to and during the incident. The meeting also included comments from Hawkins, Green as well as those in attendance. Green emphasized the police report lacked all the information to properly determine what transpired that day and she is seeking more information as well as advocating for the state attorney general's office to investigate the shooting. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. "I want to make sure we have all the facts and know what really happened," said Green, who is the executive director of the Center for Law and Justice. The police shooting stands in stark contrast to the June 22 fatal shooting of Schuyler Lake by police inside 61 Partridge St. as he stabbed his mother in the head. Last week, an Albany County grand jury cleared Officer Elston Mackey of criminal wrongdoing in the incident. Hawkins noted that the department's internal investigation is not the last review. District Attorney David Soares' office is investigating the matter and will present its findings to grand jury. The conversation expanded beyond the most recent incident, delving into a larger conversation about how the public perceives young, black men and the use of deadly force in police confrontations. Some people expressed concern about the caller saying the suspects had guns, when there has been no evidence to confirm this. Public Safety Chair and Councilwoman Dorcey Applyrs said trust for police officers by the community must be earned, and everyone must keep in mind the dynamics of situations. "Police have the upper hand almost all the time," she said. "Talking about the community member's perspective ... did you have to use deadly force?" Hawkins said he hoped Tuesday's meeting would allow for continued dialogue and fostering police-community relations. "I heard you very clear, and I don't want anything to be misinterpreted as me being insensitive to anybody. I stand by what I said. It's very, very important that we continue to see both sides," the chief said. "An officer needs to hear what the community is saying and the frustration and the pain, but also the community needs to hear about the challenges and frustrations and some of the things my officers are going through as well. They're both real experiences." Albany A Queensbury man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office and FBI said. Chad Knowlton, 24, also must register as a sex offender upon his release from prison. U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy also sentenced Knowlton to a lifetime of supervised release. Knowlton pleaded guilty on June 12, and admitted using a custom-built desktop computer, equipped with peer-to-peer file-sharing software, to download and distribute child pornography. He also admitted to using a phone to download additional child pornography. Overall, Knowlton downloaded and retained over 1,000 images and videos depicting child pornography, officials said. He also faces state charges alleging sexual abuse of children in Warren County. SCHOHARIE The song "Lean On Me" rang through the high school auditorium as hundreds of people sang in unison. Seven Central Bridge firefighters stood up among the sitting crowd. They embraced each other, as a few of them wept, pressing their heads together -- leaning on each other. "We recognize the scope of this tragedy has touched so many places and so many people," the Rev. Sherri Meyer-Veen, of Schoharie Reformed Church, said. "But we stand together -- acknowledging grief and loss, and together seeking consolation and hope." People who live in the rural community of Schoharie, where 20 people died in Saturday's limousine wreck, gathered Wednesday night at the high school gymnasium to not only show their support for the victims and families they leave behind, but also for the first responders who were at the scene. "It is with heavy hearts that we open our doors to our community tonight," Schoharie Superintendent David Blanchard said at the vigil. "We come together to remember the lives that were lost and to support all those impacted by this recent tragedy in Schoharie." This was the second vigil for the 20 victims. The first one was held Monday in Amsterdam, where most of the victims lived or grew up. Monday's vigil drew thousands of people who were packed on Amsterdam's pedestrian bridge, illuminating it with candles. Wednesday's vigil was originally planned for the Apple Barrel Country Store, the scene of the crash, but was moved due to the massive crowd that was expected. Hundreds attended. During the vigil messages of hope and support were given. Songs including "Amazing Grace" were performed, a moment of silence was held and the names of the 20 victims were read. Also read was a list of first responder agencies that were at the scene. Police, firefighters, EMTs and tow truck drivers were asked to stand as they were met with a standing ovation. "As far as when the grieving is, it's not going to stop," Schoharie Fire Chief Marty Pierce said. "It is going to take time." Pierce said the fire departments have spent the last few days in critical stress debriefing. "We are working on getting back to operating how we were before this," Pierce said. Pierce said while some firefighters are having a hard time, they have received countless messages of support, not only from people in the community but across the nation. "We are leaning on each other," Pierce said. "It's not just police. It's not just fire departments. It's not just EMTs. It's all of us. We are a family. And we are going to get through this together." Funerals for the victims will begin with a private ceremony Friday for Savannah Devonne Bursese. The arrangements are being handled by a funeral home in Gloversville. Funerals will be Saturday and Monday in Amsterdam for other victims. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Seventeen friends from the city and surrounding communities were headed to a Cooperstown brewery to celebrate a birthday when the limousine from Prestige Limo in Wilton crashed at the intersection of routes 30 and 30A in Schoharie. The limo hit a parked car in the lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store, killed two bystanders and then crashed into a ditch. The driver and everyone in the limo died. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who spoke at Wednesday's vigil, said unfortunately they will never find out the reason for why these 20 people were taken so soon. "Why the experience and excursion ended in such a horrific way, shattering lives, and not only leaving a physical wreck but also an emotional wreck left behind," Hochul said. "I don't think we will get to the answer of why, because that was in God's hands." But there is one question she's determined to have answered. "We will find out how," Hochul said. "How that vehicle was on the road, that was not safe to carry individuals." The limousine had failed two state inspections this year. The State Police are conducting a criminal investigation of the crash and the National Transportation Safety Board is conducting its own probe. Nauman Hussain, 28, of Cohoes, the son of the owner of the limo company was arraigned a few miles away in Cobleskill at the same time as the start of the vigil on a count of criminally negligent homicide and released after bail was posted. And while there are still unanswered questions, and some feelings of anger and confusion, the mood of Wednesday's vigil was somber. Family, friends, community members and first responders clutched each other. A banner hung above them that read "Schoharie Valley Strong. We remember the victims. We honor our emergency services first responders." "We will continue to grieve," Hochul said. "Because that meant that these individuals were so deeply loved." Washington Brett Kavanaugh took the bench with his new Supreme Court colleagues for the first time Tuesday in a jovial atmosphere that was strikingly at odds with the tension and rancor surrounding his high-court confirmation. The new justice dived into his new job, asking a handful of questions in the first arguments of the day following a traditional welcome from Chief Justice John Roberts, who wished Kavanaugh "a long and happy career in our common calling." Kavanaugh took his seat at the end of the bench to Roberts' far left, a visible manifestation of a moment that Republicans have dreamed of for decades, with five solidly conservative justices on the court, and Democrats have dreaded. His path to confirmation was turbulent opposition to him intensified after Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexually assaulting her decades ago, when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh denied it. In court, Kavanaugh asked questions of both sides in arguments over increased prison sentences for repeat offenders. He jumped in with his first question after most of the other justices had spoken. Questions from Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's two high-court picks, suggested they could vote against the Trump administration and side with a criminal defendant from Florida who is fighting an increase in his sentence from just over six years to possibly more than 15 years. As Gorsuch did in his first arguments last year, Kavanaugh focused heavily on the importance of following earlier decisions of the court. Both men testified about their respect for Supreme Court precedent, though Gorsuch already has been in the majority to overrule four high-court rulings. Referring to a 2010 decision known as Curtis Johnson, Kavanaugh asked Justice Department lawyer Frederick Liu what the court should do "if we're trying to follow Curtis Johnson strictly?" There were no disruptions in the courtroom, and the justices laughed at one another's jokes. Justice Sonia Sotomayor even appeared to playfully pinch Gorsuch's arm as she asked a question about the kind of physical force necessary to have a crime be treated as violent under a federal enhanced sentencing law. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. When the session came to an end, Kavanaugh shook hands with his new seatmate, Justice Elena Kagan. They also chatted privately before the arguments began. From time to time, Kavanaugh put on reading glasses to glance at papers in front of him. Kavanaugh's wife and two daughters were in seats reserved for justices' guests, along with retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh replaced Kennedy on the bench. There was a long line of people hoping to see Kavanaugh's first appearance. Police put up barricades in front of the court, but there were few protesters in the early morning. Those who were there held signs saying "We will not forget" and "We do not consent," following the acrimonious fight that culminated in Kavanaugh's 50-48 Senate confirmation Saturday. Kennedy's presence in the courtroom underscored the changing of the guard on the bench. Kennedy was a more moderate conservative who sometimes sided with the court's four liberal justices. Albany The SUNY Board of Trustees approved a systemwide policy on Tuesday that restricts and discourages sexual or romantic relationships between professors and students. The policy also sets disclosure requirements for relationships among staffers when one person in the relationship has supervisory power over another. And it calls for schools to train students and staff members to spot, report and prevent harassment. The new policy is the first to set statewide rules on consensual faculty-student relationships or staff relationships. Previously, campuses set their own policies. All campuses have to follow federal Title IX rules against sex discrimination. "This is a systemwide policy that provides uniformity," SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis said. Trustees approved the new rules with almost no discussion, though Liapis noted that the policy has been months in the making. New York state tends to be proactive on such issues, said Tara Richards, a University of Nebraska assistant professor who has studied college policies on harassment and abuse. She pointed to New York's "Enough is Enough" law, passed in 2015, which requires schools to develop a Students' Bill of Rights clearly stating a victim's rights and ability to report to state or local police; to train students, staff and administrators in sexual assault prevention; and to report assault statistics annually, among other mandates. Frederic Kowal, president of United University Professions, which represents professors and other SUNY employees, said his organization welcomed the overall concept. "We think this is a step in the right direction," Kowal said. But he noted that some details, including provisions about potential punishment for violations, would have to be bargained with the union. It wasn't yet clear if those provisions would be worked out on a campus-by-campus or systemwide basis, he said. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Under the new rules, SUNY campuses have until March 1, 2019, to develop their own relationship policies. Those policies must include a ban on relationships between faculty or staff members and students in any situation where there's a supervisory relationship, unless the supervisory role is ended. The rules urge SUNY campuses to consider a ban on all sexual and romantic relationships between faculty or staff and undergraduate students. The policies to be developed by SUNY campuses also must include the disclosure of relationships between faculty or staff members when one partner is a supervisor of the other. Along with disclosure, the rules require changing the supervisory relationship so that the less-senior partner reports to someone else. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-454-5758 @RickKarlinTU A man with ties to Troy and Cohoes is among the fugitives the State Police are seeking as part of the Warrant Wednesday initiative. Troopers warn the public not to take any police action yourself but to contact the nearest State Police agency or email Crimetip@troopers.ny.gov. Chinese netizens under the age of 14 will no longer be allowed to register a micro-blogging account on Sina Weibo, the country's largest and most popular Twitter-like platform, beginning next month, the service provider said on Tuesday. The move is to protect the cybersecurity of youngsters and to help build a clean, healthy, civilized and organized online environment in the future, according to a statement issued by the platform's operator on its official micro blog. But the operator said it is trying to design and develop a special version of the Weibo platform for younger users in line with laws and regulations as soon as possible to ensure that minors are protected more effectively. "We've always paid high attention to protecting the young people, and we never stop our steps to create a better online space for them," it said. "We welcome all users to supervise us and work together with us to make the platform safer and cleaner." Sina Weibo opened to the public in late 2009. By September last year, it had 376 million users per month actively using the service, such as reading information, sharing online posts and making comments, up 27 percent year-on-year, according to a report the platform's data center released at the end of 2017. Among these active users, about 16 percent were under the age of 18, it said, adding more than 56 percent were men. In addition to writing and forwarding information, uploading videos and music, sharing live streaming also has been popular on the platform, it added. Albany A Waterford man was sentenced Wednesday to 36 months in prison for accessing a child pornography website available only through an anonymous Internet network, the U.S. Attorney's Office and FBI said. Brian Napier, 35, also must serve a 20-year term of supervised release after he is released from prison. U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy also ordered Napier to register as a sex offender. As part of his plea, Napier admitted that in 2015, he accessed Playpen, an online forum that allowed registered users to advertise, view and distribute child pornography. Images and videos shared through the site were categorized according to victim age and gender, and type of sexual activity depicted. Before the FBI seized the Playpen website and shut it down, it was available only through an anonymous Internet network. Napier admitted that he logged into Playpen to access its child pornography content. It is quite clear now if it wasnt before - that the Government does not understand the scale of the challenges being faced by the farming sector, either in terms of the 50 per cent fall in income predicted for this current year or the transformational challenges that could follow Brexit next March, according to ICMSA president Pat McCormack. The Tipperary-based farm leader was commenting following the announcement of Budget 2019. Mr McCormack said that farm families can only conclude that the Government had decided that it did not want to support farm families The agenda now seemed to be about enhancing the position of corporate structures and big business over family farms, he said. The ICMSA president said he was reluctant to come to this position, but it was the only logical conclusion to arrive at based on the Budget. Introducing new schemes with more conditions and more inspections along with tweaks of existing schemes wont solve the massive underlying problems and was simply "throwing shapes" rather than providing real solutions for the farming community, he said. "The biggest single-issue facing family farms is income volatility and, as sole traders, the taxation system absolutely hammers farmers trying to make a living in an extremely volatile global food market," said Mr McCormack. He said that ICMSA and others had consistently highlighted this fact and the Government had acknowledged the problem. "As a matter of fact, Minister Creed acknowledged this following the last two Budgets and it is extremely disappointing that he has failed yet again to deliver for farm families on this matter," he said. Mr McCormack said that corporate structures and big business were paying effective tax rates of 1 per cent and yet the Government cannot bring in a simple measure to assist farm families to establish a volatility fund under the supervision of the Revenue Commissioners that could be utilised for difficult years. "One would now have to question at this stage the level of priority that agriculture is getting around the Cabinet table and this should be a matter of concern for everyone in rural Ireland", said the ICMSA president. "The Government has a choice, either support the family farm structure or, in all honesty, tell these farm families that it is going in a different direction. In not introducing an income volatility measure in the Budget, the Government has actually given its answer to that choice, but, out of courtesy if nothing else, they should announce it as Government policy, said Mr McCormack. Fianna Fail Spokesperson on Food and Horticulture, Jackie Cahill has said that the failure of the Government to introduce a low-cost cash flow loan scheme and an income-volatility scheme in taxation will leave many Irish farmers disappointed. "Many farmers, after the Budget, are deeply frustrated. Of course, the 40 suckler cow payment and ANC changes are welcome, but there are many farmers who will not benefit from these changes," said the Thurles-based TD. Deputy Cahill said that a low-cost cash flow loan scheme for farmers was desperately needed. Farmers cash flow was already under severe pressure and low-cost credit was critical to helping them survive. The failure in Budget 2019 to make any progress on this will hurt family farmers. "Additionally, many farm organisations requested the Government to establish a Farm Management Deposit type scheme that would allow farmers put away resources in a government-protected and regulated account in good times. They could then withdraw these resources in leaner times to support their business and pay their taxes. This would not have been overly expensive but would have given some reassurance to farmers," said the FF Deputy. He pointed out that 25 per cent of land was not under the Areas of Natural Constraint, and while the additional 23m for the scheme was welcome, for up to a quarter of Irish farmers it wont do anything for them. "Opportunities were missed to give family farmers a fighting chance," said Deputy Cahill. GARDAI in Nenagh have warned members of the farming community to be vigilant following a number of thefts from farmyards and lands in the locality. On Friday last a galvanized trailer was stolen from a farmyard at Loughan, Dunkerrin, while a trailer and power tools were stolen from a farm near Corville in Roscrea. Gardai are also investigating the theft of farm equipment from a holding at Drominagh, Borrisokane, which occurred on Wednesday of last week. The incidents happened at the same time as one of the country's farming organisation called for better community policing to protect rural Ireland. ICSA rural development chairman Seamus Sherlock has said the rise in robberies in the latest CSO figures for recorded crime are cause for real concern. These figures are alarming to say the least. Robbery implies the use of force and a 15 per cent rise in these types of incidents will no doubt cause widespread fear in rural Ireland where people feel most vulnerable, he said. The statistics released last week also reveal an increase in the level of theft and related offences. Again, those living in rural Ireland will feel most exposed. Incidents of theft have risen to 68,248 in number and we must remember that each of these crimes has an emotional as well a financial impact, said Mr Sherlock. The days of there being a Garda station in every village were long gone, unfortunately, he said, so the onus was very much on remaining vigilant in our own communities. Particularly now as the evenings draw shorter it is vitally important to look out for one another, said Mr Sherlock. These efforts are of course supported by various community policing initiatives. However, something isnt working and people are still living in fear, said the ICSA chairman. Mr Sherlock said that it was clear now that more resources will have to be allocated if there was to be any hope of a meaningful reduction in crime statistics. Meanwhile, significant damage was caused to property in a fire in the eco-village in Cloughjordan on Sunday last. A window in a vehicle parked in the locality was also broken on the same date. In Nenagh, Gardai are investigating a dispute that included an alleged assault, and involving two females, that occurred in Kickham Street in the town on Tuesday of last week. A man who allegedly broke the window of a business premises in Mitchel Street in the town on Wednesday of last week was arrested. He had to be treated in hospital after being cut in the incident. A burglary from a business premises in Carrigatoher on Thursday or the early hours of Friday last is also being investigated. A male was arrested for allegedly being drunk and disorderly in Pearse Street in Nenagh on Friday evening last. A motorist was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving at Stereame on the outskirts of the town on Friday night last, while another was arrested in Terryglass for a similar offence on Sunday. A motorist was also arrested on suspicion of drink driving at Portroe on the same day. Four youths were arrested for allegedly trespeassing on a premises at Lisboney Friday. A number of youths were arrested for a smiliar offence at Whitepark, Roscrea, on Monday. Gardai are also probing damage to a vehicle parked in Summerhill, Nenagh, in recent days. Ask Me Anything: Digium, Sangoma Leaders Discuss the Brands' Future By Erik Linask , Group Editorial Director Yesterdays opening day at AstriCon 2019 the annual Asterisk user conference featured an open mic Q&A session called Ask Me Anything, with leaders from Digium and Sangoma, including Tony Lewis (COO, Sangoma), Matt Fredrickson (Asterisk Project Manager, Digium), Bryan Walters (VP Software Engineering, Sangoma), and Matt Jordon (CTO, Digium). At any other AstriCon, the questions would have focused on the features, functions, and versions of Asterisk and plans for future adaptations. This year, however, in the wake of Sangomas announcement it had bought Digium, it was reasonable to expect several questions about the future of the brands, product lines, and developer programs. Once Asterisk Community Director David Duffett kicked of the session sporting Digium orange pants, the audience did not disappoint. Nor did Asterisk creator Mark Spencer, who entered the keynote hall and was immediately invited to the stage to join the conversation. The open source community is a close one and, naturally, they all were curious to hear about the future of AstriCon and the Digium and Sangoma brands. The bottom line is that, for the time being, things will continue on their current courses. There will naturally be some changes eventually. For instance, AstriCon may have other elements added to it to enhance its value in light of the merger of the two brands, but as Lewis noted, it has been the one place for the Asterisk community to come together for years and he doesnt see that changing. As for the brands themselves, considering there is some overlap with product lines, such as IP phones, Lewis again noted that nothing will change immediately, considering the phones are a significant source of revenue for both companies and each has its own customer base. In the long term, however, maintaining two distinct lines of similar products makes little sense, and he indicated that a decision would be made as to how to consolidate the phone lines other overlapping product lines, and that the logical time frame for such a transition would be in line with product roadmaps over the next several years. Will Digium become Sangoma? According to Lewis, branding discussions have been ongoing, though no decisions have been made. The panel took the opportunity to light-heartedly consider opportunities to keep parts of both brands... Sangomium... Digigoma... Regardless, Huntsville, Alabama will remain a major hub going forward. Lewis noted the lengthy lease in place, but more importantly, the fact that Huntsville is home to more employees that Sangoma has in any other location in the world. Matt Jordon commented that the branding question is largely a question of only that branding and that culturally and technologically, the two companies are extremely synergistic. One of the things that really makes this work is there are a lot of similarities between the two cultures and, regardless of the name thats on the outside, it feels normal. With Mark Spencer on stage, audience members didnt take long to ask him bluntly, Why did you sell? Spencers answer was started with what one might have expected, given his current passions. He has spent nearly two decades watching the Asterisk project he started nearly two decades ago out of necessity grow into its own self-sustaining community. At the same time, Spencer has taken an interest in airplanes and avionics, which has taken up much of his attention. So, in the interest of pursuing the avionics side, while also ensuring the continued growth of Asterisk for a long time, the logical decision was to sell to a stable partner. For his part now, Spencer is leveraging much of what he learned with Digium as he builds a small avionics software company, Avilution. It turns out, avionics is transitioning from hardware to software, where people are looking for high levels of customization, he said. Does this sound like a familiar story? But, he did add that a large portion of his life has been dedicated to Asterisk and Digium, and he wants to see its growth and success continue with this new chapter, and he will keep coming to AstriCon to see the direction the new Digium takes. Whatever that direction ends up being, Lewis says its a natural fit. At the very least, it seems to have been in the cards, considering Spencer ran his very first version of Asterisk on Sangoma hardware. What happens over the next few years remains to be seen, but based on comments from this panel, the future is bright with a dream that, for Sangoma, began with initial conversations at AstriCon two years ago. Please enable JavaScript to view the Edited by Erik Linask October 10, 2018 Looking at the Galaxy S9 on Fonehouse but not quite sure if its the phone for you? Dont be fooled by the phones similar appearance to the S8. Samsung had to do quite a lot to stay competitive with Google and Apple (News - Alert) this year. Speaking of staying competitive, most of the truly impressive options are in the camera department. Lets dive in. 1. The Super Slow Motion Video Capabilities Nowadays, smartphone cameras are expected to rival their traditional counterparts. Samsung (News - Alert) 's newest model is doing just that. Samsungs new Galaxy boasts a camera with the ability to slow down a video clip to 960 frames per second. For the instagram fanatic- this is serious upgrade from the S8s capability. Better yet, Samsung included an automatic detection system that slows the frames down for you. But if you need creative control- you can turn on manual mode and control your own slow-motion settings. 2. An Awesome Variable Aperture Lighting is a constant problem. Even with all the progress smartphones have made in the camera department, its highly likely the complaints you have about your current smartphone revolve around the camera. Say goodbye to frustrating low light settings and concert memories that didnt quite record the way you remembered them. The new S9 has a dual aperture, which lets in 28% more light than the S8s lens. Though the Google (News - Alert) Pixel 2 still has better aperture settings, this is incredible in comparison to competitors. 3. A Better Dual Lens S8 owners are no stranger to blurry selfies. Though there was a front facing camera on the S8, its quality left much to be desired. The difference between the front facing camera and the regular view were astonishing. With this newest model, Samsung has taken the criticism and replaced the terrible front-facing lense with a 2x optical zoom that now only allows for better selfies but much better photos overall. For you Instagram stars that translates to breathtaking portrait features. 4. An Intelligent Scan that is Actually Intelligent The S8 could scan barcodes, infuriate you with Samsung Pay that rarely worked when you needed it, and keep your personal information safe. This go around, Samsung took a deep look into the intelligent scanning features. Instead of asking you to use alternate methods of intelligent scanning, the S9 will automatically employ and facial and iris scanning. If one fails, the other will be used automatically to reduce the amount of your frustration on your end. Dont think we forgot fingerprint scanning. The beloved fingerprint scan will still be available. In fact, youll also be able to use that fingerprint scanner to unlock your phone. 5. Bixby Becomes Useful Though the initial release of Bixby was a bumpy road, many have come to enjoy the assistant. Unfortunately, just as many Samsung S8 users have come to absolutely loathe Bixby. With the new S9, Samsung is making strides to make Bixby legitimately useful by including: Camera translation. Traveling? Dont speak Chinese? Bixby can help. Once youve opened the camera, toggle over to Bixby and point the camera at the sign your struggling to understand. Bixby will translate it. On the go calorie counting. Say goodbye to calorie apps and let Bixby do the work. Once in camera mode, Bixby will give you the calorie counts of foods by simply hovering over them. Makeup and instant purchase. Cant get enough of Sephora? With the new Bixby, you can try on different shades to find your true match. Thanks to a Sephora integration, you can also add those shades to your cart and start collecting more Beauty Insider points. 6. Premium Stereo Speakers The S9s new speaker system is fine-tuned by AKG, a known leader in the audio game. According to Samsung, the speakers are 1.4 times louder than the speakers found on the S8. More importantly, the S9 has leveled the sound on the phone by providing a speaker on top of the phone as well as the bottom. To the untrained ear, you may not notice a different. But if youre an audiophile listening to music on your phone everyday, the difference will astound you. Especially if you listen to his res music or video. 7. New Colors Ask and you shall receive! Samsung advocates have desired new colors for a long time. Though this doesnt make the smartphone any better or worse- its a high selling point for many. The new color sets include: Midnight Black Sunrise Gold Coral Blue Purple In many reviews, youll hear one indisputable fact: The purple is breathtaking in person. If none of the colors suit your tastes, keep your eye out. Sunrise Gold wasnt available until June. Samsung has been known to release limited edition colors as well. If all else fails, there are dozens of phone cases that can fulfill your color needs. Conclusion Long story short? If youre purchasing a phone based on the camera and cant quite swallow the price tag (News - Alert) on the Google Pixel 2, the Samsung S9 is the next best choice. With most of the new features being in the camera department, the newest model from Samsung has take a serious turn towards photo. [October 09, 2018] Sentar Awarded $12.1 Billion U.S. Army Contract Sentar, Inc. (Sentar), a Women-Owned Small Business specializing in advanced Cybersecurity and Intelligence services and technology, announced today the award of a potential nine-year, $12.1 billion multiple award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract from the U.S. Army for Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-3 services, known as ITES-3S. Like its predecessor the ITES-2S, ITES-3S will be managed by the Army's Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) program and is expected to be the Army's primary source of IT-related services worldwide. The contract ceiling value is $25 billion. ITES-3S will provide services to enable a broad range of enterprise-level support services for Information Technology integration and service management activities to the Army, other DoD agencies, and all other Federal agencies. The contract scope includes services and solutions essential to support the Army's enterprise services, encompassing nearly all areas of enterprise IT, including cyersecurity, information systems security, information assurance, and a multitude of business planning, IT administration, and training services. "Sentar is excited to be recognized as a leading small business that can provide the innovation and agility required in today's cybersecurity-intensive IT environment," said Bridget Abashian, CEO and president of Sentar. "We look forward to strengthening our relationship with our Army customers and delivering services essential to the soundness of our Nation's most critical programs for years to come." The ITES-3S IDIQ award is expected to offer various task-order types, including firm-fixed-price, cost-type, and time-and-materials. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 23, 2027. About Sentar, Inc. Founded in 1990, Sentar is a Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) providing advanced cybersecurity and Intel (News - Alert) solutions and services that empower customers to securely leverage computing and network assets to their fullest potential. Sentar's innovative cybersecurity technologies and services protect network and host computer resources from cyber attackers and malicious insiders. Sentar has offices in Huntsville, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; and Columbia, Maryland. For more information, visit www.sentar.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181009006127/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Chinese students are flocking to universities in the United Kingdom in record numbers as British educational institutions increase their overseas marketing efforts to secure funding amid Brexit worries. A report by the lobbying body Universities UK International ahead of the new academic year found that nearly one in five overseas students at UK universities comes from China. In the 2016-17 academic year, UK universities welcomed 95,090 Chinese students, by far the biggest international group. The second-biggest overseas group, from the United States, comprised 17,580 students. Education sector experts said that thanks to the UK government and university strategies that are focused on China, the numbers are set to grow further.In June, new measures took effect to simplify the student visa application process, especially for Chinese students. Another new policy introduced this year allows graduates from 23 UK universities to apply for six-month post-study work visas. The ability to gain valuable work experience in the UK is very attractive for Chinese students and adds value to their resumes even if they return home to work over the longer term. "Universities have been keen to attract Chinese and other international students in recent times because Brexit means many universities could lose research funding from European Union institutions," said Colin Chen, managing director of InterGreat Education Group, a consultancy in London. For example, British universities receive about 15 percent of their funding from the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program, a research fund established to allocate 80 billion euros ($93.6 billion) to cutting-edge scientific research between 2014 and 2020. The universities are anxiously waiting for Brexit negotiations to confirm if they are still eligible for this funding. Faced with this pressure, the universities are increasingly investing in recruitment efforts in China, and establishing research partnerships with Chinese universities. In recent years, more UK schools have been setting up campuses in China, effectively raising the profile of British education. Currently, 296 of the 661 international schools in China teach the British A-level curriculum to students, according to New-School Insight Media, a service platform in Beijing. "Chinese students at these schools will, over time, develop a sense of familiarity with the UK, so the UK becomes a natural destination when choosing to study abroad," Chen said. Student experience Gaining an internationally recognized degree, the opportunity to experience British culture, and developing an international perspective are among the top factors attracting Chinese students to the UK. May Huang, CEO of UK Education Weekly, an education-focused Chinese language publication in London, said: "As China internationalizes, its demand for globally-minded talent has also grown. Therefore, many students want to study abroad to improve their employability, and to build up an international network of contacts who can help them in their careers." The benefits of studying in the UK are being felt by many Chinese students.Zhang Feng, a PhD student at the University of Greenwich, said: "I've never regretted my decision to study in Britain. It was my UK student experience that helped me to find what I wanted to do in life." Zhang first went to the UK in 2013, when he was 23, for a one-year overseas experience during his undergraduate degree studies at Anhui University in Hefei, the provincial capital. He planned to stay for just a year, but instead decided to remain for his master's and doctorate. Looking back, Zhang said the key benefits from his UK study experience were improving his English, critical thinking and research skills, and teamwork and leadership abilities. Yan Feifei, a PhD student at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, said the "incredibly high" academic standards in the UK pushed her to the limit. "I was mentally prepared for a big workload, but I really did not realize how absolutely demanding my classes would be until I started," said Yan, who majors in comparative literature. Every week, she has to read two novels and analyze notes on one poet. All this work equates to about 1,000 pages of reading. Xu Shuning, a mathematics student at Imperial College London, said, "I have developed self-studying abilities, time management skills and communication skills with people from different backgrounds." Behind the increase in outbound Chinese student numbers is the rising wealth of the country's middle class. Huang said, "Overseas education used to be a luxury accessible only by the elite, but now it is common and easily achievable." According to Education Ministry statistics, 544,500 Chinese studied abroad in the 2016-17 academic year, more than three times the 179,800 that sought education overseas in 2008. The US dominates the Chinese outbound student market, followed by Australia and the UK. In the 2015-16 academic year, the US received 291,000 Chinese students, Australia 112,000 and the UK 91,215. In addition to growing student numbers, Huang said new groups of Chinese students in the UK are also arriving in the country at younger ages, making more diverse degree choices. The number of Chinese students applying for undergraduate degrees has grown faster than those applying for master's, and the numbers for arts and social sciences courses are rising faster than for the more historically popular business degrees. "Arriving at a younger age often enables students to stay in the UK for longer and gain a fuller British student life experience," Huang said. "In comparison, those students coming to the UK for just one year to pursue a master's degree may find their experience quite rushed." Whereas 10 years ago about 60 percent of Chinese students in the UK studied economics and business-related subjects, this proportion has dropped to about 40 percent in recent years. Traditionally less-popular subjects, including creative art and design, are now being studied by more students. Huang said: "It is encouraging to see that Chinese students are making more varied choices of subjects. It shows that younger generations of Chinese students are perhaps more independent in their thinking and more informed about subject choices." Universities' perspective For British universities, Chinese and other international students provide a crucial source of income. A recent study by University College London's Centre for Global Higher Education found that overseas students add about 20 billion pounds ($25.54 billion) to the UK economy each year. Jonathan Pitt, international partnerships and recruitment officer at St. Mary's University in London, said international students also contribute cultural diversity to British universities. "Chinese students at our university act as a crucial bridge for our other students to better understand China," Pitt said. "We are also consciously building up our Chinese alumni network. Our Chinese alumni can help our efforts to strengthen our reputation in China, and that can open doors to new joint teaching and research partnership opportunities between us and Chinese universities." Charles Cao Quin, deputy pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Leicester, said, "Chinese students' respect for teachers, their learning attitude and abilities are all qualities that can inspire and encourage their classmates." Ding Shan, deputy general manager of the Walkite International Academy, an education company in London, said that despite the continued growth in numbers, recent terrorist attacks in the UK have worried some prospective students about choosing to study in the country. "Chinese students and parents care very much about safety," said Ding, who provides advice about applying for UK universities. Last year, attacks at Westminster Bridge, the Manchester Arena, London Bridge and a mosque in north London killed 36 people. Ding said: "Recent events have perhaps made some students feel it is unsafe to live in the UK. Therefore, it is not surprising that some choose Australia over the UK, especially if they are looking to stay permanently to work after graduation." [October 09, 2018] GetSwift Appoints Belinda Gibson to Board GetSwift Limited (ASX:GSW) ("GetSwift" or "the Company") today announced the appointment of Belinda Gibson to the GetSwift Board of Directors. Ms. Gibson brings over 30 years of governance, directorship, and corporate advisory experience to GetSwift. Ms. Gibson has extensive securities markets experience including a former role as Deputy Chairman of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission ("ASIC") responsible for capital markets and listed company oversight. GetSwift Chairman Michael Fricklas said, "Today's announcement demonstrates GetSwift's ongoing commitment to a strong and independent Board of Directors. Adding Belinda confirms our commitment to best-in-class governance practices with a majority of independent directors. She has an outstanding reputation that is well-earned and I have enjoyed getting to know Belinda over the past few months. We will be a stronger board by adding her wisdom, experience, talent and spirit." Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Bane Hunter said, "Belinda has an exemplary track record as a director, legal advisor, and leading figure on corporate governance. Her extensive experience working with public companies will provide tremendous value to the Company and its shareholders." Ms. Gibson said, "I am delighted to join GetSwift's Board during such an exciting period of growth for the Company. I have spent considerable time meeting with the Company's directors, management and employees and examining diligence materials. I am very comfortable with the Company's strong commercial and financial position. After reviewing the position over the last couple of months I have a high degree of confidence in Bane, Joel, and the rest of the GetSwift management team, as well as Chairman Michael Fricklas and fellow director David Ryan. I believe the Company has excellent potential for long-term shareholder value creation." Ms. Gibson's distinguished career spans private and public service. She is a company director and corporate advier with extensive experience of the securities and financial markets and particularly regulatory strategy, corporate transactions and governance arrangements. She was a corporate law partner at the leading Australian law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques for 20 years before becoming a Commissioner and then Deputy Chair of ASIC from 2007 to 2013. She is presently a director of Brisbane Airport Corporation, Ausgrid, Citigroup Pty Ltd (Citi's Australian retail bank arm) and Thorn Group. In the past she has served as a director of Airservices Australia and The Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Foundation. She is presently a Trustee of The Australian Museum and the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation. She is a Member of the Chief Executive Women and chaired the CEW Scholarship Committee. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia. Ms. Gibson has a Bachelor of Economics and Laws from The University of Sydney and a Master of Laws from The University of Cambridge. Annexure: Proposed equity grant Subject to receiving shareholder approval, GetSwift proposes to issue an aggregate 300,000 options to subscribe for one fully paid ordinary share each in the capital of the Company (Options). These Options are intended to be offered to Ms. Gibson or her associates, consistent with US market practice for emerging growth companies and consistent with the previous options awards made to David Ryan and Michael Fricklas. In accordance with commentary in the ASX Corporate Governance Council Principles and Recommendations, these securities issued to non-executive directors will not have performance hurdles. Further, they will not vest if the recipient ceases to be a director of the Company. The Options will be granted no later than 1 month following shareholder approval, with an exercise price for each Option being the 30 day VWAP for shares in the Company immediately prior to the grant date. Over 3 years, the Options will vest in equal quarterly instalments, but they may only vest if at the time of the applicable vesting the recipient is still a director of the Company. The Options expire 10 years after their issue date. Adjustments to numbers of options and exercise price are only as permitted under ASX Listing Rules. If the shares resulting from the exercise of the options are issued and not transferred, the Company will immediately apply for quotation of the shares. The Option terms will include acceleration of vesting for change of control or liquidity events. Options are not transferable prior to vesting, other than to estate planning vehicles. At the request of the Option holder and subject to all applicable law, options may be net exercised. About GetSwift Limited Technology to Optimise Global Delivery Logistics GetSwift is a worldwide leader in delivery management automation. From enterprise to hyper-local, businesses across dozens of industries around the globe depend on our SaaS (News - Alert) platform to bring visibility, accountability, efficiency and savings to their supply chain and "Last Mile" operations. GetSwift is headquartered in New York City and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:GSW). For further background, please visit GetSwift.co. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181009006190/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 09, 2018] IDTechEx Research: Boreas Technologies Breathe New Life Into Piezoelectric Haptics BOSTON, Oct. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Haptics as an industry has been resurgent over the last three years. After a long period of relative inactivity where haptics research was confined to a relatively tight group of companies and academics, the industry has been transformed in recent history by significant disruption of traditional markets by newer technology options. Many new players, from the largest OEMs to new emerging start-ups have ridden the wave of interest, funding and growth to develop new advanced haptics solutions. Today sees one of these emerging companies, Boreas Technologies, releasing their developer kits to the public for the first time. IDTechEx spoke to Boreas Technologies' Founder and CEO Simon Chaput about their product and their ambitions to disrupt the haptics market today. Boreas Technologies' product concerns piezoelectric actuators. This technology has long been recognised as being a strong candidate for the creation of so-called "HD haptics" due to their fast response time, wide bandwidths, potential thin form factors and more. However, piezoelectric actuators typically require driving at high voltage, meaning issues with efficiency or distortion can lead to poor power consumption, noise and other challenges. These issues and others have meant that, despite their clear potential, piezoelectric actuators have failed to penetrate the larger main-stream markets in haptics. For more information about the difference in haptics technologies used today, see the IDTechEx report "Haptics 2018-2028: Technologies, Markets & Players". The report contains full assessments of each of the major haptics technologies, including ERM motors, LRAs and other electromagnetic actuators, piezoelectric actuators, shape memory alloys, polymeric haptics, surface haptics and many more. Boreas Technologies aim to help overcome the challenge with piezoelectric actuators. Their product, known as CapDrive (TM) was developed from the ground up to optimise power consumption, minimise noise and have a small form factor. The product was originally developed during Chaput's Ph.D. at Harvard, where the aim was to develop ultra-thin and efficient piezoelectric fns for cooling electronic devices. When commercialising the product, they recognised the potential for disruption in the haptics space, particularly due to the fact that there was only one main manufacturer of drivers suitable for piezoelectric actuators in the market previously. They gained initial validation from various partners and from today, developer kits from Boreas Technologies will be available for testing, allowing a wider community to join their alpha test group in experimenting with this new technology. One particular highlight from IDTechEx's discussion with Boreas Technologies was their target application around so-called "button haptics". This is a popular topic in the industry ever since Apple, the major instigator, replaced their mechanical "home" buttons with solid-state, force sensor-based version backed with their Taptic Engine (LRA haptics). The solid-state button is more reliable, as well as offering some other minor advantages such as the ability to calibrate the force input. The solid-state button works well alongside the Taptic Engine, which is positioned close enough to give realistic, local clicks to indicate levels of activation under pressure from the user. However, with other mechanical buttons throughout the device (volume, power, silent mode, etc.), the logical next step could be to replace these too. However, the central haptic feedback (whether Apple's custom LRA or otherwise) cannot be local to all of these, so the sensation that was so well replaced in the home button cannot be replicated for these other buttons. Therefore, if the desire is also to make these buttons solid-state then an alternative solution for their haptics is required. Boreas Technologies' solution based on piezoelectric ceramic units is certainly not the only solution to emerge. Cambridge Mechatronics have taken their historic experience deploying shape memory alloys (in everything from kettle timers to high-speed rail transmission) and found answers to this problem using carefully controlled, miniature nitinol wires. Novasentis have developed and commercialised layered electroactive polymer films that can be integrated onto the surface of devices to provide completely localised haptic feedback. In other approaches, companies such as Nanoport R&D (part of Nanomagnetics) have developed new versions of electromagnetic actuators, offering similar structure and size to the LRAs of today, but with the ability to generate more custom and varied sensations. Full company profiles based on interviews and demonstrations with each of these companies are available with IDTechEx's market research report "Haptics 2018-2028: Technologies, Markets & Players". In total, 66 companies are mentioned in the report, with full profiles based on interviews with more than 25 different companies. The report offers the most comprehensive overview of the haptics market today, describing the current industry dynamic and the future opportunities in the pipeline from each of the players in this space, with both quantitative and qualitative data provided across each of the technologies, markets and players described. For more information about this report, see more information at the IDTechEx website or contact the authors by email (research@idtechex.com). Media contact Charlotte Martin Marketing & Research Coordinator c.martin@IDTechEx.com +44(0)1223 812300 Related Links Further IDTechEx Research View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/idtechex-research-boreas-technologies-breathe-new-life-into-piezoelectric-haptics-300728191.html SOURCE IDTechEx [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 09, 2018] KKR, IGIS and NPS to Acquire Prime Real Estate Asset in Seoul's Gangnam Business District KKR, a leading global investment firm, together with IGIS Asset Management ("IGIS"), the largest real estate fund manager in Korea, announced today that they have made an investment along with the National Pension Service of Korea ("NPS") to acquire a mixed-use real estate project (the "Asset") under development in the Gangnam Business District ("GBD") in Seoul, South Korea. The project, to be purchased from a consortium led by local engineering firm Daor E&C, is expected to cost approximately KRW 2.1 trillion (US$ 1.9 billion) in total, inclusive of purchase price and further costs to complete. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181009006196/en/ The Asset is located in the heart of the GBD at the intersection of Teheran-ro and Eonju-ro on the former Renaissance Hotel site. Currently under construction, the property will primarily consist of prime grade office space, amenity retail space and a five-star hotel, with a gross floor area of 239,188 square meters and net leasable area of 121,707 square meters. A 20-year master lease agreement for the 263-room hotel has been signed with Shinsegae Chosun, an experienced and best-in-class hotel operator. "We are thrilled to be investing in what we believe will be an iconic property in an excellent location, and to be teaming up with outstanding partners including IGIS and NPS todo so. We look forward to continue building on our global real estate platform by making quality real estate investments in South Korea and throughout Asia Pacific more broadly," said John Pattar, Member & Head of Real Estate Asia at KKR. "We are excited to make this investment along with world-class investment firms KKR and NPS. We expect to develop the property not just as the best real estate asset in South Korea, but also as a landmark building in the global real estate market," said Sock-woo Jung, President of Domestic Investment at IGIS. KKR's investment is being funded from KKR Asian Fund III. The investment is KKR's third real estate investment in South Korea. Previously KKR invested in The-K Twin (News - Alert) Towers, a prime office complex located in Seoul's Central Business District, in June 2014. The-K Twin Towers was sold to Samsung SRA in January 2018 at a record price. Since 2011, KKR has committed approximately US$ 2 billion in equity and debt across nearly 50 real estate transactions in Asia Pacific markets including South Korea, Australia, China, India, New Zealand and Singapore. The firm has a dedicated team of approximately 20 real estate professionals based in Asia Pacific spanning both the equity and credit strategies. About KKR KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic manager partnerships that manage hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns for its fund investors by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside the capital it manages for fund investors and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter (News - Alert) @KKR_Co. About IGIS IGIS, the largest integrated real estate investment and asset management firm in Korea, currently manages real estate assets valued at more than KRW 22.6 trillion (US$ 20 billion; gross asset value). In August 2018, the Institutional Real Estate, Inc. (IREI) named IGIS as the fourth largest real estate manager in Asia in terms of assets under management. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181009006196/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 09, 2018] LeddarTech Appoints New Vice President of Marketing and Communications QUEBEC CITY, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LeddarTech, a Quebec City-based technology company that develops and commercializes high-performance, low-cost solid-state LiDAR sensor development platforms for the automotive industry, is pleased to announce that Daniel Aitken joined its team as Vice-President of Corporate Marketing and Communications. With more than 20 years technology-industry experience, including strategic business development and marketing, Mr. Aitken brings to LeddarTech extensive international marketing experience in the electronics, automotive and component-distribution industry. Mr. Aitken has spent most of his career working in multinational corporations in Canada, Europe and the United States. We are delighted to welcome Mr. Aitken to LeddarTechs leadership team, said Frantz Saintellemy, President and COO. His experience and success in the development of sound and innovative marketing, branding and communications strategies, as well as his leadership abilities, will have a great impact on positioning our automotive LiDAR development platform and its value proposition to the industry, stated Mr. Saintellemy. Prior to joining LeddarTech, Mr. Aitken held a variety of senior positions at high-profile technology companies, including Integrated Device Technology in San Jose, California; ZMDI in Dresden, Germany; as well as Future Electronicsin Montreal, Canada. I am very pleased to have joined LeddarTech, and I look forward to building upon the tremendous momentum that already exists, said Mr. Aitken. LeddarTechs distinct business model, which offers a meaningful solution through the Leddar Engine, an automotive LiDAR development platform that enables the design of differentiated LiDAR solutions tailored to specific autonomous driving applications, provides a unique opportunity to answer present and future LiDAR market requirements. The unique business model of LeddarTech makes for an exciting marketing opportunity, which I look forward to executing, stated Mr. Aitken. About LeddarTech LeddarTech is a specialist in the development of high-performance, automotive grade solid-state LiDAR sensors, and ensuring that these revolutionary products are commercially viable for use in high volume passenger vehicles. The company is responsible for several technological innovations in cutting-edge mobility remote sensing applications. Automotive active safety, autonomous driving, intelligent transportation, inner-city fleet vehicles, and more are being enhanced using novel LeddarTech technologies. Additional information about LeddarTech is accessible at www.LeddarTech.com. Follow LeddarTech on LinkedIn , Twitter , YouTube Contact: Marc Antoine Morin, Marketing Communication Manager, LeddarTech Tel.: +1-418-653-9000, ext. 221 Marcantoine.Morin@Leddartech.com LeddarTech and LeddarTech logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of LeddarTech Inc. All other brands, product names and marks are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks used to identify products or services of their respective owners. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Truechip Successfully Hosted TrueConnect 2018 - The 2nd Annual Technical Conference BENGALURU, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A non-EDA based conference principally designed to address the opportunities and challenges in functional verification, DFT and Physical Design domain Truechip - The Verification IP Specialist - successfully hosted its 2nd Annual Technical Conference, TrueConnect 2018 Enriching Collaboration for Innovative Excellence, at Hotel Radisson Blu, Bengaluru on September 19, 2018. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/524726/Truechip_Logo.jpg ) The conference received an overwhelming response from semiconductor industry veterans and professionals. About 170 delegates attended TrueConnect, from organizations like Western Digital, Qualcomm, Intel, Microsemi, NXP, Broadcom, Infineon Technologies, MediaTek and IBM to name a few. On this occasion, Mr. Nitin Kishore, Founder & CEO, Truechip, said, "This year, the participation was tremendous and highly encouraging. The quality and content of the papers and panel discussions made it engaging and valuable for the participants. The gala networking opportunities made it even more enjoyable and resourceful." Adding to this Mr. Saurabh Agarwal, Head, Marketing and Sales, Truechip said, "TrueConnect 2018, Bangalore 2nd edition was outstanding. This conference has evolved as a brand in itself and I anticipate that the 2019 edition will witness grander rendezvous from the industry patrons." The event observed two keynotes from: Mr. Abhijit Dutta , Director - High voltage AMS, BU Automotive, Site head - NXP Bangalore spoke about the future of mobility and technology behind self-driving cars, and quoted "TrueConnect is an excellent forum to connect with the industry and useful for budding engineers to know the VIP products of Truechip." , Director - High voltage AMS, BU Automotive, Site head - NXP Bangalore spoke about the future of mobility and technology behind self-driving cars, and quoted "TrueConnect is an excellent forum to connect with the industry and useful for budding engineers to know the VIP products of Truechip." Mr. Peter Lefkin , Managing Director, MIPI Alliance highlighted the importance of MIPI in delivering proven solutions to the mobile and mobile-influenced markets and stated, "The networking opportunities provided by TrueConnect ar very important." The DFT and Physical Design track witnessed a panel discussion on physical design on the topic - Trends in physical design & optimization. The panelist included Mr. Pradeep Kothari, Technologist, Western Digital, Mr. Sarvesh Verma, Sr. Design Manager R&D, Intel and Tejinder Garg-Senior Principal Engineer, Broadcom Inc. Succeeding panel discussion was on DFT on the topic - Cell Aware ATPG - the importance in automotive. The panelist included Mr. Ajay Kumar Prajapati, Principal Engineer, Broadcom, Mr. Amit Goyal, Director Engineering, Aricent and Mr. Manmeet, Sr. Engineering Manager, Intel. The Verification Track had the panel discussion on the topic Functional Verification: creativity or challenge of the Future and the panelist were Mr. Baskar Rudhramurthy, Manager, Global Foundries, Mr. Atmanand, Staff ASIC Design Engineer, Infinera India, Mr. Siva Kumar Gowrisetti, Sr Manager, Western Digital and Mr. Sameer Kasture, Technical Lead, Open-Silicon Research Pvt. Ltd, a SiFive company. TrueConnect 2018 also had many technical paper presentations, adjudged by Mr. Omprakash Jha, Principal Engineer, ASIC Verification, Western Digital and Mr. Rajan Aggarwal from Intel. The best paper presentation 1st prize in Verification Track was given to Anshul Goel from NXP India for the paper titled 'Change agnostic testbench strategy to manage unforeseen requirements'. The 2nd prize was awarded to Abhishek Singh, Sukhjeet Singh and Suyash Jain from Truechip for the paper titled 'Effective verification techniques for system on chip'. The 3rd prize was awarded to Jayakanthan Arthanari and Vallivelraja Ponnudurai from Western Digital for the paper titled 'Implication & modus operandi applied for parallel register access WR/RD'. The best paper presentation 1st prize in DFT/PD track was given to Abhishek Bhattacharya and team from Broadcom for the DFT paper titled 'IO Test for scan pads'. The event also witnessed a hilarious show from Bangalore's no. 1 standup comedian Dr. Jagdish Chaturvedi who entertained the guests. About Truechip: Truechip, The Verification IP Specialist, is a leading provider of Verification IP solutions, which aid to accelerate IP/SOC design thus lowering the cost and the risks associated with the development of ASIC, FPGA and SoC. Truechip with its global development center in India serves over 50 customers in 7 countries including US, Israel, Taiwan, France, Germany, India and China in their Verification IP needs. The company participates in numerous global events including DAC, DVCon, MIPI DEVCON and SemIsrael. The team consists of over 150 engineers with an average experience of five years. Truechip has been serving customers for almost a decade in VLSI and offers the industry's first 24x5 technical supports. Follow us: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube Website: http://www.truechip.net | http://www.truechipconnect.com For more information: Phone : +1-917-6688-510|+91-120-422-7550 Email : media@truechip.net | info@truechipconnect.com Media Contact: Saurabh Agarwal saurabh.agarwal@truechip.net +91-97185-92036 Marketing Head, Truechip Solutions [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] With the new version of HALOCORE, data exports from SAP are automated and provided with the appropriate document protection of the new Microsoft Information Protection SDK without changing the workflows. Its unique integration with Microsoft Azure Information Protection (AIP) also ensures that common office applications recognize and automatically apply the security classifications of each file. SECUDE shares Microsofts vision of protecting customers sensitive data so we see HALOCORE as a natural bridge that connects Microsoft Azure Information Protection with SAP applications security control mechanism and as such a mutually beneficial proposition, says Gagan Gulati, Head of Product for Azure Information Protection at Microsoft Corp. With HALOCORE 5.1 ??SECUDE offers an intelligent software solution that controls the export of sensitive data from the SAP systems. On the basis of a company-wide data classification, the rights for data exports from SAP can be determined individually, the download of especially sensitive data can be limited and a clear follow-up of all data transactions can be carried out. One of the main objectives of SECUDE is to simplify the automation of HALOCORE. HALOCORE 5.1 ??is based on new, powerful rules and configuration templates (available for SAP HR and SAP FI / CO) to easily meet classification and reaction requirements, even in complex use cases. This new "engine" also provides the foundation for forthcoming automation initiatives that incorporate machine learning concepts. About SECUDE SECUDE is an established global security solutions provider offering innovative IT data protection for users of SAP software. Founded as a joint venture between SAP and Fraunhofer Institute in 1996, SECUDE maintained a close SAP technology partnership and became a reliable resource for security solutions for the SAP market with Single Sign-On for SAP, which was acquired by SAP in 2011. With a focus on making business process for data protection efficient and automated with little or no user interference, SECUDEs goal is to provide ease of use while minimizing cost of rollout and operations. Leveraging its 20-plus years of experience in SAP security and business process know-how in protecting enterprise IP and data, SECUDE launched HALOCORE as a holistic approach to protect SAP data exports. SECUDEs solutions are trusted by many Fortune 500 and DAX listed companies. With branches in Europe, North America and Asia, SECUDE supports customers with the implementation of IT security strategies through a global network. For more information, visit www.secude.com and follow our social media channels: LinkedIn , Twitter , and YouTube . For more information, write to communication@secude.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] ACCESS to Collaborate with LeapMind to Implement AI on Numerous IoT Devices with Low Power Consumption TOKYO, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ACCESS CO., LTD. (https://www.access-company.com/en/) announced on October 10 that LeapMind Inc. (https://leapmind.io/en/) based in Tokyo has entered into a collaboration agreement with ACCESS as an artificial intelligence (AI) technology partner for NetFront (TM) EdgeAI, a comprehensive solution that integrates edge-computing technology with AI technology to achieve high-speed, real-time AI processing on edge devices. The number of IoT devices is increasing globally. It is predicted that approximately 30 billion IoT devices (*1) will be connected by 2020, ranging from high-spec and high-end devices such as connected cars to low-end devices with limited power consumption and footprints such as surveillance monitors, small cameras and drones. The market expects AI technology to be combined with the ever-increasing number and types of IoT devices to drive take-up and effectiveness. Demand is expected to be particularly high for the provision of tools to implement AI technology to achieve real-time image recognition on IoT edge devices and manage them in an efficient, secure and safe manner. In light of this, ACCESS and LeapMind have entered into a collaboration agreement to provide a solution that combines ACCESS' advanced technology for managing edge devices in the cloud remotely with LeapMind's advanced model compression technology. LeapMind's advanced model compression technology equips small computing environments, including low power consumption SoC FPGAs, with deep-learning inference algorithms. Specifically, the combination of ACCESS' NetFront (TM) EdgeAI with LeapMind's DeLTA-Lite will be provided as a comprehensive solution for building deep-learning models, distributing them to each edge device and updating them, thereby helping companies efficiently deploy and operate IoT solutions. Targeting low-cost, low-power consumption edge devices, this solution makes it possible to implement recognition features on various edge devices such as small cameras that were not previously able to utilize deep learning. Image1: Combining ACCESS' NetFront (TM) EdgeAI with LeapMind's DeLTA-Lite https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M101129/201810048811/_prw_PI1fl_iA05iMBm.png Soichi Matsuda, CEO of LeapMind, said: "I am sure that this collaboration with ACCESS will accelerate the implementation of Deep Learning of Things (DoT), in which deep learning technology is applied to all kinds of objects. Going forward, LeapMind will strive to make complex and cmplicated deep learning 'compact and simple' and embed it to the real world." Michi Uematsu, CTO of ACCESS, said: "This collaboration with LeapMind makes it possible to actively implement AI technology on embedded devices. ACCESS has been continuously transforming society by providing Internet technology to various embedded devices. By providing IoT devices powered by LeapMind's AI technology for embedded devices and ACCESS's edge-computing technology for embedded devices, we will keep improving everyone's daily life." ACCESS and LeapMind will provide this integrated solution to several companies in advance as a pilot test and will offer it officially by the end of the year to factories, warehouses, logistics, security and other fields that are working to equip their numerous IoT devices with AI. Image2: Examples of solutions that combine the two companies' technologies https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M101129/201810048811/_prw_PI2lg_14h0E063.png Roles of the two companies ACCESS Provide NetFront (TM) EdgeAI, a solution for dramatically reducing processes in the cloud and achieving fast, real-time processing that is not dependent on any network environment, by equipping edge devices with AI features. LeapMind Provide DeLTA-Lite, a solution for building embedded deep learning models that does not require programming. Products provided NetFront EdgeAI: Composed of NetFront (TM) Agent and ACCESS Connect (TM). NetFront Agent is one of the world's smallest managed computing engines and was developed based on the proprietary engine of NetFront (TM) Browser, a well-established product that has been implemented in more than 1.5 billion devices around the world. ACCESS Connect is a one-stop platform that provides backend systems required for developing and operating IoT services. Learn more about NetFront Agent: https://www.access-company.com/en/products/iotdevice/netfront-agent/ DeLTA-Lite: A web-based solution for building embedded deep learning models that does not require programming. This makes it possible to run deep learning models on palm-sized devices by simply preparing training data and hardware for implementing it. With DeLTA-Lite, you do not need to write a program code, thereby shortening the time to complete the process from building a model to verifying it on hardware. Learn more about DeLTA-Lite: https://delta.leapmind.io/lite/en/ (*1) Edited based on the source: "White Paper by Information and Communications in Japan Year 2017." http://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/whitepaper/ja/h29/html/nc133100.html (Japanese) About ACCESS Since 1984, ACCESS CO., LTD. (Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Index, 4813) has provided advanced IT solutions centered around mobile and network software technologies to telecom carriers, consumer electronics manufacturers, broadcasting and publishing companies, the automotive industry, and energy infrastructure providers around the world. The company develops mobile software solutions that have been installed on over 1.5 billion devices, and network software solutions that have been used by over 300 telecommunication equipment manufacturers. Utilizing its network virtualization technology skills and knowledge, the company is currently focusing on the development and commercialization of Internet of Things (IoT) and media solutions that combine embedded and cloud technology. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the company operates subsidiaries and affiliates in Asia, Europe and the United States to support and expand its business globally. Learn more about ACCESS at https://www.access-company.com/en/ About LeapMind Inc. LeapMind conducts research and development of deep learning solutions for embedded devices and achieve Deep Learning of Things (DoT), in which deep learning is applied to all types of objects. By improving neural network models and conducting independent algorithm research for both software and hardware, the company has developed key technologies to run deep learning on edge devices even in a small computing environment with a limited power capacity, such as low power consumption FPGAs. LeapMind leverages this unique technology to provide one-stop solutions for building models, compressing/optimizing them, and implementing them on edge and embedded devices. https://leapmind.io/en/ https://delta.leapmind.io/lite/en/ (C) 2018 ACCESS CO., LTD. All rights reserved. ACCESS, the ACCESS logo, NetFront, and the ACCESS Connect logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of ACCESS CO., LTD. in the United States, Japan and/or other countries. All other trademarks, logos and trade names mentioned in the document are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE ACCESS CO., LTD. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] InfluxData Integrates With Google Cloud IoT Core to Improve Users' IoT Environments With Expanded Data Collection and Analysis Google (News - Alert) Cloud NEXT London - InfluxData, the modern Open Source Platform built specifically for metrics, events and other time series data that empowers developers to build next-generation monitoring, analytics and IoT applications, today announced the availability of a new Telegraf agent for Google Cloud IoT Core. Now Google Cloud IoT Core users can get better insight and analytics from their IoT environments by using the leading time series database solution to provide continuous insight, improve operational efficiency, and better optimize their businesses with real-time decision making and control. Google Cloud IoT Core is a complete set of tools to connect, process, store, and analyze data both at the edge and in the cloud. InfluxData's Telegraf is a plugin-driven server agent for collecting and reporting metrics and data. With this new Telegraf plugin, organizations can derive value by monitoring and tracking sensor data, using historical data from sensors to gain insights that can be applied to current situations (predictive maintenance, optimized traffic routing), and delivering automated action and control (such as shutting down a leaking water pump) with no human interaction. Google Cloud IoT Core can help customers maximize ROI of their IoT applications by capturing, understanding and acting on data collected from IoT devices and sensors in real time. "InfluxData's ability to integrate with Google Cloud IoT Core enables us to address the time series data collection and analysis needs of IoT customers, and we are pleased to be a new contributing member to the Google Cloud IoT ecosystem," said Sharjeel Noor, Senior Director, Platform & Partnerships at InfluxData. "This effort fits with our IoT strategy where we focus on being the data services platform of choice, and offer these benefits as a part of larger ecosystems, such as Google Cloud." IoT ROI is only as good as the real-time data collected and available to be analyzed for real-time decision making. IoT data is time series data, and InfluxData delivers the leading Time Series Platform that ensures data is collected and analyzed in real-time. InfluxData provides the data services layer to Google Cloud IoT Core that allows users to collect time series data for instrumenting, observing, learning and automating any system. Since the Telegraf project's inception, the majority of the 160 plugins available today have been built by the community and not InfluxData engineers, demonstrating the vibrant contributions from its community. Subject matter experts easily create new Telegraf plugins helping the community quickly collect a wider range of metrics. As a result, any updates to existing plugins or the introduction of new plugins are available to customers, including Google Cloud IoT Core customers, in real time to quickly gather custom metrics about their workloads. Google Cloud IoT Core customers can be up and running in a few hours to easily collect and store their IoT data in a purpose-built time series database within the Google Cloud IoT ecosystem for alerts, monitoring and real-time decision makig. In addition, now Google Cloud users have one-click access to InfluxData's Time Series Platform for collection and analysis of metrics and events data for real-time decision making through InfluxData's new Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Marketplace listing at https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/details/influxdata-public/influxdb-enterprise-byol. Users can find simple one-click configuration available for the Telegraf-InfluxData-Grafana VM package. In the future, several popular one-click configurations such as the Prometheus-InfluxData-Grafana VM package are also planned for release. This furthers InfluxData's mission to help developers get to results faster by providing automated provisioning mechanisms on their favorite cloud platform. InfluxData delivers a modern IoT data platform built from the ground up to support organizations looking to best leverage the wealth of IoT data delivered from their devices and sensors to provide an advantage for their customers. IoT data is unique in that sensors deliver time-stamped or time series data to measure change over time, the data is streamed relentlessly from sensors, and sensors capture and emit data in real time. With InfluxData, companies always have a direct view into the state of each of their devices and sensors so changes can be made to keep services running efficiently. Its InfluxDB database is the overwhelming leader among Time Series Database management systems, according to DB-Engines' latest results. InfluxData has rapidly built its developer and customer base across industries - including manufacturing, financial services, energy, and telecommunications - by delivering the fastest growing Open Source (News - Alert) Platform that enables customers to derive better business insights, data-driven real-time actions, and a consolidated single view of their entire infrastructure - from applications to microservices, and from systems to sensors. More than 420 customers, including Cisco Systems, Coupa Software, IBM (News - Alert) , Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Nordstrom, and Tesla have selected InfluxData as their modern data platform for metrics and events. InfluxData is pioneering the shift to time series in a modern metrics and events platform, and is making it possible for customers to become data-driven and take on digital transformation initiatives. About InfluxData InfluxData, the creator of InfluxDB, delivers a modern Open Source Platform built from the ground up for analyzing metrics and events (time series data) for DevOps and IoT applications. Whether the data comes from humans, sensors, or machines, InfluxData empowers developers to build next-generation monitoring, analytics, and IoT applications faster, more easily, and to scale delivering real business value quickly. Based in San Francisco, InfluxData's more than 420 customers include Cisco, eBay, IBM and Siemens. Visit https://www.influxdata.com/. Twitter (News - Alert) : @influxdb. InfluxData, InfluxCloud, InfluxDB, InfluxEnterprise, and Telegraf are all trademarked by InfluxData. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005266/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] AIIA.net: 7 Global 5,000 Corporate Enterprise Practitioners Speaking on AI EMEA LIVE, 5th-7th November LONDON, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Corporate enterprise practitioners discuss how best to incorporate cognitive solutions into their AI & Intelligent Automation plans The AI & Intelligent Automation Network has released the initial program for AI EMEA LIVE November 5-7, 2018 - a digital event focused on the future of AI within corporate enterprise. TOPICS INCLUDE: AI Potential vs. AI Reality Building Your Team To Tackle Your Unstructured Data Now Scaling Automation Through "Agile-Outsourcing" Marching Towards Digital Transformation Editor-in-Chief, Seth Adler noted the importance of the gathering, "AI & Intelligent Automation corporate enterprise practitioners are setting their sites on a future that alows artificial intelligence to learn and assist in decision-making. AI EMEA LIVE provides a program for those practitioners to discuss how to incorporate cognitive solutions into their current intelligent automation plans." SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Aric Dromi , Chief Futurist, Volvo , Chief Futurist, Volvo Marcin Nowakowski , Change Management Lead, BNP Paribas , Change Management Lead, BNP Paribas Ali Khaled Alhashmi , SVP & Head of HR & CoE Group, Union National Bank , SVP & Head of HR & CoE Group, Union National Bank Deepak Subbarao , Digital Transformation Lead, Zurich Insurance Co. , Digital Transformation Lead, Zurich Insurance Co. Bob Kurpershoek , Dir. Innovations & Strategic Initiatives, NBCUniversal Media , Dir. Innovations & Strategic Initiatives, NBCUniversal Media Anshul Srivastav , CIO, Information Technology, Union Insurance , CIO, Information Technology, Union Insurance Vivek Nair , Head of Analytics, South East Asia , Visa Corporate enterprise practitioner speakers are joined by leading solution providers for the event. SPONSORS INCLUDE: Automation Anywhere Hexaware JiffyRPA (Option 3) Edgeverve ABOUT The AI & Intelligent Automation Network The AI & Intelligent Automation Network is a community of corporate enterprise practitioners discussing how best to achieve true enterprise digital transformation. Useful links: https://ai-intelligent-automation-emea.vfairs.com SOURCE AI & Intelligent Automation Network [October 10, 2018] Cloud Foundry 2018 European Summit Begins in Switzerland, Launches Certified Systems Integrator Program BASEL, Switzerland, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Foundry Foundation , home of a family of open source projects including Cloud Foundry Application Runtime, Cloud Foundry Container Runtime and Cloud Foundry BOSH, opened its European Cloud Foundry Summit in Basel, Switzerland today, with news from organizations including CGI, evoila, Grape Up, Huawei, IBM, ITQ, Pivotal, Snyk, Stark & Wayne, SUSE and Swisscom in addition to the Foundation's official launch of its Certified Systems Integrator Program . The 2018 European Summit is taking place today through October 11 and is supported by Platinum sponsors Dynatrace, Pivotal, SAP and Swisscom. "Our members continue to astound me with new innovations around Cloud Foundry. It's absolutely thrilling to see the momentum of the Cloud Foundry ecosystem accelerate across the globe -- to Europe, where we're hosting a sold-out Summit, and of course to China, where Cloud Foundry is powering the country's first industrial internet platform," said Abby Kearns, Executive Director, Cloud Foundry Foundation. "Our new Certified Systems Integrator Program recognizes the engagement of our committed community while enriching the experience of using The Foundry, the largest open source marketplace in existence, for everyone involved." Foundation news includes: The Foundation announced the Cloud Foundry Certified Systems Integrator program, designed to help Systems Integrators (SIs), consultancies and professional services organizations highlight their expertise working with the Cloud Foundry family of technologies. These organizations have demonstrated contributions to the Cloud Foundry community through contributing code, hosting meetups, public marketing of the platform, Foundation membership and more. For more certification requirements, please visit the Certified SI webpage . Cloud Foundry Certified SIs will receive the following benefits: Top-level visibility in The Foundry, the largest open source marketplace in existence An official Cloud Foundry Certified SI badge to use in their marketing material Reseller discounts for Cloud Foundry Certified Developer exams The Foundation also announced two new projects -- Eirini and CF Containerization -- have been accepted as incubating projects by the Project Management Committees (PMCs) , which oversee platform engineering of the open source projects, in order to further the interoperability of Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes. Additionally, the Foundation announced that Cloud Foundry technologies are powering INDICS, China's first industrial internet platform. Launched by CASICCloud, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, INDICS is currently the only industrial cloud platform in China that provides smart, collaborative and cloud-based manufacturing. Cloud Foundry has been instrumental in the development of INDICS and will continue to be the engine driving China's manufacturing industry towards complete digitization. Finally, the Foundation announced HCL Technologies has joined as a Gold membe. HCL is a Systems Integrator in the Cloud Foundry ecosystem with a global network of Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies. Foundation member news includes: CGI announced it has received the 2018 Partner Award for "Systems Integrator of the Year for Platform Scale" presented by Pivotal Software Inc. CGI drives platform adoption and supports legacy transformation at scale by integrating the Cloud Foundry platform into the CGI IT modernization approach. announced it has received the 2018 Partner Award for "Systems Integrator of the Year for Platform Scale" presented by Pivotal Software Inc. CGI drives platform adoption and supports legacy transformation at scale by integrating the Cloud Foundry platform into the CGI IT modernization approach. evoila announced the release of new Service Brokers, expanding its service catalog. The newly offered services include OSB Autoscaler, an application autoscaler; OSB Log Metric, a logging framework allowing easy and in-depth monitoring of applications; and OSB CouchDB, a CouchDB service broker capable of shared and dedicated deployments. announced the release of new Service Brokers, expanding its service catalog. The newly offered services include OSB Autoscaler, an application autoscaler; OSB Log Metric, a logging framework allowing easy and in-depth monitoring of applications; and OSB CouchDB, a CouchDB service broker capable of shared and dedicated deployments. Grape Up announced the upcoming launch of its open cloud platform Cloudboostr, an integrated stack of open source technologies, including Cloud Foundry Application Runtime and Cloud Foundry Container Runtime fused together to allow companies to run any workload in the cloud and unlock their full potential. Businesses of all sizes can now enjoy an error-free environment thanks to the ready-to-use templates, proven architectural patterns, and cloud best practices. announced the upcoming launch of its open cloud platform Cloudboostr, an integrated stack of open source technologies, including Cloud Foundry Application Runtime and Cloud Foundry Container Runtime fused together to allow companies to run any workload in the cloud and unlock their full potential. Businesses of all sizes can now enjoy an error-free environment thanks to the ready-to-use templates, proven architectural patterns, and cloud best practices. Huawei announced Huawei Cloud has become one of Cloud Foundry's infrastructure providers. By creating a Cloud Provider Interface (CPI) for Cloud Foundry BOSH, users can now run the Cloud Foundry Application Runtime (CFAR) and other BOSH deployable workloads. Huawei Cloud is a stable, secure and sustainable cloud platform, offering a comprehensive suite of online cloud computing and AI services to power its customers' business. has become one of Cloud Foundry's infrastructure providers. By creating a Cloud Provider Interface (CPI) for Cloud Foundry BOSH, users can now run the Cloud Foundry Application Runtime (CFAR) and other BOSH deployable workloads. is a stable, secure and sustainable cloud platform, offering a comprehensive suite of online cloud computing and AI services to power its customers' business. IBM announced the general availability of IBM Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment, which allows users to create and manage isolated Cloud Foundry environments for hosting applications exclusively for their organizations. It provides on-demand, self-service provisioning, elastic consumption and complete access to administrative capabilities. the general availability of IBM Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment, which allows users to create and manage isolated Cloud Foundry environments for hosting applications exclusively for their organizations. It provides on-demand, self-service provisioning, elastic consumption and complete access to administrative capabilities. ITQ announced it is bringing Cloud Foundry and BOSH to the ARM64 platform, enabling workloads to run on more cost- and power-efficient enterprise-grade servers such as the Cavium ThunderX line. announced it is bringing Cloud Foundry and BOSH to the ARM64 platform, enabling workloads to run on more cost- and power-efficient enterprise-grade servers such as the Cavium ThunderX line. Pivotal announced it is incorporating the Cloud Foundry Foundation's Cloud Foundry for Developers course and the Cloud Foundry Certified Developer certification program into its professional training and certification programs. Additionally, Pivotal has announced it will donate a newly developed Cloud Foundry BOSH course to the Cloud Foundry Foundation. announced it is incorporating the Cloud Foundry Foundation's Cloud Foundry for Developers course and the Cloud Foundry Certified Developer certification program into its professional training and certification programs. Additionally, Pivotal has announced it will donate a newly developed Cloud Foundry BOSH course to the Cloud Foundry Snyk announced it is launching a free-tier version of its container vulnerability management solution in general availability. Snyk's container vulnerability management solution allows developers to scan, find and fix vulnerabilities in their Docker container images, empowering developers to fully own the security of their Dockerized applications. announced it is launching a free-tier version of its container vulnerability management solution in general availability. Snyk's container vulnerability management solution allows developers to scan, find and fix vulnerabilities in their Docker container images, empowering developers to fully own the security of their Dockerized applications. Stark & Wayne announced a multi-tiered cloud solution to ensure client success by eliminating the problem of keeping their platforms upgraded and maintained. This solution will reduce requests for platform support while saving clients time and money. announced a multi-tiered cloud solution to ensure client success by eliminating the problem of keeping their platforms upgraded and maintained. This solution will reduce requests for platform support while saving clients time and money. SUSE announced a new Kubernetes-native implementation of the popular Cloud Foundry development model is coming to SUSE Cloud Application Platform, advancing the company's drive to help enterprises accelerate application delivery, speed innovation and increase business agility. SUSE is committed to including technology from open source Project Eirini that allows Kubernetes to be used as the container orchestration engine for deploying and managing applications through Cloud Foundry. announced a new Kubernetes-native implementation of the popular Cloud Foundry development model is coming to SUSE Cloud Application Platform, advancing the company's drive to help enterprises accelerate application delivery, speed innovation and increase business agility. SUSE is committed to including technology from open source Project Eirini that allows Kubernetes to be used as the container orchestration engine for deploying and managing applications through Cloud Foundry. Swisscom announced new Container Services with Kubernetes based on Pivotal Container Service (PKS), allowing users to leverage a 100% native Kubernetes interface and tooling. This is an addition to its cloud portfolio as the next evolutionary step after virtual machines for today's IaaS customers and has a positive effect on efficiency and productivity in operations and software development. More than 1,000 enterprise developers, architects, engineers and executives from around the world are expected to attend the Basel Summit. Attendees will learn about Cloud Foundry from those who build and use it every day. They will join other developers, end users and CIOs to gain first-hand access to Cloud Foundry roadmaps, training and tutorials, and to see how others are using Cloud Foundry to support continuous innovation and application portability. On Thursday, Cloud Foundry Foundation will host its fourth annual European diversity luncheon at Summit, which will include a screening of an episode from the docuseries The Chasing Grace Project , written and directed by Jennifer Cloer, co-founder of Wicked Flicks Productions. Registration for the luncheon is still available. Tuesday's Hackathon winners will be announced on-stage during Thursday morning keynotes. The winning Hackathon team from the 2018 Boston Summit will join Chip Childers on-stage during keynotes to discuss their project and are featured in the Experiments & Extensions track. Find the full schedule here . Cloud Foundry is an open source technology backed by the largest technology companies in the world, including Cisco, Dell EMC, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Microsoft, Pivotal, SAP and SUSE, and is being used by leaders in manufacturing, telecommunications and financial services. Only Cloud Foundry delivers the velocity needed to continuously deliver apps at the speed of business. Cloud Foundry's container-based architecture runs apps in any language on your choice of cloud Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack, VMware vSphere, and more. With a robust services ecosystem and simple integration with existing technologies, Cloud Foundry is the modern standard for mission critical apps for global organizations. About Cloud Foundry Foundation The Cloud Foundry Foundation is an independent non-profit organization formed to sustain the development, promotion and adoption of Cloud Foundry as the industry standard platform for cloud applications. Cloud Foundry makes it faster and easier to build, test, deploy and scale applications. Cloud Foundry is hosted by The Linux Foundation and is an Apache 2.0 licensed project available on Github: https://github.com/cloudfoundry. To learn more, visit: http://www.cloudfoundry.org. Contact: Caitlyn O'Connell Cloud Foundry Foundation PR@cloudfoundry.org View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cloud-foundry-2018-european-summit-begins-in-switzerland-launches-certified-systems-integrator-program-300728303.html SOURCE Cloud Foundry Foundation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A procuratorate in Lushan county, Henan province, initiated public prosecution of a teenage rape suspect on Tuesday, in the wake of a huge public uproar over an earlier announcement that the two families involved reached a settlement through the procuratorate's mediation efforts. In a statement issued by the Henan Provincial People's Procuratorate, which oversees the Lushan procuratorate, the procuratorate said the wording of the earlier announcement was "incorrect" and caused "very bad social influence". It was also wrong to report on the case when it is still unfinished. On July 17, Lushan police detained a 16-year-old boy who was suspected of raping a 17-year-old girl. The Lushan procuratorate approved the arrest on July 24. The Lushan procuratorate had said on Sept 19 the boy was released on bail on Aug 27 pending trial, after the two families reached an agreement mediated by the procuratorate. The suspect's family paid the victim's family 80,000 yuan ($11,560) in compensation. The county procuratorate also said it had received a pennant of gratitude from the suspect's mother in an article published via its social media, with a photo of the prosecutors holding the pennant. "My son finally went back to school. We cannot be more grateful to the prosecutors," the article quoted the suspect's mother as saying. The parents of both families "buried the hatchet" under the advice of the prosecutor, said the article, which enumerated the procuratorate's efforts to arrange a settlement between the two sides. The article quickly drew a backlash from the public, who questioned how a criminal case like rape could be reconciled. Zhang Jianwei, a law professor at Tsinghua University, told China National Radio that out-of-court settlement is possible for some criminal cases. However, it is usually not applicable to felony cases such as rape. Prosecutors may have taken the fact that the suspect is a minor into consideration in this case, he said. The Henan procuratorate said the boy is a middle school student and confessed his guilt. After the approval of the victim's family, he was released on bail according to law. Zhang Ping, a publicity official from the Henan Provincial People's Procuratorate, said "release on bail pending trial" doesn't mean the case is over. However, the procuratorate in Lushan used many incorrect wordings that gave the impression that the case was over and no charges would be brought against the boy, Zhang said. The provincial procuratorate has ordered the Lushan procuratorate to strengthen the training of its staff. [October 10, 2018] SMIC Announces Third Quarter 2018 Webcast Conference Call SHANGHAI, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Please join SMIC's earnings conference call, with: Dr. Zhao Haijun, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Dr. Liang Mong Song , Co-Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director , Co-Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Dr. Gao Yonggang, Chief Financial Officer, Strategic Planning Executive Vice President, and Executive Director Tim Kuo , Director, Investor Relations as they announce the company's third quarter 2018 results and take questions from investors on Thursday, November 8, 2018. The third quarter 2018 results will also be released and available at http://www.smics.com before the start of trading on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on Thursday, November 8, 2018. CONFERENCE CALL / WEBCAST ANNOUNCEMENT DETAILS DATE: Thursday, November 8, 2018 TIME: 8:30 A.M. (Shanghai and Hong Kong) 7:30 P.M. (New York*please note that as this call is live, it will take place on Wednesday, November 7th, 2018 EST) WEBCAST: The call will be webcast live with audio at: http://www.smics.com/site/company_financialSummary or https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/gmynvsjs DIAL-IN: For those without internet access, you may participate by dialing the following numbers: (Passcode: SMIC) US +1 845-675-0437 HK +852 3018-6771 CHINA +86 400-620-8038 TW +886 2-5572-3895 REPLAY: Recording will be available approximately 1 hour after the event and it will be archived for replay at http://www.smics.com/site/company_financialSummary, along with a soft copy of our news release, for a period of 12 months following the webcast. CONTACT: Investor Relations +86 21-2081-2804 IR@smics.com Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation www.smics.com 18 Zhangjiang Road Pudong New Area Shanghai, 201203 People's Republic of China View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smic-announces-third-quarter-2018-webcast-conference-call-300728484.html SOURCE Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation [October 10, 2018] Privacy Expert, Susan Lucci Receives AHDI Lifetime Achievement Award "We are honored that Susan Lucci, a Senior Privacy / Security Consultant was the recipient of the AHDI Lifetime Achievement Award," says Tom Walsh, Founder and Managing Partner of tw-Security. "Susan is a valuable team member addressing business challenges facing our customers." This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005235/en/ The AHDI Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Susan Lucci, RHIA, CHPS, CHDS, AHDI-F (Photo: Business Wire) The AHDI Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Susan Lucci, RHIA, CHPS, CHDS, AHDI-F In support of AHDI's professional programs, standards, and best practices, the Association conducts an annual awards program acknowledging the significant contributions of its members, other individuals, and organizations that have made an impact on the healthcare documentation sector over the previous year. "Susan has been a good friend and mentor to many in the industry, always exuding positive energy, passion, reatability, and generosity. She has been a longtime member and has served in a variety of AHDI leadership roles for many years, including as President and as an At-Large Director. She has served on myriad committees and ad hoc task forces over the years, written numerous articles for AHDI and other industry publications; has been a conference and webinar speaker many times over, and has contributed to numerous white papers, best practices, and standards documents-most notably the Healthcare Documentation Quality Assessment and Management Best Practices toolkit; The Book of Style, 4th edition's chapter on Record Privacy, Security, and Integrity; and as the author of The HIPAA Compliance Guide & Quick Reference, first and second editions. The Lifetime Achievement Award serves to recognize an individual who has made significant contributions to the Association and industry over the course of his/her professional career and has left a resonating footprint on the Association and its members. This is the highest honor bestowed by AHDI and is awarded by the AHDI National Leadership Board." - AHDI's Healthcare Documentation Integrity Conference, 2018 AHDI Integrity Award Winners, Orlando, Florida, August 29, 2018 Additionally, Susan serves on the American Health Information Management Association's (AHIMA) Privacy and Security Practice Council and has spoken at national and state conventions on Privacy and Security. Susan contributed to the AHIMA's 2014 Breach Management Toolkit and the 2013 HIMSS book titled, Implementing Information Security in Healthcare: Building a Security Program. About tw-Security, LLC Headquartered in Overland Park, KS and with offices in Austin, Cleveland, Denver, and Bluffton, SC, tw-Security is a recognized leader in information security, privacy, and compliance for the past 15 years. The company is dedicated solely to helping healthcare organizations (covered entities and business associates) protect their information resources. Multiple healthcare customers have relied on tw-Security's HIPAA compliance, risk analysis, and tailored VISO and VPO services, some for almost a decade. To learn more, visit www.tw-Security.com. About AHDI The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) is a not-for-profit association representing the individuals and organizations in healthcare documentation. AHDI leads, educates, and advocates for professional excellence and integrity in healthcare documentation policies and practices. Learn more by visiting: www.ahdionline.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005235/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] BitFinance adds over 40 years of alternative and cryptocurrency asset management and FinTech experience to its Executive Team MIAMI, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BitFinance, the technology start-up providing democratized access to institutional grade alternative investments via a proprietary robo-advisor platform, is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Conn to the role of Co-Founder, President, CIO and Board member. The company also announces the appointment of Eli Broverman, Co-Founder of Betterment, as Executive Board Member, and Orion Agarwal as VP of Capital Markets. BitFinance welcomes the addition of these three seasoned finance executives with over 40 years combined experience in FinTech and alternative assets to its management team. The new team members have collectively raised over $300 million in their careers and led organizations managing over $715 billion in AUM. They join an experienced team of technologists and alternative investment specialists led by Founder and CEO Eli M Blatt, PhD, a Stanford-trained quantitative behavioral scientist and serial entrepreneur with experience building and optimizing online products with 100M monthly active users. "We're excited Michael is joining our growing team. His years of experience and knowledge in alternative assets and the financial industry, as well as expertise in blockchain and cryptocurrency will be extremely valuable as we launch our own blockchain investment platform," notes Eli M Blatt, Founder and CEO of BitFinance. "Michael's experience and network in the alternative asset and cryptocurrency management space is a huge asset as we seek to Democratize access to alternative investments. We're all looking forward to working with him." Michael has an extensive background in both alternative and cryptocurrency asset management, having served in senior executive roles with a variety of financial institutions, including AllianceBernstein, manager of over half a trillion dollars in AUM, and The TCW Group. More recently, Michael Co-Founded and served as CEO of Ether Capital, the first Ethereum-focused publicly traded company globally, for which he raised $45 million through a private placement. As President and CIO, Michael will help lead the efforts in the company's upcoming oken sales and development of its proprietary alternative asset investment platform and products. "I couldn't be more excited to join the BitFinance team as they build this exciting business," said Mr. Conn. "It's extremely rare to have the opportunity to be part of a truly disruptive endeavor that also enhances the public good by expanding access to investment products historically only available to the wealthy. I can't wait to work with this talented team committed to democratizing finance." Joining Michael Conn on the team is Eli Broverman, Co-Founder of the first-ever FinTech unicorn, Betterment, for which he helped raise over $242 million in venture capital. Betterment revolutionized retail investment by creating the first web-based "robo-advisor", growing it to a $1 billion valuation while managing over $13 billion in assets from over 300,000 retail investors. He continues to serve as a Board Member of Betterment. Broverman holds a JD from the New York University School of Law (NYU) and a B.S. from Brown University where he and Eli Blatt, Founder and CEO of BitFinance, were classmates. Orion Agarwal is a former cryptocurrency investment research analyst at Standpoint Research, where he contributed to research focused on finance and FinTech covering Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Binance (BNB), Zcash (ZEC), and Polymath (POLY), among others. Prior to his time at Standpoint, Orion served as an equity research analyst for $1 billion hedge fund, Dalton Investments, and managed a VC firm with several successful exits including one to Amazon.com. Orion holds an MBA in Finance and Investment Management from the University of Southern California and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Blatt highlights how excited he is to announce such accomplished new team members, "We're building a world-class team with deep knowledge and upper management experience across a variety of financial services sectors including alternative asset management, cryptocurrency, real estate, lending, and FinTech. Michael brings to our team nearly 20 years of experience as an executive at the world's leading alternative asset management firms. Adding a FinTech visionary like Eli Broverman gives us unparalleled guidance and experience on how to apply the same concepts he used to build Betterment to disrupt the alternative investment marketplace, which is projected to grow to $18.1 trillion by 2020. Orion adds strong experience in incentivization strategy, cryptocurrency, financial valuation, investment banking, capital markets deal structure and equities. Our team just leveled up exponentially, and I feel extremely confident about our ability to execute on our vision to Democratize Finance by becoming the Wealth Manager for the People" BitFinance makes investing in alternative assets accessible and easy. Currently, fewer than 5% of investors worldwide are able to invest in the top alternative asset funds due to regulations, high investment minimums or not having the right financial advisor. BitFinance gives the over 95% of retail investors that don't have access to top-performing institutional-grade alternative investment funds an opportunity to diversify their investment holdings and build wealth by gaining exposure to this important $15 trillion global asset class. About BitFinance BitFinance provides investors a safe and easy way to build a fully-diversified portfolio of institutional-grade alternative investments online via user-friendly online robo-advisor platform. Investors can invest in a wide range of alternative investments, including cryptocurrency funds, hedge funds, venture capital, private debt, real estate, energy, crypto and private equity via a single investment platform. To get this type of alternative asset diversification, investors would need access to a team of specialized investment managers and millions of dollars to just meet the high investment minimums for alternative asset funds. BitFinance is also the first company to provide margin investment accounts secured against cryptocurrency assets. BitFinance's goal is to become The Wealth Manager for the People. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bitfinance-adds-over-40-years-of-alternative-and-cryptocurrency-asset-management-and-fintech-experience-to-its-executive-team-300728183.html SOURCE BitFinance [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Pillz Makes Prescription Pick-Up Easy Web app offers Canadians a convenient, wait-free solution to getting their meds TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Canadian patients across the country will soon be able to have their prescriptions filled securely via their mobile browser. Pillz, the brainchild of doctor-turned-entrepreneur, Mohammad Taher, plans to eliminate the arduous wait times related to prescription pick-up and bills itself as the "Ritual" for pharmacies. After working in healthcare for six years, Taher saw an opportuity to address the challenges that come with filling and refilling prescriptions. He was particularly concerned about senior citizens and cancer patients with weak immune systems and could potentially be exposed to seasonal viruses while at the pharmacy. "Seeing these patients struggle, inspired me to set out to find a solution that brings comfort and convenience to this process," said Taher, "My team is proud to be able to provide the means to change for those who need it most". Users must register online at Pillz.ca with their OHIP and Benefits Plan. When order-ready, they quickly launch their favourite browser, snap a secure shot of their prescription and upload it directly to the Pillz database. They are then prompted to choose from the closest geographic pharmacies for pick-up. The order is accepted, filled and the patient is alerted to pick-up at their convenience. The web app is currently available for use in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. The Pillz web app is free to use at www.pillz.ca About Pillz Pillz is a web application that enables people to get a prescription filled instantly from their smartphones. Founded in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador by Mohammad Taher, a healthcare professional looking to improve the convenience of the retail pharmacy experience for patients. SOURCE Pillz [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] RedShelf Secures $25 Million Series C Financing to Continue Expansion of Digital Course Materials in Higher Ed CHICAGO, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RedShelf, Inc., a leading distributor of digital course materials in higher education, today announced the closing of a $25 million Series C financing led by an entity advised by DNS Capital (DNS). The new financing will fuel RedShelf's employee growth, product innovation, customer service, and expansion within the higher ed market. Since 2012, RedShelf has worked alongside campus bookstores, professors, universities, and students in higher ed to streamline the selection, adoption, purchase, and distribution of digital course materials. RedShelf currently partners with over 600 campus bookstores and offers more than 500,000 digital titles across 400 publishers. RedShelf's impact on the higher ed industry is demonstrated by its recent recognition as the nation's second fastest-growing private education company and 121st fastest-growing private company overall by Inc. magazine . With user growth that has doubled year-over-year since 2012 and is expected to increase even more significantly in 2019, the company continues to play a leading role in transitioning the higher ed sector from print to digital course materials. "RedShelf was founded to provide best-in-class, student-focused education software that makes course materials more affordable, accessible, and effective," said RedShelf CEO and co-founder Greg Fenton. "The industry is undergoing a massive transition from print to digital, and with this Series C financing, we'll continue to be one of the industry's fastest growing edtech companies and be equipped to take digital course materials to the next level." The Series C posiions RedShelf to continue expanding its product suite which currently includes: RedShelf eReader: An accessible web-based eReader solution on which students access their digital textbooks anywhere, from any device An accessible web-based eReader solution on which students access their digital textbooks anywhere, from any device RedShelf Inclusive: A scalable content delivery program that provides students access to the most affordable digital course content on their first day of class A scalable content delivery program that provides students access to the most affordable digital course content on their first day of class RedShelf Bookstore: A customizable solution for in-store and eCommerce transactions A customizable solution for in-store and eCommerce transactions RedShelf Adopt: An independent tool that streamlines the adoption process between bookstores and professors "RedShelf is at the forefront of educational technology, helping modernize the way students access and interact with their learning materials while improving outcomes across higher education," said DNS Capital Chairman & CEO Michael Pucker. "They have the right strategy, technology and team to lead this important digital transformation, and we look forward to working closely with the RedShelf team and the company's other investors to support RedShelf's long-term growth plans." In addition to the investment made by DNS, several new investors participated in the Series C round including former COO and CTO of Morningstar Tao Huang, CEO of Trading Technologies Rick Lane, and Executive Chairman and co-founder of Shiftgig Eddie Lou. Managing Director of DNS Capital, Charles Tollinche, will be joining RedShelf's Board of Directors. RedShelf was advised by Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. and its legal counsel was Foley & Lardner LLP. DNS Capital was advised on legal matters by Latham & Watkins LLP. ABOUT REDSHELF As a leading distributor of digital learning materials in higher education, RedShelf collaborates with publishers, institutions, campus bookstores, and strategic partners to provide the technology to accelerate the transition to digital and make learning materials more accessible and affordable. For more information, visit www.about.redshelf.com or follow on Twitter , Instagram or Facebook. ABOUT DNS CAPITAL DNS Capital is the private investment office for Gigi Pritzker Pucker, Michael Pucker and their immediate family. DNS Capital takes a long-term and flexible approach to investing, and focuses on people, relationships and culture. For more information visit www.dnscap.com . Media Contact: Ashleigh Mavros ashleigh.mavros@redshelf.com 419.366.2345 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/redshelf-secures-25-million-series-c-financing-to-continue-expansion-of-digital-course-materials-in-higher-ed-300728243.html SOURCE RedShelf [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Wi-Fi Global Economic Value Reaches $1.96 Trillion in 2018 AUSTIN, Texas, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- New study by Wi-Fi Alliance projects increasing Wi-Fi economic contribution in next five years A new report commissioned by Wi-Fi Alliance estimates the current annual global economic value of Wi-Fi at $1.96 trillion, projecting that number to surpass $3.47 trillion by 2023. Wi-Fi brings the greatest impact to the economy in four key categories: developing alternative technologies to expand consumer choice, creating innovative business models to deliver unique services, expanding access to communications services for fixed and mobile networks, and complementing wireline and cellular technologies to enhance their effectiveness. In addition to determining Wi-Fi's global impact, the study evaluates individual economies of six countries, highlighting the incredible value of Wi-Fi and underscoring the need for adequate unlicensed spectrum to ensure Wi-Fi continues to deliver benefits to consumers, business, and economies. Key findings of the report include: United States : Wi-Fi contributes $499 billion in economic value today, $993 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 United Kingdom : Wi-Fi contributes $54 billion in economic value today, $71 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 France : Wi-Fi contributes $44 billion in economic value today, $64 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 Germany : Wi-Fi contributes $94 billion in economic value today, $132 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 span >Japan: Wi-Fi contributes $171 billion in economic value today, $248 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 South Korea : Wi-Fi contributes $68 billion in economic value today, $138 billion by 2023 Edgar Figueroa , president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. "This study brings attention to the tremendous economic benefit from Wi-Fi, and underscores the importance of favorable spectrum policy to ensure Wi-Fi continues delivering even greater economic and societal benefits for many years to come." Consumers and business depend on Wi-Fi for connectivity, productivity, and critical operations each day, but the true economic value of Wi-Fi has been difficult to define due to diverse unlicensed spectrum environments. The study defines economic value by looking at the tangible, economic gains that Wi-Fi provides consumers and producers, and net contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The study also estimates Wi-Fi's role in job creation in each country through a valuation of its impact on different categories of employment. "Wi-Fi technology should be recognized as one of the dominant economic engines of the digital ecosystem," said Dr. Raul Katz, Wi-Fi Economic Study author and President of Telecom Advisory Services. "Governments should develop the right incentives to stimulate the social and economic benefits of Wi-Fi, including assigning enough spectrum to avoid congestion across the globe, promoting the development of start-ups that rely on Wi-Fi to create applications, and leveraging Wi-Fi technology to address the digital divide barrier." Please visit http://www.valueofwifi.com for more information and to download the full report. Note on methodology Wi-Fi Alliance commissioned a study from Telecom Advisory Services (TAS), headed by economist Dr. Raul Katz, to analyze the economic contribution of Wi-Fi in 2018 and forecast expected economic value in 2023. The study, which also estimates global value and job creation attributed to Wi-Fi, focuses on six world economies, and then calculates an estimated global value. The countries studied are the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea. About Wi-Fi Alliance http://www.wi-fi.org Wi-Fi Alliance is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 40,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet's traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] More Than Two-Thirds of Global Fortune 50 Companies Are Not Ready for the Next Major DNS Attack, According to ThousandEyes DNS Performance Report ThousandEyes, the company that empowers businesses with Network Intelligence, has found that 68 percent of the top 50 companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are not adequately prepared for the next major attack on the DNS, according to the results of the 2018 ThousandEyes Global DNS Performance Report. Additionally, the report found similar vulnerability among 44 percent of the top 25 SaaS (News - Alert) providers, as well as 72% of the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 companies. The annual ThousandEyes report, released today, is an analysis and global performance comparison of DNS, the Internet infrastructure that acts as the phone book of the Internet, translating domain names, such as www.thousandeyes.com to Internet Protocol addresses. This ThousandEyes DNS research also includes an IT architecture readiness assessment for leading global brands, determining their level of risk should another incident occur like the Dyn (News - Alert) attack of 2016. "Because Digital Experience is so central to a brand's success these days, it's critical that businesses understand that not all DNS infrastructures are created equal - performance and risk exposure varies widely between providers and geographies, so they need to be aware and base decisions on data relevant to their market," said Craig Matsumoto, Senior Analyst at 451 Research. "Moreover, very basic DNS architectural decisions matter. In this day and age, not properly architecting for potential attacks is a major risk factor that businesses need to mitigate immediately, if they care at all about their website or services being discoverable on the Internet." Key findings of the 2018 ThousandEyes DNS Performance Report include: Leading enterprises and SaaS providers remain needlessly vulnerable: DNS best practices are not widespread in major enterprises and SaaS providers, exposing them to severe risk and potentially making them vulnerable to the next attack such as Dyn experienced nearly two years ago. DNS best practices are not widespread in major enterprises and SaaS providers, exposing them to severe risk and potentially making them vulnerable to the next attack such as Dyn experienced nearly two years ago. Not every DNS infrastructure is created equal: DNS performance varies widely for public resolver providers and managed providers across regions and countries. Consideration for managed providers should be based on measured performance, rather than brand, or scope of global presence. DNS performance varies widely for public resolver providers and managed providers across regions and countries. Consideration for managed providers should be based on measured performance, rather than brand, or scope of global presence. Social and political systems create unpredictability: DNS performance variations correlate to countries known to interfere with Internet behavior, and controls over technology create risks for doing digital business in certain regions. Cloudflare, Gogle and OpenDNS are Top Public DNS Performers Out of fifteen measured public DNS providers, newcomer Cloudflare was found to have overall fastest performance, followed by Google (News - Alert) and OpenDNS, both of which improved over their performance in the 2017 ThousandEyes analysis. Top providers varied by region and country. Performance highlights of the 2018 report include: In the United States, Google was the top performer, followed by Cloudflare and OpenDNS. In the UK, Level 3 had the best performance, followed by Google and OpenDNS. In Japan, Cloudflare was the fastest performer, with Google in second and Neustar in third place. Top Managed Providers Vary by Region ThousandEyes found significant diversity of performance across providers and regions among managed DNS Providers. The top three performers included Cloudflare, Dyn and NS1. "Without DNS, there is no Internet. It's how users find a company's apps, sites and services on the Internet. A DNS performance issue or attack can have a critical impact on customer experience, revenue, and brand reputation," said Angelique Medina, senior product marketing manager at ThousandEyes. "The ThousandEyes report highlights vital insights that can help organizations design a more effective DNS infrastructure - because even the most basic DNS decisions can determine how a company's application or service, and ultimately how their overall brand, is perceived." Report Scope and Methodology Fifteen public DNS providers were extensively measured and ranked for the report, including CleanBrowsing, Google, OpenDNS Quad9, and Verisign. Managed DNS Providers and DNS Root servers were also measured. ThousandEyes collected data over the course of 30 days-between August 19 and September 19, 2018-which resulted in more than 15M data points. The state of DNS resilience amongst major enterprises and SaaS providers was also collected. About the ThousandEyes Global DNS Performance Report The 2018 ThousandEyes Global DNS Performance Report serves as an informational resource to empower the enterprise IT community with data-driven insights into a foundational factor of digital experience - DNS - so they can better understand the digital journey of their users, and how regional variations, geo-political factors and best practice implementations can impact overall experience. Learn more about ThousandEyes: About ThousandEyes ThousandEyes empowers businesses to see, understand and improve connected experiences everywhere. The ThousandEyes cloud platform offers unmatched vantage points throughout the global Internet and provides immediate visibility into experience for every user and application over any network, so companies can deliver superior digital experiences, modernize their enterprise WAN and successfully migrate to the cloud. ThousandEyes is central to the global operations of the world's largest and fastest growing brands, including Comcast (News - Alert) , eBay, HP, 100+ of the Global 2000, 60+ of the Fortune 500, 5 of the 6 top US banks and 20 of the 25 top SaaS companies. For more information, visit www.ThousandEyes.com or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) at @ThousandEyes View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005293/en/ Peter Wessel Joins Korn Ferry as Senior Client Partner in Houston Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) today announced that Peter Wessel has joined the firm as a senior client partner in the Global Financial Services practice. He will be based in Houston. Mr. Wessel specializes in senior-level searches in investment and corporate banking, private equity, professional services and energy. He also provides assessment and development advisory services. Prior to joining Korn Ferry, Mr. Wessel was the president and co-founder of an executive search firm specializing in the financial services and energy sectors. Previously, Mr. Wessel performed consulting and advisory services for companies in the agribusiness, technology, and oil and gas industries. He began his career at Merrill Lynch, where he worked in investment banking and equity research. "Peter is an internationally-kown leader and a trusted advisor in the field. He has a proven track record of identifying exceptional talent and a reputation for developing lasting client partnerships," said Michael Franzino, President of the Global Financial market at Korn Ferry. "We look forward to his undoubtable impact on our clients and our firm." Mr. Wessel earned an undergraduate degree in business administration and economics from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and an MBA, specializing in finance, from Simon Fraser University. About Korn Ferry Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm. We help clients synchronize strategy and talent to drive superior performance. We work with organizations to design their structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people to bring their strategy to life. And we advise them on how to reward, develop, and motivate their people. Visit kornferry.com for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005195/en/ Teledyne Announces Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Webcast Details Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY) will hold a conference call to discuss its third quarter 2018 results on Wednesday, October 24, 2018, at 8:00 a.m. Pacific. A press release with the third quarter financial results will be issued before the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, October 24, 2018. To access the call, go to www.teledyne.com pproximately ten minutes before the scheduled start time. A replay will be available at this website for approximately one month starting at 9:00 a.m. Pacific on Wednesday, October 24, 2018. Teledyne Technologies is a leading provider of sophisticated instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace and defense electronics, and engineered systems. Teledyne Technologies' operations are primarily located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western and Northern Europe. For more information, visit Teledyne Technologies' website at www.teledyne.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005206/en/ [October 10, 2018] Baron & Budd Investigates Potential Fraud Activity Among HUBZone-Certified Small Businesses Today, the national law firm Baron & Budd announced that it is dedicating significant resources from its whistleblower practice to investigate allegations of fraud among Small Business Administration (SBA) certified HUBZone Companies. While the HUBZone program was designed to provide legitimate small businesses in economically challenged areas with special assistance with government contracts, it has become a prime target for fraud. This most frequently happens when larger companies attempt to use a HUBZone-certified business as a pass-through to gain access to set-aside contracts that would otherwise be unavailable. On October 11, 2018, hundreds of HUBZone-certified businesses will travel to Chantilly, Virginia to participate in the National HUBZone Conference. The annual event, and other conferences like it, are designed to provide HUBZone business owners and corporate executives with the opportunity to learn about HUBZone requirements and federal regulations, as well as network and identify potential partners that may lead to a federal government contract. Unfortunately, this gathering, and possibly others like it, may also attract some corporate representatives who do not fully understand HUBZone regulations and, as a result, knowingly or unknowingly put HUBZone businesses at high risk for committing fraud against the U.S. government. Baron & Budd's website includes a list of the most common fraudulent activity in HUBZone contracting. The SBA created the HUBZone program to give small businesses in "historically underutilized business zones" a leg up in obtaining government contracts. HUBZones are urban and rural areas with low income, high poverty, high levels of unemployment or are near a recently closed military base or natural disaster area. The federal government's goal is to award at least three percent of all federal contracting dollars - or roughly $15 billion - to HUBZone certified businesses annually. To accomplish this, the government limits competition for certain contracts to businesses located in these areas and gives them preferential consideration in full and open competition. "The combination of billions of dollars in contracts set aside for HUBZone companies and bad actors looking to take advantage of inexperienced small business owners is a potential recipe for fraud," said Andrew Miller, shareholder and member of Baron & Budd's whistleblower group. "When small businesses are unable to meet all the needs of a federal contract on their own, they can partner with larger companies. There are perfectly legitimate ways to engage in such a partnership and the SBA provides extensive guidance in how to do so. But, not infrequently, HUBZone businesses are approached with a proposal to commit fraud." Miller outlined the dangers of fraudulent HUBZone arrangement in a recent commentary piece published by Washington Technology. Participating in fraudulent schemes can cause a small business to lose its HUBZone certification, face criminal prosecution and/or be financially liable for damages in civil actions brought by whistleblowers under the Federal False Claims Act. If you are aware of fraud involving a HUBZone-certified business or if you are the owner of a HUBZone-certified business who has been approached with a proposal to commit fraud, you may qualify to serve as a whistleblower. If the allegations you bring to light are successfully prosecuted by the federal government, you may be entitled to a monetary reward. Please call 866-401-5971 if you would like more information. ABOUT BARON & BUDD, P.C. Baron & Budd, P.C. is among the largest and most accomplished plaintiffs' law firms in the country. With more than 40-years of experience, Baron & Budd has the expertise and resources to handle complex litigation throughout the United States. As a law firm that takes pride in remaining at the forefront of litigation, Baron & Budd has spearheaded many significant cases for hundreds of entities and thousands of individuals. Since the firm was founded in 1977, Baron & Budd has achieved substantial national acclaim for its work on cutting-edge litigation, trying hundreds of cases to verdict and settling tens of thousands of cases in areas of litigation as diverse as dangerous pharmaceuticals and defective medical devices, asbestos and mesothelioma, environmental contamination, fraudulent banking practices, motor vehicles, employment, and other consumer fraud issues. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005285/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Construction has started on the third high-speed railway connecting Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, with Shanghai that will halve travel times between Shanghai and cities in the southern part of Jiangsu, according to Jiangsu Railway Group. The new South Jiangsu Riverside Railway will have eight stations, and will join the Beijing-Shanghai and Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed railways in connecting the two cities. South Jiangsu Riverside Railway will stop mostly at county-level cities and districts, including Jurong in Zhenjiang; Jintan and Wujin in Changzhou; Jiangyin in Wuxi; and Zhangjiagang, Changshu and Taicang in Suzhou. At Taicang station, the railway will connect with the Shanghai-Nantong Railway, which will be completed in 2020. Construction of the 278-kilometer-long South Jiangsu Riverside Railway will finish in 42 months. Between 200 and 260 trains will run on the tracks every day at a speed of 350 km/h. By 2022, people in southern Jiangsu will be able to arrive in Shanghai and Nanjing within an hour. Lu Yongquan, director of the Jiangsu Transport Bureau, said 10 railway lines with a total length of 1,700 km are under construction in the province. "About 260 billion yuan ($37.6 billion) will be invested to construct the 10 lines," he said. "From January to September, a total of 33.1 billion yuan has been invested. "The transportation of southern Jiangsu will be greatly improved by completion of the railways." Wang Tongjun, deputy general manager of China Railway, said the South Jiangsu Riverside Railway will help improve the railway network in the Yangtze River Delta and greatly reduce travel times from cities in southern Jiangsu. "It has great meaning to the economic development of the area," he said. Compared with the southern cities, cities in northern and central Jiangsu have poor railway infrastructure and transportation. Among the province's 13 cities, seven have no railways on which trains can travel faster than 250 km/h. Only two bridgesthe Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the Dashengguan Bridgeallow trains to cross the Yangtze River to reach cities in north and central Jiangsu. [October 10, 2018] Open Access Technologies Names Ken Breen as President Open Access Technologies, Inc. (OAT), the industry leader in remediating and supporting the publication of accessible documents, has named Ken Breen as its president. Breen brings over two decades of operational leadership in product and process innovation in the publishing industry. He will use that experience to run day to day operations, while scaling the company's solutions. "I am enthused to be part of the Open Access Technologies team and the impactful vision of the company," stated Ken Breen, president of Open Access Technologies. "The majority of my career has been spent in the publishing and content industries, focusing primarily on product and process scalability. I'm looking forward to leading OAT's current go-to-market strategy and ramping up for the demand we're seeing across all sectors." Reporting directly to Howard Berke, the company's co-founder, chairman and CEO, Ken is charged with running day to day operations. Berke explains, "We're at an exciting time in the market, and Ken's experience in bringing new products to market, scaling and operations, will complement and further strengthen our executive team. Ken has a proven track record and successful go-to-market history, and we're pleased to have him on the team. I'll continue to focus my time on our corporate vision, team building, global partnerships and fundraising." Mike Paciello, prominent industry accessibility expert, author of Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities and recipient of Knowbility's "Lifetime Achievement in advancing the cause of digital accessibility" continues to serve as the company's chief accessibility advisor and co-founder. For additional information visit, https://www.openaccesstech.com/. About Open Access Technologies, Inc. (OAT) Headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire, OAT develops commercialized SaaS (News - Alert) platforms and automated services which remediate and support the publication of accessible documents. The company's EnableAccess SaaS platform provides accessibility to documents of all types. OAT was co-founded by Mike Paciello, world-renowned expert in software and web accessibility, and Howard Berke, serial entrepreneur and high tech start-up executive. For more information, visit: https://www.openaccesstech.com/. All trademarks recognized. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005023/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] China's Major ICT Event PT Expo China 2018 Came to a Close BEIJING, Oct. 10, 2018 /CNW/ -- Hosted from Sep 26-29 in Beijing by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) event PT Expo China 2018 came to a close earlier. With the theme "Digitalization & Intelligence: Shaping the World of Tomorrow", over 60,000 attendees, 580 media and nearly 400 exhibitors gathered to celebrate latest 5G progresses, AI, Tech x Culture, IoT, Smart Driving, and other ICT technologies and applications. Organizations and companies worldwide collaborated together to picture a truly world of tomorrow, including CICT, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Tower, China Unicom, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Tencent, the Palace Museum, Potevio, and ZTE. Consisted of more than 20 conference sessions and launching events, the show's conference program ICT China High Level Forum 2018 again brought out in-depth debates and freshideas on the ecosystem's trendy topics. More than 360 speakers and delegates presented and shared their opinions with 5866 audiences. Much attention was paid to the release of China's national 5G trial results, as well as the ICT China Innovation Awards and the METIS Awards for mobile intelligent terminals. Over 50 local government delegations from all over the country and 160 company & organization delegations visited the event, and two thematic exhibitions welcomed most intensive visitors. Impressively showcasing digitalization's significant impacts on vertical industries, The Tech x Culture Thematic Exhibition led by the famous Palace Museum (the Forbidden City) and tech giant Tencent creatively explored accessible experience for all to better understand heritages and traditional values by the help of technology. Another thematic exhibition marked the 40th anniversary of China's Reform and Opening up, where highlighted the country's dramatic changes in the ICT area since 1978 while seeing the future. Even though the event this year has just come to a close, PT Expo China 2019 has been announced to take place from Oct 31 to Nov 3, 2019 in Beijing. The industry now starts expecting what will be going on as the era of 5G is approaching. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chinas-major-ict-event-pt-expo-china-2018-came-to-a-close-300728579.html SOURCE PT/EXPO CHINA [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Anti-money laundering compliance costs U.S. financial services firms $25.3 billion per year, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions ATLANTA, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a part of RELX Group (NYSE: RELX), released its inaugural 2018 True Cost of AML Compliance report for the United States. The cost of AML compliance across U.S. financial services firms equaled $25.3 billion per year based on survey responses from more than 150 decision-makers at banks, investment, asset management and insurance firms. The report shows that smaller firms are hit hardest, relative to their bottom lines, as the cost of AML compliance reaches up to .83 as a percent their total of assets, compared to larger firms, which see costs up to .08 percent of total assets. These costs are driven by the fact that certain overhead investment requirements exist when implementing an AML program, regardless of scale. Daniel Wager, vice president, global financial crime compliance, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, comments, "As compliance costs rise, mid- to large-sized firms are using a wider array of newer technologies and data sources to prevent financial crime. While these firms report a higher average compliance pend per year ($18.9M), they are actually lowering the cost of compliance. The overarching goal is to achieve compliance with greater efficiency and with less human capital." The executives surveyed reported that regulatory reporting, customer risk profiling and sanctions screening are among the key challenges for U.S. financial firms. Operational inefficiencies pose challenges to those firms that use less technology. Financial institutions are looking to leverage AML compliance processes to better understand/manage their customer relationships. AML compliance processes can improve financial risk management and benefit other business functions, when more technologies are used. The findings also show that implementing a layered approach to AML compliance technology may not only be necessary, but also crucial to improving AML compliance processes. Firms that use a layered solutions approach, using multiple services like cloud-based KYC procedures, shared interbank databases and machine learning/AI, take significantly less time to complete due diligence than those using just one of these alone. Many firms are still relying on manual efforts with their AML compliance technology, which is not optimal for either performance or cost-effectiveness. The $25.3 billion figure is based on responses from small (under $10 billion in total assets = $12.3 billion in cost) and mid to large (over $10 billion in total assets = $13 billion in costs) sized firms. LexisNexis Risk Solutions conducted past True Cost of AML Compliance studies in Asia, Europe and South Africa, and this is the first to examine the United States cost of compliance. About LexisNexis Risk Solutions LexisNexis Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX Group (NYSE:RELX), a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. For more information, please visit https://risk.lexisnexis.com/ and https://www.relx.com/. Press contact: LexisNexis Risk Solutions Jean Creech Avent Director, Public Relations Tel.: +1 770-862-7978 Email: jean.creech@lexisnexisrisk.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/anti-money-laundering-compliance-costs-us-financial-services-firms-25-3-billion-per-year-according-to-lexisnexis-risk-solutions-300728586.html SOURCE LexisNexis Risk Solutions [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Unite Private Networks Deploys Connected2Fiber to Increase Deal Participation BOSTON, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Connected2Fiber, the leading growth platform for connectivity companies, announces today that Unite Private Networks (UPN) has signed an agreement to implement The Connected World solution. UPN has purchased Building List Manager, an automated software module for creating and distributing on-net and near-net building lists, to drive market participation. UPN, a leading provider of high-capacity, fiber-based communication networks, recently rolled out a new MetroE product targeting Wireline Carriers and Service Providers. The Carrier Wireline product was developed to assist carrier customers expand their metro ethernet coverage and reach more customers. Connected2Fiber's Building List Manager will organize and communicate UPN's connectivity footprint to these customers more efficiently and effectively. According to Jason Adkins, President of Unite Private Networks, "UPN's Metro Ethernet Rings connect data centers and Enterprise locations throughout the Central US. As our footprint continually grows, Connected2Fiber provides an easy way to format and distribute data to all of our Carrier customers seamlessly." "We welcome UPN to our platform and look forward to helping hem drive participation in the market," states Ben Edmond, CEO and Founder of Connected2Fiber. "Every time a network such as UPN builds a new route or increases infrastructure, they add tremendous value to the ecosystem. Our platform ensures these changes are effectively communicated to all of their carriers and partners." About Connected2Fiber Connected2Fiber empowers network operators to create, standardize, enhance and share location serviceability, accelerating leads through the funnel, and unleashing growth. Connected2Fiber's visual interface allows sales teams and B2B marketers to target the best locations with the full perspective of serviceability, demand and competitive dynamics. Seamlessly integrated with the rest of their sales and marketing technology stack, B2B marketers gain critical insights to better allocate their marketing resources and increase participation with their prospects in The Connected World. Visit Connected2Fiber on the web at www.connected2fiber.com or follow us on Twitter @connected2fiber. PR Contact: Antoinette Poirier (508) 202-1807 203050@email4pr.com About Unite Private Networks Unite Private Networks provides high-bandwidth, fiber-based communications networks and services to schools, governments, carriers, data centers, hospitals, and enterprise business customers across a 20-state service area. Service offerings include dark and lit fiber, private line, metro-optical Ethernet, Internet access, data center services, and other customized solutions. Headquartered in Kansas City, MO, UPN has been providing customer focused communications solutions since 1998. For more information on Unite Private Networks, please visit www.uniteprivatenetworks.com. PR Contact: Brandi Tubb (816) 903-9400 203050@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/unite-private-networks-deploys-connected2fiber-to-increase-deal-participation-300728458.html SOURCE Connected2Fiber [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions Announces New Product Launch RENO, NV, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions (AITX: OTCPK) is pleased to announce that Robotic Assistance Devices (RAD), its wholly owned subsidiary, released its Facial Recognition Entry Device, aptly named FRED. FREDs core functionality, described in its name, is supported by RADs newest software release of the RAD Software Suite. FRED is the third hardware product line released by RAD since RAD introduced its first hardware product SCOT in April 2018. FRED joins SCOT and Wally to complete RADs family of stationary security concierge devices, all powered by the RADs Software Suite v2.5. FRED is specifically built in a form factor for installation for security access at gates and door entry points. It features RADs physical design motif as debuted by Wally. FRED, consistent with the rest of RADs stationary hardware lineup, can operate with no communications infrastructure but is built to appropriately open gates/doors and, at the customers request, integrate to pre-existing access control systems. The RAD Software Suite v2.5 features the Facial Recognition Entry (FRE) software module and adds access control to the software offerings included to RAD customers. FRE works on all RAD hardware devices giving customers the ability to choose the best option for every particular situation, from vehicle access gates to high security office areas. FRE is an advanced innovation for clients for a multitude of reasons; including tri-credential validation, secure open integration to other platforms, and use of the RAD Software Suite as the single simple user interface. The RAD Software Suite is the product of customer input, decades of security experience and innovative application of a multitude of technologies, said Steve Reinharz , President and CEO of RAD. Market reception to our 2nd generation of the security & concierge solution set has been outstanding and v2.5 delivers on RAD promies to one of our largest clients. I believe RAD has forever changed security by creating a fully integrated solution of human guarding, artificial intelligence driven guarding, and a full complement of electronic security features. All for a low rental cost. The RAD Software Suite v2.5 also debuts the release of RADs Visitor Management System. This full-featured module comprised with every rental of any RAD device includes RADs signature simplicity features and visual appeal. The most modern features such as QR-codes visual recognition system for pre-enrolled visitors is included along with options for customers to electronically sign documents prior to authorized entry. Documents will routinely be non-disclosure agreements for secure sites and/or safety acknowledgements. The RAD Software Suite hosts all the features and securely stores all the collected information. The company may post important information about its subsidiary RAD on its website at www.Robotic AssistanceDevices.com and through tweets from RAD President and CEO Steve Reinharz ( https://twitter.com/SteveReinharz ) CAUTIONARY DISCLOSURE ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this news release other than statements of historical fact are "forward-looking statements" that are based on current expectations and assumptions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the statements, including, but not limited to, the following: the ability of Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions to provide for its obligations, to provide working capital needs from operating revenues, to obtain additional financing needed for any future acquisitions, to meet competitive challenges and technological changes, and other risks. Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement(s) and/or to confirm the statement(s) to actual results or changes in Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions expectations. About RAD Robotic Assistance Devices (RAD) is an innovator in the delivery of artificial intelligence-based solutions that empower organizations to gain new insight, solve complex challenges and fuel new business ideas. Through its next-generation robotic product offerings, RAD can help organizations streamline operations, increase ROI and strengthen business. RAD robotics technology improves the simplicity and economics of patrolling and guard services, and allows experienced personnel to focus on more strategic tasks. Customers augment the capabilities of existing staffs and gain higher levels of situational awareness, all at drastically reduced cost. RAD robotic solutions are well suited for use in multiple industries such as enterprises, government, transportation, critical infrastructure, education and healthcare. To learn more, visit www.roboticassistancedevices.com or follow us on Twitter @RADbotsecurity. Everest Corporate Advisors Inc. 702-902-2361 www.everestcorp.net [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Phoenix Life Sciences International Receives Government Approval to Produce Botanical Pharmaceutical Products in South Pacific DENVER, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited (OTCMarkets: MJMD) (Phoenix Life), an international adaptive healthcare solutions company, today announced that the company has received approval from the Vanuatu Investment Promotion Authority (VIPA) to establish operations in the country and manufacture botanical pharmaceutical products. The Republic of Vanuatu, an island chain in the South Pacific, is the target of the companys first major production center. Phoenix Life is the first botanical researcher and producer to receive such approval in this nation. This significant milestone brings Phoenix Life closer to launching local clinical trials and production for its botanical pharmaceutical and nutritional products targeting the treatment of various indications. This is a major step for the company and our operations in Vanuatu, said Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Life Martin Tindall. With this application approval, we can begin to establish the necessary resources required to initiate clinical trials and develop scalable production capacity for our botanical pharmaceutical medications and begin leading the global health initiative to end the diabetes epidemic. According to a new research study published by Global Market Insights, Inc., the U.S. medical marijuana market is poised to surpass $8 billion by 2024. According to the same study, thats a 60% contrast to the $5 billion that the medical marijuana market was valued at in 2016. Phoenix Life aims to improve overall international health while reducing the cost of providing medical services and treatments. The company plans to partner with the single-payer healthcare systems in established and emerging economies in order to bring botanial pharmaceuticals to market. In the coming weeks, we anticipate many more substantive business updates and announcements on how we are continuing our expansion and are creating change, continued Tindall. Its very nice to have the support of this governing body and we look forward to the support of other government agencies in Vanuatu, and in other countries to follow. For more information about Phoenix Life, please visit https://www.plsi.co/ . About Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited (OTCMarkets: MJMD) is an adaptive healthcare solutions company. Our business is to advance research and integrate programs and manufacturing of products that target and treat diabetes, pain, cancer, and address psychological, gastrointestinal, autoimmune, neurological and sleep disorders. We strive to create partnerships and integrate these programs for human health into communities worldwide as part of our Global Health Initiative. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Information contained in this press release regarding Phoenix Life Sciences International, Limited and its subsidiaries, (the Companies) may constitute forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements. The words plan, forecast, anticipates, estimate, project, intend, expect, should, believe, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve, and are subject to, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Companys actual results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements to differ from the future results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks, uncertainties and other factors are more fully discussed in the Companys filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Companies herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by the above-mentioned cautionary statement. The Companies disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release, except as may be required by law. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA) DISCLOSURE These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and therefore the products sold by Phoenix Life Sciences International are not available on U.S. markets. LEGAL DISCLOSURE Phoenix Life Sciences International does not sell or distribute any products in the United States that are in violation of the United States Controlled Substances Act (US.CSA). This company does not grow, sell, and distribute cannabis-based products in the United States and is solely involved with the legal distribution of medical cannabis products within certain international markets outside of the United States. Investor Contact: Phone: 1.888.717.5655 or international +1.720.699.7222 E-mail: investor.relations@phoenixlife.co Media Contact: Kathryn Reinhardt CMW Media Kathryn@cmwmedia.com 619-972-3089 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Truss Grows in Austin with More Retail and Industrial Space AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Truss , an award-winning platform for commercial real estate, announced it will further expand its platform into the Austin market with more than 10 million square feet of industrial and retail space. Truss now has more than 20 million square feet of office, retail and industrial space available in Austin to search, tour and lease on its platform. "Austin's fast growth and focus on technology is a great match for our platform to help those entrepreneurs and small businesses lease space quickly and cost effectively," said Marshall Hudes, co-founder of Truss. The expansion follows the need that's in Austin, which is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, according to a study from WalletHub. Truss' has seen market demand in Texas for more office space, retail or industrial space in several markets including Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Houston. The Southeast neighborhood of Austin is their top industrial hub with highway access to Houston and San Antonio. The neighborhoods of SoCo (South Congress) and Downtown Austin continue growth in retail and office space. Truss first launched in Austin with office space available in early 2018. Business owners can search, tour and lease office, retail and industrial space through Truss' platform, which offers 30 percent cash back to the tenants and is the only platform to show price transparency for the business owners. More about Truss Truss helps small and medium businesses, find, lease and tour office, industrial and retail space with more than 325 million square feet available in Chicago, South Florida, D.C., Northern Virginia, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. The business owner can search for the space from their own computers or mobile devices. Truss' technology enables business owners to find the right space in a convenient and easy manner. Truss also offers dedicated brokers who act as the point person throughout the seamless process. To learn more about Truss, visit www.truss.co or follow them on social media on Facebook , Instagram and Twitter . Contact: 1-888-611-7282 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/truss-grows-in-austin-with-more-retail-and-industrial-space-300728454.html SOURCE Truss [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] $5.4 Billion Security Assurance Market - Global Forecast to 2023 DUBLIN, Oct 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Security Assurance Market by Application (Business Applications, System & Network Infrastructure, and Mobility Solutions), Organization Size, Industry Verticals (BFSI, Telecommunications, Government, Healthcare), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The security assurance market size to grow from USD 3.53 billion in 2018 to USD 5.48 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.2% during the forecast period. Security assurance empowers enterprises to timely identify, evaluate, and manage the security risks associated with business applications, mobile devices, and related technology environments. The scope of the report encompasses business applications, which include secure code review, architecture design review, testing, Intrusion Prevention Service/Intrusion Detection Service (IPS/IDS), and other related applications; system and network infrastructure which includes databases, secure network perimeters, and virtualized cloud; and mobility solutions which include endpoint devices and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The objective of the report is to define, describe, and forecast the security assurance market size by application, by organization size, by industry vertical, and region. Among Applications, the mobility solutions segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR and account for the largest market share in the market during the forecast period. Rapid growth in the number of mobile devices across the globe is one of the driving factors for the growth of this market. Networks are more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, due to the increasing number of mobile devices. Hence it has become essential to assess organizations' security. The Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) industry vertical is estimated to account for the largest market size in 2018 and projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This industry vertical is continuously developing security products and services that could help protect the industry employees, customers, assets, offices, branches, and operations, and is thus expected to account for the largest share of the security assurance market. The healthcare industry vertical i expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The geographic analysis of the security assurance market comprises 5 regions, namely, North America, APAC, Europe, MEA, and Latin America. North America is expected to account for the largest market size in the market during the forecast period, followed by Europe. North America has been extremely responsive towards adopting the latest technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the IoT. Prevention of increasing security attacks and breaches act as a driving force for the growth of the market. The US and Canada are the major contributing countries in this region. APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast year. The need to mitigate IT security threats and the rise in the adoption of security assurance services among SMEs are the factors driving the security assurance market growth in this region. MEA and Latin America are expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period. Stringent government regulations and compliance, and the growth in the deployment of third-party applications integrated with the core software are the major factors expected to drive the security assurance market. However, the lack of technical expertise to develop an agile and secure environment is expected to hinder the growth of the market, but for a limited period. Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Premium Insights 4.1 Attractive Market Opportunities in the Security Assurance Market 4.2 Market Share of Top 4 Industry Verticals and Regions, 2018 4.3 Market Investment Scenario 5 Market Overview 5.1 Market Dynamics 5.1.1 Drivers 5.1.1.1 Stringent Government Regulations 5.1.1.2 Growing Deployment of Third-Party Applications Integrated With the Core Software 5.1.1.3 Rapid Adoption of Cloud-Based Services 5.1.2 Restraints 5.1.2.1 Difficulty in Providing Hybrid Cloud Security 5.1.3 Opportunities 5.1.3.1 Growing Adoption of IoT and Mobile Devices 5.1.3.1 Increase in the Adoption of Security Assurance in Cloud 5.1.4 Challenges 5.1.4.1 Limited Certified Security Experts 6 Security Assurance Market, By Application 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Business Applications 6.3 System and Network Infrastructure 6.4 Mobility Solutions 7 Market By Organization Size 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Large Enterprises 7.3 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 8 Security Assurance Market, By Industry Vertical 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance 8.3 Telecommunications 8.4 Government 8.5 Healthcare 8.6 Retail 8.7 Manufacturing 8.8 Others 9 Security Assurance Market, By Region 10 Competitive Landscape 10.1 Overview 10.1.1 Partnerships, Agreements, and Collaborations 10.1.2 New Product/Service Launches and Product Enhancements 10.1.3 Mergers and Acquisitions 11 Company Profiles Accenture Aura Information Security Avaya Bizcarta Cipher Content Security Critical Software Happiest Minds IBM Infosys Micro Focus Microsoft Netscout Opentext Oracle Radix Security SAS Institute Signature Consulting Group Sogeti Spirent Communications Telos Corporation Tenable Wipro For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/6k3fct/5_4_billion?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: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com 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 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/5-4-billion-security-assurance-market---global-forecast-to-2023--300728566.html SOURCE Research and Markets [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Zipnosis Uses Voice of the Customer to Drive Platform Development Leading virtual care company Zipnosis today announced the expansion of its Clinical Quality Advisory Council and launch of its Innovation Advisory Council. This move is part of the company's ongoing strategy of engaging customers and industry leaders to advance virtual care and support the ability of healthcare providers to leverage virtual care as a delivery channel. Both groups are comprised of a blend of health system leaders and Zipnosis team members, creating collaborative working groups focused on advancing care quality and expanding utility of the virtual care platform. Innovation Advisory Council The newly launched Innovation Advisory Council (IAC) is comprised of seven health system leaders as well as Zipnosis executives Dr. Lisa Ide, Dr. Kevin Smith and Jon Pearce. The IAC held its first meeting August 31, during which members discussed topics including technology's impact on physician burnout, the potential for virtual care to support longitudinal patient needs, and how to leverage the virtual care platform to push patient education, among others. The IAC was founded to support focused, targeted platform expansion, ensuring the strategic and tactical needs of health systems are being met. "We've only scratched the surface of what virtual care technology can do for providers and patients," said IAC member Dr. Eric Wallace, UAB Medical Director of Telemedicine and Associate Professor of Medicine, Division on Nephrology and Co-Director of Home Dialysis at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. "It's important that we come together as an industry to shape the future of care delivery, and that is precisely what the IAC is about." "This was a great first discussion, and I'm excited to leverage the voice of our customers as we continue to grow the Zipnosis platform," added Dr. Ide, Chief Medical Officer, Zipnosis and Founder, IAC. Health system members of the IAC include: Eric Wallace, MD, FASN, University of Alabama Birmingham Medicine James McElligott, MD, MSCR, Medical University of South Carolina Kim DeRoche, MD, Fairview Health Services Mike Reis, MD, Baylor, Scott and White Steve North, MD, Mission Health Steve Waldren, MD, MS, American Academy of Family Physicians Taejoon Ahn, MD, MPH, CPE, John Muir Health Clinical Quality Advisory Council The Clinical Quality Advisory Council (CQAC) launched in 2017 with seven members and a mandate to set and monitor quality standards for care delivered via the Zipnosis platform. Since then, the CQAC has expanded to include 12 members who are clinical leaders from health systems across the country, along with Dr. Ide, Dr. Smith and Spat Rajbhandari, RN, MSN, from the Zipnosis clinical informatics team. Most recently, the CQAC held a day-long meeting at Zipnosis' downtown Minneapolis office in advance of the 2018 Zipnosis Customer Summit, during which members analyzed clinical quality performance on the platform and affirmed criteria for determining adherence to evidence-based practice for sinusitis, urinary tract infections, and conjunctivitis. The group also discussed newly released protocols and protocol updates, including dermatology visit metrics and lab testing for STDs. "Clinical quality is often something that's assumed but not evaluated. As part of the Clinical Quality Advisory Council, I get to see the quality results first-hand and help set and monitor standards for care quality," said Dr. Michael Marshall, Chief Medical Officer at Methodist Medical Group who was present for the September meeting. Health system members of the CQAC include: Boris Beckert, MD, MBA, Fairview Health Services Brian Bossard, MD, Bryan Health Deborah Greer, MD, John Muir Health Edward O'Bryan, MD, Medical University of South Carolina Evelyn Balogun, MD, MPH, MBA, FACOEM, Inspira Health Network James Burrell III, MD, Medical City Healthcare Jane Herrmann, MD, MBA, Allina Health Michael Marshall, MD, Methodist Health System Michael Whitcomb, MD, Essentia Health Stephanie Cowan, DNP, FNP-C, MultiCare Health System Steve North, MD, MPH, Mission Vimarsh Raina, MD, Ascension Wisconsin William Granger, Mercy Health About Zipnosis Zipnosis offers health systems a leading virtual care platform that pairs traditional telemedicine with next-generation online virtual care tools to drive exceptional clinical quality, significant clinical efficiency and durable financial returns. This smart alternative to traditional telemedicine allows providers to diagnose and develop a treatment plan for patients in just two minutes. With Zipnosis' unique platform approach to virtual care, patients can be treated through the online adaptive interview, video and phone technology, real-time chat, or when appropriate, referred to in-person care via the platform's advanced routing capabilities. Based in Minneapolis, MN, Zipnosis helps health systems keep pace with the changing demands of healthcare consumers. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005069/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] UnitedHealthcare Expands Fitness Program to Medicare Advantage Plans in North Carolina UnitedHealthcare will expand its fitness program for people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans to North Carolina and 11 additional states in 2019. The company is also enhancing the program with new features and rebranding it as Renew Active. Renew Active is a fitness program for body and mind designed to help people live their best lives and achieve their health and wellness goals. It provides access to an extensive choice of more than 6,000 fitness locations, including national, regional and local options, at no additional cost. In North Carolina, this includes participating Anytime Fitness, Curves, Fitness Connection, Gold's Gym, LA Fitness, Life Time and Snap Fitness locations. Locations also include local participating YMCAs. Through Renew Active, people can take advantage of an in-person fitness orientation to help them get started toward reaching their goals as well as all of the benefits of a standard membership at participating fitness locations, including a wide variety of equipment, amenities and group exercise classes. UnitedHealthcare is also adding new features to Renew Active so that plan participants can challenge themselves both physically and mentally. The program will offer online exercises and activities to help people keep their minds active. Renew Active is available at no additional cost to people enrolled in eligible UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans. "We know that our health and well-being are closely connected not just to the care we receive from our doctors but also to the way we live our lives," said Tommy O'Connor, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement in North Carolina. "With Renew Active, we hope to make it easier, more convenient and more affordable for people in North Carolina to stay active, both physically and mentally." UnitedHealthcare introduced its fitness program in 2017 because of the important role that exercise plays in health and quality of life as people age. The response from people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans has been overwhelmingly positive, prompting the company to significantly expand the program. In 2019, Renew Active will be newly available to people enrolled in select Medicare Advantage plans in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Utah. These people will join the nearly 1.1 million Medicare Advantage plan participants in 11 other states who currently have access to the program. "Anytime Fitness and Self Esteem Brands have helped thousands of seniors become more physically fit through our participation in the Renew Active network," said Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness. "We look forwardto providing more fitness choices to UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members in 2019 when Renew Active expands to North Carolina." "At Life Time, we help our members achieve their health objectives and fitness goals, no matter their age," said Mark Laylin, senior vice president, national sales, Life Time. "We're eager to bring our world-class facilities and programming to North Carolina seniors and support their health journey through our participation in the Renew Active program in 2019." The rebranding of the program - previously known as Optum Fitness Advantage - aligns it with Renew by UnitedHealthcare, the company's members-only health and wellness experience. Renew by UnitedHealthcare encourages and inspires people to take an active role in their health and happiness through a variety of resources including recipes, videos, quizzes, educational courses, interactive health tools and tips to infuse more positivity into their day. People can earn rewards through Renew for making healthy choices and completing certain health care activities. UnitedHealthcare is the exclusive provider of AARP-branded Medicare plans. The company serves one in five Medicare beneficiaries nationwide: nearly 4.8 million people through Medicare Advantage plans, more than 4.7 million people through stand-alone Part D prescription drug plans, and more than 4.5 million people through Medicare supplement plans. More people have chosen UnitedHealthcare for their Medicare coverage than any other company. For more information about Renew Active, visit www.MyRenewActive.com. About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter (News - Alert) . Plans are insured through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or one of its affiliated companies. For Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans: A Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract and a Medicare-approved Part D sponsor. Enrollment in these plans depends on the plan's contract renewal with Medicare. UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company pays royalty fees to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. You do not need to be an AARP member to enroll in a Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug Plan. AARP and its affiliates are not insurers. AARP encourages you to consider your needs when selecting products and does not make specific product recommendations for individuals. Participation in the Renew Active by UnitedHealthcare program is voluntary. Consult your doctor prior to beginning an exercise program or making changes to your lifestyle or health care routine. Equipment and classes may vary by location. Services, including equipment, classes, personalized fitness plans provided by fitness centers, and brain activities provided by BrainHQ, are provided by third parties not affiliated with AARP or UnitedHealthcare. AARP and UnitedHealthcare do not endorse and are not responsible for the services or information provided by this program. Availability of the Renew Active program varies by plan/area. Renew by UnitedHealthcare is not available in all plans. Other providers are available in our network. Y0066_180925_091945_M Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005180/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Travel stories were told and shared on China's leading social-networking apps, as people from China enjoyed the National Day holiday across the globe. According to online travel agency Ctrip, the total number of outbound travelers during the past Golden Week this year reached a record 7 million. Mobile payment a new trend in overseas travel During the National Day holiday this year, in order to attract Chinese tourists, major shopping malls around the world have launched promotional campaigns featuring Chinese language banners and Chinese-speaking shopping guides. Ms. Wei, a tourist from Beijing, traveled to South Korea for the holiday. As she recalled, local vendors could speak a little Chinese, whether in Seoul or Busan; restaurants offered Chinese menus; mall's facades were posted with special information for Chinese tourists. A duty-free shop in Seoul's famous Myeong-dong Shopping Street even offered cashback of up to 40 percent during the National Day holiday. What impressed her the most was the increased coverage of mobile payment services. "Even the taxis support payments via WeChat and Alipay!" she exclaimed. The Alipay logo and QR code could be found on every duty-free shop's checkout. Customers can scan the QR code for a chance to win cashback, which in Ms. Wei's fortunate case, the full-amount applicable. Ms. Park, owner of a Korean barbecue restaurant in Myeong-dong, said that during the National Day holiday, her business was six or seven times busier than usual. The trend of consumption upgrading has been remarkable among outbound Chinese travelers, as proved by the global mobile payment boom during the National Day holiday. According to the statistics released by Alipay, during the Golden Week, the number of mobile payments in the U.K.'s Bicester Village has increased 90-fold, while a 70-fold and 55-fold increase were recorded respectively in the Dotonbori business district in Japan's Osaka and in Sydney Airport, Australia. The number of outbound travelers born in the 1960s has surged by 90 percent, ranking first in all age groups. "Niche Country" tourism fever rises Chinese tourists who have traveled around the world's popular tourist destinations are turning their eyes to niche countries. According to Ctrip's newly released list of frequently searched flight tickets for the National Day holiday, the previously "unpopular countries" have come into the scene as more Chinese tourists have searched related keywords on the platform. Among them, the search for Central Asian and Eastern European countries increased significantly, with the search index of Croatia increasing by 142 percent year-on-year, while the search volume of Serbia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan has doubled. Chinese tourists have also shown great interest in certain emerging countries along the "Belt and Road." "There are too many Chinese tourists in popular attractions, so you have to avoid the crowd especially on the National Day holiday," said Mr. Xue, a tourist who chose to visit Israel. Stimulated by the new visa exemption policy, Chinese tourists have also traveled to niche destinations such as Morocco, Tonga and Tunisia. The overseas tourism fever also features a Communist theme this year. During the holiday, many Chinese tourists can be seen in the Marx Museum, the former residence of Engels, the former residence of Lenin, and the places where the Chinese revolutionary pioneers studied and lived. New image of Chinese tourists From "buyers" to "visitors," the image of Chinese travelers is gradually changing overseas. During this National Day holiday, many tourists brought back fewer shopping bags and began to plan more for historical and cultural attractions. "You can buy what you want on the cross-border e-commerce websites. This time for me it's just to relax," said Ms. Ren, who spent her holiday in Kyoto, Japan, staying at homestays, tasting local food, enjoying hot springs, and having a good time. She only bought some souvenirs for friends when she returned. In a recently released survey by consulting firm McKinsey, the international tourist industry is also changing the stereotype held on Chinese tourists. According to the survey, when making their travel plans, 65 percent of Chinese tourists prefer places with beautiful natural scenery that are suitable for family travel and with reasonable prices, while shopping is not always listed in the top three considerations. Visiting landmarks is no longer the primary reason why Chinese tourists travel to a certain place. Sixty-one percent of respondents to the survey hope to experience local lifestyle activities, such as enjoying local culture and art or visiting lesser well-known attractions. [October 10, 2018] AUM LifeTech, CHOP and Penn Partnering to Advance Cancer Immunotherapy Against Lung Cancer Using Foxp3 Gene Silencing FANA ASO Therapy AUM LifeTech, Inc., a Philadelphia-based biotech company, has partnered with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania to employ next-generation RNA silencing FANA technology as a new approach to cancer immunotherapy designed to treat lung cancer. The preclinical results were presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (OTS) in Seattle, WA. The study demonstrated that by reducing levels of a key protein called Foxp3 in immune cells using FANA antisense oligonucleotides (FANA ASOs), a next-generation gene silencing technology, lung cancer survival could be improved. Foxp3 is found in a subset of immune cells called T-regulatory (Treg) cells that constitute 5-10% of T cells (a type of white blood cell). Typically, Tregs suppress inappropriate immune activity and autoimmune diseases, however, their presence in tumors can prove deleterious and promote progression of many types of human cancers. In such cases, Tregs prevent anti-tumor responses by stopping the body's conventional immune cells from attacking the cancerous cells. Without Foxp3, Treg cells are unable to perform their immune suppressing function. The team showed that FANA ASO therapy effectively reduced the levels of Foxp3 protein in Tregs by silencing Foxp3 gene (messenger RNA or mRNA), thus mitigating Treg-induced immune suppression and allowing the body to mount a full attack on the tumor. "Lung cancer is the biggest killer amongst all cancers. Our preclinical data in a lung cancer animal model is very encouraging and showed complete tumor rejection in a statistically significant animal population that were dosed with FANA antisense oligonucleotide therapy. We are now pursuing the next set of preclinical studies as we move towards filing of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application. I am very thankful to our collaborators and proud of my entire team as we embark on this extraordinary and very important journey to fight cancer," said Veenu Aishwarya, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of AUM LifeTech, Inc. This research was co-led by Dr. Wayne Hancock, Chief of the Division of Transplantation Immunology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Hancock, a globally recognized immunologist, is also a Professor of Pathology and Lboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and has been working in the immune oncology and cancer immunotherapy space for over three decades. "We are very excited about our preclinical data. Tregs are known to suppress anti-tumor responses by host CD8 and CD4 T cells, B cells, NK cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. The ability of FANA ASOs to silence Foxp3 in Tregs makes them very attractive candidates for cancer immunotherapy for lung cancer, especially because currently there are no effective ways to target Tregs. The biggest advantage of FANA ASO therapy is its ability to self-deliver without the need of any formulations," said Dr. Hancock. "There is a lot of enthusiasm in the field of immuno-oncology. Last week's announcement of the Nobel (News - Alert) Prize in Medicine to Dr. James Allison (for CTLA-4) and Dr. Tasuku Honjo (for PD-1) further demonstrates the importance of this field. We plan to use FANA antisense therapy to further advance cancer immunotherapy." FANA therapy can add significant unprecedented advantages to conventional therapeutic modalities and also target undruggable targets. This is especially beneficial for very aggressive forms of cancer, several of which are difficult to diagnose at early stages. "Existing strategies to treat some forms of cancer include the use of checkpoint inhibitors (monoclonal antibodies) to target immune checkpoints like PD-1 or CTLA-4, which are cell surface proteins involved in regulating the immune system. In other cases, they block the interaction between PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1. Some recent promising strategies include the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to treat cancer. Checkpoint inhibitors and CAR T-cell therapy intercept their target at the protein or cellular level respectively. Using FANA ASO therapy, AUM LifeTech has joined the fight against cancer, and is advancing cancer immunotherapy, at the genetic level by directly targeting key genes to achieve anti-tumor immunity," added Aishwarya. This study used RNA silencing FANA technology which has some key advantages over conventional gene silencing approaches. "I am very happy to see multiple applications of our FANA technology especially in the field of cancer. FANA provides high sequence specificity, stability and efficacy. It has been a long journey for AUM and I am delighted to see that their work is getting ready for clinical applications," said Dr. Masad J. Damha who is Distinguished James McGill Professor at McGill University in Canada. Dr. Damha, an internationally known nucleic acid researcher, serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of AUM LifeTech. AUM LifeTech has leveraged the space, resources and support of the University City Science Center in Philadelphia since 2013. "The Science Center is delighted to provide the resources and support that allows companies like AUM LifeTech to grow and thrive," said Steve Zarrilli, President & CEO of the University City Science Center. "This promising research and exciting partnership are a reminder of the robust community of innovators that is driving research forward and advancing healthcare in Philadelphia and beyond." About AUM LifeTech, Inc.: AUM LifeTech is an American biotechnology company focused on using next-generation RNA silencing FANA technology to develop solutions in diverse life science verticals including biomedical research, medicine, agriculture, and aquaculture. Specifically, AUM's custom products include the next generation of innovative genetic tools in the area of gene silencing and manipulation for biomedical research and therapeutic development. RNA silencing products using FANA technology provide fast track target discovery and drug development. AUM's non-GMO products are also being developed for broad-spectrum target-specific disease control in agriculture with a purpose of making food sustainable. AUM's goal is to provide innovation at the genetic level for a better life. Follow us on LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005598/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] These Hippos are Hungry. Hippo Video launches an Innovative Video Marketing Platform for Businesses Hippo Video, a growing video platform, announced the launch of its Video Marketing Platform (VMP) for marketing and sales teams. Videos are being used by marketing and sales teams alike in businesses. Using Hippo Video, can align both these teams towards the common goal of controlling their video marketing funnel. By 2019, global consumer internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic. Though the adoption of videos has grown exponentially, it has primarily been used for spreading brand awareness. In the recent past, few companies have started using videos at different stages of their marketing funnel. Velocity sales teams have adopted video communication to personalize their pitch. Since there's no single platform to give a complete solution, these companies end up using different video tools to accomplish this. Apart from this mess, they get no context about a user's historical interactions who is progressing through the marketing funnel. Hippo Video, with its recent release, has successfully created an innovative platform that can be used by marketin and sales teams to take ownership of their video marketing funnel. "Videos have this innate ability to grab a viewer's attention instantly. Though the format was known for a long time, its adoption at different stages of a marketing funnel was lacking," said Karthi Mariappan, CEO of Hippo Video. "Hippo Video is the only global platform that can onboard marketing, sales, and customer retention teams to achieve shared business objectives without losing the context. Separate tools have been made within the platform to address specific use-cases while its machine learning engine works in the background to expedite video delivery." Using Hippo Video's VMP, high growth sales and marketing teams no longer have to use multiple tools for different stages of a video. Businesses can achieve the following using the current Hippo Video platform: Create and edit brand narrative videos using the online video editing and hosting tools. Send video email campaigns and track their complete performance. Generate leads by embedding your videos on web pages using custom forms. Send personalized video emails and track them to close sales effectively. Currently, Hippo Video has 500+ customers who run their video strategy on Hippo Video. With recent integrations with marketing and sales tools like Google (News - Alert) Suite, Mailchimp, Pardot, Salesforce, Hubspot, and Infusionsoft, Hippo Video aims to put enterprise video marketing tools in the hands of every business. Pricing and Availability Hippo Video's video marketing platform starts at $29/month/user for marketing/sales teams. Hippo has a free 14-day trial period for evaluation. Visit: https://www.hippovideo.io/ About Hippo Video Hippo Video is a cloud-based video marketing platform by Lyceum Technologies Inc, Newark, Delaware. Since its launch, Hippo Video has managed to acquire over 200,000 users before launching the latest video marketing platform. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005424/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] BorderX Lab Named to CNBC Upstart 100 SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CNBC has named cross-border e-commerce tech company BorderX Lab to its 2018 annual list of 100 promising start-ups to watch. The media organization's online announcement describes its list of honorees as "promising young start-ups, featuring a diverse group of companies that are building brands and breaking industry barriers on the path to becoming tomorrow's household names." BorderX Lab, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., has developed an online platform that lets global brands sell directly to Chinese shoppers without the need for an agency, joint venture partner or China team. The company's first product, Beyond APP, is a mobile marketplace for Chinese shoppers that recreates the safe, authentic and high-quality online shopping experience of leading U.S. and European retailers and brands using curated content, cutting edge big data and personalization technology includin AI and bots. Unlike other providers, BorderX Lab has a content team in China and the U.S. that translates and localizes brand information to drive product demand. The company's mobile app has been downloaded more than five million times. "BorderX Lab is best positioned to bring U.S. merchants and their products to Chinaand soon to other countries as welloffering international consumers the best shopping experience, choice, protection and pricing available," said Albert Shen, CEO and co-founder, BorderX Lab. "We're gratified to have been selected by CNBC as an Upstart 100 company. Our company is apolitical; we simply stand for and with the consumer. Our entire organization is committed to empowering consumers, wherever they reside, to gain access to world markets and be able to shop and buy goods on an equal footing." According to CNBC, more than 500 start-ups responded to its call for submissions. Each was asked to supply information about the company's founders, investors, growth, recent milestones and more (some of it off the record). The rules required the companies to be privately held and founded no earlier than Jan. 1, 2013. Eligible companies were scored on eight equally-weighted quantitative metrics. The 100 top-scoring companies were named to the list. For more information about BorderX Lab, or to inquire about brand and merchant partnerships, contact merchants@borderxlab.com. About BorderX Lab, Inc. BorderX Lab, headquartered in Silicon Valley and with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Jiangsu Provinces, China, is the leading cross-border e-commerce solution for Western brands and retailers targeting the Chinese market. The company's mission is to connect American and European merchants with the global middle class. BorderX Lab's advanced technologies includes machine learning and artificial intelligence bots to make global commerce automatic, intelligent and interactive. Investors include Kleiner Perkins, Hillhouse Capital Group, CBC (China Broadband Capital), Welight Capital and iFly Venture Capital. For more information, please visit www.borderxlab.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/borderx-lab-named-to-cnbc-upstart-100-300728692.html SOURCE BorderX Lab, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] UnitedHealthcare Expands Fitness Program to Medicare Advantage Plans in Indiana UnitedHealthcare will expand its fitness program for people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans to Indiana and 11 additional states in 2019. The company is also enhancing the program with new features and rebranding it as Renew Active. Renew Active is a fitness program for body and mind designed to help people live their best lives and achieve their health and wellness goals. It provides access to an extensive choice of more than 6,000 fitness locations, including national, regional and local options, at no additional cost. In Indiana, this includes participating Anytime Fitness, Curves, LA Fitness, Life Time and Snap Fitness locations. Locations also include local participating YMCAs. Through Renew Active, people can take advantage of an in-person fitness orientation to help them get started toward reaching their goals as well as all of the benefits of a standard membership at participating fitness locations, including a wide variety of equipment, amenities and group exercise classes. UnitedHealthcare is also adding new features to Renew Active so that plan participants can challenge themselves both physically and mentally. The program will offer online exercises and activities to help people keep their minds active. Renew Active is available at no additional cost to people enrolled in eligible UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans. "We know that our health and well-being are closely connected not just to the care we receive from our doctors but also to the way we live our lives," said Charlotte MacBeth, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement in Indiana. "With Renew Active, we hope to make it easier, more convenient and more affordable for people in Indiana to stay active, both physically and mentally." UnitedHealthcare introduced its fitness program in 2017 because of the important role that exercise plays in health and quality of life as people age. The response from people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans has been overwhelmingly positive, prompting the company to significantly expand the program. In 2019, Renew Active will be newly available to people enrolled in select Medicare Advantage plans in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Utah. These people will join the nearly 1.1 million Medicare Advantage plan participants in 11 other states who currently have access to the program. "Anytime Fitness and Self Esteem Brands have helped thousands of seniors become more physically fit through our participation in the Renew Active network," said Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness. "We look forward to providing more fitness choics to UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members in 2019 when Renew Active expands to Indiana." "At Life Time, we help our members achieve their health objectives and fitness goals, no matter their age," said Mark Laylin, senior vice president, national sales, Life Time. "We're eager to bring our world-class facilities and programming to Indiana seniors and support their health journey through our participation in the Renew Active program in 2019." The rebranding of the program - previously known as Optum Fitness Advantage - aligns it with Renew by UnitedHealthcare, the company's members-only health and wellness experience. Renew by UnitedHealthcare encourages and inspires people to take an active role in their health and happiness through a variety of resources including recipes, videos, quizzes, educational courses, interactive health tools and tips to infuse more positivity into their day. People can earn rewards through Renew for making healthy choices and completing certain health care activities. UnitedHealthcare is the exclusive provider of AARP-branded Medicare plans. The company serves one in five Medicare beneficiaries nationwide: nearly 4.8 million people through Medicare Advantage plans, more than 4.7 million people through stand-alone Part D prescription drug plans, and more than 4.5 million people through Medicare supplement plans. More people have chosen UnitedHealthcare for their Medicare coverage than any other company. For more information about Renew Active, visit www.MyRenewActive.com. About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter (News - Alert) . Plans are insured through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or one of its affiliated companies. For Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans: A Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract and a Medicare-approved Part D sponsor. Enrollment in these plans depends on the plan's contract renewal with Medicare. UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company pays royalty fees to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. You do not need to be an AARP member to enroll in a Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug Plan. AARP and its affiliates are not insurers. AARP encourages you to consider your needs when selecting products and does not make specific product recommendations for individuals. Participation in the Renew Active by UnitedHealthcare program is voluntary. Consult your doctor prior to beginning an exercise program or making changes to your lifestyle or health care routine. Equipment and classes may vary by location. Services, including equipment, classes, personalized fitness plans provided by fitness centers, and brain activities provided by BrainHQ, are provided by third parties not affiliated with AARP or UnitedHealthcare. AARP and UnitedHealthcare do not endorse and are not responsible for the services or information provided by this program. Availability of the Renew Active program varies by plan/area. Renew by UnitedHealthcare is not available in all plans. Other providers are available in our network. Y0066_180925_091945_M Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005119/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] UnitedHealthcare Expands Fitness Program to Medicare Advantage Plans in Illinois UnitedHealthcare will expand its fitness program for people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans to Illinois and 11 additional states in 2019. The company is also enhancing the program with new features and rebranding it as Renew Active. Renew Active is a fitness program for body and mind designed to help people live their best lives and achieve their health and wellness goals. It provides access to an extensive choice of more than 6,000 fitness locations, including national, regional and local options, at no additional cost. In Illinois, this includes participating Anytime Fitness, Curves, Gold's Gym, LA Fitness, Life Time and Snap Fitness locations. Locations also include local participating YMCAs. Through Renew Active, people can take advantage of an in-person fitness orientation to help them get started toward reaching their goals as well as all of the benefits of a standard membership at participating fitness locations, including a wide variety of equipment, amenities and group exercise classes. UnitedHealthcare is also adding new features to Renew Active so that plan participants can challenge themselves both physically and mentally. The program will offer online exercises and activities to help people keep their minds active. Renew Active is available at no additional cost to people enrolled in eligible UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans. "We know that our health and well-being are closely connected not just to the care we receive from our doctors but also to the way we live our lives," said Rick Dunlop, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement in Illinois. "With Renew Active, we hope to make it easier, more convenient and more affordable for people in Illinois to stay active, both physically and mentally." UnitedHealthcare introduced its fitness program in 2017 because of the important role that exercise plays in health and quality of life as people age. The response from people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans has been overwhelmingly positive, prompting the company to significantly expand the program. In 2019, Renew Active will be newly available to people enrolled in select Medicare Advantage plans in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Utah. These people will join the nearly 1.1 million Medicare Advantage plan participants in 11 other states who currently have access to the program. "Anytime Fitness and Self Esteem Brands have helped thousands of seniors become more physically fit through our participation in the Renew Active network," said Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness. "We look forward to providing more fitess choices to UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members in 2019 when Renew Active expands to Illinois." "At Life Time, we help our members achieve their health objectives and fitness goals, no matter their age," said Mark Laylin, senior vice president, national sales, Life Time. "We're eager to bring our world-class facilities and programming to Illinois seniors and support their health journey through our participation in the Renew Active program in 2019." The rebranding of the program - previously known as Optum Fitness Advantage - aligns it with Renew by UnitedHealthcare, the company's members-only health and wellness experience. Renew by UnitedHealthcare encourages and inspires people to take an active role in their health and happiness through a variety of resources including recipes, videos, quizzes, educational courses, interactive health tools and tips to infuse more positivity into their day. People can earn rewards through Renew for making healthy choices and completing certain health care activities. UnitedHealthcare is the exclusive provider of AARP-branded Medicare plans. The company serves one in five Medicare beneficiaries nationwide: nearly 4.8 million people through Medicare Advantage plans, more than 4.7 million people through stand-alone Part D prescription drug plans, and more than 4.5 million people through Medicare supplement plans. More people have chosen UnitedHealthcare for their Medicare coverage than any other company. For more information about Renew Active, visit www.MyRenewActive.com. About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter (News - Alert) . Plans are insured through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or one of its affiliated companies. For Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans: A Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract and a Medicare-approved Part D sponsor. Enrollment in these plans depends on the plan's contract renewal with Medicare. UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company pays royalty fees to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. You do not need to be an AARP member to enroll in a Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug Plan. AARP and its affiliates are not insurers. AARP encourages you to consider your needs when selecting products and does not make specific product recommendations for individuals. Participation in the Renew Active by UnitedHealthcare program is voluntary. Consult your doctor prior to beginning an exercise program or making changes to your lifestyle or health care routine. Equipment and classes may vary by location. Services, including equipment, classes, personalized fitness plans provided by fitness centers, and brain activities provided by BrainHQ, are provided by third parties not affiliated with AARP or UnitedHealthcare. AARP and UnitedHealthcare do not endorse and are not responsible for the services or information provided by this program. Availability of the Renew Active program varies by plan/area. Renew by UnitedHealthcare is not available in all plans. Other providers are available in our network. Y0066_180925_091945_M Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005138/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Express Logic Supports STM32 X-CUBE-STL for SIL Functional Safety Express Logic, provider of the industry-leading X-Ware IoT Platform powered by the popular ThreadX RTOS, today announced that it has integrated the STMicroelectronics (News - Alert) Software Self-Test Libraries (X-CUBE-STL) with the X-Ware IoT Platform for developers using STM32 microcontrollers based on ARM cores. X-Ware IoT Platform leverages the X-CUBE-STL to help customers more quickly navigate through the IEC (News - Alert) 61508 Safety Integrity Level (SIL2 / SIL3) certification process thus speeding delivery of STM32-based safety-critical products targeting markets such as industrial, motor control, factory automation, power generation/conversion, and medical. The X-Ware IoT Platform is built on the powerful ThreadX RTOS, which has more than 6.2 billion deployments, and leverages the small footprint and near wirespeed of Express Logic's NetX Duo IPv4/IPv6 TCP/IP stack for IoT connectivity. X-Ware IoT Platform is the safest IoT embedded development RTOS and middleware solution on the market, having attained the highest level of safety certifications, including IEC 61508 SIL 4 (the highest, most dependable level as determined by IEC), IEC 62304 Class C, ISO 26262 ASIL D, EN 50128 SW-SIL 4, UL 60730-1 Annex H, CSA E60730-1 Annex H, IEC 60730-1 Annex H, IEC 60335-1 Annex R, and IEC 60335-1 Annex R, 1998. For those devices and applications that must do more than just connect to the IoT, the X-Ware IoT Platform offers a safety-certified FileX embedded FAT-32/exFAT file system, the GUIX GUI development and embedded runtime framework, and theUSBX embedded host/device USB stack. "Our software Self-Test Library (X-CUBE-STL) enables our customers to more easily design and certify systems up to Safety Integrity Level 3 (SIL3), saving precious time-to-market," said Laurent Desseignes, Microcontroller Ecosystem Marketing Manager, STMicroelectronics. "The extensive pre-certifications and industrial-grade design of Express Logic's X-Ware IoT Platform will help our STM32 customers navigate the IEC 61508 certification process and get to market quicker with safety-critical devices and applications." "Adherence to functional safety and process standards is an area of increasing concern in the embedded industry," said William E. Lamie, President, Express Logic. "Moreover, analysts expect that future projects will face even more compliance requirements, increasing pressure on product development cycles and time-to-market. With its pre-certification and industrial-grade design, the X-Ware IoT Platform will help STM32 developers deliver world-class safety-critical devices and applications more quickly and easily." About Express Logic and ThreadX Headquartered in San Diego, CA (News - Alert) , Express Logic, Inc., offers the industry's most advanced run-time solutions for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX RTOS, the high-performance NetX and NetX Duo embedded TCP/IP stacks, the FileX embedded FAT-compatible file system, the USBX Host/Device embedded USB protocol stack, and the GUIX embedded graphical user interface development toolkit. Express Logic products include full source code and are available free of run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or e-mail sales@expresslogic.com. ThreadX, TraceX, FileX, and X-Ware IoT Platform are registered trademarks, and Safety-Critical Certification Pack, NetX, NetX Duo, USBX, GUIX, GUIX Studio, LevelX, preemption-threshold, picokernel, and UDP (News - Alert) fast path technology are trademarks of Express Logic. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. STM32 is a registered and/or unregistered trademark of STMicroelectronics International NV or its affiliates in the EU and/or elsewhere. In particular, STM32 is registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005263/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] UnitedHealthcare Expands Fitness Program to Medicare Advantage Plans in Nebraska UnitedHealthcare will expand its fitness program for people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans to Nebraska and 11 additional states in 2019. The company is also enhancing the program with new features and rebranding it as Renew Active. Renew Active is a fitness program for body and mind designed to help people live their best lives and achieve their health and wellness goals. It provides access to an extensive choice of more than 6,000 fitness locations, including national, regional and local options, at no additional cost. In Nebraska, this includes participating Anytime Fitness, Curves, Genesis Health Clubs, Life Time and Snap Fitness locations. Locations also include local participating YMCAs. Through Renew Active, people can take advantage of an in-person fitness orientation to help them get started toward reaching their goals as well as all of the benefits of a standard membership at participating fitness locations, including a wide variety of equipment, amenities and group exercise classes. UnitedHealthcare is also adding new features to Renew Active so that plan participants can challenge themselves both physically and mentally. The program will offer online exercises and activities to help people keep their minds active. Renew Active is available at no additional cost to people enrolled in eligible UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans. "We know that our health and well-being are closely connected not just to the care we receive from our doctors but also to the way we live our lives," said Ben Grabski, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement in Nebraska. "With Renew Active, we hope to make it easier, more convenient and more affordable for people in Nebraska to stay active, both physically and mentally." UnitedHealthcare introduced its fitness program in 2017 because of the important role that exercise plays in health and quality of life as people age. The response from people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans has been overwhelmingly positive, prompting the company to significantly expand the program. In 2019, Renew Active will be newly available to people enrolled in select Medicare Advantage plans in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Utah. These people will join the nearly 1.1 million Medicare Advantage plan participants in 11 other states who currently have access to the program. "Anytime Fitness and Self Esteem Brands have helped thousands of seniors become more physically fit through our participation in the Renew Active network," said Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness. "We look forward to providing more fitness choice to UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members in 2019 when Renew Active expands to Nebraska." "At Life Time, we help our members achieve their health objectives and fitness goals, no matter their age," said Mark Laylin, senior vice president, national sales, Life Time. "We're eager to bring our world-class facilities and programming to Nebraska seniors and support their health journey through our participation in the Renew Active program in 2019." The rebranding of the program - previously known as Optum Fitness Advantage - aligns it with Renew by UnitedHealthcare, the company's members-only health and wellness experience. Renew by UnitedHealthcare encourages and inspires people to take an active role in their health and happiness through a variety of resources including recipes, videos, quizzes, educational courses, interactive health tools and tips to infuse more positivity into their day. People can earn rewards through Renew for making healthy choices and completing certain health care activities. UnitedHealthcare is the exclusive provider of AARP-branded Medicare plans. The company serves one in five Medicare beneficiaries nationwide: nearly 4.8 million people through Medicare Advantage plans, more than 4.7 million people through stand-alone Part D prescription drug plans, and more than 4.5 million people through Medicare supplement plans. More people have chosen UnitedHealthcare for their Medicare coverage than any other company. For more information about Renew Active, visit www.MyRenewActive.com. About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter (News - Alert) . Plans are insured through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or one of its affiliated companies. For Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans: A Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract and a Medicare-approved Part D sponsor. Enrollment in these plans depends on the plan's contract renewal with Medicare. UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company pays royalty fees to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. You do not need to be an AARP member to enroll in a Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug Plan. AARP and its affiliates are not insurers. AARP encourages you to consider your needs when selecting products and does not make specific product recommendations for individuals. Participation in the Renew Active by UnitedHealthcare program is voluntary. Consult your doctor prior to beginning an exercise program or making changes to your lifestyle or health care routine. Equipment and classes may vary by location. Services, including equipment, classes, personalized fitness plans provided by fitness centers, and brain activities provided by BrainHQ, are provided by third parties not affiliated with AARP or UnitedHealthcare. AARP and UnitedHealthcare do not endorse and are not responsible for the services or information provided by this program. Availability of the Renew Active program varies by plan/area. Renew by UnitedHealthcare is not available in all plans. Other providers are available in our network. Y0066_180925_091945_M Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005133/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] KBRA Assigns Preliminary Ratings to Oportun Funding X, LLC, Series 2018-C Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) assigns preliminary ratings to four classes of Oportun Funding X, LLC, Series 2018-C ("Oportun 2018-C"), a consumer loan asset-backed securities transaction. The collateral in the Oportun 2018-C deal includes approximately $263.16 million of loans, as of the September 20, 2018 statistical calculation date. The transaction includes a three-year revolving period during which additional collateral may be funded in the transaction so long as it complies with certain eligibility criteria. The preliminary ratings reflect the initial credit enhancement levels ranging from 30.0% for the Class A note, 15.0% for the Class B note, 10.00% for the Class C note and 5.0% for the Class D note. Oportun Financial Corporation is a California based consumer finance company founded in 2005 and headquartered in San Carlos, California. The Company provides unsecured installment loans to borrowers who do not have a credit score, or who may have a limited credit history and are "mis-scored," meaning that traditional credit scores do not properly reflect their credit worthiness. Oportun operates 283 decentralized retail locations in California, Texas, Illinois, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Florida. In addition, the Company offers loans via their mobile origination solution in Missouri, Wisconsin and Idaho and New Jersey on a "mobile-first" basis. The expansion is expected to continue throughout 2018/2019 into other geographic locations including South Carolina via their mobile origination solution. KBRA applied its Global Consumer Loan ABS (News - Alert) Rating Methodology for Asset-Backed Securities as part of its analysis of the transaction's underlying collateral pool, the proposed capital structure and Oportun's historical gross loss data. KBRA also conducted an operational assessment of Oportun, as well as a review of the transaction's legal structure and transaction documents. KBRA will also review the operative agreements and legal opinions for the transaction prior to closing. Preliminary Ratings Assigned: Oportun Funding X, LLC, Series 2018-C Class Preliminary Rating Initial Class Principal A A+ (sf) $184,213,000 B BBB+ (sf) $39,473,000 C BB (sf) $13,157,000 D B (sf) $13,157,000 Representations & Warranties Disclosure All Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations are required, pursuant to SEC (News - Alert) Rule 17g-7, to provide a description of a transaction's representations, warranties and enforcement mechanisms that are available to investors when issuing credit ratings. KBRA's disclosure for this transaction can be found in the report available here. Related Publications: (available at www.kbra.com) Oportun Funding X, LLC, Series 2108-C Pre-Sale Report Global Consumer Loan ABS Rating Methodology CONNECT WITH KBRA Twitter LinkedIn Download the iOS App YouTube About KBRA and KBRA Europe KBRA is a full service credit rating agency registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an NRSRO. In addition, KBRA is designated as a designated rating organization by the Ontario Securities Commission for issuers of asset-backed securities to file a short form prospectus or shelf prospectus, is recognized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as a Credit Rating Provider, and is a certified Credit Rating Agency (CRA) by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited is registered with ESMA as a CRA. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005674/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Cigna Helps Prepare Residents in States Impacted by Hurricane Michael Global health service company Cigna (NYSE: CI) is helping residents of Florida, Georgia and Alabama prepare for Hurricane Michael by easing some health benefits plan requirements and expanding access to a toll-free help line. To ensure Cigna customers continue to have ready access to prescriptions during this potentially difficult time, Cigna has lifted prescription refill requirements in affected counties in Florida and Alabama through the first week of November 2018. Customers in affected Georgia counties will have refill requirements waived until October 16, 2018. In alignment with FEMA and state emergency declarations, Cigna-HealthSpring, a Medicare Advantage health plan, is lifting refill and referral requirements for Medicare Parts A, B and Supplemental C customers in affected areas of Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Additionally, if those customers require out of network services during the declaration, they will be covered at in-network rates. Customers with questions on any aspect of their pharmacy or medical care may call the number on their customer ID card or call 1-800-244-6224. Customers who have a smartphone may access their ID card and other personal health benefits information through the myCigna app, which is available as a free download at the Apple iTunes App Store and the Android Market on Google Play. For all residents in affected areas, Cigna is providing access to its 24x7 telephone help line. Phone (News - Alert) lines are staffed with qualified clinicians who are available to speak with people about how to cope with anxiety, stress or other issues. People who do not have health benefits or employee assistance program benefits with Cigna can call 1-866-912-1687 toll-free. Customers who have health benefits or employee assistance program benefits with Cigna should call the telephone number on their Cigna ID card or call 1-800-244-6224. Cigna also provides a list of online resources for physical and mental self-care during challenging times including hurricanes, which are available in English and Spanish in the Disaster Resource Center on Cigna's website. Cigna will continue to monitor the situation and take additional steps to help our customers as needed, in concert with emergency or disaster declarations by local, state and federal authorities, to ensure customers continue to have access to pharmacy and medical care. About Cigna Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) is a global health service company dedicated to helping people improve their health, well-being and sense of security. All products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Life Insurance Company of North America, Cigna Life Insurance Company of New York, or their affiliates. Such products and services include an integrated suite of health services, such as medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, vision, supplemental benefits, and other related products including group life, accident and disability insurance. Cigna maintains sales capability in over 30 countries and jurisdictions, and has more than 95 million customer relationships throughout the world. To learn more about Cigna, including links to follow us on Facebook (News - Alert) or Twitter, visit www.cigna.com. For more information about Cigna's proposed acquisition of Express Scripts, please visit www.advancinghealthcare.com. About Cigna-HealthSpring Cigna-HealthSpring is a Medicare Advantage health services company committed to helping our nation's Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries live healthier, more active lives through personalized, affordable and easy-to-use health care solutions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005675/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] UnitedHealthcare Expands Fitness Program to Medicare Advantage Plans in Utah UnitedHealthcare will expand its fitness program for people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans to Utah and 11 additional states in 2019. The company is also enhancing the program with new features and rebranding it as Renew Active. Renew Active is a fitness program for body and mind designed to help people live their best lives and achieve their health and wellness goals. It provides access to an extensive choice of more than 6,000 fitness locations, including national, regional and local options, at no additional cost. In Utah, this includes participating 24 Hour Fitness, Anytime Fitness, Curves, Life Time, Snap Fitness and VASA Fitness locations. Through Renew Active, people can take advantage of an in-person fitness orientation to help them get started toward reaching their goals as well as all of the benefits of a standard membership at participating fitness locations, including a wide variety of equipment, amenities and group exercise classes. UnitedHealthcare is also adding new features to Renew Active so that plan participants can challenge themselves both physically and mentally. The program will offer online exercises and activities to help people keep their minds active. Renew Active is available at no additional cost to people enrolled in eligible UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans. "We know that our health and well-being are closely connected not just to the care we receive from our doctors but also to the way we live our lives," said Marc Briggs, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement in Utah. "With Renew Active, we hope to make it easier, more convenient and more affordable for people in Utah to stay active, both physically and mentally." UnitedHealthcare introduced its fitness program in 2017 because of the important role that exercise plays in health and quality of life as people age. The response from people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans has been overwhelmingly positive, prompting the company to significantly expand the program. In 2019, Renew Active will be newly available to people enrolled in select Medicare Advantage plans in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Utah. These people will join the nearly 1.1 million Medicare Advantage plan participants in 11 other states who currently have access to the program. "Anytime Fitness and Self Esteem Brands have helped thousands of seniors become more physically fit through our participation in the Renew Active network," said Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness. "We look forward to providing more fitness choices to UnitedHealthcare Mediare Advantage members in 2019 when Renew Active expands to Utah." "At Life Time, we help our members achieve their health objectives and fitness goals, no matter their age," said Mark Laylin, senior vice president, national sales, Life Time. "We're eager to bring our world-class facilities and programming to Utah seniors and support their health journey through our participation in the Renew Active program in 2019." The rebranding of the program - previously known as Optum Fitness Advantage - aligns it with Renew by UnitedHealthcare, the company's members-only health and wellness experience. Renew by UnitedHealthcare encourages and inspires people to take an active role in their health and happiness through a variety of resources including recipes, videos, quizzes, educational courses, interactive health tools and tips to infuse more positivity into their day. People can earn rewards through Renew for making healthy choices and completing certain health care activities. UnitedHealthcare is the exclusive provider of AARP-branded Medicare plans. The company serves one in five Medicare beneficiaries nationwide: nearly 4.8 million people through Medicare Advantage plans, more than 4.7 million people through stand-alone Part D prescription drug plans, and more than 4.5 million people through Medicare supplement plans. More people have chosen UnitedHealthcare for their Medicare coverage than any other company. For more information about Renew Active, visit www.MyRenewActive.com. About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter (News - Alert) . Plans are insured through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or one of its affiliated companies. For Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans: A Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract and a Medicare-approved Part D sponsor. Enrollment in these plans depends on the plan's contract renewal with Medicare. UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company pays royalty fees to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. You do not need to be an AARP member to enroll in a Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug Plan. AARP and its affiliates are not insurers. AARP encourages you to consider your needs when selecting products and does not make specific product recommendations for individuals. Participation in the Renew Active by UnitedHealthcare program is voluntary. Consult your doctor prior to beginning an exercise program or making changes to your lifestyle or health care routine. Equipment and classes may vary by location. Services, including equipment, classes, personalized fitness plans provided by fitness centers, and brain activities provided by BrainHQ, are provided by third parties not affiliated with AARP or UnitedHealthcare. AARP and UnitedHealthcare do not endorse and are not responsible for the services or information provided by this program. Availability of the Renew Active program varies by plan/area. Renew by UnitedHealthcare is not available in all plans. Other providers are available in our network. Y0066_180925_091945_M Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005669/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Alteryx Recognizes the Next Class of Analytics Excellence Award Winners and ACEs at Inspire Europe LONDON, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alteryx, Inc. (NYSE: AYX) revolutionizing business through data science and analytics, today announced the new recipients of the 2018 Alteryx Analytics Excellence Awards and the new ACE program members at the company's annual Inspire Europe conference. During a keynote addressing the event audience, Olivia Duane Adams, co-founder and chief customer officer (CCO), recognized Alteryx customers for spreading the culture of analytics and uncovering insights that positively influence their organizations and communities. 2018 Analytics Excellence Awards The Alteryx Analytics Excellence Awards were created to celebrate outstanding game changers who use Alteryx to make a difference with their team, their company, their industry or their world. The four winners will share $20,000 to be donated to their charity of choice, in recognition of their commitment to the communities around them. Alteryx announced the first round of 2018 winners at Inspire Anaheim in June and selected the following use cases as the second group of honorees today at Inspire Europe: Universal Data Model Powered by Alteryx: Implementing the Universal Data Model and the Alteryx platform, Rugby Australia was able to build an analysis of on-field and off-field performance metrics, including wellness, biometrics, injuries, training load and detailed play-by-pay stats. Implementing the Universal Data Model and the Alteryx platform, Rugby Australia was able to build an analysis of on-field and off-field performance metrics, including wellness, biometrics, injuries, training load and detailed play-by-pay stats. Crime Mapping What If You Could Predict the Future: To demonstrate how predictive analytics can be applied to real world scenarios, Kishan Dosa , Callum Stevens , Nathanael Norris and Goncalo Pereira of Climber utilized the Alteryx platform to combine vast amounts of unstructured public data to determine if they could successfully predict crime rates for England and Wales . To demonstrate how predictive analytics can be applied to real world scenarios, , , and of Climber utilized the Alteryx platform to combine vast amounts of unstructured public data to determine if they could successfully predict crime rates for and . Bringing Efficiencies to Charities Through the Alteryx For Good Program: Combining their passion for community service and the Alteryx Platform, Rusheen Rathore , Palak Jindal , Vivek Sahoo and Yugandhar Muley dedicated their weekends to solving several charities' data-related challenges. By streamlining several of the manual tasks through the Alteryx platform, the staff of Sai Krushna Charitable Trust and Sneha Care Home were able to devote more of their time to caring for orphan children. Combining their passion for community service and the Alteryx Platform, , , and Yugandhar Muley dedicated their weekends to solving several charities' data-related challenges. By streamlining several of the manual tasks through the Alteryx platform, the staff of Sai Krushna Charitable Trust and were able to devote more of their time to caring for orphan children. Crew Reserve and Open Time Forecasting: Airlines operate in a highly competitive industry, and to stay ahead of the competition, many are looking to minimize crew costs. Southwest Airlines looked to Alteryx to help provide forecasts for crew schedules to decrease extra crew costs associated with unassigned reserves, premium assignments and unplanned absences or open time. The ACE Program Alteryx welcomed the newest members of the ACE program, which recognizes influential and expert-level Alteryx users who are committed to supporting their peers and the broader data science and analytics community. The two new members, who will join 38 existing ACEs, include: Jesse Clark , application developer at Fallon Health: Jesse lives to solve but strives for the ability to understand and explain both the problem and the solution. He is a regular contributor to the Alteryx Community, providing solutions at warp speed and contributing at the local Boston Alteryx User Group. Earlier this year, at Inspire in Anaheim, he was the one and only person to receive the Alteryx Expert Certification. Jesse lives to solve but strives for the ability to understand and explain both the problem and the solution. He is a regular contributor to the Alteryx Community, providing solutions at warp speed and contributing at the local Boston Alteryx User Group. Earlier this year, at Inspire in Anaheim, he was the one and only person to receive the Alteryx Expert Certification. Ben Moss , consulting analyst at The Information Lab: Ben is consistently a top contributor to the Alteryx community. Whether he is providing solutions to his peers' problems or presenting unique use cases at the London User Group, he does so with the utmost enthusiasm. His passion for empowering others to figure out 'unknown unknowns' and up-leveling the analytics ecosystem is unmatched. "We are constantly amazed by what our users from around the globe achieve with analytics and how they leverage their technical abilities to impact the world around them, striving to solve the impossible," said Duane Adams. "Our Alteryx Analytics Excellence Award winners and ACEs truly embody the concept of 'alter everything,' as they Alteryx their organizations, cultures and communities by paying forward their wealth of knowledge to help others experience the thrill of solving." For additional details on this year's submissions, visit https://bit.ly/2LuvX0w. Alteryx customers can submit use cases for Alteryx Analytics Excellence Awards consideration all year at https://bit.ly/2GN9Ui0. About Alteryx, Inc. Revolutionizing business through data science and analytics, Alteryx offers an end-to-end analytics platform that empowers data analysts and scientists alike to break data barriers, deliver insights, and experience the thrill of getting to the answer faster. Organizations all over the world rely on Alteryx daily to deliver actionable insights. For more information visit www.alteryx.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alteryx-recognizes-the-next-class-of-analytics-excellence-award-winners-and-aces-at-inspire-europe-300726787.html SOURCE Alteryx, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] The Digital Transformation of Mercedes-Benz Vans: Leveraging artificial intelligence in last-mile logistics MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercedes-Benz Vans is transforming itself into a provider of holistic transportation solutions with the help of new digital product offerings. The Future Transportation team of Mercedes-Benz Vans developed a new AI-powered cargo sensor system to address the growing demands of e-commerce and last-mile delivery. The growing popularity of e-commerce has led to high revenues for delivery service providers but has also put strain on their ability to manage this increase of packages and deliver them under tight deadlines. To meet these challenges for its commercial van customers, Mercedes-Benz Vans is developing next-generation in-vehicle cargo systems powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. These new technologies automate cargo management, decrease package handling and improve delivery times, allowing logistics companies to deliver more packages with greater speed, transparency and efficiency. The Cargo Recognition and Organization System, known as CoROS equips the new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter with an array of cameras that automatically scan and track packages as they enter and exit the vehicle. Leveraging computer vision and AI, CoROS identifies, scans, and records packages as they are brought into the vehicle and recommends the optimal loading position based on the package's size and final destination. CoROS continuusly monitors the cargo space throughout a driver's route and tracks any changes to a package's location if a sharp turn or road bump causes the cargo to shift, or if the driver reorganizes their cargo throughout the day. At each stop, the system automatically looks up the customer's order and directs the driver to that customer's packages via LEDs installed on shelves and throughout the cargo space. CoROS also reduces time spent by the driver searching for the right packages at each customer stop, enabling faster and more reliable deliveries. The system provides additional benefits through real-time status updates for fleet managers and customers on a driver's progress and the status of individual packages, reducing potential customer frustration regarding uncertain delivery times. This data also provides valuable insight into a fleet's performance, allowing fleet managers and dispatchers to forecast delays, optimize process operations, and address areas of concern. Launched as proof of concept at IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hanover, Germany, it will be now presented at Fleet Forward Conference in San Francisco, October 9. At home in a garage in Menlo Park, the Future Transportation team of Mercedes-Benz Vans uses user-centered design and rapid prototyping to innovate new products. Its interdisciplinary team combines Mercedes-Benz's decades of expertise in the commercial vehicle sector with fresh perspectives from a variety of industries. Leveraging the innovative Silicon Valley network, the Mercedes-Benz Vans Future Transportation explores new ventures and opportunities in the changing transportation ecosystem, and considers how emerging technologies will shape the future landscape of logistics and mobility. As part of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America headquartered in Sunnyvale the team is part of the global R&D network of Daimler AG. Further information about Mercedes-Benz is available online: www.mbrdna.com and www.media.daimler.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-digital-transformation-of-mercedes-benz-vans-leveraging-artificial-intelligence-in-last-mile-logistics-300728738.html SOURCE Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Altia Systems, Zoom and Uber Collaborate to Deploy 850+ Zoom Rooms With PanaCast for Intelligent, Real-Time Video Communications CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Altia Systems , creator of PanaCast 2, the world's first 180 degree Panoramic-4K plug-and-play camera system, Zoom Video Communications and Uber today announced the successful deployment of more than 850 PanaCast-equipped Zoom Rooms in Uber offices worldwide to streamline its enterprise scale video communications technology. The camera systems are being used to connect more than 18,000 Uber employees in hundreds of offices across the world. Altia Systems worked closely with Ravi Sharma, the head of collaboration and AV services at Uber, and Uber's technical team to deploy innovative equipment and software as a part of Uber's AV 2.0 initiative. AV 2.0 is focused on improving quality across all audio and video components, boosting productivity through seamless collaboration and streamlining remote support while remaining simple and cost-effective. "When people walk into a conference room, they don't want to struggle with the technology - they want it to just work," said Ravi. "PanaCast provides that while significantly enhancing employee productivity by streamlining collaboration with its intelligent features. That's why we've deployed hundreds of PanaCast devices across Uber's conference rooms globally," he said. "You have five chairs per huddle room. If two are not in the camera's field of view, those two chairs are not usable and you've lost those seats at the table literally." PanaCast's 180 degree field of view allows Uber's teams to utilize 100 percent of any conference or huddle room, leaving no space wasted or team members out of sight. Uber is also utilizing PanaCast's Intelligent Vision products, such as Intelligent Zoom and PanaCast Vivid, to help enhance participants' experience with autonomous intelligent technology. This eliminates the need for manual remote control adjustments that typical pan-tilt-zoom cameras require. "Zoom and Altia Systems have collaborated to integrate PanaCast controls into the Zoom Room control panel via an open API. This capability was first deployed by Uber to simplify and enhance participants' expeience, and is now available widely," said Oded Gal, head of product management at Zoom. "Zoom's overarching goal with Zoom Rooms is to create an efficient, easy-to-use solution, which we've accomplished by incorporating intelligent camera controls such as PanaCast Intelligent Zoom. These tools help streamline the communications experience for customers around the world." "Uber's rapid growth required an innovative IT solution to manage large-scale global deployments," said Altia Systems VP for software engineering, Naveed Alam. "We worked with Uber's AV and IT teams to deliver an enterprise grade zero touch support and manageability solution that enables PanaCast devices to be updated and configured remotely as new technology develops. It combines seamlessly with the PanaCast fundamentals of 100 percent video, audio and big data coverage to optimize virtual collaboration within a global company." Altia Systems will be demonstrating its PanaCast technology solutions with Zoom Rooms at Zoomtopia 2018, taking place from October 10-11, 2018 in San Jose, California. Ravi Sharma will be a panelist on the "Pushing the Limits of Zoom Rooms" panel at Zoomtopia 2018 and Oded Gal will be delivering the Product Keynote at Zoomtopia on Thursday, October 11th at 8:30 a.m. About Altia Systems Altia Systems is a venture-backed company based in Cupertino, CA., and is the creator of the PanaCast system and software products. PanaCast 2, the world's first Panoramic-4K Plug-and-Play camera system that delivers a 180 wide field of view, replicates the natural human visual perspective. Funded by Intel Capital and other leading investors, Altia Systems' PanaCast 2, 2s, 3D VR and Live systems deliver real-time 180 Panoramic-4K, Panoramic-5K and 4K 3D video streams from integrated, synchronized and optimized multi-camera arrays. PanaCast systems and Intelligent Vision (artificial intelligence) software products are used by more than 1,500 companies worldwide, including 200+ universities, for video collaboration, education, AR/VR, live broadcasting and machine learning for autonomous systems. PanaCast system devices are designed and assembled in the U.S. and have received prestigious awards such as CES Innovation Awards Honoree, Frost & Sullivan New Product Innovation, GOOD DESIGN award, Gartner Cool Vendor in Unified Communications, and more. For more information and the latest updates, visit www.panacast.com and follow @PanaCast1 via Twitter. About Zoom Video Communications Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. Zoom Rooms, the leading software-based conference room solution, features video and audio conferencing, wireless content sharing, and integrated calendaring running on off-the-shelf hardware. Zoom Rooms suit any meeting or collaboration space, from small huddle rooms to world-class training centers. Founded in 2011, Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done. Zoom is a private company headquartered in San Jose, CA. Visit zoom.us and follow @zoom_us . About Uber Uber's mission is to bring reliable transportation to everyone, everywhere. We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get a ride at the touch of a button? We've since completed 5 billion trips and remain committed to building a platform that enables the safe, efficient movement of people around the world. Contact: Brenda Manea BAM Communications brenda@bamcommunications.biz View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/altia-systems-zoom-and-uber-collaborate-to-deploy-850-zoom-rooms-with-panacast-for-intelligent-real-time-video-communications-300728291.html SOURCE Altia Systems [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] BMC to Acquire CorreLog, Inc., a Leader in Multi-Platform IT Security Event Log Management HOUSTON, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BMC, a global leader in IT solutions for the digital enterprise, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire assets of CorreLog, Inc., which provides real-time security management to mainframe customers. CorreLog's offerings, combined with BMC's innovative solutions in systems, data, and cost management, provide end-to-end solutions to ensure the availability, performance, and security of mission critical applications and data residing on today's modern mainframe. The transaction is expected to close later this quarter. CorreLog delivers software solutions for security and compliance auditing professionals who need more advanced network and system security, and improved adherence to key industry standards for protecting data. The combination of CorreLog's security offerings with BMC's mainframe solutions provides customers with enhanced security capabilities including: Real-time visibility into security events from mainframe environments, delivered directly into SIEM/SOC systems. A wide variety of security alerts, including IBM IMS and Db2 event log correlation, providing up-to-the second security notifications for faster remediation in the event of a breach. A 360-degree view of mainframe threat activity. "With the addition of CorreLog, BMC brings security management into our already robust portfolio of mainframe solutions," said Bill Miller, president of ZSolutions at BMC. "CorreLog's existing integrations to all the major SIEMs Splunk, IBM QRadar, ArcSight, LogRhythm, McAfee Enterprise Security Manager, and others will be instrumental as we roll out the technology to our customers quickly and efficiently. CorreLog is a great fit with our mainframe solutions, and we are excited to brng our solutions together to help customers strengthen their IT security and protect their business-critical data." "We are excited to join the BMC family, bringing real-time security management into the company's portfolio of leading mainframe solutions," said George Faucher, CorreLog president and founder. "With over 85 percent of the world's credit card transactions running through mainframes, and nearly $8 trillion in payments a year processed on mainframes, mainframe security management is critical to the success of every enterprise. BMC shares our goal of delivering visibility into all the activity on the mainframe related to data security and compliance." For more information about BMC Mainframe Solutions, including CorreLog, visit http://www.bmc.com/it-solutions/mainframe.html About BMC BMC helps customers run and reinvent their businesses with open, scalable, and modular solutions to complex IT problems. Bringing both unmatched experience in optimization and limitless passion for innovation to technologies from mainframe to mobile to cloud and beyond, BMC helps more than 10,000 customers worldwide reinvent, grow, and build for the future success of their enterprises, including 92 of the Forbes Global 100. BMC, BMC Software, and the BMC logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Software Inc., are registered or pending registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other BMC trademarks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright 2018 BMC Software, Inc. About CorreLog Since 2007, CorreLog, Inc. has been committed to delivering software solutions for security and compliance auditing professionals who need more advanced network/system security and improved adherence to PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, FISMA, GDPR, ISO 27001, IRS Pub. 1075, NERC and other industry standards for protecting data. Our solutions are designed to be complementary to clients' existing IT investments. CorreLog solutions help secure data across both mainframe and distributed operating systems, and provide alerts with notifications in real-time to security and network operations resources. CorreLog customers range across Fortune 500 to SMB class, all of whom benefit from our ease of installation and highly interoperable approach to building software that is simple to use and master out of the box. Our customers are up and running with monitoring and alerts within just a few hours, versus weeks or even months with competing vendor solutions. Our software agent monitoring technology spans from Windows, Linux, UNIX, Mac, SAP, and databases all the way up to the largest mainframes running IBM z/OS, Linux on z Systems, IBM Db2, IBM IMS, and IBM z/VM. IBM, IMS, DB2, z/OS, and z Systems are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. SAP is the registered trademark of SAP SE in Germany and in several other countries. Editorial contacts: Sheila Watson BMC D: 713.918.8832 M: 713.294.6818 sheila_watson@bmc.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bmc-to-acquire-correlog-inc-a-leader-in-multi-platform-it-security-event-log-management-300728759.html SOURCE BMC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] UnitedHealthcare Expands Fitness Program to Medicare Advantage Plans in California UnitedHealthcare will expand its fitness program for people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans to California and 11 additional states in 2019. The company is also enhancing the program with new features and rebranding it as Renew Active. Renew Active is a fitness program for body and mind designed to help people live their best lives and achieve their health and wellness goals. It provides access to an extensive choice of more than 6,000 fitness locations, including national, regional and local options, at no additional cost. In California, this includes participating 24 Hour Fitness, Anytime Fitness, Curves, Gold's Gym, In-Shape, LA Fitness and Snap Fitness locations. Locations also include local participating YMCAs. Through Renew Active, people can take advantage of an in-person fitness orientation to help them get started toward reaching their goals as well as all of the benefits of a standard membership at participating fitness locations, including a wide variety of equipment, amenities and group exercise classes. UnitedHealthcare is also adding new features to Renew Active so that plan participants can challenge themselves both physically and mentally. The program will offer online exercises and activities to help people keep their minds active. Renew Active is available at no additional cost to people enrolled in eligible UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans. "We know that our health and well-being are closely connected not just to the care we receive from our doctors but also to the way we live our lives," said Greg Wright, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement in Southern California. "With Renew Active, we hope to make it easier, more convenient and more affordable for people in California to stay active, both physically and mentally." UnitedHealthcare introduced its fitness program in 2017 because of the important role that exercise plays in health and quality of life as people age. The response from people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans has been overwhelmingly positive, prompting the company to significantly expand the program. In 2019, Renew Active will be newly available to people enrolled in select Medicare Advantage plans in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Utah. These people will join the nearly 1.1 million Medicare Advantage plan participants in 11 other states who currently have access to the program. "Anytime Fitness and Self Esteem Brands have helped thousands of seniors become more physically fit though our participation in the Renew Active network," said Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness. "We look forward to providing more fitness choices to UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members in 2019 when Renew Active expands to California." The rebranding of the program - previously known as Optum Fitness Advantage - aligns it with Renew by UnitedHealthcare, the company's members-only health and wellness experience. Renew by UnitedHealthcare encourages and inspires people to take an active role in their health and happiness through a variety of resources including recipes, videos, quizzes, educational courses, interactive health tools and tips to infuse more positivity into their day. People can earn rewards through Renew for making healthy choices and completing certain health care activities. UnitedHealthcare is the exclusive provider of AARP-branded Medicare plans. The company serves one in five Medicare beneficiaries nationwide: nearly 4.8 million people through Medicare Advantage plans, more than 4.7 million people through stand-alone Part D prescription drug plans, and more than 4.5 million people through Medicare supplement plans. More people have chosen UnitedHealthcare for their Medicare coverage than any other company. For more information about Renew Active, visit www.MyRenewActive.com. About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter (News - Alert) . Plans are insured through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or one of its affiliated companies. For Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans: A Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract and a Medicare-approved Part D sponsor. Enrollment in these plans depends on the plan's contract renewal with Medicare. UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company pays royalty fees to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. You do not need to be an AARP member to enroll in a Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug Plan. AARP and its affiliates are not insurers. AARP encourages you to consider your needs when selecting products and does not make specific product recommendations for individuals. Participation in the Renew Active by UnitedHealthcare program is voluntary. Consult your doctor prior to beginning an exercise program or making changes to your lifestyle or health care routine. Equipment and classes may vary by location. Services, including equipment, classes, personalized fitness plans provided by fitness centers, and brain activities provided by BrainHQ, are provided by third parties not affiliated with AARP or UnitedHealthcare. AARP and UnitedHealthcare do not endorse and are not responsible for the services or information provided by this program. Availability of the Renew Active program varies by plan/area. Renew by UnitedHealthcare is not available in all plans. Other providers are available in our network. Y0066_180925_091945_M Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005670/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] SecureCircle Introduces Enhanced Cybersecurity Offering for Cloud-First Enterprises MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SecureCircle , the world's first opt-out data protection, today introduced an updated product offering with new features to meet the data security needs of cloud-first enterprises in a zero trust world. New features add an enhanced level of data protection and come as the startup scales offerings to meet growing demand from Fortune 500 and global organizations. SecureCircle's growing customer base helped inform the product roadmap. New features include server and endpoint components. The server solution includes updates to its SaaS and on-premise technology while the endpoint components include updates for Mac, iOS, Windows, Linux and Android operating systems. Each update offers enhanced protection for all unstructured data, which represents 80 percent of a company's data. "Enterprises are vulnerable in today's cloud-based, collaborative computing environment," said Jeff Capone, SecureCircle co-founder and CEO. "Security practices that depend on users to opt in or take steps to keep organizations safe have proven ineffective. However, by automating advanced cybersecurity in an opt-out manner and making it seamless to end users, enterprises are able to automatically protect critical data. Our enhanced solution does just that, adding a new layer of security that protects users from copying secure data to non-file-based apps, among other features, helping organizations stay one step ahead of bad actors." Highlights include: Network/Location Isolation Allows firewalllike rules to be applied to applications in the Allowed List. Applies inbound and outbound rules for applications/processes, IP address, protocol and ports, enabling granular access control in addition to authentication by users, devices and applications. Allows firewalllike rules to be applied to applications in the Allowed List. Applies inbound and outbound rules for applications/processes, IP address, protocol and ports, enabling granular access control in addition to authentication by users, devices and applications. Copy Clipboard Protection Enables admins to enforce the ability to copy data to the operating system clipboard. Prevents users from copying data into non-file-based applications such as messaging apps, adding an extra layer of data protection. Enables admins to enforce the ability to copy data to the operating system clipboard. Prevents users from copying data into non-file-based applications such as messaging apps, adding an extra layer of data protection. New Policy Management Administrators create and manage policies for key management, directory services, network and client configurations, serving as a central policy hub. Administrators create and manage policies for key management, directory services, network and client configurations, serving as a central policy hub. Updated User Interface (UI) Allows for key server, directory service, and SIEM integrations to be configured directly within the UI. Allows for simple search & filter functions on any page and multi-language support is now available for English, Spanish, German, Portuguese and simplified Chinese. About SecureCircle SecureCircle is the world's first opt-out data protection that prevents breaches and data loss in a zero trust world. Its patent-pending technology transparently protects sensitive data by default and allows organizations to ensure the security, visibility and control of unstructured data from internal and external threats, regardless of location. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., SecureCircle helps organizations in healthcare, finance, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, media and government meet challenging data security and compliance requirements. Learn more at SecureCircle.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn . Press Contact: Brooks Wallace, Hollywood Agency brooks@hollywoodagency.com (781) 749-0077 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/securecircle-introduces-enhanced-cybersecurity-offering-for-cloud-first-enterprises-300728280.html SOURCE SecureCircle [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] ANSI Releases Agenda for October 18 Joint Member Forum on Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has released the agenda for its Joint Member Forum (JMF), Empowered by Innovation: Cutting-Edge Technologies Driving Real-World Solutions, October 18, 2018, in Washington, DC. The forum will explore concrete applications of two of the most transformative technologies propelling organizational/business advancement today: blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). Representative James Grant of the Florida House of Representatives will provide a keynote address on leveraging blockchain and other tech innovations for the benefit of diverse stakeholder groups, setting the stage for the day's panel discussions. A frequent speaker on innovation and healthcare IT, Mr. Grant serves as Chairman of Health Quality and sits on the Health and Human Services, Healthcare Appropriations, Commerce, Justice Appropriations, and Civil Justice committees in the Florida House of Representatives. Following the keynote, expert panelists from a range of industries/sectors including health care, ITC, transportation, shipping, food safety, and government will discuss real-world applications of blockchain and AI, as well as the standards and conformance activities that have contributed to the deployment or are needed. Interactive dialogue and audience Q&A will be encouraged during each of the two panel sessions, structured as follows: Panel 1: How Blockchain Is Transforming the Supply Chain Experts will share how their organizations are using blockchain for supply chain security, and potential applications that may provide additional solutions for many types of companies and organizations. Panelists: Annette Mueller , Maersk , Maersk KristinHolzworth , Ph.D., Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific , Ph.D., Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific Eric Johnson , Journal of Commerce , Shahar A. Abrams , IBM Global Business Services Moderator: Claire Ramspeck, ASME; Chair, ANSI Organizational Member Forum Panel 2: Applications of Artificial Intelligence Panelists will discuss how AI is transforming business and society and present concrete applications in various industries and sectors, as well as the standardization work helping to drive this innovation. Panelists: Steve Orrin , Intel Corporation , Intel Corporation David J. Atkinson , Ph.D., Continental Automotive , Ph.D., Continental Automotive Charles Romine , National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) , National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Mina J. Hanna , Synopsys Inc.; IEEE-SA Global Initiative on Ethics of A/I Systems Policy Committee Moderator: Jim Matthews, Corning Inc.; Chair, ANSI Company Member Forum The daylong event will also include ANSI's Annual Business Meeting luncheon, when the Institute's president and CEO and Board Chair will present updates on ANSI's recent activities, accomplishments, and strategic direction. ANSI members and all interested stakeholders from government, industry, business, consumer groups, and academia are encouraged to attend. Download the full Joint Member Forum and Annual Business Meeting agenda. The ANSI Joint Member Forum (free) and Annual Business Meeting luncheon (free for ANSI members; $95 for non-members) will take place on Thursday, October 18, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the FHI Conference Center in Washington, DC. Registration is required via this link. The events are part of ANSI's World Standards Week (WSW) on October 15-19 the most anticipated event of ANSI's 2018 centennial year. For more information, including registration for all WSW events, visit www.ansi.org/wsweek. About ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is made up of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. ANSI represents and serves the diverse interests of more than 270,000 companies and organizations and 30 million professionals worldwide. The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). For more information, visit www.ansi.org. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ansi-releases-agenda-for-october-18-joint-member-forum-on-blockchain-and-artificial-intelligence-300728784.html SOURCE American National Standards Institute [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] L7 Informatics Releases L7 Enterprise Science Platform 2.0 with Pre-Built Microsoft Genomics Integration AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- L7 Informatics, Inc., formerly Lab7 Systems, a leader in informatics solutions and services for data intensive scientific applications and personalized medicine, is pleased to announce today the release of Enterprise Science Platform 2.0 (ESP) with a validated pre-built Microsoft Azure connector to the Microsoft Genomics service on the Azure cloud. The upcoming ESP 2.0 release has a number of new modules and enhancements, including but not limited to: Workflow Chaining, supporting the execution of sophisticated processes, such as conditional process execution/branching, repeats, and other intelligent, multi-variable process requirements New UI, with emphasizing increased responsiveness and an improved user experience Improved integration of Software Development Kit capabilities (SDK) as well as new extension and customizability options along Content support for next-generation sequencing, translational research, and cell therapy applications Validation of ESP on the Azure platform, enabling the management of and running bioinformatics pipelines on Microsoft Genomics cloud ESP 2.0 marks a major milestone for L7. With this release, ESP can now support a wide range of life science companies: from the venture-backed cell therapy company, established laboratories and research clinics, to the largest of the global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. All these companies share a common need: a highly adaptive "bench-to-bedsie" technology platform to eliminate processing and technological silos. "L7 has worked tirelessly since last May, when we announced our partnership with Microsoft Genomics. We have focused our attention to empower our mutual customers to easily implement our integrated and validated offering," commented Vasu Rangadass, Ph.D., L7 Informatics' CEO. "Our partnership with Microsoft shows their confidence in L7's ability to deliver. We are humbled by Microsoft's trust." L7 Informatics and Microsoft are presenting the latest enhancements to the ESP + Microsoft Genomics platforms at the 2018 American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Conference in San Diego, CA (October 16-20, 2018). L7 Informatics will also host a demo at the Microsoft booth (#1535) on Thursday, October 18th at 11:30 am. L7 team members will be readily available to answer questions. "We're very excited about our partnership with L7 because they appreciate and align their product and commercialization strategy with the market landscape of precision medicine and multi-omics opportunities," mentioned Trent Norris, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Genomics. "When markets move at this speed, companies must be agile and take calculated risks in order to drive innovation that leads to sustained growth. L7 is reshaping the way companies should think about laboratory information management systems and we're pleased that they chose to do it on Azure and with the Microsoft Genomics service." About L7 Informatics: L7 Informatics, formerly Lab7 Systems, provides software and services that enable synchronized solutions for science and health. L7's Enterprise Science Platform (ESP) is a scientific information management (SIM) solution that enables life science and healthcare companies to connect people, processes, and systems to accelerate discoveries and drive precision healthcare. Global, venture-funded and public health organizations such as Astra Zeneca, Gradalis, and USDA trust L7's ESP. For more information, visit www.l7informatics.com . Contact: Jessica Tobey Speaks Marketing Group jessica@speaksmarketing.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/l7-informatics-releases-l7-enterprise-science-platform-2-0-with-pre-built-microsoft-genomics-integration-300728776.html SOURCE L7 Informatics, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Leading into SRS 2018, Medicrea Highlights a New Study Showing That Patients Implanted with UNiD Patient-Specific Rods Are 2.6 Times More Likely to Be Optimally Corrected The Medicrea Group (Euronext Growth Paris: FR0004178572 - ALMED ; OTCQX Best Market - MRNTY & MRNTF), pioneering the transformation of spinal surgery through Artificial Intelligence, predictive modeling and patient specific implants with its UNiD ASI (Adaptive Spine Intelligence) proprietary software platform, services and technologies, announced today the publication of a new study validating the use of UNiD Patient-Specific Rods (PSR) for surgical correction of sagittal imbalance in adults. Five years after its initial launch in September 2013, over 2,800 patients have benefited from UNiD ASI 100% proprietary pre-operative planning technologies and services associated with patient-specific spinal realignment rods, with a strong acceleration in adoption rate in 2018 especially in the USA (+62% cases year-to-date 2018 and +90% in Q3 2018). Since its inception, the technology has supported surgeons specializing both in adult and pediatric indications with planning services and patient-specific implants focused on restoring sagittal and coronal alignment. Federico Solla, M.D., Orthopaedic and Scoliosis Surgery Unit, Lenval Hospital, Nice, France and UNiD ASI user recently published the Article titled "Patient-Specific Rods for Surgical Correction of Sagittal Imbalance in Adults: Technical Aspects and Preliminary Results". In this article, Federico Solla emphasizes the expected benefits of patient specific spinal care which include the optimal execution of the plan, decreased mechanical complications, and reduced operating time, no longer requiring the bending of rods during surgery. This study demonstrates that the use of patient specific rods improves the correspondence between planning and surgical realization. Evalina Burger, MD, Department of Orthopedics, University of Colorado SOM, Aurora, CO, co-author, stated that "these results support the use of the UNiD ASI platform to obtain the expected patient-specific sagittal balance with a special focus on the difference pelvic incidence (PI) - lumbar lordosis (LL)." Medicrea's proprietary UNiD ASI technology uses Artificial Intelligence that digests scientific data to generate intelligent surgical planning through machine learning while simultaneously allowing the Spine Surgeon to perform detailed, custom analyses of his cases. The entire clinical workflow is thus managed from start to finish through the UNiD comprehensive Platform. Christopher Kleck, MD, Department of Orthopedics, University of Colorado SOM, Aurora, CO, co-author, added "With its proprietary UNiD ASI technology, Medicrea started revolutionizing the spine world by developing a model taking into consideration compensatory mechanisms to individually predict each patient's outcomes." By simulating surgical strategies using proprietary data and algorithms taking into consideration patients' optimal sagittal alignment and compensatory mechanisms, Medicrea produces a patient-specific rod industrially bent. This process preserves the rod's full integrity, and limits stress points that could lead to rod fracture once implanted. Vincent Fiere, MD, Spina Unit, Santy Orthopaedic Center and Mermoz Hospital Ramsay GDA, Lyon, France, and co-author, concluded "With Medicrea's breakthrough technology, we showed that patients implanted with UNiD PSRs were 2.6 times more likely to be optimally corrected." "We are extremely pleased to see an increasing number of publications focusing on the application of UNiD ASI in the treatment of complex spinal deformities" said Denys Sournac, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Medicrea. "A month ago, we concluded the first Artificial Intelligence focused meeting in Lyon with 20 international spine surgeons considered thought-leaders in their field. Medicrea Artificial Intelligence and Analytics (MAIA) was a success. A couple weeks ago, Jean-Luc Clement, MD, Fondation Lenval, Nice, France, published an Article validating our predictive modelling for AIS patients. Today, we are announcing another publication validating this technology for the adult population. The revolution is only starting, and we are looking forward to the surgeon community embracing the UNiD ASI technology to provide their patients with the best possible care." Click here to reach the article: Patient-specific Rods for Surgical Correction of Sagittal Imbalance in Adults: Technical Aspects and Preliminary Results - Solla, Federico, MD; Barrey, Cedric Y., MD, PhD; Burger, Evalina, MD; Kleck, Christopher J., MD; Fiere, Vincent, MD Click here to reach the article: Surgical increase in thoracic kyphosis increases unfused lumbar lordosis in selective fusion for thoracic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis - Jean-Luc Clement, MD; Yann Pelletier, MD; Federico Solla, MD; Virginie Rampal, MD Click here to reach the video: UCSF Clinical Application: Live Pre-Op Planning with Adaptive Spine Intelligence Click here to reach the video: UNiD ASI Workflow Click here to reach the video: MAIA - Medicrea Artificial Intelligence and Analytics - 1st Annual Meeting 2018 About Medicrea (www.medicrea.com) Through the lens of predictive medicine, Medicrea leverages its proprietary software analysis tools with big data and machine learning technologies supported by an expansive collection of clinical and scientific data. The Company is well-placed to streamline the efficiency of spinal care, reduce procedural complications and limit time spent in the operating room. Operating in a $10 billion marketplace, Medicrea is a Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SME) with 210 employees worldwide, which includes 50 who are based in the U.S. The Company has an ultra-modern manufacturing facility in Lyon, France housing the development and production of 3D- printed titanium patient-specific implants. For further information, please visit: Medicrea.com. Connect with Medicrea FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE Medicrea is listed on EURONEXT Growth Paris ISIN: FR 0004178572 Ticker: ALMED LEI: 969500BR1CPTYMTJBA37 Medicrea is traded on OTCQX Best Market Tickers: MRNTY & MRNTF View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005774/en/ [October 10, 2018] Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP Investigating Derivative Claims on Behalf of Shareholders of Super Micro Computer, Inc. - SMCI NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP ("Scott+Scott"), a national securities and consumer rights litigation firm, is investigating whether certain directors and officers of Super Micro Computer, Inc. ("Super Micro" or the "Company") (OTC: SMCI) breached their fiduciary duties to the Company and its shareholders. If you are a Super Micro shareholder, you are encouraged to contact Scott+Scott for additional information. On October 4, 2018, Bloomberg published an article entitled "The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies." The article reported that "chips had been inserted during the manufacturing process, two officials say, by operatives from a unit of the People's Liberation Army. In [Super Micro], China's spies appear to have found a perfect conduit for what U.S. officials now describe as the most significant supply chain attack known to have been carried out against American companies." ollowing this news, shares of Super Micro lost over 50% of their value on October 4, 2018. What You Can Do If you are a Super Micro shareholder, you may have legal claims against the Company's directors and officers. If you wish to discuss this investigation, or have questions about this notice or your legal rights, please contact attorney Joe Pettigrew toll-free at (844) 818-6982 or at jpettigrew@scott-scott.com. About Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP Scott+Scott has significant experience in prosecuting major securities, antitrust, and employee retirement plan actions throughout the United States. The firm represents pension funds, foundations, individuals, and other entities worldwide with offices in New York, London, Connecticut, California, and Ohio. Attorney Advertising CONTACT: Joe Pettigrew Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP 230 Park Avenue, 17th Floor New York, NY 10169 (844) 818-6982 jpettigrew@scott-scott.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scottscott-attorneys-at-law-llp-investigating-derivative-claims-on-behalf-of-shareholders-of-super-micro-computer-inc--smci-300728808.html SOURCE Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Truechip Successfully Hosted TrueConnect 2018 - The 2nd Annual Technical Conference A non-EDA based conference principally designed to address the opportunities and challenges in functional verification, DFT and Physical Design SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Oct. 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Truechip - The Verification IP Specialist - successfully, hosted its 2nd Annual Technical Conference, TrueConnect 2018 Enriching Collaboration for Innovative Excellence, at Hotel Radisson Blu, Bengaluru on September 19, 2018. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/524726/Truechip_Logo.jpg ) The conference received an overwhelming response from semiconductor industry veterans and professionals. About 170 delegates attended from organizations like Western Digital, Qualcomm, Intel, Microsemi, NXP, Broadcom, Infineon Technologies, MediaTek and IBM to name a few. On this occasion, Mr. Nitin Kishore, Founder & CEO, Truechip, said, "This year, the participation was tremendous and highly encouraging. The quality and content of the papers and panel discussions made it engaging and valuable for the participants. The gala networking opportunities made it even more enjoyable and resourceful." Adding to this Mr. aurabh Agarwal, Head, Marketing and Sales, Truechip, said, "TrueConnect 2nd edition was outstanding. This conference has evolved as a brand in itself and I anticipate that the 2019 edition would witness grander rendezvous from the industry patrons." The event observed two keynotes from: Mr. Abhijit Dutta , Director - High voltage AMS, BU Automotive, Site head - NXP Bangalore spoke about the future of mobility and technology behind self-driving cars, and quoted, "TrueConnect is an excellent forum to connect with the industry and useful for budding engineers to know the VIP products of Truechip." , Director - High voltage AMS, BU Automotive, Site head - NXP Bangalore spoke about the future of mobility and technology behind self-driving cars, and quoted, "TrueConnect is an excellent forum to connect with the industry and useful for budding engineers to know the VIP products of Truechip." Mr. Peter Lefkin , Managing Director, MIPI Alliance highlighted the importance of MIPI in delivering proven solutions to the mobile and mobile-influenced markets and stated, "The networking opportunities provided by TrueConnect are very important." About Truechip: Truechip, The Verification IP Specialist, is a leading provider of Verification IP solutions, which aid to accelerate IP/SoC design thus lowering the cost and the risks associated with the development of ASIC, FPGA and SoC. With its global development center in India, Truechip serves over 50 customers in 7 countries including US, Israel, Taiwan, France, Germany, India and China. The company participates in numerous global events including DAC, DVCon, MIPI DEVCON and SemIsrael. The team consists of over 150 engineers with an average experience of five years. Truechip has been serving customers for a decade in VLSI and offers the industry's first 24x5 technical support. Follow us: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube Website: http://www.truechip.net | http://www.truechipconnect.com SOURCE Truechip [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Mayor Peduto to Boost Pittsburgh Tech in Dubai PITTSBURGH, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto will lead a delegation of the region's technology leaders as a featured presenter at American Middle East Institute's 11th Annual Business Conference in Dubai. Peduto will join representatives from Pittsburgh companies to showcase the city's transition from industrial giant to global technology leader in an address to the gathering of business executives and government leaders on October 17th. "Simin Curtis and the American Middle East Institute has been shuttling leaders from the Middle East to Pittsburgh for over a decade with great success. This year, they're taking Pittsburgh to the Middle East, and I'm honored to be part of the team that tells our story. It's an extraordinary step for us to bring some of this region's brightes leaders to Dubai," said Peduto. Adding, "In the last decade, America has come to recognize Pittsburgh's transformational role, but it's a narrative that's still largely unknown to business leaders in the Middle East." The conference, titled "Dubai 2018: Disruptive Technologies and the Next Economy" is the Pittsburgh-based non-profit's first conference in Dubai. Peduto will share the stage with Netflix co-founder, Mitch Lowe, and join leaders selected from advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI), and health innovation. For information on AMEI and the conference schedule: AMEIConference.org. The American Middle East Institute (AMEI) is an independent, non-profit organization, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. AMEI is focused on building business, educational and cultural ties between the United States and the countries of the Middle East. We believe these kinds of connections represent a powerful form of diplomacy. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mayor-peduto-to-boost-pittsburgh-tech-in-dubai-300728847.html SOURCE American Middle East Institute [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Aetna Offers Assistance Ahead of Hurricane Michael Aetna (NYSE: AET) is offering resources to members who may be impacted by Hurricane Michael in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Aetna members can refill their prescriptions early, if needed. Those members who use Aetna's mail-order pharmacy can either get a prescription at an alternate delivery location or refill a prescription that may have been lost, damaged or destroyed. Aetna professionals who have experience dealing with traumatic events are also available to help. The company has opened its Resources for Living services to those affected by Hurricane Michael, regardless of whether they are Aetna members or not. Individuals can call 1-833-327-AETNA (1-833-327-2386) for assistance with finding available shelters, accessing government resources and seeking referrals or help coping with the emotional impact of Hurricane Michael. Aetna members affected by Hurricane Michael can also seek emergency care anywhere, as needed. The company will monitor the impact Hurricane Michael has on its network doctors, hospitals and other health care providers, and make further modifications to its policies as necessary to ensure members have access to care. If any additional local, state or federal disaster executive orders or regulations are issued related to this catastrophic event, Aetna will adjust its policies to comply. In addition, the Aetna Foundation will be making a $100,000 disaster relief contribution to the Florida Disaster Fund to support those who are impacted by Hurricane Michael. Aetna members and health care providers affected by the hurricane who need care or other assistance can reach the company at the following toll-free numbers: Aetna Member Services: Call the number printed on your ID card*. If ID card is unavailable, call 1-800-443-AETNA (1-800-443-2386). Call the number printed on your ID card*. If ID card is unavailable, call 1-800-443-AETNA (1-800-443-2386). Rx Member Services and Aetna Rx Home Delivery Customer Service: 1-888-RX AETNA (1-888-792-3862) 1-888-RX AETNA (1-888-792-3862) Aetna Specialty Pharmacy Customer Service: 1-866-782-ASRX (1-866-782-2779) 1-866-782-ASRX (1-866-782-2779) Aetna Student Assistance Program: 1-877-351-7889 1-877-351-7889 Aetna Dental: 1-877-238-6200 Health care providers should contact the Provider Service Centers: Indemnity and PPO-based benefit plans: 1-888-MD-AETNA (1-888-632-3862) 1-888-MD-AETNA (1-888-632-3862) HMO benefit plans: 1-800-624-0756 For information on Coventry Health Plans: Commercial HMO and PPO Plans: 1-866-847-8235 1-866-847-8235 Medicare Advantage Plans: 1-800-847-3995 1-800-847-3995 Coventry National and First Health Plans: 1-800-937-6824 Medicaid members in Florida can use the following numbers: Medicaid Managed Medical Assistance (MMA): 1-800-441-5501 1-800-441-5501 Florida Healthy Kids: 1-844-528-5815 1-844-528-5815 Florida Long Term Services and Support (LTSS): 1-844-645-7371 * Members can find replacement ID cards and access to a Personal Health Record on Aetna's secure member site Aetna Navigator. Log in on Aetna's home page. About Aetna Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 38.8 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental and behavioral health plans, and medical management capabilities, Medicaid health care management services, workers' compensation administrative services and health information technology products and services. Aetna's customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com and learn about how Aetna is helping to build a healthier world. @AetnaNews View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005850/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] EGG NYC 2018 Explores the Future of Enterprise AI The second annual EGG NYC, an exclusive one-day conference that explores cutting edge topics in data science, machine learning, and AI, has been announced for November 15 in New York and will look to drive meaningful insights and conversations around the future of 'Enterprise AI.' By bringing together leaders in analytics, data science, and machine learning, the conference looks to become an exploration of new ideas about what it takes to transform organizations currently and in the near future. Organized by advanced analytics software maker Dataiku, the EGG conferences were founded on the idea that there has been a profound shift in enterprise data practices from established practices towards the use of cutting-edge technologies like data science, machine learning, and AI. But still, many companies struggle to evolve, and to go beyond the technology limitations. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) moves beyond just being a headline to becoming a reality for enterprises that can create meaningful competitive advantage, businesses across all industries are looking to understand exactly how to dive into the field. Speaker lineup includes: Ashok Kmar, Director of Business Intelligence at Avis Budget Group Michael Xiao, Divisional Vice President, Enterprise Analytics at Blue Cross Blue Shield Nicholas Bignell, Director at UBS Investment Somesh Saxena, Technical Product Manager at GE Aviation Yael Elmatad, Lead Data Scientist at GIPHY Alla Kramskaia, Senior VP - Leader of Risk Analytics at Dun & Bradstreet Scott Breitenother, former VP of Data and Analytics at Casper Mihaela Nistor, Head of Enterprise Risk Management at Bloomberg (News - Alert) and many others The event will be held on November 15 and tickets are limited. To learn more visit: https://pages.dataiku.com/egg-conference-new-york-2018 About Dataiku Dataiku is the centralized data platform that moves businesses along their data journey from analytics at scale to enterprise AI. More than 200 customers across retail, e-commerce, health care, finance, transportation, the public sector, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and more use Dataiku to power self-service analytics while also ensuring the operationalization of machine learning models in production. Dataiku was founded in 2013 and raised a seed round of 3 million followed by $14 million Series A round led by FirstMark Capital in October 2016. In 2017, Dataiku doubled in size and tripled its revenue, culminating in a September 2017 announcement of their $28M Series B funding round led by Battery Ventures along with FirstMark Capital, Alven Capital, and Serena Capital. They currently employ more than 175 people between the headquarters in New York and offices in Paris, London, and Munich. Learn more at www.dataiku.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005854/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Emera Teleconference on November 9 to Discuss Q3 2018 Results Today Emera (TSX: EMA (News - Alert) ) announced that its Q3 2018 earnings will be released on Thursday, November 8, 2018, after market close. The Company will be hosting a teleconference and webcast at 10:00 a.m. Atlantic time on Friday, November 9, 2018 (9:00 a.m. Toronto/Montreal/New York; 8:00 a.m. Winnipeg; 7:00 a.m. Calgary; 6:00 a.m. Vancouver) to discuss the Q3 2018 financial results. Analysts and other interested parties in North America are invited to participate by dialing 1-866-521-4909. International parties are invited to participate by dialing 1-647-427-2311. Participants should dial in at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. No pass code is required. A live and archived audio webcast of the teleconference will be available on the Company's website, www.emera.com. A replay of the teleconferene will be available two hours after the conclusion of the call until December 9, 2018 by dialing 1-800-585-8367 and entering pass code 9565839. About Emera Inc. Emera Inc. is a geographically diverse energy and services company headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia with approximately $30 billion in assets and 2017 revenues of more than $6 billion. The company invests in electricity generation, transmission and distribution, gas transmission and distribution, and utility energy services with a strategic focus on transformation from high carbon to low carbon energy sources. Emera has investments throughout North America, and in four Caribbean countries. Emera continues to target achieving a minimum of 75% of its adjusted net income from rate-regulated businesses. Emera's common and preferred shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and trade respectively under the symbol EMA, EMA.PR.A, EMA.PR.B, EMA.PR.C, EMA.PR.E, EMA.PR.F. and EMA.PR.H. Depositary receipts representing common shares of Emera are listed on the Barbados Stock Exchange under the symbol EMABDR and on The Bahamas International Securities Exchange under the symbol EMAB. Additional Information can be accessed at www.emera.com or at www.sedar.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005864/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Digital Realty Announces Pricing of 400 million of Guaranteed Notes due 2030 SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (the "Company") (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced today that Digital Stout Holding, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company's operating partnership, Digital Realty Trust, L.P. (the "Operating Partnership"), priced an offering of 400 million aggregate principal amount of pounds sterling-denominated 3.750% Guaranteed Notes due 2030 (the "GBP Notes"). The GBP Notes will be senior unsecured obligations of Digital Stout Holding, LLC and will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by the Company and the Operating Partnership. Interest on the GBP Notes will be payable annually in arrears at a rate of 3.750% per annum, and the GBP Notes will mature on October 17, 2030. Settlement of the offering is expected to occur on October 17, 2018, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the GBP Notes to repay borrowings outstanding under the Operating Partnership's global credit facilities, acquire additional properties or businesses, fund development opportunities and to provide for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including potentially for the repayment of other debt or the repurchase, redemption or retirement of outstanding debt securities, or a combination of the foregoing. The GBP Notes are being sold only outside the United States in reliance on Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The GBP Notes have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to United States persons (within the meaning of Regulation S under the Securities Act) absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the GBP Notes, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of the GBP Notes in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Digital Realty Digital Realty supports the data center, colocationand interconnection strategies of more than 2,300 firms across its secure, network-rich portfolio of data centers located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Digital Realty's clients include domestic and international companies of all sizes, ranging from cloud and information technology services, communications and social networking to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and consumer products. For Additional Information: Andrew P. Power Chief Financial Officer Digital Realty (415) 738-6500 Investor Relations John J. Stewart / Maria S. Lukens Digital Realty (415) 738-6500 investorrelations@digitalrealty.com Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the timing and consummation of the offering of the GBP Notes and the expected use of the net proceeds. The Company can provide no assurances that it will be able to complete the offering on the anticipated terms, or at all. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2018 and June 30, 2018. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Reg S Statement This communication is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities ("Securities") of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. or its subsidiaries. The Securities have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act, or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. Consequently, the Securities may not be offered, sold, resold, transferred, delivered or distributed, directly or indirectly, into or 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 any applicable securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. Any offering of the Securities will be conducted pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. Notice to EEA Retail Investors The GBP Notes are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and, with effect from such date, should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the European Economic Area (the "EEA"). For these purposes, a retail investor means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU (as amended, "MiFID II"); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of Directive 2002/92/EC (as amended, the "IMD"), where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II. Consequently, no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 (as amended, the "PRIIPs Regulation") for offering or selling the GBP Notes or otherwise making them available to retail investors in the EEA has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the GBP Notes or otherwise making them available to any retail investor in the EEA may be unlawful under the PRIIPs Regulation. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digital-realty-announces-pricing-of-400-million-of-guaranteed-notes-due-2030-300728893.html SOURCE Digital Realty [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Xtra names Rachel Giese editorial director TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Pink Triangle Press, Canada's leading LGBT media organization and parent of Xtra (dailyxtra.com), announced today the appointment of Rachel Giese as Xtra's director of editorial, effective November 5, 2018. Giese will lead a team of journalists in Toronto and Vancouver, as announced today by the director of mission engagement, Ken Hickling. "I am excited to have Rachel lead our journalism team as we continue to explore ways to carve out our unique space in the world of digital LGBTQ2+ media," said Hickling. "She will bring such incredible value to Xtra, given her skills as a writer and a leader of journalism teams at some of Canada's top, innovative organizations." "I know firsthand Rachel's creativity and passion," said Pink Triangle Press executive director David Walberg. Giese began her career as Xtra's features editor in 1995, when Walberg was the paper's publisher and editor-in-chief. "Beyond those print days, her expertise across a wide array of media makes her a good fit as Xtra explores new tools to excel at storytelling and thought leadership." "It's an incredible, thrilling opportunity to return to Xtra, both at this point in its history and at this moment in LGBTQ2+ culture and politics," says Rachel of her appointment. "I'm looking forward to helping build on the work that's already begun at Xtra in rethinking how it tells stories and reflects our lives and experiences, with video, personal essays, social media and events. I want Xtra's journalism and editorial content to be deeply informed by and engaged with our community." An award-winning writer and editor in Toronto, Giese recently published her first book, Boys: What it Means to Become a Man (Patrick Crean Editions/HarperCollins Canada), which will be released in the U.S. later this year by Seal Press. Giese writes a column on politics, pop culture and feminism for Chatelaine, where she has been editor-at-large for four years. She is a regular contributor to CBC Radio and is the host of the Doc Soup screening series at Hot Docs Cinema. Giese was the deputy editor of The Grid, an internationally recognized newsweekly. Prior to that, she was a senior editor at The Walrus. She has taught feature writin at Ryerson University's School of Journalism, and her writing has appeared in Toronto Life, Flare, The Hairpin, Hazlitt, Real Life, the Globe and Mail and NewYorker.com. "Xtra is undergoing a transformation," said Walberg. "As other media pick up the slack in covering LGBT issues, Xtra finds itself freed to hone in on the areas where we want to distinguish ourselves and have an impact. Rachel is an ideal choice to lead the evolution of Xtra's focus and identity." Xtra online : (http://www.dailyxtra.com), (Facebook: dailyxtra), (youtube: dailyxtra), (twitter:@dailyxtra) Click to tweet: Xtra announces Rachel Giese (@rachelagiese) as it's new Director of Editorial. Rachel will lead a team of journalists (for @dailyxtra) in Toronto and Vancouver. #Xtra #Gay, #Lesbian #Activism #LGBTQ2+ About Pink Triangle Press : ( http://www.pinktrianglepress.com ) Pink Triangle Press (PTP) is Canada's leading LGBT media organization. Founded in 1971, Pink Triangle Press produces LGBT journalism at DailyXtra.com and through a variety of content distribution relationships in Canada and abroad. The Press operates the gay adult dating website Squirt.org and has produced a number of television projects, including the travel show Bump! and The Gayest Show Ever. PTP's defining activity is LGBT journalism. Frustrated that there wasn't a voice representing the political and social concerns of gay men and lesbians, a group of Toronto activists launched the gay liberation newspaper, The Body Politic, in 1971. In 2008, The Body Politic was named by Masthead magazine as one of "Canada's 20 most influential magazines of all time." Over four decades, PTP grew from a small grassroots operation to one of the most diversified LGBT multimedia enterprises in the world, with a roster of brands ranging from the Xtra publications in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver, to online publishing and television production. PTP is a mission-guided community organization without shareholders, governed by a board of directors. The board entrusts the achievement of our mission to the executive director, who heads a workforce located in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal. The chronology of Pink Triangle Press is available here . About Rachel Giese Rachel Giese is an award-winning editor and writer. Her work has appeared in The Walrus, the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Flare, The Hairpin, Real Life, Today's Parent, Flare and NewYorker.com. She was a senior editor at The Walrus, deputy editor of The Grid and acting editor-in-chief of enRoute. She's taught journalism at Ryerson University and at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. She's a frequent contributor to CBC Radio, where she's guest hosted Day 6, The Sunday Edition, Q and As It Happens. As Chatelaine's editor-at-large, she writes about politics, pop culture and feminism. She's the host of the monthly Doc Soup screening series at Hot Docs Cinema. Her first book, Boys: What it Means to Become a Man was published in Canada earlier this year (Patrick Crean Editions/HarperCollins Canada) and will be released in the U.S. in December (Seal Press). She lives in Toronto with her wife and her son. Keywords Rachel Giese, Pink Triangle Press, Director of Editorial, Xtra, DailyXtra.com, Gay, Lesbian, Activism, LGBT, LGBT+ SOURCE Xtra [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Welcome to Teads, The Global Media Platform NEW YORK and LONDON, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Teads' development has long been fueled by a vision to build the definitive platform that unites and empowers the world's top publishers to provide a global alternative to the advertising ecosystem. To articulate this vision clearly to the marketplace, Teads today is sharing its expanded company vision and adopting the tagline, "The Global Media Platform." Today's announcement also reflects Teads' continued journey to evolve from simply providing video ad products to providing a broader set of full-funnel ad solutions to the world's best publishers and advertisers. In September 2017, Teads launched its Viewable Display product suite which now represents nearly 20% of the company's annual revenue. In June 2018, Teads launched a new disruptive, performance-based buying model helping advertisers deliver new visitors and prospects to their digital properties. This performance offering has already been adopted by many of the top auto manufacturers, retailers and consumer tech companies amongst other sectors. Teads CEO Bertrand Quesada says "Our vision is to build the definitive platform that unites the world's best publishers, creating an alternative to Google & Facebook by delivering an audience of over 1.2 billion consumers on a brand safe, transparent platform. The Global Media Platform is the result of Teads' commitment to delivering better advertising outcomes for brands, better monetization solutions for publishers, and better experiences for consumers." Company Vision By integrating directly with hundreds of top publishers at a worldwide level, Teads brings together a deduplicated audience of approximately 1.2 Billion users on a monthly basis. In the last several weeks alone, Teads has signed exclusive partnerships with Apple News, BBC and The Economist. As a result, Teads' reach in many countries is equal or grater than Youtube or Facebook. As The Global Media Platform, Teads' vision to unite and empower the world's top publishers is centered on four key pillars that help solve major challenges in the industry: 1. A Single access point to the world's top publishers By delivering access to high quality inventory at scale on one platform, Teads delivers operational efficiencies, scale and accountability in direct and programmatic transactions to the buy-side. Teads is equally focused on providing high value technology and monetization solutions for publishers. 2. Creative that cuts through the noise but respects the user The mobile user experience is dictating new creative rules that can be challenging. Given the high importance of creative quality in delivering media effectiveness, Teads has been working with agencies and brands, through its Teads Studio technology & team, to quickly and scalably optimize assets for this new reality. 3. Full-funnel ad & monetization solutions, tailored to business objectives With a full-funnel product suite, Teads has enabled publishers with a broader set of monetization tools and brands with solutions that meet a wide array of business objectives. Our focus is to provide precision marketing at every step of the purchasing funnel within professionally-produced, brand-safe media. 4. Guaranteed outcomes, powered by AI & Data Marketers are facing increasing pressure to demonstrate concrete results from their digital media spend. As a currency, the CPM falls short of providing accountability. By investing significantly in AI/machine learning and data capabilities over the last 3 years, Teads is allowing brands and agencies to transact based on guaranteed outcomes in viewability, completed views, engagement, in-target delivery, incremental site traffic and more recently conversions. "Very few platforms have the ability to deliver high quality and mass reach on a global scale. As a result, Teads has become a core partner to MediaCom and many of our largest clients," said Stephen Allan, Global CEO of MediaCom, the WPP agency. "Our partnership with Teads will enable our partners to further engage with our audience of globally curious people through innovative technology and ad formats." Nicolas Sennegon- Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of The Economist Group Today, Teads is also launching a new corporate campaign in digital and print trade media, communicating to the industry that "The Best Publishers Are on Teads." ABOUT TEADS Teads, The Global Media Platform. Teads unites and empowers the best publishers in the world and distributes ads to 1.2 billion people every month within professionally-produced content. Teads' end-to-end platform delivers full-funnel, outcome-oriented advertising powered by cutting-edge creative technology and AI-driven optimization. Not content with outdated ad experiences in the market, Teads has reinvented digital ads and raised quality standards to delight users, publishers and advertisers. Teads partners with the leading marketers, agencies and publishers through its team of 720+ people in 26 countries. CONTACTS Lauren Douglass VP Marketing, N America 631-889-4063 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/welcome-to-teads-the-global-media-platform-300728914.html SOURCE Teads [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Amscot Will Be Recognized in the Children's Safety Village Amscot has joined in support of the Children's Safety Village of Central Florida, a not-for-profit organization that teaches children safety and also has a mini city located at 910 Fairvilla Road in Orlando. In recognition of their dedication to the program, Amscot will stand as its own miniature building in the city. The ribbon cutting ceremony for the building is slated for October 12, 2018, at 11am. Several legislators including Orlando Mayor Dyer and Orange (News - Alert) County Sheriff Demings have been invited to attend. "We are honored to have the support of Amscot Financial as we both are committed to making our communities the safest place for children in Central Florida," says Executive Director Brent Moore. The Village features everything from street signs to railroad tracks to traffic lights - all designed as teaching tools to prevent childhood injuries and fatalities. While most of the buildings are intended for visual purposes, one building was created with a functional interior in order to run a house fire simulation. Moore says that "active learning combined with multi-level experiences" is the Village's founding educational philosophy. Widely known for its free bike helmet program, Amscot Financial has long been supporter of child safety. In fact, Amscot plans to donate more than 12,000 bike helmets across 19 Florida counties later this month. "We think Children's Safety Village is an excellent program," says Ian MacKechnie, founder and CEO of Amscot Financial. "Kids learn best when they're fully engaged and the pure creativity of this program is sure to open a lot of young minds on how to be safe in different situations." The Children's Safety Village offers several safety programs for children ages 4-12 providing kids with a realistic approach to recognizing safety hazards found in their everyday life. Programs include: Bicycle and Helmet Safety, Pedestrian Safety, Water Safety, Fire Safety and Prevention, Dangerous Person Awareness, Internet Safety, Poison Prevention and 9-1-1 For Kids. All meet Florida Next Generation Standards. Amscot's support of the Children's Safety Village extends through financial classes taught to kids each summer as well. Those who wish to learn more can do so online at www.childrensafetyvillage.org Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Amscot Financial is a leading provider of convenient, consumer-oriented financial services, including cash advances, check cashing, bill payment, money transfers, prepaid access cards and money orders. Amscot Financial currently operates 236 retail financial service centers throughout Florida and employs close to 2,000 associates. For more information on Amscot's products and services, community involvement, and career opportunities, visit www.Amscot.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005881/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] SIS Announces Launch of Next Generation Cloud Solutions LEXINGTON, Ky., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Technology and managed IT solutions provider SIS today announced the launch and branding of six cloud solutions: TruResiliency - automated disaster recovery services; TruBackup - data protection solutions; TruCompute self-service virtual machines; TruNetwork advanced network and security solutions; TruStorage - data storage; and TruManage managed services. These services allow SIS to assist clients in providing greater efficiency and speed in operations, while delivering more protection against growing network threats such as ransomware. "SIS cloud solutions are built on the core tenants self-service, transparency and flexible consumption to empower our clients to accomplish more and achieve their business objectives," said SIS CEO Steve Sigg. "The introduction of these solutions ensures our clients are well-positioned to take advantage of the strides in Digital Transformation that lay ahead." Sigg continued: "With a dedicated and experienced technical team, we deliver the ideal environment for both cloud and on-premises services in the most important areas of technology for our clients." Introducing SIS cloud solutions: SIS TruStorage SIS TruStorage provides multiple self-service storage consumption options to support your organization's rapidly changing storage requirements whether that need is for high performance or cost effective scalable data archival. SIS TruResiliency SIS offers automated disaster recovery and availability solutions through its SIS TruResiliency offering. We give clients the peace of mind they need, knowing teir data and operations are available in the event of a natural disaster or hardware failure. SIS TruBackup Protect your data with flexible backup solutions that automates the entire process. The SIS backup solutions deliver a flexible, policy-based backup system, allowing firms to focus on the core of their businesses with peace of mind knowing their data is protected. SIS TruCompute Combining our compute capabilities in both Intel and POWER with OS flexibility (Windows, Linux, AIX and IBM i), we provide organizations the processing power to pursue business objectives in the area of business application support and emerging solutions such as IoT, blockchain, AI, and machine learning. SIS TruManage SIS provides managed services to deliver a customized, done-for-you computing environment that meets a firm's most complex computing needs. SIS TruNetwork SIS TruNetwork makes always-on network connectivity a reality by providing clients with self-service access to high throughput and network security. SIS provides clients with the flexibility to take advantage of services in the cloud or on their own premises, or in a hybrid cloud environment. This gives clients that work with SIS a customized solution tailored to their existing needs. SIS is more than a vendor and serves as a true partner for clients looking to develop strategies that position them for growth well into the future. These solutions are designed to do just that by giving companies the freedom to use existing and emerging technologies in practical ways that work for them. The SIS technical team leverages their decades of experience and knowledge base that spans several vendors as well as POWER and Intel capabilities to provide our customers with the insights to know which solutions will help them best roll out their growth strategies. About SIS SIS is a leading technology and managed IT solutions provider recognized across North America helping clients design, optimize and support mission-critical assets. Our regionally focused teams solve challenges and design solutions, leaving more time for clients to devote resources to core business strategies. SIS' proven methodology, experienced professionals and innovative technologies provide the highest quality of IT service to more than 1,300 clients, both large and small. Founded in 1982, SIS is headquartered in Lexington, Ky. and has regional offices in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia. For more information call 800-337-6914, or visit www.ThinkSIS.com . PR Contact Terrin Williams, SIS, 513.372.6475, Twilliams@ThinkSIS.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sis-announces-launch-of-next-generation-cloud-solutions-300728627.html SOURCE SIS [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] HyperBlock Streamlines Operations, Announces Update to Executive Management Team and Custodial Business Launch TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 /CNW/ - (CSE: HYPR) HyperBlock Inc. one of North America's largest publicly traded diversified crypto asset enterprises is streamlining its operations and is excited to be moving ahead with its planned crypto custody product launch. The company has successfully exited four Canadian locations executing on its consolidation plans in Eastern Canada and at its US cryptocurrency datacenter in the Pacific Northwest. HyperBlock CEO Sean Walsh says the moves are a proactive step to help the company weather difficult market conditions and will over time, result in lower, more efficient power costs. "Hash rate sales have been soft in recent months due to relentless increases in mining difficulty without corresponding increases in Bitcoin price," he says. Building Long-Term Value: Proprietary Crypto Custodial Solution Nearing Launch "A key pillar in our diversified vision to build long-term value for HyperBlock shareholders, is the development of a proprietary crypto vault solution for banks and institutional investors, which HyperBlock expects to launch later this year," explains Walsh, who calls the custodial product "an exciting, potential game changer" for the company and the industry. Brent Arsenault Appointed as Interim CFO HyperBlock is also pleased to announce that it has appointed finance expert Brent Arsenault as the company's new Interim Chief Financial Officer. "Brent will be instrumental in ensuring HyperBlock continues operating in a sustainable, disciplined manner that will provide the greatest long-term value for our shareholders," says Walsh. "His depth of experience in the public markets business ethics and philosophy of prudence and transparency make him an excellent addition to our team," explains Walsh. Before joining HyperBlock, Arsenault was Director of Finance at Brio Gold Inc., where he was an integral contributor to the successful completion of the company's initial public offering, having led all financial statement filings, financial planning, analysis and internal audit requirements. Prior to that, Arsenault spent several years as a senior financial leader and Investor Relations specialist at Yamana Gold and served as a senior auditor with global leader Deloitte from 2007 to 2012. Arsenault holds a CPA, CA designation and an accounting undergraduate degree from Brock University. "Building a Strong Financial Foundation in an Exciting New Industry" "I've long been fascinated by cryptocurrency's enormous potential, and my experience in gold is transferrable to this fast-moving sector," says Arsenault. "I'm excited to help HyperBlock build to the next level of success by bringing iscipline, open communication and good governance to my new role," he adds. Leadership Updates As part of the post-acquisition restructuring, CryptoGlobal (which was acquired by HyperBlock in July 2018) co-founders Rob Segal and James Millership confirmed they will transition out of day-to-day operations, which will be led by HyperBlock CEO Sean Walsh and current management. The HyperBlock Board of Directors is also pleased to announce that it has officially confirmed Eric So as its Chair. About HyperBlock Inc. HyperBlock is one of North America's largest publicly traded diversified crypto-asset enterprises. The company operates one of North America's largest and most efficient cryptocurrency datacenters and provides five complimentary product offerings focused on helping people and businesses create, safeguard, manage and grow crypto-assets. HyperBlock profit centers include Mining-as-a-Service (MAAS), self-mining, server hosting, server hardware sales and a proprietary custodial vault product. Learn more at www.hyperblock.co Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Information and Future-Orientated Financial Information This news release contains certain forward-looking information and 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. These forward-looking statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. 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: information pertaining future financial performance, and information pertaining to strategy and plans, including, but not limited to, expansion of its datacentres in the United States and Canada and the successful launch of the company's crypto custodial product. These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: that market prices will be consistent with expectations, the continued availability of capital and financing, general economic, market and business conditions will be consistent with expectations, fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in the prices of cryptocurrencies mined by the company; historical prices of cryptocurrencies and the ability of the company to mine cryptocurrencies consistent with historical prices; the ability to retain personnel to execute the company's business plans and strategies; availability of power supply at prices favorable to the business and operations of the company, or at all; higher operating costs; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on the ability of the company to operate it business; the speculative nature of cryptocurrency mining and blockchain operations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated; and those factors described under the heading "Risks Factors" in the company's listing statement dated July 10, 2018 available on the company's issuer profile on SEDAR. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information, will prove to be accurate. The company does not undertake any obligations to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law. SOURCE HyperBlock Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] Samsung SmartThings launches in Canada delivering on vision of a true connected home SmartThings App allows Canadians to stay connected at home or on-the-go all through one App MISSISSAUGA, ON, Oct. 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Today, Samsung Electronics Canada Inc., announced the launch of SmartThings, the easy way to turn a home into a smart home, underscoring how technology can simplify daily life. Acting as the hub of the connected home, the new SmartThings App detects and pairs with compatible devices and connects wirelessly with a wide range of smart devices enabling them to work together for a smarter home. SmartThings works with a variety of Samsung products, including the new Galaxy Note9, Galaxy Tab S4 and Galaxy Watch, along with the Samsung Family Hub refrigerator and FlexSystem laundry collection and compatible third party products from the Ring Video Doorbell to the ecobee4 thermostat1. More importantly, through the SmartThings App, Canadians can now manage and experience the connectivity of all their products through one App. "At Samsung, we're committed to bringing Canadians innovative products that provide meaningful convenience and uninterrupted connectivity," said Jennifer Safruk, VP of Sales and Product Management, Mobile at Samsung Canada. "With our comprehensive portfolio of connected devices, we are uniquely positioned to offer Canadians a way to manage their connected ecosystem of devices, whether controlling the lights, TV, temperature and even home appliances." Based on individual and family needs, "automations" can be cusomized to match a consumer's routines. For instance, running the 'good morning' scene turns on lights, turns off the air conditioner and starts the coffee maker at the desired time. Compatible devices are easily detected by, and paired with, the SmartThings App and profiles can be effortlessly shared so your family stays connected. In expanding the Samsung ecosystem of devices and accessories for Canadians, key Samsung SmartThings products will include: Samsung SmartThings Hub - connect wirelessly with a wide range of smart devices and make them work together - connect wirelessly with a wide range of smart devices and make them work together Samsung SmartThings Wifi - a 2-in-1 Mesh Wi-Fi router that includes the functionality of the SmartThings Hub, allowing for connectivity between a home's devices - a 2-in-1 Mesh Wi-Fi router that includes the functionality of the SmartThings Hub, allowing for connectivity between a home's devices Samsung SmartThings Multipurpose Sensor - Multipurpose Sensor detects whether doors and windows are open or closed as well as monitors temperature and vibration, allowing home to react using 'automations' set up in the SmartThings App - Multipurpose Sensor detects whether doors and windows are open or closed as well as monitors temperature and vibration, allowing home to react using 'automations' set up in the SmartThings App Samsung SmartThings Motion Sensor - keep tabs on the home through the SmartThings Motion Sensor, which alerts when movement is detected - keep tabs on the home through the SmartThings Motion Sensor, which alerts when movement is detected Samsung SmartThings Water Leak Sensor if there's a leak, this sensor will be able to let you know and react accordingly by turning off connected devices (such as a dishwasher or washing machine) based on moisture detection if there's a leak, this sensor will be able to let you know and react accordingly by turning off connected devices (such as a dishwasher or washing machine) based on moisture detection Samsung SmartThings Outlet - control traditional lamps, electronics and small appliances - control traditional lamps, electronics and small appliances Samsung SmartThings Button - control connected devices at the touch of a button with three programmable triggers Learn more about SmartThings here: www.samsung.com/ca/smart-things/ For a detailed list of compatible products from Samsung and official third-party manufacturers, please see: www.smartthings.com About Samsung Electronics Canada Inc. Samsung Electronics Canada inspires Canadians to reach their full potential through a transformative ecosystem of products and services that deliver innovation and distinct design to every aspect of their connected lives. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, virtual reality and wearable devices, tablets and digital appliances. In 2017, Samsung ranked top 10 in Interbrand's "Best Global Brands" list, Ipsos Canada's Most Influential Brands in Canada, and Leger Marketing's Most Admired Brands in Canada. Dedicated to helping make a difference in the lives of Canadians, Samsung's award-winning Hope for Children corporate giving initiatives supports public education, sustainability and health-related issues in communities across the country. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com. Follow Samsung Canada at facebook.com/SamsungCanada, or Instagram @samsungcanada or Twitter @SamsungCanada SOURCE Samsung Electronics Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 10, 2018] UnitedHealthcare Employees Welcome Residents of Two New Michigan Affordable-Housing Communities into Their New Homes An affordable-housing initiative by UnitedHealthcare is helping connect people in need to quality housing and support services to help them live healthier lives. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005959/en/ Development partners, community leaders and newly moved-in residents celebrate the opening of Woodland Place Apartments during a ribbon-cutting ceremony (Photo: Nick Azarro). Celebratory events were held at two newly completed affordable-housing developments, Jefferson Oaks in Oak Park and Woodland Place in Hart, where UnitedHealthcare was the largest investor, providing a total of $18.3 million for construction costs. UnitedHealthcare employees joined community leaders and project partners to assemble welcome baskets filled with household items and healthy foods donated by the company to help welcome residents into their new homes. Since 2011, UnitedHealthcare has invested $384 million to build more than 70 affordable-housing communities in 16 states. These housing communities have helped create more than 3,400 affordable homes for individuals and families, including senirs, military veterans, people living with disabilities, and people struggling with homelessness. In Michigan, UnitedHealthcare partnered with Minnesota Equity Fund and Cinnaire to invest $35 million for four new affordable-housing developments in the state. About Cinnaire Cinnaire is a full-service community development financial partner that supports community stabilization and economic development by developing and nurturing partnerships with investors and mission-focused organizations. We provide creative loans, investments, and best-in-class services to partners. For more information visit www.cinnaire.com. About the Minnesota Equity Fund MEF (News - Alert) is a subsidiary of the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund (GMHF), a non-profit Community Development Financial Institution. GMHF provides loans, equity investments, grants and technical assistance to create affordable housing in Minnesota. MEF provides equity investments in Minnesota and the Great Lakes region. MEF is a strategic partnership between GMHF and Cinnaire. About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter (News - Alert) . Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005959/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Announces Investigation on Behalf of MGT Capital Investments, Inc. Investors (MGTI) Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces an investigation on behalf of MGT Capital Investments, Inc. ("MGT" or the "Company") (OTC: MGTI) investors concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of federal securities laws. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. On Septembe 7, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (" SEC (News - Alert) ") filed a lawsuit against MGT and certain defendants, alleging that defendants were participants in "highly profitable 'pump-and-dump' schemes...from 2013 through 2018" in the stock of three public companies, including MGT. The SEC complaint further alleges that the schemes "enrich[ed] Defendants by millions of dollars, [and] left retail investors holding virtually worthless shares." On this news, shares of MGT fell $0.195, or over 33%, to close at $0.395 per share on September 10, 2018, thereby damaging investors. Follow us for updates on Twitter (News - Alert) : twitter.com/GPM_LLP. If you purchased MGT securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, Esquire, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, by email to shareholders@glancylaw.com, or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005997/en/ [October 10, 2018] XE Joins Expatland's Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland E-Teams as Foreign Exchange Partner LONDON, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- XE, part of Euronet Worldwide, Inc., the world's most trusted currency authority has joined Expatland's Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland E-Teams to provide foreign exchange services. The Expatland Global Network is assembling 'E-Teams' in major expat destinations, bringing together vetted professionals who offer essential services to expats. Through one point of contact, would-be expats can access expert advice and local insight on all aspects of moving to, and setting up life in, that specific location. John Marcarian, founder of the Expatland Global Network, says, "XE is one of the most recognised currency brands in the world and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our E-Teams. We're delighted that Expatland can offer such a prestigious foreign exchange partner for expats heading to Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland." Stuart Talman, irector of Sales Australia, XE, comments: "XE is the go-to authority for all Foreign Exchange related enquires. By working with Expatland we can open another point of contact to the expat market, which is an important sector for us. We look forward to working with our fellow E-Team members and directly with expats coming to Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland." 'Expatland' origins Expatland began as a best-selling book by John Marcarian, written in 2015. Advice within the book is based of John's experience of travelling extensively between international offices of his business CST Tax Advisors, enjoying multiple expat experiences, and working with vast numbers of expat clients. With a deep understanding of both the challenges and rewards of expat life, John wrote the book as an 'expat survival guide', packed with advice, statistics and a step-by-step plan for smooth expat integration. E-Teams around the globe Expanding on ideas in his book, John launched the Expatland Global Network in 2018, with the aim of supporting people all over the world who are embarking on an expat journey, joining a vast, dynamic community. In addition to offering one-to-one advice, members of each E-Team also lend their specialist knowledge to writing chapters of a city-specific editions of the Expatland book, which are free-to-download and packed with locally-focused advice, tips and case studies. Expatland is quickly spreading across the world with E-Teams in Sydney, Melbourne, LA, London, Singapore and Auckland, with more cities to follow. Businesses interested in joining an E-Team in a city near them should get in touch with Expatland: http://www.expatland.com/contact/ Contact: Lloyd Gofton, lloyd@liberatemedia.com, +44(0)7919-353-484 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Chinese media outlet PConline had a sit-down with MSI executives this week and discussed with them the repercussions of the U.S.-China trade war and its impact on graphics cards, more specifically, the GeForce RTX 20-series shortage and MSI's upcoming RTX 2080 Ti Lightning graphics card. (Image credit: MSI) MSI recently held its MSI Gaming New Appreciation Conference in Shanghai. During the event, PConline asked if the the ongoingU.S.-China trade war will raise the manufacturing costs for graphics cards and processors. Liao Wei, Deputy General Manager of MSI Global Multimedia Business Unit, noted he believes that the prices for the GeForce RTX 20-series should remain stable and free of hikes since the main components are not produced in China. Nvidia's Turing GPUs are manufactured by TSMC, which is located in Taiwan, while their memory chips come from Samsung and Hynix fabs, which are stationed in South Korea and the U.S., respectively. Liao also stated that AMD's processors are produced in the Middle East, so are also in a safe zone for now. In terms of the GeForce RTX 20-series shortage, Liao confirmed that RTX 2080 Ti shipments are indeed very tight at the moment. Due to the insanely huge size of the Turing die, TSMC is currently facing low production yields. The RTX 2080 Ti's die measures 754mm, which is 60 percent larger than the 471mm die employed in the previous Geforce GTX 1080 Ti. Therefore, Nvidia is focusing on the RTX 2080 instead and doesn't supply many RTX 2080 Ti chips to its AIC (add-in-card) partners, according to the report. Also, it doesn't help that the RTX 20-series graphics cards are more complicated to produce. To put things into perspective, a GTX 1080 Ti is comprised of 1,600 components. On the other hand, the RTX 2080 Ti is made up of 2,600 components, the RTX 2080 has 2,400 components, while the RTX 2070 uses 2,200 components. Lastly, when asked about the RTX 2070, MSI said that production has commenced, and the company expects to launch its RTX 2070 graphics cards on October 17. MSI also mentioned that the RTX 2080 Ti will receive the luxurious Lightning treatment. Apart from pursuing the best overclocking performance humanly possible, the RTX 2080 Ti Lightning will also come with revamped aesthetics and customizable RGB lighting. MSI didn't disclose the RTX 2080 Ti Lightning's price tag, but the company did confirm that it will be available very soon. Kansas City Conviction Kansas City man convicted of second-degree murder in 2015 shooting of 3-year-old boy Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said a jury convicted Dominique Marchbanks Tuesday afternoon in the May 31, 2015, fatal shooting of Amorian Hale, a 3-year-old who died in his bed after shots were fired into his residence. The jury found Marchbanks guilty of second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action. Weekend Murder Charge Aftermath Kansas City man charged in fatal shooting KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- A 24-year-old man has been charged in the Saturday fatal shooting of Jesse Young. Marlwan Betts faces second-degree murder and criminal action charges. Authorities say Young was found on the steps of a home in the 2300 block of 9th Street. Security Redux KC security company asks for reinstated license after illegal operations accusations KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Force One Security wants its license to do business in Kansas City reinstated. The company's license was revoked Sept. 21 after the KCPD Private Licensing Unit sent a letter stating numerous serious concerns, including a fatal shooting outside of Yum Yum Bar and Grill in June. Illicit Local Prankster Charged Grandview man charged with making swatting call to Overland Park OVERLAND PARK, KS (AP) - A 46-year-old Grandview man is charged with making a hoax emergency call in Overland Park. Johnson County charged Morayonla Olubori Sholaja with one count of giving a false alarm. He is accused of calling 911 with a false claim of an "active shooter" in Overland Park. Tragic Kansas City Reciprocity Stepbrother, cousin were victims in KC shooting spree Sunday | The Kansas City Star The victims of a Sunday shooting spree in Kansas City included a stepbrother and cousin of the murder suspect. The victims were identified as Jarrin A. Walton and Jason L. Jones. These posts are never among the most popular on the blog but they're still important.As always, we start them off with "news" of our 2nd favorite lady prison drama . . .After the jump, these local crime links are a lot less captivating and a lot more scary . . .Developing . . . INDEPENDENCE, MO (AP) - The owner of two Independence businesses was sentenced for selling synthetic marijuana, also known as K2, and accepting food stamps as payment. Haq Nawaz Choudhry, of Kansas City, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to three years and six months in prison. Kansas City Futbol Winning U.S. men return to Kansas City for 2019 Gold Cup Fans will be able to see the U.S. Men's National Team in Kansas City again. Children's Mercy Park hosts final two group D games of the Gold Cup on June 26, 2019. The 2019 tournament has been expanded to 16 countries competing in four brackets. KCMO Second Spring Home Tours Abound Meth Town Doggie Delays Snail Mail Independence street not receiving mail because of dog Hide Transcript Show Transcript WEBVTT THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT TONIGHT'S EVENT. A STREET IN INDEPENDENCE HASN'T BEEN GETTING MAIL FOR WEEKS. KRIS: THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE SAY THEY NEVER GOT ANY NOTICE. KMBC 9'S WILLIAM JOY LOOKED INTO IT. HE'S LIVE TONIGHT IN DOWNTOWN INDEPENDENCE. WILLIAM? KCK Soggy Redux Renter blames management for mess after KCK apartment floods twice in 6 months KANSAS CITY, Kan. - The weather wasn't to blame for flooding at one metro man's apartment. Instead, he said management at Concord Square Apartments is part of the problem. Prince-Russell Johnson's one-bedroom apartment has flooded at least two times since he moved into his unit less than six months ago. Folk This Kansas City Road Trip Folk Alliance International Sets 2019 Dates in Montreal Kansas City's Folk Alliance International (FAI) will cross the border into Canada again next year, where 180 artists, representing 23 countries will showcase at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth in Montreal, Quebec, Feb. 13-17, 2019. The FAI conference draws 2,800 registrants from 35 countries. Newsflash: Water Is Wet!!! Rainy weather has Kansas City saturated | The Kansas City Star In recent days, persistent storms have dumped between 6 and 8 inches of rain across the Kansas City area causing some flooding on area streets. Some areas in southern Kansas city have reported more than a foot of rain. Home Town Football Hype Unleashed Why Tom Brady will struggle against the Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs enter their Sunday Night Football match against the New England Patriots as 3.5-point underdogs, according to the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook. Although the Chiefs are 5-0 and the Patriots are 3-2, the line makes sense, given that the game is in Foxborough. This morning fashion, music and politics lead us to this glimpse at the current state of pop culture. Checkit:Closer to home, these news links are also worth taking for a stroll:is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . . $10 million plan for 18th & Vine District lacks citizen input | The Kansas City Star An ambitious plan to invest $10 million in the 18th & Vine Jazz District could be the jolt of momentum the historic neighborhood needs. But a lack of input from key stakeholders is a red a flag - and a cause for concern that could derail this effort. Since the 90s Kansas City has flushedat this location with no profit and not much progress. Now, just as our blog community expected, there are plans to sink even more cash into the place. And even the newspaper questions the logic. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Holdens first win at Bathurst in 1968, GM Holdens Design Team has explored the technological potential of the future through the stunning virtual Time Attack Concept racer conceived and executed entirely in-house at GM Holden. Unlike the conventional format of the current endurance race cars, the Holden Time Attack Concept racer is envisioned as a single-lap tearaway, pitted against the clock. This type of racing is commonly known as Time Attack in motorsport circles. The Holden Time Attack Concept racer was developed entirely virtually, using sophisticated simulation technology and driven by the world-class expertise within GM Holdens Melbourne Design Studio. GM Holdens Design Director, Richard Ferlazzo explains: The technology we employ today has transformed the way we design cars. We have the ability to simulate a cars appearance, technology and dynamics in convincing animations, which enables us to deliver better designs in a shorter time. A large part of our work is Advanced Design and we use this technology to develop concept designs for our parent company, General Motors. This concept is a digital advertisement for the advanced skills, capability and technology of the GM Holden team. Holden has a long and storied history of creating crowd-pleasing concept vehicles dating back to the iconic Holden Hurricane concept of 1969, with traditional motor shows the typical platform for debuting them to Australia. As times have changed, so has Holdens approach to developing concept vehicles. The cessation of Motor Shows in Australia left a hole in our automotive culture in some ways and we lost a forum to showcase our passion and creativity to the Australian public with physical concept cars. However, with the realism and detail achievable through modern technology, I felt we could still deliver uniquely Holden concepts via virtual technology and digital media, said Ferlazzo. Ferlazzo set a challenge for his talented design team to explore a futuristic race car using the latest emerging technologies around the world and was impressed with the proposal from Lead Designer, Ewan Kingsbury. Ewan perfectly captured the essence of what we wanted to achieve; an expressive, futuristic design which also displays innovative engineering solutions. Concepts are always meant to push the boundaries but are even more impactful when they are feasible and this concept is plausible as an advanced racer of the future, said Ferlazzo. The concept was developed with technical input from GM Holdens Engineering team and the final design was validated with a digitally-printed 3D model. The finishing touch is a stunningly realistic video, created by GM Holdens in-house Design Visualisation team, of the Time Attack Concept racer lapping the iconic Mount Panorama circuit. The video will debut on Saturday October 6 during the telecast of the Great Race, and will then be available for everyone to see. Automotive Design and Engineering remains a core strength and competitive advantage for Holden and for Australia. The Time Attack Concept racer is an illustration of how we can utilise cutting-edge technology to develop transportation solutions for the future. You can see from the extremely detailed approach to incorporating the advanced technology in our Time Attack Concept racer that this is more than just a visual exercise. Holdens recent announcement of the expansion of 150 new engineers to our Advanced Vehicle Development team means we have the talent, resources and technology to continue delivering to that charter, concluded Ferlazzo. Technical Highlights Weight: 900 kilograms (without driver) Performance: Simulated Mount Panorama Lap Time: 1:29.30 0-100km/h: 1.25 sec Top Speed: 480km/h Maximum Lateral G-Force: 6.5G Maximum Braking G-Force: 6G Powertrain: Motors: 250kW Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Electric Motor Drives x 4 (Inboard mounted) Total output 1000kW (1Megawatt) / 1340HP 3240Nm Total Motor Torque 5000RPM Maximum Revolutions Enables full programmable Torque Vectoring Traction Control at each corner Gearboxes: 3-Speed Planetary Automatic Shift Gearboxes x 4 Ratios 1st 2.97:1, 2nd 1.7:1, 3rd 1:1 First gear ratio enables 9620Nm total axle torque at launch Gearbox casing integrated into Chassis structure Power Source: Reconfigurable Graphene Hybrid Power Pack 1MW power output, 90MJ Usable Charge Capacity Fast Recharge: Fully recharged in 90 seconds (1000kW, 800V, 1250A) Motor Cooling: Longitudinal Heat Exchangers x 2 Liquid-to-Gas Phase Change Cooling, low drag, full pass-through Brakes: Carbon/Carbon Hydraulic Discs x 4 Electrical Heating of pad and rotor in pits and on out-lap to conserve energy Full Regenerative capability on all axles, can provide up to 2.0G braking force Structure: Chassis: Carbon Fibre composite with cellulose Honeycomb Core Full Integrated safety cell and crash structure, utilising stressed powertrain components Suspension: Carbon Fibre Double Wishbone all-round, aerodynamically engineered profiles Titanium CNCd Uprights with bushed underbody mounts Pushrod / bellcrank activated Hydraulic Active Suspension Actuators. Computer controlled programmable ride height adjustment, anti-dive, anti-squat, anti-roll Electric Power Steering Body: Carbon-Fibre/Kevlar Composite panels with Polycarbonate Graphene Coated Upper Underbody: Full Carbon Fibre / Kevlar Composite quad-venturi underbody, with flexible co-moulded membranes at Body and Chassis junctions Underbody is structurally mounted to Suspension uprights at all 4 corners, enabling full aero load to be applied directly to each wheel Torsional twist capability enables underbody to maintain consistent relationship to ground even with extreme road camber change Wheels: 310/700 R18 Slick tires all round Carbon Fibre Composite Rims Active Wheel Fairings support low drag or brake cooling positions Wheel Fairing supported by a Kevlar/Elastane woven skin enabling consistent low drag performance whilst supporting full wheel steering and suspension movement Aerodynamics: Low Frontal Area with all powertrain components on centre-line in Drivers frontal area shadow Full Active Downforce Generation via Ground Effects technology Ultra-high Downforce levels achieved via electrically powered Cyclo-gyro fans Rubber Skirts control air-bleed and enhance Ground Effect 4 Individually controllable Fans accelerate airflow through 4 venturi tunnels to enhance downforce at lower speeds Fans enable programmable and constantly tuneable centre-of-pressure Cyclo-gyro fans with actuated blades enabling variable thrust direction and force Fans powered by 4 Switch Reluctance Motors (SRM), each up to 50kW, 50,000rpm, 92% efficient Hydraulically actuated variable-position rear wing with air-braking capability Lift-drag Ratio of underbody aero components in excess of 90:1 Miscellaneous: Front Lighting: Active Matrix Laser Units with yellow Endurance Tint Rear Lighting: LED Matrix display programmable pixels Driver Assistance: Augmented Reality Helmet: 3D graphics projected onto helmet visor to enable graphics overlay in real-time. Essential technical information provided in addition to racing line and braking zone benchmarks. Integrated full steering wheel inputs to control all mechanical and aerodynamic systems via presets. Six Point safety harness. Telemetry and Camera mast to enable constant uplink and data transmission and in-car filming Fourteen years since East Africas Customs Union became operational, the East African Community (EAC) has thrice postponed the date of its full implementation. The region was expected to achieve full implementation of the Customs Union in 2010, but has postponed the deadline indefinitely as issues such as the harmonisation of internal and joint collection of taxes are yet to be thrashed out. Subash Patel, chairman of the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries, says that even though the Common External Tariff had been fully achieved, partner states are now choosing to go it alone because of slow implementation at the regional level. He cites the case of Uganda and Kenya, which have gone ahead and implemented the 35 per cent external tariff on steel products to protect their industries. Tanzania, on the other hand, has failed to do so, something that Mr Patel says is hampering the growth of its steel industry, as substandard and cheaper steel products from Asia flood the market. In its current form, experts say, the EAC Customs Union is benefiting a handful of people in the region and a larger number in India and China. This is out of sync with the premise that EAC integration is pro-East Africans. Currently, Customs Union implementation benefits politically connected traders importing goods into the EAC. Nicholas Nesbit, chairman the East African Business Council, says the increase in imports and policies whose net effect is keeping East Africans in poverty can be blamed on partner states ignoring the voices of manufacturers and innovators and choosing instead, to listen to importers whose business depends on failing locally produced goods and service. Mr Nesbit who is also the managing director of the Nairobi-based arm of tech firm IBM, blames the EAC partner states tendency to listen to traders and not manufacturers and innovators for the EACs failure on its mandate. EABC has not been as strong as it should be, he says. A strong EABC would force national business associations to bring trade disputes to their regional apex body. Trade disputes He says that national business associations take their trade issues to their ministers of trade and the EAC, which fuels protectionism, since discussions at that level are usually nationalistic and inward looking. But Alex Mugire, deputy commissioner at Rwanda Revenue Authority, says a fully functional EABC wouldnt solve East Africas tendency to favour implementation of sections of the Customs Union that encourage imports. Mr Mugire says that trade facilitation that cover common external tariff, the non-trade barriers and the ability of importers to pay their taxes and clear goods before reaching East Africas ports of entry Dar es Salaam and Mombasa is an easier process to implement. The sections of the Single Customs Territory on the construction of one-stop-border posts, ability to track goods and the interlinking of Customs systems are easier to implement when dealing with imports. As a result, Mr Mugire says about 70 per cent of the Single Customs Territory has been implemented since 2014 and this largely on account of imports. The implementation of a SCT targeting exports in Uganda started for a few selected goods in August. In Rwanda, the Single Customs Territory for selected exports started in September. EAC has also failed to come up with a deal on internal taxes like value added tax, excise duty and income taxes. Mr Nesbit says failure to agree on internal taxes has fuelled the disputes over sensitive products like sugar, cooking oil and rice. Different experts agree that the EAC has failed to harmonise internal taxes because these can be used to block products from the region at the slightest excuse. Each country is protecting its revenue. This makes trading in the region difficult, said Businge Rwabwogo the general manager in charge of operations at the Mukwano Group of Companies. Mukwano Group is one of the companies currently importing palm oil from India for refining, because of the war in South Sudan, a previous blockade by Rwanda and a current one by Tanzania has affected their ability to expand their sunflower cooking oil and fat manufacturing business. By importing palm oil from India, Mr Rwabwogo says East Africans are losing out on jobs. Arm-twisting Currently, Mukwano spends about Ush80 billion ($21 million) in northern Uganda to provide advisory services, seeds, post handling advice and the purchase of sunflower and soya seeds for their cooking business. He adds that the company would be happy to expand to places such as Shinyanga in Tanzania, if the quantity of sunflower produced and market size of resulting oil was right. Instead of allowing local companies to expand, make enough capital to expand naturally into the region, EAC partner states prefer to arm-twist companies by imposing tariffs. Ben Usaje the Tanzanian Commissioner for Customs calls this introduction of tariffs by some as being co-operative while at the same time remaining competitive. We are co-operating but we have never ceased to compete. It is survival for the fittest, he says. Mr Rwabwogo says Mukwano has been reduced to importing palm from India, because their competing for investors or protecting existing ones. In the process, this fragments the EAC into small national markets instead of allowing companies to enjoy the economies of scale that would come with selling to the regions 170 million population. New African Union-FAO framework also aims to create new jobs while reducing reliance on manual labor FAO and the African Union on 5 October 2018 launched a new framework document that aims to increase agricultural efficiency and reduce drudgery by helping countries in Africa to develop strategies for sustainable farm mechanization. The Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization: A Framework for Africa (SAMA) is the result of discussions with policy makers from AU member states, the AU Commission, FAO and key partners. It offers a detailed look at the history of machinery in Africa, and points the way towards addressing challenges and creating new opportunities to assure the successful adoption of mechanization. Doubling agricultural productivity and eliminating hunger and malnutrition in Africa by 2025 will be no more than a mirage unless mechanization is accorded utmost importance, AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Josefa Sacko, said at the launch of the framework at FAO. Remarkably more than three-fourths of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa prepare their lands using only hand tools, a practice that entails poor productivity, repels youth and is incompatible with the continents Zero Hunger goal. Farmers in Africa should be able to use modern agricultural technology, both digital and mechanical, to boost the agricultural sector in a sustainable way, said FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo. The new framework identifies 10 priorities for AU member states to include in their national plans, ranging from the need for a stable supply of machine spare parts and innovative financing mechanisms, and the importance of regional collaborations that allow for cross-border hiring services. The framework notes that successful national mechanization strategies will address key sustainability issues including gender, youth, environmental protection and the overarching principle that farming must be profitable. It also emphasizes that these strategies should cover the entire agrifood value chain, including harvesting, handling, processing and food safety aspects, with an eye to reducing food losses, boosting rural employment and bolstering the links between farmers and consumers. Past, present and future While tractors are used to prepare land on over 60 percent of cultivated lands in Asia, the corresponding figure for Sub-Saharan Africa is around 5 percent. Moreover, the use of draught animals in sub-Saharan Africa is minimal outside of Ethiopia due in considerable measure to the tsetse fly so almost all the work is done manually. One result is that many African farmers deploy low-yielding techniques and may prefer slash-and-burn methods. Today smaller and more affordable machinery, such as two-wheel tractors, are available hiring services using digital technologies are proving popular around the continent, underscoring how the sharing of capital assets can be leveraged to achieve greater scale and access to modern tools. What is to be done? The framework notes that cross-border initiatives for dealers, supply networks and tractor operators can allow for viable scale and greater utilization. Another key consideration is farm profitability. This can be fostered by giving access to markets, credit and land tenure a visible role in mechanization policies. The framework has been designed to contribute to the pledges made in the African Unions Malabo Declaration and Agenda 2063, and to do so in a way that is private-sector driven, environmentally smart, affordable and friendly to smallholder farmers. Its implementation will require significant contributions from other stakeholders, including public institutions and private actors such as the European Agricultural Machinery Industries Association (CEMA), which has just renewed its partnership with FAO to work on issues related to sustainable mechanization strategies in developing countries. FAO and the AUs strategy acknowledges that there is great potential for innovation in African agriculture notably with the proliferation of mobile technologies and access to information and services and that a significant effort in capacity development will have to be made to rise to related challenges. To that end, FAO and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have also published a training manual to help roll out more effective networks of access to small-scale mechanization services. AUC launches the Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization Framework Speaking at the launch of the Framework, AUC Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, H.E Amb Josefa Sacko reiterated the importance the Commission places on sustainable agricultural mechanization in African agriculture as a critical factor in realizing the commitments of the AU Malabo Declaration on agriculture transformation. She further stressed that, We will not be able to achieve the laudable objectives that we have set for ourselves, if agriculture continues to be saddled with the heavy drudgery of both farm and off-farm activities in the sector, she said. Efforts to attract youths to agriculture will also remain an illusion. Commissioner Sacko announced that she together with Angolan First Lady, H.E Ana Afonso Dias Lourenco would inaugurate the first Hand-Held Hoe Museum in Angola; building on the initiative by the former Chairperson of the AUC, H.E Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who championed the campaign to relegate the hand-held hoe to the museum and replace it with tillers, a symbolic effort to emphasize the importance of removing the drudgery from agriculture, and thereby improving labour productivity, especially for women. The Permanent Representatives to the Rome-based UN Agencies, from Ethiopia, Ghana and Cote dIvoire, shared their respective country experiences on agricultural mechanization and lauded the effort by the AUC and FAO to develop the framework. In her closing remarks, the Deputy Director-General of FAO, Maria Helena Semedo said she was pleased that the joint effort between FAO and AUC had given birth to a new baby which had been outdoored. She expressed the hope that the same commitment would be provided to facilitate implementation of the strategy Framework, and help transform agriculture in Africa. Agricultural Mechanization The AUC and FAO view agricultural mechanization in Africa as an indispensable pillar for attaining the zero Hunger Vision by 2025, as stated in the Malabo Declaration of 2014, Aspiration 1 of the AUs Agenda 2063, and Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Doubling agricultural productivity and eliminating hunger and malnutrition in Africa by 2025 can only be possible if mechanization is accorded the utmost importance. This includes enhancing access to mechanization services, improving access to quality and affordable inputs, such as seed and fertilizer, and delivering efficient water resources and management systems including irrigation. Mechanization in the twenty first century must follow some core principles. It must be built along the entire agricultural value chain, private sector driven, environmentally competitive and climate smart, and economically viable and affordable, especially to small-scale farmers who constitute the bulk of African farmers. Mechanization must target youth, specifically to make agriculture more attractive for employment and entrepreneurship. Regent Sharon Jenkins presided over the votes for the Waightstill Avery Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to make contributions to Rosman High School's Senior Service Day and Transylvania County Schools' Back Pack Buddies. Both votes were unanimously in favor of monetary support for these programs. (Courtesy photo) The members of the Waightstill Avery Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution were proud to lend their support to three programs that directly affect the youth of Transylvania County as part of DAR's commitment to Patriotism, Historical Preservation and Education. Regent Sharon Jenkins pointed out in each presentation that DAR is a service organization and that the focus of her administration is to assist local students, teachers and hospitalized veterans with their needs. The Rosman High School Senior Service Day will be held Oct. 18. This is an annual event that has senior... The rich Scots heritage of the Presbyterian Church will be celebrated again this year with the Kirkin' o' the Tartan at Brevard-Davidson River Presbyterian Church on Sunday, Oct. 14, at the 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. services. This beloved annual tradition was established at B-DRPC in 2005. The rousing music of the Montreat Scottish Pipes and Drums, led by Pipe Major Joe Bailey, will highlight the Kirkin' ceremony. Choral and congregational hymns and anthems with Celtic roots are also planned. The opening and concluding processions of the Kirkin' o' the Tartan will include the Montrea... Benjamin Davidson and Thomas Patton, Revolutionary War veterans, will be honored by the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) at 3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 13. Lambert Clayton, a third Revolutionary War veteran, also interned at Davidson River and was honored by the SAR at a previous event. The Transylvania Honor Guard will take part in this prestigious presentation. All members of the community are invited to attend, especially descendants of Davidson and Patton. The Davidson River Cemetery Fund can be reached at PO Box 91, Pisgah Forest, NC 28768 or via email at [email protected] ... Here in the land of waterfalls, many people pride themselves on their appreciation and preservation of natural resources. Since 2004, the Transylvania Natural Resource Council (TNRC) has diligently studied, reviewed and taken an inventory of Transylvania Countys natural resources in order to make recommendations to the Board of Commissioners on how they should be managed. The TNRC meets every second Friday of the month and its next meeting will be Friday, Oct. 12. A few of the topics discussed in past meetings include sustainable forestry in western North Carolina climate change in the... Treehugger and our third-party partners use cookies and process personal data like unique identifiers based on your consent to store and/or access information on a device, display personalized ads and for content measurement, audience insight, and product development. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Treehugger.com, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, click below. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. List of Partners (vendors) shalender@tribune.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 10 Embattled real estate major Amrapali was in for more trouble today as the Supreme Court ordered sealing of seven of its premises in Noida and Greater Noida, and two premises in Rajgir and Buxar in Bihar for recovery of documents needed for forensic audit of 46 companies of the group. A Bench headed by Justice UU Lalit passed the order after the three promoter/directors Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar taken into police custody yesterday told the top court that all the relevant documents were kept at the said premises. The Bench ordered police officials of Noida, Greater Noida, Rajgir and Buxar that after sealing the premises, keys have to be handed over to the Supreme Court Registry to ensure that the documents were accessed only by the forensic auditors. The court also took an undertaking from the companys promoters/directors Anil Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar that all relevant documents were at the said premises and warned that if it was found to be wrong they would be taken to task. The undertaking shall state that all the documents pertaining to 46 companies from 2007 to 2018 now stand handed over. Such undertaking shall be submitted by tomorrow, it said, adding, We are passing this order on the premise that the documents required by the Forensic Auditors are kept at the 7 plus 2 places and not any other place. Amrapali directors wanted the court release them from police custody, claiming all account papers are at the said seven premises. But the court said if the entire exercise of sealing the seven premises in Noida and Greater Noida was completed on Wednesday, the presence of the three applicants will not be insisted upon by the Police. However, if the exercise is not complete, the present status will continue except that these applicants, instead of being put up in the lock up, shall be kept in the police station itself, the court ordered. Asking the police officers concerned to comply with its order expeditiously, it directed that compliance report be filed before it by Thursday when it will take up the matter again. The top court had earlier ordered Amrapali group statutory and internal auditors to audit the accounts of all the companies of the Amrapali Group to find out how Rs 2,765 crore was diverted by its directors. It had directed the company to hand over all the relevant documents to the two auditors who told the Bench that no documents had been shared with them by Amrapali Group since 2015. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 A 40-year-old NRI, a software engineer, was found dead at a hotel in Sector 35 this afternoon. The police have ruled out any foul play in the incident. According to the police, the victim has been identified as Charandeep Singh. He was a resident of the USA. The police said the victim was staying at a hotel in Sector 35 and was supposed to check out in the afternoon. However, when the victim did not respond to calls, the hotel staff checked the room and found the victim lying on the floor. The police were informed about the incident, who visited the spot. The victims kin, who stay at Shivalik Vihar in Nayagaon, were informed about the incident, who reached the spot. The body was shifted to the mortuary at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16. The police said the victim was staying in the hotel since September 19. Inquest proceedings have been initiated at the Sector 36 police station. The autopsy will be conducted tomorrow. The police said preliminary investigations suggested that there was no foul play in the incident. The body didnt bear any injury marks, said a police source. Chander Suta Dogra Chander Suta Dogra Senior Journalist & Author There is never a dull moment in Punjab politics. Unlike its staid neighbours Haryana and Himachal Pradesh where political activity, by and large, seems to take naps between elections, Punjab is that restless sibling always in search of an elusive salve to settle its angst. What we are seeing now is yet another bout of political turmoil in the history of this troubled state, where, for as long as anyone can remember, religion and politics have been two sides of the same coin. On Sunday, as huge crowds preferred to ignore the shows by the ruling Congress in Lambi and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Patiala and joined, instead, a march to Bargari, the site of desecration of Sikh scriptures in 2015, there was a tremor in the political circles. The import of the upsurge, and its implications for the future of the state, has been the subject of endless speculation since. The village of Bargari, situated in the dusty outback of Faridkot district, meanwhile, has quietly taken its place as the newest landmark in the state's chequered politics. First things first: There are similarities between the Bargari march of Sunday and the Aam Aadmi Party's political conference at Maghi Mela in Moga held in January, 2015. At that time also, people abandoned the grand podiums of the Congress and the SAD and walked over to the AAP tent to listen to Bhagwant Mann and others wearing the AAP cap. The AAP was just beginning to show Punjabis a vision of alternative politics. The turnout at the Moga conference cemented the arrival of AAP on Punjab's political scene and the spellbound crowds listening to Bhagwant Mann in the winter chill sent shivers down the spine of established political parties. Mann had just won the 2014 Lok Sabha election with a stunning margin of over two lakh votes and the party's three other MPs with him that day also had impressive victories behind them. They dangled their legs from the stage like schoolchildren and the people just loved the whiff of freshness. In the next one year, it seemed as if Punjab's quest for a viable alternative to the stale, manipulative politics of conventional parties had ended. The kind of politics which had taken the state on the path of terrorism and separatism, the dark days that no one wanted to relive. The disenchantment of the people with conventional political parties grew more pronounced in the post-terrorism stage as the state sank into a morass of despair and its economic engines began to de-rail. The parties which formed governments post the nineties did little to address these issues. In hindsight, conventional parties need not have worried because the AAP soon surrendered to the constraints of realpolitik and became like them. The hopes of Punjabis stood crushed. A few years earlier, it was Manpreet Badal's People's Party of Punjab which had similarly captured the imagination of the people with its message of change and opposition to the VIP culture in 2011-12. Punjabis watched with dismay as the PPP floundered and sank into political oblivion in the succeeding years. Some of its leaders went back to the Akali Dal. Manpreet briefly contemplated joining the AAP, but by then the AAP had its head in the clouds and a miffed Manpreet merged his outfit with the Congress in 2016. Cut to August, 2018 and the release of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report which indicted former CM Parkash Singh Badal, patriarch of the SAD, for his mismanagement of the Bargari desecration incident and the police firing in Behbal Kalan in October, 2015 which led to the death of two persons. The commission also noted that though the Punjab police had cracked the desecration case by zeroing in on the involvement of men of the Dera Sacha Sauda, it was asked not to arrest the men. These findings confirmed what everyone had for long suspected: that the dera head all along had official patronage. The SAD-supported Akal Takht had controversially pardoned the dera head for sacrilege at that time and the resultant furore led to the pardon being withdrawn. But veteran Akalis were furious. As the commission's report became public, the SAD's religious moorings and claim of being the guardian of the Sikh Panth lay in tatters and everyone, including senior leaders of the party, began to look accusingly at Badal senior. The rumblings in the party are loud and clear, and most old Taksali leaders with roots in the Sikh constituency have either abandoned the Badals or are in the process of doing so. The cries of thousands of people to arrest the 'enemies of the Sikh Panth' at Kotkapura and Bargari has unnerved old Akali leaders steeped in the Sikh ethos. They can sense that the masses have seen through Badal's game, and the inevitable political erosion of the base is unnerving for even his hardcore supporters. A 100-year-old proud legacy is collapsing before our eyes and it is not a pretty sight. It is as if SAD was waiting for a trigger to unravel. The disintegration of SAD coincides with the emergence of new political formulations centred around Bargari. The site of a protest morcha in the village has become a ground for people to rally around the old war cry of alternative politics, secular politics, meaningful politics. There is no discernible leader as of now. Dissident AAP legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira, quick to capitalise on the anger at Bargari, led the huge march from Kotkapura on Sunday. The official AAP in Punjab is smarting at being upstaged, but can do very little, as it has lost the confidence of the ordinary Punjabi. There is a clutch of radical Sikh groupings led by religious preacher Dhyan Singh Mand and others who are drawing the crowds. Notably, the organisers of the morcha at Bargari (who incidentally are more surprised at their success than anyone else) are careful to talk of secularism and taking people of all religions along with them. Two things to watch out for are: firstly, whether significant parts of the disintegrating Akali Dal will gravitate towards the Bargari warriors. Secondly, how quickly will the nebulous political formulation take shape and cross the first hurdle of anointing a leader. No political outfit can survive and thrive without political sagacity, a spirit of accommodation and financial heft. Previous political experiments in Punjab, like the PPP or the AAP, lacked one or the other ingredient. Additionally, there is the overriding fear that the anger and emotions fermenting in Bargari could lead to civil unrest in the state. The organisers have given 15 days to the Amarinder Singh government to arrest the accused. It will require all the skills of the Bargari groups to keep the religious outrage within acceptable limits if the government does not act. Mass upsurges have muscle and momentum. This one, worryingly, has some hardline, radical Sikhs at its core. Through all of this, Punjab will be keenly watching to see what shape eventually emerges and, more importantly, whether it has the wherewithal to fulfill the state's long-held dream of a viable, serious, third political alternative that can rid it of venal politics of the old order. The kind of politics which led to the desecration of holy scriptures and protection of the offenders for political reasons. Vivek Katju Vivek Katju Ex-secretary, Ministry of External Affairs The 19th India-Russia annual summit on October 4-5 attracted greater attention than its previous recent editions. On the agenda were issues that profile the fundamental dilemma that confronts Indian foreign policy today: how does the country navigate the bilateral and triangular, current and emerging, relationships between the US, Russia and China? In focus was Indias proposed acquisition of Russias S-400 missile defence system. Some US officials had warned that the purchase may attract sanctions mandated in the Russia, Iran and North Korea-centric CAATSA. The decision on the S-400 system was therefore being considered an indication of PM Modis willingness to continue to chart an independent foreign policy course. Modi resolved to go ahead with the purchase. Clearly, he refused to accept the curtailment of Indias options or an abridgement of its choices on account of the internecine problems of foreign powers. Modis predecessors, beginning with Nehru, had followed the same impulses, though it is unlikely that it will be so acknowledged in these politically contentious times. Foreign policy in the essentially bipolar Cold War era was complex, but it is more so now when power equations are in flux and the rules governing global order under challenge. Modis task is more difficult as these enormous international developments are occurring when India is assuming global power status amid pervasive domestic ideological contestation and socio-economic change. The US remains and will continue to be the pre-eminent power. Despite Trumps America First approach, India has much to gain from Indo-US ties moving positively ahead. Under Xi Jinping, China is now assertive and impatient with global rules or the sensitivities of other states, including India, if they stand in its way to greater global authority. It is increasingly considering itself as the main challenger of the US. While there are areas of cooperation, the competitive elements of the Sino-Indian relationship and unresolved disputes cannot be wished away. Russia continues to be a major strategic and military power and retains a demonstrated capability to influence global developments. Indias need of Russia, especially in defence and security, will continue to be substantial. Significantly, China and Russia are acting in tandem in some areas to resist the US. This is the geopolitical landscape through which India needs to steer its diplomacy to secure its interests. In a candid and the Trump administrations first elaborate China policy speech on October 4, Vice-President Pence asserted US determination to combat Chinese commercial and geo-strategic challenge to its pre-eminence. Clearly, the US now considers China as its principal rival and is signalling that it will act against it where necessary; it has done so on the trade front. In containing China, it is looking to shore up its constituency by bringing India into its fold. It is here that Modi has to decide to what extent should India go with the China containment agenda, even as it seeks a closer and comprehensive bilateral relationship. Till now Modi has signalled to China that despite the border issue and other bilateral irritants, India will not become an open territory for the US in its quest to contain China. Implicit in this approach is the need for China not to heat up the border through Doklam-like moves, to show sensitivity to Indian concerns, as on NSG membership and permanent membership of the UNSC, Pakistans sponsorship of terrorism, and to refrain from being too aggressive in Indias immediate neighbourhood. The question is, the Wuhan summit spirit notwithstanding, how far can China accommodate Indian interests as it pursues its global and regional interests? Apart from the transformation of Sino-Pakistan ties because of CPEC, the Maldives case tested Indias patience. Chinese moves in Nepal and Sri Lanka cannot but cause wariness in India, which has not publicly articulated the red lines. A case can be made out for it to do so. Growing US-India defence ties, and for this purpose its acceptance of the foundational agreements, although tweaked, indicate closer bilateral relations and not an Indian willingness to go along with the US agenda, where it diverges from its interests. Modis differentiated approaches to Central Asia and the Indo-Pacific region are illustrative. India has joined the Shanghai Cooperation Council, one of China and Russias instruments to keep the US out of Central Asia. At the same time, it is developing bilateral partnerships with Japan and is increasingly comfortable with multilateral arrangements in the Indo-Pacific that seek to provide a bulwark against Chinas expansionist tendencies. Indias defence ties with Russia is time-tested. Modi has signalled that it will continue. The unstated implication is that if CAATSA is invoked, India-US ties will have to bear an inevitable burden. Wisdom will lie in the US giving a waiver for an augmentation of Indian defence capabilities against China. Trump may require something in return and a negotiation may have to take place. A similar negotiation in respect of Iran on oil may be more difficult than on connectivity through Chabahar. As the US becomes an outlier on some global issues, including climate change, it is inevitable that Indian approaches on these will become more aligned with Russia and China. However, these aspects are unlikely to impact India-US ties. Modis grand strategy seems to be to develop comprehensive ties with the US, sustain the Russia relationship and maintain a balanced approach to China. The last will be the most difficult. It will test Indian diplomacy as the three powers whirl and dance. editorial@tribune.com Jendra Ahlawat Tribune News Service Faridabad, October 10 The 3.2-km-long stretch of the Metro Rail from Escorts-Mujesar station here to Ballabgarh is unlikely to open before Diwali, as speculated earlier. It may be delayed till mid-December due to hassles regarding allotment of parking space at one of the stations and removal of some constructions located very close to the Metro rail line in Ballabgarh city. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) authorities have asked HUDA (HSVP) officials to hand over a patch of 2.5 acres situated opposite the NCB (Sant Surdass) Metro station for the construction of the parking lot of the station. The spot located across National Highway-2 (western side) is presently occupied by 250 shanties and the place is known as Azad Nagar. Though an attempt was made to clear the constructions here, it is reported that the officials concerned were directed to rehabilitate the residents of this locality in Ashiana housing scheme before taking any action. The operation of the Ballabgarh Metro will not be possible before the completion of the work on every segment which includes the construction of the parking lot at the NCB station, said a DMRC official on condition of anonymity. Claiming that finishing work on the two stations had been going on and was expected to be over in November, he said no date has been fixed for its opening so far. We have invited applications from the residents for getting them shifted to the Ashiana scheme where they will get flats constructed by HUDA, said Estate Officer, HUDA, Amardeep Jain. He said the land would be handed over to the DMRC as soon as the residents are shifted. The removal of some constructions standing very close to the Metro line in Ballabgarh city is still to be taken up. The trial run of the Rs 570 crore project, launched in May 2015, was conducted on August 24. The stretch has two stations NCB and Ballabgarh. Major cause of delay amansharma@tribunemail.com Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 In a major embarrassment for the Haryana Police, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed state Director General of Police to pay costs of Rs 10,000 to a petitioner in a death in custody case for failure to determine compensation even after a lapse of three years. The orders by Justice P.B. Bajanthri came on a petition filed by Anand Rai Kaushik against the state of Haryana and other respondents. The court was told that the petitioner's brother was taken in custody by the police of Faridabad NIT police station in July, 2013, and he died in custody. The petitioner's counsel also submitted no FIR was registered in connection of which the victim was taken to the police station. Besides this, the version given by the police was that he had died by hanging himself from a window in the toilet, which was 6.5 ft from the ground, while the victim was about 6.2 feet. Taking up the mater, the High Court in March, 2015, observed that the Bench was, prima facie, of the view that the judicial enquiry report, relevant daily diary reports and post-mortem conducted by a board of doctors showed that foul play had not taken place in the present case. In view of detailed judicial inquiry report, FIR was not required to be registered to initiate investigation. But the respondent-State was bound to pay due compensation to the petitioner since the death had taken place in a police station. The Bench had added the counsel for the state was directed to obtain instructions from the authorities concerned as to why Rs 6 lakh be not ordered to be paid to the petitioner. "Let the Director General of Police, Haryana, file his own affidavit in this regard before the next date of hearing on April 7, 2015." Justice Bajanthri added the Director General of Police had, till date, not determined the amount of compensation required to be paid to the legal heirs of the victims with reference to notification dated April 3, 2013, relating to the Haryana Victim Compensation Scheme, 2013. "It is more than three years even to this day, there is no determination of victim compensation under 2013 scheme insofar present case. Therefore, Director General of Police is hereby directed to pay cost of Rs 10,000 to the petitioner." The top cop was also directed to determine victim compensation under the scheme before submitting it along with an affidavit. ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Geetanjali Gayatri Tribune News Service Karnal, October 10 From a solitary poster placed inconspicuously in a corner of a local gurdwara, Khalistan idealogue Jarnail Singh Bhindranwales posters now adorn the facades and walls of nearly all gurdwaras in Karnal district. These posters seem to be the Sikh communitys reply to Chief Minister ML Khattars slight after he cancelled his visit to Raj Kareyga Khalsa Gurdwara in Dachar on September 28. Scheduled to pay obeisance during the annual naam simran, which concludes on October 27, Khattar abandoned the visit on the grounds that Bhindranwales picture stood in one corner of the langar hall and sought that it be removed. The gurdwara committee, that had made arrangements for 100 siropas (robe of honour) and 30 kirpans, was deeply disappointed. The CMs staff told us that he would have kheer (rice pudding) made of jaggery instead of sugar. Nearly one lakh devotees were eagerly awaiting his arrival. But he chose to spurn our love and respect, rued Sarabjit Singh, a sewadar. Piqued, the sangat has now put up Bhindranwales posters across all gurdwaras in the district. The Nissing gurdwaras main entrance has three posters of Bhindranwale. Dera Kar Sewa Gurdwara, Manjhi Sahib Gurdwara and Gurdwara Singh Sabha in Karnal city too have displayed his posters prominently. In Assandhs Shekhpura, a few youngsters have mounted these on electricity poles and wherever they could. The community has announced Khattars boycott as also that of the BJP. "The CM refused to visit the Dachar gurdwara because of one poster. He has disrespected us. This is our way of hitting back, said Jatinder Singh Virk of Gobindgarh. The Sikh clergy believes the controversy is entirely of the CMs making. The Akal Takht recognises Bhindranwale as a martyr. There is a memorial in the Golden Temple complex in honour of those killed during Operation Bluestar. Foreign dignitaries and political leaders from all parties and castes have had no hesitation going there. What was the CMs objection, is not clear. He could have simply come, offered prayers and returned, remarked Baba Gurmeet Singh of the Dachar gurdwara. Gurtej Singh Khalsa, one of the members of the delegation that went to meet Khattar when invited for talks on the matter, did not rule out the conspiracy angle. Ill-informed, the CM ended up humiliating and antagonising the community. The Chief Ministers media adviser, Rajiv Jain, said the CM had already explained on several occasions that Bhindranwales poster at the gurdwara premises was the reason for his keeping away. There is nothing more to it. During an official visit to India last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a number of agreements were signed for the Indian purchase of sophisticated defense equipment to bolster its external security. Top of the shopping list was a $5.43 billion deal to buy five batteries of the advance S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile that can detect, track and destroy fighter aircraft, spy planes, incoming missiles and drones at a range of 380 km. The S-400 is considered a most lethal air defense system, playing a decisive role in any conflict involving India. The delivery of the defensive shield is expected to start within two years and be completed in five. India decided to go ahead with the purchase despite warnings by the United States, which can impose sanctions. However, the chances for such an extreme step are minimal because Washington needs India in the emerging geo-strategic security situation. India expected to escape American wrath by exploiting a similar deal signed by China with Russia in 2014 to buy six batteries of the S-400 system at the cost of $3 billion, making it easier for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use it as a pretext to appease President Donald Trump. The first American reaction to the Indian deal was that it would not take any action to hurt the military capability of its partners. The assertion is a mere formality to express openly what should have been already agreed tacitly between the two countries. The deal has vast security implications for the countries which India considers as its adversaries, especially China and Pakistan. It has already signed a deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France which have the capability to strike deep in "enemy" territory. The S-400 doubles the Indian defense potential enabling it to deter any aerial strike by the adversaries. So, its strike outreach has increased substantially due to the Rafale factor while its defensive deterrence power has also multiplied. Such developments may not greatly impact China, as it has extensive armory to deploy and use if threatened by any external power. However, India's buying spree for lethal war articles should be worrying sign for Pakistan. According to reports in the Indian media, if deployed along the border with Pakistan, the S-400 system could destroy fighter jets and any cruise missile long before they came anywhere near Indian airspace. In other words, they would be killed within Pakistani airspace and territory. When India came up with the Cold Start doctrine more than a decade ago, Pakistan faced a dilemma how to counter its mighty neighbor. But it did not take it long to come up with a matching answer by developing tactical nuclear weapons that can easily pulverize any military move under the Cold Start initiative. The S-400 can be seen as an Indian response to the Pakistani weaponry, but it leaves space for Pakistan to come up with its own counter moves to defeat a foolproof air-defense shield by India. I'm sure the policy-makers and strategic thinkers in Pakistan will lose no time in trying to restore the strategic balance. It can certainly maintain the vital strategic parity in South Asia through ingenuity and sophisticated offensive weapons. India is far ahead in traditional warfare and Pakistan knows it too well due to its geographical constraints and other reasons like financial difficulties. Another possibility is that China and Pakistan might close ranks even more to face the increasing threats by India. Both countries have unresolved border issues with New Delhi, which provides more reasons for a joint strategy to counter the Indian moves. Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. editorial@tribune.com Deepender Deswal Tribune News Service Hisar, October 10 The police have been on high alert in Hisar and adjoining towns in view of the impending decision in murder cases involving Satlok Ashram head Rampal and his supporters. The additional sessions court is likely to pronounce the verdict on Thursday in connection with the murder of six persons five women and a child during clashes between the police and Rampal supporters at Satlok Ashram in Barwala in November 2014. The Special Task Force (STF) led by DIG B Satheesh Balan has taken charge of law and order. Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kumar Meena carried out a flag march in the town and reviewed security arrangements on Wednesday. The administration has clamped prohibitory orders and called reinforcements to maintain law and order, while putting up 37 temporary nakas in and around the town. Duty Magistrates have been appointed in Hisar, and adjoining Hansi and Barwala towns. A police spokesperson said six IPS officers, including SPs from Palwal, Jind, Sirsa, Central Faridabad and Mahendragarh, had been deployed in the town. Besides, 2,000 personnel of the Rapid Action Force, Special Task Force and police from adjoining districts have been deployed. Sources said about 1,000 Rampals supporters were expected to gather at the court on Thursday. In the past one week, the police evicted Rampals supporters from other states, who gathered in the town. The police have also intensified security at abandoned Satlok Ashram. editorial@tribune.com Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 A sarpanch, who claims non-registration of a criminal case on the ground that charges have not been framed, will have to go, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear. A Division Bench has ruled that a candidate cannot claim non-pendency of case by claiming that charges were not framed against him at the time of filing nominations. The assertion came as the Division Bench of Justice Mahesh Grover and Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu upheld the setting aside of a sarpanchs election. Petitioner Vishpal, a former sarpanch of Agondh village in Kaithal district, was seeking the quashing of impugned judgment dated August 13 passed by Guhla Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division) whereby his election was set aside. His counsel had argued mere pendency of a criminal case was not a ground for setting aside the election under Haryana Panchayati Raj Act as charges were not framed at the time of filing of the nomination paper. The Bench asserted there was no dispute that cognisance had already been taken by a judicial magistrate at the time of filing the nomination paper. He neither raised any plea before the civil court, nor disputed or urged before this court that cognisance had not been taken in the criminal complaint on the date of filing of nomination paper. The Bench added the petitioner was under an obligation to disclose the pendency of criminal complaint in which the cognisance had already been taken against him. Instead, he furnished incorrect and false information while writing that no case was pending against him. In its detailed order, the Bench added a perusal of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Election Rules made it clear that a candidate was under an obligation and mandatorily required to furnish full and complete information in forms before the returning officer along with the nomination paper. The information was regarding pendency of criminal cases punishable with imprisonment for six months or more, which were pending at two different stages in which charges have been framed; and in which cognisance has been taken by the court of competent jurisdiction. As such, two columns were purposely incorporated to cover pending criminal cases against a candidate at both the stages so as to inform the voters about his antecedents. The argument that charges were not framed against the petitioner at the time of filing the nomination may be an escape route from the provision of a clause in the form, but he could not wriggle out of the rigour of another clause which covered pending cases in which cognisance had been taken by the court of competent jurisdiction. editorial@tribune.com Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service Dharamsala, October 10 The shepherds, trapped in the Bara Bhangal area, have failed to cross the Thumsar Pass. Sources said the shepherds were still camping there braving -18 degree temperature in evening hours with a hope to cross over with their livestock of about 15,000 sheep, goats and horses. They had planned to make an attempt to cross over but bad weather and fresh snow stopped them. They are left in the valley, braving the elements of nature. What is worrying the families of 150 shepherds is that there is no communication with them. Lata from Bara Bhangal village, who is now in Bir, said, Her family members are trapped near Thumsar. I have not been able to communicate with them for the past two days since they have moved closer to the pass. In 1996, about 200 horses had perished near Thumsar due to an avalanche. The government should do something to take out the trapped shepherds, worried Lata said. Pratapu, who had crossed over from Bara Bhangal village through Holi in Chamba, said due to heavy rain and landslides, most paths were badly damaged. The government should send teams with equipment to repair the damaged tracks. Only then, they can come back through Jalsu Pass or other regions of Chamba. Akshay Jasrotia, an activist trying to help the trapped shepherds, said there was no way to communicate with them. The government should send equipment such as wireless sets so that they could convey their well being, he said. Meanwhile, members of the Shepherds Mahasabha have written to the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur for the help. SDM, Bajinath, Vikas Shukla said one satellite phone was available in Bara Bhangal that could be used by them. The administration was planning to send a team of experts to help them. The shepherds knew the routes better than anybody else and hope they would find a way out, he said. The irony of the situation is that the government can rescue the trapped shepherds using helicopters, however, they are not willing to leave their livestock behind. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Shimla, October 10 Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur here on Wednesday urged people and doctors to help the younger generation to be in good mental health to cope with the challenges. This would not only help in improving their health but also strengthening the economy. Presiding over the World Mental Health Day function at Himachal Hospital for Mental Health and Rehabilitation, Thakur said there was need for involvement of society in raising awareness among adolescents about steps to look after their mental health. The childhood behavioural disorder was the sixth leading cause of the disease among adolescents and repetition of such behaviour might lead to hyperactive and destructive behaviour, he added. The drug abuse had emerged as a global problem and the nation and state were no exception due to stress on the younger generation. The joint and earnest efforts were required for curbing the vice, he added. On his initiative, a meeting was held at Chandigarh where chief ministers of four states and officers from three other states participated to chalk out a strategy to curb it. Thakur said awareness regarding ill-effects of drug abuse could be generated, especially in morning assemblies of schools, he added. He said Buddy system could also be launched in colleges to identify students taking drugs and special focus should be laid on rehabilitation of drug addicts. For this, training to doctors, counsellors and paramedical staff must be ensured for professionally manning de-addiction and rehabilitation centres. More rehabilitation centres would be established, he added. The Chief Minister also administered oath of de-addiction to students and launched a website of the hospital and interacted with patients. Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj said it was unfortunate that a cut-throat competition was resulting in mental stress among the students. Teenagers were more prone to stress due to pressure to perform better in studies and they need proper guidance and counselling to deal with these problems, he added. editorial@tribune.com Our Correspondent Jalandhar, October 10 Principal KMV College Atima Sharma Dwivedi was invited by the Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary to deliver expert talks on topics of colossal contemporary relevance and pertinence. She delivered a talk on Psychosocial pressures on women and the ameliorating impact: the Indian Context and the second topic was Challenges of Indian education system and its global perspective. Along with students and faculty members at the Eotvos Lorand University, her talks were attended by officials from local administration, Deans from the University and other academia, said Dr Atima. Dr Atima Sharma Dwivedi has herself been an alumnus of Harvard Institute of Higher Education, USA, and has also attended some Professional Development Programmes at Harvard University. She has also attended programmes at National University of Educational Planning (NUEPA) and has also extensively travelled across the globe to other leading US universities such as Boston, Chatham, Lesley and Universities of China, Greece, UK etc. She has been invited from time to time to various renowned universities in India and abroad to deliver talks on topics ranging from leadership and women empowerment to higher education. Over the years, she has been instrumental in organising eight international conferences at KMV, which have witnessed the presence of intelligentsia from around 15 nations each year. These conferences have been appreciated for the exemplary contribution to the field of higher education and research, informed the faculty members at the KMV. rchopra@tribunemail.com Ehsan Fazili Tribune News Service Srinagar, October 10 Nearly 80 per cent of over 1.26 lakh voters exercised their franchise in Jammu while there was a low voter turnout yet again in Kashmir with 3.4 per cent of 2.20 lakh electorate casting their votes Wednesday in the second phase of municipal polls in the state, officials said. The second phase witnessed overall voter turnout of 31.3 per cent out of total electorate of 3.47 lakh in the state, they said. The low voter turnout in Kashmir was in line with a meagre 8.3 per cent turnout in the valley during the first phase of polling, when the Jammu and Ladakh divisions had witnessed over 65 per cent of voting, they said. Nineteen wards of Srinagar Municipal Corporation, having an electorate of 1.78 lakh, witnessed a turnout of just 2.3 per cent, officials said. Bandipora district, however, witnessed brisk polling as 34.2 per cent of the 8,300 voters exercised their franchise, the officials said. The elections were held amid tight security in the backdrop of a separatist boycott call. The polling started at 6 am. Some 1,029 candidates were in the fray for 263 municipal wards49 in Kashmir and 214 in JammuChief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shaleen Kabra said in Srinagar on Wednesday morning. He said 881 candidates are in the fray in Jammu division and 148 in Kashmir division. The total electorate is 3,46,980 with 1,28,104 in Jammu division belonging to 18 municipal bodies and 2,18,876 in Kashmir division of five municipal bodies, the CEO said. The municipal polls are being held in four phases. A total of 3,372 nominations have been filed for 1,145 wards. Polling for third phase is scheduled for October 13, followed by the fourth and last phase on October 16. Polling at the end of the day in 49 wards across Kashmir Srinagar 2.3 % Anantnag 1.1 % Bandipora 34.2% Handwara 5.1% Sopore 6.1% With agency inputs editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Jammu/Srinagar, October 10 The overall turnout in the state, which was 56.7 per cent in the first phase of urban local bodies elections, dipped to 31.3 per cent in the second phase of polling on Wednesday, with several municipal wards in Kashmir recording very low voter participation. The state replicated its voting trend in the second phase as voters in Kashmir stayed away from polling booths while the Jammu region registered an overwhelming turnout. According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), J&K, Shaleen Kabra, the average turnout in the Kashmir valley, which was 8.2 per cent in the first phase of polling on October 8, was just 3.4 per cent on Wednesday. However, north Kashmirs Bandipora district followed the trend of Kupwara that had recorded over 32 per cent voting in the first phase. Bandiporas Sumbal municipal committee, while defying the boycott call and terror threats, recorded the highest 35.6 per cent voting in Kashmir. The 20 wards of the Srinagar municipal corporation recorded 2.33 per cent voting while the Anantnag municipal council in south Kashmir witnessed the lowest voting of 1.14 per cent. As many as 49 municipal wards spread over seven districts in Kashmir, including Kupwara, Bandipora, Baramulla, Srinagar, Budgam, Kulgam and Anantnag, went to the polls in the second phase. A total of 263 municipal wards in six districts of the Jammu region Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar went to the polls in the second phase. Voters in six poll-bound districts of the Jammu region again disregarded the poll boycott call by the NC, PDP, separatists and militants, as more than 78 per cent of them turned up at polling booths. The CEO said the Jammu division recorded an overall 78.6 per cent polling in 214 wards with the highest being in Reasi at 84.4 per cent. The cumulative turnout till date is 47.2 per cent with 67.7 per cent recorded in the Jammu division and 8.3 per cent in the Kashmir division in phase I and phase II, the CEO said. Interestingly, three Muslim-dominated mountainous districts in the Chenab region Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban witnessed an overwhelming response of voters where serpentine queues of people marked the polling stations since morning. Ramban, the gateway to the trouble-torn south Kashmir, witnessed a scene of carnival at most of the places where voters, particularly youth, came out to vote in large numbers. The district recorded around 80 per cent voting. Similarly, two other districts Kathua and Udhampur recorded 79 per cent turnout. On Wednesday, the voting took place at 544 polling stations across the state. A total of 270 polling stations were set up in Kashmir while the number of polling booths in Jammu was 274. The fate of 1,029 candidates (881 in Jammu and 148 in Kashmir) was sealed in the EVMs, which were being used for civic polls for the first time. The number of total voters was 3,46,980, with 1,28,104 in Jammu and 2,18,876 in Kashmir. ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 10 Citing video evidence, the BJP has accused the Congress of instigating violence against migrants in Gujarat. Political analysts are divided on its fallout whether it is a reflection on the credibility of the Vijay Rupani-led state government or will help saffron prospects by polarising rural Gujarat which has not been favouring it in recent elections. Prof Balveer Arora says: The government needs to control the situation as fast as it can. Gujarat is known for ease of doing business and these incidents are tarnishing its image. But the state is not going to the polls in the immediate future and its not expected to affect the Lok Sabha elections much. There is a long way to go. The effect is not expected to last that long and people will start going back (to Gujarat) as the situation improves. However, some believe the Congress is in the dock. The situation may help the BJP if migrants decide not to vote for the Congress. The BJP, which is facing underlying anger from the trade, industry and small businesses may not gain in an overt way but indirectly, says an observer. As far as the polarising side-effect of the development is concerned, campaign strategist Naresh Arora says the incidents may polarise rural Gujarat a situation known to work in favour of the BJP. Rural Gujarat has its specific issues related to irrigation, power etc that have remained unresolved since years now. In the 2012 elections, 60 per cent of rural voters in the 182-member Assembly went against the BJP. The figure increased to 80 per cent in the 2017 Assembly polls, where the BJP just about managed to save the day. There are about 100 seats in rural Gujarat that work on different criteria than urban seats like Surat, Vadodra, Ahmedabad and Rajkot. For long there has been no centric point with which the BJP could polarise rural Gujarat, now it has. I think it will help the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Arora says. The BJP has accused the Congress of instigating violence against migrants in Gujarat and demanded that its president Rahul Gandhi should expel his party leader Alpesh Thakor for venomous speeches to incite locals in attacking outsiders. BJP spokesman Sambit Patra claimed that of those arrested by the Gujarat Police for allegedly targeting migrants, several were Congress workers. pardeepdhull@gmail.com Bhubaneswar, October 10 With Cyclone Titli over the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday intensifying into a very severe cyclonic storm and moving towards the coast, the Odisha government began evacuation of people in five coastal districts. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who took stock of the situation, asked the collectors of Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Kendrapara and Jagtsinghpur districts to go for an immediate evacuation of people in the low-laying areas in the coastal belt. Chief Secretary A P Padhi said the district administration of Ganjam has already started evacuating people in Gopalpur area, where very severe cyclone Titli is likely to make a landfall at about 5.30 am Thursday. So far, about 1,000 people have been shifted to safer place, he said. Padhi said immediate evacuation was being launched in view of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast of a tidal surge of about 1 m during landfall of cyclone Titli. The chief secretary said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) personnel have already been positioned in vulnerable districts. We have not yet sought help of the Army. If required we may go for it, Padhi said replying a question. The chief minister has also asked the authorities to ensure zero casualty and keep the cyclone shelters ready for housing the people during disaster. Patnaik has also ordered closure of all schools, colleges and anganwadi centres on Thursday and Friday in view of the IMDs forecast of heavy to very heavy rainfall across the state. The college student union elections, earlier scheduled to be held on Thursday, have also been cancelled. The IMD said Cyclone Titli moved at a speed of about 15 kmph during last six hours over west-central Bay of Bengal and lay centred at about 280 km south-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha. The storm is likely to move north-northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coast between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam around Thursday morning, it said. Thereafter, it is likely to recurve northeastward, move towards Gangetic West Bengal across Odisha and weaken gradually, said Director of the Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar, H R Biswas. While several areas in coastal Odisha were lashed by rain on Wednesday, the IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall at several places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated areas till Thursday under the impact of the very severe cyclonic storm. Districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Thursday, the IMD said. It also forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall for Kandhamal, Boudh and Dhenkanal district from Thursday. The IMD said rainfall would be accompanied by gale wind speed reaching 140 to 150 kmph and gusting to 165 kmph along and off Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh coasts. The sea condition is very high over west-central Bay of Bengal. It is very likely to be phenomenal over the west-central and the adjoining north Bay of Bengal and along and off the south Odisha coast till Thursday, it said. Storm surge of height of about 1 metre above astronomical tide is very likely to inundate the low-lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts, it said. The IMD advised total suspension of fishing operations and shifting of coastal hutment dwellers to safe places. Fishermen along the Odisha coast, and central and north Bay of Bengal were advised not to venture into sea till Friday. In view of adverse weather conditions, it has advised hoisting of local warning signal LW-4 at all ports of Odisha. Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) B P Sethi said the Odisha government was prepared to face the possible floods in view of the heavy rainfall across the state. Sethi said the state government has already informed the Air Force and Indian Navy about the situation and may take their help if required. Around 300 motor boats have been arranged to assist in rescue operation as there is a likelihood of flood situation due to possibility of heavy rains till October 11. All the 836 cyclone and flood shelters have also been kept in a state of preparedness, while adequate relief materials arranged, he said. PTI Thanks to the upswing in the world economy in 2017, port activity and cargo handling of containerized and bulk cargo expanded rapidly, according to the latest report on maritime transport by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). As the backbone of international trade, the volume of global seaborne trade totaled 10.7 billion tons in 2017 - an increase of 4 percent over the previous year, which forms the fastest growth in five years, according to the report. World container port throughput reached 752.2 million TEUs in 2017, registering an increase of 6 percent during the year, up from 2.1 percent in 2016. Asia plays an important role in international trade and shipping. Among the global top 10 ports by cargo throughput, only two are outside Asia, while seven are in China. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 63 percent of world container port volume with Europe contributing 16 percent and North America 8 percent. The following are the global top 10 ports by cargo throughput: 10. Rotterdam Country: Netherlands Cargo throughput: 467 million tons Percentage change (2017-2016): 1.3 ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Vijay Mohan Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 Following Indias decision to procure decommissioned Jaguar fighter aircraft and spares from other countries to help keep its existing fleet of these deep-penetration strike aircraft afloat, the first such consignment is expected to arrive here shortly. France is giving India 31 airframes, while the UK and Oman are giving two airframes each. A few engines and several hundred types of critically needed spares are part of the package. Most of the airframes would be used for cannibalisation so that optimum squadron serviceability can be maintained. Two Jaguar T-2 aircraft and 381 types of spares will be transferred to India from the UK shortly, for which modalities are being worked out, an IAF officer said. The aircraft will be ferried to India in a partially dismantled state and these would then be reassembled at the Gorakpur Air Force Station by the IAF under the supervision of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), he added. The T-2 is a two-seat trainer version produced for the Royal Air Force that is capable of undertaking a secondary role of strike and ground attack. The versions operated by the IAF are the IS (single-seat strike), IB (trainer) and IM (maritime). In 1979, 40 aircraft were imported from the UK followed by licence manufacture of 150 aircraft by HAL. India is the sole remaining Jaguar operator, with other users France, UK, Oman, Nigeria and Ecuador having retired them. At present, the IAF has 118 Jaguars in service, but according to reports their serviceability is a cause for concern due to obsolescence, non-availability of spares and the HALs assembly line being shut down. With its fighter squadrons depleting and long delays dodging fresh acquisitions, the IAF is looking at acquiring retired aircraft to harvest spares and other systems to help maintain its existing strength. The IAF recently upgraded part of its Jaguar fleet with new navigation and attack avionics, but the proposal to re-equip them with more powerful engines has been hanging fire. The IAF expects to continue to operate the Jaguar for at least 10 more years. Sole operator of jet gspannu7@gmail.com Yash Goyal Bikaner, October 10 Continuing his tirade against the prime minister, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said Narendra Modi has developed an ego and false belief that he is running the country but it is the janta (public) which puts its dedication and commitment for progress of the nation. This nation is not run by the BJP, Modiji, Rahul Gandhi, or the Congress, it is a farmers, youths, mothers and sisters who put in their energy, work, dedication, blood and sweat to achieve their targets of life, he said while addressing a sankalp rally to uproot the BJP government in Rajasthan. Modiji is living in an illusion and speaking untruth as if nothing is done in last 70 years and janta had no contribution in the nation building, recalling the PMs Independence Day speech from Red Fort in which Modi said before he came to the power elephant was sleeping. Reminding the Narendra Modi government of its promise of providing two crore jobs in 2014, the Congress president said, Modiji, youth of this country is not begging for a penny. Youth is not expecting a gift from you. Youth want to compete with China in Indian market by his own business and setting up his factory. Youth are handcuffed in the Modi rule, if Congress is voted to power at Centre, we will cut this handcuffs. In his two days of road show and public meetings ahead of December 7 polls since yesterday in Rajasthans Bharatpur and Dholpur districts, Gandhi made a series of scathing attacks on the PM on issues of demonetisation, GST, corruption in Rafale, unemployment and farmers plight, and cash benefit of Rs 3.6 lakh crore to 15 industrialists, including Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi with Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, and Mehul Choksi. Youth of Rajasthan, MP, UP and other states are being beaten up and forced out of Gujarat. You guys trusted Modi to give jobs but he broke your trust. I assure you, if we voted to power in the state, our CM will have to spend 18 hours for farmers, youth, women and needy people. CMs door would be opened for everyone, party workers would be heard. I do not promise you a number of jobs and amount of loans waived, but our CM will not leave stone unturned to meet your all demands. We will hear your man ki baat, not like PMs Man Ki Baat. Party workers and leaders working at grass root level will be given importance while entrusting with poll ticket, no parachute candidate would be given ticket. I will cut his parachute threads if he or she wants...let him work for five years, he assured. Gandhi reiterated his Rafale crusade against the NDA government saying Modi is chowkidar of Anil Ambani by snatching public money through note ban and GST. amansharma@tribunemail.com New Delhi, October 10 Bodies of a man, his wife and daughter bearing stab injuries were found at their residence in Kishangarh area of southwest Delhi's Vasant Kunj on Wednesday morning, following which the couple's son was arrested, police said. The victims were attacked with a kitchen knife. The couple's son Suraj was injured on his finger, they said. After being informed about the incident, police reached the three-room house at 5.20 am and identified the victims as Mithlesh Verma (45), his wife Siya Verma (40) and their daughter Neha (16). The bodies of Neha and Siya were found in one room while Mithlesh Verma's body was found in another room of the house. The weapon used for commission of the crime has been recovered and Suraj arrested, police said. Mithlesh Verma, a contractor, was living with his family in the house for the last 18 years. Suraj is pursuing civil engineering from a private college in Gurgaon, while Neha was in class 9 student of a private school in Vasant Kunj, Mithlesh Verma's elder brother Chandra Bhan said. Locals said Mithlesh had seen abject poverty before establishing himself professionally. "I got a call from my family members in Kannauj at 5.30 am. Mithlesh's neighbours had informed them. I rushed to check on them and found the bodies lying in a pool of blood with multiple stab injuries," Bhan said, adding it was a "cold-blooded murder". According to a senior police officer, the entire house was ransacked, but no valuables were found missing. Suraj, who was in the house at the time of the incident, told police that two men barged in the house to commit robbery and stabbed his family. He claimed to have lost consciousness out of fear, police said. Mithlesh Verma's nephew Shiv Pratap, also a civil engineering student, said he saw his aunt lying in a pool of blood on the floor while his cousin Neha was lying on the bed with multiple stab injuries. Pratap said three days back, he had a casual chat with his cousin Suraj on Facebook and everything seemed normal. Verma's neighbour Ishwar Lal said, early morning, his wife heard Suraj screaming for help. When they rushed to check on them, they got to know about the incident. They found Suraj sitting near the gate of his house, weeping. Lal claimed that Suraj initially sought help from one of their neighbours, Pintu, who was returning from hospital. Suraj's uncle Chandra Bhan said in 2013, Suraj was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified people when he had gone to a nearby market to buy books. - PTI amansharma@tribunemail.com Ravi S.Singh Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 10 Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday slammed Congress president Rahul Gandhi for reacting on a factually incorrect media report which had quoted the former saying that the "Narendra Modi-led BJP strode to power after the 2014-General Election on the basis of never-to-be fulfilled electoral promises to the people". "I suggest to Rahul Gandhi to get education of Marathi language hire someone to learn the language," Gadkari said. A media report had mentioned that during an interaction at a Marathi channel 'Reality Show' Gadkari had said the BJP came to power by making fanciful slogans and promises. The report set tongues wagging in political circles, and provided a handle to opposition parties to take jibes at PM Modi. Immediately after the report the Congress and Gandhi took to Twitter congratulating Gadkari. Gandhi's refrain has been that Modi gave false assurances during election campaign as mascot of BJP and its Prime Ministerial candidate. At a press conference regarding issues of Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Ministry, Gadkari said during an interaction in Marathi at 'Reality Show', he had referred to his party's electoral promise of doing away with road toll tax in Maharashtra. He added that during the interaction he had referred to discussions among some party leaders of the state on pros and cons of making electoral promise regarding the toll. He was part of the discussion. "I had not mentioned about Prime Minister Narendra Modithere was no mention of BJP or Union government or promise of giving Rs 15 lakh to each person," Gadkari said, adding that a Delhi-based media house weaved a story on the basis of the interaction at the media event. It was all along factually incorrect. "Rahul Gandhi reacted immediatelywhat do I say of himhe can also check the video recordings of the proceedings of the Reality Show," Gadkari added. He said the BJP government in Maharashtra has already implemented the promise to do away with the toll tax. amansharma@tribunemail.com New Delhi, October 10 The first delivery of the S400 air defence systems are expected by 2020. And regardless of US sanctions heat, India and Russia will announce new sizeable defence deals by start of next year, says envoy Nikolay Kudashev. In an exclusive interaction with The Tribune, the Russian Ambassador underlined that his country's ties with India do not need American lecture and neither is US the veto-wielder in Afghanistan. Kudashev also suggested that it would be logical for Russia-India to discuss some logistics agreement similar to LEMOA. Smita Sharma spoke to Kudashev. What are the key takeaways from Putin-Modi summit talks? This was a very important and successful visit. It gave the two sides an opportunity to reaffirm the special, privileged, strategic ties and to explore new opportunities for cooperation in international arena as well as bilaterally. Some nine agreements and MoUs were done involving strategic areas of cooperation like space, nuclear energy, transportation. Two sides managed to develop positions on bilateral areas and explore new vistas. Why was S400 not announced by the leaders or mentioned in MoUs list? It was up to leaders. Personally I think while S400 deal is very important one, largely speaking this visit was not about S400 only but about enhanced connectivity be it politically, economically , transportation or humanitarian. Is there any clarity on timeline of transfer of payments or delivery related to S400 deal subject to which CAATSA sanctions could kick in if there is no waiver for India ? I am not familiar with details of the contract. The first delivery is expected by 2020. Naturally each contract would envisage some advance payment to start implementation. I could guess that this contract could take some 4-5 years at least. What happens if India does not get CAATSA waiver? How will US sanctions impact other India-Russia military deals in pipeline? I think a practical solution is available .CAATSA is American law. It has nothing to do with us or with India. As I understand India would recognise only sanctions adopted by UNSC (United Nations Security Council) not otherwise. India is independent, powerful, clever and far-sighted enough to undertake decisions favourable to its national interest. India's security concerns and bilateral partnership with Russia mean more than CAATSA. Russia and India are old friends and our relationship could stay without American lecture. Is a LEMOA kind of logistics agreement that India has signed with US being discussed with Russia? I am not in the know of such talks but I think it could be logical because there are multiple military exchanges between Russia and India including tri services drill. There is a new dimension emerging with India's participation in SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) anti-terrorism drills. Emergence of some agreement or memoranda to look after these exchanges and to secure advanced bases further could be logical. The joint statement has paragraph on terrorism but no terror groups or entities including on Pakistani soil are named. Is there a divergence of views with Russia on Pak? Our cooperation is extensive. The paragraph on terror says both sides condemned support to all kinds of state support to terror and providing safe havens .The para is universal and includes all regions where terrorism is present, Pakistan included. Terrorism is a larger phenomenon. I understand India's concerns with regards to cross border terror and joint statement testifies to it. There was a sense that during FATF (Financial Action Task Force) meetings that Russia was not in support of grey listing Pakistan and you have a military pact too. Should this worry India? This is not a military pact or alliance, this is rather a working agreement. I am 100 per cent sure that we have been together with the international community including India on issues of FATF monitoring so each and every state have a chance to become better. Pakistan also has a chance to follow recommendations of FATF. Does Russia feel that India-China should talk about BRI (Belt and Roads Initiative)? This is a Chinese project. Russia is not a party to BRI. Number of countries willing to be part of BRI is growing says something about the initiative. It is up to India to make it's own decisions. But issues of connectivity deserve a second look. Issues of sovereignty involved are very critical for India and we understand. Maybe the two sides could look at some creative solution without any detriment to India's sovereignty. Will there be a Joint Venture between Kamov and HAL? When will Make in India between India and Russia take off? Make In India is happening like Sukhoi, T-90 tanks are being assembled in India. MiG 29 aircraft are being modernised in India. As far as Kamovs, Frigates and other deals are concerned, talks are on. If S400 deal was done during visit, it does not mean a full stop. Talks continue and our expectation is that before the end of the year or at the very beginning of next year you could expect more new sizeable deals involving Make In India programs. President Putin specifically mentioned Make in India in his address to the business forum as well as in his press statements after talks. You will have the deals. We are ready to share technologies. Your views on Talks with Taliban? We believe that Taliban should be a factor in the national reconciliation process but it would depend on position of central government of Afghanistan when it feels it is ready to talk. There are allegations of Russia supplying arms to Taliban? These are false allegations. Give us any kind of evidence. It is the same as Skripal. Whoever violated international law, give us evidence . These are just empty talks. Afghan pulled out of the Moscow format proposed by Russia. Is there a fresh proposal for the talks? It was postponed upon request of Afghan government. They said let us look for another opportune time. It was not called off. It was just rescheduled for a time opportune to federal government in Kabul. The Moscow format is very much on and India has not said no to it. US says Russians are undermining their efforts towards stabilising Afghan. US does not have a veto on Afghan settlement. They are not a regional but an extra regional power there. We both have our positions. Their practical policy does not seem effective to us. The security situation is dangerous, not stable after 10 or more years of American presence. The strategy has no consistency. I would rather listen to countries in region like India, China , Central Asia and Kabul itself. What kind of joint programme will India and Russia undertake in Afghanistan? There is no clarity yet. They could be in construction, capacity building, education areas. But no specifics yet. editorial@tribune.com Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 9 Faced with a decline in fitness levels and rising cases of obesity and lifestyle diseases among its officers, the Army is going to bring in stricter levels for fitness for its officers. Those not clearing the new format of physical tests would face penalties in terms of future promotions, foreign assignments, career courses and annual increments, top sources told The Tribune. Each officer will get a maximum of three attempts in his/her in a six-month cycle to clear the mandatory battles physical efficiency tests. Waivers will be given to those posted in Field, high altitude, counterinsurgency and the United Nation postings. The testing parameters remain the same but the conduct of the test will be centralised under each of the six commands. The outcome of these tests will be connected to further progression in the Army. The Army Commander conference chaired by Army Chief General Bipin Rawat that commenced today will bring out the final contours of the programme, sources said. The Army Military Secretary Branch has planned to streamline the system of fitness tests which will now be conducted at centralised fitness testing centres. These testing centres will be controlled by the each of the six Commands and will be set up with existing manpower. Officers required to clear tests uttara@tribuneindia.com Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 10 Two "very severe cyclones" are brewing on the either side of the subcontinentTitli in the Bay of Bengal and Luban in the Arabian Sea. The Indian Meteorological Department says conditions are favorable for Titli to intensify further, move north-north-westwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coast between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam around the morning of October 11. Titli is thereafter expected to re-curve northeastwards, move towards Gangetic West Bengal across Odisha and weaken gradually. High-category red and orange alerts have been issued for Odisha, north coastal Andhra Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal, Mizoram andTripura for tomorrow. Alert has also been sounded for Assam and Meghalaya Meanwhile, the very severe cyclonic storm Luban" in the west central Arabian Sea is concernedthe second such event this monthis expected to move west-north-westwards towards Yemen and South Oman coasts over next four days. However, Kerala can expect heavy rains on October 14, the IMD said. Meteorologists call such weather events in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea normal and common" during this time of the year. Weather expert Mahesh Palawat explains: As the direction of the Sun starts shifting towards the Southern Hemisphere, sea surface temperatures rise in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, building up of low pressure areas in October and November. Normally, the systems thus formed in the Arabian Sea move towards the Oman Coast, where SSTs are slightly cooler, causing them to use their reserves". uttara@tribuneindia.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 10 Embattled real estate major Amrapali was o in for more trouble n Wednesday as the Supreme Court ordered sealing of seven of the group companies' premises in Noida and Greater Noida, and two premises in Rajgir and Buxar in Bihar. The order came from a Bench headed by Justice UU Lalit after the three directorstaken into police custody on Tuesdaytell top court that all relevant documents needed for forensic audit of 46 group companies are kept there. After the sealing, keys have to be handed over to the Supreme Court Registry to ebnsure that the documents were accessed only by the forensic auditors. The court also took an undertaking from the company' promoters/directors Anil Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar that all relevant documents were at the said premises and warned that if it was found to be wrong they would be taken to task. Amrapali directors wanted the court release them from police custody, claiming all account papers are at the said seven premises. The seven premises in question have now been ordered to be sealed by the court. The top court made it clear that they were to remain in police custody until all relevant documents were handed over to the forensic auditors. Having allegedly duped thousands of homebuyers, the Amrapali Group promoters/directors had landed in trouble with the top court on Tuesday sending three of them to police custody for playing "hide and seek" with it and avoid handing over relevant documents needed for forensic audit of 46 of the groups companies. A Bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice UU Lalit had ordered them to be taken into custody during the proceedings and directed that they be taken to their offices, residences and other places where they must hand over all relevant documents to forensic auditors. "You are playing hide and seek. You are trying to mislead the court," said the Bench noting the directors conduct was in "gross violation" of its order. It had directed DCP, New Delhi, SSP Noida and SSP Greater Noida to do the needful and posted the matter for further hearing on October 24. The Benchwhich was visibly angry over the the Amrapali directors conduct in not handing over all the documents to forensic auditors, directed its directors-- Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumarshall remain in police custody till they handed over all the documents. It directed the forensic auditors to provide year-wise and company-wise list to the police, The Bench also gave liberty to the Delhi Police to investigate criminal cases against the company. Nothing comes in the way of Delhi Police, Economic Offences Wing to make any criminal investigation in any case which is required to be made. Let the investigations be made, it said. Noting that EOW was free to file a chargesheet in the matter, the Bench asked Delhi Police to apprise it in three months about the steps taken. The top court had earlier ordered Amrapali group statutory and internal auditors to audit the accounts of all the companies of the Amrapali Group to find out how Rs 2,765 crore was diverted by its directors. It had directed the company to hand over all the relevant documents to the two auditors who told the Bench that no documents had been shared with them by Amrapali Group since 2015. The Bench which has already ordered freezing of accounts of Amrapali Group companies and their directors for playing dirty games with the court and defrauding homebuyers is seized of homebuyers petitions seeking possession of around 42,000 flats. The court had also sought details of all the bank accounts of 40 companies of the group and their directors. The top court had on Tuesday directed Delhi police to seize all the documents of the Amrapali group and hand them over to forensic auditors. Not a single document should remain in custody of the group, it said. The top court had earlier allowed the National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC) to float tenders for selecting the builder to complete the stalled projects of Amrapali Group and asked it to prepare a detailed project report for pending projects within 60 days. On September 12, the apex court had appointed NBCC to develop stalled projects of the realty firm and directed the Debts Recovery Tribunal to sell the unencumbered commercial properties of the group. The NBCC had earlier given a proposal for completion of 15 residential projects of Amrapali having 46,575 flats at an estimated cost of Rs 8,500 crore in six to 36 months. The court had directed the opening of an escrow account in the apex court in which the amount received after the sale of properties would be deposited and later disbursed to the NBCC to start construction of the pending projects in Group A and B Categories. rchopra@tribunemail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 10 The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to apprise it of the details of steps in the decision-making process in the Rafale deal. The apex court clarified that there was no need to give information on pricing and technical details. A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, however, refrained from issuing a formal notice after Attorney General KK Venugopal said its not public interest litigation. If a notice is issued, it will go to the PM, etc. This is political petition and not public interest litigation and is part of a bitter fight going on between the ruling and opposition parties. Please dont entertain such petitions, Venugopal said. The SC heard two PILs, one each by advocates ML Sharma and Vineet Dandha. The third petition by Tehseen Poonawala was withdrawn. The Supreme Court had on Monday had agreed to hear a fresh PIL against the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France on October 10. In his PIL, Sharma has alleged discrepancies in the deal and requested the top court to stay it. The PIL filed by Dhanda has sought a direction to the Centre to disclose details of the deal and comparative prices during the UPA and NDA governments in a sealed cover to the top court. It also sought information on the contract given to Reliance by French company Dassault. Sharma claimed in his plea that the inter-government agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an outcome of corruption and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253. editorial@tribune.com Hyderabad: The Telangana Police got a major shot in the arm after it prevailed upon the Maoist party central committee member Purushottam (68) and his wife Vinodini (63) to surrender. Both of them, carrying a reward of Rs 13 lakh ( Rs 8 lakh on Purushottam), surrendered before Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar Tuesday afternoon. Purushottam, known as Master Brain worked with the Maoist leaders like Ganapati, RK and Kishan for 25 years. He joined the Maoists in 1981 and a year later he got married in 1982 after which Vinodini too joined the ranks. TNS NBW against Rita Bahuguna Lucknow: A non-bailable warrant has been issued against UP Tourism, Women and Child Welfare Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi for repeatedly failing to turn up in a 2010 case of violation of Section 144 of the CrPC while being the UP Congress chief. The warrant was issued by a special court set up by the Allahabad High Court to exclusively try criminal cases pending against Members of Parliament and Legislative Assemblies. Special Judge Pawan Kumar has asked the minister to personally appear in the court on October 31. TNS 25k UP constables promoted Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh DGP OP Singh on Tuesday announced promotion of 25,091 constables as head constables. The move took the edge off the growing discontent among constables against the termination and arrest of their two colleagues Prashant Chadhury and Sandeep Kumar, accused in the September 29 murder of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari. Sharing the news through a tweet, the UP Police said: First time ever in the history of UP Police as many as 25,091 constables were promoted to the post of head constables today. We wish them best of their career ahead. Planning for observing another protest day on October 10 turned into celebration time for the constables as news of the promotions reached the Police Lines and police stations. TNS Flash Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will attend the 17th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Tajikistan city of Dushanbe, pay official visits to Tajikistan and the Netherlands, attend the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit in Brussels and pay a working visit to Belgium, from Oct. 11 to 19. Li's upcoming visit will be of great importance in underlining cooperation among SCO members, the Asia-Europe partnership and Chinese relations with Tajikistan, the Netherlands and Belgium, according to Foreign Ministry officials at a press briefing on Tuesday. During the SCO heads of government meeting, Li will explain Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and share the successful experience of China's reform and opening up, according to Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui. "Li will call for opposition to unilateralism and protectionism, building an open world economy and a community with a shared future for SCO," Zhang said. Zhang said that Li would exchange views with SCO leaders on areas including the Belt and Road, trade cooperation and industrial capacity. "A joint statement and documents concerning cooperation and development of the SCO are expected to be signed during the meeting," Zhang said. "This will be Li's first time to visit Tajikistan. The bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership will go deeper," he said. He said the Central Asian country is an important partner of China in law enforcement and joint construction of the Belt and Road. "Li will discuss with Tajikistan leaders on development of bilateral ties under the new situation, the Belt and Road construction, and important international and regional issues. The two sides will sign documents on trade, customs, and local cooperation," said Zhang. As for Li's visit to the Netherlands and Belgium, Vice Foreign Minister Wang Chao said it would "further enhance political trust and pragmatic cooperation, and inject new impetus to China-Netherlands, China-Belgium, and China-Europe ties." Saying China's relations with the Netherlands have maintained "strong momentum," Wang hailed the two countries' cooperation on the Belt and Road, and closer people-to-people exchanges. "Premier Li Keqiang will have an in-depth exchange of views with leaders of the Netherlands on bilateral ties, China-Europe relations, and international and regional issues of common concern," Wang said. "The two sides will sign cooperation documents on customs, aviation, energy and finance." Belgium, as a founding member of the European Union (EU), is also home to the EU headquarters. "Ever since China and Belgium established their all-round partnership of friendship and cooperation in 2014, mutual exchanges and cooperation have ushered in a new era with comprehensive and speedy development," Wang said. Calling China and the EU "important economies" and "significant strategic powers" in the world, Wang said they share common interests and similar positions on championing free trade, multilateralism, and global governance. "Stronger cooperation among China, the EU and its members will consolidate world stability and development, and contribute to the global economic recovery," Wang said. The 12th ASEM summit, to be held in Brussels and themed "Europe and Asia: global partners and global challenges," is expected to gather Asian and European leaders. "The ASEM serves as an important platform for Asia-Europe cooperation and a key bond to deepen their partnership," Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Jun told the reporters. "Asia and Europe will take the opportunity of the summit to make joint efforts in safeguarding multilateralism and international order based on international laws and rules, so as to contribute to world peace, development and stability," Zhang said. He said Li is scheduled to deeply communicate with Asian and European leaders, deliver a speech, and call on all sides to intensify partnership and combat common challenges. "Li will also propose China's initiatives on Asia-Europe cooperation and share views on international and regional hotspot issues," Zhang said. He said China would work with all parties to make the summit successful. He said China anticipates increased political trust and stronger partnership on the basis of mutual respect, equal dialogue and consensus, a stronger voice to protect multilateralism, and pragmatic cooperation through building of the Belt and Road. "China is willing to share opinions with relevant parties on the future directions of Asia-Europe cooperation, map out long-term plans, and take tangible actions, to elevate Asia-Europe cooperation to a new height," he said. pardeepdhull@gmail.com Ahmedabad, October 11 The Gujarat State Human Rights Commission (GSHRC) issued notices on Wednesday to the state Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police seeking reports on the attacks and exodus of Hindi-speaking migrant workers. The reports have to be submitted within 20 days, GSHRC chairperson Justice (retired) Abhilasha Kumari told reporters in Gandhinagar. The notices have been issued to Chief Secretary J N Singh and DGP Shivanand Jha, seeking reports from them on steps taken to ensure the safety of migrant labourers under attack in the state, she said. They have been asked to clarify what steps are being taken to maintain peace (following attacks on migrants) in the state and for the safety of people who are being attacked, she added. Since the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district, around 100 km from here, on September 28, and the arrest of a labourer hailing from Bihar for the crime, six districts, most of them in north Gujarat, have seen sporadic incidents of violence against Hindi-speaking people. Ravindra Sahu, a labourer hailing from Bihar and working in a local ceramic factory, was arrested the same day for the toddlers rape. The migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh fled in thousands after attacks. Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said on Tuesday that 533 people were so far arrested in this connection across the affected districts after 61 cases were filed. Congress president Rahul Gandhi had earlier brought up the exodus of the Hindi-speaking migrants, saying youths from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are being attacked and forced to leave. However, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Tuesday asked whether Gandhi will take action against his partys own members who incited violence against the migrants in Gujarat. The BJP has been blaming Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor and his outfit Gujarat Kshatriya-Thakor Sena for the outbreak of violence. After the alleged rape of the 14-month-old girl, who belonged to his community, Thakor had blamed in public a non-Gujarati for the crime. The exodus of Hindi-speaking migrants from Gujarat after attacks on them in several parts of the state showed no signs of abating on Tuesday. Police had intensified patrolling in areas near industrial estates and places where migrant workers stay in a bid to instil confidence among people. Shyam Singh Thakur, president of the Uttar Bhartiya Vikas Parishad, an outfit of north Indians in Gujarat, said on Tuesday that more than 60,000 Hindi-speaking migrant labourers have fled the state so far. He claimed that people who had decided earlier to leave the state continue to board buses and trains. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh/Jalandhar, Oct 10 Three students hailing from Jammu and Kashmir were arrested from the CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology here on Wednesday morning for suspected terror links. The raid at the institute was jointly carried out by Punjab Police and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The police claimed the students were members of a recently established module of militant outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) that may have links with the dreaded Jaish-e-Mohammed. Jalandhar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said one of the arrested students, Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt from Noorpura in Pulwama, was a cousin of AGH chief Zakir Musa, aka Zakir Rashid Bhat. The other two students were identified as Zahid Gulzar of Rajpora in Srinagar and Mohammed Idriss Shah of Pulwama. Zahid and Bhatt are CT institute students. Idriss, a student of St Soldier Management and Technical Institute, was visiting them when the three were picked up from a CT Institute hostel room. A search yielded weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle, three Italy-made pistols and explosives. The Police Commissioner said: We believe they were part of a terror cell that recently set up operations here. We are keeping a watch on all educational institutes. Zakir Musa, an engineer who took up arms Srinagar: A former engineering student in Chandigarh, Zakir Musa is one of the most wanted militants in Kashmir. A resident of Noorpora village of south Kashmirs Tral sub-district, he quit Hizbul Mujahideen last year and set up Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an Islamist group suspected to have links with Al Qaida. Musas outfit mainly comprised members from Pulwama and Shopian. So far, 11 militants affiliated with the outfit, including two Pakistani commanders, had been killed in gunfights, he said. Musa had come home from Chandigarh for vacation when he joined the Hizb unit in Tral headed by Adil Mir in 2013. His teenage cousin Burhan Wani was part of the unit. After Wanis death in 2016, Musa became Hizb chief. TNS ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Varinder Singh Tribune News Service Jalandhar, October 10 Its Balle, Balle Punjab in Brampton city of Ontario, Canada, where close to 36 candidates with Punjabi roots are in the fray for civic polls. The high-voltage municipal elections in Brampton and other Greater Toronto Area (GTA) cities Toronto, Scarborough, Mississauga, Markham, North York and Vaughan as well as other parts of Ontario are scheduled for October 22. Brampton has a huge immigrant population from India. All eyes are on Wards 9 and 10 where seven of the 10 contestants for the post of councillor originally hail from Punjab Mangaljit Dabb, Dharamveer Gohil, Mahendra Gupta, Rohit Sidhu, Harkirat Singh (for city council) and Rajbir Kaur, Harnek Rai, Gurpreet Dhillon and Vicky Dhillon (for regional council). The main contest seems between incumbent Gurpreet Dhillon and Vicky Dhillon, who was a city councillor for eight years till 2014. For the post of trustee, Peel District School Board, there appears a keen fight between Balbir Sohi and Satpal Singh Johal. Already, the signboard war and door-to-door campaign has reached its crescendo in the city known for a poor voter turnout, hovering between 35 and 36 per cent in the past. The candidates are busy either hosting or attending barbeque parties and weekend get-togethers. Former minister Bal Gosal is the sole Punjabi-origin candidate running for the mayorship of Brampton where incumbent Linda Jaffrey, a former Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP), is battling the Progressive Conservative Party (PCP) candidate. Jaffrey, a former Liberal Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, has a clear edge over her closest rival as she has garnered the support of a section of the PCP unhappy with its own candidate. The Desi touch The Punjabi-origin contestants are: Sanjiv Bansal, Harmanpreet Mankoo, Karanjit S Pandher, Paul Maan, Harpreet Singh, Nishi Sidhu, Tanveer Singh, Harveen Dhaliwal, Gurvinder Singh, Martin Singh, Mokshi Virk, Mangaljit Dabb, Dharamveer Ghil, Mahendra Gupta, Rohit Sidhu, Harkirat Singh (City Council) and Rajbir Kaur, Harnek Rai, Gurpeet Kaur, Nisha Luthra, Prabhjot Grewal, Ajay Tandon, Gurpreet Dhillon and Vicky Dhillon (For Regional Council), Rajwinder Ghuman, Harjot S Gill, Prabhjot Kainth, Harbandana Kaur, Jashan Singh, Satpaul Singh Johal, Sia Lakhanpal, Khushpal Pawar and Balbir Sohi (for Peel District School Board). rchopra@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Ludhiana, October 10 Four workers died as a fire broke out at a hosiery factory here on Wednesday morning. The workers died of asphyxiation as they could not find the exit door. Even the main shutter of the factory was locked by the owner from outside. The fire broke out at 4.25 am. The small factory is located in a three-storey building in Kalyan Nagar. The deceased were contractor Dhananjay Pandey, press man Parkash and two labourers. CP Sukhchain Singh Gill, who visited the spot, said there was a gross negligence by the factory owner as exit points were locked following which the workers could not escape. The factory owner has been rounded up by the police. rchopra@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought the continued support and assistance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in fighting the drug problem. He described the problem as a strategic conspiracy unleashed from across the international border. Rivulets in Punjab were being used to smuggle drugs as part of a strategic agenda that went beyond commercial reasons, said the Chief Minister, while delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of a three-day Regional Workshop on Combating Illicit Trafficking of Afghan Opiates: Developing a Comprehensive Approach, organised here by UNODC and steered by UNODC ROSA Sergey Kapinos. Expressing the confidence that his government would succeed in destroying the drugs business, Amarinder called for team work to battle the menace, saying UNODC could play a pivotal role in this. He said UNODC could help the state by identifying the big sharks that had a stake in the drug business. While the STF and other agencies had been successful in catching mid-level peddlers, the big suppliers needed to be apprehended too, he said, adding that we owe this to our future generations. The CM referred to the initiative taken by him to write to the chief ministers of the neighbouring states, which had led to the Haryana CM convening a meeting that had decided to set up a joint control room in Panchkula. Such collective efforts would help destroy the drug racket, he asserted. Terming the drug problem as a critical issue that had been going for long in Punjab, the CM said the state had seen a shift from traditional use of marijuana (and to some extent opium) to synthetic stuff, which was posing a major threat. The seizure of a consignment that had come from Mandavi in Gujarat into Punjab clearly suggested that the aim of the drug smugglers was to starve the Indian Army of precious manpower, thus weakening the countrys defence apparatus, said the CM. Referring to Facebook posts of young girls sniffing drugs, he expressed concern at the dangerous trend saying his government was going all out to deal with the problem. The STF set up to tackle the menace had shown remarkable results, he said, adding that since April 1, 2017, 18,216 cases had been registered under the NDPS Act, 21,489 people arrested, and 461 kg of heroin seized. In short, strong efforts had been made to break the supply chain of drugs. Additionally, 14 kg of smack, 134 kg of charas, 1,040 kg of opium, 63,421 kg of poppy husk, 676 kg of bhang, 9 kg of Ice, 3,369 kg of ganja, 225 kg of intoxicant powder, 89,50,421 pills/capsules and 76,114 injections had been recovered, he added. Large sums of money were involved in the business, as was evident from these seizures, said Amarinder, pointing out that even a BSF constable was caught for complicity. Earlier, Kapinos said while UNODC had been working in several countries around India for crime prevention and in combating illicit drug trafficking and organised crime, this was the first such workshop in the region. Citing figures from Afghanistan Opium Survey 2017, he said the area under opium poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan had reached a record high in 2017. The area under cultivation went up to 3,28,000 hectares from an estimated 2,01,000 hectares in 2016. Each year, thousands of tonnes of opium is produced in Afghanistan and then converted into heroin to reach end-consumer markets around the globe, as per the report. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 10 Harpreet Singh Sonu (40), brother-in-law (sisters husband) of Congress MP from Amritsar Gurjit Aujla, allegedly shot himself in the head with his licensed weapon at Bua Nangli village in Rajasansi on Wednesday. The police found a suicide note, which mentioned the names of 17 persons, including several farmers. Harpreet was reportedly depressed as the accused were not returning the money they had borrowed from him. One of the accused is in illegal occupation of his flat at Punjabi Bagh locality. Parampal Singh, SSP, Amritsar rural, said on the statement of deceaseds wife Amandeep Kaur, a case of abetement to suicide had been registered against all those named in the suicide note. They would be arrested soon, he said. Harpreet was residing at his farmhouse located on the outskirts of Bua Nangali village. The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination. In his suicide note, Harpreet alleged that Mandeepak Singh of Dalam village had cheated him of Rs 90 lakh, while Varun Sachdeva of Punjabi Bagh had grabbed his flat. editorial@tribune.com Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 In sharp contrast to the low-profile visit of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, the countrys Leader of Opposition, Andrew Scheer, was accorded a red carpet welcome by both the Union as well as the Punjab government. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Andrew Scheer upon his arrival on Tuesday, Capt Amarinder Singh not only facilitated his arrival in Chandigarh, after a visit to the Golden Temple, but also had an interaction with him. Later, senior Congress leader Kewal Singh Dhillon also organised a business meet with industrialists to discuss Canada-Punjab trade relations. In February, the visit by Trudeau was mired in controversy, with both the Centre and Punjab CM initially refusing to meet him. The reason accorded for this was Trudeaus proximity and support to radical Sikh leaders in Canada. Talking to The Tribune, Scheer said he had assured the PM and the Punjab CM that the Conservative Party condemned any group or individual who chose violence to achieve a political agenda. We do not engage with any individual or group that threatens the unity of another country, he said. Scheer said he had also held talks with PM Modi on his partys plans to build a pipeline to the West coast of Canada, which would help it to supply oil and gas to India. Felicitated by SGPC in Amritsar Amritsar: Andrew Scheer alongwith his wife Jill Scheer paid obeisance at the Golden Temple on Wednesday. The SGPC presented them with a siropa, shawl and a model of the Sikh shrine. The couple also visited Pingalwaras Manawala branch. tns editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Pathankot, October 10 All 38 members of the Pathankot Income Tax Bar Association have been summoned by the court of the Judicial Magistrate (1st class), Amritsar, for October 12 following a defamation case filed by a retired Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, Tarsem Lal. The development has let to resentment among the fraternity, as it is for the first time that the entire bar has been labelled as accused and issued summons. Pathankot Mayor Anil Vasudeva, a chartered accountant and a member of the bar, too has been summoned. The court order read: Keeping in view the statements of the witnesses as well as documents produced by the complainant, there are sufficient grounds to summon all the accused under Section 499/500 IPC. On July 21, 2012, Tarsem Lal, then posted as ITO, Pathankot, had filed a private criminal complaint directly in the court, claiming that the bar members had levelled false allegations against him that had tarnished his image. He had mentioned the contents of an inquiry conducted by Anupam Kant Garg, Joint Commissioner. He had claimed that the members could not produce any evidence against him to the inquiry officer. Fearing arrest, all 38 members applied for bail, which has been granted. Mayor Vasudeva claimed that the members might challenge the Amritsar court decision in the HC. As members of the bar we have the right to point out the lacunae in the working of I-T officers. But it is up to the department to decide whether to transfer the officer concerned or not. It is not our fault if Tarsem Lal was transferred out of Pathankot, said the Mayor. Flash China and Angola should upgrade their mutually beneficial cooperation and bring benefits to both peoples, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Tuesday in Beijing. Li made the remarks while meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco, who is in China for a state visit. "With a profound traditional friendship, China and Angola are each other's important partner, and their bilateral relations have long been at the forefront of China's relations with African countries," Li said. "China hopes to work with the Angolan side to continue to consolidate political mutual trust, promote cooperation in various fields and better achieve win-win results and common development." Li noted that the pragmatic cooperation between China and Angola had broad prospects. "The two sides should synergize their development strategies, fully implement the results of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, bring forth innovative cooperation models, accelerate the negotiation on signing the investment protection agreement, promote collaboration in industries, trade, infrastructure and other key areas, further give play to the role of private enterprises, upgrade the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides and bring benefits to both peoples," Li said. "China encourages Chinese enterprises to invest in Angola and abide by Angola's laws and regulations. We hope that Angola provide convenience in business operations and take more measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens." Lourenco said Angola was willing to enhance cooperation with China in hydroelectric stations, power grids, highways, railways and other fields, and provide a favorable environment for Chinese companies to invest and develop in Angola. editorial@tribune.com Aparna Banerji Tribune News Service Jalandhar, October 9 A Jalandhar-based disability activist has accused Air India of asking for charges for carrying a wheelchair on board a flight from Mumbai to Delhi. Vivek Joshi (38), who was presented the Presidents Award in 2016, was asked by the staff at the airport to pay Rs 1,180 for the wheelchair, which would take him inside the airport, and an additional Rs 400-500 as mandatory packaging charges for taking his wheelchair on board. The facility is free at all airports, he added. Vivek, who was accompanied by his father Subhash Joshi (71), refused to pay the charges. The duo was allegedly heckled at the airport for nearly two hours before they boarded the flight. Vivek, who has cerebral palsy, runs an NGO, Madhav Sewa Society, for the disabled here. Subhash and Vivek had gone to Mumbai to receive the latters Champion Award. He said, At the airport, an attendant sought charges for carrying Viveks wheelchair. He didnt relent to my protests that at all airports this is free. I refused to pay the charges and carried Viveks wheelchair. Subhash alleged that their requests to clear Viveks formalities separately at the airport queue were also denied since there was no provision for separate queue for disabled. After I took up the matter with a senior official, he relented, but then they began seeking Rs 400-500 charges to get Viveks wheelchair and walker packed for the flight. I refused to pay this either and said I would claim damages if charges were sought. Upon this they took me along with the wheelchair and walker to the heavyweight section about 1 km away and then asked me to return abruptly. All this while, Vivek waited alone near other wheelchairs at the airport as an attendant left him alone and I could trace him back only after searching for 15 to 20 minutes, he said. Vivek said, We demand action against the Air India officials so that the same may not be repeated to any other disabled person. We have filed a complaint in the feedback column on the Air India website. So far neither the Aviation Ministry nor Air India has issued a formal apology. Pawan Sharma, PS to CMD Air India, said, We are not aware of the complaint so far. But the matter shall be looked into. editorial@tribune.com Jupinderjit Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Wednesday termed drug abuse problem in the state serious, but appreciated the governments measures in combating the menace. It has offered its expertise in reducing the demand of drugs in the state. On the sidelines of a three-day workshop on Combating Illicit Trafficking of Afghan Opiates, Sergey Kapinos, Representative of the UNODC, told The Tribune that the UNODC was looking forward to working with the state government on reducing demand of drugs and ramifications of its abuse. Earlier, inaugurating the workshop, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh sought the help of the UNODC and member states, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Maldives, in catching the big fish involved in the illicit trade. The CM said, The recent seizure of drugs meant for Punjab from Gujarat and Uri in Kashmir points out that smugglers, helped by cross-border organisations, targeted north Indian youths, who contribute two-third manpower to the Indian defence forces. Kapinos said the UN body was concerned about the nexus between smugglers and some terror organisations, who used drug money to fund their activities. He said European countries were alarmed at the smuggling and misuse of Tramadol tablets. Last year, a consignment of 35 lakh Tramadol tablets manufactured in Amritsar was nabbed by the Italy Police when it was allegedly being smuggled to ISIS militants in Syria. Waheed Akrami of the UNODC told the delegates about the threats due to the unprecedented cultivation of opium and production of opiates in Afghanistan in 2017. He said there had been a phenomenal 63 per cent increase in its cultivation. ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, October 10 Four workers were asphyxiated after a fire broke out in a locked hosiery unit in Kalyan Nagar area of Daresi in the wee hours today. The workers could not escape as the gates were locked by the owner, apparently to prevent theft. The practice of locking up workers in unsafe units is nothing new in Ludhiana. Workers are often forced to work night shifts in locked units to prevent them from taking away goods. Around 70 per cent of these units lack fire safety arrangements. The deceased have been identified as contractor Dhananjay Pandey (28) from Uttar Pradesh, pressman Satya Parkash (28) from Bihar and migrant labourers Rabhan (19) and Mohd Azad (20). The factory, Kalra Knitwears, was built under the mixed land use scheme over a 50 square yard area in a narrow bylane housing several units. Police Commissioner Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill, after visiting the scene, ordered an FIR under Section 304 (culpable homicide) of the IPC against factory owner Sumit Kalra, a resident of Haibowal, who has been arrested. The incident occurred around 3.25 am when the workers, working on the second floor, noticed smoke from the ground floor. The fire soon engulfed the ground floor, forcing them to flee to the third floor. They were, however, trapped as the rooftop gate was locked, a worker claimed. They then rang up the owner, who arrived at the scene and opened the main gate. However, fire hampered their rescue. It took the fire brigade over an hour to douse the blaze. We heard cries for help and broke open the shutter of the first floor balcony to gain entry. On reaching the third floor, we found the bodies of four workers, said sub-fire officer Maninder Singh. He said fire safety arrangements were lacking and the owner had not obtained the no-objection certificate from the fire department. On April 26, 2017, three members of a family were asphyxiated after a fire broke out at a cotton spinning mill, Parasnath Wools, in Industrial Area. rchopra@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 10 Harpreet Singh Sonu, a resident of Bua Nangli village in Rajasansi, committed suicide by shooting himself with his licensed weapon here on Wednesday. He is the brother-in-law (sisters husband) of Amritsar Congress MP Gurjit Aujla. The deceased has left a suicide note blaming over a dozen people, including farmers, for his taking the extreme step. SSP Amritsar (rural) Parampal Singh said the investigations were under way and appropriate action would be taken on the basis of the suicide note and the statements of the family. In his suicide note, Sonu alleged that Mandeepak Singh of Dalam village had bungled Rs 90 lakh while Varun Sachdeva of Punjabi Bagh had grabbed his flat. He also named 12 farmers for not returning his money. He said the names and amounts borrowed by these farmers were written in the ledger book. gspannu7@gmail.com Ravi S Singh Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 10 Union Social Justice Minister and BJP leader from Punjab Vijay Sampla on Wednesday charged the Punjab Government of not implementing the Centres post-matric scholarship scheme for Scheduled Caste students and questioned its commitment to weaker sections of the society. The Centre has sent the money under the scheme, but the Punjab Government is not distributing it to the intended beneficiaries, Sampla said. He questioned Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his silence on neglect of SCs by his own party government in the state. Sampla added that the state government is not providing the money to the colleges and universities as a result of which the eligible SC students were not able to enroll themselves for post-graduate studies. The Centre had released Rs 115 crore in April 2017 to the state. It started playing politics and created a wedge between students and private institutions. Also, Rs 327 crore was released in June this year but the state government has not send the mandatory utilisation certificate about its distribution. Prime Minister Narendra Modis clear direction is to release the remaining funds to the states under the scheme, but the Punjab Government is in clear violation of the rules, he said. Unless the state sends the utilisation certificate to the Centre regarding expenditure of the funds released to it, it will be legally constrained not to release the next tranche, Sampla said. The state government is committing a heinous crime against the SCs exposing Congress double standards. The party sheds crocodile tears with regard to their cause, but has only given false hopes to them all through many years of rule at the Centre. editorial@tribune.com Parvesh Sharma Tribune News Service Sangrur, October 10 Despite being egged on by farmer organisations to set stubble afire, several farmers in the district have not burnt wheat/paddy stubble for the past many years and are also spreading awareness against the menace. I have not burnt straw for the past 14 years. I have been saving money by ploughing stubble back into the soil. Till last year, 37 families had joined my campaign. This year, this number will cross 60, said Jagdeep Singh, a farmer from Kanoi village who has been sowing wheat/paddy on around 35 acres. Farmers of the village said initially, they borrowed happy seeders from rich farmers of their villages, but later purchased the machines and have been using their own since then. The story is the same in some other villages, including Longowal, Ugrahan and Taranji Khera. Though the supply of happy seeders and other machines is less than the demand, farmers are hopeful that the number will increase gradually. Earlier, there was only one happy seeder in our village, but this year the figure has reached five. Five more are being released in a few days. Farmers must give up straw-burning on their own and not expect anything from the government, said Ugrahan village resident Dharminder Singh, who has not burnt stubble for the past around nine years. As per figures of the district agriculture department, 2.83 lakh hectares are under paddy cultivation, while the number of happy seeders this year will reach 1,500, up from last years 700. Most of the farmers have understood the gravity of the situation and are responding positively to our camps. Last year, we succeeded in preventing field fires in 40 per cent of the area in the district. This year, we hope to increase the percentage, said Dr Baldev Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer, Sangrur. Dr Mandeep Singh, Associate Director of PAU Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kheri, said creating awareness was more important than providing equipment. There are around 100 farmers in the district who have not burnt stubble for the past several years, said Dr AS Mann, president, Scientific Awareness and Social Welfare Forum, who has been honouring farmers for shunning the eco-unfriendly practice. Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary (Development) Vishwajeet Khanna on Monday presided over a meeting of local officers and directed them to take strict action against stubble-burning. editorial@tribune.com Ravneet Singh Tribune News Service Patiala, October 10 The police have registered a case against seven, including one unidentified person, after a violent clash among students on the Punjabi University campus on Tuesday evening. Those booked have been identified as Harvinder Singh Sandhu, Lovepreet Singh, Jatinder Jittu, Jatin Verma, Vicky Rajputa and Tejpreet Singh Sohi. The police have registered a case under Sections 323 (Voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (Wrongful restraint), 506 (Criminal intimidation), 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (Unlawful assembly) of the IPC. Besides deployment of the police force on the campus to maintain law and order situation, the university has been closed till Monday (October 15). Of the eight students admitted to Government Rajindra Hospital, two received severe head injuries and one suffered a fracture on his hand during the clash. The situation at Punjabi University is tense after a group of students protesting outside Vice-Chancellors (VC) BS Ghumans office were attacked on Tuesday night. More than 10 students, including three girls associated with the Democratic Students Association (DSO), were injured in the incident. While police are still investigating the matter, the injured have blamed students of the Physical Education Department and those associated with various other parties. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sukh Amrit Randhawa said, Police force, including women personnel, have been deputed on the Punjabi University campus to maintain the law and order. This is to ensure that no violent incident occurs on the campus. Meanwhile, the university will remain closed till next Monday. SK Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretary (Higher education) said, I had a word with the VC. The university has involved the district administration in the matter. Officials of the university are competent to tackle the situation. Dean, Academics, Punjabi University, GS Batra, released a notice stating: The university teaching, non-teaching and other offices have been closed due to administrative reasons. Officials including VC BS Ghuman and Registrar MS Nijjar remained incommunicado the whole day. None of the officials reached the university campus on Wednesday. A number of outsiders, including activists of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta (BKU) Dakaunda, also reached the university to support and express solidarity with students injured in the clash. ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM The first delivery of the S-400 air defence systems is expected by 2020. And regardless of US sanctions heat, India and Russia will announce new sizeable defence deals by the start of next year, says envoy Nikolay Kudashev. Excerpts from an interaction with Smita Sharma: What are the key takeaways from Putin-Modi summit talks? This was an important and successful visit. It gave the two sides an opportunity to reaffirm the special, privileged, strategic ties and to explore new opportunities for cooperation in international arena as well as bilaterally. Some nine agreements and MoUs were done involving strategic areas of cooperation like space, nuclear energy, transportation. Two sides managed to develop positions on bilateral areas and explore new vistas. Why was S-400 not announced by the leaders or mentioned in MoUs list? It was up to leaders. Personally, I think while the S-400 deal is very important one. Largely speaking, this visit was not about S-400 only, but about enhanced connectivity be it politically, economically, transportation or humanitarian. Is there any clarity on the timeline of transfer of payments or delivery related to the S-400 deal subject to which CAATSA sanctions could kick in if there is no waiver for India? I am not familiar with details of the contract. The first delivery is expected by 2020. Naturally, each contract would envisage some advance payment to start implementation. I guess that this contract could take some 4-5 years at least. What happens if India does not get CAATSA waiver? How will US sanctions impact other India-Russia military deals in pipeline? I think a practical solution is available . CAATSA is American law. It has nothing to do with us or with India. As I understand, India would recognise only sanctions adopted by the United Nations Security Council, not otherwise. India is independent, powerful, clever and far-sighted enough to undertake decisions favourable to its national interest. Indias security concerns and bilateral partnership with Russia mean more than CAATSA. Russia and India are old friends and our relationship could stay without American lecture. The joint statement has a paragraph on terrorism, but no terror groups or entities, including on Pakistani soil, are named. Our cooperation is extensive. The paragraph on terror says both sides condemned support to all kinds of state support to terror and providing safe havens The para is universal and includes all regions where terrorism is present, Pakistan included. There was a sense that during Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meetings that Russia was not in support of grey-listing Pakistan and you have a military pact too. Should this worry India? This is not a military pact or alliance, this is rather a working agreement .I am 100 per cent sure that we have been together with the international community, including India, on issues of FATF monitoring, so each and every state have a chance to become better. Pakistan also has a chance to follow recommendations of FATF. Does Russia feel that India-China should talk of Belt and Roads Initiative? This is a Chinese project. Russia is not a party to the BRI. The growing number of countries willing to be part of the BRI says something about the initiative. It is up to India to make its decisions. But issues of connectivity deserve a second look. Issues of sovereignty involved are critical for India. Maybe the two sides could look at some creative solution without any detriment to India's sovereignty. The US says Russians are undermining their efforts towards stabilising Afghanistan. The US does not have a veto on Afghanistan settlement. They are not a regional but an extra-regional power there. We both have our positions. Their practical policy does not seem effective to us. The security situation is dangerous, not stable after 10 or more years of American presence. The strategy has no consistency. I would rather listen to countries in region such as India, China, and Kabul itself. What kind of joint programmes will India-Russia undertake in Afghanistan? There is no clarity yet. They could be in construction, capacity-building, education areas. vinaymishra188@gmail.com London, October 10 For the first time, the UK will have a minister for suicide prevention to reduce the number of people who take their own lives. The move, intended to tackle the tragedy of 4,500 people taking their own lives in England each year, comes on World Mental Health Day. British PM Theresa May said the appointment of Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price to the additional role will help tackle the stigma surrounding suicide. We can end the stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence. We can prevent the tragedy of suicide taking too many lives. And we can give the mental wellbeing of our children the priority it so profoundly deserves, May said in a statement. We are not looking after our health if we are not looking after our mental health. So we need true parity between physical and mental health and not just in our health systems but in our classrooms, workplaces and communities too, she said. The new portfolio, Minister for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention, will involve leading a new national effort on suicide prevention. As part of other measures announced by the UK government to mark World Mental Health Day, new funding of up to 1.8 million pounds will help ensure the Samaritans charity helpline remains free and can continue to provide immediate and lifesaving support to everyone who needs it, 24 hours a day. PTI vinaymishra188@gmail.com Colombo, October 10 Maldives strongman President Abdulla Yameens party on Wednesday filed a legal petition challenging his landslide election defeat last month despite major international pressure for him to step down. Yameen conceded defeat after an official count showed joint opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had polled 16.8 per cent more votes in a surprise result. But opposition members have worried about a smooth transition of power, due on November 17. Yameens supporters had complained about rigging of votes and fraudulent ballot papers, his lawyer Mohamed Saleem told reporters after approaching the top court. Lawyers for Yameens Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) told reporters that they are alleging that the September 23 vote was rigged by the independent election commission. It was, however, unclear whether the Supreme Court would agree to consider the challenge. The election in the Indian Ocean archipelago, which has seen a tussle for influence between India and China, was won by Ibrahim Mohamed Solih with 58.4 per cent of the vote. Solih was little known before the election but was backed, in a remarkable turn of events given the island nations turbulent recent political history, by all opposition parties, All of Yameens other main rivals were either behind bars on charges that critics said were trumped up, or in exile. Yameen had reluctantly conceded defeat amid international pressure from regional superpower and immediate neighbour India and others, but has been publicly urging his supporters to challenge the results. Constitutionally, he can remain in office till November 17 when he has to hand over to Solih, barring any last minute court intervention. AFP Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with visiting Angolan President Joao Lourenco in Beijing Tuesday, agreeing to continue developing bilateral ties. Xi said he is glad to see the second visit to Beijing in about a month by Lourenco, who came to attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in early September. Xi said the success of the summit has injected vigor and opportunities into the development of China-Africa and China-Angola ties, calling on the two sides to work together to actively and quickly promote the development of ties. "China is confident of the future of bilateral cooperation," Xi said, urging the two sides to "cement political mutual trust, strengthen high-level contacts, deepen strategic communication, and understand and support each other's core interests and grave concerns." Xi said that China has empathy with the historical experiences of African countries and firmly supports people of African countries in opposing foreign interference, and independently choosing their path of development. Xi said he expects the two sides to implement the results of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the FOCAC, promote the eight major initiatives unveiled at the summit to realize early progress, and advance the Belt and Road Initiative. The Chinese president called on the two sides to advance the strategic integration of each other's development plans, strengthen cooperation in traditional areas, expand new growth points in mutually beneficial cooperation, and promote the industrialization and economic diversification of Angola. Xi also said it is necessary to expand people-to-people exchanges and exchanges between local areas. He called for closer multilateral coordination, expecting the two sides to jointly safeguard multilateralism, build an open world economy and make the international order more just and equitable. The Angolan president said that Angola and China have maintained close high-level exchanges, which shows the two sides attach great importance to the relations. Noting that for a long time, bilateral cooperation has played a positive role in the economic and social development of Angola, Lourenco said that Angola looks forward to further strengthening bilateral cooperation in infrastructure construction and people's livelihood, to better promote Angola's development. Lourenco said that the FOCAC has promoted cooperation between China and Africa as a whole, and that African countries highly appreciate China's cooperation with Africa "on the basis of Africa's actual needs and its taking tangible measures without attaching any political conditions or interference in African countries' internal affairs." "The cooperation plans proposed by China within the framework of the FOCAC has a very positive impact on the development of African countries," Lourenco said. "It is hoped that cooperation between Angola and China will become a model for Africa-China cooperation." He said Angola values China's important influence in international affairs, and hailed China's constructive role in addressing hot-spot issues in Africa. The Angolan president said that Angola supports multilateralism and advocates that the world's future should be decided by all countries, expressing the will to cooperate closely with China in multilateral affairs. The two presidents also watched the signing of a series of bilateral cooperative documents. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and China's top legislator Li Zhanshu also met with Lourenco Tuesday. pardeepdhull@gmail.com Washington, October 10 US President Donald Trump Wednesday slammed his predecessor Barack Obama for being impotent and not stopping China from expanding its influence in the South China Sea, saying the Chinese Navy was now posing a confrontational challenge for America in the disputed region. President Trumps remarks came hours after he was briefed at the White House by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his meetings with the top Chinese leadership in Beijing this week. The Obama administration was impotent about the South China Sea, Trump said during an interaction with reporters Abroad Air Force One. He said the Chinese Navy was now posing a confrontational challenge for America in the disputed region. China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. They are also vital to global trade. China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the area. The US has been conducting regular patrols in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation in the area where Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. During Pompeos trip, Trump earlier told reporters at the White House that China was sending a message to him, but those messages did not work. He said Pompeo was treated him great respect during his trip to Beijing. Theyre just trying to get me a message. But those messages dont work. They dont work. But no, I think they treated him with great respect, actually. You know, they had meetings besides just the news conference. And I think they treated him with great respect, he said when asked if he was concerned the way the Chinese treated Pompeo. Trump also said Pompeo did not have a great meeting in China. It wasnt so much - I guess he was giving them a message, and they were giving him a message to come back to me, Trump said. However, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at a news briefing that Pompeo had a good, constructive meetings with his Chinese counterparts. Theyre certainly a competitor. Its a complex and broad-based relationship that we have with China, as you all saw in the comments and exchanges between the Secretary and his counterparts. We have areas of common interest. North Korea is one of them, Nauert said. Working to combat illegal narcotics is another area where we work well together. We also have areas of disagreement and areas where we have challenges, and well keep working together on that. Its obviously an important relationship that we need to work hard to maintain, she said. PTI vinaymishra188@gmail.com Istanbul, October 10 A newspaper close to the Turkish President published photos on Wednesday of what it said was a 15-member assassination squad allegedly sent to target Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last week. Turkish officials suspect Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate, allegations rejected by Saudi Arabia, which says he left the premises. Turkey has been given permission to search the diplomatic post, an extraordinary development that shows the increasing international pressure the kingdom faces over Khashoggis disappearance. The report by the Sabah newspaper, which is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published images of the men apparently taken at passport control. Khashoggi had written a series of columns for the Washington Post that were critical of assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has led a drive to reform the Sunni monarchy. AP traineesubeditor@tribuneindia.com Washington, October 10 The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Tuesday he saw different options for Washingtons strained relationship with Venezuela, after making a rare visit by a top US official to Caracas. Senator Bob Corker met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other Venezuelan officials as well as opposition groups on Sunday and Monday. I had a very good meeting with Maduro, the Republican lawmaker told reporters at the US Senate shortly after returning from the South American nation, whose relations with the United States have been poor for years. Corker declined to discuss specific outcomes from his visit, although he said he had not discussed sanctions policy. He said he planned to schedule a meeting soon with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the trip. We went down to get a sense of a way forward and theres a couple of options. One option is to keep doing exactly what were doing, and there maybe is another option or two, Corker said. He also met with members of the Boston Group, a network of US and Venezuelan legislators that has maintained relations between Caracas government and opposition since 2000. The United States imposed new sanctions on Maduros wife and several of his top allies two weeks ago as President Donald Trump urged members of the United Nations to support a restoration of democracy in the once-booming country, a member of OPEC. The move added pressure on Maduros government, which is widely criticized for economic collapse and undermining democracy. But it did not materially change Washingtons efforts to pressure stalwarts from Venezuelas Socialist Party who have shown no willingness to hand over power or negotiate a transition. Maduro has said he is the victim of an economic war led by US-backed adversaries. He denies limiting political freedoms, insisting opposition leaders have plotted assassination attempts and sought to overthrow him through violent street protests. Corker last visited Venezuela in May to secure the release of jailed US citizen Joshua Holt. Reuters. pardeepdhull@gmail.com Washington, October 10 President Donald Trump said he is certain that his daughter Ivanka would be dynamite as the US ambassador to the UN, but conceded that he would be accused of nepotism if he selected her to replace Indian-American Nikki Haley. Haley, 46, announced Tuesday that she would resign from her post as the US ambassador to the UN by the end of the year. As President Trump heaped praise on Haleys performance during her tenure as the the envoy to the world body, he said many people would like to replace her. Trump said that he expects to name a replacement for Haley in the next two to three weeks, and said that he would be talking about candidates with the former South Carolina governor and others. The US president described his second child as dynamite. Trump said his daughter Ivanka would make an incredible ambassador to the UN. The people that knowits nothing to do with nepotism. But I want tell you: The people that know, know that Ivanka would be dynamite. But, you know, Id then be accused of nepotism, if you can believe it, he said. I think Ivanka would be incredible. That doesnt mean Id pick her, because youd be accused of nepotism, even though Im not sure theres anybody more competent in the world. But thats okay, Trump said in response to a question. Soon after the Presidents remarks, Ivanka, 36, took to Twitter to rule herself out of the running for ambassadorship. It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me, she said. Ivanka is a businesswoman, fashion designer, author and reality television personality. Speculation that Ivanka would take on the post mounted after Haley praised her and her husband, Jared Kushner, in discussing her resignation in the Oval Office. Ivanka and her husband Jared are both presidential advisers. I cant say enough good things about Jared and Ivanka, she said. Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands. Ivanka has just been a great friend. They do a lot of things behind the scenes that I wish more people knew about because we are a better country because theyre in the administration, Haley said. PTI uttara@tribuneindia.com London, October 10 British authorities have banned a physics teacher from the classroom for life after he flew to Bangladesh to marry a 13-year-old girl in 2006, media reports said on Wednesday. Joshim Nur was 22 when he began teaching at the London Nautical School, Lambeth, in 2006, a teaching disciplinary panel heard. Nur, now 34, claimed he thought the girl was 18 but a written statement from the girl showed she had told him her age before the arranged marriage. He also had a sexual relationship with the child, the panel heard. He flew to Bangladesh during a summer break and returned to the UK with the girl, named by the panel as Child A. In evidence, the girl told a Teaching Regulation Agency panel that sexual activity started shortly after her marriage to Nur in the summer of 2006. She also confirmed that she was taken to an appointment at a family planning clinic in 2007 and that she took contraceptive pills every day. The panel ruled that the Nur had a relationship with the girl from August 2006 to April 2009 in "circumstances when he should have known she was under the age of 16". Three days before the wedding, the girl had written to Nur to tell him she was 13 and in year 8 at school, the panel heard, the BBC reported. In written evidence, Nur said that he was '"deceived" by the girl's family as to his wife's age when they wed. Panel chairman Dr Robert Cawley said: "The panel did not find it plausible that Mr Nur could have mistaken a 13-year-old child for an 18-year-old, and that this misconception continued over a four-year period. "The panel was particularly concerned in light of the fact that he worked in a secondary school and had daily interactions with children of this age." Nur was found guilty of engaging in a relationship with the child and of having sex on more than one occasion when she was under 16 - charges he denied. The relationship ended in 2009, when the girl was 16. Nur's headteacher told the panel he was a "good teacher" and a "gifted and valued member of staff". The ruling branded Nur's behaviour as lacking "any insight into his actions or their impact on Child A". Decision maker Alan Meyrick said: "In my judgement, the lack of insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour." He then prohibited Nur from teaching indefinitely and said he shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach. Nur is not being prosecuted as the marriage took place abroad, not under the UK jurisdiction, the Daily Express reported. PTI BUSINESS groups are not in support of a fourth lockdown as they argue it will further damage the economy. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh on a radio programme yesterday said with the state of emergency and curfew nearing an end, he is concerned that this will lead to a further rise in Covid-19 cases. 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. Flash Britain should hold its nerve as negotiations with Brussels on its departure from the European Union reach the final stretch, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab told the House of Commons which reopens Tuesday. But former Brexit Secretary David Davis warned the ruling Conservative Party risked losing the next general election unless it ditched the so-called Chequers plan, the blueprint for a new trade deal favored by prime minister Theresa May. Raab, updating MPs after they returned to Westminster following the party conference season, reiterated Britain's insistence that there will be no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, one of the biggest hurdles still facing negotiators on both sides. Also ruling out a second referendum, Raab said Britain's White Paper proposals, known as Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit blueprint, "are the best way of ensuring there is continued frictionless trade in goods after Britain leaves the EU". It also fulfills the commitment to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, he added. "These negotiations were always bound to be tough in the final stretch. That is all the more reason why we should hold our nerve, stay resolute and focused, and I remain confident that we will reach a deal this autumn," said Raab, adding an agreement was in the best interests of both Britain and the other 27 EU member states. Raab said the government is engaging with the EU on alternative proposals that preserve the integrity of the UK. "They will be in line with the commitments we made back in December, including the commitment that no new regulatory barriers should be created between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK unless the Northern Ireland Executive and the Assembly agree," added the secretary. "We continue to engage constructively with the EU, we continue to press our case," said Raab. EU negotiators effectively want Northern Ireland to stay within their customs union and single market as a way or avoiding a hard border with the Irish Republic which will remain as an EU member Keir Starmer, shadow Brexit secretary for the main opposition Labor Party said Raab's statement would have been much better coming from Prime Minister May. Referring to a recent meeting of EU leaders where May's blueprint was rejected, Starmer added: "It should be up to Theresa May to let the House (of Commons) know what went wrong in the Salzburg negotiations. That meeting in Austria prompted an angry response from May, saying EU leaders had shown Britain a lack of respect. He warned that a vague deal would be like asking Britain to jump into the unknown, adding the Labor would not support that. "No government has the right to plunge the country into chaos because of its own failing," said Starmer. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician Nigel Dodds, said his party would not accept any deal that separates Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain. May's minority government relies on support from the 10 DUP MPs to give her a majority in the British parliament. In another warning to May's government, the former Brexit Secretary David Davis warned her that the electoral consequences for the Conservative party could be dire if the final deal did not respect the decision to leave the EU. In a letter to Conservative MPs, Davis said: "If we stay on our current trajectory, we will go into the next election with the government having delivered none of the benefits of Brexit, with the country having been reduced to a rule-taker from Brussels." Advocating a so-called Canada-style trade deal between Britain and the EU, Davis said: "No 10's stated position that there is only a binary choice between her Chequers plan and no deal is not correct. A third way does exist." Davis quit his top ministerial job in July saying he could not support May's Brexit blueprint, agreed at a behind-closed-doors meetings at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat. Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who quit alongside Davis over May's Brexit blueprint, has already issued a "chuck Chequers" plea to the government, claiming it would mean Britain remaining as a vassal state of the EU. The Covid-19 death toll continues to rise with 12 more deaths, four of whom had no known com Flash French police arrested 11 muggers suspected of violent robbery and extortion against Chinese community in Aubervilliers, northeastern Paris, Paris police prefecture announced on Tuesday. "The victims, all of Chinese origin and on board their vehicles, are followed either at the exit of restaurants popular with Asian community, or from their places of work, and are stolen their worthy belongings during violent attacks during their arrival at home," it said in a statement. The gang was accused of carrying out 13 robberies and extortions from Aug. 19 to Oct. 2, it added. The French capital has been faced with public security problems, and it has reported a series of muggings and attacks against Chinese tourists and Chinese French. I am from the UK and always have up to date HepA (lasts 25 years) Tetanus (lasts 10 years) Typhoid (lasts 3 years). When you had your Typhoid for your trip to Cape Verde in 2015 was it done the same time of year that you will be travelling for your trip to the DR this year. If so then you would be still covered that is probably why your Dr. said you did not need a booster. Angie. Sometimes we have crazy ideas that are actually kind of great, and sometimes we have crazy ideas that are just not a good idea. Unfortunately at the time of year you are wanting to do this, your crazy idea swings towards the latter. If you were talking about February, I would say go for it, as long as you can find a hire car that will suit. But you are not. You are talking about the busiest time of year on all the coasts, the Christmas holiday peak season. And this causes some major problems in your plan, most important will be the fact that many places will have minimum night stays during this time and thus finding one night accommodation for your stops along the way will be difficult without a dog - with a dog it may be almost impossible. You must keep in mind that many people book their next year Christmas holiday right after finishing this present one. Many dog-friendly places will have had bookings for December 2018/January2019 since January 2018. You are probably better off looking for a longer stay in one spot a bit closer to home, but you may have trouble finding anything on the coast at this late stage. Canberra is one option worth considering if you cannot find a coastal option, many residents there flee to the coast, there are few politicians to be encountered as they are all at home with family and thus it is quite peaceful there over Christmas. Edited: 3 years ago Hello all, Im in need of some advice relating to visas. Myself, husband (both 35) and daughter are visiting Australia at the end of November from the uk. We would like to travel around Australia for approx 10 momths. I believed we could get an ETA tourist visa, which would allow us to stay in Australia for up to 90 days at a time. We intend to visit near by countries for 1-2 weeks then return to Australia to continue our circuit round. Can someone confirm this is possible on a tourist visa? We have supporting documents showing we can support ourselves and plan to have our flights booked to show intention to leave and not overstay put visa. Im struggling to get confirmation from the Australian government website that this is definitely ok on this visa, can anyone advise? Thanks Agree with post #2 suggestion - Travelfish.org for research. If beach is that important to you then, at that time of year, you'll be limited to the south, but don't expect beaches anything like Thailand or you'll be disappointed. The north is better for your other interests. I can suggest Cat Ba island and Lan Ha bay as an alternative to Ha Long. Same scenery but far fewer tourists. I'm a budget backpacker and had two great days out while staying on Cat Ba island. Firstly a full day cruise around Lan Ha bay, including kayaking and a good lunch on board (+ a couple of stops at Monkey Island and a floating fish farm). Cost? 340,000VND booked at my hotel in Cat Ba town. The other was a day out trekking in the national park, including lunch and a short cruise back. That cost 360,000VND, again, booked through my hotel. Both excursions highly recommended and fantastic value for money. Edited: 3 years ago I am a little confused as to if we need a visa for our trip to Vietnam or if the 15 day is ok for us. We are travelling from the UK arriving 6TH April in Hanoi. On the 15th day the 20th we fly from Phu quoc to Hanoi then onwards to LHR with Vietnam Airlines. The flight from Hanoi to LHR is at 00.50 hours on the 21st so the 16th day. We will be through customs on the 15th day but is that sufficient? Will we go through customs in or in hanoi? I contacted the airline and they said we do not need a visa as did Vietnamvisa.org. The embassy just sent me a generic email back directing me to the evisa website. I have also read that you have to show proof of return date on arrival. Has anyone from the UK been in this position and advice would be appreciated Many Thanks -:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:- Tripadvisor staff removed this post because it did not meet Tripadvisor's forum guideline limiting each user to a single forums screen name. To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. Hello, I wonder if someone could tell me what the weather is currently in Fiji? Weather apps suggest that it is currently quite rainy and I would like to know if that is 1) correct and 2) if it is rain/cloudy all day or just a short period (ie. is sunbathing feasible?) I am currently working in Samoa and it has been cloudy and raining quite a bit the past week or so. I will be leaving here at the end of October and had planned on 7-10 days in the Yasawas. If the weather in Fiji is the same as it is here then I would probably skip Fiji and head straight to Australia. Other posts have suggested that the Yasawas usually see little rain at this time of year. Whilst I appreciate that the weather cannot be predicted, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks! We arrive in Lautoka aboard Sea princess and only in port from 8 till 4. What Im hoping to find out is if anyone has caught a taxi/transfer/shuttle to Denarau for a boat out to an island for the day. We booked this as a last minute thing and the trip we want is sold out through the cruise company. Happy to organise myself and we have been to Fiji before so not worried. Looking to spend the day at Malamala Beach club for the day, has anyone experienced this recently that could also give feedback ? Appreciate all or any advice! Flash More than 12,500 people were evacuated on Tuesday in the wake of the fire and explosions at an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army in the country's northern Chernigiv region, authorities said. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said the fire started overnight following four blasts at different parts of the warehouse, which lies near the town of Ichnya, about 170 km east of Kiev. The blaze triggered subsequent massive detonation of the ammunition, scattering debris in a radius of 16 km around the 682-hectare depot. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said there were no casualties in the incident. Later in the day, Rodion Tymoshenko, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said that the authorities are investigating sabotage as a possible cause of the fire. Ukraine's air traffic regulator Ukraerorukh has closed the airspace in a 30-km radius around the warehouse. Road and rail transport in the region have also been partially suspended. Firefighters and the army's emergency response teams have been ordered to work around the clock to extinguish the fire that engulfed 10 percent of the depot. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman pledged that the government will provide necessary assistance to people affected by the incident. This marked the fourth such incident in Ukraine in two years. The previous three blasts occurred in ammunition depots in the Donetsk and Kharkov regions in eastern Ukraine and the Vinnytsya region in central Ukraine. We just returned from our second travels to Japan from Belgium and cannot get enough of Japan so we already started planning our third visit. Our first trip included Kyoto (region)/Hiroshima/Japanese Alps/Tokyo (region), all done using public transport. The second trip this year started with a self drive around Kyushu and then taking Shinkansen to Osaka and Kobe region. After that we took Shinkansen to Tokyo and ended with 5 days staying there. Both trips were 3 weeks. We now plan to go back to Japan next year during last 2 weeks of June, first week of July and wanted to combine Hokkaido and Okinawa Islands. We really want to rent a car again, especially Hokkaido, but maybe also Okinawa to travel around. Not really sure how to start planning this trip, f.e. about 10 days Hokkaido, fly to Okinawa and plan also about 7-10 days? Maybe at the end of the trip fly back to Tokyo for about 3 days to visit some things not done before and fly back to Brussels? All info to help planning our trip would be absolutely welcome here. I agree, you won't find good lodgings at that price. For a hostel you would have to shell out at least $60-75 per person. Vacation apartment rentals are heavily regulated here, and for the most part illegal. If the unit being rented is in a one- or two-family house, it can be legal. If not, it will not be. No landlord or co-op/condo board can agree to lets under 30 days, even if they wanted to, because there is a law in NYC forbidding apartment rentals under 30 days. We have over 60,000 homeless people here, of which 20,000 are children. Vacation apartment rentals take long-term housing off of the market. NYC has been experiencing a housing emergency (defined by the gov't as less than 3% availability) for decades. Please don't add to this problem. Other cities without sufficient housing for their locals are battling these rentals as well: Paris, Berlin, London, Reykjavik, Barcelona, San Francisco, Santa Monica all have either flat out forbidden, or severely limited and taxed them. Even if you came at the cheapest time of year (January or February) you still could not find a hotel room for three people for that price. It just doesn't exist. You could perhaps find space in one of the hostels, or a YMCA. You really need to be a bit more realistic. The first week of December is one of the very highest priced times of the year, because everyone and their brother comes to shop for the holidays. If you can change your dates you could save some money, perhaps quite a lot. Re: DC - You won't find anything decent for that price there, either. Honestly, you'd have to hit the back roads in the middle of nowhere to find (probably roach) motels with pricing like that. Edited: 3 years ago - Atwoli said the time was right for Kenyans to initiate a referendum - He expressed the need to reduce high and unsustainable costs of running the government - The unionist said the former 22 districts can be brought back as county governments - Raila Odinga had said Constitution amendment was part of the handshake - DP Ruto dismissed Raila saying he was taking advantage of the handshake for his political gains The Secretary General for Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Francis Atwoli has dismissed claims that referendum was not part of the handshake saying it was the main agenda of Task Force on Building Bridges Initiative. The outspoken COTU boss insisted Kenyans needed a referendum to review some of the key issues that have led to high and unsustainable costs of running the government. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: William Ruto dismisses Raila's referendum calls, claims was never part of handshake deal with Uhuru COTU boss Francis Atwoli insists Kenyans should rectify the Constitution as early as now. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: There shall be referendum whether you like it or not - COTU boss Francis Atwoli Speaking during an interview with KTN News, Atwoli dismissed the plebiscite critiques who say Opposition leader Raila Odinga was taking advantage of the handshake to advance his political agenda. "Raila was not the only party in the handshake, there was the second party who is the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta. If the head of State knows the referendum was not part of their agreement, why has he not come out to say it was not part of the agreement?," posed Atwoli. The no nonsense unionist said it was absolutely necessary to rectify the Constitution as early as now for easy governance of the country in future. READ ALSO: Calls for constitutional change are for selfish gains - DP Ruto "Eight years are more than enough for us to do a referendum. Some countries have rectified their constitutional anomalies even within three years, there is nothing strange for us to initiate Constitution amendment now," he added. The COTU leader said Kenyans can adopt the former 22 district system of leadership for affordable governance which can reduce the burden on taxpayers. "We need to reduce the number of elected position starting from nominated MPs, and MCAs. Some counties whose main preoccupation is to sell bananas and peanuts should be disbanded as they are not competitive enough," he added DP Ruto dismissed Raila's claims of referendum being party of the handshake saying he was only taking advantage of the unity to advance his political agenda. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Migori senate by-election loser says he will be on the ballot again in 2022 Referendum calls started after Raila informed Kenyans to prepare for the same before 2022 General Election saying the Task Force on Building Bridges Initiative was collecting views from the public. In a quick response, Deputy President William Ruto dismissed Raila's claims saying referendum was not part of the handshake. The DP has since expressed willingness to support the Constitution amendment if only it aims at reducing burden on taxpayers and not creating other new leadership positions. 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 Go-To Salad Recipe From Chef Rachel Is Already On Tuko Bites! | Tuko Lifestyle Source: Tuko Flash U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has accepted Nikki Haley's resignation as the country's ambassador to the United Nations. Trump told reporters on Tuesday morning at the oval office that Haley will be leaving at the end of the year. He added that Haley told him six months ago about her intention to leave the post. Haley, seen as one of Trump's most trusted advisers, had reportedly discussed her resignation with Trump last week during her visit to the White House. Haley used to serve as the governor of South Carolina. She was confirmed days after Trump's inauguration in January 2017. - The militants lodged an explosive in a house where the teachers were - The explosive caused fire which killed the two teachers - No other teacher, student was hurt during the incident - Police have launched a search for the attackers - Matiang'i has condemned the incident and asked police to be vigilant Two teachers from Arabia Boys Secondary School have died after suspected al-Shaabab militants raided the institution on Wednesday, October 10. The assailants are said to have thrown an explosive device in a house where the teachers were which set it on fire. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: My partner in everything: Ujumbe wa Jacque Maribe kwa Jowie ambao sasa unamtafuna Police have since launched a manhunt for the militants as security reinforcement is deployed in the area. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: TERROR as al-Shabaab open fire on passenger bus A statement by National Police Service-Kenya said the attackers fled after police reservists guarding the school engaged them. "This morning at about 1:00am at Arabia Boys Secondary School in Mandera County, suspected al-Shabaab terrorists threw an explosive device at a teachers house that had two teachers setting off a fire that sadly killed the two teachers," the statement read. READ ALSO: Al-Shabaab fighters turn against their Kenyan counterparts Police have since launched man hunt for the militants as security reinforcement is deployed in the area. No other teacher or student was hurt during the late night incident. The incident comes shortly before national exams (KCPE and KSCE) commence in the country. It has raised concern on the safety of the learners, teachers, and examiners. This comes even as Education CS Amina Mohammed and Interior CS Fred Matiang'i affirm that security has been beefed ahead of the exams. "I reiterate Government's commitment to provide security for all its citizens across the country and warn those who are out to test our resolve. Particularly, I assure all those who are preparing for KCPE and KCSE exams that their security will continue to be provided," CS Mating'i stated on Wednesday. Matiang'i has since condemned the incident and termed the attack as cowardly. "Condemn the cowardly act, by suspected extremists, that took place at Arabia Boys Secondary School, Mandera County early this morning. My heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those affected by the incident," stated Matiang'i. 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. Joseph Irungu and Jacque Maribe in court over the murder of Monica Kimani Tuko TV. Source: Tuko.co.ke - Aukot is collecting signatures in a bid to amend the Constitution of Kenya 2010 - Changing the supreme law requires a minimum of one million signatures from voters - The Thirdway Alliance Kenya party leader had as of October 10 gathered 600,000 signatures - Once the million signature target is met, Aukot would draft Bill to IEBC for assessment and approval - IEBC would then present Bill to county assemblies and then two Houses of Parliament after ward representatives approve it - The Bill would then be sent to the president for assenting or to the public for referendum A new referendum is fast looming as Thirdway Alliance Kenya party leader, Ekuru Aukot, nears his target of a million signatures needed to initiate the process of amending the Constitution. As of Wednesday, October 10, Aukot revealed he had gathered over 600,000 signatures, which is a significant increase from 500,000 signatures that had been collected seven days ago. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: My partner in everything: Ujumbe wa Jacque Maribe kwa Jowie ambao sasa unamtafuna Thirdway Alliance Party leader Ekuru Aukot campaigning for his popular initiative amendment of the Constitution quest. Photo: Thirdway Allaince/Twitter. Source: UGC READ ALSO: There shall be referendum whether you like it or not - COTU boss Francis Atwoli TUKO.co.ke understands Aukot needs just 400,000 more signatures to pave way for the new referendum and he is hopeful the target is going to be met soon, even as he intensifies his Punguza Mzigo (reduce the burden) campaign. Aukot was, however, not happy with the level of media coverage the Punguza Mzigo agenda was getting, claiming his attempts to share with Kenyans the progress made in the campaigns through the local news channels were being frustrated. READ ALSO: Ex-presidential candidate Ekuru Aukot begins to collect signatures ahead of looming referendum The Punguza Mzigo initiative is aimed at reducing the number of MPs from 416 to 194, thus cutting Parliament's annual budget by at least KSh 30 billion. After getting the one million signatures, Aukot will be required to draft a Bill to be presented to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for assessment before being channeled to the 47 county assemblies and two Houses of Parliament for debate. READ ALSO: The time is ripe for referendum to cut wastage of public funds - Moses Kuria If the legislative Houses pass the Bill, it will be presented to the president for assenting approval and adoption in line with Article 257 of the Constitution. However, Article 255 of the Constitution requires the Bill to be first subjected to voters in a referendum if it touches on the Constitution's supremacy, Kenya's territory, sovereignty of the people, national values, Bill of rights, term of office of president and Parliament's functions. "So far so good. At least a voter is endorsing it per minute. Kindly join other Kenyans in endorsing the noble initiative," Aukot said. READ ALSO: Majority of Kenyans support Uhuru, Raila calls for referendum - TUKO poll The Thirdway Alliance Kenya petition also sought to have Kenya's 47 counties to be used as constituencies where one MP and one senator would be elected. Among other issues Aukot's initiative is seeking is to elevate Senate to be an upper house with veto powers and have wards to be used as units of development, replacing Constituency Development Funds' programmes. This means if his proposal is successful, it would be subjected to a referendum by voters since it touches on functions of MPs. A section of politicians from across Jubilee and National Super Alliance also stated the country needed a referendum to change the Constitution before the 2022 General Election citing a need for creation of other political positions and abolishing of others. A Constitution can also be amended through a Parliamentary initiative where a Bill pushing for changes of the supreme law is drafted and debated in the National Assembly and Senate. 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. Joseph Irungu and Jacque Maribe in court over the murder of Monica Kimani - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko Breaking News - Driver of the bus belonging to Western Express Sacco lost control at Fort Ternan area in Kericho - The bus dubbed Home Boyz, registration KBS 029 J, rolled severally, killing 48 people on the spot - Official reports indicated 31 men, 12 women and seven children died in the horrific road crash At least 50 people were on Wednesday, October 10, confirmed dead in a horrific road crash on the Kisumu-Muhoroni highway at Fort Ternan area in Kericho County. Driver of the Kakamega-bound bus, which was traveling from Nairobi, reportedly lost control of the vehicle, killing 48 people instantly. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: My partner in everything: Ujumbe wa Jacque Maribe kwa Jowie ambao sasa unamtafuna The death toll quickly rose from 42 to 50. The grisly accident occurred on the Kisumu-Muhoroni highway at Fort Tenan area in Kericho County. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Two teachers killed after al-Shabaab militants attack school in Mandera TUKO.co.ke established the gory accident happed at around 4am on Wednesday at the Tunnel Flyover along the Kisumu-Muhoroni road. Confirming the tragedy, Kericho County Police Commander James Mogera said the bus, belonging to Western Express Sacco, dubbed Home Boys, registration number KBS029J, veered off the fly over and rolled several times. READ ALSO: Two teachers killed after al-Shabaab militants attack school in Mandera Official reports indicate at least 31 men, 12 women and seven children died in the Fort Ternan accident. Some 10 survivors were reportedly rushed to Fort Ternan dispensary and others to Muhoroni Sub County Hospital. Meanwhile, Kenyans, including local leaders, have joined the families and friends of those who lost loved ones in the highway tragedy in mourning the departed souls. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans accuse NTSA of incompetence and corruption and want it disbanded - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko - October 10 has been reinstated as a public holiday following a court ruling - Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi announced Kenyans will celebrate the day as before - Matiangi said in a notice there would be no state celebrations and asked Kenyans to celebrate how they wished - Moi Day was abolished after the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 - A section of Kenyans had demanded that Moi makes a public address during the Holiday Even as the country observed Moi Day on Wednesday, October 10, no notable celebrations were convened by the state. The government on Monday, October 8, ordered that the day be commemorated in remembrance of the Kenya's second President Daniel Moi. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: My partner in everything: Ujumbe wa Jacque Maribe kwa Jowie ambao sasa unamtafuna When Moi retired, he prescribed that Moi Day be used as a time when the citizenry remembered the less fortunate in a move to mitigate their plight. Photo: Getty Images. Source: Getty Images READ ALSO: Kenyans demand retired president speak on just reinstated Moi Day slated for October 10 This came amid concerns the Holiday was not enshrined in the 2010 constitution which after it took effect, scrapped off both Moi and Kenyatta Days. Celebrations to remember national heroes have since been classified into one and are observed as Mashujaa Day on each October 20. READ ALSO: Nairobi lady arrested for drugging, stealing KSh 136k from man in a bar When Interior CS Fred Matiang'i declared the day a Holiday, he said it was in respect to a November 2017 court ruling that reinstated it. "Owing to the elaborate celebrations lined up for all heroes on Mashujaa day (20th of October), I make no pronouncement on the manner which 10th of October shall be celebrated," the CS said in a statement. In his statement, Matiang'i further stated the move to have the Holiday abolished, was to increase number of working days in a bid to spur economic growth. When Justice George Odunga reinstated the Holiday through a court ruling, he stated it was not under the jurisdiction of the court to prescribe the manner of the celebrations. "I further declare that unless and until Parliament amends Schedule 1 of the said act (Public Holidays Act) or the Minister constitutes the same for another date, the 10th of October in each year shall continue being a public holiday. It is, however, not for this court to prescribe the manner in which the same is to be celebrated," the Judge ruled. READ ALSO: Nairobi lady arrested for drugging, stealing KSh 136k from man in a bar However, despite no physical celebration being staged, a section of Kenyans took to social media where they 'celebrated' the holiday. Among those who shared, used the chance remember Moi Golden Cup which was a foot ball tournament staged on every similar day during Moi's tenure. Others remembered the famous Moi milk which was distributed for free to learning institutions. The opportunity was also taken to bring forth memories of Moi currency which 2010 constitution prescribed should only have the image of founding President Jomo Kenyatta. Important to note, was that, during Moi's tenure, during this day, advertisers in local dailies would shower the head of state with congratulatory messages for his leadership and track record. 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. Joseph Irungu and Jacque Maribe in court over the murder of Monica Kimani Tuko TV. Source: Tuko.co.ke - He passed away as he was being rushed to Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi on Wednesday, October 10 - He was first elected to Parliament in 1988 when he represented North Mugirango constituency Former Member of Parliament and veteran Gusii politician Nyarangi Moturi famously known as Esirori Nyamaguta died on Wednesday, October 10, as he was being rushed to Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi. Moturi who served as an assistant minister, was first elected to Parliament in 1988 when he represented North Mugirango constituency and later Borabu in present day Nyamira county. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: My partner in everything: Ujumbe wa Jacque Maribe kwa Jowie ambao sasa unamtafuna READ ALSO: Uhuru leads Kenyans in mourning 50 people who died in Fort Ternan tragedy In 2013, Moturi lost in his quest to win the Nyamira senate seat on Chama Cha Mwananchi (CCM) under Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD). Nyamira Governor John Nyagarama described the deceased politician as a selfless mentor and a crusader of devolution. "This was greatly manifested in 1991 when he advocated for creation of Nyamira district from the larger Kisii region. In politics, he mentored many selflessly and with unequivocal zeal, something we shall always treasure as a nation," mourned the governor. 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. Joseph Irungu and Jacque Maribe in court over the murder of Monica Kimani - on Tuko TV. Source: Kenya Breaking News Today Retired President Daniel Moi joined Kenyans to quietly celebrate Moi Day at his Kabarak home where he mingled with some family members and friends. Moi Day is a public holiday in Kenya celebrated on October 10 in honour of Mzee Moi since 1979 after he took oath of office on Tuesday, August 1978, following the death of founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: My partner in everything: Ujumbe wa Jacque Maribe kwa Jowie ambao sasa unamtafuna President Uhuru Kenyatta and retired President Daniel Moi when he paid him a visit at his Kabarak home. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta/Twitter. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Two teachers killed after al-Shabaab militants attack school in Mandera In a press statement to newsrooms seen by TUKO.co.ke, Mzee Moi oozed with patriotism in reciprocation to messages of love from Kenyans who praised him for the leadership he offered for 24 years he was in power. "I have been overwhelmed by messages of greetings and goodwill I have received from Kenyans of all walks of life. I am grateful for Kenyans' expression of love for me and the many fond memories. I pray for God's blessings for Kenya and its people," Moi said. Many Kenyans punctuated social media sites with messages of love, praise and fond memories they still hold on to courtesy of Moi's leadership ranging from the free primary school milk to prophetic political quotes. A Kenyan expresses her unique association with retired President Daniel Moi through learning institutions she attended in celebration of reclaimed Moi Day. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Former assistant minister dies on way to a Nairobi hospital The day had been celebrated from 1979 but was scrapped from a list of Kenya's national holidays following promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. However, Justice George Odunga sitting in the High Court of Nairobi on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 restored the holiday saying it was illegally scrapped, restoring it. In conformation to the court's judgment, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i announced the Holiday's comeback on Monday, October 8, 2018. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans accuse NTSA of incompetence and corruption and want it disbanded - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko - The officer was on duty at a road construction company in Rumuruti - He called his colleagues and gave them a verbal suicide notice before taking his life - His body was taken to Nyahururu sub-county hospital as police start investigations An Administration Police officer in Laikipia County has left his colleagues in shock after he assembled them to witness his death. Moses Maina Kahoro who was on a day shift duty at a private road construction company in Rumuruti called his colleagues Muturi Njuguna and Kelvin Anjere to witness him commit suicide. READ ALSO: My partner in everything: Ujumbe wa Jacque Maribe kwa Jowie ambao sasa unamtafuna READ ALSO: Two teachers killed after al-Shabaab militants attack school in Mandera While on top of a concrete chips at the company premises, the officer explained his suicide note to his friends verbally before he placed the muzzle of his G3 gun on his throat. Kahoro immediately squeezed the trigger which fired once and exited through the back of the head. He died on the spot. READ ALSO: Machakos University asks students to report with parents after striking The helpless and shocked officers called Rumuruti Officer Commanding Station (OCS) who rushed to the scene and recovered the gun and 19 bullets. The cartridge was also collected and photographs taken before the body was taken to Nyahururu sub-county hospital awaiting postmortem. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans accuse NTSA of incompetence and corruption and want it disbanded - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko - The man found himself tied in their house after being drugged by his mother - He woke up after a three days sleep and called his friends who rescued him - The mother said she was tired of her son's habit of hanging out with idle villagers - The mother was taken to Luanda police station for interrogation Residents of Ebbiba Village in Khusikulu Wemilabi, Vihiga County, have been left in shock after a middle-aged mother tied his 35-year-old son in the house. The woman is said to have drugged her son before tying him with a rope to a post in their house to prevent him from mixing with village idlers. READ ALSO: My partner in everything: Ujumbe wa Jacque Maribe kwa Jowie ambao sasa unamtafuna The mother said she had gotten tired of her sons habit of hanging out with idle villagers for baseless talks. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Survivor of ill-fated Western Express bus recounts how he narrowly escaped death In a report by Citizen, it was alleged the woman hired a doctor who administered the sleep inducing drug to her son. According to the mother, she had become tired of his unemployed son's habit of hanging out with villagers for baseless talks everyday and returning home in the evening. READ ALSO: Former assistant minister dies on way to a Nairobi hospital The son, a holder of a Bachelors Degree in Procurement from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), said he did not expect her mother to do such a thing. He said he only learnt of her mother's actions when he regained consciousness after a three-day sleep. READ ALSO: IMF, World Bank sharply differ on Kenya's projected growth rate He called his friends on phone who arrived at the scene and rescued him. Confirming the incident, Emuhaya/Luanda OCPD John Ndolo said they were investigating the matter and interrogating the woman to find out why he tied his son in the house contrary to the law. 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. Joseph Irungu and Jacque Maribe in court over the murder of Monica Kimani Tuko TV. Source: Kenya Breaking News Today - Retired president Daniel Moi ruled Kenya between August 1978 and December 2002 - Moi was remembered by Kenyans for good and bad decisions and initiatives he oversaw during his tenure in marking the reclaimed Moi Day holiday - Besides establishment of numerous Moi Girls' schools Moi Kenyans hailed Moi for introducing Nyayo milk, his symbol of authority baton (fimbo ya Nyayo) and Moi Golden Cup derby - Some Kenyans however said they only remembered Mzee Moi for dictatorial approach of leadership The State could have remained mum on celebrations of reclaimed Moi Day but Kenyans could not keep calm of fond memories they shared retired President Daniel Moi. Moi Day celebrated every October 10, since Kenya's second president ascended to power in 1978 was scrapped from the country's list of national holidays courtesy of 2010 Constitution but was reinstated by High Court Judge George Odunga on Wednesday, November 8, 2017. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Gregory Nyauchi, the man who successfully brought back Moi Day explains his reasons Retired President Daniel Moi and former Justice and Constitutional affairs Martha Karua. Photo: Daily Nation. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Jirani wa Jacque Maribe aelezea jinsi Jowie alichoma ushahidi katika mauaji ya Monica A section of Kenyans equally praised Mzee Moi reminiscing his memorable speeches and initiatives while others castigated his leadership perceived to be dictatorial across the social media. Inclining on the positive side of the discussion about a special day to honour him, the former president stated he was overwhelmed by the messages of love and goodwill Kenyans had shared and pledged to continue to pray for the country's blessings. From free milk for primary schools (maziwa ya nyayo), his symbolic instrument of power (fimbo ya nyayo), learning institutions with a Moi prefix, to an era of affordable goods and cash flow, here are some of the fond and ugly events Kenyans remembered Moi with; READ ALSO: Laikipia Administration Police officer calls colleagues before shooting himself dead Some Kenyans reveled in Moi's numerous formal titles like being Chancellor of all public Universities and others earned through his leadership style and preferences like political professor, Kenya's number one farmer and mlolongo (queue voting) system. READ ALSO: Vihiga mum drugs, ties 35-year-old graduate son in the house so he does not loiter around The retired president also inspired production of popular satirical programme Redykyulas in the late 90s where one lead character Walter Mong'are alias Nyambane mimicked him with his son Gideon Moi saying Mzee acknowledged it was indeed a funny cast. READ ALSO: Nairobi lady arrested for drugging, stealing KSh 136k from man in a bar 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. Joseph Irungu and Jacque Maribe in court over the murder of Monica Kimani Tuko TV. Source: Kenya Breaking News Today Police in Nairobi on gunned down four suspected criminals in Zimmerman estate, Nairobi after a botched robbery on the morning of Wednesday, October 10. Mysterious crime buster Hesy wa Dandora intercepted the four as they unsuccessfully tried to break into a wine and spirits joint in the area. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Jirani wa Jacque Maribe aelezea jinsi Jowie alichoma ushahidi katika mauaji ya Monica One of the ceska pistols recovered from the four criminals. Photo: Hesy wa Dandora/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Killer cop Hesy wa Dandora reveals 2 deadly Nairobi gangsters with connections to high offices The four armed gangsters started firing at the detectives who had responded on receiving information from members of the public hence prompting them to return fire. Their attempt to escape the hawk-eyed police officers proved futile as they were outmaneuvered and killed on the spot. During the incident, police recovered one ceska pistol and home made gun, 10 bullets and five spent cartridges. Fake notes of KSh 2.2 million, two mobile phones, one vehicle and a motor cycle were also found. On photos paraded by the killer cop, Kenyans hailed Hesy for his swift action in restoring law and order in the estate many agreed was getting out of hand. READ ALSO: Deadly Hessy wa Dandora issues tough warning to any youth wearing combat gears Hiffrey Jantrey: I can celebrate Moi Day now happily. Hessy thank you. Omumaina Wa Teremi: Be gouging out their eyes so that they see what to steal in the spirit world. Kerario Paul: Fools never learn!! Rot in hell, you think you have the right to kill and rob poor Kenyans! You will continue to receive your vaccines. Patrick Mwambi Muumbi: Good job guy. God bless you abundantly so that you can protect us peace-loving Kenyans. Pasta Noordin Ndungata: What a beautiful Moi Day gift! This is good job. Congrats and keep it up. Korir Kipkemoi: Hesy Wa Dandora, thank you for answering Zimmerman people's call. They've been here complaining a lot. Good job. READ ALSO: Dreaded Hessy wa Dandora gives gun-trotting Githurai woman few hours to surrender or be killed On October 1, Hesy positively identified two other suspects as Brian Kigonyi and Joseph Murege alias Mavado whom he termed as untouchable criminals with connections to high offices. 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. Joseph Irungu and Jacque Maribe in court over the murder of Monica Kimani - on Tuko TV Source: Tuko Kenya - The president met leaders mostly drawn from Western Kenya and Ukambani region - NASA co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang'ula were present at the meeting - The meeting was also attended by former VP Moody Awori and ex-Speaker Kenneth Marende - Among the issues discussed were revival of Mumias and Nzoia sugar companies - The Building Bridges Initiative started by Uhuru and Raila in March 2018 was also discussed President Uhuru Kenyatta has met leaders drawn from Ukambani and Western Kenya regions and held talks on the Big Four agenda and the Building Bridges Initiative that he started with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga on March 9, 2018. Uhuru held talks with National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang'ula, former Vice President Moody Awori and ex-Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Jirani wa Jacque Maribe aelezea jinsi Jowie alichoma ushahidi katika mauaji ya Monica President Uhuru Kenyatta Ukambani and Western Kenya leaders on Monday, October 8, at Sstate House, Nairobi to discuss the Big Four agenda and the Building Bridges Initiative. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Kalonzo, Mudavadi, Wetangula disown Raila's reconciliation talks with Uhuru TUKO.co.ke established the high-profile meeting held at the State House, Nairobi, on Monday, October 8, was also attended by governors, senators and MPs with the main agenda being development and unity. "I was humbled and honoured by Western leaders and Wiper Party members for joining me in the development agenda for Kenyans and putting aside political differences," Uhuru posted shortly after the meeting. READ ALSO: Kalonzo, Mudavadi, Wetangula disown Raila's reconciliation talks with Uhuru Among the issues that arose during the meeting, which for some reason was not attended by Deputy President William Ruto, Opposition leader Raila Odinga and Amani National Congress party leader Musalia Mudavadi, was the revival of Nzoia and Mumias sugar companies. The president gave the Western Kenya politicians a month to come up with a comprehensive plan on how to revive the two sugar millers and made it known that the government would not continue funding the companies until they are revived. READ ALSO: You've betrayed people who died fighting for you - Miguna blasts Raila after meeting Uhuru The head of state also talked about corruption, which he pointed out as one of the main reasons why the local sugar industry was struggling. Developing the local manufacturing sector was one of the agendas in the president's Big Four development master-plan. Universal health cover, affordable housing, and enhanced food security are the three other pillars of the Big Four. agenda. 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. When Uhuru, Ruto and Raila Met at State House - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko Kenya - The PinPoint Sacco matatu was on its way to Eastleigh from Kayole - The driver, identified as James Muigai, said the vehicle exploded from inside - This happened a few hours after a Kakamega-bound bus killed over 50 people in Kericho A fully packed 14-seater mini-bus belonging PinPoint Sacco has exploded with passengers on board along the busy Juja Road. The ill-fated matatu, which was reportedly headed to Eastleigh from Kayole, suddenly caught fire at the Huruma Flats area on the morning of Wednesday, October 10. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Jirani wa Jacque Maribe aelezea jinsi Jowie alichoma ushahidi katika mauaji ya Monica The ill-fated matatu was on its way to Easleigh from Kayole when it suddenly caught fire and with all the passengers on board. Photo: Nation. Source: UGC READ ALSO: 50 people feared dead in fatal road accident along Kisumu- Muhoroni highway TUKO.co.ke gathered the matatu exploded from inside in the second row of the passengers' seats. According to the vehicle's driver, identified as James Muigai, all the occupants were able to get out of the matatu as soon as it exploded. No one was hurt in the morning explosion. READ ALSO: Two teachers killed after al-Shabaab militants attack school in Mandera The incident happened a few hours after a Kakamega-bound bus belonging to Western Express Sacco killed over 50 people and left several others seriously injured at Fort Ternan on Kisumu-Muhoroni highway. Official reports indicate at least 31 men, 14 women and nine children died in the horrific Fort Ternan accident. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Gikomba's Biggest Fire Destroys Property Worth Millions of Shillings - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko Ugandan socialite turned business lady Zari Hassan was recently mauled by her countrymen for an inappropriate Independence Day message she shared online as the country marked 56 years of Independence. Zari shared a message to celebrate Uganda's Independence Day and attached Museveni's photo instead of the Ugandan flag. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Jirani wa Jacque Maribe aelezea jinsi Jowie alichoma ushahidi katika mauaji ya Monica READ ALSO: Ugandan musician arrested for insulting president Yoweri Museveni in new song Being Ugandan herself, Zari joined thousands of her people on Tuesday, October 9, in celebrating the day in the best way possible. However, unlike most of Ugandans who shared their Independence Day messages accompanied by a photo of the Ugandan flag, Zari shared hers but the photo she picked irked many who pounced on her like nobody's business. The mother of five, who was recently appointed Uganda's official tourism ambassador posted her message and attached a photo of Ugandan president Museveni. READ ALSO: Socialite Zari Hassan named Uganda's tourism ambassador READ ALSO: Zari Hassan calls her kids monkeys in birthday message to ex-hubby Diamond Platinumz Her 'innocent mistake' landed her in hot soup as Ugandans trolled her with many wondering why she thought Museveni was bigger than the country. In fact, most of those who trolled her made it clear that Uganda's Independence Day was actually meant for Uganda the country and its people, not Museveni. 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 As slayqueens scamper for the latest cosmetic products and pour their sponsors' money into expensive pedicure and manicure sessions, Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris is out here glowing. The beautiful legislator who defies age, time and the pressures of life, seems to be getting better and better as days go by. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Jirani wa Jacque Maribe aelezea jinsi Jowie alichoma ushahidi katika mauaji ya Monica READ ALSO: Esther Passaris forced to speak after viral photo of her ogling at Sportpesa CEO To celebrate Moi Day, Passaris shared a throwback photo of herself that was taken a decade ago on Twitter and her fans were taken aback by her beauty. In the iconic photo, the ageless politician was standing next to former president Daniel Arap Moi and President Uhuru Kenyatta and boy was she a catch! READ ALSO: Esther Passaris reveals she's the newest victim of fraud days after Waziri Chacha was arrested Team mafisi marvelled at how she had aged like fine wine as some even kept pestering her for the secret to effortless good looks and charm. One netizen even said he wanted more than anything to share the Woman Rep's tips with his mother. Ladies, if you do not want age to catch up with you please slide into the legislator's DM and plead for her beauty secrets. Her smile, confidence and undeniable wits are also still intact and years just keep making Passaris become a better version of herself. At one point, people even thought her fellow politician Babu Owino wanted a piece of that apple thanks to a photo of him feasting his hungry eyes upon the gorgeous Woman Rep. 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 Kenya Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy has signed the law introducing a new salute "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Heroes!" in the Armed Forces and the National Police instead of Soviet-style greetings "Hello, comrades!" and "We wish you good health!" "I have signed the law approved by the Verkhovna Rada regarding amendments to the statutes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (No. 9036) on the introduction of a military greeting 'Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Heroes!' I am sure this is a restoration of historical justice! We have returned our traditional greetings to the Ukrainian army!" he wrote on Twitter. After signing by the speaker, the law will be sent for consideration by President Petro Poroshenko. According to lawmakers, the adoption of this law will make it possible to increase the prestige of military service and the image of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in society, regulate relations between servicemen and introduce new traditions in the Ukrainian army. On September 3, President Petro Poroshenko tabled in the Verkhovna Rada the bill No. 9036 on amendments to the statutes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which envisages the introduction of a new salute in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. op Ukraines company SpetsTechnoExport has signed a memorandum with Turkeys company Aselsan on the joint production of Turkish radio communication equipment in Ukraine, according to the website of Ukroboronprom. "The state company SpetsTechnoExport, which is part of Ukroboronprom, has signed a memorandum with the Turkish company Aselsan on the organization of joint production of Turkish radio communication equipment in Ukraine. The agreements are planned to be implemented according to the mechanism of offset obligations between the companies," reads the report. The signing of the memorandum was held during the international specialized exhibition "Arms and Security-2018" in Kyiv. It is noted that the establishment of the production of Turkish radio communication systems in Ukraine will allow the Defense Ministry of Ukraine to gain access to the most advanced technologies in the field of communication systems. In December 2016, SpetsTechnoExport and Aselsan signed the first agreement on the import of VHF radio stations for the needs of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine. iy Ukraine and Japan will work on the resumption of work of the Ukraine-Japan Commission for Science and Technology Cooperation. It is strange that cooperation between our countries still occurs within the framework of the agreement between Japan and the Soviet Union. I would like to raise the issue of holding the meetings of the Ukraine-Japan Commission for Science and Technology Cooperation. Until 2013, three commissions meetings took place, a memorandum was signed, but we did not proceed to the systematic implementation of our agreements. We propose to resume the work of this commission and move from signing documents to yielding results, Ukrainian Education and Science Minister Lilia Hrynevych said during a meeting with Masahiko Shibayama, the newly appointed Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, the press service of Ukraines Education and Science Ministry reports. There is an increase in educational exchange between the students of the two countries, she added. With this in mind, I suggest that you think about the possibility of signing an agreement on mutual recognition of diplomas between our countries, the Ukrainian minister noted. In turn, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan noted that the countries should first start consultations on the resumption of work of the bilateral commission in order to deepen cooperation. ol Russia's military buildup in the occupied Crimea, as well as the use of the peninsula as a base for combat operations in Syria and other parts of the region, creates far-reaching consequences for Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko said this at a meeting on the militarization of the occupied Crimea, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "The occupation and the subsequent militarization of Crimea have far-reaching consequences for security not only in the Black Sea region but also throughout Southern Europe, as well as in North Africa and the Middle East," the Ukrainian diplomat said, meaning Moscow's support for the Assad regime. Yelchenko said that Moscow had chosen the way of escalation and expanding aggression. He called the level of Russia's militarization of the Crimean peninsula "unprecedented." At the same time, he emphasized that Russia continues to systematically violate fundamental rights and freedoms in the occupied Crimea, especially against Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians, which was recorded by respective international mechanisms, including the UN, the OSCE and the Council of Europe. "The question of the return of Crimea remains an absolute priority in Ukraine's foreign and domestic policy," he said. In addition, Yelchenko drew attention to the latest spread of Russian military aggression in the Sea of Azov, which also "endangers stability" in the region. He recalled the obstruction by Russia of navigation in the Azov Sea, the buildup of forces, as well as the creation of environmental problems. "Given the current unstable security situation, Ukraine intends to submit a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly in order to prevent Russia from further militarizing the territory of Ukraine and the surrounding regions," Yelchenko said. op Ukraine and the EU have never been as close to each other as they are now. Our partnership, based on common principles and values, already yields specific results in transforming the country and increasing opportunities for citizens. Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze made the relevant statement, speaking at a round table meeting at the Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London. She noted that over the past years Ukraine had managed to launch a series of structural reforms covering almost all spheres of public life, including health care and education, public administration and decentralization, judicial system, security institutions and law enforcement. The Vice Prime Minister acknowledged that the pace of reforms in Ukraine was not fast enough. However, the priority should be constant evolution, rather than radical unprepared changes, which could have a negative effect or be easily reversed after the next elections. According to her, the EU-Ukraine cooperation is extremely intensive, but the EU should continue to clearly and actively support the reforms in Ukraine as both Ukraine and the EU enter the election season in 2019. We need to get a strong signal from Europe that Ukraine is an equal partner, that our future is in the European family, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze emphasized. ol Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia have a more ambitious agenda than other Eastern Partnership countries and implement it. Therefore, the EU should proceed to more for more approach towards these countries. "Ukraine is one of the leaders in adopting new legislation on environmental impact assessment, basin water management and water monitoring system. This suggests that the EU should proceed to a "more for more" approach, in particular, towards Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, which, compared to other Eastern Partnership countries, have a more ambitious agenda, taking into account the association agreement with the EU, Ecology and Natural Resources Minister of Ukraine Ostap Semerak said at the second Eastern Partnership (EaP) formal ministerial meeting on environment and climate change, which was held in Luxembourg on October 9. There is a need to constantly raise the issue of climate change in society and of the increased political leadership, support and pressure to promote the environmental agenda both in the Eastern Partnership countries and in the EU, the minister added. ol The United Kingdom intends to impose additional sanctions on the Russian Federation after the country's withdrawal from the EU in March 2019. "A tougher sanctions regime will become a reality after the UK's withdrawal from the EU in March 2019 as at the moment it is impossible to impose bilateral sanctions. Your security is our security also," Thomas Tugendhat, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons of the British Parliament, said during a meeting with Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, in London. The experience of Ukraine in countering hybrid attacks is extremely valuable for the UK, Tugendhat noted. The parties agreed to strengthen cooperation in identifying and countering disinformation. Julian Lewis, the Chair of the Defence Committee of the House of Commons of the British Parliament, in turn, said that the United Kingdom would make every effort to promote peace in the occupied territories of Donbas and restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The parliamentarians assured that Ukraine had significant support in the British Parliament and agreed that it was necessary to continue an active dialogue with representatives of the EU Member States on Russia's aggressive policy, in particular, in the context of countering the construction of Nord Stream 2 pipeline. ol The members of parliaments of Ukraine and Montenegro are interested in active bilateral dialogue, which will promote the expansion of economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation between the countries. "During the visit, the Ukrainian delegation met with President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Ivan Brajovic and members of the friendship group with the Parliament of Ukraine, headed by Vice President of the Parliament of Montenegro Genci Nimanbegu... The parties agreed on the need to continue an active bilateral dialogue at the parliamentary level, which will further promote the expansion of economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation between Ukraine and Montenegro," the press service of the Embassy of Ukraine in Montenegro reports, following the official visit of members of the Ukraine-Montenegro friendship parliamentary group to Montenegro. As noted, the parties pointed to the similarity of common foreign policy priorities of the two countries. Ukrainian MP Andriy Shypko, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, on behalf of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine expressed gratitude to Montenegro for its unwavering support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine and joining the EU sanctions against Russia. ol The lower chamber of the United States Congress, following a decision by the U.S. Senate, should recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. President of the Ukrainian World Congress Eugene Czolij said this while commenting on the adoption by the U.S. Senate of a resolution recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as genocide against the Ukrainian people. "The Ukrainian World Congress is very grateful to the Senate of the United States for this historic resolution, congratulates the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States led by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America on this milestone in Holodomor recognition and urges the U.S. House of Representatives to adopt similar recognition in honor of the victims of the Holodomor," Czolij said. Last week, the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution reaffirming the conclusions of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine (dated April 22, 1988) regarding "genocide against the Ukrainians." The resolution also condemns the systematic violations of human rights, including the freedom of self-determination and freedom of speech, of the Ukrainian people by the Soviet government. The document also extends its deepest sympathies to the victims, survivors of the famine, and their families, and encourages dissemination of information regarding the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in order to expand the world's knowledge of this manmade tragedy. op The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine supports Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and demands that Russia immediately release him and other Ukrainian political prisoners. "We agree with our EU partners: Sentsov demonstrated incredible courage, determination & dedication during his hunger strike. Russia should release all Ukrainian political prisoners immediately & respect Ukraine's sovereignty & territorial integrity," the embassy said on its Twitter account. EU Spokesperson Maja Kocijancic said in a statement on October 7 that the European Union stands in solidarity with Sentsov and, in addition to swift and appropriate medical treatment, expects his immediate release, along with all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens in Russia and on the Crimean peninsula. Earlier, Sentsov's lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, confirmed that his client ended his hunger strike on October 6. Oleg passed through a lawyer a letter telling about the threat of force-feeding. Force-feeding had to begin "as part of resuscitation measures to save the patient's life," therefore Sentsov was forced to stop his hunger strike. Sentsov was sentenced in Russia in August 2015 to 20 years in a high-security colony on trumped-up charges of plotting terrorist attacks in the annexed Crimea. On May 14, 2018, Sentsov went on hunger strike demanding that all Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia be freed. About 70 Ukrainian political prisoners are currently held in Russia and Russia-occupied Crimea. Among them is Ukrinform journalist Roman Sushchenko, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for alleged espionage. op The exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon from the United States and Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton from Canada, have arrived for a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which has already begun, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "It will be all right. With God's help. I think so," Exarch Daniel said, when asked by an Ukrinform correspondent about the prospects of today's meeting of the Synod, which is to hear a report by the exarchs following their visit to Ukraine. Exarch Daniel told reporters about his impression of a trip to Ukraine. "I was glad to see representatives of the religious and secular authorities of Ukraine. Impressions of the trip are good," he said. When asked whether the people are ready for a church union, the exarch said that "Ukraine was ready to consider the issue of a church union for 27 years, if not longer." Having ignored a provocative question from Russian TV channels about the possible escalation of the situation in Ukraine after it gets a tomos of autocephaly, he blessed all journalists and wished everyone a good day. The issue of granting autocephaly to Ukraine will be discussed after the report by the exarchs. Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on April 19 endorsed President Petro Poroshenko's address to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the provision of a tomos of autocephaly to Ukraine. This idea was also supported by the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). As part of preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the Ecumenical Patriarchate appointed Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon from the United States and Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton from Canada as its exarchs in Kyiv. They stayed in the Ukrainian capital until October 5. It is expected that on October 9-11 the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will consider a report by the exarchs and make a decision on granting a tomos to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. op The Croatian representative urged PACE to act without going beyond the statutory powers. Chairperson of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia Marija Pejcinovic Buric, who will soon complete her six-month chair, has officially backed the legal arguments about the illegality of sanctions against Russia imposed in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Read alsoPACE committee backs Ukrainian amendments to rules for PACE delegations Speaking at a PACE session in Strasbourg on October 10, she abstained from accusations addressed to the Assembly, but noted that PACE should take into account the conclusions prepared by Legal Adviser of the Council of Europe Jorg Polakiewicz at the general request of the Secretary General and the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Ukraine's news outlet European Pravda said. The Croatian representative urged PACE to act without going beyond the statutory powers. Pejcinovic Buric also called for preserving Russia within the Council of Europe, leaving the Council of Europe status of a pan-European organization. At the same time, she acknowledged the Russian side does not participate in the work of the PACE on its own will. As UNIAN reported earlier, PACE has not yet collected enough votes to amend the rules, which may complicate the procedure for maintaining sanctions against Russia. On Tuesday, October 9, PACE was considering changes to the rules and procedures that may complicate the procedure for maintaining sanctions against Russia. In particular, it was planned to increase the share of votes from 50% to 2/3 on the issue of appealing the powers of national delegations, including in the context of the extension of sanctions against the Russian Federation. He said the summons was due to the existence of a "death list" of Transcarpathian Hungarians in Ukraine. Hungary's foreign ministry has summoned Ukraine's ambassador to Budapest after "Ukraine's anti-Hungarian policy reached a new level." Parliamentary state secretary Levente Magyar told a press conference on Wednesday that he had received ambassador Liubov Nepop at the ministry, the Hungarian news portal, Hungary Today, reported on October 10. Read alsoOver 300 officials get Hungarian passports in Ukraine's Zakarpattia region Myrotvorets database He said the summons was due to the existence of a "death list" of Transcarpathian Hungarians in Ukraine, as well as a call for the collective deportation Ukrainian-Hungarian dual citizens on the Ukrainian Parliament's website. Further, Ukraine is introducing military installations near the Hungarian border, Magyar said. The state secretary referred to "an extremist Ukrainian website" that had published a list containing the data of 300 Transcarpathian state or local council officials who it claims are dual citizens. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Myrotvorets (Peacekeeper) Center database, which lists individuals who pose a threat to the country's security, published a list of residents of Ukraine's Zakarpattia region, who, holding public servants' posts and being members of local councils, have obtained Hungarian passports. Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's foreign minister, is also on the list, Magyar said. The presidential press secretary promised that the Russian side would continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the regions of Donbas occupied by Russian mercenaries. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to answer the question on whether Russia intends to raise the standard of living in the occupied Donbas to the all-Russian level and what were the legal grounds for the Russian official to promise to raise salaries in the occupied areas. The comment came as an UNIAN correspondent in Russia asked Peskov to elaborate on the TASS news agencys report, which claimed that following the negotiations between and the new "head" of the occupation administration in Donetsk Denis Pushilin and Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov the latter said Russia intended to raise salaries in the occupied part of Donbas. In particular, Peskov noted that he heard about it for the first time. You know, the state agency [TASS] reports on a very wide range of issues, and that UNIAN rather contact an expert Alexei Chesnakov [the one who reported the news] for him to clarify where the information comes from. Read alsoKurt Volker: Russia has a 100% command and control of the forces... it has control of the so-called peoples republics. So, this is a 100% Russian-led operation "I cannot say anything to you officially on the issue, said Peskov. Answering the UNIAN correspondent's question, whether the Kremlin has plans to raise the standard of living in the occupied parts of Donbas, Peskov said: The Kremlin would welcome a higher standard of living in this territory, the territory that, as you know, has been rejected by Kyiv in the socio-economic terms." "You know that the Russian side is constantly providing humanitarian assistance to these regions of Donbas, and will continue this practice, but basically, I can't say anything as to who will raise wages and where, he added. As reported by TASS, today, October 10, presidential aide Vladislav Surkov met in Moscow with the "head" of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, where Surkov promised a salary increase in the occupied territory of Donbas. The British side aims to prepare the text of the new agreement in the middle of 2019. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze has welcomed the decision of the British Government to list the future agreement on the free trade area (FTA) between Ukraine and Britain among its priorities for 2018-2019. Klympush-Tsintsadze met with UK Minister of State for Europe and the Americas Alan Duncan during her working visit to London. Speaking on the outcome of the meeting related to the prospects for strengthening trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, she said that Kyiv expects "to complete the relevant talks successfully and as quickly as possible," the Ukrainian media outlet Europeiska Pravda wrote on October 6. Read alsoGavin Williamson commits extra British troops in Ukraine to stop Russia 'reversing Cold War outcome' media As was earlier reported, Kyiv and London had agreed to prepare a new FTA agreement, which should replace the Association Agreement with the European Union following a March 2019 Brexit. The British side aims to prepare the text of the new agreement in the middle of 2019. The parties agreed that during the talks on a new agreement, the rules of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement would be applied in trade with the UK, which must be stipulated in the relevant document. The measures have been taken by order of Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces Gen. Viktor Muzhenko. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has tightened security at ammunition depots and arsenals across Ukraine. "By order of Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces Gen. Viktor Muzhenko, the security and defense of ammunition depots and arsenals for storing ammunition have been strengthened across Ukraine," the department said on Facebook. Read alsoPoroshenko on ammo depot fire: No coincidence sabotage is the main version given proximity to Russia border As of 07:00 Kyiv time, measures were under way to eliminate the emergency situation at the 6th arsenal near the town of Ichnya in Chernihiv region, Ukraine's north. The emergency response center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is working on the scene around the clock. The situation is under control. As reported by the General Staff of Ukraine, three more fire tanks are scheduled to arrive at the 6th arsenal in addition to the already working special engineering and fire equipment. As UNIAN reported earlier, around 10,000 people were evacuated after a fire and explosions hit a defense ministry ammunition depot 176 km (109 miles) east of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early on Tuesday morning. The squad will operate in Sumy region, Ukraine's northeast. The Cabinet of Ministers, Ukraine's government, has approved the creation of a budget institution "Shostka Border Squad of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (military unit No. 1569)." Read alsoRussian occupation forces in Donbas employ lasers to blind Ukrainian border guards The decision was adopted without debates at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, October 10, an UNIAN correspondent reported. The squad, according to its name, will operate in Sumy region, Ukraine's northeast. UNIAN memo. The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine is an independent law enforcement agency of special assignment, its chief is subordinate to the President of Ukraine. The agency was created on July 31, 2003, after the reorganization of the State Committee in Affairs for Protection the State Border. During wartime, units of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine are under the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine comprises the Ukrainian Sea Guard (the country's coast guard) in addition to the Ground Forces and the aerial support unit. Its chief is now Petro Tsyhykal, who was appointed in 2017. The cleric noted that there had been discussions on the issue at the Synod. A member of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Austrian Metropolitan and Exarch of Hungary Arsenios declares that the decision on granting autocephaly, that is, an ecclesiastical independence, to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be made "when the time comes." According to Radio Liberty, the comment was made on the sidelines of the meeting of the Holy Synod, which is being held for the second day in Istanbul. We talked about the tomos. The decision will be made when the time comes, but the Ecumenical Patriarchate has the right to make such a decision, said Metropolitan Arsenios. When asked about relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, which opposes the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Arsenios said: We dont want to create new problems, but with God's help we will act so that everything is as peaceful as He wishes. Read alsoPatriarch Filaret explains procedure for selecting head of new local church in Ukraine The exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch, who were in September in Kyiv in the framework of preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, arrived in Istanbul, where on October 10 they are addressing the Synod. One of the exarchs, Bishop Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States, in response to the question of whether the Ukrainian church is ready for unification, said: "I think that the churches in Ukraine are ready for unification. They have been, for the past 27 years, if not for several centuries. It's hard to say when this is going to happen. This is all I can say at the moment. Read alsoBartholomew 'hopes' for independent Ukrainian Church media As UNIAN reported earlier, a three-day meeting of the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate began in Istanbul on October 9. It is expected that the issue of providing the tomos on the autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be considered. The meeting is taking place behind closed doors. The head of the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate's information department, Yevstratiy Zorya, noted that the discussion of the issue would be taking place only the exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch delivered their report. The total number of personnel involved was more than 500 servicemen. The Mariupol detachment of the Ukrainian coast guards, along with the tactical aviation units of the Air Force, tank troops, artillery, mechanized companies of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and other defense and security agencies, repulsed the "armed assault" of the conditional enemy from the Sea of Azov, as part of the drills, the press service of the State Border Guard Service reports. Vessel commanders carried out maneuvers near the conditional enemy, while the crews worked out live shooting from weapons of various calibers. Read alsoUkrainian Navy ships pass through Kerch Strait "In honing military skills in the Belosaray Bay area, five attack aircraft SU-24, four MI-8 helicopters, about 10 new tanks, over 10 howitzers, five units of naval-cutter personnel of the coast guard joined efforts," said the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. Earlier, NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov stated that the Ukrainian military were planning to conduct serious exercises in the waters of the Sea of Azov. According to intelligence reports, three enemy troops were eliminated and another five were wounded. Russia's hybrid military forces mounted 39 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action (KIA) and another two as wounded in action (WIA). "One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another two were wounded in the past day. According to intelligence reports, three occupiers were killed and another five were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on October 10, 2018. Read alsoJFO: Ukraine reports three WIA's in Donbas in past 24 hours Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers of various systems, heavy machine guns and small arms to attack the defenders of the towns of Zolote, Avdiyivka, Krasnohorivka, and Maryinka. The following villages were also under fire: Stanytsia Luhanska, Krymske, Novotoshkivske, Novozvanivka, Luhanske, Novoluhanske, Travneve, Zalizne, Pisky, Novomykhailivka, Berezove, Novotroyitske, Starohnativka, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Vodiane, Lebedynske, and Shyrokyne. The enemy also resorted to 152mm artillery systems to shell the Ukrainian fortified position near Novotoshkivske, while the defenders of Vodiane were attacked with the use of 122mm artillery systems. In addition, the Ukrainian positions near Luhanske, Hnutove, and Lebedynske came under fire from 120mm mortars, while those near Krymske, Novotoshkivske, Zolote, Novozvanivka, Luhanske, Novoluhanske, and Vodiane were attacked from 82mm mortars. Furthermore, the occupiers resorted to cannons of infantry fighting vehicles to fire at the defenders of Krymske and Novozvanivka, as well as anti-tank guided missiles near Zolote. "Since Wednesday midnight, Russian-led forces have attacked the Ukrainian positions near Hnutove and Shyrokyne, using heavy machine guns and small arms. No heavy weapons have been used. No Ukrainian army casualties have been reported since the start of the day," reads the report. Villagers left their houses several years ago as Russian-backed forces had terrorized the local population. The Joint Forces of Ukraine have retaken an uninhabited village in the "gray zone" near the town of Volnovakha, Donetsk region. Ukrainian troops advanced 1.2 km forward amid a special operation, NGO Back and Alive said on Facebook on October 10. "The village where there were 80 residents before the war is located in the so-called 'gray zone,'" it said. Despite an agreed ceasefire, Russia's hybrid military forces used the village as a base to open fire on Ukrainian positions. Read alsoEscalation in Donbas: Ukraine reports 1 KIA, 2 WIA's in past day Locals left the village several years ago, as Russian-backed terrorists had held the local population in fear, and then looted their destroyed houses. The village has turned to be a minefield. Russian-made PMN-2 anti-personnel mines, which are prohibited by the Geneva Convention, were planted there. "Judging from how they were 'arranged,' they were planted by professional servicemen," it said. Russian-made dry rations whose labels indicated the place of production facilities, for example, Perm and Moscow, as well as remnants of ammunition of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with erased markings were found in the "gray zone," it said. The nature and scale of Russias interventions in a growing number of southern and eastern European countries are of great concern. Russias systematic approach of weakening western Europe with these policies along with support for disruptive nationalist parties across the continent is reaching into NATO itself, according to former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague. "Finally, weakness in the face of such activities will lead to a greater showdown in the future, on a border or in a country we cannot yet predict, Hague wrote for The Telegraph, according to Corporate Dispatch. In his article he writes Last weeks co-ordinated revelations by British, Dutch and American agencies of the activities of Russian agents conducting cyber attacks on countries, companies and international organisations were a setback and an embarrassment for Moscow. The extent of such activities and the duplicity of the endless denials were suddenly illuminated. Yet of equal or even greater concern is the nature and scale of Russias interventions in a growing number of southern and eastern European countries. While the West is distracted and divided, President Putin is busily undermining its future stability in plain sight. Read alsoBritain has reportedly practiced a cyberattack to send Moscow into total blackout Business Insider Hague refers to events in Ukraine since 2014 remain the starkest example of this. Russia has annexed part of its territory Crimea and then pursued a long campaign of attrition and destabilisation to prevent Ukraine functioning as a normal country. Years of tragedy and death have ensued, including the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner, fiercely denied by Moscow but shown beyond doubt to have been the work of a Russian missile. Commenting about the influence in a number of states, Hague says, that it is in smaller states, however, that the strategy has become utterly clear to prevent countries choosing of their own free will to become democratic nations within the western alliance. In 2016, an attempted coup in Montenegro an attempt to prevent this tiny country joining NATO was foiled, with Russian nationals among those indicted for the plot. It is a fair assumption that some of the same techniques will have been used to influence two national elections in recent days. In Latvia, a pro-Russian party has received sufficient votes in the general election that it may have to be included in the government, bringing its influence inside the Wests institutions. Read alsoConflict with Russia could start unpredictably British army chief Britain has remained highly active in trying to promote the future stability of the Balkans and assuring the security of Baltic allies. "But now it is important to add to that a clear understanding of what is taking place, a united effort to deal with it, and a categorical insistence that the bloodstained map of eastern Europe is finished," Hague wrote. The troll farm is believed to be run by billionaire restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as President Vladimir Putins cook. The office of Russias infamous troll factory believed to be at the vanguard of Russias information war has been set on fire in St. Petersburg overnight Tuesday. An investigation revealed last year that the secretive troll factory had rebranded itself as a media conglomerate with 16 news websites generating more than 30 million pageviews every month, according to The Moscow Times. Its operational hub, a website called FAN (Federal News Agency), is based a stones throw from the troll farms original location in northern St. Petersburg. The Fontanka.ru news website cited police as saying that an unknown suspect broke the agencys ground-floor window and threw a Molotov cocktail inside at around 3 a.m. on Tuesday. Surveillance footage published by FAN showed flames erupting at one of the empty workstations and a female staffer stationed on the opposite end quickly exiting the office. Read alsoU.S. group posing as Russian trolls easily buys political ads on Google - media The troll farm is believed to be run by billionaire restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as President Vladimir Putins cook. A U.S. special counsel indicted Prigozhin and 12 other Russians this year on charges of defrauding the U.S. government by interfering with its political process. St. Petersburg police told the RBC news website that they were looking for the culprit and planned to launch criminal proceedings. Trump and Kim held a historic first summit in Singapore on June 12 at which Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be held after U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 6. Speaking to reporters as he flew to Iowa for a political rally, Trump said: "It'll be after the midterms. I just can't leave now," as reported by Reuters. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that plans were being made for his second summit with Kim and that he thought "incredible" progress had been made in U.S. talks with the long-isolated North Asian country. Read alsoNikki Haley resigns as Trumps UN ambassador - media He said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had very good talks with Kim over the weekend and that three or four locations were being considered. Pompeo echoed Trump's comments when he spoke briefly to reporters during a Tuesday afternoon visit to the White House. "While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path where we will achieve (our) ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearization of North Korea," he said. Trump and Kim held a historic first summit in Singapore on June 12 at which Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. His actions have fallen short, however, of Washington's demands for a complete inventory of its weapons and facilities and irreversible steps to give up its nuclear arsenal, which could threaten the United States. Recruitments of mercenaries began after Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and amid the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian and pro-Russian separatist forces. The Ukrainian Security Service, SBU on Monday published a list of 206 individuals who it claimed have been fighting for private military company Wagner in Syria and eastern Ukraine, among them three Moldovan citizens. The new name revealed among the Moldovan fighters on the list was 47-year-old Serghey Prida from Soroca in north-east Moldova, Balkan Insight reported. Prida was listed alongside two Moldovans who have been named previously - Veaceslav Apostol, who has already been killed in Syria, and Radu Donciu, an active fighter with the Wagner unit. The men's names could not be independently verified. "Wagner's mercenaries are instruments of Russia's hybrid aggression against the rest of the world," the SBU said. Read alsoUkraine names Moldovan fighting for Russian paramilitary unit media Moldova's Security and Intelligence Service, SIS, told BIRN in April 2018 that it has identified 62 people from the country as taking part in mercenary activities in Ukraine. Recruitments of mercenaries began after Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and amid the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian and pro-Russian separatist forces. "Evidence about these persons was handed over to the Prosecutor's Office of Moldova. It is worth mentioning that 17 mercenaries have been convicted by the courts of Moldova," the SIS said in April 2018. Wagner, an Argentine-registered private military company, employs mercenaries who are believed to have played an important role in battles fought by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and, from 2016, also in Syria. Russian officials have long admitted the presence of volunteer fighters in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, and in Syria, where Moscow supports the Damascus government but denies any links to the private company Wagner. Read alsoRussia sends troops, missiles into Libya in bid to enforce stranglehold on West media An investigation by RISE Moldova has also shown how Moldovan citizens have opted to fight both for the separatists in Donbass but also for Ukrainian battalions, some for money and others for ideological reasons. Russia has recruited fighters from all over Moldova, but many come from the breakaway region of Transnistria and some from the Gagauzia autonomous region inside Moldova, according to RISE Moldova. Ukraine also expressed irritation in 2017 about Belgrade's failure to stop Serbians from fighting for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin called on Serbia in November 2017 to respect his country's sovereignty and territorial integrity by taking action to stop its citizens joining separatist forces. In December 2017, Ukraine's security service issued arrest warrants for six alleged Serbian mercenaries. The Kyiv authorities maintain that almost 300 Serbs are still fighting in separatist-controlled areas. The Wagner company has also a so-called Serbian platoon allegedly led by a Bosnian Serb, Davor Dragolobovic Savicic, 42, nicknamed 'The Wolf' by his men for his courage and strength. Without any real evidence, U.S. adversaries have lobbed many rhetorical attacks against the U.S. forces accusing them of harboring or training terrorists at al-Tanf. Russia and the Syrian government warned the U.S. in early September that they planned to carry out counterterrorism operations near a key U.S. garrison in southeastern Syria known as al-Tanf, where several hundred Marines have been stationed since at least 2016. But the U.S. responded with a live-fire exercise, and the Russians backed down, according to Business Insider. In fact, the al-Tanf garrison has long drawn the ire of Moscow, Tehran, and Damascus but all they've been able to do is complain about it. The Russian state-owned media outlet Sputnik quoted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem as saying late last month that the U.S. was "gathering the remnants of the Islamic State at this base in order to later send them wage war on the Syrian army." Late last year, Russian Gen. Valery Gerasimov told Russia's Pravda that satellite and other surveillance data indicated "terrorist squads" were stationed at al-Tanf and that terrorists were "effectively training there." Iran's Press TV cited Gerasimov's quote in an article published this past June titled "U.S. forces training terrorists at 19 camps inside Syria: Russian expert." Without any real evidence, U.S. adversaries have lobbed many rhetorical attacks against the U.S. forces accusing them of harboring or training terrorists at al-Tanf. Damascus and Russian state-owned media even claimed in June that the U.S. was preparing a "false flag" chemical attack "identical to the kind that took place in Douma" at al-Tanf. Read alsoRussia sends troops, missiles into Libya in bid to enforce stranglehold on West media "The U.S. led Coalition is here to defeat ISIS, first and foremost, and that is the objective of the presence in at al-Tanf," US Army Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, told Business Insider in an email. "No U.S. troops have trained ISIS and that is just incorrect and misinformation, it is truly amazing some people think that," Ryan said. The U.S. has trained Syrian rebels at al-Tanf, namely a group called Maghawir al Thawra. Omar Lamrani, a senior military analyst at Stratfor, told Business Insider the group was "fairly secular by regional standards and has been at the forefront of the fight against ISIS." Lamrani further described the idea that the US is training the Islamic State or like-minded groups at al-Tanf as "certainly absurd." "To the Russians and Iranians, almost any group fighting against the Syrian government can be labeled a terrorist group," Lamrani said. So why do Russia, Iran, and the Syrian government care so much about this garrison? "I'd say that the primary reasons why Iran cares about it so much is, again, it blocks the Baghdad-Damascus highway," Lamrani said. Tehran uses the highway to transport weapons to the Syrian capital of Damascus, where the government is based. "The reason they want the land route is that it's easier to bring [weapons] across land in greater quantities, and the shipping route is very vulnerable to Israeli interception, and the air route is expensive and often gets hit by Israeli airstrikes," Lamrani added. Read alsoPompeo says U.S. may hold Russia accountable for chemical weapons in Syria media Moscow, on the other hand, is upset about al-Tanf, according to Lamrani, because "it's the last area in Syria where the United States is involved with rebels on the ground that are not Syrian Democratic Forces." The Russians and the Syrian government have "open channels" with the SDF and want to negotiate not fight with them, Lamrani added. But Moscow, Tehran, and the Syrian government's ire might go beyond just stymieing the flow of weapons to Damascus and training rebels. "There's a history at that garrison at al-Tanf," Max Markusen, an associate director and associate fellow of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider. "I think that the Syrian regime, the Russians and Iranians, would see it as a [symbolic] victory if the United States pulled out of there than just sort of tactical level objectives," Markusen said, adding that there's much resentment for the US having trained rebels at al-Tanf. But they haven't sought to use force to expel U.S. troops because "the costs of escalation are too high," Markusen said. So they're relegated to discrediting the al-Tanf garrison. Going forward, "we will continue to see an escalation of rhetoric," Markusen said, but "I don't there's going to be a major outbreak of conflict." Mr. Bryan is being accused of allegedly violating ethics rules by working on matters in which he had a financial interest, and of shaping Energy Department policy to benefit Rinat Akhmetov and his allies in exchange for valuable promises of future private business dealings. As tanks, artillery and combat troops streamed from Russia into Ukraine in 2014, the United States government dispatched a multiagency team of technical experts to Kyiv to help the fragile government there shore up its energy supply for the coming winter. The head of that team, William N. Bryan, was a career civil servant with an expertise in energy infrastructure and security, according to The New York Times. But he was a neophyte when it came to the notoriously factional and corrupt world of Ukrainian politics. And it was not long before American and Ukrainian government officials began raising concerns that he was being co-opted by a Ukrainian company seen as aligned with a prominent oligarch. Concerns grew when Mr. Bryan later joined a consulting firm that pursued business proposals with the company. Now, four years later, those relationships are attracting new scrutiny as Mr. Bryan awaits a Senate confirmation vote to become President Trumps homeland security under secretary for science and technology. Mr. Bryan said he followed all the rules and made very little money from the private business with Ukrainian entities. Read alsoManafort's ex-business partner Gates: Ukrainian clients wire millions of dollars to account in Cyprus But his case is the latest to highlight growing concerns about foreign influence on American politics and government, not least from wealthy, powerful Ukrainian interests. And it focuses new attention on the employment designation granted to Mr. Bryan by the Obama administration for part of his tenure in Ukraine, that of special government employee, a status that allows high-level officials to maintain outside employment. As part of the confirmation process, the Senate is examining Mr. Bryans relationship with the founders of the Ukrainian company, the Energy Industry Research Center, and his work for the Ukrainian government-owned gas company, Naftogaz. A federal investigative agency is looking into a former colleagues accusations that Mr. Bryan used his Energy Department position to try to steer government funds to the center, which United States and Ukrainian officials believe to be aligned with Rinat Akhmetov, a billionaire oligarch who maintains close connections to pro-Russia political forces in Ukraine. A copy of a whistle-blower complaint filed by Mr. Bryans former colleague has been requested by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who has delved into Ukrainian political consulting as an offshoot of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mr. Bryan has not been charged with any wrongdoing. In an interview, he said that he never made a dime off any of the people I knew from the Ukraine, deliberately, because I didnt want to violate any of the ethics rules. Mr. Bryan, 59, has spent most of his adult life in public service, including 17 years in the Army, followed by five years in civilian roles at the Defense Department before joining the Energy Department about a decade ago. He was eventually named a senior adviser in the departments international affairs division, which oversaw the Ukraine work. During some of the period being scrutinized, Mr. Bryan was designated a special government employee. The job category is intended to permit the government to place experts on the federal payroll for a limited period while allowing them to continue earning money in the private sector. But it has regularly generated controversy over real or perceived conflicts of interest under both Mr. Trump and his predecessors. Read alsoManafort wanted to galvanize 'Obama jews' against Ukrainian politician as part of lobbying work media While operating under that designation at the Energy Department, Mr. Bryan was affiliated with a Virginia consulting firm, ValueBridge International, and he remained with the firm after he left the Energy Department in mid-2016. The whistle-blower complaint against Mr. Bryan was filed by Robert Ivy, who worked with Mr. Bryan on the Ukraine project when both men were officials at the Energy Department. Mr. Ivy, who remains employed by the Energy Department, filed the complaint last month with the United States Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency that investigates whistle-blower complaints. Mr. Ivys lawyers also provided the complaint to Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has referred the complaint to the Department of Homeland Security for review and asked Mr. Bryan a series of written questions about his Ukraine work after an August confirmation hearing at which the matter was not broached. The complaint, which was obtained by The New York Times, accuses Mr. Bryan of violating ethics rules by working on matters in which he had a financial interest, and of shaping Energy Department policy to benefit Mr. Akhmetov and his allies in exchange for valuable promises of future private business dealings. NYT says Mr. Akhmetov, whose net worth is estimated to be $5.7 billion, looms large over Ukrainian politics and he in some ways set in motion the sequence of events that resulted in the special counsels case against Mr. Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Mr. Manafort was convicted on eight counts of tax and bank fraud in August and he pleaded guilty to other crimes last month related to his work in Ukraine between 2005 and 2015. He was recruited to do political work in the country by Mr. Akhmetov, who hired Mr. Manafort as a consultant for his industrial businesses, before persuading him to work for the Russia-aligned politician Viktor F. Yanukovych, whose career Mr. Akhmetov had financed. When Mr. Bryans team arrived in Kyiv in late 2014, Ukraine was in crisis, with Mr. Yanukovych having fled the country amid mass protests and Russia having annexed Ukraines Crimea peninsula. Pro-Russia forces were fighting for control of eastern Ukraine, where the countrys coal supply was concentrated, and Russia had cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine. The mission in Ukraine was to help the countrys newly elected pro-Western government by laying out road maps to stabilize energy supplies headed into the winter, and ultimately to increase transparency and free-market competition in its energy sector, which had become a hotbed of corruption. Mr. Akhmetov whose holding company, DTEK, controlled a significant share of his countrys coal, gas and electrical supplies bristled at reform efforts being undertaken by the new government, which promised a de-oligarchization of the economy. Read alsoNaftogaz names Plan B in case of Nord Stream 2 launch And, as the team in Ukraine prepared for its second winter in 2015, some Ukrainian and American officials began questioning whether Mr. Bryan was carrying water for Mr. Akhmetov. They specifically raised concerns about Mr. Bryans reliance on data, analysis and recommendations provided by the Energy Industry Research Center, a company widely seen as aligned with Mr. Akhmetov and sometimes in conflict with American priorities for helping Ukraines government reduce oligarchs influence and stand up to Russia. Mr. Bryans team steered $119,000 in United States government funds to the center even as other government officials expressed concerns about the company, according to government budgeting documents, correspondence and interviews. In August 2015, the Ukrainian energy minister at the time, Volodymyr V. Demchyshyn, wrote a letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz voicing some of those concerns, and asserting that the center was funded at least partly by Mr. Akhmetovs holding company. The same month, Dmytro Vovk, then the chairman of the Ukrainian energy regulatory commission, emailed an American official asserting that after conducting screening on the center, one can state that their views are biased. American officials took the concerns seriously, with one flagging them for an Energy Department political appointee. Vadym Glamazdin, a founder of the Energy Industry Research Center who worked closely with Mr. Bryan in Ukraine, said the company has absolutely no connections to Akhmetov. He said he remains friends with Mr. Bryan, and praised his work in Ukraine as selfless. We were able to get through the winters of 2014 and 2015 to a great extent because of the work of Bill and his team, and I, as a Ukrainian, am grateful for what they did for us. Mr. Bryan said he was referred to the center by the Ukrainian government, but had nothing to do with allocating government funds to it. October 10 2018 HFD Property Group, haa design, Gravenand Mosaic Architecture + Design have completed work on a 110m campus for the University of the West of Scotland at Hamilton International Technology Park. Three buildings stretching to 235,000sq/ft provide a range of laboratories, teaching facilities and social spaces as well as a gym and form a shared street along the spaces between which also double as outdoor meeting and learning areas. It is claimed that the resulting campus is now the UKs greenest, courtesy of carbon neutral buildings and features such as 100% renewable energy and rainwater harvesting. Neil Haining, director of Mosaic, said: The new UWS Lanarkshire Campus is truly an innovative, dynamic and collaborative university campus, filled with inspiring and flexible teaching spaces and packed with new technology. Three separate campus buildings are joined by The Street a well-designed bright and airy social space which provides the ideal environment for students staff and the wider public to study, relax or socialise. Also included is a 236 person capacity auditorium and conference room for up to 128. Considering the huge potential of livestock production in Balochistan, the provincial government is planning to build a veterinary veracity in Quetta to boost the livestock sector of the province. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :Considering the huge potential of livestock production in Balochistan, the provincial government is planning to build a veterinary veracity in Quetta to boost the livestock sector of the province. Director General (DG) of Balochistan Livestock and Dairy Development, Doctor Ghulam Hussain Jaffar told APP that the project got green from the competent authorities in recent held meeting and now awaiting a financial assistance. The livestock of Balochistan province comprised of one of the unique species and required urgent attention of authorities concerned to promote livestock activities in the province having around 34 million Hectare range land. He said it is revealed by a recent censuses conducted by statistic division of Pakistan that over 70 per cent of the locals directly and indirectly rely on livestock. The province was currently producing around 20 percent of national stocks, he added. As many as 48 percent of total sheep in the country are found in Balochistan, while there are 42 percent camels in the province. He informed that in Balochistan, the sector has total value of over Rs 500 billion rupees with annual growth rate of 13 per cent. He said in order to impart awareness among the livestock keepers "we are conducting several awareness programmes to inform the formers about the feeding and diseases of the animals". With evolving tune of climate change, consumers' demand for the livestock product has been increased manifold; he said and added that the province is providing a large share of meat to the country. He said water shortage is one of the major issues in the province as sources are very limited especially in the high ground of the mountain and deep desert. The DG said we are giving proper treatment to the animals by providing vaccination after every six months. He said vaccination is also being provided to the animals through mobile camps on the routes of nomads who come from Afghanistan to overcome the threats of different viruses. He said lack of proper marketing of livestock and dairy development is the main issue, and for this purpose, the department has approved a project to establish the livestock markets in the province. Replying to a question, he said Balochistan is environmentally different from other provinces of Pakistan and the businessmen are being encouraged to promote livestock farming in Nasirabad Division. Baz Gul Kakar a livestock keeper said that today the livestock keepers of the province have very specialized livestock breeds but due to non-cooperative attitude of the authorities concerned, these breeds are being wasted. Animals with low-quality feed intake resulted in bad health, poor quality product, he added. He said the government should formulate long term policies in this regard so that the livestock production should be increased. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The Dutch State Supervision of Mines, regulator overseeing the mineral industry, has begun investigating the toxic natural gas condensate that has recently begun leaking into a water canal, located in the northeastern Dutch province of Groningen, local media reported on Wednesday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) The Dutch State Supervision of Mines, regulator overseeing the mineral industry, has begun investigating the toxic natural gas condensate that has recently begun leaking into a water canal, located in the northeastern Dutch province of Groningen, local media reported on Wednesday. According to the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) tv channel, the Groningen municipality holds the Dutch gas company NAM responsible for the incident. "We believe that NAM is to blame, as they have not noticed it [the leak], and when you deal with such dangerous substances, you should be very careful," IJzebrand Rijzebol, a representative of the Groningen authorities, said, as quoted by the NOS. The NAM has offered its apologies and has announced its intention to compensate for any losses incurred. While the leak was discovered on Sunday, the Dutch authorities believe that the condensate has been flowing into the canal for several days. The emergency services have pumped the contaminated water from the canal, but it has not been revealed yet how much of the toxic substance got into the water. (@rukhshanmir) Russia's Novatek gas producer announced on Wednesday that the tests of the first exploration well at the North-Obskiy area of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area had confirmed the discovery of a new natural gas field. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Russia's Novatek gas producer announced on Wednesday that the tests of the first exploration well at the North-Obskiy area of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area had confirmed the discovery of a new natural gas field. "The North-Obskoye field has estimated reserves of more than 320 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas under Russian reserve classification, and its total resources at the drilled well area are estimated at more than 900 bcm of natural gas," the company said in a statement. According to Novatek, the reserves estimation will be submitted to the state commission for review in November. "The discovery of significant hydrocarbon reserves at the North-Obskoye field is an important starting point for one of our future LNG projects in the Arctic region," Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson said, as cited in the press release. Novatek is the major shareholder in the Yamal LNG project which envisions building infrastructure to produce, liquefy and ship natural gas from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field located in the Yamalo-Nenets region. The first train of the Yamal LNG plant is operational since late 2017 and the other two are scheduled to be put into operation by 2021. By 2025, Novatek also plans to launch its second large-scale liquefied natural gas project, Arctic LNG 2, located offshore near the Gydan Peninsula in the Yamalo-Nenets region. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened on Wednesday consultations with European Economic Area (EEA) firms doing business in the United Kingdom on the regulator's post-Brexit approach in case London and Brussels fail to reach a withdrawal deal. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened on Wednesday consultations with European Economic Area (EEA) firms doing business in the United Kingdom on the regulator's post-Brexit approach in case London and Brussels fail to reach a withdrawal deal. "The FCA is planning to be ready for a range of scenarios. Today we are publishing two consultation papers to ensure that in the event the UK leaves the EU in March 2019 without an implementation period, we have a robust regulatory regime from day one, and to ensure a smooth transition for [European Economic Area] EEA firms and funds currently passporting into the UK," the regulator quoted Nausicaa Delfas, the FCA international executive director, as saying. One of the two consultation papers focuses on proposed amendments to the FCA's handbook and binding technical standards (BTS) to convert the financial regulation rules to the UK law, and the other envisions temporary permissions that will allow UK-based EEA firms to continue operating in the United Kingdom after Brexit while applying for the UK authorization, the press service said. The European Union and the United Kingdom have less than six months to reach an agreement on Brexit before London withdraws from the bloc. However, the existing differences create a risk of a no-deal Brexit at the March 29, 2019 deadline. Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and a University of Somalia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote academic research in different disciplines, through a collaborative framework and mutual exchanges. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and a University of Somalia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote academic research in different disciplines, through a collaborative framework and mutual exchanges. The MoU inked by the Registrar AIOU Dr Muhammad Zaigham Qadeer and the visiting Chancellor of Upper Jubba University, Baidoa Dr Yusu Ibrahim Abdirahman, a press release said on Wednesday. It was agreed that the two sides will work together to take benefit of each other's initiatives and working procedure for promoting research culture. They could also undertake joint ventures in specific discipline, relating to research. Special areas of interest for mutual collaboration will be Islamic studies, learning of Arabic language and teachers' education. The collaborative partnership will both at administrative and Faculty's level. The Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) on Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs 0.5 million for practicing quackery and asked the police to register an FIR against the owner of the healthcare establishment. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Oct, 2018 ) :The Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) on Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs 0.5 million for practicing quackery and asked the police to register an FIR against the owner of the healthcare establishment. According to the details, one Junaid Azam had submitted a complaint with the PHC, mentioning that he had taken his pregnant wife to Al-Rehman Clinic and Maternity Home Bhudhal Sant, Multan. "At the Clinic, Asifa Kamran started treating his wife, but both the mother and child died during treatment," he alleged. The complainant's allegation proved to be true in the PHC's investigation. It was proved that Asifa Kamran was impersonating as a lady doctor although she was only a qualified Lady Health Visitor. Upon this, the PHC imposed a fine of Rs 0.5 million under the PHC Act 2010 on the clinic and directed the police to register an FIR against the culprit. Moreover, the Commission also sent the case of Asifa Kamran to the Pakistan Nursing Council for further action. (@ChaudhryMAli88) ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 10th Oct, 2018) Minister of Defence of Angola Salviano de Jesus Sequeira, on Wednesday, visited Wahat Al Karama, Abu Dhabis national and cultural landmark designed to commemorate the sacrifices and heroic deeds of UAE martyrs to defend their homeland and protect its achievements. Upon his arrival, the Defence Minister was welcomed by Sheikh Khalifa bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, Executive Director of the Martyrs' Families' Affairs Office, at the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court. After the Guard of Honour ceremony, Sequeira laid a wreath at Martyrs' Monument, made up of 31 panels leaning on one another in a symbol of solidarity between the leadership, people and soldiers of the UAE. He then went on a tour across and listened to a detailed explanation by Sheikh Khalifa bin Tahnoun about Wahat Al Karama components, which embody the bravery and heroism of UAE heroes, as well as the nations noble values. Sequeira concluded his visit by signing the visitors log, expressing his utmost respect and appreciation for the brave martyrs of the UAE. (@ChaudhryMAli88) HODEIDAH, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 09th Oct, 2018) Three bakeries have been revamped and re-opened by the Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, in Tahita District of the Governorate of Hodeidah, to provide more than 18,000 loaves of bread for free on a daily basis to underprivileged families in the liberated governorates of Yemen's Red Sea Coast. The initiative of charitable bakeries is part of the UAE's relentless efforts to enhance food security, ease the suffering of families and help them grapple with the current dire humanitarian crisis. The needs of Yemeni households for bread are being determined based on a field survey conducted throughout the eligible areas in order to ensure the delivery of aid to those in abject need of help. Saeed Al Kaabi, UAE Humanitarian Operations Director for Yemen, said that the initiative, which aims to provide free breed to eligible families, comes within the UAEs diverse relief efforts to meet the basic needs of Yemeni families in liberated areas and to alleviate their suffering from abject humanitarian circumstances caused by the Houthi militias. The beneficiaries extended their sincere appreciation to the UAE for its charitable initiatives, which they said, helped them to survive the dire humanitarian conditions resulting from the practices of the Iran-allied Houthi rebels. The OPEC Fund for International Development, OFID, has approved two emergency aid grants totaling US$1 million in support of relief efforts in Indonesia and Yemen. The grants will be channeled through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, respectively. VIENNA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 10th Oct, 2018) The OPEC Fund for International Development, OFID, has approved two emergency aid grants totaling US$1 million in support of relief efforts in Indonesia and Yemen. The grants will be channeled through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, respectively. A US$400,000 grant to the IFRC will support the delivery of shelter and immediate basic needs by the Indonesian Red Cross (Palang Merah Indonesia) to victims of an earthquake and tsunami that struck Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, just weeks after a series of deadly earthquakes hit the island of Lombok. The epicenter of the 7.4 magnitude Sulawesi earthquake was in Donggala Regency, which has a population of close to 300,000 people. According to the latest government reports, the disaster has claimed more than 1,500 lives and over 2,500 people have been injured. In early August, OFID extended a US$400,000 grant to help bolster relief efforts for those affected by the Lombok earthquake. A US$600,000 grant to the ICRC will help finance ongoing aid operations in Yemen. The ICRC approached OFID for financial assistance to purchase and distribute food for around 40,000 people. Since the beginning of the current crisis, OFID has extended two prior emergency aid grants totaling US$950,000 in support of ICRCs operations. OFID is an international development finance institution established by the member states of OPEC in 1976 as an international bank account. In 1980, Member States decided to turn the temporary fund into a permanent legal entity. The UAE became a member of the fund by virtue of Federal Decree No. 56 of 1976. President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan has called on the international community to switch the paradigm of global thinking from confrontation to cooperation, move from forceful egoism, social nihilism and economic nationalism to a responsible search for reasonable compromises and to reverse the processes of total division, and not let it pass the point of no return. ASTANA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 11th Oct, 2018) President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan has called on the international community to switch the paradigm of global thinking from confrontation to cooperation, move from forceful egoism, social nihilism and economic nationalism to a responsible search for reasonable compromises and to reverse the processes of total division, and not let it pass the point of no return. Dr Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the World Council of Muslim Communities, is leading the UAE delegation to the two-day faith leaders gathering. ''I fully understand the scale of this goal. But at the same time I realize the power that spirituality has. Religion has always been a fundamental force shaping culture and social relations. And now the world has entered a qualitatively new dimension, where the role of religions and its chosen leaders will be crucial. The clash of civilizations is not a fatal choice. It is in our power to change it. We must unite all our aspirations in search of a harmonious world order, ''said President Nazarbayev in his keynote address at the 6th Congress of the World and Traditional Religions' Leaders, which opened in capital Astana on Wednesday. ''Therefore, our common duty is to facilitate a return to the highway of progress. Postponement is unacceptable here, because humanity is paying for it an incredibly high price every day - the fate of innocent people,'' he warned. ''In the era of the information age, we must take full advantage of new technologies in order to promote the ideas of peace and harmony at the global level. To this end, I propose to create an information portal on the basis of our Congress. The goal of the Portal is to assist in the study and implementation of methods to strengthen resistance to any manifestation of religious radicalism and violence in general.'' He called for using the enormous potential of spiritual leaders and religious organizations to establish a constructive dialogue between conflicting parties and to appeal to the world community for peace and security. The event brought together the representatives of more than 82 countries, delegations from 46 states including well-known politicians, religious leaders as well as the representatives of international, religious and public organisations, such as the UN Alliance of Civilizations, UNESCO, the League of Arab States etc. This year the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions celebrates its 15th anniversary. (@rukhshanmir) Ali Salim Al Kaabi, UAE Ambassador to Morocco, has launched a school bag distribution project in Morocco as part of the strong fraternal relations between the two countries and the 'Year of Zayed' initiative. RABAT, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 11th Oct, 2018) Ali Salim Al Kaabi, UAE Ambassador to Morocco, has launched a school bag distribution project in Morocco as part of the strong fraternal relations between the two countries and the 'Year of Zayed' initiative. The launch, organised at Driss Al Bahrawi School in Rabat, was attended by Abdulrahman Al Hammadi, UAE Under-Secretary of the Ministry of education, and a number of Moroccan officials. Al Kaabi said that the initiative is meant to commemorate the100th birth anniversary of the late Shaikh Zayed. He noted that he looks forward to boosting humanitarian and developmental cooperation in line with the ambitions of the two countries' leadership. He indicated that the project is in line with the initiative launched by King Mohammed VI of Morocco to distribute one million school bags to students. (@FahadShabbir) DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 10th Oct, 2018) Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy and Hartwig Loger, Austrian Minister of Finance have discussed means of strengthening the overall economic, commercial and investment cooperation between the UAE and Austria. During the meeting, which was held at the premises of the Ministry of Economy in Dubai, they also discussed other key issues, such as exchanging expertise and establishing public and private sector partnerships. Al Mansouri highlighted the solid economic relations between the UAE and Austria as part of the efforts of both countries leadership and their advanced economies, as well as the positive impact of their recent exchange of high-level visits, the latest of which was the visit of Sebastian Kurz, Chancellor of Austria, to the UAE in April. He also explained the characteristics of the UAEs economy, including its diversity and competitiveness, as well as the countrys leading position in the international trade and investment sectors. Al Mansouri highlighted that the digital economy is the most important model for building future economies, in light of the successive developments in the technology and telecommunications sectors and their impact on future global trade and investment. He added that the cooperation between the two countries must follow two parallel paths, the first of which will involve joint work and exchanging expertise in developing relevant international legislation, in light of the cross-border nature of the digital economy while highlighting the importance of the cooperation between the UAE and Austria and the participation of officials and experts from other friendly countries and international organisations to creating integrated and consistent legislative systems that will regulate standards, transparency and communication, which will achieve their desired growth in the digital economy and strengthen their commercial ties. The second path is based on technological cooperation in the digital economy, creating an appropriate economic environment and implementing relevant government services to keep pace with economic digitisation. Al Mansouri affirmed that the cooperation between the two countries could include many other sectors, most notably renewable energy, logistical services, civil aviation, smart cities solutions, and green and environmentally-friendly development practices. Loger commended the strong historic relations between his country and the UAE, which will witness continuous growth while highlighting his countrys efforts to strengthen its communication and partnership with the UAE. He added that the digital economy is being prioritised by the Austrian Government while noting his countrys desire to exchange expertise and opinions with the UAE and create a prosperous partnership in this area. Loger also stressed the importance of presenting cooperation opportunities in the areas of electricity, renewable energy and water while pointing out that Austria leads the world in developing water solutions, which will provide new opportunities for cooperation. Both sides highlighted the importance of Austrias participation in the Expo 2020 Dubai, which is an international platform to present the latest products, technologies and services. The value of trade between the UAE and Austria witnessed significant growth in 2017, when their total non-oil commercial exchange was around US$1.3 billion, rising from around US$1.2 billion, an increase of 8.3 percent. The UAE has offered 33 tonnes of food supplements to Yemeni children who are suffering from severe malnutrition, through launching a comprehensive nutrition programme. ADEN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 10th Oct, 2018) The UAE has offered 33 tonnes of food supplements to Yemeni children who are suffering from severe malnutrition, through launching a comprehensive nutrition programme. The food supplements were delivered to Al-Jumhuriah Hospital in Aden, Yemen, as part of the UAEs ongoing efforts to ease the suffering of Yemenis, due to the difficult humanitarian circumstances caused by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias. An Emirati plane arrived at the Aden International Airport carrying the food supplements, as part of the first phase of the total 200 tonnes food supplement that will arrive in batches in the coming days. These nutritional supplements are essential for all age groups, especially children, and they are called Plumpy Sup and Plumpy Nut. Ahmed Al Kamal, Yemeni Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health and Population; Saeed Al Kaabi, UAE Humanitarian Operations Director in Yemen, as well as several Yemeni officials, were present at the airport to receive the supplies. The ERC also sent a medical team to assess health sector condition, as well as to implement several initiatives and programmes in the countrys liberated governorates. Al Kamal said that the UAEs ongoing support for Yemens health sector and its provision of medicines and food supplements to children, women and the elderly have reduced the shortage of all types of medical supplies while its therapeutic services have assisted Yemeni citizens who are suffering from difficult humanitarian circumstances, due to the war started by the Houthi militias. Al Kaabi said that the distribution of the food supplements will take place in coordination with the Yemeni Ministry of Health and relevant international relief organisations, while explaining that a major proportion of the aid will be allocated to areas of the Red Sea Coast and Al Azariq District in Dhale Governorate, as part of the UAEs urgent efforts to provide relief to Yemenis, especially children who are suffering from malnutrition. (@rukhshanmir) The UAE Space Agency and the General Command of the Abu Dhabi Police, ADP, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to promote their cooperation, strengthen their strategic partnership and exchange technical expertise, to serve their mutual interests. ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 10th Oct, 2018) The UAE Space Agency and the General Command of the Abu Dhabi Police, ADP, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to promote their cooperation, strengthen their strategic partnership and exchange technical expertise, to serve their mutual interests. The MoU was signed during an official ceremony at the headquarters of the ADP General Command, with the attendance of DrDr. Ahmad bin Abdullah Humaid Belhoul Al Falasi, Cabinet Member and Minister of State for Higher education and Advanced Skills and Chairman of the UAE Space Agency, Major General Mohammed Khalfan Al Rumaithi, Commander-in-Chief of the ADP, and Dr. Eng. Mohammed Nasser Al Ahbabi, Director-General of the UAE Space Agency, as well as officials from both sides. According to the MoU, both sides will aim to improve their cooperation in professional and training areas, provide consultations and technical support in areas related to space science, train their personal advanced skills related to space technologies, exchange expertise, support innovation and foresee the future. Dr. Al Falasi said that the MoU is part of the agencys efforts to improve its relations with all government authorities, with the aim of strengthening strategic partnerships and exchanging technical expertise, in line with relevant government plans and policies. "The space sector has witnessed considerable developments in recent years in terms of human resources and technical capacities, in light of the ongoing support of the countrys wise leadership. The MoU will enable us to benefit from these capacities, to ensure sustainable leadership and success, which will strengthen the UAEs position among the best countries in the world," he added. Major General Al Rumaithi praised the cooperation and partnership between the ADP and the agency, which will promote the exchange of expertise, while noting its importance in achieving the aspirations of the government and the countrys plans to develop an artificial intelligence, AI, strategy. Foreseeing the future is a key part of the ADPs efforts to keep pace with global developments, take advantage of future opportunities and challenges, and develop proactive scenarios and solutions using scientific research tools, Al Rumaithi said in conclusion. Sindh Governor Imran Ismail on Wednesday said there was need to enhance mutual trade relations between Pakistan and Denmark. KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :Sindh Governor Imran Ismail on Wednesday said there was need to enhance mutual trade relations between Pakistan and Denmark. He said the incumbent government was taking measures for the improvement of country's economy. Talking to Ambassador of Denmark Rolf Michael Hay Pereira Holmboe, who was called on him at the Governor House, he said investors would be provided all possible and best facilities in Sindh, according to a press release issued here. The Ambassador of Denmark said all out efforts were being made to boost mutual trade between the two countries. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the construction of a bridge on River Indus to connect Ghotki and Kandhkot was most important to cater the growing traffic to and from Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the construction of a bridge on River Indus to connect Ghotki and Kandhkot was most important to cater the growing traffic to and from Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. He said this while presiding over a meeting on the proposed bridge here at the Chief Minister House, said a statement on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by Sindh Minister for Mines and Minerals Shabir Bijarani, Minister for Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Minister for Works and Services Syed Nasir Shah, Secretary Irrigation Jamal Shah, Secretary Works Raheem Shaikh, elected representatives from Ghotki, Kashmore and Kandhkot districts and officers concerned. The chief minister was told that the bridge's location has been chosen between Ghotki and Kandhkot, which will have two-lane including 12.5 kilometers road on Ghotki side and two-lane 15.2 kilometers road on Kandhkot side. It will have a 4.5 kilometers link-road to connect to Thul road and a flyover will be constructed on N-55. The project will be constructed on Public Private-Partnership (PPP) mode. The Irrigation department's officials told the chief minister that riverine area survey and physical hydraulic model at Nadipur was also witnessed by the officials of Irrigation department, Works department, PPP Unit, technical adviser and designers. The CM Sindh was told that during model study, accumulation of water was observed near Ghotki side. The issue was discussed with the officials of Nadipur and the Irrigation department and it was partly agreed by all the stakeholders to shift the bridge by two kilometers towards Ghotki on the same axes. However, no location was selected and the alignment has been proposed 14 kilometers upstream of Qadirpur. The CM Sindh said that he has been discussing the project from last two years but the issue of its alignment has always been a bone of contention among the stakeholders like Irrigation department,Works & Services Department. A delegation of senior officers from different departments who participated in Mid Career Management Course at National Institute of Management, Peshawar paid a study visit to Central Police Office under supervision of Additional Directing Staff, Dr Javed Iqbal. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Oct, 2018 ) :A delegation of senior officers from different departments who participated in Mid Career Management Course at National Institute of Management, Peshawar paid a study visit to Central Police Office under supervision of Additional Directing Staff, Dr Javed Iqbal. The members of the delegation were briefed by Additional IG Operations Punjab, Sajjad Hasan Manj about operational methods and IT reforms in Punjab Police. Additional IG Welfare and Finance Tariq Masood Yaseen while replying to the queries of officers of delegation told that how Punjab Police with the help of smart and community policing were engaged to protect the wealth and lives of people and upholding the rule of law. In addition to it, Dolphin, Peru, Anti Riots Force, Riverine and Special Protection Unit have also contributed their exemplary role in enhancing efficiency of Punjab Police. He further told that with the help of intelligence based operations by CTD, there has been a remarkable decline in terrorism in Punjab and process of coordination with other provinces based on intelligence sharing is in progress against anti social elements. DIG Investigation Waqas Nazeer and AIG Operations Imran Mehmud were also present on this occasion. Additional IG Operations Sajjad Hassan Manj, while briefing the delegation, told that projects started with the help of information technology like Front Desk, Police Service Center, Criminal Record Management System, 8787 Complaints Management System, Safe City Authority among other projects have improved the performance of Punjab Police and same IT softwares have been adopted by police forces of other provinces. He also told the delegation about IT reforms, and steps being taken for rooting out extremism and terrorism by Punjab Police. He said that Loud Speaker Act and ban on illegal fund raising was being implemented and ensured across Punjab and policy of zero tolerance was being practiced to eliminate professional criminals. In the end of visit Additional IG Finance and Welfare Tariq Masood Yaseen presented souvenir of Punjab Police to leader of delegation of management course Dr Javed Iqbal. Pakistan Navy Ship SAIF visited Port Aksaz (Turkey) to participate in Exercises Mavi Balina 2018 and 2nd PN-TN Bilateral Exercise Turgutreis-II. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Oct, 2018 ) :Pakistan Navy Ship SAIF visited Port Aksaz (Turkey) to participate in Exercises Mavi Balina 2018 and 2nd PN-TN Bilateral Exercise Turgutreis-II. These exercises were aimed to enhance interoperability between participating navies through development of combined tactics, techniques and practices, said a press release issued by Pakistan Navy. PNS SAIF is fitted with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors for undertaking all types of Maritime Operations in multi-threat environment. Z9EC organic ASW helicopter from 222 Aviation Squadron of PN Air Arm is also embarked on-board the ship. Upon arrival at Port Aksaz, PNS SAIF was received by Naval attache (Pakistan) and Turkish Navy officials. Exercise Mavi Balina 2018 was conducted in three phases, i.e. harbour, sea and analysis/ de-brief phase. Harbour phase of exercise was conducted from from September 27 to 29, at Aksaz Naval Base and was aimed at creating an interactive environment between the participating navies. Activities of harbour phase included pre-sail conferences, coordination meetings and communication checks. Sea phases of Exercise Mavi Balina 2018 and Turgutreis-II were conducted from Sep 30 to Oct 06 and Oct 08 to 09 respectively in East Mediterranean Sea, encompassing entire spectrum of Maritime operations starting with basic and culminating at advance level exercises, which included Combined Anti Submarine Exercises (CASEXes), Air Defence Exercise (ADEX), Gunnery Firings and Surface Warfare Exercises (SURFEX) etc. Exercise Mavi Balina 2018 and 2nd PN-TN Bilateral Exercise Turgutreis-II proved professionally rewarding. Rear Admiral Asif Khaliq, Commander Karachi (COMKAR) represented Chief of the Naval Staff, during his visit to Turkey. The Admiral called-on senior Naval Officials from Turkish Navy and other dignitaries including Rear Admiral Semih Ozanguc, Flag Officer Commanding Aksaz Naval Base and Real Admiral Hasan Ozyurt, Southern Task Group Commander. During the call-on, Rear Admiral Asif Khaliq conveyed well wishes from Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi to the people of Turkey in general and Turkish Navy in particular. He also extended his gratitude for whole hearted support provided by the Turkish Navy and Aksaz Port authorities in making the ship's stay comfortable. Naval Forces have historically played a pivotal role in strengthening bonds of friendship between nations through multifaceted collaborative activities including exercises and port visits. Pakistan and Turkey enjoy brotherly relations and friendship among both the countries is time tested. Pakistan Navy has deep rooted and cordial relations with Turkish Navy. In this regard, Pakistan and Turkey have come a long way in terms of mutual collaboration, in the form of regular interactions, visit of senior leadership, construction of naval ships, training cooperation and participation in bilateral & multi-national exercises and exhibitions. Participation of PNS SAIF in these exercises was also aimed at further strengthening the bond of friendship between Pakistan and Turkey in pursuance of Government of Pakistan policies to enhance friendly relations. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said peace in Afghanistan was vital for the long-term stability of Pakistan and the wider region, a statement by the US embassy said at the conclusion of Special Representative Khalilzad's visit to Pakistan on Wednesday. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said peace in Afghanistan was vital for the long-term stability of Pakistan and the wider region, a statement by the US embassy said at the conclusion of Special Representative Khalilzad's visit to Pakistan on Wednesday. Khalilzad left for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the next leg of his five-nation peace mission for Afghanistan. This was his first visit to Islamabad since being named Special Representative by Secretary of State Pompeo. "During his stay in Pakistan, Special Representative Khalilzad met with key officials in the government of Pakistan.He consulted with Pakistani leaders on how best to achieve a durable political settlement in Afghanistan," the statement said. Ambassador Khalilzad held delegation level talks with Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and also met Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi here at the Foreign Office on Tuesday. Earlier, Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal in a tweet said the foreign minister reiterated Pakistan's efforts for achieving peace in Afghanistan. Zalmay Khalilzad has been tasked by the US State Department to make efforts for reconciliation between the Taliban and Afghan government. His visit will include Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia from October 4-14. The State Department said Khalilzad would coordinate and lead US efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-born former US ambassador to Kabul and Iraq, was appointed in September to the US State Department team that is leading the reconciliation effort and peace talks with the Taliban. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad earlier met Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi in New York on September 27 in which Foreign Minister Qureshi underscored Pakistan's support for all political initiatives towards achieving peace in Afghanistan. The foreign minister said Pakistan regarded peace and stability in Afghanistan as vital for its own long-term stability and progress. (@mahnoorsheikh03) The National Assembly secretariat issued production orders for Shehbaz Sharif. Lahore (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News 10th October, 2018) The production orders for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif. The former Punjab Chief Minister had given an application in the National Assembly for production orders. Approving the request, the National Assembly secretariat issued production orders for Shehbaz Sharif. According to production orders, Shehbaz Sharif will be allowed to attend the National Assembly sessions. He will be produced before the National Assembly for its sessions. An Accountability Court had on Oct 6 handed over Opposition leader in National Assembly Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on ten-day physical remand in Ashiana-e-Iqbal housing project scam. NAB prosecutor argued that Shehbaz Sharif misused his authority as chief minister Punjab. He submitted that the contract for the housing project was won by the construction company 'Chaudhry Latif and Sons', which was cancelled by the former Punjab chief minister and his aides, and awarded to a favourite one--Lahore Casa Developers. The NAB arrested Shehbaz Sharif on Friday after he appeared before a combined investigation team in the Saaf Pani corruption case at the accountability watchdog's Lahore office. Shehbaz was allegedly involved in corruption of Rs 14 billion Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme and Rs 4 billion Punjab Saaf Pani Company scams. He had previously appeared before NAB on a couple of occasions in both the cases and recorded his statement. Senior bureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad and Lahore Development Authority (LDA) former director general Ahad Cheema and others had already been arrested in connection with the housing scam. NAB launched an investigation into the scam in November after receiving a number of complaints in this regard. (@rukhshanmir) United Nations Women Pakistan chapter delegation visited Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) under the leadership of UN Women Pakistan Chief Jamshed Qazi and Punjab Lead Hafsa Mazhar. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Oct, 2018 ) :United Nations Women Pakistan chapter delegation visited Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) under the leadership of UN Women Pakistan Chief Jamshed Qazi and Punjab Lead Hafsa Mazhar. The three-member team was received by COO PSCA Akbar Nasir Khan, who discussed agenda points such as women empowerment, protection and workforce participation within and through PSCA as both an organisation and a law enforcement-cum security-provider body in society. He also substantiated to the UN Women delegation, promising fact of women participation being up to 25% of the authority's total workforce. The UNWP representatives lauded PSCA's initiatives of providing easily accessible security to women by PSCA's comprehensively featured android apps namely Public Safety and Women Safety arrayed on Google Play store. These apps are loaded with features such as secured route mapping, location sharing and one-touch SOS call for immediate security provision and deployment. The UNWP team was taken to various sections of IC3 for a real-time functional demonstration of the integrated security platform. Home Secretary Punjab Capt (retd) Fazeel Asgher followed UNWP Team shortly after. Home Secretary was welcomed and briefed by MD PSCA Malik Ali Amir and COO PSCA Akbar Nasir Khan whereas CAO PSCA Kamran Khan was also present in the meeting. Home Secretary was briefed about PSCA's E-Challaning initiative, stats and its initial impact vis-a-vis intelligent traffic management drive of PSCA. He was told that since signal jumping had been the most frequent felony committed on road-PSCA focused the same initially in pursuit of the orders of Lahore High Court. He was also apprised of the PSCA's ongoing crackdown against vehicles with no or phony IDs. The home secretary also urged Excise & Taxation department to fix the discrepancies in its address database for optimum efficiency of E-challans and similar future initiatives. He admitted that the PSCA truly connoted a beginning of new police culture. Almost 180 refugees, including 91 children, have returned to Syria from neighboring Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Refugee Reception, Distribution and Settlement said on Wednesday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Almost 180 refugees, including 91 children, have returned to Syria from neighboring Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Refugee Reception, Distribution and Settlement said on Wednesday. "Over the past day, in total 178 people (53 women and 91 children) left Lebanon for Syria via the Jaydet-Yabus and Zemrani CPs [checkpoints]," the center's bulletin said. Moreover, 15 internally displaced Syrians, including six women and six children, have returned to their homes in the Eastern Ghouta area of the Damascus province, the center added. Meanwhile, the Syrian army continues to conduct mine clearance operations. Its engineering units have cleared nine buildings and 30 acres of land over the past 24 hours, according to the bulletin. "They found and defused 42 explosive devices including 5 improvised explosive devices," it added. Since the Syrian government has regained control over most of the country's territories that were previously seized by terrorists, it is now focused on creating favorable conditions for repatriating refugees. Moscow is assisting Damascus in this, and also provides humanitarian aid to civilians and is a guarantor of the ceasefire. (@rukhshanmir) Austria along with other EU countries continue to call for introduction of the global moratorium on death penalty in the United Nations, the country's foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, said on Wednesday. VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Austria along with other EU countries continue to call for introduction of the global moratorium on death penalty in the United Nations, the country's foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, said on Wednesday. Speaking on the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Kneissl pointed out that there was no place for capital punishment in the 21st century. "Along with the European Union and other countries that share this point of view, we will continue to call for the global moratorium [on death penalty] as a first step toward the global ban," Kneissl said, as quoted by the ministry's press service. The minister added that Austria condemns the use of death penalty under any circumstances and attaches significant importance to fighting for the global ban of capital punishment. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Baghdad and Erbil will likely resolve their outstanding issues over the next couple of years now that a new Iraqi government has been elected, but tensions will remain given that Iraq's new president is not liked by the parties in Kurdistan, former Iraqi ambassador to the United States Rend Al-Rahim told Sputnik. "My prediction is that given the makeup of the government that I see coming together in Baghdad, and the necessity - not need, necessity - of coming to some mutually acceptable modus vivendi between Baghdad and the Kurds, I think a resolution of outstanding issues is going to happen," Al-Rahim said. "Over the next year or two - it won't be immediate - we are going to see a resolution to all these outstanding issues." Al-Rahim said he believes a resolution on oil exports will be reached, as well as Baghdad's financial contribution to the Kurdish government in Erbil and whether the Kurdish Peshmerga forces come under the Iraq's Defense Ministry or not. "I don't think it's going to be a grand package because each of these issues is quite big on its own," Al-Rahim said. "If you take the oil issue, part of problem is that we don't have the necessary oil laws. There are three oil laws that are supposed to be passed by parliament and go into effect and those will go a certain way to resolving the oil issue between Baghdad and Kurdistan. So, that's a big issue and it's going to take a while. But there is no reason why the Peshmerga question cannot be resolved in the meantime." Al-Rahim explained that instead of one grand package solution, she sees existing knots, such as the status of the Peshmerga forces, being unraveled gradually either separately or together with other issues. "The contribution of revenue from Baghdad to Kurdistan will be combined with the status of the Peshmerga because one of the [outstanding] questions is whether the Peshmerga comes under Defense Department, and of course, Baghdad pays for the Peshmerga. If it doesn't come under the Defense Department, Baghdad doesn't pay for them. So, some of the issues are linked, but some can be separate." Al-Rahim said Iraq's prime minister-designate and speaker of parliament are very good interlocutors with the Kurds, and are inclined to talk as opposed to hard liners who are not. "The prime minister-designate is very friendly with the Kurds, he's known the Kurds for many, many decades and worked with them closely. There is mutual respect. And the speaker is also inclined to negotiate and to come to some settlement." New Iraqi President Barham Salih, who served as prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan in 2009-2012, was elected by the country's parliament earlier in October. Parliament was formed after the May 12 general election. Al-Rahim said Salih represents a "bit of a problem" because although he is Kurdish, he is not supported by the major Kurdish party - the Kurdish Democratic Party. "Salih was not their choice and they did not vote for him for president. The president, of course, represents all of Iraq, but he is not liked in Erbil, by the parties in Erbil. So, that is going to contribute more tension to the situation," Al-Rahim said. Relations between the Iraq's Federal authorities and the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan deteriorated sharply after the Kurdish independence referendum that was held last September. The referendum was proclaimed illegal by Baghdad and the authorities imposed sanctions on the Kurdish regional government; restricted banking operations, closed border crossings and banned international flights to and from the region. Baghdad also launched a military operation in the territories disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, starting with the Kurdish-controlled, oil-rich province of Kirkuk. (@rukhshanmir) Deployment of the US Mk-41 launching systems in Romania and Poland contradicts the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treat, Vladimir Ermakov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, said. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Deployment of the US Mk-41 launching systems in Romania and Poland contradicts the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treat, Vladimir Ermakov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, said. "We have some major concerns about the actions of our US partners that contradict the INF Treaty, including the deployment of Mk-41 launching systems in Romania and Poland," Ermakov said during debates at the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, as quoted by the Russian Foreign Ministry. (@ChaudhryMAli88) A Guatemalan court sentenced former vice president Roxana Baldetti to 15 years and six months in prison Tuesday after finding her guilty of fraud in the awarding of a multi-million dollar government contract to decontaminate a lake near the capital. Guatemala City, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Oct, 2018 ) :A Guatemalan court sentenced former vice president Roxana Baldetti to 15 years and six months in prison Tuesday after finding her guilty of fraud in the awarding of a multi-million Dollar government contract to decontaminate a lake near the capital. Baldetti led a "criminal network" that sought to defraud the state, Judge Pablo Xitumul ruled in finding her guilty of conspiracy, influence peddling and fraud at the end of a four month trial. The others involved were former government officials. The project came to light in 2016 after environmentalists charged that the chemical formula sold was a mixture of salt and water. Baldetti, who faces charges in three other corruption cases, resigned as vice president in May 2015 after being accused in a separate fraudulent scheme involving Guatemalan customs. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The French health watchdog Wednesday urged the government to outlaw sunlamps and sunbeds because of the "proven" risk of skin cancer, in line with similar bans already in place in Australia and Brazil Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :The French health watchdog Wednesday urged the government to outlaw sunlamps and sunbeds because of the "proven" risk of skin cancer, in line with similar bans already in place in Australia and Brazil. "We recommend banning all activities linked to artificial tanning, along with ultraviolet sunlamps sold for esthetic purposes, especially those sold on the private market," Olivier Merckel, an expert at the Agency for food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), told AFP. Of 10,722 cases of malignant melanoma -- the deadliest form of skin cancer -- reported in French adults over age 30 in 2015, 382 could be directly linked to the use of sunbeds and sunlamps, ANSES estimated recently. Skin specialists, the French academy of medicine, and some politicians have already spoken out in favour of a ban, but the French government has so far opted to merely tighten regulations. In 2013, it banned people under age 18 from using commercial tanning parlours, and outlawed advertising for them. A total ban is now needed, according to Merckel. A new bridge to replace the collapsed Morandi viaduct in Genoa may be built by the end of next year, Giovanni Toti, the president of the Italian region of Liguria, said on Wednesday. ROME (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) A new bridge to replace the collapsed Morandi viaduct in Genoa may be built by the end of next year, Giovanni Toti, the president of the Italian region of Liguria, said on Wednesday. "[Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe] Conte has said he wants to return to Genoa by the end of 2019 to open the new bridge. I believe what the country's third highest official says and think it is a reasonable deadline to build the new structure," Toti told reporters. According to the official, it will take up to 500 million Euros ($577 million) to rebuild the facility. On August 14, a span of the Morandi bridge collapsed from the height of about 100 meters killing over 40 people. Following the tragedy, Italy imposed a year-long state of emergency in Liguria and allocated five million euros to mitigate the consequences of the deadly collapse. Italian Minister of Economic Development and Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio placed the responsibility for the bridge collapse on Autostrade per l'Italia, which manages and maintains most of Italy's toll roads. (@FahadShabbir) Germany will allocate an additional 186 million euros ($214 million) as part of the World Food Programme's (WFP) humanitarian aid package for those affected by the war in Syria, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday. BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Germany will allocate an additional 186 million Euros ($214 million) as part of the World food Programme's (WFP) humanitarian aid package for those affected by the war in Syria, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday. "The key focus of German humanitarian aid is the impact of the Syrian crisis. Germany is now providing an additional 186 million euros to the World Food Programme to help those affected by the ongoing conflict in Syria and neighboring countries, especially during the upcoming winter months. This aid saves lives," Maas said before meeting with WFP Executive Director David Beasley, as quoted by the ministry. Germany together with France will continue to ensure the protection of humanitarian workers, creation of humanitarian corridors and observance of international humanitarian law, the minister added. In 2017, Germany was the second-largest donor country of the WFP, providing a total of almost 830 million euros to the organization. In 2018, Germany pledged a total of 286 million euros to support the citizens of Syria and wider region. Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with government forces fighting Syrian opposition groups striving to overthrow the president, as well as numerous extremist and terrorist groups. The years-long conflict has plunged the country into a severe humanitarian crisis, with numerous international organizations and foreign states making efforts to provide aid to the civilian population. (@FahadShabbir) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Iraq's inability to cut ties with Iran will likely lead to discord between Baghdad and Washington in light of the US decision to reimpose sanctions on the Islamic republic, Iraq Foundation President and former Iraqi ambassador to the United States, Rend Al-Rahim, told Sputnik. "The US, particularly given that this administration really is taking a very hard stance against Iran... is going to be upset, but I hope that Washington has some flexibility because Iraq cannot simply cut off all dealings with Iran," Al-Rahim said on Tuesday. "It's just not possible for Iraq neither economically nor politically nor geographically. I do anticipate friction between Baghdad and Washington on this issue but hopefully we can resolve it." Al-Rahim said Iraq recently sent a delegation to Washington seeking an exemption "or at least a partial exemption" from US sanctions against Iran. The Iraqi government, the former ambassador added, is saying to the US government that Baghdad is in a special position. "First of all, we have a 1,400-kilometer [around 870 mile] border with Iran, so, it's impossible to close that border, and we have to import certain stuffs from Iran," Al Rahim said. "Secondly, Iraq imports refined fuels from Iran, not crude, and we need these refined fuels. " In addition, Iraq gets electricity from Iran because it is the closest place available, although the Saudis and the Kuwaitis are beginning to supply it, she said. When asked about the US armed forces in Iraq Al-Rahim said she sees the need for a continued international military presence because the fight against the Islamic State (IS, outlawed in Russia) terrorist group is not over. "We have all kinds of pockets of ISIS [IS], sleeping cells and there are attacks every day. That's one issue," she said. "The other issue is that our security forces are still weak, although they are a million times better than they were in 2014, but they still need a lot of capacity building, a lot of training and so on." Al-Rahim said an international presence is also needed for things such as intelligence sharing and training on intelligence gathering. Since the United States withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal in May and announced the reinstatement of all the sanctions against Iran, Washington has been calling on importers of Iranian oil to stop buying it by November 4 - the date when the second package of US sanctions against Iran is set to be imposed. Bodies of some 1,400 people killed by the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, outlawed in Russia) have been found in a mass grave in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the head of Damascus-based Syrian Human Rights Network told Sputnik on Wednesday. BEIRUT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Bodies of some 1,400 people killed by the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, outlawed in Russia) have been found in a mass grave in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the head of Damascus-based Syrian Human Rights Network told Sputnik on Wednesday. "The biggest mass grave with 1,400 bodies has been found in Panorama area in Raqqa. IS terrorists did it," Kazem said. Most of the victims are those accused by IS militants of having ties with the Syrian government and armed forces, according to Kazem. Among them are women, children and military personnel. It is not the first such discovery in Raqqa, but it is the largest mass grave found in the city so far. IS terrorists seized Raqqa in 2014 and proclaimed it their capital. The military campaign to recapture Raqqa was launched in June 2016 by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by the US-led coalition. A year later, the campaign culminated in the Battle of Raqqa, which put the SDF in total control of the city. As a result of the fighting and massive airstrikes, the city was completely destroyed. According to the United Nations, the humanitarian situation in the city remains disastrous. Mozambique holds local elections Wednesday that could reveal cracks in the country's peace process after the ruling Frelimo party was accused of violence and intimidation during the campaign. Maputo, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :Mozambique holds local elections Wednesday that could reveal cracks in the country's peace process after the ruling Frelimo party was accused of violence and intimidation during the campaign. The main opposition Renamo party, which has maintained an armed wing since the end of the country's civil war, is running in the municipal vote for the first time in 10 years. Renamo fought a brutal 16-year civil war against the Marxist-inspired Frelimo government that left one million people dead before fighting ended in 1992. In 2013, fresh violence erupted between Renamo rebels and government troops, raising fears of a return to civil war. But three years later, the party declared a truce and opened fresh peace talks. Renamo is hoping for a breakthrough ahead of next year's general election. "These landmark local elections will test the success of decentralisation measures agreed with the armed opposition and will act as an important political bellwether," the London-based EXX risk consultancy said in a note. "The rewards at hand have rendered the political climate in Mozambique both tense and volatile, as highlighted by a series of violent incidents in the pre-election period." The 13-day election campaign ended on Sunday after several clashes between rival party supporters. Renamo supporters say they have faced intimidation and assaults during the campaign. "Our members and sympathisers are asking for the party's leadership (to) intervene in their defence since the police do nothing," Renamo's acting leader Ossufo Momade last week. The vote will be held in Mozambique's 53 municipalities, 49 of which are currently governed by Frelimo. The four other municipalities -- among them the cities of Beira, Nampula and Quelimane -- were won by the second opposition MDM party in the last elections. - New electoral laws - President Filipe Nyusi and Momade have recently made progress on the disarmament and integration of former Renamo rebels into the police and army -- a key sticking point in the peace talks. Parliament approved new electoral laws in July that means that a simple or relative majority is sufficient for a candidate to win election. Previously, an absolute majority of over 50 percent of votes was needed. The new laws could split the opposition vote. As well as the internal political tensions, Mozambique has been rocked over the last year by the emergence of an Islamist insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which has rich offshore gas deposits. Scores of civilians and police have been killed in militant assaults despite a security crackdown. (@FahadShabbir) Mozambique held local elections on Wednesday that could expose cracks in the country's peace process after the ruling Frelimo party was accused of violence and intimidation during the run-up to the vote Maputo, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :Mozambique held local elections on Wednesday that could expose cracks in the country's peace process after the ruling Frelimo party was accused of violence and intimidation during the run-up to the vote. The 13-day election campaign, which ended at the weekend, was marked by several clashes between rival party supporters. "The elections are happening and they are the result of the sacrifices of all the Mozambican people," President Filipe Nyusi told reporters after voting in the capital Maputo. The main opposition Renamo party, which has maintained an armed wing since the end of the country's civil war, is running in the municipal vote for the first time in 10 years. Renamo fought a brutal 16-year civil war against the Frelimo government that left one million people dead before fighting ended in 1992. Fresh violence erupted in 2013 between Renamo rebels and government troops, raising fears of a return to civil war, but the party declared a truce in 2016 and opened fresh peace talks. Voters lined up in long queues outside ballot stations from early Wednesday morning, with results due on Thursday. "I arrived at 5:00 am and only managed to vote at 9:00 am. The queues were disorganised but I am happy to have been able to exercise my right to vote," said Ana Beatriz, a voter in Maputo. Renamo is hoping for a breakthrough in the local polls ahead of next year's general election. "These landmark local elections will test the success of decentralisation measures agreed with the armed opposition and will act as an important political bellwether," the London-based EXX risk consultancy said in a note. "The rewards at hand have rendered the political climate in Mozambique both tense and volatile, as highlighted by a series of violent incidents in the pre-election period." Renamo supporters say they have faced intimidation and assaults during the campaign. "Our members and sympathisers are asking for the party's leadership (to) intervene in their defence since the police do nothing," Renamo's acting leader Ossufo Momade said last week. The vote was held in Mozambique's 53 municipalities, 49 of which are currently governed by Frelimo. The four other municipalities -- among them the cities of Beira, Nampula and Quelimane -- were won by the second opposition MDM party in the last elections. Parliament approved new electoral laws in July that means that a simple or relative majority is sufficient for a candidate to win election. Previously, an absolute majority of over 50 percent of votes was needed. The new laws could split the opposition vote. Deep below the ancient volcanoes scattered around the Philippines sits a simmering stockpile of intense heat that officials hope will help revive the nation's sputtering green energy machine. Santo Tomas, Philippines, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :Deep below the ancient volcanoes scattered around the Philippines sits a simmering stockpile of intense heat that officials hope will help revive the nation's sputtering green energy machine. The Philippines -- thanks to its spot in the Ring of Fire zone of Pacific volcanoes -- has long been one of the world's top producers of geothermal power, but years of neglect have sent the industry sliding. Now a surge of new exploration efforts are underway in a nation that has some of the world's largest untapped sources of volcanic heat, but which relies on coal for half its electricity. "It's an exciting development," Enrique Nunez, the country director for Conservation International, told AFP. "In an environment where coal is king, this is good stuff". One of the nation's freshly upgraded plants, Maibarara, puffs out white steam from shining metal stacks on a jungle-covered hillside about an hour south of Manila. High-temperature water vapour from the Earth's red-hot underbelly is piped to the surface where it makes power-producing turbines spin. "There is no smoke," said facility manager Paul Elmer Morala. "Only a bit of noise, but our neighbours don't complain." The Philippines was for years the world's number two, behind the United States, in drilling deep to tap the scorching hot steam. But as the nation's economy has boomed in recent decades, it has opted to feed its needs with cheaper and quicker-to-develop plants that burn fossil fuels. The amount of its power from geothermal sources has stayed relatively constant since 2002, while coal and gas-powered production has nearly tripled. Early in 2018 the Philippines lost its number two geothermal status, which it had held for over two decades, when Indonesia finished its massive Sarulla project. That demotion was years in the making for a country which had an initial rush of geothermal exploration in the 1970s and 1980s in response to the world's first global oil crisis. Decades of neglect followed until a growing global commitment to slow climate change led to the Philippines passing a law a decade ago to spur renewable energy investments. (@rukhshanmir) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th October, 2018) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland during a phone call on Wednesday shared praise for their respective nations plus Mexico for the recently concluded tri-nation trade agreement, the State Department said in a press release. "The two congratulated the US, Canada, and Mexico teams on reaching a successful conclusion to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement," the release said. In addition, Pompeo thanked Canada for maintaining sanctions on North Korea, according to the release. The latest trade deal replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which had been criticized by President Donald Trump for prompting US companies to close American factories and move production to Mexico and Canada. Although well received in the United States, the Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) said the new trade deal limits Canadian farmers' ability to make products for export while giving foreigners too much market access. (@rukhshanmir) Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump may meet in Finland again, at the Arctic Council summit, possibly on Valentine's Day week, Finnish media reported on Wednesday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump may meet in Finland again, at the Arctic Council summit, possibly on Valentine's Day week, Finnish media reported on Wednesday. Finland, which is currently chairing the Arctic Council, is expected to hold the council summit by mid-2019. Both leaders have been invited to attend it. At the moment, the talks with the US and Russian sides have substantially moved forward, so potential dates for the summit are being discussed, with Valentine's Day (February 14) week as one of the options, Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported, citing sources. Putin and Trump held their first full-fledged summit in the Finnish capital of Helsinki on July 16. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Qatari-bought fuel arrived at the Gaza Strip's only power station after entering through Israel on Tuesday in a bid to alleviate conditions in the Palestinian enclave, a Hamas spokesman and sources said. Gaza City, Palestinian Territories,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Oct, 2018 ) :Qatari-bought fuel arrived at the Gaza Strip's only power station after entering through Israel on Tuesday in a bid to alleviate conditions in the Palestinian enclave, a Hamas spokesman and sources said. The delivery could help ease months of protests and clashes along the border between Israel and Hamas-run Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade for more than a decade. But it was met with criticism by officials close to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose rival administration was not involved. UN officials and Egypt have in recent weeks pursued indirect talks between Islamist movement Hamas and Israel. Israeli officials, however, refused comment on the delivery. A Palestinian source at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza -- the only goods crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel -- said six trucks carrying 450,000 litres of fuel crossed Tuesday. AFP journalists saw at least one truck arriving at the power station in Gaza City. "The Qatari fuel to the Gaza Strip's power plant today is aimed at partially improving electricity (supply) in Gaza," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP. For months residents of the strip have been receiving only four hours of mains electricity a day on average. The United Nations has warned that Israel's 11-year blockade of the strip has resulted in a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation. Under the UN-brokered deal, Qatar pays for the fuel which is then delivered through Israel with United Nations monitoring, a diplomatic source said. In a statement Tuesday Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior official close to Abbas, threatened retaliatory measures if the fuel deliveries continued. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas's Palestinian Authority in a 2007 near civil war. Multiple reconciliation attempts aimed at restoring the PA to power in Gaza have failed. Qassem said that the deliveries were facilitated "through the United Nations because of the vacuum left by the PA." Abbas says that making deals with Hamas amounts to recognising their control over Gaza in place of the PA. - 'They lash out' - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Abbas was exacerbating Gaza woes and thereby fuelling its residents' aggression toward Israel. "Abu Mazen is strangling them economically and they lash out at Israel," he told a press conference in his Jerusalem office, referring to Abbas by his Arabic nickname. Netanyahu did not specifically refer to the oil shipment but spoke of "attempts to reach a practical solution so that he will stop this strangulation." He said that if Gaza tension reached boiling point and brought an uptick in attacks on neighbouring southern Israel "the price they will pay will be very great." "I'm not looking to launch unneccessary wars," he said. "But if there's no alternative you wage war with all your strength." Hamas and Israel have fought three wars with Israel since 2008. The recent unrest has raised fears of yet another conflict. But there have been attempts in recent weeks by UN officials and Egypt to reach a long-term truce between the sides through indirect talks. Much of the international community considers Hamas a terrorist organisation. It has rejected calls for it to disarm and recognise Israel. Israel says its blockade of Gaza is necessary to isolate Hamas. (@ChaudhryMAli88) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Italy is working closely with both the United Nations and the United States on the conflict in Yemen and sees a need to relaunch peace talks between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels, Italy's Ambassador to the United States Armando Varricchio told Sputnik on Tuesday. "We do think that the situation in Yemen cannot stand any longer. It is a dramatic humanitarian situation. There is a need for reinforced efforts by the international community," Varricchio said. "We are working closely with the UN in particular but also with the US, we are discussing this. I think that the Geneva talks have to be resumed. " The UN-mediated talks were scheduled to be held in early September in Geneva, but representatives of the Houthi movement refused to attend, claiming that the Saudi-led coalition, which controls Yemeni air space, would not allow them to leave and return peacefully. According to the coalition, the Houthis were given the green light to leave on time, but did not use the opportunity. Yemen has been gripped by a civil war with the government headed by Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi fighting the Houthi movement. The government is backed by the Saudi-led coalition, which has been carrying out airstrikes targeted at the areas controlled by the Houthis since March 2015. Russia will continue providing humanitarian assistance to the residents of Ukraine's conflict-torn Donbas region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Russia will continue providing humanitarian assistance to the residents of Ukraine's conflict-torn Donbas region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. "The Kremlin would welcome a higher standard of living in this territory ... You know that the Russian side is constantly providing humanitarian assistance to these regions of Donbas and will continue this practice," Peskov said. In late September, the 81st convoy of the Russian Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) delivered humanitarian aid to the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The convoy brought over 400 tonnes of humanitarian cargo, including children's food kits and medical supplies. The previous convoy reached the area on August 23. Russia has been sending humanitarian aid to Donbas since 2014. The convoys brought over 76,000 tonnes of cargo to the region since then. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday slammed Tokyo's protest over firing exercises in the southern Kuril Islands, noting that such moves damaged bilateral relations and hindered their development. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday slammed Tokyo's protest over firing exercises in the southern Kuril Islands, noting that such moves damaged bilateral relations and hindered their development. Russia has earlier notified the Japanese side about its plans to conduct firing drills in the disputed islands on October 10. Earlier in the day, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that Tokyo had expressed its strong protest against the drills through diplomatic channels. "We firmly reject such demarches, since Russia has the sovereign right to any activity on its territory, including measures to strengthen its national defense capabilities. These actions are in no way directed against neighboring states and are exclusively an internal affair of our country," the ministry's statement said. Oman announced schools in Dhofar governorate will close Thursday as a cyclone gathers strength in the Arabian Sea, five months after Cyclone Mekunu killed 11 people in the sultanate and Yemen. Muscat, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :Oman announced schools in Dhofar governorate will close Thursday as a cyclone gathers strength in the Arabian Sea, five months after Cyclone Mekunu killed 11 people in the sultanate and Yemen. Cyclone Luban is expected to hit southern parts of Oman and Yemeni islands, including Socotra, on Wednesday night with winds expected to reach 120 kilometres per hour (75 miles per hour). "Schools will be shut as precautionary measure and to protect the students and staff... and in case residents need shelter during that time," the education directorate in Dhofar, 950 kilometres south of Muscat, said in a statement on Wednesday. Luban is currently considered a category one tropical cyclone. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Heads of Government Council meeting scheduled to start in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe on October 11is expected to approve the organization's budget for 2019 and discuss a wide range of multilateral cooperation issues. BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :The two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Heads of Government Council meeting scheduled to start in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe on October 11is expected to approve the organization's budget for 2019 and discuss a wide range of multilateral cooperation issues. The meeting, also known as the prime ministers' meeting, is the second highest-profile meeting of the SCO after the meeting of the Heads of State Council (HSC), which is the supreme decision-making body in the organization. The HSC meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organization, and the HGC focuses on the implementation of the tasks set by the heads of states at its annual meeting. Apart from approving the SCO's budget, the HGC also considers and decides upon major issues related to particular, especially economic spheres of interaction within the bloc. In June, China hosted the 18th HSC meeting of the SCO in its eastern port city of Qingdao. The SCO leaders witnessed the signing of 23 cooperative documents. The Dushanbe HGC meeting offers an important opportunity to turn the blueprint of cooperation into a reality that benefits the people in member states. In addition to HSC and HGC meetings, SCO countries also hold meetings at ministerial and other levels, such as the foreign ministers' meeting, the defence ministers' meeting, the meeting of security council secretaries, and the meeting of heads of law enforcement agencies. The first HGC meeting of the SCO took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan in September 2001, three months after the bloc's creation in Shanghai in east China. Since then, the HGC meeting has been held in the six founding members of the organization every year except 2002. Last year, the 16th HGC meeting in Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi from November 30 to December 1 was also the first HGC meeting after India and Pakistan joined the SCO as full members in June 2017. A number of guiding documents of the SCO were approved at HGC meetings, such as the Program of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation of SCO Member States, the List of Events on Further Development of Project Activities within the SCO Framework for 2017-2021, and the Agreement on International Road Transport Facilitation, which have specified the priorities of SCO economic cooperation. The heads of government also approved the establishment of the SCO Interbank Consortium and the SCO business Council at previous meetings. Tehran summoned German Ambassador in Iran Michael Klor-Berchtold over the recent decision of a German court, local media reported Wednesday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Tehran summoned German Ambassador in Iran Michael Klor-Berchtold over the recent decision of a German court, local media reported Wednesday. According to the Press tv broadcaster, the ambassador was summoned in connection with the decision of a German court to approve the extradition of an Iranian diplomat to Belgium. On October 1, media reported that a German court had authorized the extradition of an Iranian diplomat to Belgium over his suspected involvement in preparing a terrorist attack against a Paris-based Iranian opposition group. The decision to extradite the diplomat was made on September 27. On October 2, the French interior, economy and foreign ministries said in a joint statement that France had frozen the assets of two Iranian citizens as well as those belonging to Iran's Intelligence Ministry over a foiled terrorist attack in Villepinte, a city located just outside Paris. The diplomat was detained in the German city of Aschaffenburg in July under a European Arrest Warrant and was later charged with working as a foreign intelligence agent and being part of a conspiracy to commit murder. The diplomat, who worked in the Iranian Embassy in Vienna prior to his arrest, is reportedly suspected of contacting a couple in Belgium and handing over to them an explosive device to carry out an attack during the meeting of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, believed to be related to the Iranian opposition. However, the couple was arrested before they could commit their attack. The Iranian Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations and expressed a strong protest over the detention of its diplomat. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Terrorists of the Jabhat Fatah al Sham terror group (also known as the Jabhat al-Nusra, outlawed in Russia) are selling the territories seized in the Syrian province of Idlib at a low price before fleeing the area, the head of Damascus-based Syrian Human Rights Network told Sputnik on Wednesday. BEIRUT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Terrorists of the Jabhat Fatah al Sham terror group (also known as the Jabhat al-Nusra, outlawed in Russia) are selling the territories seized in the Syrian province of Idlib at a low price before fleeing the area, the head of Damascus-based Syrian Human Rights Network told Sputnik on Wednesday. Idlib is the last major stronghold of militants in Syria. On September 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to set up a demilitarized zone in Idlib along the contact line of the armed opposition and the government forces by October 15. "Nusra is selling the territories seized by them in Idlib at a price, which is twice lower [than the market one] ... Warlords of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [one more name of Jabhat Fatah al Sham] are selling the territories that they seized during their hegemony in Idlib and that make up 70 percent of the whole territory of Idlib," Ahmad Kazem said, citing Idlib's civilians, who are cooperating with human rights activists. He pointed out that the terrorists were selling their realty in Idlib as they were leaving for Turkey. "Each terrorist pays some $5,000 for the crossing [the Syrian-Turkish border]," Kazem said. The majority of territories sold by the terrorists are located close to the Syrian-Turkish border, according to the human rights activist. The Idlib de-escalation zone was established in 2017 following an agreement between Russia, Turkey and Iran, that are currently acting as the ceasefire guarantors. A Turkish humanitarian group has provided 165 wheelchairs to aid disabled people and civilians wounded by Yemen's ongoing war. MARIB, Yemen, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Oct, 2018 ) :A Turkish humanitarian group has provided 165 wheelchairs to aid disabled people and civilians wounded by Yemen's ongoing war. The wheelchairs donated by Istanbul-based IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation were distributed in the eastern city of Marib by Yemen's Association for Social Development, according to the Health Information Center in Marib. The center added that the Turkish NGO is also set to soon donate 165 more wheelchairs plus 330 crutches. Turkish institutions and NGOs such as the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency,Turkish Red Crescent, Turkiye Diyanet Foundation, and the IHH are continuing to provide humanitarian aid to Yemen amid the ongoing conflict. Yemen has been wracked by war since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa, forcing the Saudi-backed government to flee to Riyadh. (@FahadShabbir) The United States blames the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro for the death of opposition councilman Fernando Alban and calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners in the country, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a news release on Wednesday. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) The United States blames the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro for the death of opposition councilman Fernando Alban and calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners in the country, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a news release on Wednesday. "The United States condemns the Maduro regime's involvement in the death of Venezuelan opposition councilman Fernando Alban," Sanders said. Sanders noted the Venezuelan authorities took Alban into custody on October 5 upon his return from the UN General Assembly, but died three days later while in the custody of Venezuela's intelligence service. "The United States calls for the immediate release of all Venezuelan political prisoners and for the Maduro regime to take direct, credible steps to reestablish democracy in Venezuela and to prevent further suffering and bloodshed," Sanders said. The Trump administration will continue to increase pressure on the Maduro government "until democracy is restored in Venezuela," Sanders added. Venezuelan media reported that Alban was taken into custody on charges of plotting an assassination of Maduro. On Monday, the Venezuelan authorities said that Alban committed suicide. Southern African bishop speaks about his Synod experience. by Russell Pollitt, SJ Bishop Mandla Jwara from the Vicariate of Ingwavuma, South Africa, offered a few short reflections on the Synod of Bishops for Youth which is currently underway in Rome. He is one of the South African bishops present at the gathering. Bishop Jwara works in a rural vicariate in the north-east of South Africa which borders eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) and Mozambique A new energy He says that he has found the Synod very good and it has energized him. He wants to go home and start something new with young people because even though things are already happening he thinks that much more can be done. Poverty and broken families The Bishop says that although many concerns are the same across the world there are specific issues in the south that affect young people. He says that African youth do come to Church and that they relate well to the bishops. However, he sees two big issues: poverty and broken families. Bishop Jwara said that the whole question of unemployment hits African youth hard. He observes, at youth gatherings and diocesan pilgrimages, that young people often pray for employment. He is worried that when their prayers are not answered they soon feel dejected and wonder why they should bother going to Church He says that the Synod has mentioned poverty in passing. Much more has been said about unemployment. All priests must accompany youth The bishop says that by the end of the Synod he hopes that all the bishops will return to their dioceses and pass on what they have received to local priests because they accompany youth. He says that he notices that often ministry to youth is done by chaplains and left to them, other priests do not really get involved. He believes that every priest in every parish should be involved in ministering to young people. Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters invites Southern Nevada families to experience Give it a Whirl! The one-day-only event is free and open to boys and girls of all ages. Created in conjunction with Whirly-Girls International, the events mission is to inspire children to become part of the future of the helicopter industry by providing creative and innovative educational opportunities, including helicopter rides, meet and greets with pilots, aircraft displays, games and much more. The first 200 children will receive a Whirly-Girls-branded backpack which they can fill with prizes from free activities throughout the event. On that day, children will have the opportunity to: Experience a 5-minute flight out of Boulder City, Nevada courtesy of Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters. Children must be at least 48 inches in height and pre-register by Nov. 1. The first 100 registrants will be accepted. Due to limited space, only registered children will be allowed to ride in the helicopters. Interested families can learn more and sign up at www.whirlygirls.org/give-it-a- whirl . . Snap photos in a photo booth that will be set up in the cockpit of Papillons Golden Helicopter, also known as Copter 50 in commemoration of the companys 50th anniversary. Make crafts that demonstrate basic flight principals Tour Papillons maintenance facility and onsite tower to see different aspects of a commercial helicopter operation. Play with 3D helicopter puzzles and learn how all the parts fit together to make it work. Meet flight instructors from Southern Utah Universitys Aviation Sciences Department. The MoT proposed assigning ACV to carry out key tasks at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport project In the document sent to the prime minister on capital mobilisation and the schedule of developing Tan Son Nhat International Airport project, the Ministry of Transport (MoT) said that if the project called for private investment, it would take nearly two years to carry out the procurement procedures to select investors. Accordingly, it is very difficult to improve the capacity of the airport to 50 million passengers by 2022, as the airport is already overloaded. Therefore, the ministry proposed to assign ACV to develop Terminal 3 first in 2018-2020 with the annual capacity of 20 million passengers on the area handed over by the Ministry of Defence. ACV will also develop two components, which, according to assessments, will be impossible to make profit, but must be built. They include a water reservoir and pump station in 2018-2019, and runways, take-off, and landing ways (25R/07L) in 2019-2020. The total cost of these components to be implemented by ACV is around VND13-15 trillion ($575-664 million) out of the total VND25 trillion ($1.1 billion) investment capital for Tan Son Nhat International Airport by 2030. The MoT will announce the list of project components in the technical service area in the northern airport available for private companies. These items include a hangar, food processing facility, cargo airport, and logistics facilities. The investors for these component projects will be selected in 2018-2020 before officially starting construction in 2022. Meanwhile, the transport system, lake, park, and the drainage system outside the airport will be assigned to the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee to implement. This component includes land clearance, which should be started in 2019 to be finished in 2022, along with Terminal 3. Another reason that the Ministry of Transport assigned ACV to develop the major project components of Tan Son Nhat International Airport is that the corporation has collected enough funds for the task from the revenue of its 21 operating airports. Lai Xuan Thanh, chairman of ACV, said that based on the business plan for 2018-2025, dividend will be paid at 9 per cent a year, and ACV could mobilise around VND90.838 trillion ($4 billion), excluding the available VND16.84 trillion ($0.75 billion) in cash. Thereby, ACV could spend VND36 trillion ($1.6 billion) on Long Thanh International Airport. According to Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho, the MoT has directed Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) to assess the role of ACV in management, investment, and the operation of aviation infrastructure before and after equitisation. Based on this report, the Ministry of Transport will announce the list of privatised projects before organising bidding and selecting investors in order to maintain equality and transparency, said Tho. Tan Son Nhat international airport in HCM Citys Tan Binh District. Under a new plan, a new international airport T3 terminal will be built. Photo courtesy of Tan Son Nhat International Airport The plan, which includes a call for investors, was submitted by the ministry yesterday to PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Work on a reservoir with a state-of-the-art pumping system, which will combat flooding in the airport area, must begin within this year and be completed before 2019, the ministry said in its report. The new terminal must be completed before 2022, while the upgrade of runways, taxiways and auxiliary facilities must be implemented in the next two years, according to the ministry. The total cost of VND4.46 trillion (US$191 million) for these upgrades would be covered by funds from airport operations and the Governments budget. In addition, the ministry said it would announce a list of construction projects that need funds in the northern area of the airport, including an airplane maintenance area, and facilities for food, gasoline, cargo and logistics services. The ministry has asked agencies to mobilise a total of VND25 trillion ($1.07 billion) for the expansion project. Airports Corporation The Ministry of Transport appointed the Airports Corporation of Vietnam JSC (ACV) to complete the major work of the expansion project. ACV will build the T3 terminal, enlarge the apron and sewerage systems, and build a reservoir, pumping station, taxiways, and runways. Land for the construction should be cleared by next year so that work can be completed in 2022, the ministry said. The ministry chose ACV to do the work because it would take too long, up to two years, to find an investor under the PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode, and thus would delay completion of the project. ACV has invested in infrastructure at 21 airports around the country. According to Lai Xuan Thanh, ACV chairman, the company has funds of over VND36 trillion to build the Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai Province. ACV this year is focused on five major tasks: a feasibility study for Long Thanh Airport to be submitted to the ministry next June, a pre-feasibility study to enlarge Tan Son Nhat Airport, and feasibility studies for a terminal each at Cat Bi (Hai Phong), Vinh (Nghe An Province) and Phu Bai (Thua Thien Hue Province) airports. Besides using its own funds, the company also plans to borrow from banks and invest in projects jointly with other entities. The ministry has also called on the Government to instruct HCM City to build roads, reservoirs, parks, and a sewage system outside the airport. The Ministry of Transport has approved a detailed plan to expand Tan Son Nhat both northward and southward to serve 50 million passengers a year by 2020. The expansion will increase the airport area by 246 hectares to more than 791ha. Terminals T1 and T2 will be expanded to serve 30 million passengers a year, while T3 to the south will accommodate 20 million. An additional eight taxiways will be built to speed up aircraft take-offs and landings. At least 56 aprons will be added in front of the T3 terminal and to the southwest of the airport, increasing the total number to 106. Tan Son Nhat, the countrys busiest airport, has become seriously overloaded both on the ground and in the air, forcing many flights to wait to land. The airport, which has a designed capacity of 25 million passengers, handled over 36 million passengers last year. Many roads in Binh Duong province have been upgraded and become outstanding signs of the urban architecture and industrial-service development. Photo: Le Toan Synchronous infrastructure system and strong FDI attraction Binh Duong aims to become a green-clean-beautiful industrial city, a political, economic, cultural, and social centre, and an important transport hub in the Southern Key Economic Zone in addition to developing its own smart city model. To achieve this goal, Binh Duong province has step-by-step planned and built itself into a modern city. The province authorities have been actively investing in construction and long-term projects and works, attracting labour resources and long-term investment into infrastructure investment, and connecting areas within and outside the province. According to Nguyen Van Hung, chairman of Becamex IDC, Binh Duong province is well-known among foreign investors and international groups and many of them are rushing to the province to search for more investment opportunities. To successfully attract foreign investors from the get-go, Becamex IDC has been implementing projects in three key areas: hard infrastructure (including transport system, power and fresh water supply, waste treatment, and ports), soft infrastructure (management policy and system) , and social infrastructure (healthcare, culture, education, sports, trade and public services). The expansion of Highway 13 which has been now become a prominent highlight of the urban architecture and industrial-service development of Binh Duong province. In addition, key transport roads will be invested by local authorities, including Bau Bang-My Phuoc-Tan Van, DT743, three roads in Tan Uyen commune, 7A road in Ben Cat commune, Ong Co Bridge, and the road DT744. To ensure the success of foreign investment, Becamex IDC and Singaporean developer Sembcorp Development have been cooperating to build the first Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) in Binh Duong province in 1996. So far, VSIP has attracted over $9 billion of investment capital from 630 enterprises from 60 countries and territories with a total export turnover of more than $37 billion and became a model in FDI attraction for the whole country. At present, the joint venture is setting up the first industrial-service-urban complex of Vietnam. In addition, Becamex IDC's industrial parks have now attracted more than 970 projects with the total registered capital of more than $14 billion. According to investors, this landfall in foreign investment is a result of the support and cooperation with local companies, especially Becamex IDC. Binh Duong new city is invested with modern style with hard, soft and social infrastructure system.Photo: Le Toan In 1997 Binh Duong was still a poor province with the economy mainly focusing on agriculture, with little to no industrial and service activity. By the end of 2017, its economic structure has changed remarkably. Specifically, industry and construction occupied 64 per cent, trade and service occupied 23 per cent, while agriculture, forestry and fishery occupied 4 per cent. In terms of attracting FDI, by September 2018, Binh Duong attracted 3,434 FDI projects with the total registered capital of more than $31.4 billion. The average project size is about $9.1 million. With this, Binh Duong ranked as the third province (after Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi) attracting the largest FDI volume in the country. Developing a smart city model According to experts, becoming a smart city will help Binh Duong province attract more new businesses and residents to live and work, boosting the sustainable development of the city of Binh Duong in the future. The plan to build Binh Duong into a smart city was officially approved by the Binh Duong People's Committee in November 2016, outlining 46 specific actions under 14 programmes, divided into four main areas focusing on people, technology, enterprises, and other basic elements. Becamex IDC and its partner Brainport (Netherlands) have designed suitable criteria to develop Binh Duong into a smart city. At the same time, in the implementation of this plan, Becamex IDC will also focus on different areas, such as people, technology, business community, infrastructure system, living and working environment. The Eastern International University is a training centre providing high quality human resources in Binh Duong. Photo: Le Toan Becamex IDC is now the Vietnamese partner of many large-scale enterprises and multinational corporations in many fields. For example, Becamex IDCs members Vietnam Communication and Technology Corporation (VNTT) and NTT Vietnam have signed a business cooperation contract to build Fibre to the Home (FTTH) and ICT solutions. These activities follow the memorandum signed by Becamex IDC with Japan's NTT Corporation (the world's fourth largest telecommunications technology company), with the aim of studying together the feasibilityfor smart city development in Vietnam, especially in Binh Duong New City. Becamex IDC has entered a comprehensive cooperation with Industrial Technology Research Institutethe largest and most important scientific research institute in Taiwanto collaborate in the fields of technology, human resources exchange, industrial development, scientific technology, and smart city development. Becamex IDC also has been training skilled human resources for smart city development. Additionally, Becamex IDCs members VNTT and the Eastern International University (EIU) have signed a cooperation contract with each other. Accordingly, EIU will conduct research and development, supply products requested by VNTT, and send students and lecturers to take practical training at the basements of VNTT. Previously, EIU signed a cooperation contract with Phillips Group on setting up a modern lighting laboratory. The Hanoi People Court's hearing today After two delays, the Hanoi People Court has just opened the debt claim of more than VND58 billion ($2.56 million) between Posco VST and Thanh Nam Group. The lawsuit gained public attention because of its duration. The case was brought to the municipal court to be resolved, rather than the district court as prescribed by regulations. At court, the two sides kept to their opinions. However, based on the submitted materials and documents provided by the two parties, a representative of the Hanoi People's Procuracy said that Posco VSTs claim is correct. According to the plaintiff, Posco VST and Thanh Nam Group signed a contract under which Posco VST was to supply stainless steel to Thanh Nam Group in 2010-2013. However, Thanh Nam Group could not meet the payment plan committed in a document released in December 2013 for a debt of more than VND58 billion. From January 2013 to July 2016, Thanh Nam not only once but 12 times admitted to owe Posco VST money. Only in September 2015, long after Posco VST sued, did Thanh Nam for the first propose Posco VST to compare the debts under each contract, each delivery, and each payment," said Posco VST's document. Meanwhile, Thanh Nam believes that the debt is not correct because Posco VST several times issued invoices at the end of the month to contribute to the sales report of the parent company. The debt was assessed after the invoices issued by Posco VST, not based on the actual number of deliveries. Posco VST confirmed that as one of Koreas largest operating firms in Vietnam, they fully obey Vietnamese law. Posco VST is also concerned that if they fail to collect the debt, it will set a bad precedent for the company's business. The courts conclusions will be published by VIR on October 10, 2018. Novak Djokovic goes into round three in Shanghai after beating Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 7-5. (Photo: AFP/Wang Zhao) The Serbian, who has burst back to form this year, winning Wimbledon and the US Open, broke the Frenchman in the fifth game on the way to a 6-3, 7-5 victory to ease into round three. The 31-year-old Djokovic had to contend with a more stubborn Chardy in the second set, before the second seed's superior shot-making won through in 83 minutes. The 14-time Grand Slam champion missed six months of competition in 2017 and had elbow surgery at the start of this year. But he has surged back to form and fitness and now has his eye on Rafael Nadal's number one ranking. The Spanish great is not in Shanghai - where he lost to Roger Federer in last year's final - because of injury. Top seed and holder Federer starts his campaign on Wednesday against Russia's Daniil Medvedev. Nikoloz Basilashvili showed that his China Open triumph at the weekend was no fluke as he brushed aside the promising Denis Shapovalov. The Georgian, up to a career-high 23 in the world following his victory over Juan Martin del Potro in Beijing on Sunday, beat the teenage Canadian 6-2, 6-2 in just 57 minutes. The 26-year-old Basilashvili will now have another upset in his sights when he plays fourth seed Alexander Zverev at the Masters 1000 event on Wednesday. Basilashvili's victory over an under-the-weather del Potro at the weekend was just his second ATP title, the first coming in Hamburg in July. Del Potro, the Shanghai third seed who was suffering with a cold and flu in Beijing, meets France's Richard Gasquet. A press conference for the Argentine on Tuesday was cancelled at the last moment, however, which suggests that he could still be unwell. Hundreds of students were hospitalised after having lunch at the Dinh Tien Hoang Primary School in Ninh Binh City.- Photo laodong.vn More than 350 students of the Dinh Tien Hoang Primary School in Ninh Binh City were hospitalised after eating lunch at school due to vomiting, fever and diarrhea all symptoms consistent with food poisoning. An investigation by the Vietnam Food Administration (VFA) concluded that a shredded chicken dish made by the school was contaminated with bacteria. Last Tuesday, more than 170 students at the Xin Cai Boarding Primary School in Meo Vac District, Ha Giang Province were hospitalised for food poisoning after a school breakfast of sticky rice and chopped pork. Nguyen Nhu Chuong, director of the Ha Giang Food Safety Department, said the pork was likely expired. As of Monday, all of the students had been discharged and were under supervision at home. A mother in Hanois Ba Dinh District who wished to remain anonymous said all three of her children eat meals at school every day. I am really worried after reading about the food poisoning cases, she said. I immediately contacted my childrens school to ask about the quality of its meals. According to Cao Van Trung, a VFA official, school food poisonings make up just 3.7 per cent of the total number of food poisoning cases. Students have weak resistance, so getting food poisoning could have serious effects on their health. Most food poisonings at schools happened in March and October. At that time the weather is humid which creates a good condition for bacteria to develop, said Trung. He also noted that it was hard to supervise the quality of school meals because of the number of companies that supply the food. "Local authorities and schools do not pay much attention to the food safety standards of third-party suppliers," Trung said. In earlier incidents at several primary schools, parents discovered that schools had brought in bad vegetables. On September 12 last year, parents discovered a three-wheeled vehicle transporting low-quality food and vegetables to the Ly Nhan Primary School in Vinh Tuong District, the northern province of Vinh Phuc. On January 14, 2016, food from the Trung Thanh Company was withdrawn at the Phu Thuong Primary School in Hanois Tay Ho District. Investigations showed that the company often bought food at the Van Noi Market in Dong Anh District and then wrapped it up to make it look like safe food. Associate professor Nguyen Thanh Phong, director of the VFA, said the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Health issued a circular with guidelines on food safety in schools this year. Regulations on safe meals for the children are clear in the circular, said Phong. If food poisoning happens, the principal of the school must bear the responsibility. Phong said different measures must be taken to limit the problem. Local authorities and schools must work together to supervise school meals. Schools should have food safety supervision boards with the participation of teachers and parents. The heads of school kitchens must keep records of where their ingredients come from. Inspectors should make regular checks on school kitchens and keep records so that, in the event of another food poisoning case, they can determine its cause. Marinov's killing has shocked the country and drawn international condemnation AFP/Dimitar DILKOFF But they said that, at least for now, the killing does not appear linked to her work as a journalist. The body of 30-year-old Marinova - who presented a current affairs talk programme called "Detector" for the small TVN television channel - was discovered on a riverside path in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse on Saturday. Authorities said she died from blows to the head and suffocation. She was also raped. The Bulgarian suspect was picked up late Tuesday at the request of Bulgarian authorities, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told a news conference. "We have enough proof linking this person to the scene of the crime," he said. German police confirmed a 20-year-old man was arrested in the town of Stade near Hamburg on suspicion of raping, robbing and killing Marinova. Bulgaria's chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov named the suspect as Severin Krasimirov, born in 1997, and said he was already sought in connection with another rape and murder. "At this stage, we do not believe that the murder is linked" to Marinova's work, Tsatsarov said. "But we are continuing to look at all hypotheses." "The evidence that we have at this stage leads us to believe it was a spontaneous attack to sexually abuse the victim." POLITICALLY MOTIVATED? The attack has shocked the country and drawn international condemnation amid speculation the murder could be linked to Marinova's work as a journalist. An episode of her programme aired on Sep 30 featured interviews with two investigative journalists from Bulgaria and Romania who had been working on corruption allegations. She is the third journalist to be murdered in Europe in the past 12 months after Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February and Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017. However, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov lashed out at international bodies and rights groups which had been quick to assume a political motive behind the murder. "In just three days, I've read monstrous things about Bulgaria. None of them true," he told the news conference. "We, as a country, did not deserve to be smeared like this ... while everyone has been working (to solve the crime) not 100, but 1,000 per cent." European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans had been among the first to suspect a political motive. "Shocked by the horrendous murder of Victoria Marinova. Again a courageous journalist falls in the fight for truth and against corruption," he tweeted Sunday, not long after the news of the murder broke. And the UN's cultural agency, UNESCO, similarly said that "attacks on journalists erode the fundamental human right to freedom of expression and its corollaries, press freedom and free access to information". Bulgaria is regarded as a laggard in the EU in terms of press freedom, ranking 111th out of 180 countries, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Widespread corruption, shady media ownership and suspected collusion between journalists, politicians and oligarchs have made objective reporting a constant obstacle course, according to RSF. CANDLELIGHT VIGIL The Bulgaria-based Association of European Journalists said reporters from small regional and local media are under particular pressure and even face threats from local businessmen and politicians, often leading to self-censorship. But a number of experts in Bulgaria were more sceptical about a political motive, arguing that Marinova was not an investigative journalist and the way the killing was carried out did not fit in with such a scenario. Violence against women has also been widespread in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee rights group said 19 women have already been killed in the country so far this year as a result of abuse. Several hundred people, many in tears, attended a vigil in Ruse on Monday, lighting candles and laying flowers in front of a portrait of Marinova. A similar tribute was held in Sofia. How the whistleblowing and UK corporate governance helps Vietnamese company workshop Leading corporate governance experts from the UK and Vietnam made presentations and held discussions on two of the main topics of interest currently among businesses in Vietnam. The event, which was also held in Hanoi (October 5), was attended by many local businesspeople and executives of the State Securities Commission and the countries two bourses. In his opening note to the workshop, Mark Billington, Southeast Asia Regional Director, ICAEW, said: Vietnam is ranked among the three fastest growing economies in the region and remains a place to be for foreign investors. For businesses in Vietnam to upgrade their competitiveness and build trust with investors, a good whistleblowing and corporate governance system have a vital role. Together, these two components will help businesses resolve internal disputes efficiently and lay down the groundwork for their own sustainable development, which will eventually contribute to the sustainable development of the economy as a whole. Thats why ICAEW joined forces with VIOD and the British Embassy to hold this workshop to share useful and necessary knowledge with the Vietnamese business community. British corporate governance is globally respected and is a framework trusted by investors when deciding where to allocate capital. A new Code of Corporate Governance was issued in the UK in July 2018, with significant changes to make sure the nation moves with the times. This code considers economic and social issues and will help guide the long-term success of UK businesses. The new Code of Corporate Governance places the relationships between a company, its shareholders, and related parties at the centre of sustainable long-term growth in the UK economy. Elizabeth Richards, head of Corporate Governance, ICAEW Elizabeth Richards, head of Corporate Governance, ICAEW, told the workshop: This Code places emphasis on businesses building trust by forging strong relationships with key stakeholders. The new code underscores that trust is essential in promoting transparency and integrity in business for society as a whole. One of the two keynote topics of this mornings workshop, Elizabeths presentation titled How whistleblowing helps companies, was much welcomed by local business participants. Whistleblowing is considered a major factor for businesses in successfully controlling fraud, especially for finance companies. This mechanism not only helps detect wrongdoings at organisations, but is also used as a corporate governance tool which prevents and deters fraudulent activity and helps protect the good name of businesses and their sustainable development. As Elizabeth pointed out, for an internal whistleblowing system to work, businesses need to keep whistleblowers protected. First of all, companies need to keep the whistleblowers identity confidential, because in many cases, being a whistleblower may mean putting oneself in harms way. In the UK now, businesses often refuse to give financial incentives to whistleblowers and instead offer support for them to find a new job. In some lines of work, such as aviation and combating money laundering, whistleblowing has become a must and employees are often made responsible to report on one another. At many companies, the responsibility for internal whistleblowing is even written in the labour contract. Nguyen Viet Thinh, CEO of Vietnam Institute of Directors (VIOD) Nguyen Viet Thinh, CEO of Vietnam Institute of Directors (VIOD), made a presentation on Whistleblowing from a local perspective. As businesses from Vietnam are increasingly integrating into the regional and global economies, corporate governance, transparency, and improved trust with investors are critical, he said. We hope that by sharing the best international practices as well as the best practices of corporate governance and whistleblowing we can help BOD members lead their business to success. Ed Vaizey MP, UK Prime Ministers trade envoy to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos Closing the workshop, Ed Vaizey MP, UK Prime Ministers trade envoy to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, said: I am very impressed by the growth of the Vietnamese economy in the last few years and the robust growth of the stock market. I believe that good corporate governance practices will help Vietnam to attract more UK investors into the country through both foreign direct and indirect investment. The UK is very proud to be one of the world leaders in education and financial services. I am very glad that organisations like ICAEW have been proactive around the world, sharing knowledge, ethical standards, and increasing the capability of finance and accounting professionals. Interest in renewables drives foreign investment surge, photo source: shutterstock At last weeks conference on reviewing 30 years of foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction in Vietnam, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, cities and provinces announced memoranda of understanding on investment co-operation, investment certificates, and investment agreements for 24 foreign-invested projects with the total registered investment capital of more than $10 billion. The projects, with the majority focusing on renewable energy, making up over 50 per cent of the sum, reflect the countrys future strategy to promote renewable and environmentally friendly energy. The highlighted projects include the $4 billion liquefied natural gas power plant invested by Delta Offshore Energy Pte., Ltd., the $407 million wind power project of UPC Vietnam Ltd. in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu, the $600 million Egeres Enerji-invested wind power project in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, the $48.7 million solar power project of Univergy K.K in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong, and the $46.6 million solar power park of GA Power in the central province of Ha Tinh. Also at the conference, some billion-dollar projects in prioritised sectors were also licensed, including the $1.5 billion software park and inland container depot project of Jiayuan International in Hanoi, the $1.34 billion mechanical supporting industry park of Hyosung Advanced Materials, Vietnamobiles $800 million 4G and 5G telecommunications infrastructure development project, the $500 million investment expansion by LG Display, and the $500 million infrastructure development of Indochina Company Limited. In Vietnams FDI attraction strategy, the priorities include high-tech fields, renewable energy, medical equipment production, and high-end services such as financial services and logistics, and high-tech agriculture. With the new projects, Vietnams FDI picture will definitely brighten in the coming months, surely making the governments 10 per cent FDI increase target this year feasible. Christopher Malone, managing director at Boston Consulting Group, said that Vietnam has made great achievements in FDI attraction in recent years. However, to compete in FDI attraction in the future, there are two crucial themes for Vietnam to effectively approach 4.0 and innovation. The first is the critical need to absorb innovative capacity, and the second is the need to specialise. Japan deals to be inked as PM visits, photo: baochinhphu At the invitation of Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, PM Phuc will visit the country during October 7-10 and attend the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo. In addition to attending a forum on promoting investment among the five Mekong nations (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam) and a similar forum between Vietnam and Japan, PM Phuc is scheduled to hold separate meetings with leaders of many Japanese groups including ANA Holdings, UFJ, MUFG, Japan Tobacco, AEON, Mitsui and Mitsubishi. The companies are expected to focus discussions on potential business and investment opportunities in Vietnam in the near future. For example, AEON is reported to be planning the development of new shopping malls in Vietnam. Last May, AEON Mall was given an investment certificate to build a $180 million mall in the northeastern city of Haiphong. In March, AEON Mall commenced construction of a mall in Hanois Hadong district, with the total investment capital of over $190 million. This is the second AEON mall in Hanoi, and fifth in Vietnam overall. Meanwhile, ANA Holdings and Vietnam Airlines concluded a final contract for a business and capital partnership, following a memorandum of understanding, which saw Japans largest airline group acquire a stake of approximately 8.8 per cent in Vietnam Airlines for a total of VND2.431 trillion ($107.56 million). ANA has been co-operating with Vietnam Airlines on codeshare flights and mileage programmes, and has also introduced Vietnam Airlines cabin attendants as in-flight service assistants on ANA flights. The latest expansion forms part of the strategy of the commercial and capital partnership agreement between the two companies. As of September 20, 2018, Japan had 3,900 valid investment projects in Vietnam, registered at $55.78 billion. Many large Japanese projects are operating well in the country, including Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo Corporation, and Marubeni. Idemitsu Kosan is holding 35 per cent stake of the $9 billion Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex in the central province of Thanh Hoa. This plant will officially begin its commercial operation in November. Also in Thanh Hoa, Marubeni and Korea Electric Power is also investing in a $2.79 billion coal power plant expected to become operational in 2021. Sumitomos $2.58 billion coal plant in the central province of Khanh Hoa will also be another notable project expected to come into use by 2022, while Mitsui Oil Exploration is participating in a $1.27 billion gas pipeline project in the southern province of Kien Giang. Small and mid-sized Japanese manufacturers, distributors and service companies have also stepped up spending, and more investors are buying into Vietnamese enterprises. For example, Sekisui Chemical acquired a 15 per cent stake in state-owned Tien Phong Plastic as Vietnam moves to reform state-owned enterprises. During PM Phucs visit to Japan, the two countries are likely to ink a number of as-yet-unrevealed co-operation deals. The Vietnamese prime minister will hold bilateral talks with PM Abe. Together with top leaders of the Mekong nations, he will also meet with Emperor Akihito, as well as other Japanese leaders. At the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit, PM Phuc and other national leaders are set to adopt a new co-operation plan. Entitled Tokyo Strategy 2018 for Mekong-Japan Co-operation, it will establish three new main pillars of partnership. The three pillars - connectivity, people, and the environment - are to be established with the aim of contributing towards peace, stability and prosperity in the region and beyond. Illustrative photo (Source: baonghean.vn) According to the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, the number of investment projects decreased 29.2 percent compared to the same period last year while total investment capital fell 40.08 percent year-on-year. It admitted the slow implementation of many signed investment projects, adding that the province has withdrawn seven projects with slow progress. In addition, most newly-licensed projects in Nghe An have a small scale and low registered capital, he said, citing 55 out of 80 projects registered an investment capital of 50 billion VND (2.1 million USD) each. To solve this situation, the province will continue improving its investment climate, set specific investment attraction orientations for each sector, and offer incentives in terms of land, tax and labour to lure domestic and foreign investors, the department said. Nghe An will resolutely address the slow and prolonged settlement of investment procedures for investors, it added. Developed by Novaland and located in Ho Chi Minh Citys central business district, The Grand Manhattan offers excellent connectivity to other districts. With the lack of available land and the governments decision to not allow any new residential projects in District 1 and 3 until 2020, the project will benefit from strong demand from buyers looking to own in core areas of Ho Chi Minh City, said Nguyen Phuc Bao Huy, sale director from Novaland. Novaland appoints Savills Vietnam for official sale agency of Grand Manhattan. According to Neil McGregor, managing director of Savills Vietnam, The Grand Manhattan, one of Novalands newest projects, is set to redefine the city skyline and be the premier choice for luxury housing. Well located in the heart of District 1, the project provides residents an easy commute to the heart of the CBDs and all the amenities the district has to offer, McGregor said. The Grand Manhattan, one of Novalands newest projects, is set to redefine the city skyline and be the premier choice for luxury housing With over 25,000 units sold since 2009, Novaland has so far a strong reputation within the marketplace and the largest land bank of upcoming projects in Ho Chi Minh City. Along those some notable projects by Novaland include Madison, Saigon Royal, and Sunrise City View. Seldat Technology Services release WMS360 and open new office in Vietnam Seldat Technology Services, a leading provider of technology-based global supply chain solutions, has announced that WMS360 is now readily available for deployment in the Asia-Pacific region. The WMS360 system is designed and developed by Seldats supply chain software experts and successfully deployed in 3PL, e-commerce, consumer goods and food and beverage warehouse environments. The system provides comprehensive insight to position warehouse operations for business success and includes robust features: Inbound and outbound planning Inventory management EDI gateway platform RFID tracking and integration with automation hardware Omni-channel integration Task monitor and real-time alerts Customer portal Business intelligence dashboards Role-based access Seldats warehouse management solution is the answer to antiquated, siloed tools of the past. The systems design for visibility, traceability, and flexibility offers businesses the high-level of responsiveness and agility demanded by the face pace of todays market evolution. WMS360 users will benefit from dedicated implementation, development and support teams who are located locally in Vietnam to ensure that the system is deployed successfully and tailored to meet customers unique requirements. In response to the need for global supply chain solutions, Seldat opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City which employs designers, developers, sales and marketing teams to meet the growing demand for the global supply chain industry. Vietnam is a growing technology hub among Asia countries thanks to a community of highly-educated personnel with advanced IT skills. Driven by Seldats vision to be the global leader in technology-driven supply chain solutions, we are proud to bring the power of WMS360 to warehouses in the Asia-Pacific market, said Chacko Verghese, global CTO, Seldat Technology Services. He added, Our team of supply chain experts developed WMS360 in the field - observing, responding to, and anticipating future warehouse needs of the modern supply chain. Proven against real-world scenarios, WMS360 helps companies overcome the challenges of outdated warehouse management strategies by delivering an affordable, easy to use, and highly configurable solution. According to Tuan Nguyen, Vietnam country manager, in Vietnam, the cost for logistics accounts for 21 per cent of GDP, with road transportation and inefficient warehousing management are the main factors. This leads to higher priced goods and weak competition in global trade. Thus, the company has come up with solutions to for an easy-to-use platform to help reduce 20 per cent -30 per cent of warehouse and transportation inefficiencies allowing for Vietnamese products to better compete in the global market. Seldat employs more than 2,600 people in multiple U.S. locations, as well as in Israel, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Panama, Peru and Vietnam. Seldat Distribution provides innovative, scalable solutions and services that help companies in every link of the supply chain to grow and prosper. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with representatives of foreign businesses, many of whom are planning to invest more in Vietnam, Photo: Duc Thanh After years of indecision on whether to revive its investment in Vietnam, Compal Electronics Inc. might soon reopen its Vietnamese plant to mitigate effects from the escalating US-China trade war. Compal has announced that its plant in Vietnam could be put back online in four to six months time. The leading Taiwanese electronics manufacturer built the plant about a decade ago, but the facility was put in reserve due to changes in the firms business strategy. Compal president Martin Wong said that the firm is now awaiting the final list of affected products, and remains tentative about Vietnam. According to Wong, moving to Vietnam would be less costly compared with the firms home market. Vietnam would offer the quickest solutions in terms of wages and workforce. Compal is among many foreign investors who maintain interest in Vietnam, proving how attractive the Vietnamese market is. Looking back in 2016, the mammoth $4 billion South Hoi An integrated casino resort was resumed after several years of delays, bringing happiness to the central province of Quang Nam, which is looking towards developing its tourism industry. Now, more new investment plans are taking shape in line with the countrys new foreign direct investment (FDI) strategy, pinning high hopes on the bright future of high-quality FDI. NEW ENGAGEMENT IN NEW ERA At last weeks conference on 30 years of FDI attraction in Vietnam, attracting thousands of participants, 24 foreign-invested projects registered at more than $10 billion were licensed and agreed in principle, focusing on the fields that Vietnam will target in its next-generation FDI attraction strategy during 2020-2030. Renewable energy remains the focus of the majority of attention, making up over 50 per cent of the total sum and 20 per cent of the projects. Big projects include the $4 billion liquefied natural gas power project invested by Delta Offshore Energy Pte., Ltd. and the $600 million Egeres Enerji-invested wind power project. The other fields of strong interest include high-tech, supporting industry, and high-tech agriculture, with the $1.5 billion software park and inland container deport project of Jiayuan International in Hanoi, and the $1.34 billion mechanical supporting industry park of Hyosung Advanced Materials being among the highlights. The new projects offer clear evidence of foreign investors long-term commitments in the country at the dawn of the Industry 4.0. At the event, international business associations including AmCham, EuroCham, KorCham, and JETRO affirmed that Vietnam will remain a promising investment destination for their members in the future. They have already made future plans for Vietnam. European firms eye infrastructure and green growth-related investment, while the demand for investment in the distribution, medical, education, and service sectors among South Korean investors will be extremely high in the future. As shown in EuroChams Business Climate Index for the second quarter of 2018, the sentiment of European business leaders in Vietnam regarding their business situation is remarkably more positive than it was in the previous quarter, with a 13 increase in positive responses combining Excellent and Good. This implies that Vietnams overall business environment has been considerably improving, posing more opportunities for business growth and development. Japanese investors, meanwhile, are very interested in the fields of agriculture, healthcare, retail, and beauty services, as well as urban development. STRONG MESSAGES According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), businesses from 129 countries and territories have invested an accumulated $334 billion in over 26,500 projects in Vietnam. Over the past 30 years, FDI has proven to be a major driver of Vietnams economic development and has contributed to its impressive growth rate. In 2017, FDI made up nearly 20 per cent of the countrys GDP, 23.7 per cent of total investment sources, over 50 per cent of industrial production value, 70 per cent of export turnover, and 17 per cent of total state budget collection, while creating four million direct jobs and five to six million indirect jobs, according to the MPI report. FDI has also influenced other economic sectors and the community through cultural, educational, and charitable activities, and contributed to increasing Vietnams status in the international arena. Despite the achievements, there are some remaining problems in foreign-invested projects. They include weak links between foreign-invested and domestic enterprises, low disbursement, low technology transfer, environmental pollution, and transfer pricing. According to the MPI, up to 80 per cent of foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) use the worlds medium-level technology, 14 per cent use low-level or backward technology, and just 5-6 per cent use high-tech. Moreover, according to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, during 2006-2015, among the nearly 14,000 new foreign-invested projects, just 600 had technology transfer contracts. As global trends bring new opportunities and threats, the MPI is now working on the next-generation FDI attraction strategy towards increasing FDI quality to meet the countrys development demands in the digital age. Vietnam will prioritise FDI in high-tech, renewable energy, medical equipment production, healthcare, education and training, high-quality services, logistics, high-tech agriculture, smart infrastructure, and new sectors based on Industry 4.0, said MPI Minister Nguyen Chi Dung. To meet the goals, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked ministries, agencies, and local authorities to focus on six key tasks to further improve the business climate to meet investors long-awaited expectations. He identified ensuring social, political, and macroeconomic stability as the first key tasks, as they are among the top criteria by which investors make investment decisions or investment expansions. The other key tasks include completing investment incentive policies and the investment-related legal framework to ensure consistency between the Law on Investment, the Law on Enterprises, other relevant legal documents, and international commitments; and encouraging and supporting domestic firms to develop joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions with foreign investors in projects using high-tech, new advanced technology, and supporting industries. PM Phuc also instructed ministries to create policies to link investment promotion activities with those of trade and apply digital technology in state management on FDI to increase efficiency. According to Kyle F. Kelhofer, country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos at International Finance Corporation, several shifts in approaches and policies are needed to attract high-value FDI. Concrete actions will be required in eight key areas, including overhauling the current incentives framework, modernising promotion and prioritising sectors for proactive promotion, and introducing concrete policies that increase FDI linkages and spillovers, he said. Four explosions went off in different parts of the depot before a fire broke out. (Photo: AFP/Vlad Musiienko) Security services said they were investigating "possible sabotage" in the incident at a defence ministry depot near the village of Druzhba, in the northern Chernigiv region around 135 kilometres (85 miles) northeast of Kiev. Emergency services said they had no information of any fatalities, while regional authorities said more than 60 people required medical help for smoke inhalation. Grey and white smoke billowed and a fireball briefly lit up the sky above the depot, an AFP photographer saw, while explosions rumbled every one to two minutes. A defence ministry official said Tuesday afternoon the fire had been localised and "the intensity of the explosions is continuing to go down." The fire and explosions began around 3:30am local time (0030 GMT) at the Number Six depot, which covers an area of about 700 hectares (1,700 acres), the emergency services said. Four explosions went off in different parts of the depot before a fire broke out, said the deputy head of Ukraine's General Staff, Rodion Tymoshenko, adding that "this mean it's most likely sabotage," implying Russia's involvement. Kiev forces have been fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country since 2014 in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people. More than 12,000 people were evacuated from the area at risk, the emergency services said. In the nearby small town of Ichnya, streets appeared deserted and were patrolled by police and the National Guard. Shells "flew over the house at three o'clock in the morning, whistling overhead," said Ichnya resident Pavlo Grebenyuk who returned to put out the flames after taking his family to a safe location. "It was scary, very scary." President Petro Poroshenko called a meeting of the heads of security forces and promised to give residents all the necessary help, his spokesman wrote on Facebook. Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman travelled to the scene and chaired a meeting of emergency services officials. "The main thing is to preserve people's lives. Whatever's destroyed, we will rebuild," he wrote on Facebook. Authorities closed the airspace in a 30-kilometre radius around the site, as well as rail and road traffic. More than a hundred firefighters worked at the scene, while the defence ministry sent firefighting tanks. 'POSSIBLE SABOTAGE' The defence ministry denied a claim by the emergencies service that the depot contained 88,000 tonnes of ammunition, while saying the real quantity was a secret. More than half the ammunition had already been removed from the depot and taken to safer sites before the fire broke out, Tymoshenko of the General Staff said. The SBU security service confirmed that it was looking into "possible sabotage." Ukrainian infrastructure minister Volodymyr Omelyan claimed on Facebook that for those seeking the cause of the incident: "there is only one answer: Russia-Moscow-Kremlin." Military prosecutors opened a probe into possible negligence by officials, however. Stockpiles of outdated ammunition dating back to the Soviet era often cause fires and explosions in Ukraine and Russia. This was the sixth major fire in three years at an arms depot of the Ukrainian army. In March 2017, a huge fire set off explosions at a depot in the town of Balakliya in the Kiev-controlled part of eastern Ukraine, killing one person and injuring five others. Ukrainian authorities blamed that incident on an "act of sabotage". "I am confident that we can still reach a deal," Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab told parliament. (AFP/HO) European Union leaders have demanded real progress by the Oct 18 meeting, to allow time for any deal to be approved by the bloc's parliaments before Britain leaves in March next year. British Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab told MPs the October meeting "will be an important milestone, we expect that to be a moment where we will make some progress". But on actually getting a deal, he said: "We've always been clear we would aim for the October council but there would be leeway, that it might slip into November. We're still clear on that." Raab declined to say when London would publish its updated plan on how to keep open the border between British Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, a key sticking point in the talks. In Dublin, where the Irish government unveiled a 1.5-billion (US$1.7 billion) "rainy day fund" to cushion the country from major economic shock of Brexit, foreign minister Simon Coveney also looked to November. Negotiations had "intensified significantly this week" on trying to resolve the Irish issue, he said. But, he added:"I suspect November will probably be needed as well as October to get agreement on that." EU leaders have held out the possibility of a special November summit to seal the overall divorce deal, but only if there is progress before then. NORTHERN IRISH OPPOSITION British Prime Minister Theresa May's Europe advisor Olly Robbins is in Brussels this week as the two sides step up private negotiations in what some have called a "diplomatic tunnel" leading up to the summit. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said last week the chances of a deal were now rising, but London has been trying to dampen expectations, insisting it will not pressured. Coveney speculated that Britain would not formally publish its Irish plan, instead preferring to thrash it out with the EU behind closed doors. The issue is particularly sensitive for Prime Minister Theresa May, because her majority in the House of Commons depends on the support of a small Northern Irish party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). DUP leader Arlene Foster was in Brussels on Tuesday for talks with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. She made it clear she would reject any deal that, with the goal of keeping the Irish land border open, established new checks between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain. "We could not support any arrangement that would give rise to customs or regulatory barriers within the UK internal market," she told reporters after the talks. London believes frontier checks can be avoided through a new trade deal with Brussels, but accepts the need for a fall-back plan, or backstop, to address the issue until that deal is agreed. It has rejected the EU proposal that Northern Ireland stay aligned to the bloc's customs and regulatory rules, saying this would effectively carve off the province from the rest of Britain. But it has yet to publish its own alternative, offering only a partial plan to keep the whole of Britain aligned with EU rules for a limited time. This has been rejected by both Brussels and many British eurosceptics. May's proposal for the future trade deal, meanwhile, has also been roundly rejected by the EU. Raab repeated May's demand that the EU give ground, however, saying Britain had made ambitious and pragmatic proposals. "It is quite right now to expect the EU to move in our direction and if they do match that ambition, if they do match that pragmatism, I am confident that we can still reach a deal," he said. On Friday, the EU ambassadors from the 27 non-British member states will meet in Luxembourg to discuss Brexit in the run-up to the summit, a diplomatic source said. The chairmen of Vietnam Railways and Dien Quang JSC signing the cooperation agreement Under the cooperation, Dien Quang JSC will offer solutions and lighting products for VNR's trains, railway stations, depots, offices, as well as other products meeting VNR's specific requirements, with quality warranty and at reasonable price based on the market. VNR will create the best conditions in terms of means of transport and warehouses to transport Dien Quang JSC's products in a safe, convenient, and timely manner. The two sides also agreed to cooperate in promoting each others trademarks. "The cooperation will enable the two sides to tap into each other's strengths. The cooperation should be concrete, conducted through contracts to ensure its efficiency," said Vu Anh Minh, VNR Chairman. He also proposed the two firms to cooperate in research activities and technology application. The agreement with Dien Quang JSC showed VNR's determination to increase operational efficiency by strengthening cooperation with other state-owned corporations. Last year, VNR signed a cooperation agreement with Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) to strengthen cooperation in investment and business activities in the future, and cooperated with Vietnam Post Corporation (VNPost) in logistics services. The country's biggest train operator also inked a cooperation deal with Saigon Newport Corporation to build two inland container depots (ICDs) in Binh Duong province and Hanoi. VNR and VNPost shake hands on logistics cooperation Vietnam Railways (VNR) and Vietnam Post Corporation (VNPost) signed a cooperation agreement on logistics services yesterday. Petrolimex and VNR boost comprehensive cooperation Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) and Vietnam Railways (VNR) will strengthen cooperation in investment and business activities in the future. Tomaso Andreatta, co-chairman, Vietnam Business Forum Today we are witnessing the great success of Vietnam in welcoming an ever-accelerating flow of foreign investment into the country. Thanks to this, Vietnam has caught up with other large ASEAN partners as a major exporter to the whole world and GDP has grown through foreign investments, technology and know-how, the salaries paid to the Vietnamese employees, taxes, and all the local products and services acquired by foreign-invested enterprises. In part to support their companies investing in Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, and other countries have extended ODA to build infrastructure beyond the usual level. The quality of FDI is continuously increasing, and now the first products to be exported from Vietnam are electronics, just as, a few years ago, garments, shoes and furniture overtook oil and food as the key exports. This has been made possible by a unique combination of the culture of the Vietnamese people, who are especially willing to learn and improve, are motivated and ambitious, and the government, which has ensured economic and social stability and friendship with all countries of the world over the three decades that passed since the approval of the first FDI law. It is time to look at the future and how to keep those who invested here, while attracting even more quality investors to Vietnam to 2030 and beyond. Even today, most companies coming to Vietnam are attracted by low labour and energy costs and tax incentives. However, salaries have been increasing much faster than productivity, reflecting the pure speed of the creation of new foreign-invested firms. If this trend continues, it will not be long before the companies that are employing large numbers of people in garments, shoes, and assembly will move to other countries. Keeping these labour-intensive industries is fundamental as Vietnam continues to have a large, young, and low-skilled population to boost employment levels and as a basis for the future upgrading of the factories belonging to technology firms. The solution to this is to improve the knowledge and skills of the workers so that they become more productive and, if more automation needs to be used to save the factory, they will know how to use and maintain it. While each firm should do some high-level training of its workers, it is important for independent vocational training companies to multiply and to be allowed a high freedom of curricula and organisation, so that they can quickly adapt to the changing needs of the market. All successful countries have a good education system, and Vietnam could continue to improve its own. In part, by opening the curricula and organisation, allowing for the easy arrival of international schools, universities, and experienced teachers, and in part by multiplying the joint degrees and finding ways of attracting back those who have gone to study abroad. In this field, Vietnam is still lagging behind China, Thailand, and the Philippines. For example, with an entire population that speaks good English, Filipinos get jobs everywhere in the world and attract many service companies that boost quality employment. For energy, it is unsure how long Vietnam can continue to go against the laws of physics of not covering electricity use and investment with tariffs. While the poorest part of the population can still be helped, the majority of the new middle class and all companies have to pay the correct price, not only for the sustainability of the industry but also because a higher cost of energy is the only way people will start to implement energy efficiency measures. Today efficiency can only be imposed by law, since it gives no economic advantages except to some MNCs who have to apply their publicly stated clean energy policy. An important issue concerning local companies, domestic and FDI alike, is the burden of bureaucracy and especially of tax and customs. The most common complaint of our members is about corporate income tax (CIT) inspections that appear to be conducted in a way to maximise the immediate revenue to the state rather than to make them pay the taxes they really owe, and the size of the discrepancy gives rise to opportunity for corruption. Only larger companies can afford the long negotiations necessary to arrive to a result that is agreeable to both parties, SMEs just do not have enough energy or the skills to do so. As with customs, taking cash out of payments is a first but effective step together with moving all documents onto computers, which ensures that communication between both sides is transparent. The other main solutions are clearer regulations, as VBF is cooperating with the relevant authorities to achieve, and an effective system of escalation to a higher authority, closer to the ministry and with a single interpretation for all similar cases. Finally, a solution must be found for those companies that invested here on the basis of a license that offered certain tax incentives which are not recognised in the tax law. In the future, domestic and foreign companies will need to work together more. This raises many issues about the structure of domestic enterprises, which are often too small and too lacking in know-how and knowledge to be in a position to sell their products to companies that have the world for their market and have to produce top-quality products at a reasonable price. In the short term, it is far easier to ask suppliers of quality products and knowledge to come here than to bring Vietnamese companies up to speed on many levels. The Vietnamese economy would greatly benefit from making available FDI-run world-class management, training schools, service companies, banks, insurance, and technology which today do not enjoy a level playing field with local ones. Meanwhile, local companies need to grow larger and stronger. Some domestic institutions, like the capital markets, the laws on company restructuring and M&A, and the size of local institutional investors do not yet allow the creation of companies with enough financial strength to make the investments they need to reach world markets, so they need to be reformed. Today the government can encourage larger domestic companies to move beyond real estate and, with new dedicated management, lay the foundations for industrial business in modern and technological industries. At the same time, we need a concentration of the existing companies into larger ones that again can afford to venture into more sophisticated businesses and can afford to attract the talents and skills they need. In addition to allowing service businesses to become fully developed in Vietnam, the opportunity has to be seized to embrace the new technologies that allow countries to jump-start older, established technologies. This causes long-term growth, attracts knowledge and gives Vietnam a second chance. This is especially urgent in IT and software, to join Industry 4.0 and boost the efficiency and quality of agriculture, services, and industry. It is rather unlikely that automotive part makers will chose to come to Vietnam unless there is something new, like a total commitment to electric vehicles, which are a real product today, accelerating astonishingly quickly. An exciting spill-over is that, once electric cars are widespread enough in Vietnam, their combined batteries connected to the grid can be used to improve the electricity market. The know-how of batteries for cars will allow building larger batteries for buildings and cities, making widespread investment in rooftop solar panels even more likely and successful. Leveraging the diffusion of smartphones creates many possible developments, from branchless banking through traffic management to e-commerce and, eventually, a cashless economy. Among the pre-requisites of any higher technology or value-added business being brought into Vietnam are the reliable protection of IP and mechanisms of dispute resolution that are rapid and perceived to be fair to both parties, such as arbitration. The Vietnamese market, despite its large population, does not have the depth to support a closed economy and protectionism will get retaliation, especially today. FDI companies need Vietnam as a market but, far more, as a platform for production for the ASEAN and world markets, so free trade is the sure way to open the doors to them. While Vietnam enjoys a number of FTAs with many areas of the world, their implementation is still incomplete, and the EVFTA is far from being a reality. No new FDI will come without adequate infrastructure. Vietnams need for new and better infrastructure in energy and transportation far exceeds the domestic potential for financing it, and the flow of ODA, while not drying up completely, cannot change the picture. The breakthrough will come when a new way to balance risk and rapid and transparent procedures for bids and concessions will allow PPP to bring to this country all the resources it needs. VBF is willing to work specifically to identify, explain and mitigate those risks to the government deriving from the model of PPP that is already working in all other countries. Key projects need to get full priority: Vietnam today, with all its flow of goods, still does not have a real deep-sea port and is not planning to have one that welcomes the large ships that go into Hong Kong or Singapore, nor has it completed the upgrade of the normal speed train connection between north and south and with ports. Finally, any look at the future must include a commitment to protecting the environment. Pollution, especially of the air in the large cities and of plastic in the sea, has increased and further industrial and urban growth will strengthen the factors causing climate change. Consumers around the world are ever-more reluctant to buy products that come from countries with an environmental emergency, and tourism will also be affected. We welcome the action proposed by the government to improve the mechanism of regional cooperation and invite Vietnam to start immediately by setting a good example here and gain leadership by tackling this issue in a decisive way. VBF companies have already chosen Vietnam as their home and intend to expand their business as much as possible. We are the living proof of the attractiveness of Vietnam today. The government can do a lot to make the country even more attractive in a wise balance of clear direction, simple rules, and openness to the markets. File photo of white tiger cubs playing with their mother on the ground at the Tobu Zoo in Miyashiro, in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo on April 19, 2015. (Photo: AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno) "A zookeeper was found collapsed in a cage, bleeding," a local police official told AFP, adding the man was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. The attack happened late Monday at the Hirakawa Zoological Park in the southern city of Kagoshima. Akira Furusho, 40, was discovered bleeding from the neck and officials believe he was mauled by one of the zoo's four rare white tigers, zoo officials said. The zoo said the five-year-old male tiger, named Riku, was sedated with a tranquiliser gun after the attack, as rescue workers and police rushed to the scene. "We plan not to kill Riku and continue to keep it because the bereaved family asked us to do so," said Takuro Nagasako, a zoo official. While the zoo was open as normal on Tuesday, the white tiger observation zone was restricted "as police continued to investigate the case," Nagasako told AFP. Riku - about 1.8 metres in length and weighing some 170 kilogrammes - was born at the zoo with two other white tigers. Tiger attacks are extremely rare in Japan, with the last one dating back to 2008, when a Siberian tiger mauled to death a zookeeper who had been trying to encourage the animal to mate. In 1997, a Japanese couple were killed when they were attacked by tigers at a safari park in central Japan. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Cambodia has reportedly apologized to the Cambodian government for publishing poverty statistics almost three times as high as the official estimate. Pauline Tamesis, UN resident coordinator in Cambodia, reportedly made the apology to Chhay Than, planning minister, on Monday during a meeting. Last month, the UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative released the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, which estimated that more than a third of Cambodians live in poverty. The approach taken by the reports writers takes into account peoples health, education, and living standards, as well as income, which is the only measure the government uses in its own calculations. The UNDPs formula was recommended in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. The poverty measurement angered the Cambodian government, which has claimed success in eradicating poverty in Cambodia. In a letter to UNDP country director Nick Beresford last week, Than said he read the media coverage about the poverty figure with great surprise. I am very disturbed by the fact that without prior consultation with the government before it went public, UNDP has issued this national poverty rate ... based on a new concept, multidimensional poverty, which has not been adopted by the government as the official poverty measurement approach, he wrote. The Planning Minister added that the new data on poverty by the UNDP would confuse the public who are virtually statistically-illiterate and bring the credibility of the governments official poverty figure into question. The official poverty rate is 13.5 percent, which only includes those who earn less than $1.90 a day. Ultimately the release of this information may have a detrimental effect on the [governments] success in reducing poverty in Cambodia, Than added, without explaining how this could happen. On the first day of Cambodias national Pchum Ben holidays, Than held a meeting with Tamesis to discuss the matter before drafting a joint statement saying that the Multidimensional Poverty Index was produced by the UNDPs independent Human Development Report Office. These measurements [on multidimensional poverty] are not comparable with consumption expenditure poverty and offer a separate and complimentary metric, reads the joint statement. In the future, the poverty rate in Cambodia, measured based on the consumption expenditure concept using data from the Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey, will continue to be the official poverty figure of the Royal Government of Cambodia, it adds. Despite no apology being included in the joint communique, the Planning Ministry ran a separate news release saying the UNs chief in Cambodia has reached out to apologize [to] the Royal Government of Cambodia after a strong reaction from the Ministry of Planning. When reached on Wednesday, Timothy Jenkins, a spokesman for the UNDP's office in Phnom Penh, declined to comment. Pakistan has long been a dangerous country for journalists who report on issues like extremism, militancy, religious fundamentalism, or military interference in politics. A country with a history of military coups has recently witnessed an unprecedented period of civilian rule. But journalists say the 10 years of democracy has not strengthened freedom of the press. VOAs Ayesha Tanzeem reports that new tactics of intimidation are forcing editors and reporters to self-censor. Afghanistan's civilians continue to die in record numbers, according to a new report released Wednesday by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. From the start of the year to the end of September, the U.N. documented 8,050 civilian casualties, of which 2,798 died, and 5,252 were wounded. In the 17 years of conflict, the last five years seem to have been the deadliest for civilians, a chart in UNAMA's report indicates. Most of the casualties resulted from the actions by non-state actors, including the Taliban and Islamic State. The use of improvised explosive devices used in suicide attacks increased in their "frequency and lethality," according to the U.N.'s Quarterly Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. "Of the 65 percent of civilian casualties attributed to anti-government elements, 35 percent were attributed to the Taliban; 25 percent to Daesh/ISKP; and 5 percent to unidentified anti-government elements (including less than 1 percent to self-proclaimed Daesh/ISKP)," the U.N. report specified. Ground engagements The second leading cause for civilian casualties, 29 percent, was ground engagements between warring factions. The report said casualties from ground engagements have declined, which may be due to efforts by various parties to protect civilians from harm, like advance warnings. The province with the most casualties was Nangarhar, where ISKP, Islamic State's Afghan branch, still has a stronghold. It was also the deadliest province for U.S. forces in 2017. The increase in NATO and U.S. airstrikes on Taliban and ISKP targets, particularly since President Donald Trump announced a new South Asia policy in August of last year, led to an increase in civilian casualties from air operations, the report said. The U.N. called the trend "worrying." More than 60 percent of the civilian victims of air attacks continued to be women and children, with the number of child victims increasing 53 percent over the same period last year, according to the report. Many attacks were on anti-government elements hiding among the civilian population, the report said. UNAMA has recommended to both Afghan and international forces that they review their targeting and battlefield criteria, including "considering all persons to be civilians unless determined otherwise." Reports of human rights abuses during government search operations is another concern of the U.N. mission. "The mission received consistent, credible accounts of intentional destruction of civilian property, illegal detention, and other abuses carried out by NDS Special Forces and pro-government armed groups, including the Khost Protection Force," the UNAMA report said. The report also documented the "killing, maiming, sexual abuse and recruitment and use of Afghan girls and boys." Election-related violence Meanwhile, 366 civilian casualties were a result of election-related violence. Afghanistan plans to hold its parliamentary election on Oct. 20. Calling the upcoming election "bogus," the Taliban announced this week that it would use all means to disrupt the elections, giving rise to fears that election-related violence will increase in the next two weeks. "The Islamic Emirate instructs all its Mujahideen to halt this American-led process throughout the country by creating severe obstacles for it, while taking extensive and intensive care of civilian Afghan lives and their properties," the Taliban statement said, asking fighters to attack anyone involved in helping hold the elections. The U.N. report also pointed out that civilians paid the heaviest toll during several days of fighting in Ghazni city when the Taliban launched a multipronged attack in August. "All parties can and should do their utmost to protect civilians from harm," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA. Somalia's al-Shabab militants have executed five men, including a British citizen, whom they accused of spying for U.S., British and Somali intelligence agencies. An al-Shabab court in the town of Jilib convicted the men Tuesday. The five were executed by firing squad in a square named after Aden Hashi Ayrow, a Shabab leader killed by a U.S. missile strike in May 2008. On Wednesday, al-Shabab identified one of the executed as 32-year-old Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed, a British citizen who left London to join the group. Al-Shabab arrested Mohamed in late 2015, accusing him of spying for British intelligence and of being a ringleader for pro-Islamic State fighters within the group. Two defectors who knew him told VOA Somali that he was tortured by al-Shabab while in their custody. "He was tortured to the extreme, he couldn't recognize his friends in the prison," said one defector. In November 2013, Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed fled Britain using a burqa as a disguise, though he was under surveillance for terrorism activities. At the time, British authorities were embarrassed by his escape because he was subject to so-called terrorism prevention and investigation measures (TPIM) which involve curfews and travel restrictions. Three of the other men executed Tuesday were accused of spying for U.S. intelligence. Al-Shabab identified them as Abdi Aziz Abdi Salam Sheikh Hassan, 22; Mohamed Abdullahi Awil, 35; and Jeylani Abdullahi Nur, 36. According to the Shabab court, Hassan admitted to planting a tracking device in the bag of a militant commander. Awil was accused of involvement in a U.S. airstrike that killed militants in the town of Saakow. According to the court, Nur said he planted tracking devices on two al-Shabab vehicles that were then targeted in U.S. airstrikes, and admitted to passing information about the homes of jihadists to Somali authorities. The fifth man executed was identified as Abdulkadir Isaq Amin, 23. Al-Shabab accused him of spying for Somali intelligence. He was collecting information about militant movements for the Somali authorities in Lower Jubba region, according to the judge. The United States has carried out 25 airstrikes in Somalia this year, all of them targeting Shabab militants. The latest strike took place on October 6 in the vicinity of Kunyo Barrow, in the Lower Shabelle region. The U.S. military says one militant was killed. Bulgarian officials said Wednesday authorities have arrested a suspect in the rape and murder of journalist Viktoria Marinova. Chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov identified the suspect as Severin Krasimirov, a Bulgarian citizen who was taken into custody in Germany. Tsatsarov told reporters that so far investigators do not believe Marinova's rape and killing was linked to her work, but rather was a spontaneous attack. Krasimirov has been charged with rape and premeditated murder. Marinova had investigated alleged corruption involving politicians and European Union funds. Her body was found Saturday in a park in the northern city of Ruse. Australia is rejecting the latest U.N. report on climate change, insisting coal remains critical to energy security and lowering household power bills. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its report released Monday that global greenhouse gas emissions must reach zero by the middle of the century to stop global warming exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius. The authors warned that if warming was allowed to reach two degrees, the world would be on course toward uncontrollable temperatures. They made special mention of coal, insisting that its use for power generation would have to fall to between zero and two percent of current usage. The report has received a lukewarm response by Australia's center-right government. It has said it has no intention of scaling back fossil fuel production because without coal, household power bills would soar. Canberra also insists it is on target to meet its commitments under the Paris agreement, which attempts to unite every nation under a single accord to tackle climate change for the first time ever. Australia earns billions of dollars exporting coal to China and other parts of Asia, while it generates more than 60 percent of domestic electricity. Australia's Environment Minister Melissa Price believes the IPCC report exaggerates the threat posed by fossil fuel. "Coal does form a very important part of the Australian energy mixer and we make no apology for the fact that our focus at the moment is on getting electricity prices down," Price said. "Every year, there is new technology with respect to coal and what its contribution is to emissions. So, you know, to say that it has got to be phased out by 2050 is drawing a very long bow." Australia has some of the world's highest per capita rates of greenhouse gas pollution. A recent government report showed a failure to reduce levels of greenhouse gas pollution. The survey said that between January and March this year, Australia had its most elevated levels of carbon pollution since 2011. Conservationists argue Australia is doing too little to protect itself from the predicted ravages of a shifting climate. Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent. Scientists warn that droughts, floods, heat waves, brush fires and storms will become more intense as temperatures rise, with potentially disastrous consequences for human health and the environment, including the Great Barrier Reef. Journalists are familiar with the risks of reporting from war-torn lands, but the recent death or disappearance of three people in Turkey, Bulgaria and Mexico illustrates the growing dangers to reporters targeted for practicing their craft. Authorities in Turkey are searching for Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post who has been missing since walking into the Saudi Arabian consulate last week in Istanbul. There are concerns that Khashoggi, who has written critically of the Saudi regime, may have been killed there. Elsewhere, Bulgarian national radio reported an arrest Tuesday in the death of television reporter Viktoria Marinova, host of a show that reported on the alleged misuse of European Union funds by a Bulgarian building company. And in Mexico this past week, journalist and activist Sergio Martinez Gonzalez was shot and killed by two people on a motorcycle as he ate breakfast with his wife at a cafe. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 43 journalists have been killed in the line of their work so far in 2018. Last year, there were 46 deaths for all of 2017. The numbers aren't that unusual and, in fact, have been higher: 73 in 2015 and 2013, 74 in 2012, the committee said. What's different is the way they are losing their lives. At least 27 journalists have been individually slain so far this year, compared with eight losing their lives in the crossfire of violent conflicts, CPJ said. Of all the journalists killed since 1992, 848 were individually killed and 1,322 were lost in crossfire, CPJ said. "Conflict deaths are one thing, targeted assassinations another," said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University. Similarly alarming is the spread of slayings into Europe, as opposed to countries like Mexico, where drug violence has made journalism risky for years, said Robert Mahoney, CPJ deputy executive director. Besides Marinova's death in Bulgaria, Jan Kuciak was found shot to death in Slovakia after investigating tax fraud among people close to the ruling party. In Malta, investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed after reporting frequently on government corruption for her blog. "There are crooks everywhere you look now," she wrote right before her death. "The situation is desperate." The killing of five staff members at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, by a gunman in June brought the threat home to the United States. Meanwhile, the United Nations has been involved in seeking the release from prison in Myanmar of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Reuters reporters who had been investigating the killing of 10 Rohinga Muslim men and boys. "It's safe to say there is a pervasive worldwide threat directed to journalists and a perceived immunity for attacks," Shapiro said. "And I think that's very dangerous." The European cases appear to speak to the power of oligarchs involved in shady activities who act across borders without consequences, he said. While careful not to place blame on President Donald Trump, experts say his attacks on the press as the "enemy of the people" have a corrosive effect that is noticed around the world. Journalists who may not have felt physical danger often find themselves the targets of threats and harassment online. "We are conditioned to expect the United States to speak up for press freedom around the world and to defend it, not to belittle the press," Mahoney said. Journalism organizations have recognized the threat and have taken steps to protect reporters, the experts said. "If there is an upside to this, I think that people who stand for democratic values are beginning to understand that scapegoating journalists and scapegoating the media is a step toward authoritarianism," Shapiro said. The founder of the U.S.-based Blackwater security firm has been meeting with powerbrokers in Afghanistan to rally support for his plan to privatize the Afghan war. Erik Prince heads the private military company known as Academi, renamed in 2011. According to a report in The New York Times, Prince sent a letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in 2017 to secure a meeting, but Ghani refused to meet with him. Prince, based in United Arab Emirates, has reportedly been holding regular meetings with influential Afghans, including some who have an eye on Ghanis job as he faces reelection in less than a year. Prince told the Times he is not trying to interfere in Afghan politics. The Afghan people will have an election, and they will make the choices that they are going to live with," Prince said. But I will talk to whichever party in Afghanistan that wants to think about a different way to this that actually stops the bleeding." Prince is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. In 2007, Blackwater was implicated in the killings of 17 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater guards. The first-degree murder conviction of one of the guards was overturned last year. The U.S. appeals court also ordered that three other defendants be re-sentenced. Ghanis positon Last week, Ghani rejected the effort to privatize the war. Flawed and impractical proposals are being touted around, including privatizing the war and exploiting the Afghan natural resources. Afghans will not allow the exploitation of their natural resources by anyone, an angry Ghani told a gathering in northern Balkh province last week. Ghanis remarks were followed by an official statement by the Afghan National Security Council on Twitter. Princes plan Prince would replace thousands of U.S. troops with fewer private contractors, who would be backed by a 90-plane private air force. The war would then be coordinated by what Prince calls a "viceroy." In interviews with various news outlets, Prince used the example of the East India Company that ruled the Indian sub-continent in the 19th century. Matt Dearing, an assistant professor at the Washington, D.C.-based National Defense University, called the East India Company analogy a misuse of history. Prince frequently cites the British East India Company as a successful case study of privatization of state building, but its a terrific misuse of history, Dearing said. The East India Company had no intent on building a nation state. Instead, they pillaged the Mughal Empire and enriched their shareholders, only to be bailed out and nationalized after terrorizing the population. Talks with the Taliban Dearing said Princes plan also fails to address "how mercenaries advance reconciliation efforts between the Afghan government and the Taliban." U.S. and Afghan militaries can win battles, but the long-term solution is a political one. And privatizing the war takes us no closer to that end goal, he said. Tamim Asey, a former deputy minister of defense in Ghanis government, said Private Security Companies (PSCs) are "notorious" in Afghanistan and could face a national revolt if given a broader chance to operate there. "Mr. Prince's plan for privatizing the Afghan war is politically and militarily unfeasible and goes against the social and political fabric of the Afghan society," he said. "Private mercenaries have never won a war in this scale and complexity. Asey said the only way to fight terrorism in Afghanistan is through strengthening the Afghan security forces. Ahmad Shah Katawazai, a former Afghan diplomat in the U.S., echoes Asey's belief, and maintains that privatization of the war would also jeopardize the security agreements between the U.S. and Afghanistan. Privatization will bring under question the BSA [Bilateral Security Agreement] and strategic partnership between the two countries political solution, more pressure on Pakistan and Taliban, equipping and strengthening ANDSF plus the air force, which will give leverage to the Afghan government, should be prioritized, Katawazai said. Corporate vs. national interest Rebecca Zimmerman of the Rand Corporation argues that contractors and the military operate very differently for different interests. Contractors are actually working on the basis of specified tasks, and they judge success by completely those tasks, not by actually winning a war, she said. Its hard to see how youd be able to transfer the context of the contractors that hes talking about into anything that could viably pursue national interests, as opposed to corporate interests. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is facing economic pressure to reverse a recent crackdown on opposition groups and basic freedoms in his country. Cambodia faces an economic collapse from the slated withdrawal of crucial European Union trade preferences that will likely force its leader to walk back a prolonged political crackdown, observers and labor groups say. The EU told Cambodia on Friday it will lose duty-free access to the world's biggest market within 12 months for its "blatant disregard" of human and labor rights standards attached to trade preferences it is granted as a developing nation. Unless the government takes significant actions to redress an autocratic backslide including reinstating the country's banned opposition in the next six months, the "Everything But Arms" (EBA) preferences will be withdrawn. "This could be disastrous. I mean, if I were an investor looking at certainly the garment sector I would be very concerned about now," said political economist Sophal Ear, an associate professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College in Los Angeles. "I would pause any expansion plans because it would be like wait, things could go completely haywire," he said. Moeun Tola, Executive Director of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, said a huge number of workers would be forced into unemployment and the ball is now in Hun Sen's court. "If the government really care about the nation and our people, they should reconsider the demands/recommendations from EU," he said. Garment manufacturing is Cambodia's biggest industry, accounting for about 40 percent of the gross domestic product and some 800,000 jobs, while the EU is by far its largest export market, absorbing almost $6 billion worth of goods last year according to its own figures. Preferential access to that market is seen by some of Hun Sen's critics as one of the few meaningful negotiating chips to counter an autocratic leader increasingly emboldened by Chinese support. Statements of concern and threats to review the EBA in the past have been brushed off by his government as empty and bemoaned by some of his critics frustrated with a lack of concrete punitive international intervention. 'Defense of sovereignty' The immediate reaction to the announcement from Hun Sen, who has ruled for more than 30 years, has been defiance. "No matter what measures they want to take against Cambodia, in whatever way, Cambodia must be strong in its defense of its sovereignty," he said in a post to his Facebook page Monday. In the lead-up to Cambodia's July election, Hun Sen claimed defense of the national sovereignty necessitated the banning of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party which he said was made up of agents of malicious foreign governments and the jailing of its leader Kem Sokha. Most independent media were also crushed while members of civil society, journalists, activists and internet users who expressed dissent were jailed. Hun Sen's party went on to win every seat in an election the EU deemed "not legitimate." Political analyst Ou Virak said Hun Sen's public defiance of the EU was predictable, though privately discontent was brewing among the premier's inner circle and vast network of rich benefactors. "You have to understand Hun Sen. He wants to save face, he doesn't want to appear that he's a pushover and so he will try to do it in a way that it seems he didn't give much or he didn't cave in," he said. Increasing pressure Conciliatory moves have come since the election, with Hun Sen facilitating pardons for jailed activists and Kem Sokha moving from jail into a somewhat loose form of house arrest. Moeun said that pressure could stretch all the way to Beijing, stressing that as the biggest investors in the Cambodia's garment factories, Chinese investors stood to lose heavily should the industry collapse. A severe knock-on effect would be felt in Cambodia's microfinance industry as well, because so many garment workers were indebted to such institutions, Tola warned. "Both micro-finance and banks will be hard to grab their assets in order to pay off the loan as there will be protest or chaos to do that," he wrote. Ngeth Chou, a Senior Consultant at Emerging Markets Consulting, said more than two-thirds of Cambodian households had debt with microfinance institutions. "So the household depends largely on their children who work in the garment sector so that becomes a high risk for the microfinance sector," he said. Ear said that while no one wanted to see the kind of economic hardship such a collapse would bring, the EU had created both a credible threat and a way out for the Cambodian government. "The key is to cause the actions you desire in the next six months before sanctions actually begin and to have the same effect so that you don't actually punish Cambodia or Cambodians in particular who don't deserve to be punished for the actions of their leaders. "Then you don't have to tank the economy. But that would be the result of anything of the sort that is being proposed," he said. Representatives of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia could not be reached by VOA. The U.S. has also initiated concrete punitive action against Hun Sen's regime, sanctioning one of his top commanders in June. Many more members of his inner circle could follow under the Cambodia Democracy Act of 2018 a targeted sanctions bill which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in late July. Moeun said if the EU did suspend the EBA, he was sure they would also impose such targeted sanctions, as would the U.S.. "Other allies will follow," he wrote. Australia's defense and foreign affairs ministers will sit down with their Japanese counterparts in Sydney Wednesday for their annual Two-Plus-Two gathering. China - though not present - loomed large at the gathering. The Sydney conference is held as regional tensions continue to simmer. Last week a Chinese warship narrowly avoided a collision with an American destroyer in the South China Sea, while Japan is increasingly concerned about Beijings territorial ambitions in the East China Sea where both countries have competing claims. Boosting defense ties with commitments to hold more joint military exercises have been on the agenda as Japanese ministers meet their Australian counterparts in Sydney. The two countries are also seeking to enhance their work with the United States to boost investment in infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region, as they try to counter Chinese efforts to cultivate relations with developing nations. We are always pursuing the relationship in a very active way. This is the 8th Japan-Australia Two-Plus-Two (meeting) which we are holding here in Sydney today, and, of course, it is symbolized by our special strategic partnership and that is a characterization which is very important to both of us," said Australian Foreign Minister, Marise Payne. "We will be very focused on maritime security, on democratic processes to which we are committed, on free trade, on the international rules based order. There will also be more diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program. The ministers' meeting in Sydney Wednesday is a prelude to an expected visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Darwin next month ahead of a major regional summit in Papua New Guinea. In February 1942, Japanese forces launched air raids on Darwin, the capital of Australia's Northern Territory, attacking US and Australian ships, its strategic harbor as well as military and civilian airbases. At least 243 people were killed. The raids were an attempt to damage Australias wartime morale and its military capabilities in the Pacific. Much has changed in the past 70 years. During that time, Japan and Australia have developed very close military and trading ties. Colombia's foreign minister on Wednesday urged leaders of the rebel group that signed a peace agreement with the government and left camps for ex-guerrillas to return "and not get lost, once again, on the path of violence and illegality.'' Carlos Holmes Trujillo told the U.N. Security Council that "there is no excuse for ex-combatants to betray their commitment'' to the historic 2016 cease-fire agreement that ended more than half a century of conflict. He warned that those who "betray'' the agreement "will receive the full weight of the law'' and lose all benefits under the peace deal. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the council late last month that several rebel commanders had left camps in Colombia's southeast where about 1,500 former combatants are undergoing training to reintegrate into society, some citing concerns "about their physical and legal security.'' "Regardless of their motivations, this development has underlined the continued fragility of the peace process, owing in particular to the persistence of violence in the zones of conflict linked mainly to criminal groups,'' Guterres said. 'Dissidents' He said some criminal groups include members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, who are "commonly referred to as 'dissidents' who have abandoned the peace process.'' On Aug. 31, Colombia's lead prosecutor said two former FARC commanders who helped negotiate the 2016 peace deal Luciano Marin, who is more commonly known as Ivan Marquez, and Henry Castellanos had abandoned their camps and their whereabouts were unknown. Guterres stressed again that the process of reintegrating former rebels "is facing daunting challenges,'' citing weak or absent state institutions, the impact of "illegal economies,'' and relentless efforts by armed groups to lure ex-FARC members into their ranks. Jean Arnault, the U.N. envoy for Colombia, told the Security Council on Wednesday that the vast majority of former FARC fighters in the process of reintegration "still have no clear economic prospect beyond the monthly stipend that is to end by August of next year.'' He said the government's newly resumed National Council on Reintegration must learn lessons from the failures of the council under the previous government. Those include the need to connect reintegration "much more directly'' to local development, empower local authorities, and forge links to the private sector, universities and others willing and able to assist in reintegration, he said. In addition to accelerating economic reintegration, Arnault said "the sense of legal uncertainty that remains pervasive'' among former FARC members remained "a heightened subject of concern.'' Arnault also cited the issue of physical security for FARC members, saying 74 ex-combatants had been killed outside the government security umbrella since the peace deal was signed. "It is imperative'' that measures be taken to address security risks, he said, noting that police have started to provide former FARC members with training in self-protection and the government and U.N. have increased monitoring of the security situation. Arnault also said it was unfortunate that "the tragic killing of social leaders continues,'' citing the killing over the weekend of the coordinator of a coca crop substitution committee and his two sons in the department of Cauca. "That this leader was promoting a government-sponsored program that is part of the peace agreement illustrates the brazenness of the killers and the pressing need to mobilize state institutions for the prevention and prosecution of these crimes,'' he said. New approach Foreign Minister Holmes said the government of new President Ivan Duque would adopt a new approach to economic reintegration so that it could "meet the expectations of those demobilized of becoming economic actors that contribute to the development of their communities.'' He said the unprecedented growth in illicit crop production in recent years, including coca, not only threatened implementation of the peace deal but the security of Colombians and the integrity of government institutions. He said that growth was also "behind a significant number of attacks on social leaders and human rights defenders that have taken place in recent years.'' Several former rebel leaders, including chief peace negotiator Ivan Marquez, have gone missing and have accused the Colombian government of abandoning its obligations under the 2016 peace deal. Marquez is under investigation in the U.S. for allegedly negotiating cocaine sales to Mexican cartels after the accord was signed. His nephew was arrested on a U.S. warrant and is cooperating with prosecutors in New York in a case against another former rebel negotiator. Other FARC leaders, including former top commander Rodrigo Londono, the head of their fledgling political party, have been less hostile to the government and have urged Marquez and others to stick to their commitments. The outgoing president of the Maldives filed a complaint with police on Wednesday challenging the results of last month's presidential election, in which he was defeated by the opposition candidate. President Yameen Abdul Gayoom's Progressive Party of the Maldives said in a statement that lawyers filed the complaint over serious allegations of vote rigging, fraud, malpractice and corruption." The statement said the party is seeking a remedy from the High Court and Supreme Court. Yameen was defeated by opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the Sept. 23 election and quickly conceded defeat. The constitution allows two weeks to submit a challenge from the day of the announcement of official election results. Yameen's five-year term ends on Nov. 17. President Donald Trump says he has been speaking to one of his former advisers, Dina Powell, about the possibility of succeeding Nikki Haley as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and he plans to speak with others about the post. At the White House on Wednesday, Trump said Powell is one of many people being considered. Haley announced on Tuesday that she is stepping down as U.N. ambassador and would vacate the post by the end of the year. "It has been an honor of a lifetime," Haley said, sitting alongside Trump in the Oval Office where they announced her pending departure Tuesday. The former governor of the state of South Carolina has been seen by some as a relatively moderate voice in Trump's Cabinet. Her appointment as ambassador to the U.N. was seen as a surprise because she had been viewed as a critic of Trump's confrontational style during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as a proponent of free markets and global trade, in contrast to the president's "America First" policies. The 46-year-old Haley, whose parents emigrated from India, is one of six women in Trump's Cabinet and is regarded as a potential future Republican Party presidential contender. "No, I'm not running for 2020," Haley said, adding she would be campaigning for Trump's re-election in the next presidential election. The voices of the witnesses are quiet. Their heads are projected on screens behind a chain-link fence in complete darkness at the site of a former monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Their topic: the most painful moments in the history of Czechoslovakia. A multimedia exhibition is marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia by focusing on the nation's experience with two totalitarian regimes in the turbulent 20th century: the Nazi occupation in World War II and Communist rule. "The Memory of the Nation" has been created by the Post Bellum nonprofit organization, which has been recording oral histories of those who witnessed key historical moments. It starts in 1939, beginning with the Nazi invasion, and goes until the end of the communist regime in 1989. "The 20th century is full of traumas," said Jana Holcova, a Post Bellum spokeswoman. Czechoslovakia was created as an independent state on Oct 28, 1918, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed at the end of World War I. It ceased to exist in 1993, after the region peacefully split into two nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Here's a look at the exhibit that runs through Dec 9. A Fitting Place to Contemplate History Visitors to the exhibit have a rare chance to see the huge, rarely-opened underground space just under the former Stalin monument site at Prague's Letna Park. The almost 16-meter (over 52-foot) granite statue of Stalin with other figures behind him, once considered the biggest representation of the brutal dictator outside the Soviet Union, was unveiled in 1955 after six years of work. Its creator, Otakar Svec, killed himself shortly before that, following the example of his wife. After Stalin's Soviet successor, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced Stalin's personality cult, the monument that was visible from many parts of Prague became a political problem. It was demolished in 1962. The space has been closed for decades. City Hall has proposed that the National Gallery turn it into a center for contemporary art while Post Bellum has suggested the current exhibition be expanded into a museum to totalitarianism. No final decision has been made. Traumatic Moments in a Nation's Past In one section, a video map with sound allows visitors to glimpse a bit of what it was like to be a RAF pilot shooting down a Nazi plane in World War II during the Battle of Britain, in which many Czechs participated. Other sections illustrate Nazi cruelty, an interrogation by the feared Communist-era secret police or the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, which crushed the liberal reforms known as the Prague Spring. A moment from the country's 1989 anti-Communist Velvet Revolution, which was led by Vaclav Havel, comes at the end as a relief. Witnesses speaking on the screen include Holocaust survivors, political prisoners and a communist investigator. Subtitles are in Czech and English. The Wall That Divides The project includes a 5-meter (over 16-foot) high wall that runs for 50 meters (164 feet) and prevents people from seeing the elegant, cobblestoned city of Prague at a popular viewing spot. Martin Hejl, art director of the exhibition, said the wall symbolizes the country's totalitarian period, its suffocating censorship, the divisions of its people and "archetypical sites such as the Berlin Wall." South Koreas Jeju Island welcomed nearly 20 fleets from more than ten countries as it kicked off a five-day international naval review. However, the ghost and painful memory of World War II atrocities appeared this week when Japan, a key U.S. ally in the region and less than 1,000 kilometers away, elected to skip this years event after Seoul requested ships from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force not to fly their naval ensign, the 16-ray rising sun flag. Despite Tokyos absence from the event, the dispute over the flag is expected to continue between the two countries even after its conclusion. Two atrocities appeared this week when Japan, a key U.S. ally in the region and less than 1,000 kilometers away, elected to skip this years event after Seoul requested ships from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force not to fly their naval ensign, the 16-ray rising sun flag. Despite Tokyos absence from the event, the dispute over the flag is expected to continue between the two countries even after its conclusion. South Korea and other Asian countries strongly associate the rising flag with Japans aggression during the 20th Century. Some even go as far as to link the flag to various atrocities and consider it a lasting symbol of World War II. South Koreas navy had asked all nations participating to display their national flags and the South Korean flag on their vessels. Some viewed that request as a way to prevent Japanese vessels from flying the kyokujitsuki, or rising sun flag. Japanese officials told the Associated Press it is mandatory for Japans naval ships to fly the ensign under domestic laws and only commercial ships fly the hinomaru, or national flag, to differentiate them. Japanese Chief of Staff Katsutoshi Kawano said the flag was a matter of pride for the Maritime Self-Defense Force sailors and regretted the impasse with Seoul over its use. Japan also refutes the idea that the naval ensign is a symbol of war. Flag evokes deeply rooted resentment South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon highlighted the nations antipathy toward the flag earlier this month. Japan must carefully consider the effect that the Rising Sun Flag has on the Korean people, who remember the pain of colonial rule," he said in an October 1 cabinet meeting. Furthermore, the hostility toward the naval ensign is not limited to political issues, but manifests throughout South Korean pop culture. In 2016, K-pop singing idol Tiffany (from the group Girls Generation) was removed from a television variety show because she used a rising sun flag emoji in an Instagram post celebrating Liberation Day, the August 15th holiday marking Japans World War II surrender. The emojis use immediately evoked public outrage and the network announced Tiffanys departure three days later. But it is not only the flag itself that elicits strong reactions. In some cases, just the radial pattern design of the flag is enough. Earlier this year, Nike canceled the release of a shoe adapting the pattern design and local brewery Hite discontinued a special edition beer label with it, even though the featured colors were purple and blue. Ewha Womans University industrial design professor Cho Young-sik explained why the pattern is so readily seen, even though it has long-drawn resentment. Sunrise itself is generally considered positive. Although the intensity of image limits its direct utilization in fashion design or interface design, its concept [radial pattern] is commonly adopted in brand design as a motif, he said. Cho went on to say that that the designs perceived meaning also varies between cultures, noting the design concept delivers different feelings depending on the color combinations used. Unlike the Japanese flag, yellow and orange are frequently used in this pattern in the Western culture, he added. From an aesthetic perspective, Cho said, The image is effective in getting public attention, with an intense color contrast of red and white, saying its more effective at transmitting Japans national identity than its national flag. Renewed push for a legislative ban On October 1, South Korean legislator Shin Yong-hyeon proposed a bill in the National Assembly aiming to prohibit the rising sun design be used in South Korea. The Rising Sun Flag is equivalent to the Hacken Kreitz (Nazi party flag used during World War II) in South Korea. It is a symbol of Japanese past military aggression, Shins spokesperson told VOA. A similar bill was introduced in 2016, but never passed. The latest iteration is more comprehensive and includes adaptive designs. That piece of legislation has garnered increased support as diplomatic rows continue over longstanding issues such as the comfort women and Dokdo, a set of small islets also claimed by Japan and known as Takeshima or internationally as the Laincort Rocks). Tokyo defends its persistent use, saying the radial pattern of the rising sun has been used a long time, dating back to the Edo period (1603-1868). The kyokujitsuki appeared as the official naval ensign in 1889 and was registered with the International Maritime Organization in 1954, the same year the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force was established. Yang Gi-ho, a Japanese studies professor at Sungkonghoe University, says to the Japanese, the flags design has an entirely different interpretation than it does in Korean society. It traditionally symbolizes fertility and abundance in Japanese culture, Yang said, noting that some companies incorporate it into their branding. Among those is the Asahi Shinbum newspaper. He said that while it is his view that it is not appropriate to ban the flag in South Korea, Japanese officials should consider national sentiment in South Korea as both counties try to improve their relationship and move forward. Hurricane Michael is getting stronger as it barrels through the Gulf of Mexico, and forecasters say it could approach Category 4 status before it slams into the Florida Panhandle. As of late Tuesday, Michael was a Category 3 storm located about 400 kilometers south of Panama City. Michael's top sustained winds were 195 kilometers per hour. But the storm is gaining energy from the warm Gulf waters and forecasters said it could be close to a Category 4 when it makes landfall around midday Wednesday. Hurricane warnings have been issued for the Alabama-Florida border eastward. Tornadoes and as much as 30 centimeters of rain are expected in some areas. Florida Governor Rick Scott is calling Michael a "monstrous hurricane," warning that it could bring "total devastation" to parts of the state. He is urging residents not to ignore evacuation orders and to pay close attention to news reports. Forecasters were warning the Panhandle and Big Bend areas could see storm surges of 2.5 to 4 meters. President Donald Trump said federal emergency officials are standing by. The National Hurricane Center said Michael is the first major storm to hit the Florida Panhandle since Hurricane Dennis in 2005. Hurricane Michael is a fast-moving storm that forecasters said will quickly weaken as it moves across land. The storm will drift into the Mid-Atlantic States and out to sea by Friday. Michael will strike the U.S. after having soaked parts of Central America and Cuba with heavy rains, causing flooding and knocking out power. At least 13 storm-related deaths have been reported in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Various journalist unions across Pakistan protested Tuesday the direct and indirect intimidation they say they face while trying to do their job. The journalist is alive, Ayub saw it, Yahya saw it, now you will see it, chanted a charged group of protesters in capital Islamabad calling out names of past dictators. Pakistan has long been a dangerous country for journalists who report on issues like extremism, militancy, religious fundamentalism, or military interference in politics. A country with a history of military coups has recently witnessed an unprecedented period of civilian rule. But journalists say 10 years of democracy has not strengthened freedom of the press. Veteran journalists Nasir Zaidi was one of the few who was flogged during the dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq in the 1980s. He called the current situation worse and more confusing for the working journalists, leading to an increasing trend of self-censorship. Today, we have a facade of democracy, the constitution is intact, but behind the scenes dark forces are using all means necessary to control journalism, he said. The dark forces is a euphemism for the countrys powerful military establishment and its intelligence agencies. According to the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists, Pakistans military uses both direct and indirect intimidation. For several years, Pakistan was on the list of countries the CPJ considered most deadly for journalists. Its recent report acknowledges that killings of journalists in Pakistan has gone down. But it says the decline in deaths was accompanied by a decline in press freedom. WATCH: Pakistan press freedom The report accuses the military of encouraging self-censorship. Journalists who push back or are overly critical of authorities are attacked, threatened, or arrested, the report said. Meanwhile, Pakistans new civilian government of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf, elected in a July election, said it will ensure press freedom. We have a track record of freeing institutions of political interference in KPK, said Faisal Javed Khan, a young senator of PTI, and additional secretary to the information minister. PTI is the ruling party in KPK province since 2013. He said, however, his government in the center was new and needed time to deliver on its promises. On the other hand, PTI, which is considered close to the military, has already started facing criticism for its treatment of the media. Journalist Umber Khairi wrote in her column in the Sunday edition of The News, an English language publication, that PTI had tried to block critical reporting by threatening certain media groups with denial of access to official functions and personalities, uninviting their reporters and editors from meetings with the PM. A senior journalist and television anchor Nusrat Javed said media owners and editors in Pakistan are under pressure to either control or get rid of journalists deemed too critical of the establishment or the new government. The establishment in Pakistan is usually considered to be the powerful military and the intelligence agencies linked with it. Earlier this week, prominent journalist Cyril Almeida was ordered to appear in court to face accusations of treason, a capital offense. He had published an on the record interview with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in which Sharif talked about cross border terrorism, particularly an attack on Indian financial capital Mumbai in which more than 150 people, including Westerners, died. Sharif seemed to imply that Pakistan should do more to curb such attacks and the people responsible for it. India and the United States have long held Pakistan based group Lashkar e Taiba responsible for the attack. After the attack, the group was placed on the U.S. and U.N. lists of terrorist groups. Amina Malik, the woman who filed the petition to charge Almeida, along with Sharif and another former Pakistani premier, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, with treason said the Sharif interview damaged Pakistans reputation in the world and Almeida should never have published his comments. Article 19 of the constitution gives you the right to freedom of expression. But it does not give you the right to speak against your own country or your own institutions, she said. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said the journalist was hounded for nothing more than doing his job and that the move would further choke press freedom in Pakistan. At Tuesdays protest in Islamabad, organized by Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, another veteran journalist said the combination of the threats to media with apparent freedom led to a culture of self-censorship. You dont know which lines you could cross and which you couldnt. So, in the fear of crossing the wrong lines, you decide not to publish or air a story, he said. A California man will serve six months in prison for unwittingly helping the Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 presidential elections. A federal judge in Washington has sentenced Richard Pinedo to six months imprisonment followed by six months of home detention for selling bank account numbers to Russian operatives. According to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, the Russians used those bank accounts to set up PayPal accounts and purchase advertisements on Facebook. The 28-year-old Pinedo pleaded guilty to identity fraud. He testified before a grand jury and prosecutors acknowledged that Pinedo had cooperated fully with Mueller's investigation. Pinedo's lawyer, Jeremy Lessem, says he'd hoped to avoid any prison time for Pinedo and described his client as a small-time criminal caught up in a global conspiracy The premier of New South Wales (NSW) wants immigration to Australias most populous state halved, insisting that it is buckling under the pressure of too many people. Gladys Berejiklian is blaming successive federal governments for losing control of migration. Gladys Berejiklian is the daughter of Armenian migrants but says that Australia is opening its doors to too many new settlers. She says she is an enthusiastic supporter of multiculturalism in a country where more than a quarter of the population was born overseas but stresses that the number of immigrants arriving in New South Wales has more than doubled in a decade. She wants that figure cut in half. The premier insists that it is unsustainable and is putting an unrelenting strain on the states roads, hospitals and schools, which cant cope with the influx. What I have said is we definitely need to take a breather. We need to look at the numbers, the numbers have gone up from about 45,000 [migrants] about ten years ago to now 100,000. We are welcoming about 100,000 to New South Wales every year. I am suggesting that number needs to be reduced, we need to take a breather. The states have never had a voice when it comes to immigration or population policy. I think that needs to change, said Berejiklian. Earlier this year Australias population hit 25 million for the first time. The debate is divisive. There is an argument that because of congestion in the major cities and unaffordable housing that immigration should be scaled back. Then there is the view that migrants reinvigorate the economy. The population is increasing, on average, by one extra person every 83 seconds. The largest groups of new migrants are coming from India and China. The latest official prediction is that the number of people here will double to almost 50 million over the next 40 years. Another key part of Australias immigration policies surround refugees. Unauthorized migrants who arrive by boat have been detained in controversial offshore processing camps in the South Pacific. An Australian-sponsored facility in Papua New Guinea closed last year, but asylum seekers and refugees are still being held on the tiny island of Nauru. They have no prospect of being resettled in Australia under tough measures that the government in Canberra insists protect the nations maritime borders. Critics, though, say that indefinite offshore detention is "cruel and inhumane." The five-year war in South Sudan is among the deadliest the world has seen in recent years, according to a new analysis by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The authors of the report, which was funded by the United States Institute of Peace, hope the new analysis will help to illustrate the true human cost of the war and give a renewed impetus to peace talks and humanitarian funding.The civil war in South Sudan erupted in December 2013 as rebels took up arms against the government. A peace agreement signed two years later broke down and the conflict spread. Fighting has continued, despite another ceasefire deal signed last month. The conflict has caused about 382,000 excess deaths, according to the report. WATCH: South Sudan aid Most of those killed were adult males, though women and children also contributed to the figure, says lead author Professor Francesco Checci. We were surprised at the extent of violence the proportion of deaths that were actually due to people getting killed. I think this places South Sudan more broadly on a par with the likes of Syria and Iraq as opposed to other sub-Saharan African conflicts that we have seen in the past, Checci told VOA. Researchers used census projections to estimate population figures alongside mortality data from household surveys. They also captured data on various predictors of mortality such as conflict intensity, displacement, and food security. A statistical model was then used to estimate the death toll attributable to the war, covering not only violent deaths, but also deaths caused by a lack of healthcare, food shortages or disease caused by the conflict. They have actually been shown in many different armed conflicts to be sometimes the majority of deaths attributable to the crisis, notes Checci. The researchers say their findings show the urgency of a resolution to the conflict. They also hope the analysis can inform the humanitarian response in South Sudan, one of the largest such operations worldwide. Humanitarian agencies are seeking $1.7 billion to meet the country's needs this year, but that figure is only half funded, according to the United Nations. Im hoping that by putting fairly concrete, objective, hopefully scientifically credible numbers around some crude metric over the level of suffering and impact that these crises have on people, were actually going to be able to influence that broad global commitment to humanitarian financing, says Checci. The researchers now hope to apply the statistical technique to other African conflicts, starting with the Nigerian governments war against Boko Haram Islamist militants. Lynn Fedele sits at a booth at a natural-food deli, next to a wall painted light jungle green with bright red accents. She sips a steaming cup of peppermint chamomile tea and talks politics. "I think it's very important to take the House out of the hands of the Republicans," she sighs, referring to the battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Fedele describes herself as a left-leaning progressive. She didn't vote for Republican Donald Trump for president in 2016. Nor did she vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, knowing Clinton would win New Jersey. (Clinton won 55 percent to Trump's 41 percent.) She instead voted for Jill Stein, hoping that her Green Party would get 5 percent of the vote and the federal matching funds that go with it. Stein finished with just over 1 percent of the U.S. vote. The U.S. midterm congressional elections, held halfway through a president's term, typically signal the public's judgment of the performance of the incumbent president. If voters turn against Trump, they could change the control of Congress. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats in the House to take control of that chamber and two seats in the Senate to achieve a majority there. Key bloc Many analysts agree the key voting bloc that could flip Congress consists of women like Fedele. White? Check. Suburban? Check. She lives in Montclair, N.J. Educated? Check. She has a master's degree in English and has been teaching high school English for 27 years. Education is on top of her list of political priorities, followed by housing inequality, environmental protection, health care and Planned Parenthood. Who's voting? A Politico poll taken in mid-September showed more than 64 percent of women were "very motivated" to vote in the midterms. Among Democratic women, that number jumped to 71 percent. Fedele believes the bitter battle to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and the sexual assault accusations that were brought against him by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez will prompt many more women to vote for Democratic congressional candidates. Fedele said the way Ford was treated and mocked by Trump and Republican senators "is an affront to any woman who has been assaulted." On the other hand, Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders insist the Kavanaugh debate and what they characterized as an "angry mob" of Democratic protesters will motivate Republicans to vote for Senate candidates to confirm more conservatives like Kavanaugh. Even so, Kate Smith, 49, is not planning to vote. "It's so contentious. I just don't enjoy politics anymore," she said. Smith, the mother of a 5-year-old, is a registered independent. She said if she suddenly decided to vote, she would support someone who is fiscally responsible, who supports curbing government regulatory programs. Smith has a doctorate and runs a financial business. Women and the 2016 race Democrats have typically won the women's vote since 1992, according to Pew Research. In the 2016 presidential election, Clinton won the overall women's vote with 54 percent. But she lost the white women's vote 52 percent of them voted for Trump. However, college-educated white women were more inclined to vote for Clinton than Trump, and they are overwhelmingly supporting Democratic candidates in their congressional districts this year, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School survey. Chris Elliott backed Trump. She emigrated from Ireland as a child and now lives in New Jersey. Her political hot buttons are jobs and education. She's voted for the past 40 years but said she's never seen partisan acrimony like this. Elliott blames the president and said he's turning female voters away because they don't like how he "acts like a bully." Though she regrets voting for Trump, she will remain a Republican voter in the midterms because of the administration's strict immigration rules that have cracked down on illegal immigrants. "That illegal alien," Elliott said, "I'm not for that." Brigid Callahan Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., and author of Women in American Politics, said she's seeing presidential "buyer's remorse" like Elliott's among white Republican women, specifically young white women. That remorse, she thinks, will determine the outcomes of many competitive House races. "Perhaps some of these women will now flip to the Democratic side, or young women will be increasingly mobilized to vote," she said. New Jersey's 11th District Political analysts are looking at New Jersey's 11th Congressional District, which includes Montclair, as an illustration of that pushback by women voters. The 11th, formerly a Republican stronghold, is a wealthy suburb west of New York City. Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen has held the district since 1995 but is not seeking re-election. Currently, the Cook Political Report shows the 11th District race competitive, but leaning left. Democrat Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy pilot and federal prosecutor, is a political newcomer. Her Republican rival, Jay Webber, is a New Jersey assemblyman. Sherrill recently filled a banquet hall with screaming supporters as former Vice President Joe Biden arrived to campaign with her. "A lot of our women voters are concerned about the same economic issues that all of our voters are," Sherrill told VOA. "We have infrastructure needs. We have health care needs here, like the rest of the country. So a lot of women, some of them heads of the household [or] ... single mothers, they're very concerned about the economy as well." Webber said female voters want the same thing as men, and that's what he's campaigning on: "A thriving economy. The opportunity to have a job and provide for their families. And save for retirement and their kids' education." Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is vowing to defend the self-ruled island against China's growing assertiveness. During her annual National Day address Wednesday, President Tsai said Taiwan would increase its defense budget annually and further develop its domestic defense industries, especially towards the building of new submarines and advance training aircraft. China broke off relations with Taiwan after Tsai, the leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, took office in 2016 and refused to accept Beijing's long-standing "One China" principle, under which Taiwan is a part of the mainland. Tsai said Taiwan is not seeking confrontation, but will not willingly submit to Beijing's aggression. Beijing has ramped up pressure on the island in recent months, carrying out numerous military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, blocking Taipei's participation in international organizations, and persuading several nations to switch diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China. China and Taiwan split after the 1949 civil war when Chaing Kai-shek's Nationalist forces were driven off the mainland by Mao Zedong's Communists and sought refuge on Taiwan. Beijing is opposed to Taiwan ever declaring independence, and has threatened use force to reunify the island with the mainland. The White House said Wednesday that top Trump administration officials have spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the mysterious disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whom Turkish officials say they believe was murdered last week inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul. National security adviser John Bolton and senior adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, talked with Salman Tuesday, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a follow-up call with the Saudi leader to reiterate the U.S. demand for information about the case, the White House said. "In both calls they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process," the White House said. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the U.S. is continuing to monitor the unfolding investigation in Istanbul, but offered no information what the crown prince told the U.S. officials about Khashoggi's disappearance. Trump told reporters he had talked with officials in Saudi Arabia "at the highest level" about Khashoggi's disappearance, but offered no indication on his whereabouts. "It's a very sad situation, this is a bad situation," Trump said. "It's a terrible thing." "Nobody knows what happened," Trump said, adding, "We want to get to the bottom of it. We cannot let this happen, to reporters, to anyone." Trump declined to say whom he talked with in the Saudi government. He said his aides have been in contact with Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and hope to set up a meeting with her at the White House. Turkish officials say they believe Khashoggi, a critic of Salman who has been living in self-imposed exile in the U.S., was murdered October 2 inside the consulate when he went there to pick up documents to allow him to marry Cengiz, a Turkish national, or perhaps spirited away to Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has called the allegation "baseless," but has offered no proof that Khashoggi left the consulate alive, nor has Turkey produced evidence that he was killed inside the diplomatic outpost. Asked whether Washington might dispatch FBI technicians if Saudi Arabia requested it, Vice President Mike Pence said, "I think the United States of America stands ready to assist in any way." Pence did not indicate that either Turkey, which has launched an intensive investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance, or Saudi Arabia has sought U.S. assistance. He told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that Khashoggi's disappearance is "a great concern for the United States of America. The suggestion that this journalist, Mr. Khashoggi, was you know, was murdered should be deeply troubling to everyone that cares as a free and open press around the world.... The free world deserves answers. Violence against journalists should be condemned, but at this point, we dont know what happened." A key U.S. lawmaker, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, told VOA the unfolding drama could significantly affect U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, long an American ally in the Middle East. "If it turns out that suspicions of Saudi involvement in the murder of this journalist are true," Kaine said, "it could be a real sea-change in the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that could affect many things, including U.S. support for what Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen. So I think we have to get to the bottom of it. Turkey has focused much of its investigation on 15 Saudi nationals who arrived in Istanbul on two flights the same day as Khashoggi was at the consulate. Khashoggi has written articles in The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi regime and its intervention in the war in Yemen. Cengiz, his fiancee, wrote in the newspaper Tuesday that Khashoggi had been "somewhat concerned that he could be in danger" when he first visited the consulate September 28, but after that visit was uneventful, seemed unconcerned when he returned last week to pick up the documents they needed to get married. She called on Trump to "help shed light" on the journalist's disappearance. She also urged Saudi Arabia's leaders to release security camera video from the consulate area. Turkish media Wednesday showed what it said was a team of the 15 Saudis arriving at the Istanbul airport on the same day Khashoggi went missing. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published names and pictures of the Saudi nationals, apparently taken at a passport control station. Later, eight of the men checked into the Movenpick hotel near the consulate, with seven others checking into a different nearby hotel, the Wyndham. Nearly two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate, video shows two vehicles with diplomatic plates leaving the consulate through police barricades and headed to the Saudi consul general's residence. The 15 Saudis left Turkey at four different times, the Sabah report said. Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan issued the newspaper's latest plea for information Tuesday, saying neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey has provided satisfactory answers. "Silence, denials and delays are not acceptable. We demand to know the truth," Ryan said in a statement. Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday authorities would search the Saudi consulate, but there have been no details about when such a search would take place. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building. "We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, 'He has left,'" Erdogan said earlier in the week. Crown Prince Salman said last week that Riyadh was "ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises," because it had "nothing to hide" about the missing journalist. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be held after U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 6. Speaking to reporters as he flew to Iowa for a political rally, Trump said: "It'll be after the midterms. I just can't leave now." Earlier on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that plans were being made for his second summit with Kim and that he thought "incredible" progress had been made in U.S. talks with the long-isolated North Asian country. He said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had very good talks with Kim over the weekend and that three or four locations were being considered. Pompeo echoed Trump's comments when he spoke briefly to reporters during a Tuesday afternoon visit to the White House. "While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path where we will achieve (our) ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearization of North Korea," he said. Trump and Kim held a historic first summit in Singapore on June 12 at which Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. His actions have fallen short, however, of Washington's demands for a complete inventory of its weapons and facilities and irreversible steps to give up its nuclear arsenal, which could threaten the United States. 'No Rockets Flying' Still, Trump was upbeat on progress so far. "You got no rockets flying, you have no missiles flying, you have no nuclear testing," Trump said in the Oval Office. "We've made incredible progress - beyond incredible. "But I have agreed to meet," he said. "We have a very good relationship with Chairman Kim. I like him, he likes me, the relationship is good." Pompeo said on Monday the two sides were "pretty close" to agreeing on details for a second summit. He added that Kim had said he was ready to allow international inspectors into North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and the Sohae missile engine test facility as soon as the United States and North Korea agreed on logistics. But experts questioned what Pompeo achieved on Sunday on his fourth visit to Pyongyang this year. They said the North Korean leader appeared simply to be repackaging and dragging out past pledges. Trump noted that the United States had not lifted the "very big sanctions" it has imposed on Pyongyang. "I'd love to remove them, but we have to get something for doing it," Trump said. North Korea is very interested in reaching some sort of agreement on denuclearization so that it can grow economically with the benefit of the foreign investment closed to it now, Trump said. The U.N. World Food Program said on Tuesday that the supply of food remained precarious in North Korea, where one in five children is stunted by malnutrition. More than 10 million North Koreans, nearly 40 percent of the population, are undernourished and need humanitarian aid, it said. "I will tell you they're calling, wanting to go there and wanting to invest," Trump said. "At some point, when Chairman Kim makes that decision, I think he's going to unleash something that's going to be spectacular, really spectacular. And I think he knows it and I think that's one of the reasons that we're having very successful conversations." Turkey is threatening to eradicate the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Syria. But such a move would put it on a collision course with the United States, which backs the Syrian Kurdish group as a key ally in the war against Islamic State and curtailing Iran's influence. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's army will sweep the YPG from its border. Ankara claims the militia is linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, (PKK), which is waging a decades-long insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey. In an address to parliament last week, Erdogan vowed the destruction of the YPG, and slammed Washington for its armed support of the group. "The United States has sent nearly 19,000 trucks [loaded with arms] to the YPG and PYD [Democratic Union Party] in northern Syria," Erdogan said. "Who will they use these arms against? We demanded to buy weapons from you, and you rejected [that]. However, you are giving those arms to terrorist groups." The YPG, with U.S. military backing, seized control of a broad swath of Syrian territory that runs east of Syria's Euphrates River to the Iraqi frontier. The region borders Turkey, and Ankara claims YPG control of this territory is an intolerable security threat. Turkey's forces have been steadily building up a presence close to strategic YPG towns. Its hardening rhetoric coincides with the U.S. indicating it will remain in Syria after IS is defeated. "We're not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders, and that includes Iranian proxies and militias," White House National Security Advisor John Bolton said at last month's U.N. General Assembly. Former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in Washington and in the region, said he believes the YPG has become key to U.S. objectives in the area. "Now, the U.S.' main struggle in the region is with Iran," Selcen said. "And this particular triangle region to the east of the Euphrates is of high importance when it comes to stopping Iranian presence in the Middle East. I don't see how the U.S. can do anything about the YPG presence east of the Euphrates near the Turkish border." He added that pushing the militia away from the Turkish border also is not viable. "All the towns [under YPG control] are aligned along the Turkish border," he said "So you cannot ask the YPG to leave those towns, as they will have to go to the desert areas, which is not feasible." Iran and Russia have been quick to exploit the apparent standoff between Turkey and the U.S. Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, "The main danger to Syria's territorial integrity originates from the eastern bank of the Euphrates, where independent and autonomous structures are created under the direct control of the United States." Analysts say Iran and Russia share Turkey's concern over U.S. backing of the YPG. And they suggest a decision by the group's political wing, the PYD, earlier this month to end talks with Damascus likely was influenced by Washington's renewed commitment to remain in Syria. While backing rival sides in the Syrian civil war, Turkey has found common ground with Iran and Russia to resolve the conflict. At the same time, Moscow and Tehran are widely seen to be using that cooperation to try and draw Ankara away from Washington. Turkey already controls a large swath of Syrian territory from previous military operations against the YPG. But analysts suggest the Syrian government, Iran and Russia would likely hesitate to support the Turkish army further extending its control of Syria, even if it meant ousting U.S. forces. Saber rattling Despite Turkey's heightened rhetoric and military presence on the Syria border, there is a suspicion it remains just saber rattling. "There was an increase in forces from the Turkish side near Tel Abyad [a YPG-controlled Syrian town] and what Mr. Erdogan said any military operation could be imminent in the east of the Euphrates," Selcen said. "To me, this was not very probable because it would bring two NATO members Turkey and the U.S. face to face in Syria." The threat of military action could be just leverage on the U.S., sharply criticized by Turkey for its slow response to enforcing an agreed road map for the YPG to withdraw from the strategic Syrian city of Manbij. "Manbij remains an open wound in Turkish-U.S. relations," said international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul's Kadir Has University. "The previous U.S. administration promised Ankara YPG forces would leave the city after its capture from Islamic State, a commitment it failed to honor." In a move that could dial down tensions, Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced this week that joint patrols by Turkish and U.S. forces would start in Manbij. Erdogan had accused Washington of foot-dragging in honoring a commitment to begin the patrols,seen by Turkey as an essential step toward removing the YPG from Manbij. Despite Turkey's fiery rhetoric, analysts say cooperation with the U.S. is continuing in Syria, and as a senior Western diplomat pointed out, Turkey continues to accommodate U.S. forces' heavy reliance on its critical Incirlik airbase for Syrian operations. The fiancee of a Saudi journalist who disappeared after entering the country's consulate in Istanbul last week said he had been "somewhat concerned that he could be in danger," but that he did not fear anything would happen to him at the diplomatic outpost. Hatice Cengiz wrote in the Washington Post that her fiance, Jamal Khashoggi, first went to the consulate on September 28 and returned last week for an appointment to pick up paperwork the couple needed to get married. He has not been seen since. Cengiz expressed confidence in the ability of Turkish authorities to figure our what happened to Khashoggi, and further called on U.S. President Donald Trump to "help shed light" on the journalist's disappearance. She also urged Saudi Arabia's leaders to release security camera video from the consulate area. Saudi Arabia has said Khashoggi left the consulate and rejected accusations from Turkish officials who said he was murdered there. Neither side has shown any proof to support its version of what happened. Khashoggi has been critical of the Salman government, including in a number of Washington Post columns about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and has been living for a year in self-imposed exile in the United States after a Riyadh crackdown on dissent in the kingdom. Washington Post Publisher Fred Ryan issued the newspaper's latest plea for information Tuesday, saying neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey has provided satisfactory answers. "Silence, denials and delays are not acceptable. We demand to know the truth," Ryan said in a statement. The pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah said Wednesday it identified a group of 15 Saudis who allegedly traveled to Istanbul the day Khashoggi went missing, then left Turkey later that day. Turkish police have been looking into two private aircraft that were believed to be carrying the group when they landed at the Istanbul airport on October 2. Sabah reported that both planes returned to Riyadh, with one stopping first in Dubai and the other in Egypt. The planes belonged to a Saudi company with links to the government. Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday authorities would search the Saudi consulate, but there have been no details about when such a search would take place. WATCH: US response to Khashoggi's case U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House he plans to talk to the Saudis about the case, but had no information about Khashoggi's fate. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building. "We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, 'He has left,'" Erdogan said Monday on a visit to Budapest. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last week that Riyadh was "ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises," because it had "nothing to hide" about the missing journalist. U.N. human rights experts are calling for a prompt independent and international investigation into the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi. He was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, October 2. Members of the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances say they are deeply concerned over the vanishing of Kashoggi as well as over allegations of his state-sponsored murder. They say they are disturbed the disappearance of the Saudi journalist may be directly linked to his criticism of his governments policies in recent years. They are demanding an immediate international probe into the events surrounding his case. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani agrees the apparent enforced disappearance of Khashoggi from the Saudi consulate is of serious concern. If reports of his death and the extraordinary circumstances leading up to it are confirmed, this is truly shocking. We call for cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia to conduct a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Khashoggis disappearance and to make the findings public, Shamdasani said. Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate more than one week ago to get divorce papers so he could marry his Turkish fiancee. He has not been seen since. The journalist, a critic of the Saudi monarchy, has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for more than a year. His disappearance has unleashed an international firestorm and warnings of serious diplomatic repercussions if the matter is not resolved. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed, says he does not like the bad stories about this situation. Turkish media reports allege Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate and his body dismembered. Crown Prince Mohammed calls the reports about Khashoggis disappearance or death completely false and baseless. U.N. human rights experts say an international probe is needed to learn the truth. They say the perpetrators and masterminds of this alleged crime should be identified and brought to justice. The U.S. military needs more tanker aircraft squadrons to compete with a modernizing Chinese military, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Wednesday. The challenge in the Pacific is the tyranny of distance, and that means tanker squadrons are very important, Wilson told members of the Senate during a hearing Wednesday on Air Force readiness. The Air Force recently announced plans to increase the number of tanker squadrons needed to refuel military aircraft in flight from 40 to 54 by 2030. When we project into the 2025, 2030 timeframe, our pacing threat, we believe, is China, Wilson said. The secretarys comments follow recent U.S. military freedom of navigation operations, which dispute Chinese claims in international waters and promote free passage in waters where half the worlds merchant fleet tonnage transit. U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers conducted transit operations in international airspace over the South China Sea and East China Sea last month, which the Pentagon called part of its continuous bomber presence in the region, and China called provocative. The new tanker plans are part of proposed squadron increases across the Air Force. Wilson said the increases support the Trump administrations new National Defense Strategy, which prioritizes great-power competition with China and Russia over counterterrorism efforts. When Defense Secretary Jim Mattis rolled out the strategy in January, he cautioned the U.S. military was losing its competitive advantage over near-peer competitors. Our military is still strong, yet our competitive edge has eroded in every domain of warfare air, land, sea, space and cyberspace and is continuing to erode, Mattis said. Liberal and conservative critics have slammed recent increases in military spending for raising U.S. debt at a time when politicians should be cutting federal spending. Mattis cautioned that Americans have no preordained right to victory on the battlefield and must pay the costs to remain the worlds strongest fighting force. Its expensive. We recognize that. But its less expensive than fighting a war with somebody who thought that we were weak enough that they could take advantage, he said. The United States has charged a Chinese spy with trying to steal trade secrets from some of the country's top aviation and aerospace companies. The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that Yanjun Xu had been arrested on April 1 in Belgium, which then extradited him to the U.S. on Tuesday. Xu, who appeared Wednesday in federal court in Cincinnati, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Ohio. Experts believe this is the first time a Chinese government spy has been brought to the United States to stand trial. This unprecedented extradition of a Chinese intelligence officer exposes the Chinese government's direct oversight of economic espionage against the United States, Assistant Director Bill Priestap of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division said. The DOJ said Xu is a top member of the Ministry of State Security the Chinese intelligence agency whose members have permission to spy in China and around the world. U.S. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said this case is not an isolated incident. It is part of an overall economic policy of developing China at American expense, Demers said. We cannot tolerate a nations stealing our firepower and the fruits of our brainpower. We will not tolerate a nation that reaps what it does not sow. According to the charges, in 2017 Xu recruited experts who work for U.S. aerospace companies inside and outside the United States to travel to China under the pretense of lecturing at universities. China paid for the travel and also gave the experts a fee. According to The Washington Post, U.S. agents lured Xu to Belgium, where he was arrested. The newspaper, citing an FBI affidavit, said Xu tried to convince one of the experts to share corporate documents that he had brought with him as part of his planned university lecture. A spokesman for one of the targeted companies, General Electric Aviation, said the impact to GE Aviation is minimal, thanks to early detection, our advanced digital systems and internal processes, and our partnership with the FBI. There has been no comment so far from China. If tried and convicted, Xu faces up to 25 years in prison and a fine. The U.S. denounced Wednesday what it said was the Venezuelan government's participation in the death of opposition activist Fernando Alban. The White House said in a statement the U.S. would continue to pressure the government "until democracy is restored in Venezuela." The White House also called for "the immediate release of all Venezuelan political prisoners, and for the Maduro regime to take direct, credible steps to re-establish democracy in Venezuela and to prevent further suffering and bloodshed." At the State Department, deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino said the U.S. would like to have "more information" on Alban's death, while extending Washington's condolences and sympathy to him and his family. "That tragedy highlights a continuing pattern of human rights abuses in that country, repression, and excessive use of force," said Palladino in his first briefing on Wednesday. Alban was a Caracas City Council member who was accused of being involved in an unsuccessful drone attack on President Nicolas Maduro. Alban was in pre-trial detention Monday when he died after falling from a window. Venezuelan authorities said Alban committed suicide. The U.S. imposed new sanctions on Maduro's wife and several of Maduro's allies in late September, as President Donald Trump urged the United Nations to support a restoration of democracy in the oil-rich nation. The sanctions increase pressure on a government that has been widely criticize for the collapse of its economy and efforts to undermine democracy. State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report. A federal judge Tuesday sentenced the operator of what it calls one of the "largest dark web criminal marketplaces" to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering. Gal Vallerius called himself "Oxymonster" after the painkiller Oxycodone and the anti-anxiety drug Ritalin that he illegally sold on the so-called "Dark Web." The Dark Web refers to internet sites that are only accessible through special software that make it impossible to trace users. Vallerius pleaded guilty in August for allegedly trafficking in drugs and laundering money on the Dream Market website. Most of Dream Market's customers did their business with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins The U.S. offered to help Wednesday in the investigation of the mysterious disappearance of a Saudi journalist last seen entering Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, a week ago. Turkey has launched an intensive probe into the disappearance of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Vice President Mike Pence did not indicate whether Turkey or Saudi Arabia has sought U.S. assistance, but when asked if Washington might dispatch FBI technicians if Saudi Arabia requested it, he said, "I think the United States of America stands ready to assist in any way." Turkish authorities say they believe Khashoggi was murdered inside the consulate, an allegation Saudi Arabia says is "baseless." A key U.S. lawmaker, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, told VOA the unfolding drama could significantly affect U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, long an American ally in the Middle East. "If it turns out that suspicions of Saudi involvement in the murder of this journalist are true," Kaine said, "it could be a real sea-change in the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that could affect many things, including U.S. support for what Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen. So I think we have to get to the bottom of it." Saudi Arabia has not produced any video footage showing that Khashoggi ever left the consulate alive October 2 after arriving to pick up documents related to his upcoming marriage to a Turkish national, Hatice Cengiz. Nor has Turkey disclosed any information supporting its claim that 15 Saudi operatives who arrived in Istanbul on two flights the same day killed him or possibly spirited him out of the country to Riyadh. Pence told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that Khashoggi's disappearance is "a great concern for the United States of America. The suggestion that this journalist, Mr. Khashoggi, was you know, was murdered should be deeply troubling to everyone that cares as a free and open press around the world. ... The free world deserves answers. Violence against journalists should be condemned, but at this point, we don't know what happened." Khashoggi, who had written articles in The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi regime and its intervention in the war in Yemen, has been living for a year in the U.S. in self-imposed exile. Cengiz, his fiancee, wrote in the newspaper Tuesday that Khashoggi had been "somewhat concerned that he could be in danger" when he first visited the consulate September 28, but after that visit was uneventful, seemed unconcerned when he returned last week to pick up the documents they needed to get married. She called on U.S. President Donald Trump to "help shed light" on the journalist's disappearance. She also urged Saudi Arabia's leaders to release security camera video from the consulate area. 15 Saudi nationals Turkish media Wednesday showed what it said was a team of 15 Saudis arriving at the Istanbul airport on the same day Khashoggi went missing. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published names and pictures of the Saudi nationals, apparently taken at a passport control station. Later, eight of the men checked into the Movenpick hotel near the consulate, with seven others checking into a nearby hotel, the Wyndham. Nearly two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate, video shows two vehicles with diplomatic plates leaving the consulate through police barricades and headed to the Saudi consul general's residence. The 15 Saudis left Turkey at four different times, the Sabah report said. 'Silence, denials, delays' Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan issued the newspaper's latest plea for information Tuesday, saying neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey has provided satisfactory answers. "Silence, denials and delays are not acceptable. We demand to know the truth," Ryan said in a statement. Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday authorities would search the Saudi consulate, but there have been no details about when such a search would take place. Trump told reporters at the White House he plans to talk to the Saudis about the case, but had no information about Khashoggi's fate. Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building. "We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, 'He has left,'" Erdogan said earlier in the week. Crown Prince Salman said last week that Riyadh was "ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises," because it had "nothing to hide" about the missing journalist. Last month, Patrick Ho, a former Hong Kong official fighting foreign bribery charges in New York, thought he had finally received a break. In a dramatic move in the high-profile bribery case, prosecutors on Sept. 14 dropped all criminal charges against Cheikh Gadio, a former Senegalese foreign minister they had accused of helping Ho bribe African officials. Arguing that the government's move undermined its case against Ho, Ho's lawyers urged a federal judge in New York to release their client from a federal jail. But the presiding judge, Loretta Preska, wasn't buying it. She dismissed the motion, Ho's fifth unsuccessful request for bail. And prosecutors said Gadio has agreed to cooperate, expressing confidence that his testimony against Ho will strengthen their case. "(Far) from weakening the case, Gadio's testimony will provide substantial evidence of the defendant's guilt," prosecutors wrote in a court filing. Left largely unnoticed in the U.S., the corruption case against Ho has sent shockwaves across Asia, putting the spotlight on an open secret in global business circles rampant bribery of foreign governments by Chinese companies seeking business deals around the world. China has largely ignored the problem, according to China experts. While the government of President Xi Jinping has launched a much-publicized domestic anticorruption campaign, experts say Chinese authorities have yet to bring a single foreign bribery case against a Chinese company or executive. Ho has denied any wrongdoing. Ho, 69, and Gadio, 62 were arrested in New York last November and charged as part of a conspiracy to bribe African officials on behalf of CEFC China Energy, a Shanghai-based energy conglomerate with ties to the country's military. At the time, Ho headed China Energy Fund Committee, a Virginia and Hong Kong-based NGO funded by CEFC China Energy, while Gadio ran a business consulting firm when he was a member of Senegal's parliament. In one of two bribery schemes, prosecutors alleged that Ho and Gadio met on the sidelines of the United Nations in late 2014 to engage in a conspiracy to pay a $2 million cash bribe to Idriss Deby, the president of Chad.The payment was offered in exchange for helping CEFC Energy's entry into Chad's rich energy sector, according to prosecutors. Gadio allegedly introduced Ho to Deby and served as a middleman during discussions between the Chinese executives and Chadian officials. The complaint did not make clear whether any payment was made to Deby, but it did say that Gadio received $400,000 for his services. In the second scheme, Ho allegedly paid a bribe of $500,000 to Sam Kutesa, the Ugandan foreign minister, in 2016 in exchange for Kutesa's help in helping CEFC Energy gain business contracts in Uganda's financial and energy sectors, according to the criminal complaint.The bribe was paid after Kutesa finished his one-year term as president of the U.N. General Assembly and returned to Uganda. While the charges against Gadio were never presented to a grand jury, Ho was indicted on multiple counts of foreign bribery and money laundering. Ho pleaded not guilty. Timothy Belevetz, a former federal prosecutor now a partner at the Holland & Knight law firm, said bribery cases under the foreign bribery law known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act rarely go to trial. "This is an opportunity for law to be made," Belevetz said. FCPA was passed in 1977 in response to disclosures that U.S. companies were bribing foreign officials to secure business deals. The law has since been amended, giving the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission broad jurisdiction over foreign companies that have subsidiaries in the United States or trade on U.S. stock exchanges. In recent years, the Justice Department, working with international law enforcement agencies, has brought a growing number of corruption cases against foreign companies and executives paying bribes to foreign government officials. While the Justice Department has previously charged U.S. and European companies with paying bribes to Chinese officials, never before has it tried the representative of a Chinese company on charges of bribing foreign officials in exchange for business contracts. At the heart of the Ho bribery case is the question of whether any payment promised or made to the African officials was a bribe, as prosecutors call it, or a charitable donation, as defense lawyers put it. As Ho's Nov. 5 trial approaches, prosecutors have revealed how Gadio's testimony, as well as evidence of Ho's business dealings with Iran and alleged arms sales to African nations, will help their case at trial. In a recent court filing, prosecutors wrote that Gadio will testify that Ho handed $2 million in cash, hidden in a gift box, to Deby, and only after Deby "refused to accept this obvious bribe" did Ho draft a letter pledging $2 million to "charitable causes" in Chad. Gadio will also tell a jury that Ho never asked him about the status of the donation, indicating Ho had no "interest in doing charitable works in Chad." "This expected testimony considerably strengthens the government's proof beyond the already-strong case reflected in the detailed Complaint," prosecutors wrote. Prosecutors have also indicated in recent days that they intend to introduce evidence of Ho's involvement in other corrupt actions. In a court filing last week, prosecutors disclosed they have evidence that shows Ho had offered a bribe to John Ashe, a diplomat from Antigua and Barbuda who served as president of the U.N. General Assembly the year before Kutesa held the post. (Ashe was implicated in another corruption case involving a Chinese national but he died in 2016 before the case went to trial). Prosecutors also plan to introduce evidence of Ho's interest in doing business with Iran while the country was under U.S. sanctions, and brokering arms sales to Libya and Qatar. In an October 2014 email, one of several cited in court documents, Ho suggested that CEFC China serve as a "middleman" to help Iran access funds it kept in a Chinese bank under U.S. sanctions to pay a Hong Kong bank for precious metals. The complaint had hinted at Ho's willingness to help Chad procure weapons from China, but new government filings allege that Ho's interest in arms dealing extended beyond Chad. In March 2015, according to an intercepted email, Ho asked an unidentified intermediary to send him a list of weapons and military equipment requested by Libya so that "we can execute that right away." A month later, Ho emailed the intermediary. "Qatar needs toys quite urgently. Their chief is coming to China, and we hope to give them a piece of good news." Prosecutors say they want to introduce the emails as background evidence "to show the development and nature of the relationship" between Ho and Gadio. Belevetz said that as with other white-collar criminal cases, the case against Ho will turn more on documents such as emails and wire transfer records than testimonies of witnesses. In white-collar cases, "you often have a paper trail that shows what was said," Belevetz said. Edward Kim, one of Ho's lead attorneys, declined to comment. Sean Hecker, Gadio's lawyer, said in a statement to VOA, "Dr. Gadio looks forward to continuing to cooperate with U.S. authorities before returning to Senegal to continue his service to the Senegalese people and the important pursuit of establishing peace and security across the Sahel Region." Protection of human rights in China has been on a "downward trajectory, by virtually every measure" since President Xi Jinping assumed power in 2012, a U.S. congressional study concluded Wednesday. The report by the politically bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China accused Beijing of embarking on the "unprecedented" repression of ethnic minorities, saying that such abuses "may constitute crimes against humanity." "Of particular concern is the mass, arbitrary internment of as many as one million or more Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in 'political reeducation' camps in western China," the commission's leaders, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, said in the report's summary. The two lawmakers contended that the Communist Party "unflinchingly continues to preserve its monopoly on domestic political power through state-sponsored repression, surveillance, indoctrination and brutality." Rubio and Smith added, "We see an ascendant and increasingly aggressive China, seeking to take center stage in the world, and in so doing, determined to shape new global norms on development, trade, the internet, and even human rights. All the while, the fundamental authoritarian character of Chinas political system remains the same." The U.S. report follows a similar assessment by the United Nations, which in August said that allegations of large-scale arbitrary detentions of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities were "deeply disturbing." The congressional report says the Chinese ruling party is "trying to redefine'' human rights and "basic human dignity.'' "China's authoritarianism at home directly threatens our freedoms as well as our most deeply held values and national interests,'' Rubio and Smith said. The report also attacked Beijing for its control of Hong Kong, citing the "continued erosion" of the city's autonomy. The study also said Chinese authorities also have imposed repressive policies in Tibet, including "extensive and intrusive surveillance, strict regulations and rules to restrict Tibetans' religious and cultural rights." The commission proposed legislation urging President Donald Trump, who has often praised Xi but also engaged in an escalating trade war with China, to condemn "gross violations" of human rights in the Xinjiang region, where the U.N. says the Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities are being held in arbitrary detention. The measure calls for Trump to press Xi to immediately close the "political reeducation camps.'' Chinese authorities have denied the existence of the internment camps, but said that petty criminals are sent to "employment training centers." The Xinjiang government this week revised legislation to officially permit the use of "education and training centers'' to reform "people influenced by extremism.'' The centers have been directed to teach the Mandarin language, occupational and legal education, as well as "ideological education, psychological rehabilitation and behavior correction." The U.S. Supreme Court late on Tuesday temporarily blocked an order forcing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to be questioned this week by lawyers for states suing over his decision to ask respondents to the 2020 census whether they are citizens. In a brief order issued on Tuesday night, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put the looming depositions of Ross and a top Justice Department official, John Gore, on hold while the high court further considers the government's request to shield the officials from questioning. A New York-based federal appeals court rejected the government's bid to stop the depositions earlier on Tuesday. Gore's deposition was scheduled for Wednesday morning, while Ross was to be questioned on Thursday. The dispute will test the Supreme Court's views on the level of deference judges should give a president's cabinet members and other high-ranking officials. It comes as President Donald Trump's new appointee to the high court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, heard his first arguments on Tuesday morning. The Trump administration has been vigorously contesting a Sept. 21 ruling by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan that ordered Ross, whose department oversees the Census Bureau, to face a deposition because his "intent and credibility are directly at issue" in the litigation. The lawsuit, which includes 18 states and a number of cities and counties, was spearheaded by Democratic officials. The U.S. Constitution mandates a census every 10 years, which is used to allocate seats in Congress and distribute billions of dollars in federal funds. Critics of adding a citizenship question to the census have said it will deter people in immigrant communities from participating, disproportionately affecting Democratic-leaning states. The Justice Department told the Supreme Court that Furman exceeded his authority in ordering the depositions and that the states should not be allowed to probe Ross's "mental processes" over the citizenship question. Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens. First Responders in the Tennessee Valley are preparing if they're needed to help with any destruction left behind by Hurricane Michael. Deputies spent the Wednesday organizing response equipment if they are deployed to the coast. The sheriff's office has responded to more than 10 natural disasters. Lieutenant Brian Chaffin recalled memories from the last time he was deployed about 10 years ago during Hurricane Gustav. The Sheriff's Office response trailer is marked with all of the place they have traveled to since 2004. "There is no power. There is no water. You have to be self-sufficient. Flooding, mosquitoes eat you alive," Chaffin said. He explained the team helps in anyway they're needed including patrolling, handing out supplies or providing extra security to prevent looting. "We fill that void in law enforcement for them. Everywhere we've been, we've been accepted," said Chaffin. The Captain in charge of the response team told us he's compiling a list of people from law enforcement agencies in the area who are willing to be on the team if needed. Up to 20 people would go for about 10 days at a time. "If we get there and we can't self-sustain we are then a burden to local entities. And then they are trying to support us," said Captain Michael Salomonsky. Equipment they will need includes a shower trailer, washer and dryer, kitchen trailer, a fuel pod that can carry up to 500 gallons, a trailer that has eight beds along with all-terrain vehicles. The sheriff's office is still waiting to hear if it's response team will be deployed. Check back for updates. Governor Kay Ivey is warning Alabama residents to stay safe as Hurricane Michael makes landfall. Ivey tweeted several times, warning residents to shelter in place and remain vigilant. She also added that the Emergency Operations Team is ready to respond to whatever damage the storm could bring to Alabama. Ivey tweeted that due to the current State of Emergency, she is directing all state offices and buildings in 14 counties and any others that may be placed under a Hurricane or Tropical Storm warning to close for the remainder of Wednesday. There are the shelters open throughout the state. To find a shelter, you can text "ALALERT" to 888777, or visit https://governor.alabama.gov/michael/shelters/. The Alabama Medical Licensure Commission met Thursday and ordered to suspend the medical license of Dr. Michael Dick, a Decatur rheumatologist found guilty of sexual harassing former patients. One woman says Dr. Michael Dick blocked her path out of a room, moving his hands from her shoulders to the back of her neck and then planting a "big nasty kiss" on her cheek. The commission had a scheduled meeting at the end of October but called an emergency hearing to discuss the suspension. The suspension is effective immediately and is in place for 120 days, or until a formal hearing can be held. It means that Dr. Dick cannot practice medicine at all, including seeing patients or prescribing medications. Wilson Hunter, the General Counsel for the Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners, said Dr. Dick still has an obligation to his patients to turn over their records and help them to find another doctor. If he doesn't do this, he could then face more charges. We are thankful the Commission recognized the seriousness of the charges and the need to prohibit Dr. Dicks ability to practice until an administrative hearing can be held, Hunter said. 13 Oct-11 Nov. Galleria Varsi presents Adaptation, an exhibition by Andreco, an Italian visual artist with a background in environmental engineering, specialising in sustainable projects in various climatic conditions. The artist draws on his scientific experience to create graphic art that reflects on the relationships between human beings and nature, and between natural and urban spaces. For full details see Galleria Varsi website. Why Literature Matters: The Case of Mary Shelley on 31 October. John Cabot University in collaboration with Rome's Keats-Shelley House, presents its co-sponsored #FrankenReads event: the inaugural lecture in the university's Literature Matters Series given by esteemed poet and writer Professor Fiona Sampson, the author of In Search of Mary Shelley: the girl who wrote 'Frankenstein'. The lecture takes place at the Aula Magna Regina of the university's Guarini Campus in Trastevere at 18.00 on Wednesday 31 October. In the words of Sampson: "Mary Shelley's is a life that was shaped, possibly limited, yet arguably also redeemed by literature. Admittedly, she is a special case. Nevertheless, the true story of the precocious talent who produced two of our culture's most enduring archetypes - the overreaching scientist Frankenstein, and the not quite human he creates - has much to teach us about the writing life and what it can achieve." There is free entry to the event and no advance booking necessary. For details see John Cabot website. For insights into the Roman sojourn of Mary Shelley, and other 19th-century foreign writers and artists, see current edition of Wanted in Rome magazine. Rome's premier jazz club hosts regular concerts by some of the biggest names from Italian and international jazz. Located in a cellar in the Prati district, this cavernous club has been central to the Rome jazz scene for more than three decades. In addition to live music the Alexanderplatz offers food and drinks, with monthly or yearly membership available. The club opens at 20.30, and jazz concerts begin at 22.00. For full details see Facebook page. Walmart's Canadian unit said Tuesday it is exploring the selling of cannabis-based products but has no plans "to carry CBD products at this time," said spokeswoman Diane Medeiros. Cannabidiol, or CBD, is the nonpsychoactive chemical found in marijuana and does not cause intoxication. Canada is on the verge of becoming the first major economy to legalize recreational marijuana on Oct. 17. We are involved in negotiations with our administrative staff and while we hope to avoid any work stoppages, we fully respect their rights through this process, spokesman Josh Goldstein said in a statement. However, we will not negotiate publicly and the critical work of the labor movement continues uninterrupted. The new investment restrictions were seen as a compromise by some lawmakers, who believed Trump wanted to try to cut off all access to the United States from Chinese investors. The White House and Chinese leaders have had off-and-on talks about resolving differences, but those efforts have not led to an agreement. In the essay collection He Held Radical Light: The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Christian Wiman, acclaimed for both his poetry and prose, describes how his interactions with famous poets including Mary Oliver, Donald Hall and Seamus Heaney have shaped his perceptions about poetry and faith. These taut, absorbing pieces weave together memories and close readings of work that has haunted or challenged him. Wiman, a former editor of Poetry magazine, asks crucial questions, such as: Is artistic hunger a longing for God? Can writing be personally redemptive? What does it mean to be a believer? Wiman, who was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer several years ago, wrestles with his own mortality and ambitions as he searches for truth through literature. One either lives toward God or not, he asserts. The word God is of course an abyss, bright or dark depending on the day. A Washington original. Thats how Jeremiah Cohen, owner of Bullfrog Bagel where the bagels are rolled by hand and the pastrami is cured for 12 days describes his recipe, a product of tinkering in his home kitchen. Four years ago, Cohen recalls, he sold out of bagels in 15 minutes at his first pop up. Before long, he was being credited with bringing greater respect to D.C.s bagel scene once considered negligible, especially compared with New Yorks. Now hes selling to a long list of vendors and has three locations. Over the years, Ive come to loathe the term cheap eats, with its connotation of marginalized, second-class dining. While their dishware, decor or service may not match those at a fine-dining restaurant, the people behind these superb suburban eateries are as devoted to their missions as any Michelin-starred chef. The places on this list are culled from my five-plus years of scouting for the $20 Diner column I write every week. Take good care of your clothes, and theyll keep you looking good, says Christina Elsberry, co-founder of mens styling company Todd Alan. When laundering, she explains, most of your clothes would do well in cold water on the delicate cycle with the right detergent. But isnt that last part the rub? Which bottle or box do you choose from the three long shelves in the laundry aisle? Elsberry has high standards: The detergent should clean the clothes, yet not destroy fabrics, and the bottle should be easy to use and not take up too much space on the counter. She and other experts have a few good candidates when it comes to detergents and some laundry tips, too. Once youve chosen a detergent, use less than you think you need, says Alexa Hotz, senior editor for Remodelista in Brooklyn: Too much detergent will leave a film on your clothes and on the inside of your washing machine. Separate your laundry into different loads: dark, light and workout, and towels and bedding. Get extra credit by turning your jeans inside out to preserve the color, Elsberry says. In general, one all-purpose detergent will work for all fabrics, except of course, silk, wool, down and cashmere, which would benefit from delicate detergents or professional treatment. (Hotz likes Tangent Garment Cares Denim Wash for her jeans; $12.85 for about 10 ounces.) Last, use caution with the dryer, which can wear down fabrics. Invest in a foldable drying rack or two, and it will make laundry easy-breezy, Elsberry says. Still, even a scant seven years after the events depicted in 22 July, its possible to wonder whether the movie is troubling enough: The story ends on a solemn but bracing note, with Viljar Hanssen, former prime minister Jens Stoltenberg and their fellow Norwegians having won the day by advocating for tolerance, pluralism, compassion and rational thinking, and with Breivik safely isolated in prison. But in many ways 22 July feels as if its already been outstripped by reality. While 22 July might anticipate the rise of the far right in Europe, its time frame prevents the film from addressing Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and the role of such cyber-aggressors as Russias Internet Research Agency in amplifying and aggravating racism and tribal division. Axton St., 7500 block, 10:41 a.m., Oct. 3. A woman heard a noise by her back door and saw a man trying to enter. He then went to the side of the house, where she confronted him. The man later tried to enter the shed of another residence. Police arrested an 18-year-old Alexandria man and charged him with unlawful entry, attempted unlawful entry and possession of marijuana. These were among incidents reported by the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office and the Leesburg and Purcellville police. For information, contact your police or sheriffs department. The Hights were in court April 5 where their brother, Tyrone Hight, was found guilty of first-degree murder. After the verdict, Tiera Hight confronted a prosecutor who worked on the case and the victims daughter and began to spit on and attacked the daughter, she admitted in plea papers. Frosh says his office does not act for political reasons, but in the best interests of our people and our state. The more than 20 lawsuits filed by his office usually in conjunction with other states cover issues including the presidents travel ban and whether President Trump is violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution by continuing to do private business with foreign governments. Hed tell us to never accept gifts from a man, especially clothes, said Arvella Davis-Stephens, 69, an ultrasonographer and the sixth daughter in the birth order. If youre wearing clothes that a man gave you and he gets mad at you, he could try to make you take them off in the middle of the street. Hed say if a man brings you a drink at a club, take it into the bathroom and pour it out because he might have spiked it with drugs. Hed give us money before we left the house so wed always be able to get back home. Arum Pl., 15000 block, 1:38 p.m.Sept. 28. Three males had entered a residence, threatened a resident with a handgun, and demanded he open a gun safe. The resident complied, and the assailants fled with multiple firearms. Police arrested three Woodbridge males, one 15-year-0ld and two 14-year-olds. Each was charged with burglary while armed, robbery, grand larceny, conspiracy to commit burglary, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, abduction. The 15-year-old also was charged with escape without force. All stolen firearms were recovered. 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 People familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity say the allegations had already been widely discussed in the Senate and in the public realm. Roberts did not see an urgent need for them to be resolved by the judicial branch while he continued to review the incoming complaints, they said. These were among reports received by the Calvert County Sheriffs Office and the Maryland State Police. Anyone with information about these crimes is asked to call the Criminal Investigation Division at 410-535-2800 or 301-855-1194, the Crime Solvers line at 410-535-2880 or the state police Prince Frederick Barrack at 410-535-1400. If they did this, they will be held accountable, and there will be penalties, Connolly said. So far, [the Trump administrations] responses have been awfully anemic and not acceptable. We need a robust, strong, fortified U.S. position that makes it crystal clear that this is not acceptable behavior and those responsible for it will be held to account, no matter how high up it may go. Police detain former president's youngest son: Egyptian authorities have detained the youngest son of jailed former president Mohamed Morsi without giving a reason, the family said. Ahmed Morsi said three state security men accompanied by a special forces officer took his brother Abdullah, along with his ID and cellphone, from the family house outside Cairo. Abdullah Morsi said last week that he was seeking more visitation rights and better health care for his ailing father, who has been held in solitary confinement since the army, led by then-general and now-President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, ousted him in 2013. Labour is polling almost as strongly as the ruling Conservatives. If the unpredictable Brexit process were to result in an early election, the outcome would be a toss-up. Even if the next election happens on schedule, in 2022, allowing the Conservatives a chance to heal their internal Brexit divisions, Labours chances of victory might stand at 1 in 3 or so. That is a far higher probability than most analysts attach to a disorderly Brexit, in which Britains borders and supply chains are suddenly disrupted. When Londons captains of industry mutter about quitting Britain, the specter they fear most is not Brexit but a Labour government. TWO YEARS ago it would have been inconceivable that the rulers of Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, would be suspected of abducting or killing a critic who lived in Washington and regularly wrote for The Post or that they would dare to stage such an operation in Turkey, another U.S. ally and a NATO member. That the regime now stands accused by Turkish government sources of murdering Jamal Khashoggi, one of the foremost Saudi journalists, in the kingdoms Istanbul consulate could be attributed in part to the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdoms 33-year-old de facto ruler, who has proved as reckless as he is ambitious. But it also may reflect the influence of President Trump, who has encouraged the crown prince to believe wrongly, we trust that even his most lawless ventures will have the support of the United States. Similarly, Mr. Hogan helped defuse the riots in Baltimore following Freddie Grays death after a police van ride in 2015. Yet it is not enough to suggest, as he has, that Baltimores appalling murder rate over the past three years is mainly the mayors problem. And while the governor was bold last year to propose $9 billion to add dozens of miles of toll lanes to the Capital Beltway, Interstate 270 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, Marylanders are waiting for his administration to fill in the blanks of how any of that will happen. Through the years, Ive continued to drop her a line now and then, usually without response. Weve had a couple of disagreements over columns Ive written about her, but I remain both intrigued and impressed by her personal power and epic story. Born to Sikh Indian parents and raised in tiny Bamberg, S.C., she has built a resume that speaks to ambition but also to tenacity and courage. Forty years ago, it wasnt easy to be a brown-skinned child whose father wore a turban in a place like Bamberg. As U.N. ambassador, she has performed with excellence, sometimes speaking independently rather than parroting Trumps positions. In so doing, she has earned the respect of men and women across the spectrum, regardless of whether they agree with her often hawkish positions. Republicans also contend that there is a qualitative difference between the liberal protesters who confronted senators in the Capitol last week and the conservative ones of previous election cycles who aired their grievances at town hall meetings in individual congressional districts. But it was telling that during this years August recess, most lawmakers of both parties decided not to hold any town hall meetings at all, rather than face another wave of constituent fury. Democrats have no one but themselves to blame for Kavanaughs confirmation. Their strategic miscalculations, and embrace of what they once decried as the politics of personal destruction, backfired. And the reverberations may not yet be over. Since Kavanaughs hearings, the number of Republicans who say the November elections are very important has grown by 12 points to 80 percent closing the enthusiasm gap with Democrats. The attacks on Kavanaugh have awoken a sleeping giant. It may not be enough to save the House, where Republicans are defending 25 seats in districts Hillary Clinton won. But the Kavanaugh fiasco may cost Democrats their chance to retake the Senate and with it the power to block future Trump judicial nominations. If so, it means their search-and-destroy mission against Kavanaugh may end up handing Trump the ability to get even more Supreme Court justices confirmed. At the United Nations just a couple of weeks ago, he called King Salman a great guy and praised the kingdoms bold new reforms. His administration previously cleared the Saudis to buy billions of dollars in U.S. military hardware. We really have a great friendship, a great relationship, Trump said in March. Contrasting that with what was very, very strained during the Obama administration, he said the relationship, now, is probably as good as its really ever been, and I think will probably only get better. There has been no political reform. Internal critics have been harshly repressed, including women who urged a faster pace of change. Even this could be explained within the enlightened-despot model. The defense was that the modernization steps MBS is undertaking are radical and face many internal enemies, so gauging the right pace of change is a delicate and fateful decision. He must keep it in his hands and cannot permit public pressure either to go faster or to slow down. His detention of many very rich Saudis in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton hotel until they paid ransoms was apparently fairly popular in the kingdom, because it was widely believed few of those men had gained their fortunes legitimately. Those ransoms were equivalent to the taxes they had never paid. She likened Haley to Condoleezza Rice the secretary of state and national security adviser under President George W. Bush who was often mentioned as a possible GOP vice-presidential candidate. Shes one of these rare people in Republican circles who conservatives and moderates really like and women and men can both agree on, Matthews said. She is somebody who is outside of stereotypical Republican central casting. Shes Indian American, shes young, shes both pragmatic as well as conservative, and I feel that she very much has that image going for her. The question was whether federal law requires authorities to detain without a bond hearing those legally in the country who have committed certain crimes that make them eligible for deportation. On the other side in the case were immigrants who had been in the United States in some instances for years without incident after completing their jail terms. But they were picked up and held in detention without a chance for release while fighting the deportation orders. U.S. officials said Trump prefers quiet inquiries and pressure, when necessary, in dealing with partners and leaders he respects. He has said that he avoided public confrontation with Putin over the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the aim of helping Trump. The president resisted and delayed punitive sanctions against Russia in what his critics said was, at best, a naive attempt to forge better relations. To be sure, its all relative with Trump. The president still uses dark, even demonic, imagery to warn of Democratic rule. He casts the opposition party as an angry left-wing mob that would destroy businesses and endanger the country. On Tuesday here in Council Bluffs, Trump attacked Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and inspired the crowd to chant, Lock her up! And he has called the claims against Kavanaugh a hoax perpetrated by people that are evil. Murkowski said that she had gotten a mixed reaction from constituents since coming out against Kavanaugh but added that would have been the case regardless of how she voted: Im not guided by the polling out there, thats for sure, but on this one, Alaskans were pretty much split down the middle. And so you knew going into it that if you vote one way, youre going to make half the people happy and half the people not happy. On Sunday, Pompeo spent more than three hours with Kim in Pyongyang, in talks he described as a productive step toward persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Pompeo also announced that both sides had agreed to set up working level teams to finalize the date and time for a second summit to follow Junes Trump-Kim meeting in Singapore. The House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees were expected to speak with Rosenstein behind closed doors Thursday as part of their probe into federal law enforcements conduct during the investigations of Trumps campaign and former secretary of state Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. But a dispute over the interviews terms prevented the committees and the Justice Department from reaching a deal to hold the meeting, according to people familiar with the discussions. We request that you make a determination on the imposition of sanctions pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act with respect to any foreign person responsible for such a violation related to Mr. Khashoggi, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and the panels ranking Democrat, Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), wrote in their letter. Our expectation is that in making your determination you will consider any relevant information, including with respect to the highest ranking officials in the Government of Saudi Arabia. Cook is expected to attend a board meeting at Tsinghua while in Beijing. But an Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on whether he will meet with the Chinese president as he did during his visit this time last year. She also declined to divulge what else was on his schedule or how long he will be in China. Members of the Uyghur diaspora community in the United States have indicated they are unwilling to appear at public events, including congressional hearings, out of fear they will be surveilled and their family members in China punished as a result. This is unacceptable, the letter reads, using one variation of the spelling of Uighur. The man, whom authorities identified as Severin Krasimirov of Ruse, was born in 1997 and has a criminal record that dates to 2007 and includes charges of theft. According to Bulgarian officials, Krasimirov fled the scene and headed to Germany, where he was apprehended. Initial lab results linked his DNA to samples found at the crime scene, authorities said. According to the indictment, in March 2017 a deputy director at the university, described as an unindicted co-conspirator, began emailing with an engineer at GE Aviation and asked him to come to China for an exchange. In May and June of 2017, the engineer went to China, met Xu, who claimed to be from the science and technology association. The engineer put five corporate documents on his personal laptop, which he brought to the presentation, according to WCPO, an ABC News affiliate in Cincinnati, citing an FBI affidavit for a search warrant in the case. Background-check investigations are not like criminal probes, which are conducted independently from administration oversight to determine whether someone should be charged with a crime. Rather, they are an investigation conducted at the direction and specifications of the White House to answer particular questions about a nominee or job candidate. In the Trump administration, though, no one is ever truly ensconced in their job. Only weeks ago, Rosenstein traveled to the White House fully expecting to be fired over a New York Times report that, per McCabes account in his memos, he had proposed using a wiretap against Trump or ousting him using a constitutional amendment. So real was his belief that he would soon be fired that the Justice Department prepared a succession plan only to scrap it just hours later so Rosenstein and the president could sit down face to face and discuss what had occurred. MBS, said one senior intelligence official, has perfected an elevator pitch on what he thinks are quick fixes to complex problems in the Middle East, persuading the administration that the answer to all its problems lay in confronting and isolating Iran a view that found quick agreement in the White House. This official and others spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive relationship. Behind a gate next to the front entrance is a covered car port, out of the view of cameras. From that garage, two vehicles exited about two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate, according to one of the people briefed on the investigation. One of the cars was the Mercedes that pulled up in front of the residence of Otaibi, the Saudi consul general, at 3:09 p.m., according to the time stamp on the video still of the Mercedes obtained by The Post. Everyone eligible should be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of long-distance travel or employment. Vaccination should be voluntary but those who don't get vaccinated should be frequently tested for COVID-19 as a condition of long-distance travel and employment. Both vaccination and testing should be voluntary and not required as a condition of long-distance travel or employment. I defer to the judgment of lawmakers as long as they base their decisions on a consensus of medical professionals. Vote View Results Drivers take heed. There may be more deer and moose crossing Connecticut roads because of breeding season. On Wednesday, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and AAA reminded motorists to be watchful of increased deer and moose activity along roadways, especially during early morning and evening hours. Fall is the peak of the breeding season for Connecticut's moose population in the northern part of the state. The breeding season (also known as the rut) for white-tailed deer closely follows the moose breeding season, running from late October through late December. DEEPs Wildlife Division says motorists should be aware of and heed Deer Crossing signs along state highways. Motorists are advised to slow down and drive defensively should a deer or moose be spotted on or by the road. Because moose are darker in color and stand much higher than deer, observing reflective eye-shine from headlights is infrequent and, when struck, moose often end up impacting the windshield of vehicles, DEEP said in a release. All moose and deer vehicle collisions should be reported to local, state, or DEEP Environmental Conservation Police Officers (860-424-3333). Deer roadkill According to the DEEP, there were more than 4,000 deer strikes in Connecticut last year, though most go unreported. During 2017, approximately 4,122 deer were killed in the state due to collisions with vehicles, which is down considerably from 10 years ago, said Andrew LaBonte, Deer Program Biologist for the DEEP Wildlife Division. While the number of collisions has fallen over the past 10 years motorists should remain vigilant this time of year as to the presence of deer near roadways. Nearly 16 percent (106) of deer roadkills last year were in Fairfield County. Hitting a deer can be costly, even fatal Amy Parmenter, spokesperson for AAA in Greater Hartford said in a release. According to UConn Crash Data, deer strikes resulted in a drivers death last year and the year before. According to the latest DEEP data Glastonbury had the greatest number of reported deer strikes. Other high deer roadkill numbers were Newtown with 33; Norwalk, 25; Ridgefield and Southbury; 19; and 11 in Torrington. The fact that the greatest number of reported deer strikes was in Glastonbury clearly illustrates that where deer and drivers intersect, theres a greater risk to both, Parmenter says. In Fairfield and New Haven counties, the highest number of deer roadkill was on I-84, I-95 and the Merritt and Wilbur Cross parkways. Moose road-related accidents Youre more likely to encounter a moose in northwest Connecticut. Moose were seen in Barkhamsted, Canaan, Canton, Colebrook, Goshen, Granby, Hartland, Kent, Norfolk, Salisbury, Stafford and Union for six of the last 10 years. Moose have also been seen as far south as Guilford, East Lyme and Essex. Over 40 moose-vehicle accidents have been reported in Connecticut between 1995 and 2017, with an average of two per year since 2002,said LaBonte. One moose-vehicle accident was recently reported in late September on Route 20 in Hartland, where the majority of the moose-vehicle accidents have been reported over the years. In June 2007, a woman was injured after hitting a moose near Exit 37 on the Merritt Parkway in New Canaan. The moose was first seen in a neighborhood in Stamford and later at Woodway Country Club in Darien. EnCon officers went to Woodway to tranquilize the moose for transportation, but the moose eluded the officials and ran into the woods. About two hours later the moose was struck and killed on the Merritt, about a mile away from Woodway Country Club. Data collected from other states indicate that a moose/car collision is 30 times more likely to result in a human death than a deer/car collision. On the average, 1 out of 50 moose/car collisions results in a human fatality. Moose venturing into southern Connecticut, with high population density, road networks, and traffic volumes, pose an increased potential for human fatalities from accidents as compared to deer-vehicle accidents. Residents throughout the state are encouraged to report moose sightings on the DEEP website at www.ct.gov/deep/wildlife. In the event of a collision with an animal, AAA recommends: Following the collision, call police. Avoid making contact with the deer/animal. A frightened or wounded animal can hurt you or further injure itself. Put the vehicles hazard lights on; whether its light or dark outside. If possible, immediately move the vehicle to a safe location, out of the roadway, and wait for help to arrive. Contact your insurance agent or company representative as quickly as possible to report any damage to your car. Collision with a deer or other animals is covered under the comprehensive portion of your automobile policy. AAA has some tips to help prevent a crash or to reduce damage from an animal collision: Pay attention to road signs. Yellow, diamond-shaped signs with an image of a deer indicate areas with high levels of deer activity. Keep your eyes moving back and forth. Continuously sweep your eyes across the road in front of you for signs of animals and movement. Animals may also be alongside the road, so make sure to look to the right and left, as well. While the most likely crash is you hitting an animal, on occasion they might also hit you by running into the side of your car. Be especially attentive in early morning and evening hours. Many animals, especially deer, are most active from 5-8 a.m. and 5-8 p.m. - prime commuting times for many people. Use high beams when theres no oncoming traffic. You can spot animals sooner. Sometimes the light reflecting off their eyes will reveal their location. Slow down, and watch for other deer to appear. Deer rarely travel alone, so if you see one, there are likely to be more nearby. Slow down around curves. Its harder to spot animals when going around curves. One long blast. A long blast on your horn may frighten animals away from your vehicle. Resist the urge to swerve: Instead, stay in your lane with both hands firmly on the wheel. Swerving away from animals can confuse them so they dont know which way to run. It can also put you in the path of oncoming vehicles or cause you to crash into something like a lamppost or a tree. If the crash is imminent take your foot off the brake: During hard braking the front end of your vehicle is pulled downward which can cause the animal to travel up over the hood toward your windshield. Letting off the brake can protect drivers from windshield strikes because the animal is more likely to be pushed to one side of the vehicle or over the top of the vehicle. Always wear a seatbelt. The chances of getting injured when hitting an animal are much higher if you dont have your seatbelt on. Also never drive drunk, distracted or drowsy. Consider purchasing comprehensive insurance, if you dont already have it. Comprehensive insurance is the type of insurance that covers animal strikes.While rare, moose strikes do occasionally occur in Connecticut, and because of their size can result in significant damage to a vehicle. The Luzerne County Schools & Homes in Education (SHINE) program at Wilkes University celebrated the nationwide Lights on Afterschool project by offering a virtual Lights On! STEM lesson to its students and their families. Supplies were distributed beforehand to the students and included everything needed to make a flashlight with an LED bulb. The Zoom lesson, sponsored by UGI, explained where electricity comes, how it can light a bulb, and the history of electricity. 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... Crissy Slater thought shed make a few sweatshirts and sell them to help pay part of her daughters $4,000 cost for a school field trip. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/10/2018 (1133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Crissy Slater thought shed make a few sweatshirts and sell them to help pay part of her daughters $4,000 cost for a school field trip. She earned five times that amount in just a month. That was last December. Ten months later, Slater has racked up $200,000 in sales and is on pace to break $300,000 her first year. She has started her own company, Red Road Clothing. "It was by accident. I didnt mean for this to turn into a big company. I thought if I sold 50 sweaters, Id be lucky," Slater, 34, said. She now works full time on the company after quitting her job at Wahbung Abinoonjiiag Inc., a non-profit that helps women and children victimized by domestic violence. She now employs on a casual basis some of the teens she helped there for jobs like sewing and modelling clothes. What started as just sweatshirts has also expanded to include T-shirts, skirts, jackets and even pants. All have Indigenous-themed designs developed by Slater, whose mother is Cree and father Ojibway. "It was crazy. Everyone started asking us when our next design was coming out," Slater said. She wasnt planning on it, but she couldnt disappoint her public. Slater is up to four designs now, with her most recent one honouring murdered and missing women and girls. Her drawings come from Indigenous teachings and storytelling. She runs the business out of her Elmwood home and connects with customers through her Facebook page. The business started when her daughter, Ariel Spence, wanted to go on a graduation trip to Italy with her schoolmates at Elmwood High School. Crissy and Ariel sat down to brainstorm on how to raise funds. One idea was to write a childrens book, another to sell beadwork. Crissy finally settled on designing sweatshirts. She invested $2,000 and got 100 sweatshirts and had them silk-screened with a variation of the Indigenous star blanket. Slater lists Indigenous artist Gayle Sinclair as her friend and mentor. Slater credits the consumer response to her daughter. When Ariel was 12 and started menstruating, the family held a traditional ceremony that marks the occasion. As well, Ariel volunteered to start a traditional womanhood ceremony called "berry fast." A berry fast is a year-long fast of berries. Back in the day, that would be the only source of sweets available to Indigenous people. But the modern berry fast also includes not buying anything new (other than clothes she outgrew or that wore out). As well, Ariel couldnt keep the money she earned from her powwow dance performances. "That taught her to go without, to be selfless," her mother said. After a year, they held a big feast for family and relatives and Ariel gave them handicrafts she made, buying materials with her powwow dancing money. Slater said that laid the groundwork for friends and relatives to buy the first batch of sweatshirts to support Ariels school trip. And business just took off from there. "Shes, like, super cool," Ariel said of her mom. "I think shes just really a great role model for me." Ariel helps with making deliveries and works the selling booth at trade shows and powwows. "Its pretty fun. Mom is, like, so excited with how the business is doing." Ariel likes her employer, too. "Its fun working with my mom. Its better than having a boss you dont know." Slater is coming out with a fifth design by mid-November called Warrior Woman. She plans to begin designing clothes for boys and men in 2019. The original sweatshirts retail for $50 for pullovers, and $60 for zip-up hoodies. Red Road Clothing can be found on Facebook and Instagram. Clothing can be picked up, delivered for a small charge or shipped via Canada Post. 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. Darrell Brown, chairman of the Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce, said hes seeing more Indigenous people try their hand at running a business. "Its a trend," Brown said. "Its just that a lot of Indigenous entrepreneurs start out very small. They begin with home-based businesses." The chamber offers those businesses support like helping to raise their profile and getting them known to its membership. "Were a platform for all these startups and small businesses to grow," Brown said. bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca Eager pot buyers hoping to score some weed when Canada goes legal next week could be in for a bummer. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/10/2018 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Eager pot buyers hoping to score some weed when Canada goes legal next week could be in for a bummer. Only a handful of retail locations countrywide will be up and running on Oct. 17, including just one store in British Columbia and none in Ontario. Producers, meanwhile, are unlikely to come close to meeting initial demand due to delays in getting licences and signing supply agreements. The result will be limited selections of dried bud and oils for consumers. "It will be a fairly thin market to begin with and maybe thats why a lot of these provinces havent rushed to get retail locations and bricks and mortar for Day 1," PI Financial analyst Jason Zandberg said. "I would expect there to be long waits and very limited product types." The limited store openings and pot supplies may hamper sales at the outset, curbing enthusiasm for pot stocks that have soared in anticipation of Canada becoming the first Group of Seven nation to legalize marijuana. Canadas market is expected to soar to $4.3 billion in the first year, according to Deloitte, with global demand poised to juice sales further as more countries follow Canadas lead. While there have been worries about producers being able to meet demand for Day 1, that concern has now extended to the distribution end as many retailers are working through provincial approval processes to establish their footprint. Its a scenario thats played out in other jurisdictions. When recreational use was legalized in California in January, initial bottlenecks crimped inventory. In Colorado, one of the first U.S. states to legalize recreational pot, long lines snaked around dispensaries and prices soared as high as US$400 an ounce. "There just isnt that much product thats going to be available Day 1," Zandberg said. He noted some major capacity expansions, including Aurora Cannabis Inc.s Sky facility in Edmonton, wont have full production online until later this year or early 2019. "Were still waiting on a number of large facilities to be completed and have full production come out." The supply of legal pot in Canada will only meet 30 per cent to 60 per cent of demand after legalization, keeping the black market very much alive and stunting the governments tax take, according to a new study. Cannabis supply will reach about 210,000 kilograms in the first year after Canada legalizes marijuana, according to the report to be released this week by researchers at the University of Waterloo and the C.D. Howe Institute. Demand meanwhile, will be about 610 tonnes. "There will not be enough legal supply, especially during the first half of the year following legalization, primarily because of the slow rate of licensing producers," Anindya Sen at the University of Waterloo and Rosalie Wyonch at Toronto-based C.D. Howe said in their report. The rollout in other parts of the country varies: Alberta expects to have as many as 17 stores operational on Oct. 17. British Columbias Liquor Distribution Branch says its lone store will be in Kamloops, 300 kilometres from Vancouver. Saskatchewan estimates that about a third of its planned 51 retail locations will be ready for the first day. 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. Quebec plans to have 12 stores open, while Nova Scotia, with an eighth of Quebecs population, will also have a dozen locations open next week. "As much as it seems we had several months to put this all together, Oct. 17 is coming very quickly," said John Arbuthnot, chief executive officer of Winnipeg-based Delta 9 Cannabis Inc., which will have a 3,200-square-foot store open. "Were going to see some successes on Day 1 and were going to see some hiccups as well." While the number of products available in legal stores will increase over time, initially there will be dozens, instead of hundreds, available, Arbuthnot said. Theres a chance there could be product-specific shortages and that some challenges could arise if certain items sell out and cant be restocked immediately, he said. The federal government didnt formally announce when sales would start until mid-summer, leaving retailers rushing to draw up architectural and engineering plans, go through the permit and licensing process in addition to hiring and training staff, Arbuthnot said. "What the demand curve is and how the consumer reacts, were all still somewhat in the dark," Arbuthnot said. Bloomberg News A dozen or more used hypodermic needles, some with sharps exposed, were discarded overnight in Vimy Ridge Park, bringing the city's meth crisis home to Wolseley area residents Tuesday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/10/2018 (1133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A dozen or more used hypodermic needles, some with sharps exposed, were discarded overnight in Vimy Ridge Park, bringing the city's meth crisis home to Wolseley area residents Tuesday. Photos of the needles scattered on the ground were snapped where they lay in front of a memorial bench in the small city park best known for military monuments that pay tribute to Winnipeg's war casualties and veterans. SUPPLIED A pile of drug paraphernalia was found a Vimy Ridge Park on Tuesday morning. City parks officials dispatched a clean-up crew that combed the area Tuesday, from the children's playground at the south end to the war memorials at the north. The park covers about two city blocks, flanked by Home and Canora streets (west and east), and Portage and Preston avenues (north and south). Within an hour or so of the photos being posted on the Wolseley area residents Facebook page, the mess was cleaned up. "Vimy Park this morning," the photo caption read. "This is not about stigmatizing people with addictions, but this is a safety concern." (The area resident who posted the photos also sent them to the Free Press.) Its not the first time sharps have been spotted in Wolseley, but the incident stands out, with so many needles being found in one spot in a public park. SUPPLIED City crews were quick to clean up the pile of needles on Tuesday. The discovery also comes the day after a Probe research poll, commissioned by the Free Press and CTV, showed eight out of 10 Winnipeg residents worry the proliferation of meth will put them in personal danger. On Tuesday, Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said the province should should declare meth abuse a public health emergency. The meth crisis has hit the neighbouring West End hard, along with the North End. It's become common practice for people to stick to sidewalks, to avoid the risk of being poked by needles discarded on grassy boulevards, residents say. For the past year, Winnipeg police have raised concerns about soaring methamphetamine use and related crime rates. This summer, the Bear Clan volunteer safety street patrol spoke up publicly about hundreds of discarded needles its members have collected. Community advocates hosted a street march in the West End in the summer to draw public attention to the meth crisis. "Can someone remind me what to do when we find discarded needles?" one Wolseley-area resident posted on Facebook on Thanksgiving morning, related to another incident, a day before the Vimy Ridge Park discovery. Candidates respond Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman says the pile of needles and drug paraphernalia found littered at Vimy Ridge Park Tuesday morning highlights the need for a comprehensive, multi-agency strategy to tackle the meth abuse crisis. click to read more Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman says the pile of needles and drug paraphernalia found littered at Vimy Ridge Park Tuesday morning highlights the need for a comprehensive, multi-agency strategy to tackle the meth abuse crisis. It absolutely underscores the urgent need for all three levels of government and front-line organizations to be working collaboratively, said Bowman, who is running for re-election this month. He pointed to his recent campaign announcement, promising to create a crime prevention and community safety fund that would allocate $400,000 for community groups to address various safety concerns, including rising meth use. What were hearing from Winnipeggers from different areas of the city is that there are different needs... In River Heights, for instance, Ive had folks suggest that theyd like better lighting in some of the parks, Bowman said. In Vimy (Ridge) Park, or some other areas of the city where were seeing needles, it could be helping fund needle cleanup programs and foot patrols. Mayoral candidate Tim Diack also made a meth-related campaign announcement Tuesday morning, calling for police officer units to be created in Winnipeg hospitals. Diack, who is a Winnipeg Police Service officer, has made combating the citys meth problem a central plank of his campaign, unrolling a number of policy announcements on the topic. On Tuesday, he said there has been a recorded spike in assaults on hospital staff due to meth the past three years. Meanwhile, Jenny Motkaluk, who is widely seen as Bowmans main challenger in the municipal election, recently announced her intention to roll out a meth task force, if elected. -- Ryan Thorpe Close "Theres one in the puddle in the back lane behind my house. I dont have a pop bottle to put it in... worried a kid might splash in the puddle and get poked." To give an indication of how fast neighbourhood residents are picking up on the crisis, someone followed up almost instantly, and went around to collect the needle and dispose of it safely. "I got it," the Good Samaritan later replied. One long-time Wolseley area resident said she and her husband love the neighbourhood. Theyve never felt unsafe, but they've become anxious about crime rates. There have also been a couple of scary encounters in the last few months, Shannon Fautley-Sawatzky said Tuesday. A couple of month ago, she said a man pulled a knife on her husband after he chased a couple of would-be thieves. "I don't think there's that many people shooting up in the park, but with the fentanyl and the crack, my husbands seen people acting crazy, out in the back, talking to the sky," Fautley-Sawatzky said. "There is definitely a drug problem." 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. Officials with Street Connections, maa mobile public health unit with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, see the meth crisis as part of a social problem. "Discarded needles are an indication of outdoor injection drug use and they're an indication of homelessness," said Shelley Marshall, a clinical nurse specialist with Street Connections and a number of other provincial public health programs based in Winnipeg. Meth is cheap to buy and easily accessible. "There is tremendous homelessness, intergenerational trauma, social trauma, family trauma. It's highly racialized and colonialized, and it's also related to social class and gender," Marshall said. alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca OTTAWA The federal government is pledging $10 million for Manitobas aerospace sector, the Free Press has learned. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/10/2018 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA The federal government is pledging $10 million for Manitobas aerospace sector, the Free Press has learned. Its the Trudeau governments first major announcement for the aerospace sector after compensating the industry for allowing Air Canada to transfer high-paying Winnipeg jobs abroad. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains will be in Winnipeg Wednesday to announce a federal government pledge for $10 million to Manitobas aerospace sector. In Winnipeg today, federal Industry Minister Navdeep Bains will reveal an anticipated 70 jobs in the province, with half the funding bound for Magellan Aerospace. Magellan will receive $5 million to beef up its design and production in Manitoba. The firm is part of a global supply chain involved with construction of F-35 fighter jets. Ottawa is contributing $3.4 million to the Composites Innovation Centre. Of that cash, $1.6 million will allow the engineering non-profit to design and administer a new fund for small and medium-sized aerospace businesses within the province. The rest of Composites funding $1.8 million will go to developing a program through Red River Colleges Smart Factory to develop composite products and processes. West Canitest R&D Inc., also known as WestCaRD, will receive $1.6 million to expand its growing General Electric engine testing centre at Richardson International Airport. Manitobas aerospace industry has faced turbulence since the Liberals took office in 2015. In June 2016, the federal government passed Bill C-10, which removed a requirement for Air Canada to retain high-paying heavy maintenance jobs in Winnipeg, Montreal and Mississauga, Ont. Roughly 2,600 people lost their jobs, including 400 in Winnipeg, when the airlines maintenance subsidiary went bankrupt in 2012. Air Canada moved the work abroad, prompting successful lawsuits from the Quebec and Manitoba governments. The contentious legislation ordered Air Canada to keep jobs in the three affected provinces, but didnt specify the type of job or salary scale. That effectively scuttled the provinces chance of seeking a Supreme Court order to restore the jobs. Ottawa ended up offering $20 million for Manitoba aerospace after Tory Sen. Don Plett and others opposed Bill C-10. Half of that money went to the Smart Factory program, and its unclear whether todays announced $5 million falls under the remaining $10-million pledge. There were further questions raised about Manitoba aerospace in November 2016, when the Liberals announced theyd buy 18 Super Hornets upgraded versions of the outdated CF-18 fighter jets while delaying the purchase of F-35 fighters. Premier Brian Pallister feared that would jeopardize Magellans contracts for the F-35 project, until Ottawa assured him those contracts were safe. The companys Winnipeg branch is the largest Canadian contributor to the F-35 project, producing horizontal tail assemblies for Lockheed Martin. In February 2017, Ottawa extended Winnipeg maintenance contracts for search-and-rescue aircraft. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Air Force will soon review its current pilot-training arrangement, which is split between CFB Moose Jaw and the Southport facility in Portage la Prairie, which replaced the local base and has 350 employees. Ottawa has stressed it will have a fair, competitive process, after the Free Press reported last spring that the forces outgoing chief voiced a preference for consolidating that program in Saskatchewan. Provincial officials confirmed the Growth, Enterprise and Trade Department helped the federal Western Economic Diversification department to select the recipients of todays funding. Bains will hold a "fireside chat" at 11:30 a.m. at the Fairmont with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, before announcing the funding at noon outside the Composites building on Commerce Drive, accompanied by St. James MLA Scott Johnston. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca Manitoba received a score of "excellent" in both categories in the national Education for Reconciliation Report Card released Tuesday the only province or territory to do so but officials caution there's still more work to do. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/10/2018 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Manitoba received a score of "excellent" in both categories in the national Education for Reconciliation Report Card released Tuesday the only province or territory to do so but officials caution there's still more work to do. The report, prepared by faith-based social justice organization Kairos Canada, reflected the progress made across Canada in implementing the Call to Action 62.i from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action, announced by Sen. Murray Sinclair in 2015 in the report that followed six years of TRC hearings across Canada. Since the first report card in 2016, Manitoba improved to "excellent" in both of the two main areas of assessment; it moved from "good" in the category of public commitment, and from "needs improvement" in the category of implementation. Kairos, which is administered by the United Church of Canada, has taken a leadership role in monitoring the Call to Action 62.i, which calls on governments in Canada to consult with survivors, Indigenous elders and educators to make age-appropriate curriculum for K-12 students that includes the residential schools system, treaties and the history and contributions of Indigenous people in Canada. "Manitoba is advancing in those majority of those areas, both in the public commitment line and the implementation line," Kairos executive director Jennifer Henry told a press conference at the University of Manitoba's National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. "But even an excellent rating, as identified here, is identified as you're on the path to meeting this Call to Action and we still need to work together to make sure it's fully implemented. "So, 'excellent' is not perfect, but it's excellent." Wapanohk School in the School District of Mystery Lake, Isaac Brock School in Winnipeg School Division and Riverbend Community School in Seven Oaks School Division offer bilingual-bicultural Indigenous-language programming. Henry said Manitoba's inclusion of mandatory Indigenous content in social studies for students from first grade through Grade 11, training programs and guides for educators to teach the new Indigenous content and consultation with Indigenous leaders were key areas where the province took signification steps forward, compared to other provinces and territories in Canada. "This progress is important but we recognize that this is part of one of the 94 Calls to Action requiring implementation across this nation. To honour the courage of the survivors, we must stay the course," 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. Quebec and New Brunswick showed the least progress, with Quebec scoring a national low of "significant work required" in the area of implementation. Henry said Manitoba can continue to improve in developing curriculum for kindergarten-age students, improving the education and training of Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers to deliver curriculum with Indigenous perspectives and encouraging more Indigenous people to become educators or get otherwise involved in the school system. Ry Moran, the U of M-based National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation director, said the call to action regarding education seeks to "rectify the great imbalances in presentation of history" by teaching students about "the truth" which has been left out of textbooks and teaching material in the past. "This is something that will build a better Canada for all Canadians so that certain members of society are not left behind," Moran said. 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Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe The word sommelier brings to mind upscale restaurants and carefully curated wine lists, presented by a knowledgeable (albeit sometimes intimidating) individual who helps guide diners to that perfect pairing for their chosen dish. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/10/2018 (1133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The word "sommelier" brings to mind upscale restaurants and carefully curated wine lists, presented by a knowledgeable (albeit sometimes intimidating) individual who helps guide diners to that perfect pairing for their chosen dish. Their knowledge of the wines origins, as well as the smell, taste and body of the wine, learned over years, help to enhance the overall dining experience. And while you shouldnt expect a cannabis sommelier offering a carefully curated tableside list of weed anytime soon, Manitobas first cannabis sommelier hopes to steer your pot palate towards some of the best buds available. Joel Carleton wants to consult and engage with consumers, offering presentations and education as well as using his Instagram account to offer reviews that cover everything from the appearance to the effects of different strains of cannabis. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press) Joel Carletons interest in cannabis grew out of his extensive background in mixology, which led him to an interest in botany and horticulture, even leading him to forage for his own herbs and other ingredients for his cocktails. He developed the Canada Comfort website (canadacomfort.net) and Instagram account (@canadacomfort) in the hopes of offering information about his cannabis-related services, as well as reviews of various products once marijuana is legalized on Oct. 17. Under that banner Carleton expects to consult and engage with consumers, offering presentations and education as well as using his Instagram account to offer reviews that cover everything from the appearance to the effects of different strains of cannabis. "I want to develop a document thats a grading schema smell, visuals, trichome (the sticky, crystal-like growths on cannabis leaves), pistil examination (the sex organ of the female cannabis plant) and my observations." Interpreting terpenes refers to the close examination of cannabis plants, looking at everything from bud structure to the prevalence of glandular trichomes. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press) Carleton recently returned from Los Angeles, where he completed the Level 1 Introductory Interpening Course at the Trichome Institute. The course features an intensive four-hour lecture on the nuts and bolts of cannabis, followed by an exam. The institute also offers a Level 2 Certified Interpener Course as well as an invitation-only Level 3 Advanced Interpener Course. "The course had a surprising amount of content: it was terroir, appellation, land race, genetic origins and Cannabis 101," says Carleton, sitting counterside at Cannafam, a Henderson Highway shop that offers cannabis clinics, consultations, accessories and more. "Roughly half of the class was growers." Interpreting terpenes (dubbed "interpening") refers to the close examination of cannabis plants, looking at everything from bud structure to leaf width to aromatic profile to the prevalence of glandular trichomes. "These things actually impact the consumer experience more than percentages of THC (tetrahydrocannabiniol, the primary component of cannabis that gets you high)," Carleton explains. Carleton recently completed the Level 1 Introductory Interpening Course at the Trichome Institute in Los Angeles. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press) For a trained eye like Carletons, visually examining the structure of the bud and where it falls on the spectrum of leaf width offers plenty of information long before theres even a thought of lighting up. The condition of the bud can also reveal whether the plant might have been harvested too early and whether it has been over-handled, which results in the loss of terpenes (essential oils) from the buds surface and impacts its aroma, flavour and euphoric capabilities. But not all is visible with the naked eye. The base of the head of your buds glandular trichomes houses the bulk of the THC, which delivers the euphoric effect of cannabis. An interpener like Carleton examines the ratio of glandular trichomes to others, as well as their overall condition, using a loupe similar to those used by jewelers when examining gems. "There are six or seven trichome styles or structures that exist on a plant. If a plant has been struggling with bugs, its got fewer glandular trichomes, it will have more spikes and less of the heads. The heads of the glandular trichomes can also get wrecked when theres lots of friction from being over-handled." 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. Different strains of cannabis also create different aromas, which hit different areas of our olfactory senses. "I was so skeptical I had to turn on my beer/wine/spirits/cocktail nose, and when I did I started to find the differences," says Carleton. "The terpenes, those organic oils, theyre everywhere. They can be found in lemons, black peppercorns, all over the plant world there are a half-dozen terpenes that have been identified in cannabis." Joel Carleton inspects everything about the condition of the bud, which can reveal whether the plant might have been harvested too early and whether it has been over-handled, resulting in the loss of essential oils from the buds surface. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press) Carleton expects his role as cannabis sommelier (hes not a "budtender" those are the folks who work at the retail level at cannabis dispensaries and stores) will expand and evolve once legalization takes place and users develop preferences for certain flavours and euphoric effects. "Its only a matter of time until people need this kind of thing," he says. "One of the most important things for consumers is going to be connecting with quality, accurate information and reviews on cannabis." He heads to Toronto later this month to attend additional cannabis courses. "Im still just starting out," he says. "I wouldnt say Im an expert or a full-fledged sommelier yet it takes time." ben.macphee-sigurdson@freepress.mb.ca Winnipeg police have charged the owner of Precision Health Ltd. with fraud, after an investigation uncovered evidence drug and alcohol test results for Canadian truckers driving into the United States were fabricated for more than a year. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/10/2018 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg police have charged the owner of Precision Health Ltd. with fraud, after an investigation uncovered evidence drug and alcohol test results for Canadian truckers driving into the United States were fabricated for more than a year. "Investigators learned the company did not properly test drivers samples according to mandated procedures. Test results were falsified and provided to drivers," Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jay Murray said Wednesday. Police started probing Precisions practices in October 2017, after the laboratory testing industry brought the Winnipeg-based company to the authorities attention. "The company continued to charge clients the full rate for their services and the practice continued unchecked until Sept. 6," Murray said. Precisions owner, 54-year-old Colleen Faye Robinson, was charged Sept. 6 with forgery and fraud over $5,000. Police said their investigation showed a "significant number" of trucking companies and their drivers were victims of the alleged fraud. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Precision Health Ltd. on Dublin Avenue Court documents cited in news reports Wednesday said the investigation involved 32 trucking companies that relied on Precision for driving certificates. More people may be charged as the case moves to court, the WPS said. Robinson was previously convicted of fraud in 2011, in a case involving CN Rail -- an aspect of the investigation police said spoke to "the quality of oversight" in the testing industry. The conviction involved conducting medical exams for CN from 2008 to 2010, and signing off on the exams with doctors name when a nurse had done the work, according to media reports. Robinson was ordered to pay $14,000 in restitution to the rail line, and subsequently lost her licensed practical nursing credentials. For years, Precision shipped the urine samples it collected from drivers to a U.S. lab for testing, with no indication of a problem. A company in Barrie, Ont., collected the lab results and returned them to Precision, which then issued the certificates, according to reports. In May 2017, the American lab suspended the Winnipeg companys account for overdue bills. Precision Health allegedly kept charging trucking companies anyway, police said. False certificates were allegedly issued to unsuspecting drivers who crossed the border into the United States believing theyd complied with stringent trucking regulations enforced by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Winnipeg police said they have informed the U.S. government of their findings, but said theres no indication American authorities will seek penalties against the trucking companies nor their drivers. FACEBOOK Colleen Faye Robinson One Manitoba trucking company owner said if any of his drivers had been involved in an accident and found impaired, he would have been on the hook with his insurance company, risking his business. Dwight Barkman, owner of Whitemouth-based Barkman Transport, added he has drivers crossing the border on a regular basis. 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. "At the end of the day, its done. Ive changed companies. Were continuing on," he said by phone Wednesday. The City of Winnipeg also used Precisions services for more than a decade, including tests for Winnipeg Transit drivers. paying the company more than $3,000 since 2017 alone, a city spokesperson confirmed. The city doesnt conduct its own testing and, at the time, Precision was the only accredited company facilitating such testing in Winnipeg, the spokesperson said. Paperwork police seized from Precision, according to court documents, showed testing for Transit drivers for the time period where tests werent done properly. "The city was just made aware of these charges this morning, and are now looking into this further with our Occupational Health staff," a city spokesperson said Wednesday. alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca The city has yet to tell its police officers, firefighters and paramedics what the rules are for off-hours consumption of cannabis with only a week to go before legalization is a reality. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/10/2018 (1133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The city has yet to tell its police officers, firefighters and paramedics what the rules are for off-hours consumption of cannabis with only a week to go before legalization is a reality. Sources with civic unions representing Winnipeg emergency workers told the Free Press the city has only recently begun discussing cannabis-use policies for their personnel. Currently, all civic employees are governed by the city's alcohol and drug policy. That policy is being revised by the city's human resources department, according to Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Chief John Lane. However, it remains unclear if the policy will be updated prior to Oct. 17, the day recreational cannabis is legalized across the country. It's an issue all Canadian police forces are facing and has resulted in a wide range of approaches from outright bans to simply being "fit for duty" when reporting to work. Under the current rules, a Winnipeg spokesman said employees, "are required to be fit for work throughout their work day. This means being able to perform assigned duties safely, competently and productively without any limitations due to substance use or the after-effects of substance use." Maurice Sabourin, president of the the union representing city police, said he hopes no drastic changes to the current rules are ushered in. He said the city should bring cannabis in line with alcohol, but change little else. "I know the service has asked us what our position is going to be," Sabourin said. "The city already has a drug and alcohol policy that covers the gamut from cough medicine to illicit drugs. I know they're going to include something a little more specific towards marijuana, but we feel the policy is fine the way it is. "In our view that policy should remain. The legalization of marijuana shouldn't play into it all that much. It doesn't have to be a very far step." News the City of Winnipeg has only begun looking at cannabis-specific policy for first responders comes on the heels of announcements from other agencies in Canada on what their rules will be. The policies differ from organization to organization. Last month, the Calgary Police Service announced gun-carrying members of the force would be banned from using cannabis, whether on- or off-duty, once the drug is legalized. This week, it was revealed the RCMP will instruct all gun-carrying Mounties from consuming the drug for 28 days before a shift, effectively making recreational use impossible. That will also be the policy for the Toronto Police Service, which won't allow officers to use cannabis for 28 days before reporting for duty. Those are some of the most restrictive policies in the country. Other police services, including Ottawa and Vancouver, have announced a "fit for duty" approach, which essentially means officers will be expected to be sober when they show up for work. WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Maurice Sabourin, president of the Winnipeg Police Association A City of Brandon spokeswoman said they will also use a "fit for duty" approach. She said an updated drug and alcohol policy awaiting approval will govern all civic employees. The draft policy includes "a framework of expectations for safety-sensitive positions, which include, but are not limited to, first responders," she said. Meanwhile, the Canadian Armed Forces plan to place time restrictions on cannabis use. All service personnel will be expected to refrain from consumption for eight hours before a shift. Other members, depending on their duties, will have different use restrictions. 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. Sources with unions representing Winnipeg's first responders expressed surprise to the Free Press that the city has just begun working through what its cannabis-use policies will be. Even Mayor Brian Bowman was unclear on the matter Tuesday. "Wed have to dig up that information to see. I know there has been a lot of work by the public service in terms of HR issues, so they would be best able to answer that. I wouldnt know off the top of my head," Bowman said. Two weeks ago, the Winnipeg Police Service sent out a media notice saying its "organizational response" to cannabis legalization would be released in the coming weeks. When reached Tuesday, a spokeswoman had no updates. ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe Fifteen years after George W. Bush invaded Iraq to destroy Saddam Husseins imaginary weapons of mass destruction, what have the Iraqis got to show for it? There was a great deal of death and destruction (around half a million Iraqis have died violently since 2003), but they do now have a democratically elected government. Sort of. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/10/2018 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Fifteen years after George W. Bush invaded Iraq to destroy Saddam Husseins imaginary "weapons of mass destruction," what have the Iraqis got to show for it? There was a great deal of death and destruction (around half a million Iraqis have died violently since 2003), but they do now have a democratically elected government. Sort of. Iraqis voted in their fourth free election last April or rather, fewer than half of them bothered to vote at all, so pessimistic were they about the notion that voting can change anything. And after the election, the politicians seemed to be living down to their expectations. Almost six months later, the many political parties were still bickering over which of them would be in the government, which would give them access to the huge amounts of money that are available to government ministers in one of the worlds most corrupt countries. It looked like business as usual, despite bloody riots in the south (where most of the oil is) over chronic shortages of water, electricity and jobs. But last week the Iraqi parliament elected a prominent Kurdish politician, Barham Saleh, to the largely ceremonial office of president. The president then has 15 days to nominate the new prime minister (who really runs the government), but Saleh did it within hours. The new prime minister will be Adel Abdul Mahdi which may be a signal of big changes coming. Abdul Mahdi is not himself a revolutionary figure. He is a former finance and oil minister who, like Saleh, has been a familiar fixture in Iraqi politics ever since the invasion. (A stock Iraqi joke claims that the country has the most environmental government in the world, since it constantly recycles its old politicians.) But Abdul Mahdi is the figurehead of a coalition in which a revolutionary outsider, Muqtada al-Sadr, will be the dominant influence. Sadrs party astonished everybody by winning the largest number of seats in the May election, drawing its support mainly from working-class Shias in Baghdad and the south, but his non-sectarian stance also drew votes from the marginalized Sunni minority of Iraqi Arabs. Sadrs sympathy for the Sunni Arabs plight is unusual among Iraqi Shia politicians, and all the more remarkable because he is a Shia cleric whose father and uncle were both grand ayatollahs murdered by Husseins Sunni-dominated regime. If any man can bridge the gulf that has opened up between Sunni and Shia Arabs in Iraq, he is that man. His party has been among the least corrupt on the Iraqi political scene, and he is a nationalist who is equally opposed to American and Iranian meddling in Iraqi politics. He has disbanded his own partys militia and urges others to do the same, and he promised to appoint non-political technocrats instead of usual party stalwarts if his party won power. That promise will be hard to keep, since the extreme fragmentation of Iraqi politics means all governments must be broad coalitions. The coalition Sadr leads (although he will not personally seek office) includes the Iraqi Communist party, which more or less shares his goals, and the group led by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, which emphatically does not. Maliki, in power from 2006-14, proved himself to be viciously anti-Sunni, largely subservient to Iranian interests and, of course, monumentally corrupt. It will be very difficult to hold this coalition together, let alone to carry out Sadrs program of sectarian reconciliation and government by technocrats. 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. Corruption in Iraq is a system, not a series of individual crimes, and the beneficiaries of the system will fight tooth and nail to preserve it. The parties use it not only to finance their own activities and reward their own members, but to build a large support base through bribery, mostly in the form of jobs. There are 37 million people in Iraq. In most other countries, a population of that size would require around 600,000 to 700,000 employees to provide all the normal functions of a central government. The Iraqi government employs 4.5 million people to do the same jobs very badly or not at all. Many of them rarely even show up at work, but they and their families all vote for the right party at election time. And since they are on the take themselves, they dont protest when the senior politicians in their party steal millions (or in some cases billions) from public funds. This pattern is almost standard in countries whose income, like Iraqs, comes largely from exporting a single natural resource (oil, in this case), but Iraq is exceptional in the brazen incompetence of the political class and the utter neglect of those outside the magic circle. This system was tolerated during the 15 years of war because peoples first priority was survival. Now that the fighting has died down, people are starting to protest, and al-Sadr has become the repository of their hopes. He will have a hard time living up to them. Gwynne Dyers new book is Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work). The potential costs of climate change, already the subject of heated debate, may actually be understated. Its not just the potential disruptions to weather systems, agriculture and coastal cities; its that we may respond to those problems in stupid and destructive ways. As the philosopher and cartoon character Pogo said: We have met the enemy and he is us. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/10/2018 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion The potential costs of climate change, already the subject of heated debate, may actually be understated. Its not just the potential disruptions to weather systems, agriculture and coastal cities; its that we may respond to those problems in stupid and destructive ways. As the philosopher and cartoon character Pogo said: "We have met the enemy and he is us." Consider how poorly we have responded to many non-climate-related problems. In the case of Brexit, for example, the Leave movement was arguably responding to some real problems. The European Union bureaucracy is too stringent, and perhaps the U.K. did not have an ideal arrangement with immigration. But Brexit is careening toward disaster, with no good plan on tap, the two major parties in splinters, the British pound declining, the Irish "Good Friday" agreement at risk and the U.K. seriously talking about food stockpiles and other emergency measures. It would have been better if the British had responded to their countrys problems in a less extreme way, or simply learned to live with the problems they had. Instead, they voted for a rash and poorly thought-out remedy. Similarly, you might think that supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump have legitimate concerns about illegal immigration and U.S. unwillingness to stand up to China. Still, that did not require a presidential "remedy" that has brought chaos and corruption to the White House and U.S. foreign policy alike. In short, the world increasingly appears to be reaching for extreme and imprudent remedies to admittedly complex problems. These overreactions do not seem to be mere accidents, but arise from some pretty fundamental features of polarized politics namely, that discourse has become less rational and technocratic. When it comes to climate change, all this plays out in interesting ways. In the U.S., imagine that many Florida residents have to leave their residences permanently, due to fiercer storms or rising sea level. The rational approach might involve well-functioning insurance markets, some public-sector transfers and compensation and better infrastructure planning. The idea would be to limit the number of such moves or at least to lower their cost. That could prove very costly but essentially manageable. But that is probably not what we will get. Instead, the debate may well radicalize Florida politics, which has consequences for national politics as Florida is a swing state. On the federal level, an infrastructure bill would invariably direct too much money to wasteful new projects in less populated states. Everywhere, the harsh, non-sympathetic tone of the debate will further corrode American politics. 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. Looking outside of the U.S.: imagine that climate change forced or induced the migration of many people from Bangladesh. An ideal international reaction would involve foreign aid plus the co-operative parcelling out of refugees to different countries. Circa 2018, following the crises in Syria and Libya, does anyone really expect such a rational outcome? A more likely, though admittedly speculative scenario, is clashes on the border with India, the further radicalization of Indian politics ("build a wall"), refugee camps full of hundreds of thousands of people and more extremist terrorism in Bangladesh. I am struck by the costs of climate change suggested in the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, hardly a source of denialism. Its cost estimate "one to five per cent of GDP for 4 C of warming" is relatively reassuring. After all, global GDP is right now growing at more than four per cent a year. If climate change cost "only" four per cent of GDP on a one-time basis, then the world economy could make up those costs with less than a years worth of economic growth. In essence, the world economy would arrive at a given level of wealth about a year later than otherwise would have been the case. That sounds expensive but not tragic. Unfortunately, that is not the right way to conceptualize the problem. Think of the four per cent hit to GDP, if indeed that is the right number, as a highly unevenly distributed opening shot. Thats round one, and from that point on we are going to react with our human foibles and emotions, and with our highly imperfect and sometimes corrupt political institutions. (Libertarians, who are typically most skeptical of political solutions, should be the most worried.) Considering how the Syrian crisis has fragmented the EU as well as internal German politics, is it so crazy to think that climate change might erode international co-operation all the more? The true potential costs of climate change are just beginning to come into view. Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of economics at George Mason University and writes for the blog Marginal Revolution. His books include The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream. Bloomberg News Quebecs Oct. 1 election was a humiliation for the ruling Liberals of Philippe Couillard, driven out of government to form the opposition in the Quebec national assembly, and a still worse defeat for the separatist Parti Quebecois, reduced to nine seats in the assembly too few for official party status with just 17 per cent of the popular vote. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/10/2018 (1133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Quebecs Oct. 1 election was a humiliation for the ruling Liberals of Philippe Couillard, driven out of government to form the opposition in the Quebec national assembly, and a still worse defeat for the separatist Parti Quebecois, reduced to nine seats in the assembly too few for official party status with just 17 per cent of the popular vote. Quebecers had already rejected independence in one referendum in 1980 and a second in 1995. With this years election, the Quebec public more firmly than ever turned its back on the separatist ideal. Outgoing Quebec premier Phillippe Couillard. (Chris Young / The Canadian Press files) The PQ, formed in 1968, took the fringe-party idea of Quebec independence and made it Quebecs Big Idea and Canadas existential threat during the partys half-century career. Now that the idea has been discarded, Canadians are left to wonder: what was that all about? Separatism started to matter when it was adopted by Rene Levesque, the well-liked journalist and broadcaster who pulled various political splinter groups together to form the PQ. It continued to matter when it was advocated by such persuasive salesmen as Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard. Before that, separatism was a cause espoused by a few bomb-planters in the Front de liberation du Quebec and isolated dreamers in the Ralliement National and other equally obscure political clubs. 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. It seemed like an idea that mattered when Quebecers put the PQ in power in 1976 and again in 1994 and 1998. It seemed to matter in 1980 when the first referendum attracted significant support and again in 1995 when the second referendum came close to passing. But it was always a bad idea. It was a bad idea because it was based on a sense of grievance, even though Quebec independence would not remove most of the grievances. It was a bad idea because it was a blind alley: if Quebec could separate from Canada, then Montreal and other federalist regions could also separate from Quebec and pretty soon there would be nothing much left of independent Quebec. It was a bad idea because the large, bilingual country of Canada could offer its people far more security, opportunity and prosperity than a small, unilingual Quebec ever could. The wonder is not that separatism has now been discarded. The wonder is that the idea lasted so long. What kept it going was the persuasive power of the extremely able advocates who sold the separatist idea to the Quebec public. People liked and trusted Rene Levesque. Lucien Bouchard was harder to like but he was extremely eloquent and seemed trustworthy. Once the separatist idea was left in the hands of such lesser figures as Bernard Landry, Pauline Marois and Jean-Francois Lisee, the power ebbed from it and the crowd drifted away. This is worth keeping in mind as other Big Ideas arise. The idea of making America great again, for example, has no more merit now than it ever had in the past, but it found a persuasive salesman in the person of Donald Trump. Demagogues in all ages have been able to gather huge crowds of followers in support of all manner of quixotic ideas. The conservative-populist social credit movement was one of Canadas leading examples. Its possible that the United States is going to be a xenophobic, nativist country from now on, but it seems more likely that is just the line that the salesman of the moment is pitching. When he moves on, his ideas will fade from view, like Quebec separatism and social credit. Guyana Goldfields Inc. provides exploration and production of gold. It engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and operation of gold mineral properties. The company also owns and operates gold drilling rights. The company was formerly known as Chiboug Copper Company Limited and changed its name to Guyana Goldfields Inc. in January 1995. Guyana Goldfields Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. As of August 25, 2020, Guyana Goldfields Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited. Read More Medtronic Plc is a medical technology company, which engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of device-based medical therapies and services. It operates through the following segments: Cardiac and Vascular Group; Minimally Invasive Technologies Group; Restorative Therapies Group; and Diabetes Group. The Cardiac and Vascular Group segment consists of products for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cardiac rhythm disorders and cardiovascular disease. The Minimally Invasive Technologies Group segment focuses on respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, renal system, lungs, pelvic region, kidneys, and obesity diseases. The Restorative Therapies Group segment comprises of neurostimulation therapies and drug delivery systems for the treatment of chronic pain, as well as areas of the spine and brain, along with pelvic health and conditions of the ear, nose, and throat. The Diabetes Group segment offers insulin pumps, coninuous glucose monitoring systems, and insulin pump consumables. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Read More iShares Core High Dividend ETF's stock was trading at $77.92 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, HDV shares have increased by 27.5% and is now trading at $99.37. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. 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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.. China Aviation Daily | Oct. 10, 2018 Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport will launch new European and Asian routes in the IATA Winter season 2018/2019. The airport operator Northern Capital Gateway (NCG) and the airlines announced the upcoming additions to the schedule on October 5, 2018, at the traditional winter season routes presentation. New Routes Direct service to at least eight new destinations will commence from Pulkovo, all new to St. Petersburg airport's winter schedule. Russian low-cost carrier Pobeda will launch scheduled flights to Bergamo (Italy), Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airport (Turkey) and London - Stansted Airport (UK). Ural Airlines will be flying from Pulkovo to Navoi (Uzbekistan). The network of long-haul flights for the winter season 2018/2019 will receive additional service from St. Petersburg to the Chinese destinations of Guyan and Haikou on Hainan Island. Flights will be operated by iFly Airlines. New routes will also include European destinations. Germania announced plans to continue into the winter period flights to Dresden (Germany), which began in summer 2018. S7 Airlines will provide scheduled winter flights to the Mediterranean resort city of Alicante (Spain), a first for the winter schedule of Pulkovo Airport. Additional Fights As the air travel demand from and to St. Petersburg grows, several airlines will expand their service at LED and launch additional flights on the existing popular domestic and international routes. Ural Airlines will enhance its flight network from the Northern capital of Russia with a new foreign destination - Frankfurt am Main (Germany, flights opened in the summer season). Uzbekistan Airways will fly from Pulkovo to Namangan (Uzbekistan), and S7 Airlines will commence winter service to Sochi, Russia's renown coastal and ski resort and the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. New flights will be operated to Kirov (Pobeda), Cheboksary (Rusline, Pobeda), Kazan (Alrosa), Makhachkala and Nalchik (Nordavia). In the upcoming winter season, the home base carrier of Pulkovo Airport Rossiya Airlines plans to increase the number of flights to Antalya (Turkey), Berlin (Germany), Milan (Italy), Munich (Germany), and Prague (Czech Republic), as well as to the Russian cities of Kaliningrad, Mineralnye Vody, Moscow, Murmansk, Samara, and Sochi. The carrier will also continue to operate flights to London Gatwick Airport (UK), launched in the spring 2018. Air Serbia, Alitalia, Brussels Airlines, and SAS will resume their traditional winter holiday flights. In addition, S7 Airlines will recommence the flights to Salzburg and Innsbruck, operated in the winter of 2017/2018. Azur Air is planning to perform winter charter flights to Varadero (Cuba), Goa (India), Dubai (El Maktum, UAE), Nha Trang (Vietnam), and Phuket (Thailand). Nordwind has announced flights from St.Petersburg to Nha Trang (Vietnam), Bangkok, and Phuket (Thailand) for its winter charter program. During the 8 months of 2018, Pulkovo Airport has served 12.2 million people, which is 11.1% more than in the same period of 2017. Domestic passenger traffic increased by 8.2% to 7.3 million people. On international routes, traffic increased by 15.7% to 4.9 million people. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the northern summer season begins on the date of Daylight Saving Time (DST) introduction in European Union countries, which currently always takes place on the last Sunday in March. The northern winter season commences on the date Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends in European Union countries, which currently always takes place on the last Sunday in October. Thus, the IATA winter season 2018/2019 will begin on October 28, 2018, and last through March 30, 2019, inclusive. Contributed by Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport 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 Two Harbors Investment pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 10.86%. TWO has a dividend yield higher than 75% of all dividend-paying stocks, making it a leading dividend payer. Two Harbors Investment has been increasing its dividend for 2 consecutive year(s), indicating that it does not yet have a strong track record of dividend growth. The dividend payout ratio of Two Harbors Investment is 61.26%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on EPS estimates, Two Harbors Investment will have a dividend payout ratio of 83.95% in the coming year. This indicates that Two Harbors Investment may not be able to sustain their current dividend. View Two Harbors Investment's dividend history. The following companies are subsidiares of Eaton: ADF Systems SARL, Abeiron III Limited, Aeroquip (UK) Limited, Aeroquip Financial Ltd., Aeroquip Iberica S.L., Aeroquip International Inc., Aeroquip Limited, Aeroquip do Brasil Ltda., Aeroquip-Vickers, Aeroquip-Vickers Canada Inc., Aeroquip-Vickers International S.a.r.L., Aphel Technologies, Argo-Tech, Arrow Hose & Tubing, Arrow-Hart S. de R.L. de C.V., Azonix Corporation, Babco Electric Group, Beijing Internormen-Filter Ltd. Co., Beijing Yoosung Shinhwa Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Blinda Industria e Comercio Ltda., Bussmann International Holdings LLC, Bussmann International Inc., Bussmann S. de R.L. de C.V., Bussmann do Brasil Ltda., CBE Services Inc., CEAG Notlichtsysteme GmbH, CI ESI de Colombia, CTI-VIENNA Gesellschaft zur Prufung elektrotechnischer Industrieprodukte GmbH, Cambridge International Insurance Company Ltd., Cannon Technologies Inc., Centralion Industrial Inc., Chagrin Highlands III Limited, Cobham, Componentes de Iluminacion S. de R.L. de C.V., Cooper (China) Co. Ltd., Cooper (Ningbo) Electric Co. Ltd., Cooper B-Line Inc., Cooper Bermuda Investments Ltd., Cooper Bussmann (U.K.) Limited, Cooper Bussmann Hungaria Kft., Cooper Bussmann LLC, Cooper Capri S.A.S., Cooper Colombia Investments Ltd., Cooper Controls (Watford) Limited, Cooper Controls Limited, Cooper Crouse-Hinds (LLC), Cooper Crouse-Hinds (UK) Ltd., Cooper Crouse-Hinds AS, Cooper Crouse-Hinds B.V., Cooper Crouse-Hinds GmbH, Cooper Crouse-Hinds LLC, Cooper Crouse-Hinds MTL Inc., Cooper Crouse-Hinds Pte. Ltd., Cooper Crouse-Hinds S. de R.L. de C.V., Cooper Crouse-Hinds S.A., Cooper Csa Srl, Cooper Edison (Pingdingshan) Electronic Technologies Co. Ltd., Cooper Electric (Changzhou) Co. Ltd., Cooper Electrical Australia Pty. Limited, Cooper Electrical International LLC, Cooper Electronic Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cooper Enterprises LLC, Cooper Finance (Canada) L.P., Cooper Finance Group Ltd., Cooper Finance USA Inc., Cooper Germany Holdings GmbH, Cooper India Private Limited, Cooper Industrials, Cooper Industries (Canada) Inc., Cooper Industries (Electrical) Inc., Cooper Industries Colombia S.A.S., Cooper Industries FZE, Cooper Industries Finance B.V., Cooper Industries Finanzierungs-GbR, Cooper Industries Global B.V., Cooper Industries Holdings (Canada) Inc., Cooper Industries Holdings GmbH, Cooper Industries International LLC, Cooper Industries Japan K.K., Cooper Industries LLC, Cooper Industries Malaysia SDN BHD, Cooper Industries Middle East LLC, Cooper Industries Poland LLC, Cooper Industries Romania SRL, Cooper Industries Russia LLC, Cooper Industries Trading Limited, Cooper Industries UK Subco Limited, Cooper Industries Unlimited Company, Cooper Industries Vietnam LLC, Cooper Interconnect, Cooper International Holdings S.a.r.l., Cooper Investment Group Ltd., Cooper Investment Group S a.r.l., Cooper Investments Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Cooper Korea Ltd., Cooper Lighting LLC, Cooper Lighting de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Cooper Menvier France SARL, Cooper Mexico Distribucion S. de R.L. de C.V., Cooper Netherlands Investments Ltd., Cooper Notification Inc., Cooper Offshore Holdings S.a.r.l., Cooper Power Systems LLC, Cooper Power Systems do Brasil Ltda., Cooper Pretronica Lda., Cooper Safety B.V., Cooper Securite S.A.S., Cooper Security Limited, Cooper Shanghai Power Capacitor Co. Ltd., Cooper Switzerland Investments Ltd., Cooper Technologies Company, Cooper Univel S.A., Cooper Wheelock Inc., Cooper Wiring Devices Inc., Cooper Wiring Devices Manufacturing S. de R.L. de C.V., Cooper Wiring Devices de Mexico S.A de C.V., Cooper Xi'an Fusegear Co. Ltd., Cooper Yuhua (Changzhou) Electric Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Copperlogic, Cutler-Hammer Electrical Company, Cutler-Hammer Industries Ltd., Cutler-Hammer SRL, Cyme International T & D Inc., D.P. Eaton Electric, Digital Lighting (Dong Guan) Co. Ltd., Digital Lighting Co. Limited, Digital Lighting Holdings Limited, Dongguan Cooper Electronics Co. Ltd., Dongguan Fu Li An Electronics Co. Ltd., Dongguan Wiring Devices Electronics Co. Ltd., E. Begerow, E.A. Pedersen Co., EIC Holding GP I, EIC Holding GP II, EIC Holding GP III, EIC Holding GP IV, EIC Holding I LLC, EIC Holding II LLC, EIC Holding III LLC, EIC Holding IV LLC, EIC Holding V LLC, EIC Holding VI LLC, ETN Asia International Limited, ETN Holding 1 Limited, ETN Holding 2 Limited, ETN Holding 3 Limited, EX Innovations Limited, Eaton (China) Investments Co. Ltd., Eaton Aeroquip, Eaton Aerospace LLC, Eaton Ann Arbor LLC, Eaton Asia Investments Corporation, Eaton Automation G.m.b.H, Eaton Automation Holding G.m.b.H., Eaton Automotive Components Spolka z.o.o., Eaton Automotive Spolka z.o.o., Eaton Automotive Systems Spolka z.o.o., Eaton B.V., Eaton C.V., Eaton CHB LLC, Eaton Capital Unlimited Co., Eaton Controls (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Eaton Controls (UK) Limited, Eaton Controls S. de R.L. de C.V., Eaton Corporation, Eaton ETN Offshore Company, Eaton ETN Offshore II Company, Eaton Electric, Eaton Electric & Engineering Services Limited, Eaton Electric (Japan) Ltd., Eaton Electric (South Africa) Pty Ltd., Eaton Electric (Thailand) Ltd., Eaton Electric AS, Eaton Electric ApS, Eaton Electric Company Ltd., Eaton Electric G.m.b.H., Eaton Electric Holdings LLC, Eaton Electric Limited, Eaton Electric Manufacturing Middle East LLC, Eaton Electric S.I.A., Eaton Electric S.a.r.l., Eaton Electric S.r.l., Eaton Electric SPRL, Eaton Electric Sales Ltd., Eaton Electric Spolka z.o.o., Eaton Electric d.o.o., Eaton Electric s.r.o., Eaton Electric s.r.o. (Slovak Republic), Eaton Electrical (Zhongshan) Co. Ltd., Eaton Electrical Equipment Co. Ltd., Eaton Electrical IP G.m.b.H. & Co. KG, Eaton Electrical Ltd., Eaton Electrical Products Limited, Eaton Electrical S.A., Eaton Electrical S.A. (Venezuela), Eaton Electrical Systems Limited, Eaton Electro Productie S.r.l., Eaton Elektrik Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Eaton Elektrotechnika s.r.o., Eaton Energy Solutions Inc., Eaton Enterprises (Hungary) Kft., Eaton Enterprises Limited, Eaton Enterprises S. de R.L. de C.V., Eaton FZE, Eaton Filtration, Eaton Filtration (Denmark) ApS, Eaton Filtration (Italy) S.r.l., Eaton Filtration (Poland) Sp. z.o.o., Eaton Filtration (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Eaton Filtration BVBA, Eaton Finance (Ireland) Limited, Eaton Finance S.a.r.l., Eaton Fluid Power (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Eaton Fluid Power Limited, Eaton Fluid Power S.r.l., Eaton France Holding S.A.S., Eaton Germany G.m.b.H., Eaton GmbH & Co. KG, Eaton Holding (Austria) G.m.b.H., Eaton Holding (Netherlands) B.V., Eaton Holding (UK) II Limited, Eaton Holding G.m.b.H., Eaton Holding I B.V., Eaton Holding I Limited, Eaton Holding II LLC, Eaton Holding II Limited, Eaton Holding II S.a.r.l., Eaton Holding III B.V., Eaton Holding III Limited, Eaton Holding III S.a.r.l., Eaton Holding IV S.a.r.l., Eaton Holding IX S.a.r.l., Eaton Holding International LLC, Eaton Holding LLC, Eaton Holding Limited, Eaton Holding S.a.r.l., Eaton Holding SE & Co. KG, Eaton Holding SRL, Eaton Holding V B.V., Eaton Holding V S.a.r.l., Eaton Holding VI B.V., Eaton Holding VI S.a.r.l., Eaton Holding VII B.V., Eaton Holding VIII S.a.r.l., Eaton Holding X S.a.r.l., Eaton Holding XII B.V./S.a.r.l., Eaton Holec AB, Eaton Holec OY, Eaton Hydraulics (Luzhou) Co. Ltd., Eaton Hydraulics (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., Eaton Hydraulics (Proprietary) Limited, Eaton Hydraulics LLC, Eaton Hydraulics Systems (Jining) Co. Ltd., Eaton I Spolka z.o.o., Eaton II LP, Eaton III LP, Eaton IV LP, Eaton India Innovation Center LLP, Eaton Industrial Clutches and Brakes (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Eaton Industrial Corporation, Eaton Industrial IP G.m.b.H. & Co. KG, Eaton Industrial Systems Private Limited, Eaton Industries (Argentina) S.A., Eaton Industries (Austria) G.m.b.H., Eaton Industries (Belgium) BVBA, Eaton Industries (Canada) Company, Eaton Industries (Chile) S.p.A., Eaton Industries (Colombia) S.A.S., Eaton Industries (Egypt) LLC, Eaton Industries (England) Limited, Eaton Industries (France) S.A.S., Eaton Industries (Ireland) Ltimited, Eaton Industries (Israel) Ltd., Eaton Industries (Italy) S.r.l., Eaton Industries (Japan) Ltd., Eaton Industries (Jining) Co. Ltd, Eaton Industries (Korea) Limited, Eaton Industries (Luxembourg) B.V./S.a.r.l., Eaton Industries (Morocco) LLC, Eaton Industries (Netherlands) B.V., Eaton Industries (Philippines) LLC, Eaton Industries (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Eaton Industries (Spain) S.L., Eaton Industries (Thailand) Ltd., Eaton Industries (U.K.) Limited, Eaton Industries (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Eaton Industries Company, Eaton Industries EOOD, Eaton Industries G.m.b.H., Eaton Industries Holding G.m.b.H., Eaton Industries Holdings Ltd., Eaton Industries II G.m.b.H., Eaton Industries KFT, Eaton Industries LP, Eaton Industries Manufacturing G.m.b.H., Eaton Industries Panama S.A., Eaton Industries Pte. Ltd., Eaton Industries Pty. Ltd., Eaton Industries S. de R.L. de C.V., Eaton Industries SAC, Eaton Industries Sdn. Bhd., Eaton Industries s.r.o., Eaton International B.V., Eaton International Corporation, Eaton International Industries Nigeria Limited, Eaton Japan Co. Ltd., Eaton LLC, Eaton LP, Eaton Leasing Corporation, Eaton Ltda., Eaton MEDC Limited, Eaton Madeira SGPS Lda., Eaton Manufacturing G.m.b.H., Eaton Manufacturing II G.m.b.H., Eaton Manufacturing III G.m.b.H., Eaton Manufacturing LP, Eaton Middle East LLC, Eaton Moeller B.V., Eaton Moeller S.a.r.l., Eaton Phoenixtec MMPL Co. Ltd., Eaton Power Quality (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Eaton Power Quality AB, Eaton Power Quality Limited, Eaton Power Quality OY (Finland), Eaton Power Quality Private Limited, Eaton Power Quality S.A.S., Eaton Power Solution Ltda., Eaton Production International G.m.b.H., Eaton Protection Systems IP G.m.b.H. & Co. KG, Eaton S.A.S., Eaton S.r.l., Eaton SAMC (Shanghai) Aircraft Conveyance System, Eaton SE, Eaton Safety IP G.m.b.H. & Co. KG, Eaton Safety Limited, Eaton Senstar Automotive Fluid Connector (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Eaton Services S.a.r.l., Eaton Solutions S. de R.L. de C.V., Eaton Switzerland Holding I GmbH, Eaton Switzerland Holding II GmbH, Eaton Technologies (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Eaton Technologies G.m.b.H., Eaton Technologies IP G.m.b.H. & Co. KG, Eaton Technologies Private Limited, Eaton Technologies S. de R.L. de C.V., Eaton Technologies S.A., Eaton Trading Company S. de R.L. de C.V., Eaton Truck Components (Proprietary) Ltd., Eaton Truck Components S. de R.L. de C.V., Eaton Truck Components Spolka z.o.o., Eaton Truck and Bus Components (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Eaton US Holdings Inc., Eaton Worldwide LLC, Eaton-Powerware, Electromanufacturas S de R.L. de C.V., Electrum Group Ltd., Elpro Technologies Pty. Limited, Ephesus Lighting, Ephesus Lighting Inc., FHF Bergbautechnik GmbH & Co. KG, FHF Funke+Huster Fernsig GmbH, FHF New World GmbH, Fast Eaton (Xi'an) Drivetrain Company Ltd., Fifth Light Technology Ltd., Funke+Huster (Tianjin) Electronics Co. Ltd., Funke+Huster GmbH, GeCma Components electronic GmbH, Georgetown Financial Services Ltd., Gitiesse Asia Pte. Ltd., Gitiesse S.r.l., Green Holding Company, Green Motion, Guangzhou Nittan Valve Co. Ltd., Hein Moeller Stiftung G.m.b.H., Hernis Scan System do Brasil Comercio E Servicos LTDA, Hernis Scan Systems - Asia Pte. Ltd., Hernis Scan Systems A/S, IE Power, Illumination Management Solutions Inc., Iluminacion Cooper de las Californias S de R.L. de C.V., Innovative Switchgear Solutions Inc, Institute for International Product Safety G.m.b.H., Integrated Hydraulics, Integrated Partial Discharge Diagnostics, Intelligent Switchgear Organization LLC, Internormen Filters Private Limited, Internormen Technology, Jeil Hydraulics, Kaicheng Funke+Huster (Tangshan) Mining Electrical Co. Ltd., Lian Zheng Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., MP Group SAS, MTL Instruments (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, MTL Instruments B.V., MTL Instruments GmbH, MTL Instruments LLC, MTL Instruments Private Limited, MTL Instruments SARL, MTL Italia Srl, MTL Partners II Inc., MTL Partners Inc., Marina Power and Lighting, Martek Power F SAS, Martek Power GmbH, Martek Power Limited, Martek Power Limited (UK), Martek Power S.A. de C.V., Martek Power SA, McGraw-Edison Development Corporation, Measurement Technology Limited, Menvier Overseas Holdings Limited, Micro Innovation Holding, Moeller Electric (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Moeller Electric Ltda., Moeller Electrical Equipment (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Moeller Holding Gmbh & Co. KG, Moeller Industria de electro-electronicos do Amazonas Ltda., Morestana, Nittan BVI Co. Ltd., Nittan Euro Tech Spolka z o.o., Nittan Global Tech Co. Ltd., Nittan Valve Co. Ltd., Norex AS, Ocean Technical Systems Limited, Oxalis Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Oxalis Group, Oxalis Group Limited, PKL LLC, PT. Eaton Industries, PT. Fluid Sciences Batam, PerkinElmer - aerospace division, Phoenixtec Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Phoenixtec International Corp., Phoenixtec Power, Pigozzi, Polaron Components Limited, Polimer Hortum Teknolojileri Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Polimer Kaucuk Sanayi Ve Pazarlama, Polimer Kaucuk Sanayi ve Pazarlama A.S., Power Distribution, Pringle Electrical Manufacturing, Productos Eaton Livia S.L., Pulizzi Engineering, RTE Far East Corporation, RTK Instruments Limited, Riseson International Limited, Rizhao Yoosung Shinhwa Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Rolec Comercial e Industrial, SOURIAU, Santak Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Santak Electronics Company Limited, Saturn Insurance Company Ltd., Scantronic Benelux B.V., Schreder-Hazemeyer, Scoremax Limited, Sefelec GmbH, Sefelec SAS, Semelec SAS, Senyuan International Holdings Limited, Senyuan International Investments Limited, Shinhwa Precision Co. Ltd., Shinhwa Takahashi Precision Co. Ltd., Silver Light International Limited, Silver Victory Hong Kong Limited, Standard Automation & Control LP, Sure Power Inc., TGM Automotiva, TT (Ireland) Acquisition Limited, Tai Ah Electrical Ltd., Taiwan Nittan Industrial Co. Ltd., Telkom Kenya, The MTL Instruments Group Limited, The Oxalis Protection Technology India Private Limited, Tractech, Tractech (Ireland) Limited, Tractech Industries (Ireland) Limted, Tripp Lite, Turlock B.V., Tuthill Coupling Group, U.S. Engine Valve Company, UPE Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Ultronics, Ultronics Nordic Sales AB, Ulusoy, Vickers International Inc., Vickers Systems Limited, Viking Electronics Inc., WPI-Boston Division Inc., Winner Hydraulics Ltd., Wireless Power and Communications AS, Wright Line, Wright Line Holding Inc., Wright Line LLC, and Zhenjiang Daqo Eaton Electrical Systems Co. Ltd.. DTE Energy Co. operates as a diversified energy company, which engages in the provision of electricity and natural gas sales, distribution and storage services. It operates through the following segments: Electric, Gas, Non-Utility Operations, and Corporate & Other. The Electric segment engages in the generation, purchase, distribution and sale of electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers in south-eastern Michigan. The Gas segment engages in the purchase, storage, transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers throughout Michigan and the sale of storage and transportation capacity. The Non-Utility Operations segment engages in gas storage and pipelines, power and industrial projects, and energy trading. The Corporate & Other includes various holding company activities, holds certain non-utility debt, and holds energy-related investments. The company was founded in January 1995 and is headquartered in Detroit, MI. 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. 10 hours ago Tyson Foods Is A Hedge Against Inflation? Tyson Foods Beats Top And Bottom Line With Higher Prices As surprising as it may sound, Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) may be a hedge against the rising tide of consumer inflation. Call it a stretch, but the company is part of the infrastructure of American food and thereby qualifies as a real asset, at least to some degree. Read Article Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company. It engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The company operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking and Wealth; Corporate and Commercial Banking; and Insurance Holdings. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health insurance and commercial general liability insurance on an agency basis and through a wholesale insurance brokerage operation, merchant services, trust and retirement services, comprehensive wealth advisory services, asset management and capital markets services. The company was founded on December 6, 2019 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC. insurance and commercial general liability insurance on an agency basis and through a wholesale insurance brokerage operation, merchant services, trust and retirement services, comprehensive wealth advisory services, asset management and capital markets services. The company was founded on December 6, 2019 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Anthem: 1-800 Contacts, AIM Specialty Health, AMERIGROUP Community Care of New Mexico Inc., AMERIGROUP Corporation, AMERIGROUP Maryland Inc., AMERIGROUP New Jersey Inc., AMERIGROUP Ohio Inc., AMERIGROUP Tennessee Inc., AMERIGROUP Texas Inc., AMERIGROUP Washington Inc., AMGP Georgia Managed Care Company Inc., ATH Holding Company LLC, America's 1st Choice of South Carolina Inc., America's Health Management Services Inc., American Imaging Management Inc., Americas 1st Choice, Amerigroup, Amerigroup Delaware Inc., Amerigroup District of Columbia Inc., Amerigroup Health Plan of Louisiana Inc., Amerigroup IPA of New York LLC, Amerigroup Insurance Company, Amerigroup Iowa Inc., Amerigroup Kansas Inc., Amerigroup Mississippi Inc., Amerigroup Oklahoma Inc., Amerigroup Partnership Plan LLC, Amerigroup Pennsylvania Inc., Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company, Anthem Financial Inc., Anthem Health Plans Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Maine Inc., Anthem Health Plans of New Hampshire Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Virginia Inc., Anthem Holding Corp., Anthem Innovation Israel Ltd., Anthem Insurance Companies Inc., Anthem Kentucky Managed Care Plan Inc., Anthem Life & Disability Insurance Company, Anthem Life Insurance Company, Anthem Partnership Holding Company LLC, Anthem Services Company LLC, Anthem Southeast Inc., Anthem UM Services Inc., Anthem Workers' Compensation LLC, Applied Pathways LLC, Arcus Enterprises Inc., Aspire Health Inc., Aspire Healthcare Corp, Associated Group Inc., Beacon Health Options, Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthcare Plan of Georgia Inc., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Blue Cross of California, Blue Cross of California Partnership Plan Inc., CareMarket Inc., CareMore Health Plan, CareMore Health Plan of Arizona Inc., CareMore Health Plan of Nevada, CareMore Health Plan of Texas Inc., CareMore Health System, CareMore LLC, Cerulean Companies Inc., Claim Management Services Inc., Community Care Health Plan of Louisiana Inc., Community Care Health Plan of Nevada Inc., Community Insurance Company, Compcare Health Services Insurance Corporation, Crossroads Acquisition Corp., DBG Holdings Inc., DeCare Analytics LLC, DeCare Dental Health International LLC, DeCare Dental Insurance Ireland Ltd., DeCare Dental LLC, DeCare Dental Networks LLC, DeCare Operations Ireland Limited, Delivery Network LLC, Designated Agent Company Inc., EHC Benefits Agency Inc., EasyScripts Cutler Bay LLC, EasyScripts Hialeah LLC, EasyScripts LLC, EasyScripts Westchester LLC, Empire HealthChoice Assurance Inc., Empire HealthChoice HMO Inc., Federal Government Solutions LLC, Freedom Health Inc., Global TPA LLC, Golden West Health Plan Inc., Greater Georgia Life Insurance Company, HEP AP Holdings Inc., HMO Colorado Inc., HMO Missouri Inc., Health Core Inc., Health Management Corporation, Health Ventures Partner L.L.C., HealthKeepers Inc., HealthLink HMO Inc., HealthLink Inc., HealthLink Insurance Company, HealthPlus HP LLC, HealthSun Health Plans, HealthSun Health Plans Inc., HealthSun Holdings LLC, HealthSun Management LLC, HealthSun Physicians Network I LLC, HealthSun Physicians Network LLC, Healthy Alliance Life Insurance Company, Highland Acquisition Holdings LLC, Highland Holdco Inc., Highland Intermediate Holdings LLC, Highland Investor Holdings LLC, Imaging Management Holdings LLC, IngenioRx Inc., Legato Health Technologies LLP, Legato Health Technologies Philippines Inc., Legato Holdings I Inc., Legato Holdings II LLC, Living Complete Technologies Inc., Matthew Thornton Health Plan Inc., Memphis Supportive Care Partnership LLC, Meridian Resource Company LLC, Missouri Care Incorporated, NGS Federal LLC, Nash Holding Company LLC, National Government Services Inc., New England Research Institutes Inc., Optimum Healthcare Inc., Park Square Holdings Inc., Park Square I Inc., Park Square II Inc., Pasteur Medical Bird Road LLC, Pasteur Medical Center LLC, Pasteur Medical Cutler Bay LLC, Pasteur Medical Group LLC, Pasteur Medical Hialeah Gardens LLC, Pasteur Medical Holdings LLC, Pasteur Medical Kendall LLC, Pasteur Medical Management LLC, Pasteur Medical Miami Gardens LLC, Pasteur Medical North Miami Beach LLC, Pasteur Medical Partners LLC, Resolution Health Inc, Resolution Health Inc., RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc., Rocky Mountain Hospital and Medical Service Inc., SellCore Inc., Simply Healthcare Holdings, Simply Healthcare Plans Inc., Southeast Services Inc., State Sponsored DM Services Inc., The Anthem Companies Inc., The Anthem Companies of California Inc., TrustSolutions LLC, UNICARE Health Plan of West Virginia Inc., UNICARE Illinois Services Inc., UNICARE National Services Inc., UniCare Life & Health Insurance Company, UniCare Specialty Services Inc., Valus Inc., WPMI LLC, WellCare of Nebraska Inc., WellPoint Acquisition LLC, WellPoint California Services Inc., WellPoint Dental Services Inc., WellPoint Health Solutions Inc., WellPoint Holding Corp., WellPoint Information Technology Services Inc., WellPoint Insurance Services Inc., WellPoint Military Care Corporation, Wellmax Health Medical Centers LLC, Wellmax Health Physicians Network LLC, and Wisconsin Collaborative Insurance Company. 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.. 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 Manulife Financial Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services in Asia, Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through Wealth and Asset Management Businesses; Insurance and Annuity Products; And Corporate and Other segments. The Wealth and Asset Management Businesses segment provides mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, group retirement and savings products, and institutional asset management services through agents and brokers affiliated with the company, securities brokerage firms, and financial advisors pension plan consultants and banks. The Insurance and Annuity Products segment offers deposit and credit products; individual life, and individual and group long-term care insurance; and guaranteed and partially guaranteed annuity products through insurance agents, brokers, banks, financial planners, and direct marketing. The Corporate and Other segment is involved in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance businesses; and run-off reinsurance operations, including variable annuities, and accident and health. It also manages timberland and agricultural portfolios; and engages in insurance agency, portfolio and mutual fund management, mutual fund dealer, life and financial reinsurance, and fund management businesses. Additionally, the company holds and manages oil and gas properties; holds oil and gas royalties, and foreign bonds and equities; and provides investment management, counseling, advisory, and dealer services. Manulife Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1887 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More Embraer SA engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of aircraft and its parts for commercial, defense, and executive aviation sectors. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Aviation, Defense and Security, Executive Jet Business, Service & Support and Others. The Commercial Aviation segment is involved in the development, production, and sale of commercial jets; and the provision of support services to regional aviation and aircraft leasing. The Defense and Security segment engages in research, development, production, modification, and support for defense and security aircrafts, as well as other integrated products and solutions including satellites and information and communication systems. The Executive Jet Business segment deals with the development, manufacture, and sale of executive jets. The Service & Support segment provides after-service solutions and support to its customers through a comprehensive portfolio of innovative and competitive solutions to ensure operational efficiency of products manufactured by Embraer and by other aircraft manufacturers, extending the useful life of commercial, executive and defense aircraft. The Others segment refers to Read More Everest Re Group Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of reinsurance and insurance services. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Reinsurance, International, Bermuda, and Insurance. The U.S. Reinsurance segment writes property and casualty reinsurance and specialty lines of business, including marine, aviation, surety, and accident and health business, on both a treaty and facultative basis, through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies primarily within the U.S. The International segment offers foreign property and casualty reinsurance through Everest Re's branches in Canada and Singapore and through offices in Brazil, Miami, and New Jersey. The Bermuda segment comprises reinsurance and insurance to worldwide property and casualty markets through brokers and directly with ceding companies from its Bermuda office and reinsurance to the United Kingdom and European markets through its UK branch and Ireland Re. The Insurance segment writes property and casualty insurance directly and through brokers, surplus lines brokers, and general agents within the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartere Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO ENERGY, XTO Energy Canada, and XTO Holdings LLC. There is not enough analysis data for John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II. 4.5 Community Rank Outperform Votes John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II has received 101 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II has received 47 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II has received 68.24% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe HPF will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe HPF will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next TC Energy Corporation operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. It operates through Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines, U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines, Mexico Natural Gas Pipelines, Liquids Pipelines, and Power and Storage segments. The company builds and operates 93,400 km network of natural gas pipelines, which transports natural gas from supply basins to local distribution companies, power generation plants, industrial facilities, interconnecting pipelines, LNG export terminals, and other businesses. It also has regulated natural gas storage facilities with a total working gas capacity of 535 billion cubic feet. In addition, it has approximately 4,900 km liquids pipeline system that connects Alberta crude oil supplies to refining markets in Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, and the U.S. Gulf Coast. Further, the company owns or has interests in seven power generation facilities with a combined capacity of approximately 4,200 megawatts that are powered by natural gas and nuclear fuel sources located in Alberta, Ontario, QuAbec, and New Brunswick; and owns and operates approximately 118 billion cubic feet of non-regulated natural gas storage capacity in Alberta. The company was formerly known as TransCanada Corporation and changed its name to TC Energy Corporation in May 2019. TC Energy Corporation was incorporated in 1951 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Read More Grand City Properties S.A. engages in the residential real estate business in Germany, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company invests in, manages, and rents real estate properties in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin; metropolitan regions of Dresden, Leipzig, and Halle; and the cities in the north of Germany, Bremen, Hamburg, and Hannover, as well as other urban centers, such as Nuremberg, Munch, Mannheim, Frankfurt, and London. Grand City Properties S.A. was founded in 2004 and is based in Luxembourg. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Dominion Energy: 96WI 8me LLC, Alamo Solar LLC, Align RNG Arizona LLC, Align RNG Arizona-Snowflake LLC, Align RNG California LLC, Align RNG California-Corcoran LLC, Align RNG Grady Road LLC, Align RNG LLC, Align RNG Magnolia LLC, Align RNG North Carolina LLC, Align RNG North Carolina-Bowdens LLC, Align RNG Utah LLC, Align RNG Utah-Milford LLC, Align RNG Virginia LLC, Align RNG Virginia-Waverly LLC, Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Azalea Solar LLC, BOE Holdings Inc., Blackville Solar Farm LLC, Blue Ocean Energy Marine LLC, BrightSuite Home LLC, BrightSuite Inc., BrightSuite Solar CT Inc., BrightSuite Solar SC Inc., BrightSuite Solar VA Inc., Buckingham Solar I LLC, CEA Americus LLC, CEA CO-Fort Morgan LLC, CEA Clovis LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Colorado LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Georgia LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Idaho LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Nevada LLC, CEA Dairy RNG New Mexico LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Texas LLC, CEA Greely LLC, CEA Mason LLC, CEA TX-Dimmitt LLC, CID Solar LLC, CNG Coal Company, CNG Power Services Corporation, Carolina Gas Transmission Corporation, Catalina Solar 2 LLC, Clean Energy Asset USA LLC, Clean Energy Enterprises Inc., Clipperton Holdings LLC, Consolidated Natural Gas Company, Correctional Solar LLC, Cottonwood Solar LLC, Cove Point LNG LP, Cove Point LNG Limited, DE Arlington Solar LLC, DE Fluvanna Solar LLC, DE Hanover Solar LLC, DE Henrico Solar LLC, DE King William Solar LLC, DE Louisa Solar LLC, DE Newport News Solar LLC, DE Powhatan Solar LLC, DE Virginia Beach Solar LLC, DECP Holdings Inc., Dairy RNG Holdings LLC, Dairy RNG NY LLC, Dairy RNG NY-Curtin LLC, Dairy RNG OH LLC, Denmark Solar LLC, Dominion ACP Holding Inc., Dominion Alternative Energy Holdings Inc., Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Dominion Capital Inc., Dominion Cogen WV Inc., Dominion Energy Fuel Services Inc., Dominion Energy Gas Distribution LLC, Dominion Energy Generation Marketing Inc., Dominion Energy Inc., Dominion Energy Kewaunee Inc., Dominion Energy Marketplace LLC, Dominion Energy Nuclear Connecticut Inc., Dominion Energy Overthrust Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Payroll Company Inc., Dominion Energy Questar Corporation, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline Services Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings II Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings Inc., Dominion Energy Services Inc., Dominion Energy Solar CA LLC, Dominion Energy Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy South Carolina Inc., Dominion Energy Southeast Services Inc., Dominion Energy Technical Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies II Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies Inc., Dominion Energy Terminal Company Inc., Dominion Energy Wexpro Services Company, Dominion Equipment III Inc., Dominion Equipment Inc., Dominion Fairless Hills Inc., Dominion Fowler Ridge Wind LLC, Dominion Gas Projects Company LLC, Dominion Generation Inc., Dominion Greenbrier Inc., Dominion High Voltage Holdings Inc., Dominion High Voltage MidAtlantic Inc., Dominion Investments Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline Holdings Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline LLC, Dominion MLP Holding Company III Inc., Dominion Mt. Storm Wind LLC, Dominion Nuclear Projects Inc., Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration & Production Inc., Dominion Person Inc., Dominion Privatization Florida LLC, Dominion Privatization Georgia LLC, Dominion Privatization Holdings Inc., Dominion Privatization Kentucky LLC, Dominion Privatization Maryland LLC, Dominion Privatization Pennsylvania LLC, Dominion Privatization South Carolina LLC, Dominion Privatization Texas LLC, Dominion Privatization Virginia LLC, Dominion Products and Services Inc., Dominion Projects Services Inc., Dominion Resources Capital Trust III, Dominion Retail Gas Holdings Inc., Dominion Solar Construction and Maintenance LLC, Dominion Solar Gen-Tie LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings I LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings II LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings III LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings IV LLC, Dominion Solar Projects A Inc., Dominion Solar Projects B Inc., Dominion Solar Projects C Inc., Dominion Solar Projects D Inc., Dominion Solar Projects I Inc., Dominion Solar Projects II Inc., Dominion Solar Projects III Inc., Dominion Solar Projects IV Inc., Dominion Solar Projects V Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VI Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VII Inc., Dominion Solar Services Inc., Dominion State Line LLC, Dominion Voltage Inc., Dominion Wholesale Inc., Dominion Wind Development LLC, Dominion Wind Projects Inc., ESCT-SA-Suffield LLC, Eagle Holdco Solar LLC, Eagle Solar LLC, Eastern Shore Solar LLC, Enterprise Solar LLC, Escalante Solar I LLC, Escalante Solar II LLC, Escalante Solar III LLC, Four Brothers Solar LLC, Fremont Farm LLC, Granite Mountain Holdings LLC, Granite Mountain Solar East LLC, Granite Mountain Solar West LLC, Greenbrier Marketing Company LLC, Greenbrier Pipeline Company LLC, Greensville County Solar Project LLC, Hardin Solar Energy LLC, Hecate Energy Cherrydale LLC, Hecate Energy Clarke County LLC, Hope Gas Inc., Imperial Valley Solar Company (IVSC) 2 LLC, Indy Solar Development LLC, Indy Solar I LLC, Indy Solar II LLC, Indy Solar III LLC, Innovative Solar 37 LLC, Iron Springs Holdings LLC, Iron Springs Solar LLC, Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas, Maricopa West Solar PV LLC, Moffett Solar 1 LLC, Moorings Farm 2 LLC, Mulberry Farm LLC, Mustang Solar LLC, PSNC Blue Ridge Corporation, PSNC Cardinal Pipeline Company, Pavant Solar LLC, Phone House, Pikeville Farm LLC, Prairie Fork Wind Farm LLC, Public Service Company of North Carolina Incorporated, QPC Holding Company LLC, Questar Corporation, Questar Energy Services Inc., Questar Field Services LLC, Questar Gas Company, Questar InfoComm Inc., Questar Southern Trails Pipeline Company, Questar White River Hub LLC, RE Adams East LLC, RE Camelot LLC, RE Columbia Two LLC, RE Kansas LLC, RE Kent South LLC, RE Old River One LLC, Richland Solar Center LLC, Ridgeland Solar Farm I LLC, SBL Holdco LLC, SCANA, SCANA Communications Holdings Inc., SCANA Corporate Security Services Inc., SCANA Energy Marketing LLC, SCANA Pharmacy LLC, SRFI LLC, Scana Corporation, Scott-II Solar LLC, Seabrook Solar LLC, Selmer Farm LLC, Siler Solar LLC, Sol Madison Solar LLC, Somers Solar Center LLC, South Carolina Fuel Company Inc., South Carolina Generating Company Inc., Southampton Solar LLC, Summit Farms Solar LLC, Sussex Drive Solar Project LLC, TA - Acacia LLC, TWE Myrtle Solar Project LLC, The East Ohio Gas Company, Trask East Solar LLC, Tredegar Solar Fund I LLC, VP Property Inc., Virginia Electric And Power Company, Virginia Power Fuel Corporation, Virginia Power Nuclear Services Company, Virginia Power Services Energy Corp. Inc., Virginia Power Services LLC, Virginia Solar 201 Projects LLC, Wakefield Solar LLC, Wexpro Company, Wexpro Development Company, Wexpro II Company, Wilkinson Solar LLC, Wrangler Retail Gas Holdings LLC, and Yemassee Solar LLC. Industria de Diseno Textil SA, known as Inditex SA, is a Spain-based company primarily engaged in the textile industry. The Company's activities include the design, confection, manufacturing, distribution and retail of men, women and children apparel, footwear and fashion accessories, as well as home furnishings and household textile products. The Company's business is divided into three segments: Zara, which provides various fashion and home items under the Zara brand name; Bershka, offering clothes under the Bershka brand name, which aims at teenagers, and Other, which retails apparel under Stradivarius, Oysho, Pull&Bear and Massimo Dutti brand names, among others. The Company operates worldwide through numerous subsidiaries. It is controlled by Pontegadea Inversiones SL. Read More iShares MSCI India ETF's stock was trading at $28.76 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, INDA stock has increased by 76.6% and is now trading at $50.78. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. iShares Core MSCI Europe ETF's stock was trading at $39.49 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IEUR stock has increased by 50.6% and is now trading at $59.48. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. iShares MSCI Belgium ETF's stock was trading at $15.65 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EWK stock has increased by 39.8% and is now trading at $21.88. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of Brinker International: BI INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LLC, BI MEXICO HOLDING CORPORATION, BIPC GLOBAL PAYROLL COMPANY LLC, BIPC INVESTMENTS LLC, BIPC MANAGEMENT LLC, BRINKER AIRPORTS LLC, BRINKER ALABAMA INC., BRINKER ARKANSAS INC., BRINKER ASIA INC., BRINKER BRAZIL LLC, BRINKER CANADIAN HOLDING CO. ULC, BRINKER CANADIAN RESTAURANT CO. ULC, BRINKER CB LP, BRINKER CB MANAGEMENT LLC, BRINKER FHC B.V., BRINKER FLORIDA INC., BRINKER FREEHOLD INC., BRINKER GEORGIA INC., BRINKER INTERNATIONAL PAYROLL COMPANY L.P., BRINKER LOUISIANA INC., BRINKER MICHIGAN INC., BRINKER MISSISSIPPI INC., BRINKER MISSOURI INC., BRINKER NEVADA INC., BRINKER NEW JERSEY INC., BRINKER NORTH CAROLINA INC., BRINKER OF BALTIMORE COUNTY INC., BRINKER OF CARROLL COUNTY INC., BRINKER OF CECIL COUNTY INC., BRINKER OKLAHOMA INC., BRINKER OPCO LLC, BRINKER PENN TRUST, BRINKER PROPCO FLORIDA INC., BRINKER PROPERTY CORPORATION, BRINKER PURCHASING INC., BRINKER RESTAURANT CORPORATION, BRINKER RHODE ISLAND INC., BRINKER SERVICES CORPORATION, BRINKER SOUTH CAROLINA INC., BRINKER TEXAS INC., BRINKER VIRGINIA INC., CHILIS BEVERAGE COMPANY INC., CHILIS INC. a Delaware corporation, CHILIS INC. a Tennessee corporation, CHILIS INTERNATIONAL BASES B.V., CHILIS OF BEL AIR INC., CHILIS OF KANSAS INC., CHILIS OF MARYLAND INC., CHILIS OF WEST VIRGINIA INC., Grady's Inc., MAGGIANO'S OF ANNAPOLIS INC., MAGGIANO'S OF HOWARD COUNTY INC., MAGGIANO'S OF KANSAS INC., MAGGIANOS BEVERAGE COMPANY, MAGGIANOS HOLDING CORPORATION, MAGGIANOS INC., MAGGIANOS OF TYSONS INC., MAGGIANOS PROPERTY CORPORATION, MAGGIANOS TEXAS INC., PEPPER DINING HOLDING CORP., PEPPER DINING Inc., and PEPPER DINING VERMONT INC.. Kodal Minerals Plc engages in the exploration and evaluation of mineral resources in the United Kingdom and West Africa. The company explores for lithium and gold deposits. Its flagship project is the Bougouni Lithium project located in southern Mali. The company holds 100% interest in the Bougouni West lithium project, which covers an area of 200 square kilometers located in southern Mali; and holds 100% interest in the Nangalasso project located in southern Mali, the SLAM Project located in Mali, the Dabakala project located in central Cote d'Ivoire, and the Korhogo project located in north central CAte d'Ivoire. Kodal Minerals Plc was incorporated in 2010 and is based in London, the United Kingdom. Read More Melrose Industries PLC engages in the aerospace, automotive, powder metallurgy, air management, and other industrial businesses in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, North America, and internationally. Its Aerospace segment provides airframe and engine structures, and electrical interconnection systems for the aerospace industry in civil airframe and defense platforms. The company's Automotive segment designs, develops, manufactures, and integrates driveline technologies; and epowertrains and intelligent all-wheel drive systems. Its Powder Metallurgy segment offers precision automotive components and components for industrial and consumer applications; metal powder for powder metallurgy; and additive manufacturing parts for prototypes. The company's Nortek Air Management segment manufactures and sells ventilation products for the professional remodeling and replacement, residential new construction, and consumer DIY markets. This segment also manufactures and sells split-system and packaged air conditioners, heat pumps, furnaces, air handlers, and parts for the residential replacement and new construction markets; and custom designed and engineered products and systems for non-residential applications. Its Other Industrial segment provides turbo generators, transformers, and switchgears; develops and manufactures security, home automation, and access control technologies for the residential and commercial markets; and designs, manufactures, and distributes ergonomic products for use in a various working, learning, and healthcare environments. The company was formerly known as New Melrose Industries PLC and changed its name to Melrose Industries PLC in November 2015. Melrose Industries PLC was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More According to analysts' consensus price target of GBX 130, GetBusy has a forecasted upside of 100.0% from its current price of GBX 65. GetBusy has received a consensus rating of Buy. The company's average rating score is 3.00, and is based on 1 buy rating, no hold ratings, and no sell ratings. 5.0 Community Rank Outperform Votes GetBusy has received 37 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes GetBusy has received 12 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment GetBusy has received 75.51% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about GetBusy and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe GETB will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe GETB will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next 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]at.com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. There is not enough analysis data for RWE Aktiengesellschaft. 4.1 Community Rank Outperform Votes RWE Aktiengesellschaft has received 32 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes RWE Aktiengesellschaft has received 20 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment RWE Aktiengesellschaft has received 61.54% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about RWE Aktiengesellschaft and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe RWE will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe RWE will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next 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. The following companies are subsidiares of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 236 Perinton Parkway LLC, 27 Forge Parkway LLC, ABR--Affinity BioReagents, ACI Holdings Inc., ARG Services LLC, ASPEX Corporation, Abgene Inc., Abgene Limited, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., AcroMetrix LLC, Acros Organics B.V.B.A., Advanced Biotechnologies Limited, Advanced Scientifics (ASI), Advanced Scientifics Inc., Advanced Scientifics International Inc., Affymetrix Biotech Participacoes Ltda., Affymetrix Biotech Shanghai Ltd, Affymetrix Inc, Affymetrix Japan K.K., Affymetrix Pte Ltd, Affymetrix UK Ltd, Afora S.A.U., Ahura Scientific, Alchematrix Inc., Alchematrix LLC, Alfa Aesar, Alfa Aesar (China) Chemical Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar (Hong Kong) Limited, Allergon AB, Alphine Mountain Limited, Ambion Inc., Apogent Denmark ApS, Apogent Finance Company, Apogent Holding Company, Apogent Technologies Inc., Apogent Transition Corp., Apogent U.K. Limited, App-Tek International Pty Ltd, Applied Biosystems B.V., Applied Biosystems Finance B.V., Applied Biosystems International Inc., Applied Biosystems LLC, Applied Biosystems Taiwan LLC, Applied Biosystems Trading (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Applied Biosystems de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Applied Scientific Corporation, Avances Cientificos de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Avocado Research Chemicals Limited, B.R.A.H.M.S. Biotech GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. UK Ltd, BAC BV, BAC IP BV, Barnstead Thermolyne LLC, Beijing Phadia Diagnostics Co Ltd, Bender MedSystems GmbH, BioTrove Corporation, BioTrove International Inc., Bioanalysis Labsystems S.A., Biochemical Sciences LLC, Biolab, BmT GmbH Laborprodukte, Bonsai Tecnologies - Sistemas para Biotecnologia e Industria Unipessoal Lda, Brammer Bio, Bumi-Sans Sendirian Berhad, CAC Limited, CB Diagnostics AB, CB Diagnostics Holding AB, CEPH International Corporation, CHK Holdings Inc., CRS Robotics, CTPS LLC, Capitol Scientific Products Inc., Capitol Vial Inc., Cellomics Inc., CellzDirect Inc., Cenduit GmbH, Cenduit LLC, Cezanne S.A.S., Chase Scientific Glass Inc., Chromacol Limited, Clintrak, Clintrak Clinical Labeling Services LLC, Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Cohesive Technologies (UK) Limited, Cohesive Technologies Inc., Columbia Diagnostics Inc., Compendia Bioscience Inc., Comtest Limited, Consolidated Technologies Inc., Consultores Fisher Scientific Chile Ltd, Core Informatics, Core Informatics LLC, Core Informatics UK Ltd., D-finitive Technologies Inc., DCG Systems B.V., DCG Systems C.V., DCG Systems G.K., DCG Systems GmbH, DCG Systems Korea Ltd., DCG Systems LLC, DPI Newco LLC, DSM Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Dharmacon, Diagnostix Ltd., Dionex (China) Analytical Ltd, Dionex (Switzerland) AG, Dionex (UK) Limited, Dionex Austria GmbH, Dionex Benelux B.V., Dionex Brasil Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda, Dionex Canada Ltd., Dionex China Limited, Dionex Corporation, Dionex Denmark A/S, Dionex Holding GmbH, Dionex I LLC, Dionex Pty Ltd., Dionex S.A., Dionex S.p.A., Dionex Singapore Pte Ltd., Dionex Softron GmbH, Dionex Sweden AB, Distribution Solutions International Inc., Doe & Ingalls Investors Inc., Doe & Ingalls Limited, Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties II LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties LLC, Doe & Ingalls of California Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Florida Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Maryland Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Massachusetts Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of North Carolina Operating LLC, Doublecape Holding Limited, Doublecape Limited, Drakeside Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Duke Scientific Corporation, Dynal Biotech Beijing Limited, EGS Gauging Ltd., EGS Gauging Technical Services Company, EP Scientific Products LLC, Ecochem N.V., EnviroEquip Pty Ltd, Epsom Glass Industries Limited, Equibio Limited, Erie Electroverre S.A., Erie Finance Limited, Erie LP Holding LLC, Erie Scientific Company of Puerto Rico, Erie Scientific Hungary Kft, Erie Scientific LLC, Erie U.K. Limited, Erie UK 1 Limited, Erie UK 2 Limited, Erie UK Holding Company, Erie UK Senior Holding Limited, European Laboratory Holdings Limited, Eutech Instruments Europe B.V., Eutech Instruments Pte Ltd., Eutech Instruments Sdn Bhd, Ever Ready Thermometer Co. Inc., FEI Asia Pacific Co. Ltd., FEI Australia Pty Ltd, FEI CPD B.V., FEI Company, FEI Company Japan Ltd., FEI Company of USA (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd., FEI Czech Republic s.r.o., FEI Deutschland GmbH, FEI EFA Inc., FEI EFA International Pte. Ltd., FEI Electron Optics B.V., FEI Electron Optics International B.V., FEI Europe B.V., FEI France SAS, FEI Global Holdings C.V., FEI Hong Kong Company Limited, FEI Houston Inc., FEI Italia Srl, FEI Korea Ltd., FEI Melbourne Pty Ltd., FEI Microscopy Solutions Ltd, FEI Munich GmbH, FEI Norway Holding AS, FEI SAS, FEI Saudi Arabia LLC, FEI Servicos de Nanotecnologia Ltda., FEI Technologies Inc., FEI Technology de Mexico S.A. de C.V., FEI Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FEI Trondheim AS, FEI UK Ltd., FHP LLC, FRC Holding Inc. V, FS (Barbados) Capital Holdings Ltd., FS Casa Rocas Holdings LLC, FS Mexicana Holdings LLC, FSI Receivables Company LLC, FSII Sweden Holdings AB, FSII Sweden Holdings I AB, FSIR Holdings (UK) Limited, FSIR Holdings (US) Inc., FSUK Holdings Limited, FSWH Company LLC, FSWH II C.V., FSWH International Holdings LLC, Fermentas China Co. Ltd, Fermentas Inc., Fermentas International, Fermentas Sweden AB, Fermentas UK Limited, Fiberlite Centrifuge LLC, Finesse Scientific Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Finesse Solutions AG, Finesse Solutions Inc., Finnzymes Oy, Fisher Alder S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Asia Manufacturing Ventures Inc., Fisher Bermuda Holdings Limited, Fisher BioImage ApS, Fisher BioPharma Services (India) Private Limited, Fisher BioSciences Japan G.K., Fisher BioServices Inc., Fisher Bioblock Holding II SNC, Fisher CLP Holding Limited Partnership, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 1, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 2, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 3, Fisher Canada Limited Partnership, Fisher Chimica BVBA, Fisher Clinical Logistics LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services (Bristol) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Colombia) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Korea) Co. Ltd, Fisher Clinical Services (Mexico) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Peru) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services Colombia S.A.S., Fisher Clinical Services GmbH, Fisher Clinical Services Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Japan K.K., Fisher Clinical Services Latin America S.R.L., Fisher Clinical Services Limited Liability Company, Fisher Clinical Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Clinical Services Peru S.R.L, Fisher Clinical Services Pte Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services U.K. Limited, Fisher Emergo B.V., Fisher Germany Holdings GmbH, Fisher Hamilton China Inc., Fisher Hamilton Mexico LLC, Fisher Holdings ApS, Fisher Internet Minority Holdings L.L.C., Fisher Laboratory Products Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Fisher Luxembourg Danish Holdings SARL, Fisher Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Maybridge Holdings Limited, Fisher Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific (Austria) GmbH, Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Fisher Scientific (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific (SEA) Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific A/S, Fisher Scientific AG, Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Limited, Fisher Scientific Biotech Line ApS, Fisher Scientific Brazil Inc., Fisher Scientific Central America Inc., Fisher Scientific Chile Inc., Fisher Scientific Colombia Inc., Fisher Scientific Company, Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C., Fisher Scientific Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Fisher Scientific Europe Holdings B.V., Fisher Scientific GTF AB, Fisher Scientific Germany Beteiligungs GmbH, Fisher Scientific GmbH, Fisher Scientific Holding Company LLC, Fisher Scientific Holding HK Limited, Fisher Scientific Holding U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific Holdings (S) Pte Ltd, Fisher Scientific International LLC, Fisher Scientific Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Fisher Scientific Ireland Investments Unlimited, Fisher Scientific Ireland Limited, Fisher Scientific Japan Ltd., Fisher Scientific Jersey Island Limited, Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd, Fisher Scientific Latin America Inc., Fisher Scientific Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Fisher Scientific Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific Mexico Inc., Fisher Scientific Middle East and Africa Inc., Fisher Scientific Norway AS, Fisher Scientific Operating Company, Fisher Scientific Oxoid Holdings Ltd., Fisher Scientific Oy, Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific S.A.S., Fisher Scientific S.L., Fisher Scientific SPRL, Fisher Scientific The Hague I B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague II B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague III B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague IV B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague V B.V., Fisher Scientific U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company 2, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company Limited, Fisher Scientific Unipessoal Lda., Fisher Scientific Venezuela Inc., Fisher Scientific Worldwide (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Holdings I C.V., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Inc., Fisher Scientific de Mexico S.A., Fisher Scientific of the Netherlands B.V., Fisher Scientific spol. S.r.o, Fisher Servicios Clinicos (Chile) LLC, Fisher Servicios Clinicos Chile Ltda, Fisher WWD Holding L.L.C., Fisher Worldwide Distribution SPV, Fisher Worldwide Gene Distribution SPV, Flux Instruments, Fuji Partnership, G & M Procter Limited, G V Instruments Limited, GV Instruments Canada Ltd., GV Instruments Inc, Gatan Inc, General Scientific Company Sdn Bhd (M), Genomed molekularbiologische und diagnostische Produkte GmbH, Gerhard Menzel B.V. & Co. KG, Gold Cattle Standard Testing Labs Inc., Golden West Indemnity Company Limited, Goring Kerr Detection Limited, Greenville Service Company Inc., HENO GmbH i.L., Hangar 215 Inc., Helmet Securities Limited, Henogen, HighChem, HyClone International Trade (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Hybaid Limited, I.Q. (BIO) Limited, IDnostics AG, ILS Laboratories Scandinavia AB, Inel Inc., Inel SAS, InnaPhase Inc., InnaPhase Limited, IntegenX, Intrinsic BioProbes Inc., Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc., Invitrogen (Shanghai) Investment Co. Ltd., Invitrogen Argentina SA, Invitrogen BioServices India Private Limited, Invitrogen Europe Limited, Invitrogen Finance Corp., Invitrogen Holdings LLC, Invitrogen Holdings Ltd., Invitrogen Hong Kong Limited, Invitrogen IP Holdings Inc., Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ion Torrent Systems Inc., Ionalytics Corporation, JSC Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jouan LLC, Jouan Limited, Jouan SA, Kendro Containment & Services Limited, Kendro Laboratory Products Ltd, Kettlebrook Insurance Co. ltd., Keystone Scientific, KonTEM GmbH, Kyle Jordan Investments LLC, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, LTC Tech South Africa PTY Ltd., La-Pha-Pack GmbH, Lab Vision (UK) Limited, Lab Vision Corporation, Lab-Chrom-Pack LLC, Lab-Line Instruments Inc., Labomex MBP S. de R. L. 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Ltd., ThermoLase LLC, ThermoSpectra Limited, Trek Diagnostic Systems LLC, Trek Diagnostic Systems Ltd., Trek Holding Company II Ltd., Trek Holding Company Ltd., Trex Medical Corporation, USB Corporation, Union Lab Supplies Limited, United Diagnostics Inc., VG Systems Limited, Westover Scientific Inc., ZAO PE Biosystems, eBioscience GmbH, eBioscience Ltd, eBioscience SAS, and picoSpin LLC. Thomson Reuters Corporation provides business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments. 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Read More 6 Wall Street equities research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Tullow Oil in the last twelve months. There are currently 1 sell rating, 3 hold ratings and 2 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street equities research analysts is that investors should "hold" Tullow Oil stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in TLW, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares. View analyst ratings for Tullow Oil or view top-rated stocks. The following companies are subsidiares of Tyson Foods: APF Legacy Subs LLC, Advance Food Company LLC, AdvancePierre Foods, AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc., AdvancePierre Foods Inc., Aidells Sausage Company Inc., Allied Specialty Foods Inc., American Proteins Inc, Artisan Bread Co. LLC, Australian Food Corporation Pty Limited, Australian Food Corporation Trust, BRF, Barber Foods LLC, Bosco's Pizza Co., Bryan Foods Inc., C.S. Grain LLC, C.V. Holdings Inc., CBFA Management Corp., Central Industries Inc., Chefs Pantry LLC, Clovervale Farms LLC, Cobb (Hubei) Breeding Co. Ltd., Cobb (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Cobb Ana Damizlik Tavukculuk Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cobb Columbia S.A.S., Cobb Europe B.V., Cobb Europe Limited, Cobb Peru (Andina) S.A.C., Cobb-Heritage LLC, Cobb-Vantress Brasil Ltda, Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cobb-Vantress New Zealand Limited, Cobb-Vantress Philippines Inc., Coominya AFC Pty Limited, Coominya AFC Trust, DFG Foods Inc., DFG Foods L.L.C., Don Julio, Egbert LLC, Equity Group - Georgia Division LLC, Equity Group - Kentucky Division LLC, Equity Group Eufaula Division LLC, Equity Meat Corp., Flavor Corp., Flavor Holdings Inc., Foodbrands America Inc., Foodbrands Supply Chain Services Inc., Gallo Salame Inc., Global Employment Services Inc., Grow-Out Credit LLC, Grow-Out Holdings LLC, Haimen Tyson Poultry Development Co. Ltd, Hudson Foods Company, Hudson Midwest Foods Inc., Hybro Genetics Brasil Ltda, IBP Caribbean Inc., IBP Foodservice L.L.C., IBP Inc., International Affiliates & Investment LLC, Jiangsu Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Keydutch Finance B.V., Keydutch Holdings I LLC, Keydutch Holdings II LLC, Keydutch Investments B.V., Keystone CLJV Holdings Limited, Keystone County House Road LLC, Keystone Foods, Keystone Foods (AP) Limited, Keystone Foods Holdco LLC, Keystone Foods Intermediate LLC, Keystone Foods LLC, Keystone Foods Pty Limited, Keystone Management Inc., Keystone Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, LD Foods LLC, M & M Express LLC, M&M Restaurant Supply (MI/OH) LLC, MFG (USA) Holdings Inc., Mac Food Services (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., Madison Foods Inc., McKey Food Services (Hong Kong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Shandong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Thailand) Limited, McKey Food Services Limited, McKey Luxembourg Holdings APMEA S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg S.a.r.l., McKey VI Holdings Limited, Myung Seung Food Company Ltd., National Comp Care Inc., New Canada Holdings Inc., Oaklawn Capital Corporation, Oaklawn IT Solution Private Limited, Original Philly Holdings Inc., PBX inc., Pierre Holdco Inc., River Valley Ingredients LLC, Rizhao Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Rizhao Tyson Poultry Co. Ltd, Rural Energy Systems Inc., Sara Lee - Kiwi Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Diversified LLC, Sara Lee Foods LLC, Sara Lee Household & Body Care Malawi Ltd., Sara Lee International LLC, Sara Lee International TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Mexicana Holdings Investment L.L.C., Sara Lee TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Trademark Holdings Australasia LLC, Saramar L.L.C., Shandong Tyson-Da Long Food Company Limited, Smart Chicken, Southern Family Foods L.L.C., Southwest Products LLC, TF 20 B.V., TF 5201 B.V., TFA Leasing LLC, TFA Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, TFI of California Inc., Tecumseh Poultry LLC, Texas Transfer Inc., The Bruss Company, The Hillshire Brands Company, The IBP Foods Co., The Pork Group Inc., TyNet Corporation, Tyson (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Tyson Americas Holding Sarl, Tyson Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Tyson Breeders Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Tyson China Holding 2 Limited, Tyson China Holding 3 Limited, Tyson China Holding Limited, Tyson Deli Inc., Tyson Europe Holding Company, Tyson Farms Inc., Tyson Farms QOZB LLC, Tyson Foods Brasil Investimentos Ltda., Tyson Foods Canada Inc., Tyson Foods Europe (Netherlands) B.V., Tyson Foods Europe GmbH, Tyson Foods France S.A.R.L., Tyson Foods Germany GmbH, Tyson Foods Group Limited, Tyson Foods Holland B.V., Tyson Foods Huadong Development Co. Ltd, Tyson Foods Iberia Alimentos S.L.U., Tyson Foods Italia S.p.A., Tyson Foods Korea, Tyson Foods Netherlands B.V., Tyson Foods Products Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Europe Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Sales (Europe) Limited, Tyson Foods UK Limited, Tyson Foods Wrexham Limited, Tyson Foods oosterwolde B.V., Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., Tyson Fresh Meats Sales and Distribution LLC, Tyson Global Holding Sarl, Tyson Hog Markets Inc., Tyson India Holdings Ltd., Tyson International APAC Ltd., Tyson International Company Ltd., Tyson International Holding Company, Tyson International Holding Sarl, Tyson International Service Center Inc., Tyson International Service Center Inc. Asia, Tyson International Service Center Inc. Europe, Tyson Mexican Original Inc., Tyson Mexico Trading Company S. de R.L. de CV., Tyson New Ventures LLC, Tyson Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, Tyson Pet Products Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Prepared Foods Inc., Tyson Processing Services Inc., Tyson Refrigerated Processed Meats Inc., Tyson Sales and Distribution Inc., Tyson Service Center Corp., Tyson Shared Services Inc., Tyson Storm Lake Holdings LLC, Tyson Warehousing Services LLC, Tyson of Wisconsin LLC, Uninex SA, Universal Meats (UK) Limited, WBA Analytical Laboratories Inc., Wilton Foods Inc., Xamol Consultores e Servicos, and Zemco Industries Inc.. The following companies are subsidiares of Travelers Companies: 10762962 Canada Inc., 350 Market Street LLC, 8527512 Canada Inc., Aetna Life and Casualty Co, American Equity Insurance Company, American Equity Specialty Insurance Company, Aprilgrange Limited, Arch Street North LLC, Auto Hartford Investments LLC, Bayhill Restaurant II Associates, Camperdown Corporation, Constitution State Services LLC, Discover Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Discover Specialty Insurance Company, F&G UK Underwriters Limited, Farmington Casualty Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Underwriters Inc., First Floridian Auto and Home Insurance Company, Gulf Underwriters Insurance Company, IHP Capital Partners Fund VIII L.P., Northbrook Holdings Inc., Northfield Insurance Company, Northland Casualty Company, Northland Insurance Company, Phoenix UK Investments LLC, SPC Insurance Agency Inc., Select Insurance Company, Simply Business Holdings Inc., Simply Business Inc., St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, St. Paul Guardian Insurance Company, St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company, St. Paul Protective Insurance Company, St. Paul Surplus Lines Insurance Company, Standard Fire Properties LLC, Standard Fire UK Investments LLC, TCI Global Services Inc., TPC Investments Inc., TPC U.K. Investments LLC, The Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford Connecticut, The Charter Oak Fire Insurance Company, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, The Family Business Institute LLC, The Phoenix Insurance Company, The St. Paul Companies Inc., The Standard Fire Insurance Company, The Travelers Casualty Company, The Travelers Home and Marine Insurance Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company of America, The Travelers Indemnity Company of Connecticut, The Travelers Lloyds Insurance Company, TravCo Insurance Company, Travelers (Bermuda) Limited, Travelers Brazil Acquisition LLC, Travelers Brazil Holding LLC, Travelers Casualty Company of Connecticut, Travelers Casualty Insurance Company of America, Travelers Casualty UK Investments LLC, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of Europe Limited, Travelers Commercial Casualty Company, Travelers Commercial Insurance Company, Travelers Constitution State Insurance Company, Travelers Distribution Alliance Inc., Travelers Excess and Surplus Lines Company, Travelers Global Inc., Travelers Indemnity U.K. Investments LLC, Travelers Insurance Company Limited, Travelers Insurance Company of Canada, Travelers Insurance Designated Activity Company, Travelers Insurance Group Holdings Inc., Travelers Lloyds of Texas Insurance Company, Travelers London Limited, Travelers MGA Inc., Travelers Management Limited, Travelers Marine LLC, Travelers Participacoes em Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Personal Insurance Company, Travelers Personal Security Insurance Company, Travelers Property Casualty Company of America, Travelers Property Casualty Corp., Travelers Property Casualty Insurance Company, Travelers Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Syndicate Management Limited, Travelers Texas MGA Inc., Travelers Underwriting Agency Limited, Ultramar Travel Management, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, Xbridge Limited, Zensurance Brokers Inc., and Zensurance Inc.. iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF's stock was trading at $80.84 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, HYG stock has increased by 7.3% and is now trading at $86.76. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of Vodafone Group: 360 Connect S.A., [email protected] Telecom, A-ccelerator B.V., A-ccelerator Holding B.V, AAA (Euro) Limited, AAA (MCR) Limited, AAA (UK) Limited, Acorn Communications Limited, Africonnect (Zambia) Limited, Ag Mercantile Company Private Limited, Al-Amin Investments Limited, Amsterdamse Beheer- en Consultingmaatschappij B.V., Apollo Submarine Cable System Limited, Array Holdings Limited, Asian Telecommunication Investments (Mauritius) Limited, Aspective Limited, Astec Communications Limited, Autoconnex Limited, Aztec Limited, BelCompany BV, Bluefish Apac Communications Pte. Ltd, Bluefish Communications, Bluefish Communications Limited, Business Serve Limited, C&W Worldwide Nigeria Limited, C.S.P. Solutions Limited, CCII (Mauritius) Inc., CGP India Investments Ltd., CGP Investments (Holdings) Limited, COOP Mobil s.r.o, CT Networks Limited, CWGNL S.A., CWW Operations Limited, Cable & Wireless Access Limited, Cable & Wireless Americas Systems Inc., Cable & Wireless Aspac Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Services Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Svyaz LLC, Cable & Wireless Capital Limited , Cable & Wireless Communications Data Network Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Starclass Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Technical Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd (Beijing Branch), Cable & Wireless Europe Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless GN Limited, Cable & Wireless Global (India) Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Business Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Holding Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Telecommunication Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Holdco Limited, Cable & Wireless Networks India Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Trade Mark Management Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Waterside Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Pension Trustee Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Voice Messaging Limited, Cable & Wireless a-Services Inc, Cable & Wireless a-Services Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited Indian Branch Office, Cable and Wireless Nominee Limited, Cable and Wireless Worldwide South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cavalry Holdings Ltd, Celfocus Solucoes Informaticas Para Telecomunicacoes S.A, Cellops Limited, Cellular Operations Limited, Central Communications Group Limited, Central Telecom (Northern) Limited, Centurion GSM Limited, Chelys Limited, City Cable (Holdings) Limited, Cobra do Brasil Servicos de Telematica ltda., Commnet Cellular Inc., Complete Network Technology, Connect (India) Mobile Technologies Private Limited, Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited, Dataroam Limited , Device Insight, Digital Island (UK) Ltd, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, East Africa Investment (Mauritius) Limited, Emtel Europe Limited, Energis (Ireland) Limited, Energis Communications Limited, Energis Holdings Limited, Energis Local Access Limited, Energis Management Limited, Energis Squared Limited, Erudite Systems Limited, Esprit Telecom B.V., Eudokia Limited, Euro Pacific Securities Ltd., Eurocall Holdings Limited, Europolitan Holdings AB (now Europolitan Vodafone AB), FB Holdings Limited, FM Associates (UK) Limited, FinCo Partner 1 B.V., FireFly Networks Limited, Flexphone Limited, GS Telecom (Pty) Limited, Gateway Communications Africa (UK) Limited, Gateway Communications Tanzania Limited, General Mobile Corporation, Generation Telecom Limited, Ghana Telecommunications, Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited, Global Cellular Rental Limited, Globe Limited, GrandCentrix GmbH, Grupo Corporativo ONO S.A.U., H3ga Properties (No 3) Pty Limited, HBO Nederland Cooperatief U.A., HBO Netherlands Channels sro, HBO Netherlands Distribution B.V., Hellas Online, How2 Telecom Limited, Hutchison Essar Ltd, Indus Towers Limited, Intercell Communications Limited, Internet Network Services Limited, Invitation Digital Limited, Ipergy Communications NV, Isis Telecommunications Management Limited, Jaguar Communications Limited, Jaykay Finholding (India) Private Limited, Jupicol (Proprietary) Limited, KABELCOM Braunschweig Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, KABELCOM Wolfsburg Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, Kabel Deutschland, Kabel Deutschland Holding, Kabel Deutschland Holding Erste Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Holding Zweite Beteilgungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Neunte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Siebte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabelfernsehen Munchen Servicenter GmbH & Co. KG, LG Financing Partnership, LGE HoldCo V B.V., LGE HoldCo VI B.V., LGE HoldCo VIII B.V., LGE Holdco VII B.V., LLC Vodafone Enterprise Ukraine, Le Bunt Holdings Limited, Legend Communications Limited, Liberty Global, Liberty Global Content Netherlands B.V., London Hydraulic Power Company, M-PESA Foundation, M-PESA Holding Co. Limited, ML Integration Group Limited, ML Integration Limited, ML Integration Services Limited, MV Healthcare Services Private Limited, Mannesmann AG, MetroHoldings Limited, Mezzanine Ware Proprietary Limited (RF), Mirambo Limited, Misrfone Trading Company LLC, MobiFon S.A., Mobile Commerce Solutions Limited, Mobile Phone Centre Limited, Mobile Wallet VM1, Mobile Wallet VM2, Mobile by Sainsburys Limited, Mobiles 4 Business.com Limited, Mobileworld Communications Pty Limited, Mobileworld Operating Pty Ltd, Mobilvest, Motifpros 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Multi Risk Indemnity Company Limited, Multi Risk Limited, ND Callus Info Services Private Limited, Nadal Trading Company Private Limited, Nat Comm Air Limited, National Communications Backbone Company Limited, Navtrak Ltd, Netforce Group Limited, Netgrid Telecom SRL, Number Portability Company (Proprietary) Limited, ONO, Omega Telecom Holdings Private Limited, Oni Way Infocomunicacoes S.A, Oskar Mobil S.R.O., Oxygen Solutions Limited, P.C.P. (North West) Limited, PPL Pty Limited, PT Network Services Limited, PTI Telecom Limited, Peoples Phone Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Group Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Limited, Plex Limited, Plustech Mercantile Company Private Limited, Prime Metals Ltd., Project Telecom Holdings Limited, Quickcomm Software Solutions, Radio Opt GmbH, Rian Mobile Limited, SBC SMART CITY 1517 B.V., SMMS Investments Pvt Limited, Safaricom Limited, Safenet N.P A., Sarmady Communications, Scarlet Ibis Investments 23 (Pty) Limited, Scorpios Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Silver Stream Investments Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Ltd., Singlepoint Payment Services Limited, Siro Limited, Spar Aerospace (Nigeria) Limited, Sport TV Portugal S.A, Starnet, Stentor Communications Limited, Stentor Limited, Storage Technology Services (Pty) Limited, T.W. Telecom Limited, T3 Telecommunications Limited, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern Beteiligungs GmbH, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern GmbH & Co. KG, TNAS Limited, TSM NZ Limited, Talkland Airtime Services Limited, Talkland Australia Pty Limited, Talkland Communications Limited, Talkland International Limited, Talkland Midlands Limited, Talkmobile Limited, Tele2 Italia SPA, Tele2 Spain, Telecom Investments India Private Limited, Telecommunications Europe Limited, Ternhill Communications Limited, The Cobra Group, The Eastern Leasing Company Limited, The Old Telecom Sales Co. Limited, Thus Group Holdings Limited, Thus Group Limited, Thus Limited, Thus Profit Sharing Trustees Limited, TnT Expense Management LLC, Tomorrow Street GP S.a r.l., Tomorrow Street SCA, Torenspits II B.V., Townley Communications Limited, Trans Crystal Ltd., UMT Investments Limited, UPC Nederland Holding I B.V., UPC Nederland Holding II B.V., UPC Nederland Holding III B.V., Unified Communications, Uniqueair Limited, Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH & Co.KG, Usha Martin Telematics Limited, VAPL No. 2 Pty Limited, VBA (Mauritius) Limited, VBA Holdings Limited, VBA International (SL) Limited, VBA International Limited, VEI S.r.l., VM SA, VND S.p.A, VSSB Vodafone Shared Services Budapest Private Limited Company, Verwaltung Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH, Victus Networks S.A., Vizzavi Finance Limited, Vizzavi Limited, Voda Limited, Vodacall Limited, Vodacash s.p.r.l., Vodacom (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business (Angola) Limitada, Vodacom Business (Ghana) Limited, Vodacom Business (Kenya) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group Services Limited, Vodacom Business Cameroon SA, Vodacom Business Cote Divoire S.A.R.L., Vodacom Congo (RDC) SA, Vodacom Financial Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodacom Insurance Administration Company (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Insurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom International Holdings (Pty) Limited, Vodacom International Limited, Vodacom Lesotho (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Life Assurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom Payment Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No.2 (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Tanzania Limited Zanzibar, Vodacom Tanzania Public Limited Company, Vodacom UK Limited, Vodafone (NI) Limited, Vodafone (New Zealand) Hedging Limited, Vodafone (Scotland) Limited, Vodafone 2, Vodafone 4 UK, Vodafone 5 Limited, Vodafone 5 UK, Vodafone 6 UK, Vodafone Albania Sh.A, Vodafone Alternatif Telekom Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Americas 4, Vodafone Americas Virginia Inc., Vodafone And Qatar Foundation L.L.C, Vodafone Asset Management Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Automotive Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Automotive Electronic Systems S.r.L, Vodafone Automotive France S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Iberia S.L, Vodafone Automotive Italia S.p.A, Vodafone Automotive Japan K.K, Vodafone Automotive Korea Limited, Vodafone Automotive SpA, Vodafone Automotive Technologies (Beijing) Co Ltd, Vodafone Automotive Telematics Development S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Telematics S.A, Vodafone Automotive UK Limited, Vodafone Belgium SA/NV, Vodafone Benelux Limited, Vodafone Bilgi Ve Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Vodafone Business Services Limited, Vodafone Business Solutions Limited, Vodafone Canada Inc, Vodafone Cellular Limited, Vodafone Central Services Limited, Vodafone China Limited (China), Vodafone China Limited (Hong Kong), Vodafone Connect 2 Limited, Vodafone Connect Limited, Vodafone Consolidated Holdings Limited, Vodafone Corporate Limited, Vodafone Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Czech Republic A.S., Vodafone DC Pension Trustee Company Limited, Vodafone Dagitim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Data, Vodafone Distribution Holdings Limited, Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications S.A.E., Vodafone Elektronik Para Ve Odeme Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Empresa Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda, Vodafone Empresa Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Vodafone Enabler Espana S.L., Vodafone Enterprise Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Austria GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Bahrain W.L.L., Vodafone Enterprise Bulgaria EOOD, Vodafone Enterprise Chile SA, Vodafone Enterprise Communications Technical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Denmark A/S, Vodafone Enterprise Equipment Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited Czech Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited DubaiI Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Finland OY, Vodafone Enterprise France SAS, Vodafone Enterprise Germany GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Global Businesses S.a r.l., Vodafone Enterprise Global Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network HK Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network Pte. Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Hong Kong Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Italy S.r.L, Vodafone Enterprise Korea Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Luxembourg S.A., Vodafone Enterprise Netherlands BV, Vodafone Enterprise Norway AS, Vodafone Enterprise Regional Business Singapore Pte.Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Singapore Pte.Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Spain S.L.U. Portugal Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Spain SLU, Vodafone Enterprise Sweden AB, Vodafone Enterprise Switzerland AG, Vodafone Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Vodafone Espana S.A.U., Vodafone Euro Hedging Limited, Vodafone Euro Hedging Two, Vodafone Europe B.V., Vodafone Europe UK, Vodafone European Investments, Vodafone European Portal Limited, Vodafone Finance Limited, Vodafone Finance Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Finance Sweden, Vodafone Finance UK Limited, Vodafone Financial Operations, Vodafone Financial Services B.V., Vodafone Fixed Ltd, Vodafone Foundation, Vodafone Foundation Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Gestioni S.p.A, Vodafone Ghana Mobile Financial Services Limited, Vodafone Global Content Services Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Hong Kong) Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Italy) S.R.L., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Japan) K.K., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Russia LLC, Vodafone Global Enterprise Taiwan Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Telecommunications (Hellas) A.E., Vodafone Global Network Limited, Vodafone Global Network Limited Slovakia Branch, Vodafone Global Services Private Limited, Vodafone GmbH, Vodafone Group (Directors) Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Pension Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Services GmbH, Vodafone Group Services Ireland Limited, Vodafone Group Services Limited, Vodafone Group Services No.2 Limited, Vodafone Group Share Trustee Limited, Vodafone Hire Limited, Vodafone Holding A.S., Vodafone Holdings (Jersey) Limited, Vodafone Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Holdings Europe S.L.U., Vodafone Holdings Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Finance Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Receivables Pty Limited, Vodafone IP Licensing Limited, Vodafone India Digital Limited, Vodafone India Limited, Vodafone India Services Private Limited, Vodafone India Ventures Limited, Vodafone Institut fur Gesellschaft und Kommunikation GmbH, Vodafone Intermediate Enterprises Limited, Vodafone International 1 S.a.r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone International 1 S.a r.l., Vodafone International 2 Limited, Vodafone International Holdings B.V., Vodafone International Holdings Limited, Vodafone International M S.a r.l., Vodafone International Operations Limited, Vodafone International Services LLC, Vodafone Investment UK, Vodafone Investments (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Investments Australia Limited, Vodafone Investments Limited, Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Ireland Distribution Limited, Vodafone Ireland Ltd., Vodafone Ireland Marketing Limited, Vodafone Ireland Property Holdings Limited, Vodafone Ireland Retail Limited, Vodafone Italia S.p.A., Vodafone Jersey Dollar Holdings Limited, Vodafone Jersey Finance, Vodafone Jersey Yen Holdings Unlimited, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Field Services GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Kundenbetreuung GmbH, Vodafone Kenya Limited, Vodafone Leasing Limited, Vodafone Libertel B.V., Vodafone Limited, Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone M-PESA SH.P.K., Vodafone M-Pesa S.A, Vodafone M.C. Mobile Services Limited , Vodafone Magyarorszag Mobile Tavkozlesi Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Vodafone Malta Limited, Vodafone Marketing UK , Vodafone Maroc SARL, Vodafone Mauritius Ltd., Vodafone Mobile Commerce Limited, Vodafone Mobile Communications Limited, Vodafone Mobile Enterprises Limited, Vodafone Mobile NZ Limited, Vodafone Mobile Network Limited, Vodafone Mobile Operations Limited, Vodafone Mobile Services Limited, Vodafone Multimedia Limited, Vodafone Nederland Holding I B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding II B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding III B.V., Vodafone Net Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Network Pty Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Foundation Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Limited, Vodafone Next Generation Services Limited, Vodafone Nominees Limited1, Vodafone ONO S.A.U., Vodafone Oceania Limited, Vodafone Old Show Ground Site Management Limited, Vodafone Overseas Finance Limited, Vodafone Overseas Holdings Limited, Vodafone Panafon International Holdings B.V., Vodafone Panafon UK, Vodafone Partner Services Limited, Vodafone Payment Solutions S.a r.l., Vodafone Portugal Comunicacoes Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Procurement Company S.a r.l., Vodafone Property Investments Limited, Vodafone Pty Limited, Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C., Vodafone Retail (Holdings) Limited , Vodafone Retail Limited, Vodafone Roaming Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Romania S.A, Vodafone Romania M - Payments SRL, Vodafone Romania Technologies SRL, Vodafone Sales & Services Limited, Vodafone Satellite Services Limited, Vodafone Servicios SL.U, Vodafone Servizi E Tecnologie S.R.L, Vodafone Servicos Empresariais Brasil Ltda., Vodafone Shared Services Romania SRL, Vodafone Specialist Communications Limited, Vodafone Stiftung Deutschland Gemeinnutzige GmbH, Vodafone Technology Solutions Limited, Vodafone Teknoloji Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Tele-Services (India) Holdings Limited, Vodafone Telecel-Comunicates Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Telecommunications (India) Limited, Vodafone Telekomunikasyon A.S, Vodafone Towers Limited, Vodafone UK Content Services Limited, Vodafone UK Investments Limited , Vodafone UK Limited1 , Vodafone US Inc, Vodafone Ventures Limited1 , Vodafone Vierte Verwaltungs AG, Vodafone Worldwide Holdings Limited, Vodafone Yen Finance Limited , Vodafone m-pesa Limited, Vodafone-Central Limited Vodaphone Limited, Vodafone-Panafon Hellenic Telecommunications Company S.A., VodafoneZiggo Group Holding B.V, Vodata Limited , Vouchercloud SA (Pty) Ltd, Wataneya Telecommunications S.A.E, Waterberg Lodge (Proprietary) Limited, Wayfinder, Wheatfields Investments 276 (Proprietary) Limited, Wireless Interactions & NFC Accelerator 2013 B.V., Woodend Cellular Limited, Woodend Communications Limited, Woodend Group Limited, Woodend Holdings Limited, XB Facilities B.V, XLink Communications (Proprietary) Limited, Your Communications Group Limited, ZUM B.V., ZYB, Zelitron S.A., Zesko B.V., Ziggo B.V., Ziggo Bond Company B.V., Ziggo Deelnemingen B.V., Ziggo Finance 2 B.V., Ziggo Financing Partnership, Ziggo Holding B.V., Ziggo Netwerk B.V., Ziggo Netwerk II B.V., Ziggo Services B.V., Ziggo Services Employment B.V., Ziggo Services Netwerk 2 B.V., Ziggo Zakelijk Services B.V., and Zoranet Connectivity Services B.V.. iShares MSCI EAFE Growth ETF's stock was trading at $73.25 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EFG shares have increased by 54.2% and is now trading at $112.92. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of Marsh & McLennan Companies: 8WORKS INC., 8WORKS LTD, A. Constantinidi & CIA. S.C., A.C.N. 000 951 146 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 001 572 961 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 076 935 683 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 102 322 574 Pty Limited, ACE Insurance Agents Limited, ACE Insurance Consultants Limited, ACE Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Limited, AD Corretora de Seguros, AFCO Premium Acceptance Inc., AFCO Premium Credit LLC, Access Equity Enhanced Fund GP LLC, Admiral Holdings Limited, Agnew Higgins Pickering & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd, Aldgate Investments Limited, Aldgate Trustees Ltd, Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited, Alpha Consultants Limited, Alta SA, Altius Real Assets (GP) LLC, Amal Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Anda Insurance Agencies Pte Ltd, AssetVal Pty Ltd, Assur Conseils Marsh S.A., Assurance Capital Corporation, Assurance Services Corporation, Australian Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, Australian World Underwriters Pty Ltd., BBPS Limited, Barney & Barney Orange County LLC, Beaumonts (Leeds) Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Services Limited, Beneficios Integrales Oportunos SA, Benefitfocus Inc., Blue Marble Micro Limited, Blue Marble Microinsurance Inc., Bluefin, Bluefin Insurance Group Limited, Bluefin Insurance Services Limited, Boulder Claims LLC, Bowring (Bermuda) Investments Ltd., Bowring Marine Limited, Bowring Marsh (Bermuda) Ltd., Bowring Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Bowring Marsh Asia Pte. Ltd., Bowring Marsh Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Bowring Marsh Limited, Broderick Piller Pty Ltd, Broker 2 Broker Limited, BuildPay LLC, Burke Ford Trustees (Leicester) Limited, C.T. Bowring Limited, CMC-Belgibo NV, CPRM Limited, CPSG Partners LLC, Carpenter Marsh Fac Chile Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Carpenter Marsh Fac Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Carpenter Marsh Fac Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.C., Carpenter Marsh Fac Re LLC, Carpenter Turner Cyprus Ltd, Carpenter Turner S.A., Cascade International Holdings C.V., Cascade Regional Holdings Limited, Central Insurance Services Limited, Charter Risk Management Services LLC, Chartwell Healthcare Limited, Chronos Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Claims and Recovery Management (Australia) Pty Limited, Clark Thomson Insurance Brokers Limited, Client Provide Limited, Colombian Insurance Broking Wholesale Limited, Consultores 2020 C.A., Cronin & Co Insurance Services Limited, DVA - Deutsche Verkehrs-Assekuranz-Vermittlungs GmbH, Dawson Insurance, DeLima Marsh S.A. - Los Corredores de Seguros S.A., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Managing General Agency Corporation, Dovetail Technology Service India Private Limited, Draw Connect Limited, Draw Create Limited, Draw Group London Limited, Eagle & Crown Limited, Echelon Australia Pty Limited, Echelon Claims Consultants Sdn Bhd, Echelon New Zealand Limited, EnBW Versicherungs Vermittlung GmbH, Encompass Insurance Agency Pty Ltd., English Pension Trustees Limited, Epsilon (US) Insurance Company, Epsilon Insurance Company Ltd., Eustis Insurance & Benefits, Evolution Management Ltd, Exchange Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Exmoor Management Company Limited, Faulkner & Flynn LLC, Freedom Trust Services Limited, GC Genesis LLC, GCube Insurance Services Inc, GCube Underwriting Limited, Gama Consultores Associados Ltda., Gem Insurance Company Limited, Global Premium Finance Company, GrECo International Holding AG, Gracechurch Trustees Limited, Gresham Pension Trustees Limited, Group Promoters Pty Limited, Guy Carpenter & Cia (Mexico) S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter & Cia. S.A., Guy Carpenter & Co. Labuan Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company AB, Guy Carpenter & Company Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Guy Carpenter & Company Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company GmbH, Guy Carpenter & Company LLC, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Ltd./Guy Carpenter & Compagnie Ltee, Guy Carpenter & Company Participacoes Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company Private Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Proprietary Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Pty. Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A. (Uruguay), Guy Carpenter & Company S.A.S., Guy Carpenter & Company S.r.l., Guy Carpenter (Middle East) Limited, Guy Carpenter Bermuda Ltd., Guy Carpenter Broking Inc., Guy Carpenter Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter Insurance Brokers (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Guy Carpenter Japan Inc., Guy Carpenter Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, HAPIP GP 2009 LLC, HAPIP GP LLC, HSBC Insurance Brokers International (Abu Dhabi) LLC (in liquidation), Hamilton Bond Limited, Hansen International Limited, Hayward Aviation Limited, INSIA Europe SE, INSIA SK s.r.o., INSIA a.s., INSURANCE BROKERS OF NIGERIA LIMITED, IRC Asia Insurance Brokers Limited, InSolutions Limited, Industrial Risks Protection Consultants, Ingeseg S. A., Ingeseg S.A., Insbrokers Ltda., InsurTech Alliance LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC [BAHRAIN BRANCH], Insure Direct - Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, International Catastrophe Insurance Managers LLC, International Loss Control Services Limited, International Risk Consultants (Asia) Limited, Invercol Limited, Irish Pensions Trust Limited, Isosceles Insurance (Barbados) Limited, Isosceles Insurance Company Limited, Isosceles Insurance Ltd, Isosceles PCC Limited, J&H Marsh & McLennan Limited, J.W. Terrill Benefit Administrators Inc., JI Holdings Limited, JIB Group Holdings Limited, JIB Group Limited, JIB Holdings (Pacific) Limited, JIB Overseas Holdings Limited, JIB UK Holdings Limited, JL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co. KG, JLM Verwaltungs GmbH, JLT (Insurance Brokers) Limited, JLT Actuaries and Consultants Limited, JLT Advisory Limited, JLT Affinity Colombia Solutions SAS, JLT Agencies Limited, JLT Asesorias Ltda, JLT Asia Holdings BV, JLT Asia Shared Services Sdn Bhd, JLT Belgibo, JLT Benefit Consultants Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Bermuda Ltd, JLT Brasil Holdings Participacoes Ltd, JLT Chile Holdings SpA, JLT Colombia Retail Limited, JLT Colombia Wholesale Limited, JLT Consultants & Actuaries Limited, JLT EB Holdings Limited, JLT EB Services Limited, JLT Employee Benefits Holding Company (PTY) LTD, JLT Employee Benefits SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Financial Planning Limited, JLT France Holdings, JLT Group Services Pty Limited, JLT Holdings (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Holdings (NZ) Limited, JLT Independent Insurance Brokers Private Limited, JLT Insurance Agencies Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited ( Shanghai Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Beijing Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Guangzhou Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Ireland Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers SA, JLT Insurance Group Holdings Ltd, JLT Insurance Management Malta Limited, JLT Intellectual Property Limited, JLT Intellectual Property [UK Branch], JLT Interactive Pte. Ltd., JLT Investment Management Limited, JLT LATAM (Southern Cone) Wholesale Limited, JLT Latin American Holdings Limited, JLT Life Assurance Brokers Limited, JLT Management Services Limited, JLT Marine (Pty) Ltd, JLT Mexico Holdings Limited, JLT Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., JLT Netherlands BV, JLT Norway AS, JLT PLA, JLT Pension Trustees Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Holdings Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Limited, JLT Peru Reinsurance Solutions Limited, JLT Peru Retail Limited, JLT Peru Wholesale Limited, JLT QFM Services Limited, JLT RE Brasil Administracao e Corretagem de Resseguros Ltda, JLT Re (French Branch), JLT Re (Northern Europe) AB, JLT Re Argentina Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.U., JLT Re Labuan Limited, JLT Re Limited, JLT Re Pty Ltd, JLT Reinsurance Brokers GmbH, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited [French Branch], JLT Risk Management Limited, JLT Risk Solutions AB, JLT Risk Solutions AB Branch - Germany, JLT SA IB Holdings Company (Pty) Limited, JLT SCK Affinity Administracao e Corretora de Seguros Ltda., JLT SCK Corretora e Administradora de Seguros, JLT Secretaries Limited, JLT Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerlii A.., JLT Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., JLT Specialty France, JLT Specialty Insurance Broker A/S, JLT Specialty Limited, JLT Specialty Limited [DUBAI BRANCH], JLT Specialty Pte. Ltd., JLT Towner Insurance Management (Anguilla) Limited, JLT Trust Services (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Trustees (Southern) Limited, JLT Trustees Limited, JLT UK Investment Holdings Limited, JLT Vantage Risk and Benefit Consulting Private Limited, JLT Wealth Management Limited, JLT do Brasil Corretagem de Seguros Ltda, JLTPCS Holdings Pte. Ltd., JMIB Holdings BV, JSL Securities Inc., Japan Affinity Marketing Inc., Jardine IBR Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson (Proprietary) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Asia Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Australia Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Canada Inc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited (UK Branch Office), Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance Consultants Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Inc., Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Holdings Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Unlimited Company, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Korea Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited [Macao Branch], Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS (Dubai) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS SA, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Sdn Bhd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Valencia y Iragorri Corredores de Seguros SA, Jardine Pension Trustees Ireland Limited, Jardine Risk Consulting Co. Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited [Macao Branch], Jardines PF- Consultoria Em Gestao De Risco Limitada, Jelf, Jelf Commercial Finance Limited, Jelf Financial Planning Limited, Jelf Insurance Brokers Limited, Jelf Limited, Jelf Risk Management Limited, Jelf Wellbeing Limited, John Lampier & Son Ltd, Johnson & Higgins (Bermuda) Limited, Johnson & Higgins Limited, KESSLER & CO AG, Kepler Associates Limited, Kessler & Co Inc., Kessler Consulting Inc., Kessler Prevoyance Inc., Key Underwriting Pty Limited, Kroll, Lambert Brothers Holdings Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Employee Benefits) Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Hong Kong) Ltd, Laterlife.com Limited (in liquidation), Lavaretus Underwriting AB, Lavaretus Underwriting AB (BRANCH - Denmark), Libra Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Lloyd & Partners Limited, Local Government Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Lomond Macdonald Limited, Lynch Insurance Brokers Limited, M&M Vehicle L.P., M.P. Bolshaw and Company Limited, MAG JLT SpA, MERCER ALTERNATIVES LIMITED, MM Risk Services Pty Ltd (for dissolution), MMA Mid-Atlantic Employee LLC, MMA Securities LLC, MMB Consultores S.A., MMC (Singapore) Holdings Pte. Ltd., MMC 28 State Street Holdings Inc., MMC Borrower LLC, MMC Brazilian Holdings B.V., MMC Capital Inc., MMC Cascade Regional Holdings LLC, MMC FINANCE (EUROPE) LIMITED, MMC FINANCE HOLDINGS LTD, MMC Finance (Australia) Limited, MMC Finance (Singapore) Limited, MMC France Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., MMC GP III Inc., MMC Group Services sp. z o.o., MMC Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, MMC Holdings (New Zealand) ULC, MMC Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC International Finance (Barbados) SRL, MMC International Holdings LLC, MMC International Limited, MMC International Treasury Centre Limited, MMC Middle East Holdings Limited, MMC Poland Holdings B.V., MMC Realty Inc., MMC Regional Asia Holdings B.V., MMC Regional Caribbean Holdings Ltd., MMC Regional Europe Holdings B.V., MMC Regional LATAM Holdings B.V., MMC Securities (Europe) Limited, MMC Securities LLC, MMC Treasury Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC UK Group Limited, MMC UK Pension Fund Trustee Limited, MMOW Limited, MMRC LLC, MOW Holding LLC, MPIP III GP LLC, MPIP IV GP LLC, MPIP V GP LLC, MPIP VI GP LLC, Mangrove Insurance Europe PCC Limited, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC Limited, Manoel Management Services Ltd, Marchant McKechnie Insurance Brokers Limited, Marine Aviation & General (London) Limited, Marsh & McLennan (PNG) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agencies AS, Marsh & McLennan Agencies Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency A/S, Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC, Marsh & McLennan Agency Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency Pty Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Argentina SA Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh & McLennan Colombia S.A., Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Funding Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Asia Pacific Treasury Center Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies BVBA/SPRL, Marsh & McLennan Companies Finance Center (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies France S.A.S., Marsh & McLennan Companies Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., Marsh & McLennan Companies Regional Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Services B.V., Marsh & McLennan Companies UK Limited, Marsh & McLennan Europe S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan GP I Inc., Marsh & McLennan Global Broking (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Holding GmbH, Marsh & McLennan Holdings (Canada) ULC, Marsh & McLennan Holdings Inc., Marsh & McLennan Incorporated (for dissolution), Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings II, Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Limited, Marsh & McLennan Insurance Services Limited, Marsh & McLennan Ireland Limited, Marsh & McLennan Management Services (Bermuda) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Risk Capital Holdings Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Servicios S.A. De C.V., Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Canada Limited, Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Corporation, Marsh (Bahrain) Company SPC, Marsh (Beijing) Risk Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Marsh (China) Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd., Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh (Insurance Brokers) LLP, Marsh (Insurance Services) Limited, Marsh (Malawi) Limited, Marsh (Middle East) Limited, Marsh (Namibia) (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh (Pty) Ltd, Marsh (Risk Consulting) LLP, Marsh (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Marsh A/S, Marsh AB, Marsh AG, Marsh AS, Marsh Advantage Insurance Holdings Pty Ltd, Marsh Advantage Insurance Pty Ltd., Marsh Africa (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Argentina S.R.L., Marsh Associates (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Austria G.m.b.H., Marsh Aviation Insurance Broking Pty Ltd (for dissolution), Marsh B.V., Marsh Botswana (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh Brockman y Schuh Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas S.A. de C.V., Marsh Broker Japan Inc., Marsh Broker de Asigurare-Reasigurare S.R.L., Marsh Brokers (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh Brokers Limited, Marsh Canada Limited/Marsh Canada Limitee, Marsh Company Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Compensation Technologies Administration (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Isle of Man Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Malta Limited, Marsh Corretora de Seguros Ltda., Marsh EOOD, Marsh Egypt LLC, Marsh Emirates Consultancy LLC, Marsh Emirates Insurance Brokerage LLC, Marsh Employee Benefits Limited, Marsh Employee Benefits Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd, Marsh Eurofinance B.V., Marsh Europe S.A., Marsh FJC International Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh For Insurance Services S.A.E., Marsh Franco Acra S.A., Marsh GSC Servicos e Administracao de Seguros Ltda., Marsh GmbH, Marsh Holding AB, Marsh Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Marsh India Insurance Brokers Private Limited, Marsh Insurance & Investments LLC, Marsh Insurance Brokers, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Macao) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Private) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers AO, Marsh Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh Insurance Consulting Saudi Arabia (in liquidation), Marsh Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers LLC, Marsh Intermediaries Inc., Marsh International Broking Holdings Limited, Marsh International Holdings II Inc., Marsh International Holdings Inc., Marsh Investment B.V., Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited, Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited (UK Branch), Marsh Ireland Holdings Limited, Marsh Israel (1999) Ltd., Marsh Israel (Holdings) Ltd., Marsh Israel Consultants Ltd., Marsh Israel Insurance Agency Ltd., Marsh Israel International Brokers Ltd. (in liquidation), Marsh JCS Inc., Marsh Japan Inc., Marsh Kft., Marsh Kindlustusmaakler AS, Marsh Korea Inc., Marsh LLC, Marsh LLC Insurance Brokers, Marsh LLC [Ukraine], Marsh Lda., Marsh Limited, Marsh Limited [Fiji], Marsh Limited [New Zealand], Marsh Limited [PNG], Marsh Ltd. [Wisconsin], Marsh Management Services (Bahamas) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Dublin) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Labuan) Limited, Marsh Management Services (MENA) Limited, Marsh Management Services (USVI) Ltd., Marsh Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Management Services Guernsey Limited, Marsh Management Services Inc., Marsh Management Services Isle of Man Limited, Marsh Management Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Marsh Management Services Malta Limited, Marsh Management Services Singapore Pte. Ltd., Marsh Management Services Sweden AB, Marsh Marine & Energy AB, Marsh Marine Nederland B.V., Marsh Medical Consulting GmbH, Marsh Mercer Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Marsh Nest Inc., Marsh Oman LLC, Marsh Oy, Marsh PB Co. Ltd., Marsh Philippines Inc., Marsh Privat A.I.E., Marsh Private Client Life Insurance Services, Marsh Pty. Ltd., Marsh Qatar LLC, Marsh RE S.A.C. Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh Rehder Consultoria S.A. (MRC), Marsh Rehder S.A. Corredores de Seguros, Marsh Resolutions Pty Limited, Marsh Risk Consulting B.V., Marsh Risk Consulting Limitada, Marsh Risk Consulting Ltda., Marsh Risk Consulting S.L., Marsh Risk Consulting Services S.r.L., Marsh Risk and Consulting Services (Pty) Ltd, Marsh S.A. Corredores De Seguros, Marsh S.A. Mediadores de Seguros, Marsh S.A.S., Marsh S.p.A., Marsh SA [Argentina], Marsh SA [Belgium], Marsh SA [Luxembourg], Marsh SA [Uruguay], Marsh SIA, Marsh Saldana Inc., Marsh Saudi Arabia Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers, Marsh Secretarial Services Limited, Marsh Semusa S.A., Marsh Services Limited, Marsh Services Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Marsh Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Szolgaltato Kft., Marsh Takaful Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Treasury Services (Dublin) Limited (in liquidation), Marsh Treasury Services Limited, Marsh Tunisia S.a.r.l., Marsh UK Limited, Marsh USA (India) Inc., Marsh USA Borrower LLC, Marsh USA Inc., Marsh Uganda Limited, Marsh Venezuela C.A. Sociedad de Corretaje de Seguros, Marsh Vietnam Insurance Broking Company Ltd, Marsh Zambia Limited, Marsh Zimbabwe Holdings (Private) Limited, Marsh d.o.o. Beograd, Marsh d.o.o. za posredovanje u osiguranju, Marsh for Insurance Services - Jordan, Marsh i-Connect (Pty) Ltd, Marsh s.r.o., Matthiessen Assurans AB, Mercer (Argentina) S.A., Mercer (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer (Austria) GmbH, Mercer (Belgium) SA-NV, Mercer (Canada) Limited/Mercer (Canada) Limitee, Mercer (China) Limited, Mercer (Colombia) Ltda., Mercer (Danmark) A/S, Mercer (Finland) OY, Mercer (France) SAS, Mercer (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer (Ireland) Limited, Mercer (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Mercer (N.Z.) Limited, Mercer (Nederland) B.V., Mercer (Norge) AS, Mercer (Polska) Sp.z o.o., Mercer (Portugal) Lda, Mercer (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer (Sweden) AB, Mercer (Taiwan) Ltd., Mercer (Thailand) Ltd., Mercer (US) Inc., Mercer Administration Services (Australia) Pty Limited, Mercer Africa Limited, Mercer Agente de Seguros S.A. de C.V., Mercer Asesores de Seguros S.A., Mercer Asesores es Inversion Independientes S.A. de C.V., Mercer Broking Ltd., Mercer Career Unipessoal Lda, Mercer Consultation (Quebec) Ltee., Mercer Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Consulting (Chile) Limitada, Mercer Consulting (France) SAS, Mercer Consulting (India) Private Limited, Mercer Consulting B.V., Mercer Consulting Group Inc., Mercer Consulting Holdings Sdn. Bhd., Mercer Consulting Limited, Mercer Consulting Middle East Limited, Mercer Consulting S.L.U., Mercer Consulting Venezuela C.A., Mercer Corredores de Seguros Limitada, Mercer Corretora de Seguros Ltda, Mercer Danismanlik Anonim Sirketi, Mercer Deutschland GmbH, Mercer Employee Benefits - Medicacao de Seguros Unipessoal Lda., Mercer Employee Benefits Limited, Mercer Financial Advice (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Financial Services Limited, Mercer Financial Services Limited liability company, Mercer Financial Services Middle East Limited, Mercer Global Investments Europe Limited, Mercer Global Investments Management Limited, Mercer HR Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer HR Services LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Health & Benefits Administration LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits LLC, Mercer Holdings Inc., Mercer Holdings Inc. [Philippines], Mercer Human Resource Consulting Ltda, Mercer Human Resource Consulting S.A. de C.V., Mercer ICC Limited, Mercer Investment Consulting Limited, Mercer Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mercer Investment Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Investments (Australia) Limited, Mercer Investments (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer Investments (Japan) Ltd, Mercer Investments (New Zealand) Limited, Mercer Investments LLC, Mercer Ireland Holdings Limited, Mercer Italia Srl Socio Unico, Mercer Japan Ltd., Mercer Korea Co. Ltd., Mercer LLC, Mercer Limited, Mercer MC Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer Master Trustees Limited, Mercer Mauritius Ltd., Mercer Oliver Wyman Holding B.V., Mercer Outsourcing (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Outsourcing S.L.U., Mercer Pensionsfonds AG, Mercer Pensionsraadgivning A/S, Mercer Philippines Inc., Mercer Private Investment Partners IV General Partner S.a.r.l., Mercer Private Markets AG, Mercer Private Markets Advisers (US) AG, Mercer Services Poland Sp. z.o.o., Mercer Sigorta Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Mercer South Africa (Pty) Limited, Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited, Mercer Switzerland Inc., Mercer System Services LLC, Mercer Technology Acquisitions Limited, Mercer Treuhand GmbH, Mercer Trust Company LLC, Mercer Trustees Limited, Mercer WorkforcePro LLC, Mercury Insurance Services Pty Ltd, Moola Systems Limited, Mountlodge Limited, Muir Beddal (Zimbabwe) Limited, NERA Australia Pty. Ltd., NERA Economic Consulting GmbH, NERA Economic Consulting Limited, NERA S.R.L., NERA SAS, NERA UK Limited, NERA do Brasil Ltda. (for dissolution), National Economic Research Associates Inc., NetComp Insurance Corp., Neuburger Noble Lowndes GmbH, Normandy Reinsurance Company Limited, Northern Alliance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), OWL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co.KG, OWL Marine Verwaltungs GmbH, Oliver Wyman (Bermuda) Limited, Oliver Wyman (Hong Kong) Limited, Oliver Wyman AB, Oliver Wyman AG, Oliver Wyman Actuarial Consulting Inc., Oliver Wyman B.V., Oliver Wyman Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Oliver Wyman Consultoria em Estrategia de Negocios Ltda., Oliver Wyman Energy Consulting Limited, Oliver Wyman FZ-LLC, Oliver Wyman Group KK, Oliver Wyman Inc., Oliver Wyman LLC, Oliver Wyman Limited, Oliver Wyman Limited Liability Company, Oliver Wyman Limited/Oliver Wyman limitee, Oliver Wyman Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pte. Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pty. Ltd., Oliver Wyman S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman S.A.S., Oliver Wyman S.L., Oliver Wyman S.r.l., Oliver Wyman SNC, Oliver Wyman SPRL/BVBA, Oliver Wyman Sdn. Bhd., Oliver Wyman Services Limited, Oliver Wyman Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman sp. z o.o., Omega Indemnity (Bermuda) Limited, Organizacion Brockman y Schuh S.A. de C.V., Osbornes Insurances Oxford Limited (in liquidation), PFT Limited, PI Indemnity Company Designated Activity Company, PT JLT Reinsurance Brokers, PT Jardine Lloyd Thompson, PT Marsh Indonesia, PT Marsh Reinsurance Brokers Indonesia, PT Mercer Indonesia, PT Nexus Asia Pacific, PT Oliver Wyman Indonesia, PT Quantum Computing Services, PT Quantum Investments, PT Quantum Support Services, Pallas Marsh Servicos Ltda., Pavilion Alternatives Group (Singapore) PTE. Ltd, Pavilion Financial Corporation Holdings UK Limited, Pavilion U.S. Investments Holdco LLC, Pension Trustees Limited, Pensionsservice Benefit Network Sverige AB, Perils AG, Personal Pension Trustees Limited, Pet Animal Welfare Scheme Limited, Portsoken Trustees (No. 2) Limited, Portsoken Trustees Limited, Potomac Insurance Managers Inc., Premier Pension Trustees Limited, Premium Services Australia Pty Limited, Professional Claims Handling Limited (in liquidation), Profund Solutions Limited, Promerit AG, Promerit Hungary Kft, Promerit Schweiz AG, Pymetrics Inc., R G Ford Brokers Limited, R R B Beratungsgesellschaft fuer Altersversorgung mbh, R. Mees & Zoonen Holdings B.V., Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters LLC, Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters Limited, Resource Benefit Associates, Rightpath Reinsurance SPC Ltd., Risk Management Australia Pty Limited, Rivers Group Limited, Rockefeller Risk Advisors Inc., Rutherfoord International Inc., SAFCAR-Marsh, SBJ Holdings Limited, SCIB (Bermuda) Limited, SCM Global Real Estate Select GP LLC, SCM Infrastructure General Partner S.a r.l., SCM International Private Equity Select III GP LLC, SCM LT General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE II GP Ltd., SCM PE II Scotland GP Ltd, SCM Strategic Capital Management (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., SICAR Marsh S.a.r.l., SME Insurance Services Limited, Sail Insurance Company Limited, Scalene Re Ltd, Seabury & Smith Borrower LLC, Seabury & Smith LLC, Secure Limited, Sedgwick (Holdings) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Consulting Group Limited, Sedgwick Dineen Group Limited, Sedgwick Financial Services Limited, Sedgwick Forbes Middle East Limited, Sedgwick Group, Sedgwick Group (Australia) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Group (Bermuda) Limited, Sedgwick Group (Zimbabwe) Limited, Sedgwick Group Limited, Sedgwick Internationaal B.V., Sedgwick Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Singapore) Pte Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes (UK) Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Group Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Limited, Sedgwick Overseas Investments Limited, Sedgwick Private Limited, Sedgwick Re Asia Pacific (Consultants) Pte Ltd (for dissolution), Sedgwick Trustees Limited, Sedgwick UK Risk Services Limited, Sedgwick Ulster Pension Trustees Limited, Settlement Trustees Limited, Shanghai Mercer Insurance Brokers Company Ltd., Shorewest Insurance Associates LLC, Sirota Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Sirota Consulting UK Limited, Smith Long Term Disability Management Group Inc., Societe d'Assurances et de Participation Guian SA, Software Underwriting Systems Limited (in liquidation), Southern Marine & Aviation Inc., Southern Marine & Aviation Underwriters Inc., Sudzucker Versicherungs-Vermittlungs GmbH, Sumitomo Life Insurance Agency America Inc., Sylvite Financial Services, TBX Solutions Limited, Talent Tech Labs LLC, The Benefit Express Holdings Limited, The Benefit Express Limited, The Carpenter Management Corporation, The Insurance Partnership Holdings Limited, The Insurance Partnership Services Limited, The Positive Ageing Company Limited, The Purple Partnership Limited, The Recovre Group Pty Ltd, Thomsons Online Benefits (HK) Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits Inc., Thomsons Online Benefits Limited, Thomsons Online Benefits Pte Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits S.R.L, Torrent Government Contracting Services LLC, Torrent Insurance Services LLC, Torrent Technologies, Torrent Technologies Inc., Tower Hill Limited, Tower Place Developments (West) Limited, Tower Place Developments Limited, U.T.E. AMG, U.T.E. Marsh - Caja Castilla La Mancha Junta de Comunidades, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus (in liquidation), U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus 2012, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Vila-Seca 2010, UAD BB Marsh Lietuva, Vezina & Associes Inc., Vezina Assurances Inc., Victor Insurance Europe B.V., Victor Insurance Holdings Inc., Victor Insurance Italia S.r.l., Victor Insurance Managers Inc., Victor Insurance Managers Inc./Gestionnaires d'assurance Victor inc., Victor O. Schinnerer & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd., Victor O. Schinnerer & Company Limited, Victoria Hall Company Limited, Wellnz Limited, William M. Mercer (Canada) Limited/William M. Mercer (Canada) Limitee, William M. Mercer AB, William M. Mercer Comercio Consultoria e Servicos Ltda., Wortham Insurance & Risk Management, everBe SAS, and realright GmbH. There is not enough analysis data for Northstar Realty Europe. 4.5 Community Rank Outperform Votes Northstar Realty Europe has received 195 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Northstar Realty Europe has received 89 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Northstar Realty Europe has received 68.66% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Northstar Realty Europe and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe NRE will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe NRE will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next 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 SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities say two men have pleaded guilty to scamming thousands of dollars from dozens of people across New York in an elaborate phone scam involving threats to kill the victims' relatives. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood and state police Superintendent George P. Beach II announced Tuesday that 26-year-old Orlando Gonzalez-Rivera, of Syracuse, and Giovani Ayala-Rodriguez, of Puerto Rico, pleaded guilty to grand larceny and conspiracy. The officials say Ayala-Rodriguez ran an extortion ring that called up people and claimed the call recipient's loved-one had been in an accident that injured his nephew. He would claim to have abducted the relative and threatened to harm them if a ransom wasn't paid. Authorities say the men scammed more than $14,000 out of at least 55 people. The case of a third man charged in the scheme is pending. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities say a former New York state Department of Transportation employee overseeing a $10 million road project has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars in federal funds. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Albany says 44-year-old Jerome Lauzon, of Gansevoort in Saratoga County was charged Tuesday with misappropriating at least $5,000 from a federally funded program. Prosecutors say Lauzon was the engineer in charge of a road reconstruction project in Washington County during a five-year period ending in 2017. The Federal Highway Administration provided 80 percent of the funding for the contract. Authorities say the project's contractor bought goods and services for Lauzon's personal use, and Lauzon reimbursed the company for the purchases using project funds. Lauzon was released after being arraigned. It wasn't clear if he has a lawyer. During his trips across America, Lester Holt always gets food suggestions on social media. While in Houston, Texas, the advice was universal Tex Mex. The roots for Tex Mex food may be in Houston, but its branch is in Washington Mills. Lester Holt stopped by Ninfas on Navigation, located in Houston, to learn how to make fajitas. While fajitas are known around the world, they were made famous at the original Ninfas on Navigation in 1973. Legendary Houston chef Ninfa Laurenzo added steak to the tortillas she was selling out of her house, and the recipe stuck. She died in 2001 and her family sold the restaurant, and now Chef Alex Padilla, whose mom used to work alongside Ninfa, runs the kitchen. He still uses Ninfas original fajita recipe. That same authentic Tex-Mex cuisine is also available right in Washington Mills. Rio Grande Tex-Mex Grill, located at 3913 Oneida St., offers food made with Ninfas original recipes. Its a local favorite, and from what the manager tells us, people from Houston often stop in as well, thrilled to learn they can get their favorite Tex Mex dishes here in Central New York. So how did the family business based in Houston make it this far north? Love, of course. "Well my mom is from here, she grew up on Sanger Ave., and she moved down there and worked for my father's mother," said Jimmy Laurenzo, manager of Rio Grande. "They worked at a restaurant, they met there, and then I guess she dragged him back up here." Laurenzos grandmother grew their production plant that made frozen tortillas and pizzas into a restaurant in Houston before she became widowed. Her pictures grace the wall of the restaurant in Washington Mills. BETHEL, N.Y. (AP) - Planning for the 50th anniversary celebration of the 1969 Woodstock concert is already underway, and it's getting a big boost from New York state. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports the Regional Economic Development Council awards announced earlier this week by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo include nearly $690,000 for the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, located on the site of the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair. The three-day concert held in August 1969 drew more than 400,000 rock music fans to Max Yasgur's farm in the Sullivan County town of Bethel. Bethel Woods will use the state funding for the 2019 anniversary event, also planned as a three-day festival. The 11-year-old, 15,000-capacity venue features a 4,500-seat amphitheater with a sloping lawn and a Woodstock museum. ___ Information from: Poughkeepsie Journal, http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) SCHOHARIE, N.Y. (AP) - The Latest on the limousine crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York (all times local): 2:30 p.m. The family of the limousine driver involved in a deadly crash in upstate New York says they believe he was unwittingly assigned an unsafe vehicle. The family of Scott Lisinicchia released a statement through their lawyer Tuesday asking the public to not jump to conclusions about the cause of the crash that killed 20 people Saturday. Investigators are trying to find out why the limousine ran through a stop sign at the bottom of a T-intersection on a rural road 25 miles west of Albany. A lawyer for the limo company suggested the driver was unfamiliar with the roads. But the statement from the Lisinicchia family says they believe "that unbeknownst to him he was provided with a vehicle that was neither roadworthy nor safe for any of its occupants." ___ 2:15 p.m. New York State Police have officially released the identities and hometowns of the 20 people who were killed when a limousine crashed off a rural upstate road last weekend. Troopers released the information Tuesday afternoon, three days after the limo carrying 18 people crashed at an intersection in Schoharie, 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Albany. The limo driver, all 17 passengers and two men standing in a store parking lot were killed. The cause of the crash is being investigated by state police and federal transportation officials. The identities of the victims have been previously reported in news articles. Authorities had said they would release a full list of names once all relatives were notified. One of the passengers, Amy Steenburg, was an online student at Utica College who was completing her masters degree in Health Care Administration. Her husband, three sisters, her brother-in-law and several friends were among those who died in the crash. Another one of the victims in the crash, Savannah Bursese, is a 2015 graduate of Hartwick College. Her boyfriend was killed in the crash as well. PASSENGERS: - Axel Steenburg, 29, of Amsterdam - Richard Steenburg, 34, of Johnstown - Amy Steenburg, 29, of Amsterdam - Allison King, 31, of Ballston Spa - Mary Dyson, 33, of Watertown - Abigail Jackson, 34, of Amsterdam - Matthew Coons, 27, of Johnstown - Savannah Bursese, 24, of Johnstown - Patrick Cushing, 31, of Halfmoon - Amanda Halse, 26, of Halfmoon - Erin McGowan, 34, of Amsterdam - Shane McGowan, 30, of Amsterdam - Amanda Rivenburg, 29, of Colonie - Adam Jackson, 34, of Amsterdam - Rachael Cavosie, 30, of Waterford - Michael Ukaj, 33, of Johnstown DRIVER: - Scott Lisinicchia, 53, of Lake George PEDESTRIANS: - Brian Hough, 46, of Moravia - James Schnurr, 70, of Kerhonkson ___ 12:50 p.m. Flags on New York state property will be lowered to half-staff to honor the 20 people killed in a limousine crash, among them three state employees. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday the flags would be lowered from Thursday through the victims' burials. Cuomo said "the entire family of New York mourns" for them. The victims were killed when a stretch limousine hit a parked SUV Saturday in Schoharie (skoh-HAY'-ree). It's about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the state capital in Albany. One victim, Patrick Cushing, worked in the state Senate's technology office. Another, Amy Steenburg, was a nurse who worked for the state Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs. A third, Brian Hough, taught geology at the State University of New York at Oswego. ___ 10:25 a.m. An attorney for the company whose limousine was involved in an upstate New York crash that killed 20 people says multiple safety violations on its vehicles were fixed before the tragedy. Attorney Lee Kindlon tells CBS News on Tuesday he doesn't think the recent infractions against Prestige limousine service contributed to Saturday's deadly crash. The limo ran a stop sign and hit a parked SUV in Schoharie. Two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limo died. Kindlon tells the Times Union of Albany the driver may have been unfamiliar with the roadway and misjudged his ability to stop at the bottom of the hill. The owner of the company is out of the country. His son, Nauman Hussain, met with state police investigators Monday. ___ 12:30 a.m. A ceremony for the victims of the limousine crash that killed 20 people has ended with participants lifting candles above their heads to signal unity and perseverance. Over 1,000 people jammed a riverside park in Amsterdam, New York, for Monday night's vigil. Some victims lived in the small city. Some relatives of the dead shed tears as local officials expressed solidarity with them. U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko told the families, in his words, "We are crushed with you, we are crushed for you." He's a Democrat from Amsterdam. The 19-seater limo ran a stop sign and hit a parked SUV on Saturday in Schoharie. Two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limo died. The passengers were headed to a 30th birthday party. UTICA, NY-- A Utica woman was devastated to learn that her friend was one of the 20 people killed in a limousine crash over the weekend in Schoharie. Jaime Musselwhite, of Utica, grew up with Erin McGowan, 34, of Amsterdam. McGowan and her husband Shane, 30, were both killed in the crash. The two were married in June at St. Mary's Church in Amsterdam. Musselwhite and McGowan met when they were around 13-years-old. Musselwhite said they went to an *NSYNC concert together the day after McGowan had gotten her braces on. The two also enjoyed Christmas parties organized by their group of friends and sharing special events in each others' lives. McGowan even attended a birthday party for Musselwhite's son three years ago. But Musselwhite moved to Utica in 2009 and because of distance, work and life, the two hadn't seen each other in person for a few years. Musselwhite said she wants others to learn from this experience and reach out to their friends and loved ones more often. "I don't want to go another day without telling people that I care about them and I love them," she said. "Unfortunately, social networking, social media, gives us a false sense of keeping in touch like we should, but really it's not real life you're not really reaching out to the person asking them how they're actually doing." Musselwhite said she will always remember McGowan as a person with a positive attitude, who always wanted to make people happy. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The names of 28 firefighters have been added to the New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial in downtown Albany. The newest of the 2,552 names on the memorial were dedicated Tuesday during the 21st annual ceremony in the Empire State Plaza Convention Center. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul attended the event. The memorial honors New York state firefighters who have died in the line of duty. One of the names added to the memorial is Merle L. Nell, who was fire police captain for the Volunteer Fire Company of Vernon. Nell, who served with the department for 51 years, collapsed on the scene of a fire on Nov. 26, 2016, and died shortly after. Of the 28 names being added to the memorial, 22 were members of the Fire Department of New York. Last year, officials began adding to the memorial the names of FDNY members who died of illnesses after working in the rubble of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. State officials say out of the 22 FDNY members added to the memorial, 20 worked at Ground Zero. ______ To view the full list of firefighters added to the Fallen Firefighters Memorial, click here. BUDAPEST/ANKARA - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday called on Riyadh to prove its claim that Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has been missing since last week, left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, while the United States called on Saudi Arabia to support an investigation into the incident. The disappearance of Khashoggi, previously a newspaper editor in Saudi Arabia, has sparked global concern, particularly after Turkish sources said over the weekend that authorities believed he was killed inside the consulate. Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia last year, saying he feared retribution for his criticism of Saudi policy in the Yemen war. He entered the consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2 to get documents for his forthcoming marriage. Saudi officials have said that he left shortly afterward but his Turkish fiancee, who was waiting outside, said he never appeared. "We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying 'he has left'," Erdogan told a news conference in Budapest, Hungary, where he is on an official visit. Erdogan added that Turkey had no documents or evidence regarding the case. A Saudi source at the consulate has denied that Khashoggi had been killed at the mission and said that the accusations were baseless. The consulate has also denied that Khashoggi was abducted. Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince's brother, echoed these comments in a statement, adding that his country has sent a security team, with Turkey's approval, to assist in the investigation. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged the conflicting reports about the safety and whereabouts of Khashoggi. He said that senior state officials have been in communication with Riyadh. "We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to support a thorough investigation of Mr Khashoggi's disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation," he said. Reuters - Afp (China Daily 10/10/2018 page12) The State Department said Tuesday it was working on details of an upcoming second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said there are still no details regarding the time or place of the summit, however, discussions between working level groups would intensify in the run-up to the meeting. Earlier this week, the North Korean leader invited inspectors to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site to confirm it has been "irreversibly dismantled", a move that was met with praise by Washington. "President Trump looks forward to building on the trust that was first established at the Singapore summit," Nauert said at a news briefing. The first summit between the leaders took place in Singapore on June 12, and Trump and Kim both signed a joint-statement reaffirming their commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim in Pyongyang, as part of a larger tour which included visits to South Korea, Japan and China. Pompeo said he had productive conversations during his meeting. "We continue to make progress on agreements made at Singapore Summit. Thanks for hosting me and my team @StateDept," Pompeo said in a tweet. Trump also tweeted about Pompeo's visit. "@SecPompeo had a good meeting with Chairman Kim today in Pyongyang. Progress made on Singapore Summit Agreements! I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim again, in the near future," he said. A professor at the University of Florida appealed Tuesday for the release of a former student who has been held by Israeli authorities for a week. Lara Alqasem, a U.S. citizen, has been in Israeli custody since arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport last Tuesday with a valid student visa hoping to study law, human rights and freedom of travel at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Israeli officials are denying 22-year-old Alqasem entry based on allegations that she supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which urges businesses, educational institutions and celebrities to cut ties with Israel. The movement has long been criticized by Israeli officials, and the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, passed a law in 2017 allowing authorities to deny entry to individuals who make public calls for a boycott of Israel. Dror Abend-David, who taught Alqasem at the University of Florida, said he is "one of many people," including her former professors, who think she should be released and allowed to study immediately. "Everyone who taught her was very impressed with her," he told Anadolu Agency. "Theres a very active group of professors here on campus who are working for her." One of the proposals being floated, Abend-David said, is a reevaluation of the university's study abroad program in Israel. That could effectively make Israel's policy of denying entry to BDS supporters an own goal. When asked if he thought Israeli officials could ironically be accomplishing BDS' goals for the movement, Abend-David pointed to two works of Soviet-era Russian literature that he said "made the point that bureaucrats dont see irony". Hebrew University President Asher Cohen told Israel's Army Radio that Israel's actions could harm the university's anti-BDS efforts and could end up serving the movement instead, according to the Times of Israel. Israel earlier Tuesday conditioned Alqasem's release on her issuing a public apology for her alleged support of the global boycott. ''If Alqasem comes forward tomorrow morning with her own voice, not with all sorts of lawyers' wisecracking and statements that could be construed this way or another and declares that supporting BDS, she thinks today, is illegitimate and she regrets what she did on this matter, we will consider our stance, Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan said on Twitter on Tuesday. Her first appeal against the Israeli decision to deny her entry was denied last week. A second appeal is expected to be heard in the coming days. The U.S. State Department on Tuesday punted on questions about Alqasem's case, saying it is up to Israel to decide who it allows into the country. Israeli officials and their supporters have regularly alleged the BDS movement is inherently anti-Semitic. But when asked if he thought Alqasem was anti-Semitic herself, Abend-David was unequivocal in his response. Lara was not anti-Semitic in any way, shape or form," he said. "She has been kind and polite and helpful with no hint that she felt badly of Israel or anyone who is connected with that country. The mystery of the disappearance of the Washington Post correspondent Jamal Khashoggi has yet to be solved. Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post newspaper, has been missing since he entered the consulate Oct. 2. Saudi Arabian authorities have yet to give a clear explanation on the fate of the missing journalist while several countries particularly Turkey, the U.S. and the U.K. have expressed their desire that the matter to be elucidated as soon as possible. According to his fiancee Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi first arrived at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Sept. 28. Since he was told that his documents would be ready in a week, Khashoggi went to London and returned to Istanbul on Oct. 1. Khashoggi called the consulate and was told "that documents are being prepared" and that he could come to the consulate. Thus, he went to the consulate on Oct. 2 with his fiancee. Before Khashoggi entered in the building, he told his fiancee to call Yasin Aktay, an advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Turkish-Arab Media Association should he not emerge from the consulate in two hours. It was 1.14 p.m. (1014GMT) when Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. At 4.00 p.m. (1300GMT), he still had not emerged from the building. Then, his fiancee Hatice Cengiz called Yasin Aktay as well as the Turkish-Arab Media Association. At 6.00 p.m. (1500GMT), an officer in the Saudi Consulate told Cengiz that Khashoggi "had already left the building, so there is no need to wait here". - First statement from Saudi Arabia The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia issued a statement on Twitter on Oct. 4. In their statement, the Saudis claimed that Khashoggi disappeared after he left the consulate building. - Investigation starts The Chief Public Prosecutors Office in Istanbul launched a formal investigation into the disappearance of Khashoggi. The Turkish police department said hours later that Khashoggi had not left the building since he entered on Oct. 2. On the same day, 15 Saudis, including several officials, arrived in Istanbul on two planes and visited the consulate while Khashoggi was also inside, police sources said. These Saudis have since all left Turkey. The first plane carrying Saudi officials landed at Istanbul Ataturk Airport on Oct. 2 at 3.28 a.m. (0028GMT) and departed at 5.40 p.m. The other plane from Saudi Arabia landed at Ataturk Airport at 5.30 p.m. (1430GMT) and departed from Ataturk Airport at 9.44 p.m. (1844GMT) CCTV footage of Khashoggi's entrance in the consulate building and suspicious comings and goings that same day and that of unusual traffic at Ataturk Airport were also revealed. - Second statement from Saudi Consulate On Oct, 7, the Consulate of Saudi Arabia denied the claims, focusing namely on a Reuters report on its Twitter account. "An official source at the consulate has denied accusations reported by Reuters, attributed to Turkish officials' statements, that Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul," said the Saudi consulate on its Twitter account. The officials from the Consulate of Saudi Arabia invited Reuters correspondents to the consulate building to prove that Khashoggi was not inside. - Saudi ambassador summoned twice Saudi Ambassador Walid Bin Abdul Karim el-Khereiji was summoned by Turkeys Foreign Ministry on Oct. 4 and Oct. 7. and "a full cooperation on the incident" was requested. The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said an examination inside the premises of the Saudi consulate would be conducted. David North, the chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site and the national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party in the US, addressed public meetings in Colombo and at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy, Sri Lanka over the past week. The well-attended events were called to mark 80 years since the founding of the Fourth International and 50 years since the founding of the Revolutionary Communist League, which later became the Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka. North discussed the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International on Rise and Shine, Sri Lankas most popular English-language morning television show, on October 8. The two interviewers were Sharon Mascarenhas and Waruna Solanga Arachchi. This is the third part of a four-part series. The first part can be accessed here and the second here . The fourth and final part will be published Friday, October 12 . In the wake of the massive working class mobilization in Toronto on Oct. 25-26 1996, polling showed that a majority of Ontarians supported the anti-austerity movement against the Harris-led Conservative government. Sentiment for a province-wide strike, of at least one day, was widespread and growing. This only heightened the fears of the union bureaucracy that the movement was taking a radical direction and threatening, as in the case of the unanticipated shutdown of the Toronto Transit system on Oct. 25, to escape its control. Within weeks of the Toronto events, the heads of 13 unions, including the Steelworkers (USW) and Power Workers, that represented more than a third of the OFL membership, demanded the OFL scale down the city-wide Days of Action (protest rallies and one-day walkouts), and shift its resources to returning the NDP to power at the next election, slated for 1999 or 2000. As a result, in November 1996 the OFL announced that the next two protests against the deprivations of the Conservative government would take place in the smaller northern Ontario cities of Sudbury and Thunder Bay. Not only were both cities far from Toronto and the provinces other major population centers. They were dominated by the United Steelworkers, which had opposed the Days of Action mobilizations from the very start and was adamantly against its members taking job action in support of the anti-Harris movement. Whatever their tactical disputes, the essential agreement of all factions of the union bureaucracy and their united opposition to the independent mobilization of the working class was revealed in the October-November 1997 province-wide teachers strike. For two weeks, 125,000 elementary and high school teachers struck in defiance of the provinces reactionary labour code. The largest-ever unlimited work stoppage in Ontario history, the strike took on the character of a broad social movement, because it was rightly perceived not as a sectional collective-bargaining struggle but a political challenge to the hated Harris government and its austerity agenda. The strike was called with the overtly political aim of forcing the Conservative government to abandon its plansenshrined in the so-called Education Quality Improvement Act (Bill 160)to centralize power over education financing and policy in the hands of the Education Ministry, so as to enable the Harris government to force through spending cuts and regressive curriculum changes, and gut teachers working conditions. The government fully expected the strike would collapse under the threat of legal reprisals and a media witch-hunt that charged the teachers with taking a million Ontario school children hostage. But while the strike undoubtedly did cause hardship to working parents, the public rallied behind the teachers, in recognition that they were fighting to defend public education. To the Conservatives dismay, even government polls showed that a majority of Ontarians supported the strike. Picket lines and teacher demonstrations were swelled by students, parents, and other workers. The leaders of the five teachers unions that comprise the Ontario Teachers Federation (OTF) called the walkoutwhich they tellingly termed a protest, not a political strikeanticipating that the government would obtain a court injunction ordering the teachers back to work. This would have provided them with a pretext for ending the strike and cutting a deal with the government. But the Harris governments application for an injunction was denied. The Ontario Court judge hearing the case concluded that popular support for the strike was so high that state intervention against it might dangerously erode the authority of the courts. In effect, he placed the responsibility for ending the strike directly on the teachers unions. The OTF, with the full support and encouragement of the OFL, quickly complied. In the immediate aftermath of the rejection of the governments request for an injunction, the leaders of the teacher unions offered the Tories sweeping concessions. When the government refused their offer, the union bureaucrats declared nothing further could be done and ordered the teachers to return to work. It was not any lack of support for the strike, nor any lack of militancy and solidarity on the part of the teachers that precipitated the union leaders surrender. Just the opposite. It was the threat that the strike could fan the flames of a wider popular movement against the Harris government, which could break out of their grip and destabilize the entire national political situation, that frightened the union bureaucracy and caused them to torpedo the strike. As the Socialist Equality Party wrote in November 1997, in the immediate aftermath of the unions betrayal of the two-week strike, [T]he teachers were defeated not by the might of the state, nor by any weakening within their ranks. Rather their struggle was sabotaged by their own leadership. Other sections of workers were more than ready to fight. In November 1997, just days after the teachers strike was shut down, 45,000 postal workers walked off the job after bargaining broke down. The deliberate isolation of the strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and the refusal of the OFL and teachers unions to link the postal workers fight with the struggle of teachers and other sections of workers against the Tory government in Ontario and the federal Liberals, condemned it to defeat. On December 5, the federal parliament passed back-to-work legislation, illegalizing the postal workers strike. As the federal Liberals were moving to break the postal strike, the Ontario Conservatives were ramming their reactionary Education Quality Improvement Act through the Ontario Legislature. On December 8, it was given royal assent, making it law. Within weeks of the unions betrayal of the teachers, the OFL elected as its new president Wayne Samuelson, a Steelworkers official and the candidate of the wing of the union bureaucracy that had opposed the Days of Action from the start. The same OFL convention, in a transparent manoeuvre to give the bureaucracy political cover for its abject betrayal of the teachers strike, voted to authorize a one-day province-wide general strike. Predictably, this was a dead letter from the start, and the anti-austerity campaign as a whole was officially buried by the OFL the following summer. Subsequently, the union bureaucracy again fractured over which of the Conservatives big business political opponents to support in the 1999 election. The majority urged a vote for the NDP, now led by Howard Hampton, who as a minister in the Rae NDP government had championed the wage- and job-cutting social contract. A dissident faction, led by the supposedly left-wing CAW, and including many teacher union leaders, called for a strategic vote for the Liberals, wherever the Liberal candidate stood the best chance of defeating the Tory contestant. Between 1995 and 1997, the working class had come forward to challenge the Harris government and its austerity program, but the unions smothered this opposition, scuttling the Days of Action when they threatened to go beyond a protest movement, and shutting down the teachers strike. As a result, the working class, the only social force capable of articulating a genuine alternative program to the Conservatives, was politically silenced. At the height of the Days of Action mobilization, Conservative popularity in across-the-board polling had plummeted. But with the abject sabotage of the working class offensive by the trade unions, the Conservatives gained a political lifeline. In the 1999 provincial election that returned a Conservative majority government, both the Liberals and the NDP promised they would pursue austerity and leave Harris tax cuts untouched. Given that all three parties were parroting the big business mantra of fiscal responsibility, there was no possibility within the confines of the elections for working people to truly articulate their opposition to the Harris agenda. Within days of Harris re-election, former NDP Premier Bob Rae urged the Tories opponents to take their cue from British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President Bill Clinton, the respective successors to the Thatcher-Major and Reagan-Bush governments, and recognize that the paradigm has changed. Declared Rae, A program based on undoing many of the Harris changes is doomed to minority support. Questioned half a year later as to why the unions were not mobilizing against the Harris Tory government, Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove bluntly admitted that the unions had made their peace with Canadas most right-wing government since the Great Depression, At this point, claimed Hargrove, there is no indication that the government is out to attack us or that they want another fight. The arrest of Domenico Lucano, the mayor of Riace, a small town in the Calabria region of Italy dubbed hospitality town, sparked pro-immigrant protests across Italy this past weekend. It is estimated that nearly 6,000 people demonstrated in Riace against Lucanos arrest by the Italian tax police on charges of faking marriages of migrant workers and abusing public funds. Protests also took place in Milan and Rome. Many supporters took to Twitter to denounce his arrest and the fascist anti-immigrant policies of the coalition government. According to authorities, in a wiretapped conversation Lucano and his partner Tesfahun Lemlem admitted to arranging the marriage of a Nigerian woman to avoid her deportation. Lucano also allegedly fraudulently awarded rubbish collection contracts to companies that support immigrant workers, which angered the local Mafia. In 1998, Lucano welcomed the first immigrants and asylum seekers to Riacea boatload of Kurdish immigrants that washed up on its shoresto save the town from total economic collapse and save the immigrants from deportation. Since then, the towns population has grown to 1,500, including 400 immigrants from 20 countries. Migrants are given housing and jobs repairing roads and houses, baking bread, reopening cafes, or setting up shops for local crafts. His policies have attracted international attention and the ire of the Italian authorities. Lucanos arrest occurs in the wake of a European Union (EU) immigration summit accord in Brussels this past June where the Italian coalition government of the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the League (Lega) insisted on provisions for EU funding for refugee prison camps in Turkey and North Africa. They called as well for building closed detention camps in Europe for those seeking asylum and the construction of more such camps, named regional disembarkation platforms, along shipping lanes for migrant vessels. The EU accord also agrees to block refugee movement between EU countries. Finally, the plan calls for rewriting the so-called Dublin Accords on EU asylum law, which mandate that refugees apply for asylum in the first EU country they reach. Italy is a first destination country for thousands of immigrants, and the Italian government is working to prevent migrants from seeking asylum when they reach the Italian border. In recent years, the government has enacted laws to criminalize immigration. In 2002, then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his coalition partners, Gianfranco Fini of the neo-fascist National Alliance and Umberto Bossi of the far-right Northern League (predecessor of Lega), launched a joint attack on poor immigrants, passing the Bossi-Fini Law, which introduced criminal sanctions for persons caught illegally entering the country or who return after being expelled. Under the law, an immigrant who is stopped without a residence permit is expelled immediately. Immigrants are also subject to arrest and detention of six to 12 months, followed by immediate deportation, if caught attempting to re-enter Italy before the expiry of a re-entry ban. A second offence is punishable by up to four years imprisonment. The law also increases the time limit for seclusion in detention centers whilst waiting for extradition. This was extended from 30 days to 60 days and asylum seekers are placed in detention while awaiting asylum review, in contravention of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states, Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. Subsequent administrations, including center-left, have never acted to repeal this draconian measure. While the bourgeois media have expressed a degree of sympathy for Lucano as well as their concern about Italys moves toward an authoritarian state, they speak for the same center- and pseudo-left forces that paved the way for the current governments immigrant policies. M5S, with its fake anti-establishment posture, is revealing its true colors. For all their criticism against Berlusconi and the Italian Democratic Party (PD), they are moving to the right of both and have no problem implementing and further elaborating the legal framework adopted by the PD against immigrant workers. In fact, M5S is honoring their manifesto, which vows to do away with the business linked to illegal immigration and promises to boost border security by hiring 10,000 police officers and building new prisons. An October 7 post on the blog of M5S is headlined, Riace was not a model, the era of the immigration business is over. The blog post, written by M5S undersecretary Carlo Sibilia, confirms the withdrawal of funds for the Calabrian city: We have decided to reduce speculation on hospitality to zero. There are no coverages for Riace, and our government has set itself the goal of eliminating rainy day funding in terms of migration policies. These are my statements made during the visit in Calabria on August 6. Today, after the arrest of the mayor of Riace as part of the Xenia operation carried out by the Guardia di Finanza [Italian finance police], they are more understandable. M5S offers nothing progressive in their policies, including the proposed Citizenship Wage, which, even if enacted, comes with so many restrictions it will be rendered meaningless. They seek to agitate public opinion against immigrants and migrant workers to divert attention away from election promises and the real issues facing Italian societypoverty wages, crumbling infrastructure and the like. There is widespread concern among Italians about immigration, but there is also mass sympathy for the plight of immigrants and an understanding that the significant increase in immigration is due to the unending wars and economic destruction abroad. The current government is thoroughly right-wing. If this is what the Italian state is doing to a member of the political elite, workers should be warned that the true goal of this administration is draconian attacks on immigrants and workers alike. The only way forward for Italian workers and youth is the development of a socialist and internationalist movement in opposition to the government and the financial elite who control the levers of power in Italy. Even by the deplorable standards of Americas newspaper of record, the pose of moral outrage adopted by the New York Times following last weeks disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is staggering in its hypocrisy. In a series of articles, including a comment by the war-monger Thomas Friedman entitled Praying for Jamal Khashoggi and an editorial under the headline Saudi Arabia must answer for Jamal Khashoggi, the Times feigned shock and horror at the reports of Khashoggis death, and demanded that Riyadh come clean about the journalists fate. The 59-year-old Khashoggi, who fled Saudi Arabia for the United States last year, enjoyed close ties to the Saudi royal family throughout a journalistic career that spanned some three decades. However, he came into conflict with the agenda of the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, including with denunciations of Bin Salmans arrest of regime critics and conduct of the brutal war in Yemen. On Tuesday, October 2, Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain divorce papers and has not been seen since. The Turkish authorities, which are leading the investigation into Khashoggis disappearance, reportedly believe that the journalist was murdered in the consulate and that his body was subsequently dismembered and removed from the country. If true, the murder of Khashoggi will be a horrific crime, underscoring the brutality of the blood-soaked Saudi dictatorship. But it will join a long list of acts of terror and brutality carried out by the Saudi regime, very few of which have troubled the Times as much as Khashoggis disappearance. The Saudi regime, which serves as a key strategic ally of US imperialism in the Middle East, is notorious around the world for its ruthless repression against its own population. Saudi authorities beheaded almost 150 people by sword in 2017. In the first four months of 2018, the regime put 48 people to death in the same way, including half for non-violent crimes. In August, state prosecutors called for the beheading of 29-year-old Shia activist Israa al-Ghomgham and four others, who had posted videos of their protests against the Saudi dictatorship on social media. The main issues they raised were demands for equality and an end to the miserable social conditions faced by the Kingdoms Shia minority, which has repeatedly been the target of savage repression by Riyadh. The Times never felt the need to rush into print with an editorial to condemn this blatant act of state terror, nor to denounce any other state-sanctioned executions in the kingdom, which take place at a rate of more than 10 per month. The Times, and the US political and media establishment as a whole, tolerate such vicious repression because Riyadh is the lynch-pin of Washingtons strategy to consolidate its unchallenged hegemony over the energy-rich and geostrategically significant Middle East. While the Times laments in its editorial that the promising social reforms initiated by Crown Prince Mohammed may be at risk if he turns out to be guilty of a heinous murder, the Timess editorialists apparently sleep soundly at night knowing that Bin Salman, the butcher of Yemen, bears responsibility for the murder of at least 16,000 innocent civilians, many of them women and children, through his leading role in prosecuting Riyadhs near-genocidal war in the Arab worlds poorest country. This war, which Saudi Arabia can conduct only thanks to the supply of weapons and logistical support from the US, has witnessed the most horrific war crimes, including the bombing of hospitals, schools, and school buses, and the starvation of an entire society. These terrible war crimes, largely ignored in the Western media, did not get in the way of the entire US ruling elite, the Times included, feting M.B.S. as a great reformer during a trip to the United States in the spring of this year. The Times, which regularly seizes on unsubstantiated reports of killings or disappearances allegedly involving the Russian government to denounce the Putin regime as a ruthless dictatorship, was careful to describe the accusation involving Khashoggi against the despotic Gulf monarchy as an unproven allegation. Turkey should not leave its accusation dangling without official confirmation or evidence, intoned the Times, and Saudi Arabia cannot dismiss it with blithe denials. It is not hard to imagine how the Times, and the entire corporate-controlled media, would have reacted if the journalist in question had disappeared during a visit to a Russian or Iranian consulate. The newspapers and television broadcasts would be full of screaming headlines about the murderous Putin regime or the bloodthirsty dictatorship in Tehran. Friedman may have penned a column not to inform us of the contents of his daily conversations with the almighty, but to demand American military intervention in defense of press freedom. However hypocritical it may be, the Timess concern for Khashoggis fate is bound up with a number of interrelated factors. Firstly, Khashoggi was no ordinary journalist, but enjoyed a decades-long career during which he built up close ties to powerful sections of the House of Saud, including serving as adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former chief of Saudi intelligence who went on to serve as Riyadhs ambassador to Britain and the United States. Khashoggi used his extensive knowledge of Saudi political life and contacts to act as an interlocutor with the Western powers, giving interviews to the media to explain political developments in the Kingdom. Secondly, the Times is cynically exploiting the Khashoggi case to buttress its phony posture as an advocate for democracy and human rights, which it has used to give a progressive gloss to every US imperialist war of aggression from the Balkans to Iraq and Afghanistan. Thirdly, the Times is well aware that the differences between the Crown Prince and Khashoggi that forced the latter to go into exile reflect broader divisions within the Saudi regime, which is sitting atop a social powder keg as opposition to state repression and social inequality grows. It is concerned that the eruption of these divisions into open conflict could fatally weaken the Saudi regime, under conditions in which it could soon confront mass popular opposition. Friedmans column, which was much more critical of Bin Salman than he was a year ago, when the Timess columnist hailed the Saudi Crown Prince for launching Riyadhs Arab spring, complained that hardliners were pushing him to put security issues ahead of the need to attract investors to create a vibrant and diverse private sector. Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, the Times is motivated by the concern that a weakened Saudi regime will undermine the pursuit of US imperialisms predatory interests in the region, including advanced preparations for war with Iran. Last Sundays general election in Brazil was a political earthquake that reduced to rubble parties that had long dominated the political landscape. At the same time it exposed the complete rot of the bourgeois democratic order established in the wake of the 20-year military dictatorship imposed by the US-backed coup of 1964. That Jair Bolsonaro, a fascistic and buffoonish former army captain and seven-term deputy in the Brazilian Congress, could win a stunning 46 percent of the vote, coming within a hairs breadth of an outright victory, exposes the immense danger of a return of Latin Americas largest country, with a population of over 200 million people, to fascist-military rule. His nearest challenger, Fernando Haddad, the candidate of the Workers Party (Partido dos TrabalhadoresPT) trailed Bolsonaro by nearly 17 points. The two will face off in a second-round election on October 28. The regions where Bolsonaro beat Haddad by even wider margins than the national total included all of the cities of the so-called ABC industrial belt surrounding Sao Paulo, the center of the Brazilian auto and metalworking industries, birthplace of the Workers Party and scene of the mass strikes of 1978-1980 that forced an end to the military dictatorship. These cities, where the now-jailed former PT President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva got his start as a metalworkers union leader, gave Bolsonaro 50 percent of the vote, as compared to barely 20 percent for the PTs Haddad. Similarly, Bolsonaro won 45 percent of the vote, against 20 percent for Haddad, in Rio Grande do Sul, a PT stronghold in the period before Lulas 2002 election and the place chosen for the founding of the World Social Forum in 2001. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, Bolsonaro won every single city, including the capital, with its long history of left-wing activism, and Volta Redonda, a steelmaking center and site of bitter union struggles. Bolsonaro won 23 out of 26 of Brazils state capitals. Even in the Northeast, the countrys poorest region, which benefited the most from the minimal social assistance programs instituted under Lulaa region considered a political bastion of the PThe won five out of nine. Equally staggering are the votes for the Brazilian Congress, with Bolsonaros Social Liberal Party (PSL) going from one seat to 52, just four shy of the 56 seats (out of 68) retained by the Workers Party. The center-right parties that had previously held the presidency and major power in the legislature, the PSDB and the MDB, both saw their congressional delegations cut nearly in half. Just as significant was the record rate of abstention and blank ballots, which accounted for a third of the electorate, roughly equal to the number who voted for Bolsonaro. Moreover, every poll indicated that there was more opposition to each of the candidates than support. Who is responsible for the unprecedented vote for a candidate of the far right in Brazil? First and foremost, it is the Workers Party, which ruled Brazil for 13 years, from Lulas first election to the impeachment of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, in 2016. The vote on Sunday amounted to a popular referendum on the devastating social and economic crisis confronting the majority of the Brazilian population as a result of the financial crisis that hit the country in 2013, and the policies introduced by the PT government to place the full burden of this crisis on the backs of the working class. This condemned 14 million workers to unemployment, while leading to reduced real wages for those still on the job, along with a sharp growth in social inequality. The election also expressed popular outrage over the systemic corruption exposed in the Lava Jato investigation into bribes and kickbacks at the state-owned energy conglomerate Petrobras. An estimated $4 billion was siphoned from public coffers into the pockets of politicians and their corporate backers, while millions confronted unemployment and deepening poverty. Lula, convicted on extremely flimsy evidence involving a beachfront apartment, was nonetheless at the center of this scheme. Haddad and the Workers Party were unwilling and unable to appeal to the working class or present any program that could attract popular support against the fascistic demagogy of Bolsonaro, whose political rise was nurtured by the PT, which allied with him in the Brazilian congress. Whether the hostility of the majority of the population to Bolsonaroas well as to Haddad and the rest of the political establishmentwill result in the neo-fascists defeat on October 28 remains to be seen. What is unquestionable, however, is that the second-round election will produce the most right-wing government in Brazil since the fall of the military dictatorship. The Workers Partys pseudo-left satellites are now speaking in terms of a national united front against fascism. This front is to include, if possible, the traditional right-wing parties as well as various reactionary media outlets, such as O Globo and Veja magazine, which have been critical of Bolsonaro. The PT is appealing to the Brazilian ruling class and international capital on the grounds that it will be better able to suppress the resistance of the working class through its ties to the bureaucratized union confederation, CUT, and that Bolsonaro will be more likely to provoke a social explosion. Anyone believing that Bolsonaro is merely a noxious aberration and that his defeat at the hands of the PT will produce a flowering of democracy in Brazil is living in a dream world. The turn by the entire Brazilian establishment to the right found stark expression in a speech delivered barely one week before the election by the president of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Dias Toffoli, in which he declared that he no longer wanted to speak in terms of military coup or dictatorship when referring to the CIA-backed seizure of power by the Brazilian armed forces and overthrow of the elected government of Joao Goulart in 1964. Rather, he would speak of it as the movement of 1964, suggesting that the military coup was legitimate and caused by the errors of the political parties. Toffolis speech came just weeks after his selection of a reserve army general, whose appointment was suggested by the head of the military high command, Gen. Eduardo Villas Boas, as the chief advisor to the high court. The general appointed was reportedly one of a number of top military officers who helped formulate Bolsonaros campaign program. Judge Toffoli, it should be noted, rose to his judicial position as a loyalist of the Workers Party, serving as the legal representative for the presidential campaigns of Lula in 1998, 2002 and 2006. This increasing elevation of the military into every aspect of political life in Brazil has been fostered by the PT, which oversaw the deployment of the army into Rios favelas (shanty towns) after having blooded its troops in the UN-sponsored occupation of Haiti. Bolsonaro has attempted to exploit the growth of the militarys power, indicating that his defeat at the polls would be illegitimate and would justify the army intervening on his behalf. The PT has paved the way to the present dangers confronting the Brazilian working class. Sharing responsibility are the various pseudo-left organizations that played a pivotal role in founding and promoting the Workers Party. Among them is the Morenoite-Pabloite alliance, the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), which saw its share of the vote Sunday reduced to just 0.6 percentcompared to 7 percent when it first ran candidates in 2006. It has declared its support for the PT and Haddad in the second round. From the outset, the leading role in the formation of the PT was played by organizations that broke with the Trotskyist movement, the International Committee of the Fourth International, in the 1960s, some of them promoting the theory that Castroism and guerrilla war had supplanted the necessity of building Marxist parties within the working class. This political orientation contributed to catastrophic defeats for the working class and the rise of military dictatorships throughout Latin America. Under conditions of massive strikes and militant struggles by students against Brazils military regime, these same elements joined with sections of the union leadership, the Catholic Church and left academics to found the Workers Party. It as well was to serve as a substitute for the building of a revolutionary party and the fight for socialist consciousness in the working class. The PT was to provide a unique Brazilian parliamentary road to socialism. The dead end of that roadpersonified in the rise of the fascist demagogue Bolsonarohas clearly been reached. The Brazilian working class cannot defend itself as part of a united front with the PT and its appeal for support to the Brazilian ruling class. The only road forward lies in uniting the struggles of Brazilian workers with those of the entire Latin American working class, as well as the workers of North America, against the common enemyfinance capital and the transnational corporations. Such a struggle requires a decisive political break with the Workers Party and all of its pseudo-left satellites. The most urgent question is the building of a new revolutionary leadership in the working class, based upon the assimilation of the long history of struggle for Trotskyism embodied in the International Committee of the Fourth International. Operation Rescue Urges Texans to Re-Elect Sen. Ted Cruz WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- In the wake of the confirmation battle over Justice Brett Kavanaugh, it is more apparent than ever that we need solid, pro-life Republicans in the Senate to bolster our meager majority. Republicans must gain seats in this Mid-Term Election and cannot afford to lose any to the radical pro-abortion Democrats, especially when it comes to the seat occupied by pro-life stalwart Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Photo: Operation Rescue President Troy Newman and Senator Ted Cruz Sen. Cruz is considered a long-time pro-life hero. He distinguished himself during the recent contentious Kavanaugh confirmation hearings where he stood in eloquent support of President Trump's embattled Supreme Court nominee. "Ted Cruz is a man that will continue to speak out and work in defense of the innocent, whether it be a baby in the womb or a man falsely accused," said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, who also served as a founding board member for the Center for Medical Progress. "He is a man of integrity who is badly needed in the Senate, especially during these perilous times when the future direction of our nation hangs in the balance. I wholeheartedly endorse Ted Cruz for Senate." Newman served as co-chair of "Pro-Lifers for Cruz" during Cruz's 2016 presidential bid. "Sen. Cruz's opponent is a radical leftist pro-abortion Democrat that will take America in the wrong direction," said Newman. "Sen. Cruz has been a strong supporter of President Donald J. Trump's popular agenda to 'Make America Great Again.' The last thing we need is a pro-socialist resister who will block Trump's agenda that is strengthening our economy, putting people back to work, and undoing the 'Culture of Death' embedded in our government during the eight long years of the pro-abortion administration of Barack Obama." Operation Rescue urges pro-life conservatives in Texas to be sure and get out to the polls on Election Day, November 6. Every single vote is urgently needed. "We cannot over-emphasize how important each person's vote truly is. The left is angry and energized by their defeat in the Kavanaugh confirmation battle," said Newman. "We must exceed their enthusiasm during the mid-term elections in order to save our Republic and save innocent lives from abortion. Please get out and vote for Sen. Ted Cruz. Our very future and the future of our nation depends on it!" The mysterious disappearance of Saudi writer and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week has cast a spotlight on the Saudi regime, which is dominated by 33-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (known commonly as MBS). This, in turn, raises questions about the nature of the big bet that the Trump administration has placed on the Crown Prince. Continents and regions Donald Trump Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Jamal Khashoggi Middle East Middle East and North Africa Misc people Political Figures - Intl Political Figures - US Saad Hariri Saudi Arabia US federal government White House For every positive move that MBS has made -- giving women the right to drive, allowing concerts in his kingdom, trying to open up the statist, oil-dependent Saudi economy and curtailing the powers of the feared religious police -- he has also accumulated a long list of errors. The Saudi military intervention in neighboring Yemen that began in 2015, has, to put it mildly, not been a success. Houthi rebels there have grown closer to Iran, Yemen remains in the grips of a deadly humanitarian crisis and thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict. After more than a year, the blockade of Qatar by a number of Arab states, in which the Saudis are a key player, remains in a standoff with no end in sight. In international law, a blockade amounts to an act of war. Qatar is seeking arbitration of the matter at the United Nations, but adjudicating these kind of cases can take years. Complicating matters, Turkey is aligned with Qatar against the Arab states involved in the blockade and, if the Saudis have murdered Khashoggi on Turkish soil, as anonymous Turkish officials have alleged to the Washington Post, regional tensions will be further inflamed. Saudi officials have denied this allegation. But those are not the only countries in the region that MBS has upset. MBS clumsily forced the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who is a dual Lebanese-Saudi citizen, to announce his resignation when he was visiting Saudi Arabia last November. MBS believed that Hariri was too deferential to Hezbollah, which is a significant political force in Lebanon, as well as a client of Iran. Hariri eventually reversed himself and returned to Lebanon. The whole MBS ploy backfired, as both Hariri and Hezbollah emerged stronger after the bizarre episode. Also, in November, MBS ordered the detention of hundreds of businessmen and princes on allegations of corruption. Imprisoned in the luxurious confines of the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh, they were gradually released in what looked like a shakedown rather than any genuine legal process -- but only after huge sums of money had been extracted from them, according to the New York Times. The Saudi government has denied any wrongdoing. MBS has also arrested a host of innocuous civil society activists, a number of whom face a possible death penalty. They range from Shia activists hoping for greater rights for the Shia minority in the kingdom, such as Israa al-Ghomgham, a 29-year-old woman, to Salman al-Oudah, a prominent 61-year-old cleric with over 14 million Twitter followers . Despite giving women the right to drive, in May of this year, MBS arrested some of the key women who had led the movement to allow women to drive. At the time, Khashoggi commented, "It's a war on activism. He wants the people to step aside and accept what he is giving them and he will lead them into the future." Why is MBS doing all of this? Because he is moving Saudi Arabia toward a totalitarian dictatorship in which all aspects of society are controlled by him and all forms of dissent are stifled, an approach which is further reinforced by the disappearance of Khashoggi. It's an old playbook going back to Louis XIV of France, who is thought to have said, "L'etat, c'est moi," which means, "I am the state." This is of particular concern given the Trump administration's warm embrace of MBS. Trump made his first overseas presidential trip to Saudi Arabia. Usually, American presidents make their first presidential trips to close democratic allies. But Trump views Saudi Arabia as the principal bulwark in the Middle East against Iran, while his son-in-law Jared Kushner has hopes that MBS will play a key role in settling the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Since then, the Trump administration has made little effort to critique the Saudi kingdom, neither for the thousands of civilian casualties in Yemen, nor its imprisonment of businessmen, royals, clerics and civil society activists at home. On Monday, Trump did say he was "concerned" about Khashoggi's disappearance. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Khalid bin Salman, who is MBS's brother, said claims that Khashoggi had been killed in Istanbul were "absolutely false, and baseless." If evidence emerges that Khashoggi was indeed murdered in Istanbul, US sanctions should be levied on the kingdom. The Trump administration properly put sanctions on Russia earlier this year after evidence showed that a former Russian agent and his daughter living in the United Kingdom were the targets of a Russian assassination plot using a nerve agent. Why should the Saudis be treated differently? The number of civilians -- mostly women and children -- killed or injured by airstrikes in Afghanistan has risen a startling 39% year on year, according to UN figures released Wednesday, casting fresh scrutiny on the use of air power by the United States and its Afghan partners at a time of near-record bombing and increasing violence. More civilians have been killed or injured in airstrikes so far this year than all of last, according to a United Nations quarterly assessment of civilian casualties. The rise comes after the departed US commander for the war promised a "tidal wave of air power" to combat a resurgent Taliban. US President Donald Trump has personally delineated a strategy for victory in Afghanistan, and vowed to "push onward to victory with power in our hearts." Afghanistan Afghanistan war Armed forces Asia Bombings Civilian casualties Conflicts and wars Continents and regions Middle East Middle East and North Africa Military Military operations Misc organizations North America Rebellions and insurgencies South Asia Taliban The Americas United States Unrest, conflicts and war War casualties Aircraft Aviation and aerospace industry Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Donald Trump Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government organizations - Intl Kunduz Military weapons Political Figures - US United Nations US federal government Weapons and arms White House Defense departments Government departments and authorities International relations and national security National security Government organizations - US US Air Force US Department of Defense US federal departments and agencies The UN report comes as the US ratchets up its involvement in what has become the country's longest-running war. The US has boosted its support for the Afghan Air Force through training and weapons supply, raising concern over the air force's use of US-supplied non-guided bombs that have taken a clear toll on civilian lives. The UN report shows airstrikes, carried out by both US and Afghan aircraft, have killed or injured 649 civilians so far this year, 39% higher than the same first nine months in 2017, and more than the 631 killed or injured by airstrikes in all of last year. Sixty percent of this year's casualties have been women and children, according to the report. The report also says that total civilian deaths across Afghanistan -- due to various violent attacks -- stands at 2,798 for the first nine months of this year, slightly up on the same period in 2017. US and Afghan aircraft are almost equally responsibility for the casualties, according to the report. US figures show its aircraft released a near-record number of bombs in July. They carried out the most airstrikes in one month since 2010, when the US had about eight times as many troops in the country, requiring constant air support at the height of the Obama administration's surge there. According to the UN report, anti-government elements are still responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths and injuries, accounting for 65% of casualties overall so far this year. The huge increase in bombing, however, relative to the 14,000 US troops now in country, will spark questions as to whether US forces have been given looser rules of engagement, in a conflict that has now run for 17 years. In a wide-ranging speech on Afghanistan in August of last year, Trump said he had loosened "restrictions the previous administration placed on our warfighters," yet the exact nature of the new rules hasn't been made public. In response to the report, US Forces Afghanistan spokesman Cmdr. Grant Neeley reiterated that anti-government elements were the main cause of civilian casualties. "Indiscriminate targeting of innocent civilians through improvised explosive devices and deliberate suicide attacks has increased in both frequency and lethality. These actions expose the hypocrisy of Taliban who espouse a high regard for this country and its people while creating an environment of death and insecurity." Afghan Air Force pounds insurgent targets While the varied use of US air power has at times put civilian life in greater danger, the scale and manner of the airstrikes undertaken by the Afghan Air Force is both relatively new and startling. Figures given to CNN by the Afghan Ministry of Defense show more than 800 airstrikes since the end of June were carried out by the Afghan Air Force, a body of light aircraft and pilots trained and equipped over the past two years by the US. The Pentagon has asked Congress for $1.8 billion to train and equip the AAF in 2019. The figures show thousands of insurgent deaths reported in under four months. Such official Afghan figures are often considered inflated by some experts, and the Afghan Ministry of Defense does not appear to publicly tally civilian casualties. The airstrikes recorded include the use of machine gun fire and bombs by the Afghan Air Force's planes and helicopters, which mostly deploy less accurate, non-guided munitions that are more likely to cause unintended civilian deaths. Mohammad Radmanish, an Afghan Defense Mignistry spokesman, told CNN that the air force "rarely uses" guided bombs in their airstrikes, listing only four provinces in which they had been used, and saying they had no record of the total number deployed. Radmanish said he doesn't accept his country's air force is responsible for civilian casualties. "Whenever there are civilian's casualties, it happens from insurgents' side. Either they plant bombs or they use civilians [as human shields] in their fight," he told CNN. In just the last month, the Afghan Air Force carried out 237 airstrikes, according to the defense ministry, which says it killed more than 1,300 insurgents in the strikes. But the constant toll on civilians by this peak in air power is growing, and has been palpable in the past weeks. On September 23, 10 civilians, including women and children, were killed when an Afghan airstrike hit a residential house in Jaghato district, in the province of Maidan Wardak, according to Akhtar Mohammad Taheri, head of the provincial council. Another 67 insurgents were killed in the strike. On October 4, according to a statement from the Kandahar government, three women and a child were killed in an apparent Afghan airstrike when insurgents hid in civilian houses in the district of Maroof, after attacking army checkpoints in the villages of Khogyani and Ishaqzai. Eight other civilians were injured, and eight insurgents killed, the statement said. Three women were killed by a US airstrike in Chardara district of Kunduz on September 25, according to Esmatullah Moradi, Kunduz's provincial spokesman, during an operation against the Taliban. The husband and father-in-law of two of the three deceased, in emotional footage obtained by CNN of the victims' bodies stacked in a truck, said: "I collected her body parts in a sack, we lost everything. My wife, my daughter in law were killed, and my son is in the hospital." A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan disputed any US role in the above cases, and said they had even reopened their investigation into an earlier incident in Kunduz on July 19 this year, after receiving new information, so thorough were their procedures. "We are keenly aware of the continued practice by insurgents to use close proximity of civilians, often by force, to prevent air strikes and counterattacks on their positions," said Col. David Butler, US Forces Afghanistan spokesman. "When these situation are identified in time, our forces respond appropriately by choosing not to attack to protect innocent lives," Butler added. "We're the most precise military in world existence. We train the Afghans to operate by the same standard. Though still in its infancy, the Afghan Air Force continues to grow in size and capability." This story has been updated to reflect that the 39% increase relates to civilians killed or injured by airstrikes. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - A missing journalist at the center of an international story has ties to Terre Haute. Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, went to Indiana State University. He disappeared while visiting the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Turkish officials believe he was killed in the compound, but Saudis say he left the building unharmed. Khashoggi received a business degree from ISU in 1983. News 10 reached out to ISU for a statement, they said: "Indiana State University officials thoughts are with the family and colleagues of missing journalist and alumnus Jamal Khashoggi during this difficult time. Khashoggi was an undergraduate student at Indiana State, 1977-1982, and was conferred a degree in business administration on May 7, 1983." TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - With the election right around the corner, early voting will soon begin at the Vigo County Annex just off of Oak Street in Terre Haute. Indiana voters can begin to cast their ballots on Wednesday in early voting for the November 6th General Election. Tuesday, October 9, is the last day to register. State election leaders told News 10 early voting can be done through a mail-in ballot absentee ballot or in person at a voting center. If you do an absentee ballot, it must be postmarked by November 5th to be counted. Click here to see the voting locations. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - It is one of the most watched races nationwide. The candidates for United States Senate, representing Indiana, answered your questions Monday night during a live debate. One question, in particular, seemed to stir emotion and even sympathy in the candidates. Libertarian Lucy Brenton, Democrat Incumbent Joe Donnelly and Republican Mike Braun took questions from the moderator and voters during the debate. One voter, a Hoosier mother, took to the microphone and explained how her 4-year-old son was killed at a babysitter's house when a fully loaded handgun was left unsecured. She said there is a lack of legislation to hold gun owners liable in cases like this. She asked if the candidates would support safe storage laws. The responses varied. Senator Donnelly said, "Well, I believe in the 2nd Amendment but I also believe, with rights come responsibilities and a storage law is something that we need to look at. What we also need to do is stop the gun show loophole, as well." Braun said, "I think the places where we've tried to use gun laws generally impact the folks that are law-abiding. I'm going to be for anything that proves effective to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. I'm going to always be there to defend the 2nd Amendment rights." Brenton said, "I see my own 5-year-old flashing through my eyes and I'm grateful that my husband and I are responsible gun owners who keep all of our guns locked. I think that's an important step that, as Senator Donnelly said, with rights come responsibilities. We shouldn't have to pass laws to do this people. This is common sense." This was just one of the topics discussed at the debate and Terre Haute was mentioned a few time by just one candidate. Donnelly spoke about the city when talking about veterans, jobs and even defending his vote on judicial nominees. If you missed the debate you can watch it here. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Court documents have revealed what happened during a weekend standoff in Terre Haute. Police say Michael Medley fired three to four shots in the air. This happened during an argument on 5th Avenue. The Terre Haute Police Special Response Team responded to the scene and arrested Medley. He will appear in court on Thursday to face charges of criminal recklessness, intimidation, and pointing a firearm. His bond is set at $50,000 - cash only. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) An estimated 120,000 people along the Florida Panhandle were ordered to clear out on Tuesday as Hurricane Michael rapidly picked up steam in the Gulf of Mexico and closed in with winds of 110 mph and a potential storm surge of 12 feet. Beach dwellers rushed to board up their homes and sandbag their properties against the fast-moving hurricane, which was expected to blow ashore around midday Wednesday. The speed of the storm Michael was moving north 12 mph (19 kph) gave many people a dwindling number of hours to prepare or flee before being caught up in damaging wind and rain. LINK | INTERACTIVE RADAR Guess what? Thats today, National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said. If they tell you to leave, you have to leave. By 11 a.m., Michael had winds of 110 mph (175 kph), just below a major Category 3 hurricane, and was getting stronger, drawing energy from Gulf waters in the mid-80s. The hurricanes effects will be felt far from its eye. Forecasters said Michaels tropical storm-force winds stretched 370 miles (595 kilometers) across, with hurricane-strength winds extending up to 35 miles (55 kilometers) from the center. Florida Gov. Rick Scott also warned people across northwest Florida that the monstrous hurricane was just hours away, bringing deadly risks from high wind, storm surge and heavy rain. His Democratic opponent in Floridas Senate race, Sen. Bill Nelson, said a wall of water could cause major destruction along the Panhandle. Dont think that you can ride this out if youre in a low-lying area, Nelson said on CNN. Mandatory evacuation orders went into effect for some 120,000 people in Panama City Beach and across other low-lying parts of the coast. Forecasters said parts of Floridas marshy, lightly populated Big Bend area the crook of Floridas elbow could see up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) of storm surge. Hurricane Michael animated sequence provided by the NOAA. Michael also could dump up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain over some Panhandle communities before it sweeps through the Southeast and goes out to sea over the next few days. Forecasters said it could bring 3 to 6 inches of rain to Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, triggering flash flooding in a corner of the country still recovering from Hurricane Florence. I know people are fatigued from Florence, but dont let this storm catch you with your guard down, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said, adding, A number of homes have rooftop tarps that could be damaged or blown away with this wind. While Florence took five days between the time it turned into a hurricane and the moment it blew ashore in the Carolinas, Michael gave Florida what could amount to just two days notice. It developed into a hurricane on Monday. At the western end of the Florida Panhandle, in and around Pensacola, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan bluntly warned people: If you decide to stay in your home and a tree falls on your house or the storm surge catches you and youre now calling for help, theres no one that can respond to help you. Michael wasnt quite done wreaking havoc in the Caribbean. In Cuba, it dumped more than 10 inches (27 centimeters) of rain in places, flooding fields, damaging roads, knocking out power and destroying some homes in the western province of Pinar del Rio. Cuban authorities said they evacuated about 400 people from low-lying areas. Disaster agencies in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua reported 13 deaths as roofs collapsed and residents were carried away by swollen rivers. In Florida, Scott declared a state of emergency for 35 counties, from the Panhandle to Tampa Bay, activated hundreds of Florida National Guard members and waived tolls to encourage evacuations. The governors of Alabama and Georgia also declared emergencies. With just a month to go before Election Day, Florida voters in evacuation zones were given an extra day to register to vote, once offices reopen after the storm. Scott also told Florida hospitals and nursing homes to do all they can to assure the safety of the elderly and infirm. After Hurricane Irma last year, 14 people died when a South Florida nursing home lost power and air conditioning. If youre responsible for a patient, youre responsible for the patient. Take care of them, he said. In the small Panhandle city of Apalachicola, Mayor Van Johnson Sr. said the 2,300 residents were frantically preparing for what could be a blow unlike any seen there in decades. Many filled sandbags, boarded up homes and lined up to buy gas and groceries. Were looking at a significant storm with significant impact, possibly greater than Ive seen in my 59 years of life, Johnson said of his city on Apalachicola Bay, where about 90 percent of Floridas oysters are harvested. Farther inland, in the state capital, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, Floridas Democratic nominee for governor, helped people fill sandbags. Theres nothing between us and this storm but warm water, and I think thats what terrifies us about the potential impacts, Gillum said. ___ Associated Press writers Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, N.C., and Andrea Rodriguez in Cuba contributed to this report. VERMILLION COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - A drug bust was made possible through a Craigslist transaction. Vermillion County Deputies arrested Charles Kelley. Police say Kelley offered to buy a motorcycle off of Craigslist, using three pounds of marijuana and $2,000. Conversations were monitored between Kelley and the seller. Surveillance was set up. When police arrested Kelley, they say he was in possession of three pounds of marijuana, seven grams of meth, cash, and drug paraphernalia. PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) Gaining fury with every passing hour, Hurricane Michael closed in Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic winds of 150 mph, the most powerful storm on record ever to menace the stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches. With more than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast warned to evacuate, the hurricanes leading edge began lashing the white-sand shoreline with tropical storm-force winds, rain and rising seas before daybreak, hours before Michaels center was expected to blow ashore. I really fear for what things are going to look like there tomorrow at this time, Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach said in an email. The supercharged brute quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression, reaching a furious Category 4 early Wednesday as it drew energy from the Gulf of Mexicos warm waters, an unseasonably high 84 degrees. Less than a day earlier, Michael was a Category 2. Hurricane Michael edges towards the Florida panhandle on the morning of Oct. 10. (NOAA) The time to evacuate has come and gone ... SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY, Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted, while the sheriff in Panama Citys Bay County issued a shelter-in-place order before dawn. In St. Marks, John Hargan and his family gathered up their pets and evacuated to a raised building constructed to withstand a Category 5 after water from the St. Marks River began surrounding their home. His 11-year-old son, Jayden, carried one of the familys dogs in a laundry basket in one arm and held a skateboard in the other as he waded through calf-high water. Hargan, a bartender at a riverfront restaurant, feared he would lose his home and his job to the storm. We basically just walked away from everything and said goodbye to it, he said, tears welling up. Im freakin scared Im going to lose everything I own, man. As of 11:30 a.m. EDT, Michael was centered about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Panama City, its winds at 150 mph (240 kmh). It was moving at 14 mph (22 kph). Hurricane-force winds extended up to 45 miles (75 kilometers) from its center. Rainfall could reach up to a foot (30 centimeters), and the life-threatening storm surge could swell to 14 feet (4 meters). The storm appeared to be so powerful that it is expected to remain a hurricane as it moves over Georgia early Thursday. Forecasters said it will unleash damaging wind and rain all the way into the Carolinas, still recovering from Hurricane Florences epic flooding. We are in new territory, National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle. Real-time Associated Press hurricane tracker tracks ongoing tropical storm and hurricane events. With Election Day less than a month away, the crisis was seen as a test of leadership for Scott, a Republican running for the Senate, and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for governor. Just as Northern politicians are judged on how they handle snowstorms, their Southern counterparts are watched closely for how they deal with hurricanes. Several hours ahead of landfall, seawater was already lapping over the docks at Massalina Bayou near downtown Panama City, and knee-deep water was rising against buildings in St. Marks, which sits on an inlet south of Tallahassee. Huge waves pounded the white sands of Panama City Beach, shooting frothy water all the way to the base of wooden stairs that lead to the beach. More than 5,000 evacuees sought shelter in the capital city, which is about 25 miles from the coast but is covered by live oak and pine trees that can fall and cause power outages even in smaller storms. Only a skeleton staff remained at Tyndall Air Force Base, situated on a peninsula just south of Panama City. The home of the 325th Fighter Wing and some 600 military families appeared squarely targeted for the worst of the storms fury, and leaders declared HURCON 1 status, ordering out all but essential personnel. The bases aircraft, which include F-22 Raptors, were flown hundreds of miles away as a precaution. The National Hurricane Center predicted 9 to 14 feet of inundation at Tyndall. Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Panhandle into north-central Florida. But civilians dont have to follow orders, and authorities feared many failed to heed their warnings to get out. Weve told those who stayed to have their life jackets on when the storm comes, Tress Dameron, Franklin County emergency management coordinator, told The News Herald in Panama City. Power crews are arriving in Florida ahead of Hurricane Michael. (Oct. 10) Meteorologists watched in real time as a new government satellite showed the hurricanes eye tightening, surrounded by lightning that lit it up like a Christmas tree. I guess its the worst-case scenario. I dont think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle, meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com said. This is going to have structure-damaging winds along the coast and hurricane-force winds inland. The University of Georgias Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society, called it a life-altering event, writing on Facebook that he watched the storms growth on satellite images with a pit in his stomach. ___ Associated Press writers Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Brendan Farrington in St. Marks, Fla.; Russ Bynum in Keaton Beach, Fla.; Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Md., contributed to this story. For the latest on Hurricane Michael, visit https://www.apnews.com/tag/Hurricanes . WASHINGTON (AP) U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is leaving the administration at the end of the year, she and President Donald Trump announced Tuesday. She gave no reason for her departure after two years, though there has been speculation she will return to government or politics at some point. No, Im not running in 2020 for president, she joked. She said she would be supporting Trump. Haley said she and Trump together had solved a lot of problems. They spoke in the Oval Office, shortly after word came of her plans to resign. Trump called Haley a very special person, adding that she told him six months ago that she might want to take some time off. Its the latest shake-up in the turbulent Trump administration just weeks before the November midterm elections. Haleys resignation was a closely guarded secret. Congressional Republicans involved in foreign policy matters and some key U.S. allies did not get advance word from Haley or the White House. Haley, who is speculated to hold aspirations for higher office, said at the White House: No Im not running in 2020. Haley, 46, was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trumps second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the Security Council. A rookie to international politics, the former South Carolina governor was an unusual pick for to be U.N. envoy. It was a blessing to go into the U.N. every day with body armor, Haley said, saying her job was to defend America on the world stage. At the U.N., Haley helped spearhead the Trump administrations efforts to combat what it alleged to be anti-American and anti-Israel actions by the international body. Trump said he was considering many candidates for Haleys job and that a successor would be named in two to three weeks. Last month Haley wrote an op-ed article in The Washington Post discussing her policy disagreements but also her pride in working for Trump. It came in response to an anonymous essay in The New York Times by a senior administration official that alleged there to be a secret resistance effort from the right in Trumps administration and that there were internal discussions of invoking the 25th amendment to remove him from office. I proudly serve in this administration, and I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country, Haley wrote. But I dont agree with the president on everything. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley clashed with then-candidate Trump during the 2016 campaign, denouncing the siren call of the angriest voices who disrespected Americas immigrants. Trump tweeted that The people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley. Before she was named by Trump to her U.N. post, Haley was elected the first female governor of South Carolina. She was re-elected in 2014. South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally tweeted that Haley has a very bright future and will be a key player in both the future of the Republican Party and our nation as a whole for years to come. As governor, she developed a national reputation as a racial conciliator who led the charge to bring down the Confederate flag at the Statehouse and helped guide the state through one of its darkest moments, the massacre at a black church. Rank-and-File Catholics Hold the Line NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue (photo) comments on a Pew report on Catholics released October 10: A report by the Pew Research Center, "7 Facts about American Catholics," restates data from previous Pew surveys on Catholics in the United States. As usual, it reports on whether Catholics think the Church should change its teachings on various social issues. Why "as usual"? Because many researchers, academicians, pundits, and reporters love to point out the alleged divide between rank-and-file Catholics and the official teachings of the Church. Moreover, these same people show very little interest in asking Protestants, Jews, and Muslims whether the teachings of their religion should be changed. The Pew report notes that 46% of Catholics in 2015 said they thought the Church should change its teachings and policies on gay marriage. But this figure is inflated: it is not representative of rank-and-file Catholics. Merriam-Webster defines "rank and file" as "individuals who constitute the body of an organization." If we consider practicing Catholics, those who attend Mass weekly, as the "rank and file," then only 37% think the Church should accept gay marriage. No doubt that figure would drop if respondents could voice their position privately (as in a voting booth): it takes courage to publicly state a view that is countercultural. Should those who are not practicing Catholics, i.e., those who do not attend Mass regularly, be counted as Catholic in a survey? This is important because including them in the aggregate data--the figure reported by the mediadistorts what rank-and-file Catholics think. Two years earlier, in 2013, Pew asked Catholics if the Church should "maintain traditional positions" or "move in new directions." 63% of practicing Catholics said the Church should "maintain traditional positions," while only 42% of non-practicing Catholics felt that way. Since practicing Catholics are the heart and soul of the laity, as well as the Church's bread and butter, it would make no sense for the Church hierarchy to abandon its traditional positions in favor of "progressive" ones. Finally, asking Catholics, or anyone, if they think the organization they belong to should alter certain positions is not an expression of demand: there is a profound difference between a preference and a demand. Yet the latter is how the media spin it, feeding the perception that Catholics are at war with Church teachings. This is propaganda, not serious social science. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Tonight, you will be able to meet the candidates running for the Vigo County School Board. The League of Women Voters will host a candidate forum. It starts at 7:00 and will last for about an hour and a half. It happens at the Vigo County Public Library. You can submit written questions to the candidates at the meeting. News 10's Heather Good will be at the meeting and will bring you much more on News 10 on myFOX10 and News 10 Nightwatch. CNN -- Diane Rwigara, a leading critic of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, spent more than a year in prison before she was released on bail Friday. Now, as she awaits her trial in Kigali next month for incitement and election fraud, the 37-year-old human rights activist says she is more determined than ever to make her voice heard. Africa Continents and regions Corrections system Crime, law enforcement and corrections Eastern Africa Kigali Paul Kagame Political Figures - Intl Prisons and jails Rwanda Government and public administration Politics Elections and campaigns "(Jail) has not squashed my political ambitions at all," Rwigara told CNN in an interview. "On the contrary, it has given me more determination because I just don't see myself and everyone else I know keeping on living in fear." The fear that Rwigara is speaking about is one that she and her supporters say envelops a large part of Rwandan society, a society she wants to see change. Last year, Rwigara was poised to be the Kagame's sole female challenger in the August 2017 presidential election. But days after she announced her plan to run, someone posted nude photos -- allegedly of her -- online. Rwigara says the images were digitally altered as a tactic used by the government to discredit her as both a female and oppositional voice. A spokesman for Kagame's party at the time denied to CNN having anything to do with the photos. "With the photos, it was because I was a woman. But overall, anybody who dares to challenge the government is viciously attacked -- whether you're a man or a woman," Rwigara said. Rwigara was eventually disqualified from contesting the election by electoral authorities who claimed she falsified the number of signatures needed to qualify and accused her of submitting the names of dead people. She denies it all. Determined to "encourage Rwandans to hold their government accountable," Rwigara then launched the activist group, the People Salvation Movement (Itabaza). Shortly after, she was arrested on charges of incitement and fraud. Her mother, Adeline was also arrested on charges of discrimination and sectarian practices and inciting insurrection, based on WhatsApp messages exchanged between her and her sister, who lives outside Rwanda. Read more: She wanted to become president, but ended up jailed instead "Those were trumped-up charges, made-up charges," Rwigara said. "I know the Rwandan government is scared of the movement -- it's scared because they know I'm speaking the truth and they do not want to be exposed," she added. "That is the main fear that they have -- the fear of being exposed." Rwanda's National Police, Office of the President and its ruling political party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) have not responded to CNN's repeated requests for comment. 'They try to demonize you' Kagame, who won the 2017 presidential election with almost 99% of the vote, has been president since 2000 and a longtime, instrumental leader in Rwanda's modern history. The Rwandan leader is seen as the architect of the nation's remarkable turnaround following the social and economic destruction from the 1994 genocide, where an estimated 800,000 people -- mainly from the Tutsi group -- were killed over the course of 100 days. Kagame's commitment to gender parity, which includes a constitutional law requiring at least 30% of all parliamentary seats to be occupied by women, has led the country to be often quoted as the best place for women in politics. (Today Rwanda far surpasses that quota, with 61.3% of its parliament made up of female lawmakers.) But Rwigara says that say that quota is just window dressing for the ruling party's agenda. "I think the only women who are welcome are the women who speak the language of the RPF (Kagame's ruling party). They are the only women they want. If you dare to speak a different language, you are no longer part of society. They try to demonize you, they attack you in any way that they can," she said. Kagame's fiscal and social policies also are widely cited as a blueprint for success in the region -- but endemic poverty remains an issue nationwide, with nearly half of the population living under the international poverty line, according to the World Bank. "I've talked about, and I am still talking about poverty and unemployment," Rwigara said of her movement's mission, which she hopes to reinvigorate now that she's been released. "Kigali is full of nice buildings, but the people live in poverty. The focus of our government has been things, buildings. But they have not been able to build up people's lives. They (Kagame's government) are more interested in impressing the outside -- the West -- than impressing their own people, the Rwandan people," she said. "The fact that Kigali is clean and nice-looking does not mean that our government cares about its own people. People are harassed, people disappear, people get killed, and all those things our government doesn't want us to expose." A difficult journey This summer, CNN traveled to Kigali and spoke with Rwigara's family and her supporters, who allege harassment, censorship and threats of violence by the government. Rwigara is aware of those cases, but says it has not deterred her to encourage her fellow Rwandans to find their voice. "It has not been an easy journey... but that does not stop us from going forward because I see this movement as the main channel for our voices to be heard," she said. Still, she is appealing to the government to allow her family and supporters to live in peace. "It's one thing to punish me for my beliefs, but it's another thing to punish everyone around me," she said, noting the charges against her mother and the Rwanda Revenue Authority's auction of her family's business. But it is not just Rwigara's supporters who allege violence or the threat of violence at the hands of the Rwandan state. Kagame's regime has been long criticized by human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for its attacks on the political opposition, human rights defenders and the press. Several high-profile cases, including the imprisonment of another opposition party leader, Victoire Ingabire, the mysterious death of a former Rwandan intelligence chief and the recent disappearance of another opposition leader from jail, have shined a harsh light on Kagame's regime. Related: 'If you have other opinions they put you in jail' For bringing some of these issues to the forefront of the national conversation, Rwigara says she was placed in jail. "I criticized the government and this is what happens in Rwanda when you criticize the government -- you are punished for it. The punishment for me was prison," she said. Rwigara says she's not fearful of what might happen to her and her mother in their trial, scheduled for November 7. Both have proclaimed their innocence. Ultimately, she believes it is up to Kagame, noting the president's overarching influence. "I don't know what will happen," she said when asked about her trial. "You will have to ask the president." Rwanda's National Police, Office of the President and its ruling political party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) have not responded to CNN's immediate request for comment. For now, Rwigara says she will continue to work with members of her movement to encourage Rwandans that they "have the power to change things." "It's for us to dare to speak out -- because all Rwandans see what's going on, they see what's happening, but they've been pushed to silence," she said. "The Rwandan people should be the first to get out and speak out and force our government to be accountable, because our government isn't accountable to anyone." We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Update 10/09/18 2:49 p.m. Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant identifies the deceased victim of the Highway 45 wreck as Dr. Saul Joseph Vydas of Columbus. Dr. Saul Joseph Vydas | Photo: Baptist Memorial-Golden Triangle Dr. Saul Joseph Vydas | Photo: Baptist Memorial-Golden Triangle He was a member of the Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle medical staff until 2017. Court officials say he was working with the Lowndes County courts at the time of his passing. Merchant says Vydas was driving a Toyota Prius and appears to have pulled into the pathway of an SUV. Update 10/09/18 12:38 p.m. For the Highway 45 wreck - Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton says it appears a small car pulled out in front of an SUV. A person in the small car died. For the Highway 82 wreck - Shelton says three vehicles were involved. He says it appears one driver was traveling in the wrong direction. See the original post below. COLUMBUS, Miss. (WTVA) - A wreck has turned fatal in Columbus, reports police. This wreck is on Highway 45, near the Carl Hogan Toyota dealership. Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton confirms a fatality. The persons name has not been released. Shelton says police are also working another wreck on Highway 82 in the eastern section of the city. Police report no fatalities in this accident. Use caution in the two areas. 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. WORLAND When Banner Health Washakie Medical Center decided to change the hospital from the inside out they also decided to upgrade their services offered with the newest state-of-the-art technology and equipment. Banner Health Washakie Medical Center CEO Jay Stallings stated that one of the benefits of Banner Health partnering with the county is that the hospital can afford the newest and best equipment available. He stated that normally small rural hospitals cannot afford the expenses of such equipment. One of the first pieces of equipment to be upgraded in 2015 was the mammogram technology called breast tomosynthesis. This new technology creates a 3D image of the breast which detects breast cancer in its earliest stages by allowing the breast to be examined one layer at a time. According to the information pamphlet, breast tomosynthesis uses high-powered computing to convert digital breast images into a stack of very thin layers or slices building what is essentially a 3-dimensional mammogram. During the hospitals $25 million transformation a new state-of-the-art lab was created which has given the hospital the ability to do microbiology. One of the benefits of being able to do microbiology is being able to do high sensitivity Troponin for early heart attack detection. Banner Health Washakie Medical Center chief nursing officer LeGay Parks stated that the new technology allows the hospital to be able to detect the early signs of a heart attack much quicker than past technology, something that many other small rural hospitals are not able to do. We can now treat people quicker, save more heart muscle and save more peoples lives, she said. Completing the cancer department allows the hospital to offer full service cancer treatments with the exception of radiation oncology. Dr. Sameh Abuerreish has signed on with the hospital, something Stallings stated the hospital has never had before, a highly thought of and highly respected cancer doctor. Stallings added that being able to drive a few minutes to the hospital and home again after a treatment instead of a couple hours will help make a cancer patients suffering less and save on the pocketbook. The hospital now offers procalcitonin which is sepsis detection. Podiatry, which is the treatment of feet, wellness labs every week day instead of the just on Wednesdays, aromatherapy, aesthetics such as chemical peels, Botox and those type of cosmetic procedures, cardiac and pulmonary rehab. Stress testing, Holter monitors (monitoring the heart) and home sleep studies have been re-established. RECOGNITION With all the new technology and their determination to be the best that they can be along with making sure that everyone is treated with kindness and respect, the hospital has been earning many recognitions in the state and nationally. We are acknowledged within Banner for doing many things first and best. So there is always a little friendly competition in ensuring that we are meeting the criteria for clinical excellence and we are acknowledged for doing that quite often, Stallings said. The hospital was recognized in March as one of the top 100 critical access hospitals in the nation by the Chartis Center for Rural Health. Its a pretty big deal. There were only 24 states where those [critical access] hospitals were acknowledged. There were two facilities recognized in the state of Wyoming, one over in Star Valley and the one here in Worland. There are 1,334 critical access hospitals in the United States and to be recognized out of those 1,334 to be in the top 100, thats something that I am incredibly pleased about and most importantly to acknowledge the great caregivers that we have here. I think it speaks a lot for Washakie County, for the leadership of the board of trustees, the commissioners collectively with the leadership of Banner on the operations that we provide every day. Its just nice to have it recognized, so I am incredibly pleased about that, Stallings said. The hospital has received the Mountain Pacific Quality Award for the last three years and Dr. Diane Norton was recognized in an article for Women for Wyoming. Kyle Cameron, who works for the Wyoming Department of Health in quality, has nominated the hospital for the National Rural Health Day 2018 Community Star. Stallings stated that Cameron goes to all the rural hospitals in Wyoming and that the hospital is humbled and pleased to think that she would nominate them. STAFFING Finding quality nurses and doctors to come and work at a rural hospital has proved a challenge but the hospital has met the challenge by changing their infrastructure. We have changed our culture so much. In 2015 we had to use 54 percent travelers because we didnt have enough full time RN [registered nursing) staff that were at the bedside taking care of patients. So over the last three years we have changed our culture to become a place where people want to come work, because they know that our quality measures are good, our team is very cohesive and its a good and rewarding team to work in. So we have filled all of our bedside RN positions, we dont have any openings whatsoever right now, Parks said. That was a huge accomplishment, she added. When Ben Affleck needs to clear his head, he escapes to a special place Montana. The 46-year-old actor took a trip to the Big Sky area of the Rocky Mountains over the weekend with his new flame Shauna Sexton, 22, the day after finalizing his divorce from Jennifer Garner. A family friend tells PEOPLE in the latest issue that Affleck enjoys the tranquil town, where he owns a house in an extremely private luxury ski resort. Montana is a special place for Ben. Its where he can go to get away. He has spent a lot of time there both with the family and by himself at his house, the friend says. Its a good and a healthy place for him to be. He goes there to clear his mind and be out in nature. Theres no distractions and its very peaceful. Affleck and Garner frequently vacationed in the area, and most recently spent Christmas together at the ski resort property with their three kids Violet, 12, Seraphina, 9, and Samuel, 6. RELATED VIDEO: Ben Affleck Reveals He Completed 40-Day Rehab Stay: I Am Fighting for Myself and My Family For more on Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on stands Friday But he only brought along Sexton this time around. The Playboy model posted several scenic shots from their getaway on her Instagram story, and even uploaded a picture of her smiling brightly at the camera while holding a fish she caught in the river. RELATED: Ben Affleck Enjoys Montana Getaway with Shauna Sexton Days After Finalizing Divorce She also posted a shot of Affleck looking out of their car window, the first time hes made an appearance on her social media. Affleck and Sexton where first spotted together on a cozy dinner just a week before Affleck checked into rehab on Aug. 22. They are having fun, the family friend says of the two. She is up for anything and he likes spending time with her. Its very easy and casual. Ben Affleck, Shauna Sexton Affleck and Garner finalized their divorce last Thursday after a five hour meeting with lawyers and a private judge at Garners house. The meeting came a day after Affleck announced he had completed a 40-day stay at rehab and would continue with outpatient treatment. The support I have received from my family, colleagues and fans means more to me than I can say. Its given me the strength and support to speak about my illness with others, Affleck said in a statement. Battling any addiction is a lifelong and difficult struggle. Because of that, one is never really in or out of treatment. It is full-time commitment. I am fighting for myself and my family. Melania Trump says she supports #MeToo movement but accusers need 'really hard evidence' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com In an exclusive interview with ABC News, first lady Melania Trump said she supports the women of the #MeToo movement but also expressed concerns about accusers going public with allegations of sexual misconduct. I support the women they need to be heard. We need to support them. And also men, not just women, Trump said in a clip that aired Wednesday on Good Morning America. Those making accusations of sexual assault need to provide evidence, she argued. You cannot just say to somebody I was sexually assaulted or You did that to me. Because sometimes the media goes too far and the way they portray some stories, its not correct. Its not right, she said. PHOTO: First lady Melania Trump holds a baby as she visits Greater Accra Regional Hospital in Accra, Ghana, Oct. 2, 2018. (Carolyn Kaster/AP) (MORE: From Weinstein to Kavanaugh, what's changed in the year since #MeToo went viral) (MORE: Melania Trump wraps 1st solo foreign trip to Africa with message, 'We care') (MORE: Melania Trump calls Brett Kavanaugh 'highly qualified,' glad his accuser 'was heard') President Trump himself has been accused of sexual misconduct by a number of women since launching his campaign for president, claims he has denied. Allegations of sexual misconduct by multiple women nearly derailed the Supreme Court confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, who vehemently denied the allegations. The president addressed the issue at the White House earlier this month, saying, It's a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of. ABC News Chief National Affairs Correspondent Tom Llamas sat down with the first lady for a wide-ranging interview during her first solo trip abroad to Africa earlier this month. The famously private first lady sought to highlight her "Be Best" initiative on a tour through Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt. Tune in this Friday, Oct. 12, at 10 p.m. for more of ABC News special Being Melania - The First Lady. 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' star Joe Giudice ordered deported to Italy originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com Joe Giudice, the husband of "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice, was ordered deported back to Italy Wednesday by an immigration judge, officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to ABC News. Giudice now has 30 days to appeal, said a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review. There was no immediate comment from the Giudice camp. (MORE: Teresa Giudice on blaming husband for her prison sentence: 'I need to let it go and move on') The removal order from Immigration Judge John Ellington would take effect after Joe Giudice is released from the federal prison, where he is serving time for bankruptcy fraud and failing to pay taxes on $200,000 worth of income. He pleaded guilty in 2014 and is scheduled to be released from prison in March 2019. The Giudices have four daughters. Teresa Giudice served nearly a year in prison after pleading guilty to submitting false loan applications when she applied for a $5 million mortgage. After her release, the reality TV star told ABC News that she blamed her husband for their legal woes. "If he was on top of everything then this wouldnt have happened," she said last October. "He keeps saying, 'You just got to move on from this. You cant keep bringing up the past.' Its true. I need to let it go and move on." Photo credit: Erik Lee Snyder From Harper's BAZAAR Its often said that a persons true character is revealed through how they react in the face of failures or hardship. If thats the case, Shaughnessy Naughton is someone of exceptional integrity, and only appears to grow more motivated with each setback. The former congressional candidate ran and lost twice in the Democratic primary for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 8th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. Instead of giving up, the researcher and chemist focused her efforts on supporting scientists across the country to run for office through 314 Action, a nonprofit she founded. 314 Action is a nonprofit and political action committee that aims to get more scientists involved in politics and, ultimately, to elect more scientists to public office, Naughton explains. I work with scientists, stakeholders, and elected officials to bridge the gap between the scientific community and the political world, she says. 2018 has been heralded by the Washington Post as the Year of Scientists Running for Public Office, and Im proud that 314 Action is leading that charge. Photo credit: Erik Lee Snyder Naughtons love of science dates back to the fifth grade, when she made her first chemistry set. She would go on to major in the discipline at Bryn Mawr College and research a new synthesis of a breast cancer drug before joining the private sector, working on new approaches to infectious disease treatments. The potential for a major discovery is what keeps her inspired by science. Science-in addition to being incredibly interesting-is also aspirational, Naughton says. That kind of impact is hard to find in many other lines of work, and it gives scientists a sense of purpose knowing that a breakthrough could be around the corner. Many of the key issues facing our society-and planet as a whole-are rooted in science and technology, so scientists should play a role in solving them at a government level, Naughton argues. From healthcare reform to climate change to the future of work and automation, theres no doubt that science is at the core of these issues-and experts in each of those field are majorly underrepresented in our national government. Currently, there is only one PhD-level scientist serving in Congress. Story continues More diverse voices in the halls of power mean more viewpoints necessary to formulate solutions and solve problems, Naughton says. Our Congress currently has more talk radio hosts than chemists and physicists, and I would posit that the approach scientists take to solving problems would be a much-needed breath of fresh air to the partisan one that has led to much of the gridlock and incivility that has become the norm. Historically, scientists have served in an advisory capacity on councils or in Cabinet positions. Naughton says that in 2018, it clearly isnt working. She cites recent decisions made by the Trump administration, such as withdrawing from the Paris Accord, that are in direct contradiction of widely held and research-backed scientific knowledge. I believe scientists need to hold our elected leaders who attack science accountable-and the best way to do so is at the ballot box, Naughton says. This is where 314 Action comes in: getting more scientists and STEM professionals elected by offering political training and support. Naughton and her team work closely with each individual candidate to improve their election hopes, and introduce them to the world of politics. Photo credit: Erik Snyder One area where the two worlds have an unfortunately similarity is their underrepresentation of women and minorities. Naughton says certain experiences from her science career, such as unwanted advice, were repeated while she was in politics. Similar to how I feel about government and politics, I believe that science and innovation benefit from diversity and varied backgrounds and experience, she says. Our ability to innovate and create the high-quality scientific research that has, in the past, led to life-saving discoveries and technological advancements depends on the scientists who are involved," she says. "Workplace diversity that crosses the lines of identity ensures that the talent pool we rely on for this research is filled with the best and brightest. The role of STEM in contemporary and future political issues-including climate change, energy independence, and the security of our elections-is undeniably important. Naughton suggests that how we handle climate change could be the defining matter of our era, and will impact future generations. Science plays an important role in society, as it gives us the advances in medicine and technology that make our quality of life better than that of any prior generation. However, when it's pushed aside by leaders, we all suffer the consequences, she says. The silver lining of the Trump administrations widespread dismissal of science is that more scientists are engaged in politics and actually running for office now more than ever, Naughton says. Theres an energy out there among members of the STEM community that wasnt there a few years ago when I ran for Congress, and its an exciting time to be involved in politics, she says. Scientists are fed up with the status quo and no longer accept that politicians can attack facts without repercussions," she adds. "I think well see the effects of this energy on election day this year and in elections to come. With the midterms on November 6th, we wont have to wait long to find out if Naughtons predictions are correct. Styled by Allison Bornstein, Makeup by Erin Green, Hair by Gianluca Mandelli ('You Might Also Like',) Photo credit: Getty Images From Cosmopolitan President Trump promised a "big announcement" Tuesday morning, ahead of a meeting with Nikki Haley, his ambassador to the United Nations. Or, actually, his former ambassador-because the announcement in question, which to most political outlets seemed to have come out of left field, is that Haley is resigning from her role at the U.N. Haley had reportedly floated her resignation to Trump in recent months, he said, saying that she wanted "a break." She will finish out 2018 in her role, with a replacement likely to be nominated in the near future. (And Trump's meeting with Kanye West on Thursday, so that's that sorted?) "She's done a fantastic job," Trump said of Haley during a press conference, adding that he hopes she will return to his administration in future. "Were all happy for you in one way, but we hate to lose you," he continued. Haley said that "defend[ing] America" in her role at the U.N. "has been an honor of a lifetime." Trump nominated Haley for the job shortly after his victory in the 2016 election, and she was confirmed by the Senate in January 2017. During her two years, she was often the person foreign leaders would go to for guidance when the rest of the administration was inconsistent with their policy positions. She was vocal with her opinions on Iran and North Korea, and she disagreed with President Trump on certain issues. Time magazine even put her on a cover as one of the woman "changing the world." ('You Might Also Like',) Photo: Reuters The UK is among five European Union countries that granted more than 10,000 golden visas to investors and their families in the past decade, according to a new report by Transparency International. Golden visas are essentially countries offering either fast-track citizenship or residency to foreign nationals in exchange for substantial investment in their nations. Spain, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, and the UK topped the list as they all granted over 10,000 golden visas each. Greece, Cyprus, and Malta followed closely behind. The report estimates that the UK makes 498m (435m, $572m) each year from residence-by-investment schemes. Spain, it says, makes around 976m, while Cyprus makes 914m. Portugal makes 670m. Transparency International warns that, because members of the bloc have wide discretionary powers when it comes to issues of citizenship and residency, these residency schemes are an attractive prospect for the criminal and the corrupt. The success rates of applicants seem to indicate that some Member States are not particularly selective, raising doubts about the strictness of checks and controls conducted on applicants, the report says. Around 91% of applicants are successful in the UK, it says. Meanwhile, only 20 investors and 44 family members were denied residence in Hungary, where nearly 99% of applicants are successful. In the 10 years to March 2018, 1,278 Chinese citizens were offered golden visas in the UK. Some 815 successful applicants came from Russia, 187 from the US, and 132 from Hong Kong. Around 80 came from India. The more popular schemes in the EU, it says, require an investment of around 900,000 on averagea figure much higher than similar schemes in countries like Grenada. But residency can cost as little as 250,000 in Greece and Latvia, the report found. The schemes typically require an investment in real estate, government bonds, company shares, or in national state funds. By virtue of these schemes, citizenship and residency rights have been turned into luxury commodities, the report says. Story continues Globally, golden visa systems, including both residence-by-investment and citizen-by-investment schemes, are thought to generate around $13bn (9.9bn). According to the report, four EU countriesAustria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Maltaoffer citizenship through these schemes, while 12, including Ireland, France, and the Netherlands, offer residency rights. The report urges the EU to introduce bloc-wide standards for such schemes that require enhanced due diligence, operational integrity and transparency to prevent abuse of the schemes. As part of the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium, Transparency International partnered with NGO Global Witness to produce the report. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), an underdog in her re-election bid, accepts a ribbon skirt at the home of Twila Martin-Kekahbah, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. (Photo: Ilana Panich-Linsman for HuffPost) TURTLE MOUNTAIN INDIAN RESERVATION, N.D. Two days after she cast the vote that could both define and end her political career, Heidi Heitkamp was back home in North Dakota, and near tears. On this reservation near the Canadian border on Monday, far from the drama of Washington, the women of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians had a gift for the Democratic senator. A ribbon skirt, decorated with the colors of the rainbow, was meant to tell her grey skies would soon pass. This is for everything youve done for us, said tribal member Cathie Gladue, presenting her with the skirt as Heitkamp began to tear up. And its especially for the stand youve recently taken. It was an honorable stand for all women, of all colors. The stand she took choosing to believe Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when both were teenagers, and to dismiss the then-Supreme Court nominees angry denials is one Heitkamp and almost all of her supporters acknowledge has put her political career in jeopardy. Running for re-election against Republican GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer in a state President Donald Trump won by roughly 36 percentage points, Heitkamp already was seen by analysts as the senator most likely to lose re-election. And Republicans now crow that her vote last week against Kavanaughs confirmation signed her political death warrant. Some public polling has shown her down double digits. Democrats insist the margin is much closer. A Heitkamp loss harms an already tough path for Democrats to a Senate majority; it likely means they need to sweep GOP-held seats in Nevada, Arizona and Tennessee to have a chance of winning Congress upper chamber. In the wake of the battle over Kavanaugh, Republican Senate candidates in red-leaning territory are running on a backlash to the Me Too movement, hoping it can expand the GOPs 51-49 majority in the Senate. Heitkamp knows shes an underdog. And so, in an frequently emotional 48 hours after she cast the vote, as she traveled to a farm-town parade, a small-dollar fundraiser near her hometown, a panel in front of energy executives in Bismarck and finally up to this reservation, her supporters worked relentlessly to buoy the senators spirits, as she simultaneously tried to defend and move past her vote against Kavanaugh. Story continues Heitkamp speaks to a packed house of supporters at a rally at Schmidt's Shop in Wyndmere, North Dakota, on Sunday. (Photo: Ilana Panich-Linsman for HuffPost) It was a vote Heitkamp, a moderate former state attorney general who grew up in a town so small her seven-member family made up one-tenth of the population, made clear was directly related to Fords Senate committee testimony that she was 100 percent certain it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her and to Kavanaughs angry, partisan testimony in response. First and foremost, I believed her, Heitkamp told the crowd of about 250 who gathered at a garage to eat bratwursts, drink beer and snack on homemade desserts at the Oktoberfest-themed small-dollar fundraiser in Wyndmere. And I think it was really, really important for our future that we believe her. This has been a tough week for me, Heitkamp said. The political rhetoric is, You cant vote that way if you expect to come back. And I tell people, Ray and Doreen Heitkamp didnt raise me to vote a certain way so that I could win. They raised me to vote the right way. The crowd responded with a standing ovation. Asked if she was planning on supporting Kavanaugh before the Senate Judiciary Committees Sept. 27 hearing, Heitkamp delivered a one-word response: Yep. But she said supporting him after Fords testimony wouldve been a betrayal of her long-time supporters. Its beyond Kavanaugh himself, Heitkamp said in an interview in the back seat of a campaign staffers SUV. Its an affirmation of why they support me. People say politics is local. In North Dakota, politics is personal. That was on display Sunday night in Wyndmere, where Heitkamp seemed to know every attendee on a first-name basis. The crowd, filled with farmers furious over the Trump administrations trade war, was hopeful but not optimistic the rest of the states voters would side with her. Heitkamp hugs a backer at the rally in Wyndmere. (Photo: Ilana Panich-Linsman for HuffPost) What drives peoples votes is whether you have an R or a D next to your name, said Gary Friskan, a soybean, wheat and corn farmer. This is a red state. Still, he hoped Heitkamps middle of the road style would appeal more to voters than Cramers loyalty to Trump. (The congressman once compared voting against Trump to sleeping with women other than his wife.) The commercials for her opponent keep trying to turn her into [Hillary Clinton]. Baloney! he scoffed. Friskan said he and other soybean farmers had lost tens of thousands of dollars because of the trade war, and were worried about losing customers in China and elsewhere permanently if it continued. Heitkamps fight against the trade war had been a key part of her message, but shes now airing television ads defending her vote against Kavanaugh instead. I voted for Neil Gorsuch, Heitkamp says in the 30-second spot, referring to Trump Supreme Court pick confirmed last year. So I know there are plenty of other conservative judges who can fill this job without tearing this country apart. Heitkamp also has engaged in a mini-media blitz, appearing on CBS 60 Minutes and CNN to explain her opposition to Kavanaugh and has become an unlikely online fundraising superstar, bringing in at least $1 million in the days following her vote. The fight over Kavanaugh intensified the spotlight on her race reporters from at least three national outlets were at the fundraiser in Wyndmere. She admits a victory in the Nov. 6 election would be of the come-from-behind variety. To try to make that happen, she said her campaign is focused on identifying and turning out 150,000 to 160,000 supporters (she won her first term in 2012 with just over 161,000 votes). Republicans, meanwhile, say no amount of money or campaigning can save Heitkamp. No matter how much she tries to run to the middle, she cant escape the left-wing resisters and black-masked antifa activists that now define the Democrat Party to much of middle-America, said Andrew Surabian, a GOP strategist and former Trump White House official. The overreach from national Democrats during the Kavanaugh fight was simply the last straw. She is a walking dead candidate at this point. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Heitkamp rides in a car with campaign staff to a campaign event on the Turtle Mountain Reservation on Monday. (Photo: Ilana Panich-Linsman for HuffPost) Heitkamp, 62. started her Monday in the state capital of Bismarck, sharing a stage with Cramer at the conference on energy production, a key subject in the state. She told the crowd her bipartisan approach to energy issues would make her more effective for the state than Cramer. The 57-year-old Republican sought to keep the focus on Kavanugh, saying the newly minted Supreme Court justice would be good for energy production. As Heitkamp traveled on to the Chippewa reservation, the Kavanaugh vote was far from her mind. She met with tribal leaders at the Sky Dancer casinos, where the front doors were still plastered with fliers advertising a rally with Heitkamp that had been set for Saturday; it was canceled because she was still in Washington voting against Kavanaughs nomination. She visited the house of Twila Martin Kekahbah, a former tribal chief, and discussed the unemployment, housing, drug addiction and crime problems on the reservation. She went to the local community college, where a group of tribal leaders was educating voters on how to grapple with a North Dakota law that requires voters to present IDs with residential street addresses. Many tribal members use P.O. boxes instead. Heitkamp and many other Democrats believe the law was passed in response to her 2012 win, when tribal members played a key role in propelling her to an upset over then-Rep. Rick Berg. At the college, she delivered a modified version of her stump speech, tearing into Cramer as someone with a fundamental lack of understanding on tribal issues. Its part of a harsher line shes taken on him in recent weeks, prompted in part by Cramers own questionable comments throughout the debate on Kavanaugh. Cramer, in a recent interview with The New York Times, seemed to disparage the Me Too movement that promotes solidarity among sexual assault victims. He called it a movement toward victimization that the female members of his own family cant relate to. His comments sparked an emotional response from Heitkamp, including her decision to reveal to the New York Times that her mother was a victim of sexual assault. It demonstrates someone who is not knowledgeable of what happens to a victim, it demonstrates a callousness, and its an approach with a certain level of arrogance, she said. Hes demonstrated a lack of knowledge, hes demonstrated a lack of empathy. Cramers campaign didnt respond to a HuffPost email requesting a comment, but a North Dakota GOP spokesman referred to the candidates comments on Tuesday to The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. Cramer told that news outlet that Heitkamps response showed she was unhinged and that the Me Too movement had been weaponized for political purposes at the expense of victims. Women who met with Heitkamp at a home on the reservation of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians surrounded her to offer a blessing. (Photo: Ilana Panich-Linsman for HuffPost) Empathy was a subject Heitkamp returned to again and again as she campaigned over the last few days. She mentioned it in her speech in Wyndmere, in the HuffPost interview and during her time on the reservation. Weve lost the ability to be empathetic, she said at Kekahbahs house. And our nation is divided. A few minutes later, the women at the gathering formed a circle around Heitkamp. Were going to just enclose her, and give her all the power we can, Kekahbah said. Then, she whispered a prayer. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. A shallow 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali early Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said, causing panicked people to flee their homes. The head of Indonesia's geophysics agency said there had been no reports of casualties or damage, although information was still being gathered in East Java province. "The quake didn't trigger any tsunami for sure," Dwikorita Karnawati told AFP. The strong quake's epicentre was in the Bali Sea around 40 kilometres (25 miles) off the eastern end of Java island, according to the USGS, and was felt in Denpasar on the holiday island of Bali. "Wow, that was really strong and it lasted a long time," said a woman named Davy who took refuge in the parking lot of a Bali hotel, several kilometres from where the IMF and World Bank are holding their annual meetings this week. Some guests at the hotel in Nusa Dua, south of Bali's main international airport, briefly fled outside after the strong tremor shook the building. "The quake was very big. I immediately woke up and took my little kids out of the house," Ni Komang Sudiani told AFP. "All my neighbours were also running," said the mother of two. The quake was also felt in Surabaya, the capital of East Java province, which is about 200 km from Situbondo, the nearest town to the quake epicentre. "I felt it for about 10 seconds. People were sleeping but got woken up by it," Tonny Akbar Mahendro told AFP. The tremor comes after a 7.5-magnitude and subsequent tsunami struck off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi -- around 1,000 km northeast of Situbondo -- last month, killing more than 2,000 people. A string of earthquakes in Lombok in eastern Indonesia killed more than 550 people over the summer. Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. Semiconductor stocks have been a mixed bag. Semiconductor stocks have been some of the hottest stocks in the tech sector in recent years, with popular stocks such as Nvidia Corp. (ticker: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) up more than 1,000 percent each in the past three years. But the higher share prices climb, the more important stock selection becomes. Data from Bank of America indicates active fund managers have been dialing back their exposure to the semiconductor group in the past year, but a handful of stocks are still widely held. Here's a look at the nine most popular semiconductor stocks among fund managers. Texas Instruments (TXN) Texas Instruments stock may not have kept pace with Nvidia or AMD in the past few years, but its shares are up a respectable 21 percent over the past year. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya says Texas Instruments' diversification and history of consistent execution make it a top pick for long-term investors, and fund managers seem to agree. TXN stock is held in 33.3 percent of actively-managed funds, making it the most popular semiconductor stock among fund managers. Bank of America has a "buy" rating and $133 price target for TXN stock. Broadcom (AVGO) Broadcom has had a difficult 2018. Its potential merger with Qualcomm (QCOM) was blocked by the U.S. government, and Broadcom's $18.9 billion buyout of CA Technologies (CA) has been widely criticized. Arya is among the critics. He says the CA acquisition will be an unwanted distraction and will dilute Broadcom's top-line growth. With AVGO stock down 3.4 percent in 2018, fund managers are betting on a comeback. AVGO stock is held in 31.3 percent of active funds. Bank of America has a "buy" rating and $300 price target for AVGO stock. Intel Corp. (INTC) Intel is not among the high-flyers in the semiconductor group in 2018. But with semiconductor stock valuations soaring, fund managers seem to still prefer Intel's relative safety and 2.5 percent dividend. Intel is one of the most widely-held semiconductor stock among fund managers, with 30.6 percent of all funds owning some INTC stock. However, Arya says Intel's 10-nanometer processor delays and its chip security issues have created opportunities for competitors such as AMD. Bank of America has a "neutral" rating and $56 price target for INTC stock. Story continues Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) Fund managers' top three semiconductor holdings are all on the conservative side, but Nvidia is the exact opposite. NVDA stock is the quintessential tech growth stock. In the past five years, Nvidia's revenue is up 190 percent, and its share price is up 1,740 percent. Despite its lofty forward earnings multiple of 36.2, Arya says the recent launch of Nvidia's next-generation Turing architecture will keep the growth engine going for the foreseeable future. NVDA stock is held in 28.3 percent of active funds. Bank of America has a "buy" rating and $360 price target for NVDA stock. Qualcomm (QCOM) Qualcomm investors have also been riding a roller coaster of news in 2018. After a potential buyout by Broadcom was blocked in March, Qualcomm terminated its own bid for NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) in July. Instead of pursuing growth via merger, Qualcomm instead decided to invest $30 billion in a stock buyback program, a move which analyst Tal Liani says is the right call for investors. QCOM stock is held in 28 percent of active funds. Bank of America has a "buy" rating and $75 price target for QCOM stock. Applied Materials (AMAT) Applied Materials stock struggled in 2018, declining 23.9 percent on the year. However, in the company's most recent earnings report, it reiterated its fiscal 2020 earnings per share and revenue guidance, and Arya says investors should be looking to buy the stock on the dip. Arya says Applied Materials' product diversification, technical prowess, top-tier support/service offerings and massive scale make it a key beneficiary of secular semiconductor market growth. AMAT stock is held in 27.8 percent of active funds. Bank of America has a "neutral" rating and $49 price target for AMAT stock. Analog Devices (ADI) Arya says Analog Devices stock has several positive long-term catalysts. Roughly half of Analog Devices' sales are industrial, making it a key supplier for the digitization of global industry, a trend Arya calls Industry 4.0. In addition, Arya says Analog Devices has major exposure to the massive 5G wireless network transition. Finally, Analog is deleveraging its balance sheet and will soon resume its $2 billion share buyback program. ADI stock is held in 17.9 percent of active funds. Bank of America has a "buy" rating and $112 price target for ADI stock. Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) Lam Research stock is another semiconductor leader that has been left out of the 2018 rally. Shares are down 5.6 percent this year, but Arya says the company's 20 percent quarter-over-quarter decline in shipments in the September quarter will likely mark the bottom of the current cycle. Arya says Lam has maintained gross margins in the mid-40s and plans to complete its $4 billion buyback program over the next nine months. LRCX stock is held in 17 percent of active funds. Bank of America has a "neutral" rating and $200 price target for LRCX stock. Micron Technology (MU) Analyst Simon Woo says there are three reasons to like Micron Technology stock. First, earnings have been on the rise thanks to higher average sales prices in memory hardware. Second, Micron has been removing risk by using cash flow to deleverage its balance sheet and buy back stock. Finally, Woo says management's long-term product strategies should help protect MU stock from the deep cyclical downturns it has experienced in the past. MU stock is held in 14.7 percent of active funds. Bank of America has a "buy" rating and $85 price target for MU stock. Wayne Duggan is a freelance investment strategy reporter with a focus on energy and emerging market stocks. He has a degree in brain and cognitive sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and specializes in the psychological challenges of investing. He is a senior financial market reporter for Benzinga and has contributed financial market analysis to Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha and InvestorPlace. He is also the author of the book "Beating Wall Street With Common Sense," which focuses on the practical strategies he has used to outperform the stock market. You can follow him on Twitter @DugganSense, check out his latest content at tradingcommonsense.com or email him at wpd@tradingcommonsense.com. Addis Ababa (AFP) - The African Union on Wednesday called for "maximum restraint" in Cameroon following an opposition candidate's declaration of victory following the weekend's presidential vote. Ahead of the official results, Maurice Kamto, a leading opposition challenger with the MRC -- the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon, declared himself winner of the Sunday elections. Kamto's dramatic announcement came a day after the vote which was marred by violence in restive anglophone regions, a low turnout and problems staging the ballot in the conflict-hit areas. With tensions running high over the vote, African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat called for both sides to avoid aggravating the situation. "The Chairperson underlines the need for all political stakeholders to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from any statement or action that could heighten tensions," Faki said in a statement, indicating he was "closely following" developments. "Any claim relating to the electoral process should be handled through the existing legal mechanisms." Cameroonian government officials have dismissed Kamto's remarks as a "non-event," with one minister labelling him an "outlaw". By law, each polling station must submit its results for verification to the Elecam electoral commission and then to the Constitutional Court which is responsible for announcing the final tally within 15 days of the vote in which 85-year-old President Paul Biya sought reelection. But a raft of unofficial results from Cameroon's nearly 25,000 polling stations have already begun circulating on social media. On Monday, Joshua Osih, candidate for the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, had said it was "a bit premature to be giving results" and called on his seven fellow candidates to "respect the law". And the US embassy in Yaounde also called "on all parties to wait until the official results are announced before making pronouncements about the supposed winner," in a post on its verified Facebook account. Heres a look at some of the companies the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you today. Amazon is reportedly dumping a secret recruiting tool, that unintentionally discriminated against women, according to Reuters. The AI tool was designed to screen resumes, rating the best candidates from 1 to 5, but because there are more men in tech jobs, it taught itself to prefer male resumes over those from women. No comment from Amazon. The Home of the Whopper might become King of the Nugget! Starting today, select Burger King stores will begin selling 10-piece chicken nuggets for $1. Burger King is also partnering with Postmates to deliver a free 100 piece chicken nugget meal for $10. This comes as CEO Daniel Schwartz also has plans to open more Burger King restaurants across the US. McDonalds is getting some heat from its franchisees. The Wall Street Journal says a group of restaurant owners are meeting today to talk about working together, to push for changes. That includes battling growing costs to remodel restaurants, and shrinking cash flow. McDonalds says it welcomes the dialogue. ExxonMobil is putting up a million bucks, to battle climate change. The oil giant was once one of the biggest skeptics of global warming, but now its committing $1M, to promote a national carbon tax. The company says a uniform cost for all companies, is the best way to manage the risk and bring down emissions. Netflix is taking a bite out of Apples billion dollar investment in streaming content. Netflix Chief content officer Ted Sarandos told an industry summit in Los Angeles that he has no idea what Apple has planned. He doesnt even know if the people producing the shows for Apple have any idea. Sarandos added that Netflix doesnt put much focus on any competitor. Technically, you can go out right now and buy a 3D printer from Staples for under $300 and start cranking out vases, coasters, candlesticks, even door hinges this afternoon. But do you want to? Will you actually like how any home-printed decor looks? Spoiler...probs not, so here's a better idea: Scroll through all the incredibly chic table lamp designs offered by Gantri, a new company that's using 3D printing to make sustainable designer homewares for way less. (That's designers, plural; Gantri offers pieces by independent designers from all over the world, so the piece you get will look a whole lot more unique than anything you're getting from a big-box store.) They launched last fall with a line of 30 exclusive table lamps available in gray, white, or off-whiteand every single one of them is under $200. The key, of course, is in the 3D printing. Ian Yang, the company's 29-year-old founder, studied at the London School of Economics before moving to San Francisco and joining an open-access studio to learn about laser cutting and other forward-thinking manufacturing processes. "If I can make this a real production process," he thought when he started to learn 3D printing, "I can help designers bring their products to market." Within two years he'd launched Gantri, a company that does just that. Using a sustainable, processed corn from the Netherlands and cutting-edge 3D-printing technology, Ian's staff of engineers, industrial designers, and product technologists are able to launch a design from scratch in about 12 to 14 weeksversus the 18 to 24 months typically required with traditional production. You can imagine how much money that saves, hence the pretty remarkable pricing. For $160 you can have a glowing, iceberg-like lamp by Hannah Fink, a Brooklyn-based artist. Or maybe you're into movement, in which case this rotating Orbit lamp by Quirino studio, a Monterrey, Mexicobased practice, is going to be of interestit swivels around mesmerizingly on the tabletop. There are a broad range of silhouettes from the traditional to the super-funky, all rendered in the smooth matte material that's somehow derived from corn. This variety is due in large part to the fact that Gantri accepts designs from makers all over the worldnot just North America but also Brazil, Colombia, the U.K., Spain, Italy, and the Ukraine. The design submittal process is currently invite-only, but Ian says they want to open it up as time goes on. "We attract designers who really want to build their design brands," Ian says. "One day we want to support everybody." Story continues So why start with lighting, a task that seems kind of complex for the average 3D printer? "Because it's so hard to do!" Ian says with a huge smile. "It's a perfect example of the problem we're trying to solve." High quality, low prices, and the opportunity to support budding designers from all over the world? Yes, yes, and yes. We can't wait to see what category they tackle next. Beirut (AFP) - The Islamic State group launched a deadly counter-offensive on Wednesday to repel US-backed forces advancing on a final jihadist-held pocket of eastern Syria, a monitor said. The IS fighters managed to take hostage several dozen fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The SDF, a Kurdish and Arab alliance, has been waging a month-long assault backed by US-led coalition air strikes to oust IS from a small area in Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor province, including the town of Hajin. On Wednesday, IS launched "a counter-attack against SDF positions around Hajin and nearby towns," the Observatory said. "Violent clashes subsequently erupted and are still ongoing," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. He said IS had killed at least 10 SDF fighters and taken another 35 hostage. The SDF denied any of its fighters had been captured during the attack. "No fighter from the SDF was captured by Daesh on the Deir Ezzor front. This information is not true," SDF media official Mustefa Bali told AFP, using the Arabic acronym for IS. IS published a statement on its social media accounts on Wednesday describing an attack by "soldiers of the caliphate" against SDF forces. The Observatory said IS jihadists had taken advantage of a sandstorm raging in the remote Deir Ezzor province to attack SDF fighters, who could not be protected by coalition warplanes due to poor visibility. In one month of fighting for Hajin, at least 139 SDF fighters and 267 IS jihadists have been killed, the monitor said. The SDF, backed by the coalition, has ousted IS from swathes of northern and eastern Syria, including Raqa, the de facto capital of the jihadists' so-called caliphate. Founded in 2015, the SDF is spearheaded by the People's Protection Units (YPG), a powerful Kurdish armed movement. Hundreds of foreigners have joined the YPG to fight IS. Story continues On Wednesday, the force announced that a French national fighting among its ranks had been killed near Hajin. Farid Medjahed, born in the French city of Marseilles, died on October 6 fighting IS there, the YPG said. It did not say when he arrived in Syria but said it had only been a "short stay". In February, the YPG announced that three European nationals had been killed in clashes in Syria. By Saumya Joseph (Reuters) - Bausch Health Cos Inc, formerly Valeant Pharmaceuticals, said on Monday it received tentative U.S. approval to market its plaque psoriasis lotion, Bryhali. The company plans to launch the lotion in November after receiving final approval from the Food and Drug Administration, pending expiration of exclusivity for a related product, Bausch said in a statement. The FDA's tentative approval comes after a similar treatment from the company failed to win clearance in June. Plaque psoriasis is a chronic condition that causes dry, red skin lesions covered with silvery scales. In clinical trials, Bausch's treatment was generally well-tolerated with no increase in epidermal atrophy - thinning or depression of skin due to reduction of underlying tissue - when applied once daily for eight weeks, the company said. Although topical steroids are frequently used for psoriasis, their long-term use have been limited due to serious side effects such as epidermal atrophy, which was seen in Bristol-Myers Squibb's Ultravate after two weeks of treatment. "It is still unclear if Bryhali will be labeled for longer-term use, but we are encouraged by the press release which hints at tolerability benefits over Ultravate and a longer dosing regimen," Mizuho analyst Irina Koffler said in a note. Mizuho said it estimated Bryhali to bring in revenue of $68 million in 2022, while expecting the lotion to help reach the company's target of doubling the dermatology business over the next five years. U.S.-listed shares of Bausch rose 2.2 percent to $26.90 before the bell. (Reporting by Saumya Sibi Joseph in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva) Lisbon (AFP) - Brazil's government on Wednesday dismissed concerns over country's electronic voting system after the weekend election, saying the technology was "absolutely secure". Frontrunner candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who won the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, blamed problems with electronic polling for denying him an outright victory. The far-right candidate will face leftist Fernando Haddad in the run-off on October 28 after winning 46 percent of the vote to Haddad's 29 percent in the first round. "For us it is a matter of pride we have an electoral system that is absolutely secure and trustworthy," Brazil's Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes told reporters during a visit to Lisbon on Wednesday. "Of course, it is possible in such a vast country that there are problems with some polling stations but they are resolved immediately." The minister said the ballot system allowed results to be tallied in a matter of hours and was monitored by election observers. Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper vowing to crush crime in Latin America's biggest nation, did not formally contest Sunday's result. But his supporters protested outside the national electoral tribunal in the capital Brasilia, chanting "Fraud!" "I am sure that if they had not happened then we would already have the name of the president of the republic tonight," Bolsonaro said during a Facebook broadcast where he discussed polling problems. By Brad Brooks and Ricardo Brito SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - The chief economic advisor to Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's far-right presidential front-runner, is being investigated over accusations of fraud tied to the pension funds of state-run companies, federal prosecutors told Reuters on Wednesday. The investigation of Paulo Guedes, a University of Chicago-trained economist credited with nudging Bolsonaro toward market-friendly policies and tapped as his future finance minister, is the first time that a member of Bolsonaro's inner circle has been the subject of a major corruption investigation. The case has the potential to hurt support for Bolsonaro, who has campaigned on an anti-corruption and anti-crime platform to voters tired of waves of corruption allegations against business executives and politicians. But in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, the president of Bolsonaro's party, Gustavo Bebbiano, said Guedes continued firmly in position as the candidate's economic guru despite the probe. Lawyers for Guedes said the investigation was based on false allegations in the midst of the election "with the principal objective of confusing voters" in what they called "an affront to democracy." An investigator with direct knowledge of the case, who declined to be named, and the federal prosecutor's press office confirmed the probe to Reuters after it was reported by the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper. It alleges Guedes mismanaged 1 billion reais ($267 million) that public pension funds put in his investment vehicles starting in 2009. Through his attorney, Guedes denied any wrongdoing and said the investments in question had yielded returns above contractually established targets, offering to provide all documentation needed to clear up the matter. Previ, one of the public pension funds involved, said it had received above-target returns from its investment in a fund cited in the case, and a subsequent audit found nothing amiss. Bolsonaro, who met Guedes for the first time last year, is not accused of any wrongdoing. Bolsonaro almost won an outright majority in Sunday's presidential election and opinion polls indicate he is on track to beat leftist rival Fernando Haddad in the Oct. 28 run-off vote. Although Bolsonaro has praised Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship and consistently voted to give government more control over the economy during three decades in Congress, Guedes has convinced investors that the 63-year-old former army captain had reversed his thinking on economic policy. Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index and the country's currency, the real, have rallied as Bolsonaro's candidacy gained strength. The Bovespa closed 2.8 percent down and the real lost around 1 percent against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, pressured by the Guedes probe as well as comments from Bolsonaro in an interview that dampened speculation about potential economic reforms. In the past four years, Brazilian investigators have discovered what some have called the world's largest political corruption schemes ever found, put in place under the Workers Party's governments from 2003 to 2016 and involving several mainstream political parties. The extent of the graft schemes has fueled Brazilian voters' outrage at traditional parties, helping to propel the anti-establishment Bolsonaro to the top of the presidential field. INVESTIGATION Prosecutors are probing a decision by funds managed by Guedes to invest in a company in which he was the controlling shareholder, along with tens of millions of reais in payments made as speaking fees to unknown parties using some of this money, the investigator said, confirming the details of the Folha report. The newspaper, citing court documents, said Guedes allegedly worked with executives at the pension funds with strong ties to the Workers Party, whose candidate in the run-off is Haddad. The document seen by Folha said the alleged fraud took place at seven public pension funds, including those for employees from state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Banco do Brasil, state bank Caixa Economica Federal [CEF.UL] and the postal service. The newspaper said the investigation was opened on Oct. 2, five days before Brazil's first-round presidential vote, in which Bolsonaro took 46 percent of the ballots to Haddad's 29 percent. According to the Folha report, investment firms controlled by Guedes launched two funds in 2009 that received 1 billion reais from the public entities over six years. That year, 62 million reais were injected into a company known as HSM Educacional, which Guedes allegedly controlled. The firm allegedly acquired 100 percent of a separate private company, HSM do Brasil, the paper said. In a statement to Reuters, press representatives for HSM said Guedes had never been a controlling partner at the company and he left its board in October 2014. Investigators are looking at millions of reais that HSM do Brasil paid out to speakers at various investment events in Brazil as well as millions spent on personnel, Folha reported, citing documents in the investigation. HSM has been producing corporate events for the past 30 years, with speakers including high-profile foreign CEOs and politicians, the company said in its statement. (Reporting by Brad Brooks and Ricardo Brito; Additional reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro and Gram Slattery in Sao Paulo; Writing by Brad Brooks; Editing by Dan Flynn, Paul Simao and Rosalba O'Brien) There were no signs of the recent contentious confirmation battle inside the Supreme Court Tuesday as Justice Brett Kavanaugh began his new job, asking his first question about 20 minutes into the first argument of the day. Seated on the far right end of the bench, Kavanaugh listened alongside his eight colleagues to Stokeling v. United States, a case about whether a state robbery offense should be classified as a violent felony under the 1984 Armed Career Criminal Act, which is a criminal sentencing law that increases prison sentences after multiple violent felonies. On Oct. 6, Kavanagh was confirmed to the court by a vote of 50-48 in the Senate, a slim victory after multiple women had accused him of sexual misconduct. Within a half hour of the start of his first oral argument on the Supreme Court Tuesday, Kavanaugh had already proved he wouldnt be a silent presence on the bench like Justice Clarence Thomas, who went through a similarly bruising confirmation process in 1991 but was famously quiet during questioning. Heres the first question Kavanaugh asked the counsel for Denard Stokeling, referencing the 2010 case Johnson v. United States: But but, counsel counsel, in Curtis Johnson, you rely heavily on the general statements of the Court, but the application of those general statements was to something very specific: Battery and a mere tap on the shoulder. And all Curtis Johnson seemed to hold was that that was excluded. So why dont we follow what Curtis Johnson seemed to do in applying those general statements to the specific statute at issue here and why wouldnt that then encompass the Florida statute, which requires more than, say, a tap on the shoulder? The judge is sworn in before testifying before the US Senate Judiciary Committee in Capitol Hill: Reuters Newly appointed US Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh has learnt the hard way about the importance of owning the web domain of your own name. Following his controversial nomination to the highest court in the US, the website BrettKavanaugh.com was transformed into a resource for survivors of sexual assault in support of his alleged victims. The site was set up by an activist from Fix The Court, an organisation that aims to make the Supreme Court more accountable, who bought the domain three years ago. In a statement published to the Fix the Court website, the organisation's executive director Gabe Roth said he came up with the idea after witnessing the testimony of Mr Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford before Congress last week. The banner image of BrettKavanaugh.com website reads: 'We believe survivors' (BrettKavanaugh.com) Dr Ford accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexual assault while the pair were at high school, a claim that Mr Kavanaugh denies. "I believe Dr Ford. I believe Prof [Anita] Hill. I also believe that asking for forgiveness is a sign of maturity and strength, not weakness," Mr Roth wrote on Tuesday 9 October. "Watching last nights White House event and listening to the President again cast doubt on veracity of Dr Fords claims, while not hearing a word of contrition from the newest justice, was difficult for many Americans who have experienced sexual misconduct firsthand." https://t.co/t9EWEnyPKS is why you should always buy your names URL. George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) 10 October 2018 The website has become a place to support sexual assault victims at a time when US President Donald Trump is dismissing allegations as a "hoax" brought about "by evil people." In response to such claims, the website states: "The start of Brett Kavanaugh's tenure on the Supreme Court may look like a victory for one interest group or another. But, more importantly, it is putting a national focus on the issue of sexual assault and how we as a country can and should do more to prevent it and to support those who have experienced it. Story continues "This past month, thousands of survivors came forward to tell their stories. We applaud your bravery. We believe you. And if you are seeking additional resources, these groups can offer assistance." Support groups listed on the website include the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), End Rape on Campus (EROC), and Rapes, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN). Following the highly controversial appointment of Mr Kavanaugh, protestors have vowed to continue fighting ahead of the midterm elections. This confirmation is a deeply painful one, not just because of the radical impact it may have on Supreme Court jurisprudence, but because of the message it sends to survivors of sexual violence: that their stories carry little weight with our government, Anna Galland, executive director of the advocacy group MoveOn, said in a statement sent to The Independent. If we organise, mobilise, and vote, we will win. We must all commit to action in coming weeks to take back control of our government from right-wing extremists." A bakery owned by Christians has won an appeal at the UKs highest court over a finding that they discriminated against a customer by refusing to make a cake decorated with the words Support Gay Marriage. Five Supreme Court justices allowed a challenge by the McArthur family in a unanimous ruling in London on Wednesday in what has become widely known as the gay cake case. The legal action was originally brought against family-run Ashers bakery in Belfast by gay rights activist Gareth Lee, who won his case initially in the county court and then at the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal. Announcing the courts decision, its president, Lady Hale, said: This conclusion is not in any way to diminish the need to protect gay people and people who support gay marriage from discrimination. It is deeply humiliating, and an affront to human dignity, to deny someone a service because of that persons race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief. But that is not what happened in this case. Daniel and Amy McArthur of Ashers Baking Company, who refused to make a cake decorated with the words Support Gay Marriage (PA) The legal action was originally brought against family-run Ashers bakery in Belfast (Getty) She went on: As to Mr Lees claim based on sexual discrimination, the bakers did not refuse to fulfil his order because of his sexual orientation. They would have refused to make such a cake for any customer, irrespective of their sexual orientation. The court also said Mr Lee had no claim against Ashers on the grounds of religious belief or political opinion. MORE: Its not over yet! Temperatures set to soar to 25C this week as summer heatwave rolls into autumn MORE: New plans for multi-billion pound Thames Tunnel the largest project of its kind since M25 was completed Lady Hale added: The bakers could not refuse to supply their goods to Mr Lee because he was a gay man or supported gay marriage, but that is quite different from obliging them to supply a cake iced with a message with which they profoundly disagreed. Daniel and Amy McArthur, who have said the law risked extinguishing their consciences, were in court for the ruling. Story continues Mr Lee was also present for the latest ruling in a case which has attracted enormous attention. Gay rights activist Gareth Lee initially brought the action against the bakery (Getty) The bakerys appeal against the finding of discrimination was heard at the Supreme Court sitting in Belfast in May. During the hearing the justices were told that the owners were being forced to act against their religious beliefs. David Scoffield QC, for Ashers, argued that the state was penalising the baking firm, with the courts effectively compelling or forcing them to make a cake bearing a message with which they disagree as a matter of religious conscience. The legal action against Ashers was taken by Mr Lee with support from Northern Irelands Equality Commission. Controversy first flared when Mr Lee, a member of the LGBT advocacy group QueerSpace, ordered a cake in 2014 featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie for a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia. Daniel McArthur (2nd right), managing director of Ashers Bakery and his wife Amy McArthur (right) alongside family members Colin McArthur (left) and Karen McArthur (2nd left) after the original court ruling (Getty) His order was accepted and he paid in full but, two days later, the company called to say it could not proceed due to the message requested. In the original court case, District Judge Isobel Brownlie ruled that religious beliefs could not dictate the law and ordered the firm to pay damages of 500. Mounting an unsuccessful challenge at the Court of Appeal in Belfast in 2016, Ashers contended that it never had an issue with Mr Lees sexuality, rather the message he was seeking to put on the cake. Mr Scoffield told the justices that the case, a simple transaction, raised an issue of principle since those with deeply-held religious or philosophical convictions could be compelled to act against their beliefs. Robin Allen QC, for Mr Lee, said: This was a relatively small incident in his life which has become enormously significant and continues to be so. That is a heavy burden to bear for one individual. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK or Ireland where same-sex marriage is outlawed, with Prime Minister Theresa Mays DUP allies staunch opponents of changing the law. In the market for a cruise holiday soon? You might want to take the recommendations of Conde Nast Traveler readers, who cast their votes for the best cruise lines of 2018. Winners are grouped by size, mega, large, medium and small ships, so that cruises rank on level playing fields. In the mega ship category (defined as ships that carry more than 4,000 passengers), Royal Caribbean International was deemed the No. 1 cruise brand for its portfolio of titan ships including the Symphony of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, and Oasis of the Seas. With amenities that include everything from onboard ziplines to robot bartenders and en-suite tube slides for kids, the ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet are state-of-the-art. Here are the best cruise lines of 2018, as voted by readers of CN Traveler: Mega Ships (more than 4,000 passengers) Royal Caribbean International 87.74 Norwegian Cruise Line 82.60 Large Ships (2,500 to 4,000 passengers) Disney Cruise Line 92.95 Princess Cruises 88.32 Cunard 88.19 Royal Caribbean International 87.02 Holland America Line 85.69 Celebrity Cruises 85.13 Medium Ships (500 to 2,500 passengers) Crystal Cruises 96.96 Viking Ocean Cruises 95.55 Seabourn Cruise Lines 91.73 Regent Seven Seas Cruises 90.99 Cunard 90.40 Oceania Cruises 89.25 Disney Cruise Line 88.72 Silversea Cruises 87.40 Princess Cruises 86.65 Azamara Club Cruises 84.09 Royal Caribbean International 83.75 Holland America Line 83.58 Star Cruises 81.72 Celebrity Cruise 80.31 Small Ships (fewer than 500 passengers) Seabourn Cruise Line 96.40 Crystal Cruises 95.16 Windstar Cruises 92.99 Regent Seven Seas Cruises 92.48 Paul Gauguin Cruises 92.39 SeaDream Yacht Club 92.01 Lindblad Expeditions - National Geographic 91.88 Compagnie du Ponant 91.83 Celebrity Cruises 91.29 Silversea Cruises 91.22 American Cruise Line 90.93 Quasar Expeditions 90.05 Quark Expeditions 86.06 Sea Cloud Cruises 85.48 Star Clippers 82.63 Hurtigruten 81.92 Story continues River Ships Viking River Cruises 98.99 Crystal River Cruises 98.80 Uniworld Boutique River Cruises 98.55 AmaWaterways 97.91 Grand Circle Cruise Line 97.49 Avalon Waterways 95.49 Tauck 94.68 Emerald Waterways 93.89 Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours 93.25 Travcotels 90.83 French Country Waterways 88.93 Vantage 87.85 Find the full results on CNTraveler. Dina Powell, left, stands alongside Steve Bannon and Ivanka Trump in West Palm Beach - REUTERS Dina Powell, the former deputy national security adviser who is in the running to replace Nikki Haley at the UN, is seen as an influential voice on the Middle East and adept at forging powerful relationships. Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would consider selecting the Goldman Sachs executive as the next ambassador to the United Nations, hours after announcing Ms Haley would step down at the end of the year. The US president said Ms Haley would help him make the final pick for her replacement before revealing later that there were five people on his short list for the job. "Dina would love it," Mr Trump said later on board Air Force One. A friend of Ms Haley, Ms Powell served in the first year of the Trump administration as the deputy national security adviser for strategy, and was a key player in diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. Like Ms Haley, the 45-year-old left the White House on good terms, in contrast to some of the senior officials who have been fired or resigned amid controversy. After leaving the White House in January, Ms Powell then joined Goldman Sachss management committee, where she had worked for more than a decade as a partner and the firms global head of impact investing. Swift political rise Born in Egypt, she immigrated to Texas with her family when she was four and speaks Arabic. Her parents "worked seven days a week for all of my childhood that I remember, and they actually believed in the American dream," she told Huffington Post in 2013. "For them, that meant becoming entrepreneurs, making enough money to support their family, and seeking their dream of seeing their girls reach their full potential." She has long been drawn to politics and grew up in a household that supported Ronald Reagan. President Trump says Dina Powell is under consideration for U.N. Ambassador role, but that they have many names. https://t.co/5zpH80eDT8pic.twitter.com/BzTAcnwE1l CBS News (@CBSNews) October 9, 2018 A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, her first internship was with then-Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican. Story continues At the age of 29, Ms Powell became the youngest-ever assistant to the president for presidential personnel, overseeing all of the decisions on appointments in George W. Bush's White House. She later moved into the State Department, where she was assistant secretary of state for Educational and Cultural Affairs and deputy undersecretary of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy in 2005. During her stint there, she was a key voice for the Bush administration in the Middle East. Move to Goldman Leaving the public sector, Ms Powell joined Goldman in 2007 and rose to the highest rank of partner within three years. During her time there, she ran the bank's charitable activities and helped small businesses. One of the charitable initiatives she oversaw was 10,000 Women, which focused on helping female entrepreneurs. "If we really want, in this recession, to help create more jobs around the world and insure economic stability, women are a very smart investment," she told Charlie Rose in 2011. Ivanka Trump sought Dina Powell's help when planning how to help women entrepreneurs Credit: Bloomberg Ms Powell earned in the region of $2 million a year at Goldman Sachs, the New York Times reported in 2013. Whether she would want to leave the lucrative private sector again remains to be seen. Goldman would be reluctant to see her leave, with Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive officer, reportedly valuing her talent at forging and maintaining powerful relationships. Those attributes were echoed by Karen Hughes, who worked with Ms Powell in the State Department. "She has a real gift for both seeing the big picture and putting in place the details. She has a real gift for partnerships, it's one of the things that makes her so effective," Ms Hughes told CNN. Trusted by Trump While working in Mr Trump's administration, she was criticised at times by the nationalist faction in his base of support, including then-chief strategist Steve Bannon. A fellow Goldman alumni, Mr Bannon left the White House last year to return briefly to the right-wing Breitbart website. She was closer with Mr Trumps daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, whos leading efforts to broker a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When her departure was announced, Mr Kushner, who is preparing a long-awaited Middle East peace plan, said Ms Powell would continue to play a key role in our peace efforts. And with her experience working on women's economic empowerment, Ivanka Trump sought Ms Powell's help regarding her White House agenda and how she could help women in business. Something to bear in mind re Haley replacement - when Dina Powell left the White House, Trump almost immediately started asking aides whether he should rehire her for something else. Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 9, 2018 H.R. McMaster, the then national security adviser, called Ms Powell at the time "one of the most talented and effective leaders with whom I have ever served". Ms Powell advised the US president on his meetings with foreign leaders and planned his trips abroad, as well as his visit to the UN General Assembly last year. One senior White House official described Ms Powell's relationship with Mr Trump as "really trusting". "He talks to her all the time," the official told the Washington Post at the time of her departure. "He trusts her judgment. She's been spot-on with her views on foreign leaders and how to handle them and talk to them. It comes with her years of experience." Associated Press The judge in Kyle Rittenhouses murder trial, already the subject of scrutiny for various actions in the case, drew attention again on Monday for his handling of jury instructions. Judge Bruce Schroeder, who had been expected to file final instructions on Sunday, took arguments from attorneys until the last minute Monday as he edited the instructions on the bench. The last-minute activity focused on a crucial procedure developing instructions about how jurors should determine whether Rittenhouse is guilty of each charge against him. Will EastEnders legend Dot Cotton be OK? (BBC Pictures) EastEnders stalwart Dot Cotton will return to the soap next week and receive some potentially devastating health news. Cotton, played by 91-year-old June Brown, has been absent from the soap for months after spending time in Ireland. Returning to Albert Square on Monday, she will confess to Sonia Fowler that shes been secretly suffering from various worrying health symptoms. A concerned Fowler will urge her to get checked over at the local GP, which she will attend on Tuesdays episode. Dot anxiously awaits her GP appointment in next weeks EastEnders (BBC Pictures). While we will see an anxious Cotton waiting for her appointment, the findings wont be revealed until later that episode when Jack Branning demands to know her prognosis. Attempting to reassure her, Jack will recommend she seeks a second medical opinion. But Cotton gets a better idea, and decides to seek advice from her old friend and former resident Walford GP Dr Legg. However, as the two reminisce about old times, Dr Legg will make a startling confession of his own. It was revealed back in July that Dr Harold Legg, played by Leonard Fenton, would be returning to Albert Square after not appearing on EastEnders since 2008. At 92-years-old, Fenton is the oldest actor to ever appear on the BBC One soap. Leonard said of his return: I am very happy to be back at EastEnders and am looking forward to working with June and the rest of the cast and crew again, he said. As for June Brown, she has been playing Dot Cotton on the BBC soap since 1985 and is one of the soaps most beloved and long-lasting characters. But could it be near the end of the road for this fan favourite? Read more EastEnders Dr Legg returns to the soap aged 92 EastEnders Ruby Allen returns to Albert Square Barbara Windsors husband reveals new heartbreak Cairo (AFP) - A son of Egypt's jailed former president Mohamed Morsi was released on bail Wednesday hours after he was arrested for belonging to a banned group and spreading "fake news", a judicial source said. Abdullah Morsi, the youngest son of the deposed Islamist president, was arrested at dawn. He was freed by the prosecutor "on bail of 5,000 pounds" (240 euros), the source said. His father became Egypt's first freely elected leader in 2012, but was overthrown by the military a year later and imprisoned following major protests against his rule. He faces the death penalty. Abdullah Morsi gave an interview to the Associated Press news agency published earlier this month, complaining that his family has only been allowed to visit his father three times in five years. He also said in the AP interview that prison authorities had failed to provide the former president with sufficient medical care for diabetes and high blood pressure. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's regime has led a crackdown against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, which it views as a terrorist organisation. Another son of the deposed president, Ossama Morsi, was arrested in 2016 for "incitement to violence" and is in prison. Abdullah Morsi was arrested at his home early Wednesday, according to judicial and security sources. He was presented to the state security prosecutor during the day. Rights groups frequently accuse Egypt of attempting to silence critics by charging them with belonging to banned groups or disseminating "fake news". Authorities have denied allegations of human rights abuses and say they are protecting the country's security and stability. Since Morsi's ouster, jihadist attacks have killed hundreds of police officers, soldiers and civilians. Security forces have killed hundreds of jihadists since February, according to official sources, as part of a sweeping military campaign in the Sinai Peninsula against hardline militants including members of the Islamic State group. The Twitter (TWTR) outbursts of Elon Musk are due to frustrations with what he sees as shortsighted views about the progress he's making with Tesla (TSLA), former colleague Reid Hoffman told CNBC on Tuesday. Musk is focused "three, five, 10 years into the future," said the LinkedIn co-founder, who worked alongside Musk at online payments system PayPal (PYPL). "Part of his grit, part of his determination to get to that long future is to push back." Just days after settling Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges and just hours after a federal judge asked both sides to justify the agreement, Musk mocked the agency in a tweet lat week, calling it "Shortseller Enrichment Commission." The SEC was going after Musk for alleged false statements in the now-infamous Aug. 7 tweet about having "funding secured" to possibly take the company private. The idea was abandoned on Aug. 24. Prior to the take-private debacle, Musk had been acting erratically for months. Following a bizarre Aug. 16 interview with The New York Times, Musk's actions were under scrutiny again last month after he appeared to smoke marijuana and drink whiskey during comedian Joe Rogan 's podcast. Back in May, Musk rudely cut off analysts on Tesla's first-quarter earnings call. He later apologized for that on the second-quarter call in August. Shares of Tesla were up 3.2 percent Tuesday. But the stock has tanked more than 17 percent this year, and more than 25 percent over the last 12 months. Appearing on " Squawk Box ," Hoffman conceded that Musk should perhaps find a different outlet for his outbursts. "I think it needs to be a different pattern than those tweets." Along with Musk, billionaire Hoffman is a member of the "PayPal Mafia," a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and developed their own tech companies. Hoffman is now with the Greylock Partners venture capital firm. All 12 Flint, Michigan, school buildings plus the school administration headquarters will have ultraviolet water filtration systems installed thanks to a donation by tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Musk Foundation. The Flint school system announced the donation Thursday via Twitter, which even got a response from Musk himself. Youre most welcome, Musk said. Hope to do more to help in the future. Youre most welcome. Hope to do more to help in the future. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2018 Musk committed to the Flint water crisis in July after a random Twitter user egged him on. I heard a bunch of people saying theres NO WAY you could help get clean water to Flint, Michigan, said @DylanSheaMusic. Musk responded six minutes later with a commitment to fund fixing the water in any house in Flint that has water contamination above FDA levels. No kidding, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla added. Please consider this a commitment that I will fund fixing the water in any house in Flint that has water contamination above FDA levels. No kidding. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2018 Flints water crisis dates to 2014, when the city switched the source of its drinking water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), supplied by Lake Huron and the Detroit River, to Flint River. Subsequent tests showed E. coli bacteria, high levels of lead and even disinfection byproducts in the Flint River water. The city switched back to the DWSD water supply more than a year later, and in 2016 President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint, which allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide resources to the area. The city is in the long process of replacing all lead pipes in Flint homes, but residents trust in the state and city may not come back for a long time. Story continues Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) - A powerful explosion hit the Brod oil refinery in northern Bosnia near the Croatian border on Tuesday, injuring eight workers, police said. Firefighters localised the blaze after the explosion around 9.30 p.m. (1930 GMT) at the oil-processing plant, said police spokeswoman Dragana Kerkez. She could not say what caused the explosion. "This was a strong explosion and the detonation could be heard in Slavonski Brod," Kerkez told Reuters, referring to the town just across the Sava River in Croatia. She said eight workers were admitted to the Brod hospital with light injuries. Local media reported that black smoke and an odour were moving down the river towards Croatia. The Brod refinery is majority-owned by Russian state oil company Zarubezhneft. (Reporting by Gordana Katana in Banja Luka and Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Peter Cooney) Sofia (AFP) - German police have arrested a man suspected of the rape and murder of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova, Bulgarian officials said Wednesday. But Bulgarian prosecutors said that, at least for now, the killing does not appear linked to her work as a journalist. The body of 30-year-old Marinova -- who presented a current affairs talk programme called "Detector" for the small TVN television channel -- was discovered on a riverside path in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse on Saturday. Authorities said she died from blows to the head and suffocation. She was also raped. The Bulgarian suspect was picked up late Tuesday at the request of Bulgarian authorities, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told a news conference. "We have enough proof linking this person to the scene of the crime," he said. German police confirmed a 20-year-old man was arrested in the town of Stade near Hamburg on suspicion of raping, robbing and killing Marinova. A German police statement said that the process of extraditing the man to Bulgaria had begun and that a request had been filed with the relevant regional court. Such procedures under the European arrest warrant can take anything from a few days up to several weeks to complete. Bulgaria's chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov named the suspect as Severin Krasimirov, born in 1997. "At this stage, we do not believe that the murder is linked" to Marinova's work, Tsatsarov said. "But we are continuing to look at all hypotheses." "The evidence that we have at this stage leads us to believe it was a spontaneous attack to sexually abuse the victim." - Politically motivated? - The attack has shocked the country and drawn international condemnation amid speculation the murder could be linked to Marinova's work as a journalist. An episode of her programme aired on September 30 featured interviews with two investigative journalists from Bulgaria and Romania who had been working on corruption allegations. Story continues She is the third journalist to be murdered in Europe in the past 12 months after Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February and Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017. However, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov lashed out at international bodies and rights groups which had been quick to assume a political motive behind the murder. "In just three days, I've read monstrous things about Bulgaria. None of them true," he told the news conference. "We, as a country, did not deserve to be smeared like this... while everyone has been working (to solve the crime) not 100, but 1,000 percent." European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans had been among the first to suspect a political motive. "Shocked by the horrendous murder of Victoria Marinova. Again a courageous journalist falls in the fight for truth and against corruption," he tweeted Sunday, not long after the news of the murder broke. And the UN's cultural agency, UNESCO, similarly said that "attacks on journalists erode the fundamental human right to freedom of expression and its corollaries, press freedom and free access to information." Bulgaria is regarded as a laggard in the EU in terms of press freedom, ranking 111th out of 180 countries, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Widespread corruption, shady media ownership and suspected collusion between journalists, politicians and oligarchs have made objective reporting a constant obstacle course, according to RSF. - Candlelight vigils - The Bulgaria-based Association of European Journalists said reporters from small regional and local media are under particular pressure and even face threats from local businessmen and politicians, often leading to self-censorship. But a number of experts in Bulgaria were more sceptical about a political motive, arguing that Marinova was not an investigative journalist and the way the killing was carried out did not fit in with such a scenario. Violence against women has also been widespread in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee rights group said 19 women have already been killed in the country so far this year as a result of abuse. Several hundred people, many in tears, attended a vigil in Ruse on Monday, lighting candles and laying flowers in front of a portrait of Marinova. A similar tribute was held in Sofia. Graham Norton (Credit: REX/Shutterstock) While Graham Norton always appears to be having a wonderful time on his BBC talk show, sometimes his guests arent always on the same page. Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, he revealed that some of his worst guests would be the ones that youd least expect. A recent outing with the stars of the movie Oceans 8, for example, saw him trying to corral Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna and Helena Bonham Carter all at the same time. I felt like the guy driving the bus on a hen party, he said. For 45 minutes people were talking over each other and laughing. They were having a great time but the audience was nonplussed. (Credit: BBC) On the opposite end of the scale, Robert De Niro wasnt quite the career highlight hed hoped either. Hes not a storyteller, or very verbal, Norton went on. Hes a benign presence. Last time he started telling a story he went on and on. We were all leaning in, willing it to be amazing then he finally went, why am I telling this? Nobody had an answer. We cut it. Norton has hosted The Graham Norton Show since 2007, becoming the leading chat show in the UK over that time. Hes now in his 24th series, and is among the BBCs highest earners. Of the balance needed to create a successful format, he added: You want the big Hollywood stars on the sofa, and you plan the rest around them. If theyre a particularly precious star, then you wont put on a very rude comic with them or some sort of drug-addled rock star We save those for Christmas. This weekends show finds him welcoming Whoopi Goldberg, Jamie Dornan, Rosamind Pike, Harry Connick Jr and K-Pop sensation BTS. Read more Seann Walsh picture flirting with Emily Atack Barbara Windsors husbands reveals heartbreak Turnbull and Fry effect on prostate cancer hailed by NHS Greece has banned overweight tourists from riding donkeys (Caters) A Greek island has slapped a ban on overweight tourists from riding donkeys over reports of shocking spinal injuries. Pictures of obese holidaymakers on Santorini climbing narrow steps on top of the animals have prompted lawmakers to act. Animal rights activists claim the animals are being forced to carry heavy loads and work for long hours, seven days a week with no shelter, rest or water. They say the donkeys are left with spinal injuries and open wounds as a result. Authorities say the donkeys are being left with shocking spinal injuries (Caters) Now, Greeces Ministry of Rural Development and Food has published a new set of regulations regarding donkeys wellbeing that state donkeys giving tourists rides in Santorini should not carry any loads heavier than 100kg, or one fifth of their weight. The bulletin states: Under no circumstances should animals be used that are unfit for work i.e., ill animal, injured, animals in an advanced pregnancy as well as animals with poor maintenance of hooves. The animals should be given appropriate and adequate food and fresh drinking water daily, into containers which cannot be contaminated and are cleaned at least once a day. MORE: Christian bakers WIN Supreme Court ruling that they discriminated against Support Gay Marriage cake MORE: New plans for multi-billion pound Thames Tunnel the largest project of its kind since M25 was completed The bulletin adds: Working equines should not be loaded with excessive weight for their size, age or physical condition. The load cannot exceed the weight of 100kg, or one fifth of their body weight. Elisavet Chatzi, 45, a volunteer from Athens who took part in protests in Santorini over donkeys treatment there earlier this year, said: Its a very big step, I think all our hard work has paid off. The situation in Santorini has been going on for many years and it cannot be resolved in one day. Greeces Ministry of Rural Development and Food has published a new set of regulations regarding donkeys wellbeing (Caters) We have won our fight because of the international media attention on the topic. No one could ever believe that new regulations would be set. Story continues The next day after the bulletin was released, I was told a tourist had been carried up the hill by three different donkeys, so as not to exhaust them. However, other campaigners allege that nothing has changed on the island despite the new rules. Maria Skourta, 42, the leader of the Athens branch of Direct Action Everywhere, said: While this [the bulletin] means they will stop carrying fat tourists, the donkeys are still forced to carry cement, appliances, and all sorts of heavy weights. Port-au-Prince (AFP) - The death toll from the earthquake that struck northwest Haiti over the weekend has risen to 17, with nearly 350 others injured, the interior ministry said Tuesday. Nine people were killed in the coastal city of Port-de-Paix, the closest major town to the quake's epicenter. Seven more died in Gros-Morne, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the southeast and one was killed in the city of Saint-Louis du Nord, the ministry said. Emergency personnel deployed to the quake zone have said roughly 7,800 homes were either destroyed or damaged in the 5.9-magnitude tremor, according to the authorities. In Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, building codes are often not respected, meaning that an earthquake of even a moderate size can result in fatalities and level buildings. The country's Nord-Ouest department, where Port-de-Paix is located, is the worst-off part of Haiti, with many areas isolated due to the dire state of the roads. The quake and several aftershocks were felt as far away as the capital Port-au-Prince, sparking fear among residents still reeling from the massive 2010 earthquake that left at least 200,000 people dead. By Joseph Guyler Delva PORT-DE-PAIX (Reuters) - The weekend earthquake which battered Haiti killed 17 people, authorities said on Tuesday, and damaged or destroyed nearly 2,500 houses, sparking fears that many buildings are in a precarious state in the impoverished Caribbean country. The shallow, magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck northern Haiti on Saturday, spreading panic, particularly around Port-de-Paix, a coastal town that absorbed the brunt of the shockwave. Two more people were confirmed dead on Tuesday, taking the death toll to 17, according to Haiti's civil protection agency. Another 333 people were injured, it said. Prime Minister Jean Henry Ceant said 2,280 houses were damaged and 168 destroyed. The quake, centered just off the north coast, was one of the strongest to hit Haiti since a 7.0-magnitude earthquake near Port-au-Prince killed tens of thousands of people in 2010. There have been several aftershocks, causing alarm around Port-de-Paix, particularly inside the local prison. "The prison walls are all cracked by the earthquake, and the building may collapse and kill all of us any time," inmate Dosty Pierre, 30, said from his prison cell. He and other prisoners urged authorities to move them. The national administrative police chief, Carl-Henry Boucher, told Reuters that the penitentiary authorities in the capital were working on the issue, but could not say when the prisoners would be moved to a different jail. On Sunday, prisoners organized a riot to escape and got out of their cells, but guards and riot police foiled the jail break, said Jackson Hilaire, police chief for the northwest region. (Additional reporting by Cheslie Jean Baptiste in Port-au-Prince; Editing by Christine Murray and Nick Zieminski) Hillary Clinton accused President Donald Trumps ceremonial swearing-in of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of being a political rally that further undermined the image and the integrity of the court. What was done last night in the White House was a political rally, Clinton told CNNs Christiane Amanpour Tuesday. And that troubles me greatly. It saddens me. Because our judicial system has been viewed as one of the main pillars of our constitutional government. Trump hosted a celebratory swearing-in for Kavanaugh Monday night in the White House East Room, where he thanked the Republican senators who supported the confirmation and apologized to Kavanaugh and his family for the emotional process. On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure, Trump said at the live-broadcasted event, NBC News reports. Kavanaughs confirmation hearings were wrought with political divide and emotional accusations, as three women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct from Kavanaughs youth. The FBIs supplemental background investigation found no corroboration for their stories, however, and Kavanaugh was narrowly approved by the Senate on Saturday. Trump has since claimed without evidence that the masses of Americans who protested Kavanaughs confirmation were merely paid to be there, saying Monday that the entire confirmation process was based on lies and deception. To Clinton, this reaction was no surprise. The presidents been true to form, she told CNN. He has insulted, attacked, demeaned women throughout the campaignreally for many years leading up to the campaign. And hes continued to do that inside the White House. Clinton added that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, thinks Democrats need to be tougher moving forward. You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about, she added. Thats why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate, thats when civility can start again. But until then, the only thing Republicans seem to recognize is strength. By James Pomfret HONG KONG (Reuters) - Some Hong Kong lawmakers walked out of the Legislative Council as city leader Carrie Lam was about to give her annual policy address on Wednesday, protesting against the rejection of a work visa for a senior British journalist. Chanting "Protect media freedoms" and holding placards that said "Free Press. No Persecution", around a dozen pro-democracy lawmakers left the chamber before Lam gave a 45-minute speech laying out policy priorities for the former British colony. The protest came after Hong Kong last week rejected a visa renewal application from Victor Mallet, the Asia editor for the Financial Times newspaper, who in August hosted a speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club by a pro-independence activist. Hong Kong authorities and Lam have so far refused to explain the visa decision. Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" principle, with the guarantee of a high degree of autonomy and freedoms, including freedom of the press, not enjoyed elsewhere in China. But talk of independence is anathema to Communist Party rulers in Beijing. "We were expressing our anger and disgust at Carrie Lam," said pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo who took part in the protest. "She is practically turning Hong Kong into an international joke ... She's quite determined to rule by fear." The FCC, one of Asia's leading press clubs, said it neither endorsed nor opposed the views of its speakers, but was an institution defending the right to free speech. The visa denial has kicked off a storm of protest and has drawn criticism from the United States and Britain. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday suggested the visa rejection was "politically motivated" and he called on authorities to reconsider. Critics say China's authoritarian reach is creeping further into Hong Kong. "Authorities in mainland China routinely restrict peoples ability to engage in peaceful advocacy and public discussions on grounds of 'national security' by using this vaguely and broadly defined concept as a pretence to place unjustified restrictions on the exercise of these freedoms," Amnesty International wrote in a statement. "The government in Hong Kong also seems to be pursuing a broadened concept of 'national security'." "RED LINE" Since taking office last July, Lam has faced several challenges including an economy and financial markets left vulnerable by the U.S.-China trade war, and one of the world's most expensive property markets. Political tensions between democracy and independence activists resisting China's tightening grip on the city have continued to simmer. In her speech, Lam gave her strongest warning yet against those seeking to split Hong Kong from China. "Hong Kong will not tolerate any acts that advocate Hong Kong's independence and threaten the country's sovereignty, security and development interests. "We will fearlessly take actions against such acts according to the law in order to safeguard the interests of the country and Hong Kong," Lam wrote in a full text version of her address. Senior Chinese officials including President Xi Jinping have warned any undermining of national sovereignty is a "red line" that cannot be crossed. Some Chinese officials and pro-Beijing politicians have stepped up calls in recent months for Hong Kong to enact new national security laws under Article 23 of the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law. This provision states that Hong Kong must enact laws to prohibit acts of treason, secession, sedition and subversion against the Chinese government. An attempt to introduce such legislation in 2003, however, drew nearly half a million protesters on to the streets, leading to its eventual shelving. Lam reiterated in her policy address that Hong Kong is duty-bound to enact such laws, but only when there is a "favorable social environment". She didn't specify a timeframe. "This issue has aroused extensive public concern and intense discussion on the legislation for Article 23," she said. "I will listen to these views earnestly and explore ways to enable the Hong Kong society to respond positively to this constitutional requirement." (Reporting by James Pomfret, Clare Jim, Donny Kwok; Editing by Darren Schuettler, Neil Fullick and Nick Macfie) Hong Kong (AFP) - Hong Kong's leader Tuesday refused to say why the city had denied a visa to a leading Financial Times journalist, despite escalating demands for an explanation of the unprecedented challenge to freedom of the press. Victor Mallet, the FT's Asia news editor and a British national, angered authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong by hosting a speech at the city's press club by Andy Chan, the leader of a tiny pro-independence political party, in August. Chan's party was later banned as Beijing cracks down on any pro-independence sentiment in the semi-autonomous city. An application to renew Mallet's work visa was refused and on Sunday he was given seven days to leave Hong Kong. Facing questions for the first time since the visa denial emerged last week, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who is appointed by a pro-Beijing committee, said the decision had been handed down by immigration authorities. She said linking it to the Chan talk was "pure speculation". "As a rule -- not only locally, but internationally -- we will never disclose, the immigration department will not disclose, the individual circumstances of the case or the considerations of this decision," Lam told reporters. She refused to directly acknowledge the specifics of the speculation over why Mallet was denied the visa. However, Lam said the government "will not tolerate any advocacy of Hong Kong independence and things that harm national security, territorial integrity and developmental interests". She refused to comment on how Mallet could be linked to any of those potential threats when it was pointed out that he was not an independence advocate but had simply chaired a talk by Chan at the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club, which has also hosted talks by Chinese officials. Asked whether journalists could now be punished for interviewing independence activists or writing about independence, Lam said she could give no guidance but insisted that freedom of reporting and expression were "core values". Story continues Pro-democracy lawmakers said they would table a motion summoning Lam and the immigration chief to the legislature to explain. Jeremy Hunt, Britain's foreign secretary, urged authorities to "reconsider this decision", saying in a statement: "In the absence of an explanation from the authorities we can only conclude that this move is politically motivated." The Financial Times said it will appeal against the rejection of Mallet's renewed work visa. - International concern - Hong Kong enjoys rights unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and the press, enshrined in a joint agreement made when the city was handed back to China by Britain in 1997. But there are growing fears those rights are disappearing. Beijing regularly denies visas to foreign journalists on the mainland but it has not been a tactic used in Hong Kong. "This undermines Hong Kong's freedom of speech and freedom of the press, both guaranteed by the Joint Declaration, and the Basic Law," Britain's Hunt said Tuesday, referring to Hong Kong's mini-constitution. The United States, the European Union and Canada have also expressed concern. The city's most influential lawyers have demanded an explanation and Hong Kong's American Chamber of Commerce warned curtailing press freedom could damage the city's competitiveness. A journalists' alliance has handed over petitions with more than 20,000 signatures to the government calling for answers. Mallet, who has not spoken publicly, said he was "very grateful" to those who had signed, in Facebook and Twitter posts Tuesday. Political analyst Willy Lam told AFP it was "very likely" that instructions had come from Beijing to penalise those who were seen as advocating independence. "(Carrie Lam) certainly can't contradict orders given by Beijing, including in this case," said Lam, a professor of China studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Some pro-Beijing figures have publicly welcomed the ousting of Mallet, including well-known commentator Wat Wing-yin who wrote in conservative newspaper Ta Kung Pao: "We only asked you to leave and did not execute you by shooting. That is already the most civilised of protests." By Jon Herskovitz (Reuters) - After making landfall in Florida on Wednesday, Hurricane Michael is forecast to sweep across the Carolinas, delivering a fresh blow to an area still trying to recover from the ravages of Hurricane Florence last month. The storm will not hit the region with the same intensity as Florence, but its high winds and heavy rain have the potential to flood the same rivers that overflowed last month and rip apart structures that are still being rebuilt, officials said. On its current projected track, the storm is expected to hit central North and South Carolina from Wednesday night, with maximum sustained winds of around 50 miles per hour (80 kph). It could dump as much 2 to 5 inches (5-13 cms) of rain in parts of the region, according to the National Weather Service. Areas hardest hit by Florence, which caused billions of dollars in damage and killed 50 people, will not suffer a head-on blow, but that could change if the storm's path changes, the Weather Service said. I know people who weathered Florence last month and other storms before dont want to even think about another one, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said on Tuesday. "But we have to. So Im asking you to be watchful and alert, and to get ready. Florence ripped through parts of southern and southeast North Carolina, causing major damage to several more than century-old rural communities that now face an uncertain future. Areas of southeastern North Carolina hit by Florence could feel tropical storm force winds. Further inland, winds are expected to be less powerful, but strong enough to rip tarps off roofs damaged by Florence, the governor's office said. "The ground remains saturated in many areas from Florences rainfall, and any heavy rainfall from Michael may quickly lead to additional flooding," the National Weather Service said. Coastal flooding is expected, especially with each high tide. The highest risk of storm surge will occur on Thursday, and vulnerable low spots along the beaches or those where the shoreline was weakened from Florence are at the greatest risk, it added. Story continues The storm is forecast to move quickly across the Carolinas, which should see weather conditions improve from Thursday. As of Tuesday afternoon, neither state had ordered evacuations but that could change depending on Michael's strength. The South Carolina Office of Emergency Management told residents to be vigilant. The exact location and the severity of what Hurricane Michael does to our state will depend on its intensity, Emergency Director Kim Stenson said. In Conway, South Carolina, located about 15 miles northwest of coastal Myrtle Beach, roads and bridges were closed for about a week after the Waccamaw River overflowed during Florence. Michael's approach is bringing a fresh wave of fear. "We're all pretty nervous here. The river is still at flood stage," J.T. Fleischman, manager of the Daisy Fair Flowers in Conway, said by telephone. Fleischman, 26, said he hoped Michael brings wind and not more water, or "we're going to get stuck here again." (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Additional reporting by Harriet McLeod in Charleston, S.C.; Editing by Frank McGurty and Leslie Adler) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that Brexit is one of the biggest risks for global financial stability. As part of its new Global Financial Stability Report, the IMF said on Wednesday that financial institutions have to step up their preparations for a post-Brexit landscape and prepare for the worst case scenario a no-deal Brexit, also known as a hard Brexit. This type of disorderly Brexit is where the UK crashes out of the European Union without any agreements in place. That would throw into question the rules surrounding cross-border trade, immigration, and financial services. The IMF said that financial institutions need to look at measures for a no-deal Brexit in as much detail as possible. READ MORE: What is a no-deal Brexit? The key things you need to know The two-yearly IMF report is one of the most comprehensive reviews it has carried out since the 2008 crash and is a health assessment of the financial system. The group recently downgraded global growth forecasts. The IMF said that a disorderly Brexit could also adversely affect market sentiment and this kind of pressure could set off sharp tightening of global financial conditions. A no-deal Brexit is also tipped to spark European financial market fragmentation, meaning that money cannot flow around the system efficiently. International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde. Photo: Reuters Washington-based IMF said that the continuity of financial contracts is one of the most pressing issues for derivatives in the short-term, namely through the transition period, which follows after Britain leaves the EU on 29 March, 2019. While there is no official confirmation of how long the transition period will be, it is tipped to end on 31 December 2020. The derivatives contracts in question centre around euro clearing, which is worth 817bn (930bn, $1tn) in daily business. When banks and other financial institutions trade, those transactions need to go through a clearing process before they are settled. London is the international centre for euro clearing, which is the settlement of trades done in euros. Story continues READ MORE: No-deal Brexit: UK will temporarily protect 817bn daily euro clearing business This week, the UK government released one of its latest technical notices, saying that it that it will use legislation under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, known as the Act, to introduce a range of transitional arrangements that will maximise continuity and minimise disruption to firms and consumers as we leave the EU, including in the no-deal scenario. The government is releasing 84 technical notices intended to explain how everyone, from the farmers and financiers, will be affected by a no-deal Brexit. While the Bank of England has estimated that 41tn of derivatives face legal uncertainty after Brexit if the EU does not move to maintain existing rules, its financial policy committee issued a statement on Tuesday outlining that the UKs banks and financial systems were ready for all the worst-case Brexit scenarios. But on the other hand, it was concerned about how the European Union would cope if politicians on both sides are unable to reach a final Brexit deal. The IMF added in its report that there is growing anxiety that a no-deal departure is becoming more and more likely. Its unsurprising considering prime minister Theresa May recently used her Conservative party conference speech to say that Britains shouldnt be afraid of a no-deal Brexit and that she was willing to drag the UK out of the bloc without any agreements in place. However, we may know by the end of this month what a Brexit deal will look like as these next two weeks will host a crowded schedule of talks ahead of a pivotal summit. Najaf (Iraq) (AFP) - In the covered alleyways of old Najaf in Iraq, poetry and philosophy books compete on laden shelves with economic treatises, the Koran and other theological tomes for students' attention. Since leaving his native Bangladesh for the Shiite holy city three years ago, religious student Mohammed Ali Reda has regularly frequented secondhand bookstores. There are many like him in Najaf. Some wear turbans -- black for descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, and white for religious scholars. "I am still at the start of my apprenticeship", said Reda, in one of the dozens of bookshops in the city's Howeish market. Wearing a simple white robe and scarf, he speaks in hesitant Arabic, like his Iranian, Pakistani and Turkish student peers. "For the moment, we have lessons in Arabic, law and Islamic morals", he added. The 19-year-old avidly seeks advice on books on Islamic law, religious principles and other lessons of Shiite Islam. While Iraq is majority Shiite, only a minority follow this strand of Islam in Reda's homeland, like most of the rest of the Muslim world. - 'A city apart' - Several decades Reda's senior, Mohannad Mustapha Jamal el-Din -- a religious student turned teacher -- also feels at home among the bookstalls. Najaf's 750-year-old market helps make it a "city apart", he enthused. Located 150 kilometres (95 miles) south of Baghdad, the city welcomes millions of Shiite pilgrims every year. They come to visit the tomb of Imam Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed and a founding figure of Shiite Islam. Najaf "is like no other city in Iraq -- (it's) steeped in religion and literature", said Jamal el-Din, sporting the black turban. Among the crowds of religious students, there are also poetry lovers. Some, like Jamal el-Din, have a foot in both camps. "One can be versed in both fields -- (knowledge of) one does not preclude the other". Iraqi poet Mohammed Mahdi al-Jawahiri could be found in Najaf's alleyways and bookstores in the 1920s, as he progressed from strict religious instruction to militant journalism in Baghdad. Story continues Twenty-one years after his death, his collections sit on shelves that heave with a splendid array of titles, stretching to the arcane such as "Islamic economy -- Marxist or Capitalist?" Other one-time students have found their calling in the maze of Najaf's old city, and become famous in their own right. - Bell and Sistani - Examples include the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority, and Mohammed Bakr Sadr, a great Shiite thinker. Sadr was killed by former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, and was an uncle of political heavyweight Moqtada Sadr, whose electoral list won the largest number of seats in Iraq's legislative elections in May. Until the 1950s, secondhand bookstores held weekly meetings for students in Najaf, according to Hassan al-Hakim, an expert in history and Islamic civilisation. They "gathered near Imam Ali's tomb and every Friday they sold works at auction, including many original editions", said the professor of Kufa University, who has set up a heritage association for Najaf. Famed British archaeologist Gertrude Bell "visited the Najaf book market" in the early 20th century, Hakim added proudly. The academic contends that the city's special status should not be threatened by the shift of much academic literature online. "We want our students to view books as their primary source, ahead of the internet" for verified information, Hakim said. And "by looking for a book, we can find others that interest us", he noted. Rome (AFP) - Italy's anti-corruption authority warned the government Wednesday it had left the door open to mafia infiltration in the reconstruction of a bridge in Genoa that collapsed in August, killing 43 people. A plan to waiver regulations to speed up the reconstruction process "also entails the waiver of the antimafia code", the body's president Raffaele Cantone told a lower house of parliament hearing. "There are many activities linked to the reconstruction, from the movement of earth to the disposal of rubble, in which mafia companies, unfortunately, have undoubted know-how," he said. The decades-old viaduct crumbled in a storm, slamming down onto railway tracks along with dozens of vehicles in a disaster which stunned and angered the country. The government has come under pressure for moving too slowly with the reconstruction process, but Cantone warned that awarding the contract to replace the collapsed Morandi bridge without a public tender could facilitate organised crime. He said the mafia was "looking to infiltrate" the northern Italian region of Liguria, telling parliament that "a very high barrier against this risk is therefore necessary". Italy's main organised crime groups -- Sicily's Cosa Nostra, Naples' Camorra and Calabria's 'Ndrangheta -- are all rooted in southern Italy. But in recent decades they have been expanding into the richer north, increasingly eschewing violent crime as they seek to infiltrate the business and political worlds to make money. Police believe the 'Ndrangheta in particular is using legitimate activities in the north to recycle the huge amounts of cash that their illicit drugs business generates. President Donald Trumps daughter Ivanka said she wont take Nikki Haleys place as ambassador to the United Nations. I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley, Ivanka Trump said in a tweet Tuesday. That replacement will not be me. Ivanka Trump @IvankaTrump It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me. It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me. Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 9, 2018 The president said earlier in the day that his daughter would be an incredible ambassador to the UN, but Id be accused of nepotism. She and her husband, Jared Kushner, are currently senior advisers to the president on the White House staff. Im not sure theres anybody more competent, the president added. Haley will leave her job as ambassador by the end of the year, the president said earlier in an announcement that surprised many in the White House including Chief of Staff John Kelly and Vice President Mike Pence. The president said he is considering Goldman Sachs Group Inc.s Dina Powell as a potential replacement along with others. Another potential Haley successor is the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, who quickly won Twitter endorsements from conservative broadcaster Hugh Hewitt and several Trump associates. Ivanka Trump earlier tweeted praise for Haley. Manila (AFP) - With Canada on the verge of becoming the world's second nation to legalise recreational marijuana, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that countries should think twice before opening that door. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was in the Philippines for a regional meeting, told AFP the organisation supports availability of drugs like marijuana for medical reasons. "Of course we believe that people who need it, especially for pain management, should have it. There should be access," he said. That access should be clearly regulated, he added, and throwing open the doors to full legalisation carries its own health risks. "I think any addictive substance is not good for human health," he said. "We wouldn't encourage countries to follow those who are actually... legalising it." As he spoke, Canada was a week away from allowing for adults to buy, grow and consume cannabis, the second nation in the world to do so after Uruguay's move five years ago. - 'Understand impact' - Canadian officials have justified legalisation on the grounds that it would take traffickers and dealers out of the equation and protect young people. Nine American states have also given the greenlight to recreational use, and many more allow it for medical purposes. But Tedros said, similar to alcohol and tobacco, drugs like marijuana needed to be controlled because of the risk they posed outside medical settings. He pointed to the strides nations around the world have made in curbing tobacco smoking, which the WHO considers to be the substance that causes the most damage to health globally. While use is levelling off or even decreasing in some countries, WHO estimates there are still over a billion smokers globally. As cannabis legalisation grows, the United Nations figures point to a much smaller number of users, with 2013 numbers showing nearly 182 million non-medical users. Story continues For countries that do proceed with recreational legalisation, Tedros said it is key that they closely monitor the impact on their citizens' health. Legalisation has already prompted a range of questions on public safety that Canadian authorities have had to broach. They have reminded motorists that driving while high is still illegal, while soldiers are to be banned from smoking or otherwise consuming the drug up to eight hours before reporting for duty. "We are encouraging them to understand its impact and do assessments from the start," Tedros added. "Legalising it we hope will not mean that they are really not to be encouraged to study its impact." NEW ORLEANS (AP) The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Tuesday from a man convicted of joining a New Orleans police officer in the killing of her fellow officer and two other people during a 1995 restaurant robbery. The justices declined to review a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that upheld Roger LaCaze's three first-degree murder convictions. Lawyers for LaCaze said the judge should have stepped aside from the trial because of an appearance of possible impropriety. The judge's signature is on a form that the officer convicted in the killings, Antoinette Frank, used to obtain a handgun from the police evidence room. The judge denied that the signature was his. Authorities believe the weapon may have been used in the killings. But prosecutors say it was never proven that the gun was the murder weapon. They said the judge had no need to step aside because he did nothing wrong. Frank's arrest for the murders rocked a police department already plagued by scandal in the 1990s. Prosecutors said she and LaCaze murdered officer Ronald Williams II, Ha Vu and her brother, Cuong Vu. The Vus' parents owned the Kim Anh Restaurant in eastern New Orleans, and both Frank and Williams moonlighted there as security guards at times. Frank left the restaurant after the shootings and returned later under the guise of bringing help, a detective said at the time. But other Vu family members who hid in a large cooler during the rampage, identified her when she returned. Frank is on death row for the killings. LaCaze, who has long denied taking part in the killings, is serving a life sentence. (REX/Shutterstock) Former glamour model and reality television star Katie Price has been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving. She allegedly crashed her bright pink Range Rover into a bush in south east London on her return home from a party. Police said the 40-year-old remained at a South London station after being arrested at approximately 2am. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: At approximately 2am, British Transport Police officers came across a car showing signs of damage stationary at the roadside in Shooters Hill Road, Woolwich. A 40-year-old woman who was inside the car was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving. She was taken to a south London police station where she remains. Officers from the Met investigate. Inquiries continue. Price was reportedly attending the 30th birthday party of her ex-boyfriend Kris Boyson in Bexleyheath hours prior to her arrest. Katie Price with ex-boyfriend Kris Boyson in July 2018 (REX/Shutterstock). Boyson was photographed at the Plumstead Police Station in South East London Wednesday morning, presumedly waiting for the release of his ex-partner. The Metropolitan Police has since confirmed that she has been released as of Wednesday afternoon. If charged and found guilty, Price could face a sentence of up to six months in prison. Prior to her arrest, mother-of-five Price was completing a 28-day stint at rehab facility The Priory for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment. 2018 has proved to be a turbulent year for Price. In February Price was banned from driving for six months after driving 60mph on the 50mph A24. In July she reportedly turned herself into the police after driving during her ban to take disabled son Harvey to the hospital. And back in May Price announced she had split from her husband of five years, Kieran Hayler. She is also just weeks away from her October 30 Individual Voluntary Agreement deadline, for which she must prove a debt repayment plan before the High Court or face bankruptcy. Read more Katie Prices ex Kieran Hayler hints at writing tell-all book 10 life moments a Katie Price movie must include Peter Andre says he is trying to protect Junior and Princess Washington (AFP) - New US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh dove into his new job Tuesday, shrugging off the controversy over his nomination and firing off a handful of questions at his first hearing, a case on prison reform. A handful of protesters rallied outside the court in opposition to the conservative justice, who was confirmed on Saturday by the Senate by a razor-thin margin after weeks of partisan rancor. "We will not forget!" the group shouted -- a reference to the accusations of sexual assault that threatened to derail Kavanaugh's nomination, allegations that the 53-year-old strongly denied. The small group quickly broke up. Shortly afterwards, the US high court came to order with the traditional call of "Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye." In front of a packed courtroom, Chief Justice John Roberts welcomed the newest judge on the nine-member panel and wished him a "long and happy career." The justices then heard arguments in a series of cases about prison terms for repeat offenders and what constitutes a "violent felony" that would open up recidivists to more serious sentences. Kavanaugh jumped in, asking a series of questions during the proceedings. His arrival on the court tips the bench decidedly to the right -- with five conservative and four liberal justices. Kavanaugh promised to be a "impartial" judge and a "team player" during his ceremonial swearing-in at the White House late Monday. "The Supreme Court is an institution of law. It is not a partisan or political institution," he said. Kavanaugh's nomination was thrown into jeopardy when university research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford came forward with accusations that he had sexually assaulted her when they were teens in the Washington area. Both Kavanaugh and Blasey Ford spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee in an extraordinary day of raw testimony. Ultimately, Kavanaugh was confirmed by a vote of 50-48. The two-vote margin of victory in the Senate made it the closest Supreme Court confirmation vote since 1881 -- and by far the most contentious since Clarence Thomas in 1991. Only one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted for Trump's nominee. By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sought to put a bruising confirmation battle behind him on Monday at a White House ceremony in which President Donald Trump declared him innocent of sexual misconduct and apologized for the heated process. Kavanaugh, whose bid to join the top U.S. court nearly failed after a California professor accused him of assaulting her when they were in high school, said he would enter his new job without bitterness despite a political fight that he told lawmakers had destroyed his family and his name. "The Senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional. That process is over. My focus now is to be the best justice I can be," he said at the White House, with his wife and children standing nearby. Kavanaugh said he would aim to be a force for stability and unity on the court, whose other eight members all attended the ceremony. "Although the Senate confirmation process tested me as it has tested others, it did not change me," he said. Kavanaugh, who served as part of special counsel Kenneth Starr's team that investigated Democratic President Bill Clinton in the 1990s and testified that the sexual misconduct accusations were funded by left-wing groups seeking revenge on behalf of the Clintons, said the Supreme Court was not a partisan body. "The Supreme Court is an institution of law. It is not a partisan or political institution," he said. "The Supreme Court is a team of nine, and I will always be a team player on the team of nine." Kavanaugh's confirmation proceedings exploded in controversy after Christine Blasey Ford went public with allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982. Kavanaugh gave a forceful, emotional denial of those allegations during testimony before lawmakers that some Democrats said showed a lack of judicial temperament. The U.S. Senate voted 50-48 on Saturday to confirm him, with just one Democrat supporting him. Story continues His confirmation to the lifetime job was a victory for Trump and locked in a conservative majority on the court. TRUMP APOLOGIZES FOR PROCESS "On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure," Trump said at the start of a ceremonial swearing-in. "Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception," he said. Trump, under pressure from moderate Republican senators, had ordered a brief FBI investigation, whose results Republicans viewed as failing to corroborate the allegations and which Democrats saw as insufficient. Trump, who drew criticism for mocking Ford at a rally, said Kavanaugh had been cleared. "A man or a woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty," Trump said to applause. "And with that I must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent." Kavanaugh has cited his mother, a former state judge in Maryland, as an inspiration, and emphasized his commitment to the advancement of women. He noted that his newly hired law clerks were all women, which he said was a historic first at the Supreme Court. He will hear his first arguments as a justice on Tuesday. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Eric Beech, David Alexander and Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Peter Cooney) Nairobi (AFP) - At least 50 people were killed when the bus they were travelling in overturned and its entire roof was ripped off in an accident in western Kenya early Wednesday, police said. The bus was travelling from Nairobi to the western town of Kakamega, police said, and footage from the scene showed the vehicle lying on its side with the seats and mangled bits of metal exposed to the air. The faded red bus, emblazoned with the name "Home Boyz", was later righted. The torn-off roof could be seen lying at a distance. "It is unfortunate that we have lost 51 people," Kenya's police chief Joseph Boinnet told Capital FM radio. However James Mugera, the Kericho County Police Commander, said there were 50 fatalities: "Those who perished include 31 male passengers, 12 women and seven children. There are about 10 others who have been rushed to various hospitals with serious injuries." Officers said the bus had a capacity of 52 passengers. The bus was reportedly descending a steep hill when it hit a guard rail before plunging down a few metres. Dozens of people milled around the accident site and goods were strewn over a large area, footage showed. President Uhuru Kenyatta called for an investigation into the tragedy. "My heartfelt condolences to the families of fellow Kenyans who lost their lives in a tragic road accident at Fort Ternan in Kericho County this morning and wish those in hospital quick recovery," he wrote on Twitter. "I would like to remind drivers to always exercise caution to avoid such catastrophic incidents." Official statistics show that around 3,000 people die annually in road accidents in Kenya, but the World Health Organization estimates the figure could be as high as 12,000. In December 2017, 36 people died in a head-on collision between a bus and a lorry. In 2016 more than 40 people died when an out-of-control fuel tanker ploughed into vehicles and then exploded on a busy highway. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The Latest on a debate between California's candidates for governor (all times local): 11:25 a.m. Republican candidate for California governor John Cox didn't say whether he supported the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Cox said during a debate Monday that he's focused on California issues and is "not going to get into the middle" of the appointment. Cox says the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford deserved to be heard. She says Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party when both were in high school. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. Democratic candidate Gavin Newsom says Kavanaugh is going to play a major role on issues that matter to California such as reproductive rights. He opposed the nomination. __ 11 a.m. California's Democratic candidate for governor is highlighting his Republican opponent's similarities to President Donald Trump on immigration and environmental policy. Republican John Cox advocated for repealing California's so-called sanctuary state law that limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities during a debate Monday with Democrat Gavin Newsom. Newsom says the law protects immigrants and keeps communities safe. He used Cox's opposition to the law and support for building a border wall to draw parallels with the president, who is unpopular in California. On environmental policy, Cox said he thinks California needs to consider the economic costs of fighting climate change. Newsom, meanwhile, worked to tie Cox to Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from an international climate agreement aimed at reducing emissions. ___ 11 a.m. California's two candidates for governor split markedly on criminal justice issues in their first and only debate. Republican John Cox on Monday opposed new laws that open up police records, criticized departing Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and says he would concentrate on keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill over other gun control measures. Story continues Cox also urged the media to stop publicizing the names and photographs of mass shooters. Democrat Gavin Newsom says Cox's proposals hide his opposition to gun control. Newsom would expand on Brown's criminal justice reforms. The candidates also clashed on California's recent decision to eliminate of money bail. Newsom says the old system harms the poor and racial minorities. Cox says doing away with it eliminates the bail industry. ___ 10:30 a.m. The candidates for California governor are highlighting different strategies for building more housing. Republican John Cox said during a Monday radio debate that he would change environmental regulations. He says as governor he would cut back on those regulations to make housing construction cheaper and faster. Democrat Gavin Newsom points to tax reform as a way to spur local governments to approve more housing. He says he would try to change laws that limit property tax revenue for cities because he said they can act as disincentives for housing construction. Cox also says it's important to maintain local control over housing while Newsom emphasizes creating statewide housing goals. Both emphasized the importance of increasing the rate of housing construction as the state faces a severe shortage. __ 10 a.m. Both candidates for California governor both say affordability is a central issue in the race. Democrat Gavin Newsom and Republican John Cox said Monday that the cost of housing is a serious problem that the next governor must address. The two are participating Monday in their only scheduled debate. Newsom says California is both the richest and poorest state, and the state must to a better job addressing inequality. Cox says Californians should live in a state where they can afford to buy a house or pay their rent and not encounter homeless people on the streets. He blames Newsom and interest groups in Sacramento for driving up prices. __ 7 a.m. The two men hoping to be California's next governor are preparing to meet for what's likely to be their only one-on-one debate. Republican John Cox and Democrat Gavin Newsom will debate Monday morning at San Francisco public radio station KQED. The hour-long session will not be televised but will be offered to radio stations to broadcast around the state. The debate will be a crucial opportunity for Cox to get his message out or try to trip up Newsom. He has trailed Newsom in polls and fundraising. The impact from a radio-only daytime debate could be limited, though. Cox is a lawyer, accountant and investor from the San Diego area who has never held elected office. Newsom is California's lieutenant governor and former San Francisco mayor. LONDON (Reuters) - At least 40 lawmakers in Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party are willing to vote down her possible Brexit deal if it leaves the United Kingdom 'half in and half out' of the European Union, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday. "My estimate is that there are at least 40 colleagues who are not going to accept a 'half in, half out' Chequers deal or indeed a backstop that leaves us in the internal market and the customs union," lawmaker Steve Baker told BBC radio. "Colleagues will not tolerate a half in, half out Brexit," said Baker, who served as a junior Brexit minister in May's government until he resigned in protest at her Brexit proposals. If May secures a deal with the EU, she has to get the British parliament to approve it and would need the backing of about 320 lawmakers to get approval. If 40 of her lawmakers voted against a possible deal, the fate of the government and exit process would depend on the opposition Labour Party, which has indicated it will vote against almost any deal May might secure. Under May's proposals, Britain will seek a free trade area for goods with the EU, largely by accepting a "common rulebook" for goods and British participation in EU agencies that provide authorizations for goods. Some Brexiteers say those proposals would ensure the EU kept control over swathes of the British economy and thus run counter to the spirit of her manifesto pledge to leave the EU Customs Union and the Single Market. "We are awaiting the detail of exactly what we are going to be asked for vote for. I don't doubt that every possible technique us going to be used to sow doubt in colleagues' minds and to encourage them to vote with the government," Baker said. "In the end the EU is not entitled to split the UK and it's not entitled to constrain how we regulate our economy and govern ourselves after we leave," he added. Without an approved deal, the UK would move from seamless trade with the rest of the European Union to customs arrangements set by the World Trade Organization for external states with no preferential deals. "If the UK faces either possibility then we must in the end be willing to say it's a bad deal, and no deal is better than a bad deal," Baker said. "We would need to be unafraid to go forward without an agreement." (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Michael Holden) LONDON (Reuters) - London's High Court on Monday blocked an attempt to bring legal action against Alphabet Inc's Google over claims it had collected sensitive data from more than 4 million iPhone users although it said the company's actions had been "wrongful". The claimants had said Google had illegally accessed details of iPhone users' internet browsing data by bypassing privacy settings on the Safari browser between June 2011 and February 2012. Richard Lloyd, a consumer activist who was behind the "Google You Owe Us" court challenge, had estimated that about 4.5 million people had been affected by the "Safari Workaround" and wanted the tech giant to pay out several hundred dollars in damages to each affected individual. Google had argued the mass case brought by Lloyd, the only named claimant, was not appropriate and should not proceed. "There is no dispute that it is arguable that Google's alleged role in the collection, collation, and use of data obtained via the Safari Workaround was wrongful, and a breach of duty," the judge, Mark Warby, said in his ruling. However, he said the case brought by Lloyd did not support the contention that he and those he represented had suffered "damage" as specified by Britain's Data Protection Act nor could the court allow such representative action to go ahead. In his ruling, he said the main beneficiaries of the claim would have been those who funded it and the lawyers. POSSIBLE APPEAL Lloyd said his group, to which 20,000 people had signed up to, would seek permission to appeal the decision. "Today's judgment is extremely disappointing and effectively leaves millions of people without any practical way to seek redress and compensation when their personal data has been misused," he said in a statement. "Google's business model is based on using personal data to target adverts to consumers and they must ask permission before using this data. The court accepted that people did not give permission in this case yet slammed the door shut on holding Google to account." Story continues A Google spokeswoman said: "The privacy and security of our users is extremely important to us. This claim is without merit, and we're pleased the Court has dismissed it." Google remains under pressure from lawmakers and regulators over its privacy practices in the United States, where it has acknowledged making mistakes in the past. In 2012, it agreed to pay a then-record civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it misrepresented to Apple Safari Internet browser users that it would not place tracking "cookies" or serve them targeted ads. (Reporting by Michael Holden and Douglas Busvine in Frankfurt; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge/Keith Weir) Shares in luxury companies took a sharp drop in Europe on Wednesday as investors reacted to the third-quarter results from brand behemoth LVMH, which owns major fashion houses including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Marc Jacobs. The results heightened concerns that Chinese consumers are shying away from buying big-ticket luxury items. The company did not include a regional breakdown of sales. The global luxury group reported 10% growth in sales in the first nine months of the year which was roughly in line with analyst expectations but it noted it would continue to be vigilant amid an uncertain geopolitical and monetary context. Shares in LVMH (MC.PA), Burberry (BRBY.L) and Kering (KER.PA) fell by about 5% in early morning trade before regaining their poise. Moncler (MONC.MI) stock in Milan was down by about 6%. Investors are concerned about slipping demand for luxury goods in China. Photo: Paul Yeung/Getty Images China is a key market for LVMH and other luxury retailers. About one-third of all LVMH revenue comes from Asia. There are worries that the expanding trade war between Beijing and Washington is hurting consumer sentiment in China. In particular, luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover reported that sales to China in September were down by 46%, noting that import duty changes and continued trade tensions held back consumer demand. Despite strong sales in LVMHs fashion and leather goods sector and a healthy performance overall, shares in the luxury conglomerate and across the luxury fashion industry today have dropped, as the possibility of a Chinese-American trade war continues to simmer in the background, Euromonitors fashion analyst, Florence Allday, told Yahoo Finance UK. By Richard Lough and Michel Rose PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron put off a government reshuffle on Wednesday, raising new questions about the depth of political experience in his party and his own ability to keep his administration on track after several resignations. The president and his prime minister have been weighing the reshuffle for a week following the departure of three ministers since late August, including interior minister and early Macron backer Gerard Collomb. The resignations have challenged the president's authority and stalled his reform ambitions. Macron, 40, faces multiple challenges in carrying out a significant revamp. Not only must he try to maintain the left-right balance that he made a hallmark of his centrist movement, but also find strong candidates from among a relatively shallow and inexperienced pool of loyalists. "The president wishes to take all the time necessary to draw up a team in a calm and professional way," the Elysee Palace said in a statement announcing the reshuffle's delay. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, a member of Macron's inner circle, denied the Macron administration was in disarray. "There is no division in the government or the parliamentary majority on the political line we are pursuing," he said. Ministers had been expecting the rejig before a cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning. But in the event, the Elysee said it would not happen until after Macron returns from a visit to Armenia late on Friday. Macron's popularity has sunk in recent months as frustration has welled up over a leader many voters see as arrogant and the architect of policies that favor the wealthy. Opponents branded the reshuffle a "tragi-comedy" that exposed a shortage of political experience in the ruling party. Macron's Republique En Marche party, though, holds a commanding majority in the National Assembly (lower house), his presidential term runs until 2022, and the opposition is divided, meaning he faces no immediate threat. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told baying opposition lawmakers there was "no anxiety, no restlessness" inside an administration committed to social and economic reform including an overhaul of the pension and unemployment benefit systems. A senior Elysee official said the reshuffle process was taking longer than expected because Macron had redrawn the political landscape and brought in faces from outside politics. "We're no longer in an age where because someone has 15 years of service under their belt they deserve to become a minister," the official said. DIMINISHED PULLING POWER Macron's rivals are not convinced. "Macron's ability to attract is pretty weak," hard left lawmaker Alexis Corbiere told BFM TV. "Many are asking themselves: 'What should we do in this mess?' They don't want to be finished politically by becoming a minister in a government that risks descending into crisis in less than a year." In winning power in May 2017, Macron and his En Marche movement demolished France's traditional mainstream parties. He went on to poach senior politicians from both poles and draft in newcomers to build a government "neither of the right nor left". But as the luster has worn off his young presidency, and the impact of early reforms to the labor code and tax rules have yet to filter through, rivals have sought to depict an increasingly isolated figure with diminished star power. "That they cannot replace the interior minister highlights chaos inside the Macron administration," said Valerie Boyer of the center-right Les Republicains party. "Either there's a lack of names or a lack of candidates in whom the president can trust and who will stay loyal to his program." While Macron doesn't face re-election until 2022, European Parliament elections in May next year and municipal voting in France in 2020 could turn into a semi-referendum on his mid-term performance. Particularly damaging to Macron in recent weeks were comments made by ex-interior minister Collomb. An early convert to Macronism, Collomb said the president and his team "lacked humility" and warned of hubris - a viewpoint which opinion polls show is shared by many voters. "The issue here is not the government but the president, a president who is seen by French people as someone who doesn't listen to them, and even belittles them," said Jean-Daniel Levy of pollster Harris Interactive. (Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier and Ingrid Melander; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Luke Baker and Mark Heinrich) Tracey Kurland is the daughter of Stanford Kurland who is said to be worth $200 million. Source: Getty Words by Eliza Velk Meghan Markles ex-husband Trevor Engelson has had his own fairytale wedding over the weekend as he tied the knot with nutritionist Tracey Kurland, the daughter of a multi-millionaire banker. However, unlike Meghan and Harrys lavish wedding of the year, the 41-year-old film producer and his new wife had a very small and intimate ceremony held at a private home in Hidden Hills, California where Traceys parents Stanford and Sheila Kurland are based. Trevor Engelson has had his own fairytale wedding over the weekend as he tied the knot with nutritionist Tracey Kurland Source: Instagram/efcollection Traceys father Stanford, is said to be worth $200 million thanks to his role as the second-most senior executive at Countrywide mortgage lender. He also contributed to the start-up of another mortgage lender, PennyMac where he worked as CEO up until 2016. Trevor had popped the question to Tracey at the Napa Valley back in June only two weeks after Meghans royal wedding and captioned his Instagram announcement, Luckiest guy I knowGet ready to party! The bride wore an off-the-shoulder white dress, while the groom donned a grey suit with a pink shirt and no tie. Tracey Kurland wore an off-the-shulder bridal gown and curled hair on her special day. Source: Instagram/efcollection The pairs wedding reception was reportedly Mexican themed with paper banners hanging across a swimming pool and a tequila bar on the side for guests, according to the Daily Mail UK. The wedding seemed like a small, casual but intimate affair a world away from Meghans huge marriage to Harry in England, one guest told the publication. The bride and groom looked so much in love and very happy together. The whole event was so them. Meghan Markle married Hollywood executive Trevor Engelson back in 2011 in Jamaica. Photo: Mega Trevor initially married Meghan Markle in 2011 after the pair met in 2004 at university before she became famous on suits. Their relaxed wedding took place in Ocho Rios, Jamaica where the couple married barefoot on the beach with over 100 friends and family members in attendance. 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: Who Is Meghan Markles Ex-Husband, Trevor Engelson? How will Meghan Markles royal wedding compare to her previous nuptials? Meghan Markle Reportedly Ended Her First Marriage Very Abruptly Today marks the end of an era. Microsoft is announcing that it has made peace with the free world. Specifically, the world of free and open source software (FOSS). Unlike proprietary software, like Microsoft Windows, FOSS is made collaboratively by developers all over the world, costs nothing, and its users are permitted to alter, copy, and redistribute it at will. In the early 2000s, Microsoft executives decried FOSS as a cancer and intellectual property destroyer. Then, in 2007, it declared war on FOSS, alleging that many of its most important commercial manifestationsthe Linux operating system, OpenOffice, and, later, Google Androidinfringed hundreds of its patents. As recently as 2013 a Nomura analyst estimated that Microsoft was extracting patent royalty streams of around $2 billion a year from makers of Android-running smartphones. That chapter is now over. Peace was secured when Microsoft signed a license this month with an obscure organization called the Open Invention Network. Today Microsoft is a very different company OIN is an alliance founded in 2005 by IBM, Red Hat, and three other corporate Linux patrons to shield Linux developers and users from patent suits and licensing demands. Today the group has expanded to eight funding members, including Google and Toyota, which joined in 2013 and 2016, respectively. But it also now embraces a community of more than 2,650 licensees, of which about 150 are public companies. They include the likes of AT&T, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Ford, General Motors, LG Electronics, SpaceX, Twitter, and Yahoo Finance parent company Verizon. OIN community members agree to give each other free licenses to use one anothers patent portfolios with respect to any inventions that might implicate Linux, Android, and other key open-source software packages. At the same time, OINs eight funding members amass and maintain a defensive patent portfolio to protect the whole community from outside aggressors. They attempt to create, as its CEO Keith Bergelt has put it, a patent no-fly zone over Linux. Story continues The dreaded aggressor that, more than any other, prompted this whole elaborate, anti-ballistic missile system was Microsoft. Today, the lion lays down with the lambor with the Linux Penguin, in this case. A Microsoft store is pictured in New York City, New York, U.S., August 21, 2018. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri Ten to 15 years ago we were very focused on the competition between Linux and Windows, says Microsofts chief IP counsel, Erich Andersen, in an interview with Yahoo Finance. But today Microsoft is a very different company. With the rise of our Azure [cloud services] business, Microsoft has become one of the largest contributors to open source in the world. . . . Were in a position where, as [CEO] Satya [Nadella] says, we love Linux. We love open source. Thats a big part of the future of our business. Through its participation in OIN, Microsoft is explicitly acknowledging the importance of open source software to its future growth, comments OINs Bergelt in a press release. Microsofts participation in OIN adds to our strong community, which through its breadth and depth has reduced patent risk in core technologies. [It] unequivocally signals for all companies who are using open-source software but have yet to join OIN that the litmus test for authentic behavior in the open-source community includes OIN participation. Microsoft puts its money where its mouth is For years, Microsoft has made significant contributions to Linux codeensuring interoperability with its productsand in recent years it has frequently professed benign, good intentions with respect to open-source code. But with todays step, Microsoft earns deep, open-source street cred by putting its money where its mouth is. Though Andersen declines to comment on it, joining OIN means that Microsoft will have to begin foregoing much of the lucrative revenue stream it has enjoyed for years from Android-related patent royaltiesmoney going straight to its bottom line. In 2013, for instance, Microsoft said that Samsung alone owed the company more than $1 billion in Android licensing royalties. The company boasted then that it was receiving royalties from more than 80 percent of Android phones sold in the U.S. and more than half worldwide. These were flowing from such manufacturers as HTC, Hon Hai (Foxconns parent), LG Electronics, and ZTE. But under the OIN license Microsoft just signed, it agrees to no longer use its mighty patent portfolio59,000 issued U.S. patents and 29,000 pending, according to its latest securities filingto seek royalties from OIN community members on Android related software. (HTC and LG are already OIN members, while other Android manufacturers can join for free.) Why is Microsoft doing this? In part, Android royalty revenues have been steadily declining over the past three years, according to its securities filings. That may be because some Indian and Chinese smartphone manufacturers, which dont pay royalties, have been gaining market share. More important, however, the companys burgeoning Azure cloud services business has become its strategic priority for the future. Azure revenues were up 89 percent year-over-year for the latest quarter, and the company reported $23 billion in income from its commercial cloud category for fiscal 2018. By coming to the table at OIN, says Eben Moglen, a professor at Columbia Law School and the executive director of the Software Freedom Law Center, Microsoft has acknowledged that the royalties it can acquire by squeezing Android manufacturers are no longer worth the maintenance of patent tension which interferes with the growth of the services business. To build its Azure business, Moglen explains, Microsoft first enticed existing customers to transfer work from their on-premises Windows servers to Microsofts cloud services. But to keep growing that business, it also had to lure customers who were using Linux on-premises into transferring their workloads to Azure, too. Since those customers wanted to continue running Linuxso they could integrate all their data, on-premises and offMicrosoft accommodated them. As a result, about half of all Azure workloads today are running on Linux, Microsofts cloud group chief told ZDNet last month. A number of steps leading up to todays news Against the backdrop of this radically changing landscape, we have seen Microsoft take a series of steps foreshadowing todays news, all since Nadella took over the reins in February 2014. In November 2015, for instance, the company reached a patent standstill agreement with Red Hat, a major distributor of commercial-grade Linux (and charter OIN member). With no exchange of money, each agreed not to bring patent suits against each others customers. This provided comfort to Red Hat customers who wanted to run Red Hat Linux programs on Azure. About a year later Microsoft began reassuring all Azure customers, through a program called Azure IP Advantage, that it would indemnify them against any patent claims that might be leveled against them for using open-source software on Azures cloud. That made it unthinkable that Microsoft would itself level such claims. Shortly thereafter the company joined the board of the Linux Foundation as a platinum-level member, meaning that it contributed about $500,000. The foundation is a consortium that provides tools, training and events to foster open-source projects. This past April the company launched its first Linux-based productAzure Sphere for Internet of Things applications. Then, in June, it announced that it would pony up $7.5 billionabout what it paid for Nokia five years agoto acquire GitHub, the leading open-source software development platform. The purchase underlined the extent to which the company was no longer just a proprietary software maker but, rather, in very large part, a services company. When youre Microsoft as a service company, what you want is all the best software in the world to be available to you, says Moglen, of the Software Freedom Law Center. GitHub is a place where cool FOSS programmers hang out and put all their stuff. Its the great meeting place of the technorati who make software in the world. . . . Its a contemporary fulfillment of Bill Gatess doctrine that software is an IQ business. Its a way of owning the brains in the head. Theres no excuse for not joining OIN What does todays news mean for OIN, the other party to the transaction? Is it a Mission Accomplished moment? No, explains Bergelt in an interview. Though this is clearly an inflection point for the organization, he sees the news in the context of a broader mission, where there is still much left to do. Bergelt joined OIN as its CEO in 2008, when its community numbered just 32 licensees. Before that he led the IP hedge fund Paradox Capital; advised the private equity fund Texas Pacific Group; and headed Motorolas intellectual asset management group. Earlier still, he spent 13 years in the U.S. State Department, with the Foreign Service. (He speaks French and Japanese.) With Microsoft entering the fold, he says, OINs point of focus may shift some from defending against threats to the community posed by operating companies to defending against those posed by so-called patent assertion entitiesi.e., patent trolls. Still, even at the operating-company level, there are remaining concerns. Microsoft, Bergelt hopes, will now serve as an example to those remaining corporate contributors to open-source code who have held out so far, refusing to take an OIN license. These include such players as Intel, Oracle (an early OIN member who withdrew in 2012), Qualcomm, and VMWare. Theres no excuse for not joining OIN, asserts Bergelt, unless you want to reserve the right to sue on core Linux functionality. These companies remain threats in his eyes. If theyre not willing to disarm vis-a-vis that core code, says Bergelt, it creates questions around their authenticity as members of the open-source community. Roger Parloff is Editor-in-Chief of Opioid Watch, a nonprofit news service of The Opioid Research Institute. Parloff is a former editor-at-large at Fortune Magazine, and has been published in Yahoo Finance, Yahoo News, The New York Times, ProPublica, New York Magazine, and NewYorker.com, among others. RABAT, Morocco (AP) A 16-year-old boy was shot in the shoulder by a Moroccan Royal Navy unit that opened fire on a boat carrying at least 50 would-be migrants toward Europe, a military official said Wednesday. The boy, lightly wounded, was taken to a hospital in the northern city of Tangiers, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and asked to remain anonymous. All of the passengers, including the teenager, were Moroccan, he said. On Sept. 25, members of the Royal Navy fired on a speedboat carrying migrants, killing a 20-year-old Moroccan woman and injuring three others. The boat was piloted by two men from Spain, increasingly the destination of migrants making the short, but dangerous trip across the Strait of Gibraltar as intensified policing blocks routes to Italy and Greece. The latest shooting incident occurred on the Atlantic coast, near Larache, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Tangiers. The military official said the navy unit opened fire late Tuesday on a "suspicious boat" that engaged in what he said were hostile collision maneuvers. Morocco's official MAP news agency reported, quoting a military source, said the boat ignored warning shots before making hostile maneuvers "significantly threatening the safety" of the navy team, "which was obliged to fire a shot to immobilize it." Meanwhile, the navy said it had saved up to 500 people on boats on Tuesday and Wednesday, the official MAP news agency reported. MAP said the navy brought 366 Europe-bound migrants from 15 inflatable boats to port. On Wednesday, 86 Moroccans from a boat that had been at sea Sunday were taken to Larache, the news agency said. Amid concerns about migrant smuggling in the western Mediterranean region, Morocco's Royal Navy has increasingly intervened to stop boats suspected of carrying people who plan to enter Spain illegally. The central Mediterranean route that has been the main sea route to Europe from North Africa is being choked off. Italy has closed its ports to rescued migrants, while Libya's coast guard chases after smugglers' small boats and takes migrants back to Libya. ___ This story has been corrected to show the number of people wounded in the Sept. 25 incident was three, not four. Rabat (AFP) - The Moroccan navy opened fire on a boat transporting migrants from the North African country, wounding one of them, a military source said on Wednesday. Despite warning shots, "the motorboat that was carrying 58 migrants hidden under tarpaulin made a hostile move which forced the coastguard to fire at the captain," said the source in Rabat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. One of the Moroccan migrants suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder in the overnight operation to intercept the vessel off the town of Larache, on Morocco's Atlantic coast. The wounded migrant -- aged 16, according to media reports -- was transferred to a hospital in Tangier, the military source told AFP. The others aboard the boat, including men and women of various ages, were brought ashore and handed over to the security forces, the source said. More than 43,000 migrants have made it to Spain since the start of the year, including around 38,000 by sea, according to the International Organization for Migration. Last weekend alone, around 1,800 migrants trying to reach the European Union were rescued in the Mediterranean by the Moroccan navy and Spanish coastguard. Since Tuesday, the Moroccan navy has rescued at least 452 migrants off the kingdom's Atlantic coast after they ran into trouble, the official MAP news agency reported, citing a military source. That figure includes 86 Moroccans saved Wednesday from a faltering vessel off the coast Moulay Bouselham, south of Tangier, according to the same source. Wednesday's shooting was the second of its kind in two weeks. On September 25, a Moroccan naval patrol opened fire on a "go-fast" speedboat ferrying migrants to Spain, killing a 22-year-old student and wounding three other people. The authorities said that shooting was also in response to the boat's "hostile manoeuvres" and said the migrants had been concealed under tarpaulin. A growing number of Moroccans are trying to leave their country illegally to reach Europe by sea or by crossing the fortified barriers between Morocco and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa. The kingdom is also a transit country for thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Maputo (AFP) - Mozambique holds local elections Wednesday that could reveal cracks in the country's peace process after the ruling Frelimo party was accused of violence and intimidation during the campaign. The main opposition Renamo party, which has maintained an armed wing since the end of the country's civil war, is running in the municipal vote for the first time in 10 years. Renamo fought a brutal 16-year civil war against the Marxist-inspired Frelimo government that left one million people dead before fighting ended in 1992. In 2013, fresh violence erupted between Renamo rebels and government troops, raising fears of a return to civil war. But three years later, the party declared a truce and opened fresh peace talks. Renamo is hoping for a breakthrough ahead of next year's general election. "These landmark local elections will test the success of decentralisation measures agreed with the armed opposition and will act as an important political bellwether," the London-based EXX risk consultancy said in a note. "The rewards at hand have rendered the political climate in Mozambique both tense and volatile, as highlighted by a series of violent incidents in the pre-election period." The 13-day election campaign ended on Sunday after several clashes between rival party supporters. Renamo supporters say they have faced intimidation and assaults during the campaign. "Our members and sympathisers are asking for the party's leadership (to) intervene in their defence since the police do nothing," Renamo's acting leader Ossufo Momade last week. The vote will be held in Mozambique's 53 municipalities, 49 of which are currently governed by Frelimo. The four other municipalities -- among them the cities of Beira, Nampula and Quelimane -- were won by the second opposition MDM party in the last elections. - New electoral laws - President Filipe Nyusi and Momade have recently made progress on the disarmament and integration of former Renamo rebels into the police and army -- a key sticking point in the peace talks. Story continues Parliament approved new electoral laws in July that means that a simple or relative majority is sufficient for a candidate to win election. Previously, an absolute majority of over 50 percent of votes was needed. The new laws could split the opposition vote. As well as the internal political tensions, Mozambique has been rocked over the last year by the emergence of an Islamist insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which has rich offshore gas deposits. Scores of civilians and police have been killed in militant assaults despite a security crackdown. Elon Musk has had a rough summer, largely of his own making, but he still found time to honor a commitment to clean water in Flint, Michigan, he had made on Twitter on July 11, 2018. While it seemed to be an idle response to a Twitter user using an obvious attempt at reverse psychologyNO WAY you could helpMusk took it seriously. Please consider this a commitment that I will fund fixing the water in any house in Flint that has water contamination above FDA levels. No kidding. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2018 Musk initially offered to pass along responses from Flint residents whose test results showed unsafe water in order and arrange for the individual installation of filters. He went several steps further, however. On Oct. 5, the Flint Community Schools district announced that Musk and his Musk Foundation had donated nearly $500,000 to provide ultraviolet filtration systems for all 12 of the school buildings in the system and the districts headquarters building by January 2019. The system will remove lead and kill off bacteria for drinking water, allowing students to use drinking fountains and fill up water bottles. In a statement, Derrick Lopez, Flint Community Schools Superintendent, said, We are deeply grateful for the generosity and the budding partnership between Flint Community Schools, the Musk Foundation and Elon Musk. The new water filtration systems will be instrumental in helping our students return to the normalcy of what should be a fundamental right: having access to safe, clean water from water fountains in their school. The district thanked Musk and his foundation on Twitter, and Musk replied, Youre most welcome. Hope to do more to help in the future. Youre most welcome. Hope to do more to help in the future. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2018 Musk also lived up to his original tweet, providing direct support for some residents, including the person who first asked him to help. Story continues yes. i responded to his original tweet with my water test results & after meeting w/ someone from his company in my home, he ended up paying for the reverse osmosis system, installation, and will cover filter replacement every 6 months. i am very grateful Derek Dohrman (@DerekDohrman) October 6, 2018 Feel-good storiesor at least dont feel so bad storieswere overwhelmed last week, especially by Musks own news about him tweaking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Twitter, following a tentative settlement between him, Tesla, and the agency about a tweet he made earlier this summer about taking Tesla private. Tens of thousands of old pipes containing lead are being replaced throughout Flint, but its likely to take until at least 2020. While state authorities say the water is now safe to drink, Michigan continues to provide filters. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a Flint pediatrician critical in exposing the water contamination, tells people to continue to use bottled or filtered water, in part because the pipe replacement is stirring up lead as well. Flints water system remains a flashpoint at the intersection of race, global trade, rust-belt politics, environmental safety, government austerity, and state-imposed bankruptcy administration. A majority black city, Flint suffered a significant impact decades ago as General Motors reduced operations within the city, and then shut plants in around the town. The water crisis began four years ago, when the city shifted water sources while under bankruptcy administration to reduce expenses while failing to apply corrosion inhibitors, which reduce the release of heavy metals (notably lead) from the old pipes that were prevalent throughout the economically depressed city. An outbreak of Legionnaires disease has also been linked to the water switch. A number of officials at local and state levels were charged with crimes such as willful neglect office and involuntary manslaughter. While problems first became apparent in 2014, it wasnt until January 2016 that the governor declared a state of emergency for Flints county. While water tested starting in early 2017 showed lead levels had dropped to safe levels, ongoing testing in schools found that some samples exceeded thresholds]believed to be safe. Brussels (AFP) - A stark divide over Northern Ireland threatened Wednesday to capsize efforts to negotiate Britain's orderly exit from the European Union. With less than a week before EU leaders gather in Brussels for a summit billed as Brexit's "moment of truth" the issue remains the main sticking point. Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier warned that both sides must be prepared for a disastrous no-deal Brexit with severe economic consequences. "Brexit has no added value. None," he told business leaders at a speech in the EU parliament in Brussels. "It's a negative negotiation. It's a lose-lose game and the result will be important, not just for future relations with the United Kingdom, but for the future of Europe." Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is due in Brussels next week for a pre-planned summit, and has been invited to address fellow EU leaders on the eve of talks on her Brexit plans. If she can't convince them that she has enough room to manoeuvre to deliver a Brexit deal they feel respects the integrity of the EU single market, negotiations will fall into crisis. But Barnier's speech dramatically illustrated the size of the challenge by underlining that the EU will insist administrative and customs controls be installed between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. "Both the EU and the UK exclude having a physical border on the island of Ireland, therefore what will arrive into Northern Ireland will also be arriving in our single market," Barnier said. "There will be administrative procedures that do not exist today for goods travelling to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK," he warned. However May insists she will not agree to any encroachment on British sovereignty, her Northern Irish allies in parliament have rejected such procedures, and rivals within her own party may not back her. - 'EU colony' - The speech was met with a furious response from Boris Johnson, the former British foreign secretary widely seen as angling for May's job as leader of the Conservative Party. Story continues "This is an important moment. Clearly Number 10 are negotiating a 'backstop' that makes the UK a permanent EU colony," he tweeted, warning that Brussels would control British trade policy indefinitely. Barnier said the measures would only be a stop-gap while a new trading relationship is agreed with Britain, and would be minimised if London agrees to join a full customs union under EU rules. But in the meantime, under the EU vision of a Brexit deal, companies on the British mainland shipping goods to Northern Ireland will have to fill out "customs declarations online and in advance". "The only visible systematic checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK would involve scanning the bar codes on lorries or containers, which could be done on ferries or in transit ports," he said. Meanwhile, existing health checks on farm animals arriving in Northern Irish port would remain in place, but would have to be stepped up to cover 100 percent of shipments rather than the current 10 percent. - DUP threatens budget vote - May is under intense pressure to agree an exit deal before March 29 next year, when Britain leaves the EU with or without a negotiated divorce or a plan for future ties. But the Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), upon which May depends for her majority, threatened to vote down the national budget later this month if she gives away too much, a party source told AFP. In response, May's spokesman denied a budget vote is a confidence vote that could bring down her government. Downing Street, meanwhile, confirmed that May's ministers would discuss the Brexit negotiations at their regular cabinet meeting next Tuesday, the day before she heads to Brussels. A group of senior ministers had already been briefed on the situation earlier this week, with another briefing due on Thursday, a government source said. Ambassadors from the 27 other EU members are due to meet in Luxembourg on Friday and discuss the Brexit talks with Barnier by videolink. And previously optimistic diplomatic sources in Brussels are now concerned about the talks. Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations after she resigned on Tuesday, following a tenure in which she asserted Washington's support for Israel. "I thank ambassador Nikki Haley for her uncompromising struggle against the hypocrisy of the UN," he wrote in Hebrew on his official Twitter account, wishing her success in her future endeavours. Haley has been a favourite in Israel as she pushed a hawkish line on Iran -- Israel's implacable foe -- and led the United States in quitting the UN Human Rights Council, accusing it of bias against Washington and Israel. Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, in a statement praised the outgoing ambassador: "Thank you, Nikki Haley! Thank you for standing with the truth without fear." The country's education minister Naftali Bennett, head of the religious nationalist Jewish Home party, echoed the sentiment. "On behalf of the Israeli people: Thank you for what you've done for Israel. We will not forget," he tweeted. The left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz, meanwhile, said Haley has "repeatedly defended Israel's government from criticism, and criticised the Palestinians many times." US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley receives rapturous applause at AIPAC meeting in 2017: AFP/Getty Images Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations for her uncompromising struggle for Israel, as Palestinians talked of their relief at her departure. Nikki Haley, 46, the former South Carolina governor, announced her unexpected resignation on Tuesday after less than two years in the UN post. The outspoken politician had sparked controversy in the Middle East for her fervent support for Israel and hawkish line on Iran, Israels chief foe. Several Israeli leaders including the premier expressed their sadness at her decision to leave. "I thank ambassador Nikki Haley for her uncompromising struggle against the hypocrisy of the UN," Mr Netanyahu wrote in Hebrew on his official Twitter account, wishing her success in her future endeavours. Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, in a statement wrote: "Thank you, Nikki Haley! Thank you for standing with the truth without fear." Meanwhile, the country's education minister Naftali Bennett, who is also head of the far-right Jewish Home party, echoed the sentiment. "On behalf of the Israeli people: Thank you for what you've done for Israel. We will not forget," he tweeted. Israeli commentators noted that it was unlikely that Ms Haleys successor would be able to match her zeal for Israel and bemoaned that the country had lost a major ally. However, the Palestinian leadership said that the US politician's pro-Israel agenda was "horrible" and that no one would cry for her departure. "We don't interfere in the appointment of American positions, however Haley isolated the US in speaking on behalf of Israel," Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told The Independent. "Vocally she was horrible but in the end she was representing White House policy which we are against. Haley was not for us or a peaceful resolution [to the crisis]. She was not a good representative she followed an Israeli agenda." Story continues "We hope for a better person and policy from the White House according to international law ... We would like to hear an American representative, not an Israeli one," he added. Palestinian commenters, meanwhile, welcomed her departure, saying her term in office had been a nightmare for the Palestinian cause. Today, as Ambassador Haley leaves office, she ends a two-year-long nightmare for the Palestinians and for those hopeful to reach a peaceful settlement in the Israeli Palestinians conflict, wrote Mohamed Shehada, a commentator and analyst based in Gaza. "She repeatedly pledged to shield Israel from any criticism, further empowering Netanyahus fanatical cabinet and leaving their dangerous ambitions unchecked, he added. Ms Haley spearheaded the US administrations efforts to combat what it alleged were unacceptable anti-American and anti-Israel actions by the UN. That included leading the US decision to leave the Human Rights Council and to stop funding UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Riyad Mansour, observer to the UN for the Palestinians, has in the past accused Ms Haley of "becoming more Israeli than the Israelis themselves". Evidence of a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran is presented by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty) She had controversially dismissed as off the table the Palestinian claim to right of return to lands they fled or were forced from during the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel, as well as subsequent conflicts. The so-called "right of return" is one of the sticking points of the peace process. Last month Ms Haley also defended the US decision to cut its funding to UNRWA, saying the Palestinians had done nothing but beg and badmouth Washington. She also refused to listen to a Palestinian delegation speak during a UN Security council chamber meeting in May and blocked the appointment of Salam Fayyad as UN envoy to Libya because he is Palestinian. Meanwhile she was met with rapturous applause in 2017 when she first spoke before the American Israel Public Affairs Committees (AIPAC) annual conference and told the crowds theres a new sheriff in town and that the US had no greater friend than Israel. As she announced her resignation on Tuesday she said she had given everything she had to the job. I do think it's good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it," she added. Perhaps Trumps former officials were somehow suckered into salivating over him but these fantasies are becoming ever distant Nikki Haley wants you to know that shes not quitting her awesome, once-in-a-lifetime job to spend more time with her family. This is a rare thing among those permanently rising stars in the Republican party who just happen to announce their departures ahead of the expected train wreck of the midterm elections next month. Paul Ryan, the outgoing House speaker, is leaving his awesome job because he honestly, truly wants to hang out with his own teenagers. But Haley is different. My family is very supportive, the departing US ambassador to the UN said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. So no, theres no personal reasons. I think that its just very important for government officials to understand when its time to step aside. And I have given everything Ive got these last eight years. And I do think that sometimes its good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it. The crop rotation theory of government is a fascinating one, but its usually cited by the person doing the firing rather than the person doing the quitting. On the Kavanaugh scale of unbelievably cheap lies, Haleys selfless self-sacrifice is right down there with his claim that he vomited because of the spicy food. As she was indulging in her moment of munificence, a painfully tense Donald Trump looked like he was perched on a chair of nails beside her. If he was worried about all the speculation about Haley running for president, he didnt need to bother. Trump is a beached whale of a boss, taking his last gasps of power before the House subpoenas start flying No, Im not running for 2020, she declared, unprompted. I can promise you what Ill be doing is campaigning for this one. So I look forward to supporting the president in the next election. Thats so good, oozed Trump. Thank you, Nikki. For some bizarre reason, the 45th president (this one) didnt take offense at the notion that a former cabinet official might need to quash the rumors about challenging him for his own job. Story continues A president who wasnt clinging on to power by his fingernails might be offended by the preposterous statement. The mere mention would have been unthinkable around any of his predecessors. But Trump is a beached whale of a boss, taking his last gasps of power before the House subpoenas start flying, and the Mueller investigation lays out its evidence of conspiracies and corruption like so much captured contraband. Why was Trump so ready to keep Haley happy? Perhaps there was a clue in her effusive praise for the bosss bestest children ever. I cant say enough good things about Jared and Ivanka, she claimed. Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands. How true, ambassador. Nobody really understands how well hes hiding his genius. Nikki Haley: No doubt the rest of the UN ambassadors viewed Haley as their channel to understanding the hermit kingdom of Trumps brain. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters I mean, to redo the Nafta deal the way he did, she helpfully explained. What Ive done working with him on the Middle East peace plan it is so unbelievably well done. By well done she was referring to how thoroughly cooked this slab of meat looks. The whole Middle East is so tired of Jared Kushners winning, theres only one obvious place left for him to go: the United Nations, as Haleys replacement. The reality distortion field around Trump is so intense that you expect those emerging from the Twilight Zone to declare what is so stunningly obvious to the rest of the world: the president is a racist and sexist bozo who is a clear and present danger to world peace. Perhaps at some point Trumps former officials will seek redemption by claiming they were suckered by a strange temporary sickness into salivating all over his disastrous leadership. But these fantasies are getting more and more distant with each gushing statement of admiration in the Oval Office, and each victory lap in the East Room. Perhaps these formerly sane officials realize its premature to dump on Trump, or perhaps they know the party will never forgive them. The truth is theres no constituency for Haley to primary against Trump. And theres no credibility in her making any claim that she was secretly moderating his many worst impulses. Haleys effect on Trumps foreign policy is, as Republican senators like to say, uncorroborated and therefore completely refuted No doubt the rest of the UN ambassadors viewed Haley as their channel to understanding the hermit kingdom of Trumps brain, much as they all treat the North Korean ambassador as a channel to Kim Jong-un. But Haleys effect on Trumps foreign policy is, as Republican senators like to say, uncorroborated and therefore completely refuted. She said she was taking names of the countries voting against Trumps decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. This was as bizarre and bullying as everything else that spills out of Trumps Twitter feed. Its not that hard to identify Americas allies who oppose an end-run around an Israeli-Palestinian peace process: that would be all of them, with the exception of the Netanyahu government. She happily endorsed Trumps massive cuts to the US contribution to the UN budget, which she claimed had made the UN so much better. Weve made it stronger, she said on Tuesday. Weve made it more efficient. If you remove a kidney from someone, you might make the remaining one work twice as hard. But describing it as stronger and more efficient doesnt exactly capture the health of the patient. Yes, Haley condemned Trump as she traveled the campaign trail with Marco Rubio more than two years ago, when dinosaurs still walked the planet. But in the Trumpassic era those ancient words have been erased by her inane comments that the UN general assembly was laughing at her boss because they loved how honest he is. As opposed to them laughing at him because hes so ludicrous when he claims to be the most successful president in history. On the plus side, Haley did promise sanctions against Russia for its support for Syrias chemical weapons program a promise that ran into public opposition from her own White House. She helped deliver tough new UN sanctions against North Korea, which seemed like a united front until her own boss fell in love with Kim. And she insisted on denouncing the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, marking a sharp contrast with her boss who preferred to say they were very fine people. This is sadly how distorted life is around Donald Trump. Its tempting to say that Nikki Haley was a moderate because she condemned neo-Nazis. But thats just as credible as her quitting to give someone else a chance at the UN. Like Trump himself, his cabinet officials can lie to all of the people some of the time, and to some of the people all of the time. But they cant ever reclaim their reputation. US Ambassador to the United NationsNikki Haley announced her resignation on Tuesday. Ms Haley, who is an outspoken supporter of the president in the diplomatic community, and a frequent critic of the UN's stance towards Israel, first discussed her resignation with the president last week. She will be leaving the administration by the end of 2018, according to Mr Trump, who made the announcement with the ambassador in the Oval Office. Mr Trump said she is a "very special" person "who gets it," adding that she told him six months ago that she might want to take some time off to spend with her family. Mr Trump said that together they "solved a lot of problems" at the UN. "She's done a fantastic job," the president said, adding the pair will be "in constant touch". Mr Trump was a frequent critic of the UN, calling it a "good time club" but today he noted Ms Haley made the ambassadorship "a more glamorous position, she's made it a more important position". "She got to know the players," Mr Trump noted. "They really like her...and they respect her," he said about China, India, and Russia among others. Ms Haley said "it has been an honour...to serve the country I love so much. Look at what has happened with foreign policy in the last two years. Now, the US is respected" "They may not like it, but they respect it," she said about controversial US policies on issues like the Iran nuclear deal, recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and leaving the Paris Agreement on climate change. "The US is strong again...it should make all Americans very proud," she said. Ms Haley said she "can't promise" what she will be doing in 2020 but it will not be running for president. There were rumours she would run for office at that point. "I can tell you, I'll be campaigning" for Mr Trump she said. She did not elaborate on the timing of her departure, however. Story continues It appeared Ms Haley was considering life outside of public service after she resigns. "It was a blessing to go into the UN every day with body armour to defend" the US, she noted on her two years leading the US mission at the world body. Mr Trump also noted Ms Haley will "hopefully" return to work for the Trump administration, "maybe in a different capacity," he added. Ms Haley praised the presidents daughter and son-in-law Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, noting they do a lot of things behind the scenes that I wish more people knew about. Mr Kushner in particular has been appointed as the lead on negotiations between Israel and Palestinian officials. I cant say enough good things about Jared and Ivanka. Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands, Ms Haley said. There is also a controversy pending over Ms Haley's use of private jets with taxpayer money, but it is unclear if that is the reason for her resignation. Richard Gowan, senior fellow at the UN University, told The Independent Ms Haley is, by and large, considered a "pretty effective diplomat in New York". He credited her with being "pragmatic and collegial with other representatives of big powers, and had a good working relationship with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres." Ms Haley was the first female governor from South Carolina and one of two Indian-Americans elevated to the position of US Ambassador. Mr Trump relied on Ms Haley in many ways within the diplomatic community, particularly to solidify the US-Israel relationship. She led the charge to withdraw the US from the Human Rights Council, a 47-member body in Geneva which Ms Haley said had a "chronic anti-Israel bias". In the wake of the 20 June withdrawal, Ms Haley said the body was an organisation that is not worthy of its name". Look at the council membership, and you see an appalling disrespect for the most basic rights, Ms Haley said. Ms Haley also accused the council of maintaining a disproportionate focus and unending hostility towards Israel" that shows it is "motivated by political bias, not by human rights". Ms Haley often criticised the UN in public, but Mr Gowan said her fellow diplomats knew she was doing it for "domestic political rhetoric" rather any particular animus towards diplomacy in general. She also was a tough critic of Russia, often hitting out at them over various issues like chemical weapons strikes in Syria and their role in the 4 March nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Salisbury, UK. She accused Moscow of "cheating" and helping North Korea evade UN sanctions on fuel, textiles, and food items. Ms Haley also accused Moscow of not only looking the other way while its citizens and companies engage in activities banned by sanctions but also of trying to cover up sanctions violations "whether they're committed by Russia or citizens of other states. She claimed a report authored by an independent party, detailing sanctions violations, had been tainted by Russia and the US has stopped publication of it. Ms Haley was one of Mr Trump's first ambassadorial appointments in November 2016, even before he was officially sworn in. The 46-year-old mother of two did not indicate what she will do at the end of her time in government. As for the UN, Mr Gowan said "there will be a lot of nervousness" come towards the end of the year as diplomats worry if Mr Trump will appoint a "hardline unilateralist to replace [Ms] Haley, creating new ruptures with the United Nations." * S.Korea's Moon to deliver the invitation next week * North Korea and Vatican have no formal diplomatic ties * Moon to tour Europe from Oct 13 to 21 (Adds details, background) By Hyonhee Shin and Ju-min Park SEOUL, Oct 9 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has invited Pope Francis to visit Pyongyang in a gesture designed to highlight peace efforts on the Korean peninsula, South Korea's presidential office said on Tuesday. North Korea and the Vatican have no formal diplomatic relations. South Korean President Moon Jae-in will deliver Kim's invitation when he meets Francis next week during a trip to Europe, Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said. "President Moon will visit the Vatican on Oct. 17 and 18 to reaffirm its blessing and support for peace and stability of the Korean peninsula," the spokesman told a news briefing. "Especially when he meets with Pope Francis, he will convey Chairman Kim's message that he will ardently welcome him if he visits Pyongyang." Kim told Moon of his wish to meet the pope during last month's summit of the two leaders, the spokesman added, without elaborating on the timing. The pope has said he wants to visit Japan next year. North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion as long as it does not undermine the state, but beyond a handful of state-controlled places of worship, no open religious activity is allowed. The invitation to the pope is the first by a North Korean leader since 2000. Although that meeting, proposed by Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, never materialised, the plan for Francis to visit is the North's latest diplomatic initiative this year. Kim held an unprecedented summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, and pledged to work toward denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. While Kim's actions since have fallen short of Washington's demands, the Trump administration is preparing for a second summit. Story continues Before they turned the page on decades of public acrimony, the leaders regularly traded threats and insults as North Korea pushed to develop a nuclear missile capable of hitting the United States. The two Koreas held three summits this year, following years of confrontation marked by the North's nuclear and missile tests. Moon's Europe tour, scheduled for Oct. 13 to 21, is primarily to attend the AsiaEurope Meeting in Belgium and includes stops in France, Italy and Denmark, his office said. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Ju-min Park; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) By Jack Kim SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oxfam on Wednesday rejected Singapore's defense of its low taxes after the NGO ranked the wealthy city state among the 10 worst-offending countries in fuelling inequality with its low-tax regime. Oxfam's Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) index ranked Singapore 149th of 157, below Afghanistan, Algeria, and Cambodia, and marginally higher than Haiti, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The index assesses social spending, taxation and labor policies. It ranked Denmark, Germany and Finland as the top three. Oxfam's head of inequality policy, Max Lawson, said the impact of Singapore's tax policy went beyond its borders, serving as a tax haven for the rich and big corporations. "Singapore's harmful tax practices mean that they are eroding the revenue of other countries in the region and globally, revenues that those countries could be investing in schools and hospitals," Lawson told Reuters. Singapore Social and Family Development Minister Desmond Lee said on Tuesday public service in terms of the standard of education and health care, as well as affordability of housing, spoke loudly about Singapore's social policy accomplishments. "Yes, the income tax burden on Singaporeans is low. And almost half the population do not pay any income tax," Lee said in a statement. "Yet, they benefit more than proportionately from the high quality of infrastructure and social support that the state provides," he said. "In Oxfam's view, Singapore's biggest failing is our tax rates, which are not punitive enough." Lee also said 90 percent of Singaporeans owned their homes and home ownership was 84 percent even among the poorest 10 percent of households. "No other country comes close," he said. "We set out to achieve real outcomes for our people - good health, education, jobs and housing - rather than satisfy a collection of ideologically driven indicators." (Editing by Nick Macfie) Washington (AFP) - New US weapons systems being developed by the US Department of Defense can be easily be hacked by adversaries, a new government report said on Tuesday. The Government Accountability Office said the Pentagon was unaware of how easy it could be for an adversary to gain access to the computer brains and software of the weapons systems and operate inside them undetected. The weak points began with poor password management and unencrypted communications, it said. But it said access points for the systems continued to grow in number and are not always well-understood by the operators themselves, leaving even non-networked systems deeply vulnerable. More critically, the report faulted the US military for not incorporating cybersecurity into the design and acquisition process for the computer-dependent weapons, and said weapons developers often did not themselves adequately understand cybersecurity issues. "Due to this lack of focus on weapon systems cybersecurity, DOD likely has an entire generation of systems that were designed and built without adequately considering cybersecurity," the GAO said. "In one case, it took a two-person test team just one hour to gain initial access to a weapon system and one day to gain full control of the system they were testing," it said. In another case, it said, the test team gained control of the terminals of the system's operators. "They could see, in real-time, what the operators were seeing on their screens and could manipulate the system." The public, unclassified version of the report did not identify which arms systems it had tested and found faults with, citing the need for secrecy. But it said that between 2012 and 2017, the Defense Department's own testers "routinely" found dangerous cyber vulnerabilities in "nearly all" weapons systems under development. "Using relatively simple tools and techniques, testers were able to take control of these systems and largely operate undetected. In some cases, system operators were unable to effectively respond to the hacks," it said. The risk rises as Pentagon weapons and other systems are increasingly interconnected and their dependence on software and networking continues to rise. The report came as the US government wrestles with what it sees as concerted efforts by government-backed hackers in Russia and China to permeate government and private sector computer networks to steal data or simply wreak havoc. UKIP MEP Nigel Farage has appeared on Question Time on 32 times A group of pro-EU MEPs are to meet the BBC amid a row over the choice of Question Time panelists. BBC director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth will travel to Brussels next week to meet a cross-party delegation of MEPs who have raised concerns about representation on the show. The meeting comes after Lib Dem MEP Catherine Bearder complained about the lack of pro-EU MEPs on Question Time. There has never been a pro-EU MEP on Question Time. People just assume MEPs are like Farage: shouting but ultimately doing no legislative work. Its far from the truth and I think its time the public got to hear from an MEP like @SebDance what really happens in Brussels. https://t.co/XIKX2R0B7O Catherine Bearder (@catherinemep) October 7, 2018 UKIPs Nigel Farage has made the joint highest number of appearances 32 on the BBCs flagship political programme since the turn of the century. An analysis of appearances between 2013 and 2018 showed the majority of MEPs who appeared were from UKIP. The only other UK MEP to be included during that period was Conservative Brexit supporter Dan Hannan. The BBC were forced to respond to chart after it was shared more than 2,000 times on Twitter. About this chart MEPs are not the only political panellists on @bbcquestiontime -since 2000 there have been more than 2100 political panellist appearances, guided by the national level of electoral support for their parties. #bbcqt (1/5) https://t.co/nr1uxabi9r BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) October 9, 2018 The parties on Question Time are there because people vote for them in elections not just Westminster ones. So sometimes parties will be represented by MEPs, MSPs, AMs etc, the BBC press team said. Story continues But their answer didnt satisfy pro-EU MEPs, who requested a face-to-face hearing from the BBC. Just put a pro EU MEP on QT. There is really nothing to be lost by doing so.. https://t.co/UDexaAdXxD Catherine Bearder (@catherinemep) October 9, 2018 Sinn Feins pro-EU MEP Martina Anderson, who represents the Northern Ireland constituency, was on the panel in 2011. More recently, Mairead McGuinness, an MEP from the Republic of Ireland, appeared this March. But Conservative MEP Charles Tannock said the statistics proved BBCs bias against pro-EU MEPs. My views are unchanged and the bias of the BBC against Remain MEPs is quantifiable. Farage and Hannan have been interviewed dozens of times I would estimate. https://t.co/XvbUKtyLcv Charles Tannock (@CharlesTannock) October 10, 2018 Tannock and Bearder are among the MEPs who will be meeting Unsworth in Brussels next Wednesday. Richard Corbett and Seb Dance of Labour, Molly Scot Cato of the Greens, Alyn Smith of the SNP are among other MEPs who will attend. Bearder said: Weve invited the BBC to the European parliament for an honest discussion about Brexit and how our main public broadcaster covers news related to the EU. The BBC have been really constructive and positive by accepting our invitation and we look forward to meeting them. The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has capped the most brutal partisan judicial campaign in American history. For 40 years, movement conservatives plotted tirelessly and spent untold millions to install a solid hard-right majority on the court. Checked by the four appointments made by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and nearly undone by the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia the Republicans would stop at nothing, including blocking the nomination of the moderate Merrick Garland by thwarting a constitutional process. On Saturday, they finally won by ramming through the appointment of a long-time GOP operative and conspiracy-monger who would save his nomination by brazenly lying to the world under oath about details large (not knowing about Deborah Ramirezs allegations) and small (boofing? the devils triangle?) and doing so with a smug and angry smirk. Still, terrible as Kavanaughs confirmation is and likely will continue to be for the Constitution and the American people, there may be a saving grace or two, but only if the Democrats can learn the right lessons and then fight as fiercely and tirelessly as the right wing has for these many years. Let no one mistake the enormity of whats just happened. Kavanaughs nasty role in the unconstitutional, partisan drive to remove President Clinton; his covered-up actions regarding both torture and controversial judicial nominations while serving in the George W. Bush White House; and his evident lack of truthfulness in previous sworn testimony to the Senate were enough to raise serious questions about his integrity. The ideological rigidity of his positions on the Court of Appeals raised further serious questions about his neutrality and open-mindedness. But those were grounds for opposition, not outright disqualification. It was his performance in response to the charges of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford that ought to have been disqualifying, as retired Justice John Paul Stevens (an old-school Republican) observed just prior to the confirmation. Story continues Ive heard it said on the public airwaves and in conversations with friends that Kavanaugh had every right to be angry, even furious, after being hit at the last minute with uncorroborated charges of committing a filthy and violent crime. But that argument only amplifies why Kavanaugh is unfit for the court. Lets hold aside for a minute that Dr. Fords charges were, in fact, strongly corroborated, not least by what shed been telling intimates and therapists for years before Kavanaughs nomination. Lets even assume, for the sake of argument, that Kavanaugh had nothing to do with any of the things Dr. Ford and the other two women claimed he did. Here would be an acid test of Kavanaughs temperament and suitability for the court, dealing with unfair charges that threatened his reputation but by that standard, the standard invoked by his strongest defenders, he flunked miserably. Since the nations founding, Americans have expected all members of the judiciary, above all the justices on the Supreme Court, to be able to hold their emotions at least reasonably in check in their rulings, in their other writings and especially in their public pronouncements. We dont expect them to be saints, but we do expect them to at least be better than most of the rest of us: Thats one reason we elevate them to the highest court. We dont expect them to be wishy-washy, or to hold back one whit in arguing their interpretations of the law, but we do expect them to make their arguments reasonably, without rancor and without obviously closed-minded partisan allegiances. That ability to rise above the fray, the personal fray as well as the partisan, constitutes a large part of whats meant by judicial temperament. Its what gives the court its standing as disinterested and impartial, even in the most trying and embittered circumstances. Clarence Thomas managed to show such a temperament in 1991 when, offended and even seething at Anita Hills charges, he remained in command of himself and never crossed the line into gratuitous and insulting displays of fury. Kavanaugh instead put on a calculated, unhinged performance. Perhaps he intended to intimidate the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, turning the tables after Dr. Fords powerful testimony. Perhaps he intended to whip up support among President Trumps already angry and resentful supporters. But in doing so, he acted, in his moment of truth, precisely in the way that the nations founders warned against as a threat to national comity and even-handed government. He lashed out at the Democratic Party and cooked up wild conspiracy theories to explain what he called his plight. He scorned and derided members of the Senate exactly as a trash-talking bully would. He blatantly lied about things he didnt have to lie about, and practically dared anyone to do anything about it. Yet Mitch McConnell and the rest of the radicalized GOP would not let anything as trivial as historically disqualifying behavior stop them. No, they rejoiced in and encouraged that behavior, then stifled investigation into Kavanaughs lies. With Kavanaugh now the fifth vote in a 5-to-4 hard-right majority, the court has come perilously close to losing its legitimacy on any matters even remotely connected to partisan concerns, ranging from voting rights and campaign-contribution laws to issues concerning womens reproductive rights, environmental law, labor law, gun safety, corporate regulation and a long list of other crucial matters on which the court will certainly rule in the near future. But maybe that loss of legitimacy is not the very worst thing that could have happened. After Kavanaughs performance and his strong-armed confirmation, the 5-to-4 decisions that ensue will at least clarify exactly what the long-term right-wing campaign has been all about. Its had nothing to do with restoring the original intent of the framers of the Constitution, which has been transparent mumbo-jumbo propaganda from the start. Its had nothing to do with reining in judicial activism. It has to do with unleashing judicial activism, in the form of judicial attacks on and possible repeal of fundamental laws as well as court decisions that have checked inequality and injustice, from the Affordable Care Act back to Roe v. Wade and the Voting Rights Act, and then back even further to the reforms of the New Deal and Progressive eras. Above all, it is of a piece with a decades-long assault on democratic institutions that has set the pace for the illiberal counterrevolutions that are now sweeping though the Western world. As early as the 1950s, American conservatives and reactionaries understood that their plutocratic and racist causes were doomed unless they took radical measures. It wouldnt suffice to be the kind of conservative who, as William F. Buckley remarked, stands athwart history, yelling Stop. It would be necessary to bend history to the right-wing will, which required more drastic action. It would require changing the very structure of American politics and government, taking aim at everyone and everything that stood in the conservatives way, from organized labor, which had become a bulwark of social reform and democratic politics, to the vindication of voting rights that upended traditional Jim Crow. And the extremists would have to do these things without appearing to violate the Constitution. They would use all of the legal tools that were available to them to undermine democracy, like gerrymandering; they would adopt scorched-earth strategies and tactics in Congress and state legislatures, abandoning any pretense of respect; they would scrap the Fairness Doctrine and build dynamos of hyper-partisan disinformation, above all Fox News; and, crucially, they would stock the judiciary with ideologues who would gut existing Great Society and even New Deal legislation and put their seal of approval on new reactionary triumphs. Trump and Trumpism have been the logical outcomes of this long-standing attack on our democratic institutions. At a moment when, in the aftermath of Barack Obamas re-election, mainstream conservative Republicans looked like they might soften their implacable appeal just a bit, on issues like immigration, Trump commandeered their base and pursued with a vengeance (and a madcap viciousness) the most extreme reactionary agenda, undoing as much as possible of not only Obamas legacy but of the New Deal and Great Society and, atop that, repudiating the liberal democratic international order erected after World War II. And, coming full circle, those authoritarian regimes from the right-wing governments in Poland and Hungary to Duterte in the Philippines, often with the backing of Trumps great friend Vladimir Putin have endeavored to build warm relations with the White House and vice versa, even as the White House trashes relations with the Western liberal democracies and the international alliances that sustain them. The Kavanaugh confirmation is a landmark in the American counterrevolution. But in its starkness as well as its profound consequences and by awakening us to the full dimensions of the counterrevolution it can be a source of resolve, not despair. This is not the first time in American history where a reactionary minority has used the instruments of democracy to gain power over the entire national government. The Slave Power of the pre-Civil War years did precisely that, giving a tiny minority of southern slaveholders and their supporters a hammerlock on the White House, the Congress and the Supreme Court. Nor is the newly revised John Roberts Supreme Court the first high court in our history with a clearly reactionary agenda. The Roger Brooke Taney court of the 1850s, infamous for its Dred Scott decision in 1857, was dominated by partisan, proslavery justices; Abraham Lincoln (who didnt actually dispute the courts legitimacy as others did) was moved to repudiate the Scott ruling as based on assumed historical facts which are not really true, and basically vowed to appoint a new court. Eighty years later, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, trying to advance the New Deal, faced a Supreme Court that, in one commentators view, had convinced even the most reverent that five stubborn old men had planted themselves squarely in the path of progress. Two generations of modern-day liberals and progressives, though, having come of age during the very different era of the Earl Warren court and its immediate successors, have grown accustomed to turning to the courts to expand civil and social rights, beginning with the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954. Even as the courts grew more conservative during the Reagan years and after, liberals and progressives looked to the courts to achieve victories on various fronts, most recently over gay marriage. An ever-growing downside of that strategy, though, was that liberal causes over the years may have grown more adept at designing legal strategies than in building mass support with the electorate. This reliance on judges helped secure the perception, endlessly drummed up by conservatives, that liberals were out-of-touch elitists who wanted to impose their will on the people through the courts. If nothing else, the Kavanaugh confirmation makes it clear that those days are over that until and unless Democrats can do something about it, the federal judiciary will be the enemy of the will of the American majority on numerous crucial issues. And what can the Democrats do? First, obviously, we need to vote Trump out while winning solid legislative majorities, not just in the House and Senate but in the governors mansions and state legislatures where so much of the assault on democratic institutions has taken place. But what then? How can Democrats undo the damage done to the federal courts over the past 35 years and ensure that their reforms will not be killed outright by the ideologically rigid judges and justices appointed since the days of Ronald Reagan, and being appointed at an unprecedented rate by Trump? We can start doing it by, for once, playing for keeps and reforming the Supreme Court not just by naming non-reactionaries to the bench, but by restructuring the court itself, as a growing number of commentators have suggested. The Constitution does not dictate that the court consist of nine justices. Originally, the court had six members, a chief justice and five associates; Congress then enlarged it, first to seven and then to a high of 10 members. In 1866, in order to thwart the racist president Andrew Johnson, Congress knocked the number down to nine. And in 1937, FDR tried to persuade Congress to allow the appointment of new justices to a maximum of 15. Republicans squealed at what they called Roosevelts court packing, and there was a public backlash. But under FDRs threat, the existing court backed off of its reactionary stance and stopped killing New Deal reforms. Should the current Supreme Court prove illegitimate its majority tainted by the Merrick Garland outrage, the Kavanaugh bullying and the questionable legitimacy of the entire Trump presidency and, as seems likely, the court starts striking down, in a string of 5-to-4 decisions, everything from Roe v. Wade to what remains of the New Deals National Labor Relations Act, Democrats ought to fight back with everything weve got, and pledge to the American people that we will do what FDR threatened to do and break the reactionary majority. We would do well to make that pledge as soon as the first 5-to-4 decision comes down. If that happens, and if the Democrats succeed, the Kavanaugh confirmation may prove a very different kind of turning point than it appears to be today the moment when the nation finally awakened and began to destroy the extremist GOPs subversion of American democracy. But none of that will matter if the Trump Republicans retain their control of Congress next month. Should the Democrats fail to win a majority, at the very least in the House, then the American majority will awaken to a true nightmare beyond its worst imaginings. w Lenny Dykstra was indicted Wednesday on charges of cocaine possession, meth possession and making terroristic threats, according to TMZ, dating back to an incident with an Uber driver in May. Its not the first troublesome incident for the former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies player who took the field in the 1980s and 90s. Hes already served six and a half months in prison previously and could return on the charges filed in Union County, New Jersey. He faces 3 to 5 years on each charge. Lenny Dykstra was indicted on charges from an incident with an Uber driver in New Jersey in May. Why happened with Dykstra and the Uber driver? Dykstra was arrested in May after allegedly threatening an Uber driver with a gun. According to the police report, Dykstra requested an early morning Uber ride from Linden, New Jersey, and once in the car he changed his destination to Staten Island. The driver said Dykstra would have to change it in the app in order to be driven there, and the former major leaguer reportedly got hostile. Dykstra then placed a black pill bag with an object [the driver] believed to be a gun to his head and said take me to Staten Island or Ill blow your (expletive) head off, according to the police report. The driver drove Dykstra to the Linden Police station and ran screaming for help. Dykstra told officers he was kidnapped and allowed police to search him. Though he recanted his permission, police determined probable cause and found what they believe to be marijuana, a glass pipe, a straw with suspected cocaine residue, a vial of suspected cocaine and two pills thought to be MDMA. What is Dykstras side of the story? Dykstra has denied the drivers side of the story from the beginning, including in police body cam video obtained by TMZ. He told the police the driver was going to kill him, that the driver drove 100 mph to get to the station, and said multiple times he didnt have a firearm. Dykstra held a news conference with his attorneys after the arrest to tell his story, claiming the driver kidnapped him. He filed a countersuit against the driver. Story continues His camp seems to still be sticking to this side of the events, enough so that Dykstras attorney, Matthew Blit, told this to TMZ Sports: A grand jury will indict a ham sandwich. The evidence in this case overwhelmingly confirms Lenny is innocent. Has Dykstra been in trouble before? Oh, yes. The 55-year-old served time for grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement. Hes declared bankruptcy, attended rehab, admitted to steroids and written a book. More from Yahoo Sports: NFLs TV ratings dip wasnt about Trump, study finds Ex-Olympian Gold eyes return after battling mental illness Yankees Sabathia rips terrible ump after ALDS loss Dan Wetzel: Will new revelation get Louisville the death penalty? Texas senator Ted Cruz has spent his current reelection bid trying to make voters clutch their pearls over his opponent, Democratic hopeful (and talented musician) Beto ORourke. Cruz has posted photos of ORourkes old days in punk bands, and made the bizarre claim that ORourke rid the state of BBQ and replace it with tofu and dyed hairor something. Hes literally the worst. (Read: Classic Film Review: Dazed and Confused Grooves With an Air of Immortality) Richard Linklater, Boyhood director and lifelong Texan, agrees. Thats why he directed a new anti-Cruz ad featuring another Texan, Sonny Carl Davis, who here takes issue with Cruzs campaign slogan: Tough As Texas. Davis, who you might recognize from Linklaters excellent 2011 movie Bernie, essentially posits that tough people dont kiss the ass of someone who called their wife a dog and insinuated that their dad was involved in the Kennedy assassination. Hes speaking of Donald Trump, of course, who thoroughly dismantled Cruz during the 2016 presidential campaign. You stick a finger in your chest and give em a few choice words, Davis says. Or you drag their ass out by the woodshed and kick their ass, Ted. His pointed repetitions of Ted are so funny. Watch it below, and please, please, please dont vote for Ted Cruz. He is bad. Bucharest (AFP) - Romania's government plans to double state pensions by 2022, it said Wednesday, approving a scheme to pump 30 billion euros a year into retirement funding, which economists fear could severely strain public finances. The nation is one of the European Union's poorest and also has one of the lowest average government pensions payments in the bloc, at 240 euros per month to its 5.2 million retirees, although the system is fraught with inconsistencies that have created inequalities. Following through on a campaign pledge, the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) will have to devote the equivalent of 11 percent of gross domestic product to pensions, compared to 6.7 percent currently. Prime Minister Viorica Dancila insisted on Wednesday that financing the change "won't be a problem", while the country's labour minister said that the country was banking on generating enough revenue for the measure from rising GDP. But analysts have cast doubt on the government's projections, especially as Romania already struggles to keep the public deficit below the 3 percent benchmark required by the EU. "An economy will never run according to the most optimistic scenario on paper", Aurelian Dochia, an economist with the BRD-Groupe Societe Generale bank told AFP. "Everybody agrees that inequalities must be corrected, but the new proposal is very ambitious and raises serious doubts about the funding", he added. Romania's economy achieved a record growth rate of 6.9 percent in 2017, boosted by household consumption fuelled by rising wages and tax cuts. The government projects 5.5 percent growth this year followed by 5.7 percent in 2019. However, on Tuesday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised its forecasts for the eastern European country down from 5.1 to 4 percent for this year and down to 3.4 percent for 2019. Dumitru Costin, head of the BNS trade union confederation, welcomed the extra purchasing power for pensioners in the government's plans, but added they lacked a "serious analysis of financial viability". The government's proposals will now go to parliament to be debated and voted on. WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. Bernie Sanders is embarking on a nine-state battleground tour on behalf of Democratic candidates competing in the November elections, returning to the campaign trail ahead of a decision on another White House bid. The packed October schedule marks the Vermont independent's most extensive stretch of campaigning since the 2016 presidential race. It will include stops in Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, home to crucial early contests on the 2020 primary calendar. Sanders is expected to make a decision on whether to launch another campaign in the coming months and the tour could inform his decision. It will allow him to test the durability of the left-leaning coalition he assembled in 2016 and build relationships with elected officials who could serve as allies should he run again. "He wanted to go where he thinks he can be helpful in energizing the base and bringing in young people and independent voters and working-class voters who supported him," said Jeff Weaver, Sanders' 2016 campaign manager and longtime political adviser. Weaver said Sanders had "no timeline or deadline" for making a decision on 2020 but much of his consideration was focused on who is best able to defeat President Donald Trump. "His message has reached across the Democratic base and positions him well were he to decide to run in the primary but also in the general election as the candidate who can best beat Trump," he said. Sanders' challenge to Hillary Clinton made him the main alternative in the 2016 Democratic primaries, but the next presidential campaign is expected to be a wide-open contest that could include several senators such as Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, plus former Vice President Joe Biden, other members of Congress, governors and mayors. Sanders has been at the center of a debate over the party's future and whether his agenda of free college tuition, a $15 hourly minimum wage and a "Medicare for all" health care can win over general-election voters. The senator is coming off a victory after Amazon announced last week it would raise its wages for its workers to $15 per hour starting next month, and will raise pay for employees who make more than that, responding in part to pressure from Sanders. Story continues On Tuesday, Sanders focused on foreign policy during a speech at The Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He warned of the rise of oligarchies and authoritarianism around the world and said the U.S. needs to counter it "with a strong progressive movement that speaks to the needs of working people." Sanders said the movement needs to address "the massive global inequality that exists, not only in wealth but in political power." His tour will kick off on Oct. 19 in Bloomington, Indiana, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, with rallies and events on behalf of Liz Watson, who is challenging Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, R-Ind., and Gretchen Whitmer, who is running for Michigan governor. Sanders will hold rallies and other events in South Carolina and Iowa on Oct. 20-21, including stops in Iowa in Sioux City, Fort Dodge and Ames on behalf of J.D. Scholten, who is challenging Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. His Iowa visit, his first since February, will come amid a boost of political activity in the caucus state, including Booker, who addressed Democratic activists last weekend, and Trump, who will hold a rally in Council Bluffs on Tuesday night. The itinerary will also include rallies in Wisconsin, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and California, spanning a number of competitive races key to Democrats' electoral success. He will be campaigning alongside Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin; David Garcia, who faces Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey; Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo.; and Jacky Rosen, who is aiming to unseat Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev. Sanders' California swing will help Rep. Barbara Lee and two California congressional hopefuls, Ammar Campa-Najjar and Mike Levin. Through early October, Sanders has traveled to 17 states this year and 30 states since the 2016 election in support of Democratic candidates and an array of policy issues. An online fundraising powerhouse in 2016, Sanders has maintained a list of millions of his supporters that he can use to help endorsed candidates. Sanders is heavily favored to win re-election next month to a third term as Vermont's senator, allowing him to travel the nation in the weeks before the election. Sanders has called Trump a "pathological liar" who has bitterly divided the nation on social policies while overseeing an economic agenda that has further aggravated income and wealth inequality. ___ Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the investigation into Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has been missing since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul a week ago, is "continuing intensively". Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a written statement that although the Vienna convention states that consulate buildings have immunity, they can be searched by host country authorities with the consent of the mission chief. "The consulate building will be searched in the framework of the investigation," the statement said. (Reporting by Daren Butler, Writing by Sarah Dadouch; Editing by Dominic Evans) In Homer's Odyssey, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, disguises herself as a Mentor -- an old friend of Odysseus -- and accompanies Odysseus' son, Telemachus, in his own journey beyond the kingdom of Ithaca. Similarly, drawing on the wisdom of mentors will help you to streamline your path to medical school. Here are four different types of mentors and how they can help you on your journey. Premed advisors. Premed advisors are professionals who can help navigate the process of figuring out your fit for a medical career, scheduling your courses, checking off medical school pre-requisites, and applying to medical schools. They know what works and what doesn't. [Read: Prep for Medical School Applications as a College Student.] Meeting with your with your premed advisor early and often will allow you to plan out your academic trajectory and gain feedback on your college progress. Moreover, premed advisors are equipped with a treasure trove institution-specific information, such as the success rate of their applicants and the admissions profile of graduates who secure a spot in medical school. They can tell you whether you are making steady progress or veering off-course. For struggling students, premed advisors can provide suggestions for improvement or a vital reality check to encourage students to consider a Plan B. Academic mentors. Some of your academic mentors may be assigned by your university, others you may encounter organically in your courses. Regardless of how you meet them, academic mentors are teachers who are invested in your academic growth. Interaction with your academic mentor as a premed student may be different from that of students interested in Ph.D. programs, because you likely won't be following in your mentor's footsteps. Although academic mentors may not be able to direct you personally in your premed path, they can help you to take charge of your learning in college by offering advice on major planning and improving your academic performance in their courses. Story continues Furthermore, cultivating a professional relationship with instructors who can vouch for your academic strength, talk about you on a personal level and write about your desire to go into medicine will ensure a memorable and robust recommendation letter for the medical school admissions committee, regardless of your mentor's academic field. [Read: 4 People to Tap for Strong Medical School Recommendations.] You can get to know your professors by going to office hours, asking thoughtful questions during class, and actively engaging with the material. In an email, Richard Trimble, a third-year medical student at Stanford University School of Medicine, describes mentorship as a two-way street. "Ask your instructors and mentors about their lives, careers and research," he says. "You will find that instructors take a more personal role in guiding your career if they know you as a person." Physician mentors. Physicians are the best mentors to help to figure out your fit a career in medicine. Physician mentors can give you a glimpse into the realities of practicing medicine in a way that your premed or academic mentors cannot. Furthermore, working with physicians will expose you to the vast array of specialties that will help you to make a decision regarding residency later in your medical school career. Unfortunately, most clinicians are busy with patient care, administrative work or medical student education so they may not have the time or the desire to advise premed students. You can maximize your chance of finding a physician mentor by engaging in shadowing or volunteering opportunities that will allow you to work regularly with the same physician. You can also ask your premed advisor for a list of alumni or local physicians who are willing to mentor students. Medical students and near-peer mentors. A near-peer mentor is someone who is only a few steps ahead of you. For premed students, near-peer mentors may be upperclassmen who have done well in premed courses or recent alumni already in medical school. A near-peer mentor can provide practical advice about picking classes, studying for the MCAT, and preparing for interviews. Furthermore, near-peer mentors can encourage you through the obstacles that they have gone through themselves. [Read: Get Strong Clinical Experiences for Medical School.] You can find near-peer mentors through your friend groups, premed societies and formal mentorship programs. For instance, many universities affiliated with a medical school organize programs paring premed students with eager first- and second-year medical students. The path to a medical career is a difficult one, but mentors can make the journey easier. "Each individual advisor or mentor will only have a piece of the puzzle," says Richard. "You will get a bigger picture and have a much better understanding of your path by having as many advisors and mentors as possible." Yoo Jung Kim is a medical student at the Stanford University School of Medicine and co-author of "What Every Science Student Should Know," a guidebook for students interested in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. She also writes about medical school education for Doximity, an online medical social network. Theres little Yahoo Canada News readers agree on, but the treatment of convicted child killer Terri-McClintic is an exception. Last week, Yahoo Canada News spoke with Rodney Stafford, the father of McClintics eight-year-old victim Victoria Tori Stafford, about McClintics transfer from a womens prison in Kitchener, Ont. to an Indigenous healing lodge in Saskatchewan. In 2010, McClintic along with her partner Michael Thomas Rafferty was found guilty of first-degree murder in Toris kidnapping and death in Woodstock, Ont. the year before. Stafford told Yahoo Canada News how every development involving McClintic forces him to relive the painful experience of losing his daughter, but that he will continue to relive that experience for as long as it takes to secure justice for her. Within the story, we invited readers to vote in a poll that asked: Should Terri-Lynne McClintic be allowed to stay at a healing lodge? We collected 8,106 responses. Of those responses, 7,932 or 98 per cent said she should not, and 174 two per cent said she should. The outcome was clear. Nearly all readers believed McClintic did not belong at Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge. However, respondents were less united when it came to elaborating on their opinions. Some blamed the current federal government for the move. Justin [Trudeau] had a chance to defend an 8 year old girl who got murdered. And what does he do for the Stafford family, nothing. Instead he sides with the murderer, Yahoo Canada user M said. Some defended the Trudeau government, pointing out that McClintic was classified as a medium-security prisoner Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge is a minimum-medium security facility under the Harper government. Anyone blaming Trudeau for this should give their heads a shake and try to understand that once she was classified as a medium security prisoner in 2014, during the time of the last Conservative government, it made do difference where she is put, said Yahoo Canada user gordmack67. Story continues A healing lodge is a medium-security correctional institution. She isnt being set free. She is still incarcerated and will be for many more years. Some defended the value and sanctity of Indigenous healing lodges, while some simply offered words of support to murder victim Toris father Rodney Stafford. I can not fathom the pain this man has gone through, said Yahoo Canada user Fire. Sending my condolences never seems like enough. In a statement to Yahoo Canada News, Correctional Service Canada defended the transfer as an example of the system of risk needs analysis, intervention and gradual, structured release that is the cornerstone of the federal correctional system. Rehabilitative efforts, leading to a gradual and controlled release, have proven to be a better way of protecting the public than keeping offenders in maximum security to the end of their sentence, and then releasing them into society without supervision, the statement said. Transfers are made to manage security requirements within an institution. All transfers are made in accordance with the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, and the CSC performs risk assessments before transferring an offender to a facility. Transfers play an important role in CSCs ability to manage the inmate population within the confines of the law, and are key to meeting the organizations priorities. And while the federal Conservatives have pushed the government to reverse the decision to transfer McClintic to the healing lodge, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the federal government lacks the power to do so. In the meantime, Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has instructed Correctional Service officials to review the transfer, and Stafford and a group of supporters are organizing a march on Parliament Hill on Nov. 2 to protest it. With each call to action, Stafford is both reminded of agonizing final moments of Toris life and propelled by the belief that he is doing the right thing. I will relive this every day if I have to, he said. If it means to get full and complete justice for Victoria. Sofia (AFP) - Police in Germany have arrested a man in connection with the rape and murder of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova, Bulgarian officials said Wednesday. But they said it does not appear that the murder was linked to her work as a journalist. The suspect was picked up late on Tuesday at the request of Bulgarian authorities, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told a news conference. "We have enough proof linking this person to the scene of the crime," he said. The country's chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, named the suspect as Severin Kasimirov, born in 1997. "At this stage, we do not believe that the murder is linked" to Marinova's work, Tsatsarov said. "But we are continuing to look at all hypotheses. "The evidence that we have at this stage leads us to believe it was a spontaneous attack to sexually abuse the victim." The body of 30-year-old Marinova -- who presented a current affairs talk programme called "Detector" for the small TVN television channel -- was discovered on a riverside path in the northern town of Ruse on Saturday. Authorities said she died from blows to the head and suffocation. She was also raped. The attack has shocked the country and drawn international condemnation amid speculation the murder could be linked to Marinova's work as a journalist. An episode of her programme aired on September 30 featured interviews with two investigative journalists from Bulgaria and Romania who had been working on corruption allegations. She is the third journalist to be murdered in Europe in the past 12 months after Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February and Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017. SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) German police have arrested a suspect in the rape and killing of a television journalist from Bulgaria whose work highlighted corruption in the East European country, officials said Wednesday. Bulgaria's prosecutor general, Sotir Tsatsarov, confirmed the arrest of Severin Krassimirov, a 21-year-old Bulgarian citizen. Prosecutors in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony said the suspect was arrested Tuesday evening outside the city of Hamburg on a European arrest warrant. Prosecutors will examine whether he can be extradited and apply to have him held in formal custody. Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said investigators had found DNA evidence on the clothes and body of Viktoria Marinova, who was raped and strangled on Saturday in the northern town of Ruse. Authorities said that Marinova's funeral would be held Friday in the town. She is survived by a 7-year-old daughter. Bulgarian media reported that Krassimirov's mother lives in Germany. The Interior Ministry said that he left Bulgaria early Saturday afternoon, crossing the bridge at Ruse over the Danube into Romania. "There is physical evidence to link to the murder," Marinov said. He said Krassimirov, a resident of Ruse, had a criminal record for scrap metal theft. The minister said investigators had spoken to Marinova's family and friends and "there is no apparent link to her work." Tsatsarov said the evidence suggested it was "a spontaneous attack, not premeditated." However, he added that investigators were examining "all possible lines of investigation." Prime Minister Boyko Borissov offered condolences to her family and thanked investigators for their work. However, he said he would withdraw his support for a German member of the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, a leading candidate to become the next head of the European Commission, because of tweets he made associating the death of Marinova with those of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak. Both were killed because of their investigations into corrupt officials. Story continues On Wednesday, Weber tweeted: "Bulgarian authorities have acted swiftly and effectively. We have full confidence in the Bulgarian authorities to find justice for the family and loved ones." Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving European Union funds. While Marinova didn't appear to have been closely involved in the fraud investigation, her show touched on a sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. The Balkan nation, which joined the EU in 2007, was ranked 71st on Transparency International's corruption list last year. Joining the bloc opened an enormous source of possible new funding for Bulgarian infrastructure projects or other programs designed to bring the nation up to EU standards. ___ Teodora Barzakova in Ruse, Bulgaria, Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania, and Geir Moulson In Berlin contributed to this report. SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) A suspect in the rape and killing of a Bulgarian television journalist whose work highlighted corruption in the East European country has been arrested in Germany, officials said Wednesday. Bulgarias prosecutor general, Sotir Tsatsarov, confirmed the arrest of Severin Krassimirov, a 21-year-old Bulgarian citizen, but gave no further details of his location. German authorities were not immediately available. We are currently following a European arrest procedure. The German prosecutor has arrested the suspect, they will then assess how to proceed, Tsatsarov said. He said it evidence suggested it was a spontaneous attack, not premeditated. Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said investigators had found DNA evidence on the clothes and body of Viktoria Marinova, who was raped and strangled on Saturday in the northern town of Ruse. There is physical evidence to link to the murder, Marinov said Wednesday. He said Krasimirov, a resident of Ruse, had a criminal record for scrap metal theft. The minister said investigators had spoken to Marinovas family and friends and there is no apparent link to her work. Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving European Union funds. While Marinova didnt appear to have been closely involved in the fraud investigation, her show touched on a sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. The Balkan nation, which joined the EU in 2007, was ranked 71st on Transparency Internationals corruption list last year. Joining the bloc opened an enormous spigot of possible new funding for Bulgarian infrastructure projects or other programs designed to bring the nation up to EU standards. NAIROBI (Reuters) - Two Kenyan teachers were killed on Wednesday when suspected al Shabaab militants threw an explosive device at a teachers house in Mandera county near the Somali border, police said. The teachers were killed in a fire caused by the explosion in the attack at 1 a.m. (2200 GMT on Tuesday) at Arabia Boys Secondary School, police said on Twitter. Police reservists guarding the school "engaged the attackers who then fled as more reinforcements were mobilized", police said. The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab aims to topple Somalia's U.N.-backed government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islam. They have intensified attacks in Kenya since it sent troops into Somalia in 2011. (Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Clement Uwiringiyimana, Editing by William Maclean) By Stephanie Nebehay LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Switzerland's highest court ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors cannot extend Swiss banking secrecy rules to all corners of the globe to pursue whistleblowers and other leakers at foreign subsidiaries. The Federal Supreme Court by a 3-2 majority rejected an appeal by Zurich prosecutors in a 14-year legal battle involving former private banker Rudolf Elmer, who had been acquitted of breaking secrecy laws. The case underscored how Swiss authorities continue to pursue people who leak client data even as strict banking secrecy erodes in an era of automatic sharing of account data among tax authorities to catch cheats. Elmer, who headed the Cayman Islands office of Swiss private bank Julius Baer until he was dismissed in 2002, later sent documents with details of alleged tax evasion to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks and to tax authorities across the globe. The Swiss Banking Act requires employees of Swiss-regulated banks to keep client information confidential, but a number of staff have leaked account details to foreign authorities in the past decade as Western governments crack down on tax evasion. Some lawmakers in the European Union worried that the prosecutors' move, if successful, would deter potential whistleblowers from supplying information on people accused of shifting wealth to tax havens through accounts protected by secrecy laws. Zurich prosecutors had asked the court to interpret the law so that the secrecy obligation was widened to include people with looser working relationships to Swiss banks and their subsidiaries abroad. They were appealing against the 2016 acquittal of Elmer on charges brought under the secrecy law. FAR-REACHING CONSEQUENCES Elmer, who was in the courtroom, expressed relief at the verdict. "My reaction is positive, definitely," he told Reuters, calling the verdict -- which is final -- a blow to tax dodgers trying to hide behind Swiss banking secrecy. Story continues "Especially foreign employees will feel much more comfortable that they are not being exposed to any legal cases about violating Swiss bank secrecy," he said. His attorney Ganden Tethong said: "It was made clear by the court that Swiss bank secrecy law is not applicable to banks in countries outside of Switzerland. I think that was very clear today and I'm glad it is now clear for all." Zurich's upper court ruled in 2016 that the bank secrecy law did not apply to Elmer as an employee of a Caribbean subsidiary, rather than of the parent bank in Zurich. The top court upheld this view. Prosecutors had argued in their appeal that if they could not apply the law to people connected to Swiss banks outside the country, this deprived banking secrecy of its substance "with far-reaching consequences that cannot be accepted". Switzerland, the world's largest center for overseas wealth management, has responded to international pressure, especially from the EU and United States, for greater transparency. This includes joining the Automatic Exchange of Information program among developed economies which aims to ensure that offshore accounts are known to tax authorities where the account holders live. Still, Swiss banks are fighting to shed a reputation of being a place to stash wealth beyond the prying eyes of the tax man. UBS is on trial in France for this. Prosecutors had sought a 36-month jail sentence for Elmer, of which 24 would be suspended. The Zurich upper court had given him a suspended sentence for forging documents and threatening Julius Baer following his dismissal. That ruling stands. (Writing by Michael Shields; Editing by Toby Chopra) Syrian President Bashar Assad has issued a new degree offering amnesty - SANA President Bashar al-Assad has made an unprecedented offer of amnesty for military deserters and draft dodgers in the hope of encouraging Syrians to return home. In a decree issued on official social media feeds, the government said they will not receive any punishment but would still have to serve the mandatory two years of service. Those who defected and joined the Free Syrian Army (FSA) or other rebel groups who fought against regime forces, are blacklisted, however, and will therefore not be given clemency. An official from the reconciliation ministry told the Telegraph that those living inside the country had four months to turn themselves in, while those living outside the country had six months to do so. He said he expected tens of thousands to accept the amnesty. The fear of potential punishment for ducking military service or desertion is frequently cited by the some six million refugees living abroad as one of the main reasons they do not wish to return to Syria. Under Syrian military law, deserters can face years of prison if they leave their post and do not report for service within a set amount of time. People walk near a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hanging in a street in the Syrian capital Damascus Credit: AFP Now that the war is almost over I dont think there is fear anymore, the way there was before, said Elia Samaan, an adviser in the government's reconciliation ministry. I expect this amnesty to have many more people than previous ones and be better because before, the war was still ongoing and people were scared. Now the military operations have lessened and I dont think there is fear from joining the military. Many will be wary of accepting such a deal. Some of those who had been part of earlier so-called reconciliation agreements were later imprisoned or tortured. Syrian Army soldiers gathering in an area on the eastern outskirts of Douma, as they continue their fierce offensive to retake the last opposition holdout Credit: AFP No one trusts the Assad regime, said Aghiad al-Kheder, from Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, who fled to Germany in 2015. Many people who went to the government for reconciliation then died inside prison. This chance for amnesty seems to be only for Assad supporters to go back home without a problem. Story continues Those who will consider returning are likely to be broadly non-political, or those who do not oppose the government but had been unwilling to fight in its war. I want to return home, of course I do, said a 25-year-old Syrian living in Lebanon who declined to be named. I left because I didnt want to fight, but I do not want to be a refugee my whole life. But who will ensure I will not still be arrested if I go back? Syrian refugee hands a girl to another migrant over Hungarian-Serbian border fence, as they cross into Hungary near Roszke in 2015 Credit: Reuters Lebanon has already assisted the return of 50,000 of the some one million refugees on its soil. However, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says conditions have not yet been fulfilled for mass refugee returns. Filippo Grandi, UNHCR chief, said refugees were concerned about conscription, as well as other issues such as the lack of infrastructure. Russia, a backer of the Assad regime, has pressured the government to set the conditions for the return of millions still scattered across the Middle East and Europe, and welcomed the move on Tuesday. Steps should be taken toward a broader amnesty if Assad aims to incentivise return, said Jesse Marks, a Middle East analyst. But the conditions in the country are still not safe. Syrians do not trust the government, and winning that trust will be hard, and in many cases, impossible. By Jess Macy Yu and Yimou Lee TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen vowed on Wednesday to boost national security, saying her government would not submit to Chinese suppression as Beijing ramps up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the self-ruled island. Tsai's remarks came weeks ahead of islandwide local elections in late November that are seen as a bellwether for her ruling party's performance in presidential elections due in 2020. "At this time, China's intimidation and diplomatic pressure not only hurts relations between both sides, but seriously challenges the peaceful stability in the Taiwan Strait," she said in a National Day speech in Taipei. Taiwan will increase its defence budget every year to ensure it can defend its sovereignty, Tsai said, by upgrading military capabilities and self-sufficiency, including resuming domestic development of advanced training aircraft and submarines. China, which views Taiwan as a wayward province, has increased military and diplomatic pressure on Taipei, leading to a difficult period for the president and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Three former allies - El Salvador, Burkina Faso and Dominican Republic - switched their allegiances to Beijing this year, and the Chinese military has stepped up encirclement drills around Taiwan, which Tapei has denounced as intimidation. [nL3N1SI2ZD] Taiwan must work with other countries to build a coalition to defend democracy, Tsai said, thanking the European Parliament and the United States for their support. Last month, the U.S. State Department approved the sale to Taiwan of spare parts for F-16 fighter planes and other military aircraft worth up to $330 million, a move China has said jeopardises Sino-U.S. cooperation. [nL2N1WA1MH] [nL2N1WP0R5] China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control and regularly calls the island its most sensitive issue in its ties with the United States. Relations with Beijing have nosedived since Tsai came into office in 2016, with China suspecting that she wants to push for formal independence, a red line for Beijing. For her part, Tsai has repeatedly emphasized maintaining the status quo since coming to power. On Wednesday she called for a multi-national effort to fight some types of infiltration, such as the circulation of fake news by certain countries, which she did not name. "I would like to pledge to everyone that we will not rashly increase antagonism, but we won't submit or yield," she said. (Reporting by Jess Macy Yu and Yimou Lee; editing by Darren Schuettler and Clarence Fernandez) Taylor Swift wants her fans to head to the polls this November, and if they do, it could swing midterm elections. At least thats what UBS economist Paul Donovan said in an Oct. 10 note titled Why @taylorswift13 matters to markets. On Oct. 7, Swift urged her Instagram followers to register to vote at Vote.org. By the evening of Oct. 9, over 328,000 people registered on the site. Registration nearly doubled among those aged 18 to 24 and 25 to 29, who make up a large portion of Swifts fan demographic. I can say that we have not seen this much of a lift in registrations in a single 48-hour period, Vote.orgs Kamari Guthrie said. It should be noted that some of the spike in registration could be the result of several states having voter registration deadlines in that period. Donovan wrote that the influx of newly-registered voters add uncertainty to the election. Recent electoral surprises in the U.S. and elsewhere were caused by the votes of people who do not normally vote, Donovan said. New voters reduce U.S. mid-term election predictability. If Swift can get more voters to the polls, economists may have a tougher time modeling political risk. It will make the predictions of opinion polls less accurate, Donovan said. A number of tangible policy and investment implications And a hazier crystal ball could complicate post-election market expectations. In a Sept. 4 note, UBSs investment research team noted that the election has a number of tangible policy and investment implications that could determine the future of the current bull market. Republicans could lose control of the Senate if two of their 51 seats flip to Democrats, though the GOP has far fewer incumbents up for election. Twenty-five Democrats, a number of whom are in red states, are fighting for their seats compared to eight Republicans. In Tennessee, where Swift will vote, Democrat Phil Bredesen is in a tight Senate race against Republican Marsha Blackburn. A CBS poll conducted Oct. 2 through Oct. 5 had Blackburn up 50% to Bredesens 42%. Story continues Swift may be helping the Democratic push for control of Congress by announcing she will be voting for Bredesen along with her incumbent House representative, Democrat Jim Cooper. President Donald Trump on Oct. 9 had a few words to say about Swifts push. Lets say that I like Taylors music about 25% less now, Trump said. The president, however, did not elaborate on how much he liked Swift to begin with. Brian Cheung is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @bcheungz Lome (AFP) - A Togolese opposition leader who had been on hunger strike was evacuated to a hospital in Ghana after his health deteriorated, his relatives said Wednesday. Nicodeme Ayao Habia, who had refused food since September 19, was evacuated to Ghana's capital of Accra on Tuesday after his condition worsened, his communication advisor Achille Mensah told AFP. "Mr. Habia was admitted to a clinic in the Ghanaian capital since yesterday after his health deteriorated. For the moment he is under medical supervision, he has not yet received any treatment," Mensah said. "It was on Saturday that he ended his strike, only taking fruit," he said. Habia had been staging his hunger strike in front of the Ghanaian embassy in Lome. Accra has been acting as a mediator in a long-running dispute between the Togolese government and opposition figures over constitutional reform. Habia began his strike to call for the release from prison of over 40 opposition activists who were arrested during protests demanding the resignation of Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe. In September, a Ghanaian military plane landed in Lome to transport Habia for medical care but it was not allowed to leave the airport due to a lack of detail about its mission, according to Togo's security minister General Yark Damehane. "Togo is not a colony of Ghana," said Damehane, adding that Ghana could not send a plane without letting the Togolese authorities know first. Referring to Habia's hunger strike, Damehane said: "It's theatre. You want us to play along?" 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. He has opposed changes to the constitution that would put a limit on presidential terms, sparking nationwide protests. The chant was familiar, but its target was new. At a Tuesday rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, President Trump took aim at Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for her handling of a letter sent by Christine Blasey Ford that accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault more than three decades ago. The letter, in which Ford requested anonymity, leaked to the media, resulting in a contentious delay in Kavanaughs confirmation to the high court. At his rally, Trump put the blame for the leak on Feinstein. How about Sen. Feinstein. Thats another beauty. Thats a beauty, Trump said as his audience erupted into a chorus of boos. The president then did an impersonation of Feinstein and the other members on the Senate Judiciary Committee who discussed whether she had leaked Fords letter. Did you leak the documents? Wha? Wha? No, I didnt. President Trump at a campaign rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Tuesday. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images) As Trump continued his re-creation of the exchange, his supporters started the chant that began in the 2016 campaign, when the enemy was Hillary Clinton. Lock her up! And I think theyre talking about Feinstein, can you believe that? Trump quipped. Now was that the worst body language. In other words, did she leak it? A hundred percent. No, I dont want to get sued 99 percent. See now I cant get Now I cant get sued. During a hearing at which Ford and Kavanaugh both testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Feinstein addressed the claim that she was responsible for leaking the letter in an effort to torpedo Kavanaughs nomination. Sen. Dianne Feinstein at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Sept. 27. (Photo: Michael Reynolds/Pool/AP) President Trump and Senate Republicans are trying to deflect attention from Brett Kavanaughs sexual assault allegations by saying my staff or I leaked the letter from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford theyre wrong, Feinstein said. At the hearing, several Republicans accused her of just that, but Feinstein was resolute in her denials. I honored Dr. Blasey Fords request for confidentiality, Feinstein said. It was only when reporters were knocking on her door that I referred the letter to the FBI. At no point did I or anyone on my staff divulge Dr. Blasey Fords name to the press. She knows that and believes it, for which Im grateful. Story continues In a speech last weekend announcing that she would support Kavanaughs nomination, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was certain that Feinstein was not the leaker. She is a person of integrity and I stand by her, Collins said. Trumps ire moved on quickly enough from Feinstein on Tuesday, and minutes later he recounted Clintons criticism of his remarks at Kavanaughs ceremonial swearing-in. Lock her up! the crowd chanted at the mention of Clintons name. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: By Humeyra Pamuk and Jarrett Renshaw WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump launched an effort on Tuesday to increase ethanol use in the nation's gasoline pool, delivering a long-sought political victory to the country's Farm Belt and angering oil refiners ahead of November's congressional elections. Trump announced the lifting of a ban on summer sales of gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol, known as E15, at a closed-door meeting at the White House, Republican senators told reporters after the meeting. "My administration is protecting ethanol. ... Today we are unleashing the power of E15 to fuel our country all year long," Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The announcement capped a months-long effort by the White House to thread the needle between rival corn and oil industry interests, by boosting ethanol demand while also cutting costs for refiners. In the end, Trump is moving ahead without the support of the oil refining industry, which wanted more in return for agreeing to lift the summer ban. The move is also aimed at helping the political fortunes of Republican candidates in the Midwest saddled with a tough farm economy and the imposition of import tariffs by Trump and China. Polls show close election races in Iowa for the governor's seat and two congressional seats. Trump told the rally that Democrats would "end ethanol" if given the chance. "You'd better get out there and vote for Republicans," he said. Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a statement: "Democrats remain vigilant to ensure that this new measure will create real benefits for Americas farmers." Iowa is the nation's biggest producer of corn, and farmers there have been frustrated with falling corn and soybean prices hurt by the trade war between the United States and China. "It's about time," said Warren Bachman, a 72-year-old corn and soybean farmer in Iowa. "With all the trade wars, tariffs and low crop prices, it seems like we are taking it in the shorts and bearing all the burden." Story continues Since ethanol is cheaper than gasoline, the administration hopes to lower pump prices, which currently average $2.91 a gallon, more than 40 cents higher than this time a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association. The Environmental Protection Agency prohibits summer sales of E15 in certain areas because of smog concerns. For the ban to be removed, it must draft and finalize a rule in the spring. "I feel certain this rule can be accomplished before the driving season next year," U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told Reuters in an interview. Biofuel advocates hope the lifting of the ban will boost ethanol sales. Geoff Cooper, chief executive of the Renewable Fuels Association trade group, said allowing E15 sales year-round could double sales of the higher-ethanol blend from roughly 400 million gallons currently. It depends on how quickly new pumps would be added ... the greatest impact will be longer-term, Cooper said. He said the move was a great first step, but noted it faced significant political and legal opposition. "We are happy, but we know there's still a long road ahead," Cooper said. 'CERTAINTY FOR A LAWSUIT' The rule would be coupled with restrictions on the multibillion-dollar biofuel credit trading industry sought by merchant refiners like Valero Energy Corp and PBF Energy Inc. Those rules will seek to stop parties from hoarding the credits and driving up the cost of complying with biofuels blending laws. Refiners are required to blend increasing amounts of biofuels like ethanol into the fuel pool annually, or buy credits from competitors who do. Refining companies that buy the credits have complained about volatile prices. The EPA will consider forcing blenders, retailers and trading houses to sell credits more quickly to reduce market volatility, a White House official said. But that is not enough for the refiners. The American Petroleum Institute, the largest U.S. oil trade association, opposes lifting the ban, saying E15 gasoline ruins older cars and potentially voids warranties. "The only certainty from today's actions is a lawsuit," Chet Thompson, head of American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, said on Tuesday. He said the industry would challenge the finalized rule in court, saying the EPA had acknowledged it lacks the authority to change this rule. Last year, biofuel credit prices rose to nearly $1 each, near a five-year high, as merchant refiners warned that plants may be forced to close without federal action. Prices dropped after the EPA expanded its use of waivers freeing small refiners from their obligations. The credits were trading at roughly 12 cents each on Tuesday, traders said. (Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in New York and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Council Bluffs, Iowa; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Peter Cooney) (Bloomberg) President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would consider Goldman Sachs Group Inc.s Dina Powell to replace his departing ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. Dina is certainly a person I would consider, Trump told reporters at the White House on the way to board the presidential helicopter as he embarked on a trip to Iowa. But he added there are others he would also consider. Trump said his daughter, Ivanka, would be a great ambassador to the UN but he wouldnt appoint her because of a potential nepotism issue. Im not sure theres anybody more competent, Trump said. Powell, 45, a former Trump deputy national security adviser, left the White House in January and joined Goldmans management committee. She had previously been a Goldman partner and the firms global head of impact investing. Before that, she was an assistant secretary of state and a senior White House staffer during the administration of George W. Bush. Powells last day at the White House was Jan. 12. Officials said at the time her departure was announced that she was leaving to spend more time with her family, who had remained behind in Manhattan. While in Washington, she was criticized at times by the nationalist faction in Trumps base of support, including then-chief strategist Steve Bannon, a fellow Goldman alum who left the White House last year to return briefly to the right-wing Breitbart website. She was closer with Trumps daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, whos leading efforts to broker a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Kushner said when Powells departure was announced that she would continue to play a key role in our peace efforts. By Steve Holland COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday used the bitter Senate confirmation battle for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to try to boost Republican voter enthusiasm and prevent a Democratic takeover of Congress in the Nov. 6 elections. At a political rally in support of Iowa and Nebraska Republicans, Trump called the Democrats' attempt to block Kavanaugh from the high court "a national embarrassment, a national disgrace," without mentioning the sexual assault accusation raised by Christine Blasey Ford when she and Kavanaugh were high school students in 1982. "They wanted to destroy that man. Of course, they want to destroy me too," Trump told a cheering crowd at an arena in Council Bluffs, Iowa, a city near Omaha, Nebraska. "In just four weeks, you will have the chance to render your verdict on the Democrats' outrageous conduct," he added. Trump staged a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony for Kavanaugh on Monday night at the White House, apologizing to him and his family for the contentious confirmation process. Kavanaugh was confirmed 50-48 by the Senate on Saturday, with just one Democrat supporting him. At his Iowa event, Trump said a Democratic takeover of Congress could allow Democrats to impeach Kavanaugh, a prospect some Democrats have raised. "The Democrats are even talking about doing really bad things now to Justice Kavanaugh," said Trump. "You know what they're talking about and packing their courts with radical judges to overrule the will of the American people. It's not going to happen folks." Mocking some Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who pressed the case against Kavanaugh, Trump said: "The Democrats have become too dangerous to govern. They've become wacko." Opinion polls show Democratic voters are more enthusiastic about voting in the congressional elections, but Republicans have narrowed the gap in recent weeks and are using the Kavanaugh battle to try to get their voters excited about turning out. The party that holds the White House typically loses seats in midterm congressional elections. Many analysts predict Democrats will be able to take control of the House of Representatives, but it is far from clear if they can also capture the Senate. A Democratic takeover of Congress could expose Trump to impeachment investigations and lead to multiple probes into his administration just as he prepares for his own re-election fight in 2020. Trump is traveling to key states and raising millions of dollars for Republican congressional candidates. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney) The following statements were posted to the verified personal Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - The paid D.C. protesters are now ready to REALLY protest because they havent gotten their checks - in other words, they werent paid! Screamers in Congress, and outside, were far too obvious - less professional than anticipated by those paying (or not paying) the bills! [0832 EDT] - Great evening last night at the White House honoring Justice Kavanaugh and family. Our country is very proud of them![0837 EDT] - Will be going to Iowa tonight for Rally, and more! The Farmers (and all) are very happy with USMCA! [0910 EDT] - Big announcement with my friend Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Oval Office at 10:30am. [1018 EDT] - Hurricane on its way to the Florida Pan Handle with major elements arriving tomorrow. Could also hit, in later stage, parts of Georgia, and unfortunately North Carolina, and South Carolina, again... [1200 EDT] - ...Looks to be a Cat. 3 which is even more intense than Florence. Good news is, the folks in the Pan Handle can take care of anything. @FEMA and First Responders are ready - be prepared! #HurricaneMichael [1200 EDT] - FLORIDA - It is imperative that you heed the directions of your State and Local Officials. Please be prepared, be careful and be SAFE! #HurricaneMichael (link: http://ready.gov) ready.gov [1207 EDT] - REGISTER TO VOTE! (link: http://Vote.GOP) Vote.GOP [1236 EDT] - "President Donald J. Trump Approves Florida Emergency Declaration" http://bit.ly/2ONZBlI [1508 EDT] - .@FLGovScott has been relentless in securing the funding to fix the algae problem from Lake Okeechobee - we will solve this! Congress must follow through on the Government's plan on the Everglades Reservoir. Bill Nelson has been no help! [1739 EDT] - Beautiful evening in Iowa. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.! #MAGA [2109 EDT] -- Source link: (http://bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (Compiled by Bengaluru bureau) By Ece Toksabay and Daren Butler ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Tuesday that it would search Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul where Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi vanished last week, and close ally Britain called on Riyadh to provide "urgent answers" over his disappearance. Khashoggi was last seen one week ago entering the consulate in Istanbul to get documents related to his forthcoming marriage. His fiancee, waiting outside, said he never emerged and Turkish sources said they believe Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi policies, was killed inside the mission. Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan asked Saudi Arabia on Monday to prove its assertion that Khashoggi left the consulate. The U.S. State Department said it did not know what happened to Khashoggi and whether he was alive or not. "We don't know what has happened to him. We don't have any information on that," spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters adding: "We don't want to make any judgments about what happened." Saudi Arabia has dismissed as baseless accusations that it killed or abducted Khashoggi, and on Tuesday Turkey's state-owned Anadolu agency said Riyadh had invited Turkish experts and other officials to visit the consulate. Britain urged the Saudi government to explain what happened. "Just met the Saudi ambassador to seek urgent answers over Jamal Khashoggi," U.K. foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said on Twitter. "Violence against journalists worldwide is going up and is a grave threat to freedom of expression. If media reports prove correct, we will treat the incident seriously - friendships depend on shared values," he wrote. Turkey's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said the investigation was "continuing intensively". The Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations allowed for consulates to be searched by authorities of a host country with consent of the mission chief, he said. "The consulate building will be searched in the framework of the investigation," Aksoy said in a written statement. There was no immediate comment on the report from the Saudi authorities. News agency Anadolu later reported that a private plane that had arrived from Saudi Arabia at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport was searched last Tuesday, the day Khashoggi was last seen. The search proved fruitless and the plane took off again afterwards, it said. A Turkish security source had previously told Reuters that a group of 15 Saudi nationals, including some officials, had arrived in Istanbul in two planes and entered the consulate on the same day Khashoggi was there, and later left the country. It was not immediately clear if the Anadolu report referred to one of those aircraft. "FORCED DISAPPEARANCE" Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia last year saying he feared retribution for his criticism of Saudi policy over the Yemen war and its crackdown on dissent, and since then wrote columns for the Washington Post newspaper. His disappearance sparked global concern. In an essay in the Washington Post, Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, implored U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania to "help shed light on Jamal's disappearance." "Although my hope slowly fades away each passing day, I remain confident that Jamal is still alive," Cengiz wrote. "Perhaps Im simply trying to hide from the thought that I have lost a great man whose love I had earned." Trump said earlier on Tuesday he plans to speak with the Saudis without elaborating. Speaking at the White House, he said he did not have details about Khashoggi's disappearance [L2N1WP0QF] The U.N. human rights office urged both Turkey and Saudi Arabia to investigate what it called the "apparent enforced disappearance" and possible murder of Khashoggi. "We call for cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the circumstances of Mr Khashoggi's disappearance and to make the findings public," U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva news briefing. The two countries have such an obligation under both criminal law and international human rights law, she said. In July, the U.N. human rights office called on Saudi Arabia to release all peaceful activists, including women held for campaigning against a ban on driving as it was being lifted. Khashoggi was once a Saudi newspaper editor and is a familiar face on political talk shows on Arab satellite television networks. He used to advise Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to the United States and Britain. His disappearance is likely to further deepen divisions between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Relations were already strained after Turkey sent troops to the Gulf state of Qatar last year in a show of support after its Gulf neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, imposed an embargo on Doha. The two Turkish sources told Reuters on Saturday that Turkish authorities believe Khashoggi was deliberately killed inside the consulate, a view echoed by one of Erdogan's advisers, Yasin Aktay, who is a friend of the Saudi journalist. Erdogan told reporters on Sunday that authorities were examining camera footage and airport records as part of their investigation. He has also said Turkey has no documents or evidence regarding the case. The European Union fully supports U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called on Riyadh to investigate Khashoggi's disappearance, EU policy chief Federica Mogherini said. (Additional reporting by Sarah Dadouch and Ali Kucukgocmen in Istanbul, Andrew MacAskill in London, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Robert Rampton in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by William Maclean, Alison Williams, Toni Reinhold) Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was last seen a week ago before entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul - AP A Saudi intelligence officer who served at the kingdoms embassy in London was among an alleged hit squad of spies and soldiers who flew into Istanbul the day of journalist Jamal Khashoggis disappearance, according to dissidents. Pro-government Turkish media published the names and photographs of 15 Saudi men who allegedly made a mysterious one-day trip to Istanbul on private jets the day Mr Khashoggi vanished at the Saudi consulate. One member of the squad appears to be Maher Mutreb, a Saudi intelligence officer who was based in London in 2007. I recognised his photograph immediately, said Ghanim al-Dosari, a Saudi satirist living in exile in London, who knew Mr Mutreb socially. It is crazy if he was part of a murder team. Social media sleuths identified another man from the squad as a senior crimes scene investigator in Saudi Arabia. A third appeared to be a special forces soldier who worked as a bodyguard to Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The apparent outing of members of the Saudi security services will add to growing international pressure on the kingdom, which faces accusations from Turkey of having murdered and dismembered Mr Khashoggi when he went to the consulate on October 2. A man believed to be Jamal Khashoggi was captured on CCTV entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday October 2 Credit: CCTV via Hurriyet Saudi Arabia has vehemently denied any involvement in his disappearance and insists that Mr Khashoggi left the consulate safely after filing paperwork ahead of his upcoming marriage to his Turkish fiancee. The international implications of Mr Khashoggis disappearance deepened after the Washington Post reported that US intelligence was aware the Saudi government was planning to kidnap the journalist. The newspaper, where Mr Khashoggi wrote columns critical of the Saudi government, said US intelligence had intercepted communications showing Saudi officials were trying to lure the journalist back to his homeland so they could arrest him. If confirmed, the US intercepts would confirm that the Saudi government had long sought to silence Mr Khashoggi. It also raises questions over whether the US gave the journalist any warning that he might be in danger from his own government. Story continues Turan Kislakci, a close friend of Mr Khashoggi, said he did not believe the Americans gave any warning. One of us would have known if he had a warning like that, he said. The US bears some responsibility if they knew there was a plot against his life and they didnt warn him. In an article in the Washingon Post, Hatice Cengiz, Mr Khashoggis fiance, pleaded with Donald and Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance. I dont know how I can keep living if he was abducted or killed in Turkey, she said. Turkish officials are reportedly focused on an Apple Watch Mr Khashoggi was wearing, in the hope that the smart device might have information that could help determine what happened to him. The pro-government newspaper Sabah, owned by the Turkish finance minister who is also the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published the names of the 15 Saudis, accompanied by still images from CCTV. The detailed information, including their years of birth and what time they passed through Turkish passport control, appeared to have been leaked directly to the newspaper by Turkish intelligence. A UK government list of foreign diplomats in London from 2007 also lists a Maher Mutreb as first secretary at the embassy, a title often used by intelligence officials. Another man on the list, Salah Muhammed al-Tubaigy, is reported to be a lieutenant-colonel and head of the Saudi Scientific Council of Forensics. An expert on forensic evidence, he is known to have trained a large number of police officers in crime scene investigation. The list published in Sabah also includes the name Mohammad Saad al-Zahrani. A photograph published online shows a Saudi royal guard standing beside Crown Prince Mohammed. His nametag, clearly visible on his black uniform, reads Mohammad Saad al-Zahrani. The name is far clearer in this picture. So #4 on the list is this guy. Mohammad Saad Al Zahrani. pic.twitter.com/60Ue4qOHmz Iyad el-Baghdadi | (@iyad_elbaghdadi) October 9, 2018 None of the men could be reached for comment. Saudi Arabia gave no official response to the allegation that members of its security services were on the planes. By Steve Holland and Daren Butler WASHINGTON/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump increased pressure on Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to provide information on what happened to missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and said he wanted to get the bottom of what he called "a very serious situation." In a fresh clue, a pro-government Turkish daily on Wednesday published preliminary evidence from investigators it said identified a 15-member Saudi intelligence team involved in Khashoggi's unexplained disappearance on Oct. 2. Pressure appeared to be building worldwide on close U.S. ally Saudi Arabia on the whereabouts of Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi policies, who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get documents for his planned marriage. Khashoggi's Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting outside, said he never re-appeared. Turkish sources said they believe Khashoggi was killed inside the building and removed, allegations that Riyadh dismisses as baseless. Trump, in comments in the Oval Office, told reporters he had raised Khashoggi's case with Saudi Arabia "at the highest level" and more than once in recent days. "We're demanding everything," Trump said when asked if he was demanding information from the Saudis. "We want to see what's going on. Its a very serious situation for us and for this White House ... We want to get to the bottom of it." He said he and his wife, Melania, expect to invite Cengiz to the White House soon. "People saw him go in and didn't see him come out. We're going to take a very serious look at it. It's a terrible thing," Trump said. "This is a bad situation. We cannot let this happen, to reporters, to anybody. We can't let this happen. Increasing pressure on Trump to respond, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Wednesday triggered a U.S. investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance using a human rights law. They asked Trump to determine whether "a foreign person is responsible for an extrajudicial killing, torture, or other gross violation of internationally recognised human rights" and report back in 120 days with a decision on the imposition of sanctions on whoever was responsible. Former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said he has suspended his role on the board of Saudi Arabia's planned mega city NEOM until more is known about Khashoggi. After Trump spoke, the White House said national security adviser John Bolton and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, had spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the matter on Tuesday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo followed up with his own call to the Crown Prince, who had forged close ties to the administration, especially Kushner. "In both calls they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process. We will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates as available," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Khashoggi's fiancee Cengiz was surprised when an American friend told her of Trump's comment about inviting her to the White House, the friend told Reuters. "I think she's in shock, now even more," her friend said. In an essay in the Washington Post on Tuesday, Cengiz implored the president and Melania Trump to "help shed light on Jamal's disappearance." Trump made Saudi Arabia the first stop on his first foreign trip as president in May 2017, but in recent weeks has appeared to sour a bit on Riyadh, complaining directly to King Salman about the cost of American support for the Saudi military and for OPEC oil price increases. SAUDI VISITORS One of the 15 Saudis identified by name and photo in the report by Turkey's Sabah newspaper is a forensic expert who has worked at the Saudi Interior Ministry for 20 years, according to a LinkedIn profile and Saudi media, and serves on the board of the Saudi Society of Forensic Medicine. Other names and photos of the 15, who Sabah said travelled on diplomatic passports, match officers in the Saudi Army and Air Force, as identified by previous Saudi media reports and in one case a Facebook profile. The Saudi consulate referred Reuters to authorities in Riyadh who have not responded to questions about the 15 Saudis, who arrived in the city hours before Khashoggi disappeared on Oct. 2. A Turkish security source had previously told Reuters that the 15 Saudis, including some officials, left Turkey later the same day. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence had intercepted the communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture Khashoggi, citing an unidentified person familiar with the information. On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said the United States "had no advance knowledge" of such a plan. Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia last year saying he feared retribution for his criticism of Riyadh over the Yemen war and its crackdown on dissent, and since then wrote columns for the Washington Post. Britain's foreign minister called for urgent answers and the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker, who has seen classified intelligence on the case, said information pointed to Khashoggi being killed. "To me ... it feels very much some nefarious activity has occurred by them. But I don't want to rush to judgment," Corker said on Tuesday. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday the United States was ready to help in any way in the investigation. Wednesday's Turkish media reports were the most detailed accounts yet of what they say is the Turkish government's investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance. Sabah newspaper published the names and years of birth of the 15 Saudis it said arrived at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Twelve of them arrived early on Tuesday, based on photos captured at passport control which it published. The 15 departed at four different times, Sabah reported. It did not say how it obtained the pictures and data. (Reporting by Steve Holland, Roberta Rampton, Jonathan Landay, Patriciz Zengerle, Lesley Wroughton, Timothy Gardner in Washington and Daren Butler, Stephen Kalin and Sarah Dadouch in Istanbul, Writing by Dominic Evans, Andrew Heavens, William MacLean; editing by Yara Bayoumy and Grant McCool) Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he has talked to Saudi authorities "at the highest level" to demand answers over what happened to vanished journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump told reporters at the White House that he has talked to the Saudi leadership "more than once" since Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post contributor, vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. "We're demanding everything. We want to see what's going on there," he said. "It's a very serious situation for us and this White House ... I think we'll get to the bottom of it." "We cannot let this happen, to reporters, to anybody," Trump said. These were the toughest comments coming out of the Trump administration since the mysterious disappearance of the journalist, who Turkish authorities suspect was abducted and murdered by the Saudis. Turkish investigators are examining CCTV footage showing the moment he entered the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents ahead of his marriage to his Turkish fiance Hatice Cengiz. Cengiz appealed to Trump in an opinion piece for the Washington Post on Tuesday, calling on him to "help shed light on Jamal's disappearance." Trump said that he and First Lady Melania Trump were in contact with her and were looking to "bring her to the White House." - Suspicious vehicle - Turkish government sources said at the weekend that police believed Khashoggi was killed by a team specially sent to Istanbul and thought to consist of 15 Saudis. Security camera footage released on Wednesday by Turkish television showed a man believed to be Khashoggi enter the consulate. Investigators are also zooming in on a vehicle seen entering and leaving the building after Khashoggi went inside. But Riyadh insisted the 59-year-old journalist had left the building and that murder claims are "baseless". Story continues Khashoggi, a former Saudi government adviser, had been living in the United States since last year fearing arrest. He has been critical of some policies of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Riyadh's intervention in the war in Yemen. Turkish police were looking into two private aircraft that landed at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on October 2 at different times carrying the individuals of interest in the case. A source told the Washington Post that US intelligence "intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him." The same source said the Saudis hoped to "lure" Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia "and lay hands on him there". - Possible kidnapping - One of the first images from the CCTV footage shared by 24 TV broadcaster showed Khashoggi enter the consulate at 1:14 pm (1014 GMT). Footage also showed some of the Saudis arriving in Istanbul after the first plane landed before 0030 GMT on October 2 and the men later checking into a hotel near the consulate. Aksam daily said some of the men went into the Saudi consulate before Khashoggi. According to the images, a vehicle that went inside the consulate was then driven to the consul-general's residence nearby after 1200 GMT, two hours after Khashoggi had entered the mission. Aksam newspaper's editor-in-chief Murat Kelkitlioglu speculated on 24 TV that it was "almost certain" that Khashoggi had been taken in the vehicle. Local media on Tuesday reported on the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped and taken aboard one of the private planes. Both planes later returned to Riyadh with one stopping in Dubai and the other in Egypt, pro-government Sabah daily said. According to Hurriyet daily, nine Saudis who arrived in Istanbul on the same day that the journalist vanished, had bought luggage at the Grand Bazaar. However, a police search revealed that they did not take the luggage on their return. Sabah daily on Wednesday published the names and images of what it called the "assassination team" including a man called Salah Muhammed Al-Tubaigy whose name it said matched that of a lieutenant-colonel in the Saudi forensic department. Sabah added that no "body parts" appeared on scans of the belongings of seven passengers of relevance to the case at Istanbul airport. Turkey has said Saudi authorities gave officials the greenlight to search the consulate but it has not yet taken place. - 'I shouldn't go' - In his last interview three days before his disappearance, Khashoggi said that he did not think he would return to Saudi Arabia. "When I hear of the arrest of a friend who did nothing that (deserved being) arrested, it makes me feel I shouldn't go," he told the BBC. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which ranks the kingdom 169th out of 180 on its World Press Freedom Index, said in a statement that between 25 and 30 professional and non-professional journalists are currently detained in Saudi Arabia. RSF said at least 15 Saudi journalists and bloggers have been arrested since September 2017. Two Britons who were killed in a taxi are among the nine people who have died during flash floods in Majorca. The island was hit by devastating floods overnight, with torrential rainstorms hitting the town of Sant Lorrenc, about 40 miles east of the capital Palma. The two British citizens, believed to be a couple, were travelling in a taxi when a river burst its banks on the popular holiday island. Spanish authorities confirmed that a total of nine people have died. (Twitter/@guardiacivil) Damaged cars are seen after the storm on the island (Joan Camacho via Reuters) Antonia Bauza, the deputy mayor of Sant Llorenc, confirmed two of the victims were British nationals. She told local radio that two other victims were local, including an elderly woman whose body was found in the basement of her house. The Foreign Office said in a statement: We are in contact with the Spanish authorities responding to flooding in Majorca, and urgently seeking updates from them. Two British nationals are among the victims of a devastating flood in Majorca (Getty Images) The Majorca Daily Bulletin said that people were rescued from roofs and trees after the deluge hit, and the electricity and phone connections were cut. Forecasters said that eight inches of rain fell in four hours. 100 rescue workers have been deployed to the area, and will be joined by 80 soldiers. Hundreds of displaced people are now being forced to shelter in emergency accommodation. By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's $12 billion package to offset farmers losses from the imposition of tariffs American exports could end up shrinking after an agreement to update NAFTA was struck, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Tuesday. "We will be recalculating along as we go," Perdue said in a phone interview with Reuters, regarding the second tranche of the planned compensation, estimated at about $6 billion, which was first announced in July after U.S. and China imposed trade tariffs on each others imports. China has traditionally been the biggest buyer of U.S. agriculture exports but it has been largely out of the market for several products, such as soybeans, since implementing levies on U.S. imports in retaliation for the Trump administration's tariffs on Chinese goods. The aid package includes cash payments for farmers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and hogs. The USDA had already outlined the allocations for the first $6 billion at the end of August. Perdue said the picture has changed after the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was reached, a revamp of the NAFTA trade agreement between the three nations. "If the tariffs do come off and the tariff impact lessens it will have some impact over the mitigation efforts because mitigation efforts were based on the fact that they would be tariff damage related," he said. American farmers have yet to see the full benefit of the new accord as an ongoing dispute over steel and aluminum tariffs mean they still face retaliatory measures when trading with Canada and Mexico. That agreement also does not address the harm as a result of the trade war with China. In late May, the Trump administration announced tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports, prompting retaliation from top trading partners including Canada and Mexico. Perdue said talks to remove the steel and aluminum tariffs were just beginning. "The President feels tariffs have been very instrumental in getting Canada to the negotiation table. Now that we have an agreement, I believe their usefulness regarding those two countries have diminished and I think we should go back to our prior relationship of no tariffs on steel and aluminum," he said. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Peter Cooney) CARACAS/GENEVA (Reuters) - Singing the national anthem while carrying his coffin, Venezuelan lawmakers on Tuesday paid tribute to an opposition politician whom authorities say killed himself by jumping out a window while in prison but whose party says was murdered. Municipal lawmaker Fernando Alban, 56, was jailed on Friday for alleged involvement in the explosion of two drones during a military parade in August that was led by President Nicolas Maduro, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said. In a Twitter post on Monday, Reverol said that while in the waiting room on the 10th floor of the headquarters of state intelligence agency SEBIN, Alban had jumped from the window to his death. That account differed from the one by Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab, who said in televised statements that Alban had asked to use a bathroom and jumped from there. Opponents of socialist Maduro say that Alban, a devout catholic and family man, could not have killed himself and accused authorities of covering up a murder. "Only Maduro's regime is responsible for the assassination of Fernando Alban," said opposition lawmaker Delsa Solorzano, speaking during a special congressional session in Alban's honor. Opposition First Justice party, to which Alban belonged, said that his arrest was due to statements he made at recent U.N. meetings in New York denouncing humans rights violations in Venezuela. Authorities have not yet released his autopsy report. One of Alban's lawyers, Joel Garcia, told reporters that an autopsy conducted at the national morgue showed signs of severe trauma to the skull, chest, and hips as well as indications of a fall. CALLS FOR PROBE The U.N. human rights office on Tuesday called for an independent investigation. U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva news briefing her office was concerned by the news of Alban's death and because he had not been taken before a judge within 48 hours of his arrest as required under Venezuelan law. "We do indeed call for a transparent, independent investigation to clarify the circumstances of his death," she said. "We understand there are conflicting reports on what exactly happened." Shamdasani said the Venezuelan state was responsible for ensuring Alban's safety while he was in custody. The U.S. Embassy in Caracas also called for an independent investigation into what it called Alban's "suspicious and violent" death. The European Union said it expected a "thorough and independent investigation." In a June report, the U.N. Human Rights Council said Venezuelan security forces suspected of killing hundreds of demonstrators and accused criminals enjoy immunity from prosecution, adding that the rule of law is "virtually absent." Venezuelan prisons are overcrowded and conditions are "horrible," with inmates deprived of food and drinking water, Shamdasani said on Tuesday. Maduro's government denies it holds political prisoners and has said those who have been imprisoned were involved in efforts to destabilize his government. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Angus Berwick, Vivian Sequera and Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas; Editing by William Maclean and Bill Trott) LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Tuesday that in the absence of any explanation by Hong Kong for its refusal to grant a visa to a senior UK journalist he could only conclude it was politically motivated. Chinese-ruled Hong Kong last week rejected an application to renew the work visa of Victor Mallet, the Asian news editor of the Financial Times who also serves as the vice-president of the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC). It came two months after government officials in China and Hong Kong condemned the FCC for hosting a speech by an independence activist, Andy Chan, reigniting debate about the viability of the city's promised freedoms. Mallet chaired the event. "In the absence of an explanation from the authorities we can only conclude that this move is politically motivated," Hunt said in a statement. "I urge the Hong Kong authorities to reconsider this decision - confidence in Hong Kongs rights and freedoms is an essential component of its future success," he added. Mallet, who was traveling away from Hong Kong when his work visa renewal was refused, was allowed back into the city on Sunday but only on a seven-day tourist visa, rather than a six-month visa that is usual for British nationals. The Financial Times said in an editorial at the weekend the incident "sends a chilling message to everyone in Hong Kong, highlighting Beijings tightening grip on the territory and the steady erosion of basic rights that are guaranteed in Hong Kongs laws and international agreements. Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" principle, with the guarantee of a high degree of autonomy and freedoms, including freedom of the press, not enjoyed elsewhere in China. But calls for outright independence are a red line for China's Communist Party leaders, who deem the global financial hub to be an inalienable part of the nation. China's Foreign Ministry has defended Hong Kong's decision to refuse Mallet's visa. "Since the return of Hong Kong ... everyone can see that Hong Kong's society and economy has achieved progress," spokesman Lu Kang said. Hong Kong's right to protect its legitimate interests was "beyond criticism", he added. (Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Alison Williams) Geneva (AFP) - The United Nations called Tuesday for a "transparent investigation" into the death of Venezuelan opposition member Fernando Alban after Caracas said he killed himself in custody. Alban had been jailed over accusations that he took part in an alleged, failed drone attack on President Nicolas Maduro on August 4. Venezuela's Attorney General William Saab told state television VTV that Alban threw himself from a tenth-floor window on Monday at the headquarters of the intelligence service, where he had been in pre-trial detention. A spokeswoman for the UN rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, told reporters the Caracas government had "an obligation to ensure (Alban's) safety, personal integrity and dignity". "We are concerned about news of his death... We do indeed call for a transparent investigation to clarify the circumstances of his death," she added. His First Justice party blamed Maduro's government for the death of Alban, who was arrested on Friday. The attorney general has promised a thorough investigation. Maduro has said the alleged August attack amounted to an assassination bid involving explosive-laden drones and his government and has accused neighbour Colombia of shielding the culprits. The UN rights office also raised the alarm Tuesday over the state of 59 Colombians held in Venezuela for more than two years without being charged. The group was "detained during security raids known as Operations for the Liberation of the People OLPs which the government said were designed to break up criminal gangs," Shamdasani said. The Colombians are being held in squalid conditions, all packed into one cell, at La Yerguara prison in Caracas, according to the UN. Venezuela has accused them of being paramilitaries, but Shamdasani said no evidence had been brought forward to support the charge. They lack food, water and many are reportedly ill, she added. In November of last year, a Venezuelan judge ruled they should be unconditionally released. "We call on the Venezuelan authorities to comply with this ruling and free them," Shamdasani said. Amman (AFP) - The UN on Wednesday urged warring parties in Syria to allow basic health service deliveries to tens of thousands of increasingly desperate Syrians trapped in the desert near the Jordanian border. The global body's fund for children, UNICEF, said two babies without access to hospitals had died in the past 48 hours near the Rukban border crossing. "Once again, UNICEF appeals to all parties to the conflict in Syria and those who have influence over them, to allow and facilitate access to basic services including health for children and families," said the agency's Middle East and North Africa director, Geert Cappelaere. "This is the very minimum for human dignity." The United Nations last year said an estimated 45,000 people, mostly women and children, were trapped in Rukban near Syria's borders with Jordan and Iraq. A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group in June 2016 killed seven Jordanian soldiers in no-man's land near the Rukban crossing. Soon afterwards, the army declared Jordan's desert regions that stretch northeast to Syria and east to Iraq "closed military zones". The kingdom, part of the US-led coalition fighting IS, has allowed several humanitarian aid deliveries to the area following UN requests, but the borders remain closed. UNICEF said Wednesday that a five-day-old boy and a four-month-old girl had died in Rukban. While one clinic on the Jordanian side of the frontier continues to treat urgent cases, the situation demands more sophisticated health care that is "only available in hospitals," it said. "The situation for the estimated 45,000 people -- among them many children -- will further worsen with the cold winter months fast approaching, especially when temperatures dip below freezing point in the harsh desert conditions," Cappelaere said. "It is time to finally put an end to the war on children. History will judge us and the death of children, preventable in many cases, will continue to chase us." The University of York Brexit debate was pulled over concerns about the all-male panel (Getty Images) The University of York has postponed a talk on Brexit because there were no women speakers on the eight-person panel. The Brexit and History conference was described by the university as intending to bring together historians and social scientists to discuss the origins and potential impact of Brexit. A university spokesperson said that the event had been put on hold until a more balanced programme could be secured. Professor Lawrence Black, head of the Department of History, said in a statement: It has come to my attention that a conference organised to explore issues related to Brexit and History has an all-male speaker list. The University and the Department of History are utterly committed to developing, maintaining and supporting a culture of equality and diversity. The current gender balance reflected in this conference programme does not reflect those values. We have got this wrong and I apologise for that. The Brexit and History talk was due to be held at the University of York (Getty Images) For this reason I have asked the organisers to postpone the conference in order to create a more balanced programme. The Departments Equality and Diversity Committee will work further with our institutional Equality and Diversity Committee to ensure that all of our future events reflect the widest possible diversity and to ensure that this does not happen again. In 2015 a row broke out after York University cancelled an event for International Mens Day. The event, intended to highlight issues such as male suicide rates and lower life expectancies for men, was pulled after staff and alumni wrote an open letter objecting to it. Caracas (AFP) - Hundreds of Venezuelans demanded justice Wednesday at the funeral of an opposition activist who died in government custody, as the United States called out Caracas for its "involvement" in his death. Fernando Alban, a 52-year-old Caracas city council member accused of taking part in a failed drone attack on President Nicolas Maduro, was in pretrial detention Monday at the time of his death. Authorities say he committed suicide by jumping from a 10th-floor window of the headquarters of the state intelligence service after asking to go to the bathroom. But his supporters say he was murdered. Alban was buried in a cemetery in the eastern part of the capital after mourners walked for several kilometers (miles) in a funeral procession that began at the central university of Venezuela. "Maduro's dictatorship is death," said one placard held by a young man. "Justice!" another said. The United States joined the chorus of complaint from the international community over Alban's death -- and pointed the finger of blame at Maduro. "The United States condemns the Maduro regime's involvement in the death of Venezuelan opposition councilman Fernando Alban," the White House said in a statement. "The Trump administration will continue to increase pressure on the Maduro regime and its insiders until democracy is restored in Venezuela," it added. "The United States calls for the immediate release of all Venezuelan political prisoners, and for the Maduro regime to take direct, credible steps to reestablish democracy in Venezuela and to prevent further suffering and bloodshed." Both the United Nations and the European Union have called for an investigation into Alban's death. On Wednesday, Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab, who is close to Maduro, again dismissed the idea of an assassination. "He died from blunt force trauma linked to the fall... there is no evidence of mistreatment prior to the fall," Saab told reporters, reading from an autopsy report. Story continues Alban was among at least 15 people arrested and charged for alleged participation in the August 4 drone incident, which Maduro has portrayed as an assassination attempt. The Venezuelan president was seen reacting on live television to an off-camera explosion while he addressed a military parade in Caracas. A second explosion was heard and then the assembled troops were seen breaking formation and scattering in panic. Maduro said the blasts were from explosives-laden drones sent to assassinate him, though opposition figures accuse Maduro of fabricating the incident to step up repression in his country, which is mired in a deep economic crisis. President Donald Trump, who has previously shown little interest in Latin America beyond trade relations and border issues with Mexico, is increasingly focusing on Venezuela. The administration is ramping up criticism of Maduro, whose authoritarian socialist government is struggling to manage the fallout from economic collapse in the once wealthy country, whose leaders are under US sanctions. Maduro, meanwhile, accuses the United States of manipulating the opposition in his country and seeking to oust him. CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Questions and condemnation of Venezuelas leadership poured in Tuesday following the suspicious death of an opposition activist who authorities say evaded justice by throwing himself from the 10th floor of a police building. Fernando Alban was arrested Friday at Caracas international airport upon arrival from a trip to New York to galvanize world opinion against President Nicolas Maduros socialist government. The countrys chief prosecutor said that Alban killed himself Monday by leaping from the 10th floor of the state police agencys headquarters, where he was being held for alleged involvement in an international plot to kill Maduro using explosive-laden drones. But opposition leaders, backed by several foreign governments, have cast doubt on the official version, and accused Maduros government of torture and murdering the politician. The U.S. State Department said it condemns what it called a human rights violation, while Spains leftist government called for consultations the Venezuelan ambassador in Madrid over the death. Meanwhile, the United Nations urged officials in Caracas to launch an impartial probe to resolve the conflicting versions of how Alban died. There are so many different reports and quite a lot of speculation on exactly what happened, said Ravina Shamdasani of the U.N.s top human rights office in Geneva. Whether Mr. Alban committed suicide, whether he was thrown, or what exactly happened. As international criticism of Maduros government grew, Albans family, fellow politicians and family members of other jailed activists paid a final tribute to him Tuesday in a ceremony at the opposition-controlled Congress. A whos who of opposition leaders took turns filing past Albans casket, draped in the Venezuelan flag, while his grief-stricken sister placed a framed portrait of her deeply religious brother shadowed by an image of Jesus Christ. Hours after his death, a few dozen of Albans supporters gathered outside the police building yelling Maduro killer! contending that he had been murdered. They later assembled outside Caracas morgue to demand his body be handed over as rumors spread he would be cremated to hide evidence of possible torture. Story continues Theres no doubt this was an assassination, opposition leader Julio Borges said in a video from exile in neighboring Colombia, without providing evidence of his claim. The only thing left for this government is torture, violence and destruction. While dozens of youths were killed in violent street battles with security forces last year, the death of government opponents while in state custody came as a shock to many Venezuelans, something akin to the far deadlier, right-wing dictatorships that dominated South America in the 1970s that Maduro frequently denounces. The opposition claims that more than 100 Venezuelans opposed to Maduro are being held as political prisoners, some for more than four years, with little access to the outside world and their legal rights routinely trampled on. The government denies they are political prisoners. Borges, who led the delegation to the U.N., said Albans wife told him that her husband had been under intense pressure to testify against him in the ongoing probe into the alleged plot in early August to kill Maduro using two drones loaded with explosives. More than two dozen people have been jailed on suspicion of involvement in the plot, which Maduro claims was orchestrated by Borges with the support of Colombia and the U.S. Chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Albans death, which he classified as a suicide. In brief comments on state TV, he said Alban was in the waiting room of the headquarters of Venezuelas intelligence police waiting to be transferred to a courthouse when he asked to use the bathroom. He then threw himself from the 10th floor of the building, officials said. Republican Sen. Bob Corker, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who is in Venezuela for meetings with Maduro and his opponents, called Albans death while in the governments custody disturbing. The government has a responsibility to ensure all understand how that could have happened, he said in a message posted on Twitter. Also expressing concern was Venezuelas Catholic bishops conference and Luis Almagro, the head of the Organization of American States and a sharp critic of Venezuelas socialist government, who called Albans death the direct responsibility of a torturing and homicidal regime. Borges, who said Alban was a personal friend, said the councilman, who represented a district in the Caracas area, was a family man and devout Catholic who would never kill himself. Alban is a very Christian person, with deep spiritual convictions that go contrary to a decision to take ones life, said lawyer Joel Garcia, who has represented Alban. He said he met with Alban the night before in the tribunal and his client had seemed calm. Garcia said authorities cannot determine that a death is a suicide without an investigation and he would ask to be present at the autopsy. Istanbul (AFP) - Orthodox clerics led by the Patriarch of Constantinople are set to decide the fate of Ukraine's Orthodox Church, with Moscow warning Wednesday that granting it independence would provoke street protests. The Holy Synod, which decides on key matters for the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate, is expected to pronounce on whether to grant independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church this week. This has inflamed tensions with the Patriarchate of Moscow, which technically oversees most of Ukraine's Orthodox parishes, and whose clerics have warned that independence would provoke a rift in global Orthodoxy and hinted at possible physical street violence in Ukraine. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is considered the first among equals and a spiritual leader for the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. The synod began on Tuesday and items on its three-day agenda are not made public, but the decision on Ukraine's autocephaly, or independence, is widely expected. The Ukrainian Church is currently split into three bodies, one technically overseen by the Patriarch of Moscow, a fact the Kiev government considers unacceptable given its ongoing war with Russia-backed rebels in the east. Meanwhile Ukraine's Orthodox church split from Moscow in the 1990s and is headed by the charismatic Patriarch Filaret, who is reviled by Moscow and is a foremost proponent of a new independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Constantinople's Patriarch Bartholomew last month sent two envoys to Kiev, one of whom indicated in a meeting with President Petro Poroshenko that the process of granting independence, or autocephaly, was "on the finishing line". The Moscow Patriarchate has cut ties with Constantinople over the affair, which it considers an unjust encroachment on its spiritual territory. On Wednesday, an influential cleric went so far as to warn that parishioners will not hand over churches to a new Orthodox institution willingly. Story continues "Of course, people will take to streets and protect their sacred sites," Hilarion, a bishop in charge of diplomacy at the patriarchate, was quoted by Russian agencies as saying at a religious congress in Kazakhstan. Theologian Sergei Chapnin called Hilarion's words are "a threat whose cause is complete powerlessness," pointing out that a similar process has already taken place in ex-Soviet Moldova, which has orthodox Churches overseen by Romania and Moscow. Ukrainian authorities and many worshippers are wary of the influence of Russian Patriarch Kirill, who has supported the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the separatists in the east of the country. If the synod in Istanbul makes a favourable decision, a special assembly of Orthodox clerics in Kiev will choose the head of the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which could take place within 10 days. - 'Defence' of monasteries - Losing Ukrainian churches would be a huge blow for the Russian Orthodox Church. Some 70 percent of parishes are likely to end up under Ukraine's orthodox church, theologian Chapnin told AFP. About a third of parishes under the umbrella of the Moscow Patriarchate are in Ukraine, and losing them would undermine Kirill's image as a spiritual leader for Eastern Orthodoxy. Hilarion said a decision for independence would lead to Ukrainian authorities physically taking over Orthodox churches and monasteries currently used by clerics under the Moscow Patriarchate. These include some of Ukraine's most recognisable and popular landmarks, such as the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in the capital Kiev. "We are seeing already that Orthodox churches in Ukraine are being overthrown and the worshippers are coming to their defence," he said. Some Russian websites have been circulating misleading information about Ukrainian nationalists storming the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, something even the Moscow Patriarchate was forced to brand fake news. Clerics heading parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine have however called on parishioners to rally in defence of the churches. The Metropolitan of Pochayiv said in a recent statement posted on the website of Ukraine's Pochayiv Lavra, a major Orthodox monastery in western Ukraine, that supporters should "be ready to defend" the monastery. In the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, worshippers were divided. "I greatly fear any changes," said accountant Oxana Gnoyanko, stressing that she is "against all schisms and divisions". Mykola Veresen, a television presenter, said he was "waiting with great enthusiasm" for independence, however. "We had to wait 300 or 400 years for justice." WestJet CEO says new routes to Europe partly a gambit for Air Canada customers The chief executive of WestJet Airlines Ltd. says its ultra low-cost carrier Swoop has surpassed the companys expectations, consistently flying jets that were nearly full throughout the first three-months of operations. In August, the Calgary-based airline reported a load factor a measure of how full flights are of 95 per cent for Swoop. At the same time, WestJets overall load factor, which includes its mainline, Encore, Link and Swoop operations, fell year-over-year in August by 1.6 percentage points to 89 per cent. In September, Swoops load factor dipped slightly to 90 per cent while WestJets overall load factor for the same month fell 1.2 percentage points year-over-year to 79.2 per cent. That has significantly exceeded our expectations, WestJets CEO Ed Sims said in an interview with Yahoo Finance, adding that he has also been surprised at the demographic range and size of the passenger groups opting to fly on Swoop. The average party size on Swoop which began operations in June is 15 passengers, Sims said. Were carrying a number of older travellers who themselves are on very tight budgets, Sims said. I think we thought a higher proportion of passengers would be students and millennials, so weve been surprised at the diversity of the level of interest in the lower fares Swoop can offer. Sims comments came shortly after WestJet unveiled new details of its ambitious growth strategy that will see it expand internationally with the acquisition of at least 10 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. On Wednesday, Sims announced that Calgary, Alta. would be the home base of its first three Dreamliner jets, which will fly non-stop to London (Gatwick), Paris and Dublin beginning in late spring next year. According to WestJet, the international service will support 650 full-time jobs and eventually bring 185,000 visitors per year to the Calgary area. We think Western Canada and Calgary in particular are very underserved by international carriers and we think there is a great opportunity for inbound tourists from western Europe to fly directly to western Canada, Sims said. Story continues This gives us access to the premium revenue and international revenue streams that weve lacked in our development over the last 22 years. Sims said that a year from now, the airline will introduce new routes for the next three Dreamliner deliveries. Additional routes will also be introduced in two years, when the next four aircraft are delivered. WestJet also has an option to purchase an additional 10 aircraft, which could arrive between 2020 and 2024. While the first three jets will be based in Calgary and flying to Europe, Sims said the airline is looking at different network strategies for the the remaining Dreamliner deliveries. Asia and Latin America are still very much in our sights, he said. We have designated rights and access to fly to markets like Japan, and Im still very excited about the propositions there. WestJets growth strategy which included the launch of Swoop as well as the Dreamliner expansion has been met with skepticism from some analysts. The airline reported its first quarterly loss in 13 years during the second quarter this year, in part due to a labour dispute with WestJet pilots and soaring fuel prices. Sims said Wednesday the company has made progress since the second quarter, pointing to the Dreamliner announcement and cost management which is expected to shave $60 million in costs this year alone. Weve made very significant progress over the last three months, Sims said. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Youd think the end of the world would be enough to get us scared. Humans have always been an exceedingly risk-averse specieswhich is how we came to survive as a species at all. If there are lions on one part of the savannah, we go to another. If crocodiles keep coming out of the river, we fish somewhere else. So when it comes to the loss of the entire planet, well, we ought to take action. And yet we dont; we never do. That odd contradiction is on display again, in the wake of an announcement by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that a catastrophe is nighthat that distant future of an Earth best by floods, droughts, wildfires and typhoons isnt distant anymore, but as little as 12 years away. Unless we act dramatically and fast, the report says, by 2030 temperatures will have risen to 2.7 F (1.5 C) above the average of the pre-industrial erathe threshold that has long been cited as the tipping point for calamity. And while the announcement has been reported widely, the public reactionagain, as alwayshas been meh. Volumes of research have been published over the decades trying to explain how and why we so often miscalculate riskover-preparing for things that are not likely to hurt us and ignoring or shrugging off the things that are. The bad news for environmental scientists and policymakers trying to wake the public up to the perils we face is that climate change checks almost every one of our ignore-the-problem boxes. For starters, it lacks the absolutely critical componentthe me component. Nobody wakes up in the morning and looks at the longterm climate forecast, says David Ropeik, an international consultant on risk perception and communication, formerly with the Harvard School of Public Health. They ask what the weather is today, where I live, and how its going to affect me. Thats sensible as far as it goes. Immediate concerns will always trump eventual concernswhich is one more trick of species survival. But when it comes to climate change, even when we do try to think long-term, a lot of things get in the way. Paramount among them is that climate action requires a lot of right-now sacrifice for a down-the-line payoff. Story continues When it comes to acting on problems, the lure of our current comforts and conveniences will often cause us to act contrary to our values, says Paul Slovic, University or Oregon psychologist and the president of Decision Research, and international group of investigators who study decision-making and risk. If we think the consequences are far in the future, we tend to discount the risk. People just arent going to inconvenience themselves unless theyre forced to. Indeed, even when the risk is not far in the futurewhen, say, a hurricane is cannonballing toward the coast and the government orders an evacuationplenty of people still dont budge. Here, whats known as the optimism bias is at work. Other people may need to make tracks, but your storm windows are top-of-the-line or your house is on slightly higher ground, so why get off the couch? If we find it so easy to talk ourselves out of acting in the face of a storm thats just days away, a disaster thats many years away doesnt stand a chance. We establish that kind of distance from risk not just temporally but geographically and culturally. If you live in an inland region, well, the floods are going to inundate the suckers on the coast, not you. If you live on the coast, its the south coast thats going to get hit and you live north. And developed nations like the U.S. are typically going to be able to deal with climate instability better than developing ones, which allows us to conclude that while disasters happen elsewhere they dont happen here. The question is often, Do I feel vulnerable?' says Slovic. For the most part we dont and that shapes our behavior. Even when we do try to personalize things, we have a hard time doing it. We can picture what it would be like to get eaten by a shark, Ropeik says, or die in a mass shooting or an airplane crash. That leads us to over-prepare for those risksarming teachers, avoiding the beach, driving instead of flying even though driving is manifestly more dangerous. But if you ask even the most devout climate change believers how they think its going to affect them, they often cant quite describe it, he says. If its hard to picture, its easy to ignore. Finally, theres a sense of futilitythe inefficacy factor, as risk experts put it. Climate change is a huge problemarguably the biggest of all problemsand that makes individual action seem awfully pointless. We reason that we can curtail things we want to dolike driving or flying, says Slovic, but if other people arent going to do it, its not going to make any difference. Of course, every great human enterprise has called on people not to do things they want to do or to do things they dontpaying taxes, volunteering for military service, tolerating rationing in time of war. None of it is fun, none of it is easy, but all of it has helped ensure the success of the larger human project and the survival of the next generations. If we cant bestir ourselves now, in the face of yet another alarming report from the climate change scientists, were going to owe those generations an explanationand an apology. A couple of months after launching the online classics journal Eidolon, its editor-in-chief Donna Zuckerberg noticed something surprising. An August 2015 article called Why is Stoicism Having a Cultural Moment? had turned out to be a major traffic hit, and she could see that a lot of its readers were finding the site on Reddit. Following that path, she arrived at a Stoicism subreddit where she found thousands of people discussing the ancient Greek philosophical school. But one of the posters responding to the popular Eidolon link on the site had a different idea about the source of all that interest, one that was new to her as a classics scholar. The poster suggested that the men of the Red Pill community, which Zuckerberg loosely defines as a group motivated by the idea that society is set up to privilege women, loved the Stoics. Not long after that, she read an interview in The Atlantic with Neil Strauss, who had written about a subset of that group, the community of pickup artists whose interest in understanding society and psychology centers on the desire to improve their seduction abilities. The ideas he saw in that modern phenomenon, he noted offhandedly, dated back to the Roman poet Ovid. It was clear to Zuckerberg (who, yes, is a sister of Mark Zuckerberg) that something really was going on. In her book Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age, she explores how ideas about Ancient Greece and Rome are used and misused by antifeminist thinkers today. She spoke to TIME about her new book, the truth about the Western canon and why not to believe everything you read especially when it comes to Ovid. It was interesting to prepare for this interview while watching the Kavanaugh hearings; I was reminded of your discussion of how different people get different things out of the Phaedra story. This one story of an Athenian queen who falls for her stepson and, when he rejects her, tells her husband that he raped her is read by some people as a warning about false rape allegations, and by others as a warning about the consequences of patriarchy. Did your research come to mind as you were watching the news? Story continues Actually what struck me the most was what Christine Blasey Ford said about the two of them laughing, that they were laughing with each other. That reminded me of the research Id done for my pickup-artists chapter about how the relationship between the two men becomes almost more important than whatever is happening between the man and the sexual object. That was what struck me the most. But yeah, a few friends who had also looked at the book told me that they felt that the Phaedra chapter felt really resonant to them as well, this idea that what it means for an allegation to be false is entirely determined by whoevers in power. What is it about Ancient Greece and Rome that make them so appealing as a source of authority for the ideas you write about? Its not only Greece and Rome. [The people in the Red Pill community] are also interested in the Medieval period, various other historical periods, the Confederacy. But I think that Greece and Rome, for them, are really the origin of Western civilization. It becomes a coded phrase when they dont want to talk about white identity [or] white history, because that brings with it all kinds of baggage. Instead they talk about Western civilization and its really a dog whistle. You write that the Alt-Right has used ancient Greece and Rome to fabricate a cohesive transhistorical white identity and a continuity of European or Western civilization. Whats a more accurate way to see the idea of a Western tradition? To a scholar of ancient Greece almost all the cultural contact was happening between Greece and people who were to the East and the South. I mean, it is absolutely the case that the texts and the cultural artifacts that were produced in ancient Greece and Rome, and other parts of the Mediterranean, become really important later on in Western European history. In a sense, you can think of ancient Greece and Rome as really important foundations for Western European literature and culture. So, its not that there is no Western canon, its that its created in hindsight? Exactly. The narrative is never as neat and as teleological as we want it to be. Its very much constructed at any moment in time, usually with an agenda in mind. When you talk about Greek literature being rediscovered in the Renaissance, which is a line that people use, Greek literature was never lost. People were talking about it all along, in what we call the Byzantine Empire. Its just a different narrative. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter Imagine someone is coming onto the Internet for the first time Lucky them! They might stumble across something in a pickup artist forum that suggests reading Ovid. What would your advice be for a layperson to read these texts with a smart, critical eye? It depends on how much time they have! For example, if you read almost anything about Ovid that is written by somebody who has read a lot of Ovid, they will talk about how difficult Ovid is to pin down and his literariness and all those issues that make it much, much harder to say that Ovid means anything specifically. When pickup artists say things like, Ovid shows that women have always been the same, that implies a reading of Ovid that almost nobody who has studied Ovid would support. Would it be fair to say that if you encounter somebody arguing that some ancient writer teaches us something simple, thats probably not the whole story? Thats safe to say. And its not just Red Pill-types who are guilty of that. Theres always a yeah but and then a giant string of objections you can make to any simplistic reading. But I think thats also why people dont like talking to scholars about these kinds of issues, because its so hard to get us to say anything really definitive. You also discuss in the book that the same texts namely, Ovids Metamorphoses have been the subject of controversy over whether they might benefit from content warnings for descriptions of rape. Do you have any advice for people reading such texts that they might find problematic? Find the best translation you can and really read the introduction before you start. My personal experience with content warnings and trigger warnings is not typically that people do not want to engage with the material. Its that they want to be prepared. They want to know what theyre dealing with. On the other hand, theres something to be said for coming to a text without some scholars ideas and arguments, coming to it with fresh eyes. So theres a trade-off implied there. Was there anything you found in your research that really surprised you? Some of the texts that they deal with are really quite obscure. [Its] not to classicists, but Xenophons Oeconomicus, for example thats not something your average layperson will have heard of. How wide-ranging theyre willing to be within the corpus of ancient literature to look for ideas that will support their views, that really surprised me. What did you make of that? It seems that theres kind of a weird sort of macho performance of erudition where you would then see in the comments section tons of people saying, Ive never heard of this text before, this is so fascinating, but youd also see a few people showing off that they knew what the writer was talking about and sometimes getting things really wrong, which to me was funny. I remember seeing an article on Marcus Aurelius and somebody was saying in the comments, If you really want to be a pimp, which I think is the word he used you should read it in the original Latin. Marcus Aurelius originally wrote in Greek. So yeah. A scene from the Nashville Nightmare haunted house. (Photo: Nashville Nightmare via Instagram) Haunted house attractions are a natural draw for humans. The fight-or-flight response we feel when a very convincing zombie approaches us gives our bodies a natural high. According to science journalist Jeff Wise in his book Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger, the physical reaction of an increased heart rate and rapid breathing is the biological equivalent of opening the throttle. Usually, haunted houses are a relatively safe space for a scare. While accidents do happen, such as injuries when people run into walls out of fright or fall in the dark, visitors know that, despite a chainsaw roaring next to their ears, its all make-believe. So when Tawnya Greenfield was approached by a person she believed to be in character at Nashville Nightmare, a haunted house, she played along. According to Nashville, Tenn., station WZTV, a person who appeared to be an employee of the haunted house approached Greenfields group after they had already visited the attraction and were playing carnival-type games. The alleged employee, in character, asked Greenfield whether another person in her group was teasing her, and when she playfully answered yes, handed Greenfield what she believed was a prop knife, saying, Well here, stab him. According to the Tennessean, Greenfield then stabbed the victim, James Jay Yochim, in the arm. She even jokingly said, Ha-ha, gotcha! It wasnt until Greenfield pulled the knife back that the group realized it was a real weapon. Blood started to pour from Yochims forearm. His arm was gushing blood like something out of a horror scene, Greenfield said. She added that the suspected employee ran away. Keep in mind, wed been chased by chainsaws, holding other weapons, all kinds of stuff all night, and it was all fake, Yochim told Tennessean. So she stabs at me with it, and everything got really black. Yochim, who was transported to the ER at Tristar Skyline Medical Center in Madison, Tenn., required nine stitches. Luckily, the knife missed any major arteries, bones, or tendons in his arm. The group of friends provided a statement to police at the hospital, and no charges have been filed. Police are investigating but reportedly had not yet contacted Nashville Nightmare. Story continues In a statement provided by Nashville Nightmare to Yahoo Lifestyle, the company said it believes an employee was involved in some way and that he has been placed on leave until it can determine his involvement. The full statement provided to Yahoo Lifestyle from Nashville Nightmare Organizers is below: The safety and security of our patrons is our top priority, and, for the past 8 years, we have hosted Nashville Nightmare without any security incidents or major injuries. We are still confirming the facts, but I can tell you that on Friday night, a male patron was injured by a fellow patron outside the Nashville Nightmare house. Our medical staff responded immediately, and the injured party was transported to the hospital where we understand that he was treated and released. We have robust safety and security protocols in place, including metal detectors and onsite medical and security staffs. As we have continued to review the information, we believe that an employee was involved in some way, and he has been placed on leave until we can determine his involvement. We are going over all of our safety protocols with all of our staff again, as the safety and security of all of our patrons is always our main concern. We have not been contacted by the police, but we will cooperate fully with any official investigation. We have enjoyed a good reputation in this community, and our goal is always to host a festive, safe and professionally run Halloween event. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Residents who are still in Florida are being battered by Hurricane Michael, which made landfall Wednesday afternoon. Hurricane Michael is a deadly Category 4 storm. This is the worst storm that the Florida Panhandle has seen in more than 100 years, said Florida Governor Rick Scott. Due to the damage from storm surge along the northeastern Gulf Coast and winds of 145 mph, 120,000 people were ordered to evacuate. Upwards of 8- to 12-foot storm surge is expected, so there could be some significant low-lying flooding in coastal areas, said National Weather Service liaison Ken Widelski. While originally a Category 1 storm, Michael was upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane just hours before it was set to make landfall. Michaels conditions are similar to those of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Texas last year as a Category 4 storm that packed 130 mph winds and left 68 people dead. Despite warnings and forecasts of destructive conditions, many residents decided to stay. Governors and local officials have authority to issue mandatory evacuation orders when public safety is at stake. In Florida, the governor is able to order a mandatory evacuation, but its unclear how the rules and regulations are enforced. In some states, like Virginia and North Carolina, its a misdemeanor to refuse a mandatory evacuation order. While there may be no civil implications for staying, Gov. Rick Scott reiterated the dangers of remaining in a hurricane evacuation zone. Were going to do everything we can and send people out to keep people safe. Im praying to God people will be safe. The owner of the limousine company involved in a deadly crash was a controversial FBI informant with a history of inspection failures for his vehicles. Shahed Hussain avoided deportation after admitting to a felony in a personal bankruptcy case by becoming an undercover informant for the federal agency, his former lawyer confirmed this week. His business, Prestige Limousine in Saratoga County, New York has come under scrutiny as federal investigators probe the wreck that killed 20 people over the weekend. Mr Hussains vehicles have been inspected at least five times over the last two years, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records. His vehicles were ordered out of service four of those times until repairs could be made, though it remained unclear whether the limousine was one of those included in the database. Reports indicated the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine in question was "ageing" at the time of the crash, with one victim sending a text message just before the incident that said the vehicle was in terrible condition. As for Mr Hussains links to the FBI, the business owner emigrated in the early 1990s from Pakistan to the United States before eventually serving as an informant in New Yorks Muslim communities, USA Today reported. Civil rights groups questioned strategies used by Mr Hussain and the FBI in order to conduct an anti-terror sting in the state capitol of Albany, which led to two arrests in 2006. Flowers are placed at a roadside memorial at the scene of the fatal limousine crash which killed 20 people in Schoharie, New York. ( AP Photo/Hans Pennink) The 62-year-old appeared to own at least four companies, all of which used the same Wilton address as their headquarters, including Prestige Limousine, Chauffeur Service Saratoga, Luxury Limousine and Hasy Limousine. Officials have vowed to take action against parties found of wrongdoing in the crash. Those found criminally liable would be held accountable, according to New York State Police Major Robert Patnaude, who did not immediately confirm whether Mr Hussain was a focus of investigations. Story continues The fatal crash rocked the quiet region of upstate New York on Saturday afternoon. The small town hasnt seen as deadly an incident in years, according to residents who congregated at a local cafeteria nearby the crash site. The eatery had reopened Sunday and was accepting donations to provide the victims families. Victims included newlyweds Amy and Axel Steenburg, who had married in June and were celebrating Amy's 30th birthday when travelling in the limo with their friends. Four of her sisters were also killed in the wreck, along with her husbands brother, Rich Steenburg. Several couples were killed in the crash, including Abigail and Adam Jackson, a teacher and deputy commissioner of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, as well as Erin and Shane McGowan, newlyweds who also married in June in upstate New York. Scott Lisinicchia, who was reportedly the driver of the limousine, was also killed in the wreck. His wife wrote on Facebook, It hurts me to a core to have to bury my husband. Two pedestrians, Brian Hough and James Schnurr, also died. Mr Hough was an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Oswego, and Mr Schnurr was his father-in-law. Zendaya has made some blockbuster films over the last few years but Smallfoot might be her most subversive. The latest animated feature film from Warner Bros continues the fairytale tradition of sharing important moral messages trough digestiable stories with children. In this case, the main lesson is the importance of truth but its not just about being honest; it delves deeper into political territory that reflects todays world. In Smallfoot, a Yeti community lives up in the mountains and away from the rest of the world, oblivious to its existence because they have been conditioned to let their lives be governed by the teachings of ancient stones that are always right. When one yeti, Migo (Channing Tatum) discovers that a stone about the existence of smallfoot (humans) is wrong, the Stone Keeper (Common) offers alternative facts to ensure the stability of the oppressive society he and his ancestors have created. Sound familiar? Zendaya is Meechee Zendaya plays Meechee, the rebellious daughter of the Stone Keeper, and she tells Yahoo Movies UK that its important that children can learn important political and social lessons through films like these. There are so many things that you can pull from it, she tells Yahoo Movies UK. You can look at the concept of following your heart, what is your inner truth telling you is right? What is the right thing to do, and that moral compass, whats the right thing to do and how do I follow that? Then theres the idea of not allowing people to decide for you what your future is or who you should be, Zendaya continues. I feel like my character, shes the daughter of the Stone Keeper so [shes] not supposed to challenge that, or have any questions or really act in any way that would test these stones so what I think is really cool is that she lives in quite the opposite way. In real life, Zendaya has become something of a role model herself as she openly discusses politics, feminism, representation and other issues she believes to be important as she navigates the world as a young woman of colour. Story continues Zendaya talks to Yahoo Movies UK about her subversive kids movie However, with that platform there also comes the pressure to ensure the roles she takes are reflective of her beliefs as well as shining a light on those who dont have the opportunity to speak as widely on issues as she does. Its something that I think about, she explains. As far as my platform as a person in the public eye, I always try and use it for good things and I always try to use it as a place of, sometimes it doesnt just belong to me and give other people the spotlight that is normally on me. In this movie, my character, its what she tries to do. Shes trying to use her platform, basically royalty, as a way to uncover the truth, open up a lot of doors and be more accepting, Zendaya adds. So I know its weird to say you have commonalities with an animated Yeti but shes really cool and shes smart. Its just fun. Smart and fun are good descriptors for most of the young actors roles having started off on the Disney Channel in Shake it Up and K.C. Undercover before landing the coveted role of MJ in the rebooted Spider-Man franchise opposite Tom Holland. #TheGreatestShowman stars @Zendaya and @ZacEfron tell us which Disney movie they'd liked to be in a live-action version of pic.twitter.com/8xpofI5yye Yahoo Movies UK (@YahooMoviesUK) December 18, 2017 She also appeared opposite Zac Efron in The Greatest Showman and the pair discussed what Disney movie theyd like to do a live-action version of. Their choice was The Little Mermaid and now there are reports shes being lined up to play Ariel. Well its still rumours, so well see, Zendaya says with a smile. Well see. Smallfoot is out on Friday, 12 October READ MORE The Haunting of Hill House is the horror show for you E.T. star gives advice to Stranger Things kids (exclusive) Twilight star defends director over diversity criticism 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. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Two Israel Lands Authority (ILA) officials have been detained Wednesday on suspicion of receiving bribes in exchange for information on lands without ownership. Five additional suspects were also detained, among them two attorneys, and their houses have been searched. The Police investigations unit Lahav 433 has launched an investigation into the matter. Seoul is considering lifting some of its unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang to create more momentum for diplomacy aimed at improving relations and defusing the nuclear crisis, South Korea's foreign minister said Wednesday. During a parliamentary audit of her ministry, Kang Kyung-wha said the government is reviewing whether to lift sanctions South Korea imposed on the North in 2010 following a deadly attack on a warship that killed 45 South Korean sailors. Some 150 people demonstrated on Tuesday against Prime Minister and Likud party head Benjamin Netanyahu while he was attending a conference of the Right party in southern Tel Aviv. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The conference was held in the wake of upcoming municipal election in the city. Protest against Netanyahu in Tel Aviv (Photo: Shaul Golan) Apart from members of the LGBT community, activists against government corruption, southern Tel Aviv residents who support the deportation of the asylum-seekers, disabled protesters, and demonstrators against the construction of offshore gas distillation rig took part in the protest. The protesters slammed the decision not to bring the amendment to the Surrogacy Law, which currently excludes same-sex couples up to vote at the opening of the Knesset's winter session, holding signs saying: "Netanyahu to Maasiyahu Prison." "We've came to remind our prime minister that the Knesset's winter session opens next week, and we are still waiting for real action to terminate the sexual and gender oppression," said LGBT community Roee Neuman. "We are all discriminated by the Israeli law. Three months ago we decided we had enough and that there is a limit to how much this community can be abused. So we decided to stage a nationwide protest against the Surrogacy Law," he went on to say. LGBT community demonstrates in Tel Aviv (Photo: Shaul Golan ) "We've blocked roads, petitioned to the High Court of Justice (HCJ), launched unprecedented protests, and they (lawmakers) have completely ignored us," Neuman explained. "The government hasnt taken one step towards the LGBT community and not only in legislation. It could have promoted initiatives to make all of our lives easier and bring us closer to equality. However, nothing was done. During the conference, Netanyahu said that he intends to pursue the asylum-seeker deportation. "Had I not acted to build the fence, Israel would have had a million of infiltrators within a decade," the premier said in reference to the high-security fence along the 245-km (150-mile) border with Egypt. "Those who opposed the building of the fence opposed the existence of a Jewish democratic country. (Photo: Shaul Golan) "We are fighting the legal interpretation caused by Left organization that petitioned the HCJ and are delaying the deportation of the illegal immigrants," he exclaimed. "The recently-achieved peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea can speed up the removal of the infiltrators from Israel," he opined. Doron Avrahami from the Liberation of South Tel Aviv Headquarters was invited to the conference since he is A Likud member. However, the security guards prevented him from attending the event after he was identified as one of the leaders of the protest. "I came to express my support for the Likud, and then I wasn't allowed in. This is a disgrace and it must stop," Avrahami vented. In a first-of-its-kind case, the state has held an American graduate student at Ben Gurion Airport for a whole week, accusing her of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Palestinian-led movement against the Jewish state. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old American citizen with Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport last Tuesday with a valid student visa. Lara Alqasem (Photo: Associated Press) But she was barred from entering the country and ordered deported, based on suspicions that she supports the BDS, a campaign that seeks to end international support for Israel. The court has ordered that she remain in custody while she appeals. The weeklong detention is the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case, and it was not immediately clear when a decision would be made. Alqasem is a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that supports the boycott movement. BDS demonstration The grassroots boycott campaign, known as BDS, has targeted Israeli businesses, cultural institutions and universities in what it says is nonviolent resistance to Israeli policies. But Israel says its true goal is to delegitimize and even destroy the country. Last year, the Knesset passed a law barring entry to supporters of the boycott movement. The law denies entry to any foreigner who "knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel." "Lara served as president of a chapter of one of the most extreme and hate-filled anti-Israel BDS groups in the US," said Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, who is charge of the Israeli government's efforts against the boycott group. "Israel will not allow entry to those who work to harm the country, whatever their excuse," he added. Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg) On Tuesday, Erdan floated a possible compromise, saying in a radio interview that he would drop his efforts to expel her if she apologizes and renounces her BDS support. The ministry says that during Alqasem's involvement with Students for Justice in Palestine, the club advocated a boycott against Sabra hummus, an Israeli-owned brand of chickpea dip. "We're talking about someone who simply wants to study in Israel, who is not boycotting anything," said her lawyer, Yotam Ben-Hillel. "She's not even part of the student organization anymore." BDS poster in California Alqasem is registered to study human rights at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The university has thrown its support behind her, announcing Monday that it would join her appeal. She also received a boost from her former Hebrew professor at the University of Florida, who described her as an exceptional and curious student. In a letter to Haaretz newspaper, Dror Abend-David said Alqasem had an "open and positive attitude toward Judaism, Jews, and the state of Israel." The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that Russia, China and North Korea had agreed on the need for five-way talks including the United States and South Korea to end tensions on the Korean peninsula. Deputy foreign ministers from Russia, North Korea and China had met in Moscow on Tuesday and expressed support for talks in such a format to normalise relations, the ministry said in a statement. After sending the Tenzer family a letter stating that the parents of the family live in Jerusalem, while their two children live in Palestinian territories, the Belgian consulate in Jerusalem has announced the error was due to a technical malfunction in its computers that has since been amended. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter "We would like to inform you that due to a technical error in our computer, the addresses of your children Talia and Gilad were incorrectly registered, and since then the error has been corrected," the second letter the consulate sent read. Tenzer family The family reside in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood, which is located over the Green Line in eastern Jerusalem that was captured and annexed by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War. The first letter, which was sent to every Belgian citizen as the Western European country approaches its national elections, was intended to explain to all expats their rights and how to cast their vote. The family said that all letters addressed to the family from the Belgian consulate have always referred to all its members simply as residents of Jerusalem. The mother, Annabel Hertziger Tenzer, received the letter addressed to Jerusalem, while her children, Talia (24) and Gilad (26)both of whom live in the same apartmentreceived a letter addressed to Palestinian territories. According to the family, the sudden shift in policy was prompted by the transfer in May this year of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that was rejected by the European Union, which believes that the fate of the holy city should be decided in final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Pisgat Zeev (Photo: EPA) Alex Tenzer, the father of the Belgian family said, "This proves one should never give up. Belgium views Pisgat Zeev as part of Jerusalem because of our struggle. "I hope other countries will acknowledge the fact Jerusalem, which is Israel's capital, cannot be divided," he concluded. Arik Lubarsky, the brother of the Ronen Lubarsky, an IDF soldier who was murdered by a terrorist near Ramallah, said during an interview with Ynet Tuesday that his family had decided to boycott the trial of the terrorist. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter "We only asked for a legitimate and not unreasonable requestto be given the option of capital punishment, an existing military law penalty, by appointing a suitable panel of judges. Our request was completely ignored," he explained. The late Ronen Lubarsky (Photo: Ronen Luvarsky's Facebook page) Lubarsky, an elite Duvdevan Unit soldier, was killed in May during an operation in the al-Am'ari refugee camp near Ramallah. The army arrested Islam Yusuf Hamid, who threw a marble slab on the soldier's head. In August, his father, Vladimir Lubarsky, asked the trials judges to give the defendant a death penalty, claiming that "Only death penalty will stop the terrorists." Vladimir Lubarsky (Photo: Amit Hoover) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the Lubarsky family , that urged him to appoint a senior panel of judges in order to impose the death penalty on the terrorist, but Netanyahu said he cannot intervene in the court's decision. "Despite the fact that a panel of judges has been decided upon, we asked the prime minister to make changes to it since we heard no objection to the death penalty from cabinet members or from senior officials," said Ronen's brother, Arik. "We met with a wide array of people, including the defense minister and the prime minister, we even met with the IDF military advocate general, but none of them openly expressed an opposition to the death penalty. On the contrary, we heard voices in favor of capital punishment, but no one explained why no progress on the matter has been made, they shift the responsibility from one person to the next. The terrorist himself has been in prison for several years, his entire family is in prison for murdering Israelis," he elaborated. Arik Lubarsky (Photo: Amit Shabi) "This is a terrorist who did not commit this crime in a haphazard way, but planned the attack. A panel judges consisting of three lieutenant colonels is a legitimate panel. We've seen this kind of panels before. This does not mean that the terrorist will receive the death penalty, but at least the capital punishment will be on the table. "Regardless of the difficulties and complexities we encounter, we wanted to continue our fight, because we believe the death penalty is just, true, and can prevent the next terror attack," Arik stated. Arik added he estimates the terrorist will not receive the death penalty. "The panel of judges chosen is not suitable. According to the best case scenario, the terrorist will probably get a life sentence and enjoy prison conditions, maybe even get a degree. This hurts, because a terrorist is an enemy I do not understand why he is even on trial. He should die in the battlefield, he may also be released in one prisoner exchange deal or another and resume his murderous plans, as has already happened many times before," he went on to say. Ronen's father at his son's funeral (Photo: Amit Shabi) Addressing his domestic situation, Arik said that his family is "trying to recover, go back to routine, to make something good out of this horrible ordeal, to commemorate Ronen, to do something positive. "There are difficult moments, a lot of difficult moments. However, we are moving on, we advance. He will always stay with us, in our thoughts and hearts," he concluded. President Reuven Rivlin launched his visit to Denmark Wednesday by placing a wreath in the memorial of the Danish underground movement which headed the rescue operation of the Jews in the Second World War. "They saved the Jews in Denmark with determination and we appreciate it today as well," the president said in a meeting with a Holocaust survivor. Later during the day, Rivlin and his wife visited the royal palace for a personal meeting with the Queen of Denmark, Margaret II. Two Israel Lands Authority (ILA) officials were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of receiving bribes in exchange for information on lands that had no owners. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Five additional suspects were also detained, among them two attorneys, and their houses and offices were searched. A businessman suspected in the case has admitted in his questioning to giving NIS 70,000 as a bribe to a senior ILA official in return for assistance in having a road passing through his lot approved. Lahav 433 (Photo: Avi Moalem) His lawyer, Uri Kenan, saw he was "confident that after the end of the investigation, when the facts become clear, the case against him will be closed." The Israel Police said that "seven suspects were arrested Wednesday morning and were taken for questioning under caution on suspicion of bribery, fraud, breach of trust, and conspiring to commit a crime." The police added that the officials are suspected of receiving bribes in exchange for unlawfully providing information to benefit others. "As part of our ongoing fight against offenses relating to ethicality and public corruption ... and in light of evidence indicating other offenses have allegedly been committed, the National Unit for Combating Economic Crime in Lahav 433 launched an overt investigation, after concluding its covert investigation into the matter," police said. "We will continue investigating and uncovering misconduct and conflict of interest," the police added. A lawyer representing one of the suspects said that "the serious and abstract suspicion attributed to my client has no ties to reality. I am certain that my client will be released after his version will be reviewed and the court will examine the evidence in this case." Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on Wednesday the economic situation was "very fragile" and it was time for everyone to "shoulder their responsibilities" so a new government could be formed, al-Manar TV said. Berri said some saw "a positive, promising atmosphere" in talks over the government, according to the TV station which is run by the Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah. Lebanese politicians have been unable to agree on a new power-sharing cabinet since a parliamentary election in May. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that changing the status of the Golan Heights without the approval of the United Nations Security Council would constitute a violation of the existing accords, the Sputnik news agency reported. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Lavrov made his remarks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Golan Heights issue following Moscow's delivery of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Syria. Lavrov (L) and Netanyahu (Photo: GPO) "Israel in the Golan Heights is a guarantee for security. Israel in the Golan Heights is a fact the international community must acknowledge," Netanyahu said. "As long as it depends on me, the Golan Heights will stay under Israeli sovereignty. Otherwise, Iran and Hezbollah will be sitting on the shores of the Sea of Galilee," he elaborated. "We are witnessing ruthless barbarity across the border (with Syria) and ongoing attempts by Iran and Hezbollah to entrench there. "We will stand strong agonist them. We are thwarting their attempts to establish in Syria and will continue operating with determination to prevent them from transferring advanced weapons to Hezbollah," Netanyahu went on to say. "I will discuss the Golan Heights issue with my upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Russia and Israel have established good relations. President Putin understands the importance I attribute to the Golan Heights and to Israel's heritage," he concluded. At the opening of the government meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon to discuss continued security coordination over Syria. He made the announcement without citing a specific date for the talks. 2016 Government meeting (Photo: AP) Israel will constantly act to prevent Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria and transferring deadly weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, he asserted. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will never renounce the Golan Heights. In 2016, the government held a meeting there, during which the Israeli leader said, "Its about time that the international community acknowledges that the Israel-Syrian border is not going to change, regardless of what will happen on the Syrian side." Following Netanyahu's aforementioned remarks, Germany condemned them, and the US State Department declared that the Golan Heights are not part of Israel. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he has been talking with Goldman Sachs executive Dina Powell, one of his former advisers, about possibly succeeding Nikki Haley as the US ambassador to the United Nations. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that he liked Powell, but that she was just one of many people being considered for the UN post. Powell served in the first year of the Trump administration as the deputy national security adviser for strategy, and was a key player in diplomatic efforts in the Middle East and part of the president's inner circle. She returned to Goldman Sachs, where she worked for more than a decade, this year. She also was a high-ranking official in the State Department under President George W. Bush. Computer analyst Edward Snowden, one of the most wanted and controversial people in the world, will be giving a speech at an event in Israel next month via a secure video link. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Snowden, a former NSA contractor, lives in Moscow under an asylum deal after he leaked classified information in 2013 that triggered an international furor over the reach of US spy operations. Since escaping the US with some 1.7 classified documents and finding asylum in Russia, Snowden has been giving lectures and interviews via a video link in several places around the world. Edward Snowden (Photo: GettyImages) He will speak at a private event to a small number of senior officials from several fields in the Israeli economy, as well as to former Mossad director Ram Ben-Barak, and will answer their questions. The event, which will take place on November 6, is organized by OH! Orenstein Hoshen PR & Strategy. Hadar Orenstein and Itamar Hoshen, who head the company, told Ynet about the decision to invite Snowden to speak at the event. "These days, when we're gravely concerned by questions of privacy and the security of our personal information, there aren't many public discussions that are more worthy than this, nor speakers who paid such a high price for the position they have taken," they said in a statement. "We have no intention of expressing support or any position concerning (Snowden's) actions. The audience will hear what he has to say, could ask difficult questions, and consider their own views on the matter." (Photo: FPF ) Snowden has shone a light on widespread surveillance by the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ, the alleged extent of which has upset many US allies and fuelled a heated debate about the balance between privacy and security. In December 2013, The Guardian and The New York Times reported that in January 2009 GCHQ and the NSA had targeted an email address listed as belonging to Israeli prime minister at the time, Ehud Olmert. Spies also monitored email traffic between then-defense minister Ehud Barak and his chief of staff, Yoni Koren, the newspapers said. According to a report from the German news website Der Spiegel, and similar reports from the Times and The Guardian, both agencies also targeted various Israel Foreign Ministry offices across the world. Apparently, the two agencies conducted a large scale operation under the code name "Broadoak", in which they used satellite connections to intercept SMS and email communications between Israeli officials. The monitoring was conducted from one of GHCQ's largest stations, that was constructed and operated with the help of American funding and is located in the town of Bude, in Cornwall, on the southwest coast of England. Snowden faces espionage charges in the United States and the political asylum he received from Russia is expected to expire in 2020. He is already looking for a new country that would agree to provide him political asylum. Reuters contributed to this story. Women working in high-tech companies posed around a cardboard cutout of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday to protest against a meeting she held with an all-male group of entrepreneurs in Israel last week. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Merkel noted at that session that Israel's start-up industry appeared to be "very male-dominated," adding: "It would be better if next time, there was a woman among all those hopeful pioneers of the future." The alternative photo (Photo: Tsachi Sadeh) That was also the message the protesters said they wanted to get across at Rabin Square, where some 100 women posed for photographers and TV cameras with a few placards, one of which read: "Tel Aviv is with Merkel." The male-dominated meeting (Photo: Avi Dudi/Foreign Ministry) "It's not the first time that it's happening: you can see summits, events, meetings only with men around the table," said Merav Oren, one of the protesters and the founder of WMN, a co-working space for women entrepreneurs in Tel Aviv. : X "If we don't raise the awareness like we are doing now it can happen again because, you know, the men were sitting there, nobody noticed there is not a woman around them, there is no diversity in the room." Appearing in the "alternative photo" taken at Rabin Square were some of Israel's prominent female high-tech executives, including Facebook Israel CEO Adi Soffer Teeni and high-tech entrepreneur Dr. Orna Berry. Protest in Berlin (Photo: SANDRO MOSCOGIURI) Efrat Fenigson, the chief experience officer at Airobotics and one of the organizers of the protest, said that like everyone else, she too was angry when she saw the male-dominated photo. She and her friends at Supersona and other organizations have decided to "take the lemon and make lemonade." Protest in New York (Photo: Netanel Tevel) "I'm one woman among 10 men in management," she said. "There's no doubt it's much harder for women to get ahead in this field. Our goal with this photo is primarily to create awareness of the fact women should be put at the front, as well as to make women themselves realize they need to help one another, and of course to make the government and the state realize they need to lead this." Protest in Silicon Valley (Photo: Nick Klein) Similar events coordinated by Israeli women took place over the past 24 hours in Berlin, New York, Toronto, London and Silicon Valley. The organizers hope their protest is covered by the foreign media, leading to Merkel herself becoming aware of it in an effort to promote another meeting with the German chancellorbut this time with the leading women of Israeli high-tech. The Foreign Ministry said in response to the protest that "the round table was part of a series of events organized in cooperation with a number of bodiesincluding the Israel Export Institute, the Israel Innovation Authority, the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office. The companies that were invitedleading companies in innovation from Israel and Germany who have business activity in Israel and Germanyare the ones that selected and sent their representatives. "During the preparations, the issue of the lack of women among the representatives did not come to light. We regret this and are committed to work to the best of our abilities along with all partners to avoid such cases in the future and ensure appropriate representation of women. We will also note that both in the (innovation) exhibition and in additional events before and after the event in question, both business men and women took part." Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan defended on Wednesday Israel's handling of the case of an American graduate student held in detention at the country's international airport for the past week over allegations that she supports a boycott against the Jewish state. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old American citizen with Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport last week with a valid student visa and was registered to study human rights at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. But she was barred from entering the country and ordered deported, based on suspicions that she supports the Palestinian-led boycott movement. The court has ordered that she remain in custody while she appeals, although Israel says she can leave the country. The week-long detention is the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case. Her case is set to be heard at a Tel Aviv court Thursday. Lara Alqasem (Photo: AP) "We are doing whatever we believe that is right for the security of the state of Israel and that is more important than whatever the New York Times or other newspapers around the world will say about our policy," Erdan said. His remarks come after the Times published an opinion piece by columnist Bret Stephens and editor Bari Weiss critical of Israel's handling of Alqasem's case. More than 300 academics penned a letter in the British Guardian Wednesday calling the case "an attack on academic freedom." Minister Gilad Erdan (Photo: Motti Kimchi) While waiting for her appeal to be heard, Alqasem has been spending her days in a closed area with little access to a telephone, no internet and a bed that was infested with bedbugs, according to people who have spoken to her. Alqasem, from the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Southwest Ranches, Florida, is a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The group is a branch of the BDS movement, whose name comes from its calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. BDS supporters say that in urging businesses, artists and universities to sever ties with Israel, they are using nonviolent means to resist unjust policies toward Palestinians. Israel says the movement masks its motives to delegitimize or destroy the Jewish state. CAIRO - The youngest son of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was released on bail, a judicial source said on Wednesday, hours after a family member and security sources said he was detained from his home on the outskirts of Cairo. Two security sources said Abdullah Morsi was arrested for questioning on charges of "spreading false news" in connection with an interview he gave to the Associated Press news agency last week which focused on his father's detention. A judicial source said Abdullah was freed on a 5,000 Egyptian pound ($280) bail without being charged. News West Lafayette, Indiana - In 1990, Michael Smith had been living in Moscow for four months, rooming with a Russian family and conducting research in the citys libraries and archives, when he witnessed the slow collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of its space program, reducing prominent engineers to mere repair technicians. I was inspired by living with Russians, seeing the pride they gave to their space program while their economy and government fell apart around them, Smith said. I lived with the family of an engineer who had lost his job, who had designed miniature radio transmitters and cryogenic equipment, the things a satellite or propulsion system would need, and who ended up repairing vacuum cleaners. Smith, a professor of history at Purdue University, is dedicated to exploring nearly a century of Soviet space innovation from the early days of rocketry to the Cold War and space race often diminished in the worlds history books by American and European feats. With the emergence today of a new commercial space era, Smith said, post-Soviet Russia continues to play an integral, but often overlooked, role in space exploration. His work aligns with Purdue's Giant Leaps celebration, acknowledging the universitys global advancements made in space exploration as part of Purdues 150th anniversary. This is one of the four themes of the yearlong celebrations Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues. Were on the cusp of a whole new set of technologies, with private industries such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and others complementing NASAs achievements, Smith said. But we also ought to remember the first Russian theorists and rocket-builders, who looked to spaceflight and knew the rocket could take human beings to space. Even today, since the retirement of the shuttle, Russian rockets take our astronauts to the International Space Station. History of the Space Age, the class Smith will teach again in spring of 2019, offers an in-depth, global history of these developments. He also has worked with Purdue Libraries Archives and Special Collections to offer undergraduate students research and writing opportunities using original historical documents, including the Neil Armstrong Papers. Three students have published their work in magazines and journals. Smith is the author of Rockets and Revolution: A Cultural History of Early Spaceflight, which documents the Soviet Unions first leaps toward the stars in the early 20th century. Over the course of decades, the superpower would continue to innovate through competition with western adversaries, Smith said. We dont see that kind of intense competition today that we saw in the 1960s, Smith said. A lot of American innovation, including the moon landing, was in response to Soviet firsts. We lost the space race because the Soviet Union launched the first satellite and the first human into space, but we won the moon. That was the classical struggle. Still, American engineers, astronauts and institutions, including Neil Armstrong and Purdue, were highly regarded among their Soviet counterparts, Smith said. Our professors in engineering were commonly published in Soviet professional and academic journals, so thats why, when I first met engineers over there, they knew a lot about American technological successes, Smith said. In his forthcoming book, a history of Maurice Zucrow and the rocket lab he founded at Purdue, Smith recounts how the labs publications on jet propulsion were translated into Russian, a worthy prize for American engineers. Purdues reputation in aerospace engineering extended all the way up to cosmonauts such as Georgi Grechko, whom Smith met at a Moscow museum in 2003. It was by accident; I nearly bumped into him, Smith said. He was a very nice man, and he knew about Purdue. We exchanged souvenirs. He signed a photo of himself that he kept in his briefcase, as if he was always waiting for a fan. In return, I gave him a copy of Purdues Cradle of Astronauts poster. Most of Smiths encounters with members of the foreign space program were friendly and inviting. But no one was a more endearing character than the engineer who opened up his home in 1990 to an American Ph.D. student. He was very suspicious of me at first because he was trained to be, Smith said. But we became fast friends. I taught him English and he shared his stories about the Russian space program. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian aerospace engineers often were invited to work in the United States to prevent their knowledge and skills from proliferating to unfriendy states around the world. Under a punishing Vladimir Putin regime, Smiths friend eventually took his family to the U.S., where he has prospered as an American citizen working for the other side of the old Cold War. News Somerton, Arizona - Yuma Station Border Patrol agents apprehended a Honduran citizen Sunday who was previously convicted of annoying or molesting a child under 18. At approximately 8:10 p.m., agents assigned to patrol duties near Somerton, Arizona apprehended Carlos Zelaya-Zelaya, a 46-year-old Honduran national, after he made an illegal entry into the United States. During processing, record checks revealed Zelaya was convicted in San Francisco of annoying or molesting a child under 18 in 2000. Zelayas records also show convictions for transportation/selling of narcotics/controlled substance, for which he served three years in prison also in San Francisco in 1999. Zelaya will be processed for immigration violations. Federal law allows agents to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of criminal activity charges without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless or until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents effectively combat smuggling organizations attempting to illegally transport people and contraband through Southwestern Arizona and California. Citizens can help the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection by calling 1-866-999-8727 toll-free to report suspicious activity. Callers may remain anonymous. News Yuma, Arizona - Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents arrested two huge groups of surrendering Guatemalans and Hondurans near the San Luis Port of Entry within hours of each other. Just before midnight on Tuesday, Yuma Station agents apprehended a group of 108 illegal aliens after they illegally crossed from Mexico and surrendered to agents half-a-mile west of the San Luis Port of Entry. Five hours later, agents apprehended a group of 58 illegal aliens who illegally crossed from Mexico and surrendered to agents approximately one mile east of the port of entry. Guatemalan nationals made up 156 of the subjects, 8 were from Honduras. In the two groups, there were a total of 88 children ranging in age from 3 months to 17 years old. All subjects will be processed accordingly. Yuma Sector continues to see increasing numbers of aliens crossing illegally into its area of responsibility from countries other than Mexico. Federal law allows agents to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials welcome assistance from the community. Individuals can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol and remain anonymous by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free. Reporting illicit activity could result in saving someones life. News Yuma, Arizona - Tucson and Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents continue to encounter families illegally crossing the border in southern Arizona, despite law enforcement efforts, a summer of record-breaking heat, and the dangers of crossing the border illegally. Family units who might have previously presented themselves at ports of entry, are being shuttled by human smugglers into areas with limited infrastructure to illegally cross into Arizona. Multiple areas along the Yuma and Ajo corridors are being exploited by criminal organizations. These areas are located along a remote and rugged stretch of the U.S./Mexico border. Border Patrol agents assigned to these areas track and encounter illegal crossers around the clock as activity levels are significant. With more family units being smuggled into these areas, agents must divert even greater resources to care and treat those harmed by the arduous journey. With no regard for the safety and well-being of these families, smugglers put their bottom line before human decency, said Joint Task Force West, Arizona Commander Rodolfo Karisch. Tuesday we sent agents out to rescue 61 of these individuals from rising flood waters; and Wednesday, shortly after crossing the border, a mother in one of these groups passed away in front of her son. Migrants are suffering dehydration, illness, injuries and death at the hands of smugglers. Border Patrol agents are alarmed and concerned by the continuous influx of migrants found in life threatening and vulnerable situations. In the last six weeks, Arizona Border Patrol has published the following large group arrests. Oct. 2, Yuma Sector encountered 164 adults and children west of the San Luis Port of Entry. Sept. 25, Ajo Station Border Patrol agents encountered 264 adults and children west of the Lukeville Port of Entry. Sept. 20, Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents encountered 275 adults and children, 20 of whom had to be transported to the hospital to be treated for a range of conditions including: back and ankle injuries, lacerations, lice infestation, and impetigo. Sept. 16, Ajo Station Border Patrol agents encountered 193 adults and children west of the Lukeville Port of Entry. Sept. 8, Ajo Station Border Patrol agents encountered 121 adults and children near the Senita Basin north of Lukeville. Sept. 4, Ajo Station Border Patrol agents encountered 163 adults and children west of Lukevilles Port of Entry. Aug. 28. Ajo Station Border Patrol agents encountered 103 adults and children west of Lukevilles Port of Entry. Aug. 20, Ajo Station agents encountered 128 illegal immigrants who had been abandoned by their smugglers. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials conducting custodial interviews have uncovered similarities in persons encountered and their reasons for coming to the United States. They are lied to by smugglers who make promises of assistance, financial gain, and protected immigration status. According to migrants, smugglers are using coercive tactics to profit from vulnerable families. A majority of the large groups apprehended are migrants from Guatemala that have traveled through Mexico. Subsequent interviews have identified Charleston, South Carolina; Oakland, California; and Homestead, Florida as their final destinations. This is a humanitarian crisis that is impacting border security, said Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Anthony Porvaznik. Criminal entities are lining their pockets while exploiting a vulnerable population, filling our stations and diverting our national security efforts. U.S. Customs and Border Protection welcomes assistance from the community. Individuals can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free. All calls will be answered and remain anonymous. Arizona News Nogales, Arizona - Nogales Border Patrol agents arrested two U.S. citizens attempting to circumvent the Interstate 19 Immigration Checkpoint with seven Mexican nationals in a stolen pickup truck Tuesday night. When agents tried to stop a Ford F-250 east of Amado, the truck sped away before stopping near Canoa Road after a short pursuit. Agents arrested the driver and passenger, both male 17 year old U.S. citizens, after discovering two illegal aliens in the rear seat and five more in the truck bed under a tonneau cover. Both teen smugglers are being processed on smuggling charges while the seven Mexican nationals, ages 17 to 35, are being processed for immigration violations. The Ford F-250, reported stolen from Marana, was turned over to the Pima County Sheriffs Department. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials welcome assistance from the community. Individuals can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol and remain anonymous by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free. Reporting illicit activity could result in saving someones life. Border News Lukeville, Arizona - Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents arrested two illegal aliens with felony convictions in separate incidents Saturday. Agents from the Brian A. Terry Station in Naco arrested 40-year-old Jose Adan Olvera-Rojas. During processing, agents learned he was convicted in 2002 of rape in Marion County, Florida. Ajo Station agents encountered Luis Alvarez-Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Mexican national who had entered the U.S. illegally west of Arizonas Port of Lukeville. During processing, agents found he was convicted in 2008 in Maricopa Country of kidnapping and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Both subjects will be processed for criminal immigration violations. All persons apprehended by the Border Patrol undergo criminal history checks using biometrics to ensure illegal immigrants with criminal histories are positively identified. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials welcome assistance from the community. Citizens can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol and remain anonymous by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free. Border News Gila Bend, Arizona - Wellton Station Border Patrol agents arrested four Mexican nationals attempting to transport multiple bundles of marijuana into the United States early Friday morning. At approximately 12:15 a.m., agents assigned patrol duties near Gila Bend arrested four men seen attempting to evade detection and apprehension wearing camouflage clothing and carpet on the bottom of their shoes. The narcotics had a combined weight of 150.2 pounds and an approximate street value of $75,110. All individuals will be processed for the transportation of a controlled substance and immigration violations. Federal law allows agents to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of criminal activity charges without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless or until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents effectively combat smuggling organizations attempting to illegally transport people and contraband through Southwestern Arizona and California. Individuals can help the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection by calling 1-866-999-8727 toll-free to report suspicious activity. Callers may remain anonymous. Border News Lukeville, Arizona - Ajo Station Border Patrol agents patrolling west of Arizonas Port of Lukeville rescued 61 distressed illegal aliens Tuesday morning just north of the international border. Mexican officials contacted the U.S. Border Patrol after receiving a distress call Monday evening from one of the individuals in the group. However, a search of the area from where the call originated was delayed by fast-running washes, flooded roads, and heavy rain. By 5:00 a.m. Tuesday, agents located the group consisting of mostly families from Guatemala and Honduras ranging in age from 7 months to 66 years. Although most of the individuals were found to be in good health, a mother and child had to be transported to a local hospital for medical evaluation. After treatment, they were released and transported to the Ajo Border Patrol Station where, along with the rest of the group, they were processed for immigration violations. In the past seven days, agents have arrested more than 800 Central Americans found in the same general area who had crossed the U.S. border illegally. A vast majority of those apprehended were family units. Transnational criminal organizations continue to exploit the vulnerability of foreign nationals with false promises of legal status and encourage dangerous border crossings, placing lives at risk. Border Patrol officials continue to point out the dangers of crossing the U.S. border illegally through the desert where severe weather events can create life-threatening situations for the migrants, as well as first responders. U.S. Customs and Border Protection welcomes assistance from the community. Individuals can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free. All calls will be answered and remain anonymous. Today A few passing clouds. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable. Tomorrow Partly cloudy skies in the morning will give way to cloudy skies during the afternoon. High 87F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. 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. iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF's stock was trading at $25.60 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWU shares have increased by 30.7% and is now trading at $33.47. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. 11 hours ago Tyson Foods Is A Hedge Against Inflation? Tyson Foods Beats Top And Bottom Line With Higher Prices As surprising as it may sound, Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) may be a hedge against the rising tide of consumer inflation. Call it a stretch, but the company is part of the infrastructure of American food and thereby qualifies as a real asset, at least to some degree. Read Article It is never the happiness of any parent to lose their child. Many of these parents have had the wish that their sons and daughters would pay their last respects when they are no more but in recent times, the reverse is the case. Parents now mourn the death of their children. These are caused by ghastly accidents, long-term illness, or even armed robbery attacks. Such is the case of a final year Nigerian university student, Florence Ubuane has just been reported dead through a motor accident. The late Florence Ubuena (Photo source: Facebook/Florence Ubuena Source: Facebook According to Prince Fabio who took to Facebook to mourn Florence, the pretty young lady died just a few days to her graduation after being involved in an accident. READ ALSO: Pastor Chris displays his dancing skills; dances 'Shaku Shaku' with Ghanaian son-in-law (Video) He shared some of her pictures with the caption: As it is usually said that Mr death is inevitable but everybody's prayer is that it should only visit at the right time, that is if there is a right time. After 3 years of Aluta strungle. Just fews days to our graduation, God took her away from us. It's hard to say but I have to say it.... Rest in peace Florence Ubuane. See post below: YEN.com.gh checks revealed that Florence had just completed Auchi Polytechnic in the Nigerian State of Edo. READ ALSO: Terrifying story of how native doctor rejected lady brought for rituals Since Prince shared the sad story of her demise, many social media users have been extending their condolences. Rosamond was so sad: Francesco said: Shadrack was reminded of his mate dying in similar fashion: Jerry said deth was inevitable: Ayemola said Forence will always be remembered: The untimely demises of Florence could be likened to that of the handsome Ghanaian soldier, Lieutenant Felix Tei Sormenah who was killed in accident just one month to his wedding READ ALSO: Tears flow as bride visits late fiances grave on the day they were supposed to have their wedding As earlier reported by YEN.com.gh, Lt. Sormenah, died on Friday, September 7 while on admission at a hospital following a bizarre accident. He was reportedly knocked down by a car on September 4 while training with officer cadets. Yenkasa: Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh: Share your views on this with us in the comments section below. Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook/Instagram page and we could feature your story. To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on Google Play today Source: Yen News - Menzgold Company Limited said it will no longer pay dividends to customers - A statement from the company said this is because customers are no longer interested in their dividends - The company said it has reached an agreement with the customers in this regard Embattled gold dealership firm, Menzgold Ghana Limited, has said it will no longer pay dividends to its customers. According to the company, it has reached an agreement with the customers to scrap the payment of dividends to them. The agreement is said to have been reached at a crunch meeting held between Menzgold, representative customers, and stakeholders on October 7, 2018, at Korkdam Hotel in Achimota, Accra, according to a report sighted by YEN.com.gh on Dailyguide.com. Nana Appiah Mensah, CEO of Menzgold Source: Instagram READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo was not meant to be president spiritually Badu Kobi According to a statement released by Menzgold, the dividends would no longer be paid due the current struggle of the company. The statement added that customers are no longer interested in the dividends, therefore, it thought it wise to scrap the payment all together. During the said meeting held around 3 pm, it was generally agreed that due to the challenges faced by the company and the fact that customers are no longer interested in dividends, it was wise to scrap the dividends, the statement said. READ ALSO: Fans give Fella Makafui free lectures in fashion over her 'poor' dress combination The meeting, held between the board, management of Menzgold and customers numbering over 100 from all branches nationwide, was said to have been chaired by the Board Chairman of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Nana Yaw Offei, Corporate Manager, as well as Menzgold International Consultant. Since the order by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordering Menzgold to halt its operations earlier in September, confusion and aggression have rocked Ghanaians, especially, those who have invested with the company. YEN.com.gh earlier reported the story of a client who said she was convinced to invest her GH24,000 with Menzgold following an assurance that Nana Appiah Mensah, the CEO, had a room full of money to settle clients even if disaster strikes. However, just few days after she had made that investment, Menzgold was ordered to halt its operations leaving her very disappointed. READ ALSO: Fans attack Moesha over her latest wild twerking video In a related development, aggrieved customers of Menzgold have blamed President Akufo-Addo for allegedly having a hand in Menzgolds frustration. According to them, they were enjoying smooth services with Menzgold until the president and the NPP came to power. They thus vowed to teach the president a bitter lesson READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo is to blame for Menzgolds frustration Angry clients Meanwhile, the board and management of Menzgold Company Limited conceded that they failed in their communication with customers and have taken immediate measures to address these lapses. The company has insisted on its assurance that no one will lose a cedi. READ ALSO: Fella Makafui heartlessly snatches Medikal from Deborah Vanessa Yenkasa: Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: Bride visits late fiances grave on what would have been their wedding day 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 - Residents of Komenda have decried the poor state of the sugar factory situated in the town - They have complained of neglect by NPP government after it tricked them for votes - The residents believe the factory can solve their unemployment problems if it is cared for by the government Residents of Komenda have expressed disappointment in the government for the poor state of the Komenda Sugar Factory. The residents have also complained that the factory, which was opened with pomp and pageantry in 2016 by the erstwhile NDC government, is rusting away. The disappointed residents made their grievances known in an interview with Joy News sighted by YEN.com.gh. READ ALSO: Menzgold scraps payment of dividends According to the report, metal plates that make up the heavy sugarcane-crushing machine have been covered with rust, and the observant residents predict that it will cost the government a lot of money to repair the machines by the time it decides to put the factory to use. Isaac Kwaku Nketia, a resident, complained that many youths in the area like himself are still unemployed, adding that the factory could be of great benefit to them if it were in use. My wife is divorcing me because I cannot take care of my family. Every day, I walk past this factory and I get angry because if it was operating, some of us would have had jobs from the country," he said. It is frustrating and disappointing to see the factory rust away. It is also disturbing to see the factory not operating for two years after it reopened as if money was not used to build the factory, the disappointed resident added. READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo is to blame for Menzgolds frustration Angry clients Another resident who made his grievances known, suggested that the machines in the factory could be catered for even if the factory would not be operational now. At least the machines in the factory should have been painted at least every six months to prevent the rust even before the factory operates, he said. The disappointed residents thus made a passionate appeal to the government to put the sugar factory cited in the area to use to help solve their unemployment problems. READ ALSO: Never match print with kente - Fan schools Fella Makafui in fashion However, some weeks ago, YEN.com.gh reported on the story of President Akufo-Addo announcing that the government was looking for a strategic investor to start operating the Komenda Sugar Factory. But some of the residents believe that is a clever way the president and the NPP government are employing to neglect them and the factory. "We are not really sure if investors will really come. Sometimes, it is just politricks. They just trick us because we vote for them and after that, they forget about us and our problems, a resident said. While the factory remains closed, it is estimated that sugar worth $200 million is imported to feed manufacturing industries and for domestic use. READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo was not meant to be president spiritually Badu Kobi Yenkasa: Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: Fans attack Moesha over her latest wild twerking video 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 Ghanaian actress and socialite, Moesha Boduong, has ended up on the wrong side of social media after she attempted to display her cutlery skills on Instagram. The popular actress is noted for posting catchy pictures on her social media handles but this time she tried something different. Currently on vacation in Geneva, Switzerland, Moesha posted photos and a video of herself enjoying a sumptuous meal at a restaurant. Swipe to watch video below: READ ALSO: Woman wants ex-lover punished for sharing her nude pictures However, the harmless post turned sour when some of her followers took notice of her seemingly poor cutlery skills. Moeshas handling of the fork and knife, the fans said, depicted someone new to using such cutlery at the dining table. Subsequently, she became the object of trolls from some Instagram users, with one advising her to learn how to use cutlery. Recently, Moesha was unveiled as a brand ambassador for Loggy Travel and Tours to help the company grow in terms of branding and larger audience. Yenkasa: Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: Ghanaian celebrity wedding kisses that will wow you Share your views on this with us in the comments section below. Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook/Instagram page. Source: Yen YEN.com.gh is in possession of photos of students of Jirapa Nursing Training School in the Upper West Region, who allegedly abandoned classes to see Former President John Mahama. Mahama, as part of his campaign tour of the northern regions, took the opportunity to pass through the school on Tuesday, October 9, 2018. According to a report by MyNewsGH.com, the excited students allegedly ditched classes to catch a glimpse of him, and pose for photos with him as well. Source: MyNewsGH.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Identities of 2 Menzgold bosses pop up on the internet YEN.com.gh understands that some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) then took the opportunity to chide the government for disappointing the nurses. The Jirapa Nursing/Midwifery Training College in the Upper West Region was established in 1952 and added up in 1954 by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, a Catholic congregation spearheaded by Reverend Sister Cyprian Mary Swales. The school started Qualified Registered Nursing from 1954 1969; the Enrolled General Nursing from 1969 1980; State Registered Nursing (SRN) from 1981 1999; Registered General Nursing from 1999 to date. The school currently has 840 students, 27 tutors. Former John Dramani Mahama kick-started his three-day campaign tour of the Upper West region 3 days ago, paying a visit to the Bagbin family to mourn with them at Sombo, over the demise of Luke Bazin Bagbin, a brother of Alban Sumanu Bagbin. READ ALSO: Ghana v Sierra Leone called off by CAF Jeffrey Yeboah Story: Meet the C.E.O of Ripples Interior - Faces of Ghana | #Yencomgh Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now! Source: Yen.com.gh - NDC presidential aspirant, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, has disclosed the reason behind the party's defeat in the 2016 elections - According to him, unlike the NPP, the NDC had no message for the voters - He added that NDC's reliance on "edey beee k3k3 cost the party in the elections Politician and National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer hopeful, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, has revealed the reason behind the partys defeat in the 2016 elections. According to him, the NDC lost the elections because it had no message for Ghanaians, and heavily depended on its edey beee k3k3 slogan. He explained that the party also failed to present a message that will connect with the electorates. READ ALSO: Identities of 2 Menzgold bosses go viral The New Patriotic Party (NPP), on the other hand, he said, had a solid message for the voting, and that reflected in the results. NDC had no message in 2016. I met some NDC communicators in Ashanti Region and I asked them what NDCs message was in 2016, and all they remember was Onaapo and edey bee k3k3. The NPP had solid campaign messages and that difference was seen in the 2016 elections, he said in an exclusive interview on Asempa FMs Ekosii Sen on Tuesday, October 9, 2018. The Former Trade and Industry Minister believes Ghanaians were looking for a message of hope, something the NDC failed to offer hence, promises of free secondary education, dams in every village in the country as well as factories in all districts swayed votes in their opponents favour. He said NDC grassroots lacked information, but he is ready to reveal to them why John Mahama must be rejected. READ ALSO: Photos of Jirapa nursing students who abandoned classes to see Mahama go viral Ghana News Today: Ebony Wins Big at 2018 Ghana Music Awards UK | #Yencomgh Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: Yen - Three more top managers behind Menzgold have been identified - The three are part of a seven-member team said to be running Menzgold with Nana Appiah Mensah, the CEO - Given its current struggles, Menzgold has said it will no longer pay dividends to customers YEN.com.gh earlier published the report of two top managers of Menzgold who were said to be running the business with the embattled CEO, Nana Appiah Mensah. Now, three more photos have been released of individuals who are also part of Menzgolds management, bringing the number to five. Before their photos were released, Nana Appiah was the focal person who has received public criticism and attacks for the current struggling state of Menzgold. Menzgold CEO, Nana Appiah Mensah Source: Instagram READ ALSO: Menzgold scraps payment of dividends However, it has been discovered that these five persons, who make up a seven-member team of Menzgolds management, had huge roles they played in the gold trading business, and were actually the ones running the company. The photos were sighted by YEN.com.gh on Mynewsgh.com. The individuals are reported to have been directly in charge of the day-to-day activities of Menzgold prior to its struggles, which were apparently informed by an investigation into its operations by the Security and Exchanges Commission and the Bank of Ghana. The investigation, which caused investors to lose confidence in Menzgold, has prompted the company to sue the SEC and BoG. READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo is to blame for Menzgolds frustration Angry clients One of Menzgold's managers, who has been identified as Shadrack Fodjour, is the head of marketing in charge of monitoring and evaluation. His duty was to ensure that nothing untoward happened while he led a team in sourcing for more clients. Another baron of the company, who is also identified as Isaac Otseng, is a supervisions and operations team member. As his portfolio suggests, Otseng is head of operations of the embattled organisation. Mr. Isaac Otseng, Supervisions and Operations team member. Photo credit: Mynewsgh.com Source: Facebook The third person, Mr. Bonsu Yirenkyi-Offei, is the corporate affairs manager of Menzgold, who kept a low profile because nothing was heard about him in the media. Instead, media personality, George Quaye, who was appointed the head of communications, but later resigned due to Menzgolds troubles, was in charge of media relations for the company. Mr. Bonsu and Mr. Fodjour. Photo credit: Mynewsgh.com Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Never match print with kente - Fan schools Fella Makafui in fashion Meanwhile, Menzgold has announced that it will no longer pay dividends to customers. According to an earlier report by YEN.com.gh, the company said it had reached an agreement with the customers to scrap the payment of dividends because they (customers) are no longer interested. READ ALSO: Kumawood actress' nude video leaks after producer's wife accused her of chasing her man Yenkasa: Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: Princess Shyngle causes confusion on social media in new video 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 YEN.com.gh has sighted a photo of actress Nadia Buari and her children which is making her fans and followers on Instagram attack her. Nadia shared a photo of her swimming with her children, however, as she hid their faces, and only showed the back of their heads. Her action has caused confusion among her fans, with most of them complaining that Nadia is fond of posting such faceless photos of her girls. READ ALSO: Menzgold scraps payment of dividends Others have directly said she should stop posting the faceless photos because it is irritating. For instance, an obviously angry fan, Peacemoney, ordered Nadia Buari to stop posting photos of her children all together if she doesnt want them to become public. According to him, Nadias action shows immaturity on her part which is very irritating. peacemoney21: Honestly Nadiabuari if you don't want to show your family stop posting the behind of their heads serious it is irritating... If you're scared of something then stop posting.... be mature and behave as such..... Bestbet was of the view that posting faceless photos of her children was a way Nadia was using to get public attention on social media. bestbethenia: That's her own way of getting undue attention. . N u people are responding. . Baby face or no baby face .. na her u dey follow .. not her babies. .. na her babies faces u dey see for her profile before you begin follow? READ ALSO: Never match print with kente - Fan schools Fella Makafui in fashion For Ruth, she suspects Nadia is hiding the children because they might be her ex-boyfriend, Jim Ikes photocopies. rutheyong: If only no be jimmy photocopies, cos I see no other reason y u always hide their face. Mimola laughed at Nadia for forever hiding her babies. mim0la: Lol...forever hiding those babies . Glosy and Amaka begged to see the faces of Nadias children glosymama: I wanna see der faces please. amaka_nwankwo_ Please love try show us their faces. READ ALSO: Three more top managers behind Menzgold identified Savejoe believed Nadias action can be a bad example to her children. savejoeboutique: "I just hope this children won't grow up thinking pictures are best taking behind one's back.... ?" However, another Instagram user, Florence, argued in favour of Nadia, saying she is a private person and must not be forced to show the faces of her children if she is not willing to. iam_florence_: Omg your leave the girl alone .She have a reason why she dont want to show her children faces your should already know by now that this lady is very Private.. READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo is to blame for Menzgolds frustration Angry clients Nadia Buari surprised many people if not the whole of Ghana when she revealed few months ago that she had had four children in three years. For reasons best known to her, Nadia kept this part of her life a complete secret from the public. She is one of Ghanas finest actresses who has also carved a niche for herself in the Nigerian movie industry. Nadia Buari has acted alongside many other heavyweight actors including Majid Michel, Van Vicker, John Dumelo, Jackie Appiah, and Yvonne Nelson, just to mention a few. READ ALSO: Kumawood actress' nude video leaks after producer's wife accused her of chasing her man Yenkasa: Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: Princess Shyngle causes confusion on social media in new video 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 YEN.com.gh is in possession of a photo of a cheque with an error, which was presented to a teacher. As part of the celebration of the hard work of a teacher whose identity is yet to be established, a dummy cheque was presented and a photo was taken. Things however took a different turn when it was realized that there was a spelling error on the cheque. The dummy cheque with the spelling error Source: peacefmonline.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Identities of two Menzgold bosses goes leak online The dummy cheque had Ghana Teachers Price instead of Ghana Teachers Prize boldly written on it. YEN.com.gh understands that Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who was the special guest of honour, was present at the event. Together with the organizers of the occasion, it was all smiles as he posed for a photograph. He however took the opportunity to laud the enormous contribution of teachers to Ghanas socio-economic development. READ ALSO: Mahama 'bans' NDC fan clubs ahead of December 2018 elections Ghana News Today: President Akufo-Addo Narrowly Escapes Jet Crash | 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 YEN.com.gh has sighted a video of Ghanas Highest rapper Sarkodie, hitting back heavily at Shatta Wale. In a new diss song titled Advice, Sarkodie doled out loads of insults to Shatta Wale, cautioning the dancehall artiste to be wary of him. In the new song YEN.com.gh listened to, Sarkodie called Shatta Wale names, and said though he boasts of riches, he is actually poor. READ ALSO: Three more top managers behind Menzgold identified Who gives a f*** with your chicken change property? a line of Sarkodies song chants. According to Sarkodie, Shatta Wale knows nothing, but only enjoys tarnishing the hard-earned image of other musicians. Sarkodie also called Shatta Wale a fool, and said that although the bank account of the dancehall star cannot even finance a brand new car, he was always making noise. Speaking about himself, Sarkodie sang that he does not like talking, but occasionally [when Shatta Wale becomes so irritating], he likes to touch on a few things, hence the diss track. He spoke highly of himself saying that he is focused on leaving a footprint in the industry. READ ALSO: You are not mature Fans attack Nadia Buari over latest poolside photo with her children Sarkodie further sang that because he does not flaunt his wealth doesnt mean he is poor, and also sang that if Shatta Wale claims he (Sarkodie) is a poor man, then God should bless him (Sarkodie) with more poverty. READ ALSO: Never match print with kente - Fan schools Fella Makafui in fashion Sarkodie and Shatta Wale have been at each others throat for some days now. This followed an interview Shatta Wale granted, saying he felt disrespected by Sarkodie, who after the release of Megye wo girl, refused to shoot a video for that song though he pestered Sarkodie to do so for years. However, he said Sarkodie rushed to shoot a video with Patoranking for their No Kissing collaboration song, a situation Shatta Wale felt was insulting to his personality. The dance hall artiste went on to say that he is richer than Sakordie, and in a more recent news, called on him, Samini and Stonebwoy, to retire from music because they were not making fortunes from it. READ ALSO: Killer port charges will send NPP to opposition Kennedy Agyapong In an earlier report by YEN.com.gh, Sarkodie ordered Shatta Wale to shut up, and it seems this new song is the full version of his order to Shatta Wale. As controversial as Shatta Wale is, it is expected that he would immediately respond to Sarkodies insult soon. YEN.com.gh will follow this new development and feed readers with fresh information as they come in. Meanwhile, Shatta Wales new Reign Album will be launch on Saturday, October 13, 2018. READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo is to blame for Menzgolds frustration Angry clients Yenkasa: Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: Pregnant wife allegedly cheats on husband to get an iPhone Xs 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 Newspaper Rapper Pope Skinny who is known to be a right hand man of Shatta Wale has raised eyebrows on social media with his reaction to Sarkodie's latest release which is believed to be an attack on his friend. As earlier published by YEN.com.gh, Ghanas Highest rapper Sarkodie, has released a 'diss' track titled Advice in which he doled out loads of insults as Shatta Wale. Calling Shatta Wale names, Sarkodie stated that though he boasts of riches, Shatta was actually poor. The award-winning rapper further described Shatta Wale as a fool who is always making noise about money even though his bank balance cannot buy a brand new car. The song has been trending like wildfire since Sarkodie dropped the video on social media on Wednesday with many hailing him on social media. READ ALSO: Pregnant wife caught cheating on husband because of an iPhone Xs (Photos) As the right-hand man of Shatta Wale, one would have thought that Pope Skinny would be infuriated by the release and also attack Sarkodie. But Pope Skinny has rather applauded Sarkodie describing his song as "real rap". King Sark, this is real rap, Pope Skinny posted on Twitter. While Pope Skinny's response may seem harmless and matured, it has not really gone down well some Shatta Wale fans who have accused him of being a 'sell out', a term often used to describe selfish and fair-weather friends. READ ALSO: REVEALED: All the top celebrities who were waiting for Sarkodie to pour fire on Shatta Wale @therealJNii wondered why Pope Skinny was quick to applaud Sarkodie but failed to retweet Shatta Wale's latest track: @GuyRozayFrench plainly insulted Pope Skinny for his comments: READ ALSO: Ghanaians applaud Sarkodie for silencing Shatta Wale @snowpyrate agreed that Pope Skinny was a sellout: @tenderXralph could not understand what was happening in the Shatta Wale READ ALSO: Nadia Buari shares latest poolside photo with her children and fans are angry But there were many others who defended Pope Skinny saying it was about time Shatta Wale changed direction. Meanwhile, Pope Skinny is not the only Ghanaian musician or celebrity to have applauded Sarkodie over his 'knock out' track. Many celebrities including two of Shatta Wale's colleagues at Zylofon Media have all heaped praises on the rapper after the song was released. Yenkasa: Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh: Share your views on this with us in the comments section below. Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook/Instagram page and we could feature your story. To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on Google Play today Source: Yen.com.gh Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Scenario: Market Research Future (MRFR) has published a report asserting that the Global Automotive Elastomers Market is anticipated to project significant growth in the coming years. The rapid expansion of the automotive industry coupled with increased utilization of automotive elastomers for manufacturing various automotive components is majorly driving the Global Automotive Elastomers Market. The superior properties of Automotive Elastomers as compared to traditional rubber such as flexibility, durability, heat resistance, chemical resistance, weathering and ozone resistance and others are leading to the rise in acceptance of Automotive Elastomers in the automotive industry, which in turn is fueling the growth of the Global Automotive Elastomers Market. However, high cost of manufacturing is acting as one of the major restraints on the Global Automotive Elastomers Market during the forecast period. Industry Updates: On 8th August 2018, Saudi Aramco, a leading integrated energy and chemicals company, has proposed the purchase of Lanxess's 50% share in Arlanxeo, a Netherland-based specialty chemicals joint venture between Lanxess and Saudi Aramco. The valuation of this share is 1.5 Bn. This acquisition would result in Saudi Aramco owning 100% of Arlanxeo. Get Exclusive Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4992 Market Segmentation: The Global Automotive Elastomers Market has been segmented on the basis of Type, Application and Vehicle Type. Based on Type, the Automotive Elastomers Market is segmented into thermoset elastomers (TSE), natural rubber, styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), polybutadiene rubber (BR), butyl rubber (IIR), ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM), nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), silicone rubber (Q), acrylic rubber (ACM), chlorinated elastomers, fluoroelastomers, and thermoplastic elastomers (TPE). The Thermoplastic Elastomers segment is sub-segmented into styrene block copolymer (SBC), thermoplastic olefins (TPO), thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), copolyesters (COPE), copolyamides (COPA), and polyether block amide (PEBA). Based on Application, the Automotive Elastomers Market is segmented into tire, interior and exterior. The interior segment is sub-segmented into airbags, hoses and seals, breaks and suspensions, door panels, transmission and conveyor belts, dashboards, seating, and instrument and soft touch panels. The exterior segment is sub-segmented into front end body panel, bumper fascia, rocker panel, and roof molds and window shield. Based on vehicle type, the Automotive Elastomers Market is segmented into passenger cars, light commercial vehicle (LCV) and medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M/HCV). Regional Analysis: Geographically, the Global Automotive Elastomers Market is segmented into five major regions such as North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. Among these, the Automotive Elastomers Market in the Asia Pacific region accounts for the largest share in the Global Automotive Elastomers Market owing to the rising standard of living and increased disposable income of the population in the developing countries like India and China. The Europe region accounts for the second largest share in the Global Automotive Elastomers Market, followed by North America. Whereas, the Middle East and Africa and Latin America regions account for the least share in the Global Automotive Elastomers Market. Browse Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/automotive-elastomers-market-4992 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. Contact: Market Research Future +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. According to a new report by Market Research Future, Global Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Market is predicted to touch a valuation of 1,769.2 million by the end of 2023. The market for PVA is estimated to reflect a CAGR of 4.59 % over the assessment period (2017-2023) owing to its application in textile, food packaging, paper, coating, pharmaceuticals, and construction. The extensive use of Polyvinyl Alcohol in the construction industry has significantly added to the market to develop. Industry News An environmentally friendly and antibacterial Polyvinyl Alcohol blend membrane was prepared for air filtration with the help of non-solvent induced phase seperation method. The thermal behavior, mechanical property, chemical structure, and surface chargbe of the resultant were characterized which resulted that PVA nad CS were miscible due to intermolecular hydrogen bond between them. Drivers and Restraints Affecting the Market Growth The increasing penetration of packed food worldwide has contributed to the growth of the market. The demand for packaging is fuelled by the increase in cost per packaging, expansion of consumer base, and sustainability in the major markets like India, China, and the U.S. Moreover, Polyvinyl Alcohol has several applications such as textile, paper, ceramic, coatings, and wood. The various grades are useful various end-use industries. Also, similar grades can be utilized for various end-uses. This ability has galvanized the demand for Polyvinyl Alcohol over the last few years. Get a Sample Report for Brief Overview @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5820 With the increasing global population along with growing disposable income, there has been an increase in purchase power parity (PPP) which has resulted in the improved living standard. This has resulted in the adoption of additional services such as laundry. The bags used in laundry are usually made using PVA films as it becomes easy for disposal, which has further led to the expansion of Polyvinyl Alcohol Market. Meanwhile, strict mandates have restricted the use of Polyvinyl Alcohol in several applications. For instance, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has formulated various preventive measures after exposure to the PVA and environmental safety. Global Polyvinyl Alcohol Market Segmentation Globally, the market for Polyvinyl Alcohol has been segmented on the basis Grade and End Use. The market has been segmented into fully hydrolyzed Polyvinyl Alcohol and partially hydrolyzed Polyvinyl Alcohol. Among these, the partially hydrolyzed Polyvinyl Alcohol segment has been estimated to hold the largest market share of 56.6 % in 2017. It is expected to touch USD 1052.2 million by the end of 2023, owing to its high water solubility properties and low viscosity. The market has been segmented into medical, paper, construction, textile, packaging, and electronics based on the end use. Among these, the packaging industry has been accredited to hold the largest market share with 38.2 % in 2017 and is anticipated to show its dominance over the assessment period. Growing need for non-toxic and biocompatible packaging solutions in food and beverage industry is anticipated to spur the market growth. Due to properties such as moisture content and good crosslinking density, PVA is extensively used in food packaging industry. It has also been predicted that the packaging segment is likely to reach USD 695.4 million by the end of 2023. PVA is also largely used in construction industry owing to its several properties such as adsorption capacity, particle size and water solubility, static filtration of cement slurries, and pore solution viscosity. Construction industry has been witnessed to experience a robust growth due to infrastructural development in Japan, China, and India. Asia Pacific: The Most Rapidly Developing Market for Polyvinyl Alcohol Geographically, the market for Polyvinyl Alcohol has been segmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. The Asia Pacific region has been witnessed to emerge as the most rapidly developing market in 2017 and is expected to develop at a staggering CAGR of 5.45 % over the assessment period. It has been anticipated to reach a revenue of USD 791.3 million by the end of 2023. With the extensive growth of industries such as food packaging, textile, and construction has spurred the growth of the market in this region. The European region has emerged as the next main region after Asia Pacific and is predicted to reach USD 394.6 million by the end of 2023 owing to the increasing demand for sustainable packaging. With increasing demand for the product as polymerization aid, North America is another main region in the market for Global Polyvinyl Alcohol. Access Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/polyvinyl-alcohol-market-5820 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. Contact: Market Research Future +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Overview: The Global Purified Terephthalic Acid Market to enjoy robust expansion during the forecast period (2017-2023), reports Market Research Future (MRFR) in an extensive study. The growth of Purified Terephthalic Acid can be attributed to its manifold use in diverse sectors which can eventually help the market attain a sterling CAGR during the review period. Industries are also adopting polyester fibers owing to its ability to blend with natural and synthetic fibers can also spur the demand for Purified Terephthalic Acid. Drivers and Restraints: The acid offers a range of features such as flexibility, durability, utility as drying agent, along with chemical and wrinkle resistance which can be leveraged in diverse sectors. Production of carbonated plastic bottles requires this component in large amount which can act like a boon for the Purified Terephthalic Acid. Paints and coating industry is also experiencing an unprecedented growth which in an obvious manner can trigger the production of Purified Terephthalic Acid. In addition, government investments are also on the rise with countries such as China and India showing tremendous proliferation of textile and packaging industries. Food & beverage and pharmaceutical packaging are areas which have high potential and can boost the Purified Terephthalic Acid Market in future. Also, rapid urbanization, development in marine & transport and advancing power sectors are influencing the construction and commercial industries which require unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) due to its cost-effective and eco-friendly characteristics. This can act as a market catalyst for the Purified Terephthalic Acid Market. However, varying crude oil prices can impede the market growth. Stringent imposition of regulations and norms by various governments regarding its use may hinder the normal growth. Receive a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4885 Industry News: British Petroleum (BP) has implemented technologies in their PTA production that not only reduces carbon footprint but is also cost-effective. The company has recently announced that it will share its technology with SOCAR Turkey Energy A.S (SOCAR Turkey) and they have entered into a licensing agreement. Segmentation: The Global PTA Market can be segmented by Application, and End-User Industry. Application-Wise, the market includes polyester fiber, polyester films, pet resin, industrial machinery, powder coatings, insulation materials and others. Polyester segment is currently generating the maximum market share. However, a shift in the consumer behavioral trend has rapidly augmented PET demand from the food & beverage sector which can witness a significant growth during the forecast period. Based on End-User, the market comprises into food & beverages packaging, paints & coatings, textiles, electrical, and furniture. Food & beverage sector is experiencing a considerable growth owing to rising disposable income and rapid urbanization. Regional Analysis: Geographically, the market covers Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Latin America (LATAM), North America, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). The APAC is currently generating the maximum market share as the region is now experiencing a rapid industrial expansion in countries such as India and China. Rising population has also triggered multiple fields such as construction, textile, and food & beverage into action which is currently influencing the PTA market. Rising demand for insulation materials owing to expansion of energy sector can boost the market during the forecast period. North America is second in terms of generating revenues. The U.S. contributes the most owing to the presence of well-structured industries. Europe is experiencing significant growth as countries such as Italy, Germany, Spain, France, the U.K., and Russia are fetching a substantial amount from the market. Home furnishing sector is impacting the market notably. The region is also reaping benefits from a well-developed automotive sector. The LATAM is showing considerable growth. Countries such as Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina are experiencing more customer spending for passenger cars which impact the market directly. The MEA is expected to grow with the highest CAGR during the review period owing to a considerable growth in food & beverage packaging industry. Housing industry is also experiencing a boom which directly influences paint and coating industry. Get Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/purified-terephthalic-acid-pta-market-4885 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. Contact: Market Research Future +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global Specialty Drug Distribution Market is a market based on market research. Details of market segmentation and active players. Going forward, it also highlights various regional market scenario which offers crucial information to gain and competitive edge. It also includes the potential consumer in the market across the various industry. Download Free Sample Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-33846 In 2017, the global Specialty Drug Distribution market was 640 million US $ and it is expected to reach 1580 million US $ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of 11.9% during 2018-2025. The key players covered in this study Amerisource, McKesson, Cardinal Health, PHOENIX, MedipalHoldings, Alliance Healthcare, Celesio, Sinopharm, Accredo, Shanghai Pharma, Anda, Jointown, Max Pharma, Avella. Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Oncology, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Hemophilia. Market segment by Application, split into Retail, Home Health, Clinics, Pharmacies. Market segment by Regions / Countries, this report covers UnitedStates, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, Central & South America. Access the Report and Full TOC @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/33846-specialty-drug-distribution-industry-market-report Table of Contents-Snapshot 1 Study Coverage 2 Executive Summary 3 Market Size by Manufacturers 4 Double Winding Transformers Production by Regions 5 Double Winding Transformers 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, RisksandInfluences Factors Analysis 13 Key Findings in the Global Double Winding Transformers Study 14 Appendix About Us: DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research report provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research Reports, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains. Our expert research analysts have been trained to map client's research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed. For More Details: DecisionDatabases.com E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com Phone: + 91-90-28-057900 Web: www.decisiondatabases.com/ Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Veterinary Practice Management Software Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2013-2017 and Forecast 2018-2024 Global industrial statistics of Veterinary practice management software market The global veterinary practice management software market is segmented on the basis of delivery type, by animal, by end users and geographical regions. The global active pharmaceutical ingredients market is expected to reach XX USD Mn by 2024 with a growing CAGR of XX% from 2018 to 2024 The report covers in-detail insights about the competitors overview, key findings and their key strategies In addition, the market report includes regulatory scenario, and competition analysis with vividly illustrated the competition dashboard to assess the market competition. Free sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-veterinary-practice-management-software-market/#ulp-4H8Z4LpNMLEuOnnx Increasing number of firms providing animal healthcare software in order to offer better management, increased adoption of veterinary software services is expected to fuel the market. Innovative technologies and expanded applications to the veterinary healthcare are anticipated to create lucrative opportunities. The global veterinary practice management software market is divided into following categories- 1. By Delivery Type Cloud Based Web Based Others 2. By Animal Small animal Large animal Others 3. End-users Veterinary Hospitals Veterinary Clinics Others 4. Geography North America Europe Asia-Pacific The Middle East & Africa Latin America U.S. veterinary practice management software market is accounted for significant regional revenue share due to the surge in adoption of the companion animal. North America has expected to account for major revenue share of global veterinary practice management software market. Veterinary healthcare providers are inclining towards innovative software solutions to offer better disease management, customer relationship management. UK, Germany are cumulatively contributed significant market share in Europe. Free TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-veterinary-practice-management-software-market/#ulp-c654SbFYO64MsOhu Improved veterinary healthcare infrastructure, increased adoption of advanced technologies in veterinary clinics and hospitals are expected to accelerate the market share in future. Increased pet adoption, rising disposable income in China create healthy opportunities. Emerging nations India, Mexico are expected to offer growth opportunities for global veterinary practice management software market. Some of the key players profiles in the global veterinary practice management software market include Vet Space Ltd. (UK), Computer Fanatics Limited (New Zealand), IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), Patterson Companies, Inc. (U.S.), Henry Schein, Inc. (U.S.), ezyVET Limited (New Zealand), Onward Systems Inc. (U.S.), Alisvet & InformaVet Inc. (Canada), Eclipse Veterinary Software Ltd (UK), Animal Intelligence Software, Inc. (U.S.), Hippo Manager Software, Inc. (U.S.), Timeless Veterinary Systems, Inc. (Canada), InformaVet Inc. (U.S.) Need more information about this report @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-veterinary-practice-management-software-market/#ulp-14mlyhjMGhVjZqa3 Key Questions Answered What is the current and future veterinary practice management software market outlook worldwide? What trends are affecting the global market? What is the competitive landscape and market share of major players in the veterinary practice management software globally? What are the key, high growth markets that veterinary practice management software manufacturers should expand into? Which market segments are growing the fastest? What are the unmet needs with the veterinary practice management software currently on the market? How will emerging technologies fulfil these unmet needs? What is physician perception and market outlook of veterinary practice management software? What are the challenges and barriers that have hindered widespread adoption of veterinary practice management software? Reasons to buy veterinary practice management software market Report: Global, regional and country-level analysis and forecasts of the study market; providing Insights on the geographical areas in which this industry is prospering Segment-level analysis on basis of product type, application, colour along with market size forecasts and y-o-y estimations to detect key areas of industry growth in detail Identification of key drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges (DROC) in the market and their impact on shifting market dynamics Study of macro and micro environmental factors that affect the market presented in an extensive strategic analyses section containing PESTLE and Porters Five Forces Analyses A comprehensive listing of key market players along with company overview, product portfolios, key financial information (subjected to availability), SWOT analysis and Analyst overview to study and sustain the market environment Competitive landscape analysis listing out the mergers, acquisitions, collaborations in the field along with new product launches, comparative financial studies and recent developments in the market by the major companies Expertly devised Market Outlook along with Investment opportunities to provide both individuals and organizations a strong financial foothold in the market Get access to full summary @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-veterinary-practice-management-software-market/ About Precision Business Insights Precision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs. Contact to Precision Business Insights, Kemp House, 152 160 City Road, London EC1V 2NX Email: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.com Toll Free (US):+1-866-598-1553 Website @https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.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. The world might feel like an ongoing dumpster fire right now, but we can seek solace in one thing: At least the weirdos in Hollywood are doing even worse. Sex scandals, embarrassing foul-ups, mustaches getting in the way of major productions ... it's never been this bad in Tinseltown before. Except, you know, for all the other times when those exact things happened. 5 Announcing The Wrong Winner At The Oscars Is Almost As Old As The Oscars Themselves Back in 2017, the dignity of Hollywood's biggest annual self-congratulatory awards ceremony was soiled forever when some Twitter-loving goofball handed Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope, causing them to announce the wrong Best Picture winner. Will society ever recover? Will we ever learn to trust, nay, love again? Yeah, probably, because it's not the first time this has happened. In 1933, for instance, Will Rogers announced the winner of the award for Best Director by saying, "Come on up and get it, Frank" -- a message intended for shoo-in winner Frank Lloyd. Unfortunately, Rogers forgot that famed director Frank Capra was also 1) in the audience, and 2) nominated in that exact category. Both Capra and Lloyd stood up and started making their way toward the stage until an announcer clarified who the real winner was. It was a retreat so traumatic for Capra that we wouldn't be surprised to learn it inspired the attempted suicide in It's A Wonderful Life. Continue Reading Below Advertisement This has prompted none other than Texas director (and erstwhile Alex Jones acquaintance) Richard Linklater to direct an attack ad on Cruz. In the ad -- which was not OK'd by O'Rourke, but was paid for by the straightforwardly named Fire Ted Cruz super PAC -- actor Sonny Carl Davis reprises his role as the straight-shooting townsperson from 2011's Bernie, the Linklater biopic in which Jack Black plays Texas' most lovable real-life murderer. Davis wants to set the record straight on Cruz -- and by setting the record straight, we mean simply remind people that "Tough as Texas" Cruz is currently toadying up to a president who called his wife "a dog" and his father JFK's murderer. According to Davis and Linklater, a real tough Texan would "drag their ass out by the woodshed and kick their ass, Ted." It's a pretty shocking ad, mostly because no one ever expected Linklater to ever release a sequel to something in less than a full decade. Continue Reading Below Advertisement This isn't the first attempt Linklater has made to use his artistic awkwardness for political purposes (he made a PSA opposing Texas' discriminatory transgender "bathroom bill" in 2017), but it's not often that an A-list director makes a targeted attack ad against a political candidate. And that opens a wonderful realm of opportunities. Just imagine a world wherein all campaign ads are expertly crafted by Hollywood auteurs. Scorsese could reframe the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh in the style of Goodfellas, while the Democratic National Committee is just the right blend of ineptitude and sadness for a Coen brothers dark comedy. The sons of the former strongman along with several buddies visited the book fair in the city the other day. The first stall the Diyawanna son was to visit was that of his Sinhala language teacher. And he bought a book and got it autographed by the teacher. He spent some time at this stall recalling humorous incidents dating back to his school days and sharing jokes with his buddies. The next stall the Diyawanna son was to visit with his buddies was that of the varsity don, who once fought shoulder to shoulder with the late Maduluwawe Sobhita Maha Thera to usher in a Just Society. The varsity don warmly welcomed the Diyawanna son of the political leader, who was the main target of attack of the movement he spearheaded along with the late Thera in its heyday and holding his hand said: Looking back, I feel theres justification for certain things your father had done! Thereafter, he launched a scathing attack on certain political leaders and some of the charges he made are too sensitive to put into print, they say. Once a brilliant student of Monash University now bedridden in the prime of youth W. Nawarathna attending to Harshani Pix Sumudu Hewapathirana On the second day after her return she began to shiver in pain while lying on her back Studious playful, healthy and pretty during her schooldays, Harshani Kumari Nawarathna today spends her life confined to a bed since her arrival in the country in 2005 after studying in Monash University in Australia. She was doing her undergraduate studies in Australia successfully for years till she noticed some abnormality, first in her hand which later developed over the body, with time. She was born in 1981 as the daughter of W. Nawarathna (Her father) and Jayanthi Perera (her mother). She received her primary education at Homagama Janadipathy Vidyalaya. When she was preparing for the grade 5 Scholarship Examination her father - a police officer- was suffering for sometime from injuries sustained after falling from a storeyed building. Amidst the difficulties befallen on her family, little Harshani was able to succeed at the examination with the guidance of her parents; specially from her ailing father. Later she got admission to Anula Vidyalaya in Nugegoda. Admired as a bright and smart student during her school days in Anula Vidyalaya she was able to obtain 10 A passes at the GCE Ordinary Level Examination. Five foot 6 inch tall Harshani, endowed with leadership skills, was so healthy at the school. She had carried a fellow student, who had collapsed and fell on the ground, in her arms and climbed to third floor of the school building, according to her friends. She had also spent three sleepless days attending to the funeral activities when her grandmother died. These acts show her ability to endure and cope with any difficult situation. She is also an animal lover. She had often carried small biscuit packets to feed the dogs and cats she met on her way to school. Animals too are very responsive to her kindness and showed their gratitude to her. Her dream As a young student Harshani had a dream to become a genetic specialist. Though the Nawarathnas are from a lower middle class family the parents could arrange everything to sent her daughter to Monash University in Australia mortgaging their properties and borrowing from relations and friends. While studying in Australia she was often thoughtful of her parents and never forget to speak to her mother every evening. She even told her mother about the young boys who had shown interest in her. Once her father had asked her to send him a photo of an apple flower. And soon the father received a photo of an apple flower with the verse - Oba apple malak wage - a popular Sinhala song written overleaf. One day when Harshani was a few months away from her final year in the Monash University, she spoke to her mother and told her about some weakness in her body. I dropped my pen and I could not pick it up. I also found the mouse of the computer failing to move as I wished she continued about the abnormalities experienced regarding her body. A few days later she told that she swayed while walking on the street with two friends and leaned against some boys. This was unintentional, but that boy said that I was a foolish girl,she recalled. After the final examination she was preparing to return to Sri Lanka and asked the mother to arrange a Bodhi pooja with the participation of her grandmother to invoke the blessings of Gods. On the second day after her return she began to shiver in pain while lying on her back showing symptoms of epilepsy. Her condition was diagnosed to have been developed as a result of the measles germ contacting the brain cells. Confined to a bed for 13 years Harshani, once a brilliant student, is now bed-ridden and unable to utter a single word and take food naturally. For 13 she has been confined to a bed. Many certificates that tell us about her talents and skills during schooldays lie on a table in her room. Now only liquid food is given to her through tubes and doctors have prescribed two kinds of milk food. One is isogal produced in Germany and the other is Pro gain. Harshanis mother says they do not expect money, but if anyone can provide these milk foods and a hygienic towel for the daughter theyd much appropriate them. Harshanis father, now at the age of seventy, says they endure great mental pressure because of her daughters condition. After my death it would be a heavy burden for my wife to look after the daughter. And it is still worse when thinking of the future of the child after the death of both of us,said her father. He said that they are even ready to donate their house and other properties to any individual or an institute who can assure to secure the future of this child. Donations may be sent to the credit of Account No 1355338- Bank of Ceylon Homagama Branch, W.A.H.K. Nawarathna, No. 25, Pragathi Mawatha, Homagama Naresh Krishnan, Head of Marketing and Traffic Ops Daraz Sri Lanka With a mere 1% of the retail market, online retail is a high potential industry in countries of the South Asian region. Introducing the technology and knowledge to countries such as Sri Lanka has always been a challenge, as a result of varying barriers such as infrastructure, logistics and finance. At the event of completing 2 years since inception in Sri Lanka, Naresh Krishnan Head of Marketing and Traffic Ops of Daraz Sri Lanka spoke about how the online retail platform has been revolutionized and the many enabling systems that have been introduced, for sellers and buyers alike. According to Naresh, the online retail industry has undergone remarkable change over the past 2 years, with FMCG giants beginning to use the platform in large scale. The trend is a global shift as one sees all major brands investing more on online retail, as they see where the future lies. Sri Lanka too is fast absorbing the tendency where one sees many FMCG, mobile, automobile, health and beauty, and electronic brands increasing their online presence. The wide range of brands accessible on Daraz.lk is evidence enough for this growing trend. With our success in sales such as Black Friday, we saw a leap in the number of merchants, from well-known brands wanting to join us. They have realized that online retail allows them to engage with their customers better. This has been a boost for the platform, and as a result we have been constantly trying to empower them more by introducing new systems, stated Naresh. Accordingly, as Daraz Turns 2, the company introduced an upscale seller system which enables the sellers to build their own brand. Daraz has developed a Smart Selling system, which breaks away from the traditional listing of a product on the platform under several categories. Through this merchants on Daraz receive their own store which can be designed according to their preference and used as their website to which other digital platforms can be connected and the traffic directed to it. As Daraz takes care of the infrastructure, logistics and customer care, the seller can concentrate on building the brand. In addition, sellers can create their own sales, vouchers and promotions. The Seller App which will be launched in the near future will enable sellers to monitor their sales in real-time and on the go, providing more selling opportunities. Apart from focusing on the direct selling facilities, Daraz has also concentrated on enhancing the support service for a seamless process. The company has developed their own logistics arm with its own fleet to ensure timely distribution. In addition to a warehouse in Kelaniya, Daraz also owns a sorting center in Armour Street. 11 Daraz hubs in key towns in the island ensure the widespread reach, as the hubs have their own teams including a customer service agent, store manager and logistics wing. With these systems in place, sellers are ensured of speedy and safe delivery to their customers. The internal support system also includes a separate Seller Support team which exclusively addresses issues of the merchants. We at Daraz are very ambitious. We are preparing ourselves for the future market while serving at the present. Therefore our goal is not to only increase traffic to the platform and sell, but also ensure that a reliable system is put to place, commented Naresh. The Daraz Seller University is an initiative no other platform has created for local merchants. This includes the Seller Self Sign-up system which enables merchants to sign up digitally without the hassle of manual documentation or personally meeting agents from Daraz. The University consists of an online course for merchants, which on completion ensures that they are able to use the whole system efficiently; from effective selling to creating promotions, store branding, packaging your product, dispatching and payment collection. As a result Daraz has around 20 30 sellers signing up on a daily basis. Naresh further stated, Operating in 5 countries in the South Asian region, Daraz is one of the biggest players in the market. With our affiliation to Alibaba, we have further developed our technology and know-how, which we are keen to bring to Sri Lanka. We have seen an amazing response from the local merchants, as they are interested to learn and try out the new systems. Within a few days of the launch they were building their own stores, and creating their own promotions. This is what we want to see happening and we do our best to create a platform that is efficient and enabling for sellers. We are eager to see these systems falling to place as Daraz Turns 2. All these systems were launched alongside the 2nd anniversary and is a smaller stepping stone to the next big campaign that Daraz will be introducing to Sri Lanka; 11/11. Also known as the Singles Day, 11/11 is one of the worlds biggest online sales, surpassing Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Sri Lanka will be fortunate to experience 11/11 for the very first time through Daraz. While the debate whether the government should go ahead with the Grade 5 scholarship exam continues another set of young candidates, mostly from not so prestigious schools, has emerged top rankers at this years exam as well. Interestingly five of the ten top slots, including a first place for which there was a tie, went to a relatively unknown school in the Kesbewa electorate. For the past decade or so Somaweera Chandrasiri Primary School in Piliyandala has been churning out Grade 5 Scholarship winners at a rate that it can give the so called prestigious Colombo schools a run for their money. Unknown to many tens of thousands of parents struggle to get their children enrolled at Somaweera Chandrasiri Primary School for grade 1 every year. Largely owing to a team of dedicated staff this peripheral school in the Colombo district has been performing a miracle of sorts for years and one hopes that the Ministry of Education makes a note of that. Besides once again proving the fact Gampaha is giving a tough competition to Colombo as a seat of primary education two candidates from Gampaha have got first and second slots while none of the so-called prestigious schools has got any. Its also heartening to witness the rise in the numbers of the northern and eastern students who clinch top slots. Jaffna Hindu College continues to shine with a student of its primary school emerging second tied with a candidate from Reggie Ranatunga Primary School Minuwangoda. Besides, students from small towns like Tellippallai in Jaffna and Nelukkulam in Vavuniya too have fared exceptionally well. For the bulk of nearly 15,000 young candidates who got through the exam this is the only opportunity they get to join a school in their provincial capitals or Colombo before the O/Ls. Given the disparities in the standards of education between the village schools and the city ones from grade 6 onward, these young achievers hardly have a choice in the matter. While the winners are feted its difficult to forget the fact that the results have given heartache to another nearly 285,000 of ten year olds who could not get through the exam. Besides, the tortuous path trodden by both the winners and losers for nearly three years is certainly not something that these youngsters deserve to walk on at that tender age. Psychiatrists and many others have already protested against the decision to continue with the examination. Education Minister AkilaViraj Kariyawasam is on record that he would take a decision on the exam next year. Several countries in the world have done away with challenging exams such as GCE O/L and Grade 5 scholarship exams which impose a mental pressure on the students and parents as well. We have still not decided on anything yet, but a decision would be taken on the two exams after speaking to educationists, Minister Kariyawasam has reportedly said. However still theres no guarantee that the minister would do away with the exam as for majority of students especially those in outstation schools this is the sole opportunity they get to get enrolled at a leading school in a city before the O/Ls. One may well argue that government should improve the standards of the outstation schools before taking such a decision. While that is not something thats going to happen in the near future it is also not ethical to subjecting a batch of nearly 300,000 ten-year-olds every year to this harassment. Talking of fuel price formula was becoming immaterial as oil prices could go up to $ 90 a barrel in the near future as a result of the global economic crisis, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament today. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, who was responding to a question raised by Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake, said some countries believed that the price of oil could go up to $90 a barrel as a result of the global economic crisis. Some countries believe that the price of oil could go up to $90 a barrel by November, with the US economic sanctions on Iran, he said. Such a price hike could take place if the stocks of oil that the market could lose as a result of the sanctions, cannot be filled by other means, he said. I discussed this matter with the UK and Norway during my visit and they said things were uncertain. Therefore, what we should consider is how to face this global situation. We need to focus on this matter, not about price formula, Mr Wickremesinghe said. What we should focus on is how to face the global economic issues and ensure concessions to people, he added. He said Sri Lanka could be affected by the trade war between China and the US as well. Elaborating on the fuel formula, he said it was introduced after receiving the Cabinet nod from May this year. He said the unloading cost, operating cost, pipeline fees, the cost of fuel lost through evaporation, warehouse cost, and commissions given to sales agents, taxes were taken into consideration when deciding the price as per the formula. This Government reduced the prices as soon as it was elected. However the prices have increased due to global developments but the current prices are still less than the price, which prevailed prior to 2015, he added. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardene) A group of civil society leaders including some prominent academics and intellectuals had recently organized a commemorative ceremony in honour of the revered Indian national leader Mahatma Gandhi. They had invited the Yahapalanaya Top Two to grace the occasion as the chief guests. The issuance of a commemorative stamp to honour the great leader too had been arranged for the occasion. The Top Two had readily accepted the invitation. However, one of them had a few days later informed the organizers of the inability to attend the function giving no reason. The highly disconcerted organizers had made indiscreet inquiries as to why one of them declined to attend the function. And they had learnt that he had confided the reason to his intimates: Why should I attend this function if the other leader too is attending it as a chief guest? Now that they knew the reason, they found a solution to get both leaders to attend the event. They had organized two separate functions on the same day to mark the same event. And while one of the Top Two attended one function as the chief guest, the other attended the other function in the same capacity! Those who are in the know of this story pose the question: How can two leaders unwilling to appear on the same stage together, rule a country together? Subramaniam Swamy, a stalwart of Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in an email interview with Daily Mirror, speaks about India- Sri Lanka ties . Swamy, a Harvard-educated economist, recently invited former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to address a seminar in New Delhi. He is an ardent critic of the LTTE. The Excerpts: Trincomalee is one of the worlds natural harbours/ports Citizens of N/E should regard themselves as Sri Lankans first and Tamils afterwards just as Sinhalese should Q How do you analyze the current status of Indo-Sri Lanka relations? Friendly, but not as partners. Q There is perception here that India, under the current government, played a major role in installing the current government. What is your view on this? No doubt, perception is widespread but nothing concrete as evidence that has emerged. We cannot decide on perception. Q Under the current geopolitical developments, how should Indo- Lanka relations be shaped? There should be a comprehensive Indo-Sri Lanka Friendship Treaty covering strategic threats and joint responses. Q India looks paranoid about Sri Lankas engagement with China even on commercial projects, and particularly, the Indian media sounds alarm in this regard all the time. Sri Lanka has joined hands with Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. How do you look at the whole picture? China is also located across our borders and hence both our countries must have mutually beneficial relations with China. Also trade with China is mutually beneficial for which we need good relations. China is also located across our borders and hence both our countries must have mutually beneficial relations with China. Also trade with China is mutually beneficial for which we need good relations Q India is interested to invest in Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm. What is the strategic importance of it for India? None. Trincomalee is one of the worlds natural harbours/ports, and hence, any country with global reach in the neighbourhood of South India would be interested in it. It is for Sri Lanka to decide as to which country to give access to this port. Q Geopolitically, India is allied with the US, Japan and the west as far as maritime order in the Indian Ocean is concerned. India and China are the largest growing economic powerhouses in the world. How beneficial is it for the two countries to cooperate with each other in this aspect? India is not allied to the US. Geographically India is far away from US. But the latter shares values of democracy and competitive market system with the US. We also admire American technological progress and thus want transfer of technology and innovation culture from US. We have six million people of Indian origin domicile in US and are prosperous. But China is culturally closer to India and we share common concerns on growth and environment. Q When it comes to Indo-Lankan ties, a political solution to the problem in the north and the east takes the centre-stage. From your point of view, how important is it to resolve the crisis? According to me, and as former President Rajapaksa has said, Indians and Sri Lankans are relatives. We must learn to live as one family. We in India admire Sri Lankans under his leadership for your tenacity in wiping out the treacherous LTTE. In this case, not only you secured your national security but also of India. It is for your government to find ways to establish harmony. North and East Sri Lanka citizens should regard themselves as Sri Lankans first and Tamils afterwards just as Sinhalese should. Q What is your analysis on the current validity of Indo-Lanka Accord that provided for the establishment of the provincial councils here? The Indo-Lanka Accord has outlived its utility. All that remains is formation of provincial councils and adoption of a unitary Constitution with subsidiary federal principals (for example as it is in India). Q What is your assessment of the strength of the main parties in Tamil Nadu now, as far as the issues relating to Sri Lanka are concerned? Anti-Sinhala and Tamil separatist movement in Tamil Nadu has fizzled out. One example is the non-existent protests and demonstrations when Mahinda Rajapaksa was in India recently. India is not allied to US but shares values of democracy Q How do you assess the meeting between former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Indian PM Narendra Modi? Very cordial and fruitful. They talked alone. So I dont know anything beyond that. Q Any idea about the duration of that meeting... Unable to comment. Nevertheless, we are all happy that former President Rajapaksa came to India. We want more leaders to come and address public meetings here. For the first time in Sri Lankas history two Physiotherapists, Dr. Sujeewa Weerasinghe and Sanjeewa Thunpaththu, have been named in the scientific committee of the International Conference of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy 3WCPT). The conference is to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2019. Dr. Weerasinghe is currently functioning as the Executive Director of the Physiolife Care Physiotherapy Institute. His invention of novel physiotherapy techniques and outcome measures have been recognised by the international experts in physiotherapy. He has immensely contributed to popularise physiotherapy in Sri Lanka through various activities. Thunpaththu is currently working as the chief physiotherapist at the department of cardiothoracic intensive care of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. He has greatly contributed to the national and international physiotherapy conferences through various responsibilities including keynote speaker, chair etc. During the tenure at the scientific committee they will provide their expertise to review the abstracts submitted for possible presentation at WCPT Congress by physiotherapy clinicians, academics and researchers around the world, a process critical to delivering high quality presentations at congress. This selection has been based on their expertise in the field of physiotherapy and contribution to the development of the profession nationally and internationally through, practice, research and education development activities. Further to this selection their names have been listed in the WCPT database of experts, a database of people who identified to provide their services to develop the physical therapy profession internationally and they are the only Sri Lankan physiotherapists whose names have been listed in this expert group. It is highly unlikely that any member would leave power for a coming administration Any idiot can face a crisis - its day to day living that wears you out. - ~Anton Chekhov Those who are greedily awaiting the comeback of the Rajapaksas are intensely engaged in this campaign- one of gossip and rumour-mongering. Their wish that the current Parliament led by the United National Party (UNP) could be defeated by this method or that has gained currency at many a quarter, especially amongst the Colombo-based commission-traders, whose only ambition is to facilitate a return of the Rajapaksas to the office. These ugly and avaricious merchants of political power seek no limits; they seem to be answerable to no one; their thirst for illegitimate commissions and ill-gotten money is unquenchable and the insatiable desire of the fairer gender of this commission-cabal has overtaken the commonsensical pursuit of a place in the sun among the elite of Colombo. Their sarees and jewellery purchased in the Indian marketplace cannot be left to gather dust. Attendance at the various cocktail parties hosted by the Rajapaksa allies is a must for that obscene ride to the top of the elite. In order to topple the current coalition Government, crossover of a sizeable number of UNP Parliamentarians is indispensable; in the context of Ranil Wickremesinghes unchallenged leadership in the Party, it is unthinkable that, leave alone a sizeable number, a possibility of even one single Parliamentarian crossing over is far too remote. If there is one political party that is united today it is the United National Party; it is not owing to the genius of its leader but due to the fact that what is in power is a UNP-led Government. It is never or highly unlikely that any member of the Government would leave power in search of or a mirage of position in a coming administration. It doesnt happen, period. Most of these pundits and so-called intelligentsia do not understand that simple truth; political power is enormously attractive and its aphrodisiacal powers are unmatchable. There is only one incident in our post-independence history that a number of parliamentarians crossed over from government ranks and joined the then Opposition and that was in 1964 when C P de Silva and some of his SLFP-clan did the political somersault. As was related to this writer by J. R. Jayewardene himself, the architect of that political coup de grace, the only concession C. P. de Silva demanded from Dudley/JR duo was that his crossover would result in the toppling of the then Sirimavo-led SLFP Government. And it did happen. Therefore, in the absence of such a defection of UNP Parliamentarians from the Party, it is inconceivable even to theorize that the dream of the Joint Opposition (JO) could come true. Much trust and faith have been placed on Basil Rajapaksa, the younger brother of Mahinda, to negotiate a deal between the parties. Basil, whose interest in politics had been sparked by his one-time close associate Anura Bandaranaike, when both were young. Basils performance as the virtual second-in-command in the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, has come into question since the fall of that regime in 2015. His reputation now is one of suspect, to say the least. Being in charge of allegedly uncountable and unaccountable stash of cash, he, during the 2015 Presidential Election campaign, had apparently attempted to literally purchase the votes of an unsuspecting public. And he failed. Once again, it is he who is supposed to have come forward to negotiate a deal between the opposing parties. What is even more astonishing than anything else is the inclusion of President Maithripala Sirisena as a piece in the proverbial political chess game. Whether President Maithripala Sirisena would willingly take part in such a diabolical political dynamic is anybodys guess. What seems to have left the curious minds of all those who are grossly engaged in the current stream of politics is Sirisenas pledge at the time he took oaths as the new President of Sri Lanka on January 9, 2015, that his Presidency would be limited to one term. As was reported in the breaking news at the time, newly elected President Maithripala Sirisena says he will not contest for another term. Addressing the nation soon after being sworn in as the sixth President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena vouched he had no intention to run for a Presidential Election for the second time at the end of his first term. We are notorious for having rather a very short memory; what is broadcast from atop a political platform is, more often than not, considered frivolous and short-lived. Yet at a time when one dictatorial President, who Mahinda Rajapaksa was, was dethroned and a new Master is enthroned, the people would undoubtedly take the term of office as one of a grave character, not only of the nature of the pledge, but more so of the man who is making such a pledge. It is still not officially known whether Maithripala Sirisena has any intention of offering himself as a candidate at the forthcoming Presidential Election in 2020. But what we must essentially bear in mind is the corrupting character of the institution of political power. Political power, among its debasing features, has the total capacity to corrupt its holder beyond all imagination. The political power, as much as its capacity for corrupting its holders, also has that intrinsic ability to being an obsessive charm of luxurious life; its glories have been penned and stored in history books so that the readers themselves get glued to its riveting nuances and society-changing appeals. However, to place Maithripala Sirisena among such dregs of politics is a disservice to the man. With all his shortcomings, one cannot discard his simplicity in character and be ever ready to be identified with the commoner, Maithripala Sirisena, in fact, is a blessing that befell our nation in 2015. The fastened bond that put President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe together has apparently loosened and its not too late to bond them once again. Yet, what must be emphasized is the term of office President Sirisena talked about in the wake of his being sworn in on 2015 January 9 as the new President of Sri Lanka. But if President Sirisena has changed his mind about the term of office, due to whatever reason, it is his responsibility and burdensome duty to declare it to the country with valid and legitimate arguments. If such arguments are forthcoming and they appear to be authentic and credible, then its up to the electorate firstly and the coalition partners secondly, to accept or reject those arguments. Keeping the whole electorate in limbo is neither favourable to the current political equilibrium nor is it acceptable in a real sense of morality and ethics. Taken in such a dubious context of political uncertainty, the rumoured discussions among the trio of Sirisena and Rajapaksa brothers do matter. It affects the marketplace badly. The most effective way of affecting the economy of the country, especially its equity market, is this lingering uncertainty among its key players. It seems to have had its repercussions; coupled with the depreciation of the rupee, our currency, the ballooning prices of essential commodities, this uncertainty needs to be exiled in a hurry. If not, the worst material conditions to follow, would result in a crisis the current administration doesnt look to be equipped to handle. Ranil Wickremesinghe, with all his reputation and experience in governance, seems to have lost his grip on priorities. His abject failure to be realistic and down-to-earth is being exploited to the fullest by the JO and its chief propagandists. What is even more appalling is Wickremesinghes failure to be decisive when it is of crucial significance. His failure to recognize the enormity of the ramifications of the infamous Bond-Scam has had its ill effects running to the core of the United National Party. What could have been nipped in the bud by asking the responsible parties to leave their respective offices, such as Governor of the Central Bank and the Minister of Finance is now coming to haunt not only Ranil Wickremesinghe himself, it is affecting the UNP and its parliamentarians in a thoroughly adverse way. Dwelling on what has happened is of zero value unless one learns the lessons it teaches us. The UNP and its leadership seem to have lost their way down in the middle of their governing stretch. Political power, as was repeatedly enunciated in this column itself, is a maddening dose that could either cleanse the whole system or act like an obsessive drug that can destroy very adventurous cells in a body. Right throughout history, its destructive powers have shown their ugly way. It has produced such cruel leaders as Hitler, Stalin and Idi Amin, to mention a very few in our post-industrial revolution times. Although Ceylon has not had the misfortune of being cursed by such demonic leaders, we have also not been blessed with truly great ones whose moral compass had not been broken. The real tragedy is not realizing the nuanced characteristics of our own history and trying to follow them. The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com The joint opposition (JO) yesterday said it would request the government to release the report on the Sri Lanka and Singapore Foreign Trade Agreement (SLSFTA) compiled by a committee of experts. Addressing a news briefing, JO MP Bandula Gunawardana said they would stop opposing the SL-Singapore FTA if the Expert Committee appointed by the President says the it was not detrimental to Sri Lankan interests. Meanwhile, he said it was unfortunate that neither the President nor the Prime Minister is in Sri Lanka to make important decisions when the country was facing a financial crisis. The Finance Ministry Secretary and Fiscal Policy Directer are also not in the country at the moment. This is a grave situation. The rupee keeps depreciating and we just keep on blaming the US, Gunawardana said. He said the foreigners have pulled out USD 193 million worth of funds invested in bonds as a result of the Central Bank bond scam. In addition, the government has released USD 1,090 billion invested in the Stock Exchange to the market in order to stabilise the value of the rupee, he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla) I am a victim of Female Genital Cutting some might want to call it circumcision, I call it Mutilation. Not in the way that the proponents want to depict it as what happens in Africa with horrific scars, but in the way it happened to me in Sri Lanka where there are still scars, tiny, almost unnoticeable, but in all the ways that matter, it has damaged me no less than those horrific scars one talks about in Africa. To those who want to medicalize the procedure, let me say that I was cut by a qualified doctor, in a sterile environment when I was seven years old. I remember that day clearly and it is I who has had to live with the consequence of what was done to me in the name of religion. Not my religious leaders, not my elders and not that doctor ME the women, that child without a voice, grew up to be. Let me now take the arguments Ive heard in support of the procedure and give you my perspective as someone who has first hand experience of the negative impacts of FGC. I will use the term female genital cutting (FGC) since irrespective of what one wants to call it, that is what is done to a lesser or greater degree, depending on who hold the pin, blade or knife. I still havent come across any argument to support as to why the procedure needs to be performed on infants or seven-year-old girls I personally find the very idea of parents allowing strangers access to their daughters private parts for non-medical reasons an extremely discomforting thought Im a Muslim, but I dont believe that God who created me required any MAN or WOMAN to tamper with my body A. Sex lives as Adults. 1. To the women who say that you have better sex lives due to FGC performed on you as a child, I ask you what is your point of reference? Have you had sex with the same partner before and after your FGC to arrive at this conclusion? Have you ever considered the possibility that you have been very lucky, and that whoever performed the FGC on you spared you any real damage? It is also very presumptuous for you to assume that NONE of the billions of uncircumcised women around the world enjoy great sex same as you. 2. To the women who dont have a horrific memory related to their own FGC and who dont understand what all the fuss is about. Let me tell you that neither do I. I dont have any horrific memories of that day when I was seven years old. My Mom who accompanied me held me gently, the doctor looked very professional and it was over before I knew what was being done. I felt a pinch, no bleeding that I can remember just some cotton wool that smelled of antiseptic placed there after I was cut. And I walked out, in discomfort, confused but definitely not traumatized. It was as an adult that I realized the impact of what was done to me. I feel pain during intercourse. Most of you who have been through FGC may not. But does that mean you are not damaged? Have you ever considered the fact that intercourse is supposed to be more than just pleasant? or something you put up with when your husband feels so inclined? In my case, I have been examined by a doctor who has seen the tiny scars and helped me understand the impact of those scars on my ability to enjoy sex. Initially I wondered whether I was a mere unfortunate mistake by this doctor I have since then come across stories of others who were cut by the same and other doctors who share similar tales. So no, I was not an unfortunate accident the doctor and others like him/her knew exactly what they were doing and did it nonetheless. B. The need to perform the procedure on a child. All the literature shared by the supporters of this practice alludes to adult women enjoying their sex lives. I still havent come across any argument to support as to why the procedure needs to be performed on infants or seven-year-old girls who have a long way to go before they are sexually active. So, what is effectively being promoted is in fact sexualizing children. News flash - These organs dont stay dormant and get activated only when one gets married. I personally find the very idea of parents allowing strangers access to their daughters private parts for non-medical reasons and letting them alter her genitals, an extremely discomforting thought. Im more inclined to believe that in their heart of hearts they know that they are in fact desexualizing her. Wanting to keep her pure and innocent until she could be given away. No thought giving to the fact that she then has to live with a damaged body and fulfil marital obligations that she may not enjoy as much in their effort to keep her pure and innocent until she was given away. C. The Religious Argument There are two aspects to this debate 1. Who decides on ones religious belief? the individual or the individuals parent? Yes, the parents would bring up the child within the religious norms they follow and yes in most cases the child would continue with that belief till the end, but this is not a certainty. Hence how do you justify altering a childs body, without any medical need, to be in alignment with the parents religious belief when that child is yet to determine what path she would take or which God she will follow once she has learned enough to make that decision? As for me, Im a Muslim, but I dont believe that the God who created me required any MAN or WOMAN to tamper with my body, with a presumption that they can make it better. I believe the Quran, when it says that all of Gods creations are perfect. I wont let any MAN or WOMAN tell me otherwise. But my body has been altered irrevocably its no longer the way God created it to be. My body is now in conflict with MY religious beliefs it has ended up representing the beliefs of others and not mine. 2. This is not a belief shared by all Muslims across the world Much debate exists within the Muslim world as to whether FGC is even required under Islam. There is no evidence of it being required by the Prophet of his household or being carried out on his daughter/s. The very fact that it is much debated within the Muslim world with many concluding it as not obligatory and in some cases even dissuading the practice, should lend itself to introspection among those who support it in Sri Lanka - as to whether this is a fight that really needs to be fought or whether one should focus on the greater good protection of the rights of the girl child a true gift from God. D. Responsibility of the State The questions the State need to keep at the forefront when deciding on the way forward on the issue are: 1. Isnt it the responsibility of the State to protect the girl child from any move to sexualize or desexualize her, specially by religious leaders and male proponents who should never be allowed to speak on this matter which is a womens issue even if religious.? 2. Isnt it the responsibility of the State to dissuade elders from altering the body of a child for non-medical reasons? 3. Isnt it the responsibility of the State to prevent anyone from stamping their religious conviction on a childs body, when she is yet to decide on her own religious convictions? In other words protecting the right of the INDIVIDUAL to their religious freedom foremost. The response cannot be anything other than affirmative on all three questions posed above. Yes, it is the responsibility of the State, at least until she is an adult and can take all these decisions for herself depending on HER body, HER preference and HER religious convictions. The writer remains anonymous It is common for companies to organize various informal events where workers can come with their partners. One of those... When politicians don't have anything to say about issues that will appeal to voters they go negative in the hope that they will disgust voters enough to discourage election day participation. That's what the GOP is doing now. They read the same polls the rest of us do and they know the only way to win is to keep Democrats and independents away from the voting booth next month. Evennoted that the ads they're running are ugly distortions of reality . They're not meant to change any minds... just to create confusion, apprehension and disgust so that people don't want to vote. Paul Ryan's SuperPAC alone has poured an unbelievable $3 million into a smear campaign against Randy Bryce in Wisconsin hoping to persuade workers and women not to vote. Earlier this morning Randy Bryce reminded us that Bernie and his policy agenda are extremely popular in his corner of Wisconsin. "He won 71 out of 72 precincts in the 2016 primary election. Both events he did with me packed the venues to capacity on opposite sides of the district. Having been endorsed early by Senator Sanders has been a huge help. Republicans think that the progressive ideals both of us fight to advance are 'radical.' If making sure people can see a doctor is radical or, if promising not to make cuts to Social Security is 'far left' Ill take that title. It just shows how out of touch these extremist Republicans really are." And that's a good description of how the Republicans are trying to turn the world topsy-turvy. Paul Ryan disparages Medicare-For-All supporters as off the rails , counting on voters not remembering that he has-- for a decade-- tried to dissolve Medicaid and Medicare and whittle away at Social Security. Ryan, using the talking points all Republican have been using, blasted Democrats this week: "Democrats propose to abolish our health-care system as we know it. And it is the best representation of how far todays Democratic Party has gone off the rails... Everyone-- no matter how much you like your plan-- would have their plan taken away. The only way to control costs would be to ration care, and restrict access to doctors and treatments. All of these decisions would be made in Washington." None of that is true, but it doesn't stop GOP robots-- from Bruce Poliquin in Maine to Cathy McMorris Rodgers in Washington state-- from parroting the same frightening-sounding bullshit in their ads. Here's how Poliquin's progressive Democratic challenger, Jared Golden, threw Poliquin's lies right back in his face. And, by the way, the healthcare lie is far from the only way the Republicans are bullshitting the voters. Democratic House candidate Jason Crow received a Bronze Star for heroism in Iraq and a lawyer of the year award for his veterans advocacy. But according to his GOP adversaries, he has neglected Colorado veterans. Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger spent nearly a decade fighting terrorists as an undercover CIA officer. But to hear Republicans tell it, she harbors terrorist sympathies. Attacks ads have always been a staple of campaign season. But Republicans have twisted facts in some ads to an extraordinary degree as they fight to save their House majority, weaving narratives about Democratic candidates that are misleading at best-- or blatantly false at worst. In several ads, military vets-- who count as some of Democrats' best recruits to defeat sitting Republicans this year-- have had their patriotism called into question. One spot insinuates that Spanberger, who is challenging Rep. Dave Brats (R-VA), has ties to extremists because she taught at a Saudi Arabian-funded Muslim school where two infamous terrorists once attended. The CIA not only knew about the job, but later hired Spanberger and employed her for eight years. Democrats say the spots, aired mostly by the outside GOP super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and the National Republican Congressional Committee, smack of desperation. In some cases, local Republicans, religious leaders and newspaper editorial boards have have denounced the attacks. The aggressive tactics highlight a party grappling to save its majority. Many of the Democrats who've come under attack have short or nonexistent records in political office, leaving Republicans to pick over their personal lives for any scraps to use against them. Republicans are having a heck of a time right now, and theyre just looking to attack anywhere they think they might be able to.... throwing whatever they have at the wall to see what sticks, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) told reporters at a Bloomberg breakfast last week, calling the attacks smears. Targets of the ads have called for them to be taken down, and spent time and resources trying to rebut the claims. Republicans involved in making the ads say that's exactly their intention: to keep Democrats on the defensive. They also argue that Democrats would be doing the same thing if the roles were reversed. "The mere fact that Democrats are complaining about CLF ads speaks to the effectiveness of the ads and the degree to which its taken Democratic candidates in key races off their message," CLF spokeswoman Courtney Alexander said. Democrats argue that the charges have backfired and helped Democratic candidates raise money and gain ground on their Republican rivals. Spanbergers campaign is now in a dead heat with Brat, according to a Sept. 24 internal poll, and raised more money after the terrorist ad launched than she did in the entire first quarter of 2017. Among likely voters, she's up 5 points, her campaigns says. But Republicans say their Terror High ad actually helped reverse Brat's fortunes: They say he now has a narrow lead after being tied with Spanberger in August, according to their polling. realistic polling by Monmouth Both parties, of course, always spend heavily on opposition research to sniff out their opponents weaknesses and flash them before voters. But its one thing to highlight flaws in a candidates record, like Republicans have done with Wisconsin Democrat Randy Bryces drunk driving arrest. Its another to connect dots that arent there. CLFs recent attack on Ohio Democrat Aftab Pureval, for instance, accuses the Indian-Tibetan, first-generation American of aiding his former employer in making millions by helping Libyans reduce payments owed to families of Americans killed by Libyan terrorism. But Pureval wasnt working for the Washington law firm that reached the restitution agreement when it was initially struck. When he did join the firm, Pureval worked on anti-trust litigation, not payments to the families of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie terrorist attack. Not mentioned in the ad was the fact that former President George W. Bush backed the settlement negotiation with Libya-- and that Rep. Steve Chabot, Purevals GOP opponent, did not object when it was approved in the House. Local media called the attack "misleading." And one American family who lost their father in the Libyan attack was so outraged by the video that they reached out to donate to Purevals campaign. My response to the CLF ad involved words that are best not repeated here, Scott Rosen wrote in a letter to Purevals campaign. He was 5 years old when his father, Saul Mark Rosen, was killed in the Lockerbie bombing, leaving his mom to raise two children. The attempt to connect you to the murder of my father was utterly beyond the pale." CLF says the ad has helped Chabot stretch his lead over Pureval, according to their internal polling. But they haven't seen the same results in other races-- particularly in Colorado, where many Republicans believe Rep. Mike Coffman is going to lose. There, CLF portrayed Crow as a willing bystander to the massive Veterans Affairs Department backlog scandal. (The group recently pulled its ads from the district.) Crow sat on the local departments board from 2009 to 2014, and Republicans have highlighted his absence from more than a dozen board meetings to say hes at fault. While veterans suffered from the VA scandal, Crow didnt show up for work, one ad said. Jason Crow neglected Colorado veterans. Crows campaign said his wife was either on bed rest due to pregnancy complications or that theyd had a new baby at the time of the missed meetings. Backlash was swift. Local veterans who know Crow showed up at Coffman's office to protest. Crows campaign highlighted the thousands of pro-bono hours hed dedicated to helping veterans with substance abuse issues, as well as the lawyer of the year award he received in 2010 from the Denver Bar Association for his veterans advocacy. In Spanberger's case, CLF ran a commercial calling attention to her onetime position as a substitute teacher at the Saudi school. Spanberger never worked with the two would-be terrorists, having left the school before it came under congressional scrutiny. She later received a top-secret clearance with the CIA. So dangerous, even Chuck Schumer called for the school to be shut down, the ad nonetheless warns. But Abigail Spanberger cashed her paychecks like nothing was wrong. Some Republican candidates have launched similar attacks impugning the motives or patriotism of their opponents. West Virginia Republican candidate Carol Miller ran a clip of her Democratic rival, Richard Ojeda, saying the United States of America is not the greatest country. One vet in the spot accuses Ojeda, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, of stepping on the graves of every dead soldier. What Ojeda actually said is that U.S. isn't the greatest country because homelessness is rampant, the health care system is lacking and the opioid epidemic has been allowed to fester. Ojeda issued his own ad in response, talking about the names of fallen soldiers tattooed his back. My military record and my love of country has come under fire by Carol Miller, an angry Ojeda said in the video filmed before a veterans memorial. How dare she! A millionaire, who has enjoyed a life of privilege under the very freedoms that I have fought for. In New York, Republicans have accused Democratic hopeful Antonio Delgado of attacking our democracy because the former rapper once sung about finding peace in the Middle East. In the years-old anti-war jam, Delgado, who went on to graduate from Harvard Law School and become a Rhodes Scholar, says God bless America, God bless Iraq, God bless us all. But an NRCC ad highlights only the God bless Iraq line. Delgado is running against vulnerable GOP Rep. John Faso. The party has also hit Delgado for being a big city rapper and not like us , depicting the lawyer wearing a dark hoodie and playing his old rap songs that reference sex and drugs and use of the N word. Nearly 20 local clergy members denounced the attacks for their racial undertones; Delgado is African-American. A local radio station said it recently pulled an ad sponsored by CLF for their inaccuracy. (CLF disputes that the ad was removed, arguing that PAC officials took it down of their own accord.) Even the districts former Republican congressman, Chris Gibson, has expressed discomfort. Shame on you! the religious leaders wrote to Faso, asking him to denounce the ads, which he has not done. This tactic should be called out for what it is, a thinly veiled, racist attack for the purpose of insinuating fear in the voters in our district. Says Sri Lankans dislike to see fellow countrymen succeeding Believes rupee depreciation can be halted by backing local entrepreneurs By Nishel Fernando A highly successful local entrepreneur who made it to the global stage this week urged Sri Lankans not to become dogs in the manger for fellow Sri Lankans who aspire to progress and turnaround the countrys economy. Delivering the keynote speech at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lankas 39th National Conference last Monday, Founder of MillenniumIT, Chairman/CEO of Ustocktrade LLC and Co-Founder/Director of The Cainan Foundation, Tony Weeresinghe said, I say Sri Lankans are brilliant and I proved that by building MillenniumIT. I said we were going to be the best in the world and for three years, and all international brokers voted MillenniumIT trading platform as the best trading platform in the world. I am saying if you give them the opportunity, we will turn this country around. However, he pointed out that the major obstacle in realising this potential is the attitude of Sri Lankans, who dont want fellow countrymen to succeed in their ventures. Illustrating an example he experienced at the Colombo Tea Auction in his younger days, Weeresinghe said, I sat in the auction and what I saw as a young guy surprised me. There was a heated debate for tea. One guy was bidding while the other was over bidding; just the same two guys going on and on and finally one guy won. The guy who won was fuming; I could see hes not happy, though he won the bid. The guy who lost was very happy, I couldnt understand that. So, I went up to him and asked him you were bidding for tea, but you didnt win it; but I see you smiling. And he responded saying that he knew that the other guy had a buyer and he wanted to make sure that person didnt make a profit. Thats the status of the country; it tells everything and we need to change it. If you dont need it, it is okay let someone else make use of it, dont kill it for him, he stressed. Speaking on the recent depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar, which has concerned many, Weeresinghe emphasised that Sri Lankans tend to cling on to problems rather than coming up with solutions. We are very good of being the problem to the problem and then you dont need rocket science to understand it. If you import more than you export, then there is going to be a deficit, he said. He stressed that simply backing local entrepreneurs and firms to earn an additional sum of foreign exchange per annum would solve the current crisis. If 100,000 Sri Lankans can make extra US $ 10,000 per year, thats US $1 billion; if they make US $50,000 per year, thats a US $5 billion. If you help 5,000 companies to do US $10 million, thats US $5 billion. We dont have to sell pieces of our country; we dont have to go a begging aboard, he stressed. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa still has a say in whether the joint opposition should agree to forming a caretaker govt. All hell broke loose in the Government after the news spread that President Maithripala Sirisena met with his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Colombo residence of MP S. B. Dissanayake ostensibly to discuss the formation of a new Government. In this instance, it created rumblings within the United National Party (UNP) which is the main constituent of the national Unity Government. The UNP MPs started harbouring fear whether their Government would be unseated under the developing circumstances. Of course, they have valid reasons to believe so, though. First and foremost, the political relationship between the UNP and President Sirisena has soured beyond redemption at the moment. At such a moment, any communication between the President and the former President definitely fuels speculation that a new political formation is in the making to dislodge the UNP from office at the earliest. It is learned that Dissanayake got a rap from the President for leaking out information Rajapaksa categorically said that there was no reason for him nor his party to take the initiative to form the interim govt. No sooner did the news appear to this effect the UNP backbenchers conducted press conferences to announce that it would opt for the formation of its own Government casting aside the Presidents Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in such an eventuality. UNP MP for the Kurunegala District Thusara Indunil Amarasekara said that his party could rope in six SLFPers to ensure the 113 seats required for the simple majority in Parliament to run the Government in its own. Likewise, the UNP MPs started making subtle salvos at the President for such inclination towards the political opposition. Deputy Minister of Law and Order Nalin Bandara Jayamaha, who is a regular holder of press conferences on behalf of the party, said he hoped the President would not throw his lot behind a cabal of persons who worked against him at the Presidential Elections in 2015. All these are indicative of the UNPs fear that the President would discard them to form a new Government ahead of major elections due next year. Secrecy However, what transpired during the meeting at S.B. Dissanayakes residence is shrouded in secrecy. In fact, the participants themselves did not want it to be leaked to the media that even such a thing happened. Things got out of their hand finally. It is no longer a secret that the meeting took place. It is learned that Dissanayake got a rap from the President for leaking out information to the press in this regard. Against such developments, the MPs, who identify themselves with Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), converged at the residence of its Chairman Prof. G.L. Peiris on Tuesday evening for what they called a frank discussion with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Though the meeting was supposed to commence at 7.00 am, the deliberations really got off at 7.30 pm because some MPs were late to arrive after parliamentary proceedings. The event drew much attention from the media and politically savvy people given the political context in which it took place. Rajapaksa presided over the meeting. In his address, Rajapaksa categorically said that there was no reason for him nor his party to take the initiative to form the interim government, as it was squarely with the President to act upon if he was genuine. He said it should be formally initiated by President Sirisena as the person with authority at the moment. He said the SLPP or the Joint Opposition could respond only in the event of such formal initiative by the President. Until such times, there is nothing for us to do, he said. MR says he cant be intimidated Alongside, he said he could not be intimidated into forming such an alliance by threatening to put his family members behind bars through legal action. Some people say I am going to join the government to cover up legal cases pending against my family members. There are others saying that I seek to join hands with the President fearing electoral defeat otherwise. This is not the case. I cannot be intimidated by any of these acts to join a new alliance, he said. The upshot is that if and when there is an invitation from the President, the SLPP will consider its response. Also, Rajapaksa requested everyone present not to comment on this matter publicly any further as otherwise it could lead to confusion. The participants expressed their views both for political understanding with the President and against it. Responding to them, Rajapaksa said that there was scope for interpretation of it in different ways. There is nothing for us to do now. It has to come from their side, he said. Also, they were to have a meeting with the other parties aligned with the Joint Opposition yesterday evening. For that, it was decided to invite the 15 members who defected from the Government. At the moment, S.B. Dissanayake and a few others were mediating between Rajapaksa and President Sirisena. The Rajapaksa camp is dealing with the subject with skepticism because it believed the President let them down during the vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Meanwhile, Rajapaksa, at Tuesdays meeting, stressed that his MPs should make it a point to maintain quorum in Parliament. Some MPs also expressed views in this regard and stressed the need to take up their parliamentary businesses seriously. At Tuesdays meeting, former Minister Basil Rajapaksa, who spearheads the SLPP, admitted that he met with President Sirisena. He did not elaborate much on what was discussed. He said he requested the President to ensure safety of the members of Rajapaksa family facing threats at the moment. Mahindananda, Keheliya for new Govt, At the meeting, Kandy District MPs Keheliya Rambukwella and Mahindananda Aluthgamage pressed for the need to establish a Government before the elections in understanding with the President. Nevertheless, Kalutara District MP Kumara Welgama was vehemently opposed to any such governing arrangement with the current President. Hambantota District MP Chamal Rajapaksa, who is also the elder brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa, also took a similar stance. To drive home his point effectively, he said people would boot out all of them in the event of forging ties with the current rulers. Ratnapura District MP Ranjith Zoysa was yet another MP who stood against the formation of a Government. Anuradhapura District MP Shehan Semasinghe showed some flexibility in this exercise. He opined that though he was opposed to the idea of forming a Government, he would fall in line with the final decision of Mahinda Rajapaksa. These arguments and counterarguments left Mahinda Rajapaksa in a difficult position in making a decision. Finally, everyone agreed that the Joint Opposition should not commit towards anything unless a formal request is made by the President. All in all, it means the move to form an alternative government remains open. The Office for Reparations Bill passed with amendments in Parliament a short while ago, the Government Information Department said. The Bill was approved by the Cabinet in June to set up the Office for Reparations. The Department Heads of the Rajarata Universitys Medical Faculty have submitted their resignation as a protest against the decision by the Vice Chancellor to stop the retention allowance paid to university teachers, an official said yesterday. Prof. Channa Jayasumana of the Medical Faculty told Daily Mirror there were 14 Department Heads at the university and that this was the first time that such a thing had happened in Sri Lanka. He said the retention allowance had been stopped without any prior notice. The Medical Faculty was inaugurated in 2006 and up to date some 1,200 medical graduates had passed out from this university. (Kelum Bandara) This is with reference to the article titled Female Genital Mutilation by Professor A.H. Sheriffdeen and Dr Ruvaiz Haniffa published in the Daily Mirror of September 28, 2018. With due respect to the learned writers of this article, it must be pointed out in the public interest that there are many fundamental and factual errors in their article. Religious Argument Firstly, this is an issue concerned with the Islamic faith, and as the authors themselves admit: We are not qualified at all to contest the religious scholars on the finality over this heading and we seek their learned guidance. However, towards the end of the article, they have already passed judgement by comparing female circumcision to female infanticide practised during the Jahilliyyah or pre-Islamic days of ignorance. They state: During the times of ignorance before the birth of Islam, as propagated by Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), female children were often killed soon after birth or even buried alive. Female circumcision too was a cultural practice prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia. One of the proud achievements of Islam is the banning and stopping of these barbaric practices. It is highly unethical to state in the first place that one seeks guidance from the religious establishment on this issue and in another place condemn it as an un-Islamic practice. The doctors concerned should ask themselves how Islam totally eliminated the practice of female infanticide but kept the practice of female circumcision to the present day. They also need to ask themselves why every school of Islamic law accepted the fact that female circumcision was Islamic. The only difference of opinion was whether it was obligatory or recommended, with some schools holding to the view it was Wajib (obligatory) and others Sunnah or Mustahhab (recommended). Thus, how could a practice, accepted by all classical scholars of Islam as an Islamic practice be condemned as un-Islamic as concluded by the doctors? They also point out that nowhere in the Quran is female circumcision mentioned. Surely, the doctors, being Muslims, must know that nowhere in the Quran is male circumcision mentioned either They also point out in support of their contention that nowhere in the Quran is female circumcision mentioned. Surely, the doctors, being Muslims, must know that nowhere in the Quran is male circumcision mentioned either. Both male and female circumcision is mentioned in Ahadith or sayings of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and in fact, female circumcision is specifically mentioned more times, in the sayings of the Prophet and in the actions of his closest companions including his wife Ayisha (Peace Be Upon Her) and his son-in-law and third Caliph of Islam Uthman as recorded in Adab Al Mufrad compiled by none other than Imam Bukhari, the greatest compiler of Islams canonical literature known as Ahadith. Besides this, one can point out several errors in the article including the fact that the hadith they cite about the Prophets (Peace Be Upon Him) daughter, that he once looked at his eldest daughter Fatima and tears poured from his eyes and that moment later he had looked at her again and smiled. When questioned as to why he wept and smiled soon after, he had said that a vision had appeared to him of her funeral and that tears had come to his eyes and that soon after a vision had come showing him meeting up with her in paradise, which had brought the smile to his face. The learned doctors think it is relevant to the discussion to show that female circumcision is Islamic. The fact, however, is not only is it totally irrelevant to the discussion, but the hadith cited is a fabricated one. Besides, Fatima (Peace Be Upon Her) was the youngest daughter of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) and not his eldest daughter as claimed by the authors of the article. Even a third grader knows this. It speaks so much of the learned doctors religious knowledge. Medical Argument Now to the medical argument, they have presented to show that the Islamically-prescribed form of female circumcision (removal of the clitoral prepuce known as hoodectomy) has no health benefits. One fundamental error they make is categorizing female circumcision as FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). Surely, they should understand that there is a significant difference between hoodectomy which removes the clitoral hood and FGM which removes the clitoris itself. Hoodectomy is a relatively minor procedure which involves removing the clitoral prepuce to ensure better genital hygiene and enhance womens sex lives, which even Western women are increasingly choosing to undergo nowadays. In contrast, FGM has exactly the opposite effect, which is to curb sexual pleasure in women. This type of procedure is totally prohibited by all Islamic scholars agreed on this. The doctors then state female circumcision plays no part in protecting a female from diseases. They also state that the smegma originating from the uncircumcised clitoris and it leading to unpleasant and other more serious health consequences pale in comparison as in the female more smegma is produced under the labia and that no amount of hoodectomy or washing the clitoris is going to reduce this. However, this is far from the truth. It has been found that the genital hygiene of women is, on the average, poorer than that of men because of numerous folds and the semi-hidden position of the clitoris. Lets see what Dr Edwin D. Hirsch had to say about it in his book titled Sexual Fear on how to conquer frigidity: The buried or concealed clitoris is a common anatomical cause of sexual anaesthesia. Frequently, this is due to the lack of clitoral hygiene. We know this to be a causative factor, for when the buried glans clitorides is elevated out of its bed by separating the strands of tissue which have grown over it, clumps of stale, foul-smelling secretion (smegma) surround this structure. Periodically the hood or foreskin of the clitoris should be retracted so that the accumulated secretions that collect thereunder may be easily removed by soap suds and a slight amount of friction. When the fear of this hygienic process is done away with, a large number of frigidity cases will be automatically corrected. Whether we like it or not, its easier for males to retract and clean their foreskins of the regular buildup of smegma than women to clean theirs due to the obvious anatomical differences as shown above. It would be necessary to retract the hood each day or every other day, in order to prevent adhesions from forming and smegma collecting beneath the prepuce. Some leading Western physicians in the early part of the last century, prompted by the benefits of male circumcision did not take long to realise that smegma might cause medical problems in women. In 1922, Austrian doctors Clodi and Schopper in Wiener Klinische Wochenshrift (1922) revealed that the germ that caused Gonorrhoea, gonococci thrived in the prepuce of the clitoris. They found that gonococci were found under the prepuce in 74 per cent of cases. This finding they observed had great importance in regard to infection and re-infection of the genitals, thereby delaying a cure. To promote a cure of the disease, it was necessary to cleanse this region and treat it with antiseptics, they concluded. A year later, I. Pilot and A.E. Canter (Studies of Fusiform bacilli and spirochaetes. The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 1923) examined the smegma of over 30 women which they obtained by pushing back the clitoral prepuce. They found pyogenic organisms, including staphylococci and concluded that these organisms may be primary and secondary infecting agents causing ulcerative and gangrenous processes. Unfortunately, the further study of the detrimental effects of smegma in women was neglected for some time until the 1950s when C.F. McDonald argued in his paper Circumcision of the Female published in the General Practitioner of September 1958 that: If the male needs circumcision for cleanliness and hygiene, why not the female? and concluded that The same reasons that apply for the circumcision of males are generally valid when considered for the female. Mc. Donald identified a number of conditions caused by contaminated smegma, retained smegma or smegmaliths in women that cleared up when the cause was removed by circumcision. More recently, Dr Royal Benson found that urinary tract infections (UTIs), an all too frequent complaint in women even more so than in uncircumcised boys was very likely being caused by smegma buildup beneath the clitoris. He lost no time advocating hoodectomy to permanently prevent smegma accumulation. Heres another finding relevant to our discussion. A team led by Maura Gillison recently reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that HPV infection was the strongest risk factor for oral cancer. The team found that oral sex including cunnilingus was the main mode of transit for oral HPV infection. Cunnilingus refers to the oral stimulation of a womans sexual organs with the particular focus on the clitoris. The researchers found a 225 per cent increase in oral cancer cases in the United States from 1974 to 2007, mainly among white men. Maura Gillison of Ohio State University said: The rise in oral cancer in the US is predominantly among young white males and we do not know the answer as to why. Dr Dennis Kraus, director of the Centre for Head and Neck Oncology at North Shore- LIJ Cancer Institute in Lake Success had this to say about it: Its most likely transmitted from females to males. Now, it is obvious that the only way men can acquire the HPV virus is through the oral stimulation of ones partners clitoris which allows the virus to enter the mucosal cavities of the mouth where it causes cancer. HPV finds a congenial sanctuary and breeds in the prepuce of the clitoris just as it finds refuge in the foreskins of males, through the transmission of which cervical cancer occurs in females. Thus, a hoodectomy might provide a solution by removing the area in which the virus thrives, thus safeguarding their male partners from the risk of oral cancer. Seychelles President Danny Faure had requested President Maithripala Sirisena to assist in granting military training opportunities to Seychelles security force members in Sri Lanka. President Faure has made the request during President Sirisenas two-day State visit to Seychelles. The Seychelles President has also requested Sri Lankan counterpart to assist them in obtaining training for judicial and legal drafting sectors. He has praised President Sirisenas initiative to eradicate drug abuse and requested his assistance to find a solution to the drug menace, which is a threat to his country too. Seychelles President expressed his gratitude to President Sirisena for providing assistance to improve the health sector in Seychelles and requested to provide training opportunities to Seychelles doctors in Sri Lanka. The two leaders agreed to take forward the strong relations between Sri Lanka and Seychelles in the fields of trade and tourism. During the bilateral meeting held at the State House, President Sirisena said that he would give instructions to the relevant sectors to improve the relations between the business forums of both countries. The President also noted he expected to get more Sri Lankan businessmen to participate in a trade fair to be held in Seychelles at the end of this year. Expressing his views, Seychelles President Faure said that he was grateful for the assistance given by Sri Lanka not only as a friend but like a brotherly State. The President of Seychelles also stressed that they were ready to provide support to Sri Lanka to develop the fields of economic and trade sectors as well as to provide any support to Sri Lanka at any time. The President also held a meeting with the Sri Lankans living in Seychelles. Sri Lankan professionals who are employed in Seychelles and the students who are being educated in different fields in Seychelles were present at this event, where all of them warmly welcomed President Maithripala Sirisena. President Sirisena returned to Colombo last morning. (Sandun A Jayasekera) Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called for the Hub of the Indian Ocean concept to be adopted as the policy platform for Sri Lankas maritime cooperation. This concept has become the ideal platform to address many policy bottlenecks that Sri Lanka encounters today, be they related to transportation, trade, foreign direct investment, security, or even issues of urbanization and environmental degradation. This article covers some of the vital changes in the Indian Ocean that will prompt Sri Lanka to drive its economic and foreign policy towards a new direction emphasizing maritime cooperation. Sri Lanka, situated at the centre of the Indian Ocean, has a geographically advantageous setting that can make strategic use of Indian Ocean maritime trade links, thereby placing the island as a potential beneficiary of the current global shift of power from West to East. According to the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute (LKI) -Sri Lankas leading foreign policy think tank - the population in the 28 Indian Ocean states earning less than USD 1 a day (the international poverty line) is estimated to decrease from 12% in 2017 to 7% by 2025. Such poverty reduction is, of course, dependent on these economies continuing to benefit from open maritime trade. Is it any wonder then, that the Indian Oceans maritime relations could be considered an archetype for how freedom of navigation and maritime trade can shape regional prosperity? Sri Lanka is indeed blessed to be at the centre of this thriving maritime environment, which has created enduring links between the Indian Ocean and its economy. Sri Lanka only stands to progressively benefit from the continuation of such peaceful maritime links into the future. On the other hand, with the recent global shift in power, with the US seeking to re-balance towards Asia, there is also an impetus for Sri Lanka to carry out some serious maritime policy planning. The Indian Ocean: Defining Our Future Track 1.5 International Conference will be held on October 11 and 12 in Colombo. Amidst the growth of such geopolitical and economic dynamics, this article details some of the opportunities that Sri Lanka successfully exploited in the past, which can inspire its future course on maritime policy. The key historical lesson from the Indian Ocean is its tremendous importance to global trade and economic cooperation, going all the way back to the second millennium BC. In this narrative, Sri Lanka played a major role, and arguably continues to do so. By building itself up as a transit point in the trans-continental sea trade connecting Europe, the Middle East, East Africa, India and Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka became a significant player in the Indian Ocean. This great trading legacy dating brought great wealth to the country. Indian Ocean is its tremendous importance to global trade and economic cooperation, going all the way back to the second millennium BC As the Mahavamsa indicates, the diffusion of Buddhism from India to Sri Lanka was primarily facilitated by ancient maritime trade routes. Many other forms of evidence have shown that Sri Lankas strategic geographic centrality enabled maritime transactions in terms of both trade and cultural exchanges since at least the 2nd century BCE. The countrys significance in the global trade of the time is apparent in Ptolemy of Alexandrias world map. Many other seminal research works on Sri Lankas ancient maritime trade have pointed out the flourishing trade based on the maritime silk route that connected Europeans, Arabs, Indians and Chinese. This body of research has also referred to the excellence of ancient Sri Lankas maritime engineering relating to the construction of ships, ports and other maritime infrastructure. In addition, during the entire period of colonial rule under the Portuguese, Dutch and British, respectively, Sri Lanka played a tremendously important role in regional maritime trade. Post-independence Sri Lanka made a clear stand for the openness of the maritime domain and for maintaining the status quo in the Indian Ocean. At the San Francisco Conference in 1951, Sri Lankas Finance Minister at the time, J.R. Jayawardene, declared We are not concerned about favouring this bloc or that bloc. We are concerned about maintaining peace in the world. Later, in 1971, the worlds first female Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, tabled the Indian Ocean Zone of Peace (ZoP) proposal at the United Nations, which was adopted as UN General Assembly Resolution 2832. Since then, Sri Lanka has made a case for the strategic independence of the Indian Ocean. JRs government made efforts to maintain the status quo in the Indian Ocean; as he stated We are not concerned about favouring this bloc or that bloc. We are concerned about maintaining peace in the world. Sri Lanka therefore upheld a non-aligned approach towards the Indian Ocean for many years. In addition, by signing theSri Lanka-India Agreement on the Boundary in Historic in 1974,Sri Lanka succeeded in demarcating its maritime boundary in the Palk Strait, Gulf of Mannar and the Bay of Bengal, endowing the country with a legally grounded maritime security. With the acquisition of a territorial sea area of 21,500 km2 and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of nearly 517,000 km2,Sri Lanka has succeeded in obtaining a significant resource base that can strengthen the countrys economy and broader security. Given this history of maritime trade, strategic location and vast maritime entitlements, Sri Lanka should naturally play a greater role in the Indian Ocean. As explained by the Executive Director of LKI, Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja maritime trade has the potential to transform the Indian Ocean into a new global growth pole. At present, the region is host to 35% of the global population, but only accounts for 13.1% of global trade. This reinforces that argument that a countrys economic growth is heavily dependent on its trade. This argument is especially valid for Sri Lanka, since some of the most successful sectors of the Sri Lankan economy are based on maritime trade, especially port services relating to container cargo shipment, trans-shipment and related services. In addition, the Colombo Port is ranked 13th in the world according to the Drewry Port Connectivity Index. Sri Lankan port development has also expanded to Hambantota with the joint venture with China Merchants Ports Holdings and will potentially expand to Trincomalee with Japanese development assistance. Sri Lanka also took over the chairmanship of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in 2018 Sri Lanka also took over the chairmanship of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in 2018. This has provided an opportunity to develop economic ties that can benefit maritime industries and boost cooperation on protection of the marine environment. In addition, as a member state to the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), Sri Lanka can also play a vital role in promoting strategies for maritime cooperation that would seek to maintain the Indian Ocean status quo and create win-win outcomes for both regional and extra-regional states. Another important strategic direction that Sri Lanka could engage in is the rapidly developing marine-city concept, which would significantly boost trade and tourism by marketing itself as an attractive destination with incentives for foreign businesses. Looking beyond Sri Lanka to broader geopolitical developments in the Indian Ocean, Senior Professor in International Relations at the University of Colombo, Nayani Melegoda explains that the Indian Ocean is experiencing complicated geopolitical changes. In this context, the balance of power between small states and large states becomes of paramount importance for regional stability and peace. This elaboration is in line with the global power shift evident from various strategic developments in the maritime domain. There is of course the question of whether these developments can help South Asian states overcome the effects of the big-brother syndrome in relation to India. To tackle this issue prudently, Indias Neighbourhood First policy has been carefully crafted to minimize strategic mistrust among its neighbours. Another important power change is the growing US interest in the Indian Ocean, evident from the coining of the Indo-Pacific term. This shift has led to increasing security cooperation among US, Japan, Australia and India, and to stricter surveillance of the Straits of Malacca and Straits of Hormuz to ensure the security of these choke-points. At the same time, it is impossible to forget the continuing role of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has already invested billions in the region and carved out a Chinese strategic presence in the Indian Ocean. The enormous economic potential of the Indian Ocean and these growing strategic developments have prompted SL to begin working on a well-planned maritime policy The enormous economic potential of the Indian Ocean and these growing strategic developments have prompted Sri Lanka to begin working on a well-planned maritime policy. Such policy is essential to safeguarding Sri Lankas national interests as it faces strategic competition between the great powers in the Indian Ocean, and considers ways and means of maintaining regional peace and stability to ensure its economic growth and future prosperity. The three youths, who were remanded on charges of posting semi-naked photostaken on top of the Pidurangala Rock on social media, were warned and released by the Dambulla Magistrate today. They were released on a fine of Rs.1, 500 each after they pledged guilty. The youths, residents of Galewela, were arrested on September 26 after they surrendered to the Sigiriya Police. (Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa) Video by Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa It seems that Sirisena might not survive on the good work he has done The United National Party (UNP) led by Ranil Wickremesinge is hellbent on finding stability at present. Its the UNP that calls the shots in the Government and also takes the blame for much of the mess that the regime is in now. As much as its focused on brainwashing the people to believe in what it preaches on public forums, the Government these days is also keeping an eye on the dissident former ministers and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) marshaled by Mahinda Rajapaksa. This is largely due to talks about the former president and the present head of state Maithripala Sirisena showing interest to form a caretaker Government. The Yahapalana regime resembles a boat in mid-sea which is fast running out of fuel Sirisena, it seems, is likely to tie up with a flexible Rajapaksa and not with a straight-jacketed Wickremesinghe Wickremesinghes economic brain has failed to bring financial stability to this Government and the ever depreciating rupee But it seems that Sirisena cant survive on the good work he has done. People are demanding a stable economy If we rewind the clock back to 2015 it was a time when Sirisena and Rajapaksa fell out in their relationship as politicians. Sirisena took on the much popular Rajapaksa at the presidential elections and recorded a shock win. There was bitterness between the two for many years after this election. Both took swipes at each other when speaking at public platforms. Sirisena hated Rajapaksas culture because it bred thuggery and corruption. Sri Lanka entered a healthy phase in its political history and people enjoyed a large dose of democracy more than anything else. At the beginning of Sirisenas tenure as president it seemed that democracy would infuse fresh blood into industries and state institutes, which needed to be reformed. At the beginning Sirisena found an ally in Wickremesinghe and the two began laying the platform for the Yahapalana Government to play a long innings. And more importantly the two managed to build up a majority in Parliament. However Sirisenas focus on the downtrodden masses and Wickremesinghes vision for the country, which demanded high spending, brought about a clash of ideas. Now it seems that this gulf between the two can never be bridged, despite the Yahapalana regime depending heavily on the duos union. Wickremesinghes way of thinking probably annoys Sirisena. Just a few months ago the premier proposed the increasing of ministers salaries by over 200% His proposal came at a time when the country was struggling to deal with its debt commitments. President Sirisena shooting down this proposal also exposed the fact that the UNP is not farsighted; mainly in remaining in power. Economic experts state that the Government was warned about the impending financial crisis when this unwanted proposal was made with the intention of fattening the purses of ministers. Another condition laid out by Rajapaksa is for the SLFP to server ties with the UNP if the Blue Party intends receiving the support of the newly formed SLPP The Yahapalana regime resembles a boat in mid-sea which is fast running out of fuel. Now even the promise of a larger dose of democracy wont help take this Yahapalana regime forward. It needs politicians to form the majority in parliament and money to settle debts. Wickremesinghes economic brain has failed to bring financial stability to this Government and the ever depreciating rupee. Rajapaksas conditions In this wake we hear of Sirisena showing desperation more than a keenness to forge allies with his former boss and rival Rajapaksa. According to reports the two were scheduled to meet during the past few days for discussions. This is for the purpose of forming a caretaker Government. But the former president has underscored that he would not form a caretaker government with those who have sold the country. Another condition laid out by Rajapaksa is for the SLFP to sever ties with the UNP if the Blue Party intends receiving the support of the newly formed SLPP. The people of this country are frustrated more than being confused. Its likely that Sirisena would join hands with Rajapaksa. This arrangement would mean that Sirisena remains as president and Rajapaksa gets the premiership; a post which the ousted former president, many say, is clamouring for. If this happens it would mean that the Yahapalana regime that the people voted for will die a natural death; taking the democracy that it gave the people along with itself to the grave. This could bring real frustration to the minds of the people who value reconciliation, fair play, peace and religious harmony among communities. But it seems that Sirisena cant survive on the good work he has done. People are demanding a stable economy and it seems that Sirisena sees a way out of all his miseries by forging a working relationship with Rajapaksa. Thousands of people lost their jobs and many private sector institutes have collapsed due to an unstable economy and lack of opportunities. Viyathmaga press conference Recently some academics who spoke at a Viyathmaga press conference had indicated that there was deterioration in economic, social, judicial and cultural spheres. They have also pointed out that the debt rate as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product has risen to 102%; which was 71 % in 2014 under the previous regime. Sirisena, it seems, is likely to tie up with a flexible Rajapaksa and not with a straight-jacketed Wickremesinghe. Sirisena emerged as a man possessing a clean sheet. But there have been reports of the president directly intervening and delaying or preventing the arrests of certain suspects. The decision he took recently to de-gazette some parts of the Muthurajawela wetland has come under fire by critics, largely because of his role as the minister of environment and wildlife. Sirisena has shown during the recent past that he has the will to bend and change to suit the occasion, if it serves him well. Its a long way to go if at all this caretaker Government comes into being. But it happening is quite a possibility given that Rajapaksa still loves power and the support bases of Sirisena are fast falling apart! The atmospheric disturbance over the island would create heavy showers, thundershowers with strong winds in the sea areas extending from Colombo to Batticaloa via Galle and Hambantota, the Meteorology Department said. Duty Meteorologist said that the depression in the Bay of Bengal that concentrated into a Cyclonic Storm named Titli, was now 1,000 kilometres away from Trincomalee. The storm will be moving away from the country within the next couple of days, he said. Therefore, the sea areas extending from Galle to Pottuvil via Hambantota would be rough and the wind speeds could increase up to 50 km/h at times, he said. The cyclonic storm Luban, is now 2,400 km away from Colombo in the southwest region of the Arabian Sea. It has intensified in to a severe cyclonic storm moved west-northwestwards. Rains and strong winds would be expected because of Luban. Heavy rains of 75 mm could be expected in the Southern, Uva Provinces and Kalutara, Ratnapura Districts. A railway system which spans over a 100 years still doesnt have the capacity to adopt new technologies to track and save elephants A cartoon of an elephant, stranded between the gates of the Sri Lanka Railways and the Wildlife Conservation Department done by our own staff cartoonist Gihan De Chickera very aptly describes the prevailing jumbo crisis. Within a period of three weeks, eight elephants succumbed to their injuries as a result of train collisions. Following up from the previous article titled Rumble of death on the railway track the authorities seem to have turned a blind eye to the issue in terms of producing a solution. As mentioned in the previous article, a railway system which spans over a 100 years still doesnt have the capacity to adopt new technologies to track and save elephants. While authorities stay put, more incidents are likely to occur resulting in the further declination of the elephant population. Given the present scenario, the Daily Mirror spoke to those responsible regarding what could be done while also shedding light on a few suggestions pointed out by experts to curb this issue in the long-run. 50 out of 80 locations critical Speaking to the Daily Mirror Chandana Sooriyabandara, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Department said that 80 locations have been identified so far. Out of them, 50% have been identified as critical including Habarana, Manampitiya and Welikanda. The Railway officers have inspected the place and certain structural changes need to be done, said Sooriyabandara. But we will have to have another round of discussions Not a usual elephant corridor According to Dilantha Fernando, General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways said that the place where the recent incident took place is not a usual elephant corridor. The elephant corridor is located one and a half kilometres towards Colombo. We havent installed any boards since it is not a usual elephant corridor. There is an elephant fence on one side and a village on the other. Advanced warning system needed Subject minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka said that an advanced warning system needs to be installed. But we will have to have another round of discussions. It may not happen immediately. Right now we dont have a system to give any warning, but we are working on it,said Fonseka. Thermal sensors In his comments regarding this issue, Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando, Chairman of the Centre for Conservation and Research (CCR), who has conducted extensive research on wild elephants in Sri Lanka, said that an initially study has to be done regarding these locations. Unfortunately nobody is interested. Thermal sensors could be part of the solution, but installing them without knowing the exact locations will create bigger damage. It takes some effort and money. But if done that way we can use the data to install these thermal sensors.said Fernando. When inquired about elephant corridors, Dr. Fernando explained that elephants may use certain areas to travel on. We need to collar elephants and find these areas. Elephants do use particular routes to travel, but they dont use them over long distances. There are many locations such as Habarana which go through the Gal Oya reserve. Then again theres Galgamuwa and other locations frequented by elephants. On the other hand, just because these areas are earmarked we cant expect these accidents not to happen,he said. According to Dr. Fernando, putting barriers along tracks preventing elephants coming onto the track, without assessing movement patterns based on tracking data, is likely to cause the death of many more elephants. This will be due to starvation caused by loss of range, than those that die colliding with trains. Suggestions A few suggestions by Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando may help identify landscape alterations which could be done to decrease incidents : Conduct a study of the train accidents during the past 10 years or so and see if there are particular patterns including: A map of locations - May help identify locations where trains need to go slow Dates of accidents - Whether there is any seasonality - identify periods when trains may have to go slow Times of accidents - Identify the time of day when trains should go slow Whether train was a regular train/off time - More vigilance on off-time trains? Assess accident points on the ground to see whether there are any landscape features that cause/increase such accidents Slope of railway line embankment Surrounding vegetation Area clear of vegetation on either side of track Lay of the track - bend/straight Collar elephants in areas where train accidents occur and identify crossing areas/points Evaluate if the areas/points can be decreased by electric fencing to minimise locations where trains have to go slow Evaluate possibility of under/over passes for elephants at crossing points and funnelling them to such with electric fencing Evaluate reaction of elephants to passage of trains Evaluate reaction of elephants to any mitigation methods Thermal sensors could be part of the solution, but installing them without knowing the exact locations will create bigger damage Beehives Another possible solution includes putting up beehives, which is an eco-friendly and a sustainable method of keeping elephants away. This method was implemented after researchers observed how elephants keep away from bees. They are not only irritated by the buzzing sound, but a group of bees could also sting on an elephants skin rather nastily. This method is already implemented in Africa and could be a potential income-generator for locals. The incident Three jumbos succumbed to their injuries when they were hit the Meenagaya Night Mail train in Namalgama, Welikanda last Saturday. The postmortem report revealed that out of the three, two were females and one was a male. Among the two female elephants, one was a pregnant female. As in the previous incident, the foetus was thrown out due to the impact of the collision. With Sri Lanka again being devastated by floods and landslides with about 60,000 people left homeless and at least nine dead and with hurricane Michael hitting Florida and the adjoining areas -- the worst in their history -- the United Nations has warned that the world has only 12 years to limit the climate change catastrophe. The United States impulsive and dangerously unpredictable President Donald Trump is still rejecting climate change or global warming as a hoax made in China and boasting of his economic achievements such as the lowest unemployment rates in recent decades. But the worlds leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people, the Guardian newspaper reported. According to the newspaper, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on Monday says urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target, which is affordable and feasible though it lies at the most ambitious end of the Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C. The half-degree difference could also prevent corals from being eradicated and ease pressure on the Arctic, according to the 1.5C study, which was launched after approval at a final plenary of all 195 countries at Seoul in South Korea. The meeting saw delegates hugging one another, with some in tears. Its a line in the sand and what it says to our species is that this is the moment and we must act now, said Debra Roberts, a co-chair of the working group on impacts. This is the largest clarion bell from the science community and I hope it mobilises people and dents the mood of complacency. The Guardian says policymakers commissioned the report at the Paris climate talks in 2016, but since then the gap between science and politics has widened. The US President has pulled his country out of the Paris accord though the US is known to be the worlds biggest polluter. Last Sunday the first round of Brazils presidential election put Jair Bolsonarointo in a strong position to carry out his threat to do the same and also open the historic Amazon rain-forest to agribusiness. The world is currently 1C hotter than pre-industrial levels. Following devastating hurricanes in the US, record droughts in Cape Town and forest fires in the Arctic, the IPCC makes clear that climate change is already happening, upgraded its risk warning from previous reports, and warned that every fraction of additional warming would worsen the impact, the Guardian added. Scientists who reviewed the 6,000 works referenced in the report, said the change caused by just half a degree came as a revelation. We can see there is a difference and its substantial, Ms. Roberts said. In Sri Lanka though, priority has been given to environmental conservation and a eco-friendly green economy, we have seen during the past few years some of the worst-ever droughts and floods in recent decades. Even today hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by the heavy rains and strong winds in several districts while in other districts droughts still continue. For instance in one district the farmers are reported to have lost their harvest of big onions and the government is paying compensation to them. President Maithripala Sirisena is himself the Minister of Environment and has repeatedly said he specially asked for this portfolio because it is a subject close to his heart. Since 2015, the government has done much to control global warming and climate change, but not enough. We hope that in the next months Budget, the highest priority will be given to build a sustainable green economy, through high technology methods with an equal place and an equal say being given to millions of poverty-stricken people, mainly the youths, in rural areas. The Sri Lanka Navy with the assistance of the US Navy rescued seven fishermen in distress in the seas off the Galle harbour yesterday. The Navy said the fishermen aboard the vessel Suma Baba-03 had left the Galle harbour on October 3 for fishing and were stranded when the vessel engine failed. The USS Decatur, an American warship which was sailing on a close passage had observed the distressed trawler and rescued its crew. Thereafter, the US ship had reported the incident to the Maritime Rescue Coordinating Centre (MRCC) in Colombo. The Sri Lanka Navy then deployed SLNS Jayasagara from the Southern Naval Command to bring the fishermen and trawler ashore. The fishermen boarded SLNS Jayasagara about 130 nautical miles south of the Galle Harbour and the trawler was safely towed back, the Navy said. This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going. Carmel Valley residents Julie Union, Patel Rosen, Karen Schaffer, and Nandita Khanna were among award recipients in the spotlight during Girl Scouts San Diegos recent Volunteer Conference and Celebration at the San Diego Convention Center. Fox 5 Morning News Raoul Martinez (a proud Girl Scout dad) emceed the awards ceremony, which spotlighted outstanding volunteers for empowering girls to grow as leaders. The signature sponsor of the event was Mission Federal Credit Union. Presenters included Girl Scout Alina Ho of Carmel Valley, a Torrey Pines High School junior. As one of 25 Emerging Leader Girl Scouts, Alina previously participated in Girl Scouts San Diegos Cool Women luncheon and mentoring session. The Volunteer Celebration awardees were selected by a panel of Girl Scout volunteers. Union received the Honor Pin, presented to volunteers who provide outstanding service to two or more service units (volunteer-led clusters that support the Girl Scout members in specific communities), and who have a significant impact on girls and the Girl Scout organization as a whole. A longtime troop leader and mentor, Union empowers volunteers in Carmel Valley with the Pearls of Wisdom resource guide, which she authored in 2004. An encyclopedia of Girl Scout knowledge, the publication features ideas, tips, and resources for activities, programs, travel destinations, and more. She recently published a revised version. Rosen and Schaffer were presented with Appreciation Pins for helping increase membership, visibility, diversity, and program participation. As the Carmel Valley Service Unit manager, Rosen recruited new volunteers to help her develop community events to showcase Girl Scouting to area residents. Schaffer, the service units registrar, went above the call of duty by planning a multifaceted event for current and prospective Girl Scout members. Over the years, the Carmel Valley Service Unit has also greatly benefited from Khannas support. She received the Cookie Award to applaud her contributions to the success of the local 2018 Girl Scout Cookie Programthrough which participants gain key leadership and business skills while earning money for local Girl Scout leadership experiences. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, its the characters that sell this movie. Theyre well drawn, and somehow utterly believable even in the face of complete weirdness. Unfortunately, the director Toby Wilkins went on to make the absolutely dreadful third sequel to the Grudge remake, but at least he gave us Splinter first. Watch Splinter on Amazon 2. Julias Eyes (2010) As great as Guillermo del Toros movies can be, the films he chooses to present tend to be pretty dreadful in my view. But dont let that put you off this brilliant little Spanish thriller. The titular Julia is losing her sight due to a mysterious disease that also affected her sister, who apparently felt the loss of her sight so keenly that she committed suicide. Julia doesnt believe her sister really killed herself, though, and sets out to prove that she was murdered. But with her own sight failing, its difficult to follow up on any of the clues. All she has to go on are obscure references, by people who knew her sister, to an invisible man; a man without a face, whom no one can quite remember. Its a wonderfully creepy premise, cleverly shot so that we cant see much more than Julia most of the time. It feels giallo-influenced, and resolves itself satisfyingly if not happily. Watch Julias Eyes on Amazon 1. Pathology (2008) Neveldine and Taylor are known for their crazy over-the-top action movies like Crank, but a couple of years ago, they wrote a nasty little thriller called Pathology, and its brilliant. Set in a medical school, it stars Milo Ventimiglia as a talented student who gets drawn into a horrifying guessing game with his fellow students. Each of them take it in turns to try to commit the perfect murder. When the corpse arrives at the morgue, the other players try to figure out how they were killed. Cue plenty of incredibly inventive death scenes, plus plenty of sex, drug-taking, and general deviance. Its a genuinely horrifying horror movie that will make you feel sick more than once, but you wont be able to tear your eyes away. Its gruesome and fascinating and creepy and genuinely affecting, with a kind of physical impact most modern horror movies cant manage. Watch Pathology on Amazon Subscriber content preview Nelson, a Philadelphia-based architecture firm, said it will acquire Craft Architects of Seattle to help expand its industrial practice nationwide. Terms of the deal were not released. Craft designed for Prologis the first multistory warehouse space in the U.S. at Georgetown Crossroads in Seattle. Nelson said in a press release that the project is notable for its three-story structure with truck access on two levels. The concept is expected to help meet increasing demand for industrial manufacturing and distribution space in dense, urban areas. . . . The Leicester Area NUM has agreed to loan its archive, spanning of more than a century of mining to De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).Papers, photographs, maps and administrative records will be among the archive collection to be looked after by DMUs Special Collections team. Most of the archive will be open to the public, historians and researchers who want to study the story of coal mining in Leicestershire.The full archive will be at DMU by Christmas, but university archivist Katharine Short has issued an appeal now to former miners or their families to get in touch with any material they may have relating to the mining industry in Leicestershire. She welcomes documents, leaflets, photographs, plans, memorabilia and even objects.She would like to find personal photographs, memorabilia from miners events or even mining objects and to hear peoples stories.The Leicestershire Coalfield consisted of Bagworth, Ellistown, Merry Lees, Desford, South Leicester, Snibston, New Lount, Nailstone, Whitwick (pictured below) and finally Asfordby Mine, near Melton, which closed in 1997. Following this, a number of miners transferred to pits in Warwickshire and Yorkshire.Archivist Katharine Short said: We are thrilled to have entered this partnership with the Leicestershire Coal Industry Welfare Trust Fund on behalf of the Leicester Area NUM to safeguard the history of this important industry.This project gives us the opportunity to collect material which will reveal the stories of the miners and their communities. The aim is for the collection to be shared with new generations who have never seen a lump of coal and ensure they appreciate this aspect of our heritage.The Leicestershire Miners Association was founded in 1887. In 1888 it was one of the founder members of the Miners Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) then in 1945, Leicester Area NUM was formed and associated and affiliated to the NUM.Peter Smith, chairman of trustees of the Leicestershire Coal Industry Welfare Trust Fun and formerly the Area General Secretary of the Leicester Area NUM, said: creating a public archive of the Leicestershire Mining Industry was a fitting legacy for the NUM.The archive was previously cared for at Snibston Discovery Musuem, the former Snibston Mine. The site became the premiere science and technology museum for Leicestershire until it was closed in 2015. Although the museum has gone the site was listed by Historic England as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Mr Smith thanked Stuart Warburton and the volunteers from Snibston Discovery Park for their assistance with the archive.To contact DMU Special Collections, please email archives@dmu.ac.uk or telephone 0116 207 8776. Baotou Medical College marked its 60th anniversary with a ceremony held on Sept 6, according to Baotou Daily. Founded in 1958, Baotou Medical College is a higher medical college established in the ethnic minority areas of China. The school enrolls undergraduate students for the five-year clinical medicine program. It covers an area of some 670,000 square meters and a building area of 260,000 square meters. After 60 years of growth and development, it now operates by integrating full-time undergraduate education, postgraduate education, continuing education, and vocational education. The number of majors at the school has grown from one to 20 in the past 60 years since the establishment of the school. The school now boasts 16 secondary colleges and 11 clinical medical schools. The total undergraduate enrollment has expanded from 160 to 1800 students. Baotou Medical College hosts a ceremony to mark its 60th anniversary, Sept 6. [Photo/Baotou Daily] Baotou Medical College [Photo/btmc.cn] Braves Win! 2021 World Series Champions Atlanta Braves celebrate World Series win with massive parade in downtown Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of downtown and Midtown Atlanta Friday as the World Series champion Atlanta Braves held a massive parade. The parade began at... VERIZON UPDATE! Thank you to all who have contacted Verizon. YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE! If you havent please see the front page of the November 3 issue of the News for... Remington Firearms to set up global headquarters in Georgia Americas oldest firearms manufacturer will locate its global headquarters in Georgia and open a new advanced manufacturing operation in the Peach State, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday. Remington Fi... Sorry!... Town & Country Club closes The board of directors of the Blakely Town and Country Club have voted to close the establishment. After multiple construction projects to make repairs after multiple storms, including catastrophic da...... If everybody voted, Republicans would lose almost everywhere. And no one knows this better than Republicans. As we recorded this podcast on Tuesday, October 9th, 2018 it was the voting registration deadline in Michigan and 14 other states. And it could be the last voting registration deadline in this state ever if voters pass Proposal 3/Promote the Vote, which includes automatic voter registration. That is, if Republicans dont figure out a way to get the Supreme Court to gut it. When it comes to democracy, this truly is the worst and less worse times. Its the worst for so many reasons. Here are a few. Donald Trump is preparing to gut the only investigation into the conspiracy behind the attack on our 2016 elections, right as indictments are about to hit his family. A Supreme Court that represents a smaller and smaller minority of Americans, but way too many sexual predators, has legalized unnecessary voter purges and just backed a voter ID law in North Dakota that targets Native Americans. And two of the worlds worst voter suppressors of the century Kris Kobach and Brian Kemp are Republican candidates for governor. Its slightly less worse because were also seeing a focus on voting rights unlike anything Democrats have mustered since they passed the Motor Voter law in the early 90s. A third of Americans live in a jurisdiction that has either passed or implemented AVR. Michiganders and Nevadans will soon join that list if ballot measures pass on November 6. And perhaps the most exciting re-enfranchisement of voters in half a century could be happening in Florida. So we had to talk to Ari Berman, the man who has spent much of this decade covering the war on voting, which became a war on democracy and is now being resisted by a war FOR voting. Hes a senior reporter at Mother Jones and the author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. Hes also just been named a member of the Frederick Douglass 200, 200 Americans whose modern-day work best embodies Douglasss enduring legacy of social change. Even more importantly, hes the most frequent guest of this podcast. Ari Berman on Twitter: @AriBerman Ari Berman at Mother Jones: Federal Judge Blasts Trump Administrations Frivolous Attempt to Thwart Census Lawsuit Ari Berman at Mother Jones: Federal Judge Blasts Trump Administrations Frivolous Attempt to Thwart Census Lawsuit Ari Berman at Mother Jones: New Documents Undercut Commerce Secretarys Claims About Origins of Census Citizenship Question The Good Ann Arbors and Huffington Posts Jonathan Cohn is on the GOP is lying to cancer patients beat, which is the biggest uncovered story of this campaign Jonathan Cohn at Huffington Post: Republicans Are Using Their Families To Defend Their Records On Health Care Chris Savage at Eclectablog: Republican Mike Bishop doesnt want you to know his stances on guns & unions, quietly scrubs them from his website The Bad Were all going to die because of climate change and the GOP is in favor of this Brandon Miller and Jay Croft at CNN: Planet has only until 2030 to stem catastrophic climate change, experts warn Yes, climate change CAN cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The Shrugly \_()_/ There is a Kavanaugh Effect and it seems to have bolstered Republicans in red states and screwed them everywhere else Jason Sattler at USA Today: Dont reward Republicans for Brett Kavanaugh and the politics of personal annihilation The show notes for Episode 16 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/2018-the-best-year-for-voting-rights-since-1965-with-special-guest-ari-berman.html Give us a five-star review at iTunes! The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE! Music clips Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: Theyre Everywhere by Jims Big Ego Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim Robbins MPK SA Krakow EUR 2.3 billion to strengthen industrial and corporate competitiveness EUR 1.2 billion for urban rail, maritime and air transport EUR 1 billion for renewable energy Spanish, Polish and Bulgarian commuters, residents of Warsaw, Vilnius and Turku, and students across France will benefit from new financing by the European Investment Bank. At their monthly meeting in Luxembourg earlier today the Board of the European Investment Bank (EIB) approved backing for EUR 6.67 billion of sustainable transport, urban development, water, clean energy and private sector investment across Europe and Africa. Yesterday the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in no uncertain terms that we must accelerate investment to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to a changing climate. The EU Bank has unique experience and a strong track record of supporting climate action projects, from sustainable energy, to transport and urban investment to name but a few areas. The projects we approved today are testimony to our commitment to sustaining and scaling up climate finance, which is essential for the future of this planet, said Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank. Transport investment to cut journey times and emissions The EIB supports sustainable transport around the world. Today the EIB Board agreed EUR 1.2 billion of new financing for urban rail, maritime and airport investment. This includes upgrading urban rail in five Spanish cities, the construction of a new metro line in Sofia, improving tram services in Krakow and expansion of key national airport. Shipping on the Danube and Sava rivers in Serbia will benefit from investment to enhance safe navigation and improve capacity. Investment to allow larger vessels to use two local ports, expanding cargo and passenger traffic, will improve maritime access to Rome. Backing private sector investment in innovation and energy efficiency Companies across Europe and around the world will benefit from EUR 2 billion of new direct financing and support for investment through local partners. This includes support for automation, robot and digitalisation technology, as well as development of electric and alternative fuel tractors, combines and crop spraying equipment by the world leading agricultural equipment maker AGCO. The Board also approved financing for agricultural infrastructure in Ukraine, including grain elevators and storage. New credit lines with local financial partners are going to unlock investment by companies in Spain, Italy, Ireland and South Africa. The Board further decided support for tourism companies in Austria, climate related investment in Slovakia, and innovation activity by German companies. Outside Europe the board agreed new EIB support for microfinance across Africa and investment by female entrepreneurs in Ethiopia. Harnessing renewable energy and improving energy infrastructure The EIB Board approved financing worth EUR 1 billion for new energy investment. This includes backing a 42MW solar project in Poland, two 500MW solar schemes in Morocco and a 420 MW hydropower scheme in Cameroon, as well as a cross-border interconnector between Mali and Guinea and renovation of electricity distribution across Greece. The projects will significantly increase access to clean energy and reduce dependency on fossil fuel generation. Tackling water challenges around the world The EIB is the worlds largest financier of water investment. Today, the Board agreed to back new projects to upgrade wastewater treatment in Egypts second city Alexandria and Turku in Finland, as well as upgrading water infrastructure in Italy. Additionally, it approved financing to reconstruct infrastructure damaged by flooding in the Dominican Republic and strengthen the resilience of existing facilities. Supporting urban development and social housing The EIB supports transformational investment in cities across Europe and around the world. New urban investment to reduce energy use by street lighting in Vilnius and energy bills on public and residential buildings across Moldova, improve public services in Turku and support smart investment in the Slovakian city of Nitra was agreed by the Board. Improving education Students at schools in seven French regions and Trinity College Dublin will benefit from education investment approved by the board. The EIB supports investment to improve education, research and teaching. Over the last five years the EIB has provided more than EUR 16 billion for education investment across Europe. Enhancing access to high-speed internet Two new projects will transform internet use by expanding fibre to the home connections in Europe and supporting the roll out of fibre optic networks across East Africa. EUR 5 billion of new investment backed by the Investment Plan for Europe Financing for 11 projects approved by the EIB board today will be guaranteed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments and are expected to mobilize an estimated EUR 5 billion of total investment. There were no PPP projects approved by todays meeting. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc addresses the joint press conference on the outcomes of the 10th Mekong - Japan Summit (Photo: VNA) Phuc made the statement on October 9th when attending a joint press conference on the outcomes of the 10th Mekong - Japan Summit, together with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Cambodian PM Hun Sen, Lao PM Thongloun Sisoulith, Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. Informing reporters on the summits outcomes, Phuc said that the parties had exchanged experiences, and shared their views on the successes, opportunities, and challenges for Japan and Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries. They agreed that the Mekong-Japan cooperation has gained important achievements over the past decade, thus helping expand economic, trade, and people-to-people ties between Japan and the GMS nations. Phuc stressed that with the several hundred projects already successfully implemented, the cooperation has proved to be one of the most effective mechanisms in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. Leaders of participating countries reached a consensus on the need to intensify economic connectivity and deepen multifaceted collaboration, for the common interests of all parties, he stated. Therefore, the decision to upgrade the Mekong-Japan cooperation is reasonable, he said, underlining that the important orientations of the freshly-approved Tokyo Strategy 2018 will create a momentum for relations. The Vietnamese Government leader also reaffirmed Vietnams commitments to the Mekong-Japan cooperation, and appreciated Japans role in the region in targeting inclusive and sustainable development, peace, and prosperity. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe emphasised the three main pillars of the Tokyo Strategy, namely the vibrant and effective connectivity, a people-centred society, and realising the goal of a green Mekong. Leaders of GMS countries agreed that the strategy will play an important role in their development and in stepping up the strategic partnership between Japan and these countries in the time to come. They affirmed to maintain close cooperation with Japan in realising the strategy to boost socio-economic development for a shared goal of building a peaceful and prosperous region. They also welcomed Japans initiative to organise the Mekong - Japan Exchange Year 2019, adding that they will actively take part in all relevant activities./. At the Illegal Wildlife Trade conference in London on October 11 and 12, global leaders and senior officials will gather to talk about the rampant trafficking of ivory, rhino horn and other wildlife products. Will all the talking translate into action this time? Because the organized crime groups that profit from the multi-billion-dollar market in illegal wildlife products dont care about toothless commitments and pledges. The magnificent wildlife that supports Kenyas booming tourism industry is more valuable to criminals dead, hacked to pieces and packed into shipping containers heading to Asia than alive and roaming free across the savannah. The same is true throughout Africa for endangered rhinos, elephants, pangolins, big cats, turtles, fish, snakes and so much more. The brains behind the trafficking of illegal wildlife products dont need to be too clever. It is simple supply and demand, and it can be extremely lucrative. Plus, even Kenyas comparatively strict wildlife laws are not a great deterrent in practice. You can get life imprisonment for smuggling cannabis but get off with a fine for possession of a game trophy. On the supply side, there have been productive efforts in Kenya to combat poaching. On the demand side, large amounts of wildlife commodities have been seized in or en route to Asia and the Middle East. How many of these seizures have led to convictions in Kenya? Zero. That is shameful, because porous land borders and impunity at ports have made Kenya the route of choice for illegal wildlife products from as far away as South Africa. Many obvious things we can do to stop wildlife trafficking are not being done efficiently or systematically due to a lack of resources and capacity on the ground. Financial investigation, for example. Traffickers need to make payments to rent properties and shipping containers or book berths on vessels. Businesses can provide cover for moving large amounts of money and commodities without attracting attention. These leads can and should be pursued through smarter collaboration between banks and law enforcement. Technology is another area that investigators and prosecutors need to embrace and understand. Criminals dont meet in darkened rooms these days they use their phones to strike deals, agree sums and organize logistics. Not to mention those who give themselves away on social media by posting selfies and flaunting their wealth. Third, international collaboration desperately needs reinforcing. How many more traffickers would get locked up with better collaboration between law enforcement agencies in the countries of poaching, transit and destination? Those of us who care about the destruction of Africas wildlife and the livelihoods that depend legally on it are hoping that Londons Illegal Wildlife Trade conference will not simply be another opportunity for tea and a chat. We want to see more resources channelled into joined-up activities that really make a difference on the ground. That means practical, expert mentoring to build capacity and streamline a disjointed intelligence system. It means supporting local law enforcement agencies with whatever they need to more effectively investigate and prosecute wildlife crime. And ultimately, to prevent the devastation of a continents endangered flora and fauna for personal gain. _____ Gretta Fenner Zinkernagel is the Managing Director of the Basel Institute on Governance, where shes also Director of the Institutes International Centre for Asset Recovery. She has also worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris as manager for anti-corruption programs. She can be contacted here. Simon Marsh is a senior investigation specialist and country manager in Kenya for the International Centre for Asset Recovery of the Basel Institute on Governance. He can be contacted here. A version of this post originally appeared on the Basel Institute on Governance website and is republished here with permission. Pipedrive, a New York and Tallinn, Estonia-based provider of sales pipeline software and CRM, raised an additional $10m in Series C funding. Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners made the investment which brought Pipedrives now completed Series C round to a total of $60m, including funding from new investor Insight Venture Partners, and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, and Rembrandt Venture Partners. The investment which brought Pipedrives total venture capital funding to date to $90m will further strengthen the companys capability to expand within valuable markets such as Germany. Founded in 2010 by Timo Rein, CEO, Pipedrive provides cloud-based sales pipeline software and CRM which delivers visibility and control over a sales pipeline and guides users to complete meaningful activities daily to push deals to close. The solution is used by over 75,000 businesses across a broad range of sectors from startup and SaaS companies, to more offline businesses such as manufacturing, engineering and professional services companies in 170 countries. The company recently launched a new flagship Platinum package with feature areas including workflow automation, team management, reporting, and security all optimized for making sales teams more effective. Pipedrive Platinum equips companies to set goals and track performance. The solution is engineered to automate recurring and manual sales tasks to help salespeople focus on work that requires more creativity. DTCPs investment was made through their Venture/Growth Fund, which focuses on expansion stage Software-as-a-Service companies in the fields of Cloud and Network Infrastructure, 5G/IoT, Business IT, AI/Machine Learning, Cybersecurity and Marketing Technology. FinSMEs 10/10/2018 Wasteless Ltd, an Amsterdam, The Netherlands- and Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of dynamic pricing software aimed at reducing food waste in supermarkets, completed a $2m funding round. The round was led by the Amsterdam-based venture capital fund Slingshot Ventures. The company will use the funds to Expand its current team Increase investments further to develop its proprietary dynamic pricing algorithm Manage its rollouts with food retailers Led by Ben Biron, founder and CMO, and Oded Omer, CEO, Wasteless provides a software solution that offers consumers differentiated pricing for grocery foods based on their expiration date. The system operates based on the inventory, orders, and sales, and executes pricing decisions that are then delivered to the end-consumer via Electronic Shelf Labels on the supermarket shelf or online via the digital store checkout process. Following the implementation of its process at a leading Spanish food retailer earlier this year, the company is currently in talks with several leading food retailers worldwide to introduce its dynamic pricing solution to their stores. FinSMEs 10/10/2018 Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the Mekong-Japan Business Forum held in Tokyo on October 9th (Photo: VNA) Addressing the event, held by the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), the Vietnamese leader said that the Mekong region, located in the centre of Asia with dynamic development, is rising with its determination, potential and strength. According to JETRO, in recent years, the GMS region has rapidly changed in both hard and soft aspects. It is one of the regions with the fastest growth in the world, with average growth rate of 6 percent in 2017. The GMS countries have agreed on a vision on the region with sustainable, harmonious, balanced and inclusive growth, PM Phuc said, highlighting the central role of the business community as the source of new ideas and decisive factor for economic development. He stressed that despite the unstable and complicated world economic situation, Vietnam has still maintained a stable socio-political environment and firm macro-economic foundation. Particularly, Vietnam has an important geopolitical and geo-economic and geo-commercial position in the region and the world, PM Phuc noted. In the first nine months of 2018, the Vietnamese economy grew nearly 7 percent, ranking in the worlds top group in terms of economic growth, he noted. The PM said that Vietnam and Japan have signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), accelerated the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and engaged deeply into the global value chains. Vietnam is a promising destination for multinational groups to diversify, renew and create differences, he said. With a population of nearly 100 million people and an average age of 31 and the majority are well-trained, Vietnam has about 1.5 million people joining the global middle class each year. The figure is likely to reach 33 million people or 33 percent of the population in 2022. Currently, 70 percent of mobile subscribers in Vietnam are using 3G and 4G services, and 72 percent of the population own smartphones, with average ownership of 1.7 phones per person, he said, adding that the ratio of online shopping via mobile phones in Vietnam is 53 percent. According to the PM, in September 2018, Vietnam successfully hosted the World Economic Forum (WEF) on ASEAN 2018 which was themed ASEAN 4.0: Entrepreneurship and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is the most successful WEF on ASEAN ever been held over the last 27 years, attracting more than 1,000 businesses and many leaders, including of the five GMS countries and Japan. So far, Vietnam has attracted nearly 26,500 FDI businesses from 127 countries and territories, including many leading Japanese firms like Canon, Fujitsu, Toyota and Honda, with total registered capital of over USD330 billion. According to a JETRO report released in February this year, nearly 70 percent of Japanese firms in Vietnam operate profitably, and about 70 percent planned to expand operations. Vietnam expects to have free trade agreements with 55 countries by 2020, including 15 nations in Group 20, he noted. PM Phuc stressed that Vietnam is working to build a growth-enabling and action-oriented Government that serve people and businesses. By realising the high-standard commitments in new-generation free trade agreements, the investment and business climate in the country is becoming closer to advanced international standards, thus opening up chances to access many major markets around the world. Vietnam prioritises attracting hi-tech investment into developing transport infrastructure, energy, manufacturing industry, agriculture, finance-banking and high-quality health care, he said, highlighting that: The Vietnamese Government gives priority to the quality of investment projects instead of quantity. Regarding Vietnam-Japan relations, the government leader said their strategic partnership is now at its best with comprehensive and substantive development in all spheres. The year 2018 marks the 45th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties, but in fact, their trading activities date back to the 16th century, he said. The PM added that Japan was the biggest foreign investors in Vietnam last year with total FDI capital of USD9 billion. There have been nearly 4,000 Japanese projects worth over USD55 billion invested in the Southeast Asian nation so far. Vietnams economic growth prospect promises numerous cooperation and development opportunities for enterprises of the GMS countries and Japan, he said. PM Phuc affirmed that opinions of Japanese companies have always been respected and solved by the Vietnamese Government in a timely manner. The implementation of the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative, launched in 2003, has helped improve the investment climate in Vietnam and been highly valued by Japanese investors. It is also one of the effective information channels for local authorities to fine-tune laws and policies and help businesses, including Japanese enterprises, take part in the policy making process of the Vietnamese Government, he added. PM Phuc expressed his belief that with the GMSs potential and the sound Mekong-Japan relationship, the GMS, including Vietnam, will be a trustworthy destination for investors./. . , - , , . , , , ... NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan addressed the the first plenary session at the third Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries Parliaments (MSEAP 3) in Antalya, Turkey, on October 9th (Photo: VNA) Addressing the first plenary session at the third Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries Parliaments (MSEAP 3) in Antalya, Turkey, on October 9, Chairwoman Kim Ngan stressed that during the one year since the 2nd MSEAP, the world has seen numerous changes in both political and economic spheres. Despite some recovery, the world economy is facing many challenges, especially trade war, protectionism and geo-political instability in some regions. Meanwhile, the political situation witnessed complicated developments, with disputes, terrorism, violent extremism, trans-national crime, cyber security and climate change seriously threatening peace, stability and sustainable development of many countries. In such context, the world acknowledged efforts to maintain peace and cooperation to eliminate hot spots in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, along with initiatives to utilize scientific-technological achievements to take human-kind into a new stage of development, she said, adding that it meets the aspiration and interests of the people who parliamentarians represent. Ngan stressed that economic cooperation on the basis of mutual respect for each others independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, equality and mutual benefits is an important condition to maintain a peaceful and stable environment for addressing challenges and striving for sustainable development. At the same time, economic development must go hand in hand with environmental protection, adaptation to climate change and alleviation risks of natural disasters. Vietnam always actively participates in parliamentary diplomacy in the region and the world, she said. We are ready to coordinate to connect the Eurasian parliamentary cooperation with inter-parliamentary cooperation mechanisms such as IPU, AIPA and APPF, thus expanding our working agenda towards the effective implementation of the Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development, she said. Sharing that Vietnam is continuing with international integration, Chairwoman Ngan said Vietnam wants to cooperate more closely with Eurasian countries across the fields, particularly in innovation, digital technology, smart connectivity and inclusive and sustainable development. She proposed further strengthening Eurasian cooperation, intensifying regional and inter-regional economic connectivity, and promoting multilateral trade globally on the basis of mutual benefits and international law. The Vietnamese parliamentary leader also recommended promoting Eurasian cooperation in technology transfer, environmental protection and response to climate change. Developed countries should uphold their pioneering role in helping developing nations, including Vietnam, realise sustainable goals. She voiced support of Eurasian countries efforts to build the Eurasian parliamentary cooperation mechanism into a strong and more close-knit forum, and expand linkage with other inter-parliamentary forums and organisations in the world in order to enhance parliamentary diplomacy. She also mentioned the need to build trust, mutual understanding and respect, settle disputes by peaceful measures, abide by international law and cooperate for sustainable development goals, thus bringing peace, stability and prosperity for every one. The NA Chairwoman concluded the speech with support for the reform of global governance mechanism towards more equality, democracy and efficiency, in line with the change in power balance and the increasing role of developing economies./. Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Vinh receives Eleonora Mitrofanova (Photo: CPV) Mitrofanova is paying a visit to Vietnam on the occasion of the 15th founding anniversary of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Hanoi. At the meeting, Vinh expressed his delight over the positive development of the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia, notably the official visit to Russia by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong in September. The nations will organise the Vietnam Year in Russia and the Russia Year in Vietnam for 2019-2020 to mark both the 25th anniversary of the signing of a treaty on basic principles for the Vietnam-Russia friendship and the 70 years of diplomatic ties, he noted. The Deputy FM spoke highly of contributions of the Rossotrudnichestvo to promoting Russian culture, language, education, and science in Vietnam, along with enhancing people-to-people exchange and the humanitarian cooperation of both countries, bolstering mutual understanding and bilateral relations. He voiced his hope that the Russian agency will actively participate in the organisation of the Vietnam Year in Russia and the Russia Year in Vietnam, as well as provide support for collaboration in education-training, culture, and science between Vietnam and Russia, and the nations localities in particular. On the occasion, he presented a certificate of merit signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh to the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Hanoi. For her part, Mitrofanova pledged to bolster the activities of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in the time to come which, she said, in turn will deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership of the two nations./. By Jeanne Mukamurenzi I strongly feel the world has neglected the raped women in the DRC, Yes, Dr Denis Mukwege has been recognized for his noble work of repairing these women as he is usually referred to (a Dr who repairs women). The man has really done a lot and I salute him for that. My issue here is that the world has failed to openly condemn the man behind the destruction of the women that Dr. Mukwege repairs. Such a man is not supposed be given space in the international fora. But what do we see? We see him at the top of the African Union.Poor Africa!! We see him giving lectures at universities, a total mockery to these intellectuals who sit to Listen to a such sycophant. We see him holding talks with Norwegian prime minister, a respectable lady who understands the uplight of women,a woman who is leading a country which respects the rights of women, a country which does not tolerate any form of abuse against women. We see him shaking hands with top world leaders. Yet, none has ever condemned his support for the armed militia in the DRC, these militia are the ones who have been raping the women that Dr Mukwege has devoted himself to repair. Why is that Paul Kagame and his role in the DRC endless conflicts not mentioned? Has the coltan from Congo that Kagame sales in certain countries blinded these leaders to se that they actually buying bloody Coltan from this war criminal? The world is aware about the man who invaded Congo in 1996 and committed the genocide against Hutu refugees who had fled to Congo after his militia group had captured power in Rwanda in 1994. His Congo evasion was the genesis of raping of the Congolese women and the genocide against Hutu refugees in Congo. Yet, the world is still quiet and the world leaders are rubbing shoulders with such a man,Total hypocrisy, total double standards. The world is aware about the infamous M23 and the man behind it, the world is aware about the mayi mayi militia group and the man behind it ,why not mention him as you recoganise Dr Mukwege ? Shame the criminal publicly, let the criminal be known for the misery he has caused to these women. Once more I salute Dr. for his noble cause. Jeanne Mukamurenzi Kagame Is Already Fulfilling His Threat Of Silencing Ingabire Of late, General Paul Kagame is desperately trying to convince the world that he is now Mr. Nice guy. For example, he freed the women whom he locked up when they tried to challenge him for the ... https://medium.com/@david.himbara_27884/kagame-is-already-fulfilling-out-his-threat-of-silencing-ingabire-dc734a9ff320 NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan attended the opening ceremony of the MSEAP 3 in Antalya, Turkey, on October 9th (Photo: VNA) The event, themed Economic Cooperation, Environment and Sustainable Development in Eurasia, attracted the participation of 40 parliamentary delegations. At the opening, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that Eurasian parliamentary cooperation plays a very important role in promoting the cooperation and friendship for peace, friendship, stability and democracy among countries in the region and the world as a whole, particularly in the context of unpredictable changes in the world situation. Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Binali Yildirim said the SMEAP 3 aims to seek solutions to global challenges, which is a difficult task but he believed it could be done with the cooperation of parliaments of countries in the region. He names some of the challenges such as environmental pollution, war, poverty, disease, terrorism, natural disasters, trade protectionism, food security, among others. As co-chair of MSEAP3 along with Turkey and Russia, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Moon Hee-sang said MSEAP member parliaments should share law-making experience and professional knowledge for the common prosperity of Eurasia. He underlined that the proactive sharing of information will help parliaments quickly find effective solutions to problems facing countries. Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin expressed the hope that the meeting will discuss economic, humanitarian and peace issues on the basis of non-interference into each others internal affairs and respect for member countries sovereignty and rules. He said it is time to promote more discussion among Eurasian parliaments. NA Chairwoman Ngan is to deliver a speech at the first plenary session the same day. MSEAP is a Eurasian parliamentary cooperation mechanism initiated by the Chairman of the State Duma of Russia and the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. The annual meeting offers a chance for legislative bodies in the region to coordinate for action and improve the role of parliamentary diplomacy. The final document of MSEAP is the Joint Statement signed by heads of the participating delegations. Vietnam took part in its first edition in Russia in 2016 and the second meeting in the RoK in 2017./. Kentucky Hemp and The Great American Weed Rush I have a history of occasional, informal, peer-reviewed, THC trials of psychoactive marijuana. The trial was simple: I smoked marijuana with friends. I try to imagine I was judged, during these trials, as witty and funnythen again, perhaps merely as stupid. Details are fuzzy. Its been a long time. Marijuana has been loved and reviled since the Chinese first recorded use in a 2600 BC pharmacopoeia. They didnt know the difference between any of the 113 or so cannabanoids, including tetrahydrocannbinol(THC) or cannibidinol (CBD), but someone must have suspected something was going on. I am new to cannibidinol(CBD), the non-psychoactive compound derived from hemp. You may be wondering: whats the difference between marijuana and hemp? They are both derived from the same Cannabis sativa species, but theyve taken different paths for different purposes. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture licenses growers under a Hemp Pilot Program. A miniscule .3% of THC is the Kentucky legal limit for hemp growers. The potent marijuana strain, Stephen Hawking Kush has a considerably heftier THC payload. CBD did not pop up on my radar screen until last year, while Kentucky was barreling along, trying to reclaim its rightful spot, from Colorado, as the King of Hemp. In the blink of an eye, CBD products started showing up in heath food stores, pharmacies and even gas stations around the state. As a remedy for various ailments, CBD shows promise, but its difficult to figure out what youre buying in the current, wild weed rush, let alone to determine the origin of the hemp. Theres ample anecdotal evidence that CBD might be good for seizures, anxiety, pain relief, anti-inflammatory issues, as well a good nights sleep, but its best to know what youre buying. The jury is not in on all counts, although there is mounting positive evidence that CBD oil might be beneficial in some cases. Farmers, out-of state investors, entrepreneurs and dreamers have jumped on board. There are an estimated 225 growers producing hemp on over 12,000 acres in Kentucky. Colorado still leads the pack at an estimated 17,000 acres of hemp production in 2018. Id always imagined Cannabis was a trouble-free crop. Its not. Hemp requires enormous and expensive hand labor, on top of which are destructive pests and diseases. A new hemp leaf spot fungus was spotted just this season. University of Kentucky pathologist Nicole Gauthier was excited about recognizing a new genus and species, but the disease will cause problems and, left untreated, can ruin a crop. Growing hemp organically? Preventative sprays of antagonistic and natural fungal and bacterial treatment are an option. And then there is the chemical arsenal, but theres a hitch. Chemical fungicides and pesticides are not registered for hemp or marijuana because Cannabis is federally restricted. That may change for hemp when the 2018 Federal Farm Bill moves through Congress. There are no solutions for fungal or bacterial diseases, once plants are exposed to infectious pathogens because biological fungicides must establish and colonize before the pathogen is present. Laura Freeman, founder of Lauras Lean Beef, is growing certified-organic hemp on Clark County, Kentucky, land her family can trace back to Daniel Boone, a distant relative. Freeman has been diligently moving her Mount Folly Farm toward sustainability since she first started marketing her own lean beef in 1985. Lauras Lean Beef, free from antibiotics and growth hormones, was eventually offered in stores across American, Canada and Mexico. Freeeman sold the business in 2007 and thought shed retire, but it didnt take long before she asked, How many yoga classes can I take in a week? Freeman was too entrepreneurial to retire. She cared deeply about her ancestral land and thought Mt Folly farm was nowhere close to being fully sustainable. There was work to do. Now she markets a variety of farm-grown products. Heritage cornmeal is made from organic heirloom corn. She opened Wildcat Willys Distillery, producing moonshine whiskey made from her heirloom corn. The moonshine distillery is named in honor of her husband Bill. Freeman trademarked the name Moonshine Trail to tag team with the hugely popular Bourbon Trail. Freeman has established three goals for her farms sustainability: Ecology, economy (no one goes broke) and community. Lauras Chocolates include hemp seed that are processed in Louisville. The delicious chocolates are made in nearby Mount Sterling at Ruth Hunt Candies. This is the best collaboration Ive done in a long time. Its good for the community. Lauras Full Spectrum Hemp Caramels contain 20 mg of CBD oil. Theyre delicious. Try one before bedtime, and see if the sandman comes calling. Hemp is on the rise. If youve recently wandered around any health food store, youve probably seen a growing variety of hemp productsincluding seltzers, burgers and soaps. Time will tell whether the hemp bubble bursts or grows. Big Ag and corporate America are circling around. Coca-Cola has even announced plans to market a CBD soda. Louisvilles David Dafoe, and his Flavorman colleagues, are developing new CBD products, also. Laura Freeman thinks CBD products have a big upside, but so do lot of other entrepreneurs. Its the wild west, she said. Freeman has never been fly-by-night. She lobbied the USDA and eventually was granted approval to stamp her Lauras Lean Beef as free of antibiotics and growth hormones. CBD oil is in a similar situation. You should be careful what you buy. Ive concluded that deception in food advertising is so pervasive that local knowledge and transparency are the only answers, Freeman writes on Mt Follys website. Freeman recommends a full-spectrum CBD oil with an Entourage Effect that includes many different Cannabis molecules, not a CBD isolate. No one knows exactly how it worksYou cant have an Entourage Effect without full spectrum and you cant have full spectrum without THC, Freeman said. Freemans Homestead Alternatives might be a place to start. Though CBD oil seems to bring me a good nights sleepmost nightsI am not ready to make an unequivocal product endorsement of CBD oil. I started low and slow. I am going to up the dosage from 25 mg to 30 mg and see if my sleep deepens. The mysteries of Cannabis are slowly being decoded. Israeli researchers first uncovered medical potential with the discovery of Cannibidinol (CBD) and dozens of other molecules. They have also found an endocannabinoid system in the human body produces THCnaturally. Cool! Caveat to stoner dudes: Dont construe the endocannabinoid system as the human vape pen. Youre not going to get high on CBD oil, either, but it might make you healthier. Im trying mightily to keep my wits about me. A good nights sleep is now a lot more appealing than pounding the bong. The city gave Urban Commons Queensway, LLC, the Queen Mary's previous operator, $23 million to repair the ship in late 2016. But two years later, most of the 27 projects Urban Commons and the city had agreed were most urgent... After the death of Niklas Pohler : Walid S. sentenced after fist fight outside a night club Bonn/Siegburg After his acquittal in the Niklas Pohler case, Walid S. verifiably became violent. In December 2017, the 23-year-old hit a man outside a nightclub. Now he was sentenced to a fine for causing bodily harm. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken After his acquittal in the Niklas Pohler case, Walid S. verifiably became violent. In December 2017, the 23-year-old hit a man outside a nightclub in Hennef. Now he was sentenced to a fine by the district court in Siegburg for causing bodily harm. As the spokesperson of the court Christoph Turnwald, explained on Tuesday, the following happened according to the judgement of his colleague on December 19, 2017: During the night in question the 23-year-old Bonn man was ata disco in Hennef, smoking outside the door at around 4.30am amongst a group of other people. Suddenly Walid S. pushed a man and warned him: He had better get away, he was standing too close to his girlfriend. The man replied, according to the courts statement: He was standing perfectly where he was and was not considering stepping away. Then Walid S. hit him with his fist, socking him on the jaw. A dispute pursued which was only ended because a witness separated the opponents. During the trial on September 24 Walid S. denied vehemently that he was the one hitting out first, according to the press spokesperson. He admitted that he was in the nightclub and also that there was some wrangling and violence. But he did not hit anybody, he said, he had nothing to with all this. The court had no doubt though after hearing the victim and two further witnesses that the 23-year-old was the one who hit the other man. Particularly the statement of the victim convinced the court: The man recognised Walid S. Case at the appeals chamber of the district court in Bonn As Turnwald explained, the public prosecutor had proposed four months in jail on probation for Walid S., defending counsel Martin Kretschmer had demanded acquittal. Because prosecution and the lawyer did not agree with the sentence, both lodged an appeal, so the case needs to be reopened at the appeals chamber of the district court in Bonn. In Bonn, Walid S. is still in the focus of the prosecutors: The Bonn public prosecution is investigating against him and four other people for the suspicion of jointly causing grievous bodily harm. They are suspected to have beaten up a 23-year-old on October 14, 2017 on the Kurfurstenallee in Bad Godesberg so severely that he had to be brought to a hospital. His nose was broken in several places.Also in this case, Walid S. denies all complicity, his lawyer said in a conversation with the GA newspaper. It is not clear why the investigation is still ongoing after a year. Original text: Rita Klein The event, themed Economic Cooperation, Environment and Sustainable Development in Eurasia, attracted the participation of 40 parliamentary delegations. At the opening, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that Eurasian parliamentary cooperation plays a very important role in promoting the cooperation and friendship for peace, friendship, stability and democracy among countries in the region and the world as a whole, particularly in the context of unpredictable changes in the world situation. Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Binali Yildirim said the SMEAP 3 aims to seek solutions to global challenges, which is a difficult task but he believed it could be done with the cooperation of parliaments of countries in the region. He names some of the challenges such as environmental pollution, war, poverty, disease, terrorism, natural disasters, trade protectionism, food security, among others. As co-chair of MSEAP3 along with Turkey and Russia, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Moon Hee-sang said MSEAP member parliaments should share law-making experience and professional knowledge for the common prosperity of Eurasia. He underlined that the proactive sharing of information will help parliaments quickly find effective solutions to problems facing countries. Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin expressed the hope that the meeting will discuss economic, humanitarian and peace issues on the basis of non-interference into each others internal affairs and respect for member countries sovereignty and rules. He said it is time to promote more discussion among Eurasian parliaments. NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan is to deliver a speech at the first plenary session the same day. MSEAP is a Eurasian parliamentary cooperation mechanism initiated by the Chairman of the State Duma of Russia and the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. The annual meeting offers a chance for legislative bodies in the region to coordinate for action and improve the role of parliamentary diplomacy. The final document of MSEAP is the Joint Statement signed by heads of the participating delegations. Vietnam took part in its first edition in Russia in 2016 and the second meeting in the RoK in 2017. The passing of Philadelphia philanthropist H.F. Lenfest in September after decades of generosity to his city seemed to leave a particularly big hole. His philanthropy was capped by his role in forestalling the further decline of the storiedwhen, after becoming the newspaper's sole owner following a decade of financial and ownership turmoil, he deeded it to an endowed nonprofit institute.In addition to helping to modernize the the Lenfest Institute for Journalism is charged with testing business models to sustain local journalism more widely in a digital age. If local journalism thrives a decade from now, the innovations that sustain this institution so vital to communities and their governance will probably have origins in Philadelphia and the Lenfest Institute. (The institute is a grantee of the Wyncote Foundation, for which I work.)Lenfest's death came at a time when the relationship of philanthropy to the public sector has claimed fresh currency. It is common to hear philanthropy criticized as guilt offerings by rich donors and foundations or, alternately, highly strategic attacks to shrink government or bring a socialist utopia. Rather than wading into that debate, I'd rather reflect on the opportunities for productive alliances between philanthropy and the public sector.Lenfest's transformative act will not quiet the critics of big philanthropy, but in my mind it exemplifies the type of interventions into public affairs for which philanthropy is best suited. Just as Lenfest expected theto sustain itself as a business, smart philanthropy neither tries to replace receding public dollars nor works to disable public-sector institutions. Rather, it aspires to provide opportunity to rethink gnarly problems and to give public institutions the financial breathing room and intellectual capital to test new approaches.In the context of his critique of philanthropy published last year,, David Callahan makes the central point about why philanthropy engages the government. I'm paraphrasing here, but Callahan, the editor of argues that if you put aside the ideologues, most of today's philanthropists seek not to replace public solutions with private ones but to catalyze government to take new kinds of action -- to take risks and experiment with new ideas, to move quickly and pivot easily, and to pay attention to issues that have been neglected.When I was in government, and later in philanthropy, I thought of the relationship as influencing how the "big money" -- public dollars -- was spent. "In other words," as Callahan observes, "the state hasn't been the enemy; the state has been the prize." This in no way suggests an abdication of responsibility by public officials; instead, confident leaders can partner with philanthropy to achieve better results. A few examples from my time in Pennsylvania state government: As the state designed its Medicaid program, foundations convened expert advisory panels to help us build practice standards for managed-care organizations and devise scorecards for recipients that could guide their selection of plans for their families. We relied heavily on foundation-supported research to structure dramatic changes in welfare programs and welcomed a Philadelphia foundation to underwrite independent evaluations of how well the programs were achieving desired results. We were also the target for philanthropy-fueled advocacy for higher standards in day care. The result was the Keystone STARS system , which provides a ladder of quality improvement for day care and early childhood education.When I moved to the philanthropy side, my public-sector experience informed work with grantees. In our work in Philadelphia, we emphasized the importance of unified voices rather than uncoordinated policy positions. In key issue areas we encouraged our grantees to find common ground, to press their positions on all candidates during mayoral elections. When we supported public-sector program innovations, in public education for example, we worked closely with grantees to see that successful pilots would be taken to scale -- not with additional grant funding but through changes in practice within the school district.We were certainly not unique. Two examples from our region are the Neubauer Family Foundation and the Fund for New Jersey. Neubauer recognized that its resources had to be aimed at a target in schools where it could have impact; it started the Philadelphia Academy of School Leadership to strengthen the pipeline of well-prepared principals for public, charter and parochial schools. The focus by the Fund for New Jersey (on whose board I serve) on advancing desired policy goals led it to a convening and leadership role that has produced an impressive coalition to address the risks of undercounts in the 2020 census.Not every foundation wants to engage with public systems, and some public officials view foundations merely as checkbooks to fill holes in their budgets. But for public leaders who want allies in change, there's a lot of room for strategic cooperation. SPEED READ: The Trump administration released a rule on Wednesday that would make it harder for legal immigrants to obtain green cards or permanent residency status if they have used certain government benefits. Unlike the leaked version, the final rule exempts health-insurance subsidies and the Children's Health Insurance program but not Medicaid. The rule is opposed by groups representing not only immigrants but mayors, patients, low-income communities and health-care interests. It is not final until after a 60-day public comment period. After more than a year of discussion, the Trump administration released its final rule on Wednesday to limit what public aid legal immigrants could receive without penalty.The rule would make it harder for legal immigrants to obtain green cards or permanent residency status if they have used certain government benefits, including Medicaid, food stamps and housing subsidies. It will open up a 60-day public comment period.The final rule is not as strict as a leaked version that was released earlier this year. That version included health insurance subsidies and participation in the Childrens Health Insurance Program as penalties for green-card applicants.Still, the rule is expected to receive harsh pushback from advocates for immigrants, patients, low-income communities and health-care organizations.Frederick Isai, executive director of Families USA, a health access advocacy group, released a statement on Wednesday."Conservatives say they want immigrants to follow the rules of our nation. These families have done just that. Yet, this new rule continues the rewriting of core American values -- from a country that welcomes hard-working people who want to improve their lives and contribute to our nation -- to one that takes the bootstraps away from vulnerable families and doesnt think twice in separating children from their parents."Members of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) -- a bipartisan group representing the nations mayors -- unanimously voted to oppose the rule in June."This proposal will compromise childrens health, nutrition and development; impact access to health care for legal immigrants and citizens alike; reduce housing options; and negatively affect our local economies," said Steven Benjamin, mayor of Columbia, S.C., and USCM president, in a statement in September. "Make no mistake: The consequences will be dire and will force families to choose between the things they need and the people they love."According to a report released last month by the, 19 percent of noncitizen adults use Medicaid, and 38 percent of their children are either on Medicaid or CHIP.Health and human services experts say there is already anecdotal evidence that the proposed rule has had a "chilling effect," leading some immigrants to drop or forgo health coverage. The Center for Law and Social Policy conducted a report last year, finding that since President Trump took the White House, there has been an uptick in missed doctor's appointments among immigrants. Even though the final rule exempts health-care subsidies and CHIP, some legal immigrants may continue to avoid them out of confusion or fear, which could have negative ripple effects on the health-care market as a whole."Lets be clear, all Americans are impacted when families are too afraid to seek treatment for their medical conditions -- for example costs go up for everyone when people delay receiving needed health care," said Isai.The marketplace has struggled to attract younger, healthier populations, which has contributed to rising premiums. If more legal immigrants go uninsured, they could exacerbate that issue."We want kids to get vaccinations. We want people to have access to health care. When people dont have that access, it impacts us all. It creates potential public health risks," says Emily Piper, Minnesota human services commissioner.Governors who have come out against the rule, which include Democrats and Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, say they are working to reduce that confusion and fear."Right now the state government is working diligently to reduce confusion by providing accurate, reliable information to the families we serve," says Casey Katims, director of federal and interstate affairs for Washington Gov. Jay Inslees office. "The governor has instructed state health and social services agencies to thoroughly analyze and submit comments on the damaging impacts it will have on Washingtons children and families." SPEED READ: Voters in Arkansas and North Carolina enacted voter ID requirements. Meanwhile, voters in Florida, Maryland and Michigan and Nevada passed measures that aim to make it easier for people to vote and register. On Tuesday, voters in four states appear to have approved ballot measures designed to make voting and registration easier, while two states passed measures making it harder.The most prominent, Amendment 4 in Florida, crossed the 60 percent threshold needed to be added to the state constitution.The measure will automatically restore voting rights to former felons, except those convicted of murder or sex crimes.Florida is one of only three states that doesn't restore voting rights to felons, unless they receive a pardon or clemency. Only a limited number of Florida felons are eligible, and they must appeal personally at occasional hearings in Tallahassee. Due to the state's restrictive nature, one out of every four felons who are disenfranchised nationwide live in Florida.That's 1.4 million citizens unable to participate in the state's elections."Voters in Florida have endorsed a historic advance in democracy for the United States by adopting Amendment 4," says Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform group. "Nearly one-quarter of the entire disenfranchised population in the U.S will now have the right to vote."Advocates see the voting rights and restoration initiatives as part of a broader movement this fall that also included measures in several states regarding redistricting, ethics and campaign finance."This year, we're seeing an unprecedented number of democracy reform and voting rights access measures on the ballot," said Dana Laurent, director of strategic initiatives at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a group that promotes progressive ballot measures. "In 2020, we expect more of the same."In Michigan, voters approveda measure called "Promote the Vote," which will launch an automatic voter registration system to sign people up unless they opt out. It also will allow people to vote absentee for any reason and to register as late as Election Day.In Maryland, voters passed a referendum to allow citizens to register to vote as late as Election Day, which is known as same-day registration."In our view, people who are eligible to vote should be able to register and vote conveniently," said Max Feldman, a counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which favors expansive voting rights.In Nevada, an automatic voter registration (AVR) measure was leading narrowly in early returns. It will have to be approved by voters twice before it could become law. The legislature referred the question to the ballot after Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed the idea last year.In his veto message, Sandoval warned that AVR "would create an unnecessary risk that people who are not qualified voters may unintentionally apply to vote." Evidence for such potential problems seems to be at hand in neighboring California. Last month, the state Department of Motor Vehicles announced that some 1,500 individuals, including non-citizens, had been wrongly registered to vote through the AVR process. That's on top of 23,000 registration mistakes announced the month before. Secretary of State Alex Padilla has called for an audit.Due to concerns about voter fraud, states have spent much of the past decade enacting restrictive voting and voter registration laws, such as voter identification requirements.In Arkansas and North Carolina, voter ID laws have been struck down by courts. But both states passed voter ID ballot measures on Tuesday. Voter ID requirements will now be kosher because they are enshrined in the states' constitutions.Meanwhile, Montana voters approved a measure to make it a crime -- with exceptions for people like mail carriers -- to collect and turn in ballots cast by others. NA Chairwoman Ngan noted with pleasure the development of the traditional friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Kazakhstan and their legislative bodies in particular, especially since the Kazakh Embassy was established in Vietnam in 2015. Vietnamese people always keep in mind the valuable support of Kazakhstan for their past struggle for national liberation and reunification as well as the present national construction and development, she said. Highlighting the fruitful bilateral economic and trade ties, the Vietnamese top legislator said the two countries boast substantial potential to further the cooperation. NA Chairwoman Ngan said she was impressed by Kazakhstans attraction of US$ 220 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2017, and suggested the two sides exchange experience in this field. Vietnam highly appreciates Kazakhstans efforts to promote the initiative to launch a railway connecting Kazakhstan, China and Vietnam, she said. She told the Mazhilis Chairman that Vietnam has sent a delegation to the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Kazakhstan from October 10-11. On this occasion, NA Chairwoman Ngan invited the Kazakh lower house leader to pay an official visit to Vietnam. The leaders acknowledged the consolidated bilateral political ties, as seen in the exchange of all-level visits and the official signing of the Vietnam-Eurasia Economic Union Free Trade Agreement (VN-EAEU FTA). They noted that the VN-EAEU FTA is a milestone that helps elevate the bilateral ties to a new high and open up areas for stronger comprehensive cooperation. Nigmatulin said the deal would create opportunities for foreign businesses and investors to access the Vietnamese market and open a trade corridor between Vietnam and Kazakhstan. He affirmed that Vietnam is Kazakhstans important Asian partner and Kazakhstan always hopes to develop economic and trade relations with the country. The Kazakhstan parliament attaches importance to legislative ties with Vietnam, he said, recalling the official visit to Kazakhstan by NA Chairwoman Ngan in 2017 that has significantly contributed to promoting the relationship between the two countries. Kazakhstan has established the Kazakhstan-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians Group with 40 members, Nigmatulin said, noting his hope that the two sides will share operational experience, especially in lawmaking. When Jason Nemes, a Republican legislator in deeply conservative Kentucky, proposed a bill allowing the sale of medicinal marijuana this year, he included strict conditions to prevent doctors from rampantly prescribing the drug.After all, Nemes has no interest in actually legalizing pot: He hasnt smoked, hes decidedly anti-drug and, until recently, he was even skeptical of marijuanas effectiveness for treating conditions like cancer or epilepsy.Were not interested in allowing people to go and smoke marijuana just for the heck of it. Nemes told POLITICO.He has good reason to be worried. With nine states, and the District of Columbia, now allowing the recreational use of cannabis and more in the pipeline advocates on both sides of the issue say that medical cannabis programs are increasingly functioning as a Trojan horse for de facto legalization in the 40 states where the politics of legalization arent quite ripe yet. And thats rapidly changing the political and policy dynamics surrounding the emerging industry. Once again wading into the contentious battle over policing and violent crime in Chicago, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday announced he would file a statement in federal court opposing the proposed court order that would force sweeping changes to the city's Police Department.Sessions' announcement came the day after President Donald Trump -- who has repeatedly highlighted Chicago's stubborn gun violence -- suggested the department employ stop-and-frisk policing to battle crime.Sessions revealed his plan weeks before a federal judge is scheduled to hear public comments on the proposed consent decree, a court order that would mandate reforms overseen by an independent monitoring team. The decree would likely stand as one of the most significant consequences of the push for police reform sparked nearly three years ago with the release of the video of Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times.On Friday, Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery.The written announcement from the Department of Justice referenced another controversial oversight deal governing policing in Chicago -- the agreement between the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the city that required cops to more thoroughly document street stops. Sessions argued that the deal led to a spike in homicides."Chicago's agreement with the ACLU in late 2015 dramatically undercut proactive policing in the city ... with homicides increasing more than 57 percent the very next year," Sessions said in the statement."Now the city's leaders are seeking to enter into another agreement. It is imperative that the city not repeat the mistakes of the past -- the safety of Chicago depends on it. Accordingly, at the end of this week, the Justice Department will file a statement of interest opposing the proposed consent decree. It is critical that Chicago get this right."A "statement of interest" is a mechanism the Justice Department has used to weigh in on legal cases, but such statements carry no inherent legal weight, according to lawyers familiar with those documents. They resemble amicus briefs, which lawyers can file in an effort to sway a judge's view of a case, attorneys said.The forthcoming consent decree is a product of a Justice Department investigation initiated shortly after the city was forced in November 2015 to release video of Van Dyke, a white police officer, shooting McDonald, a black teenager who was carrying a knife. The video led to heated street protests fueled by long-standing anger among African-Americans over their treatment by police.In January 2017 -- the waning days of an Obama administration that often sought to intervene in local police departments -- the Justice Department issued a report portraying CPD as a broken institution plagued by bad training, lax supervision and rare discipline for cops. Mayor Rahm Emanuel agreed to work toward a consent decree.But then Trump took office and appointed Sessions, who has criticized federal intervention in local law enforcement. Emanuel announced he would try to negotiate an out-of-court agreement to overhaul the Police Department -- a move blasted by reform advocates who said a federal judge's oversight was needed to bring lasting change to the force.In August 2017, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan sued the city to force a consent decree and the mayor agreed to negotiate. Groups including Black Lives Matter Chicago and the ACLU also sued seeking changes, and the Emanuel administration and Madigan's office reached a deal giving those groups a role in guiding the eventual consent decree.The city and Madigan's office have submitted a proposed decree that would aim to create tighter restrictions on use of force, closer supervision of officers and a more effective disciplinary system, among other policy changes. U.S. District Judge Robert Dow Jr. has scheduled court hearings for late October, at which the public can comment on the prospective order.Madigan spokeswoman Maura Possley noted in a written statement that Sessions plans to weigh in against a court order grounded in the findings of the department he now runs."As the Justice Department found after an extensive investigation, Chicago residents and police officers have endured decades of serious problems that have endangered too many lives," she said. "It's not surprising that this Justice Department is opposing real reform."In a joint statement, Emanuel and police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said that "public safety reforms have public safety benefits.""The Trump Administration never ceases to amaze, and this is just further proof that they are out of step with the people of Chicago and out of touch with reality," the statement said.Sessions' opposition to the consent decree dovetails with the perspective of the union that represents rank-and-file officers, the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, which has sought unsuccessfully to have the litigation dismissed. Union President Kevin Graham could not be reached for comment. Description GIS 10 October, 2018: The Grand Challenges initiative for the Republic of Mauritius geared towards contributing to the socioeconomic development of the country was the main theme of a workshop which was held yesterday at Cyber Tower 1 in Ebene Cyber-city. The one-day workshop was organised by the Mauritius Research Council against the backdrop of the numerous challenges which act as barriers in the process of social and economic development of the country. The objective of the Grand Challenges is to encourage the population, including members of the Mauritian diaspora, to submit innovative ideas that can bring about improvements in the quality of life of the citizens. In her address at the launching ceremony, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation, (Dr) Mrs R. Y. Moorghen, pointed out that the prime thrust of Government is to build a strong framework where there is progress and sustainability. While lauding the Grand Challenges, Dr Moorghen, stated this initiative is a critical step towards driving the economic growth rate to a higher level. Thus, it will eventually have a positive impact on the overall quality of life of citizens, she emphasised. This initiative is an attempt to contribute towards the development of Mauritius and put in place a mechanism for the timely identification and resolution of the great challenges for our country, she added. A total of 315 ideas/proposals has been submitted through the Grand Challenges website (https://grandchallengesmauritius.com), under 15 different thematic areas. The Grand Challenges workshop brainstormed on and prioritised the ideas/proposals list that could be transformed into full-fledged viable projects. Concept of Grand Challenges The concept of Grand Challenges has been used in a number of countries across the globe to address very pertinent national issues that, if left unattended, could lead to detrimental effects. The purpose of coming up with Grand Challenges is to identify and support clear priorities for coordinated research and innovation efforts with a view to addressing important development problems through collaboration and joint leadership. The ultimate objective is to identify innovative ideas to promote social and economic development of the country by enhancing the quality of life of the people. Description GIS - 10 October, 2018: Adolescence and the early years of adulthood can be times of stress and apprehension. If not recognised and managed, these feelings can lead to mental illness. The expanding use of online technologies, while undoubtedly bringing many benefits, can also bring additional pressures, as connectivity to virtual networks at any time of the day and night grows. Many adolescents are also living in areas affected by humanitarian emergencies such as conflicts, natural disasters and epidemics. Young people living in situations such as these are particularly vulnerable to mental distress and illness. Adolescence and the early years of adulthood can be times of stress and apprehension. If not recognised and managed, these feelings can lead to mental illness. The expanding use of online technologies, while undoubtedly bringing many benefits, can also bring additional pressures, as connectivity to virtual networks at any time of the day and night grows. Many adolescents are also living in areas affected by humanitarian emergencies such as conflicts, natural disasters and epidemics. Young people living in situations such as these are particularly vulnerable to mental distress and illness. This statement was made this morning by the Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Dr Anwar Husnoo, at the Brown Sequard Mental Health Care Centre (BSMHCC) on the occasion of the celebration of the World Mental Health Day 2018. This years theme is Young people and mental health in a changing world. He stated that adolescence is a critical period since youngsters are more prone to depression, auto mutilation, suicide, intimidation, alcohol and illicit drugs consumption, eating disorders, psychosis and cyber bullying. Other factors such as violence, wars, conflicts, geopolitical changes, trauma, discrimination, family conflict can also lead young people to become vulnerable to mental distress and illness. Dr Husnoo raised concern over the high number of young people, namely 1 000, admitted in the five Regional Hospitals and BSMHCC last year because of consumption of synthetic drugs. He pointed out that substance abuse is threatening the lives of young people as well as affecting their mental well-being. He also highlighted that in 2017, 500 young people were examined for the first time at the BSMHCC, amongst which 13% were drug addicts and 7%suffered from depression. In view of this situation, the Health Minister recalled that Government has taken several measures as regards the prevention and treatment of mental disorders. He recalled that last week, Nenuphar Centre, a new Detoxification and Rehabilitation Centre which aims a t providing a treatment programme for young drug addicts aged below 18, was inaugurated at the Long Mountain Hospital . According to him, m uch can be done to help build mental resilience from an early age to help prevent mental distress and illness among adolescents and young adults, and to manage and recover from mental illness. Prevention begins with being aware of and understanding the early warning signs and symptoms of mental illness. Parents and teachers can help build life skills of children and adolescents to help them cope with everyday challenges at home and at school. Psychosocial support can be provided in schools and other community settings and training for health workers to enable them to detect and manage mental health disorders can be put in place, improved or expanded, he added. Also present for the occasion, the representative of the World Health Organisation, Dr Laurent Musango, highlighted that Worldwide, around 10 to 20% of adolescents experience mental health conditions, yet these remain underdiagnosed and undertreated. He also observed that depression is the ninth leading cause of illness and disability among all adolescents; anxiety is the eighth leading cause. Emotional disorders can be profoundly disabling to an adolescents functioning, affecting schoolwork and attendance. Withdrawal or avoidance of family, peers or the community can exacerbate isolation and loneliness and suicide, he underlined. Dr Musango recalled that WHO has developed a comprehensive package of training and guidance modules to build capacity among mental health practitioners, people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities, people using mental health services, families, care partners and NGOs on how to implement a human rights and recovery approach in the area of mental health. He also dwelt on the importance of a multi-sectoral approach involving the government, civil society, NGO and the WHO to be able to reach out to the community and deal effectively with mental disorders. The ceremony was marked by a cultural show by patients of the BSMHCC and an exhibition cum sale of creative activities of patients from the Occupational Therapy Department. World Mental Health Day 2018 The World Mental Health Day, celebrated on 10th of October every year, aims to sensitise the population on the importance of mental health and mental illness. The objective is to raise awareness on the different services provided in this field and at the same time get rid of the taboos attached to mental disorder. This years theme is Young people and mental health in a changing world. According to the WHO, mental health conditions account for 16% of the global burden of disease and injury in people aged 1019 years. Half of all mental health conditions start by 14 years of age but most cases are undetected and untreated. Globally, depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 1519 year olds. The consequences of not addressing adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults. Apps are old news, and more than three-quarters of American adults now own a smartphone. But state inspectors only recently have turned to mobile apps, which are saving some of them hours a day and millions of taxpayer dollars.In New York, horticultural inspectors visiting plant nurseries had to lug thick, heavy instruction manuals and fill out reams of paperwork for decades. It was frustrating and time-consuming.These days, inspectors can review the nurserys license information and history on an iPad, print out the inspection results using a sleek mobile printer the size of a box of spaghetti, share them with the nursery owner and immediately forward them to headquarters.Inspectors also use the iPad to take photos and view satellite imagery of the nursery or greenhouse. And they can draw on the image with their finger or a stylus to pinpoint problem areas, such as a group of dead trees or an insect infestation, rather than document it by hand on a form.By helping inspectors track trends and respond more quickly to potential threats, the apps help ensure that consumers are buying high-quality plants and trees that don't carry diseases.The paperwork nightmare is gone, said Margaret Kelly, an assistant director at the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. Now, inspectors can spend their time looking at plants and using their horticultural knowledge, as opposed to shuffling papers.Last year, Kellys department joined a growing number of state agencies turning to apps to improve the inspection process for everything from forest inventories to road construction projects.In Washington state, Minnesota and Texas, where state transportation officials sometimes use apps to inspect roads, bridges, noise walls, guardrails and other infrastructure, one study found that apps saved each inspector an average of about two hours of work a day And the quality of information improved dramatically, researchers found, because inspectors used the apps to collect nearly three times as much data, and it was more accurate and detailed.Washington state officials say that on a paving project, for example, inspectors can use apps to quickly and efficiently document material deliveries, asphalt depth and the contractors adherence to specifications.Amy Glasscock, a senior policy analyst for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, said her group doesnt track how many state agencies use apps for inspections. But she knows the number is growing.Apps make a lot of sense for agencies, she said. If it saves time, it saves money. And there are always resource constraints for states. In New York state, more than 35 horticulturists are responsible for inspecting the states nearly 9,000 nurseries, greenhouses and retail markets where plants and flowers are grown or sold.Until they started using apps, inspectors would load their cars with multipart forms, files, procedural manuals for taking samples and copies of laws and regulations, said the agriculture departments Kelly.The app has helped the department more quickly identify trends and respond to potential threats, such as plant diseases and invasive species, she said.Were increasing our efficiency and the quality of our work, she said. Were doing more thorough, in-depth inspections with a higher level of accuracy.The states Office of Information Technology Services spent about $200,000 developing the app in-house, and collaborated closely with the agriculture agency during that process. A computer programmer shadowed a nursery inspector to learn about the job, for example.Other states are also saving time using inspection apps and some are saving money.Inspectors at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources use an app to conduct an annual inventory of 10 percent of the 4 million acres of state forests, said Tiziana Galeazzi, agency services director of the Department of Technology, Management and Budget.Checking on forest density, the health of tree canopies and soil conditions used to take up 40 percent of a state foresters time over a year. Using an app cuts that time in half.Pennsylvania has saved about $27 million in administrative costs in the two years since road construction inspectors started using an app in 2016, said Department of Transportation spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick. Inspectors now can access data from the field rather than traveling back and forth to their offices.And in Washington, the state Department of Transportation has distributed 1,200 iPads to field staffers who use them to document and inspect everything from guardrails to catch basins to drainage systems, said Joe Schmit, maintenance technology resource manager.Before they started using apps, it was hard to accurately track changes over time at a site, Schmit said.They would have a piece of paper on a clipboard that they would stick on a wall some place in a local shop [office], and thats where it would live, he said. If we had specific questions about a ditch flooding or damage to a roadway, it was borderline impossible to get any historical information about it. The Startup in Residence Program (STiR) is now open for applications from private-sector entrepreneurs.As such, STiRs website has posted its annual list of civic challenges , which this year includes more than 80 potential use cases from 28 government partners, including cities, counties, states and even regional transit organizations.In a phone call announcing the opening of the application process, organizers said that a major goal for this years class is to reach 100 percent for the rate of entrepreneurs that ultimately receive government contracts. Jay Nath, who is co-executive director of the organization that oversees STiR, said that historically that rate is 40 percent, noting that forthcoming information about the most recent STiR class will likely provide a boost.All of this speaks directly to the core goals and ideas that give STiR shape: that government has a need for private-sector ideas to help it overcome complex and widespread problems. Alternatively, entrepreneurs see government as a vast and relatively untapped market. Essentially, STiR seeks to function as an introduction mechanism between the public and private sectors.Its structure is built to facilitate this. This year, for example, the application phase for entrepreneurs will remain open until Nov. 7. After it closes, the 28 government partners will parse through the applications and select potential vendors with which to collaborate. Then, starting in January, the government entities will partner with the companies on a project to be built over the course of four months, or they will tweak an existing product to be more in line with the needs of government.The best-case scenario for the private companies is that they will be able to build a product capable of addressing a common and widespread governmental need, enabling them to not only sell it to the agency they partnered with but also to thousands of other governments nation- or worldwide.You can put a challenge out there and rapidly create a solution in four months and go into contract, Nath said. Our cities are prepared in total to spend $5 million on these challenges and solutions. Theres a big readiness, a big commitment, and theyre ready to really roll up their sleeves and work with these startups to develop solutions.STiR first launched as a program limited to San Francisco back in 2014. It subsequently expanded to be a regional California program, before going nationwide last year. This year marks the broadest class of STiR government partners yet, with new members in Canada as well as in other levels of government, specifically at the state level thanks to the participation of Pennsylvania and Vermont.For private-sector partners, STiR continues to be a viable way of breaking into the sometimes tricky arena of gov tech contracts. The most famous example is probably Binti, which developed a more efficient way for San Francisco residents to apply to be foster parents as well as for city employees to manage their applications. Binti has continued to expand the solution it developed for STiR into increasingly more governmental jurisdictions.Binti, however, is far from the only success story. This past year saw the Danish company Nordsense work with San Francisco to build trash can sensors that can alert the city as soon as a public waste bin gets too full.Nordsense CEO Anders Engdal and CTO Manuel Maestrini described their experience with STiR as a positive one. In addition to expanding its work with STiR from a pilot program to a large-scale deployment, Nordsense is now also exploring new installations with governments in Canada, Israel and Switzerland.This is so great because its so troublesome as a startup to do business with government, Engdal said, but in this case we have done it. I wish we had a program like this in Europe, or even in Denmark. (TNS) There was no sitting down Tuesday in third period for students in North Middle Schools gifted and talented program.Instead of listening to a teacher drone on, 17 seventh-graders were doing their own droning, and it was anything but boring.Jozlyn Costa and Deyanira Valenciano were trying to follow Rule No. 1: Never take your eye off your drone. If you do, the likelihood of it crashing into something rises exponentially, they said, giggling.Weve already broken three gears and a couple of propellers, Deyanira said.But they learned how to repair their damaged drone to be as good as new.With Tuesdays wet weather, students used the school cafeteria as an airfield.Flying a drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle, is hard but fun, Jozlyn said.Im not very good at it, but I enjoy doing it, the 12-year-old said.North Middle is one of two schools in Colorado Springs School District 11 to introduce the Flight and Space class this semester. Coronado High students on a drone and rocketry career path also are learning the curriculum.Its thought to be the first drone class for K-12 public school students in the state.Thats why they decided to create the opportunity, said Ray Sevits, gifted and talented teacher at North.Its obviously a budding industry thats growing rapidly, Sevits said. Colorado Springs has almost half of the aerospace and defense industry in Colorado, and we couldnt find any public school education that does drones anywhere.Students are learning everything there is to know: the history of flight, the science, physics and math involved, communication and navigation, map reading, airspace regulations, Federal Aviation Administration laws and other elements in flying drone missions.Theyll also take field trips to hear from local college and business experts, at Spectrabotics, Colorado College, The Space Foundation, the U.S. Air Force Academy and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.Our program is unique because its multi-disciplinary multiple subjects in one class which the students like, Sevits said.Students must be at least 16 to earn FAA certification to commercially operate a drone, so the middle-schoolers will have a jump on that if theyre interested, Sevits said.They could work for a real estate or construction company over the summer, for example, after obtaining a license, he said.Its a safety thing, putting someone on a roof or flying a drone over a roof to find damage, Sevits said. Theyre being used everywhere, so it was like, Why not get it in the hands of students??Excellent hand-eye coordination is needed to master the practice, he said, and most students pick it up pretty well.Using a device that resembles a video game controller, students manipulate small stick controls to maneuver their drones to lift off, hover, flit from side to side, glide back and forth, and spin in place.Students work in pairs and share the small drones with their peers in sixth and eighth grades.As they improve their skills, students will fly larger, more expensive drones that have cameras and global positioning systems.Its like being able to play in class, students said.Theres a lot to learn, including repairing them if you break them, said 12-year-old Leik Williams. We were sloppy at first, but were getting better.Student Diego Sauceda said drones are part of the present and future.So schools teaching this is very important, he said, because these drones are going to take over a lot of jobs.Twelve-year-old Jase Stull is somewhat of a pro. He brought a drone to school in third grade and was reprimanded because they werent allowed at school then.Not the case now, he said with a chuckle.I never thought there would be a class for flying drones, Jase said. I really like it. You can fly at school without getting in trouble. Rooftops arent just for shingles and solar panels anymore. Increasingly, theyre for the birds, the bees and the trees. Green roofs, which have been common in Europe for more than 40 years, are slowly catching on in the U.S. Since the mid-aughts, theres been a small but growing effort particularly in the last two years to turn rooftops over to all kinds of vegetation.The focus comes as cities are setting ever more ambitious energy efficiency and renewable energy goals. Green or living roofs are an obvious solution because theyve been found to reduce energy costs and absorb stormwater. Whats more, green roofs improve air quality and help reduce the urban heat island effect, a condition in which cities absorb and trap heat at higher rates than rural areas. A study commissioned by the Washington state Department of Energy and Environment found that every dollar invested in green roofs generated $2 in benefits. There is more of a mindset today that the roofs of buildings are an infrastructure asset, says Steven Peck, founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. It makes sense then to use those assets to reduce stormwater, filter the air and reduce the urban heat effect.Thats why several cities have begun implementing policies to promote green roofs, starting with San Franciscos Better Roofs Ordinance, which launched in January 2017. The ordinance made San Francisco the first major U.S. city to mandate solar and living roofs on between 15 percent and 30 percent of most new construction. We should treat real estate on the top of our buildings as valuable, says Barry Hooper, green building specialist for the citys Department of the Environment.More recently, voters in Denver approved a green roof initiative that requires newly built buildings larger than 25,000 square feet to dedicate a portion of their rooftops to vegetation or solar panels. The green roofs are intended to help reduce Denvers urban heat island effect, which is the third worst in the nation.And this July, the so-called ecoroof requirement went into effect in Portland, Ore. It mandates that vegetation must cover 100 percent of the roofs on buildings in the central city over 20,000 square feet (with some exceptions). Roughly 25 cities in North America have some sort of program to encourage green roofs, but, says Peck, lately were seeing more of a move to make them mandatory.Part of the reason green roofs have been slow to take root is cost. A study by the University of Michigan found that a 21,000-square-foot green roof, for example, cost about $100,000 more to install than a conventional roof. Of course, the same study found that over its lifetime, the green roof would save about $200,000 thanks mostly to reduced energy needs. To help with the upfront costs, the firm Counterpointe Sustainable Real Estate announced last year that it will start offering property assessed clean energy financing. Through the PACE program, loans are repaid with long-term, fixed rates through an additional line item on the property tax statement. PACE is available in 21 states.Another reason for their slow adoption is that installing green roofs is complicated. Pecks organization has developed a toolkit to help. The Living Architecture Performance Tool (LAPT) is a rating system and best practice guide. While its ultimate goal is to certify that green roofs and walls are planned to achieve certain measurable and replicable performance benefits, its more immediate focus is offering guidance. The tool is free to policymakers in particular, who can use it to maximize public benefits and create effective policies. Not everyone can be an expert, says Peck, but with LAPT you dont have to be. This can help policymakers incentivize green roofs. (TNS) In two years, any Pennsylvania or New Jersey resident who wants to board a domestic flight or enter a federal building must show either a passport or get a new ID card that meets federal post-9/11 security requirements, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey officials say they are preparing for a deluge of ID requests leading up to the deadline.The two states are among 15 that do not yet comply with the Real ID act , which Congress passed in 2005 to set uniform security standards for identification cards as recommended by the 9/11 Commission. All 15 have been granted extensions, but Oct. 1, 2020, is the firm deadline for U.S. residents to have identification with the same descriptive information, machine-readable technology, and security features.By the end of the month, Pennsylvanians will start to see billboards throughout the state about Real ID. PennDot has begun advertising on TV, radio, and online, and is teaching community groups about Real ID requirements, and New Jersey plans to do the same. PennDot is giving presentations and working with airports to spread the word.Pennsylvania plans to begin issuing Real ID-compliant cards in March , and New Jersey plans to do the same sometime this spring."PennDot is very aware that Real ID can seem confusing, and the department understands that proactive and clear communication is key," Alexis Campbell, a PennDot spokesperson, said in a statement.Brenda S. "Sue" Fulton, chief administrator of New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission, said her agency is planning "customer flow improvements." Her office anticipates at least a tripling of its normal workload in the next year because of the federal ID requirements."Our plan is to implement Real ID with a minimum of disruption to the public, avoiding the long lines that other states have experienced," Fulton said in a statement. "To do this, we plan a series of initiatives to reduce congestion in our motor vehicle agencies," including allowing residents to renew registrations and driver's licenses online in the coming months. She said the state would speed service at Motor Vehicle Commission offices but did not specify how.Residents wanting Real ID-compliant cards must prove their identity with documents such as photo IDs, birth certificates , and proof of legal name changes; and provide their Social Security numbers and proof of residency. On the new IDs, states must include residents' names, birth dates, gender, digital photographs, addresses, and signatures, as well as physical security features to prevent tampering or counterfeiting. States must keep copies of the documents used to verify residents' identities.Unlike New Jersey, Pennsylvania is allowing residents to ask for "pre-verification" of their identifying documents. That way, once the state begins issuing Real ID-compliant cards in March, pre-verified residents can apply for their cards from home and receive them in the mail within seven to 10 business days, according to PennDot."If PennDot can pre-verify as many customers as possible now and those customers can apply for their Real ID online and not return to a center, that means more efficient service at driver license centers as demand for Real ID grows," Campbell said.PennDot has mailed about 4 million postcards to residents who may be eligible to apply for pre-verification online. The department is now mailing a similar postcard to the remaining 7 million residents who need to visit a PennDot office, because they got their IDs prior to September 2003 when the state began keeping copies of verifying documents.In the month since PennDot began pre-verifying residents in-person, the state has pre-verified about 9,000 people. Since online pre-verification began this March, PennDot has authenticated the documents of about 52,000 people who applied this way.Pre-verification is "under consideration" in New Jersey, Fulton said. She did not elaborate. (TNS) Tech giants are funding the launch of a research lab at UC San Diego to unravel the mysteries around blockchain, a new way of writing software thats sweeping industries around the globe.The new academic center is called BlockLAB, and it includes about 20 individuals who will be digging into the technical, legal and business questions surrounding the fast-moving new technology. The laboratory is financially backed by tech titans like IBM, Dell and Intel, among others.Touted by some as a revolutionary concept, blockchain in its simplest form is a way to distribute data across lots of servers in a fixed, unhackable format (so far). The concept is alluring to many, as they say its a foundational way to exchange information without the help of third parties. For example, one day monetary transactions could be made through software without the help of banks, where one transaction is recorded across hundreds of computers and verified by dozens of servers instead of just one bank.This is already being modeled with cryptocurrency like bitcoin, but the implications of such an exchange is still not well understood. And currency is only the first application developers have found for blockchain. Startups and researchers around the globe are unveiling new ways to use the technology every day, from recording location data and transacting real estate purchases to establishing digital identity systems.But the technology is still in its infancy. Much like the internet in the early 1990s, the blockchain is undergoing boom and bust cycles as companies, governments and individuals grapple with technologys complexities. Etienne de Bruin, the founder of a tech leadership group called 7 CTOs, says blockchain is still one big experiment.The internet incubated for 10 or 15 years before we found something useful for it, de Bruin said. Now we live in the information society, so were all a part of the blockchain conversation.James Short, lead scientist and co-founder of the Center for Large Scale Data Systems at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, largely agrees with de Bruins view which is why hes launched BlockLAB, serving as the research groups director.One of the oldest lessons we know of new technology is that the thing introduced is rarely the thing eventually adopted, Short said. The web is the obvious example of that. Were in the early stages (of blockchain) with limited understanding of implications of this technology. We want to be part of that evolution so we understand and contribute as it moves forward.Short said the academic lab will be studying the big questions surrounding blockchain, including taking a hard look at how blockchain will impact data architecture, its potential to replace shared databases and other technical implications. The lab will also interrogate the legal foundations of contracts, and the technical issues that might arise from algorithmic contracts. BlockLAB will also analyze the potential business and economic impacts of the evolving blockchain marketplace.These are all topics that are highly interesting to tech giants like the companies sponsoring this new lab.The industry has a lot of questions, Short said. Theres significant motivation for all companies to not be late on something that could have big promise. Companies that were late on the internet, for example, spent a lot of money to catch up.Short said BlockLAB will be holding a meeting Dec. 4 to discuss market formation in blockchain, among other topics. Although not open to the public, Short said interested parties can contact him about attending. Representatives from a handful of local blockchain startups attended their last meeting, Short said, including genomics blockchain company LunaDNA.Like most cities around the world, San Diego has an emerging blockchain community. Local startups using the tech as foundations for their business include Edge, Altcoin, XYO Network, LunaDNA, Polyswarm.io and eSmart Tech, among others.One of those startups, XYO Network, is hosting a blockchain conference in San Diego called Spatial Summit from Nov. 9-11. There, startups, developers, and industry folks will discuss hot topics within blockchain and see technology demos, the founders said.And its likely more blockchain talk will start bubbling up in San Diego. Greg Horowitt, a local venture capitalist with T2 Venture Capital, said hes part of a different effort at UC San Diego to launch an experimental program called the Blockchain Exploratory.The Exploratory is a platform to encourage and empower students, researchers and faculty at UCSD to design, test, implement and measure/monitor blockchain experiments on campus and in the community to advance the understanding/knowledge creation of, and social and economic impact related to this emergent and disruptive new paradigm, Horowitt wrote in an email. The Ethiopian President took the occasion to extend his condolences to the State, Government and people of Vietnam over the passing of President Tran Dai Quang. Teshome highly valued the visit of President Quang to Ethiopia in August, saying the trip marks a new page of the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Ethiopia. Lauding Vietnams achievements in the past more than three decades, notably in agricultural reform and foreign investment attraction, he said Ethiopia looks to study Vietnams experiences in economic development and national construction. He proposed that Vietnam re-open its embassy in Addis Ababa and voiced his hope that the ambassador will actively contribute to the bilateral relations and cooperation. For his part, Ambassador Doanh expressed his hope that the two countries will enhance exchanges of high-ranking delegations to share experiences and create solid foundation for cooperation in many fields. The same day, the Vietnamese Ambassador discussed measures to bolster cooperation with Tsegab Kebebew, head of the Asia and Oceania Affairs of Ethiopian Foreign Ministry. At the meeting, he asked the ministry to arrange the Vietnam visit of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali at an early date. He also requested relevant agencies of Ethiopia to consider and start negotiations on agreements on investment encouragement and protection, on double taxation and others, to create a legal foundation for bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation. More sharks, more risk? How it works Attacks California priority (TNS) A new, high-tech sonar shark-detecting system has been installed on the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach.The two-month pilot project is expected to go live the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 10, and will begin sending real-time alerts to lifeguards when sharks enter an invisible net area close to shore.Originally created in Australia and the first of its kind in the United States, the Clever Buoy is intended to help lifeguards keep swimmers safe amid the surge in shark populations off the Southern California coast.As sharks populations increase off the Southern California coastline and beyond due to decades-old fishing restrictions and protections, lifeguards and ocean users are trying to figure out how to co-exist with them. Areas of hot spots with juvenile sharks close to shore have been tracked in the South Bay, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, San Clemente and Dana Point in recent years.I fully understand the success in the recovery of the species that the scientists are talking about, said Ian Cairns, a former pro surfer who has pushed to bring the system to local waters. However, the impact on the people who are beach users, its really scary.Cairns, originally from Western Australia, remembers the carefree days surfing the remote areas of his hometown breaks.But beach life has changed in that part of the world, as several fatal shark attacks in the past decade have rattled ocean-lovers.I have a really major concern that in Southern California, were approaching the kind of circumstance we have in Western Australia where I grew up, Cairns, who now lives in Laguna Beach, said. Everyone in the ocean boogie-boarders, divers, surfers and swimmers were all at risk of being attacked by great white sharks that werent there before.Cairns connected with Craig Anderson, founder of Clever Buoy. Anderson had tested out the system at several locations throughout Australia and South Africa, as well at some professional surf contests.The system uses a software that sets up a virtual net. When any large animal comes into that area about 300 yards off the pier the system locks onto that creature and quickly analyzes it, Anderson explained.Clever Buoy created by the company Smart Marine Systems uses recognition software to identify sharks by shape and side-to-side movement.Sharks have a unique swim pattern in comparison to other animals in the sea, so we can differentiate them pretty quickly, he said.If a shark is detected, an automatic alert is sent via text or mobile app to lifeguards. They can then warn beachgoers of the creaturess location, whether its behaving erratically, and in which direction its heading.The system has acoustic-tag receivers, as well as sonar, so it picks up the presence of all of the sharks that enter the designated area, called the safe zone. Current tracking systems only download data from tagged sharks , and downloading the information can be costly and is not done in real time.Anderson said the frequency of the sonar has been academically and scientifically verified, and approved by the California Coastal Commission.It has been critiqued all over the world, weve had no issues at all, he said.The hope is that the pilot project will show how similar systems can be used around the world, especially in areas that are seeing a similar influx of shark activity, Anderson said.The installation comes just as a shark killed a bodyboarder off Cape Code a few weeks ago . A teenage diver was bit off San Diego on Sept. 29. Anderson has seen first-hand the impacts sharkier waters can have on tourism areas.Were an Australian company, weve experienced a significant level of fatalities over the last decade; its had a massive impact on tourism, business and even our lifestyle. People just dont enjoy the water like they used to, he said.He also believes Southern California is in the infancy stages of what they are experiencing in Western Australia a decade ago. There have been two near-fatal attacks near Orange County, both swimmers, in the past two years Once those animals get older and bigger, it ends up resulting in fatalities. Its the same pattern we see unfolding here, Anderson said. Theres a lot more people here and water uses than we have in our remote part of Australia.Workers on the boat, Ever Ready, and a smaller boat alongside, and under the water install cables that run from sonar equipment on the ocean floor to the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach, that will detect sharks off the coast, on Thursday, September 27, 2018. The system used in areas of Australia, has never been used off US waters before and is being installed as a pilot program. The readings may help lifeguards figure out ways to make real-time decisions on shark activity off the coast. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)For Cairns, hes not so worried about himself in the ocean but fears for his children.The (juvenile sharks) grow up and inadvertently mistake us for food and they bite us, he said. I dont think they have any intention of eating humans, but those accidental attacks youre lucky if you live.He hopes one day the Clever Buoy will be in place in popular destinations like Huntington Beach Pier.Other areas, you make a calculated risk and I know surfers will do that because weve done it our entire lives, he said. I just want a sense of security at these high-population centers.The Clever Buoy is just one of several tools being tested to find out more about sharks and their patterns.Shark Lab director Chris Lowe has recently been studying e-DNA that tests salt water to show if sharks are nearby. Earlier this year, the state passed $3.75 million in funding to help shark research and safety programs. At this point in time, its just another tool, said Newport Beach lifeguard Chief Brent Jacobsen. This will just be another technological helper.Jacobsen said theres still a lot of unknowns with the system, which will be another layer of information in addition to drones, helicopters and observations from lifeguards, surfers and beachgoers to help them make educated decisions.Its unproven to us, so were just kind of standing back and taking a peek at it, he said.The project launch is happening at the Balboa Pier at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 10.For more information, visit sharkmitigation.com (TNS) U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-New York, said hackers shut down his campaign website on Sunday.The group calls itself Tims Army and also is known as Ayyildiz Tim Siber Army, King said Monday.The good news is that we immediately contacted our service provider and security company and the site has been cleaned and all malware removed. The website should be fully restored very shortly, King said in a news release.Most importantly I can assure all supporters and contributors that no personal or financial data were stored on the website's server and could not have been compromised," King said. "This is another demonstration of the constant threat of cyber hacking and the need to counter it immediately.The group has taken over the Twitter accounts of national political journalists, including Fox News Brit Hume and NBCs Peter Alexander, posting Turkish propaganda, according to news media reports.King said in an interview Monday that he alerted the House security team of the hacking, as well as the House Intelligence and Homeland Security committees and the Nassau County Police Department.King, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee and is chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, said no security or intelligence-related information was posted on his campaign website that could have been compromised.But he said he wanted to alert the committees in case the group was targeting other members of those committees.I dont know if it was random, King said. I dont know if I was being targeted. I dont know if it was just a coincidence.King is running for a 14th term in Congress against Democrat Liuba Grechen Shirley. BYD Canada has been awarded an order for battery-electric buses by WESTCOAST Sightseeing, the first tour company in Canada to order clean energy buses, and the first to commit to having a 100% clean-energy fleet by 2023. The largest private bus operator in Vancouver, Canada, WESTCOAST Sightseeing has agreed to work exclusively with BYD on converting its entire fleet of 90 buses, which will include open top buses, double decks and singles and others. WESTCOAST Sightseeing will also work with city to develop charging infrastructure that will not only benefit WESTCOAST but many other companies that want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and climate impact. In addition to this BC order, BYD Canada has buses on order or in operation for Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) and the Reseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) in Quebec; Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in Ontario; and St. Albert (STAT) and Grand Prairie in Alberta. BYD had more electric buses on the Canadian roads than any other firm. Investing more than $250 million in North America to date, BYD has delivered more than 270 buses in North America; and sold or leased in excess of 600 buses in total to more than 50 municipal, transit agency, university, airport, federal and other commercial and private sector clients in 14 US states, and across 4 provinces in Canada. The European Council agreed on setting a target of a 35% average reduction in CO 2 emissions form new cars by 2030. This position is a basis on which to begin talks with the European Parliament, which just came out with its own target of 40% by 2030 (earlier post). The first negotiation meeting between the European Council and the European Parliament is taking place today. Average CO 2 emissions of new passenger cars registered in the EU will have to be 15% lower in 2025 and 35% lower in 2030, compared to the emission limits valid in 2021. For vans, the Council maintains the targets as proposed by the European Commission: 15% in 2025 and 30% in 2030. These are EU-wide fleet targets. The CO 2 reduction effort will be distributed among manufacturers on the basis of the average mass of their vehicle fleet. The Council agreed to adjust the Commission proposal on an incentive mechanism for zero- and low-emission vehicles such as fully electric cars or plug-in hybrid vehicles as regards passenger cars. The benchmark for cars for 2030 was raised to 35%. The Council decided to introduce a better weighting of low-emission vehicles in the incentive mechanism for ZLEVs. The Council also agreed a specific incentive for manufacturers to sell zero- and low-emission cars in markets with a low market penetration of these vehicles. In concrete terms, there is a more favorable weighting for newly registered passenger cars in member states where the share of zero- and low-emission vehicles is below 60% of the EU average. For vans, the Council agreed to leave the Commission proposal unchanged. More reliable emission data. Under the new rules, car manufacturers will have to report more robust and more representative data concerning the emissions of cars and vans. The Council decided to strengthen the provisions by obliging manufacturers to report measured values instead of declared values. The calculation of targets will thus be based on measured WLTP values. The Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) is an improved test procedure which provides CO 2 emission and fuel consumption values that are more representative of real world conditions than values obtained through the test procedure used previously, the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC). The WLTP became mandatory for all new car models from September 2017 and for all new cars from September 2018. Background and next steps. The European Commission presented its proposal on the regulation in November 2017 as part of the clean mobility package. The proposal has been the subject of detailed negotiations in the Council Working Party on Environment before being submitted to ministers at the Environment Council on 9 October. The new agreement enables the Council to start negotiations with the European Parliament, which adopted its position on 3 October 2018. Negotiations between the co-legislators will start immediately. The overall aim of the proposal is to contribute to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and to reaching the EU-wide 30% reduction target by 2030 compared to 2005 of the non ETS (Emissions Trading System) sector set by the European Commission, which is translated into national targets in the Effort Sharing Regulation. The proposed measures and targets are based on the 2030 climate and energy framework and with the energy union strategy, which aims at a reduction in transport emissions and energy consumption. Scott Keogh, currently president of Audi of America, is leaving Audi to take on leadership of the Volkswagen Group in North America as well as the VW brand in the region. Hinrich Woebcken, the current head of VW Group of America, will serve as adviser to Group in region. Mark Del Rosso, head of Bentley Motors Inc., Americas, since 2017, is returning to Audi as president. Keoghs and Woebckens new roles are effective 1 November. Del Rosso joins Audi 1 December. His replacement will be subject to a future announcement. Keogh, 49, joined Audi in 2006 as chief marketing officer where he led the revival of the Audi brand with innovative marketing tactics that led to record awareness and brand strength. In 2012, he was appointed president, building on the momentum to help increase customer satisfaction and double sales from 2010 to 2015. On October 9, the NA deputies held a meeting with Hanois authorities to discuss preparations for the upcoming 14th NA's sixth session under the chair of Politburo member and Secretary of the Hanoi municipal Party Committee, Hoang Trung Hai. It is standard practice for the citys NA deputy delegation, before each NA session, to help the delegates comprehensively grasp the local socio-economic situation and recommendations. At the meeting, the citys authorities proposed to the NA recommendations related to the amendment, supplementation and improvement of the legal system, as well as supreme supervision. Notably, Hanoi suggested that the Government allow the city to collect tolls from vehicles operating in several areas with high risk of traffic jams and environmental pollution to limit the number of vehicles from entering the city, while completing regulations to implement electric vehicle management similar to that of motorcycles. At the meeting, local issues concerned by the NA delegation were discussed by leaders of relevant Hanois units, clarifying the management and handling of fire and explosion violations in bloc towers, the progress on granting certificates of land-use rights to flat owners, and solutions for environmental pollution treatment, in addition to management responsibility in licensing art performance activities. Politburo member Hai, who is also Head of the citys NA deputy delegation, said that these issues were also included in the citys urban administrations and Hanoi is focusing on directing the resolutions and strengthening the responsibility of the heads of the local units at all levels to handle them. Regarding a pilot management project based on the model of urban government that Hanoi is implementing, Politburo member Hai asked the NA deputies to actively study the model and discuss thoroughly the project contents at the upcoming NA session. Business UAE Armed Forces concludes deals worth Dhs11 billion on day two of Dubai Airshow 2021 "The deals concluded on the second day of the airshow are different from one another, because they have been signed with several countries. There is o... Haiti - Humanitarian : OECS calls on international community to help Haiti The Commission of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) called on the international community to launch a rapid and coordinated relief effort to help the people and the Government of Haiti following the recent earthquake of magnitude 5.9 that struck northern Haiti on October 6, causing 17 dead, 333 injured, destroying 353 house and damaging 7,430 others as well as schools churches and other public buildings https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25774-haiti-flash-the-last-assessment-of-the-earthquake-is-heavier.html The Director-General of the OECS, Didacus Jules, speaking from OECS Commission Headquarters, extended his deepest condolences to the bereaved, the government and the people of Haiti and declared "We stand in strong solidarity with our Caribbean family in Haiti and urge a rapid international relief effort to support in particular Port-de-Paix and other regions where hospitals are struggling to cope in the aftermath. [...] I urge the international community to remember that the size of a natural disaster does not always reflect the depth of human suffering. We urge international leadership to provide Haiti and its people [...] the emergency and development assistance of concerned and able nations all Haitians urgently need at this difficult time." See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25774-haiti-flash-the-last-assessment-of-the-earthquake-is-heavier.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25744-haiti-flash-earthquake-of-59-in-the-north-of-haiti.html SL/ HaitiLibre He made the affirmation while attending a meeting of the 73rd session of the UN General Assemblys Sixth Committee (Legal Committee) on October 8-9. Laying stress on Vietnams achievements in building and completing the legal system and judicial reforms as well as enhancing jurisdiction to protect human rights, Ambassador Quy said the country has proactively participated in the codification and advanced development of the international law. Vietnam is one of the first 10 countries to sign and ratify the Non-Proliferation Treaty, he said. Ambassador Quy stated that along with other ASEAN member states, Vietnam is making concerted efforts to turn Southeast Asia into a region of peace, stability and prosperity. In the context of the complicated developments in the East Sea, Vietnam calls on relevant parties to exercise restraint and address disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international regulations, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), with respect for legal and diplomatic processes, fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, and working to finalise an effective and legally binding Code of Conduct in the waters, he added. The Sixth Committees meeting drew the participation of more than 70 UN member countries, and representatives of international organisations. They all agreed that respect of the rule of law at national and universal jurisdiction levels is essential to tackle current security challenges and conflicts. Members of the Non-Aligned Movement said that the rule of the law must be promoted based on the UN Charter and international law, particularly respect for independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. In Turkey, the delegation met with Vice Mayor of Ankara on September 27, during which the two sides shared experience in development policies and local governance, particularly in the fields of infrastructure and social welfare. The delegation visited several historical relic conservation projects in Ankara and social housing quarters built at former slum areas. At a working session with First Deputy Mayor of Istanbul Ahmet Selamet, Dao Duc Toan strongly recommended that Hanoi and Istanbul further their bilateral partnership in all aspects in the context of the growing ties between Vietnam and Turkey, as seen through the Turkish Prime Ministers visit to Vietnam in August 2017 and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngans visit to Turkey in October this year. The Istanbul deputy mayor introduced the citys potential and strengths to the guests, and expressed the wish to gain more information about policies on foreign investment of Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular. During their stay in Switzerland, the Hanoi delegation had a working session on October 1 with Thomas Moser, official in charge of communications and external relations of Bern state. The delegation affirmed Berns experiences in urban administration are useful for Hanoi in implementing its pilot project on urban administration. In Brussels, the delegation held a meeting with officials of the Wallonie-Bruxelles region, during which the two sides reviewed the cooperation between the two sides under a deal signed between Hanoi and the Wallonie-Bruxelles. The meeting also pinpointed areas for future cooperation which will be included in an agreement to be signed between Vietnams Ministry of Planning and Investment and the region this November. The Deputy Secretary of Hanoi Party Committee said he wished the two sides would boost collaboration in cultural heritage conservation, cultural and art exchange, and education-training. He also asked the Wallonie-Bruxelles region to assist Hanoi in addressing waste treatment, animal husbandry and animal slaughter, which are the regions strengths. The IPCC emphasises in its widely discussed report that emissions cuts alone will not suffice to keep global warming below the crucial threshold of 1.5C, but that governments must also step up their efforts to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by investing in natural and artificial carbon sinks. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC) newly published report is a cold shower for the forest policy of Finland, views the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (SLL). SLL on Monday pointed out that the report identifies forests as the best carbon sinks and storages. Finland, it added, has contrastively raised its logging targets substantially in recent years and is intent on continuing the trend in the years to come, thereby reducing the ability of forests to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The countrys net emissions are consequently set to increase, rather than decrease, by 2030, according to its report under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Finnish government has similarly conceded that its objective of harvesting an additional 15 million cubic metres of wood will prevent net emissions from decreasing, reports YLE. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC) report is a cold shower for Finnish forest policy. The logging targets can luckily be scaled down and carbon absorption supported, tells Otto Bruun, a conservation expert at SLL. Ecosystems can luckily mitigate warming and absorb emissions. Finland is especially well-equipped to accomplish this and could set a sustainable example for the rest of the world, he adds. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has estimated that the national logging targets will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by forests by an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of the entire transport sector in Finland. Aleksi Teivainen HT Source: Uusi Suomi On an unseasonably warm afternoon, expats from across Finland gathered in the crypt of the imposing Mikael Agricola Church in Punavuori, all in search of clarity. Given the troubled state of negotiations between the UK and the EU, which have been deadlocked for months, it was hoped that the ambassador may be able to shed some light on the situation. On Monday 1 st October, the British Embassy in Helsinki addressed a gathering of concerned British nationals on the current state of Brexit negotiations, in the form of a town hall meeting intended to assuage growing concerns. The result was a tense 2-hour session involving insults, straw polls and heated debates that bitterly exposed the current state of anxiety among Brits in Europe. As Earl Grey tea and chocolate digestives were served to the crowd of students, businesspeople and retirees who have made Finland their home, the sense of unease was palpable. One young gentleman in a suit joked that the decision to host this event in a crypt was surely some kind of metaphor for the state of UK-EU relations. Most were loudly speculating over what would happen to the five thousand UK citizens in Finland should a deal with the EU not be reached by March 2019. There is currently no agreement in place regarding citizens rights, meaning a hard Brexit in five months could result in thousands of people losing their EU residency rights overnight. A hush descended upon the room as the British ambassador to Finland, Mr. Tom Dodd, took center stage. He was also accompanied by a representative from the Migri, who was there to give technical advice for those concerned about their residency status. The hallmark of Brexit is continued uncertainty, so Im afraid my assurance is limited, Mr. Dodd told the crowd. An audible sigh of disappointment rose from the back of the room. The ambassador then launched into a 20-minute update on the state of negotiations, promising that the UK was working hard to get a deal that would work to everyones benefit. He warned those listening not pay heed to the sensational press and said that good progress was, in fact, being made. The official stance of the UK government, that a very good deal had been offered to the EU, and all the EU need do is accept it, was repeated several times. Reassurances were made that, as long as a deal is reached by March, everyones rights are secure, and they can continue enjoying EU residency as before. This, of course, led to the second half of the event: what to do if there is no deal. Unfortunately, the prospect of No Deal has gone up, Mr. Dodd told the audience. In terms of rights of citizens [in event of No Deal] we are at a standstill. A no deal Brexit represents the worst nightmares of many Brits in Europe, as this could result in them becoming third country nationals overnight, meaning a visa and work permit would be required to continue living in Europe. Qualifications, licenses and study rights would also become invalid in the EU if special arrangements in these areas are not made. Mr. Dodd declared that the British and Finnish government are in conversation regarding preparations for No Deal, which would also affect the 20,000 Finnish people currently living in the UK. Quite what these conversations have entailed was left unsaid, but the ambassadors next words gave us something of a clue. He instructed the now-silent audience that it is imperative that they begin gathering as much paperwork as possible that documents their life in Finland. Just get yourself in the system as much as you possibly can. Then came the questions from the audience. The first one, naturally, asked how exactly the UK government is working to prevent a No Deal Brexit from occurring. To this, Mr. Dodd replied that negotiations were intensifying, and that nobody is interested in stopping planes flying from Helsinki to London. The next question came from a middle-aged man in the center of the room; after briefly denouncing the UK gutter press for getting us in this awful, awful situation, he put a question to the audience. Who here believes that we are entitled to a second referendum on Brexit, given the lies we were sold in original?. A show of hands revealed that a large majority of the room was in favor. To this, a gentleman sat nearby responded angrily. We dont need any lectures from you. The British people already had their say, and its the job of the British government to get on with it and implement the result. The Remain versus Leave argument playing out in microcosm. As arguments began flying across the room and tensions began to mount, diplomatic staff asked for quiet. Stone-faced. Mr. Dodd responded; it is not the policy of the British government to pursue a second referendum. More questions were shouted from the audience. Will my driving license still work here next year?. Will I still be able to receive benefits?. Will I have to start paying university fees?. At one point an elderly woman stood up to address the audience. She had lived in Finland for 66 years, had never had to fill out a residency application, and was concerned that she would not be physically strong enough to complete the 5-hour Finnish language exam required to obtain citizenship. Would special arrangements be made for people like her? Like the other questions, the ambassador did not have a straightforward answer. It seems that despite there being only a few months left until Britains departure from the EU, everything is still up for negotiation. As EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier famously said; nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. It seems the British in Finland may have to wait a little longer for the clarity they seek. Adam Oliver Smith Helsinki Times Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP - LEHTIKUVA / AFP The European Commission published its detailed opinion on the notification on Tuesday, viewing that the measures laid out in the notification are partly excessive and would constitute a quantitative restriction on the free movement of goods as a de jure discrimination against imported alcoholic beverages. The Finnish governments notification concerning the distance sales of alcoholic beverages has been rejected by the European Commission. The commission understands the health concerns of alcohol abuse and the fact that the control of the consumption of alcohol so as to prevent the harmful effects caused to health of humans and society by alcoholic substances. The commission also acknowledges that the legislation at issue thus seeks to combat alcohol abuse, it states. Restricting the free movement of goods, however, is justified on grounds of public health only if the measures are not disproportionate, reminds the European Commission. The commission is not convinced about the necessity and proportionality of the prohibition at issue. The commission is of the opinion that other, less restrictive means may be able to achieve the same objective, it says. Petri Sarvamaa (NCP), a Member of the European Commission, believes the statement came as a shock to the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. They have no choice but to accept this, he said to Uusi Suomi on Tuesday, referring to a guest contribution to Helsingin Sanomat by Ismo Tuominen, a ministerial counsellor at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Tuominen described the commissions recommendations as imaginative and speculated whether they would make it possible to pick up whisky from R-kioskis. Aleksi Teivainen HT Source: Uusi Suomi THE CLASS takes place in a bright, well-lit room. We begin by standing on our mats, rotating our knees in and out to get a feel of the way different parts of our body are connected to one another. Sonu gives instructions and asks questions as we move through each subtle movement slowly. Antigym or Antigymastique is a body work method developed by French physiotherapist Therese Bertherat in the 1970s. Its popularity has spread outside of France as Antigym practitioners have brought the method across the world, particularly to South America and Europe. Helsinki Times spoke to trained Antigym practitioner, Sonu Manglani , about the method after one of her classes. The hour seems pass very quickly as we take a few minutes to focus on each movement and our breath. We go through a series of movements both standing and lying down using different props. We each get a small ball which we place underneath one foot at a time, closing our toes around it and squeezing it. The last movement involves placing a pillow underneath the sacrum in order to allow the lower back to relax fully. The end result is a feeling of total body relaxation and better body awareness. THIS METHOD OF BODY WORK emphasises the harmony between the neck, shoulders, back and sacrum, explains Sonu after the class. We pay attention to one specific movement, using the breath to help lengthen and relax the muscles. The connection between the body, the mind and the breath helps to deepen body awareness, a key aspect of this method. It also provides a wonderful opportunity to focus on oneself amidst the stress fast-paced modern life brings to most people. Most of us overwork certain muscles which leads to compensation from others, continues Sonu. One area that is usually overworked is the back area, or what Therese Batherat refers to as the tiger. In Antigym, your tiger refers to the musculature of the back of your body, arranged in a solid and continuous chain from the base of the neck to the toes. This chain is often overworked leading to tightness, pain and overcompensation in the front of the body. Antigym aims to lengthen and stretch this chain so that these muscles can finally relax and start working with greater ease and fluidity. As it aims to improve flexibility, mobility and reduce stress, this method is a good counterbalance to other physical activity from more labour intense activities like running and gym training to yoga. Sonu herself has been practicing yoga for 15 years. Since I discovered Antigym 3 years ago, my yoga practice has become more fluid, says Sonu. Antigym is taught in small groups of maximum 10 people, the ideal size of a class is around 3-7 people. It is recommended that Antigym is practiced regularly but no more than once a week as it takes around 5 days for the body to assimilate the changes. Reaping the benefits of Antigym is a process. Like in other forms of physical exercise it takes time and consistency in order to see and feel the changes. Sonu holds weekly classes at 9.30am every Monday at Yoga & Wellness Studio in Spektri Business Park in Espoo. Accordingly, Vietjet will operate the three new air routes continuously over the next three months, including Hanoi-Osaka (starting from November 8, 2018), Ho Chi Minh City-Osaka (from December 14, 2018), and Hanoi-Tokyo (from January 11, 2019). Addressing the event, Hiroshi Tabata, Commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA), welcomed the event and pledged to provide optimal support for Vietjet to successfully operate its air routes to Japans Kansai International Airport, thus actively contributing to the economic rehabilitation in this hospitable land after Typhoon Jebi. He expressed his belief that the new air routes of Vietjet would contribute significantly to the future growth of Vietnamese tourists travelling to Japan. In the presence of PM Phuc and senior officials of the Japanese Government, Vietjet, Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance (MUL), under the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), and French bank BNP Paribas signed an agreement on the provision of finance for Vietjets five new aircrafts worth US$614 million in total. Vietjet, French bank Natixis, and several Japanese investors also signed a framework contract on providing finance for five other new aircrafts of the Vietnamese airline worth US$625 million. These capital sums will be offered in the form of finance leases to help Vietjet possess aircrafts. Vietjet is scheduled to put the newly signed aircrafts into operation immediately in 2018 and early 2019. On the occasion, Vietjet announced its largest promotional programme for the Japanese market, which lasts three days. Accordingly, from October 10 to 12, 2018, the low-cost carrier will offer 10,000 tickets at prices starting from YEN100 (more than VND20,000) for the three newly launched air routes between Japan and Vietnam. Also, Vietjet will offer an additional 70,000 super promotional tickets for all the international routes transiting from Vietnam and Thailand to Asian countries. Addressing the Vietnam-Japan investment promotion conference in Tokyo on October 10, the leader explained that Vietnam is stepping up the equitisation of SOEs by selling stakes in major SOEs in transportation, aviation, food and foodstuff, agriculture, telecommunications, trade, tourism services and construction. Japanese firms, with financial strength, good business administration and extensive international markets, are welcomed as strategic partners, he said Besides, Vietnam also encourages foreign investors in startups, as the country is focusing on developing startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), he noted. Amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Vietnam is shifting its growth drivers towards sectors with high-added values and using state-of-the-art technologies and high-quality labourers, the PM said. Therefore, the country hopes for Japanese investments in infrastructure development, clean energy, processing, electronics, manufacturing, support industry, high-tech agriculture, logistics, aviation and high-end hotels, he noted. Affirming that Vietnams investment environment will be further improved, PM Phuc said Japanese investors are welcomed to the country for mutual long-term and sustainable development. He said in the face of global uncertainties, Vietnam has maintained political and social stability, and consolidated the macro economy, with a growth rate of nearly 7% in the first nine months of this year. Besides, Vietnam has joined a total of 16 new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs), the PM said, highlighting the countrys advantages in terms of geopolitics, geoeconomics, population as well as Internet and smart phone users. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc witnesses the signing of cooperation documents between Vietnamese and Japanese firms. (Photo: VGP) The Vietnamese Government considers improving the business environment a regular task, he said, pointing to positive assessments of Vietnams investment environment by international organisation such as the World Bank (WB), the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Nikkei, as demonstrated by the countrys moving up their investment environment indexes. PM Phuc also noted that up to 70% of Japanese enterprises have plans to expand their operation in Vietnam based on such factors as rising revenues, expanding market and competitive labour costs. The PM stressed that Japan is the second biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with over US$52 billion, and the fourth biggest trade partner with two-way trade exceeding US$33 billion. In the first eight months of this year, Japan continued to take the lead with investment of US$7 billion, making up 28.8% of the total FDI capital poured into the country. Japanese investments have helped lure FDI from other countries and increase competition between FDI inflows in Vietnam, he said. The PM expressed his hope that there will be more initiatives and proposals made at the conference, thus contributing to promoting economic and trade ties between the two countries. At the conference, PM Phuc and officials from Vietnam and Japan witnessed the exchange of 19 cooperation documents between the two countries ministries, agencies and businesses. There are 147 national cemeteries in the United States, but none as unique perhaps as Battleground National Cemeteryone square acre of hallowed ground nestled in a residential neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Thats because to be buried at Battleground, you had to be a Union defender of Fort Stevens during the only Civil War battle fought within the boundaries of the District of Columbia on July 11-12 1864. It was during that battle that Abraham Lincoln became the first and only sitting president to come under enemy fire. Battleground is the nations third smallest national cemetery and contains the remains of 40 Union soldiers killed during the battle. But there are 44 headstones. One of the extra headstones belongs to Edward R. Campbell who didnt die until March 10, 1936. In 1864, he was a 19-year-old private in the 2nd Vermont Infantry, one of the 6th Corps regiments sent from Petersburg, Va., by Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to help defend Fort Stevens. Campbell helped bury the Union dead at Battleground. He survived the war, worked at the Pension Bureau from 1883-1915, and lived in nearby Takoma Park, Md. He was the only survivor of Fort Stevens who chose to be buried with his long dead comrades and his burial closed the cemetery. In an interview he gave just before his death, Campbell said he remembered that President Lincoln appeared during the night while the bodies were being gathered and actually chose the place where the soldiers were to be buried. The story may be apocryphal, but it does add to the mystery and allure of the cemetery. The other three headstones mark the burial sites of the wife and three children of the cemeterys first caretaker, Augustus Ambrecht. They died between 1881 and 1885. Ambrecht, an ordnance sergeant and wounded Civil War veteran himself, is not buried at Battleground. There is no record of why his wife and children were allowed to be interred at the cemetery. Another unique feature of Battleground is that all of the dead are identified. There are no unknowns. Every other national cemetery containing Union Civil War dead have many headstones marked unknown. One of every four soldiers who died in the war were never identified. Why are none of them here at Battleground? On the night of July 12, just after the battle, a unit organized by Captain James M. Moore of the Quartermaster Corps, performed the unprecedented feat of evacuating all of the Union dead from the battlefield and identifying each body. Captain Moores unit was the precursor of the Armys Graves Registration Commission. Their names were hastily written in pencil on small pine boards. It took nearly a decade before those were replaced by marble headstones. Most of the men buried at Battleground were in their 20s, and four were only 19. Bernard Hoerlo was the oldest. He was 46 when he died and on his second tour of duty with the 98th Pennsylvania Infantry. Most of the men were native born, although some, like Private John Kennedy of the 122nd New York, were born in Ireland. Private John Ellis of the 61st Pennsylvania had two brothers who fought with him at Fort Stevens. Asaph was in the same regiment, while Horace was in the 7th Wisconsin. Horace was recovering from wounds at a nearby Washington hospital when the call went out for volunteers. He left the hospital and joined his brothers at Fort Stevens. Horace and Asaph probably helped bury their brother John after the battle. Horace would go on to win the Medal of Honor at the Battle of Globe Tavern five weeks later. Both Asaph and Horace survived the war. Then theres the tragic irony surrounding 25-year-old Thomas Richardson. Born in Ireland, Richardson enlisted in the Regular Army when he arrived in New York. He fought with the 3rd U.S. Infantry at Manassas, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. Just three weeks before Gettysburg, he was mustered out of service and returned to civilian life in Brooklyn where he became a servant. In February 1864, he quit his job and reenlisted as a private in the 25th New York. He survived some of the wars bloodiest battles and died in a fight in which he didnt have to partake. J ust because each body had a name doesnt mean it was the right name. In fact, former National Park Service Ranger Ron Harvey, after years of rigorous research, found that five of the dead interred at Battleground were misidentified. Harvey then went on to find out who they really were. Regulations prohibit changing the names on official headstones because they are part of the historical record, but signage at the entrance to Battleground now correctly identifies each soldier buried here. Private Wilhelm Frei, 25, a German-born blacksmith of the 25th New York Cavalry is buried under a stone incorrectly marked Wm. Tray. E.S. Bavett was the only civilian killed during the battle. He served with the local Quartermaster Corps composed of clerks, teamsters, laborers, and government employees hastily assembled and commanded by Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs. Originally he was listed as a member of the 43rd New York. The Battle of Fort Stevens was the only time Montgomery Meigs commanded men in battle. Six Union officers were killed during the fightingonly Lieutenant William Laughlin is buried at Battleground. He was a farmer born in Baltimore and enlisted in Pittsburgh with the 61st Pennsylvania. He had lived through every major battle in the East before dying just eight miles north of the nations capital he swore to defend. There are four monuments in Battleground Cemetery. The one to the 98th Pennsylvania was erected in 1891 and one to the 122nd New York in 1904. The monument to the 25th New York Cavalry memorializes the first reinforcements to reach Fort Stevens on the night of July 10. There is also one recognizing the service of Company K, 150th Ohio National Guard. Company K consisted of Oberlin College students who were 100-day volunteers. They helped man the guns in Fort Stevens during the engagement and the first casualty of the battle, William Leach, was an Oberlin boy. He was wounded on the morning of July 11 while on picket duty. He died four days later. Leach, like 14 other Union fatalities of the battle, is not buried at Battleground. Accounts differ on whether Battleground is located on the exact spot Lincoln designated. What is known is that this ground belonged to James Mulloy, a farmer, who wanted to build his house on the land appropriated for the cemetery. Mulloy was angry that he lost his land and he sued the Army. In 1868, the government finally settled with Mulloy, who was paid $2,600 for the land. Every national cemetery originally had a lodge where the caretaker and his family lived. They were called Meigs Cottages because they were designed by Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs. Each was designed in a style known as French Second Empire. The one at Battleground was built in 1871; one of the first to be erected. There is also a Doric-style Rostrum that was built in 1920 and was the site of many Memorial Day commemorations. There are no Confederate dead at Battleground. When General Jubal Early retreated, he left his dead and wounded behind. Private Thomas Wells, son of Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and assigned to the staff of General Agar, purportedly led a gang of 50 free black men on the day after the battle to bury enemy dead in mass trenches near where they fell. In 1874, 17 bodies were disinterred from a mass trench on Thomas Lays dairy farm. Thanks to the efforts of Reverend James B. Avirett, they were reburied in a single grave at Grace Episcopal Church not far away in Silver Spring. In 1896, they were moved again and reburied under a 9-foot granite monument paid for by several local Confederate fraternal organizations. It is still the largest memorial stone in the churchyard. Every national cemetery is hallowed ground for the nations veterans buried there. But none can lay claim to the many unique features of Battleground National Cemetery. The cemetery is located at 6625 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, D.C., 20012. Gordon Berg, a frequent contributor to Americas Civil War, writes from Gaithersburg, Md. 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. >>> PM encourages Japanese firms to invest in Vietnamese SOEs At the meeting, PM Phuc lauded the strong, comprehensive, and substantive development of Vietnam-Japan relations as well as the progress in parliamentary links since their diplomatic ties were set up 45 years ago. He highlighted the wish to enhance connections in a more comprehensive and profound manner to match the interests and aspirations of the two countries people. He also called for stronger coordination in regional and international issues of shared concern, thus actively contributing to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region. Talking to Speaker of the House of Representatives Tadamori Oshima, the visiting leader asked the lower house to increase meetings at all levels and the exchange of legislative experience between the two parliaments. He also asked the house to bolster cooperation in agriculture, labour (including the reception of more Vietnamese practitioners), locality-to-locality ties, culture, and people-to-people exchange. Oshima highly valued the breakthrough and substantive strides in Vietnam-Japan ties, noting that the Japanese lower house treasures its bilateral relations and wants to step up the countries extensive strategic partnership in all spheres. He said he respects young Vietnamese peoples sentiments towards Japan, adding that the lower house will listen to public opinions and consider improving entry procedures for Vietnamese citizens. He also voiced his support for young Vietnamese looking to study in Japan and for young Japanese wanting to study in Vietnam. Meeting with Speaker of the House of Councillors Chuichi Date, PM Phuc appreciated the upper houses contributions to mutual cooperation in all fields. He affirmed that Vietnam treasures and makes full use of Japans official development assistance (ODA) in an effective manner, asking the Japanese parliament to consider providing ODA with more preferential conditions for the country. The PM also called for the upper houses enhancement of bilateral ties between localities, as well as in agriculture and labour. He expressed his hope that the Vietnamese and Japanese parliaments will further supervise and promote the two governments implementation of the signed agreements, and reinforce coordination at regional and international interparliamentary forums. For his part, Date spoke highly of the Vietnamese Governments performance and the countrys economic and diplomatic achievements. He affirmed that the upper house will strengthen the countries extensive and all-round cooperation and support the Japanese Government to continue assisting Vietnam with its socio-economic development. On this occasion, he also applauded the fruitful contributions by Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Nguyen Quoc Cuong, who has helped flourish bilateral relations. 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 Board of Directors of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) today announced that it has unanimously approved and directed the implementation of enhancements to the organizations governance practices and policies following a comprehensive Board governance review conducted by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP on a pro bono basis. Following a four-month diligence phase, which included reviewing the HSUS Board governance documents and procedures and interviewing current and former members of the Board, HSUS staff and other key stakeholders, Gibson Dunn developed a comprehensive set of recommendations and related governance enhancement action plan, which it presented to the HSUS Board on October 5, 2018. The HSUS Board voted to approve all recommended actions, with implementation to occur by the HSUS Boards April 2019 meeting. This governance enhancement action plan is among several steps the organization is taking to improve its governance practices and workplace culture, including the recently announced Reconciliation Process related to workplace harassment and working with culture experts on culture change. Marsha R. Perelman, Board Vice Chair, and Kathleen M. Linehan, Chair of the Boards Legal, Bylaws, Ethics and Governance Committee, who oversaw the governance review, stated on behalf of the entire HSUS Board of Directors, We understand and appreciate that our Board needs to continue to regain and rebuild the trust of HSUS many stakeholders. Led by an outside advisor, we have completed a robust governance review, and we want all HSUS employees, volunteers, affiliates and donors to know that the Board is fully committed to improving our governance practices and policies, setting the right tone and charting the way forward for the organization. We are taking a number of steps to make the HSUS a better, more compassionate, and more supportive place to work as we continue to focus on our mission as the leading animal advocacy organization. The Board is committed to working to implement these important governance enhancements, establish Board and management leadership for the future and usher in a new chapter for the HSUS. The HSUS Board governance enhancement action plan includes: - Demonstrating an ongoing commitment to setting an appropriate tone at the top on issues related to the workplace environment: Under the Boards leadership and with its full support, the HSUS will refresh its annual, in-person organization-wide sexual harassment training (which will include participation by directors), will communicate the Boards strong support for the organizations anti-sexual harassment enforcement processes to all staff and will, at least annually, evaluate the effectiveness of such processes on an ongoing, high-level basis, in consultation with the Office of General Counsel and the Senior Vice President of Human Capital. The Board will designate a committee to provide oversight of the HSUS Human Resources (HR) function and receive regular reports on HR issues, including any complaints of sexual harassment. - Establishing succession plans for Board leadership and senior management positions. - Adopting Board corporate governance guidelines and implementing regular director training that emphasizes the Boards oversight role and director fiduciary duties: The Board will adopt governance guidelines that will clearly outline the responsibilities of the Board, its officers and its committees, as well as governance policies and procedures to ensure the Boards role in effective oversight. The Board will establish director qualification standards and implement an annual director performance evaluation process that, at least initially, is performed in conjunction with a third-party facilitator. The Board will develop and implement a director training program. - Reviewing the Boards structure, modernizing the HSUS Bylaws and encouraging the Board refreshment process: The Board will review the Board structure, including the structure and the role of the Executive Committee, and will establish individual committee charters to formalize the functions, duties and procedures for all standing committees. The Board will modernize the organizations Bylaws in order to allow it to adopt many of the governance enhancements described. The Board will review and consider mechanisms to manage director and Board officer tenure, and adopt the goal of average director tenure of less than ten years. The Board will simplify and formalize the process of appointing directors to the Board. Eric (Rick) L. Bernthal, Esq., Chair of the HSUS Board added, By implementing these important and necessary changes, we will not only make the Boards oversight of HSUS more effective and better aligned with best practices, but also ultimately foster a stronger and kinder organization. We will act with transparency as we put new policies in place, while continuing to ensure that our organization has the support needed to fulfill our mission on behalf of the animals we fight for. These governance enhancements are in addition to the HSUS Boards ongoing refreshment process. In September 2018, three highly-qualified and passionate animal advocates were elected as new directors to the HSUS Board: Susan Atherton, a former enterprise software and cloud computing executive who serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco SPCA and on the Board of Directors of Humane Society International. Caren Fleit, a Managing Director at Korn Ferry and former marketing executive who serves on the HSUS New York State Council and on the Board of Directors of Animal Care Centers of NYC and the Catskill Animal Sanctuary. Thomas J. Sabatino Jr., the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Aetna and a renowned, longtime animal advocate actively engaged in animal rescue in communities across Florida and New England. PledgeMusic Reorganizes After Late Payment Problems PledgeMusic is reorganizing its executive team after months of payment problems. As we reported last week, CEO Dominic Pandiscia has stepped down. Now company executives are taking on new roles in an effort to turnaround the popular music crowdfunding site. Co-Founder Malcolm Dunbar has been elevated to Global President and COO, building on the success of the UK and European division. Co-Founder Jayce Varden has returned and Scott Graves has re-joined as President of the North American territory. Members of the finance team were replaced in recent months. PledgeMusic is also working with Nashville-based Lyric Financial to expand working capital and improve payable processing. Beginning in the Spring, PledgeMusic fell behind on payments due many artists and labels. In June, the company blamed rapid growth "combined with the payment processing changes." But last month, several artists shared new stories of non-payment 45 days and more after their campaigns had finished. A source also told Hypebot that several major and large independent labels who ran pre-sale campaigns on PledgeMusic are also weeks behind in receiving large payments. In an effort to repair its relationship with artists and labels, PledgeMusic will be launching a more user-friendly backend and additional tools to manage campaigns, including an upgraded payment system, real time analysis of campaigns and greater transparency. The rollout begins in the upcoming weeks. The new financial team has been put in place under the leadership of Richard Vinchesi, a partner at Sword, Rowe & Company, one of PledgeMusics larger investors. New growth initiatives on the drawing board include further development of the D-to-C platform, a Vinyl Store and new advertising functionality scheduled for early 2019. I have been a fan of PledgeMusic since its inception. PledgeMusic plays a fundamental role in the global music industry. Not only do they provide a critical funding tool for artists, but also, a home for over three million music fans to engage with their favorite artists and to discover new artists. It is this dual role that makes PledgeMusic such a key tool for all artists, big or small. I am excited about the moves the company is making to reorganize in order to better serve the artist and fan communities. Lyric Financial is proud to be a partner with PledgeMusic. We look forward to supporting them as they continue to grow their world-class platform. - Lyric Financial Founder & CEO Eli Ball Share on: Anthony Amore joined members of the Berkshire County Republican Association and Mass Victory for lunch at Zucco's on Tuesday. Secretary of State Candidate Amore Drums Up Support in Pittsfield PITTSFIELD, Mass. Anthony Amore views elections as the "next great security challenge" and it is one he hopes to take on. The Swampscott Republican is challenging longtime incumbent William Galvin for the post of secretary of state in the November election. Amore has a lengthy background in security he's currently security chief at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and is pledging to increase public access to records and secure the election process. "I think 2016 showed glaring vulnerabilities. This is the first election cycle after we saw threats to our elections. Bill Galvin has been in [various government] office for 23 years, he's been in elected office since we were in Vietnam, it is time for a fresh perspective in the office and I think I offer that," Amore said over lunch at Zucco's with the Berkshire County Republican Association and Mass Victory. Amore said he'd start with the development of a five-year strategic plan. When it comes to elections, he vowed to bring city and town clerks to the table to make sure whatever changes are made can actually be implemented at the local level. "The greatest vulnerability of our voter registration information system is end users. If we aren't communicating with them and bringing them to the table, how do we know what they are doing?" he said. "I don't like the idea of governing from a perch. We are 351 cities and towns. Town clerks, city clerks, boards of elections, these are the people who really run elections." He believes paper ballots are still the way to go but optical scanners in the machines counting votes need to work properly and technology throughout the whole system can be updated. Amore believes he has the experience particularly fitting an effort to ensure secure elections. He began his career working in immigration services as an inspector and intelligence officer. He was appointed as a special investigator for Federal Aviation Administration, overseeing security for airports throughout New England and investigating crimes related to aviation. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Amore took a job with the newly created U.S. Department of Homeland Security and was tasked with rebuilding the security at Logan Airport. "I spent the first 15 years of my career in Homeland Security agencies. I was with the immigration service, I was a special agent with the FAA. And after 9/11, I was asked to help rebuild security at Logan Airport. I spent five years there and I went on to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. I'm director of security there and I am the chief investigator looking for the stolen art," Amore said. He boasts of developing the first strategic plan for the Transportation Security Administration and administrative experience with 1,200 employees with Homeland Security and 50 at the Gardner Museum. He has been at the museum for 13 years and is the chief investigator in the infamous and unsolved case of stolen artwork from the museum in 1990. Security of elections is only one area Amore seeks to change. He took shots at Galvin's history of public records a history that earned him a nomination for the "Golden Padlock Award" in 2016 (one year after the Massachusetts State Police won the tongue-in-cheek award as voted on by reporters and editors). "Public records are impossible to get in this state. The secretary of state has a great deal of say over who gets what. He has an abysmal record," Amore said. Amore said he'd set a tone in the office. While the law does allow for a certain amount of time to respond to requests, he said he'd set the bar higher and try to be as responsive as quick as possible. He also said he'd have all of his office's email posted online. He characterized the current secretary of state's office as being a "victim of his complacency." He said it lacks a strategic plan, that the website is outdated, and that Galvin himself doesn't even use email in this technology-based world. He further contends that Galvin has a "brazen and old school" way about him, including a mailing on voter information sent to all households that Amore sees as essentially an advertisement for Galvin. The taxpayer-funded voter guide lists Galvin by name and notes his accomplishments in office. "It is really corrupt behavior in my view," Amore said. "I am a small government, limited taxation Republican and I don't like to see abuses of taxpayer dollars like that." Amore said he looks to make the office more "lean and efficient." He also looks to tackle such issues as the state charging an extra fee for corporations to register online rather than by paper. Hundreds Participated In Annual Greylock Ramble ADAMS, Mass. More than 1,000 walkers hiked to the summit of Mount Greylock during the 51st Ramble on Monday. According to a ProAdams press release, 1,037 people made their way up the state's highest peak on Columbus Day. Hikers began their ascent at 8 a.m. and continued steadily throughout the day. By midday, more than 650 hikers had picked up their certificate at Bascom Lodge on the summit. Steven LeMire was the first hiker to check in. Temperatures were moderate and comfortable for hikers, however, there was little to no visibility from the summit because of fog. Most hikers were from Berkshire County but there were also visitors from Delaware, Oregon, Texas, Nevada, and California. Daniel Callanan, who was visiting from London, took the prize for farthest traveled. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts also incorporates the Ramble as one of its college community events and students annually trek up the mountain. The youngest hikers were Kaylee Wesley of Pittsfield and Dylan Icardi of Cheshire both seven months old. The oldest hiker was Caroline Brazeau, 89, of North Adams. This was her 21st Ramble. Flu Shot: Get the Vaccine to Protect You And Those Around You With flu season around the corner, your health care providers, employers, pharmacists and others are sounding the annual reminder: "Get your annual flu shot." We encourage this for you and for the people around you, too. We see evidence every year of the benefits of the flu vaccine, and we also see the risks of skipping it. The flu vaccine has dramatic impacts on public health. However, since strains of the flu may vary from year to year, the vaccine must be received annually. Although the vaccine doesn't guarantee a flu-free winter and perfect health, medical research has convincingly shown that the flu shot reduces flu severity and reduces sick visits, hospitalizations and intensive care admissions. For infants and the elderly and those with compromised immune systems, the flu shot is essential protection against serious illness. Although Massachusetts has historically ranked high in its overall immunization rates 50 percent of all residents received vaccines in 2015-16 flu season that percentage dropped from 55 percent the year before. The lowest rates of vaccination are in residents 18-49 40 percent for the 2015-16 season, but vaccine rates for all age groups (except young children) dropped slightly as well. Some people have medical reasons for being unable to have the shot, but others go without by choice. Why? They may feel confident in their own good health and their body's ability to ward off illness. They may be skeptical about vaccines in general. However, skipping the flu vaccine means taking an unnecessary risk for yourself and others whom you care for or work with, or who may be more vulnerable than you to illness. Here's what we know about the flu vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): During flu seasons when the vaccine is well-matched with flu strains that are circulating, the vaccine is shown to reduce the need for flu-related medical visits by 30 to 60 percent. During the 2016-17 flu season, the vaccine prevented an estimated 5.3 million flu illnesses, 2.6 million medical visits for the flu and 85,000 flu-related hospitalizations. The vaccine reduces the severity of flu symptoms for those who may get sick, and reduces hospital-based Intensive Care Unit admissions related to the flu. The flu vaccine is a preventive measure for people with other chronic illnesses, such as cardiac, diabetes and lung diseases. Children and pregnant women are especially susceptible to complications from the flu. The vaccine has repeatedly reduced the risk of flu-related deaths among children by 50 percent. In addition, if you are exposed to someone else who has the flu virus, you may not get sick, but you can pass on the virus to others. Do you have a young child? Do you care for an elderly relative or a chronically sick friend? Are you a teacher or a health care provider? It is true that flu vaccines are not foolproof. Flu strains may differ from year to year and efforts to keep up with its changing characteristics are not 100 percent effective. The flu vaccine last year was estimated to be 30 percent to 60 percent effective and this is a significant public health benefit nothing to sneeze at! The anti-vaccination movement has repeatedly taken aim at the flu shot by spreading myths and misinformation, even claiming that the flu shot causes the flu. This is unequivocally false. In fact, most flu vaccines are "inactivated" which means they contain no actual influenza (flu) virus at all. If someone falls ill after getting a flu shot, there are several explanations: The flu shot takes about two weeks to take full protective effect. A person can get the flu during this period. If someone was exposed to the flu just prior to getting the flu shot, he or she might coincidentally get sick around the time of a vaccine. Just because someone gets sick, does not mean that influenza (the flu) is the culprit. There are many other non-flu illnesses that can be contracted. This is the time of year for increased respiratory illnesses and pneumonia. There are some outlying strains of the flu not covered by the typical flu shot; unfortunately it is possible to contract one of these non-vaccine containing flu strains. To protect your health and those around you loved ones, friends, co-workers please take the preventive step of getting your flu shot this season. You could save a life by doing so and reduce your own risk of contracting the miserable and dangerous flu virus. Dr. Everett Lamm is the chief medical officer of Community Health Programs. The official made the remarks at a high-level dialogue on climate change, co-organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in Hanoi, on October 10. Together with the ratification of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, Vietnam has issued a plan for the implementation of the document, with a focus on implementing its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), Thanh said. He added that the dialogue would focus on discussing issues related to the response actions to climate change in Vietnam, while promoting cooperation and connection with development partners, the scientific community, enterprises, organisations and individuals for the cause of responding to climate change. At the dialogue, information on the newly approved Special Report of the IPCC on the impacts of global warming of 1.5C and issues related to global greenhouse gas emissions were also shared. The IPCC is the global body for assessing the science related to climate change. In December 2015, when governments adopted the Paris Agreement, they invited the IPCC to prepare a report on the warming of 1.5C in 2018, when nations review the Paris Agreement at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), to be held in Poland this December. IPCC Chair Prof. Hoesung Lee speaks at the dialogue. (Photo: NDO/Van Toan) Limiting global warming to 1.5C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, said IPCC Chair, Prof. Hoesung Lee. With clear benefits to people and natural ecosystems, limiting global warming to 1.5C compared to 2C could go hand in hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable society, he added. According to the report, limiting global warming to 1.5C compared with 2C would reduce the impacts on ecosystems, and human health and well-being, making it easier to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The IPCC report highlights the severe climate change impacts that could be avoided by limiting global warming to 1.5C, but the time to act is rapidly closing, said Ms. Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Country Director. Climate reform is needed as fundamentally as the economic renewal that Vietnam adopted 40 years ago to bring about rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and boost green jobs for a more resilient sustainable society, she added. The report highlights a number of climate change impacts that could be avoided by limiting global warming to 1.5C compared to 2C, or more. For instance, by 2100, the global sea level rise would be 10cm lower with global warming of 1.5C compared with 2C. The likelihood of an Arctic Ocean free of sea ice in summer would be once per century with global warming of 1.5oC compared with at least once per decade with 2C. Coral reefs would decline by 70-90% with global warming of 1.5C, whereas virtually all (>99%) would be lost with a 2C increase. One of the key messages that comes out very strongly from this report is that we are already seeing the consequences of 1C global warming through more extreme weather and rising sea levels among other changes, said Panmao Zhai, Co-chair of IPCC Working Group I. At the current rate of warming, the world is likely to reach 1.5C between 2030 and 2052, he added. On the same day, a scientific workshop on climate resilience and low-carbon development, and a talk with students on climate change, were also hosted in Hanoi. By Daniel Larison October 09, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The Wall Street Journal publishes a predictably toothless editorial in response to reports that the Saudi government has murdered Jamal Khashoggi: The Saudi reformers have allies in Washington, but they will lose them if they arent transparent about Jamal Khashoggis fate. If the latest outrage from Mohammed bin Salman changes anything, it should at the very least put an end to the absurd description of the crown prince and his allies as reformers once and for all. Reformer is a label that Western pundits and politicians use to describe foreign leaders when they want to express approval and support. It is often not intended to be an accurate statement about the leaders record, but rather serves to distract from the worst parts of that record in order to sell the leader to Western audiences. Foreign leaders know that they can win a lot of supporters in the West just by saying the right things about a handful of issues, and as long as they keep up appearances their Western boosters will overlook or even defend the worst excesses. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter All Mohammed bin Salman had to do was talk about moderate Islam and diversifying the Saudi economy and then emphasize his hatred for Iran, and his fans were immediately hooked by the promise of what he might do in the future. In return, they studiously ignored the many horrible things he was doing in the present, they shifted blame for the war on Yemen to others, or they made lame attempts to spin his purge as an anti-corruption drive. The problem for his fans was that Mohammed bin Salmans pattern of reckless behavior didnt stop and wasnt limited only to his foreign policy debacles. The cruelty and incompetence that the Saudi coalition has displayed in the war on Yemen have been replicated in Saudi Arabias internal affairs as well. The kingdoms intensifying repression and arbitrary arrests have scared off foreign investment, caused massive capital flight, and exposed the makeover that pro-Saudi P.R. firms have tried to give the kingdom as the sham that it always was. The crown prince has already proven himself to be an impetuous, clumsy, inept, and brutal ruler, and no one should have any illusions at this point about what the Saudi government is going to be like as long as he is in power. The war on Yemen was the earliest, biggest, and most destructive proof of this, and there have been many more examples in the last three and a half years. By itself, Khashoggis murder should severely strain relations between Saudi Arabia and its Western patrons. As the latest in a string of outrages and crimes, it should force a serious reassessment of the current relationship that the U.S. has with Riyadh. That relationship is noxious, and it cant be allowed to continue in its current form. We know in advance that the Trump administration will do the bare minimum it can get away with in response to the Saudi governments murder of a journalist and U.S. resident, but this crime may be flagrant and appalling enough to turn many more members of Congress against supporting and arming the Saudis. 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 By Chris Hedges October 09, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - PORTLAND, Ore.It is 8 a.m. I am in the small offices of Street Roots, a weekly newspaper that prints 10,000 copies per edition. Those who sell the newspaper on the streetsall of them victims of extreme poverty and half of them homelesshave gathered before heading out with their bundles to spend hours in the cold and rain. There is foot care on Mondays starting at 8 a.m. with the nurses, Cole Merkel, the director of the vendor program, shouts above the chatter. If you need to get your feet taken care of, come in for the nurses foot care. Just a really quick shout-out and thank you to Leo and Nettie Johnson, who called up to City Hall this week to testify about the criminalization of homelessness to City Council and the mayor. Super awesome. The men and women, most middle-aged or elderly, sit on folding chairs that hug the walls. They are wrapped in layers of worn and tattered clothing. Some cradle small dogs. Others cup their hands around disposable coffee cups and take small sips. The weekly newspaper was founded in 1998. It focuses on issues surrounding social and environmental justice as well as homelessness. It also reprints poems and artwork by the 180 vendors, who buy the paper for 25 cents a copy and sell it for a dollar. On the walls there are poignant reminders of the lives these people lead, including posters of missing men and women, notices about where to find free food or clothing, and scattered one-page obituaries of those who died recently, many discovered in parks or on sidewalks. The average age at death for a man is 51 and for a woman 43. Nearly half succumb to alcohol or drugs, 28 percent are hit by vehicles and 9 percent commit suicide. Life expectancy plummets once you become homeless. From 50 to 80 homeless people die on the streets of Portland every year, and many more in its hospitals. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Monica needs a kidney, reads one handwritten sign. Missing: Robert Gary Maricelli, not seen since Feb. 10, 11:00 pm, reads another. Maricelli, 22, was last sighted near the Steel Bridge in Portland. These men and women, and increasingly children, are the collateral damage of the corporate state, their dignity and lives destroyed by the massive transference of wealth upward, deindustrialization and the slashing of federal investment in affordable housing begun during the Reagan administration. The lack of stable jobs that pay a living wage in the gig and temp economy, the collapse of mental health and medical services for the poor, and gentrification are turning America into a living hell for hundreds of thousands of its citizens. And this is just the start. Though federal estimates put the nations homeless number at 554,000, most citiesincluding Portland, which officially has about 4,000 people without shelterestimate the homeless, notoriously hard to count, to be at least three times higher. Portland schools, like most public schools throughout the country, are seeing growing homelessness among their students1,522 children in the Beaverton School District, or 4 percent of the total enrollment, and 1,509 in the Portland Public Schools, or 3 percent of total enrollment. The problem extends to many of Oregons smallest towns. In Butte Falls (population 429 in 2010) in Jackson County, there are 56 homeless students, or 30 percent of the districts total enrollment. Many homeless students, because they often drift from one temporary space to another, never appear in the official statistics. As we barrel toward another economic collapse, the suffering endured by those on the streets will become ever more familiar, especially with the corporate state intent on further reducing or eliminating social services in the name of austerity. Nothing will halt the downward spiral other than sustained civil disobedience. The two ruling political parties are wedded to an economic system that serves the corporate rich and punishes and criminalizes the poor and the working poor. Over half the country is probably only a few paychecks away from being on the streets. This gritty section of Portland was once known as Nihonmachi or Japantown. The Street Roots newspaper is housed in the former Chitose Laundry. Across the street is the old Oshu Nippo News, the Japanese-language daily newspaper that was raided by the FBI on Dec. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was shut down and its staff arrested. The neighborhoods Japanese population was rounded up, stripped of all possessions and placed in concentration camps, part of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans, most from California and the Northwest, who were interned during the war. People who were only one-sixteenth Japanese were arrested. Sixty-two percent of those displaced by the internment order were U.S. citizens. There were no credible reports of them being a security risk. It was a policy grounded in racism. The Japanese community in Portland never resurrected itself after the war. The past crimes of the state merge, in the eyes of Kaia Sand, the executive director of Street Roots, with the present ones. Those families were rendered homeless and incarcerated by order of the federal government, she says. Their possessions were reduced to what fit in suitcases. Now, on these same streets, people also carry their bags and their sorrows without a home. Charles McPherson, 34, stands looking at the collection of recent obituaries posted on the wall near the front door. He was about 2 when his father died. In his senior year in high school he was taken hostage by an escaped convict and held for 12 hours during a standoff with police. He never went back to school. PTSD, he says of his dropping out of school. I could not be in crowds. He drifted from one short-term job to another. He lived for two years in an RV. He filed countless requests for housing but was turned down. By 2014 he was homeless. I ask him what he finds hardest about being homeless. Not being able to get ahead, he says. Just barely keeping from losing everything weve got. Throughout the day I hear a lot about losing everything. Small piles of possessions, along with tents or tarps, precious to the homeless and very hard to procure, are confiscated during police sweeps. The victims find themselves standing in the rain in the middle of the night with nothing. The confiscated possessions are supposed to be stored by two subcontractors, Pacific Patrol Services and Rapid Response Bio Clean, for 30 days, but many on the streets say they never see their belongings again. Leo Rhodes, 53, a Pima Indian, grew up in poverty on the Gila River Indian reservation south of Phoenix. He joined the Army when he was 19. When he returned from the Army after three years he started abusing drugs and alcohol. He has been homeless, on and off, for 30 years. He has also been one of the most effective advocates for the homeless in Seattle and Portland. He helped found and organize the governance of two tent cities and a rest area in Portland where the homeless can sleep in 12-hour shifts in a safe environment called Right to Dream Too. He keeps notebooks full of his poetry. He divides the world into the homeless and the non-homeless. He hands me one of his poems, published in Street Roots, titled Being Human? It reads: I am the voice you never hear If I spoke would you listen? I am the ugly duckling Visible in your pretty little world I am the criminal when I sleep I am the nuisance Trying to keep dry out of the rain I am the homeless person Looking for dignity and a safe secure place The problem is that when you get a job and they find out you are homeless they fire you, he says. It does not matter if you are sober and a hard worker. As soon as your co-workers know you are homeless or formerly homeless they put this stigma on you. They think you are a drunk, a druggie, a criminal or mentally ill and cant be trusted. The stress of living on the streets takes a toll on mental health and often pushes those who already have mental health issues over the edge. When youre outside, any little noise, it is a real threat, says Dan Newth, an Army veteran who says he tried to commit suicide in January 2015 by overdosing on prescription pills. Ive been kicked in the head when I was asleep. Ive woken up to a beating from people I didnt know. Theyre just doing it because they see a homeless person there on the sidewalk. We try to hide when we sleep, get out of the way. I got my tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, and a pillow. Its critical. When I dont sleep for two days, I see things that arent there. I hear things that nobody said. And theyre negative. My hallucinations become very negative. Anybody who doesnt sleep for a number of days is going to hallucinate. When you see someone on the street and theyre going off for no reason, theyre not getting enough sleep. Theyve dealt with so much negativity. It can be a look. Saying hello to somebody and youre ignored. All this stuff adds up. You blame yourself. Subconsciously, you start hating yourself. Even though you are trying to think, you start blaming things in every direction. You will react to people who arent necessarily there to hurt you. But you feel everybody is. Its overwhelming. You jump all these hoops, he says of the citys social services. And then they exclude you and you dont know why. They dont let you get into housing. You never know why. You just get frustrated. Portland needs another MSW [master of social work] like they need another panhandler. The money goes to the salaried people. They keep making their money. And they will use up a homeless persons energy, jumping through the hoops, going to meetings with this person, going to that meeting, all this stuff. Were exhausted most of the time. At the end, youre still homeless. In some ways, MSWs are like vampires. I dont like the way the system is set up. I avoid it. I sleep outside. I sell Street Roots. I meet my needs the best I can. Jasmine Rosado, 39, works periodically as a stripper. She is currently in subsidized housing, where she pays $530 a month for a studio apartment. Her only child, a 24-year-old son, Darius, is in the Army in Syria. She has not seen him in over four years. When she mentions his name her eyes well up. Its been very hard on me, she admits. I love him a lot. Theres nothing we can do. Hes in Gods hands. She studied music and dance at the University of Oregon and plays the violin and cello. Her instruments are in storage. The strip club owners are very tight knit, she said of her employers. If they have a problem with a girl, they will call around and you wont get a job anywhere. Art Garcia, 71, sits holding his 5-pound dog on his lap. Migo, he says when I ask the dogs name. Like Amigo without the A. Its a Chihuahua. Ive had Migo for four years. I got him when he was a little over 9 months old from the shelter. My best friend. This guy has really helped me a lot. I have anxiety disorder. Around a lot of people I cant breathe. He calms me down a lot. He helps a lot. Sometimes hell wake me up at night if I have an attack or something. In my sleep, my breathing changes. Garcia was raised in an abusive home and later an orphanage. When he graduated from high school in 1966 he joined the Marine Corps and was sent to Vietnam. He was 19. He fought at Da Nang during the Tet Offensive. People were dying all around us, he says. It was like a movie. Getting blown up. Killed our own man in the bathroom who was hiding in there. We didnt know who it was. The lieutenant yelled, If youre an American come out. He was scared. He took his chances and hid in there. We just leveled it. Shot. Killed our own man. I was as scared as Id ever been, he says of the war. All these people shooting at you. Thats when I started my drug habit. You didnt know if you were going to live or die. Heroin. At first, I was taking speed. We worked seven days a week. Got no days off. Couldnt stay awake. Got some liquid speed, the guy said, Here take this, it will keep you awake. It got us all wired to stay awake. But then you couldnt go to sleep. So, I got heroin to go to sleep. But after you use that you get all strung out. He returned from the war a heroin addict with no home. He slipped in and out of homelessness and was often in prison. He worked odd jobs in construction. He has been clean for a decade and is on methadone. He self-published two books. The one about the war is called Sitting on the Edge. The one about returning home as an addict is called Falling Off the Edge. I missed 10 Christmases in a row for going to prison, he says. Going for three years, getting out for a month, going back. Being out for a couple of weeks, going back. Selling drugs. Robbing people for drugs. All drug-related. I spent a lot of years in there. I was on parole for a lot of years. I went to fire camp in California. During a fire, wed make $1 an hour. That was really good. In 2012 Garcia received a monetary settlement from a class-action lawsuit stemming from the militarys use of Agent Orange, which damaged his heart and mobility. He gave Street Roots a $10,000 check and used the rest of the money to find a place to live and help out relatives. Rhodes takes me around the city. He laconically remembers being beaten in parks, forced off street corners and wakened in the middle of the night by police and told to move. You want to know what it is like to be homeless? he asks. Set your alarm clock to go off every two hours, pick up everything around you and walk for a few blocks to find another place to sleep. We used to sleep on that loading dock, he says, pointing to a warehouse. Then the owners started turning on the sprinklers at 3 a.m. We got soaked. We would walk the streets in our wet clothes carrying our wet things. Rhodes said that even when homeless people find a place to live inside it is often difficult to sever themselves from the community of other homeless people. I have voluntarily gone back out on the street a few times, he says. I missed my friends, the good times, the bad times. You feel guilty for leaving them behind. And I am a homeless advocate. These are my people. He is carrying a childs umbrella with a wooden handle shaped like a ducks head. In 2009 he was in the rain trying to sell Street Roots outside a Panera Bread restaurant when a passerby handed it to him. He calls it Ducky. Its like my security blanket, he says. Ducky has been everywhere with me, in the heat, the rain, the freezing cold. Hes been with me when the rent-a-cops threw us out of doorways where we were sleeping. I say to Ducky, Dont worry, one day we will have a place. One day well be inside. When you are homeless, when you are abandoned, you need something like Ducky. It is why you will see homeless people with dolls or pets. And its why they talk to them. It helps us deal with the negativity, all those in society who shun us. Rhodes, affable and articulate, regales me with tales of life on the street, the repeated and exhausting efforts to create small communities and the sudden sweeps by the police that shatter them. I was in a tent city, it was our second move, he says. It was right next to a freeway. Traffic was always going by. People honking their horn even at nighttime. Diesels going by. It took us literally three days to acclimate ourselves to that loud noise. You know who was sleeping there because they all had big puffy eyes. Couldnt sleep because of the noise. But after three days we started sleeping really well. The next place we went to, it was quiet. The only noise there was just a rooster or crow. Every two hours. When we went to the first place, people said, Man, I cant sleep here, its too noisy. Then they settle down. At the next place they said, Man, I cant sleep here, its too quiet. I gotta have some noise! He laughs. In his poem Excuse Me if I Dont Cry he writes: By Cesar Chelala October 09, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - On June 16 2015 Donald Trump announced his candidacy to the presidency and set the tone of his priorities. The elimination of illegal immigration to the United States, mainly from refugees fleeing from poverty and violence in Mexico and Central America was one. He didnt say at the time that his policies included separating children from their parents, some of whom might never meet again. Immigrants come to the U.S. from Mexico and Central America try to escape abject poverty and food insecurity in their own countries. In Mexico, 2016 data reveal that 52.3 percent of children over 11 years old live under the poverty line, and 9.7 percent live in extreme poverty. Among indigenous children, the figures are more startling. Near 80 percent of them live under the poverty line, and 18.9 percent show symptoms of chronic malnutrition, a reflection of their unhealthy quality of life. In Guatemala, indigenous populations in rural areas are affected by lack of food and economic burden. Guatemalan children have the third-highest rate of stunting worldwide, an effect of chronic malnutrition. It is estimated that 49.8 percent of Guatemalan children are undernourished, a figure that increases to 69.5 percent in children living in rural, indigenous areas. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter As in other Central American countries, stunting and malnutrition in Honduras children are major concerns, particularly for those living in rural areas. It is estimated that 75 percent of the Honduran population live in extreme poverty and 12 percent of households are food-insecure. In rural areas, chronic malnutrition can be as high as 48.5 percent. In El Salvador, 16.3 percent of rural Salvadoran families cannot cover the costs of basic needs. 18.9 percent of children under age 5 experience chronic malnutrition, a figure that increases to 25.6 percent for those children living in rural areas. In addition, El Salvador is one of the countries with the highest presence of violent juvenile gangs called maras. Nicaragua, which is going presently through a time of considerable social unrest, is considered one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Approximately 29 percent of households live in poverty, and 8.3 percent live in extreme poverty. The highest rates of child chronic malnutrition occur in what is called the northern Dry Corridor, with rates of almost 30 percent. According to the World Food Programme, 300,000 people are in need of food assistance. Poverty in Central America is due to factors intrinsic to the countries themselves such as a modern form of feudalism, profound inequality, rampant government corruption, and to foreign interference. The U.S. has influenced their political and economic situation by helping to overturn democratic governments, as in Guatemala and Honduras, or supporting anti-democratic elements, as in the case of the death squads in El Salvador and the contras in Nicaragua. This dismal picture of poverty and violence explains the desire of those people to seek better conditions for them and their children. We leave our countries under threat. We leave behind our homes, our relatives, our friends. We are not criminals, we are people living in fear in our countries, told Maritza Flores, a Salvadoran woman, to the BBC. It is in this context that families come to the U.S., where children are separated in the border from their parents, in some cases permanently. More than 2,300 children were removed at the border between 5 May and 9 June 2018. Children are placed in shelters where they do not always receive the care they need. Separating from their parents produces considerable anguish and depression in those children, many of whom become violent and suffer psychological effects. The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics calls these policies child abuse. President Donald Trump doesnt hide his dislike for immigrants, both legal and illegal, and forgets the contributions immigrants have made, in all fields of activity, to the U.S. In the meantime, children become pawns for his policies on immigration. In his infantile view of the world, President Donald Trump doesnt seem to realize that his decisions on immigrant children are not a policy, they are cruelty. 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 By Sputnik October 09, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - In a damning indictment of health care in the US, the family of Nobel prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman sold his award to cover end-of-life medical expenses. Lederman, the physicist credited with inventing the term 'god particle,' died last week at a nursing home in Idaho. A former head of the prestigious Fermi National Accelerator Lab and a 1988 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, Lederman had suffered acute dementia in the last years of his life, resulting in round-the-clock care and its heavy expenditure a financial burden the revered scientist's family were unprepared for. His wife, Ellen Lederman, noted that the move was necessary to keep her husband at peace as his health declined. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter "I wish it could be different," she stated, "but he's happy. He likes where he lives with cats and dogs and horses. He doesn't have any problems with anxiety, and that makes me glad that he's so content," cited by Gizmodo.com. A recipient of multiple awards throughout his life, Lederman, one of three to receive the 1988 physics Nobel award "for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino," is arguably more famous for his invention and adoption of the term god particle' to describe the subatomic Higgs boson particle. An avowed atheist, Lederman was accused of using sensationalism by coining a scientific explanation with theological terms, although he has long been acknowledged as having an uncanny ability to explain the spectacularly complex subtleties of subatomic physics with the straightforward delivery of a layman. The US, as the only advanced wealthy nation to not guarantee health care to every citizen, is facing a financial and social crisis at the hands of its for-profit healthcare system. Lederman's Nobel award was purchased by an anonymous online buyer for a reported $765,000 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 Communist Party of China (CPC) will launch a new round of disciplinary inspections to specifically target poor implementation of poverty-alleviation policies. * Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with visiting Angolan President Joao Lourenco in Beijing Tuesday, agreeing to continue developing bilateral ties. * US President Donald Trump said on October 9 that his upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), will be held after the mid-term Congressional elections in early November. * Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will attend the 17th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Tajikistan city of Dushanbe, pay official visits to Tajikistan and the Netherlands, attend the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit in Brussels and pay a working visit to Belgium, from October 11 to 19. * US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was going to name a new US ambassador to the United Nations within two or three weeks following Nikki Haley's resignation. * Jordan and Lebanon on Tuesday underlined the need for continued support to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. * Turkey and the United States have started training for joint patrols in northwestern Manbij region of Syria, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday. * Israeli military system Trophy will be sold to the US army in a US$500 million deal, local business website Calcalist reported on Tuesday. * Hurricane Michael on Tuesday afternoon intensified to Category 3 as it roared toward Florida Panhandle in southeastern United States, according to the National Hurricane Center. Also on Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Florida. * Senior officials from the United Nations and African Union said Tuesday there is a decrease in levels of violence in South Sudan compared to last year following the signing of the peace deal in late August by the warring parties. * Morocco has sent three aircraft carrying 1.8 tons of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, official MAP news agency reported Tuesday. The humanitarian aid will be sent into Gaza by land through the Rafah border with Egypt, the report said. * The Australian government has rejected calls from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to phase out coal-fired power by 2050. * Greek authorities have pointed the finger of blame for the surge of migrant flows through Evros river on the land border with Turkey this year to the neighboring country, Greek media reported on Tuesday. Over 11,000 migrants have crossed into Greece through Evros so far in 2018, compared with 5,500 in 2017 and 3,000 in 2016. * Norway said on October 8 it has proposed to increase the defence budget for 2019 by 4 billion kroner (US$483 million), or 7.3 percent, to strengthen the Armed Forces. * At least five people died and 30 were injured on October 10 when a passenger train derailed in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, media reported. * Nine deaths had been reported so far while 17 people had been injured and one reported missing due to the heavy rains lashing out across Sri Lanka since last weekend. Over 70,000 people have been affected while over 15,000 have fled their homes as strong winds and rains continued, DMC said. Home Search ICH As Nikki Haley Resigns, Critics Forced to Clarify That "Pro-War, Pro-Imperialist" Sycophant for Trump Is No "Moderate" U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley "was probably the most pro-war, pro-imperialist high-ranking Trump official, and therefore the most beloved Trump official by the war-loving U.S. media. She held every conventional foreign policy view that has generated so much destruction." By Jon Queally October 09, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley unexpectedly announced her resignation on Tuesday, but informed critics are raising their voices in the aftermath of the news to make sure nobody gets away with describing the outgoing diplomatwho said she will serve in the position until the end of the yearas anything other than what she is: a sycophant for President Donald Trump and a horrible war-monger who used her powerful position to push a neoconservative foreign policy while undermining global goodwill, overtly attacking human rights, and making the world a more dangerous place.While some news outlets and commenters ignored historical evidence as they attempted to frame Haley as a "moderate" voice in the Trump administration and Republicans applauded her "moral clarity," progressive critics hit back hard against such blatantly false characterizations. "Moderate?" exclaimed political commentator Amir Amini in a tweet responding the New York Times' story about the surprise resignation. "Haley spent every minute of her time at the UN threatening innocent nations w/ war, terror and literally bullying and trying to blackmail (and miserably failing) the entire [world] into supporting her agenda dictated by the military industrial complex." Blasting CNN for whitewashing the record, Medea Benjamin of CodePink didn't have a hard time cataloging some of Haley's most deplorable accomplishments while at the UN: Numerous data points during Trump's presidency and Haley's time at the UN have shown a woeful decline of the United States' standing in the eyes of the world. Just last week, as Common Dreams reported, a global Pew survey showed that only 50 percent of the world currently has a favorable opinion of the U.S., down from 64 percent when President Obama left office. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter According to journalist Glenn Greenwald, the reason outlets like the Times describe Haley as a "moderate" is "because she affirms all of the standard pro-war, pro-imperial orthodoxies that are bipartisan consensus in Washington. That's why [Bill Kristol, founder and editor of the right-wing The Weekly Standard] reveres her. She was a Tea Party candidate, but 'moderate' means: loves U.S. wars & hegemony." Before Trump's hiring of John Bolton as National Security Adviser, Greenwald added, "Haley was probably the most pro-war, pro-imperialist high-ranking Trump official, and therefore the most beloved Trump official by the war-loving U.S. media. She held every conventional foreign policy view that has generated so much destruction." Nikki Haley, who is quitting as UN ambassador, will be described as an adult in the room in Trumps administration. Dont believe it. She served as a rigid ideologue who undermined prospects for Middle East peace & refused to stand up for womens rights.https://t.co/b8aH2eSQ9c John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) October 9, 2018 Meanwhile, religious scholar and author Reza Aslan issued this plea to reporters and commentators, "Please make sure all your Nikki Haley hot takes mention just how awful she is, what an embarrassment she was as UN Ambassador, and how quickly this 'moderate' Republican violated her 'values' to serve at the feet of a racist, pussy-grabbing sociopath." And as journalist Matthew Chapman noted: In her short time as U.N. Ambassador, Haley: -Set Arab-Israeli relations back 20 years. -Defunded U.N. peacekeeping forces and gloated about it. -Withdrew the U.S. from the Human Rights Council. Why do people keep insisting she's one of the reasonable ones? https://t.co/mVhvH2emy9 Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) October 9, 2018 It is really dangerous for the @nytimes to be calling Haley "moderate." Not just because it whitewashes her far-right record, but because it helps Trump loyalists redefine "moderate <-> conservative" as a spectrum of loyalty to Trump, rather than actual ideological principles. https://t.co/p4hzNagbzZ Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) October 9, 2018 Beyond her disgraceful record, the news of Haley's resignation was greeted with widespread speculation about her future plans. While some have concocted a theorynot wholly without meritthat Haley could be used to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) if he is tapped by Trump to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions (assuming Sessions gets canned or quits following the midterms), others said the much more interesting and importation speculation is about why she is departing now. How about this: 1. Haley exits UN. 2. AG Sessions is elbowed out after mid-terms. 3. Lindsey Graham replaces Sessions. 4. Haley takes Grahams SC Senate seat. 5. Positioning begins for 2024 presidential bid by Haley the most politically ambitious of Trumps associates. John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) October 9, 2018 While Trump and Haley stated Tuesday that her departure has been planned for months, on Monday the ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called on the State Department Inspector General to initiate an official probe in order to determine if Haley violated ethics regulations by accepting more than half a dozen free flights for herself and her husband on luxury private aircraft from three South Carolina businessmen last year. "By accepting gifts of luxury private flights, Ambassador Haley seems to be falling in line with other Trump administration officials who are reaping personal benefits from their public positions," said CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder, in a statement. It might be too early to speculate about precisely who might replace Haley next year, but journalist Rania Khalek had a good idea of what qualifications the top candidates can expect to have: While Trump and Haley stated Tuesday that her departure has been planned for months, on Monday the ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called on the State Department Inspector General to initiate an official probe in order to determine if Haley violated ethics regulations by accepting more than half a dozen free flights for herself and her husband on luxury private aircraft from three South Carolina businessmen last year. "By accepting gifts of luxury private flights, Ambassador Haley seems to be falling in line with other Trump administration officials who are reaping personal benefits from their public positions," said CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder, in a statement. It might be too early to speculate about precisely who might replace Haley next year, but journalist Rania Khalek had a good idea of what qualifications the top candidates can expect to have: Nikki Haley resigned, good riddance. But Im sure trump will appoint someone just as enthusiastic for war against Iran and Syria and just as sincere in their hatred for Palestinians and love for the Saudis and Israel and right wing Latin American governments. Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) October 9, 2018 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 Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load. Future of Western Democracy Being Played Out in Brazil Stripped to its essence, the Brazilian presidential elections represent a direct clash between democracy and an early 21st Century neofascism, indeed between civilization and barbarism, writes Pepe Escobar. By Pepe Escobar October 09, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Nothing less than the future of politics across the West and across the Global South is being played out in Brazil. Stripped to its essence, the Brazilian presidential elections represent a direct clash between democracy and an early 21st Century, neofascism, indeed between civilization and barbarism. Geopolitical and global economic reverberations will be immense. The Brazilian dilemma illuminates all the contradictions surrounding the Right populist offensive across the West, juxtaposed to the inexorable collapse of the Left. The stakes could not be higher. Jair Bolsonaro, an outright supporter of Brazilian military dictatorships of last century, who has been normalized as the extreme-right candidate, won the first round of the presidential elections on Sunday with more than 49 million votes. That was 46 percent of the total, just shy of a majority needed for an outright win. This in itself is a jaw-dropping development. His opponent, Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party (PT), got only 31 million votes, or 29 percent of the total. He will now face Bolsonaro in a runoff on October 28. A Sisyphean task awaits Haddad: just to reach parity with Bolsonaro, he needs every single vote from those who supported the third and fourth-placed candidates, plus a substantial share of the almost 20 percent of votes considered null and void. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Meanwhile, no less than 69 percent of Brazilians, according to the latest polls, profess their support for democracy. That means 31 percent do not. No Tropical Trump Dystopia Central does not even begin to qualify it. Progressive Brazilians are terrified of facing a mutant Brazil (the movie) cum Mad Max wasteland ravaged by evangelical fanatics, rapacious neoliberal casino capitalists and a rabid military bent on recreating a Dictatorship 2.0. Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper, is being depicted by Western mainstream media essentially as the Tropical Trump. The facts are way more complex. Bolsonaro, a mediocre member of Congress for 27 years with no highlights on his C.V., indiscriminately demonizes blacks, the LGBT community, the Left as a whole, the environment scam and most of all, the poor. Hes avowedly pro-torture. He markets himself as a Messiah a fatalistic avatar coming to save Brazil from all those sins above. The Goddess of the Market, predictably, embraces him. Investors those semi-divine entities deem him good for the market, with his last-minute offensive in the polls mirroring a rally in the Brazilian real and the Sao Paulo stock exchange. Bolsonaro may be your classic extreme-right savior in the Nazi mould. He may embody Right populism to the core. But hes definitely not a sovereignist the motto of choice in political debate across the West. His sovereign Brazil would be run more like a retro-military dictatorship totally subordinated to Washingtons whims. Bolsonaros ticket is compounded by a barely literate, retired general as his running mate, a man who is ashamed of his mixed race background and is frankly pro-eugenics. General Antonio Hamilton Mourao has even revived the idea of a military coup. Manipulating the ticket, we find massive economic interests, tied to mineral wealth, agro-business and most of all the Brazilian Bible Belt. It is complete with death squads against Native Brazilians, landless peasants and African-American communities. It is a haven for the weapons industry. Call it the apotheosis of tropical neo-pentecostal, Christian-Zionism. Praise the Lord Brazil has 42 million evangelicals and over 200 representatives in both branches of Parliament. Dont mess with their jihad. They know how to exercise massive appeal among the beggars at the neoliberal banquet. The Lula Left simply didnt know how to seduce them. So even with echoes of Mike Pence, Bolsonaro is the Brazilian Trump only to a certain extent: his communication skills talking tough, simplistically, is language understandable to a seven-year old. Educated Italians compare him to Matteo Salvini, the Lega leader, now Minister of Interior. But thats also not exactly the case. Bolsonaro is a symptom of a much larger disease. He has only reached this level, a head-to-head in the second round against Lulas candidate Haddad, because of a sophisticated, rolling, multi-stage, judicial/congressional/business/media Hybrid War unleashed on Brazil. Way more complex than any color revolution, Hybrid War in Brazil featured a law-fare coup under cover of the Car Wash anti-corruption investigation. That led to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and Lula being thrown in jail on corruption charges with no hard evidence or smoking gun. In every poll Lula would win these elections hand down. The coup plotters managed to imprison him and prevent him from running. Lulas right to run was highlighted by everyone from Pope Francis to the UNs Human Rights Council, as well as Noam Chomsky. Yet in a delightful historical twist, the coup plotters scenario blew up in their faces as the front-runner to lead the country is not one of them, but a neofascist. One of them would ideally be a faceless bureaucrat affiliated with the former social democrats, the PSDB, turned hardcore neoliberals addicted to posing as Center Left when they are the acceptable face of the neoliberal Right. Call them Brazilian Tony Blairs. Specific Brazilian contradictions, plus the advance of Right populism across the West, led to their downfall. Even Wall Street and the City of London (which endorsed Hybrid War on Brazil after it was unleashed by NSA spying of oil giant Petrobras) have started entertaining second thoughts on supporting Bolsonaro for president of a BRICS nation, which is a leader of the Global South, and until a few years ago, was on its way to becoming the fifth largest economy in the world. It all hangs on the vote transfer mechanism from Lula to Haddad and the creation of a serious, multi-party Progressive Democratic Front on the second round to defeat the rising neofascism. They have less than three weeks to pull it off. The Bannon Effect Its no secret that Steve Bannon is advising the Bolsonaro campaign in Brazil. One of Bolsonaros sons, Eduardo, met with Bannon in New York two months ago after which the Bolsonaro camp decided to profit from Bannons supposed peerless social engineering insights. Bolsonaros son tweeted at the time, Were certainly in touch to join forces, especially against Cultural Marxism. That was followed by an army of bots disgorging an avalanche of fake news up to Election Day. A specter haunts Europe. Its name is Steve Bannon. The specter has moved on to the tropics. In Europe, Bannon is now poised to intervene like an angel of doom in a Tintoretto painting heralding the creation of a EU-wide Right Populist coalition. Bannon is notoriously praised to high heavens by Italian Interior Minister Salvini; Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban; Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders; and scourge of the Paris establishment, Marine Le Pen. Last month, Bannon set up The Movement; at first sight just a political start-up in Brussels with a very small staff. But talk about Boundless Ambition: their aim is no less than turning the European parliamentary elections in May 2019 upside down. The European parliament in Strasbourg a bastion of bureaucratic inefficiency is not exactly a household name across the EU. The parliament is barred from proposing legislation. Laws and budgets can only be blocked via a majority vote. Bannon aims at capturing at least one-third of the seats in Strasbourg. Hes bound to apply tested American-style methods such as intensive polling, data analysis, and intensive social media campaigns much the same as in Bolsonaros case. But theres no guarantee it will work, of course. The foundation stone of The Movement was arguably laid in two key meetings in early September set up by Bannon and his right-hand man, Mischael Modrikamen, chairman of the quite small Belgian Parti Populaire (PP). The first meeting was in Rome with Salvini and the second in Belgrade with Orban. Modrikamen defines the concept as a club which will collect funds from donors, in America and Europe, to make sure populist ideas can be heard by the citizens of Europe who perceive more and more that Europe is not a democracy anymore. Modrikamen insists, We are all sovereignists. The Movement will hammer four themes that seem to form a consensus among disparate, EU-wide political parties: against uncontrolled immigration; against Islamism; favoring security across the EU; and supporting a Europe of sovereign nations, proud of their identity. The Movement should really pick up speed after next months midterms in the U.S. In theory, it could congregate different parties from the same nation under its umbrella. That could be a very tall order, even taller than the fact key political actors already have divergent agendas. Wilders wants to blow up the EU. Salvini and Orban want a weak EU but they dont want to get rid of its institutions. Le Pen wants a EU reform followed by a Frexit referendum. The only themes that unite this mixed Right Populism bag are nationalism, a fuzzy anti-establishment drive and a quite popular disgust with the EUs overwhelming bureaucratic machine. Here we find some common ground with Bolsonaro, who poses as a nationalist and as against the Brazilian political system even though hes been in Parliament for ages. Theres no rational explanation for Bolsonaros last-minute surge among two sections of the Brazilian electorate that deeply despise him: women and the Northeast region, which has always been discriminated against by the wealthier South and Southeast. Much like Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 U.S. election, Bolsonaros campaign targeted undecided voters in Northeastern states, as well as women voters, with a barrage of fake news demonizing Haddad and the Workers Party. It worked like a charm. The Italian Job Ive just been to northern Italy checking out how popular Salvini really is. Salvini defines the May 2019 European Parliament elections as the last chance for Europe. Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero sees them as the first real election for the future of Europe. Bannon also sees the future of Europe being played in Italy. Its quite something to seize the conflicting energy in the air in Milan, where Salvinis Lega is quite popular while at the same time Milan is a globalized city crammed with ultra-progressive pockets. At a political debate about a book published by the Bruno Leoni Institute regarding exiting the euro, Roberto Maroni, a former governor of the powerful Lombardia region, remarked: Italexit is outside of the formal agenda of the government, of the Lega and of the center-right. Maroni should know, after all he was one of the Legas founders. He hinted however that major changes are on the horizon. To form a group in the European parliament, the numbers are important. This is the moment to show up with a unique symbol among parties of many nations. Its not only Bannon and The Movements Modrikamen. Salvini, Le Pen and Orban are convinced they can win the 2019 elections with the EU transformed into a Union of European Nations. This would include not just a couple of big cities where all the action is, with the rest reduced to fly over status. Right Populism argues that France, Italy, Spain, and Greece are no longer nations only mere provinces. Right Populism derives immense satisfaction that its main enemy is the self-described Jupiter Macron mocked across France by some as the Little Sun King. President Emmanuel Macron must be terrified that Salvini is emerging as the leading light of European nationalists. This is what Europe seems to be coming to: a trashy, Salvini vs. Macron cage match. Arguably the Salvini vs. Macron fight in Europe might be replicated as Bolsonaro vs. Haddad in Brazil. Some sharp Brazilian minds are convinced Haddad is the Brazilian Macron. In my view he is not. His has a background in philosophy and hes a former, competent mayor of Sao Paulo, one of the most complex megalopolises on the planet. Macron is a Rothschild mergers and acquisitions banker. Unlike Macron, who was engineered by the French establishment as the perfect progressive wolf to be released among the sheep, Haddad embodies whats left of really progressive Left. On top of that unlike virtually the whole Brazilian political spectrum Haddad is not corrupt. Hed have to offer the requisite pound of flesh to the usual suspects if he wins of course. But hes not out to be their puppet. Compare Bolsonaros Trumpism, apparent in his last-minute message before Election Day: Make Brazil Great Again, with Trumps Trumpism. Bolsonaros tools are unmitigated praise of the Motherland; the Armed Forces; and the flag. But Bolsonaro is not interested in defending Brazilian industry, jobs and culture. On the contrary. A graphic example is what happened in a Brazilian restaurant in Deerfield Beach, Florida, a year ago: Bolsonaro saluted the American flag and chanted USA! USA! Thats undiluted MAGA without a B. Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale and author of How Fascism Works, takes us further. Stanley stresses how the idea in fascism is to destroy economic politics The corporatists side with politicians who use fascist tactics because they are trying to divert peoples attention from the real forces that cause the genuine anxiety they feel. Bolsonaro has mastered these diversionist tactics. And he excels in demonizing so-called Cultural Marxism. Bolsonaro fits Stanleys description as applied to the U.S.: Liberalism and Cultural Marxism destroyed our supremacy and destroyed this wonderful past where we ruled and our cultural traditions were the ones that dominated. And then it militarizes the feeling of nostalgia. All the anxiety and loss that people feel in their lives, say from the loss of their healthcare, the loss of their pensions, the loss of their stability, then gets rerouted into a sense that the real enemy is liberalism, which led to the loss of this mythic past. In the Brazilian case, the enemy is not liberalism but the Workers Party, derided by Bolsonaro as a bunch of communists. Celebrating his astonishing first round victory, he said Brazil was on the edge of a corrupt, communist abyss and could either choose a path of prosperity, freedom, family or the path of Venezuela. The Car Wash investigation enshrined the myth that the Workers Party and the whole Left is corrupt (but not the Right). Bolsonaro overextended the myth: every minority and social class is a target in his mind they are communists and terrorists. Goebbels comes to mind via his crucial text The Radicalization of Socialism, where he emphasized the necessity of portraying the center-left as Marxists and socialists because, as Stanley notes, the middle class sees in Marxism not so much the subverter of national will, but mainly the thief of its property. Thats at the center of Bolsonaros strategy of demonizing the Workers Party and the Left in general. The strategy of course is drenched in fake news once again mirroring what Stanley writes about U.S. history: The whole concept of empire is based on fake news. All of colonization is based on fake news. Right Against Left Populism? As I wrote in a previous column, the Left in the West is like a deer caught in the headlights when it comes to fighting Right populism. Sharp minds from Slavoj Zizek to Chantal Mouffe are trying to conceptualize an alternative without being able to coin the definitive neologism. Left populism? Popularism? Ideally, that should be democratic socialism but no one, in a post-ideology, post-truth environment, would dare utter the dreaded word. The ascent of Right populism is a direct consequence of the emergence of a profound crisis of political representation all over the West; the politics of identity erected as a new mantra; and the overwhelming power of social media, which allows in Umberto Ecos peerless definition the ascent of the idiot of the village to the condition of Oracle. As we saw earlier, the central motto of Right populism in Europe is anti-immigration a barely disguised variation of hate towards The Other. In Brazil the main theme, emphasized by Bolsonaro, is urban insecurity. He could be the Brazilian Rodrigo Duterte or Duterte Harry: Make my day, punk. He portrays himself as the Righteous Defender against a corrupt elite (even though hes part of the elite); and his hatred of all things politically correct, feminism, homosexuality, multiculturalism are all unpardonable offenses to his family values. A Brazilian historian says the only way to oppose him is to translate to each sector of Brazilian society how Bolsonaros positions affect them: on widespread weaponizing, discrimination, jobs, (and) taxes. And it has to be done in less than three weeks. Arguably the best book explaining the failure of the Left everywhere to deal with this toxic situation is Jean-Claude Micheas Le Loup dans la Bergerie The Wolf Among the Sheep published in France a few days ago. Michea shows concisely how the deep contradictions of liberalism since the 18th century political, economic and cultural led it to TURN AGAINST ITSELF and be cut off from the initial spirit of tolerance (Adam Smith, David Hume, Montesquieu). Thats why we are deep inside post-democratic capitalism. Euphemistically called the international community by Western mainstream media, the elites, who have been confronted since 2008 with the growing difficulties faced by the process of globalized accumulation of capital, now seem ready to do anything to keep its privileges. Michea is right that the most dangerous enemy of civilization and even Life on Earth is the blind dynamics of endless accumulation of capital. We know where this neoliberal Brave New World is taking us. The only counterpunch is an autonomous, popular movement that would not be submitted to the ideological and cultural hegemony of progressive movements that for over three decades defend only the cultural interests of the new middle classes around the world, Michae says. For now, such a movement rests in the realm of Utopia. Whats left is to try to remedy a coming dystopia such as backing a real Progressive Democratic Front to block a Bolsonaro Brazil. One of the highlights of my Italian sojourn was a meeting with Rolf Petri, Professor of Contemporary History at the Ca Foscari University in Venice, and author of the absolutely essential A Short History of Western Ideology: A Critical Account. Ranging from religion, race and colonialism, to the Enlightenment project of civilization, Petri weaves a devastating tapestry of how the imagined geography of a continent that was not even a continent offered a platform for the affirmation of European superiority and the civilizing mission of Europe. During a long dinner in a small Venetian trattoria away from the galloping selfie hordes, Petri observed how Salvini a middle-class small entrepreneur craftily found out how to channel a deep unconscious longing for a mythical harmonious Europe that wont be coming back, much as petty bourgeois Bolsonaro evokes a mythical return to the Brazilian miracle during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Every sentient being knows that the U.S. has been plunged into extreme inequality supervised by a ruthless plutocracy. U.S. workers will continue to be royally screwed as are French workers under liberal Macron. So would Brazilian workers under Bolsonaro. To borrow then from Yeats, what rough beast, in this darkest hour, slouches towards freedom to be born? Pepe Escobar, a veteran Brazilian journalist, is the correspondent-at-large for Hong Kong-based Asia Times. His latest book is 2030. Follow him on Facebook. This article was originally published by " Consortium News " - 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 Ekiti State Chairman, of the All Progressives Congress(APC) Mr. Paul Omotoso, has said out-going governor of the state, Ayodele Fayose will not be accepted into the party, unless corruption charges against him are cleared. Omotosho, alongside all the party chairmen in all wards in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area, where the governor hails from, as well as all wards in Ado-Ekiti, have said he is not welcome in the ruling party. According to the Ekiti state chapter of the ruling party the governor must be cleared of his case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) before he joins their party. In a statement yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Ade Ajayi, APC said Fayose, over the years, abused, disrespected and openly denigrated President Muhammadu Buhari. Its also explained that Governor Fayose doesnt believe in the core tenets The 2018 edition of the Nigeria Innovation Summit with the theme: Building a Culture of Innovation in Nigeria for Sustainable Economic Growth, organized by Emerging Media, held at Ventures Parks, Maitama and Shehu Musa Yaradua Centre on September 25-26, 2018 was successfully concluded with the participation of over 400 delegates and stakeholders. The delegates cut across Federal and State government, International organisations, Diplomats, businesses, investors, academia, research communities, business leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, students and from within and outside Nigeria in attendance. The overall objective of the summit focuses on the need for the country, businesses, organisations, entrepreneurs in Nigeria to become more innovative and apply innovation to drive sustainable development and bridge the digital divide. In collaborating with the International Society for Professional Innovation Management, UK, and the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability, South Africa, and SA Innovation Summit, the Summit organisaers aimed at bringing all the ideas from the Summit to practical application across the focused sectors. The Summit program included Workshops on Innovation Management facilitated by ISPIM, Keynote Sessions, Panel Discussions/Interactive Sessions which focused on: Collaboration To Build The Future of Nigeria Through Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Building a Culture of Innovation in Nigeria for Sustainable Economic Growth; and The Future of Innovations, Collaborations and Opportunities for Nigeria and Africa. There were also Networking Session, Start-ups and Innovative Business Presentations and the Nigeria Innovation Awards. The speakers include: Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, EVC, Nigeria Communications Commission; Dr. Audrey Verhaeghe, Chairperson, South Africa (SA) Innovation Summit; Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami , DG/CEO, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); Bobby Moroe, Acting South African High Commissioner to the Nigeria; Richard Ough, Economic Development Team Leader & Senior Economic Adviser, DFID Nigeria; Stella Bida, Senior Managing Partner at Innovation.Strategy.Results, Belgium; Engr. (Prof) Okechukwu F. Ukwuoma, DG, NACETEM; Kola Aina, CEO/Founder, Emerging Platform, Abuja; Bruno Woeran, Director Project Development for, International Society for Professional Innovation Management, ISPIM, UK; Rubin Rose and Satya Mekala of International Account Manager, World Telecom Labs, Belgium; Abayomi Baiyere, Assistant Professor of Digitalization at Copenhagen Business School; Dr. (Mrs) Wakawa, R. C. and Mr, Yusuff Adeleke of NACETEM. The following are the submissions and recommendations from the Summit: * Nigeria is in dire need of growing her own innovative and disruptive ideas that will transform the country and bring in foreign investments. *To build a culture of innovation in Nigeria, she must build strong institutions that will nurture and grow these innovations, strengthen and reposition the existing ones institutions. *We can transform the economy by producing a quality technology-based entrepreneurship pipeline and attract foreign and local investment, and hence become a giant accelerator to Nigerias economy. *The Summit in partnership with ISPIM was ready to connect Nigeria entrepreneurs and innovators with the rest of the world, where they can get funding and also bring their innovative ideas to the global stage. * Nigerian youths should be supported and encouraged to embrace technology, innovation and entrepreneurship so as to build the future of Nigeria. * The Summit organisers are working with innovation ecosystems around the world to support Nigerian Innovators through the African Innovation Academy (http://africaninnovation.academy) and promoting Open Innovation in collaboration with the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability, South Africa, which will encourage corporate, small business and start up innovations. *The Summit has developed a strategic plan to harvest innovations in all geo-political zones in the country and address the issue of innovation deficit through a national wide innovation challenge, which focused more on home grown technological innovations that are strategically designed to solve unique Nigerian problems, and are open to partner with organizations, government agencies and companies to achieve this project. The Summit ended with the presentation of Nigeria innovation Awards to many organisations: Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) For Enabling Telecommunication Innovation In Nigeria; Dr. Audrey Verhaeghe For Her Effort in Promoting Open Innovation in Africa; Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, For His Pioneering Effort in Technology Development in Nigeria through NITDA; DFID Nigeria For Their Strategic Partnerships in Supporting and Promoting Innovation in Nigeria; Stella Bida For Her Global Effort in Promoting Innovation; Bobby Moroe For His Passion For Africas Industrialization; Kola Aina For His Effort in Startup Development in Nigeria; International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) For Championing Innovation Management Around the World; and National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) For Their Effort in Promoting Technology Management in Nigeria. The Nigeria Innovation Summit, a delegates from South Africa, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, British High Commission/DFID, South African High Commission, French Embassy in Nigeria, NCC, NITDA, NACETEM, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), and delegates from several government agencies, representatives from several states, academic communities and research institutes, international organisations and top private companies. Issued October 8, 2018 Tony Ajah Programme Director, Nigeria Innovation Summit Costume designer Ruth E. Carter spoke in Stephens Auditorium on Oct. 9. Carter mentioned designing costumes for superheros for the first time. I use a lot of the same principles that I use for developing characters and coming up with their stories. I am very specific about who they are and how they look when i approach the work of black panther, Carter said. 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Emails must be tied to the submitted guest column or it will not be accepted or published. Pseudonyms are prohibited and the writer will be banned from submissions. Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020 File photo shows Nikki Haley chairs a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 5, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has accepted Nikki Haley's resignation as the country's ambassador to the United Nations. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has accepted Nikki Haley's resignation as the country's ambassador to the United Nations. Trump told reporters on Tuesday morning at the oval office that Haley will be leaving at the end of the year. He added that Haley told him six months ago about her intention to leave the post. Haley, seen as one of Trump's most trusted advisers, had reportedly discussed her resignation with Trump last week during her visit to the White House. Haley used to serve as the governor of South Carolina. She was confirmed days after Trump's inauguration in January 2017. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author (Good Tea), and they do not reflect in any way those of iRealHousewives.com. Fresh from selling frozen fish on QVC Shannon decided to invite all the ladies over to her downsized 4000 square feet home to give them some more fancy food that she cooked all herself. Allegedly. Shannon is one of my all-time favourites but has there ever been a scene where she isn't complaining about something? This time Dr Moon's groupie was stressing out that she got home from QVC the day before and didn't have time to cook the food the way she wanted. Who gives a fuck? You just made a killing from selling people microwave food on TV so cook your beef and beans and call it a day. In happier news, Tamra is out of her scooter and able to walk around without having to scoot her way around the OC. I've got to be honest, I'm gonna miss that scooter. It was the seventh Housewife and easily gave us more content than what Emily and Gina have put together. Let's hope Tamra falls down the stairs or has another drunken Mexico jacuzzi jumping spree because we need that scooter and we need it fast. All the ladies attended Shannon's lunch day and they all like each other or at least pretend to which is gross. No one threw a glass, no one called another person a bitch and no one was thrown out. What has happened to this show? We need another messy Kelly Dodd-esque casting pronto because aside from Emily threatening to kill someone the new girls haven't done much this season. Speaking of the newbies, they still aren't really clicking with Shannon which is mostly due to Mrs Beador struggling to acknowledge their existences. As a normal human being, Shannon's approach to the other women is cunty. She gives them passive aggressive smiles, hugs them for a second and then complains about her ongoing divorce while they patiently wait for her to ask about their small children which is yet to happen. Does Shannon know they have kids? Does Shannon even know their last names? Probably not. Yes, as a human being Shannon hasn't been great towards the two girls but this is reality TV we are talking about, why should Shannon waste her time and energy getting to know two new girls when she has milk in the fridge that will probably be around longer than them. She has a pattern of not liking the newbies from Meghan, Kelly, Peggy, Lydia and now these two so if they are lucky enough to get a second season maybe she'll decide to strike up a friendship with them which is fine but if she's going to not like them can she at least start an active beef and throw a plate at one of them instead of having boring fake scenes with them in the interim? During the lunch, Gina cried on the couch, while Shannon gave zero fucks in the kitchen, because she doesn't want to be single, is scared she'll miss her in-laws and won't be able to go on vacation with her best friend due to their divorce. If Gina is so sad about all these things why can't she stay with her best friend who she still fucks and doesn't fight with? I don't get this divorce and I don't want to see her cry on a couch with blue eyeshadow about a divorce that isn't necessary. Obviously, SOMETHING went down in their marriage because two "best friends" with a healthy sex drive don't just divorce so until she's honest about why they are calling it quits, I'm not at all interested in hearing about it. However, I don't think Gina cared about never seeing her in-laws again as much as she did about the realisation she'll never get any vacation dick from her husband again. Gina and her phantom husband were a HOT couple and the sex would've been like floating on a vibrating cloud while eating tater tots, especially on vacation because everyone knows sex is better when it's in a hotel bed in a tropical location. I sympathise with her about that loss but she should really stay in the relationship just for the vacation sex or at least set up some kind of friends with benefits situation. And one more thing, why is Gina staying at a different house away from Matt on the weekends when they are best friends? Shouldn't best friends be able to stay in the same house together? I believe that best friend shit as much as I believe The Little Bitch doesn't enjoy the company of other men. The most offensive part of this episode wasn't Vicki's face but this group's poor acting skills. The Housewives "pretending" to plan a vacation is an inevitable cringe-worthy moment that occurs every single season but can't Bravo provide the ladies with free acting lessons or at least just let them be more honest about the process? The ladies all brainstormed vacation destinations to celebrate Shannon selling frozen fish on QVC and pretended the trip wasn't already paid in full. Finally, they settled on Jamaica which Emily's sister just coincidentally visited and even dropped the name of the hotel in full. Be better, Bravo. Seeing Kelly research the history of Jamaica like it was an eighth-grade presentation was hilarious and all she needed was a piece of poster paper and a PowerPoint presentation in the background to go with her alternative and semi-ignorant facts. Emily still wants a baby girl with the nine embryos she has and The Little Bitch is still being true to his name. If Emily doesn't have a baby she is going to regret it for the rest of her life so why not? Never having another baby is more regrettable then choosing to have one, is The Little Bitch going to regret having another baby for the rest of his life? Of course not. Honestly, Emily needs to find herself a surrogate, get a turkey baster, shoot those fuckers up there and give Shane a nine-month surprise because he and his dry sense of humour aren't going to change his mind about having another child. Mormons love children so shouldn't Shane want to have a dozen children running around? What's one more kid and they have a nanny anyway so she's the only one in this situation who should be complaining about any future Simpson offspring. airs Monday nights at 9pm/8c on Bravo! For International TV Listings,Please follow Sam's shady and fun celeb blog Good Tea and follow his blog on social media via Twitter ! You can also listen to Good Tea's Podcast onandPhoto Credit: Bravo ANKARA, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- A search will be carried out in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey's Istanbul in line with an ongoing probe on the disappearance of a Saudi journalist, Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The ministry said that this search will be implemented in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and under the official permission of the Saudi diplomatic mission chief. "The Saudi authorities stated that they were open for cooperation, and an investigation can be carried out in the building of the Consulate General," the statement said. Turkish prosecutors have launched the probe on whereabouts of Jamal Khashoggi, 59, journalist and columnist of the Washington Post. The Saudi journalist has been missing since last Tuesday afternoon after entering the consulate building to get several documents for his marriage. Turkish Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned Saudi Arabian ambassador to Ankara and demanded permission to search the consulate building in Istanbul. Unconfirmed reports quoted Turkish police sources as saying that Khashoggi was likely killed inside the consulate. Saudi officials denied such allegations as "baseless," insisting that the journalist left the consulate's premises. JCCs & Federation presents Community Leadership Awards During an evening filled with honors to those who have given much to their Jewish community, the nights highest award went to Joe Probasco, a man who just completed a four-year term as president of the Tampa JCCs & Federation. The occasion was the Sue and Jeff Schoenbaum Annual Community... Shoppers calling out retailers Hanukkah miscues Deck the halls with matzo balls? Hanukkah menorahs with 12 candles? Products with misfired Hanukkah messages have drawn gripes for years, but this year major retailers are responding quickly to customer complaints about inappropriate Hanukkah products. Theres even an Instagram account, Hanukkah Fails, dedicated to pointing out culturally inappropriate items.... 16 Women of Distinction to be honored Dec. 9 The editor of Moment Magazine, will be keynote speaker at the Bobbe Karpay Women of Distinction awards ceremony, set to return in-person on Thursday, Dec. 9. The event, sponsored by the Tampa JCCs & Federations Womens Philanthropy, will take place at Congregation Schaarai Zedek, 3303 W. Swann Ave., Tampa, beginning... Its party time: Bryan Glazer Family JCC turns 5 The Tampa JCCs & Federation will celebrate the Bryan Glazer Family JCCs fifth birthday with a week-long open house and festivities. From Dec. 1-8, the community is invited to get to know the Bryan Glazer Family JCC and experience all of the benefits of being a member. A true community... Focus on Lisa Netz, co-owner of The Lavish Loft Submitted by Haleh Rabizadeh Resnick, Federation Business and Community Development Director For the Voice What was your path to South Jersey? I grew up in... Focus on Peter Hecht Partner at Magna Legal Services Tell me about your connection to the South Jersey Jewish Community? I actually grew up in East Brunswick, Exit 9 off the Turnpike. But weve... Focus on Abigail Dahan: Owner of the Bake School Tell me a bit about your life in South Jersey. I grew up in Cherry Hill. We moved here from Paris when I was six... Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with Angolan President Joao Lourenco in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) BEIJING, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- China and Angola should upgrade their mutually beneficial cooperation and bring benefits to both peoples, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Tuesday in Beijing. Li made the remarks while meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco, who is in China for a state visit. "With a profound traditional friendship, China and Angola are each other's important partner, and their bilateral relations have long been at the forefront of China's relations with African countries," Li said. "China hopes to work with the Angolan side to continue to consolidate political mutual trust, promote cooperation in various fields and better achieve win-win results and common development." Li noted that the pragmatic cooperation between China and Angola had broad prospects. "The two sides should synergize their development strategies, fully implement the results of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, bring forth innovative cooperation models, accelerate the negotiation on signing the investment protection agreement, promote collaboration in industries, trade, infrastructure and other key areas, further give play to the role of private enterprises, upgrade the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides and bring benefits to both peoples," Li said. "China encourages Chinese enterprises to invest in Angola and abide by Angola's laws and regulations. We hope that Angola provide convenience in business operations and take more measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens." Lourenco said Angola was willing to enhance cooperation with China in hydroelectric stations, power grids, highways, railways and other fields, and provide a favorable environment for Chinese companies to invest and develop in Angola. The Norwegian royal couple's upcoming visit to China will strengthen the already sound relationship between the two countries, Norwegian Ambassador to China Geir O. Pedersen said here Tuesday. During a press conference held at the Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, Pedersen said that "the visit of the King and the Queen is the political and symbolic expression of the deepening of the relationship between Norway and China." King of Norway Harald V will pay a state visit to China from Oct. 11 to 20. "We have developed an excellent relationship ... particular since last April when our Prime Minister Erna Solberg visited China. The relationship between Norway and China has developed very well and very, very positively," Pedersen said. King Harald V and Queen Sonja who first visited China in 1985, have great interest in China, and extensive knowledge about China, he said. "They have been ... extremely impressed by what they have seen during these four decades of the reform and opening-up in China," he said, adding that they also applaud China's fight against poverty and pollution, and how China is tackling different social challenges. Using salmon as an example, Knut Roald Sorlie, commercial counselor at the Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, described the business relationship between Norway and China as one with "a good dynamism." "Things are happening on the ground. The export of fresh salmon to China, in the first seven months of this year, has increased by 682 percent, and that is a very good start," Sorlie said. "Now the Norwegians engage more with China, so the interest in China is increasing," he said. Sorlie said there will be a total of 340 delegates representing 150 Norwegian companies that are visiting China this time together with the royal couple, a new record. Apart from business cooperation, the royal couple's visit to one of the world's biggest solar panels in Dunhuang, Gansu province, will also show the two countries' joint efforts in fighting against climate change, the ambassador said. "Both Norway and China are strongly committed to the Paris Agreement. In the area of climate, we have cooperated for more than 20 years," Pedersen said. It's more important than ever for both countries to strengthen political and economic dialogues, and cooperate in trade, investment, tourism and environmental issues, he said. The first batch of humanitarian supplies from the Chinese government for Indonesia's quake victims arrived at Balikpapan International Airport in eastern Kalimantan Island on Tuesday afternoon, the Chinese embassy in Indonesia said in a statement. The first batch of humanitarian supplies from the Chinese government for Indonesia's quake victims arrived at Balikpapan International Airport in eastern Kalimantan Island on Tuesday afternoon. [Photo: People. cn] The aid, consisting of tents, water treatment equipment, generators and other supplies, will be delivered to the earthquake and tsunami-hit areas in Central Sulawesi province soon. There are still four batches of this kind of aid to be delivered in days. Wang Liping, Minister Counselor (Economic &Commercial) of the embassy and senior officials from Indonesia's disaster management agency BNPB and the foreign ministry welcomed the arrival of the Chinese cargo planes at the airport. Besides the aid from China, the Chinese embassy also purchased some provisions locally which are urgently needed by the victims in Central Sulawesi, which will also be delivered to the disaster-hit regions. Meanwhile, the embassy said the Red Cross Society of China had donated a total of 200,000 U.S. dollars to its Indonesian counterpart, Palang Merah Indonesia, to help shore up relief works in the province. A 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Central Sulawesi province on Sept. 28, triggering a tsunami and mudslides that already killed 2,010 people and displaced tens of thousands of others until Tuesday. In this photo provide by Peru's Justice Department, Keiko Fujimori enters the chief prosecutor's office, with a jacket covering her handcuffs, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Fujimori was detained on Wednesday as part of a money-laundering investigation, the latest political leader in the Andean nation to face scrutiny over alleged corruption. (Peru's Justice Department via AP) Sebelum Anda bermain, Anda perlu mengetahui apa yang Anda butuhkan untuk masuk ke dalam permainan roulette kasino online ini. Jika Anda sudah mendaftar di situs judi casino online dan sudah memberikan user ID, login terlebih dahulu dan pilih menu live casino yang tertera di situs judi tersebut. Pertama pilih dealer dan putuskan sendiri, lalu pilih meja atau kursi di dalam ruangan. Jika namanya tertera dan berwarna coklat, maka kursi tersebut sudah ditempati oleh pemain lain, dan pilihlah kursi kosong berwarna hitam. Kasino Roulette adalah salah satu permainan paling populer di situs perjudian kasino. Jadi dalam permainan ini kamu harus menebak angka berapa yang akan keluar. Ada 36 nomor berbeda dalam permainan populer ini di mana sebuah bola kecil diputar dan dilemparkan ke dalam mesin roulette. Anda harus menebak dari mana bola kecil itu masuk dan di nomor berapa ia berhenti. Ada banyak jenis pilihan angka dari 0-36, dan mereka dihitung secara berbeda. Sebagai agen casino terpercaya, panduan permainan roulette ini juga memberikan informasi tentang jenis pilihan dan nama permainan roulette casino online sebagai berikut: Jika Anda ingin bermain roulette di situs kasino online, caranya sangat sederhana. Anda dapat bermain di Kasino ION, Kasino Sbobet, dan Situs Kasino. Di bawah ini adalah artikel panduan bermain di mana Anda dapat mempelajari roulette langsung dan memainkannya di situs judi online mana pun. tangkapan layar Sebelum Anda bermain, Anda perlu mengetahui apa yang Anda butuhkan untuk masuk ke dalam permainan roulette kasino online ini. Jika Anda sudah mendaftar di situs judi casino online dan sudah memberikan user ID, login terlebih dahulu dan pilih menu live casino yang tertera di situs judi online tersebut. Pertama pilih dealer dan putuskan sendiri, lalu pilih meja atau kursi di dalam ruangan. Jika namanya tertera dan berwarna coklat, maka kursi tersebut sudah ditempati oleh pemain lain, dan pilihlah kursi kosong berwarna hitam. Panduan Bermain Online Kasino Roulette Kasino Roulette adalah salah satu permainan paling populer di situs perjudian kasino. Jadi dalam permainan ini kamu harus menebak angka berapa yang akan keluar. Ada 36 nomor berbeda dalam permainan populer ini di mana sebuah bola kecil diputar dan dilemparkan ke dalam mesin roulette. Anda harus menebak dari mana bola kecil itu masuk dan di nomor berapa ia berhenti. Ada banyak jenis pilihan angka dari 0-36, dan mereka dihitung secara berbeda. Sebagai agen casino terpercaya, panduan permainan roulette ini juga memberikan informasi tentang jenis pilihan dan nama permainan roulette casino online sebagai berikut: 1. Straight Up: Penempatan angka tunggal dari 0 hingga 36. Contoh perhitungan straight up adalah mengalikan taruhan dengan 35. Ini adalah jenis taruhan tertinggi dalam permainan roulette kasino, jadi 50 dikalikan dengan 35 memberi Anda 1750, mengapa jenis taruhan ini menghasilkan pengembalian yang begitu tinggi? Hal ini karena tidak mudah untuk memenangkan pilihan nomor dengan memilih hanya satu nomor dari banyak. 2. Taruhan split: Jenis taruhan yang ditempatkan pada dua angka atau di antara dua angka yang berbeda. Misalnya, menempatkan di sela-sela angka 9 dan 12 atau 13d dan 14 dihitung sebagai jenis taruhan split. Setiap nomor dapat ditempatkan dalam jenis ini selama nomor tersebut berdekatan dan persis seperti Gambar A dan B. Untuk taruhan ini, jika Anda memenangkan contoh dan mengalikannya dengan 850, Anda akan menerima jumlah taruhan yang dikalikan dengan 17. . 3. Taruhan jalanan: bertaruh dengan 3 angka ke bawah, misalnya 1,2,3 atau 10,11,12. Semua taruhan jalan akan menerima kemenangan dikalikan dengan 11. Misalnya, 50 dikalikan 550. 4. Taruhan sudut: Jenis taruhan di mana empat angka ditempatkan saling berhadapan, seperti 13,14,16,17 atau 19,20,22,23. Semua angka valid karena terdiri dari 4 angka yang diisi seperti kotak dan taruhan dikalikan 8 (misalnya 50 kali 800). 5. Taruhan baris: Atau, Anda dapat mengatakan bahwa ada 6 jenis taruhan yang terdiri dari 2 baris, tetapi 6 poin dengan 2 peregangan, seperti taruhan jalanan. Misalnya, jika Anda memilih angka 7 hingga 12 dan 13 hingga 18, taruhan 50 adalah 5 kali dan kemudian dikalikan dengan 250 kemenangan. 6. Kolom Inner Bet: Jenis taruhan vertikal dengan 12 poin berturut-turut, seperti kolom numerik 1,4,7,10,13,19,22,25,25,28,22,24,34 atau kolom lainnya. Dan jika dia memenangkan kolom, 50 taruhan digandakan dan 100 taruhan. 7. Lusin : Jenis taruhan menempatkan 12 angka tetapi menempatkannya pada kotak berbentuk seperti contoh Kolom A dengan angka 1 sampai 12 dan odds dengan kolom lain untuk dipilih dengan memilih 1 kotak pertama untuk Kolom A. Kalikan dengan 2, 50 taruhan 100. 8. Zero part : Cara bertaruh 0.1,2,3 sama persis seperti di gambar, karena berdekatan dengan angka 0, anda hanya bisa bertaruh 0.1,2,3. Menempatkan taruhan ini mengalikannya dengan 50. hingga 8. 9. Zero Corner: Bertaruh pada angka 0.1,2 atau 0.2,3 adalah dua pilihan karena Anda hanya bertaruh mendekati angka nol. Jenis taruhan ini dikalikan 11 jika taruhan menang. 10. Two Dozen: Jenis taruhan dengan hanya dua pilihan: 1-18 atau 19-36. Jika taruhan Anda adalah 50, itu dikalikan dengan 1 hingga 50 jika Anda menang. 11. Merah atau Hitam: Masukkan taruhan Anda dengan memilih Merah atau Hitam sebagai warna angka yang muncul saat taruhan 50. 12. Genap/Ganjil: Pilih angka yang menghasilkan jumlah jenis taruhan ganjil. Editors note: US Vice President Mike Pence spoke on the US China policy on October 4, which sparked a heated discussion in China. This article is what several Chinese youths have to say about his speech. US Vice President Mike Pences latest speech talked a lot about historical events between China and the US from the perspective of God, but unfortunately, his words are mostly selective memories, many of which are not in line with historical facts. In the speech, Pence also talked about Chinas current development from Gods perspective and the superiority of the Savior behind his words is undoubted. Pence mentioned that the US gave Beijing open access to its economy, and brought China into the World Trade Organization (WTO). The implication is that China should thank their acceptance. However, he did not mention Chinas hard work in joining the WTO, nor did he mention that Chinas access to the WTO was the result of several rounds of multilateral negotiations, not the unilateral gift from the US. As Pence said, over the past 17 years, Chinas GDP has grown nine-fold; its become the second-largest economy in the world, but behind all this, its Chinas 287 million migrant workers, 20 million private entrepreneurs and millions of families trying to change their own destiny that made this happen. There are also countless Chinese people who would leave their homes in the process of urbanization and are willing to seize the meager profit in the process of globalization. No one knows more about the meaning of self-reliance than the Chinese. Chinas development, without exporting revolutions and refugees, is based on its own hard work one step at a time. If such diligence is also a mistake, then which is the so-called correct path? Pence believes that there was a great trade deficit between China and the US, so it can be said that the US rebuilt China over the last 25 years, but he deliberately avoided the essence of free trade, which is that two parties buy and sell at their own will. In June, the research report released by Deutsche Bank said the US actually obtained more commercial net benefits than China in China-US bilateral trade. In those years, China had to sell hundreds of millions of shirts to import a large passenger plane. Profits obtained by China and the US were 5% and 84%, respectively, when China exports suits worth $450. Not to mention Apple mobile phones used by young Chinese: an Apple 7 mobile phone sells for a minimum of $649, but its production cost Apple paid for Chinas factories accounts for less than 1%. We wonder how Pences theory can have a leg to stand on when he faces such facts. We know that Chinas reform and opening up is a great process of development and progress of China and the world. We believe that people in many parts of the world have felt the goodwill of the Chinese people and Chinese government. This is also why Chinas Belt and Road Initiative can attract many countries to participate and why Chinas idea of a community with a shared future for humanity is included in UN documents. We regret to see that the US still holds a double standard in todays economic globalization. Pence accused Chinese warships of driving away the US warships, but did not mention that the US warships sailed 12 nautical miles within the Nansha Islands of China. He said China militarizes the South China Sea, but did not mention the US is always engaged in military exercises in this region, sending large amounts of advanced weapons to the South China Sea and constantly constructing new military bases. Pence complained that Chinas military spending is higher than all countries in the Asia-Pacific region combined, but didnt mention that the US military spending in fiscal year 2019 reached more than 700 billion dollars, not only the highest in its history, but also more than the rest of other big countries combined. On one hand, Pence said that the Chinese Communist Party is rewarding or coercing American businesses, movie studios, universities, think tanks, scholars, journalists, and local, state, and federal officials; on the other hand, the US interfered in Chinas internal affairs and diplomacy, intervening in Chinas opening-up policy, Made in China 2025 policy and the Belt and Road Initiative. In his speech, Pence could not even bear Chinas Social Credit Score construction, criticizing it for controlling virtually every facet of human life. However, he forgot that the US has built a credit system for more than a century, reluctant to admit that every American is required to apply to the federal government for a lifetime social security number (SSN) when they are born, and unwilling to recognize that one can go nowhere in the US without credit. As for Pences accusation that China has initiated an unprecedented effort to influence American public opinion, the 2018 midterm elections, and the environment leading into the 2020 presidential elections, not only does China feel wronged, but US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said on October 3 that theres no indication that China intends to interfere in the midterm elections. Its the US that should reflect on how it has used its social networking sites to make turbulence in the Middle East and trigger a chain of revolutions. China has shown great patience, dignity and sobriety to face the increasingly provocative and aggressive anti-China words of the US, British scholar Martin Jacques said. He said that if China follows the same approach to confront the US, China-US relations will sharply decline, bringing serious consequences to the entire world. There is a line in the movie Spiderman which goes, With great power comes great responsibility. As the worlds biggest superpower, the US should match its words with action. Regrettably, people have become more and more disappointed over the years. The US withdrew from the Paris Agreement, UNESCO and the UN Human Rights Council...In October, the country withdrew from the treaty of friendship signed with Iran and also the optional protocol and dispute resolution to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The previous free trade standard bearer has now become the base of protectionism and has frequently set limits on various trade activities, claiming national security. US products such as the iPhone can be found everywhere in China, which we dont regard as a threat. However, if someone buys a Huawei phone in the US, it seems to some people that it threatens US national security. Is the US, the worlds number one superpower, so vulnerable? We are glad to see the US become great again, but such greatness should not be based on superpower dominance or suppression over other countries. Over the past 40 years, the leaders of China and the US made a historic breakthrough in China-US relations and realized a handshake across the Pacific with the political courage and wisdom of strategists. Chinese President Xi Jinping held night talks at Yingtai with former US President Barack Obama and had a tea break at the Forbidden City with US President Donald Trump. At that time, the whole world could see that there was enough space on both sides of the Pacific Ocean to accommodate the two great powers. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US. As members of the young generation, we believe that if the US develops the right way, China will benefit from it, and vice versa. After all, China and the US are the two largest countries in the world today. If the two countries get along with each other, huge positive energy could be generated not only for the two but also for the world. The renowned US writer Mark Twain once said that if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Just as a Western saying put it, a bit of fragrance clings to the hand that gives flowers. We hope that fewer people hold hammers and more carry roses. The world, after all, belongs to those who open their arms rather than clench their fists. (Compiled by Qu Qiuyan, Bao Han and Zhang Jian) STEWARTVILLE, Minn. A Pure Pleasure employee was stabbed in the leg with a knife after trying to apprehend a shoplifter Wednesday morning. Authorities said a male and female were in the store at 7:03 a.m. when they left and the anti-theft alarm went off. The two went back inside and the male took out a cologne tester bottle from his pocket, and when the employee said the cops were going to be called the male ran out the back door. The male employee chased after him and a struggle ensued before the male pulled out a knife and stabbed the employee in the thigh, according to the Olmsted County Sheriffs Office. Authorities said the female picked up the male in a gold car that had a possible broken window and they left the scene. The male is described as white with scruffy facial hair who stands around 5-foot-9 and maybe around 30 years of age. The female is described as white, heavier set with multi-colored hair. The employee was transported to St. Marys Hospital. ROCHESTER, Minn. - The Mental Health Awareness Club at Rochester Community and Technical College hosted a panel with mental health advocates, professionals, educators, and law enforcement. The goal is both to have an open conversation about mental health, but also to introduce students studying related fields to people working in career paths in mental health and crisis intervention care. "If they're here for school and they're here for a career in that field, i'ts no better experience than to meet the people who actually have those careers and we're lucky in the community to have people who are willing to do things like this," says president of the club Prakash Peethambaram. Around 80 people attended the forum. China's white paper on facts and its stance on trade frictions with the US, released when the world was deeply concerned about Washington's further escalation of trade frictions against China, fully demonstrated China's image as a responsible major country. The document, titled "The Facts and China's Position on China-US Trade Friction", is a systematic articulation of China's policies and stance. China was firmly committed to safeguarding its national dignity and core interests, the sound development of China-US economic and trade relations, and the reform and improvement of the multilateral trading system, the white paper said. The country was also firmly committed to protecting property rights and intellectual property rights (IPR), protecting the lawful rights and interests of foreign businesses in China, deepening reform and widening opening-up, wrote the document, adding that China was firmly committed to mutually beneficial cooperation with other developed and developing countries and to building a community with a shared future for mankind. The commitments accord with the fundamental interests of people of the two countries as well as the common expectation of the international community. They reflect China's strong strategic confidence and willpower. China is described by the international community as firm-minded, composed, confident and restrained in responding to its trade frictions with the US. It is universally believed that China handles trade frictions with the US in a constructive approach, like it always does in addressing differences and contradictions. Through what it did, the country safeguards its national dignity and core interests, while taking the big picture of China-US relations and global economic development into consideration by handling the conflicts in a sincere and constructive way. The Chinese government has reiterated that China does not want a trade war, but it is not afraid of one and will fight one if necessary. China did not fear unilateralism and the rise of trade protectionism as its steps forward were unstoppable. The country planned and managed its own affairs well with composure and capabilities in front of mounting international uncertainties, instabilities and insecurities in the past. It was self-reliance and hard work that allowed China a wider path for development. "Economic globalization is the trend of the times, and peace and development represent the shared aspiration of all peoples," the white paper made a fundamental judgment of the trend of the world and the times. It is out of this judgment that China chooses to safeguard and improve multilateral trade system, promote win-win and mutually beneficial cooperation with other developed and developing countries, and be firmly committed to building a community of a shared destiny for mankind. China's proposals and solutions made within the multilateral frameworks of the United Nations (UN), World Trade Organization (WTO), Group of 20 (G20), and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), help maintain multilateralism, promote liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, and push global economy toward a more open, inclusive, reciprocal, balanced and win-win direction. The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and China's efforts to boost solidarity and cooperation with countries and regions under the frameworks of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, and the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Forum, have demonstrated its responsibility as a major country to lead and promote international cooperation and pool the widest force for peace and development. Time will prove that China has made the right choice and selected a bright path. The peace and development of the world is unstoppable. (Zhong Sheng, a homonym in Chinese for "voice of China", is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy.) KIMT NEWS 3- As the rain powered down over North Iowa Tuesday, Tom Renner was eager to be out in the field. We would much rather be out there combining beans and corn, Renner said. But the announcement from President Trump supporting year round E-15 is bringing a bit of good news on the dreary day. It gives you a little ray of sunshine, he said. It makes us feel like the administration is fulfilling their promise. E-15 is a blend of biofuel that is made using corn. The product is created at refineries like POET Biorefining in Hanlontown. This is a big day in terms of Biofuels and really the world of farming, said Kelly Hansen, the General Manager of POET. Hansen said these changes would mean a large need for the product they sell. The ability to sell E-15 year round creates 7 billion gallons of additional demand for biofuels, he said. He said the biofuel industry would then need an additional 2 billion bushels of corn from farmers like Renner. They need to move quickly on this, Renner said. This is a win-win deal for the ethanol industry and the corn farmers.. Hansen said these changes will not go in to effect immediately. He explained there will be a waiting period while the Trump Administration and the EPA figure out how to make these changes work. MASON CITY, Iowa - It's that time of the week where we recognize a teacher who is making a big difference in their student's lives. This weeks Golden Apple Award winner is Mrs. Linda Lindsay. Lindsay teaches students with behavioral needs at the Pinecrest Center in Mason City. We just thought Linda was so deserving of this award. She gives everything every day, she always has a smile on her face, she can turn any bad day into a good day, says Lindsays co-worker Aria Behne who nominated her for the award. And when you are working with students with behavioral needs, Mrs. Lindsay says those bad days are more frequent than you might think. They need someone that really loves them and cares about them. They need to know that they are important, says Lindsay. It's something Mrs. Lindsay has learned in her 33 years of teaching kids with behavioral needs. Just to help them so when they are struggling that they remember some of the positive things we've said to them so they can keep going I guess. And that positivity is one reason Behne nominated her. She can always find the good in the stressful and she always encourages the kids and her coworkers to be positive and be happy, says Behne. As for how Mrs. Lindsay feels about winning the Golden Apple AwardOh I feel very honored, I do. ROCHESTER, Minn. - One Rochester woman spent Tuesday traveling down south to help with hurricane relief. With Hurricane Michael set to make landfall Wednesday, mandatory evacuations are happening along parts of the Florida panhandle to get people out. Jane Johnson is a volunteer with the American Red Cross, and is heading to Georgia where she'll be helping with an evacuation shelter for hurricane victims. "You're just assisting the clients, making them comfortable, making sure they have what they need, and it's pretty much feeding," Johnson said. "They eat and sleep there and in the daytime they're going out and looking at their homes, working on their recovery, and so you're just there to make the clients comfortable." She is no stranger to deployment. In March of 2016, Johnson traveled to Mississippi to help with flooding. "I'm sure I'll go again after this," Johnson said. "It's just something, once you've done it, it feels good to help others. It's the bottom line." She expects to be in the Georgia area for at least two weeks. ROCHESTER, Minn. The American Cancer Society is encouraging everyone to wear pink! Wednesday is the first ever National Real Men Wear Pink Day where men and women are encouraged to wear the color pink in support of breast cancer awareness. Its part of the Real Men Wear Pink campaign which raises awareness and money for breast cancer research. In 2018, more than 260,000 new cases of the disease will be diagnosed. Elizabeth Harris with the American Cancer Society said wearing pink can help those people and the three million breast cancer survivors know they are not alone. Those people will really feel a sense of support from seeing all these people wearing pink, she said. Cancers very scary and can be a lonely journey and to know they have all these people behind them, I think that's important. She also hopes it will create real change. It will maybe serve as a reminder for people to go out and get their screenings done and take their preventative measures. The earlier breast cancer is detected the better the results are, Harris said. People in Rochester can celebrate National Real Men Wear Pink Day at LTS Brewing Company. Its hosting a happy hour fundraiser from 5:30pm-8pm. The event will have trivia and a photobooth. KIMT News 3s Daybreak Anchor Tyler Utzka, is also a candidate for Rochesters Real Men Wear Pink campaign. He is more than halfway to his $2,500 goal for breast cancer research. If youd like to donate to his campaign and support breast cancer research, click here. KIMT NEWS 3 - Growth in cities can bring both opportunities and challenges that can be hard to plan for. The Southeast Minnesota region is trying to be efficient about that process. On Tuesday, the Southeast Minnesota Economic Impact Forecasting Study was released. The Southeastern Minnesota League of Municipalities pushed for the study, to see what the expected growth will mean for surrounding communities. Brenda Johnson is the executive director of SEMLM and spearheaded the study. She tells KIMT the study will be a crucial planning tool for both cities and counties across the region. "What we do now, is going to affect our communities and our counties for many years to come," Johnson said. For nearly a decade, John Goldsmith has owned the JW's Silver Grille in Chatfield. In that time, not much has stayed the same. "I've seen a lot of changes," Goldsmith said. "Especially you go to Rochester, even around town here there's the housing developments that weren't here say 10 years ago." According to the study, the population of Southeastern Minnesota is projected to grow by more than 50,000 over the next 25 years. The region is spread over eight different counties, meaning many different cities could be seeing shifts in the number of people. "I think the majority of it's going to go to say Olmsted County, Rochester," Goldsmith said. "And you'll see people who will move out of Rochester into the smaller community because that's what they're looking for." Another key finding from the study is that regional employment is forecasted to grow by 44,000 new jobs by year 2040. Johnson said information from the study will be crucial for communities across the region. "Southeast Minnesota is a happening place," Johnson said. "There's things that are going on that are wonderful and we can make even more of it, we can make it even better for ourselves by having proper planning." With growth can come challenges. A couple that are noted within the study are accessibility to childcare, housing, and healthcare premium costs. MASON CITY, Iowa The contents of a search warrant in the disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit will remain off limits to the public for another year. The Mason City Police Department filed the warrant in March 2017 for GPS date from a 1999 Honda Civic and a 2013 GMC 1500 that belonged to Arthur John Vansice Jr., 72. The contents of the warrant were initially sealed. That seal was extended for one year in October 2017 and another one-year extension on the seal was filed on September 28. When asked about the warrant in March, Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley said he couldnt discuss why they wanted the GPS information from the two vehicles in order to maintain the integrity of their investigation. Huisentruit, a former anchor at KIMT, vanished on June 27, 1995. CLEAR LAKE, Iowa The Chamber of Commerce is announcing the winners from the 14th Annual Clear Lake Harvest Festival. The event was held on Saturday with estimated crowds of around 5,000 attending throughout the day. The following individuals and teams won various activities held during the festival: - Salsa Tasting - 1st Place Mild: LouAnn Christensen, 1st Place Medium: Sue Meyers, 1st Place Hot: Jeff Ostermann - Guess the Corks $100 shopping spree - Georgia Blanchard, Gift Basket to Lisa Asbe - Tickets to Chicago and Air Choice One - Ashley Duvall - Grape Stomp - Toe Jam - Pumpkin Relay - Winnepeg Adults The Clear Lake Area Chamber says they sold out of their 1,100 souvenir wine bags during the festival. MANLY, Iowa - It's been years since he fought for his country. But on Tuesday, a North Iowa veteran was awarded a high disctinction from France for his service during the Battle of the Bulge, one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. 93 year-old Marcus "Stub" Bartusek was awarded France's Legion of Honor, the highest distinction, for his service during the two month battle in the winter of 1944-1945. "It's a once in a lifetime. It's really honorable." Bartusek was 18 when he was drafted into the war, serving as a Corporal with the 106th Infantry Division's 424th Regiment, Company H, 2nd Battalion. He says having the support from the community and his family is priceless. "It was wonderful, wonderful to have the kids with me and the grandkids with me. There was a lot of grandkids that couldn't make it, but the older ones that were here...I'm sure they enjoyed it, and really enjoyed having it. He is one of the few survivors of the battle still living. "I'm doing well. All I've been through...with everybody else. I hope I can make it a few more years yet." Guillaume Lacroix is the Consul General of France in Chicago, and presented the honor to Bartusek. As the grandson of a World War II veteran himself, he says the war was the defining moment of his native country during the 20th century, and wants to make sure this era in history, as well as those who were a part of it, are not forgotten. "Without the assistance of not only the American soldiers, but the entire American people, let's also not forget the women were at home supporting the war efforts. Without America, we would no longer be free, and everyone knows that in France today." Bartusek asks of those who served in the armed forces to share their stories with younger generations as a way to never forget their service. "I hope all of those that were in the service tell their grandkids...make sure they tell their grandkids, while you still got it fresh in your mind. Of some of the things that happened." Would Bartusek want to go back and do it all again? "If I had to do it again, I think I would do it, but I don't want to. I would do it again, and hope that everybody still speaks English in this country." U.S. Representative Rod Blum and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley were not able to be at the ceremony, but instead sent certificates of recognition in honor of Bartusek's service. Although gold prices continue to be range bound, gold is trading fractionally higher on the day. Gold futures basis the most active December Comex contract is trading up $4.80 and fixed at $1,193.40. Gold prices hit this years lowest low on August 16 when trading to $1,167 per ounce. What followed was a measured rally which took gold prices back above $1,200 and trading as high as $1,220. From that point forward, gold pricing has been trapped in a narrow and defined trading range between significant resistance at $1,220 per ounce and support at $1,185. Yesterday, strong selling pressure took gold prices from $1,206, just below the 50-day moving average, and closed at $1,188. Today traders bought the dip, which resulted in gold gaining almost five dollars on the day. The key to current resistance has been firmly embedded in golds 50-day moving average. On Tuesday of last week, gold traded strongly higher breaking above $1,200 and closing just at the 50-day moving average. For the remainder of the week, gold prices traded just below the 50-day moving average, but above $1,200 per ounce. The tight and defined range that was created from trading last week was broken yesterday with gold once again trading below $1,200 and an intraday low just above the lows of September 20 when gold traded to a low of $1,184 per ounce. Todays modest gains received tailwinds from increased tensions between the United States and China. As reported by the New York Times, In unusually blunt language to an American secretary of state, Chinas foreign minister accused the United States on Monday of interfering in its internal affairs and of harming his nations interests on the question of Taiwan. The article cited a tense face-to-face exchange with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and the Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, who accused the Trump administration of ceaselessly elevating trade tensions and casting a shadow over relations between the two countries. Recently, this type of heated exchange between the trade negotiators of the United States and China has resulted in a stronger U.S. dollar and declining prices in gold. However, that paradigm might be shifting in that the U.S. dollar traded fractionally lower today and gold gained ground. The question then becomes: Has there been a paradigm shift in reaction to a further escalation in trade tensions between China and the United States? If that is the case, we could see the U.S. dollar and gold prices gaining ground if the current trade dispute ratchets up into an out and out trade war. For those who would like more information, simply use this link. Wishing you as always, good trading, (Kitco News) - A mysterious gold hunt in the backwoods of Pennsylvania for lost Civil War bullion earlier in the year has taken a strange turn, with some treasure hunters accusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation of hiding what was believed to have been found. After my years of experience here using equipment, there was something here, something here of value, some kind of precious metal. And whatever it is, it's gone now. And that's what I want to get to the bottom of, is what was in that hole, one of the owners of the Finders Keepers treasure-hunting group Kem Parada told AP. In the latest twist, the group filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents from the FBI and the Justice Department ordered the FBI to do a more thorough review. But, it could still take months before anything is resolved. The request for documents came following March reports that dozens of federal agents and members of the Finders Keepers group were trekking through the forest near Dents Run, located about 135 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, looking for gold thought to be lost 155 years ago. The owners of the Finders Keepers group, Dennis and Kem Parada, were confident back in March that they found the long-lost gold, adding that they were warned by government agents to keep quiet. We believe that we found the gold at the Dents Run site and that the state is doing everything that they can to stop us from telling our story, Parada said in a written statement in March. We found a bullet shell, knifes, animal traps, zinc mason jar lid, tin cans, bones (human or animal), whiskey bottle, camp fire pit, and a lot more that the state now has and wont return. They say that they dont have the time or the money to go treasure hunting but if we can show them the gold then they will look into it. Following court-sanctioned excavations that lasted two days, the FBI reportedly led treasure hunters to the site of an empty pit, with no signs of previously detected gold nearby. They walk us in, and they make us look like dummies. Like we messed up, said Dennis Parada. We were embarrassed. This was Paradas first comments since the story first broke in March. The confusion of why no gold was discovered despite metal detectors reportedly detecting gold led to speculation and a lot of confusion around the FBIs narrative. The Finders Keepers group is now questioning whether the FBI is revealing everything about the excavations that took place. The treasure hunters said they were first told they could watch the excavations, but were then confined to their vehicles by the FBI. The FBI team said it wrapped up the first day of excavations in the afternoon, but other witness statements noted loud noises coming from the site well into next days early morning hours. It was just real loud all night. It was driving me nuts, local resident Cheryl Elder told AP. I know they found gold. I know they found it, and they're being sneaky. On the second day of excavations, Paradas were once again confined to their cars and then led to an empty hole. You can only dig the gold up once, and that's a historical moment. And here we were robbed of all that, said Parada. I don't understand why they played that game on us. According to local lore, a shipment of 26 or 52 gold bars (depending on who is telling the story), weighing more than 739 troy ounces each went missing in the state just before the Battle of Gettysburg. The stories go, the bullion was traveling from West Virginia on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. The shipment, which could be worth up to $50 million based on todays prices, was supposed to be used to pay Union soldiers. While the treasure hunting group believes that there was gold hidden in the woods, many local historians have said that it is unlikely the stories and legends of lost gold are true. Born in North London, England in 1957 Professor Ian Jacobs received his higher education in Medicine in Cambridge University and University of London. He is now the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of New South Wales and the chair of the Group of Eight (Go8). He started his professional life as a doctor, focusing on research and cures for womens cancer. His achievements in the research area gradually led him into the University World. After practicing medicine in Royal London Hospital and several other hospitals, Professor Jacobs became the head of the Department of Gynecological Oncology and then Obstetrics and Gynecology at Queen Mary University of London in 1996, he created and directed the UCL Institute for Womens Health between 2004 and 2009. During his thirty years of research regarding womens cancer, he gained an H-Index of >70 and has published more than 400 scientific papers. In 2011, Professor Jacobs became the vice president of the University of Manchester. As the first child in his family to receive a university education, his shift from medical research to university management has always been deeply in his belief in the power of education. I've wanted to do things that make a difference to people's lives. Having started out with medicine I reached a conclusion that the most powerful way to have a positive impact on people's lives is through education particularly through higher education, he said. Professor Jacobs became the President and Vice-Chancellor of UNSW in Australia in February 2015. With the UNSW 2025 Strategic Plan, he continues to lead the university to improve education and research quality, achieve education innovation, equality and diversity, knowledge transfer as well as global development. Professor Jacobs went to China for the first time when he was the vice president of the University of Manchester and visited Peking University Medical Centre. He described his first impression of China as Awesome. The energy, the pace of change, the scale of change, the ability to make things happen very very fast is awesome. My visits are brief, but I get a sense of what is happening and I am amazed by the fact that education is changing the lives of millions of people in China. The history of the relationship between UNSW and partners in China goes back a long time. UNSW welcomed its first student from China 40 years ago and now has very strong partnerships with many Chinese universities such as Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. One of the most exciting opportunities is to develop the first Torch Innovation Precinct outside China at UNSW Sydney, as Professor Jacobs told us. Witnessed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Australias former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the signing ceremony was held between the China Ministry of Science & Technology and UNSW at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2016. In June 2018, UNSW set up a new office in Shanghai. Both domestic Australian students and Chinese students can now engage in the exciting entrepreneurship start-up cultural setting found in Shanghai. At the same time, Professor Jacobs is also very excited to see many Chinese students that graduated from UNSW have started their careers in various sectors such as health, academics, business as well as government departments in China. In addition, UNSW also holds many events to celebrate Chinese culture every year such as the Chinese Language Spectacular, a Chinese talent show delivered by students from schools and universities in NSW. The Chinese Community is an extremely important part of the community of UNSW, and its important for them and the university to develop mutual understanding between Chinese people in Australia and Australians in China. Talking about the development of higher education in China, Professor Jacobs told us, I witnessed the rapid development of China as an economy. Whenever I go to China, I see the enormous development of cities and towns. I believe that higher education, training, research, and everything sits around is crucial to make that happen. As the biggest economy in our region and the first or second in scale in the world, China has created a lot of opportunities for us. Therefore, as China is developing so rapidly, we have a role in contributing to education. In one of Professor Jacobs recent publications with The Australian newspaper, he criticized the negative description of Chinese students and pointed out that Chinese students have contributed a lot to Australian education. He believes that Australia is one of the most exciting places for students to come for university education, with a welcoming culture, a safe social environment, and great educational opportunities. He is looking forward to having more students from China. At the end of our interview, Professor Jacobs pointed out, Universities are the new wealth of nations and the key to the prosperity of our two countries, while deeper collaboration and communication between Australia and China would be essential to the development of higher education in both countries. Australia and China dont have to agree on absolutely everything. I think what we can agree on is that working together on higher education is good for both countries because it needs to be a highly trained workforce who can do both great things for both nations. It leads to trade opportunities; it leads to mutual understanding. (Peoples Daily Online/ Minyi Chen) ATHENS (Reuters) - The European Central Bank lowered the ceiling on emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) Greek banks draw from the domestic central bank by 200 million euros to 5.0 billion euros ($5.74 billion), the Bank of Greece said on Wednesday. The move reflected improved liquidity conditions, taking into account private sector deposit flows and banks access to financial markets, it said. The ELA ceiling is valid through to Nov 7. Greek banks have relied on emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) since February 2015 after being cut off from the ECBs funding window. Emergency funding is more costly than borrowing directly from the ECB. In June 2016 the ECB reinstated Greek banks access to its cheap funding operations, allowing lenders to reduce their dependence on the emergency liquidity lifeline. But with Athens out of its bailout program since August 21 this year, the ECB has ended a waiver that made Greek government bonds eligible collateral for its cheap funding. SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - The chief economic advisor to Jair Bolsonaro, Brazils far-right presidential front-runner, is under a federal investigation for alleged fraud tied to the pension funds of major state-run companies, prosecutors told Reuters on Wednesday. The investigation of Paulo Guedes, a University of Chicago-trained economist credited with nudging Bolsonaro toward market-friendly policies and tapped as his future finance minister, was first made public by the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper. An investigator with direct knowledge of the case as well as the federal prosecutors press office confirmed the inquiry. It alleges Guedes mismanaged 1 billion reais ($266.6 million) that public pension funds put in his investment vehicles starting in 2009. Bolsonaro almost won an outright majority in Sundays presidential election and is expected to beat leftist rival Fernando Haddad in the Oct. 28 run-off vote. Although Bolsonaro has praised Brazils 1964-85 military dictatorship and consistently voted to give government more control over the economy during three decades in Congress, Guedes has convinced investors that the 63-year-old former Army captain had reversed his thinking on economic policy. Brazils benchmark Bovespa stock index and the countrys currency, the real, have rallied as Bolsonaros candidacy gained strength. The Bovespa was down 1.8 percent and the real slipped 1 percent against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday. Prosecutors are probing a decision to invest in a company in which Guedes was the controlling shareholder, along with tens of millions of reais in payments made as speaking fees to unknown parties using some of this money, the source said, confirming the details of the Folha report. Bolsonaro, who met Guedes for the first time last year, is not accused of any wrongdoing. The newspaper, citing court documents, said Guedes allegedly worked with executives at the pension funds with strong ties to the leftist Workers Party, whose candidate in the run-off is Haddad. The investigation of Guedes marks the first time that a member of Bolsonaros inner circle of advisers has been the subject of a major corruption investigation. In the past four years, Brazilian investigators have discovered what some have called the worlds largest political corruption schemes ever found, put in place under the Workers Partys governments from 2003 to 2016 and involving several mainstream political parties. The extent of the graft schemes has fueled Brazilian voters outrage at traditional parties, helping to propel the anti-establishment Bolsonaro to the top of the presidential field. ANTI-CORRUPTION MESSAGE The document seen by Folha said the alleged fraud currently being probed took place at seven public pension funds, including those for employees from state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Banco do Brasil, state bank Caixa Economica Federal [CEF.UL] and the postal service. A representative for Bolsonaro, whose campaign is founded on an anti-corruption and anti-crime message, did not respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately possible to reach Guedes. The newspaper said the investigation was opened on Oct. 2, five days before Brazils first-round presidential vote in which Bolsonaro took 46 percent of the ballots to Haddads 29 percent. According to the Folha report, investment firms controlled by Guedes launched two funds in 2009 that received 1 billion reais ($269 million) from the public entities over six years. That year, 62 million reais were injected into a company known as HSM Educacional, which Guedes allegedly controlled. The firm allegedly acquired 100 percent of a separate private company, HSM do Brasil, the paper said. The latter firm allegedly operated as a front rather than a legitimate business, according to the investigators document seen by Folha. Investigators are looking at millions of reais that HSM do Brasil paid out to speakers at various investment events in Brazil as well as millions spent on personnel. BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Wednesday said an agreement with Britain was within reach, calling for decisive progress in the talks in time for a summit of all 28 EU leaders next week. Brexit negotiators from both sides have been locked in intense discussions this week, trying to overcome differences on the biggest outstanding hurdle to a deal - how to keep the Ireland-UK border open after Britain leaves the EU in March. An agreement is within reach for Oct. 17, next Wednesday, Barnier told a speech to small business leaders. Barnier said Brexit would trigger the need for customs, VAT and compliance checks with EU standards between Ireland and Northern Ireland. He said customs declarations could be filled in advance online and the only visible systematic checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK would involve scanning the bar codes on lorries or containers, which should be done on ferries or in transit ports. For industrial goods, he said it could be done by market surveillance authorities in company premises. But he said checks on animals and animal-derived products would still have to take place on the border and cover all of that trade. Our challenge is to make sure that these procedures are as easy as possible and not burdensome, particularly for small and medium business, he said in his speech in the European Parliament, which ended in a standing ovation. Barnier said he realized such checks - vehemently opposed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland, which props up British Prime Minister Theresa Mays government - were politically difficult but said it was the consequence of Britons voting to leave the EU. INTENSE TALKS The 27 EU states will get an update on the negotiations at a meeting of national ambassadors, without Britain, on Friday evening. The sides will continue negotiations through the weekend with hopes for a breakthrough as early as Monday. The 27 EU leaders meeting next Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels want to be able to announce decisive progress on the Brexit deal to agree to hold another summit in November. That would be to finalize work on a declaration of close future ties with Britain that would also be part of the Brexit package. Barnier and his team are working day and night to reach a deal, but we are not there yet, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told a separate news conference. The issue of how to avoid extensive checks at the border between EU state Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland - Britains only land frontier - after Brexit is the last remaining hurdle, with nearly everything else in the withdrawal agreement agreed before Britain leaves next March. Both the EU and Britain have signaled progress in recent days, boosting sentiment in markets, which fear the most damaging no-deal Brexit. There is a smaller probability for lack of deal now than we have had for some time, Danuta Hubner, a European Parliament lawmaker dealing with Brexit, told a committee sitting. But the Commission also looked at preparations among the 27 states for a no-deal scenario on Wednesday, discussing multiple disruptions that would ensue, including customs checks and duties kicking in immediately on all imports and exports. We are working hard for the Brexit negotiations to succeed. But since we cant guarantee the result right now, we have to prepare for all possible outcomes, one diplomat said. The EU27 need to be ready on day one to address issues like citizens rights, transport or customs coherently. OSLO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Norway's Norsk Hydro is focused on a return to full output at its Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil and is not contemplating layoffs there, CEO Svein Richard Brandtzaeg told Reuters on Wednesday. Hydro had said last week it would close down the world's largest alumina refinery and lay off 4,700 workers as attempts to resolve an environmental dispute with Brazilian authorities faltered. On Tuesday it announced it has been granted permits from the authorities to restart operations at half capacity. "The way we are operating now requires more staffing. As long as we have a positive dialogue with the authorities we will keep the staffing. We believe the embargo will be lifted and then we need all our people," Brandtzaeg told Reuters in a telephone interview. "It's difficult to give exact timeline for a full restart but we are now in the process of implementing measures we agreed on with authorities in September," he said. The plant has an annual capacity of 6.4 million tonnes of alumina, or 10 percent of capacity outside China. Alunorte transforms bauxite into alumina, which is turned into aluminium at huge smelters. Hydro was ordered by Brazilian regulators in February to slash output by half at the refinery after the company admitted making unlicensed emissions of untreated water during severe rains. (Reporting by Ole Petter Skonnord; editing by Jason Neely) Reuters Messaging: olepetter.skonnord.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) * Tria overruled by party bosses on fiscal deficit target* Tria spokeswoman denies he plans to quit in January* League deputy econ minister cited as possible replacement* Investors sell bonds as budget tensions mount with Brussels By Gavin Jones and Giuseppe Fonte ROME, Oct 10 (Reuters) - When a senior representative of Italy's ruling coalition met international investors over dinner last week he was asked at the end of the evening if he had any questions. He only had one: "What would you do if Tria goes?" The episode shines a light on the precarious position of Economy Minister Giovanni Tria, who looks weak and isolated after caving in to party chiefs by agreeing to raise next year's fiscal deficit far above levels agreed with Brussels. Tria had committed to holding the deficit below 2 percent of gross domestic product but buckled under pressure from the coalition to set a target of 2.4 percent in what was seen as a humiliating defeat for the economics professor. He is now in the middle of a power struggle between his paymasters from the right-wing League and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement who need money to fulfil election pledges, and a European Union that is insisting on fiscal constraint. Investors are nervous. Italian 30-year bond yields hit a four-year high on Tuesday above 4 percent on concerns talks between the coalition and Brussels could turn sour, with Tria, the face of economic moderation, side-lined. "Tria is a good and competent person but I don't think he has yet fully understood his role," the coalition official said at the dinner, attended by a Reuters reporter, in an exclusive restaurant in Rome. "He has tended to behave like the CEO of a private company who can act autonomously, but it's not like that, this is a political government, not a technocratic one," he said. Tria's spokeswoman said she would not comment on remarks from unnamed people. She said the fact Tria had pushed for a lower deficit target than was finally agreed was part of a normal process of negotiation within governments everywhere. However, the awkward relationship between Tria and party chiefs is likely to end within a few months, three political sources said, either because Tria walks or because he is pushed. "Tria wants to go, and we are fed up with him, but nothing will happen before January because first we have to approve the budget in parliament," a second senior coalition source said. Tria's spokeswoman said he had no plans to resign. DIFFERENT OPTIONS Officials from both the League and 5-Star have grumbled frequently in private that Tria, a 70-year-old academic who is not a member of either party, seems to have his own agenda. A virtually unknown economics professor at Rome's Tor Vergata University, Tria was drafted into the government as a last-minute replacement for Paolo Savona, who was vetoed by the head of state because of his criticism of the euro currency. Tensions came to a head over the budget, when 5-Star was particularly exasperated with Tria's reluctance to fund their flagship policy of a basic income for the poor. "Nobody has asked for Tria's resignation, but I expect the economy minister of a government for change to find the money for Italians who are momentarily in economic difficulty," 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio said as relations soured. The senior official at the Rome dinner said he did not rule out that Tria could remain in his post, but admitted that the coalition partners had discussed different options on several occasions. In the case of Tria's departure, the most likely successor would be Massimo Garavaglia, a League lawmaker who is a deputy economy minister, the official said. Garavaglia is seen as a moderate, pro-euro pragmatist who was formerly the budget chief of the wealthy Lombardy region. "Tria hasn't fitted in with our way of thinking," said a third source, a 5-Star government member who asked not to be named. WALK OR BE PUSHED? Tria may decide to walk, even if he is not pushed. An economy ministry source and an institutional source told Reuters last week that Tria had told aides he planned to resign after the budget has been approved by parliament at the end of the year. Neither had spoken to Tria directly about the matter. Asked to comment, Tria's spokeswoman said he had no intention of resigning at any time and had never expressed such an intention to anyone. Tria's relations with 5-Star and the League had got off to a bad start when he insisted on reappointing incumbents or naming mainstream, economy ministry figures to key posts - riling the new ruling parties who wanted to sweep away the establishment. "Things started to fall apart in June over the public appointments," the second coalition source said. The parties had painstakingly hammered out an agreement on who should be named Treasury director general and the head of state holding company Cassa depositi e prestiti, only for Tria to intervene and demand fresh negotiations, the source said. Suspicions then increased over the budget, with the minister creating financial market expectations of a deficit target far below what the parties were ready to accept. Tria's departure would be unlikely to go down well with markets, even though his credibility as a guarantor of public accounts has been damaged by his climbdown over the budget. In response to the coalition official's question at the dinner in Rome, most of the investors from banks, asset managers and hedge funds said they would be unhappy to see Tria go. Some said they would wait to see who his successor was. Others said they would sell some of their Italian assets. (Additional reporting by Luca Trogni in Milan; editing by David Clarke) By Clara Denina and Barbara Lewis LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto is close to restarting a sale process for some of its aluminium assets, including a plant in Iceland, which have been valued at around $350 million, two sources familiar with the matter said. The assets include a 53 percent stake in a Dutch anode facility and 50 percent of the shares in a Swedish aluminium fluoride plant, which are ingredients in aluminium production, the sources added. French investment bank Natixis has been helping Rio with the sale, one of the sources said. Rio Tinto declined to comment and Natixis was not immediately available to comment. Norwegian aluminium company Norsk Hydro pulled out of a previous plan to buy the assets in September, blaming a delay in getting European Commission approval for the deal. Given Hydro's already major position in the aluminium industry, the European Commission may have had competition concerns, industry sources said. Iceland generates all its electricity from hydropower and geothermal energy and Rio's aluminium plant could appeal to companies looking to make their output as green as possible. Producing aluminium requires huge amounts of energy, meaning it is also more cost effective to use hydropower. Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques, who took charge in July 2016, is gradually selling all but the company's best-performing units. Rio agreed in January to sell an aluminium smelter in Dunkirk in France to Sanjeev Gupta's Liberty House, which also bought the miner's smelter in Lochaber, Scotland. The entire aluminium supply chain has been hit this year by U.S. sanctions on Russian producer Rusal , an outage at Norsk Hydro's plant in Brazil and a strike at Alcoa's alumina refineries in Australia. Benchmark aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange have risen 21 percent since the start of the year. (Reporting by Clara Denina and Barbara Lewis; additional reporting by Pratima Desai. Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) Messaging: clara.denina.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)(Twitter: @claradenina)) * Keeping all staff in anticipation of full production* Cannot give time for full operation* Aluminium demand little affected by U.S-China trade dispute(Adds CEO comments on aluminium market) OSLO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Norway's Norsk Hydro is focused on a return to full output at its Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil and is not contemplating layoffs there, CEO Svein Richard Brandtzaeg told Reuters on Wednesday. Hydro had said last week it would close down the world's largest alumina refinery and lay off 4,700 workers as attempts to resolve an environmental dispute with Brazilian authorities faltered. This week it announced it has been granted permits from the authorities to restart operations at half capacity. "The way we are operating now requires more staffing. As long as we have a positive dialogue with the authorities we will keep the staffing. We believe the embargo will be lifted and then we need all our people," Brandtzaeg told Reuters in a telephone interview. Hydro was ordered by Brazilian regulators in February to slash output by half at the refinery after the company admitted making unlicensed emissions of untreated water during severe rains. "It's difficult to give exact timeline for a full restart but we are now in the process of implementing measures we agreed on with authorities in September," he said. The plant has an annual capacity of 6.4 million tonnes of alumina, or 10 percent of capacity outside China. Alunorte transforms bauxite into alumina, which is turned into aluminium at huge smelters. Alumina and aluminium prices have been pushed up by Hydro's production cut at Alunorte. Brandtzaeg acknowledged it was unfortunate that Hydro one week announced plans for closure and the next week plans to recover output. "We want stable and predictable operations, but in this case it was not possible," he said. Overall demand in the market was "quite good", driven by auto industry and global GDP growth, Brandtzaeg said, repeating Hydro's forecast for an aluminium market deficit of 1-1.5 million tonnes this year. "There's still a lot of aluminium in storage but its gradually reducing. The supply deficit is covered by reserve capacity in China but even with China we have a deficit of 1-1.5 million tonnes globally," Brandtzaeg said. He said the trade war between China and U.S. so far had little impact. "It seems consumers have to pay for this. Margins for U.S. exporters seems to be the same (despite a tariff increase on Chinese aluminium)," Brandtzaeg said. (Reporting by Ole Petter Skonnord; editing by Jason Neely) Reuters Messaging: olepetter.skonnord.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) A female university student from northern Chinas Inner Mongolia appeared at the recent Paris Fashion Week in early October, during which Chinese people celebrated their National Day vacation days. Its exciting to participate in the fashion week in Paris as a student model, Wang Weiyan, a junior student at Inner Mongolia Arts University, told Hohhot Evening Newspaper on Oct. 3. In addition to walking the runway for fashion brands, the 19-year-old girl brought a glimpse of new Mongolian clothes to the French streets as well. Its known that she was recommended by Zhang Wei, an ethnic costume promoter from Inner Mongolia, who has been aspiring to promote the colorful Mongolian clothes through international platforms. Zhang said he brought the off-the-peg Mongolia dresses that integrate fashion elements from young designers and invited young models such as Wang Weiyan to present the designer clothing on streets so as to lure more young people to choose such ethnic clothes for daily use. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Thailand to Lapland If you would like to post a reply, then please login (if you already have an account) or register (if you don't). Oct 10, 2018 05:27:05 # mikebkk Many of you have asked me what I do with the garments and accessories I knit since I live in Thailand where it's always hot. This Friday I'm headed to the Arctic Circle (Finland, Norway, Sweden) in search of the Northern Lights - and will finally have a chance to wear some of my work! Oct 10, 2018 05:31:21 # tobo11 (a regular here) Beautiful knitting! Oct 10, 2018 05:32:29 # Mary Cardiff Good luck, those country will love your work, Oct 10, 2018 05:41:27 # laceluvr (a regular here) Your knitting is fantastic! Love all the different patterns & colors of your knits. You are quite an expert at colorwork...kudos to you! Enjoy your trip! Oct 10, 2018 05:41:35 # Nanknit (a regular here) Wow....fabulous knitting they will certainly keep you cosy. Enjoy your Northern Lights experience, I hope the sky lights up for you. Are you doing the Hurtigruten Scandinavian cruise by any chance? Jen. Oct 10, 2018 05:42:25 # NanaMc Have a great trip! I have been to Norway and its absolutely beautiful. Oct 10, 2018 05:45:29 # mikebkk Wow....fabulous knitting they will certainly keep you cosy. Enjoy your Northern Lights experience, I hope the sky lights up for you. Are you doing the Hurtigruten Scandinavian cruise by any chance? Jen. Nanknit wrote: Thanks. We're taking an overnight train from Helsinki to the Arctic Circle and then driving for 8 days between the Arctic Circle and the Arctic Ocean in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Thanks. We're taking an overnight train from Helsinki to the Arctic Circle and then driving for 8 days between the Arctic Circle and the Arctic Ocean in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Oct 10, 2018 05:49:45 # SANDY I Take pics of you there in it. Oct 10, 2018 06:06:12 # Swedenme (a regular here) Your knits are fantastic , hope you get to see the Northern lights , they are pretty spectacular, , Oct 10, 2018 06:06:13 # dogyarns Beautiful and warm traveling! Oct 10, 2018 06:12:59 # Grapejelli (a regular here) Beautiful knitting. Good luck seeing the northern lights. Take pictures and please post. This is probably as close as I'll ever get. Oct 10, 2018 06:18:11 # tortie (a regular here) Beautiful knitting. Good luck seeing the northern lights. Take pictures and please post. This is probably as close as I'll ever get. Grapejelli wrote: I ditto this. Enjoy your holiday. I ditto this. Enjoy your holiday. Oct 10, 2018 06:20:13 # mcmanusp Beautiful knits. Have a lovely holiday. Oct 10, 2018 06:21:01 # LEE1313 (a regular here) WOW your knitting is amazing. Do you have the pattern for the blue mitts ?? They are awesome- I would love to try a pair like that. Enjoy your trip. YES please tale pics and share. I know i will never be able to make that trip. Oct 10, 2018 06:23:03 # A delegation from Egypt's Railway Authority concluded a three-day visit to Khartoum on Tuesday to discuss the implementation of a railway project linking Egypt's Aswan and Sudan's Abu Hamad via Wadi Halfa in Sudan. The head of the Egyptian delegation Mohamed Seliet said the project represents a major shift for passengers and merchandise traffic between Egypt and Sudan, and should enhance trade traffic between the brotherly countries. Seliet explained that the talks with the Sudanese side comes within the framework of previous meetings to strengthen relations through the ministries of transportation in both counties. Seliet noted that the railway project talks between Egypt and Sudan were discussed during the meeting of the Arab Ministers of Transport in 2010. He noted that the project is set to be completed within 36 months, including the implementation of the railway line between Aswan and Abu Hamad at a distance of 630 km, and the establishment of a reciprocal station in Wadi Halfa in northern Sudan. The official pointed out that both sides will begin soon, and that the first steps will begin in cooperation with the Sudanese side on feasibility studies as well as technical and environmental research. He added that the technical studies will include all aspects and requirements of infrastructure to be presented to the implementing companies. The head of the Sudanese delegation Abdul-Rahman Sharif, deputy director general of the Railway Authority in Sudan, said that the talks come in response to the directives of the High Committee between the two countries under the chairmanship of presidents Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Omar Al-Bashir on the activation of development plans during the upcoming period. He pointed out that future plans by the Sudan Railways include linking projects with Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan, which represents great commercial and investment opportunities for the involved countries. Search Keywords: Short link: Cultural Heritage Administrator Chung Jae-suk, right, hands over the stolen portrait of Grand Prince Ikan to Yi Seok-hee of the Jeonju Yi clan during a returning ceremony at the National Palace Museum of Korea, Tuesday. Yonhap By Kwon Mee-yoo The stolen portrait of Grand Prince Ikan, South Chungcheong cultural heritage material no. 329, was returned to his descendents after 18 years of being unaccounted for. The Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) held a returning ceremony at the National Palace Museum of Korea, Tuesday, and briefed those in attendance on the pursuit of lost cultural heritage. The portrait disappeared in January 2000 from Yeongjeonggak, a royal portrait hall of the Jeonju Yi clan in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, where Joseon royal portraits are enshrined. CHA head Chung Jae-suk handed over the portrait in a newly built paulownia box to Yi Seok-hee of the Yi clan and gave her appreciation to the determined pursuit of the heritage investigation division. "We felt guilt for losing such an important family heritage. Now we are happy and relieved to have the portrait returned," Yi said at the ceremony. The 168-centimeter-high and 82-centimeter-wide portrait on silk captures Grand Prince Ikan in red official attire and is assumed to have been created in 1734 under King Yeongjo's reign, copying a previous version of the portrait. "The painting is in typical Joseon noble portrait style and we can compare it with his father King Taejo's portrait to assume his brother King Jeongjong and Taejong's appearances," the CHA said. Grand Prince Ikan (1360-1404), whose name is Yi Bang-ui, was the third son of King Taejo, the founder of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom. He is the younger brother of Joseon's second King Jeongjong and older brother of the third, King Taejong. According to the "Annals of the Joseon Kingdom," Grand Prince Ikan is described as a well-tempered, gentle person, who was a long way from being showy or gaudy. He is known for being less ambitious among King Taejo's sons, but helped his brother Bang-won, later known as King Taejong, in the Strife of Princes. The CHA said a professional burglar of cultural assets stole the portrait from the Yi clan's vault and sold it to an antique dealer in Busan. The dealer smuggled the painting to Japan to forge a fake transaction document as part of a scheme of good faith acquisition. The painting returned to Korea in July 2000 and the thief and dealer were all taken into custody, but the portrait's location was unknown. Last year, the CHA obtained intelligence that the portrait remained in Korea and persuaded the owner to return it. In 2007, cultural properties were excluded from good faith acquisitions and ownership of stolen cultural assets is not acknowledged anymore even though the buyer did not know in advance the portrait was stolen. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before leaving the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. AP U.S. President Donald Trump said his second summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un will have to wait until after next month's midterm elections. Trump tells reporters traveling with him to a rally in Iowa that he doesn't have time for a foreign trip as he's crisscrossing the country holding rallies to try to boost Republican turnout in November. He tells reporters aboard Air Force One, ''I just can't leave now.'' (AP) 'Three or four locations being considered' Trump said Tuesday that three or four locations are being considered for his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Speaking to reporters at the White House, he said Singapore the site of their first summit in June was unlikely. The date, he said, "won't be too far away." "We're talking about three or four different locations," Trump said, adding that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a "very, very good" meeting with Kim in Pyongyang over the weekend. Pompeo came away from his fourth trip to North Korea touting "significant progress" in efforts to dismantle the regime's nuclear weapons program. He also said the two sides were "pretty close" to finalizing the logistics for the next summit. Trump said he expects "lots of meetings" to take place in the future both in the U.S. and in North Korea. Asked if his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida was an option, he said both he and Kim would like that. "I think it would be good," he said. "But we'll see." Trump boasted of his "very good relationship" with Kim and cited the recent lack of nuclear and missile tests as a sign of progress in the denuclearization talks. At the first summit, Kim committed to work toward "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for security guarantees from the U.S. Critics say there is no evidence the North has taken down its nuclear program, which potentially poses a threat to the U.S. But North Korea argues it demolished a nuclear testing site in May, has plans to permanently shut down a missile engine testing site and would also shut down its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon if the U.S. takes "corresponding" steps. North Korea has sought an easing of international sanctions against the regime and the declaration of a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which closed in an armistice and left the North technically still at war with the U.S. Trump said he thinks North Korea will be "incredibly economically successful" if it denuclearizes. "And I think he knows it," he said of Kim. "And I think that's one of the reasons that we're having very successful conversations. I think he wants to get on with it." Pompeo later told reporters at the White House that he returned late Monday after making "real progress" on his four-nation Asia swing that took him through Japan, North Korea, South Korea and China. "While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path where we will achieve (our) ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearization of North Korea," he said. (Yonhap) North Korean defector Ji Seong-Ho speaks during a discussion on North Korean Escape Perspectives on the Inter-Korean Peace Process at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on October 9, 2018. AFP A well-known North Korean defector said Tuesday that he hopes Pope Francis will pray for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if the two men meet. Ji Seong-ho, who rose to prominence after being invited to U.S. President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech this year, was commenting on news that Kim had invited the pontiff to visit Pyongyang. "I am for the pope's visit to North Korea. I don't oppose that," he said during a forum here. "But I would like the pope to pray for the god known as Kim Jong-un. I would like the North Korean people to see the pope lay his hand on Kim's head and pray for him. That would be very meaningful." Kim extended the invitation during his meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang last month, according to the South's presidential office. The Vatican has yet to publicly comment on the offer. North Korea is accused of serious human rights abuses, including religious persecution. Ji said North Koreans caught going to church are sent to political prison camps along with their families. Presidential adviser Moon Chung-in, left, and Serge Halimi, editor of Le Monde diplomatique, speak on the U.S.'s East Asia Policy and peace on the Korean Peninsula Wednesday in Seoul. Korea Times photo by Oh Young-jin By Oh Young-jin Presidential adviser Moon Chung-in, who is known to have great influence on President Moon Jae-in's foreign policy, said Wednesday three leaders Kim Jong-un, Donald Trump and Moon were equally responsible for creating the atmosphere for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Moon gave the answer when asked whether U.S. President Donald Trump should take most credit for progress, during a Q&A session after his public dialogue with Serge Halimi, editor of Le Monde diplomatique, in Seoul, Wednesday. "This dynamic of peace can't be made possible without North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's initiative or without President Moon Jae-in's good offices," Moon said. "Then, they are combined with the Trump factor, which is creating a virtuous cycle so far." He said "it is too premature" when asked whether all three deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. There was speculation that Kim and Moon, or all three, could win the prize but the Oslo committee named others. Regarding the latest idea to break the deadlock between the North and the U.S. over denuclearization, Moon said Pyongyang would not accept it. The idea, suggested by Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, is to have the North demolish its key nuclear facility in Yongbyon, in return for the declaration of the end of the Korean War by the two Koreas and the U.S. to skip the impasse over reporting of the North's nuclear program and inspections. "The North would want to have the U.N. sanctions removed for that," Moon said. Meanwhile, Moon and Halimi agreed on their desire not to make a choice between the U.S. and China as the two big powers are locked in a hegemonic battle, the beginning of which is the ongoing trade war. The two talked about a multi-polar world order in which the big players reach a balance of power. Kim Jong-un's car, spotted before Kim's meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, appears to be a Rolls-Royce Phantom. Yonhap By Lee Min-young North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was spotted in what appeared to be his gleaming new Rolls-Royce Phantom as he arrived for his latest meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang on Oct. 7. The Rolls-Royce Phantom is one of the world most luxurious automobiles and carries a price tag of up to 1 billion won. The Rolls-Royce Phantom. Captured from the official Rolls-Royce website Kim is said to have a special taste in luxury cars. He took his top-class Mercedes limousine on trips around the country and to foreign engagements, including his meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April. South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Kim's Mercedes. Yonhap Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha answers a lawmaker's question during a National Assembly audit, at the ministry building in Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap By Kim Bo-eun The government is closely discussing with the U.S. about including South Korean experts in the inspection of the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site in the North, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Wednesday. The remarks came during the National Assembly's audit of the ministry. This was a response to Rep. Choo Mi-ae of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) who stated South Korean experts should be included on the team of international inspectors who will examine the Punggye-ri site. Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo also said in a separate audit that Korea has "delivered its intentions so that it can take part when North Korea and the U.S. discuss nuclear inspection." Kang also said it appears more likely a declaration ending the 1950-53 Korean War will be made within the year. The minister, however, stated the declaration could could be nullified if North Korea goes back to making provocations, such as nuclear tests. Patients diagnosed with rare incurable muscle diseases, wearing oxygen masks and in wheelchairs, stage a rally in Seoul, Wednesday, to protest the government's 52-hour workweek regulation. The new rule limits the working hours of caregivers, while the patients need assistance 24 hours a day. Yonhap By Jung Hae-myoung A passenger pre-checking system has prevented more than 25,000 foreigners, who are likely to commit crimes or terrorist attacks, from boarding planes bound for Korea, a report showed Wednesday. According to a Ministry of Justice report disclosed by Rep. Keum Tae-sup of the Democratic Party of Korea, 25,598 foreigners were banned from boarding planes headed to Korea from April 2017, when the nation adopted the "I-Prechecking" system, to this August. It means 1,506 foreigners per month were stopped from boarding planes bound for Korea at the airports of their departure. Under the system, the ministry obtains passenger lists from airlines at foreign airports and blocks boarding for foreign nationals who have past criminal records and may be likely to commit crimes. Among the rejected foreigners, 947 people owned passports that were listed on the Interpol database, and another 14 people were on the wanted list from Interpol. The largest number of cases banning people from boarding was regarding passports that were invalid or reported missing, with 13,358, while 1,621 people could not board the planes as they had committed criminal or immigration-related offenses during previous stays in Korea. In one case in March, a 40-year-old foreigner was banned from boarding an Air Astana plane departing from Uzbekistan to Korea, after the ministry found out he was a combat agent of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS), or Daesh, a terrorist organization designated by the United Nations. The World Information Technology and Services earlier acknowledged the technology as an exemplary model of public services. "While the number of foreigners staying here and crimes committed by them is on the rise, this system is significant because it prevents crimes in advance and guarantees security of the nation," Keum said. "Even so, more specific standards and procedures are required to make the system more effective." A fleet of vessels from the Korean Navy takes part in a rehearsal for the International Fleet Review off the coast of the nation's southern resort island of Jeju, Tuesday, a day before the Navy begins the five-day-long global fleet review there. / Courtesy of Republic of Korea Navy By Lee Min-hyung The Navy's international fleet review got off to a contentious start Wednesday off the coast of the nation's resort island of Jeju amid an ongoing diplomatic tension between Seoul and Tokyo, as the latter recently decided not to send a warship under the "Rising Sun" flag in the wake of fierce opposition from Korea. Nineteen vessels from 12 countries plan to participate in the five-day review. Japan was also supposed to dispatch its warship flying the "Rising Sun" flag which Koreans view as a symbol of Japan's wartime aggression. This is the third time the Korean Navy has held the review since 1998, once every ten years. But Seoul flatly asked Tokyo not to fly its "Rising Sun" flag on a warship as people in South Korea view the red-and-white flag as a symbol of Japan's past military aggression and its colonization. Cheong Wa Dae received about 250 petitions for the Japanese ship to be barred. Last week, Japan notified the Korean Navy that it would not send its warship. South Korea's relationship with Japan has long been strained by massive resentment over its colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, continued island disputes and the issue of comfort women forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels. Korea and Japan are expected to seek ways to alleviate the diplomatic tension in the wake of the recent controversy. But both sides avoided a possible worst-case scenario, as Japan would send its delegation despite the lack of its warship. "Seoul and Tokyo failed to narrow their differences on the 'flag controversy,' but our view is that the dispute should not have a negative ensuing effect on their bilateral diplomatic relations," a military official said. On Wednesday, the Korean Navy said China would also not send its fleet to the event because of the country's "internal reasons." "China has in recent days hinted at the possibility that the country may not send its warship to the event, and the country decided not to dispatch its fleet in the end," said the official. "Beijing did not specify why the country decided not to send its fleet to the International Fleet Review," he said, declining to comment further. On October 11, President Moon Jae-in will visit the island where he plans to board the Navy's 4,900-ton ship named Ilchulbong. Calls have grown for the Korean Navy to change the vessel to the Dokdo amphibious landing ship, named after the nation's easternmost islets of Dokdo, as part of a countermeasure against Japan's earlier determination to join the event by flying the controversial flag. This is because the two countries have engaged in a heated territorial dispute over the small islets for which the latter claims sovereignty. But with Japan dropping its earlier plan, the controversy is showing signs of slowly abating here. Meanwhile, the world's naval powerhouses such as the United States and Russia have taken part in the review. In particular, the U.S. dispatched three vessels including the USS Ronald Reagan nuclear-powered supercarrier. According to the Navy, this year's review is the largest in scale, compared with the previous two hosted by the Navy. A group of 46 countries from across the globe has sent their naval delegations to join the global event on Jeju, the Navy said. On October 12, the Korean Navy plans to hold the Western Pacific Naval Symposium with its overseas counterparts, seeking ways to tighten their naval alliance. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed mutual ties with Kuwait during a meeting with a group of editors-in-chief of key Kuwaiti papers in Cairo on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Egyptian presidency said. The expansive discussion tackled developments in the region, counterterrorism efforts, and Egypt's development programme, spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement. El-Sisi held similar talks with Kuwaiti editors-in-chief early in 2015 during a visit to the Gulf country, one of Egypt's key political and economic allies in the region. Search Keywords: Short link: By Kim Hyun-bin Calls are growing for leniency toward a Sri Lankan migrant worker, who launched a sky lantern that accidentally triggered a recent massive explosion at an oil storage facility, as his act was unintentional. Many say it is the facility operator that should be held accountable for poor safety management. The 27-year-old Sri Lankan launched the sky lantern Sunday morning after picking it up at a tunnel construction site in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, where he worked. The lantern was one of 80 lanterns used in an event at a nearby elementary school the previous day. The lantern reached to the oil storage and started a grass fire that eventually led to the explosion of a storage tank. Police detained him Monday and planned to request an arrest warrant for him. Following his detention, over 100 petitions have been posted on Cheong Wa Dae's website calling for leniency. Most of the petitioners said the law enforcement authorities and those in charge of the facility management are passing the buck to the migrant worker. "The fire was caused not by an individual's fault but a systemic problem. If an oil tank was blown up by only a 300-won paper lantern, the blame should be put on those in charge of safety management of the facility," one petitioner wrote. "Even if he is partially responsible, arrest is too harsh." Another claimed the nation should rather give him a prize because "he disclosed a weak point of the nation's oil storage facilities and thus saved the lives of many Koreans." If convicted of "gross negligence," the Sri Lankan could face up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won ($17,600). The police requested the prosecution ask a local court to issue an arrest warrant for him Wednesday, but amid the criticism, the prosecution rejected the request and decided to carry out its investigation without physical detention. Some experts also point out the fault of Daehan Oil Pipeline Corp., which owns and operates the oil storage facility, saying there might not have been such a catastrophe if it had managed the facility properly. The corporation failed to notice the fire in its initial stages and prevent the explosion. No fire sensors were installed around the hazardous oil tanks. According to the corporation's own regulations, it had to operate and put on standby its own firefighters and emergency engineer force at all times a rule it did not abide by. Under the relevant law, anyone that violates the safety guideline could face up to three years in prison or a 30 million won fine. "The lantern fell on the grass and there was smoke for 18 minutes, but the company was not able to realize it and quickly deploy its own firefighters. It took no immediate emergency actions," Rep. Hong Chul-ho of the Liberty Korea Party said. Foreigners in traditional costume dance in a parade on the main street of Itaewon, Seoul, during last year's Itaewon Global Village Festival. This year's festival will be held from Saturday to Sunday. / Courtesy of Yongsan-gu Office By Kim Rahn The streets of Itaewon, Seoul's foreign district, will be filled with performances and foods from around the world over the weekend, as the annual Itaewon Global Village Festival returns. Under the slogan of "Let's Beat, Itaewon," the embassies of 45 countries will set up booths along the main road and multiple alleys there from Saturday to Sunday. Visitors can get a glimpse of the cultures of the nations and information about tourism and study in those countries. Fourteen countries will present folk performances on the main stage on Saturday at noon, while many more will participate in the parade that will take place from Hangangjin Station to Noksapyeong Station starting at 3:30 p.m. on the day. Yongsan-gu Office will select three embassies that best contribute to the festival, by evaluating the size and quality of the booths and their performances and participation in the parade. Each will be given prize money, as well as a trophy and a space to promote their countries. More than 40 restaurants operating in Itaewon will sell their specialties at a special food zone. "In Itaewon where all different cultures are mixed, we talk about world peace beyond peace on the Korean Peninsula," Yongsan-gu head Sung Jang-hyun said in a press release. "Visitors will be able to get along with people from other cultures." Korean features A group of taekwondo athletes presents a taekwondo demonstration during last year's Itaewon Global Village Festival. / Courtesy of Yongsan-gu Office By Jung Min-ho A man has been sentenced to eight months in prison for attacking a police officer who asked him to take a sobriety test. The Busan District Court convicted the man, 38, Tuesday, of seriously injuring a police officer on duty in eastern Busan about 3:20 a.m. on July 13. He was also found guilty of driving while intoxicated. The man refused to comply with the police request for a breathalyzer test for 40 minutes, and then kneed the officer in the groin and hit him on the neck. The officer sustained injuries that required 15 weeks to recover. According to police, it was the third time the man was caught drunk driving. The government is expected to come up with a set of measures to crack down on fake news later this month, a senior official said Wednesday. Minister Hong Nam-ki, chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said during a parliamentary audit that the government is committed to deal sternly with fake news without hurting freedom of expression. "We're discussing comprehensive measures with related ministries and agencies," Hong said. "We will be able to announce measures within this month." Asked what the criteria is for fake news, Hong said it means "clearly false and fabricated information." By Lee Min-hyung LIG Nex1, the Seoul-based defense company, has unveiled a series of its guided rocket systems in a U.S. tradeshow, seeking to tap deeper into the North American defense industry, the company said Wednesday. The company has showcased its missile weapons such as the 2.75-inch guided rocket and a set of middle-distance precise guided weapons in use particularly for infantry troops during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 2018 exhibition, according to the firm. The three-day event, which began in Washington D.C. on Monday (local time), is one of the largest and most influential defense exhibitions in North America. More than 600 defense industry firms take part in the annual show. During the defense fair, LIG Nex1 also introduced its unmanned surface vehicle for which the company recently finished a pilot operation. The company underscored its strong willingness to expand its global profile by participating in the event, thereby increasing the portion of its sales in the region by winning more rocket orders there. The company opened its U.S. office for the first time in 2009 to seek more business opportunities and partnerships with local defense players. LIG Nex1 believes the exhibition will play a key role in helping the company to participate more actively in the U.S. Department of Defense's Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program under which the Pentagon aims to sign more defense contracts with non-American defense firms with state-of-the-art technology and equipment. "LIG Nex1 has made continued efforts to tap into new markets and expand its exports," LIG Nex1 CEO Kim Ji-chan said. "We want our participation in the exhibition to raise the standing of the nation's defense industry." President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with aides at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday. / Yonhap By Kim Bo-eun President Moon Jae-in asked the National Assembly to ratify the inter-Korean agreement reached at his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in April. "The National Assembly stands still, failing to even refer the bill on the ratification to the related committee," Moon said during a weekly meeting with his top secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday. Moon added a new geopolitical order is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula with a rapidly changing diplomatic dynamic surrounding North Korea since the first inter-Korean summit. "I hope for the National Assembly to take part in making a new era of peace on the peninsula that the people want and the world is observing, and to assist the government so it can do an even better job," Moon said. His remarks came a day after the centrist-conservative Bareunmirae Party said it would not support the ratification of the Panmunjeom Declaration. The Liberty Korea Party (LKP), the main opposition party, was also saying it won't support the proposed ratification process until North Korea applies tangible denuclearization measures. Pyongyang has yet to take verifiable denuclearization steps since it pledged to work toward complete denuclearization. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), minor liberal opposition Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP) and progressive Justice Party support the ratification. The government submitted the bill to the Assembly on Sept. 11, but the bill is still pending due to lukewarm support from opposition parties. The key takeaway of the Panmunjeom Declaration is that the "non-binding agreement" underlined a plan to be sought by the two Koreas to move forward with efforts to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War within this year. Moon wants to push forward with his engagement initiative with North Korea with backing from the Assembly. His wishes reflect the past case in which 2007 agreements reached between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il were abandoned after conservatives took power. Meanwhile, the unification ministry has asked the Ministry of Government Legislation to review whether the Pyongyang Declaration reached at the inter-Korean summit last month could be valid without ratification. Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said Wednesday the ministry is awaiting a response. The ministry also investigated earlier in August whether the Assembly's ratification of the Panmunjeom Declaration was necessary. The response was that an inter-Korean agreement that entails large amounts of state funds needs Assembly approval. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has invited Pope Francis to become the first pontiff to visit the state. The invitation will be delivered by the South Korean president. Four years on from his last visit to the Korean peninsula, at which he expressed his hope for reunification, Pope Francis is about to get another invitation. But this time from the North. Kim Jong-un is said to be keen for what would be the first ever trip by a pontiff to the hermit state. PHIL PULLELLA, REUTERS CORRESPONDENT SAYING: "It's a bit of a long shot right now. However the Pope has already agreed to go to Japan next year. So there'd be nothing stopping him going to Japan and then making a stop in South Korea and dipping into North Korea just for a day, I don't think that would be so surprising." North Korea has no formal diplomatic ties with the Vatican. But the invitation will be delivered by the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, when he visits the Pope next week. SOUTH KOREA'S PRESIDENTIAL BLUE HOUSE SPOKESMAN, KIM EUI-KEUM, SAYING: "When he meets with Pope Francis, he will convey Chairman Kim Jong-un's message that he will ardently welcome him if he visits Pyongyang." The move by Kim Jong-un is the latest aimed at highlighting growing peace efforts between the two Koreas. Recently both began dismantling landmines along the border. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced after weekend talks in Pyongyang that North Korea is now ready to allow international inspectors to visit its nuclear and missile test sites. The regime is one of the most repressive states in the world, but guarantees freedom of religion in its constitution. The handful of churches that do exist are tightly controlled. A mass for peace on the Korean Peninsula is being held at the Vatican next week. But the Vatican hasn't confirmed if the invitation to Pyongyang will be accepted. (Reuters) While U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hailed "significant progress" in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the weekend and said the sides were "pretty close" to agreeing details for a second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump, experts on East Asian politics are skeptical. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are pretty close to a second date. That's what U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after his trip to Pyongyang this week. Pompeo on Monday (October 8) hailed the talks as bringing quote "significant progress" to a deal that would open up North Korean weapons sites to international inspectors. But now experts are skeptical, saying they're not sure what Pompeo actually brought back on his fourth visit to Pyongyang this year. They say the North Koreans seems to be just rolling out the same old promises in a new way. Pompeo told reporters Kim said he was ready to let inspectors into the Punggye-ri testing site and its Sohae missile engine testing area as soon as the two sides agreed on logistics But the Secretary of State didn't say if Kim was ready to let inspectors into a third site, Yongbyon, where Pyongyang produces fuel for nuclear weapons. That's something that the U.S. has been after all along. North Korea blew up tunnels at the Punggye-ri site in May, calling it proof of their commitment to ending nuclear tests. But there were no inspectors there - just journalists- and senior White House officials called it a broken promise, with the lack of expert witnesses meaning nobody could verify what really happened. Pompeo didn't say when inspectors would be allowed into Punggye-ri. And the State Department didn't respond to whether any inspectors would be Americans, or from other international bodies. One M.I.T. nuclear proliferation expert said on Twitter that Kim dragging out the question of inspections was like "selling the same horse twice". Despite the confusion over inspections, Pompeo was upbeat about a possible second summit between Trump and Kim, saying both leaders believed there'd be real progress to be made next time they meet. (Reuters) By Mahmood Elahi This refers to the article: "Why China needs to make concessions for end-of-war declaration?" by Lee Seong-hyon, published in The Korea Times on Oct. 2. Lee Seong-hyon is correct to point out: "China is fully aware the U.S. is reluctant to announce an end-of-war declaration with North Korea because of China itself. Both the U.S. and China view such a declaration in terms of their geopolitical competition, which boils down to the question of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK)." But China seems not to realize that the USFK also serves another important purpose: it prevents two former enemies China and Japan from any renewed military confrontation. China still resents Japan's invasion of China and the atrocities against the Chinese people. Japan, for its part, is wary of a rising China as a threat to its own security. Beijing has already overtaken Tokyo as the world's second largest economy. China is also now the world's second largest military power. As such, Japan is equally worried about this growing military modernization. Given their history of bloody conflicts, both remain suspicious of each other. With its much smaller size and population, Japan remains heavily dependent on the U.S. military presence in its homeland and South Korea. Although ostensibly aimed at deterring any North Korean aggression, the much larger U.S. military presence in South Korea also serves as an indirect security umbrella for Japan. Straddled between two potential adversaries, South Korea also needs the U.S. military presence for its own security. If U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Korea, Japan will feel extremely vulnerable vis a vis China. It will signal that the U.S. may not be there to protect Tokyo from any confrontation with Beijing. And Japan may decide to go nuclear, triggering a nuclear arms race in the region. As a result, reduction of tension by the denuclearization of North Korea will be replaced by the nuclearization of Japan. China will face a renewed threat from the recrudescence of Japanese militarism. As a highly developed country, Japan can match China's quantity with its quality. In fact, China might face a new threat if Japan decides to join hands with India which is also wary of China. As such, a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea will unleash new tensions at China's doorsteps, threatening its own security. The U.S. military presence in South Korea is a stabilizing force in the Asia-Pacific region. It prevents historical enemies from going against each other. The presence of USFK is not a "dagger" to China's throat, but a "shield" preventing any revival of Sino-Japanese enmities. China and Japan are like two scorpions ready to confront each other if left alone. The U.S. military presence serves a strategic purpose by keeping them apart. Since the end of the Korean War, the U.S. military presence in South Korea has been a great stabilizing factor. It has kept peace on the Korean Peninsula. It has also prevented any revival of rivalry between China and Japan. It will be needed even after the denuclearization of North Korea. Mahmood Elahi (omega51@sympatico.ca) is a freelance writer in Ottawa. By Mukhisa Kituyi GENEVA _ Few issues are as emotional as human migration. Images of desperate people on the move _ whether trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border or packed onto rickety boats crossing the Mediterranean Sea _ have heightened tensions and forged a narrative that migration has no upside. But these images have also blinded us to the fact that people have always moved, and that migration is necessary and beneficial for human development. Nowhere is this fact more relevant today than in Africa. Despite the ongoing political crisis surrounding African migration to Europe, the reality is that fewer Africans are migrating to European countries than when the numbers peaked in October 2015. As it happens, most African migrants move within Africa. And for African governments in particular, that fact creates an opportunity to harness the positive power of human mobility. Understanding how migration can build wealth in Africa requires closer attention to migratory trends. According to data from my organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), of the 41.5 million people who migrated from, to, or within Africa in 2017, nearly half _ 19 million _ remained on the continent. Some 17 million people left Africa, while 5.5 million migrated to Africa from other parts of the world. African migrants include both blue- and white-collar workers, and those who move within Africa often do so to fill labor gaps. For example, labor shortages in mining, construction, agriculture, and domestic services have fueled migration to South Africa and Cote d'Ivoire, two of the most important economic hubs on the continent. Elsewhere, Gabon's lumber and mining sectors, Equatorial Guinea's oil industry, and various industries in Kenya have also attracted migration from neighboring countries. Simply put, migration in Africa helps destination economies grow. In addition to filling labor needs, the presence of large migrant populations spurs economic diversification, private-sector development, and value-added production. Moreover, migrants spend about 85 percent of their earnings domestically. That infusion of capital adds to destination countries' tax base and boosts local consumption. But Africa's migrants also contribute to development in origin countries, thanks to remittances and knowledge sharing. In fact, the total value of remittances by African migrants now exceeds the amount of official development assistance (ODA) that African countries receive. Since 2015, remittances, which have grown strongly since 2000, have accounted for the bulk of total external financial flows to Africa, as ODA declined from 37 percent in 2001-2003 to 28 percent in 2012-2016. Remittances accounted for 51 percent of private capital flows to Africa in 2016, up from 42 percent in 2010. Forecasts by UNCTAD predict that if pro-migration policies are adopted, Africa's per capita GDP could increase 61 percent by 2030 _ to about $3,250. In other words, intra-Africa migration is not only a human and social phenomenon; it is also a vital ingredient of growth. African governments are beginning to recognize this. Many countries are supporting the African Union's new Migration Policy Framework for Africa. And, since March 2018, more than half of the nearly 50 countries that pledged to create an African Continental Free Trade Area have adopted its protocol on the free movement of people. To build on these achievements, African governments must draw inspiration from one another. For example, initiatives like Rwanda's temporary visa program for semi-skilled migrants, and Morocco's recent expansion of job categories for foreigners, will bring more flexible labor policies to these two markets. Many other destination countries would benefit from similar innovations. Another milestone that would advance intra-Africa migration would be the rollout of the highly anticipated all-Africa passport. Unfortunately, while the initiative's goal _ to foster trade, integration, and socioeconomic development within the AU _ is laudable, bureaucratic inertia is likely delaying its rollout. Finally, the international community is preparing to adopt the first-ever Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. This landmark agreement represents a blueprint for managing global migration flows. It is also validation that migration is an economic necessity, and not only for Africa. When the compact is finalized later this year in Morocco, it must reflect the priorities that Africa's leaders have already committed to. With well-crafted and properly executed agreements, migration can be a boon to people and the places they call home. Today's skewed media narratives ignore or neglect the benefits of migration. But with facts and commitment, it is possible to tell a very different story. Mukhisa Kituyi is secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org). Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived early on Wednesday on the Greek island of Crete for the sixth round of a tripartite cooperation summit between the leaders of Greece, Cyprus and Egypt. The summit aims to capitalise on the outcomes of the past five tripartite gatherings, evaluate developments in cooperation between the three states and assess progress on ongoing projects, Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said on Tuesday. The summit will also look at means to boost political coordination between the three countries, to combat threats in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region. During the visit, El-Sisi will hold talks with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras to discuss bilateral relations. He will also meet with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades to discuss boosting economic and commercial relations between the two countries. The tripartite summit was first held in Cairo in 2014, with the latest one held in Nicosia, Cyprus in November 2017. Search Keywords: Short link: Trolling for outrage, a Brooklyn College business professor who specializes in skewering the left-wing cant of the academy wrote something abhorrent on his blog: that "If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex." Further, that "The Democrats have become a party of tutu-wearing pansies, totalitarian sissies who lack virility, a sense of decency, or the masculine judgment that has characterized the greatest civilizations." Mitchell Langbert, who now insults the city's intelligence by pretending this was all Swiftian satire, is a tenured professor at a public university, one that rightly asserts in its policy on free expression that "concerns about civility can never be used as a justification for closing off discussion of ideas, however disagreeable or offensive they may be to some members of the University community. "The appropriate response to false or offensive speech is not to prohibit it but to respond with more speech." So, while some call for Langbert to get canned, we simply say to him: Get bent. The above editorial appeared in the New York Daily News. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. By Stephen Costello WASHINGTON, D.C. The descent into paralysis of the U.S. political system is not something most Koreans are likely to spend time following. There are far more pressing things at home to do. Put the economy on a stronger, more sustainable path. Develop modern energy and climate policies. Prepare the military for a post-DPRK-crisis posture. Figure out what priorities a middle power in Northeast Asia should have. Modernize the U.S.-ROK alliance. Similarly, Americans have little time to focus on Korean domestic developments. And yet. And yet. It's hard to read about the dramatic battles with ideology at their core at the Korean Constitutional Court, and not see a reflection of the U.S.'s own crippled highest court. It's hard to watch the behavior of conservatives in the National Assembly, refusing to accompany the South Korean President to the first, second or third inter-Korean summits (2000, 2007, 2018), or to endorse the Panmunjeom Declaration (April 2018); without seeing a reflection of U.S. conservative's rejection of the nuclear agreements with North Korea and Iran (1994, 2015). And it's hard to see Lee Myung-bak, the fourth South Korean former president to be sentenced to jail on corruption charges (this month), without questioning how today's corrupt U.S. president and other high officials have continued to escape accountability. Lee was sentenced to 15 years in jail after his successor, impeached President Park Geun-hye, was given a 33-year prison term on corruption and power abuse charges. The most astounding reflection of all is to try to digest the meaning and the accomplishments of the candlelit protests across Korea against President Park in the winter of 2016-17. Those protests peaceful, often joyous, engaged broad swaths of the public. They first targeted the National Assembly to be sure it voted for the impeachment motion for Park, then targeted the Constitutional Court to be sure it did its duty to vote the president out. At that time, both the legislature and the court had been locked in a battle for institutional independence and democratic legitimacy while quasi-authoritarians Lee and Park held the Blue House for nine years. Both would likely have avoided votes against Park were it not for the million people who came out to demonstrate. For an American today, that recent history provides a lot to think about. Watching from the other side of the world, I knew little about the civic organizations behind the protests. I did, however, meet a determined and very well-organized Park Won-soon in his office near the Blue House 20 years ago. Park had a big hand in enlarging and professionalizing the civic sector in Korea, before he started a few public-interest foundations and before he became mayor of Seoul seven years ago. His history is a reminder of how consistently activists have organized to support democracy, human rights and social justice in Korea over the years. Two years ago I met a group of civic leaders engaged in making sure that the candlelit movement had a strong and lasting impact on the next Korean president, whoever that was. They also sent a delegation to Washington and New York to make their points to the U.S. government and to the U.N. To my humble surprise I discovered that we had been working in tandem for over 25 years. Their experience promoting South Korean human rights and democracy even from an office three miles from my home instantly made us co-conspirators. We knew many of the same people. Among their heroes is my old friend Kim Guen-tae, a student leader, prisoner and democratic lawmaker until his early death in 2011. While visiting the National Assemblymen in their offices this year I have noticed again and again that as often as I see a photo of Kim Dae-jung, there is also one of Kim Guen-tae. More Americans should know his story, because he is a rock-solid anchor younger, and with a different but parallel history to Kim DJ for a new generation of savvy, modern and moderate progressives who now hold power in the two main democratic parties. I point this out to underscore how lucky and deeply resilient the modern protectors of Korea's young democracy are. I am in awe of them. One is also an urban farmer who produces the most delicious baby lettuce I have ever had. Organized as the June 15 Committee (in honor of the June 15, 2000, breakthrough North-South summit) they visited the U.N. during the 27th General Assembly two weeks ago. Here in the face of multiple institutional failures which have been accumulating for decades American activists are now drawing on our own long history of organizing and protesting. Hundreds have been arrested in past days protesting against the Kavanaugh confirmation to the Supreme Court. One gets the feeling the push-back against our own broken systems is only beginning to build up steam. It will take some time and it won't be pretty, but I hope we will take some strength and inspiration from our fellow democrats in Korea. In both Korea and the U.S., we are way past the normal, within-the-boundaries left vs. right policy debates. Today's battles have fundamentally put the modern, democratic, public interest up against backward-looking, divisive power groups who are using myths to manipulate voters. Having done the heavy lifting of ejecting a corrupt president and allowing a non-ideological and competent government to be elected, Korean activists are keeping vigil. We should not only take note of this and learn any lessons we can, but we should get to know them better. After all, we've been through quite a lot together in just the past 70 years, and Americans now have our own heavy lifting to do. Stephen Costello (scost55@gmail.com) managed the Kim Dae Jung Peace Foundation Washington office in the 1990s. He directed the Korea program at the Atlantic Council there from 1999 to 2004. He now directs AsiaEast.Org, a policy initiative focused on security, development and politics in Northeast Asia. He writes from Washington and Seoul. Seoul should not talk about sanctions relief now Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha apparently went too far in talking about a potential lifting of sanctions imposed on North Korea for its deadly attack on a South Korean naval ship in 2010. No one knows better than Kang that such a discussion could send the wrong message to Pyongyang because the Kim Jong-un regime has yet to take any substantial step toward denuclearization. During an annual National Assembly audit and inspection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wednesday, Kang said the government is reviewing whether to lift its sanctions against the North. She made the remarks when asked by Rep. Lee Hae-chan, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), about Seoul's independent sanctions against Pyongyang. The sanctions in question were imposed May 24, 2010, about two months after a North Korean submarine torpedoed the South's warship Cheonan in the West Sea. The attack sank the ship, killing 46 sailors. Joint investigations by civilian and military experts, both local and international, concluded the North Korean military made the provocation. Yet the North has continued to deny the conclusion. The sanctions include a ban on trade with and investment in the North. They also prevent North Korean vessels from navigating through South Korean territorial waters. They overlap with U.N.-led sanctions against the North for its nuclear and missile tests. The Kim regime has certainly sought to lift the sanctions, buoyed by the growing mood of detente between the two Koreas as well as between the U.S. and the North. However, it is still too early to consider the easing or lifting of whatever sanctions imposed by Seoul or the U.N. Security Council. Pyongyang has done little to give up its nuclear and missile programs. The South cannot and should not lift its own sanctions unless the North takes meaningful and credible measures to denuclearize. This stance is in line with the Trump administration's firm position that sanctions remain in place until the North's denuclearization. If the South removes sanctions independently well ahead of the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue, it would weaken the alliance between Seoul and Washington. The Moon Jae-in government may risk playing into the hands of the Kim regime which is trying to put sanctions relief before denuclearization. No one can overestimate the importance of closer cooperation between the South and the U.S. in realizing the shared goal of dismantling the North's nuclear arsenal completely and irreversibly. There should be no daylight between the two allies as far as the nuclear problem and sanctions are concerned. President Moon, who has been playing as an active mediator between Trump and Kim over the denuclearization talks, may want to restart the suspended Mount Geumgang tourism project or reopen the closed Gaeseong Industrial Complex even before the North starts denuclearizing. But there is no reason to rush. Inter-Korean cooperation and exchanges should go hand in hand with progress in the North's denuclearization. YouTube is becoming a new hub for misinformation in Korea. / Reuters By Jung Min-ho Kakao's AI speaker Kakao Mini / Courtesy of Kakao By Jun Ji-hye The government is being blamed for its regulations that favor Google over SK Telecom, Kakao, KT and other domestic artificial intelligence (AI) speaker makers, an opposition party lawmaker said Wednesday. SK Telecom's AI speaker NUGU / Courtesy of SK Telecom Workers plan strike over setup of R&D unit By Nam Hyun-woo GM Korea's bid to normalize operations is facing rough waters, with its union workers planning to go on strike against the management's decision to set up a new corporate body for research and development. According to GM Korea's labor union Wednesday, it will hold a two-day vote among its members on Oct. 15 and 16 over going on strike to protest the management's plan for the new body. Despite the management's explanation that the new entity aims to develop Korea as a regional R&D base, the union has been claiming the plan is "a preliminary attempt to sell off the Korean unit by splitting the firm into manufacturing and research divisions and withdraw from the country." The union said it has "no option but to launch a labor dispute" because it asked "five times" for the management to discuss the plan, but the management didn't reply. The union has been calling for the management to sign an agreement with the workers over the sustainable future of GM Korea. On Oct. 4, GM Korea held a board meeting and agreed to put the spinoff plan to a vote in an Oct. 19 shareholder meeting. However, GM Korea's second-largest shareholder, the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB), has also applied an injunction to a local court prohibiting GM Korea's new body because the plan seemed to be containing risks. As players square off, voices are growing that the carmaker should address internal conflicts promptly to rule out suspicions it is planning to withdraw from the country after taking aid from KDB. According to Rep. Jung You-sub of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP), GM Korea did not comply with an MOU with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, stating it will consult with the ministry for setting up the new corporate body. According to the MOU, which GM Korea signed in May in return for receiving public aid from KDB, the carmaker is required to set up a consultation group with the ministry on "making efforts to improve its R&D capabilities." However, the group was not established at all and the company is unilaterally carrying out the plan without talking over it with the ministry, the lawmaker said. In a National Assembly audit on Wednesday, lawmakers requested GM Korea CEO Kaher Kazem appear for a hearing, but the CEO did not show up. GM Korea has proclaimed its normalization months after its February announcement on the closure of its plant in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, because of financial problem, asking for government aid to address that. As KDB, GM headquarters, GM Korea and its labor union agreed to a plan in May in which the headquarters offers $6.4 billion and KDB pours in $750 million, the carmaker seemed to be recovering from the feud, introducing new cars here. However, the plan over splitting the body is again dragging GM Korea down from putting its operation back on track. The Face Shop's luxury brand "parody" products in question. Yonhap By Lee Min-young Low-price Korean cosmetics label The Face Shop has lost a trademark infringement battle with Paris-based luxury brand Louis Vuitton. The Seoul Central District Court ordered The Face Shop to take the products that used Louis Vuitton's designs off shelves and to pay a 50 million won fine. Cha Suk-yong, CEO of LG Household & Health Care, the holding company of The Face Shop. Yonhap Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen speaks during the Taiwan National Day celebrations in Taipei, Oct. 10. National Day in Taiwan commemorates the start of the Wuchang Uprising, which took place on Oct. 10, 1911. The uprising led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and imperial rule in China, as well as the establishment of the government of the Republic of China, which governed mainland China until the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. EPA Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen accused China of "seriously challenging" peace and stability Wednesday, describing the island she leads as being on the frontline of tensions in the Pacific. It comes as Beijing pursues a multi-pronged attack on any claims to sovereignty by self-ruled democratic Taiwan, which it sees as part of its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated since Tsai took office two years ago, as she refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China". "As Taiwan is on the frontline of the Western Pacific, we are naturally subject to tremendous pressure," Tsai said in a televised speech to mark Taiwan's National Day. "China's unilateral diplomatic offensive and military coercion have not only harmed cross-strait relations. They have also seriously challenged the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," she added. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign country and has an independent political system, judiciary and currency, but has never formally declared a split, despite being ruled separately since 1949. China has recently upped military drills around the island and has made a concerted effort to poach Taiwan's dwindling number of official allies -- only 17 countries still diplomatically recognise the island after five jumped ship since Tsai took power. Beijing has also successfully put pressure on international businesses to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites and ensured Taiwan is shut out of global forums. Tsai called on authorities in Beijing to "play a positive role in the region and the world, instead of being a source of conflict". She pledged not to escalate tensions but also said Taiwan would seek to fortify its national security and diplomatic links, establishing its "irreplaceable strategic importance". "I will not be provoked into confrontation or conflicts that endanger cross-strait relations, nor will I deviate from the will of the people, and sacrifice Taiwan's sovereignty," Tsai said. "An effective response strategy must be rooted in national strength," she added. Worsening ties with Beijing and unpopular domestic reforms policies are putting Tsai's government under pressure ahead of major local elections next month. Tsai warned in her speech that anyone interfering in the election process would "suffer serious consequences". She has accused Beijing of spreading "fake information" to affect public trust in the government in the run-up to the elections. (AFP) Egypt's armed forces have begun a series of military drills with Saudi counterparts in southern Egypt, Egypt's military spokesman said on Wednesday. The Tabuk 4 exercises are taking place in Egypts southern military zone, headquartered in Assiut, and involves land forces from both countries. The drills, which will feature theoretical and practical seminars on combat skills and a military equipment exhibition, aim to "develop and strengthen military cooperation between the Egyptian armed forces and their Saudi counterparts," Egyptian military spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said in a statement. It is the latest in a series of exercises between the two countries as part of efforts to develop "joint action in light of current challenges in the region," according to the statement. Saudi Arabia, one of Egypt's closest regional allies, was one of a number of countries taking part last month in the Egyptian-US Bright Star military training exercises in Egypt, the largest of their kind in the region. In August, Saudi Arabia took part in joint military training, Eagle Response 2018, involving Egypt, the UAE, and the US, which was held in Egyptian territorial waters in the Red Sea. The two countries also held the Morgan joint naval exercises in 2015 in the Red Sea, the Faisal air military training exercies in September 2017, and the Gulf Shield drills in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. Search Keywords: Short link: Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe The Nov. 6, 2018 general election is a few days away, but you don't have to wait to cast your vote. Most counties offer options for early voting at their local county registrar's office or other designated locations, but a more popular option: voting by mail. Elected officials across the state, including those in Los Angeles County and Orange County, have been sending out vote-by-mail ballots. But you can still sign up for a mail ballot -- just do so by Tuesday, Oct. 30. If you live in L.A. County, visit the county website to request a vote-by-mail ballot. If you live in Orange County, check the instructions here. Another option, regardless of where you live in California, is to fill out this form provided by the Secretary of State and turn it into your county elections office by Oct. 30. To find out how to contact your county's elections office, check out this contact list. We've got some answers to frequently asked questions about voting by mail in Southern California here: Q: I live in L.A. County, and I've heard my ballot is going to look different. What should I expect? L.A. County's vote-by-mail underwent a redesign with this election, so they won't look familiar, but they should be easier to understand. Here's how they've changed: In the past, voters had to find their chosen candidate's name in a guide and then turn to their Scantron-like ballot to fill in the oval with the candidate's corresponding number. Now, all the information you need to make your choice is directly on your ballot. You can get a preview of what it will look like in this video: One important thing to note is your ballot could have multiple pages and races on the front and back. At the top right corner of the ballot, you can see which page out of the total you're looking at. Make sure you've completed every page before you send it back. The full vote-by-mail packet will have several items: your official ballot, a secrecy sleeve (with instructions detailing how to vote on the back), a return envelope and an "I Voted" sticker. You can read more about the new ballots here. If you live in Orange County, don't worry -- your vote-by-mail ballot won't have any surprises, but you can expect some changes in polling places. So look for details from your elections office. Q: Alright, I've filled out my vote-by-mail ballot. How do I turn it in? And how much postage is required? You have a few options: You can mail it in and just make sure it's postmarked by Nov. 6. You can also turn it in at your polling place on election day. You can leave it at a vote-by-mail drop-off location or early voting center. (L.A. County will have more than 150 drop-off locations and two weekends of early voting at 10 locations across the county.) If you do mail in your ballot, the amount of postage you need depends on the county you live in. In L.A. County, no postage is necessary for the November election -- you're fully covered. In Orange County, the postal rate is 50 cents, so a single first-class stamp will cover it. Starting in 2019, your postage will be covered, too, thanks to a new state law Gov. Jerry Brown approved in July. Q: I requested a vote-by-mail ballot, but I'd rather vote in person at the polls. Is that OK? Yes -- but bring your vote-by-mail ballot with you and turn it in at your polling location to avoid any issues. Otherwise, you'll have to cast a provisional ballot so they can verify you didn't also vote by mail. If you forget to bring along your vote-by-mail ballot, that's okay. Your provisional vote will still be counted after your information is verified for eligibility. Q: How can I make sure my ballot was received and counted? You can always check the status of your ballot online, for peace of mind: If you live in L.A. County, check here. If you live in Orange County check here. If you live elsewhere in California, check with your county's election office here for your vote-by-mail ballot status. Q: I keep requesting a vote-by-mail ballot every year. Is there a way I can opt in permanently? Yes, but you have to re-register first. Unfortunately, the online voter registration deadline for this election was Oct. 22. The good news is you can still get a one-time vote-by-mail ballot even if you miss that date. But request it by Tuesday, Oct. 30. Get ready for the Nov. 6 election. Here at LAist, we want to make sure Angelenos have all the information they need to cast their votes. To get prepped on deadlines, candidates and ballot measures, check out our Voter Game Plan. And if you liked this election guide, consider supporting us! You can donate here. 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 It was hard to escape the heated debate surrounding now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's pending nomination last week. And kids were not immune to the discourse around sexual assault that came with those hearings. While it's tough to shield children from such heavy subject matter, Liz Kleinrock, a third grade teacher at Citizens of the World Charter School in Silver Lake, turned the Kavanaugh headlines into teaching a moment through a lesson on consent. Kleinrock's lesson got a lot of attention when she posted a classroom chart on Instagram and Facebook last month. Her posts led to coverage from the Washington Post, CNN, HuffPost and more, plus a spotlight on talk show The Real. "Consent seems like such an accessible, tangible thing for them to comprehend," Kleinrock said in an interview with A Martinez on KPCC's Take Two. "So many teachers talk about respecting physical space and using your words instead of your hands to communicate, so it seemed like a natural transition." Kleinrock has also taught her class lessons on privilege, stereotypes and social justice. She says that lessons on consent were taught in every third grade class at Citizens of the World Charter School. To make the lesson kid friendly, Kleinrock used the word in a nonsexual context. Giving permission was described as consent in the classroom -- a nod to the dictionary definition of the word. Kleinrock said she didn't receive pushback from parents on the lesson, saying they were receptive to the idea. The conversation on consent brought up questions even adults might struggle with, such as nonverbal cues. "We had to get into some of the nuances around body language and tone, which are difficult things to read," Kleinrock said. Like any other lesson, she hopes her students will be able to take what they've learned in the classroom about consent and apply it to their everyday lives. "I hope that they remember moving forward, that if they ever feel physically uncomfortable, there are a lot of different ways to say 'no,'" she said. 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. The guest of honor at a fancy awards dinner doesnt ordinarily also cook the dinner. But Chef Bernard Guillas of La Jollas the Marine Room is no ordinary chef, and when Les Disciples dEscoffier International a prestigious French society of culinary professionals brought its induction dinner to Southern California for the first time on Monday night, Oct. 8, Guillas insisted. And so, he had 133 Brandt Farm Beef Cheeks Bourguignon plates to prepare (or the vegetarian option) for diners who have made food their lifes work. And, judging from the rock-star cheers when Chef Bernard emerged from the kitchen as the final San Diego chef of seven honored, this tough crowd was thoroughly pleased. You have to understand that, as a Frenchman, Escoffier is the Bible, Guillas told his admirers as waves pounded the windows of the seaside restaurant behind him. This is where we learn all the techniques and the artistry of cooking. Michel Escoffier poses with Bernard Guillas in the Marine Room kitchen before the ceremony. COURTESY JOHN CAMPBELL Auguste Escoffier, known as the Father of Modern French Cuisine, inspired Guillas and pretty much every French chef of the past 100 years. In fact, Guillas told the crowd, the meal they just enjoyed which was topped by a dessert of Passionfruit Madadamia Dacquioise was based on recipes from 1903 and 1906 Escoffier cookbooks that he still owns and actively uses. So this is why its really, really special to have you join us here today, Guillas said. I looked forward to this day for quite a while. Although there are more than 30,000 Disciples dEscoffier around the globe, until Monday, chef Candy Wallace a board member of the San Diego Chapter of Les Dames dEscoffier International, which organized the induction dinner was the only San Diegan. (She was inducted in 2014.) It was really, really lonesome, Wallace told the audience. Now shes got plenty of company. It includes Guillas, Pamplemousse Grille chef/owner Jeffrey Strauss, U.S. Grant Hotel chef Mark Kropczynski, Mission 19 chef/owner Javier Plascencia, Puesto Restaurant Group chef/owner Luis Gonzales and Indulge chef/owner Flor Franco. Posing are (bottom) Mary Chamberlin, Bernard Guillas, (second row) Candy Wallace, Chanelle Hayes, Javier Placencia, Araceli Ramos, Maria Gomez-Laurens, (third row) Michel Escoffier, Luis Gonzalez, Flor Franco, Mark Kropczynski, (top) Patrick Ponsaty and Jeffrey Strauss. COREY LEVITAN Each new disciple was given a ceremony befitting a knight except instead of a sword touching each shoulder, it was a wooden spoon wielded by Michel Escoffier, great-grandson of Auguste Escoffier and president of the Foundation Escoffier in France. Also as per tradition, red sashes were draped around the recipients. Proceeds from the $150-per-plate dinner will fund educational scholarships and grant programs in San Diego. For years to come, bloodshot eyes will observe it through the steam escaping from triple-skim wet cappuccinos. A mural is slowly taking shape on the north wall abutting the Pannikin Coffee & Tea patio at 7467 Girard Ave. a trippy one featuring a crying human eye, winging crows and a cow. Its my first mural, says artist Natalie Bessell, who calls it Common Ground. The idea is that the eye is watering the plants with tears, irrigating the crops. We are all living from the land and are connected to it. This working sketch by Bessell shows how the mural will appear when finished. COURTESY NATALIE BESSELL Influenced by surrealist painters Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, Bessell, 26, combines acrylic paint with detailed line drawings exploring the human connection to the natural world. She began painting professionally seven years ago, becoming the Pannikins resident artist while working as one of its baristas. Currently, Bessell curates the wall art, which rotates every month, and her own paintings go back on the wall for the month of December. Shes just so multi-talented, says Pannikin owner Amanda Morrow. Shes a brilliant artist and we really appreciate her work. Its very refreshing and youthful, but also very detail-oriented at the same time. Its a talent that may have been inherited from her father, La Jolla artist and surfboard shaper Tim Bessell although Natalie prefers not to focus on the connection, saying only that she never felt like I was in anyones shadow. (Interestingly, the mural displaces a single piece hanging on the same wall for years that was made by Natalies father.) Artist Natalie Bessell stands on the roof of the Pannikin to complete her mural. COREY LEVITAN Bessell was raised in La Jolla and left San Diego for a short stint at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She dropped out because she says it was too expensive and I was not convinced I needed a degree to be a professional artist. Eight years ago, she returned to San Diego she now lives in Clairemont and began her association with the Pannikin. Before the coffeehouse celebrated its 50th anniversary last month, Bessell brought the idea of a mural up to Morrow, who enthusiastically approved. Bessell began painting Common Ground at the anniversary party on Sept. 29. She says she expects to finish it on Saturday, Oct. 20, staging a mural reception to coincide with her final brush strokes. The Dan McKinney Family YMCA lifeguards and aquatic staff were honored by the San Diego City Council for a heroic rescue that took place at its 8355 Cliffridge Ave. facility in July during which a mans live was saved. Speaking to her City Council colleagues, Council President Pro Tem Barbara Bry proclaimed Sept. 24, 2018 as Dan McKinney Family YMCA Lifeguards Day in the City of San Diego. On July 17, YMCA patron Peter Kaufman went into cardiac arrest in the locker room. When he was discovered, he was unconscious, ashen and blue, and without a pulse. But thanks to the Dan McKinney Family YMCA lifeguards who sprang into action and revived him, Kaufman was able to witness the proclamation in City Council chambers. Im standing here today instead of lying under a tombstone because of decisions the YMCA made about funding a state-of-the-art lifesaving program for its employees for the benefit of its members (and for providing) the training they gave their employees and lifeguards to be able to provide effective service and use of those life saving techniques and equipment, Kaufman told the City Council. Reflecting on the details of the rescue, YMCA Aquatics Coordinator David Kreamer later told the Light: It was a big day ... its what we train for and the incident was as big as it could have gotten. All lifeguards undergo training, and they practice a lot, but this is was a reminder as to how important it is. As a lifeguard in San Diego for 10 years, you go through all this training and it can seem redundant ... and then something like this happens. Were glad to see all this training works. We dont do this every day. Although it was his day off, Kreamer was on site to help staff reopen one of the pools following a closure the morning of July 17. There were a few lifeguards on duty and a few more in the office. A patron came out screaming that there was an emergency in one of the locker rooms. They were calling help, help, help just trying to alert somebody, he said. Because there was emergency response equipment in the office, Kreamer dispatched the lifeguards in the office to respond. I stopped by the office to grab my own equipment and followed them into the mens locker room. Upon walking into the locker room, Mr. Kaufman was lying on his back between two smaller stalls. I knew this was a big deal, he said. Kreamer sent two lifeguards to call 911 and assessed Kaufmans condition. I checked for consciousness and there was none; he was discolored and looked gray, ashen and blue; there was a fair amount of blood in his mouth blocking his airway; I checked for a pulse and breathing and got nothing. He was in bad shape, he said, noting that at this time, fellow lifeguard Alex Liske was setting up the Automated External Defibrillator (AED). As Kreamer started chest compressions, Dan McKinney Family YMCA Associate Executive Director Jason Milosh arrived and the two moved Kaufman so they could access his airway and place AED pads on his chest. I continued compressions and Alex (Liske) got the pads on for the AED and the device powered up and determined a shock was needed, Kreamer said. We backed away and Jason delivered the shock, and once it was safe I administered CPR. There was a large amount of blood in his mouth and we were able to clear his airway (with suction) and deliver breath. We continued for two minutes and after that, AED determined a shock wasnt needed. Around this time, Kreamer said, Kaufmans color started to come back, he started coughing on his own and showing signs of life. He came back, Kreamer said. Soon after, emergency personnel arrived and took over, and transported Kaufman to the hospital. A week or two later, Kaufman returned to the YMCA and thanked the lifeguards who brought him back from the brink. He was in on his own two feet and it was great to see, Kreamer said. Standing proud at the City Council to participate in the proclamation ceremony, Kaufman said he has read about a lot about cardiac arrest since his episode. Across the country, anywhere from 5 to 6 percent of people with cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survive, he reported. But what struck me most, however, is that there isnt sufficient training to save lives in those situations. Fortunately, my event occurred where there was the equipment and training and the quick thinking and care. I thank all of you. Just this past week, I got to see my children go to college and I will, hopefully, continue to work out at the Y. I appreciate it all. Milosh added, in his remarks to the City Council, while motioning to Kaufman: We love seeing your smiling face and look forward to having you back at the YMCA, hopefully, sooner rather than later. Our team is honored to be recognized. To all first responders out there, thank you. The courage you show running toward an emergency while everyone else is running away is unwavering and the mettle you display when peoples lives are in your hands is masterful. Everyone at the Y can rest easy knowing they are in good hands. Cardiac arrest is a sudden, unexpected loss of heart function, and is often accompanied by loss of breath and consciousness. According to the American Heart Association, Death occurs within minutes if the victim does not receive treatment. Dan McKinney Family YMCA is at 8355 Cliffridge Ave. (858) 453-3483. lajolla.ymca.org and facebook.com/LaJollaYMCA The intersection of La Jolla Scenic Drive North and Sugarman Drive in the La Jolla Heights neighborhood smack dab in the middle of Cliffridge Park, Villa La Jolla Park and Allen Field; a block away from the Congregation ADAT Yeshurun synagogue and near the Dan McKinney Family YMCA, Montessori Institute of San Diego and Torrey Pines Elementary School will get a new, all-way stop sign following its approval at the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) meeting Oct. 4. The La Jolla Traffic & Transportation board, which would normally review such requests, did not meet in September and asked LJCPA to make a decision without its input. There are currently stop signs on Sugarman Drive. Arguing that the stop sign was an immediate safety issue, LJCPA vice chair Helen Boyden presented on behalf of those who live in the area. She told the board: According to the City, this location meets the basic warrants and qualifies for an all-way stop sign. Boyden added that shes lived near the proposed location since 1969. Over the years, we have seen an increase in traffic. This is a dangerous intersection. There have been serious accidents that damaged property. The speed limit 30 miles-per-hour, but I suspect people go faster. I do a lot of walking around the neighborhood, and lately, whether it is coming north or south, I have to wait for 10 or 12 cars to pass before its safe for me to cross, she said. On Jewish holidays, such as the recent Rosh Hashanah, one of the nearby synagogues hires crossing guards to assist those coming from nearby streets for services. Representatives from the synagogues sent the LJCPA a letter indicating they are in full support of the all-way stop plans. Boyden read: We believe this will greatly enhance the safety in our neighborhoods, specifically on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings when a majority of our congregants come for services. Residents were also in attendance to share horror stories of near-misses and dangerous conditions. For example, Shea Buckley said: We are very certain, unfortunately, with the speed of the cars, that there is no doubt there will be injury there. You simply cannot see people as they try to cross the street. Another homeowner, Nozar Ravanbach, who experienced two cars crashing onto his property, distributed photos. These residents said they reached out to the City for a traffic study to determine whether the area qualifies for additional stop signs, and meeting the criteria, the City recommended the additional stops signs. After a brief debate as to whether the installation should go back to La Jolla Traffic & Transportation advisory group and be processed through the normal channels, the LJCPA approved the stop signs 11-2-2. In other LJCPA news: Hotel Chelsea denied: A project to redevelop a property on Chelsea Street in Bird Rock, after garnering approval 6-3 from the Development Permit Review committee, was denied by LJCPA. A rendering of the proposed development at 5251 Chelsea St., which was ultimately denied by the La Jolla Community Planning Association. (Courtesy) Applicant Michael Morton sought a Coastal Development Permit for the remodel and addition to an existing two-story single dwelling unit for a total of approximately 4,332-square-feet of construction at 5251 Chelsea St., including a roof deck that could fit 38 people. Opponents to the project argued the property would be ultimately be used as a permanent short-term vacation rental. The redevelopment includes four bedrooms, a family room, wet bar, terrace area and a small pool on the first floor; a master bedroom, dining, living and kitchen areas on the stepped back second level; and a roof deck with a hot tub. However, Morton insisted: The group that bought this house proposes to sell it to a family. It is not planned to be a vacation rental. He added that the group is some investors from the San Diego area. Still, LJCPA trustee Mike Costello argued against the project: This is being referred to as Hotel Chelsea. This isnt just a family home, this is a set-up. Its a vacation rental and we all know it. Were not against people improving their houses, but the problem is about the use. If the roof deck wasnt there, the opposition would go away. If you look at the hot tub and wet bar, this looks like a party house. LJCPA trustee Dave Gordon said he sympathized with neighbors worried about vacation rentals gone wild, but remined fellow board members thats not really something in our purview. We cant turn down a project because it has the possibility of being used as a vacation rental. Additional concerns were raised regarding whether the project is consistent with others in the neighborhood, roof treatments and whether it meets terms of the La Jolla Community Plan. All said, LJCPA determined findings could not be made for the requested permits, 12-2-1. Restroom pavilion approval: A motion to waive the summer construction moratorium to accommodate construction on the Scripps Park Restroom Pavilion was approved unanimously. Project plans call for demolishing the existing toilet and shower facility and constructing a new, two-building comfort station that includes unisex toilets, benches, outdoor showers, ADA-compliant toilets and indoor showers, and storage for beach equipment. Work is expected to break ground at the beginning of 2019 and be complete in 2020. Ad-hoc committee set: LJCPA president Bob Steck appointed members to an ad-hoc committee formed to address the Playa del Norte parking, at the request of District 1 City Council member Barbara Bry. Bry sought the ad-hoc committee after LJCPA and La Jolla Town Council voted in direct opposition to each other on whether to keep the two contentious 15-minute parking spaces at the foot of Playa del Norte, where it meets Neptune Place. Since the parking spaces were installed, residents of a nearby condo complex report drivers coming the wrong way up a one-way street to loop around and access those spaces. The committee is tasked with finding design alternatives that would deter the wrong-way driving. The LJCPA appointees are Glen Rasmussen, Jim Neri and Patrick Ahern. The committee will be chaired by John Shannon because he sits on both the LJCPA and the Town Council. Additional appointees will come from the condo complex and Town Council. Night work double take: At its next meeting, LJCPA will take another look at its vote to have Torrey Pines Road Slope Restoration Project work be done at night. The board previously voted unanimously to request the work be done at night to deter traffic backups, after hearing from local merchants concerned about business losses due to traffic. Unlike the construction that preceded it with the Torrey Pines Road Corridor Project, the work would be restricted to the slope area on Torrey Pines Road between Roseland Place and Viking Way. Im wondering if the merchants concerns about traffic would still be legitimate because there would still be two lanes of traffic open, noted LJCPA trustee Glen Rasmussen. During this project, (I think) we will have two lanes open in each direction, so what would be the impact? Why not do it during the day when the noise impact would not be as great? LJCPA trustee Dan Courtney, who advocated for day work at past meetings, added: We are not a proxy for the La Jolla Village Merchants Association, the Town Council or any other group. We have a responsibility to represent the community at-large and the residents. What we need to do here is really find out the details of this project and not just vote because the merchants are complaining. We need to do our work and make sure we do it in a responsible way. While the topic will be on the LJCPA agenda next month, it is not known whether the road work will have begun by then, and at what time of day. LJCPA next meets 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Rec Center, 615 Prospect St. lajollacpa.org Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed economic ties and tourism and energy cooperation with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during talks in Crete on Wednesday, his spokesman said in a statement. El-Sisi is visiting the Greek island for the sixth round of a tripartite cooperation summit including Egypt, Greece and Cyprus. During the meeting, the two leaders discussed means to boost bilateral relations between their countries, especially in tourism, investment and energy, spokesman Bassam Rady said. El-Sisi and Tsipras also tackled counter-terrorism efforts and moves to curb illegal migration, as well other regional developments, including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, he added. The duo expressed keenness to ensure the speedy implementation of the deals and memorandums of understanding they had signed, whether at the bilateral level or as part of the tripartite cooperation mechanism with Cyprus. The tripartite summit was first held in Cairo in 2014, with the latest round held in Nicosia, Cyprus in November 2017. El-Sisi's spokesman said on Tuesday that the summit aims to capitalise on the outcomes of the past five tripartite meetings, to evaluate development in cooperation between the three states, and to assess progress on ongoing projects. The gathering also aims look at means to boost political coordination between the three countries to combat threats in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region. El-Sisi will also meet today with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades to discuss boosting economic and commercial relations between the two countries. Search Keywords: Short link: A Giza criminal court ordered on Wednesday the release on bail pending trial of leftist activist Haitham Mohamadein, his lawyer Mohamed Abdel-Aziz said on Twitter. Mohamadein was arrested in connection to protests in May at a number of Cairo Metro stations against increases in ticket prices. The court rejected an appeal by the prosecution against a previous ruling ordering Mohamadein and three other defendants in the case to be released on bail on Monday. The prosecution has charged the defendants with joining an outlawed group, obstructing state authorities and illegal assembly that endangers security and public order. In early May, authorities arrested several dozen people who were protesting at metro stations over the ticket price hikes. The prosecution has released all defendants in the case pending trial. Search Keywords: Short link: James Murdoch, already a member of Teslas board of directors, has been identified by Londons Financial Times as the candidate favored to replace Elon Musk as chairman of the electric-car maker. Under a Sept. 29 settlement reached with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over a Musk tweet that falsely claimed he had funding secured for a deal to take the company private, Tesla agreed to name a new chairman, while letting Musk stay on as chief executive. Tesla also agreed to add two independent directors to its board. Murdoch is the son of media baron Rupert Murdoch. He serves as CEO of his fathers company, 21st Century Fox, but plans to move on to other ventures when the bulk of Fox is sold to Walt Disney Co. That $71.3-billion deal is expected to close early next year. The Financial Times story quoted unnamed sources and said Musk himself favored his friend and early investor Antonio Gracias for the role. Outsiders also were being considered for the chairmans job, according to the newspaper. Advertisement The publication did not identify who considered Murdoch as the leading candidate to head the board. It cited as sources two people briefed on the discussions, leaving open the possibility that someone is sending up a trial balloon. Musk pushed back hours later, replying to a Financial Times tweet that points to the article. Musks brief tweet said: This is incorrect. He did not detail his objection or offer an alternative narrative. If experts in corporate governance had a vote, the board would have to keep looking. Naming an existing director who was on duty during all Musks missteps and has no experience scaling up manufacturing at a cash-constrained company will not bolster confidence in Teslas future, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigans business school. Dont expect Murdoch to assume the role of reformer, said Charles Elson, a finance professor at the University of Delaware. Hes a legacy director, from the same group thats been so deferential toward Mr. Musk, Elson said. I wouldnt expect anything to change as long as Mr. Musk is on the board. Tesla shares dropped $5.92, or 2.3%, to $256.88 on Wednesday, when the overall market was off 3% to 4%. Short sellers, investors who bet that a stock is overvalued, greeted the chairman report warmly. In a tweet, Musk-critic Mark Spiegel of the Stanphyl Capital hedge fund called Murdoch a fanboy who will allow [Musk] to serve as de facto Chair and continue controlling Tesla. Okay, Im good with that! Another Tesla short seller, Rob Majteles of Treehouse Capital, said he believes the Tesla board will have trouble finding a skilled outsider to fill the role, especially in the aftermath of the settlement, an ongoing criminal investigation of Tesla by the U.S. Justice Department, and the possibility of investigations into other matters by the SEC. Murdoch, 45, is already exposed to full director liability, Majteles said. No sane outsider would take it on. Even an outspoken Tesla supporter hopes the board chooses someone else. Hes kind of the only inside choice, said Ross Gerber, chief executive at the Gerber Kawasaki investment firm in Santa Monica and a Tesla stockholder. The rest of the board is unqualified for the position. Its probably the best choice for Elon. But I prefer an outsider. Some analysts say its not so important who sits in the chairmans seat. Without Elon there is no Tesla, said David Whiston at Morningstar. Evidence of that is the stock falling 14% the day after the SEC complaint, which sought to bar Musk from serving as an officer of a public company. As long as Tesla is that dependent on Musk, board decisions will have less of an impact. Teslas media relations department said, no comment. Murdoch was named to Teslas board in July 2017, along with Linda Johnson Rice, chairwoman of Johnson Publishing Co., a publisher and makeup company. Although Tesla faces manufacturing, delivery, quality control and service problems, no member of the board beyond Musk has any auto industry experience including Murdoch. The settlement itself has not yet been approved by the judge overseeing the case. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in New York told the SEC, Musk and Tesla to deliver a joint letter justifying the settlement by Thursday. Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report. russ.mitchell@latimes.com Twitter: @russ1mitchell UPDATES: 5:30 p.m.: This article was updated with Elon Musks tweet. This article was originally published at 2:55 p.m. Anthony Foxx, who was U.S. Transportation secretary under then-President Obama, is joining Lyft Inc. to help the ride-hailing company navigate new regulatory roadblocks nationwide. On Tuesday, Lyft named Foxx as chief policy officer and advisor to its founders. Foxx served under Obama throughout his second term. Before that, he was mayor of Charlotte, N.C. The high-profile hire comes as Lyft faces new hurdles from local governments. The company, which has expanded its ride-hailing network to cover much of the United States, is laying the groundwork for electric-scooter rentals and self-driving cars. The San Francisco company lost a bid in August to roll out scooters in its hometown. Lyft is acquiring bike rental company Motivate this year, putting it in charge of Citi Bike in New York and other similar rental programs in partnership with cities around the country. Advertisement Getting momentum behind these businesses would benefit Lyfts plans to go public. People familiar with the matter said Lyft has asked banks to submit formal pitches to underwrite an initial public offering of stock next year. Evaluating IPO bankers and issuing formal underwriter mandates are the next step in what could be the first of several listings by ride-hailing businesses. Lyft is targeting March or April for the offering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is supposed to be private. Larger rival Uber Technologies Inc. has said it too is aiming to list next year. Being the first of the two ride-hailing giants to move toward an IPO may help in hiring bankers. Firms that underwrite the deal of one company cant also underwrite its direct competitors because of potential conflicts of interest. If Uber goes first, some firms may become unavailable to Lyft. In most IPOs, investors considering whether to buy the shares compare the valuation, operations and financials with publicly traded peers. If Lyft does beat its peers to a listing, it will set expectations for other ride-hailing companies seeking to go public. Also, potential Lyft investors wont have the same level of detail to measure its performance against Uber, which is also based in San Francisco. Chinas Didi Chuxing, the ride-hailing business backed by SoftBank Group Corp. and Apple Inc., and Singapores Grab both continue to expand in Asia as privately held companies. Lyft was valued at $15.1 billion in a private funding round announced in June. Separately from Foxxs hiring, Dan Katz, who was chief of staff at the Transportation Department under Foxx, joined Lyft this month as senior director of public policy. He left Los Angeles transportation start-up Virgin Hyperloop One, where he was director of global public policy and North American projects. Virgin Hyperloop One has held discussions to build its futuristic, train-like system in several cities, but the projects in the most advanced stages of talks are all outside the United States, making U.S. policy a lesser priority at the company. James Gunn may have been fired from Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy, but DC Comics will welcome him with open arms. Warner Bros. on Tuesday confirmed that Gunn will write the script to the studios next installment of Suicide Squad, the DC supervillain team-up franchise. In July, Disney fired Gunn after jokes involving rape and pedophilia he wrote years earlier on Twitter resurfaced. Gunn was the creative force behind the two hugely popular Guardians films, and his firing prompted its own backlash. The cast issued a statement of support for their writer-director, imploring Disney to reinstate him. But instead, Gunn will take over Suicide Squad, the franchise led by Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jared Leto. The first film, written and directed by David Ayer, earned $747 million in 2016 but drew withering reviews. Gunn is expected to take an entirely new approach, and potentially direct the new Suicide Squad installment. Advertisement Gunns tweets, largely from 2009-12, received renewed attention after Gunns criticism of President Trump prompted far-right propagandists Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec to comb through Gunns social media history. Gunn issued an apology. My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative, said Gunn in July. I have regretted them for many years since not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they dont reflect the person I am today or have been for some time. The Suicide Squad job is the first Gunn has taken since departing Guardians, for which he had been expected to make a third film. Gunn gives Warner Bros. and DC Comics one of the most fan-approved voices in comic book films at a time when Warner Bros. is remaking much of its superhero operations. Gunns witty, irreverent sensibility turned Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy from little-known minor characters into one of Disneys most acclaimed and bankable franchises. The first Guardians grossed $773 million and the sequel grossed $863 million. The Egyptian Ministry of Aviation has conducted an inspection of West Cairo's Sphinx International Airport (SPX) in preparation for its official launch soon. The construction of the airport started in 2016 and was inspected by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in February. The airport aims to alleviate pressure on Cairo International Airport and serve the area of 6th of October, Sheikh Zayed, as well as the governorates of Fayoum and Beni Sweif. The airport is set to be listed number 33 on Egypt's internal and international airports with the buildoperatetransfer (BOT) system. The new airport has been dubbed the 300 passenger airport due to its accommodation capacity per hour. The new airport is part of a plan to construct two other airports; Katameya International Airport to the north of Cairo to serve visitors heading to New Cairo and the under-construction new administrative capital, as well as El-Meliz Airport in Central Sinai. In press statements in October last year, then-minister of aviation Sherif Fathy said the airport has strategic goals, with a plan for expanding to cargo services in the future. Fathy has said that the airport will serve tourists aiming to visit the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) and the Great Pyramids of Giza. The GEM is set to open in early 2019. The airport contains two take-off and landing strips connected by intersecting lanes, as well as a 44-metre-long air traffic control tower. Search Keywords: Short link: Equality Fashion Week launched at Montrose West Hollywood last week, shining a spotlight on six local LGBTQ+ fashion designers and focusing on representation in all its forms. On the rooftop of the recently rebranded boutique hotel (formerly Le Montrose Suite Hotel), models strutted along an inclined runway that featured every color of the pride flag. This inaugural indie event drew a crowd of about 150 to its opening-night festivities, with attendees representing every part of the queer spectrum. Were here tonight to showcase our talent and be happy about who we are! roared host Carmen Carrera, a model, trans activist and former RuPauls Drag Race contestant. Carmen Carrera, the host of the evening, left, and designer Lior Boroda. (Leal Photo/ www.peterlealphoto.com) Sharpe Suiting sent out natty jackets and trousers in shades of gray, herringbone and gem tones. From femme power suits to bare chest-baring blazers, models showed off sleek lines that gave even the most petite frames a dose of outsize swagger. Advertisement A look from Sharpe Suiting. (Leal Photo / www.peterlealphoto.com) By contrast, Lior Boroda seized upon a theme of divine fantasy, showing feathered headdresses, pastel metallic bustiers and lacy floor-length petticoats that transformed models into ethereal dreamscape divas. Fem/Haus celebrated femme visibility, versatility and body positivity with jet black pieces that alternated among functional and fantastical and fetish. A look from Fem/Haus. (Leal Photo / www.peterlealphoto.com) Dapper Boi offered up gender-neutral shirting that accommodates both full breasts and barrel chests. A few models walked out shirtless to show off jeans that offer what many traditional womens jeans dont deep, fully-functional pockets and waistbands that dont gap. And for the labels final look? A ball cap, T-shirt and accompanying shower of stickers, all proclaiming Im not a boy in bold letters. The event also featured performances by LGBTQ+ musical acts and a peacocking, crowd-working drag king. A look from Dapper Boi. (Leal Photo / www.peterlealphoto.com) EFW is the brainchild of NiK Kacy, a local accessories designer with a corporate event-planning pedigree who sought to carve a niche that was separate from the concurrent Los Angeles Fashion Week and the citys other fashion weeks. Accessories designer NiK Kacy, the organizer of Equality Fashion Week, center, on the runway. (Leal Photo / www.peterlealphoto.com) Even though we know that theres a lot of queer people in the fashion industry, when you look at the runway, predominantly, its not as diverse and inclusive as it should be, they said in a phone interview a few hours before the event. Models on the runway during NiK Kacys presentation. (Leal Photo / www.peterlealphoto.com) Kacy, who identifies as transmasculine and non-binary, felt that L.A. was in dire need of an LGBTQ+-focused fashion week similar to events theyd attended in New York and the Bay Area. In L.A., they said, theres no time period dedicated to queer designers, models, producers, DJs everyone thats involved in our community, who has so much talent to offer, but theyre often underpaid and not as represented. Looks from Stuzo Clothing. (Leal Photo / www.peterlealphoto.com) Enter EFW, which was put together in less than five weeks with the help of the Montrose, sponsors such as the Los Angeles LGBT Center and Outfest as well as community partner the TransLatin@ Coalition. In addition to its Friday night debut, the schedule included four successive nights of pop-up experiences at the Montrose. There, shoppers could purchase looks shown at opening night, including pieces from Stuzo Clothings bold streetwear line, Kacys own collection of gender-equal luxury footwear, plus a few local brands not featured on the runway. A look from Dapper Boi. (Leal Photo / www.peterlealphoto.com) Most of the focus has been given to people of color, people who are trans or non-binary representing, body positive and age positive, Kacy said. Were trying to be very inclusive and give people who are the most under-represented the first priority. Lindsay Coryne, left, at Equality Fashion Week. (Leal Photo / www.peterlealphoto.com) image@latimes.com For fashion news, follow us at @latimesimage on Twitter. Four years after opening in Koreatown, the Line Hotel has a new food and beverage lineup led by a longtime Westside chef. Josiah Citrin, best known for his precise cooking at fine-dining stalwart Melisse in Santa Monica, has taken over most of the boutique hotels dining offerings, including the main restaurant space and room service. He replaced Kogi founder Roy Choi. The cornerstone of the Citrin era, the restaurant Openaire, debuts Sunday in the same light-filled greenhouse space previously occupied by Chois Commissary. The menu is built around seasonally driven California cuisine, a departure from the French-New American tasting menus at Melisse and from the Korean-influenced food his predecessor brought to the hotel. So instead of fried chicken with cheesy corn and gochujang or ddukbokki with rigatoni, there will be Snake River Farms sirloin with yu choy and honeynut squash with parsnips, pumpkin seeds and manchego. A dish at Openaire features Caledonian shrimp, hominy, Tokyo turnips and herbs. (Chase Daniel) Advertisement Citrins involvement in the Line, which also includes its banquet and event menus, lobby bar and pool deck food stall, marks a significant expansion for his personal brand. To date, the chef has remained almost exclusively rooted west of the 405: Besides the 19-year-old Melisse, Citrin owns Charcoal, a lively neighborhood spot in Venice where everything is cooked over live fire. (He also runs the Daves Doghouse hot dog stand at Staples Center.) Im really excited about coming here its just a different audience, a different part of town that I know but dont really know, Citrin said during a recent poolside interview at the Line. I was getting a little bored during the day. The chef swap, announced over the summer, also signals a surprising turnabout for the Line. Choi, after all, is one of the citys most prominent Korean American chefs and one of Koreatowns earliest champions. He had been involved in the Line from the start, a seemingly integral part of the propertys identity. But several years in, the Line was in need of new life, said Andrew Zobler, founder and chief executive of the New York-based Sydell Group, which runs several boutique hotel chains including NoMad and Freehand. We just wanted to generally relook at it and see how we could rebirth it. Openaire is located on the hotels pool deck. The space, which previously housed Roy Chois Commissary, recently got a makeover with new furniture and plants. (Chase Daniel) The relationship between Sydell and Choi will continue the chef is in the middle of building Best Friend, his newest restaurant, which will open in Sydells Park MGM in Las Vegas in December. In an Instagram post announcing his departure from the Line, Choi wrote: I leave with head high, heart full, and proud. In L.A. it was just time to do something different, Zobler said. If I can be a little blunt, I think the mistake that we made and I made it as much as anybody was that people didnt want so much to have a Korean-influenced restaurant in the hotel because you were in the middle of Koreatown. ... From a financial perspective, it wasnt a home run. Although that might seem counterintuitive, hotel guests who wanted Korean food were heading into the neighborhood to eat, and Koreatown residents who wanted non-Korean options were leaving the neighborhood to find them, Zobler said. By bringing a market-driven, California-casual dining experience to the Line, the hotel hopes to appeal to both groups with food that is less well-represented in the neighborhood. (That being said, there are a number of New American restaurants within a few blocks, including Heres Looking at You and Le Comptoir.) And by teaming with one of the regions most-decorated chefs Citrin was awarded two Michelin stars for Melisse when the influential ratings guide had a Los Angeles edition about a decade ago the Line hopes to keep pace with rival hotels that have been aggressively luring big-name chefs. In just the last year in downtown Los Angeles alone, Providences Michael Cimarusti opened Best Girl at the Ace Hotel DTLA, the Tasting Kitchens Casey Lane opened Breva and Veranda in Hotel Figueroa, and New York chef Daniel Humm and restaurateur Will Guidara opened an L.A. outpost of their NoMad restaurant in the hotel of the same name. Theres also Jose Andres and Aitor Zabalas new tasting-menu-only Somni at the SLS Beverly Hills and Jean-Georges Vongerichtens namesake restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, which opened last year. Honeynut squash, parsnips, pumpkin seeds and sherry honey at Openaire. (Chase Daniel) Citrin said some people might incorrectly assume that the food is going to be precious I really didnt want to go that way, and he has tried to make what he calls his Line 2.0 menu approachable, which is to say the dishes will be familiar restaurant food such as steak, pasta and chicken. Hes given himself license with Korean flavors: cooking steak with doenjang, a fermented soybean paste, and serving a scallion seafood pancake in the lobby bar. Chois former Pot restaurant space is not part of the Citrin deal Sydell is still figuring out what to do with the tucked-away spot on the ground floor and two bars run by the Houston brothers, Break Room 86 and the Speek, will remain the same. The hotel also recently installed an Alfred coffee shop in the lobby. The lobby at the Line was recently redone by designer Sean Knibb to encourage more group gatherings. (Chase Daniel) Citrin said he hopes the Line gig will help him become more familiar to a wider swath of Angelenos, and provide a change of pace after nearly two decades at Melisse. There might be more changes ahead: Citrins lease at the Santa Monica spot runs out in January, and he has remained tight-lipped about the restaurants future. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman said negotiations for the lease were settled but declined to elaborate. For now hes splitting his time between Koreatown and the Westside, shuttling between the buzzy hotel and the fine dining mainstay, separated by 12 miles along Wilshire Boulevard, every day. Although Citrin has served as a hotel consultant in the past, this is his first time leading a hotels food and beverage operations. Its huge, he said, but Im up for the challenge. 3515 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 381-7411, www.thelinehotel.com/los-angeles andrea.chang@latimes.com Twitter: @byandreachang Instagram: @byandreachang A California man on Wednesday was sentenced to six months in prison for unwittingly helping the Russian effort to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election. U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich sentenced Richard Pinedo to six months imprisonment followed by six months of home detention for selling bank account numbers to Russian operatives. According to the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, the Russians used that information to set up PayPal accounts and purchase advertisements on Facebook. Who is the California man who just pleaded guilty to unwittingly aiding Russian interference in the 2016 election Pinedo was essentially a middleman in the shady world of online information exchange. He bought and sold stolen identifications and bank account numbers that would allow people to bypass and deceive the verification requirements of PayPal, Facebook and elsewhere. Prosecutors estimate that the 28-year-old Santa Paula resident earned $40,000 to $95,000 over a three-year period. Advertisement Pinedo pleaded guilty to identity fraud and came to Washington to testify before a grand jury. Prosecutors acknowledged that Pinedo had cooperated fully with Muellers investigation and that his testimony had helped shine a light on important details of the Russian election conspiracy. So far, Muellers team has obtained six guilty pleas, including those of four Trump campaign advisors, and a jury conviction. He has pending indictments against 26 others and three Russian companies. Mr. Pinedo has continued to provide information, said prosecutor Rush Atkinson. He has fulfilled his obligations. Pinedos lawyer, Jeremy Lessem, said he had hoped to avoid any prison time given his clients extensive cooperation with the Mueller investigation. He described Pinedo as a small-time criminal caught up in a global conspiracy. He never wanted to be a part of any of this, Lessem said. If it wasnt for the fact that some of his co-conspirators or clients were involved in the [Russia] investigation, this probably would have been handled quickly in state court. Pinedo briefly addressed the judge, saying he took full responsibility for his actions. I was convinced that the service I was offering put no one at risk, he said. Friedrich said she was deliberately leaning toward the low end of the suggested sentencing guidelines. But she also said she felt it necessary that Pinedo spend some time in prison. You did knowingly commit identity fraud and you opened the door for others to access the American financial system, the judge said. Three women filed a federal lawsuit against Huntington Memorial Hospital and one of its longest-serving obstetricians Wednesday, alleging that the physician subjected them to unwanted sexual remarks during exams in the 1990s. The suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles comes a week after The Times reported that Dr. Patrick Sutton had been accused of sexual misconduct by five other patients. Sutton, 64, settled four of those accusations without admitting any sexual wrongdoing, and he has said through a lawyer that he plans to contest the fifth pending complaint. In the wake of The Times report, Huntington administrators announced that Sutton would be removed from hospital leadership and have a chaperone when treating women in the maternity ward. The Pasadena hospital also said he would no longer be on its list of doctors on call to deliver babies. Eileen Neuwirth, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said in a statement Wednesday that administrators were reviewing the lawsuit. Advertisement Huntington Hospital takes seriously all issues of patient health and safety, Neuwirth said. Suttons attorney did not immediately respond Wednesday to the lawsuits allegations. The suit was filed by Pennsylvania-based Sauder Schelkopf LLC and the San Francisco-based firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein LLP, whose attorneys are also suing USC on behalf of more than 50 women who allege they were sexually abused by campus gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall. The women in Wednesdays suit were identified only by their initials, and although all three plaintiffs delivered their children at the hospital, none of the alleged misconduct occurred on Huntingtons grounds. Their lawyers wrote that at a 1999 postpartum checkup, Sutton made lewd comments to plaintiff K.G. and groped her breasts. The suit alleged that when another patient, T.F., asked Sutton what to do about a migraine during pregnancy in the late 1990s, he instructed her to masturbate in order to make the blood rush to her head and then to let him know by phone whether she had been able to achieve orgasm. In two previous cases one concerning a 1998 patient visit and the other in 2008 the Medical Board of California sought to revoke or suspend Suttons medical license for causes including sexual misconduct. Sutton reached agreements with the board under which he admitted to failing to maintain medical records and was placed on probation. He was twice ordered to take a professional boundaries course and once sent to psychotherapy. In a Sept. 24 filing, a medical board lawyer accused Sutton of making inappropriate remarks about a patients appearance and sex life during a 2016 visit. The allegation is pending. Two additional former patients filed a lawsuit in 2005 accusing Sutton of touching them inappropriately and making graphic, sexually charged remarks during medical exams, according to a draft complaint in the case. Sutton settled the case in 2005 for an undisclosed sum, and the file has since been destroyed by Los Angeles County Superior Court officials. Both women have declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement. harriet.ryan@latimes.com matt.hamilton@latimes.com UPDATES: 6:00 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Huntington Memorial Hospital. This article was originally publised at 3:20 p.m. Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to stop collecting fees once charged to families of juvenile delinquents for their incarceration, ending a practice decried by criminal justice advocates as an unfair tax on minorities and an ineffective means of rehabilitating young people who commit crimes. The motion, sponsored by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn, directs the countys Probation Department to stop accepting payment and cancel nearly $90 million in juvenile detention fees assessed before 2009, when the department suspended new fees but continued to collect payment of old ones. The vote also follows a statewide ban, which took effect Jan. 1, on a range of court costs and fees charged to parents and guardians of children in the juvenile justice system. Almost every state in the country allows youth or their families to be charged for costs of the youths detention, supervision or care while in custody, according to an analysis by the Juvenile Law Center, a public-interest law firm in Philadelphia. Advertisement Even after Californias ban, many counties are still collecting payment of previously assessed fees. The [state] legislation helps youth and families who havent yet experienced fines and fees, but without this kind of move at the county level, children and their families will still be struggling, said Jessica Feierman, associate director of the Juvenile Law Center. L.A. Countys move comes amid a national shift in thinking about criminal justice with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. This is in the context of the post-Ferguson era where theres a lot more attention to fines and fees in the criminal justice system in general, Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law, said in an interview ahead of the vote. The clinic has extensively studied the use of juvenile fees in California. Supervisors said Tuesday that collection of the fees no longer makes sense. It is simply not worth the cost and effort to the county and more importantly, not worth the cost to families to continue with these collection payments, Solis said. Before 2009, L.A. Countys Probation Department regularly charged parents and guardians of juvenile delinquents fees for some of the costs associated with their childs detention. At the time, the fee was $23.63 a day for juvenile halls and $11.94 a day for probation camps. Collection efforts included intercepting state tax refunds, putting liens on property and, in some cases, garnishing wages. In 2009, in response to pressure from the Youth Justice Coalition and a Times investigation, the Probation Department placed a moratorium on the fees, though it continued to accept payments on pre-2009 bills. Those payments amounted to just $120,000 in 2017, out of a total of $89 million in outstanding debt across 52,000 accounts, according to the department. Research shows that juvenile detention fees impose financial hardships and strain on low-income families and weigh disproportionately on black and Latino youth who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and are often sentenced to longer terms than white youth. Alberto Penuelas, who served time as a juvenile, recalled the toll his detention fee took on his mother, a single parent who worked in the fields. They would call her every Saturday collecting these debts. She could barely afford to feed us, he told the board. Im hoping that this passes and this doesnt happen to other families. Research also suggests the fees may increase recidivism. A study of more than 1,000 youth in Pennsylvania found that the total amount of fines, fees and/or restitution significantly increased the likelihood of recidivism within two years, even after controlling for demographics and case characteristics. The two main purposes of the juvenile justice system are to rehabilitate kids and to protect public safety, and it turns out these fees undermine both of those, said Selbin of UC Berkeley. Selbin said L.A. Countys action Tuesday is the largest discharge of such debt anywhere. We hope this will be a signal to other counties, he said. nina.agrawal@latimes.com Twitter: @AgrawalNina After being convicted of criminal charges related to the death of a pit bull named Hershey, the mayor of Maywood is mounting an unusual two-pronged defense as he tries to avoid jail time. First, Ramon Medina claims, he didnt own the dog. The mayor also insists the prosecutors had it out for him because of his ethnicity, according to a motion filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Since he announced his candidacy in 2015, Mr. Medina has been the subject of a relentless harassment campaign by Los Angeles County authorities, all with the common theme of disparaging the good name of a Mexican American mayor on the brink of realizing his personal American Dream, reads the motion, which asks for dismissal of Medinas conviction. Medina is the mayor of the tiny, Southeast Los Angeles County city that has been rife with dysfunction for years. Advertisement Since the 1970s, the 1.2 square-mile city has struggled just to exist. It has been plagued by recalls, voter fraud allegations, water problems, corruption scandals, political infighting, circus-like council meetings and financial upheaval. But its doubtful Maywood has had a mayor with the particular problems that have beset Medina. The case of Hershey isnt his only animal-related trouble. In February, as part of a corruption probe, investigators with the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office served multiple search warrants in Maywood, including City Hall, the business of a city contractor and the homes and businesses of three current and former city council members including Medina. At the mayors automotive shop, investigators removed a computer and boxes of files, one of which was labeled 2017 City Council minutes and agendas. But animal control officers also plucked 40 roosters from the property. The roosters, the mayor said, belonged to his son. Medinas travails with Hershey began in 2015 after the pit bull was dropped off at a shelter in Downey in February. Animal control officers noticed that animal couldnt move and was twitching, a sign that it was severely dehydrated, according to Danny Ubario, deputy director of operations for L.A. Countys animal control department. Pit bulls have a muscular tone appearance, but Hershey was not like that, he said. You could see her ribs through her fur and you could see her hip bones on her back. Picture an extremely thin dog. Ultimately, Hershey was put down. From there the focus was on the owner, Ubario said. We wanted to know if the owner had done their part in providing medical care for their pet. City of Maywood Mayor Ramon Medina keeps an eye on investigators with the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office in February while they remove items as part of an investigation into accusations of corruption in the city. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Animal control officers were able to link the dog to Medina based on a form that had been filled out by the man who had dropped off the dog at the shelter. Authorities said the man, Bobby Wiley, was an employee of Medina and that the dog had been at his employers business, R&M Auto Service. Unable to get records from Medina about the pit bull, Ubario said his agency sent the case to the district attorney to consider filing charges against the mayor. According to court records, a case was filed in September 2015. Medina pleaded not guilty to the charges that October. For the next three years, the case sat in the court system until February. During the four day trial, Medina took the stand and answered questions about the case, but invoked his Fifth Amendment right when it came to the employment of Wiley. According to the motion, Wiley never claimed that Hershey belonged to the mayor or that he had even seen that dog on Mr. Medinas property. In August, a jury found Medina guilty of one misdemeanor count each of cruelty to an animal and failure to care for an animal. At sentencing, the mayor faces anything from probation to one year in jail. On Tuesday, the mayors attorney, Anthony Willoughby, said his clients conviction should be thrown out. On Sept. 27, Willoughby said he filed a motion to dismiss the case claiming that trial was rife with improprieties that created the unjust verdict for his client. According to the legal motion, Willoughby argued that the long delay between the initial filing of the case and prosecution led prosecutors to rely on the hazy memories of animal control officials and witnesses. Willoughby said that made it harder to mount a mount a defense for his client. The lawyer said the prosecutor poisoned the jury against the mayor by calling him a liar. My client never owned the dog, no one testified to ever seeing the dog at his locale and Mr. Wiley in an act of mercy took the dog to the vet after finding him, Willoughby said. The DA argued that since Mr. Wiley, who is homeless, listed his mailing address at Mr. Medinas business, that Wiley was an employee of Medina, which he was not. The Judge erroneously excluded Medinas tax returns from the relevant period, which would have proved Mr. Wiley was not an employee. Willoughby also stated that his client told the prosecutor at the trial that he did not own the dog. Medinas sentencing, which was initially scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed to Nov. 7. At a city council meeting following the announcement of his conviction in August, Medina called the case a politically motivated witch hunt and said he cared deeply for animals. Ive been around dogs all my life and people who know me or have been to my house, they see how well taken care they are, he said. ruben.vives@latimes.com For more Southern California news, follow @latvives on Twitter. An L.A. antiques dealer has been convicted of illegally selling ivory narwhal tusks, City Atty. Mike Feuers office said Tuesday. Anthony James Buccola, owner of Antonios Bella Casa, was sentenced last week to 36 months of probation and must serve 200 hours of community service or 20 days in jail. He and his business were fined $20,507 each and will have to forfeit the narwhal tusks, according to a statement released by Feuers office. There are only about 50,000 narwhals found in the Arctic waters off Canada, Greenland and Russia in existence. A state law passed in 2015 made it illegal to purchase, sell, offer for sale or possess ivory from animals with the intent to sell or import it. In November 2016, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife received an anonymous tip about an unlawful sale of ivory at the antique store on La Cienega Boulevard near the Sunset Strip. A couple of months later, wardens from the agency were canvassing the area and saw the two large narwhal tusks measuring 79 and 87 inches long on display at Buccolas store, according to the city attorneys office. Advertisement In January 2017, the tusks were sold to an undercover Fish and Wildlife warden for $60,000. We worked closely with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the city attorneys office. The department often has their wardens go undercover as buyers to see if the merchandise is actually being sold. Feuer called the sale of ivory immoral in a statement about the conviction. The ivory trade is abominable, with devastating consequences that imperil threatened species like the narwhal, he said. This prosecution and conviction send the strong message that those who may think of selling ivory tusks will be held accountable. alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com Twitter: @r_valejandra Verne Troyer, the actor best known for his role as Mini-Me in two Austin Powers spy movie satires, died from symptoms related to alcohol intoxication in April, the Los Angeles County coroner said Wednesday. Coroners officials ruled that the 49-year-olds death was a suicide. The actor had struggled with alcohol abuse and was hospitalized with suspected alcohol poisoning three weeks before he died April 21. At that time, posts on his Instagram and Facebook accounts asked fans to keep him in their thoughts and prayers. Hes getting the best care possible and is resting comfortably, one post read. Appreciate the support from family, friends, and fans around the world. Advertisement TMZ reported at the time that one of Troyers friends had called authorities and described him as being extremely upset, drunk and suicidal. A notice released after his death centered on similar issues. Depression and suicide are very serious issues, the notice read. You never know what kind of battle someone is going through inside. Be kind to one another. And always know, its never too late to reach out to someone for help. The notice continued: Verne was also a fighter when it came to his own battles. Over the years hes struggled and won, struggled and won, struggled and fought some more, but unfortunately this time was too much. Troyer, who was 32 inches tall, portrayed Mini-Me, the right-hand man of Austin Powers nemesis, Dr. Evil (played by Mike Myers), in 1999s Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. He reprised the role in the 2002 sequel, Austin Powers in Goldmember. Troyer also starred in Mighty Joe Young, My Giant, Jingle All the Way, Men in Black, Bubble Boy and as the goblin Griphook in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. Times staff writer Randy Lewis contributed to this report. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @Hannahnfry The Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday to spend $6 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of a teenage boy who was struck by a city truck while crossing a Highland Park intersection. Nearly three years ago, Andres Perez was hit by a truck driven by a city employee. At the time of Andres death, the executive director of his charter school told The Times that the 17-year-old was an awesome student who had just been accepted to film school at Cal State L.A. His family sued the city and the driver, alleging that the employee who hit Andres was unfit and unqualified to drive the truck, had driven the vehicle in a reckless manner, and that the intersection was dangerously defective. Andres was walking in a marked crosswalk when he was killed, according to the lawsuit. A few months before his death, a Times analysis spanning 2002 to 2013 had identified South Avenue 60 and North Figueroa Street, where the accident occurred, as a particularly problematic intersection for pedestrians. Advertisement However, city attorneys argued that the intersection was not dangerous, and that part of the case was eventually dropped. City attorneys said in legal filings that there was no trash or debris obstructing the crosswalk, the markings were not uneven or worn away, and that the Bureau of Street Services had not gotten requests for service at that location. The council voted 11 to 0 to approve the payment Wednesday. We are glad the case has been resolved and the family can move on from this tragedy, attorney Brian Panish, who is representing the Perez family, said Wednesday. Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Atty. Mike Feuer, said that our hearts go out to Andres parents. It is hard to imagine the enormity of their loss, Wilcox said. The truck driver, David M. Francis, is still employed by the Bureau of Street Services as an equipment operator, according to the city personnel department. emily.alpert@latimes.com Twitter: @AlpertReyes Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has said the Wednesday tripartite cooperation summit between Egypt, Greece and Cyprus aims to "take practical steps" to boost cooperation between the three countries. El-Sisi, his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met on the Greek island of Crete for the sixth round of the summit, which was first held in Cairo in 2014. Following the talks, ministers and officials from three countries signed a number of deals on customs cooperation, education, small-scale projects and entrepreneurship, and bolstering investment in Cyprus, Egyptian state news agency MENA said. Egypt and Greece also inked a social insurance agreement on the sidelines of the gathering. El-Sisi said in an address during a press conference following the talks that the strong ties between the three countries "will always represent an impregnable fortress in the face of escalating challenges" in the region, including mounting extremism and terrorism. The leaders of the three countries also discussed key regional issues, including the Israel-Palestinian peace process. "We have affirmed that there is no alternative to the restoration of all the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, on top of which is their right to establish their independent state...with East Jerusalem as its capital," El-Sisi said. He added that they also urged a political solution to stem terrorism in Libya and guarantee the stability of Syria, namely in the rebel-held enclave of Idlib, while ensuring preventing terrorist groups from infiltrating into other countries in the region. Earlier on Wednesday, El-Sisi held bilateral talks with Tsipras in which they discussed economic ties as well as cooperation in the tourism and energy sectors. He also discussed trade and economic relations with his Cypriot counterpart. The most recent round of the tripartite summit was held in Nicosia, Cyprus in November last year. El-Sisi's spokesman said on Tuesday that the summit aims to capitalise on the outcomes of the past five tripartite meetings, evaluate development in cooperation between the three states, and assess progress on ongoing projects as part of the tripartite cooperation mechanism. Search Keywords: Short link: Los Angeles County health officials confirmed the first West Nile virus death on Wednesday, the latest in a handful of deaths related to the illness in the state this season. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said the patient, a resident of the San Fernando Valley area, was hospitalized in early September and died from a neuro-invasive disease. There have been 38 documented cases of West Nile virus among humans in Los Angeles County this year, officials said. That figure excludes Long Beach and Pasadena because cases in those cities are reported by their local health departments, authorities said. Our thoughts and prayers are with this persons family and friends during this sad time. This should remind all of us that West Nile virus is a serious disease, Muntu Davis, a county health officer, said in a statement. Advertisement Health officials recommend wearing insect repellent, long pants and long-sleeve shirts outdoors, especially at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most active. They also recommend draining any standing water, such as in flowerpots or buckets, where mosquitoes can lay their eggs. Items that can hold water, even as small as a bottle cap, should be cleaned, covered or cleared out to stop mosquito breeding, Davis said. The first 2018 West Nile deaths in the state were reported earlier this month in Glenn and Yuba counties, the officials said. Two other deaths occurred in Placer and Yolo counties. West Nile season typically begins with warmer weather in the summer and continues into the fall. One hundred people from 25 California counties have tested positive for West Nile virus this year, authorities said. The virus exists mostly in birds but can be transmitted to mosquitoes that bite infected foul. Humans and horses get the disease when theyre bitten by those mosquitoes. Most people who contract the virus dont notice any symptoms. But a very small number can develop encephalitis or meningitis that can be fatal. In 2017, mosquitoes infected at least 553 Californians with serious cases of West Nile virus, leading to more than 40 deaths. A record 27 deaths were documented among L.A. Countys 268 cases last year. People 50 and older, as well as those with chronic medical conditions such as cancer and diabetes, are at increased risk of severe neuro-invasive disease from West Nile, authorities said. In many cases, recovery can take as long as one year with ongoing physical and mental problems. sarah.parvini@latimes.com For more California news follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini With construction of what President Trump calls the first 40 miles of new border wall already underway across the nations southern boundary, federal officials have announced this week theyre waiving nearly 30 environmental laws in Texas to expedite additional building in the interest of homeland security. Opponents called the waivers catastrophic. Waiving laws meant to protect border residents and ecosystems shows the Trump administrations contempt for the rule of law, said Scott Nicol, co-chairman of the Sierra Clubs Borderlands Team. Environmental groups anticipated the waivers, and are expected to sue to block them in federal court as they have before so far, unsuccessfully -- citing irreparable damage to local wildlife refuges, home to hundreds of migrating birds and butterflies, and several endangered species. Advertisement The Trump administration had already issued waivers of the the Clean Air, Water and Endangered Species acts, among others, to make way for portions of the wall now under construction in California and New Mexico. The latest waivers concern stretches of planned border wall and gates in Texas Rio Grande Valley, the most heavily trafficked illegal border crossing in the country, where 137,000 immigrants were caught last fiscal year, the Department of Homeland Security noted in an announcement. Officials have said they plan to begin building 25 miles of border barriers there in February. The waivers came as House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) planned to introduce legislation this week to fully fund the $23-billion border wall, a proposal condemned by congressional Democrats including Rio Grande Valley Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who called it wasteful spending on an archaic, ineffective solution to border security. In waiving environmental protections in Texas, authorities cited the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 allowing construction of barriers that deter illegal crossings in areas of high illegal entry into the United States. In California and New Mexico, officials had invoked the Real ID Act of 2005, passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which includes a provision allowing them to waive regulations to build border barriers without congressional oversight. Legal experts said the reasoning under both laws is similar. The waivers are not unprecedented: In 2008, the Bush administration issued five waivers under the Real ID Act to allow construction over the objections of environmental groups of more than 250 miles of fence along the border in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. But the Texas waivers are especially worrisome, environmental groups say, because they allow for imminent construction of about 17 miles of border barrier and gates passing through Bentsen State Park, the National Butterfly Center and near the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. It will truly be catastrophic to Rio Grande Valley communities resulting in ecological devastation, said Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner for the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, which posted a map of areas impacted by the waivers. The Rio Grande Valleys Santa Ana refuge was initially due to be walled off, but after local protests, congressional lawmakers exempted it. In announcing the waivers in the federal register Wednesday, Homeland Security officials reiterated that they would not be building in the Santa Ana refuge and insisted the agency remains committed to environmental stewardship. But Jordahl dismissed the agencys claim to environmental responsibility. Theres only 5% of native habitat left in the Rio Grande Valley, and most of thats right by the river. Theyre proposing to cut right through that. The gravity of this waiver cannot be overstated, he said. Jordahl said that the wall will be built with a 150-foot enforcement zone that must be cleared, eliminating valuable habitat for birds and other wildlife. The new border barrier would particularly harm endangered aplomado falcons, jaguarundi and ocelots, Jordahl said, which need to be able to traverse the border to breed and maintain genetic diversity. If we put this wall up, any chances of their recovery we can kiss goodbye, he said. His group sued the Trump administration in February over waivers for border wall construction at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry in New Mexico, with oral arguments scheduled for Dec. 18 in Washington, D.C. The group is also appealing a California federal judges ruling in March throwing out a separate federal lawsuit filed along with California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and other environmental groups over waivers to build border barriers in San Diego and Calexico. Opponents have two months to file a lawsuit challenging the Texas waivers. But even if they sue, theyre unlikely to halt construction. After the center sued to block the California and New Mexico waivers, Homeland Security still broke ground. Marianna Trevino Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center, sued the Trump administration to stop the new Texas border wall in August. While a federal judge may throw out portions of the lawsuit addressing the walls environmental impacts, because of the waivers, she still plans to contend critics have grounds to fight the wall based on civil and land rights. Our community is going to take an enormous hit from this wasteful public works project, which is a fleecing of America, Trevino Wright said. This is being shoved down our throats. molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com Twitter: @mollyhf Rob Jenkins tried for four years to find a job, scouring the internet for anything that seemed at all appealing a maintenance position at a Chevron refinery, a counselor for foster kids, a clerk at Hertz. Some employers seemed interested, until they found out about his 2008 misdemeanor conviction for growing marijuana. I was stuck, recalled the 37-year-old college graduate. No job opportunities were coming in. He found himself in the same situation as hundreds of thousands of others across the country whose prospects for the future were diminished by criminal records for marijuana cultivation or possession. Advertisement Now a new movement accompanying the widespread push for pot legalization may give them a second chance and help black and Latino neighborhoods that have been the focus of drug law enforcement. The aim is to wipe records clean and help people put their formerly illicit skills to use in the booming industry of legal cannabis. It started in California in 2016 when voters approved Proposition 64, which not only legalized recreational marijuana, but also made it easier for people with pot convictions to expunge their records. Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco have started giving people with prior convictions or those from neighborhoods that were once heavily targeted for marijuana-related arrests priority for licenses to start new pot businesses. New Jersey, North Dakota and Michigan may soon follow suit, with advocates for pot-legalization measures under consideration this fall making social and economic justice the centerpiece of their campaigns. Its a decisive shift from the traditional rationales for legalization evolving public attitudes about the drug and the opportunity to tax it. In New Jersey, black residents are three times more likely than white residents to be arrested for marijuana offenses, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said in an email explaining his support for a marijuana-legalization bill that lawmakers are expected to pass this month. The law would help break the cycle of nonviolent, low-level drug offenses that prevent people, especially people of color, from succeeding, he said. Rob Jenkins drives to pick up his eldest son from school in Alameda. He says Oaklands marijuana equity program, which is open to those with pot convictions after 1996, is long overdue. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) Research shows that whites, blacks and Latinos use and sell marijuana at similar rates, but that blacks by far are the most likely to be arrested in connection with the drug. One California study found that African Americans make up 6% of the states population, but are nearly a quarter of those serving time in jail exclusively for marijuana offenses. In Oakland, where Jenkins grew up, blacks and whites each make up about 30% of the population. But 77% of the people arrested in connection with marijuana in 2015 were black, while just 4% were white, according to a recent report by the city. The analysis looked back to 1995 and found a similar pattern each year. Jenkins, who is black, remembers watching marijuana sales as a child. Cars would come and go making purchases from pastel-colored duplexes that lined the hilly streets of East Oakland. Its a part of life, he said. A lot of the weed being sold in Oakland was to wealthy whites in Berkeley and elsewhere in the Bay Area. But we were getting arrested, he said. A lot of the weed being sold in Oakland was to wealthy whites in Berkeley and elsewhere in the Bay Area. But [black people] were getting arrested. Rob Jenkins, whose 2008 conviction for growing marijuana has been expunged Jenkins never set out to be a drug dealer. After graduating from San Jose State University in 2003 with a degree in sociology, he found work selling cars and internet plans and eventually got a job at Comcast answering complaints from customers for $15 an hour. Even with his girlfriends income from a sales job at a department store, they struggled to pay the rent and care for their sons in rapidly gentrifying Oakland. Jenkins started growing and selling marijuana in 2007 as an extra source of income, bringing in about $500 a week. Then one night in November 2008, there were two knocks at his apartment door before police threatened to barge through it. When Jenkins let them in, several officers headed to a back room where sodium-pressure lights hovered above two dozen marijuana plants growing knee-high from buckets. Jenkins never learned how police discovered his operation. He was one of 914 African Americans arrested on marijuana charges that year in Oakland. He spent 24 hours behind bars before his mother, who worked at an electronics sales company, bailed him out. Jenkins was originally charged with a felony he had a firearm in his home but it was changed to a misdemeanor after prosecutors discovered the firearm was legally registered to him. He started applying for jobs while he was still serving two years of probation and piled up more rejections than he can remember. In 2011, he went back to illegally growing and selling marijuana. He said he stopped two years later after finally finding a legal job: growing pot for medical use for a dispensary in San Francisco. But it was only part time, and Jenkins realized that his future was stalled unless he could clear his name. The next year, he spent $4,000 a big chunk of his savings to hire an attorney to successfully guide him through a little-known and highly uncertain legal process that allows some low-level marijuana offenders to petition the courts to expunge their convictions. Californias new law seeks to popularize and streamline that process. In January, San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon announced that his office would begin to dismiss 3,000 marijuana misdemeanors dating back to 1975 and seal the records of those people sentenced before Proposition 64 passed. Nearly 5,000 felony convictions would also be reviewed for possible dismissal or resentencing. The process could take more than a year to complete. Rob Jenkins works at a cannabis nursery in Oakland, planting and tending to various strains. He was recently laid off with 30 other employees, however, because he said the company was having financial problems. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) In Alameda County, where Oakland is located, prosecutors have identified nearly 6,000 cases eligible for dismissal an opportunity to alleviate past discrimination, said Dist. Atty. Nancy E. OMalley. Of those, more than 600 people have filed petitions and had them granted. California is offering a second chance to people convicted of cannabis crimes, OMalley said. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey has said her office will not automatically dismiss or reduce marijuana convictions and that people seeking to clear their records should do so using the courts. But a bill passed in August and set to go into effect next year requires the California Department of Justice to prepare a list of people eligible to have their convictions dismissed and places the onus on county prosecutors to do so in all cases except those in which they determine there is an unreasonable risk to public safety. Still, in some places, expunging those records is only a first step in righting the wrongs of the past. Last year, Oakland officials created the nations first so-called social equity program, reserving at least half of all new cannabis dispensary licenses for residents targeted by discriminatory drug and sentencing laws. The program is open to any resident with a cannabis conviction after 1996 the year medical marijuana was passed and no other criminal history. Also eligible are people who earn less than 80% of the citys median income of $56,000 or who have lived for at least 10 years in a neighborhood deemed to have high numbers of pot-related arrests. It also offers the chance to be paired with an investor known as an incubator who shares the license and funds the business for at least three years. Six of the eight permits granted by the city this year went to equity applicants. The creation of these equity programs is the beginning of acknowledging the greater issue of the criminalization of brown and black people, said Nina Parks, an activist who worked with local officials to create the Oakland program as well as the one in San Francisco. These policies are not reparations, but moves toward restoring justice. She and other supporters of the programs say it will take time and more publicity to see results. Many people are unaware of the equity programs or opportunities to expunge their records. In November, Rob Jenkins will start working at Kanna, a marijuana dispensary in Oakland. He got the job through Oaklands equity program. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) The efforts are not without controversy. Some opponents argue that the law was the law and anybody who broke it should have to deal with the consequences. Others such as Kevin A. Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which has spent thousands of dollars in recent years to oppose legalization of recreational pot, dismiss the notion that equity programs can really lift up poor neighborhoods. This is putting lipstick on a pig, and its an insult to vulnerable communities, Sabet said in an email. Unless the state gives away millions of dollars of free start-up money, do we think a kid from Compton is going to be able to compete against a Beverly Hills heir, let alone the Big Tobacco, alcohol, and pharma interests that are now swarming around the pot industry? It is the saddest attempt at social justice I have ever seen. Indeed, even some pot activists are worried that participants in equity programs could be manipulated by their investors and booted from the businesses after the three-year commitment ends. Of course there are going to be bad actors, Parks said. This is all so new that were going to need even more reforms and safeguards as this moves forward. Still, momentum is building across the country for similar programs. Criminal justice reform will be a key consideration when voters or legislators in three states decide this fall whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use, as is already the case in California and eight other states. North Dakotas ballot proposal this November calls for the automatic expungement of some marijuana-related convictions. The Michigan measure, also being put before voters, would lower some criminal marijuana-related violations to civil infractions. The New Jersey bill, which lawmakers plan to introduce as soon as this week, would make it easier for people with low-level convictions possessing small amounts of pot to clear their records. It would also mandate that 25% of dispensary licenses must be issued to individuals who live in so-called social impact zones areas with high poverty and disproportionate marijuana arrest rates. This kind of reform is long overdue, Jenkins said. Even so, his future is far from assured in a new and unstable industry. Last year, Jenkins got a part-time job at a local cannabis nursery, planting and tending to various strains, which he also smokes on a regular basis. But he was laid off last month with 30 other employees because the company was having financial problems. His best hope now is Oaklands equity program, which accepted him earlier this year. The city helped connect him with a team that plans to open a dispensary in November. Jenkins will be the grow manager. The investors have also committed to helping him open a pot nursery that would eventually belong entirely to him. Ive had ups and downs, but others have had it way worse, Jenkins said. Ive seen brothers locked up for years over some marijuana. Just marijuana. Its not right. We have to change this cycle, he said. kurtis.lee@latimes.com Twitter: @kurtisalee FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told Congress Wednesday that a controversial FBI background investigation into sexual assault allegations involving Brett Kavanaugh before he was confirmed to the Supreme Court was handled in a way consistent with other such probes. My folks have assured me that the usual process was followed, Wray testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee in response to questions by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) about the White Houses involvement in the process. Wray declined to address whether the FBI investigated accusations that Kavanaugh lied during his Senate confirmation hearings, as Democrats have alleged. When Harris pressed Wray as to why the FBI did not interview Kavanaugh, his chief accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, or 40 other potential witnesses, the FBI director said the investigation was very specific in scope, limited in scope, and that is the usual process. Advertisement Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified at a hearing focusing on threats, including terrorism and interference in elections, facing the country. Our nation continues to face a multitude of serious and evolving threats ranging from homegrown violent extremists to cyber criminals to hostile foreign intelligence services and operatives. Keeping pace with these threats is a significant challenge for the FBI, Wray said in his opening statement. It was Wrays first public appearance since the FBI wrapped up a hasty background probe last week after three women had publicly accused Kavanaugh of sexual abuse, sparking a bitter political battle over his nomination. The full Senate confirmed Kavanaugh, a former top appeals court judge, to the high court Saturday by a historically narrow 50-48 margin. Democrats have decried the Kavanaugh inquiry for being insufficient and improperly constricted by the White House. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called the investigation a sham. Republicans have defended the supplemental FBI probe, saying it was extensive and did not uncover any new corroborating evidence supporting allegations of sexual misconduct. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was seen as a key swing vote, said there was a lack of corroborating evidence no matter where you looked. Ford alleged that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a house gathering in the Maryland suburbs when she was a 15-year-old high school student in the early 1980s. Now a California professor, Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27 about the alleged assault but conceded she could not remember key details. Testifying later at the same hearing, Kavanaugh, 53, fiercely denied the accusations. The next day, the FBI launched a limited probe into the matter after Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican, suggested he would not vote to confirm the judge unless the bureau conducted such an investigation. The nomination was put on hold for a week while the FBI interviewed nine people, including those whom Ford named as having attended the house gathering. Agents also questioned Deborah Ramirez, who alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her and thrust his genitals in her face when they were freshman at Yale University. Senators were permitted to review reports of those interviews before voting. UPDATES: 7:25 a.m.: This article was updated with questions from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) 6:25 a.m.: This article was updated with Wray beginning his testimony. This article was originally published at 3 a.m. Nikki Haley, who on Tuesday announced her resignation as the U.S. representative to the United Nations, was less strident than the president who appointed her not much of an achievement, given President Trumps often reckless rhetoric. Haley also worked with diplomats from other nations to achieve some important objectives, including sanctions against North Korea that pressured Pyongyang into negotiations about a possible end to its nuclear weapons program. But Haleys abiding contribution in nearly two years at her post was to defend policies that isolated the United States from the U.N. and the international community and pushed the job toward irrelevance. In her resignation letter, the former South Carolina governor echoed Trumps campaign slogan by boasting that we stood strong for American values and interests, always placing America first. But like the president, she seems to assume that this country benefits when it refuses to work with other nations. More often, the opposite is true. In 2017 Haley wielded the U.S. veto to block a Security Council resolution criticizing Trumps provocative and unnecessary decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a step previous administrations of both parties had refused to take because of the feared consequences for the peace process. The resolution was supported by all of the other members of the Security Council, including France and the United Kingdom. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Advertisement Then there is the Iran nuclear accord, which had been endorsed in a Security Council resolution; Haley took a leading role in publicly laying out the case against it. In May, Trump not only followed Haleys implicit advice, but he also announced that the U.S. was withdrawing from the agreement and would reimpose sanctions on Iran. That reckless decision has unsettled U.S. relations with its European allies, which continue to support the agreement for the simple reason that Iran is complying with its terms. Finally, Haley and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo announced in June that the U.S. was withdrawing from the U.N. Human Rights Council, even though she later acknowledged that that body has brought the injustice suffered by political prisoners to international attention. She said that the councils positive contributions were the exceptions, not the rule, and that it had focused its attention unfairly and relentlessly on Israel. But rather than try to influence the council to be more even-handed, the administration walked away. This is not a record of which either Trump or Haley can be proud. Her successor will inherit a much diminished position, answering to a president who seems to doubt that this job matters. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook There are four runoffs for Los Angeles County Superior Court seats on the Nov. 6 ballot, and each includes a candidate that The Times endorsed in the June primary. We believe we made the correct choices then, and we again endorse those four candidates for the court. Our recommendations come against the backdrop of not just the recent politicized confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but also the stream of calls and emails weve received from readers who urged us to change our minds about one of the candidates we backed. The candidate is Redondo Beach Senior Deputy City Prosecutor Sydne Jane Michel, and the issue is not that she played one of the girls who mercilessly bullied Sissy Spaceks character in Carrie 42 years ago, or even that she appeared in Piranha. Its that she is now married to C.D. Chuck Michel, a lawyer whose clients include the National Rifle Assn. and who is president of the California Rifle and Pistol Assn., which described her as a strong supporter of gun rights. The argument seems to be that a vote for Sydne Michel is a vote for the NRA, and how could The Times, with its long history of editorial positions in favor of sensible gun laws that are opposed at every turn by the gun lobby, in good conscience endorse such a person? Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Advertisement We do so because we reject the notion that Michels candidacy represents an attempt by gun interests to somehow take over the court. Voters who worry that just such a thing may be afoot should take a deep breath and then consider the following: Michel is the candidate, not her husband. She has not represented the NRA but so what if she had? Just as being a criminal defense lawyer who represents rapists and murderers does not disqualify one from serving as an evenhanded, fair-minded judge, neither would representing an organization that takes positions on hot-button issues, even if we find those positions repugnant. But again, it is Michel who is the candidate, and there is no suggestion that her husbands profession has in any way impeded her vigor in prosecuting crimes in Redondo Beach, including some involving guns. Rejecting a candidate not because of her own values and experiences but because of her husbands well, that strikes us as a dated and even offensive notion. There are personal and political positions that can indeed put a judicial candidate beyond the pale. The Times, for example, rejected judicial candidate William Daniel Johnson, an avowed white nationalist who wrote a book espousing deportation of all nonwhites, as unfit for a position that requires application of equal justice under law. Being married to a lawyer who represents a client we dont like doesnt fall into the same category. The Times supports Michel because between her and rival Patricia Patti Hunter, a Los Angeles deputy city attorney, she is the better candidate and would make a better judge. Our recommendations: Office No. 4: Alfred A. Coletta Office No. 16: Sydne Jane Michel Office No. 60: Holly L. Hancock Office No. 113: Michael Ribons Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook United Teachers Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District, at loggerheads over a contract for a year and a half, are now in 11th-hour state-run mediation talks. The teachers union deems insulting the latest offer by Superintendent Austin Beutner, so it seems increasingly likely that 33,000 L.A. educators may make good on their threat to strike. Cue the critics: A teachers strike will just hurt the kids. See? Unions are too radical and corrupt and do more harm than good. Balderdash. Unions arent perfect, but the monotonous smear campaign against them shows how out-of-touch haters are. Especially in this era of Trump, unions offer working class America a competing vision of prosperity and protection. Unlike the California quitters who leave the state complaining that the dream is over for the middle class, labor argues that solutions start with good jobs and management that takes care of more than quarterly earnings. And in recent years, unions across the state, across different industries, have made their case to the public. Advertisement In Kingsburg, more than 500 Sun-Maid workers went on strike for two weeks in September over reduced healthcare coverage; the raisin giant eventually offered a better contract. At Keck Medical Center of USC, the National Union of Healthcare Workers picketed this month to argue that workers at USC-run health clinics should receive the same fully paid health insurance enjoyed by their colleagues at USC hospitals. Up in the Bay Area, about 2,700 Marriott employees in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland are currently on the picket line looking for higher wages as they face an ever-escalating cost of living. Theyre represented by Unite Here, the powerhouse hotel-workers union that shamed Disney into raising wages next year by publicizing how its employees in Anaheim earn so little that they have to sleep in cars or live five to an apartment. Meanwhile, my journalism colleagues are currently in negotiations with the Los Angeles Times owner to hammer out a contract that will ensure regular raises, solid health benefits and a degree of job security that reporters here havent felt in a generation. 40% of major work stoppages (strikes involving 1,000 or more workers for at least one shift) in the U.S. in 2016 and 2017 happened in California. Records with the U.S. Department of Labors Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 40% of major work stoppages (strikes involving 1,000 or more workers for at least one shift) in the U.S. in 2016 and 2017 happened in California. The revolts recall the days of the Great Depression in California, when everyone from garment workers to Jewish bakers to orange pickers to longshoremen fought strikebreakers and law enforcement to win workplace rights. All of this, though, comes at a time when unions represent an decreasing segment of Californias labor force. The UC Berkeley Labor Center estimates that just 16.9% of workers in the state are under a union contract at 2.5 million union members, the highest amount in the nation but still nowhere near the majority of California households. But even those of us who dont belong to one can still learn from their example. Long before woke became a thing, rank-and-file members in California recognized they had to change unions old boy network to better reflect society. Immigrants became a vital part of the labor movement going back to the Service Employees International Unions Justice for Janitors campaign that rocked Los Angeles in the 1990s. In the wake of #MeToo, labor leaders from San Diego to Orange County either walked away or got fired from their influential positions under the cloud of allegations of sexual harassment. Alumni of unions including candidate for U.S. Senate Kevin de Leon, State Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo and even former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa helped to transform California into the redoubt of the anti-Trump resistance it is today. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute Union members also offer a lesson for those of ustedes depressed by the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court: Labor went through its own devastating loss this year with the Janus decision, which ended compelled dues for public-employee unions. But activists who saw that decision coming didnt fall into gloom-and-doom fatalism. They planned for defeat, doubled down on their mission and have emerged with a renewed sense of purpose. Im totally biased toward unions, of course. My mother was a Teamster for about 20 years at the old Hunt-Wesson tomato cannery in Fullerton. We were never rich, but my siblings and I never lacked for anything and always had health insurance. Even though she got laid off in 1997 when ConAgra shut down the Fullerton cannery, to this day Mami receives a small pension. My siblings now work in the public sector, and I see how their membership creates a sense of stability in their lives. To paraphrase two terms from labors heyday at the turn of the 20th century, bread and roses (dignified work through a union) seems a better, more realistic option than the pie-in-the-sky (everyone can become rich on their own, either through hard work or in the afterlife) promises of unchecked capitalism. I expect the visibility of unions, and maybe even their numbers, to grow in California in the coming years. And non-unionists: Dont believe the hater hype. Unions fight not so much for self-preservation as they do for a strong economy that supports middle-class jobs. Thats far more pro-prosperity than anything Trump offers nowadays, amirite? mexicanwithglasses@gmail.com Follow @GustavoArellano on Twitter To the editor: Kudos to Los Angeles Times reporter Rosanna Xia for her meticulously researched and balanced articles on the Hollister Ranch coastal access conflict. People forget that Santa Barbara County has a certified local coastal plan that calls for mandatory easements as a condition of most beachfront development. However, the county stopped requiring new easements after the Supreme Courts decision in Nollan vs. California Coastal Commission in 1987, which voided an access easement the commission had required. As a result of President Trumps court packing, it may be even harder in the future for public agencies to require beach access over landowner objections. In my view, the only realistic way the public will set foot on Hollisters sandy beaches is by agreement or by acquiring easements through condemnation. Gov. Jerry Browns decision last month to veto a bill to jump-start the process of planning for the acquisition of these easements was unfortunate. Still, public agencies should continue to plan and negotiate for a level of overland access that balances public use with privacy and environmental constraints, as is required by the Coastal Act. Advertisement Jana Zimmer, Santa Barbara The writer is a former member of the California Coastal Commission and a former chief deputy counsel for Santa Barbara County. 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 Egypt's agriculture ministry says it will put into effect a 2009 law banning the trade of live poultry in a bid to improve poultry production, combat environmental pollution and prevent the spread of diseases like bird flu. The law bans the slaughtering of poultry outside unlicensed slaughterhouses. It stipulates that live poultry should be transported directly to licensed slaughterhouses after traders acquire special authorisations following veterinary inspection, before the refrigerated or frozen food products are offered at shops. Although the law was in effect in 2009 and 2010, it has not been enforced since. As a first phase, the ministry will ban the trading of live poultry in the capital Cairo and the neighbouring city of Giza, which consume 30 percent of the country's poultry, according to Mona Mehrez, deputy agriculture minister for livestock and poultry production. The ministry will later expand the ban to Egypt's second city of Alexandria and the capitals of governorates, Mehrez said in TV statement on Tuesday. According to the deputy minister, Egypt has a sufficient number of slaughterhouses, which currently operate at only 10 percent of their total capacity. The new system will offer soft loans to owners of shops where poultry is slaughtered so they can shift their business to offering refrigerated and frozen poultry products. The loans will be provided by the trade ministry's Medium, Small and Micro-sized Enterprises Development Agency. Mehrez stressed that the legislation will help Egypt eliminate bird flu, which she says is primarily caused by the unregulated slaughtering and transport of poultry without necessary veterinary examination. The scheme will also offer additional benefits by cooking poultry waste at warehouses to produce fodder and fertilisers, Mehrez said. Search Keywords: Short link: Newly seated Justice Brett Kavanaugh spoke up Wednesday in defense of the Trump administrations view that legal immigrants with criminal records must be arrested and held for deportation, even years after they were convicted and completed their sentences. At issue is a federal law that calls for mandatory detention and possible deportation for criminal aliens, including legal immigrants convicted of crimes ranging from violent felonies to simple drug possession. The law says the Homeland Security secretary shall take into custody any alien with a criminal record that could lead to deportation when the alien is released. The debate focuses on when, exactly, is when. In a class-action suit brought in California, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union complained the mandatory detention policy has been applied to lawful immigrants who had lived and worked in the community for decades after being convicted of misdemeanors such as drug possession charges. Advertisement The administration argues that a provision of the 1996 law calls for arresting and jailing such immigrants despite their good records since serving their time. Kavanaugh disputed the ACLUs contention that this mandatory detention rule applies only to immigrants who can be detained at the time they are being released from local jails or state prisons, not to those released years ago. Congress did not put in a time limit, he said. That raises a real question with me whether we should be superimposing a time limit. ACLU lawyer Cecillia Wang pointed to the words of the law. Were not asking you to superimpose a time limit. Were asking you to give meaning to all the words of the statute. Congress, in saying when, meant what when means in the common sense, within a reasonable time. Wang said a reasonable time would be one day, but several justices said that time limit was too short. However, Kavanaugh went further and said he saw no basis for putting any time limit on arresting immigrants for past crimes. My point is thats very odd when you think what Congress was doing in 1996. What was really going through Congress mind in 1996 was harshness on this topic, he said. The ACLU lawyer argued she was not arguing that the detained immigrants had a right to go free. She said they should have hearing for a judge to decide whether they were dangerous or likely to flee. The problem is Congress did not trust those hearings, Kavanaugh said. For a certain class of criminal or terrorist aliens, [Congress] said, No more. The justices sounded closely split along ideological lines during the argument in Nielsen vs Preap. However, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch questioned whether federal agents can arrest immigrants decades after they have been released. Could be it 30 years? Is there any limit on the governments power? he asked an administration lawyer. Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the mandatory detention rule does not apply to immigrants who were not taken into federal custody promptly after their release. The decision did not shield noncitizens with past crimes from being arrested or deported, but it said they could seek release on bond if the judge found they were not a danger to the public or likely to flee. The ACLU sued on behalf of lawful noncitizens such as Eduardo Padilla, who came to the United States in 1966 as an infant and became a lawful permanent resident in the Sacramento area. He has five children and six grandchildren, all of whom are U.S. citizens. Padilla had two convictions for drug possession in 1997 and 1999 and served 90 days in jail in 2002 for having an unloaded pistol in a shed. In 2013, federal agents arrested him for those past crimes and held him for deportation. But he went free after the 9th Circuit court ruled the mandatory detention provision did not apply to immigrants such as Padilla. He was released on a $1,500 bond because a judge decided he did not present a danger and was not likely to flee. A lawyer for the Trump administration urged the high court to reverse the 9th Circuit and uphold mandatory detention for all immigrants with criminal records, regardless of how long they have been free. Our position is this is a mandate, said Zachary Tripp, an assistant to the solicitor general. The whole point of this statute is to stop doing bail hearings. Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by three other liberals, questioned whether Congress intended such a roundup. There is a huge constitutional question, he said, over whether people in the United States can be arrested and held indefinitely with no hearing. The Constitution says no person shall be deprived of liberty...without due process of law, and Breyer noted that clause applies to immigrants living here. Can the government arrest a grandfather after 50 years? he asked. Yes, the government attorney said, noting there was no time limit on the law. But the courts conservatives, led by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., said they were not inclined to limit the authority of federal agents. Today in California, he said, there are dozens, probably hundreds of immigrants released from jail. How is the federal government going to be able to determine quickly, within 48 hours or any short period of time, whether those individuals should be subject to the mandatory detention requirement of this statute? California is not going to tell the federal government, Look. Were releasing this person. The ACLU had argued that many of the detainees had committed minor crimes long ago and were not dangerous. The lead plaintiff, Mony Preap, had come from Cambodia as a child and been a lawful resident since 1981. He was taken into custody for two convictions for possessing marijuana in 2006, but an immigration judge later canceled his deportation and he was released. The latest from Washington More stories from David G. Savage david.savage@latimes.com Twitter: @DavidGSavage UPDATES: 1:30 p.m.: This article updated with additional details from the argument. This article was published at 10:15 a.m. 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 Health officials, physician groups, hospitals and patient advocates across the country are strongly condemning the Trump administrations proposal to restrict immigrants access to green cards if they use the healthcare safety net, warning of risks to public health and government finances. This is not only bad for the health and well-being of the people most directly affected, it is bad for all of us, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, head of the American Public Health Assn., one of scores of healthcare groups to criticize the administrations proposal. We hope that this heartless, punitive public policy will be reversed, Benjamin said. Among the major groups calling on the Trump administration to withdraw the so-called public charge proposal are the American Medical Assn., the March of Dimes and the American Hospital Assn. Advertisement Many of the patients served by our members almost certainly will avoid needed care from their trusted providers, jeopardizing their own health and that of their communities, six leading physician groups said in a joint statement. The groups include the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians and the American Psychiatric Assn. The Trump administration recently announced a proposed regulation that would allow federal immigration authorities to deny green cards to immigrants who receive certain forms of government assistance. These include housing vouchers, food aid often known as food stamps, and Medicaid, the half-century-old government health insurance program for the poor. Those seeking to immigrate to the United States must show they can support themselves financially, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement announcing the proposed rule, adding it would promote immigrant self-sufficiency and protect finite resources by ensuring that they are not likely to become burdens on American taxpayers. The proposed regulation was formally posted Wednesday. The United States for more than two centuries has placed restrictions on immigrants deemed to be a public charge. But the government officials long viewed health programs as important tools for protecting the well-being of citizens and noncitizens alike. There was an understanding that the health of everyone was a public good, said Torrie Hester, an immigration historian at St. Louis University. So while the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1999 issued guidance that it would consider immigrants use of cash welfare benefits in determining applications for permanent residency, the federal agency specifically indicated that use of Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, would not hurt applicants. The new Trump administration policy maintains the protection for use of CHIP, which is available to working-class families who often earn too much to qualify for fully subsidized Medicaid coverage but too little to afford commercial health insurance. But for the first time, families use of Medicaid could be counted against them. That may prove particularly problematic for immigrant families whose children are U.S. citizens. In 2016, more than 10 million citizen children in the U.S. had at least one noncitizen parent, according to an analysis of census data by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. Nearly 90% of these children live in a household where at least one parent is a full-time worker. But because these parents are often in low-wage jobs, more than half the children about 5.8 million -- rely on Medicaid or CHIP for health coverage, the analysis found. Its unlikely all immigrant parents of these children will withdraw them from government coverage if the Trump administration finalizes its new public charge regulation. But pediatricians, public health officials and other experts warn that coverage losses and health problems could be substantial if even a fraction of the families drop Medicaid or CHIP coverage. In the proposed regulation, the Trump administration itself acknowledges a host of potentially adverse effects for immigrants such as worse health outcomes, including increased prevalence of obesity and malnutrition, especially for pregnant or breastfeeding women, infants, or children, and reduced prescription adherence. Dr. Lanre Falusi, a Childrens National Medical Center pediatrician who sees patients in a largely immigrant neighborhood of Washington, said she and her colleagues are already seeing signs that immigrant families are reconsidering their participation in some health assistance programs. All my families are very committed to their childrens health, Falusi said. But this puts them in a very difficult position. Even skipping regular checkups can be very dangerous for children, Falusi explained, noting that pediatricians use well-child visits to screen children for disease, depression and healthy development. There are broader public health risks for the general population if immigrant families begin to forgo medical care, warned Dr. Barbara L. McAneny, president of the American Medical Assn. The potential policy changes will likely reverse the public health gains we have made in the last several decades in areas such as vaccinations [and] control of infectious diseases, she said. Hospital leaders also cautioned that if immigrant families do not seek regular medical care, they are more likely to end up in the hospital with more serious and costly illnesses that others would have to pay for. It would drive higher levels of uncompensated hospital care and, ultimately, higher costs for insured patients and taxpayers, said Dr. Bruce Siegel, president of Americas Essential Hospitals, whose members include medical centers that care for largely poor patients. The Trump administration in its proposed regulation acknowledged the same risks, noting the likelihood of increased use of emergency rooms and emergent care as a method of primary healthcare due to delayed treatment and increases in uncompensated care in which a treatment or service is not paid for by an insurer or patient. Finally, the administration conceded that the rule could lead to increased rates of poverty and housing instability; and reduced productivity and educational attainment. Obamacare 101: A primer on key issues in the debate over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. The latest from Washington More stories from Noam N. Levey noam.levey@latimes.com @noamlevey With four weeks until the midterm election, President Trump whipped up a crowd of about 9,000 supporters here, reiterating his recent claims that Democrats are an angry mob intent on policies of anger, division and destruction. You dont hand matches to an arsonist and you dont give power to an angry left-wing mob, and thats what the Democrats are, he said in this Iowa town across the river from Nebraska, appearing with Republican candidates from both states. The rally, one of four that Trump has scheduled for a second consecutive week, included familiar hype about the economy he falsely called it the greatest economy in history and inflated the pace of job gains as well as fearmongering about the prospect of Democrats capturing control of Congress in the Nov. 6 election. If Democrats take control they will try to reverse our amazing progress and plunge our country into gridlock and maybe into poverty and ultimately into chaos, Trump said. Advertisement The president has ramped up his partisan rhetoric in the aftermath of the bitter fight over his newly installed Supreme Court pick, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who was narrowly confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate over the weekend despite sexual assault allegations against him. Trump said that Democrats wanted to destroy Kavanaugh. When he suggested that Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had leaked Christine Blasey Fords allegation against the nominee, the crowd chanted, Lock her up! echoing their chants at Trumps mention two times of his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton. Feinstein has denied that either she or her aides leaked Fords confidential letter. One man, referring to Feinstein, yelled out repeatedly, Traitor! The president variously described Democrats as outrageous, wacko and unhinged. The Republicans current majorities in Congress, he said, are too small. We hardly have a majority, Trump said. We need votes. Framing the midterm election as the chance for voters to render your verdict on the Democrats outrageous conduct, Trump urged people to reject Democrat politics of anger, division and destruction. The freewheeling, 76-minute remarks offered the latest example of the presidents purposely divisive and often overstated closing arguments for the final month of campaigning, in hopes of animating conservative voters and staving off a potential Democratic wave that could flip control of the House and perhaps the Senate. Raising Republicans well-worn specter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco as speaker of a Democratic-controlled House, Trump implored his supporters, We have to stop Pelosi from becoming can you believe this? the speaker of the House. Boasting of his signing this week of a directive for the year-round sale of E15, a gasoline blend containing 15% ethanol derived from corn grown by Iowa farmers, Trump claimed without evidence, and contrary to the legislative record that Democrats will end ethanol. They will take it away. Trump didnt just mock his possible 2020 rivals, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as usual denigrating her as Pocahontas for her unsubstantiated claim of Native American ancestry; he took on the Democratic opponents of local Republicans on the Iowa and Nebraska ballots. In keeping with his penchant for nicknames, he branded Democrat Cindy Axne, who is challenging Iowa Rep. David Young, as Cindy Tax-me, basking in his cleverness. That was so easy, he said. And he made a point of struggling to pronounce the name of another Democrat. Who the hell is that? the president exclaimed, to the laughter of the crowd. Who is that? The latest from Washington estokols@gmail.com @EliStokols President Trumps rallies have been compared to Grateful Dead concerts, not just because they attract hardcore fans who see themselves as part of a community, but also because they offer a rhetorical playlist that is at once predictable yet apt to surprise. The standards bring chant-along excitement: Build the Wall! Lock Her Up! Fake news! The improvisational riffs elicit applause and laughs: Upstairs, downstairs, where was it? I dont know. But I had one beer. Thats the only thing I remember, Trump said last week in Southaven, Miss., in lengthy mockery of Christine Blasey Fords claim of sexual assault years before by Brett Kavanaugh, Trumps pick for the Supreme Court. Advertisement Nearly two years into his presidency, these operatic, roughly 80-minute performances offer the most tangible proof that Trump has never left the campaign trail, or sought to expand his fan base. All sitting presidents do a fair amount of campaigning and fundraising. None has started earlier or sustained it like Trump, who held nine rallies in the weeks after winning election and then hit the road again within a month of taking office Tuesdays rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was his 32nd since his inaugural. Trumps devotion to the roadshows demonstrates just how much he ties his success to the adulation of his most loyal fans and also, aides say, how much he craves it. As Democrats threaten to retake Congress in next months elections, Trump has revved up Air Force One. Last week, he hit Tennessee, Mississippi, Minnesota and Kansas. This week he plays back-to-back evenings in Iowa and Pennsylvania, then has a night off before gigs in Kentucky and Ohio. Political consultants, psychologists, sociologists and historians see them as essential texts for deciphering the Trump movement. These are like morality plays, said Stephen D. Reicher, a psychology professor at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who has studied Trump rallies for what they reflect about crowd behavior, leadership and collective action. They are performances which enact Trumps view of the world. Here, then, is something of a playbill: The hero: Thats Trump, of course. Nobody could do it. Nobody could get it done, he said in Minnesota about a trade provision. I did it in two minutes. Increasingly, however, he includes his audience, in an us-versus-them embrace. As he often says of his following, Its the greatest movement in the history of our country. The villain: Enemies are essential to Trumps narratives. Reicher said Trump needs two kinds: those from within and those from without, so that he can act as a slayer who slays these two dragons for the benefit of those in the room. Outside enemies include China, immigrants, the MS-13 gang and Muslim terrorists. Inside threats are the elites, Democrats and the media. Some enemies are a bit of both. In Mississippi, he said we dont want companies to fire employees, build products abroad and then send them back to the United States with no tariff. Theyre globalists, he said ominously. Globalists. We dont like the thinking of the globalists. The media offer an in-the-flesh enemy, with reporters literally penned in the back of the arena like cattle at a livestock show. Look back there, look at all that media. Look at all that media, Trump said in Rochester, Minn., on Thursday, glaring contemptuously as the audience booed loudly. Majority of Americans say Trump is just venting when he calls the press enemies of the people Hecklers occasionally play a role. Trump revels in making fun of them, reminding the crowd of the threats among them. Such protests are quickly drowned out by shouts of Trump! Trump! Trump! Warnings of dystopia: Most politicians paint a bleak future if their opponents win. Trump takes it to a new level, often with distortions or lies depicting Democrats as the party of crime and an angry mob thats willing to do anything to hurt anyone to get the power they so desperately crave. If Democrats take over Congress, the stock market will plummet, Trump said in Minnesota. Retirement accounts will crash. The political system will grind to a really messy halt. Theyll raise taxes, cripple law enforcement, destroy Medicare and invite gangs to take over cities. The Democrats embrace socialism, he continued.Were not going to be Venezuela you see whats happening? and open our borders to deadly drugs and violent gangs. Damsels, causing distress: Trump has long had a gift for tapping into white male anxieties over immigration, the economy and the ascendance of minority groups. Yet Joshua Zeitz, a historian who has written about presidents and populism, said this is now assuming a real gender component. That shift was most prominent in Mississippi, when Trump mocked Ford, to laughter from the crowd, and warned of the dangers to men of a runamok #MeToo movement. In the same rally, Trump responded I love you too to a man in the audience whod shouted the endearment. If that was a woman, Im in big trouble, he joked. I hope youre a guy. Are you? Trump is also fond of conjuring a time of traditional gender roles. He often tells a story of an unnamed man who tells Trump that his wife used to think he was a loser but now thanks to the president she calls him a financial genius because their 401(k) is doing so well. Grievances large and small: Frank Luntz, a longtime messaging consultant for Republicans, said Trumps many expressions of aggrievement serve an important function, making his audiences feel that they know his mind and theyre having a one-on-one conversation about shared enmities. But the complaints also distract, Luntz said, from Trump talking of policy goals and taking credit for the strong economy. In Mississippi, Trump singled out a New York Times reporter in the rear. Without naming her, he went on at length about the time she appeared on a television talk show and laughed at the idea that he could win the Republican presidential nomination. Only the most devoted political junkie could follow the yarn, yet the crowd applauded uproariously when he asserted of reporters that his election was still driving them crazy. That was quickly followed by a complaint about a Washington Post reporter who tweeted a picture in December that misleadingly showed a small crowd at a Trump rally. The reporter apologized, but months later Trump used the incident to lament the elites treatment of the proud Trump deplorables. Did they fire that reporter? No. Right? Trump asked. Isnt it incredible? Isnt it sad? And look what happened to Roseanne. Did they fire Roseanne? Yes. The jester: Trumps comedy bits can be disarming for citizens accustomed to scripted politicians. He often does purposely amateurish imitations of people for example, deferential generals, wily foreign leaders, Vermonts independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, other politicians or a faux-newsman telling Trump in stentorian tones to act presidential. He spent several minutes in Topeka, Kan., mocking Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warrens unfounded claims of Native American heritage, using the derisive nickname Pocahontas, telling the crowd that he dreamed of running against her and the rest of a Democratic field in 2020. Im hitting them so hard that theyre disappearing and I dont want to do that, Trump said, because I may get somebody thats actually good to run against me. And that would not be good. Sometimes, when the applause lingers or chants endure, Trump turns around and faces the supporters arrayed behind him, like a bandleader waiting for the soloist to finish. He is kind of a political lounge act, said David Axelrod, the former political strategist for President Obama. This isnt a chore for him. This is oxygen. The bit actors: The big political question is whether Trump, whos always the star of his own show, can transfer his electoral success to local candidates hes supposed to be promoting for the midterm elections. His appeal, as always, is to his core supporters who have stood by him through all manner of controversies, rather than to the swing voters whom many candidates court. Trump wagers that coverage in the local media combined with conservative media will boost turnout among his voters. For some in the audience, the only reason they would consider voting in a congressional election is because Trump asked them to, Luntz said. People think they have a personal relationship with the president of the United States, he said. Thats never happened before. They are not necessarily connected to politics and they are far from partisan. Trump has increasingly invited local candidates onto the stage, even as he appears a bit bored when they talk. The key is the laying of hands, Luntz said. The risk, Luntz added, is that Trumps more inflammatory comments, even his mere presence, turn off moderates or further motivate Democrats. The reviews are coming Nov. 6. Follow the latest news of the Trump administration on Essential Washington noah.bierman@latimes.com Twitter: @noahbierman A record number of women are running for the U.S. House, Senate and state legislatures this year more than any other election in U.S. history. Traditionally, the major political parties scout out their potential candidates. And typically, says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, men are sought after more than women. But in the two years before the 2018 midterm election, amid marches for womens rights and the growing #MeToo movement, something shifted in a field that has historically paved an easier path for men: Women are running whether or not Democrats and Republicans invite them to, said Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, a political science professor at USC. Advertisement Alfaro attributes the record-breaking turnout in large part to a groundswell in localized programs encouraging women to run and educating them on the process. Emilys List the leading nonprofit to help and recruit progressive Democratic women to run for office since 1985 has played witness to that rise in interest. (Emily stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast it makes the dough rise.) Recruiting means just that going out to find women to run, said Emily Cain, the groups executive director. But in our history the first 30-some years we were not inundated with women coming to us to run for office. That changed in 2016. Women are running whether or not Democrats and Republicans invite them to. Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, political science professor at USC In the first few weeks after President Trump was elected over Hillary Clinton, about 1,000 women reached out to Emilys List about running for office. The groups record until then had been 920, and that covered from 2014 to 2016. By the end of 2017, as the #MeToo movement exploded and Womens March anniversary rallies were planned throughout the country, the record was shattered again with more than 25,000 women signing up online to learn about running for office. Since Trumps election, Emilys List says, more than 40,000 women have expressed interest in running for office. Cain says healthcare in the age of Trump was a big factor for some women. In 2018, after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, gun control was also at the forefront. Emilys List has had to increase its staff and expand its office space. This isnt a wave, Cain said. Its a sea change. A record 3,379 women have won nomination for state legislatures across the country, breaking 2016s record of 2,649, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. And 235 women won nominations in U.S. House races, breaking the previous 2016 record of 167. Twenty-two women won major-party nominations for U.S. Senate, breaking the record of 18 set in 2012. Sixteen women have been nominated for gubernatorial races. The previous record, set in 1994, was 10. For the first time in general election history, there are two female congressional candidates facing each other in at least 28 major-party matchups. The previous record, set in 2002 and matched in 2016, was 17. According to David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report a nonpartisan group that analyzes campaigns and elections women have won 43% of Democratic House primary races, and Republican women have won 13% of their partys primaries. Alfaro says women dont often run until theyre 120% ready. Men, on the other hand, jump in at much earlier stages in their career, she said. That can be said of fields beyond the realm of politics too. A statistic that has been widely cited in articles and books like Sheryl Sandbergs Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead is that women typically apply for a job when they meet 100% of the qualifications, whereas men often apply when they meet 60%. That reluctance helps lead to the imbalance in gender representation. Take California, for example. The Center for American Women and Politics ranks the most populous state at No. 26 for representation of women in the state legislature (25%) compared with the proportion of women in the state (50%). (Swetha Kannan / Los Angeles Times) In 1992, women ran for election in the U.S. in record-breaking numbers. The impetus for the so-called Year of the Woman was Anita Hills testimony during the Senate confirmation hearings for then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Hill, a law professor, had accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Testifying before an all-male panel, she answered questions that attempted to undermine the veracity of her accusations. Ultimately, Thomas was confirmed to the court. And women who saw their gender underrepresented during the hearing were inspired to run. Walsh emphasizes the fact that although their numbers jumped in the House and Senate that year from 32 to 54, women still accounted for fewer than 10% of members of Congress. Now there are 84 women serving in the House, out of 435 members, and 23 in the Senate, out of 100. Although the number of women running in 2018 is impressive, she worries that if women dont double their representation in Congress this election cycle, it could be perceived as a failure. But it wouldnt be, she says. There are other ways of measuring success, she said. Im trying to not be totally driven by the numbers. Women have already made significant firsts In May, Democrat Liuba Grechen Shirley a candidate running against Republican Rep. Peter T. King in New Yorks 2nd Congressional District petitioned the Federal Election Commission to allocate campaign funds for child care. The FEC approved, marking a change that could open the door for any parent running at the federal level. These kinds of things do have the potential to change fundamentals that could shift the paradigms, Walsh said. Former Michigan state Rep. Rashida Tlaib is set to become the first Muslim woman elected to Congress after winning the Democratic nomination to fill the seat of former Rep. John Conyers Jr., who resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. Tlaib is running unopposed. These kinds of things do have the potential to change fundamentals that could shift the paradigms. Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics In Vermont, Democrat Christine Hallquist became the first openly transgender gubernatorial nominee for a major party. In Georgia, Democratic former state House leader Stacey Abrams an Emilys List-backed candidate became the first black woman to win a major-party nomination for that states governor. Texas is likely to send its first two Latinas to Congress after state Sen. Sylvia Garcia and former County Judge Veronica Escobar, both Democrats, won their House primaries in districts that favor their party. Arizona will send its first female senator to Congress as Republican Rep. Martha McSally and Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema face off in November. In New York, activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat Democratic incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley. In Massachusetts, Ayanna Pressley, the first black woman elected to the Boston City Council, ousted veteran Democratic Rep. Michael E. Capuano in the primary. Shes expected to become the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts; no Republican candidate is running against her. Beyond election days outcome, Walsh says, the big unknown is whether this years momentum is a one-off or a new norm that will continue into 2020 and 2022. Were not going to see 240 years of womens underrepresentation in politics end in one election cycle, Walsh said. colleen.shalby@latimes.com Twitter: @cshalby ALSO: It could be another Year of the Woman in California, but probably not America didnt get its first female president, but women made history in these places on election day Ceramicist Michael Hirsh is again donating a collection of his unusual art pieces to a fundraiser benefiting homeless families. The Burbank resident has taught pottery making functional items like coffee mugs through hand-building and throwing on the wheel for about 15 years at the Betsy Lueke Creative Arts Center. With advanced students, he teaches more of the artistic aspects of ceramics. Hirsh has created colorful vessels for the eighth annual Empty Bowl Lunch scheduled from noon to 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood. The event benefits Family Promise of the Verdugos, a local nonprofit assisting first-time homeless families with children find housing and sustainable employment. Independent potters, arts associations and community groups create handcrafted ceramic bowls and guests purchase a $35 ticket for a meal of soup, bread and dessert donated by area restaurants. Hirshs own work has graduated from pottery to Mid-Century-modern style vases and tile wall art that he carves into using clay tools. But he creates bowls just for the Family Promise fundraiser each year. His glazing technique is what makes his bowls unusual, he said. I do a lot of specialized glazing in multiple colors and thats what people like about the bowls I make, he said. They also have very unique glaze patterns on them. Their composition is also very thin and light weight, he added, so they are very different. Fellow artist Barbara Lazar introduced Hirsh to the Empty Bowl fundraiser. She took him to see how the program worked. He was impressed and has donated bowls to the project since the event began. I liked that they didnt just give out money or food but made an effort to get people up on their feet, he said. The program provides job training and business attire to help adults rejoin the work force. It also finds affordable housing for the family. And it is not individuals, it is whole families with children this program helps, Hirsh said. Its critical for kids to be in a stable environment, so I felt this charity was different. It was helping people get on their feet, instead of putting a band-aid on the problem where people take the help but still dont have jobs and remain homeless. This [program] was a much more worthwhile way to go about helping people like that. Those purchasing a ticket or sponsorship will take home a bowl made by a local artisan as a reminder of the hunger and uncertainty homeless families face every day. This years event will also feature arts and crafts for sale by local artists beginning at 11:30 a.m. These days, homelessness affects all communities and this is one solution that helps families in Burbank and Glendale, said event chair Jane Winter. Family Promise breaks it down to helping local families who find themselves homeless for the very first time, she said. With a little help, families can get back on their feet again and return to being independent. Buying a $35 ticket to a lunch is such an easy way to be part of the solution. Tiptons enjoying retirement in Carson City What a great surprise to hear from my longtime friend Sharron Sherry Tipton over the summer. She and her husband, Michael, moved from Burbank to Carson City, Nev., after retiring in 2005. They remodeled and are living in a home previously owned by Michael Tiptons parents. Michael and Sharron Tipton celebrated their 50th anniversary this year. They were married on June 23, 1968. Former Burbank residents Sharron and Michael Tipton are retired and living in Carson City, Nev. (Courtesy of Sharron Tipton) Michael Tipton was born and raised in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Sharron was born in Los Angeles. They met during their junior year of high school at the local bowling alley in Cheyenne. They were married in Cheyenne at St. Marks Episcopal Church. Michael Tipton was a television engineer for 30 years at the former NBC Studios in Burbank. He was a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and was a shop steward. Sharron Tipton was an instructional aide and teacher in three Burbank schools. A member of the PTA at Bret Harte Elementary, Luther Burbank Middle School and Burroughs High School, she held the offices of historian and press editor. She wrote and sent press releases about those schools to me for 13 years. The Tiptons daughter, Sherry, and her husband, Luis Macias, have two children. They live in the familys Burbank home. Son, Lanny, and his wife, Trish, have two children and live in King City, Calif. Sharron Tipton said they keep the spark alive in their marriage by cuddling a lot, laughing and accepting each others shortcomings. Joyce Rudolph can be reached at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com. JOYCE RUDOLPH can be reached at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com. Authorities in Burbank say a Gordon Biersch employee was struck in the face with a hamburger last Thursday after an irate customer threw a box containing the food item at his face. The Burbank Police Department responded to the alleged assault around 11:15 p.m. after a restaurant employee said he was conversing with a female patron in the parking lot at the business when another customer approached him and shouted the n-word. The man then threw a box containing the hamburger at the employee, who was struck in the face by the flying sandwich. According to Burbank Police Sgt. Derek Green, however, it did not appear the attack was racially motivated. He also mentioned the man who allegedly committed the beef battery knew the woman who was talking with the employee. [The man and the woman] were together earlier in the night at the restaurant [Its] believed they were romantically involved, Green said. Officers eventually located the man at a Holiday Inn across the street from the restaurant after he was reportedly involved in another fight with a different person. He was identified as 32-year-old Ryan Dodd of Sylmar and charged with two counts of battery by the Burbank City Attorneys office. andy.nguyen@latimes.com Twitter: @Andy_Truc Police say employees at the Bed, Bath & Beyond in the Burbank Town Center were attacked with pepper spray late last month after a trio of suspected thieves tried to defraud the store. The suspects allegedly bought a stand mixer from a different Bed, Bath & Beyond earlier in the day on Sept. 30 using counterfeit money and were trying to return the item at the Burbank location. Employees recognized the mixers fraudulent origins from a company alert and attempted to confront the three people. Burbank Police Sgt. Derek Green said the employees were then pepper sprayed and the trio fled from the store in a car, taking the mixer with them. Officers were able to stop the suspects near Burbank and San Fernando boulevards based on a description given to them by a mall security guard, according to Green. He said the three were in possession of the mixer, along with counterfeit money and items associated in committing fraud and identity theft, including blank credit cards and identification documents with other peoples names on them. The three were identified as 28-year-old Crysan Garriques from Mt. Vernon, N.Y, 37-year-old Rushelle Allen and 34-year-old Carisma Thomas, both residents of the Bronx. All were booked on suspicion of conspiracy to commit burglary. andy.nguyen@latimes.com Twitter: @Andy_Truc The Zonta Club of Burbank Area is looking to give women who are looking to reenter the workforce an extra boost. Through Nov. 3, the women-focused service organization is accepting donations of gently-used womens business attire for its fourth annual Suit Up clothing drive. The clothing donated will be given to the Pacoima-based nonprofit MEND and will be sorted and distributed by that organizations clothing center. MEND will then distribute the business attire to single mothers in its poverty program, said Brittany Vaughan, lieutenant governor of the Zonta Club of Burbank Area. Its been wildly popular, she said. I think the community really enjoys being able to give to something that is easy to do. It makes everyone feel like their old work clothes are going to a really great cause. The main focus of the donation drive is to collect as much work-appropriate attire as possible. However, Vaughan said people can also donate accessories, such as purses or shoes, which will complement the business clothing. Vaughan said she isnt surprised with the amount of clothes her club receives each year, adding that some people tend to live in a throwaway culture. However, instead of going to a landfill, she said these clothes can find a new home and help another woman get back on her feet to provide for herself and her family. While workforce training is important for someone to get a job, Vaughan said clothing is also an integral part of the job-seeking equation that is often overlooked. We think about writing a resume or going to financial literacy workshops or things like that, but no one thinks about the person who doesnt have anything appropriate to wear during their interview, she said. Theres also a lot of information out there about people having the ability to feel good and confident when someone has clothes that are new for them to wear, and they know will be appropriate for an interview. Thats really exciting for me, she added. anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com Twitter: @acocarpio Hisham Ashmawi, arrested in Libya and soon to be extradited to Egypt, is a black box of information on terrorist groups Libyan National Army (LNA) forces arrested Egyptian terrorist Hisham Ashmawi in the eastern Libyan town of Derna at dawn on Monday 8 October, during the course of a successful military raid. An Egyptian source confirmed to Al-Ahram Weekly that Egyptian authorities have been working closely with Libyan authorities since Ashmawis capture. The extradition of Ashmawi should take place within a week. An Egyptian security team has already travelled to Libya to expedite the process. Documents relating to his handover have already been prepared, he said. LNA Spokesman Ahmed Mismari confirmed that the extradition will take place after the Libyan prosecutor-general signals his agreement given that Ashmawi is also wanted in connection with terrorist crimes in Libya. We are presenting a valuable gift to the Egyptian people, to the region and to all Arabs and Muslims, said Mismari. Ashmawi was captured when the Osama Al-Atrash squadron of the LNAs 106th Mujahfal Brigade launched a lightning strike in the mountainous area of Al-Maghar in Derna, taking Ashmawi and his cohorts by surprise. Ali Bahaa Ali, a terrorist operative of Egyptian origin, the wife and children of Omar Sorour, the mufti of the Morabitoun terrorist organisation who was killed in June, and the Libyan terrorist Marei Zaghbiya were all found with Ashmawi. Mismari told reporters Ashmawi was wearing an explosive belt but did not detonate it, and that the captured fugitives were transported in LNA armoured vehicles to barracks in Derna. Libyan political analyst Fawzi Al-Haddad told the Weekly the arrest of Ashmawi and his companions underlines the success of the battle to rid Derna of terrorism. Derna is the last of the terrorist strongholds in Libya, Al-Haddad said. The war is now reduced to a single street. This is an enormous blow against Al-Qaeda in Libya and its affiliate the Morabitoun, which was led by Ashmawi. On Egyptian-Libyan security coordination, Al-Haddad said: There are agreements and a level of coordination that permit for Ashmawis extradition to Egypt. The coordination has been fruitful and serves the security interests of both sides. Brigadier General Khaled Okasha, a member of the Supreme Council for the Fight against Terrorism, agrees. Security coordination between the two countries is at its highest level, he says. Other sources in Cairo believe Ashmawis handover will take place within a matter of days. They describe Ashmawi as a terrorist black box, able to provide a mine of information on terrorist operations in Egypt and abroad. Ashmawi, known as Abu Omar Al-Mohager in Libya, was a commander of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis in Sinai. He travelled to Syria via Turkey in mid-April 2013, only to return to Egypt in June where he took part in the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in. According to Ali Bakr, an expert on terrorist organisations, Ashmawi subscribes to the ideology of the Egyptian Jihad organisation, the predominant ideology of Al-Qaeda, and identified with the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of their overthrow in Egypt, viewing their expulsion from power as a threat to the wider terrorist agenda. From Rabaa Al-Adawiya Ashmawi moved to Libya where he formed a group beneath the banner of the Morabitoun, the North African-based organisation founded by Mokhtar Belmokhtar. His aim was to attract followers, money and notoriety as Al-Qaedas strongman in Libya, goals that were stymied by the complex configuration of terrorist organisations and militias in Libya, though he did attract a hodgepodge of Egyptian escapees from Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. When Morabitoun decided to establish an emirate in Egypt Ashmawi dispatched a small group of disciples, including former Egyptian army officer Emad Abdel-Halim, to Egypt. Apart from the Libyan operative Abdel-Rehim Al-Mismari, who was arrested in Bahariya Oasis, all members of the group were killed. Instead of heading off to Syria or Iraq, Ashmawi continued to issue repeated calls for jihad against the Egyptian regime from his stronghold in eastern Libya. With the elimination of his disciples Abdel-Halim in Bahariya Oasis and Omar Rifaai in Derna, Ashmawi lost two of his most trusted lieutenants. Then came the arrest of Zaghbiya, one of the most dangerous terrorists in Libya, leaving Ashmawis organisation effectively neutered. There is a long list of terrorist operations for which Ashmawi has claimed responsibility, or in connection with his name as a suspect. The operations have targeted public figures, houses of worship, security headquarters and army and police personnel. In September 2013 Ashmawi, in collaboration with Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis then leader Tawfik Fereig, planned the assassination attempt against interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim, using a suicide bomber. He was implicated in the Circassian Arabs case and accused of planning and helping carry out the Farafra checkpoint massacre in July 2014 in which 22 Egyptian conscripts were killed. In July 2015 his name surfaced in connection with the assassination of prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat, attacks against army and security forces in Sinai and the bombing of churches in Alexandria, Tanta and Minya. Ashmawis was a relatively small organisation, but that did not stop it becoming a major terrorist player. Ashmawi himself had acquired military expertise as a commando officer in the Egyptian army before being discharged. As a member of this elite force he had received expert training in Egypt and the US, and would acquire additional expertise in the field, fighting with terrorist organisations in Syria where he went in April 2013 and, according to several sources, received training in the manufacture and use of explosive devices. Born in 1978, Ashmawi joined the Egyptian Military Academy in 1996. After he had graduated he enlisted with the infantry and then transferred to the commandos. While serving in the army he shouted at an imam for having made a mistake while reciting the Quran, arousing suspicions that he had fallen under the influence of radical Islamists. He was placed under surveillance and eventually brought before a military court which in 2007 transferred him to administrative duty. Three years later another court ruled that he should retire and in 2011 he was discharged on the grounds of incitement against the Armed Forces. For a year Ashmawi worked as a clothing, then as an automobile spare parts, salesman. During this period he began to form a cell of officers who, like him, had been dismissed from the army for religious extremism. They moved to Sinai and joined Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, and Ashmawi soon became the groups military commander. He was wounded three times in the course of counter-terrorist operations, once in Egypt and twice in Libya. * A version of this article appears in print in the 11 October, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: A blow to terrorism Search Keywords: Short link: The five-member board of trustees for the Huntington Beach City School District has three seats up for election Nov. 6, with incumbents Shari Kowalke and Paul Morrow seeking reelection to four-year terms. They are challenged by candidates Karrie Burroughs, Jennifer Bunn Hayden and Diana Marks. Current board President Rosemary Saylor is not running for reelection. The district comprises two middle schools and seven elementary schools. The Daily Pilot sent a questionnaire to candidates to get a better idea of who they are, why theyre running and what issues they feel are most pressing. Some responses have been edited for formatting, brevity or clarity. Burroughs could not be reached. Jennifer Bunn Hayden Age: 34 Professional occupation: Attorney Education: Juris Doctor, Stanford Law School; Master of Education in curriculum and instruction, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in economics, University of Pennsylvania Time lived in the district: Six years Neighborhood in which you live, and how long youve lived there: Downtown Huntington Beach, three years Public service, activism and volunteerism: Valiente College Preparatory public charter school board; Junior State of America Foundation; Teach for America Corps; Orange County chapter of Stanford Law School Alumni; former law clerk to Orange County federal judge Josephine Staton Immediate family members: Husband Eric, daughters Naomi and Marielle What are the three issues you believe are the most important facing the district and why? 1. Preparing all students by providing the skills needed for success in today and tomorrows world: Academic skills, including STEM, are critical, but they are not sufficient. The district must be forward-thinking about what skills children need for success, including social-emotional and other soft skills, and it must provide an education in an environment where all students feel safe and secure so they are able to learn. 2. Financial security: Providing the highest-quality education requires resources, and HBCSD continues to face significant budgetary pressures as a result of shifting demographics (e.g., declining enrollment). To address this, the district should continue to push for increased funding from Sacramento as well as seek additional funding through creative avenues, such as encouraging a stronger education foundation that can raise private funds to alleviate some budgetary pressures. Over the long term, the district should explore ways to attract additional students, both through interdistrict transfers and by attracting new families with young children (like mine) to live in the district. Financial security also means continuous oversight of Measure Q implementation to ensure that limited resources are being spent wisely. 3. Communication and partnerships with all stakeholders: Communication with all stakeholders, particularly around the implementation of Measure Q, should be strengthened. The district should meet stakeholders where they are, including through the increased use of websites, email and social media. The district should also strengthen its relationship with the city and the larger community, because the strength of the schools depends on the strength of the city and vice versa. Shari Kowalke Age: 54 Professional occupation: Designer and career specialist Education: Bachelor of Arts Time lived in the district: 25 years Public service, activism and volunteerism: Huntington Beach City School District board, 2011 to present; PTA; two school site councils; foundation for Edison High School Center for International Business and Communication Studies program; YMCA Parent Advisory Board; AYSO and Seaview Little League volunteer Immediate family members: Husband Thomas, children Samantha and Evan What are the three issues you believe are the most important facing the district and why? 1. What is best for students is what drives all my decisions and it is what motivates my work as a board member. That includes the classroom instruction, materials, the facility, their teachers, the administration at their school site and much more. 2. The financial well-being of our school district: The reality is that the current funding of schools has only brought us back to the funding levels prior to the budget cuts in 2007 and 2008. This still puts California school funding below the average for states in this country. We need to continue to work with Sacramento to once again make California a leader in school funding and student success. 3. Facilities and the ongoing implementation of the [2016] Measure Q bond: While we educate todays students we must consider what our district will be in the future. I believe we must monitor the progress and planning in a forward-thinking manner. Diana Marks Age: 65 Professional occupation: Retired science teacher of 39 years in Huntington Beach City School District Education: Masters degree, Cal State Long Beach Time lived in the district: 43 years Neighborhood in which you live, and how long youve lived there: Peterson Elementary School neighborhood, four years Public service, activism and volunteerism: Religious education, Sts. Simon & Jude Catholic Church and School; Quilts for Kids, Orange County Quilters Guild; PTSA liaison; many school activities Immediate family members: Children David, Tommy and Tricia What are three issues you believe are the most important facing the district and why? 1. Decreasing enrollment: Making decisions that are best for our students and at the same time maintaining fiscal responsibilities will be necessary in the next few years. I feel we need to make these decisions transparent and include input from the community. 2. Maintaining excellence in all educational programs: This includes attracting and maintaining excellent teachers as well as making sure that classrooms have what they need for the 21st century. This would include STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and extracurricular activities in the arts, music and sports. 3. Measure Q [bond issue approved in 2016]: We need to make sure our tax dollars are spent wisely. We need to improve our transparency and communication with our taxpayers while making sure our decisions are in the best interest of our students. Paul Morrow Age: 64 Professional occupation: Retired; former principal of Marina High School, Sowers Middle School and Moffett Elementary School Education: Doctorate in educational leadership Time lived in the district: 34 years Neighborhood in which you live, and how long youve lived there: Huntington by the Sea, 34 years Public service, activism and volunteerism: Huntington Beach City School District board, 2014 to present; Huntington Beach Community Participation Advisory Board; National Scholastic Surfing Assn.; community pastor, Rockharbor church, Costa Mesa; Sunburst Youth Academy; Surf City Young Life; Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges Immediate family members: None What are the three issues you believe are the most important facing the district and why? 1. Instruction and learning: Provide our students and staff with state-of-the-art schools focused on providing them with the skills necessary to compete in a global society as our students move through the educational system as well as providing our staff with the tools and training necessary to support student learning in the 21st century and beyond. 2 Funding: Provide our schools with the ability to house our students and staff in safe and secure learning environments that are also conducive to learning and the ability to maintain those environments in all of our schools. 3. Communications and decision making: Involve our stakeholders and community in decision making through well-designed communications structures that are transparent and focused on positive growth as well as effective tools to provide information that communicates what we are doing, where we are going and how they can be involved. Priscella.Vega@latimes.com Twitter: @vegapriscella UPDATES: 3 p.m. Oct. 12: This article was updated to include a profile of candidate Jennifer Bunn Hayden, who was omitted from the original version due to a communication error. This article was originally published at 8 a.m. Oct. 10. Seven Orange County cities have sales tax increases on their ballots this year. Without question, these are all pension taxes. Pensions are crowding out basic services across the county. But not here in Newport Beach. In 2014, a wave of new candidates ran on a platform of attacking the pension tsunami. Those four are now up for reelection: Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield and council members Diane Dixon, Kevin Muldoon and Scott Peotter. Despite CalPERS abysmal investment returns of 2.4% and 0.6% in 2015 and 2016, respectively, the citys unfunded pension liability actually shows decreases for 2017 and 2018. This council has implemented a discretionary pay-down that previous councils did not. This council has passed balanced budgets each year with continual surpluses, thanks to solid fiscal management. This council is again running on a fiscally conservative platform that attacks the pension liability issue without increasing taxes. Contrast that with challenger Roy Englebrecht, who has run on a platform of increasing the Newport Beach sales tax, implementing a hiring freeze and slashing 10% for all city department budgets. Contrast that further with the other challengers in this race who have endorsed him. Im voting for fiscal conservatives. Im voting for Duffield, Muldoon, Peotter and Dixon. Bob McCaffrey Newport Beach Volunteer chairman, Residents for Reform Honorees are right about Brenner and Stoaks Re As eight Newport Beach Citizens of the Year, we endorse Joy Brenner and Tim Stoaks, (Sept. 14): The Pilot published a letter with an impressive endorsement for council candidates Joy Brenner and Tim Stoaks. Eight former Citizens of the Year spoke highly of the two candidates. This endorsement followed a similar one by seven former mayors that appeared in the StuNews on Sept. 14. The main point is that several of the current council incumbents Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield and council members Scott Peotter and Kevin Muldoon do not represent the values of our community. As a longterm resident, I know the integrity and dedication of these 15 endorsers and value their judgment. I will be voting accordingly for Brenner and Stoaks. Marie Kontos Newport Beach Why did Brenner give to Democrats? I recently read Joy Brenners letter to the editor attempting to rationalize her multiple donations to Democratic candidates and liberal political action committees through ActBlue, a SuperPAC formed to promote progressive causes and Democratic candidates (Despite what opponents say, Im a lifelong Republican who spent a short time as an independent, Oct. 1). Federal Elections Commission records show Brenner donated to Hillary Clintons presidential campaign just a week before Donald Trumps historic election. Some of her contributions were earmarked for liberal New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Sen. Bookers antics to defeat Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh were reprehensible. Brenner also donated to Democrat Hans Keirstead, who was running in the primary against Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa). When Brenner had a choice she supported Democrats. I will be supporting Republican Councilman Scott Peotter because I know where he stands. Mike Schroeder Newport Beach Past Chairman, California Republican Party 1997-99 A conservative on the public payroll Incumbent Newport Beach City Councilman Scott Peotter stated his No. 1 concern for the citys future is the unfunded pension liabilities the previous council encumbered us with. I cannot disagree with him on that matter. However, he currently draws stipends from the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District, the Orange County Sanitation District, the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency, as well as the city of Newport Beach. If reelected he too will qualify for a pension from the city of Newport Beach. How many public troughs does he want to eat from? Rather than seeking a solution he wants to add to the problem. Clay Wells Newport Beach Team Newport helped with flood maps Balboa Island and Balboa Peninsula owe deep gratitude to this City Council for fighting the federal government the past two years. The Federal Emergency Management Agency changed its flood maps to include all of Balboa Island and much more of the peninsula. This would have increased insurance premiums by millions of dollars every year. But the City Council fought back. They hired attorneys. They hired engineers. They appealed. And they won. How often do you hear of a city fighting back against the federal government and winning? This leadership under Councilman Kevin Muldoon and Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield has saved our residents an extraordinary amount of money. This is the kind of leadership that should be sustained. I will be voting for the council that cares for its residents fiscal well-being. Ill be voting for Duffield, Dixon, Muldoon and Peotter. Peter C. Pallette Newport Beach How to get published: Email us at dailypilot@latimes.com. All correspondence must include full name, hometown and phone number (for verification purposes). The Pilot reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and length. The day before 6-month-old Lydia Hand was to receive a living-donor liver transplant, a junior medical student exclaimed that she didnt know Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, or CHLA, performed that type of procedure in front of Hands family. In one of several leaps of faith that made CHLAs program possible, Hands grandmother, who was also the donor, told program co-founder Dr. Daniel Thomas, I believe in your team. That was in 1998, the year the then-nascent program performed its first living-donor transplant, which requires the donor to sacrifice a part of their liver to be implanted into an infant or child. Dr. Yuri Genyk, the current surgical director at CHLA, had just arrived from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, where he had learned the procedure. And things turned out so well, Glendale resident Thomas said during an event Friday afternoon at the hospital, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the program. Now 20 and studying at West Coast Baptist College, Hand, along with several other patients and their families, was at the celebration that honored Thomas and Genyk. They held our hand[s] the entire time throughout the procedure, and I guess we held theirs, too, Hand told attendees, referring to the mutual-learning experience of being one of the programs first patients. Two decades later, the programs team has performed about 325 pediatric liver transplants and roughly 100 living-donor transplants. Each life is different, and each life has an impact, Thomas said. We learn something about each of our patients that teaches us something new. According to Thomas, the Southern California program has a higher success rate, 95%, than the national rate of 90%. He partially attributes the edge to the fact that the CHLA team performs complex surgeries, such as living-donor transplants, that allow patients to get a liver before potentially passing away while waiting for a cadavers organ. The program has a waiting list of 20 to 30 patients at any given time, with waiting times averaging two to three months, Thomas said. Some other programs have waiting lists that stretch years, he added. A talented surgeon is only one factor in a successful recovery patients need a strong support system, and lot of it has to come from within yourself, Thomas said. He said he learned the triumphs and tribulations of being a grievously ill patient himself when, in 2013, he contracted an autoimmune disorder known as Guillain Barre. The disorder causes the immune system to attack the nervous system, severing communicative function between the brain and the body. With no signals going between the two, paralysis sets in, often starting with the legs. It was sudden, unexpected, acute, disabling, Thomas said. Like many of his patients, he was on deaths door. With every muscle immobilized, Thomas was put on a ventilator, followed by a stint in the intensive care unit. It took two years of rigorous physical therapy at Adventist Health Glendale, then known as Glendale Adventist Medical Center, to relearn to walk, talk and eat. In 2016, he returned to work at CHLA. Now, when Thomas feels a patient may need additional motivation in their recovery, he shares his own story. Hopefully, that serves as an inspiration to them, he said. It also serves as inspiration for his colleagues, said Paul Viviano, CHLAs chief executive, during the anniversary event. Viviano added that the 20-year commemoration was as much about looking forward as looking back. The anniversary event coincided with the CHLA liver transplant program signing an agreement with its sister program at Kings College of London, England, in which the two institutions fellows and faculty will participate in an exchange program. lila.seidman@latimes.com Twitter: @lila_seidman City Council members agreed that short-term rentals where the host is not present during the stay should be banned in Glendale, and they asked staff last week to prepare a report about the issue. Currently, the city has no regulations regarding short-term home and apartment rentals booked through popular sites such as Airbnb and VRBO, said Mike Garcia, city attorney, during a council meeting on Oct. 2. I dont see anything good about this, Councilman Ara Najarian said. [AirBnb hosts] skirt our laws for zoning; they skirt our laws for transient-occupancy taxes; they skirt our laws for responsibility of being a good neighbor. While Najarian and Mayor Zareh Sinanyan said they would support an outright ban of all short-term rentals, the council decided to tentatively support home-sharing, where the host remains on the premises during the stay. All council members who were at the meeting tentatively rejected vacation stays, where the host is not present. I dont think theres any other way of controlling the noise, the traffic and all the other negative impacts, Councilwoman Paula Devine said of home-sharing. If the owner is there, they can see whats going on and stop it, kick the people out or whatever they want to do. Councilman Vartan Gharpetian left the meeting early after making a brief statement with directives including mandated quiet hours and safety inspections. The report presented to the council was an overview of how other municipalities have addressed home-sharing practices, including capping the number of rental days per year, working with booking sites to collect relevant taxes and imposing fines on hosts who violate local regulations. Council members also addressed the updated status of various lawsuits brought by municipalities at the state and federal levels against short-term rental-booking platforms and vice versa, previously presented in a report on the issue in 2016. Since 2016, more of the lawsuits have resolved, but, on the flipside, weve had more complaints regarding short-term rentals than ever, said Yvette Neukian, senior assistant city attorney, who presented the report. Those complaints include excessive noise, late-night parties, loitering and even theft, according to several council members. Najarian said his car was broken into while he was living near a property frequently rented out on a short-term basis. There are roughly 400 units in Glendale that city officials suspect are regularly used for short-term rentals, according to Councilman Vrej Agajanian. In order not to lose affordable units in Glendale, we need to eliminate these Airbnb units, Agajanian said after the meeting, echoing concerns expressed by other officials that the phenomenon depletes the housing stock and contributes to rising rents in the area. Los Angeles has not adopted short-term-rental regulations, though City Council members have been deliberating over a potential ordinance for more than three years. Other cities, however, including Pasadena, Santa Monica, San Francisco and Palm Desert, have adopted regulations. They all require hosts to register with the city and pay transient-occupancy taxes. Glendale has not yet set a timeline for drafting regulations. lila.seidman@latimes.com Twitter: @lila_seidman Photographer, angler and journalist Jess McGlothlin is leading a new trip to Belize, offered by Frontiers International Travel. The week-long excursion begins with three days of guided fishing on the waters of Ambergris Caye at El Pescador Resort and ends with three days of cultural and culinary activities at the Copal Tree Lodge. Highlights there include visiting Maya ruins, handcrafting a chocolate bar from cacao beans, and participating in photography lessons and snorkeling and cooking classes with the lodges chef. Dates: Feb. 7-14 Price: From $4,805 per person, double occupancy. Includes accommodations, meals, daily photo instructions, fishing guides and in-country airfare. International airfare, rod rental and fishing license, and gratuities not included. Info: Frontiers International Travel, (800) 245-1950, lat.ms/belizefishingandphotos Bulgarian authorities on Wednesday identified a male suspect in his early 20s in the rape and murder of journalist Viktoria Marinova, a case that sent shock waves through Europe and triggered anxieties about press freedom around the world. Authorities are now saying, however, that the motive was likely sexual assault, not an attack on a journalist, although the investigation is ongoing. The suspect was detained in Germany and has since been charged with rape and murder. Marinova, 30, was attacked on Saturday as she was jogging in a park in Ruse, a small city in northeastern Bulgaria. Her professional identity as a host on TVN, a local television station, focused on investigative journalism and immediately stoked fears about retributions against journalists exposing corruption schemes, especially in Eastern Europe. Advertisement In the last year, two other investigative journalists were killed in EU member states. But early Wednesday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told reporters that investigators had interviewed her family, colleagues and friends that there is no apparent link to her work. The suspect, Severin Krasimirov, from Ruse, was born in 1997 and has a criminal record that dates back to 2007, including charges of theft. According to Bulgarian officials, Krasimirov fled the scene and headed to Germany, where he was ultimately apprehended. Initial lab results linked his DNA to samples found at the crime scene, authorities said. Bulgaria is the most corrupt member state in the EU, according to global corruption watchdog Transparency International. It also ranks 111 out of 180 in terms of press freedom, the lowest in the EU, according to Reporters Without Borders, a French organization devoted to the protection of journalists. Marinova, a former lifestyle journalist, had only recently transitioned into her role as the host of a program called Detector, focused on investigations. That program had only featured one episode before her death, and it had merely broadcast interviews with other reporters who discussed their own investigations, stories that had already broken weeks before. Authorities noted that Krasimirov lived near the crime scene. We continue to work on all versions, said Marinov, the interior minister. Even if Marinovas murder proves unrelated to her work, many local commentators were quick to point out that crimes against women are endemic in Bulgaria. Earlier this year, the government refused to ratify the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe initiative aiming to battle and prevent violence against women, after Bulgarias constitutional court ruled that the convention contradicted the countrys constitution. So far, the Istanbul Convention has been ratified by 33 European states. In this situation its necessary to analyze in depth the problems in Bulgaria connected to violence against women, declared a statement from the Assn. of European Journalists - Bulgaria. After five months of political wrangling, Iraqs former oil minister Adel Abdul Mahdi was chosen last week to form a new government the latest hope for reconstructing a county ravaged by war and hardship. His predecessors came to power amid existential battles against Islamic State and a Kurdish succession bid that promised to dismember the country. But as prime minister he faces an arguably greater challenge: appeasing an electorate that has lost patience with the entire political class and is eager to see results more than 15 years after the U.S.-led invasion. An economist who lived in exile in France for many years before returning to Iraq in 2004, he served as finance minister and vice president, and sat on a committee to write Iraqs constitution in 2005. At 76, Abdul Mahdi is the oldest person to hold the prime ministers post in the post-Saddam Hussein era, and has a reputation for quitting when things dont go his way. He resigned as both vice president and oil minister. Hes been in the establishment. He was a former communist, then became a Baathist, a Marxist and an islamist . He is a very close friend to the Kurds, said Renad Mansour, an Iraqi expert at the U.K.-based Chatham House think tank. Advertisement Hes someone who is respected across the board, and thats difficult considering how he flipped between parties. His supporters point to his status as an independent as proof that Iraq is finally moving away from the sectarian politics that have divided the country. All agree he is an affable man, displaying neither the violent streak of former Prime Minister Nuri Maliki nor Haidar Abadis aversion to bare-fisted politics when he led the country. On the streets of Baghdad, Iraqis are hoping for reforms in government and a return of basic services. (Ahmed Jalil / EPA-Rex) Abdul Mahdi comes to power very much a compromise candidate, one agreed upon by parliaments top blocs, including the faction headed by nationalist cleric Muqtada Sadr, and Iran-friendly, Shiite-dominated militias led by former commander Hadi Ameri. Abdul Mahdi also comes with the imprimatur of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the countrys top religious figure. Even the U.S. and Iran, two countries that have long used the premiership as a proxy for their own battles, accepted him as a draw: He wasnt the U.S.s first choice, but nor was he Irans. These are people that we know pretty well. Theyve been around the Iraqi government scene for some time, said U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo at a news conference in Washington. What we talked about was building out an Iraqi government that was interested in the welfare and future good fortunes for the Iraqi people, not controlled by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The new prime minister will probably continue his predecessors balancing act between the two adversaries, said Zaid Ali, an Iraqi analyst and author of The Struggle for Iraqs Future. Sadr, whose reformist message gained him the highest number of votes in Mays elections, has given Abdul Mahdi one year to prove his successes before Allah and his people, according to a statement he released on social media last week. He has also offered to relinquish his allocation of ministers for Abdul Mahdi to choose without factional pressures. (In Iraqs parliamentary system, winning parties chose Cabinet members depending on their share of the votes.) Abdul Mahdi will preside over a government restless to rebuild and move past the ravages of war with Islamic State. Yet few investors are willing to help finance a state staffed by voracious politicians. Meanwhile, thousands of enraged citizens across the country have protested the states inability to provide basic services, such as electricity. And demonstrations like those in the southern city of Basra, where residents fell ill after drinking the water, were so forceful that even Abadis own party members abandoned him. Abdul Mahdis independence means he has no party to appease. Yet, because of that independence, he is answerable to all, said Sajad Jiyad, Abdul Mahdi is committed to reforms, but that may not be the case with the rival coalitions that cooperated to nominate him, Jiyad said. And most of those parties would be opposed to the reforms Abdul Mahdi would have to consider, such as tightening spending, freezing increases in the number of state employees and security personnel, and working with global organizations to attract foreign investments. An upcoming budget law will be Abdul Mahdis first test, said Ali. Regardless of what he tries to achieve, he will face a lot of resistance in parliament, and its populated by dozens of parties almost all of which are principally motivated by self-interest, said Ali. A well-constructed strategic budget that doesnt meet the approval of parliament wont pass. With the war against Islamic State all but finished, people are now expecting the state, with Abdul Mahdi at the helm, to propel Iraq back to its central role in the region, Jiyad said. These next four years arent about survival, but change and building, he said. The war is over; lets get to work. Staff writer Bulos reported from Beirut. Staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed reporting from Washington. Twitter: @nabihbulos Turkish media outlets close to the president published images Wednesday of what they described as a 15-member assassination squad allegedly sent to target Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and of a black van later traveling from the Saudi Consulate, where he went missing, to the consuls home. The release of the photographs and video raises pressure on Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi disappeared Oct. 2 during a visit to the consulate. Turkish officials reportedly fear that the team killed the writer, who was critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The kingdom has called the allegations baseless, but has not provided any evidence that Khashoggi left the consulate and did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. State-run broadcaster TRT aired video purportedly showing the Saudis arriving by private jet and then leaving a hotel. The video shows Khashoggi entering the consulate. An hour and 54 minutes later, according to the time stamp, a black Mercedes Vito with diplomatic license plates, which resembled a van parked outside of the consulate when the writer walked in, drives about 1.2 miles to the consuls home, where it parks inside a garage. Advertisement This image taken from video obtained by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet claims to show Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2. (Hurriyet / Associated Press) The video all seems to come from surveillance cameras, which would have been posted throughout the district housing the Saudi Consulate and other diplomatic missions. No one has produced any such video of Khashoggi leaving the consulate. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published images of what it referred to as the assassination squad apparently taken at passport control. It said they checked into two hotels in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and left later that day. Khashoggi had written a series of columns for the Washington Post that were critical of Prince Mohammed, who has led a widely publicized drive to reform the Sunni monarchy but has also presided over the arrests of activists and businessmen. Erdogan has not accused Saudi Arabia of being responsible for Khashoggis disappearance but has said that if the Saudis have evidence of him leaving the consulate they should release it. Saudi Arabia is a major investor in Turkey, despite Ankaras support for the Gulf nation of Qatar, which is under a blockade led by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations. Police and investigators in Turkey typically release video and information through state-run or otherwise government-friendly media outlets, as opposed to holding briefings like those common in Western nations. On Wednesday, the Post published a column by Khashoggis fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. She acknowledged the writer first visited the consulate on Sept. 28 despite being somewhat concerned that he could be in danger. He later returned Oct. 2 after being promised needed paperwork so the two could be married. A surveillance video image surfaced Tuesday showing Khashoggi walking into the consulate in Istanbuls upscale 4th Levent neighborhood. No evidence of him leaving the consulate has been made public, but Turkish officials also have yet to provide evidence he was kidnapped or killed. At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance, Cengiz wrote. I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate. She added: Although this incident could potentially fuel a political crisis between the two nations, let us not lose sight of the human aspect of what happened. Khashoggi had sought to become a U.S. citizen after living in self-imposed exile since last year, fearing repercussions for his criticism of the prince, Cengiz wrote. Trump, who took his first overseas trip as U.S. president to the kingdom and whose son-in-law Jared Kushner has close ties to Prince Mohammed, said Tuesday he had not yet talked to the Saudis about Khashoggi, but I will be at some point. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said Tuesday that Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were open to cooperation and would allow the consulate building to be searched. Its unclear when such a search would take place. Embassies and consulates under the Vienna Convention are technically foreign soil and must be protected by host nations. Saudi Arabia may have agreed to the search in order to reassure its Western allies and the international community. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday accused China of ratcheting up military and diplomatic pressure on her self-ruled island, adding another layer of tension to the worsening relations between Beijing and an island it considers a breakaway territory. She also vowed that Taiwan would resist any effort by China to unify the two sides and that the island state would invest more in its military, thanks to support from the U.S. and Japan. Tsai made her remarks during a televised speech on Taiwans National Day. There was no immediate response from China. For some time now, Chinas unilateral diplomatic offensive and military coercion have not only harmed cross-strait relations, they have also seriously challenged the status quo of peace and stability, Tsai said. Advertisement Beijing wants Tsai to come to the bargaining table, but with the condition that Taiwan accept that China and the island are a single country. Although her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, signed more than 20 agreements on investment, trade and tourism after accepting such a condition, Tsai has refused and instead has pushed for Taiwanese autonomy. Government polls in Taiwan show overwhelming support for autonomy. In recent months, the provocations between the two have spilled into public view. Chinese military aircraft periodically fly near Taiwan and aircraft carriers ply the waters off its shore. In July, Taiwan welcomed the presence of U.S. warships that defiantly moved through the Taiwan Strait. Meanwhile, China demanded that all commercial airlines stop referring to Taiwan as a nation. China and Taiwan have also been locked in a diplomatic chess match as each seeks global support. Officials in Taipei say Beijing has pressured five of Taiwans diplomatic allies to switch their allegiance during Tsais presidency. Today just 17 countries, small and mostly impoverished, recognize Taiwan, compared with the 170 plus that recognize China. Chipping away at Taiwan from another angle, in February Beijing unveiled a list of 31 measures that make it easier and more appealing for Taiwanese to invest, work and study in China. China is attractive with its $12-trillion-plus economy, more than 20 times the size of Taiwans. Tsai vowed Wednesday to increase military spending every year on a stable track. Our lean and combat-ready troops absolutely have the ability to defend Taiwans sovereignty, she said. In addition, we are also working to enhance our national defense self-sufficiency. Taiwan has seen a jump in favorable attention this year from the U.S., its staunchest informal ally. In her speech, Tsai noted that Vice President Mike Pence lauded Taiwans democracy while criticizing China in a speech this month. Pence openly condemned Chinas suppression of Taiwans diplomatic efforts, she said. The Trump administration also has approved two Taiwan arms packages, and President Trump signed a bill encouraging high-level visits between the two. Japan has spoken up for Taiwan in international settings, and the European Union has formally recognized Taiwans democratic development, she said. In the last two years, facing pressure from China, Taiwan has upheld its values and beliefs, been extremely resilient, and therefore garnered the support of more and more like-minded countries, she said. But Taiwan-U.S. relations could cool rapidly if the China-U.S. trade dispute eases. Observers warn that Trump may only be using Taiwan as a game piece to pressure China over trade. Taiwan can sometimes be played as a leverage game diplomatically, but in substance, I just dont see that the relationship between the U.S. and China would pay any special attention to Taiwan, said Liu Yih-jiun, a professor of public affairs at Fo Guang University in Taiwan. Tsai has also failed to counter Beijings powerful incentives for Taiwanese citizens to work, study and invest on the mainland, said Lin Chong-pin, a retired strategic studies professor in Taiwan. Definitely people think the economic lure from China to Taiwanese people has become irresistible, and theres greater willingness for people to send children to be educated in China, Lin said. Has she addressed that? She has not. Jennings is a special correspondent. It was only six months ago that Saudi Arabias young crown prince was feted in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, Manhattan and Washington as a reformist monarch-in-waiting, already putting a modernist stamp on an intensely traditional and fabulously wealthy desert kingdom. Now the image of 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is tarnished by growing suspicion of Saudi state involvement in what may have been a brutal assassination of a critic. And the deepening mystery leaves the Trump administration, which has embraced the House of Saud more warmly than has any other Western leader, in an increasingly awkward spot. The crisis was sparked by the disappearance and possible killing and dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known and well-connected Saudi journalist, self-exiled in the United States, who had for months sounded the alarm over increasingly autocratic moves by the crown prince. On Oct. 2, Khashoggi walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to obtain some routine paperwork and has not been seen since. A flood of media reports have cited Turkish investigators as saying they believe he was killed soon after entering the building and his corpse cut to pieces and disposed of by an elite Saudi security team. Advertisement The kingdom has maintained its innocence, saying Khashoggi dropped out of sight after leaving the consulate. Human rights groups, together with Khashoggis many friends in the Washington establishment, have expressed horror over still-unproven indications that a gruesome fate befell the 59-year-old former Saudi insider, who wrote opinion columns for the Washington Post. Many longtime observers of Saudi Arabia, however, see the affair not as some sort of aberration, but part of a grimly logical progression of events, driven by a thin-skinned young royal taking more and more drastic measures to insulate himself against criticism. Theres almost a sense now that if he wants to do something, no matter how ill-considered, he does it, said Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institutions Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. Whats different about his style of governance is the recklessness and the disregard for what we might call normal behavior. Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director for Human Rights Watchs Middle East and North Africa Division, called it an impossible proposition now to be promoting [the prince] as a reformer if dark suspicions that Khashoggi was killed are borne out. With a royal family numbering in the thousands, palace intrigue is a constant in the kingdom. But Mohammeds ascent stood out: He was named crown prince last year, vaulting ahead of rivals a generation older, swiftly becoming the principal power behind the throne occupied by his ailing father, 82-year-old King Salman. Two years earlier, as a brash and untested defense minister, he launched what was to become a disastrous war in next-door Yemen. And MBS, as he is widely called, made waves again a year ago when he launched what was billed as a massive anti-corruption drive, but what critics called a blatant campaign to shake down wealthy rivals and consolidate his power. In a kingdom where the many branches of the royal family traditionally ruled by consensus, the harsh crackdown was a profound shock. The dozens of royals and VIPs the crown prince locked up in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton included Waleed bin Talal, one of the worlds richest businessmen. Saudi Arabia said it recouped $100 billion from the crackdown, but international investors were jarred by the lack of due process. At the same time, the princes high-profile ambitions to reform Saudi Arabias oil-dependent economy into a kind of Singapore in the desert, bolstered by innovation and high-tech prowess, were faltering. In the spring, Mohammed won approving headlines around the world when Saudi women were finally allowed to drive, but he also jailed some female activists who had sought an end to the ban along with clerics, intellectuals and all manner of critics. In August, after Canada mildly expressed disapproval of some of those arrests, Saudi Arabia reacted with a fury that was widely viewed as over-the-top and tossed out Ottawas ambassador to the kingdom. For most of his time in office, President Trump has gone far out of his way to be friendly to the Saudis, dispensing none of the long-standing Western admonishments about human rights. Trumps first overseas trip as president was to the kingdom, which afforded him a lavish ceremonial welcome, and Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, forged a rapport with his near-contemporary, the crown prince. Some of that largesse is strategic. The Trump administration views Saudi Arabia, the regions main Sunni Muslim power, as a key bulwark against a common foe, Shiite Muslim Iran. Washington has lent its support to the Yemen war, which has become a large-scale humanitarian disaster, while striking lucrative arms deals with the Saudi government and wooing Saudi investors. In the days following Khashoggis disappearance, the State Department confined itself to relatively anodyne statements of concern. This week, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo weighed in, calling for a thorough investigation with transparent results. Vice President Mike Pence said he was deeply troubled and that the U.S. stood ready to assist in any way. Trump, who on Monday expressed vague hopes that the situation would sort itself out, had toughened his stance somewhat by Wednesday. To reporters, to anybody, we cannot let this happen, he told reporters at the White House. And were going to get to the bottom of it. Lawmakers seemingly viewed the episode with considerably more urgency. Putting pressure on Trump, a bipartisan group of foreign policy leaders in the Senate sent the White House a letter on Wednesday that could formally set the stage for sanctions against the Saudis over Khashoggis disappearance. Saudi Arabia has continued to disavow any knowledge of Khashoggis fate. Prince Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., said reports of the journalists killing were false and baseless. But there were growing signs that Khashoggi, whose columns criticizing the crown prince had been distributed by the Washington Post in Arabic, had been marked for retribution. The Post reported Wednesday that U.S. intelligence had previously intercepted Saudi official communications in which plans to capture him were discussed. The disappearance sent chills through the Saudi dissident exile community. The prospect of putting critics and activists abroad on Saudi blacklists while awaiting their turn for assassination by death squads is daunting! tweeted Madawi al-Rasheed, a Saudi visiting professor at the London School of Economics. Meanwhile, new evidence was piling up daily. Turkish investigators pored over surveillance footage and flight records, focusing on the movements of a 15-person team including a Saudi forensics expert and military and intelligence officers that traveled to Istanbul just prior to the journalists disappearance. The Istanbul prosecutors office announced that it had assigned two senior prosecutors to oversee the case, and Turkish authorities said they had obtained permission from Saudi Arabia to search the consulate. But by late Wednesday, they had yet to enter the building. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is usually quick to assert his governments authority, appeared reluctant to antagonize a powerful neighbor. He has not directly accused the Saudi government, but he has demanded that Saudi officials prove they were not involved. Whether he was killed is not confirmed yet, said Yasin Aktay, a senior advisor to Erdogan and the first official contacted by Khashoggis friends when they feared the worst after he vanished. But it is the highest possibility. Times staff writers King and Bulos reported from Washington and Damascus, Syria, respectively. Farooq, a special correspondent, reported from Istanbul. laura.king@latimes.com @laurakingLAT nabih.bulos@latimes.com Twitter: @nabihbulos Staff writer King reported from Washington and staff writer Bulos from Damascus. Special correspondent Umar Farooq contributed reporting from Istanbul. Two Kenyan teachers were killed when suspected al Shabaab militants threw an explosive device at a house at a school in Mandera county near the Somali border, police said. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack overnight. "Last night we killed two non-Muslim Kenyan teachers after we attacked their school in Arabow village of Mandera county", Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaabs military operations spokesman, told Reuters on Wednesday. The teachers were killed in a fire caused by the explosion in the attack at Arabia Boys Secondary School, police said on Twitter. Police reservists guarding the school "engaged the attackers who then fled as more reinforcements were mobilised", police said. The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab aims to topple Somalia's U.N.-backed government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islam. They have intensified attacks in Kenya since it sent troops into Somalia in 2011. Search Keywords: Short link: Fuel truck driver Ali Astal wouldnt dare cross this country brimming with guns and militias without a Kalashnikov or two stashed under the dashboard. But when he reaches the Mukalla city limits, he gamely surrenders his weapons at a checkpoint. This is for the citys security, he said as a soldier wrote out a receipt so he might collect the guns on his way out. Mukalla, former Al Qaeda bastion of about 500,000 people, is one of the safest cities in a nation torn apart by a brutal civil war that has claimed at least 10,000 lives, displaced 2 million and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. It may be the only place in Yemen that doesnt allow civilians to carry firearms in public, a common sight elsewhere. Advertisement But two years after troops from the United Arab Emirates and their local allies reclaimed the city, a port on the Arabian Sea, residents are growing restless. Though the relative security is a welcome relief from bombings and shootings that were once commonplace, lasting stability will depend on reconstruction and economic development, and there has been little progress on those fronts. Mukalla, like many places nominally under the authority of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadis government in exile, has largely been left to fend for itself. Buildings destroyed by airstrikes still scar some neighborhoods. Power outages last up to eight hours a day. Raw sewage seeps from damaged pipelines. Jobs are hard to come by and usually dont pay well. An armed Coast Guard boat patrols the port in Mukalla, Yemen, the main source of revenue for the city. (Sana Center for Strategic Studies) Especially galling to many residents is that Mukalla, capital of the oil-rich province of Hadramawt, is beset by chronic fuel shortages. Long lines form at gas stations when deliveries arrive. I remember once I parked my car in the line at 11 a.m. and waited until nighttime, then slept in my car holding my breath till morning and finally got some, said Lutfi Balateef, 23, as he waited to fill his tank one blistering afternoon. Families fleeing fighting elsewhere in Yemen have poured into the city, adding to the pressure on hospitals, schools and other services. Mukalla is also contending with the loss of remittances from Yemenis who were living in Saudi Arabia for work but were pushed out by policies there intended to create jobs for Saudis. And last month, the precipitous decline of Yemens currency sent hundreds of people into the streets to protest soaring prices. In one startling sign of discontent, some of Mukallas cosmopolitan residents expressed nostalgia for the terrorist franchise known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, widely regarded as the networks most dangerous affiliate. The Hadrami Elite, a Yemeni military force set up by the United Arab Emirates, helped drive Al Qaeda from Mukalla in 2016. (Alexandra Zavis / Los Angeles Times) The group swept into the city virtually unopposed in the spring of 2015 as a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States was focused on its main target: northern rebels known as Houthis, who months earlier took over the capital, Sana, sending the president fleeing south to the port city of Aden and then to Saudi Arabia. Mukalla became the centerpiece of an Al Qaeda fiefdom that extended nearly 400 miles along the Yemeni coastline. The militants took over military bases and armories and according to an investigation by Reuters news agency looted as much as $100 million from a central bank branch, extorted $1.4 million from the national oil company and collected up to $2 million a day in taxes on goods coming into the port. They ruled with brutal efficiency, inflicting harsh punishments on those who crossed them. Two men denounced for providing information that led to the death of Al Qaedas No. 2 leader, Nasir Abdel-Karim Wahishi, in a U.S. drone strike were shot and their bodies suspended for three days from an overpass, crucifixion-style. A woman accused of adultery was reportedly stoned to death. A shipment of rice and sugar is unloaded at the port in Mukalla, Yemen. (Alexandra Zavis / Los Angeles Times) But such extreme violence was rare; Al Qaeda found other ways to win acquiescence from the local population. It seized on long-standing feelings of marginalization by the north, putting some of its ill-gotten gains to work in heavily publicized development projects. It said that it was trying to win hearts and minds by being gentle with the population, said Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen scholar at the University of Oxfords Pembroke College who has visited the region. The militants paved roads and repaired sewer lines, ordered loafing civil servants to put in a full days work and paid salaries on time rare things even before the war. They also promised to defend the predominantly Sunni Muslim population from the Houthis, adherents of the minority Shiite Zaidi sect who are aligned with Saudi Arabias archenemy, Iran. You want the truth? asked a father of five, who did not want to be identified for fear of running afoul of the citys current leaders. They were good. They imposed order. They imposed efficiency. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. Al Qaeda withdrew in April 2016 in response to airstrikes by the United Arab Emirates, a coalition member, and a ground assault by a Yemeni military force the Emiratis set up the Hadrami Elite. In order to spare the city, religious leaders brokered a deal allowing the militants to take their looted cash and weapons with them, according to local sources, though the coalition denies that. The militants retreated to their traditional strongholds in the provinces interior, a rugged region where they receive protection from local tribes. Suspected Al Qaeda members are held at the refurbished central prison in Mukalla, Yemen. (Sana Center for Strategic Studies) Few in Mukalla expect the peace to hold if authorities dont do more to improve living conditions. Badr Basalmah, a former Yemeni transport minister who lives in the city, said he is especially worried about soaring unemployment among the biggest segment of the population: young people. If we do not take care of these youths, there are other groups of people Al Qaeda, ISIS, anyone, he said, using a common acronym for Islamic State. They are ready to pay money, and they are ready to recruit them. And after that, we will start to fight. With some 30,000 members, the Hadrami Elite, which is commanded by the provincial governor, Maj. Gen. Faraj Bahsani, is a major employer. But the force cant take everyone who needs a job. I have the files of 2,000 tribesmen who tried to get into the Hadrami Elite forces and couldnt, said Ali Omar Bamazeb, vice president of the Hadramawt tribal confederation. He also complained about discrepancies in salaries between those paid by the coalition and those paid by local authorities a situation that could sow discord within the ranks. Kendall anticipated another problem: What happens when these people stop getting paid? At some point someone is going to say, Right, the war is over, and youll have lots of trained people with guns who cant find work. There are no easy solutions. Government revenue from the port has proved insufficient, and though the province is rich in oil, the proceeds go mainly to the central government. Bahsani, the governor, recently threatened to block exports of crude if national authorities didnt offer some relief from rising prices. Saudi Arabia announced last week that it would provide a $200-million cash infusion to the Yemeni central bank, though there were questions about whether that would be sufficient to halt the fall in the nations currency, the rial. Bahsani said he is pinning his hopes on outsiders. Merchants in the Persian Gulf region, including members of an extensive Hadramawt diaspora, have expressed interest in making investments, he said. But infrastructure, red tape and corruption are big obstacles. The regional airport remains closed to commercial traffic because United Arab Emirate troops are using it as a base and, at least until last year, according to human rights groups, a detention facility where inmates were tortured. To use the port, importers must get permits from coalition officials in Saudi Arabia, which is concerned about illegal arms shipments destined for the rebels. Then ships can wait for days to unload due to a shortage of berths and demands for bribes, according to local business leaders. One importer said that even though he had authorization from Saudi Arabia to receive a shipment of food at the port, he was forced to pay $1,000 at the Emirati base to pick it up. Why should I pay this? he said angrily. It is all back to corruption. Emirati officials in Mukalla declined to meet with a group of visiting journalists, including The Times, to answer questions about their activities. Foreign donors and international aid groups, another potential source of development dollars, remain focused on the dire humanitarian needs in the Arab worlds poorest nation. War has pushed Yemen, a country of 28 million people, to the brink of famine and fueled a deadly cholera epidemic. The United Arab Emirates is refurbishing hospitals and classrooms in Mukalla and continuing to arm, train and finance the Hadrami Elite, which is credited with maintaining security. But local leaders say that neither the coalition nor humanitarian groups are doing much to spur the economy. They forget one very important thing: Humanitarian aid is not covering more than 10% of what the people need, said Basalmah, the former transport minister. The majority, 90%, is coming from the economic side from trading, from business, from job-creating. Even if the war is brought to an end, he predicted that Mukalla, along with the rest of Yemen, would remain unstable for years to come. The United Arab Emirates has been refurbishing hospitals in Mukalla,Yemen. (Sana Center for Strategic Studies) Twitter: @alexzavis Zavis visited Mukalla on a trip organized by the Sana Center for Strategic Studies, an independent think tank based in Beirut. Areena Omar Basmael, who provided interpreting, contributed to this report. Twitter: @alexzavis Zavis visited Mukalla on a trip organized by the Sana Center for Strategic Studies, an independent think tank based in Beirut. Areena Omar Basmael, who provided interpreting, contributed to this report. Lebanon's Hezbollah group should get the Health Ministry in the new government, a senior Hezbollah figure said on Wednesday, a more important state agency than any it has controlled in recent times as it provides services to millions of people. Hezbollah control over the Health Ministry could have implications for foreign aid, as the Iran-backed group is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and some other Western as well as Arab countries. Mohammed Fnaish, the youth and sport minister in the caretaker government, told the group's al-Manar TV station that Hezbollah had an agreement with Lebanon's other main Shia party Amal for Hezbollah to run the health ministry. Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri has been negotiating with Lebanon's rival parties since a parliamentary election in May to form a new power-sharing cabinet, but has so far been unable to reach consensus. The major parties have jostled over the number of cabinet seats they should get, and over the apportionment of the most powerful ministries. However, this week, there have been signs of a break in the deadlock, with numerous politicians voicing concern over the threat of a looming economic crisis. Hariri said on Tuesday that all sides had made concessions in the talks and he hoped the new government would be formed after President Michel Aoun returns from a trip abroad. Aoun is expected to come back on Friday. Last week Hariri said he had no objection himself to Hezbollah taking the health portfolio, but that if it did so, there was a big possibility that the World Bank or other international bodies could stop aid to the Health Ministry. Lebanon is a major recipient of aid, both directly and through international bodies. Earlier this year it secured billions of dollars in commitments to soft loans, including from the World Bank, contingent on fiscal and other reforms. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said earlier on Wednesday that some saw "a positive, promising atmosphere" in the talks about forming a new government and his office was engaged in contacts on the issue though these required more time. Berri, long one of the most powerful figures in Lebanon, also said the economic situation was "very fragile" and urged everyone to "shoulder their responsibilities", according to al-Manar. Lebanon has the third largest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world at more than 150 percent, and the new government is expected to start moves towards bringing down the deficit. The International Monetary Fund urged Lebanon in June to make an "immediate and substantial fiscal" adjustment to make its debt load more sustainable. Search Keywords: Short link: To access our in-house intelligence please request a trial here. Read this article and more for a 30 day period. Are you already an Managing IP subscriber? Login here Around 30 to 40 lawmakers from the opposition Labour Party would be prepared to back a Brexit deal that British Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to strike with the European Union, The Times newspaper reported, citing unidentified lawmakers. The EU's Brexit negotiators believe a divorce deal with Britain is "very close", diplomatic sources told Reuters last week, though it is unclear whether May could get the deal approved by the British parliament. Around 320 votes in the 650-seat parliament are needed to be certain of winning a vote. May has 315 lawmakers and governs with a working majority of 13 thanks to a deal with the 10 lawmakers of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), though rebels in her own party say 40 of her lawmakers could vote against her deal. The Times said a group of between 30 to 40 Labour lawmakers could defy their leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and vote for a deal that May hopes to bring back by the end of the year. In one scenario being discussed, Labour lawmakers would initially vote down any deal to prove loyalty to the leadership, but if parliamentary deadlock remained the rebels would back any deal that prevented a chaotic departure, The Times said. If lawmakers reject a deal, May could fall and Britain would face leaving the EU without an agreement, a move investors and company chiefs say would weaken the West, panic financial markets and block the arteries of trade. Without a deal the United Kingdom would move from seamless trade with the EU to customs arrangements set by the World Trade Organization for external states. Search Keywords: Short link: Google's Dragonfly Serves their Chinese Master If there was ever any doubt that Google is committed to the destruction of freedom of speech, just examine their enthusiastic efforts to censor, track and restrict the Chinese use of the internet. Ryan Gallagher reports in The Intercept on a project code-named Dragonfly. "Following a December 2017 meeting between Googles CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official, according to internal Google documents and people familiar with the plans. Teams of programmers and engineers at Google have created a custom Android app, different versions of which have been named Maotai and Longfei. The app has already been demonstrated to the Chinese government; the finalized version could be launched in the next six to nine months, pending approval from Chinese officials." Google has a long history of transferring technology to their Chinese authoritarian partners. The Intercept account continues. "During a February 2006 congressional hearing that focused on the activities of American technology companies in China, members of the House International Relations Committee called Google a functionary of the Chinese government and accused it of abhorrent actions for participating in censorship. Google has seriously compromised its dont be evil policy, declared Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. Indeed, it has become evils accomplice. The obvious dreaded concern is that some deleterious version of Dragonfly will be imposed upon domestic users of Google and Android. So it is significant when VP Mike Pence slams Google over Chinese search engine project and reflects similar concerns with the internal conflict going on within Google. "While Google CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly said Dragonfly is still in its early stages, it has caused internal problems for the company. The Intercept reports that at least five employees have quit in protest, and 1400 workers have signed a letter demanding more information. As if blocking social media sites, western news sources, and certain search terms werent bad enough, it's been reported that a Dragonfly prototype linked users searches to their personal phone numbers, which would allow Chinas government to monitor its citizens queries. Its also claimed that officials could use the search engine to provide false data on the countrys air pollution problem, something its been known to do in the past." Additional pressure from House lawmakers want answers from Google on censored Chinese search engine adds to the apprehension. "Since news broke last month that Google is working on a censored search engine for the Chinese market, the company has faced unrelenting criticism from lawmakers. In the latest demand, a bipartisan group of 16 House representatives is looking for answers on the still-secretive plan. As policymakers, we have a responsibility to ensure that American companies are not perpetuating human rights abuses abroad, and to ensure that our regulatory and statutory systems are able to deal with changing business environments, the letter reads. The lawmakers are requesting more details on the companys plans. Among the questions for the company: what restrictions will it place on the search engine? And if Google left China in 2010, why has it decided to move back now?" While this inquiry is useful, a much more important trepidation needs to be confronted. The anti-American sentiments that Google has demonstrated is displayed openly for all to see. Many obsessed cyber addicts are consumed with the programming that comes from the Google version of reality. The sad saga which transformed a useful search engine into an indoctrination gatekeeper of censorship that conforms to a 'politically correct' distortion of veracity is appalling. Google has become an integral integration of the globalist model of mind control. No prudent or objective person can trust the selective search results or content that streams from using their resistive web sites. Dragonfly or whatever their next project that herds the public into solitary confinement is meant to eliminate any dissenting viewpoint that conflicts with the totalitarian elites that have always been behind shaping the Chinese dominion. Even that pretentious internationalist and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, "acknowledged the Chinese ability to harness the webs power for its economic progress, but he also worries that with great Internet power comes great censorship. I think youre going to see fantastic leadership in products and services from China. Theres a real danger that along with those products and services comes a different leadership regime from government, with censorship, controls, etc., said Schmidt." Not exactly a ringing commendation of the Chinese regime. No surprise coming from the arch scoundrel who built the Google domain. Absent from most scrutiny on cyber tech are discussions about the abdication of moral standards by despotic governments. The creation of the Dragonfly filters reflects an unholy alliance between a "so called" commercial company and a communist oppressor. Red China is already at war with the United States. However, the apparatchik Maoists is waging economic sabotage on American business and steals our technology with impunity. Why allow Google to supply the coding to advance this betrayal? Prohibiting the transfer of technology originated from NSA research, funded by DARPA and advanced by the intelligence community is a national imperative. Those who regard Google as merely a stock opportunity are blind to the underlying function and purpose of the systems that employ their real objectives. Dragonfly is the latest warning to strip Google of its hideous intentions to rewrite current events and erase past history. By omitting and purging challenging accounts, the goal of maintaining the approved narrative becomes even more obvious. Prepare for the exodus of Google to their People's Republic of China Shangri-la. Many of their U.S. university computer trained graduates will eagerly follow. Without stern measures that prohibit this revolving door, America will continue to encourage its own demise by educating Chinese nationals. Still have doubts? Just examine the treachery, Dianne Feinsteins Longtime Driver Was a Chinese Spy. Look at Google as a spy campus in training that steals high tech secrets for the benefit of Chinese oligarchs. Dragonfly may be the latest example of systemic tyranny but it surely will not be the last. SARTRE Source: http://www.batr.org/terror/100918.html Discuss or comment about this essay on the BATR Forum http://www.batr.org "Many seek to become a Syndicated Columnist, while the few strive to be a Vindicated Publisher" 2018 Copyright BATR - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. IPCC Reports a Climate Fit For a Groundhog And there we go again. Another IPCC report, and they all keep getting more alarming than the previous one. And then nothing substantial happens. Until the next report is issued and makes everybodys headlines for a day, or two. Rinse, spin and repeat. Now we really have to do something!. World leaders have a moral obligation to act!. Oh boy. To start with that last bit, world leaders dont act because of moral obligations. They act to stay in, or get in, power. And they all know that to achieve that goal they must keep their people happy, even if dictators do this differently from democratically elected leaders. The first tool they have for this is control of the media, control of the narratives that define -or seem to- their societies. If a society is in bad shape, they will control the media to show that it is doing fine. if its actually doing fine, they will make sure all the praise for this is theirs and theirs alone. So what makes their people happy? One thing far ahead of anything else is material comfort. If leaders cant convince people that theyre comfortable, their power is in danger. Once enough people are miserable or hungry, a process is set in motion that threatens to push leaders aside in favor of someone who promises to make things better. Theres never a shortage of those. Leaders, politicians, think short-term. They may see further into the future than the next election, but that is not useful information. If they enact measures aimed at 10 years from today or more, they risk being voted out in 2 years, or 4. Its not even their fault, its how the system works. It is different for dictators, but not even that much. The general notion is clear. But that means we cant rely on our leaders to act against the climate change the IPCC keeps warning of. because is has a -much- longer time window than the next elections -or the next coup in dictator terms. Even if every IPCC report depicts a shorter window than the last one, its still not inside those 4-year election cycles (numbers vary slightly, 4 is typical). A typical response to the climate threat are the COP meetings and agreements. I have fulminated plenty against COP21, the Paris accord, even named it CON21. Because that was signed by those very leaders tied down in their election cycles. Completely useless. That most of the other signees were business leaders who represent oil companies, airlines and Big Tech with huge server parks seals the reality of the deal. These are not the people who will solve the problems. They have too much interest in not doing so. The CEOs have their profits to think about, the politicians their elections. They should be kept out of the decision-making process. But theyre the only ones who are in it. I still think the issue was never better epitomized than in the December 2016 piece in the Guardian by Michael Bloomberg and Mark Carney entitled How To Make A Profit From Defeating Climate Change , about which I said at the time: These fine gents probably actually believe that this is perfectly in line with our knowledge of, say, human history, of evolution, of the laws of physics, and of -mass- psychology. All of which undoubtedly indicate to them that we can and will defeat the problems we have created -and still are-, literally with the same tools and ideas -money and profit- that we use to create them with. Nothing ever made more sense. That these problems originated in the same relentless quest for profit that they now claim will help us get rid of them, is likely a step too far for them; must have been a class they missed. We destroyed it for profit apparently does not in their eyes contradict well fix it for profit too. Not one bit. It does, though. Its indeed the very core of what is going wrong. Profit, or money in general, is all these people live for, its their altar. Thats why they are successful in this world. Its also why the world is doomed. Is there any chance I could persuade you to dwell on that for a few seconds? That, say, Bloomberg and Carney, and all they represent, are the problem dressed up as the solution? This weeks IPCC report says the efforts to keep warming at acceptable levels (1.5C) will cost many trillions of dollars every year. But a billionaire publisher and a central bank head want to make a profit?! Hey, perhaps they can, as long as you and I pay But they wont solve a thing. if only because not doing that will be too profitable. Still, while theyre at it, maybe they can do us a favor. You see, what is hardly ever mentioned, let alone acknowledged, is that we have more than one major existential problem, and they exist in such a form of symbiosis that solving only one doesnt make much difference. We have a changing climate, we have accelerating species extinction, we have plastics in our fish, and we have a global economy thats about to topple over. The common thread in all these is an overkill in energy use and therefore an overkill in waste. Thermodynamics, 2nd law. Waste kills. By raising temperatures, finishing off wildlife, plugging rivers and oceans with plastics, making increasing amounts of people economically miserable. But as I wrote a while ago, our economies exist to produce waste, its not just a by-product -anymore-. If we stop making things we dont need, and things that do harm to our world and our lives, our economies will collapse. We must continue on our path or see our lifetstyles plummet. They will anyway, were just delaying the inevitable, but were stuck. And politicians are utterly useless and utterly unfit in situations like this. But ask yourself: are you any better? If you were told that in order to save the planet, youd have to cut your energy use in half, which would take away many of your comforts and luxuries, would you do it? A better question yet is, if you would agree to do that, and then see that your neighbor does not, would you still cut your driving and flying and electricity? Thats hard enough on an individual level, but how about if one nation does, while another refuses? Or when nations that have much lower per capita energy consumption tell the West: you go first? What do you think the odds are that well find a global solution, approach, before the 2030 cutoff date the IPCC provides in its latest report? While the likes of Bloomberg and Carney still talk about climate change as a profit opportunity? I know what I think. The report says we need to drastically reform our economies and lifestyles. Cutting our energy use in the West in half wont be enough, if only because billions of people demand more energy at their disposal. Will you cut into your lifestyle, will your children, when they see their neighbors increasing their energy use, when they see entire nations increase theirs? We dont have leaders that can stop species extinction or a warming planet or an economic collapse, because they either are clueless or they will be voted out of power if they tell the truth. Extend and pretend is a term thats used to describe economic policies a lot, but it actually paints an accurate picture of everything we do. Free, surplus, energy can come in the shape of sugar in a petri dish full of bacteria, or of stored carbon on planet earth. In both cases, the outcome is as predictable as can be. Can we, with our billions of cars and billions of miles flown every year, and billions of phones and computers, return to the energy use of only 100 years ago? Dont think so. On the contrary, were constantly increasing our energy consumption. Just like the bacteria do in the petri dish. Until they no longer can, until reality, physics, thermodynamics, sets a limit. One of my favorite themes is that we are the most tragic species ever because we can see ourselves doing things that we know are harmful to us, but we cant stop ourselves from continuing. The best we can hope for is that tomorrow morning everything will be the same again as where we started today. But no, thats not sufficient, either, many of the things weve unleashed have 20+ year runtimes, and theyre already baked into the cake of our futures. We cant start afresh every morning, no Groundhog Day for us. Every morning the alarm goes off things have gotten worse. And we cant stop that. By Raul Ilargi Meijer Website: http://theautomaticearth.com (provides unique analysis of economics, finance, politics and social dynamics in the context of Complexity Theory) 2018 Copyright Raul I Meijer - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. Raul Ilargi Meijer Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. The US midterms are upon us and the 2020 elections just around the corner. Seen by many as a referendum on Trump and a preview of the next presidential elections, 2018 will also be a referendum on the political system as a whole. While its possible there will be an anti-Trump bump, tens of millions will simply sit it out, instinctively understanding that whether the Democrats or Republicans control Congress, no fundamental change will be forthcoming. In 2016, a plurality of votersnearly 45 percentopted for none-of-the-above abstentionism, while Trump and Clinton received just over 26 percent each. Midterms typically see an even lower turnout. With a lack of genuine options comes a lack of genuine enthusiasm. Voting 'against' something or someone can only get you so far. The intensifying polarisation of US society is, in the final analysis, a function of the irreconcilable antagonism between the workers and the capitalists. But given the countrys uniquely contorted history, things are not as straightforward as the working class on one side, the capitalist class on the other. As an example, American political life is currently refracted through the distorted prism of the two major parties, both of which are unapologetic champions of capitalism. By definition, this means they defend interests that are antithetical to the interests of the workers. But as they are a numerical minority of the population, they must lean on the working-class majority to win elections. With little of substance to offer, the nominal differences between them are channeled into the froth of the so-called culture wars, which leads to even greater convolutions. Clarifying this muddling of class lines will necessarily be a messy and prolonged process, especially in the absence of a mass working-class political party. But given the above, it is hard to comprehend how anyone could deny the colossal potential for a mass working-class political alternative. The willingness of US workers to mobilise and take on the status quo was on full display during Sanderss campaign and again during the recent wave of teachers strikes. Millions of Americans, voters and non-voters alike, would enthusiastically join a party that was truly their own, one that boldly put forward socialist policies that challenged the right of the capitalists and their parties to rule. And yet, incredibly, the main 'strategy' of the socialist left is to cling in one form or another to the Democrats. No illusions in the Democrats Take the example of self-described socialist and DSA member, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Her upset win over a longstanding establishment Democrat fed the illusion that the Democrats could somehow be pushed to the left. When Socialist Revolution pointed out that, far from pushing the Democrats to the left, Ocasio-Cortez would be quickly sucked to the right, we were called sectarians, pessimists, dogmatists, and worse. But real friends tell each other truthno matter how unpalatable. Now she has given an across-the-board endorsement of all Democratic Party candidates, including the arch-reactionary governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. There is no denying that Ocasio-Cortezs win generated interest in socialism, but we have to ask: what kind of win and what kind of socialism? Are socialists in this merely to 'win' isolated bourgeois-democratic elections that lead inevitably to disappointment when nothing significant changes? Or does winning mean doing away with capitalism altogether to ensure a better life for all and the survival of our species in the face of global climate change? There is no denying that Ocasio-Cortezs win generated interest in socialism, but we have to ask: what kind of win and what kind of socialism? / Image: As for socialism, Marxists understand it as the transitional period bridging capitalism and the classless, moneyless, stateless society known as communism. It is the period ushered in once the workers have won political power and begin to move against private ownership of the means of production. It is not merely a few reversible reforms within the limits of capitalism. While revolutionary socialists fight for reforms within the system, we do so as part of the broader struggle to overthrow it once and for all. Content is more important than form. Good personal intentions and calling oneself a socialist are not enough. The Democratic Party has the weight of capitalism behind it. To expect that individuals can somehow resist the gravity of such a powerful force without mass forces of their own to back them up and hold them accountable is naive at best. Running on the Democratic ballot line means you are beholden to the Democratic Party. Its that simple. People were enthusiastic about Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, not because they were running as Democrats, but because they called themselves socialists and challenged the status quo. What fired them up was the prospect of universal healthcare, free education, and higher wages. But the Democrats cant deliver in a meaningful way on any of thisand even less in an epoch of austerity, cuts, and counter-reforms. The task of socialists is to break the grip that party has over the minds of millions of workers who fall into its trap for lack of an alternativenot to foment those illusions. Ultimately, the only party and candidates we can truly trust are our own. If that party doesnt yet exist, then its up to us to fight for it within the movementwith a sense of urgency. An example of what is possible can be seen in the recent election results in Quebec, where QS more than doubled their previous result / Image: fair use An example of what is possible can be seen in the recent election results in Quebec. On the basis of a progressive programme that included raising the minimum wage, guaranteeing paid sick leave, massively expanding public transportation, lowering the cost of medicine and internet access, and more, Quebec Solidaire (QS) more than doubled their previous result and won over 16 percent of the vote. With the collapse of the liberals and nationalists, and the victory of the hard-right Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), the stage is set for greater polarisation and class struggle, and QS is in a position to galvanise the fightback in the province and to win future electionsif it mobilises the workers and youth behind a programme that takes capitalism head-on. The conclusion drawn by liberals and reformists whenever the far-right wins is that more moderation is needed. But the real lesson is that boldness in challenging austerity and capitalism enthuses workers to go to the polls and onto the streets. Kavanaugh: as ugly as the system behind him As the US midterms approach, the economy is still technically strong and much of Trumps core base is still behind him. As a result, the Republicans may well maintain control of Congress and the much-hyped blue wave may falter. But the outcome is not yet determined, and in a system balanced on a razors edge, even small events can tip the balance one way or another. The economy could very well nosedive at any time, and into the pool of the unknown was dropped the boulder of the Kavanaugh-Ford hearings. Kavanaugh is indeed a vomit-inducing member of the establishment and a sworn enemy of the working class; but let us not forget that the entire Supreme Court is the enemy of the working class / Image: The White House The liberals are in a tizzy over the prospect of filling the seat left open by Anthony Kennedy with an arch-reactionary like Brett Kavanaugh. Make no mistakeKavanaugh is indeed a privileged, entitled, and vomit-inducing member of the establishment. He is a sworn enemy of the working class. But let us not forget: the entire Supreme Court is the enemy of the working class. This is the same court that ruled that Dred Scott was not a person in the eyes of the Constitution and that separate but equal segregation was A-OK. It ruled that the forced sterilisation of those with intellectual disabilities was constitutional and that Japanese-Americans could be interned indefinitely in camps. It is the same unelected-for-life body that decides US elections, upholds the purging of electoral roles, and protects the First Amendment rights and personhood of corporations. Despite the liberal effort to canonise Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court is not composed of demigods but of real people with very real interestsclass interests. It is a reactionary body through and through, one of the three wings of government designed to keep the masses in check. Its purview flows from a generous interpretation of the equally reactionary US Constitution, a document drafted by and for a minority of wealthy property owners. The Supreme Court is alleged to stand above politics, 'impartially' and 'independently' 'interpreting' the law. In reality, much like the British monarchy, it is one of the last lines of defense in upholding bourgeois rule and is not at all 'independent' of class. When pressure from below grows on certain issuessuch as basic civil rights for black Americans or gay marriageit is flexible enough to make certain adjustments, but always within limits that are safe for the continuation of the system. There is an enormous amount of inertia behind the publics acceptance of the Supreme Court as the 'final say' in judicial matters. It is one of the few establishment institutions that still has fairly broad credibility. Maintaining its integrity and sanctity are paramount. This is why Republican Jeff Flake laments that hearings are tearing the country apart and the liberal media is concerned about the unwanted scrutiny all of this has brought to the court. It is unwanted because, if the farce of impartiality is exposed, the entire legal basis for capitalist rule will be in jeopardy. The Court and the Constitution must appear to rule for all while actually ruling for the few, a magic act hard to pull off in the best of times, let alone in times of intensifying crisis. No confidence in the establishment Confidence in every pillar of the establishment is disintegrating. Barack Obama partially and temporarily succeeded in bringing a veneer of dignity to an undignified officethe seat of power of the worlds most rapacious ruling class. He lulled people into a sense of complacence, into thinking that after the 2008 crisis, the worst had come and gone. But the worst was far from over and there is plenty more to comeand Obama, Clinton, Sanders, and the rest of the Democratic Party paved the way for it. As Hegel explained, necessity expresses itself through accident, and like Trumps election, the Kavanaugh debacle expresses a deeper truth. That a sexist, racist, slumlord, tax-evading, narcissist, and congenital liar is the president of the United States is not an anomaly but a faithful reflection of the systems true values and character. That an abhorrent creature like Brett Kavanaugh was his top pick to sit on the most powerful judicial body of the oldest capitalist republic on earth is likewise not an aberration. The system is tapped out and has nothing left to offer but perpetual crisis and chaos. Like both major parties that defend it, it needs to be hung out to dry. The Max S. Baucus Institute has received an endowed gift of $1 million from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation that enables 10 University of Montana students to intern in congressional and policy-related offices in Washington, D.C., every summer. Two other gifts to the Baucus Institute from Lee Freeman and Tony James also will provide start-up funding to grow the institute programs focused on public service. These gifts are the first announced since UM publicly launched Campaign Montana, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the Universitys history. http://news.umt.edu/2018/10/100918bauc.php French President Emmanuel Macron put off a government reshuffle on Wednesday, raising new questions about the depth of political experience in his party and his own ability to keep his administration on track after several resignations. The president and his prime minister have been weighing the reshuffle for a week following the departure of three ministers since late August, including interior minister and early Macron backer Gerard Collomb. The resignations have challenged the president's authority and stalled his reform ambitions. Macron, 40, faces multiple challenges in carrying out a significant revamp. Not only must he try to maintain the left-right balance that he made a hallmark of his centrist movement, but also find strong candidates from among a relatively shallow and inexperienced pool of loyalists. "The president wishes to take all the time necessary to draw up a team in a calm and professional way," the Elysee Palace said in a statement announcing the reshuffle's delay. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, a member of Macron's inner circle, said there was no reason to conclude that the administration was in disarray after the ministerial departures. "Those who took the decision to leave did so for personal reasons," Griveaux said, underscoring that Macron and his prime minister saw eye-to-eye on the way forward. "There is no division in the government or the parliamentary majority on the political line we are pursuing, as some commentators would have you believe." Ministers had been expecting the rejig before a cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning. But in the event, the Elysee said it would not happen until after Macron returns from a visit to Armenia late on Friday. Macron's popularity has sunk in recent months, falling to below 30 percent, as frustration has welled up over a leader many voters see as arrogant and the architect of policies that favour the wealthy. Impatience has also grown with the sluggish pace of economic growth and job creation. Opponents branded the reshuffle a "tragi-comedy" that exposed a shortage of political experience in the ruling party. At the same time, Macron's Republique En Marche party holds a commanding majority in the National Assembly (lower house), his presidential term runs until 2022, and the opposition is divided, meaning he faces no immediate threat. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told baying opposition lawmakers there was "no anxiety, no restlessness" inside an administration committed to social and economic reform. However, Macron may face problems in the months ahead in form of public opposition to his plans for changes to the pension and unemployment benefits systems. A senior Elysee official said the reshuffle process was taking longer than expected because Macron had redrawn the political landscape and brought in faces from outside politics. "We're no longer in an age where because someone has 15 years of service under their belt they deserve to become a minister," the official said. DIMINISHED PULLING POWER Macron's rivals are not convinced. "Macron's ability to attract is pretty weak," hard left lawmaker Alexis Corbiere told BFM TV. "Many are asking themselves: 'What should we do in this mess?' They don't want to be finished politically by becoming a minister in a government that risks descending into crisis in less than a year." In winning power in May 2017, Macron and his En Marche movement demolished France's traditional mainstream parties. He went on to poach senior politicians from both poles and draft in newcomers to build a government "neither of the right nor left". But as the lustre has worn off his young presidency, and the impact of early reforms to the labour code and tax rules have yet to filter through, rivals have sought to depict an increasingly isolated figure with diminished star power. Le Figaro quoted Socialist senator Rachid Temal as saying: "The fact the president has been bogged down by this for a week underlines his weakness on the reserves bench." While Macron doesn't face reelection until 2022, European Parliament elections in May next year and municipal polls in France in 2020 could turn into a semi-referendum on his mid-term performance, setting his reform agenda back further. Particularly damaging to Macron in recent weeks were comments made by ex-interior minister Collomb. A wily ex-mayor of Lyon from the Socialist party, Collomb was an early convert to Macronism. But before pushing to step down and return to regional politics, Collomb acknowledged Macron and his team "lacked humility" and warned of hubris - a view which opinion polls show is shared by voters. "The issue here is not the government but the president, a president who is seen by French people as someone who doesn't listen to them, and even belittles them," said Jean-Daniel Levy of pollster Harris Interactive. "They want fairer policies from the president." Search Keywords: Short link: U.S. President Donald Trump may meet Russia's Vladimir Putin in Helsinki next spring, the daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat said in its online edition on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. Officials have started looking at possible dates for the meeting, it said. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto declined to comment on the likelihood of the meeting but said U.S. interest for it had grown. "Things have, perhaps surprisingly, gone in a better direction," Niinisto told the daily. The Finnish president's office was not immediately available for comment. The two presidents met in Helsinki in July and the summit was followed by backlash in the United States over Trump's cordial public tone with the Kremlin leader. Search Keywords: Short link: A man looks to jewels once belonging to Queen Marie Antoinette of France at Sotheby's in Dubai, UAE, October 9, 2018. Picture taken October 9, 2018. REUTERS A member of Sotheby's staff reaches for a pearl and diamond pendant once belonging to Queen Marie Antoinette of France on display at Sotheby's in Dubai, UAE, October 9, 2018. Picture taken October 9, 2018. REUTERS Jewels once belonging to Queen Marie Antoinette of France are seen at Sotheby's in Dubai, UAE, October 9, 2018. Picture taken October 9, 2018. REUTERS A woman looks to jewels once belonging to Queen Marie Antoinette of France at Sotheby's in Dubai, UAE, October 9, 2018. Picture taken October 9, 2018. REUTERS A member of Sotheby's staff holds a pearl and diamond pendant once belonging to Queen Marie Antoinette of France on display at Sotheby's in Dubai, UAE, October 9, 2018. Picture taken October 9, 2018. REUTERS Held in private collections for more than 200 years, jewellery that once belonged to France's ill-fated Queen Marie Antoinette has gone on display in Dubai ahead of its planned auction in Geneva next month. Described by British auction house Sotheby's as "one of the most important royal jewellery collections ever to come to auction," the seven pieces are part of an exhibition entitled "Royal Jewels from the Bourbon Parma family" that also includes other items from the storied dynasty's rich history. The French queen's jewels on view include a 49-karat natural pearl and diamond pendant, as well as necklaces, brooches, and earrings valued in total at between $1.5 and 3 million. The collection, which belongs to the Bourbon Parma family, also includes a monogram ring with woven strands of Marie Antoinettes hair enclosed. Edward Gibbs, Sotheby's chairman for the Middle East and India, said the Middle East had become a highly lucrative market, with a 62 percent increase in buyers over the past five years, particularly younger customers. "It is a two-way street. We are here both to sell art and also to source it," said Gibbs. "It's both a regional hub and an international center." After Dubai, the jewellery will also be exhibited in several other cities including London, New York and Hong Kong before going under the hammer in Geneva in November. The tour is expected to arouse the interest of potential wealthy buyers in the Gulf and elsewhere ahead of the auction. Marie-Antoinette, an Austrian archduchess by birth, was the wife of King Louis XVI of France, of the Bourbon dynasty. Both were executed by guillotine in 1793 after the French Revolution. The queen's jewellery was wrapped up and smuggled out of France to Vienna for safe-keeping during the Revolution and remained in the Bourbon Parma family. Veterans Day program at Pennridge North Middle School thanks those who served By By: Dr. Francis R. Souder, 85, formerly of Telford, died Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 in the skilled nursing unit of Peter Becker Community, Franconia Township. He and his wife Marion R. (Parker) Souder celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary in July. Born in Souderton, he was a son of the late Elvin B. and Mary (Rittenhouse) Souder. A 1938 graduate of Souderton High School, he received his undergraduate degree in 1941 from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Souder went on to receive his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in 1944 and completed his internship at Hahnemann Hospital from Oct. 1944 July, 1945. He served with the U.S. Navy Medical Corps for 30 months in San Diego and Long Beach, Calif. during WW II and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant prior to his discharge. He entered his second tour of duty during the Korean War where he served in Panama City, Fla. as the medical officer for the Panama City Naval Air Station and the Tyndal Air Force Base. Dr. Souder owned and operated his family practice on Main Street in Telford from 1947-1989. He served on the staff of Grand View Hospital, and as its president, and taught at the Grand View Hospital Nursing School. He was a member of the Pa. Medical Society, the Bucks County Medical Society, Diplomat American Academy of Family Practices, and served on the board of trustees at Grand View Hospital, Sellersville. He was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Telford, where he sang in the church choir. He was also a member of the MacCalla Lodge #596 in Souderton, the Raja Shrine, and Lehigh Consistory. In addition to his widow, he is survived by a son, Dr. Ronald L. Souder, and his wife Susan L. of Green Lane; a daughter, Susan J. Souder, and her husband Stephan Russo of New York, N.Y.; five grandchildren: Jennifer A. Souder of Philadelphia; Emily E. Souder of Philadelphia; Kathryn A. Souder of Washington, D.C.; Noah Russo of New York, N.Y., and Rebekah Russo of New York, N.Y., and two brothers: Attorney Elvin B. Souder of Souderton and Dr. Lawrence Souder of Souderton. Memorial services will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 12 p.m. in Trinity United Church of Christ, 101 S. Main St., Telford, with calling hours following the service. Interment will be private in Trinity UCC Cemetery Telford. Memorial contributions may be made to Grand View Hospital, 700 Lawn Ave., Sellersville, Pa. 18960. Arrangements are by Sadler-Suess Funeral Home, Telford. Letter to editor: Congress can get this right October 10, 2018 U.S. Intelligence Had A 'Duty To Warn' Khashoggi - Why Didn't That Happen? It is beyond doubt that the Saudi government abducted, or killed, the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But what did the Trump administration knew about the threat to Khashoggi? Did U.S. intelligence services warn him as their regulations require? Was such a warning blocked by the White House? And what will Trump do about the case? The Turkish government published pictures of 15 men who had come from Saudi Arabia and were in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul shortly before Khashoggi visited it to get his divorce papers. They moved Khashoggi to the residence of the consul and later that day flew back on the same two private Saudi jets that had brought them to Istanbul. At least 8 of the 15 men have been identified as Saudi royal military. At least three are bodyguards of the Saudi clown prince Mohammad bin Salman. It is thereby obvious that the clown prince himself gave the order for the operation. One of the 15 is Dr. Salah Muhammed Al-Tubaigy, the head of forensic evidence at the Saudi General Security Department. Anonymous Turkish sources assert that Khashoggi was killed, his body cut to pieces and taken away. They even claim that there is video of the murder: The official described a quick and complex operation in which Mr. Khashoggi was killed within two hours of his arrival at the consulate by a team of Saudi agents, who dismembered his body with a bone saw they brought for the purpose. It is like Pulp Fiction, the official said. ... Mr. Erdogan was informed of the conclusions on Saturday, according to several people with knowledge of the briefings, and he has since dispatched officials to anonymously tell myriad news outlets, including The New York Times, that Mr. Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Consulate. ... Another person briefed on the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose confidential details, told The Times on Saturday that Turkish intelligence had obtained a video of the killing, made by the Saudis to prove that it had occurred. A commentator close to Mr. Erdogans government said so publicly on Tuesday. There is a video of the moment of him being killed, Kemal Ozturk, a columnist in a pro-government newspaper and the former head of a semiofficial news agency, said in an interview on a pro-government television network, citing unnamed security officials. That Erdogan pushes this 'Pulp Fiction' story is not astonishing. His troops protect Qatar from a Saudi attack and Qatar props up the Turkish economy with multi-billion investments. There is also the old Ottoman versus Arab fight over leadership in the Middle East. But why would the Saudis kill Khashoggi? Why not drug him, haul him to the airport and fly him back to Riyadh as a "medial emergency"? Why not put him into a big box and transported him as privileged diplomatic baggage? If the Saudis intended to kill Khashoggi they could have hire some guy to shoot him in the streets. It would have been a much simpler operation and way less suspicious. Killing Khashoggi in the official Consulate makes no sense - unless MbS wanted this current public outrage. Is it a warning to all his enemies? Is it to demonstrate that he can get away with anything? The Washington Post reports that the U.S. government knew that Khashoggi was in danger: Before Khashoggis disappearance, U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him, according to a person familiar with the information. The Saudis wanted to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and lay hands on him there, this person said. It was not clear whether the Saudis intended to arrest and interrogate Khashoggi or to kill him, or if the United States warned Khashoggi that he was a target, this person said. If U.S. intelligence knew of the danger to Khashoggi Intelligence Community Directive 191 - Duty to Warn (pdf) would have applied: An IC element that collects or acquires credible and specific information indicating an impending threat of intentional killing, serious bodily injury, or kidnapping directed at a person or group of people (hereafter referred to as intended victim) shall have a duty to warn the intended victim or those responsible for protecting the intended victim, as appropriate. This includes threats where the target is an institution, place of business, structure, or location. The term intended victim includes both U.S. persons, as defined in EO 12333, Section 3.5(k), and non-U.S. persons. Read plainly ICD 191 provides that the U.S. intelligence services had to warn Khashoggi of the Saudi threat. Did they do so or not? There are a few exceptions in the directive that allow to withhold a warning. If the information came through a friendly intelligence service the protection of sources and methods has priority over a warning (point E.3.e. in the regulation.) If U.S. intelligence acquired the information through the British GHCQ, a warning to Khashoggi might have revealed that the GHCQ has bugged all those Cisco telephones the Saudi royals so proudly display. But there was little danger that a warning to Khashoggi would have revealed anything. The Saudis will surely expect that the U.S., British and other intelligence services listen to even their private communications. There may have been other reasons to withhold a warning. Trump's son in law and senior aid Jared Kushner has good personal relations with MbS. In March The Intercept reported that, according to MbS, Kushner revealed U.S. intelligence about MbS' enemies to him. [A]fter the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown. The meeting took place in late October 2017. About a week later the Saudi clown prince incarcerated hundreds of his rich relatives and other Saudi billionaires in the Ritz hotel in Riyadh and pressured them to hand over their assets. Kushner had obviously no qualms to rat out the people who privately criticized MbS. (In February 2018 Kushner lost access to top level security briefings because his interim security clearance was revoked. This may have been the deep state's revenge for his indiscretion. Kushner finally passed full clearance and regained access in May.) Not to warn Khashoggi might well have been a White House decision. It is the Trump's administration policy to not challenge its allies over human rights issues. The State Department even produced a memo explaining that human rights criticism only applies to U.S. 'enemies'. If the Saudis want to nab Khashoggi, the White House might have thought, why no let them have him? Trump's foreign policy depends on good relations with the Saudis: The Trump administration, from the president on down, is heavily invested in the Saudi relationship. Robin Wright, a scholar at the Wilson Center think tank and close friend of the missing writer, said thats unlikely to change. The administrations Middle East agenda heavily depends on the Saudis, including efforts to counter Iranian influence in the region, fight extremism and build support for its yet-to-be-released plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The Turkish and Qatari rulers and their media do their best to propagandize the case and to rage against the Saudi regime. The Washington Post, for which Khashoggi wrote, will surely not let go of the issue. Other 'western' media and journalists are also enraged about the case. Khashoggi was one of them, aristocratic elite as they see themselves, who do not deserve such fate. Can MbS and the Trump regime really sit back and not reply to demands of serious consequences over the case? That may well be. After all, no one is challenging the U.S.-Saudis alliance over the daily murder it commits in Yemen and elsewhere. If the Saudis kidnapped Khashoggi, and provide evidence that he is alive, the media outrage will soon die down. If the Turkish government publishes the video of the murder that it claims to have, it will only take a bit longer until other news moves the case from the front pages. There is no real reason for MbS, or Trump, to care. Posted by b on October 10, 2018 at 17:02 UTC | Permalink Comments next page next page Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk! You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details. Jes McMillan combined her skill and experience as a mosaic artist with her passion for community to create her career as a humanitarian artist. In the beginning While growing up in Kettering, Miamisburg, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, Jes McMillan always wanted to be an artist. In elementary school, she loved going into the art room. (It was her) favorite class. Her talent and interest were recognized early when the teacher chose her in second grade to paint a window of the art room for the holidays Usually (they) only let the 6th graders paint the windows. How did Jes become a mosaic artist? Jes followed her passion for art in high school. I took every art class that was available. She gained her first experience with handling, cutting and grinding glass when she did a fine design stained glass stepping stone project in art class. The project taught her how to cut the shapes exactly so they would fit together in the pattern with even spacing throughout. I did my first mosaic in high school at age 16. I got a piece of wood from the garage, 2 tall by 4 wide and used glass for the pattern. Jes made a second piece which she traded to my art teacher for a set of all the tools you need to do the glass, so then I was on my way. What did Jes do after high school? After Jes graduated, she pursued industrial design. Ive always had a building and engineering type of mind. She earned her Associates in Science degree in Industrial Design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. They recognized her talent and skills with mosaic art immediately and employed her to represent the Art Institute at festivals and to teach workshops on mosaics. While she was going to school, Jes also worked at the YMCA. By the time she graduated from the Art Institute, she was advancing up the ladder through the child care and I wanted to be a director. She enrolled at Point Park University in Pittsburgh to get the necessary credits for that position. She majored in Art History and Child Development and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Design & Applied Arts. What did Jes do when she returned to Dayton? Pittsburgh was a great city I loved that experience, but family ties brought Jes back to Dayton in 2005. Despite her experience in child care at the Pittsburgh YMCA, Jes discovered the Dayton YMCA lacked openings for child care directors. I did try being an after-school site director, but Id already passed that point and I didnt want to take steps back. Jes secured a job as an industrial designer in Franklin, Ohio, but had the misfortunate to injure her hand. I was dealing with a lot of models and you need your hands. Shortly thereafter, she was laid off. Next, Jes combined her background in art with her training in child development at K-12 Gallery & Teen Educational & Joint Adult Studioin downtown Dayton as a mosaic art class instructor. In order to supplement her income, she also managed Design Sleep, a high-end organic bedding store in Yellow Springs, Ohio. How did Jes start combining mosaic art and community work? Jes created her first community collaborative piece while teaching mosaic art at the K-12 Gallery & TEJAS. She led others to make huge pieces of art that were affecting the community in a really big way. So that kind of changed the course for me right away. For almost eight years, Jes taught and directed community art projects at the K-12 Gallery & TEJAS. In November 2013, she parted ways with them to create my own vehicle for community work. While she considered what that meant, she worked as a database manager for Healthy Alternative, an independent chain of health food grocery stores. In 2015 she founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Mosaic Institute of Greater Dayton, to carry out her commitment to community through its mission: To Inspire, Empower and Unify Community Through Art. Through contacts made while volunteering at One Bistro, a nonprofit restaurant in Miamisburg, Ohio, Jes found a building with 15,000 square feet available in the same town. In September 2015, The Mosaic Institute opened a walk-in mosaic studio with bins of pre-cut glass sorted by color that customers could use to create make it and take it mosaics. The studio offered a full class schedule, private parties and other events. Since 2015 Jes has involved The Mosaic Institute in almost 20 community mural projects, both paint and mosaic, in Miamisburg. I have done mosaic murals in every single elementary school in Miamisburg but one, and that elementary school is scheduled to create one during the 2018-2019 school year. Miamisburg High School is also on the schedule. Eventually Jes will have mosaiced with every child in Miamisburg. For the 2017 River Blast Festival, Jes and The Mosaic Institute partnered with the City of Miamisburg to create a giant painted mosaic on 350 feet of levee wall along the Great Miami River. Jes and her Mosaic Institute team taped the giant mosaic pattern on the levee and gave each participant a paintbrush with the right color and directed them towards the spaces Everybody from babies to seniors got involved in that mural. The project made the City a semifinalist for the 2017 Governors Award for Parks & Recreation. During its first year, The Mosaic Institute also used their buildings big open space to hold ten art shows with music, performance art, and visual art. It was a lot of fun, but, due to the heating and cooling expenses, the building ended up being just a monster. Jes needed to relocate The Mosaic Institute. Since The Mosaic Institute had been active in the community, Jes negotiated with the City of Miamisburg for some space to open a community art center. Her dream is to use her skills and abilities in partnership with (the City of Miamisburg) to build a Rosewood Arts Center, a city-sustained arts program. The City did provide some space in a community park, but it was like starting over from square one. Why did Jes move The Mosaic Institute to downtown Dayton? While Jes was wrestling with relocation, her friend, Mike Bisig, bought the building for Mikes Bike Park, which included extra space. Jes had spent many years as a young artist at The Front Street Building and knew it always had a waiting list for studio space. When she saw the available space in Mikes building, she instantly thought it was a good opportunity to rent these out to artists. Jes faced a choice: do I start over in Miamisburg or do I take this new opportunity? It puts me back in the city (Dayton), which is where I want to be and eventually it could be self-sustaining. In Miamisburg, Jes relied on income, grants and donations generated by The Mosaic Institute. Funding was always difficult. The Crane Studios Market business model predicted a more consistent cash flow. Once I rent these out, Ive got a commitment. Consequently, she moved The Mosaic Institute to 221 Crane Street, Dayton, and opened up Crane Studios Market to be a tenant in my own arts market. I started out with 13 studios. Each one (is an) individual shop where artists of different types are doing their own galleries/retail business. Jes priced the rent, which includes internet access, to be attractive to entrepreneurial artists testing the risk of opening a studio gallery. Can I get customers? Can I market? Can I switch it up enough in my shop? Studios in Crane Studios Market The leases require the artists to open their shops whenever Crane is open: each 1st Friday, 6 p.m. 9 p.m., and every Saturday, Noon 5 p.m. For those lacking the time to run a studio shop, Jes rents wall space and handles the sales of that artists work. Crane opens a new show with a visiting artist every first Friday. That visiting artist returns on the second Saturday to give an artist talk from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. A free bourbon tasting is included. Weve grown into an awesome team. We still have a lot to learn Im coming up on my first year as far as managing tenants and spaces, but its been great. What community work is Jes doing in Dayton? When Crane began attracting suburban residents to the first Friday artist talks, Jes realized there was a huge disconnect between the suburbs and the art activity in the city. Many people are unaware that East Dayton contains the highest concentration of artists in Dayton. In order to raise awareness, Jes developed the East Dayton Arts District. Her immediate goal is to brand the area and create some unity with the artists and the arts here and just try to change the face of the East side. In a collaborative setting, art has the power to transcend the barriers of division in every way. Her first steps to brand the district involved setting up the website and painting the First Street overpass to be a gateway to the area. The next step will require attending neighborhood association meetings in the district to get them on board. I think the more people that we get on board, the easier it will be for us to build the district. Additionally, Jes is spearheading creation of a memorial for victims of the opioid epidemic, The Wall of Perseverance. Her speech at the 2018 UpDayton Summit earned a grant for seed money for the project. The award also gave her a team of all these professional people who do all these awesome things. The project will invite people to write the name of a loved one lost to opioids on the back of a tile and incorporate it into the 3-D memorial. Jes envisions it as a way to physically do something to help rebuild broken lives. We will make Dayton the Capitol of Healing. Jes reflections: The most difficult thing Jes does now is managing the tenants, the different artistic personalities. Im just trying to gather the team; that is the challenge What an adventure! If you asked me two years ago, would I ever be a landlord to 13 people, no way that I wouldve said yes to that. Jes would like to get back to doing her own mosaic work. I havent had a show yet and I really would really like to. She has been doing mosaics for 20 years now and says, I really enjoy it, so getting back to that would be great. Jes career observations: Explore experiences to find out what it is that matches with you as a person Remember to meet people, network and communicate in order to make projects come alive Build leadership experience by getting people active and involved in projects that make a difference Infuse humanitarian acts, caring and giving, into your career regardless of what you do, whether youre doing a job you love or not Ive definitely hit this point with opening Cranes and The Mosaic Institute here that I have this amazing team of professional creative people here with me that are helping me do everything with the community work; theyre very supportive. Team Crane and Team Mosaic are all kind of merging together a lot of us really care and are invested and excited about making a difference This is my 20thyear as a mosaic artist and almost all of my career out of college has been dedicated to community. Those who can have the responsibility to. You can find more information about Jes at: City of Miamisburg levee painting (WDTN.com, December 14, 2017) Art projects in Miamisburg with The Mosaic Institute (Dayton Daily News, August 26, 2016) Meet 2018 Artfest Featured Artist Jes McMillan (Dayton Local.com, August 22, 2018) Dayton Wall of Perseverance to Memorialize Opioid Epidemic Victims with Art (WYSO, May 28, 2018) Regional Government to deport 23 more Rohingyas from Assam Guwahati, Oct 10 (Agencies) | Publish Date: 10/10/2018 12:15:27 PM IST After deporting seven Rohingiya Muslims, Assam in consultation with ministry of home affairs has started process to deport at least 23 more Rohingiya Muslims, currently languishing in three different detention camps in Assam, to Myanmar, The Asian Age reported. Pointing out that the Assam police has already completed the verification of nationality of these immigrants, security sources, however, said that these immigrants have also agreed and given consent for their deportation back to their country. The Myanmar government has also agreed to take them back besides ensuring their safety, security sources said that these immigrants are currently lodged in Silchar, Goalpara and Tezpur detention camps. Security sources said that the Myanmarese authorities, in consultation with ministry of home and external affairs, have completed the verification of their home addresses. We are in touch with the nodal agency in the neighbouring country and the deportation will take place in a phased manner, security sources said, admitting that they are yet to fix up the date for their deportation. Meanwhile, the bordering guarding forces in Assam and other frontier states have been kept on alert following an intelligence input indicating exodus of substantial number of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Northeastern states about two weeks back. Pointing out that border-guarding forces are on alert since then, security sources however said that no such movement of Rohingya either from Myanmar or Bangladesh was noticed. Security sources said that even the railways was alerted to keep watch on possible movement of Rohingya from the region to other parts of the country. According to an estimate, around 40,000 Rohingya are now living illegally in India and majority of them are staying in places like Jammu, Hyderabad, Kanpur and outskirts of Delhi. Coos County Democrat Small Business Administration tours Lancaster by Tara Giles Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter write the author Last week the Small Business Administration toured several businesses around Lancaster. Here the group is pictured here visiting Polish Princess owner Magda Randall. (Photo by Tara Giles) (click for larger version) LANCASTER Last week, members of the U.S. Small Businesses Administration's (SBA) New Hampshire District Office visited Lancaster as part of a North Country Small business summit. The SBA is the only real resource for small businesses that has the financial support of the federal government. The group champions for entrepreneurs and small business owners with the support that they need to start or expand an already existing business. The SBA partners with several private and public organizations to make this American dream a reality for those in pursuit. The first stop took place at Northwoods Manufacturing, owned and operated by Bill Rutherford. Of Rutherford, members of the SBA collectively said, "Mr. Rutherford takes great pride in his craftsmanship and the ability to deliver quality products to local homes and businesses and appreciates all of the help he received from the SBA programs including several guaranty loans with our lending partner, Passumpsic Savings Bank, and technical assistance from our resource partner, NH Small Business Development Center." The Polish Princess located on Main Street and owned by Magda Randall was the next stop on the tour. Randall has also benefitted from the SBDC. A spokesperson for the SBA said, "Nestled inside a historic building Ms. Randall manages a small cafe that serves daily lunches and a variety of homemade pastries and bread." The tour included SBA District Director, Greta Johansson and her team Rachael Roderick, Miguel Moralez, and Cheryl Croto, along with SBDC advisors Stewart Gates and David Boynton. Sarah Desrochers of Passumpsic Bank was also in attendance. Johansson addressed the group, "We are excited to be part of a collaborative team of economic development organizations across Coos County that will assist small businesses in communities like Colebrook access the capital and technical assistance they need," Johansson went on to say, "Businesses that are aware of the resources available to help them start, grow, or expand are much more likely to succeed and take advantage of economic opportunities." Of Lancaster, Johansson said, "We are proud to be able to work with our lending and resource partners like Passumpsic Savings Bank and New Hampshire Small Business Development Center to help businesses like Northwoods Manufacturing and The Polish Princess Bakery start and grow and be part of the Lancaster economy and community. We look forward to working more closely with our partners in town to bring education and resources to encourage more small business activity in the coming months." LANCASTER Last week, members of the U.S. Small Businesses Administration's (SBA) New Hampshire District Office visited Lancaster as part of a North Country Small business summit.The SBA is the only real resource for small businesses that has the financial support of the federal government. The group champions for entrepreneurs and small business owners with the support that they need to start or expand an already existing business. The SBA partners with several private and public organizations to make this American dream a reality for those in pursuit.The first stop took place at Northwoods Manufacturing, owned and operated by Bill Rutherford.Of Rutherford, members of the SBA collectively said, "Mr. Rutherford takes great pride in his craftsmanship and the ability to deliver quality products to local homes and businesses and appreciates all of the help he received from the SBA programs including several guaranty loans with our lending partner, Passumpsic Savings Bank, and technical assistance from our resource partner, NH Small Business Development Center."The Polish Princess located on Main Street and owned by Magda Randall was the next stop on the tour. Randall has also benefitted from the SBDC.A spokesperson for the SBA said, "Nestled inside a historic building Ms. Randall manages a small cafe that serves daily lunches and a variety of homemade pastries and bread."The tour included SBA District Director, Greta Johansson and her team Rachael Roderick, Miguel Moralez, and Cheryl Croto, along with SBDC advisors Stewart Gates and David Boynton. Sarah Desrochers of Passumpsic Bank was also in attendance.Johansson addressed the group, "We are excited to be part of a collaborative team of economic development organizations across Coos County that will assist small businesses in communities like Colebrook access the capital and technical assistance they need," Johansson went on to say, "Businesses that are aware of the resources available to help them start, grow, or expand are much more likely to succeed and take advantage of economic opportunities."Of Lancaster, Johansson said, "We are proud to be able to work with our lending and resource partners like Passumpsic Savings Bank and New Hampshire Small Business Development Center to help businesses like Northwoods Manufacturing and The Polish Princess Bakery start and grow and be part of the Lancaster economy and community. We look forward to working more closely with our partners in town to bring education and resources to encourage more small business activity in the coming months." Gilford Steamer GHS band members get college level experience by Erin Plummer Rob Franzblau of Rhode Island College works with Gilford High School band students. (Photo by Erin Plummer) (click for larger version) Gilford High School band students have been getting lessons from some special teachers; two different college professors sharing their perspectives and experience. For the past month and a half, band director Lyvie Beyrent has been on medical leave and her classes have been under the instruction of Jim Chesebrough. Chesebrough recently retired from Keene State University and has taught at Dartmouth College and Southern New Hampshire University. "My biggest fear going out on medical leave was not knowing who my sub was going to be," Beyrent said. She approached Chesebrough about substituting for her, and Chesebrough agreed to do so. Students said it was helpful to have the perspective of another teacher. "It's been really nice; he was definitely a lot harder on us than Lyvie," said band president and trumpet player Aaron Witham. He said this experience with a second instructor definitely helped them. "It's good to be experiencing different types of warm-ups and different styles of teaching," said band vice president and French horn player Emma Ramsey. "It lets us see something and how they are teaching at college." Both said it was good to get the perspective of a different teacher with some different methods. "When you're able to see it in a different perspective, it's a lot easier to lean," Ramsey said. Just a few days after Beyrent came back, the students learned some lessons from another college music professor: Rob Franzblau of Rhode Island College. Franzblau will go into different high schools around New England and work with one of their band classes. Franzblau said for him working with the GHS students was a great experience. "Anytime I get to work with high school students, I'm a happy guy," Franzblau said. Franzblau has been teaching at the college level for 21 years, though for seven years early in his career he taught high school. Franzblau teaches music education classes an works with students who aspire to be teachers. His friend Mark Stickney, the band director at PSU, convinced him to go into different high schools and work with the students. Since then he has been going to different schools across New England. Just that week he was at Manchester Memorial, Belmont High School, Winnacunnet High School, and Epping High School. "It's a great time; I love doing this," Franzblau said. Beyent said it's great for the band students to have another set of eyes and ears to work with. Gilford High School band students have been getting lessons from some special teachers; two different college professors sharing their perspectives and experience.For the past month and a half, band director Lyvie Beyrent has been on medical leave and her classes have been under the instruction of Jim Chesebrough. Chesebrough recently retired from Keene State University and has taught at Dartmouth College and Southern New Hampshire University."My biggest fear going out on medical leave was not knowing who my sub was going to be," Beyrent said.She approached Chesebrough about substituting for her, and Chesebrough agreed to do so.Students said it was helpful to have the perspective of another teacher."It's been really nice; he was definitely a lot harder on us than Lyvie," said band president and trumpet player Aaron Witham.He said this experience with a second instructor definitely helped them."It's good to be experiencing different types of warm-ups and different styles of teaching," said band vice president and French horn player Emma Ramsey. "It lets us see something and how they are teaching at college."Both said it was good to get the perspective of a different teacher with some different methods."When you're able to see it in a different perspective, it's a lot easier to lean," Ramsey said.Just a few days after Beyrent came back, the students learned some lessons from another college music professor: Rob Franzblau of Rhode Island College. Franzblau will go into different high schools around New England and work with one of their band classes.Franzblau said for him working with the GHS students was a great experience."Anytime I get to work with high school students, I'm a happy guy," Franzblau said.Franzblau has been teaching at the college level for 21 years, though for seven years early in his career he taught high school.Franzblau teaches music education classes an works with students who aspire to be teachers. His friend Mark Stickney, the band director at PSU, convinced him to go into different high schools and work with the students. Since then he has been going to different schools across New England. Just that week he was at Manchester Memorial, Belmont High School, Winnacunnet High School, and Epping High School."It's a great time; I love doing this," Franzblau said.Beyent said it's great for the band students to have another set of eyes and ears to work with. Gilford Steamer Streetcar presents All Together Now this weekend Town anticipating further action on PFOA levels Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Littleton Courier Bethlehem Elementary celebrates new community-built playground by Justin Roshak Bethlehem Elementary students open their new playground, which was designed to emphasize creativity, climbing, and independent play, built by citizens in a one-day blitz, and completed in one year. (Photo by Justin Roshak) (click for larger version) BETHLEHEM Students, parents, teachers, friends and family gathered last Monday to cut the ribbon on Bethlehem's new community playground, which cost about $100,000, and went from idea to completion in just over one year. $50,000 was voted by the taxpayers in last year's town warrant, a considerable sum in a community with some of the highest taxes, and most contentious politics, in the area. The community spirit, and financial commitment, made the difference between a one year project and a multi-year saga. "If they hadn't done that, we'd only be at phase one of the project," explained Bethlehem Elementary School Principal Shelli Roberts, who expressed particular appreciation for the taxpayers' contribution. The old playground's newest elements dated from the 90's, she added, so a rebuild was long overdue. She expressed hope that it would serve as a resource for the whole community, both in and after school hours. Major financial contributions were also made by Casella Waste Management, who matched $15,000, and the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund, which provided the last $11,000 to top the project off. Other donors in excess of $5,000 include the Bethlehem Elementary Parent-Teacher Organization, Tender Corporation, and the Raichle family. "The alumni association was a big art of kicking us off," Roberts said. While the new playground is open for business, the project is not donea rock climbing wall is planned, and expected to cost between $5,000 and $8,000, according to estimates by various members of the building committee, who also plan an outdoor class space and gazebo, and a running track. "It's a really good resource overall for Bethlehem," said Joanna Boisseau, a parent of a first and third grader, who served on the building committee. "It was literally just a community build," she explainedmain construction was completed in one day, almost entirely by citizens, with oversight from an employee of a construction firm. Teachers, parents, alum parents, and others all chipped in. "It was crazy," said Boisseau, who expressed amazement at the scale of construction that untrained volunteers achieved. "I was like, Oh my God, they're letting us do this, but it just happened." They raised and leveled one post at a time, each one sunk into several feet of mulch. The main build too one long day, with four days of smaller tasksmulching, cement, and so on. "It was moms, teachers, grandparents, teacher's in-laws coming in," Boisseau added. "Kids' ability to climb, and move, is going to help them overall in their health and wellness," said Kristen Bruno, a physical education teacher and member of the building committee. She said that elements which focus on balance and upper body strength were key, and while she doesn't use playgrounds for her classes much, it was an essential resource. Bruno suggested, perhaps half-seriously, that she could run a spartan "beast race" and obstacle course through the new playground. Citizens can purchase pies, baked by local organizers, until the 15th of October, with all proceeds to the rock wall fund. A bingo night, with thousands in prizes, will be held Nov. 14. Citizens should also keep watch for a spring fun run and one-mile color blast, early next year. BETHLEHEM Students, parents, teachers, friends and family gathered last Monday to cut the ribbon on Bethlehem's new community playground, which cost about $100,000, and went from idea to completion in just over one year.$50,000 was voted by the taxpayers in last year's town warrant, a considerable sum in a community with some of the highest taxes, and most contentious politics, in the area. The community spirit, and financial commitment, made the difference between a one year project and a multi-year saga."If they hadn't done that, we'd only be at phase one of the project," explained Bethlehem Elementary School Principal Shelli Roberts, who expressed particular appreciation for the taxpayers' contribution.The old playground's newest elements dated from the 90's, she added, so a rebuild was long overdue. She expressed hope that it would serve as a resource for the whole community, both in and after school hours.Major financial contributions were also made by Casella Waste Management, who matched $15,000, and the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund, which provided the last $11,000 to top the project off. Other donors in excess of $5,000 include the Bethlehem Elementary Parent-Teacher Organization, Tender Corporation, and the Raichle family."The alumni association was a big art of kicking us off," Roberts said.While the new playground is open for business, the project is not donea rock climbing wall is planned, and expected to cost between $5,000 and $8,000, according to estimates by various members of the building committee, who also plan an outdoor class space and gazebo, and a running track."It's a really good resource overall for Bethlehem," said Joanna Boisseau, a parent of a first and third grader, who served on the building committee."It was literally just a community build," she explainedmain construction was completed in one day, almost entirely by citizens, with oversight from an employee of a construction firm. Teachers, parents, alum parents, and others all chipped in."It was crazy," said Boisseau, who expressed amazement at the scale of construction that untrained volunteers achieved. "I was like, Oh my God, they're letting us do this, but it just happened."They raised and leveled one post at a time, each one sunk into several feet of mulch. The main build too one long day, with four days of smaller tasksmulching, cement, and so on."It was moms, teachers, grandparents, teacher's in-laws coming in," Boisseau added."Kids' ability to climb, and move, is going to help them overall in their health and wellness," said Kristen Bruno, a physical education teacher and member of the building committee.She said that elements which focus on balance and upper body strength were key, and while she doesn't use playgrounds for her classes much, it was an essential resource.Bruno suggested, perhaps half-seriously, that she could run a spartan "beast race" and obstacle course through the new playground.Citizens can purchase pies, baked by local organizers, until the 15th of October, with all proceeds to the rock wall fund. A bingo night, with thousands in prizes, will be held Nov. 14. Citizens should also keep watch for a spring fun run and one-mile color blast, early next year. Littleton Courier Norton Pike Field renamed to honor David Stoddard Pinewood Motel tenants face eviction, renovations underway Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Plymouth Record Enterprise Campton's Hannah Joyce named president of NH Tax Collectors Association by Donna Rhodes write the author CAMPTON At the Sept. 20 annual Fall Conference for the New Hampshire Tax Collectors Association, Hannah Joyce of Campton was sworn in as the organization's new president for a two-year term. Joyce has worked as both the Town Clerk and Tax Collector in the Town of Campton for nearly 20 years. She began her career in the town working under former TC/TC Linda Mower before she took over the position in 2003. She has represented Grafton County for the New Hampshire Tax Collectors Association since she was appointed as a co-coordinator with Raymah Simpson of Bristol in 2009 and, beginning in 2016, has served on the association's Executive Board in several capacities. Joyce has been a member of the Finance and Audit Committee, was Second Vice-President for a term and most recently was named First Vice-President, which prepared her for her new role as the Association President. The installation took place in North Conway during the Gala Banquet that also celebrated the 80th Anniversary of NHTCA. Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Stephan Hamilton, Director of the N.H. Department of Revenue Administration and also in attendance was Commissioner Lindsay Stepp of the NHDRA. Joyce was sworn in by Taylor Caswell, Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs. According to the NHTCA, each year taxes are collected in 234 cities and towns, and 25 unincorporated places throughout New Hampshire. The association's core purpose, they said, is to "keep the state's tax collectors supplied with the necessary knowledge and tools needed for the successful execution of their offices." Joyce said she looks forward to serving as president over the next two-years when she will strive to be the best leader she can as she works to help other tax collectors in their roles as elected town officials. "I feel this association has really supported me and taken me to where I am now," she said. "To be able to give back and help those who have helped me all along is an honor and a privilege." CAMPTON At the Sept. 20 annual Fall Conference for the New Hampshire Tax Collectors Association, Hannah Joyce of Campton was sworn in as the organization's new president for a two-year term.Joyce has worked as both the Town Clerk and Tax Collector in the Town of Campton for nearly 20 years. She began her career in the town working under former TC/TC Linda Mower before she took over the position in 2003.She has represented Grafton County for the New Hampshire Tax Collectors Association since she was appointed as a co-coordinator with Raymah Simpson of Bristol in 2009 and, beginning in 2016, has served on the association's Executive Board in several capacities. Joyce has been a member of the Finance and Audit Committee, was Second Vice-President for a term and most recently was named First Vice-President, which prepared her for her new role as the Association President.The installation took place in North Conway during the Gala Banquet that also celebrated the 80th Anniversary of NHTCA. Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Stephan Hamilton, Director of the N.H. Department of Revenue Administration and also in attendance was Commissioner Lindsay Stepp of the NHDRA. Joyce was sworn in by Taylor Caswell, Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs.According to the NHTCA, each year taxes are collected in 234 cities and towns, and 25 unincorporated places throughout New Hampshire. The association's core purpose, they said, is to "keep the state's tax collectors supplied with the necessary knowledge and tools needed for the successful execution of their offices."Joyce said she looks forward to serving as president over the next two-years when she will strive to be the best leader she can as she works to help other tax collectors in their roles as elected town officials."I feel this association has really supported me and taken me to where I am now," she said. "To be able to give back and help those who have helped me all along is an honor and a privilege." Winnisquam Echo Tilton police officer recognized for service during McDonald's fundraiser by Donna Rhodes write the author Tilton Police Chief Robert Cormier looks on as Officer Elizabeth Murray of TPD received a Community Policing Award from McDonald's District Manager Larry Johnstone last week. (Photo by Donna Rhodes) (click for larger version) TILTON On Oct. 3, McDonald's Restaurants hosted a statewide fundraiser at 54 of their locations across the state to benefit the New Hampshire Chiefs of Police Association as they also paid tribute to law enforcement officers who go above and beyond in serving their communities. New Hampshire McDonald's Owner/Operator Peter Napoli said, "As business owners, we see the positive impact the police have on our communities and residents, protecting us day in and day out, and we're proud to raise funds so they can operate at their highest level." At the McDonald's in Tilton last Wednesday afternoon, a portion of all sales from 4-7 p.m. benefitted NHCOP, while outside on the patio people gathered to thank Officer Elizabeth Murray of the Tilton Police Department for her outstanding service. Chief Robert Cormier said he nominated Murray for a Community Policing Award for several reasons. "She came to us (in 2015) full of energy to be a great officer and a big part of the community. Since that time she's taken part in the Winni Dip fundraising for Special Olympics and got the attention of the people at Special Olympics New Hampshire when she exceeded the amount to be raised," said Cormier. He went on to say Murray has also been a key factor in this year's Movies in the Park, Coffee with a Cop, the Law Enforcement Against Drugs program for local school children, Operation Safety Cone as well as events for the Make a Wish Foundation and more. "I think it's important to recognize officers who are not only out doing their daily duties as law enforcement but making the community a better place, too," Cormier said. "Liz is the kind of person who would step up to help anyone in need. She's a superstar and we knew that when we hired her!" Murray said she was not only humbled by the recognition but a bit surprised, too. "I didn't do any of this to get an award. I signed up for them because it's all something I enjoy doing," she commented. McDonald's District Manager Larry Johnston said their last NHCOPA fundraiser held raised $52,000 for the organization and anticipated to either meet or exceed that amount this year. Murray was grateful for the distinction and said she hopes to see many families this Friday, Oct. 12, on the lawn at Riverfront Park when the Movies in the Park series will wrap up for 2018 with a showing of "Coco." The movie is free and there will also be free face painting and a pinata filled with candy for boys and girls to enjoy. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. TILTON On Oct. 3, McDonald's Restaurants hosted a statewide fundraiser at 54 of their locations across the state to benefit the New Hampshire Chiefs of Police Association as they also paid tribute to law enforcement officers who go above and beyond in serving their communities.New Hampshire McDonald's Owner/Operator Peter Napoli said, "As business owners, we see the positive impact the police have on our communities and residents, protecting us day in and day out, and we're proud to raise funds so they can operate at their highest level."At the McDonald's in Tilton last Wednesday afternoon, a portion of all sales from 4-7 p.m. benefitted NHCOP, while outside on the patio people gathered to thank Officer Elizabeth Murray of the Tilton Police Department for her outstanding service.Chief Robert Cormier said he nominated Murray for a Community Policing Award for several reasons."She came to us (in 2015) full of energy to be a great officer and a big part of the community. Since that time she's taken part in the Winni Dip fundraising for Special Olympics and got the attention of the people at Special Olympics New Hampshire when she exceeded the amount to be raised," said Cormier.He went on to say Murray has also been a key factor in this year's Movies in the Park, Coffee with a Cop, the Law Enforcement Against Drugs program for local school children, Operation Safety Cone as well as events for the Make a Wish Foundation and more."I think it's important to recognize officers who are not only out doing their daily duties as law enforcement but making the community a better place, too," Cormier said. "Liz is the kind of person who would step up to help anyone in need. She's a superstar and we knew that when we hired her!"Murray said she was not only humbled by the recognition but a bit surprised, too."I didn't do any of this to get an award. I signed up for them because it's all something I enjoy doing," she commented.McDonald's District Manager Larry Johnston said their last NHCOPA fundraiser held raised $52,000 for the organization and anticipated to either meet or exceed that amount this year.Murray was grateful for the distinction and said she hopes to see many families this Friday, Oct. 12, on the lawn at Riverfront Park when the Movies in the Park series will wrap up for 2018 with a showing of "Coco." The movie is free and there will also be free face painting and a pinata filled with candy for boys and girls to enjoy. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. Recent Donna Rhodes Plymouth police welcome new Chief, Deputy Chief 2021-Nov-11 Community creates moving tribute to Hazel Roy 2021-Nov-04 Engine dedicated in honor of former Sanbornton Fire Chief 2021-Nov-04 Fundraiser celebrates former Alexandria residents love for animals 2021-Oct-29 Fundraiser planned to benefit local animal lovers family 2021-Oct-13 New business helps clients enjoy the outdoors at their own pace 2021-Oct-13 More... By Express News Service BENGALURU: After civic agencies faced serious flak from all quarters, including the High Court, on the way the city is being managed, the Chief Secretary has now decided to chair a weekly meeting with all the agencies. On the agenda are potholes, flooding during rains and other issues faced by Bengaluru. This is the first time that such a micro-management strategy is being adopted by the top-most bureaucrat of the state. Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar had served as BBMP Administrator in 2015, so, he has fair knowledge of the city. The weekly meetings will have representation from civic agencies like BBMP, BDA, Bescom, BWSSB, BMRCL, PWD and National Highway Authority of India. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Vijay Bhaskar said, We used to do once in two weeks. Now it will be done on a regular basis. Many works are happening simultaneously which needs co-ordination. If there is co-ordination among various agencies, many works can be taken up smoothly and better service provided to public. In August 2018, the Chief Secretary had appointed eight senior IAS officers as nodal officers to take up various civic works in the city with better coordination. Sushmitha Ramakrishnan By Express News Service CHENNAI: Around 50 young women staying at a hostel at West Saidapet are stranded on the streets with their belongings locked inside after Greater Chennai Corporation locked and sealed their hostel building on Monday. The students and working women, who live at the hostel are aged between 18 and 28, and hail from across the State. My clothes, certificates and money are locked inside and all of us had to stuff ourselves into another small property owned by the landlord, said a 23-year-old woman adding that she could not go to work as her belongings were stuck inside. Many women who stay at the hostel claimed that they had left either for work or college when officials from the corporation arrived around 10 am on Monday. We did not even get enough time to call the girls who had left the building to come back and fetch their things. They chased us out and we had no time to vacate, said another working woman who stays there. The landlord, who runs the hostel, was first served a lock-and-seal notice on July 20 by officials from the corporation in Zone 10 (Kodambakkam). Officials sent a de-occupation notice dated August 28, ordering the landlord to vacate the place within 15 days of receipt of the notice. The lock-and-seal order comes following the discovery on unauthorised construction and deviation from CMDA approved plan in the hostel. The landlord, had, however simultaneously applied for approval under the regularisation scheme. The person who sold us the property had paid the required fine in October, 2000 itself and applied for regularisation. However, the regularisation has still not come through. So on August 31, after we were served the de-occupation notice, we appealed to CMDA to grant regularisation using the bills for the fines we had paid, said M Kalyani, the landlord. CMDA had rejected the appeal on September 20 and said its decision could be re-appealed within 30 days. However, before the re-appeal was made, the hostel was sealed. The young women at the hostel claim that they were not informed in advance about the lock-and-seal notice. They directly came and locked the place in half-an-hour. We did not get enough time to even take our clothes outside. Only a handful of girls were able to pack their things, the rest were not there, said another working woman staying at the hostel. Kalyani alleged that their building was targeted among others, as they opposed the construction of a corporation community hall coming in front of their building, blocking their access. We asked them to ensure that they made enough space for an entry and they are targeting us because of that. Other buildings with violations have not been sealed, she said. A zonal corporation official, however, argued that all notices were served on time and that the landlords had not informed the women about the lock-and-seal notice. We even personally informed the warden on Sunday night that the place will be sealed the next day, the officials said. We are not able to explain the reason of our absence at work. Our employer does not believe that our hostel was sealed. We cant keep taking leave any longer, said another girl staying at the hostel fearing that the building might be demolished with her documents and belongings locked inside. We simply want to be allowed to take our documents and certificates, she said. Without warning Around 50 women, mostly students and working professionals, stayed at a hostel at West Saidapet Officials from Greater Chennai Corporation locked and sealed their hostel building But the action came without warning, which literally left many with nowhere to go, with most of their personal belongings stuck inside the hostel Many were at work or college when officials arrived to seal the building By IANS NEW DELHI: A man, his wife and their daughter were found dead with stab wounds in their house here on Wednesday, police said. Their son was severely injured. Deputy Commissioner of Police Benita Mary Jaiker said the victims' neighbour called around 5 a.m. to report the incident which took place in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj area. "The man, Mithilesh, his wife Siya and their daughter Neha were declared brought dead at the hospital while the son is being treated," she said. By PTI NEW DELHI: Over eight lakh litres of seized liquor and 40,233 impounded vehicles were lying in police stations across the national capital, the Delhi Police told the Supreme Court Wednesday. In an affidavit filed before a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, the police said a policy has been formulated to de-congest police stations by removing or disposing of impounded materials lying there. The police has said that a "policy has been formulated with the object to decongest police stations by way of removal/disposal of seized/impounded material/vehicles and to ensure that such materials do not create impediment in the smooth flow of traffic and do not become breeding grounds for disease carrying vectors. " It also said that the department has written to the Principal Secretary (Home) of the Delhi government to expedite the process of appointment of 'Nazirs' (record keeper of a malkhana) for each revenue district. The affidavit, which explained the policy for disposal of case properties, said the storage capacity of 'Malkhanas' (where seized materials are kept) in police stations were "grossly insufficient". "As on July 31, 2018, a total of 40,223 seized vehicles are lying in police stations. Some vehicles also keep lying in police custody because their owners have already claimed insurance and the insurance companies are not interested to take the vehicle to save the expenses of lifting, storage and disposal of vehicles," the affidavit said. It said that illicit liquor too occupies a lot of space in police stations. "Illicit liquor lying in police stations is another item which occupies a lot of space. As on August 31, 2018, there was a total of 8,02,370 litres of seized liquor lying in police stations," the affidavit added. It also mentioned the strategies to dispose of case properties lying in various police stations, including immediate release of case properties which can be returned to the rightful owner. "Shifting of such case properties which cannot be released immediately to the centralised Malakhana within 15 days of seizure of the property. And expediting the final disposal of old case properties lying in police stations by way of return to rightful owner, auction destruction etc by obtaining court orders as per law," it said. The police, in its policy to decongest police station, said the exercise to dispose of case materials was needed to be done on a "continuous basis" so that a "steady disposal" was achieved. On disposal of seized contraband, the police said that as per the procedure followed, the samples are sent to forensic science laboratory for chemical analysis and after the receipt of chemical analysis report, application for disposal is made in the designated court of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS). It also said that drugs having legitimate medical or industrial use can be sold as per advice of chief controller with Government Opium and Alkaloid Factories. "In case the drug is not found fit for such use, the same must be destroyed with the help of incinerators fitted with appropriate air pollution control devices after seeking necessary permission from state pollution control board," it said. "Appropriate agency is hired to carry our destruction by following due procedure," it added. The police also gave details of the works, along with the timeline, which are being carried out to remove traffic bottlenecks from congested corridors in Delhi which have been categorised under category 'A', 'B' and 'C'. The police, which had earlier given details of the work to be completed under category 'A', informed the bench about tasks identified under categories 'B' and 'C'. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: An elderly Maoist couple Koti Purshotham (69) and his wife Koti Vinodini (64) carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively, surrendered before Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar here on Tuesday citing political differences and health reasons. There were serious issues in the party leadership. It has lost vision. But the primary reason why we have surrendered is our increasing health concerns, said Purshotham. In the last 10 years, no one has asked us how are we living. We dont have any work and even after giving three decades to the party, it has ill-treated us in our old age, he said. Purshotham (alias Vijay alias Sharath alias Chandra) has been a regional committee member in the party. He has also been part of the Agitation Propaganda Committee (APC), a publishing unit in the CPI (Maoist) Party after joining the party in 1981. He has a degree in Bachelor of Oriental Languages (BOL) and Masters degree in history, and was working as headmaster of Ambedkar Vidyaniketan primary school in Addagutta in 1981, when he came in contact with Maoist leaders Mallajula Koteshwar Rao (alias Kishan ji) and KG Satyamurthy. He married Koti Vinodini (alias Vijaya Laxmi alias Bharathakka), who was a teacher, in 1982. He is said to have recruited around 60 youths and sent them to forest for training between 1981 and 1986 when he worked as city committee secretary in Hyderabad, even as Vinodini worked as a teacher in city. The couple was arrested in March 1991 only to be released in exchange for release of an abducted Youth Congress leader P Sudheer Kumar three months later. He looked after the Agitation Propaganda Committee (APC) between 1997 and 2000. Between 1996 and 2005, he also worked in the sub-committee on political education(SCOPE) in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, Vinodini worked in Prakasam dalam, Ananthagiri dalam and Uddanam Srikakulam dalam up to 1996, when she joined her husband in APC. From 2005 to 2014, the duo stayed in Chennai under the guidance of central committee member Akkiraju Hara Gopal alias RK and was not given any responsibility. I have written letters to the Central Committee expressing my concerns but no one has ever addressed them. The party has ignored my contributions and refuse to change its strategies and tactics in changing times and there is no hope for educated youth to work in the party, said Purshotham, who had only words of praise for the TRS government. As of his involvement in the attacks, the police commissioner said they are yet to find out the details. By Express News Service KOCHI: The Air Customs Intelligence Wing of the Customs Department recovered 1.166 kg of gold from the toilet of Spice Jet flight at the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), Nedumbassery, on Tuesday. A probe has been launched to track down the person who was attempting to smuggle out the gold bars. According to Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar, as many as 10 gold bars were recovered from the toilet of Spice Jet flight SG 018, which arrived from Dubai. The gold was concealed inside the tissue folder cabinet. The unclaimed gold was recovered during the routine rummaging of the aircraft by the Customs officers, he said. The Customs Department suspect the smuggling attempt might be made with the help of people who have access to the flight. Usually, the smugglers hide gold bars in the flight, which will be later picked up by the airport employees hired by the rackets. We have to check whether any officers are aiding the smugglers in the airport. We are collecting the details of the passengers who arrived on the flight from Dubai. We are also investigating whether the agency entrusted with the cleaning of the flights at the airport are involved in the incident, an officer said. Gold smuggling bid thwarted In another case, a person hailing from Thrissur was intercepted by the Customs officers while attempting to smuggle gold in paste form. The thick brown paste weighing around 20,164 gms was seized from a passenger who arrived from Abu Dhabi by Etihad flight EY 246. The gold in compound form was concealed in the underwear of the flyer. We have started the procedure to extract the gold from the compound form and the evaluation process is taking place, Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar said. By Express News Service KOCHI: In an effort which would boost the nations bilateral relations with its neighbouring country Sri Lanka, two ships of the Sri Lankan Navy reached Kochi on Monday. The ships, SLNS Sagara and Suranimila, commanded by Captain N M J D Nissanka and Captain M H C J Silva respectively reached here on a three-day visit. The ships will leave the country on Thursday. The Commanding Officers also visited Rear Admiral R J Nadkarni, Chief of Staff, Southern Naval Command. In the past two decades, with regular exchanges of visits as well as increased trade and investment, Indias relations with Sri Lanka have evolved into a comprehensive partnership. Being immediate maritime neighbours, the two nations and navies also share a common vision in promoting maritime cooperation in the Bay of Bengal region, as is evident through the SLNs regular participation in the MILAN series of biennial meets and Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), said a release from the Navy spokesperson in Kochi. S Guru Srikanth By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Sixteen years ago, when a mandal education officer told teacher Kakumanu Jojappa that his government school needed toilets and drinking water supply to qualify for an upgrade to an upper primary one, he did his bit by donating Rs15,000 to construct the toilets. For a man of his means, Rs 15,000 was a big sum at that point in time, but he did not mind. Neither did his wife, who is also in the same profession. The Government Elementary School in Nulakapeta of Tadepalli mandal in Guntur district eventually became the Mandal Parishad Upper Primary School, helping children in the vicinity avoid crossing the Krishna canal to reach the next school, which was a considerable distance away. My objective was to help the children and see the school where I worked upgraded. I did it in memory of my parents - Ashirvadam and Keeritamma - who strove to make me what I am today, says the math teacher, who now works at the Vaddeswaram Zilla Parishad High School in the same mandal. What inspired Jojappa (53) to become a philanthrophist? It all began after he read an article in a magazine about the art of giving, he recalls. Recently, on the occasion of his mothers death anniversary, he pledged to donate a days salary every month for the next 80 months - till he retires in April 2025 - to the states Badi Runam Teerchukundam programme, aimed at improving infrastructure at government schools. He earns Rs 80,000 a month, and his donation, which gets deducted from his salary, would amount to about Rs 2.13 lakh. Born into a poor family of weavers, his was a family of seven with both parents working to feed the rest. Jojappas mother passed away when he was in college and his father died just when he became a teacher. Through my philanthrophy, I feel like Im serving my parents. It gives me a sense of fulfilment. I focus on students and schools because the future generations can be moulded there and I get to set a good example, he says. A large chunk of Jojappas contribution goes towards student welfare and the schools he taught at. With better infrastructure, children of government schools can do wonders. I want to do my bit for their future. He also instituted the Amma Awards in 2015 and started giving cash prizes to meritorious students of his school. He spent Rs 10,000 in the first year, and shelled out Rs 20,000 this year. He is surely an inspiration to others. How many people would offer such a chunk of their salary for charity? I hope others follow in his footsteps, says his colleague E Lakshminarayana. Among the many who encourage Jojappas giving are his wife Lourdu Mary, who is also a government school teacher, and his children Asha Keerti and Asha Kiran, who are pursuing MS in USA and Australia respectively. Amit Agnihotri By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Congress has given a clean chit to party lawmaker Alpesh Thakor who has been charged with fanning the recent violence against migrant workers from UP and Bihar in Gujarat.Alpesh has no role. He is being blamed to target the Congress. The video is an old clip, Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chawra told TNIE, referring to a viral video clip that shows a member of Alpeshs Thakor Sena asking the migrant workers to leave Gujarat within 24 hours. The issue has stirred politics in the western state, with the Congress and the ruling BJP trading charges. A day after Rahul Gandhi slammed the state government over the violence and said he was there to fight for the migrants, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani asked the Congress president to take action against Thakor first. On his part, Thakor, Congress MLA and AICC secretary in-charge of Bihar, acknowledged that he had been advocating local jobs for the locals, but never supported any violence against the migrant workers. Chawra blamed the state governments laxity in bringing the situation under control for the fear psychosis among the migrant workers, leading to their flight. The incidents of violence have been just a few, but people fled due to fear, he said. Had the police acted in time, the situation could have been brought under control. He alleged that the BJP let the violence spread in order to deflect attention from the failures of the Rupani government. Taking a cue from Rahul, the state Congress unit has deployed frontal organisations like the Youth Congress, the Sewa Dal and the Mahila Congress to assure the migrants that the party stands solidly behind them. By PTI AHMEDABAD: Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor, who is facing the heat over the violence against Hindi-speaking migrants in Gujarat, will be sitting on a day-long fast Thursday to establish "peace and harmony". He announced the `Sadbhavna Upvas' (fast for goodwill) at his house a couple of days ago. A large number of Hindi-speaking migrant workers have left Gujarat in the last few days following attacks at some places. Also Read | Attacks on migrants: Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor claims innocence, writes to CMs of Bihar, UP The ruling BJP has blamed Thakor and his outfit, Gujarat Kshatriya-Thakor Sena, for the outbreak of violence. The outfit's name also figures in some of the FIRs filed in connection with the attacks, which started after a worker hailing from Bihar was arrested for allegedly raping a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district on September 28. The girl hails from the Thakor community. Thakor has denied any connection between his organisation and the attacks. He has invited migrants from Hindi-speaking states and their leaders to join in the fast tomorrow, said his associate Mukesh Bharwad. On Tuesday, the Congress leader had also invited the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to join in the fast. "Neither of them have confirmed their presence. He has also invited migrants and their leaders to join. Our aim is to send a message that we are not against anyone. All we want is peace and harmony in Gujarat," said Bharwad. A video showing Thakor purportedly berating migrant workers had gone viral before the violence began. "These people who have come from outside, they commit crime, they beat up common villagers and they go back to their states. Such people have jobs here. But our people do not have jobs here," Thakor is seen saying in a speech at Bhaucharji in Mehsana district of North Gujarat. By PTI NAGPUR: BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agrawal, arrested on the charges of espionage, was taken to Lucknow by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh police Wednesday, an official said here. A court in Nagpur had given the ATS his three-day transit remand Tuesday. Agrawal was being flown to Lucknow and the UP ATS will produce him before a special court there, a police official said here. The ATS will seek his custody from that court for the purpose of interrogation, he said. Also Read | After BrahMos engineer, two more defence personnel on ATS radar Agrawal was arrested Monday in a joint operation by the ATS units of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra police at BrahMos' Wardha Road facility near here for allegedly leaking "technical information" to Pakistan. BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the 'Military Industrial Consortium' (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia. The UP ATS told the court Tuesday that Agrawal was in contact with two Facebook accounts, operated under the names 'Neha Sharma' and 'Pooja Ranjan', by suspected Pakistani intelligence operatives. He has been booked under the Official Secrets Act. By PTI NEW DELHI: Gorkhas of Nepal holding valid identity cards and members of the community who are citizens of India and living in Assam will not be sent to foreigners tribunals to determine their nationality, the Home Ministry said Wednesday. In a communication to the Assam government, the ministry said only those individuals, who have come to Assam from specified territories, including Bangladesh, immediately before commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1985 and are not Indian citizens, can be referred to the foreigners tribunals to identify whether they are illegal immigrants or not. Also Read | NRC is India's problem, says Bangladesh foreign minister Mahmood Ali A senior home ministry official, however, made it clear that Nepalese citizens living in Assam are not eligible to be included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as well as in the electoral rolls. The clarification came following a representation to Home Minister Rajnath Singh by the All Assam Gorkha Students' Union, which cited some cases of the members of the Gorkha community living in Assam referring to the foreigners' tribunals, an official statement said. In its communication on September 24, the home ministry said the members of the Gorkha community who were Indian citizens at the time of commencement of the Constitution, or those who are Indian citizens by birth, or those who have acquired Indian citizenship by registration or naturalization in accordance with the provisions of The Citizenship Act, 1955 are not "foreigners" in terms of section 2 (a) of The Foreigners Act, 1946 as well as The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, therefore, such cases will not be referred to the foreigners tribunals. It further emphasised that any member of the Gorkha community holding Nepalese nationality and who has arrived in India by land or air over the Nepal border even without a passport or visa and staying in India for any length of time shall not be treated as an illegal migrant if he or she is in possession of proper identity documents. The valid identity documents are: Nepalese passport, Nepalese citizenship certificate, voter identification card issued by the Election Commission of Nepal, limited validity photo-identity certificate issued by Nepalese mission in India when deemed necessary and for children between age group of 10-18 years, photo ID issued by the principal of the school, if accompanied by parents having valid travel documents. No such document is required for children below the age group of 10 years as per the provisions of the India-Nepal treaty signed in 1950, the statement said. The home ministry also said the cases of members of Gorkha community falling within the parameters mentioned earlier should not be referred to the foreigner tribunals for an opinion as to whether the person is a "foreigner" within the meaning of The Foreigners Act, 1946. Later, a senior ministry official clarified that a sizeable number cases of Nepalese citizens are pending before foreigners tribunals in Assam and the clarifications would be helpful in disposing of their cases. Fayaz Wani By Express News Service SRI NAGAR: The fate of 1,029 candidates would be decided in 384 wards of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the second phase polls on Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir. Of the total 1,029 candidates, 148 are in Kashmir division where 20 wards in Srinagar alone are stronghold of the separatists. As many as 65 candidates 61 from Kashmir and four from Jammu were elected uncontested in the ULB second phases. In 13 wards of Frisal in south Kashmirs Kulgam district, no candidate is in the fray. There was only 1 candidate for 13 wards at Beerwah area in central Kashmirs Budgam district. The candidate was elected unopposed. Chief Electoral Officer Shaleen Kabra said 270 polling stations were designated for voting in Kashmir division and 274 in Jammu region. Polling stations are being guarded by police and CRPF personnel, while the Army is assisting authorities in sanitising sensitive areas, conducting patrol and setting up check-points. About 400 additional paramilitary companies are also deployed. A police officer said security personnel were directed to observe maximum restraint while dealing with the law and order situation. The separatists have called for shutdown in poll-bound areas, while the government declared public holiday in those areas. In the first phase of ULB polls, only 8.2 per cent polling was recorded in Kashmir while 65 per cent voting took place in Jammu and 62.1 per cent in Ladakh. The third and fourth phase will be held on October 13 and 16. Counting of votes is on October 20. The fight is directly between the Congress and the BJP and its ally Peoples Conference led by separatist-turned-mainstream politician Sajjad Gani Lone. The NC and the PDP have boycotted the polls by linking their participation to the Centres stand on Article 35A. Extreme measure In view of militant threats, the names of candidates contesting the ULB polls in Kashmir Valley have been kept secret by authorities. Even the voters dont know the name of their local candidates who are contesting in their respective areas this time. By PTI NEW DELHI: The Education Department of the BJP-led North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Wednesday directed a senior official to visit and inspect its school in Wazirabad over reports that students there were being allegedly segregated into Hindu and Muslim sections, according to official sources. Top authorities have taken cognisance of it, and if the allegations are found true, quick action will be taken against those found involved, sources in the NDMC said. "The director of the Education Department has already instructed a senior official from the zonal office to visit the school and look into the allegation as reported," a source said. The primary school falls in Wazirabad area of north Delhi and administered by the NDMC. The area comes under the Civil Lines Zone of the civic body. "Action might be taken by today itself, if allegations are found true," he said. All municipal corporation-run schools in Delhi are primary schools and teachers in other municipal schools expressed their shock over the reports. "Schools, primary level no less, should be kept away from politics, and religion and caste matters should not be mentioned, for a balanced growth of a child. When a student enters a school, he or she is not a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh or Christian, but an Indian and that is how we should educate them," a teacher in a civic school in Karol Bagh said, on condition of anonymity. "If the segregation is being done there, then it is condemnable, and we strongly disapprove of it. Schools should unite and not divide people, and these children are such impressionable minds, it will not bode well for their growth," he said. According to a media report, published Wednesday, even parents of the school's students were not aware about the alleged segregation. By ANI LUCKNOW: A special court on Tuesday issued a non-bailable warrant against Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi after she failed to appear before the court in connection with a case of violating the Model Code of Conduct. The Uttar Pradesh Minister was repeatedly summoned in the case dating back to 2010. The Member of Parliament (MP)-Minister of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Special Court in Allahabad issued the warrant against Joshi. In 2010, the case was registered against Joshi at Wazirganj police station for violating Section 144 and entering the Vidhan Sabha forcefully when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was in power. She was also accused of misbehaving with the police force. Till now, 12 hearings have been held in the case. By PTI JAIPUR: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said his party will not make false promises but deliver on whatever it tells voters, even as he continued to slam Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale fighter deal. At a public meeting in Bikaner, Gandhi targeted Modi over corruption in the deal signed with France for the fighter aircraft, repeating the charge that Anil Ambani's Reliance group benefited from a related offset contract. ALSO READ: SC seeks details of decision-making process of Rafale deal, doesn't want to know the price He had levelled similar charges - denied earlier by the government and the Reliance Group - at the meetings he addressed Tuesday in the state's Dholpur, Bharatpur and Dausa districts. At the 'Maha Sankalp Rally' on the Medical College grounds in Bikaner, he said Modi brought benefits for 15-20 top industrialists instead of the farmers. He said Congress will not make false promises to the voters. "The party and its leaders will not make promises like depositing Rs 15 lakh in everyone's bank account and providing two crore jobs every year. Our chief minister and leaders will not deliver hollow speeches and tell lies," he said. "But we will deliver on whatever we say from the stage," the Congress chief said. Assembly polls in the state are on December 7. The Congress chief referred to the migrant workers in Gujarat, saying youths from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were being attacked in the state and forced to leave. His rally in Bikaner targeted voters in 24 assembly constituencies spread over the districts of Bikaner, Hanumangarh, Sriganganagar and Churu. Farmers and party workers in large number from the districts attended the meeting. Gandhi claimed Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) was ignored in the Rafale deal while an "industrialist friend" of the prime minister benefitted. He reiterated the party's claim that the agreement with France for 36 aircraft was finalised at higher price compared to what was negotiated by the previous Congress-led government. Gandhi accused to the BJP government at the Centre of failing to provide relief to debt-ridden farmers while wreaking havoc on the economy with demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He accused the prime minister of insulting people by belittling what the country had achieved in the last 70 years, with the efforts of "your parents and grandparents". "He says everything happened only after he came to power. How arrogant is this person," Gandhi said. He slammed the Centre's economic and agricultural policies, claiming "not a single rupee" of farmers' loans was waived by the Modi government while bad loans were being written off. By PTI NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the sealing of nine properties of embattled real estate company Amrapali after its three directors, who are in police custody, said that the documents related to the group's 46 firms were stored there. The three directors moved an application before a bench comprising Justices U U Lalit and D Y Chandrachud stating that they were willing to hand over all the documents but the police was unaware about which one needed to be seized. The court's order came a day after three directors of the group -- Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar -- were ordered to be taken into police custody and the firm was castigated for playing "hide and seek" with the court by not complying with its orders to hand over all the documents to the forensic auditors. These directors told the bench that documents related to Amrapali's 46 group companies were kept in seven locations at Noida and Greater Noida and two premises -- Rajgir and Buxar districts in Bihar. "We direct the concerned police, Superintendent of Police of Noida and Greater Noida to seal all the seven premises in the presence of these directors," the bench said. "We direct the Superintendent of Police of Rajgir and Buxar to immediately go to these (two) places and seal it," the bench said. It further directed that after the sealing of these nine premises, the keys be handed over to the registrar of the apex court. The bench also made it clear that only the court-appointed forensic auditors -- Ravi Bhatia and Pawan Kumar Aggarwal -- and persons authorised by them would enter these premises after they were sealed. The court also asked the three directors to furnish an undertaking before it by tomorrow stating that all the documents were available at these nine premises only and not a single document was lying at any other place. The three directors also told the bench that they be kept at police station and not in the lock up during this period. "If the entire exercise of sealing of these seven premises at Noida and Greater Noida will be completed today, the presence of these three applicants will not be insisted upon by the police," the bench said. "If the exercise will not be completed, the present status will continue," the bench said and asked the Delhi Police to keep these three directors at the police station but not in the lock up. The bench said that compliance report of its order be placed before the court and directed that the three directors would also remain present before it tomorrow. The bench noted the submissions of the counsel appearing for the three directors that the group has received e-mail from the forensic auditors indicating the documents required by them. The directors also told the court that company wise list of all bank accounts were available till 2015 and after that, raw data was available with them and they would hand over all the documents in entirety. The bench directed that its order be telephonically communicated to the Superintendent of Police of Rajgir and Buxar so that they could take appropriate steps. The court is seized of a batch of petitions filed by home buyers who are seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in projects of the Amrapali group. During the hearing, the counsel appearing for the home buyers told the bench that the auditors have given the list of documents required by them and the group should hand over, year wise and company wise, the documents of all their firms. "We will ensure the presence of these three persons (directors) whenever the forensic auditors want," the bench said, adding, "The basic idea is to have the documents. We will have the forensic auditors tomorrow to know about the modalities and how would they like to proceed". The two auditors, appointed by the court to conduct forensic audit of Amrapali Group, had yesterday told the court that they have not yet received all the documents. The bench had noted that as per the two auditors, documents of only two out of 46 firms - Amrapali Zodiac and Amrapali Princely Estates - were handed over to them despite court's order to provide all documents. The court had also issued notice to all these companies and their directors asking why contempt proceedings be not initiated against them. It had also directed that other directors of the firm shall surrender their passport to the police and would not leave the country. By PTI BALLIA: A day after a magisterial probe was ordered to investigate an alleged ban on singing Vande Mataram and chanting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" at a government-aided inter college in Ballia district, authorities have closed it indefinitely. "We have closed the college till further orders. It will be reopened after permission from administration" Principal of Gandhi Mohammad Ali Memorial (GMAM) Inter College, Majid Nasir, said Wednesday. On the direction of the district administration, the principal pasted a notice dated Tuesday at the college that there was freedom to recite or sing "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", Vande Mataram, Jana Gana Mana etc. District Magistrate Bhawani Singh Khangaraut and Superintendent of Police Sriparna Ganguly visited the college Tuesday to examine the allegation that there a ban on singing Vande Mataram and chanting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" at the college. They later ordered a magisterial probe. An FIR was registered on Monday by Class 12 student Anuj Kumar Gaur that he and three other school students were attacked at the college gate. Gaur alleged that they were attacked at the behest of Nasir and a few teachers. He claimed Nasir and the teachers were angry with him after he told a social organisation and mediapersons on Friday that singing Vande Matram and chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai were not allowed in the college. Gaur stated in the FIR that around 20 to 25 men attacked them with lathis, while raising "Pakistan Zindabad" slogans. The principal and the teachers instigated the assailants to continue to beat them, Gaur has alleged. Harpreet Singh Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: Underlining the need for collaborative efforts to fight the menace, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought the continued support and assistance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in fighting the drug problem, which he described as a strategic conspiracy unleashed from across the international border. Terming the drug problem as a very critical issue, that had been going for a long time in Punjab, he said the state had seen a shift from the traditional use of marijuana (and to some extent opium) to synthetic stuff, which was posing a major threat. The seizure of a consignment of 300 Kg that had come from Mandavi in Gujarat and 80 Kg from Uri in J& K into Punjab clearly suggested that the aim of the drug smugglers was to starve the Indian Army of precious manpower, thus weakening the country's defence apparatus, said Amarinder. Referring to Facebook posts of young girls sniffing drugs, he expressed concern at the dangerous trend and said his government was going all out to deal with the problem. Rivulets in Punjab were being used to smuggle drugs as part of a strategic agenda that went beyond commercial reasons, he said, while delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of a three-day Regional Workshop on 'Combating Illicit Trafficking of Afghan Opiates: Developing a Comprehensive Approach', organized here by UNODC and steered by UNODC Regional Office South Asia (ROSA) Sergey Kapinos. Expressing the confidence that his government would succeed in destroying the drugs business, Amarinder called for teamwork to battle the menace and said UNODC could play a pivotal role in this. He said UNODC could help the state by identifying the big sharks who had a stake in the drug business. While the STF and other agencies had been successful in catching mid-level peddlers, the big suppliers need to be apprehended too, he said, adding that "we owe this to our future generations." He referred to the initiative taken by him to write to the chief ministers of the neighbouring states, which had led to the Haryana CM convening a meeting that had decided to set up a joint control room in Panchkula. Such collective efforts would help in destroying the drug racket, he asserted. The STF set up to tackle the menace had shown remarkable results, he said that since April 1, 2017, 18216 cases have been registered under the NDPS Act, 21489 persons have been arrested, 461 Kgs of Heroin. In short strong efforts have been made to break the supply chain of drugs. Additionally, 14 Kgs of Smack, 134 Kgs of Charas, 1040 Kgs of Opium, 63421 Kgs of Poppy Husk, 676 Kgs of Bhang, 9 Kgs of Ice, 3369 Kgs of Ganja, 225 Kgs of Intoxicant Powder, 8950421 Pills/Capsules and 76114 Injections have been recovered. Large sums of money were involved in the business, as was evident from these seizures, said Amarinder pointing out that even a BSF constable had been caught for complicity. By PTI NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday accused the Modi government of "manipulating" the process of Rafale fighter jet agreement by "punishing" bureaucrats who raised objections to the deal and rewarding "obliging officials", as Rahul Gandhi raised questions on Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's France visit. Taking to Twitter, Gandhi alleged that "work has begun" to justify the prime minister's decision to buy Rafale fighter aircraft. "The Supreme Court has asked for the RAFALE decision making process. It's quite simple really. The PM decided." "The processes to justify his decision are yet to be invented. But work has begun." "Ps. In this connection, Raksha Mantri is leaving for France tonight," he said. Defence Minister Sitharaman leaves for France tonight on a three-day visit, which comes in the backdrop of a big controversy over the purchase of 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation. With the Congress reiterating its demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe, party spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy alleged that the Government's silence on the questions raised by his party indicates that it is "guilty". Also Read | Amid Rafale row, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi likely to visit HAL on October 13 Reddy alleged that in 2016, the then joint secretary was overruled by the Director-General acquisition for the go-ahead to the deal, after a new officer was brought in the post, in place of the person who had the reputation of being unbending. He said the officer had also objected to the price of the aircraft on the ground that 126 aircraft worked out to be cheaper than 36 aircrafts. The Congress leader said the officer also made another objection on the chance not being given to Eurofighter or about Eurofighter's offer not seized upon to compel the Dassault Company to reduce its own price. "This government, in this case bullied officers, punished officers, threatened them, promoted some who obliged. This process was vitiated by arm twisting. This entire process is invalid morally, in my view legally too, but to get all these things out only JPC can do justice. And that is our standing demand," he told reporters. Read | SC seeks details of decision-making process of Rafale deal, doesn't want to know the price "Such a thing has not happened in the history of independent India," Reddy alleged, claiming that "obliging officers" were "rewarded" later. Asked about the Supreme Court seeking details of the deal process, he said the apex court is going into the matter on its own. "We have nothing to do with the petition. We are not in Supreme Court. We are not lending any support to the petitioner," he said, adding that it is a litigation between an independent citizen and the Supreme Court and it should not be confused with the effort of the Congress party. Reddy said a JPC can look into many more things, but the Supreme Court does its duty. On other parties not lending support to the Congress on Rafale, Reddy said, "We are for pursuing the truth behind Rafale scam. As we go along, with other friends have their own nuanced positions, we can't deny the liberty of different shades of opinion." The Congress leader said each party has its own stand and "We can't have an alliance on every issue; we will have an alliance in elections. It is a part of the political process. How can there be alliance on every issue." On Defence Minister's visit to France, Reddy said after she comes back, "one only hopes she becomes more transparent than she has been". The Congress leader alleged that the whole process has been "topsy-turvy", as defence deals of this magnitude, are first examined by the department, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security, and then they are entered into by the Prime Minister. "Even the Prime Minister is not a monarch. He is accountable to so many institutions," he said adding that in the instant case, the procedure was that the Defence Department was to look into the deal. "The Government has not chosen to break its silence. The Prime Minister has not chosen to break his silence. They can't break silence because, if they break silence, they will get into a morass. With a view to avoiding this morass, see, they are maintaining silence. This silence is guilty, it is obvious," he said. Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said, "We are expecting them to come forward, come clean and ensure a JPC is constituted as soon as possible, so that, all terms of negotiations and the changes in the terms of engagement on the Rafale Deal are brought forward." She said every elected representative is answerable to the highest court of the land, which are the people of this country in the democracy. The opposition led by the Congress has been accusing the government of benefiting Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence Ltd. from the Rafale deal. The government and Reliance Defence have dismissed all the allegations as false. Modi had announced the procurement of 36 Rafale fighters after holding talks with Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris. Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Rafale controversy took another turn Wednesday with a French journal claiming that it had a document which shows that Dassault considered its alliance with Reliance as "imperative and mandatory" to bag the contract. "Two years after signing the contract of sale of Rafale to India, the ultra-modern plant planned by the joint-venture of Dassault with its Indian partner Reliance comes down to a building that looks like a warehouse. While a new complaint was filed in New Delhi, a document obtained by Mediapart shows that Dassault considered this alliance as a "counterpart" and "imperative and mandatory", to bag the deal," says the latest report by the French journal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the revised deal to buy 36 Rafale jets after talks with President Hollande on April 10, 2015 in Paris. Also Read | Rafale deal: Congress alleges government manipulated process, questions Sitharaman's France visit Anil Ambani was part of a business delegation that travelled with Modi on that visit.In September 2018, Mediapart had quoted former President Francois Hollande as saying that "We did not have a say in this... the Indian government proposed this service group and Dassault negotiated with (Anil) Ambani group. We did not have a choice, we took the partner who was given to us." Read | SC seeks details of decision-making process of Rafale deal, doesn't want to know the price That report also noted that just before the deal was struck, "Reliance provided funding for a film produced by Hollande's personal partner, the actress Julie Gayet." Read | Amid Rafale row, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi likely to visit HAL on October 13 "The opposition Congress, as well as former BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, have accused the government of massive irregularities and crony capitalism in the deal. However, the government and the Indian defence forces have denied this, with a defence ministry spokesperson saying "neither GoI (government of India) nor the French Government had any say in the commercial decision." A French journalist told TNIE that while he had not read the full report, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget, the two investigative journalists who filed the report, "had impeccable credentials," although Mediapart was seen as an "anti-establishment" journal. Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: In a joint operation, the Punjab Police and Special Operations Group (SoG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday arrested three students to bust a terror module of Kashmiri terror outfit, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), in Jalandhar. The students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar, DGP Suresh Arora said. The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early this morning, also recovered two weapons, including an Assault Rifle, as well as explosives from the hostel room of B. Tech (Civil) Student of second semester, Zahid Gulzar of Rajpora in Srinagar. Zahid was detained along with Mohd Idriss Shah of Pulwama and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, also of Pulwama. Arora said the arrests followed the development and corroboration of various inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organizations and individuals operating in J&K and Punjab. A case under sections 121, 121-A, 120-B IPC, Arms Act, Explosive Act, and Unlawful Prevention Act has been registered in police station Sadar Jalandhar in this regard. Further investigations are in progress and the Punjab Police is working closely with J&K Police to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and J&K, said Arora. He said the busting of the terror module belonging to AGH, and the recovery of weapons in Jalandhar, was indicative of efforts by Pakistan's ISI to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border. It may be mentioned that Gazi Ahmad Malik was recently picked-up by Punjab Police from Banur near Patiala, (where he was studying in Aryans Group Polytechnic College). It was learnt that Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a J&K Police SPO who had fled with 7 Rifles from the residence of PDP MLA house in Srinagar and was suspected to have joined Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a militant group. He was later handed over to the J&K Police for further investigations. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: At a time when UP Assembly has over 50 per cent first time MLAs who are hardly aware of the decorum of legislature and the way to conduct themselves in public, the UP cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod to one of its kind 'political training institute' in Ghaziabad where aspiring politicians will be imparted nuances of the profession. Remember the first session of the newly-elected Uttar Pradesh assembly on May 16, 2017? It was a scene of utter anarchy with MLAs from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) flexing their collective muscle by disrupting Governor Ram Naik's joint address. Throughout the 35-minute speech, SP lawmaker Rajesh Yadav kept blowing a whistle to ensure Naik couldn't be heard. His colleagues were throwing paper balls at him, some of which even hit the Governor despite marshals trying to shield him with files. It was a behaviour which sullied the image of the highest seat of state legislature. Fresh from the crushing defeat in 2017 polls, the opposition MLAs ensured that the customary address of the Governor was drowned out in the commotion. Not only inside the house but out of it also, the legislators sometimes get so emboldened by their newly acquired stature and indulge in acts reflecting their brazenness. Taking a few examples, there were reports on Wednesday about how Brijesh Prajapati, the BJP MLA from Tindwari, Banda in Bundelkahnd region, took a mining officer hostage in a room of district circuit house and thrashed him badly. Similarly, last year, BJP MLA Kesar Singh and MP Priyanka Rawat were accused of misbehaving with officials. Singh, the BJP MLA from Nawabganj in Bareilly district, allegedly thrashed a bank manager, while Rawat, the party's MP from Barabanki, was accused of threatening an Additional SP to "skin him alive". The likes of Kuldeep Singh Sengar, BJP MLA from Unnao, Gayatri Prajapti of SP, Purushottam Dwivedi of BSP, all belong to the same tribe and are in jail on charges of gang rape and molestation. Who can forget the chillingbroad day light murder of a PWD engineer by the then BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari of Auriyya during Mayawati's regime in 2011. These are just a few samples of the unruly behaviour of public representatives who seem to lose the perspective on reaching the corridors of power. Keeping their behaviour in mind, the UP government thought it was imperative for the lawmakers to learn a few lessons of politics so tat they can moderate their behaviour. Consequently, the decision to set up an institute to produce netas like any other professional came through. A resolution to this effect was passed at the cabinet chaired by CM Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday and state would thus become the first to have India's first school for the politicians who would be trained to contest elections, win them, behave in public, with their workers, in their constituency, on social media, in their institutions from panchayat to the parliament besides getting ideological training also. In the classrooms, there would neither be examinations nor any degree or certificate. But they would be trained and shaped by the stalwarts from different fields. The institute will come up Ghaziabad on 4-hectare land at a cost of nearly Rs 200 crore and the construction work on would start by the year end. India's only and the largest school for the netas, the institute would be developed and funded by the urban development department. "The institute will have 180 one BHK set for the male politicians and 80 for female ones," informed Urban Development minister Suresh Khanna adding that professionals and academicians from different field would be appointed in the institute to be headed by the director-rank officer who would also invite specialists from different fields as guest lecturers. Amna Mirza By The art of outsmarting your enemy has transcended imagination in our cyber era. Advances in technology have added a new dimension to it by leveling hierarchy and dispelling secrecy. The period of diplomacy being confined to power blocks of nations external affairs ministries has ended.China is one of most populous nations in the world and is witnessing a mushrooming of a vibrant civil society. The burgeoning growth of its population is juxtaposed with the fact that it has few resources but a high level of demand. After a long spell of isolation in the past, China now doles out billions to many nations of the world. China is aware of the role it has to play in innovation and global affairs at large and is aware about the significance of capturing cyberspace for its global ambitions. With Chinas increasing investments in 5G technology, US risks losing its technology leadership position. In the push for next-generation networks, China is acting strategically by taking its investments and innovation on the path of eventually creating a monopoly. Cyberspace has always been an ambiguous idea for domestic and international affairs. However changing times and the availability of even classified information on the internet have made heads of state look at cyberspace as a new domain that needs to be controlled. The world is connected in mind-boggling ways and our leaders can no longer afford to live in a bubble. The present approach to international relations developed in the context of wars initially and industries later on. Now, information technology has led to a new paradox of power in the state: The internet, as a form of new media, has transferred a considerable amount of power from the state to the hands of the individual. The internet may not be attached to any value system but it has slowly become a battleground for different interests. There is a global rush for next-generation wireless networks as they are seen as a game changer for businesses and governments. Chinas cyber foray brings multiple advantages: reducing its dependence on foreign sources in any aspect of software and hardware procurement, developing a strong foothold against cyber attacks and, most importantly, tackling the flow of information in a unilateral way to serve its agenda. There will be challenges also for the country with this internet adventurism. However, it is well known how millions of people in China have grown up reading and watching their censored version of the internet. Chinas internet management was evident in the way it accommodated Googleas long as the search engine complied with its domestic guidelines. Its originally indigenous units like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu fear nothing with regard to competition, as they have the tenacity of global beasts, with their portfolios now more diversified than before, as compared with many tech companies in the West. Furthermore, Chinese organisations are challenging their American counterparts in patentsa significant yardstick for defining the future narrative in innovation and technology. The United States may have dominated the internet in the past but now China wants to be a cyber superpower. As the internet debate becomes belligerent, the impact on states is consequential. There are global economic, legal and ethical implications of this dangerous shift where the US is losing out and China aims to capture the web. Only at our peril can we ignore this Chinese cyberspace project. The issues that emerge from all of this, with their potential impact on India as well as the rest of the world, are no different. If the internet is in danger of being undone with barriers on free flow of information and the backlash against free trade, there is also a possibility of one nation completely dominating the medium and in turn impacting global governance and institutions. Technology used to be seen as progressive and, among large sections the global village, continues to be seen that way. Chinas impact on the internet might act like a boomerang, though. Its past record shows that it wants to be a global power in its hunt for markets but prefers its businesses to be closed off from the world. It is in the interest of any country to have a healthy domestic internet environment. Nations may need to be equipped with sufficient laws and infrastructure to deal with Chinese artificial intelligence and other digital tools. Freedom of expression and privacy are two core concerns of many vocal internet users. Data theft, surveillance and a restricted access to information are of concern too. These are exactly the areas where Chinas track record has not been exemplary. Even though we may be more connected than ever in history, this connection is being openly misused. Fake news alters our perception and makes us cynical of governments by presenting biased information. There are concerns about how we tend to believe in everything and anything we see online without the thinking about cross-checking and verifying. If this Chinese attempt to monopolise the internet is ignored, then democracies will be guilty of ignoring the ubiquity of internet. The future of national sovereignty and global connect in a digital world is under attack. Therefore, nations must accord priority to have internet that is globally vibrant. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Three weeks after the killing of Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma at Dumbriguda mandal in Vizag Agency, a two-page letter purportedly released by the Maoists Central Committee (MCC) claiming responsibility for the killings, created a flutter in the social media platforms on Tuesday. The police termed the letter fake, but added that it will be examined. In the letter addressed to editors of various vernacular dailies and police, the MCC issued a death threat to MLA Giddi Eeswaramma. The MCC admitted that it killed Sarveswara Rao and Siveri Soma on September 23 for betraying tribals. The MCC members termed the two deceased leaders cheaters and said they were given punishment in Praja Durbar (peoples court) for their wrongdoings. In the letter, it is also written that they (Maoists) warned several times against illegal quarrying and found fault with the duo for supporting the government in bauxite mining. For their own benefits, they betrayed tribals and became governments stooges. They (MLA and ex-MLA) too confessed their wrongdoings. Hence the punishment, the MCC claimed. The MCC also asked police not to kill them as they are fighting for the rights of tribals and the poor. They warned MLA Giddi Eeswaramma that she will also get the same punishment like the two if she failed to distribute the money amassed through corrupt practices among tribals in two months. The letter seems to be fake as it has no authentication from Maoists and there is a difference in their language style. We request the people not to circulate it on social media, DGP RP Thakur said. Hemanth Kumar By Express News Service BENGALURU: The worst fears of Congress old-timers about the consequences of a tie-up with JD(S) seem to be coming true even before the bugle is sounded for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The party is already feeling the tremors with leaders in Mandya and Ramanagara raising a banner of revolt against the move to give up the two seats for JD(S) in the bypoll as part of the impending poll pact. The bypoll is being held for Mandya, Ballari and Shivamogga Lok Sabha seats and Ramanagara and Jamkhandi Assembly segments on November 3. Congress is likely to put up its candidates in Ballari, Shivamogga and Jamkhandi, leaving Ramanagara and Mandya for JD(S). ALSO READ | Trouble in Congress over giving up 2 seats to JD(S) The move has triggered a revolt in the district Congress units of Ramanagara and Mandya. A delegation of Mandya Congress unit met AICC general secretary in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka K C Venugopal and demanded to put up a candidate in Ramanagara Assembly segment where JD(S) is set to field Anita Kumaraswamy. Anita is likely to file her nomination on October 11. The delegation included Congress MLC C M Lingappa, and Iqbal Hussein, who was the Congress candidate in Ramanagara against H D Kumaraswamy in the recent assembly election. Chandrashekar Lingappa, son of C M Lingappa, has already announced his decision to quit Congress and join the BJP. Hussein too has issued veiled threats of quitting the party and contesting as a rebel if Congress decides to give up the seat to JD(S). I had polled 69,000 votes in the recent Assembly election. I gave a tough fight. Congress workers and leaders in Ramanagara are opposing the pact with JD(S). We have urged the party high command to take a decision in tune with the mood of the party workers, Hussein said. Supporting Husseins stand, Lingappa said, We have conveyed our view. We will decide on the future course of action depending on the decision the party high command will take in the next two or three days. The local Congress leaders have expressed serious displeasure against District In-charge Minister D K Shivakumar for the pact with JD(S). Congress is facing serious trouble in Mandya too with former minister Cheluvarayaswamy launching a scathing attack against JD(S) and demanding Congress to put up a candidate. The demand has ignited a verbal duel between Cheluvarayaswamy and C S Puttaraju, the district in-charge minister and senior JD(S) leader. The rebellion has left the Congress leadership embarrassed and Wakf Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan, a close friend of Cheluvarayaswamy, has offered to mediate to prevent escalation of the discord. The alliance threatens to end the political career of Cheluvarayaswamy, former MLA H C Balakrishna and others who quit JD(S) and joined Congress during the recent Assembly election. BJP, however, is reportedly wooing them. ALSO READ | D K Shivakumar stepping on many toes upsets Congress brass in Karnataka The trouble in Congress has raised the apprehensions about the challenge it could face in 2019 elections. JD(S) has staked claim to 10 Lok Sabha seats, which include Shivamogga, Chitradurga, Raichur, Chikkaballapur, Hassan, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Tumakuru and Bengaluru North. Many of these seats are being represented by Congress now and any compromise to please JD(S) could lead to serious consequences, a senior Congress minister said. JD(S) does not deserve more than four Lok Sabha seats. Any move to offer more will trigger rebellion within Congress. The pact will erode the base of the grand old party in long run and enable JD(S) to expand its base at Congress expense, political analyst Harish Ramaswamy said. By Express News Service KARWAR: High drama prevailed at Gokarna temple on Tuesday after district administration of Uttara Kannada began the process of handing over the Sri Mahabaleshwara temple to Sri Ramachandrapura mutt. Even before the Kumta assistant commissioner could complete the process of the transfer, an instruction came from the state government asking the officer to stop the process. Last week, the mutt had claimed that the Supreme Court has directed the state government to hand over the temple to the mutt until the final verdict. As per the court order, Deputy Commissioner S S Nakul had written a letter to Kumta AC and Executive officer of the temple to hand over the entire charge of the temple to the mutt. As per the direction, Kumta AC Preeti Gehlot, who visited the Gokarna temple on Tuesday morning, initiated the process of handing over the temple to the mutt representatives. G K Hegde, who was temple administrator from mutt, was present on the occasion. While handing over the gold ornaments and other documents to the mutt representative, A C Gehlot got a call from officials of the state government and she stopped the handing over process and went back to Kumta. ALSO READ | Karnataka government takes over Gokarna temple It is said that the district administration had decided to hand over the temple without concerning auditor and general of the state government. On Tuesday, officials from endowment department called Gehlot and asked her not to stop handing over process. Meanwhile Ramachandrapura mutt alleged due to political pressure the temple charge handing over process stopped. The AC was acting as per the apex court order but the political pressure, which is misunderstood the apex court order, are not ready to follow court order. They also stated the court had clearly said the temple should remain with the mutt until it gives its final judgement. But the politicians have been misusing the state government. By Express News Service BENGALURU: Congress is finding the going tough in the bypolls to be held on November 3. It is not only struggling to finalise its candidates, but also has to contend with the ire of party workers from Mandya and Ramanagara against giving up the two seats to JD(S) as part of the poll pact. A meeting of Congress senior leaders headed by AICC general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka K C Venugopal, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao and others finalised the name of Anand Nyamagouda, son of late Congress MLA Siddu Nyamagouda, as the party candidate for Jamkhandi Assembly seat. However, the search for winnable candidates for Ballari and Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituencies to take on J Shantha and B Y Raghavendra respectively from BJP is proving a tough task. The meeting shortlisted former minister Kimmane Ratnakar and Shivamogga district Congress committee president T N Srinivas for Shivamogga as the possible candidates. ALSO READ | Karnataka byelections first big test for coalition partners ahead of 2019 The meeting has decided to recommend the names of Venkatesh Prasad, brother of Congress MLA Nagendra, and former Zilla Panchayat vice president Nettakallappa for the ticket from Ballari. The party high command will take a final call within the next couple of days. It also formally decided to fight the bypoll on a 3--2 formula with JD(S) where Congress will put up its candidates for 3 seats--Ballari, Shivamogga Lok Sahba seats and Jamakhnadi assembly seat --- while JD(S) would contest Mandya Lok Sabha seat and Ramanagara assembly seat as part of the coalition spirit to put up a united fight against BJP. However, the decision is threatening to pose problems for the grand old party as leaders from Ramanagara and Mandya Congress units met Venugopal and made a forceful plea for putting up party candidates from these two places. Iqbal Hussein, the Congress candidate who contested against H D Kumaraswamy in Ramanagara in the recent Assembly election, strongly opposed the decision to give up the seat to JD(S). I had polled 69,000 votes in the assembly election in Ramangara against Kumaraswamy and the party workers are not in a mood to give up the seat to JD(S), Hussein said. Congress MLC and senior leader from Ramangaram C M Lingappa too conveyed the view that the pact with Janata Dal(Secular) in Ramanagara would deal a big blow for the organisational base of the party in the district. The Mandya unit of Congress too urged the party leaders against supporting JD(S) in the district. Venugopal and Siddaramaiah urged the party rank and file to understand the compulsions of the party leadership to make a few compromises to achieve larger goal of defeating BJP. Rajesh Abraham By Express News Service KOCHI: The erratic and inaccurate forecast of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is drawing huge flak from the fishermen community and the tourism sector. In the wake of the IMDs warning, the fishers who ventured into the sea were forced to return, while the hotel industry witnessed a huge number of booking cancellations in Munnar. ALSO READ | Allow IMD to set up another 188 rain gauges in state, Kerala asks Centre Following the controversy over the delayed forecast in the August deluge, the IMD had last week issued red alerts in Idukki, Palakkad and Thrissur districts from October 6-8, triggering sudden large-scale cancellation of hotel bookings in Munnar. This had made huge dent in the fortunes of the hotels in the hill destination, which was slowly clawing back for the busy tourist season with Neelakurinji in full bloom. As far as the fishers are concerned, about 135 fishing boats returned home empty handed following the cyclone forecast, which did not strike contrary to the warnings by the IMD. After the failure of the IMD to accurately predict cyclone Ockhi, we have been demanding that the IMD should be disbanded. There was information at least two days ago that cyclone Luban was moving towards Oman from the Arabian Sea, said Charles George, president, Kerala Matsythozhilali Aikyavedi. Due to the failure of the authorities to communicate this information, the fishers have lost a big catch as this was a good season, he said. The lives may have been saved, but the fishermens livelihood is lost, he said. Charles said Kerala should go for partnerships or tie-ups with agencies such as Indian National Centre For Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, or other reliable private weather forecasters for a more accurate weather forecast. Booking cancellations Siby Joseph, a partner of Spice Country Group of Resorts, Munnar, said post the floods, the entire hotel and resorts have spent a considerable amount of money and time to market the tourist destination. There are at least 500 hotels and 200 homestays in Munnar. On average, the hotels have spent `1-`3 lakh for marketing Munnar. Then came the red alert last week, resulting in a spree of cancellations, said Joseph. According to him, at the time of the issuance of the red alert, there were 200 travel agents in Munnar, brought by the industry to market the destination. Everyone suddenly packed their bags and literally ran. Since this is the second cancellation in quick succession, we are staring at a huge loss of business in the entire tourist season, he said. Something needs to be done to bring more accuracy in the Met prediction. It is sad despite having the best climate now in Munnar, most hotels are empty, he said. Faulty warning system? The IMDs warning last week had forced the fishers who had ventured into the sea to return empty handed In the wake of the red alert for Idukki district, the hotel industry witnessed sudden largescale cancellation of bookings in Munnar This had made a huge dent in the fortunes of hotels in the hill destination By Express News Service KADAPA: In a shocking incident on Tuesday evening, a Gulf-returnee walked into the Sambepalli police station in Kadapa district with the severed head of his wife and surrendered. In a similar incident recently, a youngster walked nonchalantly into the Malavalli police station in Mandya district of Karnataka with the severed head of a person in a grim reminder of macabre nature of crimes that are becoming a daily feature of our lives. Accused Venkataramana The gruesome murder took place at Duddaya Vaddepalli village in Sambepalli mandal. The accused suspected the fidelity of his wife and beheaded her, police said. According to police, the accused, Venkataramana, had married Ramanamma (35) in 1999 and the couple were residing at Duddaya Vaddepalli. A few months back, Venkataramana had gone to Kuwait for livelihood leaving behind his wife and children. After the death of her elder son due to illness in 2015, Ramanamma was living along with her second son who is a Class IV student. Venkataramana had returned from Kuwait on September 30 and since then he used to quarrel with Ramanamma suspecting her fidelity. On Tuesday night, he came home in an inebriated condition and picked up an argument with his wife. In a fit of rage, he first slit the throat of Ramanamma with a knife and after making sure that she was dead, he cut her head. Later, he put the head in a bag and approached the village revenue assistant and, along with him, went to the Sambepalli police station and surrendered. The shocked policemen took Venkataramana into custody and rushed to the village and shifted the body to hospital. P Rama Varma Raja By Express News Service It looks like Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan erred in invoking renaissance movement into the Sabarimala practices. His stance is visibly in line with the CPM leaders repeated references to the days of restrictions on Dalits to enter temples and Dalit women to wear tops. He ignored the fact the above social ills were part of the caste system prevalent in the country whereas the restrictions in Sabarimala on women in the 10-50 age group are in accordance with the faith in Lord Ayyappa. ALSO READ | Sabarimala women's entry row: SNDP Yogam in support of Kerala government There is no discrimination in the name of religion, caste or any other count. The affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court by the state government said the practice is accepted by the people and is related to faiths and values and is continuing for years. The affidavit only said the government is not against womens entry, without restrictions. The government failed grossly to collect the opinion of Ayyappa devotees, especially women in 10-50 age group, before submitting the affidavit in 2007 and repeating the same under the present ministry. Nobody would share the governments assertion it was left with no option but to implement the verdict. In fact, there are various judicial and legislative processes and in addition the ordinance route. It is also unwise for the government to ignore the widespread public sentiments. As the infrastructure in Pampa and Sabarimala is too fragile to accommodate even the normal crowd, it would be only sense to request the court for more time to implement the order. ALSO READ | BJP wont allow violence in the name of Sabarimala protests, says MT Ramesh in Kerala The CMs intervention in the routine affairs of the TDB is even more unacceptable. His offer for talks reached Pandalam palace through telephone from the AKG Centre and CMs office. Queries for more information on the nature of talks received no response. There was only a media report the government wanted to clarify certain matters on implementation of the court order. The palace stand is talks would be useful if only started with the verdict. The extent of implementation should be decided through talks. The governments unreasonable stand only spoiled the chance for a solution. (The author is chairman of the Pandalam Kottaram Nirvahaka Sangham. The views of the author are his own.) By Express News Service KOCHI: The High Court on Tuesday stayed the condition in the governments order that mandated a declaration from government employees unwilling to contribute their one months salary to the Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF). A Division Bench comprising Justice C T Ravikumar and Justice A M Babu, however, made it clear the courts order will not stand in the way of collecting donation or voluntary contributions made by employees. ALSO READ | Salary challenge: Employees can contribute any amount, but not entitled to concessions The court issued the order on the petition filed by Kerala NGO Sangh against the Kerala Administrative Tribunals refusal to stay the government order directing its employees to contribute a months salary to the CMDRF. The order is compulsory in nature and the contribution will take effect from September. The contributions are being collected without the employees consent. Government servants affected by the flood are yet to recover from the damage and the compulsory collection of a months salary will add to their grievances, said the petition. It said the move amounted to extortion and infringed the fundamental right of government servants. When the petition came up for hearing, Advocate General C P Sudhakara Prasad submitted the deduction would not be affected from employees who did not give a letter of dissent till the final disposal of the original application or the interim application pending before the KAT. Disposing of the petition, the court observed there was an element of compulsion in the government order. The court stayed the 10th stipulation in it till the final disposal of the application before KAT. It also directed the KAT to dispose of the matter within one month. The government said the procedure to deduct Septembers salary of employees had been completed. By Express News Service TIRUNELVELI: As the students protesting in front of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University on Tuesday demanding to allow them to write exams on Tamil have attempted to enter into the campus, police resorted to lathi-charge and chased them away. Demanding the varsity to allow them to write exams in Tamil language and revoke the fee for condonation of shortage of attendance, more than 100 college students from Tirunelveli, Kanniyakumari, and Thoothukudi protested in front of MSU here on Tuesday morning. They were led by the Students Federation of India (SFI) functionaries. Notably, MSU, on Monday, had reduced the condonation fee from Rs 500 to Rs 200 for each subject. However, students are urging the varsity to cancel the condonation fee. Though university officials conducted talks with the students, the latter refused to withdraw the protest and attempted to enter into university leading to lathi-charge. By Express News Service CHENNAI : The arrest of journalist Nakkheeran R Gopal on Tuesday evoked strong condemnation from almost all opposition leaders, except BJP.It has created a doubt whether we are living in a democratic country or under a dictatorship. Why was similar action not taken against BJP leader H Raja, DMK president M K Stalin told reporters after he met Gopal in a hospital where police took him for medical examination. ALSO READ: Journo 'Nakkheeran' Gopal set free after being arrested for 'defaming' Governor Banwarilal Purohit MDMK leader Vaiko, who was arrested after being denied permission to meet Gopal at Chintadripet police station, said, There seems to be an undeclared emergency in Tamil Nadu. The Governor is misusing powers of police. His cadre staged a protest after Vaiko was arrested. Other opposition parties issued similar statements expressing concern that the arrest of the journalist was a threat to free speech. Editors, publishers and senior representatives of various media houses in Tamil Nadu have termed the use of Section 124 of the Indian Penal Code to arrest the editor of Tamil magazine, Nakheeran, R Gopal as draconian.In a statement here on Tuesday, they billed the attempt to prosecute Gopal as unprecedented and unheard of. This section deals with assaulting the President, Governors, etc. with an intent to compel or restrain by criminal force the exercise of any lawful power by them. It is most unfortunate that the office of the Governor sought that a case be registered under Section 124 IPC against Mr Gopal and several others, statement said. The statement, signed by chairpersons and editors of news organisations including The Hindu, Dinamalar, Puthiya Thalaimurai, Ananda Vikatan and Times of India, also said that the move was a clear attempt to intimidate and gag the media. If allowed, it will be a deadly blow to the freedom of speech and expression, of which the freedom of the news media is an integral part. The manner in which the arrest of Mr Gopal was executed was in flagrant violation of the guidelines stipulated by the Supreme Court of India, the statement said. On the rejection of the remand application by XIII Metropolitan Magistrate S Gopinathan, the statement said, This is the finest tribute to the independence of the judiciary and to its commitment to upholding the freedom of the media, which is guaranteed by the Constitution of India. The statement demanded the immediate withdrawal of the case against Gopal and others referred to in the complaint. The Madras Reporters Guild, Madras Union of Journalists and the Chennai Press Club also condemned the arrest as reprehensible, undemocratic and against the canons of free speech and expression.(With agency inputs) Ponnar Suspects plot Chennai: Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan on Tuesday said a conspiracy was being hatched to link Governor Banwarilal Purohit with the Nirmala Devi case right from the day the issue came to light. Responding to reporters, Radhakrishnan said he was suspecting that this was being done out of fear that the existence of many politicians would become a question mark. Naveen Kumar Tallam By Express News Service JAGTIAL: It has been over a month since an overloaded bus slipped into a gorge in Kondagattu killing over 50 people and injuring many. On the day of accident, September 11, Telanganas IT minister KT Rama Rao and Finance Minister Etela Rajender promised to give Rs 5 lakh to each victims family. The families of the victims still await the ex-gratia payments promised to them to help with the mounting medical bills continue to threaten the recovery of the victims. On Sunday, one of the injured in the ghat road accident, Arepalli Lingavva (70) succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Karimnagar. Victims have been complaining that they are unable to meet the medical expenses of their treatments causing the hospitals to discharge them without complete recovery. A victim whose spinal cord was fractured in the accident has been asked by the doctors to undergo a check up every 10 days. Victims mother, Kalpana, lamented that her daughter could not travel without an ambulance because of the injured spine while the expenses of using the ambulance service is high up at Rs 4,000. Golakondas Vijaya is still in a hospital in Hyderabad with multiple fractures while the hospital management has threatened to discharge her for not paying the bills. One of the victims, Anil, was visiting from Dubai and cannot return back due to injuries sustained in the accident. Meanwhile, Loksatta Udyama Samstha (LUS) president N Srinivas wrote a letter to the prime minister Narendra Modi, who recently announced a relief amount of Rs 2 lakh for the families of the victims of the Ramban bus accident in Jammu and Kashmir where a mini bus fell into a gorge killing nearly 20 persons, requesting for a similar relief to the Kondagattu bus victims. In his letter, the LUS president alleged that the Kondagattu ghat road accident was the one of the worst in the country and requested for immediate aid. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: A team from Ethiopia that wants to replicate the education facilities available at Devnar School for The Blind to aid visually impaired students to pursue academics, has visited the school here on Tuesday. The representatives of Gudina Tumsa Foundation said that though there is one school back in their country where blind students study, they are poorly furnished and that they will work with the government there to establish exclusive schools dedicated to visually challenged. Lensa Gudina, founder and managing director of Gudina Tumsa Foundation, said, We have one school that is dedicated for the blind students where only music and few other skills are taught. We will work with the Ethiopian government to establish schools for the blind in the future. The experience shared here will help us to replicate, and multiply in Ethiopia, said Tsegaye Gerba, special needs education coordinator at the foundation. Meanwhile, founder and chairman of Devnar Foundation for the Blind, Dr A Saibaba Goud said that with 550 students from Class I to Intermediate, their is the largest school and the facilities available there are of international standards. The school uses screen reading software to help the blind as well as partially blind students to learn to operate computers while a machine called Clear view plus speech helps those with low vision to read. Providing braille ballot papers The facilities available at the Devnar School for the Blind are used to print braille ballot papers and number stickers, which are pasted on Electronic Voting Machines to help visually challenged to cast their votes. In 2016, the school extended this service during GHMC elections, printing braille ballot papers in Telugu, Urdu and English. The schools administration said they would provide the same service during Assembly polls upon receiving orders. J Deepti Nandan Reddy By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Cracks are already starting to show up in the grand alliance. Even as the Pradesh Election Committee of the Congress met on Tuesday to discuss its candidates and seat sharing pacts with allies, main ally Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) issued an ultimatum. Make up your mind within two days or we will make our own list, it said. We had sought 30 seats initially but was ready for negotiations keeping coalition pressures in mind. But there is no reciprocity of such goodwill from Congress, said TJSs official spokesperson Venkat Reddy. They are leaking to media that only 3-5 seats would be spared for the TJS. Giving such a less number to a party that has won the credibility of Telangana activists is a humiliation, he said. TJS has even resolved to announce names of 20 candidates if Congress refuses to act. But as far as the grand old party is concerned, allies can wait. It has a bigger issue at hand -- its own party members fighting vehemently for seats. The TPCC, which vets applications of candidates before forwarding the same to Delhi bosses in AICC, has received more than 1,000 applications for 119 seats. According to Congress party insiders who participated in the Tuesday meeting at Golkonda Resorts in the city outskirts, unanimous decision on choice of candidates could be arrived upon only for about 35-40 seats. Heated discussions, debates and lobbying is on for the balance seats. We have formed 3 sub-committees to screen the candidates before issuing them ticket, said Uttam Kumar Reddy. Reacting to TJS stand, Uttam said he was unaware of the development. Unless Congress sets its own house in order, it cannot strike an effective bargain with allies. This, consequently, is likely to further delay the seat sharing process. How TJS and other allies will react to this is yet to be know. Perhaps, the early poll gamble has paid off? By Associated Press DELTA: Mat Beren and his friends used to drive by the vast greenhouses of southern British Columbia and joke about how much weed they could grow there. Years later, it's no joke. The tomato and pepper plants that once filled some of those greenhouses have been replaced with a new cash crop: marijuana. Beren and other formerly illicit growers are helping cultivate it. The buyers no longer are unlawful dealers or dubious medical dispensaries; it's the Canadian government. On Oct. 17, Canada becomes the second and largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace. Uruguay launched legal sales last year, after several years of planning. On Oct. 17, 2018, Canada will become the second and largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace. (Photo | AP) It's a profound social shift promised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and fueled by a desire to bring the black market into a regulated, taxed system after nearly a century of prohibition. It also stands in contrast to the United States, where the federal government outlaws marijuana while most states allow medical or recreational use for people 21 and older. Canada's national approach has allowed for unfettered industry banking, inter-province shipments of cannabis, online ordering, postal delivery and billions of dollars in investment; national prohibition in the U.S. has stifled greater industry expansion there. Hannah Hetzer, who tracks international marijuana policy for the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, called Canada's move "extremely significant," given that about 25 countries have already legalized the medical use of marijuana or decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug. A few, including Mexico, have expressed an interest in regulating recreational use. "It's going to change the global debate on drug policy," she said. "There's no other country immediately considering legalizing the nonmedical use of cannabis, but I think Canada will provide almost the permission for other countries to move forward." In this Sept. 25, 2018 photo, marijuana plants are shown growing in a massive tomato greenhouse being renovated to grow pot in Delta, British Columbia, that is operated by Pure Sunfarms, a joint venture between tomato grower Village Farms International, and a licensed medical marijuana producer, Emerald Health Therapeutics. (Photo | AP) At least 109 legal pot shops are expected to open across the nation of 37 million people next Wednesday, with many more to come, according to an Associated Press survey of the provinces. For now, they'll offer dried flower, capsules, tinctures and seeds, with sales of marijuana-infused foods and concentrates expected to begin next year. The provinces are tasked with overseeing marijuana distribution. For some, including British Columbia and Alberta, that means buying cannabis from licensed producers, storing it in warehouses and then shipping it to retail shops and online customers. Others, like Newfoundland, are having growers ship directly to stores or through the mail. Federal taxes will total $1 per gram or 10 percent, whichever is more. The feds will keep one-fourth of that and return the rest to the provinces, which can add their own markups. Consumers also will pay local sales taxes. Some provinces have chosen to operate their own stores, like state-run liquor stores in the U.S., while others have OK'd private outlets. Most are letting residents grow up to four plants at home. Canada's most populous province, Ontario, won't have any stores open until next April, after the new conservative government scrapped a plan for state-owned stores in favor of privately run shops. Until then, the only legal option for Ontario residents will be mail delivery a prospect that didn't sit well with longtime pot fan Ryan Bose, 48, a Lyft driver. ALSO READ | Investors crave Marijuana stocks month before Canada legalises weed "Potheads are notoriously very impatient. When they want their weed, they want their weed," he said after buying a half-ounce at an illicit medical marijuana dispensary in Toronto. "Waiting one or two three days for it by mail, I'm not sure how many will want to do that." British Columbia, home of the "B.C. Bud" long cherished by American pot connoisseurs, has had a prevalent marijuana culture since the 1970s, after U.S. draft-dodgers from the Vietnam War settled on Vancouver Island and in the province's southeastern mountains. But a change in government last year slowed cannabis distribution plans there, too, and it will have just one store ready next Wednesday: a state-run shop in Kamloops, a few hours' drive northeast of Vancouver. By contrast, Alberta expects to open 17 next week and 250 within a year. There is no immediate crackdown expected for the dozens of illicit-but-tolerated medical marijuana dispensaries operating in British Columbia, though officials eventually plan to close any without a license. Many are expected to apply for private retail licenses, and some have sued, saying they have a right to remain open. British Columbia's ministry of public safety is forming a team of 44 inspectors to root out unlawful operations, seize product and issue fines. They'll have responsibility for a province of 4.7 million people and an area twice as large as California, where the black market still dwarfs the legal market that arrived in January. Chris Clay, a longtime Canadian medical marijuana activist, runs Warmland Centre dispensary in an old shopping mall in Mill Bay, on Vancouver Island. He is closing the store Monday until he gets a license; he feared continuing to operate post-legalization would jeopardize his chances. Some of his eight staff members will likely have to file for unemployment benefits in the meantime. "That will be frustrating, but overall I'm thrilled," Clay said. "I've been waiting decades for this." In this Sept. 24, 2018 photo, different strains of marijuana are displayed for sale at the Warmland Centre, a medical marijuana dispensary in Mill Bay, British Columbia on Vancouver Island in Canada. On Oct. 17, 2018 (Photo | AP) The federal government has licensed 120 growers, some of them enormous. Canopy Growth, which recently received an investment of $4 billion from Constellation Brands, whose holdings include Corona beer, Robert Mondavi wines and Black Velvet whiskey, is approved for 5.6 million square feet (520,000 square meters) of production space across Canada. Its two biggest greenhouses are near the U.S. border in British Columbia. Beren, a 23-year cannabis grower, is a Canopy consultant. "We used to joke around all the time when we'd go to Vancouver and drive by the big greenhouses on the highway," he said. "Like, 'Oh man, someday. It'd be so awesome if we could grow cannabis in one of these greenhouses.' We drive by now and we're like, 'Oh, we're here.'" Next to Canopy's greenhouse in Delta is another huge facility, Pure Sunfarms, a joint venture between a longtime tomato grower, Village Farms International, and a licensed medical marijuana producer, Emerald Health Therapeutics. Workers pulled out the remaining tomato plants last winter and got to work renovating the greenhouse as a marijuana farm, installing equipment that includes lights and accordion-shaped charcoal vents to control the plant's odor. By 2020, the venture expects to move more than 165,000 pounds (75,000 kg) of bud per year. ALSO READ | South African court says marijuana use in private is legal Some longtime illegal growers who operate on a much smaller scale worry they won't get licensed or will get steamrolled by much larger producers. Provinces can issue "micro-producer" licenses, but in British Columbia, where small-time pot growers helped sustain rural economies as the mining and forestry industries cratered, the application period hasn't opened yet. Sarah Campbell of the Craft Cannabis Association of BC said many small operators envision a day when they can host visitors who can tour their operations and sample the product, as wineries do. Officials say they intend to accommodate craft growers but first need to ensure there is enough cannabis to meet demand when legalization arrives. Hiccups are inevitable, they say, and tweaks will be needed. "Leaving it to each province to decide what's best for their communities and their citizens is something that's good," said Gene Makowsky, the Saskatchewan minister who oversees the province's Liquor and Gaming Authority. "We'll be able to see if each law is successful or where we can do better in certain areas." British Columbia safety minister Mike Farnworth said he learned two primary lessons by visiting Oregon and Washington, U.S. states with recreational marijuana. One was not to look at the industry as an immediate cash cow, as it will take time to displace the black market. The other was to start with relatively strict regulations and then loosen them as needed, because it's much harder to tighten them after the fact. Legalization will be a process more than a date, Farnworth said. "Oct. 17th is actually not going to look much different than it does today," he said. By Associated Press WASHINGTON: In the latest shake-up for President Donald Trump's turbulent administration, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley abruptly announced she is resigning at the end of the year, raising questions about who will fill the key national security post and about the outspoken diplomat's own political ambitions. Trump later told reporters he was considering five candidates for Haley's job and that a successor would be named in two to three weeks or maybe sooner. President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (Photo | AP) Among those under consideration, Trump said, is former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. The Goldman Sachs executive and former Bush administration official is a close ally of Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner both senior White House aides. The news of Haley's departure blindsided some key U.S. allies and many congressional Republicans involved in foreign policy matters. And it came less than a month before congressional elections, thwarting White House efforts to project an image of stability, with the loss of one of the highest-profile women in the administration at a time when women's votes are being vigorously pursued. But Haley, the first female governor of South Carolina, has often been an unpredictable and independent force in the Trump administration. At times she has offered strikingly different perspectives on world events from her more isolationist-minded boss. ALSO READ | Nikki Haley became a popular UN diplomat despite Trump policies A smiling Haley announced her decision at an Oval Office meeting alongside the president, bringing up her own political prospects even as she underscored her continued support for Trump. Without prompting from reporters, she said she had no plans to run for president "in 2020" and would campaign for Trump. Trump told reporters that he has heard Ivanka Trump's name discussed for the post, adding she'd be "incredible," but said if he selected her he'd be accused of nepotism. In a tweet, the presidential senior adviser praised Haley, saying Trump will "nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador." She added: "That replacement will not be me." U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell's name has also been floated for the post, but Trump suggested he'd rather keep him in his current post "because he's doing such a good job." Haley, who is 46 and not personally wealthy, hinted in her resignation letter to Trump that she is headed to the private sector. She has one child in college and another approaching college age, and she has the potential to make much more money in the business world. "I have given everything I've got these last eight years," she said, referring to her six years as governor as well as her time at the U.N. "And I do think it's good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it." ALSO READ | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praises Nikki Haley after she quits UN post White House officials had sought to put a hold on Trump's record-setting turnover in the run-up to the Nov. 6 elections, with aides being asked months ago to step down or commit to stay through Election Day to avoid adding to a sense of turmoil. The prospect of post-midterm changes continues to hang over the West Wing, and Haley's exit was one that has been discussed, according to a senior administration official not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. A number of officials speculated that the timing was meant to preserve the ambassador's own political future. A post in the Trump administration has proven to be a rickety stepping-stone to either lucrative private sector work or hopes for higher office, and the risk to those ambitions might only increase after the elections if Democrats make significant gains in Congress. President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (Photo | AP) Trump said Haley first discussed leaving with him six months ago. The senior official noted that their conversation coincided with the appointments of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and John Bolton as national security adviser in an earlier upending of top foreign policy officials. Haley had expressed some frustration that her voice had been diminished as the two men became the aggressive new faces of Trump's international policy, the official said. More recently, there was the awkward moment at the U.N., when Trump's boasting of American economic strength under his leadership brought laughter at a General Assembly session. He insisted later that the delegates were laughing with him, not at him. The six-month timeline also coincides with a high-profile spat between Haley and the White House in April, when she drew the president's ire for previewing in a television appearance the administration's planned imposition of a new round of sanctions on Russia. When the sanctions never materialized, White House officials said the plans had changed without Haley being briefed, and economic adviser Larry Kudlow suggested she was confused. ALSO READ | Nikki Haley says she looks forward to support Trump's re-election "I don't get confused," Haley said in a sharply worded response to the West Wing. Haley was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trump's second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the Security Council. At the U.N., she helped spearhead the administration's efforts to combat what it alleged to be anti-American and anti-Israel actions by the international body, including the U.S. decision to leave the Human Rights Council and to stop funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian Refugees. Haley also secured three successively tougher Security Council sanction resolutions against North Korea which the administration has credited with bringing Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table and an arms embargo against South Sudan. But under Haley's tenure at the U.N., the U.S. has faced strong opposition from Russia when it comes to addressing the 7-year-old war in Syria, and frustration from European allies over reimposing nuclear sanctions against Iran. By AFP PARIS: French lawmakers on Wednesday adopted two bills to prevent the spread of false information during election campaigns following allegations of Russian meddling in the 2017 presidential vote. The "fake news" bills enable a candidate or political party to seek a court injunction preventing the publication of "false information" during the three months leading up to a national election. They also give France's broadcast authority the power to take any network that is "controlled by, or under the influence of a foreign power" off the air if it "deliberately spreads false information that could alter the integrity of the election." The measure is seen as aimed at Russia's state-backed RT network which began broadcasting in French late last year. Also Read | We are living through history as fake news: Arundhati Roy Macron has had Russian media in his sights since his 2017 campaign when a state-backed Russian site ran allegations that he was gay and had a secret bank account in the Bahamas. France's opposition has criticised the bills as an attempt to create a "thought police", noting that a law dating to 1881 already protects politicians and other citizens against defamation. Ahead of the late-night vote, Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen defended the draft laws saying they "in no way" violated the right to free speech. The main target of the legislation is stories spread by fake-news bots that are "manifestly false and shared in a deliberate, mass and artificial way," she said. The bill also requires that Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms reveal the names of companies behind sponsored content and establishes a press ethics council, headed by the former head of AFP news agency Emmanuel Hoog. Opposition parties from both the left and right have warned of the difficulty for judges being forced to make hasty decisions about what is true and what is false and of the courts being used for political point scoring. "Good intentions don't always make for good laws," Marietta Karamanli of the opposition Socialists warned. Previous versions of the bills were adopted by the National Assembly in July, with the backing of Macron's Republic on the Move party, but they were rejected by the opposition-controlled Senate. The latest drafts will now go back to the Senate for approval. By PTI LONDON: India has been ranked among the bottom 11 countries in a new worldwide index on the commitment of different nations to reduce inequalities in their populations. UK-based charity Oxfam International's 'Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index', released on Tuesday, ranks India 147th among 157 countries analysed, describing the country's commitment to reducing inequality as "a very worrying situation" given that it is home to 1.3 billion people, many of whom live in extreme poverty. "Oxfam has calculated that if India were to reduce inequality by a third, more than 170 million people would no longer be poor," the index notes. "Government spending on health, education and social protection is woefully low and often subsidises the private sector. Civil society has consistently campaigned for increased spending," it adds. The second edition of the annual index finds that countries such as South Korea, Namibia and Uruguay are taking strong steps to reduce inequality. However, countries such as India and Nigeria "do very badly" overall, as does the US among rich countries, showing what Oxfam describes as a lack of commitment to closing the inequality gap. In reference to India, the index finds that while the tax structure looks reasonably progressive on paper, in practice much of the progressive taxation, like that on the incomes of the richest, is not collected. India also fares poorly on labour rights and respect for women in the workplace, reflecting the fact that the majority of the labour force is employed in the agricultural and informal sectors, which lack union organisation and enforcement of gender rights. The index is based on a new database of indicators, now covering 157 countries, which measures government action on social spending, tax and labour rights - three areas found to be critical to reducing the gap. The index is topped by Denmark, based on its high and progressive taxation, high social spending and good protection of workers. "However, recent Danish governments have focused on reversing all three of these to some extent, with a view to liberalising the economy, and recent research reveals that the reforms of the past 15 years have led to a rapid increase in inequality of nearly 20 per cent between 2005 and 2015," it warns. Japan, the top-ranking Asian country, came in at 11th on the index. The report lauded President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, which came in 56th overall, for showing commitment to tackling inequality in the country in the past year by raising tax on the richest earners, boosting spending for the poor and dramatically raising the minimum wage. It also cited other countries that have taken strong steps to tackle inequality in the past year. Ethiopia, although at the 131st place, now has the sixth highest level of education spending in the world. Chile, at 35th, increased its rate of corporation tax and Indonesia, at 90th, has increased its minimum wage and spending on health, the report noted. The analysis, by Oxfam and non-profit research group Development Finance International (DFI), recommends that all countries should develop national inequality action plans to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on reducing inequality. By PTI WASHINGTON: Nikki Haley, who resigned as the US Ambassador to the United Nations, has been a great advocate of the India-US relationship and actively engaged with Indian-Americans, according to eminent community members, who believe she would soon emerge in a stronger role given her nationwide popularity. Haley, the first-ever Indian-American in any presidential cabinet, surprised many when she announced her resignation on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump has accepted the 46-year-old Haley's resignation. She will stay in the job till the year end. Her successor will be nominated and hopefully confirmed by the Senate by that time. ALSO READ | Nikki Haley became a popular UN diplomat despite Trump policies "Nikki Haley has been one the most successful Indian-American politician. She has been relentless supporter of strong US-India partnership," Mukesh Aghi of the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) said. "We will definitely miss her presence in the current administration where she was seen as a true champion of US-India alliance. We also believe she will re-emerge soon in a stronger position because she has a very bright future," Aghi told PTI. Silicon Valley-based top Indian-American venture capitalist and philanthropist M R Rangaswami said Haley had actively engaged with the diaspora. "Nikki Haley actively engaged with the Indiaspora community and listened to our issues and helped us. We fondly remember the interaction with her Sikh parents at the dinner we hosted for her in New York," he said. President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (Photo | AP) "We wish her well in her future endeavours!" Rangaswami added. As the highest ranking Indian-American in the Trump Administration, the first Indian-American to hold the position of the UN Ambassador and the first Indian-American woman elected as governor, Haley has served the US with distinction, said the recently formed Indian-American Impact Project, a group of Indian-American philanthropists, community leaders, and political operatives. "We are proud of her service and leadership, and grateful that she has inspired countless Indian Americans aspiring to careers in public service and foreign service. We wish her the best in her future endeavours," it said. Haley did an outstanding job of representing United States at United Nations, said Dallas-based eminent Indian-American Republican Ashok Mago. "Wish she had stayed for another couple of years. President admired her outstanding work. She may not be running in 2020 to be president but it is matter of time. Hope eventually she will decide to run may be in 2024," Mago said. Nikki Haley. (Photo | AP) "On behalf of all American Sikhs nationwide, we are proud of Nikki Haley, who was born to Indian Sikh Immigrants, for her work as the 29th United States Ambassador to the United Nations; where she served with great respect and dignity," said Gurinder Singh Khalsa, of the Indiana-based SikhsPAC. "Her steadfast efforts throughout her career have broken barriers for all women. We are extremely proud of her and I personally feel that in the near future she may be the first woman president of the United States," Khalsa said. "We would like to commend Ambassador Haley on all she has accomplished in so many capacities. We are proud of her and wish her all the best in future endeavors," said Deepak Raj, co-founder of Impact, chairman of Pratham USA and founder of the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at Columbia University. According to Ranju Batra from New York, Haley has become a role model for women across the world who wish to work to make a better world. "Personally, as chair of the Diwali Foundation USA, Inc., I'm most grateful to Nikki for having United States of America as a co-sponsor, in addition to 25 other nations, to our 2017 inaugural Diwali - 'Power of One' awards, that recognised six exceptional former Permanent Representatives and high ranking UN leaders," she said. The daughter of Indian immigrants from Punjab, Haley said she wanted to take a break after nearly eight years of hectic pubic life including six years as the governor of South Carolina. Born Nimrata "Nikki" Randhawa, Haley is latest Republican to exit the Trump administration. By AFP ISTANBUL: Saudi Arabia agreed to let Turkish authorities search its Istanbul consulate as part of the investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as his fiancee asked Donald Trump to help uncover what happened to the Riyadh critic. There has been fierce speculation over what happened to Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who wrote for Arab and Western media, after he vanished on October 2 following a visit to the consulate to obtain official documents. While Riyadh claimed he had left the consulate after his visit, Turkish police said Khashoggi did not emerge from the building. Government sources said police believe the journalist was killed inside the consulate, claims which Riyadh dismissed as "baseless". Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi speaks during a press conference in Manama, Bahrain. Turkish claims that Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post, was slain inside a Saudi diplomatic mission in Turkey, has put the Trump administration in a delicate spot with one of its closest Mid-east allies. (Photo | AP) "Saudi authorities said they were open to cooperation and that a search can be conducted at the consulate building," the Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement on Tuesday. The search will take place as part of the official investigation, which was being conducted "in an intense manner", he said without giving any date. Khashoggi's fiancee Hatice Cengiz wrote in an opinion piece for The Washington Post that she was "confident in the abilities of Turkish government officials". But she also implored "President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamal's disappearance". Trump on Monday expressed concern about Khashoggi's case and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a thorough investigation. ALSO READ | Turkey president asks Riyadh to 'prove' journalist Jamal Khashoggi left Saudi consulate Turkish police were looking into two private aircraft which landed at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on October 2 at different times carrying 15 people of interest in the case, as well as the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped and taken aboard one of the planes, local media reported. Previously Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg that Riyadh would allow Turkish officials to search the premises. Mystery team of 15 Ankara sought permission Sunday for the search after the foreign ministry summoned the Saudi ambassador for a second time, Turkish television reported. Riyadh's envoy in Ankara was first called to the ministry on Wednesday. Khashoggi, a former Saudi government adviser, had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year fearing possible arrest. He has been critical of some policies of the crown prince and Riyadh's intervention in the war in Yemen. Police also said a team of 15 Saudis were sent to Istanbul and were in the building at the same time as Khashoggi. Turkish security officials were working to identify the 15 individuals, English-language state broadcaster TRT World reported, adding that Turkish officials believe the Saudis may have taken the consulate's CCTV footage with them when they returned to Riyadh. An activist, member of the Human Rights Association Istanbul branch, holds a poster with a photo of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, during a protest in his support near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (Photo | AP) According to pro-government daily Sabah, the team arrived in Istanbul on two private planes, one which landed after 03:00 am (0000 GMT) on Tuesday while the second plane landed around 05:00 pm (1400 GMT) after Khashoggi entered the consulate. The individuals checked into two hotels close to the consulate, the daily said. Both planes later returned to Riyadh with one stopping in Dubai and the other in Egypt, Sabah reported, adding the police were looking into the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped. The planes belonged to a company based in Saudi Arabia which has links to the state. ALSO READ | Mike Pompeo wants 'thorough' Saudi probe into Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance Istanbul police experts were analysing vehicles which entered and left the consulate, some of which were then seen on camera on October 2 at the consul-general's residence, 200 metres away, the daily said. The newspaper also claimed that Turkish employees at the residence were "hastily" told to take a holiday on the day Khashoggi went missing. Thorough' investigation UN rights office spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, on Tuesday echoed calls for "a prompt, impartial and independent investigation of the circumstances of Mr Khashoggi's disappearance and to keep the findings public" in comments to journalists in Geneva. European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters in Lisbon that "we are 100 percent behind the American position. We expect a thorough investigation and total transparency from the Saudi authorities on what happened". Meanwhile, in London, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt met the Saudi ambassador on Tuesday to "seek urgent answers", according to a post on Twitter. By PTI WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US "will take care" of the countries which will continue to import oil from Iran after November 4 deadline when US sanctions on Iranian oil purchases take effect. "We will take care of them," Trump told reporters when asked about the decision of some countries like India and China to continue to purchase oil from Iran. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said that two state refiners have placed orders for importing crude oil from Iran in November. He had said that India has its own energy requirements which it has to fulfill. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) together have placed order for 1.25 million tonne (MT) of crude oil from Iran. Trump in May withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, re-imposing economic sanctions against the Persian Gulf nation. Some sanctions took effect from August 6 while those affecting the oil and banking sectors will start from November 4. Iran is India's third-largest oil supplier behind Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Our County Editor Dave Hinton is editor of The News-Gazette's Our County section and former editor of the Rantoul Press. He can be reached at dhinton@news-gazette.com. Reporter/Columnist Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth). China's Central Military Commission (CMC) has added two more honorees to the list of army heroes and role models, whose portraits are hung at major military facilities as a reminder of their contribution to the country. The portraits of deceased explosion mechanics scientist Lin Junde and fighter jet pilot Zhang Chao will be hung together with those of eight other army heroes and role models at military units above the company level across the country, according to a document issued by the Political Work Department under the CMC. The document specified rules and standards for the hanging of the portraits at facilities such as military history venues, cultural centers and corridors. It also said officers and soldiers should be organized to learn from the deeds and spirits of the heroes and role models. Lin died in 2012 at the age of 74 and was posthumously awarded the honorary title of "Outstanding Scientist Dedicated to National Defense-related Scientific and Technological Development" in 2013. He had spent 52 years working in the Gobi Desert in northwest China, participating in the nuclear tests there. The other honoree Zhang died in 2016 when flying a J-15 carrier-based aircraft in a carrier-landing simulation. He was later given the title "Pioneer in Building a Strong Army." 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). One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021 Washington veteran receives VA honors On November 4, Command Sargent Major Samuel Edward Jenkins was awarded a memorial star on the wall of Augustas VA Hospital. The award was dedicated in honor of Jenkins vibrant... Tigers heading to playoffs as region champions! The Tigers entered their final game of the regular season knowing that to secure a home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, they had to beat Towns... City Council approves Covid bonuses and more despite strife Despite strife, the Washington City Council has approved a Blight Property Remediation Program, a contractor to finish the CDBG grant projects from 2019, a resolution to pay covid bonuses to... (Newser) The call came at night and was chilling. "You listen, but you don't speak," the man on the other end said. "We've come in two work teams, two work teams just for you." In her first one-on-one interview since her husband's disappearance during a trip to China late last month, the wife of the former head of Interpol described the threatening phone call that prompted authorities in the French city where the international law enforcement agency is headquartered to place her under police protection. French authorities are still trying to determine whether China did indeed, as the mysterious caller menaced, dispatch agents to get to Grace Meng, the wife of Meng Hongwei. But she has good reason to be fearful: Speaking out about the fate of her high-profile husband risks China's ire and, she said, is putting her "in great danger." However, she hopes that doing so will help other families in similar circumstances. story continues below "He has disappeared for so long and nobody has given me any information or told me where he has gone. This is very common now in China," she told the AP during an interview. Speaking late Monday at a hotel in Lyon, the French city where she lives and Interpol is based, Grace Meng said she had put their two boys to bed when she got the threatening call. It was one week after her last contact with her husband. On Sept, 25, he sent her from China an emoji of a knifesuggesting to her he was in danger. The man who called her on her mobile phone spoke in Chinese, she said. She said the only clue he gave about his identity was saying that he used to work for Meng, suggesting that the man was part of China's security apparatus. He also said he knew where she was. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities said Monday that Meng Hongwei is being lawfully investigated for taking bribes and other crimes that were a result of his "willfulness." Hours earlier, Interpol said Meng had resigned as the international police agency's president. It was not clear whether he did so of his own free will. (Read more Interpol stories.) (Newser) The position will soon be vacant and her father thinks she'd do a great jobbut Ivanka Trump has confirmed that she will not be America's next ambassador to the United Nations. "It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley," she tweeted Tuesday. "That replacement will not be me." Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were rumored to be possible replacements after Nikki Haley's surprise resignation. President Trump said his daughter, who serves as a White House adviser, would do an "incredible job," but he'd be "accused of nepotism," Bloomberg reports. story continues below "I'm not sure there's anybody more competent" than his daughter, Trump said, though he later told reporters that he is looking at five candidates and will probably name a replacement in two to three weeks, the AP reports. Sources tell Politico that former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, who left the administration earlier this year to work for Goldman Sachs, is the frontrunner, but it's not clear whether she wants the job. The sources say the White House has already been in touch with Powell and she has said she needs time to decide. Other names in the frame include US ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, the preferred choice of some conservatives, and Kelly Craft, the US ambassador to Canada. (Read more Nikki Haley stories.) (Newser) Hurricane Michael is now an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 130mph and could become even stronger before it makes landfall in Florida's Panhandle or Big Bend area on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center warns. The center says devastating storm surges of up to 13 feet are expected to hit parts of Florida's Gulf Coast, and flash-flooding from heavy rains could hit as far north as Virginia, the Pensacola Journal reports. The storm will be the strongest to hit the US mainland so far this year, and could be the most devastating the Panhandle region has seen in decades, reports the New York Times. Tens of thousands have been ordered to evacuate amid emergency declarations in parts of Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. story continues below "I guess it's the worst case scenario. I don't think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle," meteorologist Ryan Maue tells the AP. "This is going to have structure damaging winds along the coast and hurricane force winds inland." Officials say some 375,000 people along the Gulf Coast have been told to evacuate. The orders are mandatory in some places, though many people have apparently decided to stay put. Forecasters say that after it makes landfall in Florida on Wednesday afternoon, Michael is expected to move over Georgia and the Carolinas, dumping yet more rain on areas hit hard by Hurricane Florence before it moves offshore again Friday. (This county has told a Weather Channel meteorologist they don't want to see him.) (Newser) A growing amount of evidence points toward Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi having been brutally murdered and dismembered inside Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate, officials say. A senior official tells the New York Times that a team of 15 Saudi agents arrived on charter planes the day Khashoggi vanished, including an autopsy expert suspected of having dismembered the Saudi journalist with a bone saw inside the consulate, which he had visited to obtain marriage paperwork. "It is like Pulp Fiction," the official says. The AP reports that Turkish media have released images of the alleged "assassination squad." One pro-Turkish government newspaper, however, suggests that Khashoggi may have been smuggled out of the country alive. story continues below State-run Turkish broadcaster TRT also aired video of a black van leaving the consulate around two hours after Khashoggi arrived and traveling to the consul general's home 1.2 miles away. Investigators believe that the 15 agents spent several hours at the home before traveling to the airport in a convoy of six cars, one of which allegedly carried Khashoggi's remains, the Guardian reports. They left Turkey the same day they arrived, and investigators believed they may have taken CCTV footage from the embassy with them. Saudi officials, who insist that Khashoggi left their consulate without incident, have said they will allow Turkish police to search the building. (Read more Jamal Khashoggi stories.) (Newser) A tragic end to a missing-person case in Maine that perplexed authorities: The medical examiner's office has determined that a body found near the home of Kristin Westra is that of the 47-year-old schoolteacher, who disappeared Oct. 1, and that she died by suicide, NBC Maine reports. The body was found Friday by children playing in the woods. Authorities conducted a major search for Westra, a mother of two, after she vanished from her North Yarmouth home overnight, leaving behind her phone and car keys. In a statement, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office extended its condolences to Westra's family and friends and thanked the agencies and volunteers involved in the search. (Read more Maine stories.) (Newser) A suspect in the rape and killing of a Bulgarian television journalist whose work highlighted corruption in the East European country has been arrested in Germany, officials said Wednesday. Bulgaria's prosecutor general, Sotir Tsatsarov, confirmed the arrest of Severin Krassimirov, a 21-year-old Bulgarian citizen, but gave no further details of his location, the AP reports. German authorities were not immediately available. "We are currently following a European arrest procedure. The German prosecutor has arrested the suspect, they will then assess how to proceed," Tsatsarov said. He said evidence suggested it was "a spontaneous attack, not premeditated." story continues below Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said investigators had found DNA evidence on the clothes and body of Viktoria Marinova, who was raped and strangled on Saturday in the northern town of Ruse. "There is physical evidence to link to the murder," Marinov said Wednesday. He said Krasimirov, a resident of Ruse, had a criminal record for scrap metal theft. The minister said investigators had spoken to Marinova's family and friends and "there is no apparent link to her work." Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving European Union fundsa sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. (Read more Bulgaria stories.) (Newser) The former Goldman Sachs personal assistant accused of stealing $1.2 million worth of wine from his boss leaped to his death from a Manhattan hotel Tuesday, the New York Times reports. Nicolas De-Meyer had been scheduled to appear in federal court at 2:30pm that day on a criminal charge related to the alleged theft from David M. Solomon, his former boss and the chief executive of the investment firm since July. Instead, police responded to a call about someone jumping from the 33rd floor of the Carlyle at 2:38pm and found the 41-year-old dead; he'd been staying at the Upper East Side luxury hotel. The NYPD says De-Meyer's sister got in touch with the hotel after he sent her suicidal texts, and that hotel security found him sitting on the window ledge in his room but couldn't stop him from jumping, USA Today reports. story continues below De-Meyer was Solomon's personal assistant from 2008 to 2016, and he was accused of stealing hundreds of bottles from Solomon's collection of rare, high-end wine. He allegedly sold the bottles to a North Carolina wine dealer instead of delivering them to Solomon's East Hampton wine cellar as he was supposed to. De-Meyer, who was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in January, was living at his mother's house in Ohio before traveling to New York Friday for the hearing the following week. He faced up to 10 years behind bars on one count of interstate transportation of stolen property, but he was expected to plead guilty, per the New York Post. "Mary and I are deeply saddened to hear that Nicolas took his own life," Solomon said in a statement. "He was close to our family for several years, and we are all heartbroken to hear of his tragic end." (Read more suicide stories.) (Newser) Clean drinking waterit's an underappreciated luxury coming at long last to students in Flint, Mich., thanks to Elon Musk. Following his July vow to assist in the Flint water crisis, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO and the Musk Foundation donated $480,350 to the Flint City School District, allowing for new water-filtration systems at all 12 district schools and an administration building, per CNET. The district celebrated the work, to be completed by January, in a tweet of thanks, reports Business Insider. "You're most welcome. Hope to do more to help in the future," Musk replied. (Read more Elon Musk stories.) (Newser) Halloween is James Yochim's favorite time of year: "I get really excited about going to haunted houses." His Friday night at Nashville Nightmare in Madisona sprawling attraction with four haunted houses, an escape room, and scary cast members running around with fake weaponsmight dull the thrill, however. Yochim says a thin man with skull makeup, assumed to be an actor, approached his friend, Tawnya Greenfield, asking if Yochim was "fing around with her," per BuzzFeed. When she jokingly said yes, the man handed her a knife and said "stab him," Yochim tells the Nashville Tennessean. "Keep in mind, we'd been chased by chainsaws, holding other weapons, all kinds of stuff all night, and it was all fake," he adds. "So she stabs at me with it, and everything got really black." story continues below The bladevery much realwent through the 29-year-old's forearm. Though it didn't hit any major arteries, bones, or tendons, "his arm was gushing blood like something out of a horror scene," Greenfield tells Fox 17. Nine stitches later, Yochim recalls the unknown man apologizing as he lay bleeding, saying, "I didn't know my knife was that sharp." But according to Yochim, there were no weapons allowed inside the attraction and visitors were required to go through "very thorough" metal detectors. In a Tuesday statement, Nashville Nightmare's organizers said an employee believed to be "involved in some way" had been placed on leave "until we can determine his involvement." An initial police report said the suspect had not been identified. No charges have been laid. (Read more stabbing stories.) President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un enjoyed a convivial atmosphere during their third summit this year on Tuesday to Thursday, marked by hugs and the sense of a family gathering. President Moon Jae-in (left) gives a commemorative coin to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a luncheon at a restaurant in Pyongyang on Wednesday. /Yonhap They had lunch and dinner together on Wednesday. For lunch they ate the celebrated cold buckwheat noodles called naengmyeon from Pyongyang's famous Okryugwan restaurant, which they also enjoyed at their first meeting in Panmunjom on April 27. Kim's wife Ri Sol-ju said, "Pyongyang-style naengmyeon has become even more famous after the April summit." President Moon Jae-in (second from left) and other South Korean officials arrive at a seafood restaurant in Pyongyang on Wednesday. /Yonhap Dinner took place at a brand-new seafood restaurant on the Taedong River which opened at the end of July. Moon had asked to go to a restaurant frequented by ordinary North Koreans and told his aides to organize a dinner for South Korean businesspeople who accompanied the delegation. Kim belatedly said he would like to come as well. Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook arrived first at around 7 p.m., and Kim and Ri 20 minutes later. "Am I not taking too much time away from you today?" Moon quipped. (Newser) Gerard Murphy never met his uncle Richard. But the Potomac, Maryland, native grew up hearing stories of the former journalist who enlisted in the Marines during World War II and disappeared during the June 15, 1944, amphibious assault on the Pacific island of Saipan. "This was a mystery in our family for basically my entire life," said Gerard Murphy, a lawyer. That all changed in 2015, when he was contacted by Ted Darcy, an independent researcher specializing in identifying World War II-era military remains. Darcy, a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, believed he had made a match between Richard Murphy's dental records and the remains of an unidentified Saipan casualty buried in the Philippines as unknown soldier X-15. Three years and many steps later, Richard Murphy's remains are finally coming home, the AP reports. story continues below A service casualty officer for the Marine Corps explains the identification process is complicated by the relatively primitive nature of the medical records from that era. For example, the dental records on file for each American soldier and Marine were essentially done by hand instead of with an X-ray machine. "Back then, the dentist would literally look into your mouth and manually fill out a chart," she said. Still, Darcy was able to make the connection using the same records, and a DNA test verified the match. "The military said they tried but they couldn't figure it out," he said. "I think they're just overwhelmed." Richard Murphy's remains are expected to arrive in late November, where they will be reburied in a cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland, "right next to his mother," Gerard Murphy said. Click for more on the incredible story. (Read more World War II stories.) (Newser) As Turkey airs its suspicions that Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered and dismembered inside Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate by a team of 15 Saudi agents, Reuters digs into the situation. One major line of investigation it reports is being chased down: Khashoggi's black Apple Watch. The 59-year-old was wearing it when he entered the consulate on Oct. 2, and it was linked to a mobile phone that he gave his fiancee to hold while he went inside. A Turkish official tells Reuters that Turkey does not have the watch, but it does have the phone, and "intelligence services, the prosecutor's office, and a technology team are working on this" to see whether any of the data it can typically transmit, say, about location and heart rate, could be gleaned from it. story continues below That could depend on "the model of watch, whether it was connected to the internet, and whether it is near enough an iPhone to synchronize," Reuters notes. It also dives into the chain of events that brought Khashoggi to the consulate in the first place: He was to marry Hatice Cengiz this week; under Turkish law, the divorced journalist needed paperwork verifying he did not currently have a wife, and he apparently decided the consulate in Turkey would be the safest place for him to get the documentation. He went to an initial appointment on Sept. 28 and was told to return the following week. Meanwhile, President Trump on Wednesday says Washington is "demanding" answers from Saudi Arabia and says he has invited Cenqiz to visit the White House. Trump says he has spoken to the Saudis, but did not elaborate, reports the AP. (Read more Jamal Khashoggi stories.) (Newser) A third person has been sentence in connection with Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Richard Pinedo, 28, will spend six months in prison followed by six months of home confinement, NBC reports. It is the longest sentence so far handed out in connection to special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Pinedo, who pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud in February, sold fake online identities, per CNN, which calls Pinedo a "computer whiz," who is "one of the more unusual and relatively unknown defendants" to be caught up in Mueller's investigation. In April, Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine for lying to federal agents investigating Paul Manafort. And last month George Papadopoulos, a former campaign advisor to President Trump, was sentenced to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI. story continues below Pinedo, who has "no connection at all to Donald Trump or anyone in his orbit," per Vox, "committed large-scale identity fraud for the wrong people." He sold stolen US bank account numbers to help users get around PayPal's identity verification measures. His actions enabled 13 Russians, who have been indicted for interfering in the election, to buy ads on Facebook. In all, the scheme reportedly netted $40,000 to $90,000 for Pinedo. "Never did it cross my mind that the services that I offered would be used to commit the highest crimes," he said, per NBC. "I've been told that if I ever leave the country, the Russians will poison me. (Read more Russia investigation stories.) U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is resigning. "It has been an honor of a lifetime," said Haley, sitting alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, where on Tuesday they announced her pending departure. "I'm not leaving until the end of the year." "We will miss you," Trump said to Haley. "You have done a fantastic job." Thanking Haley for her service, Trump characterized the diplomat as "very special to me" and someone whom he had teamed with and "solved a lot of problems," citing, in particular, issues with Iran and North Korea. "Hopefully, you'll be coming back at some point," added the president, saying "you can have your pick" of other jobs in his administration. "I don't have anything set on where I'm going to go," said Haley. The former governor of South Carolina has been seen by some as a relatively moderate voice in Trump's Cabinet. Her appointment as ambassador to the UN was seen as a surprise because she had been viewed as a critic of Trump's confrontational style during the 2016 presidential campaign. She also has been a proponent of free markets and global trade, in contrast to the president's "America First" policies. "Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do," Haley said Tuesday, summarizing her tenure as Trump's envoy to the world body. Speaking to reporters later in the day, Trump said his daughter, Ivanka Trump, who works in the White House as an adviser to her father, could succeed Haley. Ivanka Trump "would be dynamite, but then I would be accused of nepotism if you can believe it," he said. "I'm not sure there's anybody more competent in the world." Trump also said, in an extended exchange with reporters on the South Lawn: "I think CNN would support her." Trump also mentioned Dina Habib Powell, an Egyptian-born fluent Arabic speaker who was previously his deputy national security adviser for strategy. "Dina's certainly a person I would consider and she's under consideration," he said. His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa hailed the agreement between the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism regarding the trade fees. HRH the Premier had issued an order postponing the implementation of the fees levied on commercial activities for two periods, each lasting six months. HRH the Premier commended the crucial role of the trading community in promoting commercial activities in Bahrain, urging the chamber to support small traders. He made the statement as he received yesterday at the Gudaibiya Palace the BCCI board members, led by chairman Sameer Nass, who expressed thanks to HRH the Premier for his keenness on strengthening the private sector to play its role in supporting he national economy and spurring growth. They thanked HRH the Premier for his directives which paved the way for the agreement which was reached between the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism regarding the trade fees. HRH the Premier underlined the strategic partnership between the Government and the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) to revitalize the trade sector and fast-track economic development. Bahraini and Saudi businesswomen have agreed to strengthen their regional grouping as a platform to boost economic co-operation. This came as businesswomen from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia took part in a forum to extend co-operation in business and economic spheres. The participants called on Bahraini-Saudi business leaders to take advantage of the huge opportunities for growth in sectors such as tourism and hospitality, as well as traditional economic sectors including fashion, food, health and beauty. They stressed that business opportunities are available to Bahraini women and their Saudi counterparts in equal terms with men, pointing to the importance of womens initiative to take advantage of these opportunities. Moreover, participants pointed out that women entrepreneurs are essential partners in achieving Bahrains and Saudi Arabias efforts to achieve sustainable national development, diversifying national income sources away from oil, stimulating the private sector and supporting SMEs to enhance their export and employment capabilities. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the forum, Chairman of Alwane Bahrain Ammar Awachi, said that women entrepreneurs have a lot to contribute towards further developing the trade ties between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Today we are looking to strengthen the presence of women in the growing economic activity between the two countries and how women can play a key and perhaps leading role. Therefore, he stressed the keenness of Bahraini institutions like the Supreme Council for Women and the Tamkeen Labour Fund to support Bahraini women. Awachi pointed out that Alwane Society, which is concerned with the economic empowerment of women finds that this seminar is very important in exploring opportunities. We believe that partnership must be fruitful and mutually beneficial so that it can continue to grow and flourish, he said. For her part, Ishraq Mohammed Ubaid, Head of Economic Affairs at the Saudi Embassy, stressed that Saudi Arabia believes in the role of women and it has always sought social, political and economic empowerment, provided a safe environment and provided services to facilitate its duties. The Cancer Care Group (CCG) in association with Kerala Catholic Association (KCA), Aster Medcity and King Hamad University Hospital (KHUH) are conducting a Medical Symposium on 11th October 2018 at VKL Auditorium. Dr. P V Cheriyan, President at CCG told Tribune, The event is open to all residents of Kingdom of Bahrain and is free of charge. The seats will be available on first cum first serve basis. All participants will receive certificates, privilege cards from Aster and dinner packs. The Lower Criminal Court has fined a businessman BD50 for troubling Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) ex-CEO as well as board members. The defendant is believed to have sent offensive emails from an anonymous email to the CEO and board members. He was put on trial after the police investigators exposed his identity. I wanted to help my country and preserve the public money from being wasted, the businessman said during questioning. I was only criticizing BCCIs budget spending policies, which didnt achieve any tangible results, he added. A Bahraini woman, in her twenties, will serve a years imprisonment after being found guilty in a robbery case. The 23-year-old is said to have stolen a local barbers wallet after visiting his salon on the pretext of getting her hair dyed. While we were working, the defendant came, and she asked us to dye her hair. I went to prepare the colour, and she asked my colleague for water. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has revealed that he is awaiting the results of fresh medical tests, adding that if its cancer, its cancer. In a speech late Thursday the president said he underwent an endoscopy and colonoscopy about three weeks ago but that he was advised this week to repeat the tests. I dont know where Im at now physically, I have to wait for that. But I would tell you that if its cancer, its cancer, he said. And if its third stage, no more treatment. I will not prolong my agony in this office or anywhere, he added. The government had denied the leader was having health problems, with spokesman Harry Roque saying the president just took his day off. I assure you that I have no information that he went to a hospital, Roque added. However, in Dutertes Thursdayspeech he said: There was supposed to be a cabinet meeting, that was yesterday, but... Somebody advised my doctor just to repeat and get some (medical) samples. Moon will pay an official visit to Italy on Oct. 13-18 and the Vatican on Oct. 17-18 and hand over the invite, according to presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom. President Moon Jae-in will deliver an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Pope Francis when Moon meets the pontiff later this month, Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday. During his visit to Pyongyang last month, Moon told Kim Jong-un that the pope has a keen interest in peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, the spokesman added. Kim Jong-un replied that he would warmly welcome the pope if he visits Pyongyang. When they climbed Mt. Baekdu together on the last day of Moon's trip to the North, Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong promised Kim Jong-un that he would report to the Vatican that the two Koreas are marching toward reconciliation and cooperation, the spokesman added. No pope has ever visited North Korea, which suppresses all religions. The International Monetary Fund yesterday predicted Irans economy will sink deep in the red due to renewed US sanctions but forecast increased Saudi growth on the back of higher oil production. In its World Economic Outlook, the IMF said the oil-dependent economy of the Islamic republic is expected to shrink by 1.5 per cent this year and by 3.6pc in 2019. In May, before US President Donald Trump announced reinstating sanctions against Tehran, the IMF had projected Irans economy would grow by 4.0pc in 2018 and again next year. The IMF said the Iranian economy was now expected to contract over the next two years on account of reduced oil production, before returning to modest positive growth in 202023. Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May, and his administration reimposed a round of sanctions on the Islamic republic in August. Iranian crude exports, which reach some 2.5 million barrels per day normally, have plunged by over half a million bpd and are expected to dive further when expanded sanctions on oil take effect next month, depriving Tehran of its main source of income. The IMF now projects the MENA region to grow by 2.0pc this year and 2.5pc in 2019, 1.2pc and 1.1pc lower, respectively, than it forecast in April. The downward revisions reflect to an important extent the worsening of growth prospects for Iran, following the reimposition of US sanctions, it said. Leaders of Japan and five Southeast Asian countries along the Mekong River agreed Tuesday to work together for realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific strategy proposed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The leaders, gathered in Tokyo for an annual meeting, also reaffirmed their cooperation in efforts to denuclearize North Korea and deal with the situation in the South China Sea, where China is building military bases. The leaders adopted at the summit a statement called the Tokyo Strategy 2018, which set new guidelines for cooperation between Japan and the five Southeast Asian countries--Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. At a joint press conference after the summit, Abe said Japan regards its ties with the Mekong nations as a new strategic partnership aimed at realizing sustainable growth and a prosperous future. The Tokyo Strategy "welcomed Japan's policy to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific to contribute to the peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world." An executive of Fukushima Television Broadcasting Co. has been accused of paying a teenage girl for sex earlier this year, reports Nikkan Sports. In the early morning hours of July 28, Takanori Nakamura, the 50-year-old head of the General Affairs department at the Tokyo bureau, allegedly paid 40,000 yen to the girl, 17, to engage in acts deemed obscene at his residence in the capitalas Bunkyo Ward. Nakamura denies the allegations. aRegarding her age, I did not clearly make a confirmation,a the suspect was quoted by the Ayase Police Station. He was arrested on October 3. According to police, Nakamura met the girl at a so-called amaid cafea in the Akihabara area where she is employed. Thereafter, the pair stayed in contact via a social-networking service, police said. The incident emerged after the family of the girl consulted with police. In July of last year, Nakamura moved from headquarters of the broadcaster in Fukushima City to Tokyo. aThe arrest of an employee is truly regrettable,a a representative of the company was quoted. aFrom now, we will endeavor to investigate the facts of the case and deal with the matter harshly.a Have an opinion on a recent story or event around the University of Cincinnati? Let us know what you think! If you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click the button below to email David Rees, editor-in-chief. For news tips or story ideas, contact one of our editors. Email the editor North Korean leader Kim Jong-un seems to have a new Rolls-Royce as his official ride, CNN reported on Tuesday. Kim arrived in a black limousine sporting the luxury carmaker's distinctive "R" on the whole hubs for a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang on Sunday. The limousine seems to be a bulletproof Rolls-Royce Phantom, according to online automotive magazine the Drive. A US$500,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom can be transformed into a rolling fortress with another $200,000 investment. A bulletproof Phantom can fend off 7.62 mm bullets. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said the All Progressives Congress, APC, has no governorship candidate in Zamfara state ahead of the 2019 general elections. The party premised its position on the failure of the party to beat the deadline for party primaries stipulated by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan stated this yesterday while addressing newsman at the partys headquarters in Abuja.The publicity scribe said: Our position has not changed. Since Zamfara state APC did not meet the October 7 deadline, then it means that they have no candidate for 2019 general elections.You remembered after our national convention, we alerted the nation that the closing date for primary and congresses was October 7th and since that day, the Zamfara state chapter of the APC has not held a singular congress to elect candidate into various position that will be contested in 2019 general elections.We warned INEC because we are aware of underarm measures and moves by the leadership of the APC who summoned the INEC chairman and the governor of Zamfara state to a meeting.We raised the alarm because we are democratic party, and we have respect for the 1999 constitution as amended. And all the the electoral law guiding our elections.As such, we warned INEC not to allow itself to be subdued by the APC. For once they must not allow any form of collusion with the APC.Meanwhile, the party has taken a swipe at the Presidency and Information Minister, Lai Mohammed for allegedly making deliberate efforts to impugn on the character of its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Mr. Ologbondiyan said, Since the successful conduct of our Presidential primary and the popular emergence of Atiku Abubakar, the Presidency and the APC have become intimidated; gone into panic mode and ignobly resorted to trading on rumour and spurious allegations, having failed in their evil machination to scuttle our Presidential primary ab initio.The PDP is aware of how the unnerved and intimidated Presidency has unleashed its officials, spin doctors and hack writers with billions of naira, siphoned from our national treasury, to fabricate lies, spurious allegations and smear campaign against our Presidential candidate.While it is understandable that President Buhari is afraid to face a popular candidate in any elections due to his incompetence, for which Nigerians earnestly seek his replacement; engaging in smear campaign, as a means of survival, is completely reprehensible and cowardly.The party cautioned President Buhari and the APC, not to confuse personal economic prosperity that comes from hardwork, as in the case of Atiku Abubakar, with corrupt enrichment. That President Buhari failed in leading a successful personal economic life does not mean that others cannot succeed without being corrupt.A text of the press conference read: Unlike President Buhari, who has failed in managing both private and public enterprises; who also confessed his failure to successfully manage his own farm and has made no personal contribution to our national development, our Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is internationally known as a hard working, resourceful, versatile and successful private entrepreneur, a vast employer of labour; an ingenious citizen, who has made immeasurable contribution to our national development both in public and private lives.It is therefore a heinous perversion for Lai Mohammed, who has earned himself a notoriety for lying, to the extent Nigerians now replace his first name, Lai with lie, to attempt to suggest that the choice of Atiku Abubakar is a return to era of corruption, whereas President Buhari is internationally reputed to be presiding over the most corrupt administration in the history of our nation.Lai Mohammed fails to note that Nigerians are aware that, while our candidate, Atiku Abubakar has never been indicted for corruption or facing any corruption charge, President Buhari is now overburdened by indictments and allegations of corruption, for which he has failed to provide explanations.Since Lai Mohammed is talking about era of corruption, we charge him to speak up on the leaked memo detailing the stealing of N9 trillion ($25billion dollars) through underhand oil contract at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources under President Buharis direct supervision.Lai Mohammed should speak up on the alleged siphoning of N1.4 trillion through sleazy oil subsidy regimes and those benefitting from the alleged N58 hidden tax per litre which Nigerians have continued to bear since the fuel price increase from N87 to presumably unsubsidized cost of N145.Lai Mohammed should speak up on why the Presidency is suppressing investigation into alleged use of 18 unregistered companies to lift and divert N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil in 2017 and the Presidents alleged link with the beneficiaries of this fraud.Can Lai Mohammed tell Nigerians how the Buhari era allegedly presided over the stealing of over N18 billion from the funds approved for rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and rebuilding of six northeast states ravaged by insurgency?Can Lai Mohammed tell Nigerians how over N25 billion meant for health needs of Nigerians was stolen by the Presidency cabal from the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, and how the same cabal siphoned the $322 million repatriated by Switzerland, under the guise of sharing the funds to the poor?The PDP also tasked Nigerians not to take the government spokesman serious, saying, This is the same person, who nearly caused a national crisis when he, on May 7, 2015, accused former President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP of frustrating the activities of then Transition Committee only for the head of the APC team, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, to declare that that the team had all the cooperation from the PDP.This is the same Lai Mohammed, who, in 2014, alleged that the PDP denied a plane carrying a state governor from landing in Ado Ekiti to attend the APC Governorship election rally in the state only for the state government to debunk the lie stating that the governor did not travel to Ekiti but was attending official functions in the state.This is the same minister that has not been able to explain the circumstances surrounding his attempt to obtain over N13 million from the National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, under the mask of a loan, against budgetary approvals and principles of the Treasury Single Account, TSA. Akwa Ibom chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused former governor of the state, Senator Godswill Akpabio of planning med... Akwa Ibom chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused former governor of the state, Senator Godswill Akpabio of planning media attacks against the PDP leaders and chieftains. The chapter said those to be maligned include former vice president Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate. In a statement in Uyo on Tuesday by its Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, PDP faulted Akpabios boast that he was the live wire of the party. Ememobong declared that contrary to his claim, Akpabio was never a foundation member of the party. He also warned the lawmakers media handlers against publishing stories against Atiku, the state government and PDP chieftains, saying such will lead to a media war they wont survive. The spokesman said: We have read many stories bordering on Chief Godswill Akpabio and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, recently. Most of these stories spin various conspiracy theories attempting to show the farsightedness or indispensability of the former governor. We must confess that all the stories will make an interesting read, at least to the pedestrian person, whose interest in the political affairs of Akwa Ibom is shallow. This reply seeks to address the media handlers of the former governor, calling on them to exercise caution. Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade has approved the reinstatement of all appointees in his government who resigned their ... Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade has approved the reinstatement of all appointees in his government who resigned their positions to contest the just concluded party primaries, but lost. A statement issued in Calabar, Wednesday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Ita, directed the affected appointees whose appointments were not subjected to confirmation by the State House of Assembly to resume work immediately. The statement, however, explained that those in the categories of Commissioners and Special Advisers will have their names forwarded immediately by the Secretary to the State Government to the House of Assembly for reconfirmation. In the run-up to the primaries, over 40 appointees resigned to seek tickets for various elective offices. The oil tank fire that erupted in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday has been blamed on a sky lantern flown by a foreign worker and faulty alarms that failed to pick up the danger, according to police. Some 45 surveillance cameras were watching the facility around the clock, but no one noticed for 18 minutes as the fire accidentally caused by a sky lantern from a nearby construction site spread. Police in Goyang on Tuesday showed 41 seconds of footage from a surveillance camera in which a 27-year-old worker from Sri Lanka picks up a sky lantern that fell on the construction site. Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has taken a jab at President Muhammadu Buhari, saying... Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has taken a jab at President Muhammadu Buhari, saying he has never run a successful business in his life. In a statement from his media office on Tuesday, Abubakar said the free and fair presidential primary conducted by the PDP has left the APC in a state of panic and confusion. He wondered who was desperate between himself and Buhari, saying Nigeria has been soaked in blood since it came under the leadership of a man whose words are destructive and never productive. On Sunday, the Buhari Campaign Organisation launched the first weak salvo. And on Monday, the APCs National Publicity Secretary unleashed his own knee-jerk reaction, accusing Atiku of being desperate, the statement read. Our response to the APC is to ask who is desperate between a Muhammadu Buhari who said, If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood and an Atiku Abubakar who said, Love and peace should not only be preached, but must also be put into practice for the sake of sustaining the peace in our land? It is left for Nigerians to judge, but even a blind person can see that Nigeria has been soaked in blood ever since she was unfortunate enough to have fallen under the leadership of a man whose words are destructive and never productive. The statement listed Abubakars achievement and asked Buhari what he has been successful at since he assumed office. he has added 500,000 direct jobs to the Nigerian economy and attracted $27bn to our GDP, the statement read. Some of Atiku Abubakars achievements as Nigerias Vice President are that as head of the National Council of Privatisation, he superintended over the GSM revolution that saw Nigeria go from 50,000 to 100 million GSM lines,he has added 500,000 direct jobs to the Nigerian economy and attracted $27bn to our GDP, the statement read. Our question to President Buhari and the APC is how many jobs have they created? Another of Abubakars achievements is the successful privatisation of many public enterprises that hitherto consumed government resources without yielding a profit. In response, we ask President Buhari how many loopholes in public expenditure has he plugged? The spectacular failure of the 419 Nigeria Air is still fresh in the memory of Nigerians. Finally, the APC spokesman had the guts to question His Excellency, Atiku Abubakars source of wealth. We wish to remind APCs National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, that Atiku Abubakar is not like President Buhari who has never run a successful private business throughout his life. Unlike Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar is an expert job creator who has founded many successful and thriving businesses including the American University of Nigeria, Yola; a microfinance bank that has moved 45,000 families out of poverty and Rica Gado, a livestock feed company that has significantly reduced instances of herdsmen/farmers clashes by providing a business-friendly solution instead of asking Nigerians to give up their lands for cattle ranching or face death, as the Buhari government did. A Christian group, Christians in Power Network, CIPN, has advised the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its flagbearer at the forthcoming 2019 general elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to choose a former minister of aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, as their vice presidential candidate.In a statement signed by Apostle Chikezie Onyekere and Pastor Solomon Ayuba, the organisations Coordinator and Secretary respectively, the group said we predicate our advice on the fact that Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, unlike many Christians, is the one man who has stood firmly for the faith and has suffered immense persecution in the hands of the establishment because of this. He is one man many Christians believe has been ordained by God to rescue us from the hands of our relentless traducers and murderers.The statement continues: The population and spread of Christians in Nigeria cut across regions and ethnicity. The greatest fear of Christians today is that of insecurity where priests, pastors and their members are wantonly killed, our churches continuously desecrated and destroyed, and our sources of livelihood wasted, we as Christians will not vote for any party that parades a Christian who cannot effectively represent our cause at the highest levels.Apart from the votes that Fani-Kayode would get from the southwest as one from there, he will also get massive votes across the nation and everywhere Christians are found because we have come to see him as our voice, not just us but also every oppressed Nigerian irrespective of religion, ethnicity or party affiliation.This will be the masterstroke for both Atiku Abubakar and the PDP.Fani-Kayode is loved for having been consistent in playing the roles of voice for the voiceless and defender of the defenceless without any immunity covering him even while those with one refused to speak up for the people.No doubt, an Atiku/Fani-Kayode presidency will be an ideal team that would tackle our economic crises and insecurity satisfactorily. We shall sensitise and mobilize our people massively to vote for the PDP at the presidential election should we be sure that we have a strong voice for us there. Fani-Kayode is widely loved across the major religions of the country.He has spoken up for the Shiite Muslims who have suffered untold hardship in the hands of the current government. He has spoken up for Dasuki, a Fulani Muslim, who is being unjustly held in detention even after multiple valid court orders had granted him bail. He has also spoken up for Sheikh El Zakzaky who is suffering a similar fate to that of Dasuki etc. So no one can accuse him of religious bigotry.We pray Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and PDP to strongly consider this advice if they want to make any inroad among our people with humongous population in the country. Justice Olusola Williams of an Ikeja High court Wednesday struck out the fraud case instituted by the EFCC against Innoson Motors and Innocent Chukwuma the CEO of Innoson motors due to the inability of the prosecution to produce him in court for arraignment.In her ruling, Justice Williams said, the prosecution is well aware that it is the duty to produce a defendant in court, this court is not inclined to continue to waste the tax of Lagos tax payers. This court cannot continue to waste precious time calling a case that is going nowhere.It is a criminal matter that can be instituted anytime. I advice that the prosecution gets its act together before coming to court. I am inclined to strike out this case and I so do. However, the prosecuting counsel, Zainab Ettu had earlier informed the court that they have been able to effect the arrest of the 2nd defendant in order to physically serve him accusing that he has been hiding from operatives to carry out the arrest on him.I think at this stage while we still pursue the arrest of the defendant, I think it behooves on the defence counsel being ministers at the temple of justice to carry out their duty to the court to ensure that they produce their client in court because they took brief from him and they can tell when who briefed them can be in court. They filed multiple applications but they cannot produce their client in court. We ask for an adjournment to produce the 2nd defendant in court, no matter what he cannot be above the law. We already have his warrant of arrest when the case was before Justice Moji Dada. In response to the prosecution and at the same time moving his motion, Counsel to the first defendant Joseph Mbaduga said, all the defendants in this matter are being charged at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi in charge number FHC/L/565C/2015 in respect of the same subject matter and transactions in this particular charge and it is being prosecuted by the AGF. The charge is still pending and some facts in the case have been forwarded to the Supreme Court, while it is pending, the EFCC commenced this charge and never served any of the parties but we saw a media publication that the EFCC had filed a charge in respect of the matter at a Lagos High court.Going by this, we are raising a preliminary objection dated 15th of January and filed on the same date as being an abuse of court processes and that the charge has not been served. And going by the norm as laid by the appellate court that it is the duty of the prosecution to produce the defendant in court and until then the court cannot exercise any jurisdiction over the defendant and the court cannot compel counsels to produce the defendants. However, prosecution held that for any application to be treated on behalf of a defendant, he should be present in court, they can then decide if they want to raise an objection before he takes his plea or after. A fugitive cannot be asking for reliefs from a court he has not submitted to. He is very much aware of the court proceedings but refuses to submit himself to court and instead engages counsels to represent him. Although it is not the duty of the defence counsel to produce the defendant in court, it is highly unethical and unprofessional for them not to advise their clients properly to appear in court for justice to be done properly. Innocent Chukwuma and his company Innoson were first brought before Justice Mojisola Dada of an Ikeja special offences court January 17 and had not appeared before the court in all the adjourned dates since then until the case was transferred from Justice Mojisola Dada in June after Innoson counsel wrote a petition in February against her asking her to disqualify herself from the case and it was transferred to the then vacation Judge sitting at Ikeja Justice Olushola Williams during the break in July.Mr Chukwuma and his company, Innoson Motors Nigeria Ltd., were to be arraigned on a four-count charge of conspiracy to obtain property by false pretences, stealing and forgery in a transaction with Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB).According to the charge, the defendants committed the offences between 2009 and July 2011 in Lagos.The EFCC alleged that the defendants with intent to defraud, conspired to obtain by false pretences containers of motorcycle, spare parts and raw materials, property of GTB from Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd, Apapa, Lagos.They are said to have fraudulently induced staff of Mitsui OSK and Maersk Line to deliver to them via their clearing agents the goods which were imported from China in the name of GTB by falsely pretending that they were authorized by the bank to clear the goods.The prosecution claimed that the defendants in order to facilitate the fraud forged a bill of lading numbered 598286020 of Maersk Line Limited and 11007950841 of Mutsui O.S.K Lines by knowingly putting a false GTB stamp and signature of the bank staff.The alleged forgery was in order that the forged documents be used or acted upon as genuine to the prejudice of any person within Lagos or elsewhere.The offences contravened Sections 1(1)(b), 1(3), and 8(a) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2016 and Sections 309(9), 388, 465 and 467(1)(j) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State 2003. President Muhammadu Buhari has urged religious leaders in the country to assist the government to overcome forces of destruction by en... President Muhammadu Buhari has urged religious leaders in the country to assist the government to overcome forces of destruction by enlightening their followers to guard against religious extremism and terrorism. The President made the call when he received the leadership of Qadiriyya Islamic Movement in Africa at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday. According to him, Muslim leaders had a duty to promote the principles and tenets of Islam as a religion of peace and justice. The President said those who indoctrinate children and plant explosives on them to harm innocent people do not belong to any religion but terrorists who should be identified and fought until they give up their evil ways. Buhari, who commended the Qadiriyya movement for promoting education, interfaith dialogue and good moral conduct in the society, expressed support for the proposed Islamic Centre in Abuja by the movement. Earlier in his remarks, the leader of the Qadiriyya in Africa, Sheikh Qaribullah Kabara had congratulated the President on his emergence as his partys candidate for the 2019 election. He also commended the President on the achievements of his administration since coming into office, which he said included the diversification of the economy, increased power supply and food sufficiency. Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state, who led the delegation to the Presidential Villa, told State House correspondents that the Islamic movement was in full support of the presidents second term bid. He said the Islamic Centre being constructed by the movement in Abuja was aimed at providing education for the youth, in order to reduce radicalism and other vices affecting the society. He said: The group is here to first of all congratulate our President for picking the APC ticket to run for a second term of office. The group thanked the President for the development going on in Nigeria, especially the economy, which has improved as well as the improvement in electricity supply and agriculture. The group is in full support of the Presidents second term bid. We also used the opportunity to inform the President of the construction and importance of the Qadria Centre, which is being built here in Abuja. It is basically for education; especially for reducing extremism and radicalism in religion and this is the right time that such a Centre; it will help to control the minds of the followers. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says Nigeria needs a president who understands the economy. He said this on Tuesday at the Four... Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says Nigeria needs a president who understands the economy. He said this on Tuesday at the Foursquare Gospel Church annual public lecture in Lagos. The former president quoted the words of his friend, Helmut Schmidt, a former chancellor of Germany, who said if the people in Africa have to make it, all their political leaders must have good grounding in economy. Obasanjo, while commenting on a lecture delivered by Matthew Kukah, bishop of the Catholic diocese of Sokoto, said even Jesus had a sound knowledge of the economy He noted that politics must be the most serious game created by man, adding that there must be a balance of politics, faith and economy for the country to get it right. There is no doubt at all that if we have to get it right the three (economy, faith and politics) must go together, he said. he died at the age of 96 about three years ago, I was at the burial and he said if we in Africa have to make it, all our political leaders must have good grounding in economy. One of my international friends, the late Helmut Schmidt, who was a former Chancellor of Germany he died at the age of 96 about three years ago, I was at the burial and he said if we in Africa have to make it, all our political leaders must have good grounding in economy. As a fact from Bishop Kukah, even Jesus Christ understood the economy and if you have a leader who does not understand economics, then you cannot have a leader that will satisfy the need of the people, the physical and the material needs of the people. This is Obasanjos first public comment since the emergence of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Abubakar, who served as Obasanjos deputy, throughout the eight years that the elder statesman presided over the affairs of the country, paid tribute to him after clinching the ticket of the opposition party. Opposed to the second term of President Muhammadu Buharis second term and having worked against Abubakars presidential ambition over the years, Obasanjo has a tough choice to make in 2019. A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State, Mr Fatai Oyedele, popularly known as Diekola has collapsed in court.Diekola and two other suspects, Segun Adekilekun and Sikiru Lawal, who were arrested by the police shortly before the governorship rerun held on September 27 were brought to the court by the police on Wednesday.However, after the accused persons were called and they stepped into the dock, Diekola who had a plaster on his hand slumped. The other suspects rushed to save him.Diekola, who looked very sick was given a chair and the Magistrate, Mr. Olusegun Ayilara, ruled that he could not take the plea of a dying person.He adjourned the case to November 23 for plea taking. President Muhammadu Buhari is currently presiding over the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council.The meeting is holding inside the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.Last week, the Presidency put off the meeting to allow members to take part in the primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress holding nationwide at the time.At the beginning of todays meeting, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said the Muslim prayers while the Christian prayer was offered by the Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu.Embattled Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, is in attendance.Shittu is currently in the eye of the storm for not taking part in the compulsory one year service after his graduation.The national leadership of the APC had disqualified him from participating in the governorship primaries in Oyo State for that reason.Many stakeholders had called for his sacking or resignation from the cabinet. The Coalition of Presidential Aspirants under the All Progressive Congress, APC, Wednesday, called the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to give up his job without delay for allegedly creating crisis in the party.The coalition in a statement signed by Alhaji Mumakai-Unagha and Dr SKC Ogbonnia, said: The National Chairman does not have the capacity to lead the party to victory come 2019 following the crisis he has created all over the country as soon as he assumed office, therefore he has lost the confidence of All Progressive Progress members.We, the Coalition of APC Presidential aspirants, including Governorship, Senatorial, House of Representative and Houses of Assembly aspirants are hereby calling on the National Chairman to resign, the group said.It warned: Should the national chairman fail to resign, we shall mobilize APC faithful across the country to besiege the party secretariat.The group stated: He has not only succeeded in creating factions within the party in almost the whole thirty six states of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, he has introduced development unknown to democracy.He deliberately hiked the prizes of nomination forms to scare genuine Nigerians with burning desire to salvage the nations economy; he is gradually destroying the party to pave way for the People Democratic PartyIt is obvious that he cannot manage crisis and he will not be able to manage the crisis he created with impunity during the recent primary elections conducted by the party, as it was all sham. He imposed party executives as well as candidates in the various constituents against the wishes of the people, it asserted.Adams Oshiomhole conspired to deny Nigerian youths as well as party members that are desirous of contesting the 2019 general election through the prohibitive hike of the nomination form.Today, APC as a party is sharply divided as the recent primary elections were held on factional bases. We are not sure of the party victory come 2019 due to what we may regard or call man -made crisis created by the chairman, the coalition added. The senate has confirmed Muiz Banire as chairman of the governing board of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). B... The senate has confirmed Muiz Banire as chairman of the governing board of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). Banire, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was nominated for the position by President Muhammadu Buhari in July. The former legal adviser of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was confirmed after a report was presented by Rafiu Ibrahim, chairman senate committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions. The lawmakers confirmed him after it was put to a voice vote by Senate President Bukola Saraki. All the senators from Lagos state had kicked against the nomination and submitted a petition to stop Banires confirmation. But the SAN had reacted saying that he did not need a political job to survive. In the first place, let me recognize the constitutional right of the three senators to express their views without hindrance. It is part of the democratic tenets we all cherish and strive to protect at all times, he had said. However, it is necessary to point out to interested or concerned members of the Nigerian citizenry that my nomination in the first place is not a quota appointment (as the three politicians and distinguished senators may have wrongly perceived) requiring their special approval to deal with. I was nominated simply as a Nigerian in whom the appointer has a lot of confidence and who is prepared to give his all in service of his fatherland. National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole has replied the Independent National Electoral Commission, settin... National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole has replied the Independent National Electoral Commission, setting the records straight that his party indeed held governorship, national assembly and state assembly primaries in Zamfara state and will present candidates for the general elections. Oshiomholes statement came hours after a letter from the acting secretary of INEC, Okechukwu Ndeche, accused the APC of not conducting primaries within the timeframe stipulated by INEC. By default, he claimed the APC may have lost the opportunity to present candidates for the elections. Ndeche wrote: You would note that from the timetable the conduct of primaries is scheduled to take place between August 18 to Oct 7 2018. However, report received from our office in Zamfara state shows that no primaries were conducted by your party in Zamfara, notwithstanding that our officials were fully mobilised and deployed. Consequently, based on the provision of Section 87 and 31 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, the commission does not expect that your party will submit names of any candidate from Zamfara state. For clarity, our position therefore, is that the APC will not be fielding candidates for the Governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly elections in Zamfara for the 2019 general elections. But firing back hours later, today Oshiomhole debunked the basis of INEC officials letter that no primary held in Zamfara. We wish to state emphatically that nothing can be farther from the actual situation in Zamfara state. North Korea's forest area has shrunk about 40 percent over the last 25 years, according to a UN study. The finding brings home the urgency of the two Koreas' recent agreement to cooperate in restoring forests in the North. In 2015, forests took up 41.8 percent of the North's total land area, according to the report by the UN Development Programme, down from 68.1 percent as recently as 1990. That was the seventh fastest shrinking rate in the world. Of 195 countries surveyed, only Togo, Nigeria and a handful of others saw more devastating deforestation at a time when preserving and replanting forests has become vital in trying to tackle climate change. The rapid shrinkage of its forest area is mainly due to the famine of the 1990s, when starving North Koreans felled millions of trees for firewood, to earn hard currency, and to clear land for agriculture. Since he took power, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stressed the need to resolve forestry issues, including encouraging officials to build tree nurseries. Meanwhile, fossil fuel accounted for 81.4 percent of the North's total energy consumption, a little higher than the world's average of 80.6 percent. More than 20,000 Koreans have chosen to refuse life-prolonging treatment since the law changed to permit living wills to that effect earlier this year after a three-month trial run. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Tuesday that 20,742 people opted to discontinue life support treatment from February until last Wednesday. One out of three patients gave doctors permission to discontinue life support when their illnesses became terminal, and the families of two out of three terminally ill patients chose death with dignity for their loved ones. The rest had made a living will in advance. Life-support treatment covers medically assisted procedures to keep late-stage cancer and other terminally ill patients from dying without remedial effects. It includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation, respirators and hemodialysis. Yun Young-ho at Seoul National University's College of Medicine said, "The changes are interesting, but the numbers are insufficient to say that death with dignity has taken root in this country." Among those who opted to discontinue life support treatment, 99.3 percent made the choice when their illnesses became terminal or their families made the choice on their behalf. Still, only 0.1 percent of the adult population (42.31 million) decide to die with dignity and put it in writing when they are still healthy enough. Anti-tank barriers built in frontline areas to deter North Korea's mechanized forces from marching south in a war have been removed at an alarming rate this year. Nine barriers were removed from 2013 to 2017, an annual average of 1.8, according to data from the Joint Chiefs of Staff published by Liberty Korea Party lawmaker Lee Jong-myeong on Tuesday. But this year alone, 13 barriers were removed or are to be removed, a seven-fold annual increase, Lee said. The anti-tank barriers are usually concrete structures built over roads that would be blown up in a war to delay a southward invasion. Only six alternative barriers were built to substitute for the ones that were removed. The military has been reluctant to destroy the barriers despite residents' complaints that they pose a safety threat in traffic. "Of the 13 barriers Lee mentioned, we actually haven't decided whether to remove 10 yet because we haven't finished consultation with local municipalities," a JCS officer said. Meanwhile, all of the Army's surveillance equipment in the frontline area will be incapacitated once an inter-Korean military agreement signed last month comes into effect on Nov. 1, according to Bareun Mirae Party lawmaker Kim Joong-ro. He said this would hamstring the activities of the artillery, anti-air defense, and intelligence units. The two Koreas agreed last month to set a no-fly zone for surveillance drones in a 10 km-wide area on the western frontline and a 15 km-wide area on the eastern frontline. Army drones provide information to almost all subordinate units like infantry divisions, artillery brigades, anti-air defense units, intelligence battalions, special forces regiments, and chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) warfare battalions. But their surveillance range will now be so restricted that artillery, anti-air defense, and intelligence units, which have to identify targets in real time, would have great difficulty carrying out their missions properly, Kim said. A budding highland for innovations From:ChinaDaily | 2018-10-10 10:12 Industry experts, academics and venture capitalists weigh in on Shanghai's ambitions to become a global AI powerhouse at the recent World Artificial Intelligence Conference in the city Major cities in China have been ramping up their efforts to bolster their artificial intelligence sectors in light of the central government's plan to turn the nation into an AI powerhouse that is home to a 1 trillion yuan ($145.5 billion) industry by 2030. According to a plan issued last year by the municipal authorities, Shanghai is looking to lead the pack by becoming a global AI hub, with plans to expand the scale of its industry to more than 100 billion yuan by 2020. While the city is not home to China's trinity of tech giants - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent - it has leveraged its reputation as a talent hub with the necessary infrastructure to pursue this goal. Within the span of just one week in August, the local government had inked two deals with Alibaba and Tencent to deepen cooperation on AI research and bolster its smart city initiative. In September, Baidu said that it will open up more than 110 AI-related capabilities by establishing an innovation center in the city. "The matured industrial chain of smart chips, software and hardware services, along with the ability to attract technology talents have equipped Shanghai with an exceptional advantage in AI development," said Pony Ma, chairman of Tencent, during his keynote speech at the inaugural World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Sept 17. The event, which was the latest demonstration of the city's AI ambitions, attracted a host of high profile personalities including Turing Award winner Raj Reddy. Clear govt agenda During the opening ceremony of the WAIC, Shanghai's Party secretary Li Qiang again pledged to turn the city into a "national AI highland" that would focus on AI research and achieving breakthroughs in core technologies such as intelligent sensing. Officials and industry experts have pointed to the municipality's wealth of big data resources, wide variety of application scenarios and its large R&D talent pool as key components in its quest to become a global AI hub. According to Li, the goal is viable thanks to a variety of industry-specific application scenarios in Shanghai and the surrounding Yangtze River Delta region, China's most affluent area, the mines of data in traffic and goods, the capital to train AI algorithms, as well as the sound IT infrastructures to support the new generation of mobile communications and internet of things technologies. Chen Mingbo, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, pointed out that Shanghai is also an ideal place to establish pilot zones where AI-powered applications in manufacturing, finance, healthcare, autonomous driving and robots can be tested. To aid its goal, Shanghai is planning to set up AI development funds containing 100 billion yuan, as well as 10 public platforms for AI innovation, six demonstration zones and 60 AI applications. On Sept 17, city authorities issued a 22-point circular, which proposed the establishment of three to four towns and five pilot zones featuring AI, with no timeline being disclosed. Kathmandu, October 10 Nepal Communist Party chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and senior leader Bamdev Gautam convinced the partys MP from Kathmandu 7 to tender his resignation, it has been revealed. According to party sources, Gautam and Dahal held discussions with MP Rambir Manandhar, considered an ally of Chairman Oli on Monday and drafted his resignation letter. Manandhar, according to sources, agreed to give up his post as he was disenchanted with Oli, who did not offer him a ministerial portfolio despite winning the election twice. Manandhar, who played an important role in investigating the Nepal Oli Corporation scam, hoped that he would get to lead a parliamentary committee, but Oli did not help him on this as well. Sources say that when Gautam and Dahal showed Manandhars resignation letter to Oli, the Prime Minister was surprised that a party ally had resorted to resignation without even consulting him. Oli camp members have started suspecting that Prachanda is also in on a plan to dislodge Oli and appoint Gautam as the new Prime Minister. Home Just In Nepal Communist Party Secretariat meeting put off Kathmandu, October 10 The Secretariat meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party has been postponed due to busy schedule of the partys leaders. The Secretariat meeting, which was set to be held this morning at the Prime Ministers residence in Baluwatar has been put off, informed PM KP Sharma Olis press adviser Kundan Aryal. Aryal further added that the meeting would now take place on Saturday, October 13. The Secretariat, the highest body of NCP, has a total of nine members including the two chairmen. RSS Kathmandu, October 10 Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula has forced the party leadership to postpone the meeting of its Central Working Committee scheduled for Thursday. Party President Sher Bahadur Deuba postponed the meeting after Sitaula and some leaders close to him warned of boycotting the meeting, and creating some untoward situations if the meeting was held despite settling the issue they raised. Sitaula has protested the partys decision to fixing the age limit for the partys student wing, Nepal Students Union, at 32 years. Earlier, the partys General Secretary Purna Bahadur Khadka had tried to convince Sitaula to join the meeting. In response, Sitaula had suggested that Deuba should not be foolish by taking all decisions on the majority basis, by ignoring dissident voices. Some other leaders including Prakash Man Singh and Arjun Narsingha KC had also warned of boycotting the meeting. The Taleju Bhawani Temple in central Kathmandu stands out among the swarm of temples and monuments around the Durbar Square. As I sit nearby the temple, a woman walks up to the gate of the Taleju Bhawani and bows seeking blessing from the goddess. There is a certain satisfaction on her face. I ask her how long shes been coming here and what she thinks about the temple, to which she replies, I have been coming here since I was a child. My Dashain isnt complete until I visit this temple. Taleju is a part of me now and it will be forever. The temple, believed to have been commissioned by then King Mahendra Malla, is located adjacent to the Hanuman Dhoka Palace Museum. A lot of stories have come up about the origins of the holy temple. People believe that the temple was built in the shape of yantra, a mystical diagram said to have magical powers, due to a suggestion that came straight from the Goddess Taleju. According to legends, Taleju Bhawani herself made a special appearance at the temples dedication ceremony where she came disguised as a bee. She was originally a goddess from the south of India, but later became the kul deuta (family deity) of the Malla Kings in 14th century. Even when the Malla kingdom was conquered by the Shah rulers, the new kings adopted Taleju as their own new royal deity in order to prove and cement their legitimacy to the throne. Some people also say due to the presence of the royal goddess, the temple escaped with only minor damages in the 2015 earthquake. The temple still stands, albeit with a few cracks. Its pinnacle collapsed but has been restored and the main temple is slightly slanted from its original place, but the structure has been secured with scaffolding. Taleju temple can only be visited by Hindus once a year on the ninth day of Dashain. For everyone else, it can only be viewed from the outside. Inside, there are 12 miniature versions of the temple that surround the main building. There are four more temples higher up just below the main temple. The four main decorative gates are guarded by stone lions. Inside the main Taleju temple itself are golden statues depicting the ten-armed goddess along with shrines to both Taleju Bhawani and Kumari, Nepals Living Goddess. Kumari is considered to be the human manifestation of the Goddess Taleju. There are several legends telling us why the Kumari is considered as the manifestation of Goddess Taleju. One popular legend states how the last Malla King Jayaprakash Malla played tripasa, a dice game with the goddess. She promised to come every night on the condition that the king wouldnt tell anyone about it. But one night the kings wife saw the goddess which angered Taleju Bhawani and she left. But before leaving she told the king that if he wanted to see her again or have her protect his country, hed have to search for her among the high cast Newar girls as she would be incarnated as a little girl among them. Hoping to make amends with his patroness, King Jayaprakash Malla left the palace in search of the young girl who was possessed by Talejus spirit. The worshipping of the Goddess Taleju in the form of a young virgin girl, or kumari, became a tradition in the Newar society and has continued to this day. As per the tradition, the living goddess visits the temple on Mahanawami of Dashain every year. The temple will be open on Nawami from 5 am to 7 pm. Every year hundreds of devotees patiently stand in line to pay homage to Taleju Bhawani situated at Tulasi Chowk, Hanuman Dhoka. The lines reach up to as far as the Kumari Ghar, Basantapur from the temples main entrance. From the archive Boulder, Colorado - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held its 169th Period of Sessions between September 30 and October 5, 2018, in Boulder, Colorado, at the invitation of the University of Colorado. Holding the sessions at a venue other than its headquarters is a way for the IACHR to bring its mechanisms for defending, protecting, and promoting human rights closer to the victims and people it serves, raise the organizations public profile in the region, and further democratize access to the Inter-American Human Rights System. The IACHR wishes to thank the University of Colorado for the invitation to hold the sessions on its campus and for helping to make all the scheduled activities a reality. Collaboration with academic institutions is one of the programs that form part of the IACHRs Strategic Plan, and holding this period of sessions at the University of Colorado Law School reinforced this. At the event, the IACHR held 37 public hearings on Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, the United States (including a hearing on Puerto Rico), and Venezuela, and various regional hearings. Videos of the hearings are available, as are high-definition photos, which are licensed for download and use by interested parties. As part of the IACHRs collaboration with the Office of the United States High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and to follow up on the joint declaration signed in 2014, the OHCHR special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes, and consequences and a member of the Working Group of the United Nations Human Rights Council took part in two of the hearings. The IACHR wishes to thank member states and civil society for taking part in the hearings, working meetings, and public events that were held as part of these sessions. The IACHR stresses the importance of member states participating in hearings in good faith and with sufficient background information, as this helps them move toward constructive solutions to the human rights problems that the region is facing. The Inter-American Human Rights System is strengthened by the active involvement of states, victims of human rights violations and their representatives, and civil society organizations. The IACHR deeply regrets the absence of the state of Nicaragua from the hearings it was summoned to take part in. The absence of state delegations seriously hinders or prevents the IACHR from going about its work. Hearings are an indispensable way for the IACHR to receive information that enables it to fulfill the mandate given to it by OAS member states, namely to protect, promote, and defend human rights in the region. The IACHR urges member states to attend the sessions and hearings that they are invited to. The IACHR debated and passed 15 merits reports on cases and presented two publications. It also confirmed that it has passed 81 admissibility reports in 2018. It held 31 working meetings on precautionary measures and the monitoring of recommendations, cases, and friendly settlements being reached in connection with 15 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Paraguay, the United States, and Venezuela: 10 of these were on precautionary measures; 8 on friendly settlements; 6 on monitoring recommendations; 5 on thematic cases; and 1 on a case being processed. It also held 13 bilateral meetings with civil society organizations and 5 bilateral meetings with states from the region. As at all its periods of sessions, the IACHR welcomed more than 50 civil society organizations that attended. At the session, the IACHR reviewed and debated a large number of petitions for precautionary measures and passed six resolutions granting these. The IACHR has passed a total of 70 precautionary measures so far in 2018, more than have ever been passed in the same period in any other year in its history. The 10 working meetings on the implementation of precautionary measures were in relation to Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. These included the measure on the Special Follow-Up Team (ESE) that was created to monitor precautionary measures 309-18 and 310-18 on the kidnapping and murder of the team of journalists from El Comercio newspaper on the border between Colombia and Ecuador, and the measure on the Special Follow-Up Mechanism for Ayotzinapa (MESA), which was created as part of precautionary measure 409-14 on the disappearance of 43 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos rural school. The mechanism monitors compliance with the precautionary measure and the GIEIs recommendations regarding progress on the investigation, the search for the missing students, comprehensive support for victims and their relatives, and structural measures to ensure nonrepetition. The Mexican state, the representatives present, and the IACHR evaluated the areas where significant progress had been made with a view to drafting the final report on the mechanism, which is scheduled for presentation in November 2018, and the transition to working with the new government. The IACHR also held eight working meetings on matters relating to friendly settlement procedures at different stages of negotiation and implementation, involving Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Paraguay, and Venezuela. Specifically, the IACHR facilitated dialogue between the parties to petitions 12.191, Maria Mamerita Mestanza Chavez; 12.797, Natividad de Jesus Ramirez and others; 11.706, Yanomami Indigenous People of Haximu; 11.426, Marcela Alejandra Porco; 13.050, Qoqob Community of Santa Maria Nebaj Municipality; 12.532, inmates at the Mendoza Penitentiary; and 12.699, Pedro Antonio Centurion. At these meetings, the IACHR facilitated the creation of potential work plans between parties and helped identify interests and possible points of agreement to further the negotiation and implementation of friendly settlement agreements. The IACHR values parties desire to make progress on negotiating friendly settlement agreements that will enable victims to obtain comprehensive redress for the human rights violations perpetrated in relation to these events. The IACHR held five working meetings on Brazil with five different stakeholders in preparation for the in loco visit planned for November 315, 2018. The IACHR has assessed and passed the agenda for this visit. In addition, the IACHR held a meeting with over 50 civil society organizations from within the Americas and beyond, at which it received worrying information on different human rights situations throughout the region. In particular, the IACHR wishes to draw attention to the widespread involvement of civil society organizations from different countries, which helped build a broad overview of the human rights situation in the region. The event included the official presentation of the Report on children and adolescents in the United States adult criminal justice system. The report discusses the large numbers of children being tried within the criminal justice system and the conditions in which they are being held at adult prisons. The IACHR particularly appreciates the presence of the US state and two young people who fell victim to being prosecuted as adults and imprisoned with adults while they were still children. Photos of the presentation are available here. During this period of sessions, the IACHR was also able to find out more about the progress being made on the Inter-American System for Monitoring Recommendations of the IACHR (SIMORE) that was developed in cooperation with the state of Paraguay following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in December 2017. SIMORE is an online tool that systematizes and organizes the recommendations made by the IACHR through its various mechanisms and allows these to be monitored so as to strengthen the follow-up and supervision process. The IACHRs Special Follow-Up Team on the investigation into the deaths of journalists Javier Ortega, Paul Rivas, and Efrain Segarra held working meetings that were attended by the victims relatives, their legal representatives, and the states of Ecuador and Colombia. The IACHR also held a working meeting on the Special Follow-Up Mechanism for Ayotzinapa (MESA) at which it was agreed that an official visit would take place in November 2018 to present the final report on the investigation. The IACHR also hosted the second meeting of the Platform of Independent International and Regional Mechanisms on Violence against Women and Womens Rights which was launched by the OHCHR special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes, and consequences in March 2018. The rapporteur and the president of the IACHR met with the president of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the president and executive secretary of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO), the president of the Follow-Up Mechanism to the Belem do Para Convention, and with the expert member of the United Nations Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice. The meeting focused on sharing information around the activities these mechanisms are undertaking to address current challenges to womens rights, so as to better coordinate their efforts and mandates to eradicate all threats to these rights. On October 3, 2018, staff from the secretariat held a training workshop for Paraguayan government officials on the friendly settlement procedure. The IACHR acknowledges the information it received from civil society representatives at hearings and working meetings expressing their fear over the potential repercussions or consequences they may face when returning to their countries. The IACHR strongly condemns any impediment to a person exercising their right to use the mechanisms of the Inter-American Human Rights System and any type of retaliation or stigmatization by the state in response to a person or organization taking part in or calling on any of the bodies that form part of the inter-American system in the course of exercising their conventional rights. In the terms to article 63 of the IACHR Regulations, the IACHR urges states to adopt protective measures to guarantee the safety of all people who have taken part in the period of sessions or who use any of the tools available to the entire population of the Americas. The IACHR concluded the 169th Period of Sessions by evaluating the overall outlook for the human rights situation in all countries in the region, especially Nicaragua and Venezuela. It repeated its request to carry out an in loco visit to Venezuela. The IACHR held an informational meeting with the Permanent Council Working Group on Nicaragua at which it stressed the importance of the Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI). The 170th Period of Sessions will be held at the IACHR headquarters in Washington, DC, on December 17, 2018. The system for requesting hearings and working meetings at these sessions was available on the IACHR website between August 30 and September 25. The IACHR will publish an annex to this press release shortly. A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence. No. 220/18 This Account has been suspended. #drug trafficking Criminal organization charges filed against drug traffickers for 1st time Prosecutors have pressed charges of organizing and operating a criminal ring against 15 drug traffickers accused of distributing drugs via Telegram messenger, the first time such c... #urea solution S. Korea to import more urea solution to ease supply shortage South Korea said Monday local firms have inked deals to import urea solution from other countries, including Malaysia and Mexico, a move expected to help ease a supply shortage of ... 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. Swizz Beatz, the award-winning music producer, rapper, and businessman, is famously an art enthusiast. Last year, in collaboration with Bacardi (he serves as the spirits label's Global Chief Creative for Culture), the New York City native launched "No Commission," a series of art fairs that allow artists to keep the proceeds of their sales. He's also an avid collector who launched The Dean Collection, a body of works he's amassed since his twenties that serve as point of discovery for art enthusiasts looking for emerging talent. This fall, Swizz has teamed up with Swiss luxury label Bally on a capsule collection featuring work by British artist Shok-1. "Bally, to me, was kind of a hallowed, mythic thing that I heard about in rap lyrics," Shok-1 explains of his teen years in the '80s, which he spent immersed in hip-hop and graffiti writing. "Fashion was a big part of a unified subculture that brought young people around the world together in a positive movement of music, dance, and art." Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Shok-1 has since received international recognition for his x-ray-centric works. In his capsule with Bally, scans of a fruit fly, a human hand, and a skull manipulated to look like Pac-Man are printed onto a range of accessories, sneakers, and ready-to-wear rendered in black and peach. The motifs allude to a time when artists including Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, and Kasseem Dean (a.k.a. Swizz Beatz) became devoted Bally fans, nodding to the longstanding practice of subcultures adopting brands that weren't originally meant for them. Available from today on Bally.com and the brand's boutiques worldwide, the collection is kicking off with a series of events in Tokyo. Shok-1's first ever large-scale mural in Japan will be installed in the capital's Shibuya district and the top floor of Bally's Ginza flagship store will be converted into a gallery space (open to the public through the end of the month) featuring select works by the artist. Photos courtesy of Bally Since decamping to Durban, South Africa from Los Angeles in 2005, Liza Lou has been relatively absent from the New York gallery scene. The artist's hiatus has officially come to an end at Lehmann Maupin's new, Peter Marino-designed space in Chelsea. Titled Liza Lou: Classification and Nomenclature of Clouds, the gallery's inaugural show and Lou's first solo outing in the city since 2008, explores the transient beauty that's always floating overhead. Though it sounds academic, the exhibition is incredibly emotive and reverent of handcraft (Lou's chosen medium since the 1970s has been time-consuming beadwork). Lou in her Los Angeles studio. (Photography by Mick Haggerty) The ethereal works in this show, the largest of which is The Clouds at 100 feet long and dotted with thousands of glass beads, are a testament to decades of daring, dedication, and growth. When dissuaded by her professors at the San Francisco Art Institute for continuing with her decorative medium, Lou dropped out and forged her own path. Eventually, that led to her debut at the New Museum in 1996 with Kitchen, a room-sized installation that mimics a functional cooking space. "I come from a long line of frustrated women, as we all do," she says. "I wanted to make a monument for these forgotten women who had no other option but to make pie the best damn pie ever!" The Clouds, 2015-18, installed at Lehmann Maupin. (Photo Courtesy of Matthew Herrmann & Lehmann Laupin) As her practice grew (Kitchen was followed by an equally intricate Backyard), Lou began working with Zulu women artisans and female prisoners in an outreach program in Belem, Brazil. With collaboration, repetition, and perfection as the tentpoles of her practice, Lou's oeuvre grapples with the definition of women's work and celebrates human hands. From her Los Angeles studio, Lou spoke with PAPER about the evolution of feminist art, the importance of acknowledging labor, and the guiding force behind her new show. (Photography by Joshua White) Lichenform I, 2018. Were you exposed to handcrafted early on in your family? Is that how you land on your choice of medium? My grandmother used to try to teach me how to sew and I hated it. I wanted to build, sculpt, and paint when I did I made a huge mess. I hated anything crafty when I was younger, mostly because it was fussy and slow, and I was super impatient. When I went to art school, I chose that material [beads] as a deliberate gesture. I began to understand that it was a very loaded craft. I liked that it was disturbing to people, especially some of my professors, and wasn't considered serious. To me, that was an interesting beginning. Why wasn't it taken seriously? They didn't like it because it was decorative and feminine. I was going down the road of feminism and there was a big backlash about Judy Chicago at the time. She was the artist that everyone loved to hate. It was very uncool. You didn't want to go near anything that was icky feminism. (Photography by Joshua White) Detail of Drawing Instrument II, 2018. Apart from deep-rooted sexism, why was it so unpopular? Because it [feminist art] was shrill. Back in the 70s it had to be real and raw and furious because it was the beginning. It laid the groundwork so that younger artists, like me, could come along and fill in the gaps. Women working in a craft metier with humor, hadn't happened yet. There hadn't been a sexy take on feminism, where you could seduce while critiquing. When I left school, I was thinking about the fact that what I was doing was disturbing people, but it wasn't being taken seriously. I wondered, "How far do I have to take this until it is taken seriously? How far do I have to go with this material?" So, in some ways I have the San Francisco Art Institute to thank because it was interesting criticism. It wasn't the mindless I-don't-like-it commentary, it was a clear, "You're going down the wrong path, this is a mistake." Translucidus, 2018. (Photography by Joshua White) You really went all in with an entire kitchen made of beads. I sat down to cover a soup can in beads thinking an hour. Twelve hours later, I was still there with the tweezers. I realized that making one soup can wasn't enough. It was a tchotchke. It didn't look like anything special. We live in a "show-me" society. Until you build a world, no one believes you. People want to see it. It's not enough to allude to something. You have to go through the trouble. So I went all the way floors, curtains, dust balls, broom, the whole thing with beadwork. When you stand back, you realize that the labor has its own meaning. You're no longer just depicting a kitchen. It's the magnitude of one women's labor. After Kitchen you decided you wanted to create Backyard. Your process had to inevitably incorporate more than one woman's labor. Right. My idea was to make a quarter of a million blades of grass out of wire and beads. I would take the materials everywhere. I was at a bar with a friend and she was keeping time while I made one. She asked, "How many do you need?" and did a quick calculation and she was like, "It'll take you 40 years to finish." I realized that if I spend five years on the next thing, by the end of my life, I'll only have three things made. I'll never be able to realize something huge like the backyard if I don't bring people on. I began to think of innovative ways to engage with different communities. Noctilucent, 2018. (Photography by Joshua White) How did that manifest? I worked with the Santa Monica Museum, where we held "lawn parties." We invited the public in to come in and make blades of grass with me. I then started worked with homeless groups and women's shelters, which helped me realize that how important it is for people going through a lot go pain to have a common activity. It's not all about helping or healing. It's just about sitting down, chatting with each other, and creating. Outside of religion, there aren't many places where you can just sit and do something together. I eventually wanted to work with people who had a serious background in craft and understand beads from a deep place. That really got me thinking about traditional beadwork across the world. I wrote some letters to a few nonprofit groups, asking I could be of service and if there was somewhere I could go to hire women with these skills who need work. I was put in touch with someone in South Africa who deals with craftswomen. Going off a deep instinct, I packed up a crate of beads and personal belongings and moved there. It started with twelve women and within minutes of meeting them, I felt at home. It was so profound because the connection between survival and skill was so palpable. I felt so privileged be in the room with people that I didn't have much in common with or have a blood tie with, but we had this deep mutual shared love for a practice. Aggregate: Mushroom, 2018. (Photography by Joshua White) Aggregate: Primary, 2018. Classification and Nomenclature of Clouds at Lehmann Maupin is your first New York gallery show since 2008. What prompted a return from your hiatus? I've been busy doing other things in other parts of the world for the past ten years, so it's nice to come back to New York which in a way is home with new work that shows my hand. Working with other people, is revelatory in terms of what my gesture is because I am painting on top of the materials. There really is a lot of individual gesture in this work that I would not have allowed in my work before. I've always liked the anonymity of the hand and being lost in a tsunami of labor. You wouldn't know, out of the thousands of blades of grass, which are the ones you made.Having a show in New York gave me an interest in pushing that gesture. What common theme, through the sky and clouds, does this show address? It's a meditation on this ephemeral beauty that exists over our heads. In South Africa, there's a lot of beauty, but also a lot of difficult things going on. The only place you could look sometimes is up at the unbelievable cloud amid urban distress you would pass a child on their hands and knees in the middle of traffic wearing rags. Seeing that suffering every day and looking up at the clouds, I began to paint them on cloth that we were weaving in the studio. That was a starting point for major piece in the gallery called The Clouds. Lou smashing beads in her Durban, South Africa studio. (Photography by Mick Haggerty) Why are certain sections of beads in The Clouds smashed? I wanted to see the beauty that exists in some of those beads. For years, I was really contemplating what it was that we were doing under those beads with this thread. For years, we've been making this incredible grid-like structure with thread, but it's covered in beads. I always wondered what it must look like under there. One day I thought, "What the hell?! Let's bring out a hammer." I was astonished by what that opened up. Once you take the beads off it shows the labor even more. In some ways it reveals, rather than destroys. We're so used to repetitive labor, but we don't see it. We walk on beautiful carpets and aren't thinking, "Oh no, better not walk on that." We put our clothes on, but don't think about how they're made. My work from the beginning has been about making labor the subject. Caring about the process and finding the beauty in it is important for me. Lead Image: Photography by Mick Haggerty; All Images Courtesy of Artist & Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul. Melania Trump is back from living out her fashionable colonial fantasy/Indiana Jones cosplay in Kenya, Egypt, Ghana and Malawi, where she spent some solid time cuddling Black infants for photo ops and tussling with baby elephants. And back with a bang! After silence during her international travels, the First Lady has finally weighed in on the Kavanaugh hearings, and addressed the #MeToo movement for the first time. In an exclusive interview with ABC World News Tonight, Trump was asked directly if she supported the #MeToo movement. Her answer strangely sounded like yes, but when examined, was actually a hard pass. "I support the women, and they need to be heard." She began. It was a promising start, but took a quick turn: "We need to support them, and also men, not just women." Her thoughts on Kavanaugh, or "men in the news who've been accused of sexual assault?" "We need to have a really hard evidence that, you know, if you're accused of something, show the evidence," Melania said. "I do stand with women, but we need to show the evidence. You cannot just say to somebody, you know, 'I was sexually assaulted' or 'You did that to me,' because sometimes the media goes too far and the way they portray some stories, it's not correct, it's not right." Based on her concern with evidence, it's surprising that Trump didn't speak out on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's behalf at any point over the last several weeks, given the overflowing, extremely substantial and corroborated evidence that her claims against Brett Kavanaugh, who now holds a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, had merit. Also surprising she's still married considering all the evidence that the 13 different women who have come forward accusing President Trump of various forms of sexual misconduct and assault have presented. Weird! In all seriousness, Melania's gender betrayal and lack of concern for victims, only of whom even feel safe enough to speak about assaults for fear of retaliation, and for whom presenting the quantity and quality of evidence to prove their case in a courtroom is a Herculean task, is no surprise. White, wealthy women who receive conditional rewards from patriarchy as long as they stay in line, like Melania and Susan Collins, rarely bite the hand that feeds them. Last week Patently Apple posted a series of reports relating to the original Bloomberg Businessweek report titled "The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies"(02, 03, and 04). Today Bloomberg has posted a new report titled "New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom." While Apple and Amazon have vehemently denied being hacked, we're learning today that a major U.S. telecommunications company discovered manipulated hardware from Super Micro Computer Inc. in its network and removed it in August, fresh evidence of tampering in China of critical technology components bound for the U.S., according to a security expert working for the telecom company. Bloomberg adds that "The security expert, Yossi Appleboum, provided documents, analysis and other evidence of the discovery following the publication of an investigative report in Bloomberg Businessweek that detailed how China's intelligence services had ordered subcontractors to plant malicious chips in Supermicro server motherboards over a two-year period ending in 2015. Appleboum previously worked in the technology unit of the Israeli Army Intelligence Corps and is now co-chief executive officer of Sepio Systems in Gaithersburg, Maryland. His firm specializes in hardware security and was hired to scan several large data centers belonging to the telecommunications company. Bloomberg is not identifying the company due to Appleboum's nondisclosure agreement with the client. Unusual communications from a Supermicro server and a subsequent physical inspection revealed an implant built into the server's Ethernet connector, a component that's used to attach network cables to the computer, Appleboum said. The more recent manipulation is different from the one described in the Bloomberg Businessweek report last week, but it shares key characteristics: They're both designed to give attackers invisible access to data on a computer network in which the server is installed; and the alterations were found to have been made at the factory as the motherboard was being produced by a Supermicro subcontractor in China. Based on his inspection of the device, Appleboum determined that the telecom company's server was modified at the factory where it was manufactured. He said that he was told by Western intelligence contacts that the device was made at a Supermicro subcontractor factory in Guangzhou, a port city in southeastern China. Guangzhou is 90 miles upstream from Shenzhen, dubbed the `Silicon Valley of Hardware,' and home to giants such as Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. U.S. communications networks are an important target of foreign intelligence agencies, because data from millions of mobile phones, computers, and other devices pass through their systems. Hardware implants are key tools used to create covert openings into those networks, perform reconnaissance and hunt for corporate intellectual property or government secrets. Sean Kanuck, who until 2016 was the top cyber official inside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated that "Manufacturers that overlook this concern are ignoring a potentially serious problem. Capable cyber actors -- like the Chinese intelligence and security services -- can access the IT supply chain at multiple points to create advanced and persistent subversions." For more on this latest Bloomberg report, click here. Now that Bloomberg's key source has been linked to owning a business that sells security services, it puts into question the motive for the original Bloomberg report. While it's not to say that what is being described isn't happening to a certain degree, it should give readers pause. IMF Says U.S. Sanctions Have Pushed Iran's Economy Into Recession 10/09/18 Source: RFE/RL The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that Iran's economy fell into a recession this year that will get worse next year as a result of renewed U.S. sanctions on Tehran. In its World Economic Outlook released late on October 8, the IMF said Iran's oil-driven economy is expected to shrink by 1.5 percent this year as a result of declining oil exports, with the drop in economic output accelerating to 3.6 percent in 2019. cartoon by Javad Takjou, Iranian daily Ghanoon In May, before U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he was reinstating sanctions against Tehran, the IMF had projected Iran's economy would grow by 4 percent in 2018 and 2019. The IMF said the contraction in the Iranian economy that it now is projecting over the next two years was due to "reduced oil production" under the sanctions. Washington has already imposed a first round of sanctions on Iran's economy, while warning Iranian oil clients to start looking for other suppliers. A second round of sanctions targeting Iran's oil sector is due to go into effect on November 5. The sanctions are being reimposed as a result of Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which had lifted sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear activities. Iranian crude exports, which reached a peak of some 2.5 million barrels after sanctions were lifted in 2016, have plunged by over 500,000 barrels a day and are expected to dive further when expanded sanctions on oil take effect next month. Darker Outlook Trump administration officials have said their goal is to slash Iranian oil exports to "zero." But other world powers that signed the agreement -- Russia, China, Britain, Germany, and France -- have said they will help Iran circumvent the sanctions and keep selling its oil. While the IMF's cut in Iran's growth forecast was particularly dramatic, it also reduced its growth forecast for the Middle East region as a whole, citing the slump in the Iranian economy and increased energy costs due to soaring oil prices. The IMF also sees a darker outlook for the world economy mostly as a result of tariff wars between the United States and China, the two largest economies. It is now projecting that global growth will average 3.7 percent in 2018 and 2019, down from a projection of 3.9 percent this spring. "U.S. growth will decline once parts of its fiscal stimulus go into reverse," IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld said. "Notwithstanding the present demand momentum, we have downgraded our 2019 U.S. growth forecast owing to the recently enacted tariffs on a wide range of imports from China and China's retaliation." The IMF sees China's 2019 growth declining to 6.2 percent from the previously forecast 6.4 percent. With reporting by AFP and Reuters IRAN: Nasrin Sotoudeh's Husband Charged With National Security Crimes For Anti-Compulsory Hijab Activism 10/10/18 Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran Sotoudeh's Sister Threatened With Arrest Nasrin Sotoudeh & Reza Khandan (file photo) Imprisoned Iranian attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, has been charged with national security crimes for peacefully supporting his wife and a woman's right to appear in public without a hijab. Khandan, who, like his wife is also a human rights activist, has been charged with "assembly and collusion against national security" and "promoting non-observance of the hijab," his lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, stated in an Instagram post. "Today, October 6th, [2018] my client contacted me from Evin Prison and informed me that the authorities tried to transfer him to Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court for a trial, but he wisely reminded them that according to the law, he and his lawyer should have been informed at least a week in advance and therefore he refused to show up in court," Moghimi wrote. Khandan has been detained since September 4, after he was arrested for posting a series of updates about his detained wife's case on Facebook. The authorities of Evin Prison in Tehran, where the couple is being held in separate wards, also threatened to arrest Giti Sotoudeh, Nasrin Sotoudeh's sister, after she objected to being banned from visiting the attorney. Giti Sotoudeh was reminded of the ban, which was imposed on Nasrin Sotoudeh in September 2018 after she refused to receive visitors draped head to toe in a hijab when she went to the prison on October 7. "When Ms. Sotoudeh's sister objected to this situation, she was threatened that she, too, would be arrested," said the source who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals against the Sotoudeh family for speaking out told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Sotoudeh has been detained since June 13, 2018, when security agents transported her from her home to Evin Prison in Tehran. Once inside the prison, she learned she would be serving a five-year prison sentence issued to her in absentia by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh in 2015 and that she was facing multiple other charges. On September 29, one of her lawyers, Payam Derafshan, announced he had filed a lawsuit against Judge Moghiseh, the head of Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran and the judge presiding over Sotoudeh's case, accusing him of unlawful sentencing. Having established himself as a judge that bends to the wishes of state officials and security agencies in cases involving political charges, Moghiseh is also responsible for sentencing numerous peaceful activists, dissidents and minorities to long prison terms under trumped-up national security charges. ICJ hears Iran arguments in asset freeze case against U.S. 10/10/18 Source: Press TV The UN's top court has heard Iran's arguments against the United States in a new showdown between the two sides over the freezing by Washington of billions of dollars worth of Iranian assets, just days after the tribunal handed Tehran a victory in a separate case. The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) -- the UN's principal judicial organ -- held the second hearing in the legal proceedings on Wednesday. The session featured Iranian representatives make a case against the US freezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets either inside or outside of America under domestic court rulings. The court held the first hearing in the case on Monday, when American lawyers brought their arguments before the body, repeating Washington's allegations against Iran of involvement in "terrorism" or "financing" it. Iran had lodged the case with the court two years ago by invoking the Treaty of Amity, signed between Tehran and Washington in 1955. The US has also argued that the ICJ does not have jurisdiction over the case. Washington quit the Treaty last week after it was defeated in the previous case over US sanctions on Iran, which was also based on the same deal. The case saw Iran litigating against the US over its re-imposition of anti-Iran sanctions. The White House began reintroducing the bans in August after quitting a multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran. In the verdict, the ICJ ordered that the United States lift the sanctions targeting "humanitarian" items. The ICJ - also known after the World Court -- was set up after World War II to rule on disputes between United Nations member states. Its rulings are binding. Aspiring National Chairman of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) Nana Ofori Owusu has urged customers of GN Bank to remain calm because their deposits are safe. Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Nana Ofori Owusu noted that there is no cause for alarm and so calls on Ghanaians entirely not to engage in panic withdrawals from the banks, particularly local financial institutions, in the country. He was commenting on recent shake-ups in the financial sector which have seemingly pumped fear in Ghanaians who are saving with various banks in the country. The President of GN Bank, Paa Kwesi Nduom, has been visiting his customers assuring them of the bank's strength and ability to keep their deposits in a safe condition. Dr. Nduom is extremely concerned with the possibility of panic withdrawals from the bank as a result of actions by the Bank of Ghana to shut down some banks. The Bank of Ghana took over about 7 banks and has joined them to become a consolidated bank. Addressing the issue, Nana Ofori Owusu asked the Government of Ghana to help strengthen local banks in order to whip up the confidence of Ghanaians in transacting business with the banks. According to him, it is safer for people to put their monies in the banks than withdraw them which put them at risk. Though admitting that there are challenges with the financial sector, Nana Ofori Owusu is however hopeful that should the government support the banks and allay the fears of customers, there will be massive improvement in the sector. He pleaded with Ghanaians, particularly GN Bank customers, to note their "money is safe but there is no way the money can be given to everyone at the same time. Lets support your money to be in the bank. Dont go for it now. Let it remain there and it will multiply for you. There is no pesewa that will be lost in the local financial institutions. We apologize to Ghanaians to note that there are difficulties but we as a people will overcome the difficulties. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The President of the African Rice Advocacy Platform (ARAP), Julius Wambura, has described as shameful the importation of $4 billion worth of rice into the African continent. According to him, Africa is supporting other Asian economies with over $4 billion through the importation of rice whiles the industry in Africa needs boost. Speaking at the ARAP learning event supported by the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation on Tuesday, 9 October 2018, Mr Wambura charged African farmers to take advantage of the large available market for the commodity. He called on other African countries who are not part of the platform to join the group to ensure that Africans make strides in promoting rice production. Meanwhile, the CEO of the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation, Professor Baffour Agyemang Duah, believes Ghana has not been able to take advantage of the African Rice Advocacy Platform which was formed two years ago under the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) with John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation as a partner. The project aims to substantially increase the income of local rice farmers in the selected countries through their integration into competitive and sustainable business models. According to Professor Duah, Nigeria was able to take advantage of the platform to improve their production such that Nigeria at the moment has ceased the importation of rice whilst Ghana still imports rice worth GHS1.2 billion. He emphasised the need for Ghanaian farmers to also change their strategies in order to benefit from the rice industry. Source: Class News Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A total of 18 factories under the One District, One Factory (1D1F), the flagship programme of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, have been accredited to commence operations. Minister of Information-designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, made this known to the media at a press conference yesterday in Accra. He said an additional 50 are expected to be accredited before the end of this year, and this will bring to almost 70 the number of 1D1F projects by the end of this year 2018. The accredited factories, he said, are spread across the Central, Eastern, Ashanti, Northern and Greater Accra Regions. Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said President Akufo-Addo, whose vision is to comprehensively industrialize Ghana through the 1D1F initiative, has inspected a good number of the factories that had been accredited. About 10 financial institutions have committed about GH4.5 billion in loanable funds to prospective venture capitalists under the 1D1F programme. Giving a breakdown of the institutions, he stated that Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) has committed about GH1 billion, Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) about GH440 million, United Bank for Africa (UBA), GH880 million, Ecobank about GH150 million, adb about GH200 million, EXIM Bank about GH1.7 billion The Information Minister-designate explained that the 1D1F programme is aimed at developing industries in the districts of this country, at least starting with a factory in each district. He added that Its a paradigm that seeks to create jobs at the local level and to bring many benefits, including jobs, income and local development. Clarification He seized the opportunity to clarify some misconceptions about the 1D1F programme and governments role in the implementation of the programme. According to him, Now for the avoidance of doubt, the NPPs commitment is on page 43 of the partys manifesto, and I just want to quote it so that we know the premise on which we are working, and the premise is that in collaboration with the private sector, the NPP will implement the 1D1F Initiative. The District Industrialization programme will ensure an even special spread of industries. The minister indicated that sometimes we come across people who make the argument that the NPP said it will build factories in each district but our manifestos commitment is clear for the avoidance of doubt. He stressed that it must be stated that government has not said that it will or the state will build these factories on its own. We have insisted consistently that we will work with the private sector, we will collaborate with the private sector, we will facilitate the work of the private sector in building these factories. Benefits As part of governments contributions to the attainment of the programme, he told BUSINESS GUIDE that government was providing some incentives to players in the private sector who are seeking to build factories under the programme. Government is giving tax incentives, facilitating the provision of equipment or machinery and also working hard to make finances available to the private sector players who are interested in taking up some projects under the initiative, he said. He reiterated governments commitment to working closely with the private sector in order to create more jobs and provide economic opportunities for Ghanaians. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Akufo-Addo-led administration has decided to promote the development of cost effective utility-scalable solar energy projects. These projects are aimed at accelerating the development of mini-grid solutions in off-grid and island communities for lighting, irrigation and other economic activities. Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia who made the announcement at the 4th Ghana Renewable Energy Fair under the theme Renewable Energy; Exploring Energy Resources at the District Level in Accra yesterday said the projects will be subjected to competitive bidding to enable us adopt the most efficient technologies and also achieve value for money. Meanwhile, government is supporting the Volta River Authority (VRA) to develop two utility-scale PV plants totaling 12 MW in the Upper West Region and 75 MW wind power plant at Anloga. He was however baffled that the price of electricity from the grid-connected solar power plants is often relatively high in this part of the world, at the time when the cost of renewable technologies is actually rapidly declining. Dr Bawumia therefore urged the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) to seriously consider the use of cost effective utility-scale renewable energy technologies in their irrigation schemes for areas that are remote from the national grid. He also challenged the Energy Commission, which has the mandate to promote renewable energy in the country to proactively engage the relevant Ministries, Agencies and MMDAs to assist in identifying areas in which cost effective utility-scale renewable energy technologies can be used to accelerate or enhance their development plans. Biogas The Vice President talked of biogas as another form of technology which he considered as an answer to challenges associated with waste disposal and sanitation, saying biogas technology can be used to treat urban waste and in the process, produce electricity and organic fertilizer for agricultural purposes. If properly used, the Vice President indicated that renewable energy technologies could generate employment for many young people in our districts and enable them improve their livelihoods. A clear example of the job creating potential of renewable energies could be seen in the establishment of a 100kW waste to energy plant by SafiSana Ghana Limited at Ashaiman. Young people collect biodegradable waste in the community as the main input to the production process to generate electricity and organic fertilizer as by-products, he emphasised. On his part, Chairman of the Energy Commission, Professor George Panin Hagan said the fair was instituted to respond to the responsibilities assigned to the Energy Commission in the renewable energy Act 832 which sought to develop renewable energy in the country and to protect the environment. That, he said, would also help focus attention on the harnessing of energy resources in the districts to give strategic support to the governments 1 District 1 Factory (1D1F) and the Planting for Food and Jobs programmes. District level industries and agricultural projects, Prof Hagan explained, required cheap and reliable energy to be sustainable and profitable and the only way to ensure that is to turn to renewable local resources. Regulation In that regard, he disclosed that the Commission has produced a regulatory framework for all stakeholders to be discussed and forwarded to cabinet and parliament for approval. The regulatory framework, according to Prof Hagan, would enable investors to form partnerships with district assemblies and community leaders to establish, own and manage mini grid systems in isolated but potentially wealthy district communities. He was hopeful that the fair would shape the policy to enhance the socio-economic development of 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 THE GHANA Highway Authority (GHA) has rubbished a directive that quarry materials from metamorphic source of Shai area in the Greater Accra Region are not suitable for concrete projects. According to GHA, quarry aggregates from Shai area can be used for all major concrete, asphalt mixes and road construction works thereby the directive is void and of no effect. They explained further that there is no basis for exclusion of aggregates from the Shai areas as long as it can be confirmed that tests conducted on such aggregates meet the quality requirements in the specification. A directive contained in the bidding document for the improvement of the Ghanaian International Corridors, Grade Separation of Tema Intersection, had a clause consciously excluding quarry materials from Shai Hills over unproven allegation that it contains alkaline. But speaking with DAILY GUIDE via telephone on the development, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GHA, Mr. Ernest K. Arthur, described the exclusion of Shai material in the bidding document as a mistake. According to him, GHA has communicated with the consultant of the Tema roundabout project to use materials from any source when it meets the standard specification for the project. He suspects the insertion clause in the bidding document was a deliberate attempt by an individual or people to sabotage quarry operators in the Shai area, a decision he categorically stated GHA frowns on. Meanwhile, a submission of minutes of the meeting on exclusion of Shai Hills materials held at the boardroom of the GHA firmly indicated that exclusion of quarry materials from Shai Hills is not the position of GHA or the Ministry of Roads and Highway. He also indicated that the mention of specific trade names and suppliers in specification formulation was not the best practice, adding that GHA wrote to CTI to respond and correct the anomaly but CTI indicated that exclusion of the Shai Hills material was inserted into the bidding documents at the time of finalization of the bidding document during the commencement of the implementation stage. The meeting which was attended by management and staff of GHA including the CEO, Mr. Ernest K. Arthur, who acted as the chairman of the meeting, explained that the addendum to the bidding documents clarified that tenders could use materials from Shai Hills provided they met the quality requirements of the specification for concrete, asphalt mixes and road aggregates. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of Parliament and MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri constituency Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh has called on the African Union (AU) to take action against member countries which are not making effort towards the realisation of the Continent's dream. He said "mere signing of protocols without concrete steps to implement such protocols will not help the continent." He therefore urged the AU to reprimand leaders on the continent who are not performing well. Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh made the comments at a meeting of ECOWAS member states and Secretariates and the East Africa Commission (EAC) in Dakar Senegal on the popularisation of the free movement protocol. He said "the free movement of persons and less visa restriction agreed upon by AU with 2018 as the deadline cannot be met". "However countries like Mauritania, Ghana and Senegal among others have demonstrated goodwill by passing laws that allow 90-day stay in their countries for people without visas," he stated. Hon Frank Annoh- Dompreh also noted that flight cost within the West Africa subregion is often more expensive than travelling outside the continent and described the situation as totally unacceptable. He therefore emphasised the need for immediate steps to be taken to address the high flight cost within the continent. "The world will not wait for us. We must give meaning to the visions of our forefathers and thankfully we have hind sight benefits and there is no need to reinvent the wheel," Hon Annoh- Dompreh stated. Representatives of ECOWAS and EAC supported Hon Frank Annoh - Dompreh's call for the AU to zero in on countries which are not respecting the principles of reciprocity. They further urged African Parliaments to quickly ratify the protocol before the end of the year . Source: Emmanuel Akorl/Parliamentary Correspondent, Peace FM 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 customer of the troubled gold-trading firm, Menzgold Ghana Limited, has said that she was enticed into investing with the companys Gold Vault Market when she was given the assurance that, the Chief Exective, Nana Appiah Mensah (NAM1), had a room full of money to settle all clients in the event of a mishap. A para-legal worker (name withheld) who invested GH24,000 in August 2018 with the hope of enjoying 10 per cent (GH2,400) per month on her gold investment, expressed shock that no sooner had she put her money into the Gold Vault Market business than Menzgold started having issues with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a situation that has robbed her of any benefit not even for a month while her principal remains locked up with the firm. I confirmed that it has been running for five years and a worker from Menzgold assured me that even if things go wrong, NAM1 has an air-conditioned room full of money and, so, You will have your money (investment) back once there are issues, she said in a radio interview on Class FM Monday morning [October 8]. According to her, she was confident that: NAM1 can never disappoint you, following convincing explanations by a friend coupled with the fact that she personally witnessed many clients receiving their dividend every month. She said little did she know that she was in for a big disappointment after several visits to the firms company without which proved futile as far as the payment of her extra value and principal is concerned. She said Menzgold has been using its regulatory tussle with the SEC to excuse its failure to pay the clients their investment benefits and principal. She is one of several thousand clients of Menzgold whose investments are locked up with the firm. The company closed its offices on Friday and rescheduled payment of extra values for the third time. Some customers who went to the East Legon branch of the firm on Friday, October 5, 2018, did not meet any staff as the premises had been locked. One customer said she had invested GH100,000 and was scheduled to receive her returns on that day but only saw notices on the buildings that announced that the company had ceased operations temporarily. A police vehicle with two personnel was also stationed at the office. Meanwhile, Menzgolds new Head of Communications, Nii Amarh Amarteifio has explained that they had to postpone the payment due to attacks and threats on the lives of their staff by angry clients. According to him, the threats of harm as well as manhandling of their staff by clients led to the closure of their offices, as they make appropriate arrangements to resume payment of extra values on Monday, 8 October 2018. He said the schedule also had to be reviewed because some of the leaders of the customers expressed reservations about the dates, adding that a new plan will be communicated to clients through text messages. Mr Amarteifio assured the customers that their investments are safe and their extra values will be paid appropriately. Source: classfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ghana Centre For Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has admonished parliament to expedite the passage of the Legislative Instrument (L.I.) that will back the full implementation of the Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846). In a statement signed by Communications Officer Efua Idan Atadja, to commemorate Mental Health Day on Wednesday, 10 October 2018 under the theme: Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World, CDD-Ghana said: Six years after the Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846) was passed, the absence of a Legislative Instrument (L.I.) to ensure effective implementation of the Act remains a challenge. This, the statement said, coupled with insufficient resources allocated to mental healthcare, inadequate number of mental health professionals, cultural and traditional factors that impede the efficient delivery of mental health care, total disregard for the dignity and fundamental human rights of mental health patients and absence of a governing board for the Mental Health Authority, should be matters of grave concern not only to the government, but to citizens as well. CDD-Ghana is, thus, adding its voice to call for more attention to be paid to mental health in Ghana, the statement noted, and outlines some key actions that need to be taken, including the setting up of a Mental Health Fund and provision of the needed resources, to improve mental health delivery. Below is the full statement: PASS LEGISLATIVE INSTRUMENT AND COMMIT RESOURCES TO ENSURE FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MENTAL HEALTH ACT (ACT 846) CDD-GHANA Today, Wednesday, October 10, 2018 is being commemorated as World Mental Health Day and the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on this occasion would like to congratulate all mental health practitioners, the Mental Health Authority and all those who have contributed in diverse ways to ensure that the countrys mental health system is running amidst all the challenges. The World Health Organisation (WHO), lists depression, excessive use of alcohol, drug abuse, stress and anxiety as some of the leading causes of mental illness. The Organization again indicates that half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14 and has, therefore, highlighted the need to help young people build mental resilience from an early age to enable them to cope with challenges of todays world. With about 57% of Ghanas population under the age of 25, the focus on the youth in this years Mental Health Day celebration which is under the theme: Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World, is thus timely. Particularly, as concerns have arisen over the past few months regarding the rise in abuse of alcohol, hard drugs, and painkillers, specifically, tramadol among the youth in Ghana. In the face of the overwhelming number of youth without employment, coupled with harsh economic conditions which forms part of the triggers of youth vulnerability to mental distress, it is important to safeguard the future of our country by protecting the mental health of the youth to enable them contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic development of Ghana as they make up a greater percentage of the countrys workforce. Six years after the Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846) was passed, the absence of a Legislative Instrument (LI) to ensure effective implementation of the Act remains a challenge. This, coupled with insufficient resources allocated to mental health care, inadequate number of mental health professionals, cultural and traditional factors that impede the efficient delivery of mental health care, total disregard for the dignity and fundamental human rights of mental health patients and the absence of a governing board for the Mental Health Authority should be matters of grave concern not only to the government but to citizens as well. CDD-Ghana is thus, adding its voice to call for more attention to be paid to mental health in Ghana. The following needs to be done and done urgently: i. A Legislative Instrument (LI) should be presented to Parliament as soon as the House resumes sitting to ensure full operationalisation of the Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846). ii. The government must provide adequate resources to all mental health centers across the country. With the 2019 budget expected to read in November, the Ministry of Finance should make sufficient provision for frontline mental health agencies iii. Set up a Mental Health Fund iv. Appoint a governing board for the Mental Health Authority, as well as provide the Authority with the needed resources to operate v. A collaboration between government institutions responsible for this sector, non-state actors including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media to educate the public on mental health issues vi. Increase the number of mental health workers through better remuneration and education vii. Double up job creation efforts to curb growing youth unemployment in order to reduce mental health triggers This day presents a unique opportunity for the government and all stakeholders to reflect and take steps to improve. upon the existing structures to provide adequate support systems which would aid the delivery of quality mental health care to all citizens. 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 An aide to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Andy Owusu, has warned nurses not to buy into the idea of ex-president Mahama promising them jobs when he deliberately ignored them as President of Ghana. In a statement issued by Mr. Owusu, he noted that prior to the 2016 elections, President Mahama boldly told nursing trainees that 'his government will never support them with any allowances and they can collectively vote against him'. He however wondered what has informed Mr. Mahama to take this turn after being insensitive towards them. Full statement below... I could only burst into an endless laughter hearing ex President Mahama promising trainee nurses, 'so called jobs' upon his unattainable second coming. A promise I find illogical, laughable and out of desperation to seek political power only to loot and do more damage. But, if he has forgotten, let me remind him; prior to the 2016 elections, he consistently told these nursing trainees, 'his government will never support them with any allowances and they can collectively vote against him'. Mr. Mahama as President clearly showed how insensitive he was towards the concerns of nursing trainees and so, what has changed now? How could he promise these trainees jobs after completion, when he in all insensitivity did not support their their education? What kind of jobs would he offer them, if I may know? Fortunately for these nursing students and the well meaning Ghanaians, he lost miserably and these nursing trainee allowances which he cancelled have been restored by the Akufo Addo led government. A move that has come to reduce the heavy burden on our brothers and sisters in the nursing training and their parents as well. So, I find it laughable and see it as a move out of desperation by Ex President Mahama to deceitfully promise these trainees jobs after school. Now he is in opposition, so he may find huge monies to pay these trainees, but, could never find any to pay a mere allowance to support our friends in this noble professional training. His records as a President are parallel to what he is promising now. Again, I wish Mr. Mahama knows that the Akufo Addo led government has employed a number of nurses he could not employ during his unfortunate stay in power. He must equally be updated that, plans are underway to employ a lot of these nurses. So, it would be best he finds a message, because his records are known and on that, nobody can trust him. It is also important that, Mr. Mahama and the few who may deceitfully fall for his desperate promises know that President Akufo Addo cares and has a strategic plan to get you all employed. The President has demonstrated that, by restoring your allowances in full and employing over 16,000 nurses within his 20 months in power, an unprecedented number Mahama could only dream he employed under his entire period in power. I will like to advise former president to protect the little dignity he has left by not talk on this subject matter, because his insensitivity towards these trainees has left his credibility tattered on this issue. ...Signed... Andy Owusu Aide, Ashanti Regional Chairman, NPP 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 Former Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum, John Abdulai Jinapor is accusing President Akufo-Addo of appropriating projects of the erstwhile NDC administration and presenting them as his achievements. According to Abu Jinapor, the president has resorted to this strategy especially in the energy sector because his administration has failed to achieve anything substantial in the almost two years in office. In a statement he issued Tuesday, the Yapei/Kusawgu constituency Member of Parliament consequently vowed not to allow the president to perpetuate the strategy. Among examples he cites to buttress his accusation, John Jinapor says the president only about three weeks ago re-commissioned a 20-megawatt solar plant in the Gomoa West Area of the Central Region, which was completed and commissioned more than two years ago under the Mahama administration. Again, he says the president only last week at a ceremony to inaugurate a 225KV transmission line which was started President John Mahama, claimed that it is his government that has stabilised power supply in the country and started exporting power, when the fact is that Ghana has been exporting electricity to its neighbours including Cote DIvoire, Burkina Faso and Togo for decades. Below is John Jinapors statement in full BLATANT FALSEHOODS BY PRESIDENT AKUFO-ADDO ON THE ENERGY SECTOR I have noted with concern the deliberate and orchestrated attempt by President Akufo-Addo to continue to appropriate projects and achievements of the erstwhile NDC administration especially in the energy sector and present them as his achievements. It is obvious the Nana Akufo-Addo administration, after failing to achieve anything substantial in the almost two years of the administration, has resorted to this strategy, which will surely not be allowed to continue. About three weeks ago, the President re-commissioned a 20-megawatt solar plant in the Gomoa West Area of the Central Region, which was completed and commissioned more than two years ago under the Mahama administration. Only last week, before he flew out again on another non-beneficial trip to London, Nana Addo at a ceremony to inaugurate a 225KV transmission line, started during the tenure of President John Dramani Mahama, chose to make very unfortunate and unfounded statements specifically on the export of energy from Ghana. He actually claimed that it is his Government that has stabilised power supply in the country and started exporting power. Facts First, it is important to point that Ghana has been exporting electricity to its neighbours including Cote DIvoire, Burkina Faso and Togo for decades. Upon assumption of office in 2009, the NDC Administration commissioned the development of a long-term energy policy to position Ghana as a self-sufficient nation in power production and to ensure that the nation developed its export potentials as follows: Burkina Faso 150MW by 2019; Mali 150MW by 2021; Togo and Benin 200MW by 2020. To achieve this target, the NDC Government embarked on an aggressive programme to boost the power generation capacity, improve the transmission network, enhance the supply situation and resolve fuel supply challenges with the overall objective of ensuring that Ghana enjoyed reliable, adequate and sustainable supply of power for domestic consumption and to export the excess capacity generated. Consequently, a robust programme of increasing thermal power generation was implemented by the NDC. This resulted in the doubling of the installed capacity of 1,935.00MW, inherited in 2008, to 4,132.60MW by end of 2016. The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum undertook key projects such as the 450MW Karpowership, 200MW Kpone Thermal Power Project (KTPP), 360MW Asogli Project; 20 MW BXC Solar Project; 250MW Ameri Project, 250MW AKSA 250, 50MW Trojan Project amongst others. The evidence points to the fact that load shedding (DUMSOR) was officially ended by the end of December 2015, further to this, load shedding was never declared in the whole of year 2016 having achieved adequate thermal generation. The claim by President Akufo-Addo that he inherited an erratic power supply is therefore false and a blatant lie. On the specific issue of exporting power to Burkina Faso, to ensure that we develop a resilient and efficient transmission system with the potential of exporting additional power to neighbouring countries, the Mills/ Mahama Administration signed an agreement (known as the Inter-Zonal Transmission Hub Project) with the World Bank and other partners, which became effective on 14th December, 2012. The development objective of the project was to reduce the cost of electricity and improve security of electricity supply to Burkina Faso, while increasing Ghanas electricity export capacity generally. The project involved the construction of approximately 200-kilometre-long power evacuation infrastructure comprising steel lattice towers, insulators and conductors to transmit up to 225 kilo volts of electric power. Primarily, the line was expected to evacuate electrical energy supply generated in Ghana directly to Burkina Faso. The Ghana section of the project covers the construction of approximately 39.3 kilometres of the 225kV transmission line and the extension of the existing 161 kV sub-station in Bolgatanga to accommodate the line. The Project also included the construction of a 330KV (kilovolt) sub-station at the Aboadze Thermal Plant in the Western Region to help carry bulk electricity power at a much higher voltage from the enclave in Takoradi through Cape Coast, Winneba and then to Accra. The project, which was funded by the World Bank, French Development Agency, European Investment Bank, Burkina Fasos National Electricity Company (SONABEL) and GRIDCo, with an amount of 81.1million, was expected to be completed by end of September 2017. It, therefore, comes as a surprise that instead of President Akufo-Addo acknowledging and commending his predecessor for implementing this noble project, the President rather used the occasion to cast aspersions and make false claims about the energy sector. It is, in fact, on record that in June 2016, six months after the official end of the load shedding programme, President Mahama speaking at the maiden congregation of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) announced that with the energy crisis over, the country will be made a major power exporter. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to cut sod for the commencement of an onshore receiving facility for Sankofa gas. It is estimated at 1.5 trillion cubic feet. It is capable of supplying Ghana with 1000 megawatts of power for the next 20 years. Indeed, my vision is to make Ghana a net exporter of Power when the West Africa Regional electricity market becomes operational sometime next year he stated. It is important to place on record that the NDC-led administration handed over a robust, resilient and sustainable energy supply system to the NPP administration. The attempt by the President and his Government to twist the facts on the energy sector will surely fail, as the facts do not support their narrative. It is also instructive to note that through interventions by the NDC Government, access to electricity was increased from 54% in 2008 to about 82% by the end of 2016. This has culminated in Ghana being celebrated as the country with one of the highest rates of access to electricity in Sub Saharan Africa, second only to South Africa. The Mahama administration did not only fix the power generation challenge as promised by then President Mahama, it also took comprehensive steps to deal with erratic fuel supply by constructing the Atuabo Gas processing plant as well as instituting the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA) to address the legacy debt, which was choking the energy sector SOEs. The Atuabo Gas processing plant currently supplies more that 75% of the total gas requirement of the thermal plants in Ghana thereby contributing significantly to reducing the cost of fuel and also improving power supply generally. Having failed to abolish the Energy Sector Levies, after describing the levies as obnoxious and promising to abolish same whilst in opposition, the least President Akufo-Addo can do is to remain silent and not resort to blatant falsehoods to cover up the embarrassing non-performance of his clueless and visionless Government. John Abdulai Jinapor Former Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum [09\10\2018] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former President John Dramani Mahama has risen to the defence of the army general he recently appointed as the Security Coordinator for his Campaign Team while still serving in the Ghana Army. Mr Mahama said Major General Sampson Kudjo Adeti, who was caught in a car stealing scandal just before NDC left office in 2016, is a distinguished officer who has retired, accusing the media of making misleading impression about him. Our attention has been drawn to two false, mischievous and unfounded newspaper publications today regarding the appointment of Major General Sampson Kudjo Adeti (rtd) as the Security Coordinator of the John Mahama 2020 Campaign, James Agyenim-Boateng, Spokesperson for the Mahama Campaign said in a statement, insisting that the syndicated publications create a misleading impression that Major General Adeti is a serving officer of the Ghana Armed Forces. For the avoidance of doubt and to set the records straight, Major General Sampson Kudjo Adeti is a retired distinguished officer of the Ghana Armed Forces. His terminal leave ended on 13th August, 2018 after nearly 37 years of dedicated and professional service to Ghana, the statement said. Interestingly, although the Mahama Team claims Adetis service in the military ended in August, he is still occupying his official Juba Villas at the Burma Camp which he has virtually converted into the operational headquarters of the NDC, with the partys branded vehicles trooping in and out. The Mahama Team, according to the statement, touted Adetis military accomplishments, saying until his retirement, he had served in various important Command and Staff positions in the Ghana Armed Forces, including instructor in training institutions. It further said that from 2013 to 2016, Major General Adeti (rtd) was the General Officer Commanding the Southern Command of the Ghana Army and Chief of Staff, a Member of the Military High Command of the Ghana Armed Forces from January 2016 until he was compulsorily retired by the NPP government on 10th February 2017. Major General Adeti has impeccable academic qualifications, as well as a sterling record of military service. He holds four Masters Degrees in International Affairs, Development Studies, Business Administration and Defence and Strategic Studies, and the John Mahama 2020 Campaign Team is proud of his inclusion. Interestingly, General Adeti, after NDC had lost power, lobbied to be appointed as Ghanas Ambassador to Congo Democratic Republic using a certain military officer in the current NPP administration at the Jubilee House. He denied his affiliation to the NDC, claiming to be an Akyem born in Nsawam, Adoagyiri. Unfortunately, the lobbying hit a snag. Missing Pick-Up General Adeti, who had been tipped to become Army Commander, is among some senior military officers who have taken cover under the umbrella since NDC lost power. This same army officer was cited in a car stealing scandal while serving as General Officer, Southern Command at Teshie. The general, who was the darling boy of the previous NDC government, was indicted for allegedly appropriating a Nissan Hard-Body Double-Cabin vehicle donated to the Southern Command of the Ghana Army by the Bank of Ghana (BoG). The cover of the army chief in the alleged stealing was blown by a request made by Adetis successor, Brigadier General M. Whajah, GOC, Southern Command, to the BoG for operational support. Brigadier Whajah was informed that the bank donated a pickup to the command not long ago. With no trace of the vehicle registered GN 4240-15, in the inventories of the Southern Command, the new officer called for more details which led to a visit to the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) for the registration details and the custodian of the vehicle. It turned out that General Adeti was keeping the vehicle in his garage on the blind side of the army in a dubious manner. Killing the Investigation Despite the damning report, Major General Adeti, who was then a Brigadier General, was promoted by President Mahama to the rank of Major General, an action which succeeded in killing the investigation into the matter because the officer who did the investigations had become Adetis subordinate and technically a superior cannot be investigated by an officer lower in rank. The probing officer was subsequently transferred to the Ghana Mission in the United States in order to cover up the alleged stealing probe. The report found out that General Adeti, Mahamas darling, had breached military standards in respect of donated items to the Ghana Armed Forces. Despite the revelation, he continued to be in the good books of the government; the then Chief of Army Staff (COAS) who commissioned the investigation Major General R.K. Opoku Adusei, was retired from the military unceremoniously for daring to probe the case. When Adeti was asked to explain himself, he rather chose to attack the journalist from DAILY GUIDE who broke the story, calling him a bounty hunter. COASs preliminary investigations had found Brig Gen Adeti to have dishonestly appropriated the vehicle. The fact that he drove the vehicle straight from the Bank of Ghana to his Juba Villas residence without informing neither HQ Southern Command nor Army HQ and using his residential number, personal phone and e-mail address to complete the transfer of ownership and changing the colour of the vehicle from white to dark grey, were all indicative of his intention to usurp the vehicle, the COAS observed in the report. He was also criticized for deliberately leaving no traces of all correspondences and documents in respect of the said vehicle. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, has responded to claims by former President Mahama that the NPP, led by President Akufo-Addo, lied their way into power with lofty promises. Mr. Antwi Boasiako, who was clearly not pleased with statement from the former presdient, minced no words describing him as a pathological lair who has an insatiable hunger for lies. According to him, most promises made by the curent NPP administration prior to the 2016 elections, were being fulfilled and not deceptive promises. Ex-president Mahama is reported to have told a gathering of NDC delegates at the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies that it is not in his nature, to hoodwink Ghanaians with promises just so he can win power. He again told the delegates that the NPP after lying to win political power in 2016 are not able to fulfill their promises to Ghanaians. The former president mentioned that the one district one factory, one village one dam, one bar of chocolate per school child and providing jobs for all, among many other unfulfilled promises. But Mr. Antwi Boasiako also known as Chairman Wontumi, rubbished the above claims by Mr. Mahama, indicating that the Akufo-Addo led government, has released GH465 million for the commencement of the one-district-one-factory project. He added that government has also released GH256 million for the revamping of 100 private commercially viable and distressed companies throughout the country. On the one village one dam project, Chairman Wontumi explained that already, contractors have been issued appointment letters to go and construct 570 dams to aid agricultural work in the country. He therefore admonished the former president to learn to appreaciate the efforts President Akufo-Addo has invested to revive a dead economy he left behind. 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 Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, has sent a strong warning to the ruling New Patriotic Party to watch over the conduct of its activists and publicly speak out on any barbarous acts they perpetrate. Contributing to Kokrokoo on Peace FM on Wednesday, Kweku Baako expressed utter disgust over the recent action by some members of a pro-NPP vigilante group "Delta Force" which saw an MP and a Minister funning for protective cover. The Delta Force stormed a meeting of constituency executives at Old Tafo chaired by their Member of Parliament and Minister of State for Monitoring and Evaluation Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei. The muscular men of the group allegedly went with a particular purpose to attack the Minister but he managed to escape unharmed. Kweku Baako condemned the action but laid the blame on the doorstep of the governing NPP. To him, the party has gone dormant on these vigilante groups in the country and due to its impotency to take the necessary punitive actions against them, the groups have grown wings attacking people with impunity. The NPP should be very careful. Its the NPP that is in government and obviously, it is the NPP guys who are those misbehavingIf theyre party members, what has even the party, itself, done?Its a disaster and its annoying. Im telling you honestly. Its my true feeling. Its very irritating, he said. Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo", Mr. Baako vented his spleen on the NPP instructing them to "wake up". Honestly, Ill be lying if I say Im a happy man and Im not lying. Im being very sincere about these things and the NPP should wake up. As a party, first of all, they should look within if those boys indeed are party members; they should discipline them according to their constitution and deliver them to the law enforcement agencies to deal with them accordingly", he insisted, adding that "it must be done. If it means they will lose their support during campaign time, thats okay! Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video SHEEMA In less than two months, the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party has lost two parliamentary elections in Sheema District, western Uganda. Sheema, which was carved out of Bushenyi District, held an election for the newly created Sheema Municipality parliamentary seat in July. The race pitted Science and Technology Minister Dr Elioda Tumwesigye (NRM) against FDCs Virginia Plan Mugyenyi. The race was closely contested, with the FDC candidate drawing massive crowds on all campaign rallies, dwarfing those of the ruling party candidate, Dr Tumwesigye. At one stage, many analysts and opinion leaders knew FDC would take the seat going by the crowds and given that the ruling party had internal divisions in the district occasioned by Dr Tumwesigyes decision to resign the Sheema North MP seat and run in the municipality. In fact, many NRM members accused the minister of being selfish and some publically declared their support for the FDC candidate. However, when the voting came, Dr Tumwesigye trounced Ms Mugyenyi, further cementing the claim that the district is an NRM stronghold. However, Ms Mugyenyi has since gone to court, contesting the outcome of the poll and alleging electoral regularities. With Dr Tumwesigyes victory sealed, he vacated the Sheema North seat and the Electoral Commission (EC) organised a by-election, in which FDC and NRM again faced off. NRM fronted Ms Naome Kibaaju, a retired civil servant, while FDC fronted defeating Mr Guma Nuwagaba, who had dramatically joined the opposition party, having lost in the NRM party primaries to Ms Kibaaju. Like in the municipality, the NRM candidate defeated the FDC candidate by about 4,000 votes. Ms Kibaaju polled 11,326 while Mr Nuwagaba polled 7,322. A total of 18,773 were cast, 125 were invalid while 28 were spoilt. The results were announced by the Sheema District Returning Officer, Ms Deborah Asiimwe. Whereas the opposition has cried foul, saying the election was marred by violence, intimidation of Mr Nuwagabas supporters and voter bribery, analysts have said that even before the poll results could be announced, the stakes were against FDC. Lack of party structures The Opposition party lacked structures, analysis and area residents say, and most of the FDC mobilisers and campaigners came from outside the constituency and, therefore, had little interaction with the voters. In the first place, the party fronted Mr Nuwagaba, who hitherto to the campaign, was an NRM member. Probably well aware of the party weakness in the area, the FDC leadership convinced its member, Mr Felix Mugizi, who had stood on the party ticket, to stand down for Mr Nuwagaba, following his last-minute defection. NRM, on the other hand, used its existing structures to reach out 34,575 voters in the constituency. These are the youth, women, and elderly, People with Disabilities, veterans and entrepreneurs. Each of the six groups has five members so Ms Kibaaju had 30 members in each village as her primary mobilisers. The same number is at the parish level, Sub County and district. From the village up to the district members of these structures were campaigning for Ms Kibaaju. These are very many and influential mobilisers that FDC which has no any structures in the constituency or even a leader would not match, said Mr Benon Karabareme, an NRM mobiliser. Financial muscle and NRM structures Mr Nuwagaba, 42, had weak financial muscle compared to Ms Kibaaju. Ms Kibaaju, 64, is married to wealthy businessman Obadia Ntebekeine. She, therefore, had the money to mobilise NRM party members from villages to vote. NRM mobilised two Nyekundiire (volunteer) groups from outside Sheema were enlisted. One was tasked to mobilize people in the informal sector; boda-boda operators, those in saloons, matooke traders, taxi operators, welders and farmers. Another group was tasked to mobilize people from Sheema North living and working outside the constituency. They targeted the working class and students. We reached out to teachers and directors of schools and intuitions, people who are born in Sheema North but work outside. We also had a team of NRM Electoral Commission led by Dr Tanga Odoi and officials from office of the Secretary-General, they teamed with the party leaders at the district; everyone was mobilized, that is where the strengths came from, said Mr Karabareme. He added: All we were talking about was the manifesto of our candidate and achievements of NRM party and the President; and I think we had a very good message, where we (NRM) havent delivered we gave people hope. However, Mr Nuwagaba said the process was not fair because voters were bought and intimidated. Sheema is not a battleground, we have no terrorists, and we are peaceful Ugandans, there was no need for deployment of all these security equipment and personnel, he said. He added: Mr Kibaaju was ferrying people even from outside Sheema to come and vote. It was physical buying which transpired in Sheema. Religion The greater Bushenyi sub-region, where Sheema is located, has been a hot bed for religious-political altercations. The region has in the last five years witnessed increased rivalry and factionalism with dire consequences in the diocese of West Ankole under the Province of the Church of Uganda. In Sheema, Protestants outnumber Catholics and several leaders say the same has played out in this election. The Anglican population comprises about 75 per cent of the district population. Mr Nuwagaba is a Catholic while Ms Kibaaju is an Anglican. The current NRM leadership, which is dominated by protestants, has deliberately fought to eliminate us (Catholics) to an extent of preventing us from having any slot at the district and other levels. We no longer run politics along political parties but religion, says Mr Evaristo Karindiriza, a parishioner of Mushanga Catholic parish. Mr David Bashakara, the former Mbarara Municipality town clerk who is the chairperson of the peace and justice committee in the Catholic Deanery covering parishes of Mushanga, Nyabwina, Rwentunda, Kashekuro and Buhimba, notes that there has existed a major standoff between Anglicans who have the politicians backing on one hand and Catholics on the other. According to Ms Monica Kyatuheire, a resident, religion-centred leaders have ushered a challenging era in the district and the population. With the election now concluded, it looks like the religious conflict is not about to go away The FDC candidate, Mr Nuwagaba stressed that he does not agree with the election outcome but will also not be going to court, saying life is not about politics only. Asked whether he is considering going back to NRM, Mr Nuwagaba said: I left NRM for a reason and for a cause; I cant go back to NRM. However, EC chairman Justice Simon Byabakama said the election was free and fair. Related KABALE- Makerere University early this month entered a partnership with Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) to help potato growing communities boost their earnings through value addition. The project targets strengthening synergies and working relationships of the University (students and Researchers) and the farming community to enhance the capacity of potato value chain actors. The duo will be working closely with UIRI, a government of Uganda incubation facility. The CARP+ Project is screening the major potato varieties grown in Uganda for processing qualities. The deal will also see upgrades in the value addition that is very critical in the entire potato value chain remains limited. According to Prof Johnny Mugisha, a senior Agricultural Economist, the benefits of value addition include the preservation of surpluses from one season to another, easy handling of products during storage and transportation, reduction of transportation costs and production of convenience foods in response to changing lifestyles, and availing products with improved nutritional content. Value addition also builds bridges between agriculture and industry sectors and creates jobs mainly for the youth who usually shun the traditional farming activities, Prof Mugisha said. However, he explained that one of the major factors that plunder value addition in the Ugandan potato value chain may not be more of lack of the required potato varieties, but rather knowing very little on the processing properties of the varieties grown in the country. Uganda is not short of potato farmers to produce the volumes processors need. The challenge is the mismatch between what varieties and properties potato farmers grow, and what processors need, he added. Whereas farmers continue lamenting of the limited market for their harvests, processors are not happy with the quality of potato farmers supply and according to experts, farmers market less, processors demand and process less, and consumers access less value-added products. Prof Mugisha wandered why then look on when forming a partnership with other Institutions, farmers and communities solve these challenges? Benefits of the deal According to Mr Napoleon Kajunju, a masters student and a researcher, Makerere resolved to enter the partnership with UIRI to improve the capacity and competence of local entrepreneurs in undertaking viable industrial production processes and producing high quality, marketable products. Located in the cultivated terraces and beautiful rolling hills of Kabale in South-western Uganda, UIRI is not only contributing to the CARP+ Project her experienced personnel in potato processing and providing incubation services, but also the processing equipment and the established network with potato farmers. Mr. Kajunju said that with diverse and modern equipment and machines needed to produce potato products such as crisps, French fries, and potato flour, there is no better organization Makerere would have partnered with. The UIRI incubation plant with such machines as peelers, slicers, blanching, fryers, and driers, has the capacity to produce a range of potato-based value-added products, Kajunju told PML Daily. Having established the processing properties of the existing potato varieties in Uganda, the Makerere -UIRI partnership will develop and test innovative potato-based value-added products with potential for commercialization. According to agricultural experts, what is convincingly possible is the viable production of frozen fries and quality snacks from potato varieties the smallholder farmers are conversantly growing but currently not used by processors. One of the main research outputs expected from the CARP+ Project is a characterization of the locally grown varieties in Uganda. This will provide the unavoidable information on the physicochemical and processing properties of these varieties, the cornerstone on which value addition and processing is based. The partnership will also venture into developing an intermediate product for making French fries, and testing its viability. What would hinder the commercialization of this product given the growing demand for French fries by both the local community and urban restaurants is at this point in time, not a question. The demand for and utilization of the locally grown potato varieties will eventually increase, postharvest losses will reduce and the farm supply of potato will stabilize, Prof Mugisha said. Prof Mugisha is very opportunistic that the information generated will also benefit other researchers, processors in product development, market analysis and investment in other potato-based products. He also added that much as the Makerere-UIRI partnership strengthens the relationship and increases the visibility of the two Institutions, more benefits are to be enjoyed by the potato value chain actors, the potato growing community and the nation at large. The partnership expects the community to provide value chain actors that need capacity building in supplying the required quantity of potato with required processing properties and those who need processing and entrepreneurship skills. The project will be funded by the MasterCard Foundation through the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), Related Embed from Getty Images Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke has been convicted of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald but the case is far from over. What kind of prison time will he have to serve? Will he appeal his conviction? What about that contempt of court issue? Heres what to watch out for in the coming weeks: A second-degree murder conviction carries anywhere from probation to 20 years in prison, but the aggravated battery counts are actually more serious, carrying a mandatory sentence of six years and up to 30 years in prison for potentially each count. But experts vary wildly on how it will all play out, particularly the thorny issue of whether Judge Vincent Gaughan will impose consecutive prison terms for each aggravated battery count or fold them all together. Some predict Van Dyke could face up to 60 years in prison, while others say its likely much less, the Chicago Tribune reports. Van Dykes attorney has vowed to appeal the conviction to a higher court, a process that would begin after sentencing. Daniel Herbert has said in interviews that one of the reasons he filed so many pretrial motions was to preserve issues for an appeal if Van Dyke were convicted. After the verdict Friday, Herbert told reporters he was confident he has a solid case, particularly on Gaughans denial of their motion to move the case outside Cook County. As I told Jason and his family, we have a lot of legal challenges ahead of us. We know we can get this even better and perhaps throw everything out, he said. Three current and former Chicago officers also face trial on charges stemming from McDonalds shooting. Former Detective David March, former Officer Joseph Walsh and Officer Thomas Gaffney were charged last year with covering up what really happened the night Van Dyke shot McDonald including filing false reports to exaggerate the threat the teen posed. They are slated for trial late next month. Department of Energy Agent Kristopher Youngberg was killed in a crash Friday in Oklahoma. (Photo: ODMP) A federal law enforcement agent was killed in a vehicle crash on I-40 last Friday near Okemah, OK. ODMP reports Agent Kristopher Youngberg and four other agents had attended training at Fort Chaffee, AR, and were returning to Amarillo, TX, in a department van. The van struck the back of a dump truck that was attempting to make a U-turn in the median of the interstate. Agent Youngberg suffered fatal injuries at the scene while three of the other agents were critically injured. Agent Youngberg was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and had served with the Department of Energy for eight years. He is survived by his wife, two children, father, and sister. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says the driver of the dump truck was Daniel Forbus, 61, of Conroe, TX. He was not hurt, troopers told NewsOn6. Officer Zachary Morris of the Owensboro (KY) Police Department was shot and wounded Wednesday morning while investigating a suspicious person call. He was reportedly shot by a homeowner in a case of mistaken identity. (Photo: Facebook) An Owensboro, KY, police officer was shot and wounded in the abdomen by a homeowner who mistook him for a suspicious person Wednesday morning, according to Kentucky State Police. Troopers have identified the officer as Zachary Morris, 23, of Owensboro. KSP says Officer Morris was in the area investigating a report about a suspicious person. Officer Morris was wearing a ballistic vest but was hit in the lower abdominal area. He is recovering from emergency surgery and is in good condition, 14 News reports. Officer Ashley Guindon was shot and killed on her first day on the job. She was assisting other officers on a domestic violence call. (Photo: Prince William County PD) The mother of slain Prince William County, VA, police officer Ashley Guindon looked straight at her murderer Tuesday in a county courtroom as she described the pain hed inflicted. Ronald Hamilton, you not only killed my daughter, said Sharon Guindon, addressing the former Pentagon information technology specialist. You killed me, too, the Washington Post reports. Hamilton was convicted of capital murder last month in the 2016 fatal shooting of his wife and rookie officer Ashley Guindon, who had been on her first day on the beat. Sharon Guindon had largely kept quiet since her only child just 28 years old became the first Prince William officer killed in the line of duty since 1990. But as a jury weighs whether to give a death sentence, she swiveled in the witness stand to face the murderer and declared: Ronald Hamilton, you took the one person that meant the world to me. I have an emptiness that will haunt me for the rest of my life. Hamilton, 34, who was an Army staff sergeant, covered his face with his hands as she spoke. He shot his wife, Crystal Hamilton, at their Woodbridge, Va., home during an argument the night of Feb. 27, 2016. When police arrived, Hamilton fired at three officers, wounding two and killing Ashley Guindon, a former Marine reservist who had been sworn in as a Prince William officer only the day before. NEW DELHI, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lawxy organised a workshop on Road Safety this week at the National Law University, Delhi which saw discussions around the Safe Systems Approach, sub-standard road design and safe mobility. Explaining the Safe Systems approach, Vishwam Jindal, Project Core Team, LDP India, mentioned, "Safe Systems is based on the basic premise that human error is inevitable but traffic fatalities and serious injuries are not. The Safe System approach requires a shift in responsibility from the people using roads to the people designing them. It is a systemic approach that integrates core management elements and action areas to create a safe mobility system." The two-day workshop was attended by road safety experts, legal professionals and experts from the World Health Organization. This was the second workshop in the program, which aims to build capacity of legal professionals in road safety. The participants also discussed the Five Pillars of the UN Global Plan for Decade of Action for Road Safety in the Indian context. The categories stressed upon included building road safety management capacity; improving the safety of road infrastructure and broader transport networks; further developing the safety of vehicles; enhancing the behaviour of road users, and improving post-crash response. A panel discussion discussed the implementation of the Safe Systems Approach through legislative changes especially in the context of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill 2017. The participants discussed the need for a shift in the mindset from the traditional 'rules of the road' approach to a more holistic and systemic approach. Nishant Bhaskar, Project Core Team, LDP India, said, "Instead of merely relying on public education, training, regulation and enforcement, other variables such as transport governance and planning, road design, and protective road infrastructure must be taken into account." The participants also discussed the success of Haryana Vision Zero - a campaign aimed at reducing road incidents in Haryana and Advait Jani from WRI mentioned that the state of Punjab has shown an interest in starting their own programme. The workshop also discussed a rights-based approach to road safety. Dr. Arun Mohan, Senior Advocate, discussed the role of legislation and law-making in achieving road safety. Sanchit Malhotra, Project Coordinator, LDP India, said, "There is a dire need to have a rights-based approach to road safety," which was also echoed by Dr. Dinesh Mohan and Dr. Geetam Tiwari. This initiative is supported by the World Health Organization. About Lawxy E-ventures Private Limited Lawxy was incorporated as Lawxy E-ventures Private Limited in India in October 2015 under the Companies Act 2013. Lawxy was founded by three dynamic and experienced lawyers but has since then grown to include designers, illustrators and engineers. Lawxy creates innovative technology products and imparts training and education to help legal professionals simplify their practice management. PocketLawyer.com is one of the technology products created by Lawxy - an online marketplace and a safe reliable virtual resource to help you resolve your legal issues online. Media Contact: Nishant Bhaskar [email protected] +91-8800559859 Lawxy E-ventures Private Limited SOURCE Lawxy E-Ventures Private Limited NEW DELHI, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Complete Protection For Bikes To #Outrideanything Shell Advance plugs the portfolio gap by introducing the new 10W-30 variant in its semi-synthetic range The all new innovative packaging is designed to appeal to passionate bikers, connoting power for high-performance bikes Shell Lubricants, the global market leader in finished lubricants, today, announced the launch of a new grade of premium, semi synthetic engine oil under the Shell Advance AX7 range. An increasing number of automobile OEM's are looking to improve fuel economy of their vehicles by using appropriate low-viscosity, friction reducing engine oils. With the launch of the Shell Advance AX7 10W-30, the company wants to complete their portfolio by introducing a superior product in line with changing market trends. Specially formulated for new powerful engines and modern bikes, the latest addition to the Shell Advance portfolio will enable passionate consumers to experience power like never before. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/766859/Shell_Lubricants_Shell_Advance.jpg ) Priced at INR 453, the Shell Advance AX7 10W-30 will be available in packs of 1 liter and 0.9 liter across India and will come in an innovative, convenient and attractive limited-edition pack. The product was unveiled in New Delhi by Ms. Mansi Tripathy, Country Head, Shell Lubricants India and Mr. Danilo Petrucci, celebrated MotoGP Rider of the Pramac Racing team. The event is a reinforcement of Shell's technical partnership with Ducati, helping Shell meet and exceed customer expectations around the world. The partnership has been invaluable for the continued development of Shell Advance products in the most testing environments. The event witnessed participation from auto-aficionados and bikers who had the opportunity to meet and interact with one of the world's most acclaimed MotoGP riders. Danilo spoke about his experiences in riding high-performance bikes on intensely competitive tracks and the crucial role of the right lubricant in maintaining bike engine health. Power bikes undergo extreme temperature and engine wear stresses and require an engine oil that provides enhanced performance and protection. The Advance AX7 10W-30 adds superior wear and high-temperature protection even in the most adverse of terrains, thus providing complete protection and enabling riders to 'Outride Anything'. Speaking at the event, Ms. Mansi Tripathy, Country Head, Shell Lubricants, India, said, "The two-wheeler engine oil market in India is consistently growing at a healthy CAGR 7.2% as per a Kline & Company 2017 report. In line with this growth, we are committed to innovate using technology to not only meet the on-road challenges of bikers, but also surpass their expectations. With the Shell Advance AX7 10W-30, we want to focus on providing powerful and exhilarating riding experiences to bikers." Mr. Gareth Flood, Chief Marketing Officer, Shell Lubricants, India, said, "Indian consumers are becoming increasingly passionate about their bikes and are avid followers of global racing series such as MotoGP. By bringing a MotoGP rider to India for launching the AX7 10W-30, we are attempting to engage more closely with our consumers and offer products according to changing market dynamics and trends. Shell Advance is central to powering Ducati bikes on the track in extremely testing environments and this itself is a testament to its superior on-road performance." Talking about the critical role of the right oil in ensuring engine health, Mr. Danilo Petrucci said, "There is increasing enthusiasm in the youth for riding higher cc bikes, and using the right lubricant is critical in ensuring the engine health of these. Shell's involvement in premier class motorcycle racing has helped develop the Shell Advance lubricant range for the road. With the Advance range of engine oils, bikers globally can benefit from the cutting-edge technology developed on the track. The transfer of knowledge gained from this experience to Shell's products is central to the Technical Partnership with Ducati, as MotoGP provides the most extreme test bed for Shell's products. If it's good for MotoGP, it works even better on roads." NOTES TO EDITORS About Shell Lubricants The term 'Shell Lubricants' collectively refers to Shell Group companies engaged in the lubricants business. Shell sells a wide variety of lubricants to meet customer needs across a range of applications. These include consumer motoring, heavy-duty transport, mining, power generation and general engineering. Shell's portfolio of lubricant brands includes Shell Advance, Shell Helix, and Shell Rimula among many others. We are active across the full lubricant supply chain. We manufacture base oils in eight plants, we blend base oils with additives to make finished lubricants in almost 70 plants, and we distribute, market and sell lubricants in over 100 countries. We have also been recognized as the global market leader for 11 consecutive years, by Kline with an 11% market share. We have more experts talking to more customers than any other lubricants supplier. We have over 350 technical support specialists and 1,000 sales professionals working with customers every day. We offer a wide range of services in addition to our products, including Shell LubeChat, an easy to use, AI-enabled chatbot that can deliver information on real-time basis, Shell LubeMatch, a market leading online tool that matches lubricants to vehicles and equipment, and Shell LubeAnalyst, an early warning system that enables our business customers to monitor the condition of their equipment and lubricant, helping to save money on maintenance. Shell's world-class technology is applied in our products and technological collaborations. We have four leading lubricants research centres in Germany, the USA, and Japan (in a joint venture with Showa Shell) with more than 200 scientists and engineers dedicated to lubricants research and development. We have 150 + patent series for lubricants, base oils and greases. One of the ways we push the boundaries of lubricant technology is by working closely with top motor racing teams such as Scuderia Ferrari and Penske Racing. These technical partnerships enable us to expand our knowledge of lubrication science and transfer cutting-edge technology from the racetrack to our commercial products. About Shell Lubricants India Shell is one of the most diversified international oil company in India's energy sector. It is a major private sector supplier of crude products and chemicals to India. With over 7000 staff in the country, Shell has a significant technology centre, a financial business services centre and operates a joint venture LNG receiving and re-gasification terminal. Earlier this year, it signed MOUs for a floating LNG terminal in the country. Shell also has a downstream business marketing fuels, lubricants and specialty products. It recently announced creation of an in-house global IT centre in Bengaluru. Shell Lubricants' India operation is part of Shell's long-term commitment to India and its support for the country's increasing energy needs. After the US and China, India is the third-largest market for Lubricants where Shell has a close to 5 per cent share. Shell Lubricants' customers in India include John Deere, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Komatsu and Thermax. With a network of over 170 distributors and a lubricant oil blending plant at Taloja, Shell Lubricants India sells a wide variety of lubricants to meet customer needs across a range of applications such as consumer motoring, heavy-duty transport, mining, power generation, general engineering, etc. SOURCE Shell Lubricants India HEIDENHEIM, Germany, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Britta Fuenfstueck to succeed Andreas Joehle as CEO of the HARTMANN Group on January 1, 2019 She comes with several years of chief executive and healthcare industry experience The Supervisory Board of the HARTMANN GROUP today announced the appointment of Britta Fuenfstueck as the company's new Chief Executive Officer and Chair of HARTMANN's Management Board. Fuenfstueck will succeed Andreas Joehle, who has been in office since 2013 and announced last year his plans to step down due to personal reasons. She will join the Management Board of HARTMANN on November 1, 2018 and will succeed Joehle as CEO on January 1, 2019. - Cross reference: Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) - A seasoned executive set to lead HARTMANN into the next 200 years Britta Fuenfstueck joins HARTMANN from Clariant, a worldwide leader in specialty chemicals where she was a member of the executive committee. In this role she was responsible for the Plastics & Coatings business, as well as several corporate functions. "2018 marks 200 years since Ludwig von Hartmann founded the company in 1818. Since then, HARTMANN has grown to be a leading, global provider of medical and hygiene products," said Fritz-Jurgen Heckmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the HARTMANN GROUP. "Britta Fuenfstueck joins a distinguished line of HARTMANN leaders that have made the company what it is today. Britta will now lead us to continue our shaping of the HARTMANN of tomorrow." Fuenfstueck began her career in 1998 as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. From 2000 to 2009, she held various marketing and sales positions, as well as director roles in strategy, planning and mergers & acquisitions in the healthcare division of Siemens AG in both Germany and the United States. In July 2009, at the age of 36, Fuenfstueck was given her first chief executive role when she became CEO of Siemens' Molecular Imaging business unit in the U.S. where she led a team of over 2500 employees. Following this, in 2013 she was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Clinical Products division at Siemens in Erlangen (Germany). There she oversaw an over 9000-person organization spread across 12 locations and served as a member of the Executive Committee at Siemens Healthcare. An Austrian citizen, Fuenfstueck comes with a business education and studied engineering physics at Johannes-Kepler-University of Linz in Austria. There she completed her Master of Science studies with distinction in 1998. "Joining HARTMANN is an honor for me. The growing healthcare market is in need of innovative solutions to provide better outcomes. HARTMANN is well positioned to play an even stronger role in future. I am confident that we can seize opportunities and really make a difference," said Fuenfstueck. "People and culture are two of the most important qualities of a company and I'm looking forward to working with the HARTMANN team around the globe." Continuing a path towards success During Andreas Joehle's six-year tenure, the company experienced steady growth, reaching the two billion mark in revenue at the end of 2017. In addition, the company has continued its workforce diversification and to expand internationally with the opening of new offices in South America and Asia, as well as completing the purchase of LINDOR, the largest acquisition in the company's history. "We are pleased with the progress HARTMANN has made under Andreas Joehle's leadership," said Heckmann. "On behalf of the supervisory board and the employees of the HARTMANN GROUP, I'd like to thank him for his dedicated service and wish him and his family all the best." As the baton passes to Britta Fuenfstueck, Heckmann had this to add about the board's hopes for HARTMANN's future under her leadership. "We are very pleased that Britta will join the HARTMANN family and are confident in her ability to take HARTMANN to the next level. We offer her our full support and wish her much success as HARTMANN's next CEO." About the HARTMANN GROUP The HARTMANN GROUP is one of the leading providers of medical and hygiene products, with its core expertise in wound management, disinfection, incontinence, risk prevention, and personal healthcare. With headquarters in Heidenheim, Germany and group companies worldwide, the company is in close touch with the global market. In 2017, the HARTMANN GROUP achieved sales revenues of EUR 2.06 billion, with a workforce of 10,764 employees. In addition to a number of foreign sales companies, the HARTMANN GROUP includes BODE Chemie (Hamburg, Germany), Karl Otto Braun (Wolfstein, Germany), Sanimed (Ibbenburen, Germany) and Kneipp (Wurzburg, Germany). For the latest healthcare industry insights from HARTMANN and more, follow us @HARTMANN_GROUP on Twitter. To learn more about the HARTMANN GROUP, visit: https://hartmann.info/. Press contact: Jeremy Whittaker Director External Communications PAUL HARTMANN AG Tel.: +49-7321-36-1380 Email: jeremy.whittaker@hartmann.info SOURCE PAUL HARTMANN AG 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 The latest data released by international payments experts, WorldFirst, has revealed that despite being the biggest climber this year and rising from 9th to 2nd place, Cyprus was pipped to the post by somewhere a little closer to home. With an average rental return of 7.69% Ireland is once again top of the pile in Europe for investors looking to maximise rental returns, claiming the crown for the third year in a row. According to the data, Belgium was one of the biggest fallers down from 6th last year to 12th in 2018. France ranked last place, taking over from Sweden which has held the position for the last two years. Hit to sterling More recently, the fall in the value of sterling since the EU referendum has impacted UK buy-to-let investors looking for opportunities abroad. Sterling currently sits approximately 17% lower than the euro in comparison to its position three years ago. Despite this, Ireland continues to offer strong returns even more so than in 2017. While a one-bedroom city centre apartment would now set you back almost 11,000 more than it would have this time last year (+6%), the good news is that average rents have risen by 127 (+11%) per month. Investors in Irelands property market have benefitted from significant returns due in large part to reasonable property prices in comparison to soaring figures in other Western European countries. A stable euro, continued economic growth1 and consistent rental demand have also contributed to the countrys performance. UK climbs to safety With an average rental yield of 4.67%, the UK sits at the middle of the table in 16th place demonstrating a significant improvement on its ranking last year (25th). Strong rental demand is a significant factor in the UKs ascent up the table. YourMoves monthly rental tracker for England and Wales reports that average rents are 2.6% higher than a year ago. Experts within the UK lettings industry also note the UK governments 2016 decision to cut landlord tax relief as a significant driver in recent rental increases as buy-to-let investors seek improved returns. City hotspots With Brexit uncertainty continuing to cast a shadow over the UK - and London in particular WorldFirsts research took a look at how ten of Europes largest cities compare with regard to rental yield. Unsurprisingly, Dublin ranked top of the league table (6.46%), closely followed by Amsterdam (5.33%) and Warsaw (5.15%). London (3.17%) ranked 9th out 10, with only Paris (2.89%) lagging behind. Jeremy Thomson-Cook, Chief Economist at WorldFirst, said: Buy to let investors looking for the best rental yields in Europe once again need look no further than Ireland, taking the crown for the third time in as many years. Part of the reason for Irelands buy-to-let success is while average house prices across the country are on the rise, they still sit some way below the countrys 2008 peak. Whats more, only Malta, Luxembourg and Sweden have experienced higher population growth than Ireland meaning that rental demand continues to go from strength to strength. Add these two factors together and you have a compelling overall proposition for buy-to-let investors. While the domestic market has lost its lustre for UK landlords, our research clearly shows that opportunities remain across the European Union more widely. However, though access to this market is still good it is anyones guess as to how much longer that will last. For any landlord taking the plunge and looking to invest abroad, while the value of the pound might make the initial purchase price less palatable than it was a few years ago, collecting rent in a different currency could really pay off particularly if you look further afield than your high street bank for the best exchange rates to bring that income home. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Marathon 2021 Runners of all racing stripes took part in the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon on November 7. Racing categories in this, the largest marathon... Mount Sinai Queens Opening New Infusion Center The last week of October was marked by an expansion of health care capacity in the borough, as Mount Sinai Queens celebrated the opening of... The Unofficial Election Results The unofficial election results from the general election on November 2, 2021, with well over 90% of scanners reported: MAYOR: Eric Adams (D) decisively... Defendant in Sugrobovs case challenges his sentence RIA Novosti, Aleksei Panov 10:59 10/10/2018 MOSCOW, October 10 (RAPSI) Pavel Dashin, a defendant in the case involving convicted Interior Ministry's Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Departments ex-chief Denis Sugrobov, has filed an appeal against his 3-year-long prison sentence, the press-service of the Moscow City Court has told RAPSI. The appeal has not been transferred to the Supreme Court of Russia as of yet. In August, the Moscow court sentenced Dashin to 3 years in prison. The defendant was found guilty of abuse of power. In addition to the prison term, Dashin lost his rank of major. The trial was held behind closed doors. In April 2017, the Moscow City Court found Sugrobov guilty of organizing a criminal group, abuse of office and provocation of bribery. In December, the Supreme Court of Russia mitigated his sentence from 22 to 12 years in a high security penal colony. Other Interior Ministrys officers involved in the case, Salavat Mullayarov, Ivan Kosourov, Vitaly Cherednichenko, Yevgeny Shermanov, Sergey Borisovsky, Sergey Ponomarev and Andrey Nazarov, received prison terms ranging from 17 to 20 years. One more defendant, businessman Igor Skakunov, was sentenced to 4 years in high-security prison. Gennady Sobolev, ex-officer of the Interior Ministry's Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Department, was given a 3-year prison sentence for abuse of authority. Sugrobovs deputy Boris Kolesnikov, who committed suicide in 2014, was also found guilty. The case against Kolesnikov was closed because of his death. All convicted officers were stripped of their ranks. According to investigators, Sugrobov and Kolesnikov tried to provoke a Federal Security Service (FSB) officer by offering him $10,000 a month for his protection. Sugrobov has been charged with organizing a criminal group, abuse of power and bribery. Kolesnikov was arrested in February 2014. In June, he jumped out of a window during questioning at the Investigative Committee. Later, the Basmanny District Court said no evidence was found of assisted suicide. In total, 10 people became defendants in this case with case materials making about 400 volumes. Thirty persons were recognized as aggrieved parties, thirteen of whom filed suits seeking to recover in total 218 million rubles (about $3.5 million) from the defendants. Later, victims withdrew their claims. Sugrobov, 42, is one of the youngest police generals. He obtained the rank of Lieutenant General at the age of 36. Russian court extends bankruptcy procedure against Tatfondbank for 5 months flickr.com/Joe Gratz 14:45 10/10/2018 MOSCOW, October 10 (RAPSI) The Commercial Court of Tatarstan has extended a bankruptcy procedure against Tatfondbank for 5 months, RAPSI has learnt in the court. A motion to extend the procedure was filed by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). The agency stated that 5.5 billion rubles ($83.3 million) were returned to 180,000 deposit holders of the bank. Earlier, the Eleventh Commercial Court of Appeals cancelled proceedings related to three appeals filed by two individuals and one company against a ruling of a lower court declaring Tatfondbank bankrupt. On October 2, the DIA, representing interests of Tatfondbank filed an application with the Commercial Court of Tatarstan seeking to include 21.5 billion rubles ($328.2 million) into the creditors demands list against the banks ex-chairman Robert Musin. On July 18, the court granted a motion of Tatfondbank and declared Musin bankrupt. Earlier, the court initiated a procedure of restructuring Musins debt. The DIA sought 16.7 million rubles ($255) from the banker. Notably, Musin is charged with embezzlement. According to investigators, in August 2016, employees of the bank provided false data to the Central Bank of Russia to obtain a credit and subsequently embezzle the funds. Later, the money was transferred to the accounts of affiliated companies. Investigators believe that overall damage in criminal cases against Musin reaches 50 billion rubles (about $765.6 million). Thirteen cases over abuse of office opened against Musin are allegedly connected with embezzlement of 18 billion rubles ($275.6 million) belonging to Tatfondbank. Posted by B. on at 02:56 PM CST Whorm Loathsom was a male Kerkoiden general for the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. He served during the Battle of Christophsis. Prior to joining the Separatists, Loathsom had a long history of military service to the planetary defense forces of Kerkoidia. The character made his first and only appearance in 2008'sfilm. According to Dave Filoni and writer Henry Gilroy during an interview with TheForce.net , when they were asked if Whorm Loathsom was set to return in some episodes of the series, both Gilroy and Filoni hinted that there was a possibility to bring back him in further seasons. However, plans to bring back Loathsom were not fulfilled before the show's cancellation. Whorm Loathsom was voiced by Corey Burton. The character of Loathsom was based on concept art for a Neimoidian baron trader that was drawn by illustrator and art director Doug Chiang during production for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.Whorm Loathsom's action figure was released in 2009 as part of the third wave of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars assortment . Whorm has a unique double ball-jointed neck, ball-hinged shoulder and elbows, and swivel articulation in the wrists, waist, and hips. He features a removable collar/shoulder pad, a blaster cannon with projectile missile, and a blaster pistol. Whorm's eyes features 3 separate paint applications which really help them stand out. His head and collar also have extra paint applications which improve his simple color scheme.While Whorm Loathsom was a one-time villain, his colorful outfit and unique design make him a standout in thefigure collection. Hasbro went the extra mile with his paint apps and made a potentially good figure, great. Click here to see our photo archive entry. After spending considerable time and energy in remediation efforts in the wake of the US Food and Drug Administration's warning letter on compliance issues, the company's leadership has finally set out to bring the house in order. Photograph: Alexandra Beier/Reuters A string of measures announced recently by drug major Dr Reddy's Laboratories, including reversal of some business decisions, indicates the management's drive to break the status quo and regain the business momentum, according to analysts. After spending considerable time and energy in remediation efforts in the wake of the US Food and Drug Administration's warning letter on compliance issues, the company's leadership has finally set out to bring the house in order. The decisions by the company include sale of the Bristol manufacturing facility and reversal of a couple of other old business decisions. Commenting on sale of a manufacturing facility in the US, Dr Reddy's chief operating officer Erez Israeli earlier said, "This sale is in line with our stated priority to streamline and optimise our global cost structures and help us focus on other businesses priorities to drive growth." Things started moving in a decisive way after Israeli joined in April this year while the management has been working hard to bring changes in the organisational and business strategies with an aim to getting the company back on track in terms of revenue growth and profitability since last year, according to the analysts. Dr Reddy's CEO GV Prasad himself acknowledged the importance of the ex-Teva man's induction into his team and said the latter's knowledge and experience in leading the pharmaceuticals business will be valuable for future growth. In one of the cost-cutting exercises, the company, for the first time, effected changes in second and third rung leadership and asked some of the employees to leave the company on performance grounds earlier this year. It was held that staff costs at Dr Reddy's were high compared to some of its peers as the Hyderabad-based drug major was seen to be more lenient towards its employees. This legacy was put to test for the first time when Dr Reddy's management was not able to fix the accountability on people for the adverse inspectional observations made by the US drug regulator. This had culminated into the issuance of a warning letter involving three of the company's facilities in November 2015, say analysts. The company's management is still talking to the US drug regulator for a final inspection of one of the facilities in question. Among other cost control measures, the management had slightly scaled down the expenses on the R&D and capex fronts during the first two quarters of the current financial year. Revisit of the previous business decisions based on their contribution to overall revenue growth are expected to continue in the coming months. But the company's new business strategy, aimed at returning to higher revenue growth in the US, has not yet been fully translated into action, according to the analysts. So far, the company was focusing on niche and 'difficult-to-make' products, including those under patent litigation as these items command a higher market size as well as higher margins. This is in complete contrast to the business model being followed by other Indian generics players like Aurobindo Pharma, whose single-minded pursuit has been to make as many product launches as possible without bothering too much about the market share or pricing. However, Dr Reddy's product strategy has faced challenges due to prolonged waiting time for approval, resulting in fewer launches as compared to faster approvals being given to the normal generics products. This has resulted in a fall in US revenues, which account for half of the company's global generics revenues. "To overcome this challenge, senior management officials said that they would be pursuing the launch of more 'me-too' generic products to sustain the revenue growth. But this changed strategy is yet to play out in full so far," an analyst told Business Standard on condition of anonymity. Dr Reddy's has launched a couple of big-ticket products this year after a considerable wait for green light from the USFDA. Last week, it launched anti-cancer drug Imatinib Mesylate (the generic version of block-buster Gleevec owned by Novartis Corporation) following the grant of approval from the USFDA in August this year. The company was waiting for the approval for its generic Gleevec ever since Sun Pharma was given first-to-file status along with the approval back in 2015. Large pharmaceutical firms feel that if the quality parameters and assurance levels are brought up to the level of branded generics, then Jan Aushadhi medicines would find it difficult to retain their affordability. IMAGE: Kind courtesy janaushadhi.gov.in The Jan Aushadhi Yojana, a government initiative to promote quality generic-generic drugs at affordable prices, has grown significantly in the past few years, with over 4,000 stores already being set up in the country. Industry insiders, however, point out that proliferation of generic-generic stores is unlikely to emerge as a challenge for branded-generic players in the near term. This is because quality assurance remains a weak point for generic-generic medicines in India. The government, however, is taking concrete steps to address the perception related to quality of Jan Aushadhi drugs. The number of Jan Aushadhi stores have increased from 2,091 in the same time last year to 4,099 stores now, according to a recent report by CLSA, a capital markets and investment group focused on alternative investment. The government has added a majority of the stores in the last two to three years. By the end of 2019, around 5,000 stores are expected to be functional that would cover almost every administrative block in the country. Most drugs sold in India are branded-generics or basically copy-cat drugs (of a certain patented molecule) that are sold under trade names. Generic-generic medicines do not carry this trade name. Generic-generic drugs are sold cheaper (almost 50-90 per cent less) as they do not incur the promotion and marketing costs like their branded-generic counterparts. Gaurav Jain, vice-president, corporate ratings, ICRA, felt that even as the number of Jan Aushadhi stores have grown rapidly in the past few years, these are yet to achieve the scale that pharmacy retail stores have in the country. "In comparison to 600,000 or more drug retail stores in India, the Jan Aushadhi stores are only few thousand in number at present," he said. Meanwhile, the Jan Aushadhi Yojana has made strong progress in recent years. CLSA highlighted that under new CEO Sachin K Singh, a large state-of-the-art warehouse has been opened in Chattisgarh to resolve availability issues, whereas medicines are now procured only from public sector undertaking (PSU) firms and World Health Organization current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) companies. These medicines are also tested at a NABL-accredited laboratory to address perception related to their quality. Drugs are then dispensed to distributors in various states who in turn supply them to retailers (franchise model, fixed 20 per cent margin). The government is now conducting doctor camps for creating awareness about the quality of medicines. Singh, the CEO of Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India, is in the process of setting up regional warehouses. "Dispensing of medicines is done via a reputed integrated transport logistics company now," the CLSA report said. "The Mumbai store we visited last year has doubled the prescriptions handled daily since then. While Jan Aushadhi has made strong progress over the last year, it will need continued improvement in supply chain and quality of drugs and provide more incentives to franchisee partners in the initial years for it to be a concern for major India-focussed pharma players," CLSA noted. The Mumbai store has doubled its prescription count to 400 per day in the last one year. Chronic illnesses (such as blood pressure and diabetes) continue to see good pick-up and the availability of drugs has also increased in the last one year. "Apart from lower and middle income group and retired people (with 60 per cent repeat customers), the store is seeing footfalls from certain upper class customers as well," the CLSA claimed. Large pharmaceutical firms feel that if the quality parameters and assurance levels are brought up to the level of branded generics, then Jan Aushadhi medicines would find it difficult to retain their affordability. "India is a large country for generic-generic drugs to become a part and parcel of our medical culture. Physicians would tend to prescribe those medicines where they are sure of the efficacy. Quality improvement would come at a cost for generic-generic manufacturers and the supply chain, and then they may lose the affordability factor," said a senior executive of a large pharma firm. He further elaborated that marketing and promotion costs make up around 10-15 per cent of the overall spend by a pharma firm. "The major expenditure comes from cost of goods. Also, to maintain a robust supply chain (for instance, maintaining a cold chain to ensure full bio-availability of a molecule till it reaches the distributor) is a major cost for branded generic players," he said. The first Jan Aushadhi store was opened in November 2008. At present, Jan Aushadhi has a list of over 700 medicines (covering almost all major therapeutic groups such as antidiabetic, cardiovascular system, respiratory, genital-urinary, nerve, anti-neoplastic and immune-modulating agents, among others) and 154 consumables. Mass mobility in India is in a race when the light turns from yellow to green. Just that this moment has lasted three years. The renewed enthusiasm, however, indicates that the lights may finally be about to change, says Patanjali Pahwa. Last week, something slipped under the radar. Indian company Commut was acquired by Dubai-based ride-hailing unicorn Careem. There was not even an eyebrow raised and barely any newspaper covered it. Truth be told, there was hardly any cash involved in that deal. Careem was essentially picking over the bones of a company that had shuttered. The Dubai-based company took the team and the tech. Gurugram-based Shuttl took on the operations and the employee database. What is Commut? It is a bus aggregation service. A company that functions just like Uber and Ola but it aggregates buses and exists on the fringes of Indian mobility. But lets go back to Careem. Why does Careem want Commut? It was to unveil a mass mobility platform in West Asia and North Africa. The economics in this business is attractive. The per seat cost is low, the fuel price is low and the demand at certain hours is extremely high. It is a business model that is bound to find traction in West Asia. But, it hasnt in India. A few green shoots, however, are visible now. In August this year, Bengaluru-based company, Zipgo, announced a round where it raised Rs 300 crore led by Essel Green Mobility Limited, which is under the Essel Group that is led by Subhash Chandra. This investment did raise eyebrows. The 67-year-old Rajya Sabha member has not been active in start-ups as an investor. But he was interested. And there is a reason. Currently, Zipgo is in six states. I cant tell you which cities, said co-founder and CEO Jitender Sharma. Competition is too tight. Sources in the sector say that the company records between 5,000 and 10,000 rides a day. The competition that Sharma is paranoid about is Shuttl, which records almost 40,000 rides a day. Looks small? Yes, it is approximately one eighth of the Ola and Uber ride numbers. But as traffic increases and fuel prices continue to spiral, customers will start to look for cheaper options. Here the costs come down to Rs 3 to Rs 5 a kilometre. Each ride of a bus breaks even at 80 per cent capacity. Which means 30 passengers. The economics are easy to achieve. The challenge comes in aggregating demand, says Sharma. And thats where the scale of this business flexes its muscles. The ride numbers then start to look interesting. It may not be a winner- takes-all market, but this sector has the potential to dwarf the ride-hailing unicorns by the sheer volume of customers ferried from one place to another. There is certainly demand. But despite the upside, there are only a few companies in this sector. About two years ago, Zipgo was forced to shutter its operations temporarily in Bengaluru when the company did not have the right licences. I dont want to talk about it, you can write if you like, said Sharma. The company was deemed operating under the wrong licences and the police forced Zipgo to withdraw its operations from the city. That isnt to say the company has left the city. It is still around, operating in the background in a slightly different way. Zipgos competitor, Shuttl, also has its own set of problems. It got into a tiff with Ola back in 2015 when the Bengaluru-based unicorn took up the name Shuttle for its bus service. Both sides alleged driver poaching and claimed first right to the name. Nothing came of it. In early 2018, Ola shut its bus operations to focus on cabs. Shuttl, too, has found it difficult to grow, especially in cities such as Pune, where it tried everything, including B2B, and still couldnt get any purchase. The problem plaguing both companies is licences. There are two types of licences in Indian states - state carriage and contract carriage. State carriage means the company can pick up and drop passengers along a fixed route. Passengers can hail the bus down at designated stops. State governments dont give these away. The state city transport bodies enjoy a near monopoly when it comes to these licences. Contract carriage licences are granted for a pre-existing contract between a customer and the company. Both have knowledge of each other and the contract is made before the ride starts. It is what we do, says Sharma. His company operates in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, among other cities. There is a subtle difference between the two licences. But there exists a grey area. Lets assume a bus goes from point A to point B. Before the bus starts from point A, if a customer buys a ticket to be picked up from a point between the point of origin and destination, it is technically doing the same job as a state carriage. That explains Zipgos secrecy. Set up in 2015, Zipgo has the capital to grow beyond six states but current laws stand in its way. It is good to read the tea leaves, says a policy professional at one of the two ride-hailing companies in the country. Why would Chandra invest in a company that is stuck in a policy quagmire? There is a Bill stuck in the Rajya Sabha. The draft Motor Vehicles Act, which mandates that private organisations can compete with city transport services. It also waives licences needed for electric vehicles that serve as public mass transit options. If cleared, the regulations could open up opportunities for new players in mass transit, something the states have been resisting. But if the Bill goes through, start-ups will be able to offer a viable alternative to the ageing bus services that have not been able to keep up with demand in the metros. And the sheer number of people in India means there is enough room for both types of commuter service to co-exist. Mass mobility in India is in that brief moment in a race when the light turns from yellow to green. Just that this moment has lasted three years. The renewed enthusiasm, however, indicates that the lights may finally be about to change. Photograph: Kind courtesy, Business Standard 'China is monitoring films like ours and making sure it doesn't get a platform.' Indira Kannan reports from Toronto. IMAGE: A scene from The Sweet Requiem. Photographs: The Sweet Requiem/Facebook In September 2006, Chinese border guards fired on a group of people crossing the Tibet-Nepal border at Nangpa La pass, killing a teenaged Buddhist nun. A Romanian cameraman who was with a climbing expedition near the pass captured the shooting in a video, which soon went viral on YouTube. That was the starting point for a new script by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, and became The Sweet Requiem, the second feature film made by the veteran documentary film-makers, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. In an interview, Sonam said, "For the first time there was visual evidence of how Chinese border guards were treating people who were escaping, basically shooting them in cold blood. We knew it was a dangerous journey, but to actually see it on video really shocked Ritu and me." "It made us think of what it was like for these people who were crossing the border and what happened to them after they came across." IMAGE: Photographer Pablo Bartholomew flanked by Tenzin Dolker and Geeta Sudan on the sets of The Sweet Requiem. The film shines a light on the Tibetan community in India through its protagonist Tenzin Dolkar, a resident of the refugee colony in Delhi's Majnu Ka Tila. She works in a beauty salon and also volunteers as an activist for the Tibetan freedom movement. At the Buddhist temple one day, she spots a new, but familiar face, one that brings back traumatic memories of fleeing Tibet years ago as a child with her father on an ill-fated expedition across the Himalayas. Her group's former guide Gompo, who Dolkar has blamed all her life for the tragedy that befell their journey, has now resurfaced in Delhi, but is he what he seems? A threatening visit to Gompo's room by a pair of Chinese-backed Tibetans adds to the menace and mystery surrounding him as Dolkar feels drawn to investigate further. This was not an easy film to make. With its subject material, raising funds was a challenge. "It's a film that's set in India but it's about Tibetan exiles. It's almost like a foreign film; even in India people don't think of it as an Indian film and that's another reason it's so difficult to raise funds," Sonam said. "We actually started a Kickstarter campaign for the first time to get us to this point," Sarin added IMAGE: Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam. Photograph: Kind courtesy Ritu Tenzing/Facebook Then there were logistical issues like location and casting. Ladakh stands in for Tibet, but finding Tibetan actors was tough. A majority of the cast members in the film had never acted before. Tenzin Dolker, who was born and brought up in a Tibetan refugee settlement in Karnataka, and now lives in New Orleans, answered a call for auditions on Facebook for the lead role, even though she had never faced a camera before. As her near namesake Dolkar, she delivers a strong, yet understated performance, partly drawn from personal experience. "I know a lot of people who've come from Tibet and had a similar experience," Dolker said, adding, "My father has come from Tibet, my grandfather has come from Tibet. I'm so happy that the story is told in a beautiful way." A bigger worry for the film-makers was the potential reaction from China. As its global influence has expanded, China has grown more assertive and brazen about crushing the Tibetan movement. Sonam and Sarin had felt it first hand in 2010 when the Chinese government put pressure on the Palm Springs International Film Festival in the US not to screen their documentary The Sun Behind the Clouds. When the organisers refused, China pulled out its own films from the festival. "We know that they are monitoring films like ours and making sure it doesn't get a platform. And they succeed as well because a lot of festivals won't touch a film like ours because they are involved with China at multiple levels," Sonam said. TIFF, one of the biggest and most influential film festivals in the world, has given The Sweet Requiem a huge platform; it premiered in a sold-out theatre. The film-makers hope it will attract similar attention in India. As Sonam said, "Although there are a fair number of Tibetan refugees in India and most Indians have probably encountered Tibetans on the street, they don't know anything about their lives, why they are there or what their story is." "In that sense a film like ours is important even for an Indian audience." 'The Congress wants to eat the cake, but does not want to share it.' IMAGE: Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen President Asaduddin Owaisi, MP, at the public meeting in Aurangabad, October 2, 2018. Photograph: SnapsIndia When All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen President Asaduddin Owaisi, MP, and Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar addressed a rally in Aurangabad on Gandhi Jayanti, it marked a milestone in contemporary Indian politics. It was the first time a Dalit party has tied up with a Muslim outfit. By itself the decision to ally may not seem significant, given that both parties don't have much of a footprint, but what is of import is the electoral catchment area that the two parties have the potential to tap into. Dalits and Muslims jointly constitute around 40 percent of India's electorate, but somehow none of their leaders has ever been able to marshall the votes jointly and effectively. In pre-Partition India, Muslim League leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah understood the power of this vote bank and quickly latched on to the idea of separate electorates when the British proposed it. But the plan came a cropper when the more astute Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi convinced Dr B R Ambedkar that separate electorates were not the way forward and sealed the Poona Pact. Then in the 1980s, Kanshi Ram realised the potential of Dalit votes and went on to form the Bahujan Samaj Party. It reached its zenith under his chosen successor Mayawati, a four time chief minister of India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. For Muslims, there has been no such leader who could speak for them, although Owaisi sees himself as the community's torch-bearer. For all his claims, the MP has been unable to spread his wings beyond Hyderabad and parts of Telangana. Thus, for both Prakash, Dr Ambedkar's grandson, and Owaisi, an alliance could in theory help them scale heights together that neither is able to do alone. If the gamble pays off, the Dalit-Muslim alliance could be a game-changer in Indian politics. "Today, there are only two players on the chessboard: Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. You need somebody who can set up his own chessboard and play the chess game. That is what we are doing," Prakash Ambedkar tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf. In the midst of talk of a mahagatbandhan of Opposition parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, you have gone and formed your own alliance with the AIMIM. Why? The AIMIM has come with us just now. For the last two months we have been travelling across Maharashtra under the banner of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi uniting Malis, Dangars, smaller OBCs along with Ambedkarite forces. We succeeded in that. After that, we gave an offer to the Congress party stating that if we combine together we can defeat the BJP. Now the situation in Maharashtra is such that the Congress has been losing 22 parliamentary seats in the last three Lok Sabha elections, in 2004, 2009 and 2014. Therefore, out of these 22 seats, whichever seats they feel, a minimum of 12 seats must be shared with us. The Congress is basically a Maratha party in Maharashtra and does not have OBCs and others in them. Therefore, one of the discussions that took place in our party is that let us go with equity participation with them, but the Congress party did not give us. On the contrary, they spread lies that we are asking for funds and more seats. Your going with the AIMIM will benefit the BJP more, isn't it? I am sorry, but that is not the ground reality. No media persons are willing to listen and to analyse. The Dangar community voted for the BJP last time. They are 12 percent in Maharashtra. Now they are against the BJP. So taking out 12 percent of that vote from the BJP, who will be the beneficiary? It is our party. And these votes we are ready to share with the Congress, but the Congress is not interested. So we have no option but to go alone. It is here where the AIMIM came into the picture and was ready to help us. We said okay, but our offer with the Congress still stands. We are ready for an alliance. We are not asking for seats, we are only saying that these 22 seats which the Congress lost in the last three parliamentary elections, we want 12 seats from that. Out of 48 parliamentary seats, we are asking for only 12 seats from the Congress party. What happens to the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party)? It is a partner of the Congress and out of 48 seats in Maharashtra, it contested 21 seats and 26 seats each in 2014. The NCP is a BJP party. This was made very clear after Sharad Pawar made a statement on the Rafale deal (Pawar said the people believe Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi). Only when there was hulla-gulla (an uproar) did he change his stance. We are not like that. Moreover, the NCP is not a force in Maharashtra. But Maratha voters are with the NCP. Therefore, non-Marathas went with the BJP last time. Today, Marathas have taken out morchas against OBCs, scheduled castes and Adivasis. It was with great difficulty that Justice P B Sawant, me and Justice Kolse Patil were able to bridge the gap (between the OBCs, scheduled castes and Adivasis). We are now cementing the gap and therefore we wanted to form an alliance with the Congress party. We will wait for the Congress party till the withdrawal of nomination forms. We are not closing our doors immediately. Even Mayawati has dumped the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. You must put this as I am saying it. Why did the Congress ditch Chotubhai Vasava in Gujarat? Secondly, why did the Congress not have an alliance with the CPI (Communist Party of India, CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) in Karnataka and the Maitri group? They all are secular parties. The Congress wants to eat the cake, but does not want to share it. How will an alliance with the AIMIM benefit your party? The AIMIM is a Muslim party and it is very important. There are many political Muslim parties. One organisation does not control (Muslim votes). When the Muslim community sees that our force has become strong, then the AIMIM will play a role in it. Jai Bhim Jai MIM is your slogan then? That is not going to be the slogan. It will be Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi with MIM as the partner. For the last 70 years Muslims and Dalits have remained economically most backward in India. Nothing has changed in their economic or social status. Do you think this alliance will help in any way to change the situation? The Congress may not have done anything for these communities, but the other aspect that needs to be looked into is that the Congress did not allow damage to Indian society. They allowed things to happen by itself and everybody had a chance to come up on their own. ' Even if they did not do anything for Dalits and Muslims, that (inaction) did not antagonise the Congress politically. The Congress kept the doors open for Dalits, Muslims and OBCs, but the BJP is closing the door to Muslims, Dalits and OBCs. Therefore, I said in 2017 that if you have to take on the BJP, then let Ambedkarites be in the forefront to take them on. The Congress can take them on in the parliamentary elections. I was very sure since then about the BJP gameplan to bring all political leaders under the scanner (investigation). You must also enlighten the masses that these leaders are charged under what sections? Are they bailable or non-bailable? If they are bailable, then the police does not intervene. And if they are non-bailable, then the police is supposed to set the law in motion. They have to produce these political leaders before the court and then they have to apply for bail. In how many cases was that done, so that data must be available to the common man as they must know why (the BJP) has not been able to apprehend Opposition leaders from the Congress party and even Mayawati. Today, there are only two players on the chessboard: Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and they are moving the whole political scene. You need somebody who can set up his own chessboard and play the chess game. That is what we are doing now. You said the BJP's doors are closed for Dalits, Muslims and OBCs. Does it mean they have no future? Of course, there is no future. If the BJP comes back to power in 2019 with the same kind of majority, then they will change the Constitution. One of the Supreme Court judgments said Parliament has the right to change the Constitution provided it can get through the parliamentary constituent assembly. But that fear... (Interrupts) Anybody who has read Hitler will find the situation is the same in India. Hitler also rose through democracy, through (the German) parliament. He divided the Opposition, bought over leaders. He corrupted them and charged them with corruption. He made them dummies and puppets before the people. He came back to power with a thumping majority and declared himself as the dictator. In that case, Opposition unity is more important to resist. Let me ask you a simple question: Will you want freedom or jail? Freedom, obviously. So you will surrender yourself. Like I said earlier, all those who are charged with non-bailable cases are not being produced in court. Because they wanted freedom. When they got freedom they are behaving according to the way the BJP wants them to behave. Blackmailing politics has taken over the country. Do you think Dalits and Muslims can be a consolidated vote bank? There are different parties vying for the same votes leading to a split in votes? It should not look like Dalits and Muslims. Our alliance basically is between OBCs and scheduled castes. That is the first alliance of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. In that milk you can say of OBCs and Dalits, Muslims have added sugar. That is how I see it. On October 28 we will be doing a rally in Nagpur. The main speakers are from the smaller OBCs. They are the vanguard of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. You are the face of this alliance. I am the face because they do not have a face. They had one face in Gopinath Munde who passed away and there was a second face, Chhagan Bhujbal, but he is under the scanner and so he will not contest elections. They have no other alternative, hence I have become the face. This is the consolidated front of OBCs where the AIMIM has added sugar to it. Will the Aghadi contest all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra? Yes, if the Congress does not want to come with us. Will you want the NCP to be part of this alliance? No, I don't want them. In the last seven days, the news has come out that they want even the MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) to be a part of our alliance. And the NCP considers itself a secular party! In the last 45 years of my politics I have never ever aligned with the BJP or Shiv Sena. I did an alliance with the Congress as the enemy's enemy is a friend. Our fight with the BJP-RSS is an ideological fight. Political compulsions give you a chance for an political alliance, but where there is an ideological conflict, the BJP is against freedom and we want our freedom. I am the only Dalit leader who has never shaken hands with the BJP, so when you say that our new alliance will help the BJP, then it is a rubbish query. IMAGE: Police personnel and paramilitary soldiers keep guard outside the Lord Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that no policeman should enter the Jagannath temple at Puri 'with weapons and shoes' after the issue was brought to its notice following the October 3 violence at the famous shrine. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta took note of the violence which took place during a protest against the introduction of queue system for devotees at the temple. A lawyer, representing an organisation which has filed an application for intervention in the matter, alleged in the apex court that during the violence, policemen had entered the temple with guns and boots on. "Last time, in Golden Temple, the Army had entered. We know that," the counsel said. To this, the bench said, "Do not compare it with Golden temple." In June 1984, Indian Army had carried out operation Blue Star, ordered by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to remove religious extremist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the Golden temple complex. The bench then asked the counsel appearing for the Odisha government, "Tell us, is it a fact that police has gone there with guns and all?" The Odisha government's counsel termed the allegations as 'absolutely false' and said no policeman had entered the temple as the incident had taken place at the office of Shree Jagannath temple administration which is situated around 500 metres from the main temple. He told the bench that the administration's office was attacked and ransacked during the violence and 47 persons have been arrested so far. The lawyer representing the temple administration also told the bench that no policemen had entered the temple and a mob had attacked their office and destroyed several files lying there. The bench asked the counsel appearing for the parties to file their responses to the plea filed by the organisation seeking to intervene in the matter. "You file your reply. Please tell the police not to enter there with guns and boots," the bench told the state's counsel. During the hearing, the state government told the bench that situation there was under control and no violence had taken place inside the temple premises. "We make it clear that no policemen should entre the temple with weapons and shoes," the bench noted in its order and posted the matter for hearing on October 31. Nine policemen were injured in the violence that had taken place on October 3 during a 12-hour bandh called by a socio-cultural organisation protesting the introduction of a queue system for devotees visiting the Jagannath Temple, police had said. The dawn-to-dusk shutdown in the seaside town called by Sri Jagannath Sena had turned violent as a mob barged into the shrine, uprooted barricades erected on Baisi Pahacha and near Singhadwara and ransacked the office of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), they had said. A temple official had said that the queue system was introduced on an experimental basis and a review would be done as locals and servitors were opposing it. On July 5, the top court had directed Jagannath temple management to consider allowing every visitor, irrespective of faith, to offer prayers to the deity. It had said however that allowing of every visitor, irrespective of faith, will be subject to regulatory measures regarding dress code and giving an appropriate declaration. It had directed the Centre to constitute a committee to look into the issues raised by the district judge of Puri regarding exploitation of devotees, 'abolishment' of hereditary sevaks and appointment of sevaks in the temple. The court's order had come on a petition filed by Mrinalini Padhi highlighting the difficulties faced by devotees at Jagannath Temple and their alleged harassment or exploitation by the sevaks (staff) of the temple. French aerospace major Dassault Aviation considered selection of Reliance Defence as an offset partner 'mandatory' to bag the Rafale contract, suggests a new report by French investigative journal Mediapart. Mediapart is the same publication that carried an interview with former French President Francois Hollande in which he had said that it was the Indian government that proposed Reliance's name and Dassault had no choice but to take the company given to it. According to a report (external link) by NDTV, an internal document of Dassault Aviation shows the 'aerospace major picking Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence as the offset partner in India was mandatory for the 36 jet deal'. The report quoted the Mediapart article as saying that top Dassault official Loik Segalen had explained to staff representatives on May 11, 2017, that the joint venture with Reliance was 'imperative and mandatory' to win the Rafale deal. It says there has been no response from Dassault about the report. A translation (external link) of the document from French made available by online portal The Wire contained the following quote by Segalen: 'It is imperative and obligatory for Dassault Aviation to accept this [trade-off/counterpart] to obtain the export contract (for?) Rafale India.' Sharing the Mediapart report, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor wrote on Twitter, 'Explosive revelation in French media: an internal Dassault document says the Reliance offset deal was a 'trade-off', 'imperative and obligatory' to clinch the #Rafale deal.' Last month, Hollande said that France did not choose to partner with Anil Ambani's company in 'any way' and added that only Dassault can comment on the Rafale fighter jet deal. The report comes in the backdrop of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's three-day visit to France, during which both sides are expected to deliberate on further boosting the defence and security ties. Officials sources said Sitharaman will hold wide-ranging talks with her French counterpart Florence Parly on ways to deepen strategic cooperation between the two countries and also deliberate on major regional and global issues of mutual interests. IMAGE: A view of deserted Gopalpur beach, in Ganjam, on Wednesday. Cyclone Titli over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm and inched towards the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh coast. Photograph: PTI Photo Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said around 3 lakh people have so far been evacuated from the coastal areas of the state in view the very severe cyclonic storm Titli. After holding the second review meeting at the office of the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) during the day, he said, "If required, more people will be evacuated to safer places." Stressing on the government's 'zero casualty' disaster management policy, Patnaik said, "The state government has been closely monitoring the situation. The district collectors are already on high alert." Evacuation was carried out in the five coastal districts of Ganjam, Puri, Khura, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara. The state government's decision to go for massive evacuation drive was taken following an IMD forecast about a tidal surge of about one metre during the landfall of the cyclonic storm Titli at 5 am on Thursday. According to official sources, 9,83,642 people were evacuated when Cyclone Phailin hit the state in 2013 and 2,55,042 people were shifted to multi-purpose shelters during Cyclone Hudhud in 2014. The state was also hit by Cyclone Daye last month, but its intensity was low. The review meeting, attended by Chief Secretary A P Padhi, SRC B P Sethi and others, also took stock of the state's preparedness for the possible floods due to heavy to very heavy rainfall under the influence of the cyclone. Patnaik directed the authorities to closely monitor the possibility of flood situation also. Water resources secretary P K Jena said though there has been no such flood situation right now, the government has been keeping an eye on rainfall in Bansadhara and Rushikulya river basins in southern parts of the where the cyclone is likely to have more impact. The India Meteorological Department said rainfall would be accompanied by gale wind speed reaching 140 to 150 kmph and gusting to 165 kmph along and off Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh coasts. Patnaik also ordered closure of all schools, colleges and anganwadi centres on Thursday and Friday in view of IMD's forecast of heavy to very heavy rainfall across the state. The college student union elections, earlier scheduled to be held on Thursday, have been cancelled. "By Wednesday afternoon, as many as 50,000 people, mostly in Ganjam and Puri districts, have been evacuated," an official at the Special Relief Commissioners (SRC) said, adding the evacuation process was on full swing in 17 blocks of Ganjam district. Chief secretary A P Padhi said immediate evacuation was launched in view of the IMD forecast of a tidal surge of about 1 metre during landfall of very severe Cyclone Titli. "Right now, we cannot say the exact number of people to be shifted, but all those living in vulnerable areas are being taken to safer places. We have 836 shelters ready to house the people," deputy SRC Pravat Kumar Mohapatra told PTI. IMAGE: This IMD image shows the depression over Bay of Bengal, on Wednesday. Cyclone Titli intensified into a severe cyclonic storm Wednesday and is moving towards the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh coast. Photograph: IMD Handout via PTI The chief secretary said the National Disaster Response Force and Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force personnel have been positioned in vulnerable districts. "We have not yet sought help of Army. If required we may go for it," Padhi said. An East Coast Railway (ECoR) official said train services will remain suspended between Khurda Road and Vizianagram from both directions after 10 pm on Wednesday till further notice. At least six trains were cancelled, three were short terminated and around ten trains passing through ECoR were diverted, he said. The IMD said Cyclone Titli has moved at a speed of about 18 kmph in the last six hours over west-central Bay of Bengal and lay centred at about 230 km south-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha. The storm is likely to move north-northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coast between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam around 5.30 am on Thursday morning, it said. Thereafter, the cyclone is likely to re-curve north-eastward, move towards Gangetic West Bengal across Odisha and weaken gradually, H R Biswas, director of the meteorological centre in Bhubaneswar, said. While several areas in coastal Odisha were lashed by rain on Wednesday, the IMD has forecast 'heavy to very heavy rainfall' at several places and 'extremely heavy rainfall' at isolated areas till Thursday under the impact of the 'very severe' cyclonic storm. Districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore are likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Thursday, the IMD said. It also forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall for Kandhamal, Boudh and Dhenkanal districts from Thursday. The sea condition is very high over west-central Bay of Bengal. It is very likely to be phenomenal over the west-central and the adjoining north Bay of Bengal and along and off the south Odisha coast till Thursday, it said. Storm surge of height of about 1 metre above astronomical tide is very likely to inundate the low-lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts, it said. The IMD advised total suspension of fishing operations and shifting of coastal hutment dwellers to safe places. Fishermen along the Odisha coast, and central and north Bay of Bengal were advised not to venture into sea till Friday. In view of adverse weather conditions, the IMD has also advised hoisting of local warning signal LW-4 at all ports of Odisha. Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) B P Sethi said the Odisha government was prepared to face possible floods in view of the heavy rainfall across the state. Sethi said the state government has already informed the Air Force and Indian Navy about the situation and may take their help if required. Around 300 motor boats have been arranged to assist in rescue operation as there is a likelihood of flood situation due to possibility of heavy rains till October 11. All the 836 cyclone and flood shelters have been kept in a state of preparedness, while adequate relief materials arranged, the SRC added. North coastal AP on high alert A high alert was sounded on Wednesday in north coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, officials said. Fishermen have been warned not to venture into the sea as gale speed winds are expected under the impact of the cyclonic storm, the State Disaster Management Authority in Amaravati said. "The very severe cyclonic storm will continue till 11.30 am on October 11 and the wind intensity is going to be 140-150 kmph, gusting to 165 kmph. "The storm will cross near Srikakulam of north coastal Andhra Pradesh," the SDMA said. Widespread damage to properties was a possibility, it warned, adding a storm surge about one metre higher than astronomical tide was likely to inundate low-lying areas in Srikakulam district. A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was positioned in Srikakulam district, while three more were kept on standby in Visakhapatnam. An SDRF team was stationed in Vizianagaram district and one each was on standby in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts, officials said. A South Central Railway release said Secunderabad-Howrah Falaknuma Express has been diverted to run via Kazipet, Balharshah, Nagpur, Bilaspur, Tatanagar and Kharagpur. The State Disaster Management Authority has set up a toll-free telephone no. 18004250101 at its Emergency Operations Centre to assist people in distress, while control rooms have been opened in the three north coastal districts. "We have put the respective district authorities on high alert. Advisories have also been issued to people to stay safe and remain mostly indoors in view of the very severe cyclonic storm. "Necessary precautionary measures are being taken," state Disaster Commissioner M Seshagiri Babu said. IMAGE: Bollywood actor Preity Zinta arrives for a hearing on the 2014 molestation case against Ness Wadia, at Bombay high court on Wednesday. Photograph: Mitesh Bhuvad/PTI Photo The Bombay high court on Wednesday quashed a 2014 case lodged by city police against industrialist Ness Wadia for allegedly outraging the modesty of Bollywood actor Preity Zinta. Both Zinta and Wadia along with their lawyers appeared before a division bench of justices Ranjit More and Bharti Dangre in the judges' chamber. "The case against Ness has been quashed. We have been told by the court not to divulge anything more," Wadia's lawyer Aabad Ponda said later. Zinta's lawyers also refused to give any details. On October 1, the court had suggested that Wadia and Zinta settle the issue amicably. Zinta's lawyer had said she was willing to settle the matter if Wadia was ready to apologise. Advocate Ponda had then said that his client was ready to bury the hatchet, but he would not apologise. The alleged incident had taken place at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 30, 2014 during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match. Zinta and Wadia are co-owners of the IPL team Kings XI Punjab. According to the complaint, Wadia was abusing the team staff over ticket distribution when Zinta asked him to calm down as their team was winning. He abused her too and molested her by grabbing her arm, Zinta alleged, as per the first information report (FIR) lodged on June 13, 2014 under IPC sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (using word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman). In February this year, police filed a charge sheet against Wadia, following which he approached the high court seeking quashing of the case. In his petition, Wadia claimed the case arose out of 'personal vengeance' and the incident was merely a 'misunderstanding'. The head of a North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run school in north Delhi's Wazirabad was suspended on Wednesday for 'segregating students' into Hindu and Muslim sections, the commissioner of the civic body said, while denouncing his action as 'unimaginable' and 'unpardonable'. "I was apprised of the allegations of students being segregated by our officials. We decided to probe the accusations, and unfortunately they were found to be true. We have suspended the head of the school with immediate effect and initiated major penalty charge sheet against him," NDMC Commissioner Madhup Vyas told PTI. The commissioner said the conduct of the official was 'bizarre' and 'unpardonable' and 'goes against the grain of our pluralistic society'. C B Singh Sehrawat, a teacher, was made in-charge of the school in July after its principal was transferred, NDMC's Director of Education H K Hem said, adding a three-member probe team was sent on Wednesday to investigate the allegations. The commissioner said, "During our probe, it was found that it was the school-in-charge only, who had initiated this segregation. These are children coming from poor background and such acts would have deleterious effects on them. We will not tolerate such things, it is unpardonable." The primary school falls in Wazirabad area of north Delhi and is administered by the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled NDMC. The area comes under the Civil Lines Zone of the civic body. Mayor of North Delhi Adesh Gupta said the school in-charge was 'found to be guilty in preliminary investigation'. "Social divide on the basis of caste, community or religion would not be tolerated in the schools of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. NDMC follows the spirit of the Constitution. If any such divide is found to be in practice, it would be rectified immediately and strict action would be taken against those found guilty," the mayor said. All municipal corporation-run schools in Delhi are primary schools. Teachers in other municipal schools expressed shock over it. "Schools, primary level no less, should be kept away from politics, and religion and caste matters should not be mentioned, for a balanced growth of a child. When a student enters a school, he or she is not a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh or Christian, but an Indian and that is how we should educate them," a teacher in a civic school in Karol Bagh said, on condition of anonymity. "If the segregation is being done there, then it is condemnable, and we strongly disapprove of it. Schools should unite and not divide people, and these children are such impressionable minds, it will not bode well for their growth," he said. Hem, the director of education said, the school has about 700 students and boys outnumber girls. "It was the most shocking thing, I have never come across something of this nature in my entire career. We will conduct random inspections in other schools now, and if anyone is found guilty, we will take the strictest of actions," he told PTI. "Sehrawat will now face a departmental inquiry, which would begin in a week's time, and his services may be terminated, if found guilty in the inquiry," Hem said. The HRD Ministry on Wednesday sought a report in the matter, while the Delhi government ordered a probe into it. Image used strictly for representation. 'All these people want is a secure home where they can live and earn in peace.' Geetanjali Krishna reports. The tiny whitewashed temple rises up in the desert, its red pennant fluttering in the sky, surrounded by scores of mud and thatch houses. From one of them, a young girl in a traditional Rajasthani ghagra peeps out. She is nursing an infant and has a toddler in tow. She looks like an underage bride and a far too young mother but issues of premature marriage and motherhood seem inconsequential compared to what she is facing. The girl belongs to one of the 170 households in Aanganwa village outside Jodhpur. Photograph: Kind courtesy UJAS According to the Jodhpur-based Universal Just Action Society (http://slsujas.org), which is advocating on behalf of this community, Rajasthan has 1,000 such settlements, big and small and mostly organised by caste. There are a dozen around Jodhpur alone. Fleeing to safety, they are dismayed to find mistrust. The wait for long term visas, identity documents, and jobs for the 5,000 people in the Aanganwa camp is endless. "These people have ended up neither belonging to Pakistan nor to India," said Hindu Singh Sodha, founder, UJAS. Under the United Nations Human Rights Commission's 1951 Refugee Convention, an individual with a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, or nationality is deemed a refugee. "Pakistani Hindus fleeing to India meet this criterion, but India is not a signatory to this convention or to its 1967 protocol which stipulates the rights and services that the host country must provide refugees," said Sodha. Although India offers assistance to asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan (albeit on a somewhat ad hoc basis), the same option is not extended to those from Pakistan. A Pakistani Hindu immigrant who has been lobbying on this issue since 1999, Sodha is weary of hearing the same prejudice voiced by government officials and members of the public alike: What if some of them turn out to be members of Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI? "To this, I reply that to date, there is no official record of any Pakistani immigrant being arrested as a spy. All these people want is a secure home where they can live and earn in peace," he said. The stories of the people in the spotless Aanganwa camp illustrate the shortcomings of India's policies towards immigrants and refugees. Amir Khan (his family gave him a Muslim name in the hope that he would be less conspicuous) came to India from Sindh in Pakistan two years ago on a 15-day pilgrim visa. His long-term visa has not come through and he has been in limbo at Aanganwa. His brother Daya Ram arrived here three weeks ago after having paid about Rs 20,000 as 'agent fees'. "When agents know a person doesn't have a proper visa, they charge huge amounts of money to smuggle people in," said Khan. "Most of us can't afford this kind of money, but we can't afford to live in Pakistan either. So, we're forced to bring our family here in stages, as and when we can afford the passage." Eight months ago, Dinanath arrived in Aanganwa with his wife and three school-going children. "I'm also waiting for long-term visas for my family. Our pilgrim visa expired ages back," he said. Like most other able-bodied men in the camp, Dinanath works as a daily wage labourer. "This is the only way we can feed our families," he said. His children are enrolled in school, but the authorities now want to see their Aadhaar cards in order to let them continue their education. "I don't even have a valid visa, how do they expect me to get Aadhaar cards made?" he asked. The women in the camp, heavily veiled and shy, have a different set of problems. They are being married off at an extremely young age because their families fear for their honour, given that they live in open camps and settlements. Owing to the absence of healthcare and education, most women bear multiple children which impacts their health. Since the community is largely unmonitored, no statistics are available but voluntary health worker Manisha Chouhan sees what happens for herself. "The Aanganwa camp is so remote that ambulances can't reach there. Most deliver babies outside of hospitals and maternal and infant mortality rates are high," she said. The immediate need for the nearly 5,000 people like Khan without any valid papers is to get their visas extended. "Till then, we'll remain almost as vulnerable here as we were back in Sindh," he said. Estimates suggest there are about 500,000 Pakistani Hindu refugees across Rajasthan, including those with valid visas, citizenship documents, and those born after their families settled in India. About 70 per cent of them have entered India on 15-day pilgrim visas and only a few have managed to have them extended. In 2016, the ministry of home affairs considered a proposal to reduce the fees for registration as citizens of India from Rs 15,000 to Rs 100 and simplify the procedure. Little has happened and citizenship remains a mirage. Since 1997, only about 13,000 people in Rajasthan have been granted citizenship. In the interim, UJAS has connected a men's shirt-making factory with the women in Aanganwa as the first step in their economic empowerment. Murari, who has borne three children in three years of living in India, is now earning about Rs 350 a day doing this work. Also on the anvil is a 'craft cluster' because all the women are skilled at needlework, traditional patchwork, and embroidery. In addition, UJAS ensures that all the children go to school and receive regular health checkups. These efforts to give beleaguered immigrants a sense of belonging and normalcy are critical from the humanitarian perspective. There is, however, another equally compelling reason for acting in this way, as a 2017 study by the British counter-extremism think tank Quilliam suggested. After looking at refugee centers in Germany, it found that some had been infiltrated by extremists to radicalise disillusioned new arrivals already suffering from 'a lack of belief in the host country.' Similarly, critics argue that US President Donald J Trump's latest ban on refugees from mostly Muslim nations could be used as propaganda by Islamic State to gain more recruits. "We also spend our days battling similar stereotypes," said Sodha. Khan recalls how his grandfather came from Banaskantha in Gujarat. Growing up in Pakistan, he always felt that India was also his homeland. "Imagine how I feel to be treated like a pariah here." He looked across at the whitewashed shrine erected by earlier migrants. "She's our Hinglaj Mata, the most powerful Hindu deity who resides in the mountains of Baluchistan. We've brought her to India with us. Now, there's no going back..." All the names in this report have been changed. Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience Recommendation, 2017 (No. 205) Publisher International Labour Organization (ILO) Publication Date 16 June 2017 Cite as International Labour Organization (ILO), Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience Recommendation, 2017 (No. 205), 16 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bbe0e764.html [accessed 15 November 2021] Comments Adopted at 106th ILC session Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Preamble The General Conference of the International Labour Organization, Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its 106th Session on 5 June 2017, and Reaffirming the principle in the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice, and Recalling the Declaration of Philadelphia (1944), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up (1998) and the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization (2008), and Taking into account the need to revise the Employment (Transition from War to Peace) Recommendation, 1944 (No. 71), with a view to broadening its scope and providing up-to-date guidance on the role of employment and decent work in prevention, recovery, peace and resilience with respect to crisis situations arising from conflicts and disasters, and Considering the impact and consequences of conflicts and disasters for poverty and development, human rights and dignity, decent work and sustainable enterprises, and Recognizing the importance of employment and decent work for promoting peace, preventing crisis situations arising from conflicts and disasters, enabling recovery and building resilience, and Recognizing that the countries receiving refugees may not be in situations of conflicts and disasters, and Emphasizing the need to ensure respect for all human rights and the rule of law, including respect for fundamental principles and rights at work and for international labour standards, in particular those rights and principles relevant to employment and decent work, and Considering the need to recognize that crises affect women and men differently, and the critical importance of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in promoting peace, preventing crises, enabling recovery and building resilience, and Recognizing the importance of developing responses, through social dialogue, to crisis situations arising from conflicts and disasters, in consultation with the most representative employers' and workers' organizations and, as appropriate, with relevant civil society organizations, and Noting the importance of creating or restoring an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises, taking into account the resolution and Conclusions concerning the promotion of sustainable enterprises adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 96th Session (2007), and in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises, to stimulate employment generation, economic recovery and development, and Affirming the need to develop and strengthen measures of social protection, as a means of preventing crises, enabling recovery and building resilience, and Recognizing the role of accessible and quality public services in economic recovery, development, reconstruction efforts, prevention and resilience, and Stressing the need for international cooperation and partnerships among regional and international organizations to ensure joint and coordinated efforts, and Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to employment and decent work for peace and resilience, which is the fifth item on the agenda of the session, and Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation, adopts this sixteenth day of June of the year two thousand and seventeen the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience Recommendation, 2017: I. Objectives and scope 1. This Recommendation provides guidance to Members on the measures to be taken to generate employment and decent work for the purposes of prevention, recovery, peace and resilience with respect to crisis situations arising from conflicts and disasters. 2. For the purposes of this Recommendation and based upon internationally agreed terminology: (a) the term "disaster" means a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts; and (b) the term "resilience" means the ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management. 3. For the purposes of this Recommendation, the term "crisis response" refers to all measures on employment and decent work taken in response to crisis situations arising from conflicts and disasters. 4. This Recommendation applies to all workers and jobseekers, and to all employers, in all sectors of the economy affected by crisis situations arising from conflicts and disasters. 5. The references in this Recommendation to fundamental principles and rights at work, to safety and health and to working conditions apply also to workers engaged in crisis response, including in the immediate response. The references in this Recommendation to human rights and to safety and health apply equally to persons in volunteer work participating in crisis response. 6. The provisions of this Recommendation are without prejudice to the rights and obligations of Members under international law, in particular international humanitarian law, international refugee law and international human rights law. II. Guiding principles 7. In taking measures on employment and decent work in response to crisis situations arising from conflicts and disasters, and with a view to prevention, Members should take into account the following: (a) the promotion of full, productive, freely chosen employment and decent work which are vital to promoting peace, preventing crises, enabling recovery and building resilience; (b) the need to respect, promote and realize the fundamental principles and rights at work, other human rights and other relevant international labour standards, and to take into account other international instruments and documents, as appropriate and applicable; (c) the importance of good governance and combating corruption and clientelism; (d) the need to respect national laws and policies and use local knowledge, capacity and resources; (e) the nature of the crisis and the extent of its impact on the capacity of governments, including regional and local government, employers' and workers' organizations, and other national and relevant institutions, to provide effective responses, with the necessary international cooperation and assistance, as required; (f) the need to combat discrimination, prejudice and hatred on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction, social origin, disability, age or sexual orientation or any other grounds; (g) the need to respect, promote and realize equality of opportunity and treatment for women and men without discrimination of any kind; (h) the need to pay special attention to population groups and individuals who have been made particularly vulnerable by the crisis, including, but not limited to, children, young persons, persons belonging to minorities, indigenous and tribal peoples, persons with disabilities, internally displaced persons, migrants, refugees and other persons forcibly displaced across borders; (i) the importance of identifying and monitoring any negative and unintended consequences and avoiding harmful spillover effects on individuals, communities, the environment and the economy; (j) the need for a just transition towards an environmentally sustainable economy as a means for sustainable economic growth and social progress; (k) the importance of social dialogue; (l) the importance of national reconciliation, where applicable; (m) the need for international solidarity, burden- and responsibility-sharing and cooperation in accordance with international law; and (n) the need for close coordination and synergies between humanitarian and development assistance, including for the promotion of full, productive, freely chosen employment and decent work and incomegeneration opportunities, avoiding the duplication of efforts and mandates. III. Strategic approaches 8. Members should adopt a phased multi-track approach implementing coherent and comprehensive strategies for promoting peace, preventing crises, enabling recovery and building resilience that include: (a) stabilizing livelihoods and income through immediate social protection and employment measures; (b) promoting local economic recovery for employment and decent work opportunities and socio-economic reintegration; (c) promoting sustainable employment and decent work, social protection and social inclusion, sustainable development, the creation of sustainable enterprises, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, the transition from the informal to the formal economy, a just transition towards an environmentally sustainable economy and access to public services; (d) ensuring consultation and encouraging active participation of employers' and workers' organizations in planning, implementing and monitoring measures for recovery and resilience, taking into account, as appropriate, the views of the relevant civil society organizations; (e) conducting employment impact assessments of national recovery programmes implemented through public and private investment in order to promote full, productive, freely chosen employment and decent work for all women and men, in particular for young persons and persons with disabilities; (f) providing guidance and support to employers to enable them to take effective measures to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address the risks of adverse impacts on human and labour rights in their operations, or in products, services or operations to which they may be directly linked; (g) applying a gender perspective in all crisis prevention and response design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation activities; (h) creating economic, social and legal frameworks at the national level to encourage lasting and sustainable peace and development, while respecting rights at work; (i) promoting social dialogue and collective bargaining; (j) building or restoring labour market institutions, including employment services, for stabilization and recovery; (k) developing the capacity of governments, including regional and local authorities, and of employers' and workers' organizations; and (l) taking measures, as appropriate, for the socio-economic reintegration of persons who have been affected by a crisis, in particular those formerly associated with armed forces and groups, including through training programmes that aim to improve their employability. 9. Crisis response in the immediate aftermath of a conflict or disaster should include, as appropriate: (a) a coordinated and inclusive needs assessment with a clear gender perspective; (b) an urgent response to satisfy basic needs and provide services, including social protection, support to livelihoods, immediate employment measures and income-generation opportunities for population groups and individuals who have been made particularly vulnerable by the crisis; (c) assistance, provided to the extent possible by public authorities with the support of the international community, engaging social partners and, where appropriate, relevant civil society and community-based organizations; (d) safe and decent working conditions, including the provision of personal protective equipment and medical assistance for all workers, including those engaged in rescue and rehabilitation activities; and (e) the re-establishment, whenever necessary, of government institutions and of employers' and workers' organizations, as well as of relevant civil society organizations. IV. Employment and income-generation opportunities 10. In enabling recovery and building resilience, Members should adopt and implement a comprehensive and sustainable employment strategy to promote full, productive, freely chosen employment and decent work for women and men, taking into account the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122), and guidance provided in relevant resolutions of the International Labour Conference. 11. Members should, in consultation with the most representative employers' and workers' organizations, adopt inclusive measures in order to promote full, productive, freely chosen employment and decent work and income-generation opportunities through, as appropriate: (a) employment-intensive investment strategies and programmes, including public employment programmes; (b) local economic recovery and development initiatives, with a special focus on livelihoods in both rural and urban areas; (c) the creation or restoration of an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises, including the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as of cooperatives and other social economy initiatives, with particular emphasis on initiatives to facilitate access to finance; (d) supporting sustainable enterprises to ensure business continuity in order to maintain and expand the level of employment and enable the creation of new jobs and income-generation opportunities; (e) facilitating a just transition towards an environmentally sustainable economy as a means for sustainable economic growth and social progress, and for creating new jobs and income-generation opportunities; (f) supporting social protection and employment and respecting, promoting and realizing the fundamental principles and rights at work of those in the informal economy and encouraging the transition of workers and economic units in the informal economy to the formal economy, taking into account the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation, 2015 (No. 204); (g) supporting the public sector and promoting socially, economically and environmentally responsible public-private partnerships and other mechanisms for skills and capacity development and employment generation; (h) creating incentives for multinational enterprises to cooperate with national enterprises in order to create productive, freely chosen employment and decent work and to undertake human rights due diligence with a view to ensuring respect for human and labour rights, taking into account the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy; and (i) facilitating the employment of persons formerly associated with armed forces and groups, as appropriate. 12. Members should develop and apply active labour market policies and programmes with a particular focus on disadvantaged and marginalized groups and population groups and individuals who have been made particularly vulnerable by a crisis, including, but not limited to, persons with disabilities, internally displaced persons, migrants and refugees, as appropriate and in accordance with national laws and regulations. 13. In responding to crisis situations, Members should seek to provide income-generation opportunities, stable employment and decent work for young women and men, including through: (a) integrated training, employment and labour market programmes that address the specific situations of young persons entering the world of work; and (b) specific youth employment components in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes that incorporate psychosocial counselling and other interventions to address anti-social behaviour and violence, with a view to reintegration into civilian life. 14. In the event of a crisis resulting in large numbers of internally displaced persons, Members should: (a) support the livelihoods, training and employment of internally displaced persons, with a view to promoting their socio-economic and labour market integration; (b) build resilience and strengthen the capacity of host communities to promote decent employment opportunities for all, with a view to ensuring that the livelihoods and employment of local populations are maintained and their ability to host internally displaced persons is strengthened; and (c) facilitate the voluntary return of internally displaced persons to their places of origin and their reintegration into labour markets when the situation allows it. V. Rights, equality and non-discrimination 15. In responding to discrimination arising from or exacerbated by conflicts or disasters and when taking measures for promoting peace, preventing crises, enabling recovery and building resilience, Members should: (a) respect, promote and realize equality of opportunity and treatment for women and men without discrimination of any kind, taking into account the Equal Remuneration Convention (No. 100) and Recommendation (No. 90), 1951, and the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (No. 111) and Recommendation (No. 111), 1958; (b) pay special attention to single-headed households, in particular when they are headed by children, women, persons with disabilities or elderly persons; (c) take measures to ensure that women who have been employed during a crisis and have assumed expanded responsibilities are not replaced against their will when the male workforce returns; (d) take measures to ensure that women are empowered to effectively and meaningfully participate in decision-making processes in the context of recovery and building resilience, and that their needs and interests are prioritized in strategies and responses, and that the human rights of women and girls are promoted and protected; (e) prevent and punish all forms of gender-based violence, including rape, sexual exploitation and harassment, and protect and support victims; (f) pay particular attention to establishing or restoring conditions of stability and socio-economic development for population groups that have been particularly affected by a crisis, including, but not limited to, persons belonging to minorities, indigenous and tribal peoples, internally displaced persons, persons with disabilities, migrants and refugees, taking into account the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (No. 111) and Recommendation (No. 111), 1958, as well as other relevant international labour standards and other international instruments and documents, as applicable; (g) ensure that persons belonging to minorities concerned, and indigenous and tribal peoples are consulted, in particular through their representative institutions, where they exist, and participate directly in the decision-making process, especially if the territories inhabited or used by indigenous and tribal peoples and their environment are affected by a crisis and related recovery and stability measures; (h) ensure, in consultation with employers' and workers' organizations, that persons with disabilities, including those who acquired a disability as a result of conflict or disaster, are provided with opportunities for rehabilitation, education, specialized vocational guidance, training and retraining, and employment, taking into account relevant international labour standards and other international instruments and documents; and (i) ensure that the human rights of all migrants and members of their families staying in a country affected by a crisis are respected on a basis of equality with those of national populations, taking into account relevant national provisions, as well as relevant international labour standards and other international instruments and documents, as applicable. 16. In combating child labour arising from or exacerbated by conflicts or disasters, Members should: (a) take all necessary measures to prevent, identify and eliminate child labour in crisis responses, taking into account the Minimum Age Convention (No. 138) and Recommendation (No. 146), 1973; (b) take urgent action to prevent, identify and eliminate the worst forms of child labour, including the trafficking of children and the recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, taking into account the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182) and Recommendation (No. 190), 1999; (c) provide rehabilitation, social integration and training programmes for children and young persons formerly associated with armed forces and groups to help them readjust to civilian life; and (d) ensure the provision of social protection services to protect children, for instance through cash or in-kind transfers. 17. In combating forced or compulsory labour arising from or exacerbated by conflicts or disasters, Members should take urgent action to prevent, identify and eliminate all forms of forced or compulsory labour, including trafficking in persons for purposes of forced or compulsory labour, taking into account the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and its Protocol of 2014, the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105), and the Forced Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014 (No. 203). VI. Education, vocational training and guidance 18. In preventing and responding to crisis situations, and on the basis of the principle of equal opportunity and treatment for women and men, girls and boys, Members should ensure that: (a) the provision of education is not disrupted, or is restored as quickly as possible, and that children, including those who are internally displaced, migrants or refugees, have access to free, quality, public education, including with the support of international aid, in accordance with relevant international law and without discrimination of any kind at all stages of crisis and recovery; and (b) second chance programmes for children and young persons are available and address key needs arising from any interruption of their education and training. 19. In preventing and responding to crisis situations, Members should, where appropriate: (a) formulate or adapt a national education, training, retraining and vocational guidance programme that assesses and responds to emerging skills needs for recovery and reconstruction, in consultation with education and training institutions and employers' and workers' organizations, engaging fully all relevant public and private stakeholders; (b) adapt curricula and train teachers and instructors to promote: (i) peaceful coexistence and reconciliation for peacebuilding and resilience; and (ii) disaster risk education, reduction, awareness and management for recovery, reconstruction and resilience; (c) coordinate education, training and retraining services at national, regional and local levels, including higher education, apprenticeship, vocational training and entrepreneurship training, and enable women and men whose education and training have been prevented or interrupted to enter or resume and complete their education and training; (d) extend and adapt training and retraining programmes to meet the needs of all persons whose employment has been interrupted; and (e) give special attention to the training and economic empowerment of affected populations, including in rural areas and in the informal economy. 20. Members should ensure that women and girls have access, on the basis of equal opportunity and treatment, to all education and training programmes developed for recovery and resilience. VII. Social protection 21. In responding to crisis situations, Members should, as quickly as possible: (a) seek to ensure basic income security, in particular for persons whose jobs or livelihoods have been disrupted by the crisis; (b) develop, restore or enhance comprehensive social security schemes and other social protection mechanisms, taking into account national legislation and international agreements; and (c) seek to ensure effective access to essential health care and other basic social services, in particular for population groups and individuals who have been made particularly vulnerable by the crisis. 22. In order to prevent crises, enable recovery and build resilience, Members should establish, re-establish or maintain social protection floors, as well as seek to close the gaps in their coverage, taking into account the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), and other relevant international labour standards. VIII. Labour law, labour administration and labour market information 23. In recovering from crisis situations, Members should, in consultation with the most representative employers' and workers' organizations: (a) review, establish, re-establish or reinforce labour legislation, if necessary, including provisions on labour protection and occupational safety and health at work, consistent with the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up (1998) and applicable international labour standards; (b) ensure that labour laws support the generation of productive, freely chosen employment and decent work opportunities; (c) establish, re-establish or reinforce, as necessary, the system of labour administration, including labour inspection and other competent institutions, taking into account the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), as well as the system of collective bargaining and collective agreements, taking into account the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98); (d) establish, restore or enhance, as necessary, systems for the collection and analysis of labour market information, focusing in particular on population groups most affected by the crisis; (e) establish or restore and strengthen public employment services, including emergency employment services; (f) ensure the regulation of private employment agencies, taking into account the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181); and (g) promote synergies among all labour market actors to enable local populations to obtain the maximum benefit from employment opportunities generated by investments related to the promotion of peace and recovery. IX. Social dialogue and role of employers' and workers' organizations 24. In responding to crisis situations, Members should, in consultation with the most representative employers' and workers' organizations: (a) ensure that all measures provided for in this Recommendation are developed or promoted through gender-inclusive social dialogue, taking into account the Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144); (b) create an enabling environment for the establishment, restoration or strengthening of employers' and workers' organizations; and (c) encourage, where appropriate, close cooperation with civil society organizations. 25. Members should recognize the vital role of employers' and workers' organizations in crisis response, taking into account the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), and in particular: (a) assist sustainable enterprises, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, to undertake business continuity planning to recover from crises by means of training, advice and material support, and facilitate access to finance; (b) assist workers, in particular those who have been made vulnerable by the crisis, to recover from the crisis through training, advice and material support; and (c) take measures for these purposes through the collective bargaining process as well as by other methods of social dialogue. X. Migrants affected by crisis situations 26. Taking into account that special attention should be given to migrants, especially migrant workers, who have been made particularly vulnerable by crisis, Members should take measures, in accordance with national law and applicable international law, to: (a) eliminate forced or compulsory labour, including trafficking in persons; (b) promote, as appropriate, the inclusion of migrants in host societies, through access to labour markets, including entrepreneurship and income-generation opportunities, and through decent work; (c) protect and seek to ensure labour rights and a safe environment for migrant workers, including those in precarious employment, women migrant workers, youth migrant workers and migrant workers with disabilities, in all sectors; (d) give due consideration to migrant workers and their families in shaping labour policies and programmes dealing with responses to conflicts and disasters, as appropriate; and (e) facilitate the voluntary return of migrants and their families in conditions of safety and dignity. 27. Consistent with the guidance provided in Parts V, VIII and IX, Members should promote equality of opportunity and treatment for all migrant workers with regard to fundamental principles and rights at work, and coverage under relevant national labour laws and regulations, and in particular: (a) educate migrants about their labour rights and protections, including by providing information on the rights and obligations of workers and the means of redress for violations, in a language they understand; (b) enable the participation of migrants in representative organizations of employers and workers; (c) adopt measures and facilitate campaigns that combat discrimination and xenophobia in the workplace and highlight the positive contributions of migrants, with the active engagement of employers' and workers' organizations and of civil society; and (d) consult and engage employers' and workers' organizations and, as appropriate, other relevant civil society organizations, with respect to employment of migrants. XI. Refugees and returnees Refugee access to labour markets 28. Any measures taken under this Part, in the event of refugee influx, are contingent on: (a) national and regional circumstances, taking into account applicable international law, fundamental principles and rights at work and national legislation; and (b) Members' challenges and constraints in terms of their resources and capacity to respond effectively, taking into account needs as well as priorities expressed by the most representative organizations of employers and workers. 29. Members should acknowledge the vital importance of equitable burden- and responsibility-sharing. They should reinforce international cooperation and solidarity so as to provide predictable, sustainable and adequate humanitarian and development assistance to support the least developed and developing countries hosting large numbers of refugees, including in terms of addressing the implications for their labour markets and ensuring their continued development. 30. Members should take measures, as appropriate, to: (a) foster self-reliance by expanding opportunities for refugees to access livelihood opportunities and labour markets, without discriminating among refugees and in a manner which also supports host communities; and (b) formulate national policy and national action plans, involving competent authorities responsible for employment and labour and in consultation with employers' and workers' organizations, to ensure the protection of refugees in the labour market, including with regard to access to decent work and livelihood opportunities. 31. Members should collect reliable information to assess the impact of refugees on labour markets and the needs of the existing labour force and of employers, in order to optimize the use of skills and human capital that refugees represent. 32. Members should build the resilience and strengthen the capacity of host communities by investing in local economies and promoting full, productive, freely chosen employment and decent work, and skills development of the local population. 33. Consistent with the guidance provided in Parts IV, VI and VII, Members should include refugees in the actions taken with respect to employment, training and labour market access, as appropriate, and in particular: (a) promote their access to technical and vocational training, in particular through ILO and relevant stakeholder programmes, in order to enhance their skills and enable them to undergo further retraining, taking into account possible voluntary repatriation; (b) promote their access to formal job opportunities, income-generation schemes and entrepreneurship, by providing vocational training and guidance, job placement assistance, and access to work permits, as appropriate, thereby preventing informalization of labour markets in host communities; (c) facilitate the recognition, certification, accreditation and use of skills and qualifications of refugees through appropriate mechanisms, and provide access to tailored training and retraining opportunities, including intensive language training; (d) enhance the capacity of public employment services and improve cooperation with other providers of services, including private employment agencies, to support the access of refugees to the labour market; (e) make specific efforts to support the inclusion in labour markets of refugee women, young persons and others who are in a situation of vulnerability; and (f) facilitate, as appropriate, the portability of work-related and social security benefit entitlements, including pensions, in accordance with the national provisions of the host country. 34. Consistent with the guidance provided in Parts V, VIII and IX, Members should promote equality of opportunity and treatment for refugees with regard to fundamental principles and rights at work and coverage under relevant labour laws and regulations, and in particular: (a) educate refugees about their labour rights and protections, including by providing information on the rights and obligations of workers and the means of redress for violations, in a language they understand; (b) enable the participation of refugees in representative organizations of employers and workers; and (c) adopt appropriate measures, including legislative measures and campaigns, that combat discrimination and xenophobia in the workplace and highlight the positive contributions of refugees, with the active engagement of employers' and workers' organizations and of civil society. 35. Members should consult and engage employers' and workers' organizations and other relevant stakeholders with respect to the access of refugees to labour markets. 36. Members should support host countries to strengthen their capacity and build resilience, including through development assistance, by investing in local communities. Voluntary repatriation and reintegration of returnees 37. When the security situation in the country of origin of refugees has improved sufficiently, Members should collaborate to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of refugees in conditions of safety and dignity, and to support their labour market reintegration, including with the assistance of international organizations. 38. Members should collaborate with the ILO and relevant stakeholders to develop specific programmes for returnees to facilitate their vocational training and reintegration in the labour market. 39. Members should collaborate, including with the assistance of relevant international organizations, to support the socio-economic integration of returnees in their countries of origin, through measures set out in Parts IV to IX, as appropriate, in a manner which supports the economic and social development of local populations. 40. Taking into account the principle of burden- and responsibilitysharing, Members should support countries of origin to strengthen their capacity and build resilience, including through development assistance, by investing in local communities in which returnees are reintegrated and by promoting full, productive, freely chosen employment and decent work. XII. Prevention, mitigation and preparedness 41. Members should take measures, in particular in countries in which there are foreseeable risks of conflict or disaster, to build resilience, in consultation with employers' and workers' organizations and other stakeholders, to prevent, mitigate and prepare for crises in ways that support economic and social development and decent work, through actions such as: (a) identification of risks and evaluation of threats to and vulnerabilities of human, physical, economic, environmental, institutional and social capital at local, national and regional levels; (b) risk management, including contingency planning, early warning, risk reduction and emergency response preparedness; and (c) prevention and mitigation of adverse effects, including through business continuity management in both the public and the private sector, taking into account the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up (1998). XIII. International cooperation 42. In preparing for and responding to crisis situations, Members should strengthen cooperation and take appropriate steps through bilateral or multilateral arrangements, including through the United Nations system, international financial institutions and other regional or international mechanisms of coordinated response. Members should make full use of existing arrangements and established institutions and mechanisms and strengthen them, as appropriate. 43. Crisis responses, including support by regional and international organizations, should provide for a central focus on employment, decent work and sustainable enterprises, and should be consistent with applicable international labour standards. 44. Members should cooperate to promote development assistance and public and private sector investment in crisis response for the creation of decent and productive jobs, business development and self-employment. 45. International organizations should reinforce their cooperation and the coherence of their crisis responses within their respective mandates, making full use of relevant international policy frameworks and arrangements. 46. The ILO should play a leading role in assisting Members to provide crisis responses based on employment and decent work and focusing on employment promotion, labour market integration or access, as appropriate, capacity development and institution building, in close cooperation with regional and international institutions. 47. Members should strengthen international cooperation, including through the voluntary and systematic exchange of information, knowledge, good practices and technology for promoting peace, preventing and mitigating crises, enabling recovery and building resilience. 48. There should be close coordination of and complementarity among crisis responses, as appropriate, in particular between humanitarian and development assistance, for the promotion of full, productive, freely chosen employment and decent work for peace and resilience. XIV. Final provision Novartis (NVS) said that it will present 33 scientific abstracts at the 34th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis or ECTRIMS being held October 10-12, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. The presentations highlight the company's efforts to advance the understanding of MS and showcase its broad portfolio which addresses different types of MS across patients of all ages. The abstracts presented at ECTRIMS include studies on Gilenya (fingolimod), oral disease modifying therapy and the only relapsing MS treatment approved in the US for children 10 years of age through to adulthood. There will also be data for the investigational treatment siponimod (BAF312), the first and only oral drug to meaningfully delay disability progression in typical secondary progressive MS (SPMS) patients; and ofatumumab (OMB157), the first self- administered subcutaneous B-cell therapy for relapsing MS (RMS), which is currently in Phase III development. Novartis noted that it will also present new data on neurofilaments, protein fragments that are found in the blood at elevated levels in MS patients when damage to neurons occurs. Today, it is possible to measure neurofilaments in the blood and there is growing evidence that demonstrates a strong correlation between their levels and key measures of MS disease activity. Utilizing blood neurofilaments as an easy-to-use biomarker for MS could transform clinical trials in the future and allow for disease monitoring in real time in routine clinical practice. Novartis is leading the field with 12 data analyses presented so far. Multiple sclerosis affects about 2.3 million people worldwide. MS is a chronic disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) that disrupts the normal functioning of the brain, optic nerves and spinal cord through inflammation and tissue loss. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News The Australian and NZ dollars eased from their early highs against the major counterparts in the European session on Wednesday, as investors fretted about slowing Chinese growth and watched developments around Brexit and Italy's budget. Traders largely shrugged off comments from US President Donald Trump, who cautioned that the central bank was moving too quickly with the rate hikes. Trump also repeated a threat to impose tariffs on $267 billion worth of additional Chinese imports if Beijing retaliates for the recent levies and other measures. Meanwhile, Italian bond yields pulled back from four-year high hit on Tuesday after the country's finance minister tried to stem growing concerns over Italy's budget plans, saying the government will do all it can to restore market confidence. Survey data from Westpac showed that Australia's consumer confidence rebounded in October. The Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment rose 1 percent to 101.5 in October. Data from Statistics New Zealand showed that New Zealand's credit card spending advanced a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent on month in September, accelerating from the 1.1 percent gain in August. Retail credit card spending gained 1.1 percent on month - exceeding expectations for an increase of 0.6 percent and up from 1.0 percent in the previous month. The aussie retreated to 0.7089 against the greenback and 0.9187 against the loonie, from its early weekly highs of 0.7131 and 0.9222, respectively. The next possible support for the aussie is seen around 0.69 against the greenback and 0.90 against the loonie. The Australian currency eased to 80.25 against the yen and 1.6209 against the euro, coming off from its early 5-day high of 80.60 and a 6-day high of 1.6147, respectively. If the aussie falls further, it may find support around 78.00 against the yen and 1.64 against the euro. The kiwi reversed from its early 6-day highs of 0.6497 against the greenback and 1.7719 against the euro, pulling back to 0.6454 and 1.7798, respectively. The kiwi is seen finding support 0.63 versus the greenback and 1.80 against the euro. Having advanced to a 5-day high of 73.48 against the yen at 10:15 pm ET, the kiwi reversed direction and eased back to 73.08. The kiwi is poised to target support around the 72.00 area. The kiwi fell to 1.0990 against the aussie, after rising to 1.0957 at 7:00 pm ET. On the downside, 1.11 is possibly seen as the next support level for the kiwi. Looking ahead, Canada building permits for August, U.S. producer price index for September and wholesale inventories for August are set for release in the New York session. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News The Swiss stock market endured a choppy trading session Wednesday, but spent much of the day in the green. However, the market slipped back into the red late in the afternoon and finished with a loss. Worries about slowing Chinese growth weighed on investor sentiment. Traders are also keeping a close eye on developments around Brexit and Italy's budget. Rising bond yields has also made riskier investments like equities less attractive in recent days. The Swiss Market Index decreased by 0.79 percent Wednesday and finished at 8,892.88. The Swiss Leader Index dropped 1.56 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 1.09 percent. Luxury goods companies were under heavy pressure due to fears of a looming slowdown in Chinese demand as the U.S.-China trade war escalates. Swatch Group sank 5.4 percent and Richemont tumbled 4 percent. Sika was another notable loser, falling 4.9 percent. SGS also finished lower by 3.3 percent. ABB and Geberit weakened by 2.9 percent each, while Lonza lost 2.6 percent. The index heavyweights fared much better than the rest of the market Wednesday. Novartis climbed 0.5 percent and Roche added 0.06 percent. Meanwhile, Nestle slid 0.3 percent. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis The Producers Guild of India has appointed Sneha Rajani, Head, Sony Pictures ' title=' Sony Pictures '> Sony Pictures Networks Productions, to lead a committee to address the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace within the film industry. "The Producers Guild of India is committed to work towards making workplaces in the industry safe spaces for everyone. In this regard, a special committee has been instituted within the Guild to address the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace within our industry," read a statement issued on Wednesday. The committee also includes industry experts Apoorva Mehta, Ekta Kapoor, Fazila Allana, Jyoti Deshpande, Kiran Rao, Kulmeet Makkar, Madhu Bhojwani, Priti Shahani, Rohan Sippy, Siddharth Roy Kapur and Vijay Singh. The first meeting of the committee was held on Wednesday. It was resolved to immediately ensure the members of the Guild were sent a copy of the Gazette of India with notifications issued on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace, so that they may implement these practices in their establishments at the earliest, if they have not done so already.A They decided to organize specialised workshops with the support of professional agencies, to guide members in how to implement robust processes and best practices to deal with sexual harassment at their workplaces - whether in their offices or on the sets of their productions.A The Guild will also organize multiple sessions of these workshops over the coming weeks and months, to enable all members and their teams to participate.A The special committee that has been set in place will meet frequently in the coming days to ensure that this is an ongoing and sustained effort, that will lead to a safer environment for all members of our industry, the statement read further. This move comes in the wake of the #MeToo movement, triggered in Bollywood two weeks by the resurgence of Tanushree Dutta's allegation that Nana Patekar sexually harassed her on the set of a film 10 years ago. A slew of actors and comedians have been named and shamed. Following up on the Supreme Court verdict regarding the criminal antecedents of candidates, the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday amended rules for declaration of criminal cases/ liabilities by the candidates and came out with a format for publishing media advertisement by them ahead of elections. The candidates as well as the political parties will now have to publicise the details of criminal cases pending against them or cases in which they have been convicted, in newspapers and on television on "at least on three different occasions". "The candidates at elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council, who have criminal cases against them, shall publish a declaration about their criminal cases for wide publicity in newspapers with wide circulation in the constituency area," the EC said in an order sent to the Chief Electoral Officers of all states and UTs as well as to all political parties separately. The declaration is to be published in a given format "at least on three different dates" from the day following the last date for withdrawal of candidatures and up to two days before the date of poll. However, in the case of the declaration in TV channels, the same should be completed "before the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for conclusion of poll", the EC said. The declaration in newspapers should be published in font size of at least 12 and should be placed suitably in the newspapers so that the directions for wide publicity are "complied with in letter and spirit". "In the case of candidates with criminal cases set up by political parties, whether recognized parties or registered un-recognized parties, such candidates are required to declare before the Returning Officer (RO) concerned that they have informed their political party about the criminal cases against them. Provision for such declaration has been made in Form-26 in the newly inserted Item (6A)," the EC said. The candidates will have to submit the copies of the newspapers to the District Election Officer (DEO) concerned, along with the "account of election expenses to be filed by them under Section 78 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951", the EC said. "It may also be noted that the provisions for the additional affidavit in respect of dues against government accommodation, if any, that may have been allotted to the candidates, have now been incorporated in Form-26 itself under Item (8) relating to liabilities to public financial institutions and government," the Commission said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday termed opposition parties' plan to form a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) as a "failed idea," saying they want a weaker government at the Centre. Interacting with the Bharatiya Janata Party workers from five Lok Sabha constituencies through video-conferencing on his NaMo mobile app, Modi said: "The parties first fight with each other. But whenever they get a chance, they come together to grab power." The BJP party workers were from Uttar Pradesh's Agra, Madhya Pradesh's Damoh, Rajasthan's Karauli and Dholpur, Karnataka's Mysuru and Chhattisgarh's Raipur. "Same thing happened in Karnataka. Before elections, they misled the people by attacking each other. And when it was time to form government, they did not waste any time to come together," Modi alleged. The Prime Minister told party workers: "A few days ago, you must have heard an opposition leader saying that they don't want a strong government. You can understand why they want a weak government." "When there is a strong government at the Centre, then whole country is benefited. In case of a weaker Centre, only the leaders of an alliance get benefited," he said. He also slammed the previous government for not respecting the culture and traditions of India. "India's cultural heritage inspires people across the globe to lead their life normally even while facing many challenges," he said. "But it was unfortunate that those sitting in government earlier instead of feeling proud of our rich culture felt ashamed," he said. He said that even after decades of Independence, India was considered as the country of snake charmers. "And what was most shocking that those who ruled the country for decades encouraged such things," he said. Re: How did our life of faalavelave become a source of pain? What is the biggest cost at a faalavelave? It is the pigs and cows that come in the refrigerated containers at the wholesalers and the abattoir in Apia. It is also the envelopes given out to every tom, dick, and harry. The simplest and easiest solution to cut costs is: 1. The government or villages to ban the pigs and the cows. Ban the suatalisua; the palapala malo. Back in the old days, there were no cows in Samoa. Cows came from Europe via New Zealand. Cows are not indigenous to Samoa. As for pigs, people grew their own pigs. 2. Ban money as well. Ban the envelopes. There was no money exchanged back in the old days prior to Europeans coming to Samoa. All that is needed is the exchange of fine mats and the sua taute. Those are the simplest solutions above but nobody is brave or courageous enough to seriously suggest this. If the government banned these things, the villages and big fish matai through the country would be outraged. Certain business interests in Apia profiting out of this madness, this false economy, would also be outraged. So nobody is serious about alleviating this pain. At the end of the day, when push comes to shove, we Samoans will carry on. The leadership must come from the top. These big decisions must come from village leaderships. Unfortunately, too many village matai earn a living by simply turning up at any faalavelave in the village for their pay day. Petelo Suaniu Re: Samoa A scores historical win over Argentina Nice. Either Samoa A made massive improvements since getting slaughtered last year by Argentina, or Argentina this year decided to field a weaker team. I hope its the former. If so, I wonder if Samoas super 9 competition helped improve local talent. In any case, the key is to develop local talent by getting them exposed to top quality rugby overseas, and should start with high school rugby. Nonetheless, good job, Samoa A. Malo le finau. Cyborg Alatise Leafa Vitale, the man convicted of murdering former Cabinet Minister, the late Luagalau Levaula Kamu, is among two men charged with the theft of over 200 cartons of beers who will face trial in March next year. Vitale and Fagatua Niupo appeared before Chief Justice Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu for mention on Monday morning. The two accused did not have legal representation. Leone Sua-Mailo of the Attorney Generals Office acted for the prosecution. The hearing has now been set for March 4-5, 2019. Last month, Vitale and Fagatua Niupo pleaded not guilty to two charges of theft for allegedly stealing over 200 cartons of beer worth more than US$6,000 from a distributor in Savaii. According to the police fact sheet, the crime was committed in August 2017 and February 2018. Vitale has a criminal record, having been convicted in 1999 for the murder of Samoan Cabinet Minister Luagalau Levaula Kamu and given life imprisonment. Earlier this year, the Court heard that Alatise had been on parole since 2010. The Court did not accept a submission from the Attorney General's Office for him to be remanded in custody for breaching his parole conditions. Presiding judge at that time, Justice Leilani Tuala-Warren, said the accused was still innocent until proven guilty. The grand opening of the Samoa Cable Depot at the Matatutu Wharf was the realisation of a critical component in Samoas goal to becoming the submarine cable hub for the Pacific. The $5 million state of the art building project, undertaken in partnership by the Samoa Submarine Cable Company (S.S.C.C.) and T.E. SubCom, will service the South Pacific Marine Maintenance Agreement (S.P.M.M.A.). Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi congratulated the conglomerate for their strong working relationship, saying such a breakthrough is a tangible example of regional cooperation to realise the One Polynesia strategy. In February I spoke about Samoas aspiration to become the submarine cable hub linking Polynesia to Samoa and the rest of the world as a real and tangible example of regional cooperation the One Polynesia strategy was well received by the leaders of the Polynesian leaders group during its annual meeting held in Tuvalu in June 2018, he said. Another important project which encompasses the One Polynesian vision is the Manatua cable linking Tahiti, Cook Islands, Niue to Samoa in order to provide world class communications services for French Polynesia, Cook Islands and Niue and Samoa as early as Q1 2020. The Prime Minister also emphasized the significance of having the multi-billion dollar company, T.E SubCom invest in Samoa given their reputation as being pioneers in submarine cable communications technology. Seven months ago T.E SubCom placed their faith in Samoa, and today Samoa has delivered upon its promise to deliver the Samoa cable depot, he said. Whilst the Samoa cable depot is based in Samoa, the implications for Samoa are profound, as this depot will maintain more than 28 telecommunications and power cable systems with a combined length of over 65,000 km in the Pacific and Oceania region. The partnership also signifies the success of Government policy to encourage to Samoa foreign investors like TE SubCom who are attracted by Samoas favorable economic conditions, investment incentives and strong government support. T.E SubCom are contracted for five years and the Prime Minister listed some significant advantages to having the C.S Reliance and the Cable Depot in Apia starting with increased revenue for Samoa Ports Authority and local stevedoring companies through port fees and charges. The positive economic impacts from the presence of the C.S Reliance and its 60+ crew as well as other cable ship crews needing to purchase goods and services will boost local economy. I understand that plans are in place to develop a submarine cable jointing school to train and to certify Samoan and foreign engineers to undertake submarine cable repair and maintenance activities Tuilaepa said There are upskilling opportunities for Samoans with specialised training for our sailors and I.C.T professionals, T.E SubCom will allow 2 Samoa trainee sailors on board the CS Reliance as part of their seafarers training. T.E SubCom representative, Thomas Soerensen, highlighted the outstanding quality of work that went into the depot and praised the convenient location on the wharf, which will enable them to further their business in Samoa. Currently T.E SubCom is servicing 31 cable systems as far out as Australia, Singapore and Hawaii with their system spares being stored in Samoa. He outlined the many benefits of having a depot in Samoa that will store major parts and kits that are needed for repairing cable systems in the region and also added that 22 Samoans are working with the company to assist with discharging the cable into the depot. The Minister of Works, Transport and Infrastructure, Papaliitele Niko Lee Hang, cut the ribbon. The story of a van allegedly making its way around Samoa attempting to kidnap young girls has taken an interesting turn. The Police have charged the man who claimed to have attempted to stop the alleged kidnapping at Vaitele two weeks ago. Liua Vaasili Savaiinaea has been charged with giving false information to the Police, in relation to the issue. This was confirmed by Police Superintendent, Soloi Iosefo Tuimaunei, in response to questions from the Samoa Observer. The accused was arrested Tuesday night and is in the custody of Police. Last week, the Police announced they were investigating the allegations that a white Toyota 15 seater van, with blue stripes at the bottom, tinted windows and broken rear windshield window, is being used for the attempted abduction of victims at night time. This week the Police issued a statement cautioning about the number of false and misleading information being shared and circulated on social media. They also warned members of the public to refrain from taking matters into their own hands and that damages to properties as a result of individuals taking matters into their own hands is a criminal offence. Superintendent Soloi warned that making false information to the Police is a crime. S.P.S. also encourages the public to report any matter of suspicious nature to a police station near you or telephone 22222. RUSE, Bulgaria (AP) Bulgarian authorities on Tuesday will release and won't charge a man taken into custody in connection with the slaying of Bulgarian television reporter Viktoria Marinova, whose body was found after she highlighted possible government corruption. The man, who wasn't identified, would be freed "very shortly," said Teodor Atanassov, chief police officer of the northern town of Ruse. He declined to provide further details on the ongoing investigation. Police are investigating the rape and slaying of Marinova, 30, who was strangled. Her body was found Saturday near the Danube River. Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving European Union funds. The Interior Ministry said late Monday that prosecutors had opened an investigation into GP Group, a large private Bulgarian building company alleged to have misused the EU money, and froze 14 million euros ($16 million) of its assets. Interior Minister Mladen Marinov and Bulgaria's leading organized crime investigator, Ivaylo Spiridonov, are part of the investigating team. While Marinova didn't appear to have been closely involved in the fraud investigation, her show touched on a sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. The Balkan nation joined the EU in 2007 and was ranked 71st on Transparency International's corruption list last year. Joining the bloc opened an enormous spigot of possible new EU funding for Bulgarian infrastructure projects or other programs designed to bring the nation up to EU standards. Journalists' groups and European leaders expressed shock at Marinova's murder. Margaritis Schinas, spokesman for European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said Monday that the commission expected "a swift and thorough investigation .... that will bring those responsible to justice and clarify whether this attack was linked to her work." The German government also sharply condemned the slaying, with the Foreign Ministry saying it was imperative "that there's a fast investigation and that this horrible event will be illuminated as comprehensively as possible." Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov insisted Monday there was no evidence to suggest the killing was linked to Marinova's work. Marinova was a director of TVN, a TV station in Ruse, and a TV presenter for two investigative programs. Her final show on Sept. 30 was a program about Attila Biro, an investigative journalist with the Rise Project Romania, and Dimitar Stoyanov from the Bulgarian investigative site Bivol.bg. The two men were briefly detained on Sept. 13 south of Sofia as they investigated a tip that documents connected to suspected fraud involving EU funds were being destroyed. Bivol.bg owner Assen Yordanov said he couldn't directly link Marinova's slaying to her work, but noted her show tackled "our very sensitive investigation into the misuse of EU funds." "This is a topic on which no other Bulgarian national media dared to report on," he told The Associated Press. Biro told the AP that he had never met Marinova he said one of her colleagues had interviewed him and Stoyanov about their work. "They are on the right path, but let's see how the investigation proceeds," he said. Re: Tiavea Airport Is this proposed new airport a good idea? Only the Government will know, however any project like this one has potential to improve transport links in the country. In the end only the paying passengers will determine its success. As for the safety of the airport itself this is a non-issue. For 95% of the time the winds here in Samoa are not significant for aircraft operations, except during the storm season (for a few days) or during the passage of Thunderstorms near the airport. There is no difference from a safety consideration between Tiavea and any other airport in Samoa. John A lifeguard at a resort in Lefaga has died while trying to save a tourist from drowning. The death at the Return to Paradise Resort was confirmed by the Ministry of Police yesterday. The resorts Assistant Manager, Mel Toailoa, said he is still trying to come to terms with the death of his staff member. It is a very sad time for the Resort family, his extended family and dear wife Sarah as well as the tourist we still cannot believe he has left us." The whole Return to Paradise family is grieving today at the loss of the amazing porter, driver and Zumba leader Talalelei Vou, who lost his life on Sunday 7th October while helping to save a guest, stated a media release from the resort. Toailoa said the hotel guest found himself caught in an unusually strong rip, which appeared in the channel at the left end of the resort. There is a warning sign and notifications to not to enter this channel. Talalelei along with his manager Mika, were the first respondents to the incident, managing to extend a lifebuoy that ultimately saved the guests life. Unfortunately, Talalelei was picked up by a wave and we lost sight of him for a short time, and despite everyones best efforts we were unable to revive Tala. Talalelei, whose name means Good News according to Toailoa, was a trained lifeguard and died doing what he loved taking care of people in the resort. As the Bible says, greater love has no man than this that he lays down his life for a friend. Our Resort is one big family, so the grief and loss are an unspeakable sorrow for everyone." Naturally, the guest who was saved, and many others, are feeling this very deeply, but no-one must feel any guilt for what happened. We will continue to review every aspect of health and safety, but this was a genuine accident." Talalelei believed that his life was in Gods hands and for some reason we do not understand, God has promoted him early, said Toailoa. The resort managers and staff have spent time with the family of the deceased and they will do everything to assist them in their time of mourning, added the media statement. The guest and his family had asked to meet Talas family to show their appreciation for his sacrifice, and this happened on Sunday night in Talas family home. This was a very emotional time, yet beautiful in the love and healing that was shown by the family towards the guests. The son they have lost is a very special man to all of us. Talalelei is married to Sarah and they were scheduled to travel to New Zealand in a fortnight. The management and staff held a special farewell service today (yesterday) at their chapel, to thank God for his gift, Talalelei, to his Return to Paradise Resort family, and to pay homage to a wonderful brother and dear friend." We were honoured by the presence of our wonderful guests who grieved with us and helped begin the healing process for all of us." In passing may we say: Strong people standup for themselves; stronger people standup for others; Fly high Tala, said Toailoa in the statement. Supreme Court Justice Leiataualesa Darryl Clarke has appealed to the Liquor Board to impose conditions on liquor outlets to ensure alcohol is not sold to intoxicated customers. He made the appeal during the sentencing of Luma Pesefa, who pleaded guilty to one charge of manslaughter. The accused has been given a four years and four months custodial sentence in connection with the death of a 22-year-old man from Safotu. The police summary of facts and other material submitted in Court indicated that the deceased and the defendant were heavily intoxicated on the premises, presumably licensed to sell alcohol. Justice Leiataualesa said despite being inebriated, the licensed outlet went ahead and sold them alcohol. Despite their state of intoxication, it seems that both were nevertheless served alcohol. Licensed premises in Samoa must abide by requirements for the responsible service of alcohol to patrons. Where patrons are intoxicated, service must be refused, he said, while pointing out that this continues to be the practice by liquor outlets. The licensed premises ignore these obligations and continue to serve alcohol to heavily intoxicated people. The sale of alcohol to intoxicated persons is a licensing issue. He then appealed to the Liquor Board to impose conditions on licensed liquor outlets. These could include awareness of the obligations of the license holders, enforcing the placement of signage in prominent locations that promoted responsible service of alcohol on licensed premises, and the taking of appropriate action when there are breaches of the obligations. If the Liquor Board has not investigated a possible breach by the licensed premises in this matter, it may wish to do so given the alleged facts of this case, added Justice Leiataualesa. The Government is yet to clear the air on a $87.6 million outstanding debt that the Ministry for Revenue incurred and was cited by Ministry of Finance audit reports. Minister for Revenue, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt, was unclear when approached and asked to comment by the Samoa Observer. I am not sure and I will call the Chief Executive Officer to inquire about this, he said and added that the debt was incurred before he was appointed the Minister. The Public Account Management Audit report for 2014-2015 financial years indicates that the Ministry of Revenue had an outstanding debt of $87.6 million. The same debt was disclosed by the Ministry of Finance a year later, as part of the Governments response to the Parliaments Finance and Expenditure Committees Report, for Financial Years 2015-2016. Speaking to the Samoa Observer, Tialavea said: I have no clue whether this is a debt or uncollected revenues, as this were accumulated before I came on board (as Minister). When he was asked why he did not get an update from his C.E.O. a fortnight ago when the story first broke, he said: I am busy and I have other pertinent tasks and did not have time to look into this. The Ministry for Revenue Chief Executive Officer, Avalisa Viali Fautuaalii, was approached earlier by this newspaper but she has refused to comment. Regret the delay in replying but please be advised that I cannot make comments yet on this report as Im told by the Legislative Assembly that it has yet to be discussed and endorsed by the Parliament." Until Parliament endorses it as a public document, I regret to advise that I will not be providing any comments on it, she said back then. The debt in question was also cited in a report by the Ministry of Finance, as part of the Governments response to the Parliaments Finance and Expenditure Committees Report 2015-2016. The report stated that the Ministry would try to account for this outstanding. We (Ministry of Finance) disclosed the Ministry for Revenues outstanding debt of $87.6 million. We strive to account this outstanding on the Government System (Finance One), in the future Public Accounts Finance One is the Government of Samoa Financial and Payroll and Human Resource Management Information System)." There is work that needed to be done to refine and confirm the balance of this unrecorded debt before we can include it in the overall government ministries receivables, stated the Ministry. Vaimoso village has received 32 new 2000-litre water tanks in a major boost to access clean water and become resilient to the effects of climate change. The donation of the water tanks was funded under Samoas Civil Society Support Program (C.S.S.P.), which is piloting a climate resilience project with financial support from the World Bank. Under the project, villages can apply for up to $50,000 tala to sponsor a development project which protects the village against the negative impacts of climate change. Vaimoso successfully submitted a proposal to install a rain water harvesting system in the form of water tanks. Aulavemai Tafaito Selesele, the Vaimoso Fono chairperson, said the village needed a way to ensure they continued to have access to clean drinking water when storms or floods affected the water supply. One 2000-litre water tank which will be installed by Vaimoso villagers will supply water to five families. Toala Fuifui Schuster, a member of the womens council of Vaimoso, said the village worked together to raise the funding needed to contribute 10 per cent of the water tank projects cost. These included a major fundraiser last week which raised $16,000 tala. C.S.S.P. program manager, Pasina Christina Taua, said the Vaimoso water tank project is on track to be completed in record time. The average implementation period for most villages is 12 months, but this process only began in April. They are doing really well and are on track to finish the work by the end of the year, she said. The role of the Samoa Umbrella for Non-Governmental Organisations (S.U.N.G.O.) in assisting the villagers with their project proposal was also acknowledged. A top government official has recommended hospitals have a designated area for victims of domestic violence and protocols for health practitioners to follow when attending to such cases. The Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development Chief Executive Officer, Afamasaga Faauiga Palepua Mulitalo, told Samoa Observer that her office and other relevant Government agencies should work together to address the absence of such facilities in hospitals, and empower hospital staff by establishing procedures to ensure victims have immediate access to treatment and support services. The best people to get information for that is the Health Department but its something that we really need to see happening, she said. These are things we are trying to work together on with different agencies to make sure that we put in place, systems and processes so victims of violence are properly handled. Whoever is responsible as the first point of contact (whether its Health, whether its Police, whether its us here at the Ministry or Justice), we should have systems in place to make sure victims are comfortable to go to that person, unit or section. Afamasaga said providing a safe and supportive environment at a hospital is key to women overcoming the shame and fear of being victims of domestic violence. Its something that we really want to see in the hospital, that there is a place that victims of violence are comfortable to go directly to, when they need medical care. Sometimes our women feel reluctant to go to the hospital, if they feel they are being abused by their partners, so I guess its something that we need to make sure that women feel comfortable enough, to seek help and get treated if they are being abused. Getting treated in a hospital with other sick members of the public can be a disincentive to the bid by authorities to address domestic violence in Samoa, added Afamasaga. In order to make that happen, there should be a place in the hospital that they go to, otherwise if they go through the same processes as other patients, they might feel ashamed and feel reluctant to go and decide to stay away and also train doctors and nurses who will be specifically assigned for that Afamasaga believes the issue can be tackled through proper dialogue between the relevant Ministries. I dont see as something thats hard to do. Its a matter of us talking with medical practitioners and considering our resources and whether we have enough doctors, nurses, who are well trained in the area. It involves confidentiality to make sure there is protection for these women. As I said, they (Health department) would be the best people to ask if they have a system in place at the hospital to cater for women and victims of family violence. But right now, I think they are just going through the same process, as if they are just a regular patient going through the outpatient and emergency unit, if its serious, she added. In one of its most closely watched decisions of the year, the California Public Utilties Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on one of two proposals dealing with the exit fees customers pay if they leave investor-owned utilities like San Diego Gas & Electric and opt for a government-run alternative. Its a bigger issue that we all need to be talking about, said Beth Vaughan, executive director of California Community Choice Association, a trade group dedicated to promoting what is called Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, which allows any city, county or combination thereof to form an entity to take over the responsibility of purchasing power for their communities. For the record: An earlier version of this story misspelled California Community Choice Association executive director Beth Vaughans name. Under the CCA model, utilities like SDG&E still maintain transmission and distribution lines (such as poles and wires) and handle customer billing. But the CCA purchases the sources of electricity, with municipal government officials ultimately making the final decisions on power purchases. Since the first CCA was established in the state in Marin County in 2010, the numbers have grown with many CCAs boasting they have greener portfolios than utilities. Last month, the 19th CCA in California went online and San Diegos City Council and Mayor Kevin Faulconer are seriously considering adopting a CCA as well. Advertisement But once a CCA is established, its customers must pay an exit fee (called a Power Charge Indifference Adjustment) to the utility each month to offset the costs utilities have racked up building things like natural gas power plants over the years all with CPUC approval. In addition, utilities have been directed to develop renewable energy projects to meet the states aggressive climate targets. The exit fee is at the center of Thursdays hearing in San Francisco. Using a complex methodology, the CPUC determines the exit fees amount (which is different for each of the states three investor-owned utilities). The five members of the commission are adjusting the fee and will consider two different proposals. The first, submitted by a CPUC administrative law judge, is lower than the other, which has been proposed by Commissioner Carla Peterman. Roughly speaking, the current exit fee for SDG&Es service territory is 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for residential customers. Under the administrative law judges proposal, the fee for residential customers would go up to 3.46 cents per kilowatt-hour. Under Petermans plan, it would go up to 4.25 cents. If the exit fees are too high, CCAs complain customers have less financial incentive to opt out of the utility model. If the fees are too low, power companies complain they are not being fairly compensated for their infrastructure costs. CCA supporters have criticized Petermans proposal. If passed, Vaughan said it could have a sharp increase in costs from the CCA side of the equation. So when we look at what CCAs do and all the programs they bring and everything else, the question is, can CCAs still launch? Saying, Im optimistic CCAs will still persist, Peterman pushed back on claims her plan is weighted toward utilities and said the commission is obligated to look out for customers who decide to remain with utilities as well as those who opt for community choice. Of course, if there is a cost that goes up thats going to have some impact in terms of how an organization is going to decide to move forward, Peterman said. But based on the cost estimates that we have, we dont think these costs are so extreme as to be the driving factor. Peterman said the two competing proposals were very similar. The difference, she said, lay primarily on her submission taking into account costs of utilities legacy projects such as the soon-to-be shuttered Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and some natural gas facilities in SDG&Es service territory. It is important to fix this now so that communities like San Diego can go forward with accurate information about their cost obligations and then form their CCA in a manner that is sustainable, Peterman said. It may not be the outcome some folks love, but I think its providing some certainty going forward. Vaughan wants Thursdays vote to be delayed until Oct. 25, citing the fact that Petermans proposal was revised last Friday. We need some clarification about the changes, Vaughan said. The mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland also called for a delay, issuing a joint statement Tuesday that called the process rushed, opaque and with little concern for rate-paying customers. In an email, Peterman said the revisions make very limited substantive changes to her proposal and mentioned the commission already postponed a previously scheduled vote last month. This proceeding has been an open and transparent process from the beginning with many parties poring over thousands of documents, she said. The evidence in the case has been submitted and the case has been closed for some time now. Proposed CCA Exit Fee (PCIA) For San Diego Gas & Electrics service territory Administrative Law Judge proposal: Residential forecast: 3.46 cents per kilowatt-hour Medium to large commercial forecast: 2.17 cents per kilowatt-hour Commissioner Peterman proposal: Residential forecast: 4.25 cents per kilowatt-hour Medium to large commercial forecast: 2.67 cents per kilowatt-hour Source: CPUC Business rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski A Maryland-based company unveiled plans Wednesday for a more than $200 million development in East Village that would include apartments, office space and room for retail. The Foulger-Pratt Companies project for now called Block F Makers Quarter would be 32 stories and take up an entire block bounded by 15th and 16th streets between F and G streets. It would include 405 apartments, 48,475 square feet of office space and 19,665 square feet for retail. Developer Bryan Foulger told the design review committee of Civic San Diego, downtowns planning agency, that its firm decided two years ago to branch out from the Washington, D.C., area because many people in the company had experience working in Southern California. We are extremely excited about everything that is happening, not only in San Diego but specifically East Village and Makers Quarter, he told the committee. We are enamored with this site. Advertisement The committee had mostly favorable reactions to the project because of its high density but expressed reservations about the developers decision to not include low-income housing on site and pay fees instead. Many recently favored projects by the board had both high density and low-income housing on site. For instance, two weeks ago officials praised a proposed 42-story apartment tower from Canada-based Bosa Development that includes units for low-income renters. Block F Makers Quarter would be 332 feet tall (Civic San Diego) Design committee members indicated Wednesday they could live with the Foulger-Pratt project because of the substantial in-lieu fees required for not including low-income units on site more than $3.4 million that can be used to build more affordable housing downtown. You guys can build affordable housing more efficiently than the city can, said Ted Shaw, chair of the committee. (San Diego) Housing Commission is supposed to leverage dollars we collect and I know there is a balancing act. But, my preference is for it to be built on site because we get it faster. The Block F project is still some time away from a final approval, still needing to go through the full Civic San Diego board. It is expected to return to the design committee in two to three months based on recommendations. The building is designed by Carrier Johnson + Culture. Block F Makers Quarter would have a public area. (Civic San Diego) Business phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar ALSO San Diegos new single-family homes are pricey, modern and in short supply Tijuana condo craze continues in to 2018 Last years housing market broke records The city of San Diego is calling on startups to solve its urban problems, officials announced Tuesday, joining a San Francisco-based effort that connects entrepreneurs to civic challenges. First piloted by the city of San Francisco as an internal program in 2014, the program was later spun out into a nonprofit called City Innovate. Earlier this week, the group said it has attracted 30 government organizations including San Diego to participate in its Startup in Residence program. Those governments have listed 81 projects that cover issues in transit, housing and public safety for startups to tackle. San Diego also posted five challenges it hopes startups will take on, including efforts to keep the city clean and better connected. Erik Caldwell, San Diegos director of economic development, said reaching out to startups to brainstorm how to solve city challenges is a tactic hes long considered especially considering San Diegos concentration of scientists and technologists. Its hard for cities to know the best way to solve its problems, he said, and the current process to hire private parties doesnt allow for thinking outside the box. Issuing a request for proposals or RFP, for example, requires the city to detail what its looking for so private parties can bid on a project. Advertisement But often governments dont know what theyre looking for, Caldwell said. Whats the latest technology? The best practices? Are there new and innovative things were not aware of? Instead of laying out a solution in an RFP, this allows us to lay out the problem and let others decide how best to solve it. The city paid $7,500 to enter the City Innovate program for one year, and identified five big problem areas it wants help with: Coordinating nonprofits: A software platform is needed for nonprofits to better communicate about local challenges, so efforts arent duplicated. As an example, three San Diego nonprofits are working to develop programs to train youth for jobs in the innovation economy. All three are competing for the same funding opportunities, Caldwell said, and trying to establish relationships with the same partners. The platform would facilitate coordination rather than competition between nonprofits, and help local funders understand what projects need money. Tracking commute and travel: The city would like to track how people travel throughout San Diego, identifying how many people are biking, walking or taking public transit, for example. This information will help the city measure and evaluate progress toward its sustainability goals. Cataloguing curb markings: The city needs a better way of cataloguing curb coloring and time limit parking to reduce costs associated with doing this manually. Reporting messes: A platform is needed to report street mess, overflowing trash cans and other maintenance issues using automated technology. Using street light sensors: Ideas are needed for how to optimize the use of smart street lights equipped with sensor technology to improve resident services. Caldwell said startups, entrepreneurs, or even individuals can apply to the program if they have ideas on how they might solve the citys challenges. Applicants apply to the City Innovate program by visiting www.cityinnovate.org. The application deadline is Nov. 7. If chosen, the applicant will co-develop products with government agencies over a 16-week period with the goal of winning a contract. In San Francisco, City Innovate says 46 startups have already participated in the program in previous years, and 40 percent of them won contracts or are in contract negotiations now. In practice, the program has connected San Franciscos Department of Public Works with a startup out of Copenhagen called Nord Sense, which used smart sensors to improve trash can management in San Francisco. They also connected the citys Human Services Agency with Binti, a startup out of Oakland that matches foster children with families. We can rebuild trust in government by creating a government that is more responsive and effective, said Jay Nath, co-executive director at City Innovate. Soliciting startups to solve big organizational problems is an increasingly popular tactic. The San Diego International Airport, for example, has a similar program called the Innovation Lab, which lets tech startups pilot new ideas at the old commuter terminal. Neal Bloom, co-founder and chairman of local nonprofit Startup San Diego, said its heartening to see the city tap startups to solve problems. The city is smart to lean into the startup community for help for a few reasons, including that they are listening to their customers, which is the startup way, Bloom said. Getting diverse ideas, solutions, and entrepreneurs to engage should help with larger impact and adoption. Business brittany.meiling@sduniontribune.com 619-293-1286 Twitter: @BrittanyMeiling San Marcos residents who own aggressive animals could find themselves branded as irresponsible animal owners under a strict new animal control ordinance. In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the City Council updated its animal control laws to allow stiff penalties against people whose dogs run loose, or have injured other pets or people. The new ordinance tightens rules governing problem animals and their owners, including a provision that would let officials identify some people with dangerous pets as irresponsible animal owners. It would also spell out record-keeping requirements for rabies vaccinations, and clarify conditions for kennel operators. Under the new ordinance, officials with the city or the San Diego County Humane Society, which handles animal enforcement for the city, can impound the animals of people who are declared irresponsible owners, and prohibit them from owning any animals for up to three years. Advertisement Councilwoman Rebecca Jones said the proposed changes stem from animal problems in the Knob Hill neighborhood of the city, where residents have complained about loose and aggressive dogs roaming the neighborhood. However, city officials said there hasnt been a recent surge in animal complaints. Since January 2017, the citys code enforcement department received six complaints about barking dogs and two calls about loose dogs. Its unclear how many such complaints the San Diego Humane Society has fielded. The San Marcos City Council was scheduled to decide on the revised ordinance last month, but delayed the vote to allow community members to speak on the issue. On Tuesday, however, no members of the public addressed the council on the new ordinance, either in favor of, or in opposition to it. According to the ordinance, the term irresponsible owner is a person who has received three or more citations within the past two years for violating rules governing unrestrained animals, guard dogs, and nuisance or dangerous animals, as well as other regulations. Dangerous animals, under the ordinance, are those that have bitten or attacked a person or another domestic animal twice within four years, or have seriously injured or killed a person once within four years. While owners of those pets may have lost custody of the offending animals, city officials said some owners have continued to keep other problem pets despite a track record of poor safety. Animal control officers must investigate complaints and exercise judgment on whether an owner is handling animals irresponsibly, said Stephen MacKinnon, Chief of Humane Law Enforcement for the agency. The ordinance seeks to set standards for that threshold, he said. A lot of this is just making it much more clear to the public as well as the officers, MacKinnon said. People who are declared irresponsible owners can challenge the decision through an administrative review of the record, and can ultimately appeal through Superior Court, said Assistant City Attorney Wendy House. House said shes not aware of any other local agency with similar rules, noting that the ordinance is unique within San Diego County. The updated ordinance also requires dog owners to keep their animals rabies vaccination certificates for as long as the vaccine is effective, and to produce the certificate if their dog bites anyone. And it updates city regulations for the operation and licensing of animal kennels, including a provision that kennels must protect pets from exposure to wind, as well as rain and snow. MacKinnon said that animal enforcement officers who handle complaints typically educate pet owners about safety, animal welfare, noise restrictions and other issues, before issuing citations or removing animals. Jones said the city took a strict but necessary step to make sure people take proper care of their pets. Obviously, this is not a pleasant situation, she said. Im satisfied that weve done everything we can to make sure that its defensible legally. deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan If any music fans are still hoping for a possible reunion by famously estranged Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills, Nash has a friendly suggestion. Forget it. Crosby, Stills & Nash will never play another note together, said Nash, who performs Saturday at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay. Ive been on my own as a solo artist for the last two and a half years, and Im enjoying it tremendously. I dont have to do this, obviously. Im 76, yet I cant wait to get onstage. Im a communicator. Im a musician. Thats what Ive done all my life. Advertisement Indeed, he has, including on his 2016 solo album, This Path Tonight, and 2018s two-CD compilation, Over the Years. Nashs next album is now nearing completion. It will feature seven songs that didnt fit on This Path Tonight, along with some newer material. But since CSN as fans have long called the band formed in 1968, this English-born troubadour has spent a majority of the intervening decades making music with Crosby and Stills, with Neil Young periodically joining in. Nash and Crosby also made four studio albums as a duo between 1972 and 2004, along with several live albums. Over the years, CSN and CSNY imploded and regrouped any number of times. In either configuration, their concerts usually featured such Nash-penned gems as Just a Song Before I Go, Wasted on the Way and Teach Your Children. Neil Young, left, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash, are shown before the premiere of their film CSNY Deja Vu at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Amy Sancetta/AP) Alas, not long after a Washington, D.C., holiday performance in late 2015, it apparently all came to an inglorious end for CSN. That was a year after Young vowed CSNY would never get back together again, after Crosby insulted Youngs girlfriend, actress Daryl Hannah, as a purely poisonous predator. Crosby later publicly apologized. Another rift apparently occurred as a result of Nashs unvarnished 2013 autobiography, Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life, which Crosby told the Union-Tribune in a 2016 Union-Tribune interview is full of inaccuracies and chock-full of misinformation. In that same interview, Crosby charged that Graham has been pretty much of a (expletive) to me, for a while. I would not say thats the only reason, but were definitely giving it (CSN) a rest. Nash still held out some hope for a reconciliation in a 2017 Union-Tribune interview, saying: I think, right now, the only thing keeping CSNY apart are teen-aged things. And, he pointedly added, Crosby owed him an apology. Now, though, Nash sees no chance of either CSN or CSNY burying the hatchet to reunite one last time. It is what is, he said. Its exactly what life is. Its always been this way we disbanded (and reunited) for nearly 50 years. We dont quite know what were doing. We certainly know what were doing in the studio and on stage, but we had no plan. We just went day to day and here we are. The truth is, if CSN or CSNY never make another note of music, look at what weve done. Of course, vows are made to be broken. Or, to invoke an oft-quoted saying, never say never. You can say never say never, and I can say never say never, Nash said, speaking from a recent tour stop in Colorado. But I just dont like Crosby. I cant make music with him. Its done. Its over. Its over. The relations between CSN and CSNYs members was famously fractious for decades. Nash was the peacemaker in both bands. It was a role he handled with aplomb, although he balks when asked if his diplomacy skills as a musician qualified him to work at the United Nations. I would never even entertain any idea like that, Nash said. Im a musician. I get to speak my mind. I dont want to be a politician. I have no interest in running for office at all. I am just very content making the music I make for the people. But wouldnt CSN, in particular, have imploded far more often without his peacemaking abilities? Absolutely, Nash said. But you can only do that for so long without anything coming back (around). And when things came back, I passed. Im too old to deal with bulls--t anymore. If you want to make music, fantastic. If you want to go around and call people names and attack peoples girlfriends, go right the (expletive) ahead. Graham Nash shot this self-portrait at New Yorks Plaza Hotel in 1974. It was featured, several decades later, in an exhibition of his work at San Diegos Museum of Photographic Arts. (Photo by Graham Nash) By coincidence, it was 50 years ago this year that Nash left his native England and his previous band, The Hollies to join Crosby and Nash in Los Angeles. The three had first sung together in 1968 in Los Angeles, at the home of Joni Mitchell, with whom Nash subsequently became romantically involved. He will perform his CSN song, Our House, which he wrote while living with Mitchell, at the Nov. 7 JONI 75 all-star tribute concert in Los Angeles. CSNs debut album came out in May of 1969. Their second concert with the newly added Young on board was in August of the same year at the now-fabled Woodstock festival in upstate New York. Did Nash have a specific goal in mind when he teamed with Buffalo Springfield co-founder Stills and Byrds co-founder Crosby? Yes, I did, he replied. My goal was to make music with David and Stephen. The power of that vocal harmony we created so quickly in Jonis living room was so incredibly powerful and a moving force in my life. Once I heard that, I realized Id have to go back to England and leave The Hollies and my friends and family, and follow that incredible sound. Was it a risk to uproot like that? There was no risk at all, Nash said. People thought I was crazy to leave The Hollies. They hadnt heard me sing with David and Stephen. I had. As a member of The Hollies, Nash played a key role on many of the bands hits, including Bus Stop, Carrie Anne and Jennifer Eccles. Intriguingly, Nash wrote Marrakesh Express for The Hollies, who recorded it with a pronounced lack of enthusiasm and declined to release it. The song would soon become one of the most popular songs on CSNs self-titled debut album. Nash could not even muster a chuckle when asked if he had ever thanked The Hollies with which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010 for rejecting Marrakesh Express and helping to fuel his decision to team with Crosby and Stills. It surprised me, quite frankly, he said of The Hollies rejection of his bouncy song, whose 1968 solo demo version appears on his intriguing Over the Years compilation set. I thought it was a decent pop song. I was amazed they didnt put more energy into it. Theres a recording of The Hollies doing it thats buried, somewhere, in the vaults at Abbey Road (studios in London), but its not very good. Marrakesh needed a train energy to it and The Hollies version was incredibly flat. The Hollies had a lot of hits. They were basic pop songs, but the lyrics left a lot to be desired. When I saw what Stephen, David and Joni were doing, I had to up my game. With or without CSN or CSNY, Nashs devotion to speaking his mind with his songs about social and political issues remains undiminished. Ironically, while people have more ways than ever to consume music, its is more difficult now for a topical song to reach and resonate with the public. That may be, in part because there is more music than ever to consume. Also, while a large number of young people in the 1960s and early 70s appeared united in their opposition to the war in Vietnam and were often unified by timely protest songs that mirrored their feelings that no longer seems to be the case. The giant media corporations dont want protest songs on their radios or TV, Nash charged. They learned from Vietnam that you cant piss off the public, because if you do they get upset and change things. The (powers-that- be) wouldnt want people to change things now. So (its): Lie down, shut up, let me rob you. Nashs reaction to the current state of the nation speaks to his undiminished hippie idealism. He does not regard President Trump with even a hint of the unbridled enthusiasm that Kanye West has expressed for Trump. You just have to resist. You just have to follow your heart, Nash said. Its not easy, particularly politically. Ive been an American citizen for 40 years, but I think this great country deserves better than Donald Trump. Hes doing harm to the environment, Civil Rights, womens issues. The Republicans will be saddled with his legacy for a long time. Nashs Humphreys-bound current tour teams him with former Bruce Springsteen guitarist Shane Fontayne and organist Todd Caldwell. Both are former CSN touring members, and both sing harmony vocals with Nash. His concert repertoire mixes a few newer songs with staples from his CSN, CSNY and Crosby & Nash repertoires. Were stripping all the songs down to, basically, how they were written, Nash said. Its very simple and intimate. Im playing smaller places now and enjoying it tremendously. I can see my audiences reaction and I want them to know two things about me. First, I want to be there to make music for them. And, second, if theyre smiling when they leave, Ive done my job. Recording technology was still quite basic and bare-bones when Nash moved to Los Angeles half a century ago. Have the many new advancements made since then impacted the way he records his music? No, not really, Nash replied. No amount of technology can make a bad song into a good song. When I started, it was two tracks. And now, you can have 1000 tracks in your iPhone! Technology changes, music changes. But were just links in this gigantic long chain of musicians, stretching from somebody in a cave banging on logs to Lady Gaga. And Im very happy to be part of that chain. An Intimate Evening of Songs & Stories with Graham Nash When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday Where: Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island Tickets: $55 (reserved seating), $130 (dinner show package) Phone: (800) 745-3000 Online: ticketmaster.com george.varga@sduniontribune.com Twitter @georgevarga The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and search-and-rescue crews struggled to reach the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who defied evacuation orders. At least two deaths were blamed on Michael, the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in over 50 years, and it wasnt done yet: Though weakened into a tropical storm, it continued to bring heavy rain and blustery winds to the Southeast as it pushed inland, soaking areas still recovering from Hurricane Florence. Under a perfectly clear blue sky, Florida families emerged tentatively from darkened shelters and hotels to an unfamiliar and perilous landscape of shattered homes and shopping centers, beeping security alarms, wailing sirens and hovering helicopters. Advertisement The full extent of the damage was only slowly becoming clear, with some of the hardest-hit areas difficult to reach because of roads blocked by debris or water. An 80-mile stretch of Interstate 10, the main east-west route along the Panhandle, was closed. Some of the worst damage was in Mexico Beach, where Michael crashed ashore Wednesday as a Category 4 monster with 155 mph winds and a storm surge of 9 feet. Video from a drone Thursday revealed widespread devastation across the town of about 1,000 people. Entire blocks of homes near the beach were obliterated, reduced to nothing but concrete slabs in the sand. Rows and rows of other homes were turned into piles of splintered lumber or were crumpled and slumped at odd angles. Entire roofs were torn away and dropped onto a road. Boats were tossed ashore like toys. A National Guard team got into Mexico Beach and found 20 survivors overnight, and more crews were pushing into the area in the morning, with the fate of many residents unknown, authorities said. State officials said 285 people in Mexico Beach had refused to leave ahead of the hurricane despite a mandatory evacuation order. Incredible video of the catastrophic damage done by Hurricane #Micahel in Mexico Beach, FL. Video via Brandon Clement/Live Storm Media #scwx #ncwx #flwx pic.twitter.com/H7QvBcmvNA Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) October 11, 2018 Mishelle McPherson and her ex-husband searched for the elderly mother of a friend. The woman lived in a small cinderblock house about 150 yards from the Gulf and thought she would be OK. Her home was reduced to crumbled cinderblocks and pieces of floor tile. Aggy! Aggy! McPherson yelled. The only sound that came back was the echo from the half-demolished building and the pounding of the surf. Do you think her body would be here? Do you think it would have floated away? she asked. As she walked down the street, McPherson pointed out pieces of what had been the womans house: Thats the blade from her ceiling fan. Thats her floor tile. The beach town was difficult to reach by land, with roads covered by fallen trees, power lines and other debris. The governor pleaded with people in the hard-hit areas to stay away for now. I know you just want to go home. You want to check on things, and begin the recovery process, Scott said. But we have to make sure things are safe. People walk amidst destruction on the main street of Mexico Beach, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (Gerald Herbert / AP) Over 900,000 homes and businesses in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas were without power. Thousands of National Guard troops, law enforcement officers and medical teams began making their way across the stricken zone. The Coast Guard said it rescued at least 27 people before and after the hurricane came ashore, mostly from homes along the Florida coastline, and searched for more victims. Among those brought to safety were nine people rescued by helicopter from a bathroom of their Panama City home after their roof collapsed, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ronald Hodges said. The hurricane damaged hospitals and nursing homes in the Panama City area, and officials worked to evacuate hundreds of patients. The damage at Bay Medical Sacred Heart included blown-out windows, a cracked exterior wall and a roof collapse in a maintenance building. No patients were hurt, the hospital said. The state mental hospital in Chattahoochee, which has a section for the criminally insane, was cut off by land, and food and supplies were being flown in, authorities said. Michael: Where it went and where its going. (NOAA) As of 2 p.m. EDT, Michael was centered about 25 miles south of Greensboro, North Carolina, with winds of 50 mph. It was moving northeast at 23 mph. Forecasters said it could drop up to 7 inches of rain over the Carolinas and Virginia before pushing out to sea Thursday night. In North Carolinas mountains, motorists had to be rescued from cars trapped by high water. For North Carolina, Michael isnt as bad as Florence, but it adds unwelcome insult to injury, so we must be on alert, Gov. Roy Cooper said. More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast were ordered or urged to clear out as Michael closed in. But it moved fast and intensified quickly, and emergency authorities lamented that many people ignored the warnings. Why people didnt evacuate is something we should be studying, said Craig Fugate, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a former Florida state emergency management chief. Is there more the government can do? But we ask that every time. Based on its internal barometric pressure, Michael was the third most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland, behind the unnamed Labor Day storm of 1935 and Camille in 1969. Based on wind speed, it was the fourth-strongest, behind the Labor Day storm, Camille and Andrew in 1992. Associated Press writers Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg; Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Brendan Farrington in St. Marks; Russ Bynum in Keaton Beach; Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, N.C.; and Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Md., contributed to this story. October 10, 1868: First edition of The Union. 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. Saturday, October 10, 1868 Three years after the Civil War ended, the weekly San Diego Union debuted on Oct. 10, 1868. The text below comes from page two of the four-page first issue, where founding editor William Jefferson Gatewood laid out his vision for the newspaper, and for the region. Here are the first few paragraphs of the story: SALUTATORY. It has become a custom among Editors, when about launching a new paper into the reading world, to portray in glowing words a future of brilliant sunshine, and a career of magnificent successes. The custom, in all probability, had its origin in the brain of some dreamer, whose hopes for the future were bright beyond any earthly realization, and whose poetic exuberance was only equaled by his credulity. In departing from this custom, we might, with more veracity than cunning, frankly avow as our reason, a total want of the poetic imagery and exuberant fertility required in creating or describing delusive visions for the gratification of those who "listen with credulity to the whisperings of Fancy." But, it is not the mission of the UNION to deal in Fiction. Bright hopes may cheer its Editor, when disappointments would chill his ardormay beguile many a weary hour of some tediousness. The UNION will be a faithful mirror, reflecting from its pages time of distress as well as of prosperityhopes and fears, gloom and gayety and smiles and tears. A faithful chronicler of to-day, and a future reliable historian of the past. Along its columns shall grow the daily record of works, enterprises and improvements, that will linger upon the earth long after we and our dreams and hopes shall have been laid quietly beneath the sod. It must toil. In the grand struggle for the improvement of Southern Californiain opening the way for the march of civilizationin leveling the hillsgrading streetsdeveloping the minestilling the soilplanting vineyards and fruit treesin building wharves, docks, arsenals, forts and fortificationsin adorning the hills, beautifying the valleys and spreading the white sails of Commercefor the education and refinement of the present and future generationsto spread the doctrines of christianity and inculcate pure morals, and towards the enlightenment and perfection of mankind it must and shall labor earnestly and unceasingly. Its world must be a world of stern reality. Its influence shall be used in urging the people to lay aside the animosities engendered within the last few years, and so sedulously fostered by the selfish political aspirants of the present dayto foster and encourage fealty to our political institutionsobedience to the laws of our country, and charity towards all mankind.To the tax-payers and citizens of San Diego County, the Editor promises a watchful care of county affairs; full and immediate exposure of all wrongs that may be perpetrated by officials, without "fear, favor or affection." We will use our best efforts to have the burdens of taxation lightened, if possible; suggest such retrenchments and reforms as may occur to usgive a history of the doings in the world outside, as well as in the different localities of the county; record the mineral developments, the agricultural and commercial improvements; labor for our mutual advancement and rejoice in our common success and prosperity. To the citizens of San Diego, we promise an earnest co-operation in all efforts to promote the welfare of the City. Cheering words of hope and kindness shall shower upon you "As the gentle rain from Heaven Upon the place beneath." In our columns shall appear no vulgarity, obscenity, vindictiveness or personal abuse. We will pursue an open, fair, generous and just course with allallowing no personal grievance of our own to find its way into these columns: unhesitatingly condemning wrong where we find it, we will give credit where it is due; and, as we will act complaisantly towards all, we ask courtesy of all. The Editor of the UNION having, by contract, closed its columns against the expression of his own political sentiments, will not allow the subject a place therein, until such time as he can do so without violating his word. We have no further promise to make. We only pray that our lives may be spared to see the waters of our Bay fretting beneath the burdens of a busy Commerceto hear the shrill whistle of the iron horse as it spurns the sands of the desert, toils over the mountains and shoots through the valleys in its flight from the Atlantic, to meet in our harbor the rich cargoes from the ancient Orientto see our Bay surrounded by mammoth manufacturing and mercantile houses, princely residences, domes and spires of churches and schools of learningthe streets teeming with a prosperous and industrious people, and our lovely valleys lifting to our genial skies flowers and fruits, in tints as varied and gorgeous as our incomparable sunsets. 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 Los Angeles started hunting for a ratepayer advocate to scrutinize the Department of Water and Power, Mike Gatto said he was encouraged by several people at City Hall to apply. Gatto, a former state assemblyman, had headed the Assemblys Utilities and Commerce Committee in Sacramento and tried to overhaul the California Public Utilities Commission. He submitted his application and in June got an automatic confirmation that it had been received, he said. And then? Nothing, Gatto said. Advertisement That alarmed Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group that has been sharply critical of Fred Pickel, the official who now holds the job. A letter to Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Controller Ron Galperin, written by Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court and consumer advocate Liza Tucker, raised concerns about whether the city was going through a sham process engineered to reappoint Pickel and called on Galperin to investigate. Consumer Watchdog does not necessarily endorse Gatto, Court and Tucker wrote, but the fact that he did not receive as much as a phone call from the committee suggests there is foul play. To decide who should serve as ratepayer advocate, Los Angeles has formed a selection committee whose members were appointed by Garcetti, City Council President Herb Wesson and Councilwoman Nury Martinez, who heads a council committee focused on energy and environmental issues. Tony Wilkinson, the president of the North Hills East Neighborhood Council who is heading the selection committee, said the panel was involved in a confidential process, but that it was particularly determined to have a thorough vetting process that was as rigorous as possible. More than 30 people had applied, including candidates from out of state, he said. Nobody has been excluded from the process until the final selection is made, Wilkinson said, although he added that some applicants did not meet the job requirements. A Galperin spokesman declined to comment on the Consumer Watchdog letter. Garcetti spokesman Alex Comisar said the committee had conducted an independent search that included extensive public input. Mayor Garcetti respects this independent process, and looks forward to receiving the selection committees recommendation, Comisar said in a statement Wednesday. Pickel, whose initial term ended more than a year and a half ago, has continued to serve on an interim basis during the search. His tenure as ratepayer advocate has been sharply criticized by Consumer Watchdog and the environmental group Food & Water Watch, which have publicly called for him to be replaced. In its letter to Garcetti and Galperin, Consumer Watchdog argued that the city needed a more aggressive monitor to look into concerns about how the utility is run. For instance, the group raised concerns in its letter that the DWP was unnecessarily renting unused space from the city simply to put income into city coffers. The DWP has disputed that claim, saying that the city property it is renting on Figueroa Street is already 70% occupied, with room intended for jobs for which it is actively hiring. Criticism has also come from inside City Hall: Councilman Paul Koretz complained this week that Pickel has generally rubber-stamped everything the city is doing. Koretz did note that Pickel had raised concerns about the costs of a solar power program, but the councilman said he sharply disagreed with that analysis. In reaction to criticism, Pickel has pointed back to his reports analyzing topics such as the utilitys budget, rates and electrical reliability, saying that his work speaks for itself. Jack Humphreville, who heads a committee focused on the DWP that is affiliated with neighborhood councils, said Pickel had done diligent analysis that saved Angelenos money by spurring the department to lower a rate hike request. The advocates job, created after a City Hall clash over rate increases, was meant to provide public independent analysis of department actions as they relate to water and electricity rates, according to the City Charter. But outside consultants who reviewed the management of the DWP three years ago said the role was stuck in a no mans land, as it is neither a regulator nor a truly independent adviser. Although they did not criticize Pickel personally, the consultants warned that the office faced continuous political pressure. Wilkinson said he hoped that the committee would be able to choose a candidate for the job this month. Under city codes, the City Council and the mayor must confirm its selection. emily.alpert@latimes.com Twitter: @AlpertReyes A man who was stabbed to death near Koreatown last week has been identified by the Los Angeles County coroners office. Nicholas Longanbach, 47, was found dead about 7:30 a.m. Oct. 3 in the 300 block of North Heliotrope Drive. According to coroners records, he had been fatally stabbed in the neck. Longanbach had been arrested Sept. 27 and released the next day on $5,000 bail, according to Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department records. In a Facebook post, a man identified as Longanbachs brother asked for the publics help in the homicide investigation. Advertisement He was released from twin towers on a simple traffic ticket charge. He was mentally ill and had no idea where he was, the Facebook post said. We are all pleading with you to report anything to the police that may help find his killer. The LAPD is still investigating. Anyone with information can call detectives at (877) 527-3247. alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com Twitter: @r_valejandra Ventura County sheriffs deputies shot and killed a 26-year-old man armed with a knife early Wednesday while responding to a call about a single-vehicle crash in Thousand Oaks. Deputies arrived at Hillcrest and Duesenberg drives shortly after 1:15 a.m. expecting to assist with a crash, said Sgt. Eric Buschow, a sheriffs spokesman. However, when they approached the vehicle, they were met by a man holding a knife, he said. Buschow said it appears the driver lost control of his car, crashed into a fence and ended up in an open area near a condominium complex before deputies arrived. The man walked toward authorities with the knife and ignored requests to drop the weapon, Buschow said. He was struck multiple times with rounds from a beanbag-type shotgun, but he continued advancing toward deputies, he said. Advertisement It didnt deter him in the least, he said. The deputies had no choice at that point but to use lethal force. The man, a Thousand Oaks resident, was struck several times by gunfire. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The deputies, who were not injured, were wearing body cameras at the time, Buschow said. Authorities have not released the mans name. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @Hannahnfry Mid-city business groups are in discussion with city and county representatives to do homeless outreach in City Heights and North Park, supplementing work often performed by police. Angela Landsberg, executive director of North Park Main Street, said the association will use a social worker from People Assisting the Homeless more commonly known as PATH to do homeless outreach. The business association is spearheading the effort and is working in collaboration with Price Charities, City Heights Business Association, City Heights Community Development Corporation, San Diego City Council members Chris Ward and Georgette Gomez and San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts. Homelessness is inherently resistant to one-size-fits-all solutions or a single-source problem solver like government, Roberts said. I support the focused-pilot project that the City Heights Community Development Corporation is proposing with Price Philanthropies and North Park Main Street, and hope that it works and can be replicated. Advertisement Landsberg said using a social worker rather than police officers may be more effective when approaching people who are homeless and may have had negative experiences with law enforcement. In San Diego, a new neighborhood policing division includes outreach teams that often work with professionals from various service organizations when meeting with homeless people on the street. That same division, however, also has officers focused on addressing quality-of-life laws often associated with homelessness, meaning they sometimes cite people on the street for blocking sidewalks and other offenses. Landsberg said some homeless people may turn down shelter beds or other services when offered by uniformed officers, but people may be more receptive if approached by trained social workers they have come to trust. A fundraising campaign with a goal of $200,000 has been launched. Organizers hope to have a team ready in January. The area covered by the team would include North Park, which is in Wards district, and City Heights in Gomezs district. Landsberg said North Park Main Street counts homeless people in the neighborhood every four months, and the last count found 69 people. She suspects the actual number could be three or four times higher. The first count taken last year found 39 people. By working with PATH, Landsberg said, an experienced social worker connected to services will work to do more than just get homeless people in a shelter, but also get them the help needed to overcome issues that lead to their homelessness. She doesnt expect any overnight changes. Crucial to helping people get off the streets and into services is building trust, she said, and that can take time. Landsberg said she knows how long that can take from her own experience with a homeless woman who often is outside her office. Im just now getting to know her, she said. It was eight months before she opened up. Police departments across the country have created homeless outreach teams, and the value of the teams was discussed at the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention in Orlando last weekend. San Diego Police Departments team was among the models mentioned as an example of successful programs. San Diego homeless advocate Michael McConnell, however, said he believes trained social workers are better suited for the job. Its proven that law enforcement isnt the most trust-building organization out there, he said. Theyre not building trust with people when theyre giving tickets. But we do know if you put trained people on the street and give them the resources they need, that will help. U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Matthew Doherty also has recommended using trained social workers rather than law enforcement officers for homeless outreach. In a November 2017 letter to San Diego city officials, Doherty wrote he had concerns that outreach efforts could be affected by police clearing homeless people from areas during the hepatitis A outbreak that year. We strongly recommend utilizing trained outreach workers as lead for reaching out to and working with people who are unsheltered, rather than law enforcement personnel, in order to make such necessary cleaning activities possible, he wrote. The letter followed a visit to San Diego and was addressed to Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Ward, Roberts and Gordon Walker, head of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. Homeless Playlist On Now San Diego hepatitis outbreak continues to grow: 481 cases On Now Homeless entrenched in booming tent city along Santa Ana River On Now San Diego mayor agreed to homeless hub, then delayed, advocates say On Now Homeless outreach in San Diego On Now Video: Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #8 On Now In poverty himself, 'Water Man Dave,' is the fearless saint of San Diego's homeless 5:41 On Now Video: Homeless living in cars find safe havens 2:21 On Now Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #7 On Now Pitching a tent plan for San Diego's homeless On Now Homeless efforts get $80M boost for various services gary.warth@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @GaryWarthUT 760-529-4939 Timothy Thomas isnt budging from his home on Ocean View Drive, even though its directly in the path of Hurricane Michael. Thomas, a 50-year-old air conditioning repairman, plans to defy an evacuation order and ride out the monster storm in an apartment thats just a few hundred yards from the beach and even closer to the tea-colored Grand Lagoon, which will rise as the massive storm pushes ocean water toward the coast of the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday. An Illinois native with a beard, long hair and a streak of independence, Thomas hasnt been through a major hurricane before; hes only lived in Panama City Beach about seven years. A neighbor with far more storm experience is evacuating to higher ground. But police arent being pushy about enforcing the order, and Thomas figures he, his wife and their puppy will be OK because they live in a second-floor apartment. Its more than 10 feet off the ground, after all, and forecasters say the water in his area isnt supposed to rise that much. If it does, I guess well be swimming, he said Tuesday evening as the sky darkened overhead. Advertisement 1 / 50 Aerial image of damage to homes and flooding after the arrival of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. (JAMES E WYATT/ EPA / Rex / Shutterstock) 2 / 50 People walk around the destroyed portion of Alligator Drive, in Alligator Point, Fla. (TAILYR IRVINE / Tampa Bay Times) 3 / 50 U.S. Customs and Border Protection crew conduct a search and rescue operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael among damaged homes and flooding in Panama City, Fla. (GLENN FAWCETT/ EPA / Rex / Shutterstock) 4 / 50 A body is removed after being discovered during the search of a housing structure in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. (David Goldman / Associated Press) 5 / 50 Entire blocks were destroyed in Mexico Beach, Fla., two days after Hurricane Michael devastated the small coastal town just outside Panama City, Fla. (Pedro Portal / Miami Herald) 6 / 50 Flyover of the Florida panhandle in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael shows a destroyed boat yard near Panama City, Fla. (GLENN FAWCETT / AFP/Getty Images) 7 / 50 Tom Bailey walks his bike past a home that was carried across a road and slammed up against a condo complex as Hurricane Michael passed through the area in Mexico Beach, Fla. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 8 / 50 Rescue personnel perform a search in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 9 / 50 Storm-damaged boats in Panama City, Fla. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images) 10 / 50 The coastal township of Mexico Beach, Fla., population 1,200, lies devastated a day after Hurricane Michael made landfall. (Douglas R. Clifford / Tampa Bay Times) 11 / 50 A boat storage building is collapsed in Panama City Beach, Fla. (Chris OMeara / Associated Press) 12 / 50 Damage from Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. (SevereStudios.com) 13 / 50 Mishelle McPherson climbs over the rubble of her friends home in Mexico Beach, Fla. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 14 / 50 Dr. Patricia Cantrell, left, and Ana Kaufmann with the South Florida Search and Rescue Task Force survey damage at the western edge of Mexico Beach, Fla. (Douglas R. Clifford / Tampa Bay Times) 15 / 50 Gavin Conklin, 17, gathers water bottles from a neighbors refrigerator after Hurricane Michael destroyed the home in Panama City, Fla. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 16 / 50 Hector Benthall, right, gets a hug from his neighbor, Keito Jordan, after a tree crashed onto Benthalls home in Columbia, S.C. (Sean Rayford / Getty Images) 17 / 50 The overhang of a gas station is toppled over in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Inlet Beach, Fla. (Emily Kask / AFP/Getty Images) 18 / 50 Amanda Logsdon begins the process of trying to clean up her home after the roof was blown off in Panama City, Fla. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 19 / 50 Kathy Coy inspects what is left of her home after Hurricane Michael destroyed it in Panama City, Fla. She said she was in the home when it was blown apart and is thankful to be alive. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 20 / 50 Men cut a tree that fell on a vehicle in Panama City, Fla. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 21 / 50 Phlomena Telker stands on what was her covered porch after hurricane Michael tore the roof off her home as it passed through the area in Panama City, Fla. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 22 / 50 The storm surge retreats from inland areas, where boats lay sunk and damaged at the Port St. Joe Marina in the Florida Panhandle. (Douglas R. Clifford / TNS) 23 / 50 Bo Lynns Market starts taking water in the town of St. Marks, Fla., as Hurricane Michael pushes the storm surge up the Wakulla and St. Marks rivers, which come together in St. Marks. (Mark Wallheiser / Getty Images) 24 / 50 A woman and her children stand near a destroyed gas station after Hurricane Michael passes through Panama City, Fla. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images) 25 / 50 People walk through the wreckage of a building after the arrival of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla. (DAN ANDERSON / EPA / Shutterstock) 26 / 50 Haley Nelson inspects damage to her family belongings after Hurricane Michael made landfall along Floridas Panhandle in Panama City. (Pedro Portal / Miami Herald) 27 / 50 People walk through the wreckage of a building in Panama City, Fla. (Dan Anderson / EPA) 28 / 50 Mike Lindsey stands in his Panama City antique shop after Michaels winds broke the windows. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 29 / 50 Kaylee OBrian weeps inside her home after several trees fell on it when Michael hit Panama City, Fla. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 30 / 50 A hotel canopy collapsed on cars in Panama City Beach, Fla. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 31 / 50 A hotel employee holds a glass door closed as it breaks from flying debris in Panama City Beach, Fla. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 32 / 50 People look at a damaged store after Hurricane Michael hit Panama City, Fla. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 33 / 50 The Oceanis is grounded ashore by a tidal surge at the Port St. Joe Marina. (Douglas R. Clifford / Associated Press) 34 / 50 Haley Nelson stands in front of the remains of one of her fathers trailer homes after Michael hit Panama City. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 35 / 50 A man walks through a flooded street in Panama City, Fla. (Dan Anderson / European Pressphoto Agency) 36 / 50 People walk among downed trees in a heavily damaged neighborhood in Panama City, Fla. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) 37 / 50 Mitchell Pope tries to salvage what he can from his mobile home after the Wakulla and St. Marks rivers overflowed in St. Marks, Fla. (Mark Wallheiser / Getty Images) 38 / 50 Cameron Sadowski walks through crashing waves as Michaels outer bands hit Panama City Beach, Fla. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 39 / 50 A storm watcher takes photos of the surf and fishing pier on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., as Hurricane Michael approaches. (Devon Ravine / Northwest Florida Daily News) 40 / 50 A satellite image of Hurricane Michael as it moves north-northwest over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. (NOAA) 41 / 50 People fill bags with sand at the Lynn Haven Sports Complex while preparing for Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images) 42 / 50 Beach visitors await the approach of Hurricane Michael in Panama City Beach, Fla. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images) 43 / 50 Waves crash against the Malecon esplanade in Havana, triggered by the outer bands of Hurricane Michael. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press) 44 / 50 Krystal Day, left, leads a sandbag assembly line at the Old Port Cove restaurant in Ozello, Fla. Employees were hoping to protect the restaurant from floodwaters as Hurricane Michael continues to churn in the Gulf of Mexico heading for the Florida Panhandle. (Chris OMeara / Associated Press) 45 / 50 The effects of Hurricane Michael are seen along the coastline of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. (Alonso Cupul / EPA) 46 / 50 Carol Cathey spray-paints words on the plywood over her daughters business in preparation for Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) 47 / 50 Xavier McKenzie puts a 20-pound bag of ice into his familys car in Panama City, Fla., as Hurricane Michael approaches. (Joshua Boucher / Associated Press) 48 / 50 Workers board up the windows of Marcos Pizza in Panama City Beach, Fla. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images) 49 / 50 Nick Severson carries his daughter, Aubrey, as they and others walk the beach in Destin, Fla. Waves from Hurricane Michael pounded the shoreline of this Florida Panhandle resort town. (Devon Ravine / Northwest Florida Daily News) 50 / 50 Workers scramble to store boats before the arrival of Hurricane Michael in St. Marks, Fla., south of Tallahassee. (Mark Wallheiser / Getty Images) Thomas isnt alone; other residents along his street also plan to take on Michael head-on, even though authorities have told about 120,000 residents of Bay County to leave. Thomas first-floor neighbors also plan to stay, and theyre welcome upstairs if the water gets too high, Thomas said. So are his next-door neighbors and their dog. Weve got canned food and a can opener. We have lots of water and food for the dogs, and Im going to tape up the windows, cover the windows, just tack them up with sheets or whatever, to keep the glass from flying if that happens, he said. As Thomas spoke, a hurricane party was going on less than 2 miles away at Busters Beer and Bait, a dive bar popular both with locals and tourists who overwhelm the region during the summer. With Michael percolating out in the Gulf of Mexico, dozens of people gathered outside Busters as small palm trees swayed in the breeze nearby. Other places were shut down and locked up. The windows were covered with metal hurricane shutters at Pineapple Willies, a popular beachfront restaurant, and sandbags blocked the entrance to a Wells Fargo bank. Plywood covered the front at Shrimp City, a small seafood market. Dwight Williams, who lives across the street from Thomas, wasnt taking any chances he and his wife were packing to evacuate. They plan to stay with friends in DeFuniak Springs, a Panhandle town about 30 miles inland. Their single-story home is built to withstand winds blowing up to 130 mph, Williams said, but rising water is scary. What worries me is the storm surge, said Williams, who has lived on the street about 24 years. Thomas said relatives in Illinois had urged him to leave and stay with them, but he didnt have a way to get so far north so quickly, and shelters arent a good option in his view. You never know who youre sleeping beside, he said. Here, I do. So Thomas and his wife will stay put. And once the wind stops howling and the water recedes, Thomas will await the natural outcome of a hurricane for someone who works in the air conditioning business in a place known for hot, humid summers. After all the air conditioners go underwater, well be busy, he said. A 53-year-old man died in a freak accident during a medieval event in Northern Kentucky when he was impaled with his lance. Peter Barclay who goes by the show name Master Terafan Greydragon was competing Saturday at the Society for Creative Anachronism event in Williamstown when the accident occurred. His metal tipped lance, used for catching rings (not jousting), hit the ground and flipped. Freak accident. It impaled him under his sternum killing him, according to his brother John Barclay in a Facebook post. Barclay died while being airlifted to a hospital. Advertisement He is survived by his wife Deborah A. Barclay, two daughters, father Jack Barclay, and two brothers. Thank you all for your love and support in this difficult time. I know there are questions. Were working on answers, Deborah wrote in a post, asking for space to grieve. The society released a statement saying it was conducting an investigation to determine what might have led up to the accident, and what specific measures should be taken to ensure that this does not occur again. The SCA will make the investigation results available to the public once its completed. A father should not have to bury a son, Jack, Peters father, commented. He was an easy son to raise. He was incredible and I will miss him so much. A stronger-than-expected Hurricane Michael battered Florida and parts of Georgia Wednesday with heavy rains and high winds, killing at least one man who was home when he was hit by a falling tree, authorities said. NBC News reported it to be the strongest hurricane to ever hit the Florida Panhandle. Catastrophic was the word widely used to describe the Category 4 storm that pounded the Panhandle with 155 mph winds and a life-threatening storm surge. The winds were just short of a Category 5 storm. The last category 5 storm to strike Florida was Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Advertisement Mighty Michael knocked out power for nearly 400,000 Florida customers as of Wednesday evening, and another 60,000 customers were without power in Alabama. Haley Nelson inspects damages to her family properties in the Panama City, Fla., spring field area after Hurricane Michael made landfall in Floridas Panhandle on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (Pedro Portal / AP) Storm surges were predicted to hit land at 14 feet, and 12 inches of rain was expected across the Florida Panhandle and the states Big Bend region, as well as in southeast Alabama and parts of southwest and central Georgia. We are catching some hell, Timothy Thomas, who rode out the storm with his wife in their home in Panama City Beach, Fla., told the Associated Press. High tide from offshore Hurricane Michael creeps up into the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 after the Anclote River backs up. (Jim Damaske/The Tampa Bay Times via AP) (Jim Damaske / AP) Diane Farris, 57, and her son walked to a high school that had been turned into a shelter near their home in Panama City. There, they found about 1,100 people crammed into a space meant for about half that many. Farris and her son were unable to communicate with their family because their only phone got wet and stopped working. Im worried about my daughter and grandbaby, Farris said. I dont know where they are. You know, thats hard. The hurricane, whipped into a frenzy by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, is one of the most powerful to ever hit the U.S. mainland. The apocalyptic superstorm roared ashore at about 1:30 p.m. near Mexico Beach, a tourist town about halfway up the Panhandle, a lightly populated, stretch of white-sand beach resorts, fishing towns and military bases. People walk through downed trees in a heavily damaged neighborhood in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (Gerald Herbert / AP) The storm battered the coastline with sideways rain and powerful winds that bent trees and lifted heavy debris. A Florida man died when a tree fell through his home, the first Hurricane Michael-related death reported. A spokeswoman for the Gadsden County Sheriffs Office told the Daily News that downed power lines and other blockages prevented help from getting to the unidentified man in his Greensboro home, near Tallahassee. Florida Gov. Rick Scott warned of unimaginable devastation. This is the worst storm that our Florida Panhandle has seen in a century, Scott said on Wednesday morning. Hurricane Michael is upon us, and now is the time to seek refuge. Scott said search and rescue teams were heading into the states hardest-hit areas to help survivors. High-end Cat. 4 #Hurricane #Michael now making landfall between Tyndall AFB and Mexico Beach, FL with *sustained* winds of 150 MPH. Pressure down to 919 MB (27.14"). (@NOAA GOES-East vis imagery) pic.twitter.com/hp1X9RF8aT NASA SPoRT (@NASA_SPoRT) October 10, 2018 President Trump was among those voicing concern about Florida as the Sunshine State took a pounding. We are with you Florida, Trump tweeted, although he was actually headed to Pennsylvania for a campaign event, the same kind of decision he once bashed his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, for. Yesterday Obama campaigned with JayZ & Springsteen while Hurricane Sandy victims across NY & NJ are still decimated by Sandy. Wrong! Trump tweeted in 2012, days after the super storm brought chaos to the five boroughs and surrounding areas. National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham warned of structural damages including downed power lines and trees as well as winds strong enough to rip the roofs off houses. He added that the effects of the storm will extend far beyond the coast and into some parts of Central Georgia. A storm surge warning was in effect Wednesday from the Okaloosa/Walton county lines to the Anclote River and from the Anclote River to Anna Maria Island which includes Tampa Bay. Several areas could see surges peaking at 14 feet, which is a complete inundation of water, Graham noted. Michael reportedly killed at least 13 people in Central America: six in Honduras, four in Nicaragua and three in El Salvador. More than 370,000 people in Florida were ordered to evacuate, but officials said many ignored the warning. Schools and state offices in the area are to remain shut this week. Michael is expected to be carrying tropical storm-force winds when it reaches the Carolinas, which are already reeling from last months Hurricane Florence. With Kate Feldman Texas parents have filed a lawsuit against the police officer caught on video pulling a gun on a group of children earlier this year. A second civil rights action was also filed Tuesday against El Paso Officer Jose Rivas in connection with a separate incident, the arrest of a teen in November of 2016. Video of Rivas pointing his gun at several children on July 5 was viewed by millions of people. The officer was placed on administrative leave, but has since been cleared by the department of any wrongdoing. The video of Rivas pulling his weapon on local El Paso children went viral because his action was so shocking, lawyer Conrad Benedetto said. Advertisement The lawsuit, filed by three El Paso parents against Rivas and another officer, alleges that no lawful basis existed for him to point the loaded weapon at the children. Additionally, when a child recorded the officers actions, Rivas arrested him, according to the lawsuit. The child then gave his cellphone to his mother, who was pursued by Rivas. The officer pushed Elizabeth Flores and forced her to step on another child, causing serious injury, according to the lawsuit. Rivas is also accused of forcing one of the children to the ground and kicking him. He then allegedly flipped, dragged and slammed the child to the ground before handcuffing him. I dont know why he got so aggressive as soon as he got here, Flores told the El Paso Times after the incident. I dont know if the cop had a bad day. An El Paso Police Department internal investigation cleared Rivas, and El Paso police union president Ron Martin defended his contention that he perceived a threat when he drew his weapon. The second lawsuit states that Rivas threw down a teenager during an arrest in 2016. The lawsuit alleges that Rivas and three other police officers violated the teens civil rights. With News Wire Services A Minnesota teacher has voluntarily resigned from her position after allegedly suggesting someone kill Kavanaugh in a tweet. So whose [sic] gonna take one for the team and kill Kavanaugh, the since-deleted tweet read, according to StarTribune. Brett Kavanaugh, the newly-confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was approved Saturday in a 50-48 vote. Complaints about the tweet started rolling in on Sunday, prompting an investigation from the school district and FBI. Advertisement The woman, a Rosemount school district employee, has not yet been named because no charges have been filed against her but social media users have identified her as Samantha Ness, who goes by @lookitsSammm on Twitter. Tweets from a Minnesota special education teacher calling for someone to kill Justice Kavanaugh. pic.twitter.com/HdtcVtRqLd Beth Baumann (@eb454) October 8, 2018 The actions of the employee did not occur at school, and there were no school devices, equipment, or other school staff involved in the actions, Intermediate School District 917 Superintendent Mark Zuzek said in a statement Tuesday. Pursuant with the Minnesota Data Practices Act, we are limited to providing additional information regarding this matter. Kavanaugh is not the only one receiving death threats. His sex assault accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, hasnt been able to return to her home. Her family has been through a lot. They are not living at home. Its going to be quite some time before they are able to live at home. The threats have been unending. Its deplorable. Its been very frightening, Fords attorney Debra Katz said in an interview with NBCs Kasie Hunt. A Texas prisoner in the custody of U.S. marshals died under mysterious circumstances on Monday after a shooting at a Texas hospital. According to a press release, the detainee died at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa. The name of the prisoner will not be released until next of kin have been notified, marshals said in a statement. Texas Rangers will investigate the incident. No law enforcement employees were hurt during the incident, said marshals. Advertisement Little is known about the shooting, which involved a patient in custody on Monday afternoon, according to a press release from Medical Center Hospital. That patient was was declared dead less than two hours later. No medical center workers were involved or injured in the incident, reported OA online. From what I understand there were two personnel up there that was guarding the inmate (at the hospital), said Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis. After the lethal shot, Griffis claimed his office was asked to guard the inmate. He sent two officers who stood with the inmate until he was deceased, said Griffis. The sheriff stated unless an inmate is an escape risk, his office is required to send one jailer to escort the suspect to the hospital, but federal inmates require two escorts outside of a secure facility at all times. Here in Odessa, weve very blessed to have a very tight law enforcement community and we help one another constantly, Ector County Police Chief Brad Timmons said on Tuesday. Its almost an if they overhear something, theyll just self-respond. A man who fired a pellet gun at Navy SEALS who were diving near Liberty Station pleaded guilty Wednesday, a day before his trial was to begin. Scott Weaver, 48, pleaded guilty to brandishing a replica firearm and attempting to threaten a witness. A charge of assault with a deadly weapon was dismissed in an earlier hearing. He faces one year in county jail when he is sentenced Nov. 1 Weavers case was set to go to trial Thursday in front of San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Walsh, who accepted the guilty plea. Advertisement Deputy District Attorney Geoffrey Allard declined to give any details about the attempted threats made by Weaver. Authorities said that Navy SEAL instructors and trainees were conducting a nighttime qualification dive around the Halsey Road bridge over a small bay inlet, near Liberty Station, on July 23. Weaver confronted the divers about 10:30 p.m. and opened fire on them with his pellet gun. Navy personnel called San Diego police, who arrested Weaver. A Navy spokesman declined after the incident to give details on what the SEALS were doing that night, but confirmed that the special-warfare unit does train in San Diego Bay. Naval Special Warfare Command officials said it would evaluate the training procedures with an eye toward safety of the divers as a result of the shooting. pauline.repard@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @pdrepard A man who complained of chest pain after a fight Tuesday in southeastern San Diego later died at a hospital, prompting detectives to open a suspicious-death investigation, police said. Firefighters initially responded a little after 1:10 p.m. to the call for a man experiencing chest pain in a vacant lot near Imperial Avenue and Valencia Parkway in the Valencia Park neighborhood, San Diego police homicide Lt. Anthony Dupree said. When officers arrived to provide non-urgent cover, San Diego firefighters were performing life-saving measures on the man, Dupree said. He was eventually taken to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. The man was identified as 51-year-old Joseph Ives of San Diego. Advertisement Officers learned the victim had been involved in a physical altercation with another male, and after the altercation told a witness he was having chest pain, Dupree said in a statement. The victim did not have any obvious signs of trauma to his body, but homicide investigators were called to the scene as a precaution, Dupree said. The detectives were investigating it as a suspicious death. It was unclear when or where the fight occurred, but Dupree said in an email Tuesday night that detectives were still investigating the details of what happened. We dont have any (information) indicating any weapons were used during the fight, or the duration of the fight, (or) who started it, Dupree said. Anyone with relevant information about the fight and the mans death was asked to call the San Diego Police Departments homicide unit at (619) 531-2293, or San Diego County Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at (888) 580-8477. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com UPDATES: 7:40 a.m.: This article was updated with the name of the victim. 10:00 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details. This article was originally published at 6:10 p.m. Authorities have identified a 65-year-old woman who was killed in Jamul by a hit-and-run driver on Friday. Ashley Bevers of Jamul was crossing state Route 94 westbound near Maxfield Road around 7:20 p.m. Friday when she was struck by a white Toyota Corolla heading west on the highway, according to the California Highway Patrol and the county Medical Examiners Office. The man driving the Toyota at first pulled over and got out of the car, then hopped back in and fled the area, continuing west on SR 94 before officers were able to arrest him, according to the CHP. Paramedics transported Bevers to a San Diego hospital, where she was later pronounced dead, according to the Medical Examiners Office. Advertisement Wissam Yousif of Santee, 38, was booked into a jail on suspicion of felony hit-and-run, CHP Officer Travis Garrow said. Twitter: @karenkucher (619) 293-1350 karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com Results from DNA testing of a wetsuit worn by a teenage boy bitten by a shark last month while lobster diving in Encinitas confirmed the attack was made by a great white shark, officials said Wednesday. Lifeguards and scientists had thought from the start they probably were dealing with a white shark, which witnesses described as being about 11 feet long. But it wasnt until forensic analysis of DNA swabbed from the wetsuit of 13-year-old Keane Webre-Hayes came back Friday that officials had conclusive evidence that a white shark was involved in the attack. Shark bite incidents are exceedingly rare considering the number of people that use Southern California waters, but people do need to be aware that the fall season is a time when more large juvenile and adult sharks may be moving along the coast, Chris Lowe, director of Long Beach State Universitys Shark Lab, said in a statement. Advertisement Lowe is conducting field research in Baja California this week, and couldnt be reached for additional comment. He had worked with Encinitas lifeguards since the day of the attack, helping to identify the species of shark involved and providing information about white shark movements and behavior. Webre-Hayes was critically injured in the attack, which occurred as he was diving for lobsters at Beacons Beach at the foot of Leucadia Boulevard on Sept. 29, the first day of the recreational lobster season. Keane Webre-Hayes inside his hospital room at Rady Childrens Hospital-San Diego on Oct. 1 (Courtesy of Ellie Hayes via AP) The boy was about 200 yards from shore, in water about 9 feet deep, when he was attacked. Lifeguards said later that the boy was lucky that an off-duty state lifeguard and off-duty Oceanside police officer were nearby. They pulled him into a kayak and applied pressure to his badly bleeding wound. The boy was airlifted to Rady Childrens Hospital in critical condition and underwent surgery. He has since been released from the hospital and is now at home recovering, according to Encinitas city officials. A GoFundMe account set up to assist the boys family with medical expenses has raised more than $37,000. After the attack, lifeguards closed down a stretch of North County beaches for two days, keeping swimmers, surfers and divers out of the water from Ponto Beach in southern Carlsbad to Swamis Beach in Encinitas. The beaches reopened after no other shark sightings were reported by lifeguards or members of the public. The lab test used to confirm the presence of white shark DNA is similar to a new procedure being developed that can detect white shark environmental DNA in ocean water samples. Environmental DNA or eDNA can be found in cellular materials left behind by sharks and other animals. Researchers hope to develop a species-specific test that could be used by lifeguards to detect what type of sharks have been in an area based on testing water samples. That, along with current monitoring efforts, such as aerial surveillance and tracking tagged sharks, could give lifeguards and biologists a better idea what sharks are in an area and help authorities warn swimmers about potential dangers. While the methods still will require more testing and calibration, this could potentially offer a way for lifeguards and biologists to figure out what species was involved, and whether that species is still in the area, Lowe said. Southern California is a known nursery area for white sharks, with juveniles ranging in size from four feet up to 10 or 11 feet. The juveniles are typically fish eaters so they tend to be less dangerous to humans than adults, which feed on marine mammals like sea lions and seals, said Andrew Nosal, a teaching professor in environmental and ocean sciences at the University of San Diego, who has studied sharks in San Diego for the past 11 years. No one knows why sharks bite humans, Nosal said. Its most likely a case of mistaken identity. The shark might think that its gone after normal prey. In many cases, theyll take a bite out of a human, and leave. Before last months attack, a dozen shark attacks had been reported in San Diego County since 2000, according to the nonprofit Shark Research Committee. The last fatal attack was on April 25, 2008, when retired veterinarian David Martin, 66, was killed. He was bitten by a white shark while on a triathalon training swim off Fletcher Cove in Solana Beach. Nosal, who saw photos of the Webre-Hayes bite wounds, had figured the shark in the attack was likely a white shark even before the DNA test results came back. He said the fact there are so many sharks off the coast of San Diego is good news, because that means the ecosystem is healthy. These sharks, they are top predators. They are an important part of the food chain and they keep the ecosystem balanced, he said. The chances of being attacked by a shark while swimming in the ocean remains small. The number of white sharks swimming off the coast of Southern California has been increasing for the last 10 to 15 years, according to researchers. I try to remind people there (is) no such thing as shark-infested waters. This is where they live, this is their home. And you cant infest your own home, Nosal said. We just have to remember that we dont belong in the water, thats not our home. And when we get into the water, there is a risk to getting into the water, and it is a very small risk. Staff Writer Gary Robbins contributed to this report. Twitter: @karenkucher (619) 293-1350 karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com UPDATES: 10:45 a.m.: This story was updated with additional details. This article was originally published at 9:25 a.m. A woman was shot and killed Tuesday night after getting in an argument with a man in the parking lot of a shopping center in Point Loma Heights, and police are looking for her assailant. Witnesses told police the two had been inside a Dominos Pizza store in the strip mall on West Point Loma Boulevard near Groton Street shortly before 11:45 p.m. when they walked out to a parking lot and were heard yelling. Then a single gunshot rang out. A dark sedan was seen speeding away, heading east on West Point Loma Boulevard. The victim, who police said appeared to be in her 30s, was found lying on the ground. The woman suffered a gunshot wound to the upper body, said San Diego police homicide Lt. Anthony Dupree. Paramedics transported her to a hospital but doctors were unable to revive her. Advertisement Dupree said the woman was not carrying any identification and has not yet been identified. The relationship between the victim and the assailant also is not known, he said. Police were hoping surveillance cameras in the shopping center caught the deadly confrontation. Were hoping (Dominos Pizza does) have cameras. Were waiting for a manager to come who has access to it. Hopefully, give us some additional information we can put out, Dupree told NBC 7 San Diego. Anyone with information about the shooting was asked to call homicide detectives at (619) 531-2293 or the Crime Stoppers tip line at (888) 580-8477. Twitter: @karenkucher (619) 293-1350 karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com A Vista man accused of fatally shooting his younger brother in their shared apartment in February pleaded guilty last week to involuntary manslaughter. Fredy Sixto, 27, faces three years in prison when he is sentenced in Vista next month, according to the District Attorneys Office. The victim was 19-year-old Juan Sixto. The guilty plea, on Oct. 5, came shortly after prosecutors dismissed murder charges against the older brother, then refiled the case days later. The District Attorneys Office said the initial case was dismissed so they could investigate further. Advertisement On the night of Feb. 18, family members brought the younger brother to Tri-City Medical Center with a gunshot in the back of his head. Deputies learned the young man had been shot at his apartment, where he lived with Fredy Sixto, as well as another brother, that brothers wife and their toddler child, according to a document filed by the prosecution. At the apartment on Pomelo Drive, off Hacienda Drive, deputies found Fredy Sixto with cuts and bruises, blood on his arms and face, and a 9mm cartridge in his pants pocket. They also found blood inside and outside the apartment, according to the document. The filing also stated that only Fredy and Juan Sixto had been home at the time of the shooting, and detectives came to learn that the brothers had argued right before the shooting. Juan Sixto died the following day. Fredy Sixtos defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the guilty plea. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT Cathy Kennedy wasnt supposed to be on East Grand Avenue that March evening in 2017. But a quick stop at an Escondido store after Bible study had put the dental hygienist on a different path home. Less than a mile from the store, a gang rivalry and a stray bullet sealed her fate. Her death, as an innocent passerby, shook the community. Opening statements and testimony started Tuesday at the Vista courthouse in the trial of DionicioTorrez. Jr., a documented gang member accused of fatally shooting Kennedy as she drove home March 7, 2017. The 55-year-old Escondido woman was hit by one of the 12 bullets authorities said the defendant fired at rival gangsters as they ran from his apartment complex. Advertisement Torrez, 25, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder, and a count of shooting into an occupied car. He also faces two counts of attempted murder for shooting at the rival gangsters. Even though he missed them, two of his bullets pierced their getaway car, a Toyota Prius. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Torrezs attorney, Alejandro Morales, did not make an opening statement. He may give one later in the trial, before he has an opportunity to call defense witnesses to testify. Deputy District Attorney Laurie Hauf told the jury of eight men and four women during her hour-long opening statement: What happened that night is the story of two worlds colliding. Catherine Kennedy, left, with daughter Alicia de la Rosa (courtesy Kennedy family) Hauf told the jury that Kennedy had left St. Timothys church and had stopped at a Walmart before heading home. After she left the store, she drove along East Grand Avenue and was near Gayland Street when she was shot the bullet shattering her passenger window before entering the right side of her head. Her Toyota Camry crashed into a parked pickup along the road. Kennedy died at a hospital a short time later. According to Hauf, Torrez lived in a large apartment complex along East Grand, a place known as turf for Torrezs gang. That night, about 9 p.m., Hauf said, one of the residents spotted rival gang members on the grounds, tagging several sites with graffiti a challenge to the home-turf gang. The resident called Torrez, who had been hanging out at his apartment with others, including a then-16-year-old neighbor. After the call, Torrez and his friends took off after the intruders, who were running away. The teenage neighbor who had been in the bathroom soon learned gang rivals were there. When testifying Tuesday afternoon, the teen said he went to help Torrez, to back him up in the fist fight with gang rivals that the teen figured was likely coming. He said he reached Torrez near the sidewalk along East Grand. The rivals were across the street. Then he saw that Torrez had a gun. Then, muzzle flashes. I remember seeing the light, and my ears hurting. I couldnt hear, the teen testified. He also saw Kennedys car crash, but did not know that the crash had anything to do with the gunshots. The teen said he and Torrez took off, walking away from the complex to a friends home. They were soon given a ride back to the complex. He did not see Torrez in the days that followed. Hauf said Torrez was arrested eight days later in the small town of Red Bluff, about 30 miles south of Redding in Northern California. That same day, the teen was arrested in Escondido. Both were charged with murder. In the summer of 2017, the teen took a deal with the District Attorneys Office. Charged as a juvenile, he pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree murder. On cross examination, the teen acknowledged that he would get no more than seven years in custody and could get out far sooner, possibly not long after the trial. Testimony resumes Wednesday. The trial could last a few weeks. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT A 33-year-old Vista man was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for a drunken driving crash that killed his passenger on a San Marcos freeway earlier this year. Ricardo Vargas was behind the wheel of a white 2006 Toyota Scion when he lost control of the vehicle on state Route 78 near Barham Drive, slamming into impact attenuators in the early morning hours of March 27, authorities said. The Scions front-seat passenger, 37-year-old Martha Martinez, who went by Marta, died in the crash. According to Deputy District Attorney Robert Bruce, the pair had left a San Marcos bar and were headed to Vista when Vargas lost control of the vehicle. Advertisement Bruce said Vargas blood-alcohol content three hours after the crash was .11 percent. The legal limit to drive in California is .08 percent. In August, Vargas pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, which carries a potential sentence of 10 years. The guilty plea came at a relatively early point in the case. Bruce said he agreed not to pursue the maximum term in light of his early admission of wrongdoing. In pleading guilty, he spared Martas family the added misery of a jury trial, Bruce said. Under the law, the remaining options for sentencing Vargas were six years in prison, four years in prison or probation. Vista Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein opted for the six-year sentence. Bruce said that, during the sentencing hearing, Vargas expressed remorse for the crash. Vargas attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. According to the California Highway Patrol, Vargas was headed west on SR-78 when he lost control of the Scion at a left bend in the freeway near Barham Drive shortly before 2 a.m. on March 27. The vehicle slid off the freeway, across the shoulder and on-ramp, the CHP said. It ended up mangled, part of it perched atop a wall and impact attenuators designed to lessen damage in a crash along the right shoulder of the freeway. Vargas was taken to a hospital with head injuries. The crash ended up snarling the morning commute, with two lanes shut down for three hours. The Barham on-ramp remained shut down for more than five hours. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT Twice, in 1995 and in 2002, the Diocese of San Diego cleared the Rev. Justin Langille of allegations that he had sexually abused a teenage girl. But a third investigation conducted last month by the Diocesan Independent Review Board found new evidence that undermined the priests alibi. On Tuesday, the diocese announced that Langille, 65, has been suspended and is no longer able to perform priestly duties. I felt strongly that even older, previously decided cases involving currently serving priests would benefit from being examined by the Independent Review Board, Bishop Robert McElroy said in a statement released by the diocese Tuesday. The voice of the laity needs to be heard on these matters... The review board, which includes lay attorneys, criminal investigators, psychologists and a clergy abuse victim, offers exceptionally valuable guidance and expertise, McElroy said. Advertisement Langille was accused of inappropriately touching an adolescent girl. While stopping short of sexual intercourse, a diocesan official described the priests actions as a clear boundary violation. In 1995, diocesan officials examining the allegations said they could not substantiated. The case was re-examined 2002, prompted by the clergy sexual abuse scandal then unfolding in Boston. That time, Langille passed a polygraph test. But two months ago, in the wake of the Pennsylvania grand jury report that found 300 priests had sexually abused hundreds of children over seven decades, McElroy asked the board to reconsider cases that had been heard before the boards establishment in 2004. Using a professional investigators report, the board reached a different conclusion. Significant new information emerged, a diocesan official said, that substantially undermined the credibility of Fr. Langille in his denials. While Langille has not held a fulltime job within the diocese since 2013, he had been assisting during weekends at St. Therese in San Carlos and Ascension parish in Tierrasanta. His suspension will be announced from both churches pulpits Sunday. Langille came to the San Diego diocese in 1980, when he became associate pastor at St. Johns in Encinitas. He held the same position at Our Mother of Confidence in San Diego (1981-84), Ascension (1984-86) and Sacred Heart in Coronado (1986-1988). He was appointed director of the Office for Vocations at St. Francis Seminary (1988-90) before returning to St. Therese as associate pastor (1990-91). He then became associate pastor at Spring Valleys Santa Sophia (1992-96). Taking a leave of absence from the diocese, he worked for Contemplative Outreach International, a New Jersey-based group that supports small faith groups, from 1996 until 2007. He returned to San Diego as pastor of El Cajons St. Louis de Marillac (2007-11) and then pastor at Immaculate Conception in San Diego (2011-12). His final assignment was as chaplain at Nazareth House, a residence for seniors in Mission Valley, in 2013. While this suspension followed a recommendation by the Independent Review Board, critics say these boards are not truly independent. They are appointed by the bishop and the bishop does not have to follow the boards recommendations, said Tim Lennon, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Lennon and other SNAP representatives recently met with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, urging him to launch an official investigation of the states Catholic dioceses, similar to probes launched by the state attorney general of New York. Relying on a diocese to police itself, Lennon said, is naive. This is happening because the bishops are feeling the heat, Lennon said of internal reviews like those being conducted by the San Diego diocese. They need to feel the heat. The Times asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein and state Sen. Kevin de Leon to answer several questions specific to their experiences and goals. It follows a similar questionnaire, which can be read here, asking the two candidates for U.S. Senate to respond to the same questions. The Times also asked each candidate what question they would ask of the other. The questions were asked before the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and vote in the Senate; answers were edited for length. Sen. Dianne Feinstein Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif) holds a town hall meeting at First AME Church in Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Advertisement Youve been a pioneering political figure. But what do you say to those eager for a fresh perspective? Representing Californians has been the honor of my life, and Im not done working for them. I can be more effective than my opponent in defending our state from President Trumps attacks. After winning the primary by 2 million votes, Im proud that Californians have placed their trust in me. Will you commit to serving the entire six-year term? Yes. What would be your top three legislative priorities if Californians return you to Washington? Universal healthcare, comprehensive immigration reform and reducing gun violence. Your staff is 32% nonwhite, which does not represent Californias diversity. What measures do you currently have in place to make sure you are hiring from a diverse pool ? I always strive to ensure my staff is diverse and represents all of California. My current legislative director is one of just three African Americans to hold that position and my most recent chief of staff was one of only two Democratic Latino chiefs of staff. Youve talked about your seniority as a benefit to the state; your opponent says you havent used it enough. How, specifically, is seniority a benefit, especially if Democrats dont control the Senate? Seniority is important. Im leading the fight against dangerous Trump nominees. Ive secured hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade transportation and water infrastructure, including the L.A. Metro system. And just this summer I secured seven C-130 planes for Cal Fire. I know how to get things done. De Leons question for Feinstein: Brett Kavanaugh, if confirmed to the Supreme Court, is likely to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Do you regret voting yes in 2006 to allow his nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals go to a vote on the Senate floor? I voted against Kavanaugh in the Judiciary Committee [in 2006] and when his nomination was before the Senate. I joined then-Sens. Obama and Biden to support a compromise that preserved Democrats ability to block extreme right-wing judges using the filibuster. Where Sen. Dianne Feinstein and state Sen. Kevin de Leon stand on the issues State Sen. Kevin de Leon California state Sen. Kevin de Leon (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) If elected, which Senate committees would you ask to serve on? Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; and either Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; or Foreign Relations. I believe those committees wield influence over policy spheres that will directly affect whether hard-working Californians have the fresh air, clean water, and access to opportunity that they need to thrive. What legislation do you intend to file in your first year? My first day in the Senate, I will cosponsor the Medicare For All act. Ill seek to move comprehensive immigration reform. I will lay out a National Clean Energy Plan. Ill do everything in my power to dismantle Trumps tax plan. Senate staffs are historically overwhelmingly white. Will you commit to having a staff that reflects the diversity of California? It is personally important to me to not only grow the ranks of Latino leaders in public, private and nonprofit sectors, but to make sure everyone has a seat at the table. I believe in inclusivity not just diversity. Some have insinuated you are running against Feinstein because of her age. What do you say to that? Do you support term limits or age limits for U.S. senators? How long someone holds elected office shouldnt be set as an arbitrary number of years, it should be based on how effective we are at representing our constituents. Therefore, neither age nor length of time in service is relevant to any campaign. Instead, it is about the values we each stand for, and the core issues we will champion for Californians. I am running for U.S. Senate because I believe my current representative no longer stands up for the values Californians hold today. How do you propose paying for healthcare under a government-run Medicare-for-all system? A Medicare-for-all system is the only way to get healthcare costs under control. Switching to this system will save billions in administrative costs, give us the power to finally hold the drug companies accountable, and squeeze other savings out of the system. Americans are already paying for the cost of a single-payer system, but see none of the benefits in return. In California I led the fight for Medicare-for-all, and in Washington I will do the same. Getting it done wont be easy, but taking on special interests never is. Feinsteins question for De Leon: In Sacramento, Democrats enjoy huge majorities in the Legislature. But thats not the case in Washington. What are some examples of what youd achieve if you were in the minority and confronted by an intransigent Republican president? If elected, I will fight for what I believe is right, no matter who the president is and regardless of which party maintains control of the legislative branch. As Democrats in the minority, I do not believe we ought to resign ourselves to the minority. I will not go along to get along. I will fight back on every single judicial nominee. The latest from Washington More stories from Sarah D. Wire sarah.wire@latimes.com Follow @sarahdwire on Twitter Barbra Streisand took to social media to endorse an ambitious clean energy proposal being heard in Sacramento. Alicia Silverstone tweeted her support for a bill to end the sale of animal-tested cosmetics in California. Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine urged state lawmakers to resist a water project backed by President Trump. As California legislators cast votes in the final hours of this years session, celebrities leveraged their fan bases on Facebook and Twitter to encourage lawmakers to pass bills and Gov. Jerry Brown to sign them into law. Actors have been known to reach out to state Capitol offices to discuss legislation. In 2015, for example, Patricia Arquette called the state Senate to talk about fair pay for women. But Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) said she was surprised to learn from her son in July that Kim Kardashian West tweeted to support her legislation. Advertisement He said, Shes tweeting about this bill, [Assembly Bill] 2550. Weber said. I said, That sounds familiar, whats the name? And he told me, Its womens dignity, and I said, Thats my bill! .@Schwarzenegger is a Republican & he supports it. Im a Democrat & I support it! CA Leg must pass #SB100! Forget the backsliding in Washington, we will build the future here. https://t.co/KP2OFrLs6N Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand) August 28, 2018 Assembly Bill 2550, which the governor signed into law in August, prohibits male corrections officers from patting down female inmates or entering areas where they might be undressed, except in emergencies. The bill already had broad support among lawmakers, but Kardashians tweet brought increased visibility to the issue. A lot of [celebrities] have very wide networks, so they can reach people the ACLU might not be able to get in touch with, said Daisy Vieyra, a communications strategist for the organizations Northern California chapter. The woman I met at CA Womens Institution are still on my mind and in my heart. I do hope @GovBrown will sign AB2550 to grant #DignityForIncarceratedWomen #cut50 Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 9, 2018 But celebrity support never ensures success. Another bill by Weber, Assembly Bill 931, which would have limited police officers use of deadly force, attracted celebrity backing from actors including Jane Fonda and Lena Waithe amid a national conversation about the issue. They tweeted in support and the American Civil Liberties Union also helped publicize the legislation. But opposition from law enforcement and other factors defeated AB 931 in August. Some folks have had celebrities on a bill and it still dies, Weber said. They can help generate the interest, but I dont think they can do it alone. No topic drew as much celebrity attention this year as legislation inspired by the #MeToo movement. After a deluge of allegations hit the entertainment industry and state political circles last fall, California lawmakers wrote dozens of bills to address sexual harassment. The bills won online backing from actors, including Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino, who accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment last year. Sorvino, who did not respond to a request for comment, has publicly linked her advocacy with the #MeToo movement. What if U were sexually harassed but discovered you had no way to fight it? Employers sneak release of claim agreements into employment documents-workers unknowingly sign away their rights to sue! Pls support #SB1300 @AsmPatODonnell @QuirkSilva65th @Blanca_E_Rubio @rudysalasjr Mira Sorvino (@MiraSorvino) August 27, 2018 Others have established foundations to help push for legislation. Actress Mariska Hargitay, star of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, started the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004 to help sexual assault survivors. California has always been a focus for us at Joyful Heart, Hargitay said in an email. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and the discovery in 2010 of more than 12,000 untested [rape] kits there shook me to the core and inspired my work on this issue nationwide. This year, the foundation helped lawmakers craft two bills to eliminate the backlog. One, Assembly Bill 3118, requires an audit of all of the states untested kits. The other, Senate Bill 1449, would mandate that law enforcement process all kits collected in the future. After the bills were introduced, Hargitay used Twitter to try to persuade the legislators who could move them forward. [We] particularly focused on decision makers appropriators and committee chairs who had the power to decide whether or not SB 1449 and AB 3118 would be brought up for a vote, Hargitay said. Once the bills arrived on the governors desk, she directed her tweets at him. Although the governor signed one of the Joyful Heart bills, agreeing to an audit of Californias untested rape kits, he vetoed SB 1449. Of more than a dozen bills championed by celebrities this session, the record of success was mixed. Besides SB 1449, Brown vetoed two #MeToo measures, which would have limited forced arbitration agreements and given harassment victims more time to file claims, and rejected a bill that would make it more difficult for police departments to obtain military-grade equipment. Other bills became law, including the proposal requiring California to get 100% of its power from clean energy sources by 2045, the plan to end the sale of animal-tested cosmetics, as well as measures to protect net neutrality and allow the release of police records. Landmark legislation to end the practice of cash bail in California was opposed by many who initially supported it including musician John Legend, who tweeted that the initiative would actually make the justice system less fair for people of color. Organizations including the ACLU argued late amendments to the bill handed over too much control to local courts and probation offices to decide who should remain incarcerated. Despite a last-minute push against the bill, Brown signed it in August. .@JerryBrownGov #BailReform is needed, but NOT #SB10 which replaces the predatory for-profit bail system with a system that threatens to expand unfair incarceration of communities of color. https://t.co/zQ7MZyU15o John Legend (@johnlegend) August 23, 2018 Our office makes decisions on policy based on what will best serve Californians, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for Brown. To the limited extent that celebrity advocacy is even seen, the impact is negligible. In the Capitol, where more than 1,200 bills were passed this year, lawmakers might not hear about a bill until a floor vote late in the legislative process. Public figures can use their platforms to publicize proposals that arent drawing much attention. State Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) said celebrities make a difference as spokespeople for legislation in the same way they promote products in commercials and advertisements. It has a significant impact in dealing with legislators, many of whom are a little starstruck, Jackson said. Social media also allows celebrities to help shift public opinion and encourage ordinary citizens to speak up. Hargitay, for example, said Joyful Hearts efforts inspired tens of thousands of calls, letters and emails to legislators in support of the two rape kit bills. I dont spend a lot of time focused on my impact, Hargitay said, I am much more focused on how we as a community can make a change for good. Sandra Fluke, an attorney who became nationally known in 2012 when radio host Rush Limbaugh called her a slut for testifying in support of contraception coverage before House Democrats, has also urged social media followers to contact their representatives about passing California bills, including the net neutrality measure. She said she has seen grassroots efforts help bills jump major hurdles to become law. They make a difference in D.C., but because there is less attention paid [to politics] in Sacramento, the calls can make even more of a difference there, she said. I have seen legislators respond. Josh Ginsberg, founder of social media analytics platform Zignal Labs and a former adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said that tweets from celebrities prompted Twitter users to post hundreds of times about legislation. According to a Zignal analysis, Sorvino and Hargitay each generated about 2,000 retweets and mentions on #MeToo legislation and rape kit reform. What politicians like to do is build third-party coalitions, Ginsberg said. If you can then get that extra layer of having a celebrity involved, that adds a bigger microphone. Bloomberg is making a jackass out of himself. For the first time since 2001, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg registered to vote as a Democrat a move that may herald a presidential run in 2020 under that partys banner. The billionaire philanthropist, 76, posted a photo of himself re-registering on Wednesday, writing that Dems provide the checks and balances our nation so badly needs. The businessman-turned-politician had famously abandoned the Democratic Party in 2001 to run for mayor as a Republican a switch he mostly made to enhance his then long-shot chances in a race that was crowded with left-leaning candidates in a historically blue city. After his surprise win, he went on to serve for three terms engineering a one-time exception for himself to get around the two-term cap and in 2007 he broke with the Republican Party to register as an independent. Advertisement Speculation swirled at the time that Bloomberg was leaving the GOP to set himself up as a third-party presidential candidate in 2008. The same presidential rumors arose in 2016, but Bloomberg stayed on the sidelines of the race, endorsing Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee who went on to lose to Donald Trump. Since 2013, Bloomberg has funded and created numerous charities, some with political leanings such as Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit he started and largely finances that aims to foster gun control laws in the U.S. On Wednesday, Bloomberg said he had been a Democrat for almost all his life and it was time to return to the fold. At key points in U.S. history, one of the two parties has served as a bulwark against those who threaten our Constitution, he wrote. Two years ago at the Democratic convention, I warned of those threats. Two months ago, reports surfaced that Bloomberg was ready to wade back into politics again as a challenger to Trump if the Republican runs again in 2020. Im working on this Nov. 6 election, and after that Ill take a look at it, he told The New York Times last month. He also added that its impossible to conceive running as a Republican. Thats not to say Im with the Democratic Party on everything, but I dont see how you could possibly run as a Republican, he told the newspaper. So if you ran, yeah, youd have to run as a Democrat. Bloomberg vowed earlier this year to spend $80 million to help the Democrats take control of the House during the critical elections next month. He said last week he would give $20 million to the main Democratic Senate super PAC, according to The Washington Post. Republicans in Congress have had almost two years to prove they could govern responsibly. They failed, he said in June. The deadline to register to vote in New York State is Friday. This past March, James H. Hunter of Eagle, Idaho, made two $2,700 contributions to the campaign to re-elect his nephew, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-Alpine. Hunters campaign reported the contributions on a financial disclosure report to the Federal Election Commission, but claimed it did not know and was unable to find out his uncles employer or occupation. The Federal Election Commission sent a letter to Hunters campaign treasurer this week informing him that information requested per best efforts is not an acceptable answer to the question of a contributors occupation or employer information that was missing not just for Hunters uncle on Hunters campaign forms. James H. Hunter and his wife, Jan, are the founders of Boise Hunter Homes, a development company they have headed for more than a decade, according to the companys website and business filings. James H. Hunter is among more than 90 donors for whom Hunters campaign has reported employer and occupation as information requested per best efforts since 2007, according to The San Diego Union-Tribunes review of FEC records. Their contributions totaled more than $67,000. Advertisement Hunter and his wife and former campaign manager, Margaret, were indicted in August on 60 counts of felony crimes including fraud and conspiracy to knowingly falsify entries in reports to federal agencies including the FEC. The couple allegedly committed the crimes to cover up more than $250,000 allegedly stolen from Hunters campaign over several years. The two pleaded not guilty to all charges at their federal court hearing in August and were quickly released on bond. The letter this week regarding missing occupational information is unrelated to the criminal case although the origin of the criminal investigation was a similar inquiry letter from the FEC about campaign reports. The FEC is asking Hunters campaign to amend its filings to add occupation information or to document its best efforts to gather the information. The FEC letter on Monday questioned only the quarterly report from Hunters campaign covering April 1 to June 30. Hunters campaign must respond to the FEC by Nov. 13, the letter said. While the FEC did not question specific donations, the Union-Tribunes review of the disclosure for that time period found the campaign reported employer and occupation as information requested per best efforts for 16 donors who contributed a total $9,000. The 17 donors represent about a fifth of the total individual donors disclosed on the second quarter report, and their $9,250 in contributions represent about a fifth of the $45,381 raised from individual contributions of $200 or more. Donors for whom the campaign could not identify job and employer in previous reporting periods include six top-level executives for defense contractor Cubic Corporation, who contributed a combined $3,250 to Hunters campaign on the same day, March 28, 2016. The next day, Cubic announced that one of its business units was awarded a $2.3 million contract from the U.S. Armys Maneuver Center of Excellence, Clarke Simulation Center at Fort Benning, Georgia, to support Live, Virtual, Constructive and Game-based (LVCG) training for mission command systems. A spokeswoman for Cubic Corporation did not immediately respond to the Union-Tribunes request for comment Tuesday afternoon. The occupation and employer information is very important to identify which special interests are supporting a candidate. If twelve people from the same company give the same amount on the same day, its fair to infer that the company supports the candidate by either holding a fundraiser for him or attending one, said Brett Kappel, an attorney at Akerman LLP in Washington, D.C., and an expert in campaign laws and ethics rules. In some cases, the occupation may be a clue that company employees may have been reimbursed for their contributions not many busboys make $1,000 contributions. Without the occupation and employer information, the voters are left in the dark. To satisfy the FEC, Hunters campaign must demonstrate that it made two contacts with the contributor to request the information, Kappel said. If the donors did not respond or refused to provide the information, the campaign has met its responsibilities. Michael Harrison, a spokesman for Hunters campaign, responded to the Union-Tribunes questions about the FEC letter with a statement. Congressman Hunter and his campaign complies with all FEC requirements and regulations as it concerns the reporting of contributions and will continue to do so, the statement said. Hunter has served on the House Armed Services Committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Education and the Workforce Committee. He has been stripped of his committee assignments pending the outcome of his criminal case. He is running for reelection this fall and is favored by numerous polls to win, although the race is closer than it would normally be for such a solidly Republican area as East County. Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 morgan.cook@sduniontribune.com A former San Diego County employee in the child welfare department is suing the county for allegedly firing her after she reported social workers were failing to properly check on foster children who suffered a litany of injuries including dental abscesses and super lice infestations. The employee, Valerie Harrison, first made the allegations in a claim she filed with the county in April, seeking more than $3 million in compensation for damages including lost wages and emotional distress. She claimed she was fired in October 2017, after almost a year in her job at the county. County officials rejected the claim in a letter dated May 8, which was included in court records for the lawsuit Harrison filed Oct. 5 in San Diego Superior Court. The letter said the county made its determination based on its investigation of the claim and whether the law limited government liability for the damages alleged. County spokeswoman Sarah Sweeney declined comment on Wednesday. Harrisons attorney, Dan Gilleon, said that Harrison was a dedicated employee who, like all devoted child welfare workers, deserved to be treated as an asset and shown respect for her good-faith efforts to help the county protect vulnerable children. Advertisement Hired by the county in October 2016, Harrison worked as a human resources officer for the child welfare services department, according to the lawsuit. Part of her job was investigating complaints against employees of the various programs to which she was assigned. In summer 2017, Harrison learned of complaints involving a protective services worker whose responsibilities included regularly conducting welfare checks on foster children, the lawsuit said. But he allegedly was not meeting his obligations, either refusing to visit children at all or visiting them annually in public places only. Harrison investigated his and other child protective services workers job performance and allegedly found that misconduct had caused children to suffer a litany of abuse, injuries and other harm including but not limited to oral infections and abscesses due to improper dental care; home environments lacking adequate food, reeking of cat urine, and super lice infestations; and an unreported live-in boyfriend who drove the kids around even though his drivers license was suspended due to a DUI conviction, the lawsuit said. Super lice is head lice that have grown resistant to the over-the-counter medications typically recommended to treat the blood-sucking insects, according to published medical research. The lice themselves are no worse than normal head lice just harder to kill. Harrison reported the lapses, the lawsuit said, going on to say that Harrison in August 2017 met with supervisors of the protective service worker who refused to visit children at home. During the meeting to examine the workers alleged failures, Harrison discovered a shocking pattern of negligence and unlawful conduct, the lawsuit alleged. One of the workers former supervisors allegedly told Harrison the employee has always been a problem. The worker, who was slated to retire, was not disciplined in accordance with county policy as required by the state, so Harrison continued to urge his supervisors to take action against him, the lawsuit said. Instead, the lawsuit alleged, Harrison was excluded from further inquiry into the workers performance and told managers had taken care of the problems. While working at the county, Harrison discovered that the failure to discipline the allegedly errant social worker was not atypical, but rather just one instance among many that Harrison observed and reported, revealing (the county Health and Human Services Agency) suffered from a systemic and pervasive failure to comply with the countys employee discipline policy and other laws, the lawsuit alleged. Harrison continued to report alleged misconduct and pursue corrective action, but she was met with resistance by managers, according to the lawsuit. She was eventually ostracized by employees and supervisors, and, on Oct. 24, 2017, she received a dismissal letter providing a pretextual basis for her termination, her lawsuit says. The lawsuit does not specify what the countys stated reason was for dismissing Harrison. The lawsuit alleges the county violated labor laws forbidding employers from making rules to discourage employees from reporting what they believe to be violations of the law or retaliating against employees for making such reports. Harrisons lawsuit seeks relief including an unspecified amount of compensation for damages and attorneys fees and costs. Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 morgan.cook@sduniontribune.com Theres only one contested race for local Superior Court judge on the Nov. 6 ballot, and thats for a good reason. Theres only one judge with a disreputable record seeking another term: Gary Kreep. In 2012, Kreep was narrowly elected despite being best known for spreading the toxic trash allegation that then-President Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii in 1961, no matter what official state records said. As a judge, Kreep was subject to a rare severe public censure in 2017 by the state Commission on Judicial Performance for 29 charges that reflected a pattern of misconduct that demonstrates a lack of judicial temperament, in particular, personal comments about the lawyers and litigants appearing before him and inappropriate conduct during his run for office. Kreep argues that hes a hard worker who may have made some mistakes years ago but is undermined by the establishment and reporters interested in getting me off the bench. Theres no conspiracy. The criticism he faces is justified. Kreeps opponent, Deputy District Attorney Matt Brower, would be a strong candidate even if he werent going against a censured conspiracist. Browers work as a judge advocate in the Marine Corps Reserve is invaluable background for the job. His support from local judges aware of Kreeps record and demeanor is telling. His temperament is more appropriate. Vote for Brower for Superior Court judge. To read our interview with Kreep, go here. Advertisement To read our interview with Brower, go here. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Dont we already pay enough in gas taxes? Re Pros and cons of the gas tax repeal measure (Oct. 7): I strongly disagree with the U-Ts opinion to defeat this citizens initiative. It was submitted as Repeal the Gas Tax yet the title has been rewritten by Sacramento politicians to, I believe, purposely mislead California voters into thinking that if this tax is repealed, there will be no money for road repairs. Could it be that the infrastructure and Caltrans budget money designated for road repairs has been diverted and misused such that now this excessive tax (which has increased our gas price to one of if not the highest in the nation) is now needed to do what should have already been done? Think about it. I have, and for that reason urge people to vote yes on Proposition 6. Gay L. Rudek Advertisement San Diego Gas tax measure is just political brinkmanship Re Dont we already pay enough in gas taxes? (Oct. 9): Proposition 6 has little to do with the gas tax. This Trojan horse is about undermining our representative democracy in favor of a direct democracy. Yes, we dont like our government, but that is because we are not involved with our government. We dont communicate with our representatives enough, we dont go to the local powwows put on by them. So they dont care. But when we do, as in the case of the 49th Congressional District, representatives listen. Direct democracy requires everyone to vote on everything. We dont have time for that, and, sadly, we are not educated enough. If you listen to a pundit, that pundit becomes your de facto representative, but with even less accountability. It is our government, remember? For the people, of the people, by the people. Once we stop being involved, it is no longer our government. Vote no on Proposition 6 to defend our representative democracy. Gregg Ferry Carlsbad Stop using gas taxes for other purposes What those of us that will vote For Proposition 6 suggest is that California stop raiding its already very high gas taxes for other projects that arent related to maintaining our bridges and roadways. California does not need the extra 12 cents per gallon if it quits raiding the those taxes. Prop 6 would not ruin the States economy. It should be noted too that failure to approve Proposition 6 will allow the State Legislature to approve additional car and gas taxes in the future without voter approval. Dennis Younker Rancho San Diego 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. Kavanaugh controversy will not soon fade away Re Demonstrators protest confirmation (Oct. 7). So its not enough that all this time and money has been wasted on the Brett Kavanaugh witch hunt. Now that hes been confirmed, the left has gone berserk with planned protests across the country. Why cant the liberals accept the outcome of the confirmation vote and stop wasting our time and money? No wonder nothing gets done in Washington. Janet Piatek Advertisement Normal Heights A bitter dispute, a narrow victory for those who prefer children in cages and abuse of women without consequence. I mourn for our country. Richard A. Brown La Jolla The protesters should blame Sen. Dianne Feinstein, not Sen. Susan Collins. Sen. Feinstein held Christine Blasey Fords letter from July until it was an appropriate partisan time for someone to leak it, hopefully in time to stop or delay Judge Kavanaughs confirmation. If she and Sen. Chuck Schumer had given the letter to the committee in July, there would have been plenty of time to do a more thorough FBI investigation with perhaps a different result. So shame on Feinstein, shame on Schumer. Karl Kozak Sr. San Diego I was sad and disgusted when I saw the crowds cheer when President Trump mocked Ford, a victim of sexual assault, at his Mississippi rally. It was reminiscent of our tainted past when good people would go to church and afterwards celebrate a lynching. It should be appalling to all of us to have crowds cheer over anothers suffering whether it is mocking a disabled reporter or a Gold Star mother or separating crying toddlers from their mothers. The shame is on all of us if we tolerate these despicable behaviors without the courage to speak out and vote our California Trump-supporting representatives out. I am frightened for our democracy if cruel, divisive and reckless behavior goes unchecked. Remember November. Ruth Larson San Diego Everyone suffered in the confirmation battle Re Kavanaugh confirmation made just about everyone look bad (Oct. 5): a balanced, hardly biased response to the events of the summer Supreme Court nomination. Nice. Bob Gillchrest San Diego I will say you actually placed blame on Democrats. However, you were so embarrassed by that admission that you had to drag others along in the blame. The full blame goes to Sen. Dianne Feinstein and the lawyers she recommended for Ford. Without her leaking (or whoever she carelessly allowed to leak) Fords letter, none of the sexual fracas would have happened. What is it about no evidence that you dont understand? Judge Kavanaugh had every right to be furious. In addition to the horrible false allegations hurled against him, his wife and children had their lives threatened. I admire him for his challenging attitude and also for his restraint at not being even angrier. And thank you to Sen. Susan Collins for setting things straight. Edward Monroe Temecula Hearing showcased white male privilege Re Kavanaugh sworn in after narrow confirmation vote (Oct. 7): The real insult of the Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaughs hearing was the contrast between Fords calm, respectful and helpful testimony and Judge Kavanaughs master class in white male privilege. We should have seen a solemn, cautious man, indicating with his words and demeanor, that he takes both the accusations lodged against him and his role as a Supreme Court justice seriously enough that hes more than willing to submit himself to the process without becoming temperamental and defensive. Instead, we witnessed a man who believes he could rage, cry and joke about beer, and may not favor abortion rights, and still have Senate Republicans buy his testimony. This is what a close-up look at white entitlement looks like. Bunny Landis Oceanside There must be hundreds of conservative judges. So you have to wonder why Senate Republican leadership was so hell-bent in getting this particular judge on to the Supreme Court. His testimony proved he does not have the temperament to be an impartial judge. He showed to be on the immature level with all his crying and yelling. That testimony was part of his job interview and that is the type of emotional behavior Republicans admire? Kavanaugh has taken a stance that a sitting president shouldnt be charged with any crimes. So now we will have an unfit/immature judge protecting an unfit/immature president. What have the Republicans done to America? Will he also protect an unfit Democratic president? Will it have become settled law? Michele Rose Oceanside Protesters seem to be those who are angry Honestly, I laughed a little bit when I read the first sentence about the people protesting Kavanaughs confirmation. Rage and frustration are the first words on this. I find this hilarious because a lot of the time people like Republicans and Kavanaugh are labeled as angry, yet here we have people who are enraged. While Im not really on Kavanaughs or Fords side, the hypocrisy is very funny in the protesters. Alex Schmidt Rancho Penasquitos 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. 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. San Francisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/10/2018 -- Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: Overview Anti-corrosion coatings protect various metal components from oxidation, exposure to industrial and environmental chemicals, moisture, and salt sprays. Preventing contact between corrosive materials and chemical compounds, these coatings might also feature nonstick properties. As rust and corrosion prevention is a key concern of a number of industries that have high humidity, salt, water, and mist, the global market for anti-corrosion coatings market is expected to soar. Request Sample Copy of the Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1511 Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: Key Trends Widespread usage in oil and gas equipment such as drill pipes and oil storage tanks is fuelling the demand for anti-corrosion coatings. As these equipment are exposed to underground water and marshy land, they need to be protected from corrosion from moisture. Moreover, the increasing demand for energy generation via oil sands, tar sands, shale gas, and oil shale is likely to further provide an impetus to the market. The polyurethane coatings segment has been exhibiting significant growth thanks to the availability of a wide range of colors and glossy finish that attracts consumers. These products can endure temperatures up to 110 degrees Celsius. By application, the solvent based coatings might emerge at the fore due to government regulations emphasizing the use of low volatile organic compounds in products. Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: Market Potential In February 2017, NEI Corporation announced that the patent and trademark regulatory body of the U.S. has issued allowance for two patent applications of the firm. These two products possess hydrophobic coatings, displaying high corrosion resistance, apart from their excellent adhesive properties. Request TOC of the Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1511 In the same month, Guntner launched a new coil protector designed for the food industry. The product possesses powder coating that is highly resistant to corrosion apart from being food safe. U.S.-based manufacturer of grapheme, Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) has been aiding James Briggs Ltd, a paints manufacturer, in the development of anti-corrosion grapheme coatings. A group of engineers and scientists has developed a hexagonal boron nitride monolayer that exhibits exceptional resistance to corrosion. Although this product needs to be developed further for it to be introduced in the commercial market, the future potential for it is immense, experts believe. Both anodic and cathodic currents were found to be unsuccessful at penetrating the automatically thin layer coating. Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: Regional Outlook North America dominates the anti-corrosion coatings market, which is supported by rising volume of military investment. The U.S., flaunting one of the world's largest fleet bases, is likely to represent maximum share of the anti-corrosion coatings market in North America. Asia Pacific is likely to emerge as a leading regional market owing to the foreign investments that have been pouring in. The extensive growth of the end-use industries such as oil and gas, power and energy, marine, tanks and pipes, and construction are responsible for increasing demand for anti-corrosion coatings in the developing countries of this region such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, and China. China is slated to emerge at the fore, as a vast population, immense production base, and growing volume of foreign investments propel its expansion. Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: Competitive Analysis Some of the leading companies operating in the global anti-corrosion coatings market are Hempel, The Sherwin-Williams Company, BASF, RPM International, PPG Industries, Chugoku Marine Paints, AICA Kogyo, Jotun, Axalta Coating, Kansai Paints, Ashland, Tnemec, Akzonobel, Sokema, Valspar, Nippon Paints, and AnCatt. Japan-based Kansai Paint is planning to acquire Sadolin Tanzania, Sadolin Kenya, and Sadolin Uganda, with a view to tap the vast potential of the market in this region. Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/anti-corrosion-coatings-market.html Several companies are also making sure that they improve their production capabilities. For example, PPG Industries completed a new production line at Wuhu, China. The plant produces highly efficient high solids and waterborne coatings. About TMR Research TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in today's supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients' conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends. Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/10/2018 -- Healthcare BPO Market - Summary The global healthcare BPO market growth is deemed to be impressive at 12.3% CAGR over the forecast period of 2017-2023, growing from USD 199,533.8 Million in 2017 to USD 449623.8 Million by the end of 2023, proclaims Market Research Future (MRFR) in a minutely analyzed research report. The global healthcare BPO market derives much of its growth from the increasing incidences of errors in medical billing and errors in patient medical record which has led to the adoption of BPO services by healthcare organizations. A princely sum of dollars is lost each year due to poor billing practices which has a direct impact on healthcare organizations' bottom line. Outsourcing in the healthcare sector has picked up in the past few years to minimize critical mistakes and ensure smooth operational performance. Request for Sample Report at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1335 Additionally, healthcare institutions save a king's ransom by outsourcing tasks, which, otherwise would require hiring of in-house employees. Healthcare BPO professional are highly skilled and help in the reduction of errors. Segmentation: The global healthcare BPO market has been segmented on the basis of services which comprises of Pharmaceutical services, payer services, and provider services. The pharmaceutical segment has been further segmented into Research and Development, Manufacturing, and Non-clinical Services. Similarly, the payer services segment has been further segmented into Claim management, Member management, Provider management, Care management, and Product development & business acquisition. The provider services segment has been further segmented into Medical Billing, Medical Coding, Medical Transcription, and Finance & Accounts. Report Abstract: This MRFR report offers a six-year forecast (2017-2023) for the global healthcare BPO market. The market analysis has been conducted after considering all the important parameters. The primary objective of the report is to deliver an objective outlook on the prospects of healthcare BPO industry for the next couple years. It also covers several pharmaceutical services, payer services, and provider services under healthcare BPO that are gaining considerable momentum under, which include research and development, non-clinical services, manufacturing, claim management, member management, provider management, care management and product development & business acquisition, medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription and finance & accounts. Key Players: Accenture Catalent Charles River Laboratories International Cognizant Cyber Securities Covance IBM And more. Healthcare BPO Market - Regional Analysis The Americas dominate the global healthcare BPO market owing to the presence of strong economic conditions and huge development in healthcare domain. Moreover, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in 2014, recovery auditors identified and corrected USD 2.39 billion as overpayment and USD 173.1 million as underpayment. They also suggests that collectively 1.1million claims were registered to recover USD 2.57 billion. Europe holds the second position in the market owing to healthcare spending has expanded slightly in UK and Germany. Western Europe continues to see a need to save money on healthcare because of a slight drop in financial growth and obstinate economic pressure. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the healthcare expenditure in Germany was EUR 321 billion in 2014, France recorded the second highest level of current healthcare expenditure of EUR 237 billion, followed by the United Kingdom of EUR 223 billion. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market owing to more number of developing nations present in this region, for instance, countries like India and China are encouraging the growth of the healthcare IT domain. Furthermore, increasing patient population from cancer in developing countries will directly increase the demand for various diagnosis & treatment methods and it will boost the growth of the market. Moreover, Healthcare spending in Asia expanded in 2016 due to an extension of state healthcare programs and the increasing affluence of the population. India, in specific, saw expansion in its healthcare expenditure due to a government resolution to enhance healthcare services, which is estimated to further will boost the market growth The Middle East & Africa is expected to hold the least market share due to less availability of medical facilities, and less development in the healthcare domain. However, countries such as Qatar and Kuwait are focusing more on healthcare domain and developing medical facilities, which will boost the market growth in this region. Check Discount at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1335 About Market Research Future At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/10/2018 -- Market Overview: Potato Chips Market is growing substantially and is projected to capture a healthy CAGR and achieve million-dollar growth over the forecast period 2017-2023. The growth can be attributed to growth in the savory snacks market which is favoring the growth of the chips market. Growing demand for convenience food, changing eating habits, easy availability and affordability of potato chips are the primary drivers of the market. Additionally, the introduction of newer flavors owing to increased demand for innovative varieties of flavors has resulted in a plethora of tastes and novel additions to the chips market. Rise in demand for packaged and on-the-go-foods owing to hectic time schedules, the rise in disposable income, and the rise in young population who prefer potato chips and the introduction of attractive and smaller packages are augmenting the growth of the market. Furthermore, the introduction of healthier varieties of potato chips owing rising health awareness such as chips without any added artificial flavors or colors, baked varieties of chips and non-GMO ingredients are also aiding in market expansion. Availability of resources and large consumer base provides favorable growth opportunities for market expansion. Moreover, advancement in production technology and improved distribution network also provides opportunities for significant players. The growth of emerging markets is also expected to propel the demand for potato chips market. Get a Sample Report Now @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2991 Even though the potato chips market is a lucrative one, it is not one without constraints. Price fluctuations in prices of raw materials, availability of potatoes due to crop failure and climatic changes, the threat from alternatives or healthier snack options are major factors impeding the market. Potato chips contain partially hydrogenated fats, starch derivatives, blended solid fats, GMO, added colors or artificial flavors, and various emulsifiers which makes them quite unhealthy for increased consumption. Rising awareness regarding the ill effects of the use of potato chips and growing health consciousness among people have resulted in reduced consumption of potato chips which might hamper the growth of the market. Major Key Players Review: The key players operating in the market include Snyder's-Lance (U.S.), PepsiCo, Inc. (U.S.)., Diamond Foods, Inc.(U.S.), Lorenz Bahlsen Snack-World Group (Germany), CALBEE, Inc. (Japan), Herr Foods Inc. (U.S.), and Intersnack Group (Germany). Industry Updates: In April 2018, PepsiCo, global snack manufacturer introduced immensely popular Australian snack brand, Red Rock Deli Potato Chips to the US market. They have unique flavors and are non-GMO project verified and do not contain any artificial color or flavoring agents. In June 2018, PepsiCo announced its intention to set up a new snack plant in Zimbabwe. The potential snack plant would be a subsidiary of PepsiCo, and the company plans to invest USD 100 Million on the plant, and it would benefit local potato farmers as the company intends to buy from them if standards are met. Segmentation: The global potato chips market has been segmented based on flavor, product type, specialty food type, and distribution channel. By flavor, the market has been segmented into, barbecue, cheddar & sour cream, salt & pepper, classic potato chips, spicy jalapeno, cheese & onions, and others. The salt & pepper segment is most popular and is expanding significantly. By product type, the market has been segmented into salted, chilly, plain, flavored and others. The salted and chilly segment is most popular in the Asia-Pacific region. By specialty food type, the market has been segmented into gluten-free, GMO- free, vegetarian, kosher, organic and others. By distribution channel, the market has been segmented into supermarket/hypermarket, convenience store, e-commerce and others. Browse Complete Half Cooked Research Report Enabled with Respective Tables and Figures is Available @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/potato-chips-market-2991 Regional Analysis: The key markets of the global potato chips market are Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and the Rest of the World (ROW). North America accounts for the largest share of the global potato chips market. Acceptance of convenient food options and availability of flavors unique to the region is responsible for this major share in the market. The UK and the Netherlands are the major contributors of the Europe market and growing demand for potato chips and packaged food drive the market in the region. The Asia-Pacific market is expected to exhibit steady growth over the forecast period owing to the adoption of western food consumption patterns and rising disposable income in the emerging economies. Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/10/2018 -- Future Market Insights (FMI) recently announced the release of its report titled "Residential Water Treatment Devices: Middle East Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2025." According to the report, the middle east residential water treatment devices market was valued at US$ 414.1 Mn in 2014 and is anticipated to reach US$ 855.3 Mn by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 6.8% throughout the forecast period. Total population of Middle East & Africa stood at approximately 346 million in 2015 and is expected to grow at the rate of 2% per annum. The Middle East & Africa is also witnessing mass migration of people to urban centers, thereby leading to increased demand for water purifiers in these centers. Economies of North Africa, on the other hand, have also been registering healthy growth rates over the last few years, which in turn is expected to fuel growth of the residential water treatment devices market in the overall MEA region. Due to large scale industrialization, quality of water in the GCC and Levant countries has deteriorated during the recent years. Water availability in these regions is estimated to be merely 1,200 m3/person/year, which is substantially lower than the global average of 7,000 m3/person/year. These factors are also prompting urban masses in Middle East countries to opt for water purifiers. Furthermore, the GCC region is witnessing entry of globally established water purifier brands, which has resulted into increased competition in the market. Increased competition, in turn, ensures marginal decline in prices of residential water treatment devices in the retail market in these regions. However, price decline has been largely reported on the reverse osmosis-based water purification devices only, the sales of which have witnessed an upsurge in recent years. A sample of this report is available upon request@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-eu-1299 Around 44% of the Middle East & Africa population lives in rural area and is not aware about the necessity and techniques to purify and filter water. Penetrating these markets may be a challenging task for the concerned market participants as most of the vendors would have to begin by creating awareness regarding water purifier and filters and the importance of these products. Combination water purification system employs two different treatment technologies in one system. Players such as AquaPro and Kent have started offering RO+UV-based combination water purifiers in the GCC and Levant countries. Geography-wise, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dominated the GCC residential water treatment devices market in terms of value in 2014, accounting for more than one-third value share of the GCC residential water treatment devices market. On the other hand, Turkey dominated the Levant residential water treatment devices market in 2014, accounting for more than 40% value share of the overall market in the region. Furthermore, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is foreseen to expand at a relatively high CAGR during the forecast period and is expected to maintain its revenue share dominance till 2025 end. The governments in the Levant and GCC regions are investing and opening up to Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and promoting industrialization, which has been leading to an increase in the per capita income of the residing population in countries such as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan are expected to register significant Y-o-Y growth during the forecast period. Besides, these countries are projected to bestow more focus on their non-oil and manufacturing sectors in the coming years, which in turn is expected to encourage the water purifier and water filter manufacturers in these countries to go in for domestic production and enhance sales. Countries such as Bahrain, Iraq, Palestine and Syria are currently witnessing moderate growth in demand for residential water treatment devices, and the trend is expected to continue during the forecast period as well. On the basis of filtration devices, the filtration faucet segment dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014 in terms of revenue, and is foreseen to expand at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. In terms of volume, the water tap faucet segment dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014, accounting for more than half volume share of the overall market. On the basis of purification devices, the reverse osmosis segment dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014 in terms of revenue, and is foreseen to expand at a relatively high CAGR during the forecast period. In terms of volume, the gravity segment purification devices dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014, accounting for more than 40% volume share of the overall market. Request report Toc@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-eu-1299 Key market players covered in the report include KENT RO Systems Ltd., Eureka Forbes, Britannic Water Treatment Company W.L.L., Panasonic Corporation, LG Electronics, Pure It LLC, Waterlife, Coolpex Pure Water System, Ultra Tec Water Treatment LLC and AQUA PRO UAE. Most players in the market are engaged in various activities, such as mergers and acquisitions, increasing investments in technological and product developments, geographical expansion and brand building via strong marketing strategies, in order to sustain their position in the competitive market. Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/10/2018 -- The significant rise in lifestyle-related diseases and the developments in healthcare infrastructure are expected to influence the demand for pharmaceuticals in Saudi Arabia. In 2016, the Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market is anticipated to procure value worth US$ 5,209.5 Mn at a y-o-y growth of 6.0 % over 2015. The mounting demand for branded drug products will continue to incite the growth of the Saudi Arabian pharmaceutical market in 2016. The demand for pharmaceuticals in Saudi Arabia is expected to register substantial growth owing to the increasing penetration of health insurance companies and the rising incidence rate of non-communicable diseases. Furthermore, the exceptional rise in the per capita income of Saudi Arabia is also expected to foster the demand for branded pharmaceutical drugs. Another key factor driving the growth of the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is the country's strategic move to allow 100% FDI in the pharmaceuticals sector. Although, the shortage of profound indigenous research capacity in the pharmaceutical industry and the delayed registration of drug and medicine patents is expected to limit the expansion of the market in 2016 and beyond. A sample of this report is available upon request@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gc-1733 Based on the product type, the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is expected to witness an upsurge in the prescription-type branded drug products. In terms of market value, the branded drugs are estimated to reach US$ 2,760.8 Mn by 2016-end. The demand for generic drugs is projected to secure steady growth, attributing to the insisting promotion of generic drug adoption by healthcare insurance providers. On the basis of the diseases, the pharmaceutical drugs used for treatment of cardiovascular diseases will continue exhibiting robust growth in 2016. The demand for cardiovascular medications will continue to surge due to the prominence of circulatory disorders in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the rising prevalence of disorders related to body sugar levels is expected to make diabetes a rapidly growing disease-based sub-segment in the Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market. The pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is also segmented on the basis of distribution channel, where retail pharmacies will continue to account for 80% market share compared to hospital pharmacies. The westernised modernisation of retail pharmacies in Saudi Arabia has led to the availability of a wide range drugs and medicinal products, thereby attaining a considerable growth in the retail pharmacy sub-segment in 2016 and further. The rising resource potential in Saudi Arabia is projected to positively reform the production environment for pharmaceutical manufacturers. In order to expand the market's size, structuring alliances with well-established native companies is predicted to be a key strategy for global pharmaceutical leaders. The key players in the Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market include Novartis AG, SPIMACO, Pfizer Inc., and Glaxosmithkline plc., Jamjoom Pharma, and Tabuk Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Co. among others. Request report Toc@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gc-1733 Long-term Outlook: The Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.0% over the forecast period 2016-2026. In terms of market value, the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is estimated to be worth US$ 12,281.4 Mn by the end of forecast period. Wind Surf's first Panama Canal visit This nearly two-month cruise offers an encyclopedic exploration of the Caribbeans Greater and Lesser Antilles and Latin America. It will be Wind Surf's first visit to the Panama Canal, for a partial transit that goes through the Gatun Locks and the historic Atlantic connector locks before scenic cruising on Gatun Lake. The ship returns to the Caribbean through the Gatun Locks that afternoon. The journey visits 38 ports and 27 countries in 56 days and operates round-trip Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Rates start at $11,924 per person, double occupancy, and include free daily laundry service. Another Star Collector voyage, 'Three Americas,' stretches 39 days and visits 29 ports in eight countries. This journey aboard Star Legend takes the full measure of the Americas, from Vancouver down the Pacific Coast of the US and Mexico and through the Panama Canal, concluding in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A portion is designated as a James Beard Foundation culinary-themed cruise. Hidden harbors Windstars Sea of Cortez, coastal, Panama Canal and Caribbean voyages emphasize hidden harbors on smaller islands and inland coves like Bequia and Mayreau in the Grenadines and Bahia Herradura, Costa Rica. Four of the six ships will access tiny harbors like Man-O-War Bay in Tobago, with many itineraries offering late-night and overnight port stays. The line's tropical sailings provide a day of beach play and island food during the once-a-cruise Signature Beach Barbecue along with an extravagant Signature On-board Barbecue featuring perhaps the largest paella pan at sea followed by a crew-led deck dance party. New shore excursion standouts for the coming seasons include a private chocolate-making tour and a painting class led by a local artist, both in St. Lucia. Another new option is power cruising to Mustique, a 14-acre island off Bequia that's frequented by the rich and famous, with lunch at a chic island restaurant. James Beard Foundation Culinary Collection As the official cruise line of the James Beard Foundation, Windstar offers special sailings including a San Juan round-trip this Dec. 15, the Jan. 5 cruise from San Juan to Bridgetown and the Feb. 16 voyage from Puerto Caldera to Colon. 2020 sailings will be announced at a later date. New Pacific itineraries include Star Legend's sailing from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta, featuring the Sea of Cortez, and the ship's Puerto Vallarta to Puerto Caldera journey, that affords exploration of Mayan ruins, volcanic summits and UNESCO-designated cultural and snorkeling sites. More Caribbean and Latin America Windstars 2019/20 Caribbean season sees a return to islands including St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica and St. Barts with established itineraries like 'Classic Caribbean' and 'Yachtsmans Caribbean.' In addition, some of the numerous new voyages include 'The Spanish Main: Rise of the New World' (Colon to San Juan, with a focus on history and a stop at Cartagena), 'In the Wake of the Spanish Armadas' (Aruba to Colon, including the Panama Canal), 'Mayan Legacies' (Colon to Cozumel, with a nature/adventure focus) and 'Lush & Lovely Islands of the Lesser Antilles' (St. Maarten to Barbados, including a rare visit to Montserrat, the 'Pompeii of the Caribbean'). With container port volumes on the decline in Hong Kong the government is looking to capitalise on its strengths and opportunities from China's Belt and Roard Initiative and the Greater Bay Area development to grow its maritime services industry. Although there has been a declining trend in the container throughput of Hong Kong Port in recent years, we still have our advantages, which include a long-established maritime tradition, our geographical location, and the clustering of shipowners, shipping companies and maritime services sectors, the address said. The Hong Kong Shipping Registry (HKSR) provides shipowners with round-the-clock quality services throughout the year, and its shipping register comes fourth in the world in terms of gross tonnage of ships on the register. Ships registered in Hong Kong are well-recognised as a high quality fleet in the international maritime arena. With the new measures Hong Kong aims to make itself the ship leasing centre for Asia Pacific trough using tax measures which the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Board will set up a task force to devise details. It will aslo provide tax reliefs to promote the development of marine insurance and the underwriting of specialty risks in Hong Kong as well as streamlining regulation for the operation of protection and indemnity clubs for shipowners. Read more: Hong Kong planning tax incentives for marine insurers There will be facilitation and measures offered to Hong Kong's provision of dispute resolution. There will be regional desks set up for the Hong Kong Ship Registry give more direct and prompt support to shipowners, and promote the registry. Some HKD200m will be into the Maritime and Aviation Training Fund to improve training and bring through talent. Hong Kong will also study to attract more shipowner and manager principals to set up shop on its shores. Our maritime sector has also suggested that the Government should consider implementing additional measures to encourage more commercial principals of the maritime industry (such as shipowners, ship operators and ship managers) to base their operations in Hong Kong. Given that the commercial principals are involved in a wide range of businesses, we need to further examine the proposal, the address said. The Transport and Housing Bureau has been tasked to take the lead in putting foward feasible proposals as soon as possible. Attracting shipowners and operators to set regional and global headquarters under the Approved International Shipping Enterprise Scheme was one of the key elements In Singapore's rise as an international maritime centre. The two vessels from a partnership between INEOS Trading & Shipping and Imperial Logistics will measure 110 metres long with a beam of 17.5 metres, and have capacities of 3,024 tonnes of butane carried in six tanks. The barges will have each have three engines. Around three times the size of typical Rhine River barges they will transport gas from the worlds largest butane tank, currently being constructed at the Oiltanking Antwerp Gas Terminal (OTAGT) in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, to the INEOS cracker site in Koln, Germany. Hugh Carmichael, director INEOS Trading & Shipping, said: INEOS is committed to investing over $1bn in its ethane supply chain from the USA. Our new butane tank in Antwerp, together with these massive new river barges, mark the next step in a strategic investment in the future of our naphtha crackers in Cologne. This up-scaled supply system will increase our flexibility and resilience, and position INEOS as a front-runner in the global LPG market. Anke Bestmann, director of Imperial Logistics Internationals Gas Shipping Business Unit: said: We are pleased and proud to be INEOS partner in this ground-breaking project, and to bring our experience and knowledge to bear on this innovative solution. Press Release October 10, 2018 USE FRONTLINE STAFF TO ORIENT TOURISTS ON DO'S, DON'TS IN BORACAY--SEN. BINAY Govt must review envi policy design and implementation With 17 days to go until Boracay's soft opening, Sen. Nancy Binay today called on the government agencies in-charge of Boracay rehabilitation and the Local Government of Malay to conduct training for frontline staff of tourist establishments in the island. According to Binay, the trainings should be aimed at equipping staff with adequate knowledge so they can inform tourists on the "do's and don'ts" in the island. She added that besides frontline staff, dive masters, ground and ferry crew, drivers, boatmen, transport staff and other personnel at the island's entry points should also be trained. "I hope the DENR and LGU of Malay start organizing towards this end. Maliit lang na bagay ito, but I think it would go a long way in making sure tourists are aware of the things that are allowed or prohibited," said Binay. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources said only 25 resorts have secured all the permits necessary to operate in time for the soft reopening of Boracay on October 26. Government will also limit daily tourist entrance to 6,405, who are presumed to stay only for 2 nights and 3 days. Ibiza-like parties on the island will likewise be banned and will strictly implement the "no alcohol, no cigarettes, no drugs" policy. Plastic straws, bags, and styrofoams will be banned. Establishments will also be encouraged to use environment-friendly alternatives for toiletries. "Baka pwede ring i-explore na kasabay ng access cards or bracelets na ibibigay sa mga papasok na turista ay magkaroon na rin sila ng briefing complemented by posters, AVPs, and other information materials similar to the 'Magic Eyes' campaign in Thailand," Binay added. "Magic Eyes" is a unique environmental campaign designed with three objectives: (1) to persuade the public to stop littering and to throw garbage into correct trash bins; (2) to train people to pick up any trash they see in order to completely eliminate trash in public spaces; and (3) to raise awareness broader environmental issues. The senator likewise noted that the government must review current environmental policy designs and how these are implemented in the local level. "Perhaps we can adopt the Intramuros template in creating an ad-hoc body to oversee and regulate all developments in the island para mapangalagaan ang environmental integrity ng Boracay. Second, is to come up with a land-use management framework that would appropriately fit the uniqueness of the island supported with innovative management techniques necessary for governing Boracay as a protected landscape," she pointed out. Binay said that the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force could include the seminar in its agenda similar environmental objectives for the dry run for the opening, which starts on October 15. The local tourists who will participate in the dry run could then provide inputs on how to make the information drive for tourists more effective, she added. She also expressed hope that such practice would be institutionalized and even replicated in other tourist destinations across the country. Press Release October 10, 2018 MESSAGE ON THE WORLD DAY AGAINST DEATH PENALTY On 18 December 2016, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) approved a Resolution reaffirming previous moratoriums on the death penalty. It reiterates that the prohibition of arbitrary taking of life is a jus cogens norm that applies to all States. This landmark resolution demonstrates once again the primacy of human dignity which should not be devalued by such punitive measures as the capital punishment that leads to irreversible and irreparable consequences. This year, on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, it is imperative to remind ourselves of that most fundamental of all rights: the entitlement to life, which is inherent, inalienable, universal and non-derogable. It is a right that belongs to us all regardless of race, color, sex, gender identity and expression, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other statuses. It is a right first recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequently adopted and amplified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, all of which are ratified by the Philippines. The right to life is of such importance that some regional state groupings have open, public, and institutional policy support for its protection. Specifically, in 2017, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, issued a joint Declaration that unequivocally opposed the death penalty. Similarly, the Organization of American States, through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, developed its Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty. These firm and unequivocal efforts to move away from the death penalty are the outcome of rights-based developments in law and in science that point to the flaw in the typical argument that the imposition of death penalty is a key deterrent to the commission of heinous crimes. What deters and resolves crimes rather is a well-oiled and thoroughly functioning criminal justice system, one that ensures swift and certain accountability for the crimes committed and the imposition of commensurate penalties to the wrongdoers. In my own humble way as a human rights defender and legislator, I am trying to do my share of advocating against the death penalty. In 2016, in one of the very first bills that I filed, I was pushing for the introduction into Philippine criminal laws the penalty of qualified reclusion perpetua, to ensure that, even in extraordinarily heinous crimes, our policy direction looks at restorative justice over punitive or retributive measures, while equally aware and conscious of the need to bring to justice perpetrators of the most egregious offenses. Today, I join fellow human rights defenders and the global community in renewing and sustaining the campaign against the death penalty. May we all recall, by way of self-reflection, the words of the late Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, thus: "Can the state, which represents the whole of society and has the duty of protecting society, fulfill that duty by lowering itself to the level of the murderer, and treating him as he treated others? The forfeiture of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict it on another, even when backed by legal process." No to death penalty! Yes to all measures that uphold and protect human dignity! LEILA M. DE LIMA Custodial Center, Camp Crame 10 October 2018 Press Release October 10, 2018 De Lima decries media ban in court hearings Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has decried the unwarranted action of authorities, including the Philippine National Police (PNP) and court officials, to ban media from covering her court hearings, such as during her recent appearance at the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court, Branch 34, last Oct. 4. De Lima, the first prominent political prisoner under the Duterte regime, considered the said restriction as a gross violation of press freedom, the right of the public to be informed, and the right of the accused to a public trial, as guaranteed under the 1987 Constitution. "The authorities are getting more and more unreasonable in restricting media access to my court proceedings and any of my public outings, for that matter," she said. "As far as my legal team knows, the Court has not issued any official order - verbal or written - restricting media from covering court proceedings at QC MTC, Branch 34. But how come media were barred during the last hearing? Under whose authority or orders was it?" she asked. During the hearing at the Quezon City MTC, Branch 34, on De Lima's "Disobedience to Summons" case last Oct. 4, media were barred by the authorities from covering the hearing without issuance of any court order justifying such restriction. It was not, however, the first time that the authorities prevented the media from covering the Senator's court proceedings. In the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 206, where she is facing trumped-up illegal drug trade case, verbal orders were supposedly issued to the press restricting them from covering court hearings. The said verbal order in Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206 was allegedly issued under the instructions of Judge Lorna Navarro-Domingo. "These unreasonable and baseless instructions are unconstitutional. They not only undermine the media's role as messengers of truth to the public, but also prevent the conduct of an open and public trial," she said. Citing from the 1973 case, Garcia v. Domingo, De Lima noted the trial of the accused possesses a character where anyone interested, especially the members of the press, are free to enter the courtroom during the hearing and observe the manner a judge conducts the proceedings in his courtroom. De Lima said: "There cannot be a legal ban on such attendance, even if enforced through a written court order. Any ban on the attendance of the media is illegal. Being a mere member of the public, even though one may be a stranger to the litigants, is of no moment. Relationship to the parties is not necessary in order to attend court hearings. In criminal trials, this is the essence of the right of the accused to an open and public trial." "Closed door or secret trials, or trials where the public, especially the media, are excluded from the court room, are proscribed under the Constitution. This is to guarantee a fair and impartial trial of the accused by the courts. It is to ensure that the courts will not engage in any shenanigan or railroad the conviction of the accused," she added. The Senator from Bicol said the Filipino people are also entitled to know the events that transpire in court proceedings that involve a public official like her because they have the right to be informed on matters that affect their representative. "Understanding that these freedoms are protected precisely to protect and preserve the right of the people to information on matters of public concern, it becomes all the more necessary to allow the members of the media to cover the proceedings where the subject is an elected senator, and the cases involve issues that affect the entire nation - including the issue of government-sponsored summary killings of drug suspects" she said. According to De Lima, the media restriction on covering court proceedings sends a chilling message to the people that "if it can be done to a public figure like me, to an elected official, it can be done to anyone." She added: "Being falsely accused based on orchestrated lies, I'm already at a disadvantage. Restricting media access to my court hearings further stunts my chances for a fair trial." "When even an elected senator is rendered powerless before the courts, all the more that ordinary citizens are susceptible to transgressions and abuses," she said. Aside from the courts, the Philippine National Police has also exerted efforts to keep the media away from De Lima during her public outings by "drowning" her statements with coughing noises. Considered as a prisoner of conscience, De Lima is currently detained at the PNP-Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City for trumped-up drug charges fabricated by the Duterte administration. Press Release October 10, 2018 HONTIVEROS: PASSAGE OF UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE BILL, A GIANT STEP IN EQUALIZING HEALTH SERVICE DELIVERY FOR ALL FILIPINOS Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday lauded the passage on third and final reading of Senate Bill No. 1896 otherwise known as "The Universal Health Care (UHC) Bill," which seeks to expand the country's health care infrastructure to make health care available to all Filipinos. Hontiveros, who is a co-author and co-sponsor of the bill, said the passage of the measure is "a giant leap forward in closing the gap between the rich and poor on the access and delivery of quality and affordable health services in the country." "This is a giant step in our effort to equalize health care service delivery for all Filipinos. Its universal fulfillment is a step towards eradicating inequality," Hontiveros said. "The measure will have a significant, lasting and profound effect on the health of every Filipinos as it closes the economic, class and gender gaps in the delivery of healthcare systems in the country," Hontiveros added. The proposed measure was principally sponsored by Senator JV Ejercito, who heads the Senate Committee on Health. The bill mandates that all Filipinos, especially the poor, are afforded adequate health coverage, access to a network of facilities and quality services. The measure also guarantees equal access to quality and affordable health services for all Filipinos and institute changes in the operations of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to enhance the delivery of benefits to all Filipinos. It covers free consultation, laboratory tests and other diagnostic services that are beneficial to Filipinos, especially the poor and the marginalized. "Sa batas na ito, aking panalangin na wala nang Pilipino ang dapat maghirap dahil gusto lamang niyang maging malusog ang kanyang mga mahal sa buhay, wala nang magulang ang dapat papiliin kung kaya ba niyang iligtas ang kaniyang anak sa peligro ng karamdaman," Hontiveros said. Last February, Hontiveros filed her version of the UHC Bill,Senate Bill No. 1714 or the "Healthy Pinoy, Healthy Pinas Bill" to contribute to the overall discussions of health systems reforms and bring the country closer to the path of universal health care. Press Release October 10, 2018 Explanation of Vote Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros Ratification of Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Act October 10, 2018 Mr. President, my dear colleagues, just two days ago, as we are preparing for the bicameral conference meeting, the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Director Dr. Shin Young-soo made an alarming statement that sooner or later, the general population of Filipinos, and not just men who have sex with men (MSM), might be infected by HIV and AIDS. This was confirmed by the Philippine National AIDS Council earlier, warning government that unless steps are taken, the number of Filipinos living with HIV-AIDS will exceed a quarter of a million by 2030. A quarter of a million by 2030 A 140% increase in the last six to eight years 85% - 15 to 24 year-old MSMs 32 testing positive every day The fastest growing epidemic in Asia and the Pacific. And it took us almost ten years, Mr. President, my dear colleagues. Ten years to set aside our indifference, our prejudices. Ten years to come up with an evidence-based and human rights-centered response. Ten years to address stigma and discrimination which have been outrageously denying our PLHIVs and people at risk their right to health, which this representation believes should be basic to every Filipino, to every human being. Along with the submission of this bicameral conference committee report is a promise-- That no Filipino PLHIV shall be deprived of healthcare and support anymore. That no person at risk will still be afraid to know his or her status. That no 15 year-old will be denied testing and left uncared for. With this report also comes a simple prayer: for our dear country to be dragged out from the dark corners of this epidemic--of ignorance, negligence, and untimely deaths--the miserable rut where the rest of the world has left us. May this new law be able adequately respond to the needs of PLHIVs and key affected population. May this new law usher us to a new dawn of hope. Press Release October 10, 2018 MANIFESTATION OF AKBAYAN SENATOR RISA HONTIVEROS ON THE RATIFICATION OF THE BILL ON THE SPECIAL PROTECTION OF CHILDREN IN SITUATIONS OF ARMED CONFLICT October 10, 2018 Isang magandang hapon sa ating lahat. Mr. President, armed conflict has often characterized human history, and the Philippines as a country is no exception. Wars and other forms of armed fighting have shaped our history as a nation. While some say that these terrible events are inevitable, the involvement of children in these armed conflicts speaks of something fundamentally wrong with how these engagements are conducted. Being deeply violative of a child's basic right to a peaceful and caring environment, we are practically depriving them of their childhood. Therefore, it is but just to protect our children from conflicts not of their own making. Mr. President, it's been more than twenty long years since the filing of the first bill on the protection of children in situations of armed conflict. The years in-between have been marked by important learnings and much anticipation of its passage. Today, I am honored, along with the other authors (Senate President Tito Sotto, Senators JV Ejercito and Grace Poe) and co-authors of the bill to bring this closer to becoming a law. My special thanks also goes to my Senate panel co-conferees, Senators Loren, Grace, JV and Kiko. On the part of the advocates, I would like to give special mention to the Child Rights Network for tirelessly seeing this through. I share with children's advocates the hope that the signing this Bicameral Conference Committee report in time for the celebration of International Children's Day on November 20 will further shine a light on the meaning and importance of this issue. Muli, maraming salamat sa lahat ng mga nagtaguyod sa batas na ito. Press Release October 10, 2018 Senate approves Universal Health Care bill The Senate has passed today on third and final reading the landmark Universal Health Care Bill which seeks to guarantee equal access to quality and affordable health services for all Filipinos. Senator Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, said Senate Bill No. 1896 called for reforms in the mandate, responsibilities and jurisdiction of agencies that implement the country's universal health care program, such as the Department of Health (DOH), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and local government units (LGUs). Ejercito, who sponsored the bill, said records from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that Filipinos spent around P6,345 for their health needs in 2016 or 8.7 percent higher from P5,840 health expenditure in 2015. He said majority of Filipinos consulted a doctor only when their illnesses were already at their worst because of the lack of government support in health care. "This bill will ensure that financial issues will no longer be a burden to our countrymen when it comes to healthcare," Ejercito said in his sponsorship speech. Under the bill, all Filipino citizens will automatically be enrolled into the National Health Insurance Program whether as direct contributor (those who have the capacity to pay premiums) or indirect contributor (those sponsored by the government like the indigents, senior citizens, among others). Ejercito said the passage of the bill into law would expand the PhilHealth coverage to include free consultation fees, laboratory tests and other diagnostic services. Under the bill, Filipino residents can avail of primary health care services even without the PhilHealth Identification Cards. Those not enrolled in the PhilHealth once the measure becomes a law could still avail the health care services since the premium subsidy will be gradually adjusted and included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA). In 2013, the mandatory coverage of indigent patients and other sponsored members of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has increased PhilHealth coverage up to 92 percent of the population or roughly 93.5 million Filipinos. The bill also calls for the improvement of doctor-to-patient ratio, upgrading of hospital bed capacities and equipment as well as establishment of hospitals in remote areas. DOH has pegged doctor-to-patient ratio at 1 is to 33,000 while bed to population ratio was pegged at 1 is to 1,121. In Metro Manila, the bed to population ratio is 1 is to 591 while bed to population ratio in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao is 1 is to 4,200. Under the bill, all graduates of health-related courses from state universities and colleges or government-funded scholarship programs will be required to serve for at least three years in the public sector. Senator Risa Hontiveros, co-sponsor of the bill, said the measure also aims to address the issue of fragmentation of health care delivery system by providing a framework for the integration of the health system at the level of provinces and highly urbanized cities. "This bill seeks to address barriers in health governance, health human resources, regulations, service delivery and health information that would prevent Filipinos from accessing care," Hontiveros said. Senate endorses creation of Cordillera State Institute of Technology The Senate on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, passed on third and final reading House Bill 7264, which integrates training centers and supervised state-run technical-vocational institutions of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), including the Baguio School of Arts and Trade in the Cordillera Autonomous Region. The measure, under Committee Report 454 sponsored by Sen. Francis Escudero, creates the Cordillera State Institution of Technical Education (CSITE), which would strengthen the country's technical-vocational education in the region for the development of world-class Filipino workforce. Under the measure, the TESDA Regional Training Center in Baguio would be the main campus of the Institute, while the TESDA Provincial Training Centers in Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Mt. Province, and the local government-run Provincial Training Centers in Apayao shall be converted into extension campuses of the CSSI. The CSITE will be under the supervision of TESDA. Escudero, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, said integrated facility would equip the students with practical technical skills of global competence and caliber responsive to the needs of both the domestic and global job markets. The Senate also approved 12 bills that seek to establish, convert, separate and rename one elementary school, 8 secondary schools and three tertiary schools nationwide. The Senate approved the establishment and conversion of several national high schools in Nueva Vizcaya, Zamboanga del Sur, Bataan, Zamboanga Sibugay, and Masbate. Also approved were House measures renaming and separating several high schools and elementary schools in the country. Approved for establishment were Pinayag High School in Nueva Vizcaya and Bataan High School for the Arts. The Senate also passed the renaming and conversion of Inoyonan High School in Camarines Sur; Tawantawan Elementary School in Davao City; Bayog National High School in Zamboanga del Sur; Lupon School of Fisheries in Davao Oriental; Kabasalan Institute of Technology in Zamboanga Sibugay; and Dr. Emilio B. Mendoza Sr. Memorial State College of Agriculture and Technology in Masbate. The Senate also passed House measures separating Sicsican National High School - Annex in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan; Bocboc National High School - Kiara Annex in Bukidnon; Dabubu High School Annex in Isabela; and, Cabangahan National High School - Cordova National High School Extension in Cebu. Press Release October 10, 2018 Statement of Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto On Rice Tariffication This is a tough balancing act. We must hit the sweet spot that will protect farmers from bankruptcy and spare consumers from high rice prices. Hindi pwedeng busog ang isa, gutom naman yung isa. We should give what the rice consuming poor want without harming the rice producing poor. And there are millions of families in each column. Rice growing accounts for at least two million farmers. It is a P335 billion annual industry. The forecast is that the disruption will cost them P87.9 billion a year. One worst-case-scenario warns that a farmer stands to lose P19,200 per hectare in income. To many, this is endo of massive scale. The challenge is to fill the pots with rice without leaving the pockets of farmers empty, or their farms abandoned. One way is to use duties paid on imported rice to boost rural productivity, not just of rice but all farm produce. And I think there is no orthodoxy in proposing direct cash aid to the severely affected farmers. Kasi kung fertilizer, halimbawa, ang ibibigay, imagine the logistical nightmare plus the moral hazards it will cause. Kailangan ng mga magsasaka ang direktang tulong because the poor state of irrigation and the advent of farm mechanization have made farming dependent on expensive oil. 24 oras umaandar ang water pump dahil may free irrigation nga, wala namang tubig. And every phase of rice production is now done by gas- or diesel-powered equipment. So for a crucial--if not revolutionary--proposal that will affect the lives of 105 million of us, then rigorous study and spirited debate, as what had reportedly happened in the Cabinet, is a must. Tama lang na kung ang panukala ay unli rice importation, unli din ang debate. Press Release October 10, 2018 Explanation of Vote Universal Health Care Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto 10 October 2018 There is a Chinese saying that there are 1,000 prescriptions to a disease, but only one cure. And this bill, after diagnosing what ails the Philippine health system, collates the cures in one catalogue. The truth is, there is no cure-all, fast-acting miracle pill on how to make our "health system healthy". Fortunately, what works for people also works for policy - and that is often a cocktail of remedies. We may give every Filipino a PhilHealth card, but it is useless if there is no facility he can present that card to for treatment. We may erect hospitals in gleaming glass and steel, but if there are no doctors and other health professionals who will staff and run them, then what we have built are white elephants. We may have modern curative facilities, but when the sick are continuously dumped on them because we have neglected the promotive and the preventive aspect of medicine, then we have failed to address the roots. We may have a cadre of health professionals scattered nationwide, but if drugs are expensive, then the road to wellness is blocked. We may have built a network of hospitals, but it they are not constantly infused with funds, then they cannot function fully due to budgetary anemia. What is my point, Mr. President? The challenges are interrelated, linked together in one body politic. Therefore, the cure must not be compartmentalized, but comprehensive. Sa Tagalog po, ang sakit ng kalingkingan, dama ng buong katawan. So Mr. President, as I have said, this bill is a tapestry of solutions, composed of many threads. And I am proud to say that all stakeholders were marshalled by Senator JV to participate in the collective weaving. Among its salient features are: Funds will be pooled for Universal Health Care: from PCSO to PAGCOR to incremental sin tax collections to the sugar tax. There is no greater winning combination than using casino income for cure. It is better for our health institutions to direct where funds must go than for state gaming bodies to triage who will receive help or not. The granting and eligibility and coverage to all Filipinos, even OFWs. Simplifying the membership category into direct and indirect, so that health insurance will not metastisize into a disease called red tape. Setting up of a health care provider network that will allow every Filipino to register and have its own primary care provider. Creating a national pool of health professionals by expanding the medical scholarships. Development of a health information system as database of all health related information. Accounting and inventory of health professionals to determine the actual gap and needs for a specific health profession. Conduct of health technology assessment to evaluate the social, economic, organizational and ethical issues of health intervention or health technology. Promoting health promotion and prevention to eventually address the bottlenecks in curative health care. Providing for a mechanism for the public health care providers to improve its facilities and equipment by means of financial subsidies to make them ready to shift into network-based health care delivery system. Prescribing co-payments of patients in public and private facilities. Mr. President: I must admit that many of these are technical terms, like pharmaceutical formulas, not familiar to laymen like us. But believe me, if implemented, and when delivered in the right dosage, they will have proven efficacy. I believe these are cures with therapeutical potency. The end objective is to stop Filipino families from being one sickness away from financial bankruptcy. For all of them to have access to affordable and quality health care, that will not only cure them, but above all, prevent them from being sick. Because at this point, Mr. President, health care is too expensive for the ordinary workingman, that if he lands in a hospital, and he pays the bill, he will check if there is a recovery room beside the cashier. Ito pong batas na ito ay isang reseta na lulunas sa maraming sakit ng ating sistemang pangkalusugan. I vote yes. The registry that underpins the countrys electricity market provides a world-class switching service but may not be fit for purpose within a decade, the Electricity Authority says. The registry, which records customer switches among retailers and within networks, is at the core of the market and enables firms to bill users, pay distributors for their lines and reconcile purchases from the wholesale market. While the ability to complete most switches within 3.5 days, and some within in a day, is world-leading, the system is doing things it was never designed for when it started in 1999, authority principal advisor Ron Beatty says. It was last refreshed in 2013. He said firms are having to spend time resolving switching issues manually, and that may become more of an issue as more retailers enter the market and make greater use of smart meters and other technology to offer more sophisticated services. We think it may be limiting competition, Beatty told an industry workshop in Wellington yesterday. The last thing you want is to have that innovation limited by the switching process. The increasing use of new technologies like solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles is changing the way people use electricity and interact with the market. More consumers are using real-time pricing and peer-to-peer trading among solar panel owners is starting. The authority wants to ensure its processes are ready if those sorts of changes take-off during the next five to 10 years. It is trying to gauge whether fixing current issues with the registry is sufficient, or whether it may be time to start again. The registry records the details of more than 2.1 million active ICPs - customer connections on networks around the country. More than 1,000 users can be accessing the registry at peak times and there can be 300 million inquiries in a month. A record 558 million inquiries were made in June and 99.7 percent of all inquiries are resolved in less than 2 seconds. Beatty said the switching system is not broken. It has achieved that performance because of the cooperation of industry participants, who have worked to evolve the system to keep it up to date and have invested heavily in their own processes to make that work. But he said the industry has never stepped back and asked whether this is the best switching process for the future. In future, it may need to cater for customers receiving services from more than one player, or dealing directly with the market themselves. Metering companies may also have a greater role to play in providing some data; load aggregators may also become more of a feature in the market and could potentially become a new class of participant. The industry could be a very different animal, he said. The authority is seeking feedback from participants on more than 20 potential issues it has identified with the current system, and whether it may be time for more fundamental change. While some existing problems may be fixed quite easily, any major change to the registry would take time and would be expensive particularly because of the complex systems retailers and lines companies have developed to work with the registry. Beatty said any fundamental change would take at least three and a half years and probably five. A cost-benefit analysis would also be required to ensure it was worth undertaking. (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: Move Logistics Group Limited (NZX: MOV) Completion of Retail Entitlement Offer 16th November 2021 Morning Report Investore Property Limited (NZX: IPL) Interim Results HY22 Napier Port Holdings Limited (NZX: NPH) 2021 Full Year Results SkyCity Entertainment Group Limited (NZX: SKC) REOPENING OF SKYCITY HAMILTON PROPERTY Just Life Group Limited (NZX: JLG) Dividend Announcement Vector Limited (NZX: VCT) Launches Retail Bond Offer 15th November 2021 Morning Report Contact Energy Limited (NZX: CEN) Sets Interest Rate for Green Capital Bonds Rakon Limited (NZX: RAK) Upgrades Earnings Guidance TeamTalk is expecting similar full-year earnings despite higher operating costs and investment. The telecommunications provider is expecting net profit for the year through June 2019 to be broadly in line with the $4.4 million it reported in August. The company, which last year sold its Farmside rural internet service to Vodafone, is rolling out a new digital radio network across the country. The network in Auckland is complete and work is underway in Northland, Waikato and Wellington. By Christmas, the project will be half completed, including Tauranga, Napier, Otago, Dunedin and South Canterbury. When completed next June it will be the only nationwide digital radio network in the country, chief executive Andrew Miller said. This is a major infrastructure roll-out for any company and it is pleasing to see that we are on track. It is confirmation that TeamTalk has the skills and capability to carry out the detailed design, planning and delivery of major projects. TeamTalk shares rose from a nine-month low to 81 cents, up 2.5 percent. The stock is down 13 percent since Aug. 23 when the company said it would reinvest earnings rather than resume paying dividends this year. TeamTalk provides mobile radio communications and other niche services. It has provided broadband services to the Chatham Island under the governments Rural Broadband Initiative since 2014 and has just had that $312,000 contract extended at an extra $8,200 a month, according to Crown accounts published yesterday. The companys other main business is its CityLink arm, which provides fibre and wireless broadband services in Auckland and Wellington. Miller said planning is on track for the undergrounding later this year of CityLinks Wellington fibre network using Powercos gas ducting in the CBD. (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. 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The Page 3 actor took to Twitter and shared a long post giving out details on how Nath tried to force himself on her during the shoot for a telefilm in the beginning of her career. Bollywood actor Sandhya Mridul has opened up about facing rowdy behaviour at the hands of Alok Nath, who was also recently accused of rape by writer-producer Vinta Nanda. She captioned the post, "In truth and solidarity. I'm with you @vintananda #metoo" She voiced her support for Vinta Nanda in her post which read, "I will never forgive you (Alok Nath) for what you did with Vinta. Whom I have always love and respected. I stand by you Vinta, what I went through is nothing compared to you. I'm sorry. More power to you, to all of us." She began her post by saying, "At the very start of my career, I was shooting a telefilm in Kodaikanal. I was the lead. And very excited. Alok Nath was my on-screen father and Reema Lagoo my mother." She further detailed how Nath praised her profusely, however his behavior soon starting to make Sandhya feel uncomfortable. "Alok Nath was very impressed with me and called me "God's own child" and openly praised me every day. I was over the moon. I was a huge fan of this wonderful Babuji.. I felt so fortunate happy and confident. Till one night after an early pack up. The cast went out for dinner. At dinner he got progressively drunk and started insisting I sit with him and that I belonged to him and other stuff that I don't clearly remember but it made me very nervous and uncomfortable. My co-star realised what was happening and got me out of there." The actor further shared what happened when they returned to the hotel, "We went back to the hotel without dinner. It was late and I was back in my room and the costume dada came to my room to give me my clothes for the next day as I had a very early call time. In the post Sandhya details how Nath tried to enter her room at a hotel where the cast and crew were lodged. "Few minutes after he left there was a knock on my door I opened the door thinking it was him again .. it was an inebriated Alok Nath I instinctively tried to shut the door but he pushed it and lunged at me, I stepped aside he went flying past me into the room .. I fell back toward the bathroom door he lunged at me again screaming I want you you're mine .. I dodged again he went into the bathroom and I think I latched the loo door and ran out of my room down the corridor into the lobby. Fortunately, my DoP was there making a call from the reception .." She explained how after that incident, Nath continued to threaten her, "It didn't stop there .. every evening he would drink and every night calls were made to my room. I dreaded the ring.. I had to keep it off the hook most of the times. But then he would come calling. It was a catch 22 situation. I had the hairdresser moved in to my room permanently. I was a nervous wreck." Sandhya also gave credit to Tanushree Dutta, who, in a way, started the #MeToo movement in India. "What Tanushree has started is admirable. I'm happy now women can speak go on social media. So there's that platform. And it's pretty powerful. I believe," wrote the actor. The #MeToo movement gained momentum in India after Tanushree Dutta spoke up against Nana Patekar almost two weeks ago. Recently, a lot of such cases have come to the fore, with big names like Vikas Bahl and Rajat Kapoor being accused of harassement by women. Bollywood celebrities like Mahesh Bhatt, Tappsee Pannu, Pooja Bhatt, Sonam Kapoor, and Sonakshi Sinha among several others, had earlier spoken in support of the movement. Read Related Stories: Vairamuthu responds to Chinmayi's sexual harassment allegations Vikas Bahl slaps legal notices on Anurag, Vikramaditya Anurag feels like apologising for being a man, exits MAMI board First time in 20 years, I am feeling fearless: Vinta Nanda We should look into harassment cases seriously: Kay Kay Menon Women should definitely speak up when they are wronged: Sonakshi Sinha Have faced harassment in Bollywood and south film world: Amyra Dastur Tanushree submits documents to support harassment claims Tanushree-Nana row: MSCW issues notice to Patekar #MeToo: Film associations act against artistes accused of sexual harassment Radha Ravi faces the heat from #MeToo movement Nana Patekar cancels press meet on Tanushree Dutta's allegation #MeToo movement will make Bollywood safer: Anurag Basu #MeToo movement gets stronger in Kollywood, shocking allegations against Vairamuthu! #MeToo movement-Actor Mukesh faces shocking charges from a casting director Samantha lends support to #MeToo movement In #MeToo wake, Producers Guild of India to set up committee MAMI drops AIB, Rajat Kapoor's films from fest's line-up #MeToo movement-Actor Mukesh faces shocking charges from a casting director CINTAA to issue notice to Alok Nath post sexual harassment allegations #MeToo is final awakening of Indian women: Mahesh Bhatt BJP MP backs Nana Patekar, says India's #MeToo start of wrong practice Hong Kong will 'fearlessly take action' against independence talk Hong Kong, Oct 10 (AFP) Oct 10, 2018 Hong Kong will "fearlessly take action" against independence calls and protect China's interests, leader Carrie Lam said Wednesday, as concerns grow that the city's freedoms face an unprecedented challenge from Beijing. Lam's annual policy address came as her government stood accused of attacking press freedoms for barring a Financial Times journalist from working in Hong Kong after he chaired a talk by an independence activist at the city's press club. Any talk of independence incenses Beijing as President Xi Jinping increasingly emphasises the importance of territorial integrity. "I will not tolerate any acts that advocate Hong Kong's independence and threaten the country's sovereignty, security and development interests," Lam told legislators in a televised address. "We will fearlessly take action against such acts according to the law in order to safeguard the interests of the country and Hong Kong." Before the speech began, pro-democracy lawmakers were escorted from the legislative chamber after shouting "Protect press freedom" and waving placards. Hong Kong is governed under a semi-autonomous "One Country, Two Systems" set-up, with freedoms unseen on the mainland that are protected by a 50-year agreement made when Britain handed the city back to China in 1997. But there are serious concerns those rights are under threat. Lam repeatedly emphasised the notion of "One Country" in her speech and made no reference to freedom of expression and freedom of the press, a departure from last year's address when she described those rights as "constitutional bulwarks". Lam and her government have refused to explain why the city denied a visa to the FT's Asia news editor Victor Mallet. Beijing regularly denies visas to foreign journalists on the mainland but it has not been a tactic used in Hong Kong. The move has sparked considerable disquiet and anger among the city's legal, business and media sectors and calls for explanation from governments around the world including Britain and the United States. Chan's tiny party has been banned since his press club talk in August on the grounds it is a national security threat, the first such ban since 1997. Lam said Wednesday the ban was "strong testimony" that the government will use existing laws to suppress independence activism until controversial anti-subversion law Article 23 is introduced. Article 23 is part of Hong Kong's mini-constitution but has never been implemented due to public fears it would curtail freedoms. Lam has long said it is Hong Kong's constitutional responsibility to introduce the law and said Wednesday the government would continue to "create a favourable social environment" for the legislation. The majority of Wednesday's speech focused on domestic issues, primarily the city's pressing housing shortage. Lam pledged to reserve 70 percent of new residential units for public housing, including on artificial islands. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Legislative Council building ahead of the speech, protesting against a range of issues including pension reform and expensive infrastructure projects." 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(0x7f3fdc0b1608)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdc603038)', '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(0x7f3fdc0b1608)') 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(0x7f3fdc603038)') 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(0x7f3fdc0a4ec8)') 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(0x7f3fdc603038)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdc603038)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdb741c10)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdc172a28)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdc172a28)') 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(0x7f3fdc00d578)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdc054a50)', '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(0x7f3fdc00d578)') 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(0x7f3fdc054a50)') 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(0x7f3fdc073010)') 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(0x7f3fdc054a50)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdc054a50)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdb742360)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdbf30920)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdbf30920)') 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(0x7f3fdbc5a2b0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdbb32a48)', '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(0x7f3fdbc5a2b0)') 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(0x7f3fdbb32a48)') 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(0x7f3fdbc770c8)') 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(0x7f3fdbb32a48)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdbb32a48)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdb741dd8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdbc64d40)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdbc64d40)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Canada has reaffirmed its support for a united India as efforts get underway in several Canadian cities to hold polls as part of a part of a worldwide referendum for an independent Sikh nation called Khalistan. A US-based group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), with chapters in the U.K. and in Canada, said the campaign aims to gauge the will of the Punjabi people all over the world with regards to reestablishing Punjab as a nation state. Punjab Referendum 2020 is a campaign to liberate Punjab, currently occupied by IndiaOnce we establish consensus on the question of independence, we will then present the case to the United Nations for reestablishing the country of Punjab, states the groups campaign website called referendum2020.org. Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) is targeting Sikh communities and temples in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver to join some 100 cities worldwide to build consensus for a separate state of Khalistan. Pockets of pro-Khalistan support are growing in Canadas Indo-Canadian community, after years of dormancy, Indian intelligence agencies have claimed, prompting India to express its concerns directly to the Justin Trudeau administration. Reports in India have also linked Canadian Sikhs directly with terror activities in India and their alleged connections to Pakistani militant groups. Earlier this year, an Indian diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council that Canada needed to prevent people from misusing their right to freedom of expression to incite violence and glorify terrorists as martyrs. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs described the campaign as a separatist activity which impinges on Indias territorial integrity and seeks to propagate violence, secessionism, and hatred. According to The Times of India, Indian intelligence officials had identified the Pakistani military officer who they believed to be one of the masterminds of the Referendum 2020 campaign. The news outlet also reported that it traced documents published on the SFJ website back to a Pakistani website and that the two sites were hosted by the same virtual server. SFJ denies any links with Pakistani intelligence or involvement in violence. We are for a ballot, not for a bullet, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, SFJs legal adviser told Global News. He said his group is indifferent to how the Canadian and Indian governments view the referendum. This referendum is not for the political leaders, this is for the Punjabi communityThe [Indian Prime Minister] Narendra Modi government or the Canadian government can agree or not, but we have a right to voice our concerns. We have a right to ask for our rights to self-determination. If Scotland can have a referendum to stay with Britain or not, why cant we have one for Punjab?, said Pannun. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freelands office said the Liberal government would not recognize any such referendum. In a statement, Freelands office sought to strike a balance between supporting Canadians right to expression and respecting the sovereignty of a country with whom relations were strained following Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus troubled state visit there in February. Canadas position on a united India has not changed and our government would not recognize such a referendumCanadians have the right to freedom of expression and speech. Canadians have the right to peacefully express their views. Former Defence Minister of Canada and leader of opposition United Conservative Party Jason Kenney, who was in India last week said Canada supports a united India. It does not support this or any other separatist movement. It regards India as a magnificent example of unity in diversity, of successful pluralism, he said. Nadir Patel, Canadas High Commissioner to India, who recently visited the Golden Temple, Sikhisms holiest shrine, said Canada cant crush the freedom of expression of its citizens. He also stated that the Canadian government will continue to support the idea of united India and will cooperate with the Indian agencies. Pannun said the Khalistan campaign is justified because it seeks simply to re-establish a state that existed from 1799 to 1849 when it was annexed by the British. The political leaders in Canada should side with the law, they should side with UN conventions which give all people the right to self-determination, he said. Us Sikhs qualify. We were a country before we were annexed by the British in 1849, and we just want to re-establish per UN norms our own independent country. Another reason why Sikhs should support the move to establish Khalistan, according to SFJ is the Anand marriage act that is still not applied on Sikhs, who are still forced to marry under Hindu marriage act. Sikhs For Justice now plans to take its Punjab Referendum 2020 campaign to Pakistan next year and make a series of announcements about how it will be executed. Pannun said the next major referendum-related event will be held at Nankana Sahib in Pakistans Punjab province, at the gurdwara dedicated to Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion who was born there. The event is being scheduled to coincide with celebrations of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak and is expected to attract tens of thousands of devotees from around the world to the site. Pannun said the SFJ also plans to launch the process of registering volunteers for Team Referendum 2020 at Nankana Sahib. These volunteers will be expected to guide voting in countries. Shuvaloy Majumdar, a senior fellow with Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said the SFJs event was clearly designed to provoke India. Meanwhile, in a blow to the aspirations of Khalistan supporters, President Donald Trumps administration has declared the Babbar Khalsa International as a risk to the US personnel and interests overseas. The National Strategy for Counterterrorism unveiled in Washington said that Babbar Khalsa International is responsible for significant terrorist attacks in India and elsewhere that have claimed the lives of innocent civilians. The US State and Treasury Departments had listed the Babbar Khalsa International and the International Sikh Youth Federation as terrorist organizations in 2002. Babbar Khalsa International was founded by a Canadian citizen and was based in Vancouver. It has been linked to the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1981 that killed 329 people on the Emperor Kanishka, a Boeing 747 airliner. Guest Commentary Jamie Liew The House of Commons recently voted unanimously to call the killings, persecution, rape, abuse, destruction of homes and forced displacement of Rohingya from Myanmar as genocide. More than 900,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since 2017. Now, the House has voted unanimously to revoke Aung San Suu Kyis honorary Canadian citizenship, which she received in 2007. These two actions should be applauded. Revoking the coveted status of citizenship is appropriate in this case given the fact that many Rohingya have no citizenship to speak of. What most people may not realize is that since 1982, Rohingya have been stripped of their citizenship and denied any entitlement to citizenship in Myanmar. Many Rohingya are stateless as a result of this deliberate change in citizenship law. Overnight, Rohingya became illegal immigrants within their own country. While initially they were given temporary identity cards, the cards were revoked in order to deny them the right to vote in a 2015 constitutional referendum. Rohingya did not only lose citizenship, but they also their ability to identify as Rohingya. Rohingya have been denied recognition as one of the countrys 135 official ethnic groups. In a 2014 census, if Rohingya persons wanted to participate, they had to identify as Bengali, not Rohingya. The loss of citizenship is not a benign act, especially for those who have no citizenship elsewhere. My family knows first-hand what being stateless means. My father was stateless in Brunei and told me it was difficult to plan for the future, that he had difficulties finding employment and feared the risk of being removed from his country of residence. He feared his children would not receive education, would be treated differently and would never belong. As a stateless person, he never felt safe. Being stateless means, at a minimum, loss of basic rights such as an identity recognized by the state, access to health care, education, employment and freedom of movement. Even obtaining a bank account, cell phone account or registering birth, marriage or death are difficult, if not impossible. Access to venues to protect your human rights, such as the right not to be detained arbitrarily, becomes more difficult when youre not protected by the state you thought was your home. For Rohingya, however, it has meant much more. The stripping of citizenship has fuelled discrimination, persecution and violence against them. The difference and othering created by the stripping of citizenship has cast the label of outsider on the Rohingya and justified the oppression they have suffered for years. This institutionalized exclusion of Rohingya in 1982 and the perpetual rejection and discrimination has allowed hate and violence to simmer and boil over 30 years. Suu Kyi stated in 2012 that she didnt know if Rohingya could be considered citizens of Myanmar. In 2016, she told the U.S. ambassador to Myanmar that the Rohingya are not among the official ethnic groups in Myanmar. As well, in 2016, Suu Kyi denied that ethnic cleansing was taking place. Many have described Suu Kyi as being silent on the issue of the persecution and violence perpetrated against Rohingya. But the few statements she has made on the issue of Rohingya citizenship and belonging, while crimes and violence against Rohingya were widely reported at the same time, cant be considered silence. Its an endorsement of the ethnic cleansing and genocide that has been allowed to continue. Her statements frame the primary justification that Rohingya dont belong in Myanmar. For a scholar who researches statelessness and abhors any act to take citizenship away from anyone, I find the Canadian governments decision to strip Suu Kyi of her Canadian citizenship compelling. First, she has Myanmar citizenship and stripping Canadian citizenship doesnt render her stateless. Second, Canada is making a powerful statement about her role in denying citizenship from those who, in emerging international law, should enjoy such status by virtue of their dominant, genuine and effective links and their past and ongoing habitual residence in Myanmar. Rohingya have been in Myanmar for years, even before the country gained independence from British colonization. Finally, Parliament has given some heft to its recent statement that there is a Rohingya genocide by taking away Canadian citizenship from a person who plays a role in the creation and perpetuation of statelessness in Myanmar. Honorary citizenship should not be held by a person who allows the legal fact of statelessness to be harnessed by others to engage in oppression, violent displacement and the killing of Rohingya. Jamie Liew is an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. She is the daughter of a previously stateless person and researches on legal barriers to statelessness. She is a contributor with EvidenceNetwork.ca, which is based at the University of Winnipeg. Monstrous Hurricane Michael hits Florida as Category 4 storm Panama City, United States, Oct 10 (AFP) Oct 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida coast on Wednesday as the most powerful storm to hit the southern US state in more than a century as officials warned it could wreak "unimaginable devastation." Michael made landfall as a monstrous Category 4 storm near Mexico Beach, a town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Panama City, around 1:00 pm Eastern time (1700 GMT), the National Hurricane Center said. As the eye of the hurricane came ashore, winds of up to 155 miles per hour (250 kilometers per hour) and driving rain pounded beachfront communities on the Florida Panhandle, the finger-shaped strip of land along the Gulf of Mexico. "Hurricane Michael is forecast to be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida Panhandle in a century," Governor Rick Scott said. Briefing President Donald Trump at the White House, top emergency management official Brock Long said Michael was the most intense hurricane to strike the area since 1851. "Along our coast, communities are going to see unimaginable devastation," Governor Scott said. "The National Hurricane Center is expecting storm surge to be between nine and 13 feet (2.7-3.6 meters)," he added. "Water will come miles in shore and could easily rise over the roofs of houses." Hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes and the governor told residents that if they have not already done so it was now too late. "The time to evacuate the coastal areas has come and gone... Hunker down, and be careful," he said. "Don't go out in the middle of this. You are not going to survive it. It's deadly." "This is, unfortunately, a historical and incredibly dangerous and life-threatening situation," said Ken Graham, director of the Miami-based NHC. "It's going to be incredibly catastrophic." - Deadly storm surge - Long, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said many Florida buildings were not built to withstand a storm above the strength of a Category 3 hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. As it came ashore, Michael was just shy of a Category 5 -- defined as a storm packing wind speeds of 157 mph or above. "We're going to see a lot of wind damage," Long said, and some residents could expect not to have power restored for weeks. Speaking before the hurricane made landfall, Long said "this is the final call for anybody that needs to get out. "Those who stick around to experience storm surge don't typically live to tell about it unfortunately," he said. Residents of the neighboring state of Georgia should also expect to be heavily impacted by the storm, the FEMA head said. "Citizens in Georgia need to wake up and pay attention," Long said. Mike Thomas, the mayor of Panama City Beach, a resort west of Panama City, said he expected there would be casualties and that emergency personnel would not go out when winds get over 50 miles per hour (80 kph). "It's going to be horrible," Thomas told CNN. "We're going to get some people hurt." An estimated 375,000 people in more than 20 counties were ordered or advised to evacuate. The National Weather Service office in the state capital Tallahassee issued a dramatic appeal for people to comply with evacuation orders. - 'Leave NOW' - "Hurricane Michael is an unprecedented event and cannot be compared to any of our previous events. Do not risk your life, leave NOW if you were told to do so," it said. The NWS said it had found no record of any previous Category 4 hurricanes that made landfall in the Panhandle or the "Big Bend" coastal region. "This situation has NEVER happened before," it said on Twitter. Trump issued an emergency declaration for Florida, freeing up federal funds for relief operations and providing the assistance of FEMA, which has more than 3,000 people on the ground. State officials issued disaster declarations in Alabama and Georgia and the storm is also expected to bring heavy rainfall to North and South Carolina. The Carolinas are still recovering from Hurricane Florence, which left dozens dead and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage last month. It made landfall on the coast as a Category 1 hurricane on September 14 and drenched some parts of the state with 40 inches (101 centimeters) of rain. Last year saw a string of catastrophic storms batter the western Atlantic -- including Irma, Maria and Harvey, which caused a record-equaling $125 billion in damage when it flooded the Houston metropolitan area. Scientists have long warned that global warming will make storms more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible. In Brazil, Bolsonaro effect boosts military presence in Congress Rio de Janeiro, Oct 9 (AFP) Oct 09, 2018 Brazil's far-right wave led by Jair Bolsonaro, who scored a huge win in the first round of the presidential election, also gave a boost to candidates for Congress with military ties. Twenty-two current or former military servicemembers were elected Sunday to the 513-strong Chamber of Deputies -- more than double the 10 serving in the outgoing lower house, according to vote tallies published by state-run Agencia Brasil. Two candidates with army ties were also elected to Brazil's Senate. One of them was Sergio Olimpio Gomes -- better known as Major Olimpio, a member of Bolsonaro's ultra-conservative Social Liberal Party who got more than nine million votes in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo, the richest and most populated state in the country. The party increased its overall share of seats in the Chamber of Deputies from eight to 52. And in 27 state legislatures, Agencia Brasil counted more than 60 newly elected members with military ties. "This (result) proves that today, people are less resistant to the military," a close advisor to Bolsonaro, reserve general Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, told daily newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. "The fact that we're further away from the military regime means prejudices are diminished," added the general, who served from 2004 to 2005 as the commander of the UN mission in Haiti. Bolsonaro, a former army captain who doesn't hide his admiration for the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, vowed to appoint several generals to his government if elected. He will face leftist Fernando Haddad in a presidential run-off on October 28 after winning 46 percent of the vote to Haddad's 29 percent in the first round. 8 Chadian soldiers killed in Boko Haram attack N'Djamena, Oct 10 (AFP) Oct 10, 2018 Eight Chadian soldiers died in a Boko Haram attack in the Lake Chad region on Wednesday, with 48 jihadists killed as the army retaliated, a military spokesman told AFP. "Boko Haram terrorists attacked defence force positions in Kaiga Kindji early this morning," the spokesman said. The attack, which left 11 other soldiers wounded, had been "vigorously" repulsed, he added. Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency has devastated the Lake Chad region since the group took up arms in Nigeria in 2009. The jihadists' campaign of violence has left at least 27,000 people dead, displaced some two million others and triggered a humanitarian crisis. Chad, Cameroon and Niger have all joined the military effort by Nigeria to crush Boko Haram. Chad has seen a recent increase in attacks by the group. A Chadian soldier was killed earlier this month after Boko Haram launched a mortar attack on a military camp in Litri, close to the Nigeria border. In late September, six people, including two soldiers, were killed in another Boko Haram attack on the Chadian shores of Lake Chad, in which 17 of the attackers were shot dead by the army. The Nigerian army has recently intensified operations in the Lake Chad region, including air strikes against the jihadist group, according to Nigerian military sources. British NATO troops to show post-Brexit 'commitment' Hook of Holland, Netherlands, Oct 10 (AFP) Oct 10, 2018 A convoy of British troops landed in The Netherlands on Wednesday en route to NATO's largest exercise since the Cold War, pledging London's commitment to defend the continent despite Brexit. The contingent of some 150 soldiers on board 71 military vehicles rolled off a civilian passenger ferry in the Hook of Holland port after travelling overnight from Harwich. They are embarking on the first leg of a trip through northern Europe to Norway for NATO's Trident Juncture exercise, which is designed to show Russia the alliance is ready to repel any attack. "The road trip is really important", British army spokesman Major Stuart Lavery told AFP. "This is about the British military showing in a post-Brexit world that we're still committed to Europe and to NATO," he added. "We're absolutely committed that in a year's time we'll still be able to do this, so this (Brexit) won't make any difference. We're getting ready for it now." Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016 and is set to depart in March 2019, depriving the bloc of one of its biggest military powers. Brussels and London are desperately trying to hammer out a deal on the terms of the divorce, including future cooperation on defence and security issues. Britain, however, remains a part of the 29-nation, US-led NATO military alliance. - 'Prepared to move' - Lavery said the British convoy's journey through the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden "demonstrates... to our NATO allies that the British army is prepared to move across Europe when needed and to show that we have the capability to do so." The British troops will test how fast and well army personnel and machines can move between NATO partner countries, Lavery said. The Trident Juncture exercise will see some 50,000 troops deploy into the first snows of a Norwegian winter. It will be the biggest such movement of NATO personnel and vehicles since at least the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, although smaller than the Vostok-18 exercise staged by Russia and China last month. The Western allies have stepped up their military posture, with rotating garrisons in eastern Europe and the Baltic States in the four years since Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. A NATO official who asked not to be named told AFP that the exercise "is focused on conventional warfare." "During the Cold War, the border was between West and East Germany. Everybody knew where to go and what their roles were," he said. The British road mobility part of the exercise "will help us establish new strategic points," such as where to find fuel and test infrastructure's ability to withstand rapid troop movements, the official said. Germany open to selling arms to Saudis despite Yemen war: report Berlin, Oct 10 (AFP) Oct 10, 2018 Germany's government has left the door open to exporting arms to Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Yemen conflict, the news weekly Der Spiegel reported Wednesday, seemingly in spite of a deal within the country's ruling coalition. There would be no German arms embargo on countries taking part in the Yemen conflict, which has left 10,000 people dead since 2015, the news weekly said on its website. It cited a letter to that effect sent by the economy ministry to Social Democratic Party (SPD) MP Thomas Hitschler. But part of a March coalition deal between Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CSU party and the centre-left SPD appeared to rule out arms exports to countries "directly involved" in the conflict. The letter to Hitschler, however, said that export licences will be granted on a case by case basis, Der Spiegel reported. The issue provoked a sharp dispute within the SPD's parliamentary group, the news weekly said, with several deputies accusing Foreign Minister Heiko Maas -- himself a SDP member -- of kowtowing to the Saudis. Merkel's coalition is already fragile, with its third member, the Bavarian conservative CSU, agitating for a migration crackdown as well as facing regional polls on Sunday. The Der Spiegel report also comes amid mounting international scrutiny of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, last seen by his fiancee entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. Turkish police say they think he was killed by a 15-strong team sent to Istanbul, an accusation strongly denied by the Saudis. The authorities in Turkey have released security camera footage showing a man thought to be Khashoggi entering the consulate. Germany and Saudi Arabia only returned their ambassadors in September after 10 months of frosty relations following criticism from Berlin of what it said was Saudi interference in Lebanese affairs. Saudi Arabia leads a coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government there against armed rebels backed by Iran. Thousands have since died -- mainly civilians -- in what the UN has labelled the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement 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 CSU is fond of macho, type-A personalities like Markus Soder. But the party is facing a stiff challenge from the Green Party on the left and the AfD on the right. Foto: PHILIPP GUELLAND/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock October 10, 2018 (SPS) -. MEP Lidia Senra has accused the European Union of "seeking to legalize the occupation" of Western Sahara through the signing of economic agreements with Morocco. The European Parliament of the Confederal Group of the European United Left (GUE / NGL) has intervened this Thursday in the commissions of Agriculture and Fisheries, in which she has criticized the action of the European Union in its relations with the Kingdom of Morocco. Thus, he recalled the "historic" sentence of 2015 in which the European Court overthrew the free trade agreement with Morocco "for violating the rights of the Saharawi people." In addition, Senra added that there is another court ruling that states that the fishing agreement between the EU and Morocco "is not applicable to Western Sahara." In this way, Senra has assured that the European Union "is maneuvering" to present new agreements with the North African country "before the end of the legislature". Therefore,she urged the EU to "adopt once and for all a position consistent with the values it claims to uphold, respecting the judgments of the European Court of Justice and doing everything possible to ensure that the UN and the international community in a broad sense commit to fulfill the self-determination referendum ".SPS 125/090/TRA TO VIEW MORE NEWS STORY, PLEASE CLICK ON NEWS TAB ON MAIN MENU BAR Ingenico GROUP: Third quarter 2018 Revenue - Conference call invitation Q3 2018 Revenue Conference Call Philippe Lazare Chairman and CEO is pleased to invite you to our third quarter revenue conference call on Wednesday, October 24 at 6pm (CET) Please dial the following numbers to join the call: France Toll: +33 1 72 72 74 03 UK Toll: +44 20 7194 3759 USA Toll: +1 646 722 4916 Conference pin: 13948420# A press release and a presentation will be available on www.ingenico.com prior to the call at (5:40pm). About Ingenico Group Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the world's largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the world's best known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise. Stay in touch with us: www.ingenico.com twitter.com/ingenico This announcement is distributed by West Corporation on behalf of West Corporation clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: INGENICO via Globenewswire Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. Joe Baconnet, Director of Stratforward STRATFORD businesses have voted overwhelmingly to keep Stratforward Business Improvement District (BID) for another five years. A total of 172 votes were cast (excluding ballot papers rejected) 121 in favour and 51 against, securing a third term for the organisation, which represents nearly 450 businesses in Stratford town centre. Despite the result, which wasnt as close as many had feared, there is a palpable sense of disquiet among some businesses. In the summer Stratforward BID director Joe Baconnet and his team launched a major PR counter-offensive in an attempt to sway opinion among those undecided voters. The stakes were high and a no vote would mean the end of those services and events that have been organised by BID, including festivals, town hosts, marketing, Christmas lights and retail radio system. The BID campaign was struck a body blow when two weeks before the big vote BID board member Dave Matthews of Magic Alley in Bell Court resigned and backed a No vote campaign. This week Joe Baconnet reflected on the significance of last Fridays yes vote. Some people voted yes and some no but this is not Trump Stratford where division lines are clearly drawn as they are in America. Im very pleased we had a vote of positivity from businesses. From our perspective we will continue to support all of them but the challenge will be to convince those who voted against us to work alongside us. The yes vote wasnt because of any last minute PR machine that went into overdrive but what we did do was talk to people by holding an open forum to gauge peoples views and we talked with a lot of businesses. We had to believe we were doing our best for the town but if the vote had been no wed have had to accept that. Asked if he was disappointed by the shock resignation of Dave Matthews? Mr Baconnet replied: BID decided that things should carry on as normal. Im not in the business of holding grudges. I treat people as I would want to be treated but it did come as a disappointment. I just feel very excited about a third term but I know weve got loads to do, said Joe Baconnet. But some BID members remain unconvinced with the vote result and particularly the turnout. Dave Matthews of Magic Alley in Bell Court said: Im not very impressed with the turnout, a lot of people in the town have said they are not happy with Stratforward, but I think many didnt vote because they just thought whats the point?, theyre going to get in anyway. I wish Stratforward good luck and I will keep an eye open to see if they actually deliver everything they promised, otherwise I will be on their case about it. I would like to work with Stratforward, were stuck with them for five years now so we have to make the best of it. Another business owner whos reserving judgement is Simon Wheeler owner of the Rohan franchise who said: Firstly I would like to congratulate Stratforward on a very well-coordinated media campaign and subsequent re-election. It is however of concern that only 41 per cent of businesses eligible to vote did so, meaning that just 28 per cent of the 427 actually said yes. I hope that Stratforward will adjust their plans to take on board ALL of the comments and needs of local businesses, so we can move forward with a more cohesive and effective business development strategy for the next five years. Rachael Barber of Four Teas, who claims has been let down by the lack of support in the face of competition from the Sunday Market on Waterside, said: I suppose its a case of better the devil you know. I hope BID arent going to be like politicians who you never hear from again once theyve been re-elected. Hopefully we have some sort of voice now. Most of our beef is with the district council and BID must not be a mouthpiece for the council it must represent businesses. Steven Allpress of Knights Fine Jewellery in Wood Street said: Ive spoken with Joe Baconnet and to be honest I wouldnt fancy his job. I had very good trading days off the back of the food festival and the motoring festival so two out of three isnt bad but I still think theres a lot that needs to be done. Helen Peters, chief executive, Shakespeares England, which works closely with Stratfoward, said: I think it is very positive, it would have been a real loss to the town if the vote had gone the other way. We work with a lot of towns in the Shakespeare England area, some dont have a BID but Stratford does and that means because of the festivals and the positive marketing initiatives people who come to the town have the option of combining Shakespeare with other events like the river festival, food festival or motoring festival and that helps determine where people want to stay in the UK whether they are long haul or domestic visitors. Businesswoman Lisa Preston, who owns ShoeMed, said: I am delighted with the BID vote, as a small business owner and local resident, I value their organisation and delivery of events in our town. The Town Hosts are a brilliant presence. Nick Jefford, General Manager of Hotel du Vin, Stratford said: BID is good for business in Stratford, who else has the contacts to market the town. Im Stratford born and bred, so was my father and grandfather, thats why this really is my town. Stratforward BID plays an important part in keeping it that way. Kate Harrison, owner of Shabby Chic Sister added: Stratford is better off with the BID than without it. I dont think people realise what would have happened to the town if there was no motoring or food festival. However, BID must increase opportunities for local businesses to vent their feelings to the district council over key issues. Cllr Maurice Howse, Stratford District Councils Business, Tourism and ICT Portfolio holder said: This is good news. Local businesses have given their seal of approval with a yes vote giving Stratforward the confidence to build on their successes and drive further improvements for the town centre for the next five years. The district council will continue to work closely with them for the benefit of all our local businesses in the town. Black River Water Falls Black River Harbor Scenic Parkway & Campground The Harbor at the Black River Scenic Recreation Area - Michigan Upper Peninsula Black River Harbor is the only Great Lakes harbor located administered by the USDA Forest Service. The harbor has services for day and transient boaters, including several dock-side picnic tables. The scenic hiking trails through an old growth hemlock and hardwood forest and five waterfalls make this one of our favorite scenic stops around Lake Superior. And as we discovered in some fall visits, the waterfalls can be as spectacular in the fall as they are in late spring. Black River Harbor and Recreation Area is located 15 miles north of Bessemer, Michigan via County 513 - the Black River Scenic Byway. In 1904, this was a wagon road from Bessemer to Lake Superior. In 1924 Gogebic County began construction of the harbor park, later transferred to the USDA Forest Service. The park includes a vending machine kiosk, picnic area, playground, pavilion, campground and a sandy beach. The National Forest Campground has 40 nicely maintained and spaced wooded campsites on a bluff overlooking Lake Superior. However, no campsite electric service is available. [2018 update. Unfortunately the dump station and running water bathrooms that used to serve the area have been removed. There are now 2 "modern" vault toilets at each of the campground. [During our recent visit we found them clean and free of odors.] Although the bathrooms were removed, there are potable water hydrants available for campers. Hiking trails lead to the harbor park and to an extensive sand beach (see picture) offering lots of picking for rock hounds and a secluded peaceful stroll along the lake for relaxing exercise. Hiking Trails & Waterfalls along the Black River National Scenic Byway In the last two miles before the Black River empties into Lake Superior, it drops 200 feet. Along this stretch there are five waterfalls, each of which has a trailhead parking area and a trail leading to the falls. The North Country Trail runs adjacent to the river and crosses the suspension bridge near the mouth of the river. The trail goes by the eastern side of Rainbow Falls before turning east towards Porcupine Mountains State Park. Jo and the Andrews family pause along the trail to Rainbow Falls by a huge old hemlock tree. A beautiful old growth climax forest lines the river's gorge. Rainbow Falls Two shots of Rainbow Falls late May . . . and early October (on right). Stairways lead down to viewing platforms by each waterfall. Sandstone Falls The next falls upstream from Rainbow Falls is Sandstone Falls. Gorge Falls Potawatomi & Gorge Waterfalls The trail to Potawatomi Falls is barrier free, providing an opportunity for people with disabilities to see the falls. Large, old growth hemlock, white pine, and climax forest hardwoods add to the area's beauty. (When these pictures were taken, the trail to Gorge Falls was closed for repair. Since has been re-opened) Conglomerate Falls Conglomerate Falls splits into two cascades. In the photo on the right you can clearly see the conglomerate rock that gives the falls its name. See More Black River Waterfall pictures here See Rainbow Falls Video Here: Black River Harbor Campground The Ottawa National Forest campground is on a bluff overlooking the lake. It has 40 well spaced and nicely maintained campsites, some with Lake Superior Views. Seventeen camp sites are no reservation, first come first serve; but 23 of the 40 sites can now be reserved through recreation.gov. Update. There is no longer a running-water bathroom facility at the campground and the dump station has been removed. Nor is potable water available. Two "new style" vault toilets at either end. 2019 Opening Date: May 9th. Hiking Trails & Campground Click on the map of the harbor camping, hiking trails, and recreational facilities. A quarter mile trail leads from the campground to the harbor park. (Right Picture) < < < Also a section of the North Country Hiking Trail runs through the park linking all the waterfalls. Agate Hunting & Rock Picking Black River Harbors sand beach is one of our favorite rock picking and agate hunting beaches. See our article on BRH Beach Rock Picking/Agate Collecting. The Original Stormy Kromer Wool Cap in Red & Black Stormy Kromer and his hat have a long history with Wisconsin (Stormy was born in Kaukauna, Wisconsin) and Yoopers. Originally hand made by Stormy's wife Ida beginning in 1903. Now continuing to be made in the USA in Ironwood, Michigan, this practical winter hat is made in a variety of colors and patterns. See our article and pictures on taking the Stormy Kromer Factory Tour. SuperiorTrails.com - Reinhold Development - 2021 This page no longer exists or may have been moved.If you believe this is a mistake please email Hurricane Michael strengthens, Florida braces for worst in decades Panama City, United States, Oct 10 (AFP) Oct 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael intensified Tuesday as it barreled toward the Florida coast, becoming a major Category 3 storm capable of "devastating damage" which the state's governor warned could be the worst in decades. Michael packed winds of 120 miles per hour (195 kilometers per hour) as it aimed for the Florida Panhandle, the finger-shaped strip of land on the Gulf of Mexico. The storm was expected to make landfall on Wednesday afternoon, bringing hurricane force winds, a "life-threatening storm surge" and heavy rainfall, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Rick Knabb, a former NHC head, urged locals in Michael's path to waste no time in evacuating. "#Michael could be one of the worst hurricanes to ever strike the Florida Big Bend/Florida Panhandle region," he warned. "We only have today and Tuesday to complete lifesaving preparations at the coast and inland. Evacuate as instructed from storm surge and shelter smart from wind!" Governor Rick Scott, who has activated 2,500 members of the National Guard in response, echoed Knabb's assessment saying that: "Hurricane Michael poses a deadly threat (as the) most destructive storm to hit the Florida panhandle in decades." Panama City Beach fire department chief Larry Couch urged residents to evacuate. "If they decide to stay, there will be a point where we can't get to them," Couch said. "We will shut down operations at a certain point and when we do that, they're on their own. "Be safe and leave," he said. President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration for the state, freeing up federal funds for relief operations and providing the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). "It is imperative that you heed the directions of your State and Local Officials. Please be prepared, be careful and be SAFE!" Trump tweeted. State officials issued disaster declarations in Alabama and Georgia, both of which are also expected to feel the impact from the storm. As of 8:00 pm Eastern time (0000 GMT), Michael was about 255 miles (410 kilometers) south of Panama City and moving north at 12 miles per hour (19 kph). - Flash flood, tornado warnings - The NHC said some areas of the Florida coast could expect storm surges of nine to 13 feet (2.7-four meters), and as much as a foot of rain. The heavy rains could cause flash floods, the NHC said, and spawn tornados in northwestern Florida. About 120,000 residents were under mandatory evacuation orders in Bay County in the panhandle, a low-lying area of beachfront resorts and retirement communities. In other areas, residents of mobile homes were urged to leave. Michael was forecast to have the power to uproot trees, block roads and knock out power for days when it hits Florida. It is expected to weaken as it moves up into the southeastern United States. The storm is a Category 3 out of five on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Drivers waited in long lines at gas stations and residents hurried to fill sandbags, while tolls were suspended on some roads to aid movement ahead of the storm's landfall. "Since 6:00 am it's been backed up. We're just now running out of regular (gasoline)," Danny Hess, an employee at a gas station in Panama City, told local WJHG television. The Carolinas are still recovering from Hurricane Florence, which left dozens dead and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage last month. It made landfall on the coast as a Category 1 hurricane on September 14 and drenched some parts of the state with 40 inches of rain. Last year saw a string of catastrophic storms batter the western Atlantic -- including Irma, Maria and Harvey, which caused a record-equaling $125 billion in damage when it flooded the Houston metropolitan area. Scientists have long warned that global warming will make storms more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible. At their most fearsome, these low-pressure weather fronts pack more power than the energy released by the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima. Two Britons among five dead in Majorca flash floods Madrid, Oct 10 (AFP) Oct 10, 2018 At least five people have died, including two British nationals, and several others are missing in flash flooding on the holiday island of Majorca, authorities and emergency services said Wednesday. On Twitter, emergency services in the Balearic Islands said four people had died in Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, a village inland, and a fifth person in S'Illot on the coast. "Several are missing," a spokeswoman for the emergency services added, without giving further details. Antonia Bauza, deputy mayor of Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, told Spanish radio that two British nationals were among the dead. She added that there were also Britons among the missing. Neither the emergency services, police nor the British foreign office were able to confirm this when contacted by AFP. The flooding happened after the island was hit by pounding rain in the space of a few hours on Tuesday, the regional government said on Twitter. The worst affected area lies 60 kilometres (37 miles) east of the capital Palma de Majorca. Footage broadcast by Spanish television and local media showed cars swept away by raging waters and houses flooded. Rescue workers toiled overnight to look for missing people. Around 100 extra emergency workers were dispatched from the Spanish mainland, along with two helicopters, eight vehicles and search dogs, the country's emergency military unit said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted his "solidarity and support for the relatives and friends of the victims, and for all those affected by this tragic flooding." Toronto, Ontario, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Real Property Management (RPM) welcomes Fayah El-Rayyes to its network of franchisees. El-Rayyes, along with his son Kamal, have opened Real Property Management Care in Toronto, Ontario. As first-time homebuyers, the El-Rayyes team experienced the value of having the right property management agency. They currently own multiple properties, and have found their success has stemmed from their ability to balance homeowner and tenant needs. We chose the property management business because of our passion for connecting homeowners with qualified tenants through high quality tailored services, says El-Rayyes. During their first three months in operation, El-Rayyes plans to successfully launch and manage 25 properties. Over the year they plan to be highly connected, locally, in the industry, and manage over 100 units. We believe each of us possess different skills that compliment the business. I, Fayah, am a great leader and people manager, while Kamal has great attention to detail and loves to analyze market data to find trends in the industry, El-Rayyes notes. Fayah and Kamal have direct experience as investment property owners, which gives them a unique perspective and understanding of property management on both sides of the table says Kap Hiroti, Managing Director at Real Property Management. This experience coupled with the support of the Real Property Management brand directly benefits our client owners and tenants. As a member of the Toronto community for the past three years, the team loves its diversity and liveliness. The team have helped immigrants with their relocation efforts, and understand different cultures as a basis of how they operate. We are partnering with the best property management organization in the real estate market. Our experience in the market gives us a real understanding of what homeowners and tenants want. Our commitment to delivering a tailored services enables us to balance homeowner needs and wants. El-Rayyes says. Real Property Management Care will focus its growth in the Downtown and rest of GTA areas. You can reach Fayah and Kamal at care@realpropertymgt.ca or rpmcare.ca. About Real Property Management Real Property Management Limited Partnership (realpropertymgt.ca) is a residential property management master franchisor with complete rights to the Real Property Management brand in Canada. Real Property Management is the largest residential property management company in North America, managing tens of thousands of properties for individuals, investors, and institutions throughout the continent. For the past 30 years, Real Property Management has refined and streamlined the business of property management for the benefit of our clients. With over 300 locations throughout North America, Real Property Management are the leaders in property management. Entrepreneur Magazine ranked us #1 in Property Management, and Forbes recognized Real Property Management as a Top 10 Franchise, $0-$150,000 investment. In addition, we have been ranked in the Franchise 500 for seven consecutive years, and the Inc 500 for four consecutive years. We have also earned awards for franchise worthiness for veterans and for franchisee satisfaction. Real Property Managements purpose is to continuously elevate property management standards in a professional and consistent manner. Florida girds for 'extremely dangerous' category 4 hurricane Panama City, United States, Oct 10 (AFP) Oct 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael closed in on Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday as an "extremely dangerous" category four storm packing powerful winds and a huge sea surge, US forecasters said. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said the storm, which local forecasters are calling an "unprecedented" weather event for the area, is expected to slam ashore later in the day with "life-threatening" storm surges. Top winds were swirling at 145 miles (230 kilometers) per hour, with the NHC warning the storm could grow stronger still, as outer rain bands from the storm lashed the coast. A storm surge of up to 14 feet (four meters) and up to a foot of rain was expected in some areas. "Water is going to come up, it's going to cover your roof. You do not have a chance to survive that, so I'm very concerned," Governor Rick Scott told Fox News. "It's too late to evacuate now on the coast... Hunker down, and be careful, listen to locals. Don't go out in the middle of this. You are not going to survive it. It's deadly." An estimated 375,000 people in more than 20 counties were ordered or advised to evacuate. The National Weather Service office in the state capital Tallahassee issued a dramatic appeal for people to comply with evacuation orders. "Hurricane Michael is an unprecedented event and cannot be compared to any of our previous events. Do not risk your life, leave NOW if you were told to do so," it said. - Disaster warnings - The storm was forecast to make landfall somewhere along the Florida Panhandle -- a finger-shaped strip of land in the Gulf of Mexico. It was expected to bring hurricane force winds and heavy rainfall, the NHC said. It will then move across the southeastern US for another day or so as it heads toward the Atlantic. The NWS office in Tallahassee said it had found no record of any previous category four hurricanes that made landfall in the panhandle or the "Big Bend" coastal region. "This situation has NEVER happened before," it said on Twitter. Category four is the second highest level on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Scott, who has activated 2,500 members of the National Guard, warned Michael could be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida Panhandle in decades. President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration for the state, freeing up federal funds for relief operations and providing the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. State officials issued disaster declarations in Alabama and Georgia, both of which are also expected to feel the impact from the storm. As of 1200 GMT, Michael was about 90 miles southwest of Panama City and moving north at 13 miles per hour. - Flash flood, tornado warnings - The heavy rains could cause flash floods, the NHC said, and spawn tornados in northwestern Florida. About 120,000 residents were under mandatory evacuation orders in Bay County in the Panhandle, a low-lying area of beachfront resorts and retirement communities. In other areas, residents of mobile homes were urged to leave. Michael was forecast to have the power to uproot trees, block roads and knock out power for days when it hits Florida. It is expected to weaken as it moves up into the southeastern United States. Drivers waited in long lines at gas stations and residents hurried to fill sandbags. Tolls were suspended on some roads to aid movement ahead of the storm's landfall. "Since 6:00 am it's been backed up. We're just now running out of regular (gasoline)," Danny Hess, an employee at a gas station in Panama City, told local WJHG television. The Carolinas are still recovering from Hurricane Florence, which left dozens dead and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage last month. It made landfall on the coast as a Category 1 hurricane on September 14 and drenched some parts of the state with 40 inches (101 centimeters) of rain. Last year saw a string of catastrophic storms batter the western Atlantic -- including Irma, Maria and Harvey, which caused a record-equaling $125 billion in damage when it flooded the Houston metropolitan area. Scientists have long warned that global warming will make storms more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- International Cobalt Corp . ( CSE: CO ), the Company or International Cobalt) is pleased to announce that it has received and compiled the results of all soil and rock samples from the property-wide program recently completed on the Companys 100-percent owned Blackbird Creek Project (the Property). The summer soil sampling work has been exceptionally successful in defining an exploration corridor trending south from the historical Blackbird mining camp. Crews completed a systematic sampling program resulting in 2015 soil samples and 293 rock chip samples taken from the Property. The detailed rock sampling and mapping has advanced historically known prospects and discovered new mineralized zones. The program has allowed the Company to identify four distinct prospects for follow up within the Property boundary. Highlights of the results are as follows: Raven Prospect As previously reported (Sept 27, 2018) sixteen samples returning high grades over one per cent (1%) Co and a high of 5.88% Co, and consistent gold values of up to 1.8 g/t Au. In addition, the samples were tested for all Rare Earth Elements (REE) based on the anomalous lanthanum concentrations. The Samples returned an average 1.75% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO*), with a high of 3.80% TREO. See Figure 2 below. Ascent Prospect The Ascent prospect confirms the historical samples that were sampled by Noranda, previously released by the Company (March 8, 2018). Seventeen boulder samples from the prospect average 0.65% Co and 0.34 g/t Au, with a high of 3.62% Co and 1.73% Au. See Figure 3 below. Ludwig Zone Channel sampling was conducted within the historical exploration adit at Ludwig. A continuous 9.0 meter channel sample returned an average of 0.27% Co including 4.0 metres of 0.53% Co . See figure 3 below. Copper Hill Prospect Soil sampling has defined a large 1200 metre by 800 metre copper anomaly averaging 400 ppm Cu from 125 samples. Individual rock chip samples include 1.47% Cu; 3.25% Cu; and 0.83% Cu, 0.32% Co, 0.21 g/t Au. See figure 4 below. To view Figure 1 accompanying this press release, please visit the following link: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/725cc772-3c38-4db3-bf6a-93618f6c76c1 To view Figure 2 accompanying this press release, please visit the following link: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/94b7532c-98e3-4963-85e8-e4664810ecc1 To view Figure 3 accompanying this press release, please visit the following link: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0a7f78c2-70f0-4445-9087-b13ac29375d8 To view Figure 4 accompanying this press release, please visit the following link: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3efd5bb6-e0d7-4149-acfb-4b1cc44996cb Tim Johnson, CEO of International Cobalt states: We are very pleased to be able to advance the Blackbird Creek Project to drill ready status, with so many quality targets for our 2019 field season. These results, combined with other news releases from the Idaho Cobalt Belt, including the recent press release by First Cobalt, our neighbors 20km to the south, reinforces the world class nature of the belt. NI 43-101 DISCLOSURE Neil McCallum, PGeol., Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release. All rock samples from the program were sent to ALS Global in Reno, Nevada. Rock samples were prepared according to ALS protocol Prep-31 and analyzed for 33 elements by four acid digestion followed by ICP-AES according to ALS code ME-ICP6, over-detection limit analysis for cobalt and copper was provided by code OG62. Gold was tested according to code Au-ICP22 method of standard fire assay with an ICP-Atomic emission spectrometry finish on a 30 or 50gm aliquot, which has a detection range of 0.001 to 10 g/t. Soil samples were prepared under ALS protocol PREP-41 and analyzed for 51 elements by partial Aqua-Regia acid digestion followed by ICP-AES (ALS protocol ME-MS41). *Total Rare Earth Oxides ("TREO") include: La2O3, Ce2O3, Pr2O3, Nd2O3, Sm2O3, Eu2O3, Gd2O3, Tb2O3, Dy2O3, Ho2O3, Er2O3, Tm2O3, Yb2O3, Lu2O3 and Y2O3. ABOUT INTERNATIONAL COBALT CORP International Cobalt Corp. (CSE: CO) is a Canadian based mineral exploration and development business focusing on the burgeoning cobalt sector. The Company seeks to add shareholder value by sourcing and developing projects in safe, progressive jurisdictions adhering to strict environmental and social standards. The Company has projects in the Idaho Cobalt belt, one of the premier locations to explore for primary cobalt deposits and in Atlantic Canada with a rich history of mine development and operation. International Cobalt is well funded to pursue its objectives and currently holds in excess of $9 million in treasury at the time of this publication. ABOUT THE COBALT MARKET Cobalt prices recently reached a 10 year high of $42.75 US per pound and have shown a steady increase since the mid-point of 2015. As a vital component of many of the lithium-ion batteries used in a wide range of applications from cell phones to electric vehicles (EV), demand for Cobalt is anticipated to remain strong. Currently over 60% of the global supply of cobalt is sourced from mines operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On behalf of: INTERNATIONAL COBALT CORP. Timothy Johnson Timothy Johnson, President Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A private, sequestered email group that you probably have never heard of but that has helped prevent millions of dollars in fraud and assisted in taking down thousands of Nigerian scheme email accounts was honored today with the 2018 JD Falk Award from the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group. The BEC List founder and administrator, Ronnie Tokazowski, and the private email group of more than 530 members received the annual award, which recognizes an innovative project that protects online users, at the M3AAWG 44th General Meeting in Brooklyn. The Business Email Compromise List deals with a broad assortment of criminal activity and deceptive emails, often described as Nigerian schemes, that use phishing and fake social media activities to attract victims. By sharing information and expertise, they have blocked spoofed emails and malware; tracked real estate, romance, IRS, W2 and lottery schemes; and identified the money mules used to transfer illicit funds. BEC fraud accounts for more than $12 billion in losses globally and threatens users in 150 countries, according to the FBIs IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center). The private list is managed by Tokazowski, senior malware analyst at Flashpoint, and includes cybersecurity professionals from Fortune 500 companies, leading threat research organizations, anti-virus firms, and internet infrastructure companies, many of them competitors. Law enforcement participants include the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Online Fraud Detection and Prevention group, the U.S. Secret Service, and other entities. While many members chose to remain anonymous, a partial list of participating organizations is available at www.m3aawg.org/FalkAwardOrgs2018 . A video describing what the group has learned about compromised email and the lists accomplishments is at https://youtu.be/Ues_oRsTBNc . The award also recognizes the impact a single individual can have on fighting abuse. The private group was Tokazowskis idea and he has served as the list administrator since its inception three years ago. Since then, dozens of organizations have cooperated on the list to protect end-users and fight fraud. From the start, Ronnie has diligently managed the BEC List as a trusted environment, always emphasizing the need for confidentiality and respect for members opinions. As a result, it has become an important anti-abuse channel where actionable information is shared throughout the day between hundreds of people. This cooperative sharing has greatly benefited end-users, even though they are not aware of its existence, as the lists behind-the-scenes involvement has contributed to over a hundred fraud-related arrests, said Severin Walker, M3AAWG Chairman of the Board. In 2015, Tokazowski initially reached out to a few cybersecurity researchers and law enforcement agents to discuss the compromised emails he was seeing in his work and the list was created that December with about a hundred participants. They originally focused on conventional BEC phishing emails that impersonate a targeted CEO requesting that the companys financial staff wire funds to a fraudulent account. But as the group studied the problem, they realized it was much more extensive and often involved malware and various online and social media ruses. Nigerian Rappers Praise Scams Tokazowski said, It takes a diverse set of perspectives and expertise to address business compromise email and its not something researchers, law enforcement, and especially the targeted users can tackle on their own. I like to describe it as, its not my problem, its not your problem, its a problem for everyone in the industry. We have to come together to fix it and understand how it works. This effort includes learning how the perpetuators think, according to Tokazowski. Were also looking to identify the criminals motivation and how this affects the schemes. There is a different culture in many of the countries where these crimes originate, and the deception is often justified in these regions because its one of the few ways to earn money. You have popular rappers in Nigeria praising the scammers efforts and their methods to wire wire stolen money from a BEC target, but without ever acknowledging the victims pain, he said. The M 3 AAWG JD Falk Award is presented annually to recognize a project that helps protect the internet and embodies a spirit of volunteerism and community building. The 2018 award was presented during the M3AAWG 44th General Meeting that opened October 8 in Brooklyn, New York. Over 500 security experts, ISPs, researchers, public policy representatives and vendors are participating in the four-day meeting that features more than 50 cybersecurity and information sharing sessions. M3AAWG holds three meetings each year, including one in Europe, to develop best practices and other work that will protect online users. The next M3AAWG meeting will be February 18-21, 2019 in San Francisco. About the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) is where the industry comes together to work against bots, malware, spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. M3AAWG ( www.m3aawg.org ) members represent more than one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services through technology, collaboration and public policy. It also works to educate global policy makers on the technical and operational issues related to online abuse and messaging. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., M3AAWG is driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers. Media Contact: Linda Marcus, APR, LMarcus@astra.cc , Astra Communications, mobile: +1-949-887-8887 M3AAWG Board of Directors and Sponsors: Adobe Systems Inc.; AT&T; Comcast; Endurance International Group; Facebook; Google, Inc.; LinkedIn; Mailchimp; Marketo, Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; Oath (Yahoo/AOL); Orange; Proofpoint; Rackspace; Return Path, Inc.; SendGrid, Inc.; Vade Secure; and VeriSign, Inc. M3AAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet SE; Agora, Inc.; Akamai Technologies; Campaign Monitor; Cisco Systems, Inc.; CloudFlare, Inc.; Cyren; dotmailer; eDataSource Inc; ExactTarget, Inc.; IBM, iContact; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ); Liberty Global; Listrak; Litmus; McAfee; Mimecast; Oracle Marketing Cloud; OVH; PayPal; Spamhaus; SparkPost; Splio; Symantec; USAA; and Valimail. SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Black Hat, the worlds leading producer of information security events, announces its return to London with the release of its initial Briefings lineup. The worlds brightest information security professionals and researchers will gather for the events 17th installment to reveal new vulnerabilities (and defenses) spanning everything from popular social media platforms, mobile devices, widely used operating systems and more. Black Hat Europe 2018 will take place December 3-6 at the ExCeL London, in London, England. For more information and to save 200 on your Briefings Pass by December 2 please visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/ Black Hat Europe will host a week of immersive programming that will unveil the latest InfoSec research, development, and trends. The event will kick-off with its technical Trainings followed by Black Hats Briefings, and a Business Hall housing the industrys leading innovators. Highlights of Black Hat Europes Briefings so far: Be sure to check back for the latest schedule as more Briefings are added, here: blackhat.com/eu-18/briefings/schedule/index.html ANNOUNCED: Black Hat Arsenal Tools Arsenal will return to Black Hat Europe and welcome researchers, both local and from afar, from the open source community to display their latest tools and products and offer live demonstrations. Arsenal gives researchers the opportunity to showcase their latest code and offers attendees the chance to interact with presenters and gain hands-on experience. Arsenal will host nearly 50 tools this year covering Android, iOS and mobile hacking, Internet of Things, cryptography and more. For more information and to view all recently selected tools, please visit: blackhat.com/us-18/arsenal/schedule/index.html Black Hat Trainings: Register by Dec. 2 and Save 200 In addition to the world-class Briefings schedule, Black Hat Europe 2018 will offer deeply technical, hands-on Training sessions led by some of the information security industrys top trainers and professionals. Running December 3-6, the Trainings offer a separate set of courses for attendees spanning everything from advanced infrastructure hacking to assessing and exploiting control systems, web hacking, and more. For more information and to save 200 on your selected course(s) with regular registration prices by December 2, visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/training/schedule/index.html Black Hat Student Scholarships: Submission Deadline: October 26 The Black Hat Student Scholarship Program is back for its fifth year in Europe. As a way to introduce the next generation of security professionals to the Black Hat community, a limited number of complimentary Academic Passes will be awarded to student applicants for Black Hat Europe 2018. Qualified students may submit applications by Friday, October 26, 2018. For more information and requirements, visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/student-scholarship.html Top Sponsors of Black Hat Europe 2018 include : Diamond Sponsors: Agari, NCC Group, SecurityScorecard, Spirent Communications, Tenable; Platinum Sponsors: Cybereason, Facebook, Illumio, Neustar, Nominet, Qualys, Recorded Future, Splunk For more information on sponsorship opportunities as well as the full list of exhibiting companies, visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/business-hall.html Future Black Hat Dates and Events Black Hat Trainings 2018 , Chicago, Illinois, October 22-23, 2018 , Chicago, Illinois, October 22-23, 2018 Black Hat Europe 2018 , London, England, December 3-6, 2018 , London, England, December 3-6, 2018 Black Hat Asia 2019 , Singapore, March 26-29, 2019 , Singapore, March 26-29, 2019 Black Hat USA 2019, Las Vegas, Nevada, August 3-8, 2019 About Black Hat For more than 20 years, Black Hat has provided attendees with the very latest in information security research, development, and trends. These high-profile global events and trainings are driven by the needs of the security community, striving to bring together the best minds in the industry. Black Hat inspires professionals at all career levels, encouraging growth and collaboration among academia, world-class researchers, and leaders in the public and private sectors. Black Hat Briefings and Trainings are held annually in the United States, Europe and Asia. More information is available at: blackhat.com. Black Hat 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 news and information, visit www.ubm.com and www.informa.com. English Estonian Tallinn, Estonia, 10.10.2018 Admiral Markets AS is hereby announcing its intention to recall the Polish branch director Adam Narczewski as of 31.10.2018. Admiral Markets AS is also appointing Artur Mikoajczyk as the new director of the branch as of 01.11.2018. Artur Mikoajczyk graduated from the University of Warsaw, Poland, in the field of law. Between 2014 and 2018 he worked in various positions in Poland, Hungary (i.e. as the Country Manager of Hungarian unit) and Cyprus in Spot Capital Markets LTD, also as a Loan specialist for Strefa Finansow Prestige LLC. Artur Mikoajczyk does not belong to directorships of any other companies. "Artur Mikoajczyk is supplementing the company with client-oriented know-how, which helps to enhance the effectiveness of the management level", said Sergei Bogatenkov, the CEO of Admiral Markets AS. Admiral Markets AS is also announcing that the General Meeting of shareholders of Admiral Markets AS is planning to appoint the auditing company Aktsiaselts PricewaterhouseCoopers (registration code: 10142876), which has audited the company for the past two years, as the auditor of the Company for the 2018 financial year. The remuneration of the auditor will be paid according to the contract to be entered into with the auditor. Sergei Bogatenkov Chairman of the Management Board of Admiral Markets AS ir@admiralmarkets.com +372 6 309 300 Building on brand Italia Marianne Fernandez speaks to Luca Serena of Serena Wines to find out more about their business and the world of Italian sparkling wines Luca Serena Serena Wines What is the story of your company? How did it all start? The Serena family started their wine business back in 1881, with Pietro Serena, who sold wine in wooden barrels in the province of Treviso. Adolfo Serena, later, decided to expand their market with wine in bottle and he build new companys headquarters to reach his aim. In the 70s, Adolfos sons, Giorgio and Gerardo, developed a new way to trade wine: steel kegs, which were a more practical solution to cover the catering market. In the 90s, they diversified their wines with the introduction of new labels and new brands: Terra Serena, Ville dArfanta and Vigne Verdi. With the new millennium, the family expanded their trade abroad and created new brands, which increased their business significantly; thats why they decided to change headquarters in the heart of the Prosecco area. In the same period they entered the champagne market by purchasing a maison de champagne in Reims. How many employees do you have at the moment? We have now 78 employees, we are an expanding company. Your website says that you improved in the 1990s what were those improvements and are many of them still in place today? In the 90s the two brothers decided to create new brands to make a distinction of the wide variety of wines: Terra Serena, Ville dArfanta and Vigne Verdi. Since then the company has always done research to improve its image and to find the best labels to identify its wines. Today we have even more brands: Corte delle Calli, Costaross and Serenello. Every line reaches different consumers, for different occasions. How are your products differentiated from others on the market? Would you call it a saturated market and if so what do you do to stand out? Given that Prosecco is a world famous phenomenon and the wine business in general is a growing field, we can say that its a crowded and competitive market, in which you need to pursue quality and commitment to stand out. We do so thanks to our experienced employees, who work hard every day to maintain high quality standards of all our labels, in particular of the crown jewel of our brands: Ville dArfanta, a line of wines produced with the grapes of our estate on the Prosecco hills. What is your global reach? Our brands are present in a lot of countries. From Europe to Oceania, including America, Africa and Asia. We aim to share the best of 'Made in Italy.' With this in mind, what are the challenges and opportunities for brands such as yourselves within the current market? A challenge that we are facing is making people understand that Prosecco is a high quality sparkling wine, perfect for any occasion, easy to drink and affordable to any consumer. An opportunity for our brand is the trade of wine in PET (one-way) kegs, being this a handy and durable solution, easy to transport and dispose. Sparkling wine is more and more used in mixology all around the world, and our kegs suit the purpose in fact they maintain the quality, the characteristics and the temperature of the wine. Speaking generally, which are the interesting markets for your brand? Is there anywhere you are looking to break to in the coming months and years? Of all the countries in which we sell our wines, our business in North and East Europe is doing very well. We are working to improve and enlarge our trade in Japan, we see the Land of the Rising Sun as an opening market ready to consume our products. What about the role of social media? How do you engage with a younger demographic? We think that social media helps the consumer feel closer to us and get in contact with us, especially the young, who use digital platforms for a significant part of their free time. On Instagram and Facebook we like to tell our story by sharing videos and photos of our work and products, by promoting events to which well participate and by publishing our sponsorships. 10 October 2018 Whyte & Mackay launches Wildcat Gin Whyte & Mackay has grown its portfolio with the launch of Wildcat Gin. The contemporary gin lists a cat's claw root among its botanical profile. Wildcat Gins release is the latest in a series of investments by Whyte & Mackay and is reflective of their commitment to developing their premium spirits portfolio. In August, the Glasgow based business launched a new blended Scotch whisky, named The Woodsman, with a pop-up tipi bar at the Edinburgh Festival. They also re-launched their Highland single malt whisky, Fettercairn, with four new expressions, alongside a complete overhaul of its Jura single malt brand and a full rebrand and re-launch for Tamnavulin Speyside malt. Wildcat Gin has an ABV of 41.5% and Whyte & Mackay has claimed that it is distilled especially for mixing, using ten botanicals including liquorice root, coriander, angelica root and cats claw root. Whyte & Mackay has built up the brand's story around an 18th century Captain Dudley Bradstreet. A rogue and adventurer, he arrived in London and set upon a scheme to sell gin in secret, when it had been made illegal to do so. He hung the sign of a black cat over his window and let it be known that, by knocking three times, a generous measure of gin would be dispensed once money was placed in the cats mouth. Soon, cat signs began to appear all over the city and a new gin craze was born. Like the spirit itself, Wildcat Gins bottle has been designed with mixing in mind, boasting grip points at the neck allowing for a quick pour. The brands story also spills into the design, with Knock Once. Knock Twice. Knock Thrice embossed below the gold logo. Mike Greggs, Whyte & Mackay general manager of UK, France and Germany, says: We are delighted to launch our new Gin of the Night Wildcat Gin. We are investing in innovation across our portfolio. Wildcat Gin is the latest brand launch to ensure we continue to offer consumer-led value to our customers. As a business we recognised a key drinking occasion which is under served by current Gin brands night time so Wildcat Gin aimed at those who come to life after dark. Wildcat Gins distinctive, yet classic taste makes it perfect for a simple gin and tonic or a bramble cocktail to be enjoyed as the consumer sees fit as part of a great night out. With a stand-out flavour profile and intriguing brand story, were confident Wildcat Gin will add value to the category while standing out against mainstream gin brands. Wildcat Gin 70cl will be available in selected bars and retailers throughout the UK, with an RRP of 28. Additionally, its available on Amazon.co.uk. 3 October 2018 - Sam Coyne the drinks report, editor Guest Commentary Jamie Liew The House of Commons recently voted unanimously to call the killings, persecution, rape, abuse, destruction of homes and forced displacement of Rohingya from Myanmar as genocide. More than 900,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since 2017. Now, the House has voted unanimously to revoke Aung San Suu Kyis honorary Canadian citizenship, which she received in 2007. These two actions should be applauded. Revoking the coveted status of citizenship is appropriate in this case given the fact that many Rohingya have no citizenship to speak of. What most people may not realize is that since 1982, Rohingya have been stripped of their citizenship and denied any entitlement to citizenship in Myanmar. Many Rohingya are stateless as a result of this deliberate change in citizenship law. Overnight, Rohingya became illegal immigrants within their own country. While initially they were given temporary identity cards, the cards were revoked in order to deny them the right to vote in a 2015 constitutional referendum. Rohingya did not only lose citizenship, they also their ability to identify as Rohingya. Rohingya have been denied recognition as one of the countrys 135 official ethnic groups. In a 2014 census, if Rohingya persons wanted to participate, they had to identify as Bengali, not Rohingya. The loss of citizenship is not a benign act, especially for those who have no citizenship elsewhere. My family knows first-hand what being stateless means. My father was stateless in Brunei and told me it was difficult to plan for the future, that he had difficulties finding employment and feared the risk of being removed from his country of residence. He feared his children would not receive education, would be treated differently and would never belong. As a stateless person, he never felt safe. Being stateless means, at a minimum, loss of basic rights such as an identity recognized by the state, access to health care, education, employment and freedom of movement. Even obtaining a bank account, cellphone account or registering birth, marriage or death are difficult, if not impossible. Access to venues to protect your human rights, such as the right not to be detained arbitrarily, becomes more difficult when youre not protected by the state you thought was your home. For Rohingya, however, it has meant much more. The stripping of citizenship has fuelled discrimination, persecution and violence against them. The difference and othering created by the stripping of citizenship has cast the label of outsider on the Rohingya and justified the oppression they have suffered for years. This institutionalized exclusion of Rohingya in 1982 and the perpetual rejection and discrimination has allowed hate and violence to simmer and boil over 30 years. Suu Kyi stated in 2012 that she didnt know if Rohingya could be considered citizens of Myanmar. In 2016, she told the U.S. ambassador to Myanmar that the Rohingya are not among the official ethnic groups in Myanmar. As well, in 2016, Suu Kyi denied that ethnic cleansing was taking place. Many have described Suu Kyi as being silent on the issue of the persecution and violence perpetrated against Rohingya. But the few statements she has made on the issue of Rohingya citizenship and belonging, while crimes and violence against Rohingya were widely reported at the same time, cant be considered silence. Its an endorsement of the ethnic cleansing and genocide that has been allowed to continue. Her statements frame the primary justification that Rohingya dont belong in Myanmar. For a scholar who researches statelessness and abhors any act to take citizenship away from anyone, I find the Canadian governments decision to strip Suu Kyi of her Canadian citizenship compelling. First, she has Myanmar citizenship and stripping Canadian citizenship doesnt render her stateless. Second, Canada is making a powerful statement about her role in denying citizenship from those who, in emerging international law, should enjoy such status by virtue of their dominant, genuine and effective links and their past and ongoing habitual residence in Myanmar. Rohingya have been in Myanmar for years, even before the country gained independence from British colonization. Finally, Parliament has given some heft to its recent statement that there is a Rohingya genocide by taking away Canadian citizenship from a person who plays a role in the creation and perpetuation of statelessness in Myanmar. Honorary citizenship should not be held by a person who allows the legal fact of statelessness to be harnessed by others to engage in oppression, violent displacement and the killing of Rohingya. Jamie Liew is an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. She is the daughter of a previously stateless person and researches on legal barriers to statelessness. She is a contributor with EvidenceNetwork.ca, which is based at the University of Winnipeg. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Juan Mahaganti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 13:31 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776fd8ff 3 Opinion #CentralSulawesiQuake,Palu,hoax,Ratna-Sarumpaet,thahjo-kumolo,disaster-mitigation,Palu-Earthquake-Tsunami,Indonesian-politics Free There is no better mix for a media sensation than a fiery political battle, natural disaster, social chaos, narcissistic media trolls, millions of irresponsible netizens and careless leaders. In Indonesia, it all boiled down within just a single week. All this was because of the carelessness of our leaders, both in the government and opposition. It was the type of carelessness that shouldnt be exercised by people responsible for the lives of millions of Indonesians. The week started in Palu, Central Sulawesi which along with Donggala and Mamuju in West Sulawesi was hit by a series of earthquakes and tsunami on Friday, Sep. 28. While visiting the affected area, Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo stated that people could take the food at minimarkets and government would pay for it. The news then widely spread, apparently leading to more looting than earlier, sparking a huge debate on disaster management and mitigation effort. Tjahjos statement is wrong on many levels. Not only do economists disagree with food looting, most would not even agree with government regulations to prevent price gouging or prices that are excessive, that usually happens before or after a natural disaster. The first thing you need after a disaster is not to order people to take whatever they want, but rule and order amid the chaos so relief plans can be executed in a professional, orderly manner. The market price mechanism during a disaster will also be helpful in providing information about for whom and where the relief should be deployed. Latter Tjahjo said his statement had been taken out of context. Still, such recklessness is unacceptable from individuals whose words would be taken seriously by the public. After videos and news about looting went viral, netizens started to blame the government. As general elections are just around the corner, the opposition did not wait to join the blame game. Then another news item broke out. Photos of an outspoken critic, Ratna Sarumpaet, went viral. In the picture, the playwrights face was swollen due to an alleged assault. Several fellow opposition figures like Hanum Rais, Rachel Maryam and Fadli Zon quickly came to her defense. Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto condemned the attack, branding it as a cowardly human rights violation targeted to a defender of democracy, and that he would personally meet the National Police chief to ensure the case was resolved. Attack on an opposition figure is clearly a serious allegation. Yet amid the uproar and controversies the National Police released a report with evidence that Ratna had not been assaulted and that her swollen face was an after effect of facial surgery. She apologized, branding herself as the countrys best hoax producer. The opposition now look more foolish than the legendary naked emperor. How come? Have we all become victims of sensationalization? How can we and our leaders be so careless? These two events happened within less than a week. The up and down tide of media battle is even stranger than fiction -- the misunderstood statement of a minister, and a hoax that not only fooled the nation, but drew too much precious time amid the disasters. Beyond the facade of political intrigue, the sad truth is that hundreds of thousands of our fellow Indonesians are still in real suffering. Imagine if our minister chose his words more carefully. Imagine if the opposition leaders filtered the information more wisely. Imagine if netizens were more responsible in sharing information. We wouldnt have spent precious time quarreling about a meaningless political battle. We could unite as a nation, at least during such a horrendous disaster. The earthquakes and tsunami happened just two days before Sept. 30, a date that resonates with infamy for Indonesians, as it is the anniversary of a failed coup and ensuing bloodshed. Some irresponsible people use this date as political commodity. More responsible ones will ask us if the date should be used as a time for national reconciliation since the 1965 tragedy. But after all these quarrels we need national contemplation instead. We really need a time to look in the mirror and see what we have become; a nation of carelessness. Thousands of fellow Indonesians have died; why is it so hard to unite? *** The writer is a training and development professional, amateur writer and movie aficionado. 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 Fulya Ozerkan (Agence France-Presse) Istanbul, Turkey Wed, October 10, 2018 05:04 1133 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776e1aca 2 Art & Culture Istanbul,Turkey,mansion,architecture,culture,history Free They are among Istanbul's most iconic sights -- magnificent waterside mansions strung out along the Bosphorus as the waters of the strait dividing Europe and Asia lap almost at their front doors. Once the preserve of the Ottoman elite and affluent foreigners working in what was Constantinople, the mansions, known as yalis, were made famous in novels and more recently through modern Turkey's hugely successful TV soap operas. But dozens are now up for sale as Turkey enters a more troubled economic period and owners seek to cash in their luxury assets. Prospective new owners can expect to pay up to $100 million for one of the premium properties -- but have the chance of obtaining a Turkish passport thrown in. With such a hefty asking price -- as well as the opportunity of becoming a Turkish national -- buyers are likely to be foreigners, heralding a drastic shake-up in the mansions' ownership. - 'Dominated by Qatar' - Real-estate brokers in Istanbul, contacted by AFP, said that out of around 600 waterside yalis along the Bosphorus, 60 were currently up for sale. The Turkish lira this summer plunged in value as markets reacted to a bitter spat with the United States and many buyers think now is the perfect time to snap up property assets while the currency is cheap. Sales have to be in Turkish lira -- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has banned the sale, rent or leasing of property being conducted in, or indexed to foreign currencies. Brokers say that in a major turnaround, prospective buyers are almost never Turkish and are likely to be from the Middle East, especially Ankara's closest Gulf ally, Qatar. "With the lira losing value, Istanbul has become a paradise for people from the Gulf with higher purchasing power in their hands," Hamed Elhamian, sales director at ANKA Invest, told AFP. "Investors from the Gulf believe that the lira will rise in value in the near future and their investments will appreciate in a very short time," he said. Ugur Ayhan, a luxury real-estate consultant, also said foreign buyers had been showing greater interest in Turkey over recent months. "Our potential clients are largely from Middle Eastern countries. We see people from Azerbaijan and Iran but we have a customer portfolio dominated by Qatar," he told AFP. Read also: Europe's largest wooden building awaits salvation off Istanbul - '$250,000 not enough' - Along with the financial incentives, another attraction of buying a property is the possibility of gaining a Turkish passport, which offers eased or visa-free travel to key destinations. Under a decree issued last month, Turkey made it easier for foreigners to become Turkish citizens by reducing the financial and investment criteria for citizenship. Foreigners now need to have $500,000 deposited in Turkish banks -- down from the previously required $3 million -- while fixed capital investment was cut from $2 million to $500,000. And crucially, individuals owning property worth $250,000 or more are now also entitled to become Turkish citizens, compared with the previous value necessary of $1 million. Yet Ayhan said that, while the latest measures would ramp up demand for newly-built apartments in Istanbul, a yali was an ultra-luxury asset beyond the range of most buyers. "It is not possible to buy a luxury apartment, let alone a yali with $250,000," he said. - 'Signature of power'- Among the hundreds of mansions along the two sides of the Bosphorus, 360 of them are of historic value, according to real-estate broker Pinar Ayikcan Tuna. For the historic mansions, potential buyers need to receive permission from both the development directorate of the Bosphorus and the council of monuments for any renovations or to fortify a building's exterior facade. "Turkish laws require that historic buildings are renovated or restored according to the original," Ayhan said. Some of the mansions are still owned by members of the Turkish elite, including the two largest family conglomerates: Koc and Sabanci. However, said Elhamian: "The domestic interest in the real estate is very low." "Many local Turkish citizens and developers are looking to sell their real estate to foreigners who are looking to buy luxury properties worth more than the $250,000 needed for citizenship." Read also: Back on track: Trains to return to historic Istanbul station - Soap opera advertising- Turkish soap operas, often with dozens of episodes lasting two hours each, hold the Arab world in thrall and have also tempted potential buyers from the Middle East. Many of the soaps, which range from modern romances to historic dramas, have evocative settings in waterside mansions on the Bosphorus. Tour companies in Istanbul even offer Arab tourists bus trips to the locations. Interest surged in particular following the hit 2008-2010 series Ask-i Memnu (Forbidden Love), which ran to almost 80 episodes and was wildly popular in the Arab world. Its dramatic scenes of love and betrayal within a rich Istanbul family -- based on an over 100-year-old novel but updated to the present day -- were filmed in a historic yali in the city's Sariyer district. "Those soap operas are actually our big advertisement overseas," Tuna said. "People from Middle Eastern countries come and buy these kind of properties here because having a Bosphorus mansion in Istanbul is like a signature of power and it is a very unique beauty." Reha Grandjean, French-Turkish and family owner of a mansion on the Bosphorus, said to own such a place was special. "It is a particular property because as soon as one of them is put on sale, everyone wants their 'yali', everyone wants their little paradise." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network) Wed, October 10, 2018 07:09 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776e331b 2 Entertainment NCT-127,album,single,music,K-pop,South-Korea Free NCT 127 dropped two separate videos for the new lead single Regular prior to the official release of its next album on Friday. NCT 127 is the Seoul-based subunit of the multinational boy band NCT, short for Neo Culture Technology. As the latest artist to be featured on Apple Musics Up Next, NCT 127 will be spotlighted on Apples streaming platform for the month of October. Read also: NCT 127 to attend 2018 American Music Awards On Saturday, the 10-member band performed on ABCs Mickeys 90th Spectacular, a Disney special celebrating Mickey Mouses 90th anniversary. Titled NCT #127 Regular Irregular, the new album features 11 songs. Watch the music video here. Navers real-time broadcasting app V allows fans to interact with their favorite K-pop stars through live broadcasts. The app is available for Android and iOS. For more information, visit this website. Topics : This article appeared on The Korea Herald newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 15:04 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308777004b1 1 Lifestyle AMAN,skincare,Aman-skincare Free Encounters with premium skincare products as part of hotel or resort amenities often add value to our traveling experience. When we take home the products and use them at home, the sweet memories of the trip may come rushing back. Certain hotels and resorts are aware of this effect and take advantage of it by making the products available for purchase. Fans could therefore restock without having to wait until they return to the property. In light of its 30th anniversary, Aman, a luxury hospitality brand renowned for space and privacy, taps into the hotel skincare business model by launching Aman skincare. Luxury hospitality brand Aman continues its holistic journey with the launch of skincare products. (JP/Handout/Aman) Calming milk baths, uplifting body oils and nourishing face masks are among the 30 skincare products launched by the brand. Whether you are already an Amanjunkie or a premium skincare connoisseur, theres something to please and pamper everyone. According to the brand, the collection is formulated with an exotic assortment of natural and rare ingredients harvested from various global brand-associated destinations. Read also: Three Bali-based organic skincare brands to try Each Aman is inherently connected to its location and situated in an outstanding, otherworldly and spiritual setting, said Vladislav Doronin, chairman and CEO of Aman. It was from these varying landscapes that we drew inspiration and sourced the purest natural and organic ingredients. The result is an entirely bespoke collection of skincare, offering tangible and long-term benefits, as well as a ritualistic moment of calm. Ingredients utilized in the Aman skincare range include pearls, homeopathic metals, healing tree oils, amethyst, jade, frankincense, palo santo, spring water, wild-harvested Amazon butters and rainforest muds. Meanwhile, the unifying ingredient found throughout the collection is sandalwood, popular as a type of healing oil with a soft aroma. (acr/mut) English French Monaco, Assises de la securite, October 10, 2018 - Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, announces today the launch of its new range of IP network encryption solutions, Trustway IP Protect. This 100% European solution, assembles the most advanced security features to enable businesses to effectively protect themselves against the theft of sensitive data. The Trustway IP Protect range offers more power as well as optimal processing ability. This facilitates the daily management of data over multi-gigabit networks. Using new appliances developed by Atos, complex solution architectures are no longer required, making the installation and operations process easier, and thereby reducing the costs. Atos' new generation encryptions also comply with the latest standards and regulations in place, both at European level and on an international scale. The Trustway IP Protect range also has the following benefits: Scalability , and compatibility with previous versions - enabling the deployment and operation of thousands of devices, , and compatibility with previous versions - enabling the deployment and operation of thousands of devices, Easy implementation through a plug & play design and ease of use, and ease of use, Centralized administration , with simple and effective management, , with simple and effective management, Audit abilities of the established security policy "With Trustway IP Protect, our new range of encryptions, we offer our customers the highest level of privacy to protect their data on all networks, even the most sensitive ones,'' says Rene Martin, Director of the Trustway Business Unit at Atos Atos is the European leader in security services, an expert in data protection, and has a team of more than 5,000 security specialists as well as a network of 14 Security Operation Centers (SOCs) across the world. The company integrates the best technologies and offers a complete portfolio of security solutions to assist its clients to fight off threats of the highest standard. Meet Atos experts at the Assises de la Securite tradeshow in Monaco from October 10 - 13 on booth #130. *** About Atos Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 120,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of 13 billion. European number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing, the Group provides end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions through its Digital Transformation Factory, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payment industry. With its cutting-edge technologies and industry knowledge, Atos supports the digital transformation of its clients across all business sectors. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Syntel, Unify and Worldline. Atos is listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index. Press Contact Lucie Duchateau | lucie.duchateau@atos.net | +33 7 62 85 35 10 | @Lucie_Duchateau Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 12:10 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776f8beb 1 Art & Culture IMF-WB-meeting,#IMFWorldBankMeeting,#IMF,#IMFWBG,Art-Bali,contemporary-art,art,#art,arts-and-culture,#ArtsandCulture,arts Free In conjunction with the 2018 International Monetary Fund - World Bank Group Annual Meetings, which will run until Sunday, Bali is also hosting the Art Bali exhibition at the AB BC (Art Bali Bali Collection) building in Nusa Dua until Nov. 9. Themed "Beyond the Myths", the international contemporary art exhibition features 39 artists from various backgrounds, art disciplines as well as generations, such as I Made Wianta, Eko Nugroho, Entang Wiharso, Heri Dono and Mella Jaarsma, affording participants of the IMF-World Bank Meetings a glimpse into the countrys diverse contemporary arts. Read also: Indonesia Pavilion offers development, investment, culture to IMF-WB delegates These artists were selected based on the artistic practices, workmanship and their contributions in triggering the dynamics of contemporary visual art in Indonesia and internationally, Ignatia Nilu, one of the curators, said in a press release. The exhibition presents various types of artwork, including installations, paintings, interactive works, video art and photography. Art Bali CEO and founder Heri Pemad said, Through Art Bali, we intend to demonstrate our commitment to building and developing the ecosystem of art and culture, particularly in Bali. As a new artistic space, the Art Bali exhibition aims to make art enjoyable for people from various backgrounds. (jes/wng) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marcel Thee (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 09:04 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776e6663 4 Lifestyle jewelry,jeweler,Clarissa-Kwok,design,luxury Free Born into a family of jewelers, it was only natural that Clarissa Kwok would get into the business eventually. But instead of simply viewing the family endeavor as something she had to do, Clarissa embraced the opportunity, making it her passion and establishing her namesake brand in 2013, while she was also moonlighting at a design agency. The result is some of the countrys most exquisite collections of jewelry; one that is imbued with personality and class atop its luxurious flourish. Cla, her new brand, expands on the Clarissa Kwok brand through its more off-the-shelf character but one that its creator says, retains an heirloom quality and workmanship that will stand the test of time. As such, all of the pieces are handmade to order in 18k gold by local craftsmen. Cla, which is also its creators nickname, was born out of conversations Clarissa had with her current business partners, Timotia Devi and Amanda Simandjuntak. Tia, who worked at a digital media company in Sydney, and Amanda, who was running a local e-commerce consultation business, were obvious choices for partners for the Cla project, which naturally came together as a brand with quite a strong digital focus, Clarissa says. Clas Nil Diamond Hoop Stud Earrings (Courtesy of Clarissa Kwok/-) In terms of how Clas pieces are different from the ones Ive created before Clarissa Kwok, as a brand, aims to create bespoke items and one-off, wearable objects of creative expression; Cla, on the other hand, is a lot more commercially focused, offering versatile pieces that cater to the wider market, she explains. Cla is a result of its creators long history with jewelry. Her great-grandfather began the business in the 1940s in the backyard of his house, passing the skills and knowledge down to his children including Clarissas father. As a youngster, the passion and interest all came naturally to Clarissa. Constantly surrounded by it, she later decided to study jewelry-making during her bachelor of arts in jewelry design studies at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. It was her fascination with the human body that drove her. Every inch and every segment of our body is distinctive on its own, and I think jewelry has the ability to interact and harmonize with these segments, making itself more familiar and less foreign to the body. So, over time, your jewelry can be a part of your identity, regardless of market trends, she says. Clas Nil Open Diamond Ring (Courtesy of Clarissa Kwok/-) That sense of personality that comes through her pieces evoke Clarissas personal touch. Instead of relying on dull templates or succumbing to passing trends, her creations are an extension of who she is as a jewelry artist. Its a particular vision that shines through her pieces. Whats unique about our creation process is that although our designs are quite modern, we still craft our pieces the old school way. I sketch my ideas in my journal, she says. And once Im ready to explore further I sit down with our team of craftsmen and discuss how we can bring the designs to life. Well then go through a trial and error process before finalizing the pieces, which well then use as samples for production. Its a lengthy process and it takes time and care, but its well worth it. When it comes to material selection, Clarissa goes for the solid 18k gold primarily for its quality, explaining that it is soft enough to make it easy to work with, but its also strong and wont tarnish as quickly as silver or plated jewellery. I also like its visual aesthetics its shades, whether in yellow, rose or white, contrast beautifully against the human skin. Its a classic language with a lingering warmth. To perfect Cla, Clarrisa observed her environment, with particular focus on the people around her and their habits and personal styles. This adds to the sense that the collection, though classy as always, is welcoming toward people of different backgrounds and preferences. I also like the notion of loaded timelessness, so the items tend to have classic shapes, but with thought-out details, she says. She also understands the nature of jewelry collection in Indonesia. Because weve had such a long history and local tradition of gifting fine jewelry, I think the Indonesian jewelry scene will continue to grow despite economic uncertainty. Were hopeful that well one day establish ourselves as a modern jewelry destination that Indonesia can be proud of. Though shes done this for a long while, Clarissa still sees every project as a new learning experience. She isnt afraid to take a step back and review everything, even if it means starting over from scratch. As cliched as it sounds, Cla has been a learning experience for me. You would think I would know exactly what to do this time round, but as a matter of fact, it has a very different business model to my bespoke brand. But its great because it means Im learning something new every day. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Tehran, Iran Thu, October 11, 2018 01:09 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087770e2c1 2 Art & Culture artifacts,Iran,united-states,Museum,history Free A twice-stolen ancient Persian artifact is in Tehran's national museum after a New York court ordered it returned to Iran. "It now belongs to the people who made it in the first place, and who are now going to preserve it, and is part of their identity," Firouzeh Sepidnameh, director of the ancient history section of the National Museum told AFP on Tuesday. The limestone relief was handed over to Iran's representative at the United Nations last month and was personally brought back to Iran by President Hassan Rouhani, returning from the UN General Assembly. The bas-relief, approximately 25 centuries old, depicts the head of a soldier from a line of Immortal Guards. Read also: Rain uncovers 75 ancient artifacts in Iraq It was discovered in an archaeological dig in the early 1930s at Persepolis, capital of the Achaemenid Empire near today's central Iranian city of Shiraz. The artifact was stolen four years after it was found, and ultimately ended up at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts where it was again stolen in 2011. It was seized by the Manhattan district attorney's office in 2017 when it resurfaced and was put on sale at an art fair. "The international community has evolved enough to realize every artifact must return to its point of origin," said Sepidnameh. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Joseph Ax (Reuters) New York, United States States Wed, October 10, 2018 15:31 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308777011a6 2 Entertainment Taylor-Swift,music,united-states,voters,politics,young-generation Free Pop superstar Taylor Swift's decision to wade into electoral politics for the first time has driven a spike in online voter registration, particularly among young people, according to the website Vote.org. The nonprofit site, which helps people register online, reported more than 250,000 new registrations since Swift posted a message on Instagram on Sunday endorsing two Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee and urging people to register. By comparison, the site recorded 57,000 new registrations in all of August and 190,000 last month. More than 60 percent of the registrations since Sunday were among voters between 18 and 29 years old, an increase the site said was likely prompted by Swift's post. "This is a pretty incredible, off-the-charts event," said Raven Brooks, the chief operating officer for Vote.org. Vote.org acknowledged it was not possible to measure the direct impact of Swift's move, but Brooks noted the surge in young voters was in line with Swift's youthful fan base. Swift's enormous reach - a best-selling album and tour as well as 112 million Instagram followers - underscores the way celebrities can leverage their online presence. Swift on Tuesday won four awards, including artist of the year, at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles and again urged fans to vote, but without declaring any party interest. Grammy winner Rihanna in an Instagram post urged fans to register to vote on Tuesday - the last day in 14 states for citizens to do so. Read also: Taylor Swift gets political, endorses Democrats in US midterms Tight Tennessee race Polls show the U.S. Senate contest between Democrat Phil Bredesen and Republican Marsha Blackburn, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, virtually tied in a state Trump won by 16 points in 2016. Swift, who has eschewed politics, told her followers she could not support Blackburn due to the congresswoman's record on women's issues and gay rights. Politics can be dicey for artists such as Swift with roots - and fans - in country music, the dominant genre of red state America. President Donald Trump on Monday called Swift an uninformed voter. "Let's just say I like Taylor's music about 25 percent less now, OK?," he told reporters. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee also chimed in saying her endorsements "won't impact the election unless we allow 13 yr old girls to vote." Many celebrities identify as liberals, and Democrat Hillary Clinton enjoyed broad support from actors, musicians and other popular figures in 2016. The most notable celebrity to support Trump may be the rapper Kanye West, who will have lunch with the president at the White House on Thursday. West and Swift engaged in a years-long feud after West interrupted Swift's acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Evi Mariani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 08:56 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776e5820 2 National Palu,Palu-special-economic-zone,Donggala-earthquake-tsunami,journalist,survivors,earthquake,#CentralSulawesiQuake,Aceh-tsunami-commemoration,poso,conflict Free The Jakarta Post journalist Ruslan Sangadji, 43, has called Palu, Central Sulawesi, home for almost 30 years. As a journalist he covered the Poso bloody conflicts, spanning from late 1990s and early 2000, and later in 2004, the devastating Aceh tsunami. When a powerful earthquake rocked Palu on Sept. 28, he was driving with his 5-year-old daughter in the back of the car, quite far from the beach. Only several minutes after the quake, he sent a message to the Posts regional correspondent group: Big quake just now. My car almost upended. Perhaps a 10-magnitude. Later, we lost communication for hours with him because of the power and communication blackouts in Palu city, and Sigi and Donggala regencies. Five days later, the Posts Evi Mariani spoke to Ruslan, as a survivor first and later as a journalist, about the devastating first days after the 7.4-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that followed. Later he sent the Post more survivors accounts. Heres his story: Searching for his son Hours after the powerful earthquake, Palu city was dead and chilling. Ruslan was driving around the city with his daughter, Lovely Nukila, 5, to search for his son, Akbar Fawaid, 14. He did not see any other cars or motorcycles that night. Chilling, the first night was chilling, he said. The night was pitch black. Palu was dead. I saw people were outside their houses, sitting, crying. I heard someone wailing because of his wounds. But some people were on guard, helping motorists like myself, telling me that I should not take this route because the road was damaged. The road had some sort of speed bumps due to the damage. They told me, turn left, dont go here, the road is damaged. In the desperate search to find his son, who lost communication with him for hours after the quake, Ruslan had to turn around eight times to find a route that had no damaged roads. Fear started to grow inside me, but I had to go on because I swore to myself, I had to find my son that night or lose him forever. After almost eight hours of searching, Ruslan and his daughter finally reunited with his son. I cried for the first time after the quake when I saw my son, Ruslan said. I didnt just hug Fawaid, I carried him with me until he asked me to put him down. Later, his son told him that he and his friends had decided to head to the mountains because of the tsunami. Ruslan had not heard about the tsunami until his son told him. At 3 a.m., Ruslan and a fellow journalist went to the beach. Oh my God, bodies were everywhere, Ruslan said. Survivors and police personnel retrieve bodies near Ponulele Bridge above Talise Bay in Palu city on Sept. 29, 2018. (JP/Ruslan Sangadji) Fear and looting in Palu During the search for his son, Ruslan passed a street near Petobo, an area damaged by soil liquefaction, a geological process by which the soil structure collapses because of strong tremors. He was unable to study the scene clearly, but he heard a roar and saw the mud. I was surprised to hear it, but at the time I did not know what it was. I fled because of it. I hugged my daughter along the way because by that time her fear was increasing, he said. Only in the morning, when he did his first interview with a survivor named Nasrudin, a Petobo subdistrict resident, did he hear the full story of the incident which is unknown to many in Indonesia. Survivors who witnessed the liquefaction called it a land tsunami. Only wearing his underpants and crying, Nasrudin told me the story, Ruslan said. When the quake happened, he was in the bathroom. He ran out and told his wife and daughter to run for safety. After the swaying stopped, he returned to his house to get a towel and then ran out to the north. When he looked back, he saw his house was moving and there was mud. Another survivor, Yusuf Hasmin, said he saw mud rolling like ocean waves. In the morning, Ruslan began to search for help. From the Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), he got five tents for his extended family comprising 35 people, including himself to set up a shelter on Jl. Guru Tua in Palu. He gave away three tents to other families and kept two for his own. But it started raining on Saturday night and the makeshift shelters were not large enough to keep them dry. So on Sunday he went out to search for a larger tent. Lovely Nukila, 5, and Akbar Fawaid, 14, sleep on a bed sheet on Sept, 29, 2018, on the second night after the earthquake. Their shelter on Jl. Guru Tua is about 3 kilometers from their house on Jl. Lando. (JP/Ruslan Sangadji) He met a soldier from the Indonesian Military (TNI) who yelled at him, saying he was busy and said Ruslan had to be quiet. Ruslan said the soldier told him twice that he would hit Ruslan if he kept asking for a tent. Later, he met a friend who had just returned from asking for some food supplies at a main relief post. A government official had told his friend that he needed to bring his family card (KK) to be eligible for aid. Hearing this, I laughed. A family card, really? How can we have our family card ready in this kind of situation? Ruslan said. He added that five days after the earthquake, aid had yet to be distributed accordingly. People began setting up their own relief posts for their neighborhood, but instead of giving aid, the posts begged for supplies with signs reading, We need relief aid. And then the looting started. Ruslan witnessed two incidents with his own eyes. One happened to an Alfamidi store on Jl. Touwa. The store was in front of a military base camp. There were many people there. The second was another Alfamidi on Jl. Guru Tua, he said. People were hungry. Ruslan said he had not been tempted to loot because luckily, he still had some food left from when he bought supplies off the back of a pickup truck. He had also found shop that sold bottled water and later a market selling fish from Parigi Moutong regency. Survivors stories Ruslans house of several decades was totaled. A picture of what remains shows that the ground floor is nowhere to be seen; the only thing left standing was a door. I am sad about my house, of course. Ive had it since I was still [working] in Antara [news agency]. The house was completed after I joined the Post. Two of my children were born there, he said. Ruslan has accepted the loss. Things can be replaced, but lives cannot, he said. His relative, Fadel, was still searching for his daughter, Rahmi. His house was near the beach, about 2 kilometers from the coast. I looked for them at his house, and I saw on their door a piece of paper with a message it, naming all their three children, Rahmi, Alam [and another, one I forgot], Mama and Papa are in the field in front of the Grand Mosque. My heart stopped while reading it. The three children had been separated from their parents, Ruslan said. Another friend, Central Sulawesi councillor Yahdi Basma, lost his mother to the soil liquefaction. Ruslan and Yahdi ran into each other and Yahdi asked Ruslan to help him retrieve his mothers body in the mud and under the rubble. So I went along with him and some military personnel to help retrieve his mother. The mud had dried but I stepped on a part that was still wet and soft, and half of my leg was buried. It took seven people to retrieve the body because she had been buried under the rubble. Someone had to saw off a wooden block, and then we had to carefully pull her body out without damaging it, he said. We had to be really careful. And then we took turns carrying her; she was heavy and it was an uphill road. Survivors search for the exact location of their houses, which shifted as a result of soil liquefaction, in Petobo district, Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Oct. 3. Search and rescue teams are having difficulties in retrieving bodies buried in the mud. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan) Heny Kurheco, 23, and her mother were attending to their food stall at the Palu Nomoni Festival when the tsunami hit. She told Ruslan that the waves had crashed into her, but she and her mother were still able to save themselves. Mama, I know youre strong. If we die, lets die together, Heny recalled telling her mother. Both survived by holding on to Ponulele Bridge for 30 minutes, with large waves slammed into them multiple times. When the disaster struck, many people were on the beach for the festival. Asti had been with her daughter, Ramadani, who was one of the performers at the event. Ramadani walked away from her mother to join the other dancers. Asti kissed her daughter that afternoon. It was their last kiss. The following day, Asti had to pick up her daughter inside a body bag. She had been found among the mangroves near Ponulele Bridge. Another survivor told his own harrowing story. He was with three family members sitting and eating on the beach, waiting for a performance to start on the festivals main stage. When the waves began their assault, the four held on to each others hands, but they were continuously struck by trash and debris carried by the water. At one point, the group was struck so hard that two of his family members became separated. He was desperately holding on to his remaining relative, but the waves crashed into them again and he lost his grip. He later found himself alone on the roof of a house. His relatives were all gone. In the Perumnas Balaroa housing complex in West Palu, the scene was heart-breaking. Search and rescue personnel found four bodies holding on to each other. I know this family well. They were good people, modest people who did not get the second chance to live, Ruslan said. Second chance to live Second chance to live. Ruslan repeated this sentence several times; it was like a mantra to him. He first heard this sentence from a survivor he had interviewed a day after the disasters. Ruslans experience in covering the Aceh tsunami and Poso conflicts had not prepared him for this. It is really different, being a survivor while working to cover the earthquake. It is harder. I went out and interviewed some people for the first three days. I thought it would help ease my trauma, but then I stopped. Between my job as a journalist, helping others and my children, its too much, he said. On the second day after the earthquake, Ruslans children started getting restless. They woke up at night, crying, partly because of the powerful aftershocks. On the fourth day, he took his children to his parents in Ternate. His ex-wife, the mother of his children who was in Jakarta during the disaster, would meet the children there later. Their eldest child is a student at Muhammadiyah Malang University in East Java. Ruslan managed to get on an Air Force Hercules to Balikpapan, and then he boarded commercial flights to Makassar in South Sulawesi and later Ternate in North Maluku. Ruslan Sangadji poses with aid supplies he bought in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Friday (Oct. 5, 2018) (Courtesy of Ruslan Sangadji/-) Ruslan was insistent on returning to Palu, despite his harrowing ordeal and despite being told by the Post that the newsroom did not expect him to send in reports because he is a survivor. Yes, I must do it. I must work and help people. And Palu is my home, where my work is, he said. An Indonesian businessman of Korean-descent contacted him and asked him to help distribute. So, after making sure his children were safe with his parents, he went back to Makassar to shop for some aid. He rented an ambulance to bring the supplies to Palu, to avoid being intercepted by some desperate survivors. Earlier, he had sent a news report about people intercepting trucks carrying aid and stealing the supplies. He was determined about his plan to send aid; he wanted to reach remote neighborhoods. On Saturday at dawn, he set out with boxes of aid disposable diapers, powdered milk, sanitary pads, fuel, drinking water, dried anchovies prepared by his family in Ternate from Makassar for the 24-hour drive to Palu. There is no use in whining, but we have to accept and be grateful that we are still given a chance to live, so we can share what we have with others as much as we can, Ruslan said. (emb) The interview with Ruslan Sangadji was done in cooperation with The Sunday Times of the United Kingdom. Here's Ruslan's story on The Sunday Times. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Shafiqul Alam (Agence France-Presse) Dhaka, Bangladesh Wed, October 10, 2018 14:52 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776ffab9 2 World #Bangladesh,#DeathPenalty,Bangladesh,punishment,death-penaly,grenade-attack Free A Bangladesh court on Wednesday sentenced 19 people to death over a 2004 grenade attack on the current prime minister, although a top opposition leader escaped with a life sentence. The attack in Dhaka on a rally by Sheikh Hasina, at the time in the opposition and now prime minister, left her injured and killed 20 people. Tarique Rahman, son of then-premier and Hasina's ally-turned-archrival Khaleda Zia, was among 49 people on trial, with Rahman charged with criminal conspiracy and multiple counts of murder. Rahman, 50, has been tried in absentia after he fled the country for London in 2008. He now leads the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from exile after Zia was jailed in February for five years for corruption. "We thank God for the verdict," prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain told reporters on Wednesday amid tight security. "We hoped that Tarique Rahman would get the death sentence," he said, adding the court observed that Rahman played a key role in the attack. Hasina was addressing the rally when the grenades exploded and suffered severe injuries in one ear. Among the dead was the wife of a former president. Four years later, Hasina stormed back to power after leading a secular coalition to a landslide victory in elections in December 2008. Two other ministers, former heads of the intelligence agencies and police and a key aide of Zia were also facing death sentences in the case. Three Islamist extremists were also charged over the attack and later executed in a separate trial. - Death row - Death sentences are common in Bangladesh, with hundreds of people on death row. All executions are by hanging, a legacy of the British colonial era. At least nine top Islamist extremists, five leaders of the country's largest Islamist party and a senior opposition leader have been hanged in Bangladesh's jails since 2007. Rahman's lawyer Sanaullah Mia said the charges against his client were politically motivated. He questioned the timing of the verdict, saying it was aimed at keeping Rahman out of elections expected for December. "There was no evidence or witness against him. No witness could say that conspiracy was hatched at Hawa Bhaban," he told AFP, referring to a former BNP office used by Rahman. Police spokesman Sohel Rana said security was tightened in courts and across the South Asian nation to avert any violence following the verdict. "Police are fully prepared to prevent any violence centring on the verdict," he told AFP earlier. Zia was transferred to hospital last weekend from the 19th-century Dhaka Central Jail, where she is the only prisoner. She has been on trial in a special room of the prison on additional graft charges that her supporters say are politically motivated. The 73-year-old was already suffering from health issues including arthritis, diabetes and knee replacements when she was sentenced in February. Her party boycotted the 2014 election in which Hasina returned to power but is expected to contest the election due in December. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Taipei, Taiwan Wed, October 10, 2018 13:23 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776fcad5 2 World #China,#Taiwan,Taiwan,president,warning,China,threat,peace Free Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen accused China of "seriously challenging" peace and stability Wednesday, describing the island she leads as being on the frontline of tensions in the Pacific. It comes as Beijing pursues a multi-pronged attack on any claims to sovereignty by self-ruled democratic Taiwan, which it sees as part of its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated since Tsai took office two years ago, as she refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China". "As Taiwan is on the frontline of the Western Pacific, we are naturally subject to tremendous pressure," Tsai said in a televised speech to mark Taiwan's National Day. "China's unilateral diplomatic offensive and military coercion have not only harmed cross-strait relations. They have also seriously challenged the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," she added. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign country and has an independent political system, judiciary and currency, but has never formally declared a split, despite being ruled separately since 1949. China has recently upped military drills around the island and has made a concerted effort to poach Taiwan's dwindling number of official allies -- only 17 countries still diplomatically recognise the island after five jumped ship since Tsai took power. Beijing has also successfully put pressure on international businesses to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites and ensured Taiwan is shut out of global forums. Tsai called on authorities in Beijing to "play a positive role in the region and the world, instead of being a source of conflict". She pledged not to escalate tensions but also said Taiwan would seek to fortify its national security and diplomatic links, establishing its "irreplaceable strategic importance". "I will not be provoked into confrontation or conflicts that endanger cross-strait relations, nor will I deviate from the will of the people, and sacrifice Taiwan's sovereignty," Tsai said. "An effective response strategy must be rooted in national strength," she added. Worsening ties with Beijing and unpopular domestic reforms policies are putting Tsai's government under pressure ahead of major local elections next month. Tsai warned in her speech that anyone interfering in the election process would "suffer serious consequences". She has accused Beijing of spreading "fake information" to affect public trust in the government in the run-up to the elections. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rizki Fachriansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 18:57 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877709c64 1 National garut,gay,LGBT,Facebook Free A Facebook group page that claims to be a online hangout place for young gay people from Garut, West Java, has sent the religiously conservative regency into a moral panic. Hundreds of school principals in Garut gathered on Wednesday to publicly denounce the presence of the LGBT community in school, as reported by kompas.com. The Garut Education Agency's head of the middle school division, Totong, said the public denouncement represented the collective resistance of school principals against the LGBT community. However, he said he had yet to identify which students were a part of the Facebook community. As part of an effort to eradicate homosexuality in schools, he said the education agency would instruct school principals to engage students in religious programs. In addition, teachers will also be encouraged to arrive at their respective schools earlier in the morning to check on their students. Since earlier this year, weve prohibited cellphones in schools. Weve also confiscated cellphones of students who violated the rule, Totong said, adding that involvement in gay communities would result in expulsion. The Facebook page, Kumpulan Barudak Gay SMP/SMA Garut (A Community of Garut Gay Middle School/High School Students), which has amassed around 2,600 members, is currently under investigation. Garut National and Political Unity Office (Kesbangpol) head Wahyudijaya of the said the office had coordinated with the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) to identify Facebook accounts associated with the page. In addition, he said the agency had also cooperated with the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to discuss further action regarding the case. Meanwhile, KPAI commissioner for education Retno Listyarti urged the government to implement a strict system that prevents children from being involved in LGBT campaigns. Children do not yet have a sexual orientation. Things such as the gay Facebook page could potentially distort the way children view themselves, she said in a statement. Communications and Information Ministry spokesman Ferdinandus Setu said in a statement that the ministrys internet content division would restrict access to the Facebook page if it contained pornographic material. Furthermore, he said the ministry would coordinate with the Garut Police for further investigation into the case. Indonesia does not legally ban homosexuality, but the country has seen a rise in anti-LGBT sentiments in recent years. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 13:16 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776fca07 1 City extortion,kramat-jati-market,crime,criminal-complaint Free Nine people have been arrested at the Kramat Jati wholesale market in East Jakarta on suspicion of extortion. They allegedly extorted their victims by claiming to be members of a certain civil organization. According to the police, the suspects, who were arrested last Friday, would rake in up to Rp 50 million a day (US$3,289), wearing uniforms bearing the logos of an unnamed organization. East Jakarta Police crime unit chief Sr. Adj. Comr. Ida Ketut said the gang had targeted pickup cars carrying vegetables that were unloading their goods around the market. They allegedly extorted Rp 20,000 from every driver. "Rp 20,000 seems like a small amount of money, but they did this over 24 hours," Ida Ketut said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday. During the arrest, police confiscated Rp 5,050,000, which the suspects are believed to have collected within just two hours, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Besides extortion, the gang allegedly had also been involved in illegal parking. "They used the market's parking lot for their own benefit, which is why many vehicles would be parked outside the area, causing traffic congestion," Ida added. The suspects will be charged under Article 368 of the Criminal Code on extortion, which carries a punishment of up to nine years in prison. (vla) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman (The Jakarta Post) Nusa Dua, Bali Wed, October 10, 2018 18:50 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877708f48 2 Business subsidized-fuel,price-hike,cancellation,ignasius-jonan,Rini-Soemarno Free The government canceled on Wednesday its plan to increase the price of subsidized Premium gasoline or the price based on public service obligation (PSO), minutes after Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan announced there would be an increase. The cancellation was confirmed by State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Rini Soemarno minutes after Jonans statement. We need to discuss it first, for now only [prices of] Pertamax series will be increased. Pertamina is not ready [to increase the price of Premium], she said over the phone. Read also: Pertamina announces fuel price hike Rini said her side and state-owned energy holding company Pertamina had not been informed by Jonan about the plan to increase the price of Premium fuel. During a press conference, Jonan said the government would increase the price of Premium gasoline, the cheapest fuel in the country, by around 7 percent throughout the country. Jonan said in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Wednesday that the price increase could start as early as 6 p.m. on Wednesday or depending on the readiness of state-owned energy holding company Pertamina to implement the policy. Jonan said the decision was made after the price of oil reached around US$ 80 dollar per barrel oil, an increase of 30 percent, since January. For Java, Madura and Bali the price will be increased from Rp 6,550 per liter to Rp 7,000 per liter. Meanwhile, in other places it will increase from Rp 6,450 per liter to Rp 6,900 per liter, he said during his visit while attending the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings. I want to ask for peoples understanding [regarding this decision], as after all, a 7 percent increase is much lower than the hike in global oil prices. (bbn) CALGARY, Alberta, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Parkland Fuel Corporation (Parkland, We, Our or Us), (TSX:PKI) Canada's largest and one of North America's fastest growing independent marketers of fuel and petroleum products and a leading convenience store operator, and SOL Limited have entered into an agreement to complete a business combination (the Business Combination or Transaction) between Parkland and SOL Investments Limited (SIL) and its subsidiaries (collectively, SOL). A privately-held company owned by the Simpson Group, SOL is the largest independent fuel marketer in the Caribbean and a wholly-owned subsidiary of SOL Limited. SOL supplies and markets a total of 4.8 billion liters of fuel volume annually across 23 countries in the Caribbean and generated US$215 million (approximately C$280 millioni) in adjusted earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization (Adjusted EBITDA) in the 12-month period ending June 2018. The Transaction will result in Parkland acquiring 75% of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of SIL (the SIL Shares) for total consideration of US$1.21 billion (approximately C$1.57 billion) plus customary post-closing adjustments on a cash-free and debt-free basis (the Purchase Price), and SOL Limited acquiring 12.16 million common shares in the capital of Parkland (the Parkland Shares). This equates to a purchase price multiple on the 75% equity interest in SOL of approximately 7.5x Adjusted EBITDA, excluding working capital. Upon closing the Simpson Group, through its ownership in SOL Limited, will own approximately 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares in Parkland and its intention is to remain a long-term investor in Parkland. The Transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Parklands distributable cash flow per share by approximately 17% (pre-synergies). The remaining 25% of the shares outstanding in SIL are subject to the Minority Purchase/Sale Right (as defined below) pursuant to which Parkland may elect to acquire or SOL Limited may elect to sell the remaining shares in the capital of SIL. Based on SOLs Adjusted EBITDA for the 12-month period ending June 2018, the Adjusted EBITDA attributable to Parkland from the 75% ownership stake in SOL would have been US$161 million (approximately C$210 million), representing 75% of SOLs Adjusted EBITDA for the period. Parkland President and CEO Bob Espey said, The addition of SOL will extend our global supply reach and enable us to continue to build our supply advantage to benefit our entire business. With its integrated supply chain backed by an extensive distribution network, fortress assets, a premier brand portfolio and an exceptional team, SOL has built a strong market position with unparalleled regional scale. Together, Parkland and SOL create a significant North American and Caribbean growth platform. We are delighted to partner with the Simpson Group and welcome the opportunity to work with SOLs strong management team to optimize and grow SOLs industry leading retail and supply network through our combined scale and expertise. Sir Kyffin Simpson, CBE, Founder of SOL Limited said, I am exceptionally pleased to announce the coming together (Business Combination) of Parkland and SOL, which will ensure an exciting and dynamic future for everyone. With a desire to continue to develop and grow the business through expansion in new areas, I am extremely blessed to bring in our good friends Parkland of Canada to the Caribbean. I have long admired Parkland as a company with their futuristic vision and energy, and I have been tremendously impressed with Bob Espeys strong leadership along with his exceptional management team. I am truly confident that this coming together with the fantastic team at SOL will be a complementary blend of cultures, ideas, technology and innovation. I am convinced that Parkland and SOL are perfectly matched to develop new and exciting opportunities, with renewed energy that will provide excellent avenues for the development of our people that will in turn enhance our customer experience and open new doors for great synergies and improved logistics. With forty-three million people and a GDP of more than US$200 billion, this is the perfect time to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that abound in the Caribbean. This coming together will also provide a big boost of confidence for regional investment opportunities and we are happy to do our part in this regard. Please therefore join with me in welcoming this wonderful team and organization to the region. I pray Gods richest blessings on this coming together and I look forward to what the future has in store for us all. Chief Financial Officer Mike McMillan said, "The scale of the pro-forma business combined with the strong cash flow from operations and operational synergies expected from SOL will further strengthen Parklands balance sheet and capital structure. The financing for the Transaction will enable Parklands pro forma total leverage ratio to remain below 3.5x. In addition, Parkland will be in a strong position from a balance sheet and capital structure perspective to continue to execute on our growth strategies. Key Highlights The addition of stable earnings from 526 retail stations (266 company-owned or company-leased sites and 260 dealer owned and operated sites); Provides an opportunity to roll out Parklands private label, loyalty and enhanced food offer; Positions Parkland to access supply at scale in the US Gulf Coast, creating future growth opportunities and supply advantage in the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts for Parkland USA (in addition to our continued focus on the US Northern Tier and Rocky Mountain regions); Total identified annual run-rate synergies of approximately 20% of SOLs Adjusted EBITDA over the next three years; Pro forma net debt to Parkland Adjusted EBITDA of approximately 3.2x on a consolidated basis with a strong deleveraging profile; and The SOL operating brands will remain in place, and the SOL business will retain key management and continue to be managed from the Caribbean. Parkland and SOL Limited, the sole shareholder of SIL, will enter into a shareholders agreement that grants a call right for Parkland and put right for SOL Limited (collectively, the Minority Purchase/Sale Right), pursuant to which Parkland may elect to acquire or SOL Limited may elect to sell the remaining 25% portion of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of SOL (the Remaining Shares) at a value of 8.5x the Adjusted EBITDA of SOL based on the then current audited financial statements. The Minority Purchase/Sale Right will be exercisable by either party for a period of 90 days following the release by Parkland of its audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 (or December 31, 2021 in the event that closing does not occur on or before December 31, 2018). The Minority Purchase/Sale Right will be exercisable annually thereafter by either party for a period of 90 days following the release by Parkland of its audited annual financial statements. The Transaction is subject to the receipt of customary third-party consents and regulatory approvals, including approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Closing of the Transaction is expected to occur in late Q4 2018. Strategic Rationale Through strategic acquisitions and organic growth, SOL has built fortress assets in stable markets across the region; SOL is the largest independent fuel marketer and convenience store operator in the Caribbean region, with more than 4.8 billion liters of annual volume and approximately US$215 million (approximately C$280 million) in estimated Adjusted EBITDA (excluding expected synergies); Provides comprehensive and key infrastructure in the Caribbean region to extend and enhance Parklands supply advantage and expertise; Adds significant scale to Parklands retail and supply businesses; Provides increased exposure to stable earnings across multiple lines of business; Provides diversification from the North American market; Significantly contributes to Parklands US dollar cash flows; Positions Parkland to access supply at scale in the US Gulf Coast, creating future growth opportunities and supply advantage in the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts for Parkland USA; Supports acquisition and expansion opportunities in the Caribbean region and broader Americas; and Opens Parklands business to global supply advantages to benefit existing and future business opportunities. SOL Retail Business Represents approximately 2.0 billion liters of annual volume with operations in 20 countries; Includes 526 retail stations (266 company owned or company leased sites and 260 dealer owned and operated sites); and Operates 197 Shell-branded retail stations and 163 ESSO-branded retail stations and enjoys a long-standing relationship with both premier retail brands in the Caribbean. SIL also operates 93 SOL-branded stations, which enjoy excellent recognition in the Caribbean. SOL Supply and Distribution Business SOLs infrastructure assets include 32 import terminals, 7 pipelines, 3 marine berths and 10 charter ships; Enables SOL to achieve superior supply economics in the Caribbean region as it is the largest fuels marketer with an integrated supply chain; Primary objective is to supply the SOL marketing business and any spare capacity is sold to third parties; Chartered vessel fleet provides SOL with inter-island transportation and distribution capabilities; Owned and leased terminals enable intermediate storage for large fuel cargoes across the region; Geographically close to US Gulf Coast supply, one of the longest refined product markets in the world; Ownership of 29% non-operating financial stake in the entity that owns and operates the SARA Refinery located in Fort-de-France, Martinique (the SARA Refinery ). The capacity of the SARA Refinery is 16,000 thousand barrels per day; and ). The capacity of the SARA Refinery is 16,000 thousand barrels per day; and SARA Refinery owns and operates all the pipelines, ships and terminals required to supply refined products to Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Martinique. SOL Commercial and Industrial Business Represents approximately 1.8 billion liters of annual volume with operations in 21 countries; Supplies gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, LPG (propane) and other petroleum products to commercial and industrial customers in the mining, power generation, manufacturing, construction, transport and hospitality industries; Lubricants segment represents 21 million liters of annual volume and operations in 18 countries; Distributes Shell and Pennzoil-branded lubricants and is the largest licensed distributor of Shell-branded lubricants in the Caribbean; LPG (propane) segment represents 47 million liters of annual volume and operations in 10 countries; Distributes LPG (propane) direct to customers under the highly recognizable SOL Energy brand; and Distributes LPG (propane) to other distributors and governments under various supply agreements. SOL Aviation Business Represents approximately 600 million liters of annual volume with operations in 13 countries; Operates in most countries through joint ventures with various third parties. Joint ventures are structured to enable maximum utilization of high cost fixed assets; and Jointly owns airport terminals and infrastructure in several markets. Parkland Financing The Transaction and related fees and expenses will be financed by Parkland with a fully underwritten financing package: Debt financing of approximately C$1.1B underwritten by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and National Bank of Canada as Co-Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners consisting of: C$470 million of senior secured bank debt, a US$250 million (approximately C$325M million) term loan and a term facility of C$300 million. C$470 million of senior secured bank debt, a US$250 million (approximately C$325M million) term loan and a term facility of C$300 million. SOL Limited will provide approximately C$518 million of equity financing through its investment in Parkland: Parkland will issue 12.16 million Parkland shares to SOL Limited from treasury as partial consideration for the Business Combination at a price of approximately C$42.62 per share, representing the 5-day volume-weighted average price of Parklands common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange as of market close on October 9, 2018. After closing, SOL Limited will own approximately 9.9% of the issued and outstanding common shares in Parkland. Parkland expects to replace the term facility with alternative longer-term debt prior to the closing of the Transaction. Investor Event and Conference Call Information Parkland will host a webcast and conference call at 6:30 AM MT (8:30 AM ET) on October 10, 2018 to discuss the Transaction. Parklands Senior Leadership Team will be available to take questions from securities analysts and investors following their formal comments. Please log into the webcast slide presentation 10 minutes prior to start time at: Webcast: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/gxyt5yny To access the conference call by telephone, dial toll-free (844) 889-7784. International callers should use (661) 378-9928, Conference ID: 1558797. Please connect approximately 10 minutes before the beginning of the call. The webcast will be available for replay one hour after the conference call ends. It will remain available at the link above for one year and will be posted to www.parkland.ca . A link to the live webcast and investor presentation will be available on the Investors section of Parklands website at http://www.parkland.ca/investors/ . If you are unable to participate in the call, a replay will be available by dialing (855) 859-2056, Conference ID: 1558797 (Canada and USA toll-free). For international callers, please dial (404) 537-3406, Conference ID: 1558797. A transcript of the broadcast will be posted on the website once it becomes available. About Parkland Parkland is Canada's largest and one of North America's fastest growing independent suppliers and marketers of fuel and petroleum products and a leading convenience store operator. Parkland services customers through three channels: Retail, Commercial and Wholesale. Parkland optimizes its fuel supply across these three channels by operating the Parkland Burnaby Refinery, and leveraging a growing portfolio of supply relationships and storage infrastructure. Parkland provides trusted and locally relevant fuel brands and convenience store offerings, including its On the Run/Marche Express banners, in the communities it serves. Parkland creates value for shareholders by focusing on its proven strategy of growing organically, realizing a supply advantage and acquiring prudently and integrating successfully. At the core of our strategy are our people, as well as our values of safety, integrity, community and respect, which are embraced across our organization. About SOL By providing fuels, lubricants, LPG products and an extensive network of service stations, SOL enables the energy that keeps the heart of our region beating. SOL is the largest independent petroleum marketing company in the Caribbean region and is committed to supporting and empowering the communities in which it operates. With operations spanning across twenty-three territories, SOLs highly qualified team reflects the talent, spirit and diversity of the region. SOL serves a wide range of commercial customers who are involved in shipping, luxury boating, aviation, mining, trucking and fleet operations, as well as families and individuals hard working men and women who need a reliable partner to fuel their vehicles, homes and lives. Advisors Deloitte provided transaction services in respect of the Business Combination. National Bank Financial Inc. served as financial advisor to Parkland. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information and statements ("collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Many of these forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as believe, expects, expected, will, intends, projects, projected, anticipates, estimates, continues, "objective" or similar expressions and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Parklands expectation of its future financial position, business and growth strategies and objectives, sources of growth, capital expenditures, financial results, future financing and the terms thereof, future transactions and the efficiencies to be derived therefrom, the successful completion of the Transaction and the timing thereof, the accretive impact of the Transaction (including the expected impact to Parkland's distributable cash flow per share), the expected benefits resulting from the Transaction including Parkland's leverage pro forma following the Transaction, Adjusted EBITDA of the business acquired in the Transaction, the Simpson Groups intentions with respect to its ownership of Parkland, future projections of Adjusted EBITDA, the contribution to EBITDA and/or Adjusted EBITDA from the Transaction, volumes and gross margins expected to be derived from the Transaction, expected synergies and growth opportunities (including geographic areas of potential growth) resulting from the Transaction, the number of Parkland Shares to be issued as partial consideration for the Transaction, expected exercise of the Minority Purchase/Sale Right and the terms thereof, sources of financing for the Transaction, the ability of Parkland to refinance indebtedness under its term facility, Parkland's expected pro forma total leverage, strength of Parkland's balance sheet and capital structure pro forma the Transaction and Parkland's continued ability to execute on its growth strategies. Parkland believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based upon certain assumptions and factors including, without limitation: historical trends, current and future economic and financial conditions, and expected future developments. Parkland believes such assumptions and factors are reasonably accurate at the time of preparing this press release. However, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties some of which are described in Parklands Annual Information Form dated March 9, 2018 ("AIF") and other continuous disclosure documents. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause Parklands actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, risks associated with: the failure to achieve the anticipated benefits of the Transaction, the aggregate amount of any adjustments to the Purchase Price, the ability to secure funding to finance the consideration payable upon the exercise of the Minority Purchase/Sale Right, expansion of Parkland's business into the Caribbean, the ability of suppliers to meet commitments, failure to retain key management, failure to execute on plans to deleverage the combined Parkland business, failure to obtain necessary regulatory or other third party consents and approvals required to complete the Transaction, failure to complete the Transaction, failure to secure alternative sources of funding to the term facility on terms acceptable to Parkland, failure to meet financial, operational and strategic objectives and plans, general economic, market and business conditions, industry capacity, failure to realize anticipated synergies from the Transaction, the operations of Parklands assets, competitive action by other companies, actions by governmental authorities and other regulators including increases in taxes, changes and developments in environmental and other regulations, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Parkland. There is a specific risk that Parkland may be unable to complete the Transaction in the manner described in this press release or at all. If Parkland is unable to complete the Transaction, there could be a material adverse impact on Parkland and on the value of its securities. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and Parkland does not undertake any obligation, except as required under applicable law, to publicly update or revise such statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Readers are directed to, and are encouraged to read the risks and uncertainties described in Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors included in Parkland's AIF and in Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors included in Parkland's management discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2017 (the "MD&A") and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 (the Q2 2018 MD&A), as such information is incorporated by reference herein, each as filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and available on the Parkland website at www.parkland.ca . Non-GAAP Financial Measures This press release refers to certain financial measures that are not determined in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Net debt to Adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow per share are not measures recognized under IFRS and do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS. Other issuers may calculate these non-GAAP measures differently. Parkland considers these to be important supplemental measures of Parklands performance and believes these measures are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in its industries. In reference to Parklands Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA is a measure of segment profit and is considered to be forward-looking information in this document. See Section 12 of the Q2 2018 MD&A and Note 14 of the Interim Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for a reconciliation of this measure of segment profit. In reference to SOLs Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA refers to the agreed-upon normalized earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortization of SOL for the purposes of this Transaction, is considered to be forward-looking information in this document, and does not represent Parklands definition of Adjusted EBITDA. Investors are encouraged to evaluate each adjustment and the reasons Parkland considers it appropriate for supplemental analysis. Readers are cautioned, however, that these measures should not be construed as an alternative to net income determined in accordance with IFRS as an indication of performance. The financial measures that are not determined in accordance with IFRS in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Parkland believes these financial measures based are on such information that is reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such figures should not be unduly relied upon. For Further Information Investor and Media Inquiries French and English Investor Inquiries Ben Brooks Vice President, Treasury and Risk Management 1-403-567-2534 Ben.Brooks@parkland.ca Media Inquiries Leroy McKinnon Senior Specialist, Corporate Communications 1-403-567-2573 Leroy.McKinnon@parkland.ca To sign up for Parkland news alerts, please go to https://goo.gl/mNY2zj or visit www.parkland.ca . ___________________________ i All figures converted between USD and CAD using an exchange rate of US$1.0 = C$1.3 Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10 2018 The East Jakarta Police have opened an investigation into a woman who allegedly overtook the presidential motorcade along the Jagorawi toll road last month, naming her a suspect in the traffic violation case. East Jakarta Police traffic unit head Adj. Comr. Agus Suparyanto confirmed that the woman, Anisa Dwi, had been named a suspect for an alleged violation of the Traffic Law. The suspect has not been detained, but she is required to report [to police], Agus told tempo.co on Monday, adding that regardless, the police had opened an investigation into the incident. 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 (The Jakarta Post) Nusa Dua, Bali Wed, October 10, 2018 08:23 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776e418f 2 Business civil-society,IMF-WB-meeting,loan,#IMFWBG Free A group of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) has called for a moratorium or a halt in new projects funded with foreign loans and a thorough audit into past and ongoing infrastructure projects. Indonesia Forum for the Environment (Walhi) campaign head Khalisah Khalid said the World Bank should be held accountable for the disbursement of the foreign loans. The practices by the World Bank have led to human right violation, environmental damage and poverty, Khalisah said in a statement after the Peoples Summit on Alternative Development in Sanur, Bali, on Tuesday. The Peoples Summit was held to counter the International Monetary Fund IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Nusa Dua, half an hours drive from Sanur. Arimbi Heroepoetri from Debt Watch said the World Bank had operated in Indonesia for nearly five decades and there had been no audit into its performance or into projects and policies it had sponsored. Audits is crucial for the Indonesian government to know if loans are proven effective or proven to have damaged the environment and violated human rights, she added. The civil society organizations plan to convey their demands, set out in a joint communique to be handed over to representatives of the IMF, World Bank and Indonesian government during the IMF & World Bank Civil Society Town Hall Meeting" scheduled for Wednesday. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 16:19 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877702368 1 Business OECD,survey,Indonesia-economy,Angel-Gurria,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati Free The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has urged Indonesia to highlight the importance of policies that could boost resilience as global risks are on the rise. [Global risks] also underline the potential for tax reforms that increase government revenues to meet financing needs in a growth and equity-friendly manner, as well as how tourism can contribute to sustainable regional development, OECD survey said. The latest OECD economic survey of Indonesia was presented on Wednesday by OECD secretary general Angel Gurria and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in Nusa Dua, Bali, on the sideline of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank (IMF-WB) Annual Meeting. As quoted by an OECD press statement, Gurria said the survey aimed at promoting policies designed to improve Indonesias resilience to global risks. Citing the survey projection of Indonesias economic growth of between 5.2 in 2018 and 5.3 in 2019, Gurria said the Indonesian economy was growing at healthy rates, and a demographic dividend would further boost growth in the coming years. Infrastructure, education, health and job quality still pose important challenges that must be addressed to ensure that Indonesia achieves sustainable and inclusive growth, he said. Meanwhile, the survey suggests that to make the economy more resilient and inclusive, Indonesia needs to improve its social assistance programs, deepen the domestic financial markets, provide better transparency and governance of state-owned enterprises, reform employment regulations to bring more workers into formal employment and further simplify business regulations. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10 2018 Non-active Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf filed on Tuesday a pretrial motion against the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which previously named him a suspect in a graft case involving the provinces special autonomy funds. KPK officers arrested Irwandi in July along with non-active Bener Meriah regent Ahmadi and eight other individuals following suspicious transactions allegedly involving provincial and regency officials. Soon after, Irwandi and four others were named suspects and accused of scheming to embezzle Rp 8 trillion (US$557 million) from the provinces special autonomy funds. In the pretrial motion, which was filed at the South Jakarta District Court, Irwandi and his legal team claimed that he never asked for or received any money relating to the special autonomy funds and cited his return of Rp 39 million to the KPK as a gratuity report. 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 News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Jerusalem Wed, October 10, 2018 10:50 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776ecc2e 2 World #Israel,#Syria,Israel,attack,Syria,target,BenjaminNetanyahu Free Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told Russia's vice premier in talks on Tuesday that Israel must continue to hit hostile targets in neighbouring Syria, despite Moscow's decision to equip Damascus with advanced air defence missiles. Netanyahu said at a press conference that he told Maxim Akimov in talks in Jerusalem that Israel would continue to fight what it says are Iranian attempts to entrench itself militarily in Syria and channel advanced weaponry to its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah. Despite the delivery of the S-300 air defence systems to the Syrian military, Israel was committed as a matter of self-defence to continue its "legitimate activity in Syria against Iran and its proxies, which state their intention to destroy us", Netanyahu said. It was his first publicised meeting with a senior Russian official since the accidental Syrian downing of a Russian plane during an Israeli air strike in Syria, an incident that raised tensions between Israel and Russia. Fifteen Russians were killed in the September 17 incident that Moscow blamed on Israel, accusing its pilots of using the larger Russian plane as cover. Israel disputes the Russian findings and says its jets were back in Israeli airspace when the plane was downed. In response, Moscow announced new measures to protect its military in Syria, including equipping Damascus with S-300 air defence systems. Russia and Israel set up a hotline in 2015 to avoid accidental clashes in Syria, but the new measures have led to concern among Israelis that their strikes will now be limited there. Netanyahu, who met Akimov on the sidelines of meetings of a bilateral economics committee, said he believed that the current dispute with Moscow would be resolved. "I think that with common sense and goodwill we can come to a solution that will allow the continuation of the good coordination between the Russian and Israeli militaries," he said. At the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon to discuss coordination. The leaders have spoken at least three times by phone since the September incident. Both Iran and Hezbollah -- enemies of Israel -- are supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in his country's civil war alongside Russia. Israeli planes have carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah targets. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States States Wed, October 10, 2018 22:40 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087770dbbf 2 World #USA,#Bloomberg,bloomberg,registration,Democrat,party Free Billionaire businessman and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has not yet ruled out a presidential run in 2020, said Wednesday he has registered as a Democrat, switching camps again. "At key points in US history, one of the two parties has served as a bulwark against those who threaten our Constitution," said Bloomberg, who in the past has identified as a Republican and an independent. "Two years ago at the Democratic Convention, I warned of those threats," the 76-year-old Bloomberg said on Instagram. "Today, I have re-registered as a Democrat I had been a member for most of my life because we need Democrats to provide the checks and balance our nation so badly needs." In the United States, when voters register with a particular party, it means they plan to vote most often for that party's candidates. Voters are not required to be registered with any political movement. Bloomberg, the founder of the financial data and media company that bears his name, has said he will decide in the wake of the November 6 midterm elections whether he will make a run for the White House. The billionaire -- who served as mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013, both as a Republican and an independent -- had already said that if he were to launch a presidential campaign, it would be as a Democrat. Bloomberg, who in the past has donated to both Democratic and Republican candidates, has said he will spend $80 million on Democrats alone ahead of November's key polls. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 13:13 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776fbb78 4 Business oil-refinery,unplanned-shutdowns,ArcandraTahar Free Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arcandra Tahar has revealed that oil refineries operated by state-owned oil and gas holding company Pertamina had experienced frequent and unplanned shutdowns in June and July. Yesterday [Oct. 8], we discussed efforts to minimize the unplanned shutdowns, Arcandra said on Tuesday in Jakarta as reported by kompas.com. He noted that the refineries that frequently experienced unplanned shutdowns were in Dumai, Riau, and in Plaju, South Sumatra, but he did not provide details on the ' impacts of the shutdowns. Arcandra also said that efforts had been made to address the problem, but that the results were "not optimal". He stressed the importance of readying anticipatory measures for unplanned shutdowns. The world's refineries already use a maintenance system that can predict [when] the problems [might occur], he said, adding that anticipating problems was necessary to maintain the refineries' high performance and productivity. He said Pertamina planned to adopt the predictive maintenance refinery technology through the addition of certain instruments to ensure that the refineries worked optimally. Arcandra also expressed the hope that all refineries in the country would soon employ predictive maintenance technology. We have to apply the technology as soon as possible. The devices [needed] for the technology are not very expensive, he said. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 17:38 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877705cb2 1 City robbery,crime,jakarta,police Free West Jakarta Police arrested a suspected serial robber, David, 28, on Tuesday evening in Cilincing, North Jakarta. The arrest was made after several victims reported the suspect for robberies on Monday night on Jl. S Parman and in front of the Garuda restaurant in Tomang, Grogol Petamburan, West Jakarta. The suspects modus operandi is that he drove a motorcycle and tried to hit a victim to knock them over. The suspect then took the victims motorcycle and belongings and fled the scene, West Jakarta Criminal Investigation Department head Sr. Adj. Comr. Edi Suranta Sitepu said on Wednesday, kompas.com reported. He said the suspect confessed to the police that he robbed his victims along with five accomplices, whom the police are still hunting. Edi said the group is also believed to have hypnotized their victims before robbing them. The suspects asked their victims for directions when they had pulled over to the side of the road. Then another suspect would tap on the victims shoulder who would then collapse, he said. The suspects stole their victims belongings, he added. The group allegedly carried out 35 such crimes in various places in West Jakarta over the past year. He said the police were still investigating the case in the hunt for more suspects as well as to gather more evidence. (ami) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dewanti Wardhani (The Jakarta Post) Nusa Dua, Bali Wed, October 10, 2018 12:01 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776f7eee 1 Business IMF-WB-meeting,annual-meeting,trade-war,trump,trade-dispute,united-states,Donald-Trump,trade-protectionism Free One of the world's most prominent economists, Jeffrey Sachs, has called on the United States to put a stop to the ongoing trade war, as tensions continue to rise between the US and China. At the International Monetary Fund-World Bank Annual Meetings 2018 in Nusa Dua, Bali, the Columbia University economics professor said the trade dispute was dangerous and the work of US President Donald Trump's "fertile imagination". "[The trade war] should be stopped and it should be resisted. The US is breaking international trade rules right and left, and it is violating every international standard, and it is threatening the Asian economy. It is threatening the world economy," Sachs said during a dialogue on the Asian economy at the IMF-Word Bank event on Wednesday. The American economist went on to send a message to US delegates attending the meetings. "Stop this [trade war]. This is completely, completely absurd and extremely dangerous," Sachs said. The world's two biggest economies have exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs this year, with the latest being US levies on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods, to which the latter responded by adding $60 billion worth of US goods to its import tariff list. Trump has insisted that China's trade surplus against the US was the result of the Asian powerhouse's "unfair" trade policies. "We have to teach Donald Trump the first thing about international finance, which is that a trade deficit does not mean that you are being cheated by the other side. It means you're saving less than you're investing," Sachs said. "We cannot let the world operate on the basis of fantasies [such as the America First policy], breaking all the rules. I don't care who the president is; this is extremely dangerous," he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Nation/ANN) Bangkok Wed, October 10, 2018 18:41 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877708a6f 2 SE Asia #ASEAN,#Asia,#Myanmar,#PressFreedom,#journalists,#arrest,Myanmar,press-freedom,arrest Free Myanmar police on Wednesday arrested three senior journalists of Eleven Media Groups in connection with a story that criticized the controversial business ventures of Yangon Regional Government. They were Managing editor Nari Min, Editor in chief Kyaw Zaw Linn, and chief reporter Phyo Wai Win. They left Tamwe township courts before being brought to Insein Prison, Yangon. Yangon Regional Government filed a lawsuit against them for the story published on Oct. 8 which criticizes the controversial business ventures of Yangon Regional Government for wasting public money. T They were on Wednesday charged under Article 505 (b) of Myanmar's Penal Code which does not allow for bail to be granted and carries a maximum punishment of two years imprisonment. Myanmar stands 137th out of 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RFS). Topics : This article appeared on The Nation newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Red Pine Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: RPX) ("Red Pine" or the "Company") announces results from nineteen holes at its Wawa Gold Project, 2 kilometres (km) east of Wawa, Ontario. The drill holes were part of Red Pines 2017-2018 drill program to test the southern extension of the Minto Mine South Zone. Drilling highlights (Table 1): Discovery of high-grade gold in the southern extension of the Minto Mine South Zone: 7.15 g/t gold over 5.1 metres, including 33.73 g/t gold over 1 metre in hole SD-18-222; 3.30 g/t gold over 15 metres including including 9.93 g/t gold over 2.9 metres and 12.52 g/t gold over 1.2 metres in SD-18-223. Discovery of numerous/multiple gold veins in the Minto Stockwork 14.7 g/t gold over 1 metre in SD-17-145; 19.4 g/t gold over 1 metre in SD-18-225. Quentin Yarie, President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Pine stated, "This last round of assay results confirms that high-grade mineralization persists in the southern extension of the Minto Mine South Zone. The results are expected to have a positive effect on the forthcoming NI 43-101 resource of the Minto Mine South Zone. Table 1. Highlights of the 2017-2018 drilling results in the Minto Mine South Zone Hole From (m) To (m) Length (m)* Gold (g/t) Gold Zone SD-17-145 187.5 188.5 1.0 2.21 Minto Stockwork 193.5 194.5 1.0 14.7 SD-18-222 180.2 184.0 3.8 0.78 Minto Stockwork 246.0 256.0 10.0 1.12 Including 246.0 247.0 1.0 7 283.0 293.3 10.3 0.57 Including 283.0 284.0 1.0 4.5 256.0 261.1 5.1 7.15 Minto Mine South Zone Including 257.6 258.6 1.0 33.73 SD-18-223 156.9 171.9 15 3.3 Minto Mine South Zone Including 156.9 158.1 1.2 12.52 167.1 170.0 2.9 9.93 SD-17-225 198.2 204.3 6.1 1.09 Minto Stockwork 210.5 211.5 1.0 1.32 229.3 234.6 5.3 4.19 Including 232.4 233.4 1.0 19.4 SD-18-226 250.9 252.0 1.1 3.31 Minto Mine South Zone *Assay results reported over intersection length. In the Minto Mine South Zone, the intersection lengths are estimated to between 70-95% true widths. In the Minto Stockwork, additional drilling is necessary to estimate the true width of the intersected zones. Figure 1. Plan map of drilling results A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b58b3dca-733f-4f0e-8b48-5057d5874f31 Southern extension of the Minto Mine South Zone Holes SD-18-222 and SD-18-223 indicate that high-grade mineralization persists in the southern extension of the Minto Mine South Zone. Hole SD-18-226 indicates that the main Minto vein persists 80 metres down-plunge of SD-18-222. Holes SD-18-222 and SD-18-225 also intersected multiple gold-bearing veins in the Minto Stockwork, located above and below the Minto Mine South Zone. Holes SD-18-201, 203, 204, 205, 206, 216, 221, 224 and 227, drilled in the Minto Mine South Zone, did not contain significant results. Holes SD-18-209, 210, 211 were testing the near-surface extension of the Minto Mine South Zone, 150 metres up-dip of SD-18-223. They were drilled outside the main plunge of the Minto Mine South Zone and did not intersect significant mineralization. Holes SD-18-214, 215 and 216 were exploration holes testing the extent of the Minto Lower Shear Zone. The holes successfully intersected the Minto Lower structure, but did not intersect the higher grade zones of the structure. Wawa Gold Project Background Since December 2014, Red Pine's exploration work has involved the sampling of 42,000 metres of historic core that was never sampled by previous operators of the project and aggressive drilling campaigns. To date, the Company has completed over 55,000 metres of drilling and made five discoveries along the extension of the Surluga Deposit: the Surluga North Zone; the Hornblende-William Zone; the Minto Mine South Zone, the Minto Lower Zone; and the Grace-Darwin Zone. These are part of the Wawa Gold Corridor, a gold-mineralization zone that extends for more than 5 km. Red Pines on-going drill program is designed to potentially expand the size of the existing inferred gold resource1 and connect the other zones of gold mineralization along the newly-discovered Wawa Gold Corridor. The Company is well positioned to fund its share of the Wawa Gold exploration program. As such, the sampling and drill programs are expected to continue through 2018. On-site Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Measures Drill core samples were transported in security-sealed bags for analyses to Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Ancaster, Ontario. Individual samples are labeled, placed in plastic sample bags and sealed. Groups of samples are then placed into durable rice bags and then shipped. The remaining coarse reject portions of the samples remain in storage if further work or verification is needed. Red Pine has implemented a quality-control program to comply with best practices in the sampling and analysis of drill core. As part of its QA/QC program, Red Pine inserts external gold standards (low to high grade) and blanks every 20 samples in addition to random standards, blanks, and duplicates. Qualified Person Quentin Yarie, P Geo. is the qualified person responsible for preparing, supervising and approving the scientific and technical content of this news release. About Red Pine Exploration Inc. Red Pine Exploration Inc. is a gold and base-metals exploration company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Company's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "RPX". Red Pine has a 60% interest in the Wawa Gold Project with Citabar LP. holding the remaining 40% interest. Red Pine is the Operating Manager of the Project and is focused on expanding the existing gold resource on the property. For more information about the Company visit www.redpineexp.com Or contact: Quentin Yarie, President & CEO, (416) 364-7024, qyarie@redpineexp.com Or Mia Boiridy, Investor Relations, (416) 364-7024, mboiridy@redpineexp.com 1NI 43-101 inferred resource of 1,088,000 ounces of gold at a 1.71 grams per tonne (g/t) using a 0.40 g/t gold cut-off grade for pit-constrained and 2.50 g/t gold cut-off grade for underground-constrained resources, contained in 19.82 million tonnes open along strike and at depth. The Cut-off grades are based on a gold price of US$1,250 per once and a gold recovery of 95 percent (Mineral Resource Statement, Surluga-Jubilee Gold Deposit, Wawa Gold Project, Ontario, SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc (effective May 26, 2015)). Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This News Release contains forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as may, should, expects, plans, anticipates, believes, estimates, predicts, potential or continue or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industrys actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. 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, which only applies as of the date of this news release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, October 10, 2018 10:08 1132 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308776ea839 1 News KAI,travel,travel-fair,trains Free PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) is scheduled to hold an online travel fair from Oct. 13 to 17 on its website and the KAI Access app on Android and iOS. The state-owned railway company is offering special fares for 173,655 seats on 31 of its trains, including the Argo Bromo Anggrek, Argo Lawu, Dwipangga, Argo Jati and Tegal Bahari. The promo fares start from Rp 50,000 ($3) for economy seats, Rp 60,000 for business class and Rp 100,000 for executive class for journeys from Oct. 13 to Jan. 15, 2019. Read also: PT Inka manufactures 31 driverless trains for LRT Tickets from the online travel fair cannot be cancelled, and the schedule cannot be changed, PT KAI spokesperson Agus Komarudin told kompas.com. A flash sale will be available as well, though only on the KAI Access app for executive class bookings. The sale is divided into two sessions: from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. with prices starting at Rp 75,000. (wir/wng) Oct 09 2018 8:29 pm Agudath Israel of America expresses its appreciation to Ambassador Nikki Haley, whose service in the United Nations over the past nearly two years has been exemplary. Ambassador Haleys voice was clear and consistent in championing the causes of human rights and democracy across the globe. Her strong support of Israel and articulate defense of its security made her a deeply respected figure in the Orthodox Jewish community Agudath Israel represents and among citizens of goodwill of all faiths. She will be long remembered as a fearless fighter against the pervasive anti-Israel hypocrisy of the United Nations. We wish Ambassador Haley well as she leaves her post, and look forward to working with her again in the years ahead in whatever form of public service she may undertake. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Balmoral Resources Ltd. (Balmoral or the Company) (TSX: BAR; OTCQX: BALMF) announced today that it has entered into a letter agreement to sell the 1% Net Smelter Returns royalty (the Royalty) that the Company currently holds on the Fenelon Mine Property in Quebec. Balmoral will sell its rights and interests in the Royalty to Ely Gold Royalties Inc. (Ely Gold; TSX-V:ELY; OTCQB:ELYGF) in exchange for an immediate cash payment of $500,000, as well as 1,000,000 common shares of Ely Gold and 1,000,000 common share purchase warrants of Ely Gold. For Balmoral shareholders the Fenelon royalty sale provides a non-dilutive cash infusion that exceeds the currently estimated value of the Royalty, based on the published resource/reserve data for the Discovery Gold Zone on the Fenelon Mine Property. Balmoral continues to enjoy exposure to the Fenelon Mine Property through the Companys share ownership in Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (Wallbridge) the current holder and operator of the Fenelon Mine Property, the shares/warrants to be acquired in Ely Gold and through its 100% ownership of a land position which surrounds the Fenelon Mine Property ( see Figure 1 ). As well, the Company gains exposure to the portfolio of mainly Nevada-focused, gold royalty and property interests held by Ely Gold. The common shares of Ely Gold to be issued under the agreement will be subject to a standard 4 month regulatory hold period from date of closing. Each common share purchase warrant will be exercisable for conversion into one full common share of Ely Gold at a price of $0.10 for a period of 18 months from closing. The announced sale remains subject to completion of a formal Purchase and Assignment Agreement between the parties, the approval of the TSXV with respect to the issuance of the Ely Gold commons shares and common share purchase warrants, and the approval of Wallbridge to the transfer of the royalty to Ely Gold. Wallbridge does not have a right of first refusal as it concerns the transfer and sale of the Royalty. Mr. Darin Wagner (P.Geo. B.C. and Restricted Permit, Que.), President and CEO of the Company, is the non-independent qualified person for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. About Balmoral Resources Ltd. www.balmoralresources.com Balmoral is a well-funded, multi-award winning Canadian-focused exploration company actively exploring a portfolio of gold and base metal properties located within the prolific Abitibi greenstone belt. The Companys flagship, 1,000 km2 Detour Gold Trend Project hosts the resource stage Bug and Martiniere West gold deposits and the Grasset nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE deposit. Employing an aggressive, drill focused exploration style in one of the worlds preeminent mining jurisdictions, Balmoral is following an established formula with a goal of maximizing shareholder value through the discovery and definition of high-grade, Canadian gold and base metal assets. On behalf of the board of directors of BALMORAL RESOURCES LTD. Darin Wagner President and CEO For further information contact: John Foulkes, Vice-President, Corporate Development Tel: +1 (604) 638-5815 / Toll Free: +1 (877) 838-3664 E-mail: jfoulkes@balmoralresources.com This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, forward looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including statements regarding the current estimated value of the Royalty, closing date of the agreement, the approval of TSXV and Wallbridge with respect to the proposed transaction, the receipt and timing of certain payments and the ability of the Company to realize value from certain share and warrant holdings are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believes, expects, anticipates, intends, estimate, postulate and similar expressions or are those which, by their nature, refer to future events. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from the Companys expectations include those related to performance of the project operators, undisclosed material information related to the project, the price of gold, the realized value of gold sales from the property, the costs used to calculate the value of the royalty interest, fuel and other mining and transportation costs, future exploration and development results from the property discussed, the profitability of the mining operations, the financial stability of the other companies mentioned and the market fluctuations in prices for securities of exploration and mining stage companies. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. All of the Companys public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the latest technical reports filed with respect to the Companys mineral properties. This press release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e7057041-d63a-4588-b2fd-1c0419950f3d Increasingly, as tragic statistics hit the news and a growing number of men speak up publicly about mental health, the issue of male mental health is receiving growing attention. At The National Student, we believe that the issue is still not being discussed as much as it could or should be, and we want to change that. The National Student Today we are launching the MENtal Health project, a content series which will feature interviews, think pieces and stories relating to male mental health. With around 75% of suicides being male, and around a third of men waiting over two years to open up to friends or family about mental health problems, or never opening up, the issue is urgent. Some UK helplines: Mind: 0300 123 3393 / text 86463 Samaritans: 116 123 CALM: 0800 58 58 58 Papyrus: 0800 068 41 41 We want to hear from you. If you would like to share your thoughts on the issue of male mental health or tell us about your story, please fill in our closed survey here which can be done anonymously. Yes, weve all been there youre at a show youve been waiting months to see, and the chances are youve paid an excessive amount for tickets, the lights go down and your favourite artist emerges from the darkness, only you cant see them. Simultaneously, a sea of rectangular LED screens shoot out of the crowd and you observe this moment through someone elses iPhone. On the one hand, I agree that phone-free concerts would make for a better experience if everyone complied and engaged with what was happening on stage. But, whilst smartphones can be the bane of the concert-going experience in the 21st century, they are a fact of life.Boasting high-quality video, audio and, photo, every gig offers the chance for fans to digitally capture their favourite performers and share the footage to social media in a heartbeat. But as someone who has been guilty of pulling out my phone at a show, perhaps Ive lost the right to complain. Today, its about being connected and sharing your experience however, engagement is everything. Like others, I assume that my usage of what I shot is fairly limited, often an Instagram post goes up and thats about it. Be selective about the moments you capture and dont become so absorbed in capturing the live experience that you forget to engage in the live experience. Nowadays, in a world where smartphones are so prevalent, its almost more of an artistic statement to consider banning them. Artists can seem helpless in a sea of phones, but is it really a necessary annoyance when it also serves as marketing and promotion? With thousands of fans wanting to share content from your show on social media, its almost like wearing a new t-shirt. I think what mainly draws the line is the concept of being forced to lock away my phone before entering a venue. Its fine to have expectations of your audience, so you can ask me to not use my phone and as a decent human being I probably wont, but physically prohibiting the use of your phone is a step too far. Recently, many performers have adopted Yondr, providing fans with a lockable pouch that stays with users inside the phone-free zone. Once the pouch is closed, it can only be opened by tapping it onto an unlocking base. Whilst the start-up has potential as an alternative to confiscation, emergencies cannot be predicted. With such recent instances such as the terrorist attacks at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in 2017 and the Paris Bataclan Theatre attack in 2015, it would be detrimental to ban phones when an unfacilitated necessity to contact to the outside arises. In my opinion, banning smartphone ignores the actual problem; the issue is not phones at gigs, the problem is misuse from individuals. Artists wanting the audience to engage without distraction is understandable, but the assumption that the presence and use of smartphones at live shows is a distraction is flawed. Lets not forget that without the crowd, the show wouldnt even be happening so, let people take pictures and Snapchat their friends, theyre still there to listen to the music and to support their favourite artists. Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. Please check our main navigation pages for other content: Home Page English French MONTREAL, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stingray Digital Group Inc. (TSX: RAY.A; RAY.B) will release its financial results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2018, on Thursday, November 8, 2018, before the market opens. Management will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results the same day at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Details of the Conference Call Via the internet at www.stingray.com Via telephone: (877) 223-4471 or (647) 788-4922 Conference Call Rebroadcast A rebroadcast of the conference call will be available until midnight, December 7, 2018, by dialing (800) 585-8367 or (416) 621-4642 and entering passcode 2071249. About Stingray Stingray Digital Group Inc. (TSX: RAY.A; RAY.B) is the world-leading provider of multiplatform music and video services as well as digital experiences for pay TV operators, commercial establishments, OTT providers, mobile operators, consumers, and more. Its services include audio television channels, premium television channels, 4K UHD television channels, karaoke products, digital signage, in-store music, and music apps. Stingray reaches 400 million subscribers (or users) in 156 countries and its mobile apps have been downloaded over 100 million times. Stingray is headquartered in Montreal and currently has close to 400 employees worldwide. For more information: www.stingray.com. Contact information: Editor's Notes: There are lots of strange things happening in Dr. George Weahs Government. Under the watchful eyes of Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, are women sporting un-natural and colored hair, not allowed to perform their duties as employees at the Finance Ministry? The Press release from the Gender Ministry quoted The Decent Work Law of Liberia, which in their words clearly defines discrimination as the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. The nation is replete with cancer survivors most of whom are bald after lengthy chemotherapy who have to wear wigs. Is this a crime in eyes of Weah and his point man Tweah? When will the Dr. Weah Government get it right? The President was at the UNGA when Liberians opted to show their moral outrage about the so-called missing containers of money. But upon his return, President Weahs anger was against those who staged a peaceful demonstration. The inference is that the president does not care about getting at the bottom of these stolen containers of money. Are we missing something? Where is the pro-poor taking us as a nation? Is this more important than the missing container of 16 BILLION DOLLARS? This is becoming very interesting by the minute and ironically the President wife is to establish a Brazilian hair factory in Liberia. In any case, published below is a press release from the Gender Ministry which happens to be part of the Dr. Weah Government. October 8th, 2018 ~ The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, (MoGCSP), is deeply concerned about reports that female employees of the Ministry of Finance, and Development Planning, (MoFDP), are being restricted from entering the building for wearing colored or unnatural hair. A local media outlet recently reported that a number of female employees of MoFDP, are currently away from work, because they have been instructed to wear only 'black colored-natural hair.' Given the ramification of such distressing situation at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, MoGCSP, through the office of the Minister, engaged authorities at MoFDP to firstly ascertain the veracity of the story and, if true - to constructively engage them on revisiting said policy. The authorities of MoFDP confirmed to the Minister that the policy on hair color and styles were a part of their Employee Handbook published in 2014; Section 7.4 of the Employee Handbook discourages the use of unnatural colored hair (such as Green, Pink, etc.) and extreme hairstyles. The Gender Minister then encouraged MoFDP authorities to revisit such policy and ensure that an amended version is in conformity with this present government's own agenda for the protection of women's rights given the fact that both President Dr. George M. Weah and Min. Samuel D. Tweah, Jr., are avowed He4Shes and women's rights champions. This intervention is expected to yield positive results as soon as possible, as MoFDP was very responsive during the engagement. Though the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection welcomes the setting up of internal workplace regulations, it seriously frowns on any kind of policy that discriminates against women. The Decent Work Law of Liberia clearly defines discrimination as the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. Additionally, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, (MGCSP), calls on all public and private institutions to harmonize their policies in line with the National Code of Conduct and Decent Work Bill, and make necessary amendments, to avoid the violation of women's rights. From the directive of the Hon Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection Madam Williametta E. Saydee-Tarr. Signed, Eric Pervist Communication Specialist MoGCSP 0777808145 TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: WDO) (Wesdome or the Company) today announces its gold production results for the third quarter of 2018 (Q3). Mr. Duncan Middlemiss, President and CEO commented, Production in Q3 benefitted from initial mining of the wide, high grade 303 lens, which commenced stope production late in the quarter. We expect this area to continue production well into 2019. Year to date production of 54,371 ounces has us well positioned to achieve our raised guidance range of 70,000 75,000 ounces. Amounts are denominated in Canadian dollars Third Quarter Year-to-date 2018 2017 Variance % +/(-) 2018 2017 Variance % +/(-) Ore milled (tonnes) Eagle River 46,777 44,421 2,356 5 % 134,635 117,959 16,676 14 % Mishi 4,076 38,638 (34,562 ) (89 )% 62,155 114,396 (52,241 ) (46 )% 50,854 83,058 (32,204 ) (39 )% 196,790 232,355 (35,565 ) (15 )% Head grade (grams per tonne, g/t) Eagle River 13.3 9.7 3.6 38 % 12.2 10.3 1.9 18 % Mishi 3.4 2.0 1.4 69 % 2.3 1.8 0.5 27 % Gold production (ounces) Eagle River 19,437 13,313 6,124 46 % 50,602 37,498 13,104 35 % Mishi 358 2,181 (1,823 ) (84 )% 3,769 5,687 (1,918 ) (34 )% Total gold production 19,795 15,493 4,302 28 % 54,371 43,185 11,186 26 % Production sold (ounces) 18,401 13,069 5,332 41 % 52,404 38,419 13,985 36 % Revenue from gold sales ($ millions) 2 $28.9 $21.2 $7.7 36 % $86.6 $64.5 $22.1 34 % Average realized price per ounce 3 $1,571 $1,619 ($48 ) (3 )% $1,651 $1,656 ($5 ) - % Notes: 1. Numbers may not add due to rounding. 2. Revenue for year-to-date 2017 includes $0.9 million in gold sales from the cleanup of the Kiena mill. 3. Average realized price per ounce is a non-GAAP measure and is calculated by dividing the reported revenue from gold sales by the number of ounces sold for a given period. TECHNICAL DISCLOSURE The technical and scientific disclosure in this press release has been prepared and approved by Marc-Andre Pelletier, Chief Operating Officer of Wesdome and Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101) ABOUT WESDOME Wesdome Gold Mines has had over 30 years of continuous gold mining operations in Canada. The Company is 100% Canadian focused with a pipeline of projects in various stages of development. The Eagle River Complex in Wawa, Ontario is currently producing gold from two mines, the Eagle River Underground Mine and the Mishi Open pit, from a central mill. Wesdome is actively exploring its brownfields asset, the Kiena Complex in Val dOr, Quebec. The Kiena Complex is a fully permitted former mine with a 930-metre shaft and 2,000 tonne-per-day mill. The Company has further upside at its Moss Lake gold deposit, located 100 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Company has approximately 134.2 million shares issued and outstanding and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol WDO. For further information, please contact: Duncan Middlemiss President and CEO 416-360-3743 ext. 29 dmiddlemiss@wesdome.com or Lindsay Carpenter Dunlop VP Investor Relations 416-360-3743 ext. 25 ldunlop@wesdome.com 220 Bay St. East, Suite 1200 Toronto, ON, M5J 2W4 Toll Free: 1-866-4-WDO-TSX Phone: 416-360-3743, Fax: 416-360-7620 Website: www.wesdome.com This news release contains forward-looking information which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the future financial or operating performance of the Company and its projects. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, or believes or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. 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. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances, managements estimates or opinions should change, except as required by securities legislation. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company has included in this news release certain non-IFRS performance measures, including, but not limited to, mine operating profit, mining and processing costs and cash costs. Cash costs per ounce reflect actual mine operating costs incurred during the fiscal period divided by the number of ounces produced. These measures are not defined under IFRS and therefore should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to or more meaningful than, net income (loss) or cash flow from operating activities as determined in accordance with IFRS as an indicator of our financial performance or liquidity. The Company believes that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance and ability to generate cash flow The Au Contraire Film Festival is returning this year from October 16 to 19 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and this year, one of the principal guests is fresh off of winning an Academy Award. On Tuesday, October 16, the ACFF will open with The Stories and Creative Genius of Mindy & Kevin, an evening benefiting Donald Berman UP House, featuring the 2018 Oscar-winning Best Documentary Short Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405, by director Frank Stiefel. The doc crafts a portrait of Mindy Alper, an artist living with mental illness. Stiefel will be in attendance for the post-screening Q&A. I didnt set out to make a film about mental health at all, says Stiefel. Its a subject I find as interesting as most people. And I certainly didnt set out to make a film about an illness. I was curious about a person. There were questions I decided not to ask because I felt the film would swing into the technical and be about illness, rather than a portrait of a person. Despite that, Stiefel says he learned a lot about mental health in the process of getting to know his subject. Im not a stranger to issues of depression. Certainly not that degree. So, it was really an eye opener to recognize how profound that degree of depression and anxiety is. It also recognizes the limitations of medicine. Shes got very good people that are working on her behalf. The brain is one of those things where everybody is just guessing. Prescribing medications comes down to Lets try this. OK, that didnt work; lets try that. You realize that were in the dark ages here. All of that was eye opening to me. Relatively new to filmmaking, the 70-year-old Stiefel took an unconventional path en route to the directors chair. This is my second film, he says. My first was a film I did on my mother. That was about seven or eight years ago. That film went on to be part of the Berlin Film Festival. At that point, I was an executive producer for a TV commercial production company. I was a business guy. I decided to make a film about my mother purely as something to give to my kids. It became a bigger and bigger part of my life. I thought about it more and more. When I made it and it turned into something, HBO bought it and I thought Well this is much more fun than running a business. So, I quit, and this is what Ive been doing. Before even realizing that he was about to make embark on a new film project, Stiefel had a series of fateful encounters with Alper. My wife is a painter. Shes in the same studio as Mindy, says Stiefel. She would come home and tell me about this woman who made this amazing stuff. Over time they started going out for coffee and we found ourselves in the same world. There was a group show and I saw the sculpture she was working on. I was just wowed. Theres nothing in that documentary that I knew about her when I asked whether it would be okay to film her making that sculpture. That began this thing which eventually became 20 hours of interviews, which ultimately became the film. ACFF will wrap up on Friday, October 19 with two programs. At 1 p.m., its the annual free screening of short films for members of Donald Berman UP House and their friends in the community. This years program includes narrative fictions and animations that illuminate the subject of mental illness from multiple perspectives and through various genres. Highlights include Future Sick by Canadian director Aaron Martini, and Martins Hagge written by and starring Gordon Pinsent. At 3 p.m., the Human Resource Screening and Networking Reception, will focus on films that will inspire discussion on the challenges facing companies as they confront the issues surrounding the mental health of their employees. For more information and tickets, visit http://www.acff.ca Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Snow showers this evening. Breaks in the overcast later. Low 4C. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 90%.. Tonight Snow showers this evening. Breaks in the overcast later. Low -1C. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 90%. OXNARD, Calif., Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CURE Pharmaceutical (OTC: CURR), an innovative drug delivery and development company, will be presenting at this year's CannX Conference on October 15 at 11:15 AM in Tel Aviv, Israel. CURE Pharmaceutical CEO Rob Davidson will present on Maximizing and Understanding the Benefits of Proprietary Delivery Technologies for Increasing Bioavailability of Cannabinoid Molecules and will be meeting with investors. With over 140 cannabinoid molecules present in the cannabis plant, we have only seen a glimpse of the potential of cannabinoids to treat many diseases and illnesses, said Davidson. CURE is focused on developing the most efficient delivery systems, such as CUREfilm, to improve the absorption of the molecules for optimal effect on the endocannabinoid system. Davidson will be highlighting the vast amount of research on cannabinoids and their therapeutic potential in many indications. These potentially therapeutic molecules have low bioavailability and GI absorption thus requiring novel delivery methods. He also will discuss the different encapsulation technologies that deliver cannabinoid molecules for better absorption and bioavailability, such as CUREfilm. CannX was created as an interactive forum for top global leaders in all areas of medical cannabis to explore the latest scientific and clinical research, agricultural practices and innovation and business opportunities in medical cannabis. The CannX International Medical Cannabis Conference will take place in Tel Aviv at the Tel Aviv Convention Center, Pavilion 2 on October 14 16. Those interested can find more information at https://cannx.org/2018 . If you would like to schedule a meeting with CURE Pharmaceutical, please contact Ashley Ray at aray@olmsteadwilliams.com. About CURE Pharmaceutical CURE Pharmaceutical is a vertically integrated drug delivery and development company committed to improving drug efficacy, safety and the patient experience through its proprietary drug dosage forms and delivery systems. CURE has a full-service cGMP manufacturing facility and is a pioneering developer and manufacturer of a patented and proprietary delivery system (CUREfilm), one of the most advanced oral thin film on the market today. CURE is developing an array of products in cutting-edge delivery platforms and partners with biotech and pharmaceutical companies. CURE has positioned itself to advance numerous therapeutic categories, including the pharmaceutical cannabis sector with partnerships in the U.S., Canada, Israel and Germany, among other markets. The companys mission is to improve peoples lives by redefining how medicines are delivered and experienced. For more information about CURE Pharmaceutical, please visit its website at www.curepharmaceutical.com . 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. EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES APPLICATIONS TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. (CSE: SNA) (CSE:SNA.CN) (OTCQB: SNAVF) ("Star or the Company) announces that it has scheduled a set of demonstrations of its In-Flight System Aided Medical Monitoring system (STAR-ISAMM) to aerospace industry leaders based in Canada. The demonstrations, to take place the third week of October following the ones attended by prospects in the United States, will focus on OEMs and potential users and will specifically address emergency air medical services. The aim of the STAR-ISAMM (and of the Land System Aided Medical Monitoring, or STAR-LSAMM for the ground ambulances), is to improve the quality of Emergency Medical Services during a medical evacuation, offering the chance of better survivability of the patient through the integration and validation of new advanced technologies. This is achieved by: Adapting the patented STAR-A.D.S. System to the EMS environment. Collecting, securing and transmitting the real-time medical biodata, through a two-way, robust and secure transmission. Interfacing with EMS services, in the air and on the ground. Providing better patient care with a seamless hospital virtual environment and key preventative medical information to emergency vehicles. Ultimately, both systems will offer EMS/first aid support for quicker and better decision making in: Early Response On Scene Care Care in transit Transfer to definitive care This Press Release Is available On The Company's CEO Verified Discussion Forum , A Moderated Social Media Platform That Enables Civilized Discussion and Q&A Between Management and Shareholders. https://agoracom.com/ir/StarNavigationSystems/forums/discussion About Star Navigation: Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. owns the exclusive worldwide license to its proprietary, patented In-flight Safety Monitoring System, STAR-ISMS, the heart of the STAR-A.D.S. System. Its real-time capability of tracking performance trends and predicting incident-occurrence enhances aviation safety and improves fleet management while reducing costs for the operator. Star's M.M.I. Division designs and manufactures high performance, mission critical, flight deck flat panel displays for defence and commercial aviation industries worldwide. These displays are found on aircraft and simulators, from P-3 Orion and C-130 aircraft, to Sikorsky and AgustaWestland helicopters, as examples. Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words may, would, could, will, expected and similar expressions, as they relate to Star or its management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect Stars current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause Stars actual performance or achievements to vary from those described herein. Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Star does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release. Please visit www.star-navigation.com or contact Jean-Louis Larmor, (416) 252-2889 Ext. 221 C.O.O. jean-louis.larmor@star-navigation.com TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VitalHub Corp. (the Company) (TSXV: VHI) is pleased to announce the rebranding and launch of its innovation lab in Sri Lanka, VitalHub Innovations Lab. (www.vitalhub.lk) VitalHub Innovations Lab creates blockchain, mobile and web-based solutions across the healthcare continuum. Previously known as B Sharp Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, the company has been in operation in Sri Lanka since August 2007. B Sharp Lanka was the offshore development hub of B Sharp Technologies, a Canada-based healthcare IT vendor which commenced operation in Toronto in 1998 and was acquired as a wholly-owned subsidiary of VitalHub in 2017. Since its inception in 2007, VitalHub Innovations Lab has grown to over 35 Healthcare IT professionals, capable of building state-of-the-art healthcare application to support a vast array of digital health products across hospitals and community care settings. VitalHub plans to continue the growth and development of its innovation lab as an integral part of its strategy. VitalHub Innovations Lab, the Sri Lanka (Colombo) office of VitalHub Corp, was officially launched in Sri Lanka on October 3, 2018, with the attendance of a number of diplomats and industry leaders, including key members from the High Commission of Canada to Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM), and the Sri Lanka - Canada Business Council (SLCBC). Special invitees present at the event included, Avanti Coonghe Trade Commissioner and Joumana Hanna - Executive Assistant to the High Commissioner of the High Commission of Canada to Sri Lanka; Ranil Rajapakse - Vice Chairman of SLASSCOM; Harith Jayasuriya - President of SLCBC and media personnel. We have developed a strong innovation hub that we are continuing to grow. We would like to express our gratitude to both our Canadian and Sri Lankan government representatives who have supported us during this important building process, said Dan Matlow, CEO of VitalHub. VitalHub is an important example of the partnership Sri Lanka and Canada have developed in the field of IT innovation. We look forward to continuing to work with VitalHub as they expand operations in Sri Lanka, said High Commissioner of Canada to Sri Lanka, David McKinnon. Addressing the team, Dilan Rajapakse, General Manager of VitalHub Innovations Lab stated, "You have been the driving force behind our continuous success throughout the years. A new platform is set ahead of you to do many more wonderful things in the future" ABOUT VITALHUB: VitalHub develops and supports mission-critical healthcare information systems in the Mental Health (Child, Youth and Adult), Long Term Care, Community Health Service, Home Health and Hospital sectors. VitalHub technologies include Blockchain, Mobile, and Web-Based Assessment and EHR solutions. VitalHub's aim is to create high-value, secured solutions enabling interoperability among existing health data systems. VitalHub is primarily focused on working with organizations in the Mental Health, Acute and Long-Term Care space, to further extend organization's applications across the continuum of care, powered by the security, efficiency, and trust of Blockchain technology. The Company has a robust two-pronged growth strategy, targeting organic growth opportunities within its product suite, and pursuing an aggressive M&A plan. Currently, VitalHub serves 200+ participants across North America. VitalHub is based in Toronto, Canada, with an offshore development hub in Sri Lanka. The Company is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "VHI". CAUTIONARY STATEMENT The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the transactions and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. CONTACT INFORMATION Dan Matlow Chief Executive Officer, Director (416) 727-9061 dan.matlow@vitalhub.com MBABANE LCC Capital Consultancy (Pty) Ltd has been taken to court for alleged breach of a lease agreement, which has resulted in accumulation of over E286 000 arrear rentals. Through their attorneys from Robinson Bertram, Swaziland Property Market, which trades as SPM Estate Agents, has filed an application before the High Court where they are seeking an order directing the consultancy firm to pay E286 260.65. Providing a background to the matter, in its particulars of claim whose veracity is yet to be tested by the court, SPM Estate Agents submitted that in September 2017, LCC Capital, which was represented by Enziwe Dube, entered into a lease agreement with SPM Estate Agents, who were represented by its Property Director, Jacob Fakudze. It was stated that the material terms of the agreement were that LCC Capital would be leased out premises known as office suite number 30 on Lot 71, Mlonyeni Building along Dzeliwe Street. It had been agreed and approved by both parties that the lease would subsist for a period of one year commencing from October 1, 2017. The monthly rentals ought to be the sum of E21 745.50, which rental would escalate after every 12 months during the course of the lease. Should the lessee commit a breach of the agreement, including, but not limited to, failure to pay any amount due, the lessor would be entitled to cancel the lease agreement forthwith and demand payment of any amounts due under the lease, including a claim for damages, read the court papers in part. It was further submitted that LCC Capital had breached the agreement, in that from September 2017; they had failed to make the monthly rental payment as agreed. It was stated that as consequence of LCC Capitals breach, through non-payment of the monthly rentals, the balance which was now due owing and payable at August 31, 2018 was E286 260.65. MBABANE The Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) has suspended its General Manager Finance (GMF) Lawrence Nsibandze for alleged insubordination. Nsibandze was suspended following his alleged continuous refusal to take an instruction and showing gross insubordinate behaviour towards the managing director Meshack Kunene. He was suspended pending disciplinary action to be instituted against him. This follows his refusal to be transferred to be the General Manager Support Services (GMSS), a position he argued he was not qualified for. Nsibandze has since taken legal action against the company, seeking an order to set aside his suspension and that he be reinstated to his position of GMF. He also wants the court to grant him an order to have full possession and access to the GMF ellipse profile, an operating system used by the company to authorise or decline suppliers orders, among other things. Nsibandze, in his affidavit, argued that his suspension was unlawful as it was a violation of the Public Enterprise Unit Act and a breach of his employment contract. He submitted that the transfer constituted a demotion from his present status and argued that it would result in a loss of job satisfaction. Nsibandze argued that he had the right not to be transferred to the position of GMSS or denied access to his profile without due process which would include strict adherence by the company to the PEU Act. He alleged that he was not consulted prior to the purported transfer and suspension. As a result of my insisting not to follow an unlawful instruction, I was suspended. In my submission the suspension itself is unlawful in the circumstances, Nsibandze submitted. Nsibandze, narrating the background of events leading to his suspension, arrived that he received a letter on September 12, 2018 from the EEC Managing Director informing him that he was appointed to the position of GMSS. His appointment, he alleged, was to be effective from September 17. He submitted that he did not accept the appointment nor sign a new performance agreement. Nsibandze submitted that he wrote a letter to Kunene on the next day asking to be furnished with a legal instrument from the Standing Committee on Public Enterprises (SCOPE) or the PEU supporting his new appointment. He submitted that he further wrote a letter to the EEC board chairman to express certain concerns about the appointment. He submitted that in the letter, he requested to be furnished with SCOPE minutes and Cabinet minutes wherein his appointment was sanctioned in terms of the PEU Act. He alleged that the letter was not responded to. In the letter to EEC Board Chairman Sthofeni Ginindza, annexed in the court papers, Nsibandze argued that he was one of the highly qualified professionals in the Kingdom of Eswatini or if not the best and had vast experience. He also argued that he could not then be transferred to a field for which he did not hold relevant qualifications. Nsibandze argued to Ginindza that he was allegedly being set up for failure as the division he was transferred to had nothing to do with finance or accounting. The writing is on the wall that the above move (transfer) by the board is constructive dismissal in a sense, Nsibandze wrote to Ginindza. Nsibandze argued that he had never applied for the GMSS position as he was an experienced chartered accountant by profession, who held various qualifications related to that. ........ MBABANE Over 100 homesteads at Moneni will be reduced to rubble when Tisuka TakaNgwane effects an order to demolish illegally constructed structures in a farm owned by the company. According to the order, which was issued by High Court Judge Nkosinathi Maseko last Friday, all illegal homesteads that have been constructed in defiance of a 2012 ruling of the Ludzidzini Royal Council and Chief Nkamane Mkhatshwa will be demolished. The order does not stipulate the date of the demolition. Chairman of Tisuka TakaNgwane Vincent Mhlanga filed a confirmatory affidavit to put certain issues into perspective, especially the decision of the Ingwenyama regarding issues between the Indlunkhulu of Moneni and Chief Nkamane and the status of Farm No.9 The Peebles Block Moneni. Judge Maseko made Mhlangas affidavit an order of the court. In the affidavit, Mhlanga confirmed that it was the decision of the Ingwenyama that the farm was under the administrative authority of Tisuka TakaNgwane. He further said it was also the decision of the Ingwenyama that Chief Nkamane and Prince Mshosha Dlamini should live together in the area as their forefathers. On January 31, 2014, Judge Bheki Maphalala, as he was then, issued the same order in an interim basis and acting Judge Mavi Mavuso confirmed the order in October of the same year. Judge Mzwandile Fakudze, on April 21, 2016, issued a judgment which stayed the acting judges order pending finalisation and resolution of the dispute between the Indlunkhulu of Moneni and Chief Nkamane by the Ingwenyama in terms of Swazi Law and Custom. Mhlanga filed his affidavit last Wednesday and the matter was scheduled to be heard on Friday for an order in terms of the removal of the order issued by Judge Fakudze which stayed execution of the demolition order pending finalisation of the matter. Judge Maseko confirmed the order to demolish the structures that was issued on January 31, 2014 which was issued by Judge Maphalala, who is now the chief justice, and made Mhlangas confirmatory affidavit an order of the court. When the matter came before court in 2014, Chief Nkamane and Tisuka TakaNgwane had filed an urgent application, seeking prayers in the following terms; granting an interim order interdicting and restraining some of the residents from allocating land on the farm situated at Moneni and interdicting a section of the residents from regarding themselves as bandlancane of Moneni. Tisuka TakaNgwane, which was represented by Crown Counsel Mbuso Dlamini, also wanted the residents or anyone else, other than Chief Nkamane, stopped from continuing with the construction of illegal homesteads and to comply with the decision of the Ludzidzini Royal Council. The then acting Judge Mavuso said it was clear that the respondents (Mongie Jele, Ndiphethe Dlamini, Thamie Xaba, Pitoli Shabangu and Mandi Ndlovu) were well aware of the fact that the land they were occupying was a farm. He also said it was clear that the respondents were aware of the order against further allocation and construction on the land in question. In order to lend credence to the otherwise irrelevant argument that Moneni is not under Lwandle area, the respondents have attached an affidavit deposed to by Prince Masitsela on October 24, 2011, several years before the commencement of these proceedings, said the acting judge. Judge Mavuso further said the court found that the papers filed justified such an order as the construction and occupation of the farm was illegal. Regarding the demolition of the illegal structures at the time, Judge Mavuso stated that from examining the papers, the decision of the Ludzidzini Council was taken in 2012 and that was when those who were illegally constructing their houses were advised to stop doing so. The court noted that even Dr Ben Sibandze said; Akume kukhalisa sandvo (construction should stop). The court observed that the occupants of the illegally constructed houses were advised about the consequences which would befall them. He said despite the advice, the residents continued with illegal activities on the farm to the detriment of Chief Nkamane and Tisuka TakaNgwane. The court also observed tha; one of the respondents, Shabangu, issued his purported authority as umgijimi (chiefs runner) to influence the gullible minds of those he acted on their behalf into engaging in a defiance campaign under the chieftaincy dispute on the farm. Unfortunately, all the respondents now have to bear the consequences of the actions as the interim order issued by the High Court on January 21, 2014 is confirmed with costs, ordered the court. Leading to the issuance of the order to demolish the houses, some of the owners were in dark about the imminent turn of events. While Tisuka TakaNgwane wanted to evict the illegal occupants of the farm, the traditional authorities of Moneni were adamant that this would not happen. EZULWINI Front runners for the position of Speaker are Mhlambanyatsi MP-elect Petros Mavimbela and former Speaker Themba Msibi. This was revealed yesterday when Members of Parliament (MPs) elect filled in the nomination forms for the Speakers position. This was during the first orientation meeting for the incoming MPs of the 11th Parliament, which was held yesterday at the Royal Swazi Convention Centre. However, the list is not exhaustive as Clerk to Parliament Ndvuna Dlamini gave the MPs-elect todays deadline of 2:30pm to submit the names. Interviewed after yesterdays session, Mavimbela said he was willing and ready to stand for the position. I see no reason why I would decline if nominated, I would definitley accept, said Mavimbela who held the position of Chair of Chairs during the Ninth Parliament. Mavimbela is the MP-elect who ousted former Mhlambanyatsi MP and former Minister of Housing and Urban Development Phiwayinkhosi Mabuza during the Secondary Elections. Meanwhile, Msibi was also at the Royal Swazi Sun Convention Centre and for a while, mingled with some of the MPs-elect and Kings appointees. The clerk to Parliament encouraged the MPs-elect to quickly hand in the names of the nominees because he wanted to call the first sitting of the House of Assembly as early as possible, after consulting with the countrys authorities. If anything, Dlamini wanted to reveal the names of the candidates at the Convention Centre, but some MPs-elect were of the view that there was no law allowing him to do that. Dlamini, in his defence, said he wanted the process to be transparent, but the incoming legislators felt that he was jumping the gun and should hold on to the names until the first sitting where the swearing in ceremony would take place. The clerk said he hoped that the first sitting would take place sometime this week, but he had to consult with the rightful authorities. Meanwhile, the MPs-elect also had the opportunity to nominate a candidate for the position of Deputy Speaker, and some of the names which were thrown about included that of Manzini South MP-elect Thandi Nxumalo, Mafutseni MP-elect Lady Howard and Matsanjeni North MP-elect Phila Buthelezi. The clerk informed the MPs-elect that precedence had been to the effect that if the Speaker was male, then his deputy would be female, to balance the gender. However, this did not go down well with the incoming legislators who said Dlamini should not speak as if that was something which was a law. According to the House of Assembly Standing Orders, at the first sitting of a new Parliament after they have been sworn in, a member of the House will propose the name of the person within or outside the House, whether sworn or unsworn. Comment While our members of Parliament-to-be were getting a lecture on what it means to be a politician, South Africa provided the perfect example by calling for a tainted finance minister to resign and President Cyril Ramaphosa ensured he did just that. This is a clear demonstration that the new SA Government has adopted a zero tolerance on corruption or any acts that may harm the integrity of the countrys leadership; particularly from a country trying to cleanse itself from an era decorated with reports of State capture that prompted the probe that has come to haunt former SA Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene. Eswatini has challenges of her own with regard to the scourge of corruption, and it calls for decisive and swift action by the leadership of this country if we are to ever get to realise a recovery of our economy. Corruption has played a significant part in contributing to the deteriorating state of our economy, as it systematically dismantled the culture of transparency, accountability, integrity, humanity, justice and equality, among other attributes necessary to guarantee good governance. This explains why we have a government that cannot pay E6 396 for 26 graves for paupers and not a single minister gets to be punished for this embarrassing state of affairs that has affected numerous sectors most embarrassingly. Members of the public cannot afford to tolerate this or leave the solution entirely in the hands of the new politicians. Everybody has to raise the alarm and see to it that any action that is detrimental to the well being of the people and the countrys national resources, is nipped in the bud. As they prepare to assume their roles, the new legislators ought to remember the challenge posed by His Majesty the King when opening Parliament this year. He said we should upscale the fight against corruption, the enemy of development. Upscale means getting the Anti Corruption Commission up and running and seeing to it that the necessary legislation to make its work more effective, is put in place as soon as their first order of business. Or better still, it means we must call on all the legislators who paved their way to Parliament through corrupt means, to save themselves from the upcoming scandals by doing a Nhlanhla Nene special and RESIGN! VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CROP INFRASTRUCTURE CORP. (CSE: CROP) (OTC: CRXPF) (Frankfurt: 2FR) announced today that its tenant has signed a toll processing deal whereby it will provide its dried hemp-CBD biomass to a processor who will then provide 50% of the finished product as ISO certified CBD isolate to CROPs tenanted farm. The CBD isolate will be sold under the companys brands Hempire, Tiff CBD, infused in to the companys CannaDrink and sold under white label. CROPs tenant, at its Nye County hemp-CBD farm in Nevada, has already begun equipment readiness preparations as the harvest is imminent. CROP will also be working with the toll processor to enter into further agreements to develop its own ISO extraction facility for its production capacity which is now expanded to over 1,800 acres for 2019. The processor has consulted with numerous Canadian ACMPR and US licensed cannabis cultivators and processors to develop GMP and ISO conforming extraction facilities. According to cannabis industry analysts, The Brightfield Group, it is estimated the hemp CBD market alone could hit $22-billion by 2022. CROP CEO, Michael Yorke, stated: Being in a position to have CBD isolate from the 2018 harvest will enable the company to begin infusing products like the CannaDrink beverage line and begin developing relationships with bulk buyers in preparation for 2019. Even with a toll cost, upgrading CBD biomass to isolate should significantly increase the value of our tenant harvest. This new strategic-alliance opens up additional mutually beneficial opportunities, specifically those in developing our own extraction facilities, both in the US and Europe, which will be necessary to maximize the potential of our portfolios ongoing hemp-CBD and Cannabis-THC production. About CROP CROP has a portfolio of cannabis projects including cultivation properties in California, two in Washington State, two in Nevada consisting of 2,800 acres, 3 dispensary applications, with international focuses in Jamaica and 2 farms in Italy. CROP has developed a portfolio of assets including CannaDrink and a portfolio of 16 Cannabis brands. with US and Italian distribution rights to over 55 topical products. Company Contact Michael Yorke CEO & Director E-mail: info@cropcorp.com Website: www.cropcorp.com Phone: (1) 604-484-4206 Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information Forward Looking Statements Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in CROPs periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will, could, plan, estimate, expect, intend, may, potential, believe, should," and similar expressions, are forward- looking statements. Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements relating to the Company's expected timing for implementation of the Program, the Early Exercise Period, the use of proceeds as a result of the Program and other statements of fact. Forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather on current expectations and projections about future events, and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In addition, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Although Congress has prohibited the US Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws, this prohibition must be renewed each year to remain in effect. These statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as may, should, could, intend, estimate, plan, anticipate, expect, believe or continue, or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the expected yield from The project; the technological effects on production; the intention to expand its portfolio; and execute on its business plan. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding the regulatory and legal framework regarding the cannabis industry in general among all levels of government and zoning; risks associated with applicable securities laws and stock exchange rules relating to the cannabis industry; risks associated with maintaining its interests in its various assets; the ability of the Company to finance operations and execute its business plan and other factors beyond the control of the Company. Such forward-looking statements should therefore be construed in light of such factors, and the Company is not under any obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release. Dublin, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market Research Report 2018" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Europe Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing market is set to touch US$ 500 Million by 2025 The market is driven by a number of factors such as high incidence rate of babies born with down syndrome, no risk of miscarriage with NIPT test, shifting trend towards childbearing at advanced maternal age (35 years or older), rising focus on reimbursement for NIPT and increasing preference for non-invasive techniques over invasive methods. Europe Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market Research Report 2018 presents an in-depth assessment of the Europe non-invasive prenatal testing market dynamics, opportunities, future roadmap, competitive landscape and discusses major trends. The report offers the most up-to-date industry data on the market situation and future outlook. The research includes historic data from 2014 to 2017 and forecasts until 2025. The report contains a granular analysis of the present industry situations, market demands, reveal facts on the market size, NIPT test volume, revenues and provides forecasts through 2025. A comprehensive analysis has been done on the market share of the country-based market. The report also includes an assessment of comparative test analysis by companies. Key trends in terms of collaboration, partnership, merger & acquisition, venture capital investment, distribution, and licensing agreement are analyzed with details. The report also explores detailed description of growth drivers and inhibitors of the Europe non-invasive prenatal testing market. The superior geographic segments are identified in the report which studies NIPT test consumed and market revenue of the 15 countries. The countries included in this report are United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Russia, Turkey, Netherland, Poland, Armenia, Moldova, Denmark from 2014 to 2017 and forecasts to 2025. The report concludes with the profiles of major players in the Europe non-invasive prenatal testing market. The key market players are evaluated on various parameters such as company overview, NIPT test portfolios and latest development and trends of the non-invasive prenatal testing market. Key questions answered in this research report: At what pace is the NIPT test market growth in Europe? What will be growing trend in the future? What are the key drivers and inhibitors in the current market? What will be the impact of drivers and inhibitors in the future? What are the country revenue and forecast breakdowns? Which is the major country revenue pockets for growth in the NIPT test market? What are the various NIPT test available in the European region and how they are poised to grow? How is the market predicted to develop in the future? Who are the market players? Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Market Size & Analysis: Europe Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (Volume & Value), 2014 - 2025 2.1 Europe Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market Volume & Forecast 2.2 Europe Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market Revenue & Forecast 3. Europe Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market Share and Y-o-Y Growth (%) 3.1 Major European Countries Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market Volume Share, 2014 - 2025 3.2 Major European Countries Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market Revenue Share, 2014 - 2025 4. Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) Comparative Analysis, By Test 5. Europe Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market Drivers and Inhibitors 5.1 Market Drivers 5.2 Market Inhibitors 6. Major NIPT Test Available in the European Region, By Test (Volume and Value), 2011 - 2025 6.1 Panorama Test 6.2 MaterniT21 Plus Test 6.3 Harmony Test 6.4 NIFTY Test 6.5 Verifi Test 6.6 IONA Test 6.7 Prena Test 6.8 Veracity Test 7. Europe Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market, By Geography (Volume and Value), 2014 - 2025 8. Major Deals in Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Market 8.1 Collaboration Deals 8.2 Venture Capital Investment 8.3 Merger and Acquisition 8.4 Exclusive Agreement 8.5 Licensing Agreement 8.6 Distribution Agreement 8.7 Partnership Deals 9. Major European NIPT Test Company Analysis Ariosa Diagnostics (Roche) LifeCodexx AG NIPD Genetics Premaitha Health PLC For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/g66qmx/europe?w=12 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. By Trend President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by the newly appointed US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent. The successful development of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and the US in a variety of areas was hailed at the meeting. The head of state thanked US President Donald Trump for his remarks and warm words regarding Azerbaijan-US relations featured in his messages on the centenary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the inauguration of the Southern Gas Corridor. Security cooperation was pointed out during the meeting. Azerbaijans contribution to peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and its support to the Afghan government in a bilateral format was hailed. They discussed the issues relating to the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The sides pointed to the successful energy cooperation, underlining the US support to the Southern Gas Corridor project. The sides also discussed the opportunities for bilateral cooperation in non-oil sector, as well as trade, IT, investment, and agricultural areas. By Azernews By Abdul Kerimkhanov French oil giant Total stopped buying oil from Iran due to U.S. sanctions a few months ago. This was stated by head of the French company Patrick Puianne at the Oil & Money Conference in London. "We stopped to buy Iranian oil in July, despite the fact that we formally have the right to do this until November," he said. He noted that, despite the drop in oil exports from Iran, the supply on the market is currently sufficient. A more important question lies in another issue, namely the price of black gold, Puianne stressed. "Today, the market is sufficiently supplied. Moreover, oil reserves in the world are growing. And if oil prices are high, it is not because of (balance) supply and demand, not because of fundamental, but political factors. With each tweet prices go up," he concluded. Total notified the Iranian authorities about its withdrawal from the South Pars 11 gas project after it was unable to obtain a special permit from Washington to continue working in Iran. The company noted that the Total stake in the project could be taken by the Chinese state company CNPC. In early July, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed an agreement with Total on the development of South Pars phase 11. The contract amount is $ 1 billion. At the same time, the contract allows the Chinese CNPC to pick up Totals share (50.1%) if the French company withdraws from the project. U.S. President Donald Trump in May 2018, announced his withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan on the Iranian nuclear program. On August 7, Washington restored the first block of anti-Iran sanctions. They affected the automobile sector of the country, as well as trade in gold and other metals. The second block will come into effect in November. It will be extended to the energy sector, transactions related to hydrocarbons and to the Central Bank of Iran. By Trend Turkey and Iraq will discuss regional and bilateral relations during the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's visit to Baghdad, the Foreign Ministry of Turkey said in a message on Oct. 10. Cavusoglus visit to Baghdad is scheduled for October 11-12, reads the message. "Cavusoglu is expected to meet with the newly elected Iraqi President Bahram Salih," the Turkish Ministry said. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, during the visit, Cavusoglu will also visit Erbil, where he will meet with officials of the Kurdish autonomy. What are the common dynamics that define European culture? How can we encourage young professionals to come together in networks and develop internationally? How do we create new spaces of creation and discussion, with what economic model and for what social work? These are some of the questions that will be discussed at the European Lab Delphi Forum hosted by the European Cultural Center of Delphi in Central Greece. The two-day forum, held on October 12 and 13, aims to make the connections required to demonstrate just how vital European culture can be when it emerges from the collision of its diverse component parts. Taking place at the European cultural center of Delphi, this forum will shine a light on the sociocultural fabric of todays Greece, by highlighting both shared dynamics and isolated instances of creative resistance. With this belief that culture creates ties and common destinies, European Lab Delphi mobilizes new cultural project leaders, proposes tangible tools, and creates a space of pluralist debate devoted to future culture. The forum is aimed at an audience of artists, filmmakers, thinkers and culture professionals of all ages who want to open up new horizons. The forum will showcase speeches, discussions, workshops in a context that inspires the exchange on the future of culture. Teatroskop, a professional network dedicated to performing arts, invites actors in Southeastern Europe to talk about their experience of arts political power as well as the vitality of intercultural practices in the Balkans. European Lab Delphi is organized by the French Institute in Greece, the French cultural company Arty Farty and the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport. What is the European Lab? Through networking, exchange of practices and discussion of ideas, the European Lab detects alterations in the creative and cultural sector in Europe. Its aim is to create links to showcase the Europe of Culture that emerges through multiple experiences. Read more at thenationalherald.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: Luarvick License: CC-BY-SA Tourism sector in Greece rose by 6 percent in 2017, compared to the previous year, almost double the international average for the year Tourism and travel sector accounted for 19.7 percent of Greek GDP in 2017, or 35 billion euros in absolute terms, according to data presented last week by the president and CEO of World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Gloria Guevara Manzo to Greek Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura. According to the WTTC, the tourism sector in Greece rose by 6 percent in 2017, compared to the previous year, almost double the international average for the year. Overall, tourism and travel accounted for 10.4 percent of the world economy. Read more at naftemporiki.gr RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Tilemahos Efthimiadis License: CC-BY-SA The mayor stresses that the island will not become hostile to smokers The island of Astypalea, in the Dodecanese complex, has set the ambitious task of becoming the first Greek island that is smoke-free. In a country where smoking is widespread, the local authority announced plans to launch the campaign of Astypalea without cigarettes with the help of an unlikely partner: The Papastratos tobacco company, a subsidiary of Philip Morris, that has redesigned its global strategy and set up a goal to replace cigarettes with smoke-free products. The campaign will not policed, but it will rely on the good-will of residents and tourists alike, notes Mayor of Astypalea Panormitis Kontaratos. We prefer to rely on everyones philotimo and not on the implementation of police measures. After all, the latter have not brought any significant results in Greece. All our efforts will focus on information and awareness, points out Kontaratos. The first step is to produce a measurable and tangible result. So we can be able to say that Astypalea became an island free from tobacco and cigarette. Of course, we will then seek to evaluate and certify this measurable outcome by domestic and international organizations, Kontaratos adds. The mayor stresses that the island will not become hostile to smokers. Smokers are not unwelcome on the island, but we hope that if they stay in a smoke-free place and receive the appropriate stimuli, it may become starting point of trying to get rid of the habit. Read more at greekreporter.com RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report The 3rd EU-Arab World Summit is expected to become a platform for accelerating specific initiatives between the public and private sectors for inter-regional progress Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will host "3rd EU-Arab World Summit: Shared Horizons", taking place on October 29 and 30 at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron) in Athens, ANA reports. The meeting will also be atttended by political leaders from the EU and the Arab World to discuss strategies for further EU-Arab cooperation. It will also serve as a call to action for enhancing ties that unite them, according to a press statement on Tuesday. 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 4th Panhellenic Congress of Thermal Medicine, co- organized by the Hellenic Academy of Thermal Medicine and the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece, 12-14 October 2018, Kamena Vourla The 4th Panhellenic Conference of Thermal Medicine, which is organized, annually by the Hellenic Academy of Thermal Medicine, is kicking off on Friday, October 12th,2018 at Kamena Vourla, Central Greece Region. The Congress attracts for fourth consequent year international participants and opinion leaders of the fields of Thermal and Wellness Medicine and Thermal and Wellness Tourism, and will be held under the auspices of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece. The conference, under the title "Supplemental Therapeutic Applications of Thermal Medicine", highlights the new trends and developments of Thermalism and Wellness Tourism, the two dynamic pillars of Greeces Health Tourism development. The conference will discuss the new institutional and legislative framework for the country's thermal springs network, as well as the developmental opportunities and challenges of spa and thermal Tourism in Greece. The National Tourism Strategy for Health Tourism will be presented by the President of KEDE ( Central Union of Municipalities of Greece), President of ISA ( Athens Medical Association), and President of ELITOUR Giorgos Patoulis. . Thermal Medicine gains scientific ground internationally, and is becoming a trend among tourists visiting Greece . The millions of international travelers of the Wellness Tourism Market are particularly interested in the ancient and natural spas of our country, some of which have been the first Medical Tourism destinations in the world in antiquity. The Greek State has acknowledged and institutionalized Thermal Medicine as a Complementary Medicine, while the National Kapodistrian University has established a diploma and an e-learning department of Thermal Medicine. The President of KEDE and President of the Hellenic National Tourism Tourism Council ELITOUR Giorgos Patoulis stated: "In 2025, Thermal tourism will be the world's 2nd largest health care industry, and it is the only type of tourism that creates forced repeaters. It is Greeces greatest challenge to play a leading role in the rapidly rising international market of spa and wellness tourists, teaching the original Greek experience of "wellness" to the global audience." "Thermal tourism is a dominant lever in the National Health Tourism Strategic Plan, while the hundreds of our natural Thermal Springs remain a dominant advantage for the promotion of Greeces Health tourists worldwide," KEDE President and President of the Hellenic National Tourism Council Mr. George Patoulis added. The President of the Hellenic Academy Thermal Medicine, President of the World Academy of Chinese and Complementary Medicine and President and Chief Organizer of the 4th Panhellenic Conference, Professor Konstantinos Kouskoukis, stated: "Thermal hydrotherapy has until now been empirical, but has become a complementary method of classical medicine by the documentation of the chemical action of natural healing resources, through Thermal and chemical mechanism . Today, Thermal hydrotherapy is targeted to millions of wellness tourists of the international market , who enjoy the healing benefits of hot springs around the world for a wide range of illnesses, a form of Health Tourism that is covered by the health insurance of the Health travelers. The challenge for our country remains high, and it is important not to waste a moment on promoting Greece for its thermal and natural healing resources." Professor Konstantinos Kouskoukis added. At the conference , specialized doctors of different specialties will present the complementary therapeutic actions of Greeces thermal natural resources in a wide range of diseases, and will also discuss the therapeutic properties of the natural hot springs in Kamena Vourla and the wider area. The 4th Panhellenic Congress of Thermal Medicine is co-organized by KEDE President Mr. George Patoulis, the Regional Governor of Central Greece Mr. Bakoyannis, the Organization for the Cultural Development of Central Greece, and the mayor of Kamena Vourla, Mr. Sykiotis. Greek Minister of Tourism Mrs. Elena Kountoura will address the conference, as well as the Deputy Minister of Economy and Development Mr Stergios Pitsiorlas, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism, Mr George Tzillas, the Secretary General of the Greek Tourism Organization, Mr. Kostas Tsegas, the President of Central Union of Municipalities of Greece and of the National Council of Health Tourism, Mr. George Patoulis, the Regional Governor of Sterea Ellada, Mr. Konstantinos Bakoyannis, the Mayor of Kammena Vourla Ioannis Sykiotis and representatives of embassies of foreign countries. Tel.: 2132147514, 2132147540, Fax: 2103899651, E-mail : info@kedke.gr, kedkegr@gmail.com Photo Source: pixabay.com Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. LONDON, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Horizonte Minerals Plc, (AIM/TSX: HZM) ('Horizonte' or 'the Company') the multi-asset nickel development company focused in Brazil, is pleased to provide an update on its 100% owned, Vermelho nickel-cobalt project ('Vermelho' or the Project), located in the eastern part of the Carajas mining district. Highlights Test-work is underway at SGS Lakefield, Canada, on Vermelho limonite samples, with the objective of producing high purity nickel and cobalt sulphate suitable for the Electric Vehicle (EV) battery market; Initial tests show high nickel and cobalt extraction rates achieved on limonite samples; In addition, batch smelting test-work is being conducted on samples of transition and saprolite material from Vermelho at the KPM laboratory, Canada. This work aims to confirm its suitability to produce high grade ferro-nickel, which could potentially be treated at the Araguaia plant or a new standalone facility at Vermelho; and Environmental baseline data collection has re-commenced at Vermelho as part of advancing the permitting process. Horizonte CEO, Jeremy Martin, commented: Horizonte is advancing its recently acquired Vermelho project, a scalable high-grade nickel deposit which has the potential to supply raw materials into the battery industry. Two parallel streams of test-work are currently underway. The first, testing the limonite ores suitability for production of high purity nickel and cobalt sulphate to supply EV markets. The second, testing the saprolite ore as a feed into the planned Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace (RKEF) plant at Araguaia, or potentially into a standalone RKEF plant at Vermelho. This is an exciting time for Horizonte, as the Company aims to release its Feasibility Study results for Araguaia due imminently, and in parallel, advance its second asset, Vermelho. Horizonte is firmly on its pathway to become a multi-asset nickel development company. The nickel market remains strong, with robust demand and inventories continuing to fall. Vermelho nickel-cobalt project The Vermelho nickel-cobalt project is located in the eastern part of the Carajas mining district in the state of Para, Brazil, approximately 85km north west from the northern part of Horizontes Araguaia FeNi Project. The Carajas district is an established mining region with well-developed infrastructure, including: rail, roads and hydro-electric power. The Project was developed by Vale with the objective of becoming its principal nickel-cobalt operation. Extensive work was undertaken on the Project, which included drilling programmes totalling 152,000 metres, full scale pilot test work and detailed engineering studies. The Project was subsequently taken through a feasibility programme with Vale announcing a positive development decision in 2005. The Feasibility Study showed production capacity of 46,000 tons/annum (tpa) of metallic nickel, and 2,500 tpa of metallic cobalt, with an expected commercial life of 40 years. In May 2018, Horizonte announced an initial NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate in the Measured and Indicated category which contained 167.8 million tonnes grading 1.01% nickel and 0.06% cobalt (at 0.9% nickel equivalent cut off). These resources categories are estimated to contain 1.68 million tonnes (3,700 million lbs) of nickel and 94,000 tonnes (207 million lbs) of cobalt. The Mineral Resource Estimate places Vermelho as one of the largest, highest grade, undeveloped laterite nickel-cobalt resources globally. SGS Lakefield leaching test-work Samples of wet Vermelho limonitic laterite material totalling 150 kg were shipped to the laboratories of SGS Canada Inc. for test-work using high pressure leaching. The leaching is being carried out in a number of batches with a 20 litre autoclave; this is after first establishing conditions in two litre samples. The resulting leach solution will be neutralised with limestone, followed by mixed hydroxide precipitation with magnesium-oxide. Following a re-leach, a series of solvent extraction and ion exchange steps will be carried out prior to crystallisation of pure cobalt sulphate heptahydrate. The nickel sulphate solution is to be processed separately. Kingston Process Metallurgy (KPM) Inc smelting test-work Laboratory scale ferro-nickel smelting tests are being carried out on samples of Vermelho transition and saprolite material at the laboratories of KPM Inc. in Canada. Following the steps used in the standard RKEF process (same flow sheet as planned at Araguaia), the material will be dried and calcined prior to smelting in a laboratory furnace at approximately 1550C. By adjustment of the coal amounts for reduction, a range of typical ferro-nickel grades will be produced and submitted for further analysis. This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014. For further information visit www.horizonteminerals.com or contact: Horizonte Minerals plc Jeremy Martin (CEO) +44 (0) 20 7763 7157 Numis Securities Ltd (NOMAD & Joint Broker) John Prior Paul Gillam +44 (0) 207 260 1000 Shard Capital (Joint Broker) Damon Heath Erik Woolgar +44 (0) 20 7186 9952 Tavistock (Financial PR) Emily Fenton Gareth Tredway +44 (0) 20 7920 3150 About Horizonte Minerals: Horizonte Minerals plc is an AIM and TSX-listed nickel development company focused in Brazil. The Company is developing the Araguaia project, as the next major ferro-nickel mine in Brazil, and the Vermelho nickel-cobalt project, with the aim of being able to supply nickel and cobalt to the EV battery market. Both projects are 100% owned. Horizonte shareholders include: Teck Resources Limited, Canaccord Genuity Group, JP Morgan, Lombard Odier Asset Management (Europe) Limited, City Financial, Richard Griffiths and Glencore. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION Except for statements of historical fact relating to the Company, certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the ability of the Company to complete the Acquisition as described herein, statements with respect to the potential of the Company's current or future property mineral projects; the success of exploration and mining activities; cost and timing of future exploration, production and development; the estimation of mineral resources and reserves and the ability of the Company to achieve its goals in respect of growing its mineral resources; the ability of the Company to complete the Placing as described herein, and the realization of mineral resource and reserve estimates. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, and are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to risks related to: the inability of the Company to complete the Acquisition as described herein, exploration and mining risks, competition from competitors with greater capital; the Company's lack of experience with respect to development-stage mining operations; fluctuations in metal prices; uninsured risks; environmental and other regulatory requirements; exploration, mining and other licences; the Company's future payment obligations; potential disputes with respect to the Company's title to, and the area of, its mining concessions; the Company's dependence on its ability to obtain sufficient financing in the future; the Company's dependence on its relationships with third parties; the Company's joint ventures; the potential of currency fluctuations and political or economic instability in countries in which the Company operates; currency exchange fluctuations; the Company's ability to manage its growth effectively; the trading market for the ordinary shares of the Company; uncertainty with respect to the Company's plans to continue to develop its operations and new projects; the Company's dependence on key personnel; possible conflicts of interest of directors and officers of the Company, the inability of the Company to complete the Placing on the terms as described herein, and various risks associated with the legal and regulatory framework within which the Company operates. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos on Tuesday welcomed the latest donation given by the Onassis Foundation for the creation of a Hellenic National Transplant Center as the most important and tangible expression of support for people experiencing hardship, ANA reports. Pavlopoulos met with the president of the Onassis Foundation, Antonis Papadimitriou, the Director of Culture of the Onassis Foundation, Aphroditi Panagiotakou, as well as representatives of the Foundation at the Presidential Mansion, on Tuesday. 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 Bahrain Association of Banks has launched a committee on value added tax, comprising 35 members representing 24 banks and Bahraini financial institutions, in preparation for implementing the value added tax in the kingdom next year. The committee will work under the supervision of BAB to bring together representatives from all banks in Bahrain with an aim to discuss the Bahrain VAT regulation, assess its impact on financial services sector (specifically banking), share experiences and challenges faced in its implementation, work together as one banking community to help each other progress through this key transition period and act as a single voice for its interactions and dealings with the local regulators on the subject, a statement said. The first meeting was held at HSBC Banks head office in Seef, chaired by its chief financial officer Nasir Maqsood. More than 30 representatives from local banks attended the meeting. Mohamed El-Swefy, HSBC Menat head of tax, provided support and guidance to the group by sharing HSBCs experiences and challenges faced during its recent VAT implementation in UAE and Saudi Arabia. His presentation provided a strong base for discussion within the group and provided a clear direction on next steps for the group in establishing a set purpose, structure and way forward in its dealings with the local regulators. Many representatives shared their respective views, experiences and challenges they have faced so far and looked upon the group to provide insights and guidance. Going forward the group expects to meet regularly and share experiences through pre- and post-implementation and, as one group, work with the local regulators in understanding and refining the Bahrain VAT legislation for the local banking sector, the statement said. TradeArabia News Service Oman has started work on the country's first adventure resort being developed atop the Al Jabal Al Akhdhar mountains in Al Dakhiliyah governorate at an investment of over $50 million, said a report. A major project by Oman Investment Fund (OIF), the sultanate's sovereign wealth fund, the Green Peak Adventure Resort will boast several tourist attractions including a one-of-a-kind zip-line facility. The new upscale property has been conceived and designed as a family holiday destination packed with facilities and attractions primarily targeted at children and young adults, reported Oman Observer. It will be managed by dusitD2, a signature brand of the renowned global hotel and resort management chain Dusit International. Local contractor Oman Shapoorji Company is the main contractor for the project, while the clients representative is Majan Engineering Consultants. The project is expected to open before the end of 2019, said the report. The ambitious project, which is being set up by one of OIF's subsidiaries, Green Peak Project Development Company, will offer around 250 rooms and suites in addition to a host of adventure-related attractions, it stated. A key highlight of the project is the zip-line facility a cable system that allows thrill-seekers to soar over the breathtaking canyons of Al Jabal Al Akhdhar. Zip-lines are popular with young adults and a big draw for international tourists. The project stems from a usufruct agreement signed early last year by Oman Investment Fund with the Ministry of Tourism, covering a 73,367-sq-m plot of land in Al Jabal Al Akhdhar for the development of a third major resort. Two prominent properties managed by Alila and Anantara are already in operation at key locations atop Al Jabal Al Akhdhar, it added. A total of 20 Bahraini entrepreneurs in the field of information technology will take part in the upcoming Gitex Technology Week 2018 in Dubai under the umbrella of the Bahrain National Pavilion (BNP). The entrepreneurs recently held a meeting with the Bahrain Technology Companies Society (Btech), the organiser of the pavilion, in relation to their Gitex participation. In cooperation with Tamkeen, the labour fund, Btech met with the ICT entrepreneurs who will be participating in the BNP @GITEX2018, which will be held from October 14 to 18, at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Tamkeen chief executive Dr Ebrahim Mohammed Janahi said the company is keen to develop Bahrainis working in the ICT sector. He added that Bahraini exhibitors participation at the national pavilion in the event aims to provide them with an unprecedented experience to showcase and gain international exposure to their products and services, and move forward to collaborating with international enterprises in the field to help in their regional and global expansion. This participation comes in line with the national efforts to develop the ICT sector to increase its contribution to the GDP and encourage the growth of its institutions, along with qualifying Bahrainis, he said. For his part, Btech chairman Ubaydli Ubaydli said that Bahraini entrepreneurs participation in Gitex is enabling them to view recent trends in the IT industry such as digital marketing, education, healthcare, smart cities, retail, energy, finance and developments in the virtual reality games that is expected to rank $4.4 billion by 2022. It is a great opportunity for Bahraini entrepreneurs to participate in Gitex 2018 and the five-day Technology Summit that coincides with Gitex Future Stars, the fastest growing startup event in Mena and South Africa for the third year in a row, held at Dubai World Trade Centre. The forum enables more than 850 Startup Company from around the world to meet more than 1500 investors, he added. WorkSmart chief executive officer Ahmed Al Hujairi stressed the importance of Gitex Tech Week and Gitex Future Stars, where more than 5000 companies from 100 countries will gather in an area of 1.4 million sq m. Gitex offers Bahraini entrepreneurs an opportunity to meet with a group of leading innovators from the industry, such as Twitter, Alibaba, Lego and Amazon, as well as a keynote speech address by Casey Kozyrkov, chief decision scientist at Google, he said. He noted the importance of Tamkeen's support to the BNP @ GITEX2018, stressing the keenness of the organisers to reach this ambitious strategic partnership. He also observed Tamkeen's objectives of supporting Bahraini private sector technology companies and encourage Bahraini entrepreneurs to explore and invest the quality employment opportunities offered by this sector. TradeArabia News Service Emerson, a global technology company, recently hosted a technology conference and exhibition designed to help customers achieve Top Quartile performance in the areas of safety, reliability, production and energy management. The Technology Conference & Exhibition held at the Emerson facility in Dhahran Techno Valley (DTV) in Saudi Arabia focused on helping attendee sin improving their businesses across a wide range of functions, including capital projects, plant operations around energy usage, process control, safety systems, rotating machinery, combustion and steam, asset reliability, and lifecycle services, The event showcased strategies towards implementing digital transformation by harnessing the capabilities of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and provided a unique platform to network, identify, design, and plan the adoption of these technological advancements. All these innovations are designed to help address key challenges around company operations, ultimately driving towards efficiencies and growth in corporate performance metrics such as Operational profitability and return of investment around Capital Projects. Mike Train, president of Emerson Electric, officially inaugurated the Technology Conference & Exhibition which opened with a session on Emersons commitment to Saudi Arabias strategic transformational program the Vision 2030. Mike Train and other executives shared insights on how Emerson is transforming to align to the Kingdoms strategic objectives, by supporting key goals around improving private sector investment in kingdom, supporting human capital goals through knowledge transfer and education, and fostering innovation and technology development by working with academia and industry stakeholders to develop and commercialize new technology. This was further followed by keynotes from SAGIA (Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority) and Saudi Aramco around their vision for strategic partners like Emerson, and the opportunity that Saudi Arabia represents through the next wave of investment in the hydrocarbon industry. The success of the event marks a significant milestone in Emersons transformative journey in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The first Emerson Technology Conference and Exhibition was a unique event aimed at assisting our stakeholders in leveraging the full business potential of digital transformation, said Mike Train. By using best-in-class project execution methods such as Emersons Project Certainty methodology, customers in the Top Quartile, i.e. the top 25 percent of all projects, we are able to complete their projects in half the cost and in half the time compared to their counterparts in the fourth quartile. Companies that adopt Emersons Operational Certainty methodology see operations improvements in the areas of improved safety and reliability, as well as lower production costs and reduced energy consumption. Through organizing events such as these, we intend to make our expertise accessible to a wider audience, he added. The Emerson Technology Conference & Exhibition was designed to suit the needs of several process industries such as oil and gas, refining, petrochemicals, power and water, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, among others. It also featured breakout sessions that explored future technologies in intelligent wellheads, terminals and pipeline solutions, simulation, final control, DeltaV, measurement and analytical and flow. By promoting education, knowledge transfer and diversity as the key pillars of our roadmap for KSA, Emerson remains committed to the realization of Saudi Vision 2030, said Liam Hurley, vice president and general manager for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Our continued investments in manufacturing and supply chain and our efforts to engage local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) along the development chain are set to play significant roles in the achievement of this goal. Initiatives such as the recent Emerson Technology Conference & Exhibition builds on our focus on technology and collaboration, which complements Saudi Arabias National Transformation Plan and the Saudi Vision 2030 development agenda. By sharing our technology expertise with stakeholders, we aim to facilitate the adoption of technology to drive economic diversification in the Kingdom, he added. The recently inaugurated facility in Dhahran Techno Valley, representing Emerson's investment of $25 million, adds research and development capabilities and provides delivery and services support to the oil and gas, mining, and other process industries in Saudi Arabia. It is equipped with first-class resources and facilities to support collaboration with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), universities, and industrial organizations. TradeArabia News Service British citizens travelling to Saudi Arabia will soon be eligible for multiple-entry visit visas valid for up to five years, says a statement from Fragomen, a global immigration practice. This comes as a result of an approved memorandum of understanding between the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, that aims at facilitating the issuance of visit visas to citizens of both countries travelling for tourism, business, family visit or medical treatment, it said. The new law will come into force once all necessary legal procedures have been completed by the contracting parties, the advisory said. Dubai has been adjudged the 'Destination of the Year' at the Seatrade Cruise Awards 2018, in recognition of the work done by the Cruise Tourism department of Dubais Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) in positioning the city as a hub for winter sun cruising. Considered to be one of the most reputed titles within the cruise industry, the prestigious accolade was presented at a special ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal, as part of the Seatrade Cruise Med 2018. Dubai Tourism exhibited at Seatrade Cruise Med, under the Cruise Arabia banner, bringing together the tourism authorities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Bahrain to showcase the breadth of the regions offerings, and to position the Arabian Gulf as the perfect destination for winter sun cruising. The delegation representing Dubai at the convention included members of the Dubai Cruise Committee (Dubai Tourism, DP World, Emirates airline, The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs Dubai), as well as the representatives from the Dubai Expo 2020 and Meraas Holding, the developer of Dubai Harbour Project along with many other private sector stakeholders. The exhibition enabled all parties to explore various networking and business opportunities with leading global brands and cruise lines, in addition to deployment and homeporting opportunities for the upcoming 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 cruise seasons. Commenting on the award win, Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai Tourism, said: "Winning this prestigious award is a true testament to our ongoing efforts to not only bolster the profile of Dubai as a global hub for cruising, but to also raise the awareness of the destinations overall tourism offerings to a global audience. Cruise tourism has undoubtedly become a key industry for the Gulf and we are dedicated to educating consumers around the world about the region as the winter cruising destination. This success, of course, could not have been possible without our valued network of industry partners DP World, Emirates airline, Dubai Immigration, Dubai Customs and various other public and private sector stakeholders, who share our commitment to working within a collaborative framework to consolidate the citys position as the cruise hub of the region, and boost the growth of the emirates cruise industry and tourism sector at large." Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and chief executive officer, DP World, said: "The Seatrade Destination of the Year Award recognises Dubais position as the regions leader in cruise tourism with its world-class facilities and tourist attractions. As operators of Mina Rashid Cruise Terminals, DP World is proud to support the vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to turn the city into a preferred global destination for cruise tourists. We will continue to offer our expertise in catering to the rapidly growing demand for sophisticated services. DP World is also dedicated to creating a unique luxury experience, especially as we aim to receive one million cruise tourists a year by 2020." "Our state-of-the-art Hamdan bin Mohammed Cruise Terminal at Mina Rashid, set to be the largest facility in the world, is equipped to meet the growing number of cruise passengers and is capable of handling 18,000 passengers a day. Mina Rashid is homeport to the top global ocean-going cruise operators. Between the terminals opening in 2014 and 2017, cruise ship calls to Dubai rose by 68 per cent, and we are expecting to see over 700,000 visitors for the 2018-19 season," he said. Preceding the Seatrade exhibition, Dubai Tourism organised an extensive roadshow across Europe, conducted in partnership with Emirates airline and key cruise lines such as Costa Cruises, Aida Cruises, MSC Cruises, Royal Caribbean International and Pullmantur Cruises who home-port in Dubai. Hosted in Vienna, Paris and Zurich, this tour forms part of Dubai Tourisms ongoing efforts to raise the profile of Dubai as a global hub for cruising. The roadshow was a strategic platform that was created to connect the cruise lines and the travel trade from these key source markets to increase cruise tourist arrivals throughout to Dubai from those markets during the upcoming 2018/19 cruise season. It also saw successful networking and business opportunities with the travel trade from the respective markets and leading brands in the global cruise industry. With Dubai fast becoming a favoured destination amongst international cruise lines and cruise tourists, the emirate welcomed over 625,000 cruise tourists to the city during the 2016/2017 season. Looking ahead, Dubais cruise industry is set for another strong performance during the upcoming 2018/2019 season, with more than 700,000 cruise tourists expected to visit the city. This is in line with Dubai Cruise Tourisms strategic goal of welcoming one million cruise tourists by the 2020/2021 season, with the emirate serving as the winter home port for 10 of the world's leading international cruise lines. - TradeArabia News Service Bahrains aviation regulator, Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA), in cooperation with Bahrain Airport Company (BAC), the operator and managing body of Bahrain International Airport (BIA), has announced the completion of the first phase of an air navigation and instrument landing system (ILS) upgrade. The new upgrade is set to markedly improve the airports landing safety procedures and efficiency, it said in a statement. The initiative is in line with the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications efforts to ensure that the kingdoms air navigation system meets the standards and requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). ILS is a state-of-the-art runway approach aid that uses radio beams to provide pilots with vertical and horizontal guidance during an approach, enabling them to navigate and land safely in difficult weather conditions and low visibility. BIAs upgrade from CAT I to CATII is a significant milestone in the Airport Modernisation Programme, which will help to lessen the number of flights diverted from BIA, reduce flight delays, and ensure greater passenger safety. The Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Engineer Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, said: The upgrade follows the directives of Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to accelerate the modernisation of our air navigation systems to accommodate expected civil aviation sector growth in accordance with the comprehensive development plan of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. "Work on the second phase of the project, which will see the ILS upgraded to CAT III, is also proceeding according to plan and is expected to be fully implemented in time for the completion of the Airport Modernisation Programme by Q3 2019. This will further strengthen the kingdoms leading position in civil aviation, both regionally and internationally, and enable BIA to provide excellent services with the highest levels of safety for all airspace users. The minister added that recent technology improvements have encouraged airports and airlines to search for optimal methods of dealing with difficult weather conditions, such as the CATll and CATlllB systems. He also announced that BAC is in the process of appointing a consultant to upgrade BIAs ILS to CATlllB, which will allow aircraft to land at visibilities as low as 50 metres. The improvements will include the installation of additional lights on the runway and the development of auxiliary substations to support CATlll operations. Under this system, aircrafts using the airspace within the Bahrain Flight Information Region will be able to take off and land at altitudes of less than 60m (200ft) above the height of the landing zone and as low as 30m (100ft), and with runway visibilities of as low as 350m. - TradeArabia News Service Oman Air has celebrated the delivery of a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, the fifth of 30 such planes the airline has on order. The delivery comes at a time when the airline is continuing its trajectory of rapid growth and expansion. Meanwhile, the national carrier of Oman is expected to receive a total of nine more 737 MAX 8s next year. By the end of this year, Oman Air will be receiving two more Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, one of which will feature the new First Class product which boasts 8 private suites, 24 Business Class seats and 232 Economy seats. The advanced airplanes will help Oman Air meet its commitment to further enhance operational efficiency by flying a young, modern and safe fleet. The 737 MAX family is designed to offer customers exceptional performance, with lower per-seat costs and an extended range to open up new destinations in the single-aisle market. The MAX family provides operators a 14 per cent improvement over today's most efficient single-aisle airplanes, in addition to the highest efficiency, reliability and passenger comfort, the Oman Air statement. Following the launch of new routes to Istanbul and Casablanca in June and July respectively, Oman Air will be launching direct flights from Muscat to Moscow on October 30 and reintroducing flights to The Maldives on October 28. TradeArabia News Service The Italian Embassy in Bahrain has opened a new visa application centre in Manama in partnership with VFS Global, a leading outsourcing and technology services specialist. In a joint statement, VFS Global and the embassy said the new centre will provide greater seamlessness to visa application processing and resident visa applicants in Bahrain need not submit their Schengen visa applications at the embassy. Inaugurating the visa application centre, Domenico Bellato, ambassador of Italy to Bahrain, said: We are very pleased to start a new chapter of cooperation with VFS Global, providing a state-of-the-art service in collecting applications for short-stay Visas for travel to Italy and Malta as their main destinations in the Schengen area. We are confident that the new visa application centre will further increase the number of Bahraini citizens and residents in choosing Italy as their destination for tourism and business. In February this year, Italy renewed visa processing contracts with VFS Global for four years for Cameroon, Ghana and Saudi Arabia. Additionally, VFS Global was also awarded a three-year contract to manage Italy visa services to the residents of Libya. Last year, VFS Global also won the mandate to process Italian visas in Kuwait. The VFS Global Italy Visa Application Centre in Bahrain is located at the 18th Floor, Diplomatic Commercial Office Towers, Building 1565 in Diplomatic Area 317, Manama. Vinay Malhotra, regional group COO - Middle East, South Asia & China, VFS Global, said: The Italian mandate to VFS Global follows a 14-year old relationship with the client government and it is our commitment to provide efficient, secure and convenient visa application services to the residents of Bahrain travelling to Italy and/or Malta as their main destinations in the Schengen area. The visa application centre will provide secure processing of entry permit requirements in a friendly ambience. Applicants can also opt for the comfort and privacy of a Premium Lounge. - TradeArabia News Service Santa Clara, Calif., Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Couchbase, Inc., creator of the worlds first Engagement Database, today announced a new solution designed to help enterprises provide fast, scalable, secure and always-on applications to their global and mobile field workforce in partnership with Infosys, a global leader in consulting, technology, and next generation services. Powered by the Couchbase Data Platform, the Field Service solution with offline capabilities will enable enterprises to develop and implement an offline-first strategy while modernizing their application landscape to deliver exceptional user experiences and support a more effective workforce. The Field Service solution is designed to ensure businesses can remain agile by leveraging applications that are always-on to keep pace with accelerating digital transformation that would otherwise leave them behind. Based on the Couchbase Data Platform, organizations can avoid many issues that have previously affected global field application deployment, such as limited or no capability when the network connection drops, or applications that cannot match their development performance when rolled out at scale. The new solution will create faster time-to-value for enterprises by accelerating the entire development process from initial proof of concept to final roll-out. Enterprises in all industries can therefore concentrate on creating applications that make the most out of their data and empower field workers, including: Real-time crew management, allowing airlines to ensure they always have the right crew, in the right place, for the right aircraft, with the right information Reduced service downtime, giving utility company field engineers the information and support they need to fix issues first-time, no matter the location Powering the industrial internet, allowing machine-to-machine communication in manufacturing lines and creating the foundations for a massively interactive enterprise Mobile lending, enabling the bank mobile lenders to have an informative discussion with their potential customers Sales Rep for store calls, improve productivity of sales reps by significantly reducing manual data entry One of the greatest challenges that large enterprises face in their digital journey is to develop applications, for their field workforce, that can provide the same user experience irrespective of whether they are online or not. By partnering with Couchbase, we can help our customers develop applications with an offline-first approach thereby enabling their field work force improve customer reach and be able to cover the last mile. Lack of connectivity will no longer be an application exception. - Gautam Khanna, VP and Head of Modernization Practice, Infosys Digital transformation initiatives are being driven by companies around the world as they aim to use technology to get closer to their customers and change the way they do business. And those organizations that struggle to transform risk being left behind. The aim of the Couchbase Data Platform is to enable massively interactive enterprises to provide revolutionary customer experiences. With this new solution and the strong partnership between Couchbase and Infosys, we can help enterprises realize the potential of their digital strategies to enable their competitive advantage. - Matt Cain, President and CEO, Couchbase Resources Watch Infosyss presentation at Couchbase Connect SV Read about Couchbase Data Platform About Infosys Ltd. Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over three decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. About Couchbase Couchbase's mission is to be the data platform that revolutionizes digital innovation. To make this possible, Couchbase created the world's first Engagement Database to help deliver ever-richer and ever more personalized customer and employee experiences. Built with the most powerful NoSQL technology, the Couchbase Data Platform was architected on top of an open source foundation for the massively interactive enterprise. Our geo-distributed Engagement Database provides unmatched developer agility and manageability, as well as unparalleled performance at any scale, from any cloud to the edge. Couchbase has become pervasive in our everyday lives; our customers include industry leaders Amadeus, AT&T, BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), Carrefour, Cisco, Comcast, Disney, DreamWorks Animation, eBay, Marriott, Neiman Marcus, Tesco, Tommy Hilfiger, United, Verizon, Wells Fargo, as well as hundreds of other household names. For more information, visit www.couchbase.com. Data Science Platforms Help the Buy Side Integrate Alternative Data Asset managers are looking for ways to mine alternative data sets for investment ideas, recognizing that stock pickers cannot rely on traditional research. An explosion in alternative data, ranging from satellite images to mobile geolocation data and unstructured text, has created an arms race among hedge funds and quantitative funds. Many firms have hired data scientists to dive into pools of data and to use machine learning algorithms to extract insights or predictive signals. Traditional buy-side firms are also eyeing big data sets while wrestling with how to incorporate them into the investment process. Alt data is starting to become a little more mainstream in that asset managers realize they need to find new sources of alpha to gain an edge, said Bill Stephenson, managing director of AIR Summit, a conference that was held Sept. 5-6 in New York City. The two-day event, which stands for Alpha Innovation Required, focused on facilitating discussions on challenging and innovative trends impacting the institutional investment management industry, especially active managers. AIR Summit 4.0 enabled buy-side firms to connect with startups in the alpha technology or alpha tech space. This year, 20 startups presented at AIR Summit 4.0 out of 400 candidates. On average, companies presenting were in business for four years with 14 hailing from New York, five from London, and one from Vancouver. For example, Predata, a predictive analytics company, identifies online shifts in human behavior and anticipates global events through machine learning and alternative data. It turns metadata into insights, said Hazem Dawani, CEO, adding that metadata is language agnostic across the world whether its in English, Swahili or German. Predata collects meta data daily from tens of thousands of web sources, and then organizes the data into categories within countries and on topics related to security, social and political unrest, and economics. When the Trump Administration in April of 2018 imposed unexpectedly harsh sanctions on Russia, the ruble dropped more than 8% over four days. Predata had signals predicting the possibility of new US sanctions and these signals peaked six days ahead of the currencys move. Customers receive early warnings on average 14 days in advance of events. Recent signals included perceived risks that the NAFTA negotiation will fail. On Sept. 18, it produced a US midterm signal observer about online activity on issues related to the November elections. Geopolitical risk moves financial markets and most of the time this is not priced into the currencies or the assets, said Dawani, whose customers include government agencies, global macro risk managers, hedge funds and prop traders. Increasing pressure from low-cost index funds has been cited as a factor in the buy-sides search for an edge in alt data. It seems to me there is going to be this massive disruption in the coming years, significant consolidation, clear winners and losers in our business, said Stephenson. I think theres an opportunity to reinvent our business, asserts Stephenson. 1 2 3 4 next For more information on related topics, visit the following channels: TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stratabound Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SB) (Stratabound or the Company) is pleased to announce the initial results from the first diamond drill program on Golden Culvert, located in the Hyland-Selwyn gold belt in the eastern Yukon Territory. A series of 8 diamond drill holes were drilled, denoted as GC1801 through GC1808. Complete assay results have been returned to date for only holes GC1801, GC1803 and GC1804. This press release addresses those holes exclusively. Diamond drill results herein are reported down the hole and are not represented here as true widths. Drill Hole GC1803 Located 350 metres southeast of the discovery outcrop, drill hole GC1803 intercepted 2.53 gpt Au over 33.1 metres of quartz breccia, veining and sulphides between 111.5 and 144.6 metres down the hole. The intercept includes 60.1 gpt Au over 0.9 metre within a quartz vein that averages 26.04 gpt Au over 2.5 metres overall. The quartz vein is interpreted from surface mapping and trenching to be the 350 metre strike extension of the Main Vein discovered in 2008 which reported historic chip samples between 7.7 to 22.8 gpt gold over 1 metre true width and gold-bearing wallrock grading up to 2.27 gpt Au over 0.5 metre true width. Photographs of the core and an updated corporate presentation will be posted on the Companys website at www.stratabound.com . Logged core angles confirm the near vertical attitudes of the controlling gold mineralized quartz vein structures observed from the surface mapping and trench exposures performed and reported on earlier this summer. All primary quartz vein observations conform to the regional 320 strike structural fabric controlling the encompassing 3 kilometre by 250 metre wide gold-in-soil anomaly. The high grade Main Vein Zone of breccia and mineralization intercepted in GC1803 project to surface from 110-130 metres below and lie directly under the higher grade portion of one of the greater than 200 ppb gold-in-soil anomalies. Trench TR1805 which intercepted 1.43 gpt Au over 12.0 metres including 4.23 gpt Au over 3.0 metres in a quartz vein that extends from the Main Vein a further 80 metres southeast along strike. (Stratabound press release of August 23, 2018). The Main Vein Zone to date has therefore been traced with continuous gold mineralization appearing to extend along 450 metres of strike length, to 130 metres depth below surface and remaining open along strike and at depth. Drill hole GC1803 also intersected a second deeper interval of 0.75 gpt Au over 19.5 metres down the hole, also associated with quartz veining, breccia and sulphides between 226.0 235.5 metres ending in gold mineralization only 3 metres before the end the hole at 238.5 metres. This intersection is interpreted to be in a second parallel gold bearing structural zone approximately 50 metres to the southwest of the Main Vein zone which was intersected in trenches TR1801B and TR1804. Trench TR1801B intersected 1.49 gpt Au over 10.0 metres including 6.11 gpt Au over a 1.5 metre in a quartz vein, and trench TR1804 intercepted 2.33 gpt Au over 3 metres including 5.32 gpt Au over 1.0 metre in a quartz vein. Drill Hole GC1801 Drill hole GC1801 was terminated early at 19.8 metres after intersecting a fault, and returned no significant values. Drill Hole GC1804 Drill hole GC1804 intercepted 0.51 gpt Au over 9.5 metres between 126.5 - 136 metres down the hole. All holes for which full assays have been returned to date are listed in Table 1 below. UTM NAD 83 Northing UTM NAD 83 Easting Azimuth Dip From (m) To (m) Au (gpt) Interval length Total Hole Length GC1801 531305.4 6868814.6 187.6 -44.8 terminated early in fault; no significant values 19.8 GC1803 531305.5 6868724.8 189.9 -45.0 111.5 144.6 2.53 33.1 238.5 Including 130.6 133.1 26.04 2.5 Including 131.5 132.4 60.10 0.9 and 216.0 235.5 0.79 19.5 GC1804 531438.1 6868722.1 172.2 -45.0 126.5 136.0 0.51 9.5 204.2 Table 1. Assay results remain outstanding on the remaining five drill holes. Summary grades above are reported uncapped as there are insufficient results returned to date to make a reasonable capping determination. Figure 1 is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/303821d6-dec7-43fc-80f4-b37d1ac39578 Figure 2 is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2c389857-6f39-4252-934a-c0ebbc78b13b President and CEO, R. Kim Tyler commented, "We have had an exceptional first field season at Golden Culvert and are extremely pleased with our results to date. The high grade 60.1 gpt gold intercept and the broader low grade gold around it in hole GC1803 confirm what we have learned from our mapping, trenching and previous historical work; that a vertically dipping structural corridor of gold-bearing quartz veins, quartz breccia and sulphide mineralization can be traced over 450 metres of strike; 130 metres deep so far and remaining open both along strike and depth. We have only focused on a small 800 metre segment of the larger 24 kilometres of prospective strike length within our property option. We are expecting further results in the near future, and as the hole assay results are returned and analyzed they will be reported in separate press releases. Analytical, QA/QC Methods and Protocol: All trench and drill core samples were delivered to the ALS Global preparation facility in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory where they were crushed to 70% passed a 2mm sieve, then a 250g split was pulverized until better than 85% passed a 75 micron screen. Gold was tested by a 30 gram fire assay method with an atomic absorption finish at the Vancouver ALS lab facility. Assay results that exceed 100 gpt Au by this method are re-assayed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish. In addition to the quality assurance and quality control program performed by ALS, Stratabound personnel insert internationally certified standards and field blanks into the sample stream at the rate of one QA/QC sample for every 15 samples and maintain a program of duplicate sampling on pulp rejects. 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. Trench samples on six trenches completed earlier this summer have been reported on in Stratabounds press release dated August 23, 2018. Prior to this summers trenching and drilling 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 had been taken at the property. This summers program of $0.75 million includes the completed trenching and 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. The Company also holds a significant land position that hosts three base metals deposits in the Bathurst base metals camp of New Brunswick featuring the Captain Copper-Cobalt Deposit that hosts an NI 43-101 Measured+Indicated resource. Stratabound management has a diversified track record of exploration, development and operating successes that will facilitate the development of the Companys exploration projects. Mr. R. Kim Tyler, P.Geo., President and CEO of Stratabound, and a Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101, was responsible for managing and supervising the exploration program and has verified the data disclosed, including sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the information or opinions contained in this disclosure. Mr. Tyler has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. 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. The International Exhibition and Conference titled Tourism and Travel kicked off in the national tourist zone Avaza. The forum brought together representatives of twenty-six countries, including Russia, China, USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia. The divisions of Turkmenistans State Committee for Tourism, private Turkmen companies, foreign travel agencies, organizations and enterprises operating in the hotel business and related areas as well as Avaza hotels present their services at the exhibition. The exhibition features a variety of modern tourism services and great opportunities for tourism in Turkmenistan, given its historical and cultural heritage, diversity of natural attractions and unique recreational resources. The conference on development of tourism and international cooperation in this area started in the afternoon. Foreign participants presented their proposals, ideas and projects, confirming their interest in enhancing cooperation with Turkmen partners in such a promising area as tourism. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021 Seattle, Washington, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LMN Architects and builder Hathaway Dinwiddie announce the completion of the $67 million Anteater Learning Pavilion at the University of California, Irvine, Californias first dedicated active learning building. The 65,000-square-foot facility brings active learning and 21st century educational opportunities to students across the campus. Flipping traditional education on its head, the new building supports active learning strategies that maximize collaboration and emphasize exploration, discovery and testing ideas. Its all about social performance. The interactive functionality of the active-learning classrooms extends to a sequence of community spacesinterior and exteriorproviding students with lots of choices for group work and social connection, said George Shaw, FAIA, Partner at LMN Architects and Partner-in-Charge of the project. Set in the heart of the 1,500-acre Irvine campus, the design promotes a diversity of team-based modes of learning and social interaction, while extending the active learning experience to the surrounding Aldrich Park campus neighborhood. The project is composed of three primary elements: a two-story elliptically-shaped Pavilion housing lecture halls; a three-story classroom wing framed by a student Mixing Hall; and the Bridge, a central, vertical circulation and gathering space that interconnects the functions of the two primary structures. By assembling program areas into distinct building components and then pulling those components apart, we were able to break down the scale of the buildings and create opportunities for social interaction in those interstitial spaces, said John Chau, AIA, Partner and Project Designer at LMN Architects. The new complex features two floors of day-lit classrooms and circulation areas (the Mixing Hall) and a third level, which houses student offices and computer labs. Natural light filters through the exterior sunshade latticework to the mixing zones circulation and collaboration spaces. Accessed from large campus plazas on two sides, a series of community spaces capture expansive views to Aldrich Park and the broader campus landscape, creating an interconnected indoor-outdoor student experience. The elliptically shaped Pavilion anchors the entry plazas, while housing two multi-use lecture hallsone 400-seat and one 250-seat. The halls employ a double-tier seating configuration that allow students to work in sub-groups, while preserving lecture and case-study functionality. An exterior loggia adjoins the Pavilion to the pedestrian scale of the plaza, with perimeter seating clusters and an open-air stairway that spirals to the upper level walkway. Vertical window openings bring light to the instructional spaces while creating an internal glow that animates the Pavilions evening presence within the plaza. LMNs creative approach of unlocking the site and rearranging the program led to a bold design solution that enhances the overall experience for both students and faculty, said Brian Pratt, AIA, LEED AP, Campus Architect for UC Irvine. Inside, flexible furniture, multiple writing surfaces and wireless projection all serve to optimize active learning, which places an emphasis on problem solving and interactivity with instructors and fellow students. In fifteen smart classrooms and auditoriums, old-school audiovisual equipment has been replaced by sleek computer screens on every wall and desk. Each can be linked to from laptop or mobile devices. Seats swivel for group exercises. Howard Gilman, Chancellor for UC Irvine notes, This building represents a fundamental commitment to what we are all about, and the reason why this university was created in the first place. Our commitment with this facility is not only to create an experience for students, but to create a laboratory for our faculty to realize the next generation of instruction in higher education. With this facility, UCI establishes itself as an undisputed leader within American academia. A high-performance building envelope reduces the need for extensive mechanical and ventilation systems, which in turn lowers operating costs. Natural daylight floods virtually every space, minimizing the need for supplemental lighting. A rooftop solar array further reduces greenhouse gas emissions by a respectable 47.4 metric tons per year. Site storm water is handled by an onsite biofiltration system. The complex is designed to meet or exceed the CALGreen 2013 Building Code and LEED Platinum certification (New Construction V2009) is anticipated. The Anteater Learning Pavilion marks a continuation of LMN and Hathaway Dinwiddies previously successful design-build collaborations on the UC Irvine campus, which include the addition to the Paul Merage School of Business and the University Extension Classroom Building. Construction recently began on the new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering BuildingLMN and Hathaway Dinwiddies fourth collaboration on the UC Irvine campus. Project Team LMN Architects (design and executive architect) Hathaway Dinwiddie (design-build contractor) DCI Engineers (structural engineer) Alvine Engineering (MEP engineer) AHBE (landscape architect) _ _ About LMN LMN Architects is internationally recognized for the planning and design of environments that elevate the social experience. The firm works across a diversity of project typologies that include higher education facilities, science and technology, civic and cultural projects, conference and convention centers, urban mixed-use projects, transportation, and other programs that celebrate and enrich communities. The 150-person firm, based in Seattle, is the recipient of the 2016 American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award www.LMNArchitects.com About Hathaway Dinwiddie San Francisco-based Hathaway Dinwiddie specializes in building significant public and private projects including cultural arts venues, student housing, educational facilities, office buildings, hotels, health and life sciences buildings, pharmaceutical projects, and mixed-use developments. The firm was named 2016 ENR California Builder of the Year. www.hdcco.com About the University of California, Irvine Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 30,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu. Attachments As prepared for delivery. Ten years after the onset of the global economic and financial crisis, the world economy has promising short-term growth prospects. However, we also see intensification of risks that could derail this trajectory, including trade tensions; tightening global financial conditions and volatile capital flows; and an increase in geopolitical tensions. These sources of heightened volatility are compounded by other vulnerabilities that have accumulated over time such as record high global debt levels; gaps in essential public services, social protection and infrastructure; as well as challenges arising from climate change. This combination of volatility and vulnerabilities is a major threat to the leave no-one behind agenda and causing investors to postpone or cancel sustainable investment projects. These trends are both driven by and leading to an increasing discontent with the multilateral system. Global Growth Prospects The global economy strengthened over the course of 2017, but global financial conditions are tightening and risks to the economic outlook have continued to build. The UN projects steady global growth of at least 3 per cent per annum for the next few years. While the headline figures for the world economy are largely favourable, uncertainties cloud the outlook: - Global trade tensions continue to escalate. While the direct impact on global trade flows thus far remains limited, world trade growth has started to moderate, easing to about 4 per cent in 2018 after expanding by more than 5 per cent in 2017. A prolonged escalation has the potential to severely impact business and consumer confidence, asset prices and investment behaviour. - Financial vulnerabilities have been rising in many developing countries, in the wake of increased financial volatility or sudden capital withdrawal, constituting a further downside risk to investment prospects. Market volatility hit a number of emerging market currencies in the first half of 2018. The currency depreciations raised the domestic prices of imported goods and commodities, as well as increased the burden of external debt service. There remain risks of contagion across borders and potential spillovers from existing trends in market movements. - The undercurrent of geopolitical tensions could also disrupt economic activity. Taken together, these risks all have the potential to reverse recent economic improvements, leaving the poor and vulnerable behind. Headline global figures mask significant regional disparities. While growth rates in many developed economies are above their long-run potential, many commodity-exporting economies continue to be hampered by the legacy of higher debt and macroeconomic imbalances revealed during the commodity price collapse of 2014-2015. Many countries in Africa, Western Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to see only modest growth in coming years, and stagnant per capita income, posing an enormous challenge to eradicating poverty, increasing social inclusion and creating decent jobs for all. While some of the larger least developed countries (LDCs) are growing at an average annual rate of 7 per cent or more, many small island developing States (SIDS) and conflict-affected countries remain well below this target set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Achieving the SDGs will require financial stability and sustainability. International cooperation is essential to enact reforms to the international monetary system and the global financial safety net. The international monetary and financial system should aim to reduce volatility and contain systemic risks through effective financial regulation and supervision, while incentivising longer-term sustainable investments. Reform efforts should therefore aim to lengthen the time-horizons of investors and foster the alignment of the financial system with the SDGs. This also underlines the importance of multilateralism and the need for a reformed, reinvigorated and strengthened multilateral system. International cooperation can help deliver peace, defend human rights and drive economic and social progress for women and men everywhere. In the face of massive, existential threats to people and planet -- but equally at a time of compelling opportunities for shared prosperity -- there is no way forward but collective action for the common good. Addressing Debt Vulnerabilities Global debt has reached a record US$247 trillion, or 318 per cent of world gross product. In emerging economies, growing leverage was largely driven by a surge in corporate debt, often contracted in dollars in international capital markets. The debt sustainability of the poorest countries as a group has deteriorated markedly. Thirty low-income and least developed countries are now considered at high risk of or in debt distress, and debt-to-GDP ratios exceed 70 per cent in a third of all SIDS. Debt vulnerabilities are increasing at a time when governments are faced with large financing needs to implement the 2030 Agenda. Debt crises can set back development efforts, and hit the poorest, who are least able to deal with shocks, the hardest, risking a derailing of efforts to leave no one behind. Policy action is needed to retain fiscal space for SDG investments and to prevent and resolve debt crises that would undermine realization of the 2030 Agenda. Well-designed public sector investments that boost the productive capacity of an economy can result in higher growth rates, which would improve debt ratios. It would also lead to higher income for the government through greater tax collection, which can help offset the associated debt service in the future. Debt sustainability assessments (DSAs) that incorporate these growth-enhancing effects would more accurately reflect the long-term borrowing capacity of a country, though managing debt burdens in the short term remains a challenge. The global community needs to ensure a financial safety net for countries with debt challenges in the short- and medium-term. There is scope to improve arrangements for resolving sovereign insolvency crises. As the official creditor landscape has changed, there is a need to adapt official creditor coordination mechanisms to reflect the rise of lenders outside the Paris Club. Various soft law approaches developed by the UN have put forward principles and guidelines for interactions between debtors and private creditors. With political agreement, these types of guidelines could become accepted standards and guide courts. It is critical that as debt distress is addressed and ultimately resolved, including through restructurings or temporary debt service relief, it is done in ways that do not jeopardise social progress and achievement of the SDGs. Adjustments should enable the government to maintain its level of essential and SDG-related expenditures, including for investments that improve human capital outcomes. Over the long-run, the use of innovative debt instruments, such as state-contingent debt, as part of a prudent debt management strategy, could help countries to better cope with shocks in the future. Tackling Inequalities There are also longer-standing challenges, in particular inequality, which, in all its forms and dimensions, between and within countries, limits peoples choices and opportunities and impairs the quality and sustainability of growth. Since 1990 average Human Development Index (HDI) levels have increased significantly (22 per cent globally and 51 per cent in LDCs) reflecting that on average people are living longer, are more educated and have greater income. However, massive discrepancies remain across the world in terms of peoples well-being. For instance, on average, a child born today in a country with low human development can expect to live just over 60 years, while a child born in a country with very high human development can expect to live to almost 80. According to the 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), around 1.3 billion people live in multidimensional poverty. The data also show that an additional 879 million people are at risk of falling into multidimensional poverty, which could happen quickly if they suffer setbacks from conflict, sickness, unemployment, disasters and other shocks. Indeed, even though developing countries have been building social protection systems and investing in public services, these are often still very fragile. Economic and other types of shocks can easily set back progress. Tackling inequalities often requires politically challenging policy changes. However, these are imperative to not only improve the quality of growth and increase its longer-term potential, but also to address the social tensions that inequality engenders. There are many levers for governments to tackle inequality but combining effective social expenditures with progressive tax systems is essential. Fair taxation systems that enhance the revenue base of governments are important. Fiscal systems that shift the burden of taxation from labour to capital can also contribute positively to employment and reducing inequality. Investments in health, education and social protection must be adequately and sustainably funded, which points to the importance of domestic revenue mobilisation and the need for more effective international collaboration on tax matters. Investing in Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Supporting long-term investment in sustainable and resilient infrastructure is critical to reach the SDGs. Not only can infrastructure investment stimulate economic growth, but can also have positive co-benefits, such as greater access to water and sanitation, energy, and health. Strengthening institutions and governance to build a more transparent and dynamic business environment can help attract investment into infrastructure. Countries also need to develop pipelines of investible and bankable projects, with support and capacity development from the international community as needed. There is increasing interest in the potential role of institutional investors in financing sustainable infrastructure. Aligning the incentives of institutional investors with sustainable development would also contribute to the global public good of a stable international financial system. In source countries, governments can explore ways to incentivize institutional investors to take a long-term approach, such as by reviewing regulatory frameworks and encouraging longer-term horizons in indices and credit analysis, including in ratings. Destination countries can adopt capital account management techniques, including macro-prudential regulations that have proven effective in shifting the maturity profile of investment. The Role of the United Nations in Financing for Sustainable Development and the SDGs Last month the UN Secretary-General launched his strategy for Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, laying out actions the UN will take to accelerate financing the SDGs. The strategy leverages the convening power of the UN to bring together the relevant actors to accelerate mobilization of finance for the 2030 Agenda. It builds on the Addis Ababa Action Agenda as the global framework for financing sustainable development with concrete policy actions for the 2030 Agenda, as well as the Paris Agreement on Climate Action. It draws on the work of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Financing for Development, as well as on-going work within the UN on financing. Deep changes, both across the business and financial sectors and in public policies, are needed to mobilize finance at the scale and speed necessary. - First, we must align global economic policies and financial systems with the 2030 Agenda. - Second, we need to create and/or strengthen sustainable financing and investment strategies at the regional and country levels. - Finally, we must seize the potential of financial innovations, new technologies and digitalization to provide inclusive and more equitable access to finance. It is imperative to strengthen public policies, regulatory frameworks and finance at the national, regional and global levels. Policies and regulatory frameworks need to be coherent with each other and with the 2030 Agenda. They should foster the mobilization of adequate and predictable financing for sustainable development. The Strategy also frames the UNs collaboration on financial matters with key partners, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group (WBG), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), regional development banks and other development finance institutions. The Urgency of Climate Action As the UN Secretary-General has said climate change is running faster than us and we are running out of time as confirmed by the findings of the new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to the IPCC, global warming is likely to reach 1.5C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate. Limiting global warming to 1.5C would avoid some of the more dangerous scenarios of climate change. For example, by 2100, global sea level rise would be 10 cm lower with global warming of 1.5C compared with 2C, which would expose 10 million fever people to sea level rise. It would also expose several hundred million fewer people to risk and poverty by 2050 compared with 2C. Every bit of extra warming makes a difference. Limiting global warming to 1.5C requires urgent, ambitious and collective climate action in all areas. Climate action provides an unprecedented opportunity to unlock massive economic and social benefits that can help us achieve the SDGs. Recent studies have found that low-carbon growth could deliver at least US$26 trillion in economic benefits by 2030 and create over 65 million new jobs. Climate action and socio-economic progress are mutually supportive. We need strong political will and leadership to push for urgent and ambitious action now. As articulated by the UN Secretary-General, key priorities will include urgent shift to renewable energy by phasing out fossil fuels and expanding carbon price market - while also curbing existing and future energy demand through energy efficiency solutions. Renewable energy is becoming increasingly available and affordable, with the market share growing from 16.7 per cent in 2010 to 17.5 per cent in 2015 and is expected to reach 21 per cent by 2030. According to IRENA, the global energy transition could contribute up to US$10 trillion every year by 2050 and boost the world GDP. We need to significantly boost public and private investment, including innovative financing mechanisms, for climate action. This includes ensuring developed countries honor their financial pledges under the Paris Agreement, including the $100 billion per year by 2020 pledge. This also means rigorous and transparent tracking of global public and private finance flows to ensure accuracy. Financing adaptation and resilience is also critical. While the world takes steps to reduce carbon emissions, for many of the most vulnerable and most exposed, this may be too little, too late. A strong focus on adaptation and risk reduction is necessary to ensure we can sustain and advance national development priorities and achieve the 2030 Agenda. We are hopeful that we can achieve the ambitious goals set out under the Paris Agreement, as the motto for the 2019 climate summit states it is A Race We Can Win. We should build on the progress being made. For example, the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) has recently reported that in 2017 its members committed USD$196 billion in climate finance and USD$24 billion to other environmental objectives. The IDFC also reported that despite doubling from 2016, adaptation to climate change still represents 4 per cent of its total green finance. United Nations Collaboration with the International Monetary Fund The UN Systems collaboration with the IMF continues to strengthen. In September, Managing Director Lagarde spoke at the Secretary-Generals high-level meeting on financing the SDGs. The UN Deputy Secretary-General also attended a public dialogue with the IMF hosted by the Managing Director. The IMFs work on estimates of financing needs for some SDGs is a useful and important contribution to efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda, and the UN looks forward to further engaging with this work. The UN Secretariat has worked closely with the IMF, along with the World Bank, WTO, UNDP, UNCTAD, and more than 50 UN and other agencies, to produce the 2018 Financing for Sustainable Development Report (FSDR) of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Financing for Development (IATF). We also collaborate with the IMF, World Bank and OECD in the Platform for Collaboration on Tax. The UN appreciates continuing collaboration with the IMF in these important areas, and looks forward to expanding it even further. The Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Amb. Affey (centre), speaks to refugees and local Ethiopians at the inauguration of a Teachers Training College in Dollo Addo, Ethiopia UNHCR/Ariadne Kypriadi UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has appointed Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Affey as its Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa. The appointment reflects recent developments, including the rapprochement between Eritrea and Ethiopia, as well as other States in the region, which have the potential for progress towards finding solutions for the over 1.5 million refugees in the Horn of Africa. As Special Envoy, Ambassador Affeys role will include advocating for continued international protection and increased inclusion of refugees in the countries they reside in, as well as for more global investment in the region. He will engage directly with refugees, regional governments and political institutions, as well as the greater international community. Throughout my career , both with UNHCR and prior, I have always believed that the refugee crises in the Horn of Africa, while some of the most protracted, were not unsolvable, Ambassador Affey said. I am honored by this appointment and encouraged by the progress weve already seen in bringing solutions to displaced Somalis whose lives have been in limbo for too long. For the last two years, Ambassador Affey has acted as the UNHCR Special Envoy for the Somalia situation, where he worked closely with the regional body IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) to develop and implement the Nairobi Declaration and Plan of Action. Rooted in the United Nations New York Declaration and the Global Compact for Refugees, the declaration is focused on commitments made by governments in the region, Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, Eritrea and Ethiopia, to take a more comprehensive approach to the Somalia refugee crisis upholding international protection standards while also working to deliver long-term solutions. Ambassador Affey has extensive experience, notably through his previous function as IGAD's Special Envoy to Somalia as well as serving as Kenyas Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to Somalia. The Special Envoy will be based in Nairobi, Kenya For more information contact: In Nairobi: Dana Hughes [email protected] +254 733 440536 'No military in Libya' claims Russia Moscow, Oct 10 (UNI) Russia on Wednesday denied claims of any military presence in Libya "There are no military servicemen in Libya and there are no official request by the country's authorities" Alexei Kondratyev, the deputy chair of the Russian upper house's defense committee, was quoted by Sputnik news agency as saying. ''The media reports were nothing more than an attempt to 'discredit Russia in its fight against terrorism''', Kondratyev said. Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, Oct 10 (UNI) A day after 12 employees were killed and 13 others injured during a blaze that erupted due to gas leakage in the Steel Authority of India's Bhilai Steel Plant, Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh today removed Chief Executive Officer M Ravi with immediate effect and suspended the General Manager (Security) and the General Manager (Energy). Mr Singh, who visited the Plant along with Chief Minister Raman Singh and met the injured in hospital, provided the information while talking to media here. He said that the Steel Ministry would constitute a committee comprising experts from across the country to probe into the incident in addition to a committee already formed by the SAIL and submit a report within seven days. He assured that the guilty would not be spared. Mr Singh said that the announcement of a new CEO would be done by this evening. He said that nine people died in the Plant itself whereas three others succumbed during treatment. A decision has been taken to provide Rs 30 lakh ex-gratia to the deceased's kin, Rs 15 lakh financial assistance to seriously wounded and Rs 2 lakh to other wounded. Mr Singh said that government jobs would be provided to the kin of the deceased and those seriously wounded. In the event of their kin not being keen on job, salary for the remaining period of service would be provided. UNI AS-PS English French MONTREAL, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Falco Resources Ltd. (TSXV: FPC) (Falco or the Company) announces the resignation of Vincent Metcalfe from his position of Chief Financial Officer effective immediately. Luc Lessard, President and Chief Executive Officer, said: Vincent has played a key role in our Company since his appointment in April 2015, and we would like to express our appreciation for his contribution towards the advancement and development of our Company and the Horne 5 Project. We wish him the greatest success in his future endeavors. Mr. Anthony Glavac, CPA, CA, Falcos Vice President and Corporate Controller, will assume the position of Chief Financial Officer on an interim basis. About Falco Falco Resources Ltd. is one of the largest mineral claim holders in the Province of Quebec, with extensive land holdings in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. Falco owns about 67,000 hectares of land in the Rouyn-Noranda mining camp, which represents approximately 70% of the entire camp and includes 13 former gold and base metal mine sites. Falcos principal asset is the Horne 5 Project located in the former Horne mine that was operated by Noranda from 1927 to 1976 and produced 11.6 million ounces of gold and 2.5 billion pounds of copper. Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd is the largest shareholder of the Company and currently owns 12.6% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company. The Company has 189,195,976 shares issued and outstanding. For further information, please contact: Luc Lessard President and Chief Executive Officer 514-261-3336 info@falcores.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. Long way to go to achieve peace in South Sudan : UN, AU officials Juba, Oct 10 (UNI) Senior officials from the United Nations and African Union has said there is a decrease in levels of violence in South Sudan as compared to last year, following the signing of the peace deal in late August by the warring parties. Jean Pierre Lacroix, UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping operations said they are encouraged that the warring parties have made some progress especially on the cessation of hostilities amid recent sporadic clashes in the South West Yei River State and Unity state,Xinhua reported. "We were encouraged to hear that there are measures envisaged to take the peace agreement further. Implementation of the peace agreement is primary responsibility of South Sudanese and the partners of South Sudan are keen to see a few things materialise on the ground particularly cessation of hostilities which will be of course so important," he told journalists in Juba at the conclusion of a three-day visit to the country. Beijing, Oct 9 (UNI) China has urged the United States to immediately correct malpractices and stop actions damaging its rights and interests, calling on the two major countries to follow the right path of win-win cooperation, rather than go astray toward conflict and confrontation. Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks while meeting the visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Xinhua reported. Noting the current China-US ties were at a critical phase, Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said China had "openly demonstrated its position and lodged solemn representations to the US side on the negative remarks it had made against China." He said China would firmly safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests. Yang called on the United States to make right choices and meet China halfway to seriously implement important consensus the two heads of state have reached in their several meetings. "To guarantee bilateral relations follow the right path, the two countries should properly handle differences on the basis of mutual respect and expand pragmatic cooperation on the basis of mutual benefit," he said. Yang reiterated China's positions on trade, the Taiwan issue and the South China Sea issue. Pompeo said the United States was committed to realising cooperation and win-win results with China, and is willing to strengthen communication with the Chinese side to seek for a constructive plan to tackle challenges the current bilateral relations are faced with. He said the US side would adhere to the one-China policy and continue to maintain communication and coordination with China on international and regional issues. The two sides also exchanged views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Pompeo's trip to China came after his visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Pompeo earlier on Monday. Wang said that the United States had "escalated trade friction with China, took actions that jeopardised China's rights and interests on the Taiwan issue and unwarrantedly condemned China on its domestic and foreign policies." Stressing that the moves directly impacted mutual trust and cast a shadow over China-US relations, Wang urged the United States to immediately stop making negative remarks. Wang expressed his hope that Pompeo's Beijing visit would play a positive role in supporting healthy bilateral ties. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and the United States. "The past four decades have witnessed tremendous changes in both countries and substantial benefits from mutual exchanges," Wang said. "The most important lesson is that cooperation leads to win-win results while conflict ends up with a loss for both sides." He said China would maintain peaceful development and continue reform and opening-up, to realise rejuvenation while avoiding the 'power leading to hegemony' stereotype. He called on the US side to stop groundless accusations against China and wrong actions undermining China's core interests. Wang illustrated China's positions on trade friction with the United States, as well as the Taiwan issue and the South China Sea issue. He said a trade war would never solve problems and promised that China was still willing to negotiate with the United States "on the basis of equality, honesty and solemnity." "China completely respects all countries' decisions, and will never intervene in other countries' domestic affairs," Wang said, noting China has a clear conscience in this respect. "China urges the US side to abide by the one-China principle and the regulations of the three China-US Joint Communiques, stop official and military contact with Taiwan, revoke arms sales to Taiwan, stop unreasonable intervention in countries that have established or are hoping to establish relations with China, restrain 'Taiwan independence' forces, so as to maintain China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait through practical actions," he said. Mike Pompeo said that despite obvious differences on many issues between the two sides, the United States did not mean to oppose China's development, and there was no policy to fully contain China. As the world's two largest economies and most powerful countries, the United States and China shoulder important responsibilities for world peace and prosperity, he said. Pompeo called for more communication, trust and cooperation based on rules and promised that the US side adhered to the one-China principle. He briefed Wang on his visit to the DPRK, voiced the US side's appreciation of China's consistent position on the Korean Peninsula and its efforts on denuclearisation, and expressed a willingness to continue related cooperation. Wang said China's position was "clear, consistent and will never change." He called on the US to attach importance to the DPRK's reasonable demands for safety and development with positive responses. "China supports direct dialog between the United States and the DPRK, Wang said. "Based on mutual respect and accommodation of each other's concerns, China is willing to continue its unique and important role." UNI XC RSU 1107 Uzbekistan to help reconstruct airport in Mazar-e-Sharif 16 Nov 2021 | 12:51 AM Kabul, Nov 15 (UNI) Esmatullah Ergashev, special representative of Uzbekistan for Afghanistan, said his country will reconstruct the Maulana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi international airport in Mazar-e-Sharif. see more.. Russia's Rosgeologia says signed geological exploration deal with Saudi ARGAS 15 Nov 2021 | 11:54 PM Moscow, Nov 15 (UNI/Sputnik) State-owned Russian holding company Rosgeologia (RosGeo) announced on Monday that it had made a deal with the Arabian Geophysical and Surveying Company to cooperate in the area of geological exploration in Saudi Arabia. see more.. Attack on village in north-east of DR Congo claims at least 19 lives - Reports 15 Nov 2021 | 11:52 PM Moscow, Nov 15 (UNI/Sputnik) At least 19 people were killed by militants in an armed assault on the northwestern village of Tchabusiku in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) on Monday, Congolese media reported. see more.. Israel's Defense Minister to visit Morocco on November 24-25 - Office 15 Nov 2021 | 11:48 PM Tel Aviv, Nov 15 (UNI/Sputnik) Israels Defense Minister Benny Gantz will pay an official visit to Morocco in late November, the press service of the minister said on Monday. see more.. UN river convoy delivers aid to South Sudan's isolated areas United Nations, Oct 10 (UNI) For the first time since civil war erupted in South Sudan in 2013, a United Nations food convoy has managed to deliver thousands of tonnes of aid by river, to people in seven hard-to-reach locations, saving millions of dollars on costly aid flights. The World Food Programme (WFP) convoy transported just over 750 tonnes of food and nutrition supplies up the Sobat river, a major tributary of the White Nile. This meant negotiating access and security guarantees to allow safe-passage for the vessels through the Greater Upper Nile region, where thousands of South Sudanese people have been displaced by the war, said WFP. UNHCR praises extraordinary solidarity of Colombia towards Venezuelans United Nations, Oct 10 (UNI) With the help of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Colombia is showing 'extraordinary solidarity' towards Venezuelans displaced amid the countrys on-going economic and political crisis, Agency Chief, Filippo Grandi said. With over 4,000 Venezuelans entering Colombia each day, intending to either stay there or push further south, neighboring countries are struggling to meet the needs of refugees and migrants, United Nations news reported. On a visit to Colombia and other Latin American countries, the High Commissioner for Refugees called the situation 'shocking,' and praised Colombia for sheltering and caring for Venezuelans during critical times. Decision follows 25-plus year advisory career that began at Smith Barney GREENWICH, Conn., Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fieldpoint Private, the fast-growing wealth advisory and private banking boutique serving ultra-high-net-worth families and institutions, today announced that Cari B. Schnipper has joined the firms New York City office as Managing Director and Senior Advisor. Ms. Schnipper joins the firm following more than 25 years with Morgan Stanley and its predecessor firm, Citigroups Smith Barney unit, where she managed approximately $150 million in client assets. At Fieldpoint Private, she will work with successful families on their financial and legacy planning, asset allocation, portfolio management, and banking and lending needs. Ms. Schnipper, a Certified Financial PlannerTM, joined Smith Barney as a financial planning analyst in 1989, and became a financial advisor in 1994. She said that many of her clients are executive women with longstanding ties to Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, not just through their work with Ms. Schnipper but as professionals who built their careers at the firms. It is one thing to invite your clients to follow you to a new firm, she said. It is quite another when those men and women grew up, professionally, in the firm you left behind. When she told them she had moved, she was bowled over by the positive response. They said, We always knew you belonged in a boutique, and it looks like you found the perfect fit!' Cari serves as her clients advisor on everything that matters in their lives, said Bob Matthews, Fieldpoint Privates president and CEO. This is what we look for. Her relationships are deeply personal, not just financial. Cari was looking for a firm that could add value to the full scope of care she knows her clients need, and we are pleased that she has found that here. About Fieldpoint Private Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, Fieldpoint Private ( www.fieldpointprivate.com ) is a boutique financial firm providing the highest degree of personalized, confidential wealth planning and private banking services. Catering to highly successful individuals, families, businesses and institutions, Fieldpoint Private offers a powerful combination of wealth management and strategy, family office, private banking and business banking services addressing every financial need for each of our clients including: wealth transfer advice, tax planning, aggregation and performance reporting, risk management, goals-based investing strategies, sophisticated investment selection, discreet and personalized banking, highly customized credit solutions, custom custody and trust solutions, highly attentive/responsive service and concierge services. Fieldpoint Private was established in 2008 by 31 Founders with a specific vision and purpose. These extraordinary leaders of industry and community recognized the opportunity to create a financial firm totally attuned to peoples individual circumstances. Our firm is built on a philosophy of exclusive membership and client-centricity. Working with a limited number of relationships gives every person the experience of belonging to an extremely selective group. The result is a new breed of institution established on the basis of personalization, responsiveness, and exclusivity, and an ensured commitment to impeccable service and consistently flawless execution. Our service approach offers a unique client experience custom crafted to each clients financial needs. Media Contacts: Michael White Chief Marketing Officer Fieldpoint Private 203.413.9340 Rocky Mountain Citizen Science Conference Nov. 29-Dec. 1 in Cody The University of Wyoming Biodiversity Institute and the Draper Natural History Museum will host the second Rocky Mountain Citizen Science Conference Thursday, Nov. 29-Saturday, Dec. 1, in Cody. The conference will be set amid awe-inspiring museums and a research library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The first Wyoming Citizen Science Conference took place in 2016 in Lander and was the first of its kind. The UW Biodiversity Institute plans to expand the regional scope of conference attendees this year. Citizen science programs -- in which citizens help scientists conduct research -- are becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. In Wyoming, community members help with dozens of citizen science programs, including projects focused on birds, large mammals, climate, monarch butterflies and archaeology. This conference is geared toward discussing the rewards and challenges of coordinating, hosting and participating in citizen science across the West -- and, most important, solutions to those challenges. Geoff LeBaron has been director of the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) for more than 30 years and will be one of two keynote speakers. He has worked for several Audubon Society chapters throughout New England and the Ornithology Department at the Academy of Natural Sciences. At the Rocky Mountain Citizen Science Conference, LeBaron will speak about the history of the CBC and how it has enabled useful access to citizen science datasets worldwide. Greg Newman, another keynote speaker, is the director of CitSci.org. He is a research scientist, ecologist and informatics specialist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, Colo. He received his Ph.D. from CSU in citizen science, community-based monitoring and ecological informatics. His current research focuses on designing and evaluating the effectiveness of cyber-infrastructure support systems for citizen science programs. At the Rocky Mountain Citizen Science Conference, Newman will discuss elevating the value of citizen science for decisionmakers, and ways to improve the design and implementation of projects to make this possible. The nearly two full days of the conference will include presentations by Rocky Mountain-based citizen science program managers and participants, a poster session, a project slam and networking opportunities. The project slam aims to highlight new ideas in citizen science in fast presentations in a fun, interactive format. The deadline for presentation or poster proposals has been extended, and they will be accepted through Wednesday, Oct. 31. Conference registration is open until 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15. For more information about the conference or to register, visit www.rockymountaincitizenscience.org. Additional conference highlights include a presentation by Charles Preston, a communicator of both the product and process of science to students and the public. He currently is the Willis McDonald IV Senior Curator of Natural Science and founding curator-in-charge of the Draper Natural History Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Preston and his staff at the Draper Natural History Museum have recruited, organized, trained and coordinated a corps of citizen scientists to monitor golden eagle nests in the Big Horn Basin since 2009. The data collected by the Draper Museums Golden Eagle Posse have supported the publication of several scientific and popular publications and a major exhibition, and will appear in an upcoming book about the adventure of fieldwork in shrub-steppe landscapes in the greater Yellowstone National Park area. Conference sponsors include the Draper Natural History Museum, Audubon Rockies and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation. For more information about the conference, email Zoe Nelson, UW Biodiversity Institute project coordinator, at znelson1@uwyo.edu. Company Joins Forces with BBVAs Tuyyo to Bring More Value to Customers HOUSTON, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just Energy, through its Amigo Energy brand, has announced a partnership with BBVAs Tuyyo , a global, mobile money transfer service. The partnership represents Just Energys first joint marketing collaboration. The promotion enables Amigo Energy customers to receive a $100 bill credit when using the Tuyyo app. Tuyyo customers that switch to Amigo Energy gain eligibility for a $100 bill credit on their electricity bill. Joint Marketing partnerships enable us to partner with other companies that can leverage our products and services across their customer base, says Morgan Smith, Just Energys Chief Sales Officer. We look to brands whose offerings complement our own and, together, add value for customers. These collaborations further build on our own brand equity by connecting Just Energy to reliable, established names that consumers can trust. As Tuyyo Global Head, Ignacio de Loyola Gil, explained, the new partnership with Amigo is consistent with the Tuyyo brand main purpose connecting people to send money from the US to Mexico as if there were no boundaries, with a social commitment of helping the Mexican community in both parts of the corridor. With the Tuyyo app, users in the US can easily and conveniently transfer money to friends and family in Mexico. Tuyyo enables users to send funds up to $1,000*, with no fee transfer**. Beneficiaries can receive funds quickly via various retrieval methods -24/7- using the largest pickup network in Mexico. In addition to the no fee transfer benefit, the service further minimizes the related costs typically associated with the receipt of funds with competitive exchange rate. In the coming months, Just Energy looks forward to launching additional partners which will expand the companys distribution network and extend its customer reach. These partnerships are a win all around as affiliate companies share access to customers and exclusive promotions, while consumers gain access to more products and services at reduced cost. About Just Energy Group Inc.: Established in 1997, Just Energy (NYSE:JE, TSX:JE) is a leading retail consumer company specializing in electricity and natural gas commodities, energy efficiency solutions, and renewable energy options. With offices located across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and Japan, Just Energy serves approximately 1.6 million residential and commercial customers, providing homes and businesses with a broad range of energy solutions that deliver comfort, convenience and control. Just Energy Group Inc. is the parent company of Amigo Energy, EdgePower Inc., Filter Group Inc., Green Star Energy, Hudson Energy, Interactive Energy Group, Just Energy Advanced Solutions, Tara Energy and terrapass. Visit justenergygroup.com to learn more. Also, find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter . About BBVA/Tuyyo: Tuyyo is a service provided by BBVA Transfer Services, Inc., licensed as a money transmitter (NMLS ID: #937914) as required in all states * Some restrictions may apply from the paying bank. Please visit https://www.tuyyo.love/faq/ or FAQs in the app for more information. BBVA Transfer Services, Inc., is a member of the BBVA Group. ** Limited time offer: Transfer Fee waived on transactions through Tuyyo. This offer is subject to verification of identity and successful registration in the Tuyyo mobile application and validation of the registrants email. Offer is subject to change without notice. BBVA Transfer Services, Inc., may also obtain a monetary gain from the foreign exchange conversion of some transactions represented by the difference in the retail exchange rate and the wholesale exchange rate at which BBVA Transfer Services, Inc. purchases the foreign currency. Media Contacts: Mississauga, ON, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Applied Systems and Aviva Canada announced today a partnership to drive the adoption of digital technology across the independent brokerage channel. As part of this partnership, Aviva Canadas brokerage partners will be supported in the adoption of Applieds mobility solutions, including Applied CSR24 and Applied MobileInsured, to enable a brokerage-branded connected consumer experience, providing anytime, anywhere access to insurance information. Aviva Canada is keenly focused on providing innovative solutions to advance digital technology adoption and strengthen the broker channel, said Paul Fletcher, senior vice president, Distribution at Aviva Canada. We are excited to partner with Applied to enable brokerages to provide the online experience that todays tech-savvy insurance consumer demands. Applied CSR24, the leading cloud-based client self-service software, enables brokerages to provide customers with 24/7 access to policy information and documents. This includes pink cards, claims filing, processing and premium payments through a mobile application, Applied MobileInsured and an online brokerage-branded client portal, Applied CSR24. Both seamlessly integrate with Applied Epic and Applied TAM reducing manual administrative tasks and allowing brokers to devote more time to serving customers and securing new business. By providing greater flexibility and mobile servicing options, brokerages can increase client satisfaction, build client loyalty and deliver a more competitive business proposition. As the insurance industry enters the digital age, brokerages must provide the connectivity todays consumer expects, said Jeff Purdy, senior vice president of International Operations, Applied Systems. To further extend our support of our Digital Brokerage vision and broader industry initiatives, Applied is pleased to continue its collaboration with Aviva to enable our joint brokerage partners to provide the anytime, anywhere service to consumers throughout the insurance lifecycle. About Applied Systems Applied Systems is the leading global provider of cloud-based software that powers the business of insurance. Recognized as a pioneer in insurance automation and the innovation leader, Applied is the worlds largest provider of agency and brokerage management systems, serving customers throughout the United States, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. By automating the insurance lifecycle, Applieds people and products enable millions of people around the world to safeguard and protect what matters most. About Aviva Canada: Aviva Canada Inc. is one of the leading property and casualty insurance groups in the country providing home, automobile, leisure/lifestyle and business insurance to 2.8 million customers. A wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, the company has more than 4,000 employees focused on creating a bright and sustainable future for their customers and communities. For more information, visit Aviva Canadas blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages. The Department of Justice has sued the state of California for passing a Net Neutrality law that goes against the federal administrations policy of deregulating the Internet. The lawsuit argues that the new law places burdensome regulations on the Internet and is anti-consumer in nature. The Net Neutrality law The Net Neutrality bill was signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown and will prohibit Internet service providers in the state from charging websites like Netflix or Google, which use up a large percentage of bandwidth, a fee to speed up connections. In addition, the law also makes the zero rating scheme of the ISPs illegal. The zero rating scheme allowed an ISP to exclude their own apps and services from a customers data plan, effectively providing it for free while charging similar apps and services from competitors. The Federal administration has come down heavily against the law, with the Justice Department suing the state of California immediately after passage of the bill, SB 822. The FCC had passed an order in January 2018 that repealed a 2015 decision that had prevented ISPs from prioritizing traffic in exchange for a fee. The Justice Department argues in the complaint that the 2018 FCC order effectively preempts states from imposing any rules that the FCC itself had repealed. California, however, seeks to second-guess the Federal Governments regulatory approach by enacting SB-822. Under the Constitution, states do not regulate interstate commerce the federal government does. Once again, the California legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy, ZD Net quotes the complaint. Why the Net Neutrality law is a bad idea While Net Neutrality supporters claim that banning zero rating schemes and preventing Internet companies from being charged a higher fee for faster connections will benefit the public by keeping the Internet equal for all, the truth is that Californias law actually goes against the interests of the customers. By banning the zero rating schemes of the ISPs, California has effectively blocked its residents from accessing as much free content on the Internet as possible without having to worry about data limits. The Epoch Times quotes Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai as saying that not only is Californias Internet regulation law illegal, it also hurts consumers. The law prohibits many free-data plans, which allow consumers to stream video, music, and the like exempt from any data limits. Allowing ISPs to charge big companies like Netflix and Google a higher fee for faster connections is also beneficial. It wont lead to a monopoly, like the proponents claim, where ISPs dictate how fast users are able to access a particular site. Instead, it will create a wide range of Internet markets that cater to different segments of customers. While some customers may be happy paying for a service that speeds up their favorite websites like Netflix and offers a slower speed for the rest of the Internet, other customers will choose ISPs that provide them fast access to every website. Net Neutrality, in fact, stands against the very concept of a neutral Internet. The wording is misleading. Going by the meaning of Net Neutrality, one would assume a free market, while, in fact, Net Neutrality supporters actually want more government control over the Internet. What is needed is not neutrality, but differentiated choices. With enough choices for Internet access, there would be no need for net neutrality rules. The market will ensure that Internet service providers offer the options that customers demand, Jeffrey Dorfman, a professor of economics at the University of Georgia, writes in a Forbes article. In effect, the needs of every kind of customer will be accommodated by keeping the ISPs deregulated as the Trump administration wants. But the California bill goes against this very idea. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our weekly email Gibraltar American Council Updated on Brexit The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia has highlighted the importance of raising the profile of Gibraltar in the United States of America at an event in New York with the Gibraltar American Council. He also updated Council Members on the negotiations for the United Kingdom and Gibraltar to leave the European Union. Dr Garcia thanked both the leader of the Council Mrs Toby Roosevelt and Congressman George Holding for their continued support. He also thanked Gibraltars US Representative David Liston for his work. A group of young Gibraltarians who are currently on three month internships in Washington were present in New York to listen to the discussions on Gibraltar before the UN 4th Committee and later for the Council event. The Deputy Chief Minister highlighted the political, commercial and military links between Gibraltar and the United States. He revealed that a Resolution in the US House of Representatives which supported Gibraltars right to self-determination now had 54 signatories. These were from both the Republican and Democrat parties and included four Committee Chairmen, including Armed Services, Intelligence and Homeland Security. Dr Garcia then outlined the historic military connection between Gibraltar and the United States, which continued to this day. He explained that the formation of a Gibraltar American Chamber of Commerce, AMCHAM, had resulted in three trade visits so far. A meeting of Sister Cities International has taken place in Gibraltar in April. The gathering provided an opportunity for Gibraltarians in the United States and supporters of Gibraltar to exchange views on the latest developments. Dr Garcia addresses Gibraltar American Council in the presence of Gibraltar interns based in Washington Positive Pathways Celebrates its First Anniversary Local charity Positive Pathways is celebrating one year of providing support to people who have experienced mental health difficulties in the past, enabling them to train, gain experience and develop their self-confidence within employment. AIMS OF THE CHARITY To provide Job opportunities and experience, in conjunction with Clubhouse Gibraltars Transitional Employment Program (TEP), for people who are/have been affected by Mental Health problems. To support people affected by Mental Health problems, with the opportunities to access education, training courses and attend conferences. To support people who are dealing/have dealt with Mental Health problems to enable them to work towards independent living. To work in partnership with Clubhouse Gibraltar in delivering Mental Health First Aid courses. Positive Pathways has been working in partnership with Clubhouse Gibraltar, other mental health charities, local businesses and Gibraltar Government to explore ways to fund this project and create opportunities for members of the Gibraltar community with Mental Health difficulties, who have been long term unemployed and feel they would like to return to work. Positive Pathways is supporting Clubhouse Gibraltars Transitional Employment Program (TEP) in offering its members opportunities to work in different sectors of employment. The current project is within the catering and hospitality sector, by running the cafeteria at Ocean Views Facility. ACHIEVEMENTS Over the last 12 months the Positive Pathways has: Provided an employment placement for six persons under the TEP program. One of which has been successful in securing employment. Clubhouse members have worked a total of 578 hours over the past year. Placements have given individuals a sense of purpose. "Working in the Cafeteria gives me a reason to get up in the morning. If I didnt have this TEP opportunity, I would just sit at home and start thinking about things, then my negative thoughts begin and my depression kicks in. I have been diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder". A.G. Employees expressed an increase in confidence and self-esteem. With regards to their employability, increased personal awareness, goals and aspirations for the future. TEP employees have completed Level 1 Food and Safety Course. Employees were supported in developing life skills and vocational skills such as customer care, using a cash till and general kitchen skills. With support by using the Recovery Star Model and regular supervision, employees felt able to increase the hours worked and their standard and sense of responsibility throughout their placement. "I know that I can ring when I am having an off day due to my mental health problems, and there is no risk of losing my job. When I come back to work we can talk about why I couldnt come to work and try and put things in place so it doesnt happen again". B.O. Positive Pathways have delivered 8 Mental Health First Aid Courses and trained nearly 100 people to become Mental Health First Aiders. Catering for events held by Clubhouse Gibraltar and Mental Health First Aid Courses. Mental Health First Aid, provides people with an awareness of mental health as well as the tools to have sensitive conversations and develop communication skills such as listening skills. Positive Pathways staff have been trained as Mental Health First Aiders, this has enabled them to support Clubhouse TEP employees and provide a listening ear to patients, staff and visitors at Ocean Views Complex (Mental Health Facility, Hillside and Bella Vista). Some TEP employees have been patients of Ocean Views, while working in the cafe they have acted as role models to others, giving current patients hope for recovery. Positive Pathways has acted as a bridging service for Ocean Views patients, who have accessed Clubhouse services and enrolled in educational courses. SUPPORT & FUNDRAISING Along with support from local business, Positive Pathways has been working in partnership with other charities and organisations to tackle mental health stigma and increase mental health awareness. During the past 12 months they have organised flag days, quiz nights, delivering Mental Health First Aid Training and received donations. LOOKING FORWARD After the success of delivering Adult Mental Health First Aid and delivering bespoke mental health awareness training, in partnership with Clubhouse Gibraltar, both charities are now trained to deliver Youth Mental Health First Aid. The course is aimed at anyone that works with or supports young people from the age of 8 to 18 on a regular basis. For further information on Youth or Adult Mental Health First Aid email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Positive Pathways is working with Clubhouse Gibraltar and local businesses to develop a scheme where they could support and develop Transitional Employment Placements (TEPs) in other fields. If you are interested in supporting this scheme in any way please contact Clubhouse Gibraltar. Maniac Option C Season 1 Episode 8 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * * Previous Next Photo: Michele K. Short / Netflix I know you cant see straight right now because all you can think about is the fact that Owen turns into a goddamn hawk at the end of this episode and essentially flies into Mordor to find Annie where he gets zapped by a little bolt from Greta Mantleray/Queen Gertruths hands like a lite version of the Emperor electrocuting Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi. You didnt sign up for this, I know. None of us signed up for Transfiguration. But can I just push you a wee bit to think that maybe, just maybe, this kind of TV, that doesnt take itself so damn seriously, is kinda fun? Were back in Owens and Annies confrontation phase surrealist fever dreams hes still the mafiosos son with a heart (and some teeth) of gold, and shes a half-breed elf on a quest to bring the Princess Ellia to the Lake of the Clouds to heal the royal elfs fatal ailments. Except Annia is now self-aware that this isnt real, that shes inside her own head: a rather dangerous, or at least alarming, place to be. Remarkably, Annie tries to wake herself up (after an encounter with some local grubs who are begging not to be eaten). Itd be the logical response of almost anyone once you realize youre in a perilous dream, you almost always want out. Except Annie once spent days drugging herself so that she could see her sister die over and over again such was the level of her desperation to simply spend time with Ellie again and here she is, urging herself out of a far more pleasant (at that point) fantasy in which she can carouse and share stories with her long-dead sister. Is she healing? Could this ass-backwards non-therapy be working? At first Ellia, of course, sees Annies protestations that this is all a fantasy as the ravings of a madwoman. But during a sweet conversation around the campfire the two manage to find each other, recounting stories with markedly different twists they both recall about their childhood. Eventually, they dont seem to be speaking past another anymore. Theyre connected, sisters again. And no matter how many hawks swoop in yelling Annie Im coming for you! scenes like these secure the deep humanity of Maniac. After winding their way past the burning tree that Lady Nora indicated they would find, the two women come to the lake itself. This is it, Ellie says, now fully herself, This is the place where I died. Its an exact replica of the cliff Annie and Ellie drove over, complete with the same spread of jagged rocks a hundred feet down below. The Lake of the Cloud wont heal Ellie by making her well again it will (potentially) heal both women by forcing them to confront Ellies inevitable death and Annies loss. Back in the diner, Owen and Olivia are re-creating their pasts too, making good on that plan to study together. Paranoia slips like a liquid into every available crack and crevice in Owens mind. Olivia, his crush in real life and his new darling in this dream, last dated a man involved in criminal enterprises and as she vociferously denies that she acted as a mole in any way, both Owens are starting to sweat. Mafia Owen is the literal son of a don and fearful that Olivia would scorn him at once if she knew; hes also wearing a wire himself. Real-life Owen, whose mind is occasionally slipping through the artifice of the dream state, cant stand to see his relationship with Olivia implode again because of his fears and delusions. The next sequences are such a fast-paced churning of events that I began to feel a bit queasy. Its an almost Modernist attempt at stream-of-consciousness filmmaking, where activity swirls around a character as he works to take in and make sense of what he can, while flashes of his deepest fears come to life in the guises of the people he loves and those he barely abides. Owen arrives at the hotel room to insist that he cant wear the wire anymore his father has killed his brother, he knows hes next, and even though his dad doesnt possess that sixth sense for rooting out disloyalty, hes still burrowing into peoples brains with a drill and Owen is certainly on his list for a Home Depot lobotomy. The cops agree that they can pull him out, and then place a call to an unnamed person, leaving a nonsensical message. When theres a knock on the door just seconds later, everyone assumes that its the cops contact, come to collect Owen. But its Jed! I mean Jed Grimsson (get it? Grim son?) and hes the long-lost son Owens father told him about and hes here to kill Adelaide and the second cop and then, most likely, Owen. Except here comes Owens fathers attorney, busting in the door, and blasting Jeds boss in two with Death Becomes Her hilarity. Hes been undercover for 36 years, he says, and hes there to spirit Jed away! Phew. Finally, Owen ends up where his heart has always wanted to be: he convinces Olivia to run away with him, to marry him, and the two skate off into a nightmarish sunset of resentment and encumbrance. Squealing children adorn practically every inch of their apartment (I counted seven in all), including up in hammocks suspended from the ceiling. The apartment, you may have noticed, is the minuscule studio that appeared too small for just Owen in real life. This future with Olivia or at least this version of a future with Olivia is no better than eternal solitude or a drill bit into his gray matter. Its hard to know if this is Owens brain manufacturing a deterrent to even imagining a better life, or Greta intentionally crossing wires to scare Owen from fully healing. Or maybe its Owens way of providing his own brain with an exit from a fate hell never inhabit. After all, the last thing he says before leaping out the window in a pathetic re-creation of his suicide attempt at his brothers engagement party is that he isnt supposed to be there. And then, he turns into a hawk. I suspect this is the moment where any viewers on the fence about Maniac have wished they could fly far far away from their televisions. And at first, I wanted to as well, irritated that the show felt the need to turn a character into an anthropomorphic hawk who yells the most obvious lines poassible (Annie, Im a hawk!) while soaring over majestic landscapes like some sort of Nature Channel special. Then I remembered the most outlandish and my personal favorite scene from Les Grossmans The Magicians, in which his protagonists (who are in training at a college for magic) are turned into geese for a season, and forced to inhabit the bodies of creatures entirely preoccupied by their most basic, fundamental needs. That scene so unexpected made the novel. It proved that Grossman was willing to overstep the invisible but taut lines keeping fiction in check. In Maniac the product is far campier, but it fulfills the same role. As Owen the Hawk glides over the Lake of the Cloud, Queen Gertruth/Greta Mantleray/Gertie comes flying in like the White Witch through Narnia, making no promises, but seemingly telling Annie that if she agrees to stay in the magical realm that she can live happily with Ellie forever. Fantasy is Annies least favorite genre, which may be why shes unfamiliar with its tropes a promise thats too good to be true is always just that. But Annie ignores Ellies sage advice to say good-bye, and hops in the queens pickup. As the truck careens away from Ellie, Annie also gives up on the chance of walking away from Ellie on her own, a feat that might bring her closer to closure. Side Effects When Owen is going down the steps into his fathers office we hear his dad say Put those Converse sneakers in the furnace. And roll out that periwinkle coffin, its calming. The Milgrims have a new system for ensuring that the drill battery never again fails them in a time of need. The scene in which Greta confronts Gertie, and the two duke it out for dominance inside the computers mind, was delightful in its execution (This is all your hysteria, Greta) and unsatisfying in its brevity. Was the entire plotline contrived just so it could end like this? I hope not. Why a hawk? Remember the story of Jeds childhood gerbil, eaten up by a hawk that Owen rescued from the park? Now Owen gets to embody that hawk, a symbol of strength, and attempt to rescue another woman from peril. Hes simultaneously reliving his most tender moments and his most heroic. Almost 30 years after the first film adaptation of Stephen Kings Pet Sematary, dead is still better than the alternative of planting something passed on in a mysterious graveyard forest only to have it return as a dark and festering version of its former self. But some lessons are worth teaching again! This time around Jason Clarke stars as the Creed family patriarch, Louis, and a weathered-looking John Lithgow fills the role of Jud Crandall. (With the state of Maine playing the spookiest supporting actor of them all, naturally.) After the Creeds experience a terrible tragedy, they look to the foreboding cemetery beyond the tree line for desperate solutions, and their choices will bring forth a little slice of hell on earth. The new Pet Sematary opens in theaters on April 5. Related VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Veritas Pharma Inc. (CSE: VRT; OTC: VRTHF; and Frankfurt: 2VP) (Veritas or the Company) is pleased to announce that Cannevert Therapeutics Ltd.s (Cannevert) Director of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance, Dr. Andrew Hegle has been selected to attend the 7th Annual Masterclass Medicinal Cannabis in Ottawa, Ontario from October 28 to November 2, 2018. The Masterclass Medicinal Cannabis is an exclusive education seminar hosted by Dr. Arno Hazekamp, the former Head of Research and Education for Bedrocan BV, a multinational company that has been growing and supplying pharmaceutical grade medicinal cannabis since the early 1980s. Since its start in 2011, the Masterclass has provided a one week intensive and in-depth learning environment focused on providing science-based information on all aspects of cannabis as a plant-based medicine. The program is designed to educate individuals from all walks of life, including patients, politicians, advocates, scientists, business, physicians, and ancillary services to the industry. This year marks the first time the Masterclass has been held outside of the Netherlands, and comes at the heels of Federal legalization in Canada, making it the first G7 nation to fully legalize cannabis. Masterclass 2018 will be held in cooperation with Canopy Growth, an international and widely diversified Licensed Cannabis Producer headquartered in Canada. Masterclass participants will have the opportunity to visit their state-of-the-art facilities in Smith Falls, Ontario during the final day of the course. Veritas CEO, Dr. Lui Franciosi, stated that We are pleased to have Cannevert represented again at this event. Bedrocan continues to have an interest in Canneverts scientific approach of using functional techniques to assess the potential of whole plant extracts for specific disease conditions. It will give Andrew an opportunity to learn and contribute to the best practices in the medicinal cannabis industry. About Veritas Pharma Inc. Veritas Pharma Inc. is an emerging pharmaceutical and IP development company, who, through its 100% owned subsidiary Cannevert Therapeutics Ltd. (CTL), is advancing the science behind medical cannabis. It is the Companys aim, through its investment in CTL, to develop the most effective cannabis strains (cultivars) specific to pain, nausea, epilepsy and PTSD, solving the critical need for clinical data to support medical marijuana claims. CTLs unique value proposition uses a low-cost research and development model to help drive shareholder value, and speed-to-market. Veritas investment in CTL is led by a strong management team, bringing together veteran academic pharmacologists, anesthetists & chemists. The companys commercial mission is to patent protect IP (cultivars & strains) and sell or license to cancer clinics, insurance industry and pharma, targeting multi-billion-dollar markets according to Deloittes Insights and Opportunities. Veritas Pharma Inc. is a publicly traded company in Canada, on the Canadian Stock Exchange under the ticker VRT; in the United States, on the OTC under the ticker VRTHF; and in Germany, on the Frankfurt exchange under the ticker 2VP. For more information, please visit our website: veritaspharmainc.com On behalf of the Board of Directors " Dr. Lui Franciosi" Dr. Lui Franciosi President and Chief Executive Officer Further information about the Company is available on our website at www.veritaspharmainc.com or under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the CSE website at www.thecse.com. Investor and Public Relations Contact Veritas Pharma Inc. Sam Eskandari Telephone: +1.416.918.6785 Email: ir@veritaspharmainc.com Website: www.veritaspharmainc.com The CSE has not reviewed, nor approved or disapproved the content of this press release. A WATERFORD GP has claimed we are now experiencing the worst level of Covid-19 in the country because we were effectively spared the brunt... WATERFORD is the most sunny city in Ireland and the county is second in the sunshine league, being pipped to first place by our... Markham, Ontario, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Flowr Corporation (TSXV: FLWR), through its subsidiary The Flowr Group (Okanagan) Inc. (collectively Flowr or the Company), announced today that it has shipped all product requested in the initial purchase order the Company received from the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC). The NSLC is the provincial authority that controls adult recreational-use cannabis sales and retail outlets in Nova Scotia. Were very pleased the NSLC recognized our ability to deliver high quality cannabis in the volumes it needs to meet the current demands of Nova Scotian consumers, said Tom Flow, Flowrs Co-Founder and President. Flowrs cultivation team has been ramping up production in preparation for October 17 and we remain confident that we can meet all our commitments to our provincial partners and be well positioned for increased demand in the future. Flowr was named a supplier to the NSLC in August and received its initial purchase order from the Province shortly thereafter. The Company also has been named a supplier to authorities in Ontario and British Columbia for both its Flowr brand products and through its partnership with Ace Valley, a new cannabis brand from the team behind Ace Hill Beer. Flowr anticipates fulfilling its initial purchase orders from the Ontario Cannabis Store and the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Board in full prior to October 17th. The Company also recently announced it had begun sales of its FlowrRx branded medical cannabis products nationally through clinics and the Flowr website. Flowr is headquartered in Markham, Ontario and is constructing both an 85,000 square foot cultivation facility and, through a strategic R&D alliance with Hawthorne Canada Limited, a subsidiary of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE: SMG), a 50,000 square foot research and development facility in Kelowna, British Columbia. About Flowr The Flowr Corporation (TSXV: FLWR), through its subsidiaries, is a vertically integrated Canadian cannabis company focused on the natural science of cannabis. With head offices in Markham, ON and production in Kelowna, BC, Flowr builds and operates large-scale, GMP designed cultivation facilities utilizing its own patented growing systems. Flowrs investment in research and development is expected to enable its cultivation team to supply patients with consistent, high-quality medicinal cannabis. With a sense of craftsmanship and a spirit of innovation, Flowr is also well positioned with a line of premium quality cannabis products for the upcoming adult-use market. For more information, visit www.flowr.ca Follow Flowr on Twitter: @FlowrCanada; Facebook: Flowr Canada; Instagram: @flowrcanada; and LinkedIn: The Flowr Corporation On behalf of The Flowr Corporation Thomas Flow President Forward-Looking Information This press release includes forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws regarding Flowr and its business, which may include, but is not limited to: the ability to meet demand for cannabis in various provinces, Flowr fulfilling all purchase orders, Flowr being positioned to meet future demand, Flowr meeting its commitments to the provinces and other partners, Flowrs ability to bring premium, quality products to the market, Flowrs investment in research and development enabling its cultivation team to supply patients with consistent, high quality medicinal cannabis and other factors. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, is expected, expects, scheduled, intends, contemplates, anticipates, believes, proposes or variations (including negative and grammatical variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Such statements are based on the current expectations of Flowrs management and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Although Flowrs management believes that the assumptions underlying these statements are reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this press release may not occur by certain specified dates or at all and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Flowr, including risks relating to Flowr not being able to meet demand or fulfill purchase orders, which could materially impact revenues and its relationships with purchasers, Flowr requiring additional financing from time to time in order to continue its operations and such financing may not be available when needed or on terms and conditions acceptable to the Company, new laws or regulations adversely affecting the Companys business and results of operations, results of operation activities and development of projects, project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, the inability of Flowrs products to be high quality, the inability of Flowr to produce and distribute premium, high quality products, the inability to complete construction of Flowrs cultivation facility or any delay in the construction thereof, the inability to supply the products described herein or any delay in such supply, Flowrs securities, the inability to generate cash flows, revenues and/or stable margins, the inability to grow organically, risks associated with the geographic markets in which Flowr operates and/or distributes its products, risks associated with fluctuations in exchange rates (including, without limitation, fluctuations in currencies), risks associated with the use of Flowrs products to treat certain conditions, the cannabis industry and the regulation thereof, the failure to comply with applicable laws, risks relating to partnership arrangements, possible failure to realize the anticipated benefits of partnership arrangements, product launches (including, without limitation, unsuccessful product launches), the inability to launch products, the failure to obtain regulatory approvals, economic factors, market conditions, risks associated with the acquisition and/or launch of products, the equity and debt markets generally, risks associated with growth and competition (including, without limitation, with respect to Flowrs products), general economic and stock market conditions, risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in Flowrs filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators and many other factors beyond the control of Flowr. Although Flowr has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. No forward-looking information can be guaranteed. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and Flowr undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. - ends - The 21st RILO WE NCP Meeting was held in Rome/Italy on 19 and 20 September 2018. The event was co-hosted by the Italian Guardia di Finanza and the Agenzia delle Dogan e dei Monopoli. The meeting brought together 19 out of 22 member countries of the Western European region, representatives of the RILOs ECE, AP and CIS as well as colleagues from Europol, the WCO, the Pompidou Group and an expert from German Customs. During the two meeting days RILO matters like the Annual Working Plan, CEN developments and ideas for new activities were lively discussed. The afternoon of the second day was dedicated to the topic Aviaton with a special focus on General Aviation. Experts from German Customs, the Pompidou Group and the WCO gave in-depth presentations and gave the participants the opportunity to learn about this blind spot topic. Following the conclusion of the operational part of Operation Cosmo 2, STCE trainings return to Latin America in full swing to support the development of STCE capacities of countries in the region. The WCO Security Programme conducted a national Strategic Trade Control Enforcement (STCE) training workshop in Santiago, Chile from 3 to 6 September 2018. National trainings, such as the event recently conducted in Chile, support Customs administrations to comply with non-proliferation obligations set forth by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004). At trainings, frontline staff are assisted to identify weapons of mass destruction, their constituent parts, means of delivery and dual-use materials and items needed to manufacture them. Participants came from a variety of customs environments, including land borders, ports, and airports. The training introduced them to the concept of STCE and covered controlled materials and equipment and how to identify them. Following the training, an orientation meeting took place where senior managers (enforcement, classification, laboratory) demonstrated and reiterated their commitment and full support for their strategic trade control at Chilean Customs. After the briefing, WCO visited the well-equipped and expanding customs laboratory of Chilean Customs. To find out about hosting a national STCE workshop, please contact Adam Vas, STCE Programme Coordinator (Adam.Vas@wcoomd.org ). NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Plateau Energy Metals Inc. (Plateau or the Company) (TSX VENTURE:PLU) (FRANKFURT:QG1A) (OTCQB:PLUUF) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of agents, led by Haywood Securities Inc. and including Eight Capital and Cormark Securities Inc. (the Agents), that has agreed to sell, on a best efforts private placement basis, up to 4,740,000 units (the Units) at a price of $0.95 per Unit (the Issue Price), for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $4,503,000 (the Offering). The Agents will have the option, but not the obligation, exercisable in whole or in part at any time up to the closing of the Offering, to increase the size of the Offering by up to an additional 711,000 Units at the Issue Price. Each Unit will consist of one common share in the capital of the Company (each a Share) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a Warrant). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional Share (a Warrant Share) at a price of $1.25 per Warrant Share for a period of 18 months from the closing of the Offering. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering for the exploration and development of the Companys lithium and uranium projects in Peru, and for working capital and general corporate purposes. The Offering is scheduled to close on or about October 31, 2018 (the Closing Date), and is subject to certain conditions customary for transaction of this nature including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The securities issued under the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day following the Closing Date. The securities to be offered pursuant to the Offering have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or any applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Plateau Energy Metals Plateau Energy Metals Inc. is a Canadian lithium and uranium exploration and development company focused on its properties on the Macusani Plateau in southeastern Peru. The Company controls all reported uranium resources known in Peru, significant and growing lithium resources and mineral concessions covering over 93,000 hectares (930 km2) situated near significant infrastructure. Plateau Energy Metals is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol 'PLU', quoted on the OTCQB under the symbol PLUUF and the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol 'QG1'. The Company has 71,620,208 shares issued and outstanding. For further information, please contact: Plateau Energy Metals Inc. Website: www.plateauenergymetals.com Alex Holmes, CEO & Director Facebook: www.facebook.com/pluenergy/ +1-416-628-9600 Twitter: www.twitter.com/pluenergy/ info@plateauenergymetals.com Forward Looking Information This news release includes certain forward-looking statements concerning the completion of the Offering, the size of the Offering, the Closing Date, the use of the proceeds from the Offering and the Companys plans with respect to its properties. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend", scheduled, subject, efforts, option and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including risks and uncertainties relating to the ability to complete the Offering; the size of the Offering; the anticipated Closing Date; receipt of all approvals required in connection with the Offering; the use of the proceeds from the Offering; interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that any future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with our expectations; mining and development risks, including risks related to accidents, equipment breakdowns, labour disputes (including work stoppages and strikes) or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in exploration and development; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities; risks related to commodity price and foreign exchange rate fluctuations; risks related to foreign operations; the cyclical nature of the industry in which we operate; risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms or delays in obtaining governmental approvals; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the certainty of title to our properties; risks related to the uncertain global economic environment; and other risks and uncertainties related to our prospects, properties and business strategy, as described in more detail in Plateau Energy Metals recent securities filings available at www.sedar.com . Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and Plateau cautions against placing undue reliance thereon. Neither Plateau nor its management assume any obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements. 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. 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. OP-ED: We're all building something Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 09, 2018 | MCCRACKEN COUNTY By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 09, 2018 | 09:06 PM | MCCRACKEN COUNTY Some of Senator Danny Carroll's campaign yard signs have been vandalized in the past week. Senator Carroll told West Kentucky Star that he knew of at least two signs that had been spray painted. These were in the Highway 62 area and also in the Grahamville community. The sign in the Grahamville community, which was seen by a West Kentucky Star Staff member, had been spray painted with the letters, "RTW". Senator Carroll said he assumes these letters refer to, "Right to Work". He said he has no idea who is responsible for these acts, and he also said that, "unfortunately, this sort of activity is just part of being in politics today." Vandalizing campaign signs in the Commonwealth of Kentucky is a criminal mischief misdemeanor, under KRS Chapter 512, and can be punishable by a fine of up to $500, and a year in jail. Cleveland, OH, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The costumes, the candy, the fun with friends and family the experience of trick-or-treating is a memorable one that is fun for youngsters and nostalgic for the young at heart. With American Greetings newest innovation, the surprises and excitement of this ubiquitous tradition are available now in the card aisle. Send frightfully fun Halloween wishes to your favorite trick-players and treat-lovers with Doorbell Delights. Make their Halloween spooky and happy with Doorbell Delights! Featuring illustrated scenes and lettering, these haunted houses add the perfect touch of cute n creepy to this candy-filled season. One push of the doorbell, and the front door swings open to reveal a dancing character singing along to an entertainingly twisted song. Invite Doorbell Delights to your celebration this Halloween and guests will come knocking for fun. Designs in this spooky-sweet collection include a trick-or-scream eyeball, a spider wishing a creepy-crawly Halloween, and a ghostly candy corn. Shoppers look to the greeting card category as a way to express fun and excitement for Halloween, said Carol Miller, vice president of corporate innovation at American Greetings. The spirited surprises and creatures make Doorbell Delights a monstrously good time. This year marks the 10th anniversary of American Greetings Pipeline of Innovation! As the industry leader in greeting card inventions, we have proudly introduced 180 new greeting card formats under the Inventions brand, offering the ultimate selection of exciting, new-to-the-world ways to celebrate birthdays and other happy occasions. Incorporating brand-new twists on technology in cards with carefully written copy and celebratory artwork, the combined effect is the perfect selection of greeting cards that are sure to surprise and delight any recipient. Continue the fun and spread the wow factor of our dynamic greeting card innovations by sharing your pictures, videos and messages on social platforms with the hashtag #BestCardEver. Consumers can find Doorbell Delights cards, in addition to a great selection of inspiring cards from American Greetings, at participating drug chains, grocery stores and mass retailers nationwide, as well as in American Greetings and Carlton Cards retail stores. Those who enjoy sending ecards can share American Greetings cards online from www.americangreetings.com. For more information on American Greetings, visit www.corporate.americangreetings.com. You can also follow American Greetings on Twitter, Facebook, American Greetings blog, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram. About American Greetings As the leader in meaningful connections, American Greetings is committed to making the world a more thoughtful and caring place. Founded in 1906, the creator and manufacturer of innovative social expression products offers paper cards, digital greetings, gift wrap, party goods and more to help consumers honor the people and moments in life that really matter. The Company's major greeting card brands are American Greetings, Papyrus, Recycled Paper Greetings and Carlton Cards. AmericanGreetings.com lets consumers shop and buy paper cards, ecards, printables, party supplies and gift wrap along with providing useful content that educates and inspires visitors to connect more meaningfully. The 112 year-old Company is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and its products can be found in retail outlets worldwide. For more information, please visit www.americangreetings.com/corporate. Attachment By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 09, 2018 | 08:23 PM | PADUCAH The Paducah Board of Commissioners approved an ordinance Tuesday setting the real estate and personal property tax rates for fiscal year 2019.A property tax levy public hearing was held at the previous Commission meeting. With this ordinance approval, the Citys real estate tax levy is set at 26.1 cents per $100 assessed value, a 2.3 percent change as compared to the fiscal year 2018 rate of 25.5 cents. The Citys Compensating Rate, the rate that would keep the revenue at the same amount as this fiscal year, is 25.1 cents per $100 assessed value. Kentucky Revised Statutes permits a city to adjust the rate upward by not more than 4 percent of the compensating rate. With the 26.1 cents, the City is taking the 4 percent allowed by KRS.The rate of 26.1 cents is much less than what the rate was more than twenty years ago in fiscal year 1995. At that time the real estate rate was 43.8 cents per $100 assessed value. The revenue generated by the property tax is the Citys second highest revenue source, behind the payroll tax.Recently, the Paducah Independent School District voted to set its tax rate at 84 cents per $100 of assessed value which is up from last years 79.7 cents. The City collects the school tax but passes the funds along to the district.The Pat & Jim Brockenborough Rotary Health Park Sprayground and Restroom Project Contract will be voted on October 23rd. The Paducah Board of Commissioners approved a contract with Evrard/Strang Contractors in the amount of $515,000 for the construction of a sprayground and restroom facility at the Pat & Jim Brockenborough Rotary Health Park located at 421 North 13th Street.After receiving the Notice to Proceed, this will be a 150 calendar day project. Parks & Recreation Department Director Mark Thompson says, We are excited to get the ground broken on this part of the park".Regarding the generous donation by the Brockenborough family for the park, Mayor Brandi Harless added, Thank you to the Brockenboroughs with all of our hearts.Two bids were received for this project with Evrard/Strang Construction providing the lowest qualified bid. Rezoning and Final Annexation of Properties on Hinkleville Road, Harris Road, and Olivet Church Road, with the vote to be on October 23rd.On July 24, 2018, the Paducah Board of Commissioners approved an intent to annex ordinance for several properties adjacent to Paducahs west side. The properties total nearly 70 acres and have five different property owners. At this meeting, ordinances were introduced for the final annexation of the properties and the rezoning of the properties from Low Density Residential (R-1) to Highway Business District (HBD). The Paducah Planning Commission met September 5, 2018, and provided a positive recommendation about the rezoning.Three property owners requested the annexation of their properties:*In a letter dated May 2, 2018, Ms. Nancy Bergfield requested the annexation of 5201 Hinkleville Road.*In a letter dated March 16, 2018, Ms. Alberta Davis requested the annexation of 5310 Harris Road and 5325 Hinkleville Road.*In a letter dated May 2, 2018, Falconite Real Estate Holdings, LLC requested the annexation of Tracts 2 and 3 on an annexation plat in addition to 2705 Olivet Church Road.To help facilitate growth, the City also intends to annex Tract 5 (19.95 acres owned by Menard, Inc.) and Tract 6 (8.0 acres owned by Harriett Reed, Trustee of Walter Reed Trust) as shown on the annexation plat. Plats showing all of the properties can be found in the meeting packet at http://paducahky.gov/2018-city-commission.In other business, the commission heard the consent agenda, and approved nine municipal orders. They also approved an ordinance for the partial street closure of DAV Drive, also known as Green Street. The adjacent property owner Mid-South Energy Properties, LLC requested the closure which received a positive recommendation from the Paducah Planning Commission. On the Net: Advertisement By Tim Brockwell Oct. 09, 2018 | PADUCAH By Tim Brockwell Oct. 09, 2018 | 06:05 PM | PADUCAH Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin was in Paducah Tuesday afternoon to announce a new effort in the war against the invasive Asian carp that may create new financial opportunities for area anglers. Bevin and other state officials were at West Kentucky Community and Technical College Tuesday afternoon to reveal a new public-private partnership which allocates state funds to boost the price paid for the prolific fish. Wickliffe-based Kentucky Fish Center, LLC has been awarded a contract to operate a fish house that will buy Kentucky-caught carp at a guaranteed price of 19 cents per pound, which it will sell daily at auction. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife will oversee the auctions, and will pay an additional five cents per pound, along with up to $4 million in loans and incentives. The program includes a $734,000 secured loan for fixed assets to assist the fish house with start-up costs. Performance-based incentives of $570,000 to $700,000 a year will also be awarded if the escalating yearly harvest goals of 5 to 20 million pounds of fish are met. The secured loan would be forgiven in 2024 if the 20 million pound goal is met that year. State boat registration fees will pay for the project. Angie Yu, who operates Two Rivers Fishery in Wickliffe, made the announcement. She will also own and run the new fish center. Yu said the new partnership is a step forward in the constant battle against the carp. "Asian carp pose a serious threat to our tourism, to our ecology and our economy. I think this program, this partnership, is an encouraging step in the right direction." Yu said, adding that the current average market price for Asian carp is about 20 cents per pound. Bevin lauded everyone involved in the project for their work in making the plan a reality, saying the state has explored other ideas to deal with the fish, such as burying millions of pounds of it every year. He said ultimately the current plan to incentivize harvesting of the carp was the best choice. "We had an original proposal where the government would have solved this by taking $3.5 million a year to bury tons and tons of fish, but the expectation was at its peak we might have been able to move as many as 5 million pounds," Bevin said. "For a fraction of that, we're gonna subsidize what the market is already bearing by giving fishermen an extra five cents a pound." Bevin said the new partnership presents a big financial opportunity to motivated fishermen, saying a small crew could easily make six-figures fishing for Asian carp. "A two person crew could make, if you fished 240 days a year, you could make $200,000. This is a lot of money. If you enjoy fishing it's a way you could make a lot of money doing it." Bevin said. A local commercial fisherman who attended the meeting disputed Bevin's estimate, saying it's very difficult to make a profit harvesting the carp at current prices. "There's nobody that's making any money just fishing for these carp. By the time you buy a boat, a truck and nets that cost $300 a piece that are torn up after a couple weeks, you can't make any profit." He said. "This is a good point. This is a voice of reason and life experience," Bevin replied. "But here's what I also know, if the market bears 17, 18, 19, 20 cents a pound, and the state's putting another five cents on it, for 23 to 25 cents a pound there are people that will find a way to monetize this." Asian carp, originally brought into the country to control aquatic weeds and algae blooms in fish farms, have spread into the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois rivers, as well as Kentucky and Barkley lakes. A single large Asian carp may produce up to a million eggs every year, and can consume 5 to 40 percent of its body weight each day. By WestKyStar Staff Jul. 23, 2018 | 09:15 PM | PADUCAH Paducah Tilghman High School's class of 1968 will celebrate its 50th class reunion next week on Friday, October 19 and Saturday, October 20.Reunion organizers have gathered contact information for over 250 classmates, but still hope to be in touch with their remaining classmates. With the reunion a little over a week away, there's still a little time to make plans to be part of their activities. They ask alumni to check the list at the reunion's official website to see if more info is out there (pths69.com).The committee is also looking for photos of class members, both from their time in school and for current family photos. They could also use other "classic" photos of Paducah or Tilghman from the era. They have a bound collection of all the Tilghman Bells from the Class of '68."It's all coming together," says Dan Hurt, "but we'd like to be in touch with as many of our Class of '68 as possible before our October 19-20 reunion."Get more information and register for the event online at pths68.com (linked below) or for more information, contact Rita Jo (Blackford) Wilson at rwilson@cng.edu or call 423-509-2068 or 423-591-2803. On the Net: By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 09, 2018 | 06:35 PM | MAYFIELD Members of the Graves County Sheriff's Office have released a letter detailing the facts of the case involving Sheriff Dewayne Redmon. Redmon recently entered a not guilty plea to charges of official misconduct and first degree possession of a controlled substance. Redmon was indicted on those charges in August, and is accused of stealing hydrocodone from the sheriff department's drug drop box. A judge has ruled that Redmon can continue to perform his administrative duties as sheriff, but can't perform any law enforcement duties until his case has ended. Deputies say the purpose of the letter is to make the public aware of what has happened and is happening with the Graves Sheriff's Office. The letter was signed by all deputies and court security officers that wished to sign it, and were listed when the letter was sent out. You can read the full letter below. Sheriff Redmon is currently under felony indictment through Graves County Circuit Court for the charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance 1st degree (a Class D Felony) and Official Misconduct 1st degree (a Class A Misdemeanor). These charges stemmed from Sheriff Redmon taking and using prescription pain medication from the drug drop box at the Sheriff's Office. This box was meant as a means for the public to drop off prescription medications to be disposed of properly. Sheriff Redmon was originally not in charge of the drug drop box at the Sheriffs Office; another employee at the Sheriffs Office was. Approximately a year and a half to two years ago, Sheriff Redmon took possession of all keys to the Sheriffs Office drug drop box and took over moving disposed drugs from the drop box to the storage area where they were kept until proper disposal took place. On July 6, 2018, Captain Jeremy Prince of the Sheriffs Office observed a pill bottle in the pants pocket of Sheriff Redmon with the word pain written across the top of it. This took place in the parking lot of a local business where Captain Prince was sitting in a vehicle and Sheriff Redmon was standing outside of the vehicle. When Sheriff Redmon returned to the Sheriffs Office, the pill bottle was no longer in his pocket. A probable cause search of his Sheriffs Office, county-owned vehicle, was conducted. The pill bottle with pain written on the lid and an empty pill bottle were found in the center console of Sheriff Redmons county-owned vehicle. Both prescription bottles had the name of other individuals on them. Neither bottle was prescribed to Sheriff Redmon or a family member. The pill bottle with pain written on the lid contained pain medication. The other pill bottle had contained pain medication but was now empty. The writing on the top of the pill bottle was matched with writing on other pill bottles of non-pain medication that had been turned in for disposal. The pill bottles with matching writing were found in the storage area. They had been moved from the drop box to the storage area by Sheriff Redmon. Once Sheriff Redmon realized that the bottle of medication was missing, he questioned deputies as to if any of them had seen a pill bottle lying on the ground outside of his Sheriff's Office vehicle. He then stated that a female had approached him outside of the court house and had given him some bottles of medication to destroy. This female was later questioned and stated that she did not give the pill bottles she brought for destruction to Sheriff Redmon. Instead, she had dropped them into the drug drop box herself. Due to the seriousness of this situation and the fact that only Sheriff Redmon had access to the drug drop box, the information was turned over to the Kentucky State Police on the evening of July 6, 2018. This was not done out of spite for Sheriff Redmon or for anyone to get a leg up or move up the ladder at the Sheriffs Office. Law enforcement officers take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth. Sheriff Redmon was not abiding by the oath he took and the promise he made to God and the people of Graves County. Captain Prince was not going to violate the oath he took and the promise he made before God and the people of Graves County; therefore, he had no choice but to contact the State Police with the information. At that time, the Kentucky State Police began an investigation into this case. On July 18, 2018, Sheriff Redmon was interviewed by the Kentucky State Police. Sheriff Redmon admitted to stealing pain medication from the Sheriffs Office drug drop box numerous times. Sheriff Redmon was also offered treatment for his drug addiction, but he stated that he did not need any help because he did not have a problem. Sheriff Redmon left the Sheriffs Office on July 18, 2018, and maintained little to no contact with Sheriffs Office employees for the next several days. A meeting was held by supervision at the Sheriffs Office to tell all employees about the situation, as Sheriff Redmon had not explained anything to anyone before he left. On September 5, 2018, he was arraigned in Circuit Court. He was court-ordered to refrain from exercising his law enforcement duties until further direction of the court. He was allowed to continue to assist in tax collection and estate-related business. The first day Sheriff Redmon returned to the Sheriffs Office to complete these duties during business hours was Friday, September 28, 2018. Once a Sheriff, Deputy Sheriff, Police Officer, State Trooper or other law enforcement officer has violated their code of ethics and their oath, their ability to do their job has been compromised. Their integrity, trustworthiness and character are now in question. Law enforcement officers are held to a higher standard, as they should be. They are the guardians of their communities, and they must conduct themselves in such a manner. Once a person commits crimes, no matter the reason, they can no longer be respected and trusted in a law enforcement role. A Sheriff can only be removed from office by resignation, retirement, conviction of a felony crime or a crime such as official misconduct, or death. Under his current term, Sheriff Redmon will be the Graves County Sheriff through January 6, 2019. We are concerned that many people are not aware of the implications of this happening during an election year. Sheriff Redmon is still on the ballot as a candidate for Sheriff. There are also write-in candidates. If Sheriff Redmon is elected to serve a third term starting in 2019, the court-ordered conditions will not change. He will continue to be restricted from law enforcement duties, and will only be allowed to perform the duties of tax collection and estate- related business. If Sheriff Redmon is convicted or pleads guilty, he will have to retire/resign or he will be removed from office as per state law. If this occurs, a special election will be held after he vacates the office. By The Associated Press Oct. 10, 2018 | 10:36 AM | WASHINGTON Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is warning Republicans considering challenging President Donald Trump in 2020 that it would be "a waste of time." The Kentucky Republican told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that that it would be "very, very difficult to unseat the president in the primary." Republicans, such as retiring Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, are considering challenging Trump in 2020. McConnell said that "would be a waste of time frankly. But the people who would be likely to challenge the president would not be coming to me for advice." McConnell also said it's not his job to police Trump's Twitter habits or his divisive rhetoric at campaign rallies and elsewhere. He cited the Trump administration's "extraordinary" success with the GOP-controlled Congress including a growing economy, two new Supreme Court justices and congressional action to cut regulations and taxes. McConnell said he "generally" declines reporters' requests for him to critique "on a daily basis" the president's broadsides of political opponents and the FBI, along with Trump's most incendiary comments about women, immigrants and other groups of Americans. McConnell also warned Democrats to think carefully about "presidential harassment" if they win the majority of the House. He said Democratic threats to investigate Trump's finances and businesses would "help the president get re-elected" in 2020. He recalled how Republicans were enthusiastic about going after President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The GOP-led House impeached Clinton but the Senate acquitted him. The public was not as supportive as Republicans had hoped. McConnell says 'It worked exactly the opposite. The public got mad at us and felt sympathy for President Clinton." McConnell added that "this business of presidential harassment may or may not quite be the winner they think it is." TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wayland Group (CSE:WAYL) (FRANKFURT: 75M) (OTCQB:MRRCF) (Wayland or the Company) announces the Companys achievement of yet another international milestone as part of its global expansion plan: The Company has now exported THC distillate within a stability range that meets the standards suitable for product commercialization to Switzerland. The Company has developed the process for distillation of cannabis resin for future commercial production of purified cannabis concentrates and their use in various cannabis products. Extraction and distillation was completed at Waylands facilities in Langton Ontario, Canada. This is the second country where we have successfully exported cannabis products from Canada, first to Germany and now to Switzerland. We have gained regulatory expertise to build a clear path for further exports as the Western European market develops, said Ben Ward, CEO of Wayland. Further, our products are within a stability range from which we can formulate products reliably and consistently for the cannabis market, including pharmaceuticals, and recreational products. This means we can make dosage-controlled edibles, beverages, and topicals, in combination with our proprietary VesiSorb technology, in addition to our existing CBD capsules marketed under our Mariplant brand. Wayland is one of the first companies to successfully create a stable range of THC distillate in Canada. The distillate will undertake further analysis and tests in Switzerland to ensure conformance with local Swiss ordinance. An export permit was granted by Health Canada to Waylands contract service provider and import permit by SwissMedic to Waylands Swiss Pharmaceutical Partner. Maricann Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, is operating under the Wayland Group name. For further details see the press release dated September 24, 2018. About Wayland Group Corp. Wayland is a vertically integrated producer and distributor of marijuana for medical purposes. The Company was founded in 2013 and is based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada and Munich, Germany, with production facilities in Langton, Ontario where it operates a medicinal cannabis cultivation, extraction, formulation and distribution business under federal licence from the Government of Canada. The Company also has production operations in Dresden, Saxony, Germany and Regensdorf, Switzerland. Wayland is currently undertaking an expansion of its cultivation and support facilities in Canada in a 942,000 sq. ft. (87,515 sq. m) footprint upon full buildout, and will continue to pursue new opportunities in Europe. Forward Looking Statements This news release includes forward-looking information and statements, which may include, but are not limited to, information and statements regarding or inferring the future business, operations, financial performance, prospects, and other plans, intentions, expectations, estimates, and beliefs of the Company. Such statements include those relating to the potential for further exports . Forward-looking information and statements involve and are subject to assumptions and known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual events, results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future events, results, performance, and achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking information and statements herein. Although the Company believes that any forward-looking information and statements herein are reasonable, in light of the use of assumptions and the significant risks and uncertainties inherent in such information and statements, there can be no assurance that any such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, and accordingly readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance upon such forward-looking information and statements. Any forward-looking information and statements herein are made as of the date hereof, and except as required by applicable laws, the Company assumes no obligation and disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking information and statements herein or to update the reasons that actual events or results could or do differ from those projected in any forward looking information and statements herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release. For more information about Wayland, please visit our website at www.waylandgroup.com CONTACT INFORMATION Investor Relations Graham Farrell VP, Communications Graham.farrell@waylandgroup.com 647-643-7665 Corporate Headquarters (Canada) Wayland Group Corp. (Toronto) 845 Harrington Court, Unit 3 Burlington Ontario L7N 3P3 Canada 289-288-6274 European Headquarters (Germany) Maricann GmbH Thierschstrasse 3, 80538 Munchen, Deutschland By: Paige Cline Sometimes I am asked to reprint a column from the past. Here[Read More] Translating Raw Pings Into Meaningful Stream of Events Provides Insight into 100 Million More Daily Visit Events NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unacast , the leading transparent and contextualized location data platform, today announced new products and features that offer marketers, researchers, and other location-focused businesses access to increased scale and unprecedented transparency into device behavior while maintaining high quality, thanks to major advancements to its location data algorithm. The new product, Uncontextualized Visits, translates raw pings into a meaningful stream of events representing where a device rested during the day, unlocking insight into 75 to 100 million visit events and 17 to 20 million daily active users. Meanwhile, new features, including Maximum Dwell Time, update Unacasts core Visits product and further increase the available scale. In an industry that requires both scale and quality, were constantly working toward technical innovations that meet - and exceed - both needs, said Thomas Walle, CEO and co-founder of Unacast. For location data and insights to offer true value, they need to provide transparent, uniform measurement, ensuring that businesses can use and trust the data. Whether its the advertising industry, city planning, or academic researchers, a clean, clear location signal will help shape future understanding of how people move around the real world. Our latest products allow us to dig even deeper into that understanding. Maximum Dwell Time is designed to overcome the difficulties associated with the cadence of location data collection from cell phones by providing a consistent view into device activity. A devices Maximum Dwell Time is the maximum duration that device could have been in one location based on the activity immediately preceding and following a location visit. Unacasts platform continuously monitors this data feed for signals that indicate a device couldnt have spent enough time to actually visit a location (such as a device driving by the point of measurement), and will filter those results out of the feed. Altogether, Maximum Dwell Time will provide Unacast clients with access to nearly 55 million more visit events per day, with additional features made possible by Maximum Dwell Time delivering another 40 million visits. In addition, the company has expanded its data coverage to the European Union, offering data from the UK, Germany and France, with more countries on the way, bringing the total current global monthly active users (MAUs) to 291 million. Founded in Norway and headquartered in New York City, Unacast enters the European market with full GDPR compliance, offering European customers the same trust and transparency that the company has built its reputation on in the U.S. market. About Unacast Unacast is the only contextualized location data platform that offers full transparency into its products and insights. As a trailblazer in the transparency, quality and ethics of the location data industry, Unacast provides companies and individuals with the most accurate understanding of human activity in the physical world through the Real World Graph. The company also hosts the leading conference on transparency and accuracy in location data; Real World Talks. Unacast, founded in Oslo, Norway by Thomas Walle and Kjartan Slette and now headquartered in NYC, has garnered multiple awards for its platform, campaigns and for its company culture, including Best Company at the Nordic Startup Awards. Inc. Magazine has called Unacast The Startup That Just Might Threaten Google. Media Contact: WIT Strategy, for Unacast Kendall Allen kallen@witstrategy.com Albany, New York, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global medical tourism market stood at US$46.46 billion in 2016. Expanding at a robust CAGR of 14.9% during 20172025, the global market is expected to reach a worth of US$160.8 billion by 2025 end. Affordable, High-Quality Care in Emerging Economies reinforcing Medical Tourism Market Growth The drive for the medical tourism market stemmed from the rising need for affordable, high-quality of medical care among the worldwide patient populations. The concern related to the rising healthcare costs in several of the developed countries over the past few years, notably the U.S., has led patient populations look for venues that have at least same quality of care but at less expenditure. This has been a significant trend driving the evolution of the medical tourism market. Request to View Sample of Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=900 Several emerging economies in various parts of the world are turning into promising medical tourism destinations as these offer better access to care to the patient populations, especially in cosmetic surgeries, dental work, and orthopedic surgeries. The growth in the global medical tourism market is increasingly supported by a number of governmental programs for the same. Increasing spending by several hospital chains and labs to incorporate cutting-edge technologies in their health care workflows is a key proposition expected to catalyze the rapid expansion of the medical tourism market over the assessment period. These advances are catalyzing the demand for healthcare services in medical tourism related to neurology, oncology, orthopedics, cosmetology, and dentistry. Request PDF Brochure of Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=900 Rising Demand for Advanced Orthopedic Surgeries and Cardiology Care in Medical Tourism open Lucrative Avenues The rising incidence of accidental injuries among the global populations is propelling the demand for advanced orthopedic surgeries, thus boosting the medical tourism market. The rise can be attributed in a large part to sports-related injuries and accidents. This is a notable factor bolstering the demand for medical tourism for the medical specialty. The steady decline in cost of medical care and healthcare services for patients who need cardiology treatments in developing economies is another notable factor boosting the medical tourism market. Request for Discount on This Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=900 The rise in number of hospital chains in emerging economies and efforts by these to bring innovations in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies is also creating new, exciting avenues in the medical tourism market. In recent years, the advent of attractive medical care packaging by prominent hospital chains has expanded the potential of the medical tourism market. Among the various specialties in the medical tourism market, orthopedics held a sizeable revenue share in 2016. The demand in the segment is expected to increasingly bolster the expansion of the overall medical tourism market over the assessment period. This can be attributed to the rising demand for affordable and high-quality orthopedic surgeries among the global populations. Browse Press Release - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/medical-tourism.htm Of the key regional markets for medical tourism, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) contributed the leading share in 2016. The emergence of several economies as lucrative medical tourism destinations, attributed to their advanced healthcare infrastructure, is the key factor propelling the regional market growth. A major part of the worldwide demand for medical tourism is expected to come from India, Singapore, and Thailand. A growing number of global hospital chains and medical labs in the medical tourism market are focusing on boosting the technological competencies of the medical equipment. In addition, most players are increasingly investing in product portfolio diversification to gain a better hold over the global medical tourism market, notes Transparency Market Research (TMR). Several players are also focusing on entering into partnership and collaborations to consolidate their shares and also to gain a stronghold in the global medical tourism market. Top players operating in the medical tourism market include Bumrungrad International Hospital, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited, KPJ Healthcare Berhad, Bangkok Chain Hospital, Asklepios Kliniken GmbH, and Mount Elizabeth Hospital. More Trending Reports by Transparency Market Research: Medical Education Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/medical-education-market.html Medical Electrodes Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/medical-electrodes-market.html About TMR Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Contact Mr. Nachiket Ghumare Transparency Market Research State Tower 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MediPharm Labs Corp. ("MediPharm") (TSXV: LABS) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Cannabis Concentrate Program Agreement (the "Agreement") with Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc. ("Emerald") (TSXV: EMH - OTCQX:EMHTF). Pursuant to the Agreement, signed on October 5, 2018, Emerald will provide MediPharm with dried cannabis to create premium quality cannabis oil (the "Program"). The Program will be for an initial term of three years. The Agreement enables Emerald to provide pharmaceutical grade cannabis concentrate products produced by MediPharm to its large base of registered patients, as well as provide adult-use recreational consumers with premium quality cannabis concentrates commencing October 17, 2018. MediPharm is research-driven and focused on downstream secondary extraction methodology, distillation and cannabinoid isolation and purification. MediPharm currently operates one of the largest cannabis concentrate manufacturing facilities in Canada and is built to cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) and ISO standards. Leveraging MediPharms proprietary pharmaceutical manufacturing expertise, the companys purpose-built state of the art centre of excellence currently has the capacity to process over 100,000kg of dry cannabis a year at their wholly owned ACMPR-licensed facility. With Phase 2 funded and scheduled to be completed by the end of Q2 2019, MediPharm Labs processing capacity is anticipated more than double to an expected 250,000kg annually. Emerald is a Licensed Producer under Canada's Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations and produces and sells dried cannabis and cannabis oil for medical purposes. Emerald is preparing to serve the fully legalized Canadian adult-use cannabis market starting October 17, 2018. Emerald owns 50% of Pure Sunfarms, which is converting a licensed existing 1.1 million square foot greenhouse in Delta, BC and is now in commercial production. Emerald also owns Agro-Biotech, a Quebec-based licensed cannabis grower with a 75,000 square foot indoor facility which is planning to add a 500,000 square foot greenhouse in Metro Vancouver. This is truly a partnership of two leaders in the Canadian cannabis industry. This Program represents the advancement of a market to better serve cannabis consumers and patients. Under the Agreement, Emerald will ship dried cannabis to MediPharm which MediPharm will use to produce purified cannabis oil. The parties intend that under the Program, MediPharm may provide cannabis oil to Emerald or to other approved distributors of medical cannabis at the direction of Emerald. Alternatively, Emerald may release the cannabis extract for use by MediPharm. The Program will be established at no capital cost to Emerald, however, MediPharm will charge Emerald a processing fee for the cannabis oil produced and the revenue earned on sales of cannabis oil by MediPharm will be shared between MediPharm and Emerald. We are very pleased to have MediPharm as our partner, said Rob Hill, CFO of Emerald. Their large processing capacity and ability to produce high purity cannabis extracts and isolates increases our flexibility and capabilities in bringing to market high-value and unique products. Pat McCutcheon, MediPharms President and Chief Executive Officer said, We are very excited to begin this relationship with one of Canadas leading cultivators. This partnership further highlights MediPharms commitment to work as a trusted, agnostic value add supplier to Licensed Producers across Canada to better serve the cannabis market. Our geographic location also serves as a strategic asset to the relationship with our ability enable Emerald to provide their consumers in central and eastern Canada with premium quality pharmaceutical grade cannabis oil. About MediPharm Labs Corp. MediPharm Labs, through its subsidiary, is a pioneer in the cannabis industry and has the distinction of being the first company in Canada to become a licensed producer for cannabis oil production under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) without first receiving a cannabis cultivation licence. This expert focus on cannabis concentrates from our cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) and ISO standard clean rooms and critical environments laboratory, allows MediPharm Labs to work with its established, Health Canada-approved cultivation partners to produce pharmaceutical-grade cannabis oil with a competitive advantage. MediPharm Labs is research-driven and focused on downstream secondary extraction methodology, distillation, and cannabinoid isolation and purification. MediPharm Labs, through its subsidiary, provides B2B contract processing of cannabis to Canadian authorized licensed producers and appropriate international growers, supplying integrity-assured cannabis oil to qualified companies for sale under their own brand. In addition, MediPharm Labs will supply raw materials, formulations, processing and packaging for the creation of ready-to-sell advanced derivative products. Through its subsidiary, MediPharm Labs Australia Pty. Ltd., MediPharm Labs has also completed its application process with the federal Office of Drug Control to extract and import medical cannabis products in Australia. For additional information about MediPharm Labs, please see the companys website: www.medipharmlabs.com Contact Information Pat, McCutcheon, CEO, MediPharm Labs Phone: 705-719-7425 ext. 216 Email: investors@medipharmlabs.com DISCLAIMER & READER ADVISORY Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has in any way passed upon the merits of the information contained herein and neither of the foregoing entities accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release or has in any way approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release. This press release contains forward-looking statements about MediPharm and Emerald and their business which may include, but is not limited to, risk, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur by certain specified dates or at all and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting MediPharm and Emerald. For example, there can be no guarantee that the Program will proceed as intended by the parties and set out in the Agreement, or that applicable regulatory approvals will be obtained to carry out the activities contemplated herein. Other risk factors include risks regarding the cannabis industry, economic factors, the equity markets generally and risks associated with growth and competition. Although MediPharm and Emerald has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and the parties are not obligated to update or revise any forward looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. This press 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 Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities laws. Stimulating economic growth in local government Collective professional and technical skills can stimulate economic growth in local government says Dr Zweli Mkhize. Mkhize, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) delivered the keynote address at an Economic Forum debate hosted by the School of Construction Economics and Management at Wits University. The debate took place in the Senate Room, Solomon Mahlangu House on 2 October 2018. Mkhize discussed various interventions that CoGTA is currently pursuing to create a functional and developmental local government system. Mkhize said that CoGTA has prioritised governance, financial management, infrastructure development, service delivery, and fighting fraud as well as corruption. He reaffirmed the commitment of the South African government to support and improve the capacity of municipalities. Stimulating economic growth in local government will be achieved through the utilisation of the collective professional and technical skills bases. Without a joint effort, it will be difficult to realise the economic growth rates necessary to address persistent unemployment, poverty and the high inequalities, said Mkhize. He further emphasised the need for ethical leadership from local government. Other panellists included Mashilo Pitjeng, Managing Director at TseboREAL Asset Management; Zanele Serame, Chief Quantity Surveyor at the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development; and Eric Manchidi, former President of the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions. Pitjeng said that local government could achieve a number of important key outcomes for their communities. He presented a strong view that municipalities should start sharing best practices and improving the way in which they collaborate with other local government entities to improve service delivery. He also highlighted the importance of delivering local government infrastructure towards the ultimate vision of giving communities a sense of hope and pride. On the subject of capacity-building in local government, Serame said that the necessary skills required to create a functional local government sphere depend largely on governments ability to improve the education and skills of local government employees. This is particularly important in under-resourced areas in the country, said Serame. Manchidi raised some of the challenges experienced by regulators in the built environment in transforming their professions to support technical capacity in the local sphere of the government. He indicated that the public-private partnership (PPP) framework in South Africa is outdated. With some improvements, PPPs can offer innovative ways for municipalities to deal with some of the infrastructure challenges they are facing, said Manchidi. The event attracted individuals from various disciplines and professions including Professor Ian Jandrell, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at Wits, and Professor David Root, Head of the Wits School of Construction Economics and Management. Root outlined the vision and mission of his School as a centre of excellence for built environment research and education. DELPHI, Ind. (WLFI) Delphi water rates are increasing 42.6 percent. This is after the rate ordinance passed last night by a vote of 3-2. There are community members who see why this is necessary, while others say they don't support this decision. "They're discouraged," said Krista Watson about community members. "They don't feel like anyone is listening to them. They're being ignored yet they are the ones who are going to pay the price." The price is what Delphi water customers will see immediately on their next bill December 1st. "We're at a place we have to do something, said councilman Dick Traeger. "The biggest complaint is nobody wants to pay more for water and I understand that. I'm like everybody else." Everybody within city limits is seeing the rate increase because of maintenance, new infrastructure and new water wells. The reason for this is because the city's water tables have been diminishing the past 25 years. One local business owner said this was necessary for the city. "Where we are now and the fact that it needed to be done, I think the plan that they're going with and updating everything and giving us a good sound infrastructure is probably what we needed," said the co-owner of Wallman's Matt McKead. This is a need that found a solution, but Watson has a couple of questions. "How are we going to pay for this?" said the owner of Delphi's Hardware & Paint. "How are the residents going to live? If we cant bring more people here to live, businesses like mine will not survive." Delphi maintains the rates will still be lower than comparable cities. "People will not have as much money to spend for one thing but its more, the heart of the business is the people of Delphi," said Watson. The people of Delphi will see a second increase in water rates, but there is no timetable on how much that will be. The city says the solution keeps the future in mind. "You have to plan," said Traeger. "I mean that's part of governing is you have to plan to continue to make sure the city progresses and goes on." Councilman Traeger says with the passing of phase one they can now start maintenance updates. According to a Delphi press release, phase one addresses concerns with the declining water levels. It will include the controls, buildings and treatment for the wells as well as a new ground storage tank. Delphi Mayor Shave Evans says construction will begin in the spring. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) September 10, 2018 is a night Lafayette Fire Captain Toby Frost won't forget. "I got a call at 11:24 at night that we had 6 hours to get out the door," remembers Frost. That was the night he was sent to help with rescue efforts in Hurricane Florence. Frost has been on Indiana Task Force 1 for five years, but this was his first time being deployed. In most natural disaster situations, FEMA controls what the task force does. However Frost said circumstances in Wilmington, North Carolina, were so bad, this mission was handled differently. "New Hanover County was managing us so we were forward deployed in the storm. For us the beauty of that is we were out the door immediately, the request didn't have to go to the federal chain and then come back to use to deploy. The locals were able to call us and say hey we need help here," said Frost. Frost was at the forefront of several tough situations for both residents and first responders. He remembers one instance vividly. "There was a tree that fell on a house and trapped a mother and child. The child ended up being deceased when it was all said and done but the fire department had been working round the clock trying to run emergency calls in their territories and were absolutely exhausted when we got there." As a Hazmat specialist, he was also tasked with keeping his team safe during rescues. "Making sure no one gets exposed to something they shouldn't be or if we have bad air or a gas leak or anything like that we try to identify that to keep the scene safe so we can keep moving." Frost has been back for two weeks and is already preparing for his next possible mission. With Hurricane Michael approaching Florida, he's on stand-by. "They've deployed two task force type one teams, our team would be the next one to go," said Frost. Frost said it's tough call to wait for, but one he'd be honored to answer. "It is a neat experience to see the best side of humanity on the worst days of their lives everybody is willing to help their neighbor." Frost was in North Carolina for twelve days. ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland and Labrador, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fortis Inc. ("Fortis" or the "Corporation") (TSX/NYSE:FTS) advises that due to an incident affecting Enbridges natural gas transmission pipeline near Prince George, British Columbia ("BC"), supply of natural gas to customers at our utility, FortisBC, may be affected. This pipeline provides the supply of natural gas which FortisBC then distributes to its customers in Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake, the lower Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver, among other locations. No FortisBC infrastructure has been damaged as a result of the incident affecting Enbridges transmission pipeline. FortisBC is working closely with Enbridge and all officials involved in the incident. The utility has asked customers to restrict gas use at this time until more is known. FortisBC has approximately one million gas customers; it is estimated about 70% of these customers have the potential to lose gas supply due to this incident. FortisBCs gas business represents 14% of the Corporations regulated assets as of December 31, 2017. The Corporation and FortisBC thank customers for their support at this time. Customers can access more information at fortisbc.com . About Fortis Fortis is a leader in the North American regulated electric and gas utility industry with 2017 revenue of C$8.3 billion and total assets of C$50 billion as at June 30, 2018. The Corporation's 8,500 employees serve utility customers in five Canadian provinces, nine U.S. states and three Caribbean countries. Fortis shares are listed on the TSX and NYSE and trade under the symbol FTS. Additional information can be accessed at www.fortisinc.com , www.sedar.com , or www.sec.gov . For more information please contact: RENSSELAER, Ind. Marian University and Saint Josephs College hosted a press conference Wednesday afternoon to announce the name of Marians new two-year college called Saint Josephs College of Marian University Indianapolis. According to a press release, the new two-year college is slated to open in July 2019 adjacent to the Marian University campus in Indianapolis. This is a collaboration between two Catholic institutions with a shared mission and history, Elsener said. Saint Joes has a rich tradition of educating thousands upon thousands of leaders with a strong liberal arts foundation. The outlook for success for our innovative two-year college is greatly enhanced by this collaboration. This is a positive step forward for the future of Saint Josephs College, Fr. Barry Fischer said. Saint Josephs College continues to live, in both name and mission, and we are excited about the possibilities that will be presented through this collaboration. According to Marian Universitys President Elsener, a study will be conducted to determine the feasibility of expanding the two-year college to other areas of the state. One of the locations that will be considered, he said, is the Saint Josephs campus in Rensselaer. The next steps include creating an advisory board to guide the two-year college. The board will be under the direction of Marian Universitys board of trustees and at least 40 percent of the members will be selected from a list of recommendations provided by the Saint Joseph's board of trustees. Additionally, former faculty and staff of Saint Joseph's College and members of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood will be strongly considered for open positions for the new two-year college. Saint Josephs College has pledged $1.5 million to be paid over 10 years to help fund scholarships for students who attend the two-year college. Applications are being accepted now for fall 2019 enrollment. 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 Open Day to showcase to prospective students what Wrexham Glyndwr University has to offer This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Oct 10th, 2018 With the new academic term well underway at Wrexham Glyndwr University, students considering studying at the institution in 2019 are being given the chance to find out more this weekend. This Saturday (October 13th) the Wrexham campus will play host to its latest Open Day offering prospective students the chance to find out what its like to study at Glyndwr, what the campuses have to offer as well as being able to meet with course staff and current students. The university has a wide range of courses available at foundation, undergraduate and post graduate level, many of which can also be studied part-time. More than half of current Wrexham Glyndwr students study part-time and includes a wide-variety of age groups. The university has just been judged the most socially inclusive university in the UK, according to the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019. Among new developments for students this year is an improved Students Union, with an upgraded bar and brand new pizza oven. Students Union President, Angus Hamill-Stewart said: Were thrilled to launch our new venue, The Lazy Lion, at Wrexham Glyndwr University. By day the venue is designed to be a relaxing space for students to use socially and were serving snack foods as well as drinks weve had a brand new pizza oven installed and have upgraded the existing bar area. For evening and weekend functions we can use the space for up to 200 people; its a really versatile space. Further improvements in the student experience include a new teaching space equipped with the latest AV teaching techniques, and a social learning space which has proved popular with students since its opening this Spring. More is to follow as part of Glyndwrs Campus 2025 transformation, which puts students at the centre of the plans. Vice-Chancellor, Professor Maria Hinfelaar said: The ongoing work on Campus 2025 will provide an attractive learning environment with stimulating state-of-the-art facilities and the latest in building designs and technology to provide a sustainable and attractive future-proof campus. A number of talks are taking place at the Open Day, and there is also the chance to tour the Regent Street campus which houses many of Wrexham Glyndwrs Creative Arts courses. The universitys supporting services will also be on hand on the day to speak to prospective students, including the award-winning careers team. The team are the winners of the 2018 AGCAS (Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Service) Supporting Student/ Graduate Employability award for their Make Summer Work For You extracurricular programme. This programme strengthens students employment prospects over several months by providing flexible careers-related support and guidance. Wrexham Glyndwr Universitys Open Day runs from 10am 2pm on Saturday 13th October, with last entry at 1pm. Visitors are welcome to drop in throughout the day but are advised to check the list of talks and events to ensure they get the most out of their day. For more information or to book to attend the Open Day visit: wgu.ac.uk/908p. Over 300 jobs at risk as Thomson Reuters new owner Refinitiv look to scrap Wrexham site This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Oct 10th, 2018 Several hundred peoples jobs look set to be lost at an international company that operates from Wrexham Industrial Estate. Update 6:20pm: Local MP Ian Lucas has said: I am shocked and disappointed by the way a loyal and skilled workforce is being cast aside and have communicated my opinion of the business direct to them this afternoon. I do hope they carry out their statutory obligations from now on, and I think they will come to regret treating loyal employees in this way. Update 5:30pm: Refinitiv has given us a statement that says we intend to close our site in Wrexham, As Refinitiv stands up as a new, standalone organisation focused on financial markets, we want to ensure that we have the right people in the right places to drive results for our customers in a highly competitive environment. As a result we intend to close our site in Wrexham. We recognise the impact this would have on the Wrexham community and we are in close dialogue with our Wrexham-based colleagues and their representatives. We are committed to ensuring those affected are properly supported through this process. Original information below The former Financial & Risk business division of Thomson Reuters, rebranded to Refinitiv following a strategic partnership transaction with a private equity fund earlier this year, operates from Redwither Tower. We are told a redundancy consultation has been announced for the whole site, where approximately 300 people work. The shock announcement came earlier today when staff were made aware of the news, and then sent home for the afternoon. One staff member told us: Some minor departments like IT are going to other parts of the UK. But the bulk of what we do in Wrexham is likely going to Bangalore in India. The announcement to staff has been described to us as poorly planned and as a result turned hostile almost immediately. Information believed to be from Refinitiv states on Tuesday 9 October the company commenced consultation in the UK over proposed headcount reductions. Consultation will last a minimum of 45-days. After an initial period of collective consultation, individual and group notifications will commence Monday 15 October. In accordance with the Job Reduction Procedure, all proposals will be subject to both collective consultation with union and employee representatives and individual consultation with those employees directly impacted. In what appears to be a worldwide move jobs are also thought to be under threat in America, Canada, Lebanon and Dubai. We asked Wrexham Council (who own Redwither Tower) if they were aware, and if they were able to comment. Cllr Terry Evans, Lead Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, said: News such as this is, of course, incredibly sad, and we hope that all those staff made redundant by Thomson Reuters are able to find jobs elsewhere. However, even in the event that every member of staff finds comparable work in the Wrexham area, it is always sad to hear of companies outsourcing work elsewhere. Staff at our business team will be getting in contact with Thomson Reuters to discuss redundancy support for all those workers now facing difficult times. One of many threads on TheLayOff.com regarding the move focuses on Wrexham in the style of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air rap and can be viewed here. More shortly Police appeal for Wrexham man wanted for breach of bail conditions This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Oct 10th, 2018 North Wales Police have issued a public appeal to help trace a man from the Wrexham area. Police say Louis Jordan Julienne, 21 from Ruabon is wanted for breach of bail conditions and other offences. Any sightings or information about his whereabouts can be reported on the North Wales Police webchat system. Barbara, a former Amazon worker in South Carolina, recently recounted a story to the International Amazon Workers Voice that has become all too common. As a picker at Amazon, she often walked 15 miles a day in a warehouse where workers were pressured to make rate at the expense of safety. Amazons policy was to fire workers after three write-ups for not making rate. One day while racing to make rate, Barbara had to try to stop her cart abruptly to avoid a collision with another worker. As a result, she injured her foot and back. Amcare, the company nursing station, was closed for the night shift. The following day the company sent Barbara to a doctor who gave her Tylenol and crutches. After being told she had no other choice, Barbara returned to work despite her injury, where she was assigned to packing and office work. Her supervisor told her to keep working despite the pain, and at one point she had to stand for five hours on her fractured foot. Eventually she received a $4,000 settlement that required her to sign a statement stipulating that she could not work at Amazon, could not sue for additional damages, and could not draw unemployment. After her workers compensation payments ended, Barbara was unable to find work elsewhere. She lost her home and car. It was devastating to lose my car and my home, she told the IAWV . My dad built my home. All because of this little accident. The carnage at Americas workplaces, and the scandalous mistreatment of workers after their injuries, goes completely unreported in the establishment media. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 4,500 American workers are killed on the job each year. Nearly 3 million serious injuries are officially recorded by employers, and the true number is likely much higher. Tens of thousands die every year because of past exposure to asbestos, benzene, and other toxic substances in the workplace. Americas workers compensation regimes vary from state to state, with many originating from reforms enacted at the beginning of the 20th century. Under these regimes, workers are prohibited from filing lawsuits against their employers, but in return, they are nominally entitled to receive medical coverage and a percentage of their lost wages while they were out of work due to an injury. In theory, the medical benefits include doctor visits, hospital treatment, nursing care, medications, medical diagnostic tests, physical therapy, and durable medical equipment. However, remedies once provided to workers compensation claimants have been substantially undermined over time by the employers and the insurance companies, whose lobbyists more and more have had the last word as to legislation that sets the procedural and substantive rules, aided and abetted by Democratic and Republican state governments. Today, the reality faced by workers who enter this system includes false diagnoses by pro-company doctors, tendentious and Kafka-esque procedures that favor employers at every step, accusations that workers are malingering and faking their injuries, absurdly low compensation, and pressure to get back to work as soon as possible, often aggravating the original injuries. According to the Social Security Administration, approximately 75 percent of workers compensation awards in the US pay only medical costs. In other words, some of the doctors may be reimbursed for the medical treatment that was provided, but the injured workers are not compensated at all. Even in disability cases where the worker receives some pay, it is usually only a fraction of the pre-injury wage. A 2015 Pro Publica study found that since 2003, 33 states had passed laws reducing workers compensation benefits. In many states, workers have to choose a doctor from a list provided by the very employer whose unsafe practices in many cases were the cause of the injury. Shannon Allen, an injured Amazon worker from Texas, reported that in the course of her long struggle to get medical treatment for her injuries, one doctor examined her and determined that she was seriously injured. But that diagnosis was rejected by another doctor who never examined her in person and never even reviewed her medical imaging. This latter doctor based his opinion in part on the fact that he apparently could not read the handwriting on some of Shannons older medical records. I find it unfortunate, he wrote, that the only medical records are these exceedingly poor handwritten notes from an emergency room. This latter doctor, who had never met Shannon and who was apparently unable to read her records, nevertheless opined that Shannon was not injured at all and only suffered from mild degenerative changes due to aging. This type of outrageous and degrading smear is not an uncommon experience for workers who are victims of industrial accidents. The actual monetary sums that workers receive through workers compensation are plainly and grossly insufficient. An article on the website of the Littler law firm, giving its perspective on a 2005 Texas law signed by then-Governor Rick Perry, complained that before the laws enactment the average per-claim total in Texas of $5,900 had been 76 percent above the US median. US employers now provide only a small percentage (about 20 percent) of the overall financial cost of workplace injuries and illnesses, according to a June 2015 Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) study. The average percentage of costs paid out-of-pocket by injured workers is 50 percent. Many employers have policies that set procedural traps for workers to lose their benefits, such as mandating that workers report injuries within 24 hours. In 2014, US Steel suspended two workers for five days without pay because of such a policy. OSHAs report confirms that income inequality exacerbates the consequence of inadequate coverage, in part because other working members of a family often need to take time off to care for the injured person. Working two or three jobs to make ends meet causes fatigue and increases the risk of injury. Workplace injuries also damage self-confidence and cause stress within families. Insurers, meanwhile, make billions from unused premiums on policies. According to statistics from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the total was more than $50 billion in 2017 for the 20 largest private insurers. According to the Social Security Administration, total covered payrolls in the United States were $7.2 trillion in 2015. Conversely, the risk of fines for employers who engage in illegal practices is small. In Massachusetts, for example, only a little more than $1 million in fines was collected during 2017, despite the issuance of 1,900 stop work orders. Common illegal practices by American employers include paying cash to workers off the books, using shell companies to buy one policy for multiple companies, misclassifying workers as consultants, and reporting dangerous jobs like roofing as office work. But as the experiences of many Amazon workers who have spoken to the IAWV demonstrates, even when the workers compensation system is functioning legally and as intended, the result is a terrible injustice for countless workers. For example, while it is legal for employers to use staff provided by temp agencies, this practice is known to diminish the likelihood of workers compensation claims by workers. The reason is that workers are afraid they will not receive more assignments from the staffing agency if they file a claim. Companies that contract out to temp agencies also save money by cutting back on safety training. According to OSHA, the agency has encountered many situations, including some in which temporary workers have been killed, in which employers have chosen to not provide required safety training to temporary workers. Sedgwick, Amazons claims administrator, had revenues of $1.74 billion in 2017. Workers from many different industries have gathered together on Facebook to denounce Sedgwick and share their experiences. Pepsi workers, pipefitters and hospital workers, FedEx and Amazon employees, and Hertz workers have all experienced similar outrages at the hands of this company. According to a September 2018 Reuters report, the venture capital firm Carlyle Group LP is in talks to buy Sedgwick for $6 billion from a consortium led by KKR & Co. (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts). The KKR group paid $2.4 billion in 2014. In 2016, Moodys salivated over Sedgwicks stable earnings. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report Monday calling for rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society in order to limit human-induced global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. If the current warming rate continues, the report states, the world would reach humaninduced global warming of 1.5C around 2040. Avoiding the disastrous consequences of climate change, the report stated, requires transforming the world economy in a way that has no documented historic precedent. The report, prepared by 91 scientists from 44 countries, is the latest UN paper reviewing the scientific evidence of climate change and its current and projected impact on every ecosystem on Earth. It contrasts the changes to the environment that would occur in a scenario where warming is limited to 1.5 degrees versus of 2 degrees Celsius. Human activity has already caused approximately 1 degree Celsius of warming. The last three years2015, 2016 and 2017were the three warmest years on records going back to 1880, and 17 of the 18 warmest years have occurred since 2000. Global warming has contributed to a series of ecological disasters, including larger forest fires, longer heat waves, stronger hurricanes and more torrential typhoons. The most recent of these is Hurricane Michael, which is currently bearing down on the Florida coastline and is expected to be one of the most powerful storms to strike the region. Even a limited further warming will have far reaching consequences. The report states that if warming reaches 1.5 degrees, food shortages will multiply poverty in every country. The Arctic Ocean will be totally free of sea ice at least once a decade, potentially causing the extinction of the myriad of animals that rely on that ice to flee from predators and raise young. Coral reefs will decline by 7090 percent, wiping out the habitat that about a quarter of the oceans creatures rely on to survive. Weather across the globe will become more damaging and deadly. The report estimates that if warming reaches the projected levels, it will cause damages of between $54 and $69 trillion dollars worldwide. To achieve the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees would require the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to 45 percent of their 2010 levels by 2030 and their elimination completely by 2050, or in just over three decades. This would require a complete transformation in global energy production and transportation infrastructure. Limiting warming to 1.5C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics but doing so would require unprecedented changes, said Jim Skea, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III in the reports press release. The increasingly dire warnings from the scientists stand in stark contrast with the response of world governments. In the US, the Trump administration has been openly skeptical of the reality of human-caused climate change. He responded to questions about the UN report on Tuesday by dismissing its significance. I want to look at who drew it. You know, which group drew it. I can give you reports that are fabulous and I can give you reports that arent so good. Representatives of the other major capitalist governments responded complacently. In Germany, the only official who spoke on the report was Deputy Environment Minister Jochen Flasbarth, who deflected questions about Germanys rising carbon emissions with answers promoting the German green technologies industry. Media outlets including the New York Times and the Guardian have taken this latest report as an opportunity to attack Trump and other political figures who deny climate change or have openly opposed carbon taxes, such as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro. The Times wrote of the despair since last year when Mr. Trump declared he would pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord. The Paris Agreement, which was ratified by 195 countries in 2015, is a non-binding treaty that calls for world governments to voluntarily reduce their carbon emissions to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. While it is presented as a landmark treaty, in reality it acts as a way for countries and companies such as ExxonMobil to participate in carbon trading and carbon tax schemes to maximize their profits while only implementing token reductions in carbon emissions. Moreover, the latest UN report makes clear, the limit set by the Paris Agreement would still result in massive damage across the world. An increase of 2 degrees would cause the complete destruction of coral reefs and possibly the loss of plankton, the foundation of the worlds food chain. Even at its best, the world envisioned by the Paris Agreement would be catastrophic for humanity and life on Earth. The urgent measures needed to address climate change come into conflict with the two basic contradictions of the world capitalist system: the contradiction between a global economy and the division of the world into rival nation-states, and the contradiction between socialized production and the subordination of economic life to the accumulation of private profit. That is, the global coordination and scientific planning required to organize the necessary transformations in energy and infrastructure is prevented by the fact that each capitalist state represents competing ruling elites, and the economy as a whole is controlled by the corporate and financial elite. The development of mankinds productive forces is not only impacting the environment, it has also made it possible to address this impact in a rational way. However, the development of these resources to tackle climate changealong with war, poverty and inequalityrequires a complete socialist reorganization of economic life. The economy must be placed in the democratic control of the working class, the only social force capable of establishing a society based on human need, including a healthy global environment. This author also recommends: Trumps withdrawal from the Paris agreement: The socialist solution to climate change [3 June 2017] Acting as part of the US-led Five Eyes intelligence network, the Australian government is seeking to push through parliament an encryption-cracking bill that would set an international precedent for far-reaching internet surveillance. Despite widespread opposition, reflected in more than 14,000 submissions by concerned individuals and companies, the government tabled the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018 in parliament last month with only minor amendments. Prime Minister Scott Morrisons Liberal-National government seems intent on getting the bill into law before the end of the year. It has scheduled only a one-day public hearing by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee. The members of that committee, including those from the Labor Party, have close connections with the US and allied spy agencies. Telcos, internet companies, device manufacturers and website and social media hosts face fines of up to $10 million for each instance of non-compliance. They would be compelled to facilitate the cracking of encryption codes and remove other barriers to government agencies accessing private data. Individuals can be fined up to $50,000. The intelligence and police forces would be able to issue technical assistance requests (TARs), technical assistance notices (TANs) and technical capability notices (TCNs). These would compel any company or individual to build capabilities or functionalities to provide any information required by the agencies. These powers would potentially affect any website or Facebook page. According to government ministers, they would apply to encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp, as well as any entity operating a website. Despite repeated government denials that it would force service providers to build back doors to break passwords and undermine encryption, the legislation states otherwise. While section 317ZG of the draft bill says communications providers must not be required to implement or build a systemic weakness or systemic vulnerability, section 317E sets out a long list of acts or things that providers can be compelled to do. These include (a) removing one or more forms of electronic protection ... (c) installing, maintaining, testing or using software or equipment (h) modifying, or facilitating the modification of, any of the characteristics of a service provided by the designated communications provider. The vague language appears to permit the type of demand that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made in 2016 when it sought a court order to compel Apple to help unlock an iPhone belonging to a suspect in a shooting. Government agencies would only have to allege that a TAN or TCN is reasonable and proportionate and practicable and feasible. These are undefined and sweeping terms. There would be no review process before notices are issued and the bill is silent on how a recipient could challenge a notice as unlawful. Moreover, the bills strict non-disclosure provisions mean that affected personsthat is, internet userswould never know a notice has been issued. Section 317ZF provides that individuals who disclose information regarding a notice may be subject to five years imprisonment. The legislation would also make it easier for the political surveillance agencies, such as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), to search computers covertly. Current laws permit them to monitor communications and data during transmissions. The changes would allow them to access and copy stored data, building on the metadata access laws pushed through, with the Labor Partys support, in 2015. This is part of a wider build-up of police-state powers in the hands of the capitalist state apparatus. Repeated barrages of legislation have been imposed by one government after the next, Liberal-National and Labor alike. Supposedly aimed at combatting terrorism, these powers are designed to monitor and crack down on political dissent. A number of civil rights organisations, such as Digital Rights Watch, the Human Rights Law Centre, Amnesty International and Access Now, this month joined industry bodies, including those representing transnational internet companies like Google, Facebook and Apple, in an Alliance for a Safe and Secure Internet to object to features of the bill. Most of these groups signed a submission warning that the bills definition of designated communications providers could affect hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of individuals in Australia and around the world. As the submission documented, the bills Explanatory Document states that designated communications provider would extend to anyone who provides an electronic service that has one or more end-users in Australia. This could include banks, media companies, insurers and universities, as well as news sites and those of political parties. Likewise, electronic services are broadly defined. They may include websites and chat fora, secure messaging applications, hosting services including cloud and web hosting, peer-to-peer sharing platforms and email distribution lists, and others. These powers would apply globally, since the notices could be served outside Australia. Aware of popular hostility to internet censorship, the Safe and Secure Internet alliance is posturing as a defender of civil liberties. A spokesman, Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton, said: The scope of this legislation sets a disturbing first-world benchmark and poses real threats to the cybersecurity and privacy rights of all Australians. The alliances perspective, however, is to seek certain modifications of the bill. It wants to enhance the already extensive collaboration between governments, the political spy agencies and the social media conglomerates to control or manipulate the internet in order to restrict access to left-wing and progressive web sites, and especially the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS). Instead of trying to ram this legislation through the committee process and the parliament, the government needs to sit down with stakeholders, engage on the details and collectively come up with workable, reasonable proposals that meet the objective of helping enforcement agencies be more effective in the digital age, Stanton said. Government officials told the Australian Financial Review the industry had generally been co-operative with requests for information, but sought a legal framework because of concerns that customers would hold them legally liable for disclosing information to agencies. A meeting of cabinet members from the so-called Five Eyes global spying network, held in Australia on August 2829, demanded access to encrypted emails, text messages and voice communications through legislation. Representing the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, they issued a statement on combatting ubiquitous encryption, declaring the necessity to crack open end-to-end encryption tools. Given the importance of encryption for online retail, banking and other corporate and financial purposes, the statement denied any intention to weaken encryption mechanisms. Nonetheless, the five governments agreed to the urgent need for law enforcement to gain targeted access to data, subject to further discussion with industry. As the WSWS has proven, these governments and their European counterparts are increasingly working in partnership with social media companies to implement anti-democratic restrictions on internet access. This went to a new level in April 2017, when Google announced new algorithms, aimed at limiting or blocking access to socialist, anti-war and other critical websites. Facebook and Twitter have since adopted similar measures. The WSWS has taken the lead in exposing this conspiracy to censor the internet. It has called for the formation of an International Coalition of Socialist, Anti-War and Progressive Websites to fight back against this attack on freedom of speech and basic democratic rights. The author also recommends: Five Eyes summit in Australia ramps up internet censorship [5 September 2018] NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a nationally acclaimed investor rights law firm, announces that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of those who purchased or acquired the securities of Namaste Technologies Inc. (Namaste or the Company) (OTCMKTS: NXTTF) between November 29, 2017 and October 4, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period). The lawsuit seeks to recover Namaste shareholders investment losses. If you purchased Namaste securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options, please visit Namaste Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit or contact Daniel Sadeh toll free at (877) 779-1414 or dsadeh@bernlieb.com . According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Namaste had sold its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary to Namaste executives; (2) consequently, Namaste did not sell its U.S. subsidiary in an arms length transaction; and (3) as a result, Defendants statements about the Companys business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. On October 4, 2018, Citron Research published a report titled, Namaste: Citron has exposed complete FRAUD that underpins the Business of Namaste, stating that CEO [Sean] Dollinger said he sold [an] asset to an arms length party but it was really sold to David Hughes who has been with Namaste since Feb 2015 (and Paul Burn who has been with Namaste since 2016). The report further states that Namaste has lied to its shareholders, Canadian Regulators, US Regulators; and most of all has attempted to hide US assets from the Justice Department in an attempt to obtain a US listing. On this news, Namaste stock fell $0.19 per share, or over 10%, over the next two trading days to close at $1.62 per share on October 5, 2018, damaging investors. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than December 5, 2018. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. Your ability to share in any recovery doesnt require that you serve as lead plaintiff. If you choose to take no action, you may remain an absent class member. If you purchased Namaste securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options, please visit https://www.bernlieb.com/cases/namaste-technologies-inc-nxttf-lawsuit-class-action-fraud-stock-87/ or contact Daniel Sadeh toll free at (877) 779-1414 or dsadeh@bernlieb.com . Since 1993, Bernstein Liebhard LLP has recovered over $3.5 billion for its clients. In addition to representing individual investors, the Firm has been retained by some of the largest public and private pension funds in the country to monitor their assets and pursue litigation on their behalf. As a result of its success litigating hundreds of lawsuits and class actions, the Firm has been named to The National Law Journals Plaintiffs Hot List thirteen times and listed in The Legal 500 for ten consecutive years. ATTORNEY ADVERTISING. 2018 Bernstein Liebhard LLP. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Bernstein Liebhard LLP, 10 East 40th Street, New York, New York 10016, (212) 779-1414. The lawyer responsible for this advertisement in the State of Connecticut is Michael S. Bigin. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. Yesterday was the first demonstration after the end of summer vacation called by French trade and student unions against austerity policies, three months after the end of the French rail strike. Workers, retirees and youth marched on the streets amid a deep crisis of President Emmanuel Macrons government, as criticisms of Macron grow in the police force and ministers are resigning in droves from the cabinet. At the same time, there is deep and growing distrust among broad sections of workers in the trade unions. Despite 95 percent opposition to the rail privatization among the rail workers, the unions organized only rolling strikes, while they continued to negotiate privatization with the Macron government and ultimately wound the strikes down during the summer. The unions inability to organize a victory despite the overwhelming support among the workers and the deep unpopularity of the government is unanswerable proof of their bankruptcy. This experience is already having a powerful radicalizing influence in the working class. Growing numbers of workers distrust the unions and are expressing their interest in a general strike and the organization of revolutionary struggle against the Macron government. University of Paris - IV On Strike In all, over 100 demonstrations took place across France, called by the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Workers Force (FO) and Solidarity unions, together with the Independent Democratic High School Students Federation, the National Union of High School Students, and the National Union of University Students. Not many more people attended than during the last national protest action, on June 28, as the unions wound down the rail strike. In Paris, where clashes erupted between police forces and a group of roughly 100 people in the protest march, leading to five arrests, the unions counted 50,000 protesters (21,000 according to police sources). There were between 3,000 and 5,000 marching in other cities, including Marseille, Lyon, Nantes and Le Havre. WSWS reporters in Paris spoke to a retiree, Joyce, who lives in Brittany and came to Paris to express her opposition to Macron: We have very low pensions, and they are not being increased. They are increasing the minimum old age salary, but low pensions that are under that threshold are not being increased. Many women had children and raised them at home, and then we found odd jobs and if then we had a workplace accident well then, you dont get a big pension. How are we supposed to live on that? Everything is taken away from us retirees, and for the workers it is the same thing. Even the rail workers, everything, all their social rights are being taken away. Joyce also denounced the French governments wars in the Middle East and its plans for hundreds of billions of euros in military spending: In Syria, what are we doing in that country, how is that any of our business? Its not our business. I dont agree with it at all. Joyce pointed to the growing pressures on workers under Macron: I come from a family where there are a lot of nurses. They are swamped at work, like my daughter in law. They reduce the number of beds in the hospital, patients have to go to another hospital, and then elsewhere for tests, then you have to go 200 kilometers to do more tests. No more wars abroad, no hunting down migrants at home Joyce said Macron is only the friend of the rich and said the only way forward was to take the revolutionary road: I think that in France there is far too much social inequality. Everyone should be able to live in a decent way, have enough to eat and have a roof over their heads. We dont need to give it all to the people who are friends of Macron on the stock exchange. We have a government in any case that doesnt care about us at all, so we go and protest but it will do no good. We can protest all we want, ultimately we will have do like in 1789, basically. Over 1,000 people demonstrated in Amiens, an industrial town and former French Communist Party bastion, hard-hit by deindustrialization, where hospital workers, teachers and local government workers made up the bulk of the marchers. Philippe, a CGT rail worker, spoke to WSWS reporters in Amiens to denounce the sell-out of the rail strike and the role of CGT General Secretary Philippe Martinez: Hes no fighter against capitalism, there should be no deals done with the capitalists and their government. Macron needs removing, he won't give concessions. Thats the lesson of the strike. It needs a concerted movement of the whole working class, a revolution. In Marseille, WSWS reporters spoke to marchers among port workers, local government workers, the unemployed and teachers in vocational high schools. Railworkers on Strike -- Same Macron, same struggle Marc, a professor at Marseilles Diderot High School, told the WSWS that he is against Macrons reforms that reinforce social inequality. We are struggling against the reform of vocational education, which will not allow us to train people to act as citizens and integrate them so they can take a real place in society. In fact, the government plans to cut the number of hours spent on general education, so they are just turned into raw material for exploitation, good for hiring but not for being critical. Marc pointed to the wave of ministers resignations from the government: We see now that Macrons politics is just old wine in new bottles. (Interior Minister Gerard) Collomb wants to take back the municipal seat he had. (Ecology Minister Nicolas) Hulot served as a left cover for the government which is not ecological at all, although that is the great issue today. The government was put in place by the powerful people who own the economy. Asked what conclusions he drew from the rail workers strike, Marc said he thought the strike was legitimate. He added, Our comrades at the National Railways tried to change their methods of striking but finally they obtained none of their demands. Marc indicated his lack of confidence in the traditional symbolic protests organized by the trade unions: We are in a situation where workers and manual workers are left to fend for themselves. We have not yet managed to find more effective ways of struggling, maybe that will involve better use of social media. Graciela, an unemployed worker, told WSWS reporters in Marseille she contests the policy of our dear president. The laws he is ramming through pillage our rights and attack the poorest among us, while the politicians and the lobbies are getting fatter off our backs. Graciela also stressed that workers should look for new means of communicating and organizing their struggles: The press is silent about us. We must work via social media so that we can bring everyone together. She said she hoped that the army would support the population against the ruling elites if there were a revolutionary crisis in France: You know, there are petitions circulating for the army to join the people. Asked about Macrons rail privatization and attack on rail workers wage levels, Graciela said Macrons reform should be repealed and scrapped. She explained, I want to believe that the people can go down into the streets to say stop these laws, we reject them. Everyone has to go out onto the streets. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, classes resumed last month. And for the first time in 33 years, English professor John Rubadeau did not introduce a course. In early August, the 78-year-old Rubadeaus contract was terminated without benefits, four years before his contract was to expire. Rubadeaus termination has to do with allegations from his colleagues, although their exact nature has not been released to the public. Rubadeau categorically denies any wrongdoing, and the American Federation of Teachers local for non-tenure track faculty, the Lecturers Employee Organization (LEO), has filed a grievance to dispute the termination. LEO Vice President Kirsten Herold told the school newspaper, the Michigan Daily, You would think the evidence would be significant, but you would be wrong. He is not being found guilty of sexual harassment. Its a series of much smaller things that they used to make this decision. There are no allegations of sexual harassment. Hes not been found guilty of things normally used to fire people. Rubadeau is one of the most distinguished professors at the university, and is widely admired and even beloved by his students. In 2005, he received the Golden Apple Award, which is awarded to the most engaging and inspiring teachers at the university, based on student nominations. Rubadeaus page on RateMyProfessor.com shows he has a perfect overall quality score of five. One student review there says, If you like writing, cursing, blasphemy, having fun, and working your tail off, take this class. If you want to inspired to be your best self, take this class. If you value trust, friendship, and universal truths, take this class. English 425 with John was the best three hours of my week every week. I would follow John to the end of the earth. There has been an outpouring of support for Rubadeau from his former students after his typist, Parker Procida, sent a mass email alerting them of the professors firing. The email prompted many to write letters of protest to the University. Following the Michigan Daily article announcing the termination, one person commented, I had him in a writing class 30 years ago this fall. One of my favorite instructors everdid tons to develop my critical thinking and writing skills. A comment on a follow-up Daily article reads: Welcome to McCarthyism and the Salem Witchhunts [sic]! So now, the fact that someone feels uncomfortable or detects eccentricity is grounds for dismissal? I know students who took his classes and continue to see him; he inspires their desire to write. And what a story this will be, in a few years time, when thinking people come to their senses. It will be a tale of ambition, lust after position and money by the corrupt and mediocre, against the talented vulnerable people of our world. This follow-up Daily article, Claimant comes forward in misconduct case against John Rubadeau, sheds damning light on the harassment charges. While remaining anonymous, the graduate student whose grievance led to Rubadeaus firing explained his actions. The graduate student noted Rubadeaus eccentric, assertive demeanor: It was this weird behavior where if you didnt pay attention to him, he would make you pay attention to him. I couldnt shake him and it started to feel a little creepy. He would always be stopping me in the hall to talk to me and it got to the point where I felt I needed to wear headphones. His misconduct is somewhere between sounding like an overreaction on my part or nothing at all and being something that I feel legally obligated to report. Its not a situation where it was nothing, but its also not super clear in the University rules how he violated them. This is an incredible admission. According to the claimant himself, Rubadeau has not even committed an offense which falls under the mandatory reporting provision of Title IX civil rights law. This means that Rubadeau has not engaged in discrimination, nor has he engaged in unfair treatment on the basis of sex or sexual harassment. As further evidence of Rubadeaus supposed misconduct, the anonymous graduate student points to the way the professor engaged with his students. Every wall of Rubadeaus former office was plastered with pictures of his former students. He held office hours at his home on weekends. The complainant said of this, [D]epending on your perspective it can either be endearing or creepy. The mass of supportive comments for Rubadeau on social media evince that these peculiarities were not found to be creepy, but rather constitute one of the reasons he is held in such high regard. This sordid episode validates the World Socialist Web Sites analysis of the #MeToo movementthat it has become, among other things, a foul arena for the settling of various political, financial or professional scores and the source as well for an unknown number of personal tragedies. The trial opened in Chelmsford, Essex on October 1 of 15 anti-deportation activists accused of terrorism offences for preventing the departure of an immigration removal charter flight from London Stansted Airport. The Socialist Equality Party demands the immediate release of the Stansted 15 and the dropping of all charges against them. A hundred supporters of the Stansted 15 gathered outside Chelmsford Crown Court displaying banners reading, Stand up for human rights defenders and Drop the charges. Appealing for international unity, the crowd sang, Break em all down, break em all down, these walls between us. The activists, belonging to campaign group End Deportations, had locked themselves around a government-chartered Boeing 767 on the night of March 28, 2017, to prevent take-off. Aboard were 57 undocumented migrants from detention centres awaiting forced removal to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. Before the arrival of the police, the campaigners were able to display banners proclaiming mass deportations kill and no one is illegal. The airport runway was closed for an hour and 20 minutes, during which time 19 flights were diverted. It took a removal team until 8 a.m. to extricate the protesters one by one from the body of the plane. This is the first such action against enforced deportations in the UK. The activists said the action enabled 37 of the 57 detainees on board the chance to continue their asylum claims. Charged under the 1990 Aviation and Maritime Security Act for endangering safety at an aerodrome, the defendants face potential life sentences for their courageous, non-violent protest. The defendants, aged 27 to 44, all entered pleas of not guilty, maintaining the chartered flight was illegal because the migrants had not exhausted their applications to remain in the UK. The charge of endangering the safety of an aerodrome is very rarely used and one that needs approval at the highest levels of the state, by the attorney general. Speaking for the prosecution, Tony Badenoch QC laid out the gravity of the charges. He said that at the time of the protest the UK threat level in relation to international terrorism was classed as severe. This meant an attack was considered highly likely. In order to deal with the incursion, a number of armed officers already at Stansted had to down arms, thus reducing the capacity of the police to carry out their duties at the terminal building. He accused protesters of putting the safety of the airport and passengers at risk. Such hypocrisy belies the real risk facing tens of thousands of migrants fleeing war and impoverishment, due to European Union and International Monetary Fund austerity policies and illegal military interventions by the Western powers, including Britain. According to Corporate Watch, every month ghost flights take off from the UK, forcibly removing migrants seeking asylum, hidden from public view and beyond the bounds of freedom of information requests. This has been going on for years. It notes that in July 2013 the Home Office set up a central unit called the National Removals Command within the Immigration Enforcement division in charge of arranging detention and deportation of illegals, as well as running the Assisted Voluntary Return scheme. Amnesty International UK is sending observers to the trial of the Stansted 15, which is expected to last six to eight weeks. They are concerned that such a serious charge has been brought as a deterrent to other activists taking similar nonviolent direct action in defence of human rights. Expressing concern about the flagrant attack on democratic rights, a letter was published in the Guardian in March demanding all charges against the Stansted 15 be dropped and that the Home Office cease chartering flights for deportation. The letter was signed by 50 representatives from the UK arts and media industry, including film director Ken Loach, screenwriter Jimmy McGovern, and musician Lowkey. A number of actorsEmma Thompson, Maxine Peake and Sue Johnstonsigned, as did novelist Philip Pulman. The letter declared, Secret deportation flights take thousands of people from our communities every year. Parents, friends and neighbours are targeted on the basis of their perceived nationality and snatched to fill a flight that the Home Office has chartered. Violence and abuse from security contractors have been documented on these flights. Most people would be horrified if they were aware of the nature of this process. Out of 257 Labour Party Members of Parliament, only four signed. Successive British governments, both Labour and Conservative, have a filthy record regarding immigration. The recent Windrush scandal, which prompted the resignation of Home Secretary Amber Rudd for lying about the Home Office deportation targets, highlighted the illegal deportation of hundreds, maybe thousands of immigrants. Arriving in the UK as children with their parents from the Commonwealth in the 1960s and 1970s, they found themselves without the proof of their right to remain required by recent changes in legislation. The 1971 Immigration Act granted leave to remain for post-war Commonwealth immigrants but did not issue them any paperwork or keep records. However, legislation passed in 2012 demanded proof of residency to obtain healthcare, open a bank account, get a job, rent a home, claim benefits and ultimately stay in the UKa bureaucratic nightmare. Last month, Sarah OConnor, a prominent campaigner and victim of the Windrush scandal, died in debt and facing homelessness. Sarah came to the UK aged six and as an adult worked continuously, at Ford in Dagenham and in retail, paying taxes and national insurance contributions, until she was declared an illegal immigrant. Despite addressing Parliament as to the plight of the Windrush generation, and even going through naturalisation to be recognized as a British citizen, OConnor faced insurmountable problems not of her making that remained unresolved at the time of her death. In anticipation of the UK leaving the European Union next year, Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced at the Conservative party conference that a new white paper would come out in the autumn. Ahead of a new immigration bill, the paper will outline proposals allowing the government to prioritise highly skilled over low-skilled migrants from EU and non-EU countries. As with the Conservatives, the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and the Greens all support immigration controls. A similar idea to Javids has already been aired by Labour. Jeremy Corbyns shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer argued for a two-tier migration system in the EU, which divides migrants into highly skilled and low- and semi-skilled workers who should be restricted by sector-based quotas, negotiated between government, industry and trade unions. Corbyns position is that freedom of movement is not a principle and that in relation to immigration, Labour will do what is best for the economy and advances a policy of managed migration. While Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott declared she was deeply concerned by the misuse of terror laws and the brutality of charter flights, exposed by the Stansted 15 cases, she made clear that the profit interests of business will dictate immigration policy. We have economic needs that dictate we need migrants, to help tackle skills and labour shortages, she said. This was a marker that a Corbyn-led government will offer no haven for asylum seekers and refugees. Workers and youth took to the streets in the US recently to demand the end to the cruel separation of children from refugee parentsa practice that continues today in the US and has been going on in the UK for years. In our Statement of Principles, the Socialist Equality Party explains that we stand for the right of workers of every country to live and work where they choose. We condemn and oppose the reactionary framework of border controls and anti-immigrant legislation and call for the full democratic and citizenship rights of all immigrants, including those classified as illegal. (WTXL) - Emergency first responders in Tallahassee are back up and responding to calls. As of 5:57 p.m. the City of Tallahassee Fire Department is back up and running and responding to calls. The City of Tallahassee also said conditions have improved enough for first responders and utility crews to head back out to begin assessing damage. While crews have headed back out, road safety conditions are not known. Damage assessments are underway. Please stay sheltered indoors. Windy conditions, wet roads, flying debris and more create dangerous conditions. #MichaelTLH City of Tallahassee (@COTNews) October 10, 2018 (WTXL) - Emergency responders across the Big Bend, due to the strong sustained winds during Hurricane Michael, are being pulled back. In a tweet, the City of Tallahassee said with 35 mph sustained winds, utilities crews are now being pulled back from the field. They will seek shelter and be back at work as soon as it is safe. Our emergency responders always want to respond when called upon. When winds become too powerful, it's simply not safe. With 35mph sustained winds, utilities crews are now being pulled back from the field. They will seek shelter & be back at work as soon as it is safe #MichaelTLH pic.twitter.com/wOkmu8hDvj City of Tallahassee (@COTNews) October 10, 2018 The Liberty County Sheriff's Office said that all emergency services are suspended until further notice. The Gadsden County Sheriff's Office also said that they have suspended all public service worker response until further notice. Among others include, first responders in Wakulla County and in Bainbridge. The Decatur County Sheriff's Office, Decatur Fire and Rescue, Decatur EMS, Georgia Department of Transportation, Decatur County Public Works, and other state agencies are no longer responding to call as well due to high winds. We will continue to update this as we hear more about first responders being pulled. JEFFERSON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - A mandatory evacuation order has been issued for low lying flood areas and mobile homes in Jefferson County. Due to the increase in severity of Hurricane Michael, Jefferson County Sheriffs Office Emergency Management officials have ordered a mandatory evacuation for the citizens in the following areas for low lying flood areas, mobile and modular homes. Water Distribution points have been set up in the following locations: o Lamont at River Road and South Salt Road behind Old Reams Store o Lloyd VFD across from Main Street o Aucilla Christian School, front of school on Aucilla/Drifton Hwy o Walkers Store at intersection of Waukeenah Hwy and US 27 In front of store Sandbag locations are still available and self-serve at the following locations: 1. Wacissa across from the church at the old post office 2. Lloyd at the county dump site 3. Monticello the old fire department next to the road department Risk Shelter is open: Jefferson Somerset School, 50 David Road, Monticello, FL 32344 Schools closed Tuesday through Thursday. City and County Government offices are closed. For other shelter information please contact the Jefferson County Emergency Management office at 850-342-0211. To see a live map of storm surge zones in the area, click here. You can also view flood prone areas in the county here. Jefferson County declares local state of emergency, closes schools JEFFERSON COUNTY (WTXL) - Jefferson County Board of County Commission has declared a local state of emergency. City and county government offices will be closed Tuesday. Shelters: In preparation for Hurricane Michael Jefferson County EM will be opening a shelter effective 12 p.m. Tuesday at Jefferson Somerset School (50 David Road, Monticello, FL 32344). Schools: Closed Tuesday. Undetermined when schools will reopen. Jefferson Somerset School will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Evacuations: Recommending a voluntary evacuation of low lying areas and mobile home occupants. Sand bag locations will open Monday at 2 p.m. (RNN) - Michael strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane early Wednesday, giving it the potential to be the first hurricane of that category or higher to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle, likely near Panama City. The hurricane, which has maximum-sustained winds of 145 mph, is expected to strengthen even further, hours before its forecast landfall Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center. In its 8 a.m. update, the NHC said Michael was located 90 miles southwest of Panama City, FL, and was moving north at 13 mph. Here are the 4 AM CDT Key Messages on #Michael pic.twitter.com/EzXC9XqIkC National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 10, 2018 Michael is bringing a life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall to the northeastern Gulf Coast. Hurricane #Michael is now an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane and its outer rainbands are beginning to reach the coast. This is a life-threatening event for portions of the northeastern Gulf Coast. Go to https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb for details. pic.twitter.com/RtozXvcTE6 National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 10, 2018 Residents of 13 Florida counties along the Panhandle and the west coast have been issued a mandatory evacuation order. Nine other counties have been issued voluntary or phased evacuation orders. Many businesses in Panama City Beach, FL, were reportedly shuttered Tuesday evening as Michael neared. Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced 34 shelters were opening across the state in preparation. Landfall is expected Wednesday afternoon at the center of the Florida Panhandle. Its expected to produce a life-threatening storm surge for much of Florida and potentially Alabamas coastlines. More than 300 miles of coastline from Mobile, AL, through the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend area are threatened, according to the NHC. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for the following Florida counties: Bay, Citrus, Dixie, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Jefferson, Levy, Okaloosa, Taylor, Wakulla and Walton. Voluntary or phased evacuations have been issued for these Florida counties: Calhoun, Hernando, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Pasco, Santa Rosa, Washington and Escambia. Those in mobile homes or other weak structures in particular were urged to leave. Tolls were suspended in order to help people evacuate. By Monday morning, generators were sold out in many Tallahassee-area stores, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Residents also stocked up on food, water and gas. Florida Gov. Rick Scott expanded a state of emergency declaration Tuesday to include 35 counties in preparation for the storm. This storm is dangerous, and if you dont follow warnings from officials, this storm could kill you, Scott said. President Donald Trump has approved an emergency declaration for Florida, meaning that federal aid will be available to the state to assist in hurricane recovery. The White House released a statement, saying: FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency for her state Tuesday because of expected widespread power outages and wind damage. On Tuesday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency for 92 counties in anticipation of the hurricane-force winds and life-threatening flash floods Michael could bring to parts of the state. A storm surge warning is in effect from the Okaloosa-Walton County line to the Anclote River in Florida. A storm surge watch is in effect for the Anclote River to Anna Maria Island, including Tampa Bay, and for the Alabama-Florida border to the Okaloosa-Walton County line. Water levels will rise well in advance of the center of Michael, and residents within the storm surge warning area should finish preparations to protect life and property today, the NHC said Tuesday afternoon. After making landfall, Michael is expected to cut a path across the Southeast, including North and South Carolina, states that are still recovering from Hurricane Florence in September. The storm is expected to hit parts of Alabama and Georgia before heading northward to Virginia and Maryland. Heavy rainfall could produce life-threatening flash flooding from the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend region, into parts of Georgia, the Carolinas and southeast Virginia. A hurricane warning has been issued from the Alabama-Florida border to the Suwannee River. Tropical storm warnings have been issued from the Alabama-Florida border to the Mississippi-Alabama border, from the Suwanee River to the Chassahowitzka River in Florida, and for Fernandina Beach, FL, to the South Santee River, SC. A tropical storm watch is in effect along the southeastern coast of the U.S., from the Chassahowitzka River to Anna Maria Island in Florida, including Tampa Bay, the Mississippi-Alabama border to the mouth of the Pearl River, the South Santee River, SC, to Duck, NC, and for the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds. The Florida Panhandle and Big Bend areas, in addition to southern portions of Alabama and Georgia, are expected to receive as much as 12 inches of rain through Friday. Eastern Georgia, the Carolinas and southern Virginia are expected to receive as much as 6 inches. The rains could bring life-threatening flash flooding. Copyright 2018 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved. PANAMA CITY, Fla. (RNN) - Many residents and tourist along the coast have evacuated from Panama City. As midnight approaches, Panama City is preparing to feel the first waves from the Hurricane Michael storm surge. Meteorologist Fred Hunter was at Panama City Beach with more Tuesday evening. "Most who came here for vacation have gone home, and many residents have evacuated as well, Hunter said. "This storm may be the strongest to hit PanamaCity Beach since Opal, which was a Category 5. "One of the biggest threats will be storm surge, which is expected to be 6-9 feet and further east storm surge of 9-13 feet in The Big Bend. Here on Thomas Drive this area will possibly be under water by this time tomorrow. The winds will also cause likely power outages, which may last days if not weeks. Anchorage, Alaska, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska, a leading health plan in the state, today announced a $450,000 grant to Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. (RurAL CAP) to fund behavioral health services for pre-K children and their families in Alaskas low-income rural communities. This grant expands case management, supportive services and housing for children, delivering services using a trauma-informed care approach that focuses on how emotional forces impact behavior. The Premera Social Impact grant also will support RurAL CAPs Supportive Housing Division, expanding its transitional supportive housing facility, and creating more counseling spaces to provide increased behavioral health support for residents. These facilities increase access to affordable housing for low-income individuals and families and help homeless individuals move to economic independence. We are committed to improving overall health and well-being in our communities, and that means helping organizations better address the behavioral health needs of kids and their families, said Jim Grazko, President and General Manager of Premeras Alaska office. We are excited to partner with RurAL CAP in our shared mission to provide services that address behavioral health issues and adverse childhood experiences in rural Alaska. RurAL CAP promotes self-sufficiency in Alaskas rural community by providing advocacy, education, affordable housing and direct services that respect Alaskas unique values and cultures, addressing the experiences of homelessness, addiction and mental illness. The children in Alaskas rural communities need access to these behavioral health services, and we are committed to providing them, said Barry Andres, clinical director for Behavioral Health Services at RurAL CAP. Making these facilities and programs available to these communities empowers Alaskans toward whole health. The RurAL CAP grant is part of a five-year, $8 million investment to support efforts across Alaska to address behavioral health issues with a specific focus on homelessness. The funding was made possible due to recent changes in the U.S. corporate tax system that resulted in one-time-only tax refunds to some companies. To learn more about Premera Social Impact, read the companys community giving report. About Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska, which has operated in Alaska since 1952, is a not-for-profit, independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Premera and its family of companies provide comprehensive health benefits and tailored services to approximately 2 million people, from individuals to Fortune 100 companies. About Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. (RurAL CAP) RurAL CAP, founded in 1965, is a private, statewide, nonprofit organization working to improve the quality of life for low-income Alaskans. Governed by a 24-member Board of Directors representing every region of the state, RurAL CAP is one of the largest and most diversified nonprofit organizations in Alaska. In fiscal year 2015, RurAL CAP employed 727 Alaskans in 60 communities statewide and operated on $43 million in conjunction with its for-profit subsidiary, Rural Energy Enterprises. Attachment Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-09 18:51:05|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close BANJUL, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Gambian leader Adama Barrow who is serving as an independent president following his resignation from United Democratic Party (UDP) denied Monday night allegation that he has bribed some National Assembly members ahead of his party's congress in December. National Assembly member Sanna Jawara on Saturday accused the president in a revealing Facebook post that he has been giving some parliamentarians an amount of 10, 000 dalasis (about 200 US dollars) on monthly basis. He indicated that he does not know why the president is making such offers but he condemned it and described it as "an insult to our democracy". Jawara said some parliamentarians in fact queue to collect offers. However, the presidency responded in a press release denying the allegation put against Barrow although it took them 48 hours to react. "It is with great dismay to learn of the series of serious unfounded allegations made by Sanna Jawara, a sitting National Assembly member, most notably, that the President has started paying some parliamentarians D10, 000 each month in envelopes," State House stated in a two-page statement. According to the statement, the claims were maliciously designed to bring disrepute to the person of the president and the office he occupies. The UDP is expected to hold congress in December and it is generally believed that the president is trying to buy loyalty from some of his own party's most influential figures to back him to be elected as party's presidential candidate for the next presidential election in 2021. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-09 22:34:19|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee and secretary of its leading Party members' group, chairs and addresses a study session on China's reform and opening up over the past 40 years in Beijing, capital of China. The meeting was held on Monday and Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) BEIJING, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Leading Party Members' Group of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee held a study session on China's reform and opening up over the past 40 years. Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee and secretary of its leading Party members' group, chaired and addressed the meeting held Monday and Tuesday. The meeting stressed studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and a profound understanding of the major political judgement by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, that reform and opening up is the key that has determined contemporary China's future. The meeting noted that it is an important task to uphold and improve the system of people's congresses for deepening reform in all areas in the new era, according to a statement issued after the meeting. In the past decades of reform and opening up, the work of people's congresses has upheld the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics, been committed to the organic unity of Party leadership, the running of the country by the people, and law-based governance, and strengthened law-based governance in all fields, the statement said. Summarizing the evolution of the system of people's congresses in the past 40 years of reform and opening up, the meeting noted it was fundamental that the CPC Central Committee has remained sober-minded and maintained its political orientation, and pushed forward reform steadily in line with national conditions and social and economic development realities, thus ensuring the right direction of upholding and improving the system of people's congresses. Stressing that China's rapid development in the past 40 years has relied on reform and opening up, the statement said that reform and opening up must be unswervingly upheld to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and to fully build a modern socialist country. The NPC and its standing committee should thoroughly study Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement Xi's thought on upholding and improving the system of people's congresses, and develop and improve the system of people's congresses with the times, the statement said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 01:54:58|Editor: yan Video Player Close BUDAPEST, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Talks are underway regarding Turkish investments in Hungary worth 500 million U.S. dollars, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday. "Currently, negotiations about eight Turkish projects are underway, and hopefully the result of these will be an investment package worth half a billion dollars," Orban told a Hungarian-Turkish business forum held during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Budapest. According to Orban, the fields of cooperation could and should include the military, agriculture, as well as water management, in which Hungary has internationally-recognized expertise. "More than 1,000 people are currently working for Turkish-owned companies in Hungary," Orban said at the beginning of the forum. More than 300 people representing some 150 companies took part at the forum organized by the Hungarian National Trading House (MNKH). "Economic ties are strong between our two countries," Erdogan said. "But bilateral trade volume between the two countries should increase, and we are going to do everything to support this goal," he added. The launch of a direct flight between Budapest and Mumbai via Turkish Airlines is one of the first concrete examples of the possible expansion of business relations between Hungary and Turkey. Excluding the direct Budapest-Beijing flight, there are no long-haul flights to destinations in East Asia and South Asia from Budapest. Erdogan listed tourism and logistics as areas having key potential in the vitalization of the relations. He added that cooperation between Turkish-Hungarian companies was also good in the fields of education, construction and energy, but relations between financial institutions needed strengthening. On a less positive tone, Erdogan deplored that speculative attacks have been made against the Turkish economy over the recent months due to Turkey's counter-terrorism actions. "All of our institutions have taken the necessary steps. We have announced a new economic program, and the restoration of economic equilibrium shows positive signs," Erdogan said. On the refugee issue, he slammed the European Union for insufficient support. "Turkey already spent 33 billions U.S. dollars from its own budget to the close to 4 million refugees in Turkey, with no international aid and Europeans providing only 1.7 billion euros (1.95 billion U.S. dollars) for this purpose, instead of the promised 6 billion euros." Of the 4 million refugees, 3.5 million are Syrians while some half-million are from Iraq, according to Erdogan. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 04:30:33|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close LONDON, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Britain should hold its nerve as negotiations with Brussels on its departure from the European Union reach the final stretch, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab told the House of Commons which reopens Tuesday. But former Brexit Secretary David Davis warned the ruling Conservative Party risked losing the next general election unless it ditched the so-called Chequers plan, the blueprint for a new trade deal favored by prime minister Theresa May. Raab, updating MPs after they returned to Westminster following the party conference season, reiterated Britain's insistence that there will be no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, one of the biggest hurdles still facing negotiators on both sides. Also ruling out a second referendum, Raab said Britain's White Paper proposals, known as Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit blueprint, "are the best way of ensuring there is continued frictionless trade in goods after Britain leaves the EU". It also fulfills the commitment to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, he added. "These negotiations were always bound to be tough in the final stretch. That is all the more reason why we should hold our nerve, stay resolute and focused, and I remain confident that we will reach a deal this autumn," said Raab, adding an agreement was in the best interests of both Britain and the other 27 EU member states. Raab said the government is engaging with the EU on alternative proposals that preserve the integrity of the UK. "They will be in line with the commitments we made back in December, including the commitment that no new regulatory barriers should be created between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK unless the Northern Ireland Executive and the Assembly agree," added the secretary. "We continue to engage constructively with the EU, we continue to press our case," said Raab. EU negotiators effectively want Northern Ireland to stay within their customs union and single market as a way or avoiding a hard border with the Irish Republic which will remain as an EU member Keir Starmer, shadow Brexit secretary for the main opposition Labor Party said Raab's statement would have been much better coming from Prime Minister May. Referring to a recent meeting of EU leaders where May's blueprint was rejected, Starmer added: "It should be up to Theresa May to let the House (of Commons) know what went wrong in the Salzburg negotiations. That meeting in Austria prompted an angry response from May, saying EU leaders had shown Britain a lack of respect. He warned that a vague deal would be like asking Britain to jump into the unknown, adding the Labor would not support that. "No government has the right to plunge the country into chaos because of its own failing," said Starmer. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician Nigel Dodds, said his party would not accept any deal that separates Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain. May's minority government relies on support from the 10 DUP MPs to give her a majority in the British parliament. In another warning to May's government, the former Brexit Secretary David Davis warned her that the electoral consequences for the Conservative party could be dire if the final deal did not respect the decision to leave the EU. In a letter to Conservative MPs, Davis said: "If we stay on our current trajectory, we will go into the next election with the government having delivered none of the benefits of Brexit, with the country having been reduced to a rule-taker from Brussels." Advocating a so-called Canada-style trade deal between Britain and the EU, Davis said: "No 10's stated position that there is only a binary choice between her Chequers plan and no deal is not correct. A third way does exist." Davis quit his top ministerial job in July saying he could not support May's Brexit blueprint, agreed at a behind-closed-doors meetings at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat. Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who quit alongside Davis over May's Brexit blueprint, has already issued a "chuck Chequers" plea to the government, claiming it would mean Britain remaining as a vassal state of the EU. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 05:20:41|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze (L, Rear) and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini (C, Rear) attend the opening ceremony of the 70th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, on Oct. 9, 2018. The opening ceremony of the 70th Frankfurt Book Fair kicked off Tuesday evening in Frankfurt. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan) FRANKFURT, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The opening ceremony of the 70th Frankfurt Book Fair kicked off Tuesday evening in Frankfurt, Germany. With Georgia as its Guest of Honour, the fair is hosting a cultural nation with thousands of years of history. The Georgian "characters", the 33 ornately looping letters of the country's unique alphabet, are part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity."Our alphabet is a cornerstone of our culture," said Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze at the ceremony. This year in Frankfurt, about 7,500 exhibitors from 110 countries and regions will showcase their products and markets, an increase of almost 3 percent over the previous year. The rights and licensing business is flourishing: This year, the Literary Agents & Scouts Centre (LitAg) grew by about 6 percent, according to organizers. The fair unofficially started Tuesday, with The Markets pre-conference, and officially runs from Oct. 10 to 14. The 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair is the international publishing industry's biggest trade fair with around 286,000 visitors, over 4,000 events. Since 1976, the book fair has featured an annual Guest of Honour country, which showcases its book market, literature and culture to attendees in a variety of ways. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 06:36:01|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed on Tuesday his "deep appreciation for the excellent cooperation and support" of U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who earlier handed in her resignation at the White House. The secretary-general's spokesman, Stephan Dujarric, also said Haley and Guterres "had a very productive and strong working relationship during her tenure as United States' permanent representative to the United Nations. "They worked hard to promote constructive ties between the United Nations and the United States to show the value of the United Nations," Dujarric said. "The secretary-general looks forward to continuing to work with Ambassador Haley until the end of her tenure and of course with her replacement." The spokesman said the secretary-general, en route to Indonesia, had not received notice of her resignation and didn't expect to receive it until closer to when she plans to step down, at the end of the year, probably about the time her successor is announced. Guterres plans to meet in Bali, Indonesia with leaders of the Association of South-East Asian Nations at their Leaders Gathering, then with officials of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group at their annual meeting. On Friday he is expected to visit Palu, Sulawesi, the spokesman said. The death toll from the recent earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi has topped 2,000 with more than 10,000 injured and hundreds missing, officials said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres before a meeting of the Security Council at U.N. headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S., Aug. 23, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS) UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed on Tuesday his "deep appreciation for the excellent cooperation and support" of U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who earlier handed in her resignation at the White House. The secretary-general's spokesman, Stephan Dujarric, also said Haley and Guterres "had a very productive and strong working relationship during her tenure as United States' permanent representative to the United Nations. "They worked hard to promote constructive ties between the United Nations and the United States to show the value of the United Nations," Dujarric said. "The secretary-general looks forward to continuing to work with Ambassador Haley until the end of her tenure and of course with her replacement." The spokesman said the secretary-general, en route to Indonesia, had not received notice of her resignation and didn't expect to receive it until closer to when she plans to step down, at the end of the year, probably about the time her successor is announced. Guterres plans to meet in Bali, Indonesia with leaders of the Association of South-East Asian Nations at their Leaders Gathering, then with officials of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group at their annual meeting. On Friday he is expected to visit Palu, Sulawesi, the spokesman said. The death toll from the recent earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi has topped 2,000 with more than 10,000 injured and hundreds missing, officials said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 07:11:06|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close By Murad Abdu ADEN, Yemen, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Residents in the southern port city of Aden expressed deep concerns over the escalating tension currently building up between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC) that called for a popular uprising. The call for a popular uprising came after "the government's inability to tackle the economic crisis including the collapse of the country's national currency as well as the rampant corruption caused by government officials," according to a STC statement. Both the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the STC began mobilization of military units in Aden in addition to the deployment of heavy armored vehicles and tanks around the city's sole international airport and other key institutions. Residents based in Aden told Xinhua the ongoing military preparations and the deployment of armored vehicles are creating fears in the minds of the people living in the city and other neighboring main cities. Mohamed Yahya, a supermarket owner in Aden, described the idea of deploying armored vehicles across the city's neighborhoods as ominous because it made people feel that there would be unavoidable clashes between the two rivals. After noticing the recent development, many traders and owners of large stores expect armed confrontations and plan to shut down their offices during the next days, Yahya said. "Fighting might erupt inside the city's residential areas anytime and no one will provide protection for the people's properties. It's better to start preparing for the worse," he added. Some of the Aden-based residents urged the STC's leadership and the Yemeni government to reassure anxious families about the situation and clarify the recent military mobilization in the city. "It's a bit difficult to know what's going on around us because there are various military units in Aden and every unit linked to a specific political faction," said Abdul-Nasser Salah, a university lecturer at Aden University. "The STC and the government leaders are exchanging accusations about the recent deteriorating situation but they didn't give adequate clarifications for the citizens," Salah said. "The citizens in Aden will be the only victims and have the right to know everything about what's going to happen in their city," he added. Hani Alkhadher, a 40-year-old government employee, who lives near the presidential palace, told Xinhua that he would relocate his families to another neighborhood in Aden. "Living near the presidential compound is becoming more dangerous because anti-government military units might attack this place," Alkhadher said. "My relatives live in a neighborhood free of government institutions and I decided to move my children to that place to avoid the imminent conflict," he added. Supporters of the STC expressed no worries and welcomed the deployment of armored vehicles in Aden and elsewhere in Yemen's southern part. "Deploying the army units is just to provide protection for the southern people that will go out to the streets to demand their rights peacefully," the STC supporter Bashar Kaid told Xinhua. "People in Aden will raise their voices loudly and say no for starvation policies and demand solutions for the recent economic crisis that complicated their lives," Bashar said. The pro-secesssion council issued a statement on Wednesday and called "the southern people to take control over all the government's institutions which provide revenues and expel the pro-government officials." "The economic collapse is frightening and the corruption practised by the government is indescribable and our southern people, who suffered so much, has nothing to lose anymore," Mansour Saleh, a leading member of the STC, told Xinhua. The Saudi-backed Yemeni government urged the STC to join the political process and reject the acts of violence including mobilization of some military units not linked to the country's Defense or Interior ministries, according to a statement released by Saba News Agency. In January, forces loyal to the STC engaged in fierce armed confrontations with the government Presidential Protection Forces over the control of Aden. During the fighting, the forces loyal to the STC took control of the port city of Aden and other government headquarters after two days of clashes which left more than 38 killed and scores of others injured. There have been rising tensions between southern separatist leaders and ministers of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government over the control of the southern half of the country after expelling Iran-backed Houthis from the region. Aden, where the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has been based since 2015, is considered Yemen's temporary capital. The Yemeni government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels for control of the country for more than three years. HARTSVILLE, S.C., Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sonoco (NYSE: SON), one of the largest diversified global packaging companies, has released new consumer research about shopping trends related to organic and all-natural foods. The study showed that the distinctive natural look of EcoTect packaging board enhances product attributes like organic and natural to help brands stand out on the retail shelf. According to the USDA, since it set formal standards for organic foods the market has taken off, posting growth of 10 percent or more each year for most years since 2000. Sonoco focus group research revealed that 89 percent of consumers purchase organic or all-natural products at least once a month, and one in three buys these products at least once a week. This consumer preference is driving market growth and increased competition making factors that affect purchase decisions, like packaging, increasingly important. In addition to focus group research, Sonoco conducted a study at Clemson Universitys CUshop that evaluated three product categories packaged using Sonocos natural-brown, 100% recycled fiber, EcoTect Uncoated Recycled Paperboard (URB). Eye-tracking data in a simulated grocery setting, as well as survey response data, were collected from 60 participants. On average, the EcoTect-packaged products captured consumers visual attention faster, longer and more frequently than the control products. Participants purchased EcoTect packaged brands more often, showing that heightened visual attention correlated with which products ultimately ended up in shoppers carts. Brands can access the study at www.sonoco.com/ecotect/eyetrack or at Booth S-1509 at Pack Expo 2018 in Chicago, Oct. 14-17. Sonoco will feature a variety of new and customer-tested innovations at the show, including its e-commerce packaging solutions (and Amazon APASS certification), expanding fresh food packaging portfolio, consumer-driven center-store innovations, and wide-ranging foodservice packaging solutions. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 09:21:27|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close SYDNEY, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Royal Australian Navy have begun trialling a cutting-edge new material which may hold huge ramifications for the global shipping industry. Developed by Swinburne University of Technology (UOT), the Defence Materials Technology Center and a number of other partners, the anti-barnacle coating is being tested on the hydraulic components of the HMAS Canberra - one of the Royal Australian Navy's key helicopter dock ships. "It is a material that we have formulated at our lab and it consists of a single layer, carbon-based coating," one of the lead scientists of the team, Dr. Andrew Ang of Swinburne UOT, told Xinhua on Wednesday. "Most of the other products in the market that you find for critical components are usually uncoated and rust very quickly, or for surface coating, they consist of two or three layers and are very complicated." "So what we have done, is try to simplify the technology, simplify the whole process so it can be applied easily." Costing the global shipping industry billions of dollars every year, biofouling and corrosion occur when barnacles and marine plants attach themselves to ships. When this happens, it can damage critical mechanical components onboard as well as increase the drag on a ship as it sails, causing it to burn far more fuel. "If you walk along any jetty at a yacht club, you will see barnacles are very prevalent, especially in tropical areas and in areas that experience quite a hot summer," Ang said. "Because countries like Australia rely on shipping and the export of goods, I think it is really critical." "But the other thing is that you don't want species from another part of the world invading our ecosystems, so that is another reason why this technology will help," he added. Administered with a "flamethrower," the material made up of a combination of ceramics and metals, is too expensive to be used on the ship's entire hull. At this stage, just the critical components like fin stabilizers, propellers and elevators have been treated with the coating. "A flamethrower is a non-technical term, but hopefully it captures the attention of the public," Ang joked. "So what we do is use a super-sonic flame jet and we inject it with the powder and it propels the powder after it has been melted straight onto the surface and due to the extreme heat and the extreme speed, we can form a very dense coating that can be used for marine protection." "Part of the reason it is so expensive, is when you blend this composite material, there is a great deal of cost involved." Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 10:46:38|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close COLOMBO, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Nine deaths had been reported so far while 17 people had been injured and one reported missing due to the heavy rains lashing out across Sri Lanka since last weekend, the spokesperson for the Disaster Management Center (DMC), Pradeep Kodippili said in a latest update on Wednesday. Over 70,000 people have been affected while over 15,000 have fled their homes as strong winds and rains continued, DMC said. Kodippili said several roads in the south remained inundated and while water levels were receding, those living in low lying areas were urged to be cautious due to more rains expected later on Tuesday. He said a red landslide warning remained in place in the Kalutara District, in the south, and people in the risk prone areas had been evacuated to safe shelters. An emergency line had also been set up by the DMC for those who needed help or were stranded due to the floods. President Maithripala Sirisena, who is presently on a state visit to Seychelles, on Tuesday, instructed the Minister of Disaster Management, Duminda Dissanayake to provide immediate relief and aid to the affected people. He ordered for the continuous supply of dry rations, drinking water, and health facilities to be distributed to those who were in safe shelters and those affected by the floods. "The President has expressed his deep concern for the people affected by the bad weather conditions, and extended his deepest condolences to the family members of the deceased persons," his office said in a statement. The president further instructed the tri-forces to continue assisting in the disaster relief operations. The Meteorology Department, in its latest weather update said the Cyclonic Storm "TITLI" in the Bay of Bengal was now located 1,000 km away from Trincomalee, in the east, and was likely to move north-westwards towards the Andhra Pradesh coast of India. However, it warned that heavy rains of about 75 mm could be expected at some places in the southern and Uva provinces and in the Kalutara and Ratnapura districts, in the south of the country later on Tuesday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 11:01:39|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) , will be held after the mid-term Congressional elections in early November. Trump told reporters on a flight to the Midwestern state of Iowa that he is too busy campaigning to arrange the meeting. "I just can't leave now," he said. The mid-term elections will be held on Nov. 6. Earlier in the day, Trump told reporters that the venue of his second meeting with Kim has been narrowed down to "three or four" locations. "We are talking about three or four different locations, timing won't be too far away," said the U.S. president, adding that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had good talks with Kim during his Sunday trip to Pyongyang. In brief remarks to reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, Pompeo reiterated that progress had been made on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. "While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path to where we'll achieve the ultimate goal," the top U.S. diplomat said. The first-ever DPRK-U.S. summit was held in Singapore on June 12. According to a joint statement signed by Trump and Kim, the United States would provide a security guarantee to the DPRK in return for Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 12:46:58|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Adlai Ewing Stevenson III speaks during an exclusive interview with Xinhua in Chicago, the United States, on July 16, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ping) by Xinhua writers Xu Jing, Miao Zhuang, Wang Ping CHICAGO, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- That is a trip he will never forget. In August 1975, as a member of the U.S. first Congressional delegation to China, Adlai Ewing Stevenson III visited China for the first time. Stevenson remembered the delegation arrived in Shanghai before taking train to Beijing, where they met then Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping. The U.S. legislators visited China's major cities and rural areas during the 10-day trip. What he perceived then was poverty and the alienation of the people. "People in the streets did not dare be seen talking to foreigners." "I remember bicycles. I don't remember any automobiles except our own automobiles." That was Stevenson's first impression of China. Four years afterwards in 1979, Deng visited the United States, and Stevenson was in his company. "I gave him a tour of Washington, took him to the Jefferson Memorial and showed him our Capitol." "He was not a great communicator," Stevenson told Xinhua. But "he began the reform, and changed the world." Coming from a political family in the U.S. state of Illinois and serving as U.S. senator from 1970 to 1981, Stevenson has had many chances to visit China in different capacities after retiring from politics. He launched a joint venture in China to introduce advanced communication technologies in the 1990s, and acted as co-chairman of Huamei Capital, a U.S.-China joint venture located in Chicago helping Chinese companies to invest in North American market in the 2000s. As the chairman of the non-profit Midwest U.S.-China Association, Stevenson co-hosted China-U.S. West Economic Cooperation Forum in Beijing in 2005. "I commuted back and forth. Every time I went back to China, it was a different China by every dimension," recalled Stevenson, who is now an honorary professor of China's Renmin University. "It became more and more developed, more and more crowded. Buildings are everywhere and streets are filled with automobiles, just a totally different country," he said. "We tried to travel by train so we can see China on the ground, but pretty soon we were traveling by plane and then we could reach more places in China," he added. Stevenson praised China's achievements in its "very rapid" development since reform and opening-up. "China never has so many people lifted out of poverty so fast ... and its opening up and economic reforms began only 40 years ago," he said. "We started the Internet for China, now China has more Internet users than in the U.S.," Stevenson said. "China's development has been very, very, very, very rapid." "It is much more open to foreign investment; it has cracked down on corruption," he commented. "The changes are too big and too many to enumerate," Stevenson stressed. And China has gone further beyond those. "China now promotes the development of other countries through investment in infrastructure... Now China's influence spreads everywhere with its investment," he added. Besides family photos, most of the photos presented on the wall and on the table in Stevenson's study were either taken in China or showing Stevenson being together with Chinese people. "Now I travel and speak freely in China, and in English," Stevenson said with a happy smile. "I may have more good friends in China than here in the United States." Stevenson still remembered well his last trip to China in May 2016. "Three reception dinners were given in my honor, and I have friends from all over, new friends as well as old, join me to welcome me, toast me." "They all joined together and sang Auld Lang Syne. That was very touching," the 88-year-old said. "I would love to go back." Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 13:22:03|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close HONG KONG, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam delivered her policy address on Wednesday, highlighting housing, economy, people's livelihood and young people's development. It was Lam's second policy address since she was sworn in on July 1, 2017. Lam said, titled Striving Ahead Rekindling Hope, this policy address comprehensively covers areas including good governance, housing and land, diversified economy, nurturing talent, improving people's livelihood, liveable city and connecting with young people. The chief executive proposed a total ban on electronic cigarettes for protecting people's health, particularly children and teenagers; actively promote primary healthcare services, and provide further resources for research and development to enhance HKSAR's research capability for supporting HKSAR's development into an international I&T center. In Lam's policy address, housing and land supply is treated as a stand-alone chapter, demonstrating HKSAR government's determination to solve the housing problem. Measures tackling it include developing land resources and increasing the ratio of public housing. Lam noted that in the first half of this year, the HKSAR economy grew strongly by 4 percent in real terms over the previous year, riding on the broadly positive global economic environment. The HKSAR government will act proactively, strengthen its roles in serving as "facilitator" and "promoter," and seize the opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, with a view to generating new impetus for HKSAR's economy. Lam stressed that the policy address was built on the HKSAR's unique strengths under "one country, two systems" and combined with the current-term HKSAR government's unflagging efforts since assuming office on July 1, 2017. "This policy address carries my unswerving determination in leading Hong Kong to strive forward. While there are many words, they serve just one purpose: rekindling hope for Hong Kong," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 13:37:06|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close SUVA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Fijian President Jioji Konrote reflected on the achievements made by Fiji as it celebrated the 48th anniversary of independence on Wednesday. According to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), Konrote said Fiji was approaching its second parliamentary election soon and people need to prepare for it. "Because elections shape more than the next four years, they can shape the direction of the country for decades to come, by either laying a foundation for our long-term success, or by bringing consequences that ripple for generations of history... As was the case in 2014, our election will be held in a transparent manner and to the highest international standards," he said. Konrote said regardless of the political differences among Fijians, the bonds of nationhood and common citizenry must always triumph. He also reminded the public that social media platforms should not be used as a weapon to spread lies and misinformation. He said Fijians should celebrate Fiji Day as proud daughters and sons of a united nation with equal citizens in a genuine parliamentary democracy. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 13:47:08|Editor: ZX Video Player Close People visit the "China-Afghanistan Joint Post Stamp Exhibition" in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Oct. 9, 2018. An Afghan-Chinese post stamp exhibition was held here with a wide range of rare and traditional stamps from the two neighboring countries. (Xinhua/Dai He) KABUL, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan-Chinese post stamp exhibition was held here with a wide range of rare and traditional stamps from the two neighboring countries. The event, named "China-Afghanistan Joint Post Stamp Exhibition," was held on Tuesday in the Chinese embassy in Kabul to mark the World Post Day which falls on Oct. 9 every year. "Afghanistan and China have huge potential for cooperation in the fields of telecommunication and information technology," Afghan Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology Shahzad Aryoubee told the visitors. The joint stamp exhibition would further improve relationship in the field of telecommunication and post between the two friendly countries, he said. "Afghanistan and China, for the first time issued a joint post stamp in 2005, but more efforts are needed to improve exchange of cultural, telecommunication and trade relations and improve friendship between the two sides," he said. "Today is World Post Day... The postal service, the letterhead and the stamps have not disappeared, but they have changed their forms. Because people need to communicate with each other, friendship is needed between countries," Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Liu Jinsong said. Several Afghan officials and Kabul University teachers and students were among the visitors in the one-day display. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 13:52:09|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will visit Bali, Indonesia, from Oct. 10 to Oct. 11 to attend the Singapore-Indonesia Leaders' Retreat and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Leaders' gathering. According to a press release, the Prime Minister's Office issued here Wednesday, Lee will also participate in a moderated dialogue with the World Bank Group (WBG) President Jim Yong Kim at the WBG's Third Annual Human Capital Summit. During the retreat, Lee and Indonesian President Joko Widodo will review the progress made in bilateral relations, discuss ways to deepen their cooperation and exchange views on regional and international developments. They will also witness the signing of the Agreement between Singapore and Indonesia on the Promotion and Protection of Investments (Bilateral Investment Treaty); a bilateral cultural cooperation program in the fields of arts and heritage from 2019 to 2021 and a memorandum of understanding on financial technology cooperation. At the ASEAN Leaders' gathering convened by Indonesia on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group, Lee, in Singapore's capacity as the 2018 ASEAN chair, will co-chair with Joko the discussions on the theme of "Achieving Sustainable Development Goals and Overcoming Development Gap through Regional and Global Collaborative Actions," said the press release. The gathering will involve ASEAN Leaders, as well as heads of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank Group. Lee Hsien Loong will be accompanied by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean on his trip. During Lee's absence, Singapore's Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam will be the acting prime minister. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 14:02:12|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BRASILIA, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Two days after the first round of elections, several of Brazil's political parties began Tuesday the process of aligning themselves with the two presidential front-runners. The second round will be held on Oct. 28 between Jair Bolsonaro, from the Social Liberal Party (PSL), and Workers' Party's (PT) Fernando Haddad. Bolsonaro had a strong lead in the first round of elections on Sunday, winning 46 percent of the votes in a contest between 13 candidates. The Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) announced it was endorsing right-wing candidate Bolsonaro, citing his backing of liberal economic policies that favor deregulation and spending cuts. The Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) and the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) threw their support behind left-leaning rival Haddad, who followed Bolsonaro with 28 percent of the votes. So did the Free Nation Party (PPL). The Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), which ranked fourth in Sunday's election, decided on Tuesday to remain neutral in the second round. The party members will be free to declare their personal support for whichever candidate they prefer. The decision is surprising given that the PSDB lost the past four presidential elections to the PT - and won two before that. The PT and the PSDB are the most notorious rivals in Brazilian politics, and the fact that some PSDB members may choose to rally behind the PT shows the change in the dynamics of this election. In addition, several smaller parties, including the New Party, the Progressive Party and the Christian Democrats, announced themselves neutral, allowing their members to vote for whichever candidate they want. The Democratic Labor Party (PDT), whose candidate Ciro Gomes came in third with 12.5 percent of the votes, has yet to make an announcement. Gomes had earlier indicated he would ask his supporters to back the PT candidate Haddad. PDT leaders will hold an executive meeting on Wednesday. The Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), to which current President Michel Temer is affiliated, has yet to announced its support. Based on the results in the first round, Haddad will need an ample coalition to beat Bolsonaro in the run-off. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 14:12:13|Editor: ZD Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese home-sharing giant Xiaozhu.com, often dubbed China's answer to Airbnb, has secured a new round of financing worth about 300 million U.S. dollars, the company announced Wednesday. The new injection of money came from investors like Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Ltd., as well as Yunfeng Capital, which was co-founded by Alibaba's Jack Ma, according to a statement from Xiaozhu. Xiaozhu will channel more investment into improving security mechanisms in the home-sharing industry and diversifying its services, according to Chen Chi, co-founder and CEO of the company. The start-up has introduced facial recognition technologies for door locks in 40 cities nationwide to ensure the authenticity of users. It also offers value-added services ranging from house-keeping to house interior photographing, so as to improve the look and feel of properties for would-be renters. Xiaozhu will leverage the home-sharing platform to build an expansive coordination network, allowing more people to benefit from the booming sharing economy, according to Chen. China's home-sharing market is surging thanks to increasing popularity of homestays as a novel form of accommodation. Market transaction volume surged 70.6 percent year on year to stand at about 14.5 billion yuan (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, and the number is expected to reach 50 billion yuan in 2020, according to a report by the State Information Center. Founded in 2012 as an online platform for China's landlords managing short-term stays for potential tenants, Xiaozhu now has over 500,000 listings in more than 650 cities across the globe. The start-up secured 120 million dollars in funding last November and signed strategic partnerships with Alibaba's travel branch Fliggy and Booking's online reservation platform Agoda. New York, NY, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners, a nonprofit social enterprise and national leader in financial counseling, was selected by the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund as a technical assistance and training provider to its partner cities offering free financial counseling as part of FEC Public. The CFE Fund, a national nonprofit organization that partners with mayors and local government leaders to improve the financial well-being of their low and moderate-income residents, launched FEC Public to scale professional, one-on-one financial counseling as a public service. Neighborhood Trust will assist the CFE Fund in training counselors at professionally-staffed Financial Empowerment Centers in cities nationwide. Neighborhood Trust will provide training and tools to support the delivery of this proven model of financial counseling that is at the cutting edge of the fields best practices. Through its FEC Public platform, the CFE Fund will work with municipal partners to launch Financial Empowerment Centers in cohorts of new cities, creating unprecedented scale and demonstrating the impact municipal governments can have on their residents by embedding financial empowerment into public services. This collaboration represents an exciting new stage in the relationship between Neighborhood Trust and the CFE Fund. Since its partnership with Neighborhood Trust began in 2013, the CFE Fund has worked with dozens of municipal partners to establish best-in-class financial counseling programs. These programs are based on the innovative model of municipal-based financial counseling pioneered by the City of New York in partnership with Neighborhood Trust and others. Since 2008, Neighborhood Trust has worked with the NYC Office of Financial Empowerment to deliver best-in-class services, integrated into trusted settings such as community-based organizations, credit unions, the workplace, and government agencies to make financial counseling accessible, relevant and actionable. Recognized by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg as one of the Citys most innovative organizations, Neighborhood Trust is driving evolution in this emerging field by weaving behavioral economics insights into its counseling model and delivering a proven combination of trusted financial guidance coupled with connection to safe, affordable financial products. Being selected by the CFE Fund for this opportunity is a validation of the high quality of our services and our position as a national leader in the financial empowerment space, said Neighborhood Trust CEO Justine Zinkin. Through our work with the City of New York, we have developed a strong capacity for technical assistance in this field and were excited to work with the CFE Fund to bring our model of financial empowerment to other cities throughout the country. Financial issues are so complex and so important that we believe that financial counseling should be available one-on-one as a free public service and delivered by a trained professional, said Jonathan Mintz, President and CEO, Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. Our mayoral partners across the country agree, and as we work with them to open their own Financial Empowerment Center initiatives across the country, Neighborhood Trust is the perfect partner to help ensure counseling excellence. ### About Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners Neighborhood Trust is a nonprofit social enterprise empowering workers to take control of their finances and achieve financial health. With more than 20 years of financial counseling experience, we blend our trusted financial guidance with innovative technology solutions and actionable financial products to help workers paychecks go further. Neighborhood Trust embeds our services where workers get paid, access financial services and make financial decisions. Annually we reach more than 10,000 low- and moderate-income workers across the country. Today, our Trusted Advisor workplace financial benefit service is in 29 states and includes customers such as Staples, FreshDirect, and Allen Health Care. For more information, visit www.neighborhoodtrust.org. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 14:17:14|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close CANBERRA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Australia's chief scientist Alan Finkel has called for hydrogen to replace fossil fuels as an everyday source of power. The United Nations' landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on Monday called for coal-fired power generation to be phased out by 2050 and identified hydrogen as a fuel option that must be developed to mitigate global warming. Melissa Price, Australia's minister for the Environment, on Tuesday rejected the key findings of the report despite not having read the whole thing. Much of Australia's reluctance to move away from coal stems from the nation's economy relying on coal exports. However, Finkel said on Wednesday that Australia had an excellent opportunity to become a word-leader in hydrogen exports, saying doing so would "contribute very significantly to the global endeavour" to lower carbon emissions. "We would be helping Japan, Korea and other countries make their contribution ... from a global point of view it's very significant," he told media on Wednesday. Australia's peak scientific body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), in August opened the door for hydrogen exports by producing high purity hydrogen that can be safely transported and used for mass-energy production. CSIRO researchers developed a unique membrane that allowed hydrogen that was turned into ammonia for safe transport to be turned back into hydrogen, which was then used to fuel a car, once it reached its destination. Up until the breakthrough, the transport of hydrogen was considered extremely dangerous because of its high flammability. "This is a watershed moment for energy, and we look forward to applying CSIRO innovation to enable this exciting renewably-sourced fuel and energy storage medium a smoother path to market," CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall said at the time. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 15:32:25|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- A mass grave containing 75 bodies was found west of the Libyan coastal city of Sirte on Tuesday, according to a military source. A source with the Sirte security forces told Xinhua that the forces were notified by a resident about the mass grave, which had been found in an agricultural area 15 km west of Sirte, 450 km east of the capital Tripoli. "The force recovered the remains of 75 unidentified persons," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that "the exhumation of the bodies was carried out in presence of a court representative." DNA samples had been taken for analysis. If confirmed, this will be largest mass grave found in Sirte since the city was taken over by government forces in 2015. Sirte had witnessed months of fighting between forces allied with the UN-backed government and the Islamic State (IS) terrorists, which ended in December 2015 with the government forces taking over the city. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 15:32:26|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close MANILA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines has donated 16 million pesos (roughly 300,000 U.S. dollars) worth of assistance to Indonesia ahead of its President Rodrigo Duterte's visit to the country. Duterte is scheduled to attend the leaders' gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia before attending the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Annual Meeting in Bali. At a press briefing on Wednesday, Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Leehiong Wee said that the Philippine government's donation would be mainly made up of generator sets as well as water and medical supplies. "What happened in Palu was a very big disaster (for Indonesia)," Wee said. Wee was referring to September's earthquakes and tsunami that hit Palu, a city in the province of Central Sulawesi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 15:37:27|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Security forces have recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, an army statement said Wednesday. The operation was conducted by paramilitary troops after receiving an intelligence tip-off regarding presence of arms and ammunition in provincial capital of Quetta, the Inter-Services Public Relations, the mouthpiece of Pakistani army said in a statement. Details of the recovered weapons were not revealed by the military's media wing. The intelligence-based operation was a continuation of the ongoing Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad (rejecting discord) in the country. Launched in February last year, the joint operation by the army and other law enforcement agencies aims at eradication of hidden sleeper cells of militants in the country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 16:27:37|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces survived an assassination attempt in Yemen's southeastern province of Shabwa on Wednesday, a security official told Xinhua. Musfar Harithy, head of the monitoring and inspection department of Yemeni Defence Ministry, was attacked by heavy gunfire from two gunmen when travelling in his car through the coastal road in Shabwa province, the local security source said on condition of anonymity. The Motorcycle-riding gunmen failed to assassinate Harithy and fled to unknown whereabouts, the source said, adding that some of the bullets hit the official's car but caused no death. No group has claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination so far. Security forces backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later cordoned off the area and are investigating the assault. Government officials including high-ranking security commanders and intelligence officers have been the prime targets of kidnapping incidents as well as armed attacks launched by unknown gunmen in recent days. The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014. Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Houthi rebels forced him into exile. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 16:32:38|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close MANAMA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Death toll from a building collapse in the Bahraini capital Manama reached to four on Wednesday. Bahraini Civil Defence teams continued the rescue operation following the deadly building collapse on Tuesday night, in which more than 30 foreign workers were injured, who were believed to be from Bangladesh. Bahraini Interior Ministry said that rescue teams continue to scan the area and search for missing people buried under the rubble. The ministry said a gas cylinder explosion led to the casualties of a team of firemen and other personnel employed to identify anyone trapped. Bahraini Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa ordered an investigation into the blast. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 16:37:40|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- At least four illegal migrants died when a boat sank off Turkey's Aegean coast on Wednesday, local media reported. According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, the mishap occurred near the Karaburun District in the province of Izmir. The coast guards found four bodies in the sea, rescued one woman, and were still searching for 30 others who were reported missing, the agency said. The refugees were believed to have tried to sneak into a Greek island, said Anadolu. The Aegean Sea was the main route for refugees fleeing into Europe via Turkey. A deal signed between Turkey and the European Union in March 2016 has helped curb the flow of illegal migration. Since this year, a total of 20,688 migrants have attempted to reach Greek islands via Turkey, up from 16,048 over the same period in 2017, according to figures newly released by the Turkish coast guard. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 16:47:46|Editor: mym Video Player Close BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- It is not all about winning medals at the Youth Olympic Games. Although weightlifter Ellie Pryor of Britain missed out on the podium in the Europa Pavilion on Tuesday, she knows she will be taking home an enduring friendship. As she finished in sixth place in the women's 53kg, the Briton had vocal support from fellow lifter Sandra Mensimah Owusu of Ghana. The pair connected on social media three weeks ago and have built a strong bond since meeting in Buenos Aires. "I followed her on Instagram by accident and came to know she is also a lifter," said 16-year-old Owusu, who competes in the 58kg category. "I asked her whether she would come to Buenos Aires for YOG and she said yes. It is such a destiny that ties us together." "The day we met each other in Argentina was Ellie's birthday. I recognised her in the dining hall of the Olympic village and asked, 'Are you Ellie?' We were all happy and laughing." Pryor, who turned 17 on October 3, regrets that she will not be able to offer her own support to Owusu when the Ghanaian competes on Thursday, as she will have returned to Britain. However, she dreams of an Olympic reunion closer to home. "My future goal is Paris 2024," Pryor said. "I train five to 10 times a week, sometimes twice a day. But when you get out there [to perform] it is all worthwhile." The top of the standings in the women's 53kg featured a close fight between Sabina Baltag of Romania and Colombian lifter Kely Valentina Junkar Acero. After finishing second in the snatch at 77kg, 1kg less than Junkar Acero, Baltag missed her second clean & jerk attempt at 100kg. There was huge pressure on the 2017 European youth champion as her last attempt at 100kg was her only chance to win the gold. Baltag responded with an impressive lift, winning the competition with a total of 177kg. Junkar Acero ended second with 176kg, while Vinatasari Nur of Indonesia came in third with 162kg. In the men's 69kg, the European youth champion Muhammed Furkan Ozbek of Turkey and Georgia's European youth silver medallist Archil Malakmadze remained close in the snatch, with Ozbek holding a 1kg advantage. But the Turkish lifter had no challenger in the clean & jerk. With three good lifts - 158kg, 165kg and 170kg - he claimed an easy victory with a total of 305kg. Malakmadze and Mauricio Cristofer Canul Facundo of Mexico took silver and bronze medals respectively. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 16:57:47|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Ma Zhaoxu (R, front) speaks during a debate of the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly at its 73rd session at the UN headquarters in New York, Oct. 9, 2018. Ma on Tuesday urged all nations to commit to the goal of cooperation for win-win results while noting that multilateralism is the "bedrock" for sustainable global development. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Tuesday urged all nations to commit to the goal of cooperation for win-win results while noting that multilateralism is the "bedrock" for sustainable global development. Voicing his concern over the threat to the international trade order, Chinese ambassador to the UN Ma Zhaoxu told the Second Committee, or the Economic and Financial Committee of the UN General Assembly, that "the international community should create favorable trading conditions centered on the World Trade Organization (WTO)." Associating himself with the Group of 77 developing nations, Ma said that the international community should prioritize poverty reduction, education and health. "Adequate financial resources are a vital condition for sustainable development, with North-South Cooperation the primary source and South-South Cooperation a supplement," the ambassador added. Member states voiced their concern over millions living in poverty and the unsustainable trend of uneven development. The Second Committee of the UN General Assembly at its 73rd session is discussing issues related to economic growth and development. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 17:02:49|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- As the first ray of sunshine reaches Donggou Village in Beijing's Miyun District, Yang Chenghai and his fellow villagers walk behind 14 mules, each laden with bricks, and make their way up a hillside section of the Great Wall. Meandering on mountain ridges across north China, the Great Wall, one of the world's great wonders, was built between the 3rd century BC and the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The existing sections mostly date from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), with the Ming wall measuring over 8,800 kilometers. Preservation faces long-term challenges. Since the start of this year, the renovation of a 1,000-meter section of the Great Wall in the north of Yang's village has started. Since the mountain paths are so steep, animals are the only way to get bricks to the top. A mule can only carry 12 wall bricks at a time, which are more than 10 kilograms each. Yang, 54, supports himself with a thick tree branch, following the mules on a path full of fragmented rocks, mud and animal feces. To better preserve the historical and cultural values, the bricks are made based on their original format, material and craftsmanship. After nearly an hour's walk, a section of the Great Wall suddenly came into sight, along with workers laying bricks. Some parts are overgrown with weeds, and some have already collapsed. According to the Great Wall survey, the remaining Great Wall sections in Beijing are 573 km long, of which 526 km are from the Ming Dynasty. Zheng Baoyong, head of the heritage management office of Miyun District, said that Miyun is home to one-third of Beijing's Great Wall sections. Due to human destruction and natural weathering, some parts of the Great Wall are damaged or have collapsed, and they are in urgent need of renovation. The Great Wall, a symbol of China, is not just one wall, but many interconnected walls. Sections of earlier fortifications were joined together to form a united defense system against invasions from the north. It was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. In 2006, a regulation on Great Wall protection took effect. Repairs are difficult to complete, taking large amounts of manual labor and funding. The bricks used for restoration are usually transported by vehicles to the foot of a mountain, and from there, mules bring them uphill. Workers have to carry the bricks by hand when a mule fails to climb up some of the steepest mountainsides. Sometimes, mooring ropes and slide rails are also needed. "It is a very difficult and dangerous project. We have around 50 workers now. Every day, they start their work at 5:30 a.m. and do not stop until dark. It is hard to hire workers," said Zhang Baoru, who is in charge of the renovation project. According to the Beijing Cultural Heritage Administration, the city government has invested a total of 374 million yuan (around 54 million U.S. dollars) on the renovation and protection of the Great Wall over the past 10 years. "The Great Wall is a valuable historical and cultural heritage. Renovation is not easy, so more efforts should be made to better protect it," Xiu Haiqing, the village's party chief, said. Yang grew up on the foot of the Great Wall. He and his mules have repeated the journey to transport bricks more than 10 times each day over the past several months. "It is very hard, but I know it is a good thing to do," he said, letting the mules graze for a while before they go downhill to pick up more bricks. Irvine, California, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PrescribeWellness and Chapman Universitys School of Pharmacy (CUSP) announced their joint venture to open the PrescribeWellness Center at Chapmans Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine, CA. Among the services the center offers are: Vaccinations and Flu Shots Travel Health Consulting Family Planning Consulting Smoking Cessation Support Wellness Concierge The goal of the PrescribeWellness Center at the Chapman Rinker campus is to deliver advanced pharmacy services to nearby businesses and their employees to help people develop and maintain their wellness. Also, the center will operate as a learning laboratory and pharmacy of the future to better provide patient-centric care. The PrescribeWellness Center at CUSP is not only a tremendous service to the community, but it shows the strength of Chapmans growth trajectory in health and pharmaceutical sciences, said Ron Jordan, R.Ph. FAPhA, founding dean of Chapmans School of Pharmacy. Chapmans School of Pharmacy is committed to creating practice-ready graduates who are well-equipped to serve as vital members in team-based patient care. With patient-centric care playing such an integral role in the pharmacy profession, this unique venture is set to provide an exceptional opportunity for pharmacy students, priming our future healthcare leaders. In addition, the Centers progressive vision sets the stage for becoming a community healthcare destination, said Poonam Gandhi, associate director of pharmacy operations for PrescribeWellness and pharmacist-in-charge of the PrescribeWellness Center. The PrescribeWellness Center at CUSP will open its doors early this month with an official Grand Opening event open to the public on Monday, October 29 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Guests can learn more about the services offered, plus have access to a free flu shot (limited availability) and other health screenings. The festivities will continue into the evening with appetizers, beverages, raffle prizes and more. MEDIA ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND. The state-of-the-art facility is located on Chapman Universitys Rinker Health Science campus in Irvine at 9501 Jeronimo Rd, Irvine, California, and includes consultation areas, a private consultation room and dynamic visual displays for educational events. The Center is by appointment only, and is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The clinical team is also available to perform clinical services for employees onsite at their offices. For more information, call 800-329-1477 or email bewell@prescribewellness.com. Attachment Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 17:17:53|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BEIRUT, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon Wang Kejian Wednesday visited Lebanese caretaker Economy Minister Raed Khoury in the ministry to discuss bilateral ties between the two countries, local media reported. "Discussions revolved around economic ties and trade between the two countries and the importance of strengthening Chinese-Lebanese relations by participating in exhibitions in China and Lebanon," according to the National News Agency. 2018 China International Import Expo (CIIE), which will take place in Shanghai from Nov. 5-10, will witness the participation of a Lebanese delegation headed by Alia Abbas, a source at the Economy Ministry told Xinhua. General Director of Economy and Trade at Lebanese Economy Ministry, Alia Abbas, and Head of Beirut Traders Association, Nicolas Chammas, also attended the meeting. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 17:22:56|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- A man living in the U.S. state of Colorado was arrested and faces several felony charges for hitting a woman on the street, whom he mistakenly took as a Chinese immigrant. According to a report of local Boulder Patch website on Monday, the incident took place last Thursday in Boulder, some 45 kilometers northwest of Denver, when the man, Jeffrey Karol Bonczyk, suddenly pushed the victim down to the ground, kicked her several times. The victim told Boulder police that Bonczyk became aggressive when he met her on the street because of her perceived race. The victim said she told Bonczyk that she is of native descent, not Chinese, and Bonczyk told her that "I'm the first one here. I'm the white one. I'm the Viking." The 48-year-old Bonczyk was arrested Thursday on suspicion of committing a bias-motivated crime causing an injury, a Class 5 felony, and third-degree assault, a Class 1 misdemeanor. However, Bonczyk told police the fight started because the victim "hates white people." He stated that the victim had used a knife to cause a small cut visible on his chin, according to the report. Boulder is a city at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern Colorado. It was ranked as the happiest city in the United States in 2017 by National Geographic magazine. As of the 2010 census, there were 97,385 people in Boulder. Eighty-eight percent of the population is White, 8.7 percent Hispanic or Latino and 4.7 percent Asian. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 17:22:57|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Jack Ma, founder of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, speaks to audience via video call during the China Conference organized by South China Morning Post in the Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, Oct. 10, 2018. The conference brought together business, academic and political leaders to discuss cooperation between China and Southeast Asia on politics, economy, technology and how to tap opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative, among others. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei) KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Jack Ma, founder of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, hailed the prospect of technology and internet in Asia on Wednesday, saying China and companies like Alibaba will take up the responsibility and opportunities to share its technology with the neighbors. Despite a late comer to the internet and information technology, governments and entrepreneurs in Asia are showing greater interest in the area, he told audience via video call during South China Morning Post's China Conference held in the Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur. "Today I think the big advantage of Asia is the confidence of technology and confidence of the internet," he said. Ma cited Malaysia's embrace of Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), which was proposed by him, to promote trade and small business, as well as similar examples in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, India and Pakistan. "All these things show that Asian countries are embracing the technology more aggressively," he said, while pointing out that people in the West are more concerned about technology, focusing more on regulation. "Internet was developed in America but I'm sure it will develop much more quickly in Asia," he said. The Alibaba founder also said the technology developed by Chinese companies like Alibaba could be shared with countries like Malaysia. "In the past 20 years in China, companies like Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba grow because they solve problems, using the internet, embracing the technology for changing," he said. "I think Asian countries entrepreneurs should work together to solve their problems locally and to use the technology, to be more open, more innovative to solve problems like property, to improve inclusiveness." The conference, organized by the South China Morning Post based in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, brings together business, academic and political leaders to discuss China's cooperation with Southeast Asia on politics, economy, technology and how to tap opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative, among others. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 18:03:02|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Prisoners are transferred after the verdict in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Oct. 10, 2018. A Bangladesh court on Wednesday sentenced 19 people to death, including two former ministers, over a case of grenade attacks at now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's rally in 2004 that killed at least 24 people. Another 19 people including former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman, the current opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting chairman, were sentenced to life imprisonment. (Xinhua) DHAKA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- A Bangladesh court on Wednesday sentenced 19 people to death, including two former ministers, over a case of grenade attacks at now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's rally in 2004 that killed at least 24 people. Another 19 people including former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman, the current opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting chairman, were sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence also included jail terms for 11 others. Amid tight security, Dhaka's Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 Judge Shahed Nuruddin delivered the verdict in capital Dhaka on Wednesday. Twenty-four people, including Ivy Rahman, the women affairs secretary of Awami League and wife of the country's former President Mohammad Zillur Rahman, were killed in the grenade attacks. Hundreds of people including Hasina were wounded. Fifty-two people were accused in two separate cases over the blasts. Of the accused, 31 including two Zia cabinet members and three former inspectors general of police are in jail now and 18 others including Zia's son Tarique Rahman, who has been currently staying in Britain, are on the run. In his immediate reaction to the verdict, Law Minister Anisul Haque told journalists, "Tarique Rahman was the mastermind behind the attack. And the main target of the attacks was to kill then leader of the opposition and Awami League (AL) party President Sheikh Hasina." He said "Tarique Rahman should be given death sentence because he is the main planner." Prime Minister Hasina also on many occasions held Khaleda Zia, her party and her son Rahman responsible for the grenade attack. Zia, who is serving a five-year jail term in a corruption case, had earlier said political vendettas are to blame in her and her son's prosecutions during Hasina's incumbent government. AL, which rose to power with a landslide election victory in early 2009 and won its second term in 2014, now eyes for the third consecutive victory in the national elections slated for December this year. This time AL is facing challenges from Khaleda Zia's BNP, which boycotted the 2014 elections as Hasina did not heed their demand for a non-party caretaker government to hold the polls. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 18:03:02|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CANBERRA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has called for an "amicable" resolution to global trade tensions ahead of a key G20 meeting in Indonesia. Frydenberg, who will meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Munchin at the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Bali starting Thursday, said that he will take a clear anti-protectionist message to the meeting. His comments come the day after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded the Australian economy and warned that Australia was about to be caught in the crossfire of trade tensions. "In talks with my international counterparts this week, I'll be sending a very clear message that free trade equals more jobs, free trade equals more investment and free trade means higher economic growth." The IMF on Monday projected that Australia's economy would grow by 2.8 percent in financial year 2018-19, down from 3.2 percent in 2017-18. "The downward revisions to the 2019 growth forecast for Australia ... partially reflect the negative effect of the recently introduced trade measures," the fund said in its global outlook, which was highly critical of the economic strategy of Washington. "With protectionist rhetoric increasingly turned into action with the United States imposing tariffs on a wide range of imports and retaliatory actions by trading partners, escalation of trade tensions to an intensity that carries systemic risk is a distinct possibility without policy co-operation," the outlook report said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 18:08:03|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close MANDERA, Kenya, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Militants killed two Kenyan teachers and torched a local school in Mandera County in northeast Kenya on Tuesday night, a government official confirmed on Wednesday. Mohamed Birik, northeastern regional commissioner, said the police are pursuing the attackers who raided Arabia Boys Secondary School in Mandera East and killed the two non-local teachers. "The attackers also burnt down the school's staffroom after raiding the school at around 2 a.m. but the police officers are pursuing them," said Birik. The school is situated at the Kenya-Somalia border in an area marked as a terror zone. There are four non-local teachers in the school. Two other teachers escaped during the night raid. The attack in the school happened barely one kilometer from the scene where militants killed some 28 tutors in November 2014. Several teachers fled the region fearing more reprisals by the militants who were targeting non-locals working in the region. Mandera County Commissioner Kutswa Olaka warned against radicalization of the youth and asked locals to share information with security agents. The two teachers who escaped the attack were later taken to Mandera town by security agents. The two could not speak to the media for fear of another attack. Kenya's northeastern region has suffered the brunt of grenade and gun attacks in the last several years since Kenya took its troops to Somalia to fight the al-Shabab militia group. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 18:28:09|Editor: ZX Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kindergarten children in the Israeli city of Givatayim, aged 4 to 6, began to learn the Chinese language and culture as part of a special program, the Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday. Chinese language learning program began in several kindergartens in Givatayim, located east of the coastal city of Tel Aviv, and is expected to expand in the coming years. The language is taught by two Chinese teachers. The first one is Ping Chen, who is married to an Israeli and lives in the state. She has experience in teaching Chinese to toddlers. The second is Dafna Wang, who was born in China and currently lives in Israel. She studied language instruction for preschoolers at a university in China. As part of Chinese studies, the children are exposed to Chinese culture and will learn songs, games, colors and wear Chinese traditional costumes. After the first lesson, Chen said that "the children were really excited that a Chinese woman arrived at the kindergarten. I was amazed that after I taught them the numbers, one of the girls approached me at the end of the class and counted in Chinese Language." Chen added that Chinese is a very difficult language, but it's easier for children. "They made me very excited and at the end of the class everyone wanted to hug me. It was lovely." Chinese language lessons have already been held for several years in a high school in Givatayim. Ran Kunik, mayor of Givatayim, told the newspaper that "the new program will expose the children to a fascinating new culture and language, which is gaining a major worldwide." Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 18:38:11|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close LONDON, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Jupiter's ocean moon Europa is probably covered with blades of ice up to 15 meters tall at its equatorial regions, researchers from Cardiff University in Wales suggests. The potentially life-supporting Europa has been studied by NASA, whose work has become more difficult due to the ice towers. "Clearly, the paper suggests very strongly that the tropics of Europa are going to be spiky, and it would be unwise to plan to land there without a specially adapted lander," said Dan Hobley, lead author of the study and a lecturer in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University. Jagged ice towers could also be found on Earth, especially in high, dry and cold tropical regions like the Chilean Andes. These ice towers are named "penitentes," Spanish for "penitent," because they often look like people kneeling in penance. Scientists found that penitentes on Europa could be up to 15 meters tall, spaced about seven meters apart, while on Earth their heights usually range from one to five meters. "The Europa penitentes grow much slower than the Earth examples, but on Earth they might be restricted to a season or maybe two until they melt in summer or get covered in more snow, but on Europa, they are sat out in the sun growing for 50 million years," Hobley explained. NASA plans to launch a mission called Europa Clipper in 2020s. At a cost of 2 billion U.S. dollars, the mission will "perform repeated close flybys of the icy moon from a long, looping orbit around Jupiter," assess the possible landing site on Europa and try to seek out signs of life on the moon. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 18:43:12|Editor: ZX Video Player Close HONG KONG, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam delivered her policy address on Wednesday, highlighting housing, economy, people's livelihood and young people's development. It was Lam's second policy address since she was sworn in on July 1, 2017. Lam said the policy address, titled Striving Ahead Rekindling Hope, covers areas including good governance, housing and land, diversified economy, nurturing talent, improving people's livelihood, liveable city and connecting with young people. In the address, the chief executive said the HKSAR government would introduce steps to solve the housing problem facing Hong Kong. To deal with the issue as where to get land, Lam presented plans on land supply, including Lantau Tomorrow Vision, development of brownfield sites, land sharing and revitalization of industrial buildings. Being the largest outlying island in Hong Kong, Lantau is home to the Hong Kong International Airport and the gateway to the world. And the commissioning of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will improve Lantau to a "Double Gateway" to the world and other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Lantau Tomorrow Vision is to provide 260,000 to 400,000 residential units, with 70 percent being public housing, to accommodate 700,000 to 1.1 million people, and to create 340,000 jobs for the coming 20 to 30 years, according to Lam. Lam noted that in the first half of this year, the HKSAR economy grew strongly by 4 percent in real terms over the previous year, riding on the broadly positive global economic environment. The HKSAR government will act proactively, strengthen its roles in serving as "facilitator" and "promoter," and seize the opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, with a view to generating new impetus for HKSAR's economy. Lam said that the HKSAR government and herself will not tolerate any acts that advocate "Hong Kong independence" and threaten the country's sovereignty, security and development interests. Lam stressed that the policy address is built on the HKSAR's unique strengths under "one country, two systems" and combined with the current-term HKSAR government's unflagging efforts since assuming office on July 1, 2017. "This policy address carries my unswerving determination in leading Hong Kong to strive forward. While there are many words, they serve just one purpose: rekindling hope for Hong Kong," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 18:58:16|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BERLIN, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The German renewable energy provider Innogy welcomed a decision by antitrust authorities on Wednesday to approve the merger of its British subsidiary with rival Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE). "The final approval by British competition authorities today is a further important milestone in the creation of a new entity which will combine the best of both companies to meet changing customer expectations," Innogy Head of Sales Martin Herrmann told press. "We will continue to work on taking the necessary measures to launch the new company," Herrmann added. By officially greenlighting the Innogy-SSE merger on Wednesday, the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed an earlier preliminary verdict that the development posed no antitrust-related risks to consumers due to the presence of several other industry rivals. The newly-formed joint venture is intended to be listed on the London Stock Exchange with Essen-based Innogy retaining a minority stake of 34.4 percent of shares. Once completed, the merged entity will reach 11.5 million customers in the United Kingdom, making it the country's second largest energy company after Centrica subsidiary British Gas. Innogy has recently also announced that it will join forces with two Japanese partners to develop a brand-new 2.3-billion-euro (2.64 billion U.S. dollars) wind energy project off the North East coast of Britain. The "Triton Knoll" offshore wind park has a planned capacity of 860 megawatts from 2021 onwards, making it one of the largest of its kind in the world. The British expansion drive of the company comes in spite of commercial risks posed by "Brexit" and looming dismantling of Innogy in a major German energy sector reshuffle. Rival energy provider E.ON has reached an agreement with RWE to acquire its 76.8 percent stake in Innogy. If E.ON succeeds in acquiring the remainder of Innogy shares from minority investors as planned, it will take over Innogy's lucrative grid business, while the firm's renewable energy generation becomes concentrated under the corporate umbrella of its mother corporation RWE. As a consequence, Innogy will cease to exist as an independent company. NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA OR JAPAN, OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN. HAMILTON, Bermuda, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FLEX LNG Ltd. (the Company) is contemplating to enter into a transaction (the Transaction) for the acquisition of five 5th generation LNG newbuildings comprising three high-end MEGI LNG carriers currently under construction at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. (DSME) with scheduled delivery in 2020 and two high-end X-DF LNG carriers currently under construction at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI) with scheduled delivery in 2021 (collectively the Vessels), from affiliates of Geveran Trading Co. Ltd. (Geveran), the Companys largest shareholder. The Vessels will be acquired at a purchase price of USD 180 million per Vessel on a delivered basis, including supervision costs, plus USD 6 million for each of the DSME Vessels for the addition of Full Reliquifaction Systems. 30% of the purchase price is payable within three days from the receipt of the proceeds from the Private Placement (as described below) and the remaining part of the purchase price is payable upon delivery of the respective Vessel. The acquisitions of the Vessels are subject to the Private Placement being completed. In connection with the Transaction, the Company is contemplating a private placement (the Private Placement) of new ordinary shares (the Offer Shares) for gross proceeds of the NOK equivalent of USD 300,000,000. The subscription price for the Offer Shares will be determined by the Board of the Company based on an accelerated bookbuilding process. The Private Placement is directed towards investors subject to, and in compliance with, applicable exemptions from relevant prospectus or registration requirements. The Company has retained DNB Markets, a part of DNB Bank ASA, Pareto Securities AS, ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Arctic Securities AS, Fearnley Securities AS and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ.) (Oslo Branch) as managers in the Private Placement (collectively the Managers). The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used to partially fund instalments on the acquired Vessels and for working capital and general corporate purposes. The bookbuilding period for the Private Placement will start today, 10 October 2018 at 16:30 (CET) and will close on 11 October 2018 at 08:00 (CET). The Company reserves the right to close or extend the application period at any time at its sole discretion and without notice. The minimum order size and allocation in the Private Placement will be the NOK equivalent of EUR 100,000, provided that the Company may, at its sole discretion, offer and allocate an amount below EUR 100,000, pursuant to any applicable exemptions from the prospectus requirement being available. Geveran has guaranteed that the Private Placement will be fully subscribed. Allocation of Offer Shares will be made at the discretion of the Companys Board of Directors in consultation with the Managers, shortly after the end of the bookbuilding period. Completion of the Private Placement is conditional upon the necessary corporate resolutions in the Company being made and the Offer Shares having been fully paid and validly issued. The Private Placement will be cancelled if the conditions are not fulfilled, and may be cancelled by the Company in its sole discretion for any other reason. In order to facilitate timely delivery of already listed shares, delivery of Offer Shares allocated in the Private Placement is expected to be made by delivery of existing shares in the Company borrowed by the Managers from Geveran. The shares delivered to investors in the Private Placement will thus be tradable on Oslo Brs immediately after allocation. The Managers will settle the share loan from Geveran with the new shares issued in connection with the Private Placement. The new shares will be registered under a separate ISIN pending approval of a listing prospectus by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway, and will not be listed or tradable on Oslo Brs until the listing prospectus has been approved, expected during December 2018. Advokatfirmaet BAHR AS acts as legal advisor in connection with the Private Placement. Contacts: ystein M Kalleklev, CEO Tel.: +47 23 11 40 58 Additional information about the Company can be found at: http://www.flexlng.com/ Important information: The release is not for publication or distribution, in whole or in part directly or indirectly, in or into Australia, Canada, Japan or the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia) and in any other jurisdictions where such publication or distribution is unlawful. This release is an announcement issued pursuant to legal information obligations, and is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. It is issued for information purposes only, and does not constitute or form part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for securities, in the United States or in any other jurisdiction. The securities mentioned herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "US Securities Act"). The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act. The Company does not intend to register any portion of the offering of the securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of the securities in the United States. Copies of this announcement are not being made and may not be distributed or sent into Australia, Canada, Japan or the United States. The issue, exercise, purchase or sale of subscription rights and the subscription or purchase of shares in the Company are subject to specific legal or regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Neither the Company nor the Managers assumes any responsibility in the event there is a violation by any person of such restrictions. The distribution of this release may in certain jurisdictions be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this release comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The Managers are acting for the Company and no one else in connection with the Private Placement and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company providing the protections afforded to their respective clients or for providing advice in relation to the Private Placement and/or any other matter referred to in this release. Forward-looking statements: This release and any materials distributed in connection with this release may contain certain forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they reflect the Company's current expectations and assumptions as to future events and circumstances that may not prove accurate. A number of material factors could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 19:23:21|Editor: ZX Video Player Close GUIYANG, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- A direct flight was launched Tuesday between the city of Zunyi in southwest China's Guizhou Province and Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. The inaugural flight from Phnom Penh arrived at Zunyi Xinzhou Airport Tuesday at noon. The airport said the air route is operated by Sky Angkor Airlines of Cambodia, using an Airbus A320 or A321 aircraft. Three round trips are scheduled every week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. On Tuesdays and Sundays, the flight is scheduled to depart from Phnom Penh International Airport at 7:50 a.m. and arrive in Zunyi at 12:00 noon, local time. The return flight departs from Zunyi at 1:00 p.m. on the same day and arrives in Phnom Penh at 3:30 p.m. On Thursdays, the flight departs from Phnom Penh at 9:30 a.m. and arrives in Zunyi at 1:40 p.m. The return flight on the same day departs from Zunyi at 2:40 p.m. and arrives in Phnom Penh at 5:10 p.m. So far, Zunyi Xinzhou Airport has launched a total of 44 air routes. It is planning to resume air routes to Singapore and Thailand and launch direct flights to Langkawi in Malaysia and Siem Reap in Cambodia. Zunyi is a historic city with a variety of natural and cultural sites. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:08:30|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close KIEV, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian government on Wednesday decided to allocate 3.6 million U.S. dollars in relief after a fire engulfed an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army in the country's northern Chernigiv region, the cabinet's press service said. In particular, the funds will be used to help people affected by the incident to rebuild their destroyed houses. The fire started overnight Tuesday at an ammunition warehouse, which lies near the town of Ichnya, about 170 km east of Kiev. The blaze triggered the subsequent massive detonation of the ammunition, scattering debris in a radius of 16 km around the 682-hectare depot. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the depot contained about 69,500 tons of ammunition, including 43,000 tons of ammo ready to use. Efforts to extinguish the fire are still underway. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:18:34|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor delivers her policy address in south China's Hong Kong, Oct. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai) HONG KONG, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam delivered her policy address on Wednesday, highlighting housing, economy, people's livelihood and young people's development. It was Lam's second policy address since she was sworn in on July 1, 2017. Lam said the policy address, titled Striving Ahead Rekindling Hope, covers areas including good governance, housing and land, diversified economy, nurturing talent, improving people's livelihood, liveable city and connecting with young people. In the address, the chief executive said the HKSAR government would introduce steps to solve the housing problem facing Hong Kong. To deal with the issue as where to get land, Lam presented plans on land supply, including Lantau Tomorrow Vision, development of brownfield sites, land sharing and revitalization of industrial buildings. Being the largest outlying island in Hong Kong, Lantau is home to the Hong Kong International Airport and the gateway to the world. And the commissioning of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will improve Lantau to a "Double Gateway" to the world and other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Lantau Tomorrow Vision is to provide 260,000 to 400,000 residential units, with 70 percent being public housing, to accommodate 700,000 to 1.1 million people, and to create 340,000 jobs for the coming 20 to 30 years, according to Lam. Lam noted that in the first half of this year, the HKSAR economy grew strongly by 4 percent in real terms over the previous year, riding on the broadly positive global economic environment. The HKSAR government will act proactively, strengthen its roles in serving as "facilitator" and "promoter," and seize the opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, with a view to generating new impetus for HKSAR's economy. Lam said that the HKSAR government and herself will not tolerate any acts that advocate "Hong Kong independence" and threaten the country's sovereignty, security and development interests. Lam stressed that the policy address is built on the HKSAR's unique strengths under "one country, two systems" and combined with the current-term HKSAR government's unflagging efforts since assuming office on July 1, 2017. "This policy address carries my unswerving determination in leading Hong Kong to strive forward. While there are many words, they serve just one purpose: rekindling hope for Hong Kong," she said. Lam said the HKSAR government would enhance cooperation with the mainland in terms of trade, finance, innovation and technology, and some other areas. She would establish a high-level steering committee for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with herself as the chairperson. She said that the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area would bring Hong Kong new areas of economic growth and the opportunity to enlarge the living environment of Hong Kong residents. As a prime platform and key link for the Belt and Road Initiative, Hong Kong would strive to grasp the opportunities brought by the initiative, Lam added. Lam said the HKSAR government will step up efforts to promote innovation and technology. Further to the 50 billion HK dollars earmarked in this year's budget, an additional 28 billion HK dollars will be allocated for university research, re-industrialization, application of technology in public services and related areas, she said. (1 U.S. dollar = 7.83 HK dollars) Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:28:35|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close KAMPALA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Uganda Bankers Association on Wednesday warned that the banking industry is likely to get a backlash if negative reporting continues on social media. The association, which brings together all commercial banks in the country, said in a statement that targeted and calculated negative reporting about the banking sector has the potential of undermining confidence in the industry. The association added that this risks triggering undesired panic with unintended adverse consequences for the economy. "We are confident that the banking and overall financial sector is stable and resilient, however maintaining stability remains a responsibility for all of us and not only the regulator and the financial institution," the statement said. "We further count on the support of the relevant authorities to continue providing the right environment for sustained growth for the banking and financial sector." it said. There have been a series of social media reports questioning how Bank of Uganda, the country's central bank, liquidated Crane Bank and sold it to DFCU Bank. The central bank has denied any wrong doing. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:28:35|Editor: ZX Video Player Close ZHENGZHOU, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- A non-stop flight linking the city of Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, with Da Nang, a coastal city in Vietnam will be launched on Oct. 30. The Henan subsidiary of China Southern Airlines said Wednesday that the flight is scheduled to depart from Zhengzhou at 12:05 p.m. Beijing time and arrive in Da Nang at 2:30 p.m. local time every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The return flight will take off at 3:30 p.m. local time from Da Nang and will arrive in Zhengzhou at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time. China Southern Airlines has launched direct flights linking the two cities with a stopover in the city of Beihai in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The airline also said they would increase direct flights between the two cities to promote their exchange and cooperation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:28:35|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close HARARE, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Prices of basic commodities continue to rise in Zimbabwe as unscrupulous business people take advantage of foreign currency shortages which have triggered a vibrant parallel market and a multi-tier pricing system. Some prices of commodities such as cooking oil and medicines have more than doubled in less than two weeks while commuter fares have also gone up. The hikes have prompted the government to direct that prices of basic commodities which were increased without justification should be reduced immediately, according to the state-controlled Herald newspaper. The price increases have triggered panic buying as some consumers try to cut on future higher costs, resulting in shortages of some commodities. Some retailers have removed price tags from the shelves as they may change at any time during the day, in a situation reminiscent to 2008 when prices could go up more than four times in a day. Major retailers are now rationing the amount of basic goods of the same kind that a customer can buy, with some supermarkets restricting cooking oil to two bottles per customer. The government also directed that no businesses should reject bond notes and other electronic payments when transacting. Some retailers, including fuel providers, and pharmacists had started charging for their products only in U.S. dollars. A number of businesses on Tuesday announced that they were closing down temporarily because they could no longer source products without paying in hard currency. Government on Tuesday warned that those who defied the directives would face drastic action, including the revocation of licenses for fuel suppliers. Vice President Kembo Mohadi, who gave assurances that Zimbabwe had enough fuel stock, said swift measures were being implemented to ensure that there was adequate foreign currency to procure medical drugs. This came in the wake of concerns raised by the Association of Health Funders of Zimbabwe that the health sector had been excluded from a 500 million U.S. dollar facility to help strategic sectors acquire goods and services requiring foreign currency. Apart from pharmacies, some doctors and health institutions are also demanding cash in U.S. dollars for their services. Medical aid societies have also intimated that one way out of the problem is for workers to ask their employers to pay part of medical aid subscriptions in foreign currency. Mohadi thanked major retail shops such as OK Zimbabwe and Pick n Pay who have maintained the old selling prices. "However, it has been noted with concern that there are some supermarkets and individuals that have started selling commodities at exorbitant prices. "There are also some who have engaged in speculative buying in order to create artificial shortages. Government is warning that those that have hiked prices and also those that are hoarding basic commodities in order to create artificial shortages to stop this malpractice forthwith," he said. He said the government would take stern measures against people "who are bent on inflicting suffering on our people", he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:38:38|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- About 75 Taliban rebels renounced violence and surrendered to the government in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar on Wednesday, the provincial government said. "Up to 75 Taliban militants denounced the hostility and joined the peace and reconciliation process and laid down their arms in Bati Kot district," the government said in a statement. They also handed over 75 guns to the security officials in the district, southeast of the provincial capital Jalalabad city. With the insurgents' surrender, peace and stability would be further strengthened in parts of the province, 120 km east of the Afghan capital of Kabul, the statement added. Taliban militants fighting the government have not made any comment on the report. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:38:39|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng (2nd R, back), also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with a delegation led by Ho Iat Seng, president of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR)'s Legislative Assembly, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Vice Premier Han Zheng on Wednesday met with a delegation led by Ho Iat Seng, president of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR)'s Legislative Assembly. Han, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met the delegation at the Great Hall of the People. Han listened to a report and expressed his recognition of the work of the assembly. Han expressed hope that the assembly would conscientiously implement the important instructions on the work of Macao made by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, fully and faithfully implement the policy of "one country, two systems," and resolutely safeguard the authority of the Constitution and the basic law of the Macao SAR. He also hoped the assembly would firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, support the chief executive and government of Macao SAR in exercising law-based governance, give full play to its advantages in contacting with people from all circles and help promote Macao to integrate its own development into the overall development of the country. Ho pledged Macao SAR's Legislative Assembly will better fulfill its duties as mandated by the basic law and make due contributions to maintaining long-term prosperity and stability in Macao and the advancement of the undertaking of "one country, two systems." Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:38:40|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BEIRUT, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese General Labor Union urged Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri Wednesday to form a government and listen to people's demands before it is too late, local media reported Wednesday. "We urge Hariri to listen to people's suffering because the Lebanese are fed up," Head of the General Labor Union, Bechara Asmar, was quoted by the National News Agency (NNA) as saying. Asmar's remarks came following several sit-ins held on Wednesday by associations and employees demanding for their rights. Dozens of applicants to the Customs Bureau protested over their years-long waiting to be hired by the department in a demonstration in downtown Beirut. "We have for four years been trying to get into the Customs (Bureau). We are all educated university students, we are citizens, we are not political parties or anything," a protestor told local news channel LBCI. Meanwhile, Lebanon's contracting professors in public schools held nationwide protests in several areas in Lebanon to demand for their rights, NNA reported. "The main demand of the contracting professors is to re-hire after being fired by the Education Ministry and to raise salaries of professors who are still working with public schools," according to the statement. On the other hand, the association of former employees at Saudi Oger implemented a sit-in in Riad El Solh in Beirut to ask for their salaries. Saudi Oger was one of the biggest construction company in Saudi Arabia, partly owned by Hariri. Saudi Oger reportedly shut down operations in July 2017 following a cutback in spending by the Saudi government and failed to pay wages to workers. This has prompted around 31,000 employees lodge cases claiming their unpaid wages. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:43:40|Editor: ZX Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's sovereignty wealth fund Khazanah said Wednesday that it will continue to build on its well-established relationship with China in mutually beneficial cooperation. "We have a long history of investing in China. This has gone from traditional sectors such as power and infrastructure to new technology especially in e-commerce and the digital marketplace," said Shahril Ridza Ridzuan, Khazanah's managing director. "China has in turn invested in turning Malaysia into a regional logistics hub and has made Malaysia the focus of Alibaba's regional operations," he told the China Conference organized by South China Morning Post. Sharil said the cooperation and investments flowing between the two countries had been mutually beneficial, pointing out that Khazanah was an early investor into China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, which had gone from start-up to one of the largest companies in the world. "One of Malaysia's problems is its small population base, but China is a huge potential market with over 1 billion people," he said. Shahril said the sovereign wealth fund would look into ways to profit from the huge wealth of China's middle class. "Going forward, Khazanah and other funds like Employees Provident Fund (EPF) want to forge long term bond with China to capture investment opportunities in the hugely populated country," he said, referring to the pension fund he had served in before joining Khazanah. He also encouraged Malaysian businesses to seek out suitable investment partners in China. "Investment capital is not an issue but rather Malaysians need to find suitable partners in the country despite some claims that China's economy is slowing," he said "Rather than slowing down, China is a more matured economy which has consolidated. There may be more risks, but these are offset by much greater returns," he added. The conference brought together business, academic and political leaders to discuss cooperation between China and Southeast Asia on politics, economy, technology and how to tap opportunities of the Belt and Road Initiative, among others. October, 2018 - AEDAS Homes will celebrate its first year as a publicly traded company on 20 October, reporting profits ahead of schedule and just eight months after being listed. Equity research analysts from 11 brokerage firms that follow the company have released statements on the potential value of AEDAS Homes following the developer's results presentation, with an average target share price of 35.40 Euros by year end. This implies a potential growth of 40.9% in the share price, taking into account that the stock closed at 25.12 Euros yesterday. During the results presentation, AEDAS Homes once again confirmed its business plan, which was noted by analysts in their comments, and also highlighted the increase in the expected gross margin on the 1,862 homes which are currently under construction or completed. The brokerage firms covering AEDAS Homes include institutions such as Goldman Sachs, UBS and Citi, which have been following the residential developer since its stock market debut a year ago. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 20:48:41|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on Oct. 10, 2018 shows a washed up steamship in Donggala, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Indonesian national disaster agency put the death toll from multiple strong quakes and an ensuing tsunami in Central Sulawesi province at 2,045 on Wednesday, a day before the search operation ended. (Xinhua/Wang Shen) JAKARTA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian national disaster agency put the death toll from multiple strong quakes and an ensuing tsunami in Central Sulawesi province at 2,045 on Wednesday, a day before the search operation ended. Spokesman of the agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said most of the bodies were retrieved in the provincial capital of Palu which was hardest hit by the disaster late last month. "The worst-hit area is Palu, where the damages were resulted from the strikes of tsunami," he told a press conference. Authorities have hastened funerals for victims as many of the recovered bodies were decomposing. As many as 2,549 people were severely injured and 8,130 others suffered minor wounds, he added. Some 5,000 people remained missing in two residential compounds, the spokesman said. A total of 74,044 people were taking shelter in 112 evacuation centers in the province and 8,731 people outside of the province. The deadly disaster destroyed a total of 67,310 houses in Palu, the adjoing districts of Donggala, Sigi and Parigi Mountong, said Sutopo. The search and rescue mission will be terminated on Thursday, the 14th day after the catastrophe due to the potential risk of an epidemic, according to head of the disaster agency Willem Rampangilei. Strong and shallow quakes of 6.0, 7.4 and 6.1 magnitude, which triggered a tsunami of up to 3 meters, destroyed the province on Sept. 28 with massive damage to houses, buildings and infrastructure facilities. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 21:03:44|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday removed restrictions on an eastern city where an African swine fever outbreak occurred in August. Laboratory tests and on-site assessment by local authorities showed the epidemic has been eliminated in Yueqing City, east China's Zhejiang Province, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement. No new case was found during the past six weeks, as immediate actions were taken to block, cull and disinfect the affected pigs after the outbreak. The ministry demanded local governments step up monitoring and take active measures to prevent recurrence of the disease. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 21:13:49|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Palace Museum, one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, launched an expansion project Wednesday in Haidian District of northwestern Beijing. The expansion is the core part of a major cultural renovation program calculated to enhance Palace Museum's capacity in exhibiting and conserving cultural heritage. The on-site geological surveying and archeological prospecting also kicked off at the expansion project, literally known as the "north section project of the Palace Museum." The north section project will cover an area of 62 hectares, where exhibition halls, cultural heritage conservation workshops, warehouses and other facilities taking up 102,000 square meters, will be built. When the north section project is finished, the exhibition areas there are expected to display more exhibits than the museum housed in the Forbidden City at the heart of Beijing. According to Shan Jixiang, the curator of the museum, conservation and protection of cultural heritage will be the most import function of the north section upon its completion, and the process of conservation will be shown to the public. The Palace Museum's general plan for renovation, approved by the State Council in 2013, has listed seven items for construction. In addition to the north section project, the Palace Museum will build a new underground warehouse to protect relics in a controlled environment with custom humidity and temperature settings. The new storage area is expected to be finished in 2020 when the Palace Museum celebrates its 600th anniversary. An underground passage will also be built to connect the two existing warehouses. Home to the royal court between 1420 and 1912, the Forbidden City now houses more than 1.8 million collections of cultural relics. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 21:18:51|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TEHRAN, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran's parliament speaker has called for setting up a joint fund with Bulgaria to boost bilateral trade, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday. Ali Larijani made the remarks in a Tuesday meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart on the sidelines of a conference of Eurasian states' parliaments in Turkey's Antalya. In case the idea of establishing an Iran-Bulgaria joint fund is implemented, it will support the two sides' production and expand trade ties, Larijani was quoted as saying. Also, Iranian private sector companies can cooperate with Bulgaria in the heavy industries, Larijani said. For her part, the Bulgarian speaker, Tsveta Karayancheva, said ties with Iran are top on the agenda of the European Union, adding that her country seeks to use Iran's transportation capacity and corridors. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 21:18:53|Editor: ZX Video Player Close The sixth China-Vietnam public security ministerial meeting on cooperation against crime is held in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 10, 2018. The meeting was attended by Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi and Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- China and Vietnam's ministers of public security Wednesday agreed to push forward cooperation on combating crime. The pledge came out of the sixth China-Vietnam public security ministerial meeting on cooperation against crime, attended by Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi and Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam. Zhao said he hoped that the two sides would "seriously implement the important consensus reached by their leaders, continuously deepen pragmatic cooperation in safeguarding national security, anti-terrorism, combating transnational crimes, immigration management and establishing the security cooperation mechanism for major projects." To Lam, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, said Vietnam was willing to further strengthen pragmatic cooperation with China in various fields such as law-enforcement and security. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 21:18:54|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close MOGADISHU, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Somali national army took control of Gawaan village in Lower Jubba region in southern Somalia, military officials said on Wednesday. The commander for sector 43 Yusuf Hussein told reporters that Somali forces launched an attack on al-Shabab fighters in Gawan village and engaged in heavy gun battle with the militants. "We have attacked them (al-Shabab) and managed to bush them back after heavy fighting lasted for several hours," Hussein said. He added that they inflicted heavy casualties on the militants during the gunfight. "Our forces are in full control of the village and are combing the area for any possible members of the enemy who are hiding," he added. The commander did not say whether they were casualties on the Somali National Army side while the militant group al-Shabab has not issued any comment on the latest incident. Residents reported the clashes saying both sides exchanged heavy gunfire but the situation is calm now. Meanwhile, the militant group on Tuesday evening publicly executed five men for allegedly engaging in spying against the group's activities. The insurgents accused four of those killed of spying for U.S. intelligence while the fifth man was accused of spying for the Somali intelligence. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 21:43:58|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NAIROBI, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has been thrown into mourning following the loss of 50 people in a grisly road accident in the western part of the country. The early Wednesday morning road accident is the worst on Kenyan roads so far this year, with statistics showing fatalities on the highways are on the rise. The 67-seater passenger bus that was headed for Kakamega, a town in western Kenya, from the capital Nairobi, is said to have veered off the road and rolled down a cliff at a place called Fort Ternan in Kericho County. The death toll stood at 50, comprising of 31 men, 12 women and seven children, according to local police. The carnage shattered the holiday mood that had gripped the East African nation's residents after the government declared Wednesday a public holiday. The accident comes a day after data revealed road accidents have surged in the East African nation this year. Road fatalities in Kenya rose 8 percent in the first half of 2018, according to the Kenya traffic police boss Samuel Kimaru. Accidents claimed at least 2,345 people between January and June compared to 2,165 during the same period last year. "As at June, there were 1,948 road accidents reported in the country as compared to 1,776 reported in the same period last year," said Kimaru on Tuesday. President Uhuru Kenyatta sent his condolences to the families of affected passengers, asking drivers to be cautious. "My heartfelt condolences to the families of fellow Kenyans who lost their lives in a tragic road accident at Fort Ternan in Kericho County this morning and wish those in hospital quick recovery." he said. Opposition chief Raila Odinga similarly sent his condolences to friends and relatives of those who lost their loved ones in the road accident. "I appeal to the police to arrest the return of madness on roads," said Odinga. Former presidential candidate Martha Karua offered her prayers to families of victims and condoled with them. "Who will save us from these accidents?" said former lawmaker Martha Karua. "My prayers and sympathies to affected families," she added. In Kakamega, where the accident victims were headed, a somber mood engulfed the town and neighboring regions as people came to terms with the tragedy. Kenyans in their huge numbers took to social media to express their condolences as they asked the government to take action. "This is unbearable pain; 50 people dead in one morning. Our roads have become death traps. My condolences to the family and friends of those who perished," said lawyer Norman Magaya. Both leaders and citizens debated also possible solutions to help curb the rise in road accidents. Senator Moses Wetangula noted the return of carnage on Kenyan roads should not be welcomed. "Offenders must be punished to deter recklessness. I condemn the accident. The victims' families should be compensated," he said. Others suggested having ambulances on standby along the highway so that victims can be saved on time in case of accidents. "Some of the 50 lives would have been saved if there was first response to the accident. Let us have ambulances as priority," said Hilda Juma. Some Kenyans suggested that the standard gauge railway should be extended faster to western Kenya to curb road accidents and ease transport. The Nairobi to western Kenya route is among one of those with highest number of road accidents. With the other being the Nairobi-Mombasa road, which, however, is now served by a railway line. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 21:48:58|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close RAMALLAH, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian officials said on Wednesday that Israeli authorities have started building new settlement units near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Naim Shueair, head of Al-Zawiya village in the northern West Bank, told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA that the Israeli army informed them of the confiscation of 3.2 hectares of village land for military purposes. The army already seized between 56 hectares and 71 hectares of village land to establish a new cemetery for nearby Jewish settlements two months ago, Shueair noted. Palestinian observers, however, said lands confiscated for military purposes often end up in the hands of settlers to establish or expand their existing settlements. Hasan Breijiyeh, a Palestinian Authority official, also said Israeli authorities have begun construction of eight new settlement units in Megdal Oz settlement near Beit Fajjar village south of the city. Breijiyeh explained in a press statement that this is part of a plan to expand the settlement by building 600 new units. Israeli settlement activity, deemed illegal by most world powers and under the international law, is considered one of the thorniest issues hindering the peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis, especially since the latest stalled peace talks in 2014. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 22:14:06|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's graft busters on Wednesday named a number of officials implicated in organized crime, as a national campaign against gangs swept across the country. The exposed Party cadres and those working in the public sector in five cases either organized, led or participated in gang crime, or sheltered gangs from punishment, according to a statement released by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission. Some local authorities were found to have neglected their duties to supervise and punish organized crime, according to the statement. "The problems have severely damaged the political ecosystem, economic order and social stability of the localities, and undermined public trust in the Party and governments, and should be harshly investigated and punished," it said. In one case, Di Zhimin, former head of Dongsi Village in Henan Province, was expelled from the CPC and public office for organizing and leading gang crime. Di was found to have committed crimes, including assaulting, verbally abusing and blackmailing villagers, and violently undermining elections from 1997 to 2017. Di's case has been transferred to judicial organs, with all other officials involved punished. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 22:24:07|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close KIGALI, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan government Wednesday started issuing machine readable travel documents to refugees in the country, which will allow them to move freely across borders. A launch ceremony in Rwandan capital city Kigali witnessed the issuance of bio-metric travel documents to refugees who were verified in the ongoing verification exercise, and who have recently requested the respective documents to facilitate their travel abroad. The issuance of travel documents will positively impact refugees' daily life and legal cross-border movements, said Rwandan refugee minister De Bonheur Jeanne D'Arc at the ceremony. "One of the fundamental rights of refugees is the right to free movement in different countries except their country of origin. The government of Rwanda committed to ensure that hosted refugees get access to legal documents to facilitate them to have access to different services," she said. According to her, issuing travel document to refugees is in line with the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees, which was ratified by the Rwandan government in 1979. The issuance will be implemented by Rwandan Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugees, Rwanda Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration together with UN refugee agency UNHCR. The central African country currently hosts about 153,000 refugees mainly from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Rwandan refugee ministry. In August, Rwanda launched the issuance of valid refugee identification cards for refugees in the country, which enable them access public and private services, employability as well as move more freely in the country. English French TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunwing Travel Group is honoured to be recognized as one of Canadas Fastest-Growing Companies by Growth 500 (formally known as PROFIT 500) for a 14th consecutive year. Published in Macleans magazine, on Growth500.ca and CanadianBusiness.com , Growth 500 ranks Canadian businesses by five year revenue growth. Sunwing Travel Group is the only vertically integrated travel company on the list. The company operates a leisure charter airline with a modern fleet of 40 planes including two new Boeing 737 MAX 8, a luxury charter service with access to private jets, two major North American tour operators, two renowned travel retailers, a hotel division with a portfolio exceeding 15,500 rooms, a vacation club and a destination management company. We are honoured to receive this accolade once again, said Stephen Hunter, President and CEO of Sunwing Travel Group. Much of our growth can be attributed to the innovation of our products and services, the value we've been able to create for our customers through vertical integration and the entrepreneurial, forward thinking nature of our employees. In 2018, the airline expanded their fleet with the introduction of new environmentally-friendly Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. The tour operator continues to increase its capacity offering Canadians access to over 45 of the most popular vacation destinations from 33 airports located across the country and the widest selection of TripAdvisor top-rated resorts. The hotel division continues to expand with the addition of the Planet Hollywood lifestyle hotel brand and Mystique Resorts boutique brand into a product portfolio that will represent 45 properties across ten countries by the end of the year. The award-winning destination management company, NexusTours, has grown exponentially in the past several years to provide over 4,000 experiences for vacationers across our destinations. With over 18,000 employees internationally, the company has received many accolades including a position on Forbes Best Employers list in 2017, a place on the Financial Posts FP500 list, Awards of Excellence from TripAdvisor and consecutive wins of the Consumers Choice Award for top leisure airline in key regions across the country. For more information, visit www.sunwingtravelgroup.com . About Sunwing Travel Group The largest integrated travel company in North America, Sunwing Travel Group is comprised of two leading leisure tour operators, Sunwing Vacations and Vacation Express; Sunwing Airlines, Canada's premier leisure airline; SunwingJets, a luxury private jet charter service; together with the Groups own travel retail businesses, SellOffVacations.com and Luxe Destination Weddings. Blue Diamond Resorts is the Groups hotel division, an innovative organization that operates popular resort brands including Planet Hollywood Hotels & Resorts, Royalton Luxury Resorts, CHIC by Royalton Luxury Resorts, Memories Resorts & Spa, Starfish Resorts and Mystique Resorts across the Caribbean and Mexico; while NexusTours is a full-service destination management company offering affordably priced and reliable ground transportation, popular tours and excursions, as well as other travel management services. About the Growth 500 For 30 years, the Growth 500 ranking of Canadas Fastest-Growing Companies has been Canadas most respected and influential ranking of entrepreneurial achievement. Developed by PROFIT and now published in a special Growth 500 print issue of Canadian Business (packaged with the October issue of Macleans magazine) and online at Growth500.ca and CanadianBusiness.com, the Growth 500 ranks Canadian companies on five-year revenue growth. For more information on the ranking, visit Growth500.ca. About Canadian Business About Canadian Business Founded in 1928, Canadian Business is the longest-serving and most-trusted business publication in the country. It is the country's premier media brand for executives and senior business leaders. It fuels the success of Canada's business elite with a focus on the things that matter most: leadership, innovation, business strategy and management tactics. Learn more at CanadianBusiness.com. For media inquiries please contact: Rachel Goldrick Senior Corporate Communications Manager Sunwing Travel Group 1-800-387-5602 | media@sunwing.ca https://www.facebook.com/SunwingVacations https://twitter.com/SunwingVacay https://www.instagram.com/sunwingvacations https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzjZ-lcuaqBQH7Sq0u3ru7A Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 22:29:08|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NAIROBI, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- A three-day pan African conference kicked off in Nairobi on Wednesday to explore new ways to boost climate resilience in a continent suffering from the negative impacts of rising atmospheric temperatures. Keriako Tobiko, cabinet secretary for environment and natural resources who opened the 7th conference on climate change and development in Africa (CCDA-V11), called for increased financing, technology transfer and capacity development to shield rural communities from climatic shocks. "Climate change presents one of the most existential threats to Africa's survival and progress. It has impacted negatively on our economies and entire livelihoods," said Tobiko. "We must strengthen our commitment and collective engagement towards combating the negative consequences of climate change that include severe food and water shortages," he added. More than 700 delegates who included lawmakers, policymakers, researchers and grassroots campaigners are attending the three-day pan-African conference to inject fresh vitality in the fight against climate change. Representatives of multilateral lenders and regional blocs are also attending the summit that is expected to come up with a new master-plan to revitalize climate change response in Africa. Tobiko said that African countries should focus on innovative financing and robust community engagement to ensure that climate change adaptation and mitigation projects are successfully implemented. The minister noted that climate change presents an opportunity for African countries to invest in green technologies and accelerate their low carbon development. "Committed leadership and green investments will put our continent on solid low carbon development pathways," said Tobiko. African countries have embarked on dialogue to harmonize policies aimed at supporting high impact interventions to boost climate resilience. Olushola Olayide, a senior policy officer at the African Union Commission (AUC), said that experience sharing coupled with knowledge and skills transfer is key to boost climate resilience in a continent already reeling from extreme weather events. "We must speak with one voice and share lessons on the best practices that should be adopted to help local communities cope with natural disasters triggered by warming of the planet," said Olayide. James Kinyangi, the Chief Climate Policy Officer at the African Development Bank (AFDB), said that mobilizing domestic resources as opposed to over-reliance on foreign donors is key to sustain green investments that will promote climate resilience while generating new jobs for African youth. "African countries require targeted investments to accelerate transition to low carbon emission development pathway and bold actions from political leadership is key to realize that objective," said Kinyangi. Pan-African lobby groups have rallied behind community-led interventions that have proved effective in minimizing harm to livelihoods and ecosystems as a result of climatic shocks. Mithika Mwenda, the secretary general of Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), said that financial and technical support for local communities is key to realize the success of climate resilience programs. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 22:34:10|Editor: yan Video Player Close RIGA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Greens and Farmers Union, the leading partner in Latvia's current center-right coalition government, may be sidelined from talks on the Baltic country's next coalition as the New Conservative Party insists on leaving the Greens and Farmers in opposition, local media reported Wednesday. With talks on the new coalition getting under way after last week's general election, the New Conservative Party, which together with KPV LV received the second highest voter support after leftist Harmony, has said it would not cooperate with the Greens and Farmers in forming the new government. Since election winner Harmony is unlikely to attract any partners to form a majority government, the New Conservative Party has started talks with other political parties that have won mandates in the new parliament. After meeting with representatives of the Greens and Farmers Union on Wednesday, New Conservative Party leader Janis Bordans said he only envisaged cooperation with the Greens and Farmers as a constructive opposition in the parliament, but ruled out its involvement in a government led by the New Conservative Party. Greens and Farmers Union chairman Armands Krauze said after the talks, which only lasted 20 minutes, that his party would continue negotiations with other potential partners. Even before the parliamentary election Bordans had been skeptical about teaming up with the Greens and Farmers. "We would be glad if the new government could be formed without the Greens and Farmers Union and Harmony," he said on public radio in July. Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis plans to hold formal consultations with the parties that have won representation in the new parliament next Thursday and Friday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 22:39:13|Editor: yan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have much room to strengthen their partnership in the security, economic and humanitarian fields, a Russian scholar who specializes in the SCO has said. Igor Denisov, senior research fellow at the Center for East Asian and SCO Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, made the remarks as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is about to attend the 17th meeting of SCO heads of government in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe. "The anti-terrorist component of the SCO has not lost its relevance. It is necessary to increase the effectiveness of the activity of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the SCO and possibly expand it through the inclusion of anti-drug issues," Denisov said in a recent interview with Xinhua. In his view, cooperation between the border control departments of the SCO countries is extremely important as well-protected borders will strengthen the security of the organization. "The SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, in cooperation with other internationally recognized mechanisms, should continue its efforts to promote national reconciliation in Afghanistan," he said. The solution to the problem of Afghan instability is clearly long overdue and at the moment it is one of the key threats to the security of the SCO countries, he said. As for trade cooperation, Denisov said it is important for the SCO to participate more actively in building a fair world trade system, in which "there will be no place for unilateral actions of the strong and the subordination of the weak, no place for sanction wars and protectionism." In formulating the main objectives of economic cooperation, Denisov believes that all participants should act in line with the common interests of the SCO. "It is necessary to create a permanent mechanism for the coordination of national programs of scientific, technical and innovative development. The same approach can be used in creating road maps for trade and economic cooperation," he said. Denisov said that along with large-scale projects, it is also necessary to launch smaller projects that improve local people's lives, for example, modernizing power grids and introducing technologies for forecasting emergency situations. What's more, the scholar said cooperation in the humanitarian field is no less important as the SCO groups countries with different historical and cultural heritages, and populations with diverse nationalities and religions. The SCO upholds the "Shanghai Spirit" that features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of common development. "It is worth emphasizing that the 'Shanghai Spirit' itself fully meets the task of developing a global dialogue on the common civilizational and humanitarian problems of the modern world," Denisov said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 22:44:14|Editor: yan Video Player Close Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (4th R, front) meets with Japanese representatives attending the fourth China-Japan Business Leader and Former High-Level Government Official Dialogue in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 10, 2018. Li also held a symposium with the representatives. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday called for joint efforts from China and Japan to improve bilateral relations. Li made the remarks when meeting Japanese representatives attending the fourth China-Japan Business Leader and Former High-Level Government Official Dialogue in Beijing. Noting this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Li said the momentum of improvement of China-Japan relations has been consolidated by the joint efforts of the two sides. He expressed hope that the two countries will abide by the principles agreed on in the four political documents between China and Japan, to ensure the steady and sustainable development of bilateral ties. With regard to bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Li said it is not only beneficial to the two countries but also conducive to the development of global economy and trade, as China and Japan are two major economies of the world. He expected the two countries to make use of complementary advantages to expand cooperation in such areas as trade and investment, financial and monetary, innovation and high-tech, as well as jointly tapping a third market, and jointly safeguard multilateralism and the free trade system. "China will continuously expand opening up. We welcome Japanese enterprises to increase investments in China and continue to play a positive role in promoting cooperation and exchanges between China and Japan," Li said. Japanese representatives, including former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chairman of Japan Business Federation Hiroaki Nakanishi, said the Japanese economic community is willing to promote cooperation with China in such areas as innovation, jointly tapping the third market, environmental protection and coping with the aging population. They said that Premier Li's official visit to Japan in May has brought Japan-China relations back to the normal track. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi also met with the representatives on Wednesday. Wang said China and Japan should consolidate political and legal basis of bilateral relations, ensure the major consensus that the two countries are cooperation partners and sketch out a new blueprint for the future development of bilateral ties. During the meeting with Wang, Yasuo Fukuda said that the two sides should work together to ensure Japan-China relations remain in the right direction. The Japanese side looks forward to deeply participate in the new-round of reform and opening up in China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 22:44:14|Editor: yan Video Player Close MANDERA, Kenya, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan security forces Wednesday intensified hunt for more than 20 militants who raided a local school in the country's border region, killing two teachers. Mandera County Commissioner Kutswa Olaka said over 20 assailants believed to be al-Shabab militants raided the teachers' quarters in Arabia Boys Secondary School, Mandera County, about 1 kilometer away from the Kenya-Somalia border. "The attackers hurled an improvised explosive device (IED) into one of the two blocks housing non-local teachers, consequently killing two of them," said Olaka. He said security officers have launched a hunt for the attackers and more personnel from the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), the General Service Unit (GSU), and the Kenya Police have been deployed to the area to reinforce security. The government administrator said the four Kenya Police Reservists who guard the school engaged the attackers who unfortunately overwhelmed them and fled as more reinforcements were being marshaled into the scene. There are four non-local teachers in the school. Two other teachers escaped the death dragnet during the night raid. "All the other teachers, students, and workers are safe, and the county security committee has held several meetings with the County Education Board to arrange for necessary psychological support and counseling services for them," Olaka said. Security in Mandera remains volatile with the militia who cross over from their neighboring country responsible for the numerous attacks that have rocked the area. Olaka said the government has summoned all security teams and commanders from the area to Nairobi next week to discuss this incident and other security challenges. Kenya's northeastern region has suffered from the brunt of grenade and gun attacks in the last several years since Kenya took its troops to Somalia to fight the al-Shabab militia group. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 22:59:18|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BERLIN, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The German automotive industry has criticized the agreement reached Wednesday between national governments in the European Union (EU) to set stricter carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction targets in the bloc. "I think it is regrettable that a majority of member states could not bring themselves to strike a balance between climate policy and employment in Europe," Bernhard Mattes, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), told the radio station rbb-Inforadio. Mattes announced that his organization would continue to "participate with our arguments in this discussion" in subsequent rounds of negotiations between the bloc's key governing institutions -- the EU Commission, EU Council, and European Parliament. On Tuesday night, member states agreed on a compromise after 13 hours of negotiations in the Council to lower CO2 emission limits by 35 percent for new passenger vehicles and by 30 percent for light-duty utility vehicles. Additionally, the national governments are proposing to offer car makers additional incentives to sell low and zero emission vehicles. While a broad alliance of states including the Netherlands and France called for a 40 percent reduction target in light of the latest climate report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prior to the breakthrough, Germany and several Eastern European states demanded a less ambitious decrease in automotive CO2 emissions of only 30 percent by 2030. Germany is home to the EU's largest domestic car manufacturing sector and has recently admitted that it will most likely fail to meet its own climate policy targets for a 40-percent CO2 emission reduction between 1990 and 2020. Speaking to Xinhua on Wednesday, Manuela Matthess, an expert on International Energy and Climate Policy at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), argued that it was still possible to meet the IPCC's goal of limiting climate change to a 1.5-degree rise in average temperatures if governments acted swiftly. However, such measures would have to include "radical emissions reductions", as well as an exit from fossil fuels, an expansion of renewable energies and generally more sustainable patterns of consumption and production. "We do not have much time left for these unprecedented, but necessary, processes of transformation because the Earth has already warmed by one degree Celsius and as we know with catastrophic consequences for many people," Matthess warned. The FES expert lamented that the gap between this knowledge and concrete actions was "still quite large" in Germany and Europe. "Like most countries on this planet, the climate goals (of Germany and the EU) must definitely become more ambitious," Matthess said. At the same time, Matthess expressed confidence that both the EU Commission and the German ministry for the environment were taking the latest IPCC report seriously and had realized the urgency of the situation. "As a part of the EU, Germany has a lot of potential to act as a global climate policy leader but then it must also implement a concrete and ambitious climate policy in all areas towards this end," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 23:09:20|Editor: ZD Video Player Close A Yemeni displaced student walks at the school's corridor after he received a schoolbag and notebooks provided by a local charity, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Oct. 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed) by Mohamed al-Azaki SANAA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- In a public elementary school in Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa, more than 200 pupils crammed inside a small classroom that normally accommodated no more than 20 students. Wearing ragged green uniforms and shabby shoes, these students only had several broken chairs to share, as most of them had to sit on the bare cold ground. More late students, aged between seven and 13, were still arriving in the early chilly winter morning, most of whom came barefoot. Some of the students carried one notebook and some did not have money to buy a single pencil. Hundreds of them even did not afford a school bag. It is the reality that more than 22 million Yemeni people now have to face after more than three years of devastating war and blockade, which have triggered wide-spread hunger and diseases. Omar Mukhtar al-Hashedi, a 12-year-old sixth grade student at 26 September School in downtown Sanaa, said his father lost his job because of the war and deteriorating economy. "We do not own a house, and my father has to wash cars in the streets in order to pay rent for our small apartment," Omar told Xinhua. "He has no money to buy me a pen or a bag," he said. Thousands of cars are dead in silence off the roads because of an unprecedented severe fuel shortage which started weeks ago amid soaring prices of basic consumer goods. The ongoing war between the Yemeni government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and Iran-allied Houthi rebels is exerting a devastating impact on the health of the young generation and their future. According to recent UNICEF figures, 2 million children have dropped out of school since the conflict in Yemen escalated in early 2015. Meanwhile, almost three quarters of public school teachers have remained unpaid for more than two years, putting the education of 4.5 million children at grave risk. More than 2,500 schools have been damaged or destroyed, while others are now used as shelters for the displaced or as bases of armed groups. Three quarters of Yemen's population are in need of humanitarian aid, including 8 million who need food to survive, according to UN figures. Some local and international charities are struggling to prevent the already fragile education system from falling into a mass destruction. Ahmed Abdulhadi al-Soufi, manager of the state 26 September School, told Xinhua that the number of students is decreasing day by day. "Like thousands of teachers, I haven't been paid for more than two years. Many teachers quit the job because they have to work on anything else to earn income to feed their families," he said. "We still have a very few number of teachers to teach without pay, but several classrooms remain for hours everyday without a teacher and students wait and wait and leave," the school manager lamented. Angela Abu-Asba, chairwoman of a local charity, said her charity distributed 60 school bags in this school, and 100 bags to schoolgirls in nearby Balqis School. "There are more than a thousand students in this school, and there are thousands of families cannot afford to buy a pencil for one student," she told Xinhua. Several internally displaced pupils, who fled escalating war in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, were among those who received school bags at 26 September and Balqis. Until now, the civil war has pushed Yemen to the brink of mass famine, showing no sign of ease. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 23:09:20|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close DUSHANBE, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday called on China and Tajikistan to continue to consolidate mutual political trust, promote pragmatic cooperation and safeguard regional peace and stability. Li made the remarks in a signed article for a Tajik newspaper prior to his official visit to Tajikistan and attendance at the 17th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Noting economic and trade cooperation between the two countries is becoming increasingly close, Li called on the two countries to continue to facilitate pragmatic cooperation. "China is willing to dovetail the Belt and Road Initiative with Tajikistan's development strategy, so as to achieve shared growth through discussion and collaboration," said Li. The premier suggested that the two countries facilitate cooperation on industry capacity, infrastructure and interconnectivity, thereby helping Tajikistan's industrial upgrading and sustained economic development. China is one of Tajikistan's most important trading partners and in the first seven months of this year, trade turnover between the two countries has achieved double-digit growth. During Li's visit, the two sides will further strengthen trade, as well as customs and local cooperation. Saying that mutual political trust is the cornerstone of the long-term development of bilateral relations, Li promised that China will, as always, support Tajikistan in choosing a development path that suits that country's own conditions, and support Tajikistan's efforts to maintain national security and stability and promote economic and social development. "China stands ready to enhance coordination and cooperation with Tajikistan under multilateral frameworks such as the UN (United Nations), the SCO and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, and jointly contribute to the promotion of international and regional cooperation," Li said. China and Tajikistan are both founding members of the SCO. Highlighting the significance of the SCO heads of government meeting, Li said China expects to converge cooperation consensus, map out cooperation plans with participating countries, forge ahead with the SCO's development and make greater contributions to maintaining stability, developing the economy and improving people's livelihood. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 23:19:21|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Canadian counterpart, Chrystia Freeland, discussed global trade and their bilateral partnership over the phone on Wednesday. Freeland briefed Wang on the signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), saying any free trade agreement should be open, inclusive but not exclusive, and that the USMCA should not harm the rights and interests of other countries. Canada will advance negotiations on free trade agreements with other countries based on its own decisions, the foreign minister said. Canada stands ready to join other countries including China in holding fast to a rule-based multilateral trading system and opposing trade protectionism, she said. The Canadian side looks forward to strengthening the strategic partnership with China and expanding communication and cooperation in various fields, she said. Wang said China has always held fast to free trade, advocated safeguarding a multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core, and opposed trade protectionism in any form and double-standard practices. Any attempt to hinder China from achieving modernization will not prevail, Wang said. He called on Canada to join China in safeguarding the global free trade system and promote the creation of a free trade area between China and Canada. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 23:24:22|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Padma Choling, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China and head of the Chinese delegation, speaks at the third Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries' Parliaments (MSEAP) in Antalya, Turkey, on Oct. 9, 2018. At the just-concluded third Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries' Parliaments (MSEAP), China urged Asian and European countries to deepen cooperation to seek common development and prosperity. (Xinhua/Qin Yanyang) ANTALYA, Turkey, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- At the just-concluded third Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries' Parliaments (MSEAP), China urged Asian and European countries to deepen cooperation to seek common development and prosperity. Padma Choling, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and head of the Chinese delegation, issued the call during his speech to the meeting held in Antalya, Turkey on Oct. 8-9. Choling also urged Asian and European countries to develop advantages of green development, promote environmental protection and sustainable development, advocate dialogues and consultations to create peaceful and stable conditions for developement, and enhance mutual learning among different civilizations to shape an open and inclusive human environment. The senior Chinese legislator added that the NPC supports the construction of the MSEAP mechanism and is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in relevant fields with countries within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. WEST CHESTER, Ohio, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local Lodge 1943 announced during Manufacturing Week the official launch of a new apprenticeship program at AK Steel Middletown Works. The IAM/AK Steel Maintenance Technician Apprenticeship standards were approved by the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services. The program gives union production employees the opportunity to train to become fully accredited journeymen in Maintenance Mechanics as Maintenance Technicians through classroom work as well as on the job training. Thirty AK Steel employees recently began this first new 18-month program at Middletown Works. The apprenticeship program includes job training with the Mobile Maintenance Department, and related instruction from hourly employees who have been certified as instructors and are experts in pipefitting, hydraulics, welding and electrical work. Following completion of the program, these 30 employees will then earn state certification (that is also nationally recognized) as journeymen in Maintenance Mechanics and will be eligible to work in maintenance at AK Steel Middletown Works. This new program is part of a growing trend for industrial unions and their employers to meet the challenges for workforce training. We are proud to partner with the IAM Local Lodge to offer this important new way to help meet employee development and business needs today and for the future, said Roger K. Newport, AK Steel Chief Executive Officer. As the only North American producer of flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products, AK Steel is focused on providing these advanced employee training programs in order to meet our customers needs to deliver innovative new products. Neil Douglas, IAM Local Lodge 1943 President and Directing Business Representative said, Our goal is to continue this joint program for decades down the road to help employees gain new skills, and to invest in developing a more highly trained workforce. I think its going to give our local, our membership, and the company an advantage in our industry. The Ohio AFL-CIO and the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute supported IAM and AK Steel to register their apprenticeship and provided resources for program development. AK Steel AK Steel is a leading producer of flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products, primarily for the automotive, infrastructure and manufacturing, including electrical power, and distributors and converters markets. Through its subsidiaries, the company also provides customer solutions with carbon and stainless steel tubing products, die design and tooling, and hot- and cold-stamped components. Headquartered in West Chester, Ohio (Greater Cincinnati), the company has approximately 9,200 employees at manufacturing operations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and facilities in Western Europe. Additional information about AK Steel is available at www.aksteel.com. Contacts: Media Lisa H. Jester, Corporate Manager, Communications and Public Relations (513) 425-2510 Investors Douglas O. Mitterholzer, General Manager, Investor Relations (513) 425-5215 Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 23:24:22|Editor: yan Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday launched a housing project under which the government will build 5 million houses for under-privileged over the next five years. The prime minister, who unveiled the project "Naya (new) Pakistan Housing Program" at a special ceremony in the capital Islamabad, said the target of his government is to ensure provision of affordable houses. He said the government will also start its first project for its employees and registration for the same would begin from Oct. 11. "I am confident that the program would not only help realize the dream of a shelter for the poor but also create employment opportunities. It will also attract local and foreign investment and stimulate about 40 related industries," Khan said at the ceremony held at the prime minister's office. A "Naya Pakistan Housing Authority" will be set up to serve as one window for all construction related formalities. The Authority would be set up in three months and till then a Task Force would look after the housing project. A National Financial Regulatory Body would be set up in two months to remove hurdles in financing of construction of houses. A legal framework would also be prepared to ensure that there are no legal hurdles in the way of implementation of housing project. "A Land Bank would be established to identify land with the Federal Government, the Housing Ministry, provincial governments and local governments," the prime minister said. He said pilot projects would be launched in Islamabad and seven districts of the country in the first phase. A registration process would be initiated in these districts from Thursday with the cooperation of the National Database and Registration Authority to collect data for housing needs of the people. "The government would serve as a facilitator while construction activity would be undertaken by the private sector," Khan explained. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 23:49:32|Editor: yan Video Player Close CAIRO, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian and Saudi forces started on Wednesday their joint military drills dubbed "Tabuk 4" in Egypt's southern military region, an Egyptian military spokesman said in a statement. "The drills aim to develop and strengthen military cooperation between the Egyptian armed forces and their Saudi counterparts," said Tamer al-Refai, stressing the significance of Egyptian-Saudi military collaboration amid the ongoing regional challenges. The event, which will continue for several days, will feature theoretical and practical seminars on combat skills as well as a military equipment exhibition, according to the statement. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are key regional allies that enjoy mutual strategic political, economic and military relations. Saudi Arabia was one of the states that took part in the Egyptian-U.S. "Bright Star" military drills in Egypt last month, the largest of their kind in the region. In August, Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and the United States, participated in "Eagle Response 2018" joint military exercise held in the Egyptian territorial waters in the Red Sea. Egypt and Saudi Arabia also took part in joint and multilateral military exercises, including "the Gulf Shield" drills in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, "Faisal" air military training in September 2017, and "Morgan" joint naval exercises in the Red Sea in 2015. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-10 23:59:35|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close ANKARA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian rebels have completed the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the demilitarized zone in the northern province of Idlib, Turkish Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Turkey's activities in Idlib will continue in order to secure sustainable and permanent peace, the ministry said in a statement. Opposition forces in the region also confirmed to state-run Anadolu Agency that they removed their heavy weapons, including Grad rocket launchers, mortars and medium-range missiles from the area on Sunday night. Meanwhile, Turkish forces began to dispatch weapons and armored vehicles to the area for upcoming patrols with Russian military under the framework of the agreement. Last month, Turkey and Russia agreed to establish a demilitarized zone in Idlib, Syria's last rebel stronghold, following a meeting in the Russian city of Sochi between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. According to the agreement, heavy weapons, tanks, rocket systems and mortars belonging to rebel groups would be withdrawn by Oct. 10, while Russia and Turkey will conduct joint patrols in the demilitarized zone. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 00:14:37|Editor: yan Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Wednesday that Pakistan's trade deficit reduced by 2.4 percent during the month of September over the same month of the last year. According to the official figure, Pakistan's trade deficit dropped to 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in September which was 2.4 percent lower when compared with the figures recorded in the same month last year. The figure was 9 percent lower when compared with the trade deficit recorded in August. The country's current account deficit fell drastically in August this year at 0.6 billion U.S. dollars, which was well below the expectations. Mohammad Sohail, CEO at Topline Securities, which is based in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, told Xinhua that due to further contraction in the trade deficit, Pakistan's current account deficit is also likely to shrink for the month of September, provided other statistics for the month stay in line with the previous month's trends. During the month under review, Pakistan's exports were calculated at 1.73 billion U.S. dollars, which were 3.6 percent more when compared to the exports worth 1.67 billion U.S. dollars recorded during the same month of the last year. The country's exports deflated by 14 percent in September to 1.73 billion U.S. dollars as against exports worth 2.02 billion U.S. dollars registered in August. Mohammad Sohail said the decline over August is likely due to the lower exports of agriculture commodities that may pick up the pace going forward as the Pakistani government has recently allowed sugar export of 1 million tons. Last month, Pakistan's imports were recorded 4.43 billion U.S. dollars, which was almost flat over the figure of 4.44 billion U.S. dollars posted during the same month of the last year. The country's imports slumped 11 percent in September to 4.43 billion U.S. dollars as against imports worth 4.99 billion U.S. dollars reported in August. Commenting on the declining trends in the country's imports, Mohammad Sohail said the decline in imports on monthly basis is likely due to the lower import of furnace oil as few power plants are closed amid liquidity constraints due to the energy sector's burgeoning circular debt. During the first quarter of the fiscal year of 2018-19 (July-September), Pakistan posted a slight improvement of 4.6 percent to 5.4 billion U.S. dollars in its exports, while on the flip side its imports hiked by only 0.6 percent to 14.3 billion U.S. dollars, which resulted in a decline in trade deficit by 1.6 percent to 8.9 billion U.S. dollars. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 00:14:38|Editor: yan Video Player Close SANAA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels said they have bombarded a Saudi military boat off the Yemeni Red Sea port of Midi on Wednesday, the rebel-run Al-Masirah TV channel reported. "The Yemeni naval forces bombarded and destroyed a Saudi military boat off Midi port, killing all aboard," the rebels said. Midi is a rebel-controlled port in the Yemeni northwestern province of Hajjah. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia. The alleged attack came amid intensified airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition warplanes on the rebel-controlled Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, located south of Midi. Hodeidah port is a lifeline for millions of Yemeni people. Saudi Arabia has warned the Houthi militias not to hinder the freedom of navigation and global trade in the Red Sea. The Saudi government has been accusing Iran of supporting the Houthi rebels through the supply of weapons and missiles. Both Houthis and Iran denied the accusations. Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in the Yemeni conflict in 2015 to support the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 00:44:43|Editor: yan Video Player Close RABAT, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan royal navy rescued 366 suspected illegal immigrants on Wednesday off the Mediterranean sea, Morocco's army said. The migrants were carried by 15 inflatable boats heading to Spain since Tuesday and ran into trouble, according to the army. All the migrants were brought safely to the Port of Ksar Sghir, the army said, adding that an inflatable boat in a dilapidated condition sank right after the rescue. At the last weekend, the Moroccan navy rescued 615 illegal immigrants after assisting 31 inflatable boats off the Mediterranean sea. In recent months, Morocco has been witnessing a significant hike in illegal immigration attempts. Morocco thwarted at least 54,000 attempts to smuggle illegal immigrants into Europe in the first eight months of 2018, compared with 39,000 attempts a year earlier, the Moroccan government said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 00:44:43|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for more attention directed to people's mental health, especially that of young people, in observance of the World Mental Health Day. "For too long, mental health has been mostly an afterthought, despite its overwhelming impacts on communities and young people, everywhere," Guterres said in a message for this world day. About one in five young people experiences mental health problems; half of all mental health conditions start by the age of 14 but most cases are undetected and untreated, according to the UN chief. Poor mental health during adolescence has an impact on educational achievement and increases the risk of alcohol and substance use and violent behavior, he said, adding that suicide is a leading cause of death in young people. With regard to adults' mental health, he said millions of people are caught up in conflict and disasters, putting them at risk of a range of long-term mental health problems; violence against women -- physical, sexual and psychological -- results in lasting scars, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Recalling a great deal of mental health conditions are both preventable and treatable, Guterres stressed healthy societies require greater integration of mental health into broader health and social care systems, under the umbrella of universal health coverage. The UN chief reiterated the UN's commitment to creating a world where everyone, everywhere has someone to turn to in support of their mental health by 2030. "It is time to act on mental health." Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 00:49:45|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers on Wednesday staged a rare protest in the capital Addis Ababa over "inadequate" salary and benefits, briefly blocking a road around the national palace. Mobile and Wi-Fi internet connection was cut for several hours as confusion and rumors gripped the capital. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed held discussions with the protesting soldiers to hear their grievances, state media outlets reported later Wednesday. Zeynu Jemal, head of Ethiopia Federal Police Commission, told the media that the protest by around 240 soldiers created a brief standoff with other security forces around the national palace. The protesting soldiers initially wanted an audience with the prime minister while being armed, but after negotiations, they were allowed to meet with Ahmed without holding their weapons, said Jemal. The Ethiopian army, one of the strongest and largest in Africa, is known for strict discipline, and protests by soldiers is practically unheard of in the east African country in recent years. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 01:04:49|Editor: yan Video Player Close BUDAPEST, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Hungarian ministry of foreign affairs and trade has summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to Hungary, official sources here said. "The ministry summoned Ambassador Liubov Nepop, after the hostile policies of Ukraine towards Hungary escalated to a new level," said Levente Magyar, the minister of state for parliamentary affairs at the ministry, when speaking to journalists on Wednesday. According to Magyar, the discussions with Nepop became necessary because people in Ukraine were making a "death list" of members of the Hungarian ethnic minority in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Parliament's official webpage posted a document about the possible deportation of Ukrainians having also Hungarian citizenship. Ukraine does not recognize the concept of dual citizenship that has been granted by Budapest to ethnic Hungarians of Ukraine. Magyar also deplored Ukraine was installing military troops and barracks close to the Hungarian border. The main reason of discord between Budapest and Kiev is the recent adoption by the Ukrainian parliament of a language law that puts ethnic Hungarian children at a disadvantage in the Ukrainian school system, according to Budapest. However, Ukraine affirms that the law is not directed against ethnic Hungarians, but rather serves to enhance the education of Ukrainian, the official language. On Oct. 4, Ukraine expelled a Hungarian diplomat from its territory, a move retaliated the same day by the Hungarian government. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 02:10:02|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian federal government on Wednesday urged ex-rebel movement Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) to disarm its fighters. "The need for OLF and all other political groups to disarm, to engage in peaceful discourse is a non-negotiable stance of the government which has responsibility to ensure respect for the rule of law and security of its citizens," the Federal Government Communications Affairs Office (GCAO) said in a statement. The Ethiopian government has invited various political groups and rebel movements to participate in the country's democratic process in a bid to foster political reconciliation and consensus, the statement said. However, the statement said, OLF has yet to disarm all of its fighters, a precondition for all political groups to participate in peaceful political struggle in Ethiopia. Over the weekend, OLF leader Dawud Ibsa told state-affiliated media outlet Walta TV that his movement has not negotiated with the Ethiopian government over the disarmament of its fighters as a precondition to participate in the political process of the country. It is estimated there are around 2,800 OLF fighters based mainly in the western and southern parts of Oromia regional state, the principal operating ground of OLF. OLF rebels have in recent months been accused of conducting deadly assaults on military and civilian targets, including the Sept. 26 killing of four government officials. The movement claims it fights for political, social and economic rights of ethnic Oromos, who make up around a third of Ethiopia's estimated 105 million people. Many ethnic Oromos have accused successive Ethiopian governments of ignoring their economic, political and social rights. OLF was designated as a terrorist group by the Ethiopian parliament in 2011. It was removed from the terror list in July to help facilitate negotiations and foster reconciliation. English French JCDecaux signs 10-year extension to exclusive advertising contract with Dubai Airports Dubai International (DXB) at the forefront of the airport advertising revolution Paris, October 10th, 2018 - JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, announced that its subsidiary JCDecaux Dicon will place the world's leading international airport Dubai International (DXB) at the forefront of an airport advertising revolution after extending its contract with Dubai Airports until 2028. Building upon a successful collaboration that began in 2008, this new phase of the partnership, signed today in Dubai, covers all the exclusive advertising concessions at DXB. To support Dubai Airports in its strategic ambitions, JCDecaux will implement an in-depth media transformation plan, including the introduction of iconic digital media opportunities, which will elevate the passenger experience while offering an unbeatable communications platform for brands. JCDecaux will deliver state-of-the-art LED screens and other advertising opportunities located across the airport's three terminals and four concourses, including a curved digital screen of 70 sq.m and eTrees offering interactive communication. Committed to engaging passengers in the world's busiest international airport, JCDecaux will deliver enriching and uplifting experiences, that will transform the concourse - making DXB a destination in its own right. JCDecaux's new comprehensive advertising offer will be based upon a data-driven ecosystem, enabling clients to take full advantage of the unprecedented power of DXB's audience. This shift to digital out-of-home (DOOH) with the ability to identify and target specific audiences will facilitate engaging, rich-media campaigns that reach sophisticated and discerning travellers. It will also connect the airport advertising industry to programmatic while increasing advertising revenues for Dubai Airports. JCDecaux will also co-create with Dubai Airports an open innovation programme to test and develop new ideas by creating a lab for start-up companies. In 2017, Dubai International retained its position as the world's number one international airport for the fourth consecutive year, with annual passenger traffic exceeding 88.2 million (over 89 million expected in 2018). The airport, which by 2023 will be able to handle 118 million customers per year, will reach a major milestone of welcoming 1 billion passengers by the end of 2018. Dubai Airports' vision to become a destination airport of choice is supporting the strategic vision of the Dubai government, which aims to strengthen the position of the city as an innovation hub while contributing to Dubai's attractiveness as a centre for trade, tourism and commerce. These changes come at a time when the OOH media industry is undergoing a profound transformation with digital disruption leading to an ambitious new future for the sector. JCDecaux is N1 worldwide in transport advertising with more than 215 airports. With 35 airports currently under concession in the Middle-East, the Group offers a unique premium network reaching 60% of passenger traffic. HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports, said: "Dubai is renowned globally for its spirit of innovation and tireless efforts to be on the leading edge of technological and consumer trends. This new agreement only adds to that reputation by positioning Dubai Airports at the forefront of the airport advertising digital revolution." Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said: "As the industry landscape changes, it is important we partner with a company that can align with our future vision as an airport. And that vision is to not only be the biggest international airport in the world, but to be the best. This agreement will elevate engagement and generate revenue to invest in delivering an even better customer experience." Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said: "JCDecaux is delighted to extend its partnership with Dubai Airports. I am very proud of the trust that our partners have placed in JCDecaux to accompany them as they lead the way in civil aviation innovation. The transformation of the airport environment by delivering innovative and state-of-the-art digital advertising solutions will ensure premium visibility for advertisers and their brands while continuously enhancing the passenger's experience. By leveraging the busiest international hub worldwide, we hope to contribute to develop Dubai's international influence." Key Figures for JCDecaux 2017 revenue: 3,493m*, H1 2018 revenue: 1,643m JCDecaux is listed on the Eurolist of Euronext Paris and is part of the Euronext 100 and Euronext Family Business indexes JCDecaux is part of the FTSE4Good index N1 worldwide in street furniture (543,050 advertising panels) N1 worldwide in transport advertising with more than 215 airports and 250 contracts in metros, buses, trains and tramways (356,320 advertising panels) N1 in Europe for billboards (141,630 advertising panels) N1 in outdoor advertising in Europe (672,220 advertising panels) N1 in outdoor advertising in Asia-Pacific (216,290 advertising panels) N1 in outdoor advertising in Latin America (77,190 advertising panels) N1 in outdoor advertising in Africa (26,770 advertising panels) N1 in outdoor advertising in the Middle-East (18,650 advertising panels) Leader in self-service bike rental scheme: pioneer in eco-friendly mobility 1,074,113 advertising panels in more than 80 countries Present in 4,033 cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants 13,040 employees * Restated from the retrospective application of IFRS 15, applicable from January 1st, 2018 Communications Department: Agathe Albertini +33 (0) 1 30 79 34 99 - agathe.albertini@jcdecaux.com Investor Relations: Arnaud Courtial +33 (0) 1 30 79 79 93 - arnaud.courtial@jcdecaux.com Chinese President Xi Jinping (6th R, front) poses for a group photo with other leaders and guests ahead of the 18th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, June 10, 2018.(Xinhua/Gao Jie) MOSCOW, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have much room to strengthen their partnership in the security, economic and humanitarian fields, a Russian scholar who specializes in the SCO has said. Igor Denisov, senior research fellow at the Center for East Asian and SCO Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, made the remarks as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is about to attend the 17th meeting of SCO heads of government in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe. "The anti-terrorist component of the SCO has not lost its relevance. It is necessary to increase the effectiveness of the activity of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the SCO and possibly expand it through the inclusion of anti-drug issues," Denisov said in a recent interview with Xinhua. Chinese armored vehicles move forwards the target during the "Peace Mission 2007" anti-terror drill involving member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Chelyabinsk of Russia, Aug. 17, 2007. (Xinhua/Li Gang) In his view, cooperation between the border control departments of the SCO countries is extremely important as well-protected borders will strengthen the security of the organization. "The SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, in cooperation with other internationally recognized mechanisms, should continue its efforts to promote national reconciliation in Afghanistan," he said. The solution to the problem of Afghan instability is clearly long overdue and at the moment it is one of the key threats to the security of the SCO countries, he said. As for trade cooperation, Denisov said it is important for the SCO to participate more actively in building a fair world trade system, in which "there will be no place for unilateral actions of the strong and the subordination of the weak, no place for sanction wars and protectionism." A cargo train leaves for Kazakhstan from Ganzhou, east China's Jiangxi Province, July 27, 2017. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi) In formulating the main objectives of economic cooperation, Denisov believes that all participants should act in line with the common interests of the SCO. "It is necessary to create a permanent mechanism for the coordination of national programs of scientific, technical and innovative development. The same approach can be used in creating road maps for trade and economic cooperation," he said. Denisov said that along with large-scale projects, it is also necessary to launch smaller projects that improve local people's lives, for example, modernizing power grids and introducing technologies for forecasting emergency situations. Fatima Kuchkarova from Uzbekistan (1st R) learns Taichi at Taiqing Temple in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, July 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng) What's more, the scholar said cooperation in the humanitarian field is no less important as the SCO groups countries with different historical and cultural heritages, and populations with diverse nationalities and religions. The SCO upholds the "Shanghai Spirit" that features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of common development. "It is worth emphasizing that the 'Shanghai Spirit' itself fully meets the task of developing a global dialogue on the common civilizational and humanitarian problems of the modern world," Denisov said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 02:25:08|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close OSLO, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- About 50,000 troops from 31 countries will participate in NATO's Trident Juncture 2018 exercise in Norway from Oct. 25 to Nov. 7, the Norwegian Armed Forces said on Wednesday. All 29 NATO member nations and its partners Sweden and Finland, with around 150 aircraft, 65 vessels and up to 10,000 vehicles, will take part in the exercise, which would be the alliance's biggest maneuvers since the Cold War. "The exercise will test the whole military chain - from troop training at the tactical level, to command over large forces," the Norwegian Armed Forces said on its website. Collective defence has become a more prominent feature of NATO due to the changes in the global security situation since 2014, the Norwegian military said, adding that the exercise will help "to ensure that NATO forces are trained and ready, display our collective capabilities and to show that NATO stands strong." "NATO exercises are not directed against any specific country or region. This exercise is about making sure our forces can work seamlessly together in a crisis, anywhere in the alliance," it said. The United States has decided to send its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman to join the Trident Juncture 2018 exercise, which will be held in central and eastern Norway and the surrounding areas of the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea, including Iceland and the airspace of Finland and Sweden. A demonstrator dressed as Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (C) with blood on his hands protests outside the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2018, demanding justice for missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (AFP photo) ANKARA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has identified eight out of 15 suspects linked to the missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, state-run Anadolu Agency reported Wednesday. A total of 15 Saudis entered the consulate in Istanbul while Khashoggi was inside, Anadolu quoted security sources as saying. The Turkish police has released the detailed information of the eight Saudi suspects, including several officials. State-run broadcaster TRT aired the footage showing these 15 Saudis arriving by private jet and then leaving a hotel. The Saudi Arabian journalist has been missing since Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate building to get documents for his re-marriage to a Turkish woman. Unconfirmed reports said Khashoggi was likely killed inside the compound, which was denied by Saudi officials as "baseless." A dar earlier, Saudi Arabia invited Turkish experts and officials to visit the consulate after Turkey demanded to search the building. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 04:00:29|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Clashes erupted on Wednesday between policemen and gunmen trying to hijack police vehicles near the Libyan city of Misurata, some 250 km east of the capital Tripoli, killing one gunman and injuring two policemen. "A number of security officers from southern Libya arrived in Misurata to receive vehicles from the Ministry of the Interior's warehouses. Upon receiving the vehicles and while they were leaving, the General Intelligence Department was informed that the vehicles were attacked by outlaws and that three of them were taken in Tawergha area (some 40 km south of Misurata)," the General Intelligence Department said in a statement. The stolen cars were recovered, the statement said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 04:20:37|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Libya's eastern-based army on Wednesday said it seized a Tunisian and an Italian fishing bulldozers off the coast of the eastern town of Ras Hilal. The army spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari told a press conference in the eastern city of Benghazi on Wednesday that a coast guard patrol seizes the two fishing bulldozers illegally entering the Libyan territorial waters. "The number of crew is 13, including nine Italians," al-Mismari said, confirming that the authorities began investigation after they entered the Libyan territorial waters illegally. In May 2017, Libya's eastern-based authorities seized an Italian and Greek ships that entered the Libyan territorial waters illegally off the coast of Ras Hilal. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 04:20:37|Editor: yan Video Player Close BUCHAREST, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Wednesday announced that the government will allocate 43 million euros (49.39 U.S. dollars) to the swine breeders affected by the African swine flu. "By using European funds, namely from the European Fund for Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as from the national budget, we will allot 43 million euros," she told a government routine meeting. According to the prime minister, Romania received special funds from the European Union. "Minister of Agriculture Petre Daea has just returned from Brussels with good news, after meeting the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan," she specified. The money, she said, will go directly to the swine breeders, first of all to the small- and medium-sized farms, but also, indirectly, to the public services working to fight and prevent African swine flu from further spreading. African swine fever outbreaks have been active in Romania since August 2017, but their number increased significantly in June this year. The latest official statistics announced on Wednesday showed that as many as 348,691 pigs were slaughtered after 998 outbreaks appeared in 13 of the country's 41 counties. EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan said that the European Commission was considering granting financial support to help affected farmers in Romania when visiting the country on Sept. 13. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 04:25:39|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia on Wednesday voiced concern over the economic reintegration of former rebel fighters in the South American country. The vast majority of the former fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the process of reintegration still have no clear economic prospect beyond the monthly stipend that is to end by August 2019, Jean Arnault told the Security Council. The resumed National Council on Reintegration has therefore a huge task before it, under the difficult circumstances of a much wider geographical dispersion of the former members of FARC, said Arnault, who is also the special representative of the UN secretary-general in Colombia. To succeed, the council needs a solid consensus on its approach to productive projects, land and the proper mix of collective and individual reintegration, he said. Some of the lessons learned from the past year include the need to connect reintegration much more directly to local development; to empower local authorities; and to link up more systematically with the private sector, universities and other actors willing and able to assist with long-term reintegration, he said. Arnault asked Colombia's Congress to approve the government's budget proposal for next year's public spending on reintegration. "Resources will of course be critical. We have taken note that the government's budget proposal for 2019 provides that public spending on reintegration be maintained at the same level as last year." Political participation of former rebels is positive, he said. Eight of the 10 FARC representatives afforded seats in the two chambers of Congress have assumed their responsibilities and are contributing to the debates and the legislative activities of these bodies, he said. "We welcome the collegial spirit that is being displayed in Congress in spite of sharp political differences. We also note that the financial difficulties that undermined FARC participation in the elections at the beginning of this year have been largely overcome. We appreciate that President (Ivan) Duque's efforts to build political consensus on policy issues have included FARC members of Congress." The Colombian government and FARC struck a peace deal in August 2016 after four years of negotiations in Havana, Cuba, ending a five-decade-long conflict in the country. The UN Verification Mission in Colombia, mandated by the Security Council, is tasked to verify the reintegration of FARC fighters. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 04:45:43|Editor: yan Video Player Close RABAT, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan navy has opened fire on a boat carrying migrants, wounding one person, the Moroccan official MAP news agency reported on Wednesday. The military source said that the guard used several warning shots before shooting on the vessel. The arrested boat carried 58 Moroccan suspected as illegal migrants who were hidden in the boat, including a man who was slightly injured in his right shoulder and then quickly evacuated to receive necessary health care, the same source added. The navy's shooting was the second of its kind in two weeks. On September 25, a Moroccan naval patrol opened fire on a speedboat transporting migrants to Spain, killing a 22-year-old woman and wounding three others. The Moroccan Interior Ministry said that a naval unit operating in the Mediterranean was forced to fire on the boat after its Spanish captain refused to respond to several warnings. Moroccan navy has rescued a total of 1,067 migrants since last weekend. In recent months, Morocco has been witnessing a significant hike in illegal immigration attempts. Morocco thwarted at least 54,000 attempts to smuggle illegal immigrants into Europe in the first eight months of 2018, compared with 39,000 attempts a year earlier, the Moroccan government said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 05:15:52|Editor: yan Video Player Close MEXICO CITY, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The number of international travelers to Mexico declined 7.3 percent in August on a year-on-year rate, although foreign currency income increased in the same month, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) said on Wednesday. During August, Mexico received 7,157,990 visitors which represents a decline of 13.1 percent compared to July, according to the Survey of International Travelers which is being published for the first time by Inegi. Travelers poured 1.852 billion U.S. dollars into the economy in August, an increase of 16.3 percent compared to the same month of the previous year. But this was still 4.8 percent less than what was recorded in July, according to Inegi. Mexico could see a record breaking 41 million foreign visitors in 2018, according to a forecast from tourism minister Enrique de la Madrid. In 2017, Mexico was the sixth most visited country in the world with 39.3 million foreign tourists, surpassing Germany, the United Kingdom and Turkey, according to the United Nation's World Tourism Organization. Foreign currency income into Mexico through tourism could grow 7 percent this year, from the 21.3 billion U.S dollars it received in 2017, according to official forecasts. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 05:15:52|Editor: yan Video Player Close HAVANA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel opened a Twitter account @DiazCanelB on Wednesday that gained nearly 9,000 followers just hours after he issued his first tweet. Diaz-Canel tweeted about attending celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the 1868 Cuban War of Independence against Spanish colonialism. "We are in #LaDemajagua, the place where with the most patriotic sentiments #WeAreCuba and #WeAreContinuity," said the president. Diaz-Canel, 58, took office in April, representing a generational sea change as the first post-revolutionary Cuban leader who did not take part in the 1959 overthrow of the dictatorship. However, he is committed to the ideals of the revolutionary leaders Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro, as he makes clear in his Twitter profile. In July, Diaz-Canel told local journalists, "by December, I'm on Twitter." His presence on social networks was seen as a positive step by state daily Granma. "The Cuban president's presence on Internet will ... serve to strengthen ties with Cuban communities abroad, which will now have a simpler and faster way to interact with one of the most far-reaching political decision-makers on the island," the daily said. He later tweeted from the province of Pinar del Rio, where recovery efforts were underway following Hurricane Michael. In Latin America, Twitter has become a popular means for regional leaders and politicians to communicate directly with constituents. English French Inventiva Announces Two Poster Presentations at the American College of Rheumatology Conference Posters to focus on the anti-fibrotic effect of lanifibranor and the alteration of the PPAR pathway in a mouse model of systemic sclerosis (SSc) Daix (France), October 10, 2018 - Inventiva S.A. ("Inventiva" or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), systemic sclerosis (SSc) and mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS), today announced that two abstracts on the anti-fibrotic effect of lanifibranor and the alteration of the PPARpathway in a mouse model of systemic scleorderma will be presented at the upcoming American College of Rheumatology (ACR) conference being held on October 19-24, 2018 in Chicago, Ilinois. These two posters were prepared as part of the development of lanifibranor as a treatment for SSc, for which the results of the Phase IIb study FASST (For a Systemic Sclerosis Treatment) are expected in early 2019. The first abstract, entitled "In vivo assessment of lung fibrosis' prevention using the pan-PPAR agonist lanifibranor in the TbetaRIIgammak-fib (Transgenic Mouse Model of Scleroderma) mouse model of systemic sclerosis", shows the impact of Inventiva's lanifibranor in the treatment of lung fibrosis in a mouse model of SSc. In this model, where transgenic (TG) mice display severe and persistent fibrosis compared to wildtype (WT), lanifibranor produced a significant protection from lung fibrosis compared to controls, reinforcing the rationale for lanifibranor trials in SSc, especially for patients showing lung fibrosis. The second abstract, entitled "Evidence for Altered Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor (PPAR) Pathway Activity in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Scleroderma (TbetaRIIgammak-fib): Analysis of Mouse Skin, Lung and Explanted Cells", examines the evidence of PPAR pathway perturbations in whole tissue or explanted cells from adult or neonatal TbetaRIIgammak-fib TG mice compared to WT littermates. Results suggests that the PPARpathway is downregulated in TG mice. Pierre Broqua, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Inventiva, commented "The data to be presented at the ACR reinforces our confidence in the potential of our lead product lanifibranor, with which we aim to address important unmet medical needs in the treatment of NASH and SSc. We are currently evaluating lanifibranor in two parallel Phase IIb clinical studies in NASH and SSc and look forward to presenting top-line results from the SSc trial in early 2019." The event details for the presentations are as follows: Poster Titles: "In vivo assessment of lung fibrosis' prevention using the pan-PPAR agonist lanifibranor in the Tbetariigammak-Fib mouse model of systemic sclerosis"; "Evidence for Altered Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor (PPAR) Pathway Activity in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Scleroderma (TbetaRIIgammak-fib): Analysis of Mouse Skin, Lung and Explanted Cells" Session Title: Systemic Sclerosis and Related Disorders - Basic Science Poster I & Poster II Date: Sunday, October 21st and Monday, October 22nd Time: 9:00AM- 11:00AM (CST) Location: ACR poster sessions A and B About lanifibranor Lanifibranor is a next generation panPPAR modulator, designed as a moderately potent and well-balanced PPAR alpha, gamma and delta. This unique profile was conceived in order to obtain an optimal therapeutic margin with strong efficacy and tolerance. Lanifibranor is currently being evaluated in two parallel Phase IIb clinical studies in NASH and SSc as well as in a Phase II trial in diabetic patients with NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). About Inventiva: www.inventivapharma.com Inventiva is a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development of drugs interacting with nuclear receptors, transcription factors and epigenetic modulators. Inventiva's research engine opens up novel breakthrough therapies against fibrotic diseases, cancers and orphan diseases with substantial unmet medical needs. Lanifibranor, its lead product, is an anti-fibrotic treatment acting on the three alpha, gamma and delta PPARs (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors), which play key roles in controlling the fibrotic process. Its anti-fibrotic action targets two initial indications with substantial unmet medical need: NASH, a severe and increasingly prevalent liver disease already affecting over 30 million people in the United States, and systemic sclerosis, a disease with a very high mortality rate and for which there is no approved treatment to date. Inventiva is also developing a second clinical program with odiparcil (IVA 336) for the treatment of patients with mucopolysaccaridosis type VI (or Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome), a rare and severe gene disease affecting children. Odiparcil has also the potential to address other MPS types, characterized by the accumulation of chondroitin or dermatan sulfate (MPS I or Hurler/Sheie syndrome, MPS II or Hunter syndrome, MPS IVa or Morquio syndrome and MPS VII or Sly syndrome). Inventiva is also developing a portfolio of early research projects in the field of oncology. Inventiva benefits from partnerships with world-leading research entities such as the Institut Curie in the field of oncology. Two strategic partnerships have also been established with world-class major pharmaceutical companies AbbVie and Boehringer Ingelheim in the fields of autoimmune diseases (specifically in psoriasis) and fibrosis respectively. These partnerships provide milestone payments to Inventiva upon the achievement of pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, in addition to royalties on the products resulting from the partnerships. Inventiva employs over 100 employees and owns R&D facilities near Dijon, acquired from the international pharmaceutical group Abbott. The Company owns, a proprietary chemical library of over 240,000 molecules as well as integrated biology, chemistry, ADME and pharmacology platforms. Contacts Inventiva Frederic Cren Chief Executive Officer info@inventivapharma.com +33 3 80 44 75 00 Brunswick Julien Trosdorf / Yannick Tetzlaff Media relations inventiva@brunswickgroup.com +33 1 53 96 83 83 LifeSci Advisors Monique Kosse Investor relations monique@lifesciadvisors.com +1 212 915 3820 Important Notice This press release contains forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates with respect to the clinical development plans, business and regulatory strategy, and anticipated future performance of Inventiva and of the market in which it operates. Certain of these statements, forecasts and estimates can be recognized by the use of words such as, without limitation, "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "plans", "seeks", "estimates", "may", "will" and "continue" and similar expressions. Such statements are not historical facts but rather are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management's beliefs. These statements reflect such views and assumptions prevailing as of the date of the statements and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause future results, performance or future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual events are difficult to predict and may depend upon factors that are beyond Inventiva's control. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline product candidates that the candidates will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. Therefore, actual results may turn out to be materially different from the anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements, forecasts and estimates. Given these uncertainties, no representations are made as to the accuracy or fairness of such forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates only speak as of the date of this press release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements. Please refer to the "Document de reference" filed with the Autorite des Marches Financiers on April 13, 2018 under n R.18-013 for additional information in relation to such factors, risks and uncertainties. Inventiva has no intention and is under no obligation to update or review the forward-looking statements referred to above. Consequently, Inventiva accepts no liability for any consequences arising from the use of any of the above statements. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 05:20:53|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte attend a joint press conference in The Hague, the Netherlands, Oct. 10, 2018. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in The Hague on Wednesday ahead of the mid-October European Council meeting to discuss, among other subjects, the Brexit. (Xinhua/Sylvia Lederer) THE HAGUE, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in The Hague on Wednesday ahead of the mid-October European Council meeting to discuss, among other subjects, the Brexit. During a joint press conference ahead of their talks Merkel said to be pleased to hear that the Brexit negotiations seem to go in the direction of a deal. "Apparently progress has been made, but sometimes the devil is in the details," the German Chancellor said. Merkel also said that there are still major obstacles. "A solution is only possible if everything has been resolved, and if we make more progress next week, that's a good signal," she added. "I would like progress to be made, but sometimes that does not go exactly on the themes you want, but I also hope for results next week." "I think we can be cautiously optimistic that steps can be taken next week," Dutch PM Rutte said. "A lot depends on the talks in the coming days." After his meeting with Merkel, Rutte also issued a statement in which he said that speaking with Merkel was "a great pleasure". He added that he repeated the importance of getting results at the forthcoming European Council meeting. "Regardless of the other subjects we also looked forward," Rutte said. "For example to the discussion about the joint future of the remaining 27 EU countries without Britain. That future is of great concern to both of us. We agree that this discussion should be about concrete results for the inhabitants of the smaller EU and should not be bogged down in vague visions of the future." Merkel and Rutte also spoke about migration. "In migration too, decisions need to be taken," Rutte stated. "We strive for an integrated EU approach. With, on the one hand, stronger external borders, disembarkation on the North African coast and controlled centers on the southern European coast. And on the other hand, a revision of the common asylum system," he said. Libyan forces loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA), Libya's internationally recognised government, guard from a position south of Tripoli, Libya, 25 Setember 2018. (EPA/STR) MOSCOW, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Russia does not have any military presence in Libya, a senior Russian official said Wednesday. "There are no(ne of) our military servicemen in Libya and their presence is not planned. How could they be there without official request by the country's authorities?" Alexei Kondratyev, the deputy chair of the Russian upper house's defense committee, was quoted by Sputnik news agency as saying. The lawmaker made the remarks in response to media reports claiming that Moscow was allegedly plotting to establish a stronghold against the West in Libya. Kondratyev said the media reports were nothing more than an attempt to "discredit Russia in its fight against terrorism." On Monday, The Sun reported that British intelligence had warned British Prime Minister Theresa May of Moscow's alleged plans to send weapons and troops to Libya to turn it into a "new Syria" and take control of migration routes to Europe, thus increasing Moscow's influence in the West. The newspaper also said that two Russian military bases were already operating in Libya's coastal towns of Tobruk and Benghazi and Russian special forces were allegedly training groups in Libya's eastern regions. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 05:40:58|Editor: yan Video Player Close HELSINKI, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The preparation for a possible summit of Arctic heads of state has made good progress, Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported on Wednesday. The newspaper quoted Finnish President Sauli Niinisto as saying that "the interest of the United States has increased". Niinisto described the progress as "surprising". Niinisto indicated that the publication of the climate report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this week has increased the possibility of enhancing the level of the meeting. Niinisto had earlier said it was certain that a meeting of foreign ministers could take place. Helsingin Sanomat reported on Wednesday afternoon that the possible date for a summit has already been considered. The newspaper quoted its sources saying the Arctic heads of state could convene in Helsinki either in mid-February or in May. HS reported that U.S. President Donald Trump would decide about his participation after the mid-term election in early November. Niinisto said he would not comment on the timing of U.S. decision making. Trump and Russian President Vladmimir Putin met in Helsinki in July 2018, and the planned Arctic summit would possibly bring together the two once again in Helsinki. Besides Finland, the United States and Russia, the possible summit would also bring leaders of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Canada. The eight countries are the members of the Arctic Council, the chairmanship of which is run by Finland until May 2019. Last June Niinisto said the "first ever Arctic summit", if taking place, would tackle the black carbon emissions in the polar region. Black carbon accelerates the melting of sea ice and the impact of the climate change in the Arctic region. Niinisto said that success is "not guaranteed, but the potential rewards are high". A woman holds a portrait of missing journalist and Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi reading "Jamal Khashoggi is missing since October 2" during a demonstration in front of the Saudi Arabian consulate on October 9, 2018 in Istanbul. (Xinhua/AFP) UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Wednesday expressed extreme concern about the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who disappeared on Oct. 2 in Turkey. "We remain extremely concerned about the fate of Jamal Khashoggi," said Stephane Dujarric, UN secretary-general's spokesperson. "What our human rights colleagues called for is for the Turkish and Saudi authorities to cooperate on an investigation. We look forward to having more information on this case," he told a daily press briefing. The United Nations is following the issue closely, he said. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has not personally intervened, said Dujarric, noting that the United Nations is not participating in the investigation. Khashoggi went missing after he was seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 06:01:03|Editor: yan Video Player Close CHICAGO, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. city of Chicago announced on Wednesday the expansion of smart policing strategy to seven more districts, in a bid to prevent and combat violent crime. The move follows nearly two years of consecutive declines in violent crime citywide, led by this strategy, said the mayor's office. Under the initiative, new station-based strategic nerve centers, mobile technology, and crime cameras will be deployed, expanding the smart policing to 20 of the city's 22 police districts. Among the measures, hundreds more license plate readers will be added to police patrol vehicles to quickly identify stolen cars, reduce carjackings and recover stolen vehicles. "While we are adding nearly 1,000 officers and supporting smart, proactive policing citywide, we are also making critical investments to expand and sustain youth mentoring programs, summer jobs and after-school programs. Both - not either - are working to drive declines in crime and support a brighter future for the city's youth," said Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. In 2016 alone, 762 homicides were reported in Chicago, most of which were gun-related, more than New York and Los Angeles combined. Since then, Chicago has made all-out efforts to rein in the violence. These efforts have contributed to significant declines in violent crime. According to official data, there were 18 percent fewer shooting victims in 2017, with a 20-percent decline in murders citywide. Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 06:06:04|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close HELSINKI, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Finnish researchers said on Wednesday the commercial production of fuel from carbon dioxide emissions would be commercially viable if electricity would be cheaper. A Finnish test plant in Jokioinen, western Finland, has begun production of hydrocarbon from the climate-hazardous carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Hydrocarbon can then be used for making diesel or petrol. Special researcher Janne Karki from the Finnish State Research Center, VTT said on Wednesday that the electricity needed for the production of hydrogen in an electrolysis process is a cost problem. "VTT has calculated that the production of fuel from carbon dioxide would become profitable if the price of electricity would be a third from the current levels," Karki told national broadcaster Yle. The test production facility of VTT has been built in a compound that already includes a bioethanol production plant of the Finnish company St1 Renewable Energy. The test plant gets its carbon dioxide as a side product from the ethanol production. "Earlier carbon dioxide was simply let out into the air", Patrick Pitkanen, the director of the bio-refinery services of St1. "Carbon dioxide is a side product here and we want to make use of everything we emit", Pitkanen said. "But there is still a long way to replace all fossil fuels with this technology." St1 Renewable Energy operates currently around five ethanol production plants around Finland. Pitkanen said that a hydrocarbon production facility could be built to all of them. He speculated, however, that the price of fuel based on that technology could be somewhat higher. "That is the price we would pay for bringing the climate change to an end." Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 06:21:08|Editor: yan Video Player Close KHARTOUM, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's National Prime Minister Mutaz Mussa on Wednesday announced that the liquidity crisis would be solved and ATMs would be fed with cash as of Saturday, official SUNA news agency reported. Mussa, who is also Sudan's finance minister, tweeted on his Twitter account that he received assurances from Governor of the Central Bank of Sudan Mohammed Khair al-Zubair that all ATMs would be fed with cash as of coming Saturday, the report said. Since February, Sudan has been suffering from cash shortage in both local and foreign currencies following decline of the Sudanese pound against the U.S. dollar. Commercial banks failed to provide cash for their agents and the ATMs ceased operation. Sudan has been undergoing an economic crisis since the secession of South Sudan in 2011, due to which the country lost an estimated 70 percent of its oil revenues. 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... Arlington, VA, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Council on Foundations today announced that Stephen Heintz, President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, will receive the Distinguished Service Award at its upcoming Awards Ceremony in Washington, DC. The Award is philanthropys highest honor and celebrates a visionary leader who embodies the inspirational qualities that define excellence in philanthropycommitment, courage, entrepreneurship, and impact. Heintz, one of the sectors premier leaders on democratic institutions and civil society development, will deliver an address on the state of philanthropy in civil society as part of the November 28 ceremony at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Stephen Heintz deep commitment to the principles of philanthropy has led to him being one of the most respected leaders in the field in the United States and globally, said Gene Cochrane, interim president and CEO of the Council on Foundations. Under his leadership, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund has been both a trusted grantmaker and convener. He has led discussions on some of the more challenging issues of our time, including climate change, U.S.-Iran relations, the European integration of the Balkans, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as concerns right here in the United States surrounding the erosion of democracy. The Council staff is extremely pleased that he will share his views on the state of the sector and the state of our nation in what will likely be a thoughtful and provocative call to the field. Since 2001, Heintz has served as president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a New York-based family foundation that advances social change for a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. He began his professional life in public service in the state of Connecticut and has devoted his career to citizen engagement in democracy and to making institutions work for people. Under his leadership, the RBF works in some of the worlds most challenging grantmaking environments. In 2002, Heintz led the RBF in an initiative with the UN Association to host a backchannel dialogue between senior Americans and Iranians that could not happen through official channels. Those efforts laid the groundwork for the Iran deal. The RBF is also one of few U.S. foundations working in the Balkans, where in 2015 it extended its 10-year commitment to supporting progress on democratic practice, sustainable development, peacebuilding, and the development of local philanthropy. After the 2016 presidential election, Heintz urged the Board of Trustees to establish the Urgent Opportunities Fund, a two-year special initiative to address pressing concerns in the U.S. around increasingly divisive political rhetoric, discriminatory hurdles to voting and challenges to the free press, among other things. Building on the Rockefeller familys long-term engagement in China, in 2017 the Fund joined a small cohort of international organizations to register under Chinas 2017 NGO Management Law, allowing it to continue its commitment to fostering sustainable development there. In 2017, Heintz was appointed to the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, a high-level international advisory body for the Chinese national government. Heintz is known in the sector for having coined the term acupuncture philanthropy to describe the Funds approach: strategically leveraging the RBFs modest financial assets and strong reputation in areas of outsized global impact to trigger larger systemic change. Other winners to be honored in November include recipients of the Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking, the Wilmer Shields Rich Award for Excellence in Communications and the Chapman Prize. To learn more about the awards or to register to attend the November Awards Ceremony, please visit cof.org/2018awards. TAROM, sabotata de o companie aeriana din Ungaria TAROM se scufunda in datorii si conducerea pregateste taierea unor zile de lucru din programul angajatilor, in timp ce ajutorul financiar european nu apare, iar Wizz Air, cu sediul in Ungaria, reclama transportatorul aerian de stat al Romaniei la CE. Compania Nationala de Transport Aerian TAROM S.A. [citeste mai departe] Sioux Falls, SD, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Media Contact: Jake Iversen Jake.Iversen@avera.org 605-370-2112 EMBARGOED UNTIL 10 AM WEDNESDAY OCT 10, 2018 Avera Receives Helmsley Grant to Extend Behavioral Health Telemedicine $7.8 million in new funding will be used to improve access to skilled behavioral health professionals in acute settings in rural areas Avera will develop a 24-hour behavioral health team that will virtually deliver timely, patient-centered, cost-effective, high-quality care This multidisciplinary team will provide care out of Avera eCAREs virtual hub to a wide variety of settings, both in and out of the hospital SIOUX FALLS (Oct. 10, 2018) Avera Health has received a generous grant of $7.8 million from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to build a 24-hour telemedicine behavioral health team as part of Avera eCARE. This team will give patients access to timely, patient-centered, cost-effective, high quality behavioral health services via telemedicine. At the Helmsley Charitable Trust, we recognize the shortage of mental health professionals that exists in rural areas. We selected this project for grant funding because it is a truly innovative and groundbreaking way to extend behavioral health care to where its needed most, said Walter Panzirer, a Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. We are extremely grateful to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for their ongoing partnership and support of innovative projects to reduce the disparities of health care access in rural areas. We are excited to see where this work will lead as we continue to deliver health care of the future today, said Deanna Larson, CEO of Avera eCARE. The Helmsley Charitable Trust has provided major funding for other eCARE service lines as well as the eHelm virtual hub in Sioux Falls. This telemedicine service will be provided out of the eHelm virtual hub in Sioux Falls. Across the U.S., there is a growing shortage of psychiatric workforce. At the same time, we see the need for behavioral health care increasing, Larson said. A 2018 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that a majority of non-metropolitan counties 65 percent do not have a psychiatrist, and 47 percent or almost half of non-metropolitan counties do not have a psychologist. With an initial focus on services for people in crisis, Avera eCARE will provide virtual behavioral health assessments as well as treatment for patients in local emergency departments and inpatient psychiatric hospitals. Many of our inpatient psychiatric units are challenged with staffing, particularly overnight and on weekends. Avera eCARE will provide a psychiatric team to respond to off-hours needs from the hospital. This supports recruitment and retention of community psychiatrists and helps to preserve access to essential inpatient care for those in crisis, Larson said. In time, Avera eCARE will also provide mobile support to first responders encountering individuals in crisis. When someone in a rural area experiences a mental health crisis, often the only option for those around them is to call emergency services in the form of law enforcement, fire and rescue or ambulance. For first responders and local ERs, the need for additional mental health knowledge is great, but the available resources may be few, Larson said. Avera is a 60-year regional leader in behavioral health services, and has a full continuum of care that includes inpatient care, outpatient psychiatric care and counseling for all ages, addiction services, a 24-hour assessment center and more. Through Avera eCARE, Avera has already been providing behavioral health assessments to local ERs. And, through a partnership with Indian Health Service, Avera has been reaching out to reservation communities with outpatient behavioral health services via telemedicine. This grant will allow us to build upon all of this, establishing a future opportunity to begin treatment at the time of crisis perhaps when a patient is still at home. We believe this will help reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and inpatient stays, and ensure patients are getting the right level of mental health services earlier in their journey, said Matthew Stanley, DO, Clinical Vice President of Averas Behavioral Health Service Line. The virtual team will also support behavioral health units, hospitals and outpatient primary care centers. They can provide assistance to available community services and resources to ensure that a patient has access to follow-up support. The three-year grant period extends from now until September 2021. Through Avera eCARE, telemedicine technology has proven its effectiveness in many other ways, including urgent care, emergency, pharmacy, critical care, specialty visits and more, Larson said. Services will be provided through proven telehealth technology, including high-resolution two-way audio and video and software data management platforms that interface with hospitals electronic medical records. Mobile crisis response services will be available through portable devices that can be taken to a crisis situation and connect a virtual crisis response team to the patient immediately. Prior to launching these services, Avera eCARE will hire and train registered nurses, masters prepared social workers, psychiatric advanced practice providers and psychiatrists to be part of this 24/7 team. People in urban and rural areas alike need health services that address needs of the whole person. The Helmsley Charitable Trust, in partnership with Avera, looks forward to the ways in which we can improve quality of life in rural areas by extending behavioral health services via telemedicine, Panzirer said. About Avera eCARE Avera eCARE, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., is the most robust telemedicine network in the world offering comprehensive health care services 24/7 via high-definition, interactive video and sophisticated computer monitoring equipment. Avera eCARE is part of Avera Health, an integrated health system which serves more than 300 locations and 100 communities in a five-state region. We carry on the health care legacy of the Benedictine and Presentation Sisters, delivering care in an environment guided by our values of compassion, hospitality and stewardship. To learn more, visit AveraeCARE.org. About the Helmsley Charitable Trust The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting exceptional efforts in the U.S. and around the world in health and select place-based initiatives. Since beginning active grantmaking in 2008, Helmsley has committed more than $2.2 billion for a wide range of charitable purposes. Helmsleys Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to emergency medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, and provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel. To date, this program has awarded more than $377 million to organizations and initiatives in the upper Midwest states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa, and Montana. For more information, visit www.helmsleytrust.org. For our media partners who are unable to attend in person, we have video footage of Avera eCARE Behavioral Health and eCARE Emergency available for download at the following link: https://vimeo.com/293943840 Password: Avera Stiri pe aceeasi tema - The Bucharest Court of Appeal rejected, on Thursday, as unfounded, a request in which the former chairman of Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea requested the transfer to a provincial court of the case in which he is tried for trafficking in influence in connection with his presence at the - Romanian athlete Robert Glinta qualified on Tuesday for the finals of the 50 backstroke event, during the European Short Course Championship (25 m) in Kazan (the Russian Federation), reaching number 6 in the semifinals, with 23 sec 13/100. Glinta also ranked 6th in the series that took place - The Bucharest Court of Appeal took up on Monday a request filed by former national leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea to have the trial in which he is accused of influence peddling in connection with his presence at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump transferred - Liberal leader Florin Citu said that negotiations for mustering parliamentary support for the new government carry on both with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Save Romania Union (USR), and voiced hope that another meeting with the USR leaders could take place on Wednesday to decide how - Deputy George Simion, co-chairman of AUR (The Alliance for the Union of Romanians) declared on Wednesday that he will not speak during his party's allocated time to to the swearing in of the Government proposed by Dacian Ciolos, because he noticed that USR (Save Romania Union) only speaks with PNL - Suspending hospitalizations and surgeries for patients who are not emergencies is a crime, Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Marcel Ciolacu said on Wednesday. He is calling on the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, Anca Dragu and Ludovic Orban, respectively, to "urgently" - DORIN NISTOR, fostul primar al orasului Sebes: Orice vietate incoltita incearca sa se apere. Uneori devenind agresiva. Este cazul domnului Florin Roman, care s-a suparat ingrozitor ca in articolul meu aparut in ziarul Unirea din data de 20 martie faceam referire la veniturile incasate de domnia sa - USR PLUS (Save Romania Union, Freedom, Unity, Solidarity Party) calls on all MPs to allow the censure motion to follow its course and expects PSD (Social Democratic Party) representatives to attend Thursday's plenary session, convened to present the motion, Ionut Mosteanu, spokesman for USR PLUS, Hyperion Bank, a one-office lender based in Philadelphia's Northern Liberties section, has finished raising $18.3 million from private investors, and plans to more than triple its loans, pumping an extra $140 million into Philadelphia business, said Charlie Crawford, chairman and chief executive. "The new capital will enable the bank to make commercial loans up to $3 million" each, up from less than $1 million per loan last year, said Crawford, a Wharton School grad who founded a string of small banks in Georgia over a 30-year banking career before returning to Philadelphia for the Hyperion job last year. Hyperion founder Steve Atlass, managing director at Cambridge Cos., a Radnor geriatric-housing and pediatric-care turnaround specialist, remains on the board. The new money includes $14.8 million from a recently completed common stock offering, plus $3.5 million the bank raised earlier from existing shareholders. Hyperion loans and other assets on June 30 totaled $88 million, about the same as in 2013. Deposits totaled $65 million, less than the typical total at a busy branch of Wells Fargo, Citizens, PNC, TD, or Bank of America, the big out-of-state lenders that dominate Philadelphia banking. Those banks have each closed 20 or more local branches in recent years, as customers shift to smartphone-based mobile banking. Hyperion is making its move just as Beneficial Bancorp, the largest banking company still based in Philadelphia, is preparing for its acquisition by WSFS Financial Corp. of Wilmington. That leaves Philadelphia, which was formerly a major U.S. banking center until the mergers of the 1990s, with just 11 locally based independent banks, all of them small. The largest survivor is Republic Bank, with $2.5 billion in assets, chaired by Commerce Bank and Metro Bank PLC founder Vernon Hill. Next is Prudential, with $1 billion, then Hyperion and nine other savings and commercial banks, most with just one office, and with combined assets totaling just more than $1 billion. But Hyperion isn't the only bank to sense opportunity as others have consolidated: JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer Jamie Dimon said he's planning 50 new branches in the Philadelphia area, including several in the city. Republic has also been adding branches, mostly in South Jersey. Hyperion has made and shared suburban development loans, but lately emphasizes city clients including Tracy and Mia Levesque's Web developer Yikes Inc. on Girard Avenue, and real estate developers including Roland Kassis of Frankford and redeveloper Roy Bowser of Northeast Philadelphia, as examples of its expanding target markets. Besides backing new loans, the bank will use the new investment to buy out $1 million in preferred stock, and also promised additional mobile and remote banking upgrades. The company has added a few new managers since Crawford joined, including chief financial officer Paul Rutkowski and mortgage boss Brett Warren. The bank has also added three new directors: NewSpring Capital advisor Mike Purcell, CPA; Obermayer Rebmann counsel Robert N.C. Nix III, founder of 15-state airport concessionaire and Duty-Free Shops operator Pleasant News Inc., director of FS Investment Corp., and a 30-year member of the Philadelphia Board of Revision of Taxes; and James J. McAlpin Jr., leader of law firm Bryan Cave's national financial-services group. New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal on Wednesday sued the federal government for failing to answer his Freedom of Information Act request seeking why Florida but no other Atlantic seaboard states was excluded from a plan to expand offshore oil drilling. Grewal, in a suit filed in Washington against the Interior Department, said the federal government offered no information to explain the Florida drilling exemption, announced Jan. 9 by U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the same day he met with Florida Gov. Rick Scott. Grewal and other Attorneys General have opposed the Trump administration's proposed expansion of offshore drilling along the Atlantic coast and called on the Interior Department to honor its past practice of not imposing such activity on states that don't want it. "The Administration continues to stonewall on a simple question: Why did they agree to exempt Florida from offshore drilling, while refusing to do the same for New Jersey?," Grewal said in a statement. He said that New Jersey's rationale for opposing offshore drilling "is every bit as valid as Florida's." WASHINGTON Antitrust officials gave CVS the green light on Wednesday to purchase Aetna, the nation's third-largest health insurance company, in a $69 billion deal that could potentially transform the health care industry and change how millions of Americans receive basic medical services. The Justice Department approved the deal on the condition that the companies sell off Aetna's Medicare Part D prescription drug business. The tie-up will allow CVS whose retail pharmacy business serves 5 million customers a day to turn more of its brick-and-mortar locations into frontline clinics for basic medical services and patient monitoring. By deepening its knowledge of and relationships with patients, CVS has said the combination could help Americans stick with medication regimens and stay out of the hospital. Atlanta now takes the crown as the city with the greatest income disparity in America, surpassing Miami after a two-year reign in the top spot, according to a Bloomberg analysis. Bloomberg ranked large cities those with populations of at least 250,000 based on the Gini coefficient as calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau. The ratio measures the distribution of household income among individuals. Atlanta rose to the top spot for 2017 after spending the last three years in second place, followed by New Orleans. Philadelphia moved to the No. 3 spot, jumping 17 places in only one year, the sharpest negative move among the top 10 worst cities. Income inequality worsened the most in St. Petersburg, Fla., which moved up 37 spots from the year-earlier period. Irvine, Calif., improved the most in terms of ranked positions, moving down 45 spots on the inequality ladder. Chandler, Ariz., was the only new city to join the list after meeting the minimum population requirement to be included. More than half of all cities on the list showed a tightening among the income brackets. Atlanta has been building to the top spot, making it far from unexpected, said Alan Berube, senior fellow and director of the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. The home of several Fortune 500 companies, including Delta Air Lines Inc. and Coca-Cola Co., the city boasts extreme wealth, with many executives earning top-dollar salaries. At the same time, many individuals work low-paying jobs in the hospitality and retail sector. The city's poverty rate sits at 24 percent or nearly one in four people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Creating new jobs and improving the skill level of workers will help address these income gaps over time, according to Daron Acemoglu, economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in economic inequality. "A lot of cities have been adversely affected because industries they specialize in have been hard hit by either automation, robots, or globalization," Acemoglu said. "That has had most of the negative affects on the lower-skill workers." About 18 percent of households in Atlanta earn $150,000 a year or more, compared with 9.3 percent of households who make less than $10,000 a year. "Every city has some of these economic extremes. Atlanta just has them" in abundance, Berube said. "At the high end, it looks like one of the most successful American cities, like a San Francisco or a New York or a Washington. But at its low end, one of America's poor cities." In No. 2 New Orleans, more than 9.1 percent earn $150,000 or more, while 15.1 percent earn less than $10,000. In Philadelphia, 8.2 percent earn $150,000 or more, while 19.5 percent earn incomes at the bottom. "Philadelphia is gentrifying right now. It was a poorer and struggling city for quite a long time, and now, there are more high-paying jobs and more amenities in and around the center," Berube said. "Vast amounts of North Philadelphia still have high levels of unemployment." Q3 2018 Revenue Conference Call Philippe Lazare Chairman and CEO is pleased to invite you to our third quarter revenue conference call on Wednesday, October 24 at 6pm (CET) Please dial the following numbers to join the call: France Toll: +33 1 72 72 74 03 UK Toll: +44 20 7194 3759 USA Toll: +1 646 722 4916 Conference pin: 13948420# A press release and a presentation will be available on www.ingenico.com prior to the call at (5:40pm). About Ingenico Group Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the world's largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the world's best known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise. Stay in touch with us: www.ingenico.com twitter.com/ingenico Starbucks said it will start contributing to childcare costs for employees. Read more After beefing up its parental leave policy this year, Starbucks Corp. will now offer subsidized child care for all of its U.S. employees, too. The new benefit, a partnership with child-care provider Care.com Inc., will provide 10 subsidized backup day-care days for parents for instances when regular care falls through. In-home backup child care will cost $1 an hour or $2 an hour after the fourth child. Care at a day-care center will cost $5 a day. "We felt like it was important to make this accessible," said Ron Crawford, vice president of benefits at Starbucks. "We wanted to have as low a possible cost." Unlike some of Starbucks' other benefits, which require employees to work 20 hours before they can access them, Care@Work is available to more than 180,000 U.S. employees, regardless of how much they work. Americans pay almost as much for child care as they do for rent, and when it falls through or there's an unexpected day off from school or day-care, a parent either has to stay home or scramble to find a solution. Subsidized child care is a rare benefit. Only 2 percent of more than 3,000 employers surveyed by the Society of Human Resource Management in 2018 say they help employees pay for child care. Only 4 percent offer backup child-care services. Retailers and restaurants have been trying to improve their perks to retain employees amid a very tight labor market. Amazon.com Inc. just announced it's boosting wages to $15 an hour in November for its current and seasonal workers. In January, Starbucks committed to spend $250 million on new employee benefits, including a pay boost for domestic workers after the federal tax overhaul. In addition to reworking its paid parental leave program, Starbucks updated its sick leave policy this summer. Care@Work also provides backup services for workers who care for elderly family members. Over the last few years, employers have also started offering more benefits for employees to care for their sick and aging relatives, as millennials, the largest share of the work force, begin caring for their aging boomer parents. Benefits that make it easier to juggle work and parenting can help employers keep working parents from jumping ship. Patagonia has claimed that it has 25 percent lower turnover with employees who put their kids in an on-site day-care program. As the labor market has tightened, more companies have started offering paid parental leave. For Starbucks, child care is the next frontier. The company may be open to broader-based child-care benefits in the future, too, Crawford said. "This is a need we see in America today," Crawford said. "Working parents need support for those days when stuff happens." Sergio Cruel stands for a portrait in Philadelphia's Spring Garden neighborhood on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018. Cruel, a former television news reporter, has created a web show called "Deeper than Journalism" about missing people. TIM TAI / Staff Photographer Read more The woman on the radio pleaded with listeners to help her family find their missing loved one. They had gone to multiple media outlets for help, she cried, but none was interested. Listening in his car that November 2016 day was Sergio Cruel. A reporter for Fox29's Chasing News team, Cruel didn't usually have his radio playing during the drive into work, but he had that day. And he couldn't shake the woman's cries. When he got to work, he told producers he had a story to chase. Andrew Berry, a young father of four from Northeast Philadelphia, had been missing for 11 days by the time Cruel met with the family. Berry wasn't picking up his phone. He had missed the birth of his youngest child, who had been born premature while he was gone. He had seemingly vanished. Cruel went to the Frankford Avenue neighborhood where Berry was last seen. He sat with Berry's distraught wife. "I just know this is not him," Tracy Zeigler cried. "I know he wouldn't just walk away from us." Cruel, 27, hoped the segment that aired in Philly and affiliate stations in New York and New Jersey would lead to answers. Ideally, to Berry, alive and well. It was viewed 1.9 million times and shared more than 10,000 times. But about a week later, two days before Thanksgiving, Berry's body was found. He had been shot multiple times. It wasn't the result anyone had hoped for, but it inspired Cruel to continue to highlight other missing persons cases that struggled to get attention. And everyone knew which those were. In the original segment, another reporter on the TMZ-style show nailed it during their on-camera discussion of the case: "You know what would have gotten a lot more media attention?" he asks his colleagues. "If he were a young, blonde, she " Some of his colleagues groaned, but there are plenty of examples to prove he was absolutely right. There's even a name for it: missing white woman syndrome. And that disparity drove Cruel's desire to tell their stories. Even when there seemed to be less interest, Cruel would report the stories in his free time and post them online. Last year the show was rebranded. Cruel had to figure out his next move. Once again, it was Berry's story that helped him decide what that would be. This month Cruel launched Deeper Than Journalism, a weekly web show that focuses on stories about the Philly area's missing persons. Until the project gets some financial backing, this is a labor of love for Cruel, a Philly native who attended the Art Institute of Philadelphia and Temple University. Helping him are college buddies with full-time jobs who are currently being paid in gratitude. Two years after Berry's unsolved death, his mother, Gynon Berry-Forrest, said she's still struggling with the loss of her son. The family hopes his death will be solved one day. But she's forever grateful for the attention that Cruel brought to her son's disappearance, and she hopes his new show will get other families the attention their missing loved ones deserve. "They figured he was a young black man who had kids and was in and out with the trouble, so it wasn't of big interest. A stereotypical black man, so no one wanted to listen to us," she said. "We were brushed aside. No one put in the effort the way Sergio did. He paid attention and realized this was real. Even though it didn't turn out how we hoped, we were heard because of him." The first Deeper Than Journalism episode, which was posted Oct. 3, is dedicated to Berry. It includes a recap of the case and a commitment by Cruel to continue to pursue these cases. "Andrew's story is just one of many individuals who have gone missing," Cruel tells the viewers. "Help me help these families." FILE In this Jan. 15, 2017 file photo, U.S Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with the media after attending the Mideast peace conference in Paris. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool, File) Read more John Kerry had been speaking for nearly an hour but felt obliged to get something else off his chest. My interview last week with the former secretary of state at the Free Library of Philadelphia was winding down when I raised a question I have sometimes put to others whose books are widely reviewed. Where websites now routinely mine new releases for those revelatory nuggets they can trumpet, I wondered what Kerry thought he had revealed that had been overlooked? He paused, and then said with a laugh, "It's the perfect question to ask, and the perfect one for the author to find a way to evade." After gathering his thoughts, he offered a litany of subjects he said he'd candidly discussed in the memoir, Every Day Is Extra, including: his faith, divorce, Senate service, and presidential run. He calls it "an honest, no-holds-barred lay-down of both personal things as well as public things that we need to think about." But then, sensing this was my final question, he volunteered an additional thought. "May I take the liberty of saying something that's really important?" Kerry then spent 10 minutes calling attention to the final chapter of the book, titled "Protecting the Planet." This section is his account of the Paris Agreement as well as his recounting of going to the Arctic with the foreign minister of Norway. Coincidentally, having voted absentee in the 2016 election, Kerry was traveling from New Zealand to Antarctica as Donald Trump was being elected. ("The whole plane almost voted to stay in Antarctica after they got the news," he quipped.) "What I learned in Antarctica about the West Antarctica ice sheet, 3-miles-deep ice and the fragility now that they're noticing, the fissures in the ice, the breakoff of the Larsen ice sheet that floats out and melts, it's larger than the size of the state of Rhode Island. And, folks, I just, I've pledged to myself that I'm not going to anywhere without trying to sound the alarm bell and summon us to the mission of doing something more than we are doing today. "I negotiated the Paris Agreement on behalf of our nation. I was privileged to sign it at the United Nations. You may see that picture with my granddaughter on my lap. This is existential I don't know how to say it more. We just had three storms last year, Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Harvey dumped as much water in five days on Houston as goes over Niagara Falls in a year. Irma had the first recorded sustained winds of 185 miles an hour for 24 hours. And you saw what Maria did to Puerto Rico. It cost you $265 billion to clean up after those three storms. That's one-third the budget of the Defense Department. That's more money than eight departments of our government, including Education and Commerce Department put together. And yet we can't find the $100 billion that has to go into the Green Climate Fund to help less developed nations be able to adapt or mitigate or prevent the worst effects of climate change." Kerry noted that the goal in Paris was to hold the Earth's temperature increase to what scientists were saying was a tipping point of calamity, 2 degrees Centigrade. "We had an aspirational goal of 1.5 degrees because the Pacific Island states were clamoring that 2 degrees was too much. We're at 1 degree now, a 1-degree increase already." Three days after he spoke those words, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a new report in South Korea revealing that the consequences of climate change are even more dire and immediate than previously believed. The authors of the IPCC report found that where the planet has already warmed 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the Industrial Revolution, if greenhouse-gas emissions continue at the current rate, that number will increase to as much as 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit during the lifetime of many who now inhabit the planet. The report reads: "Human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0C of global warming above pre-industrial levels, with a likely range of 0.8C to 1.2C. Global warming is likely to reach 1.5C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate." Wait: I hope to be around in 2030, at which point I would be 68; in 2052 I'll be 90. In other words, climate change is no longer something our children's grandchildren will have to deal with. It is unfolding on our watch. This point was made clear to me in an analysis conducted for the New York Times by the Climate Impact Lab , a group of climate scientists, economists, and data analysts from the Rhodium Group, the University of Chicago, Rutgers University, and the University of California, Berkeley. When I was born in Doylestown in 1962, the area could expect to see 16 days per year reach at least 90 degrees. Today, that community experiences an average of 20 or more days at 90 degrees or above. By the time I'm 80, there could be 35 of these very hot days. The likely range is between 24 and 39. According to the Climate Impact Lab, "The Doylestown area is likely to feel this extra heat even if countries take action to lower their greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the century. If countries continue emitting at historically high rates, the future could look even hotter. The future projection shown here assumes countries will curb emissions roughly in line with the world's original Paris Agreement pledges (although most countries do not appear on track to meet those pledges )." >> READ MORE: How much hotter is your hometown than when you were born? Meanwhile, the Trump administration responded to the U.N. report with silence, even as Hurricane Michael was about to make landfall on the Gulf Coast. The police inspector had seen people shot and die. Ray Convery had worked all over Philadelphia in 35 years on the job there wasn't much he hadn't seen. But until he assumed command of East Division in 2016, he'd never seen someone dying of an overdose. It is a sight as familiar in Kensington as the El rumbling by. For Convery, it came two weeks in: a young woman outside the Gurney Street train gulch, her skin fading. Convery was by himself. Back then, he had no Narcan. The wait for the paramedics felt like hours. "Just watching someone fade away," he said, "when you know there's something to fix them." The woman survived. A few weeks later, after he came across another overdose, Convery started packing Narcan in his patrol car. He's since saved five people himself. That day by the train gulch was Convery's first lesson in a crisis: The epidemic touches everything, changes everything. Librarians dispense Narcan to patrons. SEPTA passengers have learned how to recognize an overdose, and how to help the first responders who show up. And now Convery's job description includes figuring out how to put his officers in the best position to reverse overdoses. In the next few weeks, Convery, 59, who has been praised by city officials, advocates, and neighbors as someone who's taken the lessons of the crisis to heart, is retiring, to take a job working with the police union's health-care provider. Replacing him will be difficult, said Commissioner Richard Ross. Kensington, he said, presents a singular set of challenges: It doesn't just have the city's highest poverty rates, or skyrocketing homelessness, or among the highest rates of gun violence. It has all those things. Plus it's the epicenter of the country's urban opioid crisis. Convery has come to realize that the crisis is bigger than deploying more patrol cars, bigger than targeting drug corners, bigger than policing itself. Two years in Kensington will do that. He's learned to measure success in small victories, like clearing a block of drug dealers for more than 15 minutes. Like reclaiming "the jewel" of the neighborhood, McPherson Square, as a place where kids can play. That's what encouragement you have to take, in the face of the paperwork that piles up on his desk. A flood of more than 700 homeless people in East Division alone "Incredible," Ross says almost all of them addicted. That's half the city's homeless population, and more than double what it was last year. A new shorthand exists: Convery refers to the heroin encampments as being "at capacity." And then there are the things that don't show up in the reports: how the young people Convery meets can become unrecognizable after just a few weeks on the streets. How the police catalog the drug activity along the west side of the avenue, a market so large it swallows one block after another. "We call it 'The 3100 Block of Everything,' " said Convery. And now, with the growing crowds, there's a matching stretch on the east side that's The 1800 Block of Everything. Convery knows the pain of the neighbors in Kensington helping neighborhood kids get to school safely, without stepping over people doing drugs, is nonnegotiable, he says. And he is still arresting corner dealers to "send a message" though advocates argue that going after street-level sales is just continuing failed policies from the war on drugs. But he also recognizes that the people on the streets are his responsibility, too. He calls them all residents just "ones that have houses, and ones that don't." It's one more lesson that his successor would do well to follow. During Convery's last few days in command, the city declared a disaster in Kensington a move that he hopes will bring more resources to all its residents. But he doesn't like to call the neighborhood a disaster. He calls it a challenge. One that he still thinks can be fixed. It's just going to take far more than policing. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney will announce Thursday that he is taking back control of the citys school district. Read more Mayor Kenney is set to announce that the city is taking back its public schools and is promising to pay for them. In an address to City Council planned for Thursday morning, the mayor will outline the end of the state-dominated School Reform Commission and a path to local control of the Philadelphia School District by July 1, administration officials confirmed Wednesday night. He will also pledge to have the city cover much of the $1 billion deficit the school system is projecting over five years. Kenney has made education the centerpiece of his administration, and seizing control of the schools after 16 years of state takeover would cement that. The mayor, in a letter to the public to be released Thursday, said the SRC has made for a system with no accountability. The commission also has presided over cycles of stability and investment in schools followed by instability and deep cuts that officials said must end. "With a return to local control, the people of Philadelphia will finally be able to hold one person accountable for their school system, the mayor," Kenney wrote. On Nov. 16, the five-member SRC will consider a vote to dissolve itself, and Kenney is confident that it will be approved. The state Secretary of Education would certify the dissolution by Dec. 31, a move that seems a given with Gov. Wolf on record supporting local control for Philadelphia schools. The SRC would cease to exist on June 30. It would be replaced by a nine-member school board appointed by Kenney. Those members will serve terms concurrent with the mayor's. Council is expected to approve legislation calling for a City Charter change that would give Council advice-and-consent power over school board nominees, but the earliest that could hit the ballot would be May. Jim Engler, deputy mayor for policy and legislation, in a briefing for reporters Wednesday said the school board should be named before then, by March. Engler said Kenney was in full support of Council's getting power to approve school board members, given its stepping up over the last five years to fund schools when the state would not do so. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and a growing coalition of members of the public have pushed for an end to the SRC for years, but the tipping point for Kenney was the district's finances, Engler said. The district has had three years of balanced budgets, but projects a deficit beginning in fiscal 2019 that, unchecked, will balloon to $1 billion by 2022. The administration said that is beyond the school system's control, and that it is out of options it spends just 3 percent of its budget on administration and many of its costs are fixed, while pension, health-care and charter-school costs have risen dramatically. "If forced to make additional cuts, it will lead to things that impact school buildings directly," Engler said. Kenney declined to address the situation explicitly on Wednesday, but at an appearance at School District headquarters, the mayor alluded to a shift in school governance and said the district would not return to the painful era of several years ago, when it had to lay off all counselors and assistant principals, slash the number of nurses, and ax programs. "We are not going back to the cutting days, ever," the mayor said. With Harrisburg historically reluctant to fund Philadelphia schools and in a budget squeeze, the city is on its own, Engler said. City officials have had conversations with Harrisburg leaders and hope to work with them on funding in the future, but the city is owning this problem, he said. "We expect that the city will once again have to step up and provide the resources necessary to cover the deficit," said Engler. He said Kenney in February will introduce a fiscal 2019 budget that bridges that gap, currently projected at $105 million for the 2018-19 school year. How to pay for it? The city will examine every option, and the mayor will choose "the best options that he thinks are reliable sources of revenue for the district," Engler said. That includes property-tax increases, he confirmed. Kenney, in his letter to Philadelphians, alluded to the challenge inherent in the city's taking full responsibility for its schools. "This transition and meeting the district's financial needs will not be without difficulty, especially in the short term," the mayor wrote. "It will require sacrifices from everyone. But the alternative is much worse." The shift from SRC to school board, which the administration is treating as a foregone conclusion, is sure to set off a frenzy of lobbying. Some members of the public are pushing hard for an elected school board; Philadelphia has not had one since the 19th century. The Kenney administration has been against an elected school board; even advocates are split on whether an elected board is possible or preferable. And then there's the appointment of school board members. Before Kenney names them, he will choose a 13-member nominating panel to gather recommendations. They must be 18, voting city residents, and split among various groups parents, experts in education, finance, public housing or other areas. Engler said the mayor will also be looking for geographical diversity. That nominating panel will submit to the mayor three names for each seat 27 names in all. Kenney will then choose. Kenney, in his letter to Philadelphians, said the work is essential. "If we decide not to pass the buck, but rather to double down on our commitment of quality schools for our kids, I'm confident that future generations of Philadelphians will be thankful for the choices we make now," the mayor said. Increases in special-education costs in Pennsylvania are far outpacing increases in the state's contributions to those expenses, leaving local school districts to pick up bigger shares of the tabs, according to a report released Tuesday. While state aid for special education increased by $72 million between 2008 and 2016, district special-education costs grew by $1.54 billion, according to the report by the Education Law Center and PA Schools Work. For every additional $1 provided by the state, school districts allocated $20, the report said. "Despite recent state investments, the state's special education funding is becoming more inadequate and inequitable," said Reynelle Brown Staley, policy attorney for the law center. "There is simply not enough money coming from the state in either the basic-education or special-education line items." The report comes amid an ongoing lawsuit challenging how Pennsylvania pays for public education. The suit brought in part by the law center alleges that the system is inadequate and discriminates against children in poorer communities that cannot keep up with rising costs. Those poorer districts are "particularly ill-equipped to provide students with disabilities" the education to which they are legally entitled, according to the report. It said the widening divide between special-education costs and state funding "forces local school boards to choose between raising additional revenue to meet funding gaps, spreading limited resources across a range of programs, and/or reducing needed services and supports for students with disabilities." Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, said some school districts have reduced resources for regular education programs in order to pay for required special-education expenses. "It's a double whammy of federal and state mandates," Himes said. "You don't cut costs, you try to manage your costs." Special-education funding has also been a challenge in New Jersey. School districts there recently reported that it constituted 22 percent of their budgets, up from 13 percent in 2006-07, according to the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials. New Jersey directs money to school districts based on the statewide average of students requiring special-education services. Pennsylvania has a different approach. Lawmakers in 2014 adopted a formula that directed money to districts based on the number of students receiving special education and the severity of their needs. As with the state's formula for paying for regular education, however, the approach applied only to new spending. Despite the new formula, "we were still hearing concerns from students and families across Pennsylvania," Staley said. The amount of money added by the state "simply wasn't enough" to keep pace with district needs, she said. On average, special-education costs increased by 5 percent each year between 2008 and 2016, Staley said. In some districts, however, costs grew at a much more rapid pace. In Upper Darby, special-education costs more than doubled, rising from $20 million in 2008 to $42 million in 2016, while the state share of those costs fell from 35 percent to 18 percent. Philadelphia's special-education costs nearly doubled during those years from $304 million to $598 million while the state share dropped from 42 percent to 23 percent. The law center didn't analyze the reasons for the cost increases. Himes said that "by federal mandate, the process certainly gives parents a lot of rights in seeking whatever services they need are necessary for their children and students." He said that while the numbers of students might be a driver in the cost increases, "I think it's more about the cost of services, and seeking very, very specialized and hence, high-cost services." Advocates said providing more state money for special-education would benefit not just students but the state. Theyre going to be more employable, and theyre going to need less publicly funded supports later, said Maureen Cronin, executive director of the Arc of Pennsylvania. for Pennsylvania, it will save money in their adult system. Albert C. Barnes had a few opinions about art, and it turns out the famous art collector's theories about music were no less idiosyncratic. He didn't stint on sharing them, either. Leopold Stokowski found himself on the receiving end of Barnes' philosophy of music in the 1920s. Barnes once told Stokowski that his programs were "hackneyed." He described Rachmaninoff's The Bells as "theatrical clap-trap." In two weeks of concerts starting Thursday, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Barnes Foundation dip into the odd relationship of these two lions of early-20th-century Philadelphia. The idea came from Stephane Deneve, the Philadelphia Orchestra principal guest conductor who leads the orchestra in the festival. "Of course, I had heard about the Barnes, and when I went I was absolutely amazed," said Deneve, who left the collection determined to develop a joint project. His first thought was a series of programs exploring the relationship between visual art and music, but when he learned that Barnes and Stokowski actually knew each other, it sparked new programming possibilities. Orchestral concerts in the festival are interwoven with theatrical scenes by playwright Didi Balle inspired by correspondence between Barnes and Stokowski. A panel discussion explores the influence of both of these progressives. Two chamber concerts of contemporary music promise as much edge in our time as Stokowski's choices did in his. And archival letters and other material on display in the Kimmel Center lobby show some of the artistic and aesthetic views shared (or not) by Barnes and Stokowski. Barnes liked to complain about the critics. But as a music critic who expressed his theories in colorful, sometimes breathless invective in letters to Stokowski, Barnes had no equal. He told the conductor some soloists with the Philadelphia Orchestra were "mere dressed-up dolls and imitation artists." Composers weren't spared. He referred to Mahler's "spectacular banalities," Wagner's "voluptuous debauches," and Weber's "inanities." (Weber? Perhaps he meant Webern?) "Why give us so much that nourishes the idle, the ignorant, the lazy, the debauche, to whom in music the only thing is the cheap emotional orgy " wrote Barnes to Stokowski in a letter of Oct. 18, 1920, now in the Barnes Foundation archives. P.S., he wrote: the letter was "written in a friendly and altruistic spirit." Stokowski was known as a force in his own right but appears to have responded with only polite brevity. "It is plain that your fundamental ideas of art are so different from mine that a discussion would lead to no worth while result either for you or me." the conductor wrote back. Shadow and light "They were both Greek gods, not Christian gods where they were all good or all bad, but more in the model of Zeus. They are multidimensional and flawed," says Balle, who created and directed the dramatic scenes that will go along with the orchestra's performances. "They were complex, shadow-and-light figures larger than life." What are the orchestral pieces to be played and how do they draw a connection between Stokowski and Barnes? Barnes once suggested Stokowski program Milhaud's The Creation of the World, but the conductor never did. Now the orchestra will play the work, which was written after Milhaud visited Harlem and "looks at some of the cross-pollination between Paris and America with musical styles like jazz," says orchestra artistic planning vice president Jeremy Rothman. Barnes had an affinity for the music of Palestrina, as did Stokowski, and he felt "there was a relationship between his music and paintings he owned," says Rothman. And so the orchestra will perform Stokowski's orchestration of Palestrina's Adoramus te Christe. Other works on the program: Debussy's La Mer, the Chausson Poeme with violinist David Kim as soloist, Stokowski's orchestration of Debussy's "The Sunken Cathedral" from his piano Preludes, Book I, the Poulenc Organ Concerto with organist Peter Richard Conte, and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Barnes and Stokowski had strong opinions, but they did perhaps recognize something in each other. Philadelphia was a conservative city in the early 20th century, and "I think it was purely by happenstance that it became the artistic launching pad for two unique visionaries like Barnes and Stoki," says historian Jack McCarthy, who has curated about 30 letters, photos, concert programs, and other artifacts about Barnes that are displayed in the Kimmel lobby. As Barnes wrote to Stokowski: "I appreciate the difficulties of your position for I know the conditions in Philadelphia that make for a state of contented, ignorant sloth." FILE In this July 30, 2013 file photo, "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" stars Giuseppe "Joe" Giudice, left, and his wife, Teresa Giudice, of Montville Township, N.J., walk out of Martin Luther King Jr. Courthouse after an appearance in Newark, N.J. Joe Giudice is now being deported back to his native Italy. Read more Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice's husband, Joe, will return to his native Italy following his stint in prison, reports say. Giudice, 46, will be deported to Italy when he is released in 2019, a judge ruled in immigration court on Wednesday morning, according to People. Giudice reportedly has 30 days to appeal the immigration order. "I find you deportable and ineligible for any kind of relief," a judge told Giudice in court on Wednesday, RadarOnline reports. "Mr. Giudice, no matter how this turns out, I wish you the best. I decided this case as a matter of law." Giudice is currently serving a 41-month prison term at FCI Allenwood in Pennsylvania, about three hours outside of Philadelphia, in connection with fraud charges dating back to 2013. He previously served time at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey, but was transferred after he said he could not complete an alcohol abuse program at the prison. His sentence began in March 2016 and he is set for release in August 2019, the Daily Mail reports. Real Housewives star Teresa, meanwhile, served an 11-month sentence for the same conviction, was released back in Dec. 2015. News of Giudice's potential deportation dates back to June this year, when attorney James J. Leonard Jr. told People that the reality star's immigration status was under scrutiny. As Leonard said, Giudice has an "immigration counsel who are and have been working aggressively on his behalf." Teresa, 46, remained mum about her husband's deportation earlier this year on a Real Housewives reunion program. As she said in January, she is likely to move to Italy with her husband. "I mean, Italy's a beautiful place to live," Teresa said. "I wouldn't mind, you know, I'm just saying. Listen, whatever God has planned for me, that's what is going to happen. I'll embrace it the best I can." At his previous hearing last month, RadarOnline reports, Giudice "begged the judge to let him stay in the U.S.," as he and wife Teresa are parents to four children Audriana, 9, Milania, 12, Gabriella, 14, and Gia, 17. "I've been here my whole life," Giudice reportedly said. "I wouldn't know what to do in any other country. I want to stay here." Fatima Ali (left) and Claudette Wilkins on the most recent season of "Top Chef." Ali revealed in a new essay her cancer has return, and doctors have told her she has less than a year to live. Read more Fatima Ali, the feisty 29-year-old Pakistani chef from New York City who was voted "fan favorite" during the last season of Top Chef, revealed some grim news about her nearly year-long battle with cancer: She only has a year to live. In January, Ali was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that grows in the bones or the soft tissues around the bones. After removing a tumor from her shoulder, doctors declared her cancer-free in February, and she returned to cooking at the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival in April. But last month, Ali said, doctors told her the cancer had made an aggressive return in her left hip and femur, leaving the chef with a grim prognosis. "My oncologist has told me that I have a year to live, with or without the new chemotherapy regimen," Ali wrote in an essay in Bon Appetit. "I was looking forward to being 30, flirty, and thriving. Guess I have to step it up on the flirting. I have no time to lose." Chefs from across the culinary world have offered words of support for Ali, including fellow Top Chef contestant Chris Scott, a Coatesville, Pa. native who was was among the last contenders voted off the show. "When I first saw this, I went literally numb. I lost my mother to cancer years ago, and now reading this about my friend.. it broke me," Scott wrote on Instagram. "She is by far filled with strength and courage and bravery, and I am truly blessed to know her. Ali said that with the time she has left, she plans on using her "illness as a tactic" in order to cram in as many experiences as possible, including taking in a meal at the popular Copenhagen restaurant Noma and grabbing a piece of uni and truffle toast at the three-Michelin-starred Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare in Manhattan. "An odd sense of relief has settled inside me, knowing that I can finally live for myself, even if it's just for a few more precious months," Ali wrote."I'm scared. I suspect I won't last very long. There's a faint feeling deep inside my gut like a rumble of passing air, ever expanding and filling slowly until, one day, I'll pop." Perched on the edge of Bucks County, just across the river from New Jersey, the Delaware Valley Volunteer Fire Company's headquarters in Erwinna, where the population is under 500, doesn't see a lot of action when it comes to fighting fires. But the firehouse is busy most days, the air filled with the smell of raspberries or peppers simmering on the stove and the fragrance of fresh herbs, the clatter of pots and pans that Gino De Schrijver uses not for chili, but for making huge batches of sweet and savory jams to be sold everywhere from Di Bruno Bros. to Wegmans to cheese shops in Brooklyn to stores in Japan. In addition to housing the fire engine and other rescue equipment, the firehouse is the headquarters of Eat This Yum, the company De Schrijver started in 2011 as a hobby and which has since grown into a full-time business that has spread to stores in more than 25 states, Canada, and Asia. Eat This Yum has also been featured by Oprah Winfrey's magazine, and on the Food Network. "It really took off after that," said De Schrijver. "There was a point when we were making 2,000 jars a day for two months straight. Our friends were volunteering to help." As the company has grown, so have its contributions to the fire company. From the beginning, Eat This Yum has given 5 percent of its sales to the firehouse, as well as invested in its infrastructure and facilities. A native of Belgium who moved to the States in 1989, De Schrijver worked in restaurants, bars, and as a private chef before starting a business in Reno, Nev., that sold fresh meals to go. After the financial crisis hit in 2008, he and his now-husband, David Borgert, moved to Erwinna with dreams of living in a farmhouse, and De Schrijver started a corporate job with Sodexo, an international food services company. Seeking a creative outlet, De Schrijver began experimenting with making tomato marmalade from fresh local produce. In 2010, he took it to the Stockton Farmers' Market, across the river in New Jersey. After selling out on his first try, he started developing new recipes. Eat This Yum now sells 13 flavors of jam, marmalade, and preserves, including blackberry-raspberry, balsamic caramelized onion, orange saffron cardamom, and bacon tastes that can pair with anything from cheeses to charcuterie to seafood and sandwiches. The company uses as many local ingredients and produce as possible, and also offers some limited varieties based on seasonal produce, such as one made from heirloom cranberries. "I just wanted to create flavors that were something more than what you'd put on toast," De Schrijver said. De Schrijver joined the volunteer fire department when he and Borgert moved to Erwinna, and as sales continued to grow, he needed a commercial kitchen. So he asked the Fire Chief Rick Armitage for permission to use the station in exchange for a portion of sales. A year later, he hired Armitage's son, Evan, as a full-time employee. He quit his job and brought on Borgert full-time as well. In 2014, after they took the jams to a New York trade show, Whole Foods picked it up for stores in its Mid-Atlantic region. In 2014, Winfrey featured it in her magazine as one of her "favorite things" that year. In 2015, local food experts Adam and Andrew Erace spotlighted the bacon marmalade on their Food Network show Great American Food Finds. "The orders started coming in after it aired, and then it aired again," De Schrijver said. "It was odd ordering I don't know how many pounds of bacon, then calling them back and saying I needed more." Eat This Yum now has four full-time employees, including De Schrijver and Borgert, as well as two part-time sales representatives. The company produces between 2,000 and 3,000 jars at the height of the busy holiday season. Sales have increased by 30 percent over the years, said sales manager Natalie Rockwell, and so have contributions to the firehouse. This year, the company ordered a new engine, and the firehouse is planning an expansion. As satisfying as it is to have the jams carried in large stores, specialty shops remain the company's bread and butter, Borgert said, because those businesses pay the closest attention to how to market the jams and promote them to regular customers. De Schrijver said they might miss out on some large sales opportunities by prioritizing seasonal ingredients, but he prefers to focus on making the best-tasting product. "We didn't start this so we could grow it and sell it," De Schrijver said. "We really just want a nice life. And we want to be able to keep giving back." This article has been updated to correct the name of the company. BELFIELD, N.D., Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meridian Energy Group, Inc. , the leading developer of innovative and environmentally-compliant oil refining facilities, announced today that a complaint filed against its Davis Refinery project has been dismissed by the North Dakota Public Service Commission (PSC) for lack of jurisdiction. The Commission adopted the recommendation of the Administrative Law Judge and unanimously voted to grant Meridians motion to dismiss the complaint. The complaint urged the PSC to assert jurisdiction over the Davis project and require Meridian to obtain a PSC Siting Certificate from the PSC before constructing the Davis Refinery, a process that would have taken up additional time and resources, even though the Davis Refinery had already been given full siting approval when it was unanimously approved by the Billings County Board of Commissioners in July of 2016, where Meridian was issued its Zoning and Conditional Use Permit. This decision comes just one week after Administrative Law Judge Patrick Ward recommended for a second time the PSC dismiss the complaint, stating the limits of the PSCs jurisdiction under state law is clear and unambiguous. Judge Ward further stated, Because the planned capacity is under the jurisdictional threshold plaintiffs complaint must be dismissed. The Davis Refinery is being designed with a throughput capacity of 49,500 bpd of Bakken crude oil. Oil refining facilities that are designed to, or capable of, processing 50,000 bpd or more of crude oil fall under the PSCs siting jurisdiction. Meridian has initiated site preparation and grading at the Davis site, and is proceeding with final design efforts. Meridian anticipates that work will resume in the field in May 2019, with foundations work and further construction activities. Full commercial operation of the Davis Refinery is expecting during late 2020. Meridian Chairman and CEO William Prentice on the PSC decision: Meridian is grateful to the Commissioners for their careful consideration of this matter and is very appreciative of the decision that the Commission reached. Meridian also believes that it is important to acknowledge the diligence and thoroughness of the Commissioners and staff of the County of Billings during the process leading up to the approval by the County of the Rezoning and Conditional Use Permit in July of 2016. All of the State and local officials in North Dakota that Meridian has encountered and worked with in permitting of the Davis Refinery over the past three-plus years have done an exceptional job protecting the interests of the people of North Dakota and ensuring that the Davis Refinery will be designed, constructed and operated properly. Frank Goseco, Meridians EVP and General Counsel, said of the complaint dismissal, Litigation associated with permitting is the new normal in major energy projects such as the Davis Refinery. Meridian will continue to face these challenges as they arise, and is confident that its technical expertise, careful preparation and execution, and policy of full compliance will pave the way to success in this area. About Meridian Energy Group, Inc. The Mission of Meridian Energy Group, Inc. is to provide long-term shareholder value through the development and operation of the cleanest, most efficient and environmentally-compliant crude oil refineries in the world, benefiting the community and its investors. Established in 2013, Meridian is led by industry experts with a combined 500 years of world-class expertise in energy & hydrocarbon processing, project development, finance, and large capital project management. Meridian Energy Group, Inc. current headquarters is in Belfield, ND. For more information, visit: http://www.meridianenergygroupinc.com Judy Weinstein cut her hair short when she found out she would lose it entirely due to chemotherapy. Years after treatment, her hair has grown back and she's keeping it short. Read more When Judy Weinstein was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, chemotherapy was an essential part of her treatment. She was anxious about the nausea, lack of energy, and all the unknowns that come with a cancer diagnosis. Then there was the matter of losing her hair. "Growing up, you spend way too much time thinking about your hair and how it makes you look and feel," said Weinstein, 53, from Mount Airy. "The thought of losing my hair felt like I was going to be losing a part of my identity." So, like others facing the same issue, she decided to take charge of the situation, and immediately cut her long hair shorter to start getting used to the coming change. "I was told I would start to lose it roughly 17 days after the fifth treatment, and sure enough, 17 days to the day on Jan. 1 I started losing my hair," she recalled. Chemotherapy drugs work by attacking fast-growing cancer cells. But they also can go after healthy cells that grow rapidly, such as those in hair follicles, explained Angela Jain, medical oncologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Not all chemo treatments have this effect, but about 70 percent do, she said. What's more, patients can lose body hair, as well. For most people, though, the hair loss is temporary, with hair regrowing a few months after treatment ends. Even then, the shade or texture of the hair might be different. "A cancer diagnosis makes people question who they are because it's such an unexpected event in their lives," she said. "When you lose your hair and you look into the mirror, you don't even look like yourself and that adds to the emotional distress." A chilly solution For some, losing their hair is a deal breaker to accepting chemotherapy, even if it's been shown to be the best treatment for them. Jain tries to sway those individuals with the science, pointing out studies and success rates, but she hasn't always been successful. It isn't easy, and it isn't for everyone, but there is a way to have chemo and keep your hair cold caps, first approved by the FDA in 2015. These special gel caps are chilled to very cold temperatures well below freezing so they can constrict the blood vessels beneath the skin of the scalp. The cold slows down the hair follicle metabolism, making the hair cells dormant or less active, preventing absorption of chemotherapeutic drugs. That worked for Jaime Pastore, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 after a routine mammogram the day after her 40th birthday. Her treatment plan included a double mastectomy, radiation, and four rounds of chemotherapy. "My hair is very long and anybody who knows me knows that my hair is part of my look," the Hatboro woman said. "And, I have an 8-year-old son and I think it would have been horrible for him to see me like that." For each treatment, Pastore and her husband, Jason, went to the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Abington-Jefferson Health with a cooler containing eight caps rented from Arctic Cold Caps, stored in the dry ice they had purchased the night before. For about eight hours starting an hour before treatment and ending an hour after treatment Jason replaced his wife's cap every 17 minutes to ensure it remained at a constant temperature of -13 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit. That meant roughly 30 cap changes for each treatment, putting the used cap back in dry ice to be added again later in the rotation. To start the process, Pastore put moleskin on her forehead to prevent frostbite, then Jason covered all her hair with a cold cap. On top of that, he added what looks like a swim cap to tighten the whole apparatus. Pastore was surprised that she didn't actually feel cold; but the three tight straps under her jaw that kept the cap secure were painful. "For a whole day after, it would hurt to talk or eat," she said. "You're sore after a few hours and it's overwhelming." Another pain was that the expense wasn't covered by insurance. To help cover the approximately $1,500 in costs (about $400 a month to cover the cap rental and dry ice), Pastore's sister set up a GoFundMe account. Even with the caps, Pastore thinks she still lost about 10 percent of her hair. Still, she said, the grueling process was worthwhile. "It was my only hope to keep my hair, for myself and my son," she said. "No one knew I was sick when I was out in public." A similar system, the Paxman Scalp Cooling System, doesn't require cap changes. With the use of a compact refrigerator, liquid coolant is kept at a consistent temperature and pumped into a silicone cooling cap before, during and after chemotherapy. But it's not yet available locally. Richard Paxman, the company's CEO, based in England, expects Philadelphia hospitals to join the more than 130 U.S. facilities with the system in the next three to six months. A personal choice Though the caps were only recently approved by the FDA, the concept has been in use since the 1970s, according to a 2017 analysis of numerous studies on cooling. It's not clear whether cooling caps increase the risk of cancer spreading to the scalp or brain, but studies of breast cancer patients suggest scalp metastases are extremely rare regardless of cooling. Jain isn't convinced that even a small additional risk is a good idea. "If you use a cooling cap, does that mean the chemotherapy isn't getting to the scalp and are you more at risk of developing a brain [tumor] or metastatic disease to the skull?" While studies continue, the issue of how women and men handle hair loss due to cancer treatment remains very personal. When Kirby Lewis was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, he had a mastectomy. But when the cancer recurred in 2016, he underwent 15 weeks of chemotherapy. About eight weeks into treatment, Lewis lost his thick, wavy brown mane, as well as his eyebrows and body hair yet his mustache remained. The 58-year-old, from Inwood, W.Va., rolled with the changes. "The reality of cancer is that we'd rather live, so losing your hair doesn't matter so much," he said. "It's part of the process." As for Judy Weinstein, losing her hair turned out to be a very different experience than she expected. As she celebrated New Year's Day 2015 with friends after getting a shorter haircut, she included them in the next step, shearing off the rest. "As my hair fell to the floor, I lost what I thought characterized me, and I gained proof of what truly defines me: family, friendship, and love," she said. FILE In this Sept. 27, 2018, file photo, actress and singer Lady Gaga poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "A Star Is Born" in London. Read more Lady Gaga and the World Health Organization's director-general, Tedros Adhanom, have issued a powerful global appeal to increase support and funding for life-saving mental-health services to battle what they call a worldwide emergency. "Suicide is the most extreme and visible symptom of the larger mental health emergency we are so far failing to adequately address," Lady Gaga and Adhanom wrote in a joint column in the Guardian published Tuesday. "Stigma, fear and lack of understanding compound the suffering of those affected and prevent bold action that is so desperately needed and so long overdue." Globally, 800,000 people will kill themselves this year, according to the editorial by Lady Gaga, founder of the Born This Way Foundation. "Sometimes they are famous names such as Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade that make headlines, but they are all sons or daughters, friends or colleagues, valued members of families and communities." The coauthors state that one in four people will experience a mental-health condition at some point in their lives, and even more will have a loved one affected. Young people are particularly at risk; the editorial states that suicide is the leading cause of death globally for people ages 15 to 29 and that half of all mental illnesses begin by age 14. Gaga and Adhanom's appeal comes at a time when the World Health Organization is engaged in a campaign to call attention to mental health, especially among the world's young people, and the need for more action and funding. In addition to calling for greater funding for mental-health support services, Gaga and her coauthor applauded grassroots efforts such as grandmothers offering counseling in Zimbabwe and peer-to-peer education programs in the United Kingdom and Australia. Locally, at universities such as Penn, Temple, and Drexel, students are trying to help one another through peer counseling and mutual support organizations. I Care, offered through Penn's Counseling and Psychological Services, has trained move than 2,000 students, faculty, and staff members in helping others in crisis. The program was started after several suicides at Penn in 2013 and 2014. St. Joseph's University has offered its own suicide-prevention program for about a decade. In the last year, its training has been doubled, reaching 300 campus community members, up from 150 the year before. One of the critical aspects of the training, according to Greg Nicholls, director of the St. Joe's counseling services, is preparing students to ask their peers directly if they are thinking about harming themselves, so they get help. Drexel, Temple, and Penn State's campuses all have DMAX clubs, student-led groups aimed at fighting stigma and increasing support for people facing mental-health issues. The clubs were born of the efforts of the parents of Dan Maxwell, 18, a student athlete at Radnor High School who took his own life in 2013. Laurie Burstein-Maxwell and Lee Maxwell started the DMAX Foundation to help other young people with mental-health problems get help and not suffer in silence. Mental-health experts say keeping your distance and avoiding what can be an uncomfortable subject is often the worst thing you can do. Stacey Cahn, a clinical professor of psychology at Rowan University Wellness Center, said if you're worried about a friend or loved one, especially if you suspect that person may be thinking about suicide, ask about it. "More often than not, people err in the direction of not asking. That's where the problem is," Cahn said. Lady Gaga has publicly identified herself as a survivor of mental illness and trauma, crediting the kindness of her family, friends, and doctors with saving her life. The multi-Grammy Award winner and lead actress in the film A Star Is Born has said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as the result of being raped at age 19 by a man 20 years older. "The time has come for us all, collectively, to tackle the causes and symptoms of mental illness, and provide care for those who suffer from it," the celebrity and the WHO official wrote. "You don't have to be an international artist or the head of the World Health Organization to make an impact." President Trump appeared to be unaware this week of the existence of a long-standing group of the world's top climate scientists when he asked who "drew" a report predicting a catastrophic scenario for climate change. The report was written by 91 authors from 40 countries, members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It had 6,000 scientific references and tens of thousands of expert reviewers, including governments, worldwide. Reporters asked the president on the White House lawn about the document released Monday, which laid out a grim future under almost irreversible climate change. The report found that the world is already seeing consequences from a single degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming, with more weather extremes, rising sea levels, and melting Arctic sea ice. The document looked at what would happen at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement was to cap temperature rise at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). The scientists projected that 1.5 degrees would be bad enough, but that a 2-degree rise would be catastrophic. The report's conclusion is that the world is rapidly running out of time to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. On Tuesday, Trump said of the report, "It was given to me. And I want to look at who drew it. You know, which group drew it. I can give you reports that are fabulous, and I can give you reports that aren't so good. But I will be looking at it, absolutely." What is the IPCC? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was founded in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to assess what was then an emerging worry about global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The IPCC does not conduct research. Rather, it reviews what it considers the top scientific information it can find. Its reports are reviewed by scientists, to ensure objectivity. Currently, the IPCC counts 195 countries among its members, including the United States. It has a regular cycle of reports, and issues special reports when requested. The current special report was requested in 2015 by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris to look at what would happen under a 1.5-degree rise. So Monday's report was the culmination of several years of work. For the new report, the IPCC brought in thousands of scientists from around the world to coordinate the most recent findings on climate science. Who are the authors of the report? Of the report's 91 authors, eight are from the U.S. One of them is Haroon Kheshgi, a scientist with ExxonMobil, who helped write a chapter on mitigation. Robert Kopp, director of Rutgers University's Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, said that the IPCC is reflective of current thinking, and that scientists volunteer their time to write the reports. Kopp is working as an author on an IPCC report, due in 2021, on sea-level change. If anything, he said, IPCC reports tend to be conservative because there is so much input from varying countries. "The reports really do represent a collective voice of the climate-science community," Kopp said. "They are are written by consensus. Because it is consensus-driven, the sharp edges tend to get filed down." What does the report say? The report says the impacts of climate change are already being felt through weather extremes. Scientists are concerned that catastrophic events such as Hurricane Michael, now bearing down on Florida; Hurricane Florence last month in the Carolinas; and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017 the costliest tropical cyclone season on record in the U.S. will become more common as the climate continues to change. But there is good news, according to the report: Actions are already being taken to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. To keep that momentum, however, would require "rapid and far-reaching" transitions in how energy is used in industry, transportation, cities and farms. Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, would need to fall by about 45 percent from their 2010 levels by 2030 to reach "net zero" by 2050. Anything beyond a 1.5-degree rise would require devising ways to remove carbon dioxide from the air. There is no proven way to do that. Teetra Bell, 37, was killed by an alleged drunk driver on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. Read more Teetra Bell was walking to her car, which was parked across from her North Philadelphia home Saturday night, when an alleged drunk driver slammed into her, killing her. "I was at home. I heard the noise, and I went out the door, and they [neighbors] said somebody got hit by a car," Bell's mother, Joyce Jefferson Bell, said Tuesday. She then realized it was her 37-year-old daughter who was struck on the 2700 block of West Sedgley Avenue, where they lived together. Neighbors told the mother that one driver had stopped to allow Bell to cross, and that a second driver went around the first vehicle and hit Bell. She "never made it," the mother said, her voice filled with emotion. "Her body suffered a lot of trauma and was mutilated." Police said the suspected drunk driver, Michelle Fields, 30, of Elkins Park, was arrested immediately after the crash, shortly before 9:30 p.m. Fields' 2017 Kia Sorento hit Bell, throwing her body into a tree, then struck parked vehicles on the street and became disabled, Capt. Mark Overwise of the police Accident Investigation Division said. Overwise said that just before the crash, the SUV was spotted by a patrol car running a red light at Dauphin Street and Sedgley. The officer tried to follow the SUV, but by the time the officer turned onto Sedgley, the SUV had already struck Bell and the parked vehicles, Overwise said. Bell was pronounced dead by medics at the scene. Her mother said she was a single mother to a 17-year-old girl and worked as a group-home caretaker with ChildFirst Services Inc., helping girls from broken homes with homework and preparing meals for them. A woman who answered the phone at ChildFirst Services confirmed that Bell worked for the agency. "She loved her job," her mother said. Fields was charged with homicide by vehicle while DUI, involuntary manslaughter, and related offenses. It was not immediately known if she had an attorney. Drunken-driving crashes in Philadelphia declined dramatically from 2015 to 2017, according to AAA, but DUI fatalities did not. In the last five years, an average of 17 people each year have died in drunken-driving crashes in the city. Linda Griffith stands in a 2016 vigil for drug awareness several weeks after drug busts at Johnnies Liquors, a Bellmawr liquor store, and Bellmawr Laundromat, the property in the background. CHARLES FOX/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Read more The state has revoked the license of a South Jersey liquor store that was used in a prescription drug operation that sold opioids from a coin laundry across the street, officials said Tuesday. The Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control said it took the action after finding that the three brothers who owned Johnnie's Liquor Store in Bellmawr allowed their business to be used as a stash house. Camden County investigators seized 368 narcotics pills and $13,732 in cash during a raid at the store in May 2016, authorities said. "These licensees used their liquor store as a stash house from which they pushed dangerous prescription opioids onto the streets and into the hands of users suffering from addiction," state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said in a statement. The brothers, Rakesh, Dhananjaya, and Jalat Patel, all of Somerdale, were charged with possession of prescription painkillers with the intent to distribute and other offenses. Armando "Bolo" Rosario, a laundry employee, was also charged with drug offenses. Mayor Frank Filipek welcomed the news that the liquor license had been revoked. The state notified the business on Thursday and the store was shut down immediately, he said. Borough police were dispatched to enforce the closing, he said. "I'm just upset that it took so long," Filipek said Tuesday. "They should have lost their license two years ago." >>READ MORE: In Bellmawr, a drug bust opens up a divide The Camden County Prosecutor's Office conducted a three-month investigation of suspected drug activity in the Bellmawr Laundromat, located directly across the street from the liquor store at 834 W. Browning Rd. Authorities said at the time that they were targeting two trafficking networks. According to the state agency, an undercover officer posing as a drug buyer purchased opioids from a dealer in the laundry who retrieved the drugs from the liquor store. During the raid, narcotics pills, including Oxycodone, Roxicet and Tramadol, were seized in a private office in the back of the store, the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control said. In voluntary sworn statements to investigators, the brothers admitting allowing Rosario, whom they knew to be a drug dealer, to use their liquor store for his alleged drug business, according to a revocation order released Tuesday. The brothers gave Rosario money to purchase drugs and split the drug profits with Rosario, Dhananjaya Patel told investigators. If a pill cost $10, the brothers received $2 and Rosario kept $8, the order said. In 2017, the state charged Rakesh Inc., which held the liquor license, with a dozen violations of beverage regulations. The brothers were equal shareholders in the business, the state said. The Patel brothers were admitted into a pretrial intervention program, according to the revocation order. They were barred from holding an alcoholic beverage license for two years. The drug raid and busts caused a deep divide in Bellmawr, with emotions running high occasionally in clashes about the opioid crisis. For a while, protesters, many with loved ones who had died from opioid addiction, demonstrated for hours outside Johnnie's, seeking to shut it down. The controversy landed before the Borough Council in June 2016, which voted to renew the store's liquor license for two years. Filipek said at the time that renewing the license was the best option available pending the outcome of the criminal investigation. Filipek said Tuesday he hopes the borough will not lose the liquor license and that another business will be allowed to purchase it. The state regulates how many liquor licenses a municipality can sell, which can be a big revenue booster, garnering six figures in some towns. About a month ago, friends of Roland Alston a lifer known around Graterford Prison as "Pudgy" grew concerned. "He expressed feelings of hopelessness and despair," another lifer, Aaron Fox, wrote in a letter addressed to advocates and obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News. "The day before he was found dead, he went to a [corrections officer] and expressed his despondency, and broke down in tears. He had him sent to the psych." Alston was interviewed, then returned back to the general population, according to Fox. The next morning, March 28, he was found hanging in his cell. That made Alston, 58, the fifth inmate in less than three months to take his life at Graterford. It's a startling figure given that the entire Department of Corrections system averages seven suicides statewide each year. One of them, Christopher Gilchrist, was on suicide watch at the time of his death, according to his mother and inmates, who have questioned why he had access to a sheet he used to hang himself and how the guards required to monitor observation cells were unable to intervene. The Department of Corrections would not comment on the individual cases, nor on whether the departure of Graterford's superintendent, Cynthia Link, in March was connected to any of the deaths. "Obviously, when we have a suicide cluster, it is a major concern," Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said in a statement released after Alston's death. "Although this one likely has a different root cause, it is concerning nonetheless. "To that end, we have engaged Lindsay Hayes, a national expert on jail suicide prevention, to quickly lead a full review of all policy, procedures and practices, as well as a full review of each case." Alston had been incarcerated since 1983 for his role in the robbery-murder of a Levittown pharmacist. Angus Love of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project suggested that one cause for inmates' distress is the pending closure of Graterford and move to the new State Correctional Institution Phoenix. In particular, lifers have dreaded the impending loss of one of their few and longstanding perks, single-occupant cells. They'll be required to take cellmates at Phoenix. "We have so many lifers, and for lifers, disruption is very upsetting. Some of these folks are kind of on the verge anyway, given their plight, so it pushes people over the edge," Love said. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Amy Worden said Graterford has brought in additional, temporary psychology staff "to assist in the comprehensive assessment of each newly committed inmate, as well as allow for additional mental-health staff coverage for current long-term inmates particularly those on the mental-health treatment roster who are facing a move to a new facility." Alston was the only lifer among the five who committed suicide at Graterford this year. Several were new arrivals. One, Gilchrist, had a history of mental health issues and had been in and out of the prison's treatment unit, according to his mother, Bobbie London. Not long before he died, she received a letter from him stating he'd rather die than continue to live in such a condition. "I called up there. I said, he's not well. He's got suicidal ideation," she said. "I was told, 'We take this seriously. We'll look into it.'" Nancy Winkler, a lawyer representing the family, said she is investigating and is contemplating filing both a civil rights action and a medical negligence action against the Department of Corrections. Fox, the lifer, described the mood at Graterford as grim despite the department's interventions. "There is a black cloud over this joint right now," he said. "It's heartbreaking to watch your friends deteriorate and not be able to help them." Cody Carter, photographed outside City Hall, said he spent six months in segregation at Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center. He was one of 600 inmates in segregation in Philadelphia more than five times the rate in New York and four times the national average. Read more It was supposed to be one of the least restrictive forms of incarceration the city has to offer: a six- to 23-month term in a Philadelphia jail, with work release. Then, Cody Carter was caught with a cellphone. For that violation, he said, he spent six months in segregation. That typically means at least 23 hours a day locked in a narrow cell, either in isolation or with a cellmate. "It's an experience that you can only live to understand. That's how raw it is," he said. "Especially the first 45 days were hell: You get nothing, no toiletries but the soap they give you, a dirty towel. It's just a gruesome experience." It also appears to be a strikingly common one: More than 600 people are currently in segregation in Philadelphia jails, officials disclosed at budget hearings this month. That's more than 11 percent of inmates. Many are sentenced to segregation for 15, 30, or even 60 days at a stretch. By comparison, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in its most recent report, published in 2015, found that nationwide just 2.7 percent of jail inmates were in segregation. Just 5 percent had spent 30 days or longer in isolation. Mike Dunn, spokesman for the Kenney administration, said in an email: "The use of segregation is not something we take lightly. We are committed to finding other options and to enhancing therapeutic services." But, he added, "its use here is in line with other peer cities." Yet at New York's Rikers Island, the confinement rate is just over 1 percent; the jails there worked with the Vera Institute of Justice to reduce the rate from 5.9 percent in 2014. One major difference is that, while New York two years ago capped solitary stays at 30 days, here in Philadelphia even minor, nonviolent infractions can lead to 15 days in segregation. And, while New York has banned punitive segregation for inmates under 21 years old, Philadelphia has no such rule. Since the city said two years ago that it would seek to stop placing juveniles in segregation, it has instead increased the practice. Bruce Herdman, medical director for the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, said at a budget hearing that the department will begin providing 10 hours of therapeutic out-of-cell time each week to those in segregation. "The literature and the courts have decided around the country that [segregation] causes the deterioration of existing mental-health problems, and it also causes mental illness," he said. The U.N. has called solitary terms longer than 15 days "torture," given the physical and psychological effects. One recent analysis of New York state prisons found the rate of suicide attempts and self-harm were 11 times higher in segregation than in the general population. Experts say solitary can be particularly harmful for young people, as it can interfere with neurological and social development. The suicide of Kalief Browder, who spent two years in solitary at Rikers Island after being charged with stealing a backpack, underscored the risks. Philadelphia prison officials do not use the term solitary confinement. But there is disciplinary detention and administrative segregation; in either, an inmate could receive as little as five hours per week out of cell. Jurisdictions around the country have been working to reduce solitary. For example, Harris County, which includes Houston, cut its segregation rate in half, to about 1 percent, the Houston Chronicle reported recently. The American Correctional Association also issued new policies in 2016 barring long-term restricted housing for youth and people with serious mental illness. "There's definitely been a sea change," said Sara Sullivan, director of Vera's Safe Alternatives to Segregation program. She said jails have been able to reduce reliance on solitary using an array of tactics: providing staff with crisis-intervention training to de-escalate before incidents occur, creating special diversionary housing for people with mental illness, introducing alternative punishments, or even incentivizing positive behavior. "A lot of staff in places at the forefront of this talk about what a better environment there is once they've done this," she said. Here in Philadelphia, officials said changes were "currently in the making" to keep juveniles out of long-term segregation when the Inquirer and Daily News first reported on the issue two years ago. At that time, the newspapers reported that juveniles had been placed in segregation 41 times in 2015, for an average of 32 days. Since then, however, the practice has increased: In 2016, juveniles were placed in segregation 72 times, for an average of 36 days. From the start of 2017 through the end of March 2018, segregation was imposed 70 times, for an average of 32 days. Some young people described contemplating or attempting suicide while in segregation. One, Jetson Cruz, wrote about his experience last year for a planned City Council hearing that was canceled and has not been rescheduled. In the testimony, obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News, Cruz said that at age 17 he was placed in isolation six different times, five for 30 days or longer. He described 23 hours or more alone in a small cell. When he left the cell a reprieve he said sometimes lasted only 15 minutes he was shackled. "It makes you become secretive," he wrote. "It changes your personality. You feel real useless, and like there is no purpose to life. You lose a lot of weight and become desperate." Still, Philadelphia prisons spokeswoman Shawn Hawes said segregation is necessary for safety and security reasons. Asked for further information, she directed all inquiries to the Right to Know law. Through a Right to Know request, the newspapers obtained the Philadelphia prisons' disciplinary hearing logs, which provide a window into how and why segregation is meted out. According to those records, in December 2017 alone inmates were placed in segregation 396 times, for an average of 22 days each. In some cases, the disciplinary hearing officer recommended additional administrative segregation, which can be tacked on to punitive sentences indefinitely, as happened in Cody Carter's case. (Administrative segregation is not a punishment but is deployed for safety reasons.) While other punishments are available ranging from counseling to restricted privileges to reprimands these are rarely imposed. In December, just eight individuals were reprimanded, eight were assigned extra work hours, and three were ordered to pay restitution. The most common infraction was fighting; for that, sanctions ranged from seven days for a minor scuffle up to 60 days for a fight involving a weapon or resulting in an injury. Three-quarters of segregation terms met or exceeded the 15-day stretch the U.N. defines as "inhumane." The maximum terms of disciplinary detention, set out in the prison's own policies, were also obtained via an open-records request: seven days for a minor infraction (say, creating a disturbance); 15 days for multiple minor infractions arising from one incident (for example, refusing to comply with an order, being disrespectful, and breaking a posted rule are all listed as separate offenses); 30 days for a major or critical infraction (these range from smoking to assaulting staff); and 60 days for multiple major or critical infractions related to one incident. For those in detention, 10 hours of weekly out-of-cell time would be a significant improvement. But Hawes said it would be premature to say when the policy would launch, what the "therapeutic" offerings would be, or whether there is funding in place for the initiative. Some recent inmates said that even in general population, they barely got that much time out of their cells, due to frequent lockdowns. Still, Carter, 27, of Roxborough, said disciplinary detention was far worse. Locked up for his first-ever conviction, on charges of harassment, assault, and unlawful restraint, he described spending 23 hours a day in his cell, a narrow room with just two beds and a combination toilet/sink. (Philadelphia is one of an unknown number of jails that at times double-cells inmates in solitary, with sometimes volatile results. Sullivan said no research has been done on whether the practice is more or less harmful than traditional isolation.) "There was no place to go but your bed," Carter said. "I seen people sleep the whole 45 days." Later, in administrative segregation, he got a job on the cell block that allowed him a bit more freedom. He said that's what kept him sane. According to internal records obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News, there were two suicides and 20 attempts in the jails from February 2017 through January 2018. "I would hear, a few cells down from me, a guy trying to hang himself," Carter said. "People was literally going crazy, yelling, 'I'm going to kill myself!' Most of those guys were bluffing just to get out of their cell, get some type of attention. But there were a few guys who were serious." Years after Pennsylvania's newest, biggest, and most expensive prison, State Correctional Institution Phoenix, was slated for completion, certificates of occupancy have at long last been issued for the entire $400 million, 3,830-bed complex in Montgomery County. The move from Graterford Prison finally seems imminent. Staff have packed up their offices. And the men currently housed at Graterford, which Phoenix will replace, have been issued two moving boxes each. "All the shops are shut down; the machinery is out. Counselors are living out of boxes in their offices," said Jorge Cintron Jr., an inmate who has called Graterford home for more than a decade. The chapel, he said, has been short on Bibles, because those, too, were boxed up. Though Department of Corrections officials have declined to provide an official move-in date, they previously said Phoenix, next door to Graterford, was scheduled to open by June 30, the end of the state's fiscal year. For those who've lived at Graterford for decades, it has so far been an uneasy transition. Many inmates have long dreaded the relocation from the 95-year-old Graterford to a modern prison with enhanced security and surveillance measures, and cellmates for men who've had cells to themselves for years. But the last few months have been a particularly stressful time at Graterford, which saw five suicides and the resignation of the superintendent. Now, inmates have learned some programs may not be making the move. Nancy Wolff, a professor at Rutgers University who has been volunteering 20 hours a week at Graterford, said she learned abruptly she would not be able to stay on. Over six years, she had implemented mindfulness-based stress reduction programs, trauma-focused therapy groups, volunteer training, a drumming program for emotional literacy, and yoga for stress reduction. "I was told there was no space available at Phoenix for the contributions that I make," said.Wolff, whose research has focused on incarceration and rehabilitation. "These were free resources that assisted in preparing people to return to the community with less anger and better skills to live pro-socially." A Department of Corrections spokeswoman, Susan McNaughton, said that volunteers were merely advised that their programs would have to stop temporarily and that, though they could resume after the move, they may not have designated space in the new prison. The organizers of Songs in the Key of Free, the first formal music program at Graterford in more than a decade, also understood that their program had been terminated. They were scrambling to finish recording an album of original music written and performed by inmates in these final weeks. "We're told that our last day is May 21," said August Tarrier, a founder of the program. "We're just heartbroken." She said they were told they might be able to ask permission to resume their program in six to eight months. However, McNaughton said Songs in the Key of Free would be able to resume after the move. Questions about future programming have further increased anxiety around the move, Wolff said. Since last year, she has supported a "Healthy Change" group, a coalition of longtime prisoners that met with Corrections Secretary John Wetzel in hope of facilitating the transition. In a memo drafted by eight of those inmates last September, the men pleaded for better communication about their future living conditions, counseling for inmates distressed by the move, and supports for elderly or infirm inmates who worried about possible top-bunk assignments or other physical challenges. "The horror stories about where we will live build by the day. This is very stressful," they wrote, citing rumors about sinking and flooded buildings and broken plumbing at Phoenix. Wolff said there was no response. Tyrone Werts, 67, of Philadelphia, spent 37 years at Graterford before receiving commutation in 2011 and has returned often as a volunteer, meeting with the lifers organization there. He's been told he, too, will have to reapply for access. "Graterford has always been the vanguard of the prison system and very progressive in terms of rehabilitation, treatment and programs," he said. During his time at the prison, he said, "volunteers were welcomed, and it was very therapeutic. It benefited the guys. It benefited me personally. I don't know what my life would be like if I had not had the opportunity to engage with volunteers." He recalled feeling anxious about the move to Phoenix himself, back when it was announced a decade ago. Now, it feels real. "Graterford was like a community," he said. "I feel bad for them, moving to a place where nobody knows what's going to happen." A file photograph of the May Day protest at City Hall, May 1, 2018, including demonstrations against pretrial incarceration and money bail. Read more Advocates have been pleading with the Philadelphia court system to end its policy of keeping 30 percent of all posted bail even when a defendant is acquitted, and even when the bail was posted by a nonprofit community bail fund. On Wednesday, the court, known officially as the First Judicial District, announced it would do just that. At the same time, the FJD rescinded its policy on probation detainers orders that can, either automatically or with a judge's approval, jail people on probation indefinitely if they are charged in a new case or otherwise violate probation. Some 44,000 Philadelphians are on probation, and 55 percent of the city's jail population is there on detainers. Last year, Philadelphia's chief defender, Keir Bradford-Grey, wrote to the FJD calling the court's current practice illegal. "The elimination of automatic detainers is not only legally required, but is also good policy," she wrote in the memo, which was made public by WHYY. But what this new change in detainer policy will mean is unclear. Previously, automatic detainers were only required when people were charged with very serious violent crimes such as aggravated assault or rape. However, in practice, said Temple University law professor Sara Jacobson, "the reality is they were lodging automatic detainers for most crimes." "Changing the rule is part of it, but they're going to have to change the default expectations of the judges as well," Jacobson said. Another lingering question is what the new practice will be for notifying judges when defendants on probation are charged with new crimes. Jules Epstein, a Temple professor of criminal law, said presumably those judges will still be notified and could still order the defendant to be locked up. "But at least someone's looking at it," he said. "So will they figure out a way to be smarter about it, or more selective?" The Defender Association and FJD leadership did not immediately respond to a request for comment. >>READ MORE: Meek Mill's not alone. Study finds 'indefensible' overuse of probation, parole in Pennsylvania For now, advocates are celebrating the change in the bail process. "That's an exorbitant amount of money to take from people who are already more than likely poor, who may have scraped up the resources to bail out a loved one and then they don't get the entire portion back," said Reuben Jones, an organizer with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund. He said the bail fund has posted more than $120,000 in bail, and lost at least $35,000 in fees collected to the courts. That hurts, given that its work is crowdfunded, $15 or $20 at a time. The fund is currently not posting bail as its reserves are low, and it's saving up in advance of a planned holiday-season bailout. Councilman Kenyatta Johnson said the issue came to his attention at a community forum in February, and negotiations have been inching forward since then. "A lot of the attendees and advocates expressed their outrage with how the criminal-justice system collects money and balances its budget on the backs of primarily poor people," he said. Altogether, the city set aside $2.9 million in its fiscal 2019 budget to allow for the end of this fee, said Julie Wertheimer, director of criminal justice in the Philadelphia Managing Director's Office. That was accomplished through advocacy from City Council and support from the mayor. Mayor Kenney, in a statement, praised the FJD's announcement: "Enacting this reform is in line with our joint efforts to safely reduce the jail population by 50 percent by the year 2020, and most importantly to reduce racial-, ethnic- and economic-based disparities in Philadelphia's criminal justice system." Federal investigators in Pennsylvania and New Jersey scrutinized South Jersey Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III in 2016, going so far as to persuade a federal judge in Philadelphia to let them wiretap his cell and work phones, records show. No charges emerged, and Norcross' lawyer on Tuesday showed reporters a Sept. 27 letter from federal prosecutors in New Jersey indicating that his client was not under investigation. "You have inquired about your client George Norcross' status in connection with an investigation conducted in the District of New Jersey pertaining to the procurement of tax credits," they wrote to defense lawyer Michael Critchley. "Based on a review of the applicable law and evidence obtained during the investigation, we have concluded that no further action is warranted. Accordingly, this matter has been closed." The letter was signed by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee M. Cortes, one of the prosecutors in New Jersey's Bridgegate corruption case. The letter did not elaborate on the investigation mentioned, and representatives from the agencies would not do so either. But in 2013, Norcross and his legislative allies played a role in overhauling the state's economic incentives program, paving the way for tax credits worth billions of dollars to companies that stay in or move to New Jersey. A court filing obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News shows that U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond in Philadelphia approved the wiretaps for Norcross' cell phone and landline at Conner Strong & Buckelew, his insurance brokerage, for July 28 to Nov. 16, 2016. The wiretaps were cited in a Sept. 17 letter that prosecutors sent to a person whose conversations with Norcross were overheard on the secretly monitored calls, a routine step in cases involving wiretaps. The so-called intercept letter, reviewed by the Inquirer and Daily News, was signed by U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain, the top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia. The contents of both letters were first reported Tuesday by Politico. It wasn't immediately clear why federal authorities sought the wiretap, and whether prosecutors in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were working together or on distinct investigations. Court filings suggest one case could have been opened as early as 2015. In his statement Tuesday, Critchley downplayed the interest from the prosecutors. He said that Norcross was never questioned by agents or prosecutors, and that the agencies gave him written and verbal assurances that Norcross neither was nor is the target of an investigation. "It is an unfortunate fact of life that people can draw scrutiny based on unknown allegations," his statement said. "Mr. Norcross thanks the government for letting him know that neither he nor anyone with whom he works did anything wrong, and that its work ended quickly and without any finding of impropriety. As he has for years, Mr. Norcross will remain focused on the renaissance of Camden and helping the city build a brighter future." The lawyer also told Politico that he had spoken with Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Costello, a prosecutor in the anti-corruption unit for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who "specifically confirmed, as he had previously about a week ago, that Mr. Norcross is not under investigation by his office." A spokesperson for McSwain said the office would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. For decades, the now-62-year-old Cherry Hill resident and chair of the board of Cooper Health System has been a driving economic and political force in Camden, across the state and region, and beyond. He was honored this year as Drexel University's business leader of the year. For about two years, until 2014, he was a part-owner of the parent company of the Inquirer and Daily News. Some consider him the most powerful nonelected person in New Jersey politics. Dozens of his favored candidates have won election to local and state offices. His brother Donald represents South Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives. Norcross faced earlier scrutiny from law enforcement. In the early 2000s, the New Jersey attorney general investigated him in connection with allegations of corruption in Palmyra. In 2006, then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie took the extraordinary step of publicly rebuking the state Attorney General's Office, accusing prosecutors of bungling the Norcross probe so badly that he couldn't pursue an independent investigation. That Diamond, the federal judge in Philadelphia, approved the wiretap requests suggests that prosecutors presented him with what he deemed to be sufficient probable cause to suggest that Norcross was connected to a crime they were investigating, said L. George Parry, a former federal prosecutor. "You have to establish that you have probable cause that a crime is being committed and that you would obtain evidence of that crime by monitoring that phone," said Parry. Under the 2013 change to New Jersey's incentives programs, the state Economic Development Authority has awarded billions of dollars in tax credits. One of the chief goals was to spur development in the long-struggling city of Camden. Among the companies awarded the credits are Holtec, a manufacturer of nuclear reactors; the 76ers, which built a practice facility there; and the carmaker Subaru. Conner Strong, the insurance brokerage where Norcross is executive chairman, and two other companies were awarded $245 million in tax incentives to build an office tower on the Camden waterfront. Norcross' brother, who was a state senator in 2013, voted in favor of the law. Until this week, there were no public signs of investigations or allegations related to the tax credits. The first clue that Norcross had even been under scrutiny was the unusual letter in which prosecutors declared the matter to be closed. "That's a new one to me," said Parry, the former prosecutor. "When we came up dry, or didn't feel like we had enough evidence, we would just close the file." CHICAGO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) today awarded Chicago-based LUCHA, one of the Midwests premier affordable housing organizations, its 2018 Justice Grant. OFN, a national network of community development finance (CDFI) lenders, presents the Justice Grant annually to an organization with a mission that supports economic, political, or social justice in the U.S. Like many areas nationwide, Chicago has a critical shortage of affordable housing. While the city has seen a decrease in foreclosures over the past five years, affordable rentals remain elusive. In some gentrifying parts of the city, smaller multi-family rental units are turned into single family homes or rising rents displace longtime residents. In disinvested areas, gentrification isnt a threat but neglect is people are left to live in unsafe housing or units are left abandoned. According to the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University, the demand for affordable rentals outpaces the availability. LUCHA which stands for Latin United Community Housing Association and is the Spanish word for struggle has been a leader in the fight for affordable housing since 1982. A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-approved housing counseling agency and Community Housing Development Organization, LUCHA works against discrimination, housing displacement, systemic inequity, and patterns of injustice that impact members of Chicagos low- to moderate-income Latino and African-American communities. The organization serves more than 3,000 clients per year, in English and Spanish, through advocacy and legal services, education, affordable housing development and management, and connection to community resources. LUCHA is founded on the principle that quality affordable housing is a basic human right, and its our mission to empower people to claim this right for themselves, their families, and their communities, said LUCHA Executive Director Juan Carlos Linares, who accepted the award today during OFNs Annual Conference, held this year in Chicago. We are proud to receive the Justice Grant. This honor is a wonderful recognition of our roots, which are planted firmly in social, economic, and political justice. Anchored in Chicagos Humboldt Park area, LUCHA was born from local organizers working to address rampant displacement of the Puerto Rican community in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, the nonprofits base and city footprint has expanded. Decent affordable places to live are critical to healthy communities. People simply cannot thrive when they dont have safe and clean housing they can afford, said Lisa Mensah, OFN President and CEO. LUCHA plays a vital role in ensuring affordable housing options exist in Chicago. It sees the full picture of whats needed to fill housing gaps and provides a deep and needed array of services and programs to help people fight for fair housing. OFN is thrilled to uplift this longtime champion of equity with our Justice Award. Over the past 36 years, LUCHA has helped more than 68,000 low- to moderate-income families rent affordable housing, obtain Section 8 rental assistance, purchase good homes, improve dilapidated buildings, make homes more accessible and energy efficient, and beautify their neighborhoods. About LUCHA Founded in 1982, LUCHA has evolved into one of the Midwests premier housing advocates. LUCHA has effectively organized community members to fight for better housing services from both public and private sectors. It also works with community residents to access housing products and services, provide housing counseling, and coordinate technical assistance. Engaging in this work led LUCHA to develop subsequent buildings using green construction, Passive House, and integrated health and wellness programming. Today, LUCHA continues advancing housing as a human right through these initiatives which ensure that everyone has access to resources which enable their households to thrive. lucha.org/ . About OFN Chrissy Houlahan, a Chester County Democrat running for U.S. House, has launched her campaign ad on television, joining two other women congressional candidates in the Philadelphia suburbs on the air. Houlahan's 30-second ad began airing Wednesday morning in the Philadelphia television market. It features Houlahan running at every stage of her life grade school, the Air Force and in her professional life. "My mom taught me to love math and science. I became an engineer on an ROTC scholarship. Then in the Air Force, I prepared for the aftermath of nuclear war," Houlahan says as she narrates the scenes of a younger version of her running. Then the video shows Houlahan as she looks today. "I was COO of a successful start-up. A chemistry teacher in North Philadelphia. Then led a literacy nonprofit. I'm Chrissy Houlahan and I approve this message because service is my life. Serving in congress will be about yours." Houlahan is running in the Sixth District against Republican Greg McCauley to replace Republican Ryan Costello, who decided to not seek reelection. Republican Pearl Kim, running in the Fifth Congressional district, and Democrat Susan Wild, running in the Seventh Congressional district. Currently Pennsylvania's congressional House delegation is all male. Houlahan and McCauley are scheduled to speak at a candidates' forum at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Henrietta Hankin Library in Chester Springs. Carmela Apolonio Hernandez, 37, during her day-long protest at U.S. Sen. Bob Casey's Center City office. Read more A dramatic day of freedom and confrontation unfolded Wednesday when Carmela Apolonio Hernandez purposefully left the Church of the Advocate after 10 months in sanctuary, and traveled to demand answers of Sen. Bob Casey in his Center City office. It ended with the undocumented mother's near arrest by Philadelphia police. As evening commuters rushed past the senator's office lobby, Hernandez and her 14-year-old daughter, Keyri, faced about 30 officers, handcuffs at the ready. Police had ordered the Mexican woman and her allies to leave the premises or be arrested. Hernandez shouted tearfully at them in Spanish: "You're going to arrest a child?" The Rev. Robin Hynicka of Arch Street United Methodist Church in Center City was handcuffed and taken away after refusing to leave the building near 20th and Market Streets. After that, the police officers stepped back, arrayed in a semicircle while Hernandez, her daughter, and half a dozen core allies blocked the east side doors. Hernandez had said she would not leave until Casey agreed to help her and her children legally stay in the United States. She changed her mind after learning from her attorney that if arrested, she would be separated from her daughter. "This is not over," the 37-year-old woman said as she prepared to leave the building. "I'm going to keep fighting." She had arrived unannounced shortly after 9 a.m., and spent most of the day inside Casey's upper-floor office. After meeting with the senator's staff, Hernandez, her daughter, and some supporters refused to leave his office, staging a sit-in that lasted nearly the entire day. Later, in interviews with reporters she poured scorn on Casey. She said his staff offered her candy, when what she needed was a powerful senator's help. Casey, who was in Washington on Wednesday, said that he has worked to help the Hernandez family since soon after the mother and four children took sanctuary in mid-December and that he would continue to do so. He has for months called top officials at federal immigration agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, asking that the family's asylum case be reviewed and reconsidered. The Pennsylvania Democrat is running for reelection, and polls show him with a double-digit lead over his Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, an outspoken hard-liner on immigration. "I feel disillusioned because of him," Hernandez said Wednesday evening of Casey. "But I feel proud of myself." By leaving the church at 18th and Diamond Streets, and moving into the open, Hernandez put herself and her daughter at risk of immediate arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Asked if the agency would move to detain the woman, an ICE spokesperson responded by issuing the same statement about her case that had been released months before. It neither answered the question nor provided new information. In addition to her elder daughter, Hernandez was accompanied to Casey's office by the Rev. Renee McKenzie of the Advocate and several friends and supporters. Her other children Edwin, 9; Yoselin, 12; and Fidel, 16 were in school. The Hernandez family face standing deportation orders, issued after the denial of their petition for asylum. They sought protection in the church days before their scheduled deportation. ICE guidelines dissuade agents from taking action at designated "sensitive locations," such as churches, schools, and hospitals. But undocumented immigrants can be arrested elsewhere at any time. Earlier in the day she refused to meet with Casey's staff in a basement area, saying she was tired of living underground, in the shadows. A few minutes later, she was invited to the main office upstairs, where she spoke by phone with the senator. Afterward, his office released a statement: "Carmela Apolonio Hernandez and her children face life-threatening danger in their home country, which is why I have pushed the administration to treat them fairly and appropriately evaluate their asylum claim. "Over many months, I have advocated on the family's behalf. I, along with my staff, will continue to advocate for measures that will provide them the protections they are due under our laws." Casey staffers said the private bill sought by Hernandez would do little to help her case. In fact, it might hurt. In the past, private bills could be used to delay ICE deportations. But in May 2017 the agency told Congress those pieces of legislation would no longer be sufficient to merit a delay. The senator's office provided a list of his multiple calls and contacts with Trump administration officials, including those at Homeland Security, asking for the family to be granted a stay of deportation or other relief. Hernandez said being forced back to Mexico could get the family killed by gangsters who murdered her brother and two nephews. The five came to the United States in 2015, after Carmela and Keyri were threatened and assaulted by the same drug criminals. Hernandez left the safety of the Episcopal church even though she still has legal appeals and applications pending before government agencies and the courts. She has appealed the denial of asylum in federal court, and is asking the Board of Immigration Appeals to review the way her deportation documents were handled. She also has applied for what is called a U visa, which can be granted to immigrants who have been the victims of certain crimes in America, and who help police prosecute the criminal activity. The same type of visa application enabled a Mexican immigrant stabbed in an assault years earlier to end 11 months of sanctuary inside Arch Street Methodist Church in Center City last year. Hernandez was the victim of an attempted extortion, which occurred last year when the family was living in New Jersey, according to her lawyer, David Bennion. During the last 10 months, Hernandez has insisted she will never give up trying to stay in the U.S., and that her children's lives could be at stake. At the same time, the pressures of sanctuary have been building. In August, an emotional Hernandez said that staying inside, all day, every day, with no end in sight, was becoming harder, that she was suffering with allergies, headaches, joint pain, and an ear infection. Last January she began sending her children to public school. They also have left the church grounds at other times under specific, controlled conditions. Wednesday night she was headed by car back to the North Philadelphia church, her day of freedom over. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney speaks at a press conference for the WWF Royal Rumble in the Mayors Reception, Philadelphia City Hall on Tuesday, January 23, 2018. Read more What could you accomplish in 1,000 days? The possibilities seem endless, especially when they're really campaign promises. That's why my colleagues put Mayor Kenney's new report on his first 1,000 days in office under a microscope to give you a bird's eye view of the administration so far this morning. Today I'm also really excited to share with you my colleagues' new midterm election project: a text message alert system to keep you informed through Nov. 6. You're going to want to try it out. Reading this online? Sign up here to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox every morning. Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com) When Mayor Kenney won the Democratic primary and was elected mayor over three years ago, he did so on a slew of progressive promises. To mark his 1,000th day in office, Sept. 30, he released a progress report on whats hes accomplished so far. So, naturally, my colleagues took to it with a fine-tooth comb to determine what he's actually gotten done, from the status of city schools to dealing with the opioid crisis. Local control of the Philadelphia School District and improved property assessments? Check. Ending stop-and-frisk and building 30 miles of bike lanes? Not so much. A new report released Tuesday has concerning news for local schools: increases in special-education costs in Pennsylvania are far outpacing increases in the states contributions to those expenses. State aid for special education increased by $71 million between 2008 and 2016. District special-education costs, on the other hand, grew by $1.54 billion during that time. So, local school districts are left picking up more of the tab. Of course, this isn't the state's only problem with school funding. An ongoing lawsuit alleges the way Pennsylvania pays for public education discriminates against children in poorer communities. The midterm elections are just weeks away and, to prepare, we asked Inquirer readers what they most wanted to know before they head into the voting booth. You told us youd like to know more about some of the key policy issues at play. So, we're trying something new. Starting Oct. 15, my colleague Jonathan Lai will be sending out daily text alerts on the issues simple, daily messages that break down what's at stake, highlight some key races, and answer your questions. Want to try it out? Text the word "ELECTION" to 215-544-3038 to sign up, or enter your phone number here. (Don't worry, you can unsubscribe any time.) What you need to know today Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly Street art is a pretty nice pick-me-up, @jbarmash. Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we'll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out! Thats Interesting Opinions "The Khashoggi affair is a warning. When the United States abandons its role as defender of the free press, the risk grows to American journalists, and those in other countries." Columnist Trudy Rubin on the death of Saudi journalist-in-exile Jamal Khashoggi in his countrys consulate in Istanbul. The American economy is on the up and up and President Trump deserves the credit, writes John M. Grau, chief executive officer of National Electrical Contractors Association. At first, prominent Penn professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson didn't believe Russia got Trump elected. What changed her mind, columnist Will Bunch writes, was tracking drops in support for Hillary Clinton after televised debates. What were reading Your Daily Dose of | Waterfront Views Theres still work to be done on the Delaware River waterfronts newest attraction, Cherry Street Pier, but we got a peek inside the former maritime warehouse before it opens next week. Retired Auxiliary Bishop Louis A. DeSimone, 96, a longtime pastor in South Philadelphia and World War II veteran, died Friday, Oct. 5, at St. Thomas Monastery in Villanova after a brief illness. From 1976 to 2001, Bishop DeSimone served as pastor of St. Monica Parish in South Philadelphia. Two years later, then-Monsignor DeSimone was named auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia by then-Pope, now-St. John Paul II. The pope also named him Titular Bishop of Cillium, a former diocese in North Africa. While at Villanova University, he left the school to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War II. He served as an Italian-language translator during the North African and Italian campaigns. While in Italy, he met Pope Pius XII at the Vatican. The pontiff had an audience with soldiers one day and went down a line shaking hands and asking each one what he did in civilian life, CatholicPhilly.com reported. "I want to become a priest," the Montgomery County native told the pope, who replied: "I'll pray for you." Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said in a statement that Bishop DeSimone "was a man of great energy, charity, and joy who deeply touched all those he met in tremendously positive ways." On a daily basis, Bishop DeSimone "lived out his episcopal motto Servus Tuus (Your Servant) in his words and actions," Chaput said. "I ask the people of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to offer prayers for Bishop DeSimone, and I invite our priests to offer Mass for the happy repose of his soul. We are all grateful for the gift of his life and his selfless service. May God grant him eternal life and give peace and consolation to all those who mourn his passing." Louis Anthony DeSimone was born in Philadelphia and raised in Bridgeport, Montgomery County. He graduated from Bridgeport High School and then attended Villanova University, then called a college, before enlisting. After the war, he enrolled at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and was ordained for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on May 10, 1952. Bishop DeSimone then taught at St. Thomas More High School and served as an assistant pastor at Annunciation B.V.M. and St. Donato Parishes, all in Philadelphia. He then served as assistant pastor and pastor at SS. Cosmas and Damian Parish in Conshohocken. In 1971, he became the director of Catholic Relief Services in the archdiocese and held that position for 11 years. A Funeral Mass for Bishop DeSimone will be celebrated Wednesday morning, Oct. 10, by Archbishop Chaput at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul. The Reception of the Body will take place at 9 a.m. and Bishop DeSimone will lie in state for public visitation until the start of the Funeral Mass at 11. Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Read more After less than two years on the job, Nikki Haley will step down as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Her relatively short tenure isn't unusual for the position she has lasted longer than half of her 10 predecessors but her decision still caught Washington by surprise. There was immediate speculation as to why Haley is stepping down, most of it focusing on a potential run for office. But Haley told reporters at the White House, where she announced her resignation next to President Donald Trump, that she would not be running for president in 2020 and would support Trump. Whatever made Haley decide to "take a little time off," the consequences of that decision will be watched closely around the world. When it comes to actual changes in U.S. foreign policy, the difference may be more in style than substance. That doesn't mean that Haley wasn't an important figure. Despite Trump's frequent criticism of the United Nations, he followed the policy of the Clinton and Obama administrations and made the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations a full Cabinet-level position. When Trump's first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, proved media-shy, Haley became the de facto voice of the administration's foreign policy. To many establishment Republicans, Haley was one of only a handful of "adults in the room" when it came to foreign policy, promoting the idea that "America first" didn't have to mean "America alone." She privately opposed some administration policies, such as a recent reduction in the number of refugees resettled in the United States, and took a harder public stance on Russia than her boss. Some people even posited that Haley may have been the "senior official" in the Trump administration who penned a New York Times op-ed saying that many people within the executive branch were quietly trying to contain Trump's worst impulses. But if Haley was that unnamed official, there's little evidence that Trump himself suspected it. At the White House on Tuesday, he lauded her accomplishments and said she had made the U.N. ambassador position "glamorous." Trump had good reason to value Haley. She personally supported many of his more controversial foreign policy moves, including recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv and withdrawing the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Council. She also supported Trump's push to cut U.S. funding to countries unwilling to support American foreign policy and took a hard line on foes, such as Iran and Venezuela. Haley replied to Trump's kind words by praising the president and his family with Trumpian flair: Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner is "a hidden genius that no one understands," she said, and the United States is now "respected" thanks to Trump. Still, as the Washington Post's Anne Gearan and John Hudson reported last month, Haley had taken on a less important role in recent months. Tillerson's replacement as secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, promised to reinvigorate the State Department with "swagger" and took on much of the diplomatic grunt work when it came to North Korea and Iran, arguably Trump's two most important foreign policy problems. Trump also hired a new national security adviser, John Bolton, who is both a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a famous critic of the institution. Bolton possesses a detailed understanding of the way the institution works and has his own agenda for how to undermine it. Haley's next step isn't clear. While a 2020 run for president is apparently not in the cards, she probably is considering something further down the line. Her short stint at the United Nations has given her crucial foreign policy experience that she had not gained in her previous careers in business and politics. It's also not clear who will take Haley's place, though Trump says he will announce the new ambassador in a few weeks. Among the names floating about: Dina Powell, Marco Rubio, Richard Grenell, Tom Cotton, or even the president's daughter Ivanka. Another popular theory is that Haley would take over the seat of a fellow Republican from South Carolina, Sen. Lindsey Graham, while he takes hers at the United Nations or perhaps that of embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It's hard to imagine any of these successors changing the course of U.S. foreign policy on major issues. Instead, it seems that the next U.N. ambassador will have even less political independence or media visibility than Haley enjoyed. But did that independence ever really exist at all? Haley is a confident, intelligent, and politically ambitious person who had sparred with Trump before he was elected. Yet her time at the United Nations still mostly consisted of pushing through Trump policies that alienated the United States from the rest of the world. Her critics will not remember her as an "adult in the room" but as an enabler of Trump's frequently brutal foreign goals. Adam Taylor writes about foreign affairs for the Washington Post. @mradamtaylor English French Bollene, October 10, 2018 - 7:00pm (CET) - Press release 2018 third quarter revenue 2018 Q3 revenue: 7.65 million Temporary marked slowdown in sales for Egide Group Strong trend for Egide USA concerning HTCC products Growth revenue expected to be positive for the full year Egide Group reported unaudited consolidated revenue for the 2018 third quarter amounted to 7.65 million, -3.1% % year-over-year. The exchange rate of the euro to dollar in Q3-18 (1.1638) has no significant impact on the third quarter revenue compared to Q3-17 (1.1622). For the 9 first months of 2018, revenue amounted to 23.90m, up 5.8% compared to the same period in 2017 on reported basis and to 23.25 m on a comparative basis. (m) 2017 2018 Change Change on a comparative basis (3) 1st quarter 6.45 (1) 8.03 24.5% 8.5% 2nd quarter 8.24 8.22 -0.2% 4.3% 3rd quarter 7.90 7.65 (2) -3.1% -3.9% Total 9 months 22.59 23.90 5.8% 2.9% (1) 1 month only for Santier in Q1 2017 (2) unaudited (3) At constant perimeter and exchange rates Highlights by business unit In the third quarter 2018, the US subsidiaries contributed 58% of total consolidated revenue, compared to 57% in 2017. (m) Q3 2017 Q3 2018 (2) Change % Change on a Comparative basis (1) 9 months 2017 9 months 2018 (2) Change Change on a Comparative basis (3) Egide SA (France) 3.43 3.23 -5.8% -5.8% 10.98 10.86 -1.1% -1.1% Egide USA (USA) 1.56 2.13 +36.5% +35.3% 5.55 6.01 +8.3% +16.3% Santier (USA) 2.90 2.29 -21.3% -22.9% 6.06 7.03 +16.1% -2.0% Total revenue 7.89 7.65 -3.1% -3.9% 22.59 23.90 +5.8% +2.9% (1) At constant exchange rate (2) unaudited (3) 7 months only for Santier in 2017 and at constant exchange rate Egide SA is impacted by the decline in business of one of its key customers which recently modified its export policy in response to regulatory changes. Egide USA recorded a strong growth in revenue of ceramic products and a solid recovery after a difficult Q3 last year when its thermal imaging product line was negatively impacted by the closure of a key customer. The strong performance of Egide USA was not enough to offset the sharp slowdown of the growth at Santier due to a significantly more competitive environment over the past few months. REVENUE BY APPLICATION (m) Q3 2017 Q3 2018 (2) Change % 9 months 2017 9 months 2018 (2) Change Change on a Comparative basis (1) Thermal Imag. 2.36 2.36 0.1% 7.69 7.85 2.0% 4.1% Power 1.63 1.51 -7.6% 4.95 4.51 -8.8% -4.8% Optronics 1.47 1.61 9.7% 3.20 4.23 32.4% 24.6% Microwave/RF 1.46 1.36 -6.8% 4.23 4.73 11.8% -6.5% Others. 0.98 0.81 -17.0% 2.52 2.58 2.6% 2.9% Total Revenue 7.90 7.65 -3.1% 22.59 23.90 5.8% 2.9% (1) 7 months only for Santier in 2017 and at constant exchange rate (2) unaudited for Q3-18 On the first 9 months of the year, the company has continued the development of the HTCC ceramics business for the thermal imaging market in the US Sales in the thermal imaging segment, the group's core business (32.8% of sales in 9 months 2018) illustrate the anticipated temporary softness in the EU for this segment. Growth of the optronics market in the first 9 months of 2018 was mainly driven by Santier's sales of high power laser modules. OUTLOOK The difficult environments in which Egide SA and Santier operate should impact temporarily Group's revenue for the second half of the year compared with the same period in 2017. The HTCC ceramic project of Egide USA is continuing to make progress, as highlighted by more than US $1 million in revenues expected for 2018. Additional sales are created by supplying Santier HTCC components for sale of legacy programs. Similar growth is expected in the future as the Cambridge site continues to identify and qualify new customers. The Bollene site is seeking to supplement its thermal imaging market by working on other technologies such as light amplification that could offer potential for generating additional revenue streams in future years. Santier is modernizing its production base by adding new equipment to reduce costs and better position itself within its newly competitive market environment. Despite more moderate growth expected for Egide SA and Santier till the end of the year, Egide Group is confident it can continue to show a positive revenue growth at a group level for the full year and growth should continue to improve over the course of 2019, notably in response to organizational changes and the new expertise added to the Group. FINANCIAL CALENDAR January 10, 2019: 2018 Revenue To find out more about Egide: www.egide-group.com About Egide Egide is a group with an international dimension, specialized in the manufacture of hermetic packages and heat dissipation solutions for sensitive electronic components. It operates in cutting edge markets with strong technology barriers to entry in all critical industry segments (Thermal Imaging, Optronics, High-Frequency, Power Units.). Egide is the only pure player in this market niche with manufacturing bases in France and the United States. Egide's eligibility for tax efficient French innovation-focused mutual funds (FCPI) was renewed on May 14, 2018. Egide is listed on Euronext Paris(TM)- Segment C - ISIN code: FR0000072373 - Reuters: EGID.PA - Bloomberg : GID WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said he has five persons in mind, including his former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, to replace Indian-American Nikki Haley as the US ambassador to the UN. Haley, 46, announced Tuesday she would resign from her post as the US ambassador to the UN effective at the end of 2018. Haley's abrupt decision left many in the White House in shock as there was no indication that she planned to leave office. Haley had submitted her resignation on October 3. Trump said Haley would assist in the search for her replacement, and that he plans to settle on a pick in the next two to three weeks. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump identified only one person on the list. He said Powell is on the short list of five persons. Trump told reporters "we have actually many names. ... Nikki is going to help us with the choice. I've heard a lot of names." Powell served in the first year of the Trump administration as the Deputy National Security Adviser for strategy and was a key player in diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. She returned to Goldman Sachs, where she worked for more than a decade, earlier this year. She also was a high-ranking official in the State Department of the previous Republican president, George W Bush, according to the Harvard Kennedy School, where she is a senior fellow. She was instrumental in planning all of Trump's overseas trips as well as his debut at the UN General Assembly in September 2017. "Nikki is a great friend of mine. We've become real friends over the last period of time. But she's done a fantastic job. And so she'll be involved. And Dina, certainly. And there are others. I've heard a lot of names," he said. Trump said that Haley would be involved with the administration for a long time even after resigning from the diplomatic position. "Nikki is going to be involved with us for a long time. And she's going to help me also make that final pick. We're going to make a final pick. I want to get somebody really good," Trump told reporters at the White House. Haley, the highest ranking Indian-American in the Trump administration, has agreed to stay till year end as the top American diplomat to the UN. "I think she's also brought a new level of prestige to that position. That position is -- in terms of people wanting it -- easier now, in a way, than it was before. Nikki has brought, obviously, great competence, but she's brought great prestige to that position," Trump said. Haley, he said would be helping him in his 2020 re-election bid. Responding to a question, Trump said Haley supported someone else over him in the primary for the 2016 presidential election. "It turned out very well for me. She respected it. And after that, we got along, as you would say, very well. She helped me in the election, once I won the primaries. And we've really been friends and we've been compatriots. We've done a great job together,'' he said. "You know, the United Nations is at, I think, really a new level of respect. And we work together. We had a tremendous week last week. So, no, Nikki wants to work with us and also to keep it going. She wants to work -- I guess she said today, a few times, she wants to work on the 2020 election with us," Trump said. "Rick Grenell is someone I would consider," Trump said, referring to the US ambassador to Germany. But he added that Grenell was not on his short list of five candidates, saying he's doing well in his current post: "I'd personally like to keep Rick where he is." Along with Powell, other names being floated to replace Haley include US Ambassador to Russia Jon Hunstman and Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Heather Nauert, Fox News reported. Trump had also suggested the name of his daughter Ivanka, but later said he would be accused of nepotism if he selected her. TALLAHASSEE, Fla.: Hurricane Michael howled closer to Florida`s Gulf shore on Tuesday as a major Category 3 storm, and half a million coastal residents were urged to seek higher ground on the eve of a landfall forecast to bring towering waves and roof-shredding winds. Michael is projected to plow into Florida`s Panhandle at midday on Wednesday, unleashing potentially devastating waves as high as 13 feet (4 meters) that could rush inland for miles around the storm`s centre, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned. By late Tuesday, Michael was causing major disruptions to U.S. oil and gas production as it churned north, gathering greater strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for the entire state of Florida, freeing up federal assistance to supplement state and local disaster response. The NHC said the storm was packing sustained winds of up to 120 miles per hour (195 km per hour), jumping from a Category 2 to Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson wind scale. Winds of that magnitude can inflict substantial damage to roofs and walls of even well-constructed homes, according to the National Weather Service. NHC Director Ken Graham said Michael represented a "textbook case" of a hurricane system that may grow stronger as it draws near shore, in contrast to Hurricane Florence, which struck North Carolina last month after a slow, halting approach and weakening before landfall. As of late Tuesday, storm trackers were still seeing signs of Michael intensifying. "If this trend continues overnight, people in the Florida Panhandle could wake up to having a Category 4 hurricane on their doorstep," senior NHC hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart said during a live webcast. Hurricane-force winds extend about 40 miles from the centre, with tropical storm-force winds reaching 185 miles, Graham said. The storm is likely also to dump prodigious amounts of rain over Florida, Alabama and Georgia as well as the Carolinas, which are still reeling from severe flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. Up to a foot of rainfall (30 cm) is forecast for some areas. "This is a storm that is going to be life-threatening in several ways," said Bo Patterson, the mayor of Port St. Joe, Florida, whose small beachfront town lies directly in the storm`s projected path. Florida Governor Rick Scott said Michael was expected to be "the most deadly, destructive storm to the Panhandle in decades." The region should brace for "major infrastructure damage," specifically to electricity distribution, wastewater treatment systems and transportation networks, Jeff Byard, associate administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told reporters on a conference call. Byard said an estimated 500,000 people face evacuation orders and advisories in Florida, where residents and tourists were fleeing low-lying areas in at least 20 counties stretching along 200 miles (322 km) of shore in the Panhandle and adjacent Big Bend regions. Among them was Betty Early, 75, a retiree who joined about 300 fellow evacuees huddled on makeshift bedrolls of blankets and collapsed cardboard boxes at an elementary school converted into an American Red Cross shelter in Panama City, near the storm`s expected landfall. She was unsure how well her old, wood-framed apartment block would hold up. "I`m blessed to have a place to come," she told Reuters. "My greatest concern is not having electricity, and living on a fixed income, losing my food." "THIS STORM COULD KILL YOU" A hurricane warning was posted along more than 300 miles (483 km) of the coast from the Florida-Alabama border south to the Suwannee River. "If you don`t follow warnings from officials this storm could kill you," said Scott, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate in November`s congressional elections. While the swiftly moving storm is not expected to linger over Florida for long, widespread heavy downpours will likely track inland to flood-stricken areas of the Carolinas even as rain-gorged rivers there begin to recede, National Weather Service meteorologist Ken Widelski told the conference call. "The last thing we need is more water," said Carolyn Causey, business manager of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Conway, South Carolina. Floodwaters from Florence destroyed two of the church`s buildings and gutted three others. Some of the storm`s most significant early impact was to offshore energy production. U.S. producers in the Gulf cut oil production by about 40 percent and natural gas output by 28 percent on Tuesday, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said. Scott declared a state of emergency in 35 Florida counties, mostly encompassing rural areas known for small tourist cities, beaches, wildlife reserves and Tallahassee, the state capital. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for 92 counties in his state. About 2,500 National Guard troops were deployed to assist with evacuations and storm preparations, and more than 4,000 others were on standby. Some 17,000 utility restoration workers were also on call. In Panhandle counties, most state offices, schools and universities were closed for the rest of the week. Lines at gasoline stations grew as people left. Those who stayed emptied grocery store shelves of water and other supplies. The last major hurricane to hit the Panhandle was Hurricane Dennis in 2005, according to hurricane centre data. Torrential downpours and flash flooding from the storm over the weekend caused 13 deaths in Central America. A day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah alleged that the Congress supports Bharat tere tukde honge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused the grand old party of dividing the society into different groups. Interacting with BJP workers via NaMo app, the Prime Minister said that the BJP spreads happiness while the Congress divides people. He further alleged that the Congress will make attempts to incite fighting among people in the five states where assembly elections are slated to be held. Hum sukh baantne wale hain, woh (Congress) samaj baantne waale hain. Paanch states mein elections hain, choti-choti cheezon mein tanav paida kardenge, ek ko dusre se ladwadenge (We spread happiness, they divide the society. There is election in five states and they will make attempts to make you fight with each other using trivial issues), said the BJP strongman. The Prime Minister further referred to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, alleging that the Congress move made people speaking same language enemy of each other. He said that while former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee created three states after taking into confidence all stakeholders, the Congress bifurcated Andhra Pradesh and Telangana making people of the states each others enemy. Prime Minister Modi also attacked opposition parties, calling Mahagathbandhan a failed idea. He referred to the opposition parties as opportunists, saying that they bicker with each other but join hands when they see an opportunity to form government. Mahagathbandhan is a failed idea. These parties constantly bicker with each other but come together when there's an opportunity to form government like we saw in Karnataka. Similar efforts are underway in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. BJP workers need to make people aware of the background of these leaders, said the Prime Minister. The latest attack by Modi on opposition comes over a month ahead of Assembly elections in five states Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram. Madhya Pradesh will go to poll in a single phase on November 28 while voting in Rajasthan will be held on December 7. Polling in Chhattisgarh will be held in two phases on November 12 and 20. Voting in Mizoram and Telangana will be held on November 28 and December 7, respectively. The results will be declared on December 11. Durga Devi is first honoured in the famous Vedic Durga Sukta, composed of Vedic verses to Agni going back to the most ancient Rigveda. Ma Durga arises from Agni, the universal principle of fire and light, as its force of purification. Durga holds the radiant colours of Agni as its most powerful flame. She is the cosmic form of Agni as the Sun/Surya, which is why she rides the lion. She dwells like the Sun, as the Atman in the hearts of all beings. Durga shines brilliantly with the power of tapas, which is the Yoga Shakti, the ascending yogic force. Tapas is focused concentration that generates the heat necessary to transform the mind. It is the inward turning of awareness that draws the light of perception within us, dispelling the darkness of our subconscious nature. Ma Durga wields the power of tapas like a lightning bolt to remove all wrong thoughts, fears and attachments. To understand and honour Durga we must introduce tapas into our own lives, rigorously developing our power of discernment for introspection and self-inquiry. Durga as a term means a fortress or a citadel where we retire for protection. Ma Durga as our spiritual mother is our ultimate refuge from the many hostilities of the outer world. Yet the term Durga also means going beyond difficulty, with the ultimate difficulty being death itself. Ma Durga takes as a ship across the sea. In this regard Durga, like Agni, is the power of the Divine Word, Pranava or OM that delivers us from the darkness of Maya to the eternal truth of the Supreme Brahman. Durga as the one who takes us across all dangers is called Tara, a power the Buddhists also honour. Hers is the power of wisdom that saves us, with our own ignorance being the greatest threat to our happiness. Durga is called Aditi, the Infinite Mother of the Vedas lauded as the Divine ship that we ascend to Svasti, the bliss of universal well-being. Durga as the Supreme Mother Durga is Maheshvari who holds the triple powers of Sarasvati, Lakshmi and Kali as the universal forces of manifestation, sustenance and dissolution. Her nine days or Navaratri reflect her triple powers each in its own threefold expression. As such Durga is Jaganmata or Jagadamba, the Mother of the Universe. In no other major religion of the world is the Goddess so boldly and colourfully worshipped as the Mother of the Universe, as she is honoured in Hindu Dharma. She is not just Mother Nature or Mother Earth but the Supreme Mother, the transcendent absolute of which all the worlds, universes or Brahmandas are mere waves upon her infinite sea. The Navaratri festival in India is the longest, most dramatic and direct worship of the Universal Mother anywhere in the world. Through it the Mother of the Universe can enter into our own homes and hearts. Worshipping Durga How then should we honour Ma Durga during her festival season? Certainly in any way that we are inspired to, but we should also participate in the great traditional celebrations found throughout India and wherever Hindus live, which carry the momentum of generations of worship and many millions of worshippers today flowing like a great flood. The purpose of Hindu celebrations is not simply to provide happy occasions for us personally or for our community, though these are part of them. It is to show that human life reaches its summit in the celebration of the Divine, of which the mother is the most endearing form. Such spiritual celebrations take us beyond our limited human needs and link us to the universe as a whole in the unlimited fabric of the cosmic life that is an expression of overflowing Ananda as the Upanishads state. We are here on Earth not merely to survive or to gain prominence over others. We are here to link the physical life bound by time and death with the immortal life that is eternal. Ma Durga has the power, wisdom, dynamism and grace to enable us to achieve this ultimate transformation, if we awaken her presence within us. Her Navaratri provides the occasion. (Dr David Frawley, or Pandit Vamadeva Shastri, is a Western-born Vedacharya, who teaches an integral approach to Yoga, Vedanta, Ayurveda and Vedic studies. He is the author of 50 books published in 20 languages, and is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan from the Government of India. He is the director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies.) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.) New York, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Open Society Foundations today announced that they would deepen their commitment to defending and advancing core democratic values in the United States, starting with the appointment of new leadership of their U.S. Programs. Tom Perriello will become the new executive director of the Foundations U.S. Programs, effective November 12, 2018. A former member of the U.S. Congress, diplomat, educator, and activist, Perriello has spent more than 20 years advocating for human rights, civil rights, economic equality, and democratic practice in the United States and around the world. As director, Perriello will oversee the Foundations grant making and advocacy in the United States, which focuses on promoting full participation in American civic, political, and economic life and ensuring that the core institutions of civil society are effective and accountable to the public. Open Society is also announcing the appointment of Cecilia Munoz as the board chair for U.S. Programs, a position in which she began serving in an interim capacity earlier this year. Munoz, former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Obama, is vice president for Public Interest Technology and Local Initiatives at New America. She has spent nearly three decades as a major force for civil rights and economic justice through leadership roles at the National Council of La Raza and as former chair of the Center for Community Change, earning a MacArthur Fellowship for her work on immigration and civil rights in 2000. Together, Munoz and Perriello will advance the Foundations work at a time when the pillars of open societyincluding the rule of law, pluralism, civil rights, and civic participationare being shaken by forces old and new. I am thrilled to announce this new leadership for U.S. Programs at such a critical juncture in the United States, said Patrick Gaspard, president of the Open Society Foundations. Our institutions are under attack, the rule of law is being challenged as seldom before in our history, and the very foundations of our democracy are under enormous stress. These times demand bold leadership, new ideas, and sharp strategic thinking. In Tom and Cecilia, we have a promising partnership to lead our work in the U.S. forward. Perriello has dedicated his career to organizations and campaigns fighting injustice, climate change, economic inequality, and crimes against humanity. Among his previous nonprofit work, he served as CEO of Center for American Progress Action, a cofounder of Avaaz.org and FaithfulAmerica.org, and an advisor to the Reverend James Forbes Prophetic Justice Principles and the International Centre for Transitional Justice. As a member of Congress (VA-05), Tom supported landmark legislation, including the Affordable Care Act, DREAM Act, and climate and stimulus legislation. In his 2017 campaign for Virginia governor, he advanced robust policies for addressing the racial wealth gap, reproductive health, resurgent monopolies, and corruption. He also served in the Obama Administration as Special Representative for the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and U.S. Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes Region. He has taught at the University of Sierra Leone and the University of Virginia School of Law on human rights and transitional justice. It is an incredible honor to have the opportunity to join Patrick, Cecilia, and the entire team at the Open Society Foundations at this defining moment for American democracy. While the challenges are massive, so too are the opportunities to make this a transformative moment for finally living up to Americas highest ideals of true liberty, democracy, and equality, said Perriello. I look forward to the fight. Munoz served for the full eight years of the Obama Administration on President Obamas senior staff, working as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs prior to leading the Domestic Policy Council. At New America, she leads efforts to strengthen and circulate the work of local innovators, and to bring the skills of technologists to the efforts of NGOs and policymakers to promote equity and justice. Previously, she was senior vice president at the National Council of La Raza (now UnidosUS), where she served for 20 years. She is also a senior fellow at Results for America, a trustee of the Kresge Foundation, and a member of the board of the Protect Democracy Project. The Open Society Foundations play a vital and strategic role supporting disenfranchised communities as they participate in shaping this democracy, Munoz said. It is a privilege to help guide the Foundations U.S. Programs work in a political climate that has turned increasingly hostile toward immigrants, people of color, and the human and civil rights so many have fought so hard to advance. The work of U.S. Programs is organized around four central goals: a more inclusive and accountable American democracy; a fair criminal justice system; full political, economic, and civic participation of communities of color and immigrants; and equitable economic growth. For more on the programs mission and a list of its grantees and fellows, visit https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/programs/us-programs. Bengaluru: The Boeing Company on Monday appointed the head of its India operations, Pratyush Kumar, to lead the defence major's F-15 fighter aircraft programme in the United States. "Kumar has been selected to lead our F-15 fighter aircraft programme and further its business in the US and globally," said Boeing in a statement here. Kumar said he was upbeat about his new US role to build business for the F-15 programme the world over. The company will, however, expand its local manufacturing, technology and innovations, products and people in the Indian sub-continent, he added. Boeing will soon announce Kumar's successor in India. During his five-year stint in India, Kumar advanced the company's business in commercial airplanes, defence, space, security, and global services. "We launched our engineering and technology centre in Bengaluru during his tenure to drive innovation, scaled up aerospace supply chain and have set up a joint venture in Hyderabad with Tata to make fuselages (main body section) for the Apache attack helicopter," the statement added. The US-based commercial jetliner maker also finalised the sale of Apache and Chinook choppers to the Indian military and also won additional orders for the P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft under Kumar's leadership. "I want to thank Kumar for his contribution to our business in India and for developing a stronger aerospace industry ecosystem across the country," said Boeing International President Marc Allen in the statement. As recently as on September 24, Kumar had met Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in the state capital to finalise the setting up of Boeing's electronics manufacturing and avionics assembly facility at an investment of Rs 1,152 crore. The facility is expected to be built over 12-18 months, and will create about 2,600 jobs. With 160 partners and $1-billion sourcing, Boeing employs 2,000 aerospace engineers in India. New Delhi: Coming to the rescue of cash-strapped NBFCs, State Bank of India Tuesday decided to buy their assets to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore, a move that will provide liquidity support to non-banking financing companies facing headwinds after a series of loan defaults by IL&FS group firms. The decision of SBI, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said in a tweet, should alleviate liquidity concerns of non-banking financing companies (NBFCs) to a great extent. NBFCs along with mutual funds have been facing a liquidity crunch following a series of loan repayment default since late September by IL&FS and its group companies. "Bank had initially planned for a growth of Rs 15,000 crore through portfolio purchase during the current year which is now being enhanced. As per the bank's internal assessment, there may be an opportunity to buy additional portfolio in the range of Rs 20,000 (crore) to Rs 30,000 crore," SBI said in a statement. Speaking to PTI, SBI Managing Director P K Gupta said, "It is a good commercial opportunity for the bank to increase the loan portfolio as NBFC assets are available at attractive rates." It will benefit both SBI and the NBFC sector as they get much-required liquidity while the bank will get good loan portfolio, Gupta explained. "SBI today stepped up substantially a facility for purchasing portfolio of assets from NBFCs to provide liquidity to NBFCs. SBI would buy such portfolios up to a total amount of Rs 45,000 crore. This measure should alleviate liquidity concerns to a great extent," Garg tweeted. Earlier on September 23, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar had allayed concerns over the liquidity position of NBFCs and assured financial institutions that lending would not be curtailed to the sector. SBI said it has stepped up target purchase of "good quality portfolio of assets from NBFCs as it believes that there is good opportunity to expand its loan portfolio at attractive rates." The bank is looking for opportunities both in priority and non-priority sectors, it said. NBFC stocks have wilted due to heavy selling pressure following the IL&FS defaults since late September as investors raised concerns over the rising cost of borrowing for them amidst IL&FS crisis. Yesterday, the National Housing Bank (NHB), which regulates the non-banking finance companies, also said that it will enhance the refinance limit for NBFCs to Rs 30,000 crore to inject liquidity. The NHB earlier had set the refinance target at Rs 24,000 crore for NBFCs for 2018-19. In the second half of September, it came to light that IL&FS group defaulted on a short-term loan of Rs 1,000 crore from Sidbi, while a subsidiary also defaulted on Rs 500 crore dues to the development finance institution. While IL&FS has nearly Rs 35,000 crore consolidated debt, IL&FS Financial Services has Rs 17,000 crore of debt, which sits as a standard asset for most of the lenders, according to a report. The group has seen its various long-term and short-term borrowing programmes downgraded to 'default' or 'junk' grades by credit rating agencies, even as the regulators are also probing alleged delay in disclosure about certain loan defaults. Capital markets regulator Sebi, the Reserve Bank, the Corporate Affairs Ministry and the Finance Ministry have received complaints about alleged wrongdoings at Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) and its various group entities, including the listed ones followed by several resignations at the group including its CEO and MD Ramesh Bawa. The board of the IL&FS was also dissolved and the government took control of the company by constituting a new six-member board under Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director & CEO, Uday Kotak. Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will meet the alliance partners of his government on October 12 at the AIIMS in Delhi where he is currently undergoing treatment, an official said on Wednesday. Parrikar, 62, is admitted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi since September 15 for a pancreatic ailment. "The alliance partners have been called for a meeting by the CM in Delhi on October 12 at AIIMS where he is admitted," a senior official in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said. During the meeting, Parrikar would discuss "matters related to the state's governance," he said. Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Sudin Dhavalikar, Goa Forward Party (GFP) leader Vijai Sardesai and Independent MLAs Govind Gawade, Rohan Khaunte and Prasad Gaonkar, who are supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance in Goa, have been invited for the meeting, the official said. "I have been invited for the meeting with the chief minister in Delhi on October 12. I don't know who else is invited," Gawade said, adding that he has not been informed about the meeting's agenda. This would be the first formal meeting chaired by Parrikar since his admission to the AIIMS last month. Highly placed sources said Parrikar is likely to distribute additional portfolios to his Cabinet ministers during this week. "A discussion is likely in the meeting about portfolios to be distributed to the allies," a source said. BJP president Amit Shah had last month said Parrikar would continue as the chief minister and that there would be reshuffle of his Cabinet soon. Later, two ailing ministers Francis D'Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar were dropped from the Goa Cabinet and they were replaced with Milind Naik and Nilesh Cabral. Questions over the stability of the government have been raised by the Opposition Congress because of Parrikar's illness. Goa Deputy Speaker and BJP MLA Michael Lobo said last Friday that the state administration has "totally collapsed" because of the absence of Parrikar and people were praying for his early recovery. The MGP, a key ally in Goa's ruling BJP-led coalition, last Wednesday dismissed questions over the stability of Parrikar government but expressed readiness to face mid-term polls in case the Assembly is dissolved. The BJP, which has 14 MLAs in the 40-member Assembly, is ruling the state with the help of the MGP, the GFP, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and three Independents. GFP and MGP have three seats each and NCP has one. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence over the mob violence against migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in Gujarat. Speaking at a rally in Rajasthan, Rahul said that people are being beaten but PM Modi hasn't said a word. "Youth in Gujarat are being beaten up and sent back by saying 'you belong to Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar you don't belong here'. Narendra Modi doesn't even utter a word," Rahul Rahul said in Rajasthan's Bikaner. The statement comes at a time when there are reports that Rahul has spoken to Alpesh Thakor, who is under scanner for allegedly inciting mob violence against migrant workers in Gujarat. Rahul reportedly spoke to Alpesh on the phone on Wednesday. Thakor is facing alelgations of inciting violence against migrant workers who have been leaving the state in thousands. However, Thakor has refuted allegations saying: "The truth is that people from Bihar have already applied for leave for Chhath Puja. This is the only reason they are moving to their state." Earlier the Bharatiya Janata Party had attacked Thakor over the allegations. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra had lashed out at Rahul and said if the latter is actually worried about Gujarat, Bihar and the country then he must immediately sack Alpesh Thakor from his party. Demanding Thakor's expulsion from the grand old party, Patra had said, "If Rahul Gandhi is actually worried for Gujarat, Bihar and India then he must immediately expel Alpesh Thakor from the party. This is what BJP demands from Rahul Gandhi and Congress Party." Several migrant workers from UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh fled the state after several mob attacks on them in connection with the rape of a toddler in Sabarkantha. A 14-month-old toddler - from the Thakor community - was allegedly raped on September 28 in a village near Himmatnagar town of Sabarkantha district. Ravindra Sahu, a labourer hailing from Bihar and working in a local ceramic factory, was later arrested in connection with the rape. Following the arrest, the Kshatriya Thakor Sena - which is led by Alpesh Thakor - said migrant workers from other states should not be given jobs in Gujarat. A 200-strong mob, allegedly led by Thakor Sena members, stormed a factory near Vadnagar town of Mehsana district on October 2 and thrashed employees. At least four students have been arrested in Jalandhar for alleged links to terrorist organisations. The students were arrested in a joint operation by Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir Police. According to a report in The Kashmir Monitor, the students allegedly had links with Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Several arms, ammunition and explosives were also recovered by the police team in the possession of the students. The Jammu and Kashmir Police also nabbed the module handler, who is being interrogated. The same was confirmed on microblogging site Twitter by Jammu and Kashmir Police. The tweet said, In joint operation Punjab Police and J&K police picked up four students linked to AGH/JeM from Jalandhar, Punjab. Arms, ammunition & explosives recovered. The module handler picked up by J&K Police is being questioned. Punjab Director General of Police, Suresh Arora, said in a statement that the suspects were arrested from CT Institute of Engineering, Management and Technology in Shahpur area near Jalandhar. They were residing in the hostel of the educational institution. The raid was reportedly conducted early Wednesday morning by a group of around 90 policemen. Reports said that the arrested students were identified as Zahid Gulzar, Mohammad Idriss Shah, Nadeem and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt. New Delhi: India will host the 12th edition of 'Aero India 2019' at an Air Force Station in Bengaluru's Yelahanka from February 20 to February 24, 2019. A newly designed website has been launched on Wednesday for the event (https://aeroindia.gov.in) for registration of exhibitors and visitors. This five-day event will combine a major trade exhibition of the aerospace and defence industries with public air shows. Besides global leaders and big investors in aerospace industry, the show will also see participation by think-tanks from across the world. Aero India will provide a unique opportunity for exchange of information, ideas and new developments in the aviation industry. Besides giving a fillip to the domestic aviation industry it would further the cause of Make in India. In Aero India, close to 500 companies both Indian and Foreign companies are expected to participate. The official portal facilitated payment of registration fee online and thereafter book space/stall of their choice at the venue through the portal. Business visitors would also be able to purchase tickets on the portal by paying the required fee online. The Aero India website has been integrated with multi-currency Payment Gateway where Indian companies would be able to pay in Indian Rupees using Credit Card/Debit Card/Net Banking/UPI/NEFT/RTGS and foreign companies would be able to pay in US dollars using credit card/debit card. The registration of media representatives will be opened shortly. The website will be hosting latest information about the various events like seminars, CEOs Round Table, etc. to be held during the Aero India 2019 show and other important information to facilitate the exhibitors and visitors to plan their trip for the show. Leading the charge for his party, BJP party president Amit Shah on Wednesday trained his guns at the KC Rao for being unable to fulfil the promises he had made to the people in the state. KCR had dissolved the assembly here, paving the way for early elections. The decision quickly led to a fiery exchange of words with the BJP, a party that is now hoping to come to power after polling scheduled for December 3. On Wednesday, Amit Shah was in Karimnagar where he questioned the outgoing Telangana Rashtra Samithi government. "KCR's govt has been unsuccessful in every front. They were not able to provide adequate jobs to the people of the state," he said at a rally here. "There are around 150 promises still not fulfilled by the KCR government. Around 4,500 farmers have committed suicide in Telangana. If we come to power, we will ensure the development of all." This was not the first time Amit Shah launched a tirade against KCR. He had previously questioned him for his decision to prepone elections. "Elections (in Telangana) were supposed to be held in May of 2019. I ask KCR, why did he pre-pone elections? Are you not confident of your victory in May? If not, then you can't form a government in November or December either," Amit Shah had asked. On his part, KCR had held a mega rally - to highlight his government's achievements - before officially requesting the state Governor to dissolve the assembly. Since, he has fired back at BJP and also ruled out any possible alliance with Congress. Election details in Telangana: Date of nomination: November 12 Last date for filing nomination: November 19 Date for scrutiny of nomination: November 20 Last date for withdrawal of nomination: November 22 Date of polling: December 7 Date of counting: December 11 Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh on Wednesday announced the removal of Bhilai Steel Plant CEO, M Ravi, from the post and suspension of two other senior officials, a day after at least 13 people were killed after a blast in the Chhattisgarh plant. CEO M Ravi has been removed with immediate effect while General Manager (safety department) T Pandya Raja and Deputy General Manager (energy department) Naveen Kumar have been suspended, Birender Singh told reporters. Earlier, Inspector General of Police (Durg Range) G P Singh had said that after receiving the postmortem report of the deceased, a case under the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) will be registered followed by an inquiry into the incident. The blast on Tuesday at the Durg district plant of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) took place in a gas pipeline near coke oven section of the plant in Bhilai town at around 10.30 am injuring 14. Singh on Wednesday reached Durg district to take stock of the situation at the plant and promised to offer all possible help to the victims and their families. "Reached Bhilai to take stock of the situation after the coke oven blast yesterday. We are ensuring that we extend all possible help to the families who lost their member yesterday and provide the best treatment to the injured," the Minister said in a Tweet. In a statement, Ministry of Steel said it has contacted Ministry of Health and four burns specialist doctors from AIIMS Delhi have been rushed to Bhilai for treatment of the injured. Based on the advice of the AIIMS burns specialists, the line of treatment is being followed and administered. "Out of the injured, three are serious and in a critical condition. One person is on watch and the others are being given treatment for various stages of burn injuries," the statement said, and added that the Ministry has ordered an internal as well as an external inquiry into the accident and concerned officers are also reaching Bhilai to take stock of the situation. Minister of State for Steel Vishnudeo Sai, Steel Secretary Binoy Kumar and SAIL Chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary had reached Bhilai last evening and visited the hospital to enquire about the condition of the injured. Union Health Minister J P Nadda spoke to the state government and assured them of all support, a source from the ministry said. The team of doctors was led by Maneesh Singhal, a professor and the head of the Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences. "The team of doctors have reached the hospital there to take stock of patients and assist doctors there in the treatment of patients," the source said. In another incident of assault on women, a minor student was allegedly raped by her teacher at Patna in Bihar on Tuesday. The accused has been arrested by the Bihar Police. The incident took place under Digha police station in Patna late on Tuesday evening. The minor girl was allegedly raped by her karate teacher inside the premises of the school. This is the second incident of rape in a fortnight in Bihar where a teacher has allegedly raped a student. Earlier on September 30, a teacher was arrested for allegedly raping an eight-year-old girl in Bihar's East Champaran district, police had said. The teacher was arrested from Naya Tola Husaini village under the jurisdiction of Dumariya Ghat police station, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Chakia sub-division, Shailendra Kumar, said. The teacher runs a private coaching institute in the village and he raped the girl, his student, on Saturday evening, the DSP said. He was arrested after the girl's father lodged an FIR with the Dumariya Ghat police station, he said. The girl was admitted to Sadar hospital and a medical examination of the victim has confirmed rape, the DSP said. The accused has confessed to his crime, the police officer said. NEW DELHI: The government is understood to be unhappy with CBI Director Alok Verma meeting former Union minister Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan who demanded a probe into the alleged corruption in the Rafale aircraft deal, with a senior government functionary saying it is "rare" for the agency chief to meet politicians. Last week, Shourie and Bhushan had met the CBI Director, submitted documents and demanded a probe into alleged corruption in the Rafale aircraft deal and offset contract. "This was perhaps for the first time that politicians have met the CBI Director in his office. Such a meeting is rare," the functionary said, indicating that the government has not taken the meeting kindly. Buttressing his point, the functionary claimed, in normal circumstances, when a politician seeks an appointment with the CBI chief, he or she is advised to submit complaints or any other documents at the reception of the agency headquarters. The functionary, without elaborating, also said some government officials have gone "rogue" and they have engaged in a bitter fight among themselves and if such quarrel continues, the organisations concerned will suffer. The CBI Director, who is scheduled to remain in office till January next year, is engaged in a bitter fight with Special Director of the agency Rakesh Asthana and both sides have been levelling allegations against each other in public, a trend which is unheard-of in the history of 77 years of the organisation. In their meeting, Shourie, a vocal critic of the Modi government, and Bhushan, a former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, had asked the CBI Director to take the government's permission to initiate a probe in accordance with the law, alleging that the offset contract for Rafale aircraft was actually a commission to an Anil Ambani-led Reliance group subsidiary. French company Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale, had chosen Reliance Defence as its partner to fulfil offset obligations of the deal. Rejecting allegations of corruption, the government has been maintaining it did not have any role in selection of the offset partner by Dassault. WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- King & Spalding announced today that Scott Ferber, Counsel for Cyber Investigations in the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, has returned to the firm as a partner on the Data, Privacy & Security team in the Washington, D.C. office. Ferber worked at the Department of Justice (DOJ) since 2008 and was an associate at King & Spalding for several years prior. As Counsel for Cyber Investigations, Ferber developed and led the DOJs most sensitive national security cyber investigations. He worked with prosecutors in U.S. Attorneys Offices across the country on high-level cases, and with corporations, in-house attorneys and outside counsel in a wide array of industries to promote cybersecurity awareness, encourage cooperation in investigations and minimize known and suspected vulnerabilities. Scotts knowledge of threat vectors and experience with cybersecurity challenges across numerous industries uniquely positions him to support our clients and expand our team, said Phyllis Sumner, head of King & Spaldings Data, Privacy & Security team, which is part of the firms Government Matters practice. Hell be a vital part of our work counseling clients on proactive cybersecurity programs, incident response preparedness, data breach litigation and government investigations. Before his latest role at the DOJ, Ferber served as Associate Deputy Attorney General, providing counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and Attorney General on a range of significant matters, with special emphasis on cyber and national security, and was the DOJs lead on White House and interagency policy groups addressing cyber incident response, cyber legislation, and national security issues. Ferber also previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Atlanta, Ga., where he prosecuted some of the countrys earliest and most significant cybercrime cases. This year, the D.C. office has added a talented roster of lawyers across areas of strength for the firm, from government investigations and litigation to trade, to corporate leveraged finance and now data privacy and security, said Mark Jensen, managing partner of the Washington, D.C., office. We are excited to welcome Scott as he will be an important resource for clients who may become targets of cyber attacks for their trade secrets and intellectual property. Ferber received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and earned his J.D. from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Im excited to return to King & Spalding and to join their nationally-recognized and growing Data, Privacy & Security team, said Ferber. I look forward to bringing my expertise in cybersecurity, national security and incident response to assist clients with the complete lifecycle of breach-related issues. About King & Spalding Celebrating more than 130 years of service, King & Spalding is an international law firm that represents a broad array of clients, including half of the Fortune Global 100, with 1,000 lawyers in 20 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm has handled matters in over 160 countries on six continents and is consistently recognized for the results it obtains, uncompromising commitment to quality, and dedication to understanding the business and culture of its clients. More information is available at www.kslaw.com . Contact: Luis Mocete (212) 827-4008 lmocete@kslaw.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/26776d89-7ce3-4ae0-b338-3b9f53f370f7. A day after China's state-run media, quoting Pakistan Air Force's Sherdils Aerobatic Team, reported that the country would sell 48 armed drones to Pakistan, it attempted to justify the deal as enabling Islamabad to combat terrorism. Pakistan has long been accused of diverting funds and equipment it receives to battle terror and instead, use them at the border with India. As such, the sale of 48 high-end armed drones which are capable of reconnaissance, surveillance and undertaking ground strike missions is likely to be viewed with scepticism. Instead, state-run Chinese media Global Times said in an op-ed on Wednesday that helping Pakistan fight terror would also benefit India and that New Delhi ought not to over-interpret the deal. "Combating terrorism is a priority for Pakistan, but it is also a big concern for India. While the Chinese drones help Pakistan rein in terrorism and improve its security situation in the future, they will also benefit India to some degree," read the op-ed which further urged all to 'see the bright side.' India's possible concerns, however, won't be a bolt from the blue because of lessons learnt in the past. Despite receiving billions of dollars to battle terrorism from the United States in years gine by, Pakistan has been unable to reign in home-grown terror networks - a fact US President Donald Trump blatantly highlighted in his first tweet of 2018. The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018 More importantly, Pakistan's continued support to terrorists who target India has been amply highlighted and proven. In fact, New Delhi recently cancelled a bilateral meeting between foreign ministers of the two countries on the sidelines of UNGA after security personnel were killed by Pakistan-based terrorists. Pakistan's decision to glorify terrorists in postal stamps has also angered India. Under such circumstances, equipping the country with the Wing-Loong II drones warrants suspicion despite China attempting to portray Pakistan as a victim of terrorism that has been abandoned by the US. NEW DELHI: Amid allegations of sexual harassment, Congress on Wednesday sought MJ Akbar's resignation as the Union Minister and demanded an enquiry into the accusations. "Union Minister MJ Akbar should either give a satisfactory answer to the allegations or he should resign. We demand an inquiry into the matter," Congress leader Jaipal Reddy said. Congress has been seeking answers from the Union Minister over the charges asserting that silence is not an option. "It is an extremely serious matter and the minister concerned needs to speak up. Silence cannot be a way out. This matter should be investigated. We would like to hear from both the minister in question and the Prime Minister on this issue," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari had said on Tuesday. However, the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party have chosen to stay mum over the issue. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj evaded questions on whether the government will take any action against the Union minister. In a video, journalists can be seen asking: "There are serious allegations...these are sexual harassment allegations. You are a woman minister in charge. Will there be a probe on the allegations?." However, she can be seen walking away without answering the questions. The BJP also ducked the questions on the allegations. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra declined to respond and said that he was holding the press briefing only to speak on the Congress role in allegedly fomenting violence against migrants in Gujarat. BJP MP Udit Raj even went to the extent of belittling the allegations levelled by women in the movement claiming that women accuse men just for the sake of money. "Habitually women take Rs 2-4 lakh, level allegations on men and then pick another man," the MP said criticising the movement. He also raised aspersions on the intent of women levelling allegations and said that they are misusing the movement. "I accept it is in man's nature. But are women perfect? Can it not be misused? A mans life gets destroyed because of this," Udit Raj said. However, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi backed the #MeToo movement saying that all charges should be taken seriously as women are often scared to speak out. "Men who are in positions of power often do this. And it applies to the media as well as to politics or senior personnel in companies. Women are scared to speak out because they think people would make fun of them and doubt their character but now when they are speaking out we should take action against each and every allegation," Maneka said. NEW DELHI: The Congress will on October 12 decide on who will get the party ticket to contest the upcoming Assembly elections in five states. The Central Election Committee (CEC) of All India Congress Committee (AICC) will be holding a key meet in the national capital on October 12 for the elections. The elections are being held in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana. For Madhya Pradesh, the Congress party is holding a three-day screening committee meeting in New Delhi that is likely to complete the scrutiny of potential candidates by Wednesday. The names which are finalised will be forwarded to Rahul Gandhi. Congress which is trying to snatch Rajasthan away from the Bharatiya Janata Party has said that it will focus on fielding candidates who can win the elections. Party leader Kumari Selja had earlier said that there are several capable candidates and the selection will be a challenge. Rajasthan Congress Chief Sachin Pilot had also said that the state committee has put forth its views and the final decision will be taken by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. For the polls in Telangana, Congress formed three sub-committees which are in the process of preparing a list of three or four candidates for each constituency which will be given to the AICC Screening Committee. The party will not be naming the Chief Ministerial candidate in the state. Telangana Assembly was dissolved on September six -- more than eight months ahead of the expiry of its term -- on the recommendation of (now) Caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who opted to go for early elections. In Chhattisgarh, a screening committee will be meeting on Wednesday to deliberate over the names of candidates provided by the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee which will be handed over to the CEC for the final selection. In Mizoram, which is the only Congress-ruled state in the north east, the party is yet to finalise the names despite its earlier announcement that the names would be announced on Thursday. The party's top leadership wants to axe some legislators who are either too old or did not have the chance to win, while at the same time take care to ensure that those left out were not too many so as to form a rebel lobby. The deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm `Titli` Tuesday and is likely become a severe storm over next 24 hours, warned the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). The storm is expected to move towards Odisha and Andhra Pradesh coasts on Thursday, October 11. "It is likely to move northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coasts between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam around the morning of 11 October," said the weather department in a statement. Both the states are on high alert, and advised schools and colleges to stay shut, as the storm inched closer. Those living in low-lying areas and in 'kutchha' houses along the coast have been asked to evacuate their homes. Cyclone Titli lays centred at about 510 km southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha and 460 km east-southeast of Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The government has ordered closure of schools, colleges and anganwadi centres in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri and Jagtsinghpur from Wednesday. The Indian Coast Guard tweeted: #CycloneTitli While Remote Operating Centres & Stations of #CoastGuard Eastern SeaBoard relay Weather Warning & Advisory to boats at sea to return harbour @IndiaCoastGuard ships at sea cautions & shepherds the fishing boats operating off Bay of Bengal to safety @DefenceMinIndia pic.twitter.com/Gb5cWUtcTr Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) October 9, 2018 Rough 2 Very Rough Sea Condition prevails over South East & East Central Bay of Bengal due Cyclonic storm 'TITLI' which lay centered 460-510 Kms off #AndhraPradesh #Odisha Coast. @IndiaCoastGuard continue to broadcast Weather Warning/Advisory for Boats at sea 2 return harbour. pic.twitter.com/GqlKpsZWLA Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) October 9, 2018 Heavy rains are expected in the coastal districts of Odisha, with the maximum damage expected in coastal districts of Khorda, Jagatsinghpur, Nayagarh. A warning has also been issued to people residing in the low-lying areas, as there is a possibility of trees falling down on houses. The IMD also warned the fishermen not to carry out any fishing activities on October 12. "We have informed the fishermen about not carrying any fishing activities on October 12 as there is a possibility of wind speeds touching 125 Kmph," said senior IMD scientist Sashikant. Teams of NDRF and Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) along with Fire Service personnel have been sent to various districts of Odisha. All the 879 cyclone and flood shelters have been kept in a state of preparedness, the officer added. With agency inputs NEW DELHI: In a befitting tribute to his late wife, a retired Indian Air Force (IAF) officer has donated Rs 17 lakh to a school where she taught for 21 years. According to a government release, the announcement was made by Wing Commander (Retd) JP Baduni, who is a veteran officer of the IAF. His wife, late Vidhu Baduni was a teacher in the Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute for a period of 21 Years from 1986. She expired on February 6 this year due to a cardiac arrest. In her memory, Baduni donated a sum of Rs 17 Lakh to the school she had served as a devoted PRT. Part of the donation, Rs 10 Lakh, would be used for awarding scholarships and prizes to students of classes V to XI, achieving meritorious excellence in the field of academics every year. The other part would go towards the infrastructure development of the primary wing of the school Principal Poonam S Rampal said. Earlier, during the sombre function at the school premises where the cheque was handed over, Wg Cdr (retd) Baduni expressed that he would like to donate the sum of money to the institution where his beloved wife served and held very close to her heart. The money was exclusively from the savings of his late wife which she had accumulated over the years from the service rendered at the school. The veteran IAF officer also hoped that this would be a befitting homage to his late wife and would help the deserving students in their pursuance of excellence. The polling for the second phase of urban local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir began on Wednesday amid unprecedented security arrangements put in place for the smooth conduct. The polling which began at 6 am will continue till 4 pm. The second phase will cover a total of 384 wards spanning 13 districts across the state, seven of which are in the Valley, and over 1,000 candidates will participate, said the officials They said 1,198 nominations were received for these wards and after scrutiny and withdrawal, 1,095 contestants are in the fray for the polls. Out of 1,095 candidates, 65 have won the polls uncontested, including 61 from Kashmir Valley. They said no polling will take place at 56 rpt 56 wards in the Valley as no nomination was received. No nomination was submitted in all 13 wards of Frisal municipal committee of south Kashmir's Kulgam district, while only one nomination was received for 13 wards of Beerwah municipal committee in central Kashmir's Budgam district, officials said. Frisal, a part of Kulgam Assembly constituency, is represented by lone CPI(M) legislator M Y Tarigami, while Beerwah is represented in the state Assembly by the former chief minister and National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah. A police official said security arrangements have been put in place for the smooth conduct of the polls in all the areas were people would vote, including in the 20 wards of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). The first phase of polling will be followed by the second phase covering 384 wards on October 10, third phase covering 207 wards on October 13 and the last phase covering 132 wards on October 16. The counting of votes will be done on October 20. Here are the latest updates: * An estimated 57 per cent of over 1.28 lakh electorate cast their votes in the first six hours of polling, officials said. The voting covering six districts of Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua recorded a turnout of 57 per cent till 12 am. "Brisk polling is going on and there was no report of any untoward incidents reported from anywhere," the officials said. Ramban district is leading the voter turnout chart with 62.9 per cent, out of 5533 electorate, exercising their franchise followed by Reasi (60.8 per cent of 10204 voters), Kathua (59.4 per cent of 54,622 voters), Doda (57.8 per cent of 13396 voters), Kishtwar (55.9 per cent of 8830 voters) and Udhampur (59.4 per cent of 35,519 voters). * Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satyapal Malik met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and discussed the situation in the state, where the elections to the urban local bodies are underway, officials said. During the meeting, the governor apprised Singh about the law and order in the state, particularly in militancy-wracked Kashmir Valley. The governor also briefed the home minister on the ongoing urban local bodies polls in Jammu and Kashmir, an official privy to the meeting said. The state is currently under the governor's rule and Malik is the administrative head of the state. * Former terrorist Farooq Ahmad Khan, who is contesting local body election on a BJP ticket, casts his vote at a polling station in Srinagar. #JammuAndKashmir: Former terrorist Farooq Ahmad Khan, who is contesting local body election on a BJP ticket, cast his vote at a polling station in Srinagar. pic.twitter.com/LMXuFDqhak ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 * Our security arrangements are robust. Voting process is going on very well. Voters are feeling safe. People are coming out in large numbers to cast their vote: SSP Bandipora Zulfikar Azad * In the voter turnout recorded till 10 am, Kathua district remains the highest with 39.4 per cent and Srinagar the lowest with 0.8 per cent. #JammuAndKashmir: Voter turnout recorded till 10 am in the second phase of local body elections in the state. pic.twitter.com/OAc5FNq6Ag ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 * BJP Candidate Azad Singh Raju dies of heart attack on the way to the polling station in Ramdam district. The incident is of ward no 2 where the voting has been suspended. * The voter turnout till 8 am of eleven districts were declared. The percentage of voting till 8 am was highest in Kathua district with 17.2 per cent and the lowest was recorded in Srinagar with 0.2 per cent. #JammuAndKashmir: Voter turnout recorded till 8 am in the second phase of local body elections in the state. pic.twitter.com/RfWjVm9rBM ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 * People in Udhampur queue up to cast their vote outside a polling booth to cast their votes. #JammuAndKashmir: People queue up outside a polling booth in Udhampur to cast their votes for the second phase of local body elections. pic.twitter.com/15Sy9VXxC7 ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 * Mobile internet services have been suspended in the entire south Kashmir as voting continues. The mobile internet services have been reduced to 2G in rest of Kashmir. * Voting underway in Katra, Reasi district. * An 84-year-old woman arrives at a polling station in Reasi to cast her vote. Jammu and Kashmir: 84-year-old woman arrives at a polling station in Reasi to cast her vote in the second phase of urban local bodies elections pic.twitter.com/QKnEKbPpZo ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 * Jammu and Kashmir polling for second phase begins at 6 am. Police officials tighten security in Udhampur as voting for 384 wards underway. New Delhi: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) on Wednesday suspended the head of the Wazirabad school with immediate effect for segregating Hindu and Muslim students into different sections. He was found guilty during the preliminary investigation. Denouncing the action of the school in-charge as 'unimaginable' and 'unpardonable', the Commissioner of the civic body announced his suspension. "I was apprised of the allegations by our officials. We decided to probe the accusations, and unfortunately, they were found to be true. We have suspended the head of the school with immediate effect and initiated major penalty charge sheet against him," North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Commissioner Madhup Vyas said. The Commissioner said the conduct of the official was 'bizarre' and 'unpardonable' and 'goes against the grain of our pluralistic society'. "During our probe, it was found that it was school-in-charge only, who had initiated this segregation. These are children coming from the poor background and such acts would have deleterious effects on them. We will not tolerate such things, it is unpardonable," he said. The Education Department of the BJP-led NDMC had earlier in the day directed a senior official to visit and inspect its school in Wazirabad over reports that students there were being segregated by their caste. NDMC Mayor Adesh Gupta had said, "Have sought a report on this issue, anyone found guilty will be punished. This is an unfortunate incident, MCD doesn't discriminate on basis of religion, all are equal." The primary school falls in Wazirabad area of north Delhi and is administered by the NDMC. The area comes under the Civil Lines Zone of the civic body. (With inputs from agencies) The Supreme Court on Wednesday took notice of the recent violence at Odisha's Jagannath temple at Puri and said that no policeman should enter the temple premises with weapons and shoes. On October 3, there was a protest against the introduction of a queue system for devotees. Nine policemen were injured as violence broke out during a 12-hour bandh called by a socio-cultural organisation, protesting introduction of a queue system for devotees visiting the Jagannath Temple. At least 47 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence, said the Odisha state government to the apex court. It also said that the situation has been brought under control. It further update the court saying that there was no violence inside the Jagannath temple and the office of temple administration was attacked and ransacked. The queue system was introduced on an experimental basis and a review would be done as locals and servitors opposed it, a temple official had said. A violence erupted in Odisha's Puri after members of Shri Jagannath Sena and a few devotees vandalised property at the Jagannath Temple Trust office. Following this, police imposed Section 144 in the areas near the temple to maintain law and order. The dawn-to-dusk shutdown in the seaside town called by Sri Jagannath Sena turned violent as a mob barged into the 12th-century shrine, uprooted barricades erected on Baisi Pahacha and near Singhadwara and ransacked the office of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA). The protesters ransacked a police outpost and an information centre near the Singhadwara as well as the town police station, besides burning tyres and indulging in stone pelting. The agitators allegedly pelted stones at the residence of the district SP and local MLA and a minister, police said. Normal life was crippled in the holy town as shops and business establishments, as well as the educational institution, were shut, while traffic came to a halt with protesters holding picketing and blockade at many places, police said. An adequate police force was deployed in order to restore normalcy in the pilgrim town where the situation remained tense, the police said. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear pleas seeking full details of the India-France defence deal for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets and demands for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the same. The matter will be taken up by a top court bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph. On October 8, a plea was filed in the top court by advocate Vineet Dhanda in this regard. Through his plea, the petitioner had sought directions from the top court to the government for disclosing the details of the deal, including the price of each Rafale fighter jet. Earlier, a PIL was filed in this connection in the apex court. Meanwhile, a third petition was also filed on the Rafale deal by AAP MP Sanjay Singh. The petition filed by the AAP MP called for setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the defence agreement between India and France. The top court then clubbed all the three pleas and posted the matter for hearing on October 10. Meanwhile, the Congress party, which has been saying that it will continue to press for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the alleged defence scam, will hold a Press conference on the issue at 3 PM on Wednesday. The press conference will be addressed by senior Congress leader Jaipal Reddy. His Congress colleague Anand Sharma had on Sunday alleged that the Rafale fighter jet deal was the "biggest defence purchase scam" of the century and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was directly answerable. He also said the Congress would press the Comptroller and Auditor General to scrutinise the deal. ''This is the biggest defence purchase scam of the century. The Prime Minister is directly answerable. He talks on every subject on earth. But he goes on 'maun vrat' when we ask him on Rafale....The Prime Minister himself is complicit,'' Sharma alleged at a press conference. Referring to a delegation of the Congress, including himself, meeting the CAG over the Rafale deal and the party taking up the issue with the Central Vigilance Commission, he said once the auditor's report was received, Congress would insist on a Joint Parliamentary Committee to look into it. This was required to fix "accountability of the government and the Prime Minister over the deal," Sharma, the deputy leader of Congress in the Rajya Sabha, said. Congress has alleged that the government was "unforgivably guilty" of causing loss to the public exchequer worth Rs 41,205 crore in the purchase of 36 'Made in France' Rafale aircraft, 'off the shelf' without 'Transfer of Technology'. The government had said it does not think a JPC or a CAG audit is set up to satisfy the "ego of an ill-informed leader" who repeats lies with alarming regularity, in an apparent dig at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. (With Agency Inputs) In a serious allegation, a sand mining officer of Banda district in Uttar Pradesh has accused a BJP MLA of thrashing him after demanding him to make miners pay the MLA a hefty amount every month. According to news agency ANI, officer Shailendra Singh alleged that MLA Brijesh Prajapati and his aides beat him up in a closed room at the circuit house on Tuesday after he asked that the miners should pay Prajapati an amount of Rs 25 lakhs per month. However, refuting the allegations, Prajapati presented a completely different situation, in turn, accusing Singh. He alleged that Singh was asked to reach the circuit house as several e-rickshaw drivers had approached him as they were locked up on false charges. The BJP MLA blamed Singh of being a corrupt officer. Prajapati said, "I called him to circuit house as e-rickshaw drivers approached me that they were locked up on charges of illegal mining when they were taking 1-2 sacks of sand for construction of their home or toilet. He is a corrupt officer and has formed syndicate with illegal miners." GLENDALE, CA, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Anvia Holdings Corporation (OTCQB: ANVV) (the "Company" or "Anvia Holdings") today announced that it has acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Egnitus Inc and its subsidiaries trading under the brand Egnatium (Egnatium). Anvia Holdings acquired 100% of Egnitus Inc under a share for share agreement where the current shareholders on Egnitus Inc shall receive equal number of shares in Anvia Holdings. Anvia Holdings Corporation Chief Executive Officer, Ali Kasa, added Acquisition of Egnitus Inc allows Anvia Holdings to reposition itself as a platform to make personal and organizational Growth accessible and sustainable About Egnitus Inc Egnitus Inc and its subsidiaries trading under the brand Egnatium has been operating in South East Asia and Australia since 2004. The company specialises in helping individuals and organizations grow. Egnatium has its own proprietary software, mobile applications, learning and consulting modules in areas of Strategy, Competency, Employee Performance, Learning Management and Customer Experience. Additional information can be found at www.egnatium.com About Anvia Holdings Corporation Anvia Holdings Corporation is a global technology company that creates comprehensive, turnkey software and consulting solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. The company also owns a leading platform for the global constructions industry that provides a complete cloud-based eco-system. The Company is currently targeting other verticals in the international business arena such as real estate, semiconductors and construction. Anvia Holdings Corporation trades on the OTCQB under the symbol ANVV. Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933, are subject to Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbors created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and other results and further events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set forth in, contemplated by, or underlying the forward-looking statements. SOURCE: Anvia Holdings Corporation AHMEDABAD/MUMBAI: Mukesh Patel`s factory making decorative lights sits eerily silent during what should be one of its busiest times of the year. Work at the plant in Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat, has come to a standstill just ahead of India`s crucial festival shopping season as dozens of his workers have fled the state. Their departure in recent days followed news of violence in Gujarat against migrant workers from the central states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Tens of thousands of them have fled in recent days, and many of the small factories and businesses they work in have come to a standstill in one of India`s most industrialised of its 29 states. No one knows if or when the workers will come back. "There aren`t enough people, so how will we continue?" said Patel, sitting in the reception area of his office opposite his factory building. In addition to businesses, many of Ahmedabad`s street food stalls are closed because they were mostly run by people from the three states to the east of Gujarat. The exodus began after the rape of a 14-month-old girl last month, allegedly by a man from the state of Bihar, sparked anger among locals, who threatened, and in some cases physically attacked, migrant workers from the three states. No one was killed and injuries were relatively minor, but the threats caused panic. Local media reports said a speech by an opposition party politician, who vowed to take revenge for the crime if police did not act, may have stoked some of the violence. Police arrested the man accused of the rape, but messages and videos of the threats spread quickly both via vigilante mobs and social media. Authorities have tried to defuse the crisis - police say nearly 500 people have so far been arrested and charged with rioting, assault and cybercrime, in relation to more than 50 reported offences. But the workers are fleeing back to their villages despite assurances from business owners and protection from the police. "For more than a week, migrant workers have been leaving the state in jam-packed trains and vans every day," said Shyam Singh Thakur, who heads an association representing migrants. He estimated more than 70,000 workers had fled Gujarat since the beginning of the month but said it was difficult to provide any concrete data. On Monday, an express train bound for Uttar Pradesh from Ahmedabad was full of people going back home because of the violence and the threats. Among them was Trilokinath Chauhan, a welder, headed back to his village in the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, after working for nearly five years in Gujarat. He said a mob of about one hundred people threatened him and his friends on Saturday night, asking them to take "the first train out of Gujarat or face the consequences." Chauhan and two of his friends decided to leave. "We`re all very scared," he told Reuters on Monday morning, sitting in a crowded compartment in the Ahmedabad-Lucknow Express. "I don`t know what to do now. I will have to look for a job in the village or work in the fields," he said as the train started pulling out of the station. ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR The exodus could badly hurt small- and medium-sized businesses in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which he ran for 13 years and pitched as a model for industrialisation and growth. The state continues to be governed by his Bharatiya Janata Party. In the last two years, many of these businesses had already been stung by a slowdown due to two of the Modi government`s biggest reforms - demonetisation and the introduction of a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST). "This will delay production and businesses will miss delivery deadlines," said Atulbhai Kapasi, president of the Gujarat State Small Industries Federation, adding that sectors such as textiles, engineering, chemicals and pharmaceuticals will suffer the most. "This will hurt their profits." Some business owners have hired personal security guards for the workers while others have made arrangements for them to stay in their factories, he said. Some people have also set up relief camps on the outskirts of Ahmedabad to provide food and shelter to migrants and plead with them to stay. "A lot of effort is being made to persuade people not to leave," said Sanjay Srivastava, an additional director general of police in the state. The timing is especially bad as of demand for finished goods peaks around October and early November for the major Hindu festivals of Dussehra and Diwali. Festive shopping is a big boost for Indian businesses as the period is considered auspicious for buying goods like jewellery, clothes, automobiles and houses. Economists estimate that sales of goods and clothing in October typically make up 35-50 per cent of annual sales. Many businesses also take advance orders to fulfil the high demand and any disruption in production can lead to significant losses. "The biggest impact will be on the business-friendly image of Gujarat. That will take a beating," said Kapasi. "At the end of the day, it`s our loss." Kolkata: Staff at Kolkata metro came to the aid of a 24-year-old woman who was allegedly being harassed by a group of men on the train on Tuesday. The incident took place in at around 4 pm between the stretch between Esplanade Station and Mahanayak Uttam Kumar Station. A group of about 10 men, in their early twenties, started behaving indecently with the victim inside the train, said the police. Protesting against harassment, the woman got into a scuffle with the group on the platform. On hearing the commotion, on-duty traffic supervisor and an RPF Sub-Inspector immediately rushed to the spot and assisted the victim. The boys, all from Garia region, were later taken to the Station Suprintendents Office and the matter was forwarded to the Regent Park Police Station around 4.30 pm. The group was later taken into custody. The on-duty Sub-inspector of Regent Park Police Station came to Mahanayak Uttam Kumar Station and the lady commuter along with the group of young men were handed over to him and they were taken to the Police Station. 10 people have been arrested by regent park police with the help of RPF. A case was registered against them u/s 354/354(a)/354(b)/509/34IPC. All arrested are residents of the same locality of garia area. Days after a bomb explosion in Mumbai's Antop Hill area created ripples in the security establishment, sources have said that the crime branch of Mumbai Police is probing if the incident could point towards a larger terror design this festive season. Two people were held after a bomb loaded with ball bearings, nails and glass shards went off in Antop Hill last Sunday. During interrogation, the two - believed to be labourers - said they were experimenting on how to make firecrackers at home. It is an explanation that cops are suspicious of - especially because of the presence of the materials inside the bomb. Sources have said that the cops believe the two could have been working as labourers to deceive authorities and that their links to terror outfits cannot be completely ruled out. There is also a possibility that the larger design was to target crowded places in the city during the Navaratri festivities. Mumbai crime branch has formed different teams to investigate this case. A team is questioning the contractors where the duo worked, while another team has been sent to their native place in West Bengal to check their antecedents. After the arrest, the main accused was sent to police custody for 7 days while his juvenile accomplice has been remanded to a children's home. Mumbai Police has also alerted its all its officers and has also made an appeal to public to remain vigilant and inform police about any suspicious activity and not to believe in any rumours. Security arrangements in the city have been increased, especially due to the ongoing festive season Mumbai: Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, who enjoys huge popularity in China, has urged his "friends" in the country to watch his friend Rani Mukerji's "Hichki", which is releasing there on Friday. Aamir and Rani, who have starred together in "Ghulam" and "Talaash", have been friends for long. Now that her "Hichki" is set to release in China, Aamir has come forward to promote the film. "A very warm hello to all my friends in China. My friend Rani Mukerji an actress from India has done a film called 'Hichki', which I believe is releasing in China on October 12. Well, I want you to know that I have seen the film when it released here in India and it is a beautiful story and it's a great film, with wonderful performances by Rani and all the kids in it," Aamir said in a video uploaded on a Chinese social media platform. He added: "It's really heart-warming and uplifting film with a beautiful story... I hope that all of you will go and see the film and I hope that you enjoy it." Rani is currently in China to promote the movie, which has a progressive message of beating stereotypes. The promotions are happening across 5 cities in China -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu. In the movie, Rani essays Naina Mathur, a school teacher dealing with an involuntary nervous system disorder, Tourette Syndrome. New Delhi: Actress Flora Saini, who was recently seen on the big screen in 'Stree', on Monday came out and shared her own 'MeToo' story. The actress revealed how she was physically and sexually assaulted and harassed at the hands of producer Gaurang Doshi, who she was dating then. In an exclusive chat with a portal, Flora revealed another surprising detail. She said that while no one else came out in her support, it was Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who not only supported her but also walked out of a film, to be produced by Gaurang, to oppose sexual harassment. She said that Aishwarya's decision to quit the project meant a lot for the budding actress. Talking about what took her so long to make these revelations about Gaurang, Flora said that she was subjected to victim shaming and threatening. She added that after she spoke against the producer, she was out of work for some time. On Monday, Flora shared pictures of her bruised face, with a broken jaw, which she suffered after her then alleged producer boyfriend Gaurang assaulted her. She also shared a lengthy post on the same. Flora was recently seen in Rajkummar Rao-Shraddha Kapoor-starrer 'Stree' in which she played the titular role. Mumbai: Veteran actress Dimple Kapadia, who made her grand debut with Raj Kapoor's blockbuster Bobby starring Rishi Kapoor in 1973, relived a moment from the film in Italy recently. Her son-in-law Akshay Kumar took to Twitter to share an adorable video that shows her dancing on the streets of a small town in Italy as a man plays Bobby's signature tune on his Accordion. Akshay wrote: "When you walk into a small town in Italy and the musician is playing a song from Bobby! Life is full of beautiful coincidences. #BobbyInItaly (sic)." When you walk into a small town in Italy and the musician is playing a song from Bobby! Life is full of beautiful coincidences. #BobbyInItaly pic.twitter.com/ZJtfIza5Fw Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) 9 October 2018 Twinkle too wrote: "The heart dances and what else can the poor feet do but follow - Mother, in more ways than one, sets the bar very high:) #FreeSpirit #MamaMia (sic)." Dimple is in Italy for a family vacation with Akshay, daughter Twinkle Khanna and grand-daughter Nitara. The family was spotted at the Mumbai international airport before leaving for a vacation. Akshay is a devout family man and enjoys spending time with his wife and kids. The Kumars fly to distant places to make the most of the holidays. On the work front, Akshay is shooting for Housefull 4 directed by Sajid Khan while Twinkle recently launched her latest book Pyjamas Are Forgiving. She is enjoying her innings as an author now. Mumbai: Actor-turned-author Twinkle Khanna took to Twitter Wednesday to express her thoughts on the #MeToo movement in India. Khanna, who has always been vocal about her thoughts and views, has given "a shout out to all the brave women making the world safer". Twinkle tweeted: "Hearing stories, identifying in different ways has led to a churning within,long conversations,talking to my mom too about all the things we internalized as working women.Scabs picked at hurt again but it is worth it.A shout out to all the brave women making the world safer #MeToo (sic)."

Hearing stories,identifying in different ways has led to a churning within,long conversations,talking to my mom too about all the things we internalized as working women.Scabs picked at hurt again but it is worth it.A shout out to all the brave women making the world safer #MeToo

Twinkle Khanna (@mrsfunnybones) 10 October 2018
Women from the film industry and other walks of life have exposed names of men who have sexually exploited them. The #MeToo campaign in India gained momentum after Tanushree Dutta recently recounted a ten-year-old case of misconduct allegedly involving actor Nana Patekar. In a written complaint to CINTAA a decade ago, Tanushree had accused Patekar of misconduct while shooting for an item song for the film 'Horn Ok Pleassss'. Since then, a number of women from the film fraternity have extended support to her and the list includes - Kangana Ranaut, Shilpa Shetty, Rucha Chada, Swara Bhasker, Sonam Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra and Priyanka Chopra. Even a number of men from the industry have raised their voices against sexual misconduct. Farhan Akhtar, Pulkit Samrat, Hansal Mehra and Vir Das have condemned acts of sexual harassment against women. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan feels that the #MeToo movement gaining momentum is a positive sign and she believes that talking on women empowerment should be a continuous process. "I think it is a good sign how the #MeToo movement is gaining momentum", Aishwarya said. The 44-year-old actress believes that speaking up for women to help them find a voice is a continuous process and that the social media is helping them find an audience to share their story. (With IANS inputs) New Delhi: Actor Rajpal Yadav and wife Radha Yadav were blessed with their second bundle of joy, a baby girl on Wednesday, i.e. on 10th October. The couple already has an elder daughter. The actor took to his Instagram account to share the good news with his fans by posting a picture of his elder daughter, with the caption, "My little Honey is a Big Sister!! On this auspicious day of Navratri we are blessed with another Daughter. #bigsister #newmember #blessed #newbaby #happytimes #happynavratri." Not many know that Rajpal met his wife Radha when he went to Canada for a film shoot. On the work front, Rajpal will be seen in a titular role in a Punjabi film titled 'Chandigarh Amritsar Chandigarh'. He will next be seen in 'Total Dhamaal' this year. It is the sequel to 2011 film Double Dhamaal and the third installment of the Dhamaal film series. The film is directed by Indra Kumar. It stars Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in the lead roles while Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Javed Jaffrey reprise their roles from the previous films. New Delhi: Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput, who recently welcomed their second bundle of joy, Zain Kapoor, were on Tuesday night clicked by the shutterbugs after a romantic dinner date. This was the first time the couple stepped out for an outing post the birth of their second child. While Shahid was wearing a white kurta shirt with dark-colored shorts, Mira came dressed in a black-and-white polka-dotted tee which she paired with matching pants. Take a look at their photos here: (Photo courtesy: Yogen Shah) On the work front, Shahid's 'Batti Gul Meter Chalu' has faired average at the Box Office. The actor will next be seen in the Hindi remake of famous Telugu movie 'Arjun Reddy'. Rumours are there that Shahis is in talks with makers for a biopic on gold medallist boxer Dingko Singh. New Delhi: Filmmaker Vikas Bahl has been in the news ever since four women including a former Phantom Films employee accused him of sexual misconduct. Dut to all the sexual harassment allegations levelled against him, he has been shown the door by the makers from any further associations from projects - '83' and 'Super 30'. In fact, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who was one of the four partners at Phantom Films, accepted that he knew of the sexual abuse allegations against Phantom Films co-owner Vikas Bahl, levelled by a former employee of his company and said 'he's deeply sorry about it'. Amidst the raging MeToo campaign against him, Vikas, who was till now quite, sent two separate yet similar legal notices to Anurag Kashyap and Phantom Films co-partner Vikramaditya Motwane via an email. A Mumbai Mirror report stated that Vikas has accused his former co-workers of Phantom Films of orchestrating the whole campaign against him and using this opportunity to disperse the production house and make him responsible for the fall. The notice, issued by Advocate Shamsher Garud of Jayakar and Partners, stated that Kashyap bribed another employee of the production house to make similar allegations against Bahl. "This makes us wonder whether the alleged incident [of sexual assault] also has any authenticity, given that the alleged victim was, in fact, working as your own employee." Bahl also labeled Kashyap and Motwane an opportunist for doing all of this for their personal agenda. The notice further read, "You are neither a witness nor the alleged victim, but instead an opportunist seeking to derive benefit based on unsubstantiated information. The alleged incident has not been established in any court of law and that you have exploited the media to propagate your own personal vendetta." The notice also stated that putting the blame of Phantom's dissolution on him is in 'bad taste.' It also strictly states that if the two don't remove their messages on social media and tender an unconditional apology to Bahl, a of civil and/ or criminal defamation would be filed against Kashyap and Motwane. NASHVILLE, TENN., Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SmileDirectClub, the pioneer of at-home, doctor-directed aligner therapy, today announced the completion of its first institutional private placement of equity capital for a total of $380 million. In addition, the Company received a valuation of $3.2 billion. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), one of the worlds leading private equity investors, led the financing, which included meaningful participation from Kleiner Perkins and Spark Capital. As part of the transaction, Rick Schnall, a CD&R Partner, will join SmileDirectClubs Board of Directors. J.P. Morgan served as sole placement agent to SmileDirectClub in connection with the transaction. The funds will be used for innovation, research and development, and international expansion. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, SmileDirectClub is leading the charge in teledentistry and continues to disrupt the overall teeth straightening industry. Known for its work of straightening smiles across the country at an affordable price up to 60% less than traditional methods SmileDirectClub has seen incredible growth since its inception in 2014. The Company has straightened more than 300,000 smiles, has hired more than 3,200 employees, and is currently profitable. Since 2016, SmileDirectClub has opened more than 150 retail SmileShop locations across the U.S. Utilizing a unique teledentistry platform and omni-channel distribution model, the Company executes its mission of providing access to care by providing those who need it with a straighter and more confident smile. In addition, SmileDirectClub has expanded and launched new retail partnerships with several national retailers. We are very excited with the outcome of our most recent fundraising round. Our mission has always been to provide an affordable and convenient option to anyone who wants to transform their smile. We are excited to continue our growth into new spaces and be given the incredible opportunity to reach even more people with our life-changing service, said SmileDirectClub Co-founder Alex Fenkell. We cant wait to see what the future holds and are grateful for the support from our new investors. Our investment in SmileDirectClub fits squarely with our focus on backing and helping to build fast-growing, disruptive healthcare businesses that lower the cost of delivery while optimizing patient outcomes, said Schnall. The company is led by a strong, entrepreneurial leadership team, and we believe the business is positioned to be the industry leader with a very compelling customer value proposition, which will create significant and sustainable value going forward. Even among its peer group of unicorns, SmileDirectClubs growth stands out. Consumers simply love the freedom of getting aligners delivered straight to their home, said Noah Knauf, General Partner of Kleiner Perkins. We're thrilled to partner with the SmileDirectClub team as they offer millions more people an affordable and convenient way to improve their smile. Prior to this equity private placement, SmileDirectClub was largely self-funded through Camelot Venture Group, a leader in the disruptive consumer brand industry. About SmileDirectClub: SmileDirectClub was founded on a simple belief: Everyone deserves a smile they love. Recognizing an opportunity to increase access to dental care, the company pioneered the creation of cutting-edge platforms and technology for doctor-directed, at-home aligner therapy. With a digital network of more than 200 affiliated licensed dentists and orthodontists overseeing customer treatment plans, from impressions made with an at-home kit or from a digital scan at one of the 150 SmileShops across the United States, SmileDirectClub has made orthodontic solutions more affordable and convenient than ever before. SmileDirectClub was founded in 2014 by Alex Fenkell and Jordan Katzman in partnership with Camelot Venture Group, whose portfolio companies include 1-800 CONTACTS and Quicken Loans, and is based in Nashville, Tennessee. For more information visit SmileDirectClub.com . About Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Founded in 1978, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is a private investment firm. Since inception, CD&R has managed the investment of more than $27 billion in 82 companies representing a broad range of industries with an aggregate transaction value of more than $125 billion. The Firm's healthcare-related investments include CareStream Dental, VWR International, AssuraMed, Envision Healthcare, PharMEDium, Healogics, Vets First Choice, agilon health, and Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare. The Firm has offices in New York and London. For more information, visit www.cdr-inc.com. BIKANER: Congress president Rahul Gandhi will on Wednesday address a 'Maha Sankalp' rally at the Medical College Ground in poll-bound Rajasthan's Bikaner. Rahul Gandhi will arrive at the Nal airport in Bikaner at 2 PM and then he will start his tour of Bikaner division from the Guru Jambheshwar Dham in Mukam. According to Congress leader Dr BD Kalla, the party chief will also participate in a roadshow from the Nal airport to the Medical College Ground. It may be recalled that the Congress party had faced a massive drubbing in the Bikaner division in the last assembly elections in the state. The party won only three seats out of the 23 assembly seats of Bikaner division. In Bikaner district, the party was restricted to only two seats out of the seven assembly seats. In Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar districts, the Congress had lost all the 11 assembly seats. In the Churu division, the party could retain its fort in Sardarshahar. A combative Congress chief had on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging he gave "brooms to the poor" in the name of the 'Swachh Bharat' Mission while allowing his industrialist "friends to clean money from the banks". The Congress chief also levelled a slew of allegations at the BJP-led Centre claiming it failed to provide relief to debt-saddled farmers while wreaking havoc on the economy with his demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) moves. He accused the PM of insulting the people by belittling what the country had achieved in the last 70 years. The Congress president began a roadshow from eastern Rajasthan's Dholpur district, considered the home turf of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, aiming to boost his party's prospects in the assembly elections slated for December 7. Beginning the roadshow in Mania town, which shares border with Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, he levelled allegations against the government on a range of issues ranging from the Rafale deal, law and order, and even the attack on people from other states in Gujarat . Rahul said it was not a party or a person but the people who by the dint of their hard work made India stand up after Independence. "They were your parents and grandparents who put in efforts to make India stand but Prime Minister Narendra Modi says that nothing was done in the last 70 years. He says everything happened only after he came to power. How arrogant this person is," Rahul charged at a public meeting in Bayana town of Bharatpur during his 150-km long roadshow. The Congress chief, in his public meetings during the roadshow, also said while Modi gave "brooms to the poor and asked them to clean India under Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and at the same time, he asked top 15-20 industrialists to clean money from banks". Attacking the Centre's economic and agricultural polices, he said, "Not a single rupee of farmers' loans was waived by the Modi government" and the Make In India campaign had "failed" with even phones and T-shirts being outsourced from China. The Congress wants phones to be made in India with the tag of 'Made in Dholpur,' he said. Gandhi said the prime minister during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls had said he wanted to be a 'chowkidar' but never clarified for whom. In Rajasthan, Rahul Gandhi alleged that PM Modi benefitted 15-20 top industrialists of the country instead of the farmers. The Congress president reiterated his allegation on the Rafale deal that the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited was ignored and an "industrialist friend" benefitted from the deal which he claimed was finalised at higher prices compared to rates decided by the former UPA government. He also alleged that people like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya had benefitted under the present dispensation. The Congress chief claimed that Vijay Mallya had alleged he had met Union minister Arun Jaitley before leaving the country. Significantly, Jaitley has rubbished any charges of impropriety. He claimed the former UPA government waived off farmers' loans worth Rs 70,000 crore but even as bad debt worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore were written off by the present government, not even Rs 1 of farmers was waived. I went to the PMO only once and that too to raise farmers' issues but the PM remained silent and did not utter a single word, he claimed. Gandhi also exuded confidence that the Congress would win the assembly elections in Rajasthan. He said the Congress government in the state will work as per people's 'Mann ki Baat'. Rahul also urged people to form a Congress government at the Centre which would work for the poor, farmers and youths. He said people should try making RSS and BJP understand that there is no benefit in "dividing" the country. A police constable on Wednesday allegedly shot dead his girlfriend after celebrating her birthday at her residence in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. After shooting the girl, he shot himself in the head. The incident took place after an argument broke out between the two after the birthday celebrations. The two have been identified as 21-year-old Sarawathi and 25-year-old Karthick. Saraswathi hailed from Anniyur village in Villupuram district and was pursuing medicine while Karthick belonged to Sathyamangalam of Erode district and was serving as an armed reserve constable. Sarawathi and Karthick got in touch with each other four years ago after they became friends on Facebook. The two fell in love and even got the approval from her parents for marriage. The incident occurred on Tuesday when Karthick had gone to the woman's house on her birthday. An argument broke out between the two and suddenly in a fit of rage, he shot dead her with his revolver before shooting himself in the head. After hearing the gunshot, her father rushed to the hall and found her body lying in a pool of blood. Soon after, Karthick shot himself in the head. Both the bodies were sent to the Government Villupuram Medical College for post-mortem. ATHENS: The government of Greece has banned obese tourists from riding donkeys after animal rights activists complained about the growing abuse of animals in the country. In their appeal to the government, the animal rights campaigners claimed that donkeys were being left with spinal injuries and open wounds. The animals also work long hours, seven days a week without shelter, rest and water - leaving them with injuries and ill-fitting saddles, the activists claimed. The government passed an order in this regard after images of donkeys climbing the narrow steps of the Greek island of Santorini carrying obese holidaymakers hit the headlines worldwide. Respecting the sentiments expressed by the animal rights campaigners, the lawmakers in Greece pledged to do more to help the animals. The Ministry of Rural Development and Food of Greece has published a new set of regulations regarding the well-being of donkeys after receiving multiple complaints following media coverage in July. The new regulations state that donkeys giving tourists rides in Santorini should not carry any loads heavier than 220 pounds (100 kg), or one-fifth of their weight. KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday refused to accept a public interest litigation filed against the West Bengal government's decision to offer grants to puja committees for Durga Puja in the state. The court had put a stay on disbursal of funds worth Rs 10,000 each to 28,000 puja committees across the state. The plea had claimed that giving funds to puja committees is a violation of the secular structure of the Constitution. However, the government had said that submitted before the division bench that the fund is to be used to assist police under its traffic safety campaign and not for any religious purpose. Advocate General Kishore Dutta had said that the funds will be used for sanitation and public safety. The government had on Tuesday told the High Court that it cannot interfere in a legislative decision on granting funds to the committees. Senior counsel Saktinath Mukherjee, also appearing for the state, had said that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) can scrutinise expenditure of a government and by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Legislature and the court has no role to play at the stage of expenditure. On September 10, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had declared that Rs 10,000 would be given to each of the 28,000 puja committees across the state. These 28,000 pandals include 3,000 in the city and 25,000 in the districts. The entire exercise will cost Rs 28 crore to the government. Former Bangladesh minister Lutfozzaman Babar along with 18 others was on Wednesday sentenced to death in connection with the 2004 grenade attack case. Among other held guilty, former prime minister Khaleda Zia's son, Tarique Rahman and 18 others have been awarded life sentence. The quantum of punishment was announced by a Speedy Trial Tribunal on Wednesday. The verdict was given in two cases - one for murder and another for grenade blast. Twenty four people had been killed in the grenade attack that took place during a rally of Awami League in Dhaka on August 21, 2004. Over 300 had been injured in the blast. The then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, who was the prime target of the attack, had narrowly escaped but had suffered hearing loss. Florida: Hurricane Michael strengthened into a Category 4 storm early on Wednesday before it was expected to plow into Florida`s Gulf shore with towering waves and roof-shredding winds as 500,000 people were under evacuation orders and advisories. Hurricane Michael was packing winds of up to 130 miles per hour (210 km per hour), hours before it was set to make landfall on Florida`s Panhandle or Florida`s Big Bend where it potentially could unleash devastating waves as high as 13 feet (4 meters), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned. "THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE to evacuate before conditions start deteriorating within the next few hours," said Florida Governor Rick Scott in a Tweet early on Wednesday. President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for the entire state of Florida, freeing up federal assistance to supplement state and local disaster responses. Michael gathered greater strength over warm Gulf of Mexico waters throughout the day on Tuesday as it jumped from a Category 2 to Category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson wind scale. The last NHC report said the fast-moving storm was about 180 miles (325 km) from Panama City, Florida. Winds as strong as Michael is producing can inflict substantial damage to roofs and walls of even well-constructed homes, according to the National Weather Service. NHC Director Ken Graham said Michael represented a "textbook case" of a hurricane system growing stronger as it drew near shore, in contrast to Hurricane Florence, which struck North Carolina last month after weakening in a slow, halting approach. Hurricane-force winds extend about 45 miles from the center, with tropical storm-force winds reaching 175 miles, the NHC said. The storm is likely to dump prodigious amounts of rain over Florida, Alabama and Georgia, as well as the Carolinas - still reeling from post-Florence flooding - and into Virginia. Up to a foot of rainfall (30 cm) is forecast for some areas. The region should brace for "major infrastructure damage," specifically to electricity distribution, wastewater treatment systems and transportation networks, Jeff Byard, associate administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told reporters on a conference call. Byard said an estimated 500,000 people were under evacuation orders and advisories in Florida, where residents and tourists were fleeing low-lying areas in at least 20 counties stretching along 200 miles (322 km) of shore in the Panhandle and adjacent Big Bend region. Among them was Betty Early, 75, a retiree who joined about 300 fellow evacuees huddled on makeshift bedrolls of blankets and collapsed cardboard boxes at an elementary school converted into an American Red Cross shelter in Panama City, near the storm`s expected landfall. She was unsure how well her old, wood-framed apartment block would hold up. "I`m blessed to have a place to come," she told Reuters. "My greatest concern is not having electricity, and living on a fixed income, losing my food." "THIS STORM COULD KILL YOU" A hurricane warning was posted along more than 300 miles (483 km) of the coast from the Florida-Alabama border south to the Suwannee River. "If you don`t follow warnings from officials this storm could kill you," said Scott, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate in November`s congressional elections. While the swiftly moving storm is not expected to linger over Florida for long, widespread heavy downpours will likely track inland to flood-stricken areas of the Carolinas even as rain-gorged rivers there begin to recede, National Weather Service meteorologist Ken Widelski told the conference call. Some of the storm`s most significant early impact was to offshore energy production. U.S. producers in the Gulf cut oil production by about 40 percent and natural gas output by 28 percent on Tuesday, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said. Scott declared a state of emergency in 35 Florida counties, mostly encompassing rural areas known for small tourist cities, beaches, wildlife reserves and Tallahassee, the state capital. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for 92 counties in his state. About 2,500 National Guard troops were deployed to assist with evacuations and storm preparations, and more than 4,000 others were on standby. Some 17,000 utility restoration workers were also on call. In Panhandle counties, most state offices, schools and universities were closed for the rest of the week. Lines at gasoline stations grew as people left. Those who stayed emptied grocery store shelves of water and other supplies. The last major hurricane to hit the Panhandle was Hurricane Dennis in 2005, according to hurricane center data. Torrential downpours and flash flooding from the storm over the weekend caused 13 deaths in Central America. ISLAMABAD: Increasing Chinese involvement in Pakistans economy could be disastrous for the later, observed International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Maurice Obstfeld. IMF's statement came amid Pakistan government announcing its plan to seek another bailout from the world financial forum after the country's currency plunged another 7 percent on Tuesday following a central bank devaluation. Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been reluctant to ask the IMF for emergency loans, said last week Pakistan might need to return to the IMF to address its mounting balance of payments crisis, reported Reuters. Islamabad is yet to formally approached the IMF for financial assistance despite its economic woes, said the IMF`s chief economist. IMF has been critical of providing further loans since most of it could go in repaying the debts to China accrued due to the Silk Road project. Pakistan has been trying to deepen ties with China in recent years as relations with the United States remain on tenterhooks. Islamabad has cut the size of the biggest Chinese Silk Road project in Pakistan, a reconstruction of the main rail line between the port city of Karachi and Peshawar in the northwest by $2 billion, citing government concerns about the countrys debt levels. The changes are part of Islamabads efforts to rethink key Belt and Road Initiative projects in Pakistan, to which China has pledged about $60bn in financing. The Trump administration has long been critical of Chinas Belt and Road initiative, saying that it has saddled some developing countries with debts they cannot afford to repay. Pakistan is reportedly also seeking fresh loans from China, which is already heavily invested in its transport and energy sectors. With agency inputs US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his second summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be held after the US midterm elections on November 6. Speaking to reporters as he flew to Iowa for a political rally, Trump said: "Itll be after the midterms. I just can`t leave now. Earlier, Trump had said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had very good talks with Kim over the weekend and that three or four locations were being considered. Pompeo had echoed Trump`s comments when he briefly spoke to reporters during a Tuesday afternoon visit to the White House. "While there`s still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path where we will achieve (our) ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearisation of North Korea," he said. Trump and Kim held a historic first summit in Singapore on June 12 at which Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. However, his actions have fallen short of Washington`s demands for a complete inventory of its weapons and facilities and irreversible steps to give up its nuclear arsenal, which could threaten the United States. Still, Trump was upbeat on progress made so far. "You got no rockets flying, you have no missiles flying, you have no nuclear testing," Trump said in the Oval Office. "We`ve made incredible progress - beyond incredible. "But I have agreed to meet," he said. "We have a very good relationship with Chairman Kim. I like him, he likes me, the relationship is good." Pompeo said on Monday the two sides were "pretty close" to agreeing on details for a second summit. He also said Kim had said he was ready to allow international inspectors into North Korea`s Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and the Sohae missile engine test facility as soon as the United States and North Korea agreed on logistics. However, experts questioned what Pompeo had achieved on Sunday on his fourth visit to Pyongyang this year. They said the North Korean leader appeared simply to be repackaging and dragging out past pledges. Trump noted that the United States has not lifted the "very big sanctions" it has imposed on Pyongyang. "I`d love to remove them, but we have to get something for doing it," Trump said. North Korea is very interested in reaching some sort of agreement on denuclearization so that it can grow economically with the benefit of the foreign investment closed to it now, Trump said. The U.N. World Food Program said on Tuesday that the supply of food remains precarious in North Korea, where one in five children is stunted by malnutrition. More than 10 million North Koreans, nearly 40 percent of the population, are undernourished and need humanitarian aid, it said. "I will tell you they`re calling, wanting to go there and wanting to invest," Trump said. "At some point, when Chairman Kim makes that decision, I think he`s going to unleash something that`s going to be spectacular, really spectacular. "And I think he knows it and I think that`s one of the reasons that we`re having very successful conversations." Miami, FL, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Crystal Cruises announced its full lineup of 2021 luxury sailings aboard the award-winning Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity, becoming the first cruise line to announce a complete 2021 deployment. In all, 68 all-inclusive voyages span the globe to 238 destinations in 53 countries, taking travelers on journeys to destinations of historical significance including 175 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, untouched natural beauty, artistic and cultural riches, and pristine tranquility. From Crystal Serenitys 139-day Ancient Dynasties & World Wonders comprehensive World Cruise to 10 seven-day sailings through the Mediterranean aboard Crystal Symphony, luxury travelers will find a world of opportunities to explore destinations both famous and less visited in 2021. Staying true to Crystals philosophy of offering guests numerous choices, these itineraries run the gamut, including shorter sailings that are easily combinable with other cruises without repeating ports for those seeking an extended vacation. As leaders in luxury travel, Crystal creates innovative ways for our guests to see the world every year while announcing those itineraries well in advance to meet the demands of travelers in the global marketplace, said Crystals President and CEO Tom Wolber. By presenting Crystals luxury voyages for the next three years, along with the significant value of Book Now Savings, we are aiming to inspire our guests to plan their next vacation early to lock in a great rate and the stateroom they want while giving our travel partners the time and tools to assist them. Highlights of Crystal Cruises 2021 voyages include: Nine maiden calls in Townsville, Australia; Banda Neira and Ambon, Indonesia; Burgas, Bulgaria; Novorossiysk, Russia; Batumi, Georgia; Seydisfjordur, Iceland; Dingle, Ireland; and Kepez, Turkey; in Townsville, Australia; Banda Neira and Ambon, Indonesia; Burgas, Bulgaria; Novorossiysk, Russia; Batumi, Georgia; Seydisfjordur, Iceland; Dingle, Ireland; and Kepez, Turkey; At least one overnight stay on virtually every voyage more than 100 in total with as many as four overnight ports on a single sailing and double overnights on many; more than 100 in total with as many as four overnight ports on a single sailing and double overnights on many; 175 UNESCO World Heritage Sites featured in a diverse selection of Crystal Adventures ashore that appeal to virtually every travelers individual preferences, including such wonders as Angkor Wat, the Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Luxor, Mont-Saint-Michel, and the historic cities of Dubrovnik, Florence, Corfu and many more; in a diverse selection of Crystal Adventures ashore that appeal to virtually every travelers individual preferences, including such wonders as Angkor Wat, the Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Luxor, Mont-Saint-Michel, and the historic cities of Dubrovnik, Florence, Corfu and many more; Four voyages to/from Dublin aboard Crystal Serenity , exploring the Emerald Isles Cork and Dingle, as well as Belfast, Liverpool and Edinburgh (in time to experience the annual Military Tattoo in Edinburgh); aboard , exploring the Emerald Isles Cork and Dingle, as well as Belfast, Liverpool and Edinburgh (in time to experience the annual Military Tattoo in Edinburgh); Six voyages exploring Southeast Asia aboard Crystal Symphony , highlighting Malaysias culinary flavor in Penang, Myanmars gateway to Bagan, remarkable Kuala Lumpur, and the tranquility and tropics of Thailand and the Philippines; aboard , highlighting Malaysias culinary flavor in Penang, Myanmars gateway to Bagan, remarkable Kuala Lumpur, and the tranquility and tropics of Thailand and the Philippines; Voyages to China and Japan aboard Crystal Serenity , allowing guests to venture to Kyoto, see Mount Fuji, explore Beijings Forbidden City, Shanghais Jade Buddha and the Great Wall; aboard , allowing guests to venture to Kyoto, see Mount Fuji, explore Beijings Forbidden City, Shanghais Jade Buddha and the Great Wall; Arabian Gulf and India voyages featuring overnights in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and offering opportunities to explore Wadi Rum and Petra from Aqaba, Luxor and the Valley of Kings from Safaga, and Mumbais colorful bazaars and Bollywood; voyages featuring overnights in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and offering opportunities to explore Wadi Rum and Petra from Aqaba, Luxor and the Valley of Kings from Safaga, and Mumbais colorful bazaars and Bollywood; Holy Land sailing aboard Crystal Symphony featuring two days in Ashdod, allowing guests to explore Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as well as Romes sacred sites; aboard featuring two days in Ashdod, allowing guests to explore Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as well as Romes sacred sites; Transcontinental voyages from Asia to Africa across the Indian Ocean, exploring Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Seychelles, and offering post-cruise safari options in Mombasa ( Crystal Symphony ); and a new trans-Atlantic option from Dublin to New York City that explores Irelands treasures and New Englands colonial history ( Crystal Serenity ); from Asia to Africa across the Indian Ocean, exploring Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Seychelles, and offering post-cruise safari options in Mombasa ( ); and a new trans-Atlantic option from Dublin to New York City that explores Irelands treasures and New Englands colonial history ( ); Nineteen sailings of 10 days or fewer , aboard both ships, allowing busy travelers ample opportunity to embark on their dream luxury voyages through the Greek Isles, Cote dAzur, Italian Riviera, Dalmatian Coast, Caribbean, New England & Canada and Northern Europe; , aboard both ships, allowing busy travelers ample opportunity to embark on their dream luxury voyages through the Greek Isles, Cote dAzur, Italian Riviera, Dalmatian Coast, Caribbean, New England & Canada and Northern Europe; Holiday sailings through the Caribbeans breathtaking isles including two days in Barbados and offering convenient round-trip travel from Miami aboard Crystal Serenity; and an extravagant New Years celebration in Sydney Harbor on a Crystal Symphony voyage through New Zealands sounds and wine country and Australias coastline. Crystal Cruises 2021 voyages are now open for booking. Further reaffirming its commitment to rewarding travelers who book early, Crystals current Book Now Savings begin at $2,000 per person for 2021 voyages, and $12,500 per person for the full 2021 World Cruise, offering tremendous savings for voyages booked by October 31, 2018. About Crystal The world-renowned Crystal Experience featuring global journeys with Crystal Cruises, Crystal River Cruises, Crystal Yacht Expedition Cruises, Crystal AirCruises and Crystal Luxury Air continues to be the distinctive choice of the worlds most discerning travelers. For more information and Crystal reservations, contact a travel professional, call 888.799.2437, or visit www.crystalcruises.com. Join the hundreds of thousands who subscribe to the Crystal Insider blog, follow Crystal Cruises Facebook page and @crystalcruises on Twitter and Instagram, and engage in the conversation with #crystalcruises. ### Attachment While fighting the fire at ammunition stock in Ichnia, Chernihiv region, Ukraines Defense Ministry appears to be fighting media, namely 112 Ukraine TV channel. The public officers of the Ministry are complaining that 112 Ukraine TV channel is reportedly refusing to air the official data of the ministry regarding explosions in Ichnia ammo depots in Chernihiv region. Stepan Poltorak, the Minister himself complained about 112 Ukraine's actions, addressing the Prime Minister of Ukraine during the latest government session. In order to understand the entire absurdness of the situation, lets restore the sequence of events. October 9 3:30 a.m. the fire started at the ammunition depot in Ichnia. 5:49 a.m. Defense Ministry reports the fire on its Facebook page. No other statements on the state-run radio or TV channels were made. 6:00 a.m. 112 Ukraine TV channel begins the morning-time broadcast with the information on the fire at the 6th Arsenal, where the actual incident occurred. We were the first who reported the accident on air. The new piece cited the official information, including the one published by the Ministry on their Facebook page; quite notably, 11 minutes passed between the post-activation and the beginning of the news release. Later, the Ministry would state that 112 Ukraine TV channel has not used the information they provided. This totally contradicts the real state of affairs. 8:16 a.m. as the Live show began, the TV channel airs Bohdan Senyk, the Head of the public relations office of Ukraines Armed Forces, who told us the details of the situation in Ichnia. 9:45 a.m. The State Emergency Service's website publishes recent information on the situation at the 6th depot as of 09:30 a.m. Among other things, the rescue service said: 'Approximately 88 thousand tons of ammunition stay in the warehouses'. 10:04 a.m. 112.ua agency publishes the information provided by the Emergency Service. The information was reported literally. Also, the numbers fell on the titles of '112 Ukraine' TV channel. 10:07 a.m. Three minutes later, the Defense Ministry posts a message on Facebook, stating they 'exposed a fake'. 'The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine officially announces that the reports published by news agencies, Internet publications and certain TV channels (112 Ukraine) regarding the number of ammunition stored on the territory of the 6th Arsenal in Chernihiv region are not true,' the Ministry statement said. This OFFICIAL information was cited by many mass media; however, the Ministry only mentioned 112 Ukraine TV channel. Another piece of absurdness lies with the circumstance that the source of information is a state institution, but the Ministry of Defense did not refute the Emergency Service, merely accusing the media of giving a false information. And still, it was not over. At a briefing at 10:30 a.m., the Defense Ministry spokesman said that the information on the tonnage of ammunition in the depot is 'classified', but 'I'll tell you that the media that provided this information were mistaken by 1,5-2 times'. Secrecy level 88! That very day, Presidential Advisor Yuriy Biryukov, and today the Defense Minister Poltorak himself 'declassified' the information on the amount of the ammunition in the depot. Whether the communication between the officials is too poor, or this country suffers problems with keeping the classified information in secret. Yet the journalists are somehow guilty! Today, the Defense Ministry's claims concerning the tonnage are no longer heard; neither are the apologies to journalists. Officials decided to dig into our channel from the other side. At the Cabinet meeting on October 10, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak complained to Volodymyr Groysman that Bohdan Senyk allegedly could not 'breakthrough' on air of our channel yesterday morning (October 9, - 112 International), despite the fact that on October 9, Senyk was present on the live standup three minutes after the start of the Live program on 112 Ukraine TV channel! Later, during conversations with our editors and the TV presenter, Bohdan Senyk could not explain who he was trying to call to get on the air. At the same time, when answering questions of our journalists, Senyk constantly mentioned 'the other channel and other journalists'. 'Ive been calling to one of your editors, then to another for half an hour. The reason is, you are discussing the issue without the official representatives in your studio. We've had the information since 5:30 am. We were at the site since 4 a.m., later we tried to reach you, and it was about this hour and a half,' Senyk stated. It should be noted that 112 Ukraine starts broadcasting at 6 a.m., and Live begins at around 8:10 a.m. It remains a mystery whom and where Mr. Senyk called from 4 to 6 a.m. At todays session of the Government, PM Volodymyr Groysman spoke about fake news and how it overloads the situation and spreads panic. Yet, for some reason, the Defense Ministry did not deny the fake photos of the armoury in Ichnia spread by Serhiy Pashynsky, the Head of the Parliaments Committee on the National Security and Defence, and by Igor Mosiychuk, the lawmaker from the Radical Party. The pictures targeted at discrediting army ranks. However, the information from the official state body, cited by media working on air caused anger among army men. Once again we reiterate that 112 Ukraine was the first TV channel to report on the incident in Ichnia and then, during the day, it checked the situation multiple times, providing the viewers with the latest news. We have done the job, which the Defence Ministry had to do (but it did not) to warn the citizens about the danger. However, instead of gratitude, we received an accusation from the officials, who instead of doing their work on protection of the Motherland properly, accuse the media of some imaginary sins. We hope that the sequence of attacks at our TV channel is just an unfortunate coincidence, and not a targeted campaign of the Defense Ministry. We will continue informing the audience about the events in Ukraine and the world first, using only official and reliable information. Again, unlike many lawmakers and other officials who are ready to write and tell people anything to create the fuss. Find out a chronology of fires and emergencies at Ukraine's ammo depots - from Artemivsk to Ichnia A fire and explosions at a rate of two to three a second hit a Ukrainian ammunition depot in Ichnia, Chernihiv region. More than 12 thousand people have already been taken out of the affected area, firefighting continues, as well as ammunition explosions. The online broadcast about the situation in Ichnia has already been launched, we continue to follow and report on the explosions. In the meantime, a brief historical overview to show a bunch of such cases, since the explosions in Ichnia are not the first such situation. Artemivsk (Donetsk region), October 2003 Open source What? The fire in the ammunition depots of the 52nd mechanized brigade of the 6th Army Corps of the Southern Operational Command of the Ground Forces on October 10, 2003. When? October 10, 2003. Details During the fire, about 3 thousand shells exploded, 10 of the 17 warehouses were destroyed. In addition, dozens of houses were damaged as a result of the explosions. The fire destroyed the military unit, where the warehouses were situated. In addition, due to the fire, the gas distribution station exploded. Investigation Two people were found guilty: the chief of the missile and artillery weapons service, Major Volodymyr Bevz, and the warehouse chief Valeriy Botnar. They were sentenced to 8 years in prison with the deprivation of military ranks. Novobohdanivka (Zaporizhia region), 2004-2006 Open source What? Several cases of emergency in warehouses in Novobohdanivka. May 6, 2004, it happened first time. Details About 90 thousand tons of ammunition exploded for several days. The radius of dispersal of ammunition reached 40 km. As a result of the explosions, 5 people were killed, four more were injured. Only by May 19, the fire was fully extinguished. The second time it happened on July 23, 2005. Details Due to the high air temperature, a warehouse caught fire at the 257th ammunition storage base. The fire was localized in 3.5 hours, several people were injured. In 2006, fires in warehouses in Novobohdanivka occurred four times, all of them were quickly extinguished. Investigation During the investigation of the emergency in 2004, then-President Leonid Kuchma dismissed the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Olexandr Zatynayko and the Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces Peter Shuliak. Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk was reprimanded. In December 2008, the Military Court of the Dnipropetrovsk Garrison sentenced to six years in prison the former head of the Novobohdanivka military unit Serhiy Lilov and Oleh Selin. Borys Kurbatov, a representative of the "Commonwealth" corporation, which was engaged in the disposal of ammunition, was sentenced to almost 2.5 years in prison for forgery. Tsvitokha (Khmelnytsky region) Open source What? Fire at a large 47th arsenal not far from Tsvitokha village, Khmelnytsky region. When? May 6, 2005. Details During the localization of fire, 9 militaries were injured. In total, about 110 thousand tons of ammunition was stored in the warehouses. The fire was localized on the same day. Investigation The investigation established that the warehouse was set on fire by one of the officers of the unit who had previously dealt with the military property. By the spring of 2011, the amount of ammunition in warehouses in Tsvitokha was estimated at 57 thousand tons. Lozova (Kharkiv region), August 2008 Open source What? Fire at the warehouse of the 61st Arsenal of the Southern Operational Command of the Ground Forces. When? August 27, 2008. Details About 95 thousand tons of shells were stored in the arsenal, its total area was about 500 hectares. Rescuers had to evacuate all residents within a radius of 3 km from the warehouses. As a result of the fire and detonation of ammunition, five houses were burned down, buildings of 16 different enterprises, institutions, and district organizations were damaged. Two people were found guilty of what happened: the commander of the unit, Oleksiy Polyakov, and his deputy, Olexandr Zaika. According to the investigation, they did not order to remove the landfill where the fire started. Subsequently, in 2009, the Military Court of Appeal of the Ukrainian Navy released Polyakov and Zaika under an amnesty. After extinguishing the fire in the warehouses, almost 7.5 thousand ammunition remained, in connection with which it was decided to eliminate the arsenal. Until July 2, 2010, over 5 thousand tons of the remaining ammunition were taken out of the arsenal. Svatove (Luhansk region), October 2015 When? October 29, 2015. Open source Details About 3.5 thousand tons of various ammunition were stored in the arsenal, which began to explode because of the fire. The center of the fire embraced about 300 square meters. As a result of the incident, several houses were destroyed and the building of one of the schools was damaged. During the emergency, four soldiers died, four more were injured. Investigation In the Military Prosecutor's Office, official negligence was called the cause of the fire. The Commission found that the fire occurred as a result of the launch of a signal rocket that entered the territory from outside the warehouse. Major Olexandr Lytvynenko was named the main defendant, he was charged with negligence in military service. Later it turned out that the nominally accused was not the head of the military warehouse, and the fire engine, which was supposed to be in stock but was sent to another place, was not subordinate to him. In January 2016, Lytvynenko extended his detention for a month, but since then there has been no new data on the investigation of this case. Balakliya (Kharkiv region), March 2017 Ruptly What? Arsenal area of 368 hectares, where 138 thousand tons of ammunition were stored, allegedly caught fire as a result of sabotage. When? March 23, 2017. Details Only after three days, the special bodies fully managed to extinguish the fire; cleaning the area took about a month. As a result of the explosions, two people died, another five were injured. Five houses in Balakliya were destroyed, more than 300 received various damages. Investigation The main version of what happened in Balakliya was called the attack. According to the chief military prosecutor, Anatoly Matios, a fire could have occurred as a result of sabotage. By the way. Today it became known that the court reinstated the head of the storage of the arsenal in Balakliya. Novoyanisol What? Explosions in weapons depots When? September 25, 2017 Details In the area of the village Novoyanisol, Donetsk region, explosions occurred in ammo warehouses. The cause of the fire was called arson of dry grass. In general, there were no serious consequences. Evacuation of the civilian population was not needed. A criminal case was opened in connection with art. 194 of the Criminal Code ("Intentional destruction or damage to property"). Kalynivka, September 2017 What? Fire at an ammunition depot in Kalynivka (Vinnytsia region), resulting in a series of large-scale explosions. When? September 26, 2017. Details The 48th arsenal caught fire. At the time of the explosion, 188 thousand tons of ammunition (10 thousand conditional cars) were stored there in an area of 60 hectares. Among them were the Smerch, Uragan, and Grad rocket launchers. The 48th arsenal storage base has been deployed 2 km from the town of Kalynivka since November 1938. Several people were injured. Investigation The military prosecutor's office of the Central region of Ukraine opened criminal proceedings on the fact of sabotage on the territory of the military unit. As a result, according to Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, more than 10 people were brought to justice. And now Ichnia Special bodies are now investigating the circumstances of the incident and evacuating people. Reports on the deaths are not yet forthcoming. Read the original text at 112.ua. Earlier, the militants were hiding in the villages abandoned houses and attacked Ukrainian positions from there Open source Ukrainian Armed Forces have secured one of the villages in Volnovakha district of Donetsk region located in the gray zone. The Joint Forces Operation HQ reported this on Facebook. "The village, in which 80 people lived before the war outbreak, remained empty during the four years of war. Civilians left it, because the occupants, despite the Minsk agreement, went into the village, robbed houses and kept people in fear. After the settlement became empty, the militants hid in abandoned houses and attacked from there positions of the Ukrainian army," the message reads. It is noted that in order to prevent unwanted provocations, the Joint Forces conducted a special operation to clean up the village, having advanced 1,200 meters forward, demining the approaches from the Ukrainian side, and set secret posts and barriers. The Joint Forces HQ said that traces of the occupation forces were found in the abandoned village. As it was reported earlier, the Armed Forces of Ukraine took control of the village of Novooleksandrivka located in the "gray zone" of the Donbas conflict area on February 2, 2018. The OSCE monitoring mission was dissatisfied with the fact that the Ukrainian military take control of settlements in the so-called "gray zone" in Donbas. This was stated by then deputy head of the OSCE mission in Ukraine, Alexander Hug, at a briefing on March 1. According to him, the recent arrival of Ukrainian fighters to the small village of Novoaleksandrivka, which was in the "gray zone" of Luhansk region, moved the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces even closer to the line of contact. The illegal annexation of Crimea has given the Russian Federation an opportunity to establish more anti-access and area-denial capabilities in the Black Sea," Foggo says Open source U.S. and NATO ships are focused on conducting freedom of navigation operations in Europe to push back against a Russia that is increasingly harassing commercial shipping and introducing new anti-access weapons into the theater, according to Admiral James Foggo, the head of U.S. naval forces in Europe, the U.S. Naval Institutes News reported. The illegal annexation of Crimea has given the Russian Federation an opportunity to establish more anti-access and area-denial capabilities (in the Black Sea). So S-300, S-400 Bastion weapon systems, anti-ship cruise missiles. Theyre pouring more into Kaliningrad and the Baltics, and theyre establishing more robust A2/AD capabilities in the Eastern Mediterranean, Foggo said. The Russian Federation has been aggressive in the Sea of Azov. After building a bridge over the Kerch Strait to connect Russia and Crimea, the Russians have been seeking to keep Ukrainian ships out of the strait and the Sea of Azov on the other side, even though under the international maritime law the Sea of Azov is controlled by both Russia and Ukraine. Along with the bridge goes the entry point to the Sea of Azov. If youre keeping up with this lately, theres been some irresponsible activity in the Sea of Azov in the last couple of months, the Ukrainians are not happy about that. The Russians have delayed shipping, held them at sea, unable to enter port, any port, unable to go to sea. This is costing the Ukraine millions of dollars a year and its an unfair practice, Foggo said Friday morning while speaking at an Atlantic Council event. The admiral said NATO forces would not look to patrol the Sea of Azov, as they have no claim to it, but he said the anti-access practices there make their patrols of the adjoining Black Sea all the more important. The U.S. Navy spends 125 days at sea there, the maximum allowed under maritime law for a nation that does not border the sea, and NATO forces also spent 125 days patrolling the Black Sea. This is reassurance for our friends to the east, and we will continue to operate there because the model, the protocol of trying to block the Sea of Azov, will not stand in the Black Sea, and with our friends the Bulgarians, the Romanians, Georgians, Ukrainians and the Turks we will continue as NATO to operate, Foggo said. As we reported earlier, Russian activity in the Sea of Azov increased over the last three months. Russians do not allow the trade vessels heading to and emerging from the Ukrainian ports to freely pass through the Kerch Strait. In this regard, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko commissioned the Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff and the Commandment of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to take measures to stop Russian provocations in relation to blocking the entry of vessels into Ukrainian ports on the Azov Sea. The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine developed a set of measures in response to Russia's actions. The set of measures includes the limit of passenger traffic with Russia. Ukraine also advocates the imposition of sanctions against Russian Black Sea ports due to the blockade of the Sea of Azov. Related: Large-scale drills with aviation take place at Sea of Azov coastal zones, video Rikard Jozwiak earlier reported that the MEPs will consider the situation in the Sea of Azov at the plenary session of the European Parliament on October 23. Find out the chronology of Ukraine's fight for its own church, not subordinated to Moscow Open source In the coming days, the matter of granting Ukraine the right to an autocephalous church, which would not be subordinated to Moscow, but to Constantinople, to be solved. This issue is being resolved for the territories of modern Ukraine for the second time. The first time it was resolved so successfully that the head of the independent, then still Kyiv Metropolis, moved to Moscow and took the post of head of the united churches. The church conflict around the Orthodox lands that were part of future Ukraine and Belarus, broke out in the middle of the fourteenth century. It had some political reasons, which nevertheless became directly involved in the church. Kyiv was the centre of Christianity in Rus, and the head of the church bore the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus. The Mongol invasion in the century especially hit Kyiv, so that the things of the Kyiv metropolitans were bad. In 1299, the next Metropolitan Maksym decided to move the department from Kyiv to the northeast by the Metropolitan, to Volodymyr Principality and the Volodymyr city. 17 years later, his successor Petro, moved again, choosing Moscow as his permanent residence. A paradoxical situation has arisen: those who possessed "Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus" titularity sat hundreds of kilometres from their legal residence. However, until the middle of the 14th century, this was not a particular obstacle: metropolitans sent their officials to Western dioceses and periodically travelled for spiritual encouragement of parishioners and solving personnel and economic issues. The situation changed dramatically in the 50s of the fourteenth century. It was a period of strengthening of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led by Prince Olgerd, subjugating to himself most of the territories that were part of modern Ukraine and Belarus. However, the prince did not bring any oppression to Orthodoxy. On the contrary, his wives, about whom at least something is known, were Orthodox - princesses from Vitebsk and Tver, and some of the children converted to Christianity. That is, in personal terms, Olgerd rather favoured Christianity. He did it, rather, for state reasons, since most of his subjects were Orthodox, although the prince of Lithuania himself was believed to have died a pagan. Open source Olgerd Since the mid-1350s, Olgerds interests have clashed with the Volodymyr Principality, that is, Moscow. In addition to the spiritual oversight of Orthodox subjects, the ruler received an outflow of income from the Orthodox dioceses from his territory to Moscow, reinforcing the princes adversary. But most importantly, it was during this period - from 1354 - that one of the prominent figures of medieval Rus Oleksiy (Byakont) became the Metropolitan of Kyiv. Starting an open conflict with Oleksiy, Olgerd began to ask the Patriarch of Constantinople, as head of Orthodoxy, to appoint another Orthodox Metropolitan of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, since Oleksiy did not visit his eparchies subordinates, did not take care of their affairs, but only brought money to Moscow. After the death of Oleksiy in 1378, Cyprianus tried to come to Moscow and become the head of the United department of the Metropolitan of Kyiv, Lithuania and All Rus, he was stopped at the border by order of Prince Dmitry Donskoy. Cyprianus was robbed and sent back. This was followed by a 12-year-old leapfrog with metropolitans, when four people managed to visit metropolitans in Moscow, including Cyprianus himself, and the rights of not all of them were recognized as legitimate. The first was the personal confessor of Dmitry Donskoy Mityai. He went to Constantinople to be approved by the Patriarchate, but died unexpectedly on his way to the city, so a new candidate for the metropolitan appeared - Pereyaslav archimandrite Pimen. In 1381, Pimen returned, but was also unkindly accepted by Donskoy, he was imprisoned by his order. In 1382, during Tokhtamyshs forays into Moscow, Donskoy, leaving the city and family in the care of the Metropolitan, left to "mobilize the regiments." Cyprianus left, taking the family of the Grand Duke with him. Until his death in 1389, Donskoy refused to deal with Cyprianus. Open source Dmitry Donskoy However, the church could not exist without the metropolitan, and Pimen was returned from exile, Dmitry Donskoy recognized his title of Metropolitan. Pimen was remembered by his exorbitant greed, thereby indirectly confirming rumours that he had been ordained by the metropolitan for taking huge bribes. Separated from the Moscow Orthodox church organization in the territory of future Ukraine arose three more times: 1) in 1415, by the decision of the hierarchs of the Church of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Hryhiriy Tsamblak was appointed the metropolitan of Kyiv. However, after 4 years, he renounced the title; 2) in 1441 - the metropolitan of Kyiv, the Greek Isidore, was expelled from Moscow after an attempt to hold a service according to the Uniate canon, which he had adopted on behalf of Russia at the Ferraro-Florence Cathedral. Isidore was recognized as the metropolitan of Kyiv outside the Grand Duchy of Moscow until his death in 1458; 3) in 1620 - the year of restoration by Patriarch Theophanes III of the department of the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus in Kyiv, the post of the first Metropolitan was occupied by Job Boretsky. Read the original text at 112.ua. Most are detained for transporting illegal migrants, explosives, and tobacco products to third countries Open source Ukrainian Foreign Ministry presented a project to prevent bringing sailors to crimes done in the maritime space, protection of their rights for the just treatment during the trials, in the pre-trial detention facilities and the penitentiary facilities. The Consulate Service Department reported this on Facebook. 'As of October 9, over 290 Ukrainian sailors are held at penitentiary colonies abroad,' reads the message. The vessels with Ukrainian sailors aboard were detained in Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Libya, and Nigeria. The sailors are most frequently arrested for transporting illegal migrants, explosives, and tobacco products to third countries. The international federation of transport carriers and the International Maritime Organization confirmed their readiness to assist the Ukrainian side and the trade union of sea transport workers in every possible way. Volodymyr Tsybulko, a political expert, commented on the speech of Radical Party leader and stated that Oleg Lyashko protected Ukraines interests before the international community briefly and firmly Oleg Lyashko, the leader of Ukraines Radical Party, presidential candidate, delivered a speech at PACE in Strasburg and made the Assembly exclude the issue of Russias return to the institution from consideration, as Volodymyr Tsybulko, a political expert, wrote on Facebook. Four years ago, Russia was expelled from PACE for Crimeas annexation and Donbas occupation. What has changed within these four years? Putin has not fulfilled any demands, his troops continue killing Ukrainians. Russian saboteurs exploded an ammunition depot in my native Chernihiv region, tens of thousands of people were evacuated. Two million Ukrainians lost their homes, jobs. Putins troops are murdering people in Syria. Except for Ukraine, part of Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan are also occupied. More than six armed conflicts on the European continent are Kremlins responsibility! the leader of the Radical Party quotes his speech in PACE on Facebook. Commenting on this speech, political expert Volodymyr Tsybulko noted that Lyashko protected Ukraines interests before the international community briefly and firmly. What is most important, according to the expert, thanks to this speech, in particular, the issue of Russias return to PACE was excluded from consideration. Tsybulko said that Russian lobbyists are pressuring the issue of its return, as the organization needs Moscows financial contributions, so Lyashkos criticism was fair: And PACE is discussing Putins return to the Assembly! This is not the amendment to the regulation, it breaks the principles for the sake of money. And this is the Europe we have to follow? Regardless of how Ukraine treats Lyashko and his political force, today he acted like a diligent Ukrainian politician! Tsybulko concluded. October 4, 2018, Oleh Lyashko voted for imposing sanctions against NewsOne and 112 Ukraine independent media outlets. Volodymyr Yelchenko reminded the UN of the ongoing military aggression in the Sea of Azov, which also threatens the regional security Russia's build-up of military force in occupied Crimea and the use of peninsula as a base for combat operations in Syria and other parts of the region might have far-reaching consequences for South Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Ukrinform news agency reported that quoting Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ukraine's permanent envoy in the UN. 'The occupation and the subsequent militarization of Crimea has far-reaching consequences for the security not only in the Black Sea region but also entire South Europe, as well as North Africa and the Middle East. The current events in Syria are a convincing proof this,' he said. The official also turned the UN attention to the latest developments in the Sea of Azov, as Russia's actions there 'threatens the stability' in the region. He reiterated that Russia has been meddling with the navigation in the Sea of Azov, building up forces and creating environmental issues. 'Taking into account the current unstable situation in the security area, Ukraine intends to provide the UN General Assembly draft resolution, aiming to prevent Russia from any further militarization of Ukraine's territory and the adjacent regions', Ukraine's permanent envoy in the UN said. The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine also plans to submit the UN General Assembly draft resolution on the militarization of occupied Crimea. The authority claimed there are reasons to suspect Russia either brought nuclear weaponry there or, at least, has the infrastructure for its deployment. Commissioner of the Russian Federation for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova claimed that illegally convicted Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov regularly takes food and is under the supervision of doctors, and he looks good, TASS reports. Oleg Sentsov looks pretty healthy and regularly takes food under the close supervision of the medical personnel. Sentsov didnt express complaints about the detention conditions, food, and healthcare, reads the statement of Moskalkova. According to her, Commissioner for Human Rights in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area Anatoliy Sak visited the Ukrainian political prisoner on October 10. During the conversation, on the question about the wellbeing, Sentsov claimed that he felt fine. Also, Anatoliy claimed that familiarized himself with the statement of Oleg Sentsov on the suspension of the hunger strike from 06.10.2018, Moskalkova added. As we reported earlier, Oleg Sentsov, Ukrainian political prisoner, announced a hunger strike in May 2018, demanding to release him and the rest of Ukrainian political prisoners illegally kept by the Kremlin. Sentsov has 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, its citizens, and the international society - politicians, artists, public figures - urge the Kremlin to release him. TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 2018 Macedonian Film Festival (MFF) Toronto proudly announces the winners for Best Feature: Secret Ingredient, directed by Gjorce Stavreski; Best Short Film: The Last Church Bells, directed by Nikola Popovski ; Best Documentary Film: Lake of Apples, directed by Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska. Our three Festival judges are prominent filmmakers and experts and have returned for another great year: Larry Anklewicz, B.A., LL.B., Christina Pochmursky, Producer/Director & Writer of Walk the Talk Productions Inc., and Frank A. Caruso of Caruso Visual Productions Inc. Our judges declared Secret Ingredient as Best Feature ... Well acted, funny, with a heart warming story, very likeable characters, even the bad guys! ...The Secret Ingredient is also Macedonias foreign film entry for the Oscars. Our winner, Best Short Film The Last Church Bells is about the last remaining occupant of an old abandoned village who uses church bells to communicate with the last remaining occupant of a neighboring village. Absurd ending? Or a brilliant take on todays world? Regarding our Best Documentary Film, Lake of Apples, the judges said, Beautifully shot, excellent, educational, inspiring & hopeful. Celebrate Cannabis legalization in Canada by watching Secret Ingredient, which will have its Canadian Premier Friday, October 19 @ 7pm at the Carlton Cinema, followed by an after-film party. Other films featured at the MFF this year are Milcho Manchevskis award winning Bikini Moon. Back by popular demand, Jason Mikos A Name is A Name, and the controversial film The Mocking of Christ. So many wonderful must-see films! For more information and to view the film schedule, visit macedonianfilmfestival.com and join our Facebook page for updates on this years festival highlights. Media enquiries: Elizabeth Naumovski enaumovski@hotmail.com +1-416-500-1016 West Corporation is the official media sponsor of the Macedonian Film Festival Polish law enforcement bodies were looking for the man for his participation in the organized crime group Ukraine extradited the citizen of Poland who embezzled more than $420 thousand of a collection service. Andrii Lysenko, Spokesperson of the Prosecutor Generals office, reported this on Facebook. It is claimed that Polish law enforcement bodies were looking for the man for his participation in an organized crime group. The members of this crime group planned and got the job at the collection service through fake IDs, and later embezzled the money in the amount for more than $420 thousand, Lysenko claimed. He was conveyed to the competent bodies of Poland today on October 10. Reportedly, the Ukrainian Parliament intends to extradite the foreigners who took part in the Anti-Terrorist Operation or joined Forces Operation in Donbas or JFO. Earlier, Ukraines Prosecutor General's Office extradited Ingush Timur Tumgoev to the Russian Federation upon the request of the Federal Security Service of Russia. The FSB of Russia suspects Tumgoev of participating in one of the radical groups in Syria. The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine then decided to extradite Tumgoev. The European Court of Human Rights twice refused to suspend the extradition, but the UN Human Rights Committee obliged the Ukrainian authorities to suspend the extradition. Earlier, UNESCO expressed concern because of the deterioration of the cultural heritage condition in Crimea Open source On October 10, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted a decision on the beginning of the direct monitoring of the situation in Crimea, annexed by Russia. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko reported this on his Facebook page. I welcome the important decision of the Executive Council of UNESCO to begin direct monitoring of the situation in the ARC (Autonomous Republic of Crime - Ed.) and Sevastopol. Russian occupation authorities will not be able to conceal their crimes from the international community. As well as to avoid its deserved responsibility. With one voice in all international formats we continue to fight for the restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Poroshenko claimed. Reportedly, in October 2017, Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called UNESCO to introduce direct monitoring in occupied Crimea. Reportedly, Ukraine has filed a lawsuit in ECHR against Russia due to its violation of Ukrainian political prisoner rights. In particular, the Ukrainian Government states on the systemic violations of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by the Russian side. The unknown threw kefir at the reporter of NewsOne TV channel near the building of the MIA during the action Clashes occurred during the protest near the Ministry of Internal Affairs, one person received injuries, reports Ukrinform. The skirmish happened when far-right C14 member Serhiy Mazur, previously convicted for attacks against Roma settlement, and a group of MPs entered the building of MIA to meet with the security forces. C14 leader Yevhen Karas acknowledged the cooperation of Ukraine's Security Service. Also, the unknown threw kefir at the reporter of NewsOne TV channel near the building of the MIA during the action. According to the press office of the National Police, the law enforcement officers have immediately captured the offender. Yet the comrades of the offender tried to stop the police officers by causing a clash. In result, one of the participants sought medical aid with a wounded arm, the Police reported. The law enforcement officers claimed that the man, who threw kefir at the reporter, and three more participants of the clash were delivered to the police department to establish their identity. The legal assessment of their behaviour will be given after primary checks. Now, the reporter is filling a claim, which will be viewed in accordance with the current legislation, the Police added. As of now, there are 50 people near the building of the MIA, some of them are in a balaclava. The traffic on Bohomoltsya St. is closed right now. Several hundred law enforcement officers secure the MIA building. As we reported earlier, a hand grenade was thrown in the window of the place of the Assistant of MP Igor Lutsenko Serhiy Mazur. Serhiys wife, son, and 61-year-old father were at home when the grenade exploded. The police qualified the incident, as an attempted murder. Mazur, who is the assistant to far-right MP Lutsenko, is a well-known far-right activist. Specifically, he is a suspect in pogroms against Roma settlement in Kyiv. As reported, the effective pogrom and burning of the camp took place on 20-21 April (dedicated to Adolf Hitler's birthday), with Mazur describing it in detail on his Facebook page. In July 2018, Mazur has received a two-month suspended sentence. Founded in 2010, C14 is named after the 14-word slogan We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children of American Nazi David Lane. C14 is regularly involved in numerous attacks against civilians, students, journalists, lawyers, social activists, foreigners, minorities, LGBT activists, they often conduct hate crimes and often go unpunished. They got the fines in the sum of $1,300 In Kharkiv, the State Committee for Television and Radio-Broadcasting of Ukraine along with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) fined four entrepreneurs for the illegal distribution of the books from Russia without authorization documents after the checks as the press service of the committee reported. The entrepreneurs were fined for $1,300. The books that were illegally distributed without authorization documents were removed from circulation. Totally, as at October 10, the officials of the State Committee for Television and Radio-Broadcasting drafted 21 protocols on the imposition of the administrative and economic fines. The total sum of the sanctions is almost $28,000. The illegally imported products were removed from circulation. As it was reported earlier, the State Committee for Television and Radio-Broadcasting of Ukraine has extended the list of books not recommended for import in Ukraine. Two Russian books were included to the list. In addition, two outlets from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and four released in Ukraine were included to the list. Earlier the State Committee for television and radio broadcasting of Ukraine has submitted the draft project of the order of the Cabinet of Ministers that offers to impose the sanctions against the Russian publishers who make and distribute the anti-Ukrainian products for the consideration of the government. Related video: 112 Ukraine did not distort information about the events in the ammunition depot in Ichnia, Chernihiv region, and did not hide this topic, as Vladyslav Seleznyov, the former Head of Armed Forces Headquarters press office, said on air of the TV channel. Yesterday, Defence Ministry accused 112 Ukraine of fake news. The TV channel, just like the others, covered the events according to the official information of Ukraines State Border Guard Service. Later, this information was disproved with a reference to the Defence Ministry. You are like friends for me. Weve been cooperating for almost 4,5 years, starting from Crimeas events, I have also served with Bogdan Senik for a while. So its quite hard for me to be impartial, but I will voice the facts and figures. The first call I received at 6:07 am from 112 Ukraine with a request to clarify the situation in Ichnia and I have immediately connected the editor with the Head of Public Relations Office so that our journalists get reliable and official information. Then, there were some more calls from the central TV channels, and I did the same. Yesterday, Ive got some calls from the guest editor of 112 Ukraine, so I cant say whether you source was hiding the truth or covering distorted information as I have seen everything which was going on on air, Seleznyov said. Reportedly,at 9:45 am, State Emergency Service informed that there were 88,000 tons of ammunition in the 6th armoury of the Defence Ministry. Later, the Ministry denied this information, yet it also accused 112 Ukraine of spreading wrong information. Today, at the Governments session, Stepan Poltorak, the Defence Minister, stated that there were 69,500 tons of ammunition in Ichnia ammo depot when the fire started. In an official response to the Defence Ministry, 112 Ukraine expressed hope that the sequence of attacks at our TV channel is just an unfortunate coincidence, and not a targeted campaign of the Defence Ministry. We will continue informing the audience about events in Ukraine and the world first, using only official and reliable information. Again, unlike many deputies and officials who are ready to write and tell anything to create information noise. At the moment, the operation on the rescue of the emergency cargo vessels crew takes place Open source Near Kavkaz Port in Crimea, a cargo ship with the Ukrainian crew sustained holes as Rosbalt reported. It is noted that the incident took place at the vessel which was transporting coal under the flag of Togo. 10 sailors out of 11 are the citizens of Ukraine and one more is a citizen of Azerbaijan. According to the latest data, seven members of the crew were withdrawn from the cargo vessel. Initially, TASS reported that the vessel was holed and ran aground. The cargo ship sustained holes, ran aground, at Kavkaz Port. The crew was dropped off. The spill of the oil products is prevented. Now the water pumping is conducted, the party of the agency said. Later it became known that the vessel did not run aground. While the captain refused from the water pumping without the explanations. At the same time, Russia sent two tugboats to the site. Earlier the Ukrainian delegation to the UN accused the Russian side of violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Over the past three months, Russia's activity in the Sea of Azov has increased significantly. The Russians do not allow commercial vessels going to and leaving Ukrainian ports to pass through the Kerch Strait without hindrance. In this regard, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko instructed the Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff, and the Ukrainian Navy to take measures to stop Russian provocations with regard to blocking the entry of ships into Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov. Ukraine's Ministry of Infrastructure has developed a set of measures in response to Russia's actions. At the same time, it was reported that the package of measures includes, among other things, restrictions on passenger traffic with Russia. Moreover, in July, Russia detained 148 ships for inspection in the Sea of Azov. Due to this, President Poroshenko entrusted the Defence Minister, the Head of the General Staff, and Command of Ukraines Naval Forces to take measures to stop Russian provocations concerning the blockade of Ukrainian ships in the Sea of Azov. Ukraine also supports the imposition of sanctions against Russian Black Sea ports due to the blockade of the Sea of Azov. Related video: According to Lutsenko, the head of the armouries was demoted from his position month or a month and a half ago Open source The head of the ammunition depot near Ichnia, Chernihiv region, was dismissed a month or a month and a half ago due to the absence of the holding of the counter-subversive events. Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yury Lutsenko claimed this as 112.ua reported. The detachments of the Special Assignments Forces held the mastering of all depots all over Ukraine in August on the readiness to anti-subversive tasks. On the results of these training, Head of Ichnia ammunition depot was demoted from his position to the reserve, without the terminal payments, Lutsenko said. According to him, the head of the armouries was dismissed month or month and a half ago. The counter-subversive activity was absent there as the inner work of the Defense Ministry and General Staff witnessed. They really established it and as a result, the head was dismissed. It took place a month or month and a half ago, he added. Reportedly, an explosion on the sixth armoury occurred in Ichnia, Chernihiv region, on October 9. The air-space within 30 km is shut down, traffic and railway movement are stopped due to the emergency situation. Ukraines Defence Ministry reports that as of 7 am, October 9, the intensity of the explosions was 2-3 explosions per second. Reportedly, the Military Prosecutors Office of the Central Region opened a criminal proceeding on the case of explosions on the ammunition depot in Ichnia. Later the State Emergency Service reported that over 12,000 people were evacuated from Ichnia and the adjacent localities within the radius of 16 kilometers. Blasts of various degree of intensity are still heard there. Currently, ten demining groups were working on the territory of the ammunition depot. They have cleared 70% of the administrative territory. Many local residents come back to their homes. Related video: The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) recorded one more fact of the unlawful actions of the Russian Federation in the Maritime Economic Zone of Ukraine, the press office of the SBGS reports. It is found that Petro Hodovanets self-lifting oil rig, which was captured in 2014 and later was renamed by the occupation authorities in Crimea-2, moved from Holitsynsky to Shtormove gas condensate field, reads the message. The ship of Ukrainian Maritime Border Guard approached the field, Russian Black Sea Fleet and Russias FSB Border Service Coast Guard ships using radio communications asked the Ukrainian ship about the purpose of being in the "economic zone of Russia." Having received an answer that the ship of the Maritime Border Guard of the SBGS is in service in the Maritime Economic Zone of Ukraine, they said they had no more questions. The data concerning this incident was summarized and forwarded to the Military Prosecutors office, the Prosecutors office of the Autonomous Crimean Republic, Security Service of Ukraine, and also Chornomornaftogaz public joint-stock company was informed. Reportedly, the border guards received the evidence of the illegal exploitation of the captured oil rigs in Crimea by Russia. Freedom of speech and free media in Ukraine - MEPs sign a plea to Ukrainian Parliament to revise its notorious decision and allow genuine freedom of the press in Ukraine to continue Open source Signatures gathering kicked off in the European Parliament to address to the Verkhovna Rada to revise its recommendation to the National Defense Council to sanction two Ukrainian TV channels - 112 Ukraine and NewsOne. A screenshot of the respective document is available. A number of Members of European Parliament have signed it already. The MEPs appeal to the viewpoint of Harlem Desir, the OSCE Representative on freedom of the media, who had already expressed his concern regarding the current situation. "We would like to stress that freedom of expression and freedom of the media are fundamental commitments of Ukraine under the terms of Association Agreement with the European Union", - reads the message. On Tuesday, Nathan Lee Gill, a British politician who is a Member of the European Parliament, in his exclusive interview to the 112 Ukraine TV channel said that he supports the 112 Ukraine TV channel, as he supports the thing which is essential for every nation to have free press, that tell everything they intend to. Here is the text of the document: "We are deeply concerned about a decision by Ukraine's Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, which calls for sanctions against Ukrainian television channels 112 Ukraine and NewsOne which may be forced to terminate their activities. We join here the OSCE Representative on freedom of the media who has already expressed explicitly their deep concern about this move. We would like to stress that freedom of expression and freedom of the media are fundamental commitments of Ukraine under the terms of Association Agreement with the European Union. Any restrictions imposed on these rights, including in the name of protecting national security or countering propaganda, should be strictly limited in scope, proportional, and provide for adequate safeguards against abuse through an independent court system. It is against established European democratic standards that political bodies like the parliament attempt to interfere with the editorial policy of independent broadcasters let alone seeks to punish them for it. We call upon the Parliament of Ukraine to revise its notorious decision and allow genuine freedom of the press in Ukraine to continue." As we reported earlier, Ukraines Verkhovna Rada urges the countrys National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to introduce sanctions against several Ukrainian TV channels. 229 MPs supported the draft law No. 9157 on 'Approval of recommendations to introduce personal special economic sanctions and other restrictive measures (sanctions)'. CEO of 112 Ukraine TV channel Yegor Benkendorf stated that the attempt to stop the operation of 112 Ukraine is a part of a large-scale process and concerns an unsatisfactory situation with the respect of freedom of speech in Ukraine. According to him, 112 Ukraine TV channel has to confirm the impossibility to protect its rights independently by legal tools, and soon, it might lead to cessation of the broadcasting. The appeal was sent to the President of the European Commission Donald Tusk, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjrn Jagland, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Liliane Maury-Pasquier, President of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Marija Pejcinovic Buric, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Coordinator of the Europe and Central Asia Program of the Committee to Protect Journalists Nina Ognianova, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists Anthony Bellanger. 112 Ukraine TV channel emphasizes again that it was following the principles of the journalistic work, giving an opportunity to express ones opinion for all the Ukrainian politicians, the representatives of the governmental bodies and independent experts during its existence. Also, the channel does not avoid covering acute political and social issues, and such position of the TV channel cases and will cause opposition from individual politicians and political forces. Related video: *** The staff of 112 Ukraine TV channel insists that the steps made by the Ukrainian Parliament, which aim to apply sanctions against 112 Ukraine TV channel are nothing but a political decision; there is not enough evidence to make such decision, which badly lacks argumentation and may be considered unconstitutional. Rufina Taproom presents: FireBug & Escape On A Horse Wednesday, October 10th 8pm doors / $5 / All Ages FireBug https://firebugmusic.com/ Spectra Records recording artist FireBug have captivated audiences at music venues and festivals across the globe. Performances in North America that include appearances at SXSW Austin, CMJ NYC and NXNE in Toronto. Furthermore their shows at festival events in the European Union that include Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth UK and London's famous Dublin Castle, just scratch the surface of the mileage that FireBug has covered since their inception. Their signature modern rock sound injects a New Orleans influence with elements of 70's rock, grunge, blues and folk rock. Sharing stages with big name acts like Iron Maiden, Iggy Pop, Alice In Chains, Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), The Cult, Dave Catching (Eagles Of Death Metal) and many other internationally acclaimed acts. FireBug's upcoming Spectra Records full length release co- produced by Chris Goss (Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Queens Of The Stone Age) features multiple singles that include the album's debut single featured on Yahoo Music titled "Wine Water & Bread" which describes how the simple joys in life are all you really need.Their follow up single 'Strange Days' produced by Chris Goss recent rave review in Elmore Magazine "Firebug blends Optimism with Blistering rock n roll fury on 'Strange Days' ". Their latest single 'Sinner' was recently featured on New Orlean's modern rock station 106.1 FM The Underground. Canadian Rock Zine Pure Grain Audio states: " 'Sinner' is a lesson in how modern bluesy swamp rock should both sound and feel. Juliette Tworsey's vocals perfectly match the song's great groove and it's truly hard to avoid listening to the song on repeat." In the UK FireBug was voted best songwriters of the year and winners of the coveted UK New Music Video Awards and has also won the Best International Act two years in a row at the UK Exposure Music Awards. Exemplary reviews from a multitude of industry publications include high praise from; HITS Magazine, LA Weekly, Time Out NY, Elmore Magazine, Pure Grain Audio, The Vinyl District to name a few. Building a following from Los Angeles to Chicago, from New Orleans to London and beyond FireBug have proven their dedication in the music business and will continue to grow their presence. Described as a Chrissie Hynde-meets-Grace Slick 70's vibe, with her own unique twist and flavor, Lead vocalist Juliette Tworsey says "cutting our musical teeth in and around local hot spots in Chicago, Los Angeles and New Orleans, has allowed us to connect on a deeper level not only with our music and fans but also with ourselves." Guitarist Jules Shapiro adds, "It was the laissez-faire attitude that attracted us to New Orleans. The depth and musical soul of this eclectic city have inspired our sound." FireBug have performed at many festivals in New Orleans that include; Satchmo Festival, French Quarter Festival, NOLA Fringe Festival and many others.Venues in New Orleans include the famed One Eyed Jacks, Gasa Gasa, House Of Blues and Howlin' Wolf. In Los Angeles, FireBug has hosted the Firelight Music Festival in Silverlake multiple times and have showcased their best material at The Viper Room in West Hollywood and The Echo in Echo Park. In London, England they received critical acclaim for their performances at famous venues such as Dublin Castle, Half Moon, Barfly, and their performance at the 80,000 + Sonisphere Festival Knebworth. The band recently re-located to Joshua Tree CA as they continue to grow their global following and are very excited to release their highly anticipated album on Spectra Records. They plan on touring extensively in the upcoming year 2018. Escape On A Horse https://www.escapeonahorse.com/ A blend of Alt-country mixed with a smattering of soul and rock that's not with out their own brand of wry humor. CHICAGO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Two leaders were honored Tuesday in recognition of their commitment to excellence in the Native CDFI industry at the 2018 Native CDFI Awards Ceremony, part of the 15th Annual Native CDFI Convening hosted by Opportunity Finance Network ( OFN ) and First Nations Oweesta Corporation (Oweesta). The Circle of Honor Award recognizes a Native CDFI that is successfully increasing access to capital and financial resources in Native communities by developing innovative loan products, promoting community development, and overcoming challenges. The 2018 Circle of Honor Award winner is Mazaska Owecaso Otipi Financial, Inc. (Mazaska), a Native CDFI serving the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and adjacent communities. Mazaska demonstrates outstanding leadership within the industry by creating safe and affordable housing opportunities by providing home loans to first-time and existing homeowners, development services such as free financial literacy and homeownership classes, and financial insight to empower Native people to build assets and create wealth. Mazaskas Executive Director, Colleen Steele, is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe with over twenty years experience working with Native organizations and has served as Mazaskas primary staff member since 2005. Ms. Steele has been instrumental in raising funds and building the loan program. In the past two years, Mazaska has: started providing a bridge loan product to veterans on the Pine Ridge Reservation, as well as the USDA Rural Development 502 Pilot Program, a partnership in the works for several years designed to deploy $1 million to provide low- and moderate-income households with the opportunity to own adequate, modest, decent, safe, and sanitary housing in eligible rural areas. Mazaska is also working with the partner organizations on additional reservation homeownership initiatives, including projects that will pass through $100,000 for down payment assistance and utilize $1 million from a capital pool for affordable housing. Additionally, Mazaska is working with the Oglala Sioux Tribe Home Improvement Subsidy program and the Federal Home Loan Bank to provide up to $10,000 in down payment assistance to qualified borrowers. Finally, Mazaska is partnering with Lakota Funds to provide mortgage lending at Eagle Nest Housing, which includes 30 units of rental housing currently converting to mortgages, providing the tenants with an opportunity to become homeowners. Mazaska was selected from a highly competitive group of Native CDFI nominees and was awarded for their hard work and dedication in working with their community members to support asset building through homeownership, building key partnerships close to home and farther away to support their work, and bringing in diverse sources of capital to then invest in their communities, shared Chrystel Cornelius, Oweesta Executive Director. The Visionary Leader Award for Outstanding Achievement recognizes a person who has made a long term contribution to the Native CDFI industry and whose local financing and asset building efforts make them an inspiration for others. Tawney Brunsch, Executive Director of The Lakota Funds ( TLF ), is a trailblazing visionary leader exemplifying a level of commitment to the Native CDFI industry and TLF, where she has served as Executive Director since 2010. She has led TLF through many history-making accomplishments and is a tireless advocate for the Lakota people and for capital access throughout Indian Country. She was a founding board member for the Native CDFI Network and currently serves on Mazaskas Board. She Chairs the Credit Committee for the Council for Native American Farmers and Ranchers and serves on the Federal Home Loan Banks Advisory Council. Tawney is also actively involved with the South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition (SDNHC), where she chairs the Physical Issues Committee and serves on the Executive and Veterans Committees. Under Ms. Brunschs leadership, Lakota Funds started the Lakota Federal Credit Union (LFCU), the first federally-insured financial institution on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which as of 2018 also offers checking accounts (250 people opened one in the first two weeks). TLF has also developed an innovative partnership with Lakota Federal Credit Union and First Peoples Fund to take services to communities throughout the reservation with the Rolling Rez. Rolling Rez is a mobile unit which delivers financial literacy training, artist business development training, and financial services through Lakota Federal Credit Union and allows TLF to reach the most marginalized individuals in all 9 reservation districts. In 2017, TLF deployed over $1.1 million in loans, creating 105 jobs and starting or expanding 46 small businesses on the Pine Ridge Reservation. They helped prepare 326 tax returns returning almost $900K in tax refunds to Tribal members. In fall 2015, TLF was the first Native CDFI approved as a USDA Farm Service Agency guaranteed lender. This allowed TLF to offer more financing solutions for reservation farmers and ranchers. TLF has also seen growing assets totaling over $6 million and in early 2018, the organization was approved to participate in the first-ever Native Capital pool through Oweesta. Additionally, growing efforts to increase residential housing stock have led to increased demand for contractors and local inspectors on the reservation but the largest barrier is lack of a qualified workforce. In summer 2017, TLF partnered with SDNHC, Oglala Lakota College, and Four Bands Community Fund on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota to launch the Construction Internship Pilot. This innovative program delivered an intensive hands-on work experience to participants from the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge Reservations. Twenty-three students from both Reservations participated in the program, in partnership with local contractors. Upon completion of the program, nine local students received offers of permanent employment. To further support contractor business development, TLF also provided two home inspector certification trainings and contractor workshops to build skills for the validation process required when building using HUD 184 funds. More than 70 people attended the inspector certification trainings, several whom either obtained jobs or started their own home inspection business upon certification. Tawney Brunsch is a true example of how hard work, dedication, collaboration, and innovation come together to best serve the community. Tawneys persistent pursuit of doing better and creating more opportunities for her clients is what we all aspire to do in the Native CDFI industry and I feel so honored to have the chance to celebrate such a strong leader, added Chrystel Cornelius, Oweesta Executive Director, First Nations Oweesta Corporation. We are genuinely excited to honor the success of our award winners. And we appreciate OFN for recognizing the achievements of these recipients. Congratulations to this years wonderful Native Award winners. OFN values the opportunity to recognize Mazaska and Tawney for their amazing and dedicated work serving Native communities, said Lisa Mensah, President and CEO of Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), a leading national network of CDFIs. "Each year, OFN is impressed by the positive economic impact of the Circle of Honor and Visionary Leader award recipients. And both of these remarkable honorees are at the forefront of positive change in their respective communities." The awards ceremony capped off the 15th Annual Native Convening in conjunction with the 34th Annual OFN Conference where Native economic development practitioners and Tribal representatives from across the country joined hundreds of other opportunity finance experts to share and learn about new ideas, strategies for change, and innovations from the field. For more information on Mazaska Owecaso Otipi Financial, Inc., please visit their website at www.mazaskacdfi.org . For more information on Tawney Brunsch and The Lakota Funds, please visit www.lakotafunds.org . First Nations Oweesta Corporation provides opportunities for Native people to develop assets and create wealth by assisting in the establishment of strong, permanent institutions and programs, leading to economic independence, and strengthening sovereignty for all Native communities. Oweesta is the oldest Native CDFI intermediary offering financial products and development services exclusively to Native CDFIs and Native communities. Specifically, Oweesta provides training, technical assistance, investments, research, and policy advocacy to help Native communities develop an integrated range of asset-building products and services, including financial education and financial products. For more information, visit www.oweesta.org. Topline findings from ASSESS show adult relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients taking Gilenya (fingolimod) 0.5mg experienced significantly fewer relapses than patients on Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) 20mg Gilenya 0.5mg is the first and only disease modifying therapy to show superiority in reducing relapses vs Copaxone in a controlled, head-to-head trial Treatment discontinuations were overall more common in the Copaxone group due to adverse events and unsatisfactory therapeutic effects Basel, October 10, 2018 - Novartis announced today topline results from the Phase IIIb ASSESS study, which evaluated the efficacy and safety of oral, once daily Gilenya (fingolimod) 0.5mg and 0.25mg versus once daily subcutaneous injections of Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) 20mg in patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The data show that Gilenya 0.5mg met its primary endpoint of significantly reducing the annualized relapse rate (ARR) compared to Copaxone[1]. Treatment with Gilenya 0.5mg resulted in a 40.7% relative reduction in the rate of relapses over a period of one year, compared to Copaxone (ARR estimates of 0.153 vs. 0.258, respectively, p= 0.0138)[1]. Further initial findings showed adults taking Gilenya 0.25mg achieved a numerical risk reduction in relapses compared to the comparator, but did not reach statistical significance. The safety of Gilenya observed in ASSESS across both doses was consistent with the known safety profile of the drug, with overall more discontinuations due to adverse events and unsatisfactory treatment effects reported in the Copaxone group[1]. "ASSESS is the first controlled head-to-head study of a MS disease modifying therapy versus Copaxone to show superior efficacy in reducing relapses, a key measure of disease activity and a significant burden for patients," said Bruce Cree, MD, PhD, MAS, George A. Zimmermann Endowed Professor in Multiple Sclerosis at the University of California San Francisco, and ASSESS Principal Study Investigator. "Head-to-head trials, such as ASSESS, are extremely important to help clinicians better understand the relative efficacy and safety of MS therapies, thereby making better-informed treatment decisions." "Gilenya reimagined MS care as the first oral treatment and is a testament to Novartis' quest to stop MS," said Danny Bar-Zohar, Global Head of Neuroscience Development, Novartis Pharmaceuticals. "The ASSESS data add to the robust body of evidence which show that Gilenya is a highly efficacious, cornerstone therapy in relapsing MS." Gilenya 0.5mg is a leading oral disease-modifying therapy, that has demonstrated high efficacy across multiple measures of disease activity in patients 10 years of age and through to adulthood. To date, Gilenya 0.5mg has been used to treat more than 255,000 patients worldwide[1]. Long-term experience has shown Gilenya treatment to be convenient for people to incorporate into everyday life, leading to high treatment satisfaction, long-term persistence, and ultimately, improved long-term outcomes[2],[3]. Gilenya 0.25mg is not approved for adults with RRMS. Novartis will complete full analyses of the ASSESS data and intends to submit the full results to upcoming medical meetings and for peer-reviewed publication. About the ASSESS Study The ASSESS study (NCT01633112) is a Phase IIIb randomized, rater- and dose-blinded study to compare the safety and efficacy of Gilenya (fingolimod) 0.25mg and 0.5mg administered orally once-daily, with Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) 20mg administered via subcutaneous injections once-daily, in patients with RRMS over the course of one year. Novartis initiated the ASSESS study in 2012 as part of a post-approval commitment to the US FDA. In agreement with the FDA, a total of 1,064 patients were enrolled into ASSESS, with 352, 370 and 342 patients randomized in Gilenya 0.5mg, Gilenya 0.25mg and Copaxone 20mg arms respectively. About Multiple Sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) that disrupts the normal functioning of the brain, optic nerves and spinal cord through inflammation and tissue loss[4]. In adults, there are three main types of MS: relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), secondary progressive MS (SPMS) and primary progressive MS (PPMS)[5]. Approximately 85% of people with MS have relapsing-remitting MS, where the immune system attacks healthy tissue[6]. In children, RRMS account for nearly all cases (approximately 98%)[7]. About Novartis in Multiple Sclerosis The Novartis multiple sclerosis portfolio includes Gilenya (fingolimod, an S1P modulator), which is indicated for relapsing forms of MS. In the United States, Gilenya is the first disease-modifying therapy approved for the treatment of children and adolescents 10 to less than 18 years of age with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (RMS). In September 2018, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended approval of Gilenya for the treatment of children and adolescents 10 to 17 years of age with relapsing remitting forms of multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The European Commission will review the CHMP opinion and is expected to deliver its final decision within three months. Investigational compounds include siponimod (BAF312). Siponimod is an investigational, selective modulator of specific subtypes of the sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor, and has the potential to delay progression and expand possibilities for patients with typical SPMS. Novartis initiated the submission of siponimod for US approval in SPMS in the first half of 2018, which was followed by filing with the EMA in September 2018 for EU approval. The file has been accepted by both agencies. Our other investigational compound is ofatumumab (OMB157), a fully human monoclonal antibody in development for relapsing MS. Ofatumumab targets CD20, and is currently being investigated in two Phase III pivotal studies. Extavia (interferon beta-1b for subcutaneous injection) is approved in the US for the treatment of relapsing forms of MS. In Europe, Extavia is approved to treat people with relapsing-remitting MS, secondary progressive MS (SPMS) with active disease and people who have had a single clinical event suggestive of MS. In the US, the Sandoz Division of Novartis markets Glatopa (glatiramer acetate injection) 20 mg/mL and 40 mg/mL, generic versions of Teva's Copaxone. *Copaxone is a registered trademark of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "potential," "can," "will," "plan," "expect," "anticipate," "look forward," "believe," "committed," "investigational," "pipeline," "launch," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for the investigational or approved products described in this press release, or regarding potential future revenues from such products. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such products could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political and economic conditions; safety, quality or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Novartis Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach nearly 1 billion people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 125,000 people of more than 140 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at www.novartis.com. Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis For Novartis multimedia content, please visit www.novartis.com/news/media-library For questions about the site or required registration, please contact media.relations@novartis.com References [1] Novartis Data on File [2] Warrender-Sparkes M et al. The effect of oral immunomodulatory therapy on treatment uptake and persistence in multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler. 2016;22(4):520-532. [3] Khatri B et al. Comparison of fingolimod with interferon beta-1a in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: a randomised extension of the TRANSFORMS study. Lancet Neurol. 2011;10(6):520-529. [4] PubMed Health. Multiple sclerosis (MS). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0024311/. Accessed October 2018. [5] Multiple sclerosis international federation. Types of MS. https://www.msif.org/about-ms/types-of-ms/. Accessed October 2018. [6] Multiple sclerosis international federation. Atlas of MS 2013. http://www.msif.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Atlas-of-MS.pdf. Accessed October 2018. [7] Waldman A et al. Pediatric multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2016;87 (9):74-81. # # # Novartis Media Relations Central media line: +41 61 324 2200 E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com Eric Althoff Novartis Global Media Relations +41 61 324 7999 (direct) +41 79 593 4202 (mobile) eric.althoff@novartis.com Angela Fiorin Novartis Global Pharma Communications +41 61 324 8631 (direct) +41 79 752 6955 (mobile) angela.fiorin@novartis.com Novartis Investor Relations Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944 E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com Highlights: Initial drill program will take three months scout drilling to define best area of focus Four target areas selected based on geological, geochemical and geophysical data Drilling designed to evaluate positive results from soil samples, trenching and ground geophysics Tres Estradas permitting process in final stages with government site visits and public hearings A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/287233de-030e-4325-930b-b40cb2ec39a1 TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aguia Resources Limited (ASX: AGR, TSXV:AGRL) (Aguia or the Company) is pleased to confirm that a 3,000 metre diamond drilling program at the Big Ranch copper prospect in Southern Brazil is now underway. As previously announced, the Company has discovered a new zone of copper mineralisation on 23 tenements across 34,000 hectares on ground staked within the Rio Grande Copper Belt, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (Figure 1). Figure 1. Geological map of the Rio Grande Copper Belt. The Big Ranch target inset is detailed in Figure 2. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/03abfb07-031f-4863-9c14-c85c183b7f51 The drilling program will be executed with one rig and is anticipated to take approximately three months. The main purpose of this campaign is to acquire more data on the geology and nature of the hydrothermally altered rocks at depth, which will provide the necessary information for a more accurate interpretation of the copper and base metals showings identified so far. Using the data gathered in the last few months, Aguia has identified four Target Areas to be tested in this drilling program (Figure 2). Target Areas 1 to 3 were selected from the geological, geochemical and geophysical data, while Target Area 4 is essentially a geophysical target. In Target Area 1, multiple high-grade gold findings from gossan samples collected at surface provide an indication that there could be copper-bearing sulfide minerals at shallow depth, underneath the weathering profile. Over time as sulfide minerals weather, the base metals leach out, whereas gold commonly becomes relatively enriched in the oxidized zone near surface. Target Area 1 also demonstrated high chargeability and low resistivity, indicating the underlying material contains metallic minerals in sufficient concentrations to charge or store electricity another characteristic of sulphide mineralization. In Target Area 2, assays from trenching approximately one metre from surface revealed an intercept of 16 m averaging 0.20% copper and 2 m averaging 0.32% copper. The trenching sample showed 10x higher copper concentration than the soil sample collected at surface. Drilling will help determine if the enrichment continues to increase at depth. Soil geochemistry also indicates a lead (Pb) soil anomaly in an area of high chargeability and low resistivity. Drilling in Target Area 2 will seek to determine whether the copper identified in trenching extends deeper. Target Area 3 is an area where gold, copper, zinc and lead were found in samples in an area of high chargeability and low resistivity. Target Area 4 was selected based on the strong geophysical anomaly identified through the Induced Polarization which maps another significant area of high chargeability and low resistivity. Figure 2. Induced Polarization Chargeability map of the Big Ranch Target highlighting the four Target Areas that will be drilled in the current campaign. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dc9ef469-5715-44b8-8c08-146b9737f473 The Big Ranch target is located along the northern edge of the Cacapava Granite and consists of a 6 km-long zone that hosts significant copper-and-gold-in-soils anomalies. Anomalous trends of zinc and lead have also been mapped. These soil anomalies were followed-up using a combination of different ground geophysical exploration methods, including Induced Polarization (IP) with gradient and dipole-dipole arrays, magnetics and radiometric. By analyzing the data gathered from the ground geophysics, in combination with mapping, rock chip sampling and trench results, Aguias technical team has identified a number of promising locations for exploratory drill holes. The surrounding geological environment is highly prospective and includes the past producing Camaqua copper mine, a new Zn-Pb project currently being licensed by Nexa Resources (Votorantim Group), and the Andrade copper deposit owned by Brazilian-based Referencial. Tres Estradas Project Meanwhile, Aguia is very focused on completing the final milestones for the Environmental Impact Assessment to be approved and the Preliminary License granted by the government regulator. The state regulator will be conducting a final site visit to be followed up by two public hearings. Timing of these hearings will be determined by the State government. Aguias team in Lavras do Sul is fully engaged in preparations for the public hearings and support for the project locally is very positive. Commentary Technical Director Fernando Tallarico commented: This initial scout drilling program across the Big Ranch Target will give us the first subsurface information on the potential source of soil anomalies we have mapped so far. We expect the campaign will help us to better understand the nature of the alteration system and allow further collaring as the program advances. Managing Director Justin Reid added: Our objective with the Big Ranch drill program is to make the most efficient use of resources and learn as much as we can about this very large target on this first pass drill program. Our team has done a great deal of analysis on the data gathered over the last few months to select optimal targets for the drill program and we are pleased to be on the ground now with the first drill turning. Meanwhile, we are fully engaged with the local authorities in Rio Grande do Sul to complete the final steps of the environmental permitting for Tres Estradas. On a recent trip to Rio Grande do Sul I was assured by local officials of their strong support for the project and Aguias efforts in developing a large-scale agribusiness venture that will have very positive benefits for Southern Brazil and the local economy in which we are operating. For further information, please contact: Justin Reid, Managing Director E: jreid@aguiaresources.com.au T: +1 416-216-5446 Spyros Karellas, Investor Relations North America E: spyros@pinnaclecapitalmarkets.ca T: +1 416-433-5696 Released through: Ben Jarvis, Six Degrees Investor Relations: +61 413 150 448 Follow Aguia on Twitter: @ Aguia_Resources A b o u t A gu ia : Aguia Resources Limited, (Aguia) is an ASX and TSX Venture listed company whose primary focus is on the exploration and development of mineral resource projects in Brazil. Aguia has an established and highly experienced in-country team based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil with corporate offices in Sydney, Australia. Aguias key projects are located in Rio Grande do Sul, a prime farming area which is 100% dependent on phosphate imports. The Rio Grande phosphate deposits exhibit high quality and low cost production characteristics, and are ideally located with proximity to road, rail, and port infrastructure. Aguias experienced management team has a proven track record of advancing high quality mining assets to production in Brazil. The information in this announcement that relates to Exploration Targets, Exploration Results, Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves is based on information compiled by Dr Fernando Tallarico, who is a member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario. Dr Tallarico is a full-time employee of the company. Dr Tallarico has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Dr Tallarico consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears. Qualified Person The technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Fernando Tallarico, who is a member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario, Technical Director for Aguia and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Dr. Tallarico consents to the inclusion of his name in this release. Cautionary Statement on Forward Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and Australian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the results of exploration activities at the Canhada and Big Ranch Targets, soil and assay results, plans for future drilling and exploration programs, the mineral resource estimates, production targets, the anticipated timetable, permitting, forecast financial information, bankable feasibility study and ability to finance the project, and the prospectivity and potential of the Canhada and Big Ranch Targets. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks inherent in the mining industry and risks described in the public disclosure of the Company which is available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com , on the ASX website at www.asx.com.au and on the Company's website at www.aguiaresouces.com.au. These risks should be considered carefully. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Persons reading this news release are cautioned that such statements are only predictions and there can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, estimates, options, future events, results or otherwise and does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. NEITHER THE AUSTRALIAN STOCK EXCHANGE, TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR THEIR 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. HOUSTON, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lilis Energy, Inc. (NYSE American: LLEX), an exploration and development company operating in the Permian Basin of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico, today announced the Company has entered into a five-year, $500 million credit agreement. The credit agreement provides for a senior secured reserve based revolving credit facility with an initial borrowing base of $95 million. The credit facility matures on October 10, 2023 and is secured by substantially all of the Companys assets. The credit facility is led by BMO Capital Markets Corp. and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. as Joint Lead Arrangers; BMO Harris Bank, N.A. as Administrative Agent; SunTrust Bank as Syndication Agent; Capital One, N.A. as Documentation Agent, and Credit Suisse AG. The Company also announced the exchange of approximately $68 million of the existing second lien term debt to equity, in connection with the new credit facility. HIGHLIGHTS Initial borrowing base of $95 million which can be expanded in the future Maximum facility borrowing amount of $500 million Proceeds of the new credit facility will be used to repay the Companys existing $50 million first lien term loan, fund future drilling program and for general corporate purposes Varde will exchange the approximately $68 million claim amount of its second lien term loan for a combination of preferred and common equity: Newly issued Series D Preferred, representing 57.5% of claim value or $39 million under the same terms as second lien term loan Newly issued common equity represents a claim value of 42.5%, or $29 million of 5.8 million shares (based on $5.00 per share conversion price) Concurrent with the second lien debt conversion, Lilis will issue an additional $25 million tack-on to the existing Series C Preferred equity (same terms as original) to further enhance liquidity and position the Company to take advantage of identified accretive acquisition opportunities: Identified acreage and production acquisition in Lilis core area in Texas Additional acreage acquisitions also identified Ronald D. Ormand, Lilis Energys Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: These transactions, including the new reserve based credit facility and the exchange of equity, place the Company in a position of increased financial strength through reduced leverage and increased liquidity. The transactions enhance our current liquidity position by approximately $60 million and improve our ability to access capital at significantly lower costs through the RBLs capacity for growth. The culmination of these transactions is a significant initial step toward the simplification and evolution of our balance sheet to meet the future growth of our business. The recent announcement of additional capacity in the Permian Basin further supports our long-term takeaway initiatives and will provide additional revenue enhancements in the near future and in 2019. We have long-term agreements in place to capitalize on these developments. We will provide an operational update before months end and remain on track to meet and exceed our 2018 production exit rate of 8,000 boepd guidance before year end, added Mr. Ormand. About Lilis Energy, Inc. Lilis Energy, Inc. (NYSE American: LLEX) is a Houston-based independent oil and gas exploration and production company that operates in the Permian's Delaware Basin, considered amongst the leading resource plays in North America. Lilis' current total net acreage in the Permian Basin is approximately 20,000 acres. Lilis Energy's near-term E&P focus is to grow current reserves and production and pursue strategic acquisitions in its core areas. For more information, please visit www.lilisenergy.com Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements include all statements regarding wells anticipated to be drilled and placed on production; future levels of drilling activity and associated production and cash flow expectations; the Company's 2018 guidance and capital expenditure forecast; estimated reserve quantities and the present value thereof; and the implementation of the Company's business plans and strategy, as well as statements including the words "believe," "expect," "plans" and words of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements regarding expected production levels are based upon our estimates of the successful completion of drilled wells on schedule. Actual sales production rates from our wells can vary considerably from tested initial production (IP) rates and are subject to natural decline rates over the life of the well. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. These risks include, but are not limited to, our ability to replicate the results described in this release for future wells; the ability to finance our continued exploration, drilling operations and working capital needs; all the other uncertainties, costs and risks involved in exploration and development activities; and the other risks identified in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date hereof, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update the forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact: Wobbe Ploegsma V.P. Finance & Capital Markets 210-999-5400, ext. 31 ACHESON, Alberta, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- North American Construction Group Ltd. (NACG or the Company) (TSX:NOA.TO/NYSE:NOA) announced today that it will release its financial results for the Third Quarter ended September 30, 2018 on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 after markets close. Following the release of its financial results, NACG will hold a conference call and webcast on Wednesday, October 31, 2018, at 7:00 a.m. Mountain Time (9:00 a.m. Eastern Time). The call can be accessed by dialing: Toll free: 1-866-521-4909 International: 1-647-427-2311 A replay will be available through December 1, 2018, by dialing: Toll Free: 1-800-585-8367 International: 1-416-621-4642 Conference ID: 3558509 The live and archived webcast can be accessed at: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1859016&s=1&k=7743A02C27BA40E96FF8FE5148777172 About the Company North American Construction Group Ltd. (www.nacg.ca) is a premier provider of heavy construction and mining services in Canada. For more than 60 years, NACG has provided services to large oil, natural gas and resource companies. For further information, please contact: David Brunetta, CPA, CMA Director, Investor Relations North American Construction Group Ltd. Phone: (780) 969-5574 Email: dbrunetta@nacg.ca PDF available: http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/20772f6a-8b00-4c2d-bfed-1ce7c23fcd30 NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- goeasy Ltd. (TSX: GSY) (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, is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced offering of 920,000 common shares (the Common Shares) (including 120,000 Common Shares issued pursuant to the exercise in full by the syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Capital Markets, Raymond James Ltd. and Cormark Securities Ltd. of the over-allotment option granted by the Company), at a price of $50.50 per Common Share for aggregate gross proceeds of $46,460,000 (the Offering). The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering to support the growth of the easyfinancial consumer loan portfolio. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes forward-looking statements about goeasy, including, but not limited to, the expected use of proceeds of the Offering. 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. 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 goeasy Ltd.s convertible debentures are traded on the TSX under the trading symbol GSY-DB. goeasy Ltd.s 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. For further information contact: David Ingram Chief Executive Officer (905) 272-2788 PERTH, Western Australia, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Perseus Mining Limited (Perseus or the Company) (TSX & ASX: PRU) is pleased to announce that a value engineering assessment (VEA) and the front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for the Yaoure Gold Project in Cote dIvoire, has been completed. The studies confirm the cost estimates in Yaoures October 2017 definitive feasibility study (DFS) that demonstrated the quality and strength of Yaoure, Perseuss planned third mine. The Yaoure DFS reported that the project is: Economically attractive - IRR of 27% with a 32-month payback period at a US$1,250 /ounce gold price; IRR of 27% with a 32-month payback period at a US$1,250 /ounce gold price; Technically robust - 3.3MTPA plant with average annual gold production of 215,000 ounces at an AISC of US$734/oz for first 5 years of production; - 3.3MTPA plant with average annual gold production of 215,000 ounces at an AISC of US$734/oz for first 5 years of production; Readily financeable - capital cost estimate of US$263 million and robust cash flows to service debt; and - capital cost estimate of US$263 million and robust cash flows to service debt; and Able to be extended beyond its initial 8.5-year mine life through near mine opportunities to expand Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves mineable using both open pit and underground mining techniques. Independent consultant Lycopodium Minerals Pty Ltd started the VEA and FEED Study in June 2018 and completed on time and on budget on October 6, 2018. Lycopodium is well qualified to undertake the studies having played a critical role in the successful engineering, procurement and construction of several high-profile West African gold mines in the last three years, including Perseuss Sissingue Gold Mine that was successfully developed and commissioned in early 2018. The scope of the VEA included the evaluation of opportunities to improve plant design and optimise the estimated capital expenditure. The FEED study focussed on progressing the design of the processing plant and infrastructure to enable a detailed capital cost estimate to be prepared to a level of accuracy of +/- 10%. Based on the FEED study, the total capital cost estimate for the development of Yaoure is US$264m (including a contingency allowance of approximately 8%) which is within 0.5% of the DFS estimate. The FEED capital cost estimate breakdown is as shown in Table 1 below. The FEED study assumes that the process plant is developed under an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract. Based on our current plans, first gold is expected to be produced at Yaoure in December 2020. Component DFS Capital Cost Estimate FEED Study Capital Cost Estimate Variance Distributables 29.4 28.8 (0.6) Process Plant 77.2 75.2 (2.0) Reagents and Services 11.3 11.5 0.2 Infrastructure 54.0 59.5 5.5 Sub-total 171.9 175.0 3.1 Mining 18.1 18.2 0.1 Management 19.6 18.6 (1.0) Owners Costs 53.1 52.1 (1.0) Sub-total 90.8 88.9 (0.9) Total 262.7 263.9 1.2 Note: All dollar amounts are expressed in US dollar millions based on prices and conditions current at the September quarter, 2018. Managing Director Jeff Quartermaine Comments: The completion of the FEED study is an important milestone on the path to delivering Yaoure, our third gold mine. The FEED study was completed on schedule and on budget and has delivered a satisfactory outcome with the capital cost less than 0.5% greater than the cost originally estimated in the Yaoure DFS With this estimate now in hand we can confidently advance the implementation of our finance plan which involves the deployment of a debt funding package to complement a combination of existing cash reserves and expected future cash flow from our two existing operations both of which are performing in line with internal expectations and contributing to a steady build in our net cash reserves. For further information, please contact: CEO & Managing Director: Jeff Quartermaine at telephone +61 8 6144 1700 or email jeff.quartermaine@perseusmining.com; Group General Manager BD & IR: Andrew Grove at telephone +61 8 6144 1700 or email andrew.grove@perseusmining.com Media Relations: Nathan Ryan at telephone +61 4 20 582 887 or email nathan.ryan@nwrcommunications.com.au (Melbourne) Competent Person Statement: All production targets for the Yaoure Gold Project referred to in this report are underpinned by estimated Ore Reserves which have been prepared by competent persons in accordance with the requirements of the JORC Code. The information in this report in relation to Yaoure Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve estimates was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement on 3 November 2017. The Company confirms that all material assumptions underpinning those estimates and the production targets, or the forecast financial information derived therefrom, in that market release continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company further confirms that material assumptions underpinning the estimates of Ore Reserves described in Technical Report Yaoure Gold Project, Cote dIvoire dated 18 December 2017 continue to apply. Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information: This report contains forward-looking information which is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management of the Company believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made by the Company regarding, among other things: the price of gold, continuing commercial production at the Edikan Gold Mine and the Sissingue Gold Mine without any major disruption, development of a mine at Yaoure, the receipt of required governmental approvals, the accuracy of capital and operating cost estimates, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the Company to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used by the Company. Although management believes that the assumptions made by the Company and the expectations represented by such information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking information involves 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 anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the actual market price of gold, the actual results of current exploration, the actual results of future exploration, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, as well as those factors disclosed in the Company's publicly filed documents. The Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the Companys ability to carry on its exploration and development activities, the timely receipt of required approvals, the price of gold, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the Company to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Perseus does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. English French Rafale contract for India: clarifications by Dassault Aviation (Saint-Cloud, France, October 10, 2018) - Within the framework of the September 2016 Inter-Government Agreement between France and India, Dassault Aviation has sold 36 Rafale aircraft to India. In compliance with the Indian regulations (Defence Procurement Procedure) and as frequent with such a contract, Dassault Aviation has committed to offsets in India worth 50% of the value of the purchase. In order to deliver some of these offsets, Dassault Aviation has decided to create a joint-venture. Dassault Aviation has freely chosen to make a partnership with India's Reliance Group. This joint-venture, Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd (DRAL), was created February 10, 2017. Other partnerships have been signed with other companies such as BTSL, DEFSYS, Kinetic, Mahindra, Maini, SAMTEL,. Other negotiations are ongoing with a hundred-odd other potential partners. In compliance with French regulations, Chief Operating Officer Loik Segalen informed, May 11, 2017, the Central Works Council of the creation of the DRAL joint-venture in order to fulfil some of the offsets commitment. The cornerstone for the DRAL plant in Nagpur (Maharashtra) was laid October 27, 2017. This plant will manufacture parts for Falcon 2000 business jets and, in a second step, parts for Rafale aircraft. An initial team of Indian managers have been trained for six months to our manufacturing processes in our plant in Biarritz (France). The first Indian skilled workers have also benefited from an intensive training in our manufacturing techniques in France. The first Falcon 2000 parts will be delivered by end 2018. * * * About Dassault Aviation: With over 10,000 military and civil aircraft delivered in more than 90 countries over the last century, Dassault Aviation has built up expertise recognized worldwide in the design, development, sale and support of all types of aircraft, ranging from the Rafale fighter, to the high-end Falcon family of business jets and military drones. In 2017, Dassault Aviation reported revenues of 4.8 billion. The company has 11,400 employees. https://www.dassault-aviation.com/en/ Twitter : @Dassault_OnAir For high-definition photos: http://mediaprophoto.dassault-aviation.com/ For high-definition videos: http://mediaprovideo.dassault-aviation.com/ * * * AT NEW WEST SUMMIT in OAKLAND, CA on OCTOBER 11TH TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Nextech AR solutions (the Company or Nextech) in partnership with CFN Media is excited to announce the launch of its AR live streaming platform at the New West Cannabis Summit in Oakland CA October 11-13th. The New West Summit is the ideal venue for Nextech AR live streaming to be showcased as its the only cannabis conference to focus exclusively on game changing disruptive technology. CFN Media and Nextech signed a partnership agreement on June 12th, 2018 where Nextech will supply the augmented reality technology and CFN Media will productize, market and sell the technology to its Cannabis clients. For this first augmented reality live streaming event Stephanie Karasick the founder of Strainprint will be live streamed as a Hologram from Toronto to Oakland CA. On October 11th at 1:30 pm EST (10:30 am PST) Nextech will be streaming live from its Toronto broadcast studio to CFN Medias booth in the media center of the New West Summit in Oakland, CA plus onto mobile devices worldwide through the AritizeTM App. Everyone is invited to watch this live event at New West Summit from work, home or wherever you can get a wifi signal. To view the Cannabis augmented reality live streaming event: Download the AritizeTM App Type in the code CFN iPhone Download: https://apple.co/2AKybaw Android Download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.NexTechAR.ARitize&rdid=com.NexTech AR.ARitize This live streaming event is groundbreaking for the Cannabis industry as it allows for brands and company executives to imagine a future where they can interact and engage with consumers and investors in real time as a live hologram, this is the genie out of the bottle moment for the industry, comments Evan Gappelberg CEO of Nextech. We are extremely thrilled to pioneer new technology to help us build our community. Strainprint was built by patients for patients and we always want to ensure were providing engaging content for our users. This is a great opportunity, says Stephanie Karasick, founder of Strainprint. CFN media prides itself in leveraging technologies that help form deeper connections between cannabis companies and their constituents. Nextechs AR platform will allow us to rollout a full suite of augmented reality products, especially AR live streaming, which will enhance and add value to what we already provide our clients, comments Frank Lane, President of CFN Media. Our clients will be able to communicate broadly to their investors, customers and other stakeholders in a much more memorable, personal and realistic way than ever before allowing them to rise above the industry noise. For the past year Nextech has been developing a full suite of augmented reality product offerings which includes, AR live streaming, AR enhanced powerpoints, AR brochures, AR University for 3D learning on demand, and large format AR holographic teleportation displays all to be viewed with the companys Aritize TM app. CFN Media will showcase this technology for the first time to the Cannabis industry in its booth at the New West Summit in Oakland, CA on October 11-13th. About StrainprintTM Founded in Toronto in 2016, StrainprintTM Technologies Ltd. is the leading demand-side cannabis data and analytics company. With the worlds largest longitudinal, observational dataset of its kind and a mission to advance the scientific understanding of cannabis and its legitimization as a mainstream therapy, Strainprint helps medical cannabis patients and doctors to use cannabis in the most effective and responsible way possible. StrainprintTMdata supports global cannabis research and provides advanced business intelligence and treatment guidance to producers, retailers, medical practitioners, pharmacies, government and industry. Strainprint is HIPAA, PIPEDA and PHIPA privacy compliant, military-grade encrypted and all patient data is completely anonymized and at rest in Canada. Strainprint can be seamlessly embedded or integrated with most electronic medical records (EMR) and seed2sale software systems. Strainprint Analytics is accessed by customer subscription. The Strainprint App is free to patients and can be downloaded from both the iOS App Store and GooglePlay Store. www.strainprintanalytics.com. facebook, twitter, linkedin. About CFN Media For Visitors and Viewers CFN Media's Cannabis Financial Network (CannabisFN.com) is the destination for savvy investors and business people profiting from the worldwide cannabis industry. Viewers will see breaking news, original coverage and exclusive interviews of the people, companies and investments shaping the space. For Cannabis Businesses & Companies CFN Media is a leading agency and digital financial media network dedicated to the cannabis industry. We help private, pre-public and public cannabis companies in the US and Canada attract capital, investors and media attention. Our powerful media and distribution platform conveys a company's message and value proposition directly to accredited and retail investors and national media active in the North American cannabis markets. Since 2013, CFN Media has contributed to the capital and public markets success of the world's preeminent cannabis companies. About NexTech NexTech is bringing augmented reality to the Cannabis market by turning 2D products into exciting 3D consumer experiences. NexTech is currently developing a proprietary and disruptive Augmented Reality (AR) advertising and education platform that uniquely engages by connecting brands and retailers through a fully immersive 3D AR experience called Native AR. NexTech launched its ARitizeTM app in August 2018, which is capable of hosting many brands 3D objects and augmented reality experiences. NexTech also owns a large and diverse revenue generating App Portfolio that is deployed on the iTunes and Google play store which it intends to ARitizeTM. On behalf of the Board of NexTech AR Solutions Corp. Evan Gappelberg CEO and Director For further information, please contact: Evan Gappelberg Chief Executive Officer info@nextechar.com Certain information contained herein may constitute forward-looking information under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, will, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results will occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the Companys estimates and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of NexTech to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including capital expenditures and other costs. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. NexTech will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northland Power Inc. (Northland) (TSX: NPI) announced it will release its 2018 third quarter financial results after market close on November 6, 2018. Northland's management will hold an investor conference call at 10 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Wednesday, November 7, 2018, followed by a question and answer period. Conference call details: Date: Wednesday, November 7, 2018 Start Time: 10:00 a.m. ET Phone Number: Toll free within North America: (844) 284-3434 For those unable to attend the live call, an audio recording will be available on Northlands website at www.northlandpower.com on November 8, 2018. ABOUT NORTHLAND Northland is an independent power producer founded in 1987, and publicly traded since 1997. Northland develops, builds, owns and operates facilities that produce 'clean' (natural gas) and 'green' (wind, solar, and hydro) energy, providing sustainable long-term value to shareholders, stakeholders, and host communities. Northland owns or has an economic interest in 2,429 MW (net 2,014 MW) of operating generating capacity and 269 MW of generating capacity under construction - the Deutsche Bucht offshore project in the North Sea, in addition to its 60% equity stake in the 1,044 MW Hai Long projects that hold grid allocation rights. Northland's common shares, Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3 preferred shares and Series B and Series C convertible debentures trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols NPI, NPI.PR.A, NPI.PR.B, NPI.PR.C, NPI.DB.B, and NPI.DB.C, respectively. For further information contact: Barb Bokla, Manager, Investor Relations, (647) 288-1438, or Sarah Charuk, Director, Communications (647) 288-1105 investorrelations@northlandpower.com www.northlandpower.com Even so, the latest standoff shouldnt be dismissed as mere political theater. The battle for the Philippines between the United States and China isnt going to be settled anytime soon, and the political strength of a Philippine leader will play a small role in that regard. Its notable, then, that Trillanes corruption allegations have elicited such a strong response from the president. (Another opposition senator whos been needling the president on corruption was jailed last year.) Philippine presidents, more often than not, have left office under clouds of corruption. This particular episode comes as Manila and Beijing are moving to reach an agreement on joint oil and gas exploration in parts of the South China Sea that the U.N. Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled are in the Philippines exclusive economic zone. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to visit for talks on joint development next week. Any deal on the matter promises to be legally contentious and politically risky, inviting accusations of the president selling resources to a country that has blocked every Philippine attempt to develop its own oil and natural gas. A similar agreement between Manila and Beijing reached in 2003 fell apart by 2008 over corruption allegations against Arroyo the president Trillanes twice tried to oust. The Philippines existing fields are rapidly depleting, so Manila is desperate to find a way to bring new fields online in the South China Sea. And with Western powers declining to intervene on Manilas behalf, the Philippines has little choice but to negotiate on Beijings terms. There are some fights that Philippine presidents cant help but pick. Hundreds of people from various activist groups packed into the American Museum of Natural History on Monday to take part in activist group Decolonize This Places third annual Indigenous Peoples Day/Anti-Columbus Day tour of the museum. The activists issued multiple demands to the museum and to city officials, including: renaming Columbus Day 'Indigenous Peoples Day'; removing the Theodore Roosevelt statue outside the museum; repatriating human remains and sacred artifacts; convening a public meeting to hear testimony on how the museum has harmed people; and putting together a committee to oversee a decolonization process at all city museums that enjoy subsidies through taxpayer support. In front of the museum is a statue of a young, muscular Teddy Roosevelt on horseback with an African and a Native American slightly behind and walking on either side of him. In January of this year, a commission set up by Mayor Bill de Blasio released a report on controversial statues in NYC and could not come to a consensus on what to do with the Roosevelt statue, resulting in the statue staying in place. "An observation repeated several times by the Commission is that height is power in public art, and Roosevelts stature on his noble steed visibly expresses dominance and superiority over the Native American and African figures," the report states. "Some also see the monument as an image of racial hierarchy and linked this to the museums early-twentieth-century ties to the eugenics movement; the second and third International Eugenics Congress conferences were held at AMNH in 1921 and 1932, respectively." During the tour, different activist groups gathered in each hall and spoke about the colonial perspectives embedded in these exhibits, the history omitted from them, and the way the displays dehumanize, exoticize, and exploit the people and cultures being represented. In the Hall of African Peoples, the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) spoke about how the displays omit the history and brutality of the enslavement of Africans, including the museums own role in the exploitation and racist display of Ota Benga, a Congolese man, in the early 1900s. The museum isnt just like an individual entity, Meron Tebeje of BYP100 told Gothamist. It works with and is intertwined with state violence that is perpetuated on us everyday. In the Hall of North American Forests, Abby Rojas, an indigenous activist from NYC Shut It Down, spoke about historical and present-day violence against Native women and how the museums colonial framing enables that violence as well as the destruction of Native land. I brought awareness to murdered and missing indigenous women who have been murdered in the United States and Canada, Rojas said, noting that it is usually non-Native men who commit violence against Native women. They come into our land and reservations, and they basically work in fracking, in mining, in oil companies. And at the same time, they feel they have permission to come and use Native women as disposable bodies because theyre never going to see them again, and the government is never going to put them on trial. In the Hall of Asian Peoples, the Chinatown Art Brigade and the South Asia Solidarity Initiative spoke about how many of the cultural artifacts being displayed were stolen, and how the exhibits portray Asians as backwards and primitive. During all of this, groups of activists were also in other parts of the museum with chants, banners, and leaflets bearing anti-colonial, anti-gentrification, and anti-racist messages. The museums other visitors mostly seemed amazed and amused by the activists. A couple of people attempted to troll the activists, including a white man yelling things like God Bless the USA! When all the groups came together in the museums Grand Gallery, Hansel, a Dominican man from the Bronx who came to the museum with a friend, leaned over to peek at leaflets the activists sprinkled on the museum floor. He said he was mostly surprised and appreciative of the large group of people chanting. I just thought it was something to do with Columbus, but I then I see now abolish white supremacy, he said. He noted that he was taught about an idealized history of Columbus while growing up and that it was people like the activists touring the museum that day that made him realize that everything you learned when you were a kid is kind of bullshit. (Maria Fernanda Hubeaut /Gothamist) After the speakout in the Grand Gallery, the large group of activists made their way to the Roosevelt statue while chanting decolonize this museum! The NYPD was guarding the statue and had heavily barricaded it before anyone had even arrived that day. Police also guarded and barricaded three right-wing counter-protesters holding up signs thanking ICE and calling for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to be jailed. The activists rallied near the statue anyway, unfurled numerous banners, and once again, stated their demands. Then, NYC Shut It Down proceeded to hold their weekly #PeoplesMonday protest, where each week they highlight the stories of different victims of state violence. This week, they highlighted the story of Josephine Pelletier, an indigenous woman who was killed by Calgary police on May 17th of this year. As they began marching, a large group of police, including the NYPDs Strategic Response Group, followed the protesters. They stopped at a nearby cafe and a Trader Joes to tell people the story of Pelletiers death before ending at 71st street and Amsterdam Avenue. The museums leadership says they have already met with the activists to discuss their demands. "The Museum is very committed to working on issues of cultural representation in its halls," Roberto Lebron, the museum's senior director of communications, told Gothamist in an email. "We are working on a complete renovation and reinterpretation of the Northwest Coast Hall. That work, along with the Stuyvesant Diorama context project, is part of a series of things that the Museum is doing to address aspects of our halls that are out of date." Weve had meetings with them, Amin Husain of Decolonize This Place told Gothamist. The meetings are like We agree with you! We agree with you! But we have our own pace and we need to work things out. And we keep telling them, children are mandated to come to this museum to learn and you say youre against white supremacy, but everything you do indoctrinates it without even saying what it is. The activists have also faced pushback from Mayor de Blasio and even President Donald Trump. I see they want to take Teddy Roosevelts [statue] down, too, Trump told the crowd during his August 22 rally in Phoenix. Theyre trying to figure out why. They dont know. Theyre trying to take away our culture. They are trying to take away our history. But with statues and monuments across the country being vandalized and torn down without the permission of the authorities over the last few years, activists are growing tired of waiting for the city to take action. Last year, an anonymous group known as the Monument Removal Brigade splashed red paint on the Roosevelt statue and released a statement denouncing the patriarchy, white supremacy, and settler-colonialism embodied by the statue. More recently, in August, activists and students at the University of North Carolina took matters into their own hands and tore down a statue of a Confederate soldier known as Silent Sam, forcing the university to remove the statue. Activists here in NYC want city officials to know that the same thing can happen to the Roosevelt statue. There is a decolonial formation in this city thats not going to wait for institutional inertia to alleviate the harm thats perpetuated everyday, Husain said. We are impatient. Loading... Ask a Reporter is an occasional series about civic engagement in and around the city. Do you have a question about how you can make a difference in your neighborhood, city or state? What about voting, the elections or navigating civic life in New York? Ask us! We want to help you get involved by answering your questions. Q: How can I become civically engaged without risking my immigration status? A: So it depends on what you mean by status, said Ravi Ragbir as he reclined on a sofa in the Greenwich Village offices of the New Sanctuary Coalition, where he serves as executive director. Since his arrest in January after a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the subsequent clashes between his supporters and police, Ragbir has become one of the most well-known immigrant activists in America. Originally from Trinidad, hes still fighting deportation in two federal courts. We figured hed know as well as anyone how an immigrant can become civically engaged without putting themselves at risk. Exactly what is your status? he asked (our questioner, Lisa, hasnt revealed more of herself). If you're undocumented you have to be more concerned. If you are undocumented, he said, you need to avoid committing any crimes, or acts of violence, or civil disobedience. You shouldn't be fighting with any police, he said. Or any law enforcement. But if you're going knocking door to door, handing out flyers, engaging with people, inviting them to vote, registering them, that is perfectly fine. Thats exactly the kind of work Silvia Garcia's been doing. She lives on Long Island and has two kids, a 15-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old son, who's a DACA recipient. Even though she's undocumented herself, she says she's going all out in the midterms, trying to unseat Republican Congressman Peter King by campaigning for his opponent, Liuba Grechen Shirley. She and other immigrants have been going door to door, trying to mobilize support for Shirley. They're also talking to potential candidates for state office. Garcia had some advice for Lisa and other immigrants. They need to get involved with organizations like, Make The Road Action, she said. They have always taken care of us. She also stressed the need to share one's status and situation with the organization, so they can tailor their advice accordingly. Garcia says she's witnessing a groundswell of activism within immigrant communities. Other immigrants confirm that they're willing to speak out, even if they're not documented. Judith Sanchez (Arun Venugopal/WNYC) I am not afraid, said Judith Sanchez, who also works at New Sanctuary Coalition. When we don't fear, I believe everything is possible. In the event she does get arrested by ICE for her activism, Judith says she has a phone tree. There's an entire network of friends, family, and clergy, all of whom would be activated if she makes a call. And she never carries her Mexican passport in public. You cannot be carrying with you official identifications from your country, so you need a municipal I.D. of New York City. Carrying municipal I.D. is exactly what immigrant rights groups and city officials recommend. But keep in mind: in two recent cases, immigrants who visited federal military bases in New York were handed over to ICE agents after they showed their municipal I.D. In addition to creating a phone tree, activists said you really need to designate someone who has access to your medical records, your legal papers, and your bank information. If you have young kids, you also need a friend or relative with access to a notarized form that lets them take care of your children, in your absence. In Sanchez's case, her kids are now older, and she said this frees her to be politically active in ways she probably wouldn't have when her kids were younger. Still, even with all sorts of precautions, organizers suggest there are significant risks for immigrants who choose to become engaged. We've seen ICE target activists, said Daniel Altschuler of the group Make the Road Action. And it is certainly an effort to try to chill that type of direct action. But Altschuler says Make the Road Action and other immigrant rights groups do their best to work with immigrants and ensure that they don't do anything that could put them in danger. Despite the risks, the level of participation in Get Out the Vote efforts, within New York's immigrant communities, is 'orders of magnitude larger' than it was just a couple years ago, he said. In large part, this is because immigrants are realizing their legal pathways are disappearing and their best option at this point is political organizing, said LuzHilda Campos, Deportation Defense Program manager for United we Dream. Coming out of the shadows and being engaged and being involved is something that's protecting them more than anything that's protected them in the past. For more on this story, listen in here: Arun Venugopal is a reporter who focuses on issues of race and immigration. You can follow him on Twitter at @arunNYC. What questions do you have about civic participation in New York City that youd like us to answer? Share them in the prompt below and we'll work to answer as many as we can. Loading... After taking over a subway station in The Bronx and the streets of DUMBO, that Joaquin Phoenix Joker movie has continued filming around town this month in an effort to transform the city into a gritty '80s montage. We already knew from the official logline that the movie "is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale," but we didn't realize the filmmakers would take that last part so seriously. According to reports, extras were locked on a subway car for several hours during filming recentlyto the point that some started peeing on the tracks. TMZ reports that while filming a recent scene inside a Brooklyn subway station, extras were locked in a train car and allegedly denied their break after two hours of work. "The extras started banging on the subway doors asking to be let out because people needed to use the bathroom, but they were kept inside and eventually resorted to pissing on the tracks through the small spaces between cars," TMZ writes. Real New Yorkers who experience hours-long subway delays everyday will appreciate director Todd Phillips's (Road Trip) dedication to cinema verite. TMZ adds that the Screen Actors Guild has received a complaint about a break time violation; Warner Bros. confirmed that they are looking into the incident as well. You can check out pee-free videos below from the recent Brooklyn subway shoots, which Screencrush thinks were shot along the F line at the Church Avenue and 18th Avenue stations. SPOILER ALERT: it turns out The Joker is one of those dudes who thinks it's totally rebellious to smoke inside the subway station. You can see more photos of Phoenix-Joker in action here. This film is of course just one of four or five Joker-centric movies in the DC pipelineand at least one other one (Suicide Squad 2) looks like it's on the verge of happening with the news that James Gunn is in talks to write and direct. Rush hour subway service is bad, but spending your precious weekend moments attempting to navigate the MTA's labyrinth of service changes and track work means wrestling with deeply philosophical, and ultimately existential questions. Is an A train still an F train if it morphs into a D train? How many trash cans can you scream into before people start calling the police? Apparently, for people trying to get in and out of lower Manhattan during the L train shutdown, these weekend stress amplifiers won't be an issue. [See a somewhat heartbreaking update below.] "Currently it feels like every weekend we have no train service down here," Caroline Lasko, a Lower East Side resident, told transit reps at a Community Board 3 meeting at the Seward Park Extension Community Center on Tuesday night. "What are the plans for the F the B the D, when the L train isnt operating?" "Were gonna be adding F train service, J train service, train service, pretty much all times of day, those are gonna be big travel alternatives," Dan Zajackowski, a transit planner with the New York City Transit Authority replied. Marcus Book, the MTA's assistant director for government and community relations, chimed in: "In terms of your weekend outages, you wont be seeing those during the L train shutdown." "Oh! OK," Lasko replied, sounding both relieved and surprised. The MTA has long promised that they would increase service on the J/M/Z and G lines during the L train shutdown (which begins THIS APRIL, and will last for 15 months). After all, an estimated 70 to 80 percent of L train riders will use other subway lines as their alternative. Shams Tarek, a spokesperson for the MTA, qualified Book's statement, noting that the MTA in fact, may need to perform weekend work on those lines. Emergencies can always happen but well be aggressively minimizing planned work on alternate lines during the L tunnel reconstruction, trying to avoid it altogether whenever possible," Tarek said in a statement to Gothamist. "One way were achieving that is by doing as much work on those lines as possible right now before the tunnel reconstruction. Two hours into CB3's Transportation Committee meeting, it was clear the community is facing a comically daunting list of transit issues. In addition to the influx of new L train commuters and a Williamsburg bridge transformed by HOV-3 restrictions and an explosion in bicycle traffic that will come in five months, there also happens to be a $1.5 billion mega-development sprawling along Delancey Street, adding cement trucks, dump trucks, and giant cranes to a dangerous and infuriating mix of speeding, honking drivers desperate to get to the mouth of the Williamsburg Bridge, and pedestrians who struggle to cross the street without getting hit. Clinton Street truck trifecta this morning! @NYC_DOT do you ever talk to problem property owners like @EssexCrossing? They have been the worst of corporate neighbors over the past several years. @NYC_DOT is the Clinton St bike lane part of your L-train shutdown strategy? pic.twitter.com/nxq7p1cknk Jon Orcutt (@jonorcutt) September 24, 2018 CB3 also includes 14th Street, where the MTA has already begun underground work that will go on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a parade of trucks coming in and out of the Manhattan side of the Canarsie Tunnel Hellmouth at 14th Street and Avenue A. Neighbors say that some businesses, shrouded in scaffolding and dust and noise, are on the brink of closure. One resident pointed out that the J/M/Z platforms at Essex Street were dangerously narrow, and the staircases leading to them treacherous and inaccessible to the elderly and disabled. Could they not be widened before the L train onslaught? "We know Delancey and Essex is gonna get a lot more people," Zajackowski said, before trailing off and shrugging his shoulders. "Reconstructing the station involves closing the station," Book said, before explaining that it wasn't possible to do before the L train shuts down. Book noted that a big part of NYCTA chief Andy Byford's Fast Forward Plan calls for modernizing stations to be more accessible for all New Yorkers. "The system was built a long time ago." CB member Lee Berman wondered why, with years of notice, the MTA had only procured 5 electric buses for the shutdown. "We're talking about 80 buses [over the bridge], each direction, each hour, but only five electric buses? And ten hybrids? What do you have to do to get additional electric buses?" "The industry is really not ready for New York, we have a tough time sourcing enough equipment that can handle New York City streets," Book replied. "We are looking into getting as many electric buses as we can." Compared to the L train issues, the DOT's problems seemed manageable. And at least these agencies sent representatives to speak: No one from the NYPD bothered to show up, an absence noted by at least two CB members. The 7th Precinct is around six blocks away. Sean Quinn, the DOT's senior director of bicycle and pedestrian programs, won some murmurs of support from the crowd when he announced that drivers will no longer be able to use Clinton Street south of Delancey to get onto the Williamsburg Bridge while the L train is out of service. Instead, they will have to take South Street to Allen Street, or make a left onto Grand and then a right onto Norfolk, Essex, or Allen. Grand and Clinton Street at 11:30 p.m. on a Friday night (courtesy Daisy Paez) The current situation at Grand and Clinton Streets is an absurd confluence of furious drivers trying to turn north onto the bridge, cyclists going both ways, and pedestrians trying to Frogger their way out of everything. Meanwhile, a Target and what will be the largest Trader Joe's on the eastern seaboard sit on the same corner and share the same loading dock that faces Clinton Street, directly across the street from Rite Aid's loading dock. The DOT confirmed that there is currently no delivery restrictions on any of these, other than truck size. Adam Varsano, who said he had been living in the neighborhood for 35 years, questioned the DOT's new pattern. "To me that seems worse than letting them go straight [down Clinton], because now theyre gonna have to turn, and there will be problems on both sides of that intersection," he said. "There are apparently two towers going up on Norfolk Street where the synagogue burned down, so theres gonna be major construction there as well, doesnt seem like youve considered that." Quinn said he would consider it, and the night dragged on. State Senator Marty Golden, Brooklyns lone Republican Senator, claimed ignorance of the Child Victims Act during a debate with insurgent Democratic candidate Andrew Gounardes on Thursday night, infuriating a rowdy crowd of South Brooklyn residents. The bill, which has stalled repeatedly in the Republican-led State Senate, aims to extend the amount of time that adults have to report childhood sexual abuse and bring civil lawsuits or criminal claims against their abusers. The current state law permits criminal or civil suits against the abuser until the survivor is 23 years old and civil suits against the institution until the survivor is 21 years old. The bill would increase the statute of limitations to 28 years old for criminal cases and 50 years old for civil suits, and it would also open a window to allow anyone to file a civil suit regardless of the statute. The Catholic Church and Boy Scouts of America have strongly opposed the legislation. When pressed by a constituent to take a position on the bill, Golden skirted the question, claiming he didnt know what she was referring to. What is the child victims... What are you talking about? No Maam, he said. What happens is there are so many definitions and so many pieces of legislation I'm not sure what you're talking about. Golden did, however, recall The Child Victims Fund when prodded by another crowd-member. The legislation was introduced by Senate Republicans as an alternative to the Child Victims Act last year, and would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for childhood sex abuse and create a fund for child victims from assets seized during civil forfeiture. It would not allow lawsuits against organizations like the Catholic Church for offenses that took place decades ago. Andrew Gounardes and Marty Golden (Gwynne Hogan / Gothamist) Golden's challanger Gounardes, general counsel for Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams office, seized on the side-step. Marty, Do your homework. Read the bills that come before your desk, he said, adding, of course I would support the Child Victims Act. The raucous forum often deteriorated into rowdy chants by supporters from each camp trying to drown each other out, while a frustrated moderator pounded a gavel fruitlessly on her podium. Ok it is really getting intense pic.twitter.com/sNf2Hm3aJG Gwynne Hogan (@GwynneFitz) October 10, 2018 One constituent pressed Senator Golden, a retired police officer, to release the records from a car crash back in 2005 where he hit a pedestrian who later died. It was an accident, an accident, where a woman crossed in the street," Golden said. "She crossed against a light. My car, my...rear view mirror hit her. She went down. She suffered a head injury. It was found at the hospital that she had cancer of the stomach [and] she died 6 months later." The Daily News reported she was in a coma for weeks following the crash, and Golden later paid $750,000 to the womans family in a settlement. Golden said he would release the records if the womans family consented. Gounardes, who ran against Golden in 2012, losing by 8,607 votes, criticized Goldens support of tax breaks for real estate developers, for not backing the areas immigrant communities, and for opposing marriage equality back in 2011. In his 16 years in office, Golden has snagged his share of unfavorable headlinesfrom funneling campaign cash to a catering hall owned by his brother, to calling opioids not a ghetto drug, adding Its happening to doctors kids, or referring to political opponent Justin Brannon, who was running for city council against his aide, as "fat boy." He also drew protests at his district office earlier this year for failing to extend speed cameras in school zones. Goldens own car has been ticketed multiple times this year by the cameras. After 16 years of a failed status quo, our communities deserve better, Gounardes said. (Gwynne Hogan / Gothamist) Golden, on the other hand, promised to be a check on the liberal lunacy coming from City Hall and the Governor, and painted Gounardes as soft on crime and eager to raise taxes. "You are a rubber stamp for the Governor and a rubber stamp for Mayor de Blasio and we dont need another rubber stamp, he said. Audience member Karen Tadross, 59, who is a lifelong resident of the Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights district, said shes helping to campaign for Gounardes, but voted for Golden in all the prior elections and lives right across the street from him. My tipping point came when he did not denounce some of the rhetoric coming out of Washington that was very very clear human decency things, she said. When someone is speaking reprehensible about our immigrants, about our LGBTQ community, about women Those are human issues, not party issues and Marty did not denounce any of that. Loading... If youre tired of community board members with no term limits, or a broken land use process that actively accelerates displacement, or an NYPD oversight board that is appointed and not elected, you may be interested in revising New York Citys charter. Perhaps through some kind of charter review commission? Youre in luck! Did you know that New York City is currently home to two separate charter review commissions? But were getting ahead of ourselves. What is the city charter? First enacted in 1898, the charter is the legislative document that establishes New York City, comprised of its five boroughs (which also make up its five constituent counties) as a single municipal entity according to New York State law. The charter enumerates the powers of the citys elected officials, and sets the rules for our elections and how we vote, how we can spend our tax revenue, and what elected positions should represent us. It sets how many city council members there are, whether we should have a mayor or not, and whether borough presidents should have any actual power. Much of it is baked into our administrative code, which spells out the laws of New York City. While the charter can be amended by the city council, changing anything in it that relates to the way we vote, or creates a new citywide office, or radically changes the power of an existing office, must go to a popular vote by the general public. What happened the last time NYC changed the charter? The city you live in today, from its powerful mayor to its activist city council, is largely because of the decisions made in 1989, the last time the charter was substantially altered. That year, New York Citys government was overhauled following a Supreme Court ruling that found its Board of Estimatecomprised of the Mayor, Comptroller, City Council president, and the Borough Presidentswas unconstitutional, as it violated the one person, one vote, doctrine. New York had to completely rewrite its charter (goodbye City Council President, hello Public Advocate), which affected everything from how the city holds its elections to its process for deciding how to use its land. Since then, there have been a couple of revisions, mostly regarding term limits. In 1993, a petition drive led to a ballot measure that set city council term limits at two terms (which was famously briefly overturned by the city council in 2009, to let Mayor Michael Bloomberg run for a third term). Both mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg appointed commissions to look at changes to the charter, but neither led to any significant changes in how the city operates. The last major commission to look at the charter was appointed in 2010. Wait why do we have two different charter revision committees? According to state law, both the mayor and the city council are allowed to appoint a committee to review the city charter, release a report on possible changes to the charter, and then put specific proposals on the ballot for a popular vote. In January of this year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he was going to appoint a commission to review the city charter limited at looking for ways to boost civic participation. At the same time, members of the City Council, along with Public Advocate Tish James (who is now the frontrunner to become the next Attorney General of New York) were working on a bill to create a commission to review the entire city charter for possible changes. According to law, the mayors commission gets precedence and any ballot proposals his commission generated would be put on the ballot in November 2018 (during the midterm and statewide elections). The City Councils charter committee, the first a city council had ever legislated into being, would be stuck on the November 2019 ballot, when no citywide or federal races would be at stake, greatly driving down possible participation. So were going to vote on ballot measures that could change the city charter in a little more than three weeks? Yep! Last month, the committee appointed by Mayor de Blasio announced the results of a series of citywide community hearings and internet-generated proposals that will be appearing on the ballot. The three measures aim to increase civic participation and lower the barriers of entry for running for elected office: 1) Lower the maximum contribution candidates can accept from contributors if theyre using the citys public financing program by more than 60% and increase the amount of matching funds available to them through public campaign financing. 2) Establish a commission to look into expanding language access at poll sites, expanding participatory budgeting citywide (which allows residents to vote on how their City Council member uses their discretionary funds), and looking into ways to boost civic participation. 3) Place ten-year term-limits on community board members and demystify the appointment process to increase diversity. Also, provide more resources to community boards. Each of these reflect the de Blasio administrations effort to increase civic participation without radically altering the way the citys elections work. Many advocates had rallied around the implementation of ranked-choice voting during committee hearings, which would save the city money on costly runoff elections that consistently draw miniscule turnout. Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank their choices for an elected office, with the winner being a candidate that better reflects the support of a majority of voters, rather than just the one who got the most votes. Staff members on the mayors committee told Gothamist that while they found ranked choice voting to be a laudable idea, they had questions about its legality and possible implementation The changes to community boards also represent a longstanding complaint that many New Yorkers (as well as the de Blasio administration) share that community board members are increasingly older and out-of-touch with the majority of residents in rapidly changing neighborhoods, and have stymied infrastructure projects like bike lanes and other rapid transit improvements (all in the name of parking, of course). What about the City Councils charter commission? While the focus of the mayoral charter review commission is limited to simply how to boost civic engagement, the purview of the City Councils charter review commission will be considerably larger basically anything really. During a series of hearings that began last month, New Yorkers have been presenting the commission with ideas that run from outlawing kill shelters for New York Citys animals, to revamping the citys land use process. On a Tuesday night last month at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, the fifteen commissioners (which were nominated by the Mayor, the City Council Speaker, the citys Borough Presidents, the Comptroller, and the Public Advocate) listened to a variety of proposals, which, for the most part centered on themes of changing the citys election system; creating a land use process that measures the impacts of displacement on a community and empowers communities to not only participate in, but also propose development; and establishing an elected citizens review board that would look into instances of police misconduct and mete out discipline to officers. Each of these ideas were presented to the mayoral commission as well during a frenzy of last-minute community meetings. The commission chose not to act on them, even though commissions are allowed to review every aspect of the city charter, no matter what the person who appointed them instructed. As the hearing dragged on into a fourth hour (and a committee member briefly left the stage after a not-unnoticed bout of drowsiness), speakers repeatedly expressed interest in changing the citys land use laws, campaign laws, and police accountability mechanisms. Other ideas the commission could possibly look into include changing the time construction in the city can begin, whether to allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, creating a new public housing program, or abolishing the Board of Elections. The commission can think big. It could also zero in on some of the more hidden aspects of city government, like how the citys budget gets meted out. We could have greater transparency and accountability when it comes to our budgeting process and abide by generally accepted accounting principles, said Doug Muzzio, a Baruch College professor who has both studied and testified in front of recent charter revision commissions. I would have a much more transparent and rigorously defined budget system. I would also try to create a transit system that actually works, but thats really up to the state. While appearing on the FAQNYC podcast last month, Comptroller Scott Stringer also zeroed in on the citys opaque budgeting process, which consistently shortchanges women and minority-owned businesses. These charter revision commissions usually end badly. If you look at the mayors charter revision commission for example, it was a colossal the comptroller said, stopping just short of bashing the limited scope of the mayors charter review commission. Now we get to do another one. Lets put out the ideas we need to rethink development, how we empower communities, how we improve the disgraceful way we deal as a city with women and minority-owned businesses. We have $23 billion spend in the city and only 4.9% of that money goes to women and minority-owned businesses. Its a disgrace. We need a chief diversity officer reporting directly to the mayor to change the culture and practice of these agencies. One issue that has yet have found much voice during hearings: the role of the public advocate, whose purview and powers have been greatly diminished since its creation. This is entirely the place where you should be having the conversation about what the role of the public advocate could be, should be, what the possibilities are one way to do that would be to have independent budgeting, and to have independent budgeting for the borough presidents offices. You could rethink what the borough presidents office looks like, said Rachel Bloom, the policy director for Citizens Union which advocates for greater government accountability and has been closely following and participating in the charter revision process. You can be thinking very big. You could double the size of the city council, or have the speaker of the city council be an elected position. Whether or not you can get enough commissioners to support it, and then the voters, is another question. Whats next? For the mayoral commission, an awareness campaign to make sure people not only know that theyll be voting on ballot measures in Novembers election, but that they stand to remake participatory democracy at the local level. Theyre going to need to make sure people know to flip the ballot over, Bloom noted. (The proposals will be on the back side of the ballot). I am concerned that people will not vote on these ballot initiatives, said Cesar Perales, the chair of the mayoral commission. Im confident that if they understand them, they will want to, but what were doing is going to try to engage, with our limited budget, getting ads out, letting people know, working with community groups. Were going to make an effort to get the word out to as many people as possible. With under a month to go before election day, the city has yet to release any advertisements or promotions about the November ballot measures (though there is a Twitter account, with 513 followers). For the city councils commission, another set of public hearings following an initial round in all five boroughs this past September. Then, an effort to legitimize whatever ends up on the ballot next November by trying to ensure a high turnout during a year where all indicators point towards an absolutely abysmal turnout. Between low-turnout and non-existent promotion, it makes you really wonder why all these charter review commissions end up going, in the words of the comptroller, so badly? Loading... by Mathias Hariyadi The two financial agencies organise fund-raising at their annual meeting, currently underway, in Nusa Dua. Some 2 billion rupiah have been raised. For IMG managing director Christian Lagarde, what we have seen in Palu and in Lombok today [will remain] very much in our minds. Jakarta (AsiaNews) During their annual meeting, currently underway in Nusa Dua, Bali (Indonesia), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) launched a fund raising initiative to help the Indonesian government rebuild areas devastated by the recent quakes that hit the islands of Sulawesi and Lombok. Delegations from 189 countries are present at the event, which opened yesterday until 14 October with 34,000 people ministers, parliamentarians, officials, and experts registered to participate. The host country (Indonesia) is not behind the fund-raising. The latter is the result of a spontaneous expression of international solidarity towards Indonesia, especially the residents of Central Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara, said Peter Jacobs, head of the Task Force for the IMF WBG Annual Meeting. Indonesia has prepared this international meeting very well despite being hit by successive natural disasters, Jacobs said in a statement. Foreign delegations are called to offer their support. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde the other day visited the island of Lombok where a series of earthquakes killed more than 500 people in early August. "Three years ago, when we decided to organise our 2018 Annual Meetings here in Indonesia, we did not know that the country would be hit by these terrible natural disasters, Lagarde said at the end of her visit to the stricken island. What we did know was that Indonesia would be the best place to hold our Annual Meetings. And Indonesia remains the best place! "So, at the IMF we asked ourselves how we could help Indonesia in the face of these natural disasters? First, cancelling the Meetings was not an option because that would be a tremendous waste of the resources [. . .]. Second, an IMF loan was not an option because the Indonesian economy does not need it. "And so, as a symbol of our solidarity with the Indonesian people, IMF staffsupported by managementdecided to personally and voluntarily make a contribution to the recovery efforts. Today that contribution stands at 2 billion Rupiah (US$ 130,000) and it will go to a range of relief efforts in Lombok and Sulawesiwith more to come. We have also launched an appeal for participants at the Annual Meetings so that they too can contribute. "Two days ago, the Secretary of the IMF, Jianhai Lin, accompanied Minister Luhut on a visit to Palu in Sulawesi to see the situation for himself and on behalf of the IMF. We are now going to go ahead with our Annual Meetings, but with what we have seen in Palu and in Lombok today very much in our minds. From now until Election Day, The Brian Lehrer Show is hosting a series called 30 Issues in 30 Days. The idea is to dive deep on one issue a day to give voters a sense of what candidates are saying about the policies that affect their lives. Next up: how many of Trump's campaign promises on immigration have been delivered. Back on the campaign trail Donald Trump made immigration his centerpiece, his literal rallying cry, and offered more detailed policy proposals on how he would deal with refugees and "illegals" than most any other issue. He has not succeeded in building his big beautiful wall just yet (though he might tell you otherwise), but immigration policy experts say that when it comes immigration, Donald Trump has been true to his word. Campaign promise: Trump promised to limit legal immigration to "to serve the best interests of America and its workers." Some of what he's delivered: Ended TPS: Temporary Protected Status allows citizens of countries that are affected by man-made or natural disasters to come to the United States legally to work and live. Trump argued TPS was never meant to be a ticket to permanent residency, and announced 300,000 TPS recipients, from Sudan, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti would lose their status by the end of this yearsome by November 2nd. A federal judge just blocked the ruling, giving TPS recipients temporary relief. Temporary Protected Status allows citizens of countries that are affected by man-made or natural disasters to come to the United States legally to work and live. Trump argued TPS was never meant to be a ticket to permanent residency, and announced 300,000 TPS recipients, from Sudan, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti would lose their status by the end of this yearsome by November 2nd. A federal judge just blocked the ruling, giving TPS recipients temporary relief. Cancelled DACA: In 2017 Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama era ruling that currently provides work authorization and temporary status to approximately 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children (the program is still in effect due to lower court objections but recipients are in limbo). In 2017 Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama era ruling that currently provides work authorization and temporary status to approximately 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children (the program is still in effect due to lower court objections but recipients are in limbo). Put restrictions on work visas: Donald Trump has made it more difficult to access or renew H-1B visas, a program that allows jobs to hire skilled professionals from other countries. Critics say the restriction goes against Trumps own promise to make immigration merit based. (Future First Lady Melania Trump received five H-1B visas from when she first came to the United States in 1996.) According to CNN, the number of F-1 visas issued to foreign students seeking to attend college in the United States also decreased by 17% in 2017 due to anxiety around Trumps policies. Donald Trump has made it more difficult to access or renew H-1B visas, a program that allows jobs to hire skilled professionals from other countries. Critics say the restriction goes against Trumps own promise to make immigration merit based. (Future First Lady Melania Trump received five H-1B visas from when she first came to the United States in 1996.) According to CNN, the number of F-1 visas issued to foreign students seeking to attend college in the United States also decreased by 17% in 2017 due to anxiety around Trumps policies. Stuck by the Muslim ban: In 2018 the Supreme Court upheld Donald Trump's travel ban and overruled challenges from the lower courts. The law now bans nationals of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen from entering the US. In 2018 the Supreme Court upheld Donald Trump's travel ban and overruled challenges from the lower courts. The law now bans nationals of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen from entering the US. Reduced refugees to record lows: Since the U.S. resettlement program was established in 1980, an average of 95,000 refugees per year have been allowed to settle in the United States. President Trump cut those numbers in half when he decreed the number of refugees to be admitted should be 45,000. According to David Milliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee,Trump is rigging the refugee admissions system to lower the number even further to only around 20,000 per year. (For more on this issue listen to Milliband on Brian Lehrer below.) Campaign promise: In his first town hall meeting Donald Trump promised that if he won, he would force undocumented immigrants out of the country fast." Has he delivered? According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the number of undocumented immigrants arrested (inside the US border) in 2017 was up 42%. The majority of the increase comes from arrests of non-violent immigrants with no criminal background (those arrests were up 171% from the previous year). Campaign Promise: Build a wall and make Mexico pay for it Trumps recent zero tolerance policy was as much a signal to immigrants that they are not welcome than any behemoth border wall. The policy, which called for prosecuting anyone caught crossing the border illegally, led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents. Public outcry was so massive that President Trump issued an executive order halting the practice on June 20th. According to reports, the DHS was not prepared to deal with the logistics of the zero tolerance policy in the first place, and by late last month, hundreds of detained children were still were not back with their parents. Although voters wont see Trumps name on the ballot on November 6th, the midterm elections could dramatically impact the course of his administration policies. For example, Anu Joshi, Immigration Policy Director at The New York Immigration Coalition, says ICEs uptick in deportations shows no sign of slowing in 2019 and urges voters to elect representatives who will pass restrictions how much federal funding ICE receives (ICE is currently asking Congress for $1 billion to keep up with Trumps high demands, but Congressional leaders have decided to table the matter until after the midterm elections). For more on all this, here's Brian Lehrer's segment: Loading... In statements to RPP radio and news station, the legal representative affirmed that Alberto Fujimori 's daughter detention was conducted without any evidence and that she made herself available to Peruvian justice as soon as the decision was announced. The opposition leader was notified of the measure as she showed up at the Prosecutor's Office to testify as part of a probe into contributions to her party. She was joined by her husband Mark Vito Villanella. "There is no argument that supports this measure, not a reasonable one. She has fulfilled all the requirements stipulated by the Prosecutor's Office as part of its investigation. She has always made herself available to authorities," she stated. According to Loza, this detention is unfair and inappropriate. Plus, it constitutes an abuse by the Public Ministry. Via Twitter, investigative journalism site IDL-Reporteros informed detention was ordered for other 19 people, including former Congress Chairman Jaime Yoshiyama. As is known, Keiko Fujimori is being investigated for money contributions transferred to her campaign at three cocktail parties held on February 13 and December 21, 2015, as well as on November 14, 2016. The prosecutor handling the case Jose Perez resolved to apply the Law against Organized Crime. Within this framework, the probe should be extended for up to 36 months. (END) FHG-JCC/RMB Loading... Peru's Judicial Branch placed Fuerza Popular opposition party leader Keiko Fujimori under detention for ten days, her lawyer Giuliana Loza confirmed on Wednesday.Publicado: 10/10/2018 00:00 | Lima, Oct. 10. "We are looking for a better use of the 19 existing trade agreements signed by Peru ," Valencia said as he presented his sector's budget specifications before Congress. Outdoor Art Spurned by the DIA, Saline creates its own showcase. by Sheila Beachum Bilby Published in October, 2018 The bold colors of the painted sunflowers grab attention, encouraging passersby to linger a moment in a Saline parking lot to admire a reproduction of a watercolor by local artist Joann Porter. It's one of nine reproductions of works by local artists installed around downtown last year. New ones will go up starting in September. Porter's painting, "Midas Touch," features a bouquet of finely detailed sunflowers wreathed by golden wheat. When it was selected for the city-initiated Art Around Saline project last summer, she recalls, "I was thrilled." Art Around Saline was inspired by the Detroit Institute of Art's Inside/Out exhibition. Inside/Out showcases high quality reproductions of DIA masterpieces at outdoor locations in select Michigan cities. Saline twice sought to be a host site for the DIA art but was never chosen. Undaunted, the city's Arts and Culture Committee started mulling the possibility of doing a homegrown version featuring local artists. "Once the idea came up in the committee, everybody jumped on it," says chair Kathleen Krone. "It was, 'Of course we can do this.'" The Arts and Culture Committee sent out notices to arts organizations in Washtenaw County announcing the project, and by August 2018 more than 100 pieces of artwork have been submitted for consideration by a jury composed of members from the committee and the business promotional nonprofit Saline Main Street. The jury initially selected four pieces, and in May 2017, the weatherproofed and framed reproductions were installed on the exteriors of businesses along Ann Arbor St. and Michigan Ave. It went over big in the community. "I haven't heard a single discouraging word about this," says Linda TerHaar, a city councilwoman who sits on the Arts and Culture Committee. "It's all been really positive." Buoyed by the response, the committee again worked with Saline Main Street and the Saline Chamber of Commerce, with grant support from the Washtenaw County Convention and Visitors Bureau, to put up another five artworks last fall. Those partners worked together again this year, with ...continued below... additional support from the Saline Rotary Club, on a third round of art selections, which will replace pieces that have been up for a year or more. Going forward, the committee hopes to put up new art every September.Local artist Nancy Murray's watercolor "Great Egret" has soared on the S. Ann Arbor St. side of the brick building that houses the Brecon Grille & Pub for the past year."It's probably more exposure than you'd ever get from any show or gallery," says Murray, president of the Saline Painters Guild, which has six members whose work has been chosen for display. "It says a lot about the community supporting the arts. It's great."If local artists are enthused, so too are the downtown businesses who have fielded inquiries from patrons who ask about the artwork."I think it kind of surprises people to see art outside and not just blank brick walls, so they come in," said Helen Martin, an interior designer who works at Pineapple House. Sandra Difazio's "Sutherland-Wilson Farm" is displayed on the N. Ann Arbor St. side of its building. "It's just another way to strike up a conversation with customers."Each of the artists receives a $200 honorarium. The reproductions belong to the city, and the arts committee is looking at ways to show the art elsewhere once it rotates out of the downtown spaces."We've asked the artists' permission to expand that time [on exhibit] indefinitely for us to be able to exhibit their art around Saline," says Krone, "and all of them have agreed to that."Porter, a retired art teacher, didn't hesitate to say yes. But she no longer owns the original. A couple of months after "Midas Touch" went on display last year, she received a call from a family whose mother had admired the painting when they dined downtown one night last fall. They bought the original."It was a surprise for their mother for Christmas," Porter says. [Originally published in October, 2018.] YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has recapped the 35th Ministerial Conference of the International Organization of La Francophonie, which was taking place in Yerevan, Armenia for the past two days. After these two days full of exchanges I would like to thank you for active participation and contribution in our discussions, the minister said, addressing Secretary General Michaelle Jean, ambassadors and delegates. First of all I would like to draw your attention on the significance of the texts ratified by us, first of all the draft Yerevan declaration about the Living Together slogan, as well as the Francophones call on Living Together, he said. The full transcript of the speech is available in Armenian and French. Ministers of foreign affairs of La Francophonie member states participated in the conference. Yerevan is hosting the XVII International Organisation of La Francophonie summit in 2018. The events will take place October 7-12, with the summit scheduled for the final two days. A gala concert will take place October 11 in the Republic Square of Yerevan. Armenia is a member of the organization since 2008. The International Organisation of La Francophonie represents one of the biggest linguistic zones in the world. Its members share more than just a common language. They also share the humanist values promoted by the French language. The French language and its humanist values represent the two cornerstones on which the International Organisation of La Francophonie is based. The International Organisation of La Francophonie was created in 1970. Its mission is to embody the active solidarity between its 84 member states and governments (58 members and 26 observers), which together represent over one-third of the United Nations member states and account for a population of over 900 million people, including 274 million French speakers. IOF organizes political activities and actions of multilateral cooperation that benefit French-speaking populations. Its actions respect cultural and linguistic diversity and serve to promote the French language, peace and sustainable development. IOF has concluded 33 cooperation agreements with international and regional organisations and has established permanent dialogue between the major international linguistic zones (the English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Arab-speaking zones). The IOF has its head office in Paris as well as four permanent representations in Addis Ababa (at the African Union and at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa), in Brussels (at the European Union), in New York and in Geneva (at the UN). It has three regional offices (West Africa ; Central Africa and Indian Ocean ; Asia-Pacific) located respectively in Lome (Togo), Libreville (Gabon) and Hanoi (Vietnam) and two regional antennas in Bucharest (Romania) and in Port-au-Prince (Haiti). Alongside the IOF, the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie and the four direct operators are responsible for implementing the programs decided at the Summits. The four direct operators are : the Academic Agency of La Francophonie, TV5Monde, the International Association of Francophone Mayors and The Senghor University of Alexandria. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan Some Upper East Side residents would prefer not to stare into, or at, the "mechanical void" propping up a luxury high rise slated for imminent construction at 249 East 62nd Street. According to NBC 4, architect Rafael Vinoly's "condo on stilts" strikes some as an aesthetic blight upon the neighborhood enabled by developers' exploitation of zoning law loopholes. Vinoly, for reference, also brought New York the teetering 432 Park Avenue complex, Manhattan's tallest residential structure. UES residents do not seem particularly interested in living in the shadow cast by another of his architectural concepts. The contested building's designwhich perches 12 floors of apartments atop a 150 ft. platform filled with mechanical trappingslooks to many like a sneaky means of raking in the astronomical rental fees on impressive city views, while skirting zoning ordinances that cap the number of square feet developers can commandeer for residential space. Basically, this "mechanical void" is the architectural equivalent of phone books piled on a kitchen chair, only instead of allowing a child to peer over the top of the table, it allows fancy residents in high-priced apartments to gaze out over the tops of all the other buildings and the plebes who dwell within. "That's not good planning, to have empty space of that magnitude in an area that's residential," Rachel Levy, executive director at Friends of the Upper East Side Historic District and an UES resident, told NBC 4. "You expect to see tower-on-base of relatively predictable form, that's been in place, you see these buildings up and down our avenues. This one totally turns it on its head." Friends has appealed the construction project, but to no apparent avail: The Department of Buildings greenlit the project in April, after deciding that the gaping mechanical void fits within zoning regulations. Still, according to Crain's, the mayor's office plans to reconsider this sly use of blank space and may eventually "rein in how large [mechanical voids] can be." In a statement to Gothamist, the Department of City Planning said it was "working with our sister agencies to analyze and make recommendations by the end of the year on the question of excessive voids for mechanicals in residential buildings in high density residential areas." The practice of lofting already high high rises seems to be increasingly common these days. In order to make better use of the more lucrative, view-affording sky space, Crain's reports, builders are now treating what would otherwise be closer-to-street-level apartments as cavernous utility rooms. Crain's explains: Developers used to think of mechanical spaces as nothing more than perfunctory rooms used to manage the building's power, sewage and climate. The smaller they could be made, the better. Buildable land today, however, is so expensive that developers, to recoup their costs, have seized on anything they can to create the eye-popping views that have become critical in the increasingly competitive business of courting wealthy buyers. The usually dark, inaccessible spaces packed with machinery have given their projects a literal boost. According to Curbed, Vinoly's giant will stand 32 stories tall, void included. Retail and residential space will take up the first 12 stories, topped by a layer of utility space, followed by prime real estate on floors 17 to 29, and then more mechanical abyss. To judge from the blueprints, the end product will resemble a sort of extraterrestrial spaceship wedged into a water tower. Beautiful, no? YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. After Nikki Haleys surprise resignation as the US ambassador to the United Nations, President Donald Trump heaped praise on Haley's performance during her tenure as the American representative to the world body, he said many people would like to replace her, CNN reports. "We have a number of people who would very much like to do it," Trump said, speaking in the Oval Office with Haley at his side. "It's a great position ... she's helped make it a much better position." Trump told reporters that he expects to name a replacement for Haley in the next "two to three weeks," and said that he would be talking about candidates with the former South Carolina governor and others. Haley will serve until the end of the year, he said. President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday that he has narrowed down his list of potential replacements for outgoing United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley to five people, after his daugher Ivanka removed herself from consideration for the post earlier in the day. So far, the president has revealed only one name that's definitely on his shortlist: former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, who Trump said Tuesday is "certainly a person I would consider" appointing. "Rick Grenell is someone I would consider," Trump said, referring to the U.S. ambassador to Germany. But he added that Grenell was not on his shortlist of five candidates, saying he's doing well in his current post: "Id personally like to keep Rick where he is." Along with Grenell and Powell, other names being floated to replace Haley include U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Hunstman and Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Heather Nauert. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Two other lawmakers have joined the petition endorsing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans stance on the need to hold early elections of parliament in December. The two latest additions to the petition are independent MP Martun Grigoryan (who was granted mandate as replacement for Felix Tsolakyan who was appointed minister of emergency situations), and Republican (HHK) faction MP Robert Sargsyan. The number of MPs to have signed the petition has reached to 18. A group of Members of Parliament, mostly from the Republican (HHK) faction, also former faction members-turned independent, have signed a petition endorsing PM Nikol Pashinyans stance on holding early elections of parliament in December. Lawmakers who signed the petition include Alik Sargsyan, a former national police chief, Artak Sargsyan, an businessman owning the SAS supermarket chain and Samvel Aleksanyan, an influential businessman owning the Yerevan City supermarket chain, and other companies. MPs who earlier signed the petition are: Ashot Arsenyan, Independent, formerly from HHK faction Alik Sargsyan, HHK faction Artak Sargsyan. Independent, formerly from HHK Arman Sahakyan, independent, formerly from HHK Tatchat Vardapetyan, HHK faction Hakob G. Hakobyan, HHK faction Shirak Torosyan, independent, formerly from HHK Knyaz Hasanov, HHK faction Arsen Mikhaylov, HHK faction Harutyun Karapoghosyan, HHK faction Samvel Aleksanyan, independent, formerly from HHK Nahapet Gevorgyan, HHK faction Arayik Grigoryan, HHK action Ishkhan Zakaryan, Tsarukyan faction We endorse Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans stance on holding early elections of parliament in December of 2018. After Nikol Pashinyans resignation as Prime Minister, a new Prime Minister shouldnt be elected until early elections and the incumbent parliament should be dissolved, the statement signed by the MPs says. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Several students, including Armenians, have been suspended at a high school in California after a violent brawl broke out in campus, Daily Mail reports. According to Daily Mail, parents believe the brawl was a race riot. The brawl took place at Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale. Police were called to the school around 1 pm Wednesday at the end of the lunch hour. Several stories have been floated around regarding what started the fight, including a bullying incident. District officials are continuing to investigate the fight. 'This was a serious situation and the district is taking it very seriously,' a school executive said. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Sales of U.S. military equipment to foreign governments rose 33 percent to $55.6 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday, as looser restrictions on sales have begun to increase arms deals. The increase in foreign military sales came in part because the Trump administration rolled out a new Buy American plan in April that relaxed restrictions on sales while encouraging U.S. officials to take a bigger role in increasing business overseas for the U.S. weapons industry, Reuters reports. President Donald Trump wants to make the United States, already dominant in the global weapons trade, an even bigger arms merchant to the world, U.S. officials have said, despite concerns among human rights and arms control advocates. There are two major ways foreign governments purchase arms from U.S. companies: direct commercial sales, negotiated between a government and a company; and foreign military sales, in which a foreign government typically contacts a Department of Defense official at the U.S. embassy in their capital. Both require approval by the U.S. government. About $70 billion worth of foreign military sales notifications went to Congress this year, slightly less than the previous year, an administration official said. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. A citizen of Armenia has been busted for smuggling hundreds of small diamonds totaling 153 carats at Zvartnots airport. The smuggler, whose identity hasnt been disclosed, smuggled the diamonds in concealed trouser pockets. The passenger arrived from Sharjah, UAE, the State Revenue Committee said. A protocol has been initiated under the customs code for transporting undeclared valuables. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. French President Emmanuel Macron will not reshuffle his government before his return from a scheduled three-day trip to Armenia, a presidency official said on Wednesday. The president wishes to take all the time necessary to draw up a team, in a calm and professional way, the Elysee official said. Macron leaves for Armenia later on Wednesday and is due to return on Friday. He has been weighing a cabinet reshuffle for the past several days, following the resignation of his interior minister at the start of the month. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. On 10 October President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan received the delegation of the French town of Valence headed by its mayor Nicolas Daragon, Sahakyans office said. Issues related to the further development of ties between capital Stepanakert and Valence within the framework of twin towns' agreement were discussed during the meeting. President Sahakyan noted with satisfaction that bilateral relations were developing dynamically, underlining that expanding and deepening cooperation with different towns of France was of special importance for Artsakh. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. All administrative district of Yerevan will soon have new executives, Yerevan Mayor-elect Hayk Marutyan told reporters. He said they already have candidates. The inauguration of Hayk Marutyan as Mayor of Yerevan will take place midday October 13th at the City Hall. A City Hall official said that government officials, clergy, politicians and public figures, as well as artists, have been invited to the inauguration ceremony. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. On October 10, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh Republic), the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the ceasefire regime on the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, to the south from Gyulistan village of the Shahumian region, the foreign ministry of Artsakh said. From the positions of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant to the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office (CiO) Ognjen Jovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Personal Assistant to the CiO Personal Representative Simon Tiller (Great Britain). From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and his Field Assistant Ghenadie Petrica (Moldova), as well as staff member of the Office of the CiO Personal Representative Martin Schuster (Germany). The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. However, the Azerbaijani side did not lead the OSCE mission to its front-line positions. From the Artsakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the Republic of Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Russian authorities will once again investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Armenian-Russian businessman and philanthropist Levon Hayrapetyan, who died in 2017 in Russia while serving a prison sentence for fraud. Attorneys of the family of Hayrapetyan hope that authorities will probe the version of a possible poisoning. Before dying, Hayrapetyan is said to have contacted his brother to say he has been poisoned, Kommersant reported. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan Ever since Mark Wahlberg's burger franchise, Wahlburgers, stopped paying rent on its Midtown outpost, you might've found yourself concerned about the coming scarcity of sprawling celebrity-themed restaurants serving up middling food to the Times Square masses. Well, worry no more. Sammy Hagar is here to save the dayand possibly the neighborhood. Real Deal reports that the former Van Halen frontman is opening a new branch of his famed Mexican-American eatery, Cabo Wabo Cantina, in the five-story, 5,300-square-foot retail space last occupied by Wahlburgers. It's Cabo Wabo's first East Coast location, and comes nearly three decades after Hagar, along with the rest of Van Halen, opened the original restaurant in Cabo San Lucas. Hagar ended up buying out his bandmates, and the project eventually found success, with expansions into Hollywood, Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. If those menus are any indication, you can expect standard Mexican fare, alongside custom creations, like Lobster Burritos and Sammy's Tequila Shrimp. You can also expect plenty of Cabo Wabo's house brand tequila and, presumably, a soundtrack largely centered around Hagar's hit song "Mas Tequila" (the video was filmed in the original Cabo Wabo). A spokesperson for Thor, the property's landlord, tells Eater that the project will most likely come with a stage for live music. Speaking of which, fans holding out for a Van Halen reunion should probably let that dream go. In an interview last week, Hagar told Ultimate Classic Rock that he is "tired of sitting around waiting" for David Lee Roth, who is apparently no longer returning his calls. He's still holding out hope, however, that Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards will "come to Cabo and just jump onstage for a couple of hours and play. Its gonna happen. I make things happen." Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina comes to Times Square in spring of next year. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. During a court session today, the attorney of Sasna Tsrer member Pavel Manukyan requested the court to grant bail as an alterantive to pre-trial detention. According to the attorney, Manukyans health is deteriorating daily and he needs medical treatment. Manukyan, and another defendant in the case Armen Bilyan, announced ending the hunger strike, taking into account the passing of their friend and colleague Arayik Khandoyan. The prosecutor did not object the motion and the court granted a 1 million dram bail for the release of Manukyan. Manukyan and Bilyan declared a hunger strike on October 3. It is unclear when Manukyan will pay the bail. The two were among the gunmen who stormed a police station in 2016 and took hostages as members of a group identifying themselves as Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sassoun). The group recently transformed into a political party. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. At least nine people have been killed during flash floods in Majorca, Spain. A British couple are thought to be among the victims, BBC reported. Torrential rainstorms hit the town - 40 miles east of the capital of Palma on the Spanish island - on Tuesday night. Weather forecasters reported that eight inches of rain fell in just four hours. Emergency services said that "several [people] are missing". Antonia Bauza, the deputy mayor of Sant Llorenc, told Radio Mallorca that two of the victims were British nationals. The other victims included two more local people were killed in the town, along with three further victims, who died in the town of S'illot, according to the Civil Guard. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. On 10 October Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received a group of physicians who had arrived from the Fresno city, USA to provide charity medical treatment to the citizens of Artsakh, Sahakyans office said. A range of issues related to cooperation prospects in the healthcare sphere were on the discussion agenda. President Sahakyan expressed gratitude to the physicians from Fresno for special attitude shown towards Artsakh, underlining that the people of Artsakh highly appreciated such manifestation of humanity. Artsakh Republic healthcare minister Arayik Baghryan, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia to Fresno Perch Abgaryan and other officials partook at the meeting. YEREVAN, 10 OCTOBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 10 October, USD exchange rate is down by 0.37 drams to 485.62 drams. EUR exchange rate is up by 1.52 drams to 558.03 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate is up by 0.05 drams to 7.34 drams. GBP exchange rate is up by 5.15 drams to 638.83 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price down by 35.98 drams to 18510.04 drams. Silver price down by 2.35 drams to 223.66 drams. Platinum price up by 84.00 drams to 12802.7 drams. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan will resign in the nearest days in connection with the early parliamentary elections to be held in December, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan told France 24 TV. Early elections should be held around Dec. 9-10, give or take a day. It will be in that timeframe so I will have to tender my resignation by Oct. 16, Pashinyan told France 24 TV. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan So youve found your other half, your boo, your life partner and youre ready to put a ring on it. Engagement rings are a big investment, both financially and romantically so its important you make the right choice. Also read: This is how much more you really spend on a new car While the commonly-quoted guide is to spend the equivalent of two to three months salary on a rock, it actually isnt so black and white, CEO of diamond consultancy Diamond Pro, Michael Fried told Yahoo Finance. The average couple spend $6,143 on an engagement ring, according to a 2017 Australian online survey. But if buyers are smart they can save thousands on diamonds that look identical to top-quality rocks, he added. Where do you start? In order to get the best bang for your buck, you need to ensure that you know exactly which quality you are getting, Fried said. There is no point purchasing a D color, flawless clarity grade (the highest respective grades for those qualities). You can purchase a lower graded diamond that will look identical to the perfect diamond to the naked eye. And you will save oodles of dough while doing it. He said buyers should consider diamonds in the HI colour and SI1/2 clarity range. According to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Flawless diamonds (FL) are the best, while SI1/2 diamonds often have small flaws generally invisible to the naked eye. Also read: Hottest suburbs to buy property revealed Given most diamonds are graded using this metric, brand-name diamonds are often accompanied by a needless markup. Dont get caught up in all the marketing for brand name diamonds, Fried said. Diamonds that come from the poshest stores are the same thing as diamonds from a reputable online retailer like James Allen or Blue Nile. That premium you are paying for is just the packaging. Sure, Tiffanys blue box is iconic. But is it worth paying double for your ring to get the box? The same goes for differences in carat, or weight. One carat refers to 200 milligrams and price-per-carat increases exponentially with the weight. Story continues Spending thousands more for differences in weight should really be thought through, Fried said. Dont spend more for a diamond unless you can significantly increase the noticeable size difference. For example, it may be worth spending an extra $2,000 if you can get a 1.50ct diamond over a 1.25ct diamond. Also read: CBA hit with super returns class action But I wouldnt spend $2,000 to go from 1.25ct to 1.30ct. Nobody can actually see the difference in size between a 1.25ct and 1.30ct. Check the certification Its a lot of money, so you want to make sure the diamond is certified. Fried recommends GIA certification as its generally the most well-respected and has no financial stakes in the sale of the diamond. When buying a diamond worth more than $2,000, the diamond must have a GIA certificate, he said. Its also worth checking that your diamond hasnt financed conflict. The 2006 film, Blood Diamond highlighted the role diamond mining in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Congo had in financing war efforts. According to the World Diamond Council, 24 per cent of the worlds diamonds come from riverbeds and the ocean floor. The extraction of these stones is known as alluvial mining, and an estimated 1 million African alluvial diamond miners are carrying out this labour, often to the detriment of the environment. Young children may also be carrying out this labour, impacting their health and education prospects. Diamond Pros puts the percentage of informally-sourced diamonds at 15 per cent, in line with the World Diamond Councils figures. Conflict-free diamonds may also be tainted with human rights abuses, even if theyre not directly funding conflict, Diamond Pros added. Also read: Google unveils new Pixel phone, adds tablet in Apple challenge They suggested ethically-minded consumers consider lab-created, recycled or Canadian diamonds. However, according to Diamond Pros, the optimal solution is the Kalahari Dream. This is a venture by De Beers the worlds peak diamond company which provides diamonds sourced only from reputable African mining companies. Lets be reasonable Its worth noting the guideline to spend two or three months salary on a ring was devised by De Beers itself, with diamonds for engagement rings a reasonably recent phenomenon. In the late 1940s, De Beers launched its A Diamond Is Forever advertising campaign. Its been credited with the massive global increase in the percentage of first-time brides who receive diamond engagement rings. In fact, between 1940 and 1990, that percentage in the US shot up from 10 per cent to 80 per cent. Described as the slogan of the century by advertising publication, Ad Age, prospective buyers should ask themselves how much theyre buying into the advertising and whether their loved one even wants a diamond. Younger buyers are also beginning to lean towards lab-created and alternative stones as individuality and price-conscious mindsets take effect. For whatever stone, you should factor in your income, expenses, savings and possible wedding plans into your decision. It may not be as traditional, but discussing the rock prior to a proposal can also be a smart and romantic move. The bottom line is that your loved one wouldnt want you to bankrupt yourself for a ring. The US Air Force completed a first-of-its-kind training exercise involving B-2 Spirit nuclear-capable bombers and F-22 Raptor fighter jets - two of the stealthiest aircraft in the world. B-2s had never operated out of Pearl Harbour before, but within weeks found themselves taking off from tiny atolls and practicing new tactics for war in the Pacific. The training comes as China increasingly uses its military to try to back the US out of the South China Sea and military relations disintegrate. The US Air Force clearly intended this mission to show China it wouldn't back down on its forays into the South China Sea, which the US and allies see as international waters. The US Air Force completed a first-of-its-kind training exercise involving the stealthiest aircraft in the world in a massive show of force meant to demonstrate the US's commitment to bucking down a rising China in the Pacific. B-2 Spirit stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri took the long flight out to Joint Base Pearl Harbour-Hickam in Hawaii for the first time ever starting in September. And while the B-2s familiarized themselves with their new home, they took off for training missions with ultra stealth F-22 Raptor fighter jets from the Hawaii Air National Guard. Maritime boundary claims in south china sea map "The B-2 Spirits' first deployment to [Pearl Harbour] highlights its strategic flexibility to project power from anywhere in the world," Maj. Gen. Stephen Williams, US Air Force director of air and cyberspace operations in the Pacific,said in a statement. "The B-2s conducted routine air operations and integrated capabilities with key regional partners, which helped ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific," said Williams. "The U.S. routinely and visibly demonstrates commitment to our allies and partners through global employment and integration of our military forces." The US recently started calling the Pacific the "Indo-Pacific" in what was widely seen as a slight against China. Addressing "free and open" travel there seems to needle Beijing over its ambitions to determine who can sail or fly in the international waters of the South China Sea. Story continues But beyond the rhetorical messages, flying B-2s and F-22s together sends a clear military message - you can't hit what you can't see. The US doesn't have any bigger guns - this is the real deal F 22 Raptor Despite the B-2's massive size, its stealth design and lack of vertical stabilizers make it almost invisible to radars. The F-22 also benefits from all-aspect stealth and a marble-sized footprint on radar screens. Together, the nuclear-capable B-2 and the world-beating F-22 fighter jet represent a force that can go anywhere in the world, beat any defences, drop nuclear or conventional heavy payloads, and get out of harm's way. China has sought to defend the South China Sea with surface-to-air missiles and large radar installations, but the B-2 and F-22 have specific tactics and features to defeat those. Additionally, the Air Force tweaked the old tactics used by the Cold-War era stealth airframes to show a new look entirely. Instead of simply taking off and landing from Pearl Harbour, a known base and likely target for Chinese missiles in the opening salvo of a conflict, a B-2 trained on something called "hot reloading" from a smaller base on a coral limestone atoll in the mid-Pacific called Wake Island. There, specialists refueled the B-2 and reloaded its bomb bays while the engines still ran, enabling a lightning-quick turnaround thousands of miles out from Pearl Harbour and into the Pacific. "We flew to a forward operating location that the B-2 had never operated out of and overcame numerous challenges," Lt. Col. Nicholas Adcock, Air Force Global Strike 393rd Bomber Squadron's commander, said in the statement. While Beijing increasingly takes a militaristic line towards the US, which is trying to preserve freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, the US Air Force made the purpose of its new training regime explicit. The mission sought to "to ensure free, open Indo-Pacific" with stealth nuclear bombers and fighter jets purpose-built to counter Beijing's South China Sea fortress. EU ministers battled Tuesday over the extent of emission cuts to be imposed on carmakers, in the wake of a warning by UN experts on the dangers of global warming. Auto-making giant Germany in a fierce resistance succeeded in imposing a compromise plan tabled by Austria, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. Ministers agreed to a 35 percent CO2 reduction for new cars by 2030 compared to models made for 2021. This target was reduced to 30 percent for vans. "After 13 hours of negotiations, we are relieved... The compromise is in the interest of all member states," Austrian Environment Minister Elisabeth Kostinger told reporters. The deal on cars was greater than the target of 30 percent suggested by the European Commission, the EU executive, but it remained well below the 40 percent cut advocated by the European Parliament in a vote last week. Germany was backed by eastern European member states -- while Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Nordic states had pushed for more ambitious reductions. "This text is worse than what was on the table this morning," said a disappointed Irish Environment Minister Denis Naughton. German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, a social democrat, said that she would have liked to be able to support a more ambitious cut on behalf of Berlin, particularly after the alarm signal sent by IPCC experts. But she admitted that her coalition partner the CDU, the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, was pushing the tougher line, which she defended at the Luxembourg meeting. Germany -- home to Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW -- is worried that if targets are set too high it would hurt exports and threaten jobs. France, home to Renault and Peugeot, said it had wanted "a 40 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from cars in 2030", but appeared to have accepted the compromise position. The ministerial agreement is now set for tough negotiations with MEPs and the commission, with a first round of talks set for Wednesday. Countries and NGOs pushing for a more ambitious position pointed the finger directly at Berlin. "Germany and the (eastern European) Visegrad countries fiercely lobbied for no more than a 30 percent cut proposed by the European Commission, aided behind the scenes by European Commissioner (Miguel Arias) Canete," said activist lobby Transport & Environment. "Today?s decision ... shows how far the Commission and some member states have shrunk from climate leadership putting carmakers interests first," it added. - 'Positive signal' - Tuesday's meeting also adopted the EU's position at COP24, the UN climate summit to be held in December in Katowice, Poland. On Monday, UN climate experts urged policy makers to adopt "rapid" and "unprecedented" reforms if they want to adequately limit global warming and meet commitments made at the COP21 talks in 2016. At COP21, the EU had committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, compared to 1990, in all sectors of its economy. In a carefully worded text, ministers on Tuesday agreed that the EU was "ready (...) to communicate or update" its national contributions by 2020 to meet the targets set in Paris. "The main priority was to send a positive signal, not to commit to new EU targets," said a diplomatic source. EU ministers agreed to a 35 percent CO2 reduction in emissions for new cars by 2030 compared to models made for 2021 Map showing average CO2 emissions of passenger cars across the EU in 2017 A former personal assistant to the CEO of Goldman Sachs who got caught stealing $1.2 million of his boss's vintage wine was found dead on Tuesday afternoon. Nicolas De-Meyer fell to his death from the 33rd floor of the Carlyle Hotel, according to the NYPD. Police responded to a 911 call just after 2:30 p.m. about someone who jumped from the East 76th Street hotel. They found the 41-year-old unconscious and unresponsive, and EMS pronounced De-Meyer dead at the scene. According to the NY Post, "Hotel staff had been alerted by his sister that he was sending alarming texts saying he might kill himself over the case, police sources said. When security forced open his door, he was naked and sitting on the window sill. He smiled at them and then jumped, sources said, his body striking a 17th floor balcony with such force that half of him landed on a terrace two floors below, the sources said." De-Meyer had been expected in federal court to plead guilty to the interstate transportation charge he faced after stealing hundreds of bottles of wine from his former boss, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. The wine included seven bottles of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, which federal prosecutors described as being considered "among the best, most expensive, and rarest wines in the world." Solomon had purchased those particular bottles for $133,650, according to the indictment. A lot of 55 bottles of "Domaine de la Romanee Conti's Romanee Conti" ranging from year 1952 to 2007, with exception of the 1968, is displaying during the auction preview in Hong Kong Wednesday Dec.7, 2011. (Kin Cheung/AP/Shutterstock) Solomon is a noted wine connoisseur; a previous residence had a 1,000-bottle wine storage room and he's said to bring his own wine to restaurants. Part of De-Meyer's duties was to handle the transport of the wine to Solomon's East Hampton home. The purloined wines were sold to a wine dealer in North Carolina, who would travel to a NYC apartment to buy wine from "Mark Miller," who was actually De-Meyer. The theft was discovered in late 2016. After Solomon and his wife confronted him, De-Meyer allegedly admitted to the scam and promised to pay him back. However, Bloomberg News reports that De-Meyer fled the country and spent the next year and change traveling abroad, only to be arrested at LAX in January. Over the summer, De-Meyer's lawyer had asked for a postponement in the case. He had been on $1 million bond. In a statement provided to the Post, Solomon said, "Mary and I are deeply saddened to hear that Nicolas took his own life. He was close to our family for several years, and we are all heartbroken to hear of his tragic end." If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide: do not leave the person alone; remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt; and call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional. The judge in the trial of Mexico's Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, accused of running one of the world's biggest criminal drug empires, said Wednesday his trial would get under way next month. Jury selection is set for November 5 even though "El Chapo's" attorneys insist that they cannot be ready to represent him due to the huge number of documents in the case. The trial is expected to take four months. Guzman, 61, is accused of running the Sinaloa crime syndicate and has been held in New York since being extradited to the United States on January 19, 2017, after twice escaping from prison in Mexico. He faces 17 charges. If convicted, he is likely to spend the rest of his life in a maximum-security US prison. Jeffrey Lichtman, one of his defense lawyers, told federal judge Brian Cogan it was still impossible to be prepared, in the last hearing before trial. The judge denied his request for an additional delay. Mexican drugs kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is escorted by police motorcade across the Brooklyn Bridge back to jail in lower Manhattan after his court appearance in Federal District Court, his last hearing before his trial Germany's government has left the door open to exporting arms to Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Yemen conflict, the news weekly Der Spiegel reported Wednesday, seemingly in spite of a deal within the country's ruling coalition. There would be no German arms embargo on countries taking part in the Yemen conflict, which has left 10,000 people dead since 2015, the news weekly said on its website. It cited a letter to that effect sent by the economy ministry to Social Democratic Party (SPD) MP Thomas Hitschler. But part of a March coalition deal between Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CSU party and the centre-left SPD appeared to rule out arms exports to countries "directly involved" in the conflict. The letter to Hitschler, however, said that export licences will be granted on a case by case basis, Der Spiegel reported. The issue provoked a sharp dispute within the SPD's parliamentary group, the news weekly said, with several deputies accusing Foreign Minister Heiko Maas -- himself a SDP member -- of kowtowing to the Saudis. Merkel's coalition is already fragile, with its third member, the Bavarian conservative CSU, agitating for a migration crackdown as well as facing regional polls on Sunday. The Der Spiegel report also comes amid mounting international scrutiny of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, last seen by his fiancee entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. Turkish police say they think he was killed by a 15-strong team sent to Istanbul, an accusation strongly denied by the Saudis. The authorities in Turkey have released security camera footage showing a man thought to be Khashoggi entering the consulate. Germany and Saudi Arabia only returned their ambassadors in September after 10 months of frosty relations following criticism from Berlin of what it said was Saudi interference in Lebanese affairs. Saudi Arabia leads a coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government there against armed rebels backed by Iran. Thousands have since died -- mainly civilians -- in what the UN has labelled the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The devastating conflict in Yemen has left 10,000 people dead since March 2015 Graphic on the the biggest suppliers of arms to Saudi Arabia, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute "I am always anticipating an attack," says South African soldier Maijeke of how it feels to be in DR Congo's "triangle of death", where he is part of a UN peacekeeping force helping the Congolese army hunt down a militia group that is slaughtering civilians. There has been a recent spike in violence in this volatile eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a shadowy armed group rooted in Ugandan Islamism. Just last week, six civilians were killed during a night attack in the city of Beni by the ADF, which has no known leader and whose ideology and motives remain unclear. AFP photojournalist John Wessels travelled for three days with 30 soldiers from the UN mission MONUSCO and the Congolese army to the troubled North Kivu province, where the ADF has killed hundreds of civilians since 2014. On Friday, after reports of heavy mortar and machine gun fire, the troops headed to the town of Oicha, north of Beni and near the border with Uganda. The town's residents greeted them by throwing stones. "The civilians get frustrated with us and MONUSCO, sometimes we arrive late, we have to fight harder to help the community change its mind about us," one of the Congolese soldiers said on the condition of anonymity. Several homes in Oicha had been looted by ADF members, who melt back into the jungle after raids and attacks. While the troops inspected the looted homes, deafening machine gunfire rang out from the jungle. It seemed to be coming from near the town of Mbau, where 20 civilians were shot dead by the ADF in May. The troops are based outside Oicha, where the blue helmets sleep uneasily -- the ADF killed 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers in December in the deadliest attack on UN forces in 24 years. And the ADF, which is thought to have killed a total of more than 700 civilians over the last four years, regularly attacks Congolese army bases for weapons, ammunition and medical supplies. - 'Heartbreaking' - "This is my fourth deployment in the DRC, my first was in 2006," said UN peacekeeper Maijeke. "This is the most intense deployment for me, I am always anticipating an attack," he added.. "The biggest difference this time is the escalation in the killings of civilians, this is heartbreaking for me, a serious concern." When the ADF killed 20 civilians in Beni in September, the locals condemned the failures of the Congolese army and the UN mission. However MONUSCO maintains its intervention has prevented even greater carnage. In the area known as the "triangle of death" between Beni, Mbau and Kamango, the troops face an enemy that knows every secret of the dense jungle and likely has informants in many communities. On Saturday, the troops headed to the scene of a particularly violent ADF onslaught a few days earlier. Members of the militia were said to have used two women as human shields during a shootout with Congolese troops that lasted four hours. Both women were killed. Everything seemed quiet when the troops arrived, except for the sporadic sound of gunfire. The next day, Sunday, gunshots rang out again -- this time close to their base. The soldiers scrambled to put on their gear, but the jungle quietened down once their attention was turned to it. - What do they want? - Over three days hunting the ADF, some of the mystery surrounding them dissipated. It was clear they are well-equipped with heavy weapons and well organised. Their guerrilla tactics of sudden, brutal assaults are usually to gain strategic positions, or needed supplies. But much remains unknown. How many are they? Who is in charge? Who is arming them? And most of all, what is their goal? Both Uganda and the DRC insist they have a jihadist motive, but many observers say this is too simplistic and there has been no proven link with the global jihadist underground. The ADF started out in 1989 with the aim of overthrowing Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, who was seen as hostile to Muslims. But it went on to absorb other rebel factions into its ranks and started carrying out attacks in 1995. Forced westwards by the Ugandan army, the group relocated most of its activities to DRC, finding a lucrative niche in the vast central African country's lawless, resource-rich east. For Maijeke, the most important thing is ending the violence. "There has to be a dialogue between the FARDC (Congolese army) and the ADF," he says. "The fighting is at the expense of innocent civilians -- mouths must finish this conflict, not bullets." A soldier from the UN's DR Congo mission patrols for members of the ADF militia, which is thought to have killed more than 700 civilians since 2014 A DR Congo soldier at a military base, often targeted by the ADF militia in raids for weapons, ammunition and medical supplies A mother mourns the death of two of her sons, allegedly killed the night before by ADF militia forces, in Beni A member of MONUSCO, the UN's largest peacekeeping force, in the DRC town of Oicha Oicha residents armed with machetes search for ADF members after their town was attacked A Congolese soldier on patrol for members of the ADF An Iranian diplomat was taken into custody in Belgium on Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in an alleged plot to bomb an Iranian opposition rally in France. An investigating magistrate earlier questioned the Iranian, normally based in Vienna, in the northern Belgian city of Antwerp, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said in a statement. Prosecutors said Tuesday that the suspect, previously identified as Assadollah Assadi, had been extradited to Belgium from Germany. Tehran summoned the German ambassador on Wednesday to protest the extradition, which the foreign ministry said was "caused by a fabricated conspiracy by enemies of Iran and European relations". Iran has denied French accusations that Assadi was involved in a plot targeting an annual gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on June 30 just outside Paris. Belgian anti-terrorism prosecutors announced on July 2 that they had foiled the plot. They then requested the extradition of both Assadi and a man identified as Merhad A., who was detained in Paris. Belgian police believe Merhad A. is an accomplice of a husband and wife team caught in Brussels in possession of 500 grammes (about a pound) of the powerful explosive TATP and a detonator. All three are Belgian nationals of Iranian origin. The accusations come at a particularly sensitive time as Iran works with European powers to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, abandoned by the United States earlier this year. Iran has denied French accusations that one of its diplomats was involved in a plot targeting an annual gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (similar to the one pictured on June 11, 2018, in Berlin) on June 30, 2018, outside Paris Italian prosecutors called Wednesday for the head of the country's beleaguered Autostrade motorway operator to serve 10 years in jail for a bus crash in 2013 in which 40 people died. The tourist bus, which was carrying around 50 people, rammed several cars after failing to brake on a bend near Avellino in southern Italy. It then smashed through the safety rail of a viaduct and plunged into the void, falling some 30 metres (100 feet). The prosecutors said chief Giovanni Castellucci and 11 other Autostrade (ASPI) employees should get 10 years for failing to upkeep the rail. The US-imported Jersey concrete barrier, corroded by salt used to keep the road ice-free in winter months, shattered on impact, leaving the bus to sail over the edge in one of Europe's worst road accidents. Autostrade, which runs almost half of Italy's motorway network, has come under huge pressure since a bridge it maintained in Genoa collapsed in August, killing 43 people. Castellucci is under investigation for the collapse of the Morandi bridge, which had suffered from structural problems for decades, prompting severe criticism from engineering experts. Autostrade Chief Executive Giovanni Castellucci, pictured August 2018, is one of 12 Autostrade officials who proscutors say should serve 10 years in jail for his negligence in infrastructure upkeep Autostrade was responsible for the upkeep of Morandi Bridge, whose collapse killed 43 people in August 2018 Maldives strongman President Abdulla Yameen filed a legal challenge Wednesday against his recent landslide election defeat despite international pressure for him to go quietly. Yameen, whose main political rivals were either in jail or in exile for the September 23 vote but was unexpectedly beaten by a unity opposition candidate, had already conceded defeat. But lawyers for Yameen's Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) told reporters that they are alleging the poll was rigged by the independent election commission in a challenge filed with the Supreme Court. "We reviewed the numerous complaints filed by President Yameen's supporters before deciding to file this challenge," Yameen's lead lawyer Mohamed Saleem said. "So in light of that, President Yameen decided that the challenge must be filed for the rights of his supporters," he added. It was however unclear whether the Indian Ocean archipelago nation's Supreme Court would agree to consider the challenge and the opposition expressed hope that it would be thrown out. The election in the honeymoon paradise, which has seen a tussle for influence between India and China, was won by Ibrahim Mohamed Solih with 58.4 percent of the vote. Solih was little known before the election but was backed, in a remarkable turn of events given the Maldives' turbulent recent political history, by all opposition parties. The United States and the European Union had threatened sanctions if the vote was not free and fair and if Yameen, 59, who has borrowed heavily from China for infrastructure projects, did not accept the result. Yameen had reluctantly said he would leave office in November but he has been publicly urging his supporters to challenge the results. Constitutionally, he can remain in office till November 17 when he has to hand over to Solih, barring any last minute court intervention. Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, spokesman for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), said the challenge was "an attempt by Yameen to create unrest" but that the Supreme Court would likely throw it out. "Since the elections results were released, he has tried to get people to protest outside the Election Commission and was unable to get more than 25 to 30 people," said Ghafoor, who like much of the opposition is based in nearby Sri Lanka. "By going to court, he is trying to create an issue and get people to join his protests," he said. ?Given the fact that the transition is going on smoothly and the international community has accepted the verdict of the people, we don't think the courts will entertain this petition to overturn the results." - Going home - Last week, former Maldives leader Mohamed Nasheed announced he would return home two years after going into exile. He was barred from contesting the election won by his party's nominee Solih, who defeated Yameen despite what critics said was a biased media and a rigged system. Nasheed was the country's first democratically elected president but was sentenced to 13 years in prison for terrorism in 2015, in a trial the UN said was politically motivated. He went into exile a year later, after being granted prison leave for medical treatment in Britain. Another former president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was last week released from jail just days after Yameen, his estranged half-brother, lost the election. Gayoom, 80, and his legislator son Faris Maumoon, were released on bail by the High Court in Male, raising hopes that other political prisoners will be freed soon. Former foes Nasheed and Gayoom both backed Solih to challenge Yameen. Gayoom had ruled the nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims for 30 years until he was defeated by Nasheed in the Maldives' first multi-party elections in 2008. Gayoom, along with several top judges, was arrested in February and charged with trying to overthrow Yameen. The president responded by declaring a 45-day state of emergency to block his impeachment, prompting an international outcry. Another high-profile dissident, Qasim Ibrahim, has also been granted bail and returned home last week from exile in Europe. Lawyers for Maldives strongman Abdulla Yameen allege his defeat in September's polls was rigged by the independent election commission The Moroccan navy opened fire on a boat transporting migrants from the North African country, wounding one of them, a military source said on Wednesday. Despite warning shots, "the motorboat that was carrying 58 migrants hidden under tarpaulin made a hostile move which forced the coastguard to fire at the captain," said the source in Rabat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. One of the Moroccan migrants suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder in the overnight operation to intercept the vessel off the town of Larache, on Morocco's Atlantic coast. The wounded migrant -- aged 16, according to media reports -- was transferred to a hospital in Tangier, the military source told AFP. The others aboard the boat, including men and women of various ages, were brought ashore and handed over to the security forces, the source said. More than 43,000 migrants have made it to Spain since the start of the year, including around 38,000 by sea, according to the International Organization for Migration. Last weekend alone, around 1,800 migrants trying to reach the European Union were rescued in the Mediterranean by the Moroccan navy and Spanish coastguard. Since Tuesday, the Moroccan navy has rescued at least 452 migrants off the kingdom's Atlantic coast after they ran into trouble, the official MAP news agency reported, citing a military source. That figure includes 86 Moroccans saved Wednesday from a faltering vessel off the coast Moulay Bouselham, south of Tangier, according to the same source. Wednesday's shooting was the second of its kind in two weeks. On September 25, a Moroccan naval patrol opened fire on a "go-fast" speedboat ferrying migrants to Spain, killing a 22-year-old student and wounding three other people. The authorities said that shooting was also in response to the boat's "hostile manoeuvres" and said the migrants had been concealed under tarpaulin. A growing number of Moroccans are trying to leave their country illegally to reach Europe by sea or by crossing the fortified barriers between Morocco and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa. The kingdom is also a transit country for thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. A file picture shows a Moroccan navy boat off the beach near Cap Spartel in Tangier on August 3, 2015 Police in Peru have arrested Keiko Fujimori, the opposition leader and daughter of disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori, for alleged money laundering involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, her lawyer said Wednesday. The 43-year-old was arrested on the orders of prosecutors investigating suspect contributions to her election campaign, her lawyer Giuliana Loza said. The leader of Popular Force, the biggest party in Congress, Fujimori was arrested after giving evidence at the public prosecutor's office to a judge investigating alleged party funding from Odebrecht. She was placed in preventive detention for 10 days, said Loza, who described the arrest as "an outrage and an abuse". A further 19 people have been arrested in the case linked to contributions to Popular Force during Keiko Fujimori's 2011 presidential campaign. "She has placed herself at the disposal of the prosecutor's office," said Loza. Her arrest comes a week after her 80-year-old father's presidential pardon for crimes against humanity was revoked by a top court. Prosecutors have since June been investigating allegations that three former presidents took bribes disguised as campaign funds from Odebrecht, which is at the center of political scandals across Latin America. Former presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Alan Garcia and Alejandro Toledo all took undeclared campaign contributions in exchange for pledges to have the Brazilian construction giant win local tenders, prosecutors said. Kuczynski narrowly beat Keiko Fujimori to the presidency in 2016. Peruvian opposition leader Keiko Fujimori was arrested on the orders of prosecutors investigating suspect contributions to her election campaign, her lawyer said A photographer has shared shocking images of thousands of dead seahorses set to be sold for use as medicines and aphrodisiacs. Kevin Laurie, 66, a retired police officer from Hong Kong, visited the Qing Ping Wholesale Medicine Market in Guangzhou, China last month and claims he witnessed thousands of rare animals being offered for sale. Seahorses are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine with proponents believing they can be used to cure asthma, throat infections, insomnia and abdominal pain as well as increasing sexual potency. A photographer has shared shocking images of thousands of dead seahorses sold for use as medicines and aphrodisiacs. Source: CEN The main focus of sales is herbal medicine to supply the Traditional Chinese Medicine market, Mr Laurie said. Seahorses are one component of the market. While most of the wildlife crime focus is on the high profile species, these poor little critters are slipping quietly under the radar. Mr Laurie, who was born in the UK, joined the police force in Hong Kong in 1977 and fell in love and now currently does conservation work on a voluntary basis. Thousands of the rare animals were offered for sale at a wholesale medicine market in Guangzhou. Source: CEN Years ago, the market was alive with live animals of all sorts, but the Chinese Government has taken great strides to protect endangered species in the market. But one of my passions is protecting the unprotected. Seahorses dont have much of a voice in the conservation world, so my aim in taking the photos was to highlight their plight. CEN Police in Germany have arrested a man in connection with the rape and murder of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova, Bulgarian officials said Wednesday. But they said it does not appear that the murder was linked to her work as a journalist. The suspect was picked up late on Tuesday at the request of Bulgarian authorities, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told a news conference. "We have enough proof linking this person to the scene of the crime," he said. The country's chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, named the suspect as Severin Kasimirov, born in 1997. "At this stage, we do not believe that the murder is linked" to Marinova's work, Tsatsarov said. "But we are continuing to look at all hypotheses. "The evidence that we have at this stage leads us to believe it was a spontaneous attack to sexually abuse the victim." The body of 30-year-old Marinova -- who presented a current affairs talk programme called "Detector" for the small TVN television channel -- was discovered on a riverside path in the northern town of Ruse on Saturday. Authorities said she died from blows to the head and suffocation. She was also raped. The attack has shocked the country and drawn international condemnation amid speculation the murder could be linked to Marinova's work as a journalist. An episode of her programme aired on September 30 featured interviews with two investigative journalists from Bulgaria and Romania who had been working on corruption allegations. She is the third journalist to be murdered in Europe in the past 12 months after Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February and Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017. Some observers have speculated that the murder could be linked to Marinova's work as a journalist Marinov's killing has shocked the country and drawn international condemnation US President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded that Saudi Arabia provide answers over the disappearance of journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi, whom Turkish officials suspect was murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Trump administration sharply upped the pressure, reversing an initially low-key response after Washington Post contributor Khashoggi vanished on October 2. Trump said he had talked "more than once" and "at the highest levels" to partners in Saudi Arabia, which is one of Washington's closest allies and a key market for the US weapons industry. "We're demanding everything," Trump told reporters. "We cannot let this happen, to reporters, to anybody." "We are very disappointed to see what's going on. We don't like it and we're going to get to the bottom of it," he added. In a later interview with "Fox News at Night," Trump said "it would not be a good thing at all" if the Saudis were proven to be involved. Twenty-two senators wrote to Trump invoking the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which requires the president to open an investigation and determine whether sanctions should be imposed. The act is used in cases of suspected "extrajudicial killing, torture, or other gross violation of internationally recognized human rights against an individual exercising freedom of expression," the senators said. Asked in the Fox interview about suggestions in Congress that arms sales to the kingdom be blocked, Trump replied that such a move would hurt the US economy. "Frankly, I think that would be a very, very tough pill to swallow for our country," he said. Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said National Security Advisor John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump's close aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner had all spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the past two days. The United States has not confirmed Turkish claims that Khashoggi, a US resident and one of the more outspoken critics of the regime of King Salman and his son Prince Mohammed, had been lured to the Istanbul consulate and murdered by a team of 15 government operatives sent by Riyadh to Istanbul. But The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Prince Mohammed himself had ordered an operation targeting Khashoggi. Saudi officials were heard discussing a plan to lure Khashoggi from the US state of Virginia, where he resided, and detain him, the newspaper said, citing unnamed US officials discussing intelligence intercepts. The case has sparked outrage from human rights and journalism groups. In the calls by Bolton, Kushner and Pompeo, Sanders said, "they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process." Trump also said he was looking into a meeting in the White House with Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. - Critic of Saudi regime - US peace activists Code Pink mounted a protest in front of the Saudi Embassy in Washington Wednesday, brandishing signs saying "Where is Jamal Khashoggi?" and "Khashoggi: Another Victim of Saudi Violence." "We are very very disturbed" by Khashoggi's disappearance, said Code Pink founder Meda Benjamin. "We think that there is very little hope that Jamal is still alive." The Washington Post, where Khashoggi has been a regular contributor over the past year, also called for answers. "Reports about Jamal's fate have suggested he was a victim of state-sponsored, cold-blooded murder," said Post publisher and chief executive Fred Ryan. "Silence, denials and delays are not acceptable. We demand to know the truth," he added. Khashoggi, 59, is a longtime leading Saudi journalist and former government advisor who went into exile last year after 33-year-old Prince Mohammed rose to power under his father the king. He has been critical of the monarchy's continued arrest of critics on both the left and right, despite its professed reforms. He has also repeatedly assailed Riyadh's role leading the war against Yemen's Huthi rebels, a campaign closely identified with Prince Mohammed that has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and generated a major humanitarian disaster. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain papers for his pending marriage to Cengiz, who is Turkish. - Never left the building? - Riyadh insisted that Khashoggi left the building and called the murder claims "baseless." Turkish investigators say they have CCTV footage showing him entering the consulate, but not leaving. A source told the Washington Post that US intelligence "intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him." The Saudis hoped to "lure" Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia "and lay hands on him there," the source told the Post. But State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters they had no such tip. "The US had no advance knowledge of Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance" or of any kind of threat, he said Wednesday. The issue threatened the strong relationship the Trump administration has constructed with Prince Mohammed. The two sides have cooperated on challenging Iran, on supporting Israel and on the war against the Huthis. But Prince Mohammed has drawn growing scrutiny over his campaign against critics. Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that between 25 and 30 professional and non-professional journalists are currently detained in Saudi Arabia. burs-sms/wd/it/dw Jamal Khashoggi, a former Saudi government advisor, had been living in the United States since last year, fearing possible arrest A demonstrator dressed as Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (C) with blood on his hands protests with others outside the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC This video grab from CCTV footage obtained from Turkish news agency DHA shows Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (R) arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 The United States returned to Colombia Wednesday 38 ancient artifacts plundered over decades by a private American collector described as a "modern-day Indiana Jones." The FBI recovered the artifacts -- pre-Colombian ceramic pottery from the southern Narino highlands and the Caribbean -- after receiving a complaint about the museum-like collection at the home in Indiana of one Donald Miller, a businessman with an interest in archeology. Investigators found thousands of pieces from China, Colombia, New Guinea and the United States. "This collector was a modern-day Indiana Jones. Remember that what Indiana Jones did was to steal all manners of cultural patrimony from other countries," Colombia's Ambassador in Washington Francisco Santos told reporters during a ceremony at the Colombian Embassy. "That's what this man was -- but he was a 90-year-old old man with a museum in his home. That was his hobby," Santos added. Twenty-nine of the recovered pieces were returned during the ceremony, and 11 more will be delivered in Bogota. "The items returned today are part of the largest collection of art and cultural property ever recovered by the FBI in the course of a single investigation," said FBI Special Agent Maxwell Marker. No charges were brought against Miller, who died shortly after the collection was seized. "His hobby was to travel around the world picking up these pieces and literally stealing the cultural heritage," Santos said. The Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History is set to assess the pieces and try to identify them. Trafficking in plundered artifacts is particularly destructive because of the loss of valuable knowledge that occurs as well as the physical objects. "We lose the ability to physically appreciate our heritage," said Santos. Jennifer Galt, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, said the objects were so small that they were easy to hide in luggage. "Although we cannot return these items to their original context and recover that lost information, I am very pleased that the United States can return them to Colombia," she said. Colombian Ambassador to the US Francisco Santos points to a piece of an indigenous art collection seized by the FBI and returned to the Colombian people during a handover ceremony at the Colombian Embassy in Washington on October 10, 2018 Pieces of the seized indigenous art collection are seen during a handover ceremony Santos (C) takes receipt of the seized indigenous art collection Colombian Ambassador to the US Francisco Santos holds a piece of an indigenous art collection seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) The US government on Wednesday announced a plan for tougher oversight of foreign investment in key technology industries, a move seen as largely targeted at China. President Donald Trump has accused China of rampant theft of American technology and used that as justification for imposing punitive tariffs on thousands of products amounting to more than $250 billion in annual imports. The new rules, which take effect November 10, updated 30-year-old statutes giving the president broad powers to block foreign investments in sensitive industries or those deemed harmful to US national security. The reform allows the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review any investment, not just company takeovers, in an American firm in one of 27 key sectors. "These temporary regulations address specific risks to US critical technology," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement on Wednesday. Those include aeronautics, telecommunications, computers, semiconductors and batteries, a senior US Treasury official told reporters. The industries were selected because they are ones where "the threat of erosion of technological superiority from foreign direct investment...requires immediate attention," the official said. But the products subject to higher scrutiny only account for 2.5 percent of the total. The official said the rules did not target a particular country, but CFIUS, an intergovernmental panel overseen by the Treasury, has blocked takeovers by Chinese investors. In some cases just the prospect of a review has discouraged deals. In announcing the reform in August, Trump made it clear the focus would be on Beijing and the threats to national security. He said China "won't be stealing our companies anymore, especially companies that are quite complex." Congress approved the law known as FIRRMA with bipartisan support, and Treasury is implementing new rules under a pilot program until the final version takes effect in 15 months. There are three criteria for increased scrutiny: any foreign investment, even a minority stake; whether the foreign investor gets a seat on the board of directors of the US tech company; and whether the foreign investor can influence the company's decision-making process. Treasury has not indicated how small a foreign stake would trigger the additional oversight but has said it hopes to complete reviews within 30 days. The official said Washington was preparing additional regulations to protect artificial intelligence and infrastructure. According to the latest figures available, the CFIUS looked at 172 transactions in 2016 and launched 79 investigations with a single negative decision. US President Donald Trump, pictured October 9, 2018, has accused China of rampant theft of American technology and used that as justification for imposing punitive tariffs on thousands of products Orthodox clerics led by the Patriarch of Constantinople are set to decide the fate of Ukraine's Orthodox Church, with Moscow warning Wednesday that granting it independence would provoke street protests. The Holy Synod, which decides on key matters for the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate, is expected to pronounce on whether to grant independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church this week. This has inflamed tensions with the Patriarchate of Moscow, which technically oversees most of Ukraine's Orthodox parishes, and whose clerics have warned that independence would provoke a rift in global Orthodoxy and hinted at possible physical street violence in Ukraine. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is considered the first among equals and a spiritual leader for the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. The synod began on Tuesday and items on its three-day agenda are not made public, but the decision on Ukraine's autocephaly, or independence, is widely expected. The Ukrainian Church is currently split into three bodies, the largest of which is technically overseen by the Patriarch of Moscow, a fact the Kiev government considers unacceptable given its ongoing war with Russia-backed rebels in the east. Ukraine's second-largest Orthodox church split from Moscow in the 1990s and is headed by the charismatic Patriarch Filaret, who is reviled by Moscow and is a foremost proponent of a new independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Constantinople's Patriarch Bartholomew last month sent two envoys to Kiev, one of whom indicated in a meeting with President Petro Poroshenko that the process of granting independence, or autocephaly, was "on the finishing line". The Moscow Patriarchate has cut ties with Constantinople over the affair, which it considers an unjust encroachment on its spiritual territory. On Wednesday, an influential cleric went so far as to warn that parishioners will not hand over churches to a new Orthodox institution willingly. "Of course, people will take to streets and protect their sacred sites," Hilarion, a bishop in charge of diplomacy at the patriarchate, was quoted by Russian agencies as saying at a religious congress in Kazakhstan. Ukrainian authorities and many worshippers are wary of the influence of Russian Patriarch Kirill, who has supported the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the separatists in the east of the country. If the synod in Istanbul makes a favourable decision, a special assembly of Orthodox clerics in Kiev will choose the head of the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which could take place within 10 days. - 'Defence' of monasteries - Losing Ukrainian churches would be a huge blow for the Russian Orthodox Church. About a third of parishes under the umbrella of the Moscow Patriarchate are in Ukraine, and losing them would undermine Kirill's image as a spiritual leader for Eastern Orthodoxy. Hilarion said a decision for independence would lead to Ukrainian authorities physically taking over Orthodox churches and monasteries currently used by clerics under the Moscow Patriarchate. These include some of Ukraine's most recognisable and popular landmarks, such as the Kievo-Pechersk Lavra in the capital Kiev. "We are seeing already that Orthodox churches in Ukraine are being overthrown and the worshippers are coming to their defence," he said. Some Russian websites have been circulating misleading information about Ukrainian nationalists storming the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, something even the Moscow Patriarchate was forced to brand fake news. Clerics heading parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine have however called on parishioners to rally in defence of the churches. The Metropolitan of Pochayiv said in a recent statement posted on the website of Ukraine's Pochayiv Lavra, a major Orthodox monastery in western Ukraine, that supporters should "be ready to defend" the monastery. Metropolitan Hilarion, a bishop in charge of diplomacy at the Moscow Patriarchate, has warned of protests if the Ukraine Orthodox Church is granted independence A toddler has been killed and his sister injured after a gust of wind ripped the jumping castle they were playing in from its foundations. Caleb Acuna, 2, and his sister Gabriella, 5, were playing at JKs Pumpkin Patch in the US state of Nebraska last Wednesday when the jumping castle was hit by strong winds, Omaha World-Herald reports. Raymond Fire Safety Officer Nick Monnier said the castle was lifted more than nine metres in the air. Caleb Acuna, 2, and his sister Gabriella, 5, were playing at JKs Pumpkin Patch in the US state of Nebraska when the jumping castle was hit by strong winds. Caleb died and his sister broke her arm. Source: GoFundMe/ Caleb Acuna Memorial Fund Gabriella was thrown more than nine metres while Caleb was trapped inside as the castle tumbled. It carried the toddler more than 30m. Officer Monnier told Lincoln Journal star the jumping castle wrapped around Caleb like a taco shell. He added another bouncing castle was blown more than 90 metres. The two-year-old died from severe head trauma in hospital on Thursday, while his sister suffered a broken arm. The toddler died playing on this jumping castle at JKs Pumpkin Patch. His death is now under investigation. Source: Facebook/ JKs Pumpkin Patch According to the National Weather Service there were winds travelling up to 90km/h recorded at a nearby airport later that day. The Acuna family has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Calebs funeral. An investigation into his death is ongoing. A black babysitter claims a woman called the police on him while two white children were in his care. Corey Lewis of the US state of Georgia was babysitting a 10-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy on Sunday. They are children belonging to friends of his. But after treating the kids to Subway, the 27-year-old, who runs youth mentoring program Inspired by Lewis, noticed a white woman sitting in her car staring at him. She pulled up alongside us and asked, Are the kids OK? Mr Lewis told Yahoo Lifestyle. I answered, Why wouldnt they be? She just smirked and drove off. Corey Lewis of the US state of Georgia was babysitting a 10-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy when the police were called on him. He claims its because hes black and the children are white. Source: Facebook/ Corey Lewis The woman circled the parking lot and returned to Lewiss car, saying, Can I ask the little girl if she knows who you are? and Lewis answered, No, you cannot. The woman then said, OK, I will take down your licence plate, and left. I asked a few white witnesses if it looked suspicious that I was caring for two white children, and they said Kind of, Mr Lewis said. But the kids were goofing around and eating, and there was no sign of danger. Mr Lewis driving with the two kids hes babysitting in the back seat.. Source: Facebook/ Corey Lewis Mr Lewis headed to a service station, and while he was pumping petrol, he noticed the womans car again. Concerned about the childrens safety, he drove to his house, and when he arrived, so did the woman and a police car. I didnt do anything the police is here now! Mr Lewis said in a Facebook Live video with more than 230K views. Im being followed and harassed. In the video, the officer, whom Lewis says was courteous, spoke to the children, who confirmed Mr Lewiss identity. The kids explain to police who Mr Lewis is. Source: Facebook/ Corey Lewis Two white kids being with one black male is suspicious, Mr Lewis scoffed in the video. I work with kids every day. The officer called the childrens mum Dana Mango who was aghast at the presumption of the 911 caller. I thought it was a joke, Ms Mango told Yahoo Lifestyle. I said, Is it because theres an African-American male driving my kids around? and the officer, who was embarrassed and apologetic, said, It appears so. A representative from the Cobb County Police Department did not return Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment. Story continues The 27-year-old was babysitting two kids (not pictured here). Hes friends with their parents. Source: Facebook/ Corey Lewis The term babysitting while black is being used on Twitter to describe the incident. Ms Mango said the experience frightened her children. My son said, The woman followed us because we have peachy skin and Mr Lewis has brown skin, and she thought he was kidnapping us. They were both fearful that Corey wouldnt be able to babysit them anymore. Ms Lewis, who works with a diverse set of children each day, told Yahoo Lifestyle, A black man with white children just didnt look right in this womans eyes. A woman stabbed her friend at a haunted house after being given what she thought was a prop knife. The disastrous mix-up occurred as a group of friends were lining up to see the Nashville Nightmare haunted house in Tennessee, US, about 9pm on Friday. The four friends were approached by someone they thought was an employee at the Halloween venue, who asked a woman in the group if her friend was bothering her. Playing along, the woman said yes. The stranger responded by giving the woman a knife, saying well here, stab him, reported local outlet News Channel 5. Thinking it was a prop knife, the woman stabbed her friend and was horrified when blood started squirting out of her friends left arm through a hole in his shirt. The stabbing happened at a haunted house in Tennessee. Source: Getty (file pic) Witnesses told police that they all thought the knife was a prop. We are still confirming the facts, but I can tell you that on Friday night, a male patron was injured by a fellow patron outside the Nashville Nightmare house, Nashville Nightmare said in a statement, quoted by News Channel 5. Our medical staff responded immediately, and the injured party was transported to the hospital where we understand that he was treated and released. The unknown person took the knife back and the woman has not been charged with a crime, a police spokesperson confirmed to Fox News. Assemblyman Gary Finch picked up the support of the Onondaga County Veterans Party Tuesday. The party is active in central New York politics, but doesn't have a ballot line. It recently endorsed Onondaga County Comptroller Bob Antonacci in the 50th state Senate District race. Linda Chew, chair of the Onondaga County Veterans Party, lauded Finch for his service. "Assemblyman Finch has honored his oath to uphold the Constitution," she said. "He has respected and honored veterans. We want to keep him in Albany to continue his good work." Finch, R-Springport, is running for re-election in the 126th Assembly District. The district includes portions of Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland and Onondaga counties. The assemblyman has been in office since 1999. During his tenure, his campaign noted that he supported expanding service credits for veterans in the state retirement system and backed efforts to assist disabled veterans who own small businesses secure state contracts. He also supported legislation that would expedite the professional licensing process in New York for military spouses who are relocating to the state. The endorsement of the Onondaga County Veterans Party, Finch said, is meaningful. "We can never adequately thank our veterans for their steadfast service and selfless sacrifice, but we can try," he added. "During the upcoming session, I'll continue doing everything I can to be an effective advocate for them in Albany." Finch is being challenged by Keith Batman, a Democrat and Cayuga County legislator. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 As state Sen. Pam Helming campaigns for re-election, she will do so with the support of a large public employees union. The New York State Public Employees Federation backed Helming, R-Canandaigua, in the 54th Senate District race. The freshman senator is seeking a second term representing the Finger Lakes district, which includes part of Cayuga and five other counties. The union represents nearly 52,000 state employees, according to a news release. Wayne Spence, president of the Public Employees Federation, praised Helming for her focus on working families, education issues, improving the health care system and boosting wages. "At a time when anti-union forces are ramping up efforts to tear us down, we know Senator Helming will have our backs in the New York State Senate," Spence said. Helming is seeking re-election in a race that's a rematch of the 2016 campaign. Her opponent is Democratic challenger Kenan Baldridge, a town supervisor in Rose, Wayne County. Baldridge and Helming squared off two years ago in the race to succeed Michael Nozzolio, who retired after more than three decades as a state lawmaker. Helming won that contest. When Helming campaigned in the 54th district two years ago, she had the Public Employees Federation's support. She will have the union's backing again in her first re-election bid. "The members of PEF work hard each and every day to deliver critical services to taxpayers," Helming said. "They share my commitment to improving state government. Together, we have accomplished a lot for New York state and the hardworking men and women PEF represents." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 President Donald Trump signed legislation Tuesday night requiring the federal government to study whether Fort Ontario in Oswego should be designated as a national park. The Fort Ontario Study Act sponsored by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Rep. John Katko received final congressional approval last month. Passage of the bill by the Senate was a major milestone in the effort to examine whether the fort should be given national park status. The bill requires the Department of the Interior to commission a special resources study to "determine the suitability and feasibility of designating Fort Ontario ... as a unit of the National Park System." Before a new unit is added to the national park system, a special resources study is needed. After Congress passed the bill, Oswego officials lauded their federal representatives Gillibrand, Katko and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for advocating for the study. "Fort Ontario and the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum remind us of our nation's long history of welcoming those in need," Schumer said Wednesday. "With the Fort Ontario Study Act officially signed into law, we have taken a critical step forward in the quest to designate this location as part of the National Park System, which will attract attention and visitors to this worthy site." Gillibrand added, "Fort Ontario has played an outsized role in New York state and our nation's history, and I have been proud to work to make sure that these central New York treasures can gain the recognition they deserve. A national park designation would be a fitting honor for these extraordinary sites and an incredible tribute to New York's proud history as a home to refugees." The fort dates back to the French and Indian War. It was an active military installation during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, and it was used during the Civil War period. Near the end of World War II, nearly 1,000 European refugees who escaped the Holocaust were housed at the fort. The refugees resided at the fort from August 1944 to February 1946. After the refugees departed the fort, it was used to house World War II veterans and their families. It became a state historic site in 1953. Katko, R-Camillus, introduced the Fort Ontario Study Act in late 2015. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., followed by introducing a companion bill in the Senate. The House passed the Fort Ontario legislation in September 2016, but it didn't receive a vote in the Senate. The lawmakers reintroduced the measure in January 2017. The House quickly passed the bill again. In September, the Senate passed the measure by unanimous consent. "Since coming to Congress in 2015, putting Fort Ontario on the path to becoming a national park has been among my top priorities," Katko said. "Fort Ontario and Safe Haven National Refugee Shelter are important sites both in our regional history as well as the history of our country. I could not be more enthused that this bill is now law and our treasured landmark is on its way to being nationally recognized." Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A lot of money is flowing into central New York as parties, political action committees and outside groups show support for their preferred candidates in the 50th Senate District race. The campaigns of Republican Bob Antonacci and his Democratic opponent John Mannion have reported receipts totaling $697,442.21. While individual donors have given to both candidates, most of the funding has come from other sources. Antonacci launched his bid for the 50th district seat by transferring $116,718.04 from his comptroller campaign committee. That accounts for 32 percent of the $368,160.48 in receipts he has reported to date. The Senate Republican Campaign Committee transferred $76,000 to his committee to cover the cost of television commercials. He has received $50,048 from limited liability corporations, PACs and other groups located outside the district. He received $10,000 each from the Rent Stabilization Association PAC and the Neighborhood Preservation Political Action Fund, two New York City-area groups linked to landlords. Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan's campaign committee donated $11,000. Carl Paladino, a Buffalo businessman and former GOP gubernatorial candidate, gave $1,000 through his Turning Albany Upside Down PAC. Individual donations account for 20.5 percent of Antonacci's total receipts, records show. He has received $75,664.44 from individuals and partnerships. Of the 185 donations itemized by his campaign, 142 were for $250 or less. His top individual donor was Kim Weitsman, co-owner of the Ben Weitsman and Son scrap metal processing company and The Krebs restaurant in Skaneateles. She contributed $11,000 to Antonacci's campaign. Since launching his campaign, Mannion has raised $329,281.73. The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is his top benefactor, donating $147,108 to help pay for television ads. The DSCC is one of several outside groups to support Mannion, who has received $232,508 from LLCs, political action committees and other entities. The United Federation of Teachers' political arm contributed $12,000, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee in Washington gave $11,000 and the 1199 SEIU NYS Political Action Fund chipped in with $7,000. The American Federation of Teachers, which is based in Washington, donated $11,000. Voice of Teachers for Education, a political group linked to New York State United Teachers, gave $11,000. Weitsman Shredding LLC and Ben Weitsman and Son of Syracuse, the companies operated by Adam and Kim Weitsman, each contributed $10,000. Mannion has received $108,239.73 in individual donations, which account for 32.9 percent of his total receipts. A review of his financial filings found 204 of the 320 individual and partnership donations he received were for no more than $250. Two notable individual donors were Sean Eldridge and Chris Hughes. The couple gave $10,000 ($5,000 each) to Mannion. Hughes co-founded Facebook. Eldridge, who ran for Congress in 2014, has long been involved in Democratic causes. The race could be one of the most expensive state Senate campaigns in upstate New York. Both parties are fighting for control of the chamber. Republicans now hold a slim majority due to a Democrat, state Sen. Simcha Felder, who caucuses with the GOP. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 AUBURN Monika Salvage recalls staring at a map of Auburn with saucer eyes around 10 years ago, amazed by the historic significance of many sites in the city. Salvage, who was born and raised in Austria, said that while people from Auburn may not be impressed that iconic abolitionist Harriet Tubman called the city home and that Theodore Case pioneered sound-on-film technology in his laboratory there, she was amazed by that history. Salvage said she believes her outside perspective has served her well in her time working with nonprofits in the Auburn area. Now, she's one of three people who will lead the United Way of Cayuga County's fall 2018 campaign. The campaign's chair is Michelle Barber, assistant vice president and branch manager of Five Star Bank in Auburn. Salvage, owner of the communications business Communicate This, and Jon Wilcox, assistant vice president and business development officer at Savannah Bank, are co-chairs. The three have been reaching out to different organizations about donating to the campaign while informing people what United Way is and what it does. Agencies that United Way serves include the Booker T. Washington Community Center and E. John Gavras Center in Auburn, and the Rescue Mission in Syracuse. The trio said that every cent people donate can help county organizations that support the physical and mental well-being of community members, such as Cayuga Counselling Services or the SCAT Van, which offers transpiration for seniors and people with disabilities. Wilcox said just sparing a few dollars that one would normally spend at McDonald's and giving it to a local program could make an immense impact. Salvage added that many people in the community may one day find themselves needing the service of an organization United Way helps. United Way's executive director, Karen Macier, said at least one person leads the campaign every year. She said United Way looks for people who have histories of involvement with the organization and display passion for the group's work. The Auburn organization has three employees, so volunteer help is invaluable, Macier said. All three of the campaign's leaders are alumni of Leadership Cayuga, a program that helps people learn the skills to take leadership roles and participate in community and business activities in Cayuga County. United Way is partnering with the organization this year. Barber, who has been working with the local United Way for 15 years, said that since she works for a for-profit business, working with United Way and other local nonprofits makes her feel like a "more well-rounded person." She said Five Star Bank also actively encourages its leaders to be involved in their communities. Getting involved is not an issue for Barber, of Seneca Falls, as she often takes part in local organizations, she said. "I like to be challenged," Barber said. "I like to be part of organizations and missions that I'm passionate about, and United Way is one of them." Salvage, who has worked with United Way for years, said that after she joined Leadership Cayuga she joined the boards of various nonprofits, some of which received United Way funding. She said she knows how helpful that funding can be. Community service is a family affair for Wilcox. He said his parents, Jon C. Wilcox and Helen Wilcox, instilled the importance of giving back within him. And so one of the primary reasons why he gets involved with different nonprofits is to serve as a good role model to his sons, Caden Wilcox, 9, and Connor Wilcox, 7 and teach them those same values. Wilcox said he loves "closing my eyes, going to bed and knowing I did something to help people." Barber and Salvage feel they have a different perspective on community work in Auburn than others, since Salvage wasn't born in the United States and Barber isn't based in Cayuga County. They said that while people born and raised in Auburn may be used to the ins and outs of the area, they view it differently. "People are like, 'How come you're not even from here but you're the biggest cheerleader for this area?' I'm like, 'Well, maybe because I see things that you may not see because you've seen it for 50 years because it is what it is,'" Salvage said. As someone who grew up in Auburn, Wilcox said he has seen vast improvements to the area over the years, such as its restaurants and other things to do. Wilcox said he used to work under Barber at Five Star, and credits her for convincing him to join Leadership Cayuga in 2015. Wilcox said he had been involved in a United Way campaign a few years ago. Barber and Salvage thanked their husbands, Jeffrey Salvage and Rob Barber, for being understanding of how many hours they spend on United Way and other organizations. Barber, Salvage and Wilcox said they feel donations to United Way are akin to investments in the community. "We're just here to improve the quality of life in our community," Barber said. "You're not donating, you're investing in your co-workers, your neighbors, your family." Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Authorities say a former New York state Department of Transportation employee overseeing a $10 million road project has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars in federal funds. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Albany says 44-year-old Jerome Lauzon, of Gansevoort in Saratoga County was charged Tuesday with misappropriating at least $5,000 from a federally funded program. Prosecutors say Lauzon was the engineer in charge of a road reconstruction project in Washington County during a five-year period ending in 2017. The Federal Highway Administration provided 80 percent of the funding for the contract. Authorities say the project's contractor bought goods and services for Lauzon's personal use, and Lauzon reimbursed the company for the purchases using project funds. Lauzon was released after being arraigned. His lawyer, Derrick Hogan, said Lauzon pleaded not guilty and will fight the changes. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 AUBURN Hopefuls for the 130th Assembly District squared off on economic development and water quality Tuesday afternoon. Brian Manktelow and Scott Comegys discussed issues during a televised debate at Cayuga Community College. Both are running to replace Assemblyman Bob Oaks, who is not seeking re-election after first joining the state Assembly in 1992. The 130th Assembly District includes 10 Cayuga County towns, some Oswego County areas and all of Wayne County. On the issue of blue green algal blooms and the potentially unsafe water quality of Owasco Lake, Manktelow, R-Lyons, said he believes areas in upstate New York don't receive their fair share of funding for combating water quality "I'm willing to go down there, roll my sleeves up and let's go after this. We need that funding for our area. We're just as important as anybody else," Manktelow said. Comegys, D-Palmyra, countered that he didn't believe the issue just came down to funding, but to communicating and working with farmers. He said the methods of farmers should be examined as well, to look at the nutrients being put into the ground and to make sure they aren't flowing so far into water and drainage systems to encourage algal blooms. He also said higher temperatures as a result of climate change should be addressed. He said there should be a bigger focus on having the right regulations on protecting watersheds and water sources to address water quality in a responsible way instead of simply having tougher regulations. Manktelow said septic systems along water bodies should be addressed in addition to what farmers are doing. He said he believes current regulations are "more than adequate" and that he doesn't want too much regulation impeding progress. Manktelow talked about changes he'd liked to see to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's regional economic developmental council system, in which different regions in the state present plans and prioritize projects they seek funding for. "Instead of Albany taking our money and then deciding to give it back and who should get it and when we should get it, let's leave our money local," Manktelow said. "Let us decide as communities what's most important." Manktelow said many smaller communities don't have the resources to create and present plans and are often overlooked because of that, but believes the program is moving in the right direction overall. He also argued against regulating businesses too much. Comegys said he likes that the program pools money together as a state but said he agrees with Manktelow on believing that smaller areas that could use that funding lose out on the money due to a lack of resources. "I object to the idea of making it a game. Our economy is not a game, it's not something (in which) we can kind of throw money to the person who impressed the governor the most," Comegys said. Comegys said he heard Oaks, R-Macedon, constantly met with community members to talk about concerns they had, and said he would do the same if elected. However, he said he would be more progressive than Oaks on many issues, such as women's reproductive rights, equal pay, and "vote for the environment over businesses in most situations." "We've had 26 years where, in essence, we've had somebody representing us with the best intentions in his heart, I'm sure, but opposing much of what comes out of Albany," Comegys said. "And preserving that way of life is only leading us into decline. I think it's time for a change." Manktelow knows Oaks and praised his time with the Assembly, adding that he would build on Oaks' work if elected. Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. City Chad A. Nemo, 43, 24 Orchard St., Auburn, was charged Oct. 7 with one count each of endangering the welfare of a child and obstruction of breathing. Alejandro Meza, 26, 13 Cross St., Apt. A, Auburn, was charged Oct. 7 with petit larceny. James P. Vanfleet, Jr., 23, 201 State St., Apt. UP, Auburn, was charged Oct. 5 with second-degree criminal contempt and resisting arrest. Donald R. Flynn, 46, 13 Rock Ave., Apt. 1, Auburn, was picked up on a bench warrant Oct. 9. Joshua S. Gehring, 27, 16 N. Fulton St., Apt. 2, was picked up on a bench warrant Oct. 9. Sanford G. Tillotson, Jr., 32, transient, Auburn, was picked up on a bench warrant Oct. 9. Shannon E. Heffernan, 25, 55 Chapman Ave., Auburn, was picked up Oct. 9 on an arrest warrant and charged with computer trespass, third-degree unlawful possession of personal identification information and tampering with private communications. Thomas J. Huntington, 37, 8174 Grant Avenue Road, Weedsport, was picked up Oct. 9 on a bench warrant. State Nicholas L. Holland, 31, Red Creek, was charged Oct. 3 with driving while intoxicated first offense. Russell E. Poyer, 58, Lansing, was charged Oct. 5 with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. Matthew B. Vandermark, 32, Oswego, was charged Oct. 7 with false personification, two counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Amber L. Newell, 31, Memphis, was charged Oct. 7 with first-degree operating a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs. Allan L. Little, 50, Freeville, was charged Oct. 7 with two counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. Husameddin A. Semrin, 19, Brooklyn, was charged Oct. 5 with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and first-degree operating a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs. Andrew W. Cosby, 42, Syracuse, was charged Oct. 6 with fifth-degree criminal possession of marijuana. Nicholas O. McMahon, 23, Syracuse, was charged Oct. 7 with driving while intoxicated first offense and operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of at least .08 of 1 percent. Shawn M. Byrne, 32, Lafayette, was charged Oct. 7 with petit larceny. Sara M,. Wilson, 32, Elbridge, was charged Oct. 7 with third-degree criminal mischief. Renate M. Dow, 40, Jamesville, was charged Oct. 7 with petit larceny. Samiya B. Abdullah, 29, Syracuse, was charged Oct. 8 with second-degree possession of a forged instrument. Love 0 Funny 4 Wow 1 Sad 2 Angry 0 LYONS COUNTY, Nev.In an article published last Friday on the Reuters.com news site, Lyons County Sheriff Al McNeil charged that Dennis Hof, owner of several Nevada brothels and current Republican candidate for the Nevada Assembly, was implicated in "immigration violations" regarding some of the prostitutes working at Hof's brothels, and even claimed that an investigation conducted by his office in concert with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) found "indications of possible human trafficking" among the sex workers. "The discovery of U.S. immigration law violations in our legal brothel system is extremely alarming," McNeil said in a statement posted on Facebook on October 4, later adding, "The ability to coerce, exploit and traffic non-US citizens into Lyon County by foreign criminal enterprises is going to be difficult to detect and deter by our limited capabilities and resources of foreign born applicants, which has caused us to develop better working partnerships with federal agencies to combat human trafficking efforts." There's just one problem: It's McNeil and his office whose job it is to vet all of the women wishing to work in brothels, to make sure that they are citizens or lawful permanent residents with green cards, and after doing their due diligence in vetting the women, to issue licenses to them to work in the brothels. "This is all on the Sheriff's Department; they check all the women's identifications to make sure they're legit and that they're U.S. citizens and all that," Hof told AVN. "Then they give them a business license. It has nothing to do with me at all. That's all I need. If they've got the okay from the Sheriff's Office, that means their identification has been scrutinized, they've been fingerprinted and the sheriff thought they were worthy of having a card, so if somebody had a fake ID or something like that, it's on the Sheriff's Department, not me. It's been that way for 27 years since I bought the place." But according to the Reuters article, after a four-month "internal" investigation conducted by the Sheriff's Office and ICE, supposedly the sheriff's vetting procedures were "rife with violations over several decades." "Those practices include US immigration law violations, foreign country human trafficking indicators, fraudulent statements, issuance of work cards prior to completing criminal history background checks, and inability to validate out-of-state and US and other foreign national documents to determine identity," a statement from the Sheriff's Office said, which did not elaborate on what those "human trafficking indicators" were. (AVN attempted to speak to someone in the Sheriff's Office to inquire about what those "indicators" were, among other subjects, but had not received a response at press time.) "It's not our job to check their identity; it's the county's job, and it looks to me like all they're doing is tightening up their procedures," Hof opined. "The ICE people are making everybody tighten up their procedures and that's all fine; we'll work within the system; it's nothing to do with me but it's making it sound like I'm involved in it. I've got absolutely nothing to do with it." Almost needless to say, the National Coalition on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE, formerly Morality in Media) seized on the Reuters report, taking its equivocal findings as gospel: "Here at NCOSE, one of our primary focuses is exposing the seamless connections between issues related to sexual exploitation. There are two issues that are very clearly linked: Prostitution & Sex Trafficking," a recent NCOSE email stated. "In one of our newsletters a few months ago, we raised awareness about the issue of legal brothels in Nevada. Some people believe full decriminalization of prostitution, in which the laws regulating the activities of pimps, sex buyers and sellers are eliminated, will solve the issue of sex trafficking in prostitution. Unsurprisingly, its biggest advocates are brothel owners and pimps," the email continued. "However, full decriminalization doesn't stop sex trafficking or abuse. A recent police investigation into three legal Nevada brothels found evidence of human sex trafficking." There's good reason to believe that last statement is simply untrue, since it linked only to the Reuters article, which provided no evidence of trafficking in the brothels, nor did NCOSE. Over the past several months, Hof has been the focus of various officials in both Lyons and Nye Counties, some of whom started a petition drive to criminalize prostitution in the counties, and in the run-up to the primary elections in June, several Nye County officials, including the Nye County district attorney, the Nye County sheriff and members of the County Board of Commissioners reportedly removed a campaign billboard from Hof's land, forcing the candidate to go to court for a temporary restraining order to have the billboard replaced, with the election just one day away. Hof beat his incumbent opponent, James Oscarson, one of the anti-prostitution petitioners, by 42.8 percent to 36.5 percent, or by about 450 votes, in the primary, and will face Democrat Lesia Romanov in the District 36 general election in November. Pictured: Dennis Hof with Sheriff Al McNeil. A new European Union internet law supposedly designed to protect the rights of copyright holders onlinebut which critics say could lead to widespread censorship and even mass surveillance of internet usersis headed into its next stage before approval: secret negotiations among the heads of European governments. As AVN.com reported, the new EU Copyright Directive which was approved by the European Parliament last month, contains two provisions that have alarmed internet freedom advocates. One, Section 11, establishes a link tax, which would require online platforms to pay each time a third-party article or other work is shared on their sites. The other controversial provision of the bill, Section 13, requires sites that accept third-party contentsuch as YouTube, for exampleto use algorithms known as upload filters to screen out copyrighted content, something the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned could quickly become a tool for the automated surveillance and control of (internet) users. Now that the bill is approved by the EU Parliament, it must be presented to the heads of the various European goverments, who will debate and possibly alter the wording of the law along with the EU parliament and European commission. According to digital civil liberties advocate Cory Doctorow, these three-way talks, or trilogues, take place behind closed doors. The trilogues are not held in secret because the negotiators are sure that you'll be delighted with the outcome and don't want to spoil the surprise, Doctorow wrote on Sunday. They're meetings where well-organized, powerful corporate lobbyists' voices are heard and the public is unable to speak. Trilogue negotiations are worrisome mainly because only a very limited number of participants negotiate for over 500 million of people and their names are usually not disclosed, explained the advocacy group European Digital Rights. Negotiations are conducted behind closed doors; trilogue documents are not released to the public as a general rule; Lobbyists can get an insight of trilogue negotiations if they become friendly with the negotiators. What about the general public? Wouldnt you like to also have access to documents that will likely affect your life? But in the case of the controversial Copyright Directive, one EU Parliament member has pledged to shatter the secrecy that encases the trilogue talks. Julia Reda, an EU Parliament member from Germany, according to Doctorow, has pledged to publish transcripts of the Copyright Directive trilogue talks as they happenunder a recent court ruling holding that the content of trilogue talks should be made public upon request. Articles 11 and 13 are so defective as to be unsalvageable; when they are challenged in the European Court of Justice, they may well be struck down. In the meantime, the triloguesif they do their job rightmust struggle to clarify their terms so that some of their potential for abuse and their unnavigable ambiguity is resolved, Doctorow wrote. Image by Carlos Latuff / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain With the new FOSTA law, supposedly designed to curtail online sex trafficking, pushing sex workers who run their own businesses offline and even hindering law enforcement efforts to track down actual trafficking operations, a new article published last week by the technology site Motherboarda site that is part of the VICE networkchronicles the lengthy history of sex work online, showing that sex workers were among the earliest adopters of the global network. Sex workers created the internet. People can argue that, but we are the first people who have used all of it, Sex Worker Outreach Project co-founder Kristen Diangelo told Motherboard. Nobody really remembers the trajectory there. We were on the internet before we knew we were on the internet, added California sex worker Maxine Doogan, who founded the Erotic Service Providers Union, which has lobbied California Governor Jerry Brown for the decriminalization of sex work in the countrys most populous state. Sex workers who werent even aware of the internet in those early days of the 1990s soon realized that they were being discussed and evaluated by customers who posted in forums on such now-obsolete regions of the internet as Usenet and the Craigslist message board, which predated the graphics-and-hypertext heavy World Wide Web which came to define the internet toward the middle of that decade. They also found that much of the discussion in those online forums contained inaccurate informationand damaging negative reviews. Many sex workers who hadnt turned to the internet willingly were essentially forced online to combat false negative reviews which had the power to disastrously damage their income, wrote Motherboard reporter Sofia Barrett-Ibarria. But even then, legislation and law enforcement began to force online sex workers either offline, or into their own isolated online spaces. Passage of FOSTA by Congress earlier this year has also proven devastating to the community that, according to Motherboard, played a major role in establishing the internet as a viable space for business in the first place. Much of the internet as we know it today was built on the contributions and presence of sex workers and porn performers, and their exclusion from the historical narrative is a by-product of sex works criminalization, Barrett-Ibarria wrote. [Criminalization] really empowers the unscrupulous, the people who already have the power, which are men that run the internet, that run Silicon Valley, Doogan adds, in the Motherboard story. Photo by Julica da Costa / Wikimedia Commons The Supreme Court has ruled that a bakery did not discriminate against a customer by refusing to make a cake supporting gay marriage. The ruling follows a long-running legal dispute after gay rights activist Gareth Lee asked Belfast-based Ashers Baking Company to supply a cake marking International Day Against Homophobia in 2014. He requested a cake showing Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie alongside the motto Support Gay Marriage. Ashers refused to do so, stating the message on the cake went against the owners Christian beliefs, and Lee took the business to court for discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and/or on grounds of religious belief or political opinion. The business was found guilty of discrimination and later lost an appeal against the decision, with judges ruling that under law, bakers were not allowed to provide a service only to people who agreed with their religious beliefs. But the Supreme Court has today (10 October) upheld Ashers appeal against claims of discrimination. The court found the bakery did not refuse to fulfil the order because of Lees sexual orientation, but because it objected to the message on the cake. The benefit of the message accrues not only to gay or bisexual people, but to their families and friends and to the wider community who recognise the social benefits which such commitment can bring, stated the ruling. Thus, there was no discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in this case. The court also ruled there was no discrimination on political grounds. Charity The Christian Institute, which has supported Ashers during the dispute, called the ruling a total vindication. The court strongly agreed with Ashers lawyers that this case has always been about the message on the cake and not the customer; the message, not the messenger, said Simon Calvert, the institutes deputy director for public affairs. The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, which supported Lee in his claim, said it was disappointed in the judgment. We will have to look at the implications of its judgment carefully, said chief commissioner Dr Michael Wardlow. There is a concern that this judgment may raise uncertainty about the application of equality law in the commercial sphere, both about what businesses can do and what customers may expect; and that the beliefs of business owners may take precedence over a customers equality rights, which in our view is contrary to what the legislature intended. Hurricane Florence floods Interstate 95 near Lumberton. Photo from the N.C. Department of Transportation. After a natural disaster, most people strive to restore their normal lives. But, in some cases, the return to normal might not be the best option.A particular challenge for those leading the recovery after a disaster like Hurricane Florence is deciding when the pre-disaster status quo isn't good enough.It's an issue that already has cropped up in North Carolina's assessment of damage linked to Florence. The storm's impact on state transportation networks offers one example.Florence helped close parts of 2,500 roads across the state. The number peaked at 1,700 roads out of commission at one time. State Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon compiled those numbers for an Oct. 3 presentation to the N.C. House Select Committee on Strategic Transportation Planning and Long-Term Funding Solutions.By the time of the meeting, 19 days after Florence made landfall, 126 roads remained out of service.Trogdon said.More than 3,100 sites required some type of long-term road repair. Trogdon offered an initial total cost estimate of $266 million, with state taxpayers expected to pick up $66.8 million of the tab. He warned lawmakers that both numbers would grow.Trogdon said of the long-term repairs.Most repairs will return roads to their pre-Florence condition. DOT is also looking to the future, Trogdon explained.he said.Florence closed portions of both Interstates 40 and 95 for more than a week. Officials were unable to reopen I-95, a primary north-south road for the entire East Coast, until Sept. 23. That was nine days after the storm's landfall. I-40 reopened a day later.Trogdon told lawmakers.State officials are working on strategies with federal highway officials, Trogdon said.he explained.Few would challenge Trogdon's goal of taking steps, within reason, to limit the likelihood of repeat flooding of N.C. interstates. Both 40 and 95 serve as essential elements of the state's transportation system, especially during times of disaster.That's a simple case. But it won't always be as easy to choose between the pre-Florence status quo and more expensive alternatives. Policymakers tasked with making those difficult choices must sift through competing proposals for upgrades.Some will fit squarely within the bounds of disaster recovery. Others will represent an attempt to use Florence as an excuse to enact a legislative wish list. (One thinks of the 2009 pronouncement from Rahm Emanuel, then chief of staff to president-elect Barack Obama.Emanuel said on national television.Attempting to use Florence to advance its pre-existing goals, a left-of-center think tank floated several hurricane recovery ideas recently in the Raleigh News and Observer.Proactive investment in hazard mitigation infrastructure? That seems like a worthwhile goal. Stepping up regulations of hog lagoons and coal ash ponds? Maybe.Increasing taxpayer spending on public education and jobs training? Raising the government-mandated minimum wage? Good ideas or not, these proposals seem better-suited to everyday political debate. They can wait.Policymakers would be wise to prioritize as they continue to assess the hurricane's impact. It would be a shame to turn a crisis into an excuse for waste. Last week, Civitas President Donald Bryson participated in a debate on the merits of the voter ID constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot this fall. The debate was the second of the four-part Hometown Debate Series hosted by the N.C. Institute of Political Leadership.Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett), House Rules Committee Chair and prominent election law leader in the General Assembly, joined Bryson to speak in favor of the proposal. The panel also included Sen. Erica Smith (D-Northampton) and Kareem Crayton, director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice , who each oppose the amendment.Bryson pointed out that North Carolina voters consistently support photographic voter identification requirements. The most recent Civitas Poll found 65% of voter support for the proposed constitutional amendment.One argument in particular that the opposition panelists levied against the amendment does not hold up under closer scrutiny. The opposition stressed the fact that the amendment requires a photographic ID but does not specify which types of photo ID will be accepted. Crayton called this a "blank check" and implied that voters should not trust the legislature to set the laws.The General Assembly will be responsible for writing the implementing laws of constitutional amendments. The state's constitution, by design, serves as a framework for all state laws. It is not intended to encompass the full scope of the state's laws. That is the role of the legislative branch.Some argue that the General Assembly should have passed implementing language for the amendments before they were put on the ballot. While this is a perfectly reasonable suggestion, it is worth noting that it would have done nothing to cement that language from future changes.Critics claim that the implementing language is needed for voters to "know what they're voting on," but this is a mischaracterization. Voters are weighing in on the amendment itself on the ballot this November. Any implementing legislation is not subject to direct voter approval, but is instead developed through the traditional representative lawmaking process of the General Assembly. And since any implementing language will not be in the state's constitution, the General Assembly has the power to change it at any point in the future. This is true whether those statutes are passed before or after the amendment itself.Although no implementing language has been passed for the voter ID amendment, a 2013 voter ID law in North Carolina could provide some insights into the types of ID the General Assembly may consider.Critics of the amendment have claimed that voters should reject the amendment because they "don't know what they're voting on." But the truth is that North Carolinians have consistently stated that they support requiring a photographic identification to vote in person. That is a simple step that can go a long way in adding security to our elections. This November, North Carolina voters will get to decide for themselves.The Voter ID debate aired on In Focus with Loretta Boniti on Spectrum News. Watch the debate here Yahoo! JAPAN Yahoo! JAPAN Journalist Jamal Khashoggi is believed by some to have been tortured, murdered, and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Others think he was kidnapped by Saudi officials and is still alive. This image appears to show him entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week, when he was last seen by his fiance or anyone else who's talking. Other than a "I heard a report" from Donald, a "we're monitoring the situation closely" from James Mattis, and similar mumblings from others here and there, why is this tough-on-mideast-bad-guys administration so hushed on the apparent execution of the Saudi reporter who contributed to U.S. news organizations? On MSBNC, Richard Engel says Istanbul security officials have two theories: One, they grabbed him and killed him inside the embassy. The other theory is that Khashoggi was the subject of an attempted rendition to Saudi Arabia, and he died in the process. Here's the short version of why Trump and his version of the U.S. government isn't going to do anything about it. MBS, the Sunni prince of Saudi Arabia, has powerful allies in the Trump administration like the president himself, and Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner, none of whom are likely to want to piss off their ally for personal financial reasons. "If they can't find a body, it'll be difficult to make Saudi Arabia pay a price," says Richard Engel in this two-way with Chuck Todd on Meet The Press. "They don't have a body." Turkish police, after saying a Saudi journalist was likely killed in the consulate, are now probing whether he was spirited away in a van and then a jet https://t.co/VF0JeYzbIr The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 9, 2018 One of the names published by @ragipsoylu of the 15 Saudi nationals traveled to Turkey on the day @JKhashoggi disappeared, matches a Facebook profile of an officer in the Saudi special forces: Please meet Naif Hasan S. Alarifi pic.twitter.com/2BXb5xyFk3 Qutaiba (@Qattouby) October 9, 2018 A poet wrote a poem for him mentioning his full name with a picture of him here:https://t.co/PPOw42wii4 Qutaiba (@Qattouby) October 9, 2018 Older photos of him pic.twitter.com/Z99dbijk05 Qutaiba (@Qattouby) October 9, 2018 The EU's catastrophic new Copyright Directive is steamrollering towards completion, and that should worry every internet user, not just those in the EU. Article 13 of the Copyright Directive requires online services to crowdsource a database of "copyrighted works" (anyone can add anything to these databases, with no penalties for falsely claiming copyright over public domain works, or works that don't belong to you). If a user tries to post something that appears to match an item in the blacklist database, the service has to censor that user's post. The problem is that the online platforms don't have "European services" and "non-European services," they just have services, and users from the EU and outside of the EU freely mix there, posting material and commenting on it. So if you're Twitter and one of your US users posts something that has to be censored in Europe, you can either censor that just for EU users, or for the whole world. If you do decide to just censor the post in the EU, then you have users in (say) Canada replying to that US post, and now you're showing your EU users the replies to the post, but not the post itself. Indeed, you might get Europeans posting things that can't be displayed in Europe, but which the rest of the world is allowed to see do you censor those posts in the EU (including from the people who made them) or in the whole world? To make this all the scarier, the EU rules provide for massive damages if a platform lets a copyrighted work slip through the cracks so in the event that a platform isn't sure if a work is going to be shown to a European user, they'd be nuts to take a chance on it. The result will either be a balkanized internet where services host special versions of their conversations for European consumption (much like the censored search engine Google wants to sell to China) or an internet where we race to the bottom, as defined by European copyright extremists. Now, let's take a hypothetical Twitter discussion between three users: Alice (an American), Bob (a Bulgarian) and Carol (a Canadian). Alice posts a picture of a political march: thousands of protesters and counterprotesters, waving signs. As is common around the world, these signs include copyrighted images, whose use is permitted under US "fair use" rules that permit parody. Because Twitter enables users to communicate significant amounts of user-generated content, they'll fall within the ambit of Article 13. Bob lives in Bulgaria, an EU member-state whose copyright law does not permit parody. He might want to reply to Alice with a quote from the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, whose works were translated into English in the late 1970s and are still in copyright. Carol, a Canadian who met Bob and Alice through their shared love of Doctor Who, decides to post a witty meme from "The Mark of the Rani," a 1985 episode in which Colin Baker travels back to witness the Luddite protests of the 19th Century. Alice, Bob and Carol are all expressing themselves through use of copyrighted cultural works, in ways that might not be lawful in the EU's most speech-restrictive copyright jurisdictions. But because (under today's system) the platform typically is only required to to respond to copyright complaints when a rightsholder objects to the use, everyone can see everyone else's posts and carry on a discussion using tools and modes that have become the norm in all our modern, digital discourse. But once Article 13 is in effect, Twitter faces an impossible conundrum. The Article 13 filter will be tripped by Alice's lulzy protest signs, by Bob's political quotes, and by Carol's Doctor Who meme, but suppose that Twitter is only required to block Bob from seeing these infringing materials. EU Internet Censorship Will Censor the Whole World's Internet [Cory Doctorow/EFF Deeplinks] Addressing inequality does not depend on a countrys wealth but on political will. The gap between the super-rich and the rest of humanity continues to grow. Most of the world's wealth is concentrated in three regions: North America, Europe and Asia. The total number of Asias billionaires rose to 784, toping North Americas 727. London (AsiaNews) - Singapore and India are among the countries that are fuelling the gap between rich and poor. Conversely, South Korea and Indonesia have been praised for their efforts to reduce inequalities through policies on social spending, taxes and workers' rights, said Oxfam, a confederation of independent charities focused on alleviating global poverty. The aid agency has launched an index highlighting those nations that do the least to close the divide between haves and have-nots. For Oxfam, inequality does not depend on a countrys wealth but on political will. Singapore, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, is among the bottom ten on the index. South Korea, 56th on the list, is praised for raising the minimum wage by 16.4 per cent last year. China (81) ranks ahead of India (147), devoting more than double of its budget to healthcare and almost four times as much its welfare expenditure than India. Despite such efforts, the worldwide gap between the super-rich and the rest of the world continues to grow. In fact, the global billionaire population grew strongly in 2017, rising by almost 15 per cent to an all-time high of 2,754 individuals. The net results is that, last year, the worlds wealthiest 42 people owned the equivalent net wealth of 3.7 billion people. The number of people with a net worth equivalent to the bottom 50 per cent of the worlds 7.6 billion population grew from eight to 61. Currently, most of the worlds wealth is concentrated in three regions. North America accounts for about US$ 3,272 billion and has grown by 22.8 per cent since 2016, whilst Asias US$ 2,365 billion share increased by 49.4 per cent, and Europe expanded 4.9 per cent to US$ 2,441 billion. Led by China, Hong Kong and India, the total number of billionaires in Asia rose to 784, overtaking for the first time North America, which has 727. In 2017, Hong Kong created 21 new billionaires, bringing its total count to 93 just 10 fewer than New York. There is no better proof of superstring theory positing up to 26 dimensions than this week's tabloids, in which the headlines and the stories beneath them clearly live in entirely different universes. The British Royals fall headlong into this space-time discontinuum, led by Britain's Prince Harry in the National Enquirer under the headline: "Harry Trapped in Hooker & Drug Scandal!" How exactly is Harry trapped with drugs and prostitutes? He isn't, at least not in any dimension known to humanity. His father-in-law, Thomas Markle Sr, aged 74, reportedly tells the Enquirer that in the 1970s and '80s he occasionally sampled cocaine an admission he first made months ago and that while in the Philippines, "I never paid for sex." No mention of prostitutes, and no "hooker scandal." How do Markle's drug admission and hooker denial "trap" Harry? The Enquirer claims that Markle's "repugnant antics could end his gorgeous daughter's fairytale marriage to Prince Harry!" That's the sort of stretch you expect to see when being pulled apart at a molecular level after passing a singularity and falling into a black hole, which may well be where this week's tabloids belong. "Royal Blood Feud Explodes!" claims the Globe, with its cover headline: "Royals at War! Kate & Meghan's Vicious Catfight With Fergie's Girls!" Have the Royal women been pulling each others' hair and scratching their eyes out? Far worse, according to the Globe. Princess Eugenie (Prince Andrew's daughter by ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, for those who don't religiously follow every episode of the Royal soap opera) invited more guests to her wedding on October 12 than Meghan Markle did at the same venue supposedly an insult designed to "upstage" Duchess Meghan. And "as an extra slap in the face" Eugenie has "named Harry's former lover Cressida Bonas as a bridesmaid!" No, she hasn't. Bonas hasn't even been confirmed as a wedding guest let alone a bridesmaid, though she is likely to attend, since Eugenie and Cressida have been friends for many years. In fact, it was Eugenie who introduced her pal Cressida to Prince Harry in 2012. There's no catfight, no scandal, nothing to see here, move along . . . Jennifer Aniston gets the same treatment in the Enquirer story under the headline: "Jen Trapped in Honeymoon Murder Hell!" Who did the Friends star kill this time? Nobody. She's only trapped in the tabloid crosshairs. A friend drowned during her 2015 honeymoon celebration on Bora Bora, and the dead girl's parents have sued another of Aniston's friends who allegedly supplied the drugs found in her system. Aniston's "Murder Hell!" is no case of murder, and doesn't involve the actress, except for the fact that her wedding brought the guests together. Yet another alternate reality. But what is reality? You'll never know by reading the tabloids. Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani have "SPLIT!" according to the cover of the Enquirer. Or alternately, as Shelton tells Us magazine: "Every day that goes by just feels like a stronger bond between the two of us." Bill Cosby is evidently living on both sides of the Matrix: the Globe cover reports on his "Prison Hell!" while at the same time a source claims: "He's now insisting prison is like vacation and he's 'happy he can rest without dealing with the a**hole district attorney and protesters.'" The Enquirer gets in on the alternate reality game by reporting that "Cosby Rages As Wife Lets Him Rot!" What is she supposed to do? Move into his prison cell and cook her husband eggs and bacon every morning? Us mag's cover shows Meghan Markle with a distinctly disturbed look on her face, above the headline: "Meghan Fights Back Tired of the Lies." How is Meghan fighting back after a series of supposed "betrayals" otherwise known as critical comments from her colorful family? She is choosing to "forge her own path as a strong, independent member of the British monarchy." Yeah, that'll show them. She floats like a butterfly, forges her own path like a bee. Fortunately we have the crack investigative squad at Us magazine to tell us that Gigi Hadid wore it best (isn't that her job as a model?), that John Cena has taken a total of five days vacation in his entire 41-year life, that Riverdale actress Marisol Nichols carries her daughter's Paddington Bear doll and Strawberry Shortcake doll in her Victoria Beckham purse, and that the stars are just like us: They take taxis, shop for food, and eat at restaurants. Finally celebrities occupying the same time-space continuum as the rest of us! Onwards and downwards . . . - A 32-year-old Ugandan lady recently married herself in a mock wedding ceremony - This is coming after continuous pressure from her family to settle with a good man - The event occurred on her 32nd birthday in the Kampala, the capital of Uganda on her visit home PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! Identified as Lulu Jemimah, the 32-year-old student of Oxford University appears left many people amusingly shocked after she married herself in a mock wedding ceremony due to continuous pressure from her family to settle down. According to the story, Lulu considers marriage the last thing on her mind as she studies a masters in creative writing at Oxford, UK. So in order to get her parents off her back, she decided to throw the surprise mock wedding. Briefly.co.za learned that on her visit to Uganda for her birthday in August, Lulu was planning a "low key" birthday celebration, until friends convinced her otherwise. However her joke about showing up in a wedding dress. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app Tweeting photos from the event, she wrote: "Officially married. There was no groom. One bride, one goal. Hopefully, I can now focus on the #MStCreativeWritingOxford #Masters @UniofOxford" Lulu said her wedding cost her just 2 which was the fare for her taxi to the venue, and she got other things free of charge from friends. Basically she spent under R40 for her 'wedding'. Her friends helped her with money to rent a dress and her brother baked a cake Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Trolls target Sophie Ndabas husband after her sudden weight loss I have a strong passion in life and I am committed to achieving my goals at becoming an academic. But all my family wanted to ask me was when I planned to get married which is very important back in Uganda followed by when I would be having children and starting a family. My father wrote my wedding speech when I turned 16. Every birthday my mother prayed for me and in recent years this has included a plea for a good husband. But I just didnt want to think about walking up the aisle. Its not the thing which keeps me up at night. The new bride, through the help of some of her friends celebrated her birthday and her self wedding at the same time.One of my closest friends Karin reminded me that I had a lot to celebrate this year like getting into Oxford and I joked that I would show up in a wedding dress." She got married at a popular pub in Kampala Source: Twitter Naij.com reports that although, her parents were absent at her big day, as they were a bit confused about her decision to get married to herself. She said: When we talked the next day she was a bit confused and slightly hurt, but explained that by even wearing a wedding dress it proved I was ready for marriage. My father still maintains that he doesnt know what to say." The wedding wasn't legally binding as you can't marry yourself but Lulu seems to have fulfilled that aspect of her life and is now focused on her studies. Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook page and we could feature your story. To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on Google Play or iTunes today. Watch the animated video and head over to Briefly South Africas Youtube channel for more. Source: Briefly.co.za Business / Economy by Agencies Today the Zimbabwe government led by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Hon. Prof. Mthuli Ncube held a crucial meeting with co-operating partners and International Financial Institutions to discuss and map the way forward on the country's Arrears Clearance Road Map in Bali, Indonesia.The meeting was chaired by the World Bank Group and was attended by the all three International Financial Institutions (IFIs), the African Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, Paris Club Group of creditors as represented by the French, the European Union, and other key bilateral partners such as the United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, Netherlands, South Africa, among others.In ensuring discussions, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Hon. Prof. Mthuli Ncube made a presentation on policy reforms being undertaken by the New Dispensation, focusing on the Vision 2030, as enunciated by His Excellency, the President and the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), which is the policy implementation programme of Vision 2030.The Minister's presentation centered on political and economic reforms being undertaken by Government, especially fiscal consolidation, state enterprises reforms, monetary sector reforms and a road map on arrears clearance.The co-operating partners expressed their endorsement to the Transitional Stabilisation Programme, as it captures adequately the policy reforms that Government is implementing in order to turn around the country's economic fortunes.In this regard, the international community emphasized the need to judiciously implement the measures as outlined in the TSP. They reiterated that implementation of the TSP is crucial for arrears clearance. Furthermore, Zimbabwe's request for a more accommodative treatment under the Pari Passu principle received positive consideration by the partners.On the other hand the French expressed their support and advised that it is critical that all the Paris Club Group of creditors have consensus in order to fulfill the arrears clearance process.It is also important to note that all the cooperating partners and creditors present, uniformly expressed their partners for Zimbabwe and its arrears clearance Road Map, and that the meeting has been the best so far on Zimbabwe's arrears clearance process.Shortly after the Roundtable meeting, the Minister met with the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury, Mr Erick Meyer. In discussions, the US showed that it is a friend of Zimbabwe willing to help. Mr Erick Meyer requested that Zimbabwe see ZIDERA in a positive way which was agreed to by the delegation.Further, the US Treasury undertook to arrange meetings for the Minister in Washington DC with US Congressmen and other think tanks. News / National by Staff reporter FORMER Agriculture minister, Dennis Norman, flew into the country from his retirement base in England to launch his autobiography - The Odd Man In: Mugabe's White Hand Man - which traces his life in the tumultuous Zimbabwean politics since the colonial era.Former Agriculture minister Dennis NormanSpeaking during the launch at Delta Gallery last Saturday, Weaver Press director Murray McCartney, said the book demonstrates Norman's life in public service and his relationship with former President Robert Mugabe and other political leaders."Aside from being a testament to a committed life in public service, it offers many fascinating insights into his relationships with Mugabe and other national leaders," he said.Murray said the book was an addition to the growing list of political biographies that Weaver Press has published in recent years, including those of former Education minister Fay Chung, war veteran Wilfred Mhanda, the late former minister Cephas Msipa and former Rhodesian premier Garfield Todd.Former Lands, Resettlement and Rural Development secretary and National Economic Consultative Forum chairperson, Robbie Mupawose, praised Norman for his contribution to the country's agriculture.Former Finance minister and Mavambo leader, Simba Makoni, praised the book as "an important addition to the as yet small collection of unbiased records of the new Zimbabwe in its formative years".Norman was the Commercial Farmers' Union president when Mugabe came to power in 1980, and he subsequently spent 12 years as a minister, first in agriculture and then Minister of Transport and Minister of Energy between 1990 and 1997. The book is available at Weaver Press at $25. News / National by Staff reporter Two Guruve cops were yesterday dragged before a local magistrate after they were implicated in stealing 12 cattle valued at $4 200 from neighbouring Mozambique last month.Evans Chekai (30) and Carlos Musarurwa (28), all from Mahuhwe Police Station, together with their co-accused Shakeman Kachepa (30), pleaded not guilty to the charge and were remanded to October 24.The State, led by Albert Mazhindu, alleges that on September 3, 2018 in Magobo village under Chief Chimombe, in Mozambique, Nometa Evaristo Maunza (30) was advised by his neighbour John Shamhu that his 12 bovines had been driven away by Kachepa towards Zimbabwe.Shamhu and Maunza tracked the cattle the following day and spent two days at Mahuhwe boom gate looking for the cattle with the assistance of the police.On the night of September 7, the complainant received a tip-off that there were cattle being herded by Kachepa in Muchenje village under Chief Chitsungo, in Mbire.Maunza proceeded to Muchenje village, where he positively identified 11 of his 12 stolen cattle being herded by Kachepa.Kachepa was arrested and on being interrogated by the police, he implicated the two cops.In his defence, Kachepa produced EcoCash and text messages from the cops and Musarurwa was arrested while Chekai fled with his suspected girlfriend Locardia Karavhina (27), who was also implicated and is still at large.Chekai's luck ran out last weekend when he had a misunderstanding with his wife, who reported him to the police in Seke and was brought to Guruve Magistrates' Court to answer to the stocktheft charges.Meanwhile, a 35-year-old Bindura police constable appeared before a Guruve magistrate yesterday for allegedly assaulting a Harare man in an illegal gold mining claim dispute.Detective Tafadzwa Nhoto of number 2916 Aerodrome, Bindura, pleaded not guilty to the assault charge before Guruve resident magistrate Shingirai Mutiro and was remanded out of custody to October 24.Public prosecutor Spiwe Makarichi alleges that on October 7 at Guruve business centre, the accused approached the complainant, Wilfred Mboma, in the company of five male adults in a Toyota Noah vehicle.The suspects started accusing Mboma of planning to grab their illegal panning site using his political connections.Mboma did not respond and went to his motor vehicle, as Nhoto followed behind and punched him on the right shoulder, thereby tearing off his vest.Nhoto was restrained from further assaulting the complainant by Mabasa Nyamuchengwa, the owner of the garage.A police report was filed at Guruve Police Station, leading to Nhoto's arrest. News / National by Staff reporter A COURT in Bulawayo has ordered two women to repay a police officer and a soldier the money they have been contributing as maintenance after paternity tests proved they did not sire the children they were maintaining.Decock Masuku, the police officer, had been paying $90 since March this year for a one-year-old child.He demanded paternity tests alleging that he suspected the child he was paying for was not hisMore details to follow.... News / National by Israel Dube MLO condemns in all strongest terms the cold-blooded butchering of 3 Matebeles and the injuring of 20 others by shona people from Kwekwe who have made killing of Matabeles their favourite hobby.In a situation reminiscent to that of Rwanda in 1994 genocide and 1980s Matabeleland genocide, a group of self-entitled shonas travelled all the way from Kwekwe to Gwanda heavily armed with axes and machetes and brutally murdered 3 Matebeles and injured 20 others.It is very clear that these shona supremacist elements are driven by tribalism, hatred for Matabeles, quest to plunder Matabeleland resources and cause much pain and suffering for Matabeles.Feeling that they had not inflicted enough pain and spilled enough Ndebele blood, the tribal group proceeded to Gwanda town where they randomly attacked and harassed innocent elderly people who were peacefully having drinks in the beer halls.MLO lays the blame for the tribal killings at the doorsteps of the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa who in the 1980s planted seeds of division. He taught shona people that Matabeles were less human ( bunch cockroaches ) that needed to be eradicated from the face of earth. He is yet to withdraw his tribally loaded and hate speech, so shona people continue killing Matabeles at his instruction and teachings of 1979 Grand Plan. This has put Matabeles in a precarious position of being the most endangered human beings that need urgent liberation and protection.The government of Zimbabwe that is composed of genocidists who killed more than 40 000 civilians in Matabeleland will never stop abuse and continuous killing of Matabeles because seeing Matabeles die in big numbers is a pleasure to them. Since 1980 the so-called Zimbabwe independence there is no record of Matabeles invading Mashonaland to abuse, beat up or kill shona people for their resources but there is a one way bloody track from Mashonaland to Matabeleland of Shona coming to Matabeleland to kill innocent people, loot land, mineral resources, take up all job and business opportunities.Only Matabeles have the responsibility and power to end the killings of their beloved ones. There is only one solution to this. Matabeleland must reclaim its statehood and be an independent and sovereign state again.Break free from the chains of oppression, genocide, rape, abuse, tribal discrimination, tribal domination and tribal hatred. If there is any Matabele who believes that bondage at the hands of Zimbabwe gukurahundist government will end on its own, wake up now because you are having a bad dream.For 38 years the Shona supremacist government and then its supporters have been throwing sand into the eyes of Matabeles. There is no guarantee that we will continue taking this kind of provocation laying down. Surely this will not end well.We read and observe many Shona people trivialising Matebele Genocide with some even calling for the second matebele genocide. We want to warn the Shona supremacist that it won't be long before they face the humiliation and defeat by Matebeleland Liberation Army (MLA).President Emmerson Mnangagwa must know that if he does not attend to our demands for The Restoration of Matebeleland State and Payment of USD100billion for Matebele Genocide, we shall cut his presidency before he completes his disputed first term and get him and the other genocidist punished and humiliated for their role in matebele genocide. We currently enjoy an upper hand and we thank our friends for the massive support they have landed to us. We will definitely make and prevail. Watch this space.Izenzo Kungemazwi!Israel DubeMLO Secretary for Information and Public Affairs News / National by Staff reporter ONE of the complainants in the Genius Kadungure and Wicknell Chivayo's fraud case has been put to task after he failed to substantively pin the two to the commission of the offence.Kadungure and Chivayo's trial kicked off yesterday with the State leading evidence from Evon Gatawa, Enock Gatawa, Dania Kabwebwe and Zodwa Mkandla.The two have pleaded not guilty to the two counts of fraud before Harare magistrate Morgan Nemadire.In his evidence to the court, Evon indicated he knew Kadungure after the two agreed on an out of court settlement to refund him US$100 000 in 2017 but did not know how Chivayo was linked to the case.Evon told the court that sometime in 2012, he was contacted by one Enock Mukonori who misrepresented himself as Marange Diamonds' chief buyer.He was contracted to supply 10 flight pumps on behalf of the mining company to which specific mention was made that supply was to be made by South Africa's Transco Company owned by Blessing Shaya.Realising he would make a killing of more than R2 million, Evon got a quotation from Transco sales rep, Jacques Smith, who provided him an order for R1 048 900 for the 10 pipes.He then got a US$120K loan from BancABC and Tetrad Bank before sending his brother Enock Gatawa to make the payments in South Africa.His brother paid three varying amounts R446 000, R300 000 and R300 000 into Transco's ABSA account and was ordered to return to Zimbabwe and wait for his airway bill that was also to be advised.After a week, they received a consignment with four cellphone chargers and immediately discovered they had been duped.The Gatawa brothers proceeded to South Africa where they made a police report and established that the money had already been disbursed from the Transco account.With the help of the South African police, the complainant found out that R500 000 was transferred to Raitile Gas whose director is Kadungure and another R500 000 into Investek.Evon approached Raitile Gas and notified them that the payment done to them was a result of a fraud but was told the same payment was made by Zimbabwe's Pioneer Gas for their services.The complainant alleges he pursued the money which went to Investek owned by Edward Tecar and only got US$38 000 which he says went towards his air fares and logistics.It is also his evidence that he followed up his money with Kadungure's Raitile Gas but failed to recover it and only resorted to an out of court settlement in August 2017.Evon alleges he was made to withdraw his charges in an affidavit with Kadungure committing to pay US$100K.However, through his defence counsel, Kadungure disputed the agreement saying he only consented to resolving the matter because he was also a victim of the fraud.Kadungure said he paid back the US$50K in a space of five months only because he didn't want to be dragged in the mud as a peaceful businessman.Through his counsel, Kadungure said he only gave the complainant US$50 000 because he understood his plight and as a truthful businessman did his best to refund him.In his submissions, Evon also admitted that he only mentioned three accused persons Mukonori, Jacques Smith and Kadungure and left out Chivayo in his police statement.He said he only came to know Chivayo was jointly accused when he was summoned to court on September 17.He told the court that he neither received any refund from Chivayo nor did he meet him during the fictitious business deal.Jonathan Samkange and Lewis Uriri acted on behalf of Kadungure and Chivayo respectively.Magistrate Morgan Nemadire deferred the matter to October 19 for trial continuation.The State is yet to call Chegutu West legislator Dexter Nduna to give his evidence on the second count. Opinion / Columnist Restoration of Confidence Cutting Expenditure Foreign and Local Debt Chinese Deals Sound Economic Development Policy Tinashe Eric Muzamhindo writes in his personal capacity as an academic and he is studying Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Women University of Africa. He can be contacted at tinamuzala@gmail.com There is a huge gap between demand and supply. Our economy mainly survive on borrowing and imports. We have imports more than exports and therefore our balance of payments are in red. Zimbabweans must depart from a culture of panic, gossip and rumour mongering. Economy is run on concepts and ideas. Misconception has led to market panic and rendering the economy dysfunctional. There are a good number of fundamental ideas of how we can avert economic crisis in Zimbabwe if proper measures are put in place. It was a good idea for President Mnangagwa to put in place a cabinet comprising technocrats and new faces on the bloc to improve the political and economic face. There are basic fundamental key economic reforms that must be put in place to restore confidence in the economic sector. We need to understand that the markets are reacting from politics and economy. One thing we can't get away with is confidence and roles of market and its impact on our economy. Put a proper cabinet is not enough, one needs to go an extra mile to put proper measures which can deal with the ailing economy. I can assure you once the Government follows this document, we give them two weeks, and our economy will be flourishing. Remember there are major political and economic developments emerging from a contested election result. Basically these are repercussions. The economy require simply but careful rules on how to mend our ailing economy.My assumption is the markets are reacting to certain situations which are either politically or economically and its normal in any transitional mechanism. Given the context that we had a transition most likely it is normal for any market to react. They adopt what is called "WAIT AND SEE APPROACH". Most investors are seated on the fence, watching closely the economic and political developments in Zimbabwe. What the Government needs to do is to build confidence within and outside the system. There are certain measures which can aid to bring confidence. I thought the Minister of Finance was supposed to have started with economic consultative forums with academics, policy makers, suppliers, bankers, business community and by doing so you will be building confidence. What exactly do people want? The Government must depart from the culture of imposing ideas and policies on citizens because mainly this will backfire and there will be a market shrink. The biggest fundamental question is that how do we resolve the market problem? I suggest that before the Minister of Finance makes policy pronunciation it is ideal to consult. Policy shifts are dangerous to the ailing economy and this has negative impacts towards our fragile condition. The major climb down by the Minister of Finance over the 2% tax threshold was a sign of policy inconsistency which can be a bad sign of governance.We must adopt the "eat what you kill concept". This idea of over spending has become our culture which has led to problems mainly in the critical sectors of the economy. As we speak the Government is surviving on borrowing and we have wide budget deficit and arrears in our expenditure. My suggestion is President Mnangagwa must do away with deputy ministers. What do we need the deputy ministers for? We have an ailing economy and there is need for us to eat what we kill. Let us drink from our own well. Deputy Ministers are not necessary and the President can relieve them off their duties. We have permanent secretaries and principal directors in every ministry and those can be in charge of certain functions in place. Deputy Ministers are a replica of same duties which the minister can perform. Foreign trips should be limited. There must be strict budget, as most senior Government officials use foreign trips to line up their pockets using travel allowances. Size of delegates must be cut to reduce travel costs incurred by delegates.Our country is largely depending on debts. We have accumulated so many debts mainly because we are not producing anything. I think the first task for the Minister of Finance to announce the actual debt we have as a certain and how the money and resources were disbursed. How did we arrive on such debts? What is the actual debt clearance plan for our nation? How are we going to repay our creditors? You must also put it into consideration that international partners and lenders want a clearance debt plan. We must do away with the culture of borrowing. We have vast of minerals in this country and we must come up with plans and resolutions on how to have a survival plan. Our local and foreign debt stands at 13 billion. We have so many creditors that we are owing and how are we going to repay those loans? There is no way the IMF and the World Bank will offer us new loans until we have a clear debt plan. We have serious debt problems which are never made public, and how do we restore confidence in our economy?Personally I suggest Chinese deals without a specific economic plan that will benefit the majority will not have an economic benefit. During Mugabe's tenure, he signed several mega deals which were in vain. We must depart from a culture of papers and fulfil the implementation part. How many deals have we signed as a nation and were are the benefits of those deals? What is Zimbabwe getting from such raw deals? Let's hope we are not mortgaging our nation to China. The biggest challenge with Chinese deals is that such deals comes in the form of resources and equipment whereas Zimbabwe needs at least 5 billion to kick start the economy. We have a liquidity crunch problem. What we need for now is money to ease cash shortage. I would rather suggest that all public deals which involves tax payer's money goes through public finance bill or an act of parliament. Before any borrowing, this must go through legislative forum as a legal process to provide transparency as a key economic reform. Before any major deals are put in place, there is need for proper consultation through sound policy makers, economists, academics, researchers and politicians so that there is a clear policy and legal framework to avoid dubious investors who have duped our country before.There is need for a sound development policy for Zimbabwe which must involve all stakeholders such policy makers, Government, Academics and other key stakeholders so that there is a proper framework to bail out Zimbabwe from the economic mess. We don't have a clear economic plan and this has created so many problems for us. In fact, our development plan must go through the parliament before an official launch. The plan must include all the critical sectors of the economy. We have five critical sectors of the economy such as mining, tourism, infrastructure development, agriculture and industrialisation. The economic development policy must involve those 5 key sectors. There is need for an official launch after proper consultation. In fact the launch must then involve diplomats, heads of Government, potential investors and business community. We must develop a culture of inclusiveness, and allow all key players and stakeholders to participate in economic decisions. Opinion / Columnist Here is someone who is supposed to be at the Haig: criminal court of law, answering crimes against humanity he committed in the early independence of Zimbabwe. The name Gugurahundi spells the name of Dambudzo Emmerson Mnangagwa. He is one of the architectures of genocide in Mathebeleland and was the Minister of Security back then. He categorically refuses to recognise the atrocities he committed in the region. Has never managed to say a slender sorry about his murderous activities or even those hate speeches he made labelling people as cockroaches. The University of Zimbabwe finds it fit to honour this man with a doctorate degree in law: my foot!Africans and Africa are indeed a laughing stock globally. When they say Africans are stupid we cringe. It is inconceivable to understand the minds of an academic institution such as the University of Zimbabwe to still honour Mnangagwa with a doctorate degree in law. What law does a murderous Mnangagwa know? Mnangagwa's hands are red with blood of the thousands of people of Mathebeleland and of course his murderous activities did not end there. Mnangagwa has killed and maimed people in all ethnic groups: the genocide in the 1980s, the brutal killings in the farm invasions, code Murambatsvina left hundreds dead and destitute. This is the man who is holding a doctorate degree in law today. This is laughable, pun intended.Mnangagwa is failing the economy and all can see that he is just overwhelmed, fog-brained, he is challenged by this presidency he got by hook and crook. Does the University of Zimbabwe want to tell us that the coup that was done by Chiwenga and Mnangagwa & the entire securocrat was to correct criminals around Mugabe? How many people died in the military takeover of the army to the military? Are we ever going to know that there were people who lost lives in the military takeover of November 2017? What about the elections that he said were going to be free and fair? Where is Itai Dzamara today as we speak? Can't the respected university see that Mnangagwa is giving away the nations resources because he does not have an idea how to negotiate with foreign business people for the good of the country?That doctorate degree was misplaced to give it to a murderer like our president. This thoughtful gesture to please the president will haunt this university once more. Not even three years ago, this very university gave Mrs Mugabe a doctorate degree that she studied in three months record, nobody in the university world has ever studied a doctorate in three months but only at this university of Zimbabwe. This stupidity and nonsense is haunting the university to this day. As if it's not enough, they go on in their boot-licking frenzy to crown Mnangagwa with an honorary doctorate in law. It appears this university is prone to scandals. The global world is watching how African can abuse university ethics. To be awarded with a doctorate degree must be qualifies and not boot-licking whoever is the president or spouse of the president. This university has really sunk to all-time-low.These kind of cheap doctorate honours are done in Africa by African universities only. There is no university outside Africa that can give a person whose reputation speaks genocide, whose reputation speaks human rights atrocities of decades and those who are perpetrators of genocide do not only go scot free bur are rulers of the land. By any account Mnangagwa is supposed to be in the Haig answering crimes of genocide nature. Instead, he is the Head of State of the Republic of Zimbabwe, which can only happen in Africa because this continent is unique in many ways.No ethic was scrutinized; no historical events that deem Mnangagwa a hard-core murderer were scrutinized; people have disappeared in Zimbabwe without trace at the orders of Mnangagwa. He gets, instead, a doctorate degree in law from a world renowned university: The University of Zimbabwe. How does Amai Joyce Mujuru feel when she knows this man has to do with the death of General Solomon Mujuru? For all the dirty work done in Zanu PF politics, killings and counter-killings this man called Mnangagwa has done and is accused of, still get the highest honour in the land; a doctorate degree in law.This is the garbage that our children will content with when they take over from us. They will need to clean up the university to give back its glory in the global academia it deserves. Our generation to come will be ashamed of what this university did: to honour kriegsverbrecher an honourable doctor in the faculty of law. It appears as if it will be our children who will have to deal with national matters relating to genocides of the past. A criminal like Mnangagwa can never say sorry because he truly believes that what he did, to try to decimate a tribal group was justified. He cannot even say sorry for his hate speeches he made against a people: "they need gamatox to kill the cockroaches in them," he said. Even the word civilization is a far cry in this party called Zanu PF. Worse still when independent institutions such as universities begin to emulate boot-licking: boot-licking that has become a national curse; to get whatever accolades from Fuehrer Mnangagwa.A university should do better than any other government institutions in the land ethically. The university is an institution of higher learning; a university is an institution where ethics are adhered-to to the letter to be recognized as a world institution of learning. Which university outside African continent will still recognize a university qualification coming from this UZ if Grace can come out with a doctorate without reading for it, someone must have written that doctorate for her obviously. Is that how this university operates or is it just those in the limelight who are given those extra academic degrees: Curiously, some Africans want to feel better if they are called by doctor titles even if one does not deserve it, they would rather buy it to get the title doctor! Most of them who hold doctorates cannot even practice it, was meant to shine with the title.Checking the criteria that considers an honorary doctorate degree on internet, they earn a degree through award-based on generous and altruistic actions or lifetime accomplishments that benefit a community, a nation, or humanity. It says again each university that confers honorary degrees establishes its own criteria for acceptance. Coming to our president Mnangagwa: in all honesty, what has Mnangagwa done to human kind either than sufferings of the masses and the university of Zimbabwe knows this fact. Is 8 months as president enough to cough out an honorary degree for him? I invite the Department of Law at the University of Zimbabwe to take a bath because your boot-licking is just smelly. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Voices Concerns About Disenfranchisement In Powerful Dissent Just one day after swearing in accused sexual abuser Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court is back at it with a harmful orderand Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan have something to say about it in a powerful dissent. Unlike many other states, North Dakota does not have any form of voter registration. Instead, theres currently a lower-court order that mandates all voters in North Dakota arrive at the polls with certain specific forms of ID, including proof of residence. This order blocks around 20% of the states voters from casting their ballots in November, Ginsburg noted in her dissent, and disproportionately impacts the states large Native population, since many Native Americans living in North Dakota have different forms of identification without street addresses. ADVERTISEMENT In the words of the Native Americans Rights Fund, the U.S. postal service does not provide residential delivery in these rural Indian communities. Thus, most tribal members use a PO Box. If a tribal ID has an address, it is typically a PO Box address, which does not satisfy North Dakotas restrictive voter ID law. This is a problem that could have lasting effects for North Dakota and for America: as Mother Jones reported, Senator Heidi Heitkamp is considered the most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate, and won her seat by a margin of under 3,000 votes six years ago. Heitkamp has been consistently critical of these voter ID laws for awhile: in an interview last May with The West Fargo Pioneer, she called the legislation unnecessary and argued that the order was meant to clearly target the Native American population of North Dakota. Republicans supporting the order claim that it helps fight voter fraudbut as Mother Jones wote, in-person fraud is very rare, and as Heitkamp told the Pioneer, theres no evidence that voter fraud of any kind is a problem in North Dakota. In a 2006 letter, as shared by the NARF, North Dakota Secretary of State Alvin Jaeger explicitly wrote that during my fourteen years asthe states chief election officer, my office has not referred any cases of voter fraud to the United States Attorney, the North Dakota Attorney General, or to local prosecutors. We havent had any to refer. In her dissent, Ginsburg wrote: The Eighth Circuit observed that voters have a month to adapt to the new regime. But that observation overlooks specific factfindings by the District Court: (1) 70,000 North Dakota residentsalmost 20% of the turnout in a regular quadrenial electionlack a qualifying ID; and (2) approximately 18,000 North Dakota residents also lack supplemental documentation sufficient to permit them to vote without a qualifying ID. If you live in North Dakotaor anywhere in the U.S.you can find everything you need to know about your local voting laws and registration deadlines on Vote.org. Top photo via Flickr Creative Commons / Wake Forest University School Of Law More from BUST Ruth Bader Ginsburg Wants To Stay On SCOTUS For Five More Years, Thank God In A Blow To Survivors Everywhere, Brett Kavanaugh Is Confirmed To The Supreme Court "RBG's" Film Editor On How The All-Women Crew Told Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Story Lydia Wang is a writer, a Pisces, and one of BUST's digital editors. Find her on Twitter or say hi: lydiaw@bust.com. (Bloomberg) -- Huawei Technologies Co. has overtaken Apple Inc. in smartphones. Now it wants to take on some of Americas largest technology companies in semiconductors. Chineses largest telecommunications gear and mobile phone maker on Wednesday unveiled its latest Ascend series chips, machine-learning capable workhorses that it says can go toe-to-toe with designs from Qualcomm Inc. and Nvidia Corp. Its also introducing cloud computing services and dedicated data centers for autonomous vehicles that will run off those chips, delving deeper into territory staked out by Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and homegrown rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The push into AI and the cloud marks Huaweis attempt to build a Chinese technology empire that can compete against the worlds top players -- an effort thats raised hackles in the U.S. Its expanded ambitions come as Washington, trying to contain Chinas rapid ascent, wages a war of tariffs against its closest economic rival. Growing concerns about the security of Huaweis gear and supposed ties to Beijing are also putting pressure on its overseas operation. In response, the company says its a privately run corporation keen on working with global partners. Huaweis AI strategy is built on top of continued investment in basic technologies and talent training, Chairman Eric Xu told the Huawei Connect conference in Shanghai. The companys AI chips underpin that strategic thrust, and align with Beijings express intention to build a domestic semiconductor industry that can gradually wean China off foreign imports. Huawei already designs AI-capable Kirin processors for its own smartphones, shipments of which pulled ahead of Apple for the first time in the second quarter. The Kirin line can, among other things, adjust computing resources based on usage. Its already by some reckonings the worlds largest provider of networking equipment to wireless carriers, outstripping the likes of Ericsson with growing sales in Europe. The company, however, is facing more scrutiny, damaging an overseas business that generates roughly 70 percent of its revenue. It continues to be shut out of the U.S., which fears its equipment poses a security threat. A growing number of developed markets such as Australia now bar the companys telecoms equipment out of similar security concerns. Story continues To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Gao Yuan in Beijing at ygao199@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2018 Bloomberg L.P. Canada's former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who was expelled this summer in a diplomatic row, has been holding his tongue until now. Dennis Horak wants to talk, and he has a lot to say about the tweet that effectively ended Canada's official rapport with Saudi Arabia, as well as Canada's handling of some of its international relationships. He says he's not impressed with either. "I think we took a step too far," he told CBC's The National during an interview at his brother's Toronto home. "Whether we can come back from that, I don't know But we need to begin deciding, do we want this? Do we want to salvage this relationship or not?" Sylvia Thomson/CBC His brother's house is also where Horak happened to be in early August when, on vacation, he learned the Saudis were throwing him out of the Kingdom. It was news that landed in the middle of a backyard BBQ with friends. And it came via Twitter. The irony of that isn't lost on Horak. "Yeah, yeah, not a fan," he says of Twitter diplomacy. Veteran diplomat Horak has been a diplomat for nearly 30 years and was at the three-year mark as Canada's ambassador in Saudi Arabia, his second posting in the Kingdom. Now retired, he had hoped all that regional experience might help him advise those trying to do business in Saudi Arabia. But then came the diplomatic dustup. "Anybody who is going to want to do business in Saudi Arabia is not going to be putting me on a board," he says. "I'm going to be the skunk at that party." So how did it all go so wrong? A single tweet incensed the Kingdom. Urging the immediate release of jailed women's rights activists, it was written by Global Affairs Canada. Then, as has become the practice, Horak says, it was translated by the Canadian embassy in Riyadh into Arabic and tweeted into infamy. The Saudi response was swift and furious. The act of calling for an "immediate release" seems to be the language that set them off. Story continues Horak says within six hours of the tweet he was barred from returning to the country. The Saudi ambassador to Canada was recalled, new trade stopped, and orders given to withdraw Saudi investment in Canada. That might have been enough, but the retribution continued. A total of 8,300 Saudi post-secondary students were told to pull out of Canada. Flights to Canada by the Saudi-owned airline were cancelled. "It was a very big surprise. I get that they were upset about the tweet, but to react the way they did, it was a serious overreaction," Horak says. No backing down While King Salman is still in charge in Saudi Arabia, it is Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, or MBS as he is known, who seems to be the de facto leader. He is known as someone who digs in, so backing down from this battle seems unlikely there are no outward signs that's happening, as he and his officials continue to slam Canada. In an interview with Bloomberg last week, for example, MBS continued to insist Canada overreached. Sylvia Thomson/CBC "They have to know they have made a mistake. I believe they know that they have made a mistake, but we will see how we can get things back again." At the UN in September, during an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir accused Canada of treating the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) like a banana republic. "You can talk to us about human rights anytime you want, we'd be happy to have that conversation like we do with all our allies, but lecturing us? No way. Not going to happen." You can hear the minister's indignation in this clip: Watching that same video, Horak periodically nods. "He's right. I mean, the American State Department issues a human rights report every year, the British parliament does raise issues every now and then, but they both have very strong relationships with Saudi Arabia. And so it can survive some of those public dressing-downs in ways that we were more vulnerable to," he says. He explains the Saudis believed Canada was targeting their public at a time of volatility. While some of the reforms women driving, the introduction of public cinemas, etc. are proving popular with the Saudi people, other elements "are not happy with reforms and feel that perhaps Saudi Arabia is being too compliant with Western demands," he says. "This would give them ammunition to say, 'see, look, we are being pushed around by the West, they're now demanding our judicial system do X, Y and Z.'" Dennis Horak sat down with Adrienne Arsenault to talk about the tweet that effectively ended Canada's official rapport with Saudi Arabia: Horak says he wasn't surprised that no other country came out publicly in support of Canada. How could it be worth the risk for them, he asks. But should Canada apologize, as the Saudis suggest? No, he says. But he thinks this rift might be fixable. "It begins with the decision, do we care? Do we want a relationship? And that decision needs to be taken first and then figure out if we care, how do we get there," he says. "But do we want it? I don't know." 'You have to have your voice heard' So, what did the Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Prime Minister have to say to Horak once he was expelled? What questions did they have? What are their thoughts about how to go forward? What did he advise? Well, it's complicated. What was his conversation like with the minister? "I haven't spoken to her," he says. Did she not take his call? "I just didn't speak with her. I spoke with her staff and I spoke with staff at GAC [Global Affairs Canada], and I was there for a couple days after as we were trying to assess the impact. But no, I didn't speak personally to the Minister or the Prime Minister." Francois Mori/Associated Press With diplomacy in his DNA, he explains it's not really traditional in Canada for ambassadors to have those direct conversations. Nor is it his sense that Canada's attempt to push for the release of Samar or Raif Badawi would have moved the Saudis to show leniency towards the activists. "It certainly wouldn't help them." Conversely, he's careful to say that he doesn't think the jailed activists would be punished for Canada's tweet. Those who did take notice of the message were human rights groups. They were full of praise. Canada, effectively going it alone, also publicly owned its call to issue the tweet. That's telling to Horak. "It seems to me the applause the government has gotten from Amnesty International and other organizations is something that's welcome by the government, and perhaps rightly so. And perhaps that's what's driving it," he offered. "I wonder sometimes, personally, what constituency we're playing to on some of these issues." Cliff Owen/AP, Jack Taylor/Getty Images Is the applause of some worth as much as a relationship with Saudi Arabia? "In my view, no we can have an influence in that country." He adds that he's "under no illusions" that the influence would necessarily be huge, but says, "We were normally pushing on an open door in Saudi Arabia. We did some programs, for example, as part of the Vision 2030 program, which is their main reform program." Horak is careful to say his criticisms aren't political. He is just as frustrated with how the Harper Government handled Iran. He was thrown out of that posting too, when Canada cut ties. That came after Canada passed the Justice of Victims of Terrorism Act. Horak family "That sounds great, but when you have a law that allows you to start seizing Iranian government territories in Canada, which this law does allow, there's no way we could be in Iran anymore." Having no official relationship with either country, he says, accomplishes little except for hammering a principle. "Whether we like what they are doing or not is not really the issue. If you want these changes to happen, you have to have your voice heard you have to engage them. And we didn't do that." These are opportunities lost for Canada, he maintains. Life now for Horak is about finding a new path; perhaps some writing or analysis. And it's about quietly dealing with the oddity of being tossed out of an ambassadorial posting, again. All his belongings in Saudi Arabia were packed up by staff and sent back to Canada, and he's certainly not able to go back one last time. Persona non grata is the official term, "skunk at the party" is his. After a week of controversy, Quebec's incoming Coalition Avenir Quebec government is opening the door a crack to compromise on its plan to ban some civil servants from wearing religious symbols. The CAQ said last week it would be prepared to fire teachers who refuse to take off their hijab or kippa or other religious garb, drawing thousands to a protest march and raising concerns from Muslim women who feel targeted by the proposal. Simon Jolin-Barrette, an MNA and spokesperson for the CAQ's transition team, said Tuesday the government would consider a clause that would allow teachers who currently wear religious symbols to continue to do so. New hires would be forced to comply with the ban. Francois Legault's CAQ, which won a majority in last week's provincial election, has promised to introduce a law prohibiting civil servants in positions of authority, such as judges, police officers and prosecutors, as well as teachers, from wearing religious symbols in the workplace. At a news conference, Jolin-Barrette said making such an exception is not the CAQ's preference, but it would be willing to hear the opposition's ideas about how to make the law more flexible. The Parti Quebecois also campaigned on a promise to impose a ban but one that would only apply to newly hired preschool, elementary and high school teachers and not those who already hold a job. Jolin-Barrette stressed, though, that the CAQ was "elected on a clear mandate" to put in place such a ban. Crucifix will stay Jolin-Barrette also said the CAQ has no intention of removing the crucifix that hangs behind the Speaker's chair in the province's National Assembly. CBC He argued there is no contradiction between the CAQ's plan to impose strict secularism rules on certain public servants and its desire to maintain the Christian symbol. He said the crucifix, which has hung in the province's legislature since the 1930s, is part of "Quebec's heritage." On Sunday, several thousand people gathered in downtown Montreal to denounce the proposed law, chanting "Legault has got to go," and "Francois, Quebec belongs to me." With files from The Canadian Press Enbridge says it will begin B.C. pipeline cleanup, but gives no timeline Residents of a northern B.C. community are being allowed to return home after a natural gas explosion saw homes evacuated Tuesday evening. Prince George RCMP said an incandescent orange fireball that could be seen for kilometres at approximately 5:30 p.m. PT was from an Enbridge natural gas pipeline exploding in Shelley, about 15 kilometres northeast of Prince George. Homes within several kilometres were evacuated as a precaution, but people were being allowed to return, police said in a news release at 7:30 p.m. PT. There was no damage to anything other than the pipeline, police said, and no one was injured. The gas has been shut off. Police said it was unclear what caused the explosion but an update would be provided Wednesday. Speedy evacuation Chief Dominic Frederick of Lheidli T'enneh First Nation said about 100 people from his community were forced to flee, along with people from a nearby subdivision. The explosion happened only about two kilometres from the reserve, forcing residents to quickly flee, he said. "We sort of trained for it ... because of the wildfires," Frederick said of the speedy evacuation. "Everything was just left behind." B.C. Assembly of First Nations regional Chief Terry Teegee shared a video of the explosion's immediate aftermath Resident Megan Clark described hearing terrible sounds from her house, located a short distance from where the line exploded. "I thought it was thunder at first, because it was loud, banging kind of noises," Clark said. "I look out my window and I see this huge forest fire so I thought maybe a house blew up." Clark said once she and her family saw what was happening, they grabbed their pets and a few belongings and ran. Enbridge to investigate Prince George Mayor Lyn Hall, speaking after an all-candidates forum in the city, said the emergency operations centre was activated for evacuees. "We're very concerned about this," Hall said, adding the focus now would be to keep affected residents informed about the situation. Story continues Michael Barnes, an Enbridge spokesperson based in Houston, said crews are depressurizing the gas lines and have cordoned off the area of the explosion for safety. Enbridge said in a statement that it will be investigating the cause of the explosion. The National Energy Board tweeted that it has sent inspectors to the scene. With files from Andrew Kurjata, Lien Yeung and Wil Fundal Read more from CBC British Columbia Nikki Haley is resigning from her post as United States ambassador to the United Nations effective at the end of 2018, with President Donald Trump indicating he had advance warning she would leave. "Big announcement with my friend Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Oval Office at 10:30am," Trump wrote on Twitter ahead of their Tuesday morning meeting. Trump accepted the resignation and said at the meeting with reporters present that Haley had told him months ago she intended to serve for less than two years. Trump was effusive in his praise of Haley, saying she could have "her pick" of roles if she decided to come back to the administration. Haley called the ambassadorship "an honour of a lifetime" and pointed to moving the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, cutting the UN budget by $1.3 billion US and helping to broker an arms embargo in South Sudan as accomplishments. Haley has been the face of Trump's "America First" policy at the United Nations, steering the U.S. withdrawal from several UN programs and ardently defending his hardline policies against Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs. "Now the United States is respected," she said. "Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do. They know that if we say we're going to do something, we follow it through." After an anonymous essay in the New York Times from an administration official brought up the spectre of Trump's competence for the presidency, Haley wrote a defence in a Washington Post op-ed. "I proudly serve in this administration, and I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country," wrote Haley. "But I don't agree with the president on everything." Praise from Lindsay Graham While thanking her husband and two children for their support on Tuesday, Haley said the reasons for her departure weren't personal. Story continues "I think it's very important for government officials to understand when it's time to step aside," she said. The move will raise speculation about her political future nonetheless. Haley, 46, served as South Carolina's governor from 2011 until she was nominated by Trump to the UN post, a move that surprised some observers given her lack of foreign policy experience. As well, Haley had campaigned for Marco Rubio during the Republican primaries, with Trump at one point tweeting "the people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley." Evan Vucci/Associated Press She was that state's first female governor. Haley said she has no intention of running for office in 2020 and promised to campaign for Trump. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina praised Haley as "a true agent of reform when it came to the United Nations" and predicted she would be heard from again in national politics. Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey thanked Haley for her service in a statement but decried the surprise resignation as "yet another sign of the Trump administration's chaotic foreign policy." The White House in less than two years has seen Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster depart, with Mike Pompeo moved after just a short time as CIA director to fill the Tillerson vacancy. 'Arrogant discourse': UN Palestinian rep United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres expressed on Tuesday his "deep appreciation for the excellent co-operation and support" Haley provided, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. "They had a very productive and strong working relationship," Dujarric told reporters. Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, praised Haley on social media, saying she'd "always be a true friend to the State of Israel." Chris Keane/Reuters Her legacy will be less kind to many in the Arab world after both the controversial embassy move and the slashing of millions in humanitarian aid to Palestinians by the Trump administration. Riyad Mansour, observer to the UN for the Palestinians, has previously accused Haley of "arrogant discourse" and "becoming more Israeli than the Israelis themselves." When Mansour moved to speak in May at a UN Security Council session in the wake of dozens of Palestinian deaths near the Israeli-Gaza border, Haley walked out. Canada has yet to officially comment, but just last week Marc-Andre Blanchard, Canadian ambassador to the UN, praised Haley's stewardship last month of the Security Council presidency. While a resolution declaring "null and void" the U.S.'s recognition last year of Jerusalem as Israel's capital passed 128-9, Canada was one of about three-dozen countries to abstain from the vote. Haley's replacement will require confirmation by the Senate, with over one-third of the seats in that legislative body being contested in next month's midterm elections. Haley was confirmed with 96 of 100 votes. Trump said he would name a replacement in two to three weeks. With files from Reuters By Manolo Serapio Jr and Manuel Mogato MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that a biopsy shows he does not have cancer, after calls from the public for information after the 73-year-old missed two official events last week. When pressed by reporters at a televised briefing at the presidential palace, Duterte said: "It's negative. They had a suspicion... We can have a drink together. I can give you a run for your money." Duterte said he underwent tests "just to satisfy the family's urgings. But, if it were up to me. I do not need...I don't fear...I don't care." He also denied taking another medical test in Hong Kong during the weekend when he was seen shopping with his partner and youngest daughter. Duterte's acting interior secretary told reporters the president informed the Cabinet of the results during a Monday night meeting, prompting applause. The president made an unscheduled visit to hospital when doctors asked him to repeat digestive tract procedures three weeks after similar tests. Duterte's condition "is not serious" and will remain a confidential matter, his spokesman, Harry Roque, told a separate news briefing. The constitution provides for the public to be told of the state of health of an incumbent president, if serious. "The constitution says that you must let the people know, but the procedure is not to go direct to the people. The cabinet should be the one to decide if you are fully incapacitated to discharge the functions of your office," Duterte said. Duterte's health was a constant source of speculation after he disappeared from public view for a week last year but his aides dismissed rumors about his condition. (Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Nick Macfie) Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh. blogspot.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. . ..Gatestone Institute..09 October '18..If anyone was hoping that removing Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip would improve the situation there and boost the chances of peace between Palestinians and Israel, they are in for a big disappointment. Hamas, which violently seized control over the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, is not the only terrorist group in the coastal enclave, home to some two million Palestinians.In addition to Hamas, these are several other Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.The second-largest group after Hamas is Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which has thousands of supporters and militiamen. If and when Hamas is ever removed from power, PIJ has the strongest chance of stepping in to fill the vacuum.You remove Hamas from power, you will most likely end up having to deal with PIJ - not a more moderate group. While Hamas could only be considered "good," in some alternate reality, its replacement would not be any better. Islamist fundamentalism is enshrined in the hearts and minds of tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.The two Islamist groups -- Hamas and PIJ -- are like two peas in a pod. The two do not recognize Israel's right to exist and continue to call for an armed struggle to "liberate all Palestine," from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.Like Hamas, the Iranian-funded PIJ also has an armed wing, called Saraya Al-Quds (Jerusalem Brigades). When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey he faced an interesting exchange with the religious Pharisees. Crowds gathered to adore and honour Jesus. The Pharisees were deeply offended. They rebuked him and suggested he should not be received and honoured with such adoration and dignity. In the midst of this spectacle Jesus answered very distinctly. He turned and indicated his disciples saying, if they did not praise him, the stones would do it! (See Luke chapter 19, verse 40) He might have said, My creation would declare Me! October was a rocks crying-out month in Israel. It is as though the world makes an absurd declaration and creation screams, Rubbish! Papyrus In October, the Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled a 2,700 year old papyrus that predates the Dead Sea Scrolls by centuries. In fact radiocarbon dating has determined the papyrus is from the 7th century BCE. Immediate debate over the authenticity began. A Professor Rollston from George Washington University said, Ancient papyrus is readily available for purchase online. No modern forger worth his or her salt would forge an inscription on modern papyrus. A professor from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem debunked the criticism pointing out the wording used on the papyrus was very rare. Amor Ganir (Antiquities Authority) said the writing was the first mention in Hebrew of the city of Jerusalem, outside the New Testament. It proved, he said, Jews were in the city 2,700 years ago. Temple Mount Another October gem was uncovered when Israeli and Muslim authorities worked together on the Temple Mount. The artifacts unearthed were the first dated to the time of the First Temple, more than 2,600 years ago. The limited scientific excavations were the first of their kind since the British Mandate. Its the first time that weve found artifacts from this period in situ on the Temple Mount, said Yuval Baruch, the head of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The digs were carried out between 2007 and last year after the Waqf requested authorization from Israel to perform maintenance work on infrastructure servicing the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Baruch teased further information will be published including findings uncovered while working on Solomons Stables. Titus A breach uncovered in the Third Wall of Jerusalem was the very place the Roman armies broke through in 70CE. That incursion led to the destruction of the Second temple. Archaeologists discovered the remains of a tower jutting from the city wall. Opposite the towers western facade were scores of ballista and sling stones that they attribute to Roman forces firing from catapults. This is a fascinating testimony of the intensive bombardment by the Roman army, led by Titus, on their way to conquering the city and destroying the Second Temple, concluded Dr Rina Avner and Kfir Abib, excavation directors for the Israel Antiquities Authority. Jesus Tomb The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a prominent attraction for Christian visitors to Israel. It is also known as the Church of the Resurrection for some. A discovery, archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert called astonishing came about through renovation work. Working in the innermost chamber of the site, a restoration team peeled away a layer of marble to what is believed to be the rock surface on which the body of Jesus Christ was placed. National Geographic is partnering with experts to document the work. The circumstances leading to this treasure was sparked when Israeli police briefly shut down the building when it was declared unsafe by Israel Antiquity Authorities. This prompted the Christian denominations who share the space to OK the necessary repairs. A media report gave a first hand account (Restoration workers peel back ancient layers surrounding cave said to be Jesus tomb in Jerusalem, October 29, 2016, news.com.au) David Grenier, secretary of a group that oversees Roman Catholic church properties in the Holy Land, stood with a few other Franciscan friars, watching the work crew in awe. What happened here 2000 years ago completely changed the history of the world, he said. To be able to dig, lets say, to the rock where the body of Jesus was laid ... its overwhelming joy. At one point, a National Geographic film crew documented the site as clergy burned incense around them in a daily church rite. After the film crew cleared out, a pair of clergymen in brown frocks, and an Israeli policeman stationed at the church to help keep the peace, clambered over a pile of work tools, electrical wires and a yellow hard hat on the Edicule floor to lean into the inner chamber and snap cell phone photos of the exposed tomb. Its a historic moment, huh? the policeman said. Clifford Wilson asked: Does Archaeology Support the Bible He wrote; archaeology has done a great deal to restore confidence in the Bible as the revealed Word of God. It has thrown a great deal of light on previously obscure passages and has helped us to understand customs, culture, and background in many ways that seemed most unlikely to our fathers in a previous generation. Archaeology is highly relevant for understanding the Bible today.. Ron Ross is a Middle East consultant for United Christian Broadcasters (Vision FM). Previously he was radio news editor for Bridges for Peace in Jerusalem, Israel. His career started at WINTV (Email: ronandyvonne@mac.com) Ron Ross previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/ron-ross.html If you type Meghan Markle into google youll be greeted with headlines from multiple magazines, all announcing the exciting news: Shes pregnant and whats more, shes expecting twins! Except that she isnt. Ever since the royal pair tied the knot (and even before then), every tabloid from here to anywhere has been constantly announcing the happy news. They all follow the same formula: Meghan stepping out looking slightly bulgier than her slim figure could possibly allow for (usually the cut of the dress or a funny angled shot), evidence that Harry is taking extra care of her (with some photo of them having physical contact, shock, horror!), and of course the obligatory close friend or palace insider who has spilled the beans. I suppose the theory is if they report it every week, by sheer luck they will have to get it right eventually. In the meantime, however, I sit back and ponder how on earth tabloids get away with such blatant lies. Dont let the truth get in the way of a good story It really does boggle the mind that these magazines write, print, and sell articles that are completely fabricated. There is not a shred of truth in them. How do they get away with it? Why are they not held accountable? The answer, it seems, comes down to one thing: money. Media corporations, here and overseas, are absolutely loaded. Money goes a long way when it comes to trying to win a court case, especially in the nebulous category of defamation or libel. Of course, the Royal Family have better things to do than run around trying to put out pregnancy rumours. They definitely dont have the time to get involved in multiple court cases with the string of tabloids that routinely print lies. But what about other celebrities? Why do they put up with it? Again, the answer is time and money. The laws in different countries also make it very difficult to get anywhere. In the USA, the onus is on a celebrity to prove themselves, not the tabloid to get some proof that their facts were in any way verified (which, of course, they werent). Australian laws are somewhat better. Rebel Wilson recently won a defamation case against Bauer Media for the nasty lies they spread about her. The catch was that they were actually nasty lies and caused her professional life to suffer. When it comes to announcing phantom pregnancies, news that doesnt really harm anyone, the tabloids have the freedom of speech to say whatever they likeevery single week. Its up to us The truth is, I dont buy these magazines. But I am definitely interested in Meghans state of pregnancy. Royal babies are exciting! So, if I see a headline, Im bound to look twice. I might even pick it up and read the article. As consumers, it is up to us to recognise that these magazines have Buckleys chance of telling us the truth. If you can contain your curiosity, dont buy them or read them, but if you must, be aware that the news they peddle is nonsense at best. It might even be very hurtful to some poor celebrity. As for Meghan, the best way to check if shes pregnant is to jump onto the Royal Familys official social media and wait until they announce it for themselves. After all, thats probably more respectful than getting the scoop from some palace insider who had no business telling us in the first place. Lucinda is a housewife who spends her time running around after a toddler, and leading a Girls Brigade group. She loves to bake. Lucindas previous articles can be viewed at https://www.pressserviceinternational.org/lucinda-glover.html Liverpool hosted Manchester City in what was dubbed the hottest fixture of the 2018/19 Premier League season so far, however the match did not live up to expectations. City had a few chances and new record signing Mahrez looked the liveliest, however he stepped up in the 86th minute of the match to take the best chance of the match when City won a dubious penalty, however he blasted over the bar to ensure the points were shared at Anfield. That result leaves both clubs on 20 points at the summit of the premier league shared with Chelsea after the Royals won 3-0 convincingly away earlier on Sunday at a disappointing Southampton. Southampton have only won 1 match all calendar year at home which is worrying signs for Mark Hughes and the trend continued on Sunday. Manchester United scored an amazing stoppage time winner as they came back from 2-0 down at home to Newcastle United to win 3-2. Mourinho is under much scrutiny and you could feel the pressure inside Old Trafford as United went down early, conceding 2 goals in the first 10 minutes of the match. United kept pressing and pulled one back in the 70th minute before going on with the job and moving United up to 8th position!! Saturdays lunch time fixtures saw Bournemouth continue their best ever start to a season with a thumping 4-0 away win at the impressive Watford side. Bournemouth are now up to 7th on the table and their form is catching the eye of many in the top flight. In London, Spurs won in front of a terrible home crowd at Wembley defeating Cardiff 1-0, whilst Everton won an entertaining fixture 2-1 away at Leicester City. Wolves won 1-0 in London at the hands of Crystal Palace whilst Burnley and Huddersfield Town played out a 1-1 draw. Sundays early kick off was a hotly anticipated London derby as Arsenal travelled to Fulham. The Gunners kept up their amazing run with their 6 consecutive win moving to 4th in the league and just 2 points behind the top with a huge 5-1 away win. The Gunners are now in form & look great under Emery, looking to keep the pressure on the front runners. Wesley Tronson is the regional operations manager of Gold Coast NAB branches and previously the bank manager in Brisbane CBD. He lived in England for seven years to 2010 in banking and soccer. Wesley Tronson's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/wesley-tronson.html WEDNESDAY, Oct. 10, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- A common heart rhythm disorder, atrial fibrillation, may speed up mental decline in older adults, new research suggests. If you have atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, your heart beats irregularly. This means blood can pool and form clots that go to the brain, causing a stroke. The good news from this study: Blood thinners can reduce the odds for stroke and maybe delay or prevent dementia, researchers say. "Our findings emphasize the need to improve the clinical management of patients with atrial fibrillation, which is very important since a considerable proportion of older people with atrial fibrillation are not using [anti-clotting] drugs," said study first author Mozhu Ding. She is with the Aging Research Center at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden. For the study, Ding and her colleagues collected data on nearly 2,700 Swedes, average age 73. Participants were examined at the start of the study and again after six years if they were younger than 78 or every three years for those older than that. None had dementia at the outset, and 9 percent had atrial fibrillation. Over the study period, an additional 11 percent developed A-fib, and 15 percent developed dementia. The researchers found that thinking and memory skills declined faster among those who had atrial fibrillation. They were 40 percent more likely to develop dementia than those without the heart condition. However, those who took blood thinners because of the heart disorder had a 60 percent lower risk of developing dementia -- 11 percent taking anti-clot drugs developed dementia compared to 22 percent not taking them. No decreased risk was seen among those taking aspirin, the researchers found. This study is observational, so it cannot prove that A-fib is a cause of dementia or that blood thinners prevent it. Still, the researchers believe additional efforts should be made to increase blood thinner use among older people with atrial fibrillation. One limitation of the study is that Ding's group did not distinguish between different types of atrial fibrillation. Also, some A-fib cases may have been missed among those who didn't have symptoms. One specialist said even tiny strokes that go unnoticed can be a gateway to dementia. "Atrial fibrillation is associated with formation of clots that travel to the brain," said Dr. Sam Gandy, director of the Mount Sinai Center for Cognitive Health in New York City. It's been thought that blood thinners effectively prevent this, he said. "But with more refined neuropsychological exams and higher resolution scans we now see that while we are preventing major strokes, we apparently are not preventing formation of micro-clots that do more damage than previously realized," Gandy said. "This is being recognized and documented more and more, as in the current study." The report was published online Oct. 10 in the journal Neurology. More information The Alzheimer's Association offers more details on dementia. JavaScript is disabled on your browser. CORDIS website requires JavaScript enabled in order to work properly. Please enable JavaScript. China has agreed to sale 48 Wing Loong II high-end armed drones to its all-weather ally Pakistan. This is Chinas largest export deal for drones to date to any country. The cost of this deal with Pakistan and or when the drones will be delivered were not revealed. Total of 48 Wing Loong II UAVs will be jointly built by Chinas Chengdu Aircraft Corp (CAC) and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Karma. China also has reportedly sold this unmanned aerial system to countries like UAE and Egypt at estimated $1 million per unit. It has also sold the Wing Loong I to Indonesia, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates. Wing Loong II It is a high-end reconnaissance, strike and multi-role endurance unmanned aerial system, capable of being fitted with air-to-surface weapons. It is manufactured by Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Company. It had made its maiden flight in February 2017. It is upgraded version of Wing Loong I unmanned aerial system. It is designed for both reconnaissance and strike missions. It is 11 metres long and has wingspan of 20.5 metres. It can payload up to 480kg (1,060lbs), including 12 laser guided missiles or YJ-9E anti-ship missiles. It is powered by turboprops and can fly for up to 20 hours at speeds of 150-370km/h. It can fly at maximum altitude of 9,000 metres (29,500 feet). Its system is composed of ground station and various numbers of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It has capability to attack and destroy stationary targets, moving targets, time sensitive targets and air-ground coordination. It is roughly equivalent to American MQ-9 Reaper drone. But US drones like MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper are technologically more advanced compared this Chinese drone. China-Pakistan Defence Relations China is the largest supplier of weapon system to the Pakistan Army. It accounted for 70 % of Pakistans arms purchases in 2013-17 period, up from 45% in the previous five years, although sales by volume changed little. Both countries also jointly manufacture JF-Thunder a single engine multi-role combat aircraft. This aircraft has been in mass production in Pakistan and sold to Myanmar and Nigeria. Pakistan has also produced its own drone named Burraq which had made its first flight in 2015 and is believed to have been based on Chinas multi-purpose medium-range CH-3 drone system. Indian Air Force (IAF) has launched MedWatch mobile health app to provide health information to users, including first-aid and other health and nutritional topics. It was launched on 8 October on the occasion of IAFs 85th anniversary. It is first of its kind mobile health app built by any of the three armed forces. MedWatch app The app was conceived by doctors of IAF and developed in-house by Directorate of Information Technology (DIT) with Zero financial outlay. It will provide correct, scientific and authentic health information to air warriors and all citizens of India. It comprises host of features like information on basic First Aid, health topics and nutritional facts, reminders for timely medical review, vaccination and utility tools like Health Record Card, BMI calculator, helpline numbers and web links. The app is available on www.apps.mgov.gov.in. Tamil Nadu: With no conservancy agency at work, garbage piles up at Chennai harbour by Deepa H. Ramakrishnan October 10,2018 | Source: The Hindu Fishermen of Kasimedu are demanding that an agency be appointed for cleaning the Chennai Fishing Harbour. Fed up with no cleaning activity in the 24.28 hectare compound, various associations have attempted to clear the place from time to time but to no avail. At least 9,000 boats of various sizes including 7,000 fibre boats and 1,800 mechanised boats anchor and operate out of this busy harbour that handles around 170 tonnes of fish everyday. Vinoth of the Chennai Tiruvallur Murpokku Meenavar Sangam, one of the associations that has been trying to create awareness about the dangers of plastics among fishers, said that garbage only keeps piling up since there is no regular system in place to clean the harbour. There are no bins, very few sweepers, no trucks or tricycles to cart the garbage. At times people just set fire to the garbage to get rid of it. But now, with the rains that will not be possible, he said. M.D. Dayalan of the Indian Fishermen Association said that as the harbour inaugurated in 1983 is under the control of a fishing harbour management committee, no other agency has been able to clean it. For a long time now, the Fisheries department has been attempting to take over the control. But it has not happened. The Greater Chennai Corporation too has refused to take up conservancy work here, he said. Garbage including old fishing nets, food waste, broken thermocol containers, plastic covers, disposable cups, waste from boat-making and old spare parts can be found littered all round the harbour. Debris from outside is also dumped inside the harbour. There is no sewer system inside and the sewage from ice factories, fish cleaning and fish auction hall just meanders around going nowhere. There are no toilets or provisions for safe drinking water. But the management committee collects various charges including service charges without providing any service, alleged Madhavan, a fisherman. In response, Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar said that the government has been spending funds on creating and improving facilities including wharfs for the fishermen inside the harbour. However, we dont have control over the harbour. A proposal seeking to take it over is under the consideration of the Government of India. Once that is through, we will take action. We hold regular joint meetings with the Port Trust asking them to improve conditions, he said. Every story about a murder is followed by comments calling for the death penalty. This is why that's stupid This involved spending a day and a half trawling through old articles, court reports and archives. Initially I thought it would be tricky to find young killers, depressingly, that was not the case. That is not to say that this sort of crime is common in Wales, far from it, just they tend be so high profile you cant miss them. After writing the story I walked back along Cardiffs Queen Street on my way home. If I am been brutally honest, I did find the 15-year-olds on their bikes far more intimidating than usual and felt none of the usual compulsion to push them over as they wheelie towards me. However there was one thing that scared me far more than Clayton on his BMX (I know his name because his mate said Clayton give me my f***ing chips back). The thing that scared me most were the comments on the story. Rhian said: Anyone who murders should just die. A life for a life. Karen agreed saying: Definitely bring back hanging. Some went even further saying: All it does it highlight the pathetic justice system. Id throw most of them off a cliff, never mind keeping them at two grand a week and then letting them go whilst still young. Better learn to protect yourselves cause nobody else going to do it. Other people's solutions were less cliff based: The UK Government should reintroduce capital punishment, because at the moment theres no real deterrent. I signed a petition for the reintroduction of the death penalty, on the UK Governments e-petitions website! If more people signed, maybe theyd reintroduce it? In total I think hanging was mentioned over 20 times. Leaving behind the death penalty was one of the greatest ever steps forward we made as a country and I think it is worth occasionally revisiting the specific reasons why we dont murder people for murdering people. First things first when do you think the death penalty was abolished in Britain? I bet in the back of your mind you are thinking 1960s? If so, you'd be wrong. While executing people for murder was outlawed by the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act of 1965, here were still four offences for which you could be murdered by the state for. They were: high treason, piracy with violence (arrrrr), arson in royal dockyards and espionage (a lot seem ship-based for some reason). Murder by the state was only officially outlawed in 1998. So really, the state has only been legally unable to execute you since Harry Potter went into the Chamber of Secrets. Now that little quiz is out of the way, here are some quick fire reasons the death penalty is just a terrible thing to bring back. Firstly, lets look at some of the company we would join if we reintroduced the death penalty and how many people they killed last year. China (1,551 executions in 2017), Iran (506). Iraq (125+), Somalia (24) and the USA (23). The only European country to maintain capital punishment is the human rights paradise of Belarus. If that exalted company doesnt convince you how about some facts. One of the biggest arguments people use is that the death penalty is the ultimate deterrent. However this is simply not true. Study after study has shown this is just not the case, while the greatly inflated murder rate in the US compared to the UK provides further evidence. Backers of capital punishment may also like to know that introducing the death penalty would actually reduce the amount of people successfully prosecuted for murder. Anna Bindler and Randi Hjalmarsson from the University of Gothenburg, examined over 200,000 cases from the Old Bailey criminal court in London from 1715 to 1900. They suggested that when capital punishment was an option, juries were often reluctant to convict at all, particularly in the case of women. Next up we have the thin end of the wedge argument. As soon as we make it acceptable for the state to kill people for murder it makes it acceptable to kill them for other things. What about paedophilia? What about treason? What about rape? You may think that it is correct to kill people for the sexual assault of a child, but as soon as you make it acceptable for a government to kill its own people you make far easier for them to do it for many other reasons. What if someone whistleblows on state sponsored surveillance? That could be considered treason - do they deserve to die? Also if you then make things other than murder punishable by death, you get the stage where people may as well commit murder instead of sexual assault as it makes them more likely to get away with it. Finally, and most importantly, what if you are wrong? This happens all the time. Even in my list of teenage killers there was a wrongful conviction. If the man originally convicted had been executed the state would have literally murdered an innocent man. As a democracy, if the state kills someone, we all kill someone. That means that 60 million murderers are created at once. And this murder of innocents wouldnt happen just once. Wrongful convictions happen all the time. Fine you might say, but what if someone pleads guilty, surely then. Well the two issues with this is that firstly, sometimes people plead guilty when they are not guilty. Secondly, if pleading guilty means potential death no one will do it! If saving money is your rationale for capital punishment, then long drawn out trials because no one will admit guilt are not the way to go. At the moment we know the death penalty will put us at the same human rights table as China and Iran. It won't reduce the murder rate, won't reduce the number of successful convictions, could be used by the state to kill opponents, make people more likely to murder rather than commit lesser offences, make people refuse to admit guilt and even result in the murder of innocent people. This doesnt include a huge range of other reasons like the fact there is not painless/simple way to execute someone (some lethal injections can take ages). However I think you have quite enough there to make you feel twice before demanding people "hang. | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde New Delhi: Lashing out at the United States for its misguided comments and actions which harm Chinas core interest, Beijing in a statement issued by its Embassy in New Delhi on Wednesday sought to make common cause with India in fighting global trade protectionism, saying this practice would affect Chinas economic development (and) also undermine the external environment of India and hinder Indias booming economy. Beijing also said the US was interfering in the internal affairs of both China and India using issues such as human rights and religious matters. Angered by what it termed was attempts to use the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter China, Beijing blasted the US and said that the so-called militarisation of the South China Sea by China is distortion of facts, adding that the US should stop making troubles and creating tensions, and respect the efforts of relevant parties to resolve problems through negotiation and consultation. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Chinese Embassy Spokesperson and Counselor Ji Rong said, The trade friction between China and US has drawn widespread attention recently. ... Under the current circumstances, China and India need to deepen their cooperation to fight trade protectionism. As the two largest developing countries and major emerging markets, China and India are both in the vital stage of deepening reform and developing economy, and both need stable external environment. Practicing unilateral trade protectionism in the name of national security and fair trade will not only affect Chinas economic development, but also undermine the external environment of India and hinder Indias booming economy. India and Sri Lanka have had only one regime type democracy. Pakistan has used a dozen and may hold the world record for most such changes since 1947. A regime change, unlike a new government, alters the form of governance, eg from autocracy to democracy. India and Sri Lanka have had only one regime type democracy. Pakistan has used a dozen and may hold the world record for most such changes since 1947. Pakistan had unrigged democracy until 1951, then bureaucratic oligarchy until 1958, and then a presidential system until 1969. Pakistan then saw military rule until 1971, then unrigged democracy until 1977, then military rule until 1985 and then a hybrid system until 1988. Pakistan then had rigged democracy until 1999, then military rule till 2002 and then a hybrid system till 2008. Unrigged democracy then prevailed until 2018. Many call the current era a third democratic transition. But I call it a reversal to the rigged 90s politics. Of these changes, five are crucial 1951, 1977 and 2018 when unrigged democracy succumbed to fixed systems, and two when rigged systems gave way to broadly free polls (1971 and 2008). With the other changes during 1951-1971 and 1977-2008, the establishment still picked rulers. Stable democracies and autocracies share a stable balance of power between their various power factions. In states that see many government changes, eg Italy, no faction can assert itself over others for long. But where regime types often change, a deeper problem exists. Not only is there no stable balance of power, but some factions can rig rules often and change regime types to extend their hold. But no single person or faction rules for very long even so. Generals Suharto, Tito and Franco ruled for decades. Uniformed but uninformed about statecraft, like their peers globally, they caused much damage. The longest their peers have been able to (mis)rule Pakistan is 11 years. So both Pakistans democracies and autocracies dont sustain. With democracy, sages say misrule forces those in uniforms and robes to step in, and that it will sustain if politicians rule well. They give Turkeys example. But I prefer that of Bangladesh, where democracy is stable despite abysmal elected rule. Democratic struggles usually involve class (elites vs masses) or ethnicity (elite vs weak ones). Pakistans and Bangladeshs democratic struggles have seen both. West wing elites avoided polls before 71 given a Bengali majority. But after Punjab assumed a majority, polls became more common. Ethnicity still played a role in Bhuttos removal by Zia. But the Punjab-heavy though Mohajir-led army removed Punjabs son Sharif too. Thus, class conflict seems more salient after 71, but not of the classic elites vs masses type. In rich states, upper and middle classes share economic interests and unite against the poor. But in Pakistans, the wealth accumulation modes of the upper and middle classes conflict. Upper-class elites dont need merit and are seen to thrive more via sleaze. The middle classes thrive mostly on merit which isnt accessible to all. The poor cant attain merit. So Pakistans class struggles oddly ally the rich and poor. Upper-class landowners (Bhuttos) and industrialists (Sharifs) co-opt the hapless poor via patronage, leaving middle classes grumpy with politics. I prefer the rich-poor alliance, despite its obvious problems, over the middle class one given the latters naive notions about politics. With upper-class wealth linked to the poors numbers, one would expect Pakistans middle class to be shut out politically. Yet, citing civilian misrule, it has ruled often through hard and soft coups via the strong institutional middle class wearing uniforms and robes. But its bigger misrule allows upper classes to return via fair polls. The 2018 coup was soft and subtle, with robes and uniforms likely involved. Middle classes now rule the twin cities. This may produce regime stability. Yet, latent conflicts exist between institutional and private middle classes too that may erupt soon. The near impossibility of anyone being able to rule Pakistan may undermine this regime too. The PTI faces a unique double jeopardy. Its top leaders are middle class but it has co-opted many traditional elites to win. Thus, its the only party that must perform the impossible task of satisfying both the woolly demands for rapid change of the merit-obsessed middle class and the patronage needs of traditional elites and their poor clients. Its almost damned if it does or doesnt. If it tries reforms, it pleases middle classes but angers its traditional allies. Since reforms will likely fail given entrenched elite power and the PTIs low capacity, it may end up irking all. If it doesnt treat the current economic ills, it will create a meltdown. If it treats them it will still harm and irk all. Its unfair on the PTI as PML-N created the mess. But some say its poetic justice and just penance for it for unseating the PML-N via dubious polls. So, political instability will likely persist. By arrangement with Dawn B04 The body of 30-year-old Marinova -- who presented a current affairs talk programme called 'Detector' for the small TVN television channel -- was discovered on a riverside path in the northern town of Ruse on Saturday. (Photo: File) Sofia: Police in Germany have arrested a man in connection with the rape and brutal murder of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova, Bulgarian officials said Wednesday. But they said it does not appear that the murder was linked to her work as a journalist. The suspect was picked up late on Tuesday at the request of Bulgarian authorities, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told a news conference. "We have enough proof linking this person to the scene of the crime," he said. The country's chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, named the suspect as Severin Kasimirov, born in 1997, and said he was already sought in connection with another rape and murder. "At this stage, we do not believe that the murder is linked" to Marinova's work. "But we are continuing to look at all hypotheses." "The evidence that we have at this stage leads us to believe it was a spontaneous attack to sexually abuse the victim". The body of 30-year-old Marinova -- who presented a current affairs talk programme called "Detector" for the small TVN television channel -- was discovered on a riverside path in the northern town of Ruse on Saturday. Authorities said she died from blows to the head and suffocation. She was also raped. The attack has shocked the country and drawn international condemnation amid speculation the murder could be linked to Marinova's work as a journalist. An episode of her programme aired on September 30 featured interviews with two investigative journalists from Bulgaria and Romania who had been working on corruption allegations. She is the third journalist to be murdered in Europe in the past 12 months after Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February and Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017. Bphone 3 and Bphone 3 Pro were introduced in Hanoi on August 10, 2018. Photo courtesy of BKAV Vietnams cyber security firm BKAV unveiled the third generation of its Bphone on Wednesday without a home button, pricing it from $300. It requires users to navigate to the home screen and apps by using hand gestures just like in Apples iPhone X. It comes in two versions, Bphone 3 and Bphone 3 Pro, and they have a six-inch 18:9 HD screen, Android 8.1 and a Snapdragon Qualcomm 636 chip, giving them twice the performance of the previous version, Bphone 2, according to BKAV. Company staff demonstrated this by playing the mobile game PUBG on the phones at the release event in Hanoi. The battery lasts 1.5 days and can be charged to 80 percent in 35 minutes with Quick Charge 3.0 technology at three times the average charging speed, the firm claimed. It is the first phone in the price range with IP68 waterproof rating, meaning it could be immersed in 1.5 meters of water for half an hour without a problem, BKAV stated. Vu Thanh Thang, Bphone vice chairman, said the phone would survive coffee spills and can even be washed with soap. Ninety percent of the phones parts are sourced from U.S. and Japanese suppliers, he added. Bphone 3 comes in different colors. Photo courtesy of BKAV Bphone 3 also has a new feature that allows people losing it to find it even when it is factory reset, not connected to the Internet or lacks a sim card. It filters out all spam messages and phone calls, the company said. Bphone 3 comes with 3GB ram, 32GB storage and a microSD slot, while Bphone 3 Pro has 4GB and 64GB. Bphone 3 is priced at VND6.99 million ($300), and the Pro version at 9.99 million ($430). Customers can start pre-ordering today, and shipping will begin October 19. Bphone 3 will be the only Vietnamese competitor in the Vietnamese mid-range phone market which is dominated with Koreas Samsung, Chinas Oppo and Huawei. Other popular phones in the same price range are the Huawei Nova 3i ($300), Galaxy A7 2018 ($330) and Oppo F9 ($330). BKAV produces antivirus software and provides cybersecurity solutions. Last year, the firm demonstrated in a Youtube video that it was able to fool Apples Face ID with a mask made with a 3D printer. The firm debuted the Bphone in May 2015. While initially warmly welcomed, the phone's launch was disappointing to many buyers as it was only available online and the company had to delay delivery four times. The phone also caused controversy because despite being Vietnamese-made, 30 percent of the phone was manufactured by a Chinese firm. Bphone 2 was introduced last year, and 12,000 units have been sold, according to BKAV. Vietnam has pledged to create the best opportunities for Japan to increase investments in real estate and infrastructure. Addressing the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo that opened Tuesday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the country would provide the best opportunities via new policies for Japanese firms to invest into Vietnams real estate and infrastructure. He highlighted the need for building houses for manual laborers and the poor; large-scale urban planning; applying new technologies and materials for construction projects. Japanese real estate firms expressed their desire to boost investments in Vietnam, more specifically, to support Vietnams urban planning by expanding urban areas and large-scale supermarkets to new cities and districts, as well as integrating public transport systems like trains or buses into urban settings. In another business discussion with Japanese financial firms on the same day, Phuc called for Japanese firms to become Vietnams strategic partners in the restructuring of state-owned firms and creating new, globally competitive firms. He also encouraged Japanese investors to acquire Vietnams weak banks in order to modernize the countrys banking and financial system. The Mekong-Japan Summit, held since 2009, is an annual summit that aims to strengthen the relationship between Japan and the Mekong countries and promote sustainable development of the Mekong region. This year, the summit is being attended by Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Vietnamese PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Cambodian PM Hun Sen, Laotian PM Thongluan Sisoulith, Burmese State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha. Japan is Vietnam's fourth largest trading partner with a combined trade turnover of $33.4 billion in 2017. The country is also Vietnams second largest foreign investor in terms of pledged direct investment capital, with more than 1,600 projects worth $42 billion licensed by the end of last year. Traditionally focusing on investing in manufacturing, a big chunk of Japans direct investment in Vietnam in the last two years has been channeled into the real estate sector. The country is now one of the biggest foreign investors in Vietnams real estate development, mostly in the housing segment. Vietnams infrastructure development, especially the governments plans for building and expanding airports and seaports like projects to develop Long Thanh International Airport and a high-speed North-South railway, have attracted special interest from Japanese companies. Japan is also the largest official development assistance (ODA) provider to Vietnam. A train that once served the Thap Cham - Da Lat rail line is being used as a tourism attraction in Da Lat. Photo by Phong Vinh A historic railway line built by the French will be revived and pressed into service again in central Vietnam. The line, virtually given up for dead, will be restored over a period of 10 years. Tran Quoc Nam, vice chairman of Ninh Thuan Province on the south central coast, said the province was working with a private investor on a plan to restore the Thap Cham Da Lat Railway, running from the former coastal Champa Kingdom in Ninh Thuan to Da Lat, dubbed as Little Paris in the Central Highlands. The plan will be carried out in 2020-2030, he said at a meeting with Transport Ministry officials on Tuesday. Minister Nguyen Van The said the ministry endorsed the plan and believed it would boost tourism and contribute to socio-economic development in the region. Stretching 84 kilometers (52 miles), the Thap Cham Da Lat line was built by the French from 1908 to 1932. The route, boasting 12 stations, five tunnels and a 14 kilometer section over a pass, was the second in the world to use a rack rail to traverse steep terrain, after the Jungfraujoch that runs across the Alps. But after the French troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1954, passengers left and the tracks were dismantled by people looking to sell scrap metal. Part of the track, a short distance of seven kilometers, has already been revived and is operated by Da Lat City as a tourism attraction. Vietnam has recently stepped up efforts to shore up the flagging railway sector, which has been mostly neglected by policy makers who preferred to focus on the car and aviation industries. In August 2015, the government approved an overall plan to develop railway transport in Vietnam by 2020 until 2030. The plan has various targets, including speeding up trains from 50-60 kph to 90 kph by 2020, and starting work on a dual gauge track for high-speed trains that will run at 200 kph. The railway sector served 9.4 million passengers last year, down 3.5 percent against 2017, according to the official government data. A meter long bread in An Giang has caught global attention as one of the worlds most bizarre foods. Cyprus-based travel site Brightside recently released a list of 15 strangest foods in the world this year, and one of them was the meter-long, three kilo bread found only in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang. Its giant dimensions have piqued the curiosity and interest of many visitors to An Giang, which is home to the Ba Chua Xu Lady Temple, one of the most famous spiritual sites in southern Vietnam. Pictures and personal statuses of the 3-kg bread have gone went viral on social media, and it was among the most searched food item in recent times. The Brightside list includes a chilled ramen served in a glass of beer in Canada, a fish sausage with cheese flavor in South Korea, a pizza with flowers and blueberries in Belgium and a mint chocolate cake in London According to local bakers, the An Giang bread costs VND50,000 ($2.14) per loaf, and takes an hour to be roasted in the oven. Bac Lieu has the first wind farm in the country, with 62 coastal turbines - the first one in South East Asia to stand on a continental shelf. For many Vietnamese, the name Bac Lieu triggers memories of a dandy of the same name, an imaginary character created in the late 19th-early 20th century to parody rich kids in the Mekong Delta province. They also recall the iconic song, Da Co Hoai Lang, from Cai Luong musician Cao Van Lau who lived in Bac Lieu City. Now there is a new reason to think of Bac Lieu - the wind farm in Dong A Hamlet, Vinh Trach Dong Commune. This is the largest wind farm in Vietnam with 62 turbines. Each tower is 82 meters high and has blades 41.7 meters long. Work on the wind farm began in 2010, but only recently has it attracted peoples attention. The ideal time to visit the wind farm is early morning or afternoon to watch the sunrise and sunset. It is the only wind farm in Vietnam and the first one in Southeast Asia to be built on the continental shelf. From Bac Lieu City, the capital city of Bac Lieu Province, take Cao Van Lau Road for about 20km to the sea, and you will reach Dong A Hamlet. From the city square or Bac Lieus 3 conical hats theater, visitors can see the giant blades on the skyline. This huge field of windmills is designed to exploit Bac Lieus wind potential and connect it to the national grid. The farm has 24-hour security. In the past, anyone wanting to visit the farm had to contact the site management in advance. Visitors coming from afar could manage to get in sometimes by seeking permission from the security personnel at the gate. But on discovering increasing interest in the farm, the investors have begun to sell tickets at VND20,000 ($0.86) per person. The investor was not open to the idea of having visitors, said Cao Xuan Thu Van, director of Bac Lieu's Tourism Department. "It took us three years to convince the investor and make it a tourist destination," she said. Her department plans to work with the investor to add several features to the farm to make it more tourist-friendly and attract even more visitors. Ship and containers are shown at the port of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, U.S., July 16, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Mike Blake China has choked back on imports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the United States, traders and analysts said. China bought nearly 3.6 million tons of U.S. LPG in 2017, making the United States the countrys second-largest supplier of the fuel used in petrochemicals, as well as for cooking, transport and heating. However, U.S. imports have come off dramatically over the course of 2018, before stalling completely in late August when China imposed an additional 25 percent tariff on over 300 U.S. goods, including LPG, in retaliation for U.S. tariffs. Consultancy IHS Markit estimates U.S. imports fell to barely 1 million tons during the first eight months of 2018, down from about 2.1 million tons for the same period last year, said He Yanyu, Executive Director for Natural Gas Liquids. The fall came as Chinese buyers wound back U.S. purchases of LPG amid uncertainty about the impact of buying product from the United States, said a trader who tracks the fuel. No U.S. LPG cargoes have landed in China since tariffs were imposed in late August, said Ong Han Wee at consultancy FGE. China has stopped shipping in U.S. LPG cargoes as they are now too expensive, added a second trader who tracks LPG cargoes. The United States last year accounted for about 20 percent of Chinas total LPG imports, which are currently running at about $1 billion a month, based on Thomson Reuters calculation. The U.S. gap is being filled largely by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, analysts said. The change comes as prices for the fuel, often a mix of propane and butane, spike in line with higher oil prices. State-owned Saudi Aramco, whose contract prices are used as benchmarks in Asia, fixed its propane and butane contract prices for October at $655 a ton, the highest since 2014. U.S. prices are also rising. The propane price at the Texan Mont Belvieu hub hit its highest since 2014 on Sept. 28 at around 108 cents per gallon before easing to around 104 cents on Oct. 9. This works out to about $542 a ton, based on Reuters calculations, but is above the Saudi Aramco price after taking into account freight and terminal charges and the additional 25 percent tariff. Chinas LPG imports rose about 15 percent to nearly 18.3 million tons in 2017, driven partly by new petrochemicals plants which use the propane dehydrogenation method to produce the raw material for plastics.. IHSs He said LPG prices were likely to stay firm in November and December due to higher oil prices and winter demand. U.S. President Donald Trump talks with U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House after it was reported the president had accepted the Haley's resignation. Photo by Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Nikki Haley, a rising Republican star, said on Tuesday she was stepping down as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Sitting beside Trump in the Oval Office, Haley said her 18-month stint at the United Nations had been an honor of a lifetime and that she would stay on until the end of the year. A former governor of South Carolina and the daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley, 46, is the highest profile woman in Trumps Cabinet and has often been seen as a possible presidential candidate. Haley criticized Trump during the 2016 election campaign but has been the face of his America First policies at the United Nations, steering the U.S. withdrawal from several U.N. programs and ardently defending his hard-line policies against Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs. Haley said in her resignation letter to Trump that she would surely not be a candidate for any office in 2020 and would instead support his re-election bid. She referred to returning to the private sector and some media reports said she had debts to pay off. But Haley also said she did not have any future plans set, and her decision surprised many at the White House and the United Nations. Speaking to reporters later on Tuesday aboard Air Force One, Trump said he had five people on his short list for U.N. envoy, including former White House adviser Dina Powell, a friend of Haleys. Trump said U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, was not on the short list but that he was willing to consider him. Trumps eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, who is a senior adviser to her father, ruled herself out of consideration in a Twitter post. He had said she would be incredible in the role and acknowledged he would be accused of nepotism if he nominated her. High praise Trump said Haley had told him six months ago that she was thinking of leaving by the end the year to take a little time off. He was effusive in his praise of her. She has done an incredible job. She is a fantastic person, very importantly, but she also is somebody that gets it, Trump said on Tuesday. Shes done a fantastic job and weve done a fantastic job together. Haleys name has come up as possible Republican running mate in the last two presidential elections and she could also become a U.S. senator if fellow South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham takes up a job in the Trump administration, as is often speculated. Trump suggested the two of them jointly announce Haleys departure in the Oval Office, an administration official said, noting that Haley was the only outgoing senior member of Trumps administration to be feted in this way. Returning the favor, Haley praised Trump and his family for their support. She described Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and aide, as such a hidden genius that no one understands for his work on renegotiating the NAFTA trade deal and preparing a long-awaited Middle East peace plan that has not yet been released. The feel-good nature of her resignation was markedly different from other high-profile departures from Trumps Cabinet. Trump unceremoniously announced his firing of former secretary of state Rex Tillerson in March in a tweet. Haley was seen by her counterparts at the United Nations as a voice of clarity in a U.S. administration that often gave off mixed signals on foreign policy, diplomats say. Nikki Haley is one of the most talented, most authentic U.S. government officials that I have ever met, said U.N. ambassador for France, Francois Delattre. But she has been overshadowed in recent months by the appointments of Trump loyalist Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and hawk John Bolton as White House national security adviser. Pompeo has led policy on talks with North Korea, while Bolton has taken the lead on trying to implement Trumps hard line against Iran. Domestic credentials A convert to Christianity in her 20s after being raised a Sikh, Haley is popular with religious conservatives in the South. Her status as a potential candidate for national high office was boosted in 2015 when she ordered the Confederate battle flag to be pulled down at South Carolinas state capitol grounds after a white supremacist gunman shot dead nine black worshipers at a church in Charleston. Haley has also applauded women who come forward to denounce sexual abuse or misconduct by men and said they should be heard, even if they are accusing Trump. Women who accuse anyone should be heard, Haley said last December after accusations against three members of Congress. They should be heard, and they should be dealt with. Referring to women whose accusations brought down powerful men, like movie producer Harvey Weinstein, Haley said: Im proud of their strength. Im proud of their courage. Haley has long taken a tougher public stance on Russia than Trump, who has sought better relations with President Vladimir Putin. Haley raised eyebrows within the administration when she announced in April that Washington was going to impose sanctions on Moscow over its support of Syrias government. Trump then decided not to go ahead with the move. Haley fought against what she called anti-Israel bias at the United Nations, and sometimes seemed to be channeling Trumps abrasive style of diplomacy. Last year, she upset U.S. allies and foes alike by warning that the United States would be taking names of countries that backed a U.N. resolution criticizing Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital. Echoing previous statements from Trump, Haley said on Tuesday that the United States under his presidency is now respected around the world. Now the United States is respected. Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do. They know that if we say were going to do something, we follow it through, she said. Raw materials account for the lion's share of Ukrainian agri-exports in Jan-Sept experts Grain crops exports worth US$4.8 billion are in the lead among export-oriented staples. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter In September, Ukraine imported 1.48 million mt of coal, down from 1.81 million mt in September 2017, but up from 1.27 million mt in August. Ukraine increased imports of coal, including anthracite, by 20% on the year to 15.64 million mt in January-September from 13.03 million mt a year ago, the state customs service reported Monday. If measured by value, imports of coal increased by 15% to $2.19 billion, compared with $1.9 billion in January-September 2017, according to the customs service, S&P Global Platts wrote. Most of the coal imports, 62.7%, came from Russia, but also from the U.S. (30.6%) and Canada (4%), according to the service. Read alsoBloomberg: Coal reaching $100 a ton in Europe boosts greener alternatives In September, Ukraine imported 1.48 million mt of coal, down from 1.81 million mt in September 2017, but up from 1.27 million mt in August. Ukraine increased coal imports amid declining domestic production, according to the energy and coal industry ministry. The country extracted 24.85 million mt of coal in January-September, down 5% year-on-year from the 26.15 million mt produced a year ago. Ukraine's thermal power plants and heat producers accumulated 1.89 million mt of coal in stocks as of October 8, up 22% from 1.55 million mt stashed as of October 8, 2017, according to the ministry. The government earlier this year set a target to accumulate 2.6 million mt of coal by November 1 in stocks for the upcoming high-demand season. Naftogaz counts $9 mln of Gazprom's overpayments for gas transit as payment for debt Refusing to implement the award of the Stockholm arbitration, Gazprom in 2018 continues to pay a higher price for transit than Naftogaz, which calculates the rate in accordance with the decision of the arbitration. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ukrainian tanks, APCs successfully pass tests in Thailand - NSDC The equipment has been accepted for service by the Thai army. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that gross state (direct) and guaranteed debt of Ukraine would decrease to 53% of GDP by late 2023, according to a report of Fiscal monitor. According to the IMF, in 2018 the state debt of the country will be 70.5% of GDP, next year - 68.8% of GDP, in 2020 - 64.4% of GDP, in 2021 - 60.4% of GDP, and in 2022 - 56.4% In addition, the IMF predicts a growing deficit of the consolidated budget of Ukraine in the next two years. According to IMF estimates, the budget deficit this year will amount to 2.5% of GDP, in 2019 - 2.6% of GDP. It then it is expected to decline to 2.3% of GDP in 2020, to 2.2% of GDP in 2021, to 2.2% of GDP in 2022 and up to 2.1% of GDP in 2023. The IMF estimates revenue to the consolidated budget in 2018 at 40.5% of GDP while spending 43% of GDP. The forecast for 2019 implies growth in budget revenues to 40.7% of GDP and at the same time expenditures to 43.3% of GDP, in 2020 it will decline to 40.2% of GDP and 42.5% of GDP, respectively, for 2021 - to 39.8% of GDP and 42.1% of GDP, respectively, for 2022 - up to 39.6% of GDP and 41.7% of GDP, respectively, after which, in 2023, a slight increase is expected - revenues - to 39.8% of GDP, expenditures - to 41.8% of GDP. The Ukrainian cities of Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv and Vinnytsia have become leaders in the investment sector's transparency rating, according to an analysis conducted by Transparency International Ukraine. "We've analyzed the city councils' websites, how transparent and understandable they are ... the websites and requests for public information were our main sources of information," Anatoliy Kotov, a representative of Transparency International, the coordinator of the Transparent Cities program, said when presenting the rating in Kyiv. According to the investment sector's transparency rating, the top five cities with a high transparency index includes Ivano-Frankivsk, which scored 15 out of 20 maximum points, Kyiv ranked second (12.7 points), then Vinnytsia (12 points), Lviv (10.75 points), and Bila Tserkva (10.7 points) follow. The outsiders are Vyshneve (0.75 points), Stryi (one point), Novovolynsk (one point), Nova Kakhovka (one point), Kupiansk (one point), and Poltava (1.2 points). In addition, seven cities did not provide answers to public information. A total of 17 indicators were identified, some of which related to regulatory policy, work with investors, the city's credit rating, and support for the development of entrepreneurship. The analysis was conducted from July 1, 2017 to July 1, 2018 under the project "Enhanced Public Sector Transparency and Integrity," which is implemented by the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Data on 100 cities of Ukraine were analyzed. Minister of Defense of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak says there was not enough equipment at the perimeter of a military warehouse near the town of Ichnia of Chernihiv region, where the fire extinguishing continues along with the detonation of ammunition. "The explosions occurred in such a way that at first there was a clap, then a glow, and then two claps and finally an explosion of ammunition. This indicates a detonator was used to blow up our storage facilities," Poltorak said at a government meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday. Poltorak said it necessary to build closed storage facilities. "It will be possible to reliably protect our reserves when we build closed reinforced concrete structures that will reliably provide protection ... This year we plan to build 15 such storage facilities," said Poltorak. He also stressed: "I personally have no doubt that these were attacks on our depots." Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko is waiting for the final conclusions of examinations to make hard-hitting steps against businessman Dmytro Firtash, who has been waiting for extradition to the United States in Austria for the fifth year, and his enterprises in Ukraine in coming months. "In the coming months, Mr. Firtash will receive good messages for us from the prosecutor's office. This will concern regional gas supply companies, chemical plants and enterprises in the temporarily occupied territory," he told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday. "Frankly speaking, I am waiting for the final conclusions of the examinations. As soon as they arrive, suspects will be announced, arrests and other hard-hitting actions will be made," the prosecutor general said. According to him, the arrogance with which Firtash appeals to Moscow with the demand to punish Ukraine has passed any limits. "And this means that this case lies in my pile, closest to my right hand," Lutsenko said. He said that the prosecutor's office had repeatedly tried to prevent the supply of Ukrainian raw materials to Firtash's enterprises in Crimea, but the courts, which systematically remove arrests from fields, interfere with this in practice. "Periodically we get such decisions. We start everything again: we impose arrests again, cancel them again... This is quite a routine work," the prosecutor general said. As US sanctions loom, Irans oil exports have sharply declined by at least 800 thousand barrels per day (b/d) according to reports, but its production level declined only by about 350 thousand b/d, which show the country is storing a huge amount of unsold oil in on/offshore facilities. Before President Donald Trumps withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Iran had boosted exports in 2017 to 2.1 million b/d of crude oil and 400,000 b/d gas condensate. Reuters reported on October 9 that in the first week of October, exports took another sharp downturn, reaching a low of 1.1 million barrels a day. U.S. sanctions not only drive customers away, but also impede oil shipments, by inhibiting non-Iranian tankers and their insurance companies from doing business with Iran. This is why if Tehran wants to still ship oil to willing buyers, it would have to rely on its own tanker fleet. According to official statistics of the National Iranian Oil Tanker Company (NIOT), the countrys tanker fleet capacity is 14.1 million tons (102 million barrels). International organizations put the capacity volume at 98 million barrels. During the last round of sanctions (2012-2015), the countrys oil exports (including gas condensate) almost halved gradually, as U.S. and international sanctions were being applied step-by-step - at about 20 percent reduction every six months. BRUSSELS, Oct 10 (Reuters) Belgium has charged an Iranian diplomat and three other individuals with planning to bomb a meeting of an exiled Iranian opposition group in France in June, Belgian prosecutors said on Wednesday. The diplomat, identified only by his given name as Assadollah A., worked at the Iranian embassy in Vienna. He was arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning an attack against the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella bloc of opposition groups in exile. On Tuesday, Germany transferred the diplomat to Belgium, where he was charged with preparing a terrorist attack, the state prosecutor said. The other three alleged participants have also been charged in Belgium. Two of them were arrested by Belgian police in June with 500 grams (one lb) of TATP, an explosive that can be home-made from easily available chemicals, as well as a detonation device. The fourth suspect was arrested in France and later transferred to Belgium. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Kevin Liffey) Iranian media have been under immense pressure by judiciary and security officials to keep silent about the implications of the devaluation of Irans currency, rial. Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said on Iran's state TV on Monday that media may report any decline in the rates of exchange, but they should avoid disseminating reports that would further destabilize the market, meaning that announcing negative fluctuations in the rates of exchange is out of question. Last week, Dolatabadi shut down 17 websites and social media outlets that had real-time announcements of exchange rates based on observations at the markets in Tehran and other major cities. In one of the latest developments in this regard, Iran's Cyber Police Chief Kamal Hadianfar said at a press conference in Tehran on Wednesday that the "Cyber Police has identified 1381 websites that created tension in the gold coin market." He said over 500 websites have been blocked and over 200 of them are being investigated. These sites announce down-to-the-minute rates for various mints of gold coins in Iran's market. The prices of gold coins have been on a constant upward trajectory since February when Iran's economic crisis led to social unrest and the decline of the rial. Obviously when the local currency loses value, gold becomes more expensive. Buying standard gold coins is viewed as one of the safest ways of saving and investment other than purchasing hard currencies, as few Iranians would trust the banks and other financial institutions because of their failure to repay people's investment, let alone the interest they expect to receive. Meanwhile, the official news agency IRNA claimed on Wednesday that the 1381 websites mentioned by the Cyber Police chief, are being maintained abroad. Some of these websites and social media networks have up to 200,000 active members and millions of readers. According to IRNA, some of these websites have been traced in Dubai and Canada. The statement by the agency ignores the fact that a majority of Iranian websites including some government sites are maintained on servers based in other countries as Iran's internet backbone lacks the capacity and bandwidth to serve all the websites in the country. In the meantime, President Hassan Rouhani's chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi summoned the editors of major Tehran newspapers to the Culture Ministry on Monday to tell them to "help the government to solve problems and inject hope and vitality in society"; meaning they should avoid disseminating news that would disappoint the nation because of the government's failure in resolving the ongoing economic crisis in Iran Vaezi told media managers and editors the government was facing "a new situation," and that it needed media's help "to leave this situation behind," possibly referring to US sanctions following Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran. He urged the media to try to keep the nation happy as "the enemies have conspired to wage an economic war on Iran," and have created "a difficult economic situation." Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) will host the 3rd IAEE (International Association for Energy Economics) Eurasian Conference on the topic Implications of Global Developments within the Energy Industry in the Caspian and Central Asia Region. It will be held on October 18-20, 2018, with organizational support from BHOS. The conference will provide a unique opportunity for networking and enhancing communication amongst energy professionals from business, government, academia and other circles worldwide. The participants will focus on the prospects for the development of alternative and renewable energy projects in the light of cheap energy prices in the Caspian region, energy policy for sustainable development, energy cooperation, energy efficiency and storage, as well as regional strategies. As expected, managers and experts of Azerbaijan`s Energy and Economy ministries, SOCAR, BHOS, BP Azerbaijan, Southern Gas Corridor CJSC and other companies and organizations will attend the conference. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Azerbaijans capital hosted the 35th meeting of the Eurasia Coordination Council, which brings together CIS countries national providers of air navigation services. The meeting was attended by over 90 participants from 15 countries, including general directors of national providers of air navigation services in the CIS countries - Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, as well as representatives of international aviation organizations like ICAO, IATA, Interstate Aviation Committee, etc. On October 10, AZAL President Jahangir Asgarov made a welcome speech at the meeting. Later the meeting continued with speeches by Director of Azeraeronavigation Air Traffic Control Center Farkhan Guliyev and Chairman of the Eurasia CC - Director General of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise State ATM Corporation Igor Moiseenko. Given the need for growth in air traffic and the strategic geopolitical location of Eurasian countries, harmonization of air navigation support and long-term joint planning of the organization of airspace between these countries is important. The meeting heard the reports of representatives of Eurasia member states national providers of air navigation services on the state of the CIS countries air navigation systems and development plans. Special attention was paid to the following issues: - flights of unmanned aerial vehicles and their impact on flight safety; - the airspace of free routes and the prospects for introduction in the region of Eurasia; - modernization of airspace in Europe and national strategies in the field of airspace; - the state of flight safety in civil aviation of the States Parties to the agreement on civil aviation; - harmonization of the national air traffic management systems of the countries participating in the Eurasia Council. Representatives of international organizations like ICAO, IATA and the Interstate Aviation Committee also made reports at the meeting. It should be noted that the "Eurasia" Coordination Council was established in 1999. Its founders are FSUE "State ATM Corporation", RSE "Kazaeronavigation" (Kazakhstan), "Azeraeronavigation" (Azerbaijan), SE "Belaeronavigation" (Belarus), SE "Kyrgyzaeronavigation" (Kyrgyzstan), SUE Tajikaeronavigation and Uzaeronavigation Center (Uzbekistan). Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 28 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Oct. 10. Armenian armed forces were using heavy machine guns. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) of the Bundestag sent a small request to the German government on the topic Germany-Armenia relations, which also had some questions about the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In the introductory part of the response to the request, it is stressed that the German government especially emphasizes that the term Germany-Armenia relations must be understood as the relations between Federal Republic of Germany and Armenia. "The government of the Federal Republic of Germany considers the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts controlled by the Armenian armed forces to be part of Azerbaijan, according to the answer to the request. The government of the Federal Republic of Germany does not recognize the illegal "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic". In response to the corresponding points of the request (the situation with human rights, freedom of the press, the minority in Nagorno-Karabakh, the number of Germans living there, etc.), the government just referred to the abovementioned note. Regarding such a question as "How does the government of the Federal Republic of Germany assess the international legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh?", the government answered that "the Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan." 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, Oct. 10 Trend: The monitoring of compliance with the cease-fire regime, held on October 10 at the contact line between the troops of Azerbaijan and Armenia, in the direction of the Goranboy region of Azerbaijan, in accordance with the mandate of the personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, has ended without incidents, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement. The monitoring from the Azerbaijani side was held by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, his field assistants Gennady Petrika and Martin Schuster. The field assistants to the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ognjen Jovic and Simon Tiller, conducted monitoring in the Azerbaijani territory occupied and controlled by the Armenian armed forces. 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, Oct. 10 By Leman Zeynalova - Trend: Progress has been achieved in the process of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent said at a press conference in Baku Oct. 10. "In Azerbaijan, everyone is interested in a peaceful settlement of the conflict. During our visit to the country, we stressed the recent progress in resolving the conflict, including the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in New York, as well as the meeting of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Dushanbe," he said. Kent noted that as one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, the United States takes seriously its obligations to resolve the conflict on the basis of the Madrid principles. "The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will make a visit to the region this month, in two weeks. I want to note that tension on the contact line of troops has decreased. We urge the parties to continue in this spirit," he 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, Oct. 10 Trend: The Azerbaijani Defense Minister, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov will take part in a meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the CIS member states, which will be held on October 12 in Tashkent, the press service of the Defense Ministry reported Oct. 10. The draft agenda of the meeting includes 20 points. In particular, at the meeting it is planned to discuss the situation in the Central Asian region and the priority tasks of countering international terrorism, the directions of development of military cooperation among the CIS member states, to talk about the prospects of the unified system for monitoring and assessing the radiation, chemical and biological situation. In addition, the meeting participants will discuss cooperation in the field of ensuring aviation flights of the armed forces of the CIS countries, the implementation of the unified system of state radar identification development concept, cooperation in the field of military education, holding joint events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Council members also intend to adopt the CIS Work Plan for 2019, sign documents aimed at developing the joint (integrated) communications system of the armed forces of the CIS member states, informational support for the activities of the armed forces until 2022, cooperation in navigation, topography and geodesy, metrology, approve joint activities of the joint air defense system of the CIS member countries in 2019, as well as consider a number of other issues. The Council of Ministers of Defense of the Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States was established in 1992. It consists of representatives from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Given the support that Azerbaijan has always provided to the Palestinian people in difficult days, and its commitment to Islamic solidarity, the assistance in the amount of $200,000 was provided in October to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is currently experiencing financial difficulties, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement Oct. 10. The UNRWA, established in 1948, helps more than five million Palestinians in the Middle East in education, health care, humanitarian aid in emergency situations, and provides social services. The dramatic budget deficit in 2018 has become a big risk for the normal operation of the organization and the sustainability of its programs. Therefore, in order to support UNRWA, the international community is implementing various campaigns, a number of countries are taking steps to provide additional assistance to the organization. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Speaking at the plenary session of the third meeting of the Speakers of the Eurasian Countries Parliaments in Antalya, the Vice-President of the Armenian National Assembly (Parliament) Eduard Sharmazanov, in accordance with the traditions of the aggressor state, has voiced illogical, false thoughts of slanderous nature about the far-fetched "Armenian genocide" and the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. The Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov has given a weighty response to Sharmazanov's comments, the Azerbaijani Parliaments Office said in a statement. "The thoughts expressed by the representative of Armenia in order to mislead this authoritative event forced me to speak again. In fact, our todays meeting is held to promote peace, dialogue and development in the region. As you know, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh do not exist. Azerbaijani and Armenian communities lived in Nagorno-Karabakh," Asadov said. "As it is known, as a result of ethnic cleansing, Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh was expelled from their native lands. The idea of the Armenian representative about granting the right to self-determination to the Armenians currently living in Karabakh is completely erroneous and contradicts the laws. Now, an interesting idea arises: does it mean that if Armenians live somewhere compactly, then should they be given the right to self-determination?," asked Asadov. "The fact that the representative of Armenia did not mention Turkey in his speech, where the meeting is held, testifies to the level of his culture. Armenia, who constantly accuses Turkey of committing a fictitious "Armenian genocide", itself committed genocide in the Azerbaijani city of Khojaly. Many countries, including 18 states of the US, have adopted resolutions in connection with the Khojaly genocide. In particular, I want to note that international organizations, the UN, the European Union, the European Parliament recognize Armenia as an aggressor state. Except for Armenia, all countries of the world recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan including Nagorno-Karabakh as its integral part. And this indicates that the party to the conflict is not Nagorno-Karabakh, but Armenia," Asadov said. The Chairman of the Grand National Assembly (Parliament) of Turkey, Binali Yldrm, also expressed his attitude towards this issue. "At this meeting, which promotes peace and stability on the planet, it is impossible to accept thoughts contrary to the truth. If Armenia really wants to establish ties with Turkey, it should renounce the claims of a false "Armenian genocide", leave the investigation of historical events to the historians themselves. The Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov spoke in detail about the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh problem. In essence, by taking such a position, Armenia has isolated itself. Armenia must understand that relations with its neighbors must be normalized and must take the path of peace, stability and well-being in the South Caucasus region. Only in this case, the existing problems can be solved," Yildirim 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. Foreign minister Payne - issues of corruption, refugees & Maseratis off the agenda KEITH JACKSON CANBERRA Australias foreign minister Marise Payne will fly to Port Moresby today for a two-day visit. Her visit is stated to engage with Papua New Guinean leaders and to advance Australia's strategic and economic partnership with our closest neighbour. Our bilateral relationship is broad and deep, with strong people-to-people links built on shared history and values, Senator Payne said. In my meetings with PNG ministers, I will discuss Australia's support for PNG's hosting of the upcoming APEC meeting and explore opportunities to promote our shared regional and global priorities. I will officially open PNG's new satellite internet system, a critical investment by Australia which will increase capacity by approximately 30%. Together with the new Coral Sea Cable, Australia is supporting the digital transformation of PNG's economy, she said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: The successful completion of the Southern Gas Corridor project will open up new opportunities, new horizons for Azerbaijan, said President Ilham Aliyev as he chaired a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on Oct. 9. 2018 was an important year for the development of our energy policy. In May of this year, we celebrated the official opening of the Southern Gas Corridor in Baku. This is a historic event. A month later, we celebrated the opening of the TANAP project in Turkey, and the Southern Gas Corridor project is being successfully implemented. All these four projects have produced excellent results. This year we will increase gas production. Gas is already coming from Shah Deniz-2. Its volume will increase even more next year and beyond. So we are doing everything possible to fully achieve the goal and, according to the latest data provided to me, there are also no problems with the implementation of the TAP project, which is the final part of the Southern Gas Corridor, the head of state said. The successful completion of the Southern Gas Corridor will open up new opportunities, new horizons for us. We will access the markets of many countries with our resources. Then, taking this into account, we can implement new infrastructure projects in these countries. Negotiations are still under way, so I dont want to say anything in advance. However, I think that we would want to remain not just a country that supplies gas to other countries, but also to manage the gas industry after that. This will further increase the efficiency and revenues, will lead to the creation of a new infrastructure in the countries we will work in, President Ilham Aliyev added. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Modernization of Baku oil refinery will bring Azerbaijan big economic profit, President Ilham Aliyev told a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers. The process of reconstruction and modernization of Baku oil refinery is underway. It is a very important industrial project. It will allow us to produce better quality oil products. After the reconstruction, gasoline to be produced in Azerbaijan will meet the Euro 5 standards. It will positively influence the country's environmental situation, President Aliyev added. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has received US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a message. During the meeting, gratification with the successful development of bilateral cooperation in political, economic, energy, transport and other fields was expressed. The importance of increasing efforts to further intensify bilateral relations was also stressed. The minister spoke about important energy and transport projects being implemented with the initiative and with the participation of Azerbaijan, in particular about the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and the Southern Gas Corridor. Azerbaijan welcomes the US support in the implementation of those projects, Mammadyarov said. Azerbaijan continues to support international peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan. In turn, Kent said that the US continues to develop bilateral relations with Azerbaijan in energy, security, economy and others. He also stressed that Azerbaijans contribution to peacekeeping operations within the fight against terrorism is appreciated. The Azerbaijani foreign minister spoke about the current negotiations on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and his meeting with the Armenian foreign minister in New York mediated by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Mammadyarov stressed that the violation of internationally recognized borders of a country by using force is unacceptable. During the meeting, views on other issues of mutual interest were exchanged. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Azerbaijan has become one of the most authoritative and reliable members of the world community, Azerbaijani MP Javanshir Feyziyev told Trend on Oct. 10. Feyziyev was commenting on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs speech at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of social and economic development in the first nine months of 2018 and the further tasks. He added that Azerbaijan has been recently able to greatly strengthen its positions on international arena. "Over the past nine months, the president made 12 visits abroad, Feyziyev said. The heads of 15 countries and governments arrived in Azerbaijan. Of course, during these visits a big number of documents were signed. Important agreements on the development of both bilateral and multilateral cooperation of Azerbaijan with countries and international organizations were reached." Important advances were made in Azerbaijans relations with the EU and NATO, he said. In the summer 2018, a document titled "Partnership Priorities was signed with the EU. Of course, this is an important document that reflects the priorities of cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan. He said that the strengthening of the position of Azerbaijan on international arena is also associated with an active position as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Feyziev stressed that another achievement in Azerbaijans foreign policy is significant progress in relations with Muslim countries. "Azerbaijan has great prestige throughout the Muslim world, he said. This is connected with the fact that Azerbaijan makes an important contribution to the unity and solidarity in the Muslim world. 2017 was declared the Year of Islamic Solidarity in Azerbaijan and the country also hosted the Islamic Solidarity Games. Of course, Azerbaijans work is appreciated in the Islamic world. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent made an official visit to Baku on October 9 and 10. Deputy Assistant Secretary Kent met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbahzov, members of Azerbaijans business community, and representatives of political opposition and civil society. Deputy Assistant Secretary Kent addressed a number of important issues in his meetings, and reaffirmed the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor, an important element of ensuring energy security for Europe and economic independence for Azerbaijan. He discussed in his meetings Azerbaijans significant contributions in Afghanistan, our shared counterterrorism goals in the region, and international efforts to prevent Iran from pursuing its illegal nuclear weapons program. He also discussed the potential for more U.S. and Azerbaijani cooperation to support Azerbaijans economic diversification plans through increased investment in agriculture, tourism, transportation and logistics, and information technology, highlighting opportunities for U.S. companies to invest in those efforts. Deputy Assistant Secretary Kent reaffirmed the United States commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, including the non-use or threat of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples. As a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the US welcomes all efforts by the sides to reduce tensions and move towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Mr. Kent raised the importance of respect for fundamental freedoms in his official meetings, including freedom of assembly, respect for the rule of law, and the fight against corruption, to ensure prosperity and security for all people of Azerbaijan and to further deepen our bilateral partnership. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: Certificates of 26 registered religious communities were presented in the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations of Azerbaijan, the Committee said in a message. The event was attended by the Committees leadership, heads of the Committees departments and the chairmen of the registered religious communities. Speaking at the event, the Committees First Deputy Chairman Sayyad Salahli spoke about relations between the state and religion in Azerbaijan, stressing that in Azerbaijan the state always shows attention and care to the religion sphere. Salahli also urged the chairmen of the religious communities to more actively participate in the preservation and transfer of traditions of tolerance and multiculturalism to future generations. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Operational search activities were conducted at the frontier post in Sym village of Astara district of the Lankaran border guard unit of the Azerbaijani State Border Service. As a result of those activities, Iranian citizen Shahbazi Akbar Dilaver was detained for the violation of the state border, the Azerbaijani State Border Service said in a message. The search revealed 1.2 kilograms of heroin, 700 grams of opium, 200 tablets of psychotropic substance pregabalin and 15 packs of meprotanum pills. As a result of the search, citizens of Azerbaijan Rovshan Akbarov, Khayala Valiyeva, resident of Lankaran district Parviz Mammadov, were detained when attempting to get the drugs. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Fourteen religious communities were provided with Khazar SD cars in the Spiritual Values Promotion Foundation under the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations, the Committee said in a message on Oct. 10. The leadership and members of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation attended the ceremony. Seven more religious communities are planned to be provided with cars in November. The participants of the event expressed deep gratitude to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the attention and care. According to President Aliyevs decree, signed on September 11, 2018, four religious communities of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic were provided with NAZ Lifan 330 cars. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: As a result of expanding the taxable base and defining the scope of activity of business entities, conditions will be created so that only small businesses use simplified taxation, Azerbaijans Taxes Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said. He was speaking at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers chaired by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev dedicated to results of socio-economic development in the nine months of 2018 and objectives for the future. In order to support the development of entrepreneurship, proposals have been prepared for reducing the simplified tax rate, providing temporary tax benefits in the retail sector and for the development of non-cash payments, exempting from taxes dividends of small entrepreneurs who keep revenues and expenses records, the minister said. It is also proposed to deduct from revenues a certain part of non-commercial expenses of taxpayers, including donations allocated to healthcare, education, culture and sports. Jabbarov stressed that the reform of reducing the fiscal burden on salaries, prepared by the instructions of the Azerbaijani president, holds a special place in the package of proposals. In many cases, high burden of social insurance and high tax burden on salaries leads to the fact that entrepreneurs resort to the practice of paying unofficial salaries, the minister said. This situation is one of the main reasons for the expansion of shadow economy. Despite the administrative measures, this problem still exists. The main goal of the reform is creation of economic motivation among entrepreneurs, so that they would legalize existing labor relations, provide an additional impetus to the development of the non-oil sector and create new jobs, he added. We hope that as a result of this reform, the level of informal employment will decrease and entrepreneurs will have an increased economic interest in formalizing labor relations, Jabbarov said. This process will have a positive impact on economic growth. The minister noted that tax reforms carried out to increase the attractiveness of the business environment, the formation of tax administration based on information technologies will contribute to the development of entrepreneurship and effective cooperation between business and tax authorities for Azerbaijans development. Tehran, Iran, Oct. 10 Trend Director General of Iran's Amirabad Ports and Maritime Organization and Special Economic Zone Siavash Rezvani said the country is exporting apples to Kazakhstan. Iran is exporting apples to Kazakhstan through the port of Amirabad, Rezvani said, IRIB news agency reported on October 10. Some 170 tons of apples from the city of Damavand were packed, loaded and shipped to Kazakhstan, he added. With a population of 400 million, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) should be looked at as great market for Iranian agricultural products and meat, Rezvani said. The port facility could help facilitate exports to these countries, he said. Amirabad is currently the largest port facility on the Caspian shore and the third largest port in Iran. The 1,000-hectare port currently has nine berths, which can accommodate Ro-Ro vessels, trains and trucks. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Taleh Mursagulov - Trend: An auction for placement of registered interest-bearing mortgage bonds of the Azerbaijan Mortgage and Credit Guarantee Fund, worth 20 million manats, will be held at the Baku Stock Exchange (BSE) Oct. 11, the Fund said in a message on Oct. 10. The nominal value of each bond is 1,000 manats. The bonds will be put up for sale at the price of 1,000 manats and at an annual rate of 3 percent. The turnover of bonds is 23 years. Interest income will be paid every six months. PSG Kapital is the underwriter of the placement. (1.7 manats = $1 on Oct. 10) Tehran, Iran, Oct. 10 Trend Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said the countrys private sector is ready to help Bulgaria with heavy industry. There is a good opportunity for Iran to benefit from Bulgaria's technology and their firms can be active in the Islamic Republic, Larijani said in a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart on the sidelines of a conference of Eurasian states parliaments in Turkeys Antalya, Tasnim news agency reported on October 10. The official further stressed the need for implementing the idea of establishing an Iran-Bulgaria joint fund to support the two sides production and expand trade ties. For her part, the Bulgarian speaker, Tsveta Karayancheva, said her country seeks to benefit from Irans transportation capacity and corridors. The 3rd Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries Parliaments in Antalya was attended by 20 parliament speakers and parliamentary delegations from 17 Asian and European nations. The first and second editions of the conference were held in Russia and South Korea, respectively. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Veolia company will modernize production and distribution of drinking water, as well as wastewater treatment system in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, the press service of the French company said. The corresponding agreement has been signed between the parties on the occasion of the state visit to France of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. As part of this agreement, Veolia and Uzbekistan will work exclusively together to define the future affermage [leasing] contract for water supply and sanitation for the entire Uzbek capital, which today nearly counts with 3 million inhabitants. Following the discussions, Veolia will be entrusted for 25 years with the management of the production and distribution facilities for drinking water and wastewater treatment, the development and improvement of the water distribution network in Tashkent, and the monitoring of network modernization investments in connection with the authorities. This new contract would take effect on the first half of 2019 and would represent a cumulative turnover of 1.5 billion euros. The result of a collective work that capitalizes on the experience and professionalism of Veolia's employees, this agreement will make it possible to implement the Group's best practices and international know-how in management and optimization of major public networks, for local communities. I am delighted that Uzbekistan and its President, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, have chosen Veolia and our staff as partners to support them in developing access to quality water for their people, Antoine Frerot, Chairman and CEO of Veolia, said. Veolia group is the global leader in optimized resource management. With nearly 169,000 employees worldwide, the Group designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions which contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and to replenish them. In 2017, the Veolia group supplied 96 million people with drinking water and 62 million people with wastewater service, produced nearly 55 million megawatt hours of energy and converted 47 million metric tons of waste into new materials and energy. In January-August 2018, the trade turnover between Uzbekistan and France amounted to $195.1 million, of which $117.3 million accounted for exports from Uzbekistan, and $77.8 million for imports from France. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Tehran, Iran, Oct. 10 Trend More than $139 million worth of goods were shipped from Iran to Qatar in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21), up more than 60 percent from the same period last year, Irans customs figures showed. Iran exported 718,333 tons of goods worth $139.4 million to Qatar over six months, the data showed, cited by Mehr news agency on October 10. Qatar accounted for 1.27 percent of Irans exports in terms of weight and 0.60 percent in terms of value, making it the 19th biggest importer of Iranian goods. White cement, steel, wooden artifacts, vegetables, sweets, rosewater, henna, fruits, sugar, and bitumen oil were among the products exported to Qatar during the period, according to the report. This comes a year after the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain imposed an embargo on Doha, accusing it of supporting terrorism. The four states cut diplomatic and transport ties last year. Qatar, which had many of its imports trans-shipped from the UAE and received the bulk of its fresh food across the Saudi border, denied the accusations against it. Imports into Qatar plunged about 40 percent from a year earlier in the initial weeks of the boycott, but they have since mostly returned to normal as Doha has found new sources of products in countries such as Iran and Turkey, and developed new shipping routes through places such as Oman. Qatar has also launched a drive to produce more things locally, including foods. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Azerbaijans trade and wine houses are planned to be opened in Chinas Shanghai city. This statement was made during a meeting between Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Chinese Ambassador to Azerbaijan Wei Jinghua. Mustafayev said that Azerbaijan pays great attention to cooperation with China, relations between the two countries are developing successfully. During a meeting it was stressed that in 2017 the trade turnover between the countries amounted to $1.3 billion. It was also stressed that the trade representative office of Azerbaijan operates in Beijing. The Trade House of Azerbaijan opened in September 2018 in the Chinese city of Liuzhou will contribute not only to the expansion of trade and economic relations between the two countries, but also to the recognition of Azerbaijani products in China and cooperation in the sphere of culture and tourism. However, a wine house also opened in the Chinese city of Urumqi. Trade and wine houses are also planned to be opened in Shanghai. All this will contribute to the development of trade relations with China. During the meeting, the views on the first China International Import Expo, to be held on November 5-10 in the city of Shanghai, were exchanged. The Azerbaijani delegation will visit China to participate in the exhibition. The exhibition will feature products and services of more than 30 companies of Azerbaijan. During the visit, prospects for expanding economic cooperation with official representatives of China will also be discussed. The minister stressed that Azerbaijans relations with China are developing in the areas of logistics, trade, investments, tourism and the humanitarian sphere. The sides were updated about the advantages of the Trans-Caspian transport corridor and stressed the importance of promoting the capabilities of this corridor in China. Jinghua stressed that China is interested in the development of relations with Azerbaijan and shared his opinion on the prospects for the development of cooperation. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 10 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Russia is conducting substantive negotiations with Turkmenistan on the resumption of gas purchases, Head of Russias holding Gazprom Alexey Miller said in an interview with the Turkmenistan State News Agency. Turkmenistan, which has the richest gas reserves, is Russias traditional partner in the energy sector. Miller said that an intergovernmental agreement between the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan on cooperation in the gas sector until 2028 and a signed contract with the similar term are currently in force. He reminded that a commercial pause has been recently observed that will last until the end of 2018. In this regard, during the meeting, the issues of resuming the purchase of Turkmen gas by Gazprom were discussed, which, according to our plans, will happen as soon as possible - on January 1, 2019, Miller said. We know well the great opportunities of Turkmenistan, and at the same time we see the growing markets where gas is traditionally supplied, he noted. As for the volumes of gas supplies and other issues of contractual relations, negotiations will be held at the technical level, and we expect that these agreements will be reached in the near future. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Azerbaijan presented data on its daily oil production in September 2018 to the OPEC Joint Technical Committee as part of the Vienna Agreement, the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry told Trend on Oct. 10. Daily oil production stood at 796,000 barrels in September 2018, of which 725,000 barrels accounted for crude oil and 71,000 barrels - for condensate, while 599,000 barrels of crude oil, 71,000 barrels of condensate and 7,000 barrels of oil products were exported. In January 2018, daily oil production stood at 814,600 barrels, in February 2018 at 806,000 barrels, in March - 794,000 barrels, in April 785,700 barrels, in May - 801,000 barrels, in June 792,000 barrels, in July 773,000 barrels and in August 774,000 barrels of oil per day. OPEC Joint Technical Committee was created on Jan.22, 2017 to monitor the implementation of countries commitments to cut oil production. In December 2016, at a meeting of oil producers in Vienna, 11 non-OPEC member countries, including Azerbaijan, agreed to cut oil production by a total of 558,000 barrels a day. The agreement was concluded for the first half of 2017 and was extended until the end of the first quarter of 2018 at a meeting on May 25, 2017. At the last OPEC meeting in Vienna, the agreement was again extended until the end of 2018. Azerbaijan supported the decision. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Taleh Mursagulov - Trend: Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR is negotiating on the gasoline import from Turkmenistan, SOCAR told Trend on Oct. 10. Presently, there is no final agreement, and negotiations with Turkmenistan continue, the company said refusing to disclose the details of the negotiations. Talking about the negotiations on the gasoline import in general, SOCAR mentioned that negotiations are underway with different suppliers, and a part of the supply is already being delivered. Presently, modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery is underway and will be completed in 2021. After modernization, the refinerys production capacity will increase from six million to eight million tons per year and the operational period will be extended to 2040. The Baku Refinerys modernization will cost nearly $2.2 billion. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Leman Zeynalova - Trend: The Southern Gas Corridor, which provides for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, will ensure energy security by diversifying the sources of energy supply, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent said Oct. 10 at a press conference in Baku. However, he noted that some countries use the energy factor as a weapon. The Southern Gas Corridor is a very large-scale project. Many companies and countries have spent billions of dollars to implement this project. The projects like SGC are a prime example of cooperation between countries, Kent said. The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. On May 29, Baku hosted the launching ceremony of the first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor project, and on June 12, the opening ceremony of TANAP was held in Turkey's Eskisehir. The gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field has already gone through the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor - from the Sangachal terminal to the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline. The commissioning of the TANAP gas pipeline, through which gas will flow into Turkey and further to Europe, has become the next stage of the SGC project. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.10 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: European aerospace corporation Airbus would like to become part of the Azerbaijans space industry, Airbus Vice-President for Eurasia Silvere Delaunay told Trend. "Airbus has developed important relationships with AZERICOSMOS. Airbus would like to become part of the Azerbaijans space industry as a long term partner for the future by supporting space projects such as telecommunication satellites and intelligence satellite projects," he said. Delaunay pointed out that as a complement to satellite intelligence, the usage of C295 aircraft in patrol or surveillance configuration versions may enable for example a complete surveillance solution, emergency, fighting against sea pollution. He noted that Airbus is focused on long-term strategic partnerships and on creating sustainable value in the Azerbaijan aerospace sector. "Airbus has partnered the Azerbaijan civil and military aerospace sector for more than 10 years. Airbus has been an important solution partner for Azerbaijan working closely especially with AZAL and AZERCOSMOS," said Delaunay. The companys vice-president for Eurasia pointed out that Airbus global market forecast predicts that over the next 20 years the passengers traffic to, from and the region will more than double. "Airbus is extremely well positioned to meet this demand with our eco-efficient, modern family of aircraft, and Azerbaijani aerospace companies are well positioned to benefit from this growth through long-term industrial partnerships with Airbus," he said. Delaunay noted that today, eleven Airbus aircraft (two A340-500s, three A319s and six A320s) fly with the National flag carrier AZAL. A mid-size cargo aircraft like A330F might be the right solution bringing operational flexibility and resulting in significant cost savings, he added. The vice-president said Airbus is committed to the Azerbaijani market. "Airbus is ready and willing to partner with Azerbaijan on all projects where Airbus excels and offers top-notch technologies. They include Commercial and Military aviation, Space, or Helicopters," he said. Airbus SE is a European aerospace corporation, registered in the Netherlands and trading shares in France, Germany and Spain. It designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures in multiple countries both inside and outside of the European Union. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Huseyn Veliyev - Trend: The first Transparency Center of Kaspersky Lab will be opened in November in Zurich, Switzerland, the Vice-President of Public Affairs of Kaspersky Lab Anton Shingarev told Trend. Shingarev noted that the Center will be opened as part of the companys Global Transparency Initiative. Currently, Kaspersky Lab is being deliberately ousted from certain markets and one of the main reasons is the importance of antivirus software for protecting critical infrastructure. Our products and solutions are not prohibited by law in any country. Only in the United States, there is a ban on the purchase of products of the company by state agencies, and the UK and Hungary have issued prohibitive recommendations. In contrast to this, Kaspersky Lab, with its Global Transparency Initiative, intends to show and technically prove that all accusations against us are groundless," Shingarev said. In the Transparency Center, the trusted partners and government organizations will be able to check the source code of Kaspersky products, as well as the tools that the company uses. It will provide access to the secure software development documentation, the source code of any product released to the market (including its earlier versions), the databases of threat detection methods, the source code of cloud services responsible for processing and storing customer data in Europe currently, and in North America, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore in the future, as well as the software tools used to create products, antivirus databases and cloud services. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @h_veliyev Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Matanat Nasibova - Trend: A new strategy for the development of tourism in Azerbaijan will be presented during the upcoming tourism summit, which will be held on October 18 in Baku, the head of the public relations department of the State Tourism Agency Kanan Guluzade told Trend. There will also be a presentation of a new tourist project developed on the basis of Azerbaijan's strategic roadmap, Guluzade said. "A new tourist brand of Azerbaijan, developed by one of the largest world companies, will be presented first in Baku and then in London. The tourist destination is considered one of the top priorities in Azerbaijan and the state pays tremendous attention to the development of this important area. To this end, closer to the end of 2018, the launch of the process of opening Azerbaijan's official tourist offices in different countries is expected," Guluzade said. Presently, the State Agency, in accordance with the presidential decree, is also working on a concept for the development of the Basgal and Yanardag reserves. "Similar concepts are being prepared for the other five reserves, which are under the jurisdiction of our agency," Guluzade added. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 10 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: A two-day International Conference and Exhibition Turkmentel-2018 kicked off in Turkmenistans Ashgabat with the participation of more than 80 companies from 21 countries, the Ministry of Communications and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan, the events organizers, said in a message. The event participants include Sony, Huawei, Airbus, Iskratel, Thales, Rostelecom and other companies. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov sent his greeting letter to the participants of the event. Our country is always ready for mutually beneficial cooperation with all states interested in developing a transnational communication system, reads the presidential letter. Such relations contribute to the implementation of the regions enormous transit potential, the establishment of modern communication services and the provision of a high level of information technology. The forum Turkmenistan and World Information and Communication Systems held as part of the event will bring together scientists, specialists and businessmen, in particular those representing the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The participants will present their developments in the field of communications in such sections of the exhibition as telecommunications, information technology, telemetry and measuring equipment, wireless communication, equipment for professional audio-video recording. In addition, TV and radio broadcasting equipment, cable communication products and their components, as well as transport and special equipment will be showcased. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 10 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: An advisory meeting with the coordinators of the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program is taking place in the Turkmen capital these days, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper wrote Oct. 10. The event, organized by the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan, is attended by national CAREC coordinators and representatives of partner organizations - ADB, EBRD, IsDB, IMF and UNDP. The results of the work on the CAREC trade agenda until 2030 and the preparations for the 17th Ministerial Conference to be held in Ashgabat in November have been presented for discussion. The main objective of the program is to assist the countries of Central Asia in the implementation of investment projects in the field of transport, trade and energy. The issues included in the integrated trade program, in particular the three-years action plan for its implementation during 2018-2020, which will be presented at the next CAREC ministerial conference, have been discussed in the course of the plenary sessions. The particular emphasis has been placed on the fact that the provision of support to member countries in their accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and fulfillment of commitments after the accession, implementation of the WTOs Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), enhancement of customs cooperation, the integrated facilitation of trade procedures and identification of new opportunities in the context of shifting of the main global and regional trade concepts will be continued in order to develop trade, the message says. The strategic location of Turkmenistan, which borders with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Iran, as well as its proximity to Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation (via the Caspian Sea) puts the country in an advantageous position for expanding interregional relations between the countries of Central Asia, the Caucasus, South Asia and the Middle East, the state news agency Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary wrote in its comments. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 Trend: Belarus and Uzbekistan plan to sign a memorandum of understanding in the field of nuclear energy, Deputy Director of the Nuclear Energy Department at the Belarusian Energy Ministry Lilia Dulinets told reporters at the 23rd Belarusian Energy and Ecology Forum, BelTA reported. The forum is attended by representatives of Kazakhstan - a country that is on the verge of making a decision to build the first nuclear power plant, as well as Uzbekistan, which has recently made such a decision, she said. We have already signed a memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan in the field of nuclear energy. A similar document with Uzbekistan is almost ready for signing, and it is planned that this will happen this year. She stressed that the experience of Belarus in the field of nuclear energy is in demand by partner countries that launched their nuclear programs. We adhere to the principle of openness, and we actively share our experience, she noted. Delegations from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Turkey and other countries visited Belarus and got acquainted with the experience of building the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Pakistans Minister of Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi says there is lot of scope of cooperation between Iran and Pakistan in all sectors, IRNA reports. In an interview he said trade opportunities between Iran and Pakistan are equally beneficial for both the neighboring states. The minister expressing views said there are some issues which need immediate attention between Iran and Pakistan. He said that one of the first things the Prime Minister wants to address is the issue of pilgrims traveling to Iran. The official went on to say last year 40,000 people after Arbaeen were stuck so we have to facilitate the smooth transition of pilgrims to Iran and coming back from Iran. We have to address the issue of pilgrims on war footings, he noted. He said trade opportunities between Iran and Pakistan are equally beneficial for both the countries. We export a lot of rice to Iran, he said. The minister went on to say that Iran and Pakistan must enhance their bilateral trade volume. Syed Ali Haider Zaidi expressing his views said that Iran and Pakistan are also looking at the possibilities of restarting train between the two neighboring states. The official added that there is also a plan to start ferry service between Pakistani and Iranian ports but there are certain challenges. Ferries cant run from March to October because of the rough sees as we have two wind corridors from east to west and north to south but we are trying to solve the issue, he said. He went on to say some challenges require international diplomacy and some challenges require local governments attention, but if the intentions are right, then the things can be addressed. Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Tehran emphasized on strengthening the UK's trade relations with Iran, and said that the British government is committed to supporting the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, IRNA reports. Rob Macaire in a meeting with the governor of Yazd on Wednesday said, 'We are trying to develop Iran's trade relations with Britain and other European countries. 'For this purpose, EU activities to improve the cooperation environment are underway now,' he added. Macaire declared British private sector's interest in traveling to Yazd and talked to various economic sectors of the province. 'In These trips cooperation on tourism, university and business were evaluated,' he added. The British ambassador to Iran noted, 'London's focus is on developing relations with Iran, and for this purpose, investment projects in this province will be reviewed on a visit to Yazd.' Macaire said that he was meeting a number of economic activists in the Yazd Chamber of Commerce, and said that as a European ambassador to a European country is committed to doing business with Iran, adding, 'Europeans are forming a banking system to solve communication problems With Iran.' Macaire added that the presence of several advisers and Consul of the British embassy on this visit reflects 'our determination to develop relations with Iran, and in particular with Yazd province.' The governor of Yazd said, 'The conditions of Iran and the world today have provided a good opportunity for the UK and other European countries to demonstrate the logic of decision-making to maintain JCPOA and confronting unilateral US sanctions.' During a meeting with the Ambassador of Great Britain to Iran, and added, 'Iran's behavior has always been an independent and civilized one and, given the ups and downs of relations with the United Kingdom, all future efforts must be made to make logical decisions and strengthen relations.' The president of the National Assembly of Serbia, in a meeting with her Iranian counterpart Ali larijani, emphasized deepening of relations and enhancing cooperation between Iran and the east European nation, IRNA reports. In the meeting took place on the sidelines of the parliament speakers of the Eurasian countries in Turkey, Maja Gojkovic described as satisfactory ties between Serbia and Iran, and expressed confidence in further deepening of relations between the two countries. As announced by the National Assembly of Serbia, Gojkovic pointed out the willingness of the two sides to boost comprehensive cooperation, and emphasized Belgrade is committed to deepening friendly ties and economic cooperation with Tehran. Gojkovic and Larijani expressed satisfaction with inter-parliamentary cooperation between the two nations during recent years. The president of the National Assembly of Serbia also appreciated Iran for respecting international law and supporting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia. The parliament speakers also discussed developing economic cooperation, increasing trade exchanges and combating terrorism. Over the past two years, Iran and Serbia have taken measures to enhance relations and promote cooperation in various fields, especially political, economic and cultural areas. Visa-free travel to Serbia and Tehran-Belgrade direct flights are two major steps which have been widely welcomed by both countries. Also, at the 15th Session of the Joint Iranian-Serbian Committee, which was held on June 21, 2018, three memoranda of understanding were signed between the two countries. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 9 Trend: The main reason of illegal fishing on Caspian Sea in northern provinces of Iran is the great number of unemployed people, the IRNA news agency quoted Mokhtar Akhondi, the Deputy Director General for Fishing Affairs of Iran Fisheries Organization as saying. He said the illegal fishermen dont spare even the bony fishes migrating towards rivers. Research shows that those fishermen dont understand the significance of this issue and go on fishing in order to provide their welfare, he said. "The downturn of water level and lack of care for sea fauna have resulted in reduction of bony fish reserves in the Caspian sea, the Iranian official said. "In order to protect the sea resources, it is necessary to arrange cooperation between all concerned agencies of Iran. For instance, in parallel with protection of the resources, people can benefit from them economically by using them in accordance with rules," said Akhondi. He also noted that the natural reproduction capability of bony fishes has decreased by 95 percent. "Even artificial breeding and releasing them into the sea cannot cope with the level of fishing due to water contamination rate in the rivers and the Caspian Sea. If no attention is paid to ecology of the Caspian Sea, if the rivers and the sea are not protected, the level of fishing will decrease from year to year and finally we will witness great reduction in revenues," he explained. The scale of illegal fishing in the Caspian Sea is too big. The employees of the Iran Fisheries Organization also cannot cope alone with the illegal fishermen, because most of these fishermen need to sell the caught fishes in order to provide their welfare, Akhondi said. Baku, Azerbaijan, October 10 By Azer Ahmadbayli Trend: The more tranquil is situation in Syria, the louder voice of Bashar al-Assad becomes, who is perceived as a political corpse by most world countries. Addressing a meeting held by the Central Committee of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party on Sunday, he gave a presentation of the latest political and field developments, Sana reported. The key idea of his speech that was put in all the headlines of the regional and international media outlets was Idlib agreement is a temporary measure. But there's also another one, where he says that what is happening in Syria can not be separated from what is circulating plentifully in recent times around the so-called Deal of the century, and that this process has recently accelerated in order to take advantage of the moment when many countries abandon the confrontation to Israeli enemy. When he talks about many countries that in recent times have restrained the confrontation with Israel, he likely means the Arab states, doesnt he? Does he regret that some Arab countries have decided to reconsider their decades-lasting enmity policy towards Israel by establishing good relations with Tel-Aviv? Why does he play old, worn-out records about a common enemy of all Arabs? Is it a demonstration of false solidarity with the Arab world? At a time when Russia its main patron and defender is doing everything possible to extinguish the Syrian fire, Assad's expressions only escalate the situation. In an interview with Russia today news agency on October 8, Deputy Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Vershinin noted that any mutual understanding and finding common ground between any country, whether the US or some other state, and Syria, will only be beneficial. He was asked many questions about the region's painful problems, and most of his answers suggested that the region's pressing issues should be addressed through dialogue. The question is to look at yourself as a country that is [situated] in the region. In the end, we should be able to come to terms, the deputy minister said. Assad is concerned about the fact that many Arab states refuse to confront Israel. Why? In its analysis, Eadaily notes that restoration of Damascus' jurisdiction and control over the Golan Heights after 1967 was one of the pan-Arab demands for Israel. After the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011, the degree of solidarity within the League of Arab States around the issue of the Golan Heights began to steadily decline. If many Arab countries favor or, at least, are indifferent to Trump's plan for the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, what's to say about Golan? Afraid of losing their jobs, employees of the Alaverdi Copper-Molybdenum Plant took to the streets in this small industrial town some160 kilometers north of Yerevan today demanding that the negative findings of a recent environmental study be thrown out. Almost the entire staff of the plant, owned by the Armenian Copper Programme (a Vallex Group subsidiary) turned out to voice their opposition to the review conducted by the Environmental and Natural Resources State Inspectorate. The results of the study were presented at a public hearing on October 1 in Alaverdi. The study, conducted in August, revealed that the plant damaged the local environment in the amount of AMD 380 million ($783,000). At the public hearing , Artur Grigoryan, who heads the inspectorate, confessed that Armenia lacks any mechanism to effectively measure the degree of damage to public health and that standards set by the government are faulty. Workers, afraid that the government might shut the plant, blocked the railway running through the plants grounds and closed the interstate highway. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: The merits of President Ilham Aliyev in enhancing the international image of Azerbaijan are unequivocally invaluable, the Member of the Political Council of the New Azerbaijan Party, the Chief Editor of Iki Sahil newspaper Vugar Rahimzade told Trend Oct. 10. Rahimzade noted that the tasks set in Azerbaijan are carried out successfully and timely. Naturally, the stability and security in the country are important factors which ensure dynamic development. The successful development strategy, designed for the future, acts as a decisive factor in the entry of the young independent country into the ranks of the developed countries of the world, Rahimzade added. During his speech on October 9 at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, dedicated to the results of socio-economic development in the first nine months of 2018 and the upcoming tasks, the President stressed that the international positions of Azerbaijan were further strengthened. The head of state also said that Azerbaijan is known in the world as a reliable partner," Rahimzade added. He noted that important reforms have been implemented this year in order to ensure the development of the economy. The second International Conference of Rural Tourism will be held in Batumi on October 19-20. The main topic of the conference will be "Rural Tourism as Business", GeorgiaToday reports. The conference will present presentations, reports and seminars by invited Georgian and foreign experts. The conference will be attended by the owners of family guest houses, tourist agencies, the representatives of the different fields of rural and eco-tourism, as well as the representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations. "In the Adjara region, rural tourism is at the initial stage of the development, so it is important for us to get acquainted with the international experience and successful business examples of rural tourism. Although the locals of Adjara region started to actively engage in tourism sphere and the number of the providers of family guest houses and other tourist services is significantly increasing, there is still a lot of work in the direction of tourism business development. Accordingly, we need to get acquainted with other people's experiences and use it in practice. This is the main goal of our conference and I think that we will have interesting speakers this year, too," said Tinatin Zoidze, Director of Tourism Products Development Agency of Ajara Tourism Department. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed on Tuesday his "deep appreciation for the excellent cooperation and support" of U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who earlier handed in her resignation at the White House, Xinhua reported. The secretary-general's spokesman, Stephan Dujarric, also said Haley and Guterres "had a very productive and strong working relationship during her tenure as United States' permanent representative to the United Nations. "They worked hard to promote constructive ties between the United Nations and the United States to show the value of the United Nations," Dujarric said. "The secretary-general looks forward to continuing to work with Ambassador Haley until the end of her tenure and of course with her replacement." The spokesman said the secretary-general, en route to Indonesia, had not received notice of her resignation and didn't expect to receive it until closer to when she plans to step down, at the end of the year, probably about the time her successor is announced. Guterres plans to meet in Bali, Indonesia with leaders of the Association of South-East Asian Nations at their Leaders Gathering, then with officials of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group at their annual meeting. On Friday he is expected to visit Palu, Sulawesi, the spokesman said. The death toll from the recent earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi has topped 2,000 with more than 10,000 injured and hundreds missing, officials said. The United Nations Security Council should reconsider its sanctions against Pyongyang, deputy foreign ministers of Russia, China and North Korea said in a joint communique released after their consultations in Moscow on Wednesday, TASS reports. "Taking into account the important steps towards denuclearization made by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the sides believe the UN Security Council should start in due time revising the sanctions against the DPRK," Igor Morgulov, Kong Xuanyou and Choe Son-hui said in the communique. The high-ranking diplomats confirmed their stance against unilateral sanctions against North Korea. The sides share stance that there is no alternative to settling the problems of the Korean Peninsula by peaceful and diplomatic means. They praised the efforts by the involved countries on promoting dialogue in the interests of this settlement. The diplomats also called for holding talks between Pyongyang and Washington, and also between Pyongyang and Seoul "to alleviate mutual concerns and normalize ties." The deputy foreign ministers confirmed the sides aspiration to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and create there a mechanism of peace. "There is general understanding that this process, the priority goal of which is to establish mutual trust, should be of a step-by-step and synchronized character and accompanied by reciprocal steps of the involved states." Russia, China and North Korea consider that the Korean Peninsulas denuclearization process should be step-by-step and synchronized, and it requires reciprocal steps by the involved countries, according to the joint communique. The diplomats discussed in detail the need to enhance bilateral and multilateral coordination with the goal of setting up a mechanism of a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. Russia is urging the United States to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpiles ahead of the established deadline, Russias chief delegate, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Georgy Kalamanov told the 89th session of the OPCW Executive Council, TASS reports. "We insistently call upon Washington to consider its capabilities regarding the elimination of declared chemical weapons and to follow in our footsteps to do that ahead of the declared deadline in strict accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention," he said. Kalamanov recalled that the United States still possessed a large arsenal of chemical weapons. "US officials have been regularly telling us about what they describe as successes in conducting systemization work," Kalamanov said. "In fact no chemical weapons elimination work has been conducted for the past several years". The agreements reached by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on setting up a demilitarized zone in Syrias Idlib Governorate are being complied with, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told on Wednesday, TASS reports. "These agreements on setting up a demilitarized zone in the Idlib de-escalation zone are being complied with," he said, adding that Turkey, which seeks cooperation between all the groups operating there, plays a key role in their implementation. "Our information confirms that his process is progressive," Lavrov stated. He recalled that the demilitarized zone should be fully operational by October 15, adding that a delay of one or two days makes no difference. "The quality of that work is far more important. We strongly support our Turkish partners efforts," the minister stressed. The Russian and Turkish presidents agreed at their meeting in Sochi on September 17 to set up a demilitarized zone along the line of engagement of Syrian troops and the opposition in Idlib. Militants must withdraw their heavy weapons from there, while the zone itself will by controlled by Russian and Turkish military patrols. Yemeni army soldiers, backed by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have reportedly launched an airstrike against a position of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, in the countrys western coastal province of Hudaydah, Press TV reported. A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Yemeni soldiers and their allies attacked Saudi mercenaries in the Anbarah military base on Wednesday, using a domestically-designed and manufactured Qasif-1 (Striker-1) combat drone. Later in the day, Yemeni troopers and Popular Committees fighters fired two home-grown Zelzal-1 (Earthquake-1) ballistic missiles at the gatherings of Saudi soldiers and their mercenaries south of the al-Khobe district in Saudi Arabias southwestern border region of Jizan, located 966 kilometers (600 miles) south of the capital, Riyadh. There were no immediate reports about possible casualties or the extent of damage caused. Also on Wednesday, five civilians lost their lives when Saudi fighter jets struck al-Jaah area in Yemens Hudaydah province. A civilian was also killed and another sustained injuries when Saudi warplanes bombarded Barkan area in the Razih district of Yemens northwestern mountainous province of Saada. 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 countrys popular Houthi Ansarullah movement. The aggression has killed some 15,000 people and injured thousands more. More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has triggered what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian disaster. UK Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said on Tuesday that she was confident of reaching the Brexit deal with the European Union this fall, Sputnik reported. "I remain confident we will reach a deal this autumn [It is] time for the EU to match the pragmatism we have shown," Raab said, as quoted by the Sky News broadcaster. The Brexit secretary pointed out that the final few weeks of the Brexit talks were "always going to be tough." At the same time, Raab noted that the United Kingdom was speeding up preparations for the no-deal scenario of Brexit and confirmed that the EU citizens rights would be "unilaterally protected" regardless of the outcome of the negotiating process. In June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. Although Brexit is scheduled for late March 2019, London and Brussels still cannot agree on a number of key issues, including the Irish border and customs arrangements, making a no-deal scenario a possibility. At least 10 people, including two Britons, have died and a child is missing after flash flooding on the Spanish island of Majorca, BBC reported. A huge wave of muddy water engulfed the town of Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, in the east of the island, after a river burst its banks following heavy rain. Vehicles were swept away as water gushed through narrow streets. The Spanish military deployed more than 100 emergency workers along with sniffer dogs to help rescue efforts. The neighbouring islands of Ibiza and Formentera were put on alert as heavy rainstorms moved in. Slovenian Deputy Foreign Minister Simona Leskovar reaffirmed her countrys support for the 2015 nuclear deal known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), IRNA reports. In a meeting with Irans Ambassador in Ljubljana Kazem ShafeI on Wednesday, she referred to the meeting of the two countries foreign ministers on the sidelines of the 73rd session of United Nations General Assembly in New York, saying the her country welcomes continuation and strengthening of political talks between the two countries. Irans ambassador, for his part, expressed pleasure with principled and transparent stances of the Slovenian officials on the nuclear deal, especially following US exit from the deal, and called for practical and plausible support by the EU, particularly Slovenia as an EU member, for the JCPOA. Slovenia gained independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991 and currently it is a member of NATO. It is located in southern Central Europe and its capital and largest city is Ljubljana. Yesterday I learned of a dire climate change report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Today I spread organic lawn fertilizer on parts of our rural yard where the grass is almost always greened up after fall rains. Not this year. And that's really weird. I'm a creature of habit when it comes to fertilizing our yard. Twice a year, spring and fall, I spread organic fertilizer that I buy at Lowe's on both our shrubs/trees and our lawn. Some of the grass around our house is watered with a sprinkler system. Some isn't. We've lived on our ten acres in rural South Salem for 28 years. I can't recall a year when the non-watered grass was as barren and brown at this time in October as it was today. This is an area outside our front door that has always, so far as I can remember, been green this time of year. But not now, not in 2018. I held off until today on spreading the lawn fertilizer, which I usually do in September, because there's been almost no rain, and the fertilizer needs to be watered in to do any good, obviously. Almost all of Oregon (86%) is in either severe or extreme drought as of October 2. And there's been little rain in the last week. Now, I realize that most people who live in cities aren't as directly aware of this as those of us who live in the country, and have wells. But as I was spreading lawn fertilizer on parts of our yard that were super-dry (another usually grassy area by our driveway is shown above), I couldn't help thinking about the IPCC report that I'd read about in the New York Times. A landmark report from the United Nations scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has no documented historic precedent. The report, issued on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, describes a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population. Well, I'm alive right now, and I can say that Oregon's climate has changed a lot during the 47 years I've lived in my much-beloved state. The summers are drier and hotter. The winters are milder and warmer. I recall it raining for weeks on end in the fall and winter. That's rare now. What irks me is that even if everybody accepted the science of climate change, it still would be tough to prevent the disastrous effects on human civilization that global warming is producing. But climate change deniers are everywhere, even here in green, liberal Oregon. There are several climate change deniers on a "Stakeholder Advisory Committee" charged with helping guide an update to Salem's Comprehensive Plan which describes how our city will develop -- notably Sam Brentano, a Marion County commissioner. I hope that if Brentano or other climate change deniers start to raise doubts about the need for Salem to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, most members of the committee will say, "Stop! Just stop! You're wrong, and we're not going to put up with scientific ignorance, especially if it is willful ignorance." Our yard is a microcosm of the global warming macrocosm. The bottom of this photo shows a part of our lawn that doesn't get irrigated by a sprinkler. It's dry as a bone, though as noted before, usually by this time of year the grass is green. Another part of our lawn gets watered, so it looks fine -- no problem. But that "no problem" masks the reality of Oregon's drought. When I raised my iPhone's camera to another viewpoint, our yard looks wonderfully normal -- green and beautiful. That's what so worrisome about global warming deniers. Because climate change is a slow-moving train wreck, not an instant dramatic disaster, it is possible to avert our eyes from the danger signs of a steadily warming world. Today I couldn't do that, as I spread lawn fertilizer on parts of our yard that were much drier than usual. I just hope many more people have their eyes opened to the reality of climate change before it is too late. Here's a link to the actual IPCC report. And here's FAQs for those who don't want to read the whole report. A record 3.1 million tourists entered Israel in the first nine months of 2018, 15% up from the corresponding period of 2017, Globes reports citing the Central Bureau of Statistics. The number included 2.9 million tourists and 200,000 day visitors who entered Israel for less than 24 hours. Of the 2.9 million tourists 2.6 million flew into Israel and 324,000 came by land. In September, Israel had 300,000 tourists. 2018 looks set to be a record year for tourism. Israel had 3.836 million tourists last year and 3.069 million tourists in 2016. Since the start of the year, 1.6 million tourists have come to Israel from Europe and 704,700 from North America. 300,000 tourists have come from Asia and 93,200 from South America. Russia and Israel have arrived at final arrangements within the framework of an agreement of adoptions of Russian children, Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov said after a session of the Russian-Israeli commission for trade and economic cooperation, TASS reports. The deputy prime minister emphasized the importance of these arrangements. "We hope the text will be finalized shortly," he said without giving the concrete timeframe. According to Akimov, the two countries saw eye-to-eye on major aspects of the agreement. Among other important results of the session, he listed the development of the customs Green Corridor and the implementation of the agreement on mutual payment of pensions. Talks on signing an agreement with Israel on adoptions of Russian children have continued since 2016. Early this year, Israels Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Russia Gary Koren said that it could be signed in the first quarter of 2018. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Turkey condemns the terrorist attack committed at a rally in Afghanistan, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a message on Oct. 10. Turkey condoles with the families and friends of the dead and wounded, and the entire Afghan people as a whole, the reports read. Recently, a suicide bomber committed a self-bombing at a pre-election rally in southern Afghanistan, killing eight people, including the deputy candidate Saleh Muhammad Achakzai. At least 11 people were injured as a result of the explosion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu US President Donald Trump said he is considering his former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell for the position of US ambassador to the United Nation, Sputnik reported. Earlier on in the day, Trump announced Nikki Haley had submitted her resignation, and planned to leave the administration at the end of the year. When asked if Trump would consider Powell to replace Haley, he told reporters on Tuesday, "Dinas certainly a person I would consider, and she is under consideration." Trump added that his daughter Ivanka would be a great choice as well, but he would be accused of nepotism. Powell served in the Trump administration as US deputy national security advisor for strategy from March of 2017 until early 2018, when she returned to Goldman Sachs. Hurricane Michael will strengthen to become a major storm before it makes landfall in Florida on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami (NHC) said Tuesday, Sputnik reporeted. "Data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that the maximum sustained winds are near 110 mph (175 km/h) with higher gusts. Additional strengthening is expected, and Michael is forecast to be a major hurricane at landfall in Florida," the NHC said in its latest advisory. Florida Governor Rick Scott said earlier that Michael was expected to make landfall as a Category 3 storm as soon as Wednesday. He urged residents in the affected areas to not take warnings from officials lightly. "This is your last chance to get prepared for this monstrous and deadly storm," he said in a Twitter post. Meanwhile, Hurricane Michael is now predicted to reach a level close to category 4 when it hits the US state of Florida on Wednesday. "Strengthening is expected overnight and on Wednesday, and Michael is forecast to be near category 4 strength when it makes landfall in the Florida Panhandle or the Florida Big Bend area," the advisory said on Tuesday. The eye of the hurricane, the release added, is expected to move inland over Florida on Wednesday before heading northeastward and possibly moving off the US Mid-Atlantic coast and away from the United States on Friday. Earlier in the day the NHC said the storm had intensified to a category 2. Florida authorities said they expected Michael to hit the state as a category 3. Michael, which emerged in the Mexican Gulf, hit Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador on Monday and has reportedly claimed the lives of at least 13 people. Claims of a collusion between Donald Trumps associates and Russia to win the presidential election are "a fantasy" and part of propaganda against Moscow, Hollywood actor Steven Seagal, recently appointed as the Russian Foreign Ministrys Special Envoy for Russian-US humanitarian relations, told Fox News, TASS reports. "I believe this is a situation where there is a tremendous amount of propaganda against Russia, and in my opinion, most of the things that are being said is fabricated and untrue. And I think that this whole thing with Russian collusion and the president of the United States being involved in Russian collusion it's all a fantasy," Seagal said. "I think this has more to do with the great divide between Republicans and Democrats, and the conservatives and the liberals (in the US)," the actor said. According to him, at this point "certain groups will do anything in the world," legally or illegally, they dont care, to win this battle with their agenda triumphs. America is at a "tipping point" and Democrats and Republicans have to start working together in "a more civil fashion," he stressed. In his interview, Seagal called Russian President Vladimir Putin "a brilliant strategist," "an intelligent man" and "a great world leader." The actor also called to improve relations between Washington and Moscow, stressing that the US should treat Russia as an equal partner. On August 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it appointed Seagal as the ministrys "special representative" for Russian-US humanitarian ties. His unpaid position would be to enhance direct contacts, mutual understanding and trust between the people of Russia and the United States. His role will be similar to that of a United Nations goodwill ambassador, according to the ministry. Ivanka Trump says she won't replace Nikki Haley as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations despite her father, President Donald Trump, saying she'd be "incredible" in the role, ChinaDaily reports. In a tweet Tuesday evening, the presidential senior adviser and elder daughter said her father will "nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley." She adds: "That replacement will not be me." Trump and Haley announced Tuesday that she will be departing the administration at the end of the year. The timing of the announcement was surprising, coming just weeks ahead of the midterm elections. Trump told reporters that selecting his daughter would spark concerns about nepotism. But he also said there is no one more competent in the world for the role than Ivanka. The president said he is considering Goldman Sachs Group Inc.s Dina Powell as a potential replacement along with "others." Another potential Haley successor is the US ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, who quickly won Twitter endorsements from conservative broadcaster Hugh Hewitt and several Trump associates. KYODO NEWS - Oct 10, 2018 - 19:01 | World, All North Korea marked the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on Wednesday, calling for solidarity. Although no major events, such as a military parade, were seen, party flags and placards were placed along major streets of Pyongyang in celebration of the anniversary. Many citizens and military personnel visited Mansu Hill in the city's center, as they do every year, to lay flowers in front of giant bronze statues of state founder Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il, the second leader of North Korea. Young people also gathered at squares across the capital of North Korea to dance and otherwise celebrate the anniversary. North Korea's leading newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in an editorial on Wednesday that the Workers' Party of Korea "has always emerged victorious in carving out the path ahead of the country and the revolution under the unfurled banner of single-minded unity." The ruling party, which held its first congress in 36 years in May 2016, has been aiming to strengthen its function in recent years. While it is unknown whether officials are visiting Pyongyang from abroad on the occasion of the anniversary, North Korea has been stepping up diplomatic efforts ahead of a potential second summit between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. On Monday, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who handles nuclear weapons issues and negotiations with the United States, met with her Chinese and Russian counterparts in Moscow. Speculation has been also growing that Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea and Kim will make a trip to Russia in the near future. ==Kyodo KYODO NEWS - Oct 10, 2018 - 21:39 | World, All Japan and Australia agreed Wednesday to keep up pressure on North Korea to denuclearize through the strict enforcement of U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang, despite easing tensions over its arms development program. The foreign and defense ministers of the two countries, in their talks in Sydney, also acknowledged the need to strengthen defense ties, including increasing joint exercises by their armed forces, amid a rapidly changing security environment in the region. (From left, Australian Defense Minister Christopher Pyne, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono and Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya) The ministers welcomed North Korea's diplomatic engagement started this year with South Korea and the United States, which has led to Pyongyang's commitment to "complete" denuclearization. But they regarded it as too early to relax the sanctions under relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions that were imposed following a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests, given that North Korea has yet to take any concrete action to abandon its weapons program. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, speaking at a joint press conference following the meeting, said both sides agreed to "maintain pressure" on North Korea and that they "need to see real steps to complete, verifiable (and) irreversible denuclearization of the (Korean) Peninsula." "It continues to be important for the international community to be united in fulfilling the resolutions," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said. "When doing so, there must be no loopholes." Kono and Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said they agreed to work closely with their Australian counterparts Payne and Christopher Pyne, to prevent North Korea from evading the sanctions through illegal ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products and other goods at sea. During the talks, known as "two-plus-two," they also confirmed to work toward an early conclusion of a visiting forces agreement, which will enable the two countries to conduct joint military drills and disaster relief operations more smoothly. In a joint statement, the ministers said they are determined to explore opportunities to broaden areas of defense force drills and added they plan a first-ever fighter jet exercise, dubbed "Bushido Guardian," in 2019. It was to be held in September but postponed after a deadly earthquake hit the northern Japan prefecture of Hokkaido. Japan and Australia, which seek to deepen their "special strategic partnership," began negotiating the agreement in 2014. It would be the first such accord for Tokyo after the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, which details the legal status of U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan. Japan views Australia as a "quasi-ally" and is believing that strengthening their relationship in the field of security is becoming more important to promote Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy." The concept reflects Japan's interest in boosting relations with countries from Asia to as far as Africa that share such universal values as democracy and the rule of law, amid China's rising international clout. In this respect, the ministers also reaffirmed the importance of promoting trilateral cooperation with the United States to deal with challenges in the Asia-Pacific region, while expressing concern about the situation in the East and South China seas, where China's maritime assertiveness has been growing. Payne disclosed that the Japanese prime minister will visit the northern Australian city of Darwin in November to hold a high-level bilateral economic dialogue. For his first talks with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who took office in late August, Abe is likely to visit Darwin during a trip in mid-November to Singapore and Papua New Guinea to attend annual regional summit meetings. Abe would be the first Japanese leader to visit Darwin, which the now-defunct Imperial Japanese forces bombed in February 1942, killing over 230 Australians. Payne and Pyne took up their posts following the inauguration of Morrison, while Iwaya assumed his post after Abe's Cabinet reshuffle on Oct. 2. Kono retained his portfolio. It is the eighth time for the two countries to hold a two-plus-two meeting since the framework started in 2007. The previous meeting took place in April last year in Japan. KYODO NEWS - Oct 10, 2018 - 15:11 | Feature, All, Japan Tokyo has been chosen as the world's best big city outside the United States for the third year in a row, the U.S. travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler said Tuesday. More than 420,000 readers cast votes for their favorite cities in the 2018 poll, the magazine said, with Japan's ancient capital Kyoto climbing the ranking to second from third the previous year and the country's second-largest city of Osaka placing 12th. Japan was the only country that had three cities in the top 20 list. "Topping our list of world cities yet again, Tokyo continues to thrill with its contradictions: ultramodern, neon-lit skyscrapers and tranquil temples, unmatchable street style and centuries-old etiquette," the magazine said. Turning to Kyoto, it said the western Japan city is "still one of the most well-preserved cities in Japan" but pointed to new attractions. "Now the city's leafy, machiya-lined streets are draws for their specialty crafts shops and chic concept stores," it said, referring to traditional Kyoto townhouses. The magazine said Osaka in western Japan is "one of the best food cities in all of Japan -- must-eat regional specialities include takoyaki (battered, fried octopus balls) and okonomiyaki (grilled savory pancakes with a variety of additions)." Australia's Melbourne was third, followed by Vienna in Austria and Germany's Hamburg. Other Asian cities that made the list were Singapore at seventh and Seoul at 16th. More travel stories: Chubu airport to open flight park with Boeing 787 exhibit, simulator IN PHOTOS: Sayonara Tsukiji, an era ends at Tokyo's famed fish market "Mt. Fuji here": new online map shows where Japan's top peak can be seen NEET 2021 Perfect Scorer Karthika G Nair on how she scored 720 for the entrance exam Regardless of how many times Socialism has been given another chance, it has failed miserably wherever it's been tried. 50 years of educational dumbing down and academic indoctrination seems to have brought about the notion that socialism, instead of being perceived as a fool's paradise, is now being seen as a promising dream, especially among Millenniums. Twenty and 30 year olds have been convinced by the Bernie Sanders of the world that taking from the rich and giving to the poor makes sense, never having been taught the math doesn't work out. The American People will take Socialism, but they wont take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes and running on the slogan to End Poverty in California I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them. It was in 1951 that Upton Sinclair, author of the anti-capitalist "The Jungle," who himself ran two times for Congress on the Socialist Party ticket, wrote to Norman Thomas , who at the time was the party's perennial candidate for president: The George Soros factor Unfortunately, things are not likely to improve anytime soon because the study of History has been replaced on college campuses by an assortment of grievance courses such as Black Studies, Gender Studies, Latino Studies and Lesbian Studies, curriculum that leads only to careers as members of street mobs and the wearing of black masks or pink caps, and a paycheck from billionaire and Socialist, George Soros, whose dark money funds the ideology of the Democrat Left through his network of umbrella groups. It has been reported that George Soros gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the pro-abortion groups which attacked U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. It's difficult to figure out why the billionaire currency manipulator, George Soros, who got his start in life as a Nazi collaborator in Hungary, separating his fellow Jews from their valuables, is still walking free. Inciting violence was still a crime, but Soros, who finances Black Lives Matter, Antifa, on-campus vandalism and the mobs whose sole purpose in life is to intimidate congressional Republicans and members of Trumps administration, hasnt even been indicted. What excuse do Republican have for not bringing Soros up for charges? Parallels to Nazi Germany If kids hadnt been so easily brainwashed by agenda-driven propagandists posing as professors, they might have learned that what began as a campaign of terror waged against German Jews in the early 30s eventually and inevitably was expanded to victimize Catholics; Communists; homosexuals; mental and physical defectives; intellectuals; and those who simply refused to knuckle under to the bullies and perverts out to steal their freedoms and enslave them. Once a nation, any nation, loses its moral compass, insanity ensues. Here in this nation we have already seen the parallels to Nazi Germany. Hitler had his Brown Shirts, armed bullies he could call on to break the shop windows of Jewish merchants, beat up homosexuals and burn the books that reminded people of their common humanity and their God-given rights. Today, we have Antifa and campus bullies who intimidate students and professors who refuse to knuckle under to the Left. When craven college administrators refuse to suspend, expel or even have the police arrest members of the mob, they are behaving exactly the way their currish colleagues behaved 85 years ago. Nazi law, the media and Brett Kavanaugh Whats more, many people believe that the Nazis didnt have laws or courts, but thats not true. There were judges and laws, but they were Nazi judges and Nazi laws. That meant that once accused, people were presumed to be guilty, even if their accusers couldnt provide evidence or corroborating witnesses. Sound familiar? If it doesnt, ask Brett Kavanaugh and Im sure hell be able to fill in the blanks. Yet another parallel to the bad old days can be found in the media. When, the day after Brett Kavanaugh defended himself against the lies of Christine Ford, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Mazie Hirono and Richard Blumenthal, its no accident that you could pick up a copy of the New York Times, the Washington Post or turn on most of the cable news shows and read or hear about Kavanaughs lack of judicial temperament. Left excels in playing Us off against Them A favorite sport of the Left is playing Us off against Them. In Germany, them were the Jews, at least to begin with. In America, Jew-hatred takes the form of the Arab and Muslim-driven divestment movement targeting Israel. But the Left has expanded the divisions to include rich versus poor, black versus white, female versus male, atheist versus believer, old versus young and citizen against illegal alien. Things have become so totally loony that the one group that is openly despised consists of white people, particularly old white men. People like Joe Biden, Joy Behar, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, dont even think twice before charging white people with the sins of the world. Apparently, they seem to think that so long as theyre the ones leveling the insults, that automatically makes them exceptions to the rule. No doubt thats what some German Jews thought in 1933 when they sat around the dinner table and said things like: Hitlers not all wrong." 2018 Rise of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/05/marxist-radicals-democratic-party In July of this year DNC chairman Tom Perez said: Democratic Socialists of America member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents the future of our party. DSA chapter chairs have agreed that communism is good. Members of the DSA espouse a kind of radicalism that has not been represented in mainstream American politics for generations. It's a major movement explicitly hostile to the economic notion of private profit has been unseen since the Soviet era which advocates policies far outside the mainstream of a ruling party in any major democracy today. The DSA's constitution proclaims its members are socialists, because we reject an economic order based on private profit, alienated labor, and gross inequalities of wealth and power. While the above might sound far-fetched to some, it should especially be disturbing to old school Democrats who certainly can't condone the taking over of their party of choice by radicals and Marxists. But what about millennials? Almost a third of millennials identify as Democratic socialist or socialist As reported by the Daily Caller, thirty-one percent of millennials (almost a third) identified as a Democratic socialist or socialist, according to a study by Maru/Blue and BuzzFeed News released on October 4, 2018. Also reported was that millennial men were far more likely to identify as some kind of socialist, with a total of 40 percent responding affirmatively to the question. Furthermore, a total of 28 percent of respondents said they would be Much more likely or A little more likely to vote for a candidate running for political office if he referred to himself as a socialist. VICE magazine recently wrote about the burgeoning socialist movement among millennial young people, citing a poll showing that two-thirds of them cant even define their ideology, which is government ownership of the means of production, like land, labor, and capital. In the VICE article Marion Smith, executive director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, whose last year's commissioned poll determined that 69 percent of millennials had trouble correctly defining socialism, argued: "People are taking their hopes and aspirations and good visions of what we could be and putting that into a bucket called socialism Millennial socialist politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez know what socialism is but dont know how to pay for it; however, today's young socialists seem to think the government spending money on anything they like is socialism., even the building of roads! Concluding thoughts to ponder As noted in this article: Is there a single American who would accept socialism once they know the cost? None that have ever earned a paycheck, for sure. The good news is that its only a messaging problem causing youth to embrace socialism not socialist ideology itself. We can fix that. Regarding the messaging problem, the trend toward socialism is already well advanced in our young through a deeply flawed education system that is teaching Marxism to the very young through Common Core. University of Wisconsin professor Dr. Pesta described Common Core as the pulling down of cultural Marxism into the public schools." See here Thorner's Illinois Review article of October 3, 2018. As to the first statement, it is relevant as this nation approaches a fork in the road with the November midterm elections, at a time when the entire Democrat Party seems to have drunken deep of the socialist Kool-Aid. Have voters been so brainwashed as to elect candidates who represent a political party that can now be defined as exhibiting traits of lunacy, hysterics, and disobedience among its members, and who further will raise your taxes, support open borders, and proceed with their fervent desire to destroy Trump and his presidency? I certainly hope not. Its up for voters to decide. Will they vote to continue President Trumps ongoing and tireless Make America Great Again work or will they put back in power those who seek to resist and destroy. Your vote will help decide the future and soul of our nation. How is this possible? We pray for God to change our communities for the better, but all too often when we have a chance to do something, we shrink back. We abdicate our responsibility to be the salt and light of the world through the political process. Dont misunderstand me, public policy will not change the heart of men but it does have the potential to restrain evil. It allows the community to prosper when just laws are in place... ... A few years ago, in a discussion about supporting candidates who were against same-sex marriage, I was told by another pastor that we are not one issue voters. I challenged him that we are indeed one issue voters. The one issue that should concern every Christfollower is how does my vote honor and glorify God? Or, to put it another way, how does my vote advance the Kingdom of God? Islamabad: Pakistan's army told the media on Wednesday that Lieutenant General Asim Munir has been appointed the new Director General (DG) of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Earlier, as the former DG ISI, Lt Gen Nawant Mukhtar got the report of retiring on October 1, different sections of the media had estimated that Munir would be the next Director General and their estimate was correct. Earlier, in September, Pakistan Army promoted Munir and five other major generals to the rank of lieutenant general. Lt Gen Munir's previous appointment was in the form of DG Military Intelligence, where he received the 'Hilal-e-Imtiaz' award in March 2018. He also served as commander of the Northern Command Command Force. In addition to announcing Munir's new post as DG ISI, Inter-Services Public Relations also announced that Lieutenant General Azhar Saleh will take over as Chief of Logistics Staff at Abbasi General Headquarters, Abdul Aziz was taken to GHQ Military Secretary Lieutenant General Mohammed Adnan has been posted as the Vice Chairman of the General Staff. On the other hand Lt Gen Wasim Ashraf IG will take charge of the supervision of weapons. Television series to tell the Tale of Kieu VietNamNet Bridge Truyen Kieu (The Tale of Kieu) is a Vietnamese epic by poet Nguyen Du (1766-1820). It is recognised as one of Vietnams top literary works. The poem recounts the life and trials of Thuy Kieu, a talented young woman who has to sacrifice herself to save her family. She sells herself into a loveless marriage in exchange for her fathers and younger brothers freedom from prison, not knowing the man she marries is a pimp. He forces her into prostitution. Filmmaker Luu Trong Ninh is the first person to adapt Kieus story into a television series. Luu Trong Ninh is the first filmmaker to make a television series about Kieu. Ninh is known for several award-winning motion pictures and popular TV series, including Ben Khong Chong (Wharf of Widows), Canh Bac (The Gamble), Hay Tha Thu Cho Em (Please Forgive Me), Doc Tinh (Give You All My Love) and Hoa Co May (Flower of Grass). Ninh spoke about his latest project. Could you tell why you wanted to make a film about Kieu? Actually, I never really thought about telling Kieus story. But Ill always remember what my father said to me when I graduated from film school in the 1990s: "Please make a film about Kieu. Its a story that deserves to be a film". During 60-year history of Vietnamese cinema, there has never been a film about Kieu even though the epic is one of the great works of Vietnamese literature. It doesnt make sense. Filmmakers should have made dozens films about Kieu by now. This is why I decided to make the series. Did you encounter any difficulties? Making a film about Kieu is tough because Nguyen Du compiled the epic based on a 14th century Chinese Ming dynasty story. I think this is why there are no films about Kieu. One of my great challenges is to figure out how I can portray the literary characters in accordance with Nguyen Dus descriptions. Those who have read the poem know that Kim Trong is a man who loves Kieu. But they have few details about his life. Other important characters like Hoan Thu and Thuy Van also lack detail. This enables me to fill in the blanks with Vietnamese cultural characteristics. I would guess that most viewers will ask whether the leading actress looks like the character of the poem. I cannot answer this Nguyen Du said Kieu had the beauty of nature. This is vague, and her appearance cannot satisfy everyone. How did you try to make this old story new and fresh? Kieu in film will not be pitied as the character in the poem is. She overcomes challenges and fate. The end of our film will be different from the poem. Kieu has to face to the biggest challenge of her life. We are also introducing several new characters. They are all women and I want them to transmit the spirit of Vietnamese women. I tried to make Kieu more contemporary rather than dating back 300 years. Her inner beauty and strong will should win over audiences hearts. Some stage directors have brought the story to life in the theatre. What do you think of these adaptations? I dont care much about theatre; cinema is quite different. Im not a representative for how all filmmakers would make a film about Kieu. But the story inspires me so I want to do it. Other filmmakers will come after me and no doubt do a better job telling the story, but I am the first to do it. Some filmmakers hesitate to make movies and television series about ancient stories because they require big budgets. How have you dealt with this constraint? I have tried to keep the budget modest. Luckily, the sets and costumes are simple because the story is not set in a palace or an imperial city. I spoke about this with the producers from Vietnam Televisions Film Studio and they want me to be true to the poem. I think this will be a cultural event. Many people know the story but will be curious about the film. This is our challenge. The Tale of Kieu is not just about Kieu, but also about the lives of courtesans in the red-light district. Source: VNS Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd (Changan Automobile) reported on October 9 a year-on-year (YoY) sales drop of 32.4% with a total of 177,284 vehicles delivered in September, while the sales were 32.1% more than that of the previous month. For the first nine months, the automaker saw its cumulative sales fall 19.9% YoY to 1,647,616 units. The sales of Changan-branded vehicles recorded the best performance in the third quarter to 121,333 units, jumping 36% month on month (MoM), while still less than the performance of the same period last year. Among that, Changan-branded PVs (passenger vehicle) had sales of 80,188 units last month, a remarkable MoM growth of 50%. In September, the sales of three major SUV drivers, the CS55, the CS75 and the CS35, reached 14,749 units, 13,849 units, 8,784 units respectively, shooting up 45%, 82% and 171% over a month ago. Meanwhile, the sales data show that the sales of the EADO sedan series amounted to 15,882 units last month, soaring 88% YoY and 72% MoM. The next-generation EADO XT, hitting the market in August, drew a lot of attention from consumers with its sporty design full of youth style. As to the performance of joint ventures, Changan Ford's deliveries in September reached 33,025 units, up by 38% over the previous month, while slumping 60% over the previous year. From January to September, the joint venture delivered 308,597 vehicles in total with a YoY decrease of 46%. It is reported that Ford Motor has faced losses in markets of South America, Middle East, Europe and Asia Pacific, thus plans to lay off employees around global market. Changan Mazda saw its sales in September shrink 19.3% over the year-ago period to 15,546 units. For the first three quarters, the joint venture's sales totaled 128,494 units, declining 6% YoY. Besides, a total of 7,539 NEVs (new energy vehicle) were handed over last month with an impressive MoM increase of 43%. By the end of September, the automaker has so far delivered 48,489 NEVs this year. The all-new EADO EV, boasting a NEDC (new European driving cycle)-rated range of 405km, will go on sale on October 18. EDMONTON (October 9, 2018) - The Canadian Glycomics Network (GlycoNet) awarded $90,000 in grants to three Alberta-based startup companies: 48Hour Discovery Inc., GlyCa BioSciences Inc. and PanTHERA CryoSolutions Inc. The Startup Company Funding Program recognizes the needs of start-up companies and provides financial help to increase their chances of success. The financial support can be used for the recruitment of business development staff, for leveraging funding from other sources, and for patent protection and licensing activities. All three awarded companies were created based on technologies developed through GlycoNet-funded research. "It's important for GlycoNet to help the creation of glyco-based startup companies and increase their chances of success" says Dr. Elizabeth Nanak, Executive Director, GlycoNet. "This funding program is an integral part of our commercialization strategy. Ideally, we want to see innovative technologies translated into tangible outcomes within the next 5-10 years." 48Hour Discovery Inc. Total grant: $20,000 48Hour Discovery Inc. (48HD) accelerates the drug discovery process by providing ligand screening services within just 48 hours. The company received $20,000 for patent filing payments. "Commercialization grant opportunities, such as the ones available at GlycoNet, are essential for the sustainable growth of early entrepreneurial enterprises," says Dr. Ratmir Derda, President, 48HD. "As a technology company, our intellectual property is at the core of what we do. The $20,000 we received from GlycoNet for patent filing costs helps us manage the necessary expenses when navigating the patenting process." GlyCa BioSciences Inc. Total grant: $20,000 GlyCa BioSciences has a technology that uses an sugar as a cancer biomarker, which together with tissue-specific markers, can detect and/or predict high-risk prostate cancer with a simple blood test. GlyCa BioSciences received $20,000 for patent filing costs. "GlyCa BioSciences recently received $20,000 for patent filing costs which will significantly help the company as it moves forward with the development of an extracellular vesicle-based 'liquid biopsy' for detection of aggressive prostate cancer," says co-founder Dr. Karla Williams, University of British Columbia. "The successful filing of Glyca's patent application, made possible through GlycoNet StartUp Company Funding Program, will enable the development of a protected marketing strategy and enhance the company's commercial success. Patent protection for Glyca Biosciences 'liquid biopsy' is intrinsically linked with the company's goal of continued product development and further innovations to strengthen the product and drive its commercialization." PanTHERA CryoSolutions Inc. Total grant: $50,000 PanTHERA CryoSolutions' technology provides a much needed improvement in the cryopreservation of cells and tissues, resulting in better quality cells for cellular therapies and transplantations. The company was awarded $50,000 for the recruitment of a commercialization associate to help the company business development activities. "The New Company StartUp Funding Program with GlycoNet has been essential for the creation of PanTHERA CryoSolutions, a newly formed Canadian company that specializes in the design and synthesis of novel small molecule ice recrystallization inhibitors (IRIs) that mitigate cellular damage to cells and tissues during cryopreservation," says co-founder Dr. Rob Ben, University of Ottawa. "These funds have facilitated the hiring of key personnel to fully commercialize the IRI technology and enter the global research and clinical markets." ### About GlycoNet GlycoNet is a pan-Canadian, multidisciplinary research network aiming to deliver solutions to important health issues and improve the quality of life of Canadians through the study of glycomics. GlycoNet is funded by the Networks of Centres of Excellence, a Government of Canada program that supports large-scale, academic-led research networks to build research capacity and accelerate the creation of new knowledge in a specific research area. For more information, visit http://www.glyconet.ca. Fewer than half of people with HIV are retained in care three years after release from incarceration, according to a study in the U.S. published October 9 in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Kelsey Loeliger of Yale School of Medicine, and colleagues. The findings also suggest that better access to health insurance and transitional case-management services may improve retention in HIV care and viral suppression in this population. HIV prevention and treatment strategies aim to reduce HIV-related morbidity, mortality and transmission by retaining people with HIV in care and sustaining them on antiretroviral treatment to achieve viral suppression. Few prior studies have described long-term retention in HIV care or viral suppression for people transitioning from prisons or jails to communities. This is an important knowledge gap because HIV and incarceration are overlapping epidemics that disproportionately affect people who are already marginalized by homelessness, substance use and psychiatric disorders, and socioeconomic status. To examine this issue, Loeliger and her colleagues conducted one of the longest assessments to date of retention in care and viral suppression in a large cohort of incarcerated people living with HIV. The authors merged statewide databases from the Departments of Public Health and Correction on all people living with HIV who were released from prisons or jails in Connecticut between 2007 and 2011. Among 1,094 individuals included in the study, continuous retention in care declined over the three following years (67.2%, 51.3%, and 42.5%, respectively). Sustained retention in HIV care (RIC) and viral suppression (VS) three years after release were independently associated with older age (RIC: Adjusted Odds Ratio = 1.61]; 95% Confidence Interval [1.22, 2.12] and VS: AOR = 1.37; 95% CI [1.06, 1.78]), having health insurance (RIC: AOR = 2.15; 95% CI [1.60, 2.89] and VS: AOR = 2.01; 95% CI [1.53, 2.64], and receiving more transitional case-management services. Moreover, better treatment outcomes were strongly associated with receiving antiretroviral therapy during incarceration (RIC: AOR = 1.33; 95% CI [1.07, 1.65] and VS: AOR= 1.91; 95% CI [1.56, 2.34] and early access to care after release (RIC: AOR = 2.64; 95% CI [2.03, 3.43] and VS: AOR = 1.79; 95% CI [1.45, 2.21]). Taken together, the findings suggest that dedicated resources are needed to optimize people's HIV care while they are in prison or jail and link them to care following release. Although prior studies suggest that prison provides a temporary window of opportunity to reconnect people to care, supporting community-based retention in HIV care efforts is critical for improving long-term treatment outcomes. ### Peer-reviewed / Observational Study / People Research Article Funding: The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) provided funding for this project through grants F30DA041247 (KL), K23DA033858 (JPM), K24DA017072 (FLA), R01DA030768 (FLA), and R01DA030762. The project was also supported by the Yale University Medical Scientist Training Program under the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) T32GM007205 and the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research in AIDS (CIRA) under the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) P30MH062294. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: FLA reports Speakers Bureau: Simply Speaking HIV, Gilead Sciences, Merck, Clinical Care Options (role: speaker); Grants: NIH, NIDA, HRSA, SAMHSA, Gilead Foundation (role: PI); Advisory Board: Merck, Gilead (role: member/consultant). JPM reports Scientific Advisory Board: Gilead Sciences (role: member/consultant); Grants: NIDA, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Gilead Investigator Sponsored Award (role: PI); Faculty: Clinical Care Options. Citation: Loeliger KB, Meyer JP, Desai MM, Ciarleglio MM, Gallagher C, Altice FL (2018) Retention in HIV care during the 3 years following release from incarceration: A cohort study. PLoS Med 15(10): e1002667. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002667 Image Credit: Staff Sgt. Charles Rivezzo, 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs Author Affiliations: AIDS Program, Section of Infectious Diseases, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America Health and Addiction Services Quality Improvement Program, Connecticut Department of Correction, Wethersfield, Connecticut, United States of America Centre of Excellence in Research in AIDS, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002667 A ground-breaking paper is published in Nature this week that describes the release of whole genome genetic data of 500,000 participants of the UK Biobank1. These genetic data are available from UK Biobank, for use in new medical research all around the world. Indeed, hundreds of research projects are already under way or have reported new findings on a wide range of illnesses including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis and schizophrenia. A team of Oxford University researchers have worked on behalf of UK Biobank to apply sophisticated new statistical techniques to genetic information from all 500,000 volunteer UK Biobank participants. They have ensured high data quality and been able to impute the number of testable genetic variants - the letters in our DNA code that vary from person to person - from 800,000 to 96 million, a more than 100-fold increase in useful data. Imputation compares the selected genotyped DNA with analysis of the full human genome, to allow scientists to accurately predict DNA code at non-selected sections. Research triumph Today's paper celebrates this research triumph, which is a culmination of several years' work carried out by a consortium of genetics experts. This has included statistical teams led by Professor Jonathan Marchini and Professor Peter Donnelly at Oxford's Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, and the laboratory expertise of Samantha Welsh and her team at the UK Biobank coordinating centre, and at Affymetrix which undertook the genotyping. Professor Rory Collins, UK Biobank Principal Investigator, said that UK Biobank is enabling novel genetic health research worldwide. Almost 1,000 genetics-based research projects have so far been submitted to UK Biobank, with many more planned. "Thanks to the vision of UK Biobank's funders, the altruism of the study participants and the contributions of a large number of scientists who have helped us along the way, UK Biobank is coming of age as a force in health research," Professor Collins said. Professor Marchini, who led the imputation work, said: "The UK Biobank dataset represents a step change in the field of human genetics. Research groups all over the world are now actively analysing the data to understand how our genetic code influences disease. "UK Biobank is a powerful example of the immense value that can be achieved from large scale population studies that combine genetics with other detailed health information and coupled with a strong data sharing policy. "It is likely to herald a new era of research in which these and related resources drive and enhance our understanding of human biology and disease." Professor Donnelly said that UK Biobank was fortunate to have been able to call on experts from many different disease areas to design the purpose-built genotyping array used to gather the genetic data. "This was the largest genetic study ever undertaken on humans. The scale of the data was vast, and we did lots of sanity checks of it. But what is exciting is that there will be really clever scientists who will exploit these data to improve human health and healthcare in ways that currently we can't imagine." The data allow researchers to study a range of important questions such as the underlying genetics of disease, and the interactions between genetic and lifestyle factors, as well as using genetics to learn more about the biology of the diseases themselves, providing insights which can lead to new treatments and preventative measures. Another important feature of the data is the imputation of different gene arrangements in the HLA region, the region of the genome responsible for many of the functions of our immune system. These variants are known to play a key role in many diseases but are difficult to measure directly, and so are unavailable in many other genetic studies. Participants in UK Biobank provided samples of blood for long-term storage and analysis, including genetic analysis, when they joined the project between 2006-2010. They also agreed to have their health followed over many years. Since then funding has been provided to enhance the resource in several ways. This includes MR imaging of the brains, hearts and abdomens of 100,000 participants, something never previously done at such scale. Two large projects already underway will further deepen the genetic data available on the entire study. The first will provide detailed DNA sequence information on the regions of the genome that produce proteins (called the exome) that underpin human metabolism. The second will sequence the entire genomes of each individual. UK Biobank is primarily funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Wellcome. The MRC, DH and British Heart Foundation provided further funding for genotyping. This study was funded by Wellcome and the European Research Council. 1 The UK Biobank resource with deep phenotyping and genomic data: Bycroft et al, Nature. First genetic analysis of brain function and structure using UK Biobank imaging data yields exciting results Oxford scientists report in Nature this week on exciting new insights into the structure and function of the brain using genetic information and detailed brain images from UK Biobank. The researchers took data from detailed MR images from 10,000 UK Biobank participants, which are freely available from the resource to researchers around the world, to examine thousands of different measurements of the brain. It is hoped their results will provide a huge impetus to new research for a wide range of degenerative and psychiatric disorders. With a further 20,000 participants already imaged, and 70,000 more to be scanned in the next three years, the resource is set to transform research into brain development and aging, and understanding how it functions, becomes damaged by disease and heals itself, the scientists say. The research has been led by Professor Stephen Smith, from Oxford's Wellcome Trust Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging and Professor Jonathan Marchini, at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford2. "We have had a tantalising glimpse of what could be," said Professor Smith. "These game-changing data stored within the UK Biobank resource, and growing in size and value all the time, will revolutionise our understanding of complex brain disorders. "Both the genetics and imaging data are unparalleled in their depth and breadth. With imaging experts working alongside geneticists we hope to discover the causes of a wide range of brain disorders and find new ways to treat them." He said researchers were excited about what they had discovered. "We have found a genetic fingerprint on some of the most fundamental processes that allow us to think, act and function, from the size of the parts of the central nervous system that control sight, hearing, speech, emotions and actions to the integrity of the communications channels between them and the strength of the signals within them," he said. The findings might help to better understand and ultimately improve treatments for a wide range of brain disorders, he said. In particular, the researchers studied 3,144 different measures of brain structure and function, resulting in the discovery of more than 100 areas of the human genome that influence the brain: Results revealed the effects of genes coding for a "scaffold for tissue healing" in white matter pathways, affecting diseases such as multiple sclerosis, stroke and motor neuron disease. This scaffold is crucial for the growth of white matter in early life, and for the white matter to heal itself from damage by disease. The researchers mapped for the first time the signature of genetic influences on iron deposits in the brain, for genes related to neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Researchers hope the work will lead to new insight into how these diseases progress and damage mental capacity, and also help generate new imaging-based ways to evaluate disease treatments in the future. Another finding relates to the effect of the ROBO3 gene on the brain's white matter pathways. Mutations in the gene mean that pathways that normally connect one side of the brain to the other do not develop properly. This can result in gaze palsy, a disorder which affects the movement of the eyes. It was found that the UK Biobank brain imaging is able to non-invasively localise the effects of this gene to exactly the pathways affected in this disorder. The work also localised effects in the brain of genes that have been linked to both early-life brain development and mental health disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. "The genetic basis of brain structure is largely unknown," said Professor Gwenaelle Douaud, one of the brain imaging experts who collaborated on the work. "We have found a very rich set of genetic effects which will help us understand better the mechanisms by which the brain develops, functions, becomes damaged by disease and heals itself. And this is from just 10% of the volunteer participants that will eventually get their brains scanned by UK Biobank. "In the coming years, 100,000 volunteers will be imaged by UK Biobank, giving researchers and doctors around the world a massive resource from which to discover even more genetic influences, hidden to us so far, on the brain and its disorders." UKRI Chief Executive Professor Sir Mark Walport said: "UK Biobank is one of the largest and most comprehensive studies of population health in the world. Genetic variation helps to explain important differences between people in health and disease. This largest ever investigation of the genetic basis of brain structure and function will provide unrivalled insights into neurodegenerative and psychological disorders, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, depression and schizophrenia. "The scale of this study is quite extraordinary, looking at over 3000 different measures of brain structure and function in 10000 Biobank volunteers who have had MRI brain scans, and finding over 100 areas of the human genome that influence these. None of this could be achieved without the generosity and trust of the half million participants in UK Biobank, and the global leadership of the outstanding team that runs it and makes the data globally available. The data from UK Biobank is fuelling a new era of genetic medicine. The NHS will be amongst the leading beneficiaries." Sara Marshall, Head of Clinical Research and Physiological Sciences at Wellcome, said: "The UK Biobank initiative is an extraordinary joint venture between researchers, funders, and the general public who have come together to transform our understanding of disease. The research published today brings together a combination of genetic and brain imaging data at an unparalleled scale, and allows us to ask questions about common brain disorders such as Parkinson's disease, depression and Alzheimer's disease in a completely new way. It is exciting to see the potential of this powerful resource being realised." The entire set of imaging-genetic associations - linking 3,000 brain measures against 11 million genetic markers - is openly available for researchers to access, at an interactive website: big.stats.ox.ac.uk UK Biobank resource is primarily funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Wellcome. The MRC, DH and British Heart Foundation provided further funding for genotyping and Wellcome and the MRC provided funding for UK Biobank to image 100,000 of its half a million volunteer participants. This study was funded by Wellcome, the MRC and the European Research Council. UK Biobank acknowledges the support of its 500,000 volunteer participants who still give up considerable time and effort to take part and to ensure its success. 2 Genome-wide association studies of brain structure and function in the UK Biobank: Elliott et al, Nature. ### Contact Andrew Trehearne, UK Biobank 07979 940972 Andrew.Trehearne@ukbiobank.ac.uk http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk More information Medical Research Council: The Medical Research Council is at the forefront of scientific discovery to improve human health. Founded in 1913 to tackle tuberculosis, the MRC now invests taxpayers' money in some of the best medical research in the world across every area of health. Thirty-three MRC-funded researchers have won Nobel prizes in a wide range of disciplines, and MRC scientists have been behind such diverse discoveries as vitamins, the structure of DNA and the link between smoking and cancer, as well as achievements such as pioneering the use of randomised controlled trials, the invention of MRI scanning, and the development of a group of antibodies used in the making of some of the most successful drugs ever developed. Today, MRC-funded scientists tackle some of the greatest health problems facing humanity in the 21st century, from the rising tide of chronic diseases associated with ageing to the threats posed by rapidly mutating micro-organisms. The Medical Research Council is part of UK Research and Innovation. https://mrc.ukri.org/ Wellcome: Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive. We're a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations and spark debate. European Research Council: The European Research Council, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premiere European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. Every year, it selects and funds the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects in Europe. The ERC also strives to attract top researchers from anywhere in the world to come to work in Europe. To date, the ERC has funded around 8,500 top researchers at various stages of their careers. It offers four core grant schemes: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grants. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. The ERC President is Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon. The ERC has a budget of over 13 billion for the years 2014 to 2020, part of Horizon 2020, for which European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Carlos Moedas is responsible. Evidence of a variable but progressively drying climate coincides with a major shift in stone-tool-making abilities and the appearance of modern Homo sapiens A progressively drying climate punctuated by variable wetter episodes may have precipitated the transition from our hominin ancestors to anatomically modern humans, according to research published on Oct. 8 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). Since the discovery of a rich assemblage of human fossils as well as stone tools and other archeological evidence in the rift valley of East Africa, a region often referred to as the cradle of humanity, scientists have attempted to piece together the complex puzzle that is the history of our human origins, including the environmental context of that history. The study, based on lake sediment cores, is the first to provide a continuous environmental context for the diverse archeological evidence recovered from nearby localities in the rift valley basins of southern Kenya. The cores were sampled from Lake Magadi as part of the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project, or HSPDP, which is directed by University of Arizona professor Andrew Cohen. Lake Magadi, a shallow, periodically dry lake, is close to the Olorgesailie basin in Kenya, one of the most productive sites for archaeological evidence of human evolution in Africa. The authors suggest that the profound climatic changes may have been driving forces behind hominin evolution, the origins of modern Homo sapiens and the onset of the Middle Stone Age. While previous hypotheses have related hominin evolution to climate change, most prior studies lack regional-scale evidence for a link between environment and hominin evolution, the authors write in the paper, "Progressive aridification in East Africa over the last half million years and implications for human evolution." According to the study, a trend toward intense aridification in the area began 575,000 years ago. The change, not previously documented in continuous continental cores from East Africa, corresponds with faunal extinctions and a major transformation in stone tool technology documented in the Olorgesailie region. "Much evidence for human evolution has been gathered from the area, but linking those records to detailed environmental records was missing until now," said the study's lead author, Richard Owen, of Hong Kong Baptist University. "There is a big gap in the records between the last Early Stone Age tools 500,000 years ago and the appearance of Middle Stone Age tools about 320,000 years ago. Our results plugged that gap with a continuous environmental record." A critical transition occurred sometime during this gap, a period for which archeologists have unearthed evidence of a leap in early humans' abilities to make, use and trade stone tools. The cores from Lake Magadi provide the first detailed link between climate change and events known from the region's archeological record. "We have known for a while that the climate at the time was very varied, but the key here is that the records are in proximity to the archeological evidence for this transition," says Cohen, a professor in the University of Arizona's Department of Geosciences. "The older stone tools found at Olorgesailie did not change much between 1.2 million and a half-million years ago. And suddenly, after 500,000 and before 320,000 years ago - we don't know exactly when, but in that timespan - there was a critical transition in archeology when tools became more sophisticated and were transported over longer distances." At the same time the lake core records point to the climate becoming drier and more variable, there is evidence elsewhere in Africa of the appearance of modern Homo sapiens, prompting much speculation whether the two are connected, Cohen said. "Whether the evolution of bigger brains goes hand in hand with new toolkits is not entirely clear," he said. "But the earliest modern Homo sapiens fossils from Morocco date back 325,000 years, the same time we see this transition of tools. And both happened around the same time that our core record indicates severe drying very close to the archeological sites." The deepest core drilled at Lake Magadi reached 200 meters (650 feet), penetrating all sedimentary layers down to the volcanic bedrock of the lake. The core samples, each about 10 feet long and 2 1/2 inches in diameter, are cut into manageable 5-foot segments, packaged and air-freighted to the National Lake Core Facility at the University of Minnesota for curation, analysis and storage. According to the hypothesis of variability selection, a rapidly changing environment creates selective pressure that forces species to adapt to rapid change, Owen said. Under that scenario, the larger brains of anatomically modern humans would have allowed our ancestors to adapt quickly to an increasingly less predictable world. "Now we have evidence that at the same time the toolkits were changing, the mammal fauna changed and the climate became more arid," Owen said. "So you have a series of coincidences that makes you think, 'This could be real.' Now we can say when the environment changed and then compare that to the archeological evidence of the region." Drilling at other nearby sites by HSPDP has been completed as researchers gather more of the region's climate data to continue studying the importance of environmental variability in the course of human evolution. ### The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the International Continental Drilling Program, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan funded the research. By Susan Taylor TORONTO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Canada's Barrick Gold Corp , which recently announced a $6.1 billion deal to acquire Randgold Resources Ltd, https://t.co/N7uaLM1tXK affirmed its 2018 gold and copper production forecast on Wednesday, reflecting improvements in operations. Citing preliminary data, Barrick said its 2018 effective tax rate was expected at about 48 to 50 percent, up from a previous forecast of 44 to 46 percent, because of lower-than-expected sales from lower-tax mines. More details are expected when it reports quarterly results on Oct. 24. In the third quarter, Barrick said it sold 1.2 million ounces of gold and 114 million pounds of copper, and produced 1.15 million ounces of gold and 106 million pounds of copper. Gold production was about 8 percent higher than in the second quarter, while all-in-sustaining costs, a closely watched industry benchmark, were about 7 to 9 percent lower. Third-quarter copper output was up 28 percent from the second quarter, Barrick said, largely reflecting gains at the Lumwana mine in Zambia. All-in-sustaining costs are expected to be 10 to 12 percent lower than in the previous quarter. The average gold price was $1,213 per ounce, with copper at $2.77 a pound in the third quarter, down from second-quarter prices of $1,306 for gold and $3.12 for copper. The miner said it expected to produce 4.5 million to 5 million ounces of gold this year, at an all-in sustaining cost of $765 to $815 per ounce. Barrick also repeated its full-year copper production forecast of 345 million to 410 million pounds. All-in-sustaining production costs for 2018 are still seen at $2.55 to $2.85 a pound. Shareholders of Barrick and Randgold will vote on Nov. 5 on an all-stock transaction that will create a company with operations in Africa, Australia, North and South America, Saudi Arabia and Papua New Guinea. Investors backing the no-premium deal believe big improvements are possible under Randgold boss Mark Bristow, who becomes chief executive of the merged miner and is known as a deft operator in challenging jurisdictions. "I look at the potential of what Barrick can become with Mark Bristow running the company," said Joe Foster, portfolio manager at Van Eck, the biggest investor in Barrick and No. 2 holder in Randgold, and supporter of the deal. "I believe they can make it work." Opponents have argued that Randgold deserves a premium for its industry-beating performance and worry about a culture clash between Bristow and Barrick Executive Chairman John Thornton. (Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Peter Cooney) Coinbase app cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase app cryptocurrency exchange Cryptocurrency exchange giant Coinbase isnt concerned that Japans Financial Services Agency (FSA) has begun to view the crypto trading industry with a more cautious eye in the wake of several high profile exchange hacks on the regulatory agencys watch in 2018. Speaking with the Nikkei Asian Review, Mike Lempres, Coinbases chief policy officer, said that increased scrutiny of cryptocurrency exchanges applying for virtual currency licenses is Japan was actually a good thing for the San Francisco-based company because it would give them a leg up on the competition. The Japanese government is more focused on security, he said. That is good for us. Discussions with the FSA are going well, he continued. We are committed to getting it done. It will certainly be in 2019. Thats a bold claim, particularly considering that, as Nikkei notes, the FSA has not approved a virtual currency license since Dec. 2017, shortly before Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck was hacked for a record $530 million in Jan. 2018. Last month, Osaka-headquartered trading platform Zaif lost $60 million following a hack and is now struggling to compensate customers. Coinbase believes those hacks, rather than make regulators and investors hesitant to engage with the still-nascent cryptocurrency industry, will increase demand for firms with a trustworthy track record. Japan has been an active large market from the very beginning, and has proved resilient as it bounces back from several bad experiences, Lempres said. We think there is great demand for a trusted provider of services here. Lempres explained that Coinbase devotes far more resources to securing client assets than many other cryptocurrency exchanges, with dozens of the firms 550 employees working full-time on asset security. Indeed, a recent profile in Wired detailed the lengths to which Coinbase goes to secure cryptocurrency assets stored in its custodial vault, pop-up Faraday cages and all. Lempres further explained that just one percent of the companys funds are held in online hot wallets, with the remaining 99 percent secured in cold storage. Moreover, those one percent of funds that are stored in Coinbases hot wallet are fully-insured. Story continues However, though a global company with operations in dozens of countries, Coinbases security apparatus is centered in the U.S., which could lead to problems if the FSA says that it wants Coinbase Japan to physically store its assets in Japan, where the agency can more easily monitor them. We have everything built to protect our storage in the U.S., said Lempres. We wont do anything to even raise possibility of a hack. It would be hard for us to duplicate what we do in the U.S. today in Japan and other countries. CCN reported in June that Coinbase was plotting an expansion into Japan, with the exchange operator tapping former Morgan Stanley Japan investment banker Nao Kitazawa to serve as chief executive of Coinbase Japan. As in other markets, we plan to take a deliberate approach to our rollout in Japan, which means working hand-in-hand with the Japanese FSA to ensure compliance with local laws at every stage, the firm said at the time. Last week, reports emerged that Tiger Global, a major U.K. hedge fund, was close to completing a $500 million investment in Coinbase. Various reports differed on whether the fund was purchasing shares directly from Coinbase or on the secondary market, but in one respect they all agreed: the investment would value Coinbase at $8 billion, cementing its status as not only one of the largest cryptocurrency companies but also one of the worlds most valuable privately-held tech companies. Images from Shutterstock The post Coinbase: Japans Crackdown on Cryptocurrency Good for Us appeared first on CCN. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh speaks during a press conference in southern Iranian port town of Assaluyeh in this file picture taken on August 26, 2016 (AFP Photo/mehidi) Tehran (AFP) - Iran's oil minister said on Monday that the market will never believe "exaggerated" claims by Saudi Arabia that it can replace Iranian oil shipments lost due to renewed US sanctions. "Such exaggerations might please Mr Trump, but the market will never believe them," Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said, according to the oil ministry's SHANA news site. "These statements were made due to Mr Trump's pressure on Saudi authorities. In reality, neither Saudi Arabia nor any other producer has such a capability," he added. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg on Friday that Saudi Arabia "did (its) job and more" by making up for the recent drop in Iranian oil sales. He said Iran's sales had fallen by 700,000 barrels per day since the United States announced in May that it was pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposing sanctions on its oil industry. Precise figures are unavailable, not least because Iran has begun switching off tracking devices on some oil-exporting ships since the threat of sanctions returned, according to analysts. Iran was exporting between 2.5 and 2.7 million bpd in April before the US announced the return of sanctions. "We export as much as two barrels for any barrel that disappeared from Iran recently," Prince Mohammed told Bloomberg. But Zanganeh retorted that the Saudis had only opened up "their previous reserves" to the market and that their output capacity had not increased. The Saudi statement could have a "short-term psychological effect", he added, but it would not mean much to global energy markets which had shown their concern over shortages by hiking prices. The sanctions on Iran's oil sector are not due to hit until November 5, but several key buyers in Europe and Asia have already cut purchases in recent months under pressure from Washington. (Adds details on well, comments on Q3 production) Oct 10 (Reuters) - Oil and gas company Kosmos Energy said on Wednesday it was abandoning an offshore well in Suriname after it failed to find oil, the second well plugged in the region in recent months, but added that it plans to continue testing in the basin due to its potential. The company also said it expects to generate substantial free cash flow in 2018, allowing it to initiate a dividend in the first quarter of 2019. Kosmos said it encountered high-quality reservoir at the Pontoenoe-1 exploration well in Block 42 offshore Suriname, but the primary exploration objective proved to be water bearing and did not find commercial hydrocarbons. "We are in the early stages of exploring the emerging Suriname-Guyana basin.... We believe there is significant remaining potential in Block 42," Kosmos Chief Executive Officer Andrew Inglis said, adding that the company's current plan was to test the next prospect in 2020. The NYSE-listed company holds rights in Block 42 under a production sharing contract with the Suriname government-owned Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname NV. Kosmos said production in Ghana continues to grow after the Jubilee turret remediation work and the new wells brought online at both Jubilee and TEN during the quarter. The company, which ended the third quarter with net debt of about $2 billion and liquidity of about $650 million, said it now expects 2018 capital expenses to be about $400 million. Shares of the company had not opened on the London Stock exchange at 0742 GMT, with a wide bid-ask spread of 52 pence per share. (Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri, Bernard Orr) STOCKHOLM (AP) The Latest on the Nobel prize in economics (all times local): ___ 8:35 p.m. Yale University economics professor William Nordhaus, who won the Nobel prize in economics for linking climate change and economics, says there's "pretty widespread acceptance" of climate change science outside the U.S. But he's optimistic that the United States will come around. Referring to the Trump administration's skepticism, the 77-year-old Nordhaus said Monday, "I think we just need to get through what is a difficult period. But I'm extremely confident it will happen." Nordhaus says bringing countries together to solve the climate change problem is the "last frontier" for the issue, arguing that the science has been settled. He warns it will be very difficult to have an international agreement without the U.S. participating, predicting the country will have to revisit the issue "in a couple of years" after a new administration is in place. ___ 12:40 p.m. One of the winners of this year's Nobel Prize in economics says he ignored two telephone calls, thinking they were spam calls, before the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences was able to get through to him. Paul Romer of New York University said that on Monday morning "I didn't answer either because I thought it was a spam call." Romer teaches economics at New York University, where he founded the Stern Urbanization Project, which researches how policymakers can harness the rapid growth of cities to create economic opportunity and undertake systemic social reform. Romer also works with civic innovators as director of NYU's Marron Institute of Urban Management. The university says he founded Aplia, an education technology application where students have submitted more than 1 billion answers to homework problems. Story continues He won the prize together with William Nordhaus of Yale University for separate research. ___ 12:10 p.m. In awarding the Nobel prize in economics, the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences cited William Nordhaus for showing that "the most efficient remedy for problems caused by greenhouse gases is a global scheme of universally imposed carbon taxes." A faculty member at Yale University since 1967, Nordhaus' research has focused on economic growth and natural resources, and the economics of climate change. His economic approaches to global warming include modeling to determine the efficient path for coping with climate change. He's also studied wage and price behavior, health economics, augmented national accounting, the political business cycle, productivity, and the "new economy." His current work on what he calls his "G-Econ project" promises to provide the first comprehensive measures of economic activity at a geophysical scale. The Swedish Royal Academy said that the work of Paul Romer, who shared the award announced Monday, showed "economic forces govern the willingness of firms to produce new ideas and innovations." ___ 11:55 a.m. Two researchers at American universities have been awarded the Nobel Prize for economics. Yale University's William Nordhaus was named for integrating climate change into long term macroeconomic analysis and New York University's Paul Romer was awarded for factoring technological innovation into macroeconomics. They will share the 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize. ___ 6:10 a.m. The award that concludes this year's series of Nobel prizes came about seven decades after the others. When Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel established the prizes in his will, economics wasn't one of the undertakings he wanted honored. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was established by Sweden's central bank and first given out in 1969. Whether economics is a genuine science in the sense of the Nobels awarded for accomplishments in medicine, chemistry and physics can be debated; the award often goes to work that has a high level of abstraction. Last year's win by American Richard Thaler was unusually accessible to the layman his work studied the human irrationality that can mess with economic theory. The 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize will be announced Monday. MOSCOW, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign minister said on Monday that four Russians detained and expelled by the Netherlands in April on suspicion of spying had been on a "routine" trip, adding that Moscow did not receive a Dutch complaint at the time of the incident. Dutch authorities said last week they had disrupted an attempt in April by Russian intelligence agents to hack the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was speaking at a joint news conference after talks with his Italian counterpart in Moscow. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova Writing by Tom Balmforth Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) ERIE, Pa. (AP) As Hurricane Michael pounded Florida on Wednesday, President Donald Trump took shelter at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, where he sought to boost Republicans before the midterms. Trump acknowledged the hurricane at the top of his rally in Erie, offering his "thoughts and prayers" to those in the storm's path and promising to "spare no effort" in the response. He promised to travel to Florida "very shortly." He added: "We will always pull through. ... We will always be successful at what we do." Then Trump turned back to politics. With weeks to go before the critical November elections, Trump and his fellow Republicans are engaged in an all-out midterms blitz. They have been invigorated by the successful nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and are seeking to use the contentious moment to unify the GOP and stave off Democratic energy at the polls. That Trump kept his appointment in Erie underscored the importance of this effort to Republicans. Earlier in the day, Trump received a hurricane briefing at the White House on the Category 4 storm. He told reporters he faced a "quagmire" about whether to attend the Pennsylvania rally because "thousands of people" were already lined up for the event. He ultimately decided to attend, a move he criticized President Barack Obama for six years ago after Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast. "Yesterday Obama campaigned with JayZ & Springsteen while Hurricane Sandy victims across NY & NJ are still decimated by Sandy. Wrong!" Trump tweeted on Nov. 6, 2012. Story continues On Wednesday, Trump touted two Republican congressmen, Mike Kelly and Lou Barletta. Kelly is facing a challenge from Democrat Ron DiNicola, while Barletta is mounting an uphill campaign to unseat two-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. The president, who attended a fundraiser before the rally, also praised GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner. Trump also celebrated Kavanaugh's appointment amid Democratic opposition and sexual misconduct allegations against the nominee. Trump called it a "historic week," saying, "What the radical Democrats did to Brett Kavanaugh and his beautiful family is a national disgrace." For weeks, Trump has been escalating his attacks on Democrats. He continued that effort Wednesday, claiming that Democrats want to "impose socialism and take over and destroy American health care." He added: "Democrats want to abolish America's borders and allow drugs and gangs to pour into our country." Trump also returned to one of his favorite themes reliving his stunning 2016 victory. "Was that the most exciting evening?" he said to cheers. Trump also ticked through what he sees as his top achievements, including tax cuts and a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. He talked about exiting the Iran nuclear deal and drew wild applause for mentioning his plans for a Space Force. Trump attacked Casey for opposing Kavanaugh's nomination, saying he had "joined the left-wing mob." He also accused Casey, named for his politician father, for "banking on the name of his father." Trump's own father, Fred, was a successful real estate developer who set his son up in business. The New York Times recently reported that Donald Trump received at least $413 million from his father over the decades, much of that through dubious tax dodges, including outright fraud. Earlier Wednesday, Trump published an op-ed in USA Today that attacked Democrats over "Medicare for All" health care proposals. In his op-ed, Trump said Democrats have moved away from centrism, claiming the "new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America's economy after Venezuela." He added: "Government-run health care is just the beginning. Democrats are also pushing massive government control of education, private-sector businesses and other major sectors of the U.S. economy." Trump's attack on Medicare for All omits any mention of improved benefits for seniors that Democrats promise. Medicare for All means different things to different Democrats. The plan pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who challenged Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, would expand Medicare to cover almost everyone in the country, and current Medicare recipients would get improved benefits. Other Democratic plans would allow people to buy into a new government system modeled on Medicare, moving toward the goal of coverage for all while leaving private insurance in place. Democrats, who think health care is a winning issue going into the midterms, also sought to focus voter attention Wednesday. In the Senate, Democrats unsuccessfully sought to scuttle Trump's push for short-term health insurance plans, which are less expensive but provide skimpier coverage. While the vote failed, Democrats think the move will help them in November. Methanex Corporation MEOH has completed the restart of its Chile IV plant and produced first methanol from the 0.8-million ton plant that has been idle since 2007. The Argentine Government has also recently granted permits for export of natural gas from Argentina to Chile. Methanex has started receiving natural gas from Argentina. On Aug 13, Methanex signed natural gas supply agreements for its Chile operations. Notably, the gas agreements will allow the company for a two-plant operation in Chile during summer months in the southern hemisphere and up to a maximum of 75% of a two-plant operation annually till mid-2020. Methanex expects to secure sufficient gas supply without seasonal restrictions to continue its two-plant operation. Shares of Methanex have gained 59.5% over a year against the industrys decline of 10.2%. Strong demand and pricing fundamentals for methanol are contributing to the rally in Methanexs shares. Demand has been driven by both traditional derivatives and energy-related applications in Asia, particularly China. Per the company, global demand for methanol increased 4% year over year in the second quarter and is expected to remain healthy throughout the year. Meanwhile, with a committed revolving credit facility, strong balance sheet and healthy cash generation capability, the company believes it is well positioned to meet financial commitments, cash in on opportunities and return excess cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Methanex Corporation Price and Consensus Methanex Corporation Price and Consensus | Methanex Corporation Quote Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider Methanex is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock. A few other top-ranked companies in the basic materials space are Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. APD, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. CF and Cabot Corporation CBT. Air Products has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 13.3% and a Zacks Rank #1. The companys shares have gained 7.5% in the past year. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. CF Industries has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 6% and a Zacks Rank #1. The companys shares have rallied 57% in the past year. Story continues Cabot has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 11% and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Its shares have risen 5.8% in a years time. Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars? Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge. With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research. It's not the one you think. See This Ticker Free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Cabot Corporation (CBT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Methanex Corporation (MEOH) : Free Stock Analysis Report CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research A structural test version of the intertank for NASAs new deep-space rocket, the Space Launch System, arrives at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in March for testing aboard the barge Pegasus. The intertank is the second piece of structural hardware for the massive SLS core stage. (NASA Photo) NASAs Space Launch System, the rocket thats being designed to send astronauts to the moon and Mars, seems likely to miss the schedule for its first test launch in 2020 due to poor management by Boeing and its overseers, the space agencys auditors say. A report released today by the NASA Office of Inspector General projects that the delivery of the first Boeing-built core stage for the heavy-lift SLS rocket may slip beyond its currently scheduled date of December 2019. Whats more, the cost of SLS development is on track to amount to at least $8.9 billion, which is twice what was originally budgeted, the auditors say. Boeings cost and schedule challenges are likely to worsen, given that the SLS has yet to undergo its Green Run Test a major milestone that integrates and tests the Core Stage components, NASA said in a summary of the report. To meet the schedule for an uncrewed test flight around the moon by 2020, followed by a crewed flight in 2022 and the development of a new upper-stage booster for flights after that, the SLS program will have to be given a major increase in funding and renegotiate NASAs contract with Boeing, the report says. Much of the blame was laid on mismanagement at Boeing. For example, Boeing officials have consistently underestimated the scope of the work to be performed and thus the size and skills of the workforce required, the auditors said. They added that equipment-related mishaps and a tornado that hit NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana last year contributed to the schedule and cost problems. NASAs managers for the SLS program also came in for criticism. The report says managers combined the cost analyses for the first two SLS core stages and the advanced version of the upper stage, which made it harder to track the separate projects. It says managers gave Boeing overly generous ratings on the completion of contractual milestones, resulting in nearly $64 million in questionable award fees since 2012. And it says NASA officials made modifications to contracts without proper authorization, exposing the agency to an extra $321 million in commitments. Story continues Finally, as NASA and Boeing struggle with completing the first two SLS core stages, the agencys plans are on hold for acquiring additional core stages, NASAs auditors said. Because of the estimated 52-month lead time for delivery, that suggests the third core stage may not be available until 2023. The report says that could cause schedule problems for the SLS first crewed flight test, known as Exploration Mission-2 or EM-2 as well as a robotic mission to study Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter. To its credit, the SLS program has taken positive steps to address management and procurement issues related to the Boeing Stages contract, including making key leadership changes; requesting reviews of Boeings management, financial, and estimating systems; adding routine, in-depth performance reviews; and changing the procurement process to improve internal controls, the auditors say. However, the impact of these actions on improving Boeings future contract performance is uncertain. The report includes seven recommendations to tighten up oversight of the SLS core-stage contract. NASA accepted most of the recommendations, but didnt go along with the request to revise Boeings performance ratings. The auditors also said they werent satisfied with the way NASA responded to a recommendation for a corrective action plan. In his response, NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier traced the problems turned up by the audit to first-time production technical challenges, and said those problems have been largely resolved. Boeing struck a similar tone, saying that the project involved the inherent challenges associated with building the first item of its kind challenges that have now been addressed. The program described in the OIGs report does not represent the Space Launch System program today. Boeing said in a statement. More from GeekWire: Nikki Haley will leave her job as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at the end of the year, President Donald Trump said at the White House on Tuesday. Trump said Haley told him six months ago she wanted a break after spending two years in the post. Shes done a fantastic job and weve done a fantastic job together, Trump said. Haley is a former governor of South Carolina who has repeatedly deflected speculation that she might harbor presidential aspirations of her own. It has been the honor of a lifetime, she said in the Oval Office, thanking Trump. No, I am not running in 2020, she said. She would campaign for Trump, she added. Haleys decision surprised several senior White House aides, Chief of Staff John Kelly and Vice President Mike Pence. Trump teased an announcement less than an hour before his appearance with Haley, after news organizations began reporting she would resign. Her resignation was first reported by Axios. Several senior White House aides wondered about the timing of her decision, weeks before midterm congressional elections. The former South Carolina governor has been a strong advocate of Trumps foreign policy. On her first day as UN ambassador she warned, for those that dont have our back, were taking names. We will make points to respond to that accordingly. After a frosty relationship with Rex Tillerson, Trumps first secretary of state, she and Tillersons successor, Mike Pompeo, often exchanged mutual praise. She backed Trumps efforts to cut off funds for the UN organization that aids Palestinians and joined in his attacks on Iran. But she also hinted at her disagreements with the president, saying she had a personal conversation with Trump about his response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last year. There has been frequent speculation that Haley harbors her own presidential ambitions. Shes repeatedly insisted that she is focused on the job at hand, not future opportunities. Story continues After an anonymous U.S. official published an op-ed last month declaring that there was an internal resistance to Trumps policies, Haley published her own op-ed in the Washington Post declaring her fealty to the president. I dont agree with the president on everything, Haley wrote in her Sept. 7 op-ed. When there is disagreement, there is a right way and a wrong way to address it. I pick up the phone and call him or meet with him in person. Tensions bubbled up between Haley and Trump in April when Vice President Mike Pence hired a long-time Haley aide and Republican pollster as his national security adviser, prompting speculation that Haley and Pence were forging a political alliance, White House advisers said. The aide, Jon Lerner, who was planning to split his time between working for Haley and Pence, withdrew his name from consideration after backlash from within the White House. Trump advisers outside the White House have assumed Haley would have her own presidential aspirations at some point, but doubt she would mount a run against Trump in 2020. (Reuters) - Debt-laden retailer Sears Holdings Corp has hired advisers to prepare for a possible bankruptcy that could come ahead of a debt payment due next week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing sources. M-III Partners LLC, a boutique advisory firm, has been working on the potential filing in the past few weeks and Sears continues to discuss other options and could still avert an in-court restructuring, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the situation. Sears, which has been losing money for years, has $134 million in debt due on Monday. A Sears special committee is weighing a prior offer from Chief Executive Eddie Lampert to acquire the retailer's Kenmore appliances brand and its home services business for as much as $480 million. Sears warned it could go out of business as it waits for approval from the committee on the deal. Lampert, who also runs hedge fund ESL Investments Inc, has said the company should take steps to reduce its debt load to $1.2 billion from $5.6 billion. Lampert and his hedge fund own about 50 percent of Sears. However, Lampert wants to restructure the debt without filing for bankruptcy protection, because he views bankruptcy as risky for retailers, the paper said. Lampert also expects that Sears could get more value for its assets by selling them while it is a going concern, the newspaper added. Sears, which was the world's largest retailer in the 1960s, has been struggling in recent decades, in the face of declining foot traffic at its brick-and-mortar stores as online shopping gains popularity. In May, Sears said it plans to shut 72 locations by the end of third quarter to stem losses in the face of deepening financial distress. Sears has closed nearly 400 stores since last year. It operates a network of stores with 866 full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States as of Aug. 4, operating through Kmart and Sears. (Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) Ravi Menon Singapore Cryptocurrency Ravi Menon Singapore Cryptocurrency Ravi Menon, the chief of Singapores defacto central bank and regulator, has backed domestic cryptocurrency startups and exchanges to gain banking services in the technology-forward city-state. Monetary Institute of Singapore (MAS) managing director Ravi Menon has called for the banking industry to get over the hurdle of offering services to domestic cryptocurrency startups in a marked attempt to foster the fintech industry. Speaking to Bloomberg, Menon said that while Singapore will not be an extremely lax regulatory environment for crypto industry firms locally and beyond, there could be respite coming for startups who have banks reluctant to offer simple banking services like opening banking accounts. The central bank official stated: What we are trying to do is to bring the banks and cryptocurrency fintech startups together to see if there is some understanding they can reach. The embracive, if cautious, approach is a significant contrast to the likes of India, wherein the central bank forced all regulated financial institutions including banks to cease offering services to cryptocurrency firms. The Indian central banks move has largely dented the industry, leading to the closure of one of Indias biggest cryptocurrency exchanges recently. For a senior central bank official, Menon has ruled out regulation for decentralized open cryptocurrencies like bitcoin in the past, insisting that bitcoin itself does not pose the risk that warrants regulation. Our approach is to look at the activity around the cryptocurrency and then make an assessment of what regulation would be suitable, he said last year, calling for oversight into activities that could abuse cryptocurrencies. As cryptocurrency markets touched an all-time high earlier in January, driven by a bull-run through much of 2017, Menon sought to bring attention to the good applications of cryptocurrencies citing cheap, real-time, international remittance as an example. Story continues I do hope when the fever has gone away, when the crash has happened, it will not undermine the much deeper, and more meaningful technology associated with digital currencies and blockchain, Menon said earlier this year. The permissive ecosystem has seen Upbit, South Koreas largest cryptocurrency exchange, establish a new cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore last month. Binance, the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, also announced plans to launch a fiat cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore. Featured image from YouTube/MAS. The post Singapores Central Bank Will Aid Crypto Startups in Opening Bank Accounts appeared first on CCN. Flux Thumb 2 Good You dont need to be an agriculture expert to see the writing on the wall. Current farming methods just arent working anymore for most farmers of the world. There are 2 billion smallholder farms managing fewer than five acres (PDF). They are growing most of the worlds food, but if you have ever visited China, India or any African country, you will have seen the challenges of their reality: yields arent what they used to be; climate change, drought and pesticides are getting stronger; and kids are moving to the city. For these farmers, the difference between a good and a bad crop can mean the difference between survival and starvation for them and their families. With even a modest improvement in productivity, lives can be dramatically impacted. Its not just farmers themselves who have a stake in improving the system. Improving agricultural practices has also become a key political issue in many countries, such as India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to double the income of its 200 million farmers by 2022. The government of Vietnam has pledged incentives to help the countrys farmers remain competitive while managing the ever-growing challenge of climate change. Politicians today can make these promises because they know they are on the cusp of a tech revolution. Low-cost sensors coupled with the internet have created an industry called IoT, or the internet of things. Its where your hardware can go online and interface with the internet. Most people know Alexa as one of the most common home solutions; self-driving cars are soon to be in the same league. So what about self-driving farms? Ones where hundreds of sensors listen to the plants and automate critical parts of the process, helping farmers avoid a locust invasion or tumbling prices at the market. Farming solutions can easily monitor soil temperature, water levels and other critical metrics that can be delivered as simple insights to help farmers understand and respond to environmental conditions with precision never before possible. One step further and farms can eventually plant and manage themselves. Its not a far-fetched dream. Story continues But, when it comes to putting IoT farming technology into practice, there remains a steep challenge. To date, most of the smart farming devices that exist are only accessible to big chemical and food corporations. They are siloed technologies in that the data they collect stays in very specific buckets, not to be shared with humankind, ever. These technologies are prohibitively expensive and complicated to use. There is a reason why analysts label companies like Monsanto, an agriculture behemoth with revenues of $15 billion a year that was acquired by Bayer this year, the best internet of things stock investment. Historically, these corporations have held the power of IoT-assisted farming almost solely in their hands, leaving the worlds small-scale farmers to toil away with the same technology they have used for centuries. Megacorps like Monsanto and Syngenta like the deal because this is where so much revenue comes from: the toil and struggles of the small-hold farmer who must use augmented seeds and pesticides to match those seeds. If they dont buy in, there will be no crop. Individual solutions are popping up everywhere, from smart drip irrigation to optimal fertilizer use, yet they are continually being developed in silos instead of taking into account all potential interactions. Ninety-nine percent of these companies are built to be sold to tech giants. The founders of these companies see an opportunity to greenwash environmental advancements for lucrative commercial opportunities. They dont care about, nor do they see, the big picture. At Flux Protocol, a team of passionate dreamers and dedicated doers believe that this state of affairs is finally set to change. By developing MICO, a low-cost, open-hardware platform that connects to any quality analog or digital sensor paired with a data encapsulation standard and an incentivization layer for distributed storage and intelligence, the Flux solution will extend the benefits of smart farming to everyone and unlock a future of abundance for all. The Problem With IoT Farming As far as IoT farming goes, we have the technology. What we dont have is a good way to place it in the hands of the people who need it most. Thats primarily because the lions share of smart device development for the agriculture industry is controlled by large corporations. Their goal understandably enough to them (not to us) is to leverage IoT devices to improve yields for their own crops, and those of their partners, including big banks and despots. As a result, smallholder or subsistence farmers are left out of the equation. Small-hold farmers, the very farmers we are rooting for here at Flux, have yet to realize a direct benefit from the IoT revolution as a whole. Existing IoT and blockchain implementations have mostly been centered around supply chain solutions collecting information only after their products have been harvested and left the farm. Small individual farmers have benefited relatively little from these supply chain solutions. Its fairly intuitive to use technology to monitor the inventory of a harvested bushel of fruit. Its much harder, and more expensive, to acquire and maintain IoT sensors that will continuously collect data from their natural systems, like soil temperature, humidity, carbon sequestration, water retention, etc. With Flux, however, these marginalized farmers are able to comprehensively track the process from seed to harvest, or from calf to bull. Not only do these insights help increase harvest yields and reduce input expenditures, Flux-enabled sensors also aid in verifying organic or grass-fed status, earning the farmer significantly more revenue. MICO and the Democratization of IoT Farming MICO-based solutions, which are being developed by the Flux team, promise to change this. You can think of MICO as the Raspberry Pi or military-grade Arduinos of IoT farming. They are small, flexible and extensible electronic boards that serve a variety of purposes and use cases. With 16 inputs and outputs (IOs) that connect any off-the-shelf analog or digital sensor combined with mesh networking capabilities, MICO-based solutions provide any grower with an opportunity to collect natural data points regardless of their location or the size of their growing operation. Flux MICO By deploying MICO-based devices, farmers can start collecting the exact data points needed to improve their future harvest(s). This could be rainfall levels for a farmer struggling to keep crops irrigated or air temperature for a home grower concerned with optimizing growing conditions in an artificial environment. It could be water salinity levels for an aquafarming site or benchmarking fields for growers trying to determine which part of their land is suitable for the upcoming season. With a base price of around $25, MICO circuit boards will be affordable for anyone, not just big agricultural companies. As the project evolves, Flux will be creating a number of MICO-based solutions directly aimed at empowering farmers with a variety of different needs. Developer-Friendly IoT Farming The power of MICO-based devices goes further than just providing an affordable way to collect natural data. These solutions are just one component of a larger framework that empowers developers to create custom applications that transform natural data into AI-derived insights and value. Part of that framework is a new data standard that Flux is developing, and which the newly hatched TARA Alliance will be evangelizing to any individual or entity collecting environmental data. By making it easy to share data, the protocol will help farmers build solutions that can help their peers maximize the collective value of the data being captured. On top of its open data standard, the TARA Alliance will promulgate its standard and solutions addressing a wide range of issues that NGOs, governments and academia are seeking to impact. With this in mind, Flux incentivizes farmers to collect data and build new MICO-based solutions via a native token, FLUX. When collected data is used to produce insights on the platform, the creators of that data will be rewarded in FLUX tokens on a pro-rata basis. Additionally, developers are encouraged to build new applications and solutions on the open market, thanks to bounties hosted on the protocol. What about farmers or developers who lack the capital to develop novel IoT-assisted farming solutions? Flux has an answer for these people, too. Fluxs Proof of Impact program provides funding to help them get off the ground and further accelerate ecosystem network effects. In all of these ways, Flux is striving to unlock a future of abundance for everyone. By combining modern IoT farming technology with an incentive to collect data, Flux is positioning our global society to make good on its vision of improving the work of farmers everywhere. This promoted article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. Walmart Inc.s Canadian arm has been investigating the possibility of selling cannabis-based products but doesnt intend to get into the much-hyped business yet. As we would for any new industry, Walmart Canada has done some preliminary fact-finding on this issue, but we do not have plans to carry CBD products at this time, spokeswoman Diane Medeiros said in an email, referring to cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants. Interest in CBD has been booming as Canada prepares to legalize recreational marijuana next week and several large alcohol and consumer products companies have indicated theyre studying CBDs commercial possibilities. Coca-Cola Co. said last month that its closely watching the growth of non-psychoactive CBD as an ingredient in functional wellness beverages around the world. Constellation Brands Inc., the maker of Corona beer and Robert Mondavi wine, has indicated an interest in selling CBD-infused drinks through its partnership with Canopy Growth Corp., and Molson Coors Canada Inc. has formed a joint venture with Hexo Corp. to develop cannabis beverages. When PepsiCo Inc. said last week that it has no plans to invest in cannabis, its shares took a dip. Functional Ingredient Other Canadian retail outlets are moving into the pot space. Shoppers Drug Mart, the drugstore chain owned by Loblaw Cos., last month received approval from Health Canada to become a licensed medical marijuana producer, opening the door for its pharmacies to dispense medical cannabis to patients. While CBD doesnt get you high like its cousin THC, its thought to help with a wide range of ailments ranging from pain and inflammation to anxiety and sleeplessness. Its therapeutic effects are the subject of several clinical trials being conducted by Canadian cannabis companies, including a Canopy study on sleep and Tilray Inc. research into Dravet syndrome, a rare form of pediatric epilepsy. Health and wellness consumers are beginning to find value and use cases from CBD-based oil extracts, tinctures, topicals and capsules to improve everyday life, Cowen & Co. analyst Vivien Azer wrote in a research note Tuesday. We expect to see CBD used as a functional ingredient in non-alcoholic beverages. Washington's new envoy tasked with pursuing a peaceful settlement of Afghanistan's 17-year war is visiting Pakistan to seek help from Islamabad's new government in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, the U.S. Embassy said. Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Kabul, arrived in Pakistan on October 9 from neighboring Afghanistan. His tour of the region will also include stops in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Khalilzad was met by Pakistani Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, who led a delegation that included "security, defense, and diplomatic officials," according to a tweet from the foreign office spokesman. There were no further details. Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan promised after winning election in July that his government would be "partners in peace," and Pakistan has supported Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's peace overtures to the Taliban this year. Pakistan's cooperation in the peace process is believed to be key to its success. The country's powerful military is believed to have kept close ties to the Afghan Taliban since using it to blunt Indian influence in the region in the 1990s. In Afghanistan, Khalilzad met with Ghani, a longtime friend. Khalilzad, who was born in Afghanistan, first served in Kabul as a special envoy for President George W. Bush following the 2001 ouster of the Taliban, and then later as Washington's ambassador. But Khalilzad has had a prickly relationship with Pakistan, and has often accused Islamabad of fomenting violence in Afghanistan by supporting the Taliban. He has even said the United States should declare Pakistan a terrorist state. Washington and Kabul have both repeatedly accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for Taliban insurgents, a claim Islamabad has denied and countered with charges that Pakistani insurgents have found sanctuary in Afghanistan. Both South Asian countries have been the target of brutal militant attacks by both Taliban and Islamic State militants. Khalilzad's tour of the region has been shrouded in secrecy. One of his stops is Qatar, where the Taliban maintains a political office. In July, the Taliban said it met there with Alice Wells, Washington's then-top diplomat in the region. Washington has neither denied nor confirmed the meeting, though Wells was in Qatar at the time. It is not known whether there would be a similar meeting with Khalilzad on his visit. Direct talks with the United States have been a persistent demand of the Taliban, which accuses Ghani and his government of being U.S. "puppets." The Afghan Taliban is currently waging a violent campaign against Afghanistan's parliamentary elections on October 20, which it has denounced as a U.S. ploy to further Washington's interests in Afghanistan. In a statement on October 8, the Taliban urged Afghan candidates to withdraw their names from the ballot lists. The Islamic State extremist group affiliate in Afghanistan has also been staging attacks on election campaigns. On October 9, a blast at a campaign rally in Helmand province killed eight people and injured 11 others, including the candidate holding the rally. No group immediately claimed responsibility. With reporting by AP and Reuters Reporter Stephanie Earls is a news reporter and columnist at The Gazette. Before moving to Colorado Springs in 2012, she worked for newspapers in upstate NY, WA, OR and at her hometown weekly in Berkeley Springs, WV, where she got her start in journalism. The bragging rights to open Colorados 2018-19 season are poised to shift southwest. While perennial openers Arapahoe Basin and Loveland ski areas had yet to announce by Wednesday when their lifts would run, humble Wolf Creek Ski Area was proud to report a kickoff party set for 9 a.m. Saturday. The mountain near Pagosa Springs will continue to host skiers and riders only on Saturdays and Sundays until otherwise announced. Davey Pitcher of the family-owned Wolf Creek expected three lifts to run this weekend, accessing beginner and intermediate terrain stocked with the powder that graces the states snowiest ski area. While the industry relies on robust snowmaking operations, including at A-Basin and Loveland, Wolf Creek counts on Mother Nature. Pitcher said he still anticipated possibly sharing the opening weekend, but it could be a peoples choice. Well have all-natural snow, and theyll have man-made, he said. Pitcher said Wolf Creek was nearing the 30-inch snow total that accompanied opening day in 2011, the last time it beat out A-Basin and Loveland to be the first Colorado ski area to open. With a base of 14 inches and building, Pitcher said visitors should expect typical early-season conditions. He was just finishing a run on intermediate slopes reached by the Treasure lift when he said, Its gonna ski pretty good. The sun could come out and change it, he added. But people can have a good time, be with friends, have a burger and beer and kick off the year. Pitchers decision came as a storm rolled through Wednesday, forcing a chain law on Wolf Creek Pass. He was especially happy considering last seasons late Thanksgiving start at the ski area. And surely, in the wake of the 416 fire, a whole region is happy. The white-capped San Juan Mountains were a welcome sight this week after a summer of record drought conditions. The forecast late Wednesday called for a chance of snow showers Thursday over Wolf Creek, with clouds parting for a potential bluebird Saturday. Tickets to ride the beginner Nova lift will cost $29. Users of the rest of the mountain, taking either the Treasure or Bonanza lifts, will be charged the local rate of $50. The rental shop will be open. A news release Wednesday from A-Basin said snowmaking continued for 15 hours, and the plan was to keep firing guns through the night and morning with snowfall still expected. A spokeswoman said an opening had not been set, but the budget called for Oct. 19. Messages to Lovelands spokesman were not returned. UCHealth Memorial Hospital North is growing so fast the Briargate-area facility had to accelerate its expansion timeline and build additional Democratic leaders of the Colorado House of Representatives and the chair of the state Democratic Party on Wednesday called on state Rep. Jovan Melton to resign in the wake of a report that he twice was arrested years ago on allegations of domestic violence. Meanwhile, a woman involved in one of the incidents, in 2008, said earlier Wednesday that there was no act of domestic violence. Jovan is a good guy, said the woman. I believe in him. House Speaker Crisanta Duran of Denver, Majority Leader KC Becker of Boulder and Assistant Majority Leader Alec Garnett of Denver said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that the allegations first revealed in a Denver Post story Tuesday are deeply disturbing and very serious. We have spoken with Rep. Melton privately and encouraged him to resign. It is Meltons decision whether to step down, the three lawmakers statement continued. In addition, they said, we recognize that the criminal justice system has not worked for far too many people of color and survivors. People should not necessarily be precluded from running for office because they have issues in their past. But we urge him to consider the seriousness of the story and the impact on the people of his district and on the public confidence in the legislature. Morgan Carroll, a former state senator who now chairs the Democratic Party, issued a similar call for Melton to step down. The incidents detailed against Rep. Melton are shocking and saddening. I have privately told Rep. Melton that I think it is in the best interest of his district for him to step down. At the end of the day, public service is about putting the public first. Colorado Politics has reached out to Melton for a comment. He has not indicated so far whether he will step down. The House leaders statement was issued in the wake of a statement from a Republican leader accusing Democrats of a cover-up. Melton is the deputy majority whip in the Colorado House and vice chair of the Black Democratic Legislative Caucus. He is running unopposed for his fourth and final term. Melton, of Aurora, was arrested twice on suspicion of domestic violence first in 1999 when he was a student at the University of Colorado-Boulder and again in 2008. In the 1999 case, Melton was convicted of harassment, given a 12-month suspended sentence, and placed under a permanent restraining order. He issued a statement Tuesday in which he apologized to both the victim in the 1999 incident and to the alleged victim in 2008. While I categorically deny any allegations that suggest any violence against the women involved, I am both embarrassed and heartbroken to be reminded of my immaturity all those years ago, Melton said. As a victim of childhood violence, to have caused pain and anguish for these women is horrible and for that I am sorry. I hope that both women can forgive me for the emotional pain that Ive caused them. In a statement issued before the announcement from House Democratic leaders, House Minority Leader Patrick Neville of Castle Rock said: I was saddened and disappointed when I read the news report regarding the past behavior of Representative Melton. (But) what is most offensive is finding out that the Democrats continue to cover up the actions of their members while promoting them to positions of leadership within their caucus and in our state legislature, where their abusive behavior can continue. The statement addressed the Melton allegations as well as the earlier expulsion of former Democratic Rep. Steve Lebsock, who was voted out of the House on a 52-9 vote on March 2. The expulsion was tied to complaints of sexual misconduct by five women and for retaliating against his victims. House Republicans alleged during the session that Duran and Garnett knew about sexual harassment accusations against Lebsock but turned a blind eye to ensure his reelection and then promoted him to leadership positions within the Democrat caucus, according to Nevilles statement. Neville also brought up a harassment and bullying complaint made against Melton by fellow Democratic Rep. Donald Valdez of La Jara. This is what Colorado gets from the Democrats: a habitually abusive person in leadership in our legislature, Neville said in the statement. Earlier Wednesday, the woman involved in the 2008 incident who has been married to Melton since 2009 contacted Colorado Politics and agreed to be interviewed on condition she not be named in a story. Colorado Politics independently verified that the woman interviewed was the one involved in the 2008 incident. According to the 2008 police report, which Colorado Politics reviewed, Melton and the alleged victim were traveling along Interstate 70 when they began to argue. The report said the alleged victim was driving, while Melton was in the front passenger seat. Melton allegedly put the car into neutral and then struck the alleged victim in the face, the report said. The car then crashed into a guardrail. But there was no domestic violence or assault in the 2008 incident, the woman in the incident said. The charge was later dismissed. I didnt feel like my side of the story was told, she said. What happened in 2008 was a misunderstanding that was totally blown out of proportion by the arresting officer. There wasnt anything violent that happened, she said, adding she believed the arrest was racially motivated. Jovan is not a violent person. I was not a victim of him being violent in any way, she said. Subscribers will be the only ones allowed to post comments at the bottom of stories on gazette.com as of Sunday. A child holds a poster about Indigenous Peoples Day before a march Monday, Oct. 8, in Seattle. In 2014, the Seattle City Council voted to stop recognizing Columbus Day and instead turned the second Monday in October into a day of recognition of Native American cultures and peoples. This is a video of 62-year old Giorgi Bereziani of Tbilisi, Georgia (country not state) being reunited with his lost dog Jorge after he went missing in 2015. Some more info while I go grab some tissues for you: "This is toilet paper." Jesus, it does the exact same thing. "Yeah, but tissues haven't lived their entire recent life in a fart-filled bathroom stall." You don't know that. "62-year-old Giorgi Bereziani lost his beloved dog named Jorge in 2015. All this time since then, he was trying to find his beloved companion. He was putting up ads, combing the streets, but all without success. Three years later, the workers of an opera house called the desperate man and said that a dog, looking like his dog, was walking near their building. Giorgi immediately went to the scene. He saw a black and white dog near a tree and called its name. The dog rose to its feet and wagged its tail. Sniffing at the owner, George's dog threw his front paws at him and began to whimper, as if in disbelief. "Jorge, is that you?" George Jorge, it's you! Oh, dear boy, how are you, boy? "Giorgi says, beside himself with excitement. Giorgi noticed a yellow tag on the dog's ear, which meant that the dog was taken from the streets by animal control workers, but it was considered harmless to society, so the dog was vaccinated and released." Happy endings. TRUE STORY: I actually had a nightmare last night that my dog (and another dog that was also mine that I'm unfamiliar with in real life) ran away. It was awful. Even worse than my usual nightmare, and my usual nightmares involves being trapped in a house with a bunch of other pandemic disease survivors and there are a bunch of body bags in the basement and every time I shoot one it starts moaning. "Why do you keep shooting them?" To prove to the other survivors that these people are already dead! "But they're not?" None of the ones I tried! Keep going for the heartwarming video while I Google how to stop dreaming besides not sleeping. Thanks to hairless, who occasionally throws me a feel-good bone, which I appreciate. LAKEWOOD, Colo., Oct. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shanghai UniCAR-Therapy Bio-Medicine Technology Co. chose Terumo BCT and its cell expansion devices to automate its cell therapy manufacturing process for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. Privately held, UniCAR will open their Center of Excellence for Terumo BCTs technologies in Shanghai in November. Terumo BCT is a global leader in blood component, therapeutic apheresis and cellular therapy technologies. The company provides flexible solutions for CAR T-cell developers and manufacturers, including the Quantum Cell Expansion System, in use at UniCAR today. Compared to the manual method of cell expansion, we save time and increase the quality of cells and viruses we grow using the Quantum system, says Dr. Yu Lei, a pioneer in the gene therapy field and Chief Executive Officer, UniCAR. It only makes sense to share best practices and showcase technologies that are driving innovation in our growing industry. In 2018, UniCAR submitted four applications for CAR T-cell drug candidates as investigational new drugs (INDs) to Chinas National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). UniCARs advanced CAR T2.0 technologies are designed to reduce the side effects of treatments and improve patient outcomes. The science and development in the cell and gene therapy space are rapidly evolving. Both UniCAR and Terumo BCT are at the forefront of this quickly changing landscape, says Cindy Ng, Senior Vice President, Global Commercial, Terumo BCT. Our collaboration has the potential to touch many patients lives. In addition to automating cell expansion manufacturing with the Quantum system, Terumo BCT continues to deliver high-levels of service to support its customers innovations. The Finia Fill and Finish System, one of the companys latest technology in development, is designed to automate the final step of cell processing which includes cooling, mixing and aliquoting doses of cell therapies. The companys COBE Spectra Apheresis System and Spectra Optia Apheresis System are extensively used in the industry to collect high-quality white blood cellsthe first step in CAR T-cell therapies. About UniCAR China-based UniCAR Therapy is a pioneer in the industry of cancer immunotherapy. The company collaborates with top-ranked hospitals specializing in hematological malignancies, including leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. To date, more than 400 patients have benefitted from UniCARs immunotherapeutic products. The company holds more than 30 patents of CAR T-cell technology and is dedicated to the extended application of the next generation of CAR T-cell therapies with enhanced efficacy and safety profiles. About Terumo BCT Terumo BCT, a global leader in blood component, therapeutic apheresis and cellular therapy technologies, is the only company with the unique combination of apheresis collections, manual and automated whole blood processing, and pathogen reduction technologies. We believe in the potential of blood to do even more for patients than it does today. This belief inspires our innovation and strengthens our collaboration with customers. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/36fcf676-d50a-4406-9f02-e11126302966 Dr. Colin Haines, assisted by Dr. Christopher Good, reshapes the future of spine care by performing the first endoscopic minimally invasive spinal procedure at Reston Hospital Center. RESTON, Va., Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Colin Haines, assisted by Dr. Christopher Good, Spine Surgeons at Virginia Spine Institute, is the first physician to perform endoscopic spine surgery at Reston Hospital Center. Through a micro incision (less than 1cm), Dr. Haines and Dr. Good utilized the magnification of an HD-endoscope to perform a microdiscectomy. This surgical method allowed safer and more efficient removal of a disc herniation. Minimally invasive procedures are now commonplace in spinal surgery, but endoscopic spine surgery utilizes ultra-minimally invasive technology that enhances traditional surgical technique. The advantage of a smaller incision (less than 1cm) and the introduction of a high-resolution camera minimizes tissue disruption and reduces post-operative pain for the patient. Typically performed as an outpatient procedure, patients undergo less anesthesia and experience improved recovery times. A wide-reaching innovation, endoscopic spine surgery has promise to transform the lives of patients with degenerative disc disease, disc herniations, and spinal stenosis. This milestone is an essential breakthrough for future spinal procedures as the specialists at Virginia Spine Institute work to advance endoscopic technology for spinal fusions and spinal decompressions. Endoscopic spine surgery has unleashed new potential for faster, safer, and more effective surgical recoveries, says Dr. Colin Haines, Spine Surgeon and Director of Research at Virginia Spine Institute. Im proud to dramatically improve the lives of patients suffering from back pain by pioneering treatment solutions like this that get them back to their active lifestyles faster. Dr. Colin Haines is an expert in minimally invasive surgical techniques that improve patient safety and reduce recovery time. These techniques include ultrasonic spine surgery, endoscopic spine surgery, and robot-guided spine surgery. Dr. Christopher Good, Spine Surgeon and President of Virginia Spine Institute, specializes in the treatment of complex spinal conditions and is considered a world expert in the field of robotic spine surgery. About Virginia Spine Institute: Virginia Spine Institute is an award-winning specialty medical practice in the Washington, DC metro area solely dedicated to spinal health care. For over 25 years they have improved the lives of over 85,000 patients suffering from back or neck pain conditions. This comprehensive spine center provides convenience of specialty care with the top experts from multiple specialties of spinal health care under one roof. Custom treatment options include non operative care, pain management, physical therapy, and when necessary surgical intervention, including minimally invasive, laser and robot-guided procedures. For more information about Virginia Spine Institute visit SpineMD.com. Photo accompanying this announcement are available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/71cbbbb0-a542-4be7-9ca8-c8047319cddf http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b8e761d3-ef29-4ea3-acb7-c71cdc88752b VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Osino Resources Corp. (TSXV: OSI) ("Osino or the Company), is pleased to announce the appointment of David Hodgson and Lazarus Shigwedha as Independent Directors to the Board of Osino. David Hodgson was co-Director alongside with Osinos founders and officers, Heye Daun and Alan Friedman on the Board of Auryx Gold Corp., from inception of that company until the time of its sale to B2 Gold Corp. in 2012. He formerly held a series of senior and executive positions over three decades with the Anglo American and De Beers group of companies, including the post of Chief Operating Officer of AngloGold Ashanti from November 2001 through to his retirement in April 2005. In addition, he has held non-executive directorships at Moto Gold Mines, Uranium One, Goliath Gold Mining, Montero Mining and Exploration, and Acacia Mining. David is currently a non-executive Director on the Board of AngloGold-Ashanti. Lazarus Shigwedha is a Namibian-born emerging markets and frontier portfolio manager with Investec Asset Management in Cape Town. He has deployed capital into emerging markets over the last 12 years, particularly into cement, infrastructure and resources. He has broad investment experience across sectors such as Banking, FMCG, Telcos and REITSs in jurisdictions such as Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Namibia, South East Asia and South America. Lazarus is also an active personal and institutional investor in Namibia. These appointments follow the resignation of David Toyoda as Director of the Osino. The Company would like to thank Mr. Toyoda for his service. Heye Daun, Osinos CEO commented: We are very proud that David & Lazarus have agreed to join Osinos Board of Directors. We have a long and successful association with both of them. We believe that Osino will greatly benefit from Davids extensive mining and development experience across many jurisdictions and Lazaruss capital markets and finance knowledge, combined with his deep Namibian understanding and network, which will prove invaluable for Osinos evolution. The company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Julia Becker as Investor Relations Manager. Ms. Becker will oversee all investor relations and corporate communications functions for Osino. Ms. Becker brings 10 years business development and marketing communications experience to the Osino team. She has extensive experience developing and executing integrated investor and stakeholder communication strategies for publicly-traded companies across various sectors. Ms. Becker spent years leading Investor Relations for a Namibian oil and gas company and has knowledge and understanding of operating in the Country. The Company also announces the granting of stock options under its Stock Option Plan to purchase an aggregate of 1,294,101 common shares of the Company at an exercise price of $0.30 per share for a five year term. The stock options were granted to directors, officers, employees, and consultants, and are subject to any necessary regulatory approvals. The stock options are subject to vesting conditions as determined by the Board of Osino. About Osino Resources Osino Resources Corp. (TSXV: OSI) is a Canadian company, focused on the acquisition and development of gold projects in Namibia. Osinos Namibian interests comprise eighteen exclusive exploration licenses located within the central zone of Namibias prospective Damara belt, mostly in proximity to and along strike of the producing Navachab and Otjikoto Gold Mines. Osino is currently focusing its efforts on developing the Karibib Gold Project and defining new exploration targets in the Otjikoto East area and on our other licenses. The Karibib Gold Project is located approximately 130 km north-west of Namibias capital city Windhoek. By virtue of its location, the projects benefit significantly from Namibias well established infrastructure with paved highways, railway, power and water in close proximity. Namibia is mining-friendly and lauded as one of the continents most politically and socially stable jurisdictions. Osino continues to evaluate new ground with a view to expanding its Namibian portfolio. Further details are available on the Company's website at https://osinoresources.com/ CONTACT INFORMATION English Norwegian Data Respons ASA has today entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares in IT SONIX GmbH and XPURE GmbH, two R&D Services companies situated in Leipzig with 125 employees. The companies are leading niche providers of specialist services and SW technology (Java, Embedded, Cloud, Data Sience (AI) and agile UXUI) specifically aimed at "Connected Car" solutions, internet of things, mobile services and embedded applications. - With this transaction, we continue to strengthen our presence in Germany, the by far largest industrial market in Europe and a strategically important market for Data Respons. More notably, we continue to strengthen our competence, industry know-how and customer footprint within some of the world's most dynamic and R&D intensive industries. The acquired companies are deeply involved in the ongoing digital transition for some of the leading automotive brands in Germany. IT SONIX and XPURE's provide clear operational synergies both on specialist competence and customer footprint and strengthens Data Respons' position as a complete technology partner for industrial digitalization, IoT and smart embedded solutions in Germany, says Kenneth Ragnvaldsen, CEO of Data Respons ASA. We are looking forward to become part of the Data Respons Group. We share the same culture and technology profile and both companies are working close with our customers to develop innovative solutions. We rely on specialists driven by new technology, accustomed to perform and develop highly complex solutions. Consequently, we are recruiting the best talents and our close collaboration with universities in Leipzig and Halle/Wittenberg will benefit the rest of the Data Respons Group. Joining forces with Data Respons puts us in a better position to take on even more innovative and exciting projects, says Andreas Lassmann CEO of IT SONIX and XPURE. - I am pleased to welcome IT SONIX and XPURE to the Data Respons family. We are fully committed; to further intensify the partnerships with their clients as well as to foster the agile team spirit and individual expertise of their employees. Together we have good prerequisites to take on larger, ground breaking projects creating smarter digital solutions for the future, Kenneth Ragnvaldsen concludes. Financial information The acquired companies (IT SONIX and XPURE) had a total turnover of EUR 13.6 million in 2017 and an EBIT of EUR 2.8 million. The consideration for the transaction is structured in three parts. The first part is an upfront cash consideration of EUR 9.8 million which has been paid today at the closing of the transaction. The second part is a private placement of 2.9 million shares in Data Respons ASA that will be issued to the sellers within 1 month after closing. The third part is an additional earn-out payment which will be paid based on a positive development in the EBIT of the acquired companies over the next 4 years (2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021). The earn-out payments will be due in Q2 the year following the respective earn-out year with the first payment on May 31st 2019, the second payment on May 31st 2020, third payment on May 31st 2021, and the last payment on May 31st 2022. The earn-out settlements will be a combination of cash and issuance of new shares (up to 50% of the settlement according to Data Respons' desire at the time of payment). The initial cash consideration has been funded by a combination of existing loan facilities and cash reserves. IT SONIX and XPURE are debt free and have cash in hand of EUR 0.5 million at closing. The companies will be consolidated into Data Respons' consolidated financial statements from October 2018. Total transaction costs is estimated to NOK 7 million, which will be recognized in the Q4 2018 accounts. Further information about the transaction will be provided in the forthcoming prospectus that will be issued according to Section 3.5 of the Continuing Obligations for Stock Exchange Listed Companies. For further information: Kenneth Ragnvaldsen, CEO, Data Respons ASA, tel. +47 913 90 918. Rune Wahl, CFO, Data Respons ASA, tel. + 47 950 36 046 About Data Respons Data Respons is a full-service, independent technology company and a leading player in the IoT, Industrial digitalisation and the embedded solutions market. We provide R&D services and smarter solutions to OEM companies, system integrators and vertical product suppliers in a range of market segments such as Transport & Automotive, Industrial Automation, Telecom & Media, Space, Defense & Security, Medtech, Energy & Maritime, and Finance & Public Sector. Data Respons ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (Ticker: DAT), and is part of the information technology index. The company has offices in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Taiwan. www.datarespons.com This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. English French Merignac, 10 October 2018 - 6:00 p.m. (CET) Press release MALTA INFORMATIQUE INTRODUCES A TELECONSULTATION SOLUTION FOR ASSISTED LIVING FACILITIES TITAN TELECONSULTATION is a new module destined exclusively for assisted living facilities for the elderly and persons with disabilities. This solution will be proposed to 2,000 elderly assisted living facilities that Malta Informatique also equips with its TITAN software applications. TITAN TELECONSULTATION is among the most technically comprehensive solutions on the market and the only teleconsultation solution for doctors fully integrated with the TITAN patient file at the assisted living facility. 100% compliant with the teleconsultation prerequisites of the French National Authority for Health (HAS - Haute Autorite de Sante). *** MALTA INFORMATIQUE, a subsidiary of Pharmagest Group (Euronext Paris - B - FR 0012882389 - Reuters: PHA.PA - Bloomberg: - PMGI FP) today launches its teleconsutlation solution for assisted living facilities: TITAN TELECONSULTATION. Created in 1999, MALTA INFORMATIQUE is an independent software vendor specialised in applications for elderly residential care homes and day care facilities, a fast-growing sector in which it has a market share exceeding 25%. Its TITAN application is the only solution on the market covering the entire medication pathway for elderly assisted living facilities. At the 1st of September 2018, MALTA INFORMATIQUE had equipped 2,000 elderly assisted living facilities (EHPAD) in France. TITAN Teleconsultation for elderly assisted living facilities: an efficient response to meeting the challenge of low physician density Low physician density, resident comfort, improved logistics, lower costs are factors contributing to the adoption of telemedicine solutions by elderly assisted living facilities. Against the backdrop a medical density crisis, access to general practitioners is becoming increasingly complicated, justifying the use of information and communications technologies which include teleconsultation. The TITAN TELECONSULTATION solution is an appropriate response to the different challenges linked to access to doctors throughout France. An innovative solution for improving continuity of care TITAN TELECONSULTATION improves communication between patients and their family and contributes to patient therapeutic education in the assisted living facility. The patients remain in their room in the reassuring company of their caregivers. The TITAN solution improves continuity of care and non-hospital/private practice care. It also offers a benefit to caregivers by facilitating more thorough and faster exchanges with specialists, especially in semi-urgent cases and when it is necessary to lift any doubts." Very easy-to-use for the team, the patient and the doctor From a simple web browser, and within the TITAN WEB MEDECIN module, TITAN TELECONSULTATION permits the doctor to efficiently conduct a teleconsultation with the assisted living facility resident. The service's ergonomics makes it very simple to useinvolving a minimal of amount of required equipment: at the assisted living facility: a tablet, a stethoscopes, an otoscope; at the doctor's: a webcam and a microphone headset. TITAN Teleconsultation is equipped with the very best video conferencing technology At the assisted living facility , through the TITAN NOMADE tablet, the caregiver creates a teleconsultation request by selecting the resident and the doctor. The doctors receive a SMS on their cell phone and connect through a browser to TITAN WEB MEDECIN. They validate the proposition and start the teleconsultation secured by their health professional card (CPS) The teleconsultation is conducted by means of video conferencing . The doctor and the patient communicate with each other orally. The doctors may ask the caregiver assisting at the consultation to carry out an auscultation with a connected stethoscope of otoscope. Other medical devices connected and available within TITAN remain usable (pulse oximeter, blood pressure monitor, thermometer). The doctor can take and annotate photos. Once the medical examination has been completed, the doctor enters a record for this teleconsultation, may prescribe a treatment and issue a treatment form for payment (form CERFA 12541*02). All these documents as well as the annotated photos are in recorded in digital format by signature of the doctor's "CPS" card and are immediately accessible through TITAN. Prescriptions are immediately available for the pharmacists . TITAN TELECONSULTATION Security and compliance TITAN Teleconsultation addresses all requirements for teleconsultation, and proposes added features: time dating, quality image and audio, taking photos with annotations. TITAN Teleconsultation also respects the prerequisites of the French National Authority for Health (HAS), including the teleconsutlation report, electronic signature by the doctors "CPS" card allowing for full dematerialization (prescriptions and treatment payment processing forms). Very promising prospects of MALTA INFORMATIQUE For MALTA INFORMATIQUE, the growth prospects are significant. To date the company has equipped 2,000 elderly assisted living facilities (out of a total in France of 7,000). As a key player in this sector and, in light of its compliance with French heath authority perquisites, MALTA INFORMATIQUE is today launching a teleconsultation solution extremely well-adapted for assisted living facilities within a very positive market for telehealth. In addition, as the only company to date offering this solution, MALTA INFORMATIQUE sees significant market potential, with all assisted living facilities destined to be equipped for teleconsultations by 2020. Finally, MALTA INFORMATIQUE expects that its TITAN TELECONSULTATION solution may also be used for specialist consultations. Indeed, for a significant number of cases, the specialist's opinion is necessary but this consultation is complicated by distance and the patient's condition. With TITAN TELECONSULTATION, the specialist has access to the patient and his or her medical file directly at the assisted living facility. This approach offers a response to the challenge of low physician density for certain medical specialities. MALTA INFORMATIQUE intends to equip 30% of its assisted living facility by 2019 with orders already for more than 100 modules to be deployed. About MALTA INFORMATIQUE MALTA INFORMATIQUE is an independent software vendor specialised in applications for elderly residential care homes and day care facilities, a fast-growing sector in which it has a market share exceeding 25 %. Its TITAN application is the only solution on the market covering the entire medication pathway for elderly residential care homes. At 31 December 2017, MALTA INFORMATIQUE was installed at 1,812 care homes. MALTA INFORMATIQUE has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of PHARMAGEST INTERACTIVE Group since 2007. About PHARMAGEST Group : Pharmagest Group is the French pharmacy information technology leader, with a market share of more than 42% and more than 1.000 employees. The Group's strategy is based on a core business of improving healthcare through information technology innovation and developing two priority areas: 1/ Services and technologies for healthcare professionals, with a focus on assisting pharmacies in patient medication compliance; and 2/ technologies for improving the efficacy of healthcare systems. To roll out this strategy, Pharmagest Group has developed specialised businesses, including pharmacy IT, e-Health solutions, solutions for healthcare professionals, solutions for pharmaceutical laboratories, connected health devices and apps, and a sales financing marketplace. These businesses are grouped within four divisions: Solutions for Pharmacy Division - Europe; Solutions for Health and Social Care Facilities; Solutions for e-Health; and FinTech. Listed on Euronext Paris(TM) - Compartment B Indices: CAC SMALL and CAC All-Tradable par inclusion Eligible for the Long-Only Deferred Settlement Service (SRD) ISIN: FR 0012882389 - Reuters: PHA.PA - Bloomberg: - PMGI FP For all the latest news on MALTA INFORMATIQUE go to www.malta-informatique.fr For all the latest news go to www.pharmagest.com Norfolk, Va., Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Old Dominion University is celebrating the expansion of the School of Nursing programs and the establishment of a new Center for Telehealth Education and Research at the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 10 a.m. Old Dominion has maintained a presence in Virginia Beach for 30 years. Its Higher Education Center is adjacent to Tidewater Community College. The move will complement ODU's health-sciences presence in Norfolk, introducing high-demand graduate programs in Virginia Beach, such as telehealth. It also will enlarge other programs in the Schools of Nursing and Community & Environmental Health within the College of Health Sciences. The expansion will bring an additional 850 students and 62 faculty members to Virginia Beach. The event will include remarks from Old Dominion President John R. Broderick; Karen Karlowicz, associate professor and chair of the School of Nursing; Austin Agho, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs; Gov. Ralph Northam; and Virginia Beach Mayor Louis R. Jones. In fall of 2018, the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center started offering upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in nursing and telehealth training, providing students dynamic new classroom and hands-on opportunities in these critical fields. This includes a day-long interprofessional telehealth seminar offered multiple times during the academic year and involves graduate students from ODU, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Hampton University and Virginia Wesleyan University. In addition to a new telehealth center, the University later plans to launch a primary-care clinic and a substance-abuse prevention center, along with a phase II expansion of its simulation training facilities. ABOUT OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY: Old Dominion University, located in the coastal city of Norfolk, is Virginia's entrepreneurial-minded doctoral research university with more than 24,200 students, rigorous academics, an energetic residential community, and initiatives that contribute $2.6 billion annually to Virginia's economy. akshatg92 wrote: Hi, So I took the GMAT today and score a good score but I believe I can improve it by 20+ points. I am wondering if I can do the following - - cancel today's score, take the exam again after 16+ days, see if i scored higher then than today and then decide which score to keep. If I score higher in the future, I will keep that score but if I score lower then I would like to reinstate today's score. Is that a possibility. Or is it safer to just keep today's score and also have an additional attempt shown which is higher (if lower in the future, I will definitely cancel) Thanks! Winners of four of five matches to open Conference USA play, UTSA volleyball will return to action, hosting FIU (12-6, 4-1 C-USA) on Friday at 7 p.m. CT and FAU (13-4, 4-1 C-USA) on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Convocation Center.The match on Friday vs. FIU will be held in conjunction with BestFest in front of the Convocation Center. The event will be held in the parking lot outside the Convocation Center and will includes games and fun for all ages. Student organizations will participate in BestFest, which includes a carnival atmosphere, complete with game booths and food venues. Sugar Ray, featuring Mark McGrath, will perform at 9 p.m. on Friday outside the Convo and fireworks will also be seen following the match on Friday.UTSA (12-5, 4-1 C-USA) has totaled 13.9 kills, 13.1 assists, 1.6 aces, 15.4 digs and 1.7 blocks per set as a team. UTSA has won five of its last six matches, including four-set wins over Virginia Tech, Southern Miss and UAB, a five-set thriller at UTEP and a three-set result vs. North Texas.Juniorhas averaged 3.03 kills per set in 2018, hitting .241 with 0.55 blocks per set. Juniorhas a .332 hitting percentage, owning 2.25 kills and 0.85 blocks per set. Freshmanhas a team-high 3.30 kills per set tops among C-USA freshmen hitting .211 with 3.43 digs per set, also tops among C-USA freshmen. Freshmanhas averaged 3.11 kills and 2.04 digs per set, hitting .179. Sophomorehas averaged 2.25 kills per set, hitting .279. Seniorleads the team with 8.37 assists per set, with freshmanowning 4.43 assists per set. Seniorleads the team with 4.09 digs per set.FIU (12-6, 4-1 C-USA) have totaled 12.99 kills, 12.01 assists, 1.39 aces and 14.7 digs and 2.24 blocks per set as a team in 2018. Margherita Bianchin leads the team with 3.48 kills per set, hitting .267 with 2.31 digs per set. Lina Bernier has a team-high 5.18 digs per set, with Chelsea Hudson and Dorina Klinger each own per set marks of at least 0.90. Abbie Hughes leads the club with 8.88 assists per set.FAU (14-4, 4-1 C-USA) is coming off a three-set sweep of Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday, stretching its winning streak to four consecutive entering the weekend. FAU has totaled team per set averages of 15.3 kills, 14.5 assists, 1.9 aces, 14.4 digs and 1.8 blocks. Sigourney Kame has a team-high 3.84 kills per set, adding a .346 hitting percentage. Massiel Matos has averaged 3.77 kills and 2.21 digs per set. Alex Cardona leads the team with 3.77 digs per set, with Ivone Martinez sporting 12.82 assists per set.UTSA leads the all-time series with FIU, 6-0, including a 4-0 mark in games played in San Antonio. The Roadrunners lead the series with FAU, 7-0, including a 3-0 mark in games played at the Convocation Center. The Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, represented by the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Economy, Etienne Schneider, and the Czech Republic, represented by the Minister of Transport, Dan Tok, signed a memorandum of understanding on a cooperation in the frame of space resources exploration and utilization. Both countries agreed to regularly consult and exchange views on their positions regarding the economic, legal, regulatory and technological aspects of the commercial utilization of space resources discussed in international fora and organizations such as the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) and its subcommittees. Furthermore, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic agreed to promote and to seek a constructive dialogue with other United Nations Member States with the goal to establish a clear and transparent global framework for the utilization of space resources that may lead to new scientific information and knowledge about the solar system and to valuable commercial applications. Luxembourgs Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy Etienne Schneider stated: "After the agreements signed with Portugal, Japan, China and the United Arab Emirates, this is another important step forward in enhancing international cooperation. The memorandum with the Czech Republic is yet another solid recognition of our economic development initiative SpaceResources.lu that is driven and lead by the newly created Luxembourg Space Agency to position the Grand Duchy as a European hub for the exploration and use of space resources." Minister of Transport of the Czech Republic Dan Tok stated: "I consider as important that the Czech Republic actively participates in broader bilateral and multilateral discussions on how to ensure lawful utilisation of space resources for the benefit of mankind. The memorandum with Luxembourg may represent one of useful platforms to support such discussions and actions 2 allowing to actively and efficiently contribute to establish a transparent and stable legal framework for the utilization of space resources and to mobilize necessary investments." Press release by the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Honda Motor posted a year-on-year (YoY) sales drop of 6% with 132,755 vehicles delivered in China last month, according to the sales data released by Honda China. For the first nine months, the Japanese automaker sold 965,004 vehicles in the world's largest auto market with a YoY decline of 6.9%. GAC Honda's sales in September amounted to 64,858 units, edging down 3.5% over a year ago. During the first three quarters, the joint venture saw its year-to-date (YTD) sales slightly fall 0.8% to 515,705. The sales of Honda-branded cars reached 64,100 units, shrinking 2.4% over a year earlier. However, its YTD sales represented a tiny positive growth of 0.1% compared with the same period a year ago. The Accord, with 16,369 vehicles sold last month, became the best seller. The sales of the Odyssey and Fit in September gained YoY growth of over 50%, which somewhat offset the sales decline made by the City, the CRIDER and the AVANCIER, etc. The premium brand Acura still failed to bounce back from the previous depressed performances. Last month, it delivered only 758 vehicles, suffering a YoY plunge of 52.3%. Its YTD sales were 6,019 units, 42.9% less than that of the previous year. Dongfeng Honda posted a YoY drop of 8.3% with 67,897 vehicles handed over last month. Its Jan-to-Sept sales declined 13.1% YoY as well to 449,299 units. Apart from the CIVIC and the XR-V, most models of Dongfeng Honda faced YoY reduction in September. The monthly sales of the CR-V, following the XR-V, tumbled 30.1% over the previous year to 13,679 units. The CIVIC remained the leadership among all models of the joint venture with its September sales surging 45.2% to 23,277 units. IceViking strongly condemns physical attacks and harassment directed towards them. They are also often victims of the Islamic idea. This is true when it comes to the cruel and tragic treatment of Muslim women and children when it is in accord with the Koran, the example of Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia, which may be applied regardless of where a Muslim male may find himself in the world, whether in a Muslim or non-Muslim country. However, in no way, shape or form should one judge all Muslim men because of what is in Islamic scripture and what constitutes the Islamic law, Sharia. "Race", ethnicity or basically anything that you are "merely" born with should never be a basis for bigotry and discrimination. Apostates from Islam have been executed for 1400 years in accord with the Koran and the words and actions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia. They should be lovingly helped. Furthermore, approximately as many as 11,000,000 Muslims may have been killed by other Muslims since 1948. To quote the website The Religion of Peace (TROP), edited by Glen Roberts: While it may be safe to say that a true Muslim would not intentionally kill another true Muslim ( 4:92-93 ), the Quran places no such value on the life of a Muslim who is not true. Consider verse 9:73 : Strive hard against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be harsh against them, their abode is Hell. The Arabic for strive hard uses the same root as Jihad - and the context in this sura is holy war (see v. 86 and 91). Thus, there are two distinct classes of people that a true Muslim is to target with harshness: disbelievers and hypocrites. A disbeliever obviously refers to a non-Muslim, so a "hypocrite" must be a Muslim of some sort. In fact, hypocrites are those who say they believe, but do not act as they should. In other words, they are "Muslims", but not true Muslims. They will go to hell just as unbelievers do, and so, according to the verse, their lives matter for naught. The same sura says that a hypocrite can be recognized not just by lack of piety (reluctance to follow Sharia), but by fear of death ( 9:56 ), reluctance to fight ( 9:44-45 ) and even friendliness toward non-believers ( 9:67 ). A true Muslim would thus be a pious person who relishes martyrdom, is eager to fight, and shuns non-believers. Even the Quranic passage that warns against killing "believers" ( 4:88-94 ) is more complicated than it first appears. It never says that a true Muslim is incapable of killing another Muslim, just that it should not be done. In fact, it makes exceptions for the unintentional killing of "believers" in war and mandates the killing of "hypocrites." Verse 17:33 says, "Do not kill anyone which Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause" . The greatest cause of all is that Islam be superior ( 9:33 ), which is exactly what Islamic terrorists say is their goal. Thus believing Muslims are allowed to be collateral damage in the war on unbelievers. There is sadly a phenomena that I`ve noticed in Sweden and elsewhere of people using true facts about Islamic doctrine and history as a cover for all sorts of irrational targeting of Muslims, ranging from xenophobia and racism to verbal abuse and physical attacks. This is strongly condemned by this website and does not in any way serve serious criticism of orthodox Islam and other important work. It`s also important that one tries to express oneself in a civilized way. Words matter. In this bloggers humble opinion the root cause of the problem is the ancient doctrine of orthodox Islam. In simple terms a non-Muslim is a Kafir. " The Koran defines the kafir and kafir is not a neutral word. A kafir is not merely someone who does not agree with Islam, but a kafir is evil, disgusting, the lowest form of life." An exact quote, as stated in the writings of Dr. Bill Warner in the article "Kafir" at http://www.politicalislam.com/kafir . In the perfect Koran (Allah`s direct and literal word as revealed to Mohammed through the angel Jibril), Muslims are told 89 times to emulate Mohammed in all ways (see Koran 33:21 for instance). Mohammed`s example, the Sunna, is found in the Hadith (stories of what Mohammed said and did) and the Sira (biographies of Mohammed). Islamic law, Sharia , is directly derived from these unchanging scriptures. It is based on the Koran`s numerous commands to obey Allah and obey the Messenger, that is Mohammed (see Koran 4:59 for instance). Islam is Sharia. Sharia is Islam. It is a capital crime for Muslims to deny Sharia in any way. A Muslim is someone who submits to Islam and submitting to Islam means obeying the Sharia of Allah. Sharia law includes pronouncements for both Muslims and non-Muslims (Kafirs). Islam is a "complete way of life", a "complete code of life", a "complete system of life". Islam is not just a religion but also a comprehensive ideology. Islam is a supremacist ideology. Islam is a totalitarian and imperialistic ideology akin to Communism and Nazism. Islam is a civilization. Islamic law, Sharia, is a manual for a civilization. Islamic law, Sharia, governs every aspect of life. It has a say about every conceivable human act . Non-Muslims are morally and legally inferior in Islam. Women are morally and legally inferior in Islam. The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS by Robert Spencer is the first one-volume history of jihad in the English language and a great book on the topic. Allah guarantees Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for him (Koran 9:111). A hadith depicts a Muslim asking Muhammad: "Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward)." Muhammad replied, "I do not find such a deed." (Bukhari 4.52.44) Muhammad himself said: I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah. (Sahih Muslim 30) Freedom of speech, human rights, democracy, science and human lives are all at stake in the fight against the Islamic Jihad. 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 A woman alleges that when she was an Indiana legislative intern in 1992, she performed oral sex on a married Republican lawmaker who has since become the speaker of the Indiana House. The former Democratic intern told The Indianapolis Star for a story published Wednesday that the sexual act with Brian Bosma was consensual, but that she felt pressured into it. Bosma, who first became Indiana House speaker in 2004, issued a statement Wednesday calling the woman's claims "unequivocally false." The newspaper reports that Bosma paid a law firm more than $40,000 in campaign funds this year in part to gather unflattering information about the former intern and that the woman's family members say Bosma's attorney threatened to reveal her name and unfavorable information about her if her account became public. The attorney, Linda Pence, said in a written statement that she ran a professional investigation and "witnesses/sources were not threatened or harassed." The Associated Press could not reach the former intern for comment. A decades-long debate over whether Indiana should have an explicit hate crimes law is no closer to a resolution. A committee assigned to study the issue did not deliver a recommendation. The study committee took hours of testimony. It largely mirrored the hours of testimony heard in each of the last three sessions, when lawmakers debated a hate crimes bill. Committee chair Rep. Tom Washburne (R-Inglefield) says hes not comfortable with the panel making any recommendation on the issue. [It] is a matter of public policy to be resolved by the elected General Assembly, meeting in full session, Washburne says. But Rep. Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington) says the committee shouldnt pass the buck. If we wanted to, we could actually make some stronger or more detailed recommendation on the bias crimes thing," Pierce says. "I mean, the idea is to try to break the logjam here. Gov. Eric Holcomb earlier this year announced he'll support an effort to pass a hate crimes law in the upcoming 2019 legislative session. That session begins in January. A proposal from President Donald Trump could greenlight the summer sale of e-15 ethanol. E-15 contains more ethanol than other fuel blends. Conflicting studies on whether the fuel is better or worse for the environment have some officials at odds. Josh Miller is Vice President of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and a Hoosier farmer.. "Its going to be more economic stability knowing were going to have it year-round," he says. "Were going to see fewer fluctuations in the market." In this weeks U.S. Senate Debate, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) also spoke about the importance of ethanol to Hoosier farmers. [excitement/disaster/debacle - readers can pick their preferred option] here , the following is an update on my countdown to Brexit from the brands perspective, last written about at the Following Rosies postthe following is an update on my countdown to Brexit from the brands perspective, last written about at the T-266 days point here , although theres plenty of detail lacking on that. We dont know that no deal will happen, but it seems a whole lot more likely than it did when I wrote my first 680 days to Brexit post. Sigh. If there is a deal, things should play out as I describedalthough theres plenty of detail lacking on that. notice . Exhaustion of IP rights is dealt with in this another notice . If there is no deal, the UK government says it will deal with trade marks and designs as set out in thisExhaustion of IP rights is dealt with in this notice and copyright (not discussed further here) is covered in this one . Geographical indications (also not discussed further here) are covered in Theres probably three ways to look at what the UK government has announced for no deal: (1) it is going to make everything as easy as possible for brand owners; (2) it has just given the EU everything it wants; or (3) most of what it is suggesting is sensible, but some of its decisions come at the expense of the UK trade mark profession with a lot of details still TBC and likely announced at the last moment, as the UK plunges into apocalyptic no-deal darkness. Or maybe it is a bit of each. In summary, the no deal plan is not a million miles away from the agreed text of the draft withdrawal (divorce) agreement. As best I understand it, well only agree the divorce provided theres agreement in principle on the nature of the post-break up trading relationship (Partnership? Conscious recoupling? Friends with benefits?). Existing EUTMs and RCDs These will be cloned, as proposed in the draft withdrawal agreement. The precise wording used in the technical notice is that the UK will provide an equivalent trade mark or design registered in the UK. The new right will be provided with minimal administrative burden, which must (I think) mean automatically. If you currently own 0 UKTMs and 100 EUTMs, come Friday 29 March 2019 youll have 100 of each. The technical notice says that right holders will be notified that a new UK right has been granted. How will this be achieved? Will owners or their representatives be contacted? By post or email? Will I receive 100s of letters on B-Day which I have to scan in and pass onto my clients? There wont be any notification for pending registrations. It also says an owner can opt out of the cloning process. How? When? The notice is a little vague about EU designations of International Registrations, saying the UK is also working, including with [WIPO], to provide continued protection for such registrations, including designs filed through the Hague system. So WIPO, please be nice. Watch out for renewal dates when your cloned rights appear some clones wo uld be due for renewal immediately (in fact there are six EUTMs due for renewal on 29 March 2019, as would be their clones it helps that 29 March 2009 was a Sunday. Another 1,413 will be due the following week). Applications Again as proposed in the draft withdrawal agreement, anything which is only a pending registration on B-Day will not be cloned. Youll need to refile, but the UK will provide a nine-month priority period to do so essentially to the end of 2019. Describing this as a priority period is dangerous, because it will be nothing to do with the priority period under the Paris Convention. Perhaps we better call it the refile and backdate option. It is not unusual for EUTMs to take more than six months to register (although the majority probably take less). So as we get closer to the end of this year the prospects of new EUTM applications not being registered by B-Day will increase dramatically. If we look at all EUTMs filed more than six months ago, about 3,700 are still pending, not counting the 18,300 applications which are opposed. Those in the same state on B-Day will not be cloned (if the EUIPO database is accurate, this includes three EUTMs applied for in 1996 which are still the subject of oppositions these should be eligible for refiling in the UK with entitlement to backdate 22 years). Well be getting (another) UK design right! Thats right, designs just got even more complicated. In addition to UK registered design (UKDR), UK unregistered design right (UKUDR), unregistered Community design right (UCDR) and RCDs (and dont forget copyright), the UK will be creating a new right: the supplementary unregistered design right (possible acronyms include the SUNDER, SLENDER, SNYDER or SPURT). The UK will also ensure that all unregistered Community designs which exist as of B-Day will continue to be protected and enforceable in the UK for their remaining lifetime. No details are provided of this. Disputes As regards existing UK court disputes involving EU rights, provision will be made, but theres no detail on what that means. More information will be provided before the point at which the UK exits the EU so again, who knows. The technical notice doesnt deal with it, but if we look at the EUIPOs notice and FAQ from December 2017/January 2018, well be reminded that any pending proceedings before the EUIPO for example oppositions which rely on only a UK registration or passing-off will fail. The rights relied upon need to have effect in the EU on the date the EUIPO decides the case. EU oppositions tend to take much longer than six months to resolve, so if you file an opposition relying upon UK only rights now, no deal will kill them dead. Rights of representation The notice coolly states that it does not address the impact of no deal on rights of representation, instead referring the reader to the EUIPOs notice and FAQ referred to above. Those documents blandly state the need for representatives to meet certain criteria, including establishment in the EEA. article on the perception issues now faced by UK trade mark professionals). There remains a lot of confusion about what UK lawyers and trade mark attorneys can and cant do before the EUIPO after Brexit. For one, not everyone is in the same boat there are different rules for solicitors than for trade mark attorneys, and those of us working in an EU or international firm or with existing dual-qualification may not have to worry. Many of the firms at greater risk (typically those with no previous EU presence outside of the UK) have already opened or are planning to open offices in mainland Europe. Nevertheless, there is anecdotal evidence of other EU professionals using Brexit as a marketing tool to spread misinformation claiming that UK lawyers should be ditched in favour of EU lawyers based elsewhere (see WIPRs recenton the perception issues now faced by UK trade mark professionals). Letters continue to be posted to the UK government from the likes of CITMA, CIPA and the Law Society. I even wrote to my MP, Jim Fitzpatrick. His response was full of platitudes, hopes and dreams and contained this disappointing conclusion: However, there are a number of issues that the European Commission has deemed to be outside the scope of negotiations, including rights such as the home title practise for lawyers. Talks on these areas are expected to continue as part of wider negotiations with the EU on the future of the economic partnership. I fear it may be sometime before we get anywhere on this subject. In the meantime, get on with your back up plans! Correspondence addresses The EUIPO has been fairly open about booting out UK professionals from rights of representation. The UK government has been happy to make bold statements about its bargaining position on many an occasion, with Brexiteers telling us the EU needs us as much as we need it. So has the UK taken a stand in its no deal planning to look after us plucky Brits while leaving the EU27 to go fish? Not really. One of the obvious changes the UK could make would be to require UK addresses for service for all UK trade mark owners, rather than EEA addresses. This would go some way towards reserving UK trade mark work to UK lawyers and offset the risk of EU work being the purview of those on the continent. CITMA has written that there is no justification for leaving things as they are. But in the technical notice the UK government simply states that there will be no immediate changes to the UK address for service rules. MARQUES has welcomed this because it minimises the administrative burden of Brexit. Thats fair enough, although the UK government could have decided that for any future application a UK representative would need to be appointed. Exhaustion Yes, we are all exhausted by Brexit. The UKs clever way of dealing with exhaustion of rights is this, stated to be a temporary solution of unknown duration: The UK will continue to recognise EEA exhaustion so the rules affecting imports of goods into the UK will not change. It does point out that the same cant be said for goods going the other way As the Brexitstarts to heat up, the IPKat has an update from Darren Meale who has been closely following the countdown to "B-day". Over to Darren: - Benjamin Alves was in the middle of shooting Kapag Nahati Ang Puso when he heard the news of his fathers passing - The taping had to be cut short - The Kapuso actor went straight to the airport and flew to Guam where his father is PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see It is with a saddened heart that we here at KAMI mourn at the death of Benjamin Alves father Ebet Sapida recently. The Kapuso actor was in the middle of taping when he got a hold of the news. The cast and crew had to wrap the taping for Kapag Nahati Ang Puso up early because of the news where the actor went straight to the airport and flew to Guam where the rest of his family resides. PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read Nothing was posted in other social media avenues about his father aside for Instagram where he paid homage to what Benjamin calls, our provider. In the same Instagram post you can see the out pour of condolences and support from fans, friends, and family. No other details were disclosed as of late. Be sure to check our website for any updates regarding this story. In a previous report by , Benjamin and Julie Anne revealed their relationship secrets. We here at KAMI would like to extend our condolences to Benjamin Alves and the rest of the Sapida family. Benjamin Alves started his acting career back in 2006 under the screen name Vince Saldana. In 2012 he changed his screen name to Benjamin Alves Alves is the nephew of Kapamilya heartthrob Piolo Pascual Do you think you can answer them correctly? These individuals from the Philippines have their answers! If a Worm Dies, Will It Be Eaten By Worms Too? This question might sound easy, but in reality, they are pretty tricky and it is easy to make a mistake! - on Source: Kami.com.ph The American Turkey Please note: The photos and images on this page have come from clipart CD's which allow use on the internet (educational) and in school projects or they have been contributed by viewers. The information has come from my research. You are free to use all of it in book reports or for your personal website. See KidZone Bibliography for more information. The turkey is one of the most famous birds in North America. In fact, Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey, not the Bald Eagle, the national bird of the United States! The turkey's popularity comes from the American people's love of eating the bird for special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Photo of a domestic turkey thanks to Steven for sending this in! The wild turkey we usually see in photos or pictures is not the same as the domestic turkey that we serve at Thanksgiving. Domestic or tame turkeys weigh twice what a wild turkey does and are raised on farms for profit. Most domestic turkeys are so heavy they are unable to fly. Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) live in woods in parts of North America and are the largest game birds found in this part of the world. They spend their days foraging for food like acorns, seeds, small insects and wild berries. They spend their nights in low branches of trees (yes, wild turkeys can fly!). thanks to Steven for sending this in! Tom Turkey's Tale of a Tail Peacocks aren't the only birds who use their fancy tails to attract a mate. Each spring male turkeys try to befriend as many females as possible. Male turkeys, also called "Tom Turkeys" or "Gobblers" puff up their bodies and spread their tail feathers (just like a peacock). They grunt, make a "gobble gobble sound" and strut about shaking their feathers. This fancy turkey trot helps the male attract females (also called "hens") for mating. After the female turkey mates, she prepares a nest under a bush in the woods and lays her tan and speckled brown eggs. She incubates as many as 18 eggs at a time. It takes about a month for the chicks to hatch. When the babies (known as poults) hatch they flock with their mother all year (even through the winter). For the first two weeks the poults are unable to fly. The mother roosts on the ground with them during this time. Wild turkeys are covered with dark feathers that help them blend in with their woodland homes. The bare skin on the throat and head of a turkey can change color from flat gray to striking shades of red, white, and blue when the bird becomes distressed or excited. Where did the turkey get its name? Have you ever wondered what Turkey (the country in the Middle East) and the American bird have in common? A case of mistaken identity resulted in the American Turkey being named after the country. When the Spanish first found the bird in the Americas more than 400 years ago they brought it back to Europe. The English mistakenly thought it was a bird they called a "turkey" so they gave it the same name. This other bird was actually from Africa, but came to England by way of the Turkey (lots of shipping went through Turkey at the time). The name stuck even when they realized the birds weren't the same. Turkey Terms Caruncle - brightly colored growths on the throat region. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship. Gizzard - a part of a bird's stomach that contains tiny stones. It helps them grind up food for digestion. Hen - a female turkey. Poult - a baby turkey. A chick. Snood - the flap of skin that hangs over the turkey's beak. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship. Tom - a male turkey. Also known as a gobbler. Wattle - the flap of skin under the turkey's chin. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship. Scientific genus and species: Meleagris gallopavo Turkey On-Line Jigsaw Puzzles [Puzzle 1] [Puzzle 2] [Puzzle 3] [Puzzle 4] Turkey Coloring Page [General Info] [Anatomy] Other Fun Hands On Turkey Activity Links: Its time for enterprises, governments, service providers and other organizations to up their game when it comes to identifying cybersecurity threats then acting in real time against attacks when and where they happen. As National Cyber Crime Awareness Month continues in the US this October, most recently following on a major breach of Facebook (News - Alert) accounts, Carbon Black has rolled out an advanced threat hunting and incident response platform with a brain, tapping their predictive security cloud. This new service (Cb ThreatHunter) leverages unfiltered data on their cloud (PSC) using the companys endpoint security platform with a single agent and single console to consolidate prevention, detection, response, managed services and advanced threat hunting. Cloud-native security solutions protecting endpoints has been Carbon Blacks theme throughout the year, and this fourth new service is being demonstrated at the companys annual user conference in NYC this week. One year ago at Cb Connect in San Francisco, we outlined our vision to rapidly extend the Cb Predictive Security Cloud to make it easier for our customers to move off legacy AV and address multiple security use cases through a single cloud platform and single sensor, said Patrick Morley, Carbon Blacks Chief Executive Officer. With the addition of Cb ThreatHunter, this market-leading platform will have five offerings and delivers customers the ability to prevent, detect, respond to, predict and now, hunt threats in the cloud using a single agent, single console and single platform. Cb ThreatHunter is delivered through the PSC, Carbon Blacks powerful endpoint protection platform that consolidates prevention, detection, response, threat hunting and managed services into a single platform with a single agent and single console. In todays attack landscape, threat hunters must position themselves on the high ground, said Tom Kellermann, Carbon Blacks Chief Cybersecurity Officer. The high ground is defined by greater situational awareness. Specifically, the hunter must analyze threat intel from customer IPs, domains and hashes applied to historical data. From that vantage one must search for similar threads that are not identical matches in historical data. Successful anomaly detection requires continuous analysis of unfiltered data from the endpoint. Cb ThreatHunter has simplified incident response by allowing quick discovery of both simple and advanced threats, and quickly making decisions to take conclusive actions, said Denis Xhepa, IT Systems Security Engineer of MidCap Financial Services. Its simplicity and responsiveness are amazing, especially when you are running an investigation where every minute matters. When I find something, I can prevent it for the future, and look for other related or similar things. All this can be done very intuitively. Anomaly detection is also going to be enhanced by the backend intelligence applied to the data. Endpoint security used to be difficult. The combination of rapidly searchable, unfiltered endpoint data for advanced threat hunting, combined with an array of prevention and response capabilities built-in to one endpoint sensor is a significant step forward. Cb ThreatHunter further enhances our ability to deliver rapid incident detection and response to our global customers, said Marc Brawner, Principal at Krolls Cyber Risk practice. Carbon Black has also been pioneering in crowd-sourcing information with more than 2,000 members active on their Cb Response community. The new service has been informed by collaboration from customers and developers within their customer base and includes: More Powerful Search Fields: Cb ThreatHunter equips security teams with the ability to flexibly hunt threats, even if an endpoint is offline. With this level of visibility, researchers can see what happened at every stage of an attack with intuitive attack-chain visualizations, and uncover advanced threats, while minimizing attacker dwell time. This insight provides immediate answers with comprehensive behavioral context to stop attacks as quickly as possible. Enhanced Threat Intel (News - Alert) Matching: Cb ThreatHunters sophisticated detection combines custom and cloud-delivered threat intel, automated watchlists and integrations with the rest of the security stack to efficiently scale hunting across the enterprise. This advanced level of detection allows security teams to proactively explore environments for abnormal activity, leverage cloud-delivered threat intelligence and automate repeat hunts. Additionally, the PSCs platform extensibility allows developers to create custom watchlists to power real-time detection and correlate data across the security stack. Elastic Cloud Scalability: Cb ThreatHunter is natively built on the PSC, allowing security teams to rapidly deploy and scale the solution across their enterprise without investing in (or maintaining) on-premise infrastructure. By eliminating these costs and processes, Cb ThreatHunter enables teams to simplify their operations and focus their energy on hunting and responding to threats. Cb ThreatHunter will be generally available in November 2018. Edited by Maurice Nagle News reporters know about the risks of working in countries at war. But the recent death or disappearance of three individuals in Turkey, Bulgaria and Mexico showed the growing dangers to people targeted for their reporting. Turkish officials are searching for Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote commentaries for The Washington Post newspaper. He has not been seen since he entered Saudi Arabias diplomatic office in Istanbul last week. Some believe that he might have been killed there because he had written critically of the Saudi government. The government says the claim is baseless. Khashoggi went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get documents he needed to get married. He had lived in the United States and was trying to become a U.S. citizen. His fiancee has called on President Donald Trump to help find him. Separately, Bulgarian national radio reported an arrest Tuesday in the death of television broadcaster Viktoria Marinova. In her reporting, she accused a Bulgarian building company of misusing money provided by the European Union. Bulgarian police say the murder does not appear to be linked to her reporting. In Mexico this past week, journalist and activist Sergio Martinez Gonzalez was shot and killed as he ate with his wife. Two people on a motorcycle are the suspected killers. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that 43 journalists have been killed in 2018. There were 46 deaths for all of 2017. The numbers are not unusual. More than 73 journalists were killed in 2015. What is different is the way they are being killed. At least 27 journalists have been individually targeted so far this year. Eight lost their lives in violent conflicts. The CPJ said of all the media workers killed since 1992, 848 were individually killed and 1,322 were lost in war or other violence. Just as shocking is the spread of killings into Europe. In addition to Marinovas death in Bulgaria, Jan Kuciak was found shot to death in Slovakia after investigating tax corruption among people close to the government. In Malta, investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed after reporting on government corruption for her blog. There are crooks everywhere you look now, she wrote right before her death. The killing of five employees The Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland by a gunman in June showed the threat exists in the United States. In addition, the United Nations is seeking the release of two jailed Reuters news agency reporters in Myanmar. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys. Bruce Shapiro is with Columbia University in New York City. He said, Its safe to say there is a pervasive worldwide threat directed to journalists. And I think thats very dangerous. He added that the European cases appear to show the power of a small group of people involved in illegal activities. They are able to act across borders without fear of police. Media critics are careful not to place blame on President Trump. But they say his critical comments, calling journalists enemy of the people, have added to the hostile environment. Journalists who may not feel in physical danger can be the target of threats online. Experts say journalism organizations have recognized the threat and are trying to protect reporters. Bruce Shapiro said, "I think that people who stand for democratic values are beginning to understand that scapegoating journalists and scapegoating the media is a step toward authoritarianism. Im Jonathan Evans. David Bauder reported this story for the Associated Press. Susan Shand adapted his story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story fiancee n. a woman who expects to get married crook n. a thief blog n. a website that contains someones personal comments pervasive adj. spreading widely throughout an area or a group of people. online adj. connected to a system, especially a computer or telecommunications system scapegoat n. an innocent person who is blamed for a bad act authoritarianism n. an oppressive government without democracy Rahima Akter is a 19-year-old ethnic Rohingya who lives in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh. Many other Rohingya women her age have children. But Aktar has other plans right now. She says her goal is to be the most educated Rohingya woman in the world. Akter was born in the refugee camp and lived there most of her life. The homes in the camp are simple. They are made of bamboo with cloth coverings. These living places are spread over an area that once was protected forestland. Her parents were among an estimated 250,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled attacks by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar in the early 1990s when the country was known as Burma. Akter said education is the best way to improve her peoples living conditions. If we take education then we will be able to lead our life as a life, she said. Already, the young woman has made learning pay off for her and her family. She has increased her familys income by working as a translator for aid groups and reporters. They are trying to find out more about the latest wave of Rohingya refugees who have come to the area since August 2017. At that time, reports say, the Myanmar military and Buddhist groups began clearance operations against the Rohingya. The violent campaign answered rebel attacks on security stations in Myanmars Rakhine state. It caused hundreds of thousands more Rohingya to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh. The United Nations released a report last month by a group of investigators. That report said at least 10,000 Rohingya are believed to have died as a result of the campaign of violence. The U.N. also called for top military leaders in Myanmar to face charges of crimes against humanity. Seeking an education Rohingya refugees have found some safety in southern Bangladesh. However, an education is difficult to get in camp conditions. More than 1,000 temporary schools teach English, Burmese, math, science and the arts to about 140,000 children ages 6 to 14. However, an estimated 500,000 children live in the camps. As a result, the UN childrens agency UNICEF says only about one in four goes to school. And, the education program lasts only about five years. Because of the limited opportunities for education, UNICEF calls the refugee children a lost generation. A UNICEF spokesman said, The international community has failed these children. To get an education, Akter had to leave the camps and secretly enroll in Bangladeshi schools. She is one of a few Rohingya refugee girls who have completed what is equal to high school in Bangladesh. To reach that goal, she had to cross the camp security checkpoints and bribe Bangladeshi public school officials. Akter said she also had to make herself look like a Bangladeshi girl and speak only Bengali, the official language of Bangladesh. Her family also opposed her efforts to get an education. Most Rohingya girls are expected to get married by the age of 16, or as early as 14. Akter begged her parents to let her continue her studies. Akters mother, Minara Begum, supported her daughters desire for an education, even though elders in her community opposed it. Begum fled Myanmar as a child and never attended school. She said, If I can help my children get a better future by education, then that is what I am going to do. Begum now sends three of her daughters to school. She hopes to send her son and youngest daughter as well. Akter and two of her sisters live on their own near the school in the town of Coxs Bazar, about a two-hour trip from the camp. Begum said that her family has cut its food costs to pay for the school in hopes that an education will build a better future. Begums efforts appear to be bearing fruit. Akter now earns more money than the rest of her family. She is now preparing applications so she can attend a university. She also spends time going from house to house documenting the stories of people who fled Myanmar last year. She hopes to publish her research when she is in college. Her goal is to study human rights. Akter told the AP, Why do people have to lead their lives in such a situation? She added, One day maybe Ill be able to raise up my voice about human rights for the Rohingya. Im Mario Ritter. Mario Ritter adapted this story for VOA Learning English from VOA News, AP, Reuters and the Nobel site. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story translator n. a person who changes words in one language into a different language bribe v. to try to get someone to do something by giving or promising something valuable; to offer a bribe to someone document v. to create a record of something though writing, film, photography We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. Vijay Gupta is known to classical music lovers across the United States. Gupta serves as first violinist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In that job, he often plays to large crowds, including many very rich people. When he is not performing, he organizes concerts for homeless people. They have reminded me why I became a musician, he said. Last week, Gupta was recognized for being a founder and the artistic director of Street Symphony. The group has performed at homeless shelters, jails and halfway houses for about eight years. Gupta is among the 25 winners of the 2018 MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the genius grant. Each winner will receive $625,000 over five years to use as they wish. The money is coming from a private group, the John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It awards grants to people whose work it considers exceptional and that inspires hope in us all. Gupta said he got the idea for Street Symphony while teaching Nathaniel Ayers, a trained musician whose mental illness led to homelessness. Ayers life was the basis for the movie The Soloist. I grew up around mental illness, Gupta said, noting that he has experienced it himself. The 31-year-old grant winner said he does not know yet how he will spend the money. He has been a performer since age seven and the award will give him space to breathe, plan and look ahead. Another winner is Rebecca Sandefur, an associate professor of sociology and law with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sandefur said she was shocked to find out she had won a MacArthur Fellowship. The Associated Press says her research actively supports new ways to involve poor communities in the U.S. justice system. 47-year-old Sandefur created the first national mapping of civil legal aid providers. It shows which states had the financial resources to provide such aid and which did not. She also found that the cost of legal services is only one of the things preventing poor people from getting lawyers. Among the others are fears about unfairness in the legal system. Sandefur noted that a lot of attention has been paid to problems with the criminal justice system. But she said that more attention must be paid to the civil side of the law, which also affects millions of people. In civil law, a person could lose their home, be unable to see their children after a marriage ends or be denied unemployment money, she said. Sandefur said the award would be important in advancing her work. Another MacArthur recipient is William J. Barber II, who leads Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He also set up a leadership development organization called Repairers of the Breach. In 2017, Barber began a series of Moral Monday demonstrations near the North Carolina state Capitol building. The goal was to protest economic and racial inequalities, such as laws preventing people from voting. On the day the award was announced, the clergyman was taking part in a Fight for $15 wage protest outside of the Chicago headquarters of McDonalds. Barber was arrested at the protest. He told The Associated Press that the MacArthur honor just means he has more work ahead of him, not less. They dont share these grants so that you sit down. They hope and believe you will do more things, said Barber. Im Alice Bryant. Herbert G. McCann reported this story for the Associated Press. Alice Bryant adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story classical adj. relating to music in a European tradition that includes opera and symphony violinist n. a person who plays the violin concert n. a public performance of music remind v. to make someone think about something again. halfway house n. a center for helping former drug addicts, prisoners, mental health patients or others to adjust to life in general society genius n. a very smart or talented person grant n. an amount of money that is given to someone by a government, a company, or organization inspire v. to cause someone to have a feeling or emotion breach n. a failure to do what is required by a law, an agreement, or a duty moral adj. concerning or relating to what is right and wrong in human behavior 1. Comments must not be racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted. 2. Comments must not involve little more than name-calling and insulting remarks. 3. Comments must not be made by "anonymous" or "unknown". 4. Comments must not try to sneak in some free advertising for themselves (like spam). I invite anyone who wishes to comment on this blog to do so. I enjoy the comments, whether you agree with what I have said or not. But some people want to abuse the right to comment, and since this is my blog, I have decided to lay down the following rules. If your comment violates these rules, it will not be published. The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice. Showing Lax School Security - Prosecuted for His Actions WI: Disorderly Conduct Conviction for Handing Cardboard with "Gun" Printed on it By Dean Weingarten. October 8th, 2018 Original Source On 22 February, 2018, a lone masked man, wearing baggy clothing, buzzed for entrance to the Shorewood elementary school. Shorewood is a pricey suburb of Madison, Wisconsin, where many of the local elite from the University of Wisconsin, have their children go to school. It was an hour and a half after classes had started. The man was buzzed into the school, with no identification, in 2.5 seconds. His face was masked. He walked straight down the school hall and was not challenged or stopped in any way. Classroom doors were open and no one showed concern. He unmasked as he entered a classroom, and handed the teacher a small piece of cardboard with the word "gun" printed on it. He told the teacher "You let a masked man into your school". He returned to the office and handed the principal, Anu Ebbe, another small piece of cardboard with the word "gun" printed on it, and gave her the same message. Then he left, all before anyone raised any alarm. Jonathan Fitzgerald was a concerned parent who had been attempting to bring security flaws at the school to the attention of the school administration for months. He was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. A few hours later, he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Fitzgerald had filmed the incident with his ipad. The ipad was confiscated by the police. In a criminal complaint from the school, it was alleged staff had followed Fitzgerald, that Fitzgerald had said the word "gun" or "gunman". The staff had not followed Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had never said the words "gun" or "gunman". The school administration had been embarrassed by Fitzgerald. To people concerned more about appearance than reality, it is an unforgivable sin. I happened to be in Madison three weeks after the incident, and was able to develop some local sources and old contacts. The previous September, Fitzgerald's daughter, in second grade, had wandered out of her classroom, out of the school, and had gone missing for three hours. No one at the school noticed or reported the event. Fitzgerald reported the incident. He met with the principal and the teacher, in the principal's office the next day. He talked to the school principal, in person, several times, about it and lax security. After Fitzgerald was arrested, a school official claimed, in a public meeting, that Fitzgerald had never complained to the school previously. Madison is a very leftist town, dominated by the University. The local elites all know each other. The school administration adopted the classic crybully pose. They were the "victims". They had been "traumatized". The school was "disrupted". During the incident, no one raised their voice. No one jumped out of their chair. No one ran. The children did not show any particular concern. When Fitzgerald approached the principal, she was still unaware that anything unusual had happened. It was all over in less than two minutes. With elites, truth is less important than the image of those in power. The image of Shorewood Elementary School administration had been disrupted. The trauma was to the image of the Shorewood Elementary Principal, in the community. Fitzgerald was charged with disorderly conduct, under the Wisconsin State Statute 947.01. (1) Whoever, in a public or private place, engages in violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, unreasonably loud or otherwise disorderly conduct under circumstances in which the conduct tends to cause or provoke a disturbance is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor. A peaceful protest to show flaws in school security was turned into a criminal event. Fitzgerald could not talk to the media without fear of losing his career. The police had the video. The school denied his previous attempts to have the school take security seriously. Over several months, concern over the incident died down. Fitzgerald followed the script prescribed by local elites. He did not make any statements. He hired an attorney. The attorney attempted to recover the evidence. He asked for school records of the incident with Fitzgerald's daughter. The school administration resisted with silence. The police eventually released a copy of the video from Fitzgerald's ipad to District Attorney, who gave a redacted copy to Fitzgerald's attorney in May. The attorney obtained a subpeona for the school records. Fitzgerald's attorney was willing to go to a jury trial. The attorney negotiated a plea deal. No jail time and one year probation. Fitzgerald plead no contest. A no contest plea is the legally the same as a guilty plea. In the court of public opinion, it is different. It means the cost of fighting the charge is more than the person is willing to spend. The school produced the required records in late September. The hearing occurred on 27 September, 2018. I happened to be in Madison at the time. I have spent far too many years in Madison over my life. Local sources and contacts fleshed out what happened. The judge was made aware of Mr. Fitzgerald's previous attempts to raise awareness of security flaws at the school. Records obtained by subpoena from the school confirmed Mr. Fitzgerald's account of his daughter's absence and his concerns in September. The attorney offered to show the judge the video of the incident of February 22nd. The Shorewood School Principal asked the judge to suppress the video showing the school incident, to insure it was never seen by the public. The request was not granted. A local judge has to be careful. The judge is part of the local elite. Offend the local elite, and he may not remain a judge. The School Principle asked for the maximum sentence of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. She played the crybully card, claiming traumatization and disruption. Her claims have validity, if you consider the trauma and disruption were to her image. The judge eliminated the plea deal's one year of probation. He substituted 200 hours of community service, enforced by a potential 25 days in jail. From wicourts.gov: Defendant is sentenced to 25 days in the Dane County Jail. That jail term is stayed for completion of 200 hours of community service. My opinion is the judge did the best he believed acceptable to the local elite. Mr. Fitzgerald was caught in a local power trap he did not understand or conceive of when he planned his two minute protest of lax school security at Shorewood Elementary. If I were Mr. Fitzgerald, I would consider the 200 hours of community service a better deal than a year's probation. Complete the 200 hours, and he is a free man. A year of probation sets up a year of potential future traps. Some will criticize Mr. Fitzgerald for not fighting the disorderly conduct charges. His attorney had the video evidence. The attorney had discovery evidence from the school records for his previous attempts to have the school administration correct the lax security at the school. I do not blame Mr. Fitzgerald for taking a deal. He suffered considerable process punishment. He had to hire an attorney. They are not cheap. He might have won a jury trial, but the local media, reliably leftist, would be all against him. He is in the belly of the beast. His career lay in the hands of the local elites, which includes the University of Wisconsin. He has a young family and responsibilities. There might have been limitations placed on the evidence his attorney had. The video was never shown in court. It has never been posted on the social media. Sometimes, a prudent person will minimize their losses, learn their lessons, and move on. 2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch Back to Top The Angolan President, Joao Lourenco, has begun his first State visit to the Peoples Republic of China since his inauguration in 2017, which is expected to result in the signing of three agreements and a memorandum of understanding, according to the Angolan press. The first agreement is aimed at avoiding double taxation, the second covers economic and technical cooperation and the third deals with the opening of a credit line to be signed by the Development Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance. The parties will also sign a memorandum of understanding on human resources, according to Angolan state news agency Angop. China and Angola plan to deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries, which has already resulted in the opening of credit lines worth an estimated US$23 billion provided by China to the Angolan government since 2002. Although the visit has a strong economic focus, President Joao Lourenco and the delegation will also seek, over the two-day visit, to strengthen political and diplomatic cooperation. To this end, meetings are scheduled with governors and leaders, including Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress of the Peoples Republic of China, Li Zhanshu. Lourenco is also due to meet with local business people, as well as visit to the Huawei Technology Centre and various enterprises in the city of Tianjin. Angola and China established diplomatic relations in 1983. MDT/Macauhub Starting a new life in Australia might not come with views of the Sydney Opera House or surfing at the citys Bondi Beach with the government considering a ban on some immigrants from settling in big cities. Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population Alan Tudge said yesterday that his government wants to cut the number of immigrants moving to Sydney and Melbourne in a bid to reduce congestion in Australias two biggest cities. Tudge said placing conditions on visas that force immigrants to stay in less popular centers for several years would increase the likelihood that they would settle in those places permanently. Nearly every visa has conditions attached to it, so it wouldnt be unusual to have a geographic attachment to a particular visa, Tudge told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Australia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, but has long had a high proportion of its population currently 25 million people living in cities. Around two in every five Australians live in Sydney and Melbourne alone. The government is considering banning immigrants from settling in Sydney and Melbourne for five years after they arrive in the country, The Australian newspaper reported. Tudge would not say how immigrants might be punished if they strayed from where they were supposed to live or whether they might be deported. We havent outlined all of the precise details just yet, he said. Australia has the fastest population growth of any advanced Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development country other than Canada, growing 1.6 percent a year. But the population of Melbourne grew last year by 2.7 percent, the population of the southeast corner of Queensland state around Brisbane and the Gold Coast grew by 2.3 percent, and Sydney grew by 2.1 percent. The main driver of population growth in Sydney and Melbourne was overseas migration, with 87 percent of skilled migrants to Australia and almost all refugees gravitating to those cities. Growth in the Brisbane-Gold Coast region reflected higher levels of population shift within Australia and a higher birthrate. Tudge said some categories of immigrants would be exempt from geographic blocks. Migrants who were sponsored by employers would be able to work where employers need them and those on family reunion visas, typically a foreigner marrying an Australia, would also be free to live where they chose. Sponsored employees make up 25 percent of Australias immigrant intake and family reunion visas make up 30 percent. Marion Terrill, an expert on cities and transport from the Melbourne-based Grattan Institute think tank, said governments need to improve infrastructure in major cities rather than curb population growth. People are voting with their feet, they want to be in cities and so I think the job for government is to ensure that cities work and that people can get around rather than to try to get people to go where they dont want to go, Terrill said. Melissa Montero, an immigrant advocate and chief executive of the Sydney-based Community Migrant Resource Center, said immigrants need social support, language services as well as jobs to successfully resettle. Carla Wilshire, another immigrant advocate and chief executive of Migrant Council Australia in Canberra, suggested that government invest in services outside Sydney and Melbourne to make smaller towns more attractive to immigrants. Mark Morey, secretary of Unions NSW, which represents trade unions in New South Wales state, said the governments plan would leave immigrants isolated, with fewer job options and with less pay than they could hope for in big cities. Rod McGuirk, Canberra, AP Bulgarian national radio reported yesterday that a suspect has been arrested in connection with the slaying of television reporter Viktoria Marinova, whose body was found dumped after she highlighted possible government corruption. Tuesdays report said that according to unconfirmed information from the interior ministry, the suspect is a Romanian citizen with a passport from Moldova. No other information was immediately available. Police are investigating the rape and slaying of Marinova, 30, whose strangled body was found Saturday near the Danube River. Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving EU funds. The interior ministry said late Monday that prosecutors had opened an investigation into GP Group, a large private Bulgarian building company alleged to have misused the EU money, and froze 14 million euros (USD16 million) of its assets. While Marinova did not appear to have been closely involved in the fraud investigation, her show touched on a sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. The Balkan nation joined the EU in 2007 and was ranked 71st on Transparency Internationals corruption list last year. Joining the bloc opened an enormous spigot of possible new EU funding for Bulgarian infrastructure projects or other programs designed to bring the nation up to EU standards. Journalists groups and European leaders expressed shock at Marinovas murder. Margaritis Schinas, spokesman for European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said Monday the commission expected a swift and thorough investigation [] that will bring those responsible to justice and clarify whether this attack was linked to her work. He quoted Juncker as saying previously that too many journalists are being intimidated, attacked or murdered and there is no democracy without a free press. The German government also sharply condemned the slaying, with the Foreign Ministry saying it was imperative that theres a fast investigation and that this horrible event will be illuminated as comprehensively as possible. Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov insisted Monday there was no evidence to suggest the killing was linked to Marinovas work. Marinova was a director of TVN, a TV station in Ruse, and a TV presenter for two investigative programs. Her final show on Sept. 30 was a program about Attila Biro, an investigative journalist with the Rise Project Romania, and Dimitar Stoyanov from the Bulgarian investigative site Bivol.bg. The two men were briefly detained Sept. 13 south of Sofia as they investigated a tip that documents connected to suspected fraud involving EU funds were being destroyed. Bivol.bg owner Assen Yordanov said he couldnt directly link Marinovas slaying to her work, but noted her show tackled our very sensitive investigation into the misuse of EU funds. This is a topic on which no other Bulgarian national media dared to report on, he told The Associated Press. Biro told the AP he had never met Marinova he said one of her colleagues had interviewed him and Stoyanov about their work. They are on the right path, but lets see how the investigation proceeds, he said. Teodora Barzakova, Ruse, AP New offshore regulations are raising concerns in an industry that employs around 1,700 workers in 360 companies. The Executive Council (ExCo) recently concluded their analysis of the new regime which will abolish existing regulations for offshore companies. The new rules will follow guidelines issued by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Offshore institutions will only be allowed to have special tax-free status and stamp duty exemptions until June 2021. The Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) is now establishing a one-stop service to provide support and information to the affected companies in collaboration with the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL). According to a statement from IPIM, the one-stop service aims to help institutions transform themselves into general enterprises in Macau, continuing to run business and recruit workers in the territory and, therefore, intensifying their development in Macau. IPIM also notes that during the transition period (which ends December 31, 2020), the institutions can adjust their [business] plans in order to meet the needs of their businesses. It plans to facilitate bureaucratic affairs and create a series of tax exemptions so companies can transition during the period established by the new law. The institute also pointed out the bill is still waiting to be discussed and approved by the Legislative Assembly, noting that although these entities will not see their activities exempted of taxation after the transition period, the taxation in Macau is still lower than the neighboring regions, a fact which, in their opinion, should continue to attract companies to stay and continue doing business in Macau. Furthermore, IPIM, together with another institution, has conducted several studies regarding offshore regulations in Macau. Besides the abolishment of the current offshore regime, other proposals were considered, IPIM stated. However, a final decision was made to abolish the legal regime. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants Pope Francis to visit the officially atheist country, South Korea said yesterday. South Koreas presidential office said in a statement that Kim told President Moon Jae-in during their summit last month that the pope would be enthusiastically welcomed in North Korea. Kim has been intensely engaged in diplomacy in recent months in whats seen as an effort to leverage his nuclear weapons program for an easing of economic sanctions and military pressure. North Korea strictly controls the religious activities of its people, and a similar invitation for then-Pope John Paul II to visit after a 2000 inter-Korean summit never resulted in a meeting. The Vatican insisted at the time that a papal visit would only be possible if Catholic priests were accepted in North Korea. Moon plans to convey Kims desire for a papal visit when he travels to the Vatican next week. Moon said on Monday that he expects Kim to visit Russia soon and possibly hold a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Vatican did not comment on the possibility of a papal visit. But immediately after the news, the Vatican press office released a statement confirming that the pope would receive South Koreas president in an audience at the Vatican on Oct. 18. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the audience will come a day after the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, celebrates a Mass for peace on the Korean Peninsula in St. Peters Basilica, where Moon will participate. Francis visited South Korea in August 2014. On the plane ride back to Rome, he expressed hope that the divisions would be overcome, saying the two Koreas are brothers, they speak the same language. When you speak the same language it is because you have the same mother, and this gives us hope, the pope said. The suffering of the division is great, and I understand this and pray that it ends. North Koreas reported overture comes a few weeks after the Vatican signed a landmark deal with Communist China, North Koreas closest ally, over bishop nominations, aimed at ending decades of tensions that contributed to dividing the Chinese church and hampered efforts at improving relations between China and the Vatican. Following an unusually provocative run of weapons tests last year, Kim has been on a diplomatic offensive since the start of this year. He initiated offers for summits with Seoul and Washington, which led to three meetings with Moon and a highly choreographed June summit with U.S. President Donald Trump at which they issued an aspirational goal of a nuclear-free peninsula, without describing how or when it would occur. Kim has presented himself as an international statesman, sharing food, wine and laughs with South Korean officials and appearing thoroughly at ease during his meeting with Trump in Singapore. But post-summit nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the United States got off to a rocky start, with the North accusing Washington of making gangster-like unilateral demands for denuclearization, and calling for sanctions to be lifted before any further progress in nuclear talks. There are doubts whether Kim is willing to fully relinquish his countrys nuclear weapons, which he may see as a stronger guarantee of survival than whatever security assurances the United States could provide. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Kim in Pyongyang, North Koreas capital, on Sunday for talks on setting up a second summit with Trump. The Vaticans priests were expelled by North Korea long ago and state-appointed laymen officiate services. Estimates of the number of North Korean Catholics range from 800 to about 3,000, compared to more than 5 million in South Korea. Kim Tong-Hyung, Seoul, AP A delegation of Macau lawmakers kicked off a visit to Beijing and Tianjin yesterday at the invitation of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council, and will return to Macau on Friday. The visit takes place right before the resumption of the Legislative Assembly (AL) after a two-month summer break. According to a report by the Macao Daily News, the visit has also been suggested by the Chief Executive, with the State Councils SARs Affairs Office inviting all of Macaus lawmakers to visit Beijing and Tianjin. The delegation will meet with Tianjin Peoples Congress and Chinese leaders in Beijing. The trips purpose is said to be enhancing the MSARs connection with mainland China, as well as the lawmakers knowledge of the motherland. Yesterday, a total of 29 lawmakers (including AL president Ho Iat Seng) departed from Macau International Airport. Three directly-elected lawmakers (Sulu Sou, Au Kam San and Ng Kuok Cheong) were absent from the delegation. Chan Chak Mo, who is currently on a trip to Europe representing a local association, also missed the trip. When commenting on the visit, Ho said that many lawmakers hope to know more about the Greater Bay Area projects. Economic concerns aside, lawmakers also expressed their expectations. In Song Pek Keis opinion, nowadays, since mainland Chinas legislation system is rather advanced, Macau could benefit by learning from it. Song also highlighted the special need for Macau to have enhanced communication between its administrative authority and legislation authority. JZ My nomination as an external examiner for a Doctoral dissertation was recently rejected because I had previously worked at the university involved. This annoyed me quite a bit because I enjoy examining Doctoral research and the rationale behind the rejection is vaguely insulting, and so this article is a bit of a rant on the topic. A Doctorate is the highest level of formal university education and to achieve it a candidate must rigorously complete a substantial research project that yields new knowledge. In this work, which typically takes 4-6 years, the candidate is mentored by a university supervisor. At the end of the project the candidate must defend the project work to an examination panel, which includes the supervisor, some internal examiners from within the university and at least one external examiner from outside the university. Typically, a candidates written research report (which is usually 250+ pages) is given to the examiners to read and then (s)he orally presents the work and answers probing questions from the examiners who are looking for flaws and problems with the study. I have successfully supervised 3 Doctoral projects and have been a university examiner for 4 others and an external examiner for a further 6 others. I have also supervised and examined hundreds of Master dissertations, which are usually mini Doctoral projects that only take 6 months and do not have to yield new knowledge. Based on well known academic regulations and standards, their own past experiences and through examination panel discussions, supervisors and examiners maintain the academic quality of Doctoral research projects. External examiners are essential in this by ensuring that academic standards are maintained between universities. Examination panel selection is very important for all Doctoral projects. You need examiners who are technically familiar with the research field and with the required academic standards and who will give the candidate a fair go. Generally, supervisors will not submit a Doctoral project for assessment unless they feel it meets the standards. This is often tested by publishing parts of the work in peer reviewed research journals before the examination. And normally, examination panels will not let an oral defense go ahead unless the project has a strong chance of passing, and may require extra work to be done in preparation. And, when a project is deemed to not reach the required standards in an oral defense, the examination panel usually instructs the candidate on what must be done to improve the work and will only then allow it to be resubmitted for assessment. As a supervisor I have required candidates to do more work before submitting their research for assessment, co-authored research publications based in the work done by Doctoral (and Master) candidates, and helped candidates with research dissertation editing and oral presentation preparation. As an examiner I have also counseled supervisors and candidates to do more work before resubmitting. Most Doctoral candidates need to make minor corrections to their work, and some may need major revisions but outright failures are very rare examination systems are designed to avoid them because they reflect very badly on the university, the supervisor, the examination panel and the candidate. In this system totally unknown participants can be very risky and so virtually all Doctoral examiners have some prior relationship with the field of research, the university and/or the supervisor. An examiner that does not like the work, is out of sync with the rest of the examination panel, does not understand the regional quality standards and will not listen to reason can do a lot of damage to the career of a candidate, the supervisor and the university. In my recent case the university concerned has shot itself in the foot and, for the candidates sake, I hope they do not live to regret their decision to exclude me. Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said yesterday the government plans to introduce new tax measures to help raise funds to pay off national debt that has snowballed due to corruption under the previous government. Lim said it will take the government three years to resolve its fiscal woes due to more than 1 trillion ringgit (USD240.5 billion) in debt and another 35 billion ringgit ($8.4 billion) in newly discovered unpaid tax refunds that were not disclosed by the previous government. Fiscal consolidation will not be achieved easily, and we must be willing to expect some pain and even offer some sacrifice. We would need 3 years to resolve the fiscal issues, Lim told an economic forum. He didnt give details of the tax measures but said these will be announced in the 2019 federal budget that will be unveiled Nov.2. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told the forum the fiscal problems have turned Malaysia from an Asian tiger into a small kitten. It is going to be tough for the government because it inherited a country that is completely disoriented, said Mahathir, who was elected a second time to become the worlds oldest leader at 93. We may have to devise new taxes in order to have the money to pay our debts. Of course the other thing we can do is to sell our assets. Anger over massive corruption at the 1MDB state investment fund prompted Mahathir who led Malaysia for 22 years until 2003 to make a political comeback and turn on his former party. Mahathirs alliance won a stunning victory in May 9 elections to oust scandal-tainted former Prime Minister Najib Razak, ushering in the countrys first change of power since independence from Britain in 1957. The countrys huge debt is partly due to losses from the 1MDB fund set up by Najib that led voters to abandon him, and sparked investigations in the U.S. and several other countries. U.S. investigators say Najibs associates stole and laundered at least $4.5 billion from the fund. Najib and his wife Rosmah have been charged with multiple counts of corruption and money laundering linked to 1MDB, after Mahathir reopened investigations into the fund that were suppressed during Najibs rule. The couple have both pled not guilty and Najib has accused the government of seeking political vengeance against his family. The new government has reviewed large infrastructure projects, including Chinese investment, to cut costs. It also is seeking ways to bolster revenues to pay off debts and plug deficits expected after it scrapped an unpopular goods and services tax. Lim said the government may sell its equity in state-owned companies to raise funds but will aim to strike a balance between fiscal consolidation and ensuring productive spending and investment. While it is imperative for the government to be prudent with our expenditure, we are equally cognizant that we must not fall into the austerity trap. What we want is merely to get a bigger bang for the buck, Lim said at the forum. TO date, Sands China Ltd (SCL) has spared no effort in helping rebuild the community following deadly Typhoon Hato that hit the city in August 2017. Its continuing effort in providing relief aid has benefitted a number of large non-governmental organizations that support the citys most vulnerable groups. Just last month, Sands China has once again initiated a series of measures to assist victims of the deadly typhoon. The gaming operator has started a Hato Education Sponsorship Fund, benefiting six children and young adults who lost a parent to Typhoon Hato. In support of their continuing education, the fund is part of the companys long-term support to the community in the aftermath of the storm. Established along with Fidelidade Insurance Company Limited (Life), SCL will provide a total of MOP6 million to the affected children and young adults, with MOP 1 million allocated for each recipient. Sands China remains dedicated to offering continuous support to those in need after Typhoon Hato, said Sands China Ltd. president Dr. Wilfred Wong. After understanding the dire situation of children and young adults whose families suffered severe losses, we began developing a plan to help. This education fund will provide crucial support for their studies, as education is essential for their development and success in life. Our gratitude goes toward the Social Welfare Bureau for their help in coordinating this effort. The ongoing support of the company did not stop there. Also in September, it donated nine brand new service vehicles to four NGOs as part of the gaming operators long-term support to the community. These organizations include Caritas Macau, Macau Special Olympics, the Association of Parents of the People with Intellectual Disabilities of Macau, and the General Union of Neighbourhood Associations of Macau (UGAMM). The donation of nine vehicles includes buses, 7-seater vans and other vehicles, with some being modified for users with reduced mobility. Beneficiaries of the services provided by these vehicles include the elderly and the physically or mentally disabled. Sands China is pleased to be able to offer long-term support to the community as it continues to recover from Typhoon Hato, said Dr Wilfred Wong. The delivery of these new service vehicles is the culmination of our efforts to keep the operations and services of these local NGOs running smoothly after having provided ongoing transportation assistance after the storm. Our company is grateful to the Macau government for its continued support and coordination in this and many other post-Hato recovery efforts throughout the community. SCLs transportation assistance to the NGOs immediately after Hato has included providing vans and drivers to support organisations like Caritas Macau and its Good Take Express service until the new vehicles could be donated to replace those damaged in the storm. SCL has also previously donated a total of MOP1 million to four NGOs, MOP 250,000 each, for their emergency use, such as for the repair of typhoon-damaged service vehicles to NGOs including Caritas Macau, Macau Special Olympics, the Association of Parents of the People with Intellectual Disabilities of Macau and Fuhong Society. In the immediate aftermath of the typhoon, SCL contacted these organizations and were quick to offer transportation assistance in a bid to sustain normal operations, particularly for students who needed it most. This type of post-typhoon transportation assistance has amounted to an investment of nearly MOP4 million, and facilitated over 6,400 trips made over the last year. The donation of the nine new vehicles comes to a tax-exempt MOP4 million, bringing the companys total post-Hato transportation support to around MOP8 million. SCL has been tirelessly working with the community to provide continuous support in areas of need since the typhoon, including the sending of its volunteer teams to these NGOs to offer assistance. In addition to transportation, this has included technical support, SME support, restoration of damaged homes in Coloane and clearing debris. The company has pledged to donate MOP 65 million MOP 30 million from Sands China and a MOP 35 million contribution from the Adelson Family Foundation to assist with longer term relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts in the city. *This article is sponsored by Sands China Ltd. What beneficiaries say More than 20 of our vehicles were flooded so when SCL heard about this, they contacted us immediately. With this donation, we will use the vehicles to help the elderly or people in need of transport to go the hospital, or government departments. After these two cars arrived, we improved our service quality, improving the number of the services. Several service recipients could travel in cars together, which saved our resources. Ng Siu Lai, President of Board of Directors of General Union of Neighbourhood Associations of Macau SCL has always given support and encouragement to children with mental disabilities and the families of these children. They helped us fixed windows and doors and immediately promised to donate 24-seater buses, as our buses had been inundated in the flood. They immediately made arrangements for buses and drivers for us for our long-term usage, for a long time. The drivers have a very good manner, especially toward people with autism. Chang Tak Toi, President of the General Assembly of Association of the Parents of the People with Intellectual Disabilities of Macau SCL took the initiative to contact us, asking us for what we need. They were very considerate. We were anxious when our vehicles were flooded, as we have approximately 10 cars, which were basically used to send children with mental disabilities to school. After Hato, we were a bit lost regarding how to re-start our service but the company donated immediately. Most importantly, they showed us how they might help us. Not only did they donate cars for us to use, they also arranged cars to help us send students to schools throughout the 2017/2018 academic year. Siu Yu Ning, Vice Chairman of Macau Special Olympics The drivers that were sent by SCL were very patient. We know that the vehicles need to be imported and that treatment for the disabled people cannot wait. So, they quickly dispatched their cars and drivers from September last year for a successive period of ten months. Paul Pun, secretary general of Caritas Macau. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen hosted her Paraguayan counterpart yesterday at a military exercise in a sign of the islands determination to withstand Chinas diplomatic onslaught. The joint land and air training exercise simulated an attempt by Chinese forces to attack a Taiwanese air base in the north of the island. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has been whittling away at the self-governing islands pool of diplomatic allies, leaving it now with just 17, including Paraguay. Defense Ministry spokesman Chen Chong-chi said inviting Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez to view the exercise alongside Tsai would help strengthen the friendship between the two countries and boost future civilian and military exchanges. Taiwan and China separated amid civil war in 1949. Beijing has vowed to bring the island under its control by force if deemed necessary. Last month, the United States recalled its envoys to the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Panama after decisions by those nations to cut ties with Taiwan in favor of diplomatic relations with China. While Washington formally recognizes only China, it remains a close Taiwanese ally and maintains a de facto embassy in the islands capital, Taipei. China cut off contacts with Tsais government shortly after her 2016 inauguration and has repeatedly demanded that she endorse the one-China principle that designates Taiwan as a part of China. Along with poaching diplomatic allies, China has blocked Taiwans participation in international meetings such as the World Health Assembly and has pressured multinational companies ranging from fashion brands to airlines to describe Taiwan as part of China. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also sent warships, bombers and fighter planes on training missions circling the island in an attempt to intimidate Tsais supporters. Xi has declared that the issue of bringing Taiwan under Chinese control cannot be postponed indefinitely and some analysts believe he is determined to accomplish that feat during his time in office. AP Turkey said yesterday it will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of a missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post, a week after he vanished during a visit there. The announcement came as the Post published a surveillance image of Jamal Khashoggi walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, just before he disappeared. Turkish officials have said they fear the columnist was killed inside the premises. Saudi Arabia has called the allegations that it killed 59-year- old Khashoggi baseless but has offered no evidence over the past seven days to show that he ever left the building. Yesterdays statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministrys spokesman, Hami Aksoy, said Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were open to cooperation and would allow the consulate building to be searched. The ministry did not say when the premises would be searched. Officials in Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The surveillance image released by the Post bore a date and time stamp, as well as a Turkish caption bearing Khashoggis name and that he was arriving to the consulate. The Post said a person close to the investigation shared the image with them, without elaborating. The door Khashoggi walked in through appeared to be the main entrance of the consulate in Istanbuls 4th Levent neighborhood, a leafy, upscale district near the citys financial hub thats home to several other consulates. However, the consulate has other entrances and exits as well, through which Saudi officials insist he left. Its unclear which camera the footage came from, nor who operated it. However, a number of closed-circuit surveillance cameras surround the area. Friends of Khashoggi say Turkish police have taken possession of footage from the neighborhood as part of their investigation. The Saudis have offered no surveillance footage or evidence to corroborate their claims, nor have Turkish authorities offered proof to show why they believe the columnists was killed there. If the story that was told about the murder is true, the Turks must have information and videotape and other documents to back it up, Fred Hiatt, the Posts editorial page editor, told The Associated Press. If the story the Saudis are telling, that he just walked out [] after half an hour, if thats true, they ought to have facts and documents and evidence and tapes to back that up. Hiatt added that the idea of a government luring one of its own citizens onto its own diplomatic property in a foreign country to murder him for the peaceful expression of his views would be unimaginable. Khashoggi had gone to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. He had been living since last year in the United States, in a self-imposed exile, in part due to the rise of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman. As a contributor to the Post, Khashoggi has written extensively about Saudi Arabia, including criticizing its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of womens rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving. All those issues have been viewed as being pushed by Prince Mohammed, who similarly has led roundups of activists, businessmen and others in the kingdom. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged the Saudis to back up their claim that Khashoggi left the consulate. Now when this person enters, whose duty is it to prove that he left or not? It is (the duty) of the consulate officials, Erdogan said during a visit to Hungary. Dont you have cameras and other things? Why dont you prove it, you have to prove it. Turkey summoned the Saudi ambassador on Sunday to request the kingdoms full cooperation in the investigation, a Foreign Ministry official said. The Turkish private NTV television said Ankara asked for permission for its investigators to search the consulate building, but a Foreign Ministry official would not confirm the report. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters about the subject. Ties between Ankara and Riyadh are at a low point over Turkeys support for Qatar in its year-long dispute with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations. Turkey sent food to Qatar and deployed troops at its military base there. A Sunni power, Saudi Arabia is also annoyed by Ankaras rapprochement with the kingdoms Shiite archrival, Iran. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia faced increased scrutiny over Khashoggis disappearance from officials in America, the kingdoms longtime ally. Even President Donald Trump, who took his first overseas trip as U.S. president to the kingdom and whose son-in-law Jared Kushner has close ties to Prince Mohammed, said he had concerns. I dont like hearing about it. And hopefully that will sort itself out, Trump said. Right now, nobody knows anything about it, but there are some pretty bad stories going around. I do not like it. AP The Japanese online retail tycoon who plans to travel to the moon on the SpaceX rocket says he respects and trusts Elon Musk as a fellow entrepreneur, despite his recent troubles. Twitter can get you into trouble, Yusaku Maezawa, chief executive of Zozo Inc., said yesterday at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo. And that can be said of Elon Musk, too. Musks tweet in August that declared he had secured financing for a Tesla buyout got him in trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Under a settlement, Tesla and Musk each must pay a $20 million penalty. Musk also stepped down as Teslas chairman. Maezawa, 42, who is also quite active on social media, intends to be a passenger on Musks Space X, the first-ever private commercial space trip, scheduled for blastoff in 2023, to orbit the moon, in what Maezawa has dubbed his #dearMoon Project. Maezawa said he got a good feel for Musks character by visiting Tesla, and seeing the relationship Musk had developed with his employees. They believe in Elon Musk, he said. That kind of company is marvelous. I felt that as another entrepreneur. Although Maezawa said nothing was decided yet on who was going with him on the space travel, he said he wanted to take visual artists, fashion designers and musicians from a variety of backgrounds, including the actress he was dating, Ayame Goriki, if she proves to be a good match for the mission. Maezawa said his company has a twitter policy, and experts go over his tweets in advance. Sometimes he gets emotional on social media, but he is careful not to say anything that might hurt his company, he said. Recently, he took to his twitter and Instagram accounts to lash out at online hecklers, who had ridiculed his halting rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on an expensive Stradivarius violin he had just purchased. Maezawa is known for lavish purchases, including artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. But he is equally known for sharing them with the public. He shrugged off the possible dangers of space, just as he brushed off the risks of tweets and associations with Musk. There is no end if you start thinking about that, he said of the risks. Maezawa said he has not yet started training for the mission, but he has been getting regular medical checkups and is brushing up on his English. In a nation where people tend to be focused on blending in and getting along, Maezawa has stood out. Forbes magazine estimates his wealth at $2.9 billion. Maezawa ran an import CD business and played in a rock band before he embarked on his online fashion business with his shopping site Zozotown. Recently, he has begun making clothes, such as a wearable technology called Zozosuit. The suit, splattered with hundreds of dots, takes body measurements with a software application, ensuring a good fit. Maezawa said nicely fitting clothes bring smiles and the moon trips purpose also is to add to happiness. The world remembers the first words of the 1969 Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong, Thats one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind, he said. Maezawa has a message of his own that he says will be more casual, akin to the lyrics he loved playing in rock bands growing up. All I want to say is this: Wouldnt the world be a better place if there is peace? said Maezawa. Yuri Kageyama, Tokyo, AP CHINA The wife of the former Interpol president who disappeared in China has revealed that she had received a threatening phone call warning of agents coming for her while she fights a so-far fruitless battle for information about her husbands fate. INDONESIA The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi island has climbed past 2,000, the disaster agency announced, as authorities prepared to end the search for thousands of victims feared buried in mud and rubble in the hardest-hit neighborhoods. JAPAN Police is investigating the death of a zookeeper in an apparent attack by a white tiger. Police said Akira Furusho was found bleeding from his neck and lying on the floor Monday evening inside a tiger cage at Hirakawa Zoological Park in Kagoshima. AUSTRALIA Starting a new life in the country might not come with views of the Sydney Opera House or surfing at the citys Bondi Beach with the government considering a ban on some immigrants from settling in big cities. PAKISTANs currency plunged by about 7 percent yesterday after the government said it would seek emergency bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund. MALAYSIA The government plans to introduce new tax measures to help raise funds to pay off national debt that has snowballed due to corruption under the previous government. PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday that medical tests show he doesnt have cancer, but added that he wont release a detailed report on his health. USA U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is leaving the administration at the end of the year, she and President Donald Trump announced. She gave no reason for her departure after two years, though there has been speculation she will return to government or politics at some point. BULGARIA A man was taken into custody in connection with the slaying of Bulgarian television reporter Viktoria Marinova, whose body was found dumped after she highlighted possible government corruption, the Bulgarian interior ministry said. 5 Indian workers injured in Bara iron plant explosion Five Indian workers have been injured after an explosion at an iron plant of Jagdamba Steels in Simara Sub-Metropolitan City-2 of Jitpur, Bara on Wednesday. Four of the injured are said to be in critical condition. In order to maintain this blog I have to pay for its upkeep including a hosting company, support services, virus and other malicious hackers. If you appreciate what I write please make a donation. 75k animals to be brought for Dashain slaughter More than 75,000 he-goats, mountain goats and sheep will be brought to the Kathmandu Valley to be slaughtered during the Dashain festival. Dr. Michael Fehlings, neurosurgeon/neuroscientist, specialist in spinal cord injury and senior scientist at UHN. Credit: UHN A research team at the Krembil Research Institute in Toronto has developed an innovative strategy that could help to restore breathing following traumatic spinal cord injury. The team, led by principal investigator Dr. Michael Fehlingsa neurosurgeon/neuroscientist, specialist in spinal cord injury and senior scientist at UHNpublished its findings today in the journal Nature in a paper titled "Cervical excitatory neurons sustain breathing after spinal cord injury." Using pre-clinical models, the team employed a novel strategy to target a dormant group of neurons located in the cervical area of the spinal cord. When stimulated, this latent population of cells called interneurons was activated and were able to restore breathing following injury. "The big takeaway here is the identification of this novel neural circuit," said Dr. Fehlings, a professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. "What we found is if we activate this population of neurons, using pharmacogenetics we can rescue breathing." Dysfunctional breathing is a major cause of death or disease for people following traumatic spinal cord injury. Many of the 86,000 Canadians who live with a spinal cord injury require a tracheostomy or long-term use of an assistive ventilation device. "The biggest implication of this work is that one day we may be able to flip a switch and improve the breathing of people living with these injuries." Dr. Kajana Satkunendrarajah, a research associate and Dr. Spyridon Karadimas, a recently graduated Ph.D. student and current neurosurgery resident are co-first authors of this Nature paper. Additional contributors include former Ph.D. student and current postdoctoral fellow Alex Laliberte of Krembil's Fehlings Lab and collaborator Gaspard Montandon, a respiratory physiologist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. "We think this discovery has big implications for neuroscience in general, as it demonstrates an important role for this neuronal population in the complex respiratory neural network," said Dr. Satkunendrarajah. "These interneurons are not required for breathing under normal conditions. However, they become vital to the neural respiratory system when it is under challenge," added Dr. Karadimas. Next steps for the team include studying the use of the regenerative properties of stem cells to target areas of the spinal cord with a goal of bringing scientists closer to clinical translation of these findings. The researchers are also interested in identifying other neural circuits in the cervical spinal cord that could be activated, with the potential for reviving motor function. Areas of particular interest include restoration of hand and arm function. Explore further Lab-grown neurons improve breathing in mice after spinal cord injury More information: Cervical excitatory neurons sustain breathing after spinal cord injury, Nature (2018). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0595-z Journal information: Nature Cervical excitatory neurons sustain breathing after spinal cord injury,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0595-z Jason Carter, associate vice president for research development and professor of kinesiology and integrative physiology, is speaking at the 2018 National Institute of Health Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Research Conference on Sleep and the Health of Women in Bethesda, Maryland. He is participating in a presentation and panel discussion Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 8:35 a.m. about the effects of sleep on cardiovascular health in women. "Population-based data suggests certain cardiovascular diseases like hypertension are more strongly associated with short sleep in women than they are in men," Carter says. The focus of his presentation, which is geared at a broad audience, is on the role of the sympathetic nervous systemthe so-called fight-or-flight systemand how this response is more pronounced in women who are getting less sleep than in men who lack sleep. "When women are deprived of sleep, their nervous systems appear to respond more aggressively than men," Carter says. "There's an acceleration of the nervous system. We see higher blood pressures and greater potential risk for heart attack. The surge of sympathetic activity also increases the risk of stroke. Too much of an excitation of the body sets a person up for negative cardiovascular events acutely and chronically." The conference is free and open to the public, who are encouraged to attend. Carter has been integral in the recent opening of the Michigan Technological Sleep Research Laboratory combines sleep analysis technologies to provide a window into the effects of sleep on cardiovascular health. The two-bed sleep study facility is located in Michigan Tech University's Student Development Complex and has a core staff of two faculty researchers, a sleep physician, a registered nurse who is also a certified sleep technician, a lead doctoral student researcher, as well as other graduate students and undergraduate students. Studies at the facility hinge on research into the effects of sleep on cardiovascular health, contributing to the broader field of sleep researcha field that is growing rapidly. "What implication does sleep have? We sleep one-third of our lives. It's a huge chunk of our days," says Jason Carter, associate vice president for research development and professor of kinesiology and integrative physiology. "An elephant only sleeps three hours a day, while a lion sleeps up to 20 hours day. We see a huge species variation in sleep, but we still don't fully understand what sleep does." Both of the sleep rooms in the new facility not only have the capabilities of the overnight polysomnography (PSG) and electroencephalography (EEG), but also take simultaneous measurements of beat-by-beat blood pressure through finger plethysmography, which constantly records blood pressure throughout the night; pulse oximetry, which measures oxygen content in the blood throughout the night; and transcutaneous carbon dioxide levels from the skin. The facility meets all of the physical requirements to seek a sleep study center accreditation from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Additionally, researchers are working with sleep study software company Natus to add blood pressure readings to its suite of monitored biometric signals. Perhaps most cutting edge, is the team's interdisciplinary approach to sleep research that includes biomedical engineering signal processing techniques applied to physiology. In the future, the Michigan Tech Sleep Research Laboratory plans to prove the importance of Big Data in the field of sleep research. "We're using these technologies in novel combinations to better understand the impact of things like alcohol, sleep deprivation and insomnia on blood pressure," Carter says. "There's a very complex relationship between sleep and blood pressure control. The epidemiological evidence is clear these are strongly coupled, and they seem to be more strongly coupled in women than men." Current research at the center focuses on several separate studies: National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)-funded study to understand alcohol's effects on sleep, blood pressure and brain activity National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-funded study to compare cardiovascular responses to sleep deprivation in postmenopausal women and men of similar ages Effects on insomnia on cardiovascular health "What's unique for us is the ability to combine various technologies that have been developed in human physiological signal processing," Carter says. "The real-world applicability and emphasis is to ultimately inform and educate the public on how we might avoid or slow down the risk for cardiovascular disease as it pertains to sleep insufficiencies." Explore further In women, even mild sleep problems may raise blood pressure (HealthDay)Greater weight gain in early childhood often carries over to overweight and obesity in adolescence, according to a study published in the Oct. 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Mandy Geserick, from the University of Leipzig in Germany, and colleagues assessed the age at onset of obesity in a population-based sample of 51,505 children who had sequential anthropometric data available from childhood through adolescence (0 to 18 years of age). The researchers found that in retrospective analyses, most adolescents with normal weight had always had a normal weight throughout childhood, whereas 53 percent of obese adolescents had been overweight or obese since age 5. The body mass index (BMI) standard-deviation score further increased with age. In prospective analyses, almost 90 percent of the children who were obese at age 3 were overweight or obese in adolescence. The greatest acceleration in annual BMI increments occurred between ages 2 and 6 years. Among children born large for gestational age (43.7 percent), the rate of overweight or obesity in adolescence was 1.55 times higher than among those who had been at an appropriate weight for gestational age (28.4 percent) or small for gestational age (27.2 percent). "In this current population-based longitudinal study, we found that obesity occurred early in life and once present, persisted into adolescence," the authors write. Explore further Weight gain from adolescence linked to higher risk of type 2 diabetes Copyright 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Bada Dashain festival begins "Navaratri Parba" or the nine-night festival of Bada Dashain, the great festival of the Hindus of Nepal, commenced from Wednesday. The children of families who fall upon hard times are at significantly greater risk of being involved in violent crime and harming themselves as young adults, according to a major new study. The research by University of Manchester epidemiologists is a major addition to our understanding of the risk factors for self-harm and violent criminality. The knowledge was generated from a study funded by the European Research Council of the young adult population of Denmark published today in The Lancet Public Health. The results are highly relevant to the UK context argue Professor Roger Webb and Dr. Pearl Mok, two of the study's authors. Children who remained in the top 20% of wealthiest families over their first 15 years of life were the least likely to harm themselves or commit violent crime between the ages of 15 and 33. Compared to the wealthiest fifth, children from families who remained in the least affluent fifth of society were 7 times more likely to harm themselves and 13 times more likely to commit violent crime as young adults. Children from families whose income dropped from the top fifth to the bottom fifth were 2.9 times more likely to commit violent crime and 2.3 times more likely to self-harm as young adults. And children from families whose income rose from the bottom fifth to the top fifth were 1.6 times more likely to self-harm and to commit violent crime as young adults. Using Danish national registers of over one million young adults, the study analysed 21,267 patients who presented to hospital with self-harm episodes and 23,724 people who were convicted for violent crime aged 15 to 33. Parental income was measured at birth-year, and at ages 5, 10 and 15. Professor Webb said: "This study casts new light on our understanding of the deep-rooted causes of self-harm and violent behaviour. Though to some extent, we all make choices, what children go through does have a powerful effect on these harmful behaviours. "Though the report drew on data relating to the entire population of Denmark, its results are relevant to the UK, whose population demographics are similar, as is their health system. "In fact, income inequality in Denmark is one of the lowest in the world, so we'd expect these findings to be even more pronounced in countries with greater levels of income inequality, such as the UK." He added: "These two harmful behaviours pose serious societal challenges. After accidents, intentional self-harm and assault are the next two most common causes of death among young people globally. "Exposure to poverty can have an adverse impact on early child development as well as parental conflict and separation, harming children's psychosocial development and well-being. "We would also imagine that ten years of austerity in the UK would escalate and entrench these problems: Poverty still affects more than one in four children in the UK today according to Child Poverty Action group. "So this study underlines just how important it is to tackle socioeconomic inequalities during childhood. "That encompasses access to public services, good housing and education but also things like local and social environments." Explore further Research tracks roots of harmful behaviour among young adults Credit: UvGroup/Shutterstock.com As a health visitor, you get used to friends with babies asking questions about sleep, feeding and dirty nappies. Usually, these are straightforward, or you can at least direct people to the right help. But every once in a while, you get asked something unusual. My friend (let's call her Lisa) had a baby girl last spring. As with lots of women, Lisa planned to breastfeed her baby. While breastfeeding causes anxiety for some women, Lisa wasn't especially worried about giving it a go. She initially told me that the breastfeeding was going well; the baby was latching on, and there were no problems. But when we recently met for a coffee, I heard a different story. From day one, and just before every feed at the start of the let-down reflex (the reflex that makes the milk in the breasts available to the baby), Lisa experienced a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. A hollow, churning sensation, similar to homesickness, but unrelated to anything she could think of. The sensation would last a few minutes, then disappear. Disappear, that is, until the next feed. At first, she put it down to a difficult birth, sleep deprivation and perhaps the baby blues. But the feeling was so odd, so out of sync with how she generally felt, that she told no one. She was worried people would think she had postnatal depression, and she wondered if indeed she did have postnatal depression. She kept it to herself and started to dread each feed. Weeks went by. She continued to breastfeed and express milk while the disconcerting feeling also persisted. One night, after a particularly intense experience, Lisa looked online and found that other women also experience this feeling. At last, she wasn't alone, and the feeling had a name: dysphoric milk ejection reflex or DMER. Poorly understood The term DMER was first coined in 2007 by Alia Heise, a lactation consultant who experienced the condition while breastfeeding her third child. Dysphoria is a state of unease, and milk ejection refers to the hormonal reflex by which breast milk is expressed from the mammary gland. Little is known about DMER, but Heise and other lactation experts believe it is a physical rather than a psychological condition. When women breastfeed, dopamine (a hormone associated with reward) levels decrease for prolactin (milk producing hormone) levels to rise. Heise suggests that, for some women, dopamine drops excessively, and the resulting deficit causes a range of symptoms, including anxiety, anger and self-loathing. Some studies have shown that low dopamine levels can cause low mood and other negative emotional responses, suggesting this may be the cause. DMER is a spectrum. Some women may experience rage while others become anxious or despondent. Experiences of DMER also appear to differ both in their severity and duration. For some, DMER is mild and resolves in a few weeks. For others, symptoms can last for more than a year. Although there was a documented case study of DMER in 2010, and a recently published case series (a descriptive study of a group of patients with a particular condition), no research on the mechanism of the condition has been undertaken as a result, it is poorly understood. Supporting women DMER is not the same as "nursing aversion" (a feeling of irritability often accompanied by itchy skin while the infant is latched on to the breast), postnatal depression or anxiety, though these conditions may co-exist. Because DMER is not well known among healthcare professionals, there is a danger that some women may be misdiagnosed with mental health problems. In some cases, the intensity of DMER can be severe enough to stop women from breastfeeding. Heise is keen to stress that just knowing about it and being able to talk to someone who understands, can make it easier to cope. There are a growing number of forums and websites where women can seek support and discuss their experiences, and the body of research on DMER, though small, is growing. Lisa's symptoms were mild enough that they resolved in a few months. She is still breastfeeding and is stoic about her experience. Would she breastfeed again? She answers unequivocally: "Absolutely." Does she wish she had known about DMER before she got pregnant? "Well, of course." Explore further Breastfeeding difficulties may increase risk of postnatal depression This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. (HealthDay)With sales of electronic cigarettes skyrocketing, Americans remain divided on whether the devices are a boon or a threat to public health. That's the main finding of a new HealthDay/Harris Poll that surveyed over 2,000 adults on their e-cigarette views. Vaping has long been promoted as a way to help smokers kick the habitoffering them a route to get nicotine without the carcinogens in tobacco smoke. But e-cigarettes aren't harmless, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health authorities. There's particular concern about young people vapingin part, because nicotine can harm brain development, which continues until about age 25. In the poll, most adults did have misgivings about e-cigarettes: 85 percent said they were worried that the long-term health effects of the devices are unknown; and 83 percent were at least "somewhat" concerned about teenagers using e-cigarettes. In fact, 43 percent of adults felt that e-cigarettes are actually more dangerous than traditional cigarettes. On the flip side, about as many people (41 percent) viewed e-cigarettes as "healthier" than traditional cigarettes. And 42 percent rated them as an "excellent way" to quit. It all adds up to differing views, and possibly confusion, about e-cigarettes and their health effects. There are, in fact, many unknowns. "Unfortunately, at this time we have no scientific evidence on the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes, especially given the unknown effects of the aerosols and flavorings in e-cigarette liquids," said Dr. Thanh-Huyen Vu, a research assistant professor at Northwestern University in Chicago. However, researchers know plenty about nicotine. The drug "is well known to be addictive and toxic, and to have adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and on health in general," Vu said. And that's enough to raise concerns about teenagers' e-cigarette use, she added. In addition, Vu said, studies have found that teenagers and young adults who use e-cigarettes are more likely than non-users to take up smoking. And what about adults who use e-cigarettes in place of traditional ones? The devices do allow people to avoid the chemicals they would inhale from burning tobacco, Vu noted. "It's been speculated that using them may be associated with better health outcomes, compared to traditional cigarette smoking," she said. But again, Vu pointed out, there's the nicotine and its own health effects. E-cigarettes come in different forms, with some emulating traditional cigarettes or pipes. One highly popular brand, called Juul, is shaped like a USB flash drive, and reportedly accounts for one-third of e-cigarette sales in the United States. Last week, the CDC reported that Juul sales shot up 641 percent between 2016 and 2017. Researchers called the trend worrying because the devices have a particularly high nicotine content and are popular with young people. "No teenager should be vaping," said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Associationreferring to a common term for e-cigarette use. However, Conley disputed the notion that e-cigarettes are driving kids to smoke. As researchers from the University of Buffalo recently argued, teen smoking has continued to decline at the same time e-cigarette use has risen. Conley questioned the poll finding that 43 percent of people think e-cigarettes are more dangerous than traditional cigarettes. He said past surveys have found less fear around the devices. But if people do think vaping is worse than smoking, Conley blamed misleading messages from certain researchers and media stories. "As long as vaping is helping smokers quit, it will bring public health benefits," he said. Conley pointed to research evidence of that: Last year, a study at Georgetown University estimated that up to 6.6 million smokers would live "substantially longer" if they replaced their traditional cigarettes with e-cigarettes. And a 2016 report from the Royal College of Physicians concluded that e-cigaretteswhen used by smokers aiming to quitare "likely" to benefit public health. Still, Vu said that based on studies so far, it's unclear how effective the devices really are in helping smokers ultimately quit. "E-cigarette use is still new, so it will take time to prove," she added. This HealthDay/Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between Sept. 25-27 2018, among 2,008 U.S. adults (aged 18 and over). This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. More information: Thanh-Huyen Vu, M.D., Ph.D., research assistant professor, epidemiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago; Gregory Conley, president, American Vaping Association, Stratford, Conn.; HealthDay/Harris Poll, Sept. 25-27, 2018 Thanh-Huyen Vu, M.D., Ph.D., research assistant professor, epidemiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago; Gregory Conley, president, American Vaping Association, Stratford, Conn.;, Sept. 25-27, 2018 The CDC has more on electronic cigarettes. Copyright 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study led by York University researchers has found that fluoride levels in urine are twice as high for pregnant women living in Canadian cities where fluoride is added to public drinking water as for those living in cities that do not add fluoride to public water supplies. The study "Community Water Fluoridation and Urinary Fluoride Concentrations in a National Sample of Pregnant Women in Canada" was published today in Environmental Health Perspectives. It is the first study in North America to examine how fluoride in water contributes to urinary fluoride levels in pregnant women. The research was conducted as part of a larger study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigating whether early life exposure to fluoride affects the developing brain. "We found that fluoride in drinking water was the major source of exposure for pregnant women living in Canada. Women living in fluoridated communities have two times the amount of fluoride in their urine as women living in non-fluoridated communities," said Christine Till, an associate professor of Psychology in York's Faculty of Health and lead author on the study. The Maternal Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) study recruited 2,001 pregnant women between 2008 and 2011. The women lived in 10 large cities across Canada. Seven of the cities (Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Sudbury, Halifax, Edmonton and Winnipeg) added fluoride to municipal water while three (Vancouver, Montreal and Kingston) did not. Urine samples were collected during each trimester of pregnancy for over 1,500 women. Fluoride levels in municipal water treatment plants that provided water to each women's home were obtained. Information about each woman's demographics, lifestyle and medical history was also collected. In addition to fluoridated water, sources of fluoride can include toothpastes, mouth rinses, as well as processed beverages and food, especially those made with fluoridated water. Beyond water, products such as tea have previously been found to have high concentrations of natural fluoride. In this study, fluoride level in water was the main determinant of fluoride level in the women's urine. Higher consumption of black tea was also correlated with higher levels of urinary fluoride in pregnant women. The levels of fluoride among pregnant women living in fluoridated communities in Canada were similar with levels reported in a prior study of pregnant women living in Mexico City where fluoride is added to table salt. "This finding is concerning because prenatal exposure to fluoride in the Mexican sample has been associated with lower IQ in children. New evidence published today in Environment International also reported an association between higher levels of fluoride in pregnancy and inattentive behaviours among children in the same Mexican sample," said Till. The research team, including experts from Simon Fraser University, Universite Laval, Indiana University, University of Montreal and Cincinnati Children's Hospital, is investigating whether prenatal exposure to fluoride in Canadian children results in IQ deficits, similar to the Mexican study. Fluoride has been added to public drinking water in Canadian and American communities since the 1940s as a means of preventing tooth decay. Today, about 40 per cent of Canadians and 74 percent of the U.S. population on public water supplies receive fluoridated water. Explore further Higher levels of fluoride in pregnant woman linked to lower intelligence in their children More information: Christine Till et al. Community Water Fluoridation and Urinary Fluoride Concentrations in a National Sample of Pregnant Women in Canada, Environmental Health Perspectives (2018). Christine Till et al. Community Water Fluoridation and Urinary Fluoride Concentrations in a National Sample of Pregnant Women in Canada,(2018). DOI: 10.1289/EHP3546 Morteza Bashash et al. Prenatal fluoride exposure and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children at 612 years of age in Mexico City, Environment International (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.09.017 Journal information: Environmental Health Perspectives , Environment International Austrian-born lawyer Sigrid Preissl, who represent women with the PIP implants for Austria, Germany and France, poses in Paris, Wednesday, Oct.10, 2018. France's highest court has overturned an appeals court ruling that required some 1,700 women around the world to pay back compensation they received over rupture-prone breast implants. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) France's highest court overturned Wednesday an appeals court ruling that would have required some 1,700 women in multiple countries to pay back compensation they received over rupture-prone breast implants. The decision by the Court of Cassation means the years long case involving German products-testing company TUV Rheinland must be retried. The company initially was ordered to pay damages of 5.7 million euros (currently $6.5 million) to the women. TUV Rheinland said in a statement that the company was not at fault and had "performed its mission ... diligently and in total compliance with the applicable regulations." It said it was "serene" about the ruling. While 1,700 women are directly affected by the decision, the French high court's ruling could have fallout for thousands more seeking damages from TUV Rheinland in other lawsuits. The legal drama involves tens of thousands of women from Europe and South America who received the faulty implants, which were made with industrial-grade silicone instead of medical silicone. The scandal helped lead to tougher European medical device regulations. The manufacturer of the implants, French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP, was convicted of fraud. But the bankrupt manufacturer couldn't pay damages to the women with often painful, leaky implants. They sought compensation from TUV Rheinland instead, arguing it should have never certified the product in the first place. Britain's Tracy Kiss, who underwent operation with Poly Implant Prothese breast implants, shows X-rays in Paris, Wednesday, Oct.10, 2018. France's highest court has overturned an appeals court ruling that required some 1,700 women around the world to pay back compensation they received over rupture-prone breast implants. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) The ruling issued Wednesday overturned a 2015 decision from an appeals court in Aix-en-Provence that the German company was not liable for the faulty implants and the women had to pay back the damages. The Court of Cassation concluded otherwise, ruling that "vigilance" is "an obligation." Evidence of potential problems with a medical device means a company like TUV Rheinland "must take all needed measures," including conducting surprise visits to manufacturers. TUV Rheinland lawyer Cecile Derycke said the company has paid 5.7 million euros ($6.5 million) overall to the women involved in the French court case, many of them living in Colombia but also around Europe and elsewhere. Britain's Tracy Kiss, who underwent operation with Poly Implant Prothese breast implants, answers questions in Paris, Wednesday, Oct.10, 2018. France's highest court has overturned an appeals court ruling that required some 1,700 women around the world to pay back compensation they received over rupture-prone breast implants. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) Derycke argued that TUV Rheinland was unfairly held responsible for PIP's wrongdoing. A lawyer representing women with the implants, Olivier Aumaitre, warned before the ruling that if no one were held responsible for the defective implants, Europe's consumer product certification system was meaningless. "We're in a new phase of the process," Aumaitre said after the decision. "Until now, there was a period of doubt." He said the high court clarified what the appeals court had ignored. Lawyer Olivier Aumaitre, center, representing thousands of women with the PIP implants, speaks during a press conference in Paris, Wednesday, Oct.10, 2018. France's top court is ruling Wednesday in a case that may require some 1,700 women around the world to pay back compensation they received over rupture-prone breast implants. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) Britain's Tracy Kiss, who underwent operation with Poly Implant Prothese breast implants, shows X-rays in Paris, Wednesday, Oct.10, 2018. France's highest court has overturned an appeals court ruling that required some 1,700 women around the world to pay back compensation they received over rupture-prone breast implants. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) Explore further Top French court to rule on faulty breast implant scandal 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. A man stands outside his house in Puerto Rico, on Sept. 19, 2018, one year after Hurricane Maria hit the island. Photo: Angel Valentine/Stringer, Getty Images A project aimed at improving the inequalities in stroke care between Puerto Rico and the mainland did just thatuntil Hurricane Maria roared ashore last September and further hobbled the territory's already inadequate health care system, experts say. Researchers at the University of Miami started the Florida-Puerto Rico Collaboration to Reduce Stroke Disparities knowing stroke patients in Florida hospitals were getting better care than those treated in medical centers in Puerto Rico. By the time the five-year project ended in 2017, researchers involved with the study said the gains in Puerto Rican hospitals participating in the study had evaporated. It was a stark contrast to the inroads made in Florida facilitiesand underscored serious repercussions for stroke prevention and treatment for the island's 3.3 million people. "We were really beginning to see an uptick in better performance, better quality of care for acute strokeeven in the non-certified stroke centers," said Dr. Ralph L. Sacco, program director for the Florida-Puerto Rico collaboration and chairman of neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He and other researchers who worked on the study say the impact of the Caribbean territory's financial crisis and the catastrophic damage from Hurricane Maria have dealt a devastating blow to an already inadequate and poorly funded health care system, taking a toll on a population already at high risk for stroke. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Puerto Rican adults living on the island have worrisome rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, all conditions that increase stroke risk. Many Puerto Rican adults with such chronic conditions haven't seen a doctor in several years, said Dr. Ulises Nobo, a neurologist at Hospital HIMA San Pablo Caguas in Puerto Rico, whose hospital took part in the research project. Compounding the problem is a shortage of primary care doctors, many of whom have left the island for better-paying jobs on the U.S. mainland. It's a chain of events that Nobo said could increase the island's burden of stroke, which as of 2016 affected fewer Puerto Ricans than Floridians, the latest CDC data show. "In a way, it is a lot harder and more complicated for us to find a better solution for the disease," said Nobo. "The amount of young people that we see with stroke here is alarming. That's been going on for quite some time, but I think it's worse now." After the University of Miami project launched in 2013, 91 hospitals in Florida and Puerto Rico had signed up by the following springonly 15 of which were in Puerto Rico. The American Heart Association served as a partner on the federally funded study, and the hospitals adopted the AHA's Get With the Guidelines-Stroke program to improve the quality of care and outcomes for stroke patients. By 2017, however, several island hospitals had dropped out of the program because they didn't have the funding to stay enrolled. Even so, stroke care made notable strides at participating hospitals. A study published by Sacco and his team last year showed 63 percent of Hispanic stroke patients in Puerto Rico received quality stroke care in 2014, the year after the project launched, compared with only 31 percent treated in 2010. Hispanic stroke patients in Florida saw a similar boost: 94 percent received appropriate care in 2014 compared with 59 percent in 2010. Yet today, Sacco said, most Puerto Rican hospitals are ill-prepared to treat acute strokes. Many don't even bother to keep the gold standard clot-busting medication alteplase in stock because people rarely get to the hospital in time to receive the time-sensitive drug. In Florida, however, the progress continues. The Florida legislature earlier this year earmarked $500,000 to fund a state stroke registry at the University of Miami. Jose Maldonado was a member of the Florida-Puerto Rico collaboration's patient advisory group, giving a voice to the patient's viewpointboth as a stroke survivor and a native of Puerto Rico. The 64-year-old computer specialist had a stroke at 48 while living in Baltimore and said he got top-notch care. He worries the Category 5 Hurricane Maria wiped out the gains the research project made in stroke care on the island. "It breaks my heart," said Maldonado, who walks with a cane after being left partially paralyzed by the stroke. "I do worry about my family and friends that are down there. I pray that they never have to go through anything like I went through." Explore further Health concerns haunt Puerto Rico as new hurricane season begins Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org. Professor Bruce Russell. Credit: University of Otago A breakthrough in monkey malaria research by University of Otago scientists encouraged the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund a special meeting in Dunedin recently. A rare form of monkey malaria has been recently implicated in a spate of malaria cases in Malaysia. Professor Bruce Russell from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Otago says scientists at the University of Otago, the National University of Singapore and University of Georgia (US) have discovered a way to potentially use this monkey malaria known as "Cynomolgi malaria" to help eliminate the relapsing form of human malaria (Vivax malaria), which is a significant burden for tens of millions of people throughout the developing world. Cynomolgi malaraia parasites are found in the blood of wild populations of monkeys in South-east Asia and Cynomolgi has recently been detected infecting humans living close to forest areas. "While this new form of malaria outbreak is certainly unwelcome, we are focused on the benefits of studying this zoonotic malaria as a way to help eliminate an important cause of relapsing human malaria, vivax," Professor Russell explains. "We believe that this monkey malaria parasite will greatly help us in finding therapies to kill the liver stages, which are responsible for the relapsing nature of vivax malaria." Vivax malaria is the most widely distributed, difficult to diagnose form of human malaria. Current efforts to develop new drugs and vaccines against vivax have been stymied by lack of an in vitro cultured method, he says. However, fortunately the group of scientists from Otago, Singapore and the US have discovered a way to culture cynomolgi malaria parasites, which are almost identical to vivax malaria. "The primate malaria we are using can be cultured and studied, whereas the important human malaria parasite vivax cannot be cultured," Professor Russell explains. "The exciting prospect of developing cynomolgi as a model to study vivax malaria, spurred the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund a meeting in Dunedin this month, where one of the first successful culture systems were developed." Professor Russell and Professor Dennis Kyle from the University of Georgia organised a diverse group of internationally-renowned malaria specialists (malariologists) from industry, government and academia to participate in the eight-day workshop and conference in Dunedin. The conference was completely funded by the Gates Foundation. "This type of intenseive hands-on workshop encouraged a high-level of interaction, where a new international consortium of scientists emerged with a new tool to overcome current bottlenecks in vivax malaria research," Professor Russell says. Aside from providing an exciting new way to understand vivax malaria, the new in vitro method significantly replaces preclinical testing of new drugs in animals, he says. Explore further A new approach to developing a vaccine against vivax malaria Credit: CC0 Public Domain Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) has often been called the 'invisible disability' due to its high rate of non- or misdiagnosis among children. Now, a new screening tool being developed by the University of South Australia will enable earlier detection and much needed support for thousands of families affected by this condition. The first of its kind to target young children, the new screening tool will capture the breadth of cognitive and behavioural difficulties experienced by children aged 4 to 12 living with FASD. FASD is an impairment to the brain caused when a developing baby is exposed to alcohol. A permanent and incurable condition, people with FASD experience significant intellectual, behavioural, health and learning difficulties that impact every aspect of their lives. While some children with FASD will show a set of facial features a short horizontal opening of the eye, an indistinct groove between the nose and the upper lip, and a thin upper lip 80 per cent children with FASD show no physical signs at all. UniSA researcher and Ph.D. candidate with the Australian Centre for Child Protection, Stewart McDougall, says FASD is difficult to diagnose because health professionals often don't know enough about the condition and this contributes to it being commonly overlooked or attributed to another cause. "Children with FASD can exhibit behaviours such as hyperactivity, tantrums, impulsivity, difficulties understanding the consequences of their actions, poor social interactions, and learning difficulties," McDougall says. "And while behaviours vary for each child, many of the identifying characteristics are also associated with conditions like Autism and ADHD and in some unfortunate instances, explained away as bad behaviour or poor parenting practices all of which lead to misunderstanding and misdiagnosis. "Without early intervention, children with FASD risk of poor education outcomesincluding poor academic performance, suspension, expulsion, and drop outas well as mental health issues, alcohol and other drug problems and increased contact with youth justice. "We urgently need a better way to identify these children early to ensure that supports can be provided early." Exact rates of FASD are unknown in Australia, but international research shows that between two and five percent of the general population may be affected by FASD a prevalence higher than that of Autism. The new screening tool is designed much like the tools used to screen for Autism and was developed from a range of resources including reviews of studies that examine how children with FASD differ from their peers, expertise provided by caregivers and clinicians, and key behaviours that sparked formal referrals or assessment processes. McDougall says that the new screening tool will highlight those children who should be referred to a team of health professionals for a full diagnostic. "Children with FASD can experience better outcomes if they are identified and accurately diagnosed early and provided with appropriate supports," McDougall says. "A team of health professionals paediatricians, psychologists, speech pathologists, and occupational therapists can best highlight the pattern of impaired abilities and relative strengths of children. "Being informed and empowered with the right information at the earliest time will not only deliver greater support for children with FASD, but also their families, carers and teachers. "Ultimately the aim is to give children with FASD the best chance to reach their full potential in life." Researchers will commence trials later this year to test the accuracy of the newly developed screening tool. Explore further AAP report addresses managing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder More information: For more information about FASD, please visit: fasdhub.org.au Laura Schwab Reese. Credit: Purdue University Suicide rates in the U.S. have risen a quarter since 1999, killing nearly 45,000 Americans each year. About 90 percent of those who attempt or die from suicide had a diagnosable mental disorder, yet most states don't require suicide-related training for mental health care providers. A new case study from Colorado, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the country, found that many providers don't think they're fully prepared to deal with suicide prevention and would support requirements for training. The findings were published in the Journal of Public Health Policy. "Mental health care providers are the frontline in suicide response; if a teacher or friend thinks someone is experiencing suicidal thoughts, they're going to send them to a mental health care provider," said Laura Schwab Reese, an assistant professor of health and kinesiology at Purdue University who led the study. "Whether there's a mandate for on-going training or graduate education is requiring some classwork in suicide risk-assessment and management, we want mental health care providers to be ready." Before focusing on Colorado, the researchers considered every state's requirements for suicide-related training for therapists, social workers and psychologists, which make up the vast majority of the mental health workforce. At the time of the study, only Washington, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Nevada and Utah required some form of suicide-related training for their mental health care providers. In a survey of more than 2,000 providers in Colorado, only 40 percent reported participating in suicide prevention training at least twice in the past five years, while 25 percent had no such training. Half of those surveyed had had a client attempt suicide, and more than one-third had a client who died by suicide, illustrating the necessity of suicide-related training for mental health professionals today. "Much of Colorado is designated as having a mental health provider shortage," Schwab Reese said. "If many of the providers there can't address suicide, it's really difficult to find someone else." More than 80 percent of survey responders supported requiring mental health practitioners to have some form of suicide-related education after graduate school. However, many said finding adequate training can be difficult, as much of the existing education on suicide is geared toward a lay audience. Many respondents said that post-graduate training would be the best way to prepare providers, as graduate coursework would need substantial changes to address the education gap and it wouldn't reach providers already practicing. "We need to take a look at how mental health care providers in each state are trained," Schwab Reese said. "At the time we did the research, Indiana also didn't require suicide-related training, which means there isn't a systematic requirement for providers in Indiana to be trained in suicide prevention or response." Explore further Suicide: A public health crisis More information: Laura M. Schwab-Reese et al. Should suicide prevention training be required for mental health practitioners? A Colorado, United States case study, Journal of Public Health Policy (2018). Laura M. Schwab-Reese et al. Should suicide prevention training be required for mental health practitioners? A Colorado, United States case study,(2018). DOI: 10.1057/s41271-018-0141-0 eNightLog developed by PolyU research team is a multi-function nighttime monitoring system for elderly with dementia by tracking their respiration and activities in bed for preventing fall or wandering away. Credit: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed eNightLog, a multi-function nighttime monitoring system for elderly with dementia, to track their respiration and activities in bed for preventing fall or wandering away. The safe, non-restraint system was designed for the typical environment of nursing homes in Hong Kong, and will greatly improve the quality of life for elderly patients while enhancing the efficiency and lessening the workload of healthcare personnel. It is projected that the number of people aged 65 and above in Hong Kong will reach around 2.5 million by 2040, about one-third of the overall population. Among the elderly at that time, around 332,700, or one out of 10, would suffer from dementia, triple the figure from 2009. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, characterized by the gradual deterioration of mental capacities, including memory, judgment and communication ability, as well as usual symptoms of depression, agitation and sleep disturbances. The eNightLog system was developed by a research team led by Ir Professor Zheng Yongping, head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at PolyU and Henry G. Leong Professor in Biomedical Engineering. "By helping various nursing homes to set up the eNightLog system we developed, we hope to contribute our expertise for helping create an age-friendly society," said Professor Zheng. The eNightLog system is embedded with event sequence tracking and different kinds of remote sensing and imaging technologies. The system is based on innovative algorithm developed by the BME team of PolyU. Seventeen systems have been installed and tested in a nursing home over two months this year for nighttime monitoring. During this period, 380 incidences of patients leaving bed alone were recorded, all successfully detected (100 percent), and only two incidents of false alarm occurred (0.5 percent). In addition, the system recorded 525 events of caregivers responding to nighttime wandering, an accuracy rate of 100 percent. The eNightLog system includes following sensors to detect different activities of the elderly in bed: Near Infrared 3-D sensor tracks the resident's position and posture (lying down, sitting on bed or bedside, standing beside the bed, rising) and caregivers' visits. It thus prevents the resident from falling and wandering, and improves staff response time. The algorithm can also detect caregivers paying night visits to the elderly, thus avoiding false alarms. Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Impulse Radar sensor detects small motions including respiration rate to identify the resident's health condition and sleep quality. It functions even under bedding. Environment sensor provides ambient measurements and controls such as room temperature and light control. The activity status and alarms are transmitted in the form of text, icons or processed infrared images, and are displayed on the caregivers' computer stations or mobile devices. Signals detected beyond the preset normality range will trigger an alarm for caregivers to take immediate action. The research team will soon extend the functions of eNightLog system to detecting heart rate and body temperature, and connect the system with smart devices such as electronic diapers. In addition, the system can also link with an ultrasound bladder volume detector to facilitate caregivers to take better care of their residents, especially in handling urinary incontinence. The team is exploring big data analysis to provide more preventive information for health care of elderly. "Being a multi-sensing system and platform, eNightLog is greatly scalable in connecting with other devices, including wearable, non-contact or remote-control ones. The further applications and development of eNightLog with advancing rehabilitation health technologies can be very promising," said Dr. Eric Tam. Explore further Nine out of ten people caring for a family member with dementia don't get enough sleep Bangladesh court hands life sentence to acting opposition party chief over 2004 blasts A Bangladesh court on Wednesday sentenced Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to life in jail, and 19 more to death, over a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2004, lawyers said. Framingham Heart Study doctors in 1948, the year the study started. (Photo: Public domain) It's been 70 years since a small, middle-class community 23 miles west of Boston became the linchpin in helping to solve the mysteries of heart disease. Smoking. Cholesterol. Blood pressure. Obesity. It's common knowledge today that these all can lead to heart trouble. But in the 1940s, with one in two deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and even after President Franklin Roosevelt died from the effects of heart failure and a massive stroke, the information would have been considered revolutionary. The world has changed by leaps and bounds since Oct. 11, 1948, when, prompted by legislation signed after the president's death, researchers examined the first community volunteer for the Framingham Heart Study. The volunteer was one of 5,209 mostly white women and men who participated in physicals, lab samples and questionnaires, and who agreed to return every two years. About two-thirds of adults in the town took part. Since then, the FHS, now a joint project of Boston University and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, has taken in three generations of ever more diverse, and unpaid, participants. The study launched offshoots in 1994 and 2003 to include more races and ethnicities. That's 15,447 people of varying ages and backgrounds who are part of the science looking into the human genome, the brain and countless other high-tech side trips into the human body and the roots of disease. "Every part of the body that can be measured, imaged or assessed, we've done so over the last 70 years," said Dr. Vasan S. Ramachandran, principal investigator and director of the study for Boston University. "It's a remarkable human experiment. It's with humility I say that. It's unbelievable, and to be part of it is a gift, a privilege and an honor." Today, about one in three deaths in the United States are attributed to cardiovascular disease, about 2,300 people each day. And about 92.1 million adults are living with some sort of heart disease or after-effects of stroke. Framingham popularized the idea of cardiovascular risk factors, the conditions or behaviors that increase the chances of having a heart attack or stroke. FHS researchers published work homing in on those factors, such as high blood pressure, physical inactivity and excess weight. The study refined the idea of "good" and "bad" cholesterol. And as early as 1960, it pinned smoking as one of the culprits for heart disease. But the work continues to branch out from the heart to the brain, and even to the molecular level, adapting to the demands of science, said Ramachandran, who was hired as a Framingham researcher fresh out of cardiology training 25 years ago. "When science has made something possible, we are there to leverage it in the study." Dr. Daniel Levy also was a young cardiology resident when he first visited Framingham to work on a research project. They hired him, and he said he felt like "a kid in a candy store" with all the work being done at the time in the 1980s on cardiovascular disease prevention. And now, as FHS director for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, he still sounds that way. "When I started here 34 years ago, I couldn't have imagined I'd be doing some of the things I'm doing now," he said. "We've gone beyond the heart to far-reaching programs in stroke and Alzheimer's to epigenetics, how environment changes how our genes work, to the next generation of risk factors and to understand the molecular basis of disease." As of August, FHS data has spawned 3,698 published studies in medical, peer-reviewed journals. The study has huge repositories of data, from cell lines and gene sequences to scanned images of the heart, brain, bone and liver. Researchers have conducted whole genome sequencing on about 4,000 people. Its brain research program already has received 230 brains from participants who have died, with 572 more participants signed up to donate theirs. Judie Saltonstall is one of them. She's a second-generation participant who moved to Arizona 29 years ago and still faithfully logs on to her computer every three months to answer questionnaires and memory quizzes. The 75-year-old is part of a contingent of FHS participants living all over the country who travel back to Framingham whenever needed for exams and tests. She reels off a list: retina photographs, bone density tests, and MRIs of the brain, heart and abdomen. "It's kind of exciting to do," said Saltonstall, a mother of four and a former teacher. "It's important for me personally, but also for them to know what's going on with me and to learn from that, whatever good it does." It's something John Stefanini, who still lives in Framingham, understands. He and his four older brothers all are part of the FHS. It's a source of pride, even if he sometimes gets puzzled reactions. "The reaction sometimes is almost disbelief that you would allow someone to poke and prod and test you in such an invasive and transparent way," said the 54-year-old lawyer and former state representative. "Why would you do that? You lose a day's work, or you have to sleep with wires attached to you for a few days, or you have to collect bodily fluids. But you do it with great pride because you are contributing to the health of the world. That's something we take very seriously." Explore further Increases in heart disease risk factors may decrease brain function Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org. President Donald Trump waves upon arrival at the White House in Washington, early Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, from a trip to Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) President Donald Trump is stepping up his attack on Democrats over a health care proposal called Medicare for All, claiming it "would end Medicare as we know it and take away benefits that seniors have paid for their entire lives." Trump, omitting any mention of improved benefits for seniors that Democrats promise, writes in an op-ed published Wednesday in USA Today, "The Democrats' plan means that after a life of hard work and sacrifice, seniors would no longer be able to depend on the benefits they were promised." But Medicare for All means different things to different Democrats. The plan pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who challenged Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, would expand Medicare to cover almost everyone in the country, and current Medicare recipients would get improved benefits. Other Democratic plans would allow people to buy into a new government system modeled on Medicare, moving toward the goal of coverage for all while leaving private insurance in place. Trump's column comes as he is looking to paint Democratic candidates as extreme ahead of next month's midterm elections. A White House official speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to describe internal plans said that Trump's health care attack will be echoed by the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups and that the president will continue to raise the attack during his campaign rallies. As Trump escalates his efforts on behalf of fellow Republicans, he is casting health care as one of an expanding list of choices for the electorate this year while seeking to raise the alarm about the consequences of Democratic control of the House or the Senate. Medicare for All, also called single-payer over the years, was until fairly recently outside the mainstream of Democratic politics, but this year it has become a key litmus test in many party primaries and a rallying cry for progressive candidates. Under the plan by Sanders, all Americans would gain access to government insurance with no copays or deductibles for medical services. Republicans contend that the proposal would be cost-prohibitive and argue it marks government overreach. Trump has already sought to paint Democrats as extremists after the bitter confirmation battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and internal GOP polling obtained last month by the AP shows that the party believes the message will help galvanize Republican voters to the polls. At a rally in Iowa on Tuesday, Trump argued that the only reason to vote for Democrats "is if you are tired of winning." He will be holding a rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday evening. Explore further Key Democrats line up behind Sanders health care bill 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Annual Dashain travel rush kicks off (Photo feature) A long-held tradition of people heading outside the Capital city to their respective villages kicked off with the beginning of Dashain festival, the most widely celebrated Hindu festival, from Wednesday. Hume pipe kills boy in Birgunj A boy was killed after being crushed by a hume pipe at Lal Durbar area in Birgunj on Monday evening. Police said 8-year-old Rohit Chaudhary of Birgunj-11, who was critically injured in the incident, died while undergoing treatment at Birgunj-based hospital. 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. 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WE POST AND WRITE THOUSANDS OF NEWS STORIES A YEAR, MOST WANTED STORIES, EDITORIALS (UNDER CATEGORIES - BLOG) AND STORIES OF EXONERATIONS. OUR CONTENT REVOLVES AROUND CRIME, ARRESTS AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT. WE BELIEVE IN THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO PUBLISH UNPOPULAR SPEECH. OPEN RECORD LAWS WERE WRITTEN TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC; BY INFORMING THE PUBLIC OF ARRESTS AND TO HOLD LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ARRESTEES. MOST OF, IF NOT ALL MUGSHOT LAWS WERE CRAFTED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM FEES FOR REMOVAL OF ONLINE MUGSHOTS AND TO FURTHER PROTECT THE PRESS FROM THOSE VERY SAME "MUGSHOT LAWS".WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR REMOVAL OF ARREST INFORMATION AND/OR BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. MORE... Jonesboro, AR - Jonesboro police said Tuesday they have arrested a man suspected in the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl. Keegan Bryce Tatsch, 24, of Poplar Bluff is being held on suspicion of interference of custody. Hes accused of picking Sloane Caroline Quinn up at her school in Jonesboro Monday morning and taking her to his home in Missouri. A school security camera caught Quinn getting into a 2004 to 2008 black Pontiac Grand Prix. According to investigators, the vehicle reportedly had an Arkansas State University Red Wolves license plate in front, however, the license could not be fully made out. The car also had damage to the front passenger side door and the rear-view mirror is missing. According to a news release Tuesday from Corporal David McDaniel, public information officer for the JPD, detectives received information that the vehicle belonged to Tatsch. Officers contacted Tatsch at his place of employment in Pocahontas, McDaniel stated. Tatsch told officers that he had been in contact with Sloane through a chat-based app and he drove to Jonesboro to pick her up, McDaniel stated. From there Sloane was taken to his home in Missouri and he then went to work. Butler County sheriffs deputies traveled to Tatschs home where they located Quinn and returned her to her parents. Tatsch is being held in the Craighead County Detention Center awaiting a probable cause hearing for interference with custody, a Class C felony. We hope to learn more information about how the circumstances surrounding her discovery and well let you know as soon as we confirm that. MyBroadbands Q3 2018 speed test and ISP rating results show that Cybersmart is the top-rated fibre and ADSL service provider in South Africa. The ISP rankings are based on thousands of consumer ratings on MyBroadbands speed test platform. Over the last three months, 676,220 speed tests were performed on the platform. MyBroadbands HTML5 speed test servers are hosted in Teracos vendor-neutral data centres to ensure a neutral testing environment. Many of the users who perform speed tests also rate the service they receive from their ISP on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. According to the Q3 2018 statistics, the average download speed in South Africa was 15.35Mbps, and the average upload speed was 11.09Mbps. The average ISP consumer rating during the quarter was 2.77 stars. Top-rated ISP Cybersmart opened a big lead over its competitors in the latest South African ISP ratings. This improvement followed big price cuts by Cybersmart on its uncapped fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) products, which offer by far the best value-for-money in the country. The company has also increased the speed of its FTTH products from 400Mbps to 500Mbps for no additional cost, which will further its advantage in Q4. The table below provides an overview of the ratings of South Africas top ISPs, along with the average speeds recorded by their subscribers. The results show that ISPs with mainly fibre subscribers, like Cybersmart, Cool Ideas, Vox, and Bitco, have a big advantage in both speed and customer satisfaction over the others with large numbers of DSL subscribers. Ordinary families might stash spare cash under a mattress or in a safety deposit box. South Koreas Lee family are so rich they spent years leaving billions of dollars under the names of their employees. This strategy is back in the spotlight after first being exposed in an investigation by prosecutors that led to the 2009 conviction of Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Kun-hee. He was found guilty of evading taxes through borrowed names and handed a suspended prison sentence. He was pardoned at the end of 2009 to help the country win its bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. A South Korean civic group filed a case against Lee last month, claiming he illegitimately acquired the wealth from his late father, Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull. They accused Lee of failing to pay taxes for the inheritance that was passed down through accounts using other peoples names. The accusation comes several months after police said they uncovered 260 fresh accounts under the names of 72 different Samsung executives harboring about 400 billion won ($352 million) worth of assets belonging to Lee. Police released the details in a statement this February, while a police officer who investigated the case separately confirmed the size of the assets. The accounts were managed by what used to be the conglomerates core governing body, whose latest name was Future Strategy Office. The office, dubbed as the control tower of Samsung, was disbanded last year amid mounting public criticism over its involvement in a graft scandal that resulted in the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye and the conviction of Lees son, Jay Y. Lee, for bribery. Samsung Electronics Co. Vice Chairman Lee was released from prison in February after his sentence was suspended. Handed Over The employees, whose identities werent disclosed, told police they handed copies of their IDs over when the company requested, according to local media reports. Its unlikely they ever got their hands on the money, or even had knowledge of the accounts. The strategy office was involved in the whole process from opening to making withdrawals, an official at the Financial Supervisory Service told a parliamentary audit in October last year. Accounts found to belong to Lee no longer contain money in most cases, Park Yong-jin, a ruling party lawmaker said in a phone interview. He took out the money without complying with any legal procedures, including converting the accounts into his own name. The findings highlight how far some wealthy individuals may go to conceal their wealth. In the past five years, data leaks like the Panama Papers comprising more than 11 million files from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co. have exposed the complex network of cross-border structures that rich people sometimes use to stash their assets in tax havens. Cracking Down They also come at a time when governments are cracking down. Last month, more than 100 nations received unprecedented levels of financial data on their overseas residents through an OECD-led initiative to target individuals evading taxes. Set at 50 percent, South Koreas top inheritance tax rate is one of the highest among developed nations, driving wealthy families to resort to circuitous if largely legal measures to preserve and pass down their wealth without paying hefty tax bills. Special prosecutors discovered in 2008 that Lee had stashed away assets worth 4.5 trillion won in accounts under the names of 486 people, made up of former and then-current Samsung employees. The 1,229 accounts bore some 2.2 trillion won at the end of 2007, according to the FSS report submitted to lawmaker Park earlier this year. Social Benefits Lee, who admitted this was part of his inheritance, stepped down from the helm of Samsung in 2008 with a promise to convert those accounts into his own name and to find ways to spend the money that came to light for social benefits after settling his unpaid taxes. The major reason for using accounts not in your own name is to avoid tax, especially inheritance tax, said Kim Nam-geun, vice chairman of a Seoul-based liberal legal association called Lawyers for a Democratic Society. When the Samsung founder passed away, he left behind massive fortunes, along with huge tax burdens for his children. All of the false-name accounts belonging to Lee dont appear to have undergone a change of holders, according to the report. And the newly discovered accounts had been maintained under names of the Samsung executives until 2011, according to police, who declined to comment on when they were opened. Lee made the late payment of 130 billion won in tax in 2011 when the accounts were reported to the National Tax Service, but the investigation accused him of evading taxes of another 8.2 billion won on the profits from those accounts. Health Issues Police couldnt question Lee directly due to his health issues and sent the case to prosecutors. Lee remains hospitalized after suffering a heart attack in 2014. Prosecutors confirmed they are currently investigating, without commenting on when the findings will come out. Samsung Electronics has no access to details related to the chairmans personal finance, a company spokeswoman said. It is our understanding that taxes levied by the authorities on the accounts in question have been paid in full. Lee has said that the accounts, which mostly held stocks in Samsung companies, were part of his inheritance and they were to help him maintain control over the conglomerate. Lee is currently the richest person in South Korea with a net worth of $17.4 billion. His son, Samsung Electronics Co. Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, is the countrys third-richest with $6.9 billion. Tax authorities disclosed in August that they had collected more than 109 billion won in taxes from actual owners behind accounts in other peoples names in the first half of this year. The National Tax Service, citing the confidentiality of taxpayer information, declined to answer how much of it was generated from Lee. For lawyer Kim, its too little and too late. The government should have taken action at the time of the 2008 investigation in order to collect most of what Lee had owed, he said. Now read: Samsung profits soar due to memory chip sales Our data does not support claims ... One year after the deadly October 2017 wildfires, federal, state, and local representatives met in Calistoga to update the public on fire prevention measures theyve taken since then, and measures that still need to be worked out. On Oct. 9, State Sen. Bill Dodd hosted a forum that took place at the Calistoga Community Center, a few miles from where the Tubbs Fire started on Bennett Lane the night of Oct. 8, 2017. It was among a series of Northern California fires that all started about the same time and were the most destructive in state history. Joining Dodd were Representative Mike Thompson, Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillon, Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning, Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann, Napa County Chaplain Lee Shaw and Monica Stevens of Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch. In many ways the fires were a wake-up call for government representatives. Dillon called it A new day for government with new issues to help in the future. We learned so much, as always happens in these situations, she said. Many of the new fire prevention and safety measures have been reported on in local news this past week, including siren alert systems and fire-watch cameras installed throughout Napa Valley, which Dillon spoke about. She also encouraged residents to use evacuation tags issued by the county, to be placed on mailboxes or doors to notify responders that a residence has been vacated in an emergency. Canning described a city-wide siren system that the city is actively pursuing. Its about as old-school as you can get but, a lot of us sleep with our phones turned off, and it is the most effective, he said. Asked for an update on Clover Flat Landfill in Calistoga, the site of five fires within the last year, Biermann said the owners of the landfill have met the most stringent requirements and everything we asked for is in place. Thompson noted that in hyper-partisan times it has been a little difficult securing federal funds for fire recovery efforts, but said that the last approval has been met for Lake County Fire relief at 90 percent of share cost. Dodd discussed his wildfire legislation, SB 901, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September. The bill broadly expands state prevention efforts while allowing utility companies to shift some fire-related costs to their customers. It is aimed at preventing bankruptcy for PG&E, which faces billions of dollars in liability if investigators determine its equipment caused the Tubbs Fire that was blown by strong winds into Santa Rosa, destroying 36,000 acres, more than 5,600 homes and killing 22 people before being contained Oct. 31. The controversial bill critics call it a bailout for PG&E investors who can pass the costs of their negligence on to ratepayers and victims of the fires creates a special process for the 2017 fires, which caused more than $10 billion in damage. According to the bill, if PG&E is blamed for the most destructive fires and passes along costs to customers, theyll appear as a surcharge on monthly utility bills for the next 20 years. The cost is unknown because its not clear which fires will ultimately be linked to PG&E and what its final settlement will look like, but Dodd said the average residential ratepayer would pay an estimated $5 for every $1 billion dollars that PG&E must finance. I take real exception (to calling the bill a bailout). The bill prevents victims from becoming victims again. If PG&E files for bankruptcy, the ratepayers get hammered, Dodd said. Five dollars is better than all costs borne in case of bankruptcy. I welcome any suggestions to hold the utilities feet closer to the fire. The bill also boosts government fire-protection efforts by $1 billion over the next five years, providing funds that could help clear thousands of acres of dense, dry forests and brittle coastal brush, for forest health, fire prevention and reduction of fuel, or trees and vegetation. Looking towards the future, residents can expect more fire-related legislation, Dodd said. Another key issue government representatives all levels must solve is bilingual translation in emergency systems and the current lack of it. Its really been challenging, Dillon said. To date, English to Spanish translators have disagreed on details such as what level of speaker to translate to, which eventually will have to be standardized state-wide, Dillon said. You can reach Cynthia Sweeney at csweeney@weeklycalistogan.com or 942-4035. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. American Canyon may be getting a new sit-down restaurant, much to the delight of local residents who have long complained about the lack of fine dining in town. Laso Restaurant will offer a menu described as Nepalese Infusion that combines cooking from Nepal with California cuisine. Owner Mingyur Dorjee told the Planning Commission on Sept. 20 that their restaurant is slated to open in November or December at the former site of Robertos Bakery, located next door to the Catholic Church and just off Highway 29. Robertos Bakery closed recently, according to city officials. Dorjee said their new restaurant is a dream project of his and his brother, Sonam Sherpa, a former Buddhist monk turned chef trained in Nepalese and Western cuisine. Both were born in Nepal, and later became U.S. citizens. Dorjee moved his family to American Canyon about a year ago. We love it here, he told the commission. Laso means greetings in Nepali, according to Dorjee. We want everyone to come in happy, he said. Their establishment will be a full-service restaurant offering wine and beer. They applied to the Planning Commission for a conditional use permit, which is required of a business wanting to serve alcohol. The commission approved the permit unanimously. Dorjee and Sherpa have 10 years of restaurant experience in Napa and Sonoma. Sherpas background as a chef includes French, Italian and Nepalese cooking. A sample menu for Laso provided to the commission included the following entrees: Roasted eggplant with cauliflower, fried wild mushroom on a bed of red quinoa, avocado and Bernie sauce. Salmon with summer vegetables and curry mustard buerre blanc. Mussel curry: mussels with yellow curry lemongrass and coconut sauce. Lugsya Curry: lamb shank with special house blend of spices. Seafood and linguine served with tikka sauce nepali style. Filet mignon marinated with black pepper, Himalayan salt, Himeji mushroom and gratin with rosemary butter and curry demi-glace. Entrees will range in price from $18-$26. Salads, starters, small plates and desserts will also be offered. Dorjee said they intend to be open seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m, eventually. Asked by the Planning Commission if they would stay open later on Fridays and Saturdays, Dorjee said they plan to do a soft opening at first and offer only dinner. If things go well, they will add lunch and possibly more. Laso will be able to seat 50-60 people between indoor seating and the patio. American Canyon has great weather, Dorjee said in explaining their plans for outdoor dining. News of a new sit-down restaurant was warmly greeted by residents and nearby businesses. Wow, this is awesome, said Karina Servente. We crave this here, she said of having more dining options and eating outdoors. Kenta Kamohara, general manager of the Holiday Inn & Suites, located within walking distance of Laso, said at the Planning Commission hearing: Our guests are going to love the type of food youre going to bring to the town. Kamohara said their customers have had only fast food to choose from. Our guests are looking for a nice restaurant. You can count on me to bring some guests to your business, he told Dorjee. A brief biography of Sherpa submitted to the Planning Commission said he first learned to prepare food for hundreds of young monks at a monastery. There, he learned about Tibetan, Indian and Nepalese cuisine. In 2008, Sherpa left the monastery and emigrated to the U.S. He trained under chef Pemba Sherpa at the Taste of the Himalayas in Napa. He later learned how to prepare French cuisine and worked at Farm, according to the bio. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Facing opposition from the owners of Vineyard Valley Mobile Home Park and many of its residents, the St. Helena City Council is moving ahead with a rent stabilization ordinance that would limit rent increases in the park. An ordinance would cap rent increases for park residents on short-term leases of one year or less. Residents would be able to choose between a short-term lease that would be subject to rent stabilization or a long-term contract that would not. Caps can be based on a set percentage, tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), or a combination of both. On Tuesday, the council directed staff to come back with a draft ordinance that would cap rate increases at 3 percent or 75 percent of the CPI, whichever is lower. Administrative fees would be split between the park owner and the city. The owner would be prohibited from passing its share of the fees on to residents until 75 percent of the park has opted into rate stabilization. The idea, which originated during a City Council goal-setting workshop in 2017, has drawn strong reactions from residents of Vineyard Valley, St. Helenas only mobile home park. Park resident Andree Bryan presented a letter opposing the ordinance signed by 149 park residents, which she described as a majority of the park. Critics say that with the parks longstanding policy of 3 percent annual rent increases, rent stabilization is unnecessary, could damage their strong working relationship with the parks ownership, and could threaten home values and reduce owners ability to maintain the park. They also worry about administrative fees being imposed on residents. It ultimately will undermine the business model and impact our ability to continue on the path we believe to be best practice, said Greg Reynolds, managing partner for the parks ownership group. Supporters say rent stabilization would give residents the choice to opt in or out, and would function as an insurance policy protecting those who opt in from the prospect of steep rate hikes. They also favor a vacancy control provision that would prevent the park from increasing the rent when a mobile home is sold to a new owner. Councilmembers Paul Dohring, Geoff Ellsworth and Mary Koberstein were in favor of moving ahead with crafting the ordinance, although Ellsworth said hes withholding judgment on whether hell ultimately vote for it. Im still of an open mind and want to hear full discussion, Ellsworth said. Dohring said the ordinance would need to be reviewed in two or three years to see if its working. If its not working and if the support is still not there, then we scrap it, he said. Mayor Alan Galbraith and Councilmember Peter White said they oppose rent stabilization. I dont believe a majority of the folks at Vineyard Valley support it, Galbraith said. Interim police chief hired In other action on Tuesday, retired police chief Tim Foley was sworn in as interim police chief. He will serve for one year while the city evaluates options to permanently replace former chief Bill Imboden. The city has occasionally hired retired officials such as former Interim City Manager Larry Pennell to fill vacant positions during recruitment for a permanent appointment. Imboden resigned in September to become chief of the Hercules Police Department. Lt. Chris Hartley has been serving as acting chief. A former lieutenant with the San Francisco Police Department, Foley was most recently police chief in Nevada City, where he reported to City Manager Mark Prestwich. Foley retired in February. He will earn a salary of $167,520 with no medical or dental benefits. Sewer rate litigation In closed session, the council authorized staff to initiate litigation against Hansford Economic Consulting for alleged errors in the citys new wastewater rate structure that have resulted in substantial shortfalls in revenue, according to City Attorney Tom Brown. Consultant Catherine Hansford calculated the current rate structure. After the new rates went into effect, city officials discovered that wastewater revenues were falling far short of projections due to an apparent computational error by the rate consultant. The council authorized litigation, but Brown said the city is in contact with the consultants attorneys and is considering resolving the matter through mediation. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Joint attorney Thapa caught red-handed with bribe A joint attorney at the High Government Attorneys Office Pokhara was arrested red-handed with Rs 500,000 bribe on Wednesday. I have debated with myself during this campaign about whether to write a letter to the editor about my preference for a mayoral candidate. I had the opportunity to see and hear the two candidates in a political forum at Vineyard Valley this past Thursday. It prompted me to write a comparison of the two men, not on the basis of policy but on the basis of what kind of men they are. Mayor Galbraith is an East Coast lawyer with impeccable pedigree and education. He was born into money and grew up in a house with a maid. I know this because he has told me stories about her. Alan then continued to practice law for 40 years on the East Coast traveling on occasion throughout the United States. Geoff Ellsworth on the other hand is strictly a local product, a California man. He went to school in St. Helena with college in Oregon but returned to his home base. His family were certainly not paupers but lived a fairly modest lifestyle with Geoffs mother Phoebe working as an artist and his father Bob having his own business that serviced the wine industry. Geoff worked with his father but ultimately his creativity called and he entered the field of art where he is a successful artist. Alan is the consummate politician who loves wearing the mayor pin on his vest or suit coat. He loves shaking peoples hands in restaurants and other public places. He started his remarks by touting the endorsements of Congressman Thompson, Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillon, all the Napa County mayors and the St. Helena Star. Geoff on the other hand is an unwilling politician who has stepped up to fill an obvious need in our city when no one else did. He was proud that his endorsements are from friends. When they spoke at Vineyard Valley, Alan presented as very conservative, spoke so quietly that many people could not hear what he said. Geoff spoke up loudly and clearly. He speaks like a visionary who see issues from all angles. Alan expressed conservative viewpoints on housing, fee structures within the city and utility rates. Geoff was up to date on the most recent workforce housing opportunities, sympathetic with the business community as it pertains to fee structures and willing to investigate all possibilities for the utility enterprise rates. Alan took credit for the Las Alcobas Hotel being opened. Geoff took credit and rightfully so for finding relief for downtown businesses when their utility rates went up to the point of threatening their ability to conduct business. Even though the mayor is only one vote, the leadership style is important. My observation is that Mayor Galbraith has exhibited an authoritarian style. Mr. Ellsworth is collaborative and transparent. When the forum was completed one of my neighbors said of Geoff: He was like a breath of fresh air and he has my vote. He has my vote as well. Pat Dell St. Helena Barack Obama used the term rough agreement in his recent speech at the University of Illinois. This term struck me because it seems that as a community we lack rough agreement about what it means to care about our town. I love living in Saint Helena, and I love that other people want to come and enjoy this special place. I dont, however, love how our community responds to people with differing opinions from their own. These attitudes keep good people from wanting to participate in local government. I wanted the Ladera tasting room on Adams Street to be approved, and I wanted to see the student dorms built at the CIA. Some people in our community shared my perspective, and others did not. Regardless of your position on these topics, could we please get a rough agreement that both people can come from a place of caring about our town? We dont all want the same things, but we all want to feel represented. Im supporting Alan Galbraith for mayor because the combination of Alan and Geoff is perfectly imperfect. Alan and Geoff both bring strengths and weaknesses to our council. A vote for Alan means Geoff continues to be a contributing member on the council, and a vote for Geoff means Alan, whose perspective many appreciate and value, would be lost -- to be filled by a yet-to-be-known person. In my attempt to understand the current political climate in town, I am left wondering why we have a mayor. Having Mark Prestwich as a competent city manager working alongside five independent voices on the council, the position of mayor only seems to serve as a catch-all for blame or praise. Every council member has one vote. If we could do away with alliances on the council we will make room to hear everyone's perspective and we may just reach a rough agreement that we all care about our town, even if we aren't in agreement on every issue. Erin Przybylinski Grateful to be living in St. Helena CALISTOGA One year after the deadly October 2017 wildfires, federal, state and local representatives met in Calistoga Tuesday to update the public on new fire prevention measures and work still to be done. State Sen. Bill Dodd hosted a forum at the Calistoga Community Center, a few miles from where the Tubbs Fire started on Bennett Lane the night of Oct. 8. It was among a series of Northern California fires that night that were the most destructive in state history. Joining Dodd were Representative Mike Thompson, Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillon, Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning, Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann, Napa County Chaplain Lee Shaw and Monica Stevens of Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch. In many ways, the fires were a wake-up call for government representatives. Dillon called it a new day for government with new issues to help in the future. We learned so much, as always happens in these situations. Many of the new fire prevention and safety measures have been reported on in local news this past week, including siren alert systems and fire-watch cameras installed around the Napa Valley, which Dillon spoke about. She also encouraged residents to use evacuation tags, issued by the county, to be placed on mailboxes or doors to notify first responders that a residence has been vacated in an emergency. Canning described a city-wide siren system that Calistoga is actively pursuing. Its about as old-school as you can get, but a lot of us sleep with our phones turned off, and it is the most effective, he said. Asked for an update on Clover Flat Landfill in Calistoga, the site of five fires within the last year, Biermann said the owners of the landfill have met the most stringent requirements and everything we asked for is in place. Thompson noted that in hyper-partisan times it has been a little difficult securing federal funds for fire recovery efforts, but said that the last approval has been met for Lake County fire relief at 90 percent of costs shared. Dodd discussed his wildfire legislation, SB 901, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September. The bill broadly expands state prevention efforts while allowing utility companies to shift some fire-related costs to their customers. It is aimed at preventing bankruptcy for PG&E, which faces billions of dollars in liability if investigators determine its equipment caused the Tubbs Fire that was blown by strong winds into Santa Rosa, destroying 36,000 acres, more than 5,600 homes and killing 22 people before being contained Oct. 31. The controversial bill critics call it a bailout for PG&E investors who can pass the costs of their negligence on to ratepayers and victims of the fires creates a special process for the 2017 fires, which caused more than $10 billion in damage. According to the bill, if PG&E is blamed for the most destructive fires and passes along costs to customers, theyll appear as a surcharge on monthly utility bills for the next 20 years. The cost is unknown because its not clear which fires will ultimately be linked to PG&E and what its final settlement will look like, but Dodd said the average residential ratepayer would pay an estimated $5 for every $1 billion dollars that PG&E must finance. I take real exception (to calling the bill a bailout). The bill prevents victims from becoming victims again, Dodd said. If PG&E files for bankruptcy, the ratepayers get hammered. Five dollars is better than all costs borne in case of bankruptcy. I welcome any suggestions to hold the utilities feet closer to the fire, Dodd said. The bill also boosts government fire-protection efforts by $1 billion over the next five years, providing funds that could help clear thousands of acres of dense, dry forests and brittle coastal brush, for forest health, fire prevention and reduction of fuel. Looking towards the future, residents can expect more fire-related legislation, Dodd said. Another key issue government representatives at all levels must solve is bilingual translation in emergency systems and the current lack of it. Its really been challenging, Dillon said. To date, English-to-Spanish translators have disagreed on details such as what level of speaker to translate to, which eventually will have to be standardized statewide, Dillon said. You can reach Cynthia Sweeney at csweeney@weeklycalistogan.com or 942-4035. 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. I am proud to recommend two bright and dedicated fellow educators who are running for election to the Napa Valley College Board: Amy Martenson (incumbent) for Area 2 (central Napa and Alta Heights) and Beth Goff for Area 3 (American Canyon). I met both candidates at American Canyon Middle School, where we taught together for over seven years. Amy Martenson has been devoted to education in Napa for the past 24 years. Her devotion has not stopped with her chosen profession as a high school teacher (at Vintage High School) and school counselor (at American Canyon Middle School and Valley Oak High School). Amy has also given her personal time over the past four years to her current elected position on the Board of Trustees at Napa Valley College. Beth Goff has worked as a teacher in American Canyon for over 17 years (at American Canyon Middle School and American Canyon High School). She has modeled for her students a commitment to the American Canyon community through her volunteer work on the American Canyon Parks and Community Services Commission and the American Canyon Chamber of Commerce. I know that these two educators have the professional knowledge and expertise to fulfill a key responsibility of the board: monitoring institutional performance and educational quality. They both recognize that the primary mission of any educational institution is to support student achievement with quality programs and services that are evaluated and improved continuously. In their collective professions, their experiences have included several federal and state mandates, including the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the California State Adoption of Common Core Standards in 2010, and the federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015. When each of these legislative mandates was passed, Martenson and Goff participated in professional development and extensive planning with administrators and fellow teachers. They are well-versed in the language of differentiated instruction, outcome-based learning, multiple measures of assessment, response to intervention, and research-based practices to increase student achievement. In January 2018, California Assembly Bill 705 passed and will require community colleges to use high school grades and course work, instead of placement tests, to place students in college-level classes, thus increasing access to college-level coursework. Every college is required to maximize the probability that a student will enter and complete transfer-level coursework in English and math within a one-year time frame. As the colleges professors will now have students with a greater variety of skill levels within their classrooms, this new law requires leadership that is knowledgeable about best practices in teaching and learning. Martenson and Goff have extensive experience in creating supportive, yet rigorous, academic environments for high school students of varying abilities. They are especially skilled in ensuring access for students of low socio-economic backgrounds and students of color, which is a growing population at the college and one that has been disproportionately put into remedial classes. I cannot imagine two candidates who are more prepared to support the college in implementing this new law. They recognize the value of professional development for administrators and faculty as they continue to prepare for this new change. In March 2016, the Educational Master Plan for the college was approved by the Board of Trustees without any goals or strategies related to student achievement (despite Martensons request for the Board to direct the college president to add a goal focused in this area). The Educational Master Plan will come under review again in spring of 2019. I know that if Martenson and Goff are elected, student achievement will be the primary focus, and faculty will be appropriately supported in the development and implementation of the Plan. I am proud to support Amy Martenson for re-election to the Napa Valley College Board of Trustees in Area 2, and I am delighted to support Beth Goff for election in Area 3. I have no doubt that these two passionate and intelligent women will continue to make a positive difference in student lives through their work on the Napa Valley College Board. Amy Stark, NVUSD teacher Napa Lost in this countrys ongoing political crisis is the true menace to our economy, our security, and our peace of mind. That menace comes in the form of our hugely expensive yet underperforming healthcare system. The current system burdens our businesses big and small, wastes huge amounts of physicians time, and bankrupts families while inflicting needless suffering on individuals. It is time for California to move away from this unsustainable system to one that works and that we can afford. That system is Health Care for All - California. This single-payer system would cover all the healthcare needs of all people living within the state of California. The price? A savings of $37 billion compared to the current broken system. If you want to learn more, then come to a meeting of Healthcare For All - Napa Valley. This is a local organization, founded on Oct. 21, 2017, whose members believe that healthcare is a basic human need. You can also learn more by going to healthcareforall.org or healthycaliforniaact.org. If you prefer, please email us at healthcareforall.napavalley@gmail.com. Joanie Seidel and Paul Gridley Napa With the election battle heating up in Bhutan, the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) on Tuesday lodged three complaints with the Election Commission of Bhutan against the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT). The first complaint is against an alleged WeChat voice message by a DPT coordinator from Dramedtse-Ngatshang Constituency in Monggar. The DNT has accused him of allegedly saying in a WeChat group that China would intervene in Bhutans internal peace and policy matters if DPT loses the election, according to a Bhutan Broadcasting Service report. He is also accused to have claimed the recent stand-off at Doklam was settled only after the former DPT president intervened. This is a matter of grave concern for us at DNT in view of the use of foreign relations, geopolitics and circulating fabricated information with regard to another nation to further political mileage and gain votes, a news release from DNT stated. The DPT coordinators act, DNT says, contravenes section 4.4 of ECBs Social Media Rules and Regulations. The second complaint is again with regard to a WeChat conversation, this time involving two truck drivers in Pema Gatshel. The truckers, who are evidently DPT supporters, have tailgated DNT presidents car while travelling to Pema Gatshel with the intention of throwing him and his colleagues off Melong brak (cliff), Phurba, the General Secretary of DNT, stated in the complaint letter. The incident reportedly happened on October 4. The third complaint is against Ugyen Wangdi, DPTs candidate from Dramedtse_Ngatshang constituency in Monggar. Ugyen Wangdi is accused of having sent a voice message in a WeChat group, asking people from his constituency residing in Wangdue Phodrang to vote from facilitation booths in Thimphu by claiming to be employed in the capital. He has also allegedly helped the voters with registration for the postal ballot and facilitation booth services. This, DNT has said, is a violation of the electoral laws and undermines the principle of free and fair election. Allaying fears of fuel price hike, the president of Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), Pema Gyamtsho, on Monday urged the voters not to believe such rumours and speculations. The recent surge in fuel prices has prompted a widespread speculation that the prices of fuel and other imports from India could see further hikes if his party comes to power. Also read: Ahead of Bhutan elections, DNT files three complaints against DPT with EC While campaigning in his home district of Bumthang, the DPT president also said the talks concerning DPT with regard to Bhutans relation with India are also not true, according to a Bhutan Broadcasting Service report. Notably, fuel prices in Bhutan have hit record-high rates in the recent months amidst increasing international crude oil prices and shrinking Indian rupee value against the US dollar. During the meeting with the people and the business community of Chamkhar, the party president said his party would work towards developing Chamkhar town into a model town in the Himalayan region. Gyamtsho also stressed on his partys vision of achieving economic self-reliance by 2025, revamping and executing hydropower projects and ensuring employment for all among other pledges. The Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NBIO) following which the collaborative project on Building Climate Resilience of Smallholders between AAU and the Norwegian Government was launched on Wednesday. The MoU was signed in the presence of the Norwegian Ambassador to India Nils Ragnar Kamsvag and Assam Agriculture Minister Atul Bora. The project will be launched in four districts each of Assam and Odisha and the project life will be for a period of four years. On behalf of the AAU, the Vice-Chancellor (VC) KM Bujarbaruah signed the MoU while from the Norwegian side, the Director, Centre for International Development of the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NBIO), Udaya Sekhar Nagothu, signed the document. The NBIO will execute the project along with AAU in Assam and Odisha with support from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (Bhubaneswar), International Water Management Institute (Colombo), MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (Chennai) and National Rice Research Institute (Cuttack) as partners. In his address, Bujarbaruah said that the project aims at improving agricultural productivity, adaptive capacity and livelihoods of smallholders to climate and economic enhancements, by building resilience and strengthening the agri-product market. He further remarked that a United Nations (UN) report released on Tuesday stated that climate change was a reality and that by 2030, the overall increase in global temperature would be 1.5 degree Celsius. The launching of this project could not have come at a better time. He also stressed on integrated farming which AAU had already been practicing to better livelihood options of the farmers in different parts of Assam. The VC said that the project will be implemented in four districts each in Assam and Odisha, where selected climate smart agriculture technologies will be demonstrated and upscaled in close cooperation with farmers and other stakeholders. Bujarbaruah said that a climate smart agriculture technologies toolbox will be developed from the project to overcome problems faced by farmers due to rapid occurrences of climatic changes. He further stated that the project would empower women in the State as men were moving towards the cities in search of jobs leaving women to do the farming. The VC said that a model would be developed which could be given to farmers of other districts and States as well. Bujarbaruah further stated that climate change would adversely affect small farmers who were now 86 per cent and produced 80 per cent of the food as they did not rely too much on technology. They should be well prepared in this regard, he said. Speaking on the occasion, the Norwegian Ambassador said that the Norwegian Government has been giving importance to maintaining a clean environment and tackling climatic changes. Stating that Norway as per the Paris agreement on climate changes was taking measures to reduce carbon emissions, Kamsvag said Norway has set 2050 as target to achieve carbon neutrality. He said that climate changes across the globe was adversely impacting marginal and small farmers and so steps needed to be taken to combat the challenges emerging in the agricultural sector. The Ambassador pointed out that India and Norway was in recent times working in several projects on preserving environment and to evolve technologies to enable the small farmers to adapt to climatic changes. He hoped that the collaborative project launched will achieve complete success. Atul Bora, in his address, hoped that the project would economically benefit the farmers in enhancing their income. The minister stated that the State Government was keeping open its doors for foreign investment in the agricultural sector. Norways Ambassador to India Nils Ragnar Kamsvag on Wednesday complimented Assams renowned actor Adil Hussain for achieving the best actor award in Norways Amanda Awards and said that he hoped cooperation between Assam and Norway would continue in the field of culture. Addressing the launching ceremony of the Assam Agricultural University and Norwegian collaborative project on climate resilient agriculture at the Boardroom of the varsity on Wednesday, Kamsvag said that agriculture was not the only sphere in which Norway and Assam were collaborating but there is also collaboration in the sphere of culture. It may be mentioned that noted actor from Assam, Adil Hussain, recently won the best actor award in Norway for the movie What Will People Say, which was Norways official entry to the Oscars. Kamsvag further said, Cooperation in the sphere of culture will continue. Hussain has played the lead role of a strict Pakistani father directed by second-generation Norwegian national, Iram Haq. Amanda Awards or the Norwegian National Awards, the top national film honour in Norway, was instituted in 1985. Speaking to media persons later, Kamsvag said that Spicmacay, an organisation had been working to bring about cultural exchanges between the two countries for the past 10 years especially in the schools. Indian literature and music are very popular in Norway. Norwegian authors attend the Jaipur Literary Festival and books of our country have been translated into Indian languages and likewise many Indian authors have been translated into Nynorsk, he said. He, however, ruled out any Government agreement in cultural cooperation and said that institutes or organisations of both countries would have to work together in this regard and the Norwegian Government would facilitate any proposal which came from Assam or any other place. Kamsvag further said that though a list of Indian books were recommended, his personal favourites were Vikram Seths A Suitable Boy and books by authors Arundhati Roy and Jhumpa Lahiri. He also said, the trilogy of books on opium trade between India and China in the 19th century also engrossed him. Lawmaker buckles under pressure, clears ground for desperate Bamdev The resignation of Kathmandu-7 lawmaker Rambir Manandhar to create ground for Bamdev Gautam to contest the election has stirred fresh controversy in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), which is beset with factional disputes. Armenia PM, representatives of IT companies discuss prospects for public-private partnership Traces of ancient easternmost Roman aqueduct discovered in Armenia Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group view 'with deep concern' recent events on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Putin, Macron discuss situation regarding settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Armenia Parliament Speaker: Checkpoints are placed in territories that are considered Azerbaijan Ukrainian MP: Yerevan and Kyiv are working on regulating and strengthening bilateral ties Situation on border discussed during opposition 'Armenia' faction's session chaired by Robert Kocharyan Political scientist: Armenian-Ukrainian relations have tremendous potential 41-year-old Azerbaijani man dies in mine explosion in Akna Armenia Parliament Speaker assures that new defense minister will be the best one in Armenian history Armenia FM: Peace cannot be achieved by the good will of one party alone Armenian and Chinese governments sign agreement on technical-economic cooperation Armenia Prosecutor General's Office launches case on Azerbaijani army trespassing state border Russian and Turkish MFAs discuss launch of '3+3' advisory mechanism in South Caucasus Armenia parliament majority faction has new secretary NEWS.am daily digest: 15.11.21 Armenia MP: Armenian community is one of the most active communities in Ukraine's public-political life Armenia parliament to not hold special session based on opposition's demand Baku proclaims occupied sections of Armenia's territory as 'sovereign territory of Azerbaijan' Armenia finance minister receives Asian Development Bank delegation Armenian MFA: Armenia-EU Common Aviation Agreement signed Advocate: Armenia's ex-police chief is acquitted Armen Gevorgyan to attend 9th Meeting of CIS Security Council Secretaries in Moscow Armenia parliament's opposition factions to hold special plenary session today at 8 p.m. Armenia PM introduces newly appointed Defense Minister Suren Papikyan to the top 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Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex Armenia 2nd President's son: My father didn't meet with Nikol Pashinyan Armenia Deputy PM receives World Bank Vice-President Armenian side holding talks to resume search for remains of those fallen in Artsakh war last year Security Council: 4 combat positions of Armenia army were under Azerbaijan blockade 168.am: Armenia PM ex-spokeswoman to be appointed defense minister spokesperson PM: Azerbaijan troops have invaded Armenia territory Armenia deputy PM Suren Papikyan is appointed defense minister Fatal hit-and-run occurs in Yerevan Karabakh President visits Askeran region Commander of Russia peacekeepers in Artsakh participates in Geographical Dictation international education campaign Yerevan man, 54, found dead in house, there are traces of violence on his face Number of people over age of 18 vaccinated against Covid reaches about 1 million in Armenia Armenia to partake in CSTO special forces military exercises in Tajikistan 378 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Russia peacekeepers in Karabakh ensure over 4,000 vehicles safe passage through Lachin corridor in 1 month About 100 people injured in 2 earthquakes in southern Iran Armenia Central Electoral Commission issues preliminary results of local elections World gold prices going down World oil prices dropping Russia creates spacecraft for space tourism Poll: Biden approval rating reaches lowest level since inauguration Mayor of Armenias Chakaten village: No one called, came from the authorities Parsyan on Azerbaijan checkpoint at Chakaten village section: 7-8 km road to reach Kapan will become 150 km Armenia local elections: Ruling party wins in Ijevan Azerbaijan to set up checkpoint on Armenias Kapan-Chakaten motorway as of 12am Monday Mayor of Armenias Kapan: This was victory of dignity Armenia local elections: Incumbent mayors victory is celebrated at opposition bloc headquarters in Kapan Poland police say group of 50 migrants broke through border with Belarus Armenia local elections: Final voter turnout at 47.4% as of 8pm Armenia local elections: Incumbent mayor clear leader in Kapan city, preliminary results say Queen Elizabeth misses Remembrance Sunday service after back sprain Muammar Gaddafi's son to run for Libya president Armenia MOD: Situation relatively stabilized at eastern part of border with Azerbaijan At least one person killed after 2 strong quakes strike southern Iran Armenia local elections: Voter turnout at 38.38% as of 5pm Armenia FM to head for Brussels Putin: Europe itself is to blame for thousands of migrants going there Azerbaijan army attempts to secure positional advance in eastern direction of Armenia border Several climate issues were not addressed during COP26, UN Secretary General says Armenia local elections: Voter turnout at 25.71% as of 2pm Putin to address Russia MFA board enlarged meeting next week Artsakh ex-ombudsman: UN Human Rights Committee advised Armenia not to deploy police troops at peaceful assemblies Zakharova: UK has no right to accuse anyone of refugee situation on Poland-Belarus border Armenia local elections: Voter turnout at 10.3% as of 11am 2 more persons die of coronavirus in Artsakh Armenia pizzeria chain restaurants reopen after mass food poisoning Bulgaria holding presidential, snap parliamentary elections Russia, Turkey discussing possibility of jointly manufacturing weapons Azerbaijanis set up shack near Armenias Chakaten village, says mayor Earthquake hits Armenia-Georgia border zone EEU countries approve roadmap for industrial cooperation until 2025 882 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Mayor of Armenias Kapan: Road at Chakaten village is now used in same mode Potentially dangerous asteroid approaching Earth is discovered At least 13 Syria soldiers, fighters killed in fight against terrorists in Deir ez-Zor Governorate Armenia local elections continue One dead after accident on Yerevan-Meghri motorway US conducts joint drills with Ukraine, Turkey and Romania in the Black Sea US authorities unseal oil reserves to stabilize market prices UNICEF reports increase in number of child marriages in Afghanistan NEA regional chiefs sign performance contracts Chiefs of the regional offices and distribution centres of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) are being asked to sign performance contracts setting goals for them in a bid to reduce loss and control leakage. The governors of Armenias Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor, and Lori Provinces were appointed at Wednesdays Cabinet meeting of the government. According to the submitted drafts, Gnel Sanosyan assumed the office of Gegharkunik governor, Trdat Sargsyanof Vayots Dzor governor, and Andrey Ghukasyanof Lori governor. On October 2, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had announced about sacking the six provincial governors who represented the Prosperous Armenia and the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Parties. PM Pashinyan also said he is going to appoint Gabriel Ghazaryan as Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs. The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) issued a statement saying they have no intention to nominate a candidate for the post of the Prime Minister. The statement issued by the party says they still believe that early election has to be held in May or June next year, but irrespective of this, and not accepting the arguments of the government to hold the early parliamentary elections in December RPA will not nominate a candidate. Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Armenian PM welcomed the statement calling it reasonable. Nikol Pashinyan said he would meet with the speaker of the Armenian parliament, head of RPA faction and representatives of ARF Dashnaktsutyun. Head of RPA faction Vahram Baghdasaryan did not rule out that RPA could become extra-parliamentary force. Nothing is excluded in politics. Nobody has the monopoly to be in the parliament or in power forever, he said. US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills announced on Tuesday an increase in U.S. assistance funding for Armenia. In the coming year the U.S. government intends to provide more than $26 million in FY 2018 foreign assistance funds, an increase of approximately $20 million above what had been requested for Armenia. These funds will support priority programs in the political processes, anti-corruption, civil society, and independent media sectors. The swearing-in of Yerevan mayor-elect Hayk Marutyan will be held on Saturday; this decision was reached at Wednesdays first meeting of the new council of elders of Armenias capital city. Talking to reporters after the meeting, mayor-elect Hayk Marutyan said waste collection is a number one problem in the capital city. He noted that they should start negotiations with Sanitek company, which is responsible for waste collection in Yerevan, and demand that they begin to carry out their activities properly. The US dollar weakened after lengthy climb in Armenia. The USD exchange rate against the Armenian dram (AMD) comprised AMD 485.62/$1 in Armenia on Wednesday; this is down by AMD 0.37 from Tuesday. The exchange rate for one euro was AMD 558.03 (up by AMD 1.52). Negotiation stalls on 35 proposed projects While Nepali leaders have committed time and again to the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinas flagship foreign policy initiative led by President Xi Jinping, officials said little progress has been made in the last five months towards negotiating the projects identified by the Nepal government.Government officials said negotiations for around three dozen projects that were submitted to the Chinese side during Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis official visit to China in June are being delayed. EMMITSBURG, Md. (June 8, 2018) Mount St. Marys University ranks as the No. 1 college for employment in Maryland and No. 21 in the nation, according to the career-guidance site Zippia. The researchers used the U.S. Department of Educations Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to identify the college in each state with the highest listed job placement ratings, looking specifically at employment levels at year 10 after students have graduated. Then, they examined the ratings themselves and ranked each states top school according to their rating. The Mounts 10-year placement rate is 93.97 percent, outranking such prestigious universities as Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Vanderbilt University. This achievement is proof of the value of a liberal arts education. The Mounts faculty and Career Center do an excellent job of preparing students for the workplace, said Mount St. Marys University President Timothy E. Trainor, Ph.D. Our 10-year placement rate will become even more impressive in the coming years. Within one year of graduation, 98 percent of the Class of 2016 reported that they were either employed or in graduate school. That number is based on a 90 percent knowledge rate. The Mount St. Marys University Career Center provides students with the guidance, skills, and tools to define and seek their career or graduate school path after graduation. The Center works with all freshmen students to create a resume which they present to their advisors during advising meetings in October of their first semester. This fosters an environment where students focus not only on academic achievements, but projects and activities outside of the classroom that help build their portfolio, according to Clare Tauriello, director of the Career Center. Students also receive assistance to identify their academic major. The Career Center also offers the Career Pathways program, which connects students with employers in a variety of industries who are alumni or friends of the Mount. Activities include networking events, panels, mentoring opportunities, career fairs, on-campus recruitment, internships, and jobs. Pathways in finance, accounting, government, STEM, sales, education, marketing, and writing are available for students. The Mounts small size gives us the ability to provide a personalized, one-on-one experience for students, Tauriello said. From teaching the proper way to dress professionally and shake hands, to creating an outstanding resume, we are focused on beginning early career planning with students, while guiding them through the Pathways program. Alejandro Canadas, Ph.D., associate professor of economics in the Richard J. Bolte Sr. School of Business at Mount St. Marys University, had the honor of presenting at the Expanded Reason Congress on September 24 in Rome. The Congress showcases the work of university researchers who were recognized as winners of the second edition of the Expanded Reason Awards, designed to promote the university style proposed by Benedict XVI to widen the horizons of reason through the study of reality from different perspectives. The four prizes were chosen from hundreds of works from multiple countries. While Canadass submission, developed jointly with a colleague from the University of Valencia in Spain, was not chosen for the award, his submission impressed the judges, and he was among a select group of professors who were invited to present at the Congress. The Expanded Reason Awards were created by University Francisco de Vitoria in Spain and are endorsed by the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation. Canadas presented on his current research that he plans to submit for the third edition of the Expanded Reason Awards next year. He is studying the work of Innovation Works, a Baltimore-based collaborative knowledge and support network, powered by Catholic values, that is bringing people out of poverty by identifying, training and developing them as social entrepreneurs. Through his research, he is developing a business model so that this approach to incubating entrepreneurial business ventures can be replicated across the country. The incubator was created by faithful lay people in the Church, following Ignatian values, Canadas said. Combining faith and business knowledge goes back to Church thinking on reason to offer solutions for society. Canadas and his son, Santiago, a seventh grader at Mother Seton School in Emmitsburg, were honored to be included in an audience with Pope Francis. Santiago also attended his fathers and other presentations and provided Canadas with a summary of his talk based on his perspective. The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research is expanding its commitment to educate the next generation of scientists and foster academic research collaborations by signing a new partnership agreement with Mount St. Marys University. Under the three-year memorandum of understanding, the university and the national laboratory will work together to identify a researcher with expertise in such areas as bioinformatics, data science analytics, and cybersecurity to receive a dual appointment at the Mount and Frederick National Laboratory. The professor will teach undergraduate or graduate courses at the university and work up to two days a week or summers at the national laboratory. The agreement also calls for a summer research experience for Mount St. Marys science, math and computational science faculty to work at the laboratory, teacher-in-training opportunities for postdoctoral fellows and other scientists, and an internship program for Mount St. Marys students to work at the national laboratory. In addition, eligible Frederick National Laboratory employees will receive a 20 percent reduction in tuition for adult undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs housed and supported at the Mount St. Marys Frederick campus. This exciting partnership opens several significant doors to Mount students and faculty in Emmitsburg and Frederick, while also creating teaching and learning opportunities for employees of the Frederick National Laboratory, said Mount St. Mary's University President Timothy E. Trainor, Ph.D. "We envision this robust and multi-faceted program will grow to become a center of excellence that connects the university, employers, researchers and Frederick County communities in innovative ways." Mount St. Marys Associate Provost Jennifer Staiger, Ph.D. said, In addition to the real world research opportunities created for Mount students, I am thrilled that this alliance will allow the Mount to utilize its strength as a teaching institution to offer a unique Teacher-in-Training Program to post-doctoral fellows and other scientists at the Frederick National Laboratory as well as a 20 percent tuition reduction for any Frederick National Laboratory employee interested in enrolling in undergraduate or graduate programs offered at the Mounts Campus in Frederick. Ethan Dmitrovsky, M.D., director of the Frederick National Laboratory and president of the laboratorys current prime contractor, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., signer of the agreement, said, We are excited to partner with Mount St. Marys University for programs that will benefit both current and future scientists. But more than that, we hope that these endeavors will ultimately benefit patients and improve human health. The partnership follows collaborations signed earlier this year with Georgetown University, Hood College, and the National Cancer Institute of Mexico. Pictured above from left are Frank Blanchard, director of public affairs and communications at the Frederick National Laboratory (FNL); Jim Pannucci, director of the FNL Partnership Development Office; Monica Slate, executive assistant at FNL; Ethan Dmitrovsky, M.D., director of the Frederick National Laboratory and president of the laboratorys current prime contractor, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc.; Timothy E. Trainor, Ph.D., president of Mount St. Mary's University; Jennifer Staiger, Ph.D., MSMU's associate provost of;graduate, professional and continuing education; Boyd Creasman, MSMU's provost; Andi Overton, MSMU's director of business development; and Jack Chielli, MSMU's vice president for enrollment management, marketing and communications. NOCs losses expected to balloon as smuggling goes unchecked The rise in smuggling of petroleum products from Nepal has become a headache for the state-owned oil supplier Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) forcing it to seek governments help to check it. This is the third in a series celebrating the work of Russell Kirk in honor of his 100th birthday this October. Read more from the series here. As a young college student entering the fray of campus debates, I became enthralled with a particular variety of libertarian thought. Though once a conservative, I began to pack my brain with the likes of Bastiat, Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard. I grew confident in my opinions about policy and was proud of the ideological consistency that held them all together. Then I read Russell Kirks The Conservative Mind, and the years of intellectual tension began. Soon enough, I would be moved to call myself a conservative once again. The bulk of my actual positions would remain largely unchanged, but Kirk had managed to stir up the soil from which they sprung. My attention had shifted from ideology to imagination, from the strictly political to the broadly cultural. I realized that it wasnt just about resisting the revolutions of central planners and shrugging at whatever came next (so long as we were free!). It was about caring about and cultivating something distinctly better and more beautiful in its place. The conservative is concerned with the recovery of true community, local energies and co-operation, Kirk writes, with what Orestes Brownson called territorial democracy, voluntary endeavor, a social order distinguished by multiplicity and diversity. Free community is the alternative to compulsive collectivism. It is from the decay of community, particularly at the level of the little platoon, that crime and violence shoot up. That community, of course, begins with the familya place where the idols of choice are quickly revealed as base selfishness and features such as sacrifice and obligation are shown to be mysteriously woven into true and authentic freedom. Through what proceeded, Kirk prompted me to reconcile my principled individualism with a principled communitarianism, giving me a faith and a confidence that such a marriage was, indeed, possible. True individuality is desperately needed in our age; and so is real democracy, he writes. Not unitary democracybut the democracy that means genuine participation of the citizen in communal affairs. He illuminated the value of a liberty fully understood, defined not by the exultation of choice, but by that peculiar mix of morality, generosity, community, and a freedom bound to duty and love. He encouraged me to, in Burkes words, learn to love the little platoon we belong to in society. Kirk accomplished this through his own compelling thoughts and poetic words. But he also did it by connecting me to a greater movement and history of ideas, from Burke (of whom I had not yet heard) to Tocqueville to Hawthorne to T.S. Eliot. In my college dorm room, amid the heat and fury of cable news and talk radio, it was a compass. If a conservative order is indeed to return, we ought to know the tradition which is attached to it, so that we may rebuild society, he writes. If it is not to be restored, still we ought to understand conservative ideas so that we may rake from the ashes what scorched fragments of civilization escape the conflagration of unchecked will and appetite. More practically, I was searching for a richer filter through which to think about and respond to the world. On this, while Kirk insists that conservatism is not a fixed and immutable body of dogma, he nevertheless articulated six canons which I still believe to be conservatisms best distillation: 1. Belief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well as conscience.Political problems, at bottom, are religious and moral problems. A narrow rationality . . . cannot of itself satisfy human needs True politics is the art of apprehending and applying the Justice which ought to prevail in a community of souls. 2. Affection for the proliferating variety and mystery of human existence, as opposed to the narrowing uniformity, egalitarianism, and utilitarian aims of most radical systems; conservatives resist what Robert Graves calls Logicalism in society. . . . 3. Conviction that civilized society requires orders and classes, as against the notion of a classless society. With reason, conservatives have often been called the party of order. If natural distinctions are effaced among men, oligarchs fill the vacuum. Ultimate equality in the judgment of God, and equality before courts of law, are recognized by conservatives; but equality of condition, they think, means equality in servitude and boredom. 4. Persuasion that freedom and property are closely linked: separate property from private possession, and Leviathan becomes master of all. Economic levelling, they maintain, is not progress. 5. Faith in prescription and distrust of sophisters, calculators, and economistswho would reconstruct society upon abstract designs. Custom, convention, and old prescription are checks both upon mans anarchic impulse and upon the innovators lust for power. 6. Recognition that change may not be salutary reform: hasty innovation may be a devouring conflagration, rather than a torch of progress. Society must alter, for prudent change is the means of social preservation; but a statesman must take Providence into his calculations, and a statesmans chief virtue, according to Plato and Burke, is prudence Many, if not most, of these features may be lost in the modern movement, yet each still serves as a striking marker to help us assess our thought and action, tying it to something beyond our narrow ideological or political priorities. They draw our attention to the bigger picture of human flourishing, allowing our imaginations to align and adapt. It presents a clear vision of freedom that bypasses modernitys more typical distortions and temptations. For me, personally, that was Kirks greatest influence: pointing me to the permanent things while fostering an imagination that reconciled individual with community, liberty with order, and progress with the wisdom and experience of ages past. Whatever that looks like and wherever we might depart in actual application, that resistance to armed doctrine and the clutch of ideology is something worth hanging on to. Indeed, as Kirk notes in the books conclusion, it serves as the conservatives more basic promise. If men of affairs can rise to the summons of the poets, the norms of culture and politics may endure despite the follies of the time, he writes in the concluding sentences of the book. The individual is foolish; but the species is wise; and so the thinking conservative appeals to what Chesterton called the democracy of the dead. Against the hubris of the ruthless innovator, the conservative of imagination pronounces Cupids curse: They that do change old love for new / Pray gods they change for worse. Party wont contest by-election to lose: NCP Co-Chair Dahal Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that his party would not contest the by-election to be held in Kathmandu Constituency-7 to lose its seat. Police mobilise sniffer dogs in Trinagar border for security check Kailali police has assigned two sniffer dogs at the Nepal-India border point in Trinagar to help border security force monitor the movement of people and goods entering the country during festival season. Province 1 to decide its capital in winter session Province 1 Chief Minister Sherdhan Rai has said that the Provincial Assembly will decide the states name and capital this winter session. Rights activists put off protests for Dashain Protests against the rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Pant in Kanchanpur have been postponed until Dashain, the biggest Hindu festival. Every commercial I see for this show is absolutely insufferable because of that guy in the tweet. Reply Thread Link I think working in medical has ruined these shows for me. I spend most of my time watching them wondering how the fuck have you not been fired? Or sued? Plus the main guy is so annoying in the commercials. Reply Thread Link Yay! I actually like this show. It's pretty implausible but I still enjoy it. I also really like the psychologist. Tyler Labine usually plays goofy so I like him in a mostly straight-laced role. Edited at 2018-10-10 08:26 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link My mom is Tyler Labine's #1 stan (idk) and she's so excited to see him play serious Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah me too. Reply Parent Thread Link I liked that guy in BlackkKlansman (not like, as a person, but as a character and a performance) but this show holds zero interest for me. It doesn't even seem like a real show, but like somebody making fun of a medical show. Reply Thread Link Lmao that was exactly my impression of the commercial for it, like so silly its like a spoof of medical shows Reply Parent Thread Link I was pretty whelmed by the pilot, but it's not the worst of this year's new shows, so eh. Reply Thread Link I keep thinking that guy is Alex O'Loughlin and wondering how Three Rivers is back on the air. Reply Thread Link Three Rivers was the worst but I would watch just to see the hottest (and least believable) TV doc ever, Kate Moennig (alongside close second. Daniel Henney). Reply Parent Thread Link i have loved the main guy literally in everything i ever saw him in (especially the blacklist, blackkklansman and the iconique and ahead of it's time courteney cox classique "dirt") but i'm not feeling his performance in this. which is sad bc i was rooting for him. and imo the entire show is just so preachy and dull. the cast is great on paper, but the script! so schmaltzty. and it's not like i have high standards. 911 makes me cry every week! jennifer love hewitt has been slaying me since ghost whisperer! like, i don't need much. new amsterdam just doesn't really do the trick for me on an emotional level. that said, i'm glad it got the back nine order. if only because i love freema agyeman and, despite the boring performance, i still like the main guy and i want him to succeed. i might even keep watching. eh. Reply Thread Link *jennifer love hewitt has been slaying me since party of five (and also vocally slaying me since the release of her iconique song "how do i deal"), but in terms of melodrama making me cry every week, she's been slaying me since ghost whisperer Reply Parent Thread Link Lol shit. I watched the 911 earthquake episodes and I started fast-forwarding because it was SO corny. The episode leading up to the earthquake had TWO 911 calls taken straight from Grey's Anatomy. I'm glad it has an audience though Reply Parent Thread Link lmao that's what i'm saying! 911 is totally corny but it gets me ~right in the feels~ lol! that's exactly how i wanted new amsterdam to be. i'm not asking for some highbrow drama, you know what i'm saying? idk what the exact difference is, but 911 works for me, while NA does not. (angela bassett and peter krause as a couple is probably a big factor tbh tho) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link that guy looks like every guy ever Reply Thread Link Under the definition of average Joe should be his picture tbh. God only knows how many guys looking just like him I've seen in my entire life lol Reply Parent Thread Link I watched like five minutes of the first episode and was DONE. Reply Thread Link I love Freema. That's all I have to add. Reply Thread Link I enjoy New Amsterdam, this is good news. Goodwin & Sharpe have so much chemistry Op you could add "The resident" as well in your post. The show got a back 9 order as well.I enjoy New Amsterdam, this is good news.Goodwin & Sharpe have so much chemistry Reply Thread Link I want them to be endgame because he and the wife don't have any chemistry. Yay for New Amsterdam & for The Resident too. Edited at 2018-10-10 09:00 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link I agree. Their chemistry is the only thing that has me slightly interested i want to see if it throws up some shit with his wife. Reply Parent Thread Link The only thing that someone could have said to convince me to give this show a watch would be to tell me that Freema was in it. Damn you. Reply Parent Thread Link Lol this is exactly why I started. I was watching some S3 Doctor who last weekend and my stepmom said, oh that's the girl from New Amsterdam. So I'm like, cool I guess I watch that now. Reply Parent Thread Link ok but did they run out of money and cast some rando as his wife? or is this temporary and she's totally dying in childbirth in the midseason finale? i can't imagine that actress (no offense to her lol but who is she?) sticking around in the longterm. and ita, he and freema actually have chemistry, their scenes together are the only time i actually enjoy the guy's performance. Reply Parent Thread Link Yess Freema!! I've loved her since Doctor Who, and I'm fiercly protective of her and that character after all the hate/racism she recieved post Rose. Good for her! Reply Parent Thread Link I was trying to google New Amsterdam and clicked on a link and...I've forgotten that Jamie Lannister had a show called New Amsterdam too. Reply Thread Link The lead character is smug and insufferable. Reply Thread Link i only just realized that dude is not jack from lost Reply Thread Link same Reply Parent Thread Link The Trump administration announced a major policy change in an effort to win back farm country, allowing the year-round sale of a higher concentration of ethanol. Coinciding with a campaign stop in Iowa, President Trump announced the lifting of the ban of E15 during summer months, a significant win for the corn and ethanol industries. Up until now, E15 cannot be sold during the summer because of smog concerns. Ethanol producers saw their share prices skyrocket on the news. The decision comes after roughly 18 months of damaging policies to the agricultural industry. Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt became public enemy number one for the ethanol industry last year, even as many people in agriculture-heavy states supported Trump, as Pruitts agency repeatedly undermined the market for ethanol. The EPA increased the number of waivers it granted to oil refiners last year and this year, reducing their obligations to buy and blend in corn ethanol into their fuel mixes. Not only did the waivers reduce demand for ethanol, but the prices for credits that are bought and sold in lieu of blending requirements also suffered steep losses, undermining the whole market. The ethanol credits, known as renewable identification numbers (RINs), saw their prices plunge to a five-year low, down from over $1 last year to only 12 cents today. There has been a long-term rivalry between ethanol producers and oil refiners, and the problem for Trump is that there is somewhat of a zero-sum game between them in terms of federal policy. Oil refiners are obligated to blend a certain volume of ethanol, but have repeatedly tried to undermine those requirements. The corn and ethanol industries have fought to maintain the federal blending requirements. Any movement in either direction comes at the expense of the other. Related: Whats Next For Oil Prices? The simmering tension was more or less bottled up for many years because federal policy didnt change much. The two industries still lobbied against each other, but the battle was confined to the specifics of the annual blending requirements, not a broader war for wholesale policy changes. That changed when the EPA began stepping up the number of waivers it granted to refiners, which undermined the RIN market and sparked a much more contentious fight. After repeatedly siding with oil refiners, particularly when Pruitt was at the helm of the EPA, the Trump administration is now trying to patch up the rift it created with farmers. This is an especially important political exigency since the Trump administration has also hit the Farm Belt in another arena. The trade war with China has led to Chinese tariffs on American soy, corn, wheat, cotton, rice, sorghum, beef, pork, poultry, fish, and dairy products. China is such a huge market for American farmers, and the tariffs have led to painful declines in prices. Soybean prices have declined more than 20 percent and corn prices are down more than 10 percent since the trade war began earlier this year. Related: Goldman: The Oil Market Can Handle Iran Outages Between the trade war and the plunging price for farmers have grown a little wary of the Trump administration. Trump has tried to straddle both the corn and oil industries, and his top officials have tried to broker a compromise for much of the past year. Several times, they appeared on the verge of some policy reform that offered wins to both sides, but had to back down because one side or the other felt they received the short end of the stick. The E15 announcement on Tuesday was well received in the Farm Belt, but oil refiners are not happy. The proposed reform by the Trump administration will seek to curtail hoarding of RIN credits, an attempt to mollify refiners who say speculative trading drives up the cost of compliance. However, it wasnt enough to bring refiners on board. The president has promised to broker a deal to reform the [Renewable Fuels Standard] that works for all stakeholders. This isnt it, Chet Thompson, chief executive of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, said in a statement. The battle between corn and oil clearly isnt over. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: I think Saudi Arabia does have capacity that can bring to the market, BPs chief executive Bob Dudley told CNBC on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Oil & Money Conference in London. But on the other side of it you have very unpredictable circumstances in Venezuela and of course, with the Iran sanctions, Dudley noted, commenting on the current market forces driving the oil prices. As the start date of the U.S. sanctions on Irans oil is less than four weeks away, the market is jittery and prone to emotional reactions regarding the two key uncertainties over the next couple of monthshow much Iranian oil will be lost to the U.S. sanctions, and how much spare capacity Saudi Arabia can bring (or is willing to bring) to offset possible steep losses. Analysts are estimating that the sanctions on Iran will remove at least 1 million bpd from the market, with some predicting losses could be as large as 2 million bpd. The only really large spare capacity is in Saudi Arabia, but the issue with this is that it has never been tested, because Saudi Arabia has never pumped more than 10.72 million bpd, its all-time high record from November 2016. Last week, the Saudis hastened to inform the market that they are currently pumping 10.7 million bpdjust shy of the all-time record highand could even tweak that 10.7 million slightly higher next month. Related: Saudis To Boost Oil Supply To India As Iran Sanctions Kick In In view of those uncertainties, BPs Dudley told CNBC that he expects in terms of oil prices that its going to be 45 days of extreme volatility, it could spike up, it could also go the other way. If waivers were granted to others, to big oil consuming countries, you could see it (the price) go down, theres a lot of uncertainty right now, Dudley said. Asked about whether oil prices at $85 have already resulted in demand destruction, Dudley told CNBC, we dont see that destruction. Volatility in prices wont be permanent and well get back to the fundamentals, BPs chief executive said, noting that the UK supermajor is keeping disciplined spending by budgeting at oil prices at $60 to $65 a barrel. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Saudi Arabia is set to deliver extra 4 million barrels of its oil to India in November, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing several sources familiar with the plans, in what could be a Saudi move to replace the loss of Iranian barrels due to the U.S. sanctions on Tehran returning early next month. According to Reuters sources, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemicals would be looking for an additional 1 million barrels each from the Saudis next month. One reason for more demand from Saudi Arabia is that the arbitrage for U.S. crude oil cargoes is currently shut, so Indian oil refiners need to procure more oil from Middle Eastern producers, one of the sources said. Last week, reports emerged that India would buy a total of 9 million barrels of oil from Iran in November, suggesting that India will continue to purchase Iranian crude even after the U.S. sanctions on Tehran return. India is Irans second-largest single oil customer after China and was expected to cut back on Iranian oil purchases, but unlikely to cut off completely the cheap Iranian oil that is suitable for its refineries. India wants to keep importing oil from Iran, because Tehran offers some discounts and incentives for Indian buyers at a time when the Indian government is struggling with higher oil prices and a weakening local currency that additionally weighs on its oil import bill. Related: A New Era Of Geopolitical Risk In Global Oil Markets But the U.S. continues to insist that it expects Iranian oil buyers to bring their purchases down to zero. Earlier this week, Indian officials said that they hoped India could secure a waiver from the United States, because it has significantly reduced purchases of Iranian oil. Late last week, the United States hinted that it was at least considering waivers. Meanwhile, archrival Saudi Arabia and Iran are exchanging in the media diverging opinions on whos making up for lost Iranian oil barrels, or rather whether its even possible to do so. The Saudis insist that they have been more than compensating and have capacity to turn on if the market demands it. Iran, on the other hand, is steadfast in its claims that no one can compensate. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The two new forces in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) marketthe United States as a supplier and China as a buyerare locked in an escalating trade war, which saw Beijing slapping a 10-percent import tariff on imports of U.S. LNG. Although the levy is lower than Chinas initial threat of a 25-percent tariff, it is bound to influence the LNG market in the short-term with winter coming in the northern hemisphere, and in the long-term with shifting trade routes. The Chinese tariff could prompt non-U.S. suppliers of LNG to charge from Chinese buyers on the spot market higher prices that would be just below the U.S. LNG price with the 10-percent tariff, according to analysts who spoke to CNBC. This higher LNG pricing could cost Chinese buyersmainly the state-held giants PetroChina, Sinopec, and CNOOC who are the most active on the marketan additional US$4 million to US$5 million in expenses on procuring LNG, CNBC reports, quoting energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. The tariff that China imposed on U.S. LNG cargoes could backfire on Beijing, which will have to pay higher prices for LNG from non-U.S. sources. In addition, if Chinese buyers cant swap the U.S. cargoes, they still have to pay more for U.S. LNG due to the tariff. However, China is thought to have mostly procured all its needed LNG supplies for the coming winter. Related: Oil Prices Rise On Iran, Hurricane Outages The costs and the impact on Chinese buyers would be mostly determined by weather and by how tight the Chinese natural gas market will be this winter, Giles Farrer, Research Director, Global Gas and LNG Supply at Wood Mackenzie, told CNBC. While buyers face higher prices, LNG sellers will benefit from those higher prices, reaping more revenues thanks to the Chinese tariff that will prompt non-U.S. LNG sellers to lift prices. Suppliers of LNG, such as U.S. Cheniere and traders like Vitol or Trafigura, stand to benefit from the higher LNG prices, although Chinese importers are said to have already started to shun U.S. LNG shipments, the majority of which come from Chenieres Sabine Pass. China was the second-biggest buyer of U.S. LNG in the 12 months to June 2018. But after the trade war began in earnest, Chinese buyers began to cut purchases of American LNG, according to WoodMac. The impact on the short term market is likely to be less than we previously indicated. This is partly because the level of the tariff is lower than initially proposed, 10% now vs 25% in August, but also because we think China has already completed the majority of its procurement for winter, Wood Mackenzies Farrer said in September when China announced the 10-percent tariff. Should China still need more spot cargoes for the winter, supply from Australias East Coast, Indonesia, or Qatar could cost Beijing up to 10 percent more, but Chinese buyers could be limited in their ability to pay for the higher priced non-U.S. LNG by the price at which they can sell that gas domestically, Farrer said. Related: Profit Secrets of the Worlds Most Successful Energy Investors Apart from swapping U.S. LNG cargoes, Chinese buyers have another option to procure spot cargoes without having to pay the 10-percent tariffbuying U.S. LNG from European utilities which are reselling imported LNG from the United States on the Asian markets, where prices are higher than Europes. China would thus avoid the 10-percent tariff, because once U.S. LNG enters European storage tanks (either for use in Europe or resale in Asia), the gas is no longer considered U.S. gas, Katie Bays, head of energy and industrials at Height Capital Markets, told CNBC. Due to the Chinese tariff, the LNG market is currently a great place to be for sellers and traders, while its a tough market for buyers, Bays said. The trade war is already influencing global and regional LNG trade, routes, and prices just as the northern hemisphere prepares for winter. How China will be affected and whether it has shot itself in the foot by slapping import tariffs on U.S. LNG will become clearer when the winter season and peak natural gas demand hit. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: During the Cold War, China and the Soviet Union regarded one another as strategic adversaries. Relations between Beijing and Moscow, however, have significantly improved over the years. Besides political alignment, the countries have complementary economies; China has an insatiable appetite for the raw materials which Russia has in abundance and Beijing has the financial strength to protect Moscow against the sanctions related to its annexation of Crimea. Bilateral trade, as a consequence, has increased dramatically over the years. At the end of 2017, it stood at $80 billion, an increase of 30 percent year-on-year, with an aim to reach $200 billion by 2024. Much of this growth will need to come from energy trade, of which natural gas will likely make up a large part. An example of this natural gas growth is the Power of Siberia pipeline which is currently nearing completion - and the Altay pipeline project which looks set to follow. Chinas booming demand for energy The transformation of rural China a couple of decades ago into a global economic powerhouse has been admired across the globe. Even during the financial crisis of 2008, China served as a stabilizing force amid the turmoil. The Asian countrys expanding economy requires ever-larger volumes of energy to power homes and factories. Beijings adoption of more stringent rules to counter air pollution has created an energy revolution due to the coal-to-gas switch. This has had serious consequences for the global gas market. Until recently, the LNG market was facing an oversupply. Growing demand in China due to its new rules on air pollution has absorbed much of the glut. According to analysts from Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., new supplies of LNG are "being easily mopped up by rampant market growth". Political developments, however, have somewhat shifted Beijings focus from LNG to more pipeline gas from Russia. This has come at the right moment for Moscow as relations with its biggest customer, the EU, have deteriorated. (Click to enlarge) Russias pivot to the East Relations between Russia and the West are at their lowest point since the Cold War due to the crisis in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Despite the EUs reliance on Russian gas, which is a third of its annual consumption, Moscows dependence on European gas demand is much more severe, with the bulk of its gas exports heading West. This overdependence caused Russia to speed up negotiations on a gas pipeline to China and its pivot to the east after relations with the West deteriorated. Related: Is This Chinas First Defeat In The Trade War? The result of this pivot was the $400 billion deal concerning the Power of Siberia pipeline. Despite Moscow's claims, it can hardly be called a game changer as the capacity, 38 bcm annually, is just a fraction of Russias gas export to Europe, almost 200 bcm in 2017. However, negotiations have been ongoing for years on a second pipeline via the western route or the Altay pipeline. Moscow would prefer to provide both Europe and China with natural gas from production areas in Western Siberia due to its lower costs because of partially existing infrastructure. China originally opposed this option as gas is needed in its more densely populated northeast and domestic production already provides for the local needs in the northwest. (Click to enlarge) Geopolitical tensions and domestic policies The trade war between the U.S. and China has led to a strategic recalculation. Beijings approach to Trump has gone through three phases: first, a state visit was organized full of ceremonial displays of respect in an effort to appease the U.S. president. Trumps increasing bellicose language showed that it hadnt worked, which led to a period of strategic patients. The escalating trade war, however, has made Beijing reconsider its passive strategy and growing energy relations with the U.S. (Click to enlarge) Chinas clean air policy has strongly increased demand for natural gas in the Asian country as an alternative to coal. LNG has been an important tool to satisfy demand in the short term. Related: The Middle East Nuclear Race Is Reaching A Boiling Point One of the benefits of LNG in contrast to pipelines is its flexibility. However, higher prices can cause a shift in the global market as ships tend to go where profits are the biggest which has generally been in Asian countries. Changing sentiment on Altay Until recently, negotiations between Russia and China on a second pipeline concerned a direct connection between the countries through the Altay region. However, during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September 2018, the Presidents of Russia, China, and Mongolia hinted at an alternative route through Mongolia. This makes sense in two ways. First, constructing a giant pipeline through the steps of Mongolia is much cheaper and easier to achieve than through the pristine Altay region which is designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO at an elevation of 2,650 meters or 8,690 feet. Second, gas would be delivered to densely populated areas in the east instead of the west, which Beijing would prefer. Moscow is happy with both scenarios as long as gas is exported from fields in Western Siberia which also serve Europe. Changing geopolitics have positively influenced political support for a second gas pipeline. Warming relations between China and Russia and cooling relations between China and the U.S. have increased the necessity for a stable source of energy. Also, predictions of Chinese gas consumption have been adjusted upwardly which has strengthened the need for Russian gas. By Vanand Meliksetian for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Hardliners in the Trump administration have been ramping up their rhetoric over Russia recently. President Trumps hawkish chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in a television interview with The Hill, which aired on Monday, that the U.S. should focus more on the energy sector as a way to challenge Russia. We are the dominant energy power. We will be producing 15 million barrels of oil per day in a couple years. Were passing [the] Saudis. Were passing Russia," Kudlow said. "So what does that mean? [It] means we have to have infrastructure for pipelines, east, west, west, east. Get this stuff to the northeast, get this stuff to Europe and challenge Russias hegemony on nat gas and LNG," he added. "This is doable. We have to really focus on the energy sector. Most of this stuff can be done privately." Kudlows comments, however, may be a bit short sighted, or at least premature, amid a growing Saudi-Russian oil production alliance. This alliance (which also includes OPEC and other non-OPEC producers, the so-called OPEC+) has effectively taken control of global oil markets, something that the Saudis gave up by default in late 2014 when it decided to open the spigots on oil production to both drive U.S. shale oil producers out of business as well as protect market share. In the following two-year period, global oil prices plummeted amid a then troubling supply glut that the Saudis could not control. Finally, by late 2016, with budget deficits growing and threats of economic collapse, the kingdom turned to non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, to take back control of global oil markets. The strategy work and OECD oil inventory levels finally reached five-year averages by late 2017. Though Saudi Arabia declared a victory by bringing in much needed oil revenue as global oil prices found a floor and headed north, it gave up its decades long ability to sway oil markets. Related: Trump Sides With Farmers In Battle Against Refiners In light of growing Saudi-Russian oil production ties, the U.S., though it has already breached the once unimaginable 11 million barrel per day production point, is once again vulnerable to so-called foreign oil - a dismal phrase reminiscent of the 1970s onward when the country was often at the mercy of outside producers. It should also be remembered that Russia, whose state coffers rely on oil and natural gas for much of its revenue, is also ramping up oil production. Last month, Bloomberg News reported that Russia's oil production increased to a new post-Soviet high, fluctuating between 1.54 million and 1.55 million tons a day, driven mostly by state-run energy firm Rosneft. Those numbers equal between 11.29 million and 11.36 million barrels per day of output, bypassing a previous record set in October 2016, just a few months before Russian agreed to participate with a Saudi-led OPEC to reign the global oil supply glut. However, Kudlow has a more of a point on the natural gas front. With the U.S. poised to be the third largest LNG producer in terms of liquefaction capacity before the mid part of the next decade, the U.S. will challenge Russias own LNG ambitions to capture market share, particularly in key Asian markets. The Asia-Pacific region makes up 72 percent of global LNG demand, with that amount projected to increase to 75 percent on the back of increasing Chinese demand. Related: BP Chief: Saudi Arabia Is Holding Back Production U.S. LNG exports will also make inroads into Russias natural gas monopoly in Europe as Germany and other EU members concede to Trumps insistence over more gas imports to appease the president over trade differences. Yet, Russian piped gas will for the foreseeable future remain at a cost advantage of LNG imports to the continent, both U.S. LNG imports, Qatari imports and others. American LNG is still expensive compared to Russian piped gas. Using a Henry Hub gas price of $2.85/MMBtu as a base, Russian gas giant Gazprom recently estimated that adding processing and transportation costs, the price of U.S.-sourced LNG in Europe would reach $6/MMBtu or higher a steep markup. Henry Hub gas prices are currently trading at $3.336. Over the last 52-week period U.S. gas has traded between $2.64/MMBtu and $3.82/MMBtu. Russian gas sells for around $5/MMBtu in European markets and could even trade at lower prices in the future as Gazprom removes the commoditys oil price indexation. By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: China has launched the autumn-winter air protection battle for 2018-2019 in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and the neighboring area, which will hit refined oil demand. Tougher regulations for emissions in the autumn and winter period in north China are being implemented as air pollution is usually more serious at this time of the year when heating becomes a necessity. According to the countrys action plan for this battle, air pollution in Beijing, Tianjin and 26 other cities in the northern region should improve further this autumn and winter. The average density of PM2.5 (ultra-small particles) in these cities during October 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019 should drop by about 3 percent year on year, and the days with heavy pollution should also decline by roughly 3 percent. Production in the industrial and mining sectors will be cut during October 2018 and March 2019, or suspended at certain points during these six months. This year's action plan is different from previous years as it adopts different production restriction at different plants and areas. Production at all the construction material producers will be constrained from the beginning of October 2018 to the end of March 2019. Meanwhile, steel production in cities with relatively heavy pollution should be cut by 50 percent, and in slightly less polluted cities be reduced by at least 30%, the plan says. Companies with better environmental protection records will have to cut production less than their more contaminating counterparts. This production slowdown is expected to dampen diesel demand from the industry. The plan also says that goods transport by train should be increased and bulk materials for new or expansion projects should be transported by train, ship or pipeline if possible. More cargo transport by train should lead to lower diesel demand from the trucking sector. In addition, the plan requires the 28 cities to make three-year action plans to upgrade their fleets of vehicles and ships. Electric vehicles and vehicles that meet national standards VI should account for 80 percent of the buses, environmental sanitation vehicles, mail vans, taxies, commuter trains and light logistics vehicles in these cities by 2020. By JLC More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Chevron is the first oil supermajor to leave the Norwegian Continental Shelf, after Norways authorities accepted the sale of the only asset of the U.S. firma 20-percent stake in an exploration license, Upstream reported on Wednesday. According to a letter to Chevron from Norways Petroleum Ministry dated September 28 and obtained by Reuters, Chevron is transferring its 20-percent stake in the so-called PL859 exploration license operated by Equinor in Norways Arctic. Chevron struck a deal with Norwegian company DNO in July for the stake transfer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. major told Reuters, without disclosing the value of the transaction. The transaction is subject to certain conditions and approvals, and is expected to take a number of months to close, the spokeswoman told Reuters. Chevrons Norwegian exit comes as the oil and gas major is also looking to sell several of its assets in the UK North Sea after it decided to start the process of marketing all its assets in the UK Central North Sea this summer. Divesting assets in Norway and the UK is part of Chevrons strategy to focus more on the U.S. shale patch and on the huge Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan. Earlier this month, Equinor signed a deal to buy Chevrons 40-percent stake in the Rosebank project northwest of the Shetland Islands, in what the Norwegian oil major said was one of the largest undeveloped fields on the UK Continental Shelf. Chevron also adds to a group of supermajors, including Shell and BP, who have been either selling or merging their assets offshore Norway. Shell announced in June an agreement with OKEA AS to sell its entire 44.56-percent stake in the Draugen field and the 12-percent interest in the Gja field in Norway for US$556 million. BP, for its part, doesnt have direct stakes in assets offshore Norway anymore, but the UK supermajor owns 30 percent in Norwegian oil firm Aker BP, which is an active operator and explorer offshore Norway. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Route restriction lifted to ease travel rush In a bid to handle the festival travel rush, the Department of Transport Management has decided to temporarily lift the route restriction, allowing public vehicles to ply any routes across the country. Crude oil production has begun at the Greater Mooses Tooth 1 prospect, operated by Conoco, in Alaskas North Slope, the company said as quoted by Reuters. Output is estimated to peak at between 25,000 and 30,000 bpd. The GMT 1 is the second producing prospect in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska after CD5, another field operated by Conoco. Now the company will start developing a nearby site, Greater Mooses Tooth 2. Production there could start by 2021, with peak rates of 35,000 to 40,000 bpd. Conoco is the largest oil producer in Alaska, and earlier this year the company announced the discovery of an estimated 750 million barrels in crude oil and gas resources in the Greater Willow Area, also in the National Petroleum Reserve in the North Slope. The Greater Mooses Tooth 1 is part of the Greater Willow Area. At the time, the company said that developing these reserves would cost between US$2 and US$3 billion after the final investment decision is made. Conoco plans to take it by 2021 with first oil from this deposit seen to start flowing three years later. Many companies have left Alaska as its fields go into natural decline, but Conoco is still big there and has no plans to pull out, despite high taxes that hit production alongside declining rates and despite the opening up of more easily accessible reserves elsewhere in the States. As the Motley Fool wrote in July, after the announcement of the Greater Willow Area discovery, the focus on Alaska has paid off. Besides the 750 million barrels of oil and gas in that area, Conoco also struck another 100-350 million barrels of oil equivalent in two new prospects in the state. These will be appraised in 2019, the company said. And then it will have another 85 percent of its acreage in Alaska to explore. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Basra Oil Company, which accounts for the bulk of Iraqs crude oil production, plans to increase its production to 5 million bpd from the current 3.2 million bpd by 2025, S&P Global Platts reports, citing the companys Director General, Ihsan Ismaael who spoke at an industry event in Turkey. Ismaael said the plans would involve the construction of new oil pipelines and that this level of production will be sustained for as long as two decades. Currently, Basra Oil Company produces 75 percent of Iraqs crude oil. Most of the additional production, the executive said, will come from fields that are operated by international oil companies, but some will come from BOC-operated projects. The foreign-operated fields will contribute 1.8 million bpd to the higher production. These include West Qurna-1 operated by Exxon, West Qurna-2 operated by Lukoil, Rumaila with BP as operator, and Zubair, operated by Eni. The increase will happen over the next three to five years. The BOC-operated fields will add 700,000 bpd to overall production by 2024. Along with the increase in production, BOC will also expand its export capacity by as much as 3 million bpd by replacing old pipelines with new ones. This would also solve a problem that the current infrastructure is having, with one of the pipelines that takes the crude from fields to the export terminals operating at below 50 percent of capacity due to the risk of rupture. Related: China Blinks First In LNG Face-Off With U.S. Iraqs government earlier announced plans to boost oil production considerably, but analysts from IHS Markit forecast this will be tough to accomplish, projecting instead only a marginal increase in production to a total of 5 million bpd, because of continued political instability and economic troubles. The country has a capacity to produce 7 million bpd. Iraq had oil reserves of 153 billion barrels as of last year, but earlier this year Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said the actual reserves could be twice as large. If the higher estimate proves true, it would make Iraq the largest oil-rich country in the world, even ahead of Venezuela, which claims its reserves are just above 300 billion barrels, and also ahead of Saudi Arabia, with 260.8 billion barrels. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Minnesota state district judge Robert Tiffany has dismissed charges against three climate change activists who shut down two pipelines operated by Enbridge back in 2016. Although they had reason to be happy with the judges decision, the defendants were in fact disappointed: the acquittal happened mid-trial, before they had a chance to use their defense, which would have run along the lines of necessity. The necessity defense is rarely used by attorneys, MPR News reports, and comes down to an argument that a persons actions, although illegal, were justifiable as they sought to prevent a greater harm. If they were found guilty, the defendants would have faced prison time and fines. However, the judge said their actions had not caused any damage to the infrastructure. "We did this action two, almost two years ago to the day, Thursday will be the second anniversary, because the problem of climate change is so urgent that we have to start shutting down tar sands pipelines down now," one of the defendants, Emily Johnston told MPR News. The defendants attorney, Lauren Regan, was also disappointed they didnt get to use the necessity defense. "We, of course, were incredibly excited to put on what would have been the dream necessity defense for the climate movement. Our experts were phenomenal. And you know if we couldn't convince rural community members who doubted the existence of climate change with this group of people we would have really had an uphill battle," she said. Naturally, Enbridges response was very different. In a statement, the company said, "The individuals involved in these activities claimed to be protecting the environment, but they did the opposite and put the environment and the safety of people at risk including themselves, first responders and neighboring communities and landowners." A representative of a local pro-pipeline organization commented that the shutdown of a pipeline valve was a dangerous action: "'Turning the valve' was really trying to stop a 1.5-billion-pound batch of oil traveling around 8 miles per hour at one spot with one valve. It would be the same as trying to stop five 100-car trains full of oil at the same time by putting a crossing arm in front of it." The defendants claimed they had taken precautions before turning the valveafter they called Enbridge to warn thembut never got to share these precautions with the court. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Maersk Oil Tradingone of the worlds top ship fuel buyershas hired an oil storage facility in Singapore to provide fuel to customers in Asia ahead of the new ship fuel regulations, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting trade sources. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set January 1, 2020, as the starting date from which only low-sulfur fuel oil will be allowed to be used for ships. Shippers are exploring various options to comply with the new sulfur-limiting rulesone is to use Ultra Low Sulfur Fuel Oil (ULSFO) or marine gas oil (MGO), while another option is to install scrubberssystems that remove sulfur from exhaust gas emitted by bunkers. Maersk Oil Trading hasnt had its own storage facilities in the worlds largest bunkering hub Singapore, which lies on one of the busiest waterways in the world. According to Reuters sources, Maersk Oil Trading has leased storage for fuel oil for six months in a move when the market is in steep backwardationthe market situation in which front-month prices are trading at a premium compared to prices further out in the future, which makes storing oil and products uneconomical to recover storage costs. Maersk Oil Trading has leased storage at the Tankstore oil terminal in Singapore, a spokesman for its parent company, the worlds top container line, A.P. Moller-Maersk, told Reuters, without elaborating on details. In August this year, A.P. Moller-Maersk and independent tank storage operator Royal Vopak announced an agreement on a sulfur fuel bunkering facility in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which will meet around 20 percent of A.P. Moller-Maersks total low-sulfur fuel requirements. Related: U.S. Oil Companies Face $240 Billion Debt Mountain Last month, the head of Maersk Oil Trading, Niels-Henrik Lindegaard, told Reuters that Maersk would invest in new scrubber technology on a limited number of vessels. Using scrubber technology is a small part of and just one of several elements in our overall 2020 fuel sourcing strategy to ensure compliance in time, he said. While we will continue to explore how to best comply with the 2020 sulphur cap, we still believe the best solution remains with compliant fuels from refineries on land, Lindegaard told Reuters. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday accused China of "seriously challenging" peace and stability, describing the island she leads as being on the frontline of tensions in the Pacific. Her comments come as Beijing pursues a multi-pronged attack on any claims to sovereignty by self-ruled democratic Taiwan, which it sees as part of its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated since Tsai took office two years ago, as she refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China". "As Taiwan is on the frontline of the Western Pacific, we are naturally subject to tremendous pressure," Tsai said in a televised speech to mark Taiwan's National Day. "China's unilateral diplomatic offensive and military coercion have not only harmed cross-strait relations. They have also seriously challenged the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," she added. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign country and has an independent political system, judiciary and currency, but has never formally declared a split, despite being ruled separately since 1949. Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office hit back, claiming Tsai's remarks "would only further worsen cross-strait relations and lead Taiwan to a more dangerous situation" in comments carried by the official Xinhua news agency. China has recently upped military drills around the island and has made a concerted effort to poach Taiwan's dwindling number of official allies -- only 17 countries still diplomatically recognise the island after five jumped ship since Tsai took power. Beijing has also successfully put pressure on international businesses to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites and ensured Taiwan is shut out of global forums. - Strategic card - Tsai called on authorities in Beijing to "play a positive role in the region and the world, instead of being a source of conflict". She pledged not to escalate tensions but also said Taiwan would seek to fortify its national security and diplomatic links, establishing its "irreplaceable strategic importance". "I will not be provoked into confrontation or conflicts that endanger cross-strait relations, nor will I deviate from the will of the people, and sacrifice Taiwan's sovereignty," Tsai said. "An effective response strategy must be rooted in national strength," she added. Worsening ties with Beijing and unpopular domestic reforms policies are putting Tsai's government under pressure ahead of major local elections next month. Tsai warned in her speech that anyone interfering in the election process would "suffer serious consequences". She has accused Beijing of spreading "fake information" to affect public trust in the government in the run-up to the vote. Later Wednesday, thousands of supporters of Taiwan's Beijing-friendly opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party gathered in downtown Taipei, waving flags and singing Taiwan's anthem. Under the former KMT government of President Ma Ying-jeou, from 2008 to 2016, there was an unprecedented rapprochement with Beijing. Ma attended the rally and some participants said they hoped relations with China would improve. "I hope Taiwan and China can maintain peace and not provoke each other," 55-year-old saleswoman Shui Tian told AFP at the rally. She added that she was disappointed with the lack of Taiwan's national flag on display around the city, blaming the DPP. Taiwan's official name is the Republic of China (ROC), and the ROC flag incorporates the white sun on a blue background motif that is the symbol of the KMT. Some pro-independence campaigners want to see the island drop its old name and symbols and establish instead a Republic of Taiwan. The DPP is traditionally pro-independence leaning, but Tsai has always emphasised the importance of maintaining the "status quo" with China. Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida coast on Wednesday as the most powerful storm to hit the southern US state in more than a century as officials warned it could wreak "unimaginable devastation." Michael made landfall as a monstrous Category 4 storm near Mexico Beach, a town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Panama City, around 1:00 pm Eastern time (1700 GMT), the National Hurricane Center said. As the eye of the hurricane came ashore, winds of up to 155 miles per hour (250 kilometers per hour) and driving rain pounded beachfront communities on the Florida Panhandle, the finger-shaped strip of land along the Gulf of Mexico. "Hurricane Michael is forecast to be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida Panhandle in a century," Governor Rick Scott said. Briefing President Donald Trump at the White House, top emergency management official Brock Long said Michael was the most intense hurricane to strike the area since 1851. "Along our coast, communities are going to see unimaginable devastation," Governor Scott said. "The National Hurricane Center is expecting storm surge to be between nine and 13 feet (2.7-3.6 meters)," he added. "Water will come miles in shore and could easily rise over the roofs of houses." Hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes and the governor told residents that if they have not already done so it was now too late. "The time to evacuate the coastal areas has come and gone... Hunker down, and be careful," he said. "Don't go out in the middle of this. You are not going to survive it. It's deadly." "This is, unfortunately, a historical and incredibly dangerous and life-threatening situation," said Ken Graham, director of the Miami-based NHC. "It's going to be incredibly catastrophic." - Deadly storm surge - Long, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said many Florida buildings were not built to withstand a storm above the strength of a Category 3 hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. As it came ashore, Michael was just shy of a Category 5 -- defined as a storm packing wind speeds of 157 mph or above. "We're going to see a lot of wind damage," Long said, and some residents could expect not to have power restored for weeks. Speaking before the hurricane made landfall, Long said "this is the final call for anybody that needs to get out. "Those who stick around to experience storm surge don't typically live to tell about it unfortunately," he said. Residents of the neighboring state of Georgia should also expect to be heavily impacted by the storm, the FEMA head said. "Citizens in Georgia need to wake up and pay attention," Long said. Mike Thomas, the mayor of Panama City Beach, a resort west of Panama City, said he expected there would be casualties and that emergency personnel would not go out when winds get over 50 miles per hour (80 kph). "It's going to be horrible," Thomas told CNN. "We're going to get some people hurt." An estimated 375,000 people in more than 20 counties were ordered or advised to evacuate. The National Weather Service office in the state capital Tallahassee issued a dramatic appeal for people to comply with evacuation orders. - 'Leave NOW' - "Hurricane Michael is an unprecedented event and cannot be compared to any of our previous events. Do not risk your life, leave NOW if you were told to do so," it said. The NWS said it had found no record of any previous Category 4 hurricanes that made landfall in the Panhandle or the "Big Bend" coastal region. "This situation has NEVER happened before," it said on Twitter. Trump issued an emergency declaration for Florida, freeing up federal funds for relief operations and providing the assistance of FEMA, which has more than 3,000 people on the ground. State officials issued disaster declarations in Alabama and Georgia and the storm is also expected to bring heavy rainfall to North and South Carolina. The Carolinas are still recovering from Hurricane Florence, which left dozens dead and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage last month. It made landfall on the coast as a Category 1 hurricane on September 14 and drenched some parts of the state with 40 inches (101 centimeters) of rain. Last year saw a string of catastrophic storms batter the western Atlantic -- including Irma, Maria and Harvey, which caused a record-equaling $125 billion in damage when it flooded the Houston metropolitan area. Scientists have long warned that global warming will make storms more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible. South Korea on Wednesday kicked off an international fleet review involving 13 nations, after Japan bowed out in protest at Seoul's demand it remove a controversial 'Rising Sun' naval flag from Tokyo's warship. The five-day event off the southern island of Jeju had initially included the Japanese navy, whose plan to fly the flag caused fury and a series of anti-Tokyo protests in its former colony. The emblem has been an ensign for Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Forces since 1954, but is seen in much of east Asia as a symbol of its military aggression during the Second World War. Koreans remain resentful of Japan's 1910-45 colonisation of the peninsula and the neighbours -- both of them US allies --- have often locked horns over issues of history and a territorial row over Seoul-controlled islets also claimed by Tokyo. Tokyo last week withdrew from the review after Seoul's navy asked all participating countries to display only their national flag and the South's on their vessels. Tokyo dismissed the request, arguing that it was mandatory to fly the "Rising Sun" flag under Japanese law. "The event started this morning as scheduled," a spokesman for the South's navy told AFP. A total of 13 countries including the South, the US, Russia and India are set to show off 41 warships -- including the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier -- and more than 20 military planes at this year's event, with the main display on Thursday. Russia and the US have sent the largest contingents, with three warships each, Moscow's including the Varyag missile cruiser. China has sent delegates but no vessel. Poland's president appointed 27 new judges to the supreme court Wednesday, pushing ahead with a controversial judicial reform that has put Poland in the EU's crosshairs. Andrzej Duda proceeded with the nominations despite a supreme administrative court ruling suspending the procedure pending a decision on the way new judges are selected. The president of the Iustitia association of Polish judges, Krystian Markiewicz, condemned Duda for "not respecting the separation of powers". But lawyer Pawel Mucha, an advisor to Duda, told reporters: "The head of state is not part of the proceedings initiated by the supreme administrative court." He was thus free to use his constitutional prerogative to appoint judges "in the public interest". At issue is a law introduced by the right-wing government that lowers the age at which supreme court judges must retire from 70 to 65. This has hastened the departure of judges appointed under previous governments, allowing the appointment of figures seen as loyal by Warsaw's current leadership. Critics argue the reform, which came into effect in July, puts the judicial system under government control and so threatens democracy. But the Law and Justice (PiS) government argues the changes are needed to tackle corruption and overhaul a system still tainted by the communist era. The reforms have led to protests in Poland and also drawn concern from the European Union. Last month, the EU referred Poland to its top court for a move that it says violates the independence of its supreme court. The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice could impose fines if it finds Poland in breach of EU law. The EU first sounded the alarm over Polish judicial reforms shortly after the PiS won elections in 2015. Brussels has since engaged in more than two years of talks, but Warsaw has largely ignored its warnings that the changes would weaken democratic checks and balances. In December, the Commission triggered unprecedented proceedings against Poland under Article 7 of the EU treaty, citing "systemic threats" to the rule of law. While this could eventually see Warsaw's EU voting rights suspended, Warsaw's neighbour Hungary has vowed to veto any such penalty. Hong Kongs leader has vowed to fearlessly punish independence advocacy using existing laws while continuing to cultivate an environment favourable for introducing contentious national security legislation. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor highlighted the use of the Societies Ordinance to impose an unprecedented ban last month on the separatist Hong Kong National Party (HKNP) as a strong testimony of the governments resolve to safeguard national interests. I have stated publicly a number of times that the government will carefully consider all relevant factors, act prudently and continue its efforts to create a favourable social environment for the legislative work, Lam said on Wednesday in her second policy address since taking office in July last year. Yet this does not suggest we will turn a blind eye to acts violating the constitution [of China] and the Basic Law, attempting to secede from the country and endangering national security. Neither would laying the groundwork for the law against treason, secession, sedition or subversion include restarting efforts to win universal suffrage for Hongkongers, Lam said. It is not logically sound for universal suffrage to come before national security legislation, Lam said, during a question-and-answer session with reporters later. Hong Kong has a constitutional responsibility to pass national security legislation under Article 23 of its mini-constitution, the Basic Law. The governments last attempt to do this in 2003 was shelved after half a million people took to the streets in protest, fearing their freedoms would be compromised. Lam said the national security legislation should have been enacted as soon as the Basic Law came into force, when Hong Kong passed from British to Chinese rule in 1997. To select the chief executive by universal suffrage is an ultimate aim as stipulated in Article 45 [of the Basic Law], which means it can be realised in 10, 20 or 30 years, she said. Story continues The city last launched a political reform bid in late 2013 that would have gone some way towards universal suffrage, but a rigid framework imposed by Chinas top legislative body prompted opposition pan-democrats to block its passage in the Legislative Council in 2015. In Lams first policy address last October, she said she understood the aspirations of the community, especially younger people, for universal suffrage. She promised to do her best to take forward political reform within the framework of [the National Peoples Congress Standing Committee decision]. Asked on Wednesday why she had not touched on policy reform in her speech, Lam said: That is to bang my head against the wall. I would not bang my head against the wall. If I do so, the one who gets hurt will not be me, but Hong Kong society. In the last term of government, I was in charge of the political reform task force. I saw with my eyes how badly hurt the society was because of political reform. And it has not fully recovered. In her speech on Wednesday, she made clear that she would continue to listen to public views earnestly and explore ways to enable Hong Kong society to respond positively to Article 23 legislation. In a message aimed at opposition lawmakers, she added: I would not harbour an unrealistic wish that all our political parties or members of this council will share the same political stance, yet so long as the principle of one country is not compromised, there should be plenty of room for collaboration. Lau Siu-kai, vice-chairman of semi-official think tank the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said the government was under mounting pressure to legislate on national security, but it had multiple considerations. On the one hand, the government doesnt want to rush the legislation, as it worries it might trigger new social unrest and affect its relations with the West, he said. On the other hand, China is facing more national security threats as international tension rises, and the pro-Beijing camp in Hong Kong has been issuing stronger calls for the law. Lau said the push to handle separatism using existing laws could be part of government efforts to prepare the ground for Article 23, but this approach was not systematic enough. The government has to raise public awareness of national security issues, he said. Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai said an Article 23 law was likely to be more far-reaching and severe than the previous attempt to legislate in 2003 because the government would have a clearer picture of what could not be punished by the existing framework. This is exactly what worries us most, Wu said. Such legislation will definitely harm freedom of speech and the press. Before Lam delivered her address on Wednesday, four pro-democracy lawmakers protesting against the governments recent decision to deny British journalist Victor Mallet a work visa renewal were expelled from the Legco chamber. Mallet, Asia news editor for the Financial Times, chaired a talk on independence that Chan gave at the Foreign Correspondents Club in August. The journalist must exit the city by the end of this week as he was only granted a seven-day visitors visa upon returning from Thailand last Sunday. Wu said the HKNP ban and denial of Mallets visa had affected the citys international image. Hong Kong may eventually become caught in the middle amid a worsening China-US trade war, which will harm Hong Kongs interests, Wu said. Wu also warned of more serious polarisation in Hong Kong, noting that Lam appeared to have prioritised national security legislation over electoral reform. Actually both are constitutional responsibilities of the government but Lams administration has shown no interest in seeking public consensus for carrying the political reform forward, Wu said. But Lau believed the government was still unable to lay down a timetable for Article 23 because the overall legislative environment is not becoming more favourable, and Lam cannot control the deteriorating international environment. A government source denied Lams administration had been pressured on a national security law. There is no sign of the government launching any consultation on the legislation after the Legco elections of 2020, the source said. No internal working group had been set up to study the issue, he added. Additional reporting by Alvin Lum, Kimmy Chung and Gary Cheung This article Punishment awaits Hong Kong independence advocates amid efforts to make Article 23 passage more likely, Carrie Lam says first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Amazon has promised to announce the location of its second headquarters by the end of the year, leaving 20 finalist cities on the edge. Where do things stand with the process, what are the stakes and concerns and what's the latest news? Here's what you need to know. Question: What is Amazon doing? Answer: On September 7, 2017, Amazon announced it was searching for a second headquarters, one that would be co-equal to its Seattle home. Q: Why did it want a second headquarters? A: At the time, Amazon was estimated to have about 40,000 employees in Seattle and occupy 19 percent of all prime office space in the city, according to an analysis by The Seattle Times. The company's need for space, and more importantly tech talent, had outgrown the area. Not everyone wants to live in Seattle. To lure those who don't, Amazon decided to find a second home. Q: Is this common? A: No. Most companies just have one headquarters, or if they're international they might have one international headquarters and one in the United States. Amazon said it would have two. That's very uncommon. Q: Anything else particularly unusual about it? A: Yesthis is all happening very publicly. Companies look for new space all the time and big companies are known to move their headquarters. But it's almost always done behind closed doors. The company puts out feelers, local economic development agencies respond, everything is cloaked with code names and no one outside of the process even knows it's happening until a decision is announced. By launching its search publicly, Amazon pitted city against city, pushing each to offer up the best tax incentive deals possible. And giving Amazon a ton of free publicity. Q: Why would a city want to be home to Amazon's second headquarters? A: Amazon says it plans to invest more than $5 billion in the area and hire as many as 50,000 new, full-time employees whose average pay will be more than $100,000 a year. The placement will in turn create as many as 250,000 indirect jobs, according to the calculations of Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California-Berkeley. The economic benefits for the chosen city will be enormous. Q: What did Amazon say it was looking for? A: In its Request for Proposal, Amazon listed its main requirements as these:A metropolitan area with more than one million peopleA stable and business-friendly environmentA location that can attract and retain strong technical talentAccess to good mass transitAccess to an international airportThe presence and support of a diverse populationExcellent nearby colleges and universities Q: How many cities responded? A: By the deadline Amazon set, October 19, 2017, a total of 238 cities and areas sent in proposals. They were located across the United States and Canada. Amazon whittled this down to 20 finalists on January 18, 2018. They were:Atlanta, GeorgiaAustin, TexasBostonChicagoColumbus, OhioDallasDenverIndianapolis, IndianaLos AngelesMiamiMontgomery County, MarylandNashville, TennesseeNewark, New JerseyNew York CityNorthern Virginia (Loudoun County and Fairfax County)PhiladelphiaPittsburgh, PennsylvaniaRaleigh, North CarolinaToronto, OntarioWashington, D.C. Q: When is Amazon going to announce which city it has chosen? A: The company has said it will make a decision by the end of the year. There have been rumors it might announce a short list of three to five cities first but there's no indication that's what Amazon will do. Q: What cities are considered front runners? A: No one know what Amazon is thinking. This process has maintained incredible operational security, no leaks, no hints. That said, the most common suggestion for where it will go is the Washington, D.C. area. There are several reasons, including that it would give Amazon a local base for influencing national decisions, and a big local workforce whose presence would make it hard to demonize the company. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is also renovating a large mansion in Washington, D.C., which would be an excellent place to hold galas and events. He also personally owns The Washington Post newspaper. There are three locations in the Washington, D.C. area that are all on the finalist list: Washington, D.C. itself, Northern Virginia (Loudoun and Fairfax counties) and Montgomery County, Maryland. D.C. seems least likely given it's relatively small, crowded and has its own political baggage. Montgomery County is next because it's got more space and a more business-friendly government. However the two Virginia counties, Loudoun and Fairfax, are most frequently suggested as the likeliest. The area is cheaper than Maryland, even more business-friendly, and is home to one of the world's largest concentration of Internet connectivity. And it would be very close to Dulles International Airport, a major international air hub. Q: What other cities are likely contenders? A: The two top contenders most often suggested are:Newark, New Jersey, because it's close to New York City but inexpensive and would give Amazon a lot of political credibility by revitalizing an economically struggling area.Boston, because it's got one of the strongest concentrations of technological talent in the nation and a gushing pipeline of people graduating from the area's universities every year. Q: Have any cities gotten second visits? A: There are reports from Miami and Chicago that Amazon's team has paid second visits to those cities for follow up. However, the company could have visited other cities as well and word just didn't get out. So it's difficult to know if these reports mean anything. Q: What will happen when a decision is announced? A: First, a lot of champagne will be popped in the city that won. There will probably be a news conference. And then the real bargaining between Amazon and the city will begin. While many cities have suggested specific areas that might work as locations, none have been definitively chosen so the first order of business will be agreeing on where the headquarters will be located. Q: What will happen in the city? A: Expect a horde of real estate speculators to descend, driving up housing prices as they attempt to buy and rent at pre-Amazon prices. Companies that do business with Amazon or hope to do business with Amazon might set up offices there. And opposition to the whole idea of Amazon will crystallize and those opposed will begin to organize. Q: Why would people be opposed to having $5 billion in investments and 50,000 high-paying jobs come to town? A: For all the reasons people in Seattle both love and hate having Amazon there. Housing prices will rise, pushing out current residents and gentrifying neighborhoods. Traffic will get worse. The city will experience a massive influx of high-tech workers who will change its mix and culture. Q: How quickly will all this happen? A: Housing prices will start to rise quickly as speculator arrive. Amazon will initially plant a few employees locally to oversee the planning, design and building process but large numbers won't arrive for months if not years, depending on whether the area has ready-to-use buildings or Amazon has to build from the ground up. Explore further Amazon narrows list of 'HQ2' candidates to 20 2018 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Sub-regional junctions Cooperation amongst regions is the best solution to socio-economic laggardness A study conducted during the 2017 total solar eclipse in North America found that bees remained active during the partial-eclipse phases both before and after the period of totality, but they essentially ceased flying during totality. Their flights also tended to be longer in duration immediately before and after totality, an indication that bees may have slowed down their flight speed or returned to their nests as light dimmed. Results of the study are published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Credit: Susan Ellis, Bugwood.org While millions of Americans took a break from their daily routines on August 21, 2017, to witness a total solar eclipse, they might not have noticed a similar phenomenon happening nearby: In the path of totality, bees took a break from their daily routines, too. In an unprecedented study of a solar eclipse's influence on bee behavior, researchers at the University of Missouri organized a cadre of citizen scientists and elementary school classrooms in setting up acoustic monitoring stations to listen in on bees' buzzingor lack thereofas the 2017 eclipse passed over. The results, published October 10 in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, were clear and consistent at locations across the country: Bees stopped flying during the period of total solar eclipse. "We anticipated, based on the smattering of reports in the literature, that bee activity would drop as light dimmed during the eclipse and would reach a minimum at totality," says Candace Galen, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri and lead researcher on the study. "But, we had not expected that the change would be so abrupt, that bees would continue flying up until totality and only then stop, completely. It was like 'lights out' at summer camp! That surprised us." As anticipation mounted for the eclipse, "it seemed as if everyone and their dog was asking me what animals would do during a total eclipse," Galen says. However, few formal studies had ever examined the behavior of insects, specifically, during a solar eclipse, and none had looked at bees. Galen and colleagues, meanwhile, had recently field-tested a system to track bee pollination remotely by listening for their flight buzzes in soundscape recordings. "It seemed like the perfect fit," Galen says. "The tiny microphones and temperature sensors could be placed near flowers hours before the eclipse, leaving us free to put on our fancy glasses and enjoy the show." Supported by a grant from the American Astronomical Society, the project engaged more than 400 participantsincluding scientists, members of the public, and elementary school teachers and studentsin setting up 16 monitoring stations in the path of totality in Oregon, Idaho, and Missouri. At each location, small USB microphones were hung on lanyards near bee-pollinated flowers in areas away from foot and vehicle traffic. In some of the locations, light and temperature data were also captured. Participants then sent the devices to Galen's lab, where the recordings were matched up with the eclipse periods from each location and analyzed for the number and duration of bee flight buzzes. The recordings didn't allow for differentiation between bee species, but participant observations indicated most bees monitored were bumble bees (genus Bombus) or honey bees (Apis mellifera). To study the influence of a total solar eclipse on bee behavior, researchers researchers at the University of Missouri organized a cadre of citizen scientists and elementary school classrooms in setting up acoustic monitoring stations to listen in on bees' buzzing--or lack thereof--as the August 2017 solar eclipse passed over North America. Here, what looks like a white ball of fur is actually a flash-drive-sized microphone with a windscreen, tied to a short post in a patch of clover. Credit: Candace Galen, Ph.D., University of Missouri The data showed that bees remained active during the partial-eclipse phases both before and after totality, but they essentially ceased flying during the period of totality. (Just one buzz was recorded during totality in all of the 16 monitoring locations.) However, shortly before and shortly after totality, bee flights tended to be longer in duration than at times early in the pre-totality phase and late in post-totality. Galen and colleagues interpret these longer flight durations as an indicator of slower flight under reduced light or possibly as the bees returning to their nests. Bees commonly fly more slowly at dusk and return to their colonies at night, and so the same behavior triggered by a solar eclipse offers evidence about how they respond to environmental cues when those cues occur unexpectedly. "The eclipse gave us an opportunity to ask whether the novel environmental contextmid-day, open skieswould alter the bees' behavioral response to dim light and darkness. As we found, complete darkness elicits the same behavior in bees, regardless of timing or context. And that's new information about bee cognition," Galen says. Another total solar eclipse for North America is not far away: April 8, 2024. Galen says her team is working to enhance its audio-analysis software to distinguish the flights that foraging bees make when they leave or return to their colonies. Thus prepared, she hopes to answer the question of whether bees return home when the "lights go out" at totality in 2024. It likely won't be difficult to find willing citizen scientists and students to help out again. "The total solar eclipse was a complete crowd-pleaser, and it was great fun to hitch bee research to its tidal wave of enthusiasm," Galen says. Explore further What's a total solar eclipse and why this one is so unusual More information: "Pollination on the Dark Side: Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Impacts of a Total Solar Eclipse on Flight Behavior and Activity Schedule of Foraging Bees," Annals of the Entomological Society of America (2018). "Pollination on the Dark Side: Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Impacts of a Total Solar Eclipse on Flight Behavior and Activity Schedule of Foraging Bees,"(2018). DOI: 10.1093/aesa/say035 Test of the new hybrid powder materials based on natural layered silicates. Credit: Roman Savin, FEFU Studies have shown that hybrid powder materials based on natural layered silicates developed by the chemists of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) and the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS) decrease the friction ratio in metals sevenfold. These new materials offer new prospects for the development of more efficient anti-friction additives, increasing the durability of spare parts for equipment and vehicles. The work was carried out by research associates of the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering School of FEFU, as well as the Institute of Chemistry of FEB RAS. The research running led by Nikolay Shapkin, professor of the Department of General, Inorganic, and Organoelement chemistry at FEFU. The results were published in Inorganic Materials. The scientists report two hybrid composite materials based on natural layered silicates and plant products. The first was obtained from nontronite silicate isolated from Popov Island in the vicinity of Vladivostok and modified with alkaline rice husk hydrolysate. Experiments have shown that applying this powder reduces the deterioration of friction-producing parts 2.5 to seven times. Another material based on vermiculite from Karelia and modified with regular cellulose reduced the friction ratio 1.6 times. "Tests have demonstrated that the new materials have good anti-friction properties. There are complex composite materials with better results, but the advantages of our developments are available sources of materials and simple technology. Another benefit of our materials is high heat stability, which favorably distinguishes them from Teflon, for example," said Alexander Panasenko, a senior research associate of the Institute of Chemistry, FED RAS. The scientists explain that mineral silicates and organic substances of plant origin are combined in the course of mechanochemical activation, which results in the formation of a new crystallic composite material. "Layered silicates and composite materials based on them have a wide range of practical properties, including sorptive, catalytic, and tribological ones. I hope that further studies in this field will lead to the development of a metal-ceramic film to protect surfaces from friction," added Professor Nikolay Shapkin. Explore further Materials researchers study the causes of wear permanent molecular modifications occur at first contact More information: N. P. Shapkin et al, Hybrid Composite Materials Based on Natural Layered Silicates, Inorganic Materials (2018). N. P. Shapkin et al, Hybrid Composite Materials Based on Natural Layered Silicates,(2018). DOI: 10.1134/S0020168518090145 Provided by Far Eastern Federal University When scientists first proposed adding the Tricolored Blackbird to the California endangered species list in 2004, they had a problem. Tricolored Blackbirds nest in large colonies that can move from year to year, and because the locations of these colonies in any given year may not be known, existing survey data were not enough to convince the California Fish and Game Commission to approve the listing. In 2015 the species was again under consideration for protection under the California Endangered Species Act. This time, however, partners at California Audubon were armed with new information, thanks largely to the work of Dr. Orin Robinsona Cornell Lab of Ornithology Postdoctoral Fellow in Conservation Science who has been studying Tricolored Blackbirds for the past two years. Robinson's work combined data in eBird, a citizen-science project logging millions of bird sightings, with survey data from partners at UC Davis to develop new trend estimates for the state's Tricolored Blackbird population. By combining these data sets, Robinson developed a statistically reliable population model showing Tricolored Blackbirds declined more than 33 percent during just the past 10 years. Explore further Survey says 'California's blackbird in sharp decline More information: Orin J. Robinson et al, Using citizen science data in integrated population models to inform conservation, Biological Conservation (2018). Journal information: Biological Conservation Orin J. Robinson et al, Using citizen science data in integrated population models to inform conservation,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.10.002 Credit: CC0 Public Domain When users of Google's search engine submit suicide-related queries, they are repeatedly provided with helpline hotlines on suicide prevention services. But whether such information is actually displayed depends on the user's location and language. Queries submitted to Internet search engines not only reveal a lot about the individual user's interests, they may also permit inferences to be drawn about one's state of health. In such cases, some search engines display information pointing to appropriate advisory services, such as emergency hotlines, whenever queries imply that a search might be motivated by the intent to self-harm. However, as LMU researchers Mario Haim and Florian Arendt in collaboration with their colleague Sebastian Scherr (KU Leuven) have now shown in a paper that appears in the journal New Media & Society, the probability of being confronted with such information varies widely depending on one's location and in particular one's language. Previous studies have indicated that the incidence of suicide can be reduced if those at risk are informed in a timely manner of the availability of support and advisory services and of effective strategies for dealing with suicidal crises. "It is therefore very welcome that Google, for example, has voluntarily agreed to follow the recommendations of the World Health Organization, and displays such information," says Haim. In an earlier investigation, however, these researchers had found evidence that advisory information was actually being presented to users in response to only a fraction of relevant queries. In their latest paper, they systematically investigate the incidence of the appearance of Google's 'suicide-prevention result' (SPR) in a set of 11 countries. The authors used a virtual-agent-based methodology to automatically send appropriate leading queries to Google's search engine, while the location of the query source and the language employed by the virtual agent was varied. Numerous search terms were used, which were more or less suggestive of either suicidal intent or of a wish to seek help in coping with such an impulse. The queries were translated by local experts in suicide prevention and, if necessary, complemented by culturally specific expressions and terminology. The results show that information on support services was significantly more likely to be displayed in English-speaking countries than in non-Anglophone parts of the world. In Germany, the incidence of its appearance varied between 8% and 23% depending on the search term employed. In the USA, the corresponding span was 34 to 94% of all such queries. Moreover, the study uncovered striking differences not only between countries, but also within countries with more than one officially recognized language. In India, for example, the SPR was shown in response to 91% of queries posed in English, but in only 10% of those put in Hindi. "These differences cannot be explained by temporal, terminological, or social factors, which is why we attribute them primarily to language," says Haim. The authors interpret their results as one symptom of a new digital divide. "These data are clearly at variance with the often proclaimed commitment to providing free health-related information in our case, advice on how to find help in a suicidal crisis equally to all Internet users. The availability of such information is in fact restricted, depending on where and in what language the user frames the relevant search queries," says Arendt. "The designers of search engines should acknowledge the resulting global inequality, and make serious efforts to minimize it." More information: Sebastian Scherr et al. Equal access to online information? Google's suicide-prevention disparities may amplify a global digital divide, New Media & Society (2018). Sebastian Scherr et al. Equal access to online information? Google's suicide-prevention disparities may amplify a global digital divide,(2018). DOI: 10.1177/1461444818801010 Self portrait of Leonardo do Vinci. Although Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is known to have studied bird flight, few people realise that he was the first to document flight maneuvers, now called dynamic soaring. Birds use these maneuvers to extract energy from wind shear for sustained flight. A recent paper published in Notes and Records explores Leonardo's early description of dynamic soaring, which is one of his major aerodynamic discoveries. This predates, by almost 400 years, the first generally-accepted explanation of the physics of this soaring technique by Lord Rayleigh in 1883. We spoke to the author, Professor Dr Philip Richardson. How did you become interested in Leonardo da Vinci? I first saw soaring albatrosses on an oceanographic cruise to the South Atlantic. As we left Cape Town and the ship steamed straight upwind into 15 knots of wind, I watched a wandering albatross coming from astern overtake us and then fly parallel to our ship. At no time did the bird flap its wings. I became curious as to how a bird could soar directly into the wind like that. Eventually I discovered that the albatross was using the increase of wind speed combined with height above the ocean surface or wind shear in what is called dynamic soaring. I wondered who had first discovered dynamic soaring and became interested in its early history. I knew that Leonardo had studied birds soaring in winds and decided to read his notebooks to see what he had found out. It turns out he had sketched and described the dynamic soaring technique of land birds over 500 years ago. Most scientists believe that Lord Rayleigh was the first to describe how a bird could gain energy from wind shear to soar, but Leonardo appears to have made this discovery much earlier. How did Leonardo become interested in aviation? Leonardo first worked with models of flying devices in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence as described by Domenico Laurenza in his book "Leonardo on Flight." Various contraptions like giant birds and winged dragons that "flew" on cables were created in order to amaze the audiences of theatrical productions. Leonardo was also interested in birds, studying how birds flapped their wings, how they controlled their flight with their wings and tail, and how they were able to soar in wind without flapping their wings. This seems to have led him to try and build a human powered flying machine with flapping wings, which we now call an ornithopter. He studied the strength of humans and tried to figure out how to power an ornithopter's wings using a person's strength and mechanical leverage. He also sketched and designed gliders. Many working models of these devices have now been built and can be seen in museums and books. Design for a flying machine date circa 1505. Credit: Wikipedia Leonardo observed flying birds in the hills near Fiesole outside of Florence as described in his "Codex on the Flight of Birds" circa 1505. His sketches of flying birds are located in several notebooks, where he carefully described their flight patterns. After he realised how difficult it would be for a human to power an ornithopter, he seems to concentrate on the details of soaring birds to discover how they flew without flapping their wings. Although he probably wanted to use this information to power a flying machine, there is no evidence he was successful in doing so. The last notebook he started, "Manuscript E" (circa 1513-1515), best summarises his studies of soaring flight and clearly shows how migrating birds use the wind for long range soaring. How much of an impact do you feel Leonardo's sketches on aviation have influenced the first successful aviation machines? Leonardo was busy with his art projects, his numerous scientific studies, and his technology developments that he never got around to organising and publishing his discoveries. His descriptions of bird soaring and aerodynamics remained in his notebooks generally unknown to others who were later developing flying machines. Leonardo's Codex "On the Flight of Birds" was published in 1893 in France. Although several people were experimenting with gliders and powered flight at that time it is not apparent that Leonardo's work on the aerodynamics of flying birds ever influenced these people. The Wright brothers appear to have done their own research on flight and not been influenced by Leonardo's. Only fairly recently have pilots of radio-controlled gliders become interested in using wind shear to power their gliders. The extremely fast flight of these gliders at over 500 miles per hour has recently caught people's attention and publicised how powerful dynamic soaring can be. Virtually all modern references to dynamic soaring mention Lord Rayleigh's 1883 description and not Leonardo's work. This is probably because recent translations of Leonardo's notebooks often omit his sketches of dynamic soaring, and historians are mostly unaware of what dynamic soaring flight patterns might look like. In my own case I had been interested in soaring flight for many years, studied the flight of albatrosses, and easily recognised that Leonardo's sketches and notes described dynamic soaring. In order to let others know about Leonardo's discovery I described his observations. Are there any other areas of Leonardo's interests, which you would like to study further? I would love to study Leonardo's discoveries about bird soaring by retracing his steps and trying to observe and sketch the birds he observed and sketched. I would like to visit Florence where he worked for a number of years, explored the nearby hills of Fiesole, and watched birds flying. And of course I would like to visit Vinci near where he was born, Milan where he worked, and Rome where he wrote his last notebook, which includes excellent sketches of dynamic soaring flight and best describes it. And of course I would like to visit the various museums and libraries that are dedicated to Leonardo and his work and to further study his remarkable discoveries. Explore further On the sizeable wings of albatrosses Research on Light-Matter Interaction Could Lead to Improved Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices Credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute A paper published in Nature Communications by Sufei Shi, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer, increases our understanding of how light interacts with atomically thin semiconductors and creates unique excitonic complex particles, multiple electrons, and holes strongly bound together. These particles possess a new quantum degree of freedom, called "valley spin." The "valley spin" is similar to the spin of electrons, which has been extensively used in information storage such as hard drives and is also a promising candidate for quantum computing. The paper, titled "Revealing the biexciton and trion-exciton complexes in BN encapsulated WSe2," was published in the Sept. 13, 2018, edition of Nature Communications. Results of this research could lead to novel applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices, such as solar energy harvesting, new types of lasers, and quantum sensing. Shi's research focuses on low dimensional quantum materials and their quantum effects, with a particular interest in materials with strong light-matter interactions. These materials include graphene, transitional metal dichacogenides (TMDs), such as tungsten diselenide (WSe2), and topological insulators. TMDs represent a new class of atomically thin semiconductors with superior optical and optoelectronic properties. Optical excitation on the two-dimensional single-layer TMDs will generate a strongly bound electron-hole pair called an exciton, instead of freely moving electrons and holes as in traditional bulk semiconductors. This is due to the giant binding energy in monolayer TMDs, which is orders of magnitude larger than that of conventional semiconductors. As a result, the exciton can survive at room temperature and can thus be used for application of excitonic devices. As the density of the exciton increases, more electrons and holes pair together, forming four-particle and even five-particle excitonic complexes. An understanding of the many-particle excitonic complexes not only gives rise to a fundamental understanding of the light-matter interaction in two dimensions, it also leads to novel applications, since the many-particle excitonic complexes maintain the "valley spin" properties better than the exciton. However, despite recent developments in the understanding of excitons and trions in TMDs, said Shi, an unambiguous measure of the biexciton-binding energy has remained elusive. "Now, for the first time, we have revealed the true biexciton state, a unique four-particle complex responding to light," said Shi. "We also revealed the nature of the charged biexciton, a five-particle complex." At Rensselaer, Shi's team has developed a way to build an extremely clean sample to reveal this unique light-matter interaction. The device was built by stacking multiple atomically thin materials together, including graphene, boron nitride (BN), and WSe2, through van der Waals (vdW) interaction, representing the state-of-the-art fabrication technique of two-dimensional materials. This work was performed in collaboration with the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahasee, Florida, and researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, as well as with Shengbai Zhang, the Kodosky Constellation Professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy at Rensselaer, whose work played a critical role in developing a theoretical understanding of the biexciton. The results of this research could potentially lead to robust many-particle optical physics, and illustrate possible novel applications based on 2-D semiconductors, Shi said. Shi has received funding from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Zhang was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Science. The research also was recently featured in Nature Nanotechnology. Explore further Scientists discover how to control the 'excitation' of electronics More information: Zhipeng Li et al, Revealing the biexciton and trion-exciton complexes in BN encapsulated WSe2, Nature Communications (2018). Zhipeng Li et al, Revealing the biexciton and trion-exciton complexes in BN encapsulated WSe2,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05863-5 Cedric Robert. When bright and dark bind together, Nature Nanotechnology (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-018-0281-1 Journal information: Nature Communications , Nature Nanotechnology The California desert near the connecting fault segment. Credit: Oleg/IMG_6747_8_9_tonemapped A multiyear study has uncovered evidence that a 21-mile-long (34-kilometer-long) section of a fault links known, longer faults in Southern California and northern Mexico into a much longer continuous system. The entire system is at least 217 miles (350 kilometers) long. Knowing how faults are connected helps scientists understand how stress transfers between faults. Ultimately, this helps researchers understand whether an earthquake on one section of a fault would rupture multiple fault sections, resulting in a much larger earthquake. A team led by scientist Andrea Donnellan of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, recognized that the south end of California's Elsinore fault is linked to the north end of the Laguna Salada fault system, just north of the international border with Mexico. The short length of the connecting fault segment, which they call the Ocotillo section, is consistent with an immature fault zone that is still developing, where repeated earthquakes have not yet created a smoother, single fault instead of several strands. The Ocotillo section was the site of a magnitude 5.7 aftershock that ruptured on a 5-mile-long (8-kilometer-long) fault buried under the California desert two months after the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake in Baja California, Mexico. The magnitude 7.2 earthquake caused severe damage in the Mexican city of Mexicali and was felt throughout Southern California. It and its aftershocks caused dozens of faults in the regionincluding many not previously identifiedto move. The approximate location of the newly mapped Ocotillo section, which ties together California's Elsinore fault and Mexico's Laguna Salada fault into one continuous fault system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Seismic activity in the region is a sign of its complex geology. The Pacific and North American plates are grinding past each other in Southern California. In the Gulf of California, there's a spreading zone where plates are moving apart. "The plate boundary is still sorting itself out," Donnellan said. Donnellan's team has been studying this region since 2009, using data from NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR). This sophisticated airborne instrument measures the ground level with extreme accuracy, allowing scientists to see how the ground has shifted between flights. The team also uses data from GPS stations in the region, which provide information on vertical motion of the ground. The study included team members from JPL, the University of California's Irvine and Davis campuses, and Indiana University. In the new study, Donnellan's team was also able to better define where Earth's crust continued slipping or deforming following the El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake and where other factors are important. "The shaking is only part of the earthquake process," she said. "The Earth keeps on moving for years [after the shaking stops]. What's cool about UAVSAR and GPS is that you can see the rest of the process." Explore further California faults moved quietly after Baja quake More information: Andrea Donnellan et al. Fracture Advancing Step Tectonics Observed in the Yuha Desert and Ocotillo, CA, Following the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah Earthquake, Earth and Space Science (2018). Andrea Donnellan et al. Fracture Advancing Step Tectonics Observed in the Yuha Desert and Ocotillo, CA, Following the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah Earthquake,(2018). DOI: 10.1029/2017EA000351 Credit: Sanofi Pasteur. Shared under a Creative Commons license. Recent research from North Carolina State University outlines how near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy could be used to make cell-culture-based flu vaccine manufacturing faster and more efficient. The researchers demonstrated the use of a NIR probe to measure the concentration of influenza virus in cells being grown in a bioreactor. "The NIR technique is faster, more accurate and more consistent than the standard method currently used to measure viral concentrations in cells," says John Sheppard, a professor of bioprocessing science at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the work. "The NIR probe gives us close to real-time data on viral concentrations, whereas the standard method for measuring viral concentration involves a complicated process that can take an hour or more. "Getting data that quickly can help in a number of ways. It can tell vaccine manufacturers when the optimal time is to harvest the cells. It can help manufacturers develop a feeding strategy to optimize cell and virus growth. It can help detect potential problems with a batch more quickly. It could even allow the process to be partially automated." Much of flu vaccine manufacturing is currently done using poultry eggs. However, this approach first developed in the 1940s has a number of drawbacks: the resulting vaccine can't be used by patients with egg allergies; the lengthy manufacturing time and increased risk of mutations makes it more likely that the resulting vaccine won't match the strains of flu virus facing the public; it is more susceptible to microbial contamination; and it can't be manufactured quickly enough to respond to pandemic flu outbreaks. "Cell-culture-based manufacturing has fewer mutations, fewer allergy problems, and is easier to scale up," Sheppard says. "But that doesn't mean that it's easy. Industry is already transitioning to cell-culture-based vaccine manufacturing, but there are infrastructure and regulatory challenges. We think the use of NIR spectroscopy could help to make cell-culture-based manufacturing more efficient and predictable." Before they could test the NIR spectroscopy approach to measuring viral concentration, the researchers faced a fundamental challenge: the existing standard method for obtaining these measurements was so inaccurate that it couldn't be used to validate the NIR technique. "We had to develop an improved manual method which is significantly more labor intensive that offered more accurate measurements than the standard lab method," Sheppard says. "Using the new method, we were able to assess the accuracy of the NIR spectroscopy, and the results were promising." At most viral concentrations, the NIR spectroscopy was far more accurate than the traditional standard method as well as much faster. But at the highest concentrations, accuracy suffered though it was still at least as accurate as the standard method. "This is a proof of concept," Sheppard says. "We'd like to incorporate additional data sets to further refine the model we use to translate NIR spectroscopy data into viral concentration numbers. Ideally, we'd like to work with vaccine manufacturers to fine-tune the process and put it to work." The paper, "Cell-CultureBased Influenza Vaccine Manufacturing: Evaluation of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for In-Line Determination of Virus Titers," is published in the September issue of the journal BioProcess International. Explore further Team develops a universal vaccine platform that's cheaper and shelf stable Artist's interpretation of Sarahsaurus aurifontanalis. The dinosaur was about the size of a car and had powerful forelimbs with large claws. It lived during the Early Jurassic in North America. Credit: Brian Engh By the time non-avian dinosaurs went extinct, plant-eating sauropods like the Brontosaurus had grown to gargantuan proportions. Weighing in as much as 100 tons, the long-neck behemoths are the largest land animals to ever walk the earth. How they grew so large from ancestors that were small enough to be found in a modern-day petting zoo has remained a mystery. A new, in-depth anatomical description of the best preserved specimens of a car-sized sauropod relative from North America could help paleontologists with unraveling the mystery. Adam Marsh, a paleontologist at Petrified Forest National Park, led the description of the dinosaur while earning his master's degree from The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. The findings were published on Oct. 10 in the journal PLOS ONE. Marsh co-authored the paper with his advisor, Jackson School Professor Timothy Rowe. The dinosaurcalled Sarahsaurus aurifontanalis lived about 185 million years ago during the Early Jurassic. It could hold important clues about sauropods' size because it belonged to the dinosaur grouping that preceded them. Its evolutionary placement combined with the exquisite preservation of the specimens is giving researchers a detailed look into its anatomy and how it relates to its larger cousins. "Sarahsaurus preserves in its anatomy the anatomical changes that were happening in the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic that were occurring in the evolutionary lineage," Marsh said. "It can help tell us how getting big happens." The description is based on two skeletons discovered in Arizona by Rowe in 1997. The bones belong to the Navajo Nation, which owns the land where the fossils were discovered, and are curated by the Jackson School Museum of Earth History Vertebrate Paleontology Collections. The bones are slightly crushed, and in some cases still linked together into body parts such as the hand and tail. The only major missing part is the skull. Nearly complete skeleton of Sarahsaurus aurifontanalis; the only major missing piece is the skull. Paleontologist Adam Marsh used this skeleton and one other to describe the anatomy of Sarahsaurus. Credit: The Jackson School Museum of Earth History Vertebrate Paleontology Collections / The University of Texas at Austin. "The specimens are well preserved in three dimensions and remarkably complete, which is very rare in the fossil record," said collections Director Matthew Brown. "Such complete specimens help paleontologists better understand the fragmentary and incomplete fossils remains we typically find." Marsh describes Sarahsaurus as a "ground sloth-like" dinosaur. It stood upright, walked on its hind-legs and had powerful forelimbs with a large, curved claw capping the first finger of each hand. It had a lot in common with the earliest sauropod ancestorslike walking on two legsbut it was also starting to show features that would foreshadow how its massive relatives would evolvesuch as an increase in body size and a lengthening of the neck vertebrae. "It's starting to gain the characters of getting large compared to the earliest members of the group," Marsh said. Size and neck-length are features that sauropods would take to extremes as they evolved. By studying these traits and others in Sarahsaurus, and seeing how they compare to those of other dinosaurs, scientists can help reveal how these changes occurred across evolutionary history and how different dinosaurs relate to one another. For example, the anatomical review helped clarify the relationship between Sarahsaurus and two other sauropod relatives that lived in North America during the Early Jurassic. The researchers found that the three don't have a common North American ancestorinstead they evolved from dinosaur lineages that came to North America independently. Marsh is currently working on another study that could shed more light on how sauropods evolved. Led by Sterling Nesbitt, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech and research associate at the Jackson School's vertebrate collections, the project involves tracking anatomical differences in dinosaur limb bones to determine which features relate to evolution and which relate to the age of an animal. Marsh said that the two Sarahsaurus skeletons examined for this paper are a great addition to the project. "We've got two individuals from basically the same hole in the ground with different bumps and grooves on their femora," Marsh said. "It lends itself really well to this comprehensive anatomical description and it's going to be really important for comparisons of early dinosaur anatomy." Credit: CC0 Public Domain Microplastics are defined as small pieces of plastic no larger than 5mm in size, that have been broken down by time, and this new research identifies the extent in which it is a threat to marine life. Whilst much attention has been focused on oceanic plastic pollution, this new study explores the impact plastic waste is having on rivers and the fresh water species that inhabit them. The research, led by London NERC DTP Ph.D. student Alexandra McGoran, along with Professor David Morritt and Dr. James McEvoy, from the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, Dr. Phillip Cowie from the University of the West of Scotland, and Dr. Paul Clark from the Natural History Museum, examined both upper and lower water species in the Thames Estuary and Firth of Clyde. The results of this study concluded that, out of the 876 fish and shrimp examined across both estuaries, around a third had ingested microplastics, and the average number of plastic pieces that had been consumed was equal across the Thames and Clyde. Alexandra said: "People have started to really take note of the severity of plastic pollution and our research further demonstrates why this is such pressing issue. "Both rivers are extremely diverse ecosystems, home to hundreds of different species. To see this large number of species that our plastic waste is putting in danger is actually rather shocking. "Our results show the need for more research into freshwater and estuarine ecosystems to be carried out so we can better understand the effects microplastics are having on their inhabitants." Professor David Morritt added: "This research is essential in providing us with an insight into the extent of pollution in our waters. "Plastic is a very long-lasting material that is rapidly polluting our planet, all the while posing a threat to the species that live in fresh waters." Dr. Paul Clark said: "Assuming current trends continue then the total amount of plastic produced by 2050 will be 33bn tonnes. Therefore the amount of plastic litter polluting our beautiful blue planet will dramatically escalate over the coming years. "Plastic pollution is on the same calamitous magnitude as climate change and deforestation. All three are being undertaken in the name of vast profit, when what is really required is a monumental behavioural change in human attitudes. "What I find most depressing about plastic pollution of our aquatic environment is that it is now irreversible and its presence will persist for many generations." Explore further Wastewater treatment plants are key route into UK rivers for microplastics More information: Alexandra R. McGoran et al. Ingestion of plastic by fish: A comparison of Thames Estuary and Firth of Clyde populations, Marine Pollution Bulletin (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.09.054 Journal information: Marine Pollution Bulletin Alexandra R. McGoran et al. Ingestion of plastic by fish: A comparison of Thames Estuary and Firth of Clyde populations,(2018). DOI: Trio held for swindling foreign job aspirants Three persons have been arrested on the charge of swindling foreign employment aspirants of more than Rs 4.5 million with false promises of sending them to Russia. The researchers filtered hundreds of liters of water from Lake Lugano at depths of up to 275 m using a battery-operated in-situ pump. Credit: University of Basel, Department of Environmental Sciences For years, scientists have been trying to determine the climate of the past in order to make better predictions about future climate conditions. Now, there has been a breakthrough in the methodology of climate reconstruction based on microbial molecular fossils. Researchers under the direction of the University of Basel analyzed sediment samples collected from more than 30 Swiss lakes. Their findings can be applied to lakes worldwide, as the scientists report in PNAS. The remains of bacteria found in lake sediments are important for the reconstruction of past environmental conditions. Particularly, cell fragments known as membrane lipids allow climate geologists to infer historic temperatures. A team led by Professor Moritz Lehmann and Dr. Helge Niemann from the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Basel have now investigated a very specific class of climate-sensitive lipids in 36 alpine lakes. Their application in climate reconstruction has long been known, but the biological sources of the lipids remained unclear. This severely complicated their application as a temperature indicator. "We initially assumed that these compounds were primarily produced by bacteria in soil and were washed into the lakes by rivers. But increasing evidence suggested that they are also formed within lake water itself," explains Lehmann. Therefore, the aim of the research project was to characterize the ecology of the unknown bacteria that produce these lipids. Link to methane At the heart of the investigations was Lake Lugano in Switzerland, which offers an outstanding model system due to its strong stratification and great depth. "Using stable isotope analysis, we were able to show that these bacterial lipids are dominantly formed in the cold, deep waters of the lakewhere oxygen is depleted and large amounts of the greenhouse gas methane are present," says Dr. Yuki Weber, lead author of the study. The scientists were then able to confirm their findings from Lake Lugano by similar measurements from 35 other alpine lakes. In addition to lipid analysis, the researchers also applied molecular biological methods, which allowed them to capture the bacterial diversity at various water depths in Lake Lugano. For the first time, the research team was able to show that these climate-sensitive lipids are produced under widely different environmental conditions, by distinct groups of microbes that reside at different water depths. Refining the paleothermometer Despite the numerous environmental factors that may influence the composition of these lipids, the researchers were able to determine the conditions under which the lipid thermometer still yields reliable temperature estimates. "By means of stable carbon isotope analysis, we can now determine whether the lipids were formed in soil or lake water. We are therefore confident that our study will make an important contribution to the improvement of paleoclimate data worldwide," concludes Weber. Explore further Good news for fishermen'browning' impacts fish less than expected More information: Yuki Weber et al, Redox-dependent niche differentiation provides evidence for multiple bacterial sources of glycerol tetraether lipids in lakes, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Yuki Weber et al, Redox-dependent niche differentiation provides evidence for multiple bacterial sources of glycerol tetraether lipids in lakes,(2018). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1805186115 Electron microscopes and modern computer image processing allowed University of Tokyo researchers to uncover the correct structure of a protein essential in the immune system, IgM, and a much smaller protein that is bound inside, AIM. IgM is the larger, incomplete hexagon shape and AIM is the smaller broad bean shape inside the wedge-shape gap. In the right-side image, AIM is more easily recognized as the bright white, broad-bean-shaped spot. Credit: Hiramoto et al., originally published in Science Advances, CC-BY Researchers have revealed the structure of an essential immune protein, creating future possibilities to develop more effective medicines for a range of illnesses from cancer to neurological diseases. University of Tokyo researchers made this discovery with computerized image analysis and modern electron microscope imaging. Researchers verified the structure of natural immunoglobulin M (IgM) protein, an important part of the immune system, using mouse and human versions of the protein. IgM is now understood to be shaped like an incomplete hexagon, or a pentagon with a wedge-shaped gap. "We'll have to revise the textbooks," said Professor Toru Miyazaki, the leader of the laboratory where the IgM structure was identified at the Graduate School of Medicine. IgM is the first immune system protein that develops in the human fetus and remains the first responder to pathogens throughout life. The structure of IgM was first identified in 1969 as a "five-pointed, star-shaped table" and updated in 2009 to be a five-sided dome or "mushroom cap." "The original IgM model was made by looking at a few individual molecules by hand with what today we think is a low-resolution microscope. Now we have clearer pictures and the computer can examine thousands of individual IgM molecules," said Miyazaki. The 2018 discovery of the incomplete hexagon was actually a secondary interest for Miyazaki, originally a medical doctor who has built his research career studying a different protein called apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage (AIM). The bona fide 2D structure of the IgM pentamer and its association with AIM. Credit: Toru Miyazaki & Satoko Arai Since identifying the correct shape of IgM, researchers now understand that inactive AIM is nestled inside the gap of the IgM incomplete hexagon. The structural connection between IgM and AIM means that drugs with the ability to regulate the release of AIM could be used to create AIM-based disease therapies. "We can think of AIM as a fighter jet and IgM as the aircraft carrier ship. When other molecules activate the immune system, IgM releases AIM. The much smaller AIM protein goes around the body to clear away damaged cells and prevent disease," said Miyazaki. Miyazaki identified AIM in 1999 while working at the Basel Institute for Immunology Institute in Switzerland. Its small size means AIM is easily eliminated from the body by the kidneys and excreted in urine, so staying bound within the larger IgM protects AIM from being removed before it is needed. AIM is a common molecule in the bloodstream, but it is only active when the body develops a disease. AIM is known to be important for preventing obesity, fatty liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), multiple sclerosis (MS), fungus-induced peritonitis (inflammation of the abdominal wall membrane), and acute kidney injury. The incomplete hexagon structure is still only a 2-D understanding of IgM structure. Miyazaki and his team continue to do additional analysis and hope to report the 3-D structure of IgM soon. Explore further Stopping liver cancer in its tracks Thermal effects in human victims' skeletons. A. Skull of an older-aged adult male showing a dark stained and cracked parietal bone (ind. 11, chamber 12). B. Skullcap affected by a stellate fracture consisting of several cracks which radiate from a common center, characterized by charred outer margins (adult male, ind. 31, chamber 10). C. Exploded skull showing a partly dark stained inner table (right side, adult male, ind. 6, chamber 12); charring of the fractured margins is evident (white arrows) (bar scale 10 cm). The skull of this victim was lying in the ash bed on its left side. Credit: PLOS ONE (2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203210 A team of researchers at the Federico II University Hospital in Italy has found evidence that suggests many people living in Herculaneum during the 79 AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius were killed by the extreme heat characteristic of pyroclastic flows. In their paper published on the open access site PLOS ONE, the group describes telltale signs of heat damage they found in the remains of people living in the ancient Roman city at the time. Most people learned in grade school that Mt. Vesuvius erupted back in 79 AD and covered cities such as Pompei in ash. So sudden was the disaster that many people were killed and buried in ash, leaving their "frozen" remains to be discovered by archaeologists approximately 1700 years later. Extensive research has shown that most of the victims in Pompei died from injuries or suffocation due to the thick ash. But this was not the fate of many people living in the nearby city of Herculaneum. The researchers with this new effort have found that many of them were killed by the extreme heat of pyroclastic flows. Pyroclastic flows are flows composed of gas and volcanic materialprior research has shown that they can flow downhill away from an eruption at speeds of up to 450 mphand temperatures are as hot as 1000 degrees C. When a person is overcome by such a flow, the result is instant death. The researchers found evidence in the remains of many people who had sought refuge in a boathouse near the sea in Herculaneum. The team began their investigation after learning of reports of evidence of people dying from thermal shock. Upon taking a closer look at some of the remains, the researchers found red and black residue on parts of some of the bones. Prior research suggested that such residue typically occurs when bones are burned in the vicinity of coins or other metal objectsthe residue typically consists of iron particles. Prior research has also shown that such residues can also be caused by blood being boiled away leaving behind suspended iron. Study of the residue showed that it was iron, though the researchers could not say for certain if it came from blood or metal objects. The researchers also found evidence of burst skulls, likely due to vaporizing brain matter. Red and black mineral incrustations detected in the victims' skulls. A. Child's skull showing a round area of thick red mineral residues encrusting the right parietal bone (ind. 18, chamber 12); A1. Inner bone surface of parietal fragments encrusted by red mineral residues (sporadic skull fragments, adult, chamber 10); B. Skull showing dark staining and black residues encrusting (white arrow) the parietal and temporal bones (B1) (adult male, ind. 31, chamber 10); C. Skullcap of a young individual displaying spotted dark stained areas and charred open sutures (black arrows) (ind. 29, chamber 12). The intracranial cavity (C1) shows a clear boundary (black and white arrows) between an inner table of unchanged color (a) next to a black stained one (b) (scale bars in cm). Credit: PLOS ONE (2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203210 Explore further Fuego volcanothe deadly pyroclastic flows that have killed dozens in Guatemala More information: Pierpaolo Petrone et al. A hypothesis of sudden body fluid vaporization in the 79 AD victims of Vesuvius, PLOS ONE (2018). Journal information: PLoS ONE Pierpaolo Petrone et al. A hypothesis of sudden body fluid vaporization in the 79 AD victims of Vesuvius,(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203210 2018 Phys.org This study suggests that surface water dynamics are a crucial contributor to the growing global health concern of the effects of antibiotic resistant bacteria on humans and wildlife alike. Credit: Virginia Tech Greater access to antibiotic drugs, together with their misuse and overuse, has accelerated the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria worldwide. A new study now suggests that surface water dynamics are a crucial contributor to this growing global health concern. Funded by the National Science Foundation, Kathleen Alexander and Claire Sanderson of Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment, together with researchers from two other universities, have used the Chobe River, the only permanent surface water resource in northern Botswana, to explore antibiotic resistance emergence and dissemination. Alexander's unique field site in Botswana encompasses Chobe National Park, home to the largest population of African elephants in the world, as well as two townships. More importantly, the site lacks commercial agriculture or large-scale medical facilities, both believed to be main contributors to antibiotic resistance. The team's findings, published in Frontiers in Microbiology, suggest that factors beyond industrial farming and medical facilities may be significant contributors to the global problem of antibiotic resistance dissemination. The research team conducted surface water testing at transect sites along the Chobe River from the protected landscape within Chobe National Park through the urban town of Kasane to the mixed-use area of Kazungula that incorporates land used for subsistence farming, wildlife corridors, and human settlement. The area has an appreciable wet (November-March) and dry (April-October) season and is significantly influenced by a flood-pulse pattern that brings rain waters from the Angolan highlands thousands of miles away. "There are a lot of stakeholders involved in combating antibiotic resistance, but current action plans focus solely on the health care and agriculture sectors as the most important disseminators of antibiotic resistant bacteria into the environment," said Sanderson, research associate in Virginia Tech's Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation and lead author of the study. "In Botswana, we have a unique study site where we don't have any commercial agricultural enterprises or an extensive medical facility, but we've still found widespread antibiotic resistance in the surface water, spanning both the protected and urban landscapes. Additionally, the antibiotic resistance profiles we see in the surface water match those in the wildlife and human populations that share this important water resource," she continued. Alexander, professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation and an affiliate of Virginia Tech's Fralin Life Science Institute, echoed that water is the critical tie-in for all of the factors contributing to antibiotic resistance in the Chobe region. "Water is the resource that joins everyone and everything across the landscape. It brings all the connections and factors together: animal, human, and environmental." The study found that land use and season were both statistically significant predictors of the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in surface water, with the wet season resulting in a higher mean antibiotic resistance than the dry season. Maps of the wet and dry season samples showed that bacterial isolates in water had the highest resistance to antibiotics in the town of Kasane, with significantly lower rates in Chobe National Park and the mixed land-use area of Kazungula. A previous study conducted by Alexander in her Botswana study site measured antibiotic resistance levels in fecal samples of water-associated animals (hippopotamus, crocodile, otter, and waterbuck) and non-water-associated animals (African elephant, banded mongoose, bushback, Cape buffalo, Chacma baboon, domestic cattle, giraffe, kudu, guineafowl, impala, leopard, sable, spotted hyena, vervet monkey, and warthog). The study found that there was little to no antibiotic resistance in non-water-associated herbivores, but water-associated wildlife had higher levels of antibiotic resistance, indicating that the duration of time in the water and/or consumption of water-dwelling vegetation may play a critical role. Alexander, who has been conducting research and collecting data in the area for more than 20 years, stressed that it is important to consider the issue of antibiotic resistance with a wider lens. "Right now, antibiotic resistance is studied as a snapshot, but it changes spatially and temporally, and we need research that adjusts to those changes and advances our understanding of the environmental interactions between humans, animals, and the landscape," said Alexander, co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Conservation of African Resources: Animals, Communities, and Land Use (CARACAL) in Botswana. The motivation for understanding antibiotic resistance is especially crucial in this area of Botswana, which claims some of the highest rates of HIV and tuberculosis in the region. "The need for cheap and effective antibiotics to help this vulnerable human population is extremely important," Sanderson added. One avenue for future research is the idea of using native wildlife species in the Chobe region as surveillance systems to monitor changes in antibiotic resistance. "We may be able to use the banded mongoose as a sentinel surveillance system because these animals live in close association with humans, and we have shown that antibiotic resistance is shared among water, humans, and wildlife in this region," Alexander said. "By routinely collecting feces from this species and testing the samples for antibiotic resistant bacteria, we will be able to monitor antibiotic resistance levels in the environment over time using noninvasive and time- and cost-effective techniques." Sanderson and Alexander stress that understanding the causes and factors of antibiotic resistant bacteria emergence and dissemination demand a thorough comprehension of the interplay of environmental factors, human contributions, and patterns of human and wildlife interaction with this crucial water resource. Explore further Monitoring wildlife may shed light on spread of antibiotic resistance in humans Dairy and livestock farming will not be viable over much of the subcontinent at the current rate of warming. Credit: Shutterstock The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released a special report outlining what would need to be done to keep the world from warming up by more than 1.5C. That target level came from deliberations in 2010, with countries around the world setting 1.5 degrees as the preferred limit for warming. In 2015, the Paris Climate Accord settled on 2C, while leaving the door open that the goal might later be revised on the basis of new evidence. Countries predicted to be highly vulnerable to climate change, including low-lying island states and many African countries, called for the panel's special report because they insisted that the options for reaching 1.5C be evaluated, along with the consequences of not doing so. The climate situation is already worse in southern Africa than in most other regions. While the global average air temperature has risen by nearly 1C since accurate weather records began a little over a century ago, in southern Africa temperatures have risen on average by twice this amount. This means that southern Africa crossed the 1.5C warming level some years ago. These trends don't bode well for the future. Based on what emissions countries have voluntarily agreed to cut under the Paris Accord, the world is heading for an increase of 3C by the latter half of the century, rather than a 2C target. For southern Africa this would translate to around 5-6C in the interior. Warming of that magnitude would make many aspects of people's lives and countries' economies untenable. Life-threatening heatwaves would become more frequent. The productivity of staple crops such as maize and wheat would be severely impaired. Water resources, already at their limit throughout southern Africa, would be dramatically reduced in both quality and quantity. Dairy and livestock farming would not be viable over much of the subcontinent. There is no sudden failure when the 1.5C limit is crossed. But the risks of a whole range of undesirable consequences become progressively greater the further we stray from the climate under which our complex, interdependent world developed. The problem is that we don't know exactly where the thresholds-of-no-return lie, and probably won't not know until it is too late to avoid crossing them. The sanest response is to stay as close to our comfort range as possible. Staying below 1.5C will require urgent, deep and radical changes in almost every aspect of our lives from what we eat, and how we travel to where we get our power from and how we build our houses. Specifically, the world would need to eat less meat, commute less and mostly using public transport, generate energy from renewable resources and build energy-efficient homes, offices and factories. A shallow coral reef in Sodwana Bay, South Africa. Credit: PhotoSky/Shutterstock There are also a few things that southern Africa can do to try and arrest the region's climate crisis. Focus areas Southern African nations must encourage the global community to radically reduce climate change to lower the risks to particularly vulnerable social and ecological systems. Coral reefs are one example. The panel's report concludes that warming the world by 2C would lead to the loss of nearly all coral reefs from their current locations. Limiting the warming to 1.5C would save about 30% of coral reefs. Other examples are the melting of ice caps and the further drying of semi-arid lands. Renewable energy is another area that needs serious focus. For its part, South Africa needs to take urgent action to reduce its dependency on coal. The country has pursued an aggressive renewable energy drive. But, at the same time, it has built two large, long-lived coal-fired power stations, and is contemplating building more. This is not consistent with the goal of urgent and deep emission reductions. It seems inevitable that the planet will overshoot the 1.5C global mark, and probably also the 2C mark. Cooling the atmosphere later in century would require the removal of up to a trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide. The world doesn't yet have affordable, proven technology to do this at the required scale. The approach that is most commonly punted mass tree-planting is a non-starter in most of southern Africa, where the arable land and water resources are needed for food production, and the marginal land is too dry to grow forests. The challenge The challenge for the world is that the effort and money required to keep the rise in temperature below 1.5C is exponentially larger than what would be needed to keep it below 2C. The IPCC Special Report estimates the "marginal cost of climate abatement" that is how much less climate change you get per unit of money you spend at three to four times higher to stay below 1.5C globally than it is to stay below 2C. Meeting the more stringent target would require spending an unprecedented amount of global financial resources on new energy, transport and urban systems over the next decade. The investment needed to stay within the 2 C limit is less because it can take greater advantage of the falling price of renewable energy, without retiring existing technologies before they have reached their pay-back date. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. TWEETHER W-band Transmission hub. Credit: Lancaster University A future vision of high speed wireless Internet that promises to break down two major 5G challenges has taken a leap forward following milestone tests of a cutting-edge European millimeter wave wireless technology. A European consortium of engineers and scientists have demonstrated the World's first real-world environment transmission of data in point to multipoint within part of the wireless frequency spectrum known as millimetre wave, or W-band, which is between 92-95 GHz. The field test, at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, in Spain, comes after more than three years of work designing cutting-edge components and systems to enable the first point to multipoint wireless system above 90 GHz. The European Commission Horizon 2020 TWEETHER project, led by Professor Claudio Paoloni, Head of Lancaster University's Department of Engineering, enabled the transmission of up to ten Gigabit per second over a large area to feed base stations for mobile networks or wireless fixed access broadband. The system provides lower cost and higher flexibility than fibre. It also enables broadband to be delivered to residential or rural areas where fibre is too expensive to be deployed. Professor Paoloni said: "It has been an emotional moment to see the TWEETHER equipment installed on the masts of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia and watch the monitor showing the first data transmitted. TWEETHER has been a visionary project for a break-through in the wireless communication networks. "The development of European technology at millimetre wave aims to solve two major challenges of modern communications a way of wirelessly transmit to and from a grid of new 5G small cells networks, and the digital divide that affects million houses without broadband in areas where the fibre cannot be deployed. "I am in debt with all the scientists of the TWEETHER consortium that with their outstanding expertise and commitment have realised the TWEETHER concept. I am also grateful to the European Commission for giving us this great opportunity by funding the TWEETHER project through the Horizon 2020 programme." Millimeter waves are part of the frequency spectrum that is currently unused, but it is very promising, from the wide frequency bands available, to support high data rate. Challenges with wireless communication data volumes and speeds can only be met by exploiting millimetre waves and TWEETHER is addressing these technical hurdles. This new TWEETHER millimetre wave technology, when it becomes available to mobile network providers, will be deployed as part of future 5G networks. Explore further Creating the fastest outdoor wireless Internet connection in the world Women are still typically the minority on academic hiring committees in science, and "majority rules." Credit: Shutterstock For the first time in 55 years, a woman has won the Nobel Prize in physics Prof. Donna Strickland. This win has publicly highlighted that women are still under-represented in science, particularly in physics. As a woman in physics, this lack of diversity is something that I encounter almost daily, and also something that we can take action to change. As an undergraduate science student, I was confronted with the lack of women in science at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada in 2001. The first day of my summer job in NRC's now-defunct "Women in Engineering and Science" program, I was shocked looking around the lunchroom. Where were the women? The vast majority of scientists were men! The situation was similar in my university studies I only ever had two female professors. That lack of diversity was something I grew accustomed to. A resident at Perimeter Institute for my Ph.D. studies, I was often the only woman in the room at scientific meetings or seminars. My office was shared with four male students, and there were some jokes that I had been assigned "the secretary's desk" and remarks about the colour of my T-shirt. I was the only woman in the room for my Ph.D. defence at the University of Waterloo in 2007. Lack of female keynote speakers When I became a faculty member in 2010, I was thrilled to be one of four women physics professors more than 20 per cent of physics faculty at Carleton University. This bucked the trend among physics faculty members at many universities (and this continues, as we now have five women physics professors at Carleton). But as I started teaching, the lack of gender diversity among undergraduate physics students was striking: a class of 50 students with only three women, another with no women, in my first year of teaching. As a researcher, the lack of women as invited and keynote speakers at scientific conferences continues to be discouraging. There are certainly women giving excellent conference presentations, but they are too often overlooked when it comes to invited and keynote speakers lists. An invited or keynote speaker entry on a CV indicates respect and recognition of excellence; omission of women hinders their careers. As a member of hiring committees within my university, I've witnessed some colleagues' lack of understanding of issues related to gender diversity in science. The philosophy of "we'll just hire the best candidate" ignores the fact that measures of the "best" candidate are highly subjective, and often plagued with personal (sometimes unconscious) biases. Fewer women in physics and science departments results in women as the minority on hiring committees. Juggling science and motherhood Not all women in physics are mothers, but motherhood opened my eyes to the many challenges at the heart of juggling family and physics. Sleep deprivation, family responsibilities and parenting are all in competition with travelling to international meetings, completing research papers and supervising students, plus preparing and delivering lectures. Submitting research grant applications after my maternity leave, I wondered: Did the male-majority grant panels really comprehend the challenges in building my physics career while being a mother? After Prof. Strickland's Nobel Prize win announcement this week, a respected scientist remarked his surprise that another world-class, renowned male optics expert had been overlooked "maybe because he was not a woman." As a physicist, I have had many opportunities, and have received much support from men and women scientists alike. I have a rewarding career. But my anecdotes illustrate that, despite efforts to increase involvement of women in physics, systematic issues remain. With Prof. Strickland's win, the issue of gender diversity in physics has been brought to the fore. There is an opportunity for action. We need outreach and policy We must work to raise awareness of unconscious biases and (sometimes hidden) barriers that hinder the careers of women scientists, building on recent training modules by the Canada Research Chairs Secretariat and other organizations. Scientists should undergo training to increase their awareness of barriers facing different minorities, including women, towards developing more inclusive scientific endeavours. Canada's science policy leaders should develop best practices that are publicized, encouraged or even required by scientific institutions and universities. As a start, we need clear guidelines towards achieving gender balance and diversity at scientific meetings. Some international conferences are now actively promoting diversity for their meetings, with success. Diversity at scientific meetings aids in mentoring and retention of young women scientists through networking and role models. It enhances researcher career progression and advances research through diverse collaborations. We must support outreach efforts that show great possibilities for careers in science for women and other minorities. With time, this will change biases that may be developed at a young age. It will show girls and students that they can play important roles in non-traditional fields. Strickland's Nobel Prize win can serve as a celebration of her great contributions, and a celebration of women in physics and science. It is also a call to action, as "gender diversity leads to better science." Explore further Canadian Nobel physics laureate hails womens' progress This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Guilherme Gualda, second from right, led students on a Maymester trip to the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand. Credit: Guilherme Gualda To figure out where magma gathers in the earth's crust and for how long, Vanderbilt University volcanologist Guilherme Gualda and his students traveled to their most active cluster: the Taupo Volcanic Zone of New Zealand, where some of the biggest eruptions of the last 2 million years occurredseven in a period between 350,000 and 240,000 years ago. After studying layers of pumice visible in road cuts and other outcrops, measuring the amount of crystals in the samples and using thermodynamic models, they determined that magma moved closer to the surface with each successive eruption. The project fits into Gualda's ongoing work studying supereruptionshow the magma systems that feed them are built and how the Earth reacts to repeated input of magma over short periods of time. "As the system resets, the deposits become shallower," said Gualda, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences. "The crust is getting warmer and weaker, so magma can lodge itself at shallower levels." What's more, the dynamic nature of the Taupo Volcanic Zone's crust made it more likely for the magma to erupt than be stored in the crust. The more frequent, smaller eruptions, which each produced 50 to 150 cubic kilometers of magma, likely prevented a supereruption. Supereruptions produce more than 450 cubic kilometers of magma and they affect the earth's climate for years following the eruption. "You have magma sitting there that's crystal-poor, melt-rich for few decades, maybe 100 years, and then it erupts," Gualda said. "Then another magma body is established, but we don't know how gradually that body assembles. It's a period in which you're increasing the amount of melt in the crust." The question that remains is how long it look for these crystal-rich magma bodies to assemble between eruptions. It could be thousands of years, Gualda said, but he believes it's shorter than that. Explore further Magma reservoirs key to volcanic eruptions More information: G.A.R. Gualda el al., "Climbing the crustal ladder: Magma storage-depth evolution during a volcanic flare-up," Science Advances (2018). advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/10/eaap7567 Journal information: Science Advances G.A.R. Gualda el al., "Climbing the crustal ladder: Magma storage-depth evolution during a volcanic flare-up,"(2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aap7567 1. Yes. Council members appear to have taken time to review each section carefully. 2. Yes. The council has set up town halls and a public hearing to inform the residents. 3. No. The council should have set up a charter review committee, including residents. 4. No. Some of the items proposed so far benefit the council more than the community. 5. Unsure. Its hard to say until after the public has had more opportunities to weigh in. Vote View Results 11 hours ago Is Blink Charging or ChargePoint the Better Buy as the Infrastructure Bill Passes? Both companies will play a role in building out an electric vehicle charging network, but which stock is best to own now? Investors are looking at 2022 and positioning their portfolios to capture what is setting up to be a big year for electric vehicle (EV) stocks. Read Article Poor kids move more than rich kids Parents move their children for various reasons: housing instability, displeasure with schools, safety concerns, custody issues, discipline matters, the availability of transportation. Some think theyre helping their kids by switching schools, not that they might be slowing them down instead. If school instability is happening within the context of a lot of other instability, then thats all going to make it harder for kids to learn, said Stefanie DeLuca, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins. Shes studied the link between housing instability and school switching in various cities. In Baltimore, DeLuca and other researchers interviewed 150 young adults who grew up in the citys public housing in the late 1980s and 1990s. They wanted to understand the disparate paths their lives took, and the results became a book, Coming of Age in the Other America. Time and again, Baltimoreans who fell off track shared similar stories about their childhoods. Many felt let down by parents who weren't around enough, by schools that couldn't provide what they needed, and by communities that were violent and chaotic, DeLuca said. A typical response we heard was something like: I couldnt finish school because I kept switching schools, so I was like, f--- it, DeLuca said. Of course, children change schools for lots of good reasons, such as moving to a new district because a parent got a new job. Or because they need a fresh start or a different social environment in a new school to thrive. But for many highly transient children, poverty, trauma, school churn and detachment can spiral into a toxic soup of low outcomes. Based on 27 states that collect and report some kind of data on student turnover, the Journal Sentinel tried to draw some conclusions about the national picture. Among them: Overall turnover hovers around 10 percent. Chronic school-switchers are a small but concerning minority. Among states using similar definitions, Nebraska reported between 11 percent and 12 percent of its students as transient. Michigan: 7 percent. Massachusetts: 9 percent. Wisconsin: 10 percent. Children of color switch schools frequently. In most states, black students switch schools at least two to three times more frequently than white students. Latino students switch schools more frequently than white students. In most states, Asian students switch schools only slightly more frequently than white students. Poor students switch schools more often than their wealthier peers. In Michigan, low-income students move three times as frequently as those with higher incomes. An extensive new series on student turnover in Detroits schools by Chalkbeat, an education news site, and Bridge Magazine homed in on one eighth grade class to reveal that its 31 students had collectively attended 128 schools an average of four schools each. Just as alarming: One out of three students in kindergarten through fifth grade didnt stay with the same school all year. Turnover in big cities is higher than in the suburbs. In Illinois, 7 percent of students switch schools during the year. But in Chicago, 11 percent of children enter late or exit early. Those figures only count school switchers once, no matter how many times they move. The rates of children switching schools in Providence is about twice as high as the Rhode Island state average. Bostons rate of student churn is more than twice as high as Massachusetts as a whole. Rural districts are unpredictable. Most rural districts have more stable populations than urban districts. But some have high churn. In Nevadas rural Lincoln County, six in 10 students change schools during the year. In Wisconsin, rural districts with the highest churn are ones that host virtual charter schools. Those schools can enroll children from all over the state and by their nature see high rates of turnover. Anthony Lanzilote, Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Magazine Jamarie Samuel, a Detroit student, attended seven schools by eighth grade. He enrolled in the middle of seventh grade at Bethune Elementary-Middle School. Read the series Interventions are haphazard Plenty of highly mobile students succeed. But often its because they stumble into the right help, or get lucky. Or both. Precious Drew, 22, grew up bouncing between Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana and attended 13 different schools before high school. Her mom, who cared for her and six siblings, was more concerned with securing safe housing than staying put in schools. Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Precious Drew, 22, was transient growing up and attended 13 different schools before high school in Minnesota. Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Precious Drew, 22, was transient growing up and attended 13 different schools before high school in Minnesota. Drew eventually settled into one high school, located near the shelter her mother landed in when they moved back to Minnesota. By sophomore year, some of her teachers started urging her to think about college. They didnt find out she had been living in a shelter until her senior year when she revealed it on her personal statements for scholarship applications. Drew chose a small Minnesota college, but as one of just a few black students, she soon felt isolated and sought to transfer. The reason she didnt? A close adviser through a special scholarship program insisted shed make more progress if she stayed. Drew dug in, joined more student groups, and applied to study abroad in England. She graduated this year and shes now working on expanding her own business, a line of natural, personal beauty products made from coffee grounds from local cafes. The personal support was a big, big part of my success, Drew said. Better ways to track kids who move Some states are taking steps to better identify students who are on the move: Delaware is wrestling with how to verify whos moving from school to school. Washington has developed three different definitions for mobility and is considering adding all of them to annual school ratings, in the section for school characteristics. Nebraska and Kentucky both flag highly mobile students who enroll in two or more schools in a single school year. Massachusetts posts data on student transfers at the school, district and state level, including for racial groups. As a result, researchers have been able to drill into the causes and potential solutions for it. Ohios school report cards list the percentages of mobile students in each school, broken down by race. Ohio is a rare state where lawmakers passed legislation aimed at connecting churn and performance. Since 2014, state law has required an additional progress rating for schools and districts with at least 25 percent turnover. The idea is to highlight the progress of students who stay put for at least two years. But the threshold is so high that only a small number of schools and districts get the special grade. Utah makes it easy to see the progress of mobile students by breaking them out as a separate category on performance reports for districts and schools. In Wisconsin, the Department of Public Instruction has started including churn rates for districts on their annual report cards for accountability. But officials have no plans to report such rates on school report cards. Get updates on new stories from this series by joining our Wisconsin Education Facebook Group. JOIN JOIN 1 in 4 students move in Milwaukee The Journal Sentinel used enrollment and test-score data to track 900,000 state students between 2016 and 2017. The first-of-its-kind analysis revealed that on average one in 10 Wisconsin students didnt stay in the same school all year, compared to one in four students in Milwaukee. Some of those children belonged to Shantel Freeman, a single mother of five on Milwaukees north side. I never thought about it ever setting them back, said Freeman, whose kids have attended district and voucher schools. If its not a good fit, they can always go back to where they were before. Freeman is most concerned with safety and whether the schools offer busing. One of the highest-performing schools in the city is directly across the street from her house, but her children couldnt get into it. The charter school didnt have seats in the right grades when she moved to her new place from a low-income housing development. Her neighborhood public school has plenty of room, but Freeman wont consider it. Its two long blocks away, and she thinks the walk is too dangerous. Newark zeroed in on turnover Many individual school districts analyze their own data on student turnover. But how that data gets used depends on whos in charge. Newark Public Schools, the largest district in New Jersey, enrolls about 35,000 students. About 85 percent of them live in poverty. More than a decade ago, researchers found the average Newark school had 29 percent student turnover. Thats in the same realm as Milwaukee, Denver, Detroit and Rochester, New York. When Cami Anderson was appointed superintendent of Newark in 2011, she created a team responsible for finding students who had vanished. When they tracked them down, it was clear that many had gotten lost in the shuffle of transferring schools. We found there were new kids who hadnt been properly enrolled in their schools, and there were kids who hadnt come back, said Anderson, who led the district until 2015. Anderson had overseen alternative schools in New York City. The kids who bounced around repeatedly were almost always the ones most disadvantaged: economically, socially and academically. She felt they deserved special attention. Anderson insisted on reporting school-by-school mobility rates during her tenure in Newark to better track students, but also to show the issue mattered. I dont care what were doing to improve schools if a third of our kids are moving in the same year, were not going to do right by all of our students, Anderson said. Theres no way we can give them the deep relationships and consistency necessary for them to succeed. Today, little is known about how student turnover in Newark stacks up against other districts in the state. New Jerseys Department of Education transitioned to a new data system around 2011 and stopped calculating rates of student mobility. Marquette University research assistants Sean Blashe, Diana Dombrowski, Patrick Thomas and McKenna Oxenden contributed to this report. Let me take a moment to brag about my colleague Samuel Gregg, the Director of Research here at the Acton Institute. Almost every week we post an article or video by Gregg here on the PowerBlog, and yes, thats partially because hes one of us. But wed be promoting his work even if he wasnt a part of Acton for the simple reason that Gregg is one of the most articulate defenders of ordered liberty in the world. Dont just take my word for it, though. Watch this short video interview with Guatemalas Universidad Francisco Marroquin to see how adeptly and succinctly Gregg makes the case for how religious liberty and economic freedom benefit societies by promoting human flourishing and reducing poverty. A sample: If you destroy religious liberty, you can destroy anything, says Gregg. Because if the government is capable of taking away peoples religious freedom, thats which is the thing that people are most likely to fight for, theres really nothing else that will stand in their way. By Ivan Ssenabulya. Kampala Central Deputy Mayor Sam Gombya has refuted accusations on him of land grabbing. A section of persons with disabilities on Friday last week accused their councilor before the president, of conniving with KCCA officials to try selling off their piece of land near the New Taxi Park, which was given to them by the president Museveni. Gombya says this cant be true because he was on the front to lobby for this donation. He also says hes battled with KCCA over the land. President Museveni summoned all stakeholders to resolve the matter, the meeting expected to happen this month. US Treasury 10-year yields recently hit seven year highs. In the case of bonds, getting high is not a good thing; it means that the value of your bond is declining. It means that the cost of your debt is increasing. It means that the leverage you have used since 1980/81 to make a pile of dough in real estate is turning against you. This is not the only reason to worry. When Brett Kavanaugh got his 50th vote, the Republican dream, born in 1973 with Roe v Wade (410 U.S. 113 -- at which point it was a nightmare), came true. There is an old saying on Wall Street, which came from the battlefields of Europe: Buy on the cannons; sell on the Trumpets. The trumpets have sounded. Where do you go from here? If you have made a bunch of money in the financial markets over the past few, or many years, the time has come to remove some of your chips from the table. The Rothschilds were said to have known first about the English/Prussian victory at Waterloo because their fleet of carrier pigeons arrived soon after the cannons went silent. Many years later, when asked how he got so rich, the family Patriarch said: I sold too soon. Chart of 10-Year US Treasury Bonds (Click to enlarge) You will notice from this chart that the downtrend line, starting after the spike in 1981, when long bonds got to 15 percent, and short rates went over 20 percent, has been broken. It is reasonable to assume that rates will rise, and not just for a few months, for several decades. It might be a good idea to acquaint yourself with the work of the Russian economist Kondratieff. Related: Turning Wasted Natural Gas Into Bitcoin The rise of 1 percent in bond yields may not seem like much, but it all depends upon the base at which you start. Rising from 10 percent to 11 percent may get headlines (and it did in the last 1970s), but it only adds 10 percent to the cost of your debt burden. Rising from 2 percent to 3 percent means that the cost has gone up by 50 percent. Rates have now more than doubled from the bottom (around 1 and 3/8 shortly before the 2016 election), and Mr. Market is not pleased. Like the coming of Renewables and EVs, these things dont happen overnight. But the tide has turned, and you should get off the beach, or at least get your most vulnerable children (investments) off. The first loss is the sweetest, and you will never know the exact time of the peak, until you look back in anger, if you didnt trim your sails in time. Any fool can make money, and often does, especially in a declining rate environment. Keeping it is the hard part. By Henry Hewitt for Safehaven.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: A review panel created by Indias finance ministry to determine a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the country has suggested India launch its own cryptocurrency. A report from Quartz suggests that officials are growing closer to preparing a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. One senior official suggested the panel is even looking into the creation of a state-sponsored cryptocurrency, according to the publication. The official explained: We are evaluating the government-backed cryptocurrency and crypto-token, adding, and we are looking to develop and encourage our own research and development of blockchain technology. Another executive, who requested to remain anonymous explained to Quartz: If a virtual currency is going to be backed by the government then it goes against the whole grain of such coins. These are essentially decentralised ledgers, and if the government or the RBI is trying to control it, then it loses its meaning. The official added: The panel is also discussing amendment of the Currency Act to make possession of any cryptocurrency, not approved by the government, a punishable offence. The discussion comes amid a larger crackdown on cryptocurrencies in the country. Since July, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been banned private banks from doing business with cryptocurrency exchanges. Related: "The Ultimate Guide To Buying Discount Gold" This move led to the closure of Indias oldest and largest cryptocurrency exchange, ZebPay, in late September. The closure, which came as a surprise to many of the exchanges 3 million users, highlights the governments position on the subject. ZebPay cited banking issues for the closure, issuing an official statement which read: The curb on bank accounts has crippled our, and our customer's, ability to transact business meaningfully. At this point, we are unable to find a reasonable way to conduct the cryptocurrency exchange business. The cryptocurrency panel is expected to release a full report and outline the future cryptocurrency framework for the country by the end of 2018; although things are looking increasingly grim from decentralized initiatives in the worlds second largest country. Much to the dismay of those who see the potential of decentralized finance in India. By Michael Kern via Crypto Insider More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. " " Wikimedia Commons ( CC BY-SA 4.0 The skull of a Neanderthal found in La Quina, a Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic site in Gardes-le-Pontaroux, Charente, France. It's possible that somewhere on the internet you'll find someone who is having a tough time accepting the evidence that our forebears, after making their way out of Africa, interbred with Neanderthals, a species of ancient human already living in Europe at the time. Might it be difficult for these naysayers to accept that our ancestors mated with a losing species one that perhaps died out in the face of our excellence? Who knows. But the current scientific understanding of the matter is, the ghost of the Neanderthal genome is present in our DNA: Most modern humans of European and Asian descent carry around about 2 percent Neanderthal material. Neanderthals had a long time on this planet to evolve the most conservative estimates puts them traveling north out of Africa 350,000 years ago, but it could easily be almost twice that long ago. Modern humans only made our break for the northlands around 45,000 years ago. Five thousand years later, the Neanderthals appeared to have disappeared from Europe, but new evidence suggests they left some important DNA behind. Advertisement A study published online on Oct. 4, 2018 in the journal Cell finds that some of the genetic material we retained from our ancestors' trysts with Neanderthals has served us well over the millenia. Because Neanderthals had been in Europe and Asia for so much longer than we had when we met them, interbreeding likely provided a shortcut to the long process of adapting our own genetic resistance to common viruses in this new land they had, after all, been building their genetic defenses for hundreds of thousands of years. "Modern humans and Neanderthals are so closely related that it really wasn't much of a genetic barrier for these viruses to jump," said coauthor David Enard, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, in a press release. "But that closeness also meant that Neanderthals could pass on protections against those viruses to us." The research team combed the human genome for every gene responsible for providing us with defenses against viruses about 4,500 individual genes in all and then compared what they found to the Neanderthal genome. Over 150 fragments of modern virus-busting genes were also present in Neanderthals. These genes participate in our immune response to RNA viruses like HIV, influenza A and hepatitis C. This research is unique in that it's the first time scientists have proved it's possible to sort through an ancient species' genome for evidence of disease. "It's similar to paleontology," said Enard. "You can find hints of dinosaurs in different ways. Sometimes you'll discover actual bones, but sometimes you find only footprints in fossilized mud. Our method is similarly indirect: Because we know which genes interact with which viruses, we can infer the types of viruses responsible for ancient disease outbreaks." Now That's Interesting Scientists have found evidence of the first first-generation Neanderthal hybrid in a cave in Siberia: her mother was Neanderthal and her father was Denisovan. With Image Book, Jean-Luc Godard is still at it at age 87. With his presence strongly felt at Cannes this year with its poster of Belmondo and Karina kissing from Pierrot le fou (purely out of their nostalgia trip and other superficial reasons) and Cate Blanchet led Jury ironically awarding him 'the Special Palm d'or', whatever that means. But in stark contrast to youthful exuberance and liberty of his earlier films, Image Book is in large part and as expected, dark, brooding and more inscrutable than ever and indirect condemnation of the cheap spectacle the festival has become. Completely consists of existing footage - from Hollywood, European and Soviet films, war atrocities, news footage of ISIS and films from the Middle East in later part, Godard grimly goes on about the power, or lack thereof, of images in his raspy, groveling voice over. Like most of his essay films since the monumental Histoire(s) du cinema, his fragmented, loosely connected images have been, if not anything, reminder of the terrible history of humankind. Image Book is no exception. With Bertolt Brecht's quote, "Only a fragment carries a mark of authenticity," he somewhat frees us from dwelling over his use of edits - how he cuts two images together, how he stops and drags an image, his discontinuous soundtrack, spastic English subtitles and digital manipulation where colors bleed and image become almost abstract. Truth is in the images themselves. And as far as collages go, it's an assault on your eyeballs, very much like that famous shot from Un Chien Andalou which he references to in the film. His thin image thread is there with the picture of hand pointing up, renaissance paintings where gestures have hidden meanings to recognizable movie clips include Vertigo, Kiss Me Deadly, Ivan the Terrible, Dr. Mabuse, Johnny Guitar, many from his own filmography and countless others I don't recognize. Train shots from various films invariably ends up in Auswitz footage. With Godard saying, "I have the courage to imagine. I take the train of history and I think of people who take the train for a job and who do not have courage to imagine." With images of 35mm film going through a projector, its thick and hammy celluloid strip jittering through the loop like a convulsing snake or slap of meat going through a tenderizer, Godard puts emphasis on the physicality of communication, the visual language, rather than spoken one. The second half of the film settles into West's notion of Middle East as it was chastised by Edward Said in Orientalism. With barrage of film clips from old Egyptian films and other Middle Eastern nations, Godard examines An Ambition in the Desert, a book by Albert Cossery, an Egyptian born French writer. The book tells a story of a imagined Middle Eastern emirate of Dofa, a non-oil producing state therefore escaped from the Western colonialists' influence. It's deemed as paradise in the Middle East. Series of explosions rocks Dofa and Samantar, the main character of the story, would find out the attacks are planned by machiavellian Prime Minister of the emirate, Sheik Ben Kadem, who welcomes the influence from the west for his own political gain. Godard delves deeply into the subject, juxtaposing old Egyptian movie clips, surveillance ISIS footage and everyday street footage digitally manipulated to abstraction. Godard's latest offerings are hard nut to crack, even more so than usual. Image Book is also the ones that needs to be mulled over after viewing. I didn't know about Cossery's book. I had to look it up. Even as an avid fan of his filmography, most of the stuff he talks about go over my head. But with Image Book, there seems to be a concerted effort for Godard to point us in the direction where he sees a corner of the world that is underexposed, underseen and misrepresented by the western world. He references his 1987 film King Lear a lot in Image Book, especially a shot of Cordelia (Molly Ringwald)'s dead body lying on the rock - as if telling us that Cordelia, the righteous, virtuos one, is dead and there is no good one left in the world. He also leaves in his coughing fit during the middle of voice over. Godard knows his time is almost up. There is a sense of urgency in his gravelly voice. Say what you will about cranky attitude, his stubbornness all these years not to conform, his perceived snobbiness. Yes, the representation and how you tell the story matters. But I'd rather get dictation from Godard and have him point me to the right direction than from anybody else. I sincerely hope Image Book is not his farewell message to the world. Image Book plays as part of NYFF 2018 on 10/10. A complete schedule can be found here Dustin Chang is a freelance writer. His musings and opinions on everything cinema and beyond can be found at www.dustinchang.com Security firm Group-IB has estimated that in H2 2017-H1 2018 cyber attacks caused $49.4 million (2.96 billion rubles) of damage to Russias financial sector Group-IB, an international company that specializes in preventing cyber attacks, has estimated that in H2 2017-H1 2018 cyber attacks caused $49.4 million (2.96 billion rubles) of damage to Russias financial sector. As stated in Group-IBs annual report Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2018 presented at the CyberCrimeCon18 conference, every month, 1-2 banks lose money as a result of cyber attacks, and the damage caused by one successful theft is, on average, $2 million. Financial motivation still prevails among APT-groups, however stolen money is not the most dangerous thing that could happen to a financial organization, says Ilya Sachkov, Group-IB CEO and founder. Since in many countries banks are considered critical infrastructure, they are the targets for state-sponsored hacker groups, specialized in sabotage. One successful attack is capable of destroying one financial organization and even the collapse of a state financial system. Considering this, banks need to rethink their approach to protection against cyber threats. Defense is an outdated strategy. Its time to stop being victims and become hunters. In the new report, Group-IB experts described in detail the cyber threats to the financial sectoractive APT groups, tactics of the attackers, infection vectors, and new hacker tools. Targeted attacks on banks: Active groups and withdrawal methods Group-IB identifies 4 criminal APT groups that pose a real threat to the financial sector: not only are they able to penetrate a banks network and access isolated financial systems, but they can also successfully withdraw money via SWIFT, AWS CBR, card processing and ATMs. These groups are Cobalt, MoneyTaker, Silence, which are led by Russian-speaking hackers, and the North Korean group Lazarus. Only two criminal groups pose a threat to the SWIFT interbank transfer system: Lazarus and Cobalt, the latter of which, at the end of 2017, conducted the first successful attack in the history of Russias financial sector on a bank using SWIFT. According to Group-IB estimates, the number of targeted attacks on banks to conduct thefts via SWIFT in the reporting period increased threefold. In the previous period, three such attacks were recorded: in Hong Kong, Ukraine, and Turkey. In this period, however, there have already been 9 successful attacks in Nepal, Taiwan, Russia, Mexico, India, Bulgaria, and Chile. The good news is that with SWIFT most of the unauthorized transfers can be stopped in time and returned to the banks affected. Attacks on card processing remain one of the main methods of theft and they are actively used by hackers from Cobalt, MoneyTaker, and Silence. In February 2018, members of Silence conducted a successful attack on a bank and stole money via card processing: they managed to withdraw $522,000 (35 million rubles) from cards via the ATMs of a partner bank. Focusing attacks on ATMs and card processing led to a reduction in the average amount of damage from one attack. However, they allow attackers to conduct these attacks more securely for drops who cash out the stolen money. The attackers are in one country, their victim (the bank) in another, and the cashing out is done in a third country. Withdrawing money through the AWS CBR (Automated Work Station Client of the Russian Central Bank) is actively used by MoneyTakerin November 2017, they managed to withdraw $104,000 (7 million rubles), but in summer 2018, they successfully stole $865,000 (58 million rubles) from PIR Bank. MoneyTaker has already conducted 16 attacks in the US, 5 on banks in Russia, and 1 in the UK. In the US, the average amount of damage from one attack is $500,000. In Russia, the average amount of funds withdrawn is $1.1 million (72 million rubles). In December 2017, Group-IB published the first report on this group: MoneyTaker: 1.5 Years of Silent Operations. In the designated period, only Cobalt conducted attacks on payment gateways. In 2017, they used this method to steal money from two companies, however, no attempts were made in 2018. They were helped in one of their attacks by members of the group Anunak, which had not conducted at attack of this kind since 2014. Despite the arrest of the gangs leader in Spain in spring 2018, Cobalt continues to be one of the most active and aggressive groups, steadily attacking financial organizations in Russia and abroad 2-3 times a month. Attacks on bank customers: The decline of Android Trojans and the triumph of phishing In Russia, according to Group-IB experts, there are no longer any groups left that would conduct thefts from individuals using banking Trojans for PCs. This trend aimed at reducing threats from banking Trojans for PCs has been continuing in Russia since 2012. At present, only three criminal groupsBuhtrap2, RTM, and Toplelsteal money from the accounts of legal entities in Russia. Group-IB experts noted a change in the attackers tactics in the second half of 2017: the vector for the distribution of Trojans was no longer the traditional malicious campaigns or hacked popular sites, but the creation of new tailored resources for accountants and companies executives who use remote banking systems (RBSs), payment systems, or cryptocurrency wallets in their work. On the fake resources, the criminals placed code that was designed to download the Buhtrap and RTM Trojans. Unlike in Russia, on the global stage, the cyber threat landscape has undergone far greater changes. Six new banking Trojans for PCs have emerged: IcedID, BackSwap, DanaBot, MnuBot, Osiris and Xbot. Among the new Trojans, we would like to highlight BackSwap, which initially only attacked banks in Poland, but then moved on to banks in Spain. BackSwap is interesting because it simultaneously implemented several new techniques of introducing code to automatically replace payment details. The greatest threat for bank customers still comes from criminal groups that use the Dridex, Trickbot, and Gozi Trojans. Over the last year, Group-IB experts have noted a decline in Russia of the epidemic of infecting smartphones with Android Trojans, after several years of rapid growth. The number of daily thefts committed using Android Trojans in Russia decreased almost threefold, and the average amount of theft decreased from $164 to $104. New Android TrojansEasy, Exobot 2.0, CryEye, Cannabis, fmif, AndyBot, Loki v2, Nero banker, Sagawa and othersthat are put up for sale or hire on hacker forums are primarily intended for use outside of Russia. An exception to this is the malware Banks in Your Hand. The Trojan was disguised as a financial app intended to be used as an aggregator of the mobile banking systems of Russias leading banks. Every day, the Trojan stole between $1,500 and $7,500 from users, however in March 2018, with Group-IBs assistance, the criminals were detained by the police. Another cause of the reduction in the damage among customers can be explained by banks and payment systems introducing technologies for early fraud detection that use behavioral analysis algorithms, allowing to detect attacks, that combine social engineering scams phishing, botnets, illegal money withdrawal networks and fraud across multiple channels and other types of banking fraud on all customer devices and platforms There has been a significant rise in the number of crimes committed using web phishing and fake websites of banks, payment systems, telecoms operators, online stores and famous brands. Using web phishing, criminals have managed to steal $3.7 million (251 million rubles), which is 6% more than in the previous period. On average, approximately $15 are stolen in each phishing attack. According to Group-IB estimates, the number of groups that create phishing websites imitating Russian brands has increased from 15 to 26. As for global trends, as expected, the greatest amount of websites for financial phishing are registered in the USA. They account for 80% of all financial phishing sites. France is in second place, followed by Germany. Group-IBs CEO, Ilya Sachkov, notes that to defeat cyber crime, we need to synchronize the law at state level, hit the economic base and funding channels of criminals, and introduce a moratorium on the development and sale of digital weapons that may end up in criminal hands. Cyber security must be a priority paradigm for people, business, and the state. It is thought that countering cyber threats is a typical competition of armor and equipment. This is why the protection paradigm itself has now changed: the main idea is to be a few steps ahead of the cyber criminals and stop crimes from happening in the first place. About the author Group-IB Group-IB is one the worlds leading providers of solutions aimed at detection and prevention of cyber attacks, fraud exposure and protection of intellectual property on the Internet. GIB Threat Intelligence cyber threats data collection system has been named one of the best in class by Gartner, Forrester, and IDC. Group-IBs technological leadership is built on companys fifteen years of hands-on experience in cybercrime investigations all over the world and 55 000 hours of cyber security incident response accumulated in the largest forensic laboratory in Eastern Europe and a round-the-clock centre providing a rapid response to cyber incidentsCERT-GIB. Group-IB is a partner of INTERPOL, Europol, and a cybersecurity solutions provider, recommended by SWIFT and OSCE. Pierluigi Paganini ( Security Affairs financial sector, cybercrime) Share this... Linkedin Share this: Twitter Print LinkedIn Facebook More Tumblr Pocket Share On In the prevailing economic conditions, access to financial credit by small SMEs has become almost impossible. The recent global recession left many countries in a stuttering economic condition. Singapore has not been an exception, and the recent economic flop in China only made things worse. With these economic outcomes, banks get more stringent while offering loans. Getting SME Business Loan in Singapore is not Easy: What Will Qualify You. Source: Pixabay This phenomenon poses significant disadvantages to small and medium business owners. These businesses are going under as they cant meet their financial obligations. This situation affects the country at large as the SMEs contribute largely to the countrys economic growth. Nevertheless, small businesses still need to access credit. Getting a financial institution to stand in the gap can be the only savior. Though many financial institutions purport to be supportive to the SMEs, they still put stringent loan qualification requirements. These requirements render many businesses not eligible for financing. Statistics by Linkflow capital, a business loan consultancy firm, indicated that 81% of Singapore SMEs dont qualify for financing. Here are the parameters the finance lenders use to determine creditworthiness. Age of the company: They require a business to have an operational history of two years. Minimum account balance: There should be a minimum average daily balance of S$10,000 maintained in the account. Minimum annual revenue: The lenders require a business to have minimum annual revenue of S$ 300,000. Many SMEs are not able to fulfill these requirements thus incapable of accessing finances. However, the Singapore government has moved swiftly to salvage the situation by introducing the SME Working Capital Loan Program among others. What is SME Working Capital Loan Program? This is an unsecured working capital loan of up to S$ 300,000. The government launched it in mid-2016 and will run up to may 2019. It was primarily introduced to help businesses access larger working capital and improve cash flow needs. This facility provides for a maximum repayment period of five years. These are the qualifications for the facility. Story continues Registered and operating in Singapore Local shareholding of at least 30% A total annual group sales of S$100m or a group employment size of up to 200 employees. Thus, annual revenue is computed on a group basis. In case of a default, the Enterprise Singapore shares the risk with the participating financial institutions. P2P Crowdfunding The commonly known P2P crowdfunding is Kapitalboost. This facility is beneficial to SMEs as it caters for small and early-stage companies. These companies can borrow up to S$150,000 to pay within a short period. It is purely an asset purchasing platform. Borrowers enjoy a better approval rate and less paperwork when compared to other traditional lending banks. The Kapitalboost charges no fee for early repayment. They charge an industry standard administration fee of 3-4%. The borrower receives cash in 30 days, and for repayment, the institution provides a fixed monthly repayment schedule. It is an opportunity useful to SMEs with purchase orders. The facility allows a maximum purchase order financing of S$ 150,000. Eligibility criteria include: Annual revenue of S$100,000 Operating history of at least one year Positive free cash flow in the previous year. For purchase order financing, the applicant must have purchase orders from customers. The application process only requires the company information and the bank statements for the last 12 months. You may wonder why Kapitalboost charges no interest. Towards the end of the financing period, the SME repays the facility and also some profit earned from the sale of the asset. The profit is paid to the financier according to the agreed-upon profit sharing ratio. The SME Talent Program Are you an SME who is resourceful and looking to attract young local talents from Singapore? Then, this is your finance opportunity. The SME talent program offers not more than 70% funding. This support is to assist in your monthly internship costs when you provide internship to students. They can be students from universities, polytechnics and the institute of technical education (ITE). The programme requires you to have mentoring opportunities with supervisors. Also, you should have well-structured learning objectives which are well-aligned with the guidelines of SkillsFuture Enhanced Internship. The Benefit You can involve interns at an early stage and incorporate them in your hiring strategies. You can then absorb them in job opportunities after they graduate. Taking in these interns can help save a lot of hiring and recruitment cost. The internship program also helps to save a lot of cost on salaries. Employees salaries eat up about 60% of gross revenue on average. Thus this funding can stand for a significant proportion of your operating costs and help your business thrive. Funding Eligibility At least 30% local shareholding Group annual turnover of up to S$100 million, Or group workforce of up to 200 workers Provide internship opportunities with clear job descriptions and offer a clear career progression path Have a sound human resource procedure Willingness to participate in Enterprise Singapores Human Resource Maturity Diagnostics (HRMD) This program supports SMEs fully in funding application and also in the internship part of it. Get more information here. Capability Development Grant Capability development grant (CDG) helps SMEs to scale up business capabilities to achieve sustainable growth. It can give aid in business projects such as product development, workforce development, enhancing business processes and standards adoption. The grant settles up to 70% of qualifying project costs. You qualify for this grant if you meet the following criteria: You are registered and operating in Singapore You have a minimum of 30% shareholding Group annual revenue of S$100 million or less, or group workforce of up to 200 employees Applications are subject to approval by Enterprise Singapore. CDG will be replaced by Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) together with Global Company Partnership (GCP). The launch of EDG will happen on 25th October 2018. SME Go Digital Programme The SME Go Digital Programme (SGDP) aims to help SMEs build strong technology capabilities as well as embrace digital technology. In a nutshell, the SGDP seeks to scale digital usability, improve productivity and increase sales for SMEs. Eligibility Criteria To qualify for SGDP, you must fulfill the following: Your business is registered and incorporated in Singapore Possess a minimum of 30% local shareholding Have a group annual revenue of not more than S$100 million Have a group workforce of not more than 200 workers Whatever emergency you have as an SME, your help is within reach. Whether you need money to expand your store or increase your stock, you are sorted out. All you need is to peruse over, the above financing opportunities and determine which suits you best. See other interesting articles here: What You should Know Before Taking a Home Insurance Cover in Singapore How to Change the Image of Investment Bank: Goldeman Sachs Loan Business Promising Chinese Whiskey Market as Suntory Seizes Opportunity, Sets up Shop in Tmall (Alibaba) (By Racheal Muriithi) Related Articles - SME owners, are you aware of these 3 key areas of risk management? - SME owners, are you planning your finances? - More help for SMEs in Singapore? Poh Ying Min (left), owner of incubation stall The Green Bowl, speaking with Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Amy Khor during her visit of Bukit Merah Food Central on 10 October, 2018. (PHOTO: Wong Casandra/Yahoo News Singapore) A programme that supports aspiring hawkers by offering stall rentals at significantly lower rates has seen very positive response with over 40 applicants since its introduction in February. Encouraged by the demand, the National Environment Agency (NEA) will add two more stalls to the Incubation Stall Programme, bringing the total to 15, said Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor on Wednesday (10 October). Khor was giving an update on the programme during a visit to Bukit Merah Central Food Centre and Ghim Moh Road Market & Food Centre where three of the stalls are located. A total of 12 aspiring hawkers have taken part in the programme thus far, which allows them to rent a stall at half the market rent over a six-month period. The stalls, 10 of which are now occupied, also come prefitted with basic equipment, such as shelves, worktops, freezer-chillers, and sinks. The two new stalls will be located at Chinatown Complex Food Centre (Blk 355 Smith Street), bringing the total number of stalls under the programme at the location to five. (TABLE: NEA) The criteria for applicants to be eligible for the programme includes having no prior experience in managing or operating a food stall or shop, attending an introductory course to hawker business at the Institute of Technical Education or other equivalent courses, as well as passing a food tasting session. Khor noted that the programme has been particularly popular among young Singaporeans looking to switch careers. The average age of applicants is 34, with the youngest at 27 years old. Because this programme is still quite new, we will continue to monitor the take-up rate as well as get feedback from the earlier batches of incubation store holders, before we decide whether we should add more, she added. While Khor also mentioned that the authorities are looking at making a decision about long-term plans for the programme, she did not elaborate on them. She noted that as the programme is still in its infancy. Story continues Of the first three applicants who joined the programme when it started, one who is now in the midst of looking for a permanent store has been granted an extension till April next year. The other two have stopped working as hawkers. Poh Ying Min, 29, one of the two incubation stall holders at Bukit Merah Central, said that she was looking around for a stall for over a year but had been deterred by high rental prices. The programme attracted the former M1 senior marketing executive as it allowed her to rent a stall monthly at $600 (before GST) or half of the $1,200 market rate over a six-month period. In July, she set up salad stall The Green Bowl with the help of the programme. Its definitely tough but there is the sense of satisfaction, said Poh, who now works from 7am to 5pm during weekdays and comes into the stall on weekends to prepare for the next business day. Poh is, however, keeping her options open after the end of the scheme. The job is doable, but whether am I going to continue will be determined by a lot of factors, said Poh, who now earns lesser than what she used to at her former job where she drew a monthly salary of over $3,000. Hoe Cherh Inn in front of his incubation stall Yings Hainanese Chicken Rice at Ghim Moh Road Market & Food Centre on 10 October, 2018. (PHOTO: Wong Casandra/Yahoo News Singapore) At least five other companies and organisations are also running similar programmes in new hawker centres, including Timbre+Hawkers, OTMH, NTUC Foodfare Cooperative, Fei Siong Social Enterprise, and Hawker Management. Hoe Cherh Inn, 40, who runs the only incubation stall at Ghim Moh Road Market & Food Centre since July, also shared a similar sentiment. The former Singapore Post delivery man decided to make a career switch to selling Hainanese chicken rice to give his family a better life. As a hawker, Hoe works from 6am to 7pm and has only made enough to cover his costs for the past three months. Despite the challenges, Hoe said he is happy with being the boss of his own stall. He pays a monthly rental of $700 (before GST) or half of the $1,400 market rate under the programme. The business owner, however, remains practical. Business is competitive as this market already has four chicken rice stalls, said Hoe. I would want to continue the trade, but this will depend on circumstances and how good the business is. I still have a family to feed. Related Singapore stories: NDR 2018: Singapore to nominate hawker culture for UNESCO listing Singapore Supreme Court building (Yahoo News Singapore file photo) A Singaporean man who was arrested while trying to buy heroin to sell it to others has been sentenced to death. Han Fang Guan, who is 58, received the mandatory death penalty last Friday (5 October) for attempting to possess 18.62g of pure heroin for the purpose of trafficking. His accomplice, Malaysian Khor Chong Seng, whom he was trying to buy the drug from, was sentenced on the same day to life imprisonment and the mandatory minimum of 15 strokes of the cane. Khor, who is 45, had brought into Singapore 1.37kg of drugs containing 57.05g of pure heroin from Malaysia. He had met the two requirements giving the court the discretion not to impose the death sentence his role was confined to that of a courier, and he had given significant assistance to the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB). The High Court earlier heard that Khor was stopped at Woodlands Checkpoint on his Malaysian-registered motorcycle at about 12.10am on 2 March 2016. CNB officers found seven bundles of drugs within the inner lining of his two motorcycle helmets and arrested him. Khor told the officers he was supposed to deliver the drugs to a few recipients, upon instructions from his boss, whom he knew as Lao Ban. While in CNB custody, at about 2.05am, Khor got a text message from Lao Ban with Hans contact number. Lao Ban then called Khor and told him to deliver one bundle of drugs to Han for $3,600. Not knowing that Khor was in custody, Han later called Khor and arranged to meet him at the void deck of a HDB block in Lorong 7, Toa Payoh. CNB officers arrested Han at about 4.35am in the vicinity. Khor told CNB officers that he got to know Lao Ban through a friend, who knew he was in financial difficulty and suggested that he deliver drugs to recipients in Singapore. Khor was repeatedly assured by his friend that the amount would not cause (him) to face the death penalty. Khor made his first delivery for Lao Ban on 26 February 2016. He made two more successful drug runs, but was caught on his fourth delivery. Story continues Khors modus operandi would be to collect drugs from Lao Ban at a condominium in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The drugs would be packed in motorcycle helmets. Khor said he neither saw nor was told what type of drugs or how much drugs were packed. After clearing customs, Khor would call Lao Ban, who would then text him instructions on who to deliver the drugs to and how much payment to collect. Khor would then return to Malaysia and hand the money to Lao Ban at the condominium. After he was arrested on 2 March 2016, CNB officers told Khor to cooperate with them and asked him to call Lao Ban and explain his delay in calling to ask for instructions. Khor was then instructed by Lao Ban to deliver one bundle of drugs to Han, two drug bundles to another person and the remaining bundles to a third recipient. CNB officers also arrested the other two recipients. After arresting Han, CNB officers found $3,600 in cash bundled with a rubber band in his pocket. Han told them he woke up at about 3am and decided to go to the market to gamble at the food centre at Toa Payoh Lorong 8. But while he was walking to the market at around 4am or 5am, an unknown person called him to ask him to meet at the ground floor of his flat. Han also told CNB officers that he had contacted a drug supplier from Malaysia to order drugs like methamphetamine, or Ice, ketamine and Erimin, both for his own use and for sale. Han said he ordered 500 tablets of Erimin and 50g of Ice in late February 2016, and placed an order for 100g of ketamine and 25g of Ice in March 2016, before his arrest. But Han denied ordering any heroin. Han, who turns 59 on Sunday (14 October), is appealing against his conviction and sentence. DOHA (Reuters) - An apartment building collapsed in Manama on Tuesday leaving at least 20 people injured, Bahrain's interior ministry said. The collapse happened in the Salmaniya neighbourhood of Manama and those injured were taken to hospital, said the statement on the ministry's Twitter account. (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) A Bangladesh court on Wednesday sentenced 19 people to death over a 2004 grenade attack on the current prime minister, although a top opposition leader escaped with a life sentence. The attack in Dhaka on a rally by Sheikh Hasina, at the time in the opposition and now prime minister, left her injured and killed 20 people. Tarique Rahman, son of then-premier and Hasina's ally-turned-archrival Khaleda Zia, was among 49 people on trial, with Rahman charged with criminal conspiracy and multiple counts of murder. Rahman, 50, was tried in absentia after he fled the country for London in 2008. He now leads the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from exile after Zia was jailed in February for five years for corruption. "We thank God for the verdict," prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain told reporters amid tight security. "We hoped that Tarique Rahman would get the death sentence," he said, adding the court observed that Rahman played a key role in the attack. Hossain said two former ministers including a powerful ex-home minister and two former heads of the country's powerful intelligence agencies were among others handed the death sentence. A total of 15 Islamist extremists from the banned Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI), whose leader was executed in April last year, were also sentenced to death for planning and carrying out the attack. Prosecutors said former BNP minister Abdus Salam Pintu colluded with HuJI and handed over grenades for the attack. Hasina was addressing the rally when the grenades exploded and suffered severe injuries in one ear. Among the dead was the wife of a former president. Four years later, Hasina stormed back to power after leading a secular coalition to a landslide victory in elections in December 2008. Three Islamist extremists were also charged over the attack and later executed in a separate trial. - Death row - Death sentences are common in Bangladesh, with hundreds of people on death row. All executions are by hanging, a legacy of the British colonial era. At least nine top Islamist extremists, five leaders of the country's largest Islamist party and a senior opposition leader have been hanged since 2007. Home Minister Asaduzzman Khan said he was satisfied with the verdict, saying they got justice. Rahman's lawyer Sanaullah Mia said the charges against his client were politically motivated. He questioned the timing of the verdict, saying it was aimed at keeping Rahman out of elections expected for December. "There was no evidence or witness against him. No witness could say that conspiracy was hatched at Hawa Bhaban," he told AFP, referring to a former BNP office used by Rahman. BNP spokesman Fakhrul Islam Alamgir rejected the verdict, saying it was "a naked display of political vengeance". Police spokesman Sohel Rana said security was tightened in courts and across the South Asian nation to avert any violence following the verdict. "Police are fully prepared to prevent any violence centring on the verdict," he told AFP earlier. Zia was transferred to hospital last weekend from the 19th-century Dhaka Central Jail, where she is the only prisoner. She has been on trial in a special room of the prison on additional graft charges that her supporters say are politically motivated. The 73-year-old was already suffering from health issues including arthritis, diabetes and knee replacements when she was sentenced in February. Her party boycotted the 2014 election in which Hasina returned to power but is expected to contest the election due in December. Reuters India's Supreme Court told authorities on Monday to shut offices in the capital and nearby cities, allowing millions to work from home as officials seek ways to reduce hazardous air pollution that led to the closure of schools. Its action came after city authorities in New Delhi, which has been battling a toxic haze since early November, took emergency measures on Saturday, ordering the closure of schools and building work for four days. The court also sought urgent steps to rein in crop waste fires in the neighbouring states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, set by hundreds of thousands of farmers looking to clear fields for a new sowing season. Chinas far-western Xinjiang region has revised its legislation to allow local governments to educate and transform people influenced by extremism at vocational training centres a term used by the government to describe a network of internment facilities known as re-education camps. The change to the law, which took effect on Tuesday, comes amid an international outcry about the secretive camps in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. But observers said writing the facilities into law did not address global criticism of Chinas systematic detention and enforced political education of up to 1 million ethnic Uygurs and other Muslims in the area. Chinese officials had earlier denied the existence of such arbitrary detention and enforced political re-education bases, but said some citizens had been sent to vocational centres for minor criminal misdemeanours. The revision, issued by the regional legislature, recognises the use of such centres as part of the governments efforts to eliminate religious extremism, which in recent years have also included a massive security crackdown in Xinjinag and sweeping restrictions on Islamic practices. Governments at the county level and above can set up education and transformation organisations and supervising departments such as vocational training centres, to educate and transform people who have been influenced by extremism, says a new clause in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Regulation on Anti-Extremism. Apart from teaching vocational skills, the centres are required to provide education on spoken and written Chinese, and aspects of the law and other regulations. They must also organise ideological education to eliminate extremism, carry out psychological treatment and behaviour correction, to help trainees to transform their thoughts and return to society and their families. Dolkun Isa, executive chairman of the Munich-based World Uygur Congress, said Chinese authorities had been implementing the measures detailed in the revision without any legal justification for over a year. Story continues Rolling out the law is only a formality trying to legalise the crackdown against Muslims in Xinjiang, he said. The old version of the law was passed in March 2017. It bans a wide range of acts deemed manifestations of extremism, including wearing veils or having abnormal beards, refusing to watch television or listen to radio, and preventing children from receiving national education. The inclusion of the camps in local legislation comes as Beijing is under growing pressure from the United States and the European Union for its ruthless crackdown in Xinjiang, after a United Nations panel confronted Chinese officials in August over reports of extralegal mass detentions of Muslim minorities. James Leibold, an expert in Chinas ethnic policies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, said the global criticism of the use of the detention centres had led to the Communist Party scrambling to justify them legally and politically. [The] original 2017 deradicalisation regulation was vague and imprecise on its provision for education and transformation, he said. Thus this represents a retrospective fix and attempt to justify legally the mass detention of Uygurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and elsewhere, for the purpose of political and cultural remoulding without due process. This is just another case of [Beijing] attempting to mask the violation of human rights behind the veneer of the rule of law Michael Caster, human rights advocate That view is echoed by Li Lifan, a central Asian expert at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. I think it targets foreign criticism of how Xinjiang re-educates extremists and their family members, he said, adding that the regulation provided legal support for the authorities efforts to maintain social stability and national security. However, rights advocates said writing the internment camps into law did not give it legitimacy. International human rights law is clear, no matter how much China tries to legalise the impermissible, said Michael Caster, a human rights advocate with Safeguard Defenders who studies Chinas legal system. This is just another case of [Beijing] attempting to mask the violation of human rights behind the veneer of the rule of law. What is taking place in Xinjiang is at least a gross violation of human rights if not a crime against humanity. Beijing blames Islamic extremists and separatists for the unrest between Uygurs and the ethnic Han majority that has led to the deaths of hundreds of people over the past decade. Human rights groups say the conflict is caused by the governments repression of religious freedoms and unfair ethnic policies. Kristin Shi-Kupfer, director of research on public policy and society at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin, said that China had reasons to take legal and rational measures to combat extremist attacks but that the current measures clearly blur the boundary between the realm of religion, culture and crime. The ongoing, systematic repression of mostly Uygurs in Xinjiang is likely to create more discrimination and alienation between ethnic groups in Xinjiang, especially Han and Uygurs, and potentially radicalise those who are not already silenced out of fear and desperation, she said. This article China changes law to recognise 're-education camps' in Xinjiang first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. China and Pakistan have agreed a deal to jointly manufacture an advanced Chinese drone, according to reports from the South Asian country, in a sign of their growing security ties. A total of 48 Wing Loong II unmanned aerial vehicles will be built by Chengdu Aircraft Corp (CAC), a unit of Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Karma, according to a social media post on Saturday by the Pakistan Air Forces Sherdils aerobatic team. No other details of the deal were revealed, but if confirmed, it would be Chinas biggest ever drone sale to another country. Wing Loong II first went on display at the China Airshow in November 2016 in the southern city of Zhuhai, and made its maiden flight the following February. Developed by AVIC, the drone is designed for both reconnaissance and strike missions, and has a payload of up to 480kg (1,060lbs), including YJ-9E anti-ship missiles. Powered by turboprops it can fly for up to 20 hours at speeds of 150-370km/h and has a maximum altitude of 9,000 metres (29,500 feet). Similar in appearance to the US-developed MQ-9 Reaper, the Wing Loong II is 11 metres long with a wingspan of 20.5 metres. China unveils answer to US Reaper drone - how does it compare? The deal between Beijing and Islamabad comes after commercial satellite imagery captured in November showed the Pakistani military may already be operating a Wing Loong I drone. The pictures appeared to show one of the drones in front of a hangar in Pakistans Punjab province. China has also sold the Wing Loong I to Indonesia, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan has also produced its own drone, the Burraq, which made its first flight in 2015. It is believed to have been based on Chinas multi-purpose medium-range CH-3 drone system. The CAC and the PAC have also jointly developed a lightweight multi-role fighter jet, known as the JF-17 Thunder in Pakistan and the FC-1 in China. The aircraft has been in mass production in Pakistan and sold to Myanmar and Nigeria. Story continues A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank on arms control and disarmament, said in March that China had become the biggest supplier of arms to Pakistan. It accounted for 70 per cent of Pakistans arms purchases in the 2013-17 period, up from 45 in the previous five years, although sales by volume changed little, the report said. This article China, Pakistan sign deal to build 48 strike-capable Wing Loong II drones first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. When six-year-old Tian Jiajia gets up in the morning, the first thing she does is massage her partially paralysed fathers numb limbs. Then, using a home-made crane, she deftly hoists her father from his bed and transfers him to a nearby wheelchair. Moving with confidence and authority, the little girl helps her disabled dad brush his teeth and wash his face. She completes the routine by giving him breakfast, before heading off to school. Despite the intimacy of these scenes, they have hardly remained part of a struggling familys private domain. All of Jiajias actions have been recorded in short videos and published on the Chinese live-streaming site Kuaishou. There, visitors can watch Jiajia tend to her fathers needs and make donations in support of his ongoing care. Uploading more than 600 videos to the site over the past year and a half has brought Jiajias family an income of about 4,000 yuan (US$580) a month. The little girls father, 39-year-old Tian Haicheng, is from the village of Baihe, in the northwestern Ningxia Hui autonomous region. He was paralysed in a car accident in 2016. A loader operator at a construction site, he was going to see his contractor to collect his wages when the car he was travelling in flipped over and landed in a ditch. When Tian woke up in a hospital bed, doctors said he might not be able to ever stand up again. The accident had left him able to move only his neck and head, with partial movement in his arms. But a few months later, Tians wife told him she needed to go back to her hometown in nearby Haiyuan for a few days. She left with their son, who is now 10, and never returned. Tians parents are in their 60s. His father spends most of his time farming, while his mother has cataracts and cannot take on the role of primary carer, Tian said. Despondent and frustrated, Tian once attempted to kill himself by drinking pesticide. But his daughter intervened at the critical moment and convinced him to abandon the suicide bid. Story continues Its because of my daughter that Im still alive, he said. To his surprise, his daughter started copying how her grandparents took care of her father. She proved such a quick study that she was just four years old when she started feeding him. At an age when most children are satisfied simply by playing with toys, she was trying to help her incapacitated father roll over in bed. Although Tian receives a monthly government subsidy of about 800 yuan, his medicine alone costs a few thousand yuan per month. His money problems were becoming acute last year when a friend told Tian about using video live-streaming programmes as a way to make ends meet. He decided to give it a shot, and by explaining to her how to do it Jiajia soon learned how to use a phone to post video records of their daily routine on Kuaishou, a photo-sharing app based in China. It is hard not to be impressed by the age-defying skills the child displays in the videos. In one, standing on a stool to reach over her father, Jiajia sets a bowl of noodles in front of him. She then straps a spoon to his hand with a rubber band to make it easier for him to grasp the utensil, and holds the bowl while he eats. Her video uploads have brought Jiajia a following of 451,000 fans many of whom are not shy about airing their thoughts in a comments section on the site. What a thoughtful and obedient girl! one said. Many who have expressed sympathy for the family have also become donors. Tian said some of the sites users have asked whether he was trying to make money by selling misery. He said it was never his intention to get rich and famous on the internet; in fact, he said, he only wanted a platform that would allow him to interact with people. To be honest, right now Im living day by day, he said. Im doing much better than a year ago, thanks to my parents and my daughter. Im doing my best to only look forward. This article Chinese girl, 6, helps make ends meet with videos of her taking care of paralysed dad first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. US President Donald Trump has said that China is not ready for a trade deal with the US and reiterated he was prepared to levy further tariffs against Beijing. China wants to make a deal, and I say theyre not ready yet, Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. I just say theyre not ready yet. And weve cancelled a couple of meetings because I say theyre not ready to make a deal. We cant have a one-way street. Its got to be a two-way street. Its been a one-way street for 25 years. Weve got to make it a two-way street. Weve got to benefit also, OK? said the president during his farewell meeting with Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN who announced her resignation yesterday. When asked if the United States was ready to impose more tariffs, Trump said: Sure, absolutely. The unprecedented trade war between China and the US shows no obvious signs of ending, triggering fears that it will drag down global economic growth this year and in 2019. The comments by Trump came days after the Chinese ambassador to the US said his country was ready to make a deal to end the dispute. We are ready to make some compromise, Cui Tiankai said in an interview with the Washington-based National Public Radio last Wednesday. The US position keeps changing all the time, so we dont know exactly what the US would want as priorities. Trade war escalation will hit China harder than the US, IMF says Cui said Beijing was willing to take steps to reduce the US trade deficit with China as well as to commit to reforming the Chinese economy, in which unfair trade practices including discriminatory subsidies for domestic industries have been among the major complaints by Trump. But Cui said the US needed to clarify what it wanted. We had some tentative agreement between the two working teams, then just overnight the tentative agreement was rejected and the demand from the US changed, Cui said. So this is very confusing. Trade war: China risks disengagement with US unless it changes Story continues Beijing accused Washington of holding a knife to our neck to force trade concessions after the Trump administration announced tariffs in late September on an additional US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods, including televisions and toys. That meant about half of the products that Americans bought from China had an extra 10 per cent duty added. In response, Beijing announced it would impose tariffs of 5 to 10 per cent on an additional US$60 billion of US goods, including meat and liquefied natural gas, and cancelled a planned delegation visit to Washington. Trump had said that he was ready to impose tariffs on a further US$267 billion worth of imports if China takes retaliatory action against our farmers or other industries. This article Donald Trump: China is not ready to make a deal to end trade war first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. On a rainy summer day, 52-year-old Wang Zhaogang paused to catch his breath after every four or five steps. He was wrapped up against the elements, since even a common cold could be enough to kill him, and his laboured breath emitted a deep wheezing sound. So frail that his heartbeat was visible beneath skin stretched across his rib cage, Wang, from Hunan province in central China, had lost 15kg (33lbs) over the previous year and weighed only 40kg. Still, he has travelled alone five times this year from his hometown in Sangzhi one of the 10 poorest counties in China to the southern city of Shenzhen to campaign for the citys government to recognise and help workers like him. Filled with resentment, he glared up at the citys skyscrapers, which he had helped build from 2004 onwards at the cost of his health. We are treated like ants not humans, said Wang, gasping for air. I sold my life to Shenzhen. If I had known the danger of pneumatic drilling, I would never have done the work, no matter how poor I am. Wang learned his days were numbered in May last year, when he found he has terminal stage-three silicosis lung disease linked to his years of exposure to silica dust on the job. Rather than quietly accept his fate, he has been petitioning the Shenzhen government for compensation. Its sad to say that many [poorer] local governments are just waiting for them to die Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman for China Labour Bulletin He is among more than 600 workers from Hunan alone seeking money for medical care and to support their families a reflection of the forgotten human cost of turning Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, from a sleepy fishing village into a city with a gross domestic product of US$338 billion in 2017. While Shenzhen celebrates 40 years since Chinas national opening-up policy that gave rise to its success, the plight of workers who built its subway lines and landmarks underscores that labour protection remains a problem a decade after China introduced a law in 2008 requiring employers to issue contracts and thus proof of employment to their staff. Story continues Shenzhens green quest leaves Hong Kong miles behind Gu Fuxiang, a 51-year-old fellow ex-worker from Sangzhi with stage-two silicosis, said that Shenzhen could not have achieved success without the contribution of a group of silicosis patients like us. I paid with my life for contributing to Shenzhens achievement, Gu said. Gus older brother died from silicosis in 2016 at 51, and a younger brother with suspected stage-one silicosis is awaiting an official diagnosis. I need this money badly, Gu said. I need it to support my parents, for my childrens education and to pay off debts. I dont have much time left. I need to make arrangements for my funeral. Silicosis is an incurable form of pneumoconiosis, a lung disease caused by prolonged inhalation of airborne silica dust. Pneumatic drill operators drill holes deep into the hard granite beneath Shenzhen to prepare sites for building foundations. The Sangzhi workers said that when they were hired, such work earned a daily rate of 200 to 300 yuan (US$29 to US$44), three times higher than other types of construction work at that time. Listen: inside China - the disease killing the men who built Shenzhen We would dig down to about 1.2 to 1.6 metres, find the bedrock then drill a hole to be filled with explosives [to make holes for support piles], said Gu, adding that 400 to 500 holes were required on each construction site. Returning migrants: the Chinese economys next great hope? Migrant workers, who number about 287 million across China, worked most of the drilling jobs. Since the 1990s, labourers from Hunan from Leiyang, Miluo, Zhangjiajie and Sangzhi have flocked to cities including Shenzhen to pick up drilling work for quick cash, but in the 2000s many began falling ill and dying. Chinas most widespread occupational illness, pneumoconiosis, is commonly found among coal miners but is suffered in varying stages by an estimated 6 million-plus Chinese migrant workers, according to Love Save Pneumoconiosis, a Beijing-based charity dedicated to helping them. Chinas investment in human capital jumps as US falls behind Data from the Chinese public health ministry shows that pneumoconiosis accounted for 22,701 of the 26,756 new occupational illness cases it recorded in 2017. Silicosis alone killed 46,000 people around the world in 2013, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington. A lot of them got ill with pneumoconiosis simply because they had been breathing in dust all day every day with no protection, said Geoffrey Crothall, a spokesman for Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, which promotes and defends workers rights in China. Workers petitions have resulted only in small charitable handouts, partly because most workers lacked documents to prove they were employed at the sites where they worked before falling ill. More than 200 workers made their sixth visit to Shenzhen to press their case to the city government in September, and planned another trip this month after officials failed to honour past promises to help their cause. Minutes from their meetings, provided by workers, indicate that the authorities had pledged to accelerate processing compensation claims from 227 workers who were able to produce confirmed employment records. The notes stated that workers were also promised mobile clinics that would be sent to Hunan to examine other workers, that Shenzhen city leaders had agreed to visit ailing workers, and that those with no proof of employment at the sites had been offered discretionary handouts from the city government. Gu said that more cases were being identified after Hunan health authorities launched a province-wide migrant worker health screening campaign last year. The rise may also relate to the latency period of silicosis, which can take years to produce symptoms. The number of petitioning workers from Hunan has increased to more than 600 since 2009, and additional cases have been raised by the families of deceased workers. Theres hope now: how a poor rural boy was saved from going blind Professor Pun Ngai, a China labour studies expert at the University of Hong Kong, said that some workers had not joined those petitioning in 2009 because they did not realise they were sick. But in the past two years, new cases just exploded, Pun said. Crothall, who has been tracking the cause of the workers since 2009, said that although there were legal measures workers could take, they were time-consuming and required them first to establish that there was an employment relationship. A lot of these guys simply do not have any documentary evidence, he said. Some have work cards dating back to the 1990s, but with occupational-hazard illness you are supposed to file a claim within a year after contracting the disease. So the legal procedures that are available are really not much use to them The only option is to [petition] the very rich and developed city of Shenzhen and hope the government will do the right thing. I was lucky, they werent: why a Wall Street banker quit to help Aids orphans The number of cases is only likely to increase, according to Wang Yuehua, 50, who is another stage-three silicosis patient leading the petition efforts. Its now 2018, and the dangerous jobs still exist, Wang said. There is no improvement. Many of the workers continue to suffer from pneumoconiosis. [The government] keeps putting us off. We can do nothing. But we are determined. If the petition here is not working, we want to go to Guangdong provincial government in Guangzhou. If Guangzhou doesnt work, we may go to Beijing. Pun blamed poor enforcement of the 2008 labour-contract law by all parties for driving ailing workers who lack employment records to the long and winding road of petitioning for an official occupational illness diagnosis. When something so basic as the labour-contract law is neglected, the rights of workers, particularly those in the fields of pneumatic drilling and coal mining, are just not protected at all, Pun said. Research in 2016 by Love Save Pneumoconiosis showed only 9.5 per cent of migrant workers with pneumoconiosis had signed labour contracts with their employers. This means most would struggle to prove they might be eligible to claim compensation for a job-related illness. Sangzhi worker Zhong Jiaquan, a 46-year-old stage-three silicosis patient, said that occupational health clinics in Shenzhen would not even examine workers without employment records, effectively cutting off hopes of moving their cases forward. Time is another grim obstacle. Many men who used to work alongside Wang have died, and those still alive with advanced silicosis are struggling with astronomical hospital bills that are bankrupting their families. Zhong said workers felt discarded, despite their contribution to Shenzhens development. We are sick and dying; the government should at least foot our medical bills, he said, lighting a cigarette. The risks of smoking, he shrugged, were no longer a concern as he faced a terminal disease. They cannot just sit there and watch us die. There is nothing more sad than to watch your brothers die a slow and painful death, leaving behind young wives and children. Soon that will be us. Why a Chinese migrant worker walked 40km home in the snow Crothall agreed that the petitions lodged were taking longer than they should to resolve, given that the Shenzhen government had decided to hear out the workers. It comes down to individual cases, whether they can verify who they say they are, he said. A lot of them will sadly die very soon. Its sad to say that many [poorer] local governments are just waiting for them to die and hope the problem will be resolved that way. This article Dying for Chinas economic miracle: migrant workers ravaged by lung disease, fighting to pay for their funerals first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. A son of Egypt's jailed former president Mohamed Morsi was arrested on Wednesday morning for belonging to a banned group and spreading "fake news", judicial and security sources said. Abdullah Morsi, the youngest son of the deposed Islamist president, was arrested at dawn and is set to face prosecution, the sources said. His father became Egypt's first freely elected leader in 2012, but was overthrown by the military a year later and imprisoned following major protests against his rule. In an interview with the Associated Press news agency published earlier this month, Abdullah complained that his family has only been allowed to visit his father -- who faces the death penalty -- three times in five years. He also said prison authorities had failed to provide the former president with sufficient medical care for diabetes and high blood pressure. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's regime has led a crackdown against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, which it views as a terrorist organisation. Another son of the deposed president, Ossama Morsi, was arrested in 2016 for "incitement to violence" and is in prison. Rights groups frequently accuse Egypt of attempting to silence critics by charging them with belonging to banned groups or disseminating "fake news". Authorities have denied allegations of human rights abuses and say they are protecting the country's security and stability. Since Morsi's ouster, jihadist attacks have killed hundreds of police officers, soldiers and civilians. Security forces have killed hundreds of jihadists since February, according to official sources, as part of a sweeping military campaign in the Sinai Peninsula against hardline militants including members of the Islamic State group. Britain will have to accept limited new administrative controls on trade with Northern Ireland in any negotiated Brexit deal, Europe's chief negotiator warned on Wednesday. Prime Minister Theresa May has insisted that she will not agree to any Brexit that would encroach on British sovereignty, and her Northern Irish allies in parliament have rejected such procedures. "Both the EU and the UK exclude having a physical border on the island of Ireland, therefore what will arrive into Northern Ireland will also be arriving in our single market," Michel Barnier said. The negotiator said the measures would only be a stop-gap while a new trading relationship is agreed with Britain, and would be minimised if London agrees to join a full customs union under EU rules. "We are still open having a customs union with the UK. Such a customs union would eliminate an important part of custom checks," he said. But in the meantime, under the EU vision of a Brexit deal, companies on the British mainland shipping goods to Northern Ireland will fill out "customs declarations online and in advance." "The only visible systematic checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK would involve scanning the bar codes on lorries or containers, which could be done on ferries or in transit ports," he said. Regulatory checks on industrial goods produced within Northern Ireland for export to the EU could be carried out by "market surveillance regulators" at the factory, rather than at the border. Finally, existing health checks on animals arriving in Northern Irish port would remain in place, but would have to be stepped up to cover 100 percent of shipments rather than 10 percent now. May is due in Brussel next week for an EU summit which the bloc's president Donald Tusk has described as a "moment of truth" for talks on an orderly exit of Britain from the club. The British sh leader is under pressure to agree an exit deal before March 29 next year, but the Northern Irish party upon which she depends for her majority reportedly threatened Wednesday to vote down the national budget later this month if she gives away too much. Sources in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has ten MPs, told the BBC and Sky News they were prepared to break their agreement to support the government in budget matters if May breaches their red lines in Brexit talks. Getting a budget approved by the House of Commons is traditionally a test of confidence in a government, without which it could fall. Shortly before the reports emerged, when asked if the government could rely on the DUP, a Downing Street spokesman said: "The confidence and supply agreement that we have with the DUP is a matter of record." A DUP spokesman said: "The government is well aware of our position on this issue. Our position hasn't changed and we don't expect the government will change its position." FILE PHOTO: Cars are seen at Kaiserdamm street, which could be affected by a court hearing on case seeking diesel cars ban in Berlin, Germany, October 8, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Union plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles by 35 percent by 2030 pose a threat to Germany as a car-building nation, national auto industry association VDA said on Wednesday. "It is more than regrettable that the majority of member nations did not find the strength to strike a balance between protecting jobs and protecting the climate," VDA president Bernard Mattes said in a statement. "Job security is lessened and Germany as an industrial location has been weakened," added Mattes, who represents carmakers such as Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler. European Union nations, voicing concern over a U.N. report on global warming, agreed late on Tuesday to seek the 35 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from passenger cars by 2030. Several countries had sought a 40 percent reduction, in line with targets backed by EU lawmakers last week, but softened their position during late night negotiations in a step welcomed by the German government. But Germany's auto industry remains disappointed with the result. "With yesterday's vote we missed a chance to shape CO2 regulation for the time after 2021 in an economical and technologically realistic manner," Mattes said. (Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Keith Weir) "I am always anticipating an attack," says South African soldier Maijeke of how it feels to be in DR Congo's "triangle of death", where he is part of a UN peacekeeping force helping the Congolese army hunt down a militia group that is slaughtering civilians. There has been a recent spike in violence in this volatile eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a shadowy armed group rooted in Ugandan Islamism. Just last week, six civilians were killed during a night attack in the city of Beni by the ADF, which has no known leader and whose ideology and motives remain unclear. AFP photojournalist John Wessels travelled for three days with 30 soldiers from the UN mission MONUSCO and the Congolese army to the troubled North Kivu province, where the ADF has killed hundreds of civilians since 2014. On Friday, after reports of heavy mortar and machine gun fire, the troops headed to the town of Oicha, north of Beni and near the border with Uganda. The town's residents greeted them by throwing stones. "The civilians get frustrated with us and MONUSCO, sometimes we arrive late, we have to fight harder to help the community change its mind about us," one of the Congolese soldiers said on the condition of anonymity. Several homes in Oicha had been looted by ADF members, who melt back into the jungle after raids and attacks. While the troops inspected the looted homes, deafening machine gunfire rang out from the jungle. It seemed to be coming from near the town of Mbau, where 20 civilians were shot dead by the ADF in May. The troops are based outside Oicha, where the blue helmets sleep uneasily -- the ADF killed 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers in December in the deadliest attack on UN forces in 24 years. And the ADF, which is thought to have killed a total of more than 700 civilians over the last four years, regularly attacks Congolese army bases for weapons, ammunition and medical supplies. - 'Heartbreaking' - "This is my fourth deployment in the DRC, my first was in 2006," said UN peacekeeper Maijeke. "This is the most intense deployment for me, I am always anticipating an attack," he added.. "The biggest difference this time is the escalation in the killings of civilians, this is heartbreaking for me, a serious concern." When the ADF killed 20 civilians in Beni in September, the locals condemned the failures of the Congolese army and the UN mission. However MONUSCO maintains its intervention has prevented even greater carnage. In the area known as the "triangle of death" between Beni, Mbau and Kamango, the troops face an enemy that knows every secret of the dense jungle and likely has informants in many communities. On Saturday, the troops headed to the scene of a particularly violent ADF onslaught a few days earlier. Members of the militia were said to have used two women as human shields during a shootout with Congolese troops that lasted four hours. Both women were killed. Everything seemed quiet when the troops arrived, except for the sporadic sound of gunfire. The next day, Sunday, gunshots rang out again -- this time close to their base. The soldiers scrambled to put on their gear, but the jungle quietened down once their attention was turned to it. - What do they want? - Over three days hunting the ADF, some of the mystery surrounding them dissipated. It was clear they are well-equipped with heavy weapons and well organised. Their guerrilla tactics of sudden, brutal assaults are usually to gain strategic positions, or needed supplies. But much remains unknown. How many are they? Who is in charge? Who is arming them? And most of all, what is their goal? Both Uganda and the DRC insist they have a jihadist motive, but many observers say this is too simplistic and there has been no proven link with the global jihadist underground. The ADF started out in 1989 with the aim of overthrowing Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, who was seen as hostile to Muslims. But it went on to absorb other rebel factions into its ranks and started carrying out attacks in 1995. Forced westwards by the Ugandan army, the group relocated most of its activities to DRC, finding a lucrative niche in the vast central African country's lawless, resource-rich east. For Maijeke, the most important thing is ending the violence. "There has to be a dialogue between the FARDC (Congolese army) and the ADF," he says. "The fighting is at the expense of innocent civilians -- mouths must finish this conflict, not bullets." Jailed Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, Russia's most famous prisoner, is among three finalists for this year's prestigious Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament announced Tuesday. Also in the running are a group of 11 charities rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean and Nasser Zefzafi, head of a Moroccan protest movement who has been in jail since May 2017. Sentsov, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, is serving a 20-year term over an alleged arson plot in Crimea. He started a hunger strike on May 14 demanding the release of all Ukrainian prisoners in Russia, and his deteriorating health provoked an outcry from the international community. Sentsov called off the protest after 145 days last Friday to avoid being force-fed. Like Sentsov, Zefzafi is serving a 20-year sentence, along with three others, convicted of "plotting to undermine the security of the state" in Morocco. His Al-Hirak al-Shaabi movement, based in northern Morocco's mainly Berber Rif region, was sparked by the death of a fisherman who was crushed in a rubbish truck, apparently while trying to retrieve swordfish seized by authorities. Hirak is calling for jobs, development and an end to corruption in the North African country. The third nomination was for 11 humanitarian groups that have been carrying out search and rescue operations to save migrant lives across the Mediterranean since 2015. The most prominent among them are Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and SOS Mediterranee. The Sakharov Prize, set up in 1988 and named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is awarded every year to individuals or organizations that "have made an important contribution to the fight for human rights or democracy." The winner of the 50,000 euro ($58,000) prize will be announced on October 25. Last year's award went to the democratic opposition in Venezuela. When it comes to keying in your details for hundreds of dollars for free, most folks would just jump on it without a thought. Its the perfect opportunity for a con, and scammers have apparently been busy trying to get Singaporeans to divulge their personal information through an SG Bonus-related fraud. By this December, 2.8 million Singaporean citizens aged 21 and above this year will receive up to $300 wired to their bank accounts as part of the governments SG Bonus payout monetary fruits of the nations development. Scammers apparently have been capitalizing on this fact by creating phishing sites that look similar to official government web portals, with the intent on getting NRIC or passport numbers out of those who arent careful enough. Check out this page (with a shady URL sg-gov.com) that misspells middle. The Ministry of Finance is aware of the scams going around and have since sounded off to citizens to be mindful of any fake texts, emails or calls. The actual URL to refer to for SG Bonus is included, as well as the proper screenshot samples of official text messages. Singaporeans are also encouraged to log in to the SG Bonus website (the actual one) to see if theyre eligible for the benefit, check how much theyll be getting, or update their banking details. The post Ministry of Finance warns public of fake messages and calls involved in SG Bonus scams appeared first on Coconuts. NATO's largest exercise since the end of the Cold War will see 50,000 troops deploy into the first snows of a Norwegian winter to show Russia that the alliance is ready to repel any attack, officers said Tuesday. Officially, November's Trident Juncture exercise will simulate an attack from a fictional country, but it will bring a huge force into one of Moscow's neighbours just months after Russia's vast Vostok war games. The head of NATO's Allied Joint Force Command, US Navy Admiral James Foggo said that the exercise "must show NATO is capable to defend against any adversary. Not a particular country, anyone." And he noted that Norway has a frontier with Russia and that the huge force, backed by 150 aircraft, 60 ships and some 10.000 vehicles, would demonstrate that they can mobilise quickly to defend an ally. "The core exercise area is 1,000 kilometres from the Russian border," said Norwegian General Rune Jakobsen, who will run the exercise headquarters. "There should not be any reason for the Russians to get scared or see this as anything other than a defensive exercise." Two Russian and two Belarus military observers have been invited to watch the manoeuvres. These will be the biggest such movement of NATO personnel and vehicles since at least the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, although smaller than the Vostok-18 exercise staged by Russia and China last month. The Western allies have stepped up their military posture, with rotating garrisons in eastern Europe and the Baltic States, in the four years since Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. Exercises like Trident Juncture 18 are designed to teach troops how to move a large force quickly in the event of an invasion against a NATO member triggering the allies' "Article 5" mutual defence clause. - German brigade - The first part of this year's exercise will simulate an effort to halt an offensive launched from northern Norway southwards by part of the force playing an adversary, Canadian General Christian Juneau told AFP. Once the "invader" is halted, the second stage will see NATO forces figuring our how to force it back. While the exercise is deigned to show the 29-nation alliance's unity and strength, it may also bring Western forces face-to-face with some of their own shortcomings. US President Donald Trump has criticised many of the allies for underspending on defence and in February a German parliamentary report found that its own military has outdated equipment, often in a state of disrepair. Officers in NATO headquarters share the concerns, but Juneau told AFP that Germany would contribute a 6,000-strong brigade to the exercise and that the bulk of its troops and vehicles are already in Norway. The rest of the build-up is expected to be complete by October 25, with forces from across Europe and North America arriving by sea and by plane on the alliance's northern flank. The British contingent will land in Europe in the Netherlands and make its way to Norway by road through Germany, Denmark and Sweden to test the alliance's ability to coordinate transport on civilian roads. Once in Norway the multinational force will conduct multinational training exercises -- dealing with traffic and the first snows of winter -- and the main invasion exercise Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are hedging their strategic risks in the South China Sea by stepping up military cooperation on multiple fronts as tension between China and the United States grows in the region, political analysts have said. The assessment follows Mondays decision by the Philippines to join a regional military exercise involving China and other Asean countries later this month, and comes days after a Chinese destroyer and an American warship came within metres of colliding in the South China Sea. The drill, from October 22 to 29, would be Manilas first military exercise with Beijing, and will form the second phase of a tabletop maritime exercise China held in August with several Asean nations in Singapore, in which they focused on simulating joint search and rescue operations under the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea. The upcoming naval drill will be held in waters off Zhanjiang city, in southern Chinas Guangdong province, after Chinese and Asean officials agreed not to stage it in areas that are the subject of territorial disputes. The Philippines participation can be seen as a marked change in Manilas stance towards China regarding the South China Sea since Rodrigo Duterte became president. However, Dai Fan, a Southeast Asian affairs expert from Jinan University in Guangzhou, Guangdong, said Asean countries were also exploring ties with Japan and the US to counter Chinas rising influence in the region. Asean [members] are deliberately cooperating with external countries like Japan and the US to offset Chinese sway, especially regarding the South China Sea, and US and Japan have long been encouraging Asean countries to guard their own interests against China, said Dai. Someone will press a trigger: Duterte says Chinas claim to disputed islands airspace is wrong and could be flashpoint for conflict Manila and Washington have stepped up cooperation, agreeing to hold 281 joint drills in 2019, up from 261 this year. That is also a shift from when Duterte first came to office and scaled back aid from US. Story continues Vietnam, another vocal claimant to disputed areas of the South China Sea, has enhanced cooperation with Japan. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited Tokyo on Monday and called on Japan to enhance its role in promoting peace and stability in the South China Sea. Phuc was to attend the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit on Tuesday, joining Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand in reaffirming their commitment to addressing tensions in the South China Sea, where China has been flexing its military muscle, according to a summary of agreements to be made at the meeting. Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the strategic hedging of Asean countries could give the bloc more room for autonomy and leeway when major world powers are at odds. Japan and Vietnam join hands over disputed South China Sea They can play off these external powers against each other, balance these relations, maximise the benefits to be extracted out of this balancing game, yet at the same time try assiduously to stay out of the crosshairs of these powers, said Koh, adding that Japan was still a major investor in Southeast Asia, the US remained a key source of technology and both nations retained a significant role in Southeast Asia. The Philippines filed and won a case against China over its claims in the South China Sea at an arbitration tribunal in The Hague in 2014. China has built several artificial islands in the South China Sea, where it has installed military equipment to consolidate its control over the waters. This article Philippines joining Beijings South China Sea drill shows nations are hedging bets in Sino-US tussle first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Phone scammers cheat Belgiums foreign affairs office out of 1.2 million euros with part of the cash landing in Hong Kong account, writ says The Belgian foreign affairs office has become yet another victim of phone scammers linked to the city, according to a Hong Kong court document. The fraud took place last year, according to a High Court writ made available on Tuesday. An employee of the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Belgium was duped into thinking a contractor that had been carrying out construction work for the office had called her. Bernadette Keyeux, the employee, then deposited 1.18 million euros (US$1.36 million) into what she thought was a new bank account for Willemen General Contractor until the office later found out it was part of a fraud. Of the sum involved, 169,705 euros was transferred to an HSBC bank account belonging to a Hong Kong-registered company called Grand Develop Limited in Sheung Wan. The office is seeking repayment of the sum with interest, and is urging the Hong Kong courts to allow it to look into the HSBC account in question. The latest fraud allegation came less than a week after an elderly American woman also took to the citys courts to retrieve more than HK$1.5 million (US$192,300) she said she had been tricked into paying. The money also ended up in a Hong Kong registered account, according to her lawyers. There have been a number of phone scamming incidents involving Hong Kong in recent years. Call victims are often told they or a family member are in trouble with the law, so they need to pay a settlement. Some are sweet-talked by scammers pretending to have fallen in love with them. Although the number of such scams is falling, there were still 165 victims between January and June, down 62 per cent on the same period last year, with HK$10.55 million being swindled. In the latest case, the employee received the first allegedly fraudulent call sometime in mid-July last year. The caller identified himself as an Andre Stern, claiming to be the chief financial officer of Willemen General Contractor. Story continues He told the staffer his company had opened a new bank account with ING Bank. The staffer was misled into remitting 1.18 euros into the bogus bank account on July 19, the court writ filed by the offices legal firm YM Lawyers said. The plaintiff thereby suffered a loss of 1,180,687.50 euros court document The office came to discover the alleged fraud in late July. The plaintiff thereby suffered a loss of 1,180,687.50 euros by the fraud and deceit of the alleged chief financial officer of [Willemen], the court document said. The office initiated legal action in Brussels against the alleged fraudsters the following month. As 169,705.50 euros had found its way to Hong Kong, the office turned to local police and made a report through its lawyers in September. In July this year, the solicitors acting for the office also wrote to Grand Develop to tell the firm it would have to pay back the sum that landed in its bank account. It was unconscionable for the defendant to retain the amount claimed, the court document said. The Posts attempt to contact the company, located in Cosco Tower, was unsuccessful. According to the Companies Registry, it is solely owned by a Robert Erjavec, whose registered address is in Slovenia. This article Phone scammers cheat Belgiums foreign affairs office out of 1.2 million euros with part of the cash landing in Hong Kong account, writ says first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. FILE PHOTO: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte disembarks from a Philippine Airlines chartered flight. (PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO) President Rodrigo Duterte arrived in Bali, Indonesia Wednesday (October 10) night to attend the ASEAN Leaders Gathering upon the invitation of Indonesian President Joko Widodo. The ASEAN Leaders Gathering is a special meeting of ASEAN member states including multilateral and international organizations. President Duterte was accompanied by some of his Cabinet members namely, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Cayetano, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar and Special Assistant to the President Bong Go. The President is set to deliver a speech at the said event to underscore the importance of strong regional and global cooperation and maintaining security and stability in order to achieve sustainable development goals. He will be meeting with other ASEAN leaders on the sidelines of the event to discuss bilateral issues. Duterte is also expected meet with President Widodo to talk about strengthening trade and investment and fighting terrorism through maritime defense and security. Meanwhile, the Philippines has extended humanitarian assistance to Indonesia after the regions Sulawesi Island was hit by an earthquake and Tsunami. I learned that our C-130 plane has flown out of the Philippines to bring all assistance to Palu. We are also placed to give USD300,000 for humanitarian assistance. And part of what we are donating are generators, waters and medical kits as the need arises, said Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Leehiong Wee. The President is due to return home on Thursday (October 11) night after the conclusion of the ASEAN Leaders Gathering. Rosalie Coz The post President Duterte arrives in Bali for ASEAN Leaders Gathering appeared first on UNTV News. Sri Lanka's parliament Wednesday passed legislation to pay compensation to victims of the island's brutal civil war, nearly a decade after the end of the conflict which claimed 100,000 lives. The legislature voted 59 -- 43 to approve a broad reparations bill which seeks to establish an independent office that will compensate survivors as well as victims' next of kin. Former strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse's followers voted against the bill, arguing that it amounted to compensating separatist Tamil rebels who were crushed in a no-holds-barred military campaign in May 2009. The long-delayed legislation had been a key demand of international observers urging reconciliation in the island nation where divisions between minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese persist. The office will decide on potentially tens of thousands of compensation claims from those afflicted by fighting that ended in 2009 with the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels. President Maithripala Sirisena has faced international criticism for the lack of progress towards reconciliation since his election three years ago. The United Nations Human Rights Council has led a chorus pressing Sirisena and his administration to take urgent steps towards addressing war-era abuses, including punishing soldiers and rebels accused of atrocities. After years of delay the government bowed to international pressure in March and established an office to trace the tens of thousands still missing since the end of the war. Sirisena's pledge upon election in January 2015 to investigate the war and compensate its victims saw Sri Lanka narrowly avoid being slapped with international sanctions. The previous Rajapakse regime, which ruled with an iron fist, refused to even acknowledge war-era abuses. Sri Lankan forces were accused of killing up to 40,000 Tamil civilians during the final months of the war when the Tigers' quest for independence came to a bloody end. International rights groups have called for the prosecution of both the military and the Tigers, who were notorious for suicide bombings and enlisting child soldiers. Sirisena has expressed willingness to investigate specific allegations of wrongdoing, but has ruled out allowing foreign involvement in any inquiry. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has vowed to turn the self-ruled island into an indispensable member of the world as she blamed mainland China for being a source of conflict in a scathing national day address. Echoing US Vice-President Mike Pences harsh criticism of Beijing last week, the islands leader lambasted the mainland as the cause of cross-strait tension and conflicts in the region, at a rally which was broadcast live to mark the 107th birthday of the Republic of China, Taiwans official title. For some time now, Chinas unilateral diplomatic offensive and military coercion have not only harmed cross-strait relations. They have also seriously challenged the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, she said. Taiwan hosts Paraguay at military drill amid rising tensions with Beijing Tsai said Taiwan could cope with Beijings challenges by seeking further support from the United States, Japan, Europe and other like-minded countries, and strengthening its strategic significance so that other nations could rally behind it. The best way to defend Taiwan is to make it indispensable and irreplaceable to the world, she said. Beijing, which considers Taiwan a wayward province that must be brought back to the Chinese fold, if necessary by force, stepped up pressure on Taiwan in 2016 after Tsai, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, refused to accept the one China principle. As part of its strategy to handle diplomatic pressure, social infiltration and economic security threats from the mainland, Tsai said Taipei had to strengthen diplomatic ties and establish its irreplaceable strategic importance. She said Taiwans advocacy for freedom, democracy and a market economy had helped it become a model for Asian democracy, to develop a strong economy and win the support of like-minded countries. The United States is a case in point: the US Congress recently passed many Taiwan-friendly legislative bills. Vice-President Mike Pence also openly condemned Chinas suppression of Taiwans diplomatic efforts, and lauded our democracy, she said, referring to the Taiwan Travel Act and the National Defence Authorisation Act that call for high-level exchanges of officials and military cooperation between Taipei and Washington. Story continues Tsai named Japan, the European Union and some of its allies as other sources of support to help strengthen the islands international presence and role in the world. In slightly more than two years, Beijing has wooed away five allies from Taiwan, leaving just 17 countries which maintain official ties with Taipei. Beijing has also sent warships, bombers and fighter planes on training missions circling the island in an attempt to intimidate Tsais supporters. Top mainland officials have also declared that the issue of bringing Taiwan under Beijings control cannot be postponed indefinitely and some analysts believe Chinese President Xi Jinping is determined to accomplish that feat during his time in office. While Tsai would continue to seek stability and progress, she said the government needed to strengthen national security, the economy and the social safety net. That would include boosting the islands defences with annual increases to the arms budget and stepping up efforts to prevent foreign powers from infiltrating and subverting our society. The president also lashed out at specific countries for systematically spreading disinformation, which she said was aimed at maliciously damaging the information security system, intervening in the election process, or interfering with government operations. Last month, the Tsai government accused Beijing of spreading fake news in a bid to damage peace and stability, as well as to influence next months local government elections. Tsais choice of words, coming a week after Pences critical remarks against Beijing, has been seen by observers as the harshest yet on cross-strait ties, compared with her previous national day speeches. The tone of her speech on cross-strait issues is quite similar to what Pence said in criticising China and indeed reflects the US position, which should please Washington, said Wang Kung-yi, a political science professor at Chinese Culture University in Taipei. But Wang did not expect any further deterioration in cross-strait ties unless Tsai announced the islands independence. This article I will make Taiwan indispensable says President Tsai Ing-wen in national day address 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: An earthquake Thursday killed three people in Indonesia and rattled hotels where IMF delegates are attending a major summit, a fortnight after a quake-tsunami killed more than 2,000 elsewhere in the archipelago. The 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Bali and Java islands in the early hours, jolting residents awake and sending them rushing into the streets. Some attendees in Bali for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings this week evacuated their hotels as the quake shook the island. "I felt the quake for at least 30 seconds and I panicked. At first I didn't want to go out but then I decided to leave," Katharina Sudiyono, an Indonesian attendee at the summit, told AFP. Peter Jacobs, head of the Indonesian Central Bank's IMF-World Bank taskforce, said delegates in Bali's Nusa Dua district for the summit were quickly informed of the situation. "Many summit participants woke up and asked questions, but we immediately sent out information to them that there had been an earthquake and the impact in Nusa Dua," he told AFP. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in Bali and the summit proceeded Thursday uninterrupted. "We send our condolences to those affected by the earthquake. Here in Bali, the earthquake has not caused significant damage nor any disruption to the meetings," an IMF spokesman said. The conference centre was designed to withstand seismic events, and participants had been told to remain there in the event of a quake. In case of tsunami risk, attendees would be evacuated to a nearby building. Holidayers in the island's popular tourist districts also rushed into the streets as buildings swayed. "Wow, that was really strong and it lasted a long time," said one woman who took refuge in a hotel parking lot in Nusa Dua, a few kilometres from where the IMF and World Bank are holding their meetings. Others in Nusa Dua, south of Bali's main international airport, also panicked. "The quake was very big. I immediately woke up and took my little kids out of the house," Ni Komang Sudiani told AFP. "All my neighbours were also running, said the mother of two. - Volatile archipelago - Dwikorita Karnawati, the head of Indonesia's geophysics agency who was also in Nusa Dua for the IMF summit, said no tsunami warning was issued. "I felt the quake too," she told AFP. "We are also still gathering data from our team in East Java.' In East Java, three people were crushed to death in their sleep when the quake brought down buildings in Sumenep district and sent people fleeing their homes. "Everybody panicked and the entire village ran outside. We have never experienced an earthquake as strong as last night," Zainurrohman, a 21-year-old from the district told AFP. "We stayed outside until dawn," he said. Many Indonesians go by one name. The tremor's epicentre was in the Bali Sea around 40 kilometres (25 miles) off the eastern end of Java island, according to the United States Geological Survey. The tremor comes after a 7.5-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami struck off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi last month -- around 1,000 kilometres northeast of the latest quake's epicentre -- killing more than 2,000 people. Thousands more remain missing since the twin disaster ravaged the city of Palu and surrounding areas. The search for the dead is expected to end Thursday. A string of earthquakes in Lombok in eastern Indonesia killed more than 550 people over the summer. Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. Miss Bikini Universe Singapore contestants (from left) first runner-up Andrea Wong, winner Feline Wong and second runner-up Kelly Tan. (PHOTO: Miss Bikini Universe Singapore) UPDATE: This story has been amended to include a statement from Vault Faces founder Dana Sopah. A local beauty pageant winner has been stripped of her Miss Bikini Universe Singapore crown following an alleged dispute with the organiser over her prize money. Feline Wong Xin Yi took to social media to voice her dissatisfaction with the organiser, talent management agency Vault Faces, after it informed her that she would be removed as the pageants winner. Saying that the decision was arbitrary and unfair, Wong said in her Facebook posts on Sunday (7 October) and Tuesday that she had been called rude and backstabbing by the organiser in a Whatsapp conversation after she enquired when she would receive her pageant prizes. Vault Faces has since transferred the crown to the first runner-up, 20-year-old undergraduate Andrea Wong. The pageant was held on 15 September at the AJ Hackett bungy jumping site on Sentosa, Founder of Vault Faces and national director of Miss Bikini Universe Singapore Dana Sopah, said in a statement on Tuesday that Wong had been officially disqualified as the winner as she had breached the terms and conditions that pageant participants were subject to. Sopah added that Wongs breach was not due to any one isolated incident, and that Vault Faces had a zero tolerance policy when it comes to the rules so as to protect the interests of candidates, sponsors and the pageant. Wong, however, countered that there was no evidence that she was in breach of the rules cited by Vault Faces. She posted images on Facebook of what she said was a letter from Vault Faces disqualifying her as a beauty queen, in which the company said that Wong had breached clauses preventing her from defaming the pageant organiser and interacting with sponsors without permission. In the letter, Vault Faces asked Wong to return her crown, winner sash and cheque board. Wong also shared screenshots of a Whatsapp conversation between her and a Dana, an organiser with Vault Faces. Wong said she had waited two weeks with no reply after asking for updates regarding her prizes, which included a $1,000 cash prize. Dana appeared to be upset with Wong for asking when she would receive her prizes. Story continues Wong wrote, These are all her assumptions against me without any proof or evidence. I asked her for proof but she is unable to provide a single one. She said she would not give up her beauty queen title until Vault Faces explained how she had breached the rules. Miss Bikini Universe Singapore describes itself on its Facebook page as a pageant and fitness model competition, in which contestants are judged on their fitness physique. Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore has reached out to Wong and Vault Faces for comment. Follow Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore on Facebook. Related stories: Actress-model Vanessa Peh crowned Miss World Singapore 2018 Design researcher Zahra Khanum crowned Miss Universe Singapore 2018 Our November issue comes equipped for a robbery, as we sit down with Steve McQueen to discuss his latest film Widows, a thriller that updates Lynda La Plantes hit 1980s TV series about a group of women planning a heist in Thatcher-era London. McQueens thrilling film moves the action to present-day Chicago, with a brilliant Viola Davis leading an ensemble cast that includes Daniel Kaluuya, Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Brian Tyree Henry and Robert Duvall. The news that the one-time Turner-prize winning artist McQueen had made a genre movie was greeted with surprise in some quarters, but McQueen tells James Bell about how he was excited by the thriller form and how, in these turbulent times in which we live, he felt a duty to make a film that would reach as many people as possible, while also exposing many of the issues that blight modern life, showing how political corruption intersects with street criminality, as well as the church, police and finance. People talk about bubbles today, elitist bubbles, Brexit, Trump He says. Now is the time to be inclusive. People come, but then theres the political debate. What I wanted to do was to take the simple heist narrative and steep it in the politics of now. McQueen is also full of praise for his Oscar-winning lead actress, saying You think of people like Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford; icons in film. I could talk about Viola Davis in the same breath, easily. An actor whos more iconoclastic than iconic is Nicolas Cage, whos spent much of his time in recent years starring in absurd big-budget fantasies, but who has found a film to match his singular onscreen presence in the instant cult hit Mandy, in which he plays a lumberjack who takes revenge on an occult group of drug-addled bikers. Kat Ellinger talks to Mandys director Panos Cosmatos about his film, which she describes as a heavy metal-fan comic book artists idea of arthouse meets video nasty, and about the joys of working with Cage. Of course, the quintessential Hollywood outsider was Orson Welles, and this month sees the very belated release of one of his late films, The Other Side of the Wind, which was shot in the early 1970s but never finished in Welless lifetime. However now thanks to the efforts of a small band of believers, a version of the film has been completed, following notes left by Welles. One of those believers, Joseph McBride, appears in the film itself, and was a consultant through its tortuous gestation and path to the screen. Writing in our new issue, McBride gives an insiders account of his experiences, and an insightful analysis of this late work by one of cinemas greatest artists. A belated completion also marks Singaporean director Sandi Tans brilliant documentary Shirkers, which recounts the extraordinary story of how the debut feature she made with friends as a teenager in 1992 was snatched from her when its co-director ran off with the reels, only for those reels to turn up again 20 years later. Christina Newland talks to Tan about the pain of shattered creative dreams and what-ifs, and how making her documentary brought a sense of closure after so many years. Finally in this months features pages, our regular Deep Focus series looks at the weird and wonderful word of the French fantastique in cinema. Published to tie in with a companion season programmed by Sight & Sound and running at Londons BFI Southbank from late October through November, Virginie Selavys article explores the long and rich tradition of the cinematic fantastique, which incorporates elements of fantasy, horror and science fiction into a bizarre, atmospheric tales in which the unexplained and the supernatural intrude into reality. Taking in directors from Georges Melies and Jean Cocteau to Georges Franju and Jean Rollin, Selavys article is the essential accompaniment to the BFI Southbank season. Autumn means its the time when the big festivals start unveiling the titles likely to compete for the major awards in the awards season early next year, and our November issue includes reports from two of the most important events: Venice and Toronto. Across both festivals were the films likely to dominate screens over the coming months, from Yorgos Lanthimoss The Favourite to Jacques Audiards The Sisters Brothers, from Alfonso Cuarons moving Roma to Claire Deniss typically idiosyncratic science-fiction film High Life, and from the Coen Brotherss western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs to Barry Jenkinss sumptuous If Beale Street Can Talk our festival reports cover them all and more. Elsewhere in the issue our reviews section covers all the months releases, including extended reviews of Bradley Coopers A Star is Born and Damien Chazelles First Man. Our Books pages include a definitive account of the making of Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey and a life of Bruce Lee. And our Home Cinema pages include a look at the early films of Olivier Assayas alongside a bounty of other curiosities. All that, plus a fond remembrance of the late, great Burt Reynolds, an interview with Black Mother director Khalik Allah, a survey of the work of Margaret Tait, and much more besides. Actor and political activist Amandla Stenberg, who most recently starred in The Hate U Give, has written a gripping and poetic essay for Teen Vogue about their experience with sexual assault, inspired by Christine Blasey Fords decision to testify against now-confirmed Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh. (Stenberg has expressed a preference for they/them pronouns, although the Teen Vogue article uses she.) In the essay, Stenberg writes about being a victim of assault, citing Fords decision to come forward as inspiring but sad. Watching Dr. Fords testimony pushed me and so many others to move through discomfort that wed buried, they write. Advertisement Stenberg describes the self blame that followed the assault, which occurred in a foreign country, forcing them to travel three hours by train to find emergency contraception while experiencing the guilt and shame that often follows an unwarranted sexual experience. Stenberg also illuminates what prevents many people from coming forward with accounts of assault: You are given the responsibility of, after having just been subjected to devastating trauma, navigating impossible protocols, lest you be charged as the culprit in your own attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Stenberg addresses not only the responsibility that is forced on victims of assault to fight against immoral actors, but also how survivors often feel obligated to isolate themselves from support. I dont have a single friend who isnt a straight cis man who hasnt experienced assault in some way, shape, or form, they write. However, we often feel the responsibility to carry the burden of trauma alone. We didnt turn to one another to say, This happened to me and Im not OK. Advertisement Stenbergs essay is at its most striking when they describe how they had come to expect this kind of violation when it came to powerful men. Noting that the attacker was powerful among their peer group, Stenberg writes, Often the trade-off of being invited into spaces by these sorts of cis straight men and getting their approval was the acceptance that what I had to contribute was the value of my body as a woman. Implicit within that was the notion that, because my body served such a transactional purpose, it was no longer just my property. That was a form of social currency I was familiar with and, honestly, at times accepted. Stenberg is one of many survivors to come forward with their stories as a result of Fords very public testimony, with those speaking up not only revealing experiences with sexual assault but also elucidating why reporting often feels impossible in the aftermath of an assault. The Teen Vogue essay ends with a reminder to other survivors: It is not your fault. The American Music Awards were invented by Dick Clark in 1974, primarily to give ABC something to air once their contract with the Grammys expired, but also to honor music! Both missions were accomplished on Tuesday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, as the 2018 AMAsbroadcast on ABC, naturallysplit the honors between Taylor Swift and Camilla Cabello, both of whom took home four awards. Actress Tracee Ellis Ross hosted. Cabello won Favorite Song Pop/Rock, Favorite Music Video, and Collaboration of the Year for Havana, featuring Young Thug, and beat out Cardi B, Khalid, Dua Lipa, and XXXTentacion to win New Artist of the Year. Heres the telenovela-themed video for Havana: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Swift, who performed I Did Something Bad at the show, bested Cabello in their one head-to-head matchup, winning Favorite Female Artist Pop/Rock. She also won Favorite Album Pop/Rock for reputation, Tour of the Year, and Artist of the Year, for which she was up against Drake, Imagine Dragons, Post Malone, and Ed Sheerhan. Swift, who unexpectedly endorsed the Democratic candidates in her home district on Sunday, used her acceptance speech to thank her fans for their support and encourage them again to vote: Advertisement With Tuesday nights victories, Swift has now won more American Music Awards than any other female artist, 23 in all. The previous record-holder was Whitney Houston. Advertisement Advertisement In the non-Swift/Cabello categories, Post Malone won Favorite Male Artist Pop/Rock while Migos won Favorite Duo or Group Pop/Rock. Kane Brown won three country music categories: Favorite Album Country for Kane Brown, Favorite Song Country for Heaven, and Favorite Male Artist Country. Carrie Underwood won Favorite Female Artist while Florida Georgia Line won Favorite Duo or Group. Cardi B was a double winner in the Rap/Hip-Hop awards, taking home Favorite Song for Bodak Yellow and beating Drake and Post Malone for Favorite Artist; with Bruno Mars, she also picked up Favorite Song Soul/R&B for their collaboration Finesse. Favorite Album went to Drake, for Scorpion. In the Soul/R&B categories, Rihanna won Favorite Female Artist while Khalid won Favorite Male Artist. A full list of the nominees and winners can be found here. A woman in Georgia followed a black man home Sunday and called the police on him, apparently because she assumed he had kidnapped the two white children he was babysitting. One of the mans videos of the incident has been viewed online more than 543,000 times. Corey Lewis, who runs an after-school mentoring program in Marietta, Georgia, had taken the 6- and 10-year-old children he was babysitting to a Subway restaurant inside a Walmart after spending some time at an indoor play area. When he took the children back to his car, he noticed the woman watching him from a Kia sedan, according to the New York Times. Advertisement Once he secured the children in their seats, he pulled out his phone and started livestreaming a video on Facebook, narrating the encounter as the woman came forward to ask if the children were OK. Why wouldnt they be OK? Lewis said he had responded, according to the Times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The woman left but then returned and asked to speak to the older child. When he refused and returned to his car, she got back in her car and tailed Lewis as he drove to a nearby gas station and then home. After the initial encounter, she had taken down his license plate number and called the police to report suspicious activity, and at his home, Lewis was met by a Cobb County police officer. Advertisement Lewis, who also streamed his interaction with the police, told the officer that he was being followed and harassed. The officer told Lewis that he would have to question the children. At this point in time, its like an OK check, just to make sure everything is all right, the officer says in the video. The children told the police the same information Lewis had, and the officer appeared convinced but said he still had to call the parents. The parents told CBS46 they were horrified to learn Lewis had been racially profiled, and the officer appeared to agree that the incident amounted to a matter of race. The childrens mother told NBC News that she had asked the officer, Are you telling me that because a woman saw a young African American male with two white kids that they were pulled over by the police? He replied, Yes, maam. Im sorry. That appears to be what happened, she said. While Lewis talked with the officer, he asked why Lewis was filming. Im letting the world know whats really going on, Lewis says in the video. Its 2018, I cant step out into the community without being profiled. This newest incident of someone calling the police on a black person doing something legal and mundane has been termed babysitting while black. In recent months, people have called authorities on black people engaged in activities as normal as napping, campaigning, lounging poolside, grilling, mowing a lawn, staying in an Airbnb, and hanging out in a Starbucks. Authorities arrested the son of the limousine company owner whose cars were involved a fatal crash in upstate New York that killed 20 people. Nauman Hussain was expected to be charged with negligent homicide, the New York Times reported. His familys business has had a history of failed inspections and, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the limo in the crash had failed inspections for problems with its brakes, suspension and chassis last month, and was being driven by a man lacking the proper license to operate a commercial vehicle, and was carrying more people than it was certified for. Advertisement Naumans father, Shahed, had a long history with law enforcement, working as an informant for the FBI on terrorism cases. The Times reported that Shahed Hussain, a native of Pakistan, got caught up in counterterrorism work not because of any previous connection to militant groups but because he got arrested in 2001 for using doctored documents to get a license for a taxi driver. To avoid being deported, he worked with the FBI on terrorism cases, leading to some arrests and convictions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He founded Prestige Limousine in 2008 after having filed for bankruptcy in 2003.* After one of the cases in which he worked as an informant, also in 2008, the judge in the case notified federal prosecutors that Hussain might have perpetrated a fraud in his bankruptcy proceedings. Hussain had testified that he received money from a source in Pakistan, but he apparently never disclosed that in 2003 to either those he owed money to or the court overseeing his bankruptcy. He never was prosecuted for fraud. The Times reported that law enforcement doesnt know where Shahed is but suspect he may be in Pakistan. Where are they? Leon Krauze writes about the Democrats Hispanic-voter problem. Krauze argues this is more an issue of lackluster turnout than one of active Latino support of the GOP, but its become a real stumbling block nonetheless. We did this: The disappearance, and probable death, of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is the end product of years of American support of stable dictators in the Middle East, Evan Hill writes. Here comes the backlash: Everyone loves A Star Is Born! But Sam Adams wonders if the movie doesnt redraw some boring, tired old boundaries between authentic rock n roll and fake popa false dichotomy he thought we had moved past many years ago. Bizarre turn: A Star Is Born is weirdly obsessed with drag, Bryan Lowder writes, yet for all its fixation, the movie completely fails to engage with the very questions about authenticity and presentation that are central to the art form. For fun: A doughnut recipe thats truly easy enough to make at home. Well see about this, Rebecca This morning, the UK Supreme Court ruled on behalf of Ashers Baking Company, a Christian-run family bakery in Belfast that refused to bake a cake with the message, Support Gay Marriage. The court found that its owners, the McArthur family, have the right to refuse to proclaim messages they oppose, as do all UK citizens whether on in favour of or against same-sex marriage. Rev. Richard Turnbull, a trustee of the organization that represented the family, reveals the details and analyzes the ruling in a new essay for Actons Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website. The McArthur family, while relieved, has lost half-a-million pounds in legal fees and four years of their lives in the courts. The ruling came two days after Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, after a battle that laid bare the cultural and political divide in that country, Rev. Turnbull wrote. He points out that UK taxpayers were compelled to become partakers in their prosecution, which justices implied, was motivated by anti-religious bias: Not only did the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland spend $350,000 of taxpayers money on a discrimination case that involved no discrimination, but the UK Supreme Court suggests that ECNI is itself.discriminatory. Do we really need all these government commissions, whether in Colorado or Northern Ireland? Why is my tax money being spent on these search and destroy exercises against people of faith and conscience? Read his full essay here. (Photo credit: Albert Bridge. This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 2.0.) He has been an ambassador of Kazakhstan to Egypt since September 2020, before that, since April 2019, he was Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and even earlier, from October 2013 to February 2019, he worked as Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the UAE. Almost as soon as the White House announced that the FBI would do a supplemental investigation of sexual assault claims against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats in the Senate were worried that the bureaus agents would be limited in what they could look into. While Trump said that the FBI could interview whomever it wanted, reports quickly emerged of people who wanted to speak with the FBI but were not able to. The bureau would end up interviewing nine people, not including Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford. The investigation was completed in less than a week. Advertisement Under questioning from Sen. Kamala Harris on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate committee, our supplemental update to the previous background investigation was limited in scope, but he said it was consistent with the standard process for those investigations. He said it was specific in scope, limited in scope. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This whole 4-minute clip is worth watching. Kamala Harris grills FBI Director Chris Wray on the Kavanaugh supplemental background investigation, Wray confirms that the investigation was "limited in scope" by the White House. (via CSPAN)pic.twitter.com/bBLrHlrmQH Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 10, 2018 Advertisement Wray would not say if White House counsel Don McGahn spoke to the FBI, despite reports that he was a key figure in guiding the investigation. The New York Times reported that McGahn had to get Trump to back down from a request to let the FBI investigate anything because a wide-ranging inquiry like some Democrats were demandingand Mr. Trump was suggestingwould be potentially disastrous for Judge Kavanaughs chances of confirmation. Wray would not say if the investigation looked into whether Kavanaugh lied to the Senate in his testimony, but the Times reported that McGahn instructed the F.B.I. to do an additional background check focused exclusively on the sexual misconduct charges leveled by three women. Advertisement Advertisement Trump had said on the Sunday after the investigation started that the FBI should interview anybody that they want within reason, but you have to say within reason, and that he was taking guidance on the scope of the investigation from the Senate, which had made the request to the White House following Kavanaughs and Fords testimonies. The White House and Senate had also made it clear they wanted the investigation to be done in a week or less. After the investigation was finished, Susan Collins and Jeff Flake, two Republican senators who had requested it, pronounced it to be thorough, and on Saturday, Kavanaugh was confirmed. The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block a key provision of North Dakotas voter ID requirement, ensuring that the law will be in effect during the 2018 midterm election. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out in her dissent, this decision is bad news for the thousands of voters who may now be unable to cast a ballot in November. Its also terrible news for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat defending her seat against Rep. Kevin Cramer, a Republican challenger whos ahead in the polls. By design, North Dakotas law disproportionately disenfranchises Native American voters, who lean Democratic. Tuesdays ruling could swing the election toward Cramerand deny Democrats control over the Senate. Advertisement Until recently, voting in North Dakota was relatively easy. The state has no voter registration; historically, residents could simply show up at the polls and provide some form of identification (no photo required). If they lacked ID, voters could sign an affidavit confirming their eligibility. The GOP-controlled Legislature began cracking down on suffrage shortly after Heitkamp eked out an unexpected victory in 2012, winning by fewer than 3,000 votes. Republicans introduced a stringent voter ID requirement, then scrapped the affidavit option. A federal district court blocked the new rules in 2016 as a likely equal-protection violation due to the massive burdens they placed on Native American voters. The Legislature tweaked the law in 2017, but the court again froze a large chunk of it in April, citing its discriminatory and burdensome impact on Native Americans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks to this decision, the most draconian components of North Dakotas voter ID law were not in effect during the states June primary. In late September, however, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court in a 21 decision. The appeals court allowed the state to implement the part of the law that compels voters to provide an ID that includes his or her current residential street address. This provision is controversial because it seems to directly target Native Americans. The U.S. Postal Service doesnt provide residential delivery in rural reservations, so most tribal members use a P.O. box, which is listed as their address on tribal IDs. To remedy this problem, the district court had ordered the state to accept IDs that list a current mailing address. But the 8th Circuit scrapped that compromise, permitting the state to reject IDs that include a mailing address but no street addressthat is, a huge number of tribal IDs. Advertisement How many, exactly? The district court found that at least 4,998 otherwise eligible Native Americans do not have an ID with a current street address. They are not alone: About 65,000 nonNative American voters also lack the necessary ID. The law does allow voters to provide supplemental documentation to prove their identity, such as a utility bill or bank statement. But once again, Native Americans are disproportionately unlikely to have these materials, due in part to poverty and homelessness within their communities. Thus, at least 2,305 Native Americans may not be allowed to cast a ballot in the 2018 election. Advertisement In theory, disenfranchised Native Americans can surmount these obstacles. The district court held that residents who lack the necessary ID must be allowed to vote if they present documentation from a tribal government, like a formal letter establishing their residency. And the state didnt challenge this part of its ruling, allowing it to stand. But homeless and impoverished voters will surely struggle to obtain this paperwork in time for the election. Advertisement Advertisement Despite these concerns, the Supreme Court declined to reverse the 8th Circuit, thereby authorizing the state to enforce its law in November. (Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not participate in the decision.) Writing in dissent, Ginsburg, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, raised the prospect of grand-scale voter confusion. This all too real risk, she wrote, is exacerbated by the fact that the requirements were not in place during Junes primary. Thousands of voters who could cast a ballot in June, Ginsburg noted, may now arrive at the polls and discover that their ID is no longer valid. Most of these voters probably planned to vote for Heitkamp. And their votes matter: North Dakota residents have far more power than voters in any other state to determine control of the Senate. The suppression of just a few thousand Native American votes could entrench Republican rule over the chamber for two more years. If Heitkamp loses as narrowly in 2018 as she won in 2012, North Dakota Republicans assault on voting rights may well be to blame. On Oct. 2, prominent Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi walked into his countrys consulate in Istanbul and never walked out again. The government adviser turned critic, who entered self-exile last year and lived outside D.C., was there to finalize paperwork for his upcoming marriage to his Turkish fiancee. Once inside, according to Turkish authorities, a Saudi team lying in wait killed him and took his body away. Khashoggis disappearance and possible killing is a fork in the road for the Wests relationship with the new Middle East taking shape amid the ruins of the Arab Spring. Even if Khashoggi were to emerge alivewhich seems less likely by the dayhis enforced disappearance would signal a dangerous expansion of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salmans already-extensive efforts to silence critics at home and abroad. If a Saudi team did kill Khashoggi, the implications are far worse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Seven years on from the revolts that swept across the Arab world, its now possible to see the shape of whats lurching out from the wreckage: a new generation of Saddam Husseins and Muammar Qaddafis ready to impose their authoritarian visions in the name of reform, with the blessing of the West. European and U.S. foreign policies may have long been duplicitous, but norms and public opinion typically forced them to treat murderous regimes, at least officially, as pariahs. Impunity for Khashoggis killing would usher in a frightening and more brutal age, one in which we would be complicit. A report by the Washington Post on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture Khashoggi before his disappearance raises the disturbing possibility that our government may have known about the plot and not warned Khashoggi, as it is required to do. Advertisement The scandal has sparked angry arguments that the Trump administrations eager embrace of the crown prince encouraged his worst tendencies, leading to Khashoggis death. That could be true, but to understand the rise of the new authoritarians, we need to look back to the Arab Springs original sin. The uprisings of 2011 were without modern precedent, a true shock to long-lasting dictatorships and the client relationships with the West that had helped sustain them. The path taken afterward was not foreordained, and for at least two years, the outcome hung in the balance. It all fell apart in 2013. To understand the rise of the new authoritarians, we need to look back to the Arab Springs original sin. In Egypt, the breakdown of the Muslim Brotherhoodled government, helped along by an unreformed state apparatus that did all it could to ensure its failure, ended in a July coup led by thenDefense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The following month in Syria, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad launched rockets loaded with sarin gas into a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, killing at least 1,400 men, women, and children. In both cases, the Obama administration reacted with the ambivalence that defined its nonresponse to the Arab Spring writ large. Advertisement Advertisement By refusing to label Sisis takeover in Egypt as a coup in order to avoid severing a useful decades-old relationship, Obamas top advisers accepted the emergence of a new military junta in the Middle East as a fait accompli. In a new book about the Egyptian uprising and its fallout, David Kirkpatrick, the New York Times correspondent in Cairo at the time, persuasively portrays the administration as an abettor of the counterrevolution, happy to see stability return at any cost. Weeks after the coup, Secretary of State John Kerry would infamously claim that the military was restoring democracy. Advertisement Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, ordered to talk Sisi down from massacring his opposition, instead told him that he knew what was best for his country, later explaining to Kirkpatrick that officials from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had inundated him with complaints, telling Hagel it was time to extinguish the Brotherhood. Advertisement Sisi did just that, orchestrating the Aug. 14, 2013, massacres in Cairo that left more than 900 protestors dead, the worst such incident in modern history. That same month, Obamas dalliance with military action in response to Bashar al-Assads use of chemical weapons in Syria ended in a punt to Congress and a last-minute deal facilitated by the Russian government. What followed were years of further chemical weapons use, especially of chlorine gas. At the same time, the administration intentionally offered Syrias rebels only enough clandestine support to ensure a bloody stalemate. Obama publicly declared Assad an illegitimate leader who must go, while U.S. policy ensured that would never happen. U.S. acquiescence to the death of the Arab Spring stemmed from both the cynical realism of key Obama officials and heavy pressure from the Saudis and the Emiratis, both of whom viewed the regional uprisings as mortal threats to their style of monarchical rule. The reactionary kings and princes of the Gulf did all they could to smother Egypts democracy movement, funneling billions of dollars to Sisi and his supporters. Such was their antipathy to the Arab revolts and the political Islamists they empowered that they viewed even the Obama administrations tepid openness to the Muslim Brotherhood as a foul conspiracy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They had it wrong, of course. If 2011 represented a historic opportunity for the United States to reset a relationship with the Arab world that had been based on decades of support for dictatorships, and if 2013 was the final chance to avoid re-embracing the same strongman pathologies that had led to revolts in the first place, the Obama administration failed both tests. A major source of this failure, it seemed, was a surprising void that had opened up at the core of Obamas vision of the world. The man who had come to Cairo in 2009 professing his desire to seek a new beginning and support human rights everywhere had, when the time came to lay down a marker for history, instead resigned himself to the cold comfort of realism. When MBS launched the Saudis disastrous military campaign in Yemen in 2015, the first indication of the crown princes dangerous audacity, the Obama administration lent its support. Advertisement The Trump administration is different primarily in the enthusiasm with which it has enlarged the United States stability fetish, especially through Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law, who has reportedly formed such a close relationship with MBS, his fellow princeling, that he shared the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince in a late-night meeting in October 2017. Since then, neither Crown Prince Mohammeds brief detention of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in November nor his coordinated crackdown on Saudi womens rights activists just ahead of lifting the kingdoms ban on women driving in June have prompted much official U.S. dismay. Advertisement Advertisement Even the Saudis long practice of kidnapping dissidents abroad and forcibly returning them to the countryas happened to activist Loujain al-Hathloul in the United Arab Emirates in Marchhas been ignored. Informed observers have speculated privately in recent days that Khashoggi might have been killed accidentally during a similar abduction attempt. But such an accident would be the predictable consequence of abuses too long permitted. Advertisement Advertisement What happened to Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist with more than 1 million Twitter followers and an influential circle of friends, has already begun to vaporize any remaining sense of safety held by Arab dissidents around the world. It has shocked a typically jaded worldwide community of Middle East journalists, analysts, and human-rights activists into a chorus of anger and horror, prompting an unusual bipartisan threat of consequences from the senators who authorize and fund U.S. support for the kingdom. On Monday, nearly a week after Khashoggi disappeared, President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Secretary of State Pompeo each finally weighed in, expressing concern. On Tuesday, in a major speech on progressive foreign policy, Sen. Bernie Sanders demanded accountability for Khashoggis disappearance and singled out Saudi Arabia as a prominent member of a worldwide movement toward authoritarianism, oligarchy, and kleptocracy that demands opposition. Advertisement Advertisement The Saudis have responded with the obfuscation that has become typical of the regions new authoritarians, offering blunt denials, conspiracy theories, and the false promise of investigations to find out where Khashoggi really went. They have failed to produce any evidence that Khashoggi ever left the consulate, while journalists have reported key pieces of circumstantial evidence, such as the Saudis dismissal of Turkish employees on the day of Khashoggis disappearance, their removal of surveillance footage from the consulate, and the arrival and departure of the private jets said by Turkish authorities to have carried the hit team. If the Saudis are allowed to play this game, and Khashoggi is allowed to disappear without consequence, we will have entered a dangerous new world in which a regimes promise that its hands can reach you wherever you are, as one Saudi dissident in London put it, will be made real as long as it is strategically useful to the West. Once again, we are being offered a choice. Senate Republicans are downright giddy about the aftermath of the hyperpartisan battle over Brett Kavanaughs confirmation. Its been a great political gift for us, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell boasted to the Washington Post on Saturday, hours before the upper chamber voted 5048 to give Kavanaugh a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. I hope the battle cry of Republicans for the next 30 days will be Remember Kavanaugh, Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley declared at a GOP dinner in Iowa on Sunday. And Donald Trump predicted Monday, I think youre going to see a lot of things happen on November 6 that would not have happened before. Advertisement Such optimism is well-foundedin regard to the Senate, anyway. Remember: The battle for the House is being waged largely in districts where Trump lost or underperformed two years ago, but the battle for the upper chamber is playing out, almost exclusively, in states Trump won, many in landslides. Its no wonder, then, that Senate GOP leaders are overjoyed that Kavanaughs nomination has divided the nation along partisan lines so neatly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Consider North Dakota, where Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is up for re-election in a state Trump won by a whopping 36 points in 2016 and where a Democratic loss this year would further trim the partys already-slim chances of retaking the Senate. Like many of her fellow red-state colleagues, Heitkamp has spent much of the year playing up her independent streak and willingness to work with Trump. Following her vote against Kavanaugh, though, shes been forced into a defensive crouch in a state where an overwhelming majority of voters wanted Kavanaugh confirmed even after learning of the sexual misconduct allegations against him. Advertisement The smart political move would have been to vote for Kavanaugh, Heitkamp conceded to the New York Times this weekend. Her brother, Joe Heitkamp, a former state lawmaker and current talk radio host, was even blunter: I can sit here and lie to you about it and say its not a big deal, but its a big deal, its a really big deal. So big, in fact, that the senator felt compelled to cut a campaign ad explaining her vote against Kavanaugh by highlighting her vote for Trumps previous SCOTUS nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Advertisement Advertisement Were still waiting on post-confirmation polling, but Heitkamp was already heading in the wrong direction in limited surveys taken before the vote. A Fox News poll taken shortly after Christine Blasey Ford testified found Heitkamps opponent, Rep. Kevin Cramer, up 12 points among likely voters, an 8-point bump from a survey three weeks earlier taken by the same pollsters. At least one major poll mostly taken before Ford came forward found Cramer up 10 points, so as always we should be careful about declaring cause and effect. Its possible Heitkamp has been down all year; its possible that after months of Cramer and Trump wielding this SCOTUS seat as a weapon against her, Heitkamp was already experiencing some drag from the confirmation debate. But even if her vote doesnt hurt her further in a state full of Trump voters, its nearly inconceivable that it will help her. And right now, she needs some help. Advertisement Advertisement North Dakota is just one race, but its one that will go a long way toward deciding who controls the Senate next year. Democrats need to pick up two Senate seats to take control of the upper chamber but currently have only four credible chances to gain one. The flip side of the equation is more daunting: Democrats are defending a total of 10 Senate seats in states Trump won, including four others besides North Dakota that are currently seen as toss-ups. Democrats, then, need to win seven of the nine biggest battlegrounds to win the Senate. Eight of those nine states voted for Trump two years ago, five of them by double-digit margins. Heitkamp, then, wont be the only red-state Democrat feeling the heat for her vote against Kavanaugh. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, where Trump won by 20 points; Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, where Trump won by 19 points; and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, where Trump won by 19 points, will also now spend the final weeks of their races defending their No votes. McCaskill and Donnelly have long been among the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents, but Tester joined the Cook Political Reports toss-up list just last week after he announced hed vote against Kavanaugh, opening the door for his GOP challenger, state auditor Matt Rosendale, to go on the attack: Advertisement Advertisement Democrats remain hopeful that anger over Kavanaughs confirmation will energize their base this fall, and it very well may. That could help in toss-up Senate races in purple states, like Florida or Nevada, and should help in blue ones like New Jersey. But that outrage is of little use in crucial dark-red states like North Dakota, Montana, Indiana, Missouri, or Tennessee. The Kavanaugh fight, then, doesnt need to help Republicans in every race, or even most of them. It just needs to help in a few contests. Theres good reason to think it will. This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy. August was riddled with speculation about whether and when special counsel Robert Mueller might issue a report or take further major action in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The clock was ticking toward a 60-day window before the Nov. 6 midterm elections, a period when the Justice Department traditionally avoids significant public steps that might influenceor give the appearance of trying to influencethe vote. But Sept. 6 came and went, and still no Mueller report or further major indictment. At least nothing public. Now, less than four weeks out from Nov. 6, just how much does this standard of avoiding major investigative actions before an election tie Muellers hands, and is there anything that might argue in favor of a pre-election surprise? Could, for example, efforts by Trump affiliates to obstruct the investigation before Nov. 6 rolls around force Muellers hand? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Certainly, James Comey is familiar with the position Mueller is in. As FBI director, Comey made the fateful decision less than two weeks before the Nov. 8, 2016, election to notify Congress that he was reopening the investigation into candidate Hillary Clintons use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. The notification became public, and the backlash was fierce. The allegations that his action helped tip the vote in favor of Donald Trump continue to this day, and the Justice Departments Office of Inspector General criticized Comeys decision in its June 2018 report on the email investigation. Comey had reasoned that he should reveal the reopening of the probe because he had reported the results when it was closed months earlier, in July 2016. But the IG concluded there wasnt enough evidence that the new information that had prompted the second look would lead to a different conclusion and that the additional action didnt need to be revealed. Indeed, two days before the election, Comey notified Congress that the new information did not change the original findings. By then, Clintons camp has lamented, the damage to her campaign had been done. Advertisement The IGs report on the Comey investigation outlines in detail the Justice Departments practices in heeding sensitivities when deciding about whether and how to take action on an investigation in advance of an election. Actions that could evade application of the 60-day precaution might fall along a continuum, according to two former prosecutors. No Department policy contains a specific prohibition on overt investigative steps within a particular period before an election, the report notes. But the department has a longstanding unwritten practice to avoid overt law enforcement and prosecutorial activities close to an election, typically within 60 or 90 days of Election Day. The IG reported that some officials put the time period at 60 days while others cited a 90-day time frame. Advertisement In each of the past three presidential election years, the sitting attorney general has issued a reminder memorandum, though not for midterms. The memo includes a recommendation that employees consult the departments Public Integrity Section, known as the PIN, whenever an employee is faced with a question regarding the timing of charges or overt investigative steps near the time of a primary or general election, without regard to the type or category of crime at issue, according to the IGs report. Advertisement One purpose of that policy would be to avoid affecting the election, according to Bill Corcoran, a former federal prosecutor in the Justice Departments Criminal Division who prosecuted public officials for 15 years and served as an instructor for 25 years at the departments advocacy institute. Another purpose, he said in an interview with Just Security, is to protect the departments reputation as an institution. Advertisement Actions that could evade application of the 60-day precaution might fall along a continuum, according to two other former prosecutors. Grand jury testimony might continue during the period because it most often is secret, and a search warrant might be executed for a target far-enough removed from electoral politics, said Barbara McQuade, a professor at University of Michigan Law School who was U.S attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from 2010 to 2017. Issuing a report or indictments would likely be at the more sensitive end of the spectrum, though in the case of the Mueller investigation, if the targets were only Russians and there were a pressing reason that the indictments couldnt be delayed until after the election, the action might very well proceed. Advertisement Some U.S. attorneys or criminal division chiefs might be very firm and say no action can be taken within 60 days of an election, said Mary McCord, former acting assistant attorney general and principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Departments National Security Division. She oversaw the departments investigation of Russian election interference and possible Trump campaign involvement until early 2017. Advertisement Thats not the way Ive ever looked at it, McCord said in an interview. Rather, in the case of an investigation involving an elected official, a candidate, someone connected to people running for election, or a similar figure in a case where investigative steps might have an impact on the election, then youve got to think very carefully about those steps. You need to consult with more senior officials in the department. The key here is to not ever do something coming out of the Justice Department that could be interpreted to be for partisan purposes. Advertisement Advertisement Corcoran, who declined to address the Mueller investigation specifically, said that, in general, exceptions to the 60-day moratorium on action would require a compelling case. If the Justice Department learned that material documents or other evidence was about to be destroyed, for instance, prosecutors would seek an exception and issue a search warrant to retrieve the evidence. If the statute of limitations were about to expire on a very serious offense such as a case of corruption, and the candidate is running for re-election, the department might work with the defendants counsel to extend the statute of limitations to after the election, in exchange for holding the indictment until then. Were just not going to allow charges to be filed if theres a good chance they would affect an election, said Corcoran, who now is director emeritus of the Metzger Rule of Law Initiative of the Partnership for Transparency in Washington. But common sense should prevailif there is reason why you have to take one action or another, you will do it. Advertisement In August this year, in cases unrelated to the Mueller investigation, the Department of Justice issued indictments against two Republican members of Congress, both longtime and fervent supporters of Donald Trump. Rep. Chris Collins of New York was charged on Aug. 8 with insider trading, and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California was indicted Aug. 21 on campaign finance violations. Both were running for re-election in November, and both indictments predated the 60-day window, though Hunters fell within the 90-day time frame. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After initially suspending his campaign, Collins restarted it in September. Hunters indictment came too late to remove his name from the ballot, and he has continued his campaign, lashing out at the charges as politically motivated. A judge in September ruled that his trial could be postponed until after the election. Advertisement Its hard to know what stage Muellers investigation is in, as he and his team appear to have been remarkably leak-proof. That hasnt prevented speculation in recent months that he might be finished or close to it, and anticipation spiked in August, as the 60-day pre-election period neared. BuzzFeeds headline on Aug. 29 was typical: Everyones Watching to See What Robert Mueller Does by Next Friday. The story even cited Roger Stone speculating publicly that he or Donald Trump Jr. might be indicted before the 60-day clock started. And as Lawfare managing editor Quinta Jurecic reported on Sept. 3, Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was repeatedly pressuring Mueller to effectively put up or shut uprelease a final report before the 60-day pre-election period begins or hold off until afterward. Just a few days before 60 day run-up to 2018 elections. If Mueller wants to show hes not partisan, then issue a report on collusion and obstruction, Giuliani tweeted on Aug. 25. They will show President Trump did nothing wrong. Then we will have to admit you were fair. And we will. Advertisement Advertisement More recent speculation that Mueller might be finished has been prompted by the departure of several members of his team, most of whom returned to their regular assignments in the Justice Department. Again, the special counsels office was characteristically tight-lipped. And McCord notes that we may not necessarily knowin fact, might be unlikely to knowwhen Mueller submits his report to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Such a transmittal generally isnt public, and even if the fact of the submission leaked, its highly unlikely that anyone would know what it said during that period, according to McCord, who now serves as senior litigator from practice at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Advertisement Advertisement I dont think the mere transmittal of a report to Rod before the election would necessarily be barred during the 60-day period, because its not a public action, McCord said. But Rosenstein likely would lean toward nondisclosure. If Mueller has submitted his report to Rodand I have no reason to believe thats the casebut if he has submitted it, I think Rod would probably think it best to not publicly disclose it until postelection, regardless of the direction the recommendations go, she said. Advertisement McQuade agreed, noting that Mueller is known for being cautious and likely would think carefully about the impact that would have on congressional elections. The question is would this have some impact on the way people vote in the midterm elections that is unfair, McQuade said. By the same token, Mueller and Rosenstein would have to consider whether a decision to refrain from an action before the election would favor some party, especially since none of the principal figures involved are actually on the ballot. Advertisement Ive been part of these discussions, and theyre very difficult, said McQuade, a frequent contributor at Just Security. In any case, the discussions may not involve the Justice Departments Public Integrity Section in this case. Even though special counsels are subject to DOJ rules, regulations, procedures, practices, and policies, according to the Congressional Research Service, they report directly to the attorney general or, in this case of Jeff Sessions recusal, to Rosenstein. That direct line is particularly relevant in the case of the Mueller investigation because of its sensitive nature and because it involves national security and classified information, McCord said. Finally, what would happen to the 60-day standard if within that period there were either a concerted effort to undermine public trust in the investigation itself or specific acts of obstruction that were so great that they could impede the ability of prosecutors either to proceed with the investigation after the election or successfully bring a contemplated action? The policy requires only that prosecutors refrain from selecting the timing of charges or investigative steps for the purpose of influencing an election, McQuade said. If they had another purpose, including protecting the investigation itself, then that would not violate the policy. Specific acts of obstruction likely would drive a discussion at high levels of the department about what to do, McCord said. The answer would depend on a lot of things, including the significance of the investigation being obstructed. Undermining public trust probably would not change the calculus. More from Just Security: Norms Watch: Damage to Democracy and Rule of Law in September 2018 Taking Stock of the FBIs Role in Senate Confirmations After Kavanaugh Donald Trumps attempt to ban transgender Americans from serving openly in the military found possible supporters at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday. During oral arguments over the policy, a conservative-leaning panel of judges indicated that they might reverse an injunction currently safeguarding the rights of transgender troops. It marked the first time that any court has seriously suggested that the ban passes constitutional muster. Trump famously tweeted the ban in July 2017 without consulting military officials in an effort to appease evangelical conservatives. In August 2017, he directed Secretary of Defense James Mattiswho opposed the banto devise an implementation plan. Following the presidents orders, Mattis convened a panel to conduct a study that would provide legal justifications for the policy. By that point, however, four separate federal district courts had blocked the ban, and one federal appeals court had refused to let it go forward. Behind the scenes, Vice President Mike Pence played a major role in creating the report, aided by anti-trans activists Ryan Anderson and Tony Perkins. Relying on this report, the Trump administration once again attempted to impose the ban in March, only be frozen by the courts once again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At this point, Trumps Department of Justice is clearly eager to get this case to the Supreme Court, where, it believes, it can secure five votes to uphold the policy. So it requested, and received, an expedited hearing in the 9th Circuit, asking the appeals court to lift an injunction issued by a federal district court in Washington State. No court has yet found that Trumps ban is anywhere close to constitutional. All four district courts held that it violates basic equal-protection principles by singling out sexual minorities for disfavored treatment. But Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN, which represent the transgender plaintiffs, drew a tough panel on Wednesday: Judges Raymond Fisher, Richard Clifton, and Connie Callahan. Fisher is a liberal lion, but Clifton is a moderate conservative, and Callahan sits on the courts right flank. From the start, Callahan proved extremely skeptical of the district courts conclusion that the 2018 policy is materially different from the earlier iterations. Thats a problem for the plaintiffs. The earliest version of the ban, Trumps initial tweet, was plainly a direct assault on transgender Americans. The 2018 version, by contrast, attempted to disguise this animus in pretext, ostensibly discriminating on the basis of gender dysphoria rather than sex and transgender status. Advertisement Advertisement Im not completely convinced by your argument that the 2018 [policy] is the same as the 2017 [policy], Callahan told Steve Ellis, who represented the plaintiffs. I can see differences. They dont look exactly the same to me. She dismissed the district courts decisionwhich found the new policy to be an extension of the old oneas quite conclusory. Clifton seemed to agree. Lets look what happened in the travel ban case, he said. (Clifton sat on the panel that blocked Trumps first travel ban.) He noted that the Supreme Court put great weight to the fact that Trump rescinded that ban, issued another one, rescinded it, then issued a third, final policy. When the court upheld the third ban in Trump v. Hawaii, Clifton said, it paid deciding attention to the fact that there was a different justification offered in support of the policy. The past history was in the past. Now we have a potentially analogous situation. Advertisement Advertisement Ellis tried to explain that the latest iteration of the transgender troops ban is extremely similar to the first one, calling it lipstick on a pig. There are ample, undisputed facts in the record, he insisted, which establish that this is simply the implementation of the ban that President Trump ordered. But neither Callahan nor Clifton seemed convinced. Callahan suggested that the district court didnt really wrestle with the 2018 report or pay it sufficient deference. Clifton wondered why the court shouldnt pay attention to the justification offered for the revised policy and ignore Trumps earlier, utterly implausible rationales. Advertisement Brinton Lucas, defending the ban for the Justice Department, seized upon Cliftons analogy to the travel ban. This case is on all fours with Trump v. Hawaii, he told the court. There, plaintiffs said the travel ban was a religious gerrymandering targeting Muslims; here, they say the trans troops ban is just a gerrymander to capture transgender status. But the court, Lucas claimed, should take the Trump administration at face value, and conclude that the government has merely enforced a neutral standard that requires service in [ones] biological sex. Advertisement As Joshua Matz wrote in March (quoting Justice Antonin Scalia), this argument taxes the credulity of the credulous. Matz, who authored an amicus brief opposing Trumps policy, pointed out that revised policys effects almost perfectly replicate the prior, discredited policy and mirror the anti-transgender objectives that birthed it. The presidents attempt to launder his animus is laughable. A 44-page report ghostwritten by anti-transgender advocates does not magically transform an unconstitutional assault on sexual minorities into a neutral, lawful policy. Yet both Callahan and Clifton appeared to seriously consider that possibility, raising the prospect of a 21 decision in favor of the Trump administration. (Fisher asked few questions but will almost certainly vote against the ban.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the court does, indeed, uphold the policy, it wont take effect immediately, since the injunctions issued by three other district courts will remain in place. But it will probably compel the plaintiffs to take their case to a decidedly unfriendly Supreme Court. When this litigation began, LGBTQ advocates hinged their hopes on Justice Anthony Kennedy, a swing vote on social issues. He has since been replaced by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who will likely be hostile to transgender rights. Transgender plaintiffs have been on a winning streak for more than a year. But as Wednesdays arguments illustrated, they are now entering very dangerous territory. In August at DEFCON, the annual hackers convention in Las Vegas, J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science and an expert in cybersecurity, brought along several of his Diebold Accuvote TSX voting machines. The Accuvote is a touch-screen voting device known as a direct-recording electronic voting machine, which, as the name suggests, records votes and stores them on a memory device. Haldermans machines were set up as part of the Voting Village, an area dedicated to the cybersecurity of voting machines, where visitors were asked to cast votes in a mock presidential election between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. Advertisement Because this is DEFCON, of course almost everyone thought they were clever and voted for Benedict Arnold, said Halderman. At the end of the mock election, with over 100 votes cast, the machine produced the totals and the winner of the two-man race: the Dark Tangent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just stole an election at @VotingVillageDC. The machine was an AccuVote TSX used in 18 states, some with the same software version. Attackers don't need physical access--we showed how malicious code can spreads from the election office when officials program the ballot design. pic.twitter.com/wa97HWqlv5 J. Alex Halderman (@jhalderm) August 11, 2018 Advertisement That victor, unsurprisingly, was no accident. The Dark Tangent is the hacker name of DEFCON founder Jeff Moss, and before voting began, Halderman had corrupted the machines with malware that overrode all of the recorded votes and replaced them with the homage. Though the context was lighthearted, what Halderman really demonstrated is staggeringly serious: that these kinds of direct-recording electronic voting machinesones that will still be in use in many states come Novemberare not secure from remote hacking. The Center for American Progress recently released a study that highlighted that 42 states use electronic voting machines with software a decade old or more that leaves them especially vulnerable to hacking and malware. Whats more, five states rely solely on machines that leave no paper trail, and another 10 will use them in at least some districts. These paperless voting machines are especially problematic because even if such a machine were known or suspected to have been hacked, theres no physical backup ballot to check it againstand therefore no way to determine for certain whether the vote an individual cast matched with the vote that the machine recorded. Worse still, some of the states with the poorest voting-system security are also electoral heavyweights, including Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Its a state of vulnerability thats especially concerning considering recent warnings from leaders like Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who in July cautioned that the warning lights are blinking red for potentially catastrophic cyberattacks on the nations most important digital infrastructure, including on our election systems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So what is the cure for our voting-system woes? How do we fix such complex and entrenched problems? A growing number of voting-rights advocates and cybersecurity expertsamong them organizations like the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and Verified Votingfeel that the way forward is in a return to the past: paper ballots. This low-tech solutionwhich first gained popularity in the 1830s and later became an object of scrutiny and, after the hanging-chad fiasco of 2000, ignominymay be poised to make a comeback. For one, the hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballot has the appeal of being immune to hacking. Theres no need to for backup ballots to perform audits, and its almost as cheap as paper. But of course, there are reasons these ballots fell out of favor, including that hand-counting paper ballots is time-consuming, inefficient, and potentially prone to human error. Advertisement Marian Schneider, the president of Verified Voting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for transparent and verifiable election processes, says her organization recommends that states use voter-marked paper ballots (marked either by hand or by a ballot-marking device) and then use a scanner to count those votes. That way, she says, you still get the benefits of paper but leverage technology to quickly tabulate those ballots. Advertisement Its an idea that has had some traction at the state level. In 2017, Virginia became the first state after the 2016 elections to completely replace electronic voting machines in all of its cities, towns, and counties with paper ballots and electronic scanners. This change was hailed by voting-rights groups, which hoped it signaled a growing trend. Advertisement Indeed, there is still a concerted effort to get states to follow Virginias example and switch to universal hand-marked paper ballots. Or, at the very least, to require that voting machines produce backup ballots to allow voters to double-check that the machines recorded their votes correctly, and to conduct systematic postelection audits. Advertisement Yet, amid growing national alarm over hacking threats, there is little urgency coming from the White House on issues of election security. Likewise, in the Senate, the Secure Elections Act, a bill that, among other security measures, would have mandated backup paper ballots and postelection audits, recently died in committee due to a lack of Republican support. The failure of federal leadership on the issue has left it to states to step up to better protect their own election processes. Advertisement Advertisement As it stands, 21 states and the District of Columbia will use only paper ballots in the upcoming midterm elections, and another 14 states will use a mix of paper ballots and voting machines that create a paper trail. However, the 15 remaining states will use paperless voting machines in some or all of their districts, and few of those have made recent changes to increase security for their election systems. This includes the state of Georgia, which a group of voters and election-security advocates recently sued in an attempt to block it from using its centrally run system of paperlesss electronic voting machines (the same kind that Halderman hacked for DEFCON) and instead switch to paper ballots. As the Washington Post summarized, the advocates argued that failure to do so would deprive Georgias 6.8 million voters of their constitutional right to vote and the machines themselves were vulnerable to hackingespecially by foreign governments like Russia. A federal judge denied a motion that would have forced the state to make the change in time for the midterm elections. But the same judge also warned that the states posture against fixing the vulnerabilities indicated that State election officials had buried their heads in the sand and that further delay is not tolerable in their confronting and tackling the challenges before the States election balloting system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even in states that use voting machines that do leave a paper trail, only three (Colorado, New Mexico, and Rhode Island) mandate risk-limiting audits, the gold standard in election security that uses statistical models to conduct postelection audits of voter-verified paper records to identify machine errors or other issues that could change the outcome of a race. As a recent Brennan Center report points out, paper records of votes have limited value against a cyberattack if officials dont use them to check the accuracy of the software-generated totals to check for fraud. Given the lack of both federal and state action in time for the midterm elections in November, is there anything a concerned citizen can do on her own to secure her vote? Advertisement Some have suggested that voters who find electronic voting machines at their polling places ask to vote with paper ballots instead. However, this isnt an option everywhere. The rules vary widely from state to state over whether poll workers are allowed to offer paper ballots upon request. In some states, like California, voters who go to their stations on Election Day have the option of voting on a machine or with a paper ballot. Others, like Maryland, explicitly forbid voters who dont want to vote on machines from obtaining paper provisional ballots (a special type of ballot generally reserved for voters whose identity or eligibility to vote is in question and, in some states, the only type of paper ballots available at the polls). In any event, voting-rights groups advise citizens not to use a provisional ballot if it can be avoided. For one, provisional ballots are set aside and counted separately and, sometimes, not counted at all. These ballots can also be rejected (in 2016, for example, 615,000 provisional votes were reported as rejected), and in some cases, the arbiters dont give a specific reason for the rejection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A more certain option for getting a paper ballot is to vote absentee. Although 20 states require an excuse for absentee voting, 27 (plus the District of Columbia) dont, meaning any eligible citizen who requests a mail-in absentee ballot can receive one. Three additional statesOregon, Colorado, and Washingtonconduct vote-by-mail elections (also known as all-mail elections) in which every registered voter receives a mail-in ballot in the post, a sort of absentee voting by default. Opting to cast an absentee ballot provides an especially appealing alternative for residents of Georgia and New Jersey, both states that rely on paperless voting machines but also offer no-excuse absentee voting. (Of course, voters planning on pursuing this option should be mindful of their states deadlines for requesting and mailing in absentee ballots.) Its also an increasingly popular option: Data suggests that as many as one-third of voters will vote absentee or by mail in November. And its one way to get the peace of mind that your vote wont be tampered with electronically. Advertisement The hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballot has the appeal of being immune to hacking. But absentee voting isnt a silver bullet for all the ills that plague our current system. Some people, such as former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling, advocate that all states should scrap traditional polling places altogether and instead switch to universal vote by mail systems like those used in Oregon, Washington, and Colorado (and offered as an option in states such as California) where registered voters automatically receive a ballot in the mail that can either be sent back for the price of a stamp (or, in the case of Washington and soon California, for no cost since the ballots come with prepaid postage) or dropped off at a designated ballot drop-off station. The benefits are multifold: It is less expensive, significantly increases voter participation (especially among younger voters), negates the need for provisional ballots, and is inherently more secure since the mailed-in paper ballots can be audited with confidence. It also saves citizens from contentious voter-ID laws, long waits at the polls, and other same-day voting issues such as getting time off work or caregiving duties or showing up at the wrong precinct. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The traditional polling place, whether it is paper ballots or DRE machines [direct-recording electronic] is the single biggest mechanism of voter suppression in America, says Keisling. Why, at the end of the day, do we place an obstacle between people and their most fundamental constitutional right? If these kinds of vote-by-mail systems offer such a simple fix, why dont all states implement it or at least offer it as an alternative? On its face, voting by mail shouldnt be a partisan issue. In fact, it advances stated conservative goals. It saves the taxpayers money. It eliminates the right-wing bugbear of in-person voter fraud. And it shrinks the size and role of the government. However, since higher turnout in elections generally favors Democrats, many conservative politicians, unsurprisingly, have opposed its spread. Some cite concerns about voter fraud and coercion, though, its worth noting, we havent seen evidence that this is a significant problem in the states that use vote-by-mail systems. Advertisement It may be too late for states to do much more to secure their elections systems for 2018. But for the presidential election in 2020, 33 states will need to replace outdated electronic voting machines. Advocates such as Keisling see this as a fork in the road. States can buy new, more expensive versions of their current voting machines, doubling down with the 10-year service agreements that voting-machine vendors often require and giving them little motivation to choose a more secure alternative down the road. Or they can choose to use paper ballots at polling stations or vote-by-mail systems. Advertisement Some fear that the foundation of our democracyfree and fair electionsis at risk if vulnerable states dont do more to protect the integrity of the ballot box. Even if Russia or some other nefarious actor doesnt successfully hack into a specific voting system or alter voter tallies in November or beyond, a lack of trust in the system alone may be enough to sow general discord, chaos, and mistrust in these foundational democratic institutions. Going forward, its incumbent on election officials not only to protect voting systems against intrusion and sabotage but also to adopt strong contingency plans in case of a breach and be transparent about the entire process with the voters they serve. Citizens need to be reassured that even in the face of serious threats or attacks, their votes will be accurately counted. I dont believe this democracy has ever been on more shaky ground than since the 1860s, says Gregory Miller of the nonprofit Open Source Election Technology Institute. If we lose trust in our democracy we lose our democracy. 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 ... Unrelated to this, a relative of the reporter missing since April 2008, claims that he was murdered. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Journalist Pavol Rypal, missing for more than 10 years, was probably murdered. His sister, Iveta Uhliarikova-Rypalova, is sure he died a violent death, and she wrote so on Facebook on Monday, October 8. Police President Milan Lucansky, who for long years worked on the case of the missing reporter, also confirmed new information for the Sme daily. However, police do not mention murder. Rypal went missing on April 22, 2008. My brother was murdered Now I know that my brother investigative journalist Palo Rypal is no longer alive. I know he was murdered, Uhliarikova-Rypalova wrote on Facebook. She adds for Sme that a witness she managed to find also confirms the murder hypothesis; however, she declined to give details. He was murdered near Zazriva (the Zilina Region in northern Slovakia, according to Uhliarikova, alleging that the case of promissory notes on which he had been working was behind the murder. Police also hint some information about murder. It seems that police have new pieces of information on Rypals disappearance, but they are cagey about evaluating them. I have no information on Palo Rypal being murdered, Lucansky answered for Sme. But it is possible that police have operative information to be checked. Police work with a certain information is currently being checked but we will not specify more in detail, the police communication department wrote in response to the additional question on whether the latest development, means that police checking the operative information suggests Rypals murder. Who was Palo Rypal? As a journalist, Rypal rose to fame in the Plus 7 Dni weekly, where he reported on various criminal cases. He worked for several publishing houses, while having several partial jobs in various media at the same time, Sme wrote. Later, he worked for the private TV Markiza and public STV broadcaster, mostly in cases involving gangland. By the time he disappeared, he was a freelancer. Rypal came from the town of Rajec in northern Slovakia, which he last visited two months before he went missing. Later, he only communicated by phone or via emails. Before he disappeared, he wrote a letter to the owner of the flat he rented. I am sorry but I have found no other way out, he wrote. You can dump my things, he added, signing the letter. Two weeks after he disappeared, Lenka Dale shot a report on him for TV Markiza. By the time it was broadcast, someone on the staff of a hotel in the southern Slovak town of Sturovo recognised him based on a photo. A bus driver who allegedly drove him from Ipelsky Sokolec to Salka pri Sturove thinks he recognised him, too. The Dunajska Streda gangs were mentioned in connection with his disappearance, then led by boss Ludovit Sator. Rypal reported on the local Papays gang and on Sator, who allegedly ordered their murders. Apart from Rypal, another missing journalist is Miroslav Pejko, who last worked as editor on the Hospodarske Noviny daily when he disappeared in 2015. How to prepare for a visit to Slovak spas? Don Stoll and Pat Alexy Stoll have a lot of experiences to share. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/512313207&color=%23096f52&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true If youre in need of some autumn relaxation, a visit to one of Slovakias many spas might give you just what youre looking for. American travellers Don Stoll and Pat Alexy Stoll returned from a two-week-long trip around the country and have a lot of Slovak spa experiences to share in our latest podcast episode. Read also: Read also: The healing waters of Slovakias thermal springs Read more Spectacular Slovakia travel podcast is the latest addition to our range of travel-related products. This programme is part of The Slovak Spectator subscription and our readers are receiving it every Thursday morning as part of their subscription. More information: Print+audio: shop.spectator.sme.sk/newspaper Online+audio: www.sme.sk/predplatne-spectator One World, the international film fest (IFF) of engaged documentaries, starts on October 11 in Bratislava. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The 19th edition of the documentary movies festival, One World / Jeden Svet offers, again, topical issues, including the freedom of work of journalist in general, and the murder of Slovak reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova specifically. The festival, starting on October 11 in Bratislava and lasting until October 16, offers provocative motif Shut Up!, special screening of the Circus Rwanda movie, as well as collection of 18 Slovak and Czech documentaries with English subtitles in main competitive section, organisers informed. Foreign guests, events in English The most attractive guest of One World will be outstanding contemporary historian, writer and Yale professor Timothy Snyder who will attend public discussion in the auditory of the Comenius University on October 15, called The Price for Freedom. Timothy Snyder (Source: Courtesy of Yale University) For October 12, the Stand Up Show of British comedian and polyamory activist Kate Smurthwaite called ForniKATEress: Polyamory In Practice is slated. Visitors of the festival will also get to see fresh Nobel prize nominee, human-rights activist Anna Alboth who is behind the Civil March for Aleppo. She will participate in the In A Living Room cycles discussion With A Refugee on October 14. One day later, the public masterclass of Carles Bosch, the Oscar nominated director, will introduce experience in transforming local stories into universal message. He will show movie clips and talk about making the festival circuit. His film Cuban Rafters will be screened as well. Leitmotif dictated by recent developments As for themes, the festival will be focused on freedom of belief and speech, which has surfaced recently in Slovakia as a hot topic, and become crucial again, even though we though that in this region, we dont have to deal with these issues anymore, head of the organising non-governmental organisation People In Perils / Clovek v ohrozeni, Brano Tichy, noted. Apart from the leitmotif of Kuciak and Kusnirova, this issue will be also reflected upon in the Fates of Freedom by director Jakub Suvada, the film (Russian State vs. Oleh Sentsov, the opening piece of the festival), and discussion on Ukrainian director Oleh Sentsov, as well as some other films and discussions. The light will be shed also on other problems and themes divided into five sections, like marginalised communities, feminism, vegetarianism, social engagement, environmental issues, and some more. After Bratislava, One World will continue to twenty Slovak cities and towns, starting on October 15-18 in Kosice, the organisers informed. The woman who allegedly ordered Jan Kuciak's murder has also been mentioned in the murder of a mayoral candidate in the Slovak town of Hurbanovo. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The ex-mayor of the southern-Slovak town of Hurbanovo, Laszlo Basternak, has reappeared in connection with the more recent killing of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova. Read also: Read also: Balaclavas, handcuffs and submachine guns: the man charged for Kuciaks murder was planning another crime Read more An international investigative media team is continuing Kuciaks work. The website for which the murdered journalist was writing, Aktuality.sk, reported on October 11 in cooperation with the Trend weekly that one name involved in the murder case, Alena Zs., was also mentioned in the case of the mysterious murder of Hurbanovo ex-mayor and mayoral candidate, Laszlo Basternak, back in 2010. "Deadly" election fight In a fierce election fight, when his rival Roman Ostruzlik promised to send him behind bars, Basternak was shot down in front of his house while his wife was present. His son ran out of the house and shot at the hitman. The man was injured and later found in an abandoned hut in the village of Gabcikovo. Evidence proved his guilt and the assassin, Stefan Kaluz, who got shot in his arm, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. The shooting from July 9, 2010 was the third attempt, this time successful, at killing Basternak. Read also: Read also: An unknown translator, a man who owes a million on taxes Read more During the investigation, two names surfaced: Alena Zs. and Zoltan A. However, they have never faced any criminal prosecution, despite knowing Ostruzlik and supporting him in his smear election campaign. The mayoral candidate failed in the Hurbanovo election after Basternak died, paid the two for their financial investment in his campaign and left politics. Currently, he says he regrets ever having entered politics, Aktuality.sk quoted him. It is not clear who hired Kaluz, who first showed interest in testifying, but after being refused trial behind closed doors, remained silent. One of the traces leads to Alena Zs. Kaluz worked for a security company of a Bratislava gang member, so this trace cannot be excluded, either. Police refuse to comment on the case, the website summed up. Tonight at Yonkers Raceway the French-American Friendship Races began and will be followed by events at Monticello Raceway Wednesday and at the Meadowlands on Friday. At the Hilltop oval it was Ladies Night in the first America v France Friendship Race when the USA's Monica Banca scored a one-length triumph with Life Well Lived in 1:58.3 while second place went to Delcrest Massey ,driven by France's Sandrine Oyer, and the ladies had bragging rights after they finished one-two. When the starter said go France's Jerome Malliard sent Ladys Big Stormont to the lead and they were quickly joined by the USA's Joe Faraldo with Tough Get Going and the two trotters raced side by side past the quarter in :28.3 and by the half in :57.4. But when they headed up the backside both horses showed the fatigue of the swift early fractions. It was there that Monica Banca moved Life Well Lived off the pylons and they trotted around Tough Get Going and up alongside Ladys Big Stormont and the two raced head to head past the third stanza in 1:28.1 and around the final turn before Life Well Lived cleared. But as the leader headed for paydirt France's Sandrine Oyer had Delcrest Massey on Banca's back but that was as far as they could go and they had to settle for second money of the $17,500 purse. Third place went to Drazzmatazz, driven by France's Jean Marc Freyssenge. The race tonight certainly showed off the talents of the two ladies who were among the eight drivers who participated in the first Friendship event on American soil. Life Well Lived is owned by Bob Burgess and trained by Carmine Auciello. The four-year-old Muscle Mass gelding paid $16.40. With four races still to go France leads the USA 22-20. (NAADA) With a heavy heart, the family of Standardbred racehorse owner Paulette Brayshaw of Edmonton, who is well known in the Alberta Standardbred industry, has announced that the much-loved matriarch passed away last month (on Sept. 12). Paulette, the beloved mother, sister, grandma, auntie, and a dear friend of so many, will be greatly missed. She is survived by her mother, Lucienne Hebert; sons, Darren (Monique) and Brent (Jo-Anne); Daughter-In-Law, Tracy; Brothers, Dan (Sandra), Clem (Bonnie) and Marcel (Marilynne); sister, Priscilla, as well as her loving grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. Paulette was predeceased by her father, Jean; husband, Denis; sons, Todd and Duanne; brother, Lenard; and sister, Louise. Paulette is well known in the horse racing industry in Alberta, as she was a great friend to everyone and was always there to listen and share in the celebrations with her family and friends at the track. Paulette didnt hesitate to be the shoulder to cry on when there was anyone in sorrow or in need. She was like a mother to so many on the backstretch. Her sewing creations were unique and one of a kind and many at the track and beyond have Paulettes creations in their barns and homes. A celebration of Paulette's life will be held at Northlands Park this coming Saturday (Oct. 13). Please join family and friends in the Chairmans Suite at 12 noon for the celebration of Paulettes life. Everyone is welcome. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Paulette Brayshaw. (With files from ASHA) Wednesday, October 10, 2018 Meanwhile, back in Kentucky, employers are thinking about next steps in the wake of Northern Kentucky Area Development District v. Synder, decided Sept. 27, 2018. There, the Kentucky Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925 ("FAA") does not preempt a Kentucky statute that, among other things, bans employers from making arbitration of employment disputes a condition of employment. Given how at least four US Supreme Court Justices may want to read the FAA, Synder might soon be headed to Washington. The background: The FAA provides that an arbitration agreement "shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract." 9 U.S.C. 2. The US Supreme Court today reads this as "a sort of 'equal-treatment' rule for arbitration contracts" that preempts any law that discriminates against arbitration, either on its face or covertly, such as by interfering with some fundamental attributes of arbitration. Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 138 S.Ct. 1612, 1622 (2018). In 1994, the Kentucky legislature enacted this statute: [N]o employer shall require as a condition or precondition of employment that any employee or person seeking employment waive, arbitrate, or otherwise diminish any existing or future claim, right, or benefit to which the employee or person seeking employment would otherwise be entitled under any provision of the Kentucky Revised Statutes or any federal law. Ky. Rev. Stat. 336.700(2). About a year later, the Sixth Circuit read the FAA workers exemption, 9 U.S.C. 1, to cover only transportation workers. Asplundh v. Tree Expert Co. v. Bates, 71 F.3d 592, 600-02 (6th Cir. 1995); see also Circuit City v. Adams, 532 U.S. 105 (2001)(adopting this view). Some years later, the lawsuit: After getting fired, Danielle Synder sued her former employer, a State government entity, for violating State whistleblower and wage-and-hour law. The employer sought to compel arbitration pursuant to the mandatory arbitration clause in her employment contract. The lower courts denied the employer's motion on the ground that Ky. Rev. Stat. 336.700(2) had rendered that clause unenforceable. So, why doesn't the FAA preempt that statute? In Synder, the Kentucky Supreme Court reasoned that the statute satisfied the FAA's equal-treatment rule, for two main reasons. First, the statutes doesn't single out arbitration clauses. Rather, it treats arbitration as only an example of an agreement that tends to "diminish" a worker's rights, claims, or benefits ("waive, arbitration, or otherwise diminish"). Other examples include "an agreement whereby the employee waives the ability to file a [Kentucky Whistleblower Act] claim against the employer, or an agreement that limits the amount of damages the employee can recover against the employer." Slip Op. at 12. This reasoning implies that the FAA permits Kentucky's statute even though the US Supreme Court reads the FAA as endorsing the idea that employment arbitration does not tend to diminish workers' legal protections. Second, the statute "only proscribes conditioning employment on agreement to arbitration, not the act of agreeing to arbitration." Slip Op. at 9. Thus, the statute does not "invalidate arbitration contracts because they are arbitration contracts; KRS 336.700(2) only invalidates arbitration contracts when the employer evidences an intent to fire or refuse to hire an employee because of that employees unwillingness to sign such a contract. This is not an attack on the arbitration agreementit is an attack on the employer for basing employment decisions on whether the employee is willing to sign an arbitration agreement." Id. at 11. In this respect, the statute is a generally-applicable "antiemployment discrimination provision." Id. at 12. The premise here: Making employment arbitration mandatory (a condition of employment) isn't a fundamental attribute of such arbitration. In so reasoning, the Kentucky Supreme Court did not follow the plaintiff's lead. She'd argued more narrowly: Because her former employer was a political subdivision of the State, the FAA couldn't be read to supplant statutory restrictions on her government employer's powers without raising concerns of "federalism and the Tenth Amendment." It's unclear how much that litigating position will affect the odds that, if asked, the US Supreme Court will hear this case. --Sachin Pandya https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/laborprof_blog/2018/10/kentucky-supreme-court-faa-doesnt-preempt-kentuckys-ban-on-mandatory-employment-arbitration-.html Wednesday, October 10, 2018 A recently filed complaint of the Illinois Administrator alleges On or about April 30, 2017, L.T. was arrested and charged with retail theft. On or about April 30, 2017, L.T. telephoned attorney George Kallas, who had represented her in two prior legal matters, and left him a message asking if he would represent her relating to her April 30, 2017, arrest. Respondent rented an office from Kallas and, as a result, they officed in the same suite. Respondent returned L.T.s phone message on April 30, 2017, identified himself as Kallas partner, and told L.T. that Kallas was not available, and that Kallas had asked him to meet with L.T. on May 1, 2017, regarding her case and to collect a down payment of $500 towards Kallas $2,500 retainer. On May 1, 2017, Respondent met with L.T. at his office. L.T. gave Respondent $500 and he asked L.T. to sign a criminal fee agreement. L.T. signed the agreement and Respondent dated the agreement May 1, 2017, and signed the agreement with his initials "KPW." At that meeting, L.T. told Respondent that she struggled with her emotional and mental health, that she had considered suicide, that she took antianxiety and antidepressant medications as well as a sleep medication which she believed may have led to her unknowingly taking the actions which resulted in the retail theft charges. L.T. further told Respondent that she had recently lost her job, that her home was in foreclosure and that she was living with friends. Respondent also discussed with L.T. some issues with her pending domestic relations matter, stating that Respondent had concerns about her attorneys performance and the fee that he had charged her. In addition, L.T. had been unable to obtain a response filed in an arbitration matter in which she was involved and Respondent offered to get information for her about that matter. As a result of Respondent describing himself to L.T. as Kallas "partner," Respondents action in affixing his initials to the fee agreement, the personal confidences L.T. provided to Respondent at Respondents law office and Respondents indication that he would obtain information about her divorce and arbitration matters, L.T. had a reasonable belief that Respondent was acting as her attorney. After the May 1, 2017, meeting, L.T. attempted to call or text Kallas, asking him to contact her, but Respondent responded to her attempts to communicate with Kallas. As a result, L.T. believed that Kallas wanted Respondent to handle her matter. At no time did L.T. ever meet with or discuss her matter with Kallas. Between May 1, 2017, and May 20, 2017, Respondent sent L.T. several texts asking her how she was feeling, enquiring about her mental state, and asking her to call him. Respondent also advised L.T. in a text that one of her medications, Ambien, is a medication that causes people to sleepwalk. During this period, Respondent and L.T. also spoke on the telephone and he asked her to meet him for breakfast or lunch, which she declined. Respondent asked L.T. to meet him at his office on Saturday, May 20, 2017, at 4:45 pm to discuss the information that Respondent had obtained on L.T.s behalf. When L.T. arrived at Respondents office building on May 20, 2017, Respondent was waiting for her in his car. Respondent used his keys to unlock and enter the building and his office suite and then locked the door behind him. Respondent and L.T. were the only people present in Respondents office. Respondent started the meeting by accessing L.T.s records on the DuPage County Courts website. He pulled a second chair close to him so that he and L.T. could review the records together. Respondent said he thought her lawyer was overbilling her. As they finished their review, Respondent put his arm around her and touched her arm and legs. Respondent complimented her earrings and touched her hair, telling her how attractive she was to him. L.T. stood up with the intention of leaving and Respondent pulled her onto his lap and began massaging her shoulders. L.T. told him that she didnt do things like that and that he was married and Respondent told L.T. that he hadnt had sex with his wife in 18 months. Respondent then led L.T. to an adjacent area to sit on a couch, took off his suit coat and her jacket. Respondent then stood L.T. up and restrained her by pinning her against a wall. Respondent exposed his penis to L.T. and pulled her hand towards him and forced her hand to touch his penis twice. L.T. withdrew her hand both times. Respondent pulled L.T.s hand to his penis a third time, at which point Respondent ejaculated on both his and her clothing. Respondent pulled up his pants and left to retrieve her purse, unlocked the office door and they exited the building at the same time. Respondent said he would call her and got into his car and left. L.T. went quickly to her car and locked the door. She texted a friend, J., about what had just happened in her meeting with Respondent while sitting in her car. L.T. was shocked and frightened by Respondents actions, and upset and disoriented so that she was initially unable to drive and had to search for directions to her home on her GPS. During the events described...above, L.T. repeatedly told Respondent that she did not want to have sexual contact with him. Because she believed the door to be locked and was frightened of Respondent, she did not attempt to leave the office. On the morning of May 21, 2017, L.T. went to the Glen Ellyn Police Department and made a police report about the May 20, 2017 incident at Respondents office. The attorney has been charged with battery. The bar complaint also alleges that he made false statements to the police through his attorney The statements made by Respondents attorney to the Glen Ellyn police on Respondents behalf...were false, and Respondent knew they were false because Respondent knew that he had in fact engaged in sex acts with L.T. Respondent did not assert his 5th amendment rights or simply deny his involvement in any crime. Respondent allowed his counsel to specifically deny his involvement in the conduct and to furnish affirmatively false information about which Respondent knew the police detectives were seeking to acquire information. He initially denied the charged encounter to disciplinary authorities but later On May 21, 2018, Respondent appeared at the ARDC with this attorney, Frank Valenti to give a sworn statement in relation to the investigation initiated by L.T. Respondent was sworn under oath and was asked about his contact with L.T. in his meeting with her on May 20, 2017. At that time, Respondent admitted that sexual contact had occurred between Respondent and L.T. on May 20, 2017 and stated that L.T. was not Respondents client; she was only Mr. Kallass client (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/10/a-recently-filed-complaint-of-the-illinois-administrator.html Wednesday, October 10, 2018 A suspension of three months and until further order was imposed by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department In April 2014, respondent agreed to prepare a notice of claim on behalf of a client, V., who wanted to sue the City of New York for injuries sustained as the result of a slip-and-fall inside a building owned and operated by the New York City Housing Authority. Respondent failed to enter into a retainer agreement with V. Respondent falsely informed V., and then later falsely testified at his examination under oath before the Committee, that he had filed the notice of claim. Respondent further testified that V.'s file, along with other client files, may have been in his car when seized by the Department of Transportation (DOT) for nonpayment of parking tickets. Respondent did not recover his car from the impound lot because the value of his car was less than the total amount due on the tickets and related towing and impound fees. Sometime in June 2017, respondent mailed two money orders totaling $1,000 to his prior client, S., whom respondent had previously represented in a criminal matter. The money orders were sent to S. while he was incarcerated. However, because respondent had not signed the money orders, the correctional institution considered them to be contraband. Pursuant to the correctional institution's instructions, S. returned the money orders to respondent on or about June 21, 2017 explaining the situation. In a letter dated July 10, 2017, the correctional institution assured S. that the money orders had been mailed to respondent. On July 11, 2017, S. wrote to respondent asking if he had received the money orders, but respondent failed to answer the letter. On July 18, 2017, S. spoke with respondent, who informed S. that he had not received the money orders back from the correctional institution. On July 20, 2017, the correctional institution's Correspondence Unit confirmed that the money orders had been mailed to respondent a month earlier, on June 22, 2017. On July 29, August 10, and August 15, 2017, S. again wrote to respondent, but he failed to respond to any of these letters. In late August 2017, S. filed a complaint against respondent with the Grievance Committee. On September 29, 2017, the Committee mailed the complaint to respondent and requested that he answer the complaint within 20 days; respondent did not do so. On November 6, 2017, the Committee sent a certified letter, which was delivered on November 9, 2017, again requesting that respondent answer the complaint, but he failed to respond. On December 5 and December 15, 2017, the Committee left voicemails for respondent concerning his failure to answer the complaint, but he still did not respond. On December 18, 2017, the Committee sent respondent a third letter, and again requested an answer within 10 days. On December 26, 2017, the Committee received respondent's answer, which was dated December 11, 2017. In his answer, respondent stated that he had received the money orders "sometime in mid-October," admitted that he had agreed to return money to S., and represented that he would do so within "the next 30 days". According to the parties' joint affirmation, dated June 26, 2018, as of April 24, 2018 respondent has failed to send the money orders to S. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/10/a-suspension-of-three-months-and-until-further-order-was-imposed-by-the-new-york-appellate-division-for-the-first-judicial-de.html Tuesday, October 9, 2018 The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board proposes a stayed year and a day suspension of an attorney who had used entrusted funds for personal purposes. The reason from the hearing committee The evidence supports the conclusion you intentionally utilized funds from your trust account to support your addition [sic] to prescription pain medications; specifically, OxyContin. You have since submitted to a 90-day inpatient treatment program and have executed a five-year recovery agreement with the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program. The attorney is required to participate in the JLAP program as told by the hearing committee After an attorney he worked with died of a heroin overdose, and during the time he was under investigation by the ODC, Respondent entered an inpatient drug rehabilitation facility, Palmetto Addiction Recovery Center, where he resided for 95 days. He signed a Recovery Agreement in which he agreed to forego drug or alcohol use (Tr. p. 55). After being discharged from the drug rehab facility he voluntarily agreed to taking drug tests, and has had 24 such drug tests at Affinity Health facility (Tr. pp. 87-88) He has also regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at the John Calvin Presbyterian Church. He continues to be a regular participant in AA, and testified that he had not drunk alcohol or used drugs since he left the inpatient facility (Tr. pp. 51-55). J.E. Buddy Stockwell, III, Executive Director of Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program also testified. He first met Respondent in March, 2016, and found him to be so open, that he badly wanted help (Tr. p. 75). Respondent signed a five year monitoring agreement, and also agreed to go to 90 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in the first 90 days after his inpatient discharge which he did. (Tr. p. 77). The multiple drug tests that he has taken following his discharge have all been negative (Tr. pp. 87-88). Mr. Stockwell testified that he did not have any concerns currently about Respondent relapsing. (Tr. p. 94). The misconduct came to light when a trust account $600 check bounced. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/10/the-louisiana-attorney-disciplinary-board-proposes-a-stayed-year-and-a-day-suspension-of-an-attorney-who-had-used-entrusted-f.html Election season is in full flourish in Luxembourg. The campaigns are racing to the end of the period during which theyre allowed to do their work. But only Luxembourg citizens are allowed to vote. Should an expat take an interest in the process anyway? Well, one answer is that they dont. Expats in Luxembourg are frequently seen as living in a bubble. They live and work here, but they arent very interested in local politics and elections, most of all, leave many of them yawning. If its not about traffic conditions or parking issues, it just doesnt interest them. Even when they have the right to vote, as they do in municipal and European elections, most of them just dont bother. In the last elections in 2017, only 22.8% of non-Luxembourg nationals bothered to register to vote. Many say they just dont know enough about the issues to vote. Learning about whats going on is just part of your generalised civic duty. But many approach learning about this country as they do learning Luxembourgish (if youre not British and desperate to retain your right to work). For many, its just too much effort for what they see as too limited a payoff, since, they argue, nobody speaks Luxembourgish outside of Luxembourg but its as hard as learning an international language. They'd rather keep on reading about goings-on in their home countries. But there are plenty of good reasons to take advantage of any opportunity youre given to have an impact on the system. There are many issues being debated which impact expats just as much as citizens. While Luxembourgers massivelyby 78.02%rejected a referendum on allowing non-citizens to vote, and most expats cant vote in this years national elections, there are plenty of other ways to have an impact. Theres the good old writing a letter to the editor. You could join a group working on whatever your issue is. But Luxembourg also has a very potent public petitions process. You can set up a petition easily and submit it for approval. If it is, and the commission judging petitions has been very-open minded, you just need to convince 4,499 other residents to sign it. If you do, your petition is automatically given a hearing at the national legislature. There are signs that expats and non-citizens more generally are very slowly opening themselves up to being engaged with this polity: From the 2011 local and European elections to the 2017 edition, 5,000 non-Luxembourgish electors added themselves to the registration lists. ---- Mike Gordon is a long-term Luxembourg expat (who votes whenever he can) currently employed as an editor at RTL Today. The TransGriot is available for speaking engagements, college lectures, panel discussions, media interviews, conferences or Trans 101 education efforts for your school, business or professional organizations. For local Houston area, Texas or national events, you can e-mail me at transgriot@yahoo.com For events outside the Houston metro area, I ask that my travel and lodging expenses be covered. This is separate from my speaking fee. If you are interested in having me appear as a speaker or panelist, you can e-mail me with the date and details of your proposed event. Please book as early as possible because my speaking and event calendar slots during the year rapidly fill up. Controversial horse race The Everest will screen on Seven this Saturday, along with the Caulfield Guineas. Bruce McAvaney, Hamish McLachlan and Jason Richardson, are hosts with expert commentary by Peter Moody, Richard Freedman and Katelyn Mallyon, and reports from Abbey Gelmi, Emma Davenport and Jessica Ridley, and Chris Symons. Defending champion Redzel saddles up in the Everest the worlds richest race on turf alongside a crack field of 11 other runners vying for $13 million in prizemoney over 1200m at Randwick. In the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas, The Autumn Sun will jump a short-priced favourite after the colt drew perfectly in barrier 5 yesterday. A strong field is also assembling for the 2000m Caulfield Stakes, including last years Cox Plate runner-up Humidor, and three internationals; Cliffs of Moher and Godolphins Benbatl and Blair House. Saturday October 13 Sydney 12.00pm Live on Channel 7 and 7plus, 5.30pm Live on 7TWO and 7plus Melbourne 12.00pm Live on Channel 7 and 7plus, 5.30pm Live on 7TWO and 7plus Brisbane 11.00am Live on Channel 7 and 7plus Adelaide 11.30am Live on Channel 7 and 7plus Perth 9.00am Live on 7TWO and 7plus, 12.00pm Live on Channel 7 and 7plus As any producer knows it takes a long time to get an Australian drama on the air. But partnering with Netflix has been creatively satisfying for Pine Gap producer Lisa Scott. The genesis of the ABC / Netflix co-production stems back to 2014 ANZAC Girls when ABC asked the Screentime team what else they had in the works. Writers Greg Haddrick & Felicity Packard put forward Pine Gap. Fast-forward to 2018 and Netflix had come on board (Scott declines to detail who is financing the bigger slice of the pie) and filming was underway. The fictional drama set around the joint Australian-US facility proved to be an ideal drama backdrop for a co-production. They didnt even know where Pine Gap was, she says of Netflix. They didnt understand its significance to America and they didnt realise its a place with a true 50 / 50 relationship (between 2 countries). So rather than a forced US / Australian co-production, it was the most natural they could envisage. That helped with casting in terms of the Department of Arts & Communications and the union as to why we wanted to bring Parker Sawyers and Steve Toussaint into the country. We dont have a very deep pool of Afro-American men in Australia. Ive worked with a couple but for these particular roles, these guys fitted the bill. You have to audition because Netflix dont know anybody. Netflix were invested in scripts, design and casting. That led to actors with vast experience all forced to go before the cameras for US execs. One of the really exciting things was we said to every actor, You have to audition because Netflix dont know anybody. And all the agents embraced that, Scott explains. But in the 10 week shoot in South Australia and Alice Springs earlier this year, Netflix was less hands-on affording Screentime some creative freedom. ABCs early involvement lands them the World TV Premiere (it debuts at the Adelaide Film Festival tonight) and iview in Australia, Netflix has rest-of-world rights and later for streaming in Australia. I dont think you need to legislate it as long as we still have the quotas Pine Gap is one of the few local co-productions for Netflix, the upcoming Tidelands will be its first fully-funded local drama. While debate rages both here and overseas about local quotas, Scott believes market forces will address it. If you want to be a player in a local market, you have to commission local drama. My personal view is I dont think you need to legislate it as long as we still have the quotas applicable to Australian television. If those go away then its a different ball game, she continues. Ive had the benefit of my children growing up listening to Australian voices and watching Australian stories, that we didnt have. I grew up on a world of American television: Happy Days, Gilligans Island, Hogans Heroes, MASH, Lost in Space. The only Australian dramas coming through were Number 96 but I was 10 years old and wasnt allowed to watch it. Then slowly it was Division 4, The Sullivans, and it started creeping up. Its much cheaper to buy American drama than make Australian, we all know that. But I think its really important for Australian children to hear Australian voices. Do not dishonour the power of television. It was prolific US producer Edward R. Pressman who also gave her some advice she has never forgotten. Pressmans films include Wall Street, The Crow, Badlands, Das Boot and Reversal of Fortunes. He fostered the careers of filmmakers including Brian De Palma, Terrence Malick, Oliver Stone, Kathryn Bigelow, David Byrne, & Jason Reitman. Ed Pressman said to me Do not dishonour the power of television. You have the ability to change peoples perceptions,' Scott recalls. When you see things on television that are a mirror to the society we live in, they become the norm. Indigenous characters on Love Child or Water Rats and Janet King. (Diverse) sexuality becomes the norm thats how powerful television is. Pine Gap features a diverse cast, including Indigenous performers, alongside stars Steve Curry, Jacqueline McKenzie, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Tess Haubrich, Parker Sawyers and Steve Toussaint. The 6 part series tests the relationship between the Australian and American intelligence analysts working at the facility, as the world inches closer to war. The themes we are exploring here are secrets between countries, workmates, companions and couples, says Scott. Everyone has their secrets. Pine Gap launches with a double episode 8:30pm Sunday on ABC. Every year there is an attempt by oceanographers and marine scientists to carry out ecosystem mapping of the Barents Sea, which is located north of Russia and Norway, according to the Barent Observer. A vast number of marine species are mapped, with important tests on water, sediment, pollution and microplastic all made which provide a huge insight into the health of the ecosystem. This offers vital data for policymakers on where marine life can and cannot be fished, as well as giving an insight into climate change impacts. Together, both Russian and Norwegian scientists work together to carry out the extensive research. However, this year, Russian marine researchers were unable to carry out their role in the important scientific process. This will have a detrimental impact on the scientific study and understanding of the area. The annual ecosystem and Environment mapping of the sea is considered crucial for understanding ongoing major environmental change, as a result of anthropogenic activities and climate change. Technical problems with research vessel brings a halt to operations The annual Barents Sea expedition is renowned as one of the world's most comprehensive ocean mapping programs. The whole of the sea is mapped with hundreds of measurements taken across the area, from the sea floor to the surface and from the coasts to the edge of the northern ice caps. However, 34-year-old vessel Vilnyus was to blame for the inability of Russian researchers to carry out their ecosystem mapping. The ageing ship experienced a consecutive range of technical problems, including issues with wiring, that resulted in major parts of the Russian's research area not being mapped. These scientists have found plastic in every area of the Arctic; there are about 225 trillion particles in the whole of the Barents Sea. Drowning in Plastic | tonight | 8.30pm | @BBCOne https://t.co/34t3gcWgHb pic.twitter.com/FO2CkLrmJA BBC (@BBC) October 1, 2018 Huge implications expected for scientific understanding The scientists will now not have a complete understanding of the area and its ecosystem this year, while there will also be a resulting time gap in the continuing data series. The huge annual task of ecosystem mapping the Barents Sea started 14 years ago and in that time researchers have seen startlingly rapid changes in the marine environment. Atle Staalesen wrote for Barent Observer earlier this month and noted that researchers have found that the sea has been rapidly warming over the last decade which could, in turn, have huge impacts on migratory fish species. It is thought that more southern species will now start to move into the area, with previously inhabiting species moving further north in order to finder cooler waters. the Polar Cod has already been proven to show this migratory pattern as a result of the changing conditions. However, without this year's research and data scientists cannot be sure of the current situation, predict future ecosystem health or make decisions on fishing regulations as a result. Last year, the mapping findings were vital evidence to allow for the reopening of the catch on Capelin, a species previously near extinction, while the data is also used to determine annual Cod quotas. Al-Shabaab militants announced late on Tuesday the group had executed five people it believed were spies: AP Somali-based militant group al-Shabaab has executed five men it claims were spying for British, US and Somali intelligence agencies. The east African jihadist faction announced via radio that the killings had taken place in a public square in Jilib, a town in the Middle Jubba region, late on Tuesday. Eyewitnesses reported the men were tied to poles and shot by a firing squad shortly after a self-proclaimed judge sentenced them to death. Mohamed Abu Abdalla, al-Shabaabs governor for Jubba, told Reuters news agency a 32-year-old British man named Awale Ahmed Mohamed was among those killed by forces. [He] spied for MI6 and he came from Britain to Somalia to establish Islamic State, Mr Abdalla added. Al-Shabaab claims three of the men spied for the US and helped guide drones to carry out strikes in Somalia, while another supposedly worked for the Somali government. The UK, US and Somali governments have yet to respond to the reports. The Independent has contacted the Foreign Office for comment. Founded in 2006, al-Shabaab is sub-Saharan Africas deadliest jihadi group, operating mainly in Somalia but also known to conduct attacks in neighbouring Kenya. Members of the organisation are aiming to overthrow Somalias weak but UN-backed government and impose strict Islamic law based on the ultra-conservative Wahhabi doctrine. The al-Qaeda-affiliated groups grip on the African nation has been weakening since it was pushed out of the capital, Mogadishu, by African Union peacekeepers in 2011. However, despite losing territory in recent years, al-Shabaab continues to carry out deadly attacks within Somalia, including a truck bombing in October 2017 that killed more than 500 people. The Somali government and US military have been beefing up an offensive against the group in recent weeks. US drones often carry out strikes against the militants, with the Pentagon announcing it killed one jihadist fighter in an air strike in southern Somalia over the weekend. Additional reporting by agencies Chilean President Sebastian Pinera talks during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Germany, October 10, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Thomson Reuters BERLIN (Reuters) - Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said on Wednesday that he was prepared to negotiate further with Bolivia in the countries' long-runnning border dispute, but said Bolivia must first give up its demand for access to the sea through Chilean territory. "It must be quite clear that the 1904 border agreement between Chile and Bolivia is recognized," he told reporters during a visit to Berlin. "Bolivia must give up its absurd demand for access to the sea and to Chilean territory." On Oct. 1 the International Court of Justice ruled that landlocked Bolivia cannot force Chile to negotiate over granting it "sovereign access" to the Pacific Ocean. (Reporting by Michelle Martin, editing by Thomas Escritt) See Also: The Countess of Wessex has done it again - worn an outfit that we wish was hanging up in our wardrobe. The gorgeous 53-year-old is currently on a two-day official visit to Latvia with husband Prince Edward and on Tuesday evening, the royal couple joined Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis and Latvia's First Lady Iveta Vejone for an evening dinner at Riga Castle and wore the most stunning glittery, full-length gown that would be perfect for a Christmas party. The show-stopping frock was close-fitting and ultra-glamorous and hugged her slim shape. She added delicate drop earrings, her trusty Chanel watch and wore her trademark blonde hair up in a sleek chignon. sophie-wessex-glitter-dress Sophie looked stunning in her floor-length dress (President lv) It appears that silver is the royal's favourite colour at the moment. Last week, during a whistle-stop tour of France, the mother-of-two wowed at an evening event at private club Le Cercle de L'Union Interaillee - at the hotel Perrinet de Jars. Sophie teamed her simple black button-down top with a fabulous metallic-pleated skirt in a shimmering silver. Loading the player... The skirt is by Emilia Wickstead - one her favourite designers - and it retails at 1015 from Net-a-Porter. The glistening fabric is made from luxurious lurex, and looked particularly shimmery as it caught the light. The royal added black court shoes, subtle jewellery and carried a smart black clutch bag. MORE: The Countess of Wessex releases her inner rock chick with a funky leather jacket and pastel dress On a visit to the Latvian National Library on Monday, the royal wore a striking floral coat dress by Erdem, which she had worn before. The stunning ensemble featured an eye-catching botanical print in purple and green, and had a lapels, and a flared hem. Sophie last wore the getup on Christmas Day last year when she joined the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at a church service in Sandringham. READ: The Countess of Wessex, 53, surprises in outfit fit for fashion week Eleanor Wilson is accused of having drink-fuelled sexual intercourse with the teenager on a British Airways flight (PA) A teacher accused of having sex with a student in the toilet of a plane as they returned from a school trip faces a potential retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict. The four men and six women were discharged after deliberating for 10 and a half hours over three days following the trial of Eleanor Wilson at Bristol Crown Court. Judge Peter Blair QC, the Recorder of Bristol, stopped the trial after the jury foreman informed him there was not a realistic prospect of reaching majority verdicts on any of the four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust that Wilson faced. The 29-year-old was on trial accused of having drink-fuelled sexual intercourse with the teenager on a British Airways flight home from an overseas camping trip in August 2015. It is alleged the teacher, then aged 26, kissed and cuddled the boy before beckoning him into the toilet where they allegedly had sex, with 6ft 2in Wilson perched on one leg, before returning to their seats. She is also accused of seeing the boy outside of school where they allegedly kissed and cuddled on three separate occasions, after a meal at Nandos and trips to Tintern Abbey and Ashton Court. Wilson denied four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust (PA) Judge Blair told the panel: I am going to discharge you now from returning verdicts on this indictment but can I extend my grateful thanks to you on behalf of the court service for all the work you have been doing for the last three and a half weeks. This happens from time to time. Every year I keep a spreadsheet of trials that I do and the outcomes that there are, and each year there are quite a number of juries that have the same perfectly legitimate outcomes as this, what we call a hung jury. It is part of the system and you shouldnt in any way beat yourselves up about it. Virginia Cornwall, prosecuting, asked for seven days for the Crown Prosecution Service to consider whether it wished to seek a retrial. READ MORE FROM YAHOO NEWS UK Pope Francis says abortion is like hiring a hitman to solve a problem This is now the worlds most powerful passport for travel freedom University pulls Brexit debate because there were no women on the panel Two Britons killed in taxi among nine dead in Majorca flash floods Christian bakers win Supreme Court ruling that they discriminated against Support Gay Marriage cake Story continues Within weeks of the Ms Wilson and the boy returning from the trip, rumours had spread around the school that Wilson was in a relationship with a student. But when confronted by the head teacher she denied it, saying she was horrified at the accusation. At the same time, Wilson discovered she was pregnant and went on to have an abortion, with prosecutors claiming the boy was the father. The court heard their clandestine relationship was exposed months later when another pupil at the school tried to blackmail Wilson into having sex with him. The Royal Navy Reservist said she formed a friendship with the boy because she had no friends of her own age she could confide in. Wilson told the court the boy had imagined the incident in the toilet and also denied holding his hand and kissing him during time alone, insisting there was no truth whatsoever in the allegations. She also accused her then partner Andrew Hall of being violent and controlling and not being ready to start a family with her. The teenager, who bought Wilson flowers and chocolates, told the jury a bond developed between them and insisted his account was not fantasy and that he was telling the truth. Mr Hall described their relationship as dysfunctional but denied he was controlling, jealous, aggressive and physical towards her. Wilson, of The Rope Walk, Dursley, Gloucestershire, was released on unconditional bail. We cannot accept comments on this article for legal reasons. Irelands Data Protection Commission recently launched a new investigation into Facebook. Now its getting new staff to deal with the heavy workload. Photo: Omar Marques/Getty Images The Irish regulator tasked with probing Facebooks latest hacking incident is set to hire another 40 staff and receive millions in new funding to pursue its investigations. Irelands Data Protection Commission said on Tuesday it was getting another 3.5m (3m, $4m) to pursue its investigations into data breaches affecting European Union citizens. The 30% budget boost in 2019 will be used to hire 40 new staff, it said in a written statement. The European Union put new data privacy rules into effect in May that compel local and international companies to take extra care to protect and shield the data of its hundreds of millions of citizens. Those that do not abide by the strict rules called GDPR will be investigated and can face harsh penalties. International firms that break the laws could be forced to pay a penalty equivalent to 4% of their global annual revenue. The Irish agency launched its first high-profile investigation earlier this month into Facebook (FB), to see if the social media company broke EU data privacy rules after hackers gained login details for about 50 millions accounts. The agency said it would probe whether Facebook implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security and safeguarding of the personal data it processes. If Facebook broke the rules, the agency could levy a penalty in excess of $1.6bn. Helen Dixon, the commissioner for Data Protection at the Irish agency, said the new funding would give the agency a much-needed boost. The governments recognition of the need to fund an independent and well-resourced data protection authority is very much to be welcomed, she said in a statement. Since the new GDPR rules went into effect in May, the Irish agency has received 2,500 data and privacy breach notifications, which is roughly three times more than the same period last year. By James Pomfret HONG KONG (Reuters) - Some Hong Kong lawmakers walked out of the Legislative Council as city leader Carrie Lam was about to give her annual policy address on Wednesday, protesting against the rejection of a work visa for a senior British journalist. Chanting "Protect media freedoms" and holding placards that said "Free Press. No Persecution", around a dozen pro-democracy lawmakers left the chamber before Lam gave a 45-minute speech laying out policy priorities for the former British colony. The protest came after Hong Kong last week rejected a visa renewal application from Victor Mallet, the Asia editor for the Financial Times newspaper, who in August hosted a speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club by a pro-independence activist. Hong Kong authorities and Lam have so far refused to explain the visa decision. Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" principle, with the guarantee of a high degree of autonomy and freedoms, including freedom of the press, not enjoyed elsewhere in China. But talk of independence is anathema to Communist Party rulers in Beijing. "We were expressing our anger and disgust at Carrie Lam," said pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo who took part in the protest. "She is practically turning Hong Kong into an international joke ... She's quite determined to rule by fear." The FCC, one of Asia's leading press clubs, said it neither endorsed nor opposed the views of its speakers, but was an institution defending the right to free speech. The visa denial has kicked off a storm of protest and has drawn criticism from the United States and Britain. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday suggested the visa rejection was "politically motivated" and he called on authorities to reconsider. Critics say China's authoritarian reach is creeping further into Hong Kong. "Authorities in mainland China routinely restrict peoples ability to engage in peaceful advocacy and public discussions on grounds of 'national security' by using this vaguely and broadly defined concept as a pretence to place unjustified restrictions on the exercise of these freedoms," Amnesty International wrote in a statement. Story continues "The government in Hong Kong also seems to be pursuing a broadened concept of 'national security'." "RED LINE" Since taking office last July, Lam has faced several challenges including an economy and financial markets left vulnerable by the U.S.-China trade war, and one of the world's most expensive property markets. Political tensions between democracy and independence activists resisting China's tightening grip on the city have continued to simmer. In her speech, Lam gave her strongest warning yet against those seeking to split Hong Kong from China. "Hong Kong will not tolerate any acts that advocate Hong Kong's independence and threaten the country's sovereignty, security and development interests. "We will fearlessly take actions against such acts according to the law in order to safeguard the interests of the country and Hong Kong," Lam wrote in a full text version of her address. Senior Chinese officials including President Xi Jinping have warned any undermining of national sovereignty is a "red line" that cannot be crossed. Some Chinese officials and pro-Beijing politicians have stepped up calls in recent months for Hong Kong to enact new national security laws under Article 23 of the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law. This provision states that Hong Kong must enact laws to prohibit acts of treason, secession, sedition and subversion against the Chinese government. An attempt to introduce such legislation in 2003, however, drew nearly half a million protesters on to the streets, leading to its eventual shelving. Lam reiterated in her policy address that Hong Kong is duty-bound to enact such laws, but only when there is a "favourable social environment". She didn't specify a timeframe. "This issue has aroused extensive public concern and intense discussion on the legislation for Article 23," she said. "I will listen to these views earnestly and explore ways to enable the Hong Kong society to respond positively to this constitutional requirement." (Reporting by James Pomfret, Clare Jim, Donny Kwok; Editing by Darren Schuettler, Neil Fullick and Nick Macfie) GENEVA (Reuters) - The supply of food remains precarious in North Korea, where one in five children is stunted by malnutrition, the United Nation's food agency said on Tuesday. More than 10 million North Koreans, nearly 40 percent of the population, are undernourished and need humanitarian aid, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. WFP, which provides fortified cereals and enriched biscuits to 650,000 women and children each month, may have to cut its nutrition and health programs again because it lacks funding, WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel said. WFP and the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) are among only a few aid agencies with access to North Korea, which suffered a famine in the mid-1990s that killed up to 3 million people. "Despite some improvements this year, humanitarian needs across DPRK remain high with chronic food insecurity and malnutrition widespread," Verhoosel told a Geneva news briefing. He was referring to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name for North Korea. Some donors and companies, including shipping companies, have been reluctant to fund or to get involved in aid programs for North Korea, although humanitarian work is excluded from sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council on North Korea for its nuclear and missile program, he said. "We cannot wait for political or diplomatic progress to support a civilian population and to basically work on a humanitarian agenda," he said. The United States, the WFP's largest donor overall, is not among current donors to its program in North Korea, which include France, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, and the Russian Federation, he said. The WFP, which appealed this year for $52 million for North Korea, needs $15.2 million to fund its programs over the next five months and avoid further cuts to its food assistance, he said. Critical funding shortfalls meant this year the agency was forced to leave 190,000 children in kindergartens without nutritional support, he said. Story continues (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, editing by Larry King) See Also: BEIRUT (AP) Syrian President Bashar Assad granted general amnesty on Tuesday to army deserters both within Syria and those outside the country, a move that could boost the return of refugees who fled violence in their war-torn country. The decree, published by state media, said the amnesty did not include "criminals" and those on the run unless they turn themselves in to authorities. Deserters in Syria have four months to do so; those abroad have six months. Since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, tens of thousands of people have either deserted their posts or defected and joined rebels trying to remove Assad from power. The amnesty also includes draft dodgers. The new amnesty does not include army defectors, some of whom are still fighting against the government, mostly in the northwestern province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the country. The amnesty could encourage the return of refugees, some of whom have not been able to go back home because they were blacklisted for running away from military service. Other men have feared that if they return they would be punished or forced to join the military. Aron Lund, a Syria expert with the Century Foundation, wrote in a tweet on the amnesty: "Can't overestimate how important this is for many Syrians: conscription has been a major, major driver of exile, and draft issues_own or in family_stop many non-political refugees from returning." More than 5 million Syrians have fled their country since the conflict began, while million others have been internally displaced. The seven-year war has also killed more than 400,000 people and left more than a million wounded. The decree comes at a time when government forces have managed over the past year to capture wide areas once held by insurgents, including in southern Syria and the eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus. In some areas, the government reached reconciliation deals with rebels who were given amnesty in return for amnesty. Story continues The flashpoint in Syria is now in Idlib, where insurgents have been withdrawing their heavy weapons from a demilitarized zone agreed upon between Turkey and Russia last month. The deal sough to avoid a wide government offensive on the province. On Monday, Turkey's official news agency reported that Syrian rebels finished withdrawing all their heavy weapons from the front lines in implementation of the deal reached last month that's expected to demilitarize a stretch of 15-20 kilometers (9-12 miles) along the front lines by Oct. 15. See Also: FILE PHOTO: Imported cars are parked in a storage area at Sheerness port, Sheerness FILE PHOTO: Imported cars are parked in a storage area at Sheerness port, Sheerness, Britain, October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's automotive industry on Wednesday launched a "Brexit Readiness Programme" to help safeguard its supply chain in the event of a "no deal" exit from the European Union. Carmakers are worried that port and motorway hold-ups could slow the movement of components and finished models, crippling output and adding costs, if Britain fails to reach agreement with the European Union over its departure from the bloc on March 29. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the UK industry's trade body, said its programme highlighted "a contingency planning minefield", with changes to regulations, onerous customs processes, tariffs and restricted access to talent among the challenges facing the sector in a "no deal" scenario. The SMMT said its programme was particularly aimed at providing support for small and medium sized companies (SMEs), who make-up the vast majority of Britain's automotive supply chain. Phase one of the readiness programme will see legal and accountancy firms offer advice and consultancy services on trade and tax arrangements outside of the EU, customs procedures and adapting to regulation changes from chemicals to data protection, employment law and immigration. "A no-deal Brexit could have devastating consequences. With the clock ticking on negotiations, businesses must plan for all eventualities, including the worst," said SMMT CEO Mike Hawes. (Reporting by James Davey. Editing by Jane Merriman) Venezuela Maduro drone assasination attempt still from video Thompson Reuters A jailed Venezuelan opposition lawmaker died while in custody. Fernando Alban, 56, was jailed last Friday for his alleged involvement in the explosion of two drones during a military parade that was led by President Nicolas Maduro. Venezuelas government said he killed himself by jumping from the 10th floor of the state intelligence agency headquarters where he was being held. But Alban's party asserts that he was murdered by the government. CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelas government said on Monday that a jailed opposition lawmaker killed himself by jumping from the 10th floor of the state intelligence agency headquarters (SEBIN) where he was being held, but his party said he was murdered by the government. Municipal lawmaker Fernando Alban, 56, was jailed last Friday for alleged involvement in the explosion of two drones during a military parade in August that was led by President Nicolas Maduro, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said. At the moment he was going to be transported to court, while he was in the SEBIN waiting room, he jumped from the window of the building and fell, causing his death, Reverol wrote in a post on Twitter. That account differed from the one by Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab, who said in televised statements that Alban had asked to use a bathroom and jumped from there. The opposition First Justice party, for which Alban was a Caracas municipal counselor, said he was murdered. With great pain and thirst for justice we tell the people of Venezuela ... that Councilman Fernando Alban was murdered at the hands of the regime of Nicolas Maduro, the party said. First Justices national coordinator, Julio Borges, said Albans lifeless body was thrown from the SEBINs headquarters on Caracas Plaza Venezuela. He did not provide any evidence and did he say what led him to believe that Alban was killed. Alban was critical of Venezuela's human rights violations Story continues Fernando Alban Rayner Pena/picture alliance via Getty Images The party said that Albans arrest was owing to statements he made at recent United Nations meetings in New York City denouncing humans rights violations in Venezuela. The government had previously given no reason for his arrest. On Monday, Reverol said Alban had also been investigated for destabilizing activities directed from abroad. The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Bob Corker, called on Maduro to explain the reasons for Albans death. Corker was in Caracas on Monday to meet with government officials and the opposition to assess Venezuelas economic crisis. This is disturbing and the government has a responsibility to ensure all understand how that could have happened, Corker, a Republican, said on Twitter. The United States imposed new sanctions on several of Maduros top allies last week as President Donald Trump urged UN members to support a restoration of democracy in Venezuela. Albans assistant, Mileidy Blanco, said she had begged him to leave Venezuela with his family. And he didnt do it. He loved the country too much, she said in an interview outside the SEBINs headquarters, known as The Tomb for its underground detention facility. The opposition and rights groups have said that Maduros administration is holding hundreds of political prisoners on trumped-up charges intended to stifle dissent. The United Nations has said detainees are often subjected to ill treatment, including some documented cases that amount to torture. Authorities have arrested at least 30 people linked to the drone explosions on Aug. 2, which injured seven soldiers. The government has denied that it is detaining people as political prisoners and has said that they were fairly jailed. Albans lawyer, Joel Garcia, told reporters that when he last saw Alban on Sunday he was not beaten, he was fine. He said Alban told him that he had been interrogated but not tortured. The Organization of American States (OAS) condemned Albans death. Direct responsibility of a regime that tortures and murders. This criminal dictatorship must go now from Venezuela, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro said on Twitter. NOW WATCH: How wine is made at an English vineyard that produces 200,000 bottles a year See Also: The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) transported components of a water purification plant to the earthquake and tsunami disaster zone in Palu, Indonesia, in a bid to ease the acute shortage of potable water in the region since September 28. NZDF Flight Lieutenant Dave Natapu said a New Zealand Air Force craft delivered the French-donated equipment, along with 32 French engineers who would install the machinery. Water supply is one of the key necessities in the aftermath of any disaster, he said. NZDF aircraft provided assistance in delivering humanitarian aid to the region, having flown rescue personnel and officials, as well as emergency supplies, from Japan, Australia, the UK, France and Germany. On October 10 the death toll from the twin disasters had risen to more than 2,000, with more than 10,000 others injured. The United Nations humanitarian agency, UNOCHA, estimated about 200,000 people required urgent humanitarian aid. Credit: New Zealand Defence Force via Storyful Britains financial services minister John Glen agrees with the Bank of England's estimates that 5,000 to 10,0000 financial services jobs will be lost over Brexit. The minister said that despite the estimates, the situation was stable and that he would do everything in his power to ensure that the City of London continues to be major financial hub after Britain leaves the European Union. My sole objective in respect of the City is to ensure as much continuation as possible in respect of economic value able to be generated by the City, Glen told a committee in parliaments House of Lords. We have not seen wholesale moves of large institutions to other cities in continental Europe, Glen said. He also said he "fully expects" that Britain and the EU will agree on a deal that includes a transition period from next March to avoid a chaotic Brexit. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 South Africas Zulu nation joins white farmers in fight against government land s LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 348173 10-10-2018 05:05 AM Post: #1 South Africas Zulu nation joins white farmers in fight against government land s Advertisement South Africas Zulu nation joins white farmers in fight against government land seizures The largest ethnic group in South Africa, Zulu, has spoken out against the expropriation of land without compensation in the country. Zulu is ready to cooperate with the country's white farmers, known as Afrikaners or Boers. Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has said the group will cooperate with South African minority rights group AfriForum. The Zulu nation Im talking about will not exist if we dont have food. Thats why I say farmers must come closer so that we discuss what we can do when we talk about agriculture and the availability of enough food in the land. Thats why Im asking AfriForum of the Boers to come and help us, Zwelithini said, as quoted by eNews Channel Africa. Because when government started talking about the appropriation of land, expropriation without compensation, Boers downed tools. There is no food in South Africa, he added. Zulu people are the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with an estimated 10-12 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The group accounts for more than a fifth of the countrys population and its opinion is important in the context of the general elections next year. Anyone who wants to be voted for and elected by us, Im going to talk now, anyone who wants to be elected by us must come and kneel here and commit that I will never touch your land, the Zulu King said. While kings have no official power in modern South Africa, they still have the loyalty of millions of people and are recognized in the constitution as traditional leaders. The land expropriation program run by President Cyril Ramaphosa is designed to redistribute land to poor black people to tackle severe inequality 24 years after the end of apartheid. It mostly involves lands owned by Boers, whites primarily of Dutch descent. However, the program has aroused discontent among the Zulus, too. The Zulu King said he is waiting for a meeting with the president. He (Ramaphosa) must come here... and say it, write it down in an agreement and sign off that the land of the Zulus will not be touched, Zwelithini said. https://www.rt.com/business/440807-zulu-...rica-land/ https://firstbusinessnews.net/south-afri...-seizures/ The largest ethnic group in South Africa, Zulu, has spoken out against the expropriation of land without compensation in the country. Zulu is ready to cooperate with the country's white farmers, known as Afrikaners or Boers.Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has said the group will cooperate with South African minority rights group AfriForum.The Zulu nation Im talking about will not exist if we dont have food. Thats why I say farmers must come closer so that we discuss what we can do when we talk about agriculture and the availability of enough food in the land. Thats why Im asking AfriForum of the Boers to come and help us, Zwelithini said, as quoted by eNews Channel Africa.Because when government started talking about the appropriation of land, expropriation without compensation, Boers downed tools. There is no food in South Africa, he added.Zulu people are the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with an estimated 10-12 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The group accounts for more than a fifth of the countrys population and its opinion is important in the context of the general elections next year.Anyone who wants to be voted for and elected by us, Im going to talk now, anyone who wants to be elected by us must come and kneel here and commit that I will never touch your land, the Zulu King said.While kings have no official power in modern South Africa, they still have the loyalty of millions of people and are recognized in the constitution as traditional leaders.The land expropriation program run by President Cyril Ramaphosa is designed to redistribute land to poor black people to tackle severe inequality 24 years after the end of apartheid. It mostly involves lands owned by Boers, whites primarily of Dutch descent. However, the program has aroused discontent among the Zulus, too.The Zulu King said he is waiting for a meeting with the president. He (Ramaphosa) must come here... and say it, write it down in an agreement and sign off that the land of the Zulus will not be touched, Zwelithini said. Loud Sneeze lop guest User ID: 397577 10-10-2018 05:36 AM Post: #2 RE: South Africas Zulu nation joins white farmers in fight against government land s Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini That sounds so right. Beleaguered department store chain Sears has reportedly hired an advisory firm to assist with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The once iconic American retailer could apply for bankruptcy protection as early as Friday, according to Reuters, after negotiations between chief executive Eddie Lampert and Sears' special board committee came to a standstill when the committee refused to approve the CEO's rescue plan. Sears has $134m in debt due Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal, leading it to hire boutique advisory firm M-III Partners to assist with the filing. Rumours of the 125-year-old high street retailer's demise have circled for months; however, Sears was reportedly still weighing other options. Back in September, Lampert pulled together a last-ditch effort to save the retailer, which has a total of $5.6bn in outstanding debt. Lampert bought Sears in 2004 and merged it with Kmart the next year. The CEO appealed to Sears' creditors to refinance $1.1bn in debt before its 15 October due date, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and also called on the firm to dispose of roughly $3.25bn in real estate and assets, including Sears Home Services and the outfit's flagship Kenmore brand. As of 1640 BST, Sears shares had tumbled 36.13% to 0.37p. Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said in a speech addressing the European Parliament of Enterprises on Wednesday that Mays proposal to keep the UK in the single market for goods would give it a huge competitive edge over the EU. Barnier stated that good progress with the UK regarding negotiations had been made. Nevertheless, he admitted that the issue of the Irish border is still unsolved and will need a solution soon. He said that the UK had decided to leave the single market and the customs union in search for better trade deals with countries such as the US and therefore checks must be made at borders with the EU, including the Irish border. The EU, in order to avoid a hard border in Ireland had offered to keep Northern Ireland aligned with the bloc, but the Democratic Unionist Party refused the proposal saying they would vote down any deal in the British Parliament that would have Northern Ireland treated differently than the rest of the UK. Mays Chequers plan proposed to keep the UK in the single market for goods to which Barnier said on Wednesday that the benefits offered to Northern Ireland to avoid the border in the island cannot be granted to the rest of the UK since it would give Britain a huge competitive edge. Barnier also said he would meet once again with the DUP and assure them that the backstop option is needed as a safety net since the trade relationship will be negotiated after Brexit. He also said the EU is still open to a shared customs union with the UK that would reduce the need for checks, but said that some control in the border was unavoidable. Barnier announced that around 80-85% of the withdrawal deal proposed to the EU had been agreed to already. Markets across Asia remained largely steady on Wednesday as US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin warned China against deliberate devaluation of the yuan as trade disputes between the two countries continue. The currency has dropped almost 11% from its 2018 peak in March, though analysts have attributed the drop to Chinas slowing economy rather than competitive devaluation from Beijing. However, Mnuchin, who is reported to be under pressure from the White House to formally designate China as a currency manipulator, said that US officials are looking forward to discussing the various factors behind the yuans movement. Japans Nikkei 225 was up by 0.16% at 23,506.04, while the yen was down 0.24% against the US dollar at JPY 113.24. SoftBank was one of the indexs major fallers, dropping by over 5% amid its discussions to take a majority stake in shared office space provider WeWork, of which it already owned nearly 20%. An investment of between $15bn and $20bn would likely stem from SoftBanks $92bn Vision Fund, which was largely backed by wealth funds from Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. On the Chinese mainland, the Shanghai Composite climbed by 0.18% to 2,725.84 as the utilities, mobile and telecoms sectors performed strongly, though the tech-heavy Shenzhen Composite dropped by 0.15% to 1,383.05. Shenzhen Geoway, Hengtong Logistics and Delixi Xinjiang Transportation all gained upwards of 10%, a strong performance in the face of Tuesday threats from Donald Trump for tariffs on an additional $267bn-worth of Chinese goods. After falling for six consecutive sessions, Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index crept up by 0.08% to 26,193.07 in Wednesday trading, though index heavyweight Tencent threatened to drag it into negative territory as it fell by 2.5%. However, the index was bolstered by a strong showing from top-gainers China Shenhua Energy, ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance and China Mobile, which all rose by over 3%. Meanwhile, South Koreas Kospi fell by 1.12% to 2,228.61 after the International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast for the country. Share prices in the most heavily-weighted stocks on the index remained subdued throughout the day, though electronics giant Samsung racked up gains of just over 1%. Brent Crude was up by 0.20% at $85.17 and WTI increased by 0.09% to $75.03. In Australia the S&P/ASX 200 was up by 0.14% at 6,049.81, rebounding modestly after a muted performance on Tuesday. The increase was driven by healthcare and pharmaceutical stocks, who had their best performance in four weeks as CSL, Cochlear, Mayne Pharma Group and Nanosonics were all on the up. New Zealands S&P/NZX 50 fell by 0.21% to 9,050.82, the eighth consecutive drop for the index as investors remain unsure of the global economic outlook and US bond yields continue to rise. Peter McIntyre, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners, said: "There's still ongoing issues with trade wars, there are debt problems in Italy - there's probably more to worry about in the market today than three or four months ago." Again, growth oriented stocks such as Pushpay Holdings and Synlait Milk bore the brunt of the damage, each dropping by more than 2%, while milk processor Frontera Shareholders Fund fell after it downgraded its farmgate payout forecast. Meanwhile the Australian dollar was down 0.10% against the greenback at AU$1.41, while New Zealands dollar dropped by 0.23% to NZ$1.55. London stocks finished sharply lower on Wednesday as investors continued to digest a move higher in government bond yields around the globe against a backdrop of ongoing trade tensions, even as Sterling gained on the back of a stronger-than-expected reading on industrial production at home. The FTSE 100 dropped by 1.27% or 91.85 points to 7,145.74. To take note of, Financials, Telecoms and Utilities were among the best performers on the top-flight index, as investors reacted to rising yields by shifting from so-called 'growth' stocks into 'value' shares. US Treasury yields initially moved higher after official data on factory gate prices appeared to point towards a higher-than-expected reading on CPI figures for September due out during the following session, but later fell back as shares on Wall Street continued to come under selling pressure. Yet strategists at Barclays Research were positive about such 'rotation' from one sector to another, telling clients: "Bond yields and the oil price are reaching fresh highs, which many equity investors appear to be increasingly concerned about. We believe however that both are reflective of the resilient nominal growth backdrop, which is positive for equities." Perhaps, but there were also concerns on the trade front, in part after France's LVMH reportedly said China was enforcing customs rules more strictly. Also dragging on the Footsie, the pound was 0.47% firmer against the US dollar at 1.15380 and up by 0.05% on the euro to 1.1446, following a batch of data and reports that the UK and the EU have made progress in talks about the Irish border backstop. Reuters cited diplomatic sources in Brussels as saying that the EU no longer expects a new proposal from Britain for the Ireland-UK border fix after Brexit, with negotiators from both sides looking to narrow the differences together in direct talks. Nevertheless, in a speech delivered towards the end of the session, Brussels's top trade negotiator appeared to pour cold water on markets' optimism, delivering a speech in which he claimed that the UK would gain a "huge competitive advantage" over the EU under the Prime Minister's Chequers deal. Meanwhile, data from the Office for National Statistics showed that UK economic growth was weaker than expected in August, but growth in previous months was revised up a touch. Gross domestic product was flat in August compared to the preceding month, when economists had expected growth of at least 0.1%. However, GDP grew 0.7% in the three months to August compared to the three months to May, maintaining growth on a rolling three-month basis. This was higher than expected after growth in each of June and July was revised up by 10 basis points. Separately, ONS reported that industrial production growth continued to recover, growing 0.2% in August versus the 0.1% from the month before, with year-on-year output up 1.3% versus the 1% forecast. This was despite another 0.2% monthly decline in manufacturing production. The index of services was disappointingly flat in August compared to July, while construction output shrank 0.7% month-on-month. David Cheetham, chief market analyst at XTB, said there is a danger that now the ONS has started releasing monthly growth updates the focus will be too short-term and market participants will miss the bigger picture. "Short-term events can cause volatility in monthly updates and present a misleading representation and therefore a better read can still be found in the quarterly figures. In light of this the three month increase of 0.7% represents a pretty impressive recovery from the earlier parts of the year where weather wreaked havoc with economic activity, but having said that it is still below historic performance." Elsewhere, volatile bond yields were also continuing to unnerve, albeit for different reasons. Yields in Italy marched back down after earlier rising on comments from Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini that there will be no changes to the government's budget. The earlier rise in yields was also attributed to an article in Italian newspaper La Stampa in which a Moody's senior economist said the country's budget plan was a mistake that will be reflected in Italy's rating. In UK corporate news, Burberry was a big faller as Morgan Stanley downgraded its stance on the European luxury goods sector to 'underweight', while British American Tobacco fell as chief marketing officer Andrew Gray quit after a 32-year career, just two weeks after being overlooked for the top job. Also weighing on Burberry perhaps may have been remarks from French rival LVMH's executives, who said Chinese officials were enforcing customs rules more strictly. Paper and packaging companies DS Smith, Smurfit Kappa and Mondi suffered heavy losses, dragged lower after Goldman Sachs downgraded US-based rival International Paper to 'neutral' from 'buy'. Rank Group climbed even after the Gambling Commission said it must pay 500,000 for failing to follow rules that protect problem gamblers. On the upside, PageGroup edged up after saying it expects its full-year operating profit to be marginally ahead of consensus, while HSBC rose even after it agreed to pay a $765m settlement in the US over its sale of mortgage-based securities. SSE pushed up as its merger with Npower was provisionally cleared by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority. In broker note action, Dixons Carphone gained on the back of an upgrade to 'buy' at HSBC, Rio Tinto was raised to 'buy' at Goldman and Sage was upgraded to 'hold' at Deutsche Bank. Ocado was lifted to 'equalweight' at Barclays and Soco International was upgraded to 'outperform' at RBC Capital Markets. Rightmove was bumped up to 'buy' at Liberum and Hunting was cut to 'equalweight' at Barclays. Market Movers FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,145.74 -1.27% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,239.16 -1.59% techMARK (TASX) 3,315.77 -1.06% FTSE 100 - Risers Kingfisher (KGF) 261.10p 3.65% BT Group (BT.A) 237.00p 3.63% United Utilities Group (UU.) 721.40p 3.41% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 59.11p 3.16% Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 295.80p 2.96% National Grid (NG.) 807.80p 2.89% Barclays (BARC) 171.64p 2.31% Severn Trent (SVT) 1,878.00p 2.26% Sage Group (SGE) 560.20p 1.76% Whitbread (WTB) 4,632.00p 1.53% FTSE 100 - Fallers Mondi (MNDI) 1,796.00p -8.74% Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,728.00p -8.09% Halma (HLMA) 1,267.00p -6.77% Smith (DS) (SMDS) 419.40p -6.48% Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,054.00p -6.08% Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 465.40p -5.78% Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,580.00p -5.70% Experian (EXPN) 1,765.00p -5.67% Antofagasta (ANTO) 779.60p -5.53% Evraz (EVR) 534.20p -5.42% FTSE 250 - Risers Vivo Energy (VVO) 124.94p 3.91% Dixons Carphone (DC.) 159.25p 3.75% CLS Holdings (CLI) 218.00p 3.56% TP ICAP (TCAP) 279.50p 3.52% Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund Limited (SEQI) 109.50p 3.30% Sophos Group (SOPH) 447.00p 3.14% B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 392.70p 3.04% Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 463.40p 2.98% Greggs (GRG) 1,080.00p 2.66% Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 543.00p 2.45% FTSE 250 - Fallers TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 199.20p -9.30% Vesuvius (VSVS) 571.00p -8.27% Contour Global (GLO) 161.90p -7.64% Victrex plc (VCT) 2,802.00p -7.22% Bodycote (BOY) 794.00p -6.81% Games Workshop Group (GAW) 3,315.00p -6.75% Synthomer (SYNT) 484.20p -6.53% Renishaw (RSW) 4,104.00p -6.09% Amigo Holdings (AMGO) 202.40p -5.93% Man Group (EMG) 152.25p -5.64% Telecoms stocks were up across Europe, with BT Group, Deutsche Telekom, Iliad and Telefonica all up sharply, with this being attributed to investor bargain hunting as the sectors valuation to earnings wallowed around a four-year low There was new speculation also driving BT to the top of the telecoms pile over the potential for a spin-off of its 12.6bn Openreach infrastructure arm. With current chief executive Gavin Patterson having battled so hard to keep hold of this arm, institutional shareholders apparently now want his replacement to examine getting rid of it, though in August BT said Openreach is an important part of BT and there are no active plans to sell the business. Last week Morgan Stanley said in a note that Openreach "may have strategic appeal to a broad range of investors given that it essentially provides exposure to an income asset with long-term duration. The paper and packaging sector was down for the second day due to concerns about an oversupply of cardboard, which would hit prices after the US subsidiary of Hong Kong's Nine Dragons said it will invest $300m into its new mills in Wisconsin and Maine. Shares in packaging stocks DS Smith, Mondi and Smurfit Kappa were all under the cosh. Goldman Sachs cut target prices across the sector after analysts said they had underestimated the speed and severity of containerboard supply coming on to the market and were concerned by the pace of recent new supply announcements "as well as the fact that Chinese entrants are now entering the US market for the first time". "Over the past 15 months we have had 12 new capacity projects announced with another seven companies . . . exploring further new capacity additions... in aggregate they are likely to result in oversupply at some point in the 2020-2022 time period even if demand growth remains at recent circa 2% rates. Top performing sectors so far today Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,749.63 +4.05% Gas, Water & Multiutilities 4,851.82 +2.16% Mobile Telecommunications 3,442.06 +1.62% Tobacco 39,404.39 +1.36% General Retailers 2,276.12 +1.02% Bottom performing sectors so far today Automobiles & Parts 8,096.09 -6.88% Forestry & Paper 20,415.47 -6.78% Leisure Goods 8,355.48 -5.77% Electronic & Electrical Equipment 6,075.29 -4.58% General Industrials 5,989.16 -4.35% Market Movers FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,216.93 -0.29% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,474.60 -0.38% techMARK (TASX) 3,350.25 -0.03% FTSE 100 - Risers BT Group (BT.A) 238.95p 4.48% Kingfisher (KGF) 261.30p 3.73% Sage Group (SGE) 564.00p 3.18% United Utilities Group (UU.) 719.20p 3.10% Barclays (BARC) 172.56p 2.86% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 58.89p 2.77% National Grid (NG.) 803.30p 2.32% Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 293.91p 2.30% Vodafone Group (VOD) 154.10p 2.24% Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 250.90p 2.20% FTSE 100 - Fallers Smith (DS) (SMDS) 420.40p -5.99% Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,767.50p -5.98% Mondi (MNDI) 1,834.50p -5.71% Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,602.00p -4.90% Halma (HLMA) 1,297.00p -4.56% Antofagasta (ANTO) 789.20p -4.36% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 891.60p -4.11% Croda International (CRDA) 4,674.00p -3.97% Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,410.00p -3.75% Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,185.00p -3.48% FTSE 250 - Risers Dixons Carphone (DC.) 161.25p 5.05% TP ICAP (TCAP) 281.70p 4.33% Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 5,970.00p 4.01% Card Factory (CARD) 193.10p 3.76% Sophos Group (SOPH) 448.40p 3.65% Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund Limited (SEQI) 109.50p 3.30% CLS Holdings (CLI) 217.00p 3.09% Vivo Energy (VVO) 123.94p 3.08% Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 545.50p 2.92% Just Group (JUST) 80.75p 2.87% FTSE 250 - Fallers Contour Global (GLO) 163.00p -7.02% Bodycote (BOY) 804.50p -5.58% Vesuvius (VSVS) 590.00p -5.22% Electrocomponents (ECM) 654.80p -4.30% Victrex plc (VCT) 2,892.00p -4.24% Synthomer (SYNT) 498.20p -3.82% TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 207.00p -3.72% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 2,403.00p -3.69% Games Workshop Group (GAW) 3,430.00p -3.52% Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 497.00p -3.50% Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. said it expects to complete the first section of the P10-billion C5 South Link Expressway by March next year. We have launched girders starting last Oct. 6 across PNR [Philippine National Railways] area, and we are set to launch long span steel girders that will cross the at-grade portion of Skyway and South Luzon Expressway in the coming days. This is a critical activity of the project and we expect substantial completion after the girders are installed said Luigi Bautista, president and chief executive of CIC, the concessionaire of Manila-Cavite Expressway. The completion of the launching should allow us to complete and open the Merville section of C5 South Link by the end of March of 2019, he said. The entire C5 South Link, which is expected to be completed by 2020, will seamlessly connect Circumferential Road 5 to Cavitex via Merville and Sucat in Paranaque. We would like to seek the understanding and patience of all motorists, for the temporary inconvenience. In cooperation with Somco [Skyway O&M Corp.], partial closures of Skyway and Skyway at grade during off-peak hours is implemented. This is necessary when we position and install the girders, he said. CIC said it was working closely with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Department of Transportation, Department of Public Works and Highways and the Taguig, Pasay and Paranaque LGUs on the traffic management. San Miguel Corp. said it expects higher traffic build-up on its expressways as Cavitex starts work to launch girders that would cross the at-grade portion of Skyway and South Luzon Expressway.We have offered assistance to MPIC to make sure its project gets delivered on time to minimize inconvenience and provide the full benefits of C-5 Southlink to our motorists in the soonest possible time. We recognize and support governments objective to develop a more expansive network of roads of which this new construction is part of, SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said. When completed, the C5 South Link project will provide motorists from Paranaque, Las Pinas and Cavite direct access to C5. The project is progressing on time and this is good news to the estimated 50,000 vehicles that will be decongested in Sales Road in Pasay and EDSA when it starts commercial operations, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said. Travel time from Paranaque, Las Pinas and Cavite to Taguig will be cut to 20 to 30 minutes from the usual one-and-a-half hour drive with the direct access to C5. This is an important project which is part of the BBB program of this government, Villar said. Whitney Curry Wimbish talks with David Bertrand at Music and Literature: At the risk of not sounding patriotic, as I grew older, I came into some conflict with the aesthetic of Trinidadian jazz. There was a generation that felt like we have to generate something that works in parallel with our idiosyncrasies. I think there was a bit of historical confusion. They were looking at jazz and thinking, But we dont want to sound American, we want to sound Trinidadian. There was nothing wrong with that, but it meant it was as if there was no acknowledgement of how jazz was generated in the first place. The narrative that we all knowthat jazz came out of the African-American experience, and the various frustrations that occurred parallel to that peoplewould eventually be shared with the rest of mankind. Youre creating music that recalls that. Trinidadian jazz wanted to present an anticolonial stance, but it did not acknowledge that jazz had originally been a response to a very similar force. more here. James Wood at The New Yorker: In several respects, John Wrays Godsend (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) appears to be a conventional specimen: a compact, tautly written novel of travel and growth, about a troubled eighteen-year-old California woman who leaves home and sets out on an arduous, sometimes terrifying journey. Formally, everything fits into place: lean dialogue, attentive description, nicely paced interiority, deft characterizationall the right contemporary rations. Wrays publisher calls it a coming-of-age novel like no other, and the reader prepares for a decent chunk of Californian Bildung. But Wrays story is in fact indecently unconventional. Our heroine leaves not for, say, New York but for a madrassa in Pakistan, and then joins the Taliban, across the border in Afghanistan. She grows, she comes of age, but the journey will strike most readers as a distinctly unsentimental education. Godsend, which begins like a recognizable combination of bildungsroman and adventure tale, becomes much stranger and more original after it arrives in Pakistan, discovering within itself a profound understanding of the demands of religious practiceof religious submission, especiallywhich has eluded almost every serious contemporary American novelist since 9/11. It is not only Wrays heroine but also his novel that comes of age, steadily deepening and astounding as it develops. more here. Jerry Saltz at New York Magazine: Prepare to grapple with the cosmic grandiosity and optical hot-messes of that 19th-century French freak of painterly nature, Eugene Delacroix, whos churning, turgid, crimson-tinged floridity has enkindled the respiratory systems of artists since he first debuted at the Paris Salon of 1822 and given many others agita. Now, at the Met, comes the first large-scale North American retrospective of his epoch-altering work. How did it alter his epoch? Delacroixs style is so uncontained, convulsive, and atmospheric its hard to pigeonhole as simply Romanticism. At times I often look at his painting and mourn the death of his extraordinary comrade, Theodore Gericault, he of the 1819 Raft of the Medusa, as this artist might have made French Romanticism less flamboyant and easier to take had he not died before the age of 33. Delacroix pushed much harder, which means that his work is more demanding and hard to digest, even now, but, as a result, he is one of the most influential artists of the last two centuries. more here. Maynilad Water Services Inc. said Wednesday the Singapore High Court upheld the arbitral award to the water utility firm over the tariff dispute with the Philippine government. Metro Pacific Investments Corp., the parent company of Maynilad, said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it received word from Maynilads Singapore-based counsel about the courts decision. It said the Singapore High Courts decision dismissing the Philippine governments petition had become final as of Oct. 4, 2018. Metro Pacific said the decision became final after the Philippine government decided that it would no longer appeal Singapore High Courts first partial award dated July 24, 2017, which was issued by a unanimous tribunal in the arbitration between Maynilad and the Philippines. Under the decision, the Philippine government, through the Department of Finance, would reimburse Maynilad P3.42 billion for losses from March 11, 2015 to Aug. 31, 2016. Aside from dismissing Philippine governments appeal, the Singapore High Court also ordered it to pay Maynilad S$40,000 in legal costs.Maynilad, the water concessionaire in the west zone of Metro Manila, filed the arbitration case against the government in 2013 after the state-run Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System rejected its petition for water rate adjustment. The MWSS earlier denied Maynilads petition for an upward adjustment by 28.35 percent of its average basic charge or P8.58 per cubic meter, and instead ordered a rate reduction of 4.82 percent or P1.46 per cubic meter. The three-member arbitral tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce in July 2017 upheld the validity of Maynilads claim against the government and ordered the Republic to compensate Maynilad for its revenue losses. The arbitral court also ruled that Maynilad was entitled to recover from the government its losses from Sept. 1, 2016 onwards The Philippine government asked the High Court of Singapore in February to set aside the arbitral award to Maynilad, which the water utility firm described as last ditch effort to frustrate and stonewall the enforcement of the arbitral award. Its been a while since America flocked to Terms of Endearment, a funny-sad story about family tragedy, but What They Had a true-life heart-grabber about a Chicago clan rocked by Alzheimers disease that opens Oct. 19 has a similar double emotional impact. The film stars Blythe Danner, Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert Forster and Taissa Farmiga. So at its AARP-sponsored Oct. 9 premiere at the iPic Westwood theater in Los Angeles, there was a lot of hope, joy and gratitude on the minds of its stars and filmmakers. What They Hads story brings to life what more and more families are facing. Swank plays Bridget, who gets news that her good-humored mom, Ruth (Danner), is starting to dizzily, dangerously wander into the snow at night. Screenwriter and director Elizabeth Chomko pulled such moments from her own grandmothers long dementia battle. As their mothers condition worsens, Bridget and her gruff brother (Shannon) discuss plans to ease Ruth into a nursing home, but their dad (Robert Forster) wants her to stay home under his loving care. "I really wanted to show how Alzheimer's impacts the whole family, said 37-year-old Chomko, whose stars, Swank and Danner, are featured in AARP The Magazine's current cover story about the film and AARP's resource guide for caregivers. All the complications it brings up, how witnessing someone lose their memories can make you look at your own memories more deeply, and maybe bring up old wounds. People can get so blindsided by all of those complications, they lose the joy of the last years you have with your loved ones. She hopes the movies key takeaway is: Dont be afraid to talk about, and plan, for lifes hurdles. (10/10/2018) - Police believe the bullets that hit 7-year-old Zaniyah Burns in the head and killed her late Tuesday was intended for her uncle. Flint Police Chief Timothy Johnson said investigators believe the 16-year-old uncle likely was the target of the shooting in the 200 block of Austin Avenue, the Associated Press reported. Burns was in the residence with her mother and other family members when bullets fired outside hit her. She died almost instantly of two gunshot wounds to the head, said Michigan State Police Sgt. Duane Zook. Her great-grandfather, William Long, believes five or six shots were fired from Ruth Street a block north. Burns was a second grader at New Standards Academy near the scene. A makeshift memorial of balloons were placed outside the house to remember her. The Flint Police Department and Michigan State Police had K-9 teams searching for a suspect in the neighborhood late Tuesday. A police helicopter also was circling overhead for part of the evening while officers went door to door looking for a suspect. Police were still searching for the suspect on Wednesday. No description or suspect information was released. Dacotah Stampede Rodeo nominated for PRCA's best small rodeo Aberdeen's Dacotah Stampede Rodeo is one of five in the nation up for PRCA's award for best small rodeo of the year. Golden Arches Development Corp., which holds the exclusive franchise of McDonalds in the Philippines, will spend P3 billion in 2019, up 50 percent from this years level as the company rolls out more stores and invests in new service platforms. Golden Arches president and chief executive Kenneth Yang said in an interview at the sidelines of the launching of its first NXTGEN store in McKinley West in Fort Bonifacio the company remained aggressive with the store openings as well as the introduction of new technology that would improve customer experience. McDonalds NXTGEN is a strategic investment as the brand continues to grow in the country. Our goal is to provide a better and more relevant McDonalds experience in a modern restaurant environment to more Filipinos, said McDonalds Philippines president and chief executive officer Kenneth Yang. NXTGEN, the new service platform of McDonalds, offers customers the self-ordering kiosks, which allows customers a digitized alternative to order and pay for their McDonalds favorites. The kiosks accept Mastercard and Visa card payments, regardless of the issuing bank. Guests who still prefer to pay in cash may also do so by proceeding to the front counter where there are dedicated lanes, assisted by the modernized menu boards.McDonalds Philippines managing director Margot Torres said the company had five stores with NTGEN features. These are McDonalds McKinley West, McDonalds Madison (San Juan), Kapitolyo (Pasig), Robinsons Galleria (Pasig) and Pioneer Reliance (Pasig). Torres said the company expects 10 percent of its restaurants to follow the NXTGEN store format by 2019 and 70 percent by 2021. Golden Arches currently operates 604 stores and and plans to expand the network to 620 outlets by the end of the year. Beyond just expanding our footprint, continuing to elevate the customer experience through convenience enhancements is our priority. This is the true essence of McDonalds NXTGENit is about evolving with our customers and thriving in this experience economy. This will contribute to the total growth of McDonalds Philippines, Torres said. Golden Arches is a 51:49 joint venture between the Yang family and Alliance Global Group Inc. of business tycoon Andrew Tan. SANTA FE An assault charge has been dropped against a Santa Fe High student who was accused of making death threats to another student and threatening to shoot up the school via Instagram. Prosecutors concluded that Keagan Axtell couldnt have sent the hostile messages. Santa Fe police arrested Axtell, born in 2001, last week. But Santa Fe District Attorney Marco Serna said Tuesday that the charge against Axtell had been dropped and now police will continue to try to find out who really sent the messages. We actually determined that it couldnt have been him, Serna said. He physically could not have done it. A female student showed a Santa Fe High assistant principal a direct message she received from Axtells Instagram account that said, You know what (expletive) you you stupid (expletive) Im gonna blow your (expletive) (expletive) head off when I come back to school. The message included the two different racial slurs for African-Americans. The student also showed the school staff a post on Axtells Instagram page that said, Im shooting up the school Friday, get ready (expletive), once again including a racial slur. Axtell and his parents told police that he was hiking in Hyde Memorial Park that day and did not have cellular service. Axtell said he gave his Instagram login information to a stranger he met online and believes that person wrote the messages. Axtell was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center for a medical clearance before being taken to the Santa Fe juvenile detention center on Thursday. For more than a decade, the U.S. economic infrastructure has been moving toward an innovation-based economy, one that emphasizes and leverages the application of knowledge from an advanced workforce to build and diversify an economy. A population trained for careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Health or STEM-H creates an advanced workforce and a knowledge base that is key to current and future economic development in many states, including New Mexico. The strong linkage between science and technology in measuring economic performance has been demonstrated by entities such as the Milken Institute, which nationally ranks New Mexico 21st overall in areas of research and development, human capital investment and technologic concentration ahead of states such as Arizona, Georgia and Indiana. New Mexico already enjoys some of the benefits of an innovation-based economy with stable, high-paying STEM-H careers thanks to our two national laboratories and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Our institutions of higher learning have made great strides to increase the states Human Capital Investment, which is measured in part by the number of bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in science and engineering per capita. The infrastructure that supports growing high-tech employment and developing technology centers, both of which drive long-term economic growth, is also improving in our state, moving New Mexico from 31st to 23rd nationally, according to Milken. Thus, it is imperative that New Mexico continues to support the ongoing efforts of STEM-H education and advanced workforce training. New Mexico is one of three states noted for making the biggest gains in its Human Capital Investment rankings, according to Milkens most recent State and Technology Index. New Mexico has risen from 25th to 14th between the years 2014-16, based on improvements in SAT scores, and an increase in the number of recent graduates in science, engineering and health. The Milken Institute Index also scored New Mexico well in state appropriations for higher education and, thanks in part to top research institutions, in the share of population with Ph.D.s. Studies suggest that engineers, biochemists and software developers/computing specialists with advanced degrees are the ones whose research drives those high-tech industries that provide stable, long-term growth for communities and states. Thoughtful and visionary funding for STEM-H education in New Mexicos universities plays a major role in the continued growth of New Mexicos Human Capital. Universities and colleges produce both the research that drives private-sector application and the talented people that industry requires to transform research into practical applications. The application of research into commercially viable products happens when an educated citizenry is equipped with the proper tools and training needed to develop research results into a marketable product and the entrepreneurial skills to take that research to market, all of which help to build the innovation economy of New Mexico. New Mexicos diverse economic future relies heavily on statewide recognition of the importance of STEM-H education from early childhood throughout adulthood. Continued and even expanded support of STEM-H education in universities and colleges in the upcoming legislative session is absolutely crucial if New Mexico wants to build a stronger, more diverse economy. We need to not only maintain, but also strengthen our funding support for these institutions to continue creating an environment, or ecosystem, of economic development, job growth and wealth creation. If we fail to see New Mexicos higher education system as the underpinnings to all other efforts to grow our STEM-H ecosystems or understand they are the drivers for growing a stable, innovation-based economy, then we face losing major opportunities for economic growth to those states that do. A very important project of New Mexico State University and its College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences is the Agricultural Modernization and Educational Facilities 2018 General Obligation Bond D. This is not to be confused with the GO Bond that was just voted for in Las Cruces last August. For GO Bond D, NMSU requested from the New Mexico Legislature $25 million to plan, design, demolish, renovate and construct agricultural and educational facilities at NMSU in Las Cruces. These modern facilities will lift NMSU and New Mexicos agriculture and related industries to higher levels because they will provide faculty and students with better tools and technology for their education and research activities. At the Nov. 6 election, voters will have the chance to increase educational opportunities for students and contribute to economic growth, thus improving the lives of New Mexicans. All without increasing taxes! We cannot continue losing New Mexican students to other universities because we lack adequate and modern facilities to properly train them. I invite you to watch some GO Bond D testimonial videos at http://aces.nmsu.edu/go_bond. Why are we discussing the modernization of agriculture at the university, state and national levels? Because we face some real and pressing challenges related to water management, and drought- and salt-tolerant crops, a reduction in the ag labor pool, and aging farmers and ranchers, traditional ag operations in need of technological advances, few value-added businesses in New Mexico, low consumer agriculture literacy, and the pressures and demands of global markets, including food safety and security. The challenges are real, and the need to deal with them now and in the future requires well-formed professionals in a number of disciplines backed by strong research capabilities. They need to be prepared to approach urgent issues in a broader way, as proposed by the recent report Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030, for which NMSU President John D. Floros was co-chair. Agriculture and food processing are a central part of New Mexicos economy, accounting for about $4 billion in sales and generating nearly $11 billion of New Mexicos gross state product and 51,000 jobs. Because ACES is the only college of agriculture in the state, we take our mission of being an engine for the economic and community development very seriously. We understand that to continue contributing to bettering the lives of New Mexicans, we need to be intentional about the modernization of agriculture. We count on you to be bold on Nov. 6 and shape the future of our state in a positive way. As New Mexico seeks to diversify its economy, one of the primary industries that we must expand is renewable energy. The opportunities and the benefits are too good to pass by, and the cost of inaction on this front is just too great as we see how Texas and other states are already reaping the benefits of wind and solar energy. Take, for example, the Grady Wind farm, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it is completed. That installation will deliver many jobs and financial benefits, including lease payments and a new tax base for rural Curry County. The power from that wind farm is being purchased from a company in southern California, therefore, new money will be injected into the local, regional and state economy just as our manufacturing companies sell their products out of state. We should transform our economy and energy production opportunities in a way that is best for New Mexico. In doing so, we can achieve tremendous progress in creating jobs and opportunity for New Mexicans, all while doing what makes financial sense for New Mexico ratepayers and New Mexico economic growth. Right now, the solar and wind industries together employ more than 5,500 in-state workers. Among these, somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 are employed by the wind industry, either directly or indirectly. Our neighbor, Texas, is the largest wind-generating state, as well as one of the largest oil production states in the nation. New Mexico could surpass Texas in wind production and has a formidable reserve of oil in the Permian basin. Oil production would be enhanced by having a cheaper source of electricity to power their production of product. As technology advances, all forms of energy will be produced more efficiently. I predict that by 2050, New Mexico will attain 70 percent of its electricity from renewable sources if our New Mexico leadership fully supports this opportunity. All the economic indicators are trending in the direction of more renewable energy development because the rates are low and it is competitive on the open market. Like all New Mexicans, my constituents want stable jobs that pay well. They desire financial security for themselves and greater opportunities for their children. Mesalands College and Clovis Community College both offer a wind technician curriculum and once students have earned their two-year certificate, they are quickly employed in the industry with a high-wage job. The majority of farmers and ranchers working the land must have off farm/ranch income in order to provide a sustainable living. Renewable energy delivers on all accounts. Agriculture producers are often affected by fluctuating market prices, which are sometimes below production cost. Therefore, farmers and ranchers would welcome the opportunity to have a steady income stream from electricity produced by wind. The footprint of a wind generator is very small; therefore, the land taken out of production is an insignificant loss of productive land. The oil and gas industries have helped New Mexicans tremendously and will continue to do so, but lets begin taking advantage of our other opportunities. Oil production is limited to the location of the reserves of oil as will development of wind projects be limited to the areas where there is the best wind resource. As several generations have benefited and will continue benefiting from our oil and gas resources, we can boost our economy utilizing our natural resources that we never have to worry about depleting, such as wind and solar energy. We must be decisive to take full advantage of the untapped economic potential in using our renewable energy resources to diversify our economy. The good, stable jobs in renewable energy are rock-solid real and the revenues injected into our state economy are there for the taking. Lets act now to bring in out-of-state money and create jobs for our local citizens. It is far better to export electricity out of state than force our young people to go out of state to obtain employment. Perhaps the most pernicious thing that was said in recent weeks was when Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii literally told men to shut up in regard to determining the truth behind differing accounts of high school memories involving Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The Kavanaugh ordeal has been miserable in so many ways. A woman in pain may have been used for ideological purposes. A man and his family went from a moment of civic honor to one of humiliation and horror. As Kavanaugh was about to come up for a vote, my friend Ed Mechmann, a former prosecutor who works for the Catholic Church in New York, was being awarded the Great Defender of Life award from the Human Life Foundation. At the ceremony, he talked about the death of truth and our societal tendency to devalue, dehumanize and dispose of people. And its no surprise this could connect to Kavanaugh because its hard to escape the suspicion that so much of the circus around his nomination has everything to do with the ideological divide over abortion. What makes this so repulsive, besides the fact that the majority of abortions are unnecessary if we were all a little more generous and loving in our outreach and creativity, we could eliminate most of them is that so many of us who have supported the nomination of Kavanaugh at the same time had our hearts broken for Christine Blasey Ford. Obviously, she went through some pain in her life. If weve learned anything from the #MeToo movement, it is that theres a whole lot of pain and injustice in the world today. Which gets us back to telling the truth. Theres a synod on youth going on in Rome right now. An archbishop from Australia, Anthony Fisher, took to the floor in the opening days to apologize for abuse in the Church and the Churchs inappropriate or insufficient responses to it. As humans, we do things that we are ashamed of. By Gods grace, the wisdom of experience and the process of maturity, hopefully we move beyond some of the worst of it. But the shameful behavior continues today in our national life and in our politics. Its a bipartisan problem, as one side can feed the other. Instead of destroying lives actually ending them in moments of utter vulnerability or tearing them apart in a media frenzy how about embracing and lifting up the people who help, the people who give their all to spread love in the world, so that people can see thats part of the reality of American life today, too? The night of Eds award, I ran into Cheryl Calire, who runs a Mother Teresa home for mothers in need in upstate New York. Shes one of the people whose existence in the world constantly reminds me that there is something better out there beyond the constant churn of terrible headlines. The denial of truth is certainly not a new phenomenon, Ed said. But in the communication age, it is spreading like a virus and is having a corrosive effect on society on all levels from our public institutions down to our own individual lives. Our challenge is the same it has always been in every movement to eliminate injustice and oppression from abolitionism to the civil rights movement to our pro-life movement. Abraham Lincoln once said, (T)he real issue is the eternal struggle between these two principles right and wrong throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. Ed also said: We are all united in one human family what hurts one hurts us all. Because either everybodys life matters or nobodys life matters. That includes everyone we watch on TV who steps up to the plate to serve or say their piece. Lets drop the devaluing, dehumanizing and disposing. Everything might just become a little more humane if we insist on it. Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review Online and founding director of Catholic Voices USA. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com. Copyright 2018 United Feature Syndicate. Distributed by Andrews Mcmeel Syndication. Two recent carjackings on the University of New Mexico main campus reinforce what we already knew: the states flagship university, situated in the middle of Albuquerque, is wrestling with a serious crime problem that will hamper its efforts to attract students (at a time of declining enrollment) and hire and retain quality faculty (who already are working for less than many of their peers elsewhere). Garnett Stokes, who took the office of UNM president March 1, wasted no time in acknowledging the problem and taking steps to combat it. In fact, she made campus safety one of her top priorities. And its not just talk. Her administration has just signed off on a 13 percent pay increase for the 40-person UNM police force at a time when other staff got just 1 percent. It also comes on the heels of a report that shows UNM faculty is in the bottom quarter of pay for peer institutions. Ryan Gregg, president-elect of the organization representing staff, said he didnt think his constituents begrudge the police officer raises because they want UNM to retain existing officers who understand the campus safety issues and are engaged with its community. Faculty Senate President Pamela Pyle was less understanding, calling the disparity mind-boggling in a written statement. She said police officers are no doubt undercompensated but so are faculty members and other staff. Budget squabbles notwithstanding, the carjackings were just the icing on the bad-news cake, and Stokes is right to take quick action. UNM had more car thefts than any of the other higher education institutions in the United States in 2016 more than double second-place University of South Carolina. Then, incredibly, auto thefts surged again by 28 percent last year. Meanwhile, the number of rapes and incidents of dating violence increased at UNM last year, along with the number of aggravated assaults, burglaries and stalking cases. In addition to a big pay hike for campus police, UNM has taken other steps that include more lighting, contract security officers and cameras, a new mobile security camera trainer and a new security operations director. But UNM cant do this alone. The sprawling campus has parking lots and buildings that stretch for blocks north and south of Central Avenue. It wasnt designed with safety in mind it really wasnt designed at all. UNM is clearly a big part of the Metro areas serious crime problem, and just as the university has partnered with local law enforcement on a promising auto theft task force, it should reach out to Albuquerque Police Chief Michael Geier, Mayor Tim Keller, Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales, District Attorney Raul Torrez and others to form a high-profile crime-fighting alliance at UNM. The more problem-solvers on this, the better. To date UNM has been fighting much of its crime battle alone and losing miserably. Perhaps Stokes can stem the flow of campus crime news, or even reverse it, with the steps she is taking. But UNM is so important to Albuquerque and New Mexico that a concerted effort by local leaders to make this a safe campus is more than warranted. Its imperative. 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 U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry toured parts of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque Tuesday morning in an ongoing effort to learn more about the Department of Energys 17 national labs. Following the tour, Perry said its critical to maintain and increase funding for Sandia and other Department of Energy labs, given the fundamental role they play in addressing national and global challenges. Many of the projects going on now have the potential to change the world, Perry said in an open address to Sandia employees. I dont know what the next big thing will be, but I know it will come from the fertile mind of some DOE employee working on a project today that will change the world in a positive way. Its the 15th lab tour by Perry since taking office in March 2017. At Sandia, the secretary visited the Microsystems and Engineering Sciences and Applications, or MESA, complex. He also observed an experiment underway at the Z machine, a massive pulsed-power facility that creates unique conditions for experiments in materials science, energy and other areas. And he discussed classified weapons programs with lab executives. Perry said the tours have given him a deep appreciation for the range of research DOE scientists do and the direct impacts their work has on the country. Laboratory researchers, for example, helped the oil and natural gas industry develop modern hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technologies that have boosted U.S. oil production ahead of all other nations. Its changed the geopolitics of the world, Perry said. The secretarys glowing praise reflects a sharp turnaround from 2011, when the former Texas governor sought the Republican nomination to run for president. During one of the primary debates that year, Perry called for shutting down the DOE. The secretary joked Tuesday that hes come a long way since then. Its been a great learning process for me, he said. In a separate meeting with reporters, Perry said Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratory are playing key roles in efforts to modernize the nations nuclear weapons. For us to continue as a deterrent for other countries, we need a robust, modern weapons program that sends them the message, dont mess with the U.S., Perry said. Los Alamos and Sandia will play a clear role in those efforts going forward for the foreseeable future. CARLSBAD A state district judge has filed a defamation lawsuit against a local school board and several employees, claiming scurrilous and malicious false statements including that she was part of a white power movement were made about the judge and no school district official repudiated them, even though it was their duty to do so. Fifth Judicial District Judge Lisa Riley on Thursday filed the suit against the Carlsbad Municipal School Board, its superintendent, a principal, another school employee and the treasurer of the LULAC national organization. The conflict stems from a demonstration organized on school grounds by the plaintiff Lisa Rileys son Will Riley in support of gun rights following demonstrations at schools around the country calling for firearm restrictions after the February school shooting in Parkland, Fla. The complaint was in response to allegations made by League of United Latin American Citizens Treasurer Paul Martinez that Riley called Carlsbad High School Principal Adam Amador a dumb Mexican during a phone call. It also said district employee Liza Carrasco told a mostly Hispanic crowd during a local concert that Riley was part of a white power movement. Plaintiffs made no such comments and these allegations are not only untrue but they are scurrilous, vicious, mean-spirited, defamatory and totally made up by Defendant Amador and ratified and promulgated by Paul Pablo Martinez, the suit said. The suit also accused Carlsbad Municipal Schools Superintendent Gregory Rodriguez and members of the Carlsbad Municipal School Board for inaction in addressing Rileys concerns. The claim of racism and defamation against the plaintiff is so serious, and severe and can cause race relations problems in this community, according to the complaint. Because of the seriousness of the comments, Defendants, School Board Members, have an absolute duty to confront this issue, which they completely and totally failed to do In the days leading up to the May 2 walkout known as Stand for the Second at Carlsbad High School, Riley alleged Amador attempted to prevent the demonstration by intimidating her son and threatening the then-Carlsbad High senior with suspension. As a result of Mr. Amadors opposition to Will Rileys position and standing up for his position, he apparently alienated Mr. Amador, the complaint said. According to the lawsuit: On the day of Will Rileys 16-minute walkout, scheduled at the end of the school day, Riley spoke with Amador via phone. During that conversation, Amador demanded Riley tell him who informed her of his attempted disruption of the event. When Riley refused, the complaint alleged Amador refused to talk to her and slammed down the phone. Then, on Aug. 20, Riley spoke before the school board asking for a change in the districts discrimination policy to include viewpoint discrimination, which she alleged the district was guilty of against her son. No response from district officials was made at that time. In the following weeks, Rodriguez refused to speak with Riley about the matter, citing a personnel issue. The complaint also said the school board was aware of the issue, and received complaints from Riley, but took no action. She has gotten absolutely no response from defendant Rodriguez about any complaint she had about her son, the complaint said. And no action was taken. On Sept. 18, Riley filed two additional complaints, claiming Rodriguez was totally unresponsive to her concerns. Before a special meeting held by the School Board on Sept. 26, when board members went into a closed-door session to discuss the pending complaints, a letter sent to the school board and Current-Argus in September by LULAC alleged Riley called Amador a dumb Mexican during the May 2 phone call, according to the suit. LULACs Martinez told the Current-Argus the accusation came directly from Amador. Carlsbad School Board President David Shoup said in an interview the board was taking the concerns seriously, following the meeting, but he could not comment further. I just want to make sure the public knows that we take all concerns from the community and parents seriously, Shoup said. The suit claims that days before the meeting, on Sept. 22, school district employee Carrasco appeared at a benefit featuring local musicians, where she rallied support for Amador and the district, and accused Riley of a racial vendetta. The school board was also aware of Carrascos comments, the complaint said, and did nothing. Carlsbad Municipal School officials said they could not comment on pending litigation. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Its no secret that New Mexico Democrats are not a monolithic group. But a new online ad posted by a nonprofit organization funded by oil and natural gas companies warns that the schism between progressive and moderate Democrats could be growing wider. The ad posted by New Mexico Turn Around accuses progressives of seeking to destroy New Mexico culture, attack local traditions and regulate land use decisions. It features interviews with several residents and ranchers, including Northern New Mexico Livestock Association President Carlos Salazar. New Mexico Turn Around was created in 2001, according to records filed with the Secretary of States Office. In recent years, the group has gotten big financial contributions from Artestia-based Mack Energy Corp. and Albuquerque-based Jalapeno Corp., whose president is New Mexico Republican National Committee member Harvey Yates Jr. GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Pearce highlighted the ad in a Wednesday fundraising appeal, claiming the state Democratic Party was being taken over by out-of-state left-wing extremists. In the June primary election, two moderate Democratic legislators considered friendly to business interests Reps. Debbie Rodella of Espanola and Carl Trujillo of Nambe were unseated by more progressive challengers. HIGH PRAISE: Michelle Lujan Grishams newest TV campaign ad isnt for those afraid of heights. The ad depicts the Democratic gubernatorial nominee climbing a 265-foot-tall wind turbine in Cibola County with a helmet and harness to tout her clean energy plan. Lujan Grishams plan calls for New Mexico to have a 50 percent renewable energy portfolio by 2030 and to retrofit state buildings with energy-efficient technology, among other ideas. The ad started running Tuesday on cable and network channels statewide, a campaign spokesman said. OUTSIDE ADS: Two outside groups are launching television ads in the New Mexico race for governor, both backing Lujan Grisham. Save the Children Action Network, a Washington, D.C.-based group, is planning to spend at least $372,000 on television and online ads that will begin airing today. The ad, filmed at Kennedy Middle School in Albuquerque, focuses on New Mexicos low ranking in national education Meanwhile, an independent expenditure committee affiliated with Emilys List, a national group that supports female Democrats who support abortion rights, launched its own new ad earlier this week. It targets Pearce for past votes on health care bills as a member of Congress including legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act. Dan Boyd: dboyd@abqjournal.com The Philippines incurred a trade deficit of $3.51 billion in August and $26 billion in the first eight months, as imports continued to outpace exports, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show. The August deficit was higher than the $2.74-billion shortfall a year ago, but slightly lower than the $3.55-billion deficit in July. The eight-month deficit also eclipsed the $15.8-billion negative trade balance a year ago. Amid global challenges, government must continue supporting key and emerging export sectors to maintain the countrys trade growth, the National Economic and Development Authority said. Merchandise exports grew 3.1 percent in August to $6.16 billion, while imports climbed 11 percent to $9.68 billion from $8.72 billion. Data showed that total exports in January to August declined 2 percent to $44.9 billion, while cumulative imports increased 15 percent to $70.9 billion. In order to sustain the countrys trade growth, targeted interventions that aim to mitigate vulnerabilities, increase production capacities, and level up coping strategies to global market trends and shocks must be put in place, Neda Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said. Exports continued its third month of gradual recovery at 3.1 percent in August, from a nearly flat performance of 0.3 percent the previous month. This was buoyed by electronic products, mineral products, and fruits and vegetables. The PSA said the 3.1-percent growth in exports was due to the increases posted by six out of the top 10 commodities, led by cathodes and sections of cathodes, of refined copper (79 percent); fresh bananas (46.9 percent); other mineral products (21.8 percent); electronic products (7 percent); other manufactured goods (6.4 percent); and electronic equipment and parts (5.4 percent). Edillon said key strategies to improve the overall climate for export development were identified in the Philippine Export Development Plan 2018-2022.These include removing unnecessary regulatory impediments, raising productivity and competitiveness of Philippine enterprises, upgrading export quality and standards, improving access to trade finance and enhancing export sectors innovative capacities. The immediate implementation of the Ease of Doing Business Act will also be vital in attracting competitive firms to enter the countrys exporting industry. The approval of the 11th Foreign Investment Negative List should further ease restriction on foreign investments and prop-up domestic economic activity, Edillon said. Meanwhile, growth of imports slowed to 11 percent from 31.6 percent in July 2018. Imports growth softened because of weaker purchases of capital goods, raw materials and intermediate goods, and consumer goods. Edillon said the total import bill was expected to accelerate further in the coming months driven by capital goods to support the Build, Build, Build program. Payments for oil will also be higher as international prices push upwards the costs of importation. She said global growth was projected to remain steady at 3.7 percent in 2018 and 2019 based on the latest International Monetary Fund outlook as of October 2018. As trade tensions mount between the US and China, some manufacturing firms may seek to relocate their production, especially to Southeast Asia. This opens up opportunities for the Philippines to become a viable destination for export-oriented firms, she said. WASHINGTON In the latest shake-up for President Donald Trumps turbulent administration, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley abruptly announced she is resigning at the end of the year, raising questions about who will fill the key national security post and about the outspoken diplomats own political ambitions. Trump later told reporters he was considering five candidates for Haleys job, and that a successor would be named in two to three weeks or maybe sooner. Among those under consideration, Trump said, is former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. The Goldman Sachs executive and former Bush administration official is a close ally of Trumps daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner both senior White House aides. The news of Haleys departure blindsided some key U.S. allies and many congressional Republicans involved in foreign policy matters. And it came less than a month before congressional elections, thwarting White House efforts to project an image of stability, with the loss of one of the highest-profile women in the administration at a time when womens votes are being vigorously pursued. But Haley, the first female governor of South Carolina, has often been an unpredictable and independent force in the Trump administration. At times she has offered strikingly different perspectives on world events from her more isolationist-minded boss. A smiling Haley announced her decision at an Oval Office meeting alongside the president, bringing up her own political prospects even as she underscored her continued support for Trump. Without prompting from reporters, she said she had no plans to run for president in 2020 and would campaign for Trump. Trump told reporters that he has heard Ivanka Trumps name discussed for the post, adding shed be incredible, but said if he selected her hed be accused of nepotism. In a tweet, the presidential senior adviser praised Haley, saying Trump will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador. She added: That replacement will not be me. U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenells name has also been floated for the post, but Trump suggested hed rather keep him in his current post because hes doing such a good job. Haley, who is 46 and not personally wealthy, hinted in her resignation letter to Trump that she is headed to the private sector. She has one child in college and another approaching college age, and she has the potential to make much more money in the business world. I have given everything Ive got these last eight years, she said, referring to her six years as governor as well as her time at the U.N. And I do think its good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it. White House officials had sought to put a hold on Trumps record-setting turnover in the run-up to the Nov. 6 elections, with aides being asked months ago to step down or commit to stay through Election Day to avoid adding to a sense of turmoil. The prospect of post-midterm changes continues to hang over the West Wing, and Haleys exit was one that has been discussed, according to a senior administration official not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. A number of officials speculated that the timing was meant to preserve the ambassadors own political future. A post in the Trump administration has proven to be a rickety stepping-stone to either lucrative private sector work or hopes for higher office, and the risk to those ambitions might only increase after the elections if Democrats make significant gains in Congress. Trump said Haley first discussed leaving with him six months ago. The senior official noted that their conversation coincided with the appointments of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and John Bolton as national security adviser in an earlier upending of top foreign policy officials. Haley had expressed some frustration that her voice had been diminished as the two men became the aggressive new faces of Trumps international policy, the official said. More recently, there was the awkward moment at the U.N., when Trumps boasting of American economic strength under his leadership brought laughter at a General Assembly session. He insisted later that the delegates were laughing with him, not at him. The six-month timeline also coincides with a high-profile spat between Haley and the White House in April, when she drew the presidents ire for previewing in a television appearance the administrations planned imposition of a new round of sanctions on Russia. When the sanctions never materialized, White House officials said the plans had changed without Haley being briefed, and economic adviser Larry Kudlow suggested she was confused. I dont get confused, Haley said in a sharply worded response to the West Wing. Haley was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trumps second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the Security Council. At the U.N., she helped spearhead the administrations efforts to combat what it alleged to be anti-American and anti-Israel actions by the international body, including the U.S. decision to leave the Human Rights Council and to stop funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian Refugees. Haley also secured three successively tougher Security Council sanction resolutions against North Korea which the administration has credited with bringing Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table and an arms embargo against South Sudan. But under Haleys tenure at the U.N., the U.S. has faced strong opposition from Russia when it comes to addressing the 7-year-old war in Syria, and frustration from European allies over reimposing nuclear sanctions against Iran. ___ Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Jill Colvin from Omaha, Nebraska, and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report. The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science has launched a $120,000 fundraising campaign to bring New Mexicos Bisti Beast home in what it calls a new life-size electrifying form. Museum officials are seeking to raise enough money to buy a robotic, animated Bisti Beast from its Japanese creators to become a key attraction at the museum. An early relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, the Bisti Beast fossil was discovered in 1997 and excavated in 1998 from the Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness in the Four Corners area by museum paleontologist Dr. Thomas Williamson, Ph.D., according to a news release. Williamson with Thomas Carr wrote a paper in 2010 that described the find and named it the Bisti Beast (Bistahieversor). The research caught the attention of researchers at the Fukui Prefectory Museum in Fukui, Japan, and representatives who were eager to acquire some fossils for a temporary exhibition and eventually discovered among them the Bisti Beast. The exhibition traveled to Fukui, Nagoya and Chiba City/Tokyo, and was visited by officials with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. At the first venue, there before our eyes was a living, breathing Bisti Beast robotic dinosaur inspired by the Bistahieversor discovery. The curators in Japan worked with the company Kokoro Company Ltd. to create a mesmerizing, life-size reconstruction of our own dinosaur that left me speechless, Williamson said. In fact, we found that many New Mexico discoveries were featured prominently in the exhibition, he said in a statement. This is New Mexicos very own Tyrannosaurus rex, and our kids need to see it and learn about it, said New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs Secretary Veronica Gonzales. The New Mexico Natural History Museum Foundation has launched a GoFundMe page seeking $120,000 to bring the robotic dinosaur to New Mexico. The page is at www.gofundme.com/bisti. We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. The FBI has arrested a Utah man who allegedly assaulted a federal officer in Laguna, New Mexico. They say 20-year-old Brad Porter Halverson of Morgan was taken into custody Tuesday at a hospital in Albuquerque. FBI officials say federal officers confronted Halverson after he allegedly shot at a tractor-trailer on Interstate 40 and drove to Laguna Pueblo. They say Halverson allegedly pointed a rifle at officers and they fired shots at him. Halverson was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds that were not considered life threatening. No officers were injured. Halverson is expected to have an initial appearance Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. Its unclear if he has a lawyer yet for his case. ALAMOGORDO The off-duty Alamogordo Police Department (APD) officer who was allegedly involved in an incident at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center has been terminated by the department Tuesday. APD officer Kyle Graham is under investigation by the New Mexico State Police after an alleged incident between Graham and individuals at GCRMC Sept. 24. In 2017 Graham was named Officer of the Year for Otero County. APD opened their own investigation of the incident on Sept. 27 in conjunction with the ongoing NMSP investigation. We served him (Graham) with termination paperwork, Chief Brian Peete said. There were concerns about private conduct, professional conduct and potential criminal conduct, and how it happened. In an article published in the Sept. 29 Daily News, according to sources and witnesses at GCRMC at the time of the incident who wish to remain anonymous stated the officer was at the hospital when a situation escalated and required the intervention of law enforcement officers. The officer was there with his family and the problem magnified through the family, according to anonymous sources and witnesses. Peete said while the criminal investigation was turned over to State Police, APD was looking at the administrative issues in their internal investigation. Based on what our internal investigation found was that it was a violation of policies that would seriously bring damage and legitimacy issues to the police department, he said. In an email to the Daily News, NMSP spokeswoman Lt. Elizabeth Armijo wrote no charges have been filed against the officer. After the NMSP completes their investigation of the Sept. 24 incident, NMSP investigators will turn the case over to the 10th Judicial District Attorneys Office because Alamogordos 12th Judicial DAs Office has recused themselves from the case. We dont know if theyve (10th DA) gotten NMSPs competed investigative file on the incident yet or not, Peete said. We dont have any idea if or when any charges are going to come. Graham has seven days to appeal his termination. He would submit his appeal to Chief Peete as per the departments policy. I would hear what he has to say then I am obligated within seven days to provide a response whether its to uphold or change the discipline or anything to that affect, Peete said. If he still wants to appeal the discipline handed down at that point, he would appeal to the city manager that would be the last stop in the disciplinary process. He said the department is all about transparency without violating the individuals privacy rights and the privacy of those involved while upholding the union contract. Its an unfortunate situation all around, Peete said. Anytime it happens with a police officer or anyone within the department, its a sad thing. Its very discouraging, disappointing thing that happens. Especially when we have an officer, in Kyles case, when we have such a strong officer who was officer of the year in 2017. He said Graham has done a lot of good work for the department. Its a lot of peers within the federal, local and state side that speak volumes of his work, Peete said. Unfortunately, its just an unfortunate situation for him and his family as well as a loss for the city. Daily News reporter Dylan Taylor-Lehman contributed to this story. 2018 the Alamogordo Daily News (Alamogordo, N.M.) Visit the Alamogordo Daily News (Alamogordo, N.M.) at www.alamogordonews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal Larry Larranaga rarely called attention to himself. But inside the Roundhouse, the longtime lawmaker earned the respect of Democrats and Republicans alike as an even-keeled budget expert who could set aside politics and get things done. His death late Tuesday prompted an outpouring of respect and praise from New Mexico leaders across the political spectrum. A family member said doctors suspect that Larranaga, 80, had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare degenerative brain disorder, though test results are pending. His passing was sudden, but we are grateful that there is no more suffering and he can be at peace, the Larranaga family said in a written statement. Family members added that they would love for him to be remembered for his honesty, integrity, generosity and willingness to serve others. An Albuquerque Republican and retired engineer, Larranaga emerged as a leading voice on budget legislation during his nearly 24 years in the state House. He was previously a Cabinet secretary for the state Highway Department, now called the Transportation Department, and a former deputy chief administrative officer for Albuquerque. He had also worked as a rancher and an engineer. Gov. Susana Martinez called Larranaga a tremendous leader and statesman who will be sorely missed. He served our country honorably as a soldier in Vietnam, and as a legislator, he was a strong voice for fiscal discipline and conservative values who was always willing to work across the aisle to get things done, Martinez said. Larranaga formally resigned from the Legislature last week. He had said in August that he was ending his re-election bid. Lora Lee Ortiz, a niece, said Wednesday that his illness progressed quickly. It was only four or five weeks ago that it became apparent that he was not feeling quite himself, she said. He is survived by his wife, two children and five grandchildren. Larry was the rock of our family, a proud veteran of the United States Army, and a tireless public servant who fought for a better New Mexico, family members said in their written statement. At home he was a loving husband to Charletta for 51 years and a true family man to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was very proud of his large, faithful and loving family, which included 12 siblings, many brothers and sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews and great-nieces and nephews. His death was announced Wednesday morning at a meeting of the Economic Forum, a nonpartisan group of Albuquerque-area business leaders. Michael Canfield, president and CEO of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, told the audience at Hotel Albuquerque that New Mexico has lost a real hero. Larranaga grew up on a ranch about 12 miles south of Clines Corners in central New Mexico. He won election to a Northeast Heights-based House district in 1994 and rose through the ranks to serve as chairman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee after Republicans in the 2014 election won a majority in the chamber for the first time in 60 years. He presided over the budget-writing committee from 2015 through 2016 both cash-lean years for the state but lost his chairmanship after Democrats reclaimed control of the House in the 2016 election. During a 2017 legislative special session, Larranaga won approval for legislation that created a rainy-day fund intended to help New Mexico handle wild swings in revenue. The measure calls for revenue from oil and natural gas taxes, if it exceeds a five-year rolling average, to be set aside for future years. It took effect for the current budget year, and $177 million is projected to be set aside in the fund next July, due to an oil drilling boom in southeastern New Mexico. As news of Larranagas death circulated, community leaders released statements praising his work. Ryan Cangiolosi, chairman of the state Republican Party, called Larranaga a selfless public servant. Larry never sought credit or attention, Cangiolosi said, but his work as a lawmaker, a Cabinet secretary and a small-business owner undoubtedly gave New Mexico a brighter future. Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, a Democrat who succeeded Larranaga as head of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, said he was a role model for all of us. Larranaga was tenacious, and he was very, very thorough in his review of things, Lundstrom said. Ive never seen anybody go through a spreadsheet like Larry did. Attorney General Hector Balderas, a Democrat who served in the state House with Larranaga, said Larranaga was always willing to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for the greater good of New Mexicans. House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said New Mexico has lost a true statesman, while House Minority Leader Nate Gentry, R-Albuquerque, highlighted his determination and steadfastness as examples for all legislators. Republican Robert Godshall, a retired federal immigration officer, and Democrat Bill Pratt, a retired physician, are running to succeed Larranaga in House District 27. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. In a speech to hundreds of business leaders Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham promised to work across party lines if shes elected governor and to champion New Mexico as a great place to do business. She said she would pursue changes to the states procurement code to help local businesses win state contracts and support efforts to simplify the states gross receipts tax code. I think New Mexico is on the edge of incredible transformation, Lujan Grisham said during a speech to members of the Economic Forum of Albuquerque, a nonpartisan group of business leaders. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, is giving up her seat in Congress to run for governor. She faces a Republican colleague, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, in the Nov. 6 election. Both candidates have pledged repeatedly to work on diversifying New Mexicos economy, which is heavily dependent on oil and gas production and federal spending at military bases and national laboratories. The state ranks among the worst in child poverty. But Lujan Grisham said New Mexico should do more bragging about its strengths a rocky mountain environment, wind and sunshine well-suited to renewable energy, national laboratories and strong, resilient people. New Mexico is the next greatest thing. Thats what I think, she said. What an incredible opportunity this is a state thats never realized its potential, but it could, it should and with your help, it will. She also touted a commitment to bipartisanship, noting that she had worked as a state Cabinet secretary under both Republican and Democratic governors. In a written statement, the Pearce campaign responded that Lujan Grishams history shows she would put partisan cronies first and the people of New Mexico last. Steve Pearce is the only candidate in this race who has created jobs and as Governor he will make New Mexico an engine of growth in all forms of energy, high tech, tourism, and trade, spokesman Kevin Sheridan said. Steve Pearce will be a jobs Governor for all New Mexicans, not the select few. Lujan Grisham said that if elected, she would immediately gather the legislative leaders of both parties at the Roundhouse for a meeting to develop a slate of bills that could be approved quickly in the 2019 session. One priority, she said, would be legislation that passed by overwhelming margins in previous sessions, only to be vetoed by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. Lujan Grisham said she would convene a bipartisan tax commission to overhaul the complex system of gross receipts taxes. The code is so complicated, she said, that the state has trouble administering it. Pearce, who founded an oil field services company, has also pledged to pursue bipartisan solutions, including an overhaul of the tax system. He has called for an expansion of apprenticeship programs and more work-training programs for released inmates as part of a plan to boost the economy. Gov. Susana Martinez announced today that the states tourism industry had a $6.6 billion impact on the New Mexico economy in 2017, described as the largest in state history. At a news conference, the governor called tourism as a key economic driver and said the $6.6 billion number represents a 3.2 percent increase from the year prior. Tourisms economic impact has grown for the past seven years consecutively, she said. The more people visiting our beautiful state, the more dollars go into our communities, Martinez said in a statement. This means more jobs and better opportunities for New Mexican families. Among the other data cited by the governor: Visitor spending generated $662 million in state and local taxes and sustained 94,000 jobs There were 1 million more visitor trips to New Mexico in 2017 compared with 2016 Visitor spending has grown by $1.4 billion since 2010 In her remarks at the news conference, the governor attributed much of the growth to the New Mexico True marketing campaign, which launched in 2012. Tourism Department Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Latham said the state has spent tens of millions of dollars on the campaign since its inception. New Mexico True advertisements are used by the tourism department as well as other departments such as economic development. Asked to what extent the economic impact increase can be attributed to improvements in the state and national economy versus the campaign, Latham said both elements are part of the equation. Economic health is important, because when times are tough youre not thinking about taking trips, said Latham. But its also about the continued investment in the New Mexico True brand. Weve found that it had a seven-to-one return on investment. Latham said that the $6.6 billion figure is direct spending by tourists, and if one takes into account indirect spending such as business-to-business transactions that take place as a result of direct tourism spending the sum is closer to $9 billion. Jon Bones Jones will return to the Octagon on Dec. 29 on UFC 232 in a rematch of his memorable 2013 fight against Swedens Alexander Gustafsson, according to multiple reports. The story first was reported on Wednesday by Ariel Helwani of espn.com . There has been no announcement from the UFC and no reaction from Jones, but Gustafsson appeared to confirm the news on his Twitter feed. On 12/29 the (light heavyweight) UFC belt is coming home with me!!! Gustafsson wrote. Jones (22-1), an upstate New York native who lives in Albuquerque and trains here at Jackson-Wink MMA, last fought on July 29, 2017. His victory that night over Daniel Cormier for the UFC light heavyweight title was ruled no contest after Jones was found to have tested positive for Turinabol, an anabolic steroid. Jones contention that he did not knowingly ingest a banned subject was accepted by the United States Anti-Drug Agency, based on the timing of the positive test. Jones nonetheless was suspended for 15 months dating from the night of the Cormier fight and thus is eligible to fight on Dec. 29. Cormier, who currently holds both the light heavyweight and heavyweight UFC titles, is expected to be stripped of the light heavyweight belt to make way for the Jones-Gustafsson winner. Gustafsson (18-4) lost to Jones by unanimous decision on Sept. 21, 2013 in a fight considered among the most exciting in UFC history. Since then, the Swedish fighter has gone 3-2 losing by first-round TKO to Anthony Johnson (since retired) and to Cormier by split decision. The Gustafsson fight was by far the most difficult of Jones MMA career. His only defeat was the result of a disqualification for having thrown illegal 12-to-6 elbows. Page Content PC_2018_E_05 The Agency launches today a public consultation on the methodology for pricing intraday cross-zonal capacity. All interested parties are invited to submit their comments by 30 October 2018. In July 2018, all regulatory authorities informed the Agency that they could not approve the proposal from all TSOs (transmission system operators) on pricing of intraday cross-zonal capacity, which is based on Article 55 of the EU Regulation on Capacity Allocation and Congestion Management (CACM Regulation) . Therefore, the Agency became competent to decide on the proposal in accordance with Article 9(12) of the CACM Regulation. To take an informed decision on the TSOs proposal, the Agency seeks the comments of interested stakeholders on the main problems raised by all regulatory authorities, as well as on other elements that may need improvements. All interested parties are invited to submit their comments by 30 October 2018, 23:59 hrs (CET). Enter the public consultation here Find the Privacy statement here Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. said it purchased bid documents for the selection of a new major telecom player. We have downloaded the bid documents as soon as it was made available and have reviewed it thoroughly. As it stands, they are acceptable to us. We have bought the bid documents and we are confident our chances are strong, PT&T president and chief executive James Velasquez said. We believe we are the only local company that can comply with the stringent requirements and we have over 50 years of telecommunications experience servicing the Filipino people, he said. The bid documents are consistent with what the Department of Information and Communications Technology and National Telecommunications Commission shared in the new major player selection process. Another bidder, Now Telecommunications Inc., sued the National Telecommunications Commission over certain provisions of the terms of reference, citing violation of existing laws. Besides PT&T and Now Telecom, Dennis Uys Udenna Corp., the joint venture of businessman Chavit Singsons LSC Group of Companies and TierOne Communications and Norways Telenor Group purchased bid documents for the new major player. Department of Information and Communications Technology acting Secretary Eliseo Rio said the standards set forth in the TOR would be in the interest of Filipino people.PT&T said it posted a P25-million net income in the fiscal year ending June 2018, a significant growth of 193 percent from 2017. Revenues climbed 62 percent to P201 million from last years P124 million. PT&T attributed the increase in revenues to the growth in the number of clients and lower expenses, after the new management came in August 2017. The companys client base went up by 72.64 percent compared to last year. Our focus on the fixed broadband business has led to significant growth. The future is bright for PT&T and we expect continued growth as we capture more opportunities in this space, Velasquez said. Velasquez said PT&Ts plans were on track as it continued to build a full telecommunications and digital network. The company earlier said it would invest over P7 billion over two years to expand its broadband network nationwide. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has spent the last several weeks battling disturbing accusations of sexual violence, is now one of the most powerful people in America. While his appointment to the US Supreme Court is devastating for much of the population, it is easy to forget what a triumphant victory it represents for many others. Upon hearing the news of Kavanaugh's confirmation, a West Virginia city councilman named Eric Barber posted to a private Facebook group: "Better get you're (sic) coat hangers ready liberals." Barber, who is a devout Christian, was referring to a sometimes lethal (and by no means extinct) method of DIY abortion used by desperate women for whom safer legal methods are not available. He later deleted the comment. A fellow councilman has since come forward to say that Barber's post was a callback to an incident in Washington earlier this autumn, when a pro-choice activist threw a coat hanger in his face. Barber, who quit the Democratic Party last year citing its "anti-Christian rhetoric," has yet to apologize for his remarks. Barber's language is extreme, but many Americans agree with his basic sentiment that abortion is wrong, and that nominally religious values ought to be reflected in the political discourse. It is no wonder, then, that he and so many others are delighted with the Supreme Court's newest appointee. On the flipside, the potential for regressive, draconian reform which now rests in Kavanaugh's hands should shock and galvanize every young person who has hitherto taken their rights for granted. And while there is little the American public can now do about the Supreme Court, it will soon have a say in the makeup of Congress in the midterm elections. This is the remaining opportunity to dilute what might otherwise become an entirely conservative federal government. According to a June poll, only 28% of young voters say they will definitely vote in the midterms, compared with 74% of seniors. When it comes to issues like reproductive rights, which do not directly affect the elderly, this disparity leaves young people incredibly vulnerable to the whims of people who will not have to live with the consequences of their vote. Young voters -- even those registered as independent -- are much more likely to lean toward the Democrats, who are mostly supportive of abortion, and for whom turnout will be key in the midterms. And there is some good news -- in the latest CNN poll, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters say they are enthusiastic to vote in November. The most recent red wash of the executive and judiciary arms of government should therefore inspire serious urgency in young Americans to hit the ballot boxes and affect the legislature where they can. Kavanaugh gives supporters of abortion reason to worry. In a 2003 memo, Kavanaugh wrote that the Supreme Court "can always overrule" Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision recognizing a woman's right to legally terminate pregnancies anywhere in the United States. (Before Roe, women could legally get abortions in some states.) Last year, Kavanaugh called late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who notably voted against Roe in 1973, his "first judicial hero," and lauded his efforts to stem "the general tide of freewheeling judicial creation of unenumerated rights". He also replaces Anthony Kennedy, a center-right and broadly socially liberal justice who has wielded the decisive vote in rulings, including the upholding of Roe v. Wade. In his absence, and with Kavanaugh in situ, the court will likely roll back a number of progressive rulings, including those concerning abortion rights. Abortion hasn't always been such a partisan issue. Until the mid-1970s, the majority of Republicans favored abortion rights, favoring all the self-determinism that position represented. The need to mollify the religious right saw a gradual shift toward the anti-abortion stance today's millennials most associate with the party. What might once have been a matter for individual social conscience is now a definitive political marker. As such, the Republicans are now almost completely united in their mission to scale back progressive abortion laws, and President Donald Trump has made it clear that he intends to spearhead the endeavor. Reports vary, but it is generally agreed that over half of Americans under 30 are pro-abortion. And even with Roe v. Wade in place, several states have begun to impose restrictions on abortion. West Virginia, where the coat hanger-celebrating Barber is a councilman, is one of seven states which currently have just one abortion clinic. The fact that anti-abortion politicians have already made such headway in removing options for pregnant women should be of acute concern to the pro-abortion population, not least because of the broader social injustice it represents. Any measures to restrict abortion disproportionately affect minorities and the poor. In the wake of the 2008 financial collapse and as abortion rights were restricted, internet searches about self-induced abortions nearly doubled. And black women seek abortions at five times the rate of white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which puts them at even greater risk when their rights are restricted. And it's important to remember that punitive measures don't deter women from attempting DIY abortions, but they do make them more hazardous. Self-induced abortions, even those managed with pills rather than invasive measures, are very dangerous. Americans' reproductive rights were under threat long before Kavanaugh's confirmation, but his presence in the Supreme Court could accelerate their dissolution aggressively. And as Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, made clear this week, Kavanaugh's appointment and confirmation to the Supreme Court is just one component of a broader Republican assault on women's bodily autonomy. Asked whether Trump was upholding his promise to work toward getting Roe v. Wade overturned, she said: "He's nominating people -- 26 to the US Circuit courts and two to the United States Supreme Court -- who are going to apply the law." She stressed that the state would tackle late-term abortion and sex-selection abortion, and "look at abortion after nonpartisan scientists and doctors say a fetus can feel pain." In short, if the Republicans maintain control of Congress, that could prove the nail in the coffin for federal-mandated reproductive rights. Young people who were not born before Roe v. Wade could discover a grim world of DIY abortions, already familiar to many of America's poor and disenfranchised, if their states pass strict anti-abortion laws. While this is more likely to occur in red states, some blue states have not yet passed laws protecting abortion. It is not only "liberals" who want or need abortions, as Barber's disgusting Facebook post suggested earlier this week. The option needs to be safely, legally available to all American women. The majority of young voters agree, but unless they turn out to vote, their voices will go unheard. The Eric Barbers of America will celebrate their final, definitive triumph. One in five Europeans is regularly exposed to noise levels that could "significantly" damage their health, the World Health Organization says, and it updated guidelines on those levels in Europe on Tuesday. Environmental noise is among the "top environmental risks to health," according to the WHO report. Health and medical Mental health Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Roads and traffic Transportation and warehousing Transportation infrastructure Cardiovascular disease Diseases and disorders Heart disease Environment and natural resources Noise pollution Non-profit and NGO organizations Pollution Public health World Health Organization Environmentalism More than 100 million Europeans are affected by road traffic noise alone each year. "Noise continues to be a concern," noted Dr. Dorota Jarosinska, program manager for living and working environments at the WHO regional office for Europe. The new guidelines are "an important update," given the evidence and links to health problems, said Stephen Stansfeld, professor at Barts and Queen Mary University of London and chair of the Guideline Development Group, an independent organization that advised WHO on the guidelines. Excessive noise can affect blood pressure, hypertension and heart disease, which can lead to heart attacks and mortality from cardiovascular disease. Children's cognition and health are also affected. Jonathan Gale, a professor of cell biology and director of the UCL Ear Institute, wrote in an email that he "welcomes the new WHO guidelines as they bring the human impact of noise exposure to the fore." This report, the first since 1999 to address noise levels, included considerations on new noise sources such as wind turbine and "leisure noise," which includes music at nightclubs, pubs, fitness classes, live sporting events and concerts and through personal listening devices. Two independent expert groups in the field of environmental noise reviewed recent research and helped develop the guidelines about acceptable 24-hour and nighttime noise levels. The new recommendations suggested reducing average noise levels of road traffic below 53 decibels, the equivalent of hearing a dishwasher in the next room. At night, 45 dB of road traffic noise was recommended. WHO said 40% of European Union residents are exposed to traffic noise levels exceeding 55 dB. Stephen Turner, president-elect of the Institute of Acoustics in the UK, believes that this reduction "can be achieved." "The challenge is, there are an awful lot of people affected. Whether we have the technology yet to be able to secure that reduction without having an adverse impact on travel and connectivity, I'm not sure," he added. For railways, aircraft and wind turbine noise, an average level of 44 dB to 54 dB was recommended, depending on the source. Noise from aircraft at night is suggested to be limited to less than 40dB, as higher levels of aircraft noise are associated with adverse effects on sleeping. Leisure noise -- which is usually desired -- was recommended to be kept at an average of 70 dB. Damages to hearing outcomes can be tied to the source, and therefore we have a higher tolerance for desired noises. WHO published guidelines on community noise in 1999 and night noise in 2009. In 2010, the member states of the European region requested guidelines including leisure and wind turbine noise. Noise pollution is very diverse. Each source has different characteristics of loudness and consistency, according to the report. The health effects of each type of noise pollution therefore vary. But the new guidelines are based on reviewed evidence that noise exposure has risks of negative health outcomes. "The most frequent impacts are annoyance and sleep disturbance," Stansfeld said. Gale noted, "Exposure to environmental noise can result in hearing loss that, in the longer term, can cause social isolation and [an] impact on health and well-being. Both the level and duration of the exposure are important factors. "However we know much less about the effects of exposure to low levels of environmental noise over long periods," he added. "We think such noise is unlikely to affect our sensory hair cells [in our ears] but may well effect our brain processes and possibly our mental health." Children were particularly affected by airplane noise, with evidence showing effects on reading comprehension and development of metabolic syndromes, such as obesity and diabetes. These effects can be aided from the chronic stress of being exposed to traffic noise. Turner noted that the health effects, such as increased risk of heart attacks, manifest at "high exposure" of noise levels. "If we focus on reducing the high exposure [of noise pollution], we can reduce those adverse health risks." CHICO, Calif. - Three people, two men and a teenage girl, were arrested Monday after police say they allegedly stole a combined total of $10,579 worth of items from various stores in Chico. According to Chico police, officers got a call from a CVS Pharmacy on East Avenue that a group of people had shoplifted a lot of items from the store. Once the CVS employees provided a description of the suspects and their vehicle, police got another call just after 4 p.m. that someone had spotted the suspects vehicle at the Target department store on East 20th Street. Officers then responded to the area and found the suspect vehicle at Bed, Bath and Beyond, located on 2101 Dr. Marthin Luther King Jr. Pkwy, where authorities found Jihad Muhammad, 21, of San Francisco a 17-year-old girl from Oakland and a 10-month-old baby, officials said. Inside the vehicle, police found the trunk full of items from several stores including Victorias Secret, BevMo, and JC Pennys, according to Chico police. Police say all the stolen items are worth more than $7,500 most of the items being small, but expensive items. Apparently, Muhammad was not supposed to be near the female suspect, because a restraining order that prevents him from doing so, according to a record check by police, and both were arrested for the thefts. The 10-month-old baby that was with the male and female suspect was turned over to Butte County Child Protective Services. Then right as police had the investigation underway, officers were sent to another shoplifting incident at Chico Power Equipment on the Esplanade. Employees at the store said a man tried to steal tools from them, and as soon as employees contacted the suspect, later identified as Daniel Shamblin, 35, of Oroville, he resisted arrested and tried to escape, according to police. When authorities arrived at the store, Shamblin was taken into custody, and once an investigation took place, an officer found out that Shamblin entered Chico Power Equipment and picked out a cutoff saw and blade, ran out the store and awaited a vehicle. Shamblins getaway car was being driven by a female, but sped away from the scene, officials said. An investigating officer received the surveillance video from Chico Power Equipment and noticed that Shamblins act was probably a diversion because two other people inside the store waited for him to be chased out by police and they also grabbed some tools and ran in opposite directions, officials said. But the two people were seen dropping those tools and running away from the scene. The items taken from Chico Power Equipment totaled $3,079, and everything but a $250 blade was recovered at the scene. Police did not comment if these two incidents were connected in any way. A day before the filing of Certificates of Candidacy for the coming midterm elections in May 2019 polls, reelectionist Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito officially left his fathers political party, the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, and took his oath as member of the Nationalist Peoples Coalition. Interviewed after taking his oath before Senate President Vicente Sotto III, the partys senior adviser, Ejercito divulged it was a hard decision. Of course, its difficult to leave the party of your father. I just want to clarify that while we have disagreements, I am not cutting ties with him as my father. My love for him is still there. I owe my life and my upbringing to him, he said.Ejercito said he jumped boat because he believes there should only be one candidate from their family who should run in the same position under the same political party. The reelectionist senator initially planned to join PDP-Laban but opted to move to NPC since Jinggoy Estrada is also seeking a Senate seat for the second time under the ruling party of former Senate President Aquilino Koko Pimentel III and President Rodrigo Duterte. SAN DIEGO, Calif. - A convicted serial rapist in California may have his sentence cut short by 20 years, and now the community is fighting back. In 1989, Alvin Quarles pled guilty to attacking more than a dozen women at knifepoint and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison in San Diego. After 30 years, a judge has ruled in favor of his release. One woman who survived an attack in 1988 says she fears what will happen. "He is a self-admitted sexually violent predator," said Mary Taylor. "If he reoffends, I will feel like a failure." Quarles has been considered for release in 2013 as well. REDDING, Calif - "For any community to prosper three things need to prosper: Your commerce, your tourism, and your law enforcement have to prosper," said Good News Rescue Mission director Jonathon Anderson. On Saturday, the Good News Rescue Mission first proposed this radical idea at their annual gala. Anderson said that the homeless issue in Redding is affecting tourism and commerce. "As long as there is someone who is homeless that is sleeping in front of a place of business, your commerce will not prosper," Anderson said. "Your tourism will have a strain on it and law enforcement will have a strong strain." However, the Good News Rescue Mission along with their national organization has come up with a solution to the problem. They will be getting vans to get take the 300 homeless residents off the streets of Redding and freeing up time for the police. "Now police can focus on a criminal aspect instead of trying to be a social service agency," Anderson said. He said that his program has been successful in their Washington state location by giving homeless residents resources to stay off the streets. Action News Now reached out to the Redding Police Department to learn more about the strain the homeless community has on their day to day operations. The police chief was not available for comment. As for the community, they all seem excited for the proposal. "Everybody thinks it's a great idea, because it's a huge need in our community right now," Anderson said. "You know at the mission we serve about 3,000 people annually and that's not what our community sees because they are not on the street. What our community sees is the people on the street." OROVILLE, Calif. - A new program has been adopted for the Butte County Jail to help speed up the trial process for inmates with mental health problems. Supervisors approved the program on Tuesday, Oct. 9. Sheriff Kory Honea told said the problem is the lack of bed space in the state hospital. Now the Butte County Jail can house and treat those inmates and help get them to a point where they understand the charges against them. Before the board of supervisors approved the program the inmates would have to wait for space to open at the state mental hospital. "From our perspective, that doesn't do anybody any good," Honea said. "It doesn't do the inmate any good, it doesn't do our staff any good, and it certainly doesn't help further the interest of justice because often times people will go without treatment and they continue to decompensate and their condition worsens." The county jail partnered with the California Forensic Medical Group to treat the inmates. That treatment includes medication, counseling and some education. Honea said the state will be funding the treatment for inmates while they are in custody. Chardikla Time TV, one of the top ranking free to air Punjabi infotainment channel has appointed Aidem Ventures, an independent media consulting and marketing solutions Company as their exclusive ad sales representatives for North and East India. The channels content is a perfect blend of news, music, food, devotion and documentaries. Chardikla Time TV is the only channel that telecasts live Gurbani from Gurudwara Bangla Sahib - New Delhi and Gurudwara Shri Hemkunt Sahib - Uttrakhand which is an integral part of every Punjabi household. With a strong distribution network across all cable and DTH platforms, the channel connects its viewers in India as well as Canada. Karan Gupta, MD, Aidem Ventures said, Aidem has a demonstrated history of creating success stories for channels assigned to us from various markets. Chardikla Time TV being one of the top performing channels in Punjab market offers incredible reach to advertisers with global viewership. We are confident to drive the channels revenue to new heights. Satbir Singh Dardi, Director, Chardikla Time TV added, We are happy to be associated with Aidem and are confident that their rich experience will help us improve our presence in the key markets of North and East India. In addition to this, AIDEMs level of professionalism and strong hold in the advertiser market will certainly help us position the channel as a worthy advertising platform. This article is authored by Atique Kazi, Managing Director, Xaxis India Atique Kazi joined Xaxis India in 2013 and has been with the organisation for more than 5 years. Prior to Xaxis he has worked in organisations such as Yahoo India, The Economist and The Times of India. He is enthusiastic about the adoption of digital technologies to transform organisations. He believes that the uptake of programmatic is not slow in India. As media becomes more and more digitally charged he is optimistic about the future of programmatic. AI is drastically transforming how we live and work and will forever change how people consume information and make purchasing decisions. And given the fundamental nature of the industry, it is no surprise that advertising is already being impacted by AI technology. AI is being used in a variety of ways to improve advertising effectiveness. It has been used to find and define audiences, refine creative messaging, generate audience personas, and develop bidding strategies that optimize for clients stated goals. AI delivers cognitive insights that can be used to mine data, looking for trends and patterns. They are most obviously suited to tackling discrete issues, such as predicting a particular customer's likely behaviour and anticipating their reaction. AI in the Indian advertising market Our highly complex advertising market is one of the fastest growing in the world, mirroring the rise of the countrys middle class, with its increasing disposable income. Close to 40% of Indias advertising spend still goes to TV, while digital media contributes to approximately 17% of the total ad spend. However, this number is gradually growing, and it is expected that by 2020 approximately 22% of total ad expenditure will be on digital. The key to this growth is the tremendous penetration and affordability of the internet. 500 million Indian internet users benefit from high-speed, low-cost connectivity across the country. However, this huge audience is anything but monolithic. Vast differences abound 22 different languages, the rural/urban divide, cultural and ethnic preferences all serve to make mass advertising to a digital audience a losing proposition. Efficiently reaching digital audiences In fact, the only way to efficiently reach digital audiences at scale across the vast Indian population is to use programmatic media buying, which targets the right prospects with specific ad campaigns. As media moves towards being digital, digital moves towards being programmatic. We can see this happening in the world of video, which is becoming increasingly scalable and measurable. Programmatic means buying digital advertising space automatically rather than manually, with computers using data to decide in real time which ads to buy and how much to pay for them. Lingering perceptions of AI as robotic and impersonal may jar with the essentially human nature of advertising, but in fact an AI-powered ad strategy enhances the industrys ability to reach real individual human beings. AI-driven campaigns tailor ads to each consumers preferences AI technology helps define the campaign goal, devises a plan that leads to desired outcomes, runs tests and gathers data, takes action and constantly refines for increased cost efficiency, and importantly uses human talent well. Programmatic calls for people who know how to interpret goals, understand the programmatic advertising landscape and can create and refine algorithms to the specific needs at hand. AI allows us to integrate more data and intelligence into every action than ever before, enabling us to create a completely customized experience tailored to each persons own preferences and purchasing behaviours, match our clients brands with the most interested audiences, and continually optimize campaigns to deliver better results in less time. Facebook today said that it is devoted to foster the growing tech ecosystem in India and reaffirmed its commitment to offer valuable and meaningful support to more entrepreneurs & startups through its key programs. Speaking at Facebook India Startup Day, an initiative to celebrate stories of tech and a forum to bring the ecosystem together, Satyajeet Singh, Head of Platform Partnerships, Facebook India and South Asia remarked, We believe when startups flourish, India will prosper. At Facebook we are committed to paving the way for the success of the new generation of startups in India and understand that access to resources, people and networks can be a powerful catalyst for their growth. That's why we are creating programs that can fuel startups to build businesses of tomorrow through mentoring, regular trainings, workshops and meetups. Within this year, we have worked closely with over 200 startups through our programs: India Innovation Hub, SheLeadsTech and Code for the Next Billion, to help them build better products and grow their businesses. Our initiatives seek to empower India's vibrant startup ecosystem; be it helping startups with the use of emerging technologies like AR/VR, giving women-led startups the right channels, or supporting companies that are building solutions for social impact, Satyajeet Singh added. Not just businesses, Facebook is also nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of students and is encouraging them to think about deep tech and product innovation. It said its first batch of School of Innovation program, of 10 student teams have built their VR ideas into working product prototypes which will showcased on a demo day, early next year. Besides these programs, 21,000 people have also completed self- training modules via Facebook's Startup Training Hub, which was launched last year. Pledging more support, Facebook announced that it is expanding efforts to include more cities and aspiring entrepreneurs, and outlined ways it would be supporting startups in the coming year: SheLeadsTech Roadshow: Facebook's flagship program for women-led startups, SheLeadsTech will see more organized efforts in Tier II cities via SheLeadsTech Roadshow, a movement to inspire more women to think technology and entrepreneurship, and convert their ideas into startups. Through community efforts and encouragement, SheLeadsTech Roadshow will grow women networks to learn from other women about challenges and opportunities and take the leap to realize their entrepreneurial dreams. To begin with, SheLeadsTech Roadshow will travel to over 10 cities including Jaipur, Panjim, Kochi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati and Shillong. Currently, SheLeadsTech program supports over 170 women founded startups in 24 cities by providing access to community, tools, mentorship and resources to overcome barriers and succeed in building a business in technology. Facebook's flagship program for women-led startups, SheLeadsTech will see more organized efforts in Tier II cities via SheLeadsTech Roadshow, a movement to inspire more women to think technology and entrepreneurship, and convert their ideas into startups. Through community efforts and encouragement, SheLeadsTech Roadshow will grow women networks to learn from other women about challenges and opportunities and take the leap to realize their entrepreneurial dreams. To begin with, SheLeadsTech Roadshow will travel to over 10 cities including Jaipur, Panjim, Kochi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati and Shillong. Currently, SheLeadsTech program supports over 170 women founded startups in 24 cities by providing access to community, tools, mentorship and resources to overcome barriers and succeed in building a business in technology. Is setting up three Innovation Hubs: Facebook will collaborate with co-working spaces in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to set up community hubs called Innovation Hubs, that will seek to foster innovation by hosting mentor hours and trainings for startups. This comes in close to the first anniversary mark of India Innovation Hub in Hyderabad, which saw VR startups (from India Innovation Hub Accelerator Program) benefit from coming together for bootcamps and online interactions that helped them to build their ideas. Facebook will collaborate with co-working spaces in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to set up community hubs called Innovation Hubs, that will seek to foster innovation by hosting mentor hours and trainings for startups. This comes in close to the first anniversary mark of India Innovation Hub in Hyderabad, which saw VR startups (from India Innovation Hub Accelerator Program) benefit from coming together for bootcamps and online interactions that helped them to build their ideas. Will double its reach via Developer Circles : India is home to one of the largest developer and startup communities, and we have been working to create a network of developers. Through Developer Circles we provide developers a platform to connect and collaborate , and encourage community learning and coding via local meet ups and online groups. Today, we have a community of 50,000 in 15 cities and plan to expand to 100,000 developers in over 20 cities by June 2019. Keeping up with the spirit of The Facebook India Startup Day, Facebook also hosted India Startup Awards to recognize some of the most path-breaking work of India's disruptive startup ecosystem and awarded winners in five categories including: The Manila International Airport Authority on Wednesday announced it has achieved another milestone after obtaining its ISO certification under ISO 2001:2015 standards. General manager Eddie Monreal received the ISO 9001:2015 certification in behalf of the Airport Authority. The certificate was awarded by MIAAs current certifying body, International Standards Certification Global, one of the pillars in developing ISO standards and is now one of the fastest-growing certification body in the industry. The Authority, which supervises and manages the countrys premier gateway the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, has sustained the spirit of ISO 9001 by complying with the standards and requirements and thus achieving a successful transition to the 2015 version. MIAA began its certification journey in 2008 when it first obtained its ISO certification under ISO 9001:2008 standards. ISO 9001:2008 is focused on meeting customer expectations and achieving customer satisfaction. In simple terms, it is customer-focused. Under this standard, an organization should ensure continuous improvement in its products and services to meet customer requirements.Internally, the organization will be benefitted from increased job satisfaction, improved morale, and improved operational results. On the other hand, risk-based thinking is the focus of ISO 9001:2015 standards. Besides meeting customer expectations, organizations are now encouraged to use risk analysis in order to address challenges in their business processes. The concept of risk is paramount in the seven quality management principles of ISO 9001:2015 namely customer focus; leadership; engagement of people; process approach; improvement; evidence-based decision making and relationship management. Last March, the NAIA made it to the top 10 most improved airports in the 2018 World Airport Awards by Skytrax. NAIA listed number 10 in the survey while Fiumicino Airport in Rome bagged the top spot followed by Perth Airport in Australia and Calgary International Airport in Alberta, Canada. Aiken County leaders got to hear from Gov. Henry McMaster about some of the big issues facing North Augusta and the county right now: cyber activity and the Savannah River lock and dam. The governor, up for re-election in November, was welcomed to North Augusta by Mayor Bob Pettit. Governor, were sitting right now in the epicenter of business growth and enterprise in North Augusta, and we are in the middle of an Opportunity Zone, Pettit said. +3 Opportunity Zones in North Augusta provide a path for investors, businesses to benefit New investment is possible in downtown North Augusta and beyond with a program called Opportunity Zones, which provides tax incentives for investors. Governor, you took the action to designate this area as an Opportunity Zone, and it is without a doubt going to be a major asset for capital investment in this area, and its going to continue to grow and renew itself, Pettit said. McMaster talked about the collaborative spirit of South Carolina, and how that spirit can be applied to cyber activity. He mentioned the International Center for Automotive Research in the Clemson area. This place here, my prediction is its going to be the same thing for cyber right here, because of whats happening across the river, McMaster said. And it doesnt matter if its across the river or across the fence, or across a bunch of trees, or across the road, its right there. The river doesnt make any difference. This town, this city, this whole area is right in the middle of cyber USA North Augusta City Administrator Todd Glover also mentioned cyber, and that the Opportunity Zone designation that encompasses much of the citys downtown, can help the city attract cyber business. We are ready to lead South Carolinas cyber initiatives, Glover said. During a question session, S.C. Rep. Bill Hixon, R-North Augusta, thanked McMaster for help with the Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam, calling it a very serious issue. +3 Corps of Engineers presents five potential alternative plans for Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam Residents of both South Carolina and Georgia got a glimpse of five alternative plans the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering for the N North Augusta leaders have expressed an interest in a solution for the lock and dam that would retain current water levels. The lock and dam is not currently being used, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering five options that would replace the defunct structure, only one of which would retain the current system. Hixon said he would like to see the lock and dam repaired and not replaced with a rock weir, which is an option in one of the other four plans. My main thing is I dont want to see the water level drop at all; Id like to keep the same water level, Hixon said. Pettit also mentioned the lock and dam at the beginning of the lunch, mentioning that the Savannah River is a key element in Riverside Village, the North Augustas new development where SRP Park is located. Weve met with you once already about the importance of keeping the river at the level that it is today. You know you can just look out the window and see how true that is. We thank you for your support in this ongoing effort, and I suspect Ill be in touch with you again, Pettit told McMaster. Leaders need to keep the pressure on those in charge, McMaster said in response to Hixon's comments. You know, if you dont keep the pressure on them, people forget about you; the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so weve got to squeak because weve got the perfect case. We ought to win that case, he said. McMaster later said losing the current height of the river would be a big mistake. We want to keep the river at its current height, we dont want to lower that because the infrastructure and homes and businesses and everything else along the river have been built there with the understanding that that is the height of the river, so we dont want to lose that. That would be a big mistake. 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. Two of South Carolina's loudest Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility proponents have condemned a recent appeals court decision that paves the way for the nuclear project's demise. On Tuesday night, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson issued a statement saying he was "disappointed" in the federal appellate judges' decision to lift a lower court's injunction that entrenched MOX and protected related construction efforts. Wilson further said the ruling made Tuesday afternoon following oral arguments at the end of September was "inconsistent with governing law" and "foreshadows the court's" full opinion. Federal appeals court sides with DOE, lifts pro-MOX injunction "Upon review of submissions relative to the motion for stay pending appeal, the court grants the motion," the two-paragraph, one-page order reads. The injunction, issued by U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, had been in place since early June. On Wednesday, in an interview with the Aiken Standard, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster said it was fair to say he, too, is not happy with the appeals court decision. "That is not what we wanted to happen," the governor said. "But that's the way courts work, and we knew that might happen." McMaster said the court's order, though, doesn't change South Carolina's end goal. "We are going full speed to see to it that the right thing is done with that MOX facility," McMaster said, "and that is to build that MOX facility, to finish building the MOX facility." MOX is a Savannah River Site plant designed to transform 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel. The MOX project is more than a decade in the making and has exceeded its initial timeline and its initial budget. On May 10, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry moved to terminate the project in favor of dilute-and-dispose, another plutonium disposition method. At the same time, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense have expressed their desire to recapitalize MOX for their shared nuclear weapon needs. The state of South Carolina quickly responded with a lawsuit. At a related press conference in Aiken, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said shutting down MOX was an "ill-conceived idea." Inquiries made to Graham's team on Wednesday were not immediately returned. When the DOE requested the federal appeals court stay the MOX injunction, South Carolina's legal team said granting the stay ultimately done on Tuesday would cause irreparable, irrevocable harm. The state's legal team also bet, in the same filing, that the DOE would immediately move forward with MOX termination. On Sept. 14, NNSA chief Lisa Gordon-Hagerty wrote to U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican in charge of the House Armed Services Committee, and reaffirmed Perry's intent to kill the project. CAIRO Sufism appears to be politically ascendant in Egypt, with one of its leaders tapped to lead the parliamentary majority for the first time. This has led many to speculate about the future of Sufism in the political arena and the possibility of a return of political Islam after the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood. Sheikh Abdel Hadi al-Qasabi, vice president of the Nations Future Party, chairman of parliaments Social Solidarity Committee and head of the Supreme Council of Sufi Orders, became the leader of parliaments majority alliance, the Support Egypt Coalition, assuming the position by acclamation on Sept. 17. The coalition consists of seven parties represented by some 400 independent and partisan parliamentarians. There is a total of 596 seats in the parliament. Sufi sheikhs in Egypt view Qasabis victory as burnishing Sufism's reputation and as acknowledgment of its positive role in society. It also symbolizes Sufis' desire to be represented in Egypts political future. Sheikh Alaa Abu al-Azayem, a member of the Azamiyah Order and the Supreme Council of Sufi Orders, asserted in a Sept. 21 press statement that Sufis are qualified to give voice to the religious community. According to Qasabi, approximately 15 million Egyptians, out of 104 million total worldwide, are Sufis. They belong to 77 officially recognized Sufi orders, or tariqa, congregations of followers gathered around a leader seeking the truth. Sheikh Abdul Khaliq al-Shebrawi, from the Shebrawi Order, told Al-Monitor, Sufism is based on self-discipline and [personal] development. Murids [novices committed to spiritual enlightenment] are under the authority of the political leadership and religious institutions in Egypt. In this, he indicated that this state of affairs guides Sufis to act in a peaceful manner, avoiding violence and conflict with the state and its leadership. Sufism embraces adoration of God and asceticism. One of its key conditions is steering clear of politics, but Sufi sheikhs in Egypt have sometimes played political roles and attained prominent positions. Egyptian Sufis are well-known for their aversion to extremist currents of political Islam, namely Salafism. In 2013, they rallied with various political parties to topple Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood regime. We have to fix what the Salafists and Muslim Brotherhood did, Shebrawi said. They are one and the same. They wanted to lead the country to political decay. It is time to regain what we lost over many years. Sufism rejects the idea of a caliphate, a concept commonly adopted by the Muslim Brotherhood and extremist Islamic groups, most prominently the Islamic State. Sufi sheikhs preach that Sufism is based on wasatiyah (moderation) and have accused the Brotherhood of sympathizing with Salafists in attacking Sufism. Salafists view Sufism as apostasy and have called for destroying Sufi mausoleums, where they gather on religious occasions, and disrupting their celebrations. Sufi sheikhs and Sufi youths have played a vital political role in Egypt since the January 2011 revolution. Sufis youths gathered in Tahrir Square to help topple President Hosni Mubaraks regime, and Sufi orders joined the Tamarrod campaign against Morsis regime. After the demonstrations launched June 30, 2013, the Sufis were at the forefront of currents supporting Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to lead the country. They backed him in the 2014 presidential elections, and held conferences and seminars in praise of the military, grateful for his and the military's role in ousting Morsi and the Brotherhood from power. Shebrawi remarked, Sufis will always be ready to stand with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, if needed. Also after the revolution, Sufis began founding affiliated parties, among them the Egyptian Liberation Party, most of whose members belong to the Azamiyah Order. The Sufi Twelver order established the Nasr Party, and the Egyptian Renaissance Party includes members from assorted Sufi orders, including the Shebrawi, the Rifai and Tijaniyyah. The predominantly Sufi parties failed to win parliamentary seats in 2012, but in 2015, individual Sufis joined other partisan slates, and after election to parliament, a number of them were appointed or elected to leadership positions. Of note, in addition to Qasabi's elevation, Sayed al-Sharif, head of the Syndicate of al-Ashraf, a Sufi committee that works to identify descendants of Prophet Muhammads family, was elected first deputy speaker of the parliament. Parliamentarians from the ultra-conservative Islamist Nour Party declined to comment on the record about Qasabis election as majority leader. One of them, however, said to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, There is no space for verbal insults or Salafist-Sufi disputes in parliament. The pressing matters of Egyptian society do not allow such disputes. Tarek el-Kholy, a member of the Support Egypt Coalition's political bureau and foreign relations secretary of the Nations Future Party, said Qasabi was elected leader of the majority coalition because he is influential as a political leader and parliament member. Qasabi's spearheading the sheikhs of Sufi orders contributed to his chances of occupying the leadership, Kholy remarked. Sufi orders are influential national groups, representing an authentic part of Egyptian political life. They have followers and popular bases and are spread across Egypt. He also noted, however, that the Egyptian constitution forbids religion-based political parties a point of controversy as some parties formed after the 2011 revolution appear to be in violation of this provision so Sufis will continue to participate in political work and decision-making through their integration into various political parties. We are proud that Sufi figures have attained leading positions, he remarked. House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has expressed her full backing to the Duterte administrations Build, Build, Build program as he took part Tuesday morning in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Adaptation Measures in low-lying areas of Pampanga Bay Phase 1 project. Phase 1 intends to reduce flood level and flooding duration in the municipalities of Macabebe, Masantol, Minalin, and Sto. Tomas. In addition, it aims to protect life and minimize damages to properties from perennial flooding in the area, to revive the regional economy and improve the residents welfare, as well as improve the drainage efficiency of the river channel network in the area. There will be less flooding and faster draining of floodwaters in the four towns. And of course, because of this, there will be less disruption in the trade and commerce in those towns, and less occurrence of water-borne diseases. This project will definitely help the development of our province, Arroyo said. The IDRR-CCA project, which is located at the mouth of Pampanga River, is set to work on the following: (1) river excavation, dredging and embankment, (2) the construction of three new bridges, (3) the construction of five footbridges, (4) the construction of eight sluice gate structures, and (5) the construction of 164 fish pond gates. Arroyo said the flood control project is a priority of President Rodrigo Duterte, under his Build, Build, Build program. The administration of President Duterte is serious in his Build, Build, Build program. He has invested billions for physical infrastructure, not only to improve the physical connectivity of the provinces through the roads and bridges he is building but also to make us more resilient to climate change, including the flood control program, she said.Arroyo recounted that the funds for the flood control program was requested from the Korean government during her presidency. Thereafter, the request was approved in the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III. And presently, the project is being carried out under the leadership of President Duterte. Arroyo called on the public to appreciate everyone who worked on the project and those who will continue to work on it. I think that the project that we are launching today is perfect proof that if we are all united across administrations and within administrations, we can do so much for the good of the people of Pampanga and the people of the Philippines, she said. Arroyo also announced that Phase 2 shall also begin soon. The bidding for the next leg is scheduled to be opened on October 11, 2018. She disclosed that the feasibility study for Phase 2 will also be funded by the partners from Korea. Per DPWH memorandum, Phase 2 of the (IDRR-CCA) Measures in Low -lying Areas of Pampanga Bay project will cover the area of Mt. Arayat, passing through the third district of Pampanga, as well as mostly through its fourth district up to the Labangan Channel in Bulacan. Liberal Western democracies tend to have a hard time with the customs and rules of conservative communities. This is true in France, particularly when it comes to issues like veils and burkinis, and of the United States with abortion. It is certainly true of Israel, where there are several religious and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities. Israels Arab community has many conservative features of its own. It has been just a month and a half since the first swimming pool for the Bedouin community a third of the countrys entire Arab population opened Aug. 28 in the town of Rahat. Rahat is the biggest Bedouin town in Israel, with a 2016 population of 65,000 in the city proper and tens of thousands more in the surrounding Bedouin communities. Though the Bedouin are Muslim, for the most part they live separately from the rest of Israels Arab sector. They are a very conservative community, particularly when it comes to womens rights. Polygamy is common despite being illegal under Israeli law. Pools in nearby Jewish localities either kept separate hours for Jews and Bedouin or, in some instances, barred Bedouin swimmers altogether, citing complaints about rude behavior by young Bedouin men toward women and girls. Rahat resident Fares al-Hozeil supports separate hours for Jews and Bedouin at local pools. He told Al-Monitor that men and women swimming together is against their tradition as well as religion. Rahats municipal leadership decided on separate days for men and women to swim. The pool is open to women on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, and reserved for men on the remaining days of the week. Rahat resident Maryam al-Karinawi told Al-Monitor that gender separation is the right thing for Bedouin society and that it actually protects women. She explained that while she has no problem being at the pool with her husband, she does not want other men looking at her. Wearing skimpy clothing is unacceptable [to us]. If you ask me, [separate swimming] is how it should be. Just a few months earlier, when the municipal council of Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement adjacent to the Arab city of Hebron in the West Bank, decided that its pool would hold separate hours for men and women, secular residents opposed to the decision appealed to the Supreme Court. As previous Supreme Court rulings had rejected gender segregation in public spaces, except in synagogues, the pool was shut down entirely. When the pool in Rahat opened, attorney and far-right activist Itamar Ben Gvir appealed to Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber, claiming that the state must oppose separate swimming for men and women there, just as it did in Kiryat Arba. Zilber accepted his argument and wrote to Rahats legal counsel, As a rule, the segregation of men and women in public spaces is a problematic practice that impinges on the principle of equality. This is especially true since this is the first and only public pool in Rahat. She stated that if no time is set aside for mixed swimming in Rahats pool, it would be in violation of the law. Still, the pool in Rahat continues to observe separate swimming hours, and the citys legal counsel claims that the pools policy of gender segregation is rooted in the values of Bedouin society and is intended to preserve the dignity of women. Rahat community activist Isman Abu Shawish agrees with the legal counsel. She told Al-Monitor that the Bedouin should not be forced to follow the rules of another society, particularly when they are considered harmful to women. The scheduling of times for mixed swimming violates our rules on modesty for women but also womens freedom of choice, because they would prefer not to go to the pool at all if there is mixed swimming. In that case, who are the rules protecting? she asked. According to her, pool segregation empowers Bedouin women, allowing them to form a sense of community by providing them with a safe space. H., who lives in a village near Rahat, supports Abu Shawish, telling Al-Monitor, They have a lot of nerve not asking us as Bedouin women what we think about it. Government officials who know nothing about Bedouin society are actually harming us. She agrees that Bedouin societys rules of gender segregation and modesty are about safety. While it is true that they can limit our movement and make it difficult to go to work or school, when it comes to the pool, these rules definitely protect women. In this particular case, an informal solution seems likely. A source in the Rahat municipality told Al-Monitor that if Zilber insists, the city will open the pool for mixed swimming one day a week. But no women will actually show up on that day, and if by chance they do, they will be told that they cannot enter. There is a violent angle to this conflict between liberals and conservatives. In Umm al-Fahm, one of Israels largest Arab cities, Muslim religious leaders are demanding that events open to both men and women be halted. During a campaign against one cultural event that was open to men and women, assailants even threw firebombs at the community center where the Sept. 15 event took place. Many people spoke out against this reaction by conservative Muslims. Joint List Knesset member Yousef Jabareen, who was present at the event, said later, The impressive number of residents who participated in the event was the right response to efforts by certain groups in the city to have it canceled. There can be no doubt that the throwing of firebombs was very serious, and the perpetrators should be brought to justice. Arab society is diverse, and forcing values and opinions on others has no place in it. The issue is complicated, and the conflict between laws based on liberal ideas of egalitarianism and conservative religious values demands creative solutions from the legal system. Anything less seems doomed to failure. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is due to travel to Iraq on Oct. 11 for a two-day official visit to the capital Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regions seat of government, Erbil. Turkeys Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Cavusoglu would be received by Iraqs newly elected ethnic Kurdish President Barham Salih and that he would also meet with Iraqi political leaders and Turkmen representatives. The trip, Cavusoglus first since August 2017, when he traveled to both capitals to lobby against the Iraqi Kurds ill fated independence referendum, is seen as an effort to re-assert Turkeys heft in Iraq amid the receding fortunes of its local Sunni Arab allies. The Foreign Ministry noted that Cavusoglus meetings would focus on bilateral cooperation, especially on the reconstruction of Iraq. In February, Turkey pledged $5 billion in lines of credit for Iraqi reconstruction at a donors conference in Kuwait. Contracting deals in Iraq would throw a lifeline to Turkeys tottering economy, whose growth was long fueled by mega construction companies with close ties to Turkeys strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Coming before a Nov. 4 deadline imposed by the United States for abiding with sanctions on Irans oil and gas industry, the visit will allow Cavusoglu to discuss ways to deal with the situation. Turkey relies heavily on Iran for almost half of its energy needs. And with a crisis looming with another top oil supplier, Saudi Arabia, over the alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the premises of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, the need to revive oil exports from the Kirkuk oil fields is more pressing than ever. Baghdad sealed the Kirkuk pipeline that runs to export terminals in Ceyhan in Turkeys southern Mediterranean province of Adana following its seizure of oilfields there in October 2017, part of a Iranian-backed offensive to wrest contested territory that was being held by the Iraqi Kurds. The dual pipeline, which has functioned since 1977, is badly in need of repair if not outright replacement. Work on it requires the Iraqi Kurds cooperation, as the pipeline runs through territory under their control. Cavusoglus stopover in Erbil will also mark a formal end to the chill that enveloped what until recently Erdogan called a strategic alliance between Ankara and the Kurdistan Regional Government. It's unclear what sort of reception Cavusoglu can expect in Baghdad, where Iran has further cemented its influence, some would say at Turkeys expense, in the wake of parliamentary elections that were held in May. Most notable perhaps was last months election of pro-Iran Sunni lawmaker Muhammad al-Halbusi as the new parliament speaker to replace Salim Abdullah al-Jabouri, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood and hence pro-Turkish figure. Parliamentary debates play an important role in shaping the public debate, and it would not be surprising if Iran used its expanded influence in the chamber to pressure Turkey to pull out its forces from the Bashiqa base near Mosul. The presence of an unspecified number of Turkish special operations forces backed by heavy weapons there remains a bone of contention between Ankara and Baghdad. Ankaras stance on Iraqs new president is somewhat equivocal as well because of Salihs affiliation with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the second largest Iraqi Kurdish grouping, which has cordial ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Yet much like Ankara, Salih was opposed to the Kurdistan independence referendum, arguing that it was poorly timed. He will certainly look to cultivate good ties with Turkey and now that hes won, Turkey with him. A well-informed Turkish source said on condition of anonymity that one of the most immediate effects of a reboot would be for Turkey to resume flights to the PUK stronghold of Sulaimaniyah that were canceled when Baghdad closed Iraqi Kurdish airspace in retaliation for the independence vote. Turkey will look to leverage Salihs position to persuade the PKK to free two top operatives from Turkeys national spy agency, MIT, who were captured in August near Sulaimaniyah. Ankara holds the PUK responsible for the affair. There is little doubt that Salih, a masterful negotiator, could play a pivotal role in helping to kickstart now defunct peace talks between Turkey and the PKK when and if ever Erdogan becomes interested. For now, though, Turkey is bent on wiping out the militants who have been fighting the Turkish army since 1984. Turkey has escalated airstrikes against the PKK in its mountain stronghold along the Iraq-Iran border. But the militants are striking back with increasing ferocity, killing eight soldiers with a roadside bomb in Turkeys Batman province last week. Yesterday, the governor of Hakkari announced that a Turkish soldier had been killed and four others wounded by PKK militants operating from across the border in Iraqi Kurdistan. MOSCOW Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 2 that the Russian army had completed supplying the S-300 missile defense system to Syria. The move is intended to boost security for Russian forces in the country following the downing of an Ilyushin-20 reconnaissance plane over the Mediterranean by Syria's air defense system stemming from what Moscow calls an Israeli provocation. Shoigu said in a televised statement, [The installation] includes 49 units of equipment. We have also significantly improved our radio electronic jamming, added some new additional equipment. Today we are in control of the close-in zone of 50 kilometers [31 miles], we also control the far field, the main direction from which we approached the Syrian territory by 200 kilometers. As for the unified air defense control system, weve also started supplying [necessary] equipment and are planning to finish all the activities associated with training of the crew and knitting a unified system by Oct. 20. The equipment, according to Shoigu, included radars, control vehicles and four launchers. On Oct. 8, Russias TASS news agency reported details of the deployment. According to the agencys source in the Russian military, Moscow delivered three battalion sets of S-300PM systems with eight launchers each as well as more than 100 surface-to-air guided missiles for each battalion. The source, speaking not for attribution, said, These systems were previously deployed at one of the Russian aerospace forces regiments which now uses the S-400 Triumf systems. The S-300 systems underwent capital repairs at Russian defense enterprises, are in good condition and are capable of performing combat tasks." Moscow and Damascus signed an agreement on the supply of S-300 systems to Syria in 2010, but the Kremlin put implementation of the deal on hold over Israeli security concerns. In the days after the Il-20 incident, in which 15 Russian service personnel died, the decision to move forward with the agreement was seen as a way to restrain the movement of the Israeli air force and decrease the likelihood of additional incidents with the potential of producing Russian casualties. Leonid Nersisyan, a military analyst and editor-in-chief of the New Defence Order Strategy magazine, argues that the deployment of three battalions of the S-300PM is meant to serve both Moscow's political and military goals. This is a rather harsh demonstration of the Russian stance vis-a-vis Israeli airstrikes in the immediate Russian zone of influence, Nersisyan told Al-Monitor. Latakia has been struck for the first time. Its also a message that neglecting the mechanism of mutual notification over the skies of Syria is unacceptable. As far as the military component is concerned, the three divisions are not enough to cover all of Syrian territory, but just enough to secure the coastal areas. These systems will complicate the activities of the Israeli air force, making them work from greater distances, which should lower the efficacy of their strikes. Besides, the associated risk of losing aircraft now increases since unlike the aged S-200, the S-300PM can effectively engage low-flying targets. The technical data sheet for the S-300PM states that the system is capable of eliminating advanced aircraft, including planes using stealth technology, medium-range ballistic missiles, tactical and cruise missiles, airborne early warning and control aircraft as well as reconnaissance and strike systems. Nersisyan noted, however, This certainly doesnt mean Israel cannot overcome these systems. Should Jerusalem decide to suppress them, they will be able to do so, but at a price. The analyst further stated, Although Russia-Israeli ties may now be more chilly, neither party is interested in their rupture or a confrontation, as it will further destabilize the region toward new, unpredictable developments. Andrei Frolov, a military analyst and editor-in-chief of the Russian journal Eksport Vooruzheny (Arms Export), believes the move by the Russian Defense Ministry is rather symbolic and a way to save face and flex muscle. The de-confliction track between Russia and Israel has never ceased to function, so the move is unlikely to be a mega game-changer, Frolov told Al-Monitor. A lot, however, will depend on where exactly the [S-300] systems are going to be deployed and how they will be integrated into Syrias overall air defense. Will it be manned exclusively by Syrians or together with Russians? We need some more time to see. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Oct. 7 that he will meet Putin soon, to discuss further security coordination over Syria. Moscow reportedly rejected at least two Israeli proposals for meetings after the Il-20 incident. It declined to host a delegation led by national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat or to accept Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman or Netanyahu himself, saying that it preferred for contacts to remain at the professional level. Now that Russia has made the move it felt obliged to make after the Ilyushin's downing, Moscow may be more open to high-ranking contacts. And on Oct. 9, Netanyahu met with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov in Israel to discuss economic partnerships. Despite apparent differences in approach to conflict management between the Defense Ministry and the Kremlin, the ultimate concern in Moscow is to make sure its response, though harsh and just as it should be, in Russias view nonetheless does not corner Netanyahu at home, especially in light of his facing criminal charges and political difficulties in upcoming elections. Putins good chemistry with Netanyahu has proven an asset that is considered to be in the mutual interest of the two countries, which have faced a sudden stress test. That Israeli jets have not bombed Syria in the last couple of weeks is understandable, since doing otherwise under the current circumstances would mean poking the Russians in the eye. Yet, it does not mean that Israel will hold back on strikes should it see movements of pro-Iranian forces as menacing. The decision-makers in Moscow are well aware of this. Thus, the situation will continue to demand that both parties maintain the de-confliction line and follow the rules of engagement as well as look for a happy medium on Iran within the context of Russia believing that it has done enough and Israel being certain that there can never be enough when it comes to restraining Tehran in Syria or Lebanon. In this regard, the deployment of S-300s may not change things dramatically in the immediate term, but it may be enough of a deterrent to help negotiate any amendments that Putin and Netanyahu seek for the new-old playbook. ALEPPO On Sept. 19, the local council of the city of al-Rai, in the northern Aleppo countryside, controlled by Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces, inaugurated the new building to house the Palace of Justice. Turkey fully funded the construction of the court building and the adjacent prison. Turkish officials attending the opening ceremony included the governor of Kilis, Mehmet Tekinarslan, his deputy Fahmi Sinan Niyaz and Kilis attorney general, Zafar Karaja Oglu. Among local officials were the head of al-Rais local council, Ismat Abbas, and a number of municipal dignitaries, police chiefs, general security officers and FSA leaders. Alaa Mohammed, a public relations officer for al-Rais local council, told Al-Monitor, The Palace of Justice is the first of its kind in FSA-controlled areas in northern Syria. It will serve as the central court and the point of reference for all courts in the Euphrates Shield area, Afrin and Aleppos countryside. It will include criminal courts and courts of appeals and cassation, all of which will start formally operating by mid-October. The Euphrates Shield area refers to the northern and northeastern countryside of Aleppo now under the control of Turkish-backed FSA militias that allied with Turkey's military during Operation Euphrates Shield, conducted from August 2016 until March 2017. During the Syrian civil war, the court system run by the government in Damascus ceased to operate in opposition-controlled areas. After the FSA took Aleppo in mid-2012, various unsanctioned courts began to emerge, operating independently of any official authority. Controlled by the FSA, they issued questionable and unfair verdicts, based on Islamic law. The new Palace of Justice aims to regulate the work of all the courts in FSA-controlled areas in the north. Mohammed remarked, The Palace of Justice is very important for the judiciary to take its place in FSA-held areas, which all lawyers, judges and human rights activists in the area have been calling for. There are many cases that have been pending for years now and require competent courts to be resolved. He further explained, Since al-Rai is located in the center of the Euphrates Shield area, the Palace of Justice was built there. It is a two-storey building of 1,000 square meters. A 1,500 square meter prison was built nearby, fit to accommodate around 400 inmates. It [the prison] consists of two sections, one for each gender. The total land area where the Palace of Justice is located along with the prison is 8,000 square meters. The project is fully supported by the Turkish government financially, including the salaries of the staff and judges. The police and general security forces in al-Rai are responsible for protecting the premises. The Turkish government will directly supervise the selection of Syrian judges and operations at the Palace of Justice. FSA-held areas generally lack an impartial judiciary, as the FSA factions control most courts. There are no competent courts to mete out justice in the cases brought. The Turkish government is trying to organize the judiciary as part of its efforts to entrench stability in Aleppos countryside through projects in various service sectors and local councils. Marwan Ibrahim Kaid, who served as a judge for the now-defunct Unified Judicial Council in FSA-held areas of Aleppo, told Al-Monitor, Establishing a Palace of Justice is not enough for the judiciary in Aleppos countryside to be successful. The judiciary must have complete independence, and the FSA factions should have no influence over courts. If independence of the judiciary is achieved, we would have a pilot experience and this would be reflected positively among all the security and service sectors in FSA-controlled areas as well as their residents. Hussein Hammadeh, who also worked as a judge in courts established by the FSA, told Al-Monitor, The absence of a justice system in FSA-held areas over the past years has had a negative impact on the Syrian revolution, as it contributed to the spread of chaos through unfair rulings. Even more so, political projects have been prioritized at the expense of the judicial one. This has further torn apart the objectives of the revolution. The judicial institution is based on an organized structure and laws in line with the objectives and principles of the revolution. Hammadeh added, Trials must be conducted in a public manner, and the defendants should be granted the right to defend themselves. No party should be allowed to interfere in judicial institutions. These standards have unfortunately been lacking in past years in the courts of FSA-controlled areas. Establishing the Palace of Justice in FSA-held areas in an orderly manner will contribute to stability, which is our only wish for the future, Hammadeh concluded. Yousef Mohamed Hussein, an attorney and member of the opposition-affiliated Free Lawyers Syndicate in Aleppo, told Al-Monitor, The Palace of Justice in al-Rai will have a positive impact on the judicial sector in Aleppos countryside. We, in the Free Lawyers Syndicate, are ready to do our best to make the judiciary mission a success. Hussein added, Syrian law will be adopted under the Constitution of 1950, after removing all the articles that violate the provisions of Islamic law or the principles and objectives of the Syrian revolution, along with the articles restricting public freedoms that the Syrian regime later on included. He noted that in FSA-controlled areas in northern Syria, the process of removing those articles began in January 2018. Turkish media today published images of an alleged intelligence team sent by Saudi Arabia to snatch dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in an apparent attempt by Ankara to turn up pressure on Riyadh to reveal the fate of the missing Washington Post columnist. The pro-government daily Sabah splashed the pictures of 15 men, which it called an assassination squad, providing also their names and years of birth. The men, pictured at passport control, reportedly flew to Istanbul on Oct. 2 the day Khashoggi disappeared into the Saudi Consulate in the city and left later that day, using private jets. One of the men is said to be a senior Saudi forensic official. TV channels broadcast videos of what they said were the men arriving at the airport and checking into hotels, as well as footage of car traffic outside the consulate before and after Khashoggis disappearance, including a black van with blacked out windows that the police find suspicious. Why it matters: The leaking of the images appears aimed at turning up pressure on Riyadh to reveal what happened to Khashoggi as the weeklong saga threatens to grow into a major diplomatic row between the two countries. Unnamed Turkish police sources told the media over the weekend that they believed the journalist was killed inside the consulate, but Ankara appears to struggle in proving a murder or even an abduction, given the diplomatic shields the Saudis enjoy. Yet the Turkish side has released footage of Khashoggi entering the consulate, while the Saudis have so far failed to offer any evidence to back their claim that the journalist exited the building after picking up papers he needed for his forthcoming marriage to a Turkish woman. In remarkably measured statements that made no mention of the murder claim, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed hope that Khashoggi would turn up alive and urged Riyadh to prove the journalist left the consulate. With Turkish-Saudi ties already strained and its foreign policy plate too full for another crisis, Ankara appears wary of a diplomatic war with Riyadh, hoping instead that the Saudis will take the chance for an offramp. The lack of a strong response from Washington so far might have also discouraged Ankara from taking a harsher stance on Riyadh. Whats next: As the two sides preserve the veneer of cooperation, Turkish investigators were widely expected to conduct a search at the consulate today after Saudi Arabia granted its permission. Yet no search had begun as of 6 p.m., and Turkish officials told a pro-government daily that the Saudi side had requested a postponement. The report did not cite a reason for the request, but any foot-dragging on the part of the Saudis will only reinforce suspicions that a crime is being covered up. There are mixed signals on what course of action Ankara could take in the coming days. According to some reports, Ankara is considering the options of recalling its ambassador from Riyadh and expelling the Saudi envoy if the Saudis fail to provide a satisfactory explanation on Khashoggis fate within several days. Yet Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Erdogan, wrote in a newspaper column today that bashing Saudi Arabia is meaningless and useless because Turkey and Saudi Arabia are two nations that need each other. Demanding an explanation on Khashoggis fate does not amount to enmity against Saudi Arabia, he wrote. Aktay also raised a rather peculiar scenario, in which rogue elements within the Saudi state could be responsible for the journalists disappearance. Know more: Make sure to read our latest coverage about how Khashoggi's disappearance impacts Turkish-Gulf ties here, and check out Al-Monitor's Washington Pulse for more on the US reaction. The more time passes, the more mysterious the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi becomes. On Oct. 2 at 1:12 p.m., Khashoggi and his Turkish fiance, Hatice Cengiz, went to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish sources have offered conflicting details on what happened next. Al-Monitor spoke with senior security bureaucrats in Ankara who requested to remain anonymous. Here is what we know and what we would like to know. The first question: Why did Khashoggi need to go to the consulate for his upcoming marriage? The answer: He had to obtain an official divorce document before the marriage could take place. Khashoggi has been living in self-exile in the United States since last year, which leads to the next question: Why didn't he request this document from Saudi representatives in the United States? Independent sources in Turkey said: He had applied to the US for the document but was told, Your fiance is Turkish and you need to go to Turkey. He had visited the consulate on Sept. 28 and was told to come back on Oct. 2. Security cameras at the consulate show Khashoggis entrance Oct. 2, with his fiance waiting at the door. Khashoggi handed her his cellphone and told her to call Yasin Aktay, a senior adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, if he did not return within a few hours. Aktay appeared on Turkish television Oct. 7 and said that Khashoggi thought Turkey was a safe place to go to the Saudi Consulate. Aktay said that Khashoggi thought he would be safe at the consulate in Istanbul since Saudi Arabia would not risk its relations with Turkey. In the half-hour interview, Aktay also said he had received information that Khashoggi was murdered. He said 15 Saudis had arrived on two planes at the time Khashoggi was at the consulate, hinting that somehow these men were involved in Khashoggis disappearance. Khashoggis fiance called Aktay at 4:40 p.m. when the journalist did not come out of the consulate. The Turkish authorities immediately launched an investigation. Aktay stated that whatever happened to Khashoggi happened Oct. 2 between 1:12 and 4:40 p.m. Aktay later penned op-eds on the affair for pro-government Yeni Safak daily, stating that it was a matter of international honor for Turkey to find out the truth. What happened to Khashoggi in Turkey, to put it bluntly, is not only an operation against him, but also an operation against Turkey, he wrote Oct. 6. Yet officials in Ankara were cautious when speaking about Turkish-Saudi relations to Al-Monitor, pointing to Erdogans statement on Oct. 7. Erdogan told reporters that Khashoggi was an old acquaintance and that he was closely following the case. He said Turkish security forces were investigating the incident, including examining airport entries and exits. We are awaiting the conclusions and announcements of the prosecution, Erdogan said, striking an optimistic tone. God willing, we will not face an unpleasant situation. Until Erdogan confirms, Khashoggi will not be dead for sure, one official commented. He then added, But we know he is. Until Erdogan confirms, Khashoggi will not be dead for sure, one official commented. He then added, But we know he is. Turan Kislakci, the head of the Turkish-Arab Media Association, told the press Oct. 4 that Khashoggi's family and friends are worried Khashoggi might have been kidnapped and taken to Saudi Arabia. Then, on Oct. 7, he said he had confirmed with security sources that Khashoggi was murdered. He then revealed gruesome details about the alleged murder and said, We are preparing for funeral prayers." Saudi authorities vehemently denied the allegations and claimed that Khashoggi had left the consulate within 20 minutes of his arrival. Yet they were unable to provide visual proof of his departure. A Saudi delegation arrived in Istanbul to aid the investigation Oct 7. Events took a bizarre turn Oct. 8, when Aktay struck a much more optimistic tone in another live television interview. He said he hopes Khashoggi is still alive and that his prior claims had come from the news media, not his own sources. Kislakci tweeted that he would consider the whole deal a theater play as long as Khashoggi is alive. The harsh allegations and subsequent retractions have generated serious questions. First and foremost, how will this affect Turkish-Saudi relations in the near future? Ankara bureaucrats believe that, based on Erdogans cautious tone, this will rock the boat but not sink it. Relations with Saudi Arabia due to changes in the situation in Syria, the Turkish friendship with Qatar, the Saudi alliance with the United States on the issue of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and suspicions in Turkey about financial support pouring in from Riyadh to the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] have already been strained beyond our wish. This makes it much worse, one official said. Although Aktay was surprised that any atrocity could befall Saudis in Istanbul at the hands of their own government, several others in Ankara confirmed they have always warned Saudi dissidents to be vigilant. One official said, We did not envision a murder, frankly. Many people here in Ankara find it [murder] hard to comprehend. Another issue that Aktay and others are having difficulties grasping is why Khashoggi was targeted. Although he opted for self-exile and had written critically about the new Saudi regime, Khashoggi was a part of the Saudi political elite for years. There was no investigation against him in Saudi Arabia. The alleged murder, if proven, signals that the new regime is willing to set a precedent with Khashoggi: that disloyalty among Saudi political elites will not be allowed, even outside of Saudi Arabia. What can Turkey do now? One option that is being discussed in Ankara is officially severing relations with Saudi Arabia if or when the investigation confirms murder. Aktay has called for accountability. A source close to the presidential palace told Al-Monitor, This is a matter that has hit home. Khashoggi was respected in Islamist circles in Turkey. Yet there are several serious considerations before cutting off relations, and the investigation must be completed. Another official sarcastically asked, Is Trump administration going to cut off relations with Saudi due to this and other human rights violations? Let us know when they do. Turkey reacted in a savvy way, deploying unofficial voices rather than elected officials to announce the alleged murder. Simultaneously, Turkey was rather blunt in its gradual unofficial leaks from the ongoing investigation. Emotional statements have generated further ambiguity. Yet flip-flopping between cruel murder scenarios and wishes of well-being is a direct blow to Turkish credibility. It seems the Turkish bureaucrat is right: Until Erdogan confirms, "Khashoggi will not be dead for sure." The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners is seeking immediate suspension of the medical license of Dr. Michael Dick, the Decatur doctor who was convicted last month on three counts of harassment involving female patients. Dick was arrested in January after former patients filed warrants against him for harassment they said occurred while he was treating them at his practice. He continued to see patients after his arrest. The Board has been investigating allegations against Dick since February. At law enforcements request, the Board delayed official action against Dick until the criminal case was resolved, according to a Board press release. The last thing the (Board) wants to do is compromise a criminal investigation by one of our law enforcement partners, said Wilson Hunter, general counsel for the Board, in a statement. With that issue settled, it has cleared the way for the (Board) to move forward with filing charges and immediately suspending Dr. Dicks medical license. After Dick was found guilty on one charge of harassment last month, 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. Those convictions did not prevent him from practicing medicine. Dick has denied all accusations of inappropriate behavior. In a specially-called meeting on Tuesday, the Board of Medical Examiners began the process of recommending suspension of Dicks medical license. The Board also asked for the immediate suspension of Dicks license until a formal hearing can be held. The Alabama Medical Licensure Commission is the body that would make the decision whether or not to suspend Dicks medical license. If the Commission decides to suspend the license, Dick would not be able to practice medicine in Alabama. That means he could not see patients or prescribe controlled substances. The Board suspension charges followed a lengthy investigation by the agency into allegations of sexual misconduct, according to a press release from the Board. The suspension could be considered as early as the Commissions next scheduled meeting on Oct. 24. The patients who brought harassment charges against Dick described behaviors including kissing them on the mouth, touching them inappropriately and telling them they were beautiful. One of the women who said Dick kissed her told AL.com in May that shed gone to Dicks practice for treatment, not knowing that another woman had filed a police report about Dicks behavior a month earlier. Dick was also arrested in 2011 for harassment related to his treatment of a female patient, but the charge was later dropped. Hes currently being sued by 10 women for sexual misconduct and harassment. When the Board files a complaint, it will go in Dicks publicly-available record on the Boards website. The Board keeps details of investigations confidential, but the complaint included allegations of inappropriate physical contact with patients with no legitimate medical purpose." Hunter said the Board encourages patients to report inappropriate behavior on its website, www.albme.org. State law prevents retaliation against patients. Obviously, we cant be in every exam room with every patient," said Hunter, but if a physician takes advantage of the doctor-patient relationship we want to know about it. Hurricane Michael could either push the red and blue-green algae blooms plaguing Florida off the shoreline or make them worse. Experts say the amount of wind and rain the storm produces will determine what happens. As the gulf coast braces for Michaels impact, experts are bracing for the storms impact on the toxic algae responsible for causing respiratory problems for beach-goers and killing fish. David Hastings, a professor of Marine Science and Chemistry at Eckerd College, told CBS Tampa affiliate WTSP the storms impact will depend how much wind and rain it produces. Hastings said experts are hoping winds from the storm will blow the algae off shore. However, if the storm produces a lot of rain and water, it could make the 145 mile-long bloom even bigger. The heavy rain will dilute farm and agriculture areas of all the nutrients, nitrates, phosphates and rain them into the beaches and coastal areas that serve to fertilize the red tide exactly what we dont want, he said. The latest update from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shows a more than 25 percent increase in the Karenia brevis--the organism responsible for the tides--along Floridas panhandle. Decreases in K. brevis ranging from 5 to 25 percent were detected in southwest Florida. In Southwest Florida, K. brevis concentrations decreased in parts of Manatee, Charlotte and Lee counties, and increased in areas of Pinellas and Collier counties over the past week, resulting in patchier bloom conditions along the coast, officials said in the FWCC report. Respiratory irritation was reported in early October in Southwest Florida in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Lee, and Collier counties. Respiratory irritation was also reported in Okaloosa County in Northwest Florida and along the East Coast of Florida in St. Lucie, Martin and Palm Beach counties, according to the most recent FWC report. Click here for the latest updates on Hurricane Michael. A man died and a woman was injured in a crash about eight miles north of the Jasper Tuesday evening, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Troopers identified the victim as 56-year-old Peter S. Genoff. He was driving a 2002 Dodge Caravan when his van collided with a 2010 Chevrolet Suburban driven by 45-year-old Shannon Diane Tunnell, of Hanceville, troopers said. Genoff was pronounced dead at the scene. Tunnell was taken to Huntsville Hospital for treatment. The crash happened around 6 p.m. on Alabama 69 near the 216 mile marker. The scene is about eight miles north of Jasper. Further details about the crash werent immediately available. The crash is still under investigation. Comedian and morning show host Rickey Smileys day job is to make people laugh, but his visit to Woodlawn High School on Tuesday was no laughing matter. Smiley, who graduated from Woodlawn in 1987, returned to his old stomping grounds to help Birmingham City Schools launch an initiative aimed at steering 9th grade male students away from violence. He shared his brush with death more than 20 years ago, when the then-Woodlawn student was shot with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun. Smiley said he wasnt involved with gangs or sold drugs, but he was at the wrong place at the wrong time around the wrong people. The comic and host of an eponymous, nationally syndicated radio show said that in the moments after he was shot in his side, he began to think about how his mother would cope if he died. Smiley said he wanted the students to think those same thoughts before they get into trouble. Im laying on the ground like forget about me dying, he said. I want you to think before you join a gang, before you hang out with the wrong people, I want you to think about your mother. And I want you to think about your funeral. Smiley said the 9th grade, where students are generally either 14 or 15 years old, is when the boys will start to make important decisions. Whoever you hang around right now is probably who youre going to be comfortable with and spend the rest of your life with and college with, he said. To that end, Smiley urged the kids to shun popular but troubled students. Just because somebodys popular, just because someone has a lot of followers on Instagram and Snapchat, that doesnt mean theyre the best people to be around, he said. Smiley told Birmingham City School students with life and career goals to start preparing now. If youre going to be a doctor, dress like one. If youre going to be a lawyer, dress like one. If youre going to be the mayor, dress like one. act like one, he said. I dont care what anybody else does. Yeah, theyll talk about you. Theyre going to call you a nerd. Theyre going to say youre lame. But what do you care? I got people that dont like me. I dont care. They dont pay any bills in my house. They dont take care of my kids. Who are they? he said. Instead of hanging around popular kids who engage in violence, Smiley told the students to seek mentors like ministers and college professors. Theyre aint a kid in here whos going to pay for your education or write a check to Alabama A&M University or Alabama State University. Not one, said Smiley, an alumnus of Alabama State. You dont see the Crips or the Bloods out here helping nobody. For students with a rough life outside of school, Smiley told them not to let their current circumstances dictate their outcome, saying its only a test. Along with Smileys words of wisdom, the students were given copies of the comedians book, Stand by Your Truth: And Then Run for Your Life! Im giving you a million dollars in information, he said, and its up to you to take that check and cash it. After Smileys talk, the students pledged to not engage in any forms of violence, including psychological abuse, for 100 days. Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Aaron Aquino on Wednesday urged the agencys employees to take proactive measures against threats and violence. He told anti-drug agents to stay vigilant against any possible attacks to avoid a repeat of the killings of five of the agencys agents in Lanao del Sur last Oct. 5. As we continue our relentless fight against drug syndicates, I encourage everyone to be vigilant of these lawbreakers who will do everything to perpetuate their illegal activities even to the extent of killing law enforcers who stand on their way, he said. We will not stop, rather, we will double, if need be, triple our effort to accord justice to our agents, he added. He encouraged the public to report illegal drug activities to the authorities to help the fight against illegal drugs and their purveyors. We will triumph in this fight because PDEA is on the right track in performing its mandate while reassuring the public of its promise to eliminate illegal drugs in the country, he said. On Oct. 5, five PDEA agentsKenneth Tabulo, Kristina Mae Torlao, Lores Joy Amar, Binzo Dipolla and Diobel Paciniowere killed and two othersRachel Gentapanan and civilian employee Normina Dicaywere wounded when armed men attacked them in Kapai town in Lanao del Sur. The incident took place while the agents were on their way to Marawi City after attending a symposium on drug surrenderees in Tagoloan town. As this developed, authorities said they have already identified and filed criminal cases against eight suspects in the ambush-slaying of the five PDEA agents. Reports from the Police Provincial Office-10 identified the suspects as Oscar Capal Gandawali, Palawan Salem Macalabo, Lala Lolo Amboloto; Jamal Lolo Amboloto, Mizangcad Panonde Gandawali, Aiman Guro Gandawali, Jamel Borar, alias Memeka, William Gandawali and two John Does. Police said the suspects were believed to be under the employ of a certain Comayug Macapagal, a native of Taagoloan, Lanao del Sur, who is in the drug watch-list personalities in Marawi City.The police added that one of the suspects, William Gandawali, is the incumbent barangay chairman of Inudaran, Taloloan II and the older brother of Comayug Macapagal, a drug suspect who was recently killed in a police operation. Suspect Oscar Gandawali, meanwhile, is the son of William Gandawali while Aiman Gandawali is the son of Macapagal and nephew of William. Lala Amboloto and Jamal Amboloto, meanwhile, are brothers who are nephews of Macapagal with another sibling. Reports said another suspect, Palawan Macalabo, is another nephew to a different brother/sister of Macapagal while Mizangkad Gandawali is a nephew while Jamel Borar is a relative by affinity and an identified associate of Macapagal in the illegal drugs trade. The two John Does are also believed to be the relatives of the eight suspects. The PNP and the military had already launched a massive manhunt of the suspects. Three days after the incident, the court issued a search warrant against William Comayug Gandawali. Joint elements of the Lanao del Sur police, including Special Action Force ((SAF) and Mobile Force Company operatives and with army troopers from the 2nd Infantry Brigade barged into the reported safehouse of William Gandawali and siezed a cal. 45 pistol, an M16 rifle, ammunitions for cal. 45, M16 and 9mm pistol, a case folder and a hand-sketched paper map. Gandawali was not around during the search. The pieces of evidence were brought to Police Drug Enforcement Unit (PDEU) and would be presented to the judge who issued the search warrant while charges relating to illegal firearms and ammunitions Act would be filed against Gandawali. Planned Parenthood affiliates are spearheading a campaign to defeat an anti-abortion amendment on the Alabama ballot on Nov. 6. Amendment 2 would add to the Alabama Constitution an affirmation of the rights of the unborn, including the right to life. Voter approval of Amendment 2 would not ban abortions in Alabama because of the Roe v. Wade ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. But Planned Parenthood officials say Amendment 2 would clear the way to ban all abortions in Alabama if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Planned Parenthood affiliates have given almost all the $800,000 contributed to a political action committee to campaign against Amendment 2. The PAC is called Alabama for Healthy Families. Several other groups, the American Civil Liberties Union; the ACLU of Alabama; URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity; and Advocates for Youth, have contributed services to the PAC. Planned Parenthood Southeast operates clinics in Birmingham and Mobile that provide abortions. Amendment 2 would pave the way to ban abortions without exception in the state of Alabama regardless of if someones a victim of rape or incest or if the mothers life were in danger, said Katie Glenn, state director of Planned Parenthood Southeast. We know that thats just too far. This is just another example of out-of-touch politicians trying to control womens lives and decisions. Parker Snider, policy relations manager for the Alabama Policy Institute, which supports Amendment 2, said the amendment would not preclude exceptions to an abortion ban if Roe v. Wade is overturned. That is not a fair description of the amendment, Snider said in an email. Exceptions, such as when the life of the mother is threatened would be worked out in the state legislature as they create pro-life legislation. The Alabama Policy Institute is a member of the Alliance for a Pro-Life Alabama, a political action committee formed to campaign for Amendment 2. The alliance also includes the Alabama Citizens' Action Program (ALCAP); the Alabama Pro-Life Coalition; the Alabama Pro-Life Education Fund; Choose Life, Inc.; Cameron's Choice; Eagle Forum and Southeast Law Institute. Individual partners include evangelist Scott Dawson, former candidate for governor, Alabama House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, state Sen. Steve Livingston and state Rep. Will Ainsworth, who is also the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. Snider said Amendment 2 would require the Legislature to pass anti-abortion legislation if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Barbara Ann Luttrell, director of communications and marketing for Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates, said concerns about the impact of Amendment 2 are more than hypothetical with the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. First of all, Roe is at extreme risk, Luttrell said. And regardless of what happens to Roe and at the national level, Alabama politicians have proven over and over that they will do whatever is in their power to eliminate womens access to safe, legal abortions in all circumstances. And this amendment is their latest attempt. And I think if it passes, it would serve as sort of an invitation to enact even more restrictive bans. The Legislature passed the proposal put Amendment 2 on the ballot last year. The bills sponsor, Rep. Matt Fridy, R-Montevallo, has said he proposed it partly because of an abortion ruling in Tennessee. The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the states constitution provided a right to an abortion. Amendment 2 states that the Alabama Constitution provides no right to an abortion: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended; to declare and otherwise affirm that it is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, most importantly the right to life in all manners and measures appropriate and lawful; and to provide that the constitution of this state does not protect the right to abortion or require the funding of abortion." Planned Parenthoods Glenn said Alabama for Health Families plans to spread the word about its concerns about Amendment 2 before election day. We will be out there with our volunteers and supporters knocking on doors, making phone calls and talking to as many people as we can between now and Nov. 6, Glenn said. A young man has died after he was shot in the head early Sunday in Birmingham. The Jefferson County Coroner's Office identified the victim as Devin Darnell Crowell. He was 22. The shooting happened about 3:50 a.m. Sunday at 917 50th Street North. He was taken to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:23 p.m. Family said he was an organ donor, so he remained at the hospital until late Tuesday. Birmingham police have not announced any arrests in Crowell's death. His slaying marks the city's 86th homicide in 2018. Of those, five have been ruled justifiable and therefore the Birmingham Police Department will not include those in its year-end tally. In all of Jefferson County there have been 125 homicides, including the 86 in Birmingham. Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham police at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Birmingham police have investigated 85 violent deaths so far in 2018 as the city faces the possibility of ending the year with one of its highest homicide counts since the 1990s. If 28 more people die in homicides in Birmingham in the final three months of 2018, the Magic City will have its highest number of homicides since 1996, when 113 people died in acts of violence. In 2017, Birmingham police worked 33 homicides from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. Police are dedicated to keeping that from happening, implementing new policies to put a greater police presence on the street and examining crime trends to prevent murders. "When I took over we reviewed our numbers and did an analysis ... to map out days, times and frequency of events to interrupt activity," said Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith, who was appointed chief earlier this year. One way of interrupting crime, Smith said, is the "4/10" plan that has officers working 10 hours a day, four days a week to increase or even double the patrol force at certain times of the day. So far, Smith said, it has been effective. "The pace of homicides has slowed, but we have to do more,'' Smith said. "Two weeks ago, the last precinct went to the 4/10 and we haven't had a weekend homicide in two weekends. We have to look at the small successes to measure what happens and measure the dosage of enforcement we deliver." Smith said police also have instituted check points to disrupt activity and to remove guns and drugs from the city's streets. "We have shown some success in these areas,'' Smith said. "Finally, we have focused our efforts on our high frequency offenders who are responsible for several serious crimes in the community. Coupled with working more with our federal partners to increase activity on our task forces to reduce crime." Judging by the numbers, the new chief has a daunting task ahead of him. In 2017, the city recorded a total of 111 homicides, an 88 percent increase from the 21st-century low of 59 in 2015. Last year was the first time in 11 years Birmingham had a triple digit homicide count. Reflected against Birmingham's changing population numbers, the situation is even worse. The 111 homicides of 2017 - when the city's population was 212,157 - gave the city a per capita murder rate of 52.5. That was the worst per capita homicide rate in Birmingham since at least 1991, when 139 of the city's 269,313 residents were slain, giving the city a per capita murder rate of 51.6. In the first nine months of 2018, there has been about a 10 percent rise in homicides compared to the same period a year ago. 'Keeping people alive, saving lives' "We're up from where we were last year, which is something we're not pleased or happy with,'' said Birmingham homicide Lt. Scott Thurmond. "We had 99 criminal homicides last year, and we still could come in under. The last two weeks have been slower as far as the number of homicides and that's positive." Of Birmingham's 84 homicides in the first nine months of the year, five have been ruled justifiable. The Birmingham Police Department does not include justifiable homicides in their year-end numbers or analysis, so their official count so far this year is 79. Thurmond said the focus should be on what causes homicides rather than the numbers themselves. "Don't worry about the magic number,'' he said. "Keeping people alive and saving lives is what we're focused on." Year Population Number of homicides Per capita rate 1985 281,973 97 34.4 1986 286,756 88 30.7 1987 282,171 84 29.8 1988 283,237 92 32.5 1989 278,011 100 36 1990 265,968 125 47 1991 269,313 139 51.6 1992 272,407 133 48.8 1993 268,768 121 45 1994 270,978 135 49.8 1995 270,728 121 44.7 1996 272,169 113 41.5 1997 275,236 108 39.2 1998 259,453 85 32.8 1999 254,171 78 30.7 2000 242,820 79 32.5 2001 243,762 73 29.9 2002 244,972 65 26.5 2003 240,176 85 35.4 2004 238,167 59 24.8 2005 234,571 104 44.3 2006 233,577 104 44.5 2007 227,686 86 37.8 2008 228,314 82 35.9 2009 227,373 65 28.6 2010 213,258 62 29.1 2011 213,258 57 26.7 2012 213,266 72 33.8 2013 212,001 66 31.1 2014 212,291 59 27.8 2015 212,291 92 43.3 2016 212,157 104 49 2017 212,157 111 52.3 A number of programs and initiatives have been put into place this year to help fight crime and improve the department's clearance rate in homicides. While experts say a homicide detective should work no more than five cases a year, Birmingham homicide detectives have worked double that caseload. Chief Smith also has worked to beef up the homicide unit. More detectives have been added and a separate felony assault unit has been established so that homicide detectives only work death investigations. Also, the homicide and robbery units have been combined since many of the cases and suspects overlap. "There's a lot more information sharing,'' Thurmond said. "As Mayor Woodfin has pointed out, the issue of violent crime goes beyond law enforcement. He is confident in Chief Smith's leadership and understands this is a comprehensive effort,'' said Rick Journey, Woodfin's communications director. "The city has engaged in conflict resolution with young people, launched a task force to help reduce the number of repeat offenders, committed to removing blight in our neighborhoods and enhanced the use of technology to assist in investigations. Violent crime is not something that happened over night and will take all of us working together to resolve." 'I have neighbors moving out' Birmingham City Councilman Hunter Williams, chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee, said people should give the police chief an opportunity to implement his strategies and see what's working and what could be improved. "Solving the problem of systemic violence in our communities is going to require major efforts on all levels of government. We also need to enlist the help of those living in the areas that are experiencing high levels of crime to report these issues when they see it,'' Williams said. "Obviously, the violence we've seen throughout the city is very concerning to me and we all need to do what we can to support the efforts of the mayor and the new police chief as they move forward with their plans. That is my main priority as chair of the Public Safety committee. I support the efforts of increasing police presence in these affected areas." Many residents have expressed concern about crime in their neighborhoods. Earlier this year, west Birmingham's Belview Heights community was particularly hard hit by shootings and a couple of homicides in just of few months. A man was shot and injured on 45th Street in early February while helping a friend move. A short time later, church deacon Ricky Parker was found shot to death behind his 46th Street home. Then, in March, Remus Scalf, 46, was killed and another man injured while they were renovating a house on 45th Street. Sherry Lewis has lived in Belview Heights for 25 years and has been neighborhood president for the past two years. "Crime is worse unfortunately,'' Lewis said. "I have neighbors moving out, saying they can't take it anymore. I'm seeing the exodus and I'm concerned." "We're poised to work with law enforcement, but we do want more patrols in the area. We don't see police patrolling, and engaging with the community,'' Lewis said. "We don't think they can stop all crime, but we do think they can do more to deter crime." She said the number of people attending their neighborhood meetings continues to grow because of the crime concern. "We are doing more. People are installing cameras, we use the NextDoor app and we are calling each other,'' she said. "We believe we are the eyes and the ears for the police, but they have to listen to what we are saying." "We need our city leaders to lead,'' she said, "and we are ready to follow." 'We're not going to give up.' One of the primary challenges in solving crimes, Thurmond said, is the lack of willing witnesses. "We just need people to cooperate with us so we can reduce crime in the city of Birmingham,'' he said. Police officials, however, are hopeful they will soon see a reversal in the upward trend of homicides and violent crime. In addition to more homicide detectives, they are now working with improved technology and increased partnerships with other law enforcement agencies. Not only has the Jefferson County Metro Area Crime Center been a force-multiplier, but so too are the number of federal programs aimed at helping Birmingham fight crime. An example is the Public Safety Partnership, a program started by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions designed to enhance the capacity of local law enforcement agencies to address violent crime in their communities. Birmingham was selected as one of the initial 12 locations to take part in the program, which reinforces the federal, state and local task force model as one of the most effective ways to reduce violent crime. A four-day roundup carried out by Birmingham police, the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the U.S. Attorney's Office in August led to the arrests of 29 people wanted on charges ranging from attempted murder to robbery and more. Multiple similar operations have been carried out countywide over the past nine months. Thurmond said Birmingham police work with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, ATF, DEA and the U.S. Marshals more than ever. "Those relationships have grown strong. Next year when we have this conversation, these numbers are going to be down,'' he said. "We didn't get into this overnight and we're not going to get out of it overnight. We're in for the long haul. We're not going to give up." Smith agreed. "There's a lot of work to do," he said, "but we plan to ramp up our efforts to reduce crime and restore peace in the community." Birmingham 2018 homicides: Jan. 1-Sept. 30, by the numbers: Total: 84 Justifiable: 5 (All numbers below exclude justifiable homicides) By precinct: West: 39 North: 14 East: 14 South: 12 The deadliest months: March, June and August (12 homicides each) The deadliest days: Friday and Saturday (14 homicides each) The deadliest hours: 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. (28 homicides) Victims, by race and gender: Black males: 58 Black females: 12 White males: 4 White females: 4 Hispanic male: 1 Youngest and oldest victims: The youngest victim was an unborn child. The oldest was 86. At least eight have been age 18 and under. By known motive: Argument: 12 Robbery: 9 Drug-related: 5 Burglary: 2 Accident: 2 Gang-related: 1 Victims' criminal history, education level and employment status: Victims with criminal history, felony or misdemeanor: 52 Victims who graduated high school: 37 Victims with college degrees: 5 Victims still in school: 5 Victims who were employed: 7 Relationships between victims and suspects: Acquaintances: 56 Domestic relationships: 6 Victims were innocent bystanders: 6 (Source: Birmingham Police Department) Police are asking for the public's help identifying a gunman who robbed a Gadsden Dollar General. The holdup happened about 6 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Gilberts Ferry Road store. Authorities said the unidentified black male entered the business brandishing a firearm and demanded money from the clerk. He fled with an undisclosed amount of money. No one was injured. Anyone with information on the suspect's identity or the crime is asked to call Gadsden police Det. Anthony DeVine at 256-549-4653. A woman was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries this morning after she was pinned between two vehicles on Interstate 59 in Birmingham. It all began when the woman had car trouble on I-59 northbound near 31st Street. She got out of her vehicle and another car came up behind her, said Sgt. Bryan Shelton. That car moved around her and, while doing so, was side-swiped by an 18-wheeler, which pushed the car into the woman. She then became pinned between that car and her own vehicle. Shelton said the accident happened about 6:15 a.m. The woman was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Shelton said accident reconstruction investigators are on the scene. Police are asking motorists to avoid the area while the probe is ongoing. He said he did not know how long investigators would be on the scene. "This can be a terrifying situation for anyone,'' Shelton said. "While circumstances leading to the wreck aren't know, we want to remind drivers to please stay focused on driving." Developers planning to produce electricity from still-unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in northeast Alabama are seeking to find a customer in Memphis. Nuclear Development LLC is scheduled to complete purchase of Bellefonte next month and its CEO, Bill McCollum, appeared before the Memphis city council on Tuesday to pitch purchasing power from the plant once it's up and running. The Memphis Commercial Appeal and Memphis Business Journal reported on Tuesday's meeting, saying that Nuclear Development had received a non-binding letter of interest from Memphis Light, Gas & Water in January 2018 to purchase power from Bellefonte. But the city-owned utility now has a new president and is awaiting a December report on the best energy options for Memphis Light. McCollum told the council that Nuclear Development is under a tight financial deadline as it plans to complete the $111 million purchase of the plant from TVA next month. Nuclear Development has applied for billions in federal loans to help finance completion of the plant and McCollum said the company is also facing a loan application deadline as well, the Commercial Appeal reported. Nuclear Development said earlier this year that they have a customer to purchase power from the plant but declined to identify that customer. "I can't tell you anything about that other than the fact that is a very important fact of life that has to be disclosed to DOE and wherever the negotiations go with the state over incentives, that is being disclosed as well. But they are under (non-disclosure agreements)," Bud Cramer, a former Alabama congressman now working with Nuclear Development to shepherd the deal to completion, said in July. It's not immediately clear if Memphis Light is that unidentified customer or if Nuclear Development's plans to complete Bellefonte are contingent upon a deal with Memphis. The new head of Memphis Light, J.T. Young, urged the council to wait for the December energy report before making a decision, the Commercial Appeal reported. The Memphis council would assume a significant amount of risk if it agrees to a deal with Bellefonte and the plant isn't completed, the newspaper said. "That is a very, very big risk and concern for us," Young said, according to the newspaper. "We will be the ones that will have to make sure our customers' needs are served going forward," Young said. "As we evaluate any option, we need to keep that at the forefront of our mind." McCollum told the council that buying electricity from Nuclear Development would yield an estimated annual savings of $487 million for 30 years for Memphis Light customers, the Commercial Appeal reported. The non-binding agreement signed by former Memphis Light head Jerry Collins called for a rate of $39 per megawatt hour from Bellefonte rather than the current $75 per megawatt hour from TVA. Memphis Business Journal reported that Nuclear Development was seeking more than $8 billion in federal loans. A letter in support of Nuclear Development to President Trump from four Alabama congressmen and one from Tennessee outlined $5 billion in tax credits as well as the unspecified Department of Energy loan. Young, the current head of Memphis Light, questioned whether Bellefonte could meet the utility's energy demand, the business journal reported. It also said that Memphis Light is a large customer of TVA, accounting for 10 percent of the federal utility's operating revenues in 2017. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, raised concerns about Nuclear Development's loan application in an Aug. 28 letter to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. That letter came in the aftermath of a Wall Street Journal report that Franklin Haney, the Chattanooga developer and head of Nuclear Development, offered $10 million to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen for help in securing the DOE loan for Bellefonte. Bellefonte will be an economic windfall for northeast Alabama should it ever come to fruition. It's expected to create more than 1,000 permanent jobs with average salaries of more than $100,000. Northeast Huntsville civic activist Frances Akridge comfortably won a seat on the City Council Tuesday with 100 percent of the ballots counted in the city's only runoff municipal election. Akridge defeated former City School Superintendent Mary Jane Caylor in a low-turnout contest for the council's District 2 seat. Caylor conceded shortly after 9 p.m.. "It is with a heavy heart that I report it doesn't seem like we came up with as many votes as Ms. Akridge," Caylor posted on her campaign Facebook page. With 15 of 15 district precincts reporting, only 17 percent of the 33,447 registered voters had gone to the polls. Akridge had 3,364 votes to Caylor's 2,301, according to official returns. The district represents east Huntsville from Alabama A&M University in the north down through the Five Points area to parts of the over-the-mountain suburbs of Hampton Cove. It had been represented since 2002 by City Councilman Mark Russell, but Russell did not seek a new term. Akridge got 59 percent of the vote Tuesday night after having come within eight votes of winning outright in the municipal election in August. But she was forced into Tuesday's runoff with Caylor who had 32 percent in the first balloting. City Council seats are non-partisan and generally focus on local issues such as roads and police protection. Caylor embraced the administration of the city's growth-oriented Mayor Tommy Battle and portrayed herself as the fiscally responsible conservative in the race. She called Akridge a "tax-and-spend liberal who supports Bernie Sanders and avowed socialists..." Akridge told AL.com news partner WHNT News 19 that she favors "smart growth" and isn't "controlled by big money." Huntsville's homebuilders' association endorsed Caylor. Former Capitol Hill lobbyist John Meredith had positive words to say about both candidates in an Aug. 20 AL.com column. He said Akridge "has a command of District 2 issues and a bevy of potential solutions," whose "embrace of servant leadership will tether her to the district." (Updated Wednesday, Oct. 10, with additional details) ( The 2018 cotton crop in Alabama's Wiregrass region was expected to be a record setter, with farmers eagerly awaiting the combination of good prices and high yields to provide the kind of payoff that could get them on track financially for years to come. Now all that is being thrown into doubt, with Hurricane Michael barreling toward the area as a category four storm expected to bring powerful winds and torrential rains to southeast Alabama over the next few days. The cotton harvest season is just beginning, with leaves dropping off the plants and white bolls fluffing out from the stalks. That's when the crop is most vulnerable, according to William Birdsong and Brandon Dillard, agronomists with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and Auburn University working in the Wiregrass region. "The timing of the storm really couldn't be much worse," Birdsong said. Yields of cotton were expected to be high this year due to favorable weather conditions, including the lack of an August drought that had impacted farmers in previous years. Some farmers were counting on harvesting as much as 1,200-1,500 pounds of cotton per acre or more, compared to 800 or 1,000 pounds in previous years. That's likely not going to happen now. "This was going to be, for southeast Alabama, one of the best crops that we had ever made as a region," Birdsong said. "I was hearing reports of some yields of 1,500, 1,800 pounds per acre before this storm, which is very unusual, record-setting yields by farmers." Now those yields might be gone with the 65 mile-per-hour winds Michael is expected to bring with it. According to the Extension records, Alabama farmers planted more than 435,000 acres of cotton in 2017, yielding crops worth an estimated $292 million. If the impacts to the Wiregrass cotton crop are as bad as feared, Birdsong said the economic loss to cotton farmers could be $100 million. "Once the cotton hits the ground, it's basically not harvestable for our farmers," Dillard said. "Harvest was just starting on cotton, which means that they were just dropping the leaves off, so this cotton is a lot more vulnerable to the wind because there's no leaf protection. "I really hope we don't see what we think we're going to see at the end of this." Birdsong said Michael is shaping up to have similar impacts to the Wiregrass region as Hurricane Opal did in 1995, or Hurricane Eloise in 1975. Farmers still remember those storms due to the heavy losses, and they fear this might be a similar event. "A farmer never wants to work all year and toil for something to lose it in the end to something unexpected, such as a storm," Birdsong said. "But to lose an exceptional crop, maybe even a once in a lifetime or once in a 20-year period type crop, then that's even more disheartening." Cotton prices were down some this year, but more or less holding steady, partly thanks to a 6-cent per pound bonus from the U.S. government to offset losses stemming from the Trump Administration's trade disputes with China. The area has already begun experiencing heavy rains and strong winds as bands of the storm roll through the area, and many farmers in the Wiregrass area have been working around the clock over the last few days to get as many fields harvested. That window has closed now though, with weather conditions making the harvest impossible Wednesday. Insurance spotty While most farmers do have crop insurance to cover storm losses, Birdsong and Dillard said most insurance policies will only cover a certain percentage of the 10-year average harvest, which will be far less than what farmers were expecting this year. In addition, farmers could lose a significant amount of cotton but still harvest enough that they can't recover losses through their crop insurance. "People think it's like your homeowners insurance, where if your house is worth $300,000 and it gets destroyed, they write you a check for $300,000," Birdsong said. "It doesn't work that way." In addition, Dillard said some farmers had already booked deals in which they promise to deliver a certain amount of cotton at a certain price. If they are unable to meet their obligations, they could be on the hook for substantial liabilities. "If I booked 500 bales of cotton and I didn't make that cotton, it goes against me," Dillard said. "I've got to pay for what I didn't make." Peanut, pecan crop impacts uncertain Alabama produced an estimated $156 million in peanuts in 2017, with most of that coming in the Wiregrass area. The Alabama Peanut Producers Association estimates that half the peanuts produced in the United States come from a 100-mile radius around Dothan. While the impacts on cotton are feared to be dire, peanuts should prove to be a more resilient crop, according to Birdsong and Dillard. "For southeast Alabama, since we have such a coastal plain soil, so sandy and mostly well drained, peanuts are almost a hurricane-proof crop," Birdsong said. Because they grow underground on low-lying vines, peanuts are not easily damaged by high winds or floods, and the peanut harvest has been going on for some time, with many already harvested. The biggest risk factor for peanuts, Birdsong said, was that weather conditions wouldn't allow farmers to physically harvest the legumes before they were released from the vines into the soil, if the ground became saturated for several days. He said some farmers have been working around the clock to dig out peanuts that are ready for harvest. "It's hard to quantify," Birdsong said. "There will be some economic loss in the peanut industry, but I think it will be relatively minimal." Though it makes up a smaller slice of Alabama's agricultural pie, pecan harvesters could also see some impacts if trees are damaged, or if fruits drop early due to the heavy winds. Pecan crops were also looking good for 2018 until the storm, for many of the same reasons as cotton, but the potential impacts of the storm are less clear. "We were looking at a phenomenal pecan crop, probably the best since 2012," Birdsong said. "We're right here at the time of maturity for pecans, so I don't know exactly how that's going to affect them, but breaking up the trees, blowing down the trees, earlier fruit sheds, it can't be good." This is an era of unprecedented competition for the Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama. And the Scouts are striving to stay relevant by reinvesting in the two things that have helped them succeed for decades: unrivaled knowledge about young women, and deep connections in Mobile and Baldwin counties. "We want the community to know we are the leading authority about girls," says GSSA Chief Executive Officer Karlyn Edmonds. Although the organization's headquarters is in Mobile, most of its staffers work out of Montgomery. And they're very focused, says Edmonds, on serving the more than 1,200 Girl Scouts in Alabama's coastal region. Girl Scouts can be between the ages of 5 and 17, and the national organization prides itself on being at the forefront of research about girls and young women in that age range. Its Girl Scouts Research Institute produces an annual State of Girls report, which offers detailed statistical data relevant to all 50 states. Edmonds says that the data is guiding the GSSA to activities that will transform its perception from "cookies, crafts and camping" toward "the girl leadership experience." A mentorship initiative, for example, has led the GSSA to partner with Airbus, the University of South Alabama, the U.S. Coast Guard and others. "To see women who are in the Coast Guard speaking to the girls, not only about the work they do but about their families at home, it's fantastic," Edmonds says. "It's so important for the girls to see these successful women and understand that they can do this, too." 'Opportunity to excel' STEM -- which stands for science, technology, engineering and math -- is a key driver in Mobile and Baldwin schools, and it is at the heart of GSSA's emphasis for 2018 and beyond. A host of new Scout badges are available in STEM fields, and local Scouts are receiving opportunities to do hands-on work alongside industry professionals. The GSSA is teaming with USA's Chemistry Department to give Scouts access to the university's labs, faculty and students for a variety of experiments and tactile activities. This year's all-day "ChemScouts" will be held Nov. 3. On Nov. 10, Airbus will present "Wing-It," which brings Scouts to the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley to learn the in's and out's of flight and to tour the company's assembly line, where A320 aircraft are put together. Great effort has gone into creating a new kind of Scouting in which girls pursue STEM activities and entrepreneurship activities, while getting outdoors, too. "And it's a really wonderful thing," Edmonds says. Edmonds continues, "Girls should have the opportunity to excel in a wide range of careers. And we believe we can play a very important part to provide the catalyst for them to develop new interests." Among the new badges are those for environmental stewardship, college prep and cybersecurity. And for the most passionate achievers, there are the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards, the latter being the equivalent of the Eagle Scout Award for the Boy Scouts. The achievements of Gold Award Scouts in Mobile and Baldwin counties are legendary, Edmonds says. They've spearheaded projects that led to the construction of a helipad in Citronelle, put a national spotlight on human trafficking on the Eastern Shore, and created burial gowns for deceased infants. "Whether they earn a Gold Award or not, a lot of these girls are really getting out there in their communities," Edmonds says. "And those accomplishments follow them for life." 'Here to stay' For decades, the Girl Scouts were a complimentary group to the Boy Scouts of America. But in 2017, the latter began admitting girls, and, this year, even announced that it would change its name to Scouts BSA. There's no ducking the fact that it's a challenge. "But it's important to know that Girl Scouts are here, and we're here to stay," Edmonds says. To help drive that message home, the GSSA recently held its first "Leading Ladies" in downtown Mobile. The sellout event recognized outstanding women in the Mobile Bay area contributing to the advancement of girls and women. And it went a long way toward bolstering GSSA's image, and attracting much-needed volunteers, Edmonds says. She explains, "We continue to believe that Girl Scouts is the greatest leadership opportunity for girls that's out there." Learn more For more about the Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama, visit . No matter who wins the November election between Gov. Kay Ivey and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox the states Medicaid program faces major changes possible new work requirements for recipients or expansion of the federal-state health insurance program for low-income individuals. So why is Medicaid important? One group says how Medicaids future plays out is important to the future of hospitals, particularly those in rural areas that depend on that flow of money for their low-income patients. There were more than 1.2 million Medicaid-eligible Alabamians in 2016 the most recent year statistics are available at a state cost of $1.9 billion. Federal funds make up nearly 70 percent or $4.4 billion of the remaining amount of Medicaid dollars for the state. Of the state money, $722 million were allocated from the general fund and $1.2 billion were earmarked from other state share sources, according to the Alabama Medicaid Agency. The lions share of the state-federal dollars 35 percent, or $2.2 billion was spent on hospitals. When AL.com readers recently voted on which election issues are important to them, Medicaid ranked eighth among 18 issues just ahead of such issues as jobs and the economy, and crime and public safety. The poll garnered more than 9,500 total votes. Ivey, who is seeking her first full term after replacing former Gov. Robert Bentley, has opposed expansion of Medicaid. She has set in motion a process that would require able-bodied parents and caretakers on Medicaid to demonstrate 35 hours of employment-related activities, ranging from holding a job to seeking employment, in order to maintain their Medicaid benefits. The governor has said that a work requirement would decrease the states share of the Medicaid budget, while the Alabama Medicaid Agency said the potential policy change would also lead to healthier Medicaid recipients. Unemployment has been shown to have a negative impact on physical and mental health outcomes. Alabama Medicaid seeks to implement programs for the able-bodied [parent or caretaker relative] eligibility group that will require unemployed or underemployed adults to become gainfully employed, or participate in training opportunities to enhance their potential for full employment. This change will put Alabamians on a path to better health outcomes, the agency said in February, when it announced public hearings. Critics of the plan say taking care of children or elderly parents already constitutes work. Maddox could not be reached for comment about whether he agrees with Iveys position; the platform on his campaign website is vague, saying his plan to expand Medicaid could be more palatable to Republicans who object to the proposal by adding in a work requirement but does not say whether that requirement should be extended to caretakers. The state ended the second of its two public comment periods on the issue in August. A spokeswoman for the state Medicaid agency said there is no timetable to implement the policy, but the office expects that the requirements would be in effect one year after the federal government approves the waiver. Should Maddox emerge victorious in November, he has vowed to make expanding Medicaid a day-one priority, promising to sign an executive order on that front. Both Ivey and her predecessor, Robert Bentley, chose not to expand access to Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Our former and current governors have sold Alabamians a bill of goods by falsely claiming that expansion of Medicaid equates to government handouts to able-bodied people who wont work, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate says on his website. This lie completely mischaracterizes the nature and importance of the expansion, which would secure much needed additional services to vulnerable populations that are unable to work and provide new coverage to almost 200,000 hardworking Alabama citizens who cannot afford health insurance. Maddox argues that expanding Medicaid would also save the states dying rural hospitals, preserve jobs in the health care field and create 30,000 new jobs. While speaking to the Birmingham Rotaract Club in September, the Tuscaloosa mayor said Alabama would take in $1.8 billion in economic benefits if it invested $108 million to expand Medicaid. He claimed Ivey and her predecessor, ex-Gov. Robert Bentley, only opposed Medicaid expansion because of politics. "You know why we didn't [expand Medicaid]? Because it was Obamacare," Maddox said. "People running for board of education [at the time] were running against Obamacare. Impact on Hospitals The Alabama Hospital Association, the non-partisan trade organization representing state hospitals, has sided with Maddox on the Medicaid debate. Expansion would be a significant investment in the states fragile health care infrastructure and would help maintain access to care for everyone, said Danne Howard, the associations executive vice president and chief policy officer. The trend of Alabama hospitals closing a dozen facilities have been shuttered since 2011 will continue if Medicaid expansion is not implemented, the association claimed. The group also cited a June 2017 study that found hospitals in states that did not expand Medicaid were 84 percent more likely to shutter than those in Medicaid expansion states. Plus, the economic impact in other states has been tremendous; Louisiana has added 19,000 jobs; nearly 50 percent of new enrollees in Ohio have been able to receive mental health and substance abuse treatment, and the state has seen a 17-percent drop in emergency department use; Kentucky has seen an increase in state revenues of $300 million, the association said. This story is one in a series of in-depth reports exploring key issues on Alabama voters' minds as they approach the Nov. 6 general election. The topics were determined using polling from the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama and informal polls of AL.com readers. For more coverage of issues facing the next governor, go to al.com/election. Financial issues will no longer be a burden to Filipinos when it comes to health care, according to Senator JV Ejercito once the Universal Health Care Bill, which was passed on third and final reading in the Senate on Wednesday, is enacted into law. The senators unanimously voted, 14-0, to approve Senate Bill 1896 or the Universal Health Care bill. Under the bill, all Filipino citizens will automatically be enrolled into the National Health Insurance as direct contributor or those who have the capacity to pay premiums or indirect contributor or the indigents, senior citizens, among others. Ejercito, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, noted that the landmark Universal Health Care Bill guarantee equal access to quality and affordable health services for all Filipinos. He said the bill called for reforms in the mandate, responsibilities, and jurisdiction of agencies that implement the countrys universal health care program, such as the Department of Health, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and local government units. Ejercito, who sponsored the bill, said records from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that Filipinos spent around P6,345 for their health needs in 2016 or 8.7 percent higher than the P5,840 health expenditure in 2015. He said majority of Filipinos consulted a doctor only when their illnesses were already at their worst because of the lack of government support in health care. Ejercito said the passage of the bill into law would expand the PhilHealth coverage to include free consultation fees, laboratory tests and other diagnostic services. Under the bill, Filipino residents can avail of primary health care services even without the PhilHealth Identification Cards. Those not enrolled in the PhilHealth once the measure becomes a law could still avail of the health care services since the premium subsidy will be gradually adjusted and included in the General Appropriations Act. In 2013, the mandatory coverage of indigent patients and other sponsored members of the Department of Social Welfare and Development has increased PhilHealth coverage up to 92 percent of the population or roughly 93.5 million Filipinos. The bill also calls for the improvement of doctor-to-patient ratio, upgrading of hospital bed capacities and equipment as well as establishment of hospitals in remote areas. DoH has pegged doctor-to-patient ratio at 1 to 33,000 while bed to population ratio was pegged at 1 to 1,121. In Metro Manila, the bed to population ratio is 1 to 591 while bed to population ratio in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao is 1 to 4,200.Under the bill, all graduates of health-related courses from state universities and colleges or government-funded scholarship programs will be required to serve for at least three years in the public sector. Senator Risa Hontiveros, co-sponsor of the bill, said the measure also aims to address the issue of fragmentation of health care delivery system by providing a framework for the integration of the health system at the level of provinces and highly urbanized cities. She said the passage of the measure is a giant leap forward in closing the gap between the rich and poor on the access and delivery of quality and affordable health services in the country. This bill seeks to address barriers in health governance, health human resources, regulations, service delivery and health information that would prevent Filipinos from accessing care, Hontiveros said. The measure will have a significant, lasting and profound effect on the health of every Filipinos as it closes the economic, class and gender gaps in the delivery of healthcare systems in the country, Hontiveros added. Filipinos can also avail of primary health care services even without the PhilHealth identification cards once the bill becomes a law. The proposed measure also aims to improve the doctor-to-patient ratio, upgrade hospital bed capacities and equipment and establish hospital in far-flung areas. This bill will ensure that financial issues will no longer be a burden to our countrymen when it comes to healthcare, Sen. JV Ejercito, the bills principal author, said when he sponsored the measure. The House of Representatives earlier passed a version of the bill in September last year. The passage of the bill immediately came after President Rodrigo Duterte has certified it as a priority bill. The President issued the certification for the bill during a Cabinet meeting that ended before dawn on Tuesday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told reporters. Roque authored the bill in Congress. In his last interview with Al Jazeera UpFront, the late Saudi journalist spoke on the need for debate in Saudi Arabia. Al Jazeeras UpFront looks back to a March interview with the man who dared to criticise the Saudi royal leadership. In the debate [full transcript below], UpFront host Mehdi Hasan pressed Jamal Khashoggi and two others on whether Saudi Arabias 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known colloquially in the West as MBS, is truly an anti-corrution and pro-rights reformer and whether the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is really on a path to reform and moderation. While bin Salman has been praised by some as a revolutionary, rights groups have voiced concern, pointing to the continued crackdown on dissent within the kingdom, and to alleged war crimes committed in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition. As we speak today, there are Saudi intellectuals and journalists jailed, Kashoggi told Al Jazeera. Now nobody will dare to speak and criticise the reform It would be much better for him to allow a breathing space for critics, for Saudi intellectuals, Saudi writers, Saudi media to debate. Now nobody will dare to speak and criticise the reform ... It would be much better for him to allow a breathing space for critics, for Saudi intellectuals, Saudi writers, Saudi media to debate. Jamal Khashoggi, Dissident Saudi writer/commentator During the debate, Ali Shihabi, who is a supporter of bin Salman and founder of the think-tank the Arabia Foundation, said he supports the reforms and that Nobody has been able to carry out dramatic change in the developing world successfully under a pluralistic system. You need a benevolent autocracy. Khashoggi, who had previously said the crown prince was acting like Putin and becoming Saudis own Supreme Leader, countered: Theres no such thing as benevolent autocracy. Autocracy cannot be benevolent. And lessons of history proved that. One-man-rule The killing of the 59-year-old Saudi journalist has shocked the world. Full transcript : UpFront: Is Saudi Arabias MBS really a reformer? Mehdi Hasan: His fans call him a reformer, even a revolutionary. His critics say hes guilty of war crimes in Yemen. The 32-year-old Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, who claims be cracking down on corruption and championing womens rights is currently touring the United States. But whos the real MBS? And is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia really on a path to reform and moderation? Joining me now to debate this are Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist and former royal family adviser, currently self-exiled in Washington, DC, who has said the crown prince is acting like Putin and becoming Saudis own Supreme Leader. And Ali Shihabi, a supporter of MBS, who is Executive Director at the Arabia Foundation and author of the book, The Saudi Kingdom: Between the Jihadi Hammer and the Iranian Anvil. Thank you both for joining me on UpFront. Jamal, let me start with you. Youve compared your Crown Prince to Putin, to Irans Supreme Leader. Youve said hes creating an interesting form of dictatorship. How so? Jamal Khashoggi: I still see him as a reformer, but he is gathering all power within his hand. And it would be much better for him to allow a breathing space for critics, for Saudi intellectuals, Saudi writers, Saudi media to debate. The most important needed transformation going in the country. What he is doing I called for and I got fired for when I was an editor of a newspaper. Allowing a woman to drive, or for a woman to be empowered, or to limit the power of the religious establishment. I demanded that. And he is doing the right things. But it is an important transformation that requires all of us to contribute to it, to discuss it, and no one should be jailed forfor that. Mehdi Hasan: Fair enough. But when you say under MBSs rule, an interesting form of dictatorship is being created in Saudi Arabia Ever since Saudi Arabia was founded, it has been a dictatorship. Jamal Khashoggi: No. Mehdi Hasan: Or did that not bother you when you were working with the Saudi Royal Family? Jamal Khashoggi: No. No. Things were done by consensus, with anot the wholenot in a parliamentarian system, but throughout the whole family. But as we speak today, there are Saudi intellectuals and journalists jailed. Now nobody will dare to speak and criticize the reform they like. Mehdi Hasan: Ali Shihabi, hes Putin, hes Irans own Supreme Leader. Whats your response to Jamal? Ali Shihabi: Nothing is more difficult and dangerous politically than change, particularly dramatic change. Nobody has been able to carry out dramatic change in the developing world successfully under a pluralistic system. You need a benevolent autocracy. Now, you can open things up for debate, but the question is that history has taught us you never know how far you can open the window before it brings the house crashing down. Thats something that all students of history have studied. So, he has ahe has done a huge amount of things. I mean, people, for example, underestimate what he has done for women and empowering women. It wasnt just womens driving its integrating women into the workforce. When women drove in Saudi Arabia in 1990, when the women activists drove, we were both in Riyadh, Jamal and I. And I tell you, the reaction of the religious conservatives went viral, every mosque talked about them. This time, there wasnt a peep from anybody. So, he had to control that. Mehdi Hasan: Why? Ali Shihabi: Because he has intimidated them and he threw a number of these religious conservatives and reactionaries in jail, for good reason. Mehdi Hasan: Just on the women drivers thing, though, that has been the kind of flagship policy for what people in the West have talked about a lot. You mentioned it. You called him a bold leader whos dragging his country into the 21st century. Many would say its not that bold to allow women to drive in the only country on Earth that doesnt allow it. And its not a sign of being in the 21st century, its a sign of being in the early 20th century. Ali Shihabi: Well, yes, if previous Mehdi Hasan: Its a low bar, isnt it? Its a very low bar. Ali Shihabi: Well, previous leaders for the last 50 years Mehdi Hasan: But youre benchmarking previous leaders, rather than the rest of the world. Ali Shihabi: No, you benchmark to your history. You benchmark to what was existing in your country. Mehdi Hasan: So then Kim Jong-un is a moderniser because hes less crazy than his dad. I mean, come on. Ali Shihabi: No, you benchmark You benchmark Prince Mohammed to his predecessors. You benchmark people to their environment. You benchmark them to their peers. You dont benchmark him to the Queen of Sweden. Mehdi Hasan: Jamal. Jamal Khashoggi: I want to jump in on the benevolent autocracy. Theres no such thing as benevolent autocracy. Autocracy cannot be benevolent. And lessons of history proved that. One-man-rulelessons of history Ali Shihabi: I think theres an illusion, by the way, that people talk about, that Saudi Arabia used to be sort of consensus-driven before. King Fahad. And you know, when he took the decision to allow American troops to come in, and that is documented in Western books and in the memoirs of Schwarzkopf, he took it on the spot, by himself. He didnt consult anybody. Prince Abdullah, the crown prince, was next to him and was against it. So, the monarchs have always been in Saudi Arabia the ultimate rulers. Theres this illusion that they were somehow this consensus but thats not the case. Jamal Khashoggi: Butbut that should not make us accept. I mean, we are talking about a reform that you and I support. And we have opinions about it. For example Ali Shihabi: Everybody has opinions about it, Jamal. How do you reconcile them? Jamal Khashoggi: For example Ali Shihabi: How do you reconcile the extremes between Jamal Khashoggi: Lets talk about something other than women driving. Neom project. This futuristic city that he is planning to invest half a trillion dollars in it. What if it goes wrong? It could bankrupt the country. Mehdi Hasan: But no ones allowed to criticise it, is what youre saying. Jamal Khashoggi: But no one allowed to write an objective piece in any newspaper saying Mehdi Hasan: Ali, youve written pieces here in the US for Fox News and others praising his reforms. You couldnt write pieces in Saudi Arabia saying whatever you like, could you? Ali Shihabi: Look, no, you cant. And theres no doubt about that, but the Mehdi Hasan: And youre OK with that? Ali Shihabi: No. Its not a question of OK with that. The question is No, no. Mehdi Hasan: It is. That is my question. Ali Shihabi: Give me an example of a democracy in the developing the world that can affect change. For example, look at what happened in Afghanistan with Karzai, right? Karzai was supposedly elected. He was not even the Mayor of Kabul. He could do nothing in his term. So, when he left office, you know, Afghanistan was still run by warlords, it still was a drug-producing centre, the Taliban was Mehdi Hasan: OK. But Saudi Arabia isnt Afghanistan. Ali Shihabi: No. My point is. It doesnt work, unfortunately. And by the way Mehdi Hasan: Many developing countries who are democratic would disagree with you. Jamal, you talk about criticism. I want to talk about you. You were a newspaper editor. You no longer live in Saudi Arabia. Youve said that friends of yours have been arrested and detained. Youve said that friends of yours in Saudi think twice about sharing whatever isnt fully in line with official government group think, youve said. Why are you in self-exile? Explain that to our viewers. Jamal Khashoggi: Simply because I dont want to be arrested. I dont want to be Essam al-Zamil or Salman al-Awdah.. the irony, is that he has no opposition. Mohammed bin Salman doesnt have an opposition. He doesnt have the Taliban as Karzai had in Afghanistan. Most of the people, most of the intellectualsmost of the people in jail today are supporters of reform. And if they were out of jail, they would be supporting him. There is no need to arrest anybody. And the reason thethe radicalswere strong in Saudi Arabia one day and they objected to reform because the government allowed them to. Mehdi Hasan: OK. Jamal Khashoggi: What happened in Saudi Arabia today about radicalism, the government unpluggedunplugged the power of the radicals. But we the people of Saudi Arabia. Mehdi Hasan: So, let me put that point Ali, let me put that point to you. If Jamal were to go back to Saudi tomorrow and write a piece saying, oh, I think MBS is doing some good stuff, but theres where I disagree with him, and he went to prison, would you be OK with that? In the interest of development? Ali Shihabi: Look, it In the interest of development, there may be mistakes made. Mehdi Hasan: No, thats not what I asked. Would you be OK with Jamal being in prison? Ali Shihabi: No, I wouldnt be OK with Jamal going togoing to jail for saying that. No, absolutely not. And I dont think he would. You see no Mehdi Hasan: But you just defended the system that would do that. Ali Shihabi: Because the system cannot be perfect. And the system cannotwill make individual mistakes. Mehdi Hasan: Well, now youre talking about Its easy talking abstraction. What Im giving you is a specific example. Ali Shihabi: No. No, youre the one talking abstraction, Mehdi. Mehdi Hasan: No, I gave you a specific case study. Ali Shihabi: Because at the end of the day Mehdi Hasan: Would you be OK with Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist Ali Shihabi: And by the way, let me just add something, that prison in Saudi Arabia is quite benign. If you visited the higher prison, or these prisons, they are nothing like the dungeons of the Middle East, by the way. Jamal Khashoggi: No. No. No. No prison Mehdi Hasan: OK. We know that Saudi Arabia has a history of torture, well-documented by human rights groups[inaudible/overlapping voices] OK Ali Shihabi: Now, the problem isthe problem is, Mehdi, you can pick individual examples and mistakes can happen at the individual level. Mehdi Hasan: Wow. Mistakes. OK. Ali Shihabi: But to affect change in our environment, you cannot do it with an open political spectrum. Mehdi Hasan: But you cantbut you cant have debate and discussion. You think that one man should be able to make the decision without anyone saying, you know what, you might be wrong? Ali Shihabi: No, I think he is having debate and discussion. Nownow, probably it would be better if we had the wider spectrum of debate and discussion. Thats a judgmental issue. And its very, very difficult for governments to choreograph that perfectly Mehdi Hasan: OK. Ali Shihabi: but governments, at the end of the day, what you run in this part of the world is the risk of state breakdown. Mehdi Hasan: OK, we need to move on. Theres lots to discuss. I do want to also ask this question about Islam in Saudi Arabia. Because one of the things that the crown prince has won a lot of praise for, Jamal, in the West, is he said, Saudi Arabia would be returning to a moderate Islam that is open to all religions and people. Do you buy that? And do you agree with MBSs claim that Islam in Saudi Arabia was moderate before 1979? Jamal Khashoggi: No. Saudi Arabia before 1979 wasnt moderate. Actually, there was a drive for modernization led by King Faisal at that time. And King Faisal brought the Muslim Brotherhood to open up the [unintelligible] hardline school of thoughts, and now we are totally going against that. But that will take Mohammed bin Salman and take us in Saudi Arabia into debating what Islam? What moderate Islam? Saudi Arabia has to be aligned with Islam. The basic law of Saudi Arabia which, the constitution, but we dont call it the constitution because of Wahhabis, they have issues about the term constitution. We call Saudi Arabia an Islamic state. So, what Islam are we going to do? Rather than challenging the Brotherhood, I think Saudi Arabia should work on introducing an Islam that is accommodating modernity. So, what is that Islam? That require an open space for discussion, an open discourse for discussion to have that Islam. But Ali Shihabi: Give me one example of an Arab country that has opened up the space successfully. It hasnt. But let me go back to the question of Islam. What the Prince meant waswhat the Prince meant was Jamal Khashoggi: Why do we give in on that? Ali Shihabi: that the trajectory from the founding of Saudi Arabia until 1979 was a trajectory of continuous liberalization and reducing the role of the clerical class. So, it had been extremelyextreme when Saudi Arabia was founded, and then by the late 1970s it had gotten much, much more liberal. Then, with the Iranian revolution, it scared the government and that Mehdi Hasan: Yeah. Its convenient to pick 79 because you can blame it all on Iran. Ali Shihabi: But its correct. You allow me to finish my point. The trajectory turns up after that because the Iranian revolution scared the whole region. And Mehdi Hasan: And because you decided to arm the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, et cetera. Ali Shihabi: With the Americans, by the way. But the Iranian revolution Mehdi Hasan: Im not defending the Americans. Ali Shihabi: The Iranian revolution sent an example. Jamal Khashoggi: I am defending arming the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Ali Shihabi: sent an example to every cleric in this region that you could take power. Mehdi Hasan: OK. Good. You need to answer a question, though. Its a nice long answer. Ali Shihabi: So, it was that trajectory of going up. Mehdi Hasan: You need to answer a question. In the 60s and 70s, Saudi was exporting, whatever you want to call it, Wahhabism, jihad, Salafism, et cetera. To the rest of the world, this didnt start in 79. This was going on in the 60s, in the 70s, during the Nasser period. Saudi didnt wake up in 1979 and start sending extremist textbooks around the world. You know that. Ali Shihabi: No, its not a question of extremist textbooks. No Mehdi Hasan: It is for a lot of the people in West. Its to do with extremist textbooks for British Muslims, French Muslims Ali Shihabi: ThisSaudi Arabia, the Saudi religious system was ultra-conservative. And yes, in the 50s and 60s it was Mehdi Hasan: So, it wasnt moderate before 1979. Ali Shihabi: It was It was more modern than it was 20, 30 years before. Mehdi Hasan: OKagain, a low bar. You keep bringing a low bar. Ali Shihabi: Well, of course. You compare yourself to your history. Mehdi Hasan: Jamal, isnt the problem here that youll say, OK, after 79 it got more extreme, youre agreeing with Ali. And yet, youre here now in Washington saying I want this pluralism, I want more dialogue and debate, but where was the dialogue and debate in the 80s and 90s when you were perfectly happy, living and working in Saudi Arabia? Jamal Khashoggi: Welllook, I got fired from my job twice because I was pushing for reform in Saudi Arabia. It wasnt that easy. But people were not being put in jails. There was a breathing space. Ali Shihabi: No.. you are going through now in Saudi Arabia an intense period of change. The amount of change that has been put in the last two years, including subsidies, you see, which affect the man on the street are you can rock the whole you could bring the whole system down with that Mehdi Hasan: OK. We have to move on, but I do want to ask you one question about the Ali Shihabi: Jamal Khashoggiwe do not need Mehdi Hasan: OK. Hold on. Let him finish his point, then you can come back in. Ali Shihabi: It is easy to sit and say we need, particularly in front of an American audience more freedomthese are golden things. Everybody loves them. But the question is, you have to be practical Mehdi Hasan: OKAli, let Jamal respond. Otherwise were going to run out of time. Jamal Khashoggi: Ali! Ali! Im not asking for democracy. Im asking for people to be allowed to speak. This is Im asking for the minimum. Mehdi Hasan: You both seem to be arguing over who has a lower bar. We need to move on and I need to ask you a question about 1979. One last point is that if Mohammed bin Salman says, Saudi Arabia was moderate before 79, Im going to bring it back to what it was before 1979, as he said in his 60 Minutes interview, isnt that a concession that Saudi Arabia has been extremist for the past 40 years, despite all the denials? Just a logical implication. Ali Shihabi: Well, its an expression that Saudi Arabia turned after 1979 into a much more conservative state. It accommodated the extreme, reactionary, right-wing, if you want, religious establishment because of that, and he is correcting that. Jamal Khashoggi: OK. Very brief about 79. After 79, the government joined hand with the radicals into imposing a restrictive society. In Last year, Mohammed bin Salman, thanks to him, unplugged that. If someone to blame for what happened in the last 40 years, it is the government who empowered the conservative clergies to impose their narrow-mindedness on all of Mehdi Hasan: OK. Ali Shihabi: But thats a mistake that Prince Mohammed has admitted. Mehdi Hasan: We cantwe cant OK. So, I need to move on. We cant talk about MBS without talking about the disastrous war in Yemen, which he has presided over both as Crown Prince and as Defense Minister. Thousands dead. Millions at risk of famine and cholera. The worlds worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN. For this part of the discussion, I want to bring in from New York, Sarah Leah Whitson, Director of the Middle East Division at Human Rights Watch. Sarah, thanks for joining us. Sarah Leah Whitson: Hi. Thanks for having me. Mehdi Hasan: How much responsibility does Saudi Arabia and MBS bear, in your view, for whats going on in Yemen right now, the violence and suffering there? Sarah Leah Whitson: Well, I would say that they are responsible for the overwhelming amount of human suffering that we are seeing in Yemen right now. The United Nations has just released updated figures on the casualties there, with over 6,000 civilians dead, and attributing over 60% of the civilian casualties to air strikes, which only the Saudi coalition, and thats primarily really Saudi Arabia, has carried out. The Saudi coalition has imposed an air, sea, and land blockade on Yemen, a country that depends on imports for over 90% of its food, for almost all of its medicines, resulting in the humanitarian disaster that we are seeing now in the country. And I would point massive physical destruction of the country, massive cultural destruction of the country as well. Mehdi Hasan: So, Ali, how do you respond to that? How do you square MBS being a reformer at home, while committing what look like war crimes abroad? Ali Shihabi: Well, there are two sides to a coin. A country does not go to war for fun, or for impetuousness as members of theof the journalist community, like yourself, accuseaccuse Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia went to war because it felt its security was acutely threatened, which is why countries go to war. It felt that if it allowed what was happening on that southern border to develop, where the Houthis would become a powerful militia, like Hezbollah, its security could be existentially threatened. When the Houthis took over the whole of Yemen, they had the vision of Saudi Arabia beingof Yemen being turned into another Lebanon, so they went to war. Now, this is a war that has been going on for three years. Now, its a tragedy. Every human casualty is a tragedy. But you said, Sarah, you know, 6000 civilians, of which 60% have been attributed to Saudi. Thats 3600 civilians killed over three years. That has been done in Syria in a week. Sarah Leah Whitson: First of all, I think Ali is confusing two basic concepts in law. One is the decision to go to war. And whatever reasons the Saudi Arabia government has offered for bombarding Yemen are really irrelevant to the question of the means theyve used to fight this war. Means that are unlawful. Means that amount to war crimes. Means that include using unlawful weapons like cluster bombs, that we have documented dozens of times, that will continue to impact generations of Yemenis to come. Means of warfare that have included bombarding schools, universities, hospitals, places of residence, really a wildly indiscriminate, completely unprofessional, despicable methods Ali Shihabi: Well, you summed it up in one word. Sarah Leah Whitson: And let me pleasedont interrupt me, please, Ali. I know thats a custom maybe in Saudi Arabia but please dont do it. Ali Shihabi: But I would ask you not to insult in that way, by the way, Sarah. Sarah Leah Whitson: And after Im doneSecond of all, you must be borrowing your talking points from NGO Monitor in Israel, where it also chooses to distract and obfuscate from Israeli war crimes in a place like Gaza by saying, well, somewhere else is worse. Syria is worse, Sudan is worse, and so forth. As you were saying, were going to compare Saudi Arabia to its own record, to its own standards. And the record and standards of the conduct of its war in Yemen are shameful and despicable. And for a country whose population has long been so outraged by Israeli crimes in Gaza, for you to sit here and try to brush under the carpet the grotesque abuses of Saudi Arabia against the people of Yemen, against the children of Yemen, which has landed Saudi Arabia twice on the Secretary Generals list of shame for abuses against children is really just embarrassing. Mehdi Hasan: OK. OK. Ali, do you want to respond? Ali Shihabi: I mean, is sheis this a monologue? Mehdi Hasan: Youve had some long answers, but you can respond. Ali Shihabi: Yeah, I will. No. First of all, I mean, she exposed herself by saying Saudi reasons are irrelevant. Mehdi Hasan: No, she said the reasons for going to war are irrelevant, which is true. Were talking about the conduct of the war. This is a debate about MBS. I asked a question about MBSs conduct. Ali Shihabi: Is irrelevant. Its not irrelevant. ButThere are two things.There are two things. The conduct of war. When you talk about war crimes, you have to assume that theres an intent to harm civilians. Theres not an intent to harm civilians. Sarah Leah Whitson: Thats wrong. Thats not true. Thats actually not true. You actually dont know the law. Ali Shihabi: Well, no, let me finish! Dont interrupt. Youre the one lecturing people on interrupting. Dont interrupt. There is no intent. Theres been no evidence to prove that there was any intent. Unfortunately, you are fighting an irregular army, an irregular army that is fighting a public relations war, that situates its material next to civilian houses, that uses schools, that uses hospitals. So, you get [inaudible] Has the Saudi military made mistakes? Of course its made mistakes. Mehdi Hasan: No. According to Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, theyve deliberately targeted civilians, hospitals, schools. Ali Shihabi: Yeah, but how do they know theyre deliberately attacking? How do they reach that conclusion? Mehdi Hasan: So, how do you know Bashar al-Assad? I mean, if you take that argument, then everyone in the world is scot-free. Ali Shihabi: No. Because I know Bashar al-Assad has killed half a million people and Mehdi Hasan: OK. What if you did it accidentally, according to your bizarre logic Come on. Ali Shihabi: No, no, no. Excuse me. Not half a million people. Not half a million people Mehdi Hasan: So hes your benchmark now? Ali Shihabi: No, hes not my benchmark. Mehdi Hasan: You always use these really weird benchmarks. Were having a discussion about MBS and your response Ali Shihabi: No. Because Im saying that in the case of Saudi Arabia, youre talking about Mehdi Hasan: Hold on! Hold on. Hes a reformer. When I point to alleged war crimes in Yemen, your response is, but its not as bad as Bashar al-Assad. Ali Shihabi: Yes. Mehdi Hasan: But, MBS is not claiming to be Bashar al-Assad. Hes claiming to be the moderate Muslim reformer in the Middle East. Ali Shihabi: No, butbut, Im saying that theyre not war crimes, because war crimes, there has to be an intent. Mehdi Hasan: OK. Sarah Ali Shihabi: There has to be No, let me finish one point. Mehdi Hasan: Fine. Finish this point and then Sarah Ali Shihabi: There has to be an intent to carry out war crimes. That means that purposefully you wanted to hit a school or you wanted Mehdi Hasan: OK. You made that point. Youve made that point. Now, let Sarah respond. Ali Shihabi: Let me finish one other point. Has the Saudi military made mistakes? Of course its going to make mistakes. Yes, but Mehdi Hasan: Youve said that as well, Ali. You said mistakes, you said deliberate. Let Sarah come back in now. Hold on. One at a time. Sarah Leah Whitson: Right. So, under international law, when you find a widespread and systematic pattern of abuses, you can deduce intent. Not all war crimes require showing of, say, someone saying something. And again, I should note that the Israeli defence for its war crimes Ali Shihabi: Sarah, have you been to Sanaa? Sarah Leah Whitson: Widespread and systematic pattern of indiscriminate targeting is what we deduce intent from, and weve seen repeatedly. When you bombard schools, hospitals, medical clinics, places of residence. Sarah Leah Whitson: Repeated widespread systematic attacks on civilian targets. We have investigated dozens and dozens of those strikes, as have other human rights organizations, as has the UN human rights body and found no military target in the vicinity. Do not tell me that all of the bombardment of civilian targets in Yemen is due to Houthis hiding in the midst. That is the excuse that the Israelis use Mehdi Hasan: Weve run out of time unfortunately. Jamal, Im going to ask you the final question. What is the way out of Yemen? You were a supporter of this war, but is there a way that MBS is going to bring it to an end? It doesnt seem like it. Jamal Khashoggi: The way out of Yemen is to reach for a peaceful solution that is inclusive. And Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, must agree to accept the Islamists in Yemen, and the Houthis in Yemen, and everybody else. Ali Shihabi: And he has, by the way. I mean Jamal Khashoggi: What will save Saudi Arabia from a dominant Iranian presence in Yemen is an inclusive, power-shared government that includes everybody. We need a democracy Ali Shihabi: In Yemen. Jamal Khashoggi: But you Ali Shihabi: You need a democracy in Yemen, Jamal. You think you can create it in Yemen? Jamal Khashoggi: [inaudible/overlapping voices] in Yemen. Ali Shihabi: You think you can create a democracy in Yemen? Jamal Khashoggi: Hes still reluctant to accept the islamists. He wants to defeat the Houthis and not allow the Islamists to benefit from that. Mehdi Hasan: OK, were out of time Mehdi Hasan: No. No. No. Youve made a lot of points. Im going to ask you a yes or no question, since you mentioned democracy in Yemen. MBS is the great reformer in the eyes of some people. On his watch, is Saudi ever going to become democratic? Yes or no? Jamal Khashoggi: Not on his watch. I havent heard him make even the slightest reference that he would open the country for power-sharing for democracy. Ali Shihabi: And Mehdi Hasan: Hold on. Im going to give you the last word. But Sarah, do you think Saudiis Saudi on any kind of reform towards democracy, do you think? Jamal Khashoggi: Political reform. Sarah Leah Whitson: No, absolutely not. Tragically not. And its really quite an insult to the Saudi people who are increasingly educated, increasingly articulate, and deserve the right to be able to engage in the political affairs of the country that affect them. Mehdi Hasan: Ali? Democratic or not? Ali Shihabi: That is theoretic talk. Its not going towards democracy. Saudi Arabia should go towards better governance. And the whole point about democracy in thisit has not worked. Mehdi Hasan: Well have to leave it there. Jamal Khashoggi, Ali Shihabi, Sarah Leah Whitson, thanks for joining me on UpFront. Last month, an outrageous phrase, Hang the Whites, was trending on French Twitter. What brought this horrendous exclamation under the national spotlight was a provocative song named PLB (the French acronym for Hang the Whites) by Nick Conrad, a black rapper that no one had heard of before. In the equally provocative video clip for the song, posted briefly on Youtube and taken down after widespread outcry, Conrad and an associate abduct, chase, torture and violently kill a white man. The songs shocking lyrics appear to advocate for the killing of white babies and hanging of their parents. The video clip quickly set the French political landscape on fire. In response to Conrads video, Marine Le Pen, leader of Frances far-right Rassemblement National Party (National Rally) criticised what she called an anti-white racism that no self-proclaimed expert or media person speaks of. Minister of Interior Gerard Collomb also tweeted that he condemned without reservation these abject remarks and ignominious attacks. On September 27, Paris prosecutors office announced that it launched an investigation to determine whether Conrads video constitutes an incitement to a crime. I, too, was shocked when I watched the video clip for the first time, only hours after the start of the controversy. What I saw in those images was nothing more than a disturbing fascination with violence. I could not stand the words that were describing the killing of human beings in gruesome detail. Nick Conrad gave an interview to RTL on September 26 and explained that his song was not a call for hate but a fictional re-telling of the horrors experienced by black people in real life, in which the races were reversed for impact. He said that the scene in the video clip in which he tortures and kills a white man was a re-enactment of a scene from the 1998 Hollywood movie, American History X, in which a black man was killed by Neo-Nazis in a similar way. He even referenced the movie in the lyrics, saying Black History X, it is the beginning. Several people also came to Conrads defence on Twitter, and argued that this was not a racist song calling for murder, but instead an artists provocative attempt to attract attention to the very real racism black people have long been facing. After reading Conrads interview and comments by people defending him on Twitter, I was still not entirely convinced, but I decided to have a second look at the clip. After looking at the disturbing images from that perspective, I had to admit that Conrads explanation made some sense. Every single scene in that video clip, and every verse in that song, is a re-telling of a specific abuse black people had suffered in not so distant history. When Conrad says, Catch them quickly and hang their parents, tear them up to entertain black kids of all ages big and small, he clearly refers to the spectacle that was made of the public executions of black people during the Jim Crow era. When he says Whip them hard frankly, it stinks of death as blood is gushing, the reference speaks for itself. The way the artist used his platform to shock his audience is more than questionable and certainly counterproductive. But even though Im still not certain of his real intentions in creating this video, and concerned about the brazen display of violence in the clip, I have to admit that it is possible to find new layers of meaning under the violent imagery. Is Conrads video simply a celebration of violence, or is it a provocative and controversial commentary on racism? Im still not certain. But if we put the clip itself aside for a second, and focus on the reaction it received, we are faced with an even more interesting question: How can a virtually unknown rapper become a topic of national discussion, and a symbol of anti-white racism, simply by releasing a video clip on the internet? As read the reactions to Conrads video, I could not help but wonder whether I had ever witnessed such a vivid backlash to any racist statement, song or comment by a d-list celebrity, an aspiring musician or an unknown member of the public. As far as I can remember, I never did. Conrad was not a superstar, or even a well-known public figure before this controversy, and it was obvious that his music would have next to no influence in France or anywhere else. So why on Earth would so many pre-eminent political figures give so much exposure to an unknown rapper who had no more than a couple of hundred followers on social media? It was very revealing to see people who usually have no interest in standing up to racism, suddenly became human rights defenders to protect white people from racism. This entire debate did nothing but serve the agenda of far-right groups who had long been working hard to prove the existence of what they call anti-white racism. Racism is not the sum of isolated acts; it is a system that oppresses a group of people. What minorities experience nowadays is the result of a history of domination started with slavery and colonialism. It doesnt only operate in individual interactions but also at an institutional level, for example, through police brutality that overwhelmingly targets minorities. In such a system, white people can still be exposed to slurs and hate, but they cannot claim to be systematically oppressed because of their race, since they belong to the privileged group. Wherever you go around the globe, it is an advantage to be white. This is the meaning of global white supremacy. As we can not start talking about anti-men sexism after a woman beats a man, we can also not start talking about reverse racism on the back of a controversy like this one. There is no anti-white or reverse racism, because minorities have no power to transform the system to their own advantage. The most concerning reaction to Conrads music video came from the International League against Racism and Antisemitism (LICRA), an anti-racism organisation close to the French government. They declared, The LICRA did not wait for #NickConrad to denounce and prosecute the anti-white racism. The law does not make any distinction according to the colour of the perpetrator and the victim. That lack of understanding of racism, from an association that is supposed to support the victims of racism, says a lot about the confusion that revolves around the subject of race in France. The irony is that the controversy occurs in a country where race is still a taboo, where there are no data about race in the census or in any official document. Seeing how quick some politicians can be to stand for white people even if there is no systemic threat against them while they remain silent when actual people of colour like Adama Traore die in the hands of the police gives me pause. How can a nine-minute-long music video targeting a privileged population shake a country much more than decades of racism and discrimination against non-whites occurring in our streets? How can Interior Minister Collomb quickly and categorically condemn an unknown rappers act of so-called anti-white racism, but feel comfortable to look the other way when desperate migrants trying to reach our country to find some security were attacked by far-right activists at Europes borders? When will politicians like Collomb find the energy to condemn real acts of racism that harm our country and threaten innocent human lives with the same enthusiasm that they condemn a music video that poses no real threat to anyone? The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Women are bearing the brunt of Iraqs disastrous modern history. Despite early advances in womens rights, including the fact that Iraq was the first country in the Arab world to have a woman serve as cabinet minister back in 1959, and that Iraqi women have been allowed to train as doctors for almost 100 years, society has taken a number of steps backwards in gender equality and womens rights in recent decades. Today, many Iraqi women try to meet overwhelming work and family obligations with little assistance from men. Some are forced to care for their children, parents and siblings all by themselves, as men in their lives continue to fight and die on ever-shifting military fronts. To make matters worse, most extreme forms of gender-based violence are also prevalent in Iraq. In recent years, religious militias massacred dozens of sex workers and tortured journalists in Baghdad. Meanwhile, ISIL enslaved thousands of Yazidi women, many of whom are still missing today. In the last couple of months, another worrying trend has emerged. Between August and September, four high-profile women have been assassinated. They lived in different cities and had different occupations. They only had two common traits: They were all women and they were all successful in their respective fields. Tara Fares, one of Iraqs most prominent social media stars, was assassinated in broad daylight on September 28; Suad al-Ali, a human rights activist (to whom I do not have the honour of being related), was killed on September 25; Rasha al-Hassan, a plastic surgeon and public figure, was killed on August 23; and Rafeef al-Yassiri, also a plastic surgeon with her own clinic, died under mysterious circumstances on August 16. Authorities initially called al-Yassiris death a drug overdose, but have not offered an update, leading to rumours that she might have been poisoned. On October 7, two more women, one an owner of a beauty parlour and the other an activist, were killed in Basra. In all of these cases, the assassins appeared to be highly trained, leading security forces to believe that these were not random attacks. A number of other high-profile women have also received death threats. Social response It is still unclear whether these killings were part of a single conspiracy, but together they sent Iraqi women an undeniable message: You should not seek to break out of societys traditional limitations. To this day, many Iraqi men suffer from fragile masculinity and view womens professional success as a threat. This may translate into physical threats and attacks in certain cases. The fact that Iraq is awash in weapons as well as regular and irregular armed groups adds to the volatility of the situation. This makes some Iraqi women reluctant to pursue their professional ambitions. This is why it is reasonable to assume that the latest wave of femicides will add to these worries and make some women reconsider their career aspirations. Nevertheless, there is some cause for optimism, as the killings provoked a promising social response. Iraqi society has widely condemned the murders and rounded on the few commentators who tried to brush them off. Haider Zaweer, a TV presenter, tweeted that people should stop worrying about Ms Fares, describing her as a prostitute who was killed (implying first that she deserved to be murdered and second that it was not worth investigating). The response was fast and furious, especially on social media. His remarks were condemned by thousands and eventually, his employer was forced to pull him off the air. High profile figures, including some of the countrys most popular social media personalities, have stated that any attempt to justify the murders is tantamount to complicity. These reactions demonstrated that attitudes towards women are starting to change in Iraq and larger segments of society are refusing to tolerate violence against successful women. This is an important if small, step; a larger effort will be required to make further progress. Iraqi society is awash with hard barriers for women, and subtle and unsubtle gender-based discrimination. The men and women of Iraq are scarred by conflict and close to no effort has been made to study the effects this has had on womens rights. Moreover, nobody has attempted to outline, let alone implement, a convincing strategy that could improve womens rights in the country. Rule of law One obvious, partial remedy to gender-based violence in Iraq would be to improve the rule of law. Iraqs human rights situation is notoriously fragile. Dozens, if not hundreds, of reports detail how ineffectual the police, prosecutors and judges have been in prosecuting criminal behaviour. Investigatory methods remain limited, prosecutions still rely heavily on forced confessions and allegations of torture are generally not investigated by the authorities. Just as importantly, however, is the sense of impunity that dominates Iraqs political class. Hardly any action has been taken to address the questionable actions of armed groups that are connected with the countrys main political powers. Following the most recent round of protests in Basra, a lawyer who offered to defend protesters and protest leaders (of whom Ms al-Ali was one) was killed. After each high profile assassination, government officials invariably announce that investigations have been launched, almost all of which fizzle with the passage of time. Even investigations that are concluded hardly ever lead to any form of political accountability. Iraqs current government-formation process is an opportunity to move state institutions in the right direction. Iraqi women from all levels of society are in desperate need of protection, and the state now has an opportunity to kick-start a necessary process of change by reforming judicial institutions and improving the rule of law. None of Iraqs previous governments have ever committed to a coherent strategy to improve womens rights, so if there is one thing that the next government can do it is to prioritise this one area, for the benefit of Iraqi women. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. A panel in the House of Representatives on Wednesday approved two measures renaming Clark International Airport in Pampanga to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in honor of the late President Diosdado Macapagal. In 2001, the Board of Directors of the Clark International Airport Corp. named the airport after Macapagal. But 10 years later, the same corporation adopted a resolution reverting the name of the airport to Clark International Airport in 2011. The House committee on transportation, chaired by Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, approved House Bills 2274 and 8289, authored by Representatives Aurelio Gonzales of Pampanga and Rodante Marcoleta of SAGIP party-list, respectively. The two bills noted that CIA should be named after Macapagal, the ninth President of the Philippines, known as the poor boy from Lubao, given the vital role of the airport in aviation and transportation. The late President Macapagal is the father of Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. [Macapagal] is a Filipino with sterling legacy and incomparable distinction as a respected leader, champion of the poor, true statesman, and a nationalist of unquestionable integrity, HB 8289 said. In 2001, the Board of Directors of the Clark International Airport Corp. named the airport after Macapagal.But 10 years later, the same corporation adopted a resolution reverting the name of the airport to Clark International Airport in 2011. Earlier bills filed in the past Congresses noted it was the Americans who renamed Clark Air Base in honor of a foreign aviation pioneer Major Harold Clark of the US Army Signal Corps who died in a seaplane crash in Panama Canal in 1919. Other installations named after Americans have been changed in honor of Filipinos. Republic Act 9400, also known as An Act Amending Republic Act No. 7227, As Amended, Otherwise Known As The Bases Conversion And Development Act Of 1992, And For Other Purposes, this officially recognized the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. Under this law, Clark was turned into a Freeport [Section 15] with the same investment incentives enjoyed by investors at the Subic Bay Freeport, with Clark Development Corp. as administrator of the Clark Freeport and its subsidiary, Clark International Airport Corp. [CIAC] which is running the DMIA by virtue of Executive Order 193, series of 2003, the House transportation committee said. As US midterms approach, the issues topping voters minds include healthcare, the economy and the judiciary. On November 6, voters across the United States will head to the ballot box in elections slated as a test for right-wing President Donald Trump. The midterm elections follow two years of increasing hostility in American politics, during which the Republican Party has controlled a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Although the elections will not consider presidential candidates, they will decide on the trajectory of American politics for the next two years. This year, voters will decide on governors, representatives and senators. Americans will cast their votes for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate and 39 state and territorial governorships. For Democrats, the midterms are an opportunity to take back a majority in both congressional chambers in order to stymie Trumps controversial programmes. In the House, Democrats would have to gain about two dozen seats to clinch the 218-seat majority. FiveThirtyEight, a statistics website, predicts that Democrats have an 87-percent chance of gaining a majority. In the Senate, where Republicans currently control 51 of 100 seats, Republicans have a 83-percent chance of maintaining their majority, according to FiveThirtyEight predictions. Voter enthusiasm is at its highest level for a midterm election in more than two decades, a September report by the Pew Research Institute found. About 61 percent of voters surveyed said they were enthusiastic about this years elections. About 72 percent said they will factor in which party controls Congress when casting their vote. Among the issues toping voters minds are healthcare, the economy, immigration, womens rights and Supreme Court appointments. Healthcare A major Republican victory in the midterms would likely lead to the final nail in the coffin of the Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare), the healthcare law introduced by Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama. Although Republicans have so far failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, Congress and Trump have made changes to it. {articleGUID} Since then, the party has found itself on the defensive in the debate over healthcare. According to a September Pew report, about 75 percent of voters ranked healthcare as a very important. That same report found that Democrats have a wide advantage over Republicans on dealing with healthcare. Fifty-one percent of voters said that the Democratic Party could do a better job dealing with healthcare, while 35 percent said Republicans would do better. Against that backdrop, healthcare has taken the centre stage in several key races across the US. According to the political ad tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG, Democrats have poured $125m on ads focused on healthcare, while Republicans have spent around $50m. Healthcare is playing a major role in the Senate election in Texas, where a high-profile race between Republican incumbent Senator Ted Cruz and progressive Democratic challenger Beto ORourke is taking place. {articleGUID} Cruz, who played a leading role in shutting down the government in 2013 as a part of an unsuccessful drive to repeal Obamacare, has in the past vowed to repeal every single word of the Affordable Care Act. In response, ORourke has pushed back, arguing that Cruzs claim to support protecting insurance-seekers with pre-existing medical conditions does not line up with his promise to abolish the Affordable Care Act. Republicans backing of a lawsuit crafted to invalidate the Affordable Care Act has also drawn a backlash. In Wisconsin, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Evers, the state education chief, has challenged incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker to rescind his support for the lawsuit. Supreme Court appointees Trumps nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court created a whirlwind of controversy. Kavanaugh is accused of sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford and other women when they were in the 1980s. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations. {articleGUID} Although the Republican-led Senate voted to confirm Kavanaugh, the now-Supreme Court justice has become a rallying cry for Democrats before the midterms. The allegations against Kavanaugh came amid a swell in controversy over sexual harassment and sexual assault as the #MeToo movement continues to gain steam in the US. Thousands protested against Kavanaugh during his confirmation process [File: Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo] It remains unclear how exactly the Kavanaugh controversy may affect the midterm elections, however. Kavanaughs appointment moved the court further to the right, giving Trump more of a boost as he continues to hit the campaign trail for his fellow Republicans. Some analysts say, however, that the controversy over Kavanaugh and the way the allegations were handled may galvanise Democratic supporters. One thing that is clear is that the issue of appointments is on voters minds. Pew, whose survey took place as the Kavanaugh controversy was under way, found that 76 percent of registered voters viewed Supreme Court appointments as a very important issue when considering how they will vote on November 6. Economy One of Trumps rally cries at campaign events is often the economy. He regularly boasts about the growth levels, as well as how unemployment rates are at record lows. The unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent last month, its lowest in nearly 50 years. But job growth also slowed, some economists attributing this to Hurricane Florence, which hit parts of the East Coast. Although the US economy is growing, economists worry working-class families may not really see the benefits. Its only recently that wages started to slightly increase and some say it may not last. Theres also debate on whether its the policies of Trump or his predecessor, Barack Obama, or both that have contributed to economic growth. According to the September Pew report, Republicans and Democrats are about even when voters are asked which party they think is better at dealing with the economy. About 41 percent said Democrats and 40 percent said Republicans, but as Pew noted that is a significant change from about three months ago when Republicans held a nine-point edge over the Democrats on the handling of the economy. Womens rights With Trump facing strong opposition from womens rights groups and advocates since the outset of his presidency when millions of women took to the streets worldwide to protest his women are expected to play a crucial role in deciding the midterms. {articleGUID} Most of them Democrats, record numbers of women have run and succeeded in primary elections for the US House, US Senate and gubernatorial races in 2018, according to statistics by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Since the 1980s, women voters have turned out in larger numbers than their male counterparts, but surveys suggest that, in 2018, a larger number of women have found themselves on the Democratic side of the political divide. Men, on the other hand, are divided about evenly between Democrats and Republicans. A poll recently published by NPR and Marist found that 62 percent of women disapprove of Trump around half of whom strongly disapprove. Womens rights advocates have long criticised Trump. During the 2016 presidential elections, a video emerged of Trump boasting that he could grope women by their p***y without consent owing to his fame and wealth. Women chant and raise their signs during a 2017 rally, part of International Womens Strike NYC, a coalition of dozens of grassroots groups and labour organizations [File: Kathy Willens/AP Photo] Rights groups and other advocates also point to the administrations attack on reproductive rights. From reinstating and expanding the Global Gag Rule, which halts US funding to international organisations that offer abortion services or information on the procedure, to appointing anti-abortion rights individuals to high-level posts within the administration, advocates say Trump is waging an assault on womens health. A Republican victory would potentially allow Trump to appoint even more conservative Supreme Court judges, casting fear over the future of Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that ruled on the constitutionality of state and federal restrictions on access to abortion. Newly minted Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has so far declined to comment on how he would rule if he were to consider the legality of abortion. In answering a question about Roe v Wade during his confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh said the case is an important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times. Immigration Although Trump proved victorious during the November 2016 presidential elections after a heated campaign targeting immigrants, outrage earlier this year over the administrations separation of migrant children from their parents has cast a long shadow over the midterms. {articleGUID} The Trump administration has pushed sweeping immigration reform, taking aim at undocumented immigrants as well as proposing rule changes for those attempting to obtain green cards, welfare and food stamps, among other government benefits. In August, the president said immigration will be a winning issue for Republicans in the upcoming midterms, accusing Democrats of advocating open borders and turning a blind eye to crimes committed by immigrants. I think were going to have much more of a red wave than what youre going to see as a phony blue wave, Trump said last month. Blue wave means crime, it means open borders. Not good. More recently Trump has ordered troops to the US-Mexico border to intercept a caravan of migrants and asylum seekers heading there, and has floated the idea of ending birthright citizenship. Democrats hope to rally minorities and young voters against Trumps harsh immigration policies, while Trump and the Republicans have accused the Democrats of seeking open borders and a free flow of immigrants into the country. {articleGUID} Several polls conducted over the summer suggest a majority of Americans believe Democrats are more capable of handling immigration-related issues. In July, a Quinnipiac report concluded that 58 percent of Americans disapprove of Trumps immigration policies, while a similar Reuters poll found that 52 percent did not support the presidents immigration agenda. Republican voters, however, continue to support the president on immigration, with more than half supporting separating children from their parents on the border. Impeachment For Democrats and Republicans alike, the midterms elections will offer a chance to resolve questions around the potential impeachment of Trump. Talk of impeachment stems from several issues, including accusations that Trump has inappropriately benefited financially from his presidency, behaved with indecency and an investigation into alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 elections, among others. In late August, a poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC found that 60 percent of American voters disapprove of Trumps performance, while a similar survey by FiveThirtyEight put the disapproval rating just under 54 percent. Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi [File: Mandel Ngan/AFP] According to the poll just under half (49 percent) of those surveyed believed Congress should start impeachment proceedings. About 46 percent said they dont support impeachment. Of those who support impeachment, about 70 percent identified as liberal. Republicans and groups that support the right-wing party have seized the threat of impeachment to rally their base, urging their supporters to take to the ballot box in November to prevent the presidents potential removal. Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has stated that the midterms will be about one issue: impeachment or no impeachment. Democratic Representative Al Green, from Texas, brought a pair of impeachment efforts to the House last winter, but both were blocked by a large margin. The bus going from capital Nairobi to western town of Kakamega had 52 on board when it overturned. Fifty people have been killed in a bus accident in western Kenya early on Wednesday, authorities said. Witnesses and police on Wednesday said the bus swerved off the road while driving down a steep slope, and rolled into a ditch at 4 am local time (0100 GMT) in western Kericho county. According to police, the bus was travelling from Nairobi to the western town of Kakamega and was carrying 52 passengers. Rift Valley regional police boss Francis Munyambu told the Associated Press that survivors from the bus were receiving treatment at local hospitals. The Kenyan Red Cross wrote on Twitter that the bus had overturned. However, more details on the cause of the accident were not immediately available. Official statistics show that around 3,000 people die annually in road accidents in Kenya, but the World Health Organization estimates the figure could be as high as 12,000. In December 2017, 36 people died in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck in the east African country. In 2016, more than 40 people died when an out-of-control fuel tanker rammed into vehicles and then exploded on a busy stretch of highway. Afghanistan is trying to save its child soldiers Afghanistan is changing the way it deals with children accused of fighting with the Taliban. A Dhaka court also sentences top opposition leader Tarique Rahman to life imprisonment over 2004 attack on a rally. Dhaka, Bangladesh A Dhaka court has handed down death penalty to 19 people, including two former ministers, and sentenced a top opposition leader to life imprisonment over a 2004 attack on the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. They shall be hanged by their neck, said Justice Shahed Nuruddin of the special tribunal, who also awarded life imprisonment to Tarique Rahman, exiled son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Zia is already languishing inside a Dhaka jail following her conviction in a corruption case, which came in advance of the countrys general election scheduled to be held by the end of the year. Rahman, who is the acting chairman of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was jailed for 10 years in absentia in the same corruption case as her mother. He has been living in exile in London since 2008. Bangladeshs Law Minister Anisul Haque said the government will move a higher court to seek death penalty for Rahman too. The special court awarded life imprisonment to Tarique Rahman [File:Pavel Rahman/AP] We will also take diplomatic steps to bring Tarique back from London, he said. The security in and around the special tribunal in the capital, Dhaka, was beefed up anticipating protests from BNP leaders and activists. Senior BNP leaders, including former State Minister of Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar and former Deputy Minister of Education Abdus Salam Pintu, were given capital punishment for hatching the plot to assassinate Hasina. The BNP said the conviction was politically motivated and the party does not accept it. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the partys secretary general, said the verdict against its leaders is just another example of using judiciary for political revenge. 2004 attack The August 21 grenade attack case, as it is known in Bangladesh, relates to the deadly attack on a rally organised by Hasinas Awami League (AL) in Dhaka in 2004 when she was the opposition leader. Hasina narrowly survived the attack after some of her party leaders formed a human shield around her, but up to 20 people were killed, including top AL leader Ivy Rahman. The case documents said the attack was a meticulously designed plot to assassinate Hasina hatched by the BNP. The BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government, which was in power at the time of the attack, was accused of scuttling the investigation to protect the masterminds. After the verdict on Wednesday, Sayed Rezaur Rahman, one of the main prosecutors, said, The grenade attack is considered one of the most heinous crimes in the countrys history. This is not a politically motivated case, rather a criminal one. According to the documents submitted by the prosecution, the attack was carried out by the armed group, Harkat-ul-Jihad (HuJI). Citing the alleged involvement of Mufti Abdul Hannan, the prosecution also alleged the purpose of the attack was to establish fanatic Islam in the south Asian country. Hannan, a senior HuJI leader accused of multiple attacks in Bangladesh, was executed last year. The BNP alleges that Hasina is crushing dissent and putting rivals behind bars to strengthen her re-election bid. US calls for transparent Saudi probe into Khashoggis fate US Department of State calls on Saudi Arabia to conduct a transparent investigation into Khashoggis disappearance. The measure aims to prevent more attacks on teams transporting the bodies of Ebola victims for burial. The Democratic Republic of the Congo will deploy security forces to protect teams transporting the bodies of Ebola victims for burial, after several attacks on health workers during the latest Ebola outbreak in the countrys troubled east, the government said. The government is also making it a legal obligation for traditional healers to report those suspected of having the virus, the health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The new measures come after the International Red Cross last week condemned an attack that injured three of its volunteers who were trying to bury an Ebola victim. Health professionals who fail to refer a suspected Ebola sufferer to a treatment centre will have their own centres shut down, the health ministry said. Families will need a death certificate in order to obtain a burial permit and health workers will be allowed police protection during burials. {articleGUID} Proper burial of Ebola victims is critical to control the disease, which causes fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and is spread through direct contact with body fluids. In September, one Red Cross volunteer was injured when people threw stones at a vehicle transporting a safe burial team. The organisation said they have been met by fear and distrust among those in the communities they are trying to help in the east of the country, which is plagued by conflict. Ebola has spread to Beni, a city of several hundred thousand people where scores of people have been confirmed infected. The authorities worry that without the cooperation of the local population they will have difficulty containing it. Ebola has claimed 118 lives since the outbreak started nearly two months ago in a region where numerous militia groups operate, most fighting over the central African countrys rich natural resources. Last month, 21 people died in an attack by the Allied Democratic Forces rebels in the city of Beni, forcing the World Health Organization to briefly halt their anti-Ebola operations there. Two British nationals among the dead as cars are swept away by raging, muddy waters in the Spanish island. At least nine people have been killed and several others are missing after torrential rain lashed the Spanish island of Mallorca. Footage broadcast on Spanish television on Wednesday showed cars being swept away by raging, muddy waters, houses flooded and vehicles piled one on top of the other after the Mediterranean island was pounded with heavy rain over just a few hours. The downpours triggered major flash floods, which hurtled through streets in the eastern parts of the island. A spokesperson for the Spanish governments office in the Balearic Islands told AFP news agency that nine people died in the floods. Two of those killed were in Sant Llorenc, one in Arta and two more in SIllot. The latter were two British tourists who were in a taxi which was swept away by flood water. The driver is still missing. One of the fatalities is reported to be the ex-major of Arta, Rafael Gili. #URGENT #AMPLIACIO Sant Llorenc ara mateix. El torrent s'ha desbordat per complet. Els bombers dels parcs d'Arta, Llucmajor, Felanitx i Alcudia s'han desplacat al lloc alertats per les greus inundacions. Mes informacio: https://t.co/1fJyNvCwqb pic.twitter.com/vNCZiL5md5 IB3 Noticies (@IB3noticies) October 9, 2018 The emergency services say their current priority is searching for those missing. At least 220 millimetres of rain are believed to have fallen in the region, flooding homes, roads and fields. Dozens of cars were destroyed after being swept away by flood water. Hundreds of people spent the night in emergency shelters and schools remain closed on Wednesday. The damage is expected to run to the millions of dollars. La situacio es critica ara mateix. L'112 demana que ningu s'apropi a Sant Llorenc. Els veinats no tenen llum i els telefons mobils no funcionen https://t.co/1fJyNvCwqb pic.twitter.com/twrUXK9Cbh IB3 Noticies (@IB3noticies) October 9, 2018 The torrential rain also brought flooding to the city of Barcelona on the Spanish mainland. The trigger of the severe weather was an intense area of low pressure, which also brought flooding to the city of Barcelona on the Spanish mainland. The thunderstorms are still circulating in the region and further torrential rain is expected on Wednesday and Thursday, with southern France and northwest Italy being most at risk of flooding. Alternative Help Association says Syria, where more than 500,000 have been killed, is a safe country to return to. Two blond, white men look into the camera, with beautiful Syrian hilltops and blurred village buildings in the background. They seem calm and their voices sound peaceful, although most Syria observers would find their words hard to accept. At the heart of their message: Syria is a safe country for refugees to return to. Alternative Help Association a far-right identitarian organisation from Germany, known by its acronym AHA, is back in the Middle East. Several months after their trip to Lebanon, which Al Jazeera reported on in June this year, the group has now visited Syria, taking its involvement in the region to the next level. Its key aim is to keep Syrian refugees in the Middle East out of Europe. {articleGUID} While marginal and involved in small-scale projects, AHA has sparked outrage as the only NGO which aims to prevent refugees from reaching safety in Europe. In Lebanon, the group discouraged refugees there from travelling west. With the new phase of their project in the Syrian village of Maaloula, the group is sending yet another message: that areas controlled by Syrian President Bashar al Assads forces are safe. Syrian refugees should now rush to return back home to rebuild their war-damaged country. Home to heavy fighting in 2013 and 2014, Maaloula, 55km north of Damascus, is a Christian village and one of the few places where the local population speaks Aramaic the language of Jesus Christ. It's hard for me to understand how anyone could ask the Syrians to come back to a country where the government is arresting the White Helmets and accusing them of being terrorists, while all they do is saving the people bombed by the same government. Wassim, Syrian refugee journalist in Europe The purpose of AHAs first visit in Syria was mainly to get a foot on the ground, establish first contacts with local players and figure out by what means we can provide help where it is needed, Mario Muller, one of the AHA workers who appears in the video, told Al Jazeera. Reasonable help for Syrians can only take place locally: every Euro we spent in our country for social benefits, integration and security related to refugees will do much better in their homeland. The group claims to have made a donation to the Maaloula Foundation to rebuild a parish hall for the local community and is considering sending volunteers to the village to work and share cultural experiences with young Syrians. Wassim, a Syrian journalist currently working in Europe, said the far-right groups project was hard to understand. He left Syria in November 2012 following a six-month detention in the Air Force Intelligence Directorate in Damascus suburbs. Its hard for me to understand how anyone could ask the Syrians to come back to a country where the government is arresting the White Helmets and accusing them of being terrorists, while all they do is saving the people bombed by the same government. Or ask people to get back to a country where more than 250,000 persons are missing after getting arrested by the regime, Wassim told Al Jazeera. He says he was arrested for helping a foreign media outlet cover the situation in his neighbourhood. After two weeks of torture, including electric shocks, beating and hanging upside down, he confessed to everything the Assad government accused him of. You didnt have to carry a gun or attend the protests to be considered a traitor. Not showing your support for the regime alone could make you one, Wassim added. I dont think anyone who had written a single word against the regime, or even joined any discussion about the regime would dare to even think about getting back to Syria. A Syrian child tries an improvised gas mask made by his father as part of preparations for raids in the rebel-held Idlib provinces village of Maar Shurin, on September 11, 2018 [Omar Haj Kadour/AFP] AHAs last visit aims to demonstrate that Assads government will ensure Syrias stability, a view held widely across the European far right. AHA was founded in the summer of 2017 by the German Identitare Bewegung (German Identity Movement) a local branch of the far-right identitarian movement. Under the slogan of Homeland Freedom Tradition, identitarians have sought to halt mass migration to Europe, secure national borders and preserve Europes ethnocultural identity. It seems like Assad, though he surely doesnt run a Western democracy, is the only guarantee for the many minorities like Christians, Shia or Druze to have a future in their homeland, Muller told Al Jazeera. We never felt insecure in those areas and the refugees can and have to return and help in rebuilding their country. This is also what many Syrians told us. Their country needs the refugees, now. According to international rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, world leaders, hundreds of thousands of Syrians and the UN, the Syrian government has been responsible for some of the most egregious crimes in the war, including chemical attacks against civilians. In March 2016, Staffan de Mistura, the UNs special envoy for Syria, estimated the death toll to be at around 400,000. The number killed is now believed to have risen above 500,000, while millions remain displaced and impoverished. German police arrest Bulgarian official in Hamburg over murder of journalist Viktoria Marinova, say Bulgarian officials. Police in Germany have arrested a suspect in the rape and killing of Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova, officials said. Bulgarias prosecutor general, Sotir Tsatsarov, confirmed the arrest of Severin Krassimirov, a 21-year-old Bulgarian citizen. We have collected a lot of evidence which for the time being suggests that the person is guilty. He has been charged in absence for two crimes rape and premeditated murder with extreme cruelty, he said. Prosecutors in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony said the suspect was arrested on Tuesday evening outside the city of Hamburg on a European arrest warrant. Prosecutors will examine whether he can be extradited and apply to have him put in formal custody. Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said investigators had found DNA evidence on the clothes and body of Marinova, who was raped and strangled on Saturday in the northern town of Ruse. There is physical evidence to link to the murder, Marinov said on Wednesday. He said Krassimirov, a resident of Ruse, had a criminal record for scrap metal theft. The minister said investigators had spoken to Marinovas family and friends and there is no apparent link to her work. Tsatsarov, the chief prosecutor, said the evidence suggested it was a spontaneous attack, not premeditated. We cannot state at this point that her murder is linked to her professional activity. We are continuing to work on all possible options. On Tuesday, a Romanian suspect was arrested and later released in relation to Marinovas death. Politically motivated? Marinova was killed by blows on the head and suffocation, the authorities said, adding that prosecutors were probing all leads both personal and linked to Marinovas job. The attack has shocked the country and drawn international condemnation amid speculation the murder could be linked to Marinovas work as a journalist. An episode of her programme aired on September 30 featured interviews with two investigative journalists from Bulgaria and Romania who had been working on corruption allegations. She is the third journalist to be murdered in Europe in the past 12 months after Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February and Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017. However, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov lashed out at international bodies and rights groups which had been quick to assume a political motive behind the murder. In just three days, Ive read monstrous things about Bulgaria. None of them true, he told a news conference. We, as a country, did not deserve to be smeared like this while everyone has been working [to solve the crime] not 100, but 1,000 percent. Bulgaria is regarded as a laggard in the EU in terms of press freedom, ranking 111th out of 180 countries, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Widespread corruption, shady media ownership and suspected collusion between journalists, politicians and oligarchs have made objective reporting a constant obstacle course, according to RSF. The three committees of the House of Representatives that investigated the 2017 attack by a lone gunman at the Resorts World Manila casino have merely recommended a review of the companys security policies and strengthen their security and safety programs. This, despite security lapses it committed that resulted in the killing of 38 people including the gunman as well as the burning of some parts of the hotel-casino. The House Committees on Public Order and Safety, Games and Amusements, and Tourism, in its Oct. 9 committee report, did not recommend the filing of charges against RWM and its officers and personnel. The committees are headed by Representatives Amado Espino Jr. of Pangasinan, Gus Tambunting of Paranaque City and Corazon Nunez-Malanyaon of Davao Oriental, respectively. The RWM security and safety personnel must undergo more skills training and educative programs on crisis management and risk reduction. The RWM must also adhere to a stringent recruitment and hiring process of employment candidates for sensitive positions such as head security, the committee report said. On June 2, 2017, a gunman identified as Jessie Carlos effortlessly entered the casino premises, fired at gamers, and set casino tables on fire in what police described as a botched robbery attempt.Most of the 38 fatalities died of suffocation, while Carlos committed suicide inside a hotel room following a brief shootout with security forces. The wife of then Liberal Party Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga was among the fatalities. Opposition and Akbayan Party-list Rep. Tomasito Villarin was unhappy about the recommendations of the three committees, saying someone should be held accountable for the senseless killing. If there were lapses in security, there should be accountability, as dozens were killed and injured by such senseless killing spree by a lone gunman, Villarin said. It makes no sense to recommend exhortations to do better next time while clear negligence was determined either by institutions or responsible persons in the incident. It does not give justice to the victims and families of the attack, he added. Baldetti was found guilty of being involved in the embezzlement of millions of dollars from a state fund. Former Guatemala Vice President Roxana Baldetti has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for her involvement in a multimillion-dollar fraud case. The court found Baldetti, 56, guilty of being involved in the embezzlement of millions of dollars from a state fund in what has become known as the Magic Water scandal. Baldetti participated in and directed the criminal network to defraud the state of Guatemala, said Judge Pablo Xitumul, delivering the sentence. The fund was set up to clean a contaminated lake using state funds, but after the Israeli M Tarcic Engineering company was awarded the contract to clean the lake, millions of dollars were sent to shell companies and people involved with the scheme. On top of that, the chemical used to decontaminate Lake Amatitlan was a useless mix of water, salt and chlorine that did not clean the lake. According to one of the judges, Pablo Xitumul, Baldetti issued instructions to place key people to execute the budget in favour of the criminal organization (and) facilitated the administrative and financial procedures for the company. {articleGUID} Nine others were also jailed in the Magic Water scandal, including Mario Baldetti, brother of the former vice president. Baldetti left office in 2015 after massive protests against her and President Otto Perez. They were both jailed over corruption scandals, plunging the country into a political crisis. Baldetti, who was vice president for three years, faces separate accusations of leading a network to defraud the state related to customs, alongside Perez, who is also awaiting trial. She also faces corruption charges and an extradition request from the United States on drug trafficking charges. Baldetti has denied both charges. After Perez was forced to step down, Jimmy Morales a TV comedian with no political experience was elected president after running for office on an anti-corruption ticket. Morales himself is being investigated for suspected illegal campaign financing. However, he is currently protected by presidential immunity, after parliament in September voted against lifting it. Over half a million people in US state of Florida have been urged to seek shelter before the storm hits on Wednesday. Hurricane Michael has been upgraded to a category-4 storm, only hours before hitting mainland United States. Category-4 storms are considered highly dangerous with winds up to 250km/h, according to the US National Hurricane Center. As outer rainbands from the storm began to lash the coast, the centre said a monster storm surge of up to four metres (13 feet) is expected in some areas. More than half a million people in Florida have been urged to seek shelter on higher ground before the storm hits the US on Wednesday afternoon. This is a life-threatening event for portions of the northeastern Gulf Coast, the organisation said on Twitter. Hurricane #Michael is now an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane and its outer rainbands are beginning to reach the coast. This is a life-threatening event for portions of the northeastern Gulf Coast. Go to https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb for details. pic.twitter.com/RtozXvcTE6 National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael is an unprecedented event and cannot be compared to any of our previous events. Do not risk your life, leave NOW if you were told to do so, the National Weather Service (NWS) said in a dramatic appeal. The NWS office in Tallahassee said it had searched its historical database for category four hurricanes the second-highest level on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale that made landfall in the panhandle and Big Bend and found none. It posted a map of the coast on its Twitter feed. This map says it all its BLANK this situation has NEVER happened before, the office said. If you live along the coast and were told to evacuatethis is YOUR LAST CHANCE. Hurricane Michael is an unprecedented event and cannot be compared to any of our previous events. Do not risk your life, leave NOW if you were told to do so. pic.twitter.com/Ns6XoH6Thz NWS Tallahassee (@NWSTallahassee) October 10, 2018 President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration for Florida. It is imperative that you heed the directions of your State and Local Officials. Please be prepared, be careful and be SAFE! Trump tweeted. Floridas governor Rick Scott also warned people, saying it was their last chance to evacuate before the situation was too dangerous. He has also activated hundreds of Florida National Guard members and waived tolls to encourage those near the coast to evacuate inland. THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE to evacuate before conditions start deteriorating within the next few hours. See current evacuation orders and open shelters here: https://t.co/5MF4UwB4He Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) October 10, 2018 Do not take this lightly- take action now to protect your life & the life of your family. Stay vigilant & listen to your local authorities and local news reports for the most up-to-date information. https://t.co/3vc5payE9l Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) October 10, 2018 On Tuesday, Scott called Michael a monstrous hurricane, and has declared a state of emergency for 35 Florida counties from the panhandle to Tampa Bay. The hurricane is expected to be the most powerful storm to strike Floridas panhandle a finger-shaped strip of land on the Gulf of Mexico in the last decade. {articleGUID} The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said on Twitter the hurricane is not only expected to flood parts of Florida, but several other states as well. After hitting land, the storm is expected to diminish in strength while moving up the East Coast, where it will hit North and South Carolina, which are still recovering from Hurricane Florence last month. Flooding from Hurricane #Michael will affect several states. Finish preparations ASAP and get ready to shelter in a safe location. Make sure youre getting weather alerts for your area and stay off the roads once rain and winds start. https://t.co/vHH7oWoK4X https://t.co/KrG7UAv6xn FEMA (@fema) October 9, 2018 Last year parts of the US saw a string of catastrophic storms including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Harvey caused a record-equalling $125bn in damage when it flooded the Houston metropolitan area and other parts of Texas. Scientists have long warned that global warming will make hurricanes more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible. At their most fearsome, these low-pressure weather fronts pack more power than the energy released by the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima. Hurricane Michael is ravaging the Florida Panhandle with life-threatening winds, catastrophic storm surges and flooding rain. The storm made landfall northwest of Mexico Beach, Florida as Category-4 hurricane Wednesday afternoon. Its rapid intensification as it churned over the Gulf of Mexico caught many by surprise. Coming ashore with maximum sustained winds of 250km/h, it is one of the most intense hurricanes to ever hit the US mainland, and the most powerful one on record to menace the Panhandle, a roughly 322km stretch of fishing towns, military bases and holiday beaches. Michael battered the coastline with sideways-blown rain and crashing waves, swamped streets, bent trees, stripped away leaves and limbs and sent building debris flying. There is one hurricane-related fatality, said Olivia Smith, public information officer for the Gadsden County Board of County Commissioners, adding the incident was debris-related. There was a tree involved. Smith said the situation was dangerous even for emergency personnel. Weve been very cautious with sending our first responders out right now. The storms intensity waned steadily as it pushed inland and curled northeasterly into Georgia after dark. It was downgraded to a Category 1 storm, with top sustained winds diminishing to 120kph, about nine hours after it made landfall. But it was still considered an extremely dangerous storm. Hurricane #Michael has made landfall just northwest of Mexico Beach, Florida. The latest public advisory is available on the NHC website: https://t.co/fniXaEmxWe pic.twitter.com/s4X21XtdX1 National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 10, 2018 Explosions apparently caused by transformers could be heard. Michaels menace was compounded by its relatively quick development, growing from a tropical storm to Category-4 hurricane in about 40 hours. Rainfall could reach up to a 30cm, and the life-threatening storm surge could swell to four metres. The storm appeared to be so powerful it is expected to remain a hurricane as it moves over Georgia early Thursday. We are in new territory, National Hurricane Center (NHC) Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category-4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida Panhandle. Only a couple of hours after Michael came ashore, floodwaters were more than 2.3-metres deep near Apalachicola on Floridas Panhandle, NHC Director Ken Graham said. Too late to evacuate More than 2.1 million residents of at least 20 Florida counties had been under mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders. Earlier on Wednesday, Florida Governor Rick Scott said on Twitter that it was too late to evacuate the target zone and that people who had stayed should immediately seek refuge. The storm surge and waves from Hurricane Michael batter the beach in the Florida Panhandle community of Shell Point Beach, Florida [Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images/AFP] President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for the entire state of Florida, freeing up federal assistance to supplement state and local disaster responses. NHCs Graham said Michael represented a textbook case of a hurricane system growing stronger as it drew near shore, in contrast to Hurricane Florence, which struck North Carolina last month after weakening in a slow, halting approach. He said the storm would still have hurricane-force winds as it pushed through Florida into Georgia and tropical storm-force winds when it reaches North and South Carolina, which are still reeling from post-Florence flooding. Damaged buildings and a flooded street are seen after hurricane Michael passed through the downtown Panama City, Florida [Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP] The region should brace for major infrastructure damage, specifically to electricity distribution, wastewater treatment systems and transportation networks, Jeff Byard, associate administrator for FEMA, told reporters on a conference call. About 43,000 homes and businesses customers were already without power around midday. Some of the storms most significant early impact was to offshore energy production. US producers in the Gulf cut oil production by about 40 percent and natural gas output by 28 percent on Tuesday, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said. Residents fear theyll lose everything Many state offices, schools and universities in the area have been closed since Tuesday. Among those who fled their homes was Betty Early, 75, a retiree who joined about 300 fellow evacuees huddled on makeshift bed rolls of blankets and collapsed cardboard boxes at an elementary school serving as an American Red Cross shelter in Panama City, near the storms expected landfall. She was unsure how well her old, wood-framed apartment block would hold up. Im blessed to have a place to come, she told Reuters news agency. My greatest concern is not having electricity, and living on a fixed income, losing my food. In the town of St Marks, John Hargan and his family gathered up their pets and moved to a raised building constructed to withstand a Category-5 after water from the St Marks River began surrounding their home. Hargans 11-year-old son, Jayden, carried one of the familys dogs in a laundry basket in one arm and held a skateboard in the other as he waded through calf-high water. Hargan, a bartender at a riverfront restaurant, feared he would lose his home and his job to the storm. We basically just walked away from everything and said goodbye to it, he told the Associated Press, tears welling up. Im freakin scared Im going to lose everything I own. People wait for breakfast as they and others seek safety in a shelter as Hurricane Michael approaches Panama City, Florida [Brendan Smialowski/AFP] About 2,500 National Guard troops were deployed to assist with evacuations and storm preparations, and more than 4,000 others were on standby. Some 17,000 utility restoration workers were also on call. Meanwhile, neighbouring states were also making preparations Georgia Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for 92 counties in his state. Here are the latest developments related to the Saudi journalists murder inside the kingdoms consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia has admitted Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Khashoggi a Saudi writer, United States resident and Washington Post columnist had entered the building on October 2 to obtain documentation certifying he had divorced his ex-wife so he could remarry. After weeks of repeated denials that it had anything to do with his disappearance, the kingdom eventually acknowledged that its officials were behind the gruesome murder. The whereabouts of his body are still unknown. Here are the latest related developments: Tuesday, February 12 The Trump administration has pushed back against allegations that it was trying to cover up the killing of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi when it failed to send Congress a report determining who was responsible for his death. America is not covering up for a murder, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters at the US Embassy in Budapest. America has taken more action in response to the tragic murder of Jamal Khashoggi and will continue to take more action, continue our investigation. We are working diligently on that. The president has been very clear, couldnt be more clear, as we get additional information, we will continue to hold all of those responsible accountable. Late last year, 22 bipartisan members of the Senate called for an investigation into Khashoggis October 2 death and specifically whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible. The investigation was requested under provisions of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The act required the president to report back by February 8 to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on whether the crown prince was responsible. Senator Chris Murphy, told CNNs State of the Union on Sunday that by law, when the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asks the president to make a finding as to a human rights violation overseas, the president has to respond. Thats what the law says. So he doesnt have an option here. Monday, February 11 Saudis dont know where Khashoggis body is: Adel al-Jubeir Riyadh says it doesnt know the location of Jamal Khashoggis body, despite having detained the Saudi team that murdered him, Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabias minister of state for foreign affairs has said. Jubeir said the murder was carried out by Saudi officials acting outside their scope of authority and that 11 people have been charged with the crime. But asked where Khashoggis body is, he told CBSs Face the Nation, We dont know. Jubeir said the public prosecutor responsible for the case had sought evidence from Turkey but had received no response. Questioned why those in custody couldnt tell them where the body was, Jubeir responded: We are still investigating. We have now a number of possibilities and were asking them what they did with the body, and I think this investigation is ongoing, and I would expect that eventually we will find the truth, he said. Saturday, February 9 NY Times: Saudi Khashoggi cover-up falling apart Saudi Arabias efforts to cover up the case of slain journalist Khashoggi case further unraveled this week, according to The New York Times. The latest demands for a reckoning have come from American intelligence agencies, a United Nations investigator and a coalition of nongovernmental organisations, sources that in their diversity and breadth should serve notice on [Saudi Crown] Prince Mohammed [bin Salman] that all his oil wealth and powerful friends will not wash away the blood of the slain journalist, the paper said in its lead editorial on Friday. The Times editorial, Saudi Arabias Threadbare Cover-Up of Khashoggis Killing Unravels Further, said bin Salman and his friends in the White House evidently calculated that the outcry over the barbarous murder of Jamal Khashoggi would die over time. They were wrong, and also mistaken to think that bin Salman could freely continue his autocratic way, repressing critics and dissidents with impunity once the outcry came to an end, said the Times editorial board. The pressure must continue. Congress should continue to demand a full disclosure of CIA records related to Mr. Khashoggis murder, with the identities of all those responsible for it, the editorial said. And all who rue Mr. Khashoggis fate should demand that Saudi Arabia cease the repression of those Saudis in whose name he spoke out. Trump misses Senate deadline to report on Khashoggi killing US President Donald Trump declined to meet a Friday deadline to report to the Senate on whether the White House believes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, also known as MBS, ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Although the White House has sanctioned 17 Saudi individuals for their involvement in the murder, including two top aides to MBS, members of Congress have called for greater action to be taken against the kingdom and its leaders. President Trump has steadfastly insisted the US-Saudi relationship is more important than establishing accountability for murder, said Al Jazeeras Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC. Friday, February 8 Targeting MBS over Khashoggi a red line: Saudi minister Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS) was not involved in Khashoggis murder and blaming him would be crossing a red line, Saudi Arabias minister of state for foreign affairs has said. For anyone to think that they can dictate what we should do, what our leadership should do, is preposterous, Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Washington, where many US lawmakers have stated they believe MBS is responsible for the killing. Our leadership is a red line, Jubeir added. The Saudi minister declined to comment on a New York Times story, which claimed that the crown prince in 2017 said he would use a bullet on the journalist if he did not return home and end his criticism of the government. We know that this [October 2 killing] was not an authorised operation. There was no order given to conduct this operation, Jubeir said. Hatice Cengiz: No closure until Khashoggis remains are found Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has said there will be no closure until Jamal Khashoggis remains are found so that his family and loved ones can visit his grave to grieve and pray. It is important for us that the body is found, that we have a place at which his beloved ones could say prayers, Hatice Cengiz said in Istanbul at the release of the book Jamal Khashoggi: His Life, Struggles and Secrets. The 228-page book, written by two Turkish journalists, is based on interviews with Cengiz. She described it as emotional, as it portrays a side of Khashoggi seen by those closest to him. There are photographs of him carrying a coffee machine to their new home in Istanbul, their engagement ceremony and of him outside the US Congress. UN expert: Saudis held another hearing in Khashoggi probe Saudi Arabia quietly held a second court hearing for 11 people facing charges over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an independent U.N. human rights expert said, criticising the kingdom for its lack of transparency in the proceedings over the grisly slaying. Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said she learned of the hearing during her first visit to Turkey last week to investigate the murder. Given the importance of the case, we should be expecting a greater presence of representatives of the media, of civil society, of a range of other governments, not just those hand-picked by the Saudi authorities, said Callamard. Callamard declined to specify who told her about the hearing, but cited reliable sources about information that I have been able to cross-check. Saudi Arabia has not revealed the defendants names or the names of their lawyers. The kingdoms chief prosecutor, Saud Al-Mojeb, has said that of 21 people taken into custody in the case, 11 have been indicted and referred to trial. Its unclear if they remain detained during the trial or where theyre being held. Turkey says Saudi lack of transparency on Khashoggi concerning, detrimental to credibility The complete lack of transparency from Saudi officials on the investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is deeply concerning and detrimental to their credibility, an aide to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said. Fahrettin Altun, Erdogans communications director, told the Reuters news agency that the series of false denials from Saudi officials had led to uncertainty on a host of issues around the case. Over the past four months, the Saudi authorities have been less than forthcoming in their dealings with their Turkish counterparts and the international community, Altun said in a written statement to Reuters. Saudi authorities must extradite Mr. Khashoggis killers to Turkey, where they committed a premeditated murder, as proof of their willingness to serve the cause of justice. Saudi Arabia has previously denied Turkeys extradition request for the 11 suspects, five of whom are facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. A year before Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told an aide he would use a bullet on the journalist if he did not return home and end his criticism of the government, according to a New York Times report. The comments were made in a conversation between Prince Mohammed and his aide Turki Aldakhil in September 2017, and were intercepted by American intelligence agencies, the newspaper reported. They were the most detailed evidence to date that the crown prince considered killing Khashoggi, the news report said. US intelligence analysts have interpreted the bullet comment metaphorically, meaning the crown prince did not necessarily mean to have Khashoggi shot, but they do think it showed his intent to have the journalist killed if he did not return to the kingdom, the daily said. UN: Riyadh undermined Turkeys access to Khashoggi murder scene Thursday, February 7 The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) demanded accountability on Thursday for the murder of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi a day before the US government is due to report to Congress on the killing. The US Congress has rightfully condemned the murder and asked for answers from the Trump administration, which has insisted on doubling down on the special relationship with the repressive kingdom and discounted the findings of his own intelligence agency, Courtney Radsch, CPJs advocacy director, said outside the White House. The UN human rights investigator leading the international inquiry into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said evidence showed he was a victim of a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the state of Saudi Arabia. Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard said on Thursday her three-member team had access to part of chilling and gruesome audio material of the murder obtained by Turkish intelligence agencies. Saudi Arabia also seriously undermined Turkeys efforts to investigate Khashoggis killing at its Istanbul consulate, said a UN statement. Woefully inadequate time and access was granted to Turkish investigators to conduct a professional and effective crime-scene examination and search required by international standards for investigation, Callamard said. Tuesday, February 5 Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has announced the publication of a memoir in which she discusses the work and legacy of the famed critic. Cengiz, 37, said on Monday the book, entitled Jamal Khashoggi: His Life, Struggles and Secrets, was inspired by a personal diary she kept in which she documented her first encounter with the journalist as well as his personality and relationship with friends and family. Tuesday, January 29 The UN human rights investigator leading the international inquiry into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is meeting Istanbuls chief prosecutor on Tuesday. Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard, on a week-long visit to Turkey with a forensic and legal team, met Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu a day earlier. We have made a request to the Saudi government for access to the consulate as well as meetings with Saudi authorities here. Were waiting for their response, Callamard told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. Callamard said her report would be made public in time for the June session of the UN human rights council. Saturday, January 26 Khashoggi inquiry seeks access to Saudi consulate, kingdom Agnes Callamard, the UN human rights investigator leading an international inquiry into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, has made a request to access to the crime scene in Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul and to visit the kingdom. I have requested access to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and a meeting with the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saud Arabia in Turkey, Callamard said in an email to Reuters. I have also sought permission to conduct a similar country-visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I conceive of this inquiry to be a necessary step, among a number of others, towards crucial truth telling about and formal accountability for the gruesome killing of Mr. Khashoggi, she said. It is hoped this will help ensure accountability and transparency in this case and may open new avenues for the prevention and protection of the right to life in other cases, including of journalists and human rights defenders, and accountability for their killings. The Saudi mission in Geneva and government media office in Riyadh have not responded to Reuters inquiries about the international investigation. Friday, January 25 Saudis to Davos: Move on from Khashoggi, lets do business Saudi Arabia has emerged as the darling of the World Economic Forum in Davos, with Saudi economy minister Mohammad Al Tuwaijri saying that the situation with the kingdom had stabilised and it was business as usual following the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On a day-to-day basis in Saudi Arabia it is business as usual. Our job as government is to make sure infrastructure, legal in particular, is stable. This transformation journey hopefully will attract investors, Tuwaijri said. Swiss President Ueli Maurer echoed this view telling Swiss news agency SDA that he wanted to build strong relations with Riyadh which is a major global investor. We have long since dealt with the Khashoggi case, Maurer said. We have agreed to continue the financial dialogue and normalize relations again. Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, will travel to Turkey next week to head an independent international inquiry into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In a statement, the UN human rights office said that Callamard would be accompanied by Helena Kennedy and Duarte Nuno Vieira on the visit to Turkey from January 28 to February 3. Thursday, January 24 Turkey says it is time for international Khashoggi investigation Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has it is time for an international investigation to be launched into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In an interview with Turkish broadcaster A Haber, Cavusoglu said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered preparations to be made to carry the case to an international level, and said a United Nations special rapporteur will be coming to Turkey. Monday, January 21 West trying to cover up Khashoggi murder: Turkish FM Turkeys foreign minister has accused some western countries of trying to cover up the murder Jamal Khashoggi. We see how those, who speak of freedom of press in the world, cover this thing up when they see money, Mevlut Cavusoglu told a youth meeting in Istanbul. Cavusoglu said that Turkey acted wisely in the case, adding that they were well-aware of the difficulties in shedding light on the murder. Now we have made preparations for an international probe in the coming days. We will take the necessary steps, he added. Saturday, January 19 Senator Lindsey Graham has said the US Congress will reintroduce sanctions against those involved in the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, adding that the relationship between Washington and Riyadh could not move forward until Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is dealt with. We will start sanctioning those involved in the killing of Mr Khashoggi, Graham told reporters in Ankara. We will make a definitive statement that MBS knew about it and is responsible for it and come up with a series of sanctions to let others know this is not what you do if youre an ally of the United States. Friday, January 18 Khashoggi killing exposes Saudi abuses: Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch has said the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is putting other abuses by Saudi Arabia in the spotlight. The Khashoggi murder has not only wrecked Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salmans reputation but has exposed a pattern of lawless behavior by Saudi leadership, Michael Page, HRWs deputy Middle East and North Africa director said. If Saudi Arabia has any hope of rehabilitating its tattered image, the authorities should immediately release everyone theyve locked away merely for their peaceful criticism, he added. The report also said that Saudi Arabia had committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen, citing the attack on a wedding last April that killed 22 and wounded more than 50. The kingdom is the leader of a coalition taking part in military operations against the Houthis who control large swathes of Yemen. Sunday, January 13 Saudi Arabia must hold Khashoggis killers accountable: Pompeo US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he will ask Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to ensure the killers of journalist Jamal Khashoggi are held accountable for their crimes. Pompeo is due to travel to the kingdom later on Sunday, nearly three months after Khashoggi was murdered in the kingdoms consulate in Istanbul. We will continue to have a conversation with the crown prince and the Saudis about ensuring the accountability is full and complete with respect to the unacceptable murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Pompeo told reporters in the Qatari capital Doha. Friday, January 11 Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS) remains in regular contact with his adviser Saud al-Qahtani, who is accused of masterminding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post reported. The newspaper, citing unnamed US and Saudi sources, said that Prince Mohammed continues to seek advice from al-Qahtani. David Ignatius, the papers security affairs correspondent, quoted an unnamed US citizen who had recently met MBS as saying that al-Qahtani is in possession of a lot of files and dossiers. The idea that you can have a radical rupture with him is unrealistic, the source said. A Saudi who is close to the royal court concurred. Will there be justice for Jamal Khashoggi? On Thursday, friends, politicians and human-rights activists gathered to remember Jamal Khashoggi, 100 days after the Saudi journalist was killed. A vigil was organised at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where Khashoggi was murdered on October 2, and a memorial service was held in the US Congress in Washington, DC. Thursday, January 10 Justice still elusive 100 days after Khashoggis murder Amnesty International has reiterated its call for an international probe into the killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The human rights watchdog made the call outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday as it marked the 100th day since Khashoggi was killed there. It is important for the Turkish authorities to keep up their calls for an independent UN investigation, but really the whole international community needs to commit to this so that justice is done, Amnestys Andrew Gardner told Al Jazeera. Tuesday, January 8 Saudi Arabia refuses to confirm Qahtanis whereabouts Saudi authorities are refusing to confirm the whereabouts of Saud al-Qahtani, the former top aide to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Centre of Washington, told Al Jazeera that Qahtanis disappearance is a natural progression of [Saudi Arabias] investigation and is likely used as a strategy to keep MBS protected from accusations regarding Khashoggis murder. They have sheltered some of the key players accused of being involved [in the murder] whether by Turkey or by the international community, Jahshan said. Friday, January 4 Pompeo to visit Saudi Arabia, seek update on Khashoggi US Secretary of State will seek an update to Saudi Arabias investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi when he visits Riyadh during a trip to the Middle East next week, the State Department said on Friday. Pompeo will also visit Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait as part of his January 8 to January 15 trip, the department said in a statement. Click here for all previous updates Senior Turkish politicians: If Khashoggi was murdered, Saudi Arabias relations will suffer, with Turkey and the world. Istanbul, Turkey If missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is found to be murdered, it will harm not only Saudi Arabias relations with Turkey but also Riyadhs relations with the world, two Turkish senior ruling party members told Al Jazeera. The already sensitive relations between the two regional rivals have suffered a new blow after Khashoggi disappeared during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, entered the consulate on October 2 to obtain some documents required for his forthcoming wedding but never came out, Turkish authorities and his friends say. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded that Saudi Arabia explain what happened to Khashoggi, whom he called a friend. Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Erdogan and also a friend of Khashoggis, told Al Jazeera they were trying to hold on to the hope that the dissident writer was still alive. And thus we are hoping that our relations with Saudi Arabia gets affected as minimum as possible, Aktay said, advising caution on statements until the investigation is finalised. If he is really murdered, it is not only Saudi-Turkish relations that will suffer, but the worlds relations with Saudi Arabia will get significantly harmed, he said, echoing Erdogan in asking for an explanation from Riyadh. Ahmet Berat Conkar, a member of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, agreed that Saudi Arabias image would be tarnished in the international arena if it is confirmed that Khashoggi was murdered. No state within the international community can ignore or tolerate such a move, both in humanistic and legal manners, Conkar, an MP from Erdogans ruling party, said. In that case, Turkey would use the available mechanisms, in terms of bilateral relations and international law, and call Saudi Arabia to account for its action. Over a week into Khashoggis disappearance, his whereabouts are still unknown, with Turkish and Saudi authorities putting forward conflicting statements over the issue. Turkish anonymous sources told media that there was evidence the Saudi journalist was killed inside the consulate building, while Saudi officials say the journalist left the consulate. On Tuesday, the foreign ministry in Ankara said that Saudi authorities will allow Turkish authorities to search the consulate premises. Regional rivals Ankara and Riyadh have been at odds on various regional issues in recent times. Riyadh backed the 2013 coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt against Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohamed Morsi. Ankara staunchly opposed it. Saudi Arabia, which views the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, strongly opposes Ankaras ties to the group. The Erdogan government has also been the most crucial backer of Qatar, after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a blockade on the Gulf country in 2017. The presence of a Turkish military base in Qatar also invited Saudi displeasure. Economic ties, on the other hand, are solid, with Saudi Arabia among Turkeys top 20 export destinations while Saudi businesses have invested in Turkish companies. More than half a million Saudi tourists visit Turkey every year. Trumps mild reaction The United Nations, the United States and the United Kingdom have all called for a thorough and transparent investigation into Khashoggis disappearance. US President Donald Trumps administration, which has cultivated good relations with Riyadh, took almost a week to comment on the possible death of Khashoggi, a US resident and columnist for the Washington Post newspaper. Mensur Akgun, a professor of international relations at Kultur University, said that the mild reaction to the incident coming from Trump was not unexpected. Trumps track record, performance and relations with Saudi Arabia suggest that Washington is likely to merely use the Khashoggi case as a tool to get concessions from Riyadh in areas such as arms deals or convince them to pursue US policies. Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_Uras Maldives President Abdulla Yameen has filed a court challenge against his election loss citing serious allegations of vote rigging and fraud. The complaint was filed at the island nations Supreme Court on Wednesday, according to Mohamed Saleem, the presidents lawyer. In a Twitter post close to midnight, the department of judicial administration said the top court had agreed to hear the case. Yameen lost the September 23 election by a margin of 16 percent to opposition candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, in an outcome hailed as a win for democracy in the crisis-hit Indian Ocean archipelago. The result was widely accepted, including by the United States, China, India, and the European Union. Yameen, accused of massive corruption and cracking down on dissent, initially conceded defeat but has since challenged the results, alleging widespread irregularities in the vote. But the president, who says he will stay on in office until the end of his term on November 17, has offered little evidence to back his claim. Saleem, the presidents lawyer, told a pro-government television station that Yameen filed a constitutional case at the top court, but declined to reveal details of the case, saying he will file evidence at the court. Saleem confirmed to Al Jazeera that the case had been submitted, but did not clarify if the president was seeking to overturn the election results. In a statement on Tuesday, the ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) said it was seeking legal recourse through the courts because the party has been overwhelmed with numerous genuine concerns related to the elections, including serious allegations of vote rigging, fraud, malpractice and corruption. The party said it turned to the courts after police informed them that a court order was necessary to investigate any election-related complaints. The elections commission has previously dismissed the PPMs allegations of electoral fraud as baseless. Running out of options Mariya Ahmed Didi, spokesperson for president-elect Solih, said Yameen must respect the results of the election, telling reporters in the countrys capital Male that it was hard to believe that a court would overturn the election result. The president-elect, who won the election with more than 58 percent of the vote, has vowed to restore democracy, release dissidents and investigate allegations of corruption against Yameen. He was backed at the last minute by a coalition of four opposition parties whose leaders were either jailed or forced into exile during Yameens tenure. {articleGUID} Ahmed Mahloof, an opposition politician, said Yameens latest move showed options are running out for him. Hes in a very tight place right now, the legislator said. Thats because many high profile prisoners, including Yameens half-brother former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, have been released on bail since the election, Mahloof said, while dissidents in exile have started to return to the country. Mohamed Nasheed, the countrys first freely elected president whose arrest and jailing in 2015 triggered the Maldives protracted crisis, is expected to end his exile in the United Kingdom and return on November 1. With the tables turning, Mahloof said, Yameen was now facing impeachment through the parliament, where the opposition was hoping to regain its parliamentary majority. Yameen had stripped a dozen legislators of their seats after they defected to the opposition last year in order to preserve control over the 85-member house. But the Supreme Court reinstated four of the twelve earlier this week, raising hopes that the opposition could prevail in the parliament. However, Mahloof said there was uncertainty about what the top court may do next, as the court was perceived as loyal to the president. He had sent in the army to arrest two of the courts five judges in February, and parliament later sacked the pair and appointed judges widely perceived as loyalists to the vacant posts. Transparency Maldives, an election monitoring group, called Yameens move on Wednesday troubling. It noted the Supreme Court in 2013 annulled the results of a first round of voting after Yameen came in second. He later won that election by a margin of 6,000 votes. Although the pre-election environment was marred with serious issues, we note that the election day process was fairly smooth and any issues that were observed on election day were minor and would not affect the outcome of the elections, the groups executive director Mariyam Shiuna said in a statement to Al Jazeera. Mahloof meanwhile called on the security forces to prepare to defend the election results. Both the army and the police have previously said they would uphold the results of the vote. Hatice Cengiz implores US President Donald Trump to help shed light on her fiancees disappearance in an OpEd. The fiancee of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has implored US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to help shed light on his disappearance. Hatice Cengiz made the appeal in an essay for The Washington Post newspaper on Tuesday. A prominent critic of Riyadh, Khashoggi was last seen a week ago entering Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to get documents for his forthcoming marriage. Turkish sources said they believed Khashoggi was killed inside the diplomatic post, a claim Saudi Arabia has dismissed as baseless. In her essay, Cengiz said Khashoggi first visited the consulate on September 28 despite being somewhat concerned that he could be in danger. But he walked in because he did not believe that something bad could happen on Turkish soil. It would be a violation of international law to harm, arrest or detain people at a diplomatic mission, he said, and noted that no such thing had ever happened in Turkeys history, Cengiz wrote. After a positive meeting with consular staff who welcomed him warmly, Khashoggi was relaxed before his second visit on October 2, she said. Cengiz, who waited for him outside, said he never emerged. At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance, Cengiz wrote. I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate. She added: Although this incident could potentially fuel a political crisis between the two nations, let us not lose sight of the human aspect of what happened. Consulate search Cengizs request came as Turkey said it was preparing to search the consulate as part of an investigation to Khashoggis disappearance. A surveillance video image obtained by Turkish newspaper Hurriyet also surfaced on Tuesday showing Khashoggi walking into the consulate in Istanbuls upscale 4th Levent neighbourhood. Turkish sources believe Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul [CCTV/Hurriyet via AP] Meanwhile, The New York Times reported top Saudi leaders deployed a 15-man hit squad to lay in wait for the dissident writer. Citing anonymous Turkish officials, the newspaper said the assassination team included a forensic expert who brought a bone saw to dismember Khashoggis body. Turkish police have previously said a team of 15 Saudis were sent to Istanbul and were in the building at the same time as Khashoggi. Turkish security officials were working to identify the 15 individuals, English-language state broadcaster TRT World reported, adding that Turkish officials believe the Saudis may have taken the consulates CCTV footage with them when they returned to Riyadh. According to pro-government daily Sabah, the team arrived in Istanbul on two private planes, one which landed after 03:00 am (00:00 GMT) on Tuesday while the second plane landed around 05:00 pm (14:00 GMT) after Khashoggi entered the consulate. {articleGUID} The individuals checked into two hotels close to the consulate, the daily said. Both planes later returned to Riyadh with one stopping in Dubai and the other in Egypt, Sabah reported, adding the police were looking into the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped. Separately, The Washington Post for whom Khashoggi wrote columns reported US intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials planning to abduct the writer. Saudis wanted to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and lay hands on him there, the Post quoted a person familiar with the information as saying. It was not clear whether the Saudis intended to arrest and interrogate Khashoggi or to kill him or if the US warned Khashoggi he was a target, the source told the newspaper. Khashoggi, who wrote critically for the Post about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans rise to power, had been in a self-imposed exile in the US since last year, fearful of the princes low tolerance for criticism. Cengiz wrote that he also sought to become a US citizen. Although my hope slowly fades away each passing day, I remain confident that Jamal is still alive, she wrote. Perhaps Im simply trying to hide from the thought that I have lost a great man whose love I had earned. The arrests came after Eleven Media published an article about a scheme run by Suu Kyi confidant Phyo Min Thein. Myanmar police have arrested three journalists after their paper criticised the financial management of Yangons government, which is overseen by a protege of leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Eleven Medias executive editors Kyaw Zaw Lin and Nayi Min, as well as chief reporter Phyo Wai Win, were brought before a Yangon court in handcuffs on Wednesday morning to hear the charges against them before being taken to jail. Defence lawyer Kyee Myint told AFP news agency the case was filed over an article published on Monday about the funding behind the citys bus network, a scheme run by Yangon chief minister and Aung San Suu Kyi confidant Phyo Min Thein. All three of them were sent to Insein prison this morning after a case was filed against them under section 505(b), Myint said. The trio could be fined and jailed for up to two years if a court rules that their story was published with intent to cause or was likely to cause fear or alarm to the public. It is not the first time Eleven Media Group has been targeted by the authorities. The next hearing will be on October 17 [Ann Wang/Reuters] In November 2016, the papers then editors were jailed over a column that accused a government official of receiving a watch worth $100,000 from a businessman who later won plum contracts. Yangon authorities told AFP they were unable to comment on the latest charges at this stage. The next hearing will be on October 17. Media under threat Their arrest is an affront to press freedom and a sign the government is close to becoming an authoritarian regime, Ravi R Prasad from the Vienna-based International Press Institute said. The whole media industry is under threat, said Hlaing Thit Zin Wai, founder of the Protection Committee for Myanmar Journalists. I even have a bag packed at home as we cannot predict when it will be our turn, he said. The trio could be fined and jailed for up to two years [Ann Wang/Reuters] The arrests came just a few weeks after the sentencing of two Reuters journalists to seven years in jail at the end of what was widely seen as a sham trial, during which a police officer testified that they had been set up. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, had been investigating the extrajudicial killing of Rohingya men during a violent military crackdown last year against the stateless minority. Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi a figure once lionised by the international community for her commitment to human rights has been criticised over the jailing, with the United Nations blasting Myanmar for waging a political campaign against independent journalism. In an interview with Japanese news outlet NHK published on Tuesday, Aung San Suu Kyi said there is a lot of press freedom in Myanmar, and suggested that those criticising her government study what the press is doing from day to day in the country. Lieutenant-General Asim Munir will take over from outgoing ISI chief Lieutenant-General Naveed Mukhtar, says military. Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistan has appointed a new chief for its powerful intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), as the previous appointee completed his term, the military said. Lieutenant-General Asim Munir will take over from the outgoing ISI chief Lieutenant-General Naveed Mukhtar, the militarys press wing said in a brief statement released on Wednesday. Munir, who was promoted late last month, previously served as the head of Military Intelligence. A decorated army officer, Munir has previously commanded Pakistani forces in the northern district of Gilgit-Baltistan. The Pakistani military and ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service tasked with external operations, has long been accused by the United States and regional rival India of only taking selective action against armed groups, a charge Pakistan has consistently denied. The US has accused the ISI of backing the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network in the war against Afghan and NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. In 2011, then US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen termed the Haqqani Network a veritable arm of the ISI. In 2016, Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone attack while travelling in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan. Relations between the erstwhile allies have been rocky since US President Trump cut more than $1.1bn in security assistance to the country, accusing Pakistan of [having] given us nothing but lies & deceit. In July, Prime Minister Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party took the reins of power in the country after a general election, vowing to renegotiate its relationships with regional and international powers based on mutual respect. Since then, top Pakistani and US officials have met several times. Last month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Pakistan for talks both sides said were fruitful. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi reciprocated the visit earlier this month. On Tuesday, Qureshi met newly appointed US envoy on Afghan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad in Islamabad. [Khalilzad] consulted with Pakistani leaders on how best to achieve a durable political settlement in Afghanistan, said a US statement. Special Representative Khalilzad reiterated that peace in Afghanistan is vital to the long-term stability of Pakistan and the wider region. Pakistan has repeatedly stressed its desire for a politically negotiated settlement to hostilities in Afghanistan, where the Afghan Taliban and its allies have been battling US-led NATO forces for more than 17 years. Lieutenant-General Munir, as the new chief of the ISI, will be expected to play an active role in facilitating that process. The daughter of disgraced ex-president was arrested over alleged money laundering during her election campaign. Police in Peru has arrested Keiko Fujimori, opposition leader and daughter of disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori, for alleged money laundering involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, according to her lawyer. The 43-year-old was arrested on the orders of prosecutors investigating suspect contributions to her election campaign, her lawyer Giuliana Loza said. Fujimori was detained when she arrived at the state prosecutors office to give evidence in the case, under Perus Organized Crime Law, according to an official document seen by Reuters news agency. She was placed in preventive detention for 10 days, said Loza, who described the arrest as an outrage and an abuse. Fujimori leads the powerful conservative opposition party, Popular Force, which has a majority in Congress and was key to helping topple former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in a corruption scandal in March. At least 19 others have been arrested in the case linked to contributions to the Popular Force during Fujimoris 2011 presidential campaign. {articleGUID} She has placed herself at the disposal of the prosecutors office, Loza said on Wednesday. Since June, prosecutors have been investigating allegations that three former presidents took bribes disguised as campaign funds from Odebrecht, which is at the centre of political scandals across Latin America. Former presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Alan Garcia and Alejandro Toledo all took undeclared campaign contributions in exchange for pledges to have the Brazilian construction giant win local tenders, prosecutors said. Fujimoris arrest comes a week after her 80-year-old fathers presidential pardon for crimes against humanity was revoked by a top court. Following his extradition to Peru in 2007, Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison for commanding death squads that massacred civilians in a counterinsurgency campaign during his right-wing government. He was later found guilty of corruption. Keiko Fujimoris legal troubles could help President Martin Vizcarra, who threatened to dissolve Congress last month to pressure the opposition to pass his proposed judicial and political reforms. A twice-defeated presidential candidate, Fujimori has led the Popular Force since her father was imprisoned in 2007. Harry Roque President Rodrigo Duterte said several members of his Cabinet are resigning to run in the 2019 midterm elections , but he is in a bind as to what to do with his spokesman, Harry Roque.Roque was really [bent on] running. He told me he was resigning, Duterte said in an interview Tuesday evening. Duterte said his decision to withhold information on his medical examination at Cardinal Santos last week prompted Roque to announce his plan to resign. Roque drew flak for initially denying the Presidents one-hour stay at the hospital. I dont need to tell him everything. There are things that should be limited to immediate family. He felt that he was facing a bad light as if he was blind. Maybe that time I was not in a position to tell him. He said he will resign and I told him I will immediately choose his replacement, the President said. Days before he went to Cardinal Santos, Duterte advised Roque against running for senator next year, saying he had no chance of winning because the military does not approve of him. Duterte said he will reorganize his communication team, and appoint chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo as Press Secretary. This is why Roque is in a bind. But it is not my fault. He said he will run, then he will not run, then he will run. So I said I will choose [a replacement] so there is no paralysis in functions, he said. Now that he is no longer running, I dont know where to place him. Its his fault because he was [undecided]. Me, I did not wait a minute longer. With the reorganization of the Office of the Press Secretary, Duterte said Martin Andanar will no longer serve as head of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, which will be abolished. He said he will keep Andanar sa consultant, citing the many things that need to be reconfigured in the state-run television network PTV-4.Other members of the Cabinet who will seek elective posts next year are Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Cayetano, Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones, and TESDA chief Guiling Mamondiong. Duterte said his Special Assistant, Christopher Go, and Presidential Political Adviser Francis Tolentino, are planning run for senator. Earlier, Roque said he will not settle for anything half-baked as he decides whether to accept a new post in the government or run for the Senate. I want to do my job the best way I can. And I will not settle for anything half-baked. So, if Im not able to give correct information as the people need itthat will not be performing my duties, Roque said in a Palace press briefing Tuesday morning. Now, my decision, were still talking. I talked to the President yesterday afternoon and talks have not yet been concluded, we will continue our conversation, he added. Roque admitted he was taken aback by Dutertes statement before the members of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association Inc. where the President said he has no chance of winning. So, it was a game changer so to speak. It was a change in tone. But I think there was an agreement on what I would be doing ahead of time, he said. READ: Six Cabinet members set to file CoCs Pope compares abortion to mafia-style killing, saying it is the equivalent of hiring a contract killer. Pope Francis has compared having an abortion to hiring a contract killer. Interrupting a pregnancy is like eliminating someone, Francis said in his address to worshippers on Wednesday. Getting rid of a human being is like resorting to a contract killer to solve a problem. Is it just to resort to a contract killer to solve a problem? he asked, to which the crowd shouted: no. Francis comments departed from the prepared text for his homily delivered during his weekly audience on Saint Peters Square. How can an act which terminates a budding life, innocent and defenceless, be therapeutic, civilized, or simply human? Francis said in his weekly public audience. The leader of the worlds 1.3 billion Catholics also said parents should not reject sick children. When during pregnancy parents discover that their child is affected by a disease, they need real closeness, real solidarity, to face reality overcoming understandable fears. Instead, they often receive hasty advice to terminate the pregnancy, he said. In his address, the Argentine pontiff complained of a depreciation of human life as he cited wars, exploitation and a culture of wastefulness as problems, other than abortion. Even though he is widely considered more liberal than his predecessors, Francis has not changed church teachings on family planning and sex. This year, he opposed a bill that would have legalised abortion in Argentina. In August, a campaign group said thousands of Argentinian Catholics had renounced their membership of the church to protest against his opposition to the bill. In April, he said helping the poor and the destitute should be as important as fighting against abortion. Saudi writer was killed and dismembered in Istanbul consulate by hit squad deployed by Saudi leadership, report says. Top Saudi leaders deployed a 15-man hit squad to lie in wait for dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi inside Riyadhs consulate in Istanbul, The New York Times said in an explosive story. Among the assassination team was a forensic expert who brought a bone saw to dismember Khashoggis body after killing him, the Times reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified senior official as saying. Al Jazeera could not immediately verify the news report. The hit squad finished the murder operation within two hours and departed Turkey for various countries, said the Times source, citing information from top Turkish officials. It is like Pulp Fiction, the senior Turkish official was quoted as saying, referring to the graphically violent 1994 Hollywood movie by director Quentin Tarantino. Accusations the Saudi leadership directly ordered the alleged assassination of Khashoggi will put further pressure on the United States and other allies to demand a transparent investigation, with possible serious repercussions to bilateral relations if it does not come to fruition. Saudi officials have denied any involvement in Khashoggis disappearance and alleged murder, saying he left the consulate on October 2. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded that Riyadh prove his departure from the building. The Turkish government hasnt provided formal evidence that could back up the spate of anonymous allegations that the Saudi writer was killed inside the Istanbul consulate. Daily Sabah, a Turkish newspaper with close ties to the government, named and published photos on Tuesday of the alleged 15-member Saudi assassination team accused of travelling to Istanbul on the day Khashoggi disappeared. The suspects are wanted by Turkish authorities for questioning. Explaining to do American Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Tuesday that everything today points to Khashoggis murder last week inside the Saudi consulate. Corker told The Daily Beast his view was reaffirmed after viewing classified intelligence about the disappearance. It points to the idea that whatever has happened to him, the Saudis I mean, theyve got some explaining to do, Corker was quoted as saying. Al Jazeeras Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC, said the deluge of news reports will increase pressure on the US government to act. This was a prominent American columnist who is beloved among a small group of the intelligence elite in Washington, DC, and they are speaking out. This story is making front-page news. It is being greeted by a sense of outrage, and that is only growing as each story reveals new information, she said. Lay hands on him Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Washington Post for whom Khashoggi wrote columns after fleeing Saudi Arabia over fears of retribution for his critical commentary reported that US intelligence had intercepted communications of Saudi officials planning to abduct the prominent journalist. Saudis wanted to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and lay hands on him there, the Post quoted a person familiar with the information as saying. It was not clear whether the Saudis intended to arrest and interrogate Khashoggi or to kill him or if the US warned Khashoggi he was a target, the source told the newspaper. Khashoggi entered the consulate on October 2 to handle a routine paperwork issue but he never came out, according to family and friends, as well as Turkish authorities. {articleGUID} The US resident has written articles over the past year during his self-imposed exile that were critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi, 59, has had a long career as a senior journalist in Saudi Arabia and also as an adviser to top officials. Powerful crown prince But since the emergence of bin Salman, 33, as the centre of power in the kingdom last year, Khashoggi has been openly critical of the monarchy. He assailed the princes reforms as hollow, accusing him of introducing a new Saudi era of fear, intimidation, arrests and public shaming. Robert Pearson, a former US ambassador to Turkey, said the case could change the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia. They must give a transparent explanation very quickly, otherwise the tide will quickly turn against them. Its now been a week and nothing has been shown to prove about his (Khashoggis) safety, he told Al Jazeera. He noted 47 US senators recently voted to ban US arms sales to Saudi Arabia four short of a majority. It is beginning to reach a genuine crisis point now, which can be solved very quickly if the Saudis are really on the spot, said Pearson. The arms sales bill, the war in Yemen those are the kinds of things that can turn very quickly into a political statement that will damage Saudis relationship with the United States, and damage Saudis reputation worldwide. Abdullah Morsi was arrested for spreading false news, security sources say, after interview about fathers detention. Egyptian police have detained the youngest son of overthrown former President Mohamed Morsi from his home on the outskirts of Cairo on Wednesday, then released him on bail hours later, his family and security sources said. Attorney General Nabil Sadek issued a brief statement late Wednesday ordering the release on bail of 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($280) on the charges after questioning by Egypts Supreme State Security Prosecution. Abdullah Morsi was taken into custody by security personnel for questioning along with his ID and mobile phone, but when he was released his phone was not returned, his brother Ahmed said. Two security sources said Abdullah was arrested on charges of spreading false news, in connection with an interview he gave to the Associated Press (AP) news agency last week that focused on his fathers detention. The former president, a senior figure in the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, has been jailed and held in solitary confinement since the army, led by then-general and now-President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, overthrew him in 2013, following mass protests against his rule. {articleGUID} Ahmed told Reuters news agency the police officers did not present a warrant for his brothers arrest and said they were taking Abdullah for questioning. Abdullah is the youngest of Morsis five children and was sentenced to a year in jail in 2015 for alleged drug possession. Another son, Osama, is also in prison and was among hundreds recently sentenced in connection with protests against Mohamed Morsis overthrow. Abdullahs latest arrest comes just days after he told AP in an interview that his fathers health had deteriorated due to prison conditions and that the family was rarely allowed to visit. Abdullah said he was seeking more visitation rights and better healthcare for his ailing father. In a report published earlier this year, a panel of British MPs and lawyers said Morsi is being imprisoned in standards lower than those sanctioned by international law, which could lead to an early death. Since his removal, the former president has been tried in several different cases. In April 2015, he was sentenced to 20 years on charges of ordering the arrest and torture of protesters in clashes outside the presidential palace in 2012. In September 2016, Morsi was sentenced to another 25 years in prison on charges of passing intelligence to Qatar. And in December 2017, he was also sentenced to three years on charges of insulting the judiciary. After Morsis 2013 removal, el-Sisi unleashed a fierce crackdown on the Brotherhood. El-Sisis supporters say the president, who was re-elected in March, has been trying to combat an Islamist insurgency and restore order following years of chaos after the Arab Spring demonstrations forced former president Hosni Mubarak to step down in 2011. Withdrawal of heavy arms by rebel groups fulfills first part of Russian-Turkish deal to avoid Idlib assault. Turkey says a planned buffer zone in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib has been cleared of heavy weapons as part of a deal reached between Moscow and Ankara, but experts say Ankara still has more challenges ahead. The National Liberation Front (NLF), an umbrella organisation of Turkey-backed rebels that includes the Free Syrian Army, confirmed to Al Jazeera that it had completed the process of withdrawing its heavy weapons from Idlib, the last rebel-held bastion in Syria. Our heavy weapons including tanks and cannons have been moved to the back lines of the de-militarised zone so that they are no longer a target for the Russian warplanes, NLF spokesperson Naji al-Mustafa, told Al Jazeera. We will remain in our defence lines with our small arms and light weapons, al-Mustafa said. The agreement, signed on September 17 in the Russian resort city of Sochi, aims to stave off a large-scale assault on Idlib by the Syrian government and Russia by creating a 15-20km buffer zone. The zone expected to be completed by October 15 is meant to stretch from neighbouring Latakias northern suburbs all the way to the outskirts of Aleppos northwestern region. The United Nations has warned that a government-led attack on Idlib would create a humanitarian disaster in the region, home to nearly three million people, half of whom are internally displaced from previous offensives. While previous operations ended with negotiated transfers of fighters and their families to the north, an offensive in Idlib will leave residents with an ultimatum; either to cross over to Turkish-controlled territory or to live under the control of Bashar al-Assads government once again. Over the past few days, Turkey has sent reinforcements to its 12 observation posts scattered across Idlib, which it established earlier this year as part of a de-escalation agreement, and dispatched troops to patrol the buffer zone. According to the deal, Turkish and Russian forces will oversee security in the area but it remains unclear whether Russian troops will be patrolling the rebel-held side of the zone. Observers say disarming the zone is only one aspect of the agreement, which also requires the withdrawal of all so-called radical fighters from the area by October 15. It remains unclear whether Russian forces would be patrolling the rebel-held side of the zone [AP File] This includes hardline Hayet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is dominated by a rebel faction previously linked to al-Qaeda. There are still clauses in the agreement that are open to various interpretations by either the Turks or the Russians, Ahmed Abazeid, an Istanbul-based Syria researcher, told Al Jazeera. The deal is basically a long-term negotiation tactic between the two countries, he said. Challenges Aside from the Turkish-backed rebel coalition, HTS which has a large number of foreign fighters is among Idlibs dominant rebel forces. In 2016, it was designated a terrorist group by Russia and thus was never included in ceasefire deals and de-escalation attempts. The HTS has not revealed its stance on the Sochi agreement since it was signed. While it agreed to withdraw its heavy weapons from the zone outlined by the agreement, it would not state that it had formally agreed to do so, activists on the ground confirmed to Al Jazeera. The move highlights HTS attempt to remain on Turkeys good side, Abazeid, also an expert on armed groups in Syria, said. HTS will do what Turkey says to gain its blessing because they may be a threat in a next phase of this war, he said. But HTSs presence in itself remains a threat to the agreement, despite their decision to disarm, since Russia has cited their presence in the past as the reason for attacking parts of Idlib. The zone sandwiched between Latakia in the west and Aleppo in the east covers tens of villages, most notably the Jisr al-Shughour district, which has come under government bombardment in the past, as well as villages in the neighbouring Hama governorate. Between these villages are defence lines or points guarded by either one or multiple factions including factions under the NLF and HTS. There arent many towns or villages controlled exclusively by HTS, Ahmed Husseinat, an activist in Jisr al-Shughour, which is controlled by both the NLF and HTS, told Al Jazeera. The UN has warned that a government-led attack on Idlib would create a humanitarian catastrophe [AP] This is why isolating HTS and other smaller groups is a complex task facing Turkey at this time, Marwan Kabalan, director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, told Al Jazeera. According to Kabalan, Turkey has so far succeeded in dividing HTS into two groups the more pragmatic group of Syrians who are keen on protecting their families and local communities from a potential Russian assault and a second group of primarily foreign fighters. HTS power move Rebel infighting has also added complexity to Turkeys objectives in Idlib. On Friday, fighting broke out, lasting three consecutive days, between NLF faction Nour al-Din al-Zinki and HTS in Kafr Halab a town located southwest of Aleppo. Nour al-Din al-Zinki spokesperson Mohammed Adib told Al Jazeera that HTS launched the attack, saying they were looking for someone who works for the government. We were surprised to see them surround Kafr Halab on Friday morning this is the excuse HTS uses every time they launch an aggressive move against any town or village in the area, Adib said. While Adib believes the attack was aimed at gaining more ground, experts say it was merely a power move. HTS still wants to prove it is capable and here on the ground even after Sochi to show theyre not disintegrated, Abazeid said. Kabalan says HTS fears a potential attack by the Turkish-backed NFL. Theyre trying to please [by agreeing to quietly disarm], but also trying to prove theyre strong, Kabalan said. Turkey is still undecided on the way forward to dissolve HTS, but Kabalan says the end game for Russia is to try to achieve its objectives through diplomacy and pressure instead of military force. This is why I believe the agreement will hold, he said. But Abazeid says differences over how to secure key routes may still jeopardise the deal. Russia and the Syrian government want to establish control over two major highways passing through the region the M4, which connects the port city of Latakia to Aleppo and oil-rich province of Deir Az Zor; and the M5, which links the capital Damascus to Aleppo, and eventually to the trade route to Turkey and Europe. The upcoming phase will also determine whether Turkey will agree to a soft government comeback to the province. It is for all of these undecided reasons that a fully-fledged assault is still possible, said Abazeid. The excuse will always be the presence of terrorist organisations. US president calls disappearance of Saudi journalist a bad situation, adding he discussed the case with Saudi Arabia. Istanbul, Turkey President Donald Trump said he has spoken to officials at the highest level in Saudi Arabia about the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and wants the United States to get to the bottom of the matter. Khashoggi disappeared a week ago and was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he went to pick up a document he needed for his planned marriage. Turkish sources have said they believe Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi policies, was killed inside the mission. This is a bad situation, Trump told reporters, adding that he would like to invite Khashoggis fiancee to the White House. The White House said that National Security Advisor John Bolton and White House aide Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to request information about Khashoggi. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then had a follow up call with the Crown Prince to reiterate the United States request for information, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Trumps comments and a series of leaks to Turkish media added further pressure on Riyadh on Wednesday to provide information on the whereabouts of the prominent Saudi critic, whose disappearance has sparked global concern and created tensions between Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Turkish media on Wednesday published the identities of what it said was a 15-member Saudi intelligence team allegedly involved in the disappearance of Khashoggi, along with CCTV footage from Istanbuls Ataturk Airport while they were entering and leaving Turkey. One of the 15 Saudis identified by name and photo in the report by Sabah newspaper is reportedly a senior forensic expert. Other members included alleged Saudi intelligence officers and special forces operatives, Turkish media said. Twelve of them arrived early on Tuesday, based on photos captured at passport control which were published. The 15 departed at four different times, Sabah reported. The Saudi consulate and other authorities have not commented on the claims. CCTV footage Meanwhile, Turkish television channels have run CCTV footage, which they say shows the 15 alleged Saudi officers during their time in Istanbul. Khashoggi was last seen on October 2 entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul [AP] The footage allegedly shows the men arriving at the airport and checking into a hotel, as well as a van arriving at the consul-generals residence, about 250 metres away from the consulate, two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate. Aksam newspaper also published blurry photos of a jet arriving in Istanbul before dawn on October 2, carrying what it said were nine members of the Saudi team, as well as images of some of them checking in at a hotel. Aksam said they left their hotel later in the morning. Shortly after midday, it said several cars entered the consulate premises. A picture of Khashoggi entering the consulate shows the time-stamp as 13:14. About two hours later, Aksam showed two vehicles, one of them a black Mercedes Vito van with tinted windows and diplomatic plates, leaving the consulate and entering the car park of the residence shortly afterwards. International reaction Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia last year, saying he feared retribution for his criticism of Riyadh over the Yemen war and its crackdown on dissent, and since then he has written columns for the Washington Post. The United Nations, the US and the United Kingdom have all called for a thorough and transparent investigation into Khashoggis disappearance. Britains foreign minister called for urgent answers and the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker, who has seen classified intelligence on the case, said information pointed to Khashoggi being killed. Theyve got some explaining to do, he said of Saudi Arabia, adding he did not wish to rush to judgment. US Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday the US was ready to help in any way in the investigation. Three locations under review for second Kim-Trump meeting to take place sometime after November 6 midterms. US President Donald Trump said his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place after congressional elections in November, with at least three locations under consideration. Itll be after the midterms, Trump told reporters as he flew to Iowa for a political rally on Tuesday. I just cant leave now. The midterm elections take place on November 6. The US president said earlier incredible progress had been made in bilateral talks with the isolated North Asian country. Trump and Kim held their first summit in June in Singapore where they discussed ending the reclusive states nuclear weapons programme and formally ending decades of hostilities between the two countries. No rockets flying Trump was upbeat on de-nuclearisation progress so far, as well as his relationship with Kim, whom he once called Little Rocket Man. You got no rockets flying, you have no missiles flying, you have no nuclear testing, Trump said in the Oval Office. Weve made incredible progress beyond incredible. We have a very good relationship with Chairman Kim. I like him, he likes me the relationship is good. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who met Kim on Monday in Pyongyang his fourth visit this year said the two sides were now pretty close to agreeing on the details for a second summit. While there is still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path to where well achieve the ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearisation of North Korea, Pompeo told reporters. Limited progress Pompeo said Kim indicated he was ready to allow international inspectors into North Koreas Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and the Sohae missile engine test facility as soon as there was agreement on logistics. Trump welcomed the recent return of remains of US soldiers killed during the Korean War, but said sanctions could not be lifted without further action from North Korea. Id love to remove them, but we have to get something for doing it, Trump said. Kim has yet to comply with US demands for a complete inventory of its weapons and facilities, or to take irreversible steps to give up its nuclear arsenal. Experts said the North Korean leader appeared to be only repackaging and dragging out past pledges. The World Food Programme said on Tuesday the supply of food remained precarious in North Korea, where one in five children is stunted by malnutrition. More than 10 million North Koreans, nearly 40 percent of the population, are undernourished and need humanitarian aid, it said. Oil spill reported after accident between passenger/roll-on, roll-off vessel and containership. Compagnie Tunisienne de Navigation (COTUNAV), which operates ferries between Europe and Africa, said that its ferry Ulysse collided with the CSL Virginia about 15 nautical miles north of Corsica. An Associated Press report on The Washington Post website reported the accident happened on Sunday. CSL Virginia is a 5,000-TEU ship that is part of the fleet of Cyprus Sea Lines, and the shipping data base Equasis describes Ulysse as a passenger/roll-on, roll-off cargo vessel. According to BlueWater Reporting, CSL Virginia had operated in the Montreal Express/AT1 service of MSC, OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd, but was replaced in August with a smaller ship. A report on the website Maritime Executive said the CSL Virginia was not carrying cargo at the time of the collision. Tunisian Maritime said the collision caused some material damage. The AP said a hole of several meters long in the full of one of the ships had caused an oil spill. A photograph supplied to the AP by Frances Marine Nationale showed the bow of the ferry in the side of the containership. The Tunisian shipping company said it has been coordinating with the Crisis Management Department of the Ministry of Transport to assess the damage and take legal action to secure the ship and goods. The website Medi Telegraph reported both ships had departed Genoa, Italy, before colliding off Corsica. There is one single major cause for the chaos surrounding Republican SCOTUS confirmations over the past thirty years the fulcrum for the entire exercise of humiliating conservative judges. It's not the Democrats, it's not the left, and it's not the feminists. They aren't the crucial factor. They simply take advantage of it. Quite simply put, it's the GOP weak links. Let's be clear on terminology: these are not RINOs. Of the four who succeeded in disrupting the Kavanaugh nomination, none fits the classic mold of the RINO the go-along-to-get-along type who adapts liberal principles and policies to reap benefits at the expense of rank-and-file Republicans. While this crew displays some of those characteristics, in others, it's measurably different. Bob Corker is a traditionalist from another era, a man who thinks and acts as if it were still 1953. Jeff Flake is pure hustler, one step above if that Michael Avenatti. He's whatever he needs to be at any given moment a conservative, a NeverTrump, whatever it is he's pretending to be now. Flake will be whatever you want just ask. If human-sized crustaceans from Tau Ceti invaded Earth tomorrow, Flake would be running around in a lobster suit. As for Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski...they're oddities. Eccentric females from third-tier states. Since the Robert Bork hearings of 1987, the Democrats have based their strategy on the dependable backstop that a certain small number of Republicans would dither, posture, and pull a Hamlet act right up until the last minute. In a Senate in which the GOP has held fifty or fifty-one seats, this is all it took to turn the simple act of confirming a justice into a cliffhanger. No explanation for these actions is ever given, and none is demanded. It's simply taken for granted that the hijackers are acting in tune with a higher morality, channeling their inner Norman Rockwell characters in opposition to the GOP's sleazy political stratagems. (Democrats don't have this problem. Their rank and file simply fall into line.) For years, the two major bottlenecks were Susan Collins and her fellow Downeaster Olympia Snowe. Totally ignored otherwise, this pair were regularly thrust into the spotlight every time a contested confirmation battle rolled around, suddenly transformed into female solons of the highest order. They were joined in later years by Alaskan Lisa Murkowski, another of the same breed, and most recently by Flake and Corker. Snowe retired in 2013. Corker and Flake are going, Corker after a brief, not extremely distinguished career, Flake after effectively being abandoned by disgusted voters. This leaves Collins and Murkowski. A peculiar factor is that both represent states far removed from the American mainstream. Both Alaska and Maine are geographically isolated and culturally divergent, Alaska as a late-blooming frontier state and Maine as a colonial relic. A lot is being spoken in praise of Collins due to her finally coming around to Kavanaugh and the firm statement of support that she gave him before the vote. We're told that her speech will live in history alongside Millard Fillmore's immortal revenue bill speech of 1841, being quoted on the Fourth of July and taught to eager schoolchildren unto the fourth millennium. This overlooks the fact that the crisis arose in the first place in large part due to Collins herself. Feinstein and Schumer would not have made their move (or would have been forced to come up with a different strategy) if Collins hadn't been sitting in the middle of the road like a beached whale. Collins played a large part in causing this crisis, and now she's in the process of ducking responsibility. This transforms her into something a lot like those demented firemen who set blazes so they can pose as heroes while putting them out. If Collins had not been offered open bribes by leftist interests, followed by threats against her staff, it's quite possible things would have gone differently. Collins is a problem awaiting a solution. I lived in Maine for a brief period years ago, and I was quite surprised to find a culture that was in large part a survival of the colonial epoch. The old families run things, and the little people live their little lives. It's not quite to the point where the peasants whip off their work caps and tug their forelocks when a grandee walks by, but it's definitely detectable. What this means is that the level of political inertia is much higher in Maine than in other states. An individual in office is viewed as possessing some form of Divine Right. Moving against these officials is akin to blasphemy, so an officeholder is likely to stay there until either death or, as with Snowe, retirement. Replacing Collins she's up for re-election in 2020 would be an uphill battle, but certainly one worth considering. This brings us to Murkowski. Lisa Murkowski is one of the weirdest individuals in the Congress, a weird mob without question. She clings to political power like a barnacle for no evident reason she's not an ideologue, has no apparent political interests, and has no detectable agenda. Yet there she sits, even more contrarian if possible than Collins. This time around, she stated that she didn't make up her mind on Kavanaugh until she set foot on the Senate floor just before the cloture vote. Who the hell thinks this way, apart from adolescent females? Then she votes "present" for the confirmation vote, boldly sitting on the fence after posturing up until the last minute. There may be more going on. There's a candid shot of her being confronted last week by Feinstein, the Elizabeth Bathory of the Senate. DiFi has Murkowski pinned against the wall, one arm held up to keep her corralled. She has an expression of pure viciousness on her face cold, nasty, and brutal. The real Dianne Feinstein, in short. Murkowski, for her part, is cowering, staring back at Feinstein with a look of real fear on her face. It's as transparent a shot of bullying as the classic photo of LBJ overwhelming Rhode Island's Theodore Green. Either the Dems have something on Murkowski or they've got her number as a weak sister easily bullied. Doesn't matter, really they get the results they want either way. Murkowski is politically weak. In 2010, she was primaried by Joe Miller. This kicked her into overdrive for the first and possibly only time in her life. She ran a desperate campaign asking voters to write her in, which, incredibly, they proceeded to do. She barely edged out the erratic Miller, 101,000 to 90,000. What can possibly explain this result? As a frontier state, Alaska has a rep for being populated by burly, bearded types and their stalwart no-nonsense women (think of the Palins here). Hunting for their dinners, communicating by radio, visiting the outside world by floatplane...and yet here they are, represented in D.C. by a glaring-eyed scarecrow you'd expect to see mumbling to herself on a downtown New York side street. Alaska has a large welfare population among both native Alaskans and urbanites. (I'm told that some sections of Anchorage resemble Newark.) This, very likely, represents Murkowski's base. Unlike Collins, Murkowki is on the ropes. She has been dismissed by none other than Donald J. Trump himself (and boy, when he does it, you know you've been dismissed). The latest word is that the Alaska GOP is moving against her, planning at the very least a stern rebuke for defying her constituents, with some talk of withdrawing support and replacing her in the next election. Now is the time for a decent, Alaskan candidate to step up. This is all to the good. The GOP and the country as a whole deserves better than to have critical judicial appointments hijacked by weirdos. This practice has given the Democrats a free ride for decades. They have not been required to defend their elitist Philosopher-King concept of the federal judiciary, in which the bench dictates to the other branches, treats voting citizens as cattle, and redefines millennia-old aspects of human nature, all without oversight or recourse. When a seat opens, the Democrats simply reach into the shadows; shake Collins and Murkowski awake; and set them tottering about, creating chaos and sowing confusion. The worst part of it is that neither shows any sign of being aware of the actual nature of the spoiler role they play. Is it possible that they don't grasp it at all? Whatever this is not the way it was intended to work. It can be said without exaggeration that Brett Kavanaugh has done a tremendous service before even taking his place at the bench by awakening the country to this miserable state of affairs and the creatures responsible for it. It's been a long time coming. THE House of Representatives decided Wednesday night to amend the approved committee report on the draft federal constitution by including Vice President Leni Robredo in the line of succession during the transition period to federalism. This came after Cebu City Rep. Raul del Mar moved in plenary session to recommit to the committee level the draft constitution as contained in the resolution of both chambers of Congress No. 15 under committee report No. 88. In order to introduce perfecting amendment on the failure to include the Vice President in the first line of succession which lead to some misunderstanding and so there is a need to clarify this, Del Mar said. No lawmaker objected to Del Mars motion. The amended Article XVII (Transitory Provision) will read: In case a vacancy arises by reason of removal, resignation, permanent incapacity or death of the incumbent president the incumbent vice president shall act as president until a president has been chosen and qualify (sic). Del Mar raised the issue on the floor after proposed provision drew flak for allegedly singling Robredo out in favor of former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who has a pending electoral protest against her. House Majority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said the House would make an amendment on the matter at a proper time. He said the amendment shall be submitted to the House of Representatives Committee on Constitutional Amendments, chaired by Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, a retired Court of Appeals justice. In related developments: An opposition House leader Wednesday said a proposed shift to a federal form of government might not prosper in the 17th Congress. House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said rewriting the 1987 Constitution will take a gargantuan effort for both congressmen and senators.Frankly, I think amending the Constitution now will take a gargantuan effort for Congress, Suarez told a news conference. With this limited time of [the] 17th Congress, I do not think Charter Change in the 17th Congress will prosper. This may take off in the 18th Congress, he added. Suarez made the statement after the House, in plenary session Monday, opened its plenary debates on the proposed federal Constitution being pushed by the Duterte administration. Reps. Vicente Veloso of Leyte, and Corazon Nunez-Malanyaon of Davao Oriental, chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the House of Representatives Constitutional Amendments, delivered their respective sponsorship speeches to the draft constitution, as contained in resolution of both Houses of Congress 15 under Committee Report 88. Under the Houses draft constitution, the president and vice president will be elected with each other to serve four-year terms, subject to one reelection. Congressmen, who should be holders of college degrees, will also serve four-year terms. The draft federal charter also provides that the first election under the proposed Constitution will be held on the second Monday of May 2022. The House draft federal proposal, which calls for a presidential-bicameral-federal system, is different from the draft submitted by the Consultative Commission. But being the administrations advocacy, Suarez said he believed President Duterte would still certify the proposed federal charter as urgent. If there will be an appeal from the leadership to fast track it, then the minority will support it, he said. There's a reason why President Trump has not unilaterally declassified the documents exposing perfidy against him: leverage. As the whole Russia hoax is beginning to come into some sort of global perspective quite literally, as we'll see the extent of the advantage he now maintains by holding back declassification as a threat outweighs the benefits of transparency. Recent posts by observers who write from widely varying perspectives give us the ability to discern the current state of play. Let's start with the domestic front of the Russia hoax. Sundance at Conservative Tree House has an excellent post up: "President Trump and DAG Rod Rosenstein "No Collusion", No Immediate Worries..." The overall theme is one that's dear to Sundance's heart: leverage. The state of play is this: the congressional investigation has progressed to the point that it's clear beyond cavil that the entire Russia narrative is, in fact, a hoax and fraud both on the American people in general and on our legal system. This is to say real criminal liability exists for the key players who developed the plot against Trump. John Solomon summarizes what Congress has discovered in succinct fashion: There is now a concrete storyline backed by irrefutable evidence: The FBI allowed itself to take political opposition research created by one party to defeat another in an election, treated it like actionable intelligence, presented it to the court as substantiated, and then used it to justify spying on an adviser for the campaign of that party's duly chosen nominee for president in the final days of a presidential election. And when, nine months later, the FBI could not prove the allegation of collusion between Trump and Russia, unverified evidence was leaked to the media to try to sustain public support for a continued investigation. But Sundance spells out very specifically where the greatest risk and therefore the greatest leverage lies: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein created the special counsel under fraudulent pretense. That origination material (Ohr 302's, FISA pages, origination EC, and Page/Strzok messages) is now a risk to the Deputy AG. There are many other players, in addition to Rosenstein, who are at serious risk. But from the perspective of leverage, Rosenstein is the key because he created the special counsel part of the hoax and because as a result of A.G. Sessions's recusal he remains in charge of the special counsel operation. Rosenstein can exercise as much or as little control over Mueller as he wants. Trump's threat of declassification of the "origination material" gives Trump complete leverage over Rosenstein and therefore over Mueller. Trump's leverage ensures that Rosenstein will very much want to restrain Mueller. If Rosenstein wants to restrain Mueller, Mueller will be restrained. This may explain why we are now seeing key members of Mueller's team leaving and returning to their old jobs. The importance of this is that Mueller has posed the greatest threat to the Trump administration, the greatest annoyance. That threat is now defanged for the immediate future. If Mueller steps out of line, boom! Declassification. By putting declassification on hold, Trump maintains his leverage. And Congress continues to investigate and slowly reveal the truth. The benefits of this leverage via threat-of-declassification extend well beyond the Russia hoax to other practical political matters. I believe we saw that at play in the Kavanaugh nomination battle. Rod Rosenstein, as DAG, directly supervises the FBI director, Christopher Wray. To say the FBI acted with alacrity and efficiency in exposing the machinations behind the accusations leveled at Kavanaugh would be an understatement. But consider: Sundance himself was distinctly alarmist during the Kavanaugh hearings, alleging a plot of Deep State FBI-DOJ insiders to torpedo the nomination. As we've seen, however, exactly the opposite occurred. The FBI leaped to Kavanaugh's defense, and I attribute that to Trump's leverage over the DOJ-FBI through Rosenstein. How will this play out for the midterm elections? Will Trump at some point declassify that crucial "origination material"? While Trump stressed that his hold on declassification doesn't change his commitment for transparency sooner rather than later, I believe that the Kavanaugh nomination has given Trump and his newly committed GOP allies the issue they need for the midterms. Polling has repeatedly shown that Supreme Court nominations are a hot-button issue for Republican voters, and it has the advantage of being readily comprehensible. Trump used his leverage to get his nominee confirmed while energizing "normals" for the midterms. After the election, declassification could play a significant role in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. Let's turn to that global perspective now. Justin Raimondo at Anti-War.com has a blog post up that complements Sundance's "leverage" perspective quite nicely: "The Final Truth of Russia-gate: As the hoax unravels, the real story of 'foreign collusion' comes out." Raimondo focuses on the role of foreign "allies" in the plot against Trump. As on the domestic front, there were multiple players: Australia, Ukraine, Estonia, Israel. The key player was undoubtedly the U.K. Without massive intelligence involvement by the U.K., the entire Russia hoax would likely never have gotten off the ground. Here, Raimondo encapsulates that involvement sufficiently for our purposes (much more could be said): This entire episode has Her Majesty's Secret Service's fingerprints all over it. Steele's key role is plain enough: here was a British spook who was not only hired by the Clinton campaign to dig up dirt on Trump but was unusually passionate about his work almost as if he'd have done it for free. And then there was the earliest approach to the Trump campaign, made by Cambridge professor and longtime spook Stefan Halper to Carter Page. And then there's the mysterious alleged "link" to Russian intelligence, Professor Joseph Mifsud, whose murky British-based thinktank managed to operate openly despite later claims it was a Russian covert operation. It was Mifsud who orchestrated the Russia-gate hoax, first suggesting that the Russians had Hillary Clinton's emails, and then disappearing into thin air as soon as the story he had planted percolated into plain view. Some "Russian agent"! Leverage, anyone? Declassification would expose all these foreign players, but the heaviest hit by far would be against the U.K. and its Australian poodle. And so we learn that "key allies" "begged" Trump not to declassify that "origination material." Raimondo notes: Trump's decision to walk back his announcement that the key Russia-gate intelligence would be declassified tells us almost as much as if he'd tweeted it out, unredacted. For what it tells us is that public knowledge of the contents would constitute a major break in relations with at least one key ally. Yes, Trump smoked them out and got them begging for mercy, as reported by the major media in all too transparent detail. Trump ends up with all the leverage he needs over "Her Majesty's Government" for as long as that leverage is useful. Well played, Mr. President! Mark Wauck is a retired FBI agent who blogs on religion, philosophy, and FISA at Meaning in History. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, neocon Max Boot has taken the mask off and revealed that his pathological hatred of President Trump is a symptom of a wider dislike of the historic conservative movement. The modern conservative movement, he wrote, "is permeated with racism, extremism, conspiracy-mongering, isolationism and know-nothingism." He singles out Barry Goldwater and Phyllis Schlafly as exemplars of a "dark side" of conservatism that needs to be torn out root and branch. Indeed, says Boot, "[o]nly if the GOP as it is currently constituted is burned to the ground will there be any chance to build a reasonable center-right party out of the ashes" (my emphasis). And just so that he's not misunderstood, Boot adds, "But that will require undoing the work of decades, not just of the past two years." This is the clearest indication yet, as if any more evidence was needed, that self-described "conservatives" like Boot and his compatriot Jennifer Rubin are ringers, out of touch with the philosophy they claim to represent. Boot claims to champion "Reaganesque" conservatism, evidently unaware that Reagan got his start in politics by delivering a stemwinder in support of that dark old extremist, Barry Goldwater. One wonders exactly what this new "center-right" party that Boot longs for would look like in practice. My guess is that it would resemble the ineffectual Tories in Great Britain (most of whose leadership opposed Brexit) or, even worse, the "center-right" parties in Germany and Sweden who differ from their left-wing parties only in degree. What Boot wants is to deprive America of an authentic conservatism and move the political spectrum leftward. This is standard MSNBC editorial opinion, recycled as "conservative" for the WaPo's readers. Radio commentator Dennis Prager likes to say he "prefers clarity to agreement." Boot's column was nothing if not clarifying. In 2016, Trump gave voters, in the memorable phrase of Phyllis Schlafly, "a choice not an echo." Boot prefers the echo. Hundreds of illegal aliens have been released in Phoenix as family detention centers reach capacity and there's no place to put newcomers. A DHS official told NBC News that the release is the "start of the dam breaking" as a spike in illegal border crossings continues. The official added, "You'll start to see this all across the southern border soon." The reason, the official said, is the growing number of immigrant families coming to the U.S. seeking asylum. In August, the latest month for which data is available, more than 12,700 parents and children traveling together were apprehended crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, up from 4,193 in August 2017. ICE spokeswoman Yasmeen O'Keefe said because of the volume of families presenting themselves along the Arizona border, ICE can no longer review each immigrant's travel plans prior to release without violating a federal court agreement, known as the Flores settlement, that limits the amount of time children can be detained to 20 days. "To mitigate that risk, ICE began to curtail such reviews in Arizona beginning Sunday, October 7," O'Keefe said. Immediately, churches and nonprofit organizations in Arizona began to feel the effect of that policy. A representative of a church in Phoenix, who asked not to be named in order to avoid retaliation by anti-immigration protesters, said she received word from ICE it would begin bringing the immigrants over the weekend. By Monday night, her church was providing shelter, food, showers and Greyhound bus tickets to more than 100 immigrants. Previously, the largest number of immigrants the church had sheltered was about 30, she estimates. Statistics on whether the illegals will show up for their court dates vary wildly. Families with children seeking asylum are the most likely to show up for court, but the overall no-show rate is about 33%, with most of those eventually being under deportation orders. It should be noted that almost all of these families "present themselves" at the border asking for asylum. A wall wouldn't necessarily stop them, although it would limit their options. The actions taken by DHS to relieve the overflow are indicative of a broken, absurd immigration system. The adult illegals who are released wear ankle monitors, but who is responsible for tracking them? With a waiting period of 15 months or more to go before a judge, it seems ridiculous to believe that most illegal aliens will even bother to make a court appearance. The president wants many more immigration judges, but it takes years to hire them. Meanwhile, immigration judges are retiring at a record rate, resulting in the backlog of cases growing. Any meaningful immigration reform legislation is a non-starter, given the current political climate. So we continue to muddle on with a broken system that doesn't protect our national security or ordinary citizens. The Islamic Republic of Iran has entered its fourth decade, and the legacy of the Revolution it was founded upon continues to have profound and contradictory consequences for Iranian lives. The mullahs have ruled over the defenseless Persian people with iron fists and absolute power. As a result, millions of Iranians were forced to flee their home to the four corners of the globe. Khomeini was an arch-criminal. It is unthinkable that an ancient nation Iran with a distinguished history allowed a high-order demagogue, Ayatollah Khomeini, to rally the people against the Shah with promises of the rule of the people and justice for all. Long-suffering Iranians of all strata readily surrendered their liberty to Khomeini and his gang of murdering sycophants. In Iran, people compromised by wishful thinking saw the "holy man of Allah" as an answered prayer. Fanatic Shiite Muslims perceived him as the one who would revive the flagging fortunes of the faith of Muhammad and pave the way for the much anticipated advent of the Saheb-ul-Zaman (the Lord of the Age). Religious and ethnic minorities dreamed of a time when unscrupulous power brokers would no longer victimize them. Khomeini promised Iranians heaven, but he created Hell on Earth, turning Iran into a bastion of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. Ever since, tens of thousands of political activists have been killed or imprisoned. Tens of thousands of opposition groups, women, and ethnic and religious minorities have been subjected to inhumane treatment, and tens of thousands of political prisoners are spending their precious lives in the medieval, barbaric Islamic Republic's dungeons. Since 1979, this illegitimate government has been waging a brutal war against the entire population of Iran, who has been fighting for individual and religious freedom. Despite tens of thousands of political executions, other brutal practices, and years of a reign of terror, Islamists have not succeeded in uprooting the nationwide movement for democracy in Iran. Gullibility was not limited to Iranians who swelled the ranks of this fraud. On the other side of the world, the president of the United States of America, Jimmy Carter, saw Khomeini as a saint and a savior. Carter provided crucial support to Khomeini, the man whose greatest claim to the rank of the grand ayatollah was his lengthy dissertation on matters concerning sexual intercourse with animals. In 1979, upon returning from his long exile, Ayatollah Khomeini set the stage to gain absolute power via primitive Islamic rules and employed hundreds of thousands of zealous Revolutionary Guards and militia police against opposition elements within the country. The machinery of coercion went to work against the Iranian people, unaware of the plot of one of the greatest terrorist-minded individuals of the twentieth century. The year 1979 was the beginning of the rejuvenation of the evil empire of Islam. The propaganda apparatus of the newly emerged empire of evil went to work. Its agents began with their Cultural Revolution. Numerous political figures, clerics, and academics were involved in the cultural revolution between 1980 and 1983. They expelled some 700 university professors from Iran's academic institutions in a short time. The universities were finally closed in June 1980, and the purification process began. The executions of thousands of prisoners of conscience, by the direct order of the founder of the Islamic Republic in the summer of 1988, reached their height. Before long, Khomeini and his gangs capitalized on the frustrations of the masses, promised them everything under the sun while simultaneously murdering thousands of Iran's best children who opposed them and their system of rule. I was fortunate enough to leave Iran, continuing my education abroad and carrying on with my battle against the Islamic Republic of Iran's murderous rulers. No sooner had this fraud of Allah ascended to power than the Iranians of all strata began to pay the price tens of thousands with their lives for the folly of letting the three-in-one ayatollah make decisions for them. For over four decades, the Iranian people have been paying for the tragedy that has befallen them. And that's not where it ends. Khomeinism is a fire spreading beyond the borders of Iran. Regardless of what you may think of the death penalty, and Oct. 10's World Day against the Death Penalty, it's a very real awfulness for 2,320 brave death row prisoners in Iran. For this occasion, they issued a statement: While 176 prisoners were executed during the first half of 2018 While the Iranian regime has executed prisoners despite repeated international calls, including three Kurd political prisoners, Ramin Hossein Panahai, Zaniar Moradi and Loghman Moradi, to intimidate the public in fear of the spread of protests and the anger and frustration of the people; While the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Michelle Bachelet condemned the execution of juveniles; While Iranian truckers have been on strike since September 23 which has spread to more than 310 cities; While the government has threatened truck drivers to death and has arrested 250 truck drivers; While we are among the thousands of prisoners across Iran awaiting our death, and like Zaniar Moradi, who wrote before his death: "Nine years have passed. Nine years in which I languished in prison while being sentenced to the inhumane death sentence. During these long years... I dreamed of being hanged by the noose. I've spent these nine years thinking about the gallows and the noose and that they will hang around my neck... Every time a young person was hanged in this country, I felt as though it was my turn to be hanged ... In recent years, these brave death row prisoners, in Iran, especially the political prisoners who are singled out for harsh treatment, which often includes denial of medical care, are speaking out. In the central prison of Ardebil, or Orumeih, they remain especially active, despite threats and harassment. They are determined to continue their fight against despotism and make their legitimate demands incessantly. One of them is a man named Sohail Arabi. His picture is here: Sohail Arabi. Sohail Arabi. He's an activist who has been imprisoned since November 2013. In prison, he's been outspoken against the atrocities there and was subjected to the most severe torture during these years in the Great Prison of Tehran. He tells his fellow inmates: "Do not ask me to be silent. At that moment, being silent is the greatest of betrayals." Abloghasem Fouladvand is another human rights activist. He went on a hunger strike to support Iran's nationwide strike led by the truck-drivers as well as the general uprisings in recent months. Abolgasem Fouladvand. Abolgasem Fouladvand. There are also political prisoners at Gohardasht Prison in western Tehran, in which political prisoner Mehdi Farahi Shandiz wrote, "The mercenaries cannot achieve their objectives by intimidating and harassing the political prisoners and human rights activists." Mehdi Farahi Shandiz. Mehdi Farahi Shandiz. Another example is political activist Majid Asadi, who was detained without charge in Evin Prison's Ward 209 under the control of Iran's Intelligence Ministry since February 2017. Majid Asadi, 34, a former student activist at Allameh Tabatabaie University in Tehran, was arrested by agents from an unknown Iranian agency without a warrant at his home in Karaj, west of Tehran, on Feb. 21, 2017. Another resistant political prisoner is human rights-defender Atena Daemi, who recently sent out a letter from Evin Prison on May 25, 2018. In this letter, she condemned the death penalty, which is heavily utilized by the mullahs. Atena Daemi. They are all known for their bravery in the face of the murderous mullah regime, which employs the death penalty at one of the highest rates on Earth. Amnesty International said, "By detaining dozens of prisoners of conscience after grossly unfair trials, the Iranian authorities are already shamelessly flouting their human rights obligations. These are people who shouldn't even be behind bars in the first place, yet instead of being released from custody they are being punished further by being held in appalling conditions." On Jan. 30, 2018, Amnesty International said it was outraged by reports that the Iranian authorities executed a young man who was only 15 years old at the time of the crime. "By carrying out this unlawful execution, Iran is effectively declaring that it wishes to maintain the country's shameful status as one of the world's leading executers of those who were children at the time of their crime," said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa deputy director. In their statement, Iran's "Death Row Prisoners" continued to say: We request that the 40 years of execution, public execution and systematic killings be stopped in Iran. Currently executions have turned into an instrument in the hands of the authoritarian rulers of Iran to consolidate their rule and suppress the people. We consider the execution of prisoners as systematic killings carried out by the government. The gallows are not the solution to the Iranian people's problems. As prisoners who have faced death and execution throughout these years, we call on the families of all death row prisoners, political prisoners and all political and human rights activists to unify and become the voice for the annulment of the death sentence and to aid the people of Iranian in countering this historical calamity. Image credit: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. John Solomon is reporting that, according to James Baker in his recent House testimony, that business about Rosenstein maybe wearing a wire against Trump was no joke or at least not from the perspective of the FBI. Baker told lawmakers he wasn't in the meeting that McCabe had with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in which the subject came up. But he did have firsthand conversations with McCabe and the FBI lawyer assigned to McCabe, Lisa Page, about the issue. "As far as Baker was concerned, this was a real plan being discussed," said a source directly familiar with the congressional investigation. "It was no laughing matter for the FBI." Solomon is properly circumspect about what might be behind Baker's statements after all, this could be simple truth-telling, or it could be payback for Rosenstein's cooperation with Trump in recent weeks. It remains possible, even likely, that Rosenstein wanted nothing to do with McCabe's idea of recording President Trump and seeking to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump, no matter what his personal views on Trump. On the other hand, the FBI leadership knowing what their criminal jeopardy was should Trump become aware of their shenanigans during the 2016 election doubtless saw this as a life-and-death matter for them. It wouldn't be for Rosenstein, although Rosenstein went on to create his own problems for himself. Solomon rightly stresses the extraordinary implications of all this (emphasis added): Baker's story lays bare an extraordinary conversation in which at least some senior FBI officials thought it within their purview to try to capture the president on tape and then go to the president's own Cabinet secretaries, hoping to persuade the senior leaders of the administration to remove the president from power. ... I doubt this is the power that Congress intended to be exercised when it created the FBI a century ago, or the circumstances in which the authors of the 25th Amendment imagined a president's removal could be engineered. This wasn't a president who was incapacitated at the time. He was fully exercising his powers but in a way the FBI leadership did not like. And that makes the FBI's involvement in the tape-record-then-dump-Trump conversations overtly political even if Rosenstein believed the whole idea was farcical. Obviously, the Deep State, one way or another, is very unhappy with Rosenstein at this point. Trump has complete leverage over Rosenstein and so is willing to protect him he may yet prove useful but Rosenstein would be well advised to look both ways before crossing any streets. ADDENDUM: It's seems apparent that the meeting of Rosenstein and Scott Schools from the DoJ with the FBI's Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page was in fact a strategy session. It was intended to address at a minimum how to deal with the new president or, more likely, how to hamstring him. What came out of that meeting was not DAG Rosenstein wearing a wire, but it was a Rod Rosenstein who for all matters involving President Trump was actually the attorney general (due to the Sessions recusal) who not only hid from Trump the fact that the FBI was conspiring against him, but also was willing to use fraudulent means to occupy Trump legally and continue to spy on him through FISA. MORE: IBD has an interesting editorial: "Did Hillary Clinton Direct Deep State's Trump Investigation?" The basic idea is straightforward: none of the FBI abuses and crimes would have occurred but for the Hillary Clinton campaign's involvement. The editorial goes into a fair amount of detail, but it is heavily based on the revelation by James Baker, general counsel of the FBI, that Baker received information relevant to the Carter Page FISA directly from the lawyer for the DNC and the Clinton campaign, who was paying Fusion GPS: Michael Sussman, of Perkins Coie. Baker accepted this information knowing where Sussman was coming from. (See "James Baker Identifies Another Source behind the FISA Application.") Bottom line: All of this, pre-election, was a Democrat operation. It happened; it was illegal and fraudulent. But Rod Rosenstein has been catching a lot of flak, not only from bloggers and GOP-leaning commentators and opinion shapers, but from House Republicans. Rightly so. As I said above, the appointment of Mueller was fraudulent, and the final renewal of the Carter Page FISA was also fraudulent. Both were the acts of Rosenstein. It wasn't wrong for Rosenstein to have gone to the meeting with McCabe, but once he got an idea of what McCabe wanted Rosenstein's cooperation in taking down Trump via the 25th Amendment Rosenstein should have gone straight to Trump and told him: You've got a major problem over at the FBI. I say this based on Rosenstein's own statements that his opinion then and now was that there was and is no basis for applying the 25th Amendment. The FBI, as an investigative agency, had no business getting involved to the extent that it did in any such process. Here's the larger point: all that was basically a Republican operation not a Democrat operation, even though Democrats were overjoyed at what was going on. Rosenstein was a Republican appointee serving a Republican administration, with oversight from Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. That being the case, what is the likelihood that Rosenstein would have taken the steps he did appointing the S.C., approving the final renewal of the FISA just because Andrew McCabe at the FBI, of all people, wanted him to? I would say the likelihood is just about zero. As I said above, Rosenstein is basically a cautious bureaucrat but a highly intelligent cautious bureaucrat. He would have been a fool to have taken those steps without some tacit understanding with the major players in the GOP establishment that those steps needed to be taken. After all, when we talk about a special counsel in this context, we're talking about attacking the legitimacy of the Trump presidency. It's hard for me to believe that Rod Rosenstein made that decision without consulting with people like Senator McConnell and Speaker Ryan. I think the lay of the land has changed substantially since those early days of the Trump presidency. The Republican Party has become the party of Trump. An understanding has been reached. For that reason, I expect that after a successful midterm election, vigorous action will be taken to put all this to rest. The big question will be, will the Republicans take aggressive legal action against the Democrats who set all this in motion? The Kavanaugh nomination fight and the Republican reaction to it suggest that the Republicans may decide to pursue this to the end. Here's a story that's making the news in San Diego as a local district attorney protests, but it's actually a state problem that goes back to the usual lefty suspects, starting with Gov. Jerry Brown. Thousands of murder convictions are likely to be vacated due to a change in state law that effectively says that if you were the guy sitting in the shotgun seat of the car as the other guy pulled the trigger, you get off scot-free you're no longer convicted of murder, too. The County of San Diego alone is set to release about 150 such charmers onto the streets, and the other 57 counties are going to have to do similar. All told, about 800 of them are reportedly going to get let out. According to NBC News: SB 1437 was signed into law last month by Governor Jerry Brown and will go into effect on January 1, 2019. Under the change, if a defendant in a crime did not kill, intend to kill, or did not act with reckless indifference to human life in the death in question, that person cannot be found liable for murder. So the Lord of the Flies laws get vacated, and the gangsters who egg their buddies on to pull the kill trigger no longer face consequences. Only the one who did pull the trigger faces consequences. In a pack of cheering thugs, try to figure out the right one. That has got San Diego D.A. Summer Stephan concerned, given that she's going to have to try some of these cases all over again, considering the guiltiness of this kind of perps. The District Attorney cited the 2016 stabbing death of Hugh Pettigrew, 33, of Fallbrook. Three alleged gang members were convicted, even though prosecutors could not prove who actually committed the murder. The new law will allow the three to petition for a new hearing. As many as 800 cases could be impacted throughout California. "All three were held responsible, rightfully so, because all three cooperated to murdering this innocent man for their benefit to their gang," said Stephan. Yes, people who had no knowledge that a murder was about to be committed shouldn't be jailed, and it's possible that the law did need adjustment. But in gang situations, that isn't going to be the case, because, well, they're in a gang. And this law is grotesquely sweeping. As killers get let out, it should do wonders for the California quality of life, with all its homelessness and crimmigrants as a certain number of new recruits join the club and return to business. Stephan, you recall, was last seen in the news beating back a barrage of Soros cash at a special election, something she did with aplomb, given that Soros sponsored an idiot. But obviously the Soros agenda of letting them all out of jail continued, even without his little pawns in power. That raises questions about who really sponsored this potentially troublesome move, one that forces D.A.s to prove without a shadow of a doubt who pulled the trigger in gang murders, even in cases where the whole mob was agendaed to kill. Only one guy now can apparently be held responsible for each killing, while the others get off scot-free. Was this Soros? It sure has the look of it. California is going to pay. Image Credit: Mike Licht via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. A consent decree negotiated by Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and state attorney general Lisa Madigan that will severely limit the Chicago police in proactive policing will be opposed by the U.S. Justice Department. The decree, with substantial input from Black Lives Matter and the ACLU, will bury police in paperwork and, like other consent decrees, hamstring police in using proactive measures to prevent crime. Chicago Sun-Times: Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement, "Chicago's agreement with the ACLU in late 2015 dramatically undercut proactive policing in the city and kicked off perhaps the greatest surge in murder ever suffered by a major American city, with homicides increasing more than 57 percent the very next year. "Now the city's leaders are seeking to enter into another agreement. It is imperative that the city not repeat the mistakes of the past the safety of Chicago depends on it. Accordingly, at the end of this week, the Justice Department will file a statement of interest opposing the proposed consent decree. It is critical that Chicago get this right." What happened after the 2015 agreement went into effect? The ACLU agreement was made in 2015, and the next year murders in Chicago spiked. In 2016, there were 750 people murdered in Chicago compared with 480 in the previous year, a 57 percent increase and the most since 1997 when 761 people were slain. But there is more to the story than what is reflected in the Sessions statement. Murders so far this year in Chicago are down about 19 percent compared with the same period of 2017 and 24 percent compared with the same period of 2016. The numbers can't help but go down after the bloodletting of 2016. It's hardly something to be proud of. Many police in the city do not oppose some administrative reforms that would hold officers more accountable. But there are elements of the consent decree that are strenuously opposed by all police because they would make their jobs far more dangerous. The DoJ's intervention probably won't stop the judge from ruling the consent decree valid. Its role is advisory only. So a Black Lives Matter- and ACLU-approved agreement will probably go into effect. The city's residents will almost certainly be less safe as a result. Recently, more than 1,700 law professors nationwide signed a letter urging the Senate to reject Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Judge Kavanaugh exhibited a lack of commitment to judicious inquiry. Instead of being open to the necessary search for accuracy, Judge Kavanaugh was repeatedly aggressive with questioners. Even in his prepared remarks, Judge Kavanaugh described the hearing as partisan, referring to it as "a calculated and orchestrated political hit," Judge Kavanaugh responded in an intemperate, inflammatory and partial manner, as he interrupted and, at times, was discourteous to senators. While these legal scholars are free to form their own opinions, this letter was nothing more than a desperate and politicized attempt to keep a well qualified jurist off the nation's highest court. While their efforts fortunately failed, they should raise some red flags about what is being taught in law schools across the country. There was never a question about Kavanaugh's ability to be fair or impartial. Kavanaugh fervently defended his innocence and welcomed whatever additional steps the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended. In addition, Kavanaugh was rightfully angered due to the uncorroborated allegations and the vicious smear campaign launched against himself and his family by Senate Democrats. Sadly, the letter written by these professors appears to be an indictment of Judge Kavanaugh based on politics and nothing more. There was nothing wrong with Kavanaugh's temperament. He was acting as a father, a husband, and a man who was defending his name and his reputation. Many of these same professors would have likely reacted in a similar manner had they endured what Kavanaugh went through. Ironically, the professors who signed this letter could have signed a similar letter when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg went on her partisan rant about President Trump, stating: "I can't imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president." "For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be I don't even want to contemplate that." Why weren't these same professors and legal scholars calling for Ginsburg's recusal? Did her obvious bias against the president not rise to the requisite level of unfairness, or were they simply willing to overlook it because of Ginsburg's political leanings? Lawyers should find this type of conduct appalling. Hopefully, these professors and legal scholars are not pushing their liberal ideologies and agendas in our nation's law schools in an effort to mold our future jurists and judges. It is not their job to do so, just as it is not their job to intentionally inject themselves in a confirmation process for strictly political and partisan purposes. Mr. Hakim's articles have been published in The Daily Caller, The Federalist, The Western Journal, American Thinker, and other online publications. The story of King Arthur and his legendary sword Excalibur which he pulled out of a rock to prove his divine right to the throne is well known. But what is fiction to the British, is fact for Italiansfor in a Tuscan abbey in Montesiepi, is a sword plunged into solid rock. The sword, of which only the hilt and a few inches of the blade is visible, is now preserved at the abbey of San Galgano in the town of Montesiepi, 30 km from Siena. Legend has it, that the sword was driven into the rock by Galgano Guidotti, a 12th-century Tuscan nobleman, who after seeing a vision of the Archangel, renounced his life of violence and lust in favor of a pious hermitage, and was later made a saint. The sword of Galgano Guidotti, embedded in stone. Photo credit: lkonya / Shutterstock.com Born in 1148 in the small town of Chiusdino, Galgano is said to have led a ruthless life in his early years. Though he became a knight and trained in the art of war, he was said to be arrogant and led the life of a thug, until Archangel Michael appeared before him and showed him the way to salvation. In his vision, Galgano followed Archangel to the hill of Montesiepi where he met the twelve Apostles and the Creator himself. After the vision, Galgano's horse refused to obey his orders and led him to the hill where his vision happened. Convinced that this was a sign, Galgano decided then and there to renounce his villainous life. A voice then told him to renounce all material things, to which Galgano replied that it would be as hard as splitting a rock. To prove his point, Galgano drew his sword and plunged it into the rocky ground. To his surprise, the rock yielded like butter and the blade went through. Galgano got the message, and took up permanent residence on that hill as a humble hermit. He never left the hill, living in poverty, accompanied by wild animals and occasionally visited by villagers and monks. According to another version of the story, Galgano wanted to make a cross on the hill but with no wood around, he decided to plant his sword in the ground. The sword is said to have immediately become one piece with the ground so that nobody could remove it. For centuries, the sword was assumed to be a fake. But after examining the composition of the metal, researchers said that the style was compatible with the era of the legend. Ground-penetrating radar analysis also revealed that beneath the sword there is a cavity, about two meters by one meter, which is thought to be a burial recess, possibly containing the knight's body. It has been argued that the legend of Saint Galgano formed the inspiration for the medieval legends about King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone. A story like that of Saint Galgano could travel all over Europe, and it is interesting to note that the first story about Arthur pulling a sword from a stone (or more exactly an anvil on top of the stone) appears in the decades following Saint Galgano's canonization in one of the poems by the Burgundian poet Robert de Boron, says Bjorn Hellqvist. Saint Galgano's sword embedded in stone in Montesiepi's Hermitage. Photo credit: lkonya / Shutterstock.com Hermitage of Montesiepi. Photo credit: lkonya / Shutterstock.com THE Philippines will donate $300,000about P16 millionto Indonesia to help it recover from the Sept. 28 earthquake and tsunami that devastated it and claimed more than 2,000 lives. Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Lee Hiong Tan Wee announced the donation in a press conference on Wednesday to reporters in Bali. The donation will be in cash and in kind, he said. Wee made his statement even as Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the Philippines will deploy a C-130 aircraft to hasten the delivery of aid to the victims of the magnitude-7.5 earthquake in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Lorenzana said the aircraft will be sent at the request of the Indonesian government for humanitarian assistance. There will be two sorties of our C-130. One today and [it will go for] another [trip] on the 15th. By the 15th, the C-130 will stay there for quite some time to help [in] the ferrying of goods, Lorenzana said.The crew of the C-130 will be there unless we are notified that we need to send more. The Department of Foreign Affairs earlier said there will be a simple ceremony when President Rodrigo Duterte and Indonesian President Joko Widodo have their bilateral meeting in Indonesia. Duterte is scheduled to attend the Asean Leaders Gathering in Indonesia before attending the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Annual Meeting in Bali. The Asean Leaders Gathering is expected to show that the 10 Asean leaders are united and the regional international group is a potent force in the world arena. In Short: The Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) has just surfaced on Geekbench. This benchmarking tool reports that the phone managed to score 1,609 points in a single-core test, while it was able to attain 5,844 points in a multi-core test. This test was performed today, October 10, and the device seems to be running Android 8.0 Oreo. Qualcomms Snapdragon 660 64-bit octa-core processor will fuel this phone, while Samsung will include 6GB of RAM on the inside. This handset managed to get somewhat better results on Geekbench compared to the Galaxy A7 (2018), as that phone hit 1,526 and 4,265 points in Geekbenchs single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. Background: Samsung had announced October 11 press event, and the Galaxy A9 (2018) is expected to be announced during that press conference. The company did not confirm that yet, but its what pretty much everyone is expecting. Samsung is, however, teasing the 4X fun for the upcoming phone, and that probably refers to the phones quadruple camera. The Galaxy A9 (2018) is actually rumored to arrive with four cameras on the back, the device is rumored to ship with 24-megapixel (f/1.7 aperture lens), 8-megapixel (f/2.4 aperture, wide-angle lens), 10-megapixel (f/2.4 aperture, telephoto lens), and 5-megapixel (f/2.2 aperture, depth lens) cameras. The device will probably ship with a 6.3-inch fullHD+ display, while a fingerprint scanner will be included on the back of the device. A 3,720mAh battery, which is not removable, had also been rumored, while the phone will support Qualcomms Quick Charge 2.0 fast charging. Impact: The Galaxy A9 will be a new mid-range smartphone from Samsung, and the very first smartphone from the company to ship with four cameras, if rumors are to be believed. Samsung had included three cameras on the Galaxy A7 (2018) quite recently, and it seems like the company is ready to test even more sensors. In Short: Google will now record select calls initiated via call-only ads or affiliated call extensions, in the United States only, in order to ensure that the ads behind those calls are not spam or fraudulent, and to help improve the user experience. When you get into a call from an ad link or any other call thats otherwise initiated via tools in Googles advertising platform, you will hear a notification that the call is being recorded by Google, giving you the opportunity to hang up if youre not comfortable with that. To be clear, not only will you be notified, but only a small percentage of qualifying calls will actually be recorded, and only calls initiated via Googles ad platform will qualify. Background: Google has allowed advertisers to use ads that will initiate a phone call when interacted with for some time now. While Googles service can vet the ads that initiate those calls for quality and to prevent fraud, malware and other bad faith acts, the same could not be said of the resulting phone calls until now. Otherwise innocent-looking ads could lead to a call where a sales agent makes false promises and goads users into ponying up, for example. This initiative is there to help put a stop to all of that, as well as to help advertisers screen what kinds of customers may be interested or move further along in the process, and how to tweak their ads and the calls those ads start up going forward. Impact: All of this is in strict accordance with Googles comprehensive privacy policy, which means that users need not worry about any personal data getting out, save in the case of a data breach, something thats becoming somewhat common these days. In any case, if you dont normally jump from an ad to a phone call, this change wont affect you anyway. If you do regularly put calls through that are initiated by Google ads, then expect to see improvements in quality in the near future, at the expense of Google monitoring some of those calls and thus being entrusted with any personal data they may entail, starting with the phone number making the call and the carrier account name and other publicly available information associated with that number. In Short: An infographic put together by consumer goods website Hometop shows all of Googles first-party branded Android phones, from the very first Android handset, the HTC Dream or G1, all the way to the recently announced Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. The history lesson, attached below, shows what years each smartphone came out, and a few factoids about them, such as things they may have done before any other phones, what chipsets powered them, and how much RAM they had. Whether youre feeling nostalgic for the old Android days or youre new to the space and want to know how the evolutionary line went in the leadup to the newest Pixel devices, its worth a look. Background: The journey begins with the humble HTC Dream, known as the G1 stateside. It was the very first Android device, and had a trackball, slide-out keyboard, and a screen that could be almost be called extreme in its smallness by todays standards. Notable stops along the way include the NASA-approved Nexus S, the revolutionary Galaxy Nexus that debuted alongside Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and introduced the Holo design language that would go on to define the Android 4.x era and lead into Material Design, and the massive and pricey Nexus 6 that brought the Nexus lineup into the premium space and actually debuted Android 5.0 Lollipop and Material Design. Of course, the list of honorable mentions also includes the very first Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones that showed the world what happens when Google not only partners with a smartphone manufacturer, but takes the reigns and makes something cohesive with the rest of its lineup. Impact: Looking at the evolutionary line, youd be forgiven for thinking that things got stagnant when the era of the Nexus ended and the Pixels took over. Thats actually Google asserting its very own design language in the smartphone space, and its a trend that looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. As the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL showed, each Pixel going forward is going to be a large step above its predecessor, but not a quantum leap. You may see new capabilities, more powerful chips, slightly changed designs and other small details changing, but thus far, the Pixel lineup has yet to deviate from its roots in any significant way, and thats not entirely a bad thing. Just ask any Apple fan, or any Samsung loyalist who was around for the pre-Galaxy S6 days. In short: Google has now outlined a series of new partnerships and expansions enabling more ways for potential buyers to experience and buy its smartphones and other devices including new pop-up stores, in conjunction with its annual Made By Google hardware event. For starters, consumers in New York and Chicago will be able to visit pop-up stores from October 18 through December 31 to try out the companys hardware in person. Those will be located in SoHo at 131 Green Street and Bucktown at 1704 N. Damen, respectively. Those arent the only new shopping experiences coming in the middle of October, either. Bay Area residents will be able to purchase the companys new Google Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL at the companys website and have it delivered within as little as three hours. Thats thanks to a new partnership with Enjoys delivery service and the companys experts will even go so far as to help buyers set the new handset up. Whats more, the deal means that the current-generation Pixel 2 XL, Pixelbook, and Google Home Max can be delivered starting today. Setting those announcements aside, Google has also formed new partnerships with b8ta and goop that will see its hardware on display and ready to buy at select locations for each. For b8ta, Googles products are now available in a total of five stores in Austin, Corte Madera, Houston, San Francisco, and Tysons Corner. Two further b8ta stores will be receiving the devices in Short Hill, New Jersey, and Scottsdale, Arizona, at some point later in 2018. Meanwhile, permanent goop Lab stores and GIFT pop-ups will be featuring the new devices starting this holiday season and more information will be made available later this month. In both cases, prospective customers will have the chance to try out Googles new products in person before buying. Background: There has already been a substantial amount of news stemming from this years Made By Google event and leading up to the incoming consumer experiences. The search giant has not only launched a new display-enabled Google Home device, the Google Home Hub. It has effectively re-entered the tablet market with its newly unveiled Chrome OS-powered Google Pixel Slate and taken the wraps of off two new Pixel-branded handsets set to go on sale later this month. Stacked with Googles current range of devices, from the Google Pixelbook to its Daydream VR headset and three Assistant-powered Home devices, the new hardware opens up an opportunity for these types of shopping partnerships. However, at least in the case of pop-up shops, this is not Googles first foray into that side of retail. Instead, the announcement builds on earlier efforts in Canada started back near the beginning of the year and similar sales events from the launch of the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Moreover, it follows recent trends from online-based companies such as Amazon and Snap to enter the brick-and-mortar side of sales. Advertisement Impact: Bearing that in mind, Google isnt stopping at pop-up shops and in-store testing either. The search giant also revealed an ongoing project in partnership with Wing, another Alphabet subsidiary, that has reportedly already been performing localized drone-based delivery of at least some Google hardware in unspecified markets. Specifically, thats been undertaking the delivery of Google Home Mini device which the company says can be shipped to buyers in just 10 minutes from the time of ordering. Of course, that isnt really a feasible option for scaling, as noted by Google. But the company does hint that similar solutions could be a big part of how its products are delivered, where possible, at some point in the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpVC1Emp6TY In short: The Galaxy Note 10 or Galaxy S11 may be the first lineups of Samsung-made Android flagships to lack a 3.5mm headphone jack, South Korean outlet ETNews reports, citing sources close to the Seoul-based company. The tech giant is currently said to be considering such a move, though the reasoning behind the potential move remains unclear. The Galaxy S10 family set to be released in early 2019 will still feature a traditional headphone port, insiders claim, adding that should Samsung choose to remove the connector from its future smartphones, it would bundle all of them with USB Type-C adapters that would allow for conventional earphones to still be connected to such devices, which is what most manufacturers who previously made the same design decision also did. Background: The trend of headphone jack removal was started by Apple in late summer of 2016 when the Cupertino-base juggernaut unveiled the iPhone 7 line. Many Android OEMs followed suit almost immediately, though Samsung was so far adamant to do its own thing, going as far as to invest in advertising specifically mocking the lack of the popular 3.5mm connector on Apples contemporary handsets. Even Samsungs first foldable smartphone thats expected to launch next month under an entirely new product lineup is widely rumored to be featuring a headphone jack. Impact: LG is the only major smartphone maker that still doesnt appear to be considering removing the headphone jack from its high-end devices but even if either it or Samsung were to do so, it certainly wouldnt be due to industry pressure given how long theyve defied the trend. Should Samsung, the worlds largest phone manufacturer, truly do away with the connector, such a move would be the final push toward bringing wireless audio solutions to mainstream popularity, though some industry watchers argue Apple was already quite successful at doing so. The Philippine National Police continues to monitor 303 private armed groups as part of the security preparations for next years midterm elections, its spokesman said Wednesday. Chief Supt. Benigno Durana Jr. said they had been monitoring 77 armed groups with 2,060 members that had 1,574 firearms. They had also been monitoring 226 inactive armed groups with 2,028 members and more than 1,000 firearms. Durana made his statement even as the Commission on Elections said Wednesday it was ready for the filing of Certificates of Candidacy for the 2019 mid-term elections. It appealed to all aspiring national and local candidates to respect the Comelec offices and make their filing dignified. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the aspirants for elective positions for the 2019 elections were set to file their respective COCs starting Thursday, Oct. 11, until Wednesday, Oct. 17. We are appealing to all aspiring candidates to respect the Comelec offices. We are gearing toward a dignified filing of COCs. The Comelec is ready and prepared to ensure that the filing is dignified, Jimenez said. We dont want to turn the filing of COCs into a circus of supporters, and we want to avoid any possible clashes among the supporters of candidates.Durana said most armed groups were seasonal and mostly based in Mindanao, particularly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. He said they were validating the information that 72 out of these 77 active armed groups were based in ARMM. They were being targeted two months ago and definitely they will be held accountable, Durana said. He said Abra was expected to remain an election hot spot due to the incidents of violence there during the 2010 and 2016 elections. We will deploy SAF units there, units not territorial to that particular place so that they will not be influenced whatsoever by politicians, Durana said. Express your opinion! Fill out this form to submit a Letter to the Editor. Submit TaipeiTaiwans President Tsai Ing-wen accused China of seriously challenging peace and stability Wednesday, describing the island she leads as being on the front line of tensions in the Pacific. It comes as Beijing pursues a multi-pronged attack on any claims to sovereignty by self-ruled democratic Taiwan, which it sees as part of its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated since Tsai took office two years ago, as she refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of one China. As Taiwan is on the front line of the Western Pacific, we are naturally subject to tremendous pressure, Tsai said in a televised speech to mark Taiwans National Day. Chinas unilateral diplomatic offensive and military coercion have not only harmed cross-strait relations. They have also seriously challenged the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, she added. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign country and has an independent political system, judiciary and currency, but has never formally declared a split, despite being ruled separately since 1949. China has recently upped military drills around the island and has made a concerted effort to poach Taiwans dwindling number of official alliesonly 17 countries still diplomatically recognize the island after five jumped ship since Tsai took power. Beijing has also successfully put pressure on international businesses to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites and ensured Taiwan is shut out of global forums.Tsai called on the authorities in Beijing to play a positive role in the region and the world, instead of being a source of conflict. She pledged not to escalate tensions but also said Taiwan would seek to fortify its national security and diplomatic links, establishing its irreplaceable strategic importance. I will not be provoked into confrontation or conflicts that endanger cross-strait relations, nor will I deviate from the will of the people, and sacrifice Taiwans sovereignty, Tsai said. An effective response strategy must be rooted in national strength, she added. Worsening ties with Beijing and unpopular domestic reforms policies are putting Tsais government under pressure ahead of major local elections next month. Tsai warned in her speech that anyone interfering in the election process would suffer serious consequences. She has accused Beijing of spreading fake information to affect public trust in the government in the run-up to the elections. From September 17 to 21, Naqoura's firing point, on the extreme southwestern edge of the area of operations, hosted the FINUL semi-annual Steel Storm exercise. Organized by the Force Commander Reserve (FCR), it gathered 13 nations, 700 soldiers and allowed its actors to train while demonstrating their abilities. The aim was to further enhance the cooperation and interoperability of UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces (FAL). Naqoura's firing point, on the extreme southwestern edge of the area of operations, hosted the FINUL semi-annual Steel Storm exercise (Picture source: French MoD) This live ammunition exercise was complemented by a series of dynamic and static demonstrations of the East (Nepal, Spain, Indonesia, India) and West (Italy, Ireland, China, Malaysia, Ghana, Finland) and RCF (France and Finland) in the presence of the military authorities of UNIFIL and to which the Lebanese generals are invited. The FAL have also contributed to securing the exercise by keeping watch at sea thanks to their Navy, marking and filtering on land, but also to setting targets at sea. UNIFIL has around 10,500 peacekeepers coming from 41 troop contributing countries. The Mission maintains an intensive level of operational and other activities amounting to approximately 13,500 activities per month, day and night, in the area of operations. Seventeen percent of activities are carried out jointly with the Lebanese Armed Forces. UNIFIL is complemented by a seven-vessel Maritime Task Force. According to Security Council resolutions 425 (1978) and 426 (1978) of 19 March 1978, UNIFIL was established to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon; restore international peace and security; assist the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area;. According to Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) of 11 August 2006, UNIFIL, in addition to carrying out its mandate under resolutions 425 and 426, shall: - Monitor the cessation of hostilities. - Accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the South, including along the Blue Line, as Israel withdraws its armed forces from Lebanon. - Coordinate its activities referred to in the preceding paragraph (above) with the Government of Lebanon and the Government of Israel. - Extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons. - Assist the Lebanese armed forces in taking steps towards the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL deployed in this area. - Assist the Government of Lebanon, at its request, in securing its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel. By this resolution, the Council also authorized UNIFIL to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind; to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council; and to protect United Nations personnel, facilities, installations and equipment, ensure the security and freedom of movement of United Nations personnel, humanitarian workers and, without prejudice to the responsibility of the Government of Lebanon, to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence. Do it yourself if you can We accept in principle that private equity can deliver (somewhat) excess returns over most other asset classes. But there are a lot of qualifications attached to that, and most of them are very relevant to whether and how pension funds should invest in private equity. IstanbulSaudi Arabia agreed to let Turkish authorities search its Istanbul consulate as part of the investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as his fiancee asked Donald Trump to help uncover what happened to the Riyadh critic. There has been fierce speculation over what happened to Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who wrote for Arab and Western media, after he vanished on October 2 following a visit to the consulate to obtain official documents. While Riyadh claimed he had left the consulate after his visit, Turkish police said Khashoggi did not emerge from the building. Government sources said police believe the journalist was killed inside the consulate, claims which Riyadh dismissed as baseless. Saudi authorities said they were open to cooperation and that a search can be conducted at the consulate building, the Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement on Tuesday. The search will take place as part of the official investigation, which was being conducted in an intense manner, he said without giving any date. Khashoggis fiancee Hatice Cengiz wrote in an opinion piece for The Washington Post that she was confident in the abilities of Turkish government officials. But she also implored President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance. Trump on Monday expressed concern about Khashoggis case and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a thorough investigation. Turkish police were looking into two private aircraft which landed at Istanbuls Ataturk airport on October 2 at different times carrying 15 people of interest in the case, as well as the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped and taken aboard one of the planes, local media reported. Previously Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg that Riyadh would allow Turkish officials to search the premises. Ankara sought permission Sunday for the search after the foreign ministry summoned the Saudi ambassador for a second time, Turkish television reported. Riyadhs envoy in Ankara was first called to the ministry on Wednesday. Khashoggi, a former Saudi government adviser, had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year fearing possible arrest.He has been critical of some policies of the crown prince and Riyadhs intervention in the war in Yemen. Police also said a team of 15 Saudis were sent to Istanbul and were in the building at the same time as Khashoggi. Turkish security officials were working to identify the 15 individuals, English-language state broadcaster TRT World reported, adding that Turkish officials believe the Saudis may have taken the consulates CCTV footage with them when they returned to Riyadh. According to pro-government daily Sabah, the team arrived in Istanbul on two private planes, one which landed after 03:00 am (0000 GMT) on Tuesday while the second plane landed around 05:00 pm (1400 GMT) after Khashoggi entered the consulate. The individuals checked into two hotels close to the consulate, the daily said. Both planes later returned to Riyadh with one stopping in Dubai and the other in Egypt, Sabah reported, adding the police were looking into the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped. The planes belonged to a company based in Saudi Arabia which has links to the state. Istanbul police experts were analyzing vehicles which entered and left the consulate, some of which were then seen on camera on October 2 at the consul-generals residence, 200 metres away, the daily said. The newspaper also claimed that Turkish employees at the residence were hastily told to take a holiday on the day Khashoggi went missing. UN rights office spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, on Tuesday echoed calls for a prompt, impartial and independent investigation of the circumstances of Mr Khashoggis disappearance and to keep the findings public in comments to journalists in Geneva. European Unions foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters in Lisbon that we are 100 percent behind the American position. We expect a thorough investigation and total transparency from the Saudi authorities on what happened. Meanwhile, in London, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt met the Saudi ambassador on Tuesday to seek urgent answers, according to a post on Twitter. Demand for the bond was beyond expectations, Dentons said. Investor presentations were made for the notes in Singapore, Hong Kong, London, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. The notes were issued pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S of the US Securities Act. The global firms team was led by Stephen Massa, partner and PNG head, who was assisted by senior associate Wavie Kendino and associate Theresa Kawi. Kendino was in Singapore with PNGs deputy prime minister and treasurer, central bank governor, and treasury secretary for the launch of the offer. She said that it is a once in a lifetime experience for a young Papua New Guinean excited about her countrys future. PNG has a great story to tell and it is very pleasing that the international financial markets have seen this. It is a milestone for PNG and a good news story for the host country of this years APEC Leaders Summit, Massa said. A debut sovereign bond by a frontier market is no easy task. Not only does the investment offering need to meet strict credit and risk criteria, the government team appropriately resourced and available to undergo the demanding due diligence and roadshow exercise, but financial markets have to be just right. All this makes for a limited window of opportunity and explains why this transaction has been years in the making, he said. The 1987 Constitution is on its 31st year. This Constitution was written post trauma and as a reaction to the Marcos regime. It aimed to restore democracy, break down the previous form of government, remove vast government powers previously vested only on the President that were unchecked, and establish a fresh start for the next administration. Ideally, a Constitution should be lasting and permanent. We must consider that in our situation, the 1987 Constitution was written under circumstances that prevailed at a specific point in time. Three decades after, these circumstances no longer exist. The Constitution now faces issues regarding its relevance, responsiveness and applicability to current times and future needs. Previous administrations have perceived the need to amend the Constitution and created consultative bodies to change the form of government. These efforts were seen as a way to perpetuate political power. For every bill filed to amend the Constitution, the reaction was the same. The proponents were blamed, perhaps unfairly, of trying to stay in power. Efforts to amend the Constitution did not gain much momentum because of the violent reactions against it. We cannot forever live under the fear of a Marcos repeat. We have laws that safeguard our democracy and protect our freedoms. The government has established agencies that will ensure the regulation of trade relations and implementation of economic policies; protect public welfare; ensure provision and delivery of public services and goods; maintain peace and order; and compensate the victims of human rights violations.However, the prevailing economic conditions and development prompt us to take a look at some Constitutional economic provisions. With the influx of foreign investors, there is a need to include in the Constitution the importance of encouraging their entry and participation in certain industries, striking a balance between the need for fresh capital infusion and State regulation. The provision on the exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources is also static in the Constitution, and perhaps a measure of flexibility will be beneficial in this area. These are just some of the provisions which, once amended, would open our economy to more opportunities for growth and better governance. I am in support of the amendment of the Constitution. To truly move forward and evolve, we must take a serious look at our Constitution and determine if its provisions can provide a lasting framework and solid foundation for a progressive nation, in these fast changing times. I trust that the government shall endeavor on continuing the democracy and freedom currently enjoyed by Filipinos while rebuilding our organic law into one that can withstand the test of time. Leading firms were the legal advisers as a major Australasian private healthcare provider is changing hands. Clayton Utz and Russell McVeagh have advised Pacific Equity Partners (PEP), which has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Evolution Healthcare. King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) and Chapman Tripp have advised the vendors, which include Roc Partners, a Goldman Sachs special situations fund, Qantas Super, VicSuper and CBUS. No financial details of the deal were announced, but the Australian Financial Review said that the stake was pitched at more than $300m. PEP is looking to buy more than 80% of the company, it said. The deal needs regulatory approval, including from New Zealands Overseas Investment Office. Hi everyone. I've got some questions regarding being granted 801 straight away (skipping 820). I have been in a relationship with my Australian partner since 2013. From 2013 to 2015 my partner visited me in Norway and stayed with me and my family for either 6 or 9 months in total (have to double-check), during his university breaks. From 2015 to 2016 I was an exchange student in Australia and stayed with him and his family for roughly 11 months. Then in 2017, I moved to Australia to go to university and live with him and his family for 3 years (my entire bachelor's degree). So at the moment, I have lived in Australia with him for about 2 years in total, including my time as an exchange student. It is likely that we won't apply for the visa until 2019, so by then I have lived in Australia with him for 3 years. We have lots of evidence on our relationship over the past 5 years (lacking some financial aspects as both our families let us live for free, but I think we can mostly get it covered), and I'm therefore wondering if it is likely that I could get granted 801 directly? However, our relationship started when I was 15 (in 2013), and I wonder if that will affect the way the case officer looks at our case? My next question is; what would happen if I were granted the 801 visa while I am still on my student visa? Would it not go into effect until the end of my student visa (2020)? Overview: *The total time I have stayed in Australia with him, including my exchange student period is 2 years - or 3 years if I apply in 2019 *The total time he has stayed with me in Norway is roughly 9 months *We have evidence of being in a committed relationship since 2013 but had a long distance relationship until 2017 Thank you. It all started in Dusseldorf and Stuttgart, two cities where certain environmentalist groups, led by Environmental Action Germany (DUH), decided to go to court over the authorities' lack of decision in enforcing emission regulations. Since that moment, various parties have acted in other cities as well, and the so-called diesel ban has spread to other parts of the country.On Tuesday, Euronews reported that a court in Berlin, Germanys capital, has ruled in favor of forcing the city to create exclusion zones from where diesel cars that have Euro 5 or older emissions levels will be banned from entering.Like any major city in Europe, Berlin has various emission levels it hopes of meeting. With the current state of affairs, said the judges, there are not sufficient measures to meet annual limits for nitrogen dioxide.Local authorities have until March 31 next year to come up with a new clean air plan, with the diesel driving ban to be implemented after that moment, but no later than two or three months.Of course, diesel driving ban sounds a lot worse than it actually is. Diesel cars are not banned per se as in people can still buy, sell and drive them but rather their access to certain areas of some cities is limited, provided there are Euro 5 or older.In Berlin, these areas include 11 parts of major arteries measuring several tens of kilometers in length, a drop in the ocean compared to the total road network of the city of about 5,400 km (3,355 miles).According to local media, cited by News24, the ban could affect as many as 200,000 cars. It happened on a relatively busy street in Southg Cotobato in the Philippines, and the dude, identified by the Daily Mail as Jeffrey Delrio, even managed to get the traffic cops involved in his rather cruel prank.The video actually went online earlier this month, but its gained a lot of traction just recently, going viral. You can see it at the bottom of the page.So Jeffreys idea of surprising his girl was to scare the bejeezus out of her first. He staged his own death by motorcycle accident, so when she arrived with a friend on a moped, she found him face down in the middle of the street, while the cops were redirecting traffic around his seemingly-lifeless body.He didnt go through the trouble of making the fake death scene too convincing, so the bike was still in one piece and there were no other vehicles around or apparent casualties. In other words, had Shiela had time to process what she was seeing, she would have realized there was something fishy about it.However, time was one thing she didnt have. She jumped off her friends moped and rushed to her dead man, trying to touch him before one police officer stopped her. Another bend over the body to check for signs of life, which is when Jeffrey started to move.He got up and then on one knee and reached out his hand, with a diamond ring in it, towards Shiela. Still sobbing, she first turned to one of the officers for a hug and then jumped into Jeffreys arms. She said yes to the proposal, despite being played such a cruel prank by the man she would soon call her husband.It was unusual. People keep thinking of strange ways to make marriage proposals, Mark Apura, one friend of the couple told the media after the video went viral. He also said that Jeffrey and Shiela were full of love after prank and the proposal. Image: Garmin Garmin announced today that it is expanding the list of aircraft eligible to upgrade from the companys G1000 integrated flight deck to the newer G1000 NXi. The NXi upgrade is available immediately for G1000-equipped Daher TBM 850/900 and King Air 200/300/350 aircraft. Garmin also said that it expects to add upgrade eligibility for the Citation Mustang by the end of 2018, along with the Embraer Phenom 100/300 and Piper M500 in 2019. According to Garmin, the G1000 NXi provides better readability, smoother display panning and faster map rendering. Other features include data transfer between the NXi system and Garmin Pilot, FltPlan Go and ForeFlight mobile apps, the ability to display ADS-B In benefits such as traffic and weather, a geographical map overlay within the horizontal situation indicator (HSI), and visual approach guidance. The company says the upgrade does not require panel and wiring modifications since it uses the existing display footprint and connectors. Garmin also announced that it has made progress toward certification of the G5000 for the Citation Excel and Citation XLS with the addition of a second test aircraft. The system has currently undergone more than 125 hours of flight testing in addition to several thousand hours of ground tests and system development. Certification is expected in early 2019. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the foreign ministers of Greece and Cyprus during meetings in Jerusalem last month that he doesn't see President Trump reducing the pressure on Turkey over the arrest of American pastor Andrew Brunson or an improvement in U.S.-Turkey relations in the near future, Israeli officials and Western diplomats told me. Why it matters: Greece and Cyprus are two of Turkey's main adversaries. Israel has its own crisis with Turkey after the government in Ankara asked the Israeli ambassador to leave the country over violence in Gaza. And Netanyahu played a role in Trump's efforts to release Brunson when he agreed to Trump's request to release a Turkish citizen detained in Israel. As a result of the deal, which didn't lead to Brunson's release and led to U.S. sanctions against Turkey, Netanyahu has good knowledge of Trump's thinking on the issue. The Israeli officials and Western diplomats who were briefed on Netanyahu's meeting with the Greek and Cypriot foreign ministers said he stressed he doesn't think there will be any progress in solving the U.S.-Turkey crisis before next month's midterm elections because Brunson's case is important to many evangelical voters. In the meetings, Netanyahu spoke very critically about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the Israeli officials and Western diplomats, Netanyahu said he is pessimistic and concerned about the economic situation in Turkey because Erdogan is making irrational economic decisions. Netanyahu said: "There is a systemic problem in Turkey. Erdogan calls me Hitler every two weeks I dont see the light at the end of the tunnel [regarding Turkey's future]." More from the meetings: An abrupt spike in the number of Guatemalan families in Arizona's detention facilities has forced federal immigration authorities to release hundreds of parents and children in recent days to church shelters and charities, reports the Washington Post. The details: A spokeswoman for ICE, Yasmeen Pitts OKeefe, said the agency does not have the capacity to conduct case reviews without risking violating court-mandated limits on how long children can be held in detention facilities. The Post cites an anonymous Department of Homeland Security official saying the government has seen record numbers of family units coming across the border. September arrest totals haven't been published, but the official said the number of parents with children is expected to exceed the 12,774 family members arrested in August. Ernest Moniz, former energy secretary for President Barack Obama, is suspending his involvement advising Saudi Arabia on a proposed city mega-project until more information is made available regarding the disappearance and possible assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Why it matters: Monizs move shows how geopolitical disputes, and in this case a potentially tragic one, can have spillover effects into wholly unrelated issues like business and energy. The details: Moniz said he was invited to join an international advisory board for the development of NEOM, whose cost is estimated to be around $500 billion. The project is meant to be a smart city of the future, built from the ground up in Saudi Arabia, Moniz said in a statement. Saudi Arabia, whose state-owned oil company pumps out far more oil than any other company, is seeking to diversify its oil-dependent economy. In particular, I have been asked to offer guidance on achieving zero net greenhouse gas emissions. Success with this vision will have global implications for a low-carbon future, Moniz said. In awkward timing, the board was announced I share the deep concerns of many about the disappearance and possible assassination of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The recent trend in many countries of targeting journalists for doing their jobs is a fundamental threat to freedom of the press, human rights and the rule of law. Ernest Moniz, former Energy Secretary Go Deeper: Khashoggi disappearance could impact Saudi Arabia's business deals "It does not look like change is going to happen." President Rodrigo Duterte campaigned during the 2016 presidential elections promising that he would end the drug menace in three to six months. He also promised to eradicate corruption and criminality. No less than 16.6 million people believed him, and voted him as the most powerful man in the country. President Duterte is now on his third year of administration, and where are we? The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said it is ironic that while prices of basic commodities are surging, the price of drugs is going down. This only means the shipment keeps coming. The reason for the continued entry of shabu in the country, primarily through the Bureau of Customs, is that our borders are porous. There is also the fact that President Duterte goes against the drug addicts and pushers instead of the narco-politicians and other outlets enabling the presence of drugs on the streets. The President has acknowledged the presence of some 3-4 million drug users nationwide. Does he intend to slaughter them all to end the menace? It simply boils down to the law of supply and demand. End the demand by making distribution impossible and rehabilitating users. But I guess the President is not listening. He seems to intend to kill the users down to the last man. Sad to say, in the meantime, that the victims of his war on drugs come from the poor. The President forgets that the illegal drug menace is not a law and order problem, but a health issue. This is something that will continue to hound the nation even after his six-year term. And then, the war on corruption is an impossible task. It is embedded in government. Last week, there was a survey on which government agencies are most notorious for corruption. The usual suspects emerged: Department of Public Works and Highways, the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The President actually initially made a dent on corruption by firing his allies and friends accused of irregularity in office. But then he started reassigning them to other agencies. This practice made a mockery of his war on corruption.Why did the DPWH top the list? Many of the contracts entered into by this agency are the product of graft and corruption. The projects remain unfinished. According to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, most contractors are unqualified. Customs is something else. Some P6.8 billion worth of shabu was smuggled through the Metro Manila ports. Recall also that P6.4-billion shipment from China. While the culprits have been identified, they still have to be convicted and sent to jail. I wonder how Customs people do it. Corruption in government persist for many reasons. People enter government to get rich. Sometimes they are initially clean but soon become part of the system. If somebody is not corrupt, he or she becomes the victim. There was once an agency chief who discovered that his subordinates were getting bribes from some government-owned and -controlled corporations. Soon, this chief was sacked because his corrupt subordinates had gone to the President and told him about an opinion of the chiefthis did not sit well with the President. Santa Banana, I have covered 10 presidents and I have seen all of them make the effort to end corruption. They failed. I think President Duterte is trying to deliver on his election promises, but it seems his best is not good enough. * * * The elections of 2019 are becoming interesting, especially the Senate race. At least three Cabinet members are joiningBong Go, Harry Roque, and presidential assistant for political affairs Francis Tolentino. Indeed the Senate race is very tight, with so many reelectionists and returning politicians. * * * My wife and I still consider ourselves residents of Makati City and we believe in the performance of Mayor Abby Binay. She has made Makati City drug-free and crime-free. Her legacy may just be the construction of a subway for the city of Makati. Mayor Abby is certainly a cut above the rest. Dan and and Axios Science Editor Andrew Friedman discuss the "nightmare scenario" unfolding in Florida, and the UN's new report on how climate change could become catastrophic. "We had plenty hurricanes before the industrial age. But scientific consensus is that extreme weather is on the rise, and that our actions are contributing to it. Obviously not everyone agrees, but those who dissent, including President Trump, are very much in the minority." Go deeper: Hurricane Michael makes landfall Military hardware is Russia's second-biggest source of income after oil, and the S-400 surface-to-air missile is one of the country's most advanced and marketable weapons systems in recent years. Why it matters: Because of its capabilities, several countries including China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India and Qatar have said they are willing to buy the S-400. Almost every government that announced it was planning to buy the system was threatened with some kind of diplomatic retaliation from the U.S., NATO or adversaries. The reason for this blowback, according to several experts Al Jazeera interviewed, is not only because the S-400 is technologically advanced, it also poses a potential risk for long-standing alliances. "The S-400 is among the most advanced air defense systems available, on par with the best the West has to offer," said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher with Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) arms transfers and military expenditure program. "It's intended to be a one-size-fits-all missile system. It can be configured with long-range, semi long-range, medium-range and even short-range weapons systems, depending on how the individual user wishes to configure the S-400," said Kevin Brand, military analyst working with the Council on Foreign Relations. "There is also a diplomatic issue here, as the agreement to sell sensitive technology to a country implies a wider alignment of a range of political issues, and that is why the US is looking to isolate Russia following on from the events in Ukraine and beyond," said Charles Forrester, senior defense industry analyst at Jane's by IHS Markit. "India places top priority on ties with Russia. In today's fast-changing world, our relationship assumes heightened importance. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vladimir Putin after signing the $5bn deal. What to watch: Turkey, a NATO member, is one of the most significant potential buyers of the S-400, which would be difficult to integrate into NATOs defense system. "The worst-case scenario, Brand says, is that there might be vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a potential adversary. Go deeper: Read the full Al Jazeera report. President Trump raised a bid from GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson to build a casino in Japan during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to a report from ProPublica's Justin Elliott. Why it matters: Abe and his aides were "incredulous" that Trump "would be so brazen," according to a source briefed on the conversation. The project is a top priority for Adelson, who donated $25 million to Trump's campaign and inauguration, because Japan only recently legalized casinos and the market is considered a "holy grail" in the industry, Elliot notes. Adelson dined with Trump the night prior to the meeting. More from the report... "Adelson has met with Trump or visited the White House at least six times since Trumps election victory. The two speak regularly. Adelson has also had access to others in the White House." "Adelson has already received a windfall from Trumps new tax law, which particularly favored companies like Las Vegas Sands. The company estimated the benefit of the law at $1.2 billion." On Adelson's top issue, Israel, "Trump has delivered. The administration has slashed funding for aid to Palestinian refugees and scrapped the Iran nuclear deal. Attending the recent opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, Adelson seemed to almost weep with joy, according to an attendee." Responses: "The White House declined to comment on Adelson. The Japanese Embassy in Washington declined to comment. Sands spokesman Ron Reese declined to answer detailed questions but said in a statement: 'The gaming industry has long sought the opportunity to enter the Japan market. Gaming companies have spent significant resources there on that effort and Las Vegas Sands is no exception.'" Go deeper: Read the full ProPublica report. The Justice Department on Wednesday unsealed charges against a Chinese intelligence official for allegedly stealing trade secrets and sensitive information from GE Aviation and other companies. Why it matters: This marks the first time a Chinese spy has been brought to the country to face prosecution. John Demers, the head of the DOJs national-security division, said the case is not an isolated incident. It is part of an overall economic policy of developing China at American expense. The details: The man has been identified as Yanjun Xu, a deputy division director in Chinas Ministry of State Security. The DOJ alleged that, from 2013, Xu targeted companies both in and out of the U.S. in the aviation field to obtain sensitive and proprietary information. Officials said Xu allegedly recruited experts to travel to China under the guise of asking them to deliver a university presentation. Xu was arrested in April by Belgian authorities and extradited to the U.S. on Tuesday. The backdrop: For years, China has used spies and cyberattacks to steal troves of academic, corporate and military information it could use to bolster its growing political and economic power. Just last week, Vice President Mike Pence accused China of using spies, its economic power and propaganda prowess to undermine the U.S. and influence domestic politics. A 41-year-old comedian allied to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian took over as mayor of Yerevan on Wednesday at the inaugural session of the new city council elected late last month. Hayk Marutian topped the list of candidates of Pashinians My Step alliance which won over 80 percent of the vote in municipal elections held on September 23. The landslide victory earned it 57 of the 65 seats in the council. Under Armenian law, the top candidate of a party or bloc gaining an outright majority in the municipal legislature automatically becomes Yerevan mayor. Marutian will be officially sworn in on Saturday. We have a historic opportunity to make our long-standing dreams come true, the new mayor told the council. I am confident that with this composition of the Council of Elders we will make sure that our fellow Yerevan residents smile every day, every hour, every second, he said. Nicknamed Kargin Hayko, Marutian is famous for his performances in popular comedy shows aired by Armenian TV channels. He has also produced his own shows and films in the past several years. A strong backer of Pashinian, Marutian actively participated in mass protests in April and May that brought down Armenias former government headed by Serzh Sarkisian. Marutians predecessor, Taron Markarian, is a senior member of Sarkisians Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). Markarian, in office since 2011, resigned in July under pressure from Pashinians government. The HHK majority in the previous city council decided not to appoint another Republican mayor, paving the way for the September 23 elections. The former ruling party did not participate in them. Speaking to reporters, Marutian seemed to rule out staff purges within the municipal administration which Pashinian and his allies have for years accused of corruption. He said he will not fire professionals willing to work under the rules of new Armenia. If people are ready to serve, if they have no problems with the law, I am ready to work with those who can be of use, he said. Commenting on his immediate tasks, Marutian said: First of all, we need to solve the problem of garbage collection and then step by step switch to other issues which we presented in our campaign manifesto. The new mayor also faces the daunting task of overhauling the Armenian capitals outdated system of public transportation, a key source of complains from Yerevan residents. Ever since the mid-1990s, the system has been dominated by minibuses belonging to private companies, many of them owned by government-linked individuals or even government officials themselves. Few of them have invested in their fleet of aging vehicles in the past decade. The minibuses as well as a smaller number of buses provided by the municipality have become even more overcrowded as a result. A British consulting firm contracted by the municipality submitted last year detailed recommendations on how to revamp the transport network. Former Mayor Markarians administration essentially accepted them, pledging to replace the battered minibuses with new and larger buses by the end of 2018. One of Markarians deputies said in August 2017 that the long-awaited change will require as much as $100 million in investments, a sum equivalent to almost 57 percent of the entire municipal budget. He said the municipal authorities hope to attract a foreign investor that would run the new network and foot the bill. Marutian said that he and his aides will look into the British firms proposals. If they are deemed realistic and free of corruption risks the new mayors office will be ready to implement them, he added. Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan watched on Wednesday exercises held by a joint Russian-Armenian military force which Moscow and Yerevan agreed to reinforce two years ago. The weeklong exercises began on Monday, with hundreds of Armenian and Russian soldiers backed up by tanks, artillery systems and combat helicopter simulating defensive operations. Armenias Defense Ministry reported earlier that one of their objectives will be to step up protection of the state border. A ministry statement released on Wednesday said military officials briefed Tonoyan on the course ofthe drills held at the Marshal Bagramian training ground 50 kilometers west of Yerevan. The minister then watched soldiers of the Russian-Armenian United Grouping of Troops defeat an imaginary invader, said the statement. The joint force was originally set up in 2000. It comprises troops from the Russian military base in Armenia and the Armenian armys Fifth Corps mainly deployed along the Turkish border. A Russian-Armenian agreement signed in November 2016 was meant to upgrade its mission and ascertain its command-and-control structure. In particular, the agreement stipulates that the commander of the Russian-Armenian unit is appointed by Armenias political leadership. The commander is subordinate to the chief of the Armenian armys General Staff in times of peace. He may report to the head of Russias Southern Military District in case of a war or imminent military aggression against Armenia or Russia. Another Russian-Armenian agreement signed in late 2015 created a new, more closely integrated system of joint air defense. The Russian and Armenian militaries have been jointly protecting Armenias airspace ever since the mid-1990s. By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 28 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Oct. 10. Armenian armed forces were using heavy machine guns. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Joseph S. Nye The key strategic issue in East Asia is the rise of Chinese power. Some analysts believe that China will seek a form of hegemony in East Asia that will lead to conflict. Unlike Europe, East Asia never fully came to terms with the 1930s, and Cold War divisions subsequently limited reconciliation. Now US President Donald Trump has launched a trade war with China and negotiations with Japan that take aim at Japans trade surplus with the United States. While the recent announcement of bilateral talks postpones Trumps threat of auto tariffs against Japan, critics worry that Trump may push Japan closer to China, whose president, Xi Jinping, is scheduled to hold a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later this month. The balance of power between Japan and China has shifted markedly in recent decades. In 2010, Chinas GDP surpassed Japans as measured in dollars (though it remains far behind Japan in per capita terms). It is difficult to remember that a little over two decades ago, many Americans feared being overtaken by Japan, not China. Books predicted a Japanese-led Pacific bloc that would exclude the US, and even an eventual war with Japan. Instead, during President Bill Clintons administration, the US reaffirmed its security alliance with Japan at the same time that it accepted the rise of China and supported its admission to the World Trade Organization. In the early 1990s, many observers believed that the US-Japan alliance would be discarded as a Cold War relic. Trade tensions were high. Senator Paul Tsongas campaigned for president in 1992 on the slogan, The Cold War is over and Japan has won. The Clinton administration began with Japan-bashing, but after a two-year process of negotiation, Clinton and then-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto issued a declaration in 1996 that proclaimed the alliance to be the bedrock of stability for post-Cold War East Asia. There was a deeper level of malaise, however, and although it was rarely expressed openly, it related to the Japanese concern that it would be marginalized as the US turned toward China. When I was involved in negotiating the reaffirmation of the alliance in the mid-1990s, my Japanese counterparts, seated across a table festooned with national flags rarely discussed China formally. But later, over drinks, they would ask whether America would shift its focus from Japan to China as the latter grew in strength. Such anxieties are not surprising: when two allies defense capacities are not symmetrical, the more dependent party is bound to worry more about the partnership. Over the years, some Japanese have argued that Japan should become a normal country with a fuller panoply of military capabilities. Some experts have even suggested that Japan drop some of its anti-nuclear principles and develop nuclear weapons. But such measures would raise more problems than they would solve. Even if Japan took steps to become a normal country (whatever that term may imply), it would still not equal the power of the US or China. Today, Japan has a new set of concerns about American abandonment. Trumps America First orientation and protectionist policies pose a new risk to the alliance. Trumps withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was a blow to Japan. While Abe has skillfully played to Trumps ego to deflect conflict, acute differences remain. The Trump administrations imposition of steel and aluminum tariffs on national security grounds surprised Abe and has fueled disquiet in Japan. The Trump administration has also suggested that US allies in Asia should do more to defend themselves and openly questioned the value of forward deployed US forces. Some analysts wonder whether Trumps actions will force Japan to hedge its bets and edge toward China. But that is unlikely at this stage. While such options may be explored, they will remain limited, given Japanese concerns about Chinese domination. The US alliance remains the best option unless Trump goes much further. Thus far, the alliance remains remarkably strong. Abe reached out early to President-elect Trump, meeting him first at Trump Tower in New York and then during visits to Washington, DC, and Mar-a-Lago, Trumps Florida residence. The Abe-Trump relationship allowed the Pentagon to maintain close cooperation on security matters. North Korea helped focus the alliances attention and provided an opportunity for Trump to assure Japan that the US was behind Japan 100%. Abe and Trump both supported the maximum pressure strategy against North Korea, working hard to build international support for United Nations sanctions. Meanwhile, Japan announced a major new investment in ballistic missile defense and cooperated in its joint development. On the other hand, Trumps surprising reversal in attitude toward North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after their Singapore summit in June raised Japanese concerns about a US deal focusing on intercontinental missiles and ignoring the medium-range missiles that could reach Japan. Trumps rhetoric about burden sharing has also raised concern. While Japans defense expenditure is little above 1% of GDP, it contributes significant host-country support. The US Department of Defense estimates suggest that the Japanese government pays roughly 75% of the cost of supporting US forces in Japan. This year alone, the Japanese government budgeted 197 billion ($1.7 billion) for cost sharing, 226 billion ($2 billion) for the realignment of US forces, and 266 billion ($2.3 billion) in various types of community support, among other alliance-related expenditures. As the Clinton administration recognized a quarter-century ago, Chinas rise created a three-country balance of power in East Asia. If the US and Japan maintain their alliance, they can shape the environment that China faces and help moderate its rising power. But that will depend on whether the Trump administration successfully maintains the US-Japan alliance. Copyright: Project Syndicate: China, Japan, and Trumps America --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) will cooperate with IBM in the blockchain technology, Director of the Information Technology Department of the CBA Farid Osmanov said at the Azerbaijan-Germany Business Forum on Energy and ICT in Baku on October 9. Osmanov said that the program is fairly large and will be implemented in two directions. "The first direction corresponds to the plans for digital transformation. This initiative will be implemented within a five-year plan, which aims to meet the requirements and needs of the country's economy and banking sector." "The second direction is the development of a digital identification system. We are working together on this with about 10 commercial banks and 15 government agencies," Osmanov said. Presently, according to Osmanov, the Central Bank is working on an application that allows commercial banks to collect, store and analyze information, and this is the direction that the Central Bank will pay special attention to. "The use of blockchain technology is stipulated in the state program for non-cash payments. Currently, a technical justification is being prepared for the use of the blockchain platform. The main goal for commercial banks is to work with their customers and provide them with timely access to the services provided, Osmanov said. At present those who wish to open an account in a bank need to visit the banks office, which takes time, he said. We worked with FIMSA in this direction and the result was to ensure prompt opening of an account. After receiving permission, commercial banks get access to this information through the state portal and an account is opened for a few seconds. Also, the advantage is that bank customers can receive credits at the expense of available information. From this point of view, as well as from the point of view of efficiency and transparency, the blockchain platform can be useful. This is the first project. And it is possible to say with high probability that a strategy can be formed through this project and there will be great results from it," Osmanov stated In addition, the use of the blockchain platform will open up new opportunities for developers, he concluded. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova European aerospace corporation Airbus, headquartered in France, would like to become part of the space industry of Azerbaijan, Vice-President for Eurasia Silvere Delaunay told Trend. "Airbus has developed important relationships with AZERICOSMOS. Airbus would like to become part of the Azerbaijans space industry as a long term partner for the future by supporting space projects such as telecommunication satellites and intelligence satellite projects," he said. The vice-president pointed out that that as a complement to satellite intelligence, the usage of C295 aircraft in patrol or surveillance configuration versions may enable for example a complete surveillance solution, emergency, fighting against sea pollution. He noted that Airbus is focused on long-term strategic partnerships and on creating sustainable value in the Azerbaijan aerospace sector. "Airbus has partnered the Azerbaijan civil and military aerospace sector for more than 10 years. Airbus has been an important solution partner for Azerbaijan working closely especially with AZAL and AZERCOSMOS," said Delaunay. He pointed out that Airbus global market forecast predicts that over the next 20 years the passengers traffic to, from and the region will more than double. "Airbus is extremely well positioned to meet this demand with our eco-efficient, modern family of aircraft, and Azerbaijani aerospace companies are well positioned to benefit from this growth through long-term industrial partnerships with Airbus," Delaunay said. Delaunay noted that today, eleven Airbus aircraft (two A340-500s, three A319s and six A320s) fly with the National flag carrier AZAL. A mid-size cargo aircraft like A330F might be the right solution bringing operational flexibility and resulting in significant cost savings, he added. The vice-president said Airbus is committed to the Azerbaijani market. "Airbus is ready and willing to partner with Azerbaijan on all projects where Airbus excels and offers top-notch technologies. They include Commercial and Military aviation, Space, or Helicopters," he said. Airbus SE is a European aerospace corporation and one of the largest aircraft building companies in the world, registered in the Netherlands and trading shares in France, Germany and Spain. It designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures in multiple countries both inside and outside of the European Union. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend As a result of expanding the taxable base and defining the scope of activity of business entities, conditions will be created so that only small businesses use simplified taxation, Azerbaijans Taxes Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said. He was speaking at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers chaired by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev dedicated to results of socio-economic development in the nine months of 2018 and objectives for the future. In order to support the development of entrepreneurship, proposals have been prepared for reducing the simplified tax rate, providing temporary tax benefits in the retail sector and for the development of non-cash payments, exempting from taxes dividends of small entrepreneurs who keep revenues and expenses records, the minister said. It is also proposed to deduct from revenues a certain part of non-commercial expenses of taxpayers, including donations allocated to healthcare, education, culture and sports. Jabbarov stressed that the reform of reducing the fiscal burden on salaries, prepared by the instructions of the Azerbaijani president, holds a special place in the package of proposals. In many cases, high burden of social insurance and high tax burden on salaries leads to the fact that entrepreneurs resort to the practice of paying unofficial salaries, the minister said. This situation is one of the main reasons for the expansion of shadow economy. Despite the administrative measures, this problem still exists. The main goal of the reform is creation of economic motivation among entrepreneurs, so that they would legalize existing labor relations, provide an additional impetus to the development of the non-oil sector and create new jobs, he added. We hope that as a result of this reform, the level of informal employment will decrease and entrepreneurs will have an increased economic interest in formalizing labor relations, Jabbarov said. This process will have a positive impact on economic growth. The minister noted that tax reforms carried out to increase the attractiveness of the business environment, the formation of tax administration based on information technologies will contribute to the development of entrepreneurship and effective cooperation between business and tax authorities for Azerbaijans development. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova The State Committee on Property Issues of Azerbaijan held next auction on privatization of state property on October 9, during which 13 orders on 10 state properties were made. The next auction will be held on October 16, following which 83 state objects will be exhibited for sale. The auction will offer 20 joint-stock companies, 13 small state enterprises, 11 non-residential areas and 39 vehicles. The portal for privatization privatization.az, launched in July 2016, reflects all necessary information about the facilities, their addresses, location, and even initial cost and aims at facilitation of the process. The website is available in two languages - Azerbaijani and English. Why Azerbaijan is special section available on the website explains the reasons and advantages of investing in the country. The privatization process is designed to attract both foreign and local investors, as well as develop the business environment of Azerbaijan. Moreover, the State Committee on Property Issues held the first electronic auction on July 4, 2017. The electronic auction service, which is available on the website privatization.az, combines the privatization procedure of vehicles and equipment. In the future, it will be possible to privatize small state enterprises and facilities, joint-stock companies through electronic auction. Now, the corresponding work in programming is being implemented. The State Committee on Property Issues was established on May 19, 2009 on the basis of the relevant presidential decree. The main activities of the State Committee are the management of state property, attraction of investments, maintenance of a single cadastre of immovable property, maintenance of a land cadastre, organization of a land market, protection and improvement of land quality. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova The government of the Federal Republic of Germany considers the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent regions controlled by the Armenian armed forces to be part of Azerbaijan and does not recognize the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) of the Bundestag sent a request to the German government on the topic German-Armenian Relations, which also included some questions about Nagorno-Karabakh. Commenting on the question How does the German government assess the international legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh?, the government stressed that the Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has become predominantly a problem of international importance. After Azerbaijan became a member of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), in accordance with the principles of this organization, the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was in the focus of public participants. The OSCE Minsk Group, which, along with the co-chairs - Russia, the U.S. and France - includes Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Turkey, was established for settlement of the conflict. 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 and seven surrounding regions. During the battles, more than 20,000 people were killed, more than 50,000 people were wounded and maimed. More than 1 million people, victims of the policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out by Armenia against Azerbaijan, live in the situation of refugees and IDPs, are deprived of basic human rights. Despite the demands expressed in UN Security Council resolutions on the need to recognize the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the release of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan without preconditions, Armenia continues to pursue its aggressive policy. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The monitoring of compliance with the cease-fire regime, held on October 10 at the contact line between the troops of Azerbaijan and Armenia, in the direction of the Goranboy region of Azerbaijan, in accordance with the mandate of the personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, has ended without incidents, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement. The monitoring from the Azerbaijani side was held by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, his field assistants Gennady Petrika and Martin Schuster. The field assistants to the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ognjen Jovic and Simon Tiller, conducted monitoring in the Azerbaijani territory occupied and controlled by the Armenian armed forces. 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. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Speaking at the plenary session of the third meeting of the Speakers of the Eurasian Countries Parliaments in Antalya, the Vice-President of the Armenian National Assembly (Parliament) Eduard Sharmazanov, in accordance with the traditions of the aggressor state, has voiced illogical, false thoughts of slanderous nature about the far-fetched "Armenian genocide" and the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. The Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov has given a weighty response to Sharmazanov's comments, the Azerbaijani Parliaments Office said in a statement. "The thoughts expressed by the representative of Armenia in order to mislead this authoritative event forced me to speak again. In fact, our todays meeting is held to promote peace, dialogue and development in the region. As you know, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh do not exist. Azerbaijani and Armenian communities lived in Nagorno-Karabakh," Asadov said. "As it is known, as a result of ethnic cleansing, Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh was expelled from their native lands. The idea of the Armenian representative about granting the right to self-determination to the Armenians currently living in Karabakh is completely erroneous and contradicts the laws. Now, an interesting idea arises: does it mean that if Armenians live somewhere compactly, then should they be given the right to self-determination?," asked Asadov. "The fact that the representative of Armenia did not mention Turkey in his speech, where the meeting is held, testifies to the level of his culture. Armenia, who constantly accuses Turkey of committing a fictitious "Armenian genocide", itself committed genocide in the Azerbaijani city of Khojaly. Many countries, including 18 states of the US, have adopted resolutions in connection with the Khojaly genocide. In particular, I want to note that international organizations, the UN, the European Union, the European Parliament recognize Armenia as an aggressor state. Except for Armenia, all countries of the world recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan including Nagorno-Karabakh as its integral part. And this indicates that the party to the conflict is not Nagorno-Karabakh, but Armenia," Asadov said. The Chairman of the Grand National Assembly (Parliament) of Turkey, Binali Yldrm, also expressed his attitude towards this issue. "At this meeting, which promotes peace and stability on the planet, it is impossible to accept thoughts contrary to the truth. If Armenia really wants to establish ties with Turkey, it should renounce the claims of a false "Armenian genocide", leave the investigation of historical events to the historians themselves. The Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov spoke in detail about the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh problem. In essence, by taking such a position, Armenia has isolated itself. Armenia must understand that relations with its neighbors must be normalized and must take the path of peace, stability and well-being in the South Caucasus region. Only in this case, the existing problems can be solved," Yildirim 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. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend A group of Azerbaijani military personnel was sent to Afghanistan for serving within NATO-led "Resolute Support" mission, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said in a message Oct. 9. The peacekeeping contingent of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces has been serving in Afghanistan since November 20, 2002. Presently, 120 servicemen, including 2 medical officers and 6 staff officers of Azerbaijani army are participating in the mission in Afghanistan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The attempt of Armenia to get a foothold on the platform of French-speaking countries under the pretext of holding a Francophonie summit is unpromising, the chief editor of the Baki Kheber newspaper, political expert Aydin Guliyev told Trend Oct. 9. He noted that Armenia sees the Francophonie summit as a possible way out of the position of "outcast" state in the world. "It is this intention that stands behind their attempts to inflate and present the Francophonie summit to the world. Armenias leadership in the process of rapprochement of French-speaking countries does not have any historical, humanitarian, linguistic and cultural basis," the expert said. The expert noted that Armenia remained aloof from the integration processes of the states. He said due to Azerbaijan's clever diplomacy, Armenia is completely excluded from the Eurasian integration. "The facts show that today Azerbaijan, a Muslim country, cooperates more closely with the Vatican, the center of Christianity, than Armenia. In such conditions, Armenia has no other way than to intrude in the platform of French-speaking countries under the pretext of holding a Francophonie summit. However, this path is hopeless. This is evidenced by the fact that not a single French leader has participated in this event until today, Guliyev said. He added that today Armenia is far from all multicultural values, no representatives of other nations live in that country, and there is no chance of interreligious and interethnic tolerance. "One day the French-speaking countries will realize that the mission of the Francophonie summit, which Armenia has assumed, is a bluff, and will understand the absurdity of Armenias leadership in this movement and will boycott the Francophonie summit in Armenia, Guliyev added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Given the support that Azerbaijan has always provided to the Palestinian people in difficult days, and its commitment to Islamic solidarity, the assistance in the amount of $200,000 was provided in October to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is currently experiencing financial difficulties, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement Oct. 10. The UNRWA, established in 1948, helps more than five million Palestinians in the Middle East in education, health care, humanitarian aid in emergency situations, and provides social services. The dramatic budget deficit in 2018 has become a big risk for the normal operation of the organization and the sustainability of its programs. Therefore, in order to support UNRWA, the international community is implementing various campaigns, a number of countries are taking steps to provide additional assistance to the organization. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The Azerbaijani Defense Minister, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov will take part in a meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the CIS member states, which will be held on October 12 in Tashkent, the press service of the Defense Ministry reported Oct. 10. The draft agenda of the meeting includes 20 points. In particular, at the meeting it is planned to discuss the situation in the Central Asian region and the priority tasks of countering international terrorism, the directions of development of military cooperation among the CIS member states, to talk about the prospects of the unified system for monitoring and assessing the radiation, chemical and biological situation. In addition, the meeting participants will discuss cooperation in the field of ensuring aviation flights of the armed forces of the CIS countries, the implementation of the unified system of state radar identification development concept, cooperation in the field of military education, holding joint events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Council members also intend to adopt the CIS Work Plan for 2019, sign documents aimed at developing the joint (integrated) communications system of the armed forces of the CIS member states, informational support for the activities of the armed forces until 2022, cooperation in navigation, topography and geodesy, metrology, approve joint activities of the joint air defense system of the CIS member countries in 2019, as well as consider a number of other issues. The Council of Ministers of Defense of the Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States was established in 1992. It consists of representatives from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova The Azerbaijani delegation led by Health Minister Ogtay Shiraliyev took part in the 68th session of the Regional Committee for Europe of the World Health Organization (WHO), which was held in Rome. During discussions of the Global Fund plan of action on combating tuberculosis for 2016-2020, the positive experience of Azerbaijan was highly appreciated by the Member States of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe. This plan 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. During the session, Shiraliyev held working meetings with the new leadership of the Regional Committee for Europe and the WHO representative office in Azerbaijan, as well as with officials from Austria, Turkey, Belarus and Uzbekistan. Representatives of Azerbaijan made presentations on a number of issues on the agenda during the session. 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. In 2017, the primary incidence rate of tuberculosis in Baku was 4-5 times lower than in other post-Soviet countries. The law On Combating Tuberculosis was signed in Azerbaijan in 2000. In addition, the State Program on Combating Tuberculosis was adopted, which envisages the implementation of a number of measures to increase the level of care and attention of the state to patients with this disease, to provide them with modern and high-quality treatment, free drugs and so on. The treatment of tuberculosis patients is being carried out at the states expense, regardless of the stage of the disease. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Saudi Arabia has allowed Turkish authorities to comb its consulate in Istanbul for presence of Saudi dissident journalist who has gone missing since last week, as Ankara believes the missing critic is still in the facility despite the kingdoms claims that he left the building the day he entered it for some paperwork. Turkeys Foreign Ministry Tuesday said the Saudi mission will undergo a search in cooperation with the kingdoms authorities who wrote a note in that regard, Turkish Sabah Daily reports. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia invites Turkish experts and relevant officials to visit the Istanbul Consulate in line with the cooperation principle with the government of the Republic of Turkey and due to the importance the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia lays on finding the truth about the disappearance incident of Saudi Arabian citizen, son of Hamza Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, the note stated. The search, according to the ministry, will take place in the framework of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations as the host country and with the permission of the Saudi chief of mission. The consulate made the headlines after Saudi journalist Khashoggi who has been living in exile in the US since last year went missing after entering the diplomatic facility last week for some documents for his divorce in view of getting re-married to his Turkish fiancee who waited for him outside the diplomatic compound on that Tuesday (Oct. 2). The journalists fiancee and friends alerted the Turkish security authorities over the mysterious disappearance. Saudi Arabia claimed that Khashoggi left the building, rejecting therefore Turkish authorities position that the journalist is still in the facility and might even have been killed inside. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday said he is closely monitoring the investigations, and called Saudi Arabia to provide evidence that the journalist left the mission. Tuesday, a footage of the Saudi citizen entering the consulate emerged but there has been no footage of his exit. Turkish investigators believe the consulates CCTV might have been taken away by suspected 15 hitmen reportedly from the kingdom who were in the consulate the day Khashoggi disappeared. The men allegedly from the Saudi spy service arrived in Turkey in two separate private planes. The aircrafts later left for Riyadh with one stopping over in Dubai while the other in Egypt. By Trend The successful completion of the Southern Gas Corridor project will open up new opportunities, new horizons for Azerbaijan, said President Ilham Aliyev as he chaired a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on Oct. 9. 2018 was an important year for the development of our energy policy. In May of this year, we celebrated the official opening of the Southern Gas Corridor in Baku. This is a historic event. A month later, we celebrated the opening of the TANAP project in Turkey, and the Southern Gas Corridor project is being successfully implemented. All these four projects have produced excellent results. This year we will increase gas production. Gas is already coming from Shah Deniz-2. Its volume will increase even more next year and beyond. So we are doing everything possible to fully achieve the goal and, according to the latest data provided to me, there are also no problems with the implementation of the TAP project, which is the final part of the Southern Gas Corridor, the head of state said. The successful completion of the Southern Gas Corridor will open up new opportunities, new horizons for us. We will access the markets of many countries with our resources. Then, taking this into account, we can implement new infrastructure projects in these countries. Negotiations are still under way, so I dont want to say anything in advance. However, I think that we would want to remain not just a country that supplies gas to other countries, but also to manage the gas industry after that. This will further increase the efficiency and revenues, will lead to the creation of a new infrastructure in the countries we will work in, President Ilham Aliyev added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Azerbaijan is playing an important role in the diversification of energy sources and routes, new US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent said at a meeting with Azerbaijans Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov on October 9. Kent added that Azerbaijan plays an important role in the policy of diversifying energy sources and routes, and noted that the position of the U.S. on projects related to energy security remains unchanged. In turn, Shahbazov spoke about the current situation in the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project and added that the significance of the project was also expressed at the high-level meetings that took place as part of the 27th World Gas Conference in Washington. The meeting noted successful development of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and the U.S. in the energy sector. The sides also discussed the necessary measures to ensure cooperation on the use of renewable energy sources and reforms in the energy sector, as well as processes taking place in the global energy market. High assessment was given to the continued U.S. support for energy projects being implemented in Azerbaijan, including the Southern Gas Corridor project. An exchange of views took place on the projects role in ensuring the energy security of countries of South-Eastern Europe and the prospects for expanding the Southern Gas Corridor project at a later stage. The launching ceremony of the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor project was held in Baku on May 29. The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. At the initial stage, the gas produced within the second phase of the development of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas and condensate field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. At a later stage other sources may be connected to the project. Gas under the second stage of field development will be exported to Turkey and to European markets by expanding the South Caucasus gas pipeline and building the Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) pipelines. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova SOCARs STAR Oil Refinery, with a crude oil processing capacity of 10 million tons, is planned to be launched next week. The statement came from Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey Fatih Donmez, according to Turkish media outlets. STAR Refinery will meet more than 25 percent of the processed oil products need of Turkey upon its startup. Certified with the first investment incentive granted by Turkey, STAR Refinery will eventually reduce the foreign-dependency of the country. STAR Refinery, foundation of which was laid in 2011, is located on a 2,400-hectare site on Aliaga Peninsula. The Refinery is underway as the most critical component of SOCAR Turkeys integrated energy solutions and value chain. As many as 1.6 million tons of naphtha, 5 million tons of diesel, 1.6 million tons of jet fuel, 300,000 tons of LPG, 160,000 tons of sulfur and other products will be produced here. The construction of the Refinery is undertaken by a multinational consortium, comprised of Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain), Saipem (Italy), GS Engineering (South Korea) and ITOCHU (Japan). Founded in 2008, SOCAR Turkey, officially titled SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.S., is an affiliate of SOCAR, one of the most well-established oil and natural gas companies of the world. With its total investment volume of $19.5 billion to be realized by 2020, SOCAR is the biggest foreign investor of Turkey. Similarly, SOCARs group companies in Turkey, namely Petkim, STAR Refinery, Petlim Container Terminal and Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) represent the largest-scale investment Azerbaijan has made to a single country to date. 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. SOCAR includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerikimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas produced in the country), as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz The selection stage of SOCAR AQS Student Scholarship Contest for 2018-2019 academic year has successfully completed. Students studying oil and gas engineering from the Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry and Baku Higher Oil School that are closely cooperating with SOCAR AQS have taken an active part in the contest. The screening committee consisting of top management of the company have selected winners among the 15 successful candidates. The winners of the contest are last year Bachelor students from Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University- Sabina Bashirova, Narminakhanim Badirhanova and the students from Baku Higher Oil School- Gulshan Jabbarzade, Zarina Akbarova. Ramin Isayev, the General Director of SOCAR AQS congratulated the students on their achievements. The selection process of students for the 2018-2019 academic years was much more complicated than in previous years. Candidates demonstrated excellent performance on their speciality. Along with scholarship, the winners will also be able to participate in various projects and training programs in the company. These opportunities will create a solid foundation for them to build a successful career in SOCAR AQS- R. Isayev stated. Qasim Mammadov, the vice-chancellor of the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, pointed that he is proud of the results of the students. He said: it is a great satisfaction to cooperate with SOCAR AQS. We welcome our students participation in a number of various projects and the contest announced by the company. It is a desire of each student to enrol in Summer Internship Program, Student Scholarship Contest and to get a job offer from SOCAR AQS, which performs continuous dynamic development. SOCAR AQS, as a national oil and gas drilling company, supports initiatives and programs aimed at contributing to the transformation of oil capital into human capital. SOCAR AQSs shareholders are SOCAR and Nobel Oil Services. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Azerbaijan submitted data on its daily oil production in September 2018 to the OPEC Joint Technical Committee under the Vienna Agreement, the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry told Trend on October 10. Daily oil production stood at 796,000 barrels in September 2018, of which 725,000 barrels accounted for crude oil and 71,000 barrels - for condensate, while 599,000 barrels of crude oil, 71,000 barrels of condensate and 7,000 barrels of oil products were exported. In January 2018, daily oil production stood at 814,600 barrels, in February 2018 at 806,000 barrels, in March - 794,000 barrels, in April 785,700 barrels, in May - 801,000 barrels, in June 792,000 barrels, in July 773,000 barrels and in August 774,000 barrels of oil per day. In January 22, 2017, the OPEC Joint Technical Committee was established to monitor the fulfillment of countries obligations to reduce oil production. In December 2016, at a meeting of oil producers in Vienna, 11 non-OPEC member countries, including Azerbaijan, agreed to cut oil production by a total of 558,000 barrels a day. The agreement was concluded for the first half of 2017 and was extended until the end of the first quarter of 2018 at a meeting on May 25, 2017. At the last OPEC meeting in Vienna, the agreement was again extended until the end of 2018. Azerbaijan supported the decision. Since the signing of the agreement to this day, Azerbaijan has been marked by the OPEC as a country that actively fulfills its obligations and as the leader among countries to reduce oil production. During the last, 173rd meeting of the OPEC +, held on November 30, 2017, the parties reached a new agreement to extend the reduction of oil production until the end of 2018. Azerbaijan has also joined the agreement. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Uzbekistan and UNESCO have agreed on holding two major international innovation forums in Uzbekistan. "An agreement was reached on holding a regional forum of young scientists in Central Asia in Uzbekistan, as well as the Asian Forum "Information Technologies in the Service of Cultural Heritage Conservation" in 2019 in Tashkent," the press service of the head of state said. This became known following the talks of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Director General of this organization Audrey Azule in Paris. Audrey Azule also supported the initiative of the head of Uzbekistan to create under the auspices of UNESCO the Mirzo Ulugbek International Institute for building a culture of peace, tolerance and preventing extremism in Samarkand, the Regional Center for Information and Communication Technologies in Education at the University of Information Technologies in Tashkent, the UNESCO Chair in International University of Tourism in Samarkand. At the end of the meeting, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Audrey Azule signed the Cooperation Program until 2021, aimed at developing interaction between Uzbekistan and UNESCO. The United Nations Organization is an international organization established on November 16, 1945 to maintain and strengthen international peace and security, and to develop cooperation between states. Uzbekistan joined UNESCO on October 26, 1993. Republic was twice elected to the Executive Board of the organization. Today, the organization includes 195 countries. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Since the new leadership came to power in Armenia, no changes have occurred in the social and economic life of the country, but amid street protests and discontent in society, the internal political crisis has sharply exacerbated. As a result, most experts think that the current crisis of power in Armenia actually led the country to a civil war, the results of which may be unpredictable. Leading analyst of the Russian Political and Economic Communications Agency Mikhail Neizhmakov shared his views on how the political crisis in Armenia impedes the dialogue between Yerevan and Baku and on intra-party clashes in the leadership of this country. What hinders the dialogue between Baku and Yerevan? The political crisis in Armenia will again become an obstacle to even minimal attempts at dialogue between Yerevan and Baku, Neizhmakov added. "In such conditions, the rhetoric of both Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his opponents in the statements on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will most likely become sharper, he said. As for the recent conversation between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Pashinyan, it had a symbolic significance. It was advantageous for both Baku and Yerevan to at least outline readiness for interaction, Neizhmakov said. In my opinion, the political crisis in Armenia was caused indirectly by the meeting of the two leaders in Dushanbe, and directly by the election to the Council of Elders of Yerevan held in September. The success of the My Step bloc in this election gave Pashinyan more freedom of maneuver. Of course, the main part of political analysts predicted a victory for the bloc supported by the prime minister. But the high expectations of the politicized public could become a risk factor for Pashinyan when a slightly low level of consolidation of voters around the My Step bloc rather than a disastrous result could have become a reason for doubts whether the rating of the prime minister is so great in the country as a whole, Neizhmakov said. Therefore, apparently, the Armenian prime minister, before this election, preferred not to take risks and not to check how his internal political opponents treat his talks with Baku, he said. But after the completion of the election in Yerevan, Pashinyan could feel freer. On the other hand, the campaign in Yerevan, which demonstrated the level of support and other opportunities of Pashinyan, could further push other political players represented in the National Assembly to take active steps, Neizhmakov said. They decided to strike first - an emergency meeting of the parliament on October 2 and the adoption of a bill that could impede the holding of snap election. By the way, even at the beginning of the election campaign for the Council of Elders, some observers predicted a more overwhelming result of Prosperous Armenia party of Gagik Tsarukyan, who received only about 7 percent and 5 places out of 65, he said. As a result, this episode could only increase the anxiety of this politician and representatives of the Tsarukyan faction in the National Assembly on October 2 supported the bill proposed by the Republican Party of Armenia, Neizhmakov said. Player Pashinyan ... While announcing the possibility of his resignation, Pashinyan took a break, he said. This may mean that he is still waiting for unpleasant surprises from the parliament, but he is not ready to use all leverages on MPs, Neizhmakov said. Perhaps some external agreements are holding him back. Of course, if the parliament elected another prime minister after Pashinyans resignation, the latter could easily have launched a large-scale rally against the actions of parliamentarians, he said. We have already seen that he can rapidly organize rallies of his supporters. But in such situations, too much depends on the position of the security forces, Neizhmakov said. Perhaps the current prime minister does not want to greatly raise the price of their loyalty by staking everything. Although radical steps were expected from Pashinyan since he came to power, in fact, he again proved that he is a very careful player. The first open blow during the October political crisis was not dealt by Pashinyan, he said. Most likely, Pashinyan is also trying to get additional guarantees from some parliamentarians willing to compromise with him that if he resigns, the new prime minister will not be elected, Neizhmakov said. Lets pay attention to the contradictory comments of the representatives of the Tsarukyan faction hint to a possibility of rapprochement with Pashinyans position on snap election by Gagik Tsarukyan himself (if people want in December, then we want that). The current players understand that if the snap election to the new composition of the National Assembly is held in December, they risk losing their positions there, he said. This means that any concessions from Pashinyan can also be temporary." --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Russia is conducting substantive negotiations with Turkmenistan on the resumption of gas purchases, Head of Russias holding Gazprom Alexey Miller said in an interview with the Turkmenistan State News Agency. Turkmenistan, which has the richest gas reserves, is Russias traditional partner in the energy sector. Miller said that an intergovernmental agreement between the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan on cooperation in the gas sector until 2028 and a signed contract with the similar term are currently in force. He reminded that a commercial pause has been recently observed that will last until the end of 2018. In this regard, during the meeting, the issues of resuming the purchase of Turkmen gas by Gazprom were discussed, which, according to our plans, will happen as soon as possible - on January 1, 2019, Miller said. We know well the great opportunities of Turkmenistan, and at the same time we see the growing markets where gas is traditionally supplied, he noted. As for the volumes of gas supplies and other issues of contractual relations, negotiations will be held at the technical level, and we expect that these agreements will be reached in the near future. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov The offshore part of the Turkish Stream pipeline is 85 percent ready, gas will start flowing at the end of 2019. This was announced to journalists by the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak. "The total percentage of completion is 85 percent. This is only an underwater part. Therefore, we have no doubt that by the end of 2019 the whole project will be implemented: both sea and land parts. Gas will start flowing at the end of 2019," he said . In addition, the minister added that another project of the pipeline along the seabed, Poseidon, is being discussed in parallel. The decision on it has not yet been made. Gazprom began construction of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline in May 2017. The offshore section will run along the bottom of the Black Sea to the coast of Turkey. Its length is 930 km. Further, the land transit (second) line to the border of Turkey with neighboring countries with a length of 180 km will be laid. The first string will be designed for the Turkish market, the second - for gas supply to the countries of Southern and Southeastern Europe. The capacity of each line is 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Proceed to the supply of gas is planned at the end of 2019. At the end of May, Gazprom and the government of Turkey signed a protocol on the land section of the transit stream of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline to supply Russian gas to European consumers. Gazproms deputy chairman of the board, Alexander Medvedev, said that the company would soon determine the route of the second line of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline for gas supply to countries in Southern and Southeastern Europe. He said two main options are being discussed in accordance with the procedures in the European Union and the European Commission. He named Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary as potential markets. Earlier, Gazproms head Alexei Miller informed that gas in the second line of the Turkish Stream in early 2020 could go through the gas transmission systems of Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Armenia should normalize relations with neighboring countries if it wants stability in the region, Turkish Parliament Speaker Binali Yildirim said, Turkish media reported Oct. 10. He added that if Armenia wants to normalize relations with Turkey, it should abandon its claims to Ankara regarding the events of 1915. Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, allegedly carried out "genocide" against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz The council of Indonesian Islamic Scholars has urged Jakarta and Muslim nations around the world to ban Fethullah Gulen-linked FETO movement, noting the organization is haram (forbidden), Turkish state-run Anadolu agency reports. In an Islamic ruling (Fatwa) issued last week, the council banned involvement in the activities of the organization or its aligned organizations in Indonesia. The council said it has investigated and researched on the Fethullah Gulen movement in the name of Islam and Sufis in Indonesia and ASEAN region, Anadolu says. The council also called on Indonesian authorities and Islamic scholars around the world to unite and jointly stop all forms of Fethullah Gulen activities in their respective countries by prohibiting the circulation of their books in order to protect the mounting generations. The scholars connected FETO to the July 2015 failed coup in Turkey in which over 200 people died. They called on followers to repent to Allah and account for their actions towards Muslims in the world, the agency notes. Gulen, a former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his organization have been blacklisted by Ankara because of their alleged terror activities and mainly their alleged involvement in the failed coup. The US-based cleric is believed to have masterminded the botch military takeover. Ankara has requested his extradition but the US has turned down the request. Ankara, following the coup, has embarked on large scale crackdown on the movement. Thousands people in the military, security forces, judiciary and education sectors have been arrested with many gone into exile for fear of arrest. Erdogan also initiated international campaigns against the movement calling world leaders to close businesses, NGOs and schools linked with the organization. By Trend Turkey and Iraq will discuss regional and bilateral relations during the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's visit to Baghdad, the Foreign Ministry of Turkey said in a message on Oct. 10. Cavusoglus visit to Baghdad is scheduled for October 11-12, reads the message. "Cavusoglu is expected to meet with the newly elected Iraqi President Bahram Salih," the Turkish Ministry said. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, during the visit, Cavusoglu will also visit Erbil, where he will meet with officials of the Kurdish autonomy. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Agreements on the implementation of investment projects worth about 5 billion euros were signed with a number of French compnaies, following the meeting of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev with the leaders of the largest French companies, Podrobno.uz reported. It was noted at the meeting that there are wide opportunities for foreign investors in Uzbekistan. The necessary regulations to stimulate and protect their activities were adopted. Various obstacles to business development have been eliminated, foreign trade and customs tariff control has been significantly reduced. "French businessmen highly appreciated the economic reforms implemented in Uzbekistan, stressed that the liberalization of the monetary system and the simplification of visa procedures created favorable opportunities for the development of mutually beneficial cooperation. Such amenities and preferences increased interest in the economy of Uzbekistan. Ths is evidenced by the signing of agreements on investment projects worth about 5 billion euros," said the press service of the head of state. Developed on the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan, the concept of tax reform will provide greater convenience for businesses and investors. "For direct dialogue with foreign investors, a decision was made to create a Council on Foreign Investments under the President of Uzbekistan. Its task is to develop proposals for the continuous improvement of the investment climate in Uzbekistan, taking into account the opinions of the investors themselves. We invite you to actively participate in the Councils work," said Shavkat Mirziyoev. Earlier, the National Bank of Uzbekistan signed an agreement with Bouygues Batiment International SAS for 100 million euros for the implementation of tourism projects, two agreements with the French bank NATIXIS for a total of 500 million euros, and Credit Agricole for 300 million euros. In addition, the French Total EREN and Uzbekenergo agreed to jointly implement a project for the construction of a photopower plant in the Samarkand region, and Fives, together with Uzstroymaterialy, plans to launch the production of automotive glass in Uzbekistan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend A two-day International Conference and Exhibition Turkmentel-2018 kicked off in Turkmenistans Ashgabat with the participation of more than 80 companies from 21 countries, the Ministry of Communications and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan, the events organizers, said in a message. The event participants include Sony, Huawei, Airbus, Iskratel, Thales, Rostelecom and other companies. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov sent his greeting letter to the participants of the event. Our country is always ready for mutually beneficial cooperation with all states interested in developing a transnational communication system, reads the presidential letter. Such relations contribute to the implementation of the regions enormous transit potential, the establishment of modern communication services and the provision of a high level of information technology. The forum Turkmenistan and World Information and Communication Systems held as part of the event will bring together scientists, specialists and businessmen, in particular those representing the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The participants will present their developments in the field of communications in such sections of the exhibition as telecommunications, information technology, telemetry and measuring equipment, wireless communication, equipment for professional audio-video recording. In addition, TV and radio broadcasting equipment, cable communication products and their components, as well as transport and special equipment will be showcased. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova Azerbaijan has a great potential for the development of tourism. Nature, climate, historical monuments, cuisine, rich culture of the people and other factors lay the foundation for the development of many areas of tourism. Our country is among the developing countries in the field of tourism, occupying the 39th place among 148 countries in terms of global competitiveness in tourism. Azerbaijan is quickly learning and gaining experience in tourism development. As a result of measures taken by the state, the country has created a modern hotel and tourist infrastructure, trained personnel for the industry, formed an extensive network of travel agencies, created information and advertising structures, developed many tourist routes across the country, running through the most scenic and fertile areas. Current trends in the development of tourism indicate an increase in its influence both on the world economy as a whole and on the country's economy. It is not surprising that Azerbaijan wants to occupy its own niche in this globally developing area. In general, the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan increased by 9 percent compared to the same period of 2017, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA) Nahid Bagirov told Trend on October 9. He went on to say that compared to 2017, the number of Emirati tourists arriving in Azerbaijan has decreased in 2018. Though, in 2018, the number of tourists from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait has increased, he added. The head of AzTA also stressed that among the guests there are tourists who do not visit Azerbaijan for the first time and they are mainly from Arab countries. The State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan had earlier reported that in January-August 2018, 1,976,900 foreigners and stateless persons from 193 countries arrived in Azerbaijan, which is 8.5 percent more compared to the corresponding period of 2017. In January-August, the number of arrivals from the Gulf countries increased (with the exception of the UAE and Iran). Compared to the same period of 2017, the number of visitors from these countries increased 2.2 times, including citizens of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - 2.4 times, citizens of Qatar - 1.9 times, Iraqis - 19 percent and citizens of Oman - 9.5 percent. The number of arrivals in Azerbaijan from the UAE decreased by 5.6 percent and from Iran by 25.4 percent. The total number of arrivals from the Gulf countries increased by 0.5 percent, which amounted to 433,600 people. In general, every fifth person who arrived in Azerbaijan was from the Gulf countries. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Former journalist and current lawmaker who interviewed Prime Minister Saad Hariri in November in Riyadh following his surprising resignation has confirmed the Prime Minister was detained in the Saudi capital as she was expressing concern over the fate of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who has gone unaccounted for since last week. Paula Yacoubian who currently sits in the Lebanese parliament following May elections, was the first journalist to interview Prime Hariri in November in Riyadh. During a visit in the Saudi capital, Hariri read out a resignation message on a Saudi television. The resignation took the political establishment in Lebanon and foreign countries by surprise with many suggesting that he was coaxed to resign. Paula Yacoubian in an interview with local media Al-Jadid TV on Sunday indicated that the Lebanese Premier appeared during the interview under pressure. It seems [Hariri] was threatened but I dont know to what extent without evidence or documentation I can say that he was detained, she said. It was clear that Hariri was tired and under pressure. It was clear from the interview that he didnt want to resign. The TV host also expressed concerns over the mystery surrounding the fate of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who has gone missing since Tuesday (Oct.2) after entering the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul for paperwork. He has not emerged from the diplomatic facility since, leaving Turkish security forces to believe that he had been killed inside the mission. Saudi Arabia has rejected the claims saying that Khashoggi left the consulate. Riyadh also said a Saudi investigation team arrived in Turkey and is collaborating with their Turkish counterparts. Khashoggi left the kingdom last year and has been living in self-imposed exile in Washington. He wrote a number of columns for The Washington Post over the past year critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Yacoubian argued that if Khashoggi was killed as Turkish security sources noted, Lebanon should rejoice that Hariri was not murdered in Riyadh during his detention. I hope that Khashoggi is being detained and hasnt been killed but things are pointing towards murder. If this is confirmed, thank God for Hariri coming out [of Saudi Arabia] safe she said, according to the local media. In a related development, the United Nations human rights office has voiced serious concern over Khashoggis disappearance and has called on Turkey and Saudi Arabia to properly investigate the fate of the prominent Saudi journalist and regime critic. If reports of his death and the extraordinary circumstances leading up to are true, this is truly shocking, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said during a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday. Shamdasanis comments come shortly after US President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo all expressed concern regarding Khashoggis whereabouts and called for a thorough and open probe by Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Turkeys foreign ministry said Saudi Arabia had given permission to search the premises of its Istanbul consulate. Qatars national carrier, Qatar Airways, has announced it will continue flying to Iran despite US sanctions and threats by the Trump administration. Aviation is not a sanctioned industry, Qatar Airways will continue to operate into the cities we are currently operating in Iran, said Monday the airline CEO Akbar al-Baker. Our flights to Iran will not be affected, he added. Qatar Airways operates flights to the Iranian capital Tehran and to two other cities namely Mashhad and Shiraz. Donald Trumps administration in August reinstated sanctions on Iran following its May withdrawal from the 2015 multinational nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. Trump asked foreign companies to choose between doing business with Iran and doing business with his country. Washington is expected to introduce a second batch of punitive measures early next month with a target on Iranian oil. Trumps threats have scared many foreign companies, prompting them to pull out from Iran or scrape businesses with Tehran. In this connection, Air France and British Airways announced they were suspending flights to and from Iran. Ties between Iran and Qatar have strengthened since last year in June after Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut off ties with Doha over its friendly ties with Tehran and alleged support for terrorism. Qatar has squarely denied the charges. The quartet imposed a sea/air/ground blockade on the tiny gas-rich country. Doha turned to Tehran and Ankara to circumvent the blockade. NOAA / NHC Crude advanced as Hurricane Michael strengthened and curtailed offshore oil production and the International Energy Agency warned the global market is entering a "red zone." Futures rose as much as 1.1 percent in New York on Tuesday. As Michael barreled toward the Florida panhandle, about one-fifth of oil output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was shut. Globally, supplies from Iran and Venezuela have been shrinking, creating a "risky situation" for the world economy, said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. At the same time, spare crude in American tanks probably increased for a third straight week, according to a Bloomberg survey. The right shoulder and lane of Rainbow Bridge on the Port Arthur side is closed due to abnormally high tides, according to information from the Texas Department of Transportation. However, the National Weather Services predicts little to no impact from Hurricane Michael. Tides for the Beaumont area is forecast to stay around one foot to a foot and a half above normal, showing little affect from the Hurricane. New York On the second floor of the New York Public Library's Riverside branch last week, a handful of high school students were eager to learn the tricks of landing work. "Who has a job?" Michelle Lee, a young adult librarian there, asked. (No hands went up.) "Who wants a job?" she continued. (All hands went up.) For the next hour and a half, as some students munched on snacks, Lee covered the dos and don'ts of interviewing and offered tips on how to produce a strong resume, even using fictitious examples for Peter Parker and Kamala Khan to illustrate her point. And off to one side of the room were the most unusual new additions to the library's collection: neutral-colored handbags and briefcases, and purple, blue and striped neckties, all of which can be checked out like books for up to three weeks. The staff at the Riverside branch, on the Upper West Side, started a new lending program in August after Lee proposed it, one of several programs meant to help jump-start the professional careers of young adults. As news of the program has trickled out through outreach and news coverage, members of the community have offered their own items for lending. Lee said she got the idea during one of her twice-yearly job hunt talks for teenagers. When she spoke about how it was important that they wear their best outfit for interviews, one attendee said he didn't have one. She said she began to think of ways to help him, and had an idea. Lending accessories like handbags and ties, she thought, would help those who cannot necessarily afford to buy them and offer an extra dose of confidence. In 2016, she submitted a proposal to the New York Public Library's Innovation Project, which allows individual library employees to pitch ideas that are then voted on by the whole staff. Lee's suggestion consisted of two parts: first, "adulting" workshops, focused on learning life skills like how to pick professional attire or how to eat healthy on a budget; and second, the lending program, known as the "Grow Up Work Fashion Library." The program adds to the New York Public Library's list of services for young adults, which includes a referral system at the Grand Central Library to an organization that offers business attire, Lee said. Staff members at some libraries are trained as advisers to offer help. At the Riverside branch, employees host college essay workshops and SAT practice sessions. On Wednesday afternoon, Lee held her second job talk of the year. She intentionally scheduled it just before the holiday season, when retail businesses are looking for extra hands. She used her own outfit a simple black dress and white blazer as an example of business casual. She then pointed out the table where the new items sat, and told the students that they could check out two at a time, but that they would have to pay if they lost an item. The bags, which she bought from Amazon, range in price from $40 to $121, and ties are $25 to replace. The program, while part of a larger project aimed at young adults, can be used by anyone, Lee said. She has had high school students and adults check out items since the pilot program began. The Rev. Jean-Paul Osteen was leaving First Baptist Church on Monday, marveling at the white Camaro speeding down North Major Drive so fast other drivers looked to be standing still. The Texas Department of Transportation has taken notice as well. On Monday, the agency officially lowered the speed limit on a portion of the road between Folsom and Delaware to 50 mph. Previously, drivers could legally drive 55 or 60 mph and not everyone was following the law. Osteen said people often speed down North Major from the Folsom traffic light, near his church, to the next one at Delaware. I didnt know what to do, because people are going 65, 70 miles per hour on that road and that one guy was flying, Osteen, 42, said. I can see both sides of it, he added. As a driver, I like being able to get places quickly, but when Im pulling out of the church or, say, a gas station or business, its frustrating to get stuck and not be able to pull out. Osteen said the church hires police to help churchgoers exit on Sundays: They wouldnt be able to get out otherwise, and hopefully this will help with that. The speed limit drop was suggested to the city by TxDOT after multiple citizen requests to evaluate 1.3 mile stretch, public works director Joseph Majdalani said. There were 76 crashes in the span of Major between Folsom and Delaware lights from February 2015 to February 2018, TxDOT spokeswoman Sarah Dupre said in a previous interview. Osteen said it might take time for people to realize there is a new speed limit. Officer Carol Riley with Beaumont Police says officers will be monitoring the stretch, but not any more than usual. We are giving people time to adjust, Riley said. If we see problems in a certain spot, that will be an area we work on. Its going to be a process. Haley.Bruyn@BeaumontEnterprise.com twitter.com/HaleyWrites_BE More than 100 patients afflicted by mysterious illnesses have been diagnosed through a network of detective-doctors who investigate unidentified diseases, reports a study conducted by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and multiple collaborating institutes. The long-awaited diagnoses are the fruits of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, a program created by the National Institutes of Health in 2014. Our goal is to take on the hardest cases in medicine to find patients and families with conditions that no one has been able to solve, said Euan Ashley, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford. We wanted to provide a place that these people could come, so the Undiagnosed Diseases Network came together to try to answer that need. The group, made up of hundreds of doctors across the United States, has so far sleuthed out 132 of 382 previously unknown ailments roughly 35 percent. Some of these patients had been waiting decades to put a name to their illness. They tell us how much of a relief it is simply to know what they were up against, Ashley said. But whats most exciting, he said, was that for 80 percent of the networks diagnoses, they distilled actionable information, such as changes to patient therapy, adjustments to future diagnostic testing and recommendations for family screening. Our findings underscore the impact that establishing a clear diagnosis can have on clinical decision-making for previously undiagnosed patients, said Kimberly Splinter, associate director of research operations for the networks coordinating center and a genetic counselor at Harvard Medical School. We hope that the results of this analysis will provide a compelling case for adopting some of the networks diagnostic approaches more broadly in an attempt to clarify diagnoses and refine treatment for patients with rare conditions. A paper describing the study was published online Oct. 11 in The New England Journal of Medicine. Ashley is the senior author and Splinter is the lead author. Cracking the cases The effort sprung to life four years ago when the NIH tapped Ashley to co-chair a consortium of cross-disciplinary doctors who would work to crack some of medicines most perplexing cases at no charge to the patient. Of the 1,519 applications from patients, 601 were accepted based on the likelihood that the network would be able to help them, given their past medical records and available data. Now, Ashley and the team of physicians have seen more than half of those patients, combining traditional medicine with increasingly cutting-edge diagnostic tests. The network continues to accept applications. Now, Ashley and the team of physicians have seen more than half of those patients, combining traditional medicine with increasingly cutting-edge diagnostic tests. We do this Sherlock Holmes-like detective work-up by carefully observing, gathering information and asking pointed questions, but were also pairing that with the most advanced genomic technologies to try to solve their case, Ashley said. Some cases are solved simply because we know more today than we did a year ago. Every patient had their genome sequenced, even those whose genomes had been previously sequenced. The field of genetic and genomic testing moves so quickly, Ashley explained, that even patients whove had their genome sequenced six months ago benefit from another look. In coordination with genome sequencing, the physicians looked at patients RNA profiles, analyzing precursor molecules to the proteins found in their bodies. They also broke down a collection of molecules called metabolites, which form as a product of metabolism and can hint at where metabolic processes go wrong. Some cases are solved simply because we know more today than we did a year ago, Ashley said. Among those diagnosed, most exhibited rare versions of known diseases, broadening the symptomatic information doctors can look for when evaluating patients for those particular diseases in the future. But in 31 patients, the network identified previously unknown syndromes. One that sticks out to study co-author Matthew Wheeler, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Stanford and executive director of the Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases, is the case of a patient who the network followed for multiple years. The patient had mysterious and life-threatening episodes of something called lactic acidosis, a dangerous buildup of lactic acid in the body. Its sort of like an extreme version of when you exercise intensely, and you feel that burn from the lactate buildup only its your whole body that feels that way, Wheeler said. Lactic acidosis can also cause your acid-base balance to be out of whack, and when people have severe acid-base disturbances, theyre at high risk for arrhythmia or death. It wasnt clear why the patient was experiencing these symptoms, which seemed to be prompted by a cold or flu.After giving the patient the full gamut of tests and analyzing sequencing information, a team of Stanford scientists found the culprit: a single mutation in the gene ATP5F1D, which isinvolved in the function of mitochondria, the cells powerhouse. The genetic oddity and symptoms had never been classified together officially, but from connections within the network and in some instances word of mouth, the scientists found that other doctors around the world had patients plagued by this syndrome. In verifying that the mutation causes the syndrome called mitochondrial complex V deficiency, nuclear type 5 network collaborators on the study developed animal models to show causality. Continuing the search This is a new type of scientific odyssey, Ashley said. Were learning about biology in a way that could help not just one family, but potentially dozens, even hundreds, of families who suffer that same rare condition. Thats the biggest benefit of this network effect the impact of identifying one patients disease could end up being global. Even the patients who did not receive a diagnosis benefit from knowing that a team continues to investigate their conditions and that the future may hold an answer even if the present does not. Weve had patients tell us that just knowing that there is a team looking into their condition, that there is someone in the world who has not given up on them, scientists continuing to keep an eye on the literature that provides hope, Ashley said. Now, Ashley and his colleagues are moving into the second phase as they expand network sites and continue to accept applications and see patients. Lets face it, solving a third of these cases in the first phase was great when they came in the door it was 0 percent. So to get to more than 30 percent we are happy with that, but that still leaves the majority of cases unsolved and many patients still suffering, so we need to do better, Ashley said. Other Stanford authors of the study are Jonathan Bernstein, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics; and genetic counselor Chloe Reuter. Ashley is a member of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford Bio-X and the Stanford Child Health Research Institute. Researchers from Harvard University, the NIH Clinical Center, Baylor University, University of Maryland, Vanderbilt University, HudsonAlpha Institutes for Biotechnology, University of Oregon, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of California, Los Angeles, Duke University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Human Genome Research Institute contributed to the study. The study was funded by the NIH (grants U01HG007709, U01HG007672, U01HG007690, U01HG007708, U01HG00773, U01HG007674, U01HG007942, U01HG007943, U01TR001395, U54NS093793 and R01GM113230). Stanfords Department of Medicine also supported the work. WASHINGTON - Just beyond the metal-framed double doors of the Saudi Embassy in Washington, protesters gathered Wednesday to stand vigil for Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has not been heard from since he disappeared inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey last week. They offered memories of the columnist and payers for his family and fiancee. They demanded answers from the Saudi government - and action from the Trump administration. "When the Saudis commit acts of violence, it has always been with a wink and a nod from the United States," said Madea Benjamin, the co-director of Code Pink, which organized Wednesday's protest. "This did not start with Donald Trump. They have been emboldened for years and it has been a bipartisan problem." Earlier, Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., and several prominent activists joined a growing chorus of Americans calling on the Trump administration to lead an independent probe into Khashoggi's sudden disappearance. At a news conference in front of The Washington Post, Connolly said that President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo must demand answers from the Saudi government. and make it "crystal clear" that the United States will not stand for the killing of journalists. White House press secretary said senior White House officials, including Pompeo, had contacted Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on Tuesday, and asked for more information about what happened on Oct. 2, the last day Khashoggi was seen. "If the Saudis are complicit in this alleged crime, they're the wrong party to investigate," Connolly said. Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and critic of the Saudi government, had gone to the Saudi Consulate that day to finalize papers for his upcoming wedding. Turkish officials believe Khashoggi was killed inside. The Saudi government has denied involvement, insisting Khashoggi left the consulate alive and well. "If they did this, they will be held accountable and there will be penalties," Connolly said. "So far [the Trump administration's] responses have been awfully anemic and not acceptable. We need a robust, strong, fortified U.S. position that makes it crystal clear that this is not acceptable behavior and those responsible for it will be held to account, no matter how high up it may go." At the White House on Wednesday, Trump told reporters it was a "bad situation," and added, "we can't let this happen to reporters, to anybody. ... We'll have to find out who did it." Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post's Global Opinion section, fled to the United States more than a year ago after he was banned from tweeting and his writings were censored in Saudi Arabia, friends said. He lived in a sort of self-imposed exile in northern Virginia near Tysons, away from friends and family. Connolly, who represents the district where Khashoggi lived, said the journalist had been granted asylum in the United States and was under "American protection." Turkish investigators suspect a squad of 15 men from Saudi Arabia were involved in the abduction or killing of Khashoggi and have begun to piece together a timeline. If the allegations against the Saudi government are proven true, Connolly said, "the Saudis will have to account for themselves and they're going to pay a high price, I hope, for committing violence against an innocent who trusted a consulate was a safe haven in which to do business - not an abattoir." Connolly said he was not privy to information regarding any possible threats against Khashoggi that had been intercepted by U.S. intelligence. But he recently learned that Khashoggi had visited the Saudi consulate days before his disappearance and "felt secure" enough to return. "That was the setup," he said. "If [the United States] had intelligence it should have been shared. That was a life-threatening threat." Standing beneath the golden sabers and green trees of the Saudi coat of arms, protesters held photographs of Khashoggi and signs denouncing the monarchy. One man, dressed in a long white thobe, wore the face of bin Salman over his own. His hands, held up for effect, were dripping fake blood. Khaled Saffuri, a close friend of Khashoggi for more than two decades and co-founder of the Islamic Free Market Institute, said a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia contacted Khashoggi in June and offered the journalist safe passage home should he choose to return. Saffuri said Khashoggi told him he wouldn't go. "When he was finished telling me about it, I said, 'Would you go?' And you know what he told me?" Saffuri said. "He said, 'Are you kidding me? I don't trust them for one minute.' " Ali al-Ahmed, a prominent Saudi analyst and critic, said the United States should hold the crown prince personally responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance. He asked that the Trump administration ban the crown prince and a group of 15 men allegedly responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance from entering the United States. "Muhammad bin Salman is the mad king of Saudi Arabia, and Jamal Khashoggi is not his first or his last victim," al-Ahmed told a crowd of more than three dozen spectators and journalists. "Tell him he is not welcome here." Friends and colleagues recounted Khashoggi as 's courage, approachability and desire to see his home country become more free and transparent. They called him conservative in his beliefs and measured in his writing. Several spoke of his support for the monarchy and said he always considered himself more of an advisor than a dissident. "He was so mild," said Samia Harris, a Egyptian human rights activist and founder of Prince William Academy in Virginia. "It makes the rest of us - activists and journalists who have stronger beliefs - think, 'If he lost his life, what's going to happen to me?' " Asma Yousef, 42, and her nephew, Abdulaziz Gebril, 26, said they have had members of their family vanish in the same fashion as Khashoggi. "It's forcing all of us who have had someone we know disappeared to relive that past trauma, that heartbreak," said Yousef, a Libyan American mother of three who befriended Khashoggi at a mosque in northern Virginia. "I wanted the people inside (the Saudi Embassy) to know that Jamal Khashoggi had friends in the United States who support him," she said. "And I felt we owe it to those who would like to be here today, but are unable to because they're afraid. Because look what happened to Jamal." KIEV, Ukraine - For centuries, the golden cupolas of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery and catacombs have been a refuge of tranquility and prayer in Orthodox Christianity. It is now caught in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia as it spills into the world of faith. What is at stake is whether the Ukrainian church can formally break away from Russia's control and become a new autonomous branch among Orthodoxy's more than dozen churches. But it also reflects the wider battlegrounds of nationalism and political identity that helped touch off a separatist uprising in pro-Moscow areas of eastern Ukraine more than four years ago. Fighting has claiming more than 10,300 lives, and Moscow in 2014 annexed the Crimea from Ukraine in a move that has brought international denunciations. Ukraine's political leaders are now pushing for the full Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be fully free of Russia's oversight. Moscow, however, is using its vast influence with the Orthodox world to block any rupture. "The Russian Orthodox Church won't sit idly by and watch this," said Archbishop Kliment, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. An independent Ukrainian church - or "autocephalous" in ecclesiastical terms - would mean little in everyday terms for the faithful. But for Ukraine's political leaders and others, it would mark another important symbolic break from Russia and its reach into Ukrainian affairs. Russia, which has the largest number of Orthodox believers and views itself largely as the leader of the Orthodox world, vehemently objects to the plan. "For the entire Orthodox world the single preferable scenario is the preservation of unity," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The Russian Orthodox Church has even compared the granting of an independent church to Ukraine to the schism between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches in 1054. The decision now falls to the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, from his base in Istanbul, the former byzantine capital of Constantinople. He could announce this week whether to approve Ukraine's appeal. More than two-thirds of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians. But in an arrangement that dates back to more than 300 years, the country's main religious body falls under the authority of Moscow, and not Kiev. "Excuse my pathos, but this is really about Russia's control over the minds and souls of the Ukrainian people," said Viktor Yelensky, one of the Ukrainian lawmakers who voted in April of this year overwhelmingly in favor of President Petro Poroshenko's appeal to Bartholomew to recognize an independent Ukrainian church. Since the April vote, Patriarch Bartholomew has been visited by delegations of Ukrainian and Russian clergy, each pleading their case. According to an investigation by the Associated Press, Russian efforts to impede the process included a cyber hack attack on the email accounts of Bartholomew's top aides. (The ecumenical patriarch himself does not use email.) "Moscow is painting Ukraine as an aggressor, and they're portraying the drive for autocephaly as an offensive. But for the Ukrainians, it's defensive," said Victoria Smolkin, associate professor of history and Russian and East European Studies at Wesleyan University. Publicly, the Russians are objecting on grounds of jurisdiction. Such questions as the granting of autocephaly, they say, should be decided unanimously by Orthodox Christianity's various churches - not unilaterally by the Patriarch Bartholomew. Observers of the Orthodox Christian world say the dispute goes much deeper. It dips into the age-old struggle between Moscow and Constantinople for primacy among Orthodoxy's more than 250 million followers, and Putin's grand strategy of branding his regime as the world's main defender of traditional Christian values. "Constantinople is not beholden to Moscow. They are competitors, not partners," said Smolkin. "It really undermines all their advertising, or marketing so to speak, of their role on the globe," said Professor George Demacopoulos, co-director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. "There are real geopolitical implications for this," he continued. "Especially when you have a figure like Putin, who manages to mask the sufferings of his people by this projection of international power." Russia's power play is made possible by the decentralized structure of the Orthodox Church, which lacks an all-powerful central authority figure like the pope. Instead, the Patriarch of Constantinople is considered a "first among equals" among the other Orthodox patriarchs. His opinions - thanks to tradition and Constantinople's historical central role in the formation of the Eastern Church - carry more weight. "The whole concept of autocephalous churches is supposed to avoid secular ambitions of power," said Father John Chrysavvgis, who serves as an adviser to Patriarch Bartholomew. Still, many decisions are reached among Orthodoxy's 14 constituent churches, which largely conform to national borders, like Bulgaria, Romania and Russia, and also include the ancient regional churches that were part of the Byzantine Empire, like the one based in Alexandria, Egypt. Should the Ukrainian Church become the 15th church, fresh battles over parishes and church property are likely to erupt. According to Demacopoulos, Ukraine makes up at least one-third of the Russian Church's parishes. Their loss would be significant. Crowning these properties is the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, or the Monastery of the Caves, perched on a bluff overlooking the Dnieper River, in one of the capital's more exclusive neighborhoods. To enter through its frescoed gates is to immerse oneself in a world full of cassocked monks, hushed, genuflecting worshipers and more than 100 religious structures. At its heart is a labyrinth of catacombs, which date from the 11th century and are the final resting place of some of Eastern Orthodoxy's most revered figures. For now, the Lavra is divided into an upper section, which the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture administers as a historical site, and a lower monastery, which is leased by the Moscow Patriarchate. - - - Ferris-Rotman reported from Moscow. Fifteen Texas Catholic jurisdictions, including the nine-county Diocese of Beaumont, will release the names of priests "credibly accused" of sexually abusing minors dating back to 1950. The local list is expected to include at least four priests from the Beaumont area. The announcement Wednesday comes amid a flurry of scandals over church leaders' handling of sexual assault claims. The lists will be published by each diocese by Jan. 31, 2019. "We're doing this in the spirit of transparency," Bishop Curtis Guillory of the Beaumont Diocese said by telephone from Paris. "That is why we're going to publish all the names." He said four people are on the local list now, but that church leaders are going through records to see if more should be added. Guillory also said he worries that people will think abuse is still occurring in the church, which he says isn't necessarily the case. "In 2002 we put in the Protecting God's Children charter and it involves having experts in law enforcement and psychology, having a case go before them and validated," he said. "It's been working, but we have to go back and make sure that all of the names we are putting out were credibly accused." RELATED: Bishop Guillory to retire this fall Guillory joined Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, and other Texas church officials in the announcement. "Earlier this summer I joined the Holy Father and Cardinal DiNardo, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in expressing my deep sadness for the severe damage that has been imposed on the lives of so many by this sinful and criminal abuse," Guillory said in a statement. "I am also saddened by the violations of trust that have happened in so many other places." Michael Norris, director of the Houston office of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he's encouraged by the church's statement, though he questions the sincerity of the message. "The way they worded their announcement with the word 'credibly accused' is troubling," Norris said. "In my case, the church said I wasn't credible, but a jury of my peers found my abuser guilty and today he is sitting in jail. So the church obviously isn't always right." "I think they are trying to get out in front of the problem," he said. "This move is coming from public pressure. If they really wanted to be open, they'd let the district attorney investigate." RELATED: Argentina: Key points in study of pedophile priest Grassi At least four allegations against abusive priests have come to light publicly in Southeast Texas over the last decade, Beaumont Enterprise archives show. In 2013, the local diocese settled a lawsuit brought by an unnamed Dallas County man for an undisclosed amount of money. The lawsuit involved six accusers and included allegations against the late priest Ronald Bollich dating back three decades. Bollich served in parishes in Jefferson, Orange and Nacogdoches counties. Two years later, Port Arthur police investigated but declined to bring charges against a priest there, citing "insufficient evidence" to make a case. In 2010, a former altar boy accused two different priests at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Nederland of assaulting him on separate occasions in 1978 and 1989. The Sloan Law Firm, which worked on the case, on Wednesday said the lawsuit is now closed. Attempts to get more information were not successful. In 2005, the Rev. Frank Paduch was defrocked following an investigation into sexual misconduct. He was in Illinois at the time, but the Beaumont diocese had investigated other complaints here after he was ordained in 1989 and was serving at St. Charles in Nederland. Prosecutors contacted Wednesday in Orange, Jefferson and Hardin counties each said they were unaware of any local criminal cases involving religious clergy and children. Guillory sees the public naming of suspect priests as a way to move forward. "This is a very discouraging time for Catholics and non-Catholics," he said, calling child sexual abuse "a horrible, sinful, shameful thing." "But in the 2,000 years of the life of the church, there have been various moments of purification," he added. "The purification causes pain and suffering but I truly think we will be a holier, better and more effective church at the end of this." The Diocese of Beaumont includes 70,365 registered Catholics and 25,531 Catholic households. Prior to its establishment in 1966, parishes in Southeast Texas were part of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston. In a Wednesday statement, DiNardo -- who himself has recently been accused of mishandling abuse claims -- called the decision a "response to the faithful's call for greater accountability and transparency. "Every bishop in our state has made a statement expressing his concern for all who have been hurt and I want to express my personal sorrow at such fundamental violations of trust that have happened," wrote DiNardo. "We are completely committed to eradicating the evil of sexual abuse in the church and promoting healing among the faithful and those injured by this crime." Other participating dioceses are San Antonio, Austin, Amarillo, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Laredo, Lubbock, San Angelo, Tyler and Victoria. In a written statement, Guillory said the local church will not abide sexual abuse. "Please remember, as I have said many times before, we have zero tolerance in our diocese," the statement said. "We investigate all allegations." Robert Downen in Houston contributed. Hugh Hewitt: "Is there any doubt in your mind, Senator Cotton, that this was planned long before it was unveiled? And by that, I mean the leak of Dr. Ford's letter. I don't know who did it, but I believe it was part of a campaign that was set up to occur exactly when it did. Do you agree with me?" Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.: "Hugh, I believe the Schumer political operation was behind this from the very beginning. We learned last week that a woman named Monica McLean was Ms. Ford's roommate, and she was one of the so-called beach friends who encouraged Ms. Ford to go to Dianne Feinstein and the partisan Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. Well, it just turns out, it just so happens that Monica McLean worked for a Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney in Manhattan, now a virulent anti-Trump critic on television and former counsel to Chuck Schumer. So I strongly suspect that Chuck Schumer's political operation knew about Ms. Ford's allegations as far back as July and manipulated the process all along to include taking advantage of Ms. Ford's confidences." - Exchange on "The Hugh Hewitt Show, " Oct. 9, 2018 - - - Christine Blasey Ford said she decided to come forward with an allegation that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 only after a confidential letter she sent to her congresswoman leaked this year. "I am no one's pawn," Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27. President Trump at first called Ford's testimony credible. But once the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the president called the whole thing a "a hoax that was set up by the Democrats using the Democrats' lawyers." The next morning, Cotton was on the radio connecting the dots. The senator theorized that Democrats led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leaked Ford's confidential letter near the end of the confirmation process in a bid to derail Kavanaugh. How does he figure? Well, one of Ford's former roommates had encouraged her to come forward, and this roommate once worked for Bharara, who once worked for Schumer, so there you have it. It's not clear what evidence Cotton is relying on to get from Point A (all these people know each other!) to Point B (all these people were working secretly in cahoots!). Regardless, the former roommate in question, Monica McLean, never worked for Bharara. So this theory falls apart pretty quickly, relying as it does on a false premise sprinkled with suppositions on top. Ford, a research psychologist, in July sent a confidential letter detailing her allegation of sexual assault to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., whose office sent the letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. On Sept. 7, the last day of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court, the letter was still under wraps. But a few days later, on Sept. 12, the Intercept was the first to report on the existence of Ford's letter and noted that Democrats on the Judiciary Committee had asked to see Ford's confidential letter privately but that Feinstein refused. The letter "describes an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school," the Intercept reported. Two things happened the next day, Sept. 13. The New York Times reported that the letter involved "possible sexual misconduct," and Feinstein issued a vague statement alluding to Ford's letter without disclosing details. The writer "strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision," Feinstein said. "I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities." The next day, Sept. 14, the New Yorker reported on the contents of Ford's letter without naming her. Two days after that, on Sept. 16, Ford went public in an interview with The Washington Post's Emma Brown. She had not planned on doing so, Ford said, but decided to get out in front of the story after the murmurs and leaks about her letter led reporters to her home and classroom. Feinstein has said neither she nor her staff leaked Ford's letter or its contents. Ford and her attorney, Debra Katz, have said they believe Feinstein handled her letter appropriately. "But regrettably others did not," Katz told The Post previously. It's clear that an anonymous source or sources leaked details about Ford's letter to the Intercept, the Times and the New Yorker, right on the cusp of Kavanaugh's elevation to the Supreme Court. Back to Cotton. His suggestion is that Schumer, Bharara and one of Ford's friends, McLean, somehow orchestrated these last-minute bombshells. (Ford's interview with The Post led senators to reopen Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing. The judge and the professor both gave testimony on this issue Sept. 27.) Ford and McLean are friends who attended the same all-girls high school in Maryland. They were roommates in California. Ford testified that she was in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, when she wrote the confidential letter that ended up in Feinstein's hands. McLean lives in Rehoboth. She was among Ford's supporters at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Sept. 27. The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 5 that McLean had pressured Leland Keyser to revise her initial statement about Ford's allegation. Ford had named Keyser as one of the attendees of the 1982 gathering in which she said Kavanaugh assaulted her, although she said Keyser was not in the room but downstairs. Keyser at first said she did not know about an alleged sexual assault involving Kavanaugh; then, after pressure from McLean, she revised her statement to say she believed but could not confirm Ford's account. That's as far as the facts go. There's no evidence that McLean tipped off Bharara, Schumer or both about Ford's letter. Representatives for Cotton did not respond to our questions. Yet it's not hard to imagine that the senator picked up some internet chatter from conservatives making this fanciful connection. "That's Monica McLean, who served as a spokesperson for @PreetBharara, appendage of @chuckschumer," Republican strategist Phil Kerpen tweeted Oct. 3, linking to a picture of McLean at Ford's hearing. The next day, he added, "Feeling more like this was a Schumer op, forced on Feinstein via the Intercept leak when she wouldn't act on the letter. That's why her heart wasn't in it." The connection here appears to be based on a pseudonymous conservative blogger's analysis of a news release from Nov. 30, 2009, which announced a three-month prison sentence for a contractor in New York who had pleaded guilty to making an illegal payment to a union official. The news release was issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Preet Bharara led the U.S. Attorney's Office from August 2009 until Trump fired him in March 2017. As is common in criminal investigations, multiple agencies collaborated on this case. It's also common for law enforcement agencies to give each other kudos in their news releases when a target is indicted, convicted or sentenced, and it's a matter of routine to include press contacts for each agency in the same news release. That's what happened here. The 2009 news release clearly lists four agencies: the U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, the New York City Department of Investigation and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor. McLean's name is listed as a press contact under the FBI header, not the one for the U.S. attorney's office. "Monica McLean has never worked for me. I couldn't pick her out of a lineup and I have no contact with her," Bharara tweeted in response to conservative writer Erick Erickson on Oct. 5, after Erickson tweeted that McLean had "worked for" Bharara. In an interview, Bharara repeated that he did not know McLean and that she never worked for him, and he added that U.S. attorney's offices do not oversee FBI employees because they are two different agencies. Bharara was once chief counsel for Schumer in the Senate. However, for Cotton's theory to work, McLean has to be in the picture, too. Her attorney, David H. Laufman, wrote in an email: "As a supervisory special agent assigned to the press office of the FBI's New York Division in 2008-2009, Monica McLean was responsible for coordinating news releases with the press office of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO-SDNY). But Ms. McLean has never been employed by USAO-SDNY or by Preet Bharara. Moreover, Ms. McLean has never met or personally communicated with Mr. Bharara." Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, said McLean "did not work here." Schumer spokesman Matt House called it "another fairy tale from Senator Cotton, reminiscent of his trip to the White House when he lied about what the president said about immigrants from Africa." (Trump in a Jan. 11 meeting at the White House disparaged African immigrants as coming from "shithole countries." Cotton said he heard "shithouse" and not "shithole" at the meeting.) - - - We decided to fact-check Cotton because U.S. senators should get the facts straight before trotting out incendiary accusations. Not a whiff of evidence shows that McLean conspired with Bharara or Schumer or both to leak details about Ford's letter. Contrary to what Cotton said, McLean never worked for Bharara. McLean left the FBI's New York field office in 2009; Bharara was U.S. attorney from 2009 to 2017. Bharara and McLean both say they don't know each other. A few minutes of simple research would have set things straight for Cotton. Bharara had tweeted four days before Cotton's interview that McLean "never worked for me," and it's an elementary fact that U.S. attorneys don't supervise FBI agents. (Senators should know that kind of stuff.) This Four Pinocchio claim should serve as a reminder: Just because someone says it on the internet doesn't make it true. --- Video Embed Code Video: The Fact Checker's ultimate guide to the accuracy of several statements made by Kavanaugh that opponents say undermine his credibility.(Meg Kelly/The Washington Post) Embed code: National Movement in the Government of Georgian Dream By Levan Khutsishvili On October 5, President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili gave a speech on the event organized by the Georgian Lawyers Association and criticized Government for giving leading positions to the people who were affiliated with the Government of Mikheil Saakashvili.History remembers several cases, but when you are speaking about "nine years of blood" and terrible regime, and at the same time you are helping the career of the people who actually were creating that nightmare, of course, unclear emotions in society and feeling of uncertainty reside, said President of Georgia.According to the president, he was expecting that Georgian Dream and the new government will finish violence and create a better system, but it did not happen."I was expecting that our political team, which changed the National Movement's mostly violent governance, would change the processes by finishing violence and injustice and create a precedent of better governance when society overcomes the pains of past and builds better future.There were ideas and opinions on how to go ahead and those ideas came not only from the Georgian Dream but also from the society, but, unfortunately, none of those concepts were left to go forward. It happened that we preserved our pain and tragedy and it is worrying. However, it is more worrying that when this issue has been politically powered at high temperatures over 6 years, we are constantly speaking about how National Movement is a big evil that we left in history, and at the same time, those who have been executioners of the National Movement regime continue to have career advancement. And those two things are happening simultaneously. On the one hand, Georgian Dream and its government talks about how terrible the nine years were and on the other hand gives good jobs to the people who created that regime, said Giorgi Margvelashvili.It is the last month for Margvelashvili as President of Georgia. He said that in fact, even persecution of the people related with the regime of National Movement would be better than what is happening now, though he added that personally, he is not supporting anyones persecution, but that the political dissonance should be ended."Everything would be better than that. Even, it would be better to persecute them and forget this topic. But the reality is different, for several years we are pointing at them and at the same time have better positions in government; already the several Pleiades have been replaced, and now the Adeishvili-Kezerashvilis loyal staff are standing on political platforms and are trying to frighten society, as it was at the time of the National Movement. This dissonance should be ended. I have never been a proponent of any kind of persecution. But, I dont understand what we are trying to achieve, by creating this kind of political disorder, said Margvelashvili. Health systems across the U.S. are looking for ways to improve the overall health of the communities they serve while simultaneously cutting costs. One of the popular trends emerging in the healthcare space to combat these seemingly competing incentives is an emphasis on primary care or other express care sites. Driving investment in primary care or other express care sites could be the key to lowering costs, improving patient satisfaction and reducing hospitalizations or unnecessary emergency department visits, according to an op-ed published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Over the last few months, several health systems have announced their intent to expand their primary care or express care strategies. Here is a breakdown of seven hospitals or health systems investing in primary care sites, as reported by Becker's Hospital Review since Jan. 1: 1. UC San Diego Health. UC San Diego Health plans to open more than 10 express and primary care sites over the next four years in an effort to increase patient access to providers. The sites will be spread across several California cities along public transit lines. 2. Novant Health (Winston-Salem, N.C.). In partnership with GoHealth Urgent Care, Novant Health will establish a large network of urgent care centers across North Carolina. The first phase of the project will include constructing 15 centers in Charlotte and Winston-Salem, N.C. 3. Tower Health (West Reading, Pa.) Tower Health signed an asset purchase agreement to acquire Douglassville, Pa.-based Premier Urgent Care's 19 urgent care centers. Eighteen of the care locations are in Pennsylvania and one is in Delaware. 4. Iora Health (Boston). Teaming up with Humana, Iora Health will open 10 primary care clinics with a focus on Medicare patients across the U.S. The clinics will open in Tacoma, Wash., Tucson, Ariz., Phoenix and Atlanta. 5. Presbyterian Healthcare Services (Albuquerque, N.M.). The health system will open four retail-based clinics offering both emergency and urgent care by the end of 2019. The walk-in clinics will be opened in partnership with INtuitive Health to increase patient access to immediate care in an appropriate setting. 6. Beaumont Health (Southfield, Mich.). Through a partnership with Atlanta-based WellStreet Urgent Care, Beaumont Health will open as many as 30 urgent care centers in metro Detroit by the end of 2019. The decision is part of the health system's strategy to provide convenient and lower-cost care options for its patients. The centers will be in high-traffic areas, near high-volume emergency centers or commercially dense locations. 7. Spectrum Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.). Spectrum Health opened its first retail-based clinic in a Meijer grocery store on July 12. It will offer non-emergent care to patients. John Rudd, president and CEO of Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cayuga Health System and Cayuga Medical Center, is retiring in fall 2019. Here are five notes: 1. Mr. Rudd has worked at the medical center for 23 years, previously serving in numerous leadership roles, such as CFO. 2. He was instrumental in the establishment of Cayuga Health System, formed in 2014, when Cayuga Medical Center partnered with Schuyler Hospital. 3. Mr. Rudd became president and CEO of Cayuga Health System and Cayuga Medical Center six years ago. 4. During his tenure, the health system invested in major renovation and expansion of surgical services as well as a new maternity unit. 5. Martin Stallone, MD, vice president of physician operations at Cayuga Medical Center and president of Cayuga Medical Associates, will succeed Mr. Rudd on Jan. 1, 2019. They will work together during the transition, until Mr. Rudd departs in the fall. The National Library of Medicine, a program of the National Institutes of Health, appointed Clem McDonald, MD, its first chief health data standards officer, effective Nov. 1. In the newly-created role, Dr. McDonald will spearhead efforts to integrate data standards across the agency, with an emphasis on interoperability standards such as Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, or FHIR and various data vocabularies specific to clinical care. He will also work with with industry, academic and government partners to encourage the use of health data standards. Dr. McDonald spent the past 12 years as director of the agency's Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications in Bethesda, Md., and as scientific director of the center's intramural research program. His research focuses on clinical informatics, including analyzing large clinical databases and using FHIR to bring EHR data into medical research. Prior to joining the National Library of Medicine, Dr. McDonald was a professor of medical informatics at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and the director of the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care, an Indianapolis-based medical research institute affiliated with Indiana University School of Medicine. While working at Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Dr. McDonald developed one of the first EHRs and one of the first health information exchanges, according to the National Library of Medicine. "Dr. McDonald was an early medical informatics pioneer and has spent his career leading data standards efforts," Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, director of the National Library of Medicine, said in a news release. "We are indeed fortunate to have enlisted him as the inaugural holder of this appointment." Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health rolled out a mandatory flu shot policy last year, and the health system will continue the program this year. Under the program, employees had until Nov. 20, 2017, to receive a flu shot, obtain a medical/religious exemption or face termination. Essentia reported more than 99.5 percent compliance with the program. For 2018, Essentia will continue its mandatory flu shot program, which also applies to students who train and vendors who operate at the health system's facilities, as well as people who volunteer through Essentia programs. To ensure there is plenty of time to review medical/religious exemptions before this year's Nov. 20 compliance deadline, Essentia moved up the deadline to submit exemption requests. "The first year [is] the most difficult because everyone [is] doing first-time medical and religious exemption requests," said Rajesh Prabhu, MD, infectious disease and chief patient quality and safety officer for the system. "Those granted medical exemptions last year still [have their medical exemptions] in place. For religious exemptions, they just have to confirm their belief hasn't changed from last year." He expects compliance to increase this year since fewer people need to request medical exemptions for the first time. Essentia now has 14,700 employees and began its flu shot campaign Oct. 2. Dr. Prabhu encouraged other systems or hospitals considering a mandatory flu shot program to focus on the reasoning behind beginning the program. "It's not just a technical change. You have to get everyone to feel why this is important for not only our employees but [also] the patients we serve. We focus a lot of efforts on that end," he said. Dr. Prabhu said support from leadership helped make the first year of Essentia's mandatory flu shot program a success. "We had support from our CEO and everyone in leadership," he said. "[They had] direct, in-person communication with some of those hesitant to get vaccinated because sometimes it's good to talk to people to understand their concerns and barriers." Lessons learned Essentia announced its mandatory flu shot program in September 2017 and some employees felt they didn't get enough notice to comply. However, Dr. Prabhu said he believes some employees would not have complied with the program even if they were given more time. "No matter how much lead time you give, I don't think it will change the minds of people who are resistant to get the influenza vaccine," he said. Essentia's flu shot policy encountered opposition from unions as well. The Minnesota Nurses Association and some other labor groups that represent Essentia employees continue to challenge the flu shot policy. In July, an arbitrator sided with Essentia over the United Steelworkers Union regarding the policy. Despite the opposition and a few challenges in the initial rollout, Dr. Prabhu said Essentia needed the policy. He said the system was not going to get to where it wanted to be with its previous voluntary policy, which had 82 percent compliance. And, after evaluating the first year, Essentia decided it was necessary to continue the policy into the 2018-19 flu season. 2018-19 flu season For this flu season, the CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older receive a flu vaccine by the end of October. Nasal spray FluMist is recommended for 2018-19 as an option for flu vaccination of nonpregnant individuals age 2 to 49. It's unclear how severe the 2018-19 flu season will be. Last year's flu season was particularly severe, with about 900,000 people hospitalized and about 80,000 people dead due to the virus. More articles on human capital and risk: Pottstown Hospital nurses ratify labor deal UPMC workers strike; nonunion hospital workers launch political action committee UPMC workers set to strike in Pittsburgh The National Labor Relations Board has charged Commerce Township, Mich.-based Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital with multiple labor law violations. The hospital, a Detroit Medical Center affiliate owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, is in contract negotiations with nurses represented by the Professional Nursing Association of Huron Valley Sinai Hospital. It is scheduled to participate in administrative hearing Nov. 5. "We formed our union [in March 2016] to stand up for our patients. Our hospital should be working with us, not against us," said Kathleen Lehman, a recovery nurse at Huron Valley and president of the PNA-HVSH, a Michigan Nurses Association affiliate. "Instead, they're taking orders from Texas, and fighting us at every turn interfering with our meetings, trying to stop us from talking to each other about our workplace." A labor board complaint, based on charges filed by Huron Valley nurses, alleges the hospital discriminated against union members and engaged in bad-faith bargaining. More specifically, the complaint alleges the hospital threatened to discipline nurses in retaliation for their efforts to get better pay and working conditions, according to the union. It also accuses Huron Valley of preventing a union representative from going on hospital grounds. A DMC spokesperson denied the union's assertions in a statement to Becker's. "The parties continue to meet regularly and HVSH has met all legal obligations to bargain in good faith. HVSH is optimistic that the parties can reach mutual agreement in the near future," the spokesperson said. "HVSH denies all unfair labor practice charges and looks forward to prevailing on these charges in the scheduled National Labor Relations Board proceeding." The charges against Huron Valley come more than two years after the hospital and nurses began negotiations in May 2016. More articles on human capital and risk: Pottstown Hospital nurses ratify labor deal UPMC workers strike; nonunion hospital workers launch political action committee UPMC workers set to strike in Pittsburgh Hurricane Michael strengthened to a Category 4 storm just hours before it is expected to hit the Florida Panhandle Oct. 10, making it one of the strongest weather events to hit the U.S. in 2018, according to CNN. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said the "extremely dangerous" hurricane may produce storm surges up to 13 feet high and devastating winds across the Panhandle and southern Alabama and Georgia. If the eye of the storm hits the coast with winds of up to 145 miles per hour their maximum sustained speed as of Oct. 10 the hurricane would produce damage similar to that of a strong tornado. However, "instead of lasting 30 seconds, it [would last] for one hour," Mr. Myers said. "There will be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, without power for a very long time." Here are five things to know: 1. Florida Gov. Rick Scott issued mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders for at least 22 counties on the Florida Gulf Coast, CNN reports. He later extended the order to at least 35 counties. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency in at least 92 counties across the state on Oct. 9, according to WSB-TV 2. 2. Storm surges and onshore flooding had already begun in parts of Florida as of about 7:30 a.m. Oct. 10. If wind speeds within the eye of the storm reach 157 mph, the storm will be upgraded to a Category 5 event. CNN reports that from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. EST, Hurricane Michael's wind speeds increased 5 mph. 3. In an Oct. 9 update from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, officials said FEMA has activated its National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C., and its Regional Response Coordination Center in Atlanta in preparation for the storm, and has deployed incident management teams in both states. 4. Some hospitals in Florida stopped inpatient admissions and began evacuating patients Oct. 9, according to nwfdailynews.com. For more information on healthcare facility closures in the Panhandle, click here. 5. South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta activated its emergency operations plan Oct. 9 in preparation for Hurricane Michael, WALB 10 News reports. Hospital officials said it has received additional shipments of fuel, food, medicine and supplies to carry operations through the first 96 hours after the storm's onset. Dothan, Ala.-based Flowers Hospital announced the closure of all of its outpatient departments and Flowers Medical Group offices Oct. 10, but expects to resume normal operations Oct. 11, according to WDHN News. Editor's note: Information about hospital or healthcare facility closures is not exhaustive. Kansas City (Mo.) emergency rooms are seeing a jump in electric scooter-related injuries after companies Lime and Bird dropped the vehicles in the city this summer, KBIA reports. Kansas City ERs join other U.S. hospitals seeing more scooter-related injuries after the arrival of e-scooters. Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health saw a 161 percent increase in ER visits involving scooters this year after comparing its statistics with the same three-month period of 2017. Aaron Kaus, MD, an emergency room physician at Kansas City, Mo.-based Saint Luke's Hospital, said injuries most often involve the face and head, and the speed of e-scooters also contributes to patients' injuries. "I've heard from ones who, more or less, lose control of the scooters when they hit either a pothole or a crack, or transition from the sidewalk to the street," Dr. Kaus told KBIA. In a statement to KBIA, a spokesperson for scooter company Bird said the company restricts the maximum speed of its vehicles and requires riders to upload a driver's license confirming they are 18 or older. Every Bird scooter also has safety instructions. In 2016, nearly a fifth of commercial insurance payments for the 20 highest-priced hospitals in Florida came from casualty, workers' compensation and travel insurers, according to a study published in the October 2018 issue of Health Affairs. The 20 hospitals with the highest prices in 2016, which charged commercial insurers between 7.8 and 14.1 times the Medicare rate, were affiliated with Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare. While a relatively small number of patients were covered by casualty, workers' compensation and travel insurers at the hospitals in 2016, they still represented 24 percent of commercial net revenue for those hospitals, according to researchers with Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University. For their analysis, the study authors analyzed hospital prices paid by commercial health plans and those paid by casualty, workers' compensation, liability and travel insurers from 2010-16. What they found is commercial health plans saw medium prices increase from 1.9 to 2.5 times the Medicare price within the study period. At the same time, the other insurers saw median prices increase from 2.8 to 3.8 times Medicare rates. While the consolidation of commercial health plans can lower prices among hospitals, other insurers often don't have enough market power to leverage in negotiations with hospitals. This allows hospitals to have more bargaining power against these types of insurers, according to the researchers. "Attention must also be given to the other payer market, where prices are highest. It will be challenging to address the excessively high prices for other payers by relying on market forces alone. Limiting the price for any commercial payer based on each hospital's negotiated price with [health maintenance organization and preferred provider organization] payers could be a promising policy option," the study concludes. To view the full study, click here. More articles on payers: Walmart, GM should be 'wake-up call' for private insurers Medicare patients fill helplines with questions about Highmark-UPMC feud OIG finds Wisconsin erroneously paid $589k for care of dead Medicaid patients Less than a month after Hurricane Florence slammed the Carolinas, the Southern states are bracing for another storm Hurricane Michael which is intensifying as it inches closer to the U.S. coastline. The storm strengthened to a Category 4 just hours before it was expected to hit the Florida Panhandle Oct. 10, according to CNN. The hurricane is expected to produce storm surges up to 12 feet, dump about a foot of rain over many Florida communities and deliver devastating wind gusts as it moves inland, according to forecasters. Before the hurricane's landfall, here are four ways pharmacies and hospitals are preparing: 1. Medication refills. Pharmacies are urging customers to get an extra 30-day supply of any medication. Since there is a state of emergency declared in parts of Florida, Alabama and Georgia, pharmacists there can refill prescriptions without a prescriber's refill authorization. 2. Mobile pharmacies. Walgreens is staging temporary mobile pharmacies near the affected region that will be deployed if any drugstores are damaged or unable to reopen quickly. 3. Stocking supplies. Many hospitals, including South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta, activated their emergency operations plan Oct. 9 in preparation for Hurricane Michael, WALB 10 News reports. South Georgia Medical Center has received extra shipments of fuel, food, medicine and supplies to carry operations through the first 96 hours after the storm's onset. 4. Pharmacist recommendations. Pharmacists have recommended that patients carry any current medications in a waterproof bag. Even if the bottle is empty, having the correct dosage and medication information will help pharmacists with any refill requests. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is warning residents of an enterovirus outbreak among children in the state, according to The Gazette. Here are four things to know: 1. Most cases involved in the outbreak are linked to an uncommon enterovirus strain called A71, which on rare occasions can cause neurological complications like meningitis, encephalitis and acute flaccid myelitis. More common enterovirus strains typically cause rashes, cold-like symptoms and hand, foot and mouth disease. 2. The Colorado Health Department has seen 41 A71-strand enterovirus cases in 2018, all of which resulted in neurological complications. Fourteen additional cases of AFL were also reported. Of those cases, 11 tested positive for enterovirus A71. One case tested positive for a different uncommon enterovirus strain called D68. 3. Health officials said almost all of the infected children have recovered, according to The Gazette. 4. The Colorado Health Department released the following statement Oct. 9: "The state health department has been monitoring this situation closely since early spring. In addition to investigating the outbreak, the state health department has issued alerts to healthcare providers on how to test for the viruses and enhanced guidance to child care centers on infection prevention," the department said. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: The Democratic Republic of the Congo issued a decree to protect health workers from violence and ban residents from hiding suspected Ebola patients, according to Reuters. Mistrust among Congo residents and continued attacks on healthcare workers have disrupted Ebola treatment and vaccination efforts in the city of Beni, Mayor Jean Edmond Nyoni Bwanakawa told Reuters Oct. 10. The Congo's Health Ministry implemented a decree prohibiting Beni residents from harboring Ebola patients. Those who do not follow the ban could face a jail term of up to three months. Healthcare professionals who do not refer suspected Ebola patients to treatment centers will see their own centers shut down. In addition, Congo officials are requiring families of victims to show a death certificate to obtain a burial permit. They will also provide health workers with police protection during burials. Properly burying Ebola victims is a critical part of controlling Ebola's spread. Two Red Cross volunteers were attacked by villagers Oct. 2 while helping with a burial, which temporarily suspended some burials in the area. There are currently 142 confirmed Ebola cases and 35 probable infections linked to the outbreak, which started Aug. 1 and has resulted in 113 deaths.. Eleven cases are still under investigation. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: An investigation by the Florida Department of Health's epidemiological team identified pet store puppies as the source of an outbreak of Campylobacter infections, which sickened 100 people across 18 states since January 2016, according to News 6 Colorado. The investigation started last summer when five Orange County, Fla., residents became ill with symptoms such as abdominal pain, fever, cramps and diarrhea after bacterial exposure to Campylobacter Jejuni. The team found the bacterial strain responsible for the illnesses was commonly found in sick puppies and resistant to most types of antibiotics. Health officials identified puppies at two Orlando-based Petland stores as the source of the infections. They notified federal health agencies of their findings after DNA testing revealed some puppies had the same strain of bacteria that infected individuals in other states. In total, 118 people contracted a Campylobacter infection after coming into contact with an infected puppy between January 5, 2016, to Feb. 4, 2018. Of those individuals, 29 were pet store workers and 26 required hospitalization. No deaths occurred. While six pet store chains were involved in the outbreak, most cases involved Petland puppies. Ohio and Florida reported the most infections linked to the puppies. Other states affected by the outbreak included: Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Among 149 puppies investigated as part of the outbreak, 142 received one or more courses of antibiotics, which may have caused the bacteria's resistance, the CDC discovered. Campylobacter infections are often associated with eating raw or undercooked poultry, but people can also contract the infection through contact with dog or cat feces, according to the CDC. The Florida Department of Health recommends individuals wash or sanitize their hands before and after any exposure to animals to limit the chances of contracting a bacterial infection. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Elko-based Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital gave 1,006 doses of influenza vaccine during its annual drive-thru flu shot clinic Oct. 6 a nearly 25 percent increase from the clinic's 809 flu shots in 2017, the Elko Daily Free Press reports. Hospital staff and volunteers set up a four-lane clinic in the facility's parking lot. Clinic participants could pull into a lane, fill out paperwork and get their shot without exiting their vehicle. "Our team really pulled together to keep things running efficiently," said Jennifer Koopman, director of physician relations at NNRH and the coordinator of the event. "This was the highest volume of flu shots we've ever given in one day, but our staff handled it like the pros they are." More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: FluMist available, but hard to find for some Kentucky confirms state's 1st flu death Virus season hits Pennsylvania early: 3 things to know Providers often struggle to have open end-of-life discussions with critically ill patients, prompting a need for hospital leaders to reevaluate how nurses discuss death and dying, a nurse argues in The Hill. Six insights from the op-ed, written by Colleen Chierici, BSN, RN, nurse at Rush Oak Park (Ill.) Hospital: 1. Ms. Chierici recalled when her mother was critically ill, she listened to an oncologist discuss the 30 percent chance her mother would respond to chemotherapy, but never said her mother was dying. "Would my family have chosen a different path for my mother, if there had been a more explicit conversation? Resoundingly, yes," Ms. Chierici writes. "If my mother's healthcare providers would have had a deliberate discussion about her impending death, my family would never have chosen chemotherapy and instead chose to initiate hospice care." 2. Nurses have a duty to advocate for patients, Ms. Chierici says. "Advocating can take many forms, but most often, it is helping patients navigate the complexities of the healthcare system as well as explaining the meaning of test results, procedures and diagnoses." 3. But nurses across the globe, including Ms. Chierici, often struggle to have explicit conversations about dying with their patients, she said. A study published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies surveyed acute care and critical care nurses to evaluate how they approach end-of-life discussions and found nurses' own knowledge and participation rates are low when it comes to end-of-life care. 4. On the other side of this issue is patients who may not be making a well-informed decision since they do not understand they are dying, Ms. Chierici says. "When the focus is shifted from 'fighting to live' to 'death is imminent,' other care decisions can be made by these patients. They can choose hospice care." 5. For nurses who struggle to have difficult discussions about death with patients and their families, Ms. Chierici recommends reviewing the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium project a national education initiative for educating nurses on better end-of-life care that includes coursework on effective communication. 6. Hospital leaders may need to reevaluate how nurses are trained to have conversations about death and dying, Ms. Chierici concludes. "Have those who are experts at these discussions share their wisdom and teach nurses how to have these conversations in an empathetic and impactful way so that patients can receive the comfort and dignity of hospice care in a timely manner," she writes. "If we can make these changes in our communication with patients and their families, perhaps one day we will all know when it is our time to die." Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is asking the U.S. Office of Inspector General to investigate the West Haven (Conn.) VA hospital's sterilization procedures after several whistle-blower complaints surfaced, the Post-Chronicle reports. Issues at the hospital caused medical procedures to be postponed or moved elsewhere at the last minute, whistle-blowers told Mr. Blumenthal's office. The West Haven VA is also accused of outsourcing an unusually large number of VA medical procedures to Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital. "These impacts are plainly unacceptable such as the number of monthly procedures plummeting from 360 to between 50 and 90," as well as the number of surgeries transferred to Yale New Haven, Mr. Blumenthal said. Mr. Blumenthal seeks an investigation after a VA survey earlier this year found about 50 shortcomings in the sterilization department and prompted the hospital to tighten procedures. "I'm raising these issues at the highest level of the VA, as well as asking for an inspector general report," Mr. Blumenthal said. "We need to know what will be done to assure that all the equipment and procedures meet the highest standards of safety, quality and cleanliness." Becker's reached out to the VA Connecticut Healthcare System for a statement and will update this story as more information becomes available. Several healthcare facilities across Pennsylvania are seeing an influx of patients with respiratory infections, viral strains mimicking the flu, and foot and mouth disease, signaling the sick season has come a few weeks early, according to the Herald Standard. Here are three things to know: 1. David Patton, MD, a pediatrician at Uniontown, Pa.-based Cherry Tree Pediatrics, said the clinic has seen a "dramatic increase" in the number of children sick with viral illnesses since the start of September. His office has not seen any flu cases yet. 2. Gregg Nezowitz, MD, area medical director for the urgent care company MedExpress, said the viruses and infections circulating have very similar symptoms. "This is the time of year when our centers see an uptick in visits relating to upper respiratory troubles and other related symptoms like coughing, sneezing, congestion, fever and body/headaches," Dr. Nezowitz told Herald Standard. "They may also appear differently in each person, as symptoms sometimes impact some more than others." 3. The Pennsylvania Department of Health website discourages clinicians from prescribing antibiotics for these viruses due to concerns regarding antibiotic resistance. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: State officials have investigated allegations of inadequate staffing at St. Charles Bend (Ore.), Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. The allegations were in a complaint filed by nurses with the Oregon Health Authority late last month. According to the report, the complaint alleges inadequate staffing in the high-level trauma center's operating room, and "this is putting the community at severe risk." Carla Stevens, a senior director of perioperative services at St. Charles, denied the assertions in an interview with OPB. "We always have safe staffing here. We would never go to the operating room without the appropriate level of staff," she said. But one nurse recalled an instance where he went into the operating room "ready to go" but "no team [was] available." He also contends elective surgeries have been postponed. Ms. Stevens again denied the assertions, telling OPB: "Cases that come in through the ER [emergency room] are prioritized by their acuity. If it's trauma, that's prioritized. I know for a fact that this operating room does not take a patient into the OR without the appropriate resources, and I'm confident in that." David Lehrfeld, MD, with the OHA, told the publication his team investigated the complaint at the same time as a follow-up survey of quality measures. Last year, the state found minor deficiencies within Bend-based St. Charles Health System, but Dr. Lehrfeld said its trauma center standing is not in jeopardy. The hospital is awaiting findings from the state regarding the nurses' complaint about staffing in the operating room, Ms. Stevens said. More articles on workforce: US cities grapple with potential oncologist shortage: 4 findings CHS hiring in Arizona 4 stories on healthcare organizations adding jobs %MCEPASTEBIN% Harel Deutsch, MD, is co-director of the Rush Spine Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. His practice focuses on spinal procedures, with a particular research interest in motion preservation. Dr. Deutsch is a featured speaker at the Becker's 17th Annual Future of Spine + The Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference, June 13-15 in Chicago. Click here to learn more and register. For more information about exhibitor and sponsor opportunities, contact Maura Jodoin at mjodoin@beckershealthcare.com. Here, Dr. Deutsch discusses the big technology trends in spine today and where he sees the field headed. Question: Which orthopedic device trends and technologies do you see making the biggest impact long term? What do you think is just a fad? Dr. Harel Deutsch: Some of the current trends in the market involve materials. The surface of the implants and the affinity of the implant to bone based on microscopic surface features is a new trend. 3-D printed devices are another technology that is evolving. Some devices can now be made for significantly less cost and therefore there are more innovative product design possibilities. Finally, value-added services, such as navigation and robotics, are used as a hook to get surgeons to use specific devices. The orthopedic devices are built in to integrate with a system such as a robotic system. Some areas in orthopedic devices that I see as fads or at least as possibly declining in popularity are lateral interbody fusions and sacroiliac bone fusions. Q. How do you ensure you're staying on the cutting-edge of your surgical practice while also being mindful of achieving value-based outcomes for your patients? HD: Cutting-edge is not always value-based but some cutting-edge practices have the goal of reducing surgery morbidity, length of stay and downtime, and therefore are strongly value-based to the healthcare system. My goal is to remain inquisitive and evaluate objectively new technology as it comes out and find the right application for patients. The natural tendency for surgeons is to feel what they are doing works and therefore they are skeptical of new ideas and innovation. Q: What is your best advice for young entrepreneurial surgeons with an idea to improve implants, instruments or technology used to improve the care of orthopedic patients? HD: I think it's difficult to introduce a new device that will cost more to do the same procedure. This is especially true since many institutions have formulary pricing. Devices that reduce costs are easier to sell to institutions. Often companies will come out with what they market as improved products. The companies have anecdotal clinical data but the cost-effective data is not there to justify higher device prices. Learn more about the biggest trends in spine surgery at the Becker's 17th Annual Future of Spine + Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference - click here for registration. To participate in future Becker's Q&As, contact Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com. Salt Lake City-based neurosurgeon John Macfarlane, MD, is using his medical background and personal experience to help eliminate air pollution in Utah, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Here are five things to know: 1. Dr. Macfarlane is a member of Utah Physicians for a Health Environment, an advocacy group of healthcare professionals that lobbies for and educates community members on healthy environments. 2. With Utah Physicians for a Health Environment, Dr. Macfarlane monitors air quality issues. Currently, he is involved in the fight over the proposed expansion of Geneva Rock's gravel mine at the Point of the Mountain in Draper. 3. The Utah Department of Health is not aware of the details of any mining expansion plan. 4. Dr. Macfarlane has personal experience with the effects of poor air quality. His younger children grew up with asthma, and his research focuses on the harms of air pollution to brains and lungs. 5. Board-certified in neurosurgery, Dr. Macfarlane is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons. After earning his medical degree from Salt Lake City-based University of Utah School of Medicine, Dr. Macfarlane completed his residency at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Hotels such as The Gresham in Dublin will see VAT rise to 13.5% Brexit could open the door to a lower VAT rate for Northern Ireland's hospitality industry, the head of the Hotels Federation here has claimed. Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe announced as part of the Republic's Budget that it will increase the VAT for bars and hotels from 9% to 13.5% in January. Although the 9% rate for hospitality was introduced in 2011, adjustments date back to 1986 when the rate for hotels was cut from 18% to 10% and on restaurant meals from 23% to 10%. The reductions have led to arguments from the hospitality industry on this side of the border that VAT for the sector should be reduced from 20% to prevent a loss of trade to the Republic. Northern Ireland Hotels Federation boss Janice Gault said that while EU rules around taxation currently prevent the UK from altering VAT in one region, things could change following Brexit. "Brexit affords an opportunity to alter this, which we hope Government will act upon," Ms Gault said. "Whilst the 9% rate was the lowest level to date, the industry south of the border has benefited from a reduced VAT rate for over 30 years. "This approach has provided a solid operating base for an industry, which contributes in the region of 9bn to the Republic of Ireland's economy." Colin Neill of Hospitality Ulster said the new 6.5% differential still represented "a huge gap", reinforcing the need to cut tourism VAT here. "The latest independent research shows that more than 12,000 jobs would be created across accommodation, visitor attractions and food if the VAT rate was cut to 5%," he added. "This would create a sustained positive impression on the economy." DUP MP Sammy Wilson claimed the difference in VAT represented "a live and real problem, which is crippling trade". "How can the sector here be expected to compete when the UK Government continues to tie the hands of the sector behind its back on this issue as the Republic pushes on?" Mr Wilson said. Mr Donohoe said that the new 13.5% rate would raise 466m in extra taxes. Some 587m of investment was also announced for the ports of Dublin, Cork and Shannon Foynes. Brian McGrath of Foyle Port said while he was encouraged for the the industry, it "put into sharp focus the need for investment in ports in Northern Ireland to match the proposed development of our southern counterparts". Yesterday's announcement by the Finance Minister also confirmed that the Republic will retain its 12.5% corporation tax rate. Turnover at Bushmills rose by almost 4m last year, new accounts for the whiskey maker show. The Old Bushmills Distillery Company Ltd took in 31.6m in the 12 months to December 31, 2017, up from 27.8m the year before. Pre-tax profits were slightly down, from 5.8m to 5.3m, but the distillery is continuing to grow and expand. Now employing 110 people, Bushmills was given the green light in August to build 29 new maturation warehouses at the famous Co Antrim site. As well as its own famous brands, the distillery is also now producing and bottling UFC star Conor McGregor's new whiskey brand, Proper Twelve. William Lavelle of the Irish Whiskey Association said the rise in revenue is part of an ongoing renaissance in the industry. "Sales of Irish whiskey this year are growing at a quarter of a million bottles per week around the world. We're selling to 140 markets globally," he said. "This year will be the first year we will have exceeded 10 million cases in over one hundred years. "We set a target as an industry of reaching 12 million cases by 2020. We're well on course not just to meet that target, but exceed it. "That is down to the stellar performance of some of the leading iconic brands that we have on the island - Jameson, Tullamore Dew and Bushmills." It's almost four years since Bushmills was sold to Mexican drinks giant Becle, best known for the tequila brand Jose Cuervo. Mr Lavelle said the multinationals had brought additional investment and helped open new routes to market. He said while the USA and continental Europe remain the biggest importers, many new markets are emerging. "Sales of Irish whiskey have trebled in Mexico over the last five years, with brands like Black Bush doing very well. "We're seeing emerging markets like Russia, Canada, Australia all recording double-digit growth, and in some cases, over 20%. It's a good time to be in the industry." The whiskey expert said there were now 20 active distilleries on the island. "There was only four back at the start of this decade. We'll have another half-a-dozen opening over the next six months. "They're all driving competition and innovation and it's producing a very exciting range of whiskeys. "We're very excited by the growth that's happening in Bushmills. It's great to see the expansion that's going on there. "Bushmills is one of the most iconic brands in the world and it's great to see it doing well." Yesterday the Irish Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe announced what is likely to be the final budget under the confidence-and-supply agreement. Dominated by health and housing, the minister is confident that gross domestic product will grow in the next period against this budget. Most notable to us at Hospitality Ulster and the media across the island over the past week was the confirmation by Mr Donohoe to raise VAT on hospitality services in the Republic from a previous special rate of 9% to a new rate of 13.5%. This uplift has been rejected by the main lobby groups in the south, claiming that this budget is one that the tourism sector has paid for. We know how hard they have been fighting. Specifically, this has pulled into sharp focus the need for Northern Ireland to address the very high rate of VAT at 20%. Even at 13.5% in the Republic, the gap of 6.5% places us at a serious competitive disadvantage. The UK's 20% tourism VAT rate is one of the highest in Europe, and our hospitality and tourism businesses are particularly vulnerable as the Republic is its second largest market and nearest competitor. The disadvantage of the new 6.5% gap will continue to be acutely felt right across Northern Ireland with our VAT rate acting as a brake on the growth of the hospitality and tourism sector. The latest independent research shows that more than 12,000 jobs would be created across accommodation, visitor attractions and food if the VAT rate were cut to 5%. This would create a sustained positive impression on the economy. It is imperative that the rate is cut so we can continue to grow a vital part of the regional economy. The hospitality sector is an engine for growth and we can no longer suffocate it. This is a live and real problem which is hitting trade. We now look ahead to the end of October and the UK Autumn Statement, to put pressure on the Chancellor Philip Hammond to create a more competitive environment by reducing the VAT rate in Northern Ireland. Last year we welcomed his commitment to look into the issue, but now the answer is staring the Treasury in the face. The Chancellor must now take the important decision to support the hospitality sector in an area of the UK that he is responsible for. Colin Neill is chief executive of Hospitality Ulster Suzuki's new-look Swift Sport is an all-new update on a hot hatch favourite that's being thrilling drivers for nearly 15 years. We check it out. What's new? Suzuki Swift Sport has long been a favourite with the hot hatch crowd, who will doubtless be overjoyed that a new generation model has landed. They'll be even happier that the Japanese manufacturer has slashed money off the price to celebrate the launch of its new sibling. The car, the third generation of the popular sporty supermini, is quicker and lighter than the outgoing model. It's the sporty take on the fourth generation Suzuki Swift, which was unveiled last year and is a significant advance on the third generation Swift. Looks and design The all-new Swift Sport is a hot hatchback that takes the fourth-generation regular model and adds speed, tech and a certain wow factor. It has a distinctive style, with a striking front grille and bumper, impressively funky 17-inch alloy wheels and carbon effect aerodynamic under the spoilers. Those 17-inch polished alloys are to the Sport, and are now even lighter in their composition that those used previously. During manufacture and after the wheel has been cast, the rim is compressed and stretched using high pressure rollers in a process known as 'flow forming'. The rear end features a sporty black diffuser and two large exhaust exits - features that will be familiar to anyone who has owned or admired the previous generation Swift Sport. The car is available in one solid and five metallic colours at no extra cost. Inside the cabin As you'd expect, the cabin gets an update as well. This includes the latest technology, of which more below, plus some nice sporty interior touches like unique sport interior trim with semi bucket seats and red accents to the dashboard and console areas, six airbags, auto air con and sat nav. There's also a leather steering wheel, privacy glass, six speakers, LED daytime running lights, body coloured door mirrors and four electric windows. Among the kit you get is adaptive cruise control, keyless entry and start, rear parking camera, engine auto stop start, smartphone linkage display audio, Bluetooth integrated into the audio unit, a navigation system and steering wheel-mounted audio controls. There's a 7-inch touchscreen packed with the latest infotainment display, along with Android Auto and Apple Car Play systems. Under the bonnet Based on its very low kerb weight of 975kg and a torque figure of 230Nm, the new Swift Sport has a torque-to-weight ratio of 4.2 kg/Nm placing it at a similar level to its hot hatch competitors. Suzuki's 1.4-litre Boosterjet turbocharged engine, seen in the Vitara and S-Cross models, now appears in the Swift Sport for the first time. This unit has an output of 140PS and is Direct Injection turbocharged (DITC). It offers 44 per cent more torque than the previous model which is available from 2,500rpm. It offers the same level of power and torque of a larger capacity normally aspirated engine (2.0-litre). In addition, the new Sport has an improved maximum torque figure of 230Nm which is available from just 2,500rpm up to 3,500rpm. The previous Sport model developed 160Nm of torque at 4,400rpm. The 1.4-litre Boosterjet engine offers other performance enhancements: 0-62mph acceleration time of 8.1 seconds and a maximum speed of 130mph. An enhanced braking system is also offered. Safety and technology The Swift Sport also comes with an advanced forward detection system that supports more safety technologies, including collision-mitigating Dual Sensor Brake Support (DSBS). Suzuki says that, with DSBS, at vehicle speeds from approximately 3mph to 62mph, if the system determines a risk of collision with a forward obstacle, it issues both an audio and visual warning. If there is a high risk of collision with a forward obstacle and the driver panic brakes, the system deploys brake assist, increasing braking force. Lane departure warning /lane departure prevention function is also offered. When the vehicle is travelling at vehicle speeds of approximately 37mph and up to 100mph (where permitted) and is departing the lane without the driver using a turn signal, the system vibrates the steering wheel and lights a warning indicator in the instrument cluster to draw attention to lane departures caused by factors such as inattention to the road. As an additional feature on the new Swift Sport model the driver will also notice an automatic input from the steering wheel at this time to ensure the car remains in its correct direction of travel. Who would buy one? Space inside is relatively good for a car this size, and the seats fold 60-40 flat, to help with loading. The range starts at 16,999, which includes a current 1,000 customer saving that may not be around forever. The Suzuki Swift will appeal to anyone in the supermini segment who wants a fast, classy hot hatch at a good price which is not expensive to run. You could fly to the Maldives, treat yourself to a Prada handbag or invest in several pairs of sky-high Jimmy Choos for around the same money it's going to cost you to buy a 45ml bottle of JK7 24H Cream Day & Night Face Care, which retails at 990. So it was with high hopes that I embarked on a journey which I hoped would lead to more youthful looks and brighter skin thanks to this wonder potion, part of the JK7 Luxurious Natural Skincare range, which claims to be the first 100% natural, organic and high performing skincare. The range is created by German-born Dr Jurgen Klein, founder and former owner of Jurlique, producer of bio-dynamic/organic beauty products known as the 'purest skin care on Earth'. Dr Klein was introduced to forest herbs by his grandfather and subsequently became a biochemist, chemist, alchemist, naturopath and all-round skin care expert. His products are made with essential oils, some of which, including rose and jasmine, can cost big bucks in their purest form. The concoctions are based on natural, animal-free ingredients and no animal testing is carried out in the making of the products, providing a guilt-free feeling to anyone who buys the range. The cream itself, which is made in Hawaii, contains a combination of vanilla, rose, Australian and Hawaiian sandalwood and orange essential oils, as well as shea butter, natural vitamin E and the brand's signature extracts from pomegranate, mushrooms, algaes and a plethora of other natural ingredients. Presented in a soft pink-coloured box, the bottle comes with an easy-to use silver pump action dispenser which releases the smooth buttermilk-coloured cream. It has quite a strong scent of fresh citrussy notes coupled with a vanilla sweetness, although I couldn't sniff out any rose perfume. I needed several pumps to sufficiently cover my face, neck and decollete, so a 45ml pot is not going to last much more than two months. But those who can afford 1,000 a pot can surely afford another. The cream is beautifully light to the touch and blends easily into the skin, plumping it up and giving a long-lasting moisture hit throughout the day. When I touched my face several hours after applying it, I could still feel a softness that I haven't experienced with many other face products I've tried. Expand Close JK7 24H Cream Day & Night Face Care PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp JK7 24H Cream Day & Night Face Care Applying it again at night after cleansing, the scent alone is a trigger for relaxation and rest, while I woke up to skin that didn't feel tired or dehydrated. As I am of a certain age and JK7 claims its cream reduces wrinkle depth and provides a powerful anti-ageing effect, I was particularly interested in how it was going to fare on my more mature skin. And while sadly I didn't see my wrinkles diminish, my general complexion felt and looked brighter and healthier than it had for a while, and definitely helped hydration over time, while my foundation seemed easier to apply. The bottle's a great handbag size, so perfect if you want to pep up your skin on the go, but remember to put the plastic cover on the pump after use, as the one time I didn't do it the cream which remained on the edge of the dispenser went a big claggy, waste that I could little afford. Would I spend nearly 1,000 on a face cream? Only if I could be guaranteed it got rid of my wrinkles and took 10 years off my face - and I don't believe there's a cream on earth that can do that. DUP leader Arlene Foster has told the EU's chief negotiator that any Brexit deal must not cross her party's "red line" by placing any economic barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. And a UK-EU deal could be on the table within 10 days, according to Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann, after he also met Michel Barnier in Brussels yesterday. Mrs Foster said she would need to read the fine print of any deal proposed by the UK Government. She said she had not seen a text of Theresa May's so-called hybrid backstop. "We cannot talk in a vacuum. We need to see what has been proposed and we will check that against what we have called our red line," she said. The DUP has said it will not support any extra barriers to trade between Northern Ireland and Britain. The UK Government has promised to reveal more information soon on the backstop deal, designed to prevent a hard border in Ireland. It's reported this could see some regulatory checks on goods travelling from Britain to here. The EU's version of a backstop wants Northern Ireland to stay in the customs union and single market while the rest of the UK shifts away, which Prime Minister Mrs May has already rejected. With Mrs Foster's 10 MPs propping up the UK Government, she and DUP MEP Diane Dodds were at the centre of attention in Europe yesterday. "It is vital that the European Union understands the sensitivities surrounding Northern Ireland and that fact that we are going to be the only integral part of the United Kingdom with a land border with the European Union after we leave next year," Mrs Foster said. "There cannot be barriers to trade in the UK internal market which would damage the economic well-being of Northern Ireland and therefore we could not support any arrangements which would give rise to either customs or regulatory barriers within the UK internal market." Mrs Dodds also said her party would not accept any additional checks within the UK after Brexit - even over lasagne. She illustrated what they were opposing by saying that an attempt to avoid a hard border with the Republic could mean more regulatory checks on goods travelling between Britain and Northern Ireland. She claimed under the EU position there could be scores of checks on live animals and food products travelling within the UK, "so therefore, our beef lasagnes, our yoghurts, our milk". "We could be in the rather ridiculous position where milk produced in Northern Ireland by Northern Ireland farmers is processed in England, but has to be checked when it comes back because yoghurts are protein drinks," she said. "That's the disruption that that would mean in the UK internal market." Mrs Foster added: "Those are the sorts of things that we have to be very concerned about, so economically, we will very much want to protect our businesses in Northern Ireland." Mr Barnier tweeted after the meeting that his team was "working hard to de-dramatise the backstop". Mr Swann said he believed a deal between the UK and EU was possible within as little as 10 days. "Judging from the atmosphere out here, I've spoken to the UK and Irish ambassadors to the EU, as well Mr Barnier himself," he said. "I feel there is a deal coming." He also said he made it clear to Mr Barnier that the EU backstop proposal "was unacceptable to any strain of unionism in Northern Ireland". "We laid out our concerns in regard to that, he gets it. But I think there's an attitude there that Northern Ireland's position in the UK is a constitutional question for the UK to manage," he added. "He feels it's not up to him as the EU's chief negotiator to worry about internal problems. "We're putting across that it is, because it affects the entire deal and where Northern Ireland finishes up as part of the UK." Mr Swann said he was wary of the upcoming UK backstop plan, which could include checks on goods bound for Northern Ireland from Britain. "That's something that wouldn't be acceptable to us. It could, for example, start to delay critical manufacturing timelines, which could affect the industry tremendously," he said. Officers from the PSNIs Paramilitary Crime Task Force (PCTF) seized 19 rounds of ammunition following a search of a house in west Belfast on Tuesday. Detective Inspector Gavin Pue said: This search was carried out as part of an operation which is focused on the criminal activities of Belfast Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)." The Police Service of Northern Ireland, HM Revenue & Customs and the National Crime Agency established the PCTF to tackle criminality linked to paramilitary activity as part of the Executive's action plan on Tackling Paramilitary Activity, Criminality, and Organised Crime. A gay rights campaigner has said that he is concerned of the implications after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Ashers bakery in the landmark 'gay cake' case. Gareth Lee said that he was concerned by the implications for every gay person after the court ruled that Ashers did not discriminate when they refused to bake him a cake featuring a pro same-sex marriage slogan. Five Supreme Court judges unanimously ruled in favour of Ashers in the case which has rumbled on since 2014. Speaking outside the court after the judgment was handed down, Mr Lee said he was concerned at the decision. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Daniel and Amy McArthur of Ashers Baking Company. Click through the gallery to read the full judgement. [File photo] PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Daniel and Amy McArthur of Ashers Baking Company. Click through the gallery to read the full judgement. [File photo] "To me, this was never about a campaign or a statement. All I wanted was to order a cake in a shop that sold cakes to order," he said. "I paid my money, my money was taken and then a few days later it was refused. "That made me feel like a second-class citizen. "I'm concerned not just for the implications for myself and other gay people, but for every single one of us Gareth Lee Ashers Bakery Owners Daniel and Amy McArthur said that they were "delighted and relieved" by the ruling. They said that Mr Lee would "always be welcome in any of our shops". Mr Lee pursued the case against Ashers with the support of the Equality Commission. Chief Commissioner Dr Michael Wardlow said that they were disappointed the Supreme Court had overturned the decision by the Belfast County Court and Northern Ireland Court of Appeal who found that Mr Lee had been discriminated against. The Supreme Court has overturned these findings and we will have to look at the implications of its judgment carefully, he said. There is a concern that this judgment may raise uncertainty about the application of equality law in the commercial sphere, both about what businesses can do and what customers may expect; and that the beliefs of business owners may take precedence over a customers equality rights, which in our view is contrary to what the legislature intended. The Rainbow Project, Northern Ireland's largest support organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people said the case had done damage to the gay community in Northern Ireland. Director John O'Doherty said that they did not think the matter should have ended up in court. Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Ashers bakery owners Daniel and Amy McArthur (right), speak to media outside the Supreme Court in London. Photo credit: Victoria Jones/PA Wire PA Ashers bakery owners Daniel and Amy McArthur outside the Supreme Court in London, where five justices unanimously ruled on Wednesday that the Christian owners did not discriminate against gay rights activist Gareth Lee on the ground of sexual orientation. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday October 10, 2018. The owners have won an appeal over a finding that they discriminated against Mr Lee by refusing to make a cake decorated with the words "Support Gay Marriage". See PA story COURTS Cake. Photo credit should read: Victoria Jones/PA Wire PA Ashers bakery owners Daniel and Amy McArthur outside the Supreme Court in London. Photo credit: Victoria Jones/PA Wire PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ashers bakery owners Daniel and Amy McArthur (right), speak to media outside the Supreme Court in London. Photo credit: Victoria Jones/PA Wire "While sympathetic as some may be to the position in which the company finds itself, this does not change the facts of the case. "We believe this is direct discrimination for which there can be no justification. We will however take time to study this judgment by the Supreme Court to understand fully its implications for the rights of LGBT people to access goods, facilities and services without discrimination. "We do not believe that this matter should have been brought to court. We believe that Ashers bakery should have accepted the Equality Commission's invitation to engage in mediation, where a remedy could have been found without the expense and division surrounding this court case. "However, most damaging of all has been the attempt by politicians to use this case to justify amending the law to allow businesses to discriminate against LGBT people with the so-called 'conscience clause.'" See the reaction to today after the ruling was handed down: The Equality Commission said the Supreme Court's ruling in favour of Ashers in the 'gay cake' case could have a significant impact on equality law across the United Kingdom. Five justices at the UK's highest court allowed a challenge by Ashers owners Amy and Daniel McArthur in a unanimous ruling in London. Read More Equality Commission Chief Commissioner Dr Michael Wardlow expressed the organisation's disappointment the Supreme Court had overturned the decision by the Belfast County Court and Northern Ireland Court of Appeal who found that Mr Lee had been discriminated against. The Supreme Court has overturned these findings and we will have to look at the implications of its judgment carefully, he said. There is a concern that this judgment may raise uncertainty about the application of equality law in the commercial sphere, both about what businesses can do and what customers may expect; and that the beliefs of business owners may take precedence over a customers equality rights, which in our view is contrary to what the legislature intended. The legal action was originally brought by gay rights activist Gareth Lee, who claimed he had been discriminated against when the firm refused to make him a cake iced with the slogan "Support Gay Marriage". The Supreme Court ruled that Ashers refusal to bake the cake was not discrimination. DUP leader Arlene Foster has praised the owners of Ashers Bakery for pursuing their case in the United Kingdom's Supreme Court. Mrs Foster said Amy and Daniel McArthur had shown "grace and perseverance" and that the ruling had provided clarity for "people of all faiths and none" going forward. Read More The Supreme Court found that Ashers had not discriminated against gay rights campaigner Gareth Lee by refusing to sell him a cake with a pro same-sex marriage slogan on it. They overturned a previous ruling from the Belfast County Court and the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal. DUP leader Foster said that it was a "historic and seminal judgement" from the Supreme Court. "A fundamental freedom was on trial. It is dangerous for society if our laws force people to say things they dont believe," the Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA wrote on Twitter. "Delighted the Supreme Court has found against compelled speech. Nobody should be forced to have or express a political opinion in which they do not believe." DUP North Antrim MP Ian Paisley said that he had written to the Secretary of State Karen Bradley calling for a review of Equality Commission funding. The Equality Commission supported Mr Lee's legal challenge against Ashers. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Daniel and Amy McArthur of Ashers Baking Company. Click through the gallery to read the full judgement. [File photo] PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Daniel and Amy McArthur of Ashers Baking Company. Click through the gallery to read the full judgement. [File photo] UUP MLA Steve Aiken echoed Mr Paisley's call saying that "serious questions" needed to be asked about the use of public money by the commission. He said that public bodies needed to be "held accountable" for their actions. TUV leader Jim Allister said that he hoped the ruling would bring the Equality Commission to "its senses". He praised the McArthur family for their "Christian stand" and said that the issue "had run away with itself". DUP MP Paul Girvan said that he was a friend of the McArthur family and that the decision was a victory for the whole of society. "Today is a victory for freedom of expression in the United Kingdom and for common sense," the South Antrim MP said. "There can be little doubt that it has significant ramifications for free speech in Northern Ireland and beyond whilst not eroding important laws against discrimination." Aideen and Sean Donnelly at home in Lurgan with children from left, Owen (12) and Niall (9) A mother has revealed how her 12-year-old autistic son was left traumatised after he was knocked off his seat on a plane when it was "repeatedly" punched by a south Armagh man who also threatened to kill a member of cabin crew. The incident unfolded on August 5, 2018 on a four-hour Jet2 flight from Fuertaventura to Belfast. Yesterday, Kevin O'Hare (27), from Keggall View in Camlough, was jailed for five months at Antrim Magistrates Court where District Judge Nigel Broderick said his drunken behaviour had been "appalling" and was similar to other incidents which were "all too prevalent". "What about the poor 12-year-old autistic child who he caused considerable stress to?" Mr Broderick fumed at O'Hare's defence lawyer. "That's an aggravating factor." At an earlier hearing O'Hare had admitted being drunk on a plane, failing to obey the lawful command of a pilot, behaving in a "threatening, abusive, insulting or disorderly manner towards a member of the crew of an aircraft", threatening to kill a female member of the cabin crew and assaulting the same female. A prosecuting lawyer told the court how O'Hare was inebriated before he even boarded the flight from Fuertaventura, adding that police were called to Belfast International Airport after a report of the disruptive passenger who had threatened to kill a crew member. She described how O'Hare was "verbally and physically aggressive" to his partner, and to a female cabin crew member who he threatened to kill. "He was very aggressive to other crew members and swung both fists at the woman, saying 'I'll f****** kill her,'" said the lawyer. "He repeatedly punched the back of the seat in front of his, where a 12-year-old autistic child was sitting with their family. The child was screaming and had to be moved to the back of the plane." The child's mum, Aideen Donnelly (43), from Craigavon, described the terrifying scenes as O'Hare roamed the plane swearing and screaming. She was returning from holiday with husband Sean (46) and children Owen (12), who has autism, and Niall (9), who also has special needs. O'Hare was sitting behind them when he became outraged and began "repeatedly punching" the youngster's seat. It happened some time into the flight after the seatbelt lights had gone out. Aideen said: "He kicked and punched the back of Owen's chair that hard that he catapulted the child from his own seat, bounced him off the seat in front of him and he hit the ground. I was screaming, 'My child is sitting there.'" Their younger child Niall was sleeping across his dad's knee and woke up with the force of the chair being struck. Aideen and her children were escorted to the back of the plane, while husband Sean and another man sat with O'Hare to try and keep him in one place. Things calmed down intermittently, but later on, after O'Hare "kicked off again", Aideen said the pilot made an announcement for "all male passengers on the flight make their way to the front of the plane to help with the very violent and aggressive man." Aideen says the incident has had a lasting impact on her children. She said: "Not only did [O'Hare scare Owen], he hurt him. I didn't know what to say, how do you protect your child from that sort of behaviour?" She added: "[Owen] can't read body language. That's what makes it all the more difficult for him, he wouldn't have been able to read the man's temperament." Aideen said the incident has undone a lot of the therapy work they had undertaken with their children. "His actions have put my children back months, maybe years. We spent all this time putting these therapies in place to make things all right for them and this behaviour is just totally unacceptable. They are absolutely destroyed." Aideen said Owen also suffers flashbacks. "It all comes back all the time," she said. "If anybody around him is loud he gets very nervous and tries to get away now. "It's sort of like he's unsure of people's voices and how they are going to get on around him." As a family, the incident has made them wary of taking any flights in the future. "I'm going to be more wary getting on flights, especially if there is anybody drunk around us or near the children who will cause them any hassle." During a plea in mitigation, O'Hare's defence solicitor said that his client "readily acknowledged" his behaviour had been "completely disgraceful and utterly unacceptable". "He was drinking his own alcohol on the flight and had been drinking since 11am that morning," he continued, accepting that he was "inebriated" before even boarding the plane. Judge Broderick revealed that O'Hare was in breach of a suspended Crown Court sentence which he said looked like he had been "driving while drunk, injured someone and then left the scene." "He is contrite and apologises to all concerned," the lawyer said. Jailing O'Hare and imposing fines totalling 600, Judge Broderick said that in his view, the "custody threshold" had been crossed and a "clear message" must be sent that this type of behaviour would not be tolerated. He said O'Hare had not "covered himself in glory at interview" and that he "could have shown remorse" for what he did to the 12-year-old child. "This was appalling behaviour," he continued. "It is becoming all too prevalent on aircrafts. "A 12-year-old autistic child was left screaming because of his actions and this is not the first time he has been violent. "I am persuaded that the custody threshold has been crossed and there need to be a clear message sent out to others. He is entitled to credit for his plea, albeit he showed no remorse at interview." The Crown Court matter will also be referred back to the relevant judge who sentenced him. O'Hare was later released from the cells on 500 bail pending an appeal of the jail sentence. A Belfast councillor has reported a death threat made to him over the social networking site Twitter to the police. The threat was made to DUP councillor Dale Pankhurst who was tweeting about being blocked from seeing the tweets of Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson. An anonymous Twitter account responded saying there would be "a place" for Dale in an united Ireland before making the threat. The tweet remains on the account. The Oldpark councillor said it was not the first time he had been victim to online threats but that this was the first threatening death. "I have had cases where individuals, mostly from a republican background, have encouraged me to take my own life," he said. "One even said there is a bullet with my name on it. However, this is the first time someone has directly threatened me with death. "The PSNI are currently running an investigation and they have stated they will do their utmost to pursue the individual behind this. I obviously can't comment further as this is a live police investigation." A PSNI spokesman added: "We do not discuss the security of individuals and no inference should be drawn from this. However, if we receive information that a persons life may be at risk we will inform them accordingly. We never ignore anything which may put an individual at risk." A man who allegedly threatened to shoot a wheelchair user claimed he took a television as part-payment for a 200 debt, a court has heard A man who allegedly threatened to shoot a wheelchair user claimed he took a television as part-payment for a 200 debt, a court has heard. Robert McCamley (34), of Glenshesk Park, Portrush, faces two charges after an incident on August 1 this year. He is accused of burglary in Glenbush Drive in the Co Antrim town, when a TV, mobile phone and 25 in cash were stolen. The second charge alleges McCamley blackmailed the alleged injured party with menaces, by saying "hand over the TV or get shot", or words to that effect. The defendant appeared at Coleraine Magistrates Court via video-link from Maghaberry Prison, where he has been held on remand. A police officer objected to bail, telling the court that he feared interference with witnesses. The officer said it was alleged McCamley went to the man's home and demanded money. When he was told there was no money, the TV was taken. It was recovered by police a short time later, the court heard. The officer said McCamley told police he was owed 200 by the alleged injured party and that they had "come to a decision together" that he would take the TV as part payment. McCamley claimed the mobile phone had been lent to him. Defence barrister Alan Stewart said the men used to live together and McCamley had lent him 200 before they "had a falling out". The lawyer said McCamley was out walking a dog when he had a chance encounter with the other man and when he asked for the money back the complainant said he didn't have any cash and to "just take the TV". Mr Stewart said the defendant gave a full account to police and it was likely the charges would be contested. Mr Stewart said McCamley had been in custody since August 2 and his client was concerned that he might lose his address in Portrush. The lawyer said there had been some delay in the case file not yet being allocated and that the defendant had denied the charges from the outset. The court heard the complainant has spina bifida, uses a wheelchair and relies on taxis, which take him past McCamley's address, only around 100m from his home. District Judge Peter King said it was slightly concerning that the case file had not yet been allocated and he noted that the defendant was still in custody on remand. He said he took into account the defendant's "terrible" record of 115 offences and said he was aware the "physical wellbeing" of the complainant had to be considered. He released McCamley on 500 bail to his address in Portrush, but ordered him to have no contact with the complainant and not to go within 100m of his home. McCamley also has to sign bail at Coleraine PSNI Station. Adjourning the case to November, the judge told McCamley: "If there is any whiff of a bail breach, I will have no difficulty in revoking your bail." Catholic officers do not serve in their own communities due to the threat of violent dissident republicans. Pacemaker Catholic police officers in Northern Ireland are not sent to their home communities due to the threat from dissident republican terrorists, Ireland's justice committee has heard. PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd said in an ideal world a Gael from Co Tyrone would be stationed there. However, he said this is not the case due to the threat from dissidents. Two Catholic PSNI constables, Stephen Carroll and Ronan Kerr, have been killed by dissidents - while a third, Paedar Heffron, was maimed in a car bombing. The threat level from dissidents in Northern Ireland remains assessed as severe. Mr Todd made his remarks in response to a question from independent TD Mick Wallace as he appeared before Ireland's justice committee in Dublin for the first time alongside Assistant Garda Commissioner Patrick Leahy. Mr Wallace asked him whether there is a challenge around where police officers can be placed in which communities, or was that not a factor. Expand Close Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd Mr Todd responded: "We have concerns which is particularly from young Catholic officers, where they might be policing the area where their family lives, because that has been used to target family members through paramilitary groupings, particularly with dissident republican groups. "Dissidents have targeted families because their young folk have joined the police service. "In terms of where we send our people to police, we don't make any distinction between what background they come and what area they police unless there is a concern - if you are from that town we tend not to send you to police that town because of the problem that it brings. "Ironically, it flies in the face of community policing because what you want, in a perfect world a young Gael who comes from Co Tyrone and plays in the local GAA club and has gone to the local school and joined the police service would be back serving the local community. "That's what you would want but that's not - whilst we have a particular emphasis and a particular set of problems in Northern Ireland I know it crops up in other jurisdictions from time to time when criminal elements target families of police officers for a range of reasons, but it certainly sharper and much more pronounced than elsewhere." Democratic Unionist MPs who prop up Theresa Mays Government are preparing to vote against her Budget if the Prime Minister breaks their Brexit red lines. The radical move is one of the options being considered by the DUP if attempts to nail down a deal with Brussels include any proposals that would leave Northern Ireland being treated differently to the rest of the UK, the Press Association understands. Losing the partys support in the Commons would mean possible defeat on the budget and a no-confidence vote. In a move seen by some as a warning shot, DUP MPs failed to back the Government in voting against a Labour amendment to an Agriculture Bill outlining post-Brexit reforms on Wednesday night. Despite their abstention, it was still defeated by 59 votes. The development came as former foreign secretary Boris Johnson warned that a backstop arrangement for Northern Ireland being negotiated by the Government would leave the UK a permanent EU colony. In a series of tweets, Mr Johnson said that the deal would keep the UK in the customs union and Northern Ireland in the single market, and would mean increased checks on goods travelling between the province and the British mainland. Repeating his call for Mrs May to ditch the plan agreed at her country residence in July, he said: In the referendum both sides said Leave meant leaving the customs union and single market. Yet this backstop inevitably means Chequers, staying in both, no say in either, and no right to escape. This is an important moment. Clearly No10 are negotiating a backstop that makes the UK a permanent EU colony. We cannot escape EU laws & ECJ until they allow us to which they may never do. Thats not what the biggest majority in our history voted for #NoColonyStatus 1/4 Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) October 10, 2018 DUP leader Arlene Foster insisted on Tuesday that her party would not accept customs or regulatory checks on goods travelling in either direction between Northern Ireland and Great Britain after meeting EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels. Following talks on Wednesday with European Parliament Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt, she said: The EU wants a one-way turnstile from GB and one-way rules from Brussels. We will not burden future generations with a deal which diminishes Northern Irelands position in the United Kingdom. A DUP spokesman said: The Government is well aware of our position on this issue. Our position hasnt changed and we dont expect the Government will change its position. Mr Barnier told a business audience in Brussels that agreement on a withdrawal deal was within reach at the crunch October 17-18 summit of the European Council, with 80-85% of the accord now finalised. But he made clear that the EU envisages a deal involving new customs and regulatory checks on goods travelling from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland, including health and sanitary inspections for 100% of animals and animal products arriving in ports like Larne and Belfast from the rest of the UK. Mr Barnier said checks would be carried out in the least intrusive way possible, adding: I understand why such procedures are politically sensitive but Brexit was not our choice, it is the choice of the UK. Our proposal tries to help the UK in managing the negative fallout of Brexit in Northern Ireland in a way that respects the territorial integrity of the UK. Another busy day in Brussels. Starting off with @guyverhofstadt as we make the case for NI. We will not accept anything which separates NI from the rest of the UK. pic.twitter.com/GA4GuC3QyS Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) October 10, 2018 The DUP has 10 MPs, although Ian Paisley will not be able to vote in the Commons until November 20 after being suspended for failing to declare two family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government. Downing Street insisted that defeat on the budget would not amount to a vote of no confidence in the Government under the terms of the legislation which provides for fixed-term, five-year parliaments. The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act sets out the circumstances for a confidence vote, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said. Senior Cabinet ministers are to gather in Downing Street on Thursday for the latest in a series of briefings on the state of negotiations, though it is not expected that any fresh decisions will be made at the meeting. The Government has said it will publish revised proposals for the Irish border in due course. Mrs May, meanwhile, urged MPs across the Commons to act in the national interest and back a Brexit deal amid warnings that decisive progress is needed in the negotiations before a crunch Brussels summit next week. Mr Barnier briefed top EU officials behind closed doors at a regular meeting of the College of Commissionerswhich also heard European Commission secretary-general Martin Selmayr warn of the need to be prepared for all outcomes from Brexit. In Westminster, the Prime Minister urged MPs to do their duty to implement the result of the Brexit referendum as she struggled to maintain discipline within the Tory ranks. It was Mrs Mays first appearance in the Commons since last months Salzburg summit, when EU leaders told her that her Chequers blueprint for Brexit would not work. Expand Close Theresa May urged MPs to act in the national interest over Brexit at Prime Ministers Questions (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Theresa May urged MPs to act in the national interest over Brexit at Prime Ministers Questions (PA) She has come under growing pressure from Brexit-backing Tories to drop the plan agreed by the Cabinet at her country residence in July and instead seek a Canada-style free trade deal. But veteran Europhile Tory Kenneth Clarke urged her to ignore hardline Brexiteers and bring forward a deal acceptable to pro-EU MPs on both sides of the Commons. The former chancellor said that would reveal the hardline Eurosceptic views of the Bennites in the Labour leadership and the right-wing nationalists on the Tory benches were in the minority in the Commons. The Prime Minister said: I would hope that everybody across this whole House will put the national interest first. She added they should also remember that Parliament gave the British people the decision over Brexit, and following the 2016 referendum result it is our duty to ensure that we leave. #TeamJunckerEU today: state of play of #Article50 negotiations for the withdrawal of United Kingdom; information on ongoing preparedness and contingency work (#Brexit). Progress report on #SecurityUnion. Presentation of the annual report of the Independent European Fiscal Board. pic.twitter.com/MHcvxbfOUi Margaritis Schinas (@MargSchinas) October 10, 2018 The negotiations are reaching a critical stage ahead of next weeks European Council summit. The meeting was initially framed as the deadline for agreement on the terms of UK withdrawal from the EU, as well as the publication of a political declaration on future relations in areas such as trade and security. But with both sides confirming that differences remain on issues such as the status of the Irish border, expectations are growing that the final moment of decision will be put back to a special summit in November. 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 [] DUP MP Sammy Wilson has said his party will not be bullied into propping up Theresa Mays Government if she gives in to the outrageous, capricious and extortionate demands of Brussels on Northern Ireland. The DUPs Brexit spokesman, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said his party would not accept any deal that would leave Northern Ireland languishing in the stifling embrace of the EU. Read More Mr Wilson, whose party currently props up Theresa May's government, said that while the Prime Minister is saying she will not accept any break-up of the UK his party was worried about recent briefings that the Conservatives may agree to EU demands for Northern Ireland to remain inside the customs union after Brexit to prevent a hard border in Ireland. "If the Government is putting these proposals into the public domain to test the water, our advice is to get its toe out quickly or it is going to get burnt", he said. "As a Unionist party, we will not give our support to any deal which includes such economically and constitionally damaging arrangements." He added: "If the Government decides in the face of EU belligerence to cut and run and leave part of the UK languishing in the stifling embrace of the EU, then that would be totally unacceptable to us and many others in the House of Commons." Mr Wilson said the "selling out" of Northern Ireland would be a "gift" to the Scottish Nationalists who he says would "demand special treatment" for their part of the UK. He added: "Now is not the time to try and sell even more compromise to satisfy the appetite of the EU to humiliate our country. The road which the leaks and briefings is outlining is the road to parliamentary defeat for any deal which the Prime Minister brings forward. "She will not have DUP support regardless of whether the Government tries to bribe, bully or browbeat us into accepting it. "However, if the Government decides to stand up to the outrageous, capricious and extortionate demands from Brussels, she will have our full support and she could rally the country behind her." Earlier on Wednesday the DUP said its MP's would be prepared to vote against the Prime Minister's budget if she breaks the party's "red lines" on Brexit. In a move seen by some as a warning shot, DUP MPs failed to back the Government in voting against a Labour amendment to an Agriculture Bill outlining post-Brexit reforms on Wednesday night. Despite their abstention, it was still defeated by 59 votes. Police have issued a warning to parents to keep their children away from illegal fireworks after two thatched cottages had their roofs set on fire in Co Down. The fire was started on the roofs of two properties in the Greencastle Street area of Kilkeel on Tuesday night. Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) and police responded to the incident which was reported around 8.10pm. The fires were extinguished quickly by firefighters and there was minor damage caused to the thatch. The two householders, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 40s, were uninjured. A firework recovered from the scene has been taken away for further forensic examination. In the run up to Halloween, I would urge parents and children to be aware that fireworks can be dangerous when used carelessly," Sergeant Macdonald said. "Fireworks are explosives and there is no telling what damage they can cause to either people or property when not handled correctly. If misused, they can cause serious and life-changing injuries. It is also illegal to possess, sell, handle or use fireworks if you do not have a licence. Thankfully, no-one was hurt during this incident in Kilkeel, but nevertheless, the risks are real. Our enquiries are continuing and anyone with information about what happened last night in Greencastle Street, should get in touch with police on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 1218 of 9/10/18. If you want to see fireworks, please attend an organised event and leave it to the professionals. Three men took more than 15,000 worth of alcohol and other products in a series of raids on Tesco stores across Northern Ireland, the High Court heard today. Brothers Cosmin and Dumitru Barbu were joined by their cousin Adrian Olteanu in loading trolleys full of drink, covering them with towels and walking out without paying, a judge was told. Tesco outlets in Lisburn, Newry and Banbridge were targeted between September 23-28. A Crown lawyer revealed the total value of goods is expected to rise above 15,000 once final stock checks are completed. He said: "These three appear to have gone on a complete shoplifting spree over a period of six days." The three accused, all Romanian nationals, were said to have admitted their involvement in the thieving operation. Cosmin Barbu, 34, Dumitru Barbu, 29, and Olteanu, 34 - all of Mount Rochford Drive, Balbriggan in the Irish Republic, face charges of theft, attempted theft and handling stolen goods. Further allegations of going equipped for theft are denied, with the defendants claiming the towels used to cover up the trolley-loads were taken from the stores. According to the prosecution they stacked up on bottles of alcohol, left the stores and either loaded a nearby car or else abandoned the trolleys if they were being watched. The trio then returned to steal again during the spate of raids, it was claimed. They were arrested after police stopped an Audi A4 car on the A1 near Lisburn. Large quantities of alcohol with security tags still attached was discovered in the boot. "At this particular time, with much of the stocktaking having been carried out, I understand the total value of thefts from Tesco is 15,097," the prosecutor added. Defence counsel contended that it had not been a sophisticated operation. "They simply used a towel to cover it and blatantly walked out of the stores," he said. "It would seem that then they got away with it the first time they simply kept doing the same thing." Bail was refused to all three defendants due to concerns they may flee or re-offend. Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has urged Northern Irelands politicians to put their quarrels aside and form an interim government. Power-sharing government in the region has been collapsed since January 2017 following a breakdown of relations between the Democrat Unionists and Sinn Fein. Several rounds of talks aimed at restoring the institutions have failed. Mrs Clinton has now urged that an interim government be formed to steer Northern Ireland through the UKs exit from the European Union. The former US presidential candidate made the call to a high-powered audience which included former first minister Peter Robinson and Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle ONeill. The policy disagreements dividing your political parties are deeply felt but the stakes of the Brexit process go way beyond politics as usual, she said. Two long years with no collaboration. There is no Executive to carry on the work to honour the sacrifices of all the men and women who made peace possible... no executive to navigate #Brexit. @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/IuLeb3Qzjz Queen's University Belfast (@QUBelfast) October 10, 2018 I wonder if would it be possible for the people of Northern Ireland and those who represent them both in Westminster and here could figure out a way to form an interim community government for the purposes of securing the best possible Brexit outcome for Northern Ireland. Back in 2016, Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness wrote a joint letter to Prime Minister May about their Brexit priorities and concerns, thats a long time ago in political years but a similarly unified voice could be valuable in the difficult days ahead. Imagine a functional executive that speaks for all the people of Northern Ireland, weighing in on the final negotiations and implementation of whatever plan emerges. Imagine an Executive reassuring companies and investors already skittish about Brexit, sending a clear message that no matter what happens, Northern Ireland is open for business. The former US presidential candidate was at the Queens University, Belfast to receive an honorary degree. Expand Close Hillary Clinton was awarded an honorary degree (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Hillary Clinton was awarded an honorary degree (Brian Lawless/PA) Mrs Clinton first visited Northern Ireland in 1995 at a crucial time for the peace process. She accompanied Bill Clinton as he became the first serving US president to visit Northern Ireland and they were greeted by huge crowds of well-wishers. They switched on the Christmas lights in Belfast during a hugely symbolic visit. More than two decades on, Ms Clinton said the world was still looking to Northern Ireland for hope. The world is watching, Northern Ireland has been a symbol to people everywhere, democracys power to transcend divisions and deliver prosperity, peace and progress, she said. We need that, that symbol, that reality now more than ever. Ms Clinton concluded her remarks by saying Northern Ireland will remain in her prayers. Peace not paralysis, you deserve that better future, you always have, Ms Clinton told the Belfast audience. I will pray and trust that it comes to pass. I and many of us in the United States will never stop standing with you, and cheering you on this journey. Earlier in the ceremony, Ms Clinton welcomed a new scholarship in her name which was announced by Queens Pro Vice Chancellor Adrienne Scullion. It is indeed a great honour to receive this degree and see the creation of this generous scholarship that has just been announced @QUBelfast. @HillaryClinton #LoveQUBGrad pic.twitter.com/7Zyp4Yc1eB Queen's University Belfast (@QUBelfast) October 10, 2018 The Hillary Rodham Clinton scholarship will be available for post-graduate study in politics, human rights and peace building. A small number of protesters, including People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll, gathered outside the universitys grounds. Some of the protesters are carrying placards reading, no honours for war criminals. Sergeant Tola Munro, President of the National Black Police Association, with Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI, Stephen Martin at Belfast City Hall A hero police officer who was stabbed in the head while bravely fighting off Islamist terrorists during the 2017 London Bridge attack is to receive a special honour in Belfast today. Constable Wayne Marques made national headlines when, armed with only his baton, he took on three men behind the terror plot on June 3, 2017, which involved a van being deliberately driven into pedestrians on London Bridge. The terrorists, who were shot dead by police, also went on a stabbing rampage in restaurants and pubs during the attack, in which eight people were killed and nearly 50 injured. Mr Marques, who was left temporarily blinded in one eye, is one of a number of officers to be honoured at the National Black Police Association's annual conference, which is being held in Belfast for the very first time. Hosted by the PSNI in Titanic Belfast, the two-day event, starting today, brings together around 200 delegates from over 30 police services across the UK and Ireland. Sergeant Tola Munro, president of the NBPA, said he was delighted Belfast had been chosen to host the association's 20th anniversary conference, the theme of which is '20 years on: The MacPherson Inquiry: How far have we come'. The 1999 inquiry examined the Metropolitan police's investigation of the murder of a black teenager Stephen Lawrence. Meanwhile, PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said he was "extremely proud" to stand alongside his colleagues in the promotion of good race relations. "It is more important than ever that we stand united in the face of hatred and discrimination," he said. Belfast City Council has become the fourth local authority to appoint a dedicated Irish language officer Belfast City Council has become the fourth local authority to appoint a dedicated Irish language officer. A second appointment - an officer with responsibility for Ulster Scots, sign language and other languages - has also been made. Unionist councillors had proposed one officer to oversee all languages, including Irish, but that was rejected in a vote last October. The posts are jointly funded by Belfast City Council and Foras Na Gaeilge, an all-island body responsible for promoting the Irish language. Newry, Mourne and Down District, Derry City and Strabane and Mid Ulster all have their own respective Irish lanaguage officers. Meanwhile, at yesterday's City Hall event, research by Conradh Na Gaeilge and the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) suggested that a number of councils here are not fulfilling their obligations to facilitate use of the Irish language under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. A hunter who shot dead a 10-year-old girl's "beautiful" pet Shetland pony - claiming he had mistaken it for a fox - has been ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work and pay 500 compensation to the owners. Samuel McLean of Greenville Avenue, Ballymoney, Co Antrim, was sentenced at Coleraine Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to a charge of criminal damage at an earlier hearing. The court heard the 30-year-old was 'lamping' for foxes in the Castleroe area near Coleraine last August when the fatal shot was fired. He told police he'd shot at what he believed was a fox, lost sight of the animal, then fired again when it reappeared. It was the second shot that resulted in the death of Maisie the pony. A defence lawyer said the fact the animal was an 18-month-old foal may have explained how his client made the mistake. He added that it was also standing in a "dip in the hill". The lawyer said when McLean realised what had happened, he immediately began knocking on doors to try and establish who the pony's owners were. He added: "There never would have been any prospect of a ballistics trace on his rifle. He could have fled and he could have evaded responsibility." It emerged during the hearing that McLean, a keen huntsman, was likely to lose his firearms licence. District Judge Peter King said: "Those who enjoy shooting and hunting as a sport are perfectly entitled to do so. However, with that sport comes significant obligations. "Unfortunately, you have failed to handle your firearm in a responsible manor." Sentencing him to 120 hours community service, the judge added: "If you can't handle firearms responsibly there are consequences." Judge King ordered McLean to pay the owners of the Shetland Pony 500 compensation. In 2017 mum-of-six Rhonda Burns (49) had written on social media about how her family had been left traumatised after Maisie was shot. "Two days of the worst trauma any child could ever suffer - no 10-year-old should ever have to see her beautiful pet pony brutally shot by accident and left for dead 30 yards from her front door," she wrote. "Our family are devastated." Referring to Maisie, she added: "Sleep tight little princess". Rhonda told the Belfast Telegraph at the time her children were horrified to discover Maisie, who had been turned out into a field with her mother Bluebell, lying blood-soaked and lifeless on a Sunday morning. Bluebell was shaking in distress and trying to nudge Maisie. She was covered in Maisie's blood and was frantically trying to get her to respond, said Rhonda at the time. A 150 million package to deal with legacy issues should prioritise compensation for victims over investigations, eight high-profile peers have said. The group, including Chris Patten, who oversaw the creation of the PSNI, and four former Secretaries of State, make the argument in an open letter to current NI Secretary Karen Bradley. They caution against spending money on costly investigations which may never deliver justice. Read More A public consultation on how to deal with the past ended last Friday. It proposed a Historical Investigations Unit (HIU), separate from the PSNI, to examine around 1,700 Troubles-era deaths. The Government has already pledged 150m to support legacy reform in Northern Ireland. However, in their letter, the eight peers argue the focus must be to "resource victims, not investigations that have little or no likelihood of either prosecution or alternative closure satisfactory to victims". The signatories include Lord Patten, whose reforms to policing in Northern Ireland led to the creation of the PSNI, and Conservative peer Tom King, who served as Northern Ireland Secretary from 1985 to 1989. Three former Labour Secretaries of State - John Reid, who held the post in 2000-01, Paul Murphy (2002-05) and Peter Hain (2005-07) - also put their names to the letter. The other signatories are former Church of Ireland Primate Robin Eames, who co-authored a report on dealing with the past in 2008, former Northern Ireland Affairs Committee chairman Patrick Cormack, and Des Browne, an ex-NIO minister. Lord Hain, who co-ordinated the letter, said that while they were proposing a line be drawn under the past, they were against an amnesty. He said: "We are not proposing an amnesty but an even-handed approach to this which does not just target members of the security forces." Lord Hain said they would not oppose the pursuit of a case if significant new evidence emerged. The letter acknowledges the "great importance" which many victims' families place on the prosecution, conviction and sentencing of perpetrators. But it goes on to set out how only a small number of investigations into the past have led to prosecutions. It states: "The Historical Enquiries Team completed work on 1,615 cases involving more than 2,000 deaths. We have been authoritatively informed that, of all those cases, only 17 were referred to the Public Prosecution Service and only three resulted in prosecutions and convictions for murder." Noting that the HIU will have a caseload of around 1,700 deaths, the letter warns the number of prosecutions and convictions is likely to be very small. It adds: "It must be worth at least pausing to consider whether this is the best possible use of 150m." The past has been one of the key sticking points between the DUP and Sinn Fein during talks to break the political impasse. The pursuit of former soldiers has also sparked outrage among the veterans' community. The letter states past cases must be treated in an "absolutely even-handed manner". It adds: "We note that currently prosecutions are being considered for former members of the armed forces - perhaps because records and information are more readily available - but none so far as we can establish for paramilitaries. That cannot be right. "We believe that it is essential to treat past cases in an absolutely even-handed manner. That also means former military personnel cannot be exempt (as some are suggesting) while other former combatants, either loyalist or republican, are pursued." A female driver collided with an 11-year-old boy but did not contact police. Police are hunting a female driver after an 11-year-old boy was hit by a car in a hit-and-run incident in Enniskillen. It happened on the Forthill Road near the old cinema on Friday October 5 at around 3.45pm A PSNI spokesperson said: "A lady driving a white car collided with an 11-year-old boy who was crossing the road. "The young lad sustained bruising to his right knee and left ankle after being knocked to the ground. "She did stop and ask if he was OK, but then left and didn't contact police or the child's parents. "Were you in the area / Did you see the incident? Do you have any dash cam footage of it?" "If you were the driver, please make contact with Constable Hoey at Enniskillen station on 101 and quote incident number 260 28/9/18. The driver's obligations in these situations are clear, please come to us before we come to you. "This could easily have been worse and the county has seen far too many tragedies on it's roads." Support for reforming the law on abortion in Northern Ireland is now "overwhelming", according to a new survey that has been commissioned by Amnesty International Support for reforming the law on abortion in Northern Ireland is now "overwhelming", according to a new survey that has been commissioned by Amnesty International. Some 80% of people here now believe a women should have the choice of abortion if her health is at risk and 80% also feel the same choice should be there in cases of rape or incest, according to the poll. Some 67% of DUP voters questioned in the YouGov poll agreed that having an abortion should not be a crime and 65% think that Westminster should reform the law in the absence of a devolved government. Amnesty also polled people living in England, Scotland and Wales and found that 81% agreed that Northern Ireland's abortion law should be reformed, while 85% believe women in Northern Ireland should be able to access abortion services in the region rather than having to travel to other parts of the UK. The results, according to Grainne Teggert, Amnesty International's NI campaign manager, should be a wake up call to MPs as a Private Member's Bill on decriminalisation of abortion is launched at Westminster today. "This research shows landslide support for reform to Northern Ireland's repressive abortion law," she said. "It confirms what we've long known - that most people in Northern Ireland and across the UK agree that it's completely wrong for Northern Irish women to be governed by an archaic law that denies them their rights, health and autonomy." According to the poll two-thirds of people in Northern Ireland now believe abortion should not be a crime and that Westminster should now step in and reform Northern Ireland laws. A total of 73% of those surveyed here agree that a woman should have the choice of abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality. A Private Members' Bill led by Labour MP Diana Johnson to decriminalise abortion is being introduced in the House of Commons on October 23. Ms Johnson said: "Women who have abortions are not criminals and the law should not treat them as such. "In Northern Ireland, criminal prosecutions for women who try to access abortion services or obtain abortion pills from the internet are a reality - this absolutely cannot continue." However, the DUP reaffirmed its position that the issue remains a matter for devolved government. A DUP spokesperson said: "We recognise that this is a sensitive issue. However, this is a devolved matter and any attempt to change the law without the consent of the Assembly would be a breach of the devolution settlement. "The Government has a clear position in respecting the right of the Assembly to legislate on abortion, reflecting the will of the people of Northern Ireland." Anti Brexit billboards on the northern side of the border between Newry in Northern Ireland and Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland (Niall Carson/PA) A top officer in Ireland has suggested that police forces in the Republic and Northern Ireland are planning for a hard border in the wake of a no-deal Brexit. Assistant Garda Commissioner Patrick Leahy and PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd said they have been working together in an attempt to reduce the fallout of a chaotic Brexit. Mr Todd appeared before Irelands justice committee in Dublin for the first time alongside Mr Leahy in which they discussed the range of work both police forces have been putting in place. Expand Close Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd (PSNI/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd (PSNI/PA) They said that planning for Brexit has been a central focus during cross-border meetings between the PSNI and Garda Siochana. It is only the second time a police officer from Northern Ireland has appeared before the Oireachtas sub-committee, following Sir Hugh Ordes visit in 2006. Sinn Fein Senator Niall ODonnghaile asked the top officers how damaging a hard border would be for cross-border corporation. Mr Leahey responded: We all know what could happen so we are planning for it, and in terms of resources and training we are looking at our infrastructure and what the implications will be. We are being mature about what is required around [Brexit] and we are waiting with baited breath as to where this takes us, but we are not sitting back and doing nothing. Mr Todd told the committee it was difficult to plan without details of the outcome and final Brexit deal. We have been looking at the range of work we do on a cross-border basis and looking at which pieces rely on European regulations and trying to work out if we lost those how we would maintain what we have, he said. While there is no Brexit withdrawal deal on the table, and with months to go before the UK leaves the European Union, there is a growing risk of a hard border. Mr Todd said that the PSNI continues to face threats from dissident republicans and said he would be nervous of a return to infrastructure at the border. He said: We would be nervous about anything that could be used as focus to try and harness discontent and be used as some sort of quasi-legitimacy for their actions. It would make us uncomfortable at the notion that local community teams would want to enforce or be part of a border structure that didnt have approval of local communities. It has also emerged that the Armed Response Unit in Northern Ireland, which was set up to deal with gun and knife crime, spends more than half its time in interventions with people suffering from mental health problems. That has been the saddest shift with which policing deals, he added. Clare Daly Independents 4 Change TD described it as mind blowing and asked whether policing in the Republic was dealing with similar issues. Mr Leahy told the committee that mental health is a factor in policing and the level of trauma officers deal with in the public is becoming really topical. It wasnt something that was part of the discourse in policing five or 10 years ago, but it is very much a part of that space now, he added. He said the majority of people who are jailed have suffered trauma in their childhood. Mental health is becoming very much part of the lexicon in policing, he added. Meanwhile, the committee also heard how the PSNI has been using social media to reach out to the public. Mr Todd boasted how the PSNI has a social media outreach of over 900,000 followers. In most towns across Northern Ireland there are more people following us on social media than have ever met a police officer, he added. The opportunity for us is that every local team has more followers than people who buy the local paper. People are more likely to get news and information from a policing perspective from social media than buying their new local papers because local papers have been trending off while we have been trending up. He added that local police are able to post updates without centralised control which brings risks. The committee heard that the Gardai Facebook has 450,000 followers while its Twitter account has almost half a million fans. The Garda Siochana has a good footprint out there and not just nationally but locally, he added. Ms Daly, however pointed out that the PSNI has almost double the number of social media followers and urged the Gardai to pay attention to that area. Stormont's Department of Finance had "a complete misunderstanding" of the funding arrangements for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), it has been claimed. A senior official yesterday told the RHI Inquiry of the moment she realised it was "red-button panic time" after hearing how the budget for the scheme had spiralled out of control. RHI was introduced by the Executive in 2012 to encourage businesses to switch from fossil fuels to renewable heating sources. But costs soared due to flaws in cost controls, including the fact that claimants could earn more money the more fuel they burned. When she first appeared before the inquiry in June, senior departmental official Emer Morelli admitted that staff had taken what they were told by the Department of Trade, Enterprise and Investment (Deti) "at face value". Ms Morelli, who was involved in RHI approvals, said that she should have done more to establish the true budgetary position. Returning yesterday, Ms Morelli was grilled on the department's role from the middle of 2015, when it was becoming apparent that the scheme was being abused and businesses were burning fuel to take advantage of the over-generous subsidies on offer. At this point the cost of the scheme had doubled from 11.5m to 23m. A change to tiered cost controls was due to be introduced that autumn. Ms Morelli said her officials were still "not entirely sure" about the scheme when a budget increase was requested by Deti. Junior counsel Joseph Aiken asked Ms Morelli if the doubling of the budget had set "alarm bells ringing" that something improper had caused this rise. She responded by saying there was no indication at the time that RHI was "out of financial control", but conceded that the department should have engaged more and asked questions earlier. The inquiry heard that when asked by Deti to sign off a further business case, staff had effectively been "backed into a corner" to approve additional funding for RHI. In September 2015 the then Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell announced plans to cap subsidies for applicants, without finance officials having viewed the plan. Mr Aiken suggested to Ms Morelli that things had been done the "wrong way round", adding that it seemed "very odd" for the ship to have sailed without approval. Ms Morelli replied that the ship had "very firmly sailed" by the time the plans were brought to the department, which she described as "very unusual". She added: "There is a process there to allow people to see a business case before it becomes the real thing. Once it's in the public domain, it's hard to revoke and come back from." Ms Morelli also referred to a meeting with Deti officials a few weeks later when she was told that the scheme was so successful the Executive was prepared to cover any overspend. She said this left her feeling "very unsettled". "I can't say that I came away from that meeting with a clear idea of what was happening. I couldn't make sense of the information that I was being given. It was surprise after surprise and I wasn't actively challenging back. I had lots of questions and I should have put my concerns in writing," she said. There was a surge in applications for the scheme before the cost-cutting tariffs took effect in November. Almost 1,000 boilers were accredited between August and November. In December 2015 Ms Morelli received a letter from Deti informing her of the spike in applications, which she said indicated that "the actual response had far exceeded expectation". The forecasted expenditure on RHI in 2015/16 was listed as over 30m, but the actual spend was almost 45m. She said her reaction to this news was "disbelief" and she realised that it was "now red-button panic time". She also described the total unapproved expenditure over the planned 20-year lifetime of the scheme, which amounted to some 370m, as "unheard of" and "highly unusual". When asked by the panel what lessons could be learned, Ms Morelli said there should be "greater clarity of communication, more trust and less of a 'them and us' culture" between government departments, with "all working towards the one goal". Meanwhile, Deti's former permanent secretary Dr Andrew McCormick returns to the inquiry today for two days of questioning. Dr Gabriel Scally said he hoped cervical cancer would become an increasingly rare event in the next decade (Niall Carson/PA) The author of a report into the Irish cervical cancer screening controversy has said the death of one of the most high-profile women affected by the scandal serves as a timely reminder of the seriousness of the problem. Dr Gabriel Scally said he hoped cervical cancer would become an increasingly rare event in the next decade and hoped that he would never see deaths like these again in his lifetime. Dr Scally was questioned on the findings of his scoping report at a parliamentary committee meeting on Wednesday ahead of the funeral mass of the late Emma Mhic Mhathuna. Expand Close Ms Mhic Mhathuna, 37, died on Sunday (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ms Mhic Mhathuna, 37, died on Sunday (Brian Lawless/PA) A minutes silence was held at the meeting as a mark of respect for Ms Mhic Mhathuna and the more than 200 other women screened through CervicalCheck who were affected by incorrect smear test results. The 37-year-old mother-of-five died on Sunday. Her funeral was due to pass by Leinster House, Government Buildings, and the Department of Health on Wednesday afternoon. The flag over Dublins Government Buildings was lowered to half-mast on the instruction of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. At the meeting, Dr Scally said he believed a compensation scheme needed to be considered for women who were failed by cancer screening. If theyre failed by that through genuine error then I think there should be a mechanism put in place to deal with that, he said. I would hope thats what Justice Meenan would be considering, one of the things that he might consider doing but thats outside the remit of our report. Dr Scally said the open disclosure guidelines that were in place were very seriously deficient. It was the kind of policy where clinicians were encouraged to disclose if the clinicians wanted to disclose but the guidelines gave them every chance of not disclosing, Dr Scally said. It wasnt really open disclosure at all. It was the first time, since the publication of the scoping inquiry last month, that Dr Scally has appeared in the Oireachtas to discuss the findings. Irelands finance minister Paschal Donohoe in his budget day speech on Tuesday announced a further nine million euro would be allocated to the health service next year to fund some of the recommendations of the Scally Report. Ashers bakery owners Daniel and Amy McArthur outside the Supreme Court, where five justices unanimously ruled that they did not discriminate against gay rights activist Gareth Lee (Victoria Jones/PA) The Christian owners of a bakery at the centre of the so-called gay cake case expressed their delight and relief after winning a Supreme Court appeal over a claim that they had discriminated against a customer. Five justices at the UKs highest court allowed a challenge by the McArthur family, who run Ashers bakery in Belfast, in a unanimous ruling in London. The legal action was originally brought by gay rights activist Gareth Lee, who claimed he had been discriminated against when the firm refused to make him a cake iced with the slogan Support Gay Marriage. Mr Lee initially won his case in the county court and then at the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal, but the McArthurs then challenged those rulings at a Supreme Court hearing in Belfast in May. Expand Close Gay rights activist Gareth Lee brought the original discrimination action against Ashers bakery (PA/Brian Lawless) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Gay rights activist Gareth Lee brought the original discrimination action against Ashers bakery (PA/Brian Lawless) Speaking outside court after the ruling on Wednesday, the bakerys general manager, Daniel McArthur, who attended court with his wife Amy, said: Were delighted and relieved at todays ruling. We always knew we hadnt done anything wrong in turning down this order. Were particularly pleased the Supreme Court emphatically accepted what weve said all along we did not turn down this order because of the person who made it, but because of the message itself. I know a lot of people will be glad to hear this ruling today, because this ruling protects freedom of speech and freedom of conscience for everyone. Expand Close Daniel and Amy McArthur challenged a ruling that they discriminated against a customer by refusing to make a cake decorated with the words Support Gay Marriage (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Daniel and Amy McArthur challenged a ruling that they discriminated against a customer by refusing to make a cake decorated with the words Support Gay Marriage (Niall Carson/PA) Controversy first flared when Mr Lee, a member of the LGBT advocacy group QueerSpace, ordered a 36.50 cake in 2014 featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie for a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia. His order was accepted and he paid in full but, two days later, the company called to say it could not proceed due to the message requested. Mr Lee, who was supported by Northern Irelands Equality Commission, was also present for the latest ruling in the case, which has attracted enormous attention. Please read our statement in relation to the judgment given this morning by the Supreme Court in the case of Lee V Ashers Baking Company Limited and Others https://t.co/UT9pnXSSNW pic.twitter.com/BBHGRARSnp Equality Commission (@EqualityCommNI) October 10, 2018 Speaking to the media after the ruling was announced, he said: To me, this was never about a campaign or a statement. All I wanted was to order a cake in a shop that sold cakes to order. I paid my money, my money was taken and then a few days later it was refused. That made me feel like a second-class citizen. Im concerned not just for the implications for myself and other gay people, but for every single one of us. The bakers could not refuse to supply their goods to Mr Lee because he was a gay man or supported gay marriage, but that is quite different from obliging them to supply a cake iced with a message with which they profoundly disagreedSupreme Court president Lady Hale In a brief statement announcing the courts decision, its president, Lady Hale, said the McArthur family hold the religious belief that the only form of marriage consistent with the Bible and acceptable to God is between a man and a woman. She said: As to Mr Lees claim based on sexual discrimination, the bakers did not refuse to fulfil his order because of his sexual orientation. They would have refused to make such a cake for any customer, irrespective of their sexual orientation. Their objection was to the message on the cake, not to the personal characteristics of Mr Lee or of anyone else with whom he was associated. The message on the cake would not just be for the benefit of gay people but also for their families and friends and anyone who recognises the social benefits which the commitment involved in gay marriage can bring. Accordingly, this court holds that there was no discrimination on the ground of the sexual orientation of Mr Lee or anyone else with whom he was associated. Expand Close Gareth Lee outside the Supreme Court after five justices ruled that the Christian owners of a bakery did not discriminate against the gay rights activist on the ground of sexual orientation (Victoria Jones/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Gareth Lee outside the Supreme Court after five justices ruled that the Christian owners of a bakery did not discriminate against the gay rights activist on the ground of sexual orientation (Victoria Jones/PA) The court also found that Mr Lee had no claim against Ashers on the grounds of religious belief or political opinion, holding that no-one should be forced to have or express a political opinion in which he does not believe. Lady Hale said: The bakers could not refuse to supply their goods to Mr Lee because he was a gay man or supported gay marriage, but that is quite different from obliging them to supply a cake iced with a message with which they profoundly disagreed. After announcing that the bakerys appeal was allowed, she added: This conclusion is not in any way to diminish the need to protect gay people and people who support gay marriage from discrimination. It is deeply humiliating, and an affront to human dignity, to deny someone a service because of that persons race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief. But that is not what happened in this case. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK or Ireland where same-sex marriage is outlawed, with Prime Minister Theresa Mays DUP allies staunch opponents of changing the law. Mr Lee said he is considering his options regarding an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Farmers are relieved that carbon taxes will not be increasing (Ben Birchall/PA) Irish farmers have breathed a sigh of relief that the Government will not be increasing carbon taxes next year. Laois farmer Francie Gorman said carbon taxes negatively impacted rural Ireland in particular and it was the last thing that struggling farmers need when they were trying to make ends meet. I know it might not be popular to say, particularly outside farming circles, because of climate change but carbon taxes are a cruel form of taxation on rural Ireland, Mr Gorman said. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe unveiled details of the countrys Budget for 2019 on Tuesday afternoon. Minister @Paschald "#Budget19 will deliver the largest increase in capital investment in a decade. We will invest an additional 1.5bn to provide more and better schools, hospitals, homes, primary healthcare and public transport for our people." @IRLDeptFinance @IRLDeptPER pic.twitter.com/HmVXsqzk67 MerrionStreet.ie (@merrionstreet) October 9, 2018 The minister announced the introduction of a pilot scheme for suckler farmers worth 20 million euro which aims to encourage farmers to weigh their cows and calves. Mr Donohoe also outlined details of increased funding of 22.7 million for the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) agricultural grant scheme, bringing the total to 250 million euro. A suckler beef and sheep farmer from Ballinakill, Co Laois, Mr Gorman welcomed additional funding being made available to suckler farmers. He said the sector was the most vital part of the beef industry and it only survived with the Governments support. The 40 euro is a start, its a move in the right direction but as it stands there isnt a living in beef farming, Mr Gorman said. #Budget19 - 44m of direct aid for farmers set out below:https://t.co/UDztPh4Dem pic.twitter.com/t8KH7DGV36 Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (@agriculture_ie) October 9, 2018 He added that without further support in the next couple of years he will have to consider leaving the beef sector. Mr Gorman said the restoration of the ANC grant had to be welcomed but he said smaller farmers were disappointed that low cost finance had not been made available to help farmers finding it hard to get over the financial stress caused by the unexpected bad weather in the past year. The Irish Farmers Association said Budget 2019 had acknowledged some of the income difficulties in farming but more needed to be done. IFA President Joe Healy said the pilot scheme for suckler farmers was a recognition of the income crisis in the sector, but the level of funding was disappointing and more needed to be done to help sustain the suckler herd. Mr Healy said the ANC funding, which reversed cuts imposed on the lowest income farmers in previous budgets, was a positive measure. But he said that the 200 euro increase in the earned income tax credit to 1,350 euro does not go far enough. @joehealyfarmer speaks about #Budget19,"On the suckler cow, while its an acknowledgement by the government of the need to support the sector, it falls short of the level of support that's required to sustain it", @IFAmedia. pic.twitter.com/FsSzxhwY8F Irish Farmers Journal (@farmersjournal) October 9, 2018 The Government continues to discriminate between employees and the self-employed in the income tax system, Mr Healy said. It is simply not right that a farmer earning 16,500 euro will be paying 300 euro a year more in income tax than a PAYE employee next year. The Government has reneged on a clear commitment in the programme for Government that they would reach parity, of 1,650 euro, by 2018. Mary Lou McDonald said Sinn Fein had proposed the introduction of an emergency temporary tax relief for renters (Liam McBurney/PA) Sinn Fein has accused the Government of leaving renters out in the cold in the midst of a housing crisis. Party leader Mary Lou McDonald said the budget for next year could be more accurately described as a landlords budget and called on Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to come clean on proposals for further tax concessions for landlords. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe unveiled details of the Governments budget expenditure for next year on Tuesday. Ms McDonald said there was nothing prudent nor responsible about the budget. Opposition parties have been highly critical of Fine Gaels housing spend. Mr Donohoe announced the allocation of 2.3 billion euros for housing, an increase of 500 million euros on 2018. Expand Close Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe ahead of the Budget (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe ahead of the Budget (Niall Carson/PA) He said 10,000 new social homes would be delivered in 2019 through construction, acquisition and leasing. Ms McDonald told the Dail that Sinn Fein had proposed the introduction of an emergency temporary tax relief for renters. It would have put money back into the pockets of hard-pressed renters but you and your partners Fianna Fail in Government chose not to do that no rent certainty, no tax relief, nothing, she said. Instead, the Dublin Central TD said landlords were given a dig-out in the form of 100% mortgage tax interest relief on their rental properties. She said Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin had revealed on Tuesday that he was seeking further tax incentives for landlords as part of the coming Finance Bill. Under questioning in the Dail, the Taoiseach failed to rule this out and said there was no agreement in place, Ms McDonald said. The Taoiseach needs to come clean on the Fianna Fail leaders proposal for further tax breaks for landlords. Daniel and Amy McArthur of Ashers Baking Company which is due to find out the result of a Supreme Court appeal in the gay cake case (PA/Neil Carson) The UKs highest court is to give its ruling on whether the Christian owners of a bakery discriminated against a customer by refusing to make a cake decorated with the words Support Gay Marriage. Five Supreme Court justices will announce their decision in London on Wednesday. Their ruling follows the latest round of a legal action brought against family-run Ashers bakery in Belfast by gay rights activist Gareth Lee, who won his case initially in the county court and then at the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal. The bakery went on to fight the finding of discrimination at a Supreme Court hearing in Belfast in May. During the Supreme Court proceedings, the panel of justices including president Lady Hale, were told that the owners were being forced to act against their religious beliefs. Owners Daniel and Amy McArthur, who have said the law risked extinguishing their consciences, will be in London for the courts judgment. David Scoffield QC, for Ashers, argued that the state is penalising the baking firm, with the courts effectively compelling or forcing them to make a cake bearing a message with which they disagree as a matter of religious conscience. The legal action against Ashers was taken by Mr Lee with support from Northern Irelands Equality Commission. Expand Close Gay rights activist Gareth Lee who brought a successful discrimination action against the Christian owners of a Belfast bakery (PA/Brian Lawless) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Gay rights activist Gareth Lee who brought a successful discrimination action against the Christian owners of a Belfast bakery (PA/Brian Lawless) Mr Lee and Dr Michael Wardlow, the chief commissioner of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, are expected to be at the Supreme Court for the ruling. Controversy first flared when Mr Lee, a member of the LGBT advocacy group QueerSpace, ordered a cake in 2014 featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie for a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia. His order was accepted and he paid in full but, two days later, the company called to say it could not proceed due to the message requested. In the original court case, District Judge Isobel Brownlie ruled that religious beliefs could not dictate the law and ordered the firm to pay damages of 500. Mounting an unsuccessful challenge at the Court of Appeal in Belfast in 2016, Ashers contended that it never had an issue with Mr Lees sexuality, rather the message he was seeking to put on the cake. Mr Scoffield told the justices that the case, a simple transaction, raised an issue of principle since those with deeply-held religious or philosophical convictions could be compelled to act against their beliefs. Robin Allen QC, for Mr Lee, said: This was a relatively small incident in his life which has become enormously significant and continues to be so. That is a heavy burden to bear for one individual. The legal battle has attracted enormous attention. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK or Ireland where same-sex marriage is outlawed, with Theresa Mays DUP allies staunch opponents of changing the law. The Supreme Court will rule on whether Ashers directly discriminated against Mr Lee on grounds of sexual orientation contrary to the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (NI) 2006, and religious and political belief, contrary to the Fair Employment and treatment (NI) Order 1998, by refusing to make a cake decorated with the requested message. The justices have also been asked to decide if the relevant provisions under the regulations and order breached the McArthur familys rights under the European Convention on Human Rights relating to freedom to manifest ones religious beliefs and freedom of expression. Large boulders on the hillside mean the A83 remains closed after a landslip (Bear Scotland/PA) The Rest And Be Thankful road in Argyll and Bute is to remain shut after landslips left 75 ton boulders hanging over the carriageway. Operators closed the route on Tuesday morning after around 2,500 tonnes of debris reached the catch-fences above the road following heavy rain. A 60-mile diversion has been put in place while Bear Scotland works to clear the A83 and the alternative diversion along The Old Military Road below the main route. *UPDATE* 08:46 #A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful remains CLOSED in both directions until further notice, this icludes the Old Military Road also. @NWTrunkRoads are providing regular updates on the work being carried out to resolve this. https://t.co/aTIH9ihlmb Traffic Scotland (@trafficscotland) October 10, 2018 Engineers inspecting the area say there are three large boulders at risk of slipping further down the slope onto the road. The biggest is thought to be around 75 tonnes and is sitting 300m above the road surface. Engineers are working to secure the boulders by drilling into the rock and inserting a device which will help break them into smaller pieces on the hillside. The clear up operation comes as further bad weather is expected to hit Scotland on Friday. Expand Close The Old Military Road was also affected and remains shut (BEAR Scotland/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Old Military Road was also affected and remains shut (BEAR Scotland/PA) Tommy Deans, Bear Scotlands North West network manager, said: Safety is our number one priority and we cannot open the A83 or the Old Military Road until these boulders high-up above the carriageway are made safe. Yesterdays landslips have caused a number of boulders to become exposed which is causing some concern, and we want to be as confident as possible that there will be no further movements of material or the boulders on the hillside before we open the Old Military Road as a diversion which sits below the A83 carriageway. Teams have worked throughout the day to clear around 150 tonnes of debris from the Old Military Road in preparation for the route to be used as an alternative local diversion route, however this will not be used until we are confident that the road is safe. After that, teams will then turn to emptying and securing the material caught above the A83 carriageway in the debris fences. We continue to thank the travelling public for their patience while we do everything we can to address yesterdays landslips. We encourage road users to follow the diversion route via Dalmally or to find an alternative form of transport. We advise motorists to check ahead with Traffic Scotland for real-time journey information. Police were at the scene after part of a roof collapsed in Tranent (Joe Giddens/PA) Some children have been injured after part of a roof collapsed at a church hall. Emergency services were called to the scene at Tranent Church Hall on Church Street, Tranent just before 7pm on Tuesday. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it was not a structural collapse but plaster fell from the ceiling. A number of children suffered superficial injuries however no-one was seriously injured. A police spokesman said: Police in East Lothian were called to an address in Church Street, Tranent at around 6.55pm following reports that a portion of the buildings roof had collapsed. Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Ambulance Service attended. There are no serious injuries. The Supreme Court's decision over whether Ashers bakery in Belfast had the right to refuse to provide a cake bearing a pro-gay marriage slogan will be announced today The Supreme Court's decision over whether Ashers bakery in Belfast had the right to refuse to provide a cake bearing a pro-gay marriage slogan will be announced today. The verdict by five Supreme Court justices comes more than four years after a legal challenge was taken by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland on behalf of Gareth Lee, a member of the LGBT advocacy group Queer Space who placed the order. Ashers' Daniel McArthur, who is being supported in his legal battle by the Christian Institute, is expected to make a statement outside the court in London following today's judgment. Mr McArthur challenged Belfast County Court's verdict in 2015 that Ashers had breached discrimination law. The company was also ordered to pay 500 damages for injuring the customer's feelings. Mounting a challenge at the Court of Appeal in Belfast in 2016, Ashers contended that it never had an issue with Mr Lee's sexuality, rather the message he was seeking to put on the cake. However, this was rejected in October 2016, leading the bakery to the Supreme Court. Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute said today's judgment could have consequences for other businesses if it does not go in their favour. "Ashers is not a faceless multinational, but a family business where the owners are closely involved in the work," he said. "They should not be forced to use their time, energy and skills to help campaign against their own deeply held beliefs - nor should anyone else." The Duchess of Cambridge arrives to open the new photography centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (John Stillwell/PA) A new photography centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum has been officially opened by the Duchess of Cambridge. The duchess, who was paying her first visit to the museum since becoming a patron in March, was given a tour of the exhibition at the design museum on Wednesday evening before meeting the curators and unveiling a plaque. Kate, the museums first royal patron, was shown around the photography centre by curators of the museum. The duchess, who studied art history at university, showed her expertise in the field during her visit, according to Martin Barnes, the museums senior curator of the exhibition. This evening, The Duchess of Cambridge is opening the @V_and_As new Photography Centre . The Duchess first visit to the museum since becoming its Royal Patron. pic.twitter.com/JLpKjHD7zp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 10, 2018 She is a really knowledgeable student in art history, so she understood about the technology behind the photos, he said. I really got a sense of her knowledge and interest in how it is relevant today but how its history informs its present. Displays in the new centre, the first phase of which more than doubles the amount of space in the museum dedicated to photography, will be drawn from the London museums collection of more than 800,000 photographs. More gallery space is set to be given over to photography in the museum by 2022. The first exhibition to be held in the centre called Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital showcases photos taken from the 19th century, when the medium was first invented, up to the present day. Expand Close The Duchess of Cambridge leaves after opening the new photography centre (John Stillwell/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duchess of Cambridge leaves after opening the new photography centre (John Stillwell/PA) Tristram Hunt, the former Labour MP who is now the director of the V&A, said: Our new photography centre provides a world-class facility to re-establish photography as one of our defining collections. In an era when everyones iPhone makes them a photographer, the V&As photography centre explores and explains the medium in a compelling new way. He also thanked the gallerys Kensington neighbour the Duchess of Cambridge for unveiling the official plaque. Visitors entering the new photography centre will pass a display of more than 150 cameras spanning 160 years. The exhibition opens to the public on Friday and entrance is free. Prime Minister Theresa May (left) and Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Pic: Clodagh Kilcoyne/PA Wire The DUP is prepared to vote against Theresa May's Conservative Government on the budget should their red line on Brexit be breached, Sky News has reported. Should the budget not pass a Commons vote it could trigger a confidence motion in the Prime Minister putting her future leadership into question. The DUP has constantly stated there can be no border in the Irish Sea and Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as the UK. An announcement on what a possible deal could look like on the Irish border issue could be made as soon as Monday. Senior sources within the party told Sky News if Mrs May's breached their "blood red line" they would not vote for the budget on October 29. A DUP source told Sky News: "It is unacceptable that we would be treated differently to the rest of the UK. "We will not be bounced into anything. "If Theresa May doesn't take our concerns on board, she may not be the leader to take us through Brexit." The DUP has a confidence and supply deal with the Conservative minority in order to help it see through votes in the Commons. Speaking earlier on Sky News DUP MP Sammy Wilson said he believed there was no way forward in the Brexit negotiations "unless the Prime Minister is prepared to kick back at this late stage on the belligerent demands we have had from the EU on Northern Ireland. "There has been no sign of that so far. "She weakly rolled over in December last year on the demands for an Irish backstop. She has not resisted the unreasonable calls for Northern Ireland to be treated differently in terms of regulation, in terms of participation and future trade agreements. "If she is not prepared to do that then you do have - and Ken Clarke talked about acting in the national interest - then in the national interest she has to say to them 'you are not getting a withdrawal agreement because I can not accept the break up of the United Kingdom'." EasyJet boss Johan Lundgren has warned more airlines are likely to fail (easyJet/PA) More airlines are likely to fail due to rising fuel costs, the boss of easyJet has warned. Chief executive Johan Lundgren said weaker players face increasing pressure amid the price of oil reaching around 85 US dollars a barrel, compared with 69 US dollars in April. He made the comments just nine days after the collapse of Primera Air, which left thousands of passengers scrambling to find alternative flights home and customers with future bookings having to seek refunds from credit and debit card companies. Mr Lundgren expects more consolidation in the aviation industry, with successful airlines or airline groups taking over struggling carriers. He told the annual convention of travel trade association Abta in Seville, Spain: The fuel price being up there and perhaps continuing to increase will put some of those weaker players in a more difficult situation. If you are exposed to fuel in the way that you haven't hedged and you have a weakness in your model which means you don't have resilience ... then you should be worriedJohan Lundgren I think there will be a consolidation from the fact that were going to see more failures. He went on: If you are exposed to fuel in the way that you havent hedged and you have a weakness in your model which means you dont have resilience then you should be worried. In April, British Airways owner IAG acquired a 5% stake in Norwegian with a view to starting takeover discussions. Norwegian has struggled to contain costs amid its rapid expansion, and had around 2 billion of net debt at the end of last year. Ryanair boss Michael OLeary recently predicted it would go bust this winter, but the Scandinavian carrier insisted his comment has no root in reality. Icelandic operator Wow which operates low-cost flights to North America via its Reykjavik hub told the Financial Times last month it is aiming to raise up to 300 million US dollars by selling less than half of the loss-making company through an initial public offering. EasyJet bought Air Berlins operations at the German capitals Tegel airport in December and is in discussions about taking over cash-strapped Italian airline Alitalia. But Mr Lundgren insisted easyJet has plenty of room to grow organically and will not rely on mergers and acquisitions to expand. He noted that the Luton-based carrier is the second largest airline in Europe but only has 10% market share. A trawler bringing in its catch at Eyemouth harbour, in the Scottish Borders. (PA/David Cheskin) Fishing must be disentangled from any Brexit free trade agreement with the EU, MPs will tell the Prime Minister at a Downing Street summit. Conservative MP David Duguid (Banff and Buchan) said he would tell Theresa May the EU must be rebuffed in its attempts to tie fishing quotas to a free trade deal or she risks being seen to have betrayed fishermen. Mr Duguid said the European Commissions starting point was to keep the same access to UK fish as a condition of getting a free trade agreement and, although negotiators had softened, they must dump the demand entirely. There is no precedent for this anywhere else in the world where a free trade agreement would be tied to natural resources.David Duguid MP He said: The point is there is no precedent for this anywhere else in the world where a free trade agreement would be tied to natural resources. I know from talking to representatives of the EU fisheries sector their demands have lessened as matters have progressed. However, it needs to be about zero anything more than that will be seen as a betrayal. Barrie Deas, National Federation of Fishermens Organisations (NFFO) chief executive, said he believed the parliamentary arithmetic and the symbolism of the totemic industry was on fishermens side. He said: I think its very clear fishing is high on the agenda, partly because of the parliamentary arithmetic and also because fishing is symbolic of Brexit. The general public may not know what Brexit means in its entirety for some years but we will know on day one whether fishing has got a good deal or a bad deal. If we are sold out like we were going into the EU in 1973 there would be a political cost to that if we are tied into the status quo that seems like betrayal. If we are sold out like we were going into the EU in 1973 there would be a political cost to that - if we are tied into the status quo that seems like betrayalBarrie Deas NFFO chief executive However, Scottish Fishermens Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong said he was quietly confident fishermen would land the deal they wanted, whatever the outcome of Brexit. The key to all this is backbone, he said. At the party conference Mrs May mentioned fishing twice in her keynote speech it has been a while since any prime minister did that, so we are encouraged but not complacent. The right thing to do with fishing is so obvious that it will happen no matter whether we end up with Chequers, Norway, Canada or a no deal Brexit. Five Filipinos who say they were sexually abused by a Briton convicted of child sex offences in England have begun giving evidence at a civil court trial. The five four men and a boy say they were abused by Douglas Slade in the Philippines and want damages. Slade, 77, who comes from Bristol but is now in prison, was not convicted of any criminal offence in the Philippines and denies wrongdoing. A judge began overseeing a High Court trial in London on Tuesday. Judge Mark Gargan said none of the five claimants could be identified in media reports. One man said he was sexually abused and assaulted between 2009 and 2013 after being enticed into Slades house when he was in his early teens. Others say they were abused in 2013 and 2014. Lawyers believe it is the first time that foreign nationals have made such a claim against a Briton in a British court. Judge Gargan heard that Slade had lived in the Philippines for many years. Slade had returned to England three years ago and was arrested on arrival at Heathrow by police investigating allegations of child sex abuse in England during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He had been given a 24-year jail term by a judge in July 2016 at the end of a trial at Bristol Crown Court, after being convicted of abusing five boys in Britain between 1965 and 1980. On Tuesday, barrister Justin Levinson who is representing the five Filipinos told Judge Gargan that one of his clients was now 20, three were in their late teens, and one was 14. He said Slade had abused them in the Philippines between 2009 and 2015 when they were children. Slade had been prosecuted in the Philippines but not convicted of any offence. Mr Levinson said his clients had suffered personal injuries as a result of Slades sexual abuse and wanted compensation. Lawyers say each claimant hopes to win between 15,000 and 30,000. Slade denies abusing any of the five claimants and says their allegations are fabrications. A teacher accused of having sex with a student in the toilet of a plane as they returned from a school trip could face a retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict. The panel of four men and six women was discharged after deliberating for 10-and-a-half hours over three days in the trial of Eleanor Wilson at Bristol Crown Court. Judge Peter Blair QC, the Recorder of Bristol, stopped the trial after the foreman informed him there was not a realistic prospect of reaching majority verdicts on any of the four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust that Wilson faced should they be given more time. Judge Blair told the panel: I am going to discharge you now from returning verdicts on this indictment but can I extend my grateful thanks to you on behalf of the court service for all the work you have been doing for the last three-and-a-half weeks. There are quite a number of juries that have the same perfectly legitimate outcomes as this, what we call a hung jury. It is part of the system and you shouldn't in any way beat yourselves up about itJudge Peter Blair QC addresses the jurors This happens from time to time. Every year I keep a spreadsheet of trials that I do and the outcomes that there are and each year there are quite a number of juries that have the same perfectly legitimate outcomes as this, what we call a hung jury. It is part of the system and you shouldnt in any way beat yourselves up about it. Virginia Cornwall, prosecuting, asked for seven days for the Crown Prosecution Service to consider whether it wished to seek a retrial. The 29-year-old was on trial accused of having drink-fuelled sexual intercourse with the teenager on a British Airways flight home from an overseas camping trip in August 2015. It is alleged the teacher, then aged 26, kissed and cuddled the boy before beckoning him into the toilet where they allegedly had sex, with 6ft 2in Wilson perched on one leg, before returning to their seats. She is also accused of seeing the boy outside of school where they allegedly kissed and cuddled on three separate occasions, after a meal at Nandos and trips to Tintern Abbey and Ashton Court. Within weeks of the pair returning from the trip, rumours had spread around the school that Wilson was in a relationship with a student but when confronted by the head teacher she denied it, saying she was horrified at the accusation. At the same time, Wilson discovered she was pregnant and went on to have an abortion, with prosecutors claiming the boy was the father. The court heard their clandestine relationship was exposed months later when another pupil at the school tried to blackmail Wilson into having sex with him. The Royal Navy Reservist said she formed a friendship with the boy because she had no friends of her own age she could confide in. Wilson told the court the boy had imagined the incident in the toilet and also denied holding his hand and kissing him during time alone, insisting there was no truth whatsoever in the allegations. She also accused her then partner Andrew Hall of being violent and controlling and not being ready to start a family with her. The teenager, who bought Wilson flowers and chocolates, told the jury a bond developed between them and insisted his account was not fantasy and that he was telling the truth. Mr Hall described their relationship as dysfunctional but denied he was controlling, jealous, aggressive and physical towards her. Wilson, of The Rope Walk, Dursley, Gloucestershire, was released on unconditional bail. The Christian owners of a Belfast bakery have won an appeal at the UK's highest court over a finding that they discriminated against a customer by refusing to make a cake decorated with the words "Support Gay Marriage". Five Supreme Court justices allowed a challenge by the McArthur family in a unanimous ruling in London on Wednesday in what has become widely known as the "gay cake case". Their ruling follows the latest round of a legal action brought against family-run Ashers bakery in Belfast by gay rights activist Gareth Lee, who won his case initially in the county court and then at the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal. Ashers Bakery Owners Daniel and Amy McArthur said that they were "delighted and relieved" by the ruling. Read More Here's how the day unfolded: Lord Heseltine gave his views on Scottish independence during an event in Edinburgh (Scottish Parliament/PA) Lord Heseltine has described the prospect of Scottish independence as appalling, questioning whether it will really change anything very much north of the border. The former deputy prime minister, who is a staunch Remainer, likened the arguments for leaving the UK to those for leaving the EU, and called for further decentralisation of power across the country instead. He said independence would result in Whitehall being substituted by Edinburgh, arguing that greater autonomy should be given to cities such as Glasgow and Dundee. If I had one question I would ask about independence - is this really substituting Edinburgh for Whitehall, and substituting Edinburgh for Whitehall, with the centralism moved a few hundred miles north, will that really change anything very much in Scotland?Lord Heseltine The Tory peer made the comments during an appearance at the Festival of Politics at the Scottish Parliament. I am appalled by the prospect of the fracturing of the United Kingdom, he said, when asked by an audience member for his views. Its the same argument (as Brexit). If I look at the record of the British Empire and the British Commonwealth, and the incredible strengths which Scotland has contributed to this 200, 300-year human achievement, the idea of fracturing it, I find unbelievable. If I had one question I would ask about independence is this really substituting Edinburgh for Whitehall, and substituting Edinburgh for Whitehall, with the centralism moved a few hundred miles north, will that really change anything very much in Scotland? He continued: What I have been arguing for for many years now is the recreation of the power centres of the 18th century. Expand Close Holyroods Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh interviews Lord Heseltine (Scottish Parliament/PA) Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Holyroods Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh interviews Lord Heseltine (Scottish Parliament/PA) If I was looking at the Scottish economy in that context, I would be asking myself about Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and whether they are being devolved power to. Whether they are being recreated as the dynamics that they were when those cities were in their heyday. Lord Heseltines remarks follow the SNPs autumn conference earlier this week, during which Nicola Sturgeon called for pragmatism and patience from independence supporters. The First Minister has said she is waiting until the shape of any Brexit deal becomes clear before she makes a judgement on a second referendum on leaving the UK. Theresa May made her first appearance in the Commons since last months Salzburg summit (Victoria Jones/PA) Theresa May has urged MPs across the Commons to act in the national interest and back a Brexit deal amid warnings that decisive progress is needed in the negotiations before a crunch Brussels summit next week. The European Unions chief negotiator Michel Barnier briefed top EU officials behind closed doors at a regular meeting of the College of Commissioners, which also heard European Commission secretary-general Martin Selmayr warn of the need to be prepared for all outcomes from Brexit. In Westminster, the Prime Minister urged MPs to do their duty to implement the result of the Brexit referendum as she struggled to maintain discipline within the Tory ranks. It was Mrs Mays first appearance in the Commons since last months Salzburg summit, when EU leaders told her that her Chequers blueprint for Brexit would not work. Expand Close Theresa May urged MPs to act in the national interest over Brexit at Prime Ministers Questions (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Theresa May urged MPs to act in the national interest over Brexit at Prime Ministers Questions (PA) She has come under growing pressure from Brexit-backing Tories to drop the plan agreed by the Cabinet at her country residence in July and instead seek a Canada-style free trade deal. But veteran Europhile Tory Kenneth Clarke urged her to ignore hardline Brexiteers and bring forward a deal acceptable to pro-EU MPs on both sides of the Commons. The former chancellor said that would reveal that the hardline Eurosceptic views of the Bennites in the Labour leadership and the right-wing nationalists on the Tory benches were in the minority in the Commons. Labour has indicated it will oppose a deal based on the Prime Ministers Chequers plan and will push for a general election or, possibly, a second referendum. Eurosceptic Tories claim dozens of Conservatives are also prepared to vote against a Chequers-style deal. The Prime Minister said: I would hope that everybody across this whole House will put the national interest first. She added that they should also remember that Parliament gave the British people the decision over Brexit and following the 2016 referendum result it is our duty to ensure that we leave. In other developments: Treasury minister John Glen backed a previous prediction by the Bank of England that around 5,000 financial services jobs will have been shifted out of London by Day One on March 29. National Audit Office chief Sir Amyas Morse said it was not impossible that flights would be grounded if there was an unfriendly break-up with Brussels. The International Monetary Fund said growing anxiety about a breakdown in Brexit negotiations could result in contractual and operational uncertainties in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe. The negotiations are reaching a critical stage ahead of next weeks European Council summit. The October 18 meeting was initially framed as the deadline for agreement on the terms of UK withdrawal from the EU, as well as the publication of a political declaration on future relations in areas such as trade and security. But with both sides confirming that differences remain on issues such as the status of the Irish border, expectations are growing that the final moment of decision will be put back to a special summit in November. Following the College of Commissioners meeting, two commissioners stressed the importance of continued UK/EU co-operation on security after Brexit. #TeamJunckerEU today: state of play of #Article50 negotiations for the withdrawal of United Kingdom; information on ongoing preparedness and contingency work (#Brexit). Progress report on #SecurityUnion. Presentation of the annual report of the Independent European Fiscal Board. pic.twitter.com/MHcvxbfOUi Margaritis Schinas (@MargSchinas) October 10, 2018 The British security commissioner Julian King said: There are some issues that will need to be addressed in the context of a future partnership, including on security. There is a strong shared self-interest in finding a way of maintaining co-operation on security, if that proves to be possible. Home affairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said: I dont know what will be the outcome of these negotiations. Lets hope that we are going to have a positive end. But as far as security is concerned, it is very important in order to ensure the security of our citizens and safety for our countries, to keep working together in the future. Reports had suggested that Mr Barnier would present a paper setting out new EU proposals at Wednesdays meeting, but it is thought that this has been delayed until closer to the summit date. The UK Government is also due to publish its own revised proposals for the Irish border, but Downing Street has said only that these will appear in due course. Speaking after Mr Barniers briefing, commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters: He recalled that decisive progress must be made in time for the October European Council next week. Negotiations at technical level will continue this week. Expand Close European Commission spokesman Margartis Schinas updated reporters on Mr Barniers comments (European Commission Audiovisual Services) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp European Commission spokesman Margartis Schinas updated reporters on Mr Barniers comments (European Commission Audiovisual Services) Mr Selmayr provided an update on preparations for Brexit, and reminded commissioners of the importance for all stakeholders to prepare for all outcomes at all levels, said Mr Schinas. His comments came after it emerged that the UK Government is recruiting a team of civil emergency workers earning up to 50,000 to help the country cope with any disruption caused by Brexit. Former Brexit secretary David Davis warned on Tuesday of dire consequences for Conservatives at the next general election if the Government sticks to its negotiating stance on EU withdrawal. In a letter to fellow Tory MPs, he said a deal based on Mrs Mays Chequers plan would deliver none of the benefits of Brexit and reduce the UK to being a rule-taker from Brussels. The Prince of Wales has warned humanity is hell bent on destroying what is left of the planets biodiversity as delegates geared up for a major anti-poaching conference. Charles said the illegal wildlife trade was a multibillion-pound enterprise being run by organised crime which threatened the peace and security and countries. The heir to the throne also praised the wildlife conservation work of his sons the Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex as they helped launch the Illegal Wildlife Trade conference in London. The Duke of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex welcomed visiting Ministers, leading conservationists, business people and activists to London ahead of tomorrow's Conference. #EndWildlifeCrime pic.twitter.com/SgsjEqCEqF The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 10, 2018 Speaking in a pre-recorded video message played to delegates at St Jamess Palace, the heir to the throne said: Learning that more than 50 African elephants are killed for their tusks every day, or that a pangolin is taken from the wild every five minutes, is beyond all belief. He went on to say: The illegal wildlife trade is now very far from being a marginal concern. Its value is estimated at more than 15 billion per year, enriching increasingly sophisticated organised crime groups, facilitated by corruption and not infrequently being associated with human rights violations. It is directed at species which are all too often just maintaining a toe-hold on an existence made fragile by humanitys population growth, the incessant depletion of natural capital and, of course, by the increasingly alarming ravages of climate change. With the current rate of biodiversity loss now running at one thousand times the natural rate, we appear to have managed to initiate the planets sixth great extinction event and still seem utterly hell bent on destroying what little we have left. "We cannot afford for the fight to #EndWildlifeCrime to be a priority solely for conservationists any more. It is an issue for us all." The Duke of Cambridge pic.twitter.com/X9yx58VKmx The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 10, 2018 Penny Mordaunt, International Development Secretary, said the two-day conference could be a game changer. Outlining what was at stake, she added: Entire species are at risk of becoming a footnote in history. Communities abusing their natural resources and their livelihoods, criminal gangs are enriching themselves on the back of misery. Ahead of the conference, banks have signed up to a move by William to disrupt the financial side of the illegal wildlife trade and the Government has announced 3.5 million of UK aid going to help crack down on criminal gangs and flows of dirty money. William will give the keynote speech when conference delegates meet in earnest in London on Thursday. The United for Wildlife Financial Taskforce has now signed the Mansion House Declaration Through this declaration, major financial institutions have committed to sharing resources & intelligence in a bid to disrupt the illegal income generated by poached animal products. pic.twitter.com/lUnSlpU0Tp United for Wildlife (@united4wildlife) October 10, 2018 Harry has also been a long-term animal conservationist, focusing his efforts in trying to support dwindling rhino populations in Africa. Their father paid tribute to their efforts: I can only say here how proud I am of the role my elder son, William, has played as a leader in this area, helping to raise the issue higher up the global agenda, including working with the Chinese government on the introduction of the ivory ban. And for more than a decade, my younger son, Harry, has been engaging communities across Africa in order to try and help build a sustainable future for people and wildlife. The conference the fourth to be staged will see heads of state, minsters and officials from nearly 80 countries, joining forces with NGOs, academics and businesses to try and build on previous efforts to address the underlying issues behind illegal poaching and take steps to tackle the criminal trade. The Royal College of Psychiatrists is reconsidering its opposition to the decriminalising of cannabis (Gareth Fuller/PA) The Royal College of Psychiatrists is to review its opposition to the legalisation of cannabis. The organisation has been wary of moves to decriminalise the drug because of concerns of possible negative effects on users health. There is also an association between psychotic illnesses and high-strength varieties of the drug. But it is now reconsidering its stance due to arguments that legalising cannabis would give the government the power to both regulate its strength and generate tax from its sale. Over the summer, there was also a wave of pressure on the Government to relax the laws on cannabis to permit its use for medical treatment, particularly the use of cannabis oil to treat epilepsy. The college is setting up a panel to review current evidence from countries where the drug is already legal. Dr Adrian James, Royal College of Psychiatrists registrar and panel chairman, told the Daily Telegraph it would start with an open mind and review the available research. He said he remained concerned about the potential risks, but said he recognised the arguments that decriminalisation could prevent users becoming caught up in the criminal justice system. He said: As a forensic psychiatrist, the strongest argument is decriminalising behaviour. He added: Our official view is that we are concerned about the health risks and we are against legalisationon that basis, but there may be arguments that outweigh the psychiatric argument. Expand Close Billy Caldwell, who has a rare form of epilepsy, with his mother Charlotte (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Billy Caldwell, who has a rare form of epilepsy, with his mother Charlotte (Brian Lawless/PA) The college is only reviewing its opposition to decriminalisation at this stage, and may ultimately decide not to change its position. It will also review medical cannabis, which it supports as a therapy for certain conditions if it has been properly reviewed and approved by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence. In June, a six-month supply of cannabis oil was seized from Charlotte Caldwell, whose 12-year-old son Billy has acute epilepsy, as she arrived at Heathrow Airport from Canada. The product was later returned to the family following an outpouring of support from politicians and the public. Several other families came forward with their own stories of how cannabis oil had helped to control their childrens seizures. Conservative MP Crispin Blunt who co-chairs an all-parliamentary group on drug policy reform described the UKs approach as frankly absurd considering opiates are freely supplied for medicinal use. To date, more than 40 countries, including Italy, Finland, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Germany and the US, have voted to decriminalise cannabis in some form often for medical purposes such as pain relief. Cannabis is one of the most commonly used drugs in the UK, with 6.6% of adults or 2.2 million people having taken it. Mary Griffiths was murdered by John McFarlane in May 2009 (Family handout/PA) The daughters of a 38-year-old fitness instructor murdered by a stalker who dragged her out of bed have lost a High Court damages fight with police and health authority bosses. Slaughterman John McFarlane shot Mary Griffiths in the chest with a bolt gun used for killing cattle after breaking into her home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, nine years ago. He was subsequently jailed for a minimum of 20 years. Evidence showed that McFarlane had been stalking and harassing Ms Griffiths and that she had called police the day before she died and said she was really frightened. Expand Close John McFarlane had a history of mental health issues dating back 15 years, a report found (Suffolk Constabulary/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp John McFarlane had a history of mental health issues dating back 15 years, a report found (Suffolk Constabulary/PA) Her three daughters, Jessica, Hannah, and Sophie, say her death was preventable. They sued Suffolk Police and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, arguing that if proper steps had been taken their mother would not have been murdered. A judge on Wednesday dismissed their claims. Mr Justice Ouseley had analysed evidence at a High Court trial in London in November 2017. Police and health authority bosses had disputed the claims against them. Steve Bannon says he is in agreement with Marine Le Pen, who distanced herself from the former White House strategist (AP Photo, File) Steve Bannon has rejected any suggestion his work to boost support for far-right parties in Europe is an attempt to impose some sort of American solution on the continents political landscape. The former White House strategist, who has previously said Boris Johnson could be a great UK prime minister, also dismissed any notion that he was advising the politician, who is seen as having the potential to be a future Conservative Party leader. Mr Bannon spoke at the Bloomberg Invest event in London during a section of the event entitled Populism, Protectionism and Economic Nationalisms Impact on the Markets. I know Boris, I dont think he needs adviceSteve Bannon on Boris Johnson The US right-winger, who worked on Donald Trumps successful 2016 presidential election bid but resigned from the White House last year, gave a brief answer when asked about Mr Johnson, someone he is understood to have had contact with during a previous trip to the UK. He said: I know Boris, I dont think he needs advice. Mr Bannon discussed his plans to set up a foundation called The Movement, which he said will have sophisticated polling and help to target voters. He said: I think what the movement and the association is is leaders, parties and countries that want an EU thats a collection of sovereign nations. Next years European elections will be equivalent in their intensity to an American presidential election, he predicted. It will be what people are talking about in cafes, it will be what people are talking about at dinner parties, he said. He also addressed comments made earlier this week by French far-right politician Marine Le Pen who distanced herself from Mr Bannon when she said only Europeans will save the continent from taking orders from the EU, not Americans. Mr Bannon said he is in agreement with Ms Le Pen. As an American Im not over here to tell anybody how to run their elections, he said. Steve Bannon speaks with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at Bloomberg Invest in London https://t.co/zUJavdLNFi Bloomberg (@business) October 10, 2018 The Movement is going to be a European effort with Europeans, and Europeans have to make the decisions along with the political parties and they also know how to run their own elections. I think the world of Le Pen, I think the world of the Front National and I think shes absolutely correct and we discussed this many, many times. Im not there to kind of impose some sort of American solution on this. In March Bannon spoke at Ms Le Pens then-named National Front now National Rally party congress, which had been aimed at rebranding the far-right groups image. On Wednesday he also brushed off suggestions of any second Brexit vote, saying such an idea is an example of the nullification project. Democracy works until the global elite start to lose an election and all of a sudden the little guy doesnt know what hes voting for, he said. This is the perfect example of the real resistance and the nullification project. Youve got Brexit and Trump, theyre inexplicably linked, and youve had the nullification project from day one, that people didnt really understand what they were going for. The Duke of Cambridge is urging more organisations to get involved in the fight against illegal wildlife trade (Kensington Palace/PA) The Duke of Cambridge has warned the fight against the illegal wildlife trade cannot be left to conservationists alone on the eve of a major anti-poaching summit. William described the problem as the fourth largest criminal trafficking enterprise in the world worth billions, as leading financial institutions pledged to help. Barclays, HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland were among those who signed up to a declaration agreeing to not knowingly facilitate or tolerate the flow of money from trade in poached animal products like elephant tusks or rhino horn. Today global financial organisations have signed the 'Mansion House Declaration' as part of @United4Wildlife's Financial Taskforce, joining together in the fight to #EndWildlifeCrime. pic.twitter.com/rh7GCYDIeq The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 10, 2018 The Mansion House Declaration was unveiled ahead of an international two-day conference on the illegal wildlife trade hosted by the UK Government which begins on Thursday when William will give the keynote speech. Speaking at Mansion House, in the City of London, the Duke told the signatories, who included the International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt, he had seen a huge stockpile of elephant tusks during a recent visit to Tanzania. On a recent visit to Tanzania, The Duke was given a rare opportunity to view a ivory stockpile, including thousands of seized tusks, and see first-hand the scale of the global criminal trade that leads to the killing of thousands of elephants every year #EndWildlifeCrime pic.twitter.com/KjO0eAGoM3 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 10, 2018 He added: We cannot afford for this fight to be a priority solely for conservationists any more. It is an issue for all of us. We need to take these criminals on from every direction. One particularly vital way is to follow the money. Much of this criminal activity takes advantage of everyday banking facilities. And that is why we are all here today. You are all on the front line. "When you visualise how many elephants were attacked for these tusks, it's scary. We must make ivory undesirable, and leave it in an elephant and not in a warehouse." The Duke of Cambridge #EndWildlifeCrime pic.twitter.com/hM9OfV0spn The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 10, 2018 The declaration signing was the centrepiece of the first meeting of the financial taskforce of the dukes conservation umbrella organisation United For Wildlife. The signatories representatives from 30 global banks, financial institutions and other organisations also committed to sharing resources and intelligence to disrupt income generated by the illegal wildlife trade. "By disrupting the income of the illegal wildlife trade we can disrupt a global criminal enterprise that brings great harm to communities around the world. And we will be part of something that protects wildlife for future generations too" The Duke of Cambridge #EndWildlifeCrime pic.twitter.com/WvPKicvpY5 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 10, 2018 The trade is regarded as a global organised crime network estimated to be worth up to 23 billion US dollars (18 billion) a year, according to United for Wildlife. William added: By disrupting the income of the illegal wildlife trade, we can disrupt a global criminal enterprise that brings great harm to communities all around the world. And we will be part of something that protects wildlife for future generations. US President Donald Trump has accepted the resignation of his UN ambassador Nikki Haley. Ms Haley is resigning later this year in the latest shake-up to Mr Trumps turbulent administration. Ms Haley hinted in her resignation letter to Mr Trump that she is seeking a job in the private sector and ruled herself out of running for president in 2020. I have given everything Ive got these last eight years, she said, referring to her six years as South Carolina governor as well as her time at the UN. And I do think its good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it. Heartfelt thanks to Ambassador @NikkiHaley for her extraordinary service as the US Ambassador to the @UN. My full statement below: pic.twitter.com/Lo7lIYd1Ri Vice President Mike Pence Archived (@VP45) October 9, 2018 There has been speculation that Ms Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, will return to government or politics at some point. No, Im not running in 2020 for president, she joked, quickly adding that she would be supporting Mr Trump. Ms Haley has two children to put through university and the potential to make much more money in the business world. The decision to announce the latest shake-up came less than a month before the congressional elections, even as the White House has made a concerted effort to hold off on major changes at the Justice Department and elsewhere before then. Ambassador Haley has served America with dignity + distinction. She is a bold reformer and has been an unwavering champion of truth, principled realism and integrity within the United Nations. Jared and I are grateful for her friendship a true blessing in our lives! pic.twitter.com/sidkwXzPZB Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 9, 2018 Mr Trump was asked why the announcement was made now since Ms Haley is staying until the end of the year. Instead of answering directly, he recounted how she has had to work on tough issues, such as Iran and North Korea. White House officials had sought to put a hold on record-setting administration turnover in the run-up to the November 6 elections, with aides being asked months ago to step down or commit to stay to election day to avoid adding to a sense of turmoil. Mr Trump said Ms Haley first discussed leaving the administration with him six months ago. Expand Close Donald Trump with Nikki Haley in the Oval Office (Evan Vucci/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump with Nikki Haley in the Oval Office (Evan Vucci/AP) More recently, there was an awkward moment at the UN, when Mr Trumps boasting of American economic strength under his leadership drew laughter at a General Assembly session. He insisted later that the delegates were laughing with him, not at him. The six-month timeline also coincides with a high-profile spat between Ms Haley and the White House in April, when she drew the presidents ire for previewing in a television appearance the administrations planned imposition of a new round of sanctions on Russia. When the sanctions never materialised, White House officials said the plans had changed without Ms Haley being briefed, and top economic adviser Larry Kudlow suggested Ms Haley was confused. I dont get confused, Ms Haley said in a sharply-worded rejoinder to the West Wing. A child stands next to a portrait of Viktoria Marinova during a vigil at the Liberty Monument in Ruse (Vadim Ghirda/AP) A man has been arrested in Germany over the rape and killing of a Bulgarian journalist whose work highlighted corruption in the East European country. Bulgarias prosecutor general Sotir Tsatsarov confirmed the arrest of Severin Krassimirov, a 21-year-old Bulgarian citizen. Prosecutors in the state of Lower Saxony said the suspect was arrested on Tuesday evening outside the city of Hamburg on a European arrest warrant. Prosecutors will examine whether he can be extradited and apply to have him put in formal custody. Expand Close A vigil is held for the murdered TV reporter (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A vigil is held for the murdered TV reporter (AP) Bulgarian interior minister Mladen Marinov said investigators had found DNA evidence on the clothes and body of Viktoria Marinova, who was raped and strangled on Saturday in the northern town of Ruse. Bulgarian media reported that Krassimirovs mother lives in Germany. The interior ministry said he left Bulgaria early on Saturday afternoon, crossing the bridge at Ruse over the Danube into Romania. There is physical evidence to link to the murder, Mr Marinov said. Krassimirov, a resident of Ruse, had a criminal record for scrap metal theft. The minister said investigators had spoken to Ms Marinovas family and friends and there is no apparent link to her work. Mr Tsatsarov said the evidence suggested it was a spontaneous attack, not premeditated. Expand Close A dog sits outside the house of Severin Krassimirov, the suspect in the killing of Viktoria Marinova (Filip Dvorski/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A dog sits outside the house of Severin Krassimirov, the suspect in the killing of Viktoria Marinova (Filip Dvorski/AP) However, he added that investigators were examining all possible lines of investigation. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov offered condolences to her family and thanked investigators for their work. However, he said he would withdraw his support for German MEP Manfred Weber, a leading candidate for the next head of the European Commission, because of tweets he made associating the death of Ms Marinova with those of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak. Both were killed due to their probes into corrupt officials. On Wednesday, Mr Weber tweeted: Bulgarian authorities have acted swiftly and effectively. We have full confidence in the Bulgarian authorities to find justice for the family and loved ones. Expand Close A photo of Viktoria Marinova, the journalist who was raped and strangled on Saturday, is placed on the Liberty Monument in Ruse (Filip Dvorski/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A photo of Viktoria Marinova, the journalist who was raped and strangled on Saturday, is placed on the Liberty Monument in Ruse (Filip Dvorski/AP) Ms Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving European Union funds. While she did not appear to have been closely involved in the fraud investigation, her show touched on a sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. The Balkan nation, which joined the EU in 2007, was ranked 71st on Transparency Internationals corruption list last year. Joining the bloc opened an enormous source of possible new funding for Bulgarian infrastructure projects or other programmes designed to bring the nation up to EU standards. Loyga village has been named by investigative group Bellingcat as the home village of Alexander Mishkin (Courtesy of The Insider via AP) The second suspect in the Salisbury nerve agent attack is a celebrated local hero in his home village. Several residents in the remote village of Loyga easily recognised Alexander Mishkin in photos as one of two men accused by UK officials of poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia in Salisbury in March. But to them he is just a warm-hearted local boy, a Hero of Russia who has made a successful career as a military doctor thanks to his hard work and courage. Yuri Poroshin, an amateur painter who lives in Loyga, said: He studied at school here. His picture even hangs on the wall there because hes a Hero of Russia. Expand Close Alexander Petrov has been identified by British authorities as Alexander Mishkin (Metropolitan Police via AP, File) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Alexander Petrov has been identified by British authorities as Alexander Mishkin (Metropolitan Police via AP, File) Mr Poroshin said he heard that Mishkin received Russias highest medal for saving the life of his commanding officer during fighting with Islamist rebels in Chechnya. British police say two agents of Russias GRU military intelligence agency, travelling under the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, used the Soviet-made nerve agent Novichok to poison Mr Skripal. This week, the investigative group Bellingcat identified Petrov as Dr Alexander Mishkin, a GRU agent who had received Russias highest award. Previously the group had uncovered the real identity of Boshirov, determining that he is GRU Colonel Anatoly Chepiga. Bellingcat, which based its probe on passport information, residents databases, car registration documents and phone records, determined that the 39-year-old Mishkin grew up in Loyga before moving to St Petersburg, where he studied medicine at the elite Kirov Military Medical Academy. Some Loyga residents corroborated that account, confirming that Mishkin was trained as a military doctor. They said he continued to visit Loyga, where his 90-year-old grandmother, a respected local general practitioner, still lives. Mr Poroshins wife, Valentina Poroshina, fondly remembers Mishkin, whom she last spoke to on a train four years ago. He was a good boy, she said. He was very polite. Mr Poroshin also immediately recognised Mishkin when shown the photos released by British police. Yes, thats him. He looks like his dad and grandmother, he said. The Poroshins granddaughter, Yulia, said that Mishkin was lauded as a role model at her school. We even have a portfolio on him, she said. An activist holds a poster with a photo of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (AP) A Turkish newspaper has published the names and photographs of 15 Saudi nationals who allegedly arrived in Istanbul on two private jets the day journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing. Turkish officials believe the Saudi writer and government critic was killed inside his countrys consulate in Istanbul after he visited the mission to obtain a document required to marry his Turkish fiancee. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations. Expand Close A security guard at the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A security guard at the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul (AP) The Sabah newspaper, which is close to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, revealed the identities of what it called a mysterious 15-member assassination squad who were allegedly involved in Mr Khashoggis disappearance. The paper printed pictures of 15 Saudi nationals that appeared to have been taken by security cameras during police control at an airport. Sabah revealed the times the Saudi nationals arrived and left Istanbul. They checked into two hotels in Istanbul, the paper said. Other images revealed a black van later travelling from the Saudi consulate to the consuls home. The release of the photographs and video raises pressure on Saudi Arabia a week after Mr Khashoggi disappeared during a visit to the consulate. Turkish officials fear that the team killed the writer, who was critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Expand Close A CCTV image shows Mr Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A CCTV image shows Mr Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday (AP) The kingdom has called the allegations baseless, but has not provided any evidence that Mr Khashoggi left the consulate. News channel 24 aired the video, suggesting that Mr Khashoggi was inside of the black Mercedes Vito, which resembled one parked outside of the consulate when the writer walked in on October 2. The channel said the van then drove some 1.2 miles to the consuls home, where it parked inside a garage. Mr Khashoggi had written a series of columns for the Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Arabias assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has led a widely publicised drive to reform the Sunni monarchy but has also presided over the arrests of activists and businessmen. Expand Close Reporters opposite the consulate (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Reporters opposite the consulate (AP) On Wednesday, the Post published a column by Mr Khashoggis fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. She acknowledged the writer first visited the consulate on September 28 despite being somewhat concerned that he could be in danger. He later returned on October 2 after being promised paperwork which was required in order for the couple to be married. A surveillance video image showed Mr Khashoggi walking into the consulate in Istanbuls upscale 4th Levent area. No evidence of him leaving the consulate has been made public, but Turkish officials also have yet to provide evidence he was kidnapped or killed. Expand Close Members of the Turkish-Arab journalist association hold posters with photos of the missing Saudi writer (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Members of the Turkish-Arab journalist association hold posters with photos of the missing Saudi writer (AP) Ms Cengiz wrote: At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance. I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate. She added: Although this incident could potentially fuel a political crisis between the two nations, let us not lose sight of the human aspect of what happened. Mr Khashoggi had sought to become a US citizen after living in self-imposed exile since last year, fearing repercussions for his criticism of the prince, Ms Cengiz wrote. Expand Close The Sabah newspaper (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Sabah newspaper (AP) US president Donald Trump, who took his first overseas trip as US president to the kingdom and whose son-in-law Jared Kushner has close ties to Prince Mohammed, said he had not yet talked to the Saudis about Mr Khashoggi, but I will be at some point. Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were open to cooperation and would allow the consulate building to be searched. It is unclear when such a search would take place. Embassies and consulates under the Vienna Convention are technically foreign soil and must be protected by host nations. Saudi Arabia may have agreed to the search in order to reassure its Western allies and the international community. A scrum of reporters, Press releases, meetings, statements, Press conferences and off-the-record briefings. Foster versus Barnier. The showdown. Involving a party with one MEP. This is how you 'de-dramatise' the border, apparently. All the grandstanding told us nothing new. The only single market of interest to the DUP is the UK version. The only single market the EU recognises is its own. It was agreed last December that no new regulatory barriers can develop between Northern Ireland and the UK unless the Executive and Assembly - they're the ones who last met 637 days ago, if your memory is that good - agree. Except that it wasn't really agreed, in that the EU still want some form of special status, although 'alignment' has replaced 'status' in a softening of language, the latter term anathema to the DUP. The most obvious blurring is over what might constitute new regulatory barriers between Britain and Northern Ireland. There are already some trading checks, on livestock for example, in the same way that even a common travel area involves checks. Try boarding a Liverpool-Belfast plane without agreeing to an identity check and see how far you'll get. So the EU and the DUP will have to agree a form of words that rules out 'new' regulatory barriers, but could extend existing ones - still an awkward task. Amid much ambiguity and verbiage, what might yet tentatively emerge is indecipherable fudge and the short-stay parking we saw last December transferred into the long-term bay. The most ambitious compromise would be a continuing common trade area in the short term - although that term most certainly cannot not be used - between the UK and Ireland, the trade equivalent of the people-based, long-standing common travel area. It gives Dublin what it wanted - no hard border and unfettered cross-border trade - and the EU has consistently told us the interests of the Irish Government are paramount. It gets the UK Government off the hook for now regarding the border. The DUP's primary concern is addressed: departure from the EU on the same terms as the rest of the UK. It is special status, but for all of the UK and Ireland. The UK staying close to the EU customs union isn't a big problem for the DUP (UK Brexit fine, Great Britain Brexit not fine), but it is for Rees-Mogg, Johnson et al. And there are more Conservative hardline Brexiteers than there are DUP MPs. So the Prime Minister needs to be confident that a Labour-plus-all -other-parties-plus-hardline-Brexiteer alliance would not defeat the remaining Conservative MPs plus the DUP 10 on a compromise plan. But the chances of this happening remain small. It maintains the EU single market, but also creates a bespoke UK-Irish market, one which, if goods were passed on to other EU countries, could indeed undermine the integrity of the EU single market. Yet, the initial December fudge stated that the UK should resolve the border via its own, broad-based EU trading relationship. If this was not possible, there should be specific solutions for Ireland. If both these options fail, there would be regulatory alignment. No one wants divergence between Britain and Northern Ireland or the UK and Ireland's key sectors, such as agriculture, anyway, so this makes sense. The former First Minister knows that Northern Ireland's agri-food sector is "uniquely vulnerable both to the loss of EU funding, and to potential tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade". It was her that told the Prime Minister in the fabled Foster-McGuinness letter of 2016, the last gasp of Executive cooperation - even if DUP chief executive, Timothy Johnston rather spoilt things by telling us it took 10 days just to produce that letter stating the obvious. There is much at stake for the DUP and Arlene Foster. Being sold out by the Prime Minister would be a humiliating end to what Nigel Dodds described as a "five-year deal". But fudges and compromises may be more likely. The DUP may finally get to like constructive ambiguity. Jon Tonge is Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool Leaders of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party leave Dhakas High Court after filing anticipatory bail in a criminal case brought against them for allegedly engaging in provocative speech and sabotage, Oct. 4, 2018. Updated at 6:03 p.m. ET on 2018-10-09 Lawyers for Bangladeshs main opposition party allege that hundreds of thousands of its members have been named in police reports lodged in recent weeks in a bid to prevent them from participating in political activities ahead of upcoming national elections. Thousands of people have been jailed as a result, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, joint secretary of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), told BenarNews on Tuesday. A petition demanding an investigation of the matter had its first hearing in Bangladeshs High Court on Monday and Tuesday, but the two judges could not agree on the case, so it will now be assigned to a different bench, according to Bangladesh Attorney General Mahbubey Alam. Between the 1st and 20th of September, police filed 4,000 cases against BNP leaders and workers all over the country. More than 300,000 people were accused or listed, BNP lawyer Sanaullah Miah told BenarNews. The intention is essentially to stop opposition leaders and workers from participating in election activities. Thats why we have submitted a writ petition asking to investigate the merit of those cases, said Khandaker Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, a BNP lawyer who joined in filing the petition on Sept. 22. In comments on Monday, Law Minister Anisul Huq appeared to acknowledge that key BNP members had been named in multiple police cases. Investigations will be conducted to find out whether any of the cases recently filed against the BNP leaders and activists are false or fictitious. If anybody is not involved in offenses, theyll be cleared of the cases through final reports submitted to the courts, he said. Earlier, Assistant Police Inspector-General Sohel Rana denied that the cases were baseless or politically-motivated. Police always file cases on the basis of specific allegations, he said on Oct. 2. If we made any mistake in filing cases, then the court will decide about those. The officials did not specify how long this legal process would take. The date of the election has not been formally announced but is expected in late December or by Jan. 28, 2019 at the latest. BNP and its 20-party alliance opted not to participate in the last general election, in 2014, saying it would not be free and fair. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been in power since 2009, which together with her earlier 5-year stint (1996-2001) makes her the longest-serving leader of the South Asian country. BNP has not declared its intentions this year. Its figurehead, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, 73, is ailing and imprisoned on corruption charges. Her son, Tareq Rahman, is in exile and on trial in absentia for a 2004 grenade attack on a ruling party rally that killed 24 people. The BNP has been considering linking up with a new alliance led by former law minister Kamal Hossain, 81, and former president Badruddoza Chowdhury, 86. Either of those senior figures could serve as prime-minister in waiting, but as a condition of joining, the BNP would have to part ways with its longtime partner, faith-based Jamaat-e-Islami. The Awami League government has been using police reports to suppress the opposition for a decade, BNP leaders claim. Addressing a press conference at his partys headquarters on Oct. 7, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakrul Islam Alamgir claimed that around 90,340 cases had been filed against more than 2.5 million party members since 2009. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that hundreds of thousands of police reports had been lodged against BNP activists in recent weeks. Rescuers search for victims at the ruins of an earthquake-damaged building in Palu, in Indonesias Central Sulawesi province, Oct. 9, 2018. Updated at 6:17 p.m. ET on 2018-10-09 The death toll from an earthquake and tsunami that devastated Indonesias Sulawesi island has surpassed 2,000, authorities said Tuesday, as rescuers kept searching for thousands of other victims feared buried in mud. At least 671 were listed as missing, but many more people have been buried when houses in three villages Balaroa, Petobo and Jono Oge were swallowed in mud and rubble caused by the quake on Sept. 28, the National Disaster Management Agency said. According to the chiefs of Balaroa and Petobo villages, there are about 5,000 people who have not been found. But this still needs verification, agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. At least 2,000 houses in the villages were sucked under by torrents of mud when the magnitude 7.4 quake generated a process called liquefaction, where water-logged soil is turned into quicksand, officials said. Local TV news footage on Tuesday showed volunteers using hydraulic jackhammers to break up concrete while others clawed through debris in search of bodies in a former residential area. But recovering the remains of missing residents whose bodies were in an advanced state of decomposition could lead to outbreaks of infectious disease, officials warned. Sutopo said a meeting with local government officials resulted in an agreement that the three villages would be off-limits to settlement and be converted into memorial parks where monuments to remember the dead would be built. Sutopo said rescuers would mark the end of efforts to retrieve bodies in the three villages by holding prayers on Thursday, as he explained that the terrain composed of rubble and twisted metal made it difficult to carry on with recovery operations. Whether this will be extended will depend on the local capability and capacity to care for the displaced and other people affected, agency chief Willem Rampangilei told reporters, referring to the plan to end search operations on Thursday. An estimated 5,000 houses will need to be built for the surviving residents of the three villages, Sutopo said. The economic cost of the disaster was estimated at 10 trillion rupiah (U.S. $657 million), officials said. Foreign rescue groups told to leave Palu Adding to the confusion on Tuesday, the disaster agency released a circular ordering foreign aid groups to pull their workers from the quake zone. Foreign citizens who are working with foreign NGOs are not allowed to conduct any activity on the sites affected by disasters, according to the circular, which was posted on Twitter by Sutopo. Foreign NGOs who have deployed their foreign personnel are advised to retrieve their personnel immediately. It also said that foreign groups wishing to provide aid could do so through the Indonesian Red Cross. Its not immediately clear how many foreign workers would be affected by the order, which analysts see as an effort to protect the governments image as it manages the disaster. The Foreign Ministry defended the restrictions, saying they were intended to ensure assistance was given based on real needs in the affected areas. If not, we will be in a situation where the presence of foreign aid workers, who have good intentions, may hamper the rescue and recovery work carried out by the national team, ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said. Indonesia has accepted aid from 18 countries, despite the governments previous reluctance to welcome foreign assistance, partly because of fears it would be seen as incapable of handling disasters. A South African aid group, the Gift of the Givers, arrived with 27 rescue and medical specialists but they spent the past three days in a hotel compound in Palu after being told not to leave the premises, Sky News television reported. It is very difficult to tell international teams arriving here, when you have already encountered massive costs, massive cargo and then say to international teams that they will be recalled, team leader Ahmed Bham said. It doesnt make sense at all. If you need boxes moved or aid carried, just let us know. We will distribute it, he said. We have good medicines with us, we have the stuff they need here. Hours after the circular came out, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert announced that Washington would be providing $3.7 million in assistance to deliver essential relief items, including blankets and solar-powered lamps, to the devastated areas. "USAID is also airlifting heavy-duty plastic sheeting to Indonesia to provide for emergency shelter needs of up to 110,500 people," she said in a statement, referring to the U.S. Agency for International Development. The U.S. agency has also deployed a team of disaster experts to coordinate humanitarian efforts, Nauert said, adding that the Department of Defense had also provided three C-130 transport planes that helped deliver up to 63 metric tons of disaster-relief supplies into the affected areas. "We have no reports of U.S. citizens who have been injured or killed by the earthquake or the tsunami," she said. Earthquake survivors carry relief goods delivered by an Indonesian Army helicopter in Poroo, Central Sulawesi, Oct. 7, 2018. [AP] Foreigners continue search Despite the restrictions, some foreigners were involved in the search effort in Palu and the neighboring Sigi regency on Tuesday, local search workers said. Our goal is the same regardless of nationality: to find victims and help people, an Indonesian rescue worker who gave his name as Ival told BenarNews. Mohamad Reza, a resident of Balaroa village, which was obliterated by the earthquake, said foreign aid workers were very much welcome. We support the presence of foreign rescuers, because they are helping our local volunteers. Look, how many bodies they have helped recover, he said. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that an immunization drive would be conducted in eight regencies in Central Sulawesi, including Palu and Donggala, with camps for the displaced being a priority. It said 15 hospitals and 50 primary health care centers in the quake-hit region had started operating. The most common diseases are diarrhea, fever, influenza-like illnesses and trauma injuries, the WHO said. The risk of increased transmission of vector-borne diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya and malaria is anticipated as above-average rainfall is expected in affected areas in the coming weeks, it said. New quake rocks Palu As health workers struggled to prevent the spread of diarrhea among the 74,000 people displaced by the disasters, a new earthquake with a magnitude 5.2 rocked Palu, the city that bore the brunt of last months temblor, officials said. Seismologists said Tuesdays quake struck at a depth of 10 km (six miles) with the epicenter 5 km (3 miles) northeast of Sulawesi, one of Indonesias five main islands. The quake was felt strongly for five seconds, Nugroho told reporters. In the village of Silae, several homes damaged by the earlier earthquakes collapsed, but no one was hurt, witnesses told BenarNews. We were so afraid we ran out of the house, said Raden Jaka, a resident of Silae. Anwar Saing, 45, who sought refuge in a camp near the Darussalam Grand Mosque in western Palu, told BenarNews that his house was not badly damaged by the earthquake. Fortunately for us only the kitchen is damaged, he said. Weve stayed here for too long. Its time to go home. Indah Yanti, a resident of Donggala Kodi, was not so lucky. She will have to stay in a tent. Go home where? My house was destroyed, she said. Indonesia, located in the tectonically active Ring of Fire an area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean frequently suffered earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. On Dec. 26, 2004, about 130,000 people died in the nations westernmost province of Aceh when a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the west coast of Sumatra, spawning a series of devastating tsunamis. Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this story. - Teases off-road model. - Likely to be Multistrada 1260 Enduro. - To be unveiled on 12 October. Italian manufacture, Ducati has released a photo on social media teasing a new model that will be globally unveiled on 12 October. The photo depicts the Ducati logo on what seems to be the nose fairing of the Multistrada 1260 with muddied water on it, suggesting it to be an off-road model. Ducati had unveiled the Multistrada 1260 range at the 2017 EICMA, albeit without an Enduro variant. We can expect this new model to be the Multistrada 1260 Enduro. The bike will continue with the design elements of the standard Multistrada 1260, although with a few cosmetic and mechanical changes to make it off-road capable. The 1260 Enduro is likely to ride on spoke wheels with dual-sport tyres and get a larger 19-inch wheel in front. It could also sport knuckle guards and an engine sump guard and longer travel Ducati Sky Hook suspension to further boost its off-road capabilities. We also expect the bike to get a bigger fuel tank capacity as compared to the standard bike. The Multistrada 1260 Enduro is most likely to borrow the electronics package from the 1260S which includes the cornering light function, cornering ABS, traction control, wheelie control, vehicle hold control, ride and power modes. It will be powered by the 1262cc, V-twin engine that puts out 156bhp and 129Nm of torque. We can expect Ducati to launch the bike in India early next year. It will compete against the BMW R1200 GS Adventure and the Triumph Tiger 1200 here. 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 For Immediate Release, October 10, 2018 Contact: Laiken Jordahl, (928) 525-4433, ljordahl@biologicaldiversity.org Trump Administration Waives Environmental Laws to Build Texas Border Wall in Protected Nature Areas Bulldozers Aimed at Wildlife Refuge, State Park, Historic Chapel, Family Farms RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas The Trump administration announced today that it will waive dozens of environmental laws to speed border-wall construction through protected Rio Grande Valley property, including a national wildlife refuge and famed butterfly center. Border walls in Hidalgo County, Texas, would cut through the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, National Butterfly Center, Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, and the grounds of the historic La Lomita Chapel, as well as hundreds of family farms and other private property. The Trump administration is ignoring thousands of people in Hidalgo County who dont want these disastrous border walls, said Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. The Rio Grande Valley is one of the most spectacular and biologically important landscapes in the country. Every acre is irreplaceable. Well do everything in our power to stop this destruction. The waiver, to take effect Thursday, is intended to speed about 18 miles of border-wall construction by sweeping aside 28 bedrock environmental and public-health laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands and endangered wildlife. This is the fifth time the Trump administration has used the REAL ID waiver. The Center is considering whether to challenge the waiver in court. The waiver is being issued during a comment period for border-wall construction in Hidalgo County, where so far more than 8,500 people say they oppose the plan. U.S. Customs and Border Protection opened the comment period in September after the Center and 42 groups requested public input. Comments remain open until Nov. 6. Its appalling that the Trump administration is willing to seize family farms by eminent domain and bulldoze beautiful nature reserves that support the local economy, Jordahl said. Trump is ripping the Rio Grande Valley in two for political sport. His despicable disregard for the law and the borderlands must be stopped. A 2017 study by the Center identified more than 90 endangered or threatened species that would be threatened by wall construction along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Endangered and threatened species in the area include the ocelot, jaguarundi and aplomado falcon, as well as a host of migratory birds. The Center is suing the Trump administration over its use of the long-expired waiver for border-wall construction at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry in New Mexico. The Center is also appealing a federal court ruling in its lawsuit to stop the border wall replacement project near San Diego. Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity. The proposal seeks to waive these laws: The National Environmental Policy Act The Endangered Species Act The Clean Water Act The National Historic Preservation Act The Migratory Bird Treaty Act The Migratory Bird Conservation Act The Clean Air Act The Archeological Resources Protection Act The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act The Federal Cave Resources Protection Act The Safe Drinking Water Act The Noise Control Act The Solid Waste Disposal Act The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act The Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act The Antiquities Act The Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act The Farmland Protection Policy Act The Coastal Zone Management Act The Federal Land Policy and Management Act The National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act The National Fish and Wildlife Act The Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act The Administrative Procedure Act The River and Harbors Act The Eagle Protection Act The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act The American Indian Religious Freedom Act Developed independently by Exosystems, ExoRehab is a next-generation muscular rehabilitation solution that combines medical treatment with information and communications technology. The healthcare robotics company Exosystems will soon be conducting a trial run of its ICT muscular rehabilitation solution ExoRehab at hospitals in Vietnam. Exosystems, a member company of the K-ICT Born2Global Centre, has signed a partnership contract with Medipeace Vietnam, which is already involved in local rehabilitative care projects, and plans to introduce ExoRehab in Vietnamese hospitals by December 2018. Medipeace is an NGO that conducts medical support projects around the world. Developed independently by Exosystems, ExoRehab is a next-generation muscular rehabilitation solution that combines medical treatment with information and communications technology. Used in conjunction with neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), the treatment method currently in use, it has patients play rehabilitative games developed by medical professionals and provides a systematic rehabilitative care program. ExoRehab effectively accelerates patients' rehabilitation rates and assists medical personnel in the provision of effective patient care and management. Through its partnership with Medipeace Vietnam, Exosystems will be entering both the Korean and international rehabilitation markets. The conformance test for ExoRehab was completed at Wonju Severance Christian Hospital in November 2017, and clinical testing with Seoul National University Bundang Hospital is currently underway. The product is scheduled to be released in the North American market in the second half of 2019. Exosystems founder and CEO Hooman Lee said, "Exosystems completed the development and certification procedures for our ExoRehab device within just a year and a half after the company's founding in January 2017, and is working quickly to supply the product to our clients. We hope that the trial run of ExoRehab in Vietnam will promote the provision of advanced technology in the field of rehabilitative care, which is a major aspect of the problem of population aging that many countries around the world are now facing." Exosystems was founded by researchers specialized in intelligent robotic systems who were formerly affiliated with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. In May 2017, the company received an investment of KRW 300 million from Kakao Ventures, a renowned Korean venture capital firm. At the function, J P Nadda released the Position Paper and launched the Information Sharing Platform Gateway for South-East Asia Regulatory Network (SEARN). India is deeply committed nationally and globally to achieving all public health goals. Together we are working towards providing highest possible standards of health care for our citizens. Universal health coverage is key to the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 agenda and to which India is firmly committed. This was stated by J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare during his address at the inauguration of 2nd World Conference on Access to Medical Products: Achieving the SDGs 2030, at New Delhi recently. At the function, J P Nadda released the Position Paper and launched the Information Sharing Platform Gateway for South-East Asia Regulatory Network (SEARN) developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, which will promote regulatory and health collaboration among the countries of the South-East Asia Region. Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, Minister of State (HFW), Anupriya Patel, Minister of State (HFW), Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health), Balram Bhargava, Secretary, Dept. of Health & Research (DHR) and DG, ICMR, Dr Mariangela Batista GalvaoSimao, Assistant Director-General for Drug Access, Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals, WHO Geneva, Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO SEARO, Dr RK Vats, Additional Secretary, Health Ministry, and Dr.HenkBekedam, WHO Representative to India, also graced the occasion. State Health Ministers and Principal Secretaries from several states in India were also present. Speaking at the function, Nadda said that the National Health Policy 2017 is dedicated to the highest possible standards of health for the country. The Government has launched Ayushman Bharat, a National Health Protection Scheme, which envisions health assurance of 5 lakh rupees ($6815) per family per year, will benefit over 50 crore (i.e. 500 million) people, and is the world's biggest health assurance scheme. He further added that since its launch on 23rd September, 2018, more than 50,000 people have availed of services under the scheme. The Union Health Minister stated that access to medical products and creating an enabling legal and trade environment for public health are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Agenda. These issues require continuous engagement and dialogue. I believe that the Health Ministry with active partnership of other ministries in Government of India will move forward in leaps and bounds, he said. The Union Health Minister further added that India is actively contributing and providing support for the South-East Asia Regulatory Network (SEARN) to guarantee access to high-quality medical products. LANXESS has always selected CSR projects through a bottom-up approach, wherein the needs of the communities are identified after discussions with the local authorities and other stakeholders. LANXESS India Private Limited, the leading specialty chemicals company has been acknowledged for its diligent adherence towards sustainable practices and concerted efforts in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and has been conferred with the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) Award for Outstanding Contribution towards best Sustainable Business Practices by a Large Enterprise for the year 2018 and the Indian Chemical Council (ICC) Award 2017 Certificate of Merit for Social Responsibility. Both the awards were presented to LANXESS at different events held in Mumbai towards the end of September after a detailed study by eminent juries constituted by the organizing committees of both the organizations. Namitesh Roy Choudhary, Vice President, PTSE, LANXESS India, received the IGCC Award for Sustainable practices on behalf of LANXESS at the Taj Hotel, Mumbai on 20th September. The award came on the back of the organizations specific processes and systems to ensure that it follows social and environmental policies in the supply chain and conforms to all standards. Having invested a sizeable amount in India over the years in greenfield investments, acquisitions and in upgradation of assets, LANXESS has been a founder member of Together for Sustainability (TfS) initiative, which is a joint initiative of chemical companies that focuses on the promotion of sustainability practices in the chemical industry's supply chain around a single standard of auditing and assessment. LANXESS sites focus on optimal use of natural resources ensuring minimum impact on the environment. At its Jhagadia site, LANXESS has spent 20 percent of total building cost on sustainability projects like Effluent treatment plant, Sewage treatment plant, Multi-fuel boiler, Off-gas Incinerator and creating a Green zone. Similarly, the Nagda site has Co-generation plant, Waste water treatment, Sewage treatment plant, Waste water post treatment plant and Off-gas Incinerator. Further, to significantly reduce Carbon foot-print, 96% of Jhagadias and 60% of Nagdas export consignments have been shifted from road to railways. The ICC Award 2017 Certificate of Merit for Social Responsibility was presented to LANXESS India on the 27th September in Mumbai and was received by Mr. Neelanjan Banerjee, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, LANXESS India and Mr. Sunder Rajan, Head CSR, LANXESS India. The organization initiated and completed twelve unique CSR projects across locations in the country in 2017. This included projects like Teach for India, empowering municipal school with digital classrooms, infrastructure development of municipal schools, sanitation & hygiene camps for working women from slums in Thane, upgrading healthcare facilities in Nagda Municipal Hospital by way of installing a sonography machine, maintenance of overhead water tank in Nagda supplying water to the local population and installing solar street lamps among others. LANXESS has always selected CSR projects through a bottom-up approach, wherein the needs of the communities are identified after discussions with the local authorities and other stakeholders. The corporate philosophy of the organization in the context of its Social Responsibility initiatives has firmly been To give back to society a part of its success. On the receipt of the two awards Mr. Banerjee said, LANXESS is a good example of creating a long-term vision to develop our business while keeping our commitment to sustainable practices and giving back to society a part of our success. Our AI methodology could have significant implications as a 'doctor's assistant' that would help stream people onto the right pathway for treatment" Researchers from the University of Toronto have designed an algorithm that learns signatures from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), genetics, and clinical data. The research titled Modeling and Prediction of Clinical Symptom Trajectories in Alzheimers Disease Using Longitudinal Data uses artificial intelligence algorithm which can accurately predict whether a persons cognitive decline will lead to Alzheimers disease in the next five years or not. The research by Indian-origin scientists Nikhil Bhagwat, M Mallar Chakravarty, and Joseph D Viviano and Aristotle N Voineskos, talks about their AI methodology could work symbiotically as a doctors assistant. "At the moment, there are limited ways to treat Alzheimer's and the best evidence we have is for prevention. Our AI methodology could have significant implications as a 'doctor's assistant' that would help stream people onto the right pathway for treatment," said Mallar Chakravarty, an assistant professor in McGill University in Canada. For example, one could even initiate lifestyle changes that may delay the beginning stages of Alzheimer's or even prevent it altogether," said Chakravarty. The researchers trained their algorithms using data from more than 800 people ranging from normal healthy seniors to those experiencing mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimers disease patients. In addition to its IPO, Medincell received a 20M loan from the European Investment Bank in March this year. With the funding, the company plans to develop and expand its portfolio. Euronext welcomed MedinCell, a Pharma tech company that develops injectable drug delivery solutions, to listing in compartment C of Euronext Paris. MedinCell is hoping to improve patient compliance with medication regimes by injecting them with a drug-infused gel. Patient compliance with taking medication can be as low as 30% and non-compliance is costly for healthcare systems. The French companys tech, called BEPO, consists of a gel with which it can mix drugs already on the market. Once injected into patients, the drug-infused gel degrades and releases the drug automatically for up to a year. According to the company, you can fine tune how quickly the drug is released just by altering the gels ingredients. MedinCells lead project is being tested in a US Phase III trial for the treatment of schizophrenia. In partnership with Teva, the biotech combined its BEPO tech to allow the slow release of the antipsychotic risperidone. The biotech is also running a Phase II trial in the US for treating postoperative pain and inflammation. For this trial, it partnered up with the orthopedic surgery company AIC to test BEPO with the anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib. In addition to its IPO, Medincell received a 20M loan from the European Investment Bank in March this year. With the funding, the company plans to develop and expand its portfolio. Other companies in Europe are also injecting cash into slow-release technology. Danish biotech Ascendis hopes to achieve the slow release of hormones such as growth hormone by injecting them with protective carrier molecules. Ascendis aims to reduce the frequency that patients need growth hormone injections and is testing this lead application in a Phase III trial. This initiative is intended to deliver to the people of the state world-class NHS (National Health Service) standard healthcare that is available, affordable and accountable. One of the largest healthcare infrastructure projects in the world, Indo UK Institute of Health (IUIH), has signed up a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Uttarakhand for setting up an integrated IUIH Medicity in the state. This initiative is intended to deliver to the people of the state world-class NHS (National Health Service) standard healthcare that is available, affordable and accountable. IUIH shall enable Uttarakhand to emerge as a global hub for medical tourism, medical equipment and device manufacturing, pharmaceutical production; and cutting-edge medical research. According to Dr. Ajay Rajan Gupta, Managing Director and Group CEO, IUIH, the Medicity to come up in Uttarakhand will be developed with an investment outlay of Rs. 1600 crores. It will have a 1000 bed hospital in association with one of UK's leading NHS hospital. PR Newswire NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 In the news release, RDG Global Relaunches its Contemporary Division, issued 10-Oct-2018 by RDG Global over PR Newswire, we are advised by the company that a quote from CEO Richard Gossett was inadvertently omitted from the release and should have been included as the fourth paragraph. The complete, corrected release follows: NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a year of growth, international apparel design and marketing company RDG Global is now preparing to re-launch its contemporary division. The global fashion manufacturer already has a major footprint in the girls, junior, active and women's market, designing and creating product for retailers across the U.S. Now, RDG Global and their European/Asian partner Indochine International Ltd. are getting ready to re-engage the contemporary market, and they have started by building a new team focused on speed and design. The company is excited to introduce a Creative Director and Senior VP to lead the division. With 20 years of experience the Creative Director will orchestrate the curation of street and runway trends to develop elevated product for both private label and a branded business using higher quality fabrics and incorporating sustainable elements. RDG is enthusiastic about working in this market with a new audience, and about the potential to partner with influencers, talent, and retailers. "In conjunction with the relaunch of our Contemporary business, we are proud to announce the further collaboration with corporate social responsibility experts, Arche Advisers," says CEO Richard Gossett. "This will ensure responsible supply chain management throughout the process and our entire worldwide manufacturing matrix." Arche Advisers is a renowned worldwide organization that brings expertise in social, labor, human rights, traceability, and sustainability, among other pressing issues in today's global manufacturing world. The partnership will assure complete adherence to specific country of origin rules and regulations, rapid reaction to all customer requirements, and include periodic inspections at all factories to ensure continued compliance worldwide. It will also ensure complete visibility while maintaining the company's code of conduct, one that was developed specifically for RDG and its employees and will be prominently displayed in every factory. As its contemporary business expands and evolves, so does RDG Global as a whole. From a female-led development team to a socially responsible production process, the company is dedicating itself to creating product it can stand behind, from start to finish. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rdg-global-relaunches-its-contemporary-division-300728723.html SOURCE RDG Global PR Newswire PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 10, 2018 PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Livent Corporation (NYSE: LTHM), a leading, global, fully integrated lithium company, today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 20,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $17.00 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on October 11, 2018 under the symbol "LTHM." The offering is expected to close on October 15, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions. In addition, Livent has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 3,000,000 additional shares of common stock at the initial public offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions. BofA Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC are acting as the joint lead bookrunners for the offering. Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Loop Capital Markets LLC and Nomura Securities International, Inc. are acting as co-managers. The offering of these securities is being made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained, when available, from: BofA Merrill Lynch, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, Third Floor, Charlotte, NC 28255-0001, Attention: Prospectus Department, or by email at [email protected]; Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, telephone: 1-866-471-2526, facsimile: 212-902-9316 or by emailing [email protected]; or Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, One Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010, telephone: 1-800-221-1037 or by emailing [email protected] A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with, and declared effective by, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a 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 an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About Livent For more than six decades, Livent has partnered with its customers to safely and sustainably use lithium technology to power the world. Livent is one of only a small number of companies with the capability, reputation, and know-how to produce high-quality finished lithium compounds that are helping meet the growing demand for lithium. The company has one of the broadest product portfolios in the industry, powering demand for green energy, modern mobility, the mobile economy, and specialized innovations, including light alloys and lubricants. Livent employs approximately 700 people throughout the world and operates manufacturing sites in the United States, England, India, China and Argentina. For more information, visit Livent.com. Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Act of 1995: Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or "continue," the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance, our anticipated growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including a decline in the growth in demand for electric vehicles; adverse global economic conditions; volatility in the price for performance lithium compounds; risks relating to our production expansion and related capital expenditures; development and adoption of battery technologies that do not rely on performance lithium compounds as an input; the size of our international operations and sales, including political, financial and operational risks specific to Argentina and other countries where we have active operations, including China; customer concentration and the loss of, or significant reduction in orders from, large customers; failure to satisfy customer quality standards; fluctuations in the price of energy and certain raw materials; failure to achieve the expected benefits of our separation from FMC as well as the other factors described under the caption entitled "Risk Factors" in our registration statement on Form S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. We are under no duty to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this news release to conform our prior statements to actual results or revised expectations. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/livent-announces-pricing-of-initial-public-offering-300729085.html SOURCE Livent Corporation 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 Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. [October 10, 2018] Blackcomb Consultants Records Its Most Successful Year in Business CHICAGO, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackcomb Consultants, an international consulting firm and enterprise technology partner for Property and Casualty insurers, announced that 2018 will be the company's most successful year ever. CY 2018 revenue will be at its highest level in the company's history, and double-digit growth is expected to continue in 2019. The company has grown its aggregate client base to 30+ and has completed over 40 successful Guidewire engagements to date. Blackcomb is focused on providing P&C carriers with end to end Guidewire solutions, in key areas such as Core Systems Implementation, CIO Advisory, Organizational Change Management, Performance Improvement, and Hosting. Additionally, interest in the company's newer service offerings, inclusive of Guidewire Upgrades, Production Support and Managed Cloud/Hybrid Cloud, has resulted in a significant amount of new business and incremental revenue growth. "This is just the beginning of our next phase of growth," commented Saroj "Monty" Mohanty, Managing Partner and Principal Consultant. "We will build on our success, continue to invest in additional corporate resources and manpower, and offe P&C Carriers of all sizes a true mid-market Guidewire technology solutions provider. We have an exceptional track record, and are industry-proven, ensuring on time and on budget engagement delivery. However, we also remain highly flexible and agile, making us a perfect fit with each of our clients' cultures, their specific business and technology priorities, and their unique set of internal capabilities." About Blackcomb Founded in 2011, Blackcomb Consultants is a Guidewire PartnerConnectTM Consulting provider focused on providing end to end technology advisory, planning, and implementation solutions and services to the Property & Casualty Insurance Industry. With offices located in Chicago, Dallas, and Bangalore, India, Blackcomb offers a range of services to support business transformation initiatives for Property and Casualty insurers, regardless of their size or internal capabilities. The company's management team is made up of ex-Insurance Company technology executives, with unparalleled levels of expertise. Blackcomb's ultimate goal is to offer its clients a perfect fit when it comes to a go-to technology partner, resulting in ideal, long-term relationships. The company is privately held. Media contact: Chuck Hirsch Director of Strategy Wovn Group O: 914-730-9292 Marketing@BlackcombConsultants.com Related Links Blackcomb Consultants View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blackcomb-consultants-records-its-most-successful-year-in-business-300728585.html SOURCE Blackcomb Consultants [ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ] SPRUCEWOODS The RM of Cornwallis Ward 1 and Reeve candidate forum played to a full house Tuesday night, with the event reaching standing room only. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/10/2018 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Audience George Kardesh asks a question at the RM of Cornwallis candidate debate in Sprucewoods on Tuesday night. Kardesh said he attended the forum because it was the first one ever hosted by the RM and offered a chance to get to know the candidates. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) SPRUCEWOODS The RM of Cornwallis Ward 1 and Reeve candidate forum played to a full house Tuesday night, with the event reaching standing room only. "This is really great," Ward 1 candidate Jim Carvey said. "It shows the commitment of the community to make a better community." Carvey was joined by reeve candidates Jim Crang, Bill Courtice and Shane Drohan along with Ward 1 candidates Rustam Dow, Dave Shelvey, Sam Hofer, Kurt Wasserberg and Larissa Ann Gray, who all made their cases to a crowd of more than 70 people at Waggle Springs Hall in Sprucewoods. Infrastructure maintenance, spending money wisely and balancing everything within the growing communities of Cornwallis were among the chief concerns raised by candidates. Reeve candidate Shan Drohan addresses the crowd at the RM of Cornwallis candidate debate on Tuesday. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) Maintaining the roads in the RM was brought up by both candidates and audience members alike, along with ensuring that water quality and sewer needs are met in the expanding community. "The biggest challenge has been and will be moving forward is our roads," incumbent Coun. Sam Hofer said. A large portion of the municipalitys budget is put toward road maintenance, Hofer said. Striking a balance between maintaining and supporting farmland, while supporting residential and commercial growth was highlighted, which tapped into candidates dissatisfaction with the Brandon & Area Planning District, which audience members shared. The prevailing thought of the night was that the district benefitted Brandon to the detriment of the participating RMs. The district is a partnership between the RM of Cornwallis, City of Brandon and RM of Elton, which was created to link the three municipalities together to deal with land use and land development issues. Ward 1 candidate Kurt Wasserberg, left, addresses the crowd at the RM of Cornwallis candidate debate on Tuesday.(Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun) Hofer was quick to point out that the RM is in the process of leaving the deal, along with Elton, by 2020. The deal was integral to bringing Maple Leaf into the area. "Annexation is not cut and dried its a tricky process," Hofer said. Concerns were raised that the annexation had stymied growth in the community. Finding a way to encourage growth without raising taxes was raised by a number of candidates. Supporting growth in the community was cited as a way to help generate money in the district, but this is made difficult as infrastructure investment is needed to increase residential and commercial areas. The communitys gravel pit was cited by a number of candidates as carrying much greater potential than is currently being realized. "We have some of the best gravel in Manitoba, and I think were mostly going on peoples honesty to say how many loads are going out of the gravel pit," Crang said. Communication within the community was another concern of candidates, with many offering to go door-to-door to speak with residents first-hand, and hosting public forums to ensure public opinions are heard. As part of this, candidates wanted to ensure decisions made by the RM are presented in easy to understand terms for the community. Updating the RMs online presence was also cited as a priority among a majority of candidates. "The RM should be more of a hub for everyone," Drohan said. "We should all be aware of all things happening throughout the RM." ckemp@brandonsun.com @The_ChelseaKemp A woman accused of hog-tying two teenagers at gunpoint after she believed they stole from her has been denied bail. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/10/2018 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us A woman accused of hog-tying two teenagers at gunpoint after she believed they stole from her has been denied bail. "At least on the face of it, the Crown has a strong case," Judge John Combs said in Brandon provincial court on Tuesday during a bail hearing for 33-year-old Suezette Amber Dawn Bone, who is facing multiple charges including forcible confinement, pointing a firearm, aggravated assault and possessing a firearm for a dangerous purpose. None of the charges have been proven in court and Bone is presumed innocent. On Monday, a worker at a group home contacted police advising a teenage boy residing there had come home bleeding, with a knife in his hand, Crown attorney Ron Toews told the court. There was a hole in his jacket which lined up with a charred burn mark on his stomach, Toews said, and the teen said he had been shot while visiting a home in the 2300 block of Princess Avenue with his girlfriend who was still tied up in the home. Police attended to the home where they immediately heard a girl crying, Toews said, and found a teenage girl hog-tied in the basement. A sawed-off .22 calibre rifle was found on a dresser in plain view, Toews said, and ammunition as well as shotgun shells were found on a coffee table. A spent, .22 calibre blank shell was also found on an end table toward the back of the basement, Toews added. The girl told police her boyfriend and her had been visiting her aunt when her aunts roommates a man and a woman pointed guns at them and accused them of stealing. The victim said the man was holding a brown and black gun and the woman had a rifle with bullets taped to the side of it, Toews said. The two teens were forced downstairs into their basement suite where they were tied up. The girl said the man hit her with a pellet pistol four times in the face and body, Toews said. She was also hit in the face and knee with a mallet hammer. The boy was also hit in the head with a mallet, Toews said, as well as shot in the abdomen with a sawed-off, .22 calibre rifle blank. Police noted that both teens had cuts and bruises, and the boy had a charred wound on his abdomen which was consistent with being burned by a muzzle flash and gunpowder burns, Toews said. The boy told police he was able to free himself from his restraints and arm himself with a knife, which he used to ward off the suspects and get out of the house. Both suspects were later found at the Trails West Inn and arrested. "What we have here is a very serious allegation and the use of weapons," Toews said, adding that Bone was out on bail when the alleged incident occurred and has missed court on multiple occasions. "We have a very compelling case, I would suggest, and indication from Ms. Bone from her past conduct that release conditions apparently have no impact on her risk to the community." Defence lawyer Bob Harrison said Bone adamantly denies the accusations and doesnt know the victims or even what they look like. Bone had been staying at the Trails West Inn since Saturday to meet with family, Harrison said, and had cleaned and locked her basement suite before she left. "She has no idea how these people got into (the basement)," Harrison said. Bone also has no prior criminal record, Harrison added, and was granted bail previously for charges still before the court. Despite her denial, Combs was not satisfied Bone was a candidate for release and denied her application. "Ms. Bone has shown over the last number of months a tendency to ... not appear in court and get herself into difficulties in various property-related offences," Combs said. "Theres a huge concern evident on the face of what is before the court. Ms. Bone is dealing with something that is causing her to be involved in the legal system." Bone is scheduled to appear in court later this month. A man facing similar charges in relation to this incident, Austin Frohwerk, has been remanded into custody and will also appear in court later this month. edebooy@brandonsun.com Twitter: @erindebooy [October 10, 2018] Vodafone Ukraine Wins Prestigious Digital Workplace Award for Doubling Employee Satisfaction Using Jive Software AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jive Software , a leading provider of employee experience solutions and part of the Aurea family of companies, today announced that Vodafone Ukraine was honored with a Gold Step Two 2018 Intranet and Digital Workplace Award for its Jive-powered enterprise community. By using the Jive solution to fuel employee collaboration and strategic alignment, the Ukrainian mobile operator doubled employee net promoter scores while saving over $2 million through increased employee efficiency. Key leaders from Vodafone's internal communications team alongside Jive consulting partner ANROM Social Business will explore how the company achieved these results during an upcoming presentation at Aurea Experience 18 . "Digital workplaces and intranets are evolving faster than ever before, with emerging experiences that engage employees and make them more productive, while delivering remarkable business value for organizations," said James Robertson, founder and managing director at Step Two. "We chose Vodafone Ukraine as a Gold winner this year for its compelling Jive community, which supports organizational change and employee engagement. We were most impressed by its high adoption and stand-out features like online chats with executives, peer recognition, gamification and collaboration." Leading Telecommunications Company Drives Business Transformation with Jive Adopted to support Vodafone Ukraine's digital transformation four years ago, the Jive community, called "PROSTOR," helped the business increase agility and customer-centricity. It also played an integral communications role during times of massive change keeping employees engaged and optimistic throughout a difficult political and economic period for Ukraine, and later keeping them informed andaligned as the company transitioned to the Vodafone family and embarked on a full rebranding. With support from top executives, PROSTOR has successfully achieved over 88 percent adoption, improved employee satisfaction and delivered millions of dollars in cost savings since its launch. These savings are a result of spending less time in meetings and gaining searchable organizational knowledge across over 45,000 helpful blogs, documents and videos. "PROSTOR brings us unlimited possibilities for connections, communication and crowd-sourced ideas. It is a radiant, engaging, thriving community that is open for each and every one of our employees," said Nadezhda Sirenko, human resources director at Vodafone Ukraine. "Jive helps us band together more than 3,000 people throughout all of Ukraine in one digital workplace, where we can not only collaborate and recognize each other's great work, but also identify, engage and develop our next generation of thought leaders and brand ambassadors for the future of the company." Enterprise Community Improves the Customer Experience and Boosts Revenues In addition to greater alignment and productivity, Vodafone Ukraine has realized important benefits from improving project management and coordination with Jive. For instance, one month of ideation mobilized 1,700 employees on a major project, resulting in over 70 creative solutions. In addition, the company's contact centers implemented new on-boarding, enablement, career development, motivation and shift coverage programs in PROSTOR to ensure more efficient and effective customer service. As a result, they've reduced uncovered calls by 24 percent, sped average call processing time by 12 percent, increased upsell revenue by 67 percent and even decreased staff turnover. "Vodafone Ukraine is constantly achieving amazing business impact through Jive, and we look forward to sharing their digital workplace expertise with the rest of our customers at Aurea Experience 18 in Munich next month," said Christian Stadlmann, senior vice president and general manager of Europe at Aurea Software. "Their success at navigating corporate transitions, economic uncertainty and a highly competitive industry all while fostering employee loyalty is a true testament to how vibrant enterprise communities can encourage action, creativity and innovation that ultimately improves the customer experience." About Aurea Experience 18 Aurea Experience 18 spans two free events in Europe and North America, where Aurea's customers and partners will enjoy three informative tracks with breakout sessions on employee engagement, the new digital workplace and customer intelligence. Speakers include more than a dozen experts from organizations such as American Airlines, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Citi, Commvault, International Committee of the Red Cross, Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley, Pearson, Schaeffler, Vodafone Ukraine and more. In addition, the conference will offer a "boot camp" track, where Jive community managers can learn key skills, strategies and best practices for building strategic plans, increasing adoption and driving advanced community use cases. For more information, follow @AureaSoftware and #AureaExperience on Twitter. About Aurea Aurea Software, Inc. is the technology behind some of the world's greatest customer and employee experiences, for the largest and most successful brands. Aurea's platform, engagement and vertical solutions help companies create exceptional, end-to-end experiences for their customers driving both retention and growth. Aurea's family of companies deliver process management, messaging, customer relationship management, email marketing, project and portfolio management, and collaboration software, as well as industry solutions for retail, insurance, energy and life sciences. Aurea is an affiliate of ESW Capital. For more information, visit www.aurea.com or follow @AureaSoftware on Twitter . Aurea and the Aurea logo are trademarks of Aurea Software, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vodafone-ukraine-wins-prestigious-digital-workplace-award-for-doubling-employee-satisfaction-using-jive-software-300728283.html SOURCE Jive Software [ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ] Norwegian Air Shuttle has overtaken IAGs British Airways as the biggest non-US airline on transatlantic routes to and from the New York area, in the latest illustration of the low-cost carriers move into British Airways territory. Norwegian carried 1.67 million passengers to or from airports in the New York area in the 12 months to the end of July, compared with the 1.63 million carried by British Airways, data from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey showed. No-frills carrier Norwegian has been rapidly expanding in the transatlantic market over the last five years, prompting IAG which also own Aer Lingus--to try to buy it earlier this year. By Padraig Hoare The Government is slow-walking a plan for the future of Waterford Airport, a symptom of ignoring the south-east economically in favour of more politically connected regions. That was the reaction of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) lecturer Ray Griffin, as Transport Minister Shane Ross said he needed more assurances from Waterford Airport management on potential private investment before the Government would consider its future. Mr Ross said, in response to Fianna Fail TD Mary Butler, that he was fully considering a review on the airports future, completed by EY. Waterford Airport management has submitted a proposal to extend the runway, which it says would considerably enhance the airports commercial appeal and attract new carriers. The airport has been without any commercial flights since mid-2016. In 2012, it had more than 77,000 passengers, but numbers dropped significantly in the years after. It carried only 13,500 passengers in 2016. By contrast, Donegal Airport carried more than three times that number in 2016 with 44,100, according to CSO figures. Waterford Airport chief executive Desmond OFlynn stepped down in January. Proposed Waterford routes to Luton, Birmingham, and Manchester by Aer Southeast, announced last year, failed to materialise after the airline failed to secure the required licence. Mr Ross said: The runway extension proposal was received during the review process and was duly incorporated into the consideration of options by EY. The proposal from Waterford Airport is dependent on securing the necessary finance from private investors, local authorities as well as significant capital funding support from the Exchequer. I have also sought some additional information and assurances from the airport in respect of potential investors and jet carriers. When I have fully considered the EY review, along with any additional information provided by Waterford Airport, I have undertaken to revert to Government with a memorandum for decision on the matter. However, WIT School of Business lecturer Ray Griffin said it was a way for the Government to further ignore Waterford and the South-East. The Government has been slow-walking the airport plan. The Cabinet will have to withstand the overwhelming representation from Dublin, Cork and Shannon lobbies, something they have shown little interest in ever doing. Despite some soothing speeches, there has been no response to the slower, weaker and halting recovery in the South-East, and the rhetoric has now moved to denying the data, he said. Mr Griffin said even modest investment would be transformative for the region. Despite the analysis suggesting that the modest investment in a jet-capable runway in the south-east will have no impact on Dublin/Cork/Shannon airports passenger numbers and a major impact on tourism and enterprise in the South-East, if I were a gambling man I would not bet on the kindness of the strangers we see at the Cabinet table. The region has been politically cold-shouldered since 2011, Mr Griffin said, losing a number of existing facilities and not seeing any proportional capital investment compared to other regions. Over 1,000 people came together in Limerick City on Monday to Shine a Light on the River. The event saw 34 specially illuminated boats carrying over 60 people, and the Liam McCarthy cup travel between the three city bridges as spectators looked on shining lights to light up the river. The spectacle was a joint initiative by Limerick Mental Health Association and Jigsaw, a mental health support service for young people. Video: Shane Vaughan and Caleb Purcell The Garda Sub Aqua unit from Dublin joined the Fire Service, Civil Defence, the Limerick Mens Shed, and boat clubs from Limerick to Foynes on the water while Limerick Suicide Watch and teams of student volunteers from Limericks three third level institutes stewarded the event on land. The Director of Limerick Mental Health Week, Patrick Fitzgerald, described the event as transformative. "When Limerick people think of the river and three city bridges a negative association with mental health can come to mind." "The Limerick Mental Health Week team wanted to change that. We aimed to bring the community together to reclaim the river, reframing it in peoples minds, he said. Tanya OSullivan, a youth and community engagement worker with Jigsaw Limerick and the primary coordinator of the event said the idea came from a girl on their Youth Advisory Panel, Hannah Kelly. "The YAP are a group of 16 to 25-year-olds who make sure the youth voice is represented in what we do and they help guide our service." "It began as an idea, but it became a reality when other Limerick organisations were enthusiastic to help. We are delighted it went so well after all the hard work," she concluded. Following the event, the Limerick Suicide Watch began their regular patrol of the bridges. Have you got something you think we'd like? Then send it onto us via WhatsApp on 0871520145. The national disaster agency said the confirmed death toll from last Friday's magnitude 7.5 quake increased slightly to 1,571. The United Nations has said some 200,000 people, including tens of thousands of children, are in need of help. Survivors of the quake and tsunami that hit Central Sulawesi last month have started to return to their homes, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said on Sunday. Bodies are still being recovered, especially from ruins of buildings in the small city of Palu and from neighborhoods hit by liquefaction, a phenomenon that turns the ground into a roiling quagmire, in the south of city. He said on local television that survivors in the outlying villages in Petobo, Balaroa and Jono Oge could be relocated and monuments be built in the areas, which now look like wastelands, to remember the victims interred there. "Our workers on the ground are trying to confirm this". "It is not easy to obtain the exact number of those trapped by landslides, or liquefaction, or mud". The government targets to end search operations by Thursday, almost two weeks after the disaster, at which time those unaccounted for will be declared missing and considered dead, Nugroho said. The figure drastically increases the estimates for those who disappeared when the disaster struck 10 days ago. Many more remain missing. Petobo, a cluster of villages in Palu, was one of the worst-hit by the powerful quake and wall of water that devastated the coastal city. Officials said it was still unsafe to use heavy machinery in some areas where soil had loosened and collapsed after the natural disaster in a process known as liquefaction. At a massive government housing complex at Balaroa, where the sheer force of the quake turned the earth temporarily to mush, soldiers in face masks clambered over the giant mounds of mud, brick, and cement. Hopes of finding anyone alive a full eight days since the disaster have all but faded, though Indonesian authorities have not officially called off the search for survivors. "We have to be very careful to avoid contamination", Yusuf Latif, a spokesperson for Indonesia's search and rescue effort, told AFP from Palu. Then, we later must decide when the area will be designated a mass grave, ' he told reporters late Friday. Muhlis, whose uncle was still missing in Balaroa, said the missing and dead should be honoured respectfully. Traumatised survivors are desperate for any help. One villager said they had survived by ransacking shops. Plane loads of supplies were landing with increasing frequency in Palu, where daisy chains of troops unloaded supplies directly onto trucks or helicopters. "There was a palpable sense of relief from the evacuees when they got into our Herc", Flight Lieutenant Dave Natapu, aircraft captain from RNZAF No 40 Squadron, said. Most of the dead have been found in Palu, the region's main urban center. Sergeant Syafaruddin, from an army unit in Makassar south of Palu, asked for a body bag to be brought to a spot near where the remnants of an Islamic school now stands. The Public Health Alcohol Bill has passed through the Oireachtas this evening. It will lead to stricter rules on how alcohol is sold in Ireland. This is the first piece of legislation which addresses alcohol as a public health matter. It means that alcohol products will now include health warnings including the link between alcohol and cancer, nutritional information, and the dangers of drinking while pregnant. Advertising alcohol will be restricted in certain places while there will also be restrictions on how alcohol companies sponsor sporting events. Action will also be taken on the separation and visibility of alcohol products in stores. New rules will also be laid out for advertisers and the times and content of television advertisements will be restricted. The Bill will now go to President Michael D Higgins for signing and enactment. In a statement, Health Minister Simon Harris welcomed the passage of the Bill. "This legislation has been debated for over 1,000 days. It has been the subject of the most intense lobbying by the alcohol industry," said Mr Harris. "But today it completes its passage through the Oireachtas and becomes the first time Ireland legislates for alcohol as it affects our health and it is right and proper that we do so. We know that we have a relationship with alcohol in this country that is not good, damages our health, harms our communities and harms many families. "The measures in this Bill will make a real difference to changing the culture of drinking in Ireland over a period of time." - Digital Desk Update 6pm: The Health Minister has met with Dr Gabriel Scally this afternoon to discuss his report into the cervical check scandal. Minister Simon Harris has asked him for an independent review of how the 50 recommendations he made are to be implemented. "I was pleased to meet Dr Scally today to thank him for the work he has done to date and to examine the next steps," said Mr Harris in a statement. "I look forward to his ongoing involvement and support in this important work." Minister for Health @SimonHarrisTD has met today with Dr Gabriel Scally - read more on our website https://t.co/BbSE9ItJUa Department of Health (@roinnslainte) October 10, 2018 Earlier today, Dr Scally appeared before the Oireachtas Health Committee where concerns were raised that the number of women affected could be more than the 221 we know about. Update 3pm: CervicalCheck report author fears more women could be impacted by crisis The author of a report into the Irish cervical cancer screening controversy has raised fears that more women could be affected by the cancer crisis. Dr Gabriel Scally said he had serious issues with the flawed system and the set of criteria used by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to identify the 221 women affected and said he could not be confident that more women had not been impacted. Ms Mhic Mhathuna, 37, died on Sunday (Brian Lawless/PA) Dr Scally said the death of Emma Mhic Mhathuna served as a timely reminder of the seriousness of the problem. A minutes silence was held at the meeting as a mark of respect for Ms Mhic Mhathuna and the other women screened through CervicalCheck who had received incorrect smear test results. The 37-year-old mother died on Sunday. The flag over Government Buildings in Dublin flew at half-mast on Wednesday afternoon as Ms Mhic Mhathunas funeral was due to pass by parliament, Government Buildings and the Department of Health. Questions were raised at the meeting by Dr Scally and scoping inquiry team member Dr Karin Denton over the 18-month cut-off point chosen by the HSE for the clinical audit. Dr Denton said: Im not yet assured of the exact criteria of identifying those 221 women. They were certainly women who had a diagnosis altered on review but whether there were more who had a diagnosis altered in review, but it wasnt held to have made any clinical difference, I cannot at this time tell you. She added: There may be other women whose samples were altered on review that havent been included in that 221 group. Dr Scally said he also had questions he would like answered around the original contract agreements for the laboratories, which had been shredded by the HSE as was common policy after 10 years. He added that he believed a compensation scheme needed to be considered for women who were failed by cancer screening. If theyre failed by that through genuine error then I think there should be a mechanism put in place to deal with that, he said. It was the first time, since the publication of the scoping inquiry last month, that Dr Scally appeared in the Oireachtas to discuss the findings. He had met with many of the women affected and their families before publishing the report. Irelands finance minister Paschal Donohoe in his budget day speech on Tuesday announced a further nine million euro would be allocated to the health service next year to fund some of the recommendations of the Scally Report. Dr Scally said that he had made a promise to the women and their families to ensure he would push for the implementation of the 50 recommendations outlined in the report. We havent worked this hard to just walk away and let it sit there, he said. - Press Association Update 2.05pm: Concern that other women may be affected by CervicalCheck crisis: Members of the Scally Review group have raised concerns that there may be other women affected by the CervicalCheck crisis. The findings of the report into the Cervical Screening Programme have been discussed before the Oireachtas Health Committee. The team claim the cut-off point chosen by the HSE for possible clinical impact on women may be flawed. UK consultant Dr Karin Denton, says this has prompted them to ask the HSE more questions. Earlier, Dr Gabriel Scally described open disclousure guidelines for doctors using the cervical screening proramme as "very seriously deficient". He says the open disclosure guidelines made it too easy for doctors not to reveal the information. "They weren't so much open disclosure guidelines as it was a kind of policy where clinicians were encouraged to disclose if the clinicians wanted to disclose. "But the guidelines gave them every chance...made it really easy for them not to disclose. "So it wasn't really open disclosure at all." Compensation should be offered to people affected by CervicalCheck scandal The author of the report into the Cervical Screening Programme says people who have had their cervical smear tests misread should be compensated. Dr Gabriel Scally is appearing before the Oireachtas Health Committee today, where a minute's silence was held for Emma Mhic Mhathuna and the other victims of the Cervical Check scandal. Dr Scally says in order to avoid cases being taken to the courts, compensation should be offered to the victims. "I think there should be a mechanism put in place where - due to an error where potentially serious consequences - there should be a mechanism for compensating the person for that error," Dr Scally told the committee. "It should be done in such a way as to avoid adversarial proceedings." Earlier: Dr Scally to appear before TDs to discuss CervicalCheck Report Dr Gabriel Scally, author of the report into the Cervical Screening Programme, will be questioned on his findings by an Oireachtas Committee today. It is the first time, since the publication of the scoping inquiry, he will be before the Health Committee. The meeting was set up to examine the non-dislosure of information to patients and the apparent widespread practice of non-disclosure. Over 200 women should have received treatment earlier than they did. It will also consider the ongoing negotiations between the HSE and the two main laboratories that examine smear tests for the Cervical Check Programme. The report identified "serious gaps" in the expertise and governance of the programme. Dr Scally was tasked with carrying out the preliminary inquiry, after it emerged over 200 women should have received earlier treatment than they did. Meanwhile, Health Minister Simon Harris says the work will continue to move towards HPV screening. "My commitment is consistent with the commitment that I've made since this appalling situation developed in relation to moving to the HPV screening and introducing the HPV vaccine for boys and continuing to promote the HPV vaccine, often in the face of campaigns of misinformation which had led to a decrease in the vaccination rate," said Minister Harris. Digital Desk By Gordon Deegan A 19-year old Latvian child-minder has appeared in court charged with wilfully assaulting, ill-treating and neglecting her one-year-old baby niece. The teenager made her initial appearance at Ennis District Court court last July where she was first charged with assault in connection with allegedly breaking the arm of the baby. At that court date, the accused was accompanied to court by the babys mother who is also the accuseds sister and the woman was in court again on Wednesday to sit with the accused to face the fresh charge. At Ennis District Court on Wednesday, the teen faced a second charge where she is charged with wilfully assaulting, neglecting, ill-treating, abandoning and exposing the child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to the childs health at an address in Ennis on May 21 of this year. Det Garda Claire OShaughnessy said that the accused made no reply concerning the new charge. Already, after hearing evidence of the circumstances around the assault charge, Judge Patrick Durcan last July declined jurisdiction and transferred the case to Ennis Circuit Court where more serious penalties apply for assault causing harm charges. Judge Durcan said that the alleged injury that the baby sustained was "very serious. In declining jurisdiction, Judge Durcan also stated that he was taking into account the age of the alleged injured party. Det OShaughnessy told the court that the baby turned one a day after she was admitted to hospital on May 24 last. Det OShaughnessy said: The baby was admitted to hospital with a spiral fracture to her upper right arm. In the case, the teen is charged with on May 21 the Section 3 assault causing harm of the baby who was born in May 2017. Det OShaughnessy said: it was an unexplained injury and it was referred to us by TUSLA due to the unexplained nature of it. The child was not walking at the time. Insp Tom Kennedy said that the accused is the maternal aunt of the baby. He said that the accused was at the time in paid employment from her sister and partner to look after the baby and two of the babys siblings for a number of months. The Book of Evidence was served on the accused on Wednesday and her solicitor, John Casey applied for the legal aid certificate to be extended to cover the costs of translating the Book of Evidence into Latvian. Mr Casey said that his client has no English. In reply, Judge Durcan said: What is the cost of that? I believe that it is huge per page. Judge Durcan extended the legal aid certificate and the woman was sent forward to appear at the next sittings of Ennis Circuit Court. A murder trial has heard a couple told gardai "I think we found a body" after they discovered a suitcase in the canal in Co Kildare. 51-year-old Paul Wells Senior of Barnamore Park in Finglas in Dublin denies murdering Kenneth OBrien in January 2016. The court heard Brian ODwyer and his partner Mary Costigan were going for a walk along the canal in Ardclough Co Kildare when they spotted a suitcase in the water. They thought it was unusual as the suitcase seemed relatively new and did not look like rubbish. They managed to retrieve it and looked inside and saw what appeared to be a plastic bag with red liquid in it and some human skin. Mr ODwyer rang gardai and said "I think we found a body". The court already heard it was identified as the torso of 33-year-old Kenneth OBrien through DNA testing and further body parts were subsequently found in Sallins including his skull. It is the prosecutions case that Paul Wells Senior killed Kenneth OBrien, dismembered his body and dispersed it in Co Kildare. He denies murder and told gardai he had struggled with Mr OBrien over a gun and then panicked after the shooting. He claims Mr OBrien had asked him to murder his long-term partner but he refused to do so. - Digital Desk Communications Minister Denis Naughten has refused to consider resigning from cabinet despite admitting he paid for a previously unknown Leinster House lunch for the only bidder still left in the national broadband tender process. Independent TD Mr Naughten admitted the deeply controversial April 18 meeting in the wake of revelations he held a separate informal meeting with the same bidder in New York in July. Speaking during a post-budget briefing in which Mr Naughten - who is also responsible for climate change - caused further anger by admitting he did not ask for a carbon tax hike in the budget, Mr Naughten was again forced to defend his relationship with Irish-American businessman David McCourt. However, despite confirming he "facilitated" Mr McCourt to bring his daughter to Leinster House for a lunch the minister last night admitted he paid for, Mr Naughten insisted he has done nothing wrong and does not need to resign. "No, I don't accept I shouldn't meet with bidders involved in this process," Mr Naughten said. "This process started in December 2015 before I was appointed Minister, I think there are something like 30-35 companies that have had a role in this, all of whom are investing significant amounts of money in this country. "It is appropriate for me to engage with this industry. The reality is I have no role in the decision-making process, this is a separate procurement process. I have explained my role in it. So no it is not right I shouldn't engage with the industry, I have repeatedly said my objective is to try and maximise the spend by all telecoms companies in this country. "The reality is many people across the communications sector meet with many TDs and many have interest in this particular area," he said. While Mr Naughten told Wednesday's press conference he could not remember if he paid for the previously unknown April 18 Leinster House lunch, his spokesperson later confirmed the Minister picked up the 37 bill. However, Mr Naughten remained insistent he had done nothing wrong and stressed he did not attend the meeting. Meanwhile, during the same press conference, Mr Naughten admitted that despite having responsibility for climate change he did not ask for a high-profile carbon tax rise in Tuesday's budget. The Minister claimed it would be more valuable for Ireland to try to organise an international agreement on the price of a barrel of oil, and said when asked if he had read a "summary" when asked if he had read the Climate Change Advisory Council's detailed reasons for why a carbon tax is needed before the budget. By Louise Walsh The row over school bus seats in Kildalkey, Co. Meath is finally to be resolved from Monday, with the help of the Local Link programme and the National Transport Authority. The rural transport programme is to be re-routed through the village and will be able to ferry the dozen students who have been carpooled to school by parents since the end of August. The students - mostly first years in Trim - had to find their own way to school 10kms away in Trim, after they were told by Bus Eireann there were no seats available on the bus for them this year. They grabbed headlines last month when they staged a protest walk along winding roads from their homes to school, leaving at the same time as the school bus. Una Swords was hit with a dilemma on how to get both her daughters to school this year, despite her eldest having a place on the bus for the last four years. "I received an email telling me that not only will Caoimhe (13) not be able to get the school bus to start post-primary this year but that my 17-year-old daughter Aoife, who has been getting the bus for the last four years is no longer eligible either." Parents Angela Skelly and Sinead McNally met with Bus Transport Minister John Halligan last week and said that, while he admitted that his "hands were tied in the current system", he would review the school bus service in the village. As parents continued to juggle work commitments this week, parents were told on Tuesday that a solution will be on the cards from Monday. In a statement, Miriam McKenna for Local Link Louth Meath Fingal (LMF) announced the change to their Ballivor to Kilcock service, especially to accommodate students. She says: "Due to a change in the 115C service by Bus Eireann the Local Link LMF service between Ballivor and Kilcock has been replaced with a service between Mullingar and Kilcock/Dublin. "This was an opportunity to put a service into three areas of Longwood, Killyon and Kildalkey that Flexibus Local Link had received transport requests. "The service timetable is set up to accommodate students attending local schools, Colleges, and employment. "The National Transport Authority accommodated the quick change of service and therefore we are delighted to start the public service between Trim and Dublin on Monday 15th October 2018." The announcement has been welcomed by parents in Kildalkey. "It looks like Local Link has stepped up to help and offer a service to and from the village, through Trim to Dublin daily which will also be fantastic to not only students but all commuters in the area," said Una. "We are thrilled and hugely relieved as it was getting a bit of a strain to us." Parent Sinead McNally also echoed the sentiment adding: "This service will travel through Kildalkey village at 7.45am to bring passengers from the whole community. It will also accommodate the collection of the students after school and on the half day on Friday. We are delighted with this result. Local Cllr Noel French who sits on the board of Flexibus said: "It's great news. It's a temporary solution to the problem that will only be fully resolved when they address the silly system that's in place." Damien English, Local Minister and Fine Gael TD for Meath West said he was delighted that Local Link/Flexibus has been successful in their application with the NTA to provide a new bus service for Ballivor, Kildalkey, Killyon and Longeood. "I recently met with the CEO of the National Transport Agency seeking an update in relation to the future of Local Link/Flexibus services based in Co. Meath. "We discussed the continued need for expansion of services given the popularity of this transport organisation to the people who live outside of Bus Eireann and Private bus routes. "In my view it is vital that Local Link services in Meath should be continually expanded to meet the local need. The Meath based service carried more than 178,000 passengers last year across Meath, Louth and Fingal." By Ruaidhri Giblin Brian Rattigan remains in jail this evening after the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal against his conviction for directing the supply of drugs from prison. Rattigan (37), formerly of Cooley Road, in Drimnagh, had pleaded not guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to possession of heroin and two counts of possession of the drug for sale or supply on Hughes Road South, Walkinstown, Dublin 12 on May 21st, 2008. The three-judge Special Criminal Court agreed with the prosecution case that Rattigan was the director of a drugs gang conducting a 1m heroin deal. He became the first drug dealer to be found guilty of charges connected to directing the supply of drugs while in prison. During the trial he was cleared of two counts relating to the possession of two mobile phones at Cell 42, E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison while an inmate at the prison on May 22, 2008, which he had also denied. Sentencing Rattigan to 17 years in prison, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said the Special Criminal Court had regard to the very frightening evidence of drugs expert Detective Sergeant Brian Roberts, who detailed the effects heroin had on society as well as the alarming 3,972 drug-related deaths in Ireland between 2004 and 2010. The sentence, imposed on March 20, 2013 and backdated to June 2008, was directed to run in tandem with a life sentence he was then serving for the murder of 21-year-old Declan Gavin outside an Abrakebabra fast-food restaurant in Crumlin on August 25, 2001. However, in December last year, the Supreme Court quashed Rattigan's conviction for the murder of Mr Gavin over closing remarks made by the trial judge to the jury which, a majority of the Supreme Court found, had gone further than was desirable. Rattigan moved to appeal his drugs conviction in July on eight grounds related to search warrants, the admission of certain evidence as well as rulings made by the Special Criminal Court in respect of the value and purity of drugs. Dismissing his appeal today, Mr Justice John Edwards, who sat with Mr Justice John Hedigan and Mr Justice Brian McGovern, said the three-judge court was satisfied that Rattigans trial was satisfactory and his conviction safe. Rattigan acknowledged the courts decision with a nod to the judges and shook the hands of senior detectives in the case who were sitting at the back of the courtroom, after judgment was delivered. Rattigan and the senior gardai shared brief pleasantries before he was lead away through the custody area and returned to prison. His lawyers submitted that the trial court erred in upholding the lawfulness of various search warrants, erred in admitting evidence relating to a mobile phone, erred in accepting Garda expertise in respect of the value of the drugs seized, erred in convicting Rattigan where there was no evidence of the purity of the drugs and erred in convicting Rattigan in circumstances where, it was contended, there was insufficient evidence that he was in possession of the drugs seized. His barrister, Brendan Grehan SC, submitted that the prosecution had come to court without bothering to test any of the samples of the drugs for purity. In a case of such magnitude, the idea that that wasnt done was extraordinary, Mr Grehan said, as it was not possible to say how much heroin was present in the substance that was usually bulked up. In the UK, Mr Grehan said the authorities had moved from measuring market value to measuring purity. It is at least scientific. He referred to the historical case of a man caught with a tea spoons worth of drugs in two pounds worth of substance and added he should have been convicted of fraud. In a 44-page judgment, Mr Justice Edwards said the evidence of Sergeant Roberts was properly admitted, as his expertise in the profiling of actors, activities and methods of the drugs trade was sufficient for the trial court to be satisfied that he had the necessary knowledge to testify as an expert. He said then Detective Superintendent Brian Sutton gave evidence in the trial that the market value of a gram of heroin, in May 2008, would have been 200. He stated that 4,973.6 grams of heroin, the quantity in question, would therefore have had a street value of 994,720. His evidence was that the purity of heroin in Ireland ranged from 30% to 50% but that the street value did not depend on the purity of heroin in the deal. He said it wasn't relevant from the gardai's perspective, because at street level "the buyer is blind" as to what purity the substance might be. Mr Justice Edwards said the street value was determined by the weight or volume involved in the deal regardless of its purity and the Special Criminal Court was entitled to draw the inferences that it did. He said the trial courts ruling with respect to deficiencies in the form of the warrant to search Hughes Road South was open to it and no error could be found in the trial courts approach. Furthermore, he said there was no basis to criticise the trial courts ruling on the warrant to search the cell in Portlaoise Prison. Mr Justice Edwards said it was fanciful to suggest that Rattigan was prejudiced because it was not possible to make out the name of the judge on a warrant to search a premises on the Cooley Road. Rattigans lawyers argued that because he was tried before three judges of the Special Criminal Court, one of whom being a District Court judge, there was no way of knowing if the judge who signed the warrant was the same judge on the panel. Mr Justice Edwards said a simple enquiry to the District Court office would have solved the mystery for anyone concerned to verify ownership of the illegible signature. By Ann O'Loughlin A father of two who claimed he had been injured when his car was rear-ended will now face a legal costs bill after he yesterday withdrew his High Court action. The move comes after counsel for the Motor Insurer's Bureau of Ireland suggested to Saulius Smaleckas who is originally from Lithuania his case falls into a pattern where insurance companies have noticed policies are purchased for a small sum of money and an accident happens within a short period afterwards. Kieran Fleck SC asked the 42-year-old man if he was aware that insurance companies have detected a pattern in claims made against insurance companies where the insurance policy is purchased with a minimum premium payment and an accident occurs in a very short period of time and the policyholder then admits liability. Mr Smaleckas said he was not aware of it. Counsel suggested his case falls into that pattern. Mr Fleck said the person Mr Smaleckas said was driving the other car - a Clare Hickey - cant be traced. Counsel also put to Mr Smaleckas the pattern is the same as in a number of Circuit Court cases involving others and a female driver and which were dismissed. Mr Smaleckas said he did not know. Asked did he know that Ms Hickey can't be traced, Mr Smaleckas said he knew from his solicitor. Saulius Smaleckas (42), Ashbrook Manor, Cavan, Co Cavan had sued the driver of the other car in the December 26, 2013 accident, Claire Hickey with an address at Rathgar Road , Rathmines, Co Dublin and James Kelly, Walkinstown Park, Walkinstown, Dublin who was the alleged owner of the car allegedly driven by Ms Hickey. A case has also been brought against The Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland as Ms Hickey the court heard has not been traced. At the outset of the case Mr Justice David Keane was told that Ms Hickey had given her details to Mr Smaleckas at the time of the alleged accident. It was Mr Smaleckas' case that he understood Ms Hickey was insured The claims were denied by the MIBI and Mr James Kelly who further said he had sold the car allegedly involved in the accident for 300 for parts to a man who represented himself as a car dealer. Mr Justice Keane was told the defendants further contended Mr Smaleckas' claim was fraudulent or set up. In evidence Mr Smaleckas said he had been offered 80 by two Lithuanian men to bring them to Dublin Airport. He said he had met the men the night before. He told the court he was near the airport and was at a stop sign checking if it was safe to proceed when Ms Hickeys car bumped into the back of his. She gave him a piece of paper with her phone number car registration and insurance policy number. Afterwards, he dropped the two men at the airport and drove back to Cavan. He later went to hospital and the next day his GP and he had pain in his neck, back and knee. He said he was not able to work for four months. He said problems with his neck and back cleared up within weeks but he later had to have surgery on his knee. His car the court heard was a commercial write off. Cross-examined by Kieran Fleck SC for the MIBI and Mr Kelly Mr Smaleckas said he did not see the two men he dropped at the airport again. He said one was called Mantas and the other Aurelius but he did not have their second names. Mr Smaleckas who works as a sales assistant at Lidl said he also worked as a bouncer in a local nightclub and this is where he had met the two men. He agreed he was also involved in an auto parts company. When the case resumed this afternoon, Mr Justice David Keane was told Mr Smaleckas was withdrawing his claim. Costs were awarded to the defendants. Latest: Mourners at Emma Mhic Mhathuna's funeral have been told she was a force for good in life. Fr Paddy Moran said we should be thankful of the gifts Emma gave to the entire nation such as courage and strength. The 37-year-old mother of five will be laid to rest in Maynooth later after funeral mass in the Pro Cathedral in Dublin. Fr Moran said she will be kept alive in our hearts. "Her illness, she said, she did not see as part of Gods plan, but rather as the result of human error. She said the organizations who made errors had apologized and that those letters of apology meant a huge amount to her. "She didnt want those letters for herself but for her children. Regarding the apologies she spoke with no malice, anger or bitterness. Just a mother thinking first and foremost of her children. Emma's son Seamus read prayers at the opening of the mass. Fr Moran revealed that Emma had been writing a children's book and shared with the congregation the opening two chapters of her unfinished story. "I suppose it is up to us to write the next chapter," he said. "To Emma, thanks for being you and thanks for being such a powerful force of nature and a wonderful force for good. Thank you for touching the hearts of so many people when they heard you telling your story. "Thank you for making us realise our own capacity for compassion and empathy. Thank you for your courage and your strength." The flag flew at half mast at Government Buildings as a mark of respect during Emma Mhic Mhathuna's funeral. Pic: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie Vicky Phelan and President Higgins among mourners at Emma Mhic Mhathuna funeral The second funeral service for Emma Mhic Mhathuna's is underway in Dublin. The 37-year-old mother of five, was one of the 221 women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy. Pic: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie St Mary's Pro Cathedral in Dublin city centre is full this afternoon, as the country says goodbye to the woman at the forefront of the Cervical Check Controversy. Vicky Phelan, Stephen Teap, President Michael D Higgins, Arch Bishop Diarmuid Martin and a representative from the Office of the Taoiseach are also among the mourners. Vicky Phelan with Stephen Teap arriving at St Mary's Pro Catherdal church. Pic: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie Emma Mhic Mhathuna passed away on Sunday in Kerry, where a funeral mass was held yesterday in Ballydavid. Following this afternoon's service, the funeral procession will pass by the Dail, Government Buildings and the Department of Health, before Emma is laid to rest beside her mother, in Laragh Bryan Cemetery in Maynooth Co. Kildare. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire Emma Mhic Mhathuna funeral procession past Dail is not attempt to lay blame Emma Mhic Mhathuna's funeral procession past the Dail and Department of Health is not to lay blame at the government's door. It is reported her choice of route for the cortege is to make politicians ask themselves if they could do better in future to help women affected by the cervical screening controversy. In a statement released by her family yesterday, they said it was one Emma's wishes "to encourage those within to hold a mirror up to the organisations and agencies that they preside over politically and practically". "Before she slipped from our world, our beloved Emma requested that her final journey should pass by Leinster House at Kildare Street, Government Buildings on Merrion Street and Department of Health on Baggot Street. "The purpose of this route is not to protest. It is a final and departing effort to encourage those within to hold a mirror up to the organisations and agencies that they preside over politically and practically. "Moreover, it is a request to those organisations and agencies to commit to ensure that Emma's tragic situation will never happen to another Irish mother or Irish woman again. Whilst Emma was at odds with institutions and the agencies her decision to pass by them should not be interpreted as a personal criticism of any one individual but rather the institutions within. They said that if people wish to pay their requests to Emma, they should do so "as a mark of recognition of the unquestionable and valuable contribution that she has undoubtedly made to the future health of the women of Ireland for generations to come". "The final part of Emma's journey will be to Aras an Uachtrain as a mark of her personal appreciation to President Michael D Higgins and to thank him for all of his during Emma's final months." The funeral cortege with a guard of honour from the local GAA club at the funeral mass for Emma Mhic Mhathuna at Seipeal na Carraige, Baile na nGall, Co Kerry. Picture Dan Linehan Emma Mhic Mhathuna to be laid to rest CervicalCheck campaigner Emma Mhic Mhathuna will be laid to rest in Co Kildare today. A second funeral mass will take place for the 37-year-old in Dublin, following yesterday's service in Ballydavid, Co Kerry. Emma Mhic Mhathuna was one of the 221 women with cervical cancer who were given incorrect smear results. She passed away on Sunday at University Hospital Tralee. She is the 21st woman to have died in the wake of the cervical check controversy, with her second funeral mass due to take place at 12:45 this afternoon at St Marys Pro Cathedral in Dublin. The remains of the mother-of-five will then pass by Leinster House and Government Buildings before being taken to Laragh Bryan Cemetery in Maynooth in Kildare for burial. It has been reported that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has requested that the flag over Government Buildings be lowered to half-mast as a mark of respect to Ms Mhic Mhathuna and all the women and families who have been affected by the controversy. U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Nikki Haley meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his office in Jerusalem, June 7, 2017. "She's done a fantastic job, and we've done a fantastic job together", Trump said, adding that Haley has been "very special to me". The announcement was news to many congressional Republicans involved in foreign policy matters, and some key US allies did not get advance word from Haley or the White House. The reasoning behind her resignation is not yet known. He said of the Trump administration: "I'm convinced that there's a lot of fakery going on right now, in terms of what's being done versus what is said to be done". The move will raise speculation about her political future. She said that since the 2016 presidential election the United Nations had started to "respect" the U.S. again. Teasing an announcement in the Oval Office this morning, Trump called Haley "my friend". White House officials had sought to put a hold on record-setting administration turnover in the run-up to the November 6 elections, with aides being asked months ago to step down or commit to stay through Election Day to avoid adding to a sense of turmoil. With news of Nikki Haley's surprise departure from her role as ambassador to the U.N., Republican lawmakers and other ambassadors took time to praise her leadership and "moral clarity" in her Cabinet role. Trump said Haley first discussed leaving the administration with him six months ago. He insisted later that the delegates were laughing with him, not at him. Though Haley advanced Trump's policies, she occasionally made public statements at odds with the White House and the president she served. "It has been the honor of a lifetime", Haley said. "So Nikki, I just wanted to tell you we'll miss you", he said. Mrs Haley was confirmed as USA envoy to the United Nations in January 2017. She cited USA action on Syrian chemical weapons, trade deals, the arms embargo in South Sudan, U.N. sanctions against North Korea, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Haley has since responded that she intends to vote and campaign for the President in his 2020 reelection bid. Haley, who has been one of Trump's most trusted advisers, would not confirm the report to Reuters when asked about it during a visit to the White House on Tuesday. "It was a blessing to go into the United Nations with body armor every day and defend America", she said. "I proudly serve in this administration, and I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country", Ms Haley wrote. Haley's name quickly rose to the top when it came to potential authors of the op-ed - given her well-established independence within the administration - but she issued perhaps the strongest rebuke of the author in an op-ed of her own. "Nikki Haley has been a clear, consistent, and powerful voice for America's interests and democratic principles on the world stage". The former Republican governor of SC has been known to clash with Trump's views on several issues. Ms. Haley, the former governor of SC, will depart the envoy role after representing the United States on the Security Council since January of 2017. CREW reports that all three men donated to Haley's campaign when she was running for re-election to be governor of SC. The daughter of immigrants from India, Haley favoured free markets and global trade and earned worldwide attention for speaking out against the Confederate battle flag in the aftermath of the 2015 massacre at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina. On Monday, a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked the State Department's inspector general to investigate the ethics of Haley accepting seven flights for herself and her husband on private planes owned by three SC businessmen. As ambassador, Haley was an outspoken and often forceful envoy - someone whom foreign diplomats looked to for guidance from an administration known for haphazard and inconsistent policy positions. She had served as the Governor of SC for six years during a particularly rough time for the state and dived straight into the U.N job that she did for two intense years, and also she said there are no "personal reasons" for her leaving, she indicated it was time for her to attend more to her family, which includes two young children, Rena and Nalin. By Ann O'Loughlin RTE and businessman Declan Ganley have each alleged failure by the other to make proper discovery of documents for the businessmans action claiming he was defamed in a Prime Time broadcast ten year ago. RTE deny the claim of defamation. The Court of Appeal today heard appeals by Mr Ganley and RTE over various orders made by the High Court in early 2017 arising from discovery disputes. The Appeal Court president Mr Justice George Birmingham, sitting with Ms Justice Mary Irvine and Ms Justice Marie Baker, said the court was reserving judgment. The judges earlier agreed to watch the November 2008 Prime Time broadcast after Paul OHiggins SC, for RTE, said that would assist in deciding the issues in the appeals. In proceedings initiated in 2011, Mr Ganley claims the Prime Time programme defamed him in using words or innuendo which, he alleges, meant he had links to organised crime. He also claims the programme used words or innuendo meant he had falsely claimed to be a paid advisor to the Latvian government; was somehow involved in the death of a man with whom he had a close business relationship; caused a fund to lose the life savings of thousands of Albanian pensioners and was covertly working for the US Central Intelligence Agency and/or "an ill-defined group known as 'Neocons'. RTE denies defamation or that the words complained of mean what Mr Ganley alleges. It pleads the "sting" of the words, taken as a whole, was that Mr Ganley tended to make false or exaggerated claims in respect of business or other matters and it pleads truth or justification in that context. The appeals concern a judgment of the High Courts Mr Justice Max Barrett in February 2017. He refused RTEs application to halt, on grounds of alleged failure to discover documents, the defamation proceedings. He also refused Mr Ganleys application to strike out RTEs defence over its delay making discovery. Having found apparent deficiencies in Mr Ganleys own discovery to date, the judge made orders permitting RTE to cross-examine Mr Ganley over discovery issues. In submissions on Mr Ganleys appeal, Declan Doyle SC argued there should not be an order at this stage for a tactical cross-examination by RTE of Mr Ganley about discovery. Mr Ganley could explain defects in his discovery to date in affidavits, counsel said. RTE had flatly refused to make full discovery, he argued. The broadcaster was keeping documents from Mr Ganley in order to lay a litigation trap for him and the COA should uphold the High Courts refusal to allow RTE provide a form of sealed discovery. Paul Burns SC, also for Mr Ganley, argued aspects of RTEs defence should have been struck out, including pleas Mr Ganley had a tendency to make false or exaggerated claims in business and other matters, which he denies. Counsel said there were a number of distinct defamations in the broadcast and the High Court wrongly dealt with RTEs defence to those in one bundle and as alternative meaning pleas. Mr OHiggins, with Luan O Braonain SC, for RTE , said Mr Ganley had failed to make honest discovery of documents, including material relating to a mobile phone contract for Iraq. In those circumstances RTE wanted the COA to make an unusual order permitting the broadcaster to provide sealed documents to the court which Mr Ganley cannot access until he has made discovery as sought by RTE. RTE is entitled to plead any alternative meaning provided it accords with the sting of something complained about by Mr Ganley, he argued. Mr Ganley has carefully selected bits of the programme and wrongly maintains RTE is not entitled to contend the broadcast, when taken as a whole, was accurate, he submitted. Sean Maguire says he's ready to put a "frustrating" year of injuries behind him and "kick on" for both the Republic of Ireland and his club Preston. The Kilkenny native has recovered from two hamstring injuries and is in contention to play for Ireland against Denmark in the Nations League on Saturday. Goals have been thin on the ground in recent games for Martin O'Neill's side, and the former Cork City striker is hoping to seize the chance if called upon this weekend. He said: "I feel there is an opportunity for one of the new lads coming in that only have a couple of caps to stake a claim in the starting 11 and claim a jersey for each international trip. "Hopefully, if I do get that opportunity, I can step up to the plate and play a crucial part, either by coming off the bench or starting a game." Maguire has only managed one brief appearance off the bench for his club since recovering from a serious hamstring problem. Republic of Ireland boss, Martin O'Neill said: Somebody who has had a bit of history as Seanies had in the last 14 or 16 months with hamstring problems, the last thing they (Preston) want to see is him coming in off 15 minutes at club level, finding him playing for us at a big level, and his hamstring going again, as they need him. "But he has been back, as Seanie said, a number of weeks and they finally put him in there as sub, so I will really have to consider that and see if he can play a cameo role for us." Gareth Bale looks set to win his fitness battle and play for Wales against Ireland next Tuesday. The star forward suffered a recurrence of a groin injury in Real Madrid's defeat to Alaves last weekend and he is expected to sit out Wales' friendly against Spain tomorrow. However, the Welsh management are reportedly upbeat about Bale's chances of recovering in time for next week's Nations League clash at the Aviva Stadium. A decorator in England has been given a community order after using his son's "Super Soaker" water gun to spray paint on a homeless man who died days later. Michael Cash, 32, was found dead days after being sprayed by Aaron Jones outside a Tesco store on Normanby High Street, Middlesbrough. A court heard how the 33-year-old Jones, of Balmor Road, Middlesbrough, England, had taken a picture of the homeless man around a week prior to the attack, uploading it to Facebook with the caption: "About time this spice head got removed from the back of Tesco. Smile for the camera." Days later, Jones returned to the store and instructed a security guard to record him "having a laugh" with Mr Cash, claiming that he planned to spray him with a water pistol. The guard was then shocked to see the defendant retrieve a "Super Soaker" water gun, and refused to do any filming when he saw paint dripping from the toy. Prosecutors said that Mr Cash and the defendant remained silent throughout the attack, which, according to prosecutors, lasted "10 to 30 seconds". Upon being told by the security guard that his actions were "completely out of order", Jones is said to have responded: "Well, he won't be coming here now." The footage was later uploaded to social media and viewed by Mr Cash's sister shortly after his body was found in Eston Cemetery, Middlesbrough, on September 12. Cleveland Police have previously stressed that Mr Cash's death is not being treated as suspicious and that there is no connection between the paint attack and his passing. Appearing at Teesside Magistrates' Court in England today, Jones admitted charges of assault and criminal damage. He was handed an 18-month community order, and was told to pay costs totalling 270 (300). Jones did not comment as he left court wearing a green Frankenstein's monster-style mask. But when the Australian Banking Association commissioned its own review of bonus structures by the former public service commissioner, Stephen Sedgwick, his terms of reference explicitly excluded consideration of senior management. However, senior management sets the tone for all employees, as commissioner Kenneth Hayne noted in his interim report. If more junior employees should not be remunerated in this way, why should their managers and senior executives? he asked. Economists have long observed that humans respond to incentives, both monetary and non-monetary. Decades ago, Corporate Australia moved to start rewarding bosses not just with a base salary, but incentive payments, often comprising shares in their own company. This is designed to address the agency problem - that the interests of a company's managers may not necessarily be aligned with those of the shareholders. Loading In industries like retail, it is common for these incentives to be highly linked to customer service outcomes. But until very recently, bank executive bonuses have been strongly linked to indicators of profit, like total shareholder return or return on equity. The public likes to decry the multimillion-dollar salaries commanded by bank bosses, but international evidence suggests they are not wildly out of whack. Indeed, all of todays bank CEOs have taken pay cuts compared to their predecessors. The real problem with bank boss pay is the often complex hurdles executives must jump through to secure their bonuses and the potential 'perverse incentives' they can create. To truly see the problem, consider this example. Imagine you are a senior executive overseeing a part of your bank which finds it has been charging its customers fees but delivering no service tantamount to theft. Under consumer law, you know those customers will most likely require a refund and that will reduce profits. You must provision for that loss. But its a month or two before the end of the financial year and you realise that if you book the loss now, you will become ineligible for part of your bonus, or have it reduced. Do you book the loss now, or delay? Loading Banks are already busily tearing up their incentive structures for executives, as it has become clear just how they have rewarded short-term profit maximisation at the expense of long-term shareholder value creation a key part of which is safeguarding their reputation as trusted and law-abiding businesses. Bank boards are now seeking to give greater priority to so-called "non-financial" metrics of success. They have faced resistance from some shareholders - often at the behest of fund managers who get rewarded with their own annual bonuses only if their stock picks pay off. NAB Chairman Ken Henry recently announced an overhaul of executive pay which will remove a link to total shareholder return and introduce more discretion for his board to award bonuses. Commonwealth Bank recently down-weighted the importance of financial metrics in the calculation of executive pay. Senior counsel assisting the Hayne royal commission. Which raises the question: why not abolish them altogether? It is telling that the only financial sector executive to escape relatively unscathed from his royal commission appearance was AustralianSuper chief, Ian Silk, who draws a base salary of $800,000 a year. Shareholders, however, would likely revolt against such a move. In such an environment, it may be necessary for government to intervene - as it already has with the Banking Executive Accountability Regime, which requires bonus payments be delayed in some cases. Ideally, executives should be rewarded for maximising long-term shareholder value. In reality, measuring staff against this yardstick is an inherently tricky business, suffering from a lack of complete information. Measuring things like culture and customer experience is not easy. For example, an obsession with maximising "customer satisfaction" may discourage a CEO from admitting to - and provisioning for - misconduct, if it could damage brand perception in the short term. Overall, this royal commission has so far proved highly effective at demolishing the banks' traditional defence that misconduct is the result of just a few bad apples. Instead, it emerges that bankers are not themselves inherently bad people, but the incentive structures they face do indeed drive them to do bad things. The good news is that incentive structures can be fixed. Bulgarian TV journalist Viktoria Marinova was allegedly raped and found murdered in a park in Ruse city, Reuters reported on Monday. Marinova's killing has sparked an worldwide outcry, with European governments calling for a thorough investigation into her death. CPJ reported that the two reporters were detained by Bulgarian police in September. "There is physical evidence to link to the murder", Marinov said on Wednesday. A woman holds a candle next to a portrait of slain journalist Viktoria Marinova during a vigil at the Monument of Liberty in Ruse, Bulgaria, on Monday. But even as investigators worked to establish a motive and apprehend a suspect, competing narratives emerged about whether Marinova had been targeted for her journalism or whether she was the victim of a random crime. He quoted Mr Juncker as saying previously that "too many" journalists are being intimidated, attacked or murdered and that "there is no democracy without a free press". "It is about rape and murder", he said. Authorities discovered the body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova on Saturday in the northern town of Ruse near the Romanian border. Those details led to widespread speculation that Ms Marinova's death might have been linked to her work as a journalist. Marinova served as a member of the management team of the private television station TVN and hosted an investigative program. He said Marinova was linked to bivol.bg's investigations because its reporters had appeared on her show. Marinova is the third journalist to be murdered in Europe in the past 12 months after Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February and Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017. And even some of Marinova's fellow journalists were not convinced that she was killed because of her reporting. According to the Reporters Without Borders world press freedom index, Bulgaria ranks lower than other European Union member. Following the programme hosted by Ms Marinova, Bulgaria's interior ministry said prosecutors were investigating GP Group, a large construction company alleged to have misused the European Union money, and froze 14m in assets. He said there was no information that she had been threatened. The Bulgaria-based Association of European Journalists said reporters from small regional and local media are under particular pressure and even face threats from local businessmen and politicians, often leading to self-censorship. Fortescue Metals Group has announced a share buyback program of up to $500 million. The program will begin after the iron ore miner releases its quarterly report on October 25 and will remain in place for a period of up to 12 months. The buyback program does not need shareholder approval, the world's fourth-largest iron ore miner said in a statement. Fortescue chief executive officer Elizabeth Gaines. The share buyback program is a natural extension of our capital allocation focus which has now clearly shifted from debt reduction," Fortescues chief executive officer Elizabeth Gaines said. Former deputy chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Belinda Gibson says there is no conflict with her being named a director of logistics technology company GetSwift which is currently under investigation by the regulator. Belinda Gibson excited by growth prospects at GetSwift. Credit:Peter Braig GetSwift, the company that counts former AFL footballer Joel MacDonald as its co-founder and largest shareholder, announced on Wednesday it had appointed Ms Gibson as an independent director of the governance-challenged group. GetSwift chief executive Bane Hunter said Ms Gibson, who was deputy chair of ASIC between 2007 and 2013, had an exemplary track record as a director, legal adviser and was a leading figure on corporate governance. "Her extensive experience working with public companies will provide tremendous value to the company and its shareholders. Plunging global markets lopped $US99 billion ($140 billion) from the fortunes of the world's 500 wealthiest people, the year's second-steepest one-day drop for the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Amazon.Com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos lost $US9.1 billion ($12.9 billion), the most of anyone on the index, as shares of the online retailer fell the most in more than two years. The plunge lowered Bezos's net worth to $US145.2 billion, its lowest since July. Jeff Bezos had over $12b wiped off his net worth as Amazon shed 5 per cent on Wednesday. Credit:AP It was part of a horrific plunge on the Nasdaq index, which suffered its worst day in two years, the index finishing over 4 per cent lower. Apple gave up 4.6 per cent to $US216.36 and Microsoft dropped 5.4 per cent to $US106.16. Amazon skidded 6.2 per cent to $US1,755.25 and Alphabet, Google's parent company, gave up 4.6 per cent to $US1,092.16. Ill winds arent supposed to blow anybody any good but the US trade conflict with China and its reimposition of sanctions on Iran appear to be producing significant windfalls for some key commodity producers. In the past month both BHP and Rio Tintos share prices have spiked almost 12 per cent as iron ore, metallurgical coal and oil prices have risen markedly. Copper, while well below its highs earlier in the year, has also risen about 7 per cent while metallurgical coal prices rose 6 per cent just last Monday. Tariffs and sanctions are producing windfall gains for bulk commodity and oil producers. Credit:Nick Cubbin For both companies, iron ore is their key profit-driver. A $US1 a tonne movement in the price has a $US227 million impact, either way, on BHPs earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, while Rio has said a 10 per cent movement impacts its EBITDA by almost $US1.1 billion. Given that BHPs average realised iron price last financial year was $US56.71 a tonne and the price is now above $US70 a tonne, theres billions of dollars of incremental cash and earnings for both companies if the price gains are sustained. More than one third of companies that had data breaches in the last quarter passed on private customer information because of simple human mistakes, according to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Acting deputy commissioner Andrew Solomon told an audience at the Australian Cyber conference on Wednesday that eight months into the country's mandatory notifiable data breach scheme, it was clear businesses must work on the "human element" of systems breaches. Andrew Solomon, Acting Deputy Commissioner, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Australia's mandatory data breach reporting scheme came into effect in February and includes all organisations covered by the Privacy Act, including businesses with turnover of $3 million or more. These organisations must tell the information commissioner if they experience a hack that involves a privacy breach that could cause serious harm to customers. As the 2018 Nobel prize for economics was awarded to two researchers linking economics to climate change, we are once again reminded to listen to the science. Yet when it comes to religion, the same voices hardly whisper their acknowledgment of the research that shows positive outcomes to individuals and society. Responding robustly to the Ruddock review on religious freedom will be an opportunity for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to express his personal convictions. Credit:AAP This blind spot is starting to emerge on radio and in newspapers following Prime Minister Scott Morrisons support for greater protections against religious discrimination and having notably abstained in the same-sex marriage vote. Responding robustly to the Ruddock review on religious freedom will be an opportunity for the Prime Minister to express his personal convictions and build credibility among conservatives, but most importantly acknowledge that religion is good for society. When he does, expect to hear experts in various fields not related to the study of religion and opinionated commentators snidely remark on his Pentecostal beliefs, dismiss religion as being an unhealthy delusion, refer to the royal commission into child sexual abuse, decry church wealth and blame religion for the worlds wars. They wont admit what a growing amount of research supports religion is good for you and the community. Transport Minister Andrew Constance has turned up the heat on Spanish construction company Acciona to complete Sydney's bungled $2.1 billion light rail line early next year by insisting the remaining work is relatively minor and straightforward. Returning fire a week after Acciona fronted an inquiry into a project which has become a political liability for the government, Mr Constance said there was not actually too much left of the civil construction to finish but the contractor had a lack of people working on it. Transport Minister Andrew Constance says Acciona should finish the light rail line by early next year. Credit:David Porter There's no doubt that on the basis of what's left, it should be done by the first quarter of next year. And that's where that May 2020 date starts to come a little bit laughable, and I believe is designed to anger and in many ways frustrate the community, he said. Acciona warned last week at the parliamentary inquiry that the 12-kilometre line is now unlikely to be opened until May 2020 14 months later than the original schedule because power company Ausgrid needs to shift overhead lines at Kensington and Kingsford. A Clayfield man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing two people in their Gold Coast home. About 7am on Wednesday, police were called to an address on Kalabri Court at Worongary, where a 23-year-old woman and 55-year-old man were allegedly stabbed by a 24-year-old man armed with knives. The man was found a short time later at Beechmont. The 24-year-old, who was known to the man and woman, broke into the house and assaulted them before fleeing, police allege. Officers found the man at Beechmont a short time later. Emails sent almost three years ago revealed the Brisbane City Council was aware of alleged "unlawful activities" involving IT staff, despite lord mayor Graham Quirk denying knowledge of the allegations in August. On August 23 the council sought an urgent meeting with Indian technology company HCL, which provides IT services to the council, amid allegations of wage theft. The spokesman said lord mayor Graham Quirk had not been made aware of the email as the IT worker requested whistleblower protection. Credit:Bradley Kanaris The Services Union secretary Neil Henderson alleged Indian workers brought to Australia by HCL had been working extraordinary hours, including no weekend or public-holiday rates or overtime, equating to thousands in unpaid hours. When Cr Quirk was asked about this at a council meeting on August 28, he said the council had not been aware of any exploitative practices in relation to HCL. Police believe an 88-year-old man missing since Monday morning hitched a ride with someone in Ballan, about 80 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, before disappearing. Missing 88-year-old Albert Smith. Credit:Courtesy of Ballarat Courier As the search for Albert Smith becomes even more desperate, his distraught family continue to plead for information. Moorabool Inspector Brendon McCrory said police had exhausted all its search resources, and turned to the public on Wednesday afternoon to help search for the elderly man. We are looking for another avenue to start the search from again," he said. "We just need another sighting from which he might act. The Hurricane Center predicts risky surf conditions will start to appear along the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday. Lowndes County can expect "at least" 40 miles per hour winds, with gusts to hurricane strength, and three to five inches of rain when the storm moves through the county Wednesday, said Kelly Godsey, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Tallahassee, Fla., office. The National Hurricane Center announced a tropical depression had strengthened. Michael is expected to move north through the Gulf early this week before turning northeast toward the Florida Panhandle. Leslie was moving east-southeast at 13 miles per hour. It's forecast to become a major hurricane sometime Tuesday and should make landfall Wednesday afternoon or evening, likely between Pensacola in the far western Panhandle and Apalachicola, directly south of Tallahassee on the coast. Storm surge projections are in excess of 8 to 12 feet. Hurricane and Storm Surge Watches have been issued for parts of the Florida Gulf Coast, please monitor the National Hurricane Center and your local National Weather Service office for details as it relates to the protection of life and property. Even on the low end this will become a unsafe storm. Tropical storm conditions are possible in the watch area tonight and on Monday. The storm was moving north at 12 miles per hour and strengthening with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour. Today's forecast for Palm Beach County includes a 20 to 30 percent chance of rain with highs in the upper 80s. A Hurricane Watch has been issued from the Alabama-Florida border eastward to the Suwannee River. Since the storm will spend two to three days over the Gulf, which has very warm water temperatures and favorable atmospheric conditions, "there is a real possibility that Michael will strengthen to a major hurricane before landfall", Robbie Berg, a hurricane specialist at the Miami-based storm forecasting hub, wrote in an advisory. "This storm will be life-threatening and really risky". NHC forecasters say that a northward motion at a slightly faster forward speed is expected through Tuesday night, followed by a northeastward motion on Wednesday and Thursday. Gulf Coast of Florida from the Okaloosa/Walton County Line to Anclote River. Then, wind shear will become weaker and Michael will become stronger. At this time of year wind shear can tear storms structures apart, but some meteorologists are suggesting that wind shear will be lower than normal, providing an environment more conducive to intensification and for the storm to maintain its structure over the coming days. The declaration will free up resources for storm preparation. Heavy rains and storm surge will also be a concern. Australian researchers studying a cosmic whodunit have captured some of the closest and brightest examples of an extremely powerful and mysterious intergalactic phenomenon using telescopes in WAs Mid West. And in doing so, they hope to shine a light on the enduring mystery of the make-up of our universe that has confounded physicists for decades. Fast radio bursts are radio signals lasting only milliseconds, shot across the universe with more energy than our sun puts out over the course of 80 years. Curtin University senior lecturer Dr Jean-Pierre Macquart. Credit:Cameron Myles They are immensely powerful and have been spotted all over our night sky but scientists still have no idea what causes them, or just where they come from. Palu, Indonesia: Indonesian authorities say at least three people have been killed and four injured after a powerful earthquake struck near the popular tourist island of Bali on Thursday. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster agency BNPB, wrote on Twitter that several houses were also damaged in the magnitude 6.0 earthquake that shook Bali and East Java. The country is still reeling from an earthquake and tsunami last month that killed at least 2045 people, with up to 5000 still missing. The International Monetary Fund and its sister lending organisation, the World Bank, are holding annual meetings attended by international delegations on Bali until Sunday. Also on Thursday morning a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck remote New Britain island in Papua New Guinea, the United States Geological Survey says. Sao Paulo: The front-runner in Brazil's presidential runoff announced on Wednesday that he will skip the first TV debate before the October 28 election as he recovers from being stabbed. Doctors for far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro said he was not fit enough to participate in Thursday's debate. He has skipped other debates since being stabbed at a September 6 campaign rally before the opening round of the presidential contest. Brazilian presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, of the Social Liberal Party. Credit:AP Bolsonaro, who left the hospital September 29, won Sunday's first round by getting 46 per cent of the votes. He was followed by left-leaning Fernando Haddad at 29 per cent, and they advanced to the runoff. Bolsonaro's doctors said he will have another physical evaluation October 18, and a decision will be made then on whether he will be able to show up at remaining debates. Latest News "The brokers have been instrumental": PEXA looks back after 10m transactions Conveyancing giant looks back after 10m transactions milestone How Frollo are powering the AFG x Volt app How a neobank, a fintech and one of Australia's biggest aggregators are building 'Australian first' app Focusing on customer outcomes as the heart of long term success for the mortgage broking industry was a key theme at a recent aggregator conference. The 2018 PLAN Australia National Conference was held in Fremantle and included a range of speakers including three-time Australian Paralympic Gold Medalist Kurt Fearnley and demographer Mark McCrindle. CEO of the group, Anja Pannek, said brokers came from across the country for this years conference, which provided them with information, tools and guidance. Brokers were also given the opportunity to take part in workshops covering practical approaches to productivity, compliance fundamentals and business planning. Pannek said, We were deliberate in our approach to focus on customers this year who are and will always be at the heart of long-term success for the mortgage broking industry. We all want to be successful in our businesses: its what drives us, its what makes us better professionals and even more successful in working with customers. Success is about setting goals and achieving them, but its also about constantly challenging ourselves to raise the bar. Pannek said PLAN Australia is in a strong position to talk on success, with 2018 set to be a record year. We recorded lending settlements of $18billion and $1.9billion for commercial settlements in the 2017/18 financial year, she added. In June and July 2018 we had two record settlement months, not just for the year but in our history. This success all comes down to our members and our relentless focus on knowledge sharing, training and education. Highlighting its focus on broker education, last year PLAN partnered with Stanford Graduate School of Business to offer its brokers the opportunity to expand their skills during a six-month strategic leadership program. As part of the course, 13 brokers attended workshops at the universitys campus in California for a week in January 2018. Throughout the year, PLAN Australia also conducted a broad spectrum of face-to-face and digital events and activities. Pannek said, We achieved record attendance at our residential and commercial Digital Professional Development days, produced a broad range of webinars viewed by thousands of members and launched our first 100/100 Boardroom Series bringing together growth oriented brokers at our national series. This program focussed on assisting brokers to build a customer value proposition, enhance productivity in their businesses, and ways to grow their team. We understand our members time is precious, so our focus for 2018 has been on providing educational experiences which deliver tangible insights that members can embed back into their businesses. Pannek said that PLAN would continue to build on its award-winning training and development program in 2019. That includes continuing its Digital PD Day agenda, conducting a face-to-face commercial broking series across the country and building on the success of its first 100/100 Boardroom Series. The conference also included a gala awards dinner where PLAN held its Excellence in Business Awards. Peter Clark of Beckmitch Consulting won the 2018 CEO Achievement award in recognition for his contribution to the industry, and PLAN Australia. WA broking firm Launch Finance won in the Diversification category. Wealthfolio from Queensland picked up the Customer Service category. The Local Loan Company won the Community category. Nectar Mortgages took out The Business of the Year award. We congratulate all our winners, who have demonstrated and delivered excellent outcomes for their clients against a complex regulatory backdrop. I am incredibly optimistic about where we are headed as an industry both now and in the future, Pannek said. Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC Its open season! Nearly 30 architectural marvels throughout Kings County will open to the public for free visits on Oct. 1214 as part of the 16th annual Open House New York Weekend. The wide variety of available tours represents the boroughs storied past and promising future, said the organizations executive director. The range of sites that will be open in Brooklyn during Open House New York Weekend both new and old gives the public a chance to experience firsthand how the borough is changing, and hopefully better understand where weve been and where were going, said Gregory Wessner. Here are a few borough spots where you need no ticket just stop on by this weekend. Fine Dime-ing Start your Saturday stroll with a tour of Dime Savings Bank, a Gilded Age landmark Downtown, topped with an ornate domed roof and supported by red marble columns made from stone imported from ancient Greek quarries. The neo-Classical structure built in 1908 offers a blend of old and new architecture, since the tour will also offer a sneak peek at the attached 73-story, 1,066-foot bronze and glass residential tower, which will be the boroughs tallest tower when it is complete. Dime Savings Bank (9 DeKalb Ave. at Fleet Street Downtown). Oct. 13 from noon4 pm. Free. A very fine House Visit the Old Stone House, a 1933 reconstruction of the VechteCortelyou House, a Dutch family farmhouse that was the site of the final fight of the 1776 Battle of Brooklyn the largest battle of the Revolutionary War and the former clubhouse of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The House features a permanent exhibition on the Battle of Brooklyn, and currently hosts the art exhibit For Which It Stands, a reflection on national flags. The Old Stone House (336 Third St. between Fourth and Fifth avenues in Park Slope, www.theol dston ehous e.org ). Oct. 13, 9 am5 pm. Free. Go Clubbing On Sunday, take in the opulence and rich history of Park Slopes Montauk Club. The stately, stained glass-covered building has served as a private social club for the last 130 years. The club did not admit women until the 1960s, but anyone can drop by this Sunday afternoon! Montauk Club (25 Eighth Ave. at Lincoln Place in Park Slope). Oct. 14 from noon4 pm, with tours every 30 minutes. Free. High Five! End your weekend with a pint at Five Boroughs Brewing Co., a gigantic beer production facility in Sunset Park with an attached taprooom located inside a former steel fabrication plant. Take a tour and learn how the brewers built the factory, and how they turn yeast, malt, and hops into their signature brews. Shoes with closed toes are required , since the site is an active brewing spot. Five Boroughs Brewing Co. (215 47th St. between Second and Third avenues in Sunset Park). Oct. 13 and 14 at 1 pm, 2 pm, and 3 pm. Free. Open House New York (www.ohny.org). Oct. 1214 at various locations and times. Reach reporter Julianne McShane at (718) 2602523 or by e-mail at jmcsh ane@c ngloc al.com . Follow her on Twitter @juliannemcshane. Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC 60th Precinct Coney IslandBrighton BeachSeagate Teen robbery Cops cuffed two teenagers for allegedly robbing another teen on Neptune Avenue on Sept. 21. The 15-year-old victim was buying breakfast at a fast food restaurant near W. Sixth Street at 9:30 am when five teens allegedly threatened him with a knife and took the wallet, according to police. The victim also told police he believes the suspects attend his school. Stun and run A group of kids attacked and robbed a boy on Ocean Parkway on Oct. 3. The victim told police he was outside his school near Mitchell Wesson Place at 2:35 pm when five to six kids hit his chest with a possible stun gun, kicked him in the face, and stole his iPhone and ID card, police reported. Elderly assault Police arrested a man who they say assaulted an elderly man on Brightwater Court on Oct. 3. The suspect allegedly punched the victim in the back of the neck, kicked him in the back, and pushed him onto a nightstand, causing scratches and pain, near Brighton First Road at 10 pm. According to police, the victim has a restraining order against the suspect, and the suspect also has an active warrant. Bodega bandit A sneak swiped mans wallet on Brighton Beach Avenue on Sept. 25. He was shopping at a grocery store near Brighton 11th Street at 4 pm when he noticed someone had stolen his black wallet from his back pocket, according to authorities. Boardwalk crook A thief took a sleeping mans belongings on the Riegelmann Boardwalk on Oct. 2. His wallet and iPhone were stolen while he was sleeping on a bench near Coney Island Avenue at 7:30 pm, according to police. Liquor store looter Someone stole a mans phone on Brighton Beach Avenue on Oct. 3. The victim told police he was helping a customer in a liquor store near Brighton Second Street at 10:50 am when he noticed his iPhone X was gone, police reported. Backpack brigand A nogoodnik swiped two teenagers backpacks from the Riegelmann Boardwalk on Oct. 5. The victims left their backpacks near W. 16th Street at 5:40 pm to go for a walk on the pier, and when they returned, they found their unattended book bags, which contained their iPhones and wallets, were gone, according to police. Honda thief A baddie drove off with a mans car parked on Brighton Fourth Street on Oct. 1. He told police his son parked his Honda Odyssey near Brighton Third Lane at 9:30 pm and when the son returned, the car was missing, according to the police report. Ford filcher A thief took off with a mans car from its Oceanview Avenue spot on Sept. 30. The victim told police he parked his black Ford near Brighton Sixth Street at 4 pm and went to a restaurant. When he returned, his vehicle was missing, cops said. Brianna Kudisch Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC They want their voices heard. State Sen. Marty Golden (RBay Ridge) and his fellow Senate Republicans must pass the more-than-decade-old Child Victims Act extending the statute of limitations to allow survivors of child sex abuse to come forward with their claims as adults, demanded protesters and sex-assaults survivors at a press conference organized by Goldens Democratic opponent, Andrew Gounardes, outside the incumbents Fifth Avenue district office an Oct. 9. Gounardes said that adult survivors of childhood sexual assault have a right to seek justice especially now, with the #MeToo movement and following Dr. Christine Blasey Fords allegations of sexual assault against newly named Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It is more important than ever that we believe survivors, we hear their stories, and that we give them every opportunity under the law to seek justice, Gounardes said. The state Assembly has passed the bill every year since 2006, while the Republican-controlled Senate has refused even to bring the bill to a vote. Current law prevents sex-abuse survivors from pursuing civil cases after they turn 23, and accusers in cases against public institutions have just 90 days to file a lawsuit. The Child Victims Act would extend the statute of limitations to age 50 in civil cases, and age 28 in criminal cases. New York is one of only four states along with Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi with statutes of limitation that restrict child-sex-abuse survivors from pursuing legal action. At least one in five girls and one in twenty boys is a victim of childhood sexual abuse, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime, and less than 40 percent of children reveal sexual abuse to someone else with nearly 40 percent of those disclosures revealed only to the childrens friends, meaning that most assaults go unreported to the authorities, according to Darkness to Light, an organization that works to prevent child sexual abuse. A Quinnipiac poll from earlier this year shows that New York state voters overwhelmingly support passing the Child Victims Act by 90 percent, with only 6 percent opposed. But Golden said that he didnt see an impetus to pass the bill in 2016, and recently threw his support behind a bill introduced by state Sen. Catharine Young (RUpstate) that would create a Child Victims Fund using public funds to compensate victims seeking financial settlements. But a Bensonhurst resident who spoke out at the press conference for the first time in public about a sexual assault she said she experienced 37 years ago said that publicly funded payouts would not give survivors the justice they deserve. [Golden] believes the Child Victims Fund is enough, and its not. They want justice, said Toni Franco. I wouldnt have wanted any [money]. The kids need to be heard. Their assaulters need justice. Franco, a registered Republican, added that she has consistently voted for Golden for 31 years, but said she would be voting for Gounardes in the Nov. 6 general election, in part due to Goldens lack of support for the Child Victims Act. I was a registered Republican for many years, and I always supported Marty Golden. I cannot support him anymore in good conscience, Franco said. He is putting the assaulters interests in front of the childrens interests. Another local at the press conference, Karen Tadross, has ties to both candidates: she lives across the street from Golden, and founded Bay Ridge Cares with Gounardes in 2012. Tadross said that her connections to both candidates made her feel uncomfortable protesting Golden, but she said she felt she had to be there on behalf of a family member who experienced childhood sexual assault, adding that she wanted the pol to do more than stroll the neighborhood and shake hands at events he sponsors. Marty Golden lives across the street from me. Were neighbors. And standing here outside of his office is extremely difficult. But I am past the point of keeping quiet for the sake of getting along, she said. I am past the point of being impressed with summer concerts and parades. Any senator can do any of those things. Theres been twelve years of inaction from our state Senate, and guess who has been there for all twelve years? Marty Golden. Golden declined to comment through a spokesman. Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC 88th Precinct Fort GreeneClinton Hill Anything for ice cream Police cuffed a guy for stealing a carton of ice cream from a Myrtle Avenue supermarket, and then punching an employee in the face on Oct. 4, police said. The suspect grabbed the Talenti ice cream from the freezer inside the market near Grand Avenue at about 6:10 pm, and when an employee tried to stop him, the suspect punched and elbowed him knocking out some of his teeth and then spit at him, according to authorities. Guns out A baddie swiped a teens phone and wallet after threatening him with a gun on Park Avenue on Oct. 2, police said. The victim told cops he was walking home near Hall Street at about 9 pm when the ruffian brandished a firearm and then grabbed his iPhone and wallet, with his identification card and debit card inside, officials said. Creeping up Police arrested a guy for tormenting an oldster and breaking into his Carlton Avenue apartment on Oct. 1. The 81-year-old victim told police the suspect broke into his apartment near Greene Avenue at about 3:30 pm and left a note on a piece of paper inside that caused alarm, officials said. Officers found the man outside and cuffed him. Biked away Some sneak stole a guys pricey bike on Lafayette Avenue on Oct. 5, police said. The victim said he locked up his carbon frame two-wheeler outside near St. Felix Street before going to see a movie at about 9 pm. When he returned to get his bike, he saw his ride was gone, according to authorities. Sneak thief A good-for-nothing snatched a womans purse from a bench inside a Flatbush Avenue subway station on Oct. 7, police said. The woman told cops she placed her bag down while waiting for a Brooklyn-bound 2 train inside the station near Fulton Street at about 2 pm, forgot about it for a few minutes, and when she went to grab it about 10 minutes later, it was gone along with her credit cards, health insurance, card, and New York state identification card inside it, police said. Wheres my car? A jerk rode off with a guys car parked on Carlton Avenue sometime overnight on Oct. 1, police said. The 40-year-old victim told cops he had parked his 2005 Kawa four-wheeler with New Jersey plates near Lafayette Avenue at about 11:15 pm, and when he went to get it the next morning, it was gone, officials said. Julianne Cuba Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC 78th Precinct Park Slope Childs play Cops arrested a 14-year-old girl for allegedly beating up another girl on Fifth Avenue on Sept. 26. The victim, 13, told police she was arguing with the suspect between Fourth and Fifth streets at 4:12 pm, and recalls the older girl shouting, b-, Im going to f you up. The girl then socked her once in the face, causing her to tumble to the ground, where she suffered some cuts and bruises, cops said. Cops arrested the suspect that day, charging her with misdemeanor assault, cops said. Bodega breakdown Police cuffed a man who they say went berserk inside a Fifth Avenue bodega after workers refused to sell him a loose cigarette on Sept. 29. The victim told police he was working the counter at the store between Bergen Street and St. Marks Place at 12:30 am, when the 24-year-old suspect demanded a loosie, and then started throwing merchandise after he was denied. At one point, the suspect allegedly hurled a shelf into the worker, leaving him with a bloodied nose, according to police, who arrested the man that day on misdemeanor assault charges. CU-Later A thief drove off with a mans 98 Honda CRV he left on President Street on Sept. 26. The victim told police he parked his four-door between Third Avenue and Nevins Streets at 7 pm, and returned three days later to find his ride stolen. No arrests have been made, and the case has been closed, cops said. Bike bandit Some crook rode off with a womans bike she parked outside her Plheums Place home on Sept. 23. The victim told police the suspect literally sawed through a gas lantern on the front yard to get to her bike between Garfield Place and Carroll Street at 9 pm. No arrests have been made, and the case has been closed, cops said. Sock suspect Cops busted a man for allegedly stealing hundreds of dollars worth of socks from a Flatbush Avenue department store on Sept. 24. An employee told police he spotted the suspect stuffing Polo socks into a bag at the big-box retailer near Atlantic Avenue at 5:56 pm, before attempting to slink past the register with his ill-gotten foot underwear. Police busted him that day, charging him with petit larceny, cops said. Colin Mixson "There are warnings for more than 300 miles (480km) of coastline", the National Weather Service tweeted, predicting that Michael would become a "large and unsafe hurricane". Michael was a Category 1 hurricane but could make landfall as a Category 3, and forecasters warned it could send down 10 to 30 centimetres of rain. Florida Gov. Rick Scott warned it was a "monstrous hurricane", and his Democratic opponent for the Senate, Sen. NPR and our member stations covering the storm want to hear about how you're preparing for the storm and what you're anxious about. The NHC said that it could hit anywhere along the Florida Panhandle or Florida Big Bend area. Authorities told residents along the affected areas of Florida's Gulf of Mexico coast that they had run out of time to evacuate and should hunker down. The hurricane was set to make landfall later on Wednesday on Florida's Panhandle and could drive sea water levels as high as 14 feet (4.3 meters) above normal in some areas, the center said. The hurricane is 90 miles south-west of Panama City as of 8am eastern time. A tropical storm warning was issued from Fernandina Beach Florida to South Santee River South Carolina. Wind shears are winds which impact the sides of a hurricane and can weaken or sometimes dissipate the storm. Any time a tropical system, and it's remnants, move north up the East Coast we need to be concerned here in ME for wind and rain. According to NHC, the worst storm surge is expected between Mexico Beach and Keaton Beach in Florida where nine to 13 feet of inundation is possible. A number mandatory evacuations have been ordered in Florida counties ahead of Michael. On Tuesday, Mr Scott said he activated 2500 Florida National Guard troops in preparation for the storm. "No one's going to survive" such a wall of water, he said. The neighbouring states of Alabama and Georgia have also declared a state of emergency. The storm, which formed off the coast of northern Honduras, has already killed at least 13 people in Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador after torrential rains triggered flash-flooding and landslides in Central America over the weekend. Late Monday, residents of far western Cuba were forecast to get up to eight inches of rain. US producers in the Gulf cut oil production by about 40 percent and natural gas output by 28 percent on Tuesday, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said. "In particular, both India and China continued to import crude from Iran, even though they had to cut down volumes significantly". Besides, New Delhi sought to get around the restrictions by supplying goods including wheat, soybean meal and consumer products to Iran in exchange for oil. Oil also dropped as investors focused on rising output from other producers, such as top exporter Saudi Arabia, to compensate for lower Iranian supplies. The announcement, the first indication Washington was considering such waivers, followed a Reuters report that India planned to lift some Iranian oil in November although it has been cutting back on Iranian imports recent months. International Olympic Committee and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) together have placed order for 1.25 million tonne (MT) of crude oil from Iran. Global benchmark Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were at $83.26 per barrel at 0352 GMT, down 90 cents, or 1.1 percent, from their last close. Speaking at "The Energy Forum" on Monday, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said two state refiners had placed orders for importing oil from Iran in November. The Trump administration is open to allowing some countries to continue importing Iranian oil, despite promises to tighten the screws on Tehran and any country that continues doing business with the Islamic Republic, according to US officials who confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that some nations may get a temporary pass from a cadre of new sanctions set to be imposed next month. "Any country that makes such claims. just wants to display its support for the U.S. sanctions against Iran", Zanganeh was quoted as saying. State owned oil and gas company, Indian Oil, was thought to be planning on purchasing 6 million barrels of Iranian oil next month, while Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals were set to buy 3 million barrels, Reuters reported on Friday, citing two unidentified industry sources. President Donald Trump has pulled the USA out of a historic 2015 accord with energy-rich Iran signed to curb the Islamic republic's nuclear programme in return for ending sanctions. Brent crude futures rose $1.09 to settle at $85.00 a barrel, a 1.30 percent gain. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on a visit to India in September that some waivers from the sanctions might be granted to countries buying Iranian oil, but only if they agreed to cut their imports to zero. The Indian basket represents the average of Oman, Dubai and Brent crude. The Minister also categorically stated that the government's directive to oil companies to absorb a Rs. 1 per litre hit to the price of petrol and diesel was not a reversal of the deregulation of oil prices. It added that the effective reversal of fuel price deregulation would also constrain future private sector investments in the sector. US online retail giant Amazon said sales jumped three times during the first 24 hours of the Great Indian Festival for 2018 compared to the same time period last year. The company said members of its Prime loyalty programme bought three times the number of early access products they did last year in the initial 12-hour period. That trend continued into the first day of Amazons festive sale. The first day of our open sale has been our biggest shopping day ever. Just to call out key milestones we estimate that we sold three out of four smartphones in the ... The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bhilai Steel Plant was removed and two other senior officials were suspended on Wednesday, a day after a blast at the plant which claimed the lives of 11 employees. This was stated by Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh after visiting the injured employees of the plant at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai town, located around 30 km from Raipur. On Tuesday, nine people had died and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at the plant of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Durg district. Of the 14 injured people admitted to the burns unit of the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai, two succumbed Tuesday late night, a public relations officer of the Bhilai Steel Plant earlier told PTI. CEO M Ravi has been removed with immediate affect while General Manager (safety department) T Pandya Raja and Deputy General Manager (energy department) Naveen Kumar have been suspended, Birender Singh told reporters. Earlier, Inspector General of Police (Durg Range) G P Singh had said that after receiving the postmortem report of the deceased, a case under the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) will be registered followed by an inquiry into the incident. Union Minister of State for Steel Vishnudeo Sai had said Tuesday that a four-member high-level committee was constituted by to probe the incident. The explosion had taken place in the gas pipeline connected to the coke oven section of the plant during a maintenance job, the had said. 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 Kerala-based and Diamonds is looking to invest Rs 70 billion to triple its retail footprint to reach 750 outlets and raise the group turnover to $7 billion by FY23, a senior company official said. "We have a global growth plan that will see the company triple its retail network from 250 showrooms this year to 750 outlets in the next five years with the Group turnover to $ 6.85 billion (Rs 50,000 crore) by 2023," Malabar Group chairman Ahammed MP told reporters here, on the eve of its silver jubilee celebrations. The company also plans to invest $ 960 million (Rs 7,000 crore) to manage the growth and expansion mainly through franchisee model, he added. The Malabar Group currently operates retail outlets spread across ten countries in the India, Middle East, Southeast Asia and America. In India, it plans to expand its footprint across all Tier I and Tier II cities in north and central India. Internationally, it is looking to start operations in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Australia, Canada, and As much as 40 per cent of the group turnover will be generated from the company's operations outside India, he said. It has no immediate plans to raise funds through initial public offer (IPO) but funds will be raised through bank loans and from its investors, Malabar Group India operations managing director, Asher O said. Malabar Group's retail expansion plan in north and central Indian states like Punjab, Maharashtra, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh will be supported by a new set of investors from these regions. It plans to expand its investor base from 2,752 and include more investors. "We will also continue to strengthen our retail foot print in the states where we currently have strong presence," Asher said. This will also see Malabar Group nearly double its headcount from 13,000 to 25,000 professionals on direct payroll within the next five years to manage the growth and expansion, he added. Asher pointed out that in order to manage the expansion and to fix the skill shortage in jewellery manufacturing, they are in the process of setting up a skill development centre to groom the youth. In the caffeine-fuelled festive sale battle for dominance in India's e-commerce space, Amazon drew first blood with its early access deals for loyal Prime customers. Just as the company was gearing up to open the sale to everyone in India last night, it said that Prime members had bought two times as many products in the first 10.5 hours of the sale when compared with the first day of its sale last year. Employees who stayed all night monitoring the performance of Amazon's Great Indian Festival sale to ensure there are no glitches, were really hoping that the Prime early ... Five months after the position fell vacant, India is appointing Sunil Bhaskaran its next chief executive officer (CEO). Bhaskaran, a lifelong employee of the group, is currently working as vice-president (corporate affairs) at Steel. The airline is also restructuring its board, with group CEO Tony Fernandes and deputy group CEO Bo Lingam stepping down. It is learnt that the airline will get Banmali Agrawala, who heads groups defence and aerospace business, as chairman, replacing S Ramadorai. In a late night statement, the airline announced the CEO appointment but did not respond to queries on the resignation of Fernandes and Bo Lingam from the board of directors. Sources have said the restructuring implies the Tatas will manage the India operations. This is for the first time that the airlines top appointments are being done without consulting Fernandes. Tata Sons and Tony Fernandes-owned AirAsia Bhd hold a 49 per cent stake each in the airline, while the remaining 2 per cent is held by Tata veterans S Ramadorai and R Venkataramanan. Referring to the restructuring as a clean-up act, a source said the move would be followed by Tata Sons increasing its shareholding to 51 per cent by buying out Ramadorai and Venkats stake. The (CBI) had in May named Fernandes, Bo Lingam, and Venkataramanan, managing trustee at Tata Trusts and director at AirAsia, in an FIR, alleging they paid money to middlemen for bribes to public servants for securing an air operators permit. While was under the scanner, theres been a delay in the Tata group's other airline venture, Vistara, getting the government nod for international flights. Officials denied any link between the two developments. "Bhaskaran is clearly not Fernandes choice. The new CEO will be asked to set up a team and steady the ship, said a person aware of the development. Despite Tata Sons having the right to appoint CEO, the choice has so far been made by Fernandes. Both former CEOs Mittu Chandilya and Amar Abrol had no experience to run airlines. Last year, Deepak Mahendra, a former executive of Tata Power, was appointed chief financial officer at The company currently doesnt have a COO. Fernandes is believed to have stepped down from the board on August 2, three days after the FIR linked to the airlines Indian business was filed. Bo Lingam resigned on September 4. An AirAsia India spokesperson didnt respond to queries. In the past, there have been differences among the AirAsia India board members over the choice of senior-level executives, a former official said. An exchange of emails reviewed by Business Standard shows that in 2015, Bharat Vasani, then chief legal counsel of Tata Sons, had raised objections about the selection of at least two senior executives. The objection was on grounds that executives were being hired without sufficient corporate experience. Since its inception in June 2014, AirAsia India has seen frequent top-level churn, including the exit of two chief executive officers and three chief commercial officers. Ltd (UML) Wednesday said it will seek shareholders' approval on November 10 with regard to the sale of its steel business to Tata Steel. The approval will be sought through special business in the extraordinary general meeting next month. "An extraordinary general meeting of the members of UML will be held... on November 10, 2018 to transact the...sale of the steel business undertaking of the company to Tata Steel as a going concern on a slump sale basis," UML said in a notice to the shareholders. Tata Steel earlier said it has executed definitive agreements for the acquisition of UML's steel business for Rs 43-47 billion through a slump sale on a going concern basis. ALSO READ: Usha Martin management proposes escrow on steel biz sale proceeds As per UML, the sale of its steel business to Tata Steel will help the company to significantly reduce its debt. UML's steel business comprises the specialised 1 million tonne per annum (MTPA) alloy based manufacturing capacity in long products segment based in Jamshedpur, a producing iron-ore mine, a coal mine under development and captive power plants, Tata Steel said. It is amongst the largest wire rope manufacturers in the world and a leading speciality steel producer in India. Google on Wednesday delivered a blow to app companies in India and elsewhere, issuing new directives that limit their access to sensitive user information. Access to SMS and call-logs will only be allowed for those apps that rely on such data for their core functionality, the Internet giant said in a blog post. Google said it may provide certain apps access if they re-apply for explicitly for the permissions, are transparent with users, and do not have an alternative way to deliver their service without reviewing SMSes or calls. Some Android apps ask for ... Khusela Diko, the president's spokeswoman, said the two men have discussed the matter. The President appointed a respected former governor of South Africa's central bank, Tito Mboweni, as the new finance minister. "This is very positive for South Africa because it shows how serious the new government under Cyril Ramaphosa is about dealing with corruption and even the perception of corruption and dishonesty", said Nathan, who was a leading analyst before he founded 10X, a disruptive asset manager. Ramaphosa "must apply the same consistency with other ministers who continue to serve in his cabinet like Malusi Gigaba, Nomvula Mokonyane, and Bathabile Dlamini", it said. Business Day on Monday reported that Nene had asked Ramaphosa to relieve him of his duties following public pressure over his testimony last week. "What the president has noted is the testimony that he submitted to the [commission]". Business Day newspaper said the minister made the request after acknowledging in a hearing that he had visited the Gupta family, friends of former leader Jacob Zuma accused of unfairly winning state contracts. Several ministers and government officials have been implicated in the widening graft scandals around the Guptas. Nene publicly apologised on Friday after failing to disclose the extent of his interactions with the Gupta family. The rand firmed, moments before Mboweni, was announced Finance Minister at a ceremony in Cape Town. The crisis over the finance minister had thrown a spotlight on Ramaphosa's promise to crack down on corruption and boost economic growth. At the graft inquiry, Nene accused Zuma of pushing policies created to benefit the Guptas, including a massive nuclear power expansion programme. "Public servants at all spheres and levels of government will have no obligation to responsibly manage state fiscal resources under a compromised minister of finance". "The Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement which is supposed to be a statement to build confidence among all important economic role players cannot and should not be delivered by a minister who was part of the Gupta criminal syndicate". "We have it on good authority that the current public revelations about your minister of finance are not complete". The office of the Public Protector said on Tuesday it would look into a complaint by the main opposition Democratic Alliance party about the investment, carried out when Nene was chairman of the fund and deputy finance minister. Two employees, who were critically injured in an explosion at the (BSP) in Chhattisgarh, succumbed to injuries at a hospital, taking the death toll in the blast to 11, an official said Wednesday. On Tuesday, nine people had died and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at the plant of the state-owned Limited (SAIL) in Durg district, located around 30 km away from. Of the 14 injured people admitted to the burns unit of the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai, two succumbed Tuesday late night, a public relations officer of the told PTI. "The two had received over 80 per cent burns," he said, adding that a few other injured people were also in a critical condition. The explosion had taken place in the gas pipeline connected to the coke oven section of the plant during a maintenance job, the had said. Of the nine people who died on Tuesday, six worked in the plant's energy management department, while three were employees of its fire brigade unit, the official said. Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh are scheduled to visit the hospital in Bhilai to see the injured people admitted there, an official said. They will also take stock of the incident from the plant management and the Durg district administration. Inspector General of Police (Durg Range) G P Singh had said earlier that after receiving the postmortem report of the deceased, a case under the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) will be registered followed by an inquiry into the incident. Union Minister of State for Steel Vishnudeo Sai had said Tuesday that a four-member high-level committee was constituted by to probe the incident. Adequate compensation will be given to families of the deceased, Sai had said, adding that the injured were being provided the best possible medical treatment. In June 2014, six persons, including two deputy general managers, were killed and many others affected when a poisonous gas leaked in the plant, he said. Following up on the verdict regarding the criminal antecedents of candidates, the Commission (EC) on Wednesday amended rules for declaration of criminal cases/ liabilities by the candidates and came out with a format for publishing media advertisement by them ahead of elections. The candidates, as well as the political parties, will now have to publicise the details of criminal cases pending against them or cases in which they have been convicted, in newspapers and on television on "at least on three different occasions". "The candidates at elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council, who have criminal cases against them, shall publish a declaration about their criminal cases for wide publicity in newspapers with wide circulation in the constituency area," the said in an order sent to the Chief Electoral Officers of all states and UTs as well as to all separately. The declaration is to be published in a given format "at least on three different dates" from the day following the last date for withdrawal of candidatures and up to two days before the date of poll. However, in the case of the declaration in TV channels, the same should be completed "before the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for conclusion of poll", the said. The declaration in newspapers should be published in font size of at least 12 and should be placed suitably in the newspapers so that the directions for wide publicity are "complied with in letter and spirit". "In the case of candidates with criminal cases set up by political parties, whether recognized parties or registered un-recognized parties, such candidates are required to declare before the Returning Officer (RO) concerned that they have informed their political party about the criminal cases against them. Provision for such declaration has been made in Form-26 in the newly inserted Item (6A)," the said. The candidates will have to submit the copies of the newspapers to the District Officer (DEO) concerned, along with the "account of expenses to be filed by them under Section 78 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951", the EC said. "It may also be noted that the provisions for the additional affidavit in respect of dues against government accommodation, if any, that may have been allotted to the candidates, have now been incorporated in Form-26 itself under Item (8) relating to liabilities to public financial institutions and government," the Commission said. The Gujarat State Human Rights Commission (GSHRC) issued notices Wednesday to the state chief secretary and the director general of police seeking reports on the attacks and exodus of Hindi-speaking migrant workers. The reports have to be submitted within 20 days, GSHRC chairperson Justice (retired) Abhilasha Kumari told reporters in Gandhinagar. The notices have been issued to Chief Secretary J N Singh and DGP Shivanand Jha, seeking reports from them on steps taken to ensure the safety of migrant labourers under attack in the state, she said. "They have been asked to clarify what steps are being taken to maintain peace (following attacks on migrants) in the state and for the safety of people who are being attacked," she added. Since the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district, around 100 km from Ahmedabad, on September 28, and the arrest of a labourer hailing from Bihar for the crime, six districts, most of them in north Gujarat, have seen sporadic incidents of violence against Hindi-speaking people. Ravindra Sahu, a labourer hailing from Bihar and working in a local ceramic factory, was arrested the same day for the toddler's rape. The migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh fled in thousands after attacks. Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said Tuesday that 533 people were so far arrested in this connection across the affected districts after 61 cases were filed. Congress president had earlier brought up the exodus of the Hindi-speaking migrants, saying youths from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are being attacked and forced to leave. However, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Tuesday asked whether Gandhi will take action against his party's "own members who incited violence against the migrants in Gujarat". The BJP has been blaming Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor and his outfit Gujarat Kshatriya-Thakor Sena for the outbreak of violence. After the alleged rape of the 14-month-old girl, who belonged to his community, Thakor had blamed in public a "non-Gujarati" for the crime. The exodus of Hindi-speaking migrants from Gujarat after attacks on them in several parts of the state showed no signs of abating on Tuesday. Police had intensified patrolling in areas near industrial estates and places where migrant workers stay in a bid to instil confidence among people. Shyam Singh Thakur, president of the Uttar Bhartiya Vikas Parishad, an outfit of north Indians in Gujarat, said Tuesday that more than 60,000 Hindi-speaking migrant labourers have fled the state so far. He claimed that people who had decided earlier to leave the state continue to board buses and trains. The Wednesday asked the Centre to provide details of the decision making process in the fighter jet deal with in a sealed cover but clarified that it does not want information on pricing and technical particulars. The bench, comprising and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, also made it clear that it was not taking into account the allegations on corruption in the deal made in the petitions. The Centre opposed the PILs in court and sought that they be dismissed on the ground that they were filed to gain political mileage. Attorney General K K Venugopal told the apex court that the issue in question pertains to security and such issues cannot be reviewed judicially. The apex court, however, did not issue notice to the Centre on two PILs filed by two separate lawyers seeking a court-monitored probe in the deal. The court sought information from the Centre on the decision-making process in the deal in a sealed cover by October 29 and fixed the next hearing on the PILs to October 31. The top court was hearing various petitions seeking directions, including asking the Centre to reveal details of the deal and the comparative prices during the UPA and NDA rule in a sealed cover to the apex court. Congress leader and RTI activist Tehseen Poonawala withdrew his PIL against the fighter jet deal. His plea had sought a direction against the Centre on why the Union Cabinet's approval was not sought as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) before signing the procurement deal with on September 23, 2016. The deal is a defence agreement signed between the governments of India and for the purchase of 36 fighter aircrafts in a fly-away condition as a part of the upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment. The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. Indian Air Force had advanced a proposal to buy 126 fighter in August 2007 and floated a tender. Following this, an invitation was sent to various aviation companies to participate in the bidding process. The central government has set up the Strategic Policy Group (SPG) headed by Advisor to assist the Council, which advises Prime Minister on matters of and strategic interests. As per reports, the other members of the SPG will include NITI Aayog vice chairman, a cabinet secretary, chiefs of the three defence services, RBI governor, a foreign secretary, a home secretary, a finance secretary and a defence secretary. The secretary of the Department of Defence Production and Supplies, scientific adviser to the defence minister and secretary (R) will also be members of the panel. The group will assist the and undertake among other tasks, a long-term strategic review of the country's security affairs. India requires more than just import curbs to narrow its current-account deficit. It needs to tap a new crop of measures, literally. Expanding agricultural exports such as soybeans and cotton to China by exploiting opportunities from a global trade war will help cut the deficit, economists at CRISIL Ltd. said. Soybeans are at the heart of the trade war between the U. S. and China and cotton isnt far behind. It puts India in a position to step up and fill the gap left by the U. S., according to economists Dharmakirti Joshi and Pankhuri Tandon. China is already the top ... The Centre is likely to finalise a revival package for the ailing in a month, a top official of the said Tuesday assuring "need-based" support to the debt-laden carrier. Civil Aviation Secretary, RN Choubey also said the safety audit that the Director General of Civil Aviation ordered on domestic airlines "did not find any backlog of any safety steps that they should have taken." "Whenever there is a need for financial support to Air India, it will be examined on need basis and such financial support on need basis will be provided. I only wish to tell you that all support will be provided. Air India's competitiveness and efficiency will not be compromised. We have nearly finalised the package and there will not be any problem for Within this month yes. Certainly," Choubey told reporters here. He was responding to a query about the revival package for He said the disinvestment of Air India may be possible only after the macroeconomic conditions and market conditions are favourable and expected that the airlines would improve its efficiency and operational capabilities. The official further said the rising fuel prices and sliding Rupee against Dollar, impacted the profitability of the industry during the past two quarters and the ministry was also working separately on various measures to support the airlines sector in general. "The intention is to bring down the cost. You must appreciate that the cost of operations has gone up because the rental has gone up on account of devaluation of Rupee and fuel prices have also led to the cost increase in operations. So our intention is to bring down the cost. Thats what we are wanting to provide," he said. On the crisis-hit Jet Airways, he said the carrier has not approached the government for any support and it (government) "is monitoring the situation. The warning comes as finance ministers and central bankers from the IMF's 189 member nations prepare to meet this week in Bali, Indonesia for the annual meetings of the fund and its sister institution, the World Bank. The US will also see its growth "decline" once its fiscal stimulus, delivered through wide-ranging tax cuts "goes into reverse" according to Mr Obstfeld. The International Monetary Fund has downgraded SA's GDP expansion forecast for 2018, joining the World Bank and the SA Reserve Bank in lowering growth projections. Growth estimates for the euro area and Britain also was revised down. The Federal Reserve, the USA central bank, has raised short-term US rates three times this year as the American economy gains strength more than nine years after the end of the Great Recession. "Securing US approval on the IMF Executive Board will require Pakistan to strike a fine geopolitical balance between the Trump administration's concerns over China's growing economic engagement in Pakistan and the country's bilateral commitments", said Bilal Khan, a senior economist at Standard Chartered Plc. "Notwithstanding the present demand momentum, we have downgraded our 2019 U.S. growth forecast owing to the recently enacted tariffs on a wide range of imports from China and China's retaliation". Earlier, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that it will provide $7.1 billion in financing to help Pakistan achieve inclusive and sustainable growth over the next three years. It left 2018 growth forecasts for the two countries unchanged at 2.9% for the United States and 6.6% for China. It left 2018 growth forecasts for the two countries unchanged at 2.9 percent for the US and 6.6 percent for China. It now expects the global economy to only expand by 3.7% in 2018 and 2019, down from 3.9% before. Pakistan's government had previously said seeking help from the International Monetary Fund was the last option and would prefer succour from friendly nations, widely interpreted as a reference to traditional allies China and Saudi Arabia. "Any sharp reversal for emerging markets would pose a significant threat to advanced economies", he added. The IMF warned that China's growth even risked declining by a full percentage point by next year in the event of a "worse-case" scenario, involving further tariffs coupled with a collapse in confidence by businesses and markets. Further moves towards a trade war could "significantly harm global growth". The London-based Capital Economics think-tank said last week that revenues of Saudi Arabia and the five other Gulf states are expected to rise by $200 billion this year compared to 2017 due to high oil prices and output. U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently accused China of manipulating its currency for a trade advantage. The stock of the bank has plummeted since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked Kapoor to exit as chief executive officer (CEO) by January 2019. If our rights are recognised, there is no need to continue fighting, said a source close to Madhu Kapur, wife of late Ashok Kapur, a co-promoter of the bank. How might the issue be settled and who made the first reconciliatory move? The stories differ in the two ... 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 Amazon.com Inc's machine-learning specialists uncovered a big problem: their new recruiting engine did not like women. The team had been building computer programs since 2014 to review job applicants' resumes with the aim of mechanising the search for top talent, five people familiar with the effort told Reuters. Automation has been key to Amazon's e-commerce dominance, be it inside warehouses or driving pricing decisions. The company's experimental hiring tool used artificial intelligence to give job candidates scores ranging from one to five stars - much like ... Hong Kongs expulsion of a British journalist after he led a foreign correspondents meeting with a pro-independence activist is, first and foremost, an attempt by Beijing to tamp down any dissent in the former British colony. Hong Kong officials have not given a reason for rejecting a journalist visa for Victor Mallet, the Asia news editor for The Financial Times. Chinas only comment has been that Hong Kong authorities are within their right to do so. But thats the typical legalistic evasiveness of authoritarian regimes when they do something they know is ... European Union nations, voicing concern over a UN report on global warming, agreed on Tuesday to seek a 35 per cent cut in car emissions by 2030, as Germany warned that overly challenging targets risked harming industry and jobs. Torn between reducing pollution and preserving industry competitiveness, EU environment ministers meeting in Luxembourg talked for more than 13 hours until nearly midnight to reach a compromise over what 2030 carbon dioxide limits to impose on Europe's powerful carmakers. "We saw a really complicated discussion," Europe's Climate ... Nikki Haley, who resigned as the US to the United Nations, has been a great advocate of the India-US relationship and actively engaged with Indian-Americans, according to eminent community members, who believe she would soon emerge in a stronger role given her nationwide popularity. Haley, the first-ever Indian-American in any presidential cabinet, surprised many when she announced her resignation on Tuesday. US has accepted the 46-year-old Haley's resignation. She will stay in the job till the year-end. Her successor will be nominated and hopefully confirmed by the Senate by that time. "Nikki Haley has been one the most successful Indian-American politician. She has been a relentless supporter of strong US- partnership," Mukesh Aghi of the US Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) said. "We will definitely miss her presence in the current administration where she was seen as a true champion of US- alliance. We also believe she will re-emerge soon in a stronger position because she has a very bright future," Aghi told Silicon Valley-based top Indian-American venture capitalist and philanthropist M R Rangaswami said Haley had actively engaged with the diaspora. ALSO READ: Why Nikki Haley will be rarest of Trump appointees to exit with dignity "Nikki Haley actively engaged with the Indiaspora community and listened to our issues and helped us. We fondly remember the interaction with her Sikh parents at the dinner we hosted for her in New York," he said. "We wish her well in her future endeavours!" Rangaswami added. As the highest ranking Indian-American in the Trump Administration, the first Indian-American to hold the position of the UN and the first Indian-American woman elected as governor, Haley has served the US with distinction, said the recently formed Indian-American Impact Project, a group of Indian-American philanthropists, community leaders, and political operatives. "We are proud of her service and leadership, and grateful that she has inspired countless Indian Americans aspiring to careers in public service and foreign service. We wish her the best in her future endeavours," it said. Haley did an outstanding job of representing the at United Nations, said Dallas-based eminent Indian-American Republican Ashok Mago. "Wish she had stayed for another couple of years. admired her outstanding work. She may not be running in 2020 to be but it is a matter of time. Hope eventually she will decide to run maybe in 2024," Mago said. "On behalf of all American Sikhs nationwide, we are proud of Nikki Haley, who was born to Indian Sikh Immigrants, for her work as the 29th to the United Nations; where she served with great respect and dignity," said Gurinder Singh Khalsa, of the Indiana-based SikhsPAC. "Her steadfast efforts throughout her career have broken barriers for all women. We are extremely proud of her and I personally feel that in the near future she may be the first woman president of the United States," Khalsa said. "We would like to commend Ambassador Haley on all she has accomplished in so many capacities. We are proud of her and wish her all the best in future endeavours," said Deepak Raj, co-founder of Impact, chairman of Pratham USA and founder of the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at Columbia University. According to Ranju Batra from New York, Haley has become a role model for women across the world who wish to work to make a better world. "Personally, as chair of the Diwali Foundation USA, Inc., I'm most grateful to Nikki for having the of America as a co-sponsor, in addition to 25 other nations, to our 2017 inaugural Diwali - 'Power of One' awards, that recognised six exceptional former Permanent Representatives and high ranking UN leaders," she said. The daughter of Indian immigrants from Punjab, Haley said she wanted to take a break after nearly eight years of hectic public life including six years as the governor of South Carolina. Born Nimrata "Nikki" Randhawa, Haley is latest Republican to exit the Nikki Haley's abrupt resignation as the US ambassador to the has sparked intense speculation about the moderate Republican politician's next move and the political complications she could still pose to President Donald Trump, US media reported Wednesday. In a sign of her rising profile, Haley on Tuesday simultaneously announced her resignation at the end of this year while also reassuring President Trump that she has no plans to challenge his reelection in 2020, the Washington Post noted. "No, I'm not running for 2020," the Indian-American politician said, seated next to the president in the Oval Office. "I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one. So, I look forward to supporting the president in the next election," she said. The blunt statement underscores both the loyalty demanded by Trump and the political complications Haley could pose to the president, the Post said. At 46, Haley has built her own political brand and has a long potential career ahead of her, it said. "The former South Carolina governor mixes homespun Southern charm with hard-boiled political savvy a daughter of immigrants boasting both executive experience in her home state and foreign policy chops from two years as one of Trump's top diplomats," the influential paper said. ALSO READ: Why Nikki Haley will be rarest of Trump appointees to exit with dignity "She's a rising star and he's king, so there's always an inherent tension there," the Post quoted Mike Murphy, a longtime Republican strategist and Trump critic, as saying. "Politically, any star in the party is a threat to Trump because in his Stalinesque way, there's only one sun god and it has to be Trump," Murphy said. The New York Times noted that Haley's resignation marked the departure of one of the few high-profile women in the Trump administration. The paper pointed out that Haley had been an early and frequent critic of Trump, but he named her to the job weeks after his election. "As ambassador, Ms. Haley has been an outspoken and often forceful envoy someone whom foreign diplomats looked to for guidance from an administration known for haphazard and inconsistent policy positions who emerged as something of a star amid the dysfunction of the president's first national security team," the prominent American newspaper commented. People close to Haley insisted there was nothing behind her decision other than fatigue after nearly two years in a rigorous job, the report said. She also wanted to make her decision known before the mid-term election next month to avoid the potential for an embarrassing departure if the vote were to go against the president, it said. "Ms. Haley's joint appearance with Mr. Trump and his effusive praise for her made her a rarity among officials departing the Trump administration, whom he often criticises as they go out the door," the New York Times said. A leading newspaper in Haley's home state said her decision to leave her post has sparked intense speculation in South Carolina about her next move. Without being asked, Haley wearing her signature necklace, featuring the South Carolina state flag's palmetto tree and crescent quickly threw cold water on any speculation that she will challenge Trump in 2020, The State said. It noted that Haley also made it clear that she would not challenge Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of Seneca in 2020. Graham said Tuesday that Haley was a "clear, concise voice for American leadership, American values and has been a true agent of reform when it came to the " " has a very bright future and will be a key player in both the future of the Republican Party and our nation as a whole for years to come," he said. Republican observers say joining the private sector now is a smart move for Haley, who, having spent most of her career in public office, has little money. Haley leaves her UN post with up to $ 1 million in debt, The State reported, quoting a 2017 financial disclosure. CNN commented that Haley is getting out of the Trump administration with her stature elevated and political prospects brightened -- not something that could be said for most top political power players who leave the President's reputation-crushing fold. As she sat smiling beside Trump, their unusual photo op, and the generosity of a President whose good mood may owe much to his current political roll, suggested Haley has the essential ingredient of high-flying political careers -- timing. Outshining the showman in chief in her Oval Office goodbye on Tuesday, Haley pocketed a valuable endorsement for a political career no one thinks is over, it said. If Trump loses re-election in 2020, Haley would be immediately at the top of the list of potential Republican candidates for 2024, it said. Whatever happens in 2020, and given the Republican Party's current plight among female voters, it is likely that future leaders will be looking to close the gender gap. Haley's timing could be spot on again, if Republicans go searching for a female candidate who is popular, is experienced as a governor, has a foreign policy resume, is well regarded by Trump voters and comes from a crucial early primary state, the report said. Japans SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) is in talks to take a majority stake in shared office space provider WeWork Cos, in what would be one of the largest deals of the past decades startup boom, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The investment could be between $15 billion and $20 billion and would likely come from SoftBanks Vision Fund, WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the talks. SoftBank is in talks about a major new investment in WeWork, a source told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that it had not been decided if it would be a majority ... rejected on Wednesday claims that might establish a "forward military base" at a strategic port leased to Beijing by the indebted Indian Ocean island nation. last year granted a 99-year lease on the Hambantota deep-sea port to Beijing, after it was unable to repay Chinese loans for the $ 1.4-billion project. The port, situated along key shipping routes, is one of a string of infrastructure projects in Asia, Africa and Europe being funded under China's Belt and Road Initiative that has rattled the and its allies, including neighbouring India. Last week Vice-President Mike Pence said Hambantota "may soon become a forward military base for China's growing blue-water navy," according to US media. But Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office said that there would be no foreign military presence at Hambantota, and that the US State Department had been briefed. "Our navy's Southern Command is being relocated in Hambantota to control port security," Wickremesinghe's office quoted him as saying in Britain on Monday. Wickremesinghe said was also concluding a commercial agreement that would see India take over the management of Hambantota airport -- another white-elephant project built with Chinese loans under former president Mahinda Rajapakse. Regional superpower India has been concerned about growing Chinese interest in Sri Lanka, which has traditionally fallen within New Delhi's sphere of influence. In August, the US announced it would grant Sri Lanka $39 million to boost maritime security. At the same time, has pledged to increase its funding of Sri Lanka's economy, including through loans, despite the country's major debt pile. The Monetary Fund, which bailed out Sri Lanka in June 2016 with a $1.5 billion staggered loan, has warned Colombo over its heavy liabilities. President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated his threat to slap tariffs on an additional $267 billion of Chinese imports if Beijing retaliates for the recent levies and other measures the United States has imposed in an escalating trade war between the economic giants. Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, also said China is not ready to reach a deal on trade. China wants to make a deal, and I say theyre not ready yet, Trump said. I just say theyre not ready yet. And weve cancelled a couple of meetings because I say ... With all due respect, I dont get confused, Nikki Haley, the United Nations ambassador, memorably once snapped to a reporter, after a senior and, unsurprisingly, male White House official attributed a tough position shed announced on sanctioning Russia to momentary confusion. While Ms. Haley might not have gotten confused herself, she could at times present a confusing picture. She could talk as bluntly as the president himself about the failings of the United Nations system, and yet, more quietly, she proved a practitioner of ... As many as 19 people, including former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman, have been sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2004 grenade attack case. According to Dhaka Tribune, 19 more including former state minister Lutfozzaman Babar, have been sentenced to death in the case. On August 21, 2004, a grenade attack on Awami League rally in Dhaka claimed 24 lives including Awami League Women's Affairs secretary Ivy Rehman and injured 300 people. Then Opposition leader Sheikh Hasina was apparently the prime target of the grenade attack but had a narrow escape. She suffered from hearing impairment following the incident. According to the charge sheet, the attack was orchestrated by a group of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its ex-post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and Romania in the field of tourism. The MoU aims to expand bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector, exchange information and data related to tourism and encourage cooperation between tourism stakeholders including hotels and tour operators, encourage investment in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Exchange visits of tour operators/media /opinion makers for the promotion of two-way tourism, exchange experiences in the areas of promotion, marketing, destination development and management, foster bilateral cooperation through film tourism for promoting the two countries as attractive tourism destinations, and to promote safe, honourable and sustainable tourism. India and Romania have enjoyed a strong diplomatic and long economic relationship. The MoU was signed in September this year, during the visit of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to Romania in presence of Ministry of Tourism, Government of the Republic of India and the Ministry of Tourism, Government for Romania, for strengthening cooperation in the field of tourism. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Prague-based Cesky Rozhlas broadcaster reported on Wednesday, citing Czech intelligence sources, that Russian citizens Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov accused by UK authorities of poisoning former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the town of Salisbury, secretly visited the Czech Republic in October 2014, where Skripal himself was supposed to arrive at the same time to meet with Czech intelligence officers. According to the broadcaster, it looks like "the Russians had a special group" and followed Skripal well before "attempting to kill him." The sources cited by the broadcaster said that Skripal visited the Czech Republic to assist local intelligence with the discovery of possible Russian spies in the country. The sources are convinced that Boshirov and Petrov already tracked Skripal at that time, the publication claimed. According to the publication, Petrov lived in a hotel in the city of Ostrava in the country's northeast from October 13 to October 16, 2014, and then moved to Prague, while Boshirov visited Prague on October 11, 2014. The broadcaster added that the presence of the two Russian citizens in the Czech Republic was probed both by the local intelligence and the National Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (NCOZ). However, due to the fact that the Skripal case is being under investigation throughout Europe, no one in the Czech Republic commented on this information, including the Czech Security Information Service (BIS) and the NCOZ, the media outlet said. Russian Embassy in Prague told the publication that the questions about crossing the border of the Czech Republic by citizens of other states are within the competence of the relevant Czech authorities. In early September, UK prosecutors charged Petrov and Boshirov with the attempted murder of the Skripals and UK police officer Nick Bailey in the UK city of Salisbury in March. UK Prime Minister Theresa May expressed a belief that the suspects worked for the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (formerly known as the GRU), albeit without providing any evidence. In late September, Bellingcat claimed that it could "definitely confirm" that Petrov and Boshirov are active GRU officers. Such an assumption was explained by the fact that their internal passport under these names were issued in 2009, while no records allegedly exist for these individuals prior to this year. Later that month, the group in cooperation with The Insider Russia media outlet claimed that they had identified Boshirov as Russian military intelligence colonel Anatoliy Chepiga. Russian Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov has said that "the Directorate of the Federal Migration Service has no departments that were subordinates of the GRU or someone else." He added that it was impossible to understand whether a person works in the GRU just by looking at the migration service's database. The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has also criticized the materials issued by Bellingcat. Moscow has repeatedly denied all accusations in the Skripal case, saying it was falling apart due to the lack of evidence proving the purported 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, as well as proposing legal assistance and cooperation, including on the joint inquiry. The UK authorities have not responded to any of these notes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After producer-writer Vinta Nanda accused Alok Nath of raping her, Nath's lawyer has refuted the allegations stating that anything posted on Facebook is certainly not true, and is mostly for popularity. Speaking to ANI, the lawyer, Ashok Saraogi, said, "It is easy to make the allegations, of an incident which took place 19 years back; this itself shows that the allegations are false on the face of it. A person will never wait for a period of 19 years to make such allegations, especially when we have a democracy, when we have a proper ministry over here, to look after all these things." Stating that all this has been done to defame his client's image, the lawyer further said, "I feel all this has been done only to defame his image and nothing beyond that. This is nothing but systematic conspiracies made by these people to suddenly defame his reputation under the name of the #MeToo campaign. I'm not against the #MeToo campaign, but as far as Alok Nath is concerned all the allegations are false." Saraogi also stated that the actor has gone into a state of shock and will not be talking to media about the issue. "There is no need for Alok Nath to come in front of the media and talk about it. He went in serious shock yesterday and has recovered today. He will complete his shoot but will not talk to media. I will talk on his behalf." He further revealed that to ensure a "good legal battle" he has advised his client to not make any comments in the media as they can be used against him. "As far as Facebook is concerned, it is not under the control of anybody and therefore anybody and everybody can put something on that and it cannot be taken as a gospel truth. That's why I have advised him to not go in front of the media because ultimately if any legal battle is to be done then any word used by him, can be used against him and since we are planning to have a good legal battle. It has been advised that he should not come before the media," he said. Speaking on the Cine And TV Artistes' Association (CINTAA) notice sent to Alok Nath after the allegations surfaced, he said, "With respect to CINTAA, it is an association representing all the artists, as far as CINTAA is concerned, all the members are equal for them, so it is required to hear both the members and then decide on the issue. CINTAA may issue a notice but it will definitely consider all the evidences and then take the decision. If CINTAA finds the allegations made by her are false, they will take action against her as well." Saraogi said that he plans to file a defamation suit on Nath's behalf if Vinta Nanda's continues to make similar allegations. "If this defamation continues we will definitely file a defamation suit and bring injunction so that she can't make baseless allegations in media and defame my client." Earlier in the day, Bollywood actors Sandhya Mridul and Deepika Amin also opened up about facing rowdy behaviour at the hands of Alok Nath, and shared their ordeals on social media. The #MeToo movement gained momentum in India after Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of harassment. Following the revelation, similar cases have come to the fore with the likes of filmmaker Vikas Bahl and actor Rajat Kapoor being levelled with similar allegations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indo UK Institute of Health (IUIH), one of the largest healthcare infrastructure projects in the world, has signed up a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Uttarakhand for setting up an integrated IUIH Medicity in the state. Signed during Destination Uttarakhand Investors Summit 2018, this initiative shall deliver to the people of the state world-class NHS standard healthcare that's available, affordable and accountable. IUIH shall enable Uttarakhand to emerge as a global hub for medical tourism, medical equipment and device manufacturing, pharmaceutical production; and cutting-edge medical research. Dr. Ajay Rajan Gupta, Managing Director and Group CEO, IUIH, said, "The IUIH Medicity to come up in Uttarakhand will be developed with an investment outlay of Rs. 1600 crores. It will have a 1000 bed hospital in association with one of UK's leading NHS hospital." The IUIH Medicity in Uttarakhand shall also have medical college, nursing college, PG academy and a training facility for allied health professionals. It shall also have a separate zone for medical equipment and device manufacturing, and pharmaceutical production. Cutting edge medical research shall be carried out at the IUIH Medicities in areas as diverse as genomics and stem cells, translational research and clinical research leveraging on the patient data available. Dr. Rajdeep Singh Chhina, COO, IUIH, said, "The objective is to make every IUIH Medicity a medical tourism hub and attract the patient traffic from across the globe. NHS standard health care at lower price points is our winning formula to tap the medical tourism potential. This shall not just contribute to the exchequer but lead to overall development of the region too, in line with the government's Smart Cities initiative." IUIH has retained Elara Capital Plc as a Financial advisor for raising funds for its projects in India. Raj Bhatt, Founder & CEO, Elara Capital Plc said "The organised healthcare space in India is growing at a rapid pace. IUIH with its unique relationship with NHS, UK, has a very promising future and there is a strong interest from institutional investors and we feel privileged to be part of this project." IUIH has tied up with some of the leading implant companies, and medical equipment and device manufacturers. Many of them would start their manufacturing operations in IUIH Medicities in accordance with Prime Minister Modi's 'Make in India' program bringing the healthcare cost further down for patients in India. "We are also relying heavily on technology for big data analytics. Our e-Health and m-Health platforms will facilitate the exchange of patients' medical records electronically using telemedicine, teleradiology and telepathology for diagnostics etc. It's all about covering the last mile and taking healthcare services down to patient's doorstep," informed Dr. Ajay Rajan Gupta. Besides Uttarakhand, the other states to benefit from the IUIH programme include Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Punjab Police on Wednesday arrested three students of an engineering college in Jalandhar in connection with alleged links with Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH). The state police conducted an operation along with the Special Operations Group (SoG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police to bust the terror module. The students were nabbed from their college hostel in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar. A raid was conducted in the hostel early this morning and two weapons including an assault rifle and explosives were seized. The students have been identified as Zahid Gulzar, Mohammed Idriss Shah and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt. They were second-semester students of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology. Director General of Police Suresh Arora in a statement said, "The arrests happened following the development and corroboration of various leads/inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organizations/individuals operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab." A case has been registered in the Sadar Police Station of Jalandhar under sections 121, 121- A and 121- B of the Indian Penal code, sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act, sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Explosive Act and under sections 10, 13, 17, 18, 18-B, 20, 38, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Prevention Act. "Further investigation is in progress. The Punjab Police and the Jammu and Kashmir Police are working together to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir," added the DGP. He said that the incidents were indicative of the efforts of Pakistan's intelligence, ISI, to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border. The Punjab Police also apprehended a polytechnic student, Gazi Ahmad Malik, a resident of Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir from Banur, Patiala on the charges of being closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh. Shiekh, a Jammu and Kashmir Police SPO (Special Police Officer), fled with seven Rifles from the residence of Peoples Democratic Party MLA house in Srinagar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan presented a cheque of Rs 50 lakh as compensation to former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist Nambi Narayanan, who was arrested in an alleged spy scandal in 1994. This comes as a follow up to the Supreme Court's order directing the Kerala government to pay a sum of Rs 50 lakh as compensation to the appellant. The scientist was, reportedly, accused of selling vital Indian space technology secrets to Pakistan. The apex court had, however, cleared him of spy charges and termed his arrest as "needless" and "unnecessary". A three-judge bench of the top court, headed by former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, had also announced the constitution of a committee which would be headed by retired Supreme Court judge DK Jain to investigate the role of Kerala police officials in the arrest of Narayanan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lockheed Martin Corp. and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) are hosting an F-16 industry supplier conference this week in India. Current F-16 suppliers and prospective Indian industry partners at the event are gathering to discuss opportunities on the F-16 program - the world's largest fighter aircraft ecosystem. "The F-16 provides unmatched opportunities for Indian companies of all sizes, including Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and suppliers throughout India, to establish new relationships with Lockheed Martin, Tata and other U.S. and global industry leaders," said Vivek Lall, Vice President of Strategy and Development for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. "Exclusive F-16 production integrates Indian industry into a [USD] $165 billion fighter aircraft sustainment market," added Vivek Lall. "We are delighted to host the supplier conference with our partners Lockheed Martin and provide a platform that will allow Indian players in the industry explore opportunities, share knowledge with other global suppliers in the F-16 fighter aircraft manufacturing ecosystem. The potential F-16 India Project, as a single source globally, will be highly strategic for India, especially to build new capabilities in the Indian defence manufacturing sector. We also look forward to participating in the selection process for the Fighter Program of the Indian Air Force," said Sukaran Singh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Tata Advanced Systems. Current F-16 industry partners include GE, Terma, Honeywell, Fokker, Israeli Aerospace Industries, Elbit, UTC, Terma, Eaton, Moog, Parker, and other global defence industry leaders. Unmatched 'Make in India' Opportunities Lockheed Martin recently emphasized its commitment to India by announcing the company will partner with TASL to commence production of F-16 wings in India. The landmark 'Make in India' announcement is a strategic initiative that positions TASL to become the provider of wings for all future customers. Lockheed Martin's broader proposed F-16 partnership with India - to produce F-16s exclusively in India for the Indian Air Force and export customers-stands firm. Lockheed Martin and TASL announced last year that the two companies intend to join hands to produce the F-16 Block 70 in India if the aircraft is selected by the Indian Air Force. The F-16 Block 70 features advanced avionics, a proven Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, a modernized cockpit, advanced weapons, conformal fuel tanks, an automatic ground collision avoidance system, an advanced engine and an industry-leading extended structural service life of 12,000 hours. To date, 4,604 F-16s have been procured by 28 customers around the world. Approximately 3,000 operational F-16s are flying today with 25 leading air forces, including the U.S. Air Force. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With #MeToo movement gaining momentum in India, a women casting director has accused Malayalam actor and Communist Party of India (CPI) MLA Madhavan Mukesh of harassment. However, the politician, while denying the allegations, said the case was one of "mistaken identity". "I am someone who supports the Me too campaign. I want women to react strongly on these issues. Now the allegation has been raised regarding a programme that happened 19 years ago. I don't really know about any such incident. Maybe it's an incident of mistaken identity. I am not able to recollect who this girl is even after seeing the photo" he told media here. The woman accused Mukesh of inappropriate conduct by way of unwanted calls while working with him in a quiz show. The discomfort ultimately forced her to drop the assignment and return home. In her statement, she also mentioned that she immediately contacted her boss Derek O'Brien (now TMC leader), who helped her board the next flight home. In response to the allegation, Mukesh said that O'Brien, being one of his close friends and mentor, would have immediately cut all ties with him if such an incident had happened. "Even when he came to Kerala recently he invited me for a meeting. He has also said that I am the only one he knows in Kerala," he added. In her recent tweet, the woman criticised those who were politicising the story and shared her intention of telling the story after 19 years. She wrote, "I want to say - this is my story, not your politics. Those marching to Mukesh Kumar's house and making it political are wrong and I don't want my story to be used by political parties as fodder for their own agendas," the statement said adding that. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five Indian workers were injured in an industrial blast in the town of Simara in Bara district on Wednesday morning. Talking to ANI, Police Inspector Subash Hamal confirmed, "Five Indian workers were injured in an explosion that occurred while they were melting metal inside the Jagadamba Steels Factory here in Simara." The police have identified the injured as Kamlesh Rae, Naresh Sahani, Sandip Kumar, Pankaj Kumar and Binayak Singh. The injured are undergoing treatment in Birgunj Health Care Hospital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A special court on Tuesday issued a non-bailable warrant against Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi after she failed to appear before the court in connection with a case of violating the Model Code of Conduct. The Uttar Pradesh Minister was repeatedly summoned in the case dating back to 2010. The Member of Parliament (MP)-Minister of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Special Court in Allahabad issued the warrant against Joshi. In 2010, the case was registered against Joshi at Wazirganj police station for violating Section 144 and entering the Vidhan Sabha forcefully when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was in power. She was also accused of misbehaving with the police force. Till now, 12 hearings have been held in the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vishnu Deo Sai, Minister of State for Steel, on Tuesday described the blast in Bhilai Steel Plant as 'unfortunate' and informed that an internal committee has been constituted to investigate the incident. After meeting the victims in the hospital, Sai said that a four-member internal committee has been formed while an external committee will be formed soon to look into the matter. "The incident is really unfortunate. A normal maintenance work was underway when a sudden fire led to the incident. An internal committee of four members has been constituted. External committee will also be formed soon," he said. At least nine people were killed and 14 others sustained injuries after a gas pipeline blast in Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh's Durg district on Tuesday morning. Following the incident, Durg's Inspector General (IG) GP Singh had informed that 14 people sustained burn injuries in the explosion and were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), in a statement, had confirmed that the fire broke out in the gas pipeline in the coke oven complex, with a few workers at the spot sustaining burn injuries. The statement had further said that the fire had been brought under control and all resources have been mobilised to provide adequate care. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi will fly to Bengaluru on October 13 to hold a meeting with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Employee Association. HAL has been in the news of late owing to the ongoing controversy over the Rafale fighter-jet deal with France. The Gandhi scion has time and again alleged that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government opted to make Reliance Defence the Offset partner in the deal, thus ousting the government-run HAL from it. Last month, Gandhi trained guns at Modi stating that he has betrayed India, and has dishonoured the blood of our soldiers. "The Prime Minister personally negotiated and changed the Rafale deal behind closed doors. Thanks to Francois Hollande, we now know he personally delivered a deal worth billions of dollars to a bankrupt Anil Ambani. The Prime Minister has betrayed India. He has dishonoured the blood of our soldiers," he had tweeted. The Congress president's post came after Former President of France Francois Hollande issued a statement claiming that Dassault Aviation was given no choice but to partner with Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence for the offset clause in the Rafale fighter jet deal. However, Hollande later backtracked and said only Dassault could comment on the partnership. Responding to the allegations, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month had stated that it is because of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UP) government that HAL could not be the part of the deal as they delayed the negotiation. "The deal did not happen during the UPA (regime). Also, one more thing that did not happen during the UPA regime was the fact that between Dassault and HAL they could not agree on production terms. As a result, HAL and Rafale could not go together. Doesn't that very clearly say who didn't go together with HAL? The agreement did not happen during the UPA regime. So, isn't it obvious that the interest of HAL could have really been taken care of even during that time? Neither HAL's interest nor Indian Air Force's (IAF) interest was taken care of by the UPA government," she had stated. The Rafale controversy has been on the boil for a long time now, with the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress trading barbs over the issue. The BJP had even alleged that Congress scrapped the deal as a firm belonging to Rober Vadra, son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, was not made a part of it. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday spoke to party leader Alpesh Thakor on phone over alleged attacks on people of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in Gujarat. Last week, non-Gujarati natives, particularly those hailing from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, were allegedly attacked and asked to leave the state after a native of Bihar was arrested for allegedly raping a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district. It was alleged that the members of 'Kshatriya Thakor Sena' staged protests in the northern part of the state and demanded that people from other states should not be given jobs in Gujarat. Thakor, who heads the 'Kshatriya Thakor Sena, however, refuted claims of any involvement in the violence and said that if he is found guilty of threatening anyone, he would surrender before the police. On Tuesday, Thakor told had ANI, "Only one incident happened somewhere in Gujarat and I condemn it. If I have threatened anyone, I will go to jail myself. Gujarat belongs to everyone. It is as much yours as it is mine." Earlier on Wednesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Zafar Islam alleged that the "Congress and Thakor community has been exposed completely" following the incident. He said, "It is not an allegation. In the video of October 7, Alpesh Thakor and his entire Thakor community were seen provoking people with full aggression and threat. The same thing was done by Congress in the Bhima Koregaon incident. I demand the suspension of Alpesh Thakor from the party. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South African finance minister Nhlanhla Nene has stepped down from his post and his resignation was accepted by President Cyril Ramaphosa "in the interests of good governance." Ramaphosa, in a televised address, confirmed that he accepted Nene's resignation due to "errors of judgment" as a result of a controversy surrounding Nene's testimony in an ongoing graft inquiry, CNN reported. "After due consideration of the circumstances around this matter and in the interest of good governance, I have decided to accept his resignation," the South African President said. Following Nene's resignation, former South African Reserve Bank Governor, Tito Mboweni, was sworn-in as the country's new Finance Minister. Recently, Nene recently admitted in the inquiry that he met the members of the Gupta family, a wealthy household, who had emigrated from India to South Africa decades ago, and established a business empire in the African nation, spanning from media to mining. The Guptas have been accused of undue political influence, working with former President Jacob Zuma to secure government contracts and determine cabinet appointments. Both the Gupta family and Zuma denied the charges. In December 2015, Nene was controversially removed from the post by Zuma. He was, however, reappointed by Ramaphosa after he took office in February this year. The scandal-hit Zuma had resigned in February after he faced massive furore from his own ruling African National Congress (ANC) lawmakers over corruption charges. Following Zuma's resignation, the Gupta brothers fled the country in April and have been absconding since then. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) of South Korea on Tuesday announced that it is all set to launch a pan-Asian film centre in order to commence cultural exchanges with North Korea. In the ongoing Busan film festival, the state-backed council announced that the centre will be unveiled in 2019, reported The Hollywood Reporter. Speaking to the media, Director of KOFIC, Oh Seok-Geun said that the film centre will also help film governing bodies of South Korea, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), China and Japan to discuss film-related policies. In July, the council even set up a special committee to encourage South and North Korean film exchanges. It also aimed to explore opportunities to shoot in North Korea. The council is also aiming to provide support for the local film industry. KOFIC is even on its way to build an online database system for compiling box-office information on independent cinema. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bollywood actor Sandhya Mridul has opened up about facing rowdy behaviour at the hands of Alok Nath, who was also recently accused of rape by writer-producer Vinta Nanda. The 'Page 3' actor took to Twitter and shared a long post giving out details on how Nath tried to force himself on her during the shoot for a telefilm in the beginning of her career. She captioned the post, "In truth & solidarity. I'm with you @vintananda #metoo" She voiced her support for Vinta Nanda in her post which read, "I will never forgive you (Alok Nath) for what you did with Vinta. Whom I have always love and respected. I stand by you Vinta, what I went through is nothing compared to you. I'm sorry. More power to you, to all of us." She began her post by saying, "At the very start of my career, I was shooting a telefilm in Kodaikanal. I was the lead. And very excited. Alok Nath was my on-screen father and Reema Lagoo my mother." She further detailed how Nath praised her profusely, however his behavior soon strating to make Sandhya feel uncomfortable. "Alok Nath was very impressed with me and called me "God's own child" and openly praised me every day. I was over the moon. I was a huge fan of this wonderful Babuji.. I felt so fortunate happy and confident. Till one night after an early pack up. The cast went out for dinner. At dinner he got progressively drunk and started insisting I sit with him and that I belonged to him and other stuff that I don't clearly remember but it made me very nervous and uncomfortable. My co-star realised what was happening and got me out of there." The actor further shared what happened when they returned to the hotel, "We went back to the hotel without dinner. It was late and I was back in my room and the costume dada came to my room to give me my clothes for the next day as I had a very early call time. In the post Sandhya details how Nath tried to enter her room at a hotel where the cast and crew were lodged. "Few minutes after he left there was a knock on my door I opened the door thinking it was him again .. it was an inebriated Alok Nath I instinctively tried to shut the door but he pushed it and lunged at me, I stepped aside he went flying past me into the room .. I fell back toward the bathroom door he lunged at me again screaming I want you you're mine .. I dodged again he went into the bathroom and I think I latched the loo door and ran out of my room down the corridor into the lobby. Fortunately, my DoP was there making a call from the reception .." She explained how after that incident, Nath continued to threaten her, "It didn't stop there .. every evening he would drink and every night calls were made to my room. I dreaded the ring.. I had to keep it off the hook most of the times. But then he would come calling. It was a catch 22 situation. I had the hairdresser moved in to my room permanently. I was a nervous wreck." Sandhya also gave credit to Tanushree Dutta, who, in a way, started the #MeToo movement in India. "What Tanushree has started is admirable. I'm happy now women can speak go on social media. So there's that platform. And it's pretty powerful. I believe," wrote the actor. The #MeToo movement gained momentum in India after Tanushree Dutta spoke up against Nana Patekar almost two weeks ago. Recently, a lot of such cases have come to the fore, with big names like Vikas Bahl and Rajat Kapoor being accused of harassement by women. Bollywood celebrities like Mahesh Bhatt, Tappsee Pannu, Pooja Bhatt, Sonam Kapoor, and Sonakshi Sinha among several others, had earlier spoken in support of the movement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Without issuing any notice, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the central government to file a reply with respect to the decision-making process of the Rafale deal in a sealed cover. The top court took the decision after hearing three petitions seeking an investigation into how fighter-jet deal was finalised. Vehemently opposing the petitions, Attorney General (AG) K K Venugopal, the top law officer representing the Union of India, submitted to the apex court that such kinds of petitions should be dismissed as they are politically motivated cases. "We are not inclined to issue any notice at present. We are only seeking a report from the Union Of India with respect to the decision making process in the deal (Rafale) in a sealed cover," the bench said. Lawyer and one of the petitioners in the case, Manohar Lal Sharma, submitted to the top court bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph, that the Rafale deal is a direct violation of the law and is an act of corruption. The deal is against the Vienna convention and the accused persons, whosoever they are, should be prosecuted for their offences, Sharma submitted to the top court. Another petitioner, Vineet Dhanda, told the apex court that there was no transparency in the deal and it was done in a very arbitrary manner. Tehseen Poonawala, another petitioner, withdrew his petition from the apex court. The court has fixed the matter for further hearing for the last week of October. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maoists central committee, in a letter has threatened to kill Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Paderu, Giddi Eswari. In the letter, the Maoists group explained the reason behind the killing of Araku MLA Sarveshwara Rao and former Araku MLA Siveri Soma. It further said that Eswari "will get the same punishment as the other two, if she would not change her methods." The letter stated that Rao and Soma were sentenced to tribal harassment, as they favoured the bauxite excavation. The Maoists group accused Eswari of accepting Rs 20 crore from TDP and changing her party. They suggested the MLA to fight against bauxite excavation and to distribute the money to the people within two months of time. In September, Rao and Soma were shot dead while they were on their way to participate in Gramadarsini program in the interior village called in Dubriguda mandal, police had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Click the photo to write a caption and have a chance to win a free subscription to the Norfolk Daily News. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has extended his greetings to the people in Canada and abroad on the occasion of Navaratri, or the festival of nine nights. In a statement, Trudeau said, "This evening, Hindu communities in Canada and around the will celebrate the beginning of one of their most important festivals, Navratri. The celebrations, which symbolize the triumph of good over evil, take place over nine nights and ten days. Throughout the festivities, families and friends come together to pray, dance, and observe traditions in hundreds of different forms passed down from generation to generation." "The festival is now celebrated globally by Hindus and non-Hindus alike. It is a joyful time that reminds us of the invaluable contributions the Hindu community makes every day to our national fabric. On behalf of our family, (wife) Sophie and I wish everyone celebrating a happy Navratri," he added. Navaratri falls in the lunar month of Ashwin during autumn. The festival, which commenced today, is dedicated to the nine forms of Goddess Durga and will culminate on the tenth day with Vijaya Dashami or Dussehra, on October 19. During these nine days, devotees observe fast to pay obeisance to the deity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu has said that government of India's reform agenda would realize the full potential only when it receives support from all sections of the society. To achieve the herculean task, he called on business associations and Chambers of Commerce to promote tax compliance and run campaign against the black money. Addressing the 90th Year Celebrations of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, the Vice President said that demonetization and the introduction of GST were landmark initiatives aimed at ensuring transparency, eliminating parallel economy and fetching increased revenue to the exchequer. These initiatives have led to change in the attitude of the people as evidenced by increased tax compliance, he said. The Vice President said that Government has taken several measures to cut down red tape, improve the ease of doing business, attract more investments and create a business-friendly environment. With various measures taken by the government to step up economic growth, including FDI in various sectors and given the strong macro-economic fundamentals, India will continue to grow steadily to become the third largest economy in the world, he added. The Vice President asked the business community not to confine themselves to the minimum requirements of Corporate Social Responsibility but to take up activities for the betterment of the society. Promote ethical corporate governance, tax compliance and corporate social responsibility among its members, he added. The Vice President told the gathering reminding them India's great philosophy that has 'Sharing and Caring' at its core. In this regard, he advised organizations such as The Coimbatore Chambers to adopt some government schools and contribute towards improving the infrastructure as part of their CSR activities. He said that sectors like agriculture, education and health must receive the highest priority. Government, Parliament and Press must focus on these three core areas, he added. Saying that Agriculture and Industry were like two eyes of our nation, the Vice President sought the support of the business community to realize the vision of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to double the income of farmers by 2022. Agriculture must be made remunerative by encouraging farmers to adopt allied services like poultry, fisheries, horticulture and others, he said adding that it can be achieved through the concerted effort by scientists, farmers, government and business entities, he added. 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 revelations made by Lt. General Zameer Uddin Shah (retd) about the deployment of Army during the 2002 Gujarat riots "corroborates what we have been saying", Teesta Setalvad, the co-petitioner seeking a criminal trial of then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 other politicians and government officials for alleged "complicity" in the riots, said on Wednesday. "The account by Lt General Zameer Uddin Shah (retired) corroborates what we have been saying in the Zakia Jafri Case (still pending in the courts) since 2006," the 56-year-old civil rights activist told IANS in an email. She said that at the time of filing the complaint, on August 8, 2006, they had detailed "ground reports from the Gujarat state police", which included affidavits of police officers and home department records. She further said that all the investigation papers, 24,000 pages of records, were quoted in the Protest Petition filed before a Magistrate on April 15, 2013. "Now we have his (Shah's) account," she said. "SIT (Special Investigative Team) headed by R K Raghavan (today Ambassador to Cyprus) was a travesty of an investigation. It disregarded hard, contemporary documentary evidence. "Despite statements of Zakia Ahsan Jafri and myself (as co-petitioners) recorded in 2009, they did not record Zameer Uddin Shah's statement. Why not? Now it is left to the Courts of India to decide," she said. The SIT Enquiry Report was submitted in the case of Zakia Jafri and Anr. VS State of Gujarat and Ors. Of the 30 allegations made by Zakia Jafri, widow of late Congress legislator Ehsan Jafri -- who was killed in a mob attack in Gulbarg Housing Society -- No. XIV was that "there was an undue delay in requisition and deployment of Army". The SIT report, that had cleared Modi's name, had concluded that there was no delay "in requisition and deployment of the Army", based on testimony of Ashok Narayan, Additional Chief Secretary (Home). The SIT never called the Lt General for questioning. It looks apparent from its report that the SIT did not look at Shah's After Action Report submitted to the then army chief, Gen. S. Padmanabhan, which was later submitted to the central government. Raghavan, when contacted by IANS on the phone, said that he is "not prepared to talk". Questions sent to him and his attache at the Indian High Commission in Nicosia seeking his views on whether the Army or it's After Action Report was considered before reaching to the conclusion that there was "no delay in requisition and deployment of the Army" have not been answered so far. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in) --IANS ss/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Bangladesh court on Wednesday sentenced 19 people, including two former ministers, to death and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman to life imprisonment for their role in the 2004 grenade attack on a political rally that killed 24 people and injured 500. Former Minister of State for Home Lutfozzaman Babar and former Deputy Minister for Education Abdus Salam Pintu were among those sentenced to death. Both were the leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which was then in power, bdnews24.com reported. The August 2004 attack targeted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's rally, who was the opposition leader at the time. A series of grenades exploded as she was stepping off a truck, which was used as a dais for the Awami League party rally on Bangabandhu Avenue. She survived with partial hearing loss. Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of the the current opposition BNP and her former political secretary Harris Chowdhury were among 19 sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence also included jail terms for 11 other people. Declaring the verdict in the case, Judge Shahed Nuruddin said a conspiracy was underway to obliterate the Awami League. He linked the attack as part of a conspiracy that led to the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. "The conspiracy did not stop with the killing of Bangabandhu. It continued... It was not a mere attack. It was a hateful attempt to make the then opposition party leaderless," the judge said. The BNP said the court verdict was "dictated" by the government. "The BNP thinks that the verdict is politically motivated. It is a clear sign of political vengeance by the ruling party. We are rejecting this verdict," said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. To condemn the jailing of its acting chief, the BNP announced a five-day programme, including street protests and black-flag processions. Meanwhile, Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government will seek scaled-up punishments for Rahman, Chowdhury and BNP leader Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad. "The mastermind of the case is Tarique Rahman. He should have been given death penalty," said Huq. Twenty-four people, including Ivy Rahman, the women affairs secretary of Awami League and wife of the country's former President Mohammad Zillur Rahman, were killed in the grenade attack. --IANS soni/vm (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.) Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, who enjoys huge popularity in China, has urged his "friends" in the country to watch his friend Rani Mukerji's "Hichki", which is releasing there on Friday. Aamir and Rani, who have starred together in "Ghulam" and "Talaash", have been friends for long. Now that her "Hichki" is set to release in China, Aamir has come forward to promote the film. "A very warm hello to all my friends in China. My friend Rani Mukerji an actress from India has done a film called 'Hichki', which I believe is releasing in China on October 12. Well, I want you to know that I have seen the film when it released here in India and it is a beautiful story and it's a great film, with wonderful performances by Rani and all the kids in it," Aamir said in a video uploaded on a Chinese social media platform. He added: "It's really heart-warming and uplifting film with a beautiful story... I hope that all of you will go and see the film and I hope that you enjoy it." Rani is currently in China to promote the movie, which has a progressive message of beating stereotypes. The promotions are happening across 5 cities in China -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu. In the movie, Rani essays Naina Mathur, a school teacher dealing with an involuntary nervous system disorder, Tourette Syndrome. --IANS rb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker, who was found charred to death in a car in Ghaziabad on Friday last, was killed due to jealousy over his flourishing business of organising gay parties in Delhi and elsewhere, police said on Wednesday. Talking to the media, Ghaziabad Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna said deceased Naveen Dass' live-in partner Tayyab alias Aadi had hatched the conspiracy to kill him. His motive was to take away all his money and discontinue their live-in relationship, for which Naveen was pressurising him. As part of the conspiracy to eliminate Naveen, 25, Tayyab roped in his brother Talib and one Samar Khan of Okhla. On October 5, Tayyab called up Naveen and requested him to transfer Rs 5 lakh to his account for some urgent work. An unsuspecting Naveen transferred the money and also gave him Rs 2 lakh loan in good faith. Tayyab then called him to Bhovapur area, where he was waiting for him along with his two accomplices. All four had drinks there. Around 2.00 a.m, after Tayyab, Talib and Samar Khan realised Naveen is fully drunk, they asked him to go. As he sat in the driving seat, one of them took out the ignition key and locked the car from outside. They poured petrol on the vehicle and set it afire, in which the AAP leader was charred to death. The police later recovered Naveen's belongings including his iPhone, passport, voter ID, Aadhaar and his purse, from the assailants. The mystery of his death deepened when the car key was not found inside the car, which finally led to the cracking of case. --IANS sps/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actress Sandhya Mridul on Wednesday came out in support of writer-producer Vinta Nanda's sexual harassment allegation against actor Alok Nath, sharing her own ordeal with him during the shoot of a telefilm in Kodaikanal. Nanda, a veteran writer-producer of the avant-garde 1990s' show "Tara" fame, accused actor Alok -- known for his "sanskaari" on-screen image -- of sexually violating her almost two decades ago. Sandhya took to Twitter to share her own experience, which left her "disillusioned and unsure" in the industry. She wrote: "At the very start of my career, I was shooting a telefilm in Kodaikanal. I was the lead. And very excited. Alok Nath was my on-screen father and Reema Lagoo my mother. "Alok Nath was very impressed with me and called me 'God's own child' and openly praised me every day. I was over the moon. I was a huge fan of this wonderful Babuji. I felt so fortunate happy and confident." However, she recalled that one night, Alok got "progressively drunk". "And started insisting I sit with him and that I belonged to him and other stuff that I don't clearly remember but it made me very nervous and uncomfortable. My co-star realised what was happening and got me out of there," she added. "We went back to the hotel without dinner. It was late and I was back in my room and the costume dada came to my room to give me my clothes for the next day as I had a very early call time. Few minutes after he left there was a knock on my door I opened the door thinking it was him again. "It was an inebriated Alok Nath. I instinctively tried to shut the door but he pushed it and lunged at me. I stepped aside, he went flying past me into the room. I fell back toward the bathroom door, he lunged at me again screaming 'I want you, you're mine'." The actress claims she ultimately had to latch the bathroom door and then ran out of her room down the corridor into the lobby. After she sought help from the show's director of photography, Sandhya says "what ensued was traumatic because a belligerent Alok Nath refused to leave. He kept screaming, shouting, threatening, abusing, trying to grab me... but at some point we managed to make him leave". This, when in a few hours that she had scenes with 'Bauji'. "In one, I had to sit on his lap and cry. I still feel nauseous when I think of it," said Sandhya, adding that Alok continued drinking every evening and would "traumatise" her with calls to her room every night. One day, she recounted, he said to her that he was an alcoholic and that he had destroyed everything -- his family and his marriage. "I finally broke my silence. I screamed, shouted, cried and it was done. I believed him. I had to." Sandhya says she is grateful to her co-actors, the DOP and the late Reema lagoo for taking him on and protecting her. "But it was too late. The damage was done. A very disillusioned, disgraced and unsure me returned home." According to Sandhya, Alok then told people that she "difficult and arrogant." "Alok Nath. You know this to be true. As do few others. I had to forgive you for myself then and for my sanity, but I will never forgive you for what you did with Vinta. Whom I have always respected and loved. I stand by you Vinta. What I went through is nothing compared to you." --IANS dc/rb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australia has a 70 per cent chance of being affected by the El Nino phenomenon by the end of the year, which would aggravate the severe drought suffered by several parts of its territory, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has said. "The chance of an El Nino developing in the coming season has increased. When these criteria have been met in the past, an El Nino event has developed around 70 per cent of the time," the BOM announced on their website on Tuesday night. "The tropical Pacific Ocean has warmed and is approaching El Nino thresholds. Latest observations and model outlooks suggest further warming is likely. Similarly, in the Indian Ocean, a positive Indian Ocean Dipole may have started," the Bureau was cited as saying by Efe news. The experts warned of the effects of a positive Indian Ocean dipole, in which the warmer waters near Africa will drag moisture away from Australia. The combination of these phenomena usually produces a reduction in spring rains and a drier onset of the rainy season in northern Australia, as well as heat waves, more severe wildfires and higher temperatures. "The development of either would favour continued dry weather and increase the likelihood that widespread drought relief will be delayed until 2019," experts say. The alert coincides with one of the worst droughts in recent decades that the states of New South Wales and Queensland, in eastern Australia, have suffered since the beginning of the austral winter. "Outlooks show a very high chance of warmer than average days and nights through to the end of 2018. Considering the year so far has already been very warm, this means 2018 has the potential to rank as another significant warm year," said the report. The climatologists recalled that seven of the hottest 10 years recorded in Australia have occurred since 2005. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended leaked proposals to let religious schools discriminate against gay students, saying that the proposals were already "existing law" in some states. Schools in some Australian states can already reject staff if they are gay. The new proposals would apply nationwide, the BBC reported. Morrison was commenting on the contents of the leaked report on religious freedom, reigniting debate about what constituted unlawful discrimination against gay people just months after Australia's Parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage. Fairfax Media reported on Wednesday that it had seen contents of the report, which recommended amendments to a federal law that allows religious schools to discriminate against students "on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status". Asked if he thought religious schools should be able to turn away students on the basis of sexual orientation, Morrison replied, "that is the existing law". Schools would have to make their policies on gay staff and students public, the proposals reportedly said. Morrison said the proposals, which were not yet debated by Cabinet, would be considered "carefully and respectfully". Shadow Education Minister Tanya Plibersek told ABC it was a "disturbing proposition". "What kind of adult wants to turn away a child, wants to reject a kid because they are gay?" she said. Critics, including civil liberty groups, members of the opposition Labour Party and gay rights advocates, said the government should not be proposing avenues for discrimination. "The fact of the matter is that every child is entitled to human dignity. We shouldn't even be having this debate," said opposition leader Bill Shorten. According to Fairfax, the panel rejected the idea put forward by Australian conservatives that religious freedom was in "imminent peril". It also found that businesses should not be allowed to refuse service to customers on religious grounds because it would "unnecessarily encroach on other human rights" and "may cause significant harm to vulnerable groups," Fairfax reported. Morrison said the report would be released "in due course". --IANS soni/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bharatiya Janata Party's Usha Punia, a former minister in the Rajasthan government, on Wednesday quit the party ahead of Assembly elections later this year. Punia was the Tourism Minister in the state government from 2003 to 2008, under the Chief Ministership of present incumbent Vasundhara Raje. In a letter to state BJP President Madanlal Saini, she said that the party office had been reduced to a "meet and greet" venue while the entire show was run from the Chief Minister's Office. "Even Jat leaders are being ignored," said Punia, who belongs to the Jat community. "The Jat community is feeling left out and hence it is difficult to continue as a member of this party," she said in the letter. --IANS arc/shs/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UN has decried and reiterated its call on Algeria to immediately halt summary expulsions of African migrants, as authorities in the North African country continue to round up and expel thousands to Niger in harsh desert climate. These collective expulsions from Algeria to Niger are in utter violation of international law, Felipe Gonzalez Morales, UN special rapporteur on human rights for migrants said in a report. Algeria where the media is not free to report on critical issues has sent more than 35,000 Africans to the borders with Niger without giving them a chance to apply for asylum. I call on the government of Algeria to abide by its international obligation and halt with immediate effect all collective expulsions of migrants to Niger, said Gonzalez Morales. Senior officials in the country including Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahya have vocally expressed stands that verge on far-right discourse as far as migration is concerned. Algeria, unlike its neighbor Morocco, does not give Africans prospects for legal stay as many of those sent against their will to Niger said that they were surprised by authorities in their work place and were bussed to a detention center then abandoned in harsh conditions in the desert. Some migrants interviewed earlier in June told Human Rights Watch that they have suffered violence by Algerian authorities who took their money and possessions, adding that the summary expulsions also separated families. Many of these migrants have died on the borders with Niger, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Algeria is often rebuked by international human rights NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, for bad treatment of Sub-Saharan migrants as it continues its mass expulsions of these migrants and asylum seekers who are deprived of a chance to apply for international protection under the 1951 Geneva Convention to which Algeria is a party. Anti-migrant populism in Algeria has been on the rise with some officials openly espousing xenophobic stands including ministers who have been blaming their countrys economic hardship on poor sub-Saharan migrants. These anti-migrant practices and rhetoric were behind the recall of the Guinean Ambassador to Algiers earlier in January. The decision by Guinean President, Alpha Conde, drew attention to the double speak of Algeria, which aspires to have a voice in Africa while mistreating Africans on its soil. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved closure of Kolkata-based Biecco Lawrie Limited (BLL), after several attempts to revive the loss-making company failed, an official statement said. The CCEA also approved the proposal to give voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and voluntary separation scheme (VSS) to the employees of the state-run company. The company, set up in 1919 as British India Electric Construction Co Ltd, ran four business operations - switchgear manufacturing, electrical repair, projects division, and lube blending and filling facility. The company has consistently been under financial stress and making losses for the last several years. The accumulated loss at Rs 153.95 crore on March 31, 2018 was higher than its equity, resulting in a negative net worth of Rs 78.88 crore, the government said. "The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas took various steps for the revival of the company from time to time. However, the company could not be revived. Further, there appeared no possibility of revival of the company considering the competitive business environment as well as huge capital requirement," statement added. Continued loss has made further operations of the company unviable and also resulted in substantial distress to officials and staff due to uncertain future, the government said. The idling assets of the company will be put into productive use after meeting all the liabilities in accordance with the extant guidelines of the government, it said. BLL is a Central Public Sector Enterprise, with 67.33 per cent and 32.33 per cent equity shares held by Oil Industry Development Board and Government of India, respectively. The remainder 0.34 per cent shares are held by others. --IANS mgu/shs/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Union Cabinet on Wednesdaty approved the merger of two regulatory institutions into the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) in order to improve skilling standards and the market relevance of skill development programmes. The National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) and the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) will be merged into the NCVET, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media. "The NCVET's main objective will be to improve standards of skilling in the country," he said. The NCVET will regulate the functioning of entities engaged in vocational education and training, both long- and short-term, and establish minimum standards for the functioning of such entities. The primary functions of the NCVET will include recognition and regulation of awarding bodies, assessment bodies and skill-related information providers, and approval of qualifications developed by awarding bodies and Sector Skill Councils. The Minister said there was a great demand globally for skilled workforce from India. He said there was a need for digital skilling as well. Prasad said that 14,000 accredited industrial training institutes and 13,000 other (non-accredited) centres in the country needed "regulatory oversight". The new council will lend credibility to vocational education and training, encouraging greater private investment and employer participation in the skills space. --IANS spk/tsb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Wednesday asked former Editor and Union Minister M.J. Akbar to either come clean in the wake of sexual harassment charges against him or step down as a Minister. It also sought an independent probe into the charges against him. "He should either explain the charges though a statement or personally or should resign. The charges are serious and they should be probed independently," Congress spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy told the media here. The allegations have been levelled against Akbar by several journalists. The Congress also targeted External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for her silence on the issue. "We had hoped that women cutting across political lines will come out in support of these brave women who have now come out and revealed their ordeal and tragic stories. Unfortunately, Sushma Swaraj, to whom many look up to for inspiration, has chosen to stay quiet," said Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi. --IANS and/tsb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rome, Oct 10 (IANS/AKI) Capital punishment is "unjustifiable under any circumstance", the Italian government said on Wednesday, underlining its opposition to state-sanctioned execution. "On European and World Day against the Death Penalty, Italy reaffirms its firm opposition to the death penalty, which is unjustifiable under any circumstance," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Italy has always sought to marshal "the widest possible support" for the 2007 UN moratorium on the death penalty and keeps working to "broaden the consensus of international community" on the resolution, the statement said. "Over many years now, this effort has involved the whole diplomatic network in a continuous dialogue also with civil society," the statement added. --IANS/AKI mr/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rome, Oct 10 (IANS/AKI) Key partner Germany has made a major $218 million contribution that will allow the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to keep feeding three million vulnerable people in conflict-wracked Syria through November, WFP said on Wednesday. "Syrians have endured unspeakable hardship over the last seven years of conflict. WFP is working every day to help the most critically affected families put food on the table, work that is a basis for building peace," said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. "Since day one of our work in Syria, we have had Germany by our side as one of our most reliable partners. We could not do our work without them," Beasely said after meeting German Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin on Wednesday. The contribution from the German Federal Foreign Office will enable continued delivery of WFP's lifesaving food and nutritional assistance for families inside Syria over the next two months, the UN agency said. Part of the German funds will assist WFP's refugee operations in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt where WFP provides essential humanitarian assistance to more than three million vulnerable Syrians as well as host communities through electronic food vouchers. WFP said it supports three million needy people inside Syria very month, mainly through food rations that contain rice, wheat flour, vegetable oil, lentils, sugar and salt. --IANS/AKI mr/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government on Wednesday continued to maintain silence on the allegations of sexual misconduct against Union Minister M.J. Akbar even as the Congress sought his resignation. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who briefed reporters about cabinet decisions, refused to answer any question other than those pertaining to cabinet decisions, including that on Akbar and the #MeToo campaign. "Today the issue is cabinet decisions, please concentrate on that," he said in response to a question about allegations against Akbar. "The issue is cabinet decisions," Prasad again said when reporters pressed for an answer from him on the issue. On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj did not answer queries about allegations concerning Akbar. As reporters persisted with their questions and asked if there will be a probe, she walked past them without giving an answer. At least six women journalists have accused Akbar, a former editor, of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour. Congress spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy on Wednesday demanded Akbar's resignation, saying keeping silent is not good. --IANS ps-mak/vsc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a mark of homage to his late wife, an Air Force veteran on Wednesday donated Rs 17 lakh to the school where she taught for 21 years. Wing Commander (retired) J.P. Baduni handed over the cheque to the Principal of the Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute at Subroto Park. He hoped the donation would help the deserving students to excel. Baduni's wife Vidhu Baduni worked as a primary teacher since 1986. She expired on February 6 due to a cardiac arrest. School Principal Poonam S. Rampal said that a part of the donation, Rs 10 lakh, would be used to award scholarships and prizes to meritorious students of classes 5 to 11 every academic year. The remaining amount would go towards infrastructure development of the school's primary wing. The money was exclusively from his wife's savings which she had accumulated over the years from the service rendered at the school. --IANS mak/mag/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Australia on Wednesday discussed cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region at the second 2+2 Dialogue between the two countries here. "India and Australia share warm and multi-faceted relations based on shared democratic values and pluralism," the Indian External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. "At the meeting, both sides underlined the growing convergence on a number of strategic perspectives including the need for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region," it said. India and Australia are part of a quad revived last year, which also includes the US and Japan, that seeks to work for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific has been growing in geopolitical importance in the face of China's growing influence in the region. Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra held the second 2+2 Foreign Secretaries and Defence Secretaries Dialogue with their Australian counterparts, Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Frances Adamson and Secretary of Department of Defence Greg Moriarty --IANS ab/tsb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The death toll from the 7.5-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Indonesia's Sulawesi Island last month has risen to 2,045, authorities said on Wednesday. Nearly 5,000 people were estimated to be missing. The National Agency for Disaster Management said in a press conference that 1,636 were killed in Palu, the worst hit in twin disasters, 222 in Sigi, 171 in Donggala, 15 in Parigi Moutong and one in Pasangkayu, Efe news reported. The families of the victims buried 1,076 bodies while the authorities interred the remaining 969. The latest data said that 10,679 were injured, out of which 2,549 were seriously hurt. About 82,775 were placed in over 100 shelter camps. The authorities estimated that over 5,000 people could have been buried under the mud in Balaroa and Petobo. The Sulawesi quake and tsunami were the worst to have struck the country since the 2004 tsunami that hit Aceh, in the west of the archipelago, leaving 167,000 people dead. Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic and volcanic activity which experiences around 7,000 tremors every year, most of them moderate. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP President Amit Shah on Wednesday alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao advanced the Telangana Assembly polls as he was afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity. Addressing an election meeting in Karimnagar, he said the Assembly elections should have been held in April-May next year along with the Lok Sabha polls but the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief imposed a burden of hundreds of crores on people by going for early polls. Urging people to give a chance to the BJP in the state, Shah promised that they would make Telangana a developed state like other BJP-ruled states and liberate it from what he called the "clutches of (MIM leader Asaduddin) Owaisi". He also targeted KCR for not implementing Ayushman Bharat scheme launched by the Centre to provide health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh each to the poor families. He alleged that KCR was afraid that if this scheme implemented, Modi would become more popular. Shah also slammed the TRS chief for not honouring the promises made in 2014 Assembly elections. "I have a list of 150 promises made by KCR. None of them were fulfilled," he said. He recalled that KCR went back on his promise to make a Dalit the Chief Minister. "He will not do it even now because Dalits are not on his agenda. His agenda is to make his son or daughter the Chief Minister." The BJP chief alleged that KCR stopped celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day due to fear of Owaisi. He promised that if voted to power, the BJP will celebrate the day on a grand scale. Criticising TRS government's move to provide 12 per cent reservation to minorities, Shah said this would cut into the quotas of OBCs, SCs and STs. The BJP leader said that the Congress and Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party can't be alternatives to the TRS. He said even if they come to power they will not be able to fight Owaisi. "Neither KCR nor Rahul Gandhi or Chandrababu Naidu fight Owaisi. Only te BJP can fight against Owaisi," Shah said while repeatedly mentioning the name of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) chief and Hyderabad MP. The BJP chief said neither KCR family nor Rahul Gandhi and his party can ensure Telangana's development. "They are all busy in 'break in India' while the Prime Minister is busy in 'Make in India'," he said. He claimed that while the BJP was for driving out infiltrators from the country, the Congress, TRS, TDP, Communists and others want them to stay. Appealing to the people to bring back Modi government to power at the Centre, Shah promised that it would throw out every infiltrator. Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, BJP's state chief K. Laxman, former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and other leaders also addressed the public meeting. --IANS ms/tsb/vm (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.) Morocco dispatched three airplanes loaded with 1.8 tons of aid to the besieged Palestinians in the Gaza strip, Moroccos news agency MAP reported. The humanitarian aid, sent upon orders of King Mohammed VI, will be channeled to Gazans through Rafah crossing in Egypt. The shipment, which includes medical equipment and supplies, will help meet the needs of the field hospital set up by the Royal Armed Forces in Gaza last May. The hospital was established after the tragic events that took place in the Palestinian territory, leaving hundreds of injured. The hospital has various specialties including general medicine, dentistry, emergency medicine, cardiology, ophthalmology, ENT, gynecology-obstetrics, trauma, pediatrics and radiology. After the US declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces leaving many injured especially in Gaza. English television personality Lauren Goodger does not want to date gangsters as she considers it as a complete "waste of time". The 31-year-old has been single since splitting from jailbird Joey Morrison last summer and now feels sick of dating goons anymore, reports dailymail.co.uk. In her column, the "Only Way is Essex" star said: "I need a complete opposite to the guys I've dated in the past. They all love me but they become obsessive and want to live this wannabe gangster life. "I broke up with Joey months ago and he's out of jail now, and I just think 'what a waste of time it was'." Morrison was jailed for 16 years for a string of violent drugs-related charges. He was 24 at the time and was convicted of possession of a firearm, kidnapping, blackmail and actual bodily harm. --IANS sim/nn/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lockheed Martin is hosting a conference in this tech hub for industry suppliers on its flagship fighter F-16 with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL), said the American aerospace major on Tuesday. "The four-day meet since Monday is discussing opportunities for the suppliers and prospective Indian partners on the F-16 programme, which has the world's largest fighter aircraft ecosystem," said Lockheed in a statement here. The all-weather single-engine F-16 supersonic multirole fighter, developed originally for the US Air Force by General Dynamics, is in use by air forces in 25 countries the world over. "The fighter jet offers opportunities for Indian firms and their suppliers' new business with us, TASL and other industry leaders," said Lockheed's strategic and business development Vice-President Vivek Lall in a statement here. If the fighter is produced in India, it offers the Indian aerospace industry a whopping $165-bilion jet aircraft sustainment market, claimed Lall. "The conference has provided a platform for Indian industry players to explore opportunities with global suppliers in the F-16 manufacturing ecosystem. Globally, F-16 industry leading partners include GE, Terma, Honeywell, Fokker, Israeli Aerospace Industries, Elbit, UTC, Terma, Eaton, Moog and Parker. "The potential F-16 India Project, as a single source globally, will be strategic to build new capabilities in the local defence production. We look forward to participating in the selection process for the fighter programme of the Indian Air Force (IAF)," said Tata Advanced Systems Chief Executive Sukharan Singh at the conference. As part of its commitment to India, Lockheed has partnered with TASL to produce the fighter's (F-16) wings at the latter's aerospace facility in Hyderabad. "We have offered to produce F-16s in India for the IAF and export customers if the government selects the fighter's Block 70 version for IAF and agrees to our partnership proposal," reiterated Lall. Lockheed's initiative positions TASL to become the provider of wings for all future customers. The F-16 block 70 version features advanced avionics, a proven Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, a modernised cockpit, advanced weapons, conformal fuel tanks, an automatic ground collision avoidance system, an advanced engine and extended service life of 12,000 hours. Though Lockheed sold a record 4,604 F-16s to 28 customers the worldwide over the years, about 3,000 of them are in operation with 25 air forces. As a Tata Sons subsidiary, TASL provides integrated solutions for aerospace, defence and homeland security. --IANS fb/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday termed opposition parties' plan to form a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) as a "failed idea," saying they want a weaker government at the Centre. Interacting with the Bharatiya Janata Party workers from five Lok Sabha constituencies through video-conferencing on his NaMo mobile app, Modi said: "The parties first fight with each other. But whenever they get a chance, they come together to grab power." The BJP party workers were from Uttar Pradesh's Agra, Madhya Pradesh's Damoh, Rajasthan's Karauli and Dholpur, Karnataka's Mysuru and Chhattisgarh's Raipur. "Same thing happened in Karnataka. Before elections, they misled the people by attacking each other. And when it was time to form government, they did not waste any time to come together," Modi alleged. The Prime Minister told party workers: "A few days ago, you must have heard an opposition leader saying that they don't want a strong government. You can understand why they want a weak government." "When there is a strong government at the Centre, then whole country is benefited. In case of a weaker Centre, only the leaders of an alliance get benefited," he said. He also slammed the previous government for not respecting the culture and traditions of India. "India's cultural heritage inspires people across the globe to lead their life normally even while facing many challenges," he said. "But it was unfortunate that those sitting in government earlier instead of feeling proud of our rich culture felt ashamed," he said. He said that even after decades of Independence, India was considered as the country of snake charmers. "And what was most shocking that those who ruled the country for decades encouraged such things," he said. --IANS aks/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In heightened tension between students of Manipur University and the authorities, police on Wednesday fired tear gas shells to disperse the agitating students demanding unconditional release of professors and students now in judicial custody. "No one was seriously injured," said a police officer, adding the students tried to storm the office of Vice Chancellor in-charge Prof K. Yugindro. The police said eight student leaders, belonging to half-a-dozen student unions, have been arrested. The students have vowed to continue the agitation triggered by allegations of administrative and financial lapses against Vice-Chancellor A.P. Pandey, who has been sent on 'forced leave.' Less than a month ago, the Union HRD Ministry appointed Prof K Yugindro as the V-C in-charge, temporarily ending the 85-day student agitation. However, the students hit the streets again after a letter written by Prof Yugindro to the HRD Ministry alleged that Governor Najma Heptulla and Chief Minister N. Biren were siding with the "terrorist teachers and students." Both the Governor and the Chief Minister termed the allegation as "regrettable". Prof Yugindro on Tuesday apologised for his comment to the Governor, who is also the chief rector. Meanwhile, the Manipur University Teachers' Association and Manipur University Staff Association have announced that they will take mass casual leave against the arrest of six professor and some students. The MU students have already been denied classes for over 100 days. All administrative work and new admissions have been disrupted. --IANS il/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the UN and the highest-ranking woman official in the Trump administration, is leaving with her reputation not only intact but even significantly enhanced. As she prepares to leave at the end of 2018 after two years at the UN, the 46-year-old daughter of Indian American Sikh parents named Namrata, Haley is being widely seen as greatly skillful in negotiating the often incendiary and capricious administration under President Donald Trump. With six years as the governor of South Carolina before her UN assignment, Haley is the first administration official who successfully carved out a reputation for independence even while not stepping on Trump's toes. If anything, she exits with Trump expressing sanguine fondness for her, calling her "very special to me". Even though Haley charted her own course as a UN diplomat in an administration run on presidential whims, she managed rather well in not attracting unvarnished attention of her boss. The clearest expression of her independence came in April over the question of whether the administration would impose new sanctions on Russia in response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, which is effectively a client state of Moscow. In an interview with CBS News on April 15, Haley had said: "Russia sanctions will be coming down. (Treasury) Secretary (Steven) Mnuchin will be announcing those on Monday if he has not already, and they will be going directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to (Syrian leader Bashar al-) Assad and chemical weapons use." "So I think everyone is going to be feeling it at this point. I think everyone knows that we sent a strong message, and our hope is that they listen to us," she had said. The comments apparently put the White House and openly Russia-friendly Trump in a bind, prompting top White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow to say that Haley had "got ahead of the curve", adding, "There might have been some momentary confusion about that." Stung by the "momentary confusion" comment, Haley swatted right back in a memorable counter -- "With all due respect, I don't get confused" -- in an interview with Fox News. That strong but succinct rejoinder from Haley was her way of saying that while she may broadly support the President's agenda she was not going to be a pushover. Throughout her two years as the top US diplomat at the UN, Haley managed to strike a delicate balance between executing the Trump doctrine, such as it is, and maintaining her personal credibility with world diplomats. She may not have intended it that way originally, but once in the job, she assiduously built up her foreign policy credentials for a future presidential run. Of course, during a West Wing announcement of her departure in the presence of Trump on Tuesday, she pre-emptively said: "I don't have anything set where I am going to go And I will say this to all of you that are going to ask about 2020: No, I am not running for 2020. "I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one." While saying "this one" she pointed to Trump sitting to her left. That was as definitive as it can get in and, as of now, there are no expectations that she might still run for president in 2020. Even if she chooses to run in 2024, Haley would be only 52. It is unlikely that she would fade out for the next five years. She was expected to take a break after an intensive eight years of public service during which she has emerged as a star of the Republican Party at a time when Trump snuffs all the oxygen out. She made it a point to praise Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner during the brief West Wing media interaction for their various engagements behind-the-scenes, perhaps making sure that she can ride some of the president's base if she does indeed run in 2024. (Mayank Chhaya can be contacted at mcsix@outlook.com) --IANS mayank/sac/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Goa Governor Mridula Sinha did not respond to questions about Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's failing health, Congress MLA Chandrakant Kavlekar said on Wednesday, after a meeting at Raj Bhavan here. "We have been repeatedly seeking an update on the Chief Minister's health but nothing has come from anyone. Today, again we asked the Governor but there was no response to our query from her side," Kavlekar told reporters outside the Governor's House. The Leader of Opposition also said there was "so much confusion" about the health status of the former Defence Minister, who is currently being treated for advanced pancreatic cancer at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Science, where he was admitted last month. "From the government side some are saying that the Chief Minister's health is fine, but if that were the case, why is there practically no government in Goa? Why is law and order going bad, why is corruption on the rise?" Kavlekar said. On Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Rajesh Patnekar after a meeting with Parrikar in Delhi, said that the Chief Minister had assured him that he would be celebrating Diwali in Goa. A day earlier, another BJP MLA Michael Lobo had maintained that there was "no positivity" about Parrikar's health. The health of Parrikar has been a matter of public concern in Goa for the last eight months, ever since he was diagnosed for advanced pancreatic cancer in February. The former Defence Minister has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and Delhi over the last several months, even as the opposition has demanded his resignation for not being able to effectively head the BJP-led coalition government in the coastal state. There has been no medical advisory about the Chief Minister's health either by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) or the state unit of the BJP. The CMO in informal messages has maintained that Parrikar was recovering from a minor pancreatic ailment. --IANS maya/mag/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rajasthan's independent MLA Hanuman Beniwal, once associated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), announced on Wednesday he will float a new party on October 29. Beniwal had won in 2008 on BJP ticket but was suspended from the party in 2012 due to differences with party leader Vasundhara Raje. In 2013, he contested as an independent from Khinwsar and won. "The new party will be announced during a 'Hunkar Rally' for which the venue is yet to be decided," he said. Asked if he was in touch with Ghanshyam Tiwari, a six-time lawmaker of the BJP who quit in June to form his own party Bharat Vahini, he said: "Tiwari is also contesting elections against the BJP like us. So post-rally, we will sit together to discuss an alliance. "If we contest alone, we can win around 50 seats, but if we go for an alliance, we can definitely win around 100 of the 200 Assembly seats in Rajasthan," he claimed. Beniwal has organised farmer rallies in Nagaur, Barmer, Bikaner and Sikar in which thousands participated. --IANS arc/tsb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the government to disclose details of the decision making process for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets in a fly-away condition from France's Dassault Aviation. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice K.M. Joseph clarified that the information sought was not related to pricing or suitability of the jets. The information should be furnished in a sealed cover and reach the court by October 29 -- the next date of hearing, the bench said. The court also made it clear that it was not issuing notice to the respondents. The court sought information from the government as Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said the purchase of the French fighter aircraft concerned the national security and described the petition as a "political interest litigation" which had been filed when the government and opposition were locked in severe political fight. Urging the court not to entertain the plea as the purchase of Rafale aircraft was not judicially reviewable, Attorney General said: "It is not a PIL but a 'political Interest Litigation' coming on the eve of elections to state assemblies of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram." The AG told the court that answers to the questions in Parliament were being selectively quoted to file the PIL which were politically coloured. In response to a query from Chief Justice Gogoi, "if we ask you to give details minus technical details", the AG said that this could not be shown to anyone given the national security and other issues of defence involved in it. Addressing the court, PIL petitioner advocate M.L. Sharma referred to the pricing of the aircraft that had been quoted at different points of time before different forums to drive the point that price being paid by India was high. He also took the court through the history of deal initially starting in 2008, involvement of a corporate house before finally the deal for purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft in a fit-to-fly condition was signed. However, the court asked another petitioner to limit his submission to the issues raised in his petition and not to "digress" from it. "Don't digress from the issue, we will not hear you", CJI Gogoi told the lawyer appearing for the other petitioner. --IANS pk/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Key equity indices jumped on Wednesday, as investors piled into beaten-down stocks amid expectations of robust corporate earnings for the second quarter ended September. The S&P BSE Sensex vaulted over 400 points, while the NSE's Nifty surged 135 points after last week's hammering. The gains were led by banking, auto and finance stocks. "Markets have corrected, hence we are seeing value buying. The positivity may also be attributed to expectations of robust Q2 results," Astha Jain, Senior Analyst Hem Securities, told IANS. At 1.11 p.m., the broader Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange was trading at 10,437.30, up 136.25 points or 1.32 per cent from its Tuesday's close. The Sensex, which had opened at 34,493.21, was trading at 34,715.87, up 416.40 points or 1.21 per cent. So far, the Sensex has touched an intra-day high of 34,771.10 points and a low of 34,346.50. --IANS ravi-rv/shs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered sealing of Amrapali group's nine offices spread across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where account-documents relating to the group's 46 companies are kept. Seven of the nine offices are located in Noida and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, while two are in Bihar's Buxar and Rajgir districts. On Tuesday, the apex court had sent three directors, including the Chairman, of the real estate company to police custody for not making available accounts of the 46 companies to forensic auditors. If the entire exercise of sealing the aforesaid seven premises situated at Noida and Greater Noida is completed today, the presence of the three directors would not be insisted upon by the police, the court said. However, "If the exercise is not complete, the present status will continue, except that the three directors, instead of being put up in the lock-up, shall be kept at the police station itself." The court order came on a plea by the three directors - Anil Kumar Sharma (Chairman and Managing Director), Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar - that they not be put in a lock-up and be allowed to interact with their officials and lawyers so that the process of handing over of the documents was expedited. The court directed the respective district administrations to hand over the keys of the sealed office premises to the Registrar of the Supreme Court. The court posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday, asking the three directors to be present. --IANS pk/shs/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Photo: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images A week after the disappearance of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, details about what happened to him at the Saudi consulate are beginning to emerge, along with indications that the U.S. had information of a Saudi plot against him. According to the Washington Post, U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi Arabias regime. The purpose of the capture was not obvious in the overheard conversations, the Post reports: The Saudis wanted to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and lay hands on him there, this person said. It was not clear whether the Saudis intended to arrest and interrogate Khashoggi or to kill him, or if the United States warned Khashoggi that he was a target, this person said. Meanwhile, top Turkish officials are saying definitively that Khashoggi was killed on orders from the highest levels of the royal court, according to the Times. One official relayed gruesome details of the alleged attack to the paper: The official described a quick and complex operation in which Mr. Khashoggi was killed within two hours of his arrival at the consulate by a team of Saudi agents, who dismembered his body with a bone saw they brought for the purpose. It is like Pulp Fiction, the official said. The Saudi regime denies this. They say Khashoggi left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was attempting to finalize his divorce, shortly after he arrived. But theyve yet to provide proof and Turkish officials continue offering details about the alleged assassination. Both the Times and the Post are reporting that a group of 15 men, including an autopsy expert, presumably there to help dismember the body, arrived from Riyadh on the morning Khashoggi disappeared and left Istanbul later that afternoon. There are also reports that Turkish intelligence is in possession of a video showing Khashoggis murder. Turkey, however, remains reluctant to officially blame Saudi Arabia for Khashoggis murder. A senior Turkish official told the Times that Ankara hoped that Washington and the international community would take the lead in challenging Saudi Arabia. Signs of such a challenge began to emerge Monday night when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the Saudis to support a thorough investigation of Mr. Khashoggis disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation. But thats not enough for Khashoggis fiance, who wrote an op-ed Tuesday imploring President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance. She added that she believes Khashoggi is still alive, but conceded that her optimism may be an attempt to hide from the thought that I have lost a great man whose love I had earned. Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor announced his new book "The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi And His India" on Wednesday. Divided in five sections comprising 50 chapters, the book will arrive at the stands on October 26. "Narendra Modi is a paradoxical man. He says one thing and does another. He gives voice to a number of liberal ideas while at the same time pandering to some of the most illiberal elements in Indian society, on whom he depends for political support. Another paradox is how a Prime Minister who prides himself on effective governance has, through his silence, appeared to condone the worst aspects of misgovernance-communal riots, lynchings, the violence of gau-rakshaks and so on. A third paradox is his talk of soaring ambitions for the country when his government's performance is underwhelming," the publisher Aleph Book Company said in a statement. "The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi And His India" is currently available for pre-orders on Amazon. In the 400-page exhaustive work, Tharoor, who has authored 17 previous books, sets out to enquire "who is the real Narendra Modi". "A noble, selfless leader who acts effectively in the interests of all his countrymen or an autocratic, right-wing bigot who is interested only in power and converting plural India into a Hindu Rashtra? Or something in between?" The publisher has billed "The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi And His India" as a "brilliant study of Modi and the effect he has had on our country". Aleph said that the book answers questions about a leader who is "reviled and worshipped in equal measure". "Using years of close observation, personal encounters with Modi, considerable scholarship, a deep understanding of Indian politics, and an insider's view of the way in which government functions. Shashi Tharoor has stitched together a compelling portrait of this paradoxical figure. Never before has there been such a superbly written and devastatingly accurate account of the most controversial prime minister India has ever had," the publisher added. The first section takes a close look at Modi's life and times. The other four sections look at key aspects of the way in which Modi's government functions and the lasting and often "deleterious impact" it has had on Indian society, major institutions, the economy, foreign policy and our fundamental values, the publisher said. --IANS ss/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a joint operation, the Punjab Police and Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday arrested three students after busting a terror module of Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) in Punjab's Jalandhar city. Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora said in Chandigarh that the students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar city. The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early this morning, also recovered two weapons, including an assault rifle, as well as explosives from the hostel room of B. Tech (Civil) Student of second semester Zahid Gulzar of Rajpora. Zahid was detained along with Mohd Idriss Shah and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, both of Pulwama, a statement from the DGP said. The DGP said the arrests followed the development and corroboration of various leads and inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organisations and individuals operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. A case under sections 121, 121-A and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act and the Explosive Act has been registered, the statement said. "Further investigations are in progress and the Punjab Police is working closely with J&K Police to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and J&K," the DGP said. Arora said the busting of the terror module and the recovery of weapons in Jalandhar was indicative of efforts by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border. The Punjab Police had recently picked up a student, Gazi Ahmad Malik of Shopian (in Jammu and Kashmir), from Banur in Patiala district where he was studying in Aryans Group Polytechnic College. Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a J&K Police Special Police Officer (SPO) who had fled with seven rifles from the residence of a PDP MLA in Srinagar and was suspected to have joined the militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. Gazi was later handed over to J&K Police for further investigation. --IANS js/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump has said his upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be held after the mid-term congressional elections in November. On a flight to Iowa, while campaigning for the mid-term polls to be held on November 6, Trump told reporters: "I just can't leave now." Earlier on Tuesday in a media interaction at the Oval Office, he said the venue of his second meeting with Kim has been narrowed down to "three or four" locations...timing won't be too far away". Asked if his Mar-a-Lago estate is an option, Trump smiled and said that Kim would "probably like that. I'd like that, too. I think it would be good. But we'll see." However, Trump might be joking because convincing Kim to take a trip to Florida could be complicated, given that the White House couldn't convince him to come to Washington for their first summit. The President though did not specify whether any of the places under consideration are in the US. He said that as the process would go on, "eventually we're going to have lots of meetings on US soil and on their (North Korea's) soil by the way. That's a two-way street". US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Kim this Sunday in Pyongyang to prepare the second summit between Trump and the North Korean leader, and let it be known that this meeting will take place "as soon as possible." Pompeo said that significant progress has been made toward moving forward with denuclearization talks, but didn't wish to give any details at the time. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had "good talks" with Kim during his Sunday trip to Pyongyang, Trump said, adding that progress had been made on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. "While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path to where we'll achieve the ultimate goal," Pompeo had said. The first-ever Pyongyang-Washington summit was held in Singapore on June 12. According to a joint statement signed by Trump and Kim, the US would provide a security guarantee to North Korea in return for Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. --IANS in/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has said the US unilateralism is the root cause of growing insecurity in the world. Unilateral measures by the US in dealing with the global issues have created great problems and challenges for the community, Larijani said on Tuesday, Press TV reported. The Iranian speaker made the remarks in an address to the third meeting of the speakers of the Eurasian countries' parliaments in Turkey's Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, Xinhua news agency reported. "The selfish, unilateral and illegal" move by the US government to withdraw from a multilateral nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the world powers in 2015 and to re-impose "cruel" sanctions against the Iran showed "alarming signs" of the emergence of unilateralism in relations, he said. All the countries should boost their unity in the face of these challenges, Larijani stressed. A first-year polytechnic student was arrested on Wednesday by Delhi Police for murdering his parents and sister in a south Delhi locality early on Wednesday. The police said the youth was angry with his family members for repeatedly taunting him for being "useless." "The accused has been identified as Suraj, 19. He was arrested after confessing to his crime. He repeatedly changed his statements none of which matched with the evidence found from the spot," Deputy Commissioner of Police Devender Arya said. Mithilesh and Siya, a couple in their 40s, and their daughter Neha, 16, were found dead in a Vasant Kunj area in early morning hours. The police said during investigation, Suraj cooked up a story. He showed himself as a victim and informed his neighbours that some robbers had barged from an adjacent building into his house. They reportedly attacked him with a heavy object making him unconscious, Arya said. "When he came to --as per a version put out by Suraj -- he found his sister and parents dead with multiple stab injuries. He raised alarm and informed his neighbors --Pinto and Atul," the officer said. The neighbours entered their house around 4.30 a.m. and informed the local police after finding Mithilesh, Siya and Neha lying in a pool of blood. The neighbours told the police that they heard Suraj, 19, shouting for help from the balcony of their apartment on the first floor. "He was heard shouting that masked robbers had attacked his family members and ransacked the house," the officer said. "A first-year polytechnic student from a Gurugram private college, Suraj was found changing his statements. On sustained interrogation, he broke down and confessed to his crime. He said his parents and younger sister teased him for being poor in studies. His father often beat him up for his bad habits," he added. "Infuriated at being regular rebuked by his family members, Suraj hatched a plan to kill his family members and bought a knife and a pair of scissors," said the police officer. "From footage of a CCTV installed near the residences and a shop, the police team found a girl and youth walking around the street. The youth appeared to be waiting for someone for an hour around 1 a.m. They could be involved in helping the accused. Efforts are on to identify them," he said. The police are also checking Suraj's phone and laptop. --IANS sp/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rajasthan Health minister Kalicharan Saraf on Wednesday visited the Zika-affected areas in Jaipur's Shastri Nagar and reviewed initiatives being taken by the health officials in checking the spread of the virus. Speaking with media, he said the situation is under control in the city. "There are sufficient medicines available with the department. The samples of those suffering from fever or showing symptoms of zika virus are being sent to SMS Hospital for further tests. The guidelines of Union Health Ministry are being followed," he said. Saraf was accompanied by Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Arun Chaturvedi. The two visited Kanwatiya hospital and spoke to medical officials to get the report on the disease. The officials were directed to take all necessary measures to check the spread of virus. --IANS arc/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Arnav Deshmukh, 22, who recently graduated from IIT-Madras and is a scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation, plans to go on an extended tour of Europe after two years. And while many in his age group might be quite happy to swipe their credit cards or take personal loans to achieve this goal, Deshmukh has started saving 30 per cent of his monthly salary in equity-linked savings schemes (ELSS). The only problem with this plan is the choice of instrument. While ELSS is an excellent tax-saving instrument for long-term saving, it is not the best instrument for meeting ... Twelve alleged cattle smugglers were arrested Wednesday and several heads of cattle were rescued from their possession in Giridih district, police said. Following the direction of Giridih Superintendent of Police Surendra Kumar Jha, the police initiated action at Bagodar and Khorimahua and stopped 12 vehicles carrying the cattle and arrested the twelve alleged cattle smugglers, according to police sources. The police said that some of the smugglers tried to run them over during the checking. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court handed embattled Senator Heidi Heitkamp an anvil. Photo: Tom Williams North Dakota voters could determine control of the U.S. Senate on November 6 if other states break a particular way. And the already uphill fight for reelection by Democrat Heidi Heitkamp just got more difficult thanks to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, acting without newly sworn in Justice Kavanaugh, as Amy Howe of SCOTUSblog explains: The Supreme Court today declined to intervene in a challenge to a North Dakota law that requires voters to present identification that includes a current residential street address. Lawyers say that the ruling will prevent thousands of Native American voters (and tens of thousands of North Dakota residents who are not Native Americans) from casting a ballot in the upcoming 2018 election in a state that could play a key role in Democrats efforts to retake the U.S. Senate. A federal district court judge had halted implementation of the new law in April at the request of plaintiffs that included the Native Americans most likely to be affected by its requirements. But the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals put a stay on the district courts action in September. And without comment, six Justices (Roberts, Thomas, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor and Gorsuch) let things stand there. They presumably either approved of the new law as a reasonable measure to avoid (non-existent) voter fraud, or didnt like the idea of SCOTUS intervention this close to an election (even if that meant allowing the 8th Circuit to intervene pretty close to an election, too). Ruth Bader Ginsburg, however, wrote a dissent in which Elena Kagan joined. It got right to the point: I would grant the application to vacate the Eighth Circuits stay because last-minute [c]ourt orders affecting elections, especially conflicting orders, can themselves result in voter confusion and consequent incentive to remain away from the polls. Purcell v. Gonzalez, 549 U. S. 1, 45 (2006) (per curiam). The risk of voter confusion appears severe here because the injunction against requiring residential-address identification was in force during the primary election and because the Secretary of States website announced for months the ID requirements as they existed under that injunction. Reasonable voters may well assume that the IDs allowing them to vote in the primary election would remain valid in the general election. If the Eighth Circuits stay is not vacated, the risk of disfranchisement is large. Ginsburg went on to note the district courts finding that 70,000 North Dakota residentsalmost 20% of the turnout in a regular quadrennial electionlack a qualifying ID under the new laws provisions. These votersand particularly the Native Americans among themare likely to be disproportionately Democratic-leaning. As Mother Joness Pema Levy observes, Heitkamp won her last race by a spare 3,000 votes. Finding a majority now is going to be tough for her. You have to figure Brett Kavanaugh wishes he could have piled on in helping to thwart a senator who bravely decided to oppose his confirmation late in the process despite her states strongly conservative and pro-Trump nature. Employees of the Arunachal Pradesh government on Wednesday decided to go for a two-day pen & tool down strike from Thursday to protest non-fulfilment of their demand of implementation of recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission for them. The Congress also demanded that the Arunachal Pradesh government implement recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission in the state in toto. The Confederation of Service Associations of Arunachal Pradesh (CoSAAP) rejected 'partial' fulfilment of its demand by the state government and resorted to the two-day strike which is the first phase of the agitation, CoSAAP president Pate Marik said. If the demands were not met, the CoSAAP to go for a four-day pen & tool down strike from October 23, followed by an indefinite strike from November 8, Marik said. Among the employees' demands on the pay panel, the state cabinet on Monday decided to consider only grant of tough location allowance (TLA) and house rent allowance (HRA), he said. The Cabinet decision has been conveyed to the CoSAAP. Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Takam Sanjoy also accused the BJP government of delaying the issue of employees' demands. "The state government had implemented 5th and 6th Pay Commission recommendations in the state in toto.... (The employees are) entitled constitutionally to get each and every benefit of 7th central pay commission," Sanjoy said in a statement. The Congress expressed its support and solidarity to the cause of various layers of employees of the state government, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A local court here Wednesday sent a 23-year-old man to judicial custody for allegedly raping and blackmailing a woman from Kota city, officials said. The accused identified as Aabid Hussain, a resident of Rajiv colony in Nainwa town of Bundi district, was arrested on Tuesday night for the crime, said SHO of Vigyan Nagar Police Station Neeraj Gupta. The accused was today produced before the court which ordered to send Hussain to jail under judicial custody, he added. The survivor, 20, a B.Sc student, on Sunday lodged a complaint against Hussain at Vigyan Nagar Police Station, stating the accused had allegedly raped her and was blackmailing her with photos and video clips he had secretly taken in his mobile phone, the SHO said. In the plaint, the survivor said Hussain befriended her about seven to eight months ago on social media and soon the two starting meeting. During one such meeting, the accused called the survivor to his home and offered her food "laced with an intoxicating substance". After consuming the food item, the woman said she was semi-conscious and the accused allegedly filmed a vulgar video of hers and also clicked photographs, said the SHO. Threatening to share the obscene videos and photos on social media sites, the accused blackmailed the woman to have physical relations with him and demanded Rs 20,000. On the basis of the plaint, the police booked the accused under sections 376 and 384 of IPC, the SHO said. Further investigation is underway, he added. The accused worked at a photography shop in Kota city, the SHO said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a joint operation, the Punjab Police and the Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police Wednesday arrested three students and busted a module of Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) in Jalandhar. The students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar, Director General of Police Suresh Arora said in a statement issued here. The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early this morning, also seized two weapons, including an Assault Rifle, and explosives from the hostel room of B.Tech (Civil) student of second semester, Zahid Gulzar, resident of Rajpora, PS Awantipora, Srinagar (J-K). Zahid was arrested along with Mohd. Idriss Shah alias Nadeem, resident of Pulwama Jammu and Kashmir, and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, resident of Noorpura, Pulwama J-K. The DGP said the arrests followed the development and corroboration of various leads/inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organisations/individuals operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. A case has been registered in PS Sadar Jalandhar in this regard. Further investigations are in progress and the Punjab Police is working closely with the J-K Police to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and J-K, said the DGP. He said the busting of the terror module belonging to AGH, and the seizure of weapons in Jalandhar, was indicative of efforts by Pakistan's ISI to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border. It may be mentioned that Gazi Ahmad Malik, resident of Shopian, J-K, was recently picked-up by the Punjab Police from Banur, Patiala, (where he was studying in Aryans Group Polytechnic College). It was learnt that Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a J-K Police special police officers who had fled with seven Rifles from the residence of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA in Srinagar and was suspected to have joined Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant group, he said. He was later handed over to the J-K Police for further investigations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five Indian workers were injured in an explosion at an iron plant Wednesday in southern Nepal, bordering India, a media report said. All the injured were working as daily wage labourers at the iron plant in Simara Sub-Metropolitan City-2 of Jitpur, Bara, The Kathmandu Post reported. Four of the injured are said to be in critical condition and undergoing treatment at the Birgunj-based Health Care Hospital, the paper said. The injured have been identified as Kamalesh Raya, 22, Naresh Sahani, 23, Sandeep Kumar, 23, Pankaj Kumar, 20, of Sitamadi, Bihar and Binayak Singh, 35, of Motihari, Bihar. According to the police, the incident occurred when they were melting the iron in the run-down furnace. Police have suspected that the incident might have occurred due to excessive heat. Most of the equipment being used at the plant were old and in sorry state, the paper said. Nine persons were killed and more than a dozen injured when a tank used to store molasses exploded in Bidyanagar of Bara four months ago. "Factories show the maintenance of equipment only in paper," a worker said, adding, "But they never repair the equipment." More than 500 factories are being operated in Pathliya-Birgunj Industrial Corridor. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Pakistani court on Tuesday sentenced a 60-year-old disabled man to six-year imprisonment for sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl. Lahore's Additional District and Sessions Judge Rahmat Ali announced the verdict as prosecution established the case that suspect, Muzaffar Hussain, sexually abused the girl at his house. However, the prosecution failed to establish that the suspect committed rape. The convict was present in the court on a wheelchair when the judge announced the verdict. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 500,000 on him. In case of his failure to pay the fine, he will have to serve five more years in jail. Lahore police had lodged a case in 2017 against the convict under sections 376, 364, and 377-A & B of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The sections deal with offence of rape, kidnapping and sexual abuse. The incident took place at Batapur area close to Wagah border. Police arrested the suspect later last year. Advocate Hashim Niazi, the convict's counsel, argued in the court that police medical report had clearly established that Hussain was unable to perform the alleged act of rape, therefore, police at a later stage on investigation included offences of sexual abuse and kidnapping in the FIR. He claimed that the girl's father implicated Hussain in a false case only to settle a property dispute with him. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Wednesday declared tribal leader Komal Hupendi as its chief ministerial candidate in Chhattisgarh where elections are scheduled to be held next month. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party is making its maiden dash at the hustings in Chhattisgarh, where the electoral contest has always been two-dimensional--between the BJP and the Congress. The move is seen as an attempt to woo tribal communities in the state. "The party has projected its Bhanupratappur assembly seat nominee Hupendi as its CM face after consulting top leaders of the party and local leadership," AAP state in-charge Gopal Rai told a press conference here. Hupendi, 37, had joined the AAP in 2016 after quitting as Cooperative Extension Officer with the state government, he said. He is a native of Mungwal village in Bhanupratappur area. Hupendi is contesting his maiden election from Bhanupratappur assembly seat. AAP state convener Sanket Thakur said farmers and tribals are looking at his party with hopes, as they have lost trust in the ruling BJP and opposition Congress. The AAP has so far declared nominees for 84 of total 90 assembly seats, said Thakur, who is the party nominee from Raipur Rural seat. Chhattisgarh is expected to witness multi-pronged contests in the two-phase polls, with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) allying with the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) of former chief minister Ajit Jogi. In Lok Sabha elections held in 2014, the AAP had fielded its candidates in 10 of 11 seats in Chhattisgarh, but drew a blank. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After the mission to clean Ganga and Yamuna is completed, other rivers within the country and world would give a call for 'Me Too', Union minister Uma Bharti said Wednesday. She told reporters there should no hindrance to the flow of river and women. The #MeToo movement is against sexual harassment and sexual assault which spread on social media. It has taken India by storm and is currently raging after names of several personalities across different professions cropped up. Referring to a government notification on the minimum environmental flow for Ganga that has to be maintained at various locations on the river, Bharti said unless the problems of one of the world's largest water body are understood, its woes cannot be addressed. "This is an important development happening in the country to save the rivers. It will start for Ganga, Yamuna and then rivers within the country and outside will give a call #MeToo, which means please start the movement for me too. "Nitin ji (Gadkari) has started this programme and all rivers will start saying #MeToo. Even we want such a notification," she said. "There should not be any hindrance to the flow of river and women. This is the pledge that is being taken today," Bharti said. Gadkari was also present at the press conference. When asked about his reaction on M J Akbar, a minister of state in the External Affairs Ministry, who has been named in an alleged sexual misconduct by several journalists, Gadkari declined to give any reaction. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday had refused to answer a question on the allegations against her junior minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) AirAsia India Wednesday announced appointment of Tata group veteran Sunil Bhaskaran as chief executive officer and managing director, amid the no-frills airline preparing to expand its operations. The carrier, which currently has a fleet of 19 planes, is a joint venture between Tatas and Malaysia's AirAsia Berhad. Bhaskaran's appointment would be effective from November 15, AirAsia India said in a release Wednesday. Currently, he is vice president of corporate services at Tata Steel and has over three decades of experience in the fields of manufacturing, export and commercial operations with the Tata group. He would be the third CEO and MD of Bengaluru-headquartered AirAsia India, which started operations in June 2014. He would "oversee the next phase of expansion and growth of the company", the release said. Bhaskaran would replace Amar Abrol, who stepped down from the position in June to join back the parent company AirAsia in Malyasia. "We are delighted to welcome Bhaskaran as the new CEO and MD of AirAsia India," AirAsia India Chairman S Ramadorai said. With India's aviation sector growing at a rapid pace, Ramadorai also expressed confidence that his extensive experience, ability to drive performance and work seamlessly with all stakeholders would be a great asset for AirAsia India. "I am thankful to the board and the shareholders (Tata Sons and AirAsia Bhd) for meeting with the shortlisted candidates in arriving at the unanimous selection of Bhaskaran," Ramadorai said. Bhaskaran's appointment as the CEO and MD is being seen as Tatas enhancing its control in the airline, which is facing stiff competition in the fast growing Indian aviation market. There have been reports that AirAsia Berhad was looking to have its nominee at the helm of AirAsia India. Bhaskaran joined Tata Steel in 1987 and has held several senior positions in the Tata group. He is also on the Global Advisory Board of Social Accountability International (SAI), New York. He completed his B Tech from IIT, Delhi in 1985 and did post graduation in management from IIM, Kolkata in 1987. Tata Sons and AirAsia Berhad hold 49 per cent each in AirAsia India. The remaining two per cent stake is held by Ramadorai and R Venkataramanan, who is a non-executive director at the domestic airline and has been associated with Tatas for a long time. Meanwhile, the CBI has filed an FIR against AirAsia and other officials, including Group CEO Tony Fernandes, for allegedly trying to manipulate government policies through corrupt means to get international licence for AirAsia India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Innocent of bad-faith until proven guilty. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images By all appearances, over the past month every Republican in D.C. became a card-carrying member of the ACLU. For decades, mainstream conservatives had argued that public safety must take precedence over civil liberties even if that meant empowering police officers to stop and frisk citizens without a warrant, or even, to shoot ostensibly threatening criminal suspects dead. But in the weeks since Christine Blasey Ford publicly accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her as a teenager, Republicans have developed an almost fanatical commitment to the rights of the accused. Today, the GOP doesnt merely insist that all Americans are entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence in a court of law but rather, that they are owed such a presumption in all spheres of public life. The presumption of innocence applies to the courtroom setting precisely because it is how we think about decency and fairness in our broader culture and society, National Reviews Carrie Severino explained. It might be inconvenient for Democrat senators who seek to engage in smear tactics to invoke the presumption of innocence, but it is a sacred American value. Her colleague Jim Geraghty made clear just how sacred that value now is to the right. At the heart of the dispute about Kavanaugh is a fundamental question for a free society: Do we want accusations to be treated as sufficient evidence of guilt? Geraghty wrote. If we do, were not just undoing American traditions were undoing a concept thats been part of Western civilization since the Magna Carta. Countless conservative commentators voiced similar sentiments. Senator Lindsey Graham argued that if Kavanaughs nomination were rejected on the basis of credible but unproven criminal allegations then America would become a land of mob rule where youre guilty until proven innocent. After the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that Republicans had accomplished more than merely filling a Supreme Court seat they had stood up for presumption of innocence. So: Republicans now believe that punishing a person for a crime he did not commit is such an intolerable evil, America cannot so much as deny a man a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court on the basis of sexual assault allegations that were made under oath unless those allegations can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt; to adopt a lesser standard would be to do nothing less than eviscerate the foundations of Western civilization. Some liberals have rejected this exacting standard. Others have mocked Republicans for their sudden about-face on the rights of the accused or else, suggested that conservatives havent actually become principled civil libertarians, but rather, have just been making ad hoc rationalizations for advancing the nomination of a judge whom they liked. But I believe our Republican brothers and sisters are sincere or at least, that they deserve the benefit of the doubt. The GOPs new views on the rights of criminal suspects might have been a source of division during the Kavanaugh hearings. But they can be a cause for bipartisan cooperation going forward. Specifically, the GOPs newfound reverence for the presumption of innocence should clear the way for Congress to take action on a whole host of criminal-justice reforms. If Republicans mean what theyve been saying for the past three weeks, then I look forward to their eagerly rallying behind the following proposals (among others): 1) The abolition of cash bail. If it is wrong to deny someone a Supreme Court seat on the basis of unproven criminal allegations, then it is surely a travesty to imprison a low-income American on that same basis. And yet, the United States is currently doing the latter on a massive scale: Tonight, hundreds of thousands of Americans will sleep in a jail cell solely because they arent affluent enough to post bail, and await their day in court outside of confinement. Fortunately, Bernie Sanders has already introduced a bill that prohibits money bail in federal criminal cases, offers grants to states that pursue alternative pretrial systems, and withholds federal funds from states that insist on continuing to jail criminal suspects because theyre poor. Presumably, McConnell will be bringing that legislation to the floor in the coming weeks. 2) A ban on civil asset forfeiture. Under current U.S. law, federal, state, and local law enforcement officials can permanently confiscate your car, money, house, or other property if they suspect that someone used those possessions to commit a crime, under a process known as civil asset forfeiture. Critically, the government does not need to prove their suspicions; in fact, it doesnt even need to charge anyone with a crime. Typically, Americans with significant social or financial capital dont need to worry about suffering such expropriation; police forces know that going after well-connected citizens property would bring repercussions. So instead, most target the scarce possessions of the poor. There is already bipartisan opposition to this practice. After Jeff Sessions revived a federal civil asset forfeiture program last year, the House passed several amendments blocking the Justice Department from implementing the policy. But Mitch McConnell declined to include those provisions in the Senates version of the omnibus spending bill. Happily, the Majority Leader has since discovered the vital importance of the presumption of innocence, and thus, its safe to assume he will push for a vote on those amendments and other measures aimed at cracking down on civil asset forfeiture at the state level in the near future. 3) The repeal of the NDAAs provisions authorizing the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens. This ones a no-brainer: The National Defense Authorization Act empowers the military to indefinitely imprison U.S. citizens without charges or a trial if the Executive branch decides that he or she has substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces. If fealty to the Magna Carta required us to disbelieve Christine Blasey Ford, surely it bars the White House from having the unilateral authority to order the indefinite confinement of anyone whom it deems to be a terrorist. (Curiously, despite their stalwart commitment to the presumption of innocence, Republicans evinced little concern for Brett Kavanaughs record on the rights of the accused during his confirmation hearings.) 4) A sharp increase in federal oversight of municipal police departments. On Barack Obamas watch, the Justice Department looked into the practices of police departments in the cities of Chicago, Ferguson, and Baltimore and found, in each case, that law enforcement in those municipalities was routinely violating the constitutional rights of residents by subjecting them to unlawful stops and excessive use of force. If due process requires us to assume that a man accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct is innocent, then surely it requires police officers to make that same presumption about African-American adolescents whove been accused of no crime save loitering in a bad part of town. And yet, despite overwhelming evidence that American cops are denying black teenagers their presumption of innocence, Jeff Sessions has suspended the DOJs probes of local police departments. Surely, Senate Republicans will imminently pass a resolution imploring the Justice Department to resume those investigation and then, set about crafting federal legislation aimed at discouraging police officers from engaging in racial profiling, unwarranted seizures, excessive use of force, or any other tactic that infringes on their constituents presumption of innocence. The past week has left many liberals feeling bitter, and more alienated from their Republican countrymen than ever before. But they should take solace in the fact that Brett Kavanaughs confirmation has cleared the way for a variety of vital criminal-justice reforms. After all, to believe that Republicans will just carry on allowing the institution of cash bail to keep hundreds of thousands of poor Americans behind bars, or the Justice Department to permanently confiscate the property of criminal suspects, or the Executive branch to retain the right to indefinitely detain citizens without trial, or police departments to routinely harass and brutalize Americans whove been convicted of no crime after conservatives spent the past month insisting that the very survival of due process in the United States required Brett Kavanaughs confirmation to the Supreme Court would be to believe that the GOP is not actually invested in the presumption of innocence, but merely in the impunity of its own elites. And before we accept the truth of a charge that serious, we need to wait for Republicans to prove themselves guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Counter-terrorism pressure has degraded al-Qaeda and the terror group is now more likely to focus on supporting small-scale, readily achievable attacks against the US and its allies' interests in AfPak region, the FBI told lawmakers on Wednesday. Al-Qaeda maintains its desire for largescale spectacular attacks. However, continued counter-terrorism pressure has degraded the group, and in the near term it is more likely to focus on supporting small-scale, readily achievable attacks against the US and allied interests in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region, FBI Director Christopher Wray said. "Simultaneously, over the last year, propaganda from al-Qaeda leaders seeks to inspire individuals to conduct their own attacks in the US and the West, he told members of a Senate committee during a Congressional hearing on threats to the homeland. Russell Travers, Acting Director, National Counterterrorism Center told lawmakers that enduring threat from the al-Qaeda network, the group continues to suffer setbacks; yet, it has enjoyed some success strengthening the resilience and cohesiveness of its global network. For instance, the group's media releases this year have adapted faster to current events, featuring synchronized statements from leaders including Ayman al-Zawahiri. "We are concerned that improved coordination among its geographically dispersed nodes as reflected in its media efforts could improve the network's ability to advance its long-held, core goal of striking the Homeland, he said. The group, he said, maintains a global reach through its network of affiliates, led by seasoned veterans who work to advance its violent agenda. Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) continues to focus its efforts on South Asia for recruitment and publishes content in local languages, Travers said. Finally, al-Qaeda retains close ties with a variety of militant and terrorist elements that threaten US interests including the Taliban and Haqqani Network, as well as Syria-based Hurras al-Din, which includes several al-Qaeda veterans and allies among its ranks, he told the lawmakers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Andrew Johnston sparkled under lights at Canary Wharf, winning his second Hero Challenge of 2018. The crowd favourite overcame a strong challenge from World No. 2 and tournament host, Justin Rose, defending British Masters champion Paul Dunne, Hero Indian Open winner Matt Wallace and Danish Ryder Cup heroes skipper Thomas Bjorn and Thorbjorn Olesen. Pawan Munjal, MD and CEO of Hero MotoCorp Ltd, presented the winner's trophy to Johnston, who joined Alexander Levy, Lee Westwood, Patrick Reed, Li Haotong and Matt Kuchar as Hero Challenge champions. The crowds chanted in a "Ryder Cup" manner at the South Dock at Canary Wharf, which had the spectacular backdrop of skyscrapers with fans lined the area all around the water, making for an electric atmosphere. The players had to find "floating pontoon green" off a custom built target platform being used as a tee-box. They were split into two groups, with each player having six shots to score as many points as they could. The top two players from each group advanced to the semi-finals. In Group One, Johnston made a splash of his first shot, putting it into the water before he scored the first points of the evening as he spun the ball back for 20 points. He failed to score with his final four shots and totalled 20. Reigning Hero Indian Open champion, Wallace, put the first two shots in water but scored five with the third for his only points. That left Rose an easy target to beat to make the semi-finals. Rose hit what was probably the most spectacular shot of the evening, pitching almost straight into the hole to secure 50 points. He followed that up with a 15 and a 20 and landed yet another shot on the last hit for a whopping total of 90 points. In Group Two, Ryder Cup Captain Bjorn got a massive ovation even though he missed with his first five shots but the last shot fetched him 20. Dunne scored 25 with his second ball and added a ten with the last. Olesen missed his first four shots but he spun his fifth shot back for the second bullseye (50 points) of the night and earned a place in the semi-finals. In the first semi-final, Rose and Dunne missed their first three hits and then Dunne scored ten with his fourth and 20 with his last. Rose shot just 15 and Dunne was through. In the second semi-final, Olesen scored 15 with his opener and Johnston matched it with his fourth shot before the latter scored another 15 with his final ball to advance. Dunne got on the board first in the final, scoring a five with his second ball, but Johnson registered a 20 with his fifth and when Dunne came up short and went into the water with his last shot, Johnston's final attempt was a mere formality. A thrilled Johnston said, To do it in front of the home fans is always good. I always get great support wherever I go but London is special because it's my home. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has decided to step up its campaign in the national capital over the demand for special category status to Andhra Pradesh, party sources said here. The TDP broke away from the NDA in March this year over the Centre's refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh. The party had also moved a 'no confidence motion' in the monsoon session of Parliament in July, which was defeated. TDP MPs had staged protest inside and outside Parliament. Though the winter session of Parliament is several weeks away, the sources said, the party MPs have been asked to intensify their protest on the issue and meet central ministers to pursue the matter seriously. The strategy to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the special status issue was discussed at the party's parliamentary board meeting held last week. TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, in the meeting, is believed to have chalked out a detailed strategy and directed all 23 MPs of the party to intensify their campaign in Delhi, the sources said. The party has 17 MPs in Lok Sabha and six in Rajya Sabha. The TDP, the sources said, is bracing for the 2019 Lok Sabha and Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls due next year as there is a feeling that there is public anger against non-fulfilment of promises, the sources said. The MPS will start their outreach from tomorrow, they said. The winter session of Parliament usually starts in the third or fourth week of November and ends before December 25. The party is also getting ready for the assembly polls in Telangana scheduled on December 7. The TDP is part of the grand alliance 'Mahakutami', which also has the Congress, the CPI and the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), to fight assembly polls in Telangana. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor, who is facing the heat over the violence against Hindi-speaking migrants in Gujarat, will be sitting on a day-long fast Thursday to establish "peace and harmony". He announced the 'Sadbhavna Upvas' (fast for goodwill) at his house a couple of days ago. A large number of Hindi-speaking migrant workers have left Gujarat in the last few days following attacks at some places. The ruling BJP has blamed Thakor and his outfit, Gujarat Kshatriya-Thakor Sena, for the outbreak of violence. The outfit's name also figures in some of the FIRs filed in connection with the attacks, which started after a worker hailing from Bihar was arrested for allegedly raping a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district on September 28. The girl hails from the Thakor community. Thakor has denied any connection between his organisation and the attacks. He has invited migrants from Hindi-speaking states and their leaders to join in the fast tomorrow, said his associate Mukesh Bharwad. On Tuesday, the Congress leader had also invited the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to join in the fast. "Neither of them have confirmed their presence. He has also invited migrants and their leaders to join. Our aim is to send a message that we are not against anyone. All we want is peace and harmony in Gujarat," said Bharwad. A video showing Thakor purportedly berating migrant workers had gone viral before the violence began. "These people who have come from outside, they commit crime, they beat up common villagers and they go back to their states. Such people have jobs here...but our people do not have jobs here," Thakor is seen saying in a speech at Bhaucharji in Mehsana district of North Gujarat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia's fugitive son and political heir Tarique Rahman was sentenced to life and 19 others, including a former home minister, were given death penalty by a Bangladesh court Wednesday for their role in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2004. An attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 targeted Hasina, the then opposition leader, when she was about to finish a speech in front of thousands of supporters. While Hasina survived the attack with a partial hearing loss, her party's women front chief and former president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman was killed in the blasts. Special court Judge Shahed Nuruddin awarded the death penalty to 19 people including former junior home minister Lutfuzzaman Babar, ex-deputy education minister Abdus Salam Pintu and several former army intelligence officers. Rahman and 18 others were sentenced to life. Eleven others were jailed for different terms. "They (who are sentenced to death) will be hanged by neck until they are dead," Justice Nuruddin said. Thirty-one of the 49 convicts were present in the court while others including 51-year-old Rahman, now the acting BNP chairman as his mother is serving a five-year imprisonment in a graft case, are on the run abroad to evade justice. Rahman was tried in absentia with the court declaring him a "fugitive". He now lives in London where he is believed to have sought asylum though the British authorities have declined to reveal his immigration status. He leads the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from exile after Zia was jailed in February. Zia was not made an accused in the case. Rahman, two former ministers and former top police and intelligence officials of the then BNP-led four-party alliance government were among 49 accused in the case. The judge also made 12-point observations on the background, motive and consequences of the attack, mainly targeting incumbent Hasina. "The attack was intended to eliminate the Awami League leadership, including Sheikh Hasina," the judge ruled. The court had wrapped up the hearing on September 18 after a protracted investigation and trial process. Investigations found an influential quarter of the then BNP-led government, including Rahman, masterminded and sponsored the attackers -- the operatives of militant Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI). Commenting on the verdict, BNP secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir expressed the party's deep frustration saying it was a "politically motivated" verdict. "It's a naked expression of political vengeance," he added. However, Law Minister Anisul Huq said Rahman, the mastermind of the attack, deserved the death sentence. His Cabinet colleague and the ruling Awami League general secretary Obaidul Qader echoed him, saying "we are not fully satisfied with the verdict". "We may take steps to challenge his (Rahman's) lenient punishment once we get the copy of the entire judgment," Huq said. Those who were sentenced to death were fined Taka one lakh each. The High Court must confirm their death penalty after a mandatory review. Other political figures, who were given life sentence include former prime minister Zia's political adviser Haris Chowdhury and former BNP lawmaker Qazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad. Law enforcement agencies earlier covered Dhaka with a security blanket while armed guards stood outside the courtroom in the old part of Dhaka to quell possible protests. A key-accused in the case, HuJI chief Mufty Abdul Hannan, was dropped from the convict list along with two of his associates as they were hanged by now after trial in a separate case. "We are taking steps to bring back the fugitive convicts," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told reporters as the verdict was announced. The verdict comes ahead of the parliamentary elections in December. Zia's party had boycotted the 2014 elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after a magisterial probe was ordered to investigate an alleged ban on singing Vande Matram and chanting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" at a government-aided inter college in Ballia district, authorities have closed it indefinitely. "We have closed the college till further orders. It will be reopened after permission from administration" Principal of Gandhi Mohammad Ali Memorial (GMAM) Inter College, Majid Nasir, said Wednesday. On the direction of the district administration, the principal pasted a notice dated Tuesday at the college that there was freedom to recite or sing "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", Vande Matram, Jana Gana Mana etc. District Magistrate Bhawani Singh Khangaraut and Superintendent of Police Sriparna Ganguly visited the college Tuesday to examine the allegation that there a ban on singing Vande Matram and chanting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" at the college. They later ordered a magisterial probe. An FIR was registered on Monday by Class 12 student Anuj Kumar Gaur that he and three other school students were attacked at the college gate. Gaur alleged that they were attacked at the behest of Nasir and a few teachers. He claimed Nasir and the teachers were angry with him after he told a social organisation and mediapersons on Friday that singing Vande Matram and chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai were not allowed in the college. Gaur stated in the FIR that around 20 to 25 men attacked them with lathis, while raising "Pakistan Zindabad" slogans. The principal and the teachers instigated the assailants to continue to beat them, Gaur has alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Security was tight in Bangladesh on Wednesday ahead of a special court ruling in a decade old grenade attack case in which opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia's fugitive son and her presumed political heir Tarique Rahman is the prime accused. The attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, killed 24 people and injured nearly 500 others, including party chief Sheikh Hasina. "We have taken adequate security measures throughout the capital and any attempt to create anarchy will be dealt with an iron hand," Dhaka's police commissioner Asaduzzamn Mia told reporters in front of the makeshift court complex at Nazimuddin Road. His comments came as 31 out of the 49 people accused, including two former ministers and former police and military intelligence officials, were escorted to the court from high-security Kashimpur Central Jail. A Dhaka police spokesman said some 4,000 security personnel have been deployed in the national capital to maintain law and order. Investigators said Hasina was the main target of the attack. Hasina was injured in the attack while party's women front chief and former president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman were among the dead. Subsequent investigations found an influential quarter of the then BNP-led government, including Rahman, masterminded and sponsored the attackers -- the operatives of militant Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI). Rahman was tried in absentia with the court declaring him a "fugitive". He now lives in London where he is believed to have sought asylum though the British authorities have declined to reveal his immigration status. Other accused included two former ministers of the past BNP-led four party alliance government, several Islamist militants and senior intelligence and police officers, many of them are absconders. The court wrapped up the hearing on September 18 setting the date for the verdict after a protracted investigation and trial process. Zia, who is now serving a five-year imprisonment in a graft case, was not made an accused in the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Belgian bishop called Wednesday for married men to be allowed into the priesthood, a hot-button topic within the Roman Catholic church as it grapples with falling priest numbers and sexual abuse scandals. "I am convinced that some young people, who have drawn from the baptismal vocation their call to wed, would gladly say 'here I am' if the church were to call them to the priestly ministry," Bishop Jean Kockerols told a global meeting of bishops being held at the Vatican. He said the ordination of married men would help attract more priests to the calling. Kockerols, Auxiliary Bishop of Brussels, was speaking on behalf of all Belgian bishops, a spokesman of the Belgian episcopal conference told the religious website "CathoBel". The debate as to whether celibacy fosters sexual dysfunction and abusive behaviour in prelates has intensified in recent years. Pope Francis has signalled that he is open to considering changing the doctrine to allow the ordination of married men. But Belgian episcopal spokesman Tommy Scholtes warned that, in terms of the vocation crisis, it was "not the only solution". "We know that in the Protestant or Orthodox world too, where pastors can marry, it is difficult to find young men to serve the church," he said. The German Catholic church has recently led the debate on celibacy following revelations of the sexual abuse of thousands of children. A study published by the German church last month showed that at least 3,677 minors were abused by clergy between 1946 and 2014. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who heads the German Bishops' Conference, apologised to the thousands of victims and promised a broad discussion that would also examine questions on celibacy and the church's sexual morals. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh Wednesday announced a compensation of Rs 30 lakh each to the families of workers who lost their lives in a blast at SAIL's Bhilai Plant in Chhattisgarh, the steel ministry said. The families of the deceased will also get a statutory compensation between Rs 33 lakh and Rs 90 lakh, the minister said. "The minister announced compensation of Rs 30 lakh each to the families of those who lost their lives in the accident, Rs 15 lakh each for those who have serious injuries and Rs 2 lakh each for those with minor injuries," the steel ministry said in a statement. The families of the deceased will receive statutory compensation ranging from Rs 33 lakh to Rs 90 lakh in addition to the compensation announced by the minister, the statement said. The steel minister also directed SAIL to provide employment to the next of kin who died in the accident and free education to children up to graduation level. Two more employees succumbed to their injuries, taking the total death toll in the explosion to 11. Ten persons continue to receive treatment in the burns ward of Bhilai Steel Plant Hospital and two persons are admitted in the ICU in critical condition. The minister reached Bhilai Wednesday morning and visited the hospital to enquire about the treatment being given and condition of those injured in the blast incident. He also held an internal meeting with the officials of SAIL after his visit to the hospital and directed that one senior official of Bhilai Steel Plant be made responsible for all rehabilitation measures to the families of those who have lost their lives and are injured besides ensuring that all payments be made promptly. Two senior officials of Bhilai Steel Plant have been suspended and CEO of Bhilai Steel Plant has been divested of his duties for the occurrence of the accident, the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A team of four doctors from the AIIMS was despatched Wednesday by the Centre to treat the patients who suffered burn injuries in an explosion at the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh, officials said. Eleven people died and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at the plant of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Durg district on Tuesday. Union Health Minister J P Nadda spoke to the state government and assured them of all support, a source from the ministry said. The team of doctors was led by Maneesh Singhal, a professor and the head of the Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences. "The team of doctors have reached the hospital there to take stock of patients and assist doctors there in the treatment of patients," the source said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Photo: Chip Somodevilla/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 meaning of Brett Kavanaughs presence on the Supreme Court and the New York Times reporting on apparent tax fraud by the Trump family. Brett Kavanaugh is hearing his first cases as a Supreme Court justice this week. Has the bitter fight brought out by his confirmation ended?The bloody Kavanaugh fight was not the beginning, middle, or the end of this bitter fight. It was just the latest battle in a culture war that pits one of Americas two major political parties against the nations women. The Republican war against women began well before Donald Trump ran for president at least as far back as 1992, when, in the aftermath of the Anita HillClarence Thomas debacle, the likes of Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, and Phyllis Schlafly jawboned the GOP into adopting a misogynistic religious-right policy agenda at the Republican National Convention in Houston. The perhaps inevitable byproduct, a quarter-century later, was Trump, who as a candidate was fully embraced by his party despite having mocked a female primary rival for her looks, ridiculed a network news anchor for her presumed menstrual bleeding, and bragged on tape about his serial sexual assaults. No one should be surprised that, once elected, Trump would nominate a likely sex offender to the Supreme Court, where Kavanaugh will help fulfill the long-held GOP dream of rolling back Roe v. Wade, among other egregious ideological goals that will chip away at the rights of all Americans except white men. Right up to the moment that narcissistic moral fraud Susan Collins gave her foreordained oration sealing Kavanaughs confirmation, many of those in opposition were holding out hope against hope that a silver bullet would yet emerge to doom his ascent: further confirmation of what happened that night to Christine Blasey Ford during high school, or perhaps another witness to Kavanaughs alleged terrorization of Deborah Ramirez at Yale. To me such hopes underestimated the gravity of the Republican Partys misogynist mission. Lets face it: even if someone had unearthed a crystal-clear photo or video of Kavanaugh exposing himself to Ramirez, the Senators of the grab em by the pussy party, Collins included, would still have voted to confirm him. For his part, Trump would have dismissed such visual evidence as fake news just as he has the Access Hollywood tape and would still have proclaimed Kavanaugh innocent of any charges. Had the FBI actually conducted a thorough investigation of Kavanaugh turning up still further evidence to back up Fords testimony, Trump would have attacked it too, dismissing the agency and its findings as a hoax much as he has every federal law-enforcement investigation of the apparently bottomless illegalities committed by the Trump campaign and administration. So lets stop pretending that there is another GOP than the Trump GOP. Lets stop declaring that Trump is suddenly sounding presidential just because he waits a few days before publicly trashing Blasey Ford. Lets stop maintaining the fiction that Collins, Jeff Flake, Ben Sasse, Bob Corker, and their fellow Vichy Republicans, including Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin, are not onboard with whats going on. And lets not give credit to Republican politicians when they pay lip service to treating sexual-assault victims with respect or when they say, as the epically disingenuous Collins did, that they believe both Ford and Kavanaugh. When Collins says that she believes that the perpetrator of the attempted rape of Christine Blasey Ford was someone other than the man she elevated to the Supreme Court, she sounds like O.J. in search of the real killer of Nicole Brown Simpson. As we try to look forward after this sordid episode no easy task we can perhaps take a little comfort in the fact that Trump didnt yank Kavanaugh for an alternative nominee like Amy Coney Barrett, who is just as far to the right, if not more so, and who would have been carrying far less baggage (if any) to her seat on the Court. Kavanaugh has been delegitimized to a clear majority of America over the past month by his partisan ravings and unchecked rage at the final hearing as much as by his unpersuasive denials of his past behavior toward women. No less delegitimized is the Supreme Court, whose already eroded image as a sanctuary of nonpartisan justice has now reached a nadir where Judge Judy may by default be the new gold standard of unbiased American jurisprudence. With such diminished moral authority, and with an unceasing run of 54 verdicts likely in major cases to come, the Courts voyage to the right may well be buffeted by civic and political unrest that, as in other eras of American disunion, ultimately vacates those rulings out of sync with the majority of the nations citizens. How will the Kavanaugh nomination affect the midterms, which are in less than four weeks? It would be foolhardy to guess. Certainly the failure of the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to come up with a coherent strategy for questioning Kavanaugh hardly fills one with hope about the partys management of the midterms. When you read simultaneous post-Kavanaugh columns in the Times headlined Get Angry, and Get Involved and Liberals, This Is War, you feel further frissons of anxiety. Such columns are right on, but they are preaching to a choir that is already registered to vote and will. The turnout the Democrats need for a blue wave from voters under 30 and minorities tend to skip non-presidential elections and dont read newspaper op-ed columns. Much has been made of a NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll released midway during the Kavanaugh endgame that showed a rise in fervor among GOP voters, who now were only two points behind Democrats in their enthusiasm for the midterms a narrowing of a gap that had been ten points in July. But this poll was taken before Kavanaugh had won his fight, at the peak of Republican rage. The victors might be less charged-up after getting their poor victimized white guy on the Court, and Democrats might be angrier and more motivated to show up at the polls than ever. But the screenwriter William Goldmans undying adage about Hollywood remains applicable to politics: Nobody knows anything. A single-minded focus on Kavanaugh drowned out other major stories, most notably the New York Times investigation into the sources of Trumps money, which the paper felt the need to reprint. Times reporters, after digging for a year and a half, uncovered that Trumps fortune comes almost entirely from his father, and found what it called instances of outright fraud on taxes. Did this story miss its window?David Axelrod tweeted that it is kind of remarkable that this story made nary a ripple in a week dominated by the Kavanaugh wars. None of the Sunday-morning network political talk shows mentioned it. Even the Times own White House chief correspondent, Peter Baker, failed to mention his papers investigative effort in a front-page Trump news analysis arguing that the low unemployment rate, the successful negotiation of a (quasi-)new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, and the confirmation of Kavanaugh produced what may be the best week of his presidency so far. Given that the Times investigation was a fascinating and wildly impressive feat of forensic journalism that read almost like a novel of gangsterism at times, why did it not land as much as one might have hoped? I dont agree with those who argue that the Times made a mistake by publishing it during such a big news week. Its always a big news week during the Trump presidency, and Trump, who is nothing if not an expert reality-television producer, is a master at drowning out news he doesnt sanction. (The apocalyptic report from the United Nations panel on climate change didnt stand a chance.) If Kavanaugh didnt distract enough from the Times story then surely a Rod Rosenstein firing would have been plan B. There are other explanations for the pieces shortfall in public attention. Those who loathe Trump have long assumed he is a tax cheat of possibly felonious proportions; savory as the details are in the Times investigation, the bottom line of its findings is not news. The article might have gained more traction as news if the Times had been more hard-hitting about its own collusion in creating the Trump myth. The article does contain a fleeting mea culpa on that score, but stops short of excavating the full story of how Trump and his fixer, Roy Cohn, manipulated the Times throughout Trumps rise in New York. But the biggest reason why a Trump investigation as strong as this one fails to cause a huge stir may be cultural. As we all know, real news as practiced by real news organizations has been discredited by Trump among his base. But his constant effusions of fiction have also over time increasingly blurred reality and basic facts among Americans who are not dedicated political partisans or news junkies. Much as we revere the memory of how Woodward and Bernstein helped bring down Richard Nixon, there is no such thing as a universally admired national news source like the Washington Post or the Times or CBS News in any medium in 2018. We must reckon with the real possibility that investigative journalism, no matter how thorough and brilliant, cannot bring down a criminal president in our era as it did nearly a half-century ago. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bhilai Steel Plant was removed and two other senior officials were suspended Wednesday, a day after a blast at the plant which claimed the lives of 12 employees. Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh announced the action against the officials after visiting the injured employees of the plant at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai town, located around 30 km from here in Chhattisgarh. CEO M Ravi was removed with immediate affect while General Manager (safety department) T Pandya Raja and Deputy General Manager (energy department) Naveen Kumar were suspended, Birender Singh told reporters. Nine people were killed instantly and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at around 10.30 am Tuesday at the plant of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Durg district. Two of the injured succumbed Tuesday late night while one more died Wednesday afternoon, taking the death toll to 12, Durg Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Shukla told PTI. Now, 11 injured are undergoing treatment at the hospital, he added. The union minister said two committees will conduct probe into the incident. One internal committee of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has already been constituted to probe the incident on Tuesday, which has been asked to submit its report within seven days, he said. Another committee will be formed by the Steel Ministry which will have experts from all over the country to ascertain that how the incident occurred and who were responsible for it, he said. The union minister said the family of the deceased employees will get an ex-gratia of Rs 30 lakh each while the seriously injured employees will get Rs 15 lakh each. A special permission was taken from the Election Commission for announcing the relief as the Model Code of Conduct is in place in the poll-bound Chhattisgarh, he said. The ex-gratia given in case of death of employees has been increased from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh while for the seriously injured employees it has been hiked from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh, Singh said. Besides, the employees who have sustained minor injuries will get Rs 2 lakh each, he added. The families of the deceased will get a cumulative amount under various heads from Rs 33 lakh to Rs 95 lakh, he said. The families of the deceased can avail salary up to the retirement of the respective employee or a member can get compensatory appointment, the minister said. The officials have been directed to provide the amount to the affected families as soon as possible, he added. Earlier, Inspector General of Police (Durg Range) G P Singh said that after receiving the postmortem report of the deceased, a case under the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) will be registered followed by an inquiry into the incident. The explosion took place in the gas pipeline connected to the coke oven section of the plant during a maintenance job, the SAIL had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A district mining officer claimed that he was beaten up by BJP MLA Brijesh Prajapati for refusing his demand to extort money from miners and give him Rs 25 lakh per month, police said Wednesday. However, the BJP MLA from Tindwari denied the allegations, saying that he had called the officer to lodge a complaint on illegal mining. The MLA has also accused District Mining Officer Shailendra Singh of conniving with those indulging in illegal mining. According to a complaint lodged by Singh, he was called along with his staff member at the Circuit House last night where the two were beaten up. Singh said he and his staff member were severely beaten up by Tindwari MLA and his security guards. Later, they were also locked up in a room. "On the instructions of District Magistrate Hiralal, I have submitted a written complaint at the Kotwali police station," Singh said. "We have come to know about such an incident and the matter is being investigated," ASP Lal Bharat Kumar Pal said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday accused the Congress of dividing the society for the benefit of one family while asserting that the Bharatiya Janata Party believes in spreading happiness and uniting people. His remarks attacking the Congress at an interaction with BJP workers of five Lok Sabha constituencies came against the backdrop of exodus of migrants from Gujarat for which the saffron party has blamed its rival. With assembly elections in five states ahead, Modi claimed that it was not a matter of ego for his party to defeat others but an opportunity to serve people. "When you try and connect everything to elections, like unveiling the statue of Sir Chhotu Ram or Swachh Bharat Mission, it reduces the importance of the event," he said, adding that the BJP is doing social service and will continue doing it. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agrawal, arrested on the charges of espionage, was taken to Lucknow by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh police Wednesday, an official said here. A court in Nagpur had given the ATS his three-day transit remand Tuesday. Agrawal was being flown to Lucknow and the UP ATS will produce him before a special court there, a police official said here. The ATS will seek his custody from that court for the purpose of interrogation, he said. Agrawal was arrested Monday in a joint operation by the ATS units of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra police at BrahMos' Wardha Road facility near here for allegedly leaking "technical information" to Pakistan. BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the 'Military Industrial Consortium' (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia. The UP ATS told the court Tuesday that Agrawal was in contact with two Facebook accounts, operated under the names 'Neha Sharma' and 'Pooja Ranjan', by suspected Pakistani intelligence operatives. He has been booked under the Official Secrets Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Cabinet Wednesday approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Lebanon for cooperation in the field of agriculture and allied sectors. The proposed MoU will promote understanding of best agricultural practices in the two countries and help in better productivity at farmer fields as well as improved global market, an official statement said. The MoU will help to increase agriculture production and productivity by getting access to best practices and market worldwide, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre rushed nearly 1,000 NDRF personnel to Odisha, and Wednesday as made its way towards the coast, besides issuing directions for storage of food, fuel and maintaining power supply and telecommunication lines. The preparation for the cyclone was discussed at a meeting of the Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by P K Sinha. Stock was also taken of preparatory measures in the wake of impending landfall of the cyclonic storm along the coast between Orissa and The Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed 14 teams in Orissa and four teams in along with necessary rescue equipments, an official statement said. The Army, the and the Coastguard have also been put on standby so that they can be deployed at short notice as per requirement. Additional NDRF teams have been put on standby in areas likely to be affected in and Andhra Pradesh. Three NDRF teams were also deployed in A team of NDRF comprises around 45 personnel. The three states have also deployed their own rescue teams along with power boats. The underlined the need for storage of adequate food, fuel as well as maintaining power supply and telecommunication lines and suggested the states take advance action. He assured full support to the three states from the Centre, the statement said. The landfall of the severe cyclonic storm is likely to be between 6-9 am Thursday between Gopalpur (Odisha) and Kalingapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). The states informed the NCMC meeting about measures taken for evacuation of people from the vulnerable areas to safer places, issue of warnings to the fishermen not to venture out into the sea and stocking of adequate food, essential items and fuel supplies, besides preventive measures such as closure of schools and colleges. District and local officials have been alerted. The meeting was attended by the senior officers from the ministries of Home and Defence, the Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the NDRF, Meteorological Department (IMD) and Integrated Defence Staff (IDS). Officials frim Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and participated it through video conference. The classified Titli as a very severe cyclonic storm with very high wind speeds. The wind speed at the time of landfall is predicted in the range of 145-165 km per hour. Bengaluru FC's next home game against ATK in the ongoing Indian Super League (ISL) has now been swapped as the home game for the two-time champions. The change was necessitated due to Karnataka state government's requirement of Sree Kanteerava Stadium ground in preparation for Kannada Day. BFC were to host ATK at Sree Kanteerava Stadium on October 31 and travel to Kolkata on December 13 to play their away game. However, with the change in schedule, BFC will now first face ATK at Kolkata on October, 31 and play host on December 13, the ISL said in a release. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights on Wednesday issued a notice to the head of an NDMC-run school accused of segregating students on the basis of religion. The DCPCR, in a statement, said such a segregation can have an ill-effect on holistic learning and development of students and also negatively impact the social fabric of the country. The body also asked the school authorities to immediately dissolve the sections and not shuffle it on the basis of religion. The DCPCR has asked them to tell the reason behind shuffling students on the basis of their religion. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) on Wednesday evening suspended the incharge of its school after it came to light that there was "segregation" of Hindu and Muslims students into different sections. The primary school falls in Wazirabad area of north Delhi and administered by the NDMC. The area comes under the Civil Lines Zone of the civic body. All municipal corporation-run schools in Delhi are till primary level. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China on Wednesday praised the outgoing US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley for maintaining dialogue and cooperation with Beijing on key issues. The 46-year-old Indian-American leader announced Tuesday that she would resign from her post as the US ambassador to the UN by the end of the year. Haley had, as the US ambassador to the UN, maintained dialogue and cooperation with China on many issues, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing on Wednesday when asked about her resignation. China and the US, both permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), share important responsibilities to safeguard international peace and security, Lu added. The UNSC has the US, China, Russia, France and the UK as five the permanent members. US President Donald Trump praised Haley's performance during her tenure as the the envoy to the world body. Trump said that he expects to name a replacement for Haley in the next "two to three weeks," and said that he would be talking about candidates with the former South Carolina governor and others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen accused China of "seriously challenging" peace and stability Wednesday, describing the island she leads as being on the frontline of tensions in the Pacific. It comes as Beijing pursues a multi-pronged attack on any claims to sovereignty by self-ruled democratic Taiwan, which it sees as part of its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated since Tsai took office two years ago, as she refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China". "As Taiwan is on the frontline of the Western Pacific, we are naturally subject to tremendous pressure," Tsai said in a televised speech to mark Taiwan's National Day. "China's unilateral diplomatic offensive and military coercion have not only harmed cross-strait relations. They have also seriously challenged the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," she added. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign country and has an independent political system, judiciary and currency, but has never formally declared a split, despite being ruled separately since 1949. China has recently upped military drills around the island and has made a concerted effort to poach Taiwan's dwindling number of official allies -- only 17 countries still diplomatically recognise the island after five jumped ship since Tsai took power. Beijing has also successfully put pressure on international businesses to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites and ensured Taiwan is shut out of global forums. Tsai called on authorities in Beijing to "play a positive role in the region and the world, instead of being a source of conflict". She pledged not to escalate tensions but also said Taiwan would seek to fortify its national security and diplomatic links, establishing its "irreplaceable strategic importance". "I will not be provoked into confrontation or conflicts that endanger cross-strait relations, nor will I deviate from the will of the people, and sacrifice Taiwan's sovereignty," Tsai said. "An effective response strategy must be rooted in national strength," she added. Worsening ties with Beijing and unpopular domestic reforms policies are putting Tsai's government under pressure ahead of major local elections next month. Tsai warned in her speech that anyone interfering in the election process would "suffer serious consequences". She has accused Beijing of spreading "fake information" to affect public trust in the government in the run-up to the vote. Later Wednesday, thousands of supporters of Taiwan's Beijing-friendly opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party gathered in downtown Taipei, waving flags and singing Taiwan's anthem. Under the former KMT government of President Ma Ying-jeou, from 2008 to 2016, there was an unprecedented rapprochement with Beijing. Ma attended the rally and some participants said they hoped relations with China would improve. "I hope Taiwan and China can maintain peace and not provoke each other," 55-year-old saleswoman Shui Tian told AFP at the rally. She added that she was disappointed with the lack of Taiwan's national flag on display around the city, blaming the DPP. Taiwan's official name is the Republic of China (ROC), and the ROC flag incorporates the white sun on a blue background motif that is the symbol of the KMT. Some pro-independence campaigners want to see the island drop its old name and symbols and establish instead a Republic of Taiwan. The DPP is traditionally pro-independence leaning, but Tsai has always emphasised the importance of maintaining the "status quo" with China. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Violently occupying wildlife preserves is a legitimate form of protest. Gathering with signs outside the Supreme Court is mob behavior. Photo: Rick Bowmer/AP/REX/Shutterstock The Republican Party is the only thing standing between you and the lefts angry mob of ideological zealots (who are all, also, the hired hands of a foreign Jewish billionaire, and thus, arent genuinely angry, or ideological, or zealous). This is the narrative that Republican lawmakers are pushing in the wake of Brett Kavanaughs confirmation to the Supreme Court. A majority of Americans might think they just saw the Senate GOP install a temperamentally unfit perjurer who probably committed sexual assault onto the Supreme Court. But Republicans believe they can persuade the public that what they really saw was a Democratic mobs lawless attempt to destroy an innocent man by any means necessary. Democrats have encouraged mob rule, Judiciary committee chair Chuck Grassley lamented from the Senate floor Friday, before proceeding to tell Fox Business that he believed the protesters were mercenaries employed by George Soros, as it fits in his attack mode and how he uses his billions and billions of resources. Utah senator Orrin Hatch echoed this assessment, decrying the self-proclaimed sexual assault survivors whod gathered in the capitol as a paid mob trying to prevent senators from doing the will of their constituents. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, criticized the media for treating these (entrepreneurial) anarchists with undue sympathy, tweeting, Imagine the coverage on cable news if an angry mob of conservatives stormed the steps of the Supreme Court building. On one level, this is just bog-standard, bad-faith Republican messaging. The GOP long ago determined that it cant compete on the strength of its (deeply unpopular) tax cuts and health-care agenda, or even, on a straightforward presentation of its positions on culture war issues most Republican voters want more border enforcement, and a pathway to legalization for all undocumented immigrants (i.e., the Democratic Partys official position on immigration). Rather, Republicans know that their best bet is to stoke the paranoid fears and cultural resentments of their base, through demagogic lies if necessary. So, the party that insisted on a thorough, nonpartisan investigation of Christine Blasey Fords allegations is trying to end due process in the United States; protesters who nonviolently made their voices heard in the halls of power are assaulting democracy; Dianne Feinstein is the lead sponsor of an open borders bill; and some Democratic House candidates are literal terrorists. And yet, it wouldnt be fair to call the GOPs attacks on Kavanaugh purely cynical. Rather, what makes the partys arguments truly concerning is that they are rooted in genuine principle just not the one that Republicans are publicly endorsing. The modern GOP has no principled opposition to angry, or even lawless, demonstrations. When the far-right rancher Cliven Bundy protested federal land policy by assembling a heavily armed militia which then threatened to shoot Bureau of Land Management (BLM) workers who refused to obey their orders many Republican lawmakers rallied to Bundys defense; Ted Cruz even suggested that this insurrection against federal law enforcement was an understandable response to the Obama administrations jackboot of authoritarianism. Years later, Bundys son Ammon led an armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge demanding, among other things, that the government release friends of his whod been convicted of arson. Over the summer, Donald Trump rewarded this (ostensibly not moblike) form of protest by using his clemency powers to honor Ammons request. And, of course, Republicans celebrated tea party protesters for deploying the exact same in-your-face protest tactics that GOP lawmakers are currently clutching their pearls over even as those same lawmakers continue to venerate pro-life activists who spend their free time verbally accosting pregnant teens at Planned Parenthoods. But if the GOPs arguments are hypocritical and ever-shifting, their actions are nonetheless consistent with an overriding principle: When conservatives exercise political power it is by definition legitimate, when their opponents do, it is not. George Soros really shelled out for this one. Photo: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images So, when a federal government headed by Barack Obama tried to collect grazing fees from conservative ranchers, it was an act of unconstitutional authoritarianism that could be justly met with threats of violence. When a sheriffs office headed by Joe Arpaio tortured inmates at tent prisons, terrorized Latino constituents, arrested journalists who reported critically on their activities, blackmailed a man into staging an assassination attempt against Arpaio, and openly defied court orders, it was acting as a tireless champion of the rule of law. When reactionary senior citizens scream at Democratic lawmakers to get governments hands off their Medicare or a heavily-armed militia challenges the states monopoly on violence for a cause the conservative movement supports then they are civic-minded Americans who know that dissent is the highest form of patriotism. When sexual assault survivors, liberals, and labor unions protest the Senates decision to confirm a Supreme Court justice over majoritarian opposition they are an unruly mob doing the bidding of their sinister paymasters. For the moment, the GOPs attacks on George Soross lawless minions is a campaign tactic, not a rationalization for criminalizing dissent. But every time a normal, mainstream Republican like Chuck Grassley or Orrin Hatch derides Democratic activists as the lawless agents of a foreign power, it becomes a little easier to see a jackboat of authoritarianism peeking out at the edge of our republics horizon. A Chinese intelligence official has been arrested and charged with conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and steal trade secrets from multiple US aviation and aerospace companies, the Department of Justice said Wednesday. Yanjun Xu, aka Qu Hui, aka Zhang Hui, a Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) operative, was extradited to the US on Tuesday, following which the charges were unsealed on Wednesday. Arrested in Belgium on April 1, Xu was indicted on four counts of conspiring and attempting to commit espionage and theft of trade secrets. Xu is a Deputy Division Director with the MSS's Jiangsu State Security Department, Sixth Bureau. The MSS is the intelligence and security agency for China and is responsible for counter-intelligence, foreign intelligence and political security. Beijing on Thursday dismissed US charges against an alleged Chinese intelligence agent who was accused of a state-sponsored effort to steal trade secrets, saying American authorities were "making something out of thin air". "We hope the US side can deal with this in accordance with law," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular press briefing. MSS has broad powers in China to conduct espionage both domestically and abroad. According to the indictment, beginning December 2013 and till his arrest, Xu targeted certain companies recognised as leaders in the aviation field both in and outside the United States. This included GE Aviation. He identified experts who worked for these companies and recruited them to travel to China, often initially under the guise of asking them to deliver a university presentation. Xu and paid the experts' travel costs and provided stipends. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 15 years. "This indictment alleges that a Chinese intelligence officer sought to steal trade secrets and other sensitive information from an American company that leads the way in aerospace," Assistant Attorney General John Demers said. "This case is not an isolated incident. It is part of an overall economic policy of developing China at America's expense. We cannot tolerate a nation stealing our firepower and the fruits of our brainpower. We will not tolerate a nation that reaps what it does not sow," he said. Innovation in aviation has been a hallmark of life and industry in the United States since the Wright brothers first designed gliders in Dayton more than a century ago, US attorney Benjamin Glassman said. "US aerospace companies invest decades of time and billions of dollars in research. This is the American way. In contrast, according to the indictment, a Chinese intelligence officer tried to acquire that same, hard-earned innovation through theft," he alleged. "This case shows that federal law enforcement authorities can not only detect and disrupt such espionage, but can also catch its perpetrators," Glassman added. The CISF, responsible for airport security across the country, is mulling to procure modern 3D CT scanners that will save passengers from the hassle of taking out laptops and electronic gadgets for screening before boarding an aircraft, a senior official said Wednesday. According to the official, such scanners are made in countries such as the USA and Israel, and a few international airports across the globe deploy them for passenger baggage screening. At present, airline passengers in the country are required to take out their laptops and other electronic gadgets from their cabin baggage and place them separately in the x-ray scanner when they get themselves frisked. No Indian civil airport has 3D CT scanners and the screening of cabin bags is done using x-ray scanning machines. The official said a broad demonstration of the latest 3D imaging technology, on the lines of the computed tomography (CT), was made during a two-day 'International Aviation Security Seminar' that was organised by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) here, the official said. Such a scanner will save the effort put in by CISF personnel for screening and it will subsequently allow them in better profiling a suspicious passenger as time would be saved in separately scanning the electronic items. This will also speed up security checks and reduce queues at large airports that handle heavy passenger traffic, the official said. CISF Director General Rajesh Ranjan confirmed that the force has expressed its willingness to have a field demonstration of the gadget so that its utility can be gauged at Indian airports. "Such gadgets not only greatly enhance the competence of frisking staff to detect an undesirable item that is hazardous from the aviation security point of view, it also works to reduce hassles of passengers," the DG told PTI. The measure to procure the new gadget is part of the forces' plan to induct smart technology that will not only facilitate quick passenger travel but also not compromise on security. Since last year, the CISF has also initiated a project to do away with cabin baggage tags for passengers and this new system is currently operational at 49 civil airports out of the 60 that the force secures. The two-day 'International Aviation Security Seminar' was inaugurated by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday and participants from 18 countries and airlines are attending it. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China today refuted President Donald Trump's assertions that "the US has really rebuilt China", attributing its economic success to the leadership of the ruling Communist Party. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China's development is due to unwavering efforts in pushing forward reform and opening up, as well as the diligence and wisdom of the Chinese people. Lu said "China owes its tremendous achievements in development to the correct leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics". He was responding to a question about American leaders' assertions that it is the US which has built up China. Last month, Trump had said China had rebuilt itself with the "tremendous amount of money" pouring out of the US. He said America has been "ripped off" by "everyone", including Beijing, adding that China has been taking out USD 500 billion a year from the US. "They (Chinese) rebuilt their country with tremendous amounts of money pouring out of the United States. I've changed that around," Trump said. Lu said the claim by American leaders that attributes China's economic achievements to the US is not only a betrayal of the truth, but also logically untenable. China's response is part of a war of words between the two countries after Trump kicked off the trade war between the world's two largest economies by slapping sanctions on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods recently. China retaliated with equal measure, imposing additional tariffs on US goods. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress in Goa Wednesday took out a march here in protest against the "failure" of the Manohar Parrikar-led coalition government on "all fronts". The party also demanded the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi issue a medical bulletin on the health status of the chief minister, 62, who remains admitted there for a pancreatic ailment since September 15. Earlier in the day, a delegation of Congress leaders met Governor Mridula Sinha and sought her directions to the state DGP and chief secretary to probe the Congress' complaint against Parrikar and his predecessor Laxmikant Parsekar for "their alleged role in the illegal renewal" of the iron ore mining leases. Hundreds of party workers walked on the busy D B Bandodkar road this afternoon and shouted slogans against the Parrikar government. They later gathered at the Azad Maidan where the party leaders addressed them. During their meeting with the governor, the Congress reiterated several demands including issuance of a health bulletin on Parrikar's condition. "The state government has miserably failed to fulfill the promises made to the people. Several issues are hanging fire and the people are being given hollow promises," Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Chandrakant Kavlekar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after meeting the governor. "The state government is almost non-existent. We urged the governor to direct officers to restore normalcy in the state administration," he said. He alleged various parties that are part of the ruling coalition are behaving as per their whims, which has seriously affected governance. "Properties belonging to the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) are being sold to private parties at throwaway prices. We have sought intervention of the governor in this regard," Kavlekar said. He said, "the government is saying that the CM's health is improving. If that is so then why there is a failure of governance?" Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar said the party had submitted formal complaints to Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma and Director General of Police Muktesh Chandar on October 3 and 4 seeking probe against Parrikar and Parsekar for their alleged role in illegal renewal of the mining leases. In a setback to the state government, the Supreme Court quashed renewal of the 88 mining leases in an order dated February 7 this year, which brought the entire mining industry in the state to a standstill. "The administration as well as the police are afraid to register complaints against Parrikar and Parsekar. We urged governor to direct officers concerned to immediately investigate the complaints," said Chodankar. Parsekar (BJP) had served as the chief minister of the state from 2014 to 2017. Chodankar said the Congress leaders told the government that the government is ridden with scams. When asked about any assurance given to them by the governor, the Congress leader said, "Everytime we meet her, she gives assurances but never fulfils them. She is not giving justice to us". Alleging that the coalition government is in disarray, the Congress had demanded a floor test be conducted in the state Assembly. The BJP has ruled out any change of guard in Goa in view of Parrikar's health. Earlier in the day, an official said that Parrikar would meet the alliance partners of his government on October 12 at the AIIMS. The BJP, which has 14 MLAs in the 40-member House, is ruling the state with the help of MGP (Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party), GFP (Goa Forward Party), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and three Independents. The GFP and the MGP have three seats each and the NCP has one. The opposition Congress has 16 MLAs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scores of Congress activists staged demonstrations here against the exodus of Hindi-speaking migrants from Gujarat after attacks on them in several parts of the state. The protest was led by district Congress party president Tarik Qureshi. They claimed the Gujarat government was unable to protect north Indians. The party men also held demonstration in Shamli district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court has awarded a one-year jail term to a former NDMC executive engineer for criminally conspiring with Decor India Private Ltd in the award of a contract to the firm for renovation of New Delhi Convention Centre prior to 2008-CWG games. Special Judge Arvind Kumar sent the convict Rakesh Sharma to jail and also imposed a fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on the firm for getting the contract on the basis of false certificates. The court accepted the submissions of public prosecutor V K Ojha, appearing for the CBI, that the company was not eligible for the contract. The court found them guilty of criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct and said that the CBI had "succeeded to bring home the guilt of accused beyond shadow of all reasonable doubts". The CBI had told the court that the company did not possess the required experience, but it filed some certificates on July 15, 2008 to claim the contract. Sharma had not examined the particulars of the certificates either at the time of their submission or at the time of technical examination of bids after its opening, the agency said. He had not raised any objection on the certificate furnished by the company deliberately, it claimed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Datsun, the sister brand of Japanese auto major Nissan, Wednesday rolled out the refreshed versions of Datsun GO and Datsun GO+, at introductory prices of Rs 3.29 lakh and Rs 3.83 lakh, respectively. The deliveries of the refreshed cars, which come with 28 new features and over 100 upgrades, have commenced from Wednesday from all Nissan and Datsun dealerships across the country, the company said in a release. "The new Datsun GO and Datsun GO+ are equipped with new features and upgrades for a more comfortable and safe driving experience," said Thomas Kuehl, president, Nissan India operations. Nissan had last week announced Bollywood star Aamir Khan as the brand ambassador for its Datsun brand in India for its new brand campaign #ExperienceChange. Both the models will come with a standard warranty of two years 'Datsun Care' comprehensive all-inclusive car service package, the company said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Friends" star David Schwimmer has boarded the cast of Steven Soderbergh's Panama Papers thriller "The Laundromat". The 51-year-old actor joins Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas in the project, reported Deadline. Actor Will Forte and Riley Keough, who recently starred in Netflix's "Hold The Dark", are in talks to join the film's cast. The Panama Papers was a set of leaked documents that shared financial information of offshore entities, revealing fraud, tax evasion and attempts to avoid international sanctions by some of the biggest names from across the world. Streaming giant Netflix has confirmed that it will finance and release the movie, which is based on the book by Jake Bernstein titled "Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite". Scott Z Burns has adapted the film's script and he will also produce the project alongside Michael Sugar, Lawrence Grey, Gregory Jacobs and Soderbergh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Terming the AAP dispensation's decision to approve School Management Committee funds for improvement of government schools a "game changer", Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday claimed it would reduce red-tapeism. The Delhi government on Tuesday approved the School Management Committee funds under which it will get at least Rs 5 lakh annually per shift (morning and evening). "This will prove a game changer in improving schools. Now schools won't need funds and approvals from sectt. This will cut red tape n enable schools to take their own decisions (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted. According to the government, the funds for the schools running in two shifts will be Rs 10 lakh (five lakh for each shift SMC). Earlier, the amount to be given would depend on the number of students in the school. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Election Commission on Wednesday made it compulsory for candidates contesting polls to advertise their criminal antecedents in TV and newspapers at least three times during electioneering. According to directions issued Wednesday, political parties too will have to give publicity to the criminal records of candidates fielded by them. This means that candidates and parties contesting the elections to be held in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana in November-December will have to publicise their criminal records at least on three different dates in widely circulated newspapers and popular TV channels during campaign period. Candidates who do not have records have to mention that. The candidates will now have to fill up an amended form (number 26). They will have to inform parties about their antecedents such as cases in which they have been convicted and cases pending against them. The parties, the EC said, will be "obliged" to put the information about the candidates on their websites. Though the EC direction is silent on whether the candidates will have to pay from their pocket for the publicity, a senior functionary said since it's a poll-related expenditure, the candidates will have to bear the cost. Parties which fail to comply, face the prospects of getting their recognition withdrawn or suspended. Candidates have to submit clippings of their declaration published in papers and parties have to submit details about the number of such candidates in a state. The poll panel's directions are based on a Supreme Court order which said that candidates contesting polls should repeatedly advertise their criminal antecedents in print and electronic media after filing nomination papers so that the people can make an informed decision. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Trump. Photo: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images I think well be treated very fairly, President Trump told reporters yesterday, after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Everybody understands there was no collusion, theres no Russia. It was all made up by the Democrats. If Trump is going to shut down the Russia investigation, he is probably waiting until after the midterm elections, which he hopes will deliver a House Republican majority committed to protecting him from oversight or legal accountability. In the meantime, the scope of possibilities for what Robert Mueller might uncover continues to broaden. Saturday, The Wall Street Journal updated one of the most curious side plots in the investigation: the role of Peter W. Smith, a Republican activist who in 2016 sought Hillary Clintons emails from the State Department on behalf (according to Smith) of Trumps then-adviser Michael Flynn. Smith met with one cybersecurity expert in an attempt to acquire the emails, and waved off concerns about the ethics or legality of colluding with Russian intelligence. Smith died in 2017, very shortly after being contacted by a reporter, bearing a suicide note explaining that he had a life insurance of $5 million expiring and his suicide involved no foul play whatsoever. The Journals latest report fills in many new details about Smiths work. Smith raised at least $100,000, from at least four wealthy donors, as part of his effort. Smith went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the privacy and secrecy of his projects, reports the Journal. Smith personally donated $50,000 to the effort, a generous gift for a man who, only months later, putatively faced so much financial distress that he killed himself for the life insurance money. Most interestingly, the Journal got in touch with somebody who spoke with Smith shortly before his death. Retired Wall Street financier Charles Ortel said he spoke with Mr. Smith on the phone in the hours before his death about a new project to brief the Obama Foundation and warn its leaders against the mistakes they believed were made by the Clinton Foundation, reports the Journal. According to Mr. Ortel, Mr. Smith sounded excited, and he began brainstorming who to contact and how to proceed. As Betsy Woodruff reported earlier this summer, and as Ryan Goodman noted, Mueller recently added to his team attorney Kathryn Rakoczy, best known for her work on violent crime cases. This would support the likelihood that Mueller is investigating Smiths death as a murder. It is obviously possible that Smith suddenly decided to commit suicide after this conversation without betraying any hint of his intention, and while sounding excited about a future plan. But it is looking increasingly plausible that somebody in fact killed him. Monday, The New Yorker published an investigation by Dexter Filkins into the connection between the Russian Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization. The story was originally broken by Franklin Foer in the waning days of the 2016 campaign, and its basic contours have not changed very much. Computer scientists discovered patterns of suspicious traffic between the banks Moscow office and the Trump Organization during the campaign. When New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau inquired with Alfa Bank in September 2016, the Trump Organization quickly shut down its server, suggesting the two were in close contact. The knee was hit in Moscow, the leg kicked in New York, a computer scientist told Foer. Some experts have disputed whether the server was used for any real MoscowTrump Tower communication, and a host of observers have treated the possibility as a crazy conspiracy theory. Filkins, frustratingly, does not resolve the question either way. He produces lots of deep circumstantial evidence and credible testimony suggesting the server played some role in collusion between Trump and Russia, but not enough to prove it. If there is a smoking gun here, it will probably require testimony from one of the people involved in the campaign. We have no indication that that kind of testimony is coming but, then, we have no indication of anything Mueller is up to, nor have we had much indication the entire time hes been investigating. The final and perhaps most intriguing development is last weeks explosive New York Times account of Donald Trumps fraudulent tax schemes. What makes this report so extraordinary is that it breaks new ground on a figure who has been in the public eye for four decades, on matters at the very center of the source of his fame. It has not been known that Trump received hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from his father, nor that his methods included (according to the Times) outright criminality. What does this have to do with the Russia investigation? Quite a bit, actually. It shows that Trump is willing not merely to skirt the law but to blatantly violate it. It reveals that he has been able to harbor enormous secrets even in the face of constant media coverage. And, most directly, it raises unanswered questions about his mysterious financial methods. Trump is and always has been a bad businessman who relies on regular, large cash infusions from his father to stay afloat. Washington Post reporters David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan OConnell, piggybacking on the Times revelations, have raised another curiosity: it was about the time that Fred Trumps payment stream dried up that Trumps way of financing his operations took a sharp and sudden turn. Whereas before he financed his purchases with debt he had called himself the king of debt he began buying properties with cash. It is unusual for real estate developers to make cash purchases, given the incentives they normally have to finance with borrowing. Its especially unusual that Trump started doing this right after he lost his fathers continuous cash spigot. This was also the time in his career he started working closely with Michael Cohen and Felix Sater, both of whom had links to the Russian underworld. It might feel like the Russia scandal is slowing down, as the stream of indictments halts before the midterm elections. In reality, the conclusion might not be anywhere close. Streaming giant Netflix said it is assessing its options ahead of the shoot of "Sacred Games" season two in the wake of a controversy surrounding Phantom Films and the show's writer Varun Grover. Kashyap and Motwane had helmed the highly acclaimed first season of "Sacred Games" which had Varun Grover as one of its writers. Amid speculations regarding the show's future, Netflix said in a statement, "At this time we are evaluating options on the path forward." Last year, a woman employee at Phantom Films, which had Vikas Bahl as one of the partners along side Kashyap, Motwane and Madhu Mantena, had alleged that Bahl behaved inappropriately with her during a trip to Goa in 2025. Before the victim's account went public in a recent interview, Kashyap and Motwane put out statements and announced that their production house Phantom Films stands dissolved. Writer-lyricist Grover was anonymously accused of sexually harassing a junior in Banaras Hindu University (BHU), a charge he categorically denied. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The opposition Naga Peoples Front (NPF) has appealed to Naga national workers and the Centre to expedite the Naga peace talks and bring it to a logical conclusion. The appeal was made as part of the resolution of the NPFs 3rd Central Executive Council (CEC) meeting at Kohima on Tuesday. The NPF also urged Naga national groups who have not joined the peace process to reconsider their decisions in the interest of the Naga people. Reiterating the partys stand on integration of all contiguous Naga areas, the NPF CEC appealed to neighbouring states and communities to extend their cooperation in finding solution to the protracted Naga political issue. The CEC resolved to uphold the leadership of Shurohozelie Liezietsu as party president and T R Zeliang as leader of NPF Legislature Party. It urged the People's Democratic Alliance (PDA) government led by Neiphiu Rio to stop blaming the weather and repair the roads in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday expressed grief over the loss of lives caused by derailment of the New Delhi-bound Farakka Express which was carrying a number of passengers from the state. In a statement, Kumar said that as per information received so far among those killed were four residents of Munger district and another from Kishanganj. He also announced a compensation of Rs two lakh to the next of the kin of each deceased from Bihar besides Rs 50,000 to each injured person from the state. He also urged Railways and the district administration of Rae Bareli in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, where the train had jumped the tracks, to expeditiously carry out relief and rescue work. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A fire broke out at a three-storey building housing tannery units inside the Kolkata Leather Complex Wednesday, injuring one person, police said. Six fire tenders were pressed into service as the fire broke out at the building in Zone II, of the complex on Basanti highway under the Kolkata Leather Complex Police Station area, a police officer said. "One labourer received injury and was taken to a nearby hospital. Nobody is trapped inside as apprehended. Situation so far is peaceful," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tamil Nadu government has commenced the supply of imported sand to consumers with the first vessel arriving at the Ennore port here, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said Wednesday. This comes in the backdrop of Madras High Court directing the State government to halt sand quarrying. Speaking at the valedictory session of CONNECT 2018 conference organised by CII here Wednesday, he said, the first ship with the consignment has arrived at Ennore Port. "Currently, the sale of imported sand has commenced.Under this initiative, sand can be supplied based on the requirement of a customer," he said. Palaniswami said, an approach road near the Ennore Port would be set up to benefit the traders. Palaniswami had announced in the Assembly in June that the government was in the process of finalising tenders to import sand from various countries for its sale in the state. Imported sand would be allowed for sale by the government after tests to ascertain its worthiness, he had said. Referring to the recent launch of Information and Communication Technology policy by the government, Palaniswami said, the policy would address the aspirations of investors, especially those of IT companies. By implementing the ICT Policy, the state government would achieve its targets for development of IT sector in Tamil Nadu, he said. Noting that Chennai was becoming the Software as a Service (SaaS) capital in the country, he said, the government has planned to give huge impetus to this sector to make Tamil Nadu a Global SaaS destination. He appealed to the industry leaders to extend their support by making fresh investments in the State. Under the free laptop distribution scheme, one of the pet projects of the AIADMK Government, Palaniswami said, till date 38.53 lakh laptops were supplied and this year 15.66 lakh laptops would be distributed. On the software exports from Tamil Nadu, he noted that in 2017-18 the software exports made from the state was Rs 11,179 crore while it was estimated that there would be 6.38 lakh software experts present in the State. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five Bangladeshi nationals were arrested Wednesday from nearby Tirupur for staying without any valid documents, police said. Two days ago, three Bangladeshi nationals, working in knitwear units at Tirupur, were arrested as they did not not possess any immigration documents. When they were questioned, they said more people from were staying in Tirupur illegally, following which police conducted searches, police said. Police arrested five Bangladeshis, who were working in garment factories. The eight were produced before a court in Tirupur and after being remanded, they were taken on transit warrant to Chennai to be lodged in Puzhal jail, police added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The French embassy here will give awards to honour the outstanding accomplishments of Indian and French companies based out of India, a statement said. Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France to India, will launch the maiden edition of the Indo-French Business (IFB) Awards, the French embassy said in the statement. Co-organised by the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI) and Business France, the French Trade and Investment Commission in India, the occasion will bring together top officials and delegates from the Indo-French business community, it said. The IFB Awards will honour the outstanding accomplishments of Indian and French companies based out of India, while IN2FRANCE will promote France as an attractive investment destination for Indian companies. The evening will also see the felicitation of young and high-performing French professionals through the VIE Awards ceremony. Ziegler will host the awards Thursday. "150 Indian companies are already operating out of France, employing 7,000 persons, and we wish to welcome many more. So, choose France," Ziegler said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Calcutta High Court Wednesday refused to interfere in the West Bengal government's decision to give Rs 10,000 each to 28,000 Durga puja committees in the state. An interim stay granted by the court on disbursal of funds stands vacated as the court disposed of the public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the state government's decision to give funds to the puja committees. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Debasish Kar Gupta and Justice Sampa Sarkar said that the Legislature is the appropriate forum to decide on expenditure by the state government. Stating that the court does not want to interfere in the government's decision to disburse funds to Durga puja committees at this stage, the bench, however, said that the court can interfere at a later stage when the scope arises. Advocate General Kishore Dutta had submitted before the division bench that the funds are to be used for assisting police under its traffic safety campaign and not for any religious purpose. The petitioner had challenged the government's decision to disburse funds to the tune of Rs 28 crore, claiming that it was a dole to the puja committees and had no public purpose. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Wednesday said Union Minister M J Akbar must either offer a satisfactory explanation on the allegations of sexual harassment against him or resign immediately, even as it demanded an inquiry into his conduct. The opposition party also hit out at External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for not responding to a question on action against her junior minister after allegations were levelled against him, terming it "extremely unfortunate". As the #MeToo campaign gathered momentum in India, some women journalists have come out and accused Akbar, a former editor and now the minister of state for external affairs, of sexually harassing them during his stint as a journalist. Akbar was an editor of many publications before he took to Congress spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy said in a press conference that, "I think Mr M J Akbar must either offer a satisfactory explanation or must resign forthwith. How can he be in the Ministry with this serious allegation being levelled against him by a responsible journalist who worked with him?" "Let there be an inquiry into this. We demand an inquiry in Shri M J Akbar's conduct," he said. "If Justice Kavanaugh in America could be asked to answer for something he did in his youth, Shri M J Akbar did whatever he did much later in his life than his counterpart in America," he said. Reddy also questioned External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's silence on the issue. "Mrs Sushma Swaraj's silence is guilty of two counts; firstly - she is evading responsibility with regard to the blow delivered at women. Secondly, she is not prepared to comment on her own subordinate, Mr M J Akbar," Reddy said. The Congress leader said Akbar has his own stature as a veteran journalist in addition to being Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Party spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said women of the country are coming forward and speaking about the sexual predatory habits of people who are working amongst them. She said they have gathered enough courage to become a force loud enough for people to stand up, take notice and expect changes to happen. "I would have hoped that every woman, cutting across political party lines, would speak up for all the women who have been wronged over the years and who did not have enough courage to speak up because they feared for their own careers and their future job prospects. "It is extremely unfortunate that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who many women in this country look up to and is a source of inspiration for many women, has chosen to stay quiet on these serious allegations," she said. Chaturvedi said as far as allegations against Akbar are concerned, "we are very clear that the person who has been accused should come forward and explain, through a statement or through an interview about these allegations". She said these allegations are not coming from anonymous handles, but from extremely successful women who have made a mark for themselves in journalism. "So, it has to be clarified by the accused". Training her guns at the government, she said, "It also raises questions and points a finger at the government of the day which speaks about women empowerment and women safety but maintains a studious silence on the entire facts that are emerging". She hit out at the BJP, claiming she has read reports that BJP spokespersons have been asked not to comment on it. "Isn't it shameful that today when all the women of the country are speaking up, you have a government, which spoke about many women related campaigns, the Prime Minister speaking from the Red Fort for the women of this country, refuses to speak up or stand up for its women," she said. Asked about BJP MP Udit Raj's remarks that there were cases where women took money to level charges, she said, "It is a shameless comment coming from an elected representative of the Bharatiya Janata Party and considering that Bharatiya Janata Party has not taken cognizance of what he has spoken, we believe they endorse this anti-women mindset of Udit Raj." "Shameless, contempt worthy and should be condemned and I would hope that all the men also would be part of this Me Too' and add their voices by becoming 'You Too' and ask for an apology from Udit Raj for all the women of this country," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a shocking instance of human sacrifice, a woman here has been hacked to death by younger brothers of her husband who were goaded to indulge in the act by a sorcerer, police said on Wednesday. According to Veer Dhirendra, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sadar, Sitamarhi, Sarita Devi (36) was hacked to death late Tuesday night in Sheohar village under Dumra police station of the district. She was married to Bhagvan Lal Mukhiya, whose younger brothers Sunil Mukhiya and Veer Mukhiya besides the latter's wife Indirasan Devi - suspected of involvement in the crime - have been arrested, the Deputy SP said. He said the arrested accused have confessed to the crime and disclosed that they had been consulting a "tantric" since they did not have children despite having been married for quite some time. The "tantric" named Vinod had told them that Sarita Devi was a "daayan" (witch) and they must offer her in sacrifice in order to propitiate the gods which would fulfil their wish for a child, the Deputy SP said. A search was on for Vinod and three of his associates, the Deputy SP added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) I havent been to Washington my whole life. Probably never slept over. All of a sudden, Im president of the United States, Trump said. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Around 12:20 p.m. on Tuesday, I was on my way out of the White House after a series of meetings in the West Wing. I was reporting on a question that has hung over this administration for months: How has Chief of Staff John Kelly managed to keep his job in spite of convincing and persistent rumors and reports that the president is unhappy with him, and he is unhappy in his job? I stopped to talk to another reporter, and then I began to walk toward the North Gate. As I walked, I noticed I had a missed call from a Washington number I didnt recognize. It was Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She sounded very serious. She asked me if I had left yet. When I said no, she asked me to come back inside, and when she greeted me, she looked very serious. She implied she wanted me to go with her behind a door. I didnt understand, maybe didnt quite hear her. Then, she told me Trump wanted to speak to me. I walked to the Oval Office. I guessed that the president wanted to disabuse me of any notion that Kelly was about to be fired, or had almost been fired many times before. I was right, but my imagination was too limited. What ensued amounted to a private press conference featuring a series of special guest stars from the highest echelon of the Trump administration to try to get me to change my mind. I just heard that you were doing a story on this stuff, the president said as he came into the Oval Office and sat down at the Resolute Desk. I sat in a chair across from him. Next to me were Sanders and communications director Bill Shine. General Kellys doing a very good job, Trump told me. We have a very good relationship. The White House is running very, very smoothly. Weve had a big week. We just got a Supreme Court justice on the bench. We have the USMCA, meaning the NAFTA replacement, and many other things. We had a great meeting with North Korea. It was a great meeting. The secretary of States coming just in ten minutes. He went on, But I want to tell you a couple of things: the chief is doing a very good job. Im very happy with him, we have a very good relationship, number one. Number two, I didnt offer anybody else the job. I didnt talk to anybody about the job. And Im not, Im not looking. Now, look, with time, do people leave? As an example, Nikki Haley told me six months ago, even a year ago but six months ago, that, you know, shes been governor, shes done this, shes helped us with the campaign, a lot of good things, and you probably saw the conference. It was a very, very positive thing. We have a very positive story going on at the White House. We have a very positive story for the country. Were doing a great job. We have the greatest economy in the history of our country. We have among the greatest job numbers. Among many groups, we have the greatest job numbers. We have things going on that are phenomenal on trade. China wants to make a deal I said, youre not ready yet. But they wanna make a deal, and at some point we might. Iran wants to make a deal. They all wanna make a deal. We have great things going. We have a very smooth-running organization even though its never reported that way. So the real story is that. Its really the real story. When you walk in here, you dont see chaos. There is no chaos. The media likes to portray chaos. Theres no chaos. Im leaving for Iowa in a little while. Were doing something thats going to be very exciting tonight in Iowa. A big, a big announcement, actually. Doing four rallies this week. I think the rallies have, frankly, built up our poll numbers very greatly. What am I now in Rasmussen? 52? The question was directed at Sanders, who confirmed the number. [Note: The Rasmussen poll had Trump at 51 percent.] Plus theres 10 percent, they think, where people dont respond, unfortunately. Im not sure if this is nice or not nice, but when they dont respond, that means its an automatic Trump vote. But its a 52, Trump said, and were doing very well in the polls. You see whats happening with respect to the election, I mean, you know, to the midterms, even though I know historically, the president, you dont tend to do so well in the midterms, but we have, this is a different presidency and this is the greatest economy ever. So, well have to test that. But even the polls are saying that we have really come a long way in the last three weeks. I think were gonna do well. And thats all I have to say. I want to just tell you that Im very happy with General Kelly and I get along very well with him. We have a very good relationship. And if we didnt, I wouldnt stand for it for a minute, and he wouldnt want it any other way. So its just a different narrative than what you were saying. And with that, youre gonna have to write what you have to write, but the truth is, we have a really smooth-running White House and nothing and nobody has done more in their first two years as president. Were not even up to the second year. The president craned his neck slightly upward, in the direction of the door. Could you give me the list, please? he asked, raising his voice so a secretary could hear. Ive gotta give you the list. Nobody has come close to doing what weve done in less than two years as president. Whether its regulations or tax cuts or so many other things. The secretary walked into the room, holding two sheets of computer paper. Give that to Olivia, Trump said. These are just some of the things that were done since taking office, he told me. The pages were stamped with 58 bullet points, typed in a large font. At the top, underlined, bold, and all-caps, it read, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACCOMPLISHMENTS. On the first page, the points related mostly to jobs numbers or executive orders or promises from the tax-reform bill. On the second page, there were more puzzling accomplishments like, Republicans want STRONG BORDERS and NO CRIME. Democrats want OPEN BORDERS which equals MASSIVE CRIME. So, Trump went on, it would be great to have an accurately written story, because we do have when you walk in here, I think you see, if you read something, its totally different than the fact. I asked Trump to explain how the White House was different with Kelly as chief of staff. Hes a four-star marine. He is a man who likes to see order and discipline, which I like. We came in and it was more free-rolling. We did a lot! We did a lot during the entire period. But I think there is great order now. He claimed that this has never been a point of frustration, as has often been reported. No, I like it. I like order. I like it both ways! Honestly, Ive had it both ways. Ive had it both ways in my life and in my business, and sometimes freewheeling is a very good thing. You know, its not a bad thing. We did a lot. If you look at the first six months, we did a lot. Like what? I asked. Well, he said, squinting his eyes in the direction of the papers I was holding. You can take a look at some of the things on the list. Some of that was done early. Look at the pipelines. That was done early. A lot of great job-producing events. A lot of regulation cutting, we did tremendous regulation cuts. That was all done pretty early. So what Im saying and this is not even updated. We have achieved a lot in the last month and a half, two months, since thats been done. But weve done a really great job and its so reported by those that are, by those that want it to be accurately reported. And I think, at least, I should be able because I know youre gonna go in and write something at least I should be able to tell you, out of respect, that the relationships are very good and I think you could say, Sarah, that the relationships in the White House have been very good, especially over the last six months, seven months. Its been very, very smooth. Its been a very smooth-running White House. Sanders agreed. Often, before an official departs his orbit, Trump publicly remarks that hes very fond of them. I began to ask Trump how he expected me to believe his relationship with Kelly was so good, given that fact, when he cut in. Well, I made changes. For instance, secretary of State, I put somebody in that I wanted. And its really working out very well hes done a very fantastic job. Mike Pompeo, Mike Pompeo. But that doesnt mean that we werent doing a good job before, whether the relationships were good or not good. But I wanted to make a change and I made a change. I completed asking the question about staffers who had been ousted in the past despite assurances from Trump that all was well. Like who? Trump asked. I offered Steve Bannon as an example. He asked if Id seen Bannon on television lately, which I had. Well, I saw Steve Bannon, havent spoken to Steve Bannon in a year. But I saw Steve Bannon on television twice in the last month and General! Come here a moment! Kelly had appeared in the room, a wary expression on his face, which resembles a cross between Wallace Shawn and Woody Harrelson. Kellys military service began in 1970 and over the decades took him around the world. Hed served in Belgium and hed overseen U.S. and Iraqi forces in Iraq and operations across 32 countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. It seems silly to think that such a person would ever give a fuck about anything related to matters of palace intrigue in this White House. Had he known wed be discussing this? Had the president ordered him to be here? Was it all a coincidence? It is a small place, in fairness. Nobody tells you that before you visit. Its like it was built for elves. Its possible he had just been walking by. But if that was the case, the presidents repeated comments about how serendipitous all of this was made it feel like a big production. This is Olivia, shes going to say very, very wonderful things about you. This is General Kelly, Trump said. Come in, Mike! Closely behind Kelly was Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was scheduled for a 12:30 lunch with the president. Olivia can write badly about you, Trump told him. The men laughed at the presidents joke. Stay there for a second. I just wanted to see Olivia for two seconds, Trump said. Look, look who comes in, and we actually have lunch today, Trump said. I jokingly asked if I was invited to the lunch. Anytime you want, Trump said. Kelly, who was sitting down near me across from the presidents desk, remarked, Best French fries in the world. Trump didnt acknowledge him. But Bannon, he said, picking up the conversation where wed left off, if youve seen Bannon on shows over the last month He briefly went off the record. Look who you have here, he said. He glanced toward the entryway again. Look who you have here. We had a meeting scheduled! Vice-President Mike Pence walked into the room. This is Olivia. Shes a disruptive writer but thats okay, Trump told him. He laughed. This was beginning to feel ridiculous, like this was the reunion episode of a sitcom, in which Bob Saget might come out next to an applause track. I explained to the president that my point was not about Bannon specifically, but that generally, hes made it difficult to believe what he says about whether or not he is going to keep a member of the staff around. Trump replied that he has good relationships, asking if I could name anyone who speaks bad about me on the record. People that are off the record I think it doesnt even exist. I think writers make it up, he said. Generally, generally. Not in all cases, but generally. Well, youve cited anonymous sources before, I said. Were they made up? He didnt respond. Instead, he said, I say this: we have a really great White House. We have a really successful White House. We have I call it a well-oiled machine. Its ruled with tremendous people. And if you remember, you heard my story, when I got elected I havent been to Washington my whole life, very rarely, probably never slept over. All of a sudden, Im president of the United States. I didnt know a lot of people in Washington. Now I know everybody that I want to know, a lot of people. And I bring changes, and those changes have been great changes. One of them over there. He nodded in the direction of Pompeo, who was sitting behind me on the couch. I wanted to know if he was really happy here, or if he misses New York. I love it. I think its great. Do I like it? Do I like the work? I love it. I actually really love it. Do you know why I love it? One simple reason, because nobody has accomplished as much in so short a period of time. (Later he would, somewhat wistfully, remark that he once lived near New York Magazines former offices in midtown Manhattan.) How are you measuring that, exactly? I asked. His eyes narrowed. See the list thats in your hand? But are you comparing it to a similar list from previous administrations? I asked. No, Im saying in the first two years of a president, and were not even at two years, nobody has come close to it. No one. Take a look. I mean, you take a look, and nobody has come close. So, I heard youre gonna do a nasty story I laughed. Well, but it was, Trump said. And at least I should say, I never one of your things was that I offered Nick, that man right there, a job. I didnt. He just walked in! I turned around to see Nick Ayers, the vice-presidents chief of staff. I told her that, Ayers said. One of the leads I was pursuing was a rumor that Trump had, at various times during Kellys tenure, offered the chief-of-staff job to other people in the White House, including Ayers. I had put that specific question to several officials, citing a specific date and location for one of the meetings in which I understood the job had been discussed in late June, just before the publication of a Wall Street Journal story that named Ayers, along with the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, as would-be Kelly replacements. Trump looked back at me. He has a good relationship with the general. I didnt offer Nick the job. I mean, Im telling you in front. Now, you can write that I did. But now, you have him, you have me, and I didnt offer him a job and he didnt accept a job. And there was no offer! I asked if hed met with Ayers in the residence to have a conversation about the job. No. No! Hes been in the residence, but the only time I can remember him being in the residence is with Mike. Hes Mikes guy. And I would never offer him something without speaking to Mike. I dont do that. I dont take people from people He paused for a beat. Even though I guess I can, he said, his tone even. Everyone laughed. Theres no reason to do it though, so your narrative is wrong. Its just amazing. Were all having lunch and its so great that youre all here. This was not set up. I joked that it seemed very spontaneous. When he says I didnt offer him a job. When he says I didnt, and when I didnt, its just a false narrative. And I have a very good relationship with him, he glanced to my right, where Kelly was sitting. And if I didnt, Id have no problem, Id say, John, time to go. But you know what? Im very happy with him. Hes happy with me. Have you ever had an argument in which you have I began to say. Trump cut in. I argue with everyone, he said. The room erupted with laughter. Except Pompeo, Trump said, his face contorting in surprise. I dont think Ive had an argument with Pompeo! Stand by! Pompeo said. Stand by! Trump said. The day is young, Pence said. Sarah Huckabee Sanders cut in. Lets make this the last question, she said. Trump went on, Im not sure Ive had an argument with Mike! In this case, he meant his vice-president. I asked Trump if he was worried as he looked forward, about the midterms and about the Mueller investigation. Well, the Mueller investigation, if anything, its showing that the Democrats colluded with Russia and others. And its showing theres no collusion from me. There never was. And yes, Im very satisfied with the way thats going. Its a process. Im very satisfied. I consider it to be an illegal investigation. It shouldve never been called. But is there anything there? Nothing. Theres no collusion. There is no collusion. By the way, I dont know if you heard, [North Carolina senator] Richard Burr just came out, he said, No, we have found no collusion. Hes a judge at the Senate committee. [Note: Burr is chair of Senate Intelligence Committee.] And you know, Nunes and all of them, Congressman Nunes came out and said theres no collusion. So, you have two committees that spent much more than a year on this and they have found no collusion. Richard Burr just made the statement, just very recently. He said: I found no collusion. You know why? Because there is no collusion. And they only interviewed, like, hundreds I mean, the number of people is, like, incredible. The money thats been spent is incredible. Theyve found no collusion. So, as far as other things are concerned, I think were just doing great. Yes, am I concerned about the election? Id rather win elections. Ive never lost an election in my life, okay? You know that, right? Ive run one time. It was for the presidency. I actually had a senator come in and say, Mr. President, Ive been a senator for 24 years. Sir, I think this is the way you should do it. I said, Well, you know, Ive just been a president for two years. Its the only time I ever ran for office. He said, You know, thats one of the most amazing things that Ive ever seen and Ive been doing this a long time. It is sort of interesting. Like his last three predecessors, Trumps presidency began with majorities in the House and Senate. If Republicans lose control of a chamber, not only will it be more difficult for the president to achieve his policy goals, but it will place impeachment on the table. During my reporting, the subject of whether Kelly was the right person to deal with the worst-case scenario came up often. Id heard there was interest in having someone with more practical political experience and relationships on Capitol Hill in the job. It is amazing that the least political person in Washington, D.C., has the most political job in Washington, D.C., a former White House official told me. Kelly has the political instincts of my grandmother. Trump went on, But Ive only run one election, and Ive won. But we have an election coming up, I think were going to do well. I think, on the Senate side, were looking very strong. In fact were getting numbers in that, Olivia, races that people said six months ago we wouldnt even challenge, we could win. Or do very well. You know, either way well do very well. I wont name senators because Im not looking to embarrass anybody or have somebody say, Oh, gee, youre wrong. But there are races for the Senate that really werent going to be in play. I mean, one would be Heidi [Heitkamp]. I would say Heidi was not really in play and now I just see that shes down, supposedly, 14, 12 to 14, 10 to 14 points. I dont know. Maybe shell do very well But well see what happens. I think the Senate looks very good. In the House, I think it looks like we have a good chance of doing okay. I asked if hed discussed, among his staff, what to do in the worst-case scenario. No, no, I dont discuss it. If we dont do okay, I think well be in great shape. And if we do okay, I think were gonna do very well in the Senate, and I think were gonna do much heres the thing, Ive given you, and without the regulations and without the taxes, Ive given you the greatest economy in the history of our country or, at a minimum, close. Four-point-two percent? Nobody thought that was even possible this early. You know, were talking about early. Jobs numbers, production numbers, everything up. Confidence levels, everything. I think were gonna do very well in the elections. If we dont, well do very well, well find a way to do very well. Sarah Huckabee Sanders cut in, but Trump said he had time for another question. Youre saying that the narratives about your White House and your staff are false, but why do I began. Trump interrupted, asking me to speak louder. Have you been told that you speak very softly? he asked. You were saying that the narratives about your White House and your staff are incorrect. Why do they I began. Trump interrupted, saying that was not true among everybody, just some people. He went on, Ill be honest, I think Fox has covered it very accurately. They say, you know, we are producers. We produce like very few people anywhere produce. So, others dont cover it as accurately. I asked why he believed nonFox News narratives persisted. Why, for example, were there so many questions about his relationship with Kelly? Because you were gonna write a bad story about the relationship. I have a good relationship. He looked over at Kelly. Uh, general, what do you think of the president? he asked. Hes a great president, Kelly said. Do we disagree sometimes? We do. My job is to make sure that that man has all of the information available from whatever source so that he makes the best decision, and then, when that decision is made, my job is to then implement that decision. There is, to the best of my knowledge, no chaos in this building. Weve gotten rid of a few bad actors, but everyone works very, very well together. The biggest surprise when we bring new people in, like Bill Shine, its like, I thought this place was gonna be full of backstabbers and chaos and, Chief, people all like each other. To the best of my knowledge A smile spread across the presidents face. Cutting Kelly off, he said, Bill was actually a little disappointed. This prompted laughter around the room, but not from Kelly. He thought it would be a lot more exciting, Trump added. So thats why, Kelly said. With all due respect to you, people like you listen to people that Ive had to let go, and they continue to report about chaos and this type of thing. The president of the United States is who I serve, right after the people of the United States and the Constitution, and right now this president is well served, not just by me, but by an entire White House staff. With that, everyone rose, except for Pence, who was standing the whole time, hovering near my chair across from the presidents desk. I respect you, Trump told me. I just wanted you to get the real picture. The timing was incredible. This was like, it was like We had a lunch plan, Pence said. Is that a correct statement? This was just, like, perfect timing, Trump said. There are nearly 1,000 results from the last 14 months for the paired terms John Kelly and fired in the news database Nexis. As soon as he entered the building, the guessing about his inevitable exit began, as did the leaks that his new colleagues (or the outsiders whose influence hed thwarted) hoped they could push him out the door. But the longer he stayed, the more doubts emerged that had less to do with palace intrigue Kellys rules are suffocating the president; Kelly wants to send Jared and Ivanka home and more with Kellys actions. In February, members of the staff were disappointed with Kellys handling of the scandal involving Rob Porter, the presidents staff secretary whod been accused of abuse by his two ex-wives. Not only did he lie, he tried to get everybody else to lie, one former White House official told me. People had deferred to him because he was a four-star marine general, served his country, Gold Star father all of these things that made you think, What a patriotic upstanding American serving his country! I viewed him as this giant, four-star general, everything that goes along with that. Hes very petty. Hes a small man. Theres always chatter about who could replace Kelly. This has been unchanged by the White Houses decision to claim that Trump has asked him to remain in the job through 2020. Trying to predict the outcome is a fools errand. Trumps decision-making style is such that, up until the moment something begins happening, you cant trust that itll happen. Dumb luck was the phrase one administration official used to explain Kellys endurance. The president can only focus his anger or frustrations for so long before he moves onto the next thing. Meaning, if someone is plotting to get rid of Kelly, convincing the president to concentrate on the idea that hes a problem matters more than whether or not he actually is a problem. This is where Kelly is helped by the fact that his enemies are even more inept than they believe he is. When the president says, I need you to leave, Kelly just ignores him, the administration official said. I think the president just doesnt know who to call to fire him. Normally if the president wanted to fire somebody, he would call Kelly to do it. But theres nobody else to call. As I turned to follow Sanders and Shine out of the room, someone said, Hey, Olivia. I turned toward the room again to see Kelly and Ayers entwined, their arms stretched around each other and their faces pressed close together. They smiled theatrically. This is my friend, Kelly said. Yes, and hes mine, Ayers said. And I told her that. She knows that. Archer Harvinder Singh notched up the men's individual recurve gold, while track-and-field athletes added a silver and a bronze to India's tally in the Asian Para-Games here on Wednesday. Monu Ghangas claimed the silver in the men's discus throw F11 category, while Mohammed Yasser fetched a bronze in the men's shot put F46 category. Harvinder defeated China's Zhao Lixue 6-0 in the W2/ST category final to claim the top honours and take India's gold tally to seven. The W2 category of impairment covers athletes with paraplegia, diplegia or double leg amputation below the knee, requiring wheelchair.The ST category is for archers with limited impairment and who may take aim without having to need a wheelchair. In the track and field events, Ghangas claimed his silver with a throw of 35.89m, an effort which he managed in his third attempt. He finished behind Iran's Olad Mahdi, who came up with a new Asian as well as Games record throw of 42.37m. The F11 category deals with visual impairment. In shot put, Yasser's throw of 14.22m got him the bronze behind Kazakhstan's Mansurbayev Ravil (14.66m). The gold in this event went to China's Wei Enlong, who established a new Games record with an effort of 15.67m. The F46 category of disability covers upper limb deficiency, impaired muscle power or impaired range of movement. Gorkhas of Nepal holding valid identity cards and members of the community who are citizens of India and living in Assam will not be sent to foreigners tribunals to determine their nationality, the Home Ministry said Wednesday. In a communication to the Assam government, the ministry said only those individuals, who have come to Assam from specified territories, including Bangladesh, immediately before commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1985 and are not Indian citizens, can be referred to the foreigners tribunals to identify whether they are illegal immigrants or not. A senior home ministry official, however, made it clear that Nepalese citizens living in Assam are not eligible to be included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as well as in the electoral rolls. The clarification came following a representation to Home Minister Rajnath Singh by the All Assam Gorkha Students' Union, which cited some cases of the members of the Gorkha community living in Assam referring to the foreigners tribunals, an official statement said. In its communication on September 24, the home ministry said the members of the Gorkha community who were Indian citizens at the time of commencement of the Constitution, or those who are Indian citizens by birth, or those who have acquired Indian citizenship by registration or naturalization in accordance with the provisions of The Citizenship Act, 1955 are not "foreigners" in terms of section 2 (a) of The Foreigners Act, 1946 as well as The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, therefore, such cases will not be referred to the foreigners tribunals. It further emphasised that any member of the Gorkha community holding Nepalese nationality and who has arrived in India by land or air over the Nepal border even without a passport or visa and staying in India for any length of time shall not be treated as an illegal migrant if he or she is in possession of proper identity documents. The valid identity documents are: Nepalese passport, Nepalese citizenship certificate, voter identification card issued by the Election Commission of Nepal, limited validity photo-identity certificate issued by Nepalese mission in India when deemed necessary and for children between age group of 10-18 years, photo ID issued by the principal of the school, if accompanied by parents having valid travel documents. No such document is required for children below the age group of 10 years as per the provisions of the India-Nepal treaty signed in 1950, the statement said. The home ministry also said the cases of members of Gorkha community falling within the parameters mentioned earlier should not be referred to the foreigner tribunals for opinion as to whether the person is a "foreigner" within the meaning of The Foreigners Act, 1946. Later, a senior ministry official clarified that a sizeable number cases of Nepalese citizens are pending before foreigners tribunals in Assam and the clarifications would be helpful in disposing their cases. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday sought the government's reply on a public interest litigation which calls setting up of the Pavitra Yatradham Board illegal as it promotes pilgrimage sites of only one religion. A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi asked the government pleader to seek instructions from the state government, and adjourned the hearing to December 12. The Pavitra Yatradham Board was set up by the Gujarat government in 1997 to promote pilgrimage sites in the state. The PIL filed by Mujahid Nafees said the Board announced its first list of six religious sites -- Ambaji, Dakor, Girnar, Palithana, Somnath and Dwarka -- for promotion as "Pavitra yatradham" (holy pilgrimage sites) in August 1997. Over time, the list grew to 358 places, but "not a single religious site of other religions (apart from Hinduism) has been included", said the PIL, filed through advocate K R Koshti. "The action of the state government in selecting only a particular religion for promoting its religious spots is arbitrary, discriminatory and unconstitutional and therefore the same deserves to be quashed and set aside," the PIL said. "Taxes and proceeds collected from citizens should not be spent over the promotion and maintenance of religious sites of a particular religion," it said. "Therefore, the constitution of the Pavitra Yatradham Board is in contravention of the provisions of the Constitution," it alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nikki Haley came to her job as the top US diplomat at the United Nations with no foreign policy experience, but in less than two years she made many friends - even among ambassadors from countries at odds with the Trump administration's policies. Tuesday's sudden announcement that she was leaving by the end of the year ricocheted through UN headquarters like a lightning bolt, with many expressing shock, and some sadness and dismay. "It was a surprise, not a very pleasant one for me personally," said Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, whose country has clashed with US positions including on Syria, Iran and Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ambassadors on the powerful UN Security Council who worked closely with Haley praised her - a testament to her skills and success as a diplomat - though many of their countries, including America's traditional allies, have serious issues with her government's foreign policy. When Haley arrived at the UN on Jan 27, 2017, she was the former governor of South Carolina and a novice at international affairs but she wasted no time in announcing a new way the US was going to do business. The Trump administration's goal was to show US strength, speak out, and defend its allies - and as for countries opposing America, "we're taking names" and will respond accordingly, she said. Haley has kept to that goal, but she has also honed her diplomatic skills, which were recognized by half a dozen members on the 15-nation Security Council as they headed into a closed meeting Tuesday afternoon on chemical weapons in Syria. Nebenzia said he and Haley have "good working and personal relations despite all the differences that we were and are having." "She's a charismatic personality," he said. "She was a friend to all of us, and ... beyond the doors of the Security Council we as a group were very friendly." Bolivia's U.N. Ambassador Sasha Llorentty Soliz said the Security Council "is like a family - sometimes a dysfunctional family - but nevertheless we care about each other and I really like Nikki very much." The good personal relations, however, could never mask the sharp differences over a host of issues ranging from US policy toward Syria to Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate agreement and the U.N. Human Rights Council. Washington's decisions to halt to funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem also upset some council members. Llorentty Soliz stressed the separation, echoing Bolivian President Evo Morales, who launched a blistering critique of US policy toward Iran, the Mideast and Trump's immigration policies at a Security Council meeting the American president presided over on Sept. 26 during the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders. Sweden's UN Ambassador Olof Skoog said "there are issues that relate to the UN where we don't always see eye to eye, but with Nikki there has always been a very close relationship, respectful and very frank." While Haley's speeches in the council can sometimes "be very strong," he said, council members were often invited to her apartment afterward. France's U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre, who met Haley when she was governor of South Carolina and he was ambassador to Washington, said "even though we didn't agree on everything, we had established a particularly close and constructive working relationship based on trust." "Nikki Haley is one of the most talented, most authentic U.S. government officials that I have ever met," he said. At a White House event, seated near Trump in the Oval Office, Haley told reporters that her six years as governor followed by nearly two years at the UN has been an "intense time, and I'm a believer in term limits." "I have given everything I've got these last eight years," she said. "I think you have to be selfless enough to know when to step aside and allow someone else to do the job." Trump told her: "Hopefully, you'll be coming back at some point." The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley, who is 46 and not personally wealthy, hinted in her resignation letter to Trump that she is headed to the private sector. She said that as a businessman Trump would appreciate "my sense that returning from government to the private sector is not a step down but a step up." As for a replacement, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One he was considering five candidates and a successor would be named in two to three weeks - or maybe sooner. Among those under consideration, Trump said, is former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. Trump told reporters he heard his daughter Ivanka Trump's name discussed for the post, but said if he selected her he'd be accused of nepotism, and she later ruled herself out in a tweet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed former union minister Dayanidhi Maran's petition challenging re-opening of his income tax assessment for 2008-09 and 2009-10 by the I-T department based on the CBI charge sheet in the Aircel Maxis deal case. Justice S M Subramaniam said the petitioner who held the high position of a Union Minister was duty bound to respond to the department's notice to prove his innocence or otherwise. Maran challenged the I-T department's March 27, 2015 notice issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act for re-assessment of his income for 2008-09 and 2009-10 when he was the Telecom Minister. Noting that he had raised objections to the notice, he also contended that the department had sought to re-open the matter six years after the assessment citing the CBI charge sheet in the Aircel Maxis deal case. The CBI has charged Maran with forcing Aircel owner C Sivasankaran into parting with his stake in the company to Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd when he was the telecom minister. Maran pointed to his discharge in the case by a CBI court in New Delhi on February 2 last year in support of his plea for quashing the I-T notice. Dismissing Maran's plea, the Judge said the petition had been filed at the notice stage itself which would hamper all further proceedings of the I-T department and it can never be encouraged by the courts. Courts cannot interfere in a routine manner in respect of the notice issued under Section 148 the Act, he said adding whenever such allegations are raised against an assessee, who was holding a high position of Union Minister, the I-T department shall be allowed to probe the matter with all fairness and by adopting an intelligent way of investigation. "It is left open to the petitioner to defend his case in the manner known to law and allow the officials to scrutinise the assessments based on new materials available and thereafter take a decision and pass assessment or reassessment orders by following the procedures contemplated under the I-T Act," he said in his order. Concurring with the submissions of Additional Solicitor General G. Rajagopalan that the petition cannot be entertained by the high court as remedy was available before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, the Judge said the high court cannot usurp the power of the appellate authorities in respect of the adjudication of the merits and the demerits of the matter. Complex facts and circumstances were to be adjudicated by producing documents and by adducing evidence by parties concerned. Judicial review against such proceedings was certainly limited, he said. The Judge also rejected the contention of Maran that notices had also been issued to his brother Kalanithi Maran of Sun group, Sun Direct and some other family members when there was absolutely no evidence of him having any connection with the company run by his brother. The issuance of notices cannot be found fault with when the department has reason to believe that the transaction warranted further investigation and scrutiny. The department may receive information from many other sources and on receipt of such materials or information, the authorities may be in a position to reopen the assessment and impose tax, the Judge said. This court has no hesitation to conclude that the Assessing Officer has got wider powers in respect of covering the escaped assessments for reopening the assessment. It was for the assessee to convince the officer in respect of all such escaped assessments and submit the returns, he added. The judge also dismissed similar petitions filed by Sun Direct TV Pvt. Limited, and South Asia FM Limited challenging I-T notices to them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court directed the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) and the Thane civic body Wednesday to reply to a construction firm's plea against a notice to stop work on a land now reserved for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. Atlanta Limited had moved the high court last month challenging the notice issued on May 2 by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), asking it to stop the construction work on its three hectare land near Mumbra town in Thane district. According to the notice, the building was coming up on the land reserved for the bullet train project spread across three districts of Maharashtra. The petitioner's counsel, M M Vashi, argued before a division bench of Acting Chief Justice N H Patil and Justice G S Kulkarni Wednesday that their plot was not mentioned in the TMC's notice. NHSRCL lawyer T J Pandian said it was a mistake, to which the bench observed that the petitioner was suffering because of this "inadvertent mistake". The court directed the NHSRCL and the TMC to file their affidavits in response to the petition within a week. According to the petition, the company has already constructed two residential towers on the land and work on the the third tower is underway. Vashi said the project has been issued commencement certificate and all other requisite permissions have been taken. The petition said the company came across the public notice dated March 13 this year, wherein the Thane collector declared that the process to acquire land for the bullet train project was to be undertaken by NHSRCL. There was no mention of the construction firm's land in the advertisement, the petition said. However, on May 2, the TMC served a notice to the construction company's architect, asking to stop work as its land was to be acquired for the bullet train project. The Centre's ambitious Rs 1.10 lakh crore project was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in September last year. The bullet train will run at a speed of 320-350 kmph, with 12 stations across its 500 km stretch. For the project, around 1,400 hectares of land will be acquired in Gujarat and Maharashtra, 1,120 hectares of which is privately owned. Around 6,000 land owners will have to be compensated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Hindu group filed a PIL Wednesday in the Kerala High Court seeking directive to the Centre for issuing an order enabling Muslim woman to enter mosques for offering prayers. The petitioner submitted that in the context of a recent Supreme Court order allowing entry of women of all age groups into the Sabarimala temple, the need of the hour is the entry of Muslim women devotees in mosques for prayers along with men. He submitted that women were discriminated against by not allowing them to enter and pray in mosques in the main prayer hall. The petition was filed by Swamy Dethathreya Sai Swaroop Nath, who is the state president of Akhila Bharatha Hindu Maha Sabha, Kerala unit. "Thus, women of Muslim community were being disgraced and discriminated against which was against Article 21 and 14 of the Constitution," his plea said. This was to be viewed in the context that Muslim women were allowed entry in Mecca, his petition said. He also said imposition of a dress code like purdah for Muslim women would enable anti-social elements to misuse it and commit crimes. This was an encroachment into the realm of personal liberty and social security, the petition said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The and another Hindu organisation claimed to have forcibly shut around 400 and chicken shops at different locations here on Wednesday, demanding that they remain closed during Navaratri. Chief of Shiv Sena's unit Gautam Saini told PTI that around 300 members of different Hindu organisations assembled at the Lord Shiva temple located at the Old Railway road on Wednesday morning and headed to different places to close shops. Locals claimed a group of Sena workers assembled at Palam Vihar on Wednesday and forcibly shut down markets in Surat Nagar, Ashok Vihar, Sector 5 and 9, Pataudi Chowk, Jacobpura, Sadar Bazaar, Khandsa Anaj Mandi, Bus Stand, DLF area, Sohna and Sector 14. They said 50 per cent of the shops are already closed amid fears of clashes as such exercise is launched every year around since the BJP came to power in 2014 at the Center and in Haryana. State president of Hindu Sena Ritu Raj said, "The Hindu organizations will continue their effort throughout The next target is new where there are a large number of meat shops." Majority of the meat sellers used blinds to cover their shops. However, the Sena and other Hindu outfits have threatened to close them down too, sellers alleged. "We have requested and served notices to every meat selling outlet to shut shop during Navaratri. This time we have not served notices to restaurants, like KFC and other chains, as them serving chicken cannot be seen in the open," Shiv Sena's in-charge Sanjay Thakral told PTI. The party workers have also asked owners of non-vegetarian food outlets to shut shop during the nine-day festival. "We have requested every meat shop owner to close their outlets. Sixty shops have been shut. If the rest 940 shops remain open, then we will have no option but to forcefully shut them down like we did in the previous couple of years," Thakral said. There are nearly 1,000 meat and chicken shops in Gurugram. A dispute emerged during the march by workers of Hindu outfits on Wednesday morning to close the shops and local police arrested some of the leaders. "We have arrested four leaders of Hindu organisations during the march. An FIR has been registered against them under relevant sections of the IPC for disturbing peace. Further investigation is underway," Gurgaon police PRO Subhash Bokan said. Asked if the meat shops were forcibly shut, DCP (crime) Sumit Kuhar said, "We are looking into the matter. No one is authorised to take law in their hands. We will not let anyone forcibly close down meat shops during Navaratri. If anyone wants to voluntarily close his shop, then it is up to him. We have directed all city SHOs to keep a watch on the situation." He said aggrieved persons must file police complaints in this regard. A leading private hospital in Delhi has teamed up with National Association for the Blind (NAB) to engage visually-challenged women in early detection of breast cancer by harnessing their pronounced tactile capabilities. After undergoing training, two of these women have joined the hospital as Medical Tactile Examiners (MTEs), as they are being called, as part of a pilot project. Fortis Hospital at Vasant Kunj in association with National Association of Blind India have launched 'Discovering hands' -- a unique breast screening technique for early detection of breast cancer for women across all ages. 'Discovering Hands' is a unique initiative from Germany that trains visually impaired women, using their highly developed tactile sense to identify the minutest abnormalities in the breasts. In a nine-month long training programme supported by Bayer Crop Science, visually-impaired women are trained to screen patients of all age groups and also detect breast cancer. These MTEs have helped to screen more than 100,000 women in Germany, Austria and Columbia in this innovative programme," the Fortis Hospital said in a statement. According to Mandeep S Malhotra, head, Department of Surgical Oncology at the hospital, "A very recent study on breast cancer has suggested peak incidence in Delhi, between 40-50 years. Also, most of the women present to us in stage III." Lives of almost 90 per cent of the patients from this dreaded disease can be saved if it is detected at an early stage, he said. Screening Mammography is mainly applicable after the age of 40, moreover about 30 per cent of Indian women have dense breasts which are not idle for mammogram, he said. Breast cancer is rising rapidly in the country and one of the major diseases suffered by women. All lumps or thickenings in the breast need medical attention to determine whether they are one of many benign lumps that can occur in the breast or are malignant. Age, family history, genetics, dense breasts and race are the major risk factors for breast cancer. Lifestyle factors such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, an inactive lifestyle and lack of exercise might also contribute to breast cancer, the hospital said. Early symptoms of breast cancer may include pain in breast, discharge, remarkable change in shape and size, rash, flaky or crusty nipple and dimpling of the skin, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The HRD Ministry Wednesday asked for a report over allegations that Hindu and Muslim students were allegedly being segregated into different sections at an NDMC school, even as the Delhi government ordered a probe into the matter. According to a media report published Wednesday, a section of teachers employed by the NDMC alleged that a primary school in Wazirabad was segregating Hindu and Muslim students in different sections. "The matter is very serious. It may damage the social fabric of the country. I have asked the director of the Department to enquire into the matter and submit the report by Friday," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters, "We haven't received any complaint yet but have read about it in media reports. I have asked for a report." Earlier in the day, the Department of the BJP-led NDMC had directed a senior official to visit and inspect its school in Wazirabad area. "The director of the Department has already instructed a senior official from the zonal office to visit the school and look into the allegation as reported," a source said. The primary school falls in Wazirabad area of north Delhi and is administered by the NDMC. The area comes under the Civil Lines Zone of the civic body. All municipal corporation-run schools in Delhi are primary schools. Teachers in other municipal schools expressed their shock over the reports. "Schools, primary level no less, should be kept away from politics, and religion and caste matters should not be mentioned, for a balanced growth of a child. When a student enters a school, he or she is not a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh or Christian, but an Indian and that is how we should educate them," a teacher in a civic school in Karol Bagh said on the condition of anonymity. "If the segregation is being done there, then it is condemnable, and we strongly disapprove of it. Schools should unite and not divide people, and these children are such impressionable minds, it will not bode well for their growth," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The former South Carolina governor had become a bit of a star in the Trump foreign policy firmament. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images In a surprise development, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley tendered her resignation today, as first reported by Axioss White House reporter Jonathan Swan. As speculation spread about the odd timing of this announcement (shes not actually leaving until the end of the year), the president held a press availability with Haley in the Oval Office. There was a lot of mutual billing and cooing and denials that anything strange was afoot. The peculiarity of the event was perhaps captured by the fact the Haley felt constrained to go out of her way to deny any interest in running against Trump in 2020. The 46-year-old former governor of South Carolina has been the subject of much speculation about a possible future position on a national political ticket. But there are at present no open or Democratic-held statewide positions in South Carolina she could run for, and if shes in line for a different administration position, it would normally be announced along with her resignation. Trump did say she had indicated to him some time ago that she might want a break from her U.N. duties. He also said that she was welcome to return to the administration later, and would have her pick of positions. But there was no explanation at all as to why a resignation that is effective on December 31 needed to be announced on October 9. The display of TrumpHaley affection is likely motivated by earlier incidents in which she was said to have been in conflict with the White House on such issues as possible sanctions against Russia over its behavior in Syria, while navigating the tricky politics of a fractious administration with many foreign policy viewpoints. But while that might explain the tone of the event, it doesnt explain its timing or logic. Guy Benson of the conservative Townhall sorted through various explanations (including possible ethics charges, and a far-fetched scenario whereby Trump is about to fire Jeff Sessions and replace him with Lindsey Graham, making a South Carolina Senate seat open for Haley), but finds none of them especially plausible. Still another possibility is that Trump knew Haley wanted to leave, and really wants to give the gig to someone else as quickly as possible. In that connection, another comment by Haley immediately drew attention: Haley lauds Jared as "hidden genius" pic.twitter.com/mAO976xj4w Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 9, 2018 Could Kushner or perhaps even his wife, Ivanka be in line for a promotion? Theres no telling. But something in this story doesnt add up. This story is developing. Please refresh for updates. The HRD Ministry sought a report from a North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) school Wednesday over reports that Hindu and Muslim students there were being allegedly segregated into different sections. "We haven't received any complaint yet but have read about it in media reports. I have asked for a report," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters. According to a media report published Wednesday, a section of teachers employed by the NDMC alleged that a primary school in Wazirabad was segregating Hindu and Muslim students in different sections. Earlier in the day, the Department of the BJP-led NDMC had directed a senior official to visit and inspect its school in Wazirabad area. "The director of the Department has already instructed a senior official from the zonal office to visit the school and look into the allegation as reported," a source said. The primary school falls in Wazirabad area of north Delhi and is administered by the NDMC. The area comes under the Civil Lines Zone of the civic body. All municipal corporation-run schools in Delhi are primary schools. Teachers in other municipal schools expressed shock over the reports. "Schools, primary level no less, should be kept away from politics, and religion and caste matters should not be mentioned, for a balanced growth of a child. When a student enters a school, he or she is not a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh or Christian, but an Indian and that is how we should educate them," a teacher in a civic school in Karol Bagh said, on the condition of anonymity. "If the segregation is being done there, then it is condemnable, and we strongly disapprove of it. Schools should unite and not divide people, and these children are such impressionable minds, it will not bode well for their growth," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A retried Air Force officer has donated Rs 17 lakh to a school where his wife taught for more than two decades, the Defence Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. Wing Commander (retd) JP Baduni lost his wife Vidhu Baduni due to a cardiac arrest in February this year. Vidhu Baduni was a teacher in the Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute at Subroto Park in Delhi for a period of 21 Years. "In her memory, her husband Wg Cdr (Retd) JP Baduni donated a sum of Rs 17 lakhto the school she had served," the statement said. Poonam S Rampal, principal of theAir Force Golden Jubilee Institute, said part of the donation, Rs 10 lakh, would be used for awarding scholarships and prizes to students of classes V to XI, achieving meritorious excellence in the field of academics every year. The other part would go towards the infrastructure development of the primary wing of the school. "The money was exclusively from the savings of his late wife which she had accumulated over the years from the service rendered at the school. He also hoped that this would be a befitting homage to his late wife and would help the deserving students in their pursuance of excellence," the statement added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Japan have held the second meeting of their Act East Forum, during which they agreed to boost cooperation on connectivity projects in the northeast, a Japanese Embassy statement said. The meeting of 'Japan-India Act East Forum' was held on October 8 under the co-chairmanship of Japan's Ambassador Kenji Hiramatsu and Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale. Ambassador Hiramatsu emphasised on cooperation in the northeast region, ranging from connectivity to people-to-people exchanges and the need to come up with concrete projects, the statement said. The forum witnessed lively discussions, in which the representatives from relevant ministries and states of the NER shared their views, the statement said. "As a result of the meeting, future orientation of cooperation in northeast was confirmed, ranging from the road and bridge connectivity projects; forest management projects in states of Tripura and Meghalaya; a new initiative to utilise bamboo which is abundant in the region; and to enhance people-to-people exchanges," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Navy will host the 'Goa Maritime Symposium', aimed at establishing academic excellence and sharing of ideas with the country's maritime neighbours, on October 16, the Navy said Wednesday. The event is a follow-on to the maiden Goa Maritime Conclave held in 2017. It is likely to be attended by senior naval officers and representatives from 16 Indian Ocean littoral countries, which include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand from South East Asia; Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka from India's immediate neighbourhood. It also includes the island nations of Seychelles, Mauritius and Maldives; Oman in West Asia; and South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique from Africa. The Navy said with the Indian Ocean becoming the locus of the 21st century strategic landscape, the symposium will play a constructive role in bringing together stakeholders that have a role in evolving strategies, policies and implementation mechanisms in the maritime domain. The theme for the one-day symposium is 'Building Stronger Maritime Partnerships in IOR'. The focus of the symposium is on capacity building among IOR navies to tackle emerging maritime threats, as well as discussing cooperative strategies for enhancing interoperability among partner maritime agencies, it said. The event will witness eminent speakers articulating their views on these important issues, which will be followed by theme based discussions. Informal meetings and social engagements are also planned to build synergy and address common concerns with greater engagement, transparency and, more importantly, friendship, it said. The symposium will be inaugurated by Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of Naval Staff, the statement added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald on Wednesday said that India "will soon find out" about his decision on the punitive sanctions after India signed a $5-billion deal to purchase the much-vaunted S-400 air defence system from Russia. Under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or sanctions, which was amended early this year, only has the authority for the presidential waiver to India on weapons deal with sanctions-hit Russia. India last week inked a $5 billion deal to purchase S-400 Triumf air defence system from Moscow. The mega-deal was sealed in New Delhi during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Asked about the agreement between India and Russia, while interacting with reporters in the Oval Office of the White House, said, "India will find out. Aren't they?" "India is going to find out, he reiterated in response to India specific question. Asked when, he said, "You will see. Sooner than you think." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also in the room when Trump answered the question on sanctions. Pompeo was scheduled to meet the president later. Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis had earlier argued the case for a waiver to India. Last week, the White House had said that the US presidential waiver on weapons deal with sanctions-hit Russia is intended to "wean" countries like India off the Russian equipment. "The (CAATSA presidential) waiver is narrow, intended to wean countries off Russian equipment and allow for things such as spare parts for previously-purchased equipment," a White House Security Council Spokesperson had said after the conclusion of the S-400 contract. The US embassy spokesperson in New Delhi had said that the CAATSA was aimed at Moscow and not intended to damage the military capabilities of its "allies and partners. regulator DGCA is probing mid-air engine failure of IndiGo's A320 neo that was flying from Bangalore to Ahmedabad earlier this week, according to an official. The incident happened on October 8 forcing the plane to return to Banglaore. IndiGo, the country's largest in terms of market share, has been facing problems with engines powering its A320 neo "We are aware of the incident of mid-air engine failure. The incident is being investigated," a senior official at the DGCA told An spokesperson said that on October 8, the plane returned to Bangalore. "During the flight (6E 452) the captain observed loss of indication of engine no. 1 oil pressure. The pilot followed his procedures and landed back to Bangalore VT-IVB was withdrawn from service for further checks at Bangalore," the spokesperson said. Details about the number of passengers on board the flight could not be ascertained. A source said the A320 neo involved in the incident was inducted into fleet in November last year. (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 Indian Newspaper Society has condemned the arrest of a well-known editor of a vernacular weekly in Tamil Nadu over articles allegedly disparaging the state's governor, and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the case. R Gopal, the editor of Tamil magazine 'Nakkheeran', was arrested Tuesday on a complaint from Raj Bhavan over articles that allegedly disparaged Governor Banwarilal Purohit. Gopal walked free within hours after a court rejected the police's plea for his remand. President of the Indian Newspaper Society, Jayant Mammen Mathew, on behalf of the entire community of INS members, strongly condemns the arrest, a statement from INS said. "Constitutional authorities must exercise restraint and respect the freedom of press. "The Society appeals to the President of India to intervene urgently in this matter to rein in gubernatorial excess. It also demands the immediate withdrawal of the case against Mr. Gopal and his colleagues," the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is in the favour of allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment in insurance intermediaries in addition to insurance brokers, according to sources. The regulator is of the view that if insurance brokers can be allowed then the other insurance intermediaries like aggregator and third party administrators (TPA) may be considered for the same relaxation, the sources said. In its response to the finance ministry with respect to increase in FDI limit in the insurance brokerage firm from the current level of 49 per cent, the IRDAI said all major international insurance brokers such as Marsh, JLT, Willis and Howden are already present in the country as the capital required for undertaking such activity is very less. The increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) limit to 100 per cent will not result in significant inflow of foreign capital. According to estimates, the total capital infusion by three brokers after increasing the FDI limit is a mere Rs 4.78 crore. The government is considering proposal to allow 100 per cent FDI in insurance broking and has set up a committee comprising secretaries of department of economic affairs, department of financial services and department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP). The IRDAI has also argued that there is no dearth of capital and Indian investors are also looking at avenues to invest. FDI in insurance sector is restricted to 49 per cent. However, the government allows 100 per cent foreign investment for other financial intermediaries. Industry experts are of the opinion that the insurance sector is being impacted due to weak distribution networks. According to the Economic Survey, life insurance penetration was 2.72 per cent and general insurance penetration was 0.77 per cent. Insurance penetration, which is the ratio of premium underwritten in a given year to the gross domestic product (GDP), in India increased to 3.49 per cent in 2016-17 from 2.71 per cent in 2001. The measure of insurance penetration and density reflects the level of development of the insurance sector in a country. While insurance penetration is measured as the percentage of insurance premium to GDP, insurance density is calculated as the ratio of premium to population (per capita premium). The insurance density rose to USD 59.7 in 2016 as against USD 54.7 in 2015 while insurance penetration remained unchanged at 2.72 per cent 2016, as per the latest Insurance and Regulatory and Development Authority of India data. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Income Tax(I-T) Department Wednesday conducted searches on multiple premises linked to AAP leader and Delhi Transport minister Kailash Gahlot in connection with a tax evasion case and seized about Rs 35 lakh in cash, officials said. The raids sparked condemnation from Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to people for what he called "constantly troubling" his government. The AAP also dubbed the raids as "political vendetta". Another AAP leader Atishi accused the Modi government of trying to "intimidate" Gahlot for successfully leading the party's legal battle against disqualification of its 20 MLAs in the Delhi High Court and for implementing a scheme for doorstep delivery of essential public services. The Najafgarh MLA, who is an advocate by profession, holds charge of several departments in the Kejriwal government. They include Law and Administrative Reforms department that are handling the matter of disqualification of 20 AAP legislators for holding posts of parliamentary secretary, and the doorstep delivery of services scheme, respectively. The BJP's Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari demanded removal of Gahlot from his post An IT department official, who did not want to be named, said the raids were conducted at 16 locations in the national capital and adjoining Gurgaon by a team of over 60 sleuths and police personnel. The official said an amount of about Rs 35 lakh in cash was seized from various premises and also claimed to have recovered "incriminating documents" of multiple accomodation entries and benami assets. An accomodation entry refers to documents that reflect fake loans transacted by bogus or shell firms in order to evade taxes. A benami asset denotes properties which are purchased by people from their ill-gotten wealth through a dummy or in the name of a different person. The search teams, the official said, raided locations in Delhi's upscale residential areas like Vasant Kunj and Defence Colony, offices and residences in Paschim Vihar, Najafgarh, Laxmi Nagar and Palam Vihar area in Gurgaon. The searches, that were on till late evening, are being conducted as part of a tax evasion probe against two firms -- Brisk Infrastructure and Developers Pvt Ltd and Corporate International Financial Services Limited -- that are operated and owned by the family members of Gahlot, the official said. The official said multiple undisclosed transactions and alleged under-reporting of profits has led the department to launch a tax evasion probe against the promoters of the two firms and their operations, the official said. While the former company is engaged in the real estate sector, the latter is said to be a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC). "Friendship with Nirav Modi and Mallya and raid on us? Modiji you conducted raids on me, Satyendar and Manish what happened to those (raids). Nothing was found. "So before you go with another raid at least apologise to Delhi people for troubling their elected government," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi. Another AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said the central agencies including the CBI, the ED and the IT Department should disclose if it found anything related to "corruption" during their raids on AAP leaders and ministers. "Many such raids happened in the past but nothing substantial came out and nor any charge sheet was filed," he said. Atishi said the AAP supports investigation of allegations, but asked why single out only the party's leaders and ministers "No matter which agency Modi and (Amit)Shah send after us, we will not be intimidated and continue to serve people in Delhi," she told a conference. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister of Italy Giuseppe Conte will pay an official visit to India on October 30 with an aim to deepen bilateral cooperation in a range of sectors including trade, investment and aerospace. Making the announcement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said his visit will be part of the ongoing celebrations to commemorate 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Italy. It will be Conte's first visit to India after taking over as prime minister in June. The MEA said the Italian prime minister will also attend the 24th edition of the India-Italy Technology Summit which is being organised by Department of Science and Technology (DST) in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). It said Conte will be accompanied by a high-level delegation. "During the visit, PM Conte will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 30. The two leaders will then address the valedictory session of the Technology Summit," it said. The Technology Summit will focus on a number of areas including healthcare, aerospace, education, clean technology, renewable energy and information and communication technology. "The objective of the summit is to facilitate technology transfers, joint ventures, research and development, and market access between industry and research institutions in India and Italy," the MEA said. Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the European Union and the annual trade turnover between the two countries was USD 10.4 billion in 2017-18. Over 600 Italian companies are operating in India. "The visit of the Italian Prime Minister will help to underscore these synergies and give an added boost to future collaboration," the ministry said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nikki Haley at the United Nations headquarters in New York in June. Photo: Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images In early October, I sat down to talk with U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley about her ascent for a special forthcoming issue of New York Magazine on womens power. Shed recently returned from meeting with the president in Washington, D.C., where presumably she discussed her intentions to resign from her position less than a week later. When she announced her decision publicly on October 9, she did so with little explanation, saying only that shes not running for president in 2020. I look forward to supporting the president in the next election, she said. Haley does nothing by accident and she gives notoriously few sit-down interviews: Theres no doubt she saw it as advantageous to sit down with New York Magazine on the eve of her resignation. Even as I conversed with Haley, all I could think of was how hard she was working to create distance from Trump and all the toxic divisiveness of Congress, positioning herself as a kinder, more compassionate representative of the GOP, open to the hurt of the world, connected to her immigrant roots and strategic enough to keep Trump on her side as she plots her next move. Our interview took place two days before the Senate voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. I had agreed not to talk about Kavanaugh, but in the moment I couldnt help myself Haley wouldnt bite. In other words, dont expect Haley to dish before shes ready. As she says in the interview, Ive always thought that silence is power and that discipline is power. I heard that youre still in touch with at least one of the survivors of the Charleston shooting. Is that true? Yes. Felicia Sanders. I just texted with her last week. What is your relationship like? We went through something that was tragic, and I just wouldnt wish that on anyone. Here you had these 12 people who just did what normal South Carolinians do, and they went to Bible study. But on this day, someone showed up that didnt look like them, didnt act like them, didnt sound like them. And they didnt call the police, and they didnt throw him out. They pulled up a chair and prayed with him for almost an hour. Felicia not only went through that, she lost her son. She lost her aunt. She had to throw herself on her granddaughter and tell her granddaughter to play dead. And she had to hear it all. I know details about that night that were not public, and its haunting. I think Ive pulled from Felicias strength. Felicia had such grace, but they all did. Even when groups came in wanting to cause hate or rhetoric, not out of ill will but out of the fact that they were upset, they [the survivors] helped me hold it at bay. You must have made a lot of decisions over the years that you knew were going to piss people off. In every job Ive had, I think I have. With the Confederate flag issue. I mean, that was one where Was that a difficult decision for you? No, when I first became governor, Democrats and Republicans both told me, Dont go there, because it had been so painful in 2000. [In 2000, the state legislature voted to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol dome and place a smaller flag on the grounds of the Capitol instead.] So you go on with your life, and then this happens, and the thought I had was, This no longer means what you want it to mean. You had a group of people who saw it as heritage and service and their ancestors died for something. And then this other group of people saw it thinking slavery and all the things that were bad. But now all of those people would never be able to look at that flag again and not think of that guy and that shooting because he was all over the internet holding those flags. All I thought about were the children of South Carolina. All I thought about was, How do I look my son and my daughter in the eye, and tell them its still okay for that to be up there? But you must have also known that the right white base in South Carolina was gonna be activated by that. And they were. Did you worry about it? Were you second-guessing yourself? In all of these hard decisions, in my mind I get what I think is right. I had to convince an entire legislature that was very old guard to do this. But I knew that I believed it was right, and I knew it was my job to communicate why it was right. The key is the communication side of it, because it cant be right just because you think its right. Youve got to communicate it to the point that the others think its in their best interest to do the same thing. Even here [at the U.N.] if theres something that happens, and a decisions been made that I dont agree with, I dont just accept the decision. I go to the people making the decision and say, This is why I think its wrong. This is what I think we can do about it, and I bet we can do it better if we do this. Can you tell me about negotiating for your current job? When the president was elected, there was conversation about you becoming secretary of State, and then this job came up and you were like, Not that. This. And then you said, I want to be in the Cabinet, and to be on the Security Council. That was all part of a negotiation. Yes. What was your intention? How did you think that through? I knew, having been governor, you cant go work for other people easily. So, to me, I wanted it to be a Cabinet position, too. I was only accountable to him, and then I could speak directly with him. He said yes immediately. Im a policy girl. I really jump into policy, and I told him that I need to be on the National Security Council because I wanted to be in the room where the decisions were made. He said, Done. And then I told him, But Im not gonna be a wallflower or a talking head. And why not secretary of State, which is a bigger job? I think you have to know whats right for you at the right time. Im all about pushing myself and jumping into risks, and this job was that. It was realistic. That was not. I was coming from being a domestic policy person as governor, and really the only thing I had done was go to countries to sell companies to come to South Carolina. I dont put myself in the situation unless I can make sure that Im great at it. That was what my mom always taught me. She said, Whatever you do, be great at it and make sure people remember you for it. It also keeps you out of toxic D.C. I knew that this was more my speed. I was thinking about the time the White House reversed itself on additional sanctions on Russia, a decision youd already announced, and then economic advisor Larry Kudlow accused you of momentary confusion. You responded by saying, With all due respect, I dont get confused. I mean, look, Larry Kudlow is a dear friend, dear friend. I saw him last week and gave him the biggest hug. But the thing is, it wasnt right to say it. Multiple people in the administration knew it wasnt right. I had given time for things to get fixed, and I just that was it. We werent gonna have this. Its important to stand up for yourself. It wasnt just me saying that about me. This entire building, they would have had to deal with the fact that I was confused. Cant have that. But its also an insult to your intelligence. It was, and he knew that. And he quickly, quickly, I mean within minutes, apologized. He was beside himself sorry. Do you think that being a southern woman helps you with diplomacy? I do think coming from the South taught me a lot. You can call it diplomacy, I call it respect. In the South, you learn to kick with a smile. You learn to move your way around forcefully, but youre kind about it and youre respectful about it. I learned early that Im a fighter by nature, and so I kick with a smile. You can get your way and still be kind. Have you talked to the president about that? About About that mode of communication? I have never tried to. I have talked to him about certain instances and said, That was not helpful, or You couldve done that differently. But he is who he is. He was elected because of who he is how he talks and how he does things and what he does. I would never think it was my place to go and fix him because its not easy to win president of the United States. And its not easy to continue to be president of the United States. And hes doing it well and getting things done. Is he offending people? Yes. But hes got just as many people loving what hes saying. I have at times said things werent helpful, but Can you give me a for instance? No, because I keep those really private, but he really takes them very well when I do that. Sometimes hell say, I know, Nikki. I knew you were gonna say that, or You always tell me that. Sometimes he listens, and sometimes he says, Thats who I am. They love it. Look, hes not gonna change for me. And hes not gonna change now, and, frankly, whatever hes doing is working. What do you think about the problem of Republican women going into the midterms? Theres a big gap. I think women dont vote in a bloc as much as so many would like to think we do, but I just think were not loud about it. Thats Republican women. It does seem like the Democrats are more vocal, but dont underestimate the strength and power of Republican women. We just do things more quietly. So do you think that the polls that are showing as much as a 20-point gap in women voting for Republican candidates in some states are wrong? I just think theyre not gonna show their cards. I think women dont show their cards because they dont have to. I mean, did we ever say that women were gonna come out in huge numbers for the president at the last election? We never saw that in any poll. We didnt see that because women arent gonna talk about that. Why do you think that is? I think that we are very strong in our beliefs. I dont think that we feel like we need to publicize it. We do our responsible duty in voting and in being a part of things in our own way. I personally, I keep my cards very close. Yes, you do. So I think that its power. I think Ive always thought that silence is power and that discipline is power. Can you give me an example from your life where you learned that? I dont know that anything happened to me as much as I have always observed people. I love to people watch. And its not just a catchphrase when they say loose lips sink ships. Ive watched in the South Carolina legislature. I saw that people would speak thinking it gave them power, saying what they knew from private conversation to try and gain favor with everybody else. But all that tells me is you cant keep a secret, and Im not ever telling you anything. And so I see that people like to name-drop and they like to talk about things. It is usually men that do it, but I mean, we dont need that. We dont feel the need to name-drop. We dont feel the need to prove ourselves in that way. I learned as a reporter that the best way to get somebody talking is to just not say anything. Its very true. That causes people to weaken. When you stay silent, they feel like they have to say something. And you can pull so much from that. Youre saying that women have an autonomy and an independence that were not giving them credit for. It kills me when they say the women vote. There is no women vote. We all think differently on different issues. We vote differently. You must be in rooms with men who dont want you to succeed. How do you handle those men? I just ignore them and push right through it. Do you ever lie awake and go, My boss is really out to get me? Youre gonna have challenges in every job, and the best way to overcome it is to be so fantastic at your job they cant touch you. Those are some pretty powerful men, though. Im pretty powerful. *This story has been updated since it was first published. Jeremy Pilmore-Bedford has taken over as the British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai. Pilomore-Bedford, who succeeds Bharat Joshi, comes from UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office's US Network, where he served as Consul General in the Southeast of the United States for four-and-half years, a press release from the British Deputy High Commission said. He was earlier head of the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America department in London. "It is a privilege to represent the UK in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala. Tamil Nadu accounts for eight per cent of India's GDP with annual growth of over 8 per cent, making it the second largest state economy after Maharashtra and second most attractive for doing business," he said. He also noted that Kerala was envied globally for its high social development ratings and attracted the largest number of British tourists among the states in the country. "My immediate priority is to encourage partners from Tamil Nadu and Kerala with interest or expertise in AI (artificial intelligence), future mobility, fintech, cyber security to actively participate in our future tech festival in Delhi", he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pitching for a change of government in election-bound Telangana, BJP president Amit Shah said Wednesday neither the ruling TRS nor the main opposition Congress can give a push to development in the state. He also asserted that if voted to power after the Lok Sabha polls next year, the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi will ensure "not a single infiltrator" was left in the country. "Telangana's development is not possible either under KCR (caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao) family or (Congress chief) RahulBaba. They are into break in India while (Narendra) Modiji pursues the policy of make in India," Shah told a public rally here. The BJP is testing the electoral waters of Telangana alone for the first time after playing a second fiddle to the TDP, which broke away from the NDA recently, for several years. The BJP president said the Congress, with is support base shrinking drastically, was incapable of becoming an alternative to the TRS. "Is Congress an alternative to the TRS? The Congress under Rahul Gandhi's leadership has not been able to win state elections. Today, ifyou want to see the Congress, you will have to use magnifying glasses," Shah said, ridiculing Gandhi over a string of electoral reverses since the BJP assumed power at the Centre. The TRS, Shah said, had failed to keep promises it made to the people of Telangana. "KCR made 150 promises before the 2014 assembly polls but fulfilled not one. He promised he will make a dalit the chief minister but did not honour it. Dalit of Telangana is not on his list. His son (minister K T Ramarao) or daughter (MP K Kavitha) will be made the chief minister," he said. The BJP chief also raked up the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, and said if voted to power again, the Modi government will push every infiltrator out of the country. "Bring the Modi government (back) again in 2019...Let there be no infiltrator in the country. The Bharatiya Janata Party government will make sure that not a single infiltrator is left," he said. Targeting BJP's bitter critic and Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi of the AIMIM, Shah said it was the saffron party alone that could fight people like him and not the TRS, TDP or the Congress. Shah also criticised TRS chief Rao for not celebrating September 17, the day the erstwhile Nizam's state merged with the Indian Union, as "Hyderabad Liberation Day". "Due to fear of Owaisi andfor Muslim vote bank Chandrasekhar Rao stopped celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day," he said. Shah flayed Rao for advancing the assembly polls which, he claimed, put a burden of hundred of crores of rupees on the common man. "Early elections are being held in Telangana out of the fear of (Narendra) Modi," he asserted. He claimed the KCR government did not join the Modi government's affordable health insurance scheme 'Ayushman Bharat' as it feared the prime minister's popularity will soar even further. Repeatedly referring to the Rao government's failure to keep its pre-poll promises, Shah said none of them, including three acres of land for poor Dalit families, creation of one lakh government jobs and 2-bedroom houses for the poor was fulfilled. He asked the electorate to vote BJP to power in Telangana so the state could prosper like those ruled by the saffron party. Shah also addressed a meeting of booth-level BJP functionaries in Hyderabad where the strategy for the assembly polls was discussed. The meeting was out of bounds for the media. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kerala government Wednesday decided to merge 14 district co-operative banks with the state co-operative bank as part of its proposal to set up the 'Kerala Bank.' The cabinet decision comes in the wake of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) according in principle approval to the start the 'Kerala bank,' a release Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's office said here. With this, the three tier co-operative system in the state would become a two-tier model, it said. Changes would be made in accordance with the conditions laid down by the RBI. This was a step forward to set up the Kerala Bank, the release added. Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala asked the government to withdraw its decision as it would only lead to the destruction of the co-operative system in the state. He also pointed out that the RBI has put forth 19 'tough' conditions which the government would find difficult to meet. Merging of district co-operative banks with the state co-operative bank would result in the destruction of democratic process in the co-operative sector, Chennithala claimed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The key accused in a three-year old triple murder case has been arrested from Mumbai and a court here Wednesday remanded him to judicial custody till October 17. Mohanram, a notorious criminal, was at large since the murder of three people by an armed gang in August, 2015 near Sulur here in a suspected revenge killing. Acting on a tip-off that he was Mumbai, a police team arrested him two days ago and brought him here, police said. He was produced before 2nd Fast Track Court Judge Prabu Sankar who remanded him to judicial custody Wednesday morning. Poliec have already arrested 19 members of the gang allegedly involved in the killing of three relatives of Lolly Manikandan, an accused in the murder of an advocate. Manikandan was travelling in a car along with the victims when the gang attacked them to avenge the killing of the advocate. He, however, escaped the attack. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sri Lanka has yet to fully restore civilian ownership of thousands of acres of land taken over during the civil war with the LTTE for military purposes, according to a US-based human rights group. The Human Rights Watch, in a report published this week, said the progress, particularly since the election of a new government in 2015, has been hindered by broad military claims of national security and the lack of a transparent process. "The Sri Lankan government has yet to fully restore civilian ownership of land and property nearly a decade since the end of the civil war in 2009," said the 80-page report titled "'Why Can't We Go Home?': Military Occupation of Land in Sri Lanka." The report identifies the lack of transparency and due process, failure to map occupied land, inadequate support to affected people and communities, and prolonged delays in providing appropriate reparations for decades of loss and suffering. The military has also used some confiscated lands for commercial profit rather than national security and returned damaged or destroyed property to owners without compensation, the report said. The HRW report is based on over 100 interviews between August 2017 to May 2018 with members of affected communities, activists, local officials, and lawyers. It looks into cases of military occupation and land release in 20 areas in six districts, primarily in Sri Lanka's north and east. The three-decade long civil war in Sri Lanka ended with the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009. Large areas, including those previously held by the LTTE in the north and east, came under military control after the war. While the then president Mahinda Rajapaksa released some land to its original owners, the military retained control over large areas, the report said. The new government led by President Maithripala Sirisena took some steps to release civilian land held by the security forces, it added. At the United Nations Human Rights Council in October 2015, the Sri Lankan government promised to address conflict-related issues, including returning land to its original owners. However, the government's response has fallen far short of its promises, it added. Sirisena has asked his officials to complete the return of lands to civilians by the end of this year, it noted. Human Rights Watch has documented a number of cases in which properties were destroyed while held by the military after the war, including temples, churches, mosques, and Buddhist shrines. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nearly 77 years after repeated torpedo strikes tore into the USS Oklahoma, killing hundreds of sailors and Marines, Carrie Brown leaned over the remains of a serviceman laid out on a table in her lab and was surprised the bones still smelled of burning oil from that horrific day at Pearl Harbor. It was a visceral reminder of the catastrophic attack that pulled the United States into World War II, and it added an intimacy to the painstaking work Brown and hundreds of others are now doing to greatly increase the number of lost American servicemen who have been identified. It's a monumental mission that combines science, history and intuition, and it's one Brown and her colleagues have recently been completing at ramped-up speed, with identifications expected to reach 200 annually, more than triple the figures from recent years. "There are families still carrying the torch," said Brown, a forensic anthropologist with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency's lab near Omaha, Nebraska. "It's just as important now as it was 77 years ago." Officials believe remains of nearly half of the 83,000 unidentified service members killed in World War II and more recent wars could be identified and returned to relatives. The modern effort to identify remains started in 1973 and was primarily based in Hawaii until a second lab was opened in 2012 at Offutt Air Force Base in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue. With an intensified push, the identifications climbed from 59 in 2013 to 183 last year and at least 200 and possibly a few more this year. The increase has led to a surge of long-delayed memorial services and burials across the country as families and entire communities turn out to honor those killed. Joani McGinnis, of Shenandoah, Iowa, said her family is planning a service Friday at the national cemetery in Omaha now that they have finally learned what happened to her uncle, Sgt. Melvin C Anderson. Piecing together bits of history and DNA, the Omaha lab confirmed that remains found in 1946 in Germany were Anderson's and that he died when his tank was hit in the rugged Hurtgen Forest during a battle that lasted for months and left tens of thousands of Americans killed and wounded. Besides returning the remains, McGinnis said the agency gave her a thick file with details about how he died and how researchers unraveled the mystery. "I wish my mom and my grandma were here to know all this information," said McGinnis, who recalled a framed picture of Anderson that hung in her grandmother's home in Omaha. "My grandmother was very sad about it. She just wanted to know what happened, and she never knew." In Kentucky, thousands of people lined roads for miles on a steamy August day to see a hearse carrying the remains of Army Pfc. Joe Stanton Elmore from the Nashville, Tennessee, airport to the small city of Albany. Elmore was reported missing in action in December 1950 after an intense battle at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea and as deceased in 1953, but his great-niece April Speck said even decades later, her family would tell stories of "Joe going off to war and never coming home." Speck said she knew her family would feel a sense of relief that his remains were finally returned, but she didn't realise what it would mean to her community. "There were people standing out with their signs and there were retired soldiers in their uniforms saluting, and then we get into Albany and it like was a sea of people with all the American flags," she recalled. "The county did an awesome job of showing respect." The soaring number of identifications followed years of complaints about a cumbersome process, typically resulting in about 60 completed cases annually. Congress responded by setting a goal of 200 identifications annually, and it supported a reorganisation and increased funding that saw spending climb from USD 80.8 million in the 2010 fiscal year to USD 143.9 million in 2018. The effort now employs about 600 people. Officials have streamlined the work of determining which remains should be disinterred. Historians focus on where clusters of servicemen died, and examine troop movements and conduct interviews with local residents. "This work is very different from what most historians do," said Ian Spurgeon, an agency historian in Washington. "This is detective history." Spurgeon's focus is on battles in Europe and the Mediterranean, with a goal of disinterring 50 service members annually, up from fewer than five. At Offutt, inside a lab built in a former World War II bomber factory, bones are arranged by type on black-topped tables. In another room, buttons, fabrics, coins and other items found alongside remains are studied for hints about a service member's role or hometown. DNA is key to identifications, but it can't be extracted from all bones, and without a match from potential relatives, it has little value. In some cases, lab workers refer to standard chest X-rays of World War II servicemen taken when they enlisted, focusing on the traits of the collarbones shown. An algorithm developed by the University of Nebraska-Omaha helps workers make comparisons of remains in minutes. For Patricia Duran, the result has been finally learning what happened to her uncle, Army Air Forces Sgt. Alfonso O Duran, who died in 1944 when his B-24H Liberator bomber was shot down. His remains were disinterred from a grave in Slovenia and identified this spring. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday issued "stop work" notices to over a hundred outlets listed on Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda and Uber Eat platforms, an official statement said. The action was taken under the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006 as these companies were "found selling food items without proper permissions from the state authorities," the FDA said. It also said that in some cases the food items "sold" by these outlets were found to be of low quality. These firms are in the business of home delivery of ready-to-eat food from restaurants and hotels. Stop work notices were issued to 85 outlets linked with Swiggy, 50 of Zomato, three outlets of Foodpanda and two of Uber Eats. The decision comes into effect immediately and hence from tomorrow these outlets will have to stop operating, said the FDA release. FDA commissioner Pallavi Darade, assistant commissioner Suhas Bharadwaj and other officials recently inspected 347 outlets of these four companies, it said. "Officials found that these companies have been selling food items without proper permission under the FSSA 2006. Hence the action has been initiated," the release said. "The sold food items are of low quality. The FDA has received some complaints earlier, hence the action has been initiated," the release added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 36-year-old man has been awarded three years' rigorous imprisonment by a court here in Maharashtra for harassing his wife and driving her to commit suicide. District Judge R V Tamhanekar held the accused, Deepak Bhambhare, guilty last Saturday and also imposed a fine of Rs 7,000 on him. The prosecution told the court that the accused, who worked in a tile-making factory and resided at Rajnoli village in Bhiwandi town, got married to the victim, Manisha, in 2005 and the couple had two sons. The accused used to frequently beat his wife and demand money from her to raise a poultry farm and buy a television set. Unable to bear the harassment, the woman consumed a poisonous substance on December 21, 2013 and died later during treatment, the prosecution said. Based on a complaint by the victim's mother, police filed a case against the accused under the Indian Penal Code Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 498A (husband or his relative subjecting woman to cruelty), and arrested him. The judge observed that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the man subjected his wife to cruelty because of which she took the step to end her life. "So, the offence is of serious nature," the judge said while pronouncing the sentence. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A team of Special Task Force of Kolkata Police arrested one person and seized 2,500 kilograms of ganja from his possession, police said Wednesday. Parag Jyoti Saikia (31), a resident of Assam and presently residing at an apartment in New Town, was arrested after police seized the huge qiantity of contraband from him, a police officer said. The accused was arrested last night from Rai Charan Sadhukhan Road near R G Kar Road under Ultadanga police station limits, the police officer said. Initial investigations revealed that the accused used to procure ganja from northeastern states and bring them to West Bengal, he said. "He used to be the middleman. We are talking to him to know if he belonged to any gang, the officer said adding that the accused has claimed to have completed a management course from an institute in Salt Lake. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Students of the crisis-hit Manipur University Wednesday clashed with security forces inside the campus during which police used tear gas shells, police sources said. The students were demonstrating in the campus demanding "unconditional release" of all the 15 teachers and students arrested in September following an FIR lodged on a complaint by acting Vice-Chancellor Prof K Yugindro. The clash broke out when the protesting students demanded to meet Yugindro and were prevented by policemen. Both the sides had a heated exchange of words following which the police personnel lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the agitators, sources said, adding several students were detained. The Manipur University Teachers Association (MUTA) denounced the police action on students. Earlier, MUTA members took mass casual leave Wednesday, university sources said. The teachers were protesting the delay in releasing the arrested 15 teachers and students as well as withdrawal of the FIR. The FIR was lodged on September 20 which followed a midnight raid by security forces led to the arrest of 89 students and teachers. Of them, police had released all but 15, whose names were in the FIR for "wrongful confinement, illegal detention and attempt to murder" when Yugindro assumed charge as acting VC on September 20. The university has been on the boil since May with academic activities taken a hit. After a 85-day strike by students, the varsity had opened on August 23. The agitators had been demanding removal of then vice chancellor A P Pandey for alleged administrative and financial lapses. President Ram Nath Kovind, in his capacity as the visitor of the university, recently placed Pandey under suspension as an enquiry was underway into the allegations of irregularities against him. Yugindro was appointed as the acting VC soon after Pandey's suspension. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) And now, the end is near. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images Why would U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley pick Tuesday morning to announce shell step down at the end of the year, apparently catching her senior administration colleagues by surprise? Every foreign policy commentator has a theory. Will Haley challenge President Trump in the 2020 GOP primary. (She says no.) Maybe shes preparing to take Lindsey Grahams Senate seat, once Trump fires Jeff Sessions and makes the South Carolinian his new attorney general? (The senator says he has zero interest in joining Trumps Cabinet.) Does she just want to make money? (Well, she and her husband have more than a million dollars of debt, and her parents home is in foreclosure.) Did ethics troubles, specifically her use of private jets, catch up to her? (Nonsense. Have you already forgotten Ryan Zinke, Ben Carsons dining table, and Scott Pruitt?) For now, all we can do is speculate about Haleys real motives. But its worth backing up and noting what people arent saying: no one thinks Haleys resignation has much to do with the actual job she does, and everyone thinks she jumped, instead of being pushed. Amid all the chatter about Haleys exit, her foreign policy differences with President Trump hardly rated a mention. This is worth stressing, because the differences seem to have been significant, and theyre key to the battle over the future of the GOP. Haley was clearly in the camp that favored more muscular sanctions on Moscow, in response to its aggressions in Eastern Europe and its attempt to poison a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil. Back in April, she used an appearance on Face the Nation to preview additional measures she said would be unveiled the following day. When the announcement never came, White House officials said she had been confused which she, in turn, emphatically denied. Though Haley has been an eager messenger of some of the administrations actions that were most enraging to other U.N. members explicitly threatening fellow member-states who opposed the U.S. on Israel votes, for example, and defending U.S. efforts to terminate whole swaths of U.N. humanitarian funding and refugee resettlement she eagerly jumped into working with and through the U.N. Early on, she got pushback from the White House just for convening career State Department officials her future staffers to learn from them about her new job and how the U.N. works. The foreign policy fight among Republicans is real. It pits the old Republican Establishment who value alliances, international commitments, and even some foreign aid against the Millers, Bannons, and other far-right figures who see the world beyond our shores as little but dangerous others to be fought and foolish suckers to be fleeced. It is one of the defining struggles of our time. But Haley seems to have wanted to close out her time in government without taking a side. This has everything to do with how conservatives perceive their electoral math there is no path to the presidency without voters who look at the U.N. and see not opportunities for cooperation but threats to American identity. Heres the thing about Haleys departure that was different: unlike just about every other official who has left Trumps national security team, Haley did it her way. Although she was expected to clash with National Security Adviser John Bolton, the talk about her being pushed out had actually died down recently. Nikkis name just hasnt come up lately, a senior official told the Washington Post just two short weeks ago. Trumps appearance at the U.N. last month was judged a success by his team never mind that the chamber of world leaders laughed at the president during his speech. Haleys resignation letter, dated a week ago, lists several great successes at the U.N., such as pressuring North Korea to denuclearize and pushing back against the U.N.s relentless bias against Israel. She reminds President Trump that she negotiated conditions under which she was willing to serve in his administration, including being free to speak my mind on the issues of the day. The only reason she offers for her departure is her desire to return to the private sector: As a strong supporter of term limits, I have long believed that rotation in office benefits the public. Between the UN Ambassadorship and serving in the South Carolina Governorship and General Assembly, I have been in public office for fourteen straight years. As a businessman, I expect you will appreciate my sense that returning from government to the private sector is not a step down but a step up. Given Haleys decision to publicize her exit on Justice Kavanaughs first day on the bench, and as we head into the final stretch before a midterm election that isnt expected to go well for Republicans, the why may be fairly simple. Haley has proven herself a shrewd politician, capably negotiating her way through one of the diciest areas of Trump administration policy with her dignity relatively intact. Perhaps she just decided to quit while shes ahead. Surendra Gadling, who was arrested in June for alleged Maoist links, told a court here Wednesday that police wanted to take "revenge" from him as he was arguing several cases against them in his capacity as a lawyer. Arguing himself on his bail application, Gadling told Judicial Magistrate (First Class) K D Vadhane that he was innocent and should be released. "Since I have been fighting several cases, including (those under the acts such as) TADA, MCOCA, UAPA, those related to fake encounters by police, and also fighting on behalf of tribals, Dalits and minorities in the courts, the police are taking revenge by implicating me in a false case," he alleged. Police want to settle scores with me as I prevailed against the prosecution in 99 per cent of cases, Gadling said. Referring to invocation of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against him and other accused for making "rebellious" speeches, the arrested lawyer said it was a "misuse" of the law. "According to the Constitution, making rebellious speeches is not an act against the sovereignty of the country and does not pose threat to the security of the nation and also does not amount to an act of terrorism," he said. The present case, related to organisation of the Elgar Parishad conclave (which, according to police, had some Maoist backers and led to violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1 this year) in Pune, was registered seven days after the event, he said. "Police personnel were at the event, but they did not find anything objectionable. It was Tushar Damgude on whose complaint the police registered the case," he added. Police did not show the same efficiency when dealing with violence at Bhima Koregaon -- where Dalits visiting a war memorial were attacked -- and that case was put in "cold storage", Gadling alleged. He also questioned the "media trial" in the case and leaking of alleged letters written by Maoists to media before they were examined by forensic experts. Citing one of the seized letters which talked about planning of a "Rajiv Gandhi-like incident", Gadling asked if indeed there was a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, why no case has been registered yet in this regard. The prosecution Wednesday filed a reply opposing the bail application of co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj, currently under house arrest. "We will oppose the bail on the grounds that Bharadwaj is an active member of CPI (Maoist), a banned outfit, and was instrumental in mobilisation of funds and cadres, and also their recruitment," Assistant Commissioner of Police Shivaji Pawar said. On October 12, the court is likely to hear arguments on the bail plea of another accused, Shoma Sen. Ten persons have been arrested in the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) here has sought speedy implementation of the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act under the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Myanmar (BBIM) initiative. The new president of MCCI Vishal Jhajharia said that the chamber had decided to convene a forum in December where the issue would be taken up. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, he said that as of now, intra-regional trade among these countries was far from its true potential. "Having an integrated MV Act can boost intra-regional trade in the region. The individual countries have some issues which need to be sorted out," Jhajharia said. On skill development, he said the chamber intends to partner with the state government in boosting employment generation. "MCCI will introduce demand-driven short term technical and vocational training courses in partnership with a few organisations," he added. Jhajharia said MCCI plans to organise agri-investors' forum to bring all the stakeholders to facilitate exchanges. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) First lady Melania Trump says women who make accusations of sexual abuse "need to be heard" and supported, but so do men. She says when there are accusations there needs to be "really hard evidence" and accusers should "show the evidence." Melania was interviewed on her Kenya trip by ABC, which aired portions Wednesday on "Good Morning America." Asked whether she supports the MeToo movement. Melania said, "I support the women, and they need to be heard. We need to support them. And, you know, also men, not just women." President Donald Trump, accused of sexual assault by numerous women over the years, has said it's "a scary time" for men facing allegations from years ago, as with Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh denied those, as has Trump. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The fiancee of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has asked President Donald Trump to help uncover what happened to the Riyadh critic who she said had "been fighting for his principles". Hatice Cengiz made the appeal on Tuesday in an opinion piece for The Washington Post newspaper, where Khashoggi was a columnist and an outspoken critic of some of Riyadh's policies. A veteran journalist, Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul to arrange paperwork for his wedding to Cengiz, a Turk. Government sources in Turkey said police believe the 59-year-old was killed inside the consulate, claims which Riyadh dismissed as "baseless". Cengiz wrote that she was "confident in the abilities of Turkish government officials." "At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamal's disappearance," she said. "I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate," Cengiz wrote. Trump on Monday expressed concern about Khashoggi's case and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a thorough investigation. Turkish police were also looking into the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped, local media reported. Riyadh has said Khashoggi left the consulate after his visit. Although Khashoggi knew that his opinions had angered certain people, he entered the consulate "without doubting he would be safe there," his fiancee wrote, but after three hours of waiting "fear and concern" overcame her. Khashoggi had fled his homeland in September last year and had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States, where he had applied for US citizenship, Cengiz said. A former Saudi government advisor, Khashoggi has been openly critical of Prince Mohammed, accusing him of introducing a new era of "fear, intimidation, arrests and public shaming." Cengiz wrote she remains confident that the "great man" is still alive, "although my hope slowly fades away each passing day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ruling Congress in Mizoram said Wednesday the exit of two senior MLAs from the party would not affect its prospects in the November 28 Assembly election and it was confident of a third term in the state. "With 32 MLAs, I am confident that we will win with comfortable majority to form the government for a third consecutive term. People of Mizoram have not lost faith in the leadership of Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla," AICC general secretary in-charge of the northeast Luizinho Faleiro said. Two MLAs might have left, but hundreds of others are joining the party in Mizoram, the only Congress-ruled state in the northeastern region, Faleiro told a press conference. Home Minister R Lalzirliana, also vice-president of the state Congress, resigned on September 14, three days after he was served a show-cause notice by the MPCC disciplinary committee accusing him of confusing party workers. He was expelled later. Another MLA and former minister Lalrinliana Sailo resigned earlier this month. Both the leaders were expected to be fielded by the opposition Mizo National Front. Faleiro, a former chief minister of Goa, said the Congress would field as many young faces as possible in the election. "At least 40 per cent of the young candidates would be below the age of 40." The Congress' top leadership wants to axe some legislators who are too old to contest or may struggle to win, while ensuring that those left out are not many so as to form a rebel lobby, a senior state leader has said. The party is scheduled to release its candidates' list Thursday. The election for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly will be held on November 28 and counting of votes will be taken up on December 11. The Congress, which has been in power in the state since 2008, is in fight against parties such as the MNF and the Mizo Peoples Conference. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mozambique holds local elections Wednesday that could reveal cracks in the country's peace process after the ruling Frelimo party was accused of violence and intimidation during the campaign. The main opposition Renamo party, which has maintained an armed wing since the end of the country's civil war, is running in the municipal vote for the first time in 10 years. Renamo fought a brutal 16-year civil war against the Marxist-inspired Frelimo government that left one million people dead before fighting ended in 1992. In 2013, fresh violence erupted between Renamo rebels and government troops, raising fears of a return to civil war. But three years later, the party declared a truce and opened fresh peace talks. Renamo is hoping for a breakthrough ahead of next year's general election. "These landmark local elections will test the success of decentralisation measures agreed with the armed opposition and will act as an important political bellwether," the London-based EXX risk consultancy said in a note. "The rewards at hand have rendered the political climate in Mozambique both tense and volatile, as highlighted by a series of violent incidents in the pre-election period." The 13-day election campaign ended on Sunday after several clashes between rival party supporters. Renamo supporters say they have faced intimidation and assaults during the campaign. "Our members and sympathisers are asking for the party's leadership (to) intervene in their defence since the police do nothing," Renamo's acting leader Ossufo Momade last week. The vote will be held in Mozambique's 53 municipalities, 49 of which are currently governed by Frelimo. The four other municipalities - among them the cities of Beira, Nampula and Quelimane - were won by the second opposition MDM party in the last elections. President Filipe Nyusi and Momade have recently made progress on the disarmament and integration of former Renamo rebels into the police and army -- a key sticking point in the peace talks. Parliament approved new electoral laws in July that means that a simple or relative majority is sufficient for a candidate to win election. Previously, an absolute majority of over 50 percent of votes was needed. The new laws could split the opposition vote. As well as the internal political tensions, Mozambique has been rocked over the last year by the emergence of an Islamist insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which has rich offshore gas deposits. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress in Madhya Pradesh Wednesday alleged the "Ram Van Gaman Path" yatra taken out by seers was stopped midway by Dindori district officials at the behest of the BJP on the basis of a "false complaint", a charge denied by the ruling party. District officials, however, said the action was taken because the yatra was organised despite section 144 of CrPC (Prevention of unlawful assembly) being in force and for violation of the Model Code of Conduct in view of the assembly polls scheduled to be held on November 28. State unit Congress vice president Abhay Dubey also claimed the district police even seized a chariot of Lord Ram, which was part of the yatra, on Tuesday. The 'Ram Van Gaman Path Yatra' seeks to retrace the route taken by Lord Ram on his way to the 14-year exile, as per mythology. Dubey said that the yatra was non-political in nature, as it was organised by seers. "The yatra started from Chitrakoot on October 2 by the head trustee of Purana Lanka Ashram Harishankar Shukla. It was a non-political yatra. It was stopped in Shahpura town in Dindori district by the administration Tuesday," said Dubey at a press conference here. He alleged that Shukla and other leaders were booked under various sections of the IPC and Representation of People Act under the "pressure from the BJP". "Even the rath (chariot) of Lord Ram was seized by the police. The administration is working under the pressure from BJP leaders," he alleged. The district officials had said that section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC was slapped on the religious leaders for violating the section 144 of CrpC. However, Dubey said the procession was religious in nature and no material, like a flag, related to the Congress was used. "Lord Ram had spent 12 out of 14 years of his exile in Madhya Pradesh. In 2007, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced to develop the 'Ram Path' in the state, but the BJP did not fulfill this promise," he said. When contacted, state BJP spokesman Rajnish Agrawal said the yatra was organised by the Congress. "The opposition party had even held a press conference to announce this procession. There must be some merit in the complaint (filed by a BJP leader) which forced the authorities to take action," he said. During the yatra, appeals were made to people not to vote the BJP, said Agrawal. The BJP has been accusing the Congress, which has been out of power since 2003, of playing the "soft Hindutva" card ahead of the elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CBI carried out searches at two separate locations in Bihar's Muzaffarpur in connection with the sexual assault of minor girls at a state-funded shelter home in the district, officials said on Wednesday. The searches were carried out at the shelter home, 'Balika Grih', and at 'Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti' premises, the NGO which ran the centre, they said. The case relates to the sexual abuse of minor girls at the the shelter home. Sexual abuse of at least 34 inmates out of 42 was confirmed in their medical examination. Several people, including Brajesh Thakur, the owner of the NGO, have been arrested in the case. Madhu alias Sahista Praveen, who runs the NGO, is absconding, officials said. Meanwhile, the Bihar government allowed CBI's request to shift Thakur from Muzaffarpur Jail to Bhagalpur Jail. Other accused will be moved to Patna Central Jail, the officials said. Thakur was allegedly using his clout to "run the show" from the prison, CBI officials claimed. They said he was allegedly misusing the facilities and got himself admitted in the prison hospital on several occasions. According to official sources, the agency found during its probe that the inmates were taken from the shelter home to 'Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti' premises, where they were sexually assaulted. So far 34 inmates have recorded their statements, they added. Last week, in a status filed in the Supreme Court, the CBI said the girls have gone through a lot of trauma and require counselling by experts of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP leader Mukul Roy Wednesday accused the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal of "illegally tapping" his phones after two audio clips of his purported telephonic conversation with his party's general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya were circulated on social media. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh also blamed the West Bengal police for illegally tapping telephones of BJP leaders in the state. "I have already moved the court against tapping of my phones. The matter is now sub judice. But I would say one thing that if you are tapping someone's telephone, it is totally illegal and immoral," Roy told PTI. On Tuesday, he filed a case in Delhi High Court alleging his phone was being tapped. In one audio clip, Roy purportedly asked Vijayvargiya to speak to BJP president Amit Shah and ensure that CBI keeps a watch on four IPS officers to "scare them". In the second audio clip, which has also gone viral on social media, Roy, a former TMC leader, purportedly told Vijayvargiya that a journalist who has done the Narada sting operation told him about a documentary that will "finish" the Trinamool Congress. The contents of the audio clips could not be immediately verified. Incidentally, a few IPS officers both present and former were summoned by CBI for questioning in connection with the Saradha scam. Vijayvargiya was not immediately available for his comment. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh blamed police for illegally tapping telephones of BJP leaders in the state. "I was not present when this conversation took place, neither my name was taken during the conversation. So it is not possible for me to make a comment on it. But it is true that police had been illegally tapping our phones, trying to malign us", Ghosh said. When contacted ADG (law and order) Anuj Sharma said he is neither aware of any such phone tapping nor has anything to say on the issue. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa said she strongly believes that national sovereignty can co-exist with the principles of multilateralism, without which problems like migration and climate change cannot be addressed. She said that the countries can defend their national interest, but at the same time they can remain open and generous to understand the need for collective action on certain key issues. "We live in a paradox. On the one hand, we see certain voices that are reclaiming national sovereignty and looking at national interest as if these principles could not co-exist with multilateralism," Espinosa told PTI in an interview here. "I am a strong believer that both can coexist. You can defend your national interest and at the same time be open and generous to understand that there is a need for collective action on certain key issues," she said. She asked as to how one can solve the issue of migration without having a multilateral approach. "Can you address the issue of climate change without addressing it from a collective responsibility perspective. It's impossible," she said. Espinosa said her call is that "we can really look at both issues and converge, defend national interest and belong to the international community in a responsible way." She further added that it was very encouraging to listen to world leaders, at the high-level week of the 73rd session of the General Assembly last month, praise multilateralism and the usefulness of the United Nations as a unique organisation that can address and solve the major global challenges. "The United Nations is irreplaceable," she said. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had in his address to the General Assembly last month warned that multilateralism is under fire, precisely when the international community needed it the most. Guterres had stressed that while individual leaders have the duty to advance the well-being of their people, they also have the responsibility to promote and support a reformed, reinvigorated and strengthened multilateral system. President Donald Trump, who addressed world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly session, said the US rejects the ideology of "globalism" and embraces the doctrine of "patriotism" and will always choose independence over global governance. Espinosa, Ecuador's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, was in June elected President of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, becoming only the fourth female president of the 193-member organization in its 73-year history. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, veteran Indian diplomat and sister of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first woman to be elected President of the General Assembly in as early as 1953. Later, Angie Elisabeth Brooks of Liberia was elected president in 1969 and Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain in 2006. She underscored that there is need to follow Pandit's path and legacy, stressing that it will be an overarching strategy in her tenure to bring more women leaders to the United Nations. Espinosa noted that a high-level event on women in politics and women in power will be organised prior to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March next year to send a bold message about how important it is to fully empower women if nations are to achieve the 2030 Agenda and if "we have to build more peaceful societies in general. You cannot just leave behind half of the world's population. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Donald Trump and Barack Obama. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images In October 2016, senior staff in the Obama White House discussed what they should do if Hillary Clinton won the November election and Donald Trump refused to accept the result as legitimate. They had cause to be worried. At that time, Trump had openly speculated that the election might be rigged. During his final debate with Clinton on October 19, he said that his opponent should never have been allowed to run and declined to answer the question of whether he would concede. Ill keep you in suspense, the Republican nominee said. It wasnt a hypothetical, Ben Rhodes, Obamas senior aide and speechwriter, told Intelligencer. Trump was already saying it on the campaign trail. The Obama White House plan, according to interviews with Rhodes and Jen Psaki, Obamas communications director, called for congressional Republicans, former presidents, and former Cabinet-level officials including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, to try and forestall a political crisis by validating the election result. In the event that Trump tried to dispute a Clinton victory, they would affirm the result as well as the conclusions reached by the U.S. intelligence community that Russian interference in the election sought to favor Trump, and not Clinton. Some Republicans were already aware of Russian interference from intelligence briefings given to leaders from both parties during the chaotic months before the election. We wanted to handle the Russia information in a way that was as bipartisan as possible, Rhodes said. The existence of the postelection plan has not been previously reported. A July 2017 op-ed by Obamas chief of staff, Denis McDonough, refers to Obama directing his staff to prepare possible responses to claims of Russian interference in the election. Psaki said the plan was one of a larger set of red-teaming conversations to address how the White House should respond to postelection scenarios that did not have any historical precedent. There was recognition that we had a Democratic president who was quite popular but also divisive for a portion of the population, she said. For them, just having him say the election was legitimate was not going to be enough. We didnt spend a lot of time theorizing about the worst thing that could happen this isnt a science-fiction movie. It was more about the country being incredibly divided and Trumps supporters being angry. Would there be protesting? I dont want to say violence, because we didnt talk about that as I recall. Trumps blurring of the lines between the illegal, the unfair, and the merely unfavorable has continued with his rhetoric around the ongoing probe into his campaign, which he has called a hoax, one of the great scandals in the history of our country, and truly a cancer in our country. He has described Robert Muellers investigation as illegal and a Witch Hunt in search of a crime not allowed under the LAW! Not that the question is entirely a retrospective one. Psaki also said she had doubts that Trump would go quietly if he were to be impeached. I dont think there is any indication to suggest that if thats where things headed, he would accept it, she said. Hes laying the groundwork for delegitimizing the process now questioning our institutions, attacking their leadership. This is all fodder for his supporters to work with in the event that things go down a dark path for him. Rhodes said he didnt know how Trump would respond to impeachment. Its a really interesting question, he said. At a minimum, he could choose to implore his supporters not to accept the result. Given that 30 to 35 percent of the country believes whatever he says, and his enormous public megaphone, you could foresee a scenario where that would lead to a fairly worrisome political situation. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Wednesday suspended an incharge of its school over "segregation" of Hindu and Muslims students into different sections as the Delhi government ordered a probe and HRD Ministry sought a report in this matter. A section of teachers employed by the NDMC had alleged that a primary school in Wazirabad was segregating Hindu and Muslim students in different sections. The BJP-led NDMC in its initial probe found the allegations to be true and ordered suspension of the school in-charge while denouncing the step as unimaginable" and "unpardonable". "I was apprised of the allegations by our officials. We decided to probe the accusations, and unfortunately they were found to be true. We have suspended the head of the school with immediate effect and initiated major penalty chargesheet against him," NDMC Commissioner Madhup Vyas told PTI. The commissioner described the incident as "bizarre" and "unpardonable", saying it went against the grain of pluralistic society. Mayor of North Delhi Adesh Gupta said the school in-charge was "found to be guilty in preliminary investigation". The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights also issued a notice to the head of school run by the NDMC, asking them the reason for shuffling students on the basis of their religion. The commission said such a segregation could have an adverse effect on holistic learning and development of students and also negatively impact the social fabric of the country. "The matter is very serious. It may damage the social fabric of the country. This is a plot against the Constitution. I have asked the director of Department to enquire into the matter and submit the report by Friday," Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters, "We haven't received any complaint yet but have read about it in media reports. I have asked for a report". H K Hem, the director of said, the school has about 700 students and boys outnumber girls. The primary school falls in Wazirabad area of north Delhi and administered by the NDMC. The area comes under the Civil Lines Zone of the civic body. All municipal corporation-run schools in Delhi are primary schools. Teachers in other municipal schools expressed their shock over the reports. "Schools, primary level no less, should be kept away from politics, and religion and caste matters should not be mentioned, for a balanced growth of a child. When a student enters a school, he or she is not a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh or Christian, but an Indian and that is how we should educate them," a teacher in a civic school in Karol Bagh said, on condition of anonymity. "If the segregation is being done there, then it is condemnable, and we strongly disapprove of it. Schools should unite and not divide people, and these children are such impressionable minds, it will not bode well for their growth," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sent a notice to the Health Ministry and Delhi government over reports that a city-run hospital does not have a functional MRI machine since February 2016. The Delhi government's G B Pant Hospital is a referral centre for neurology, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, gastrointestinal surgery and psychiatry, for which MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is a crucial test for diagnosis and timely treatment. The NHRC, in a statement on Wednesday, said it has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that the facility does not have a functional MRI machine since February 2016. The panel has observed that the contents of the report, if true, raise serious issue of violation of right to life and health of the people. Accordingly, it has issued notice to the Delhi chief secretary and the secretary of he Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, seeking reports on it within four weeks. The report sought by the NHRC would include the present status of the basic facilities including MRI, CT scan, X-ray and pathology tests at government-run hospitals as well as steps taken to procure the new machines for the patients, without any further delay. "Reportedly, a doctor has said that around 90 per cent of the patients in the neurology and neurosurgery in OPD require MRI tests to be done. He further added that post-operative MRI is needed in 20 per cent of neurosurgery cases to assess the outcome of surgery such as resection of tumour," it said. In these cases, either a CT scan is done or one has to wait for the patient to be stable enough to be sent to LNJP Hospital for the test. The GB Pant Hospital in central Delhi may be reportedly one of Delhi's biggest super-specialty medical institutions, but it "shockingly hasn't had a functional MRI machine since February 2016," the NHRC said. "It has been sending patients, even those admitted, requiring emergency scans to nearby LNJP Hospital, while asking the rest to get them done in government-empanelled private diagnostic centres," the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman left for France Wednesday night on a three-day visit which comes amid a massive controversy over the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace company Dassault Aviation under a Rs 58,000 crore deal. Officials sources said Sitharaman will hold wide-ranging talks with her French counterpart Florence Parly on ways to deepen strategic cooperation between the two countries and the two sides will also deliberate on major regional and global issues of mutual interests. They said Sitharaman will also take stock of progress in the supply of the Rafale jets by Dassault to the Indian Air Force. There was indication that she may even visit the facility where the jets are being manufactured. Sitharaman's visit comes nearly three weeks after former French President Francois Hollande was quoted by French publication 'Mediapart' as saying that Indian government proposed the name of Reliance to partner with Dassault Aviation for the Rafale deal. The comments by Hollande, who was French president when the Rafale deal was finalised, triggered a huge political row. The government has vehemently rejected the allegations and asserted that it did not have any role in the selection of Reliance Defence. In their talks, Sitharaman and Parly are expected to deliberate on joint production of military platforms and weapons by the two countries. Earlier this year, France was pitching for starting negotiations for procurement of another batch of 36 Rafale jets by India. However, New Delhi was not keen on pursuing it. In April, the Indian Air Force started the process to acquire a fleet of 114 fighter jets and Dassault Aviation has emerged as one of the key contenders for the contract. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after talks with the then French President Francois Hollande on April 10, 2015 in Paris. The final deal was sealed on September 23, 2016. The Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, saying the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government when it was negotiating the deal. The Congress has also been targeting the government over selection of Reliance Defence as an offset partner for Dassault. Sources said Sitharaman will discuss with Parly ways to expand Indo-French maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. French President Emmanuel Macron had visited India in March during which the two countries decided to expand strategic ties and deepen counter-terror cooperation. The two sides also inked a strategic pact providing for the use of each other's military facilities including opening naval bases to warships. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leading stock exchange NSE Wednesday said it has signed a pact with the Uttarakhand government to provide access to capital to MSMEs, which will fuel growth of such entities in the state. The bourse will play an active role in nurturing the SMEs and start-ups by increasing awareness along with the government on the opportunities to raise capital, SME exchange guidelines, listing processes, compliances with listing agreement among others, NSE said in a statement. "We, at NSE are happy to actively collaborate with the Government of Uttarakhand. small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are crucial for economic growth, employment generation and broad based inclusive development," NSE Chief Business Development Officer Ravi Varanasi said. "We are very focused on providing access to capital to SMEs and look forward to supporting SMEs from Uttarakhand in their growth plans and do joint programmes with government of Uttarakhand in each district of the state for capital raising initiatives," he added. As part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the exchange will support the efforts of the government in enhancing the financing opportunities for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the state, through listing on NSE's SME platform-- Emerge. On its part, the government will facilitate MSMEs to get listed on the NSE Emerge, by supporting such entities financially or otherwise, in bearing the expenses related to listing. NSE's SME Platform has currently 182 companies listed, which together raised over Rs 2,850 crore .The total market capitalisation of these companies will be about Rs 11,300 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The number of Hindi-speaking migrant workers leaving Gujarat has come down after they were reassured about their safety in the state, officials and industry body representatives said Wednesday. Compared to the past few days, no long queues for north-bound trains were seen at major railway stations. Police and district officials held meetings with migrant workers and factory owners at several places and told them that they need not worry about their safety. Since the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat on September 28 and the arrest of a labourer hailing from Bihar in the case, six districts, most of them in north Gujarat, have witnessed incidents of violence against Hindi-speaking migrant workers. Former president of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries Shailesh Patwari held a meeting with around 200 migrant workers at Naroda industrial area of Ahmedabad Wednesday. "We told workers to join work without any fear and also ask their friends who have left to return," he said. Deputy Commissioner of Police Neeraj Badgujar said many migrant workers returned to factories in Naroda area Wednesday. "We told them that we are always alert to protect them. We are conducting flag marches (in areas where migrant workers were attacked) and police have been deployed... We have conducted more than 250 mohalla meetings (meeting with residents of a respective locality), asking people not to heed to rumours," he said. Avdhesh Tiwari, a factory worker from Uttar Pradesh, said he has been living in Ahmedabad for 10 years, and never felt so scared as in the past few days. "At one point I felt like leaving for home with my friends who have already gone back. But our factory owner and police officers asked us to stay back. The situation is normal and there is nothing to fear now," Tiwari told reporters. Shyam Singh Thakur, president of the Uttar Bhartiya Vikas Parishad, an organisation representing North Indian migrants, said it is holding meetings with workers and persuading those who have left to come back. More than 60,000 Hindi-speaking people left for their home states mainly because of the rumours on social media that they will be attacked if they did not leave Gujarat by October 8, he said. "We are trying to persuade those who left to come back before Diwali as Diwali is the time when they get extra money and bonus," he said. "A majority of around 60-70 thousand people who left Gujarat had left by October 8, after which the number fell. Now some of them are coming back," he claimed. Collectors of Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Anand districts visited railway stations and talked to people from North India who were leaving for home. "They (migrants) said they are assured about their safety. They are leaving for home for festivals and will be back after Diwali," said Vadodara collector Shalini Agarwal. Surat police commissioner Satish Sharma held meetings with factory owners in the city. "We have assured them of full safety. As a special measure, we have deployed an extra Quick Response Team vehicle to provide immediate police assistance. I have also asked police inspectors to stay in the limits of their police stations (so that they can act quickly)," he said. Unlike in the past few days, no long queues for north-bound states were seen at railway stations. "I am going home for Diwali. I was planning to go three days ago but was delayed due to crowd," said Ashok, a migrant from Agra, who works at a textile unit in Ahmedabad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump Wednesday slammed his predecessor Barack Obama for being "impotent" and not stopping China from expanding its influence in the South China Sea, saying the Chinese Navy was now posing a confrontational challenge for America in the disputed region. President Trump's remarks came hours after he was briefed at the White House by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his meetings with the top Chinese leadership in Beijing this week. "The Obama administration was impotent about the South China Sea," Trump said during an interaction with reporters Abroad Air Force One. He said the Chinese Navy was now posing a confrontational challenge for America in the disputed region. China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. They are also vital to global trade. China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the area. The US has been conducting regular patrols in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation in the area where Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. During Pompeo's trip, Trump earlier told reporters at the White House that China was sending a message to him, but those messages did not work. He said Pompeo was treated him great respect during his trip to Beijing. "They're just trying to get me a message. But those messages don't work. They don't work. But no, I think they treated him with great respect, actually. You know, they had meetings besides just the conference. And I think they treated him with great respect," he said when asked if he was concerned the way the Chinese treated Pompeo. Trump also said Pompeo did not have a great meeting in China. "It wasn't so much - I guess he was giving them a message, and they were giving him a message to come back to me," Trump said. However, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at a briefing that Pompeo had a good, constructive meetings with his Chinese counterparts. "They're certainly a competitor. It's a complex and broad-based relationship that we have with China, as you all saw in the comments and exchanges between the Secretary and his counterparts. We have areas of common interest. North Korea is one of them," Nauert said. "Working to combat illegal narcotics is another area where we work well together. We also have areas of disagreement and areas where we have challenges, and we'll keep working together on that. It's obviously an important relationship that we need to work hard to maintain," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over eight lakh litres of seized liquor and 40,233 impounded vehicles were lying in police stations across the national capital, the Delhi Police told the Supreme Court Wednesday. In an affidavit filed before a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, the police said a policy has been formulated to de-congest police stations by removing or disposing of impounded materials lying there. The police has said that a "policy has been formulated with the object to decongest police stations by way of removal/disposal of seized/impounded material/vehicles and to ensure that such materials do not create impediment in the smooth flow of traffic and do not become breeding grounds for disease carrying vectors." It also said that the department has written to the Principal Secretary (Home) of the Delhi government to expedite the process of appointment of 'Nazirs' (record keeper of a malkhana) for each revenue district. The affidavit, which explained the policy for disposal of case properties, said the storage capacity of 'Malkhanas' (where seized materials are kept) in police stations were "grossly insufficient". "As on July 31, 2018, a total of 40,223 seized vehicles are lying in police stations.... Some vehicles also keep lying in police custody because their owners have already claimed insurance and the insurance companies are not interested to take the vehicle to save the expenses of lifting, storage and disposal of vehicles," the affidavit said. It said that illicit liquor too occupies a lot of space in police stations. "Illicit liquor lying in police stations is another item which occupies a lot of space. As on August 31, 2018, there was a total of 8,02,370 litres of seized liquor lying in police stations," the affidavit added. It also mentioned the strategies to dispose of case properties lying in various police stations, including immediate release of case properties which can be returned to the rightful owner. "Shifting of such case properties which cannot be released immediately to the centralised Malakhana within 15 days of seizure of the property... and expediting the final disposal of old case properties lying in police stations by way of return to rightful owner, auction destruction etc by obtaining court orders as per law," it said. The police, in its policy to decongest police station, said the exercise to dispose of case materials was needed to be done on a "continuous basis" so that a "steady disposal" was achieved. On disposal of seized contraband, the police said that as per the procedure followed, the samples are sent to forensic science laboratory for chemical analysis and after the receipt of chemical analysis report, application for disposal is made in the designated court of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS). It also said that drugs having legitimate medical or industrial use can be sold as per advice of chief controller with Government Opium and Alkaloid Factories. "In case the drug is not found fit for such use, the same must be destroyed with the help of incinerators fitted with appropriate air pollution control devices after seeking necessary permission from state pollution control board," it said. "Appropriate agency is hired to carry our destruction by following due procedure," it added. The police also gave details of the works, along with the timeline, which are being carried out to remove traffic bottlenecks from congested corridors in Delhi which have been categorised under category 'A', 'B' and 'C'. The police, which had earlier given details of the work to be completed under category 'A', informed the bench about tasks identified under categories 'B' and 'C'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Paddy growers of Punjab and Haryana have become "soft targets" as they are often blamed for causing air pollution in the NCR region due to stubble burning, farm experts said Wednesday, as they pitched for incentivising growers for the management of crop residue. The experts said penalising farmers without addressing their issues should not be encouraged. Steps like crop diversification and investments in producing bio energy with paddy straw can help tide over the issue, they suggested. A dialogue between farmers, policy makers and farm experts on farm-related issues, including stubble burning, was held here. "Farmers have become easy targets as they are blamed for causing air pollution in NCR region including Delhi," agriculture policy expert Devinder Sharma said. He said holding only farmers responsible for pollution was "biased thinking". "In Delhi, urban class will always blame the rural people. People in Delhi do not want to reduce pollution as they want to use cars and do not want to change their lifestyle," Sharma said, adding use of thermal plants was also one of the major reasons of pollution in the national capital. Echoing the expert's views, Punjab Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar said there were diverse reasons behind Delhi's air pollution. "Delhi's traffic is a major reason of air pollution. Paddy harvesting is just for three weeks. Therefore, it will be difficult to accept that pollution is only caused by paddy growers of Punjab," he said. Punjab and Haryana are often blamed for rising air pollution and smog, caused by crop residue burning by growers. Punjab alone generates 20 to 22 million tonnes of paddy stubble annually. Sharma was of the opinion that farm mechanisation was not a solution to the problem of stubble burning. "The solution is not mechanisation. The use of machines (like happy seeder technique) could address just a minuscule scale of the (stubble burning) problem," he said. "If we can give Rs 40,000 crore for paddy procurement, why can't the Centre give Rs 200 per quintal asbonus to growers for managing crop residue? Sharma said, adding Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(MNREGA) funds can also be used in dealing with the stubble burning problem. The experts also blamed the government policies of pushing paddy cultivation in Punjab which was initially a maize growing state. "In a short period, farmers want to sow wheat after harvesting paddy so that the crop yield does not dip. If yield drops, subsequently his income will also drop and he does not want to let this happen. If we cannot improve his livelihood, then we must sustain his standard of living," the Punjab chief principal secretary said. Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) chief Balbir Singh Rajewal alleged farmers were being bullied to shift from their traditional way of crop management. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court said Wednesday that people should be made aware on how to get hologram-based colour coded stickers, which indicate the fuel being used by a vehicle, and the transport ministry should issue advertisements in this regard. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said this after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A N S Nadkarni, appearing for the ministry, said that people could collect these stickers from the district transport office after showing the registration certificate of the vehicle. "People should know how to get it (stickers). You may have to put it in newspapers and issue advertisements for this," the bench told the ASG. The apex court had on August 13 accepted the proposal of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways(MoRTH) which had said that hologram-based light blue colour sticker would be used in vehicles using petrol and CNG fuel, while an orange sticker would be put on diesel-run vehicles. It had asked the ministry to implement the colour-coded sticker system in the vehicles plying in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) by October 2. During the hearing, advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the air pollution matter, told the court that the process of having these colour coded stickers has not yet started and the MoRTH must inform the court about it. The ASG said that appropriate notification with regard to these stickers have been issued and amendment in the rules would be made in the due course. The bench asked the ministry to file an affidavit in this regard within two weeks. The bench also dealt with the issue related to Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd which had earlier said that they were selling hybrid vehicles which caused very negligible pollution and there was no distinction for these kind of vehicles in the colour-coded system. The counsel appearing for Toyota said placing them at par with petrol and diesel vehicle would not be correct. "It is for the government to decide," the bench told Toyota's counsel. In its earlier affidavit, the MoRTH had told the court that they were supporting the proposal of the amicus regarding colour-coded stickers which could be used to identify vehicles and restrict those using dirtier fuel during "poor category" pollution days. They had said that date of registration of the vehicle would also be printed on these colour coded stickers. The amicus had earlier told the court that colour-coded stickers, as used in Paris, would help in tackling air pollution which would be more effective than having "odd-even" vehicle rotation scheme in Delhi. The issue of colour coded stickers for vehicles had cropped up when the apex court was hearing a matter relating to air pollution in Delhi-NCR. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Photo: Morgane Lay If youre like us, youve probably wondered what famous people add to their carts. Not the JAR brooch and Louis XV chair, but the hand sanitizer and the electric toothbrush. We asked Bobbi Brown, founder of Bobbi Brown makeup and Just Bobbi, about the natural deodorant, black sneakers, and ultrafast hair dryer she cant live without. Greats Alta Sneakers $199 $199 I just discovered these sneakers through a friend and wore them all through Paris on a recent trip even when we went to nice restaurants or bars, I wore these, instead of dress shoes or heels, with black skinny pants. They have a bit of height to them, but theyre mostly just comfortable 24-hour shoes. You cant spend a day in Gucci sneakers, but these you can wear all day. $199 at Greats Buy Siete Sea Salt Tortilla Chips $12 for 6 These are so good. Theyre not just gluten-free; theyre also grain-free because theyre made from cassava flour. It doesnt taste exactly like a tortilla chip it tastes even better. My kids actually prefer them over tortilla chips. Theyre made by a Mexican family in Austin, and the only problem I have is that you end up eating the whole bag. $12 for 6 at Amazon Buy $12 for 6 at Amazon Buy James Perse Vintage Little Boy Tee $75 $75 Im always looking for the perfect upgraded Hanes T-shirt. When I was a makeup artist in Paris, the models would all roll in wearing Hanes and jeans right out of bed, and of course they looked amazing. I tried the look, and it didnt work on me. I wear this instead because it fits really nicely and holds up, unlike other T-shirts that can look ratty after one wash. You throw a Chanel blazer on it and youre ready for anything. $75 at James Perse Buy Beautypie Triple Beauty Liquid Luminizer $28 Beauty Pie is this cool company out of Europe, and the founder came up with this great concept where you pay to join the membership club and no markup. Its amazing. I use this the most out of anything. It gives you just the right illumination. I use it all over my face and put moisturizer on top. It helps me look so done up. A lot of people like to put it on the cheek and forehead, where they want to look illuminated, but I use it everywhere. Sometimes I even mix it in my moisturizer. $28 at Beauty Pie Buy Nili Lotan Paris Cotton Twill Pants with Tape $375 Theyre just cool. She is almost six feet tall and is this cool Israeli girl who looks like she just rolled out of bed. I look like a schlub when I try to do that, but these pants help me in the attempt. Theyre khaki but flattering, and its hard to find those! Im actually wearing them today. They have a great tuxedo stripe, too. $375 at Nili Lotan Buy Dean Harris 18k Yellow Gold Flattened Hoop Earrings $695 I absolutely love how thin these earrings are. Theyre so simple and chic that even when your hair is just up in a ponytail and youre wearing a navy or black sweater, you look dressed. Apparently, when you wear them, its like one of those fashion underground things. Other people you see wearing them will give you the look like youre in the club. $695 at Dean Harris Buy Away Bigger Carry-On $245 I recently went to Paris and Amsterdam with my husband, and this luggage was so awesome and light and easy to pack. Im going to buy it for my kids for Christmas. I actually had the Rimowa for a while, and its so cool, but its a little heavy. Its also a little embarrassing. Its like the Range Rover of suitcases. $245 at Away Buy Evolution 18 Vanilla Collagen Shake By Bobbi Brown $48 Its kind of a miracle product. I created this because I wanted to figure out why, after dinner and a cocktail, I would then eat hundreds and hundreds of calories of nuts and fruit. This is only 60 calories, and it not only satisfies your sweet tooth but also adds hydration with hyaluronic acid, plus magnesium to help you sleep. Its amazing how many of these buzzwords actually work on more than your skin. $48 at Evolution_18 Buy get the strategist newsletter Actually good deals, smart shopping advice, and exclusive discounts. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best acne treatments, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, natural anxiety remedies, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. Pinjra Tod, a students' collective, staged a protest Wednesday asking all the colleges of Delhi University to have no curfews for women students. Members of the group marched through all colleges of North Campus to give a strong message to the administration that "we are not going to stop until our demands are met", they said. "We entered Stephens, Hindu, Ramjas, DRC, Miranda and Khalsa. The Miranda House principal Pratibha Jolly was pressured to come out and speak to the students who had stormed through the front gate," they claimed. They said Jolly agreed to put out a notice in the hostel Thursday saying wardens are not allowed to call up parents without a student's consent, they will not make sexist comments and there will be no curfew on food delivery. According to the notice, clean drinking water and good food will also be ensured, they added. "The principal also said she is too 'liberal' to not agree to our demands and that she will address our removal of curfew demand by October 30," they claimed. Taking forward what happened in Miranda House, Pinjra Tod is giving a deadline to the Delhi University authorities to remove the curfew by October 30 or face indefinite protest and defial of curfew in all DU hostels, they said. The students' collective had staged an all-night protest Monday demanding curfew-less nights for women students. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked the FRRO to extend the visa of an Uzbek woman, who is married to an Indian and living here with their son and whose application for OCI status has been rejected by the authority, saying "preserving families" was one of the constitutional principles. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) had on June 14 rejected the Uzbek woman's application for Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status, claiming that her marriage was invalid as her husband was already married to someone else. Justice Vibhu Bakhru, coming to the aid of the Uzbek national, said the material placed before the FRRO for rejecting the application was "frivolous". The judge said considering the woman was residing here with her husband and son, who was going to a school here, it would be apposite that the "family be not split up". "In the circumstances, it is directed that no coercive steps be taken against her and her visa, valid till October 19, be extended for the period of pendency of the matter," the court said and listed the matter for further hearing on March 5, 2019. It also issued notice to the FRRO and sought its stand on the issue by then. "One of the principles of the Constitution is to preserve families. That is the beacon light you (FRRO) have to follow. Have a human touch in such matters," the judge said. The court added that if FRRO had any stronger material apart from the husband's previous existing marriage, the same could be filed in a sealed cover. It said while the petitioner's marriage was in question, it had not been invalidated yet and noted that the man's first wife had requested FRRO to remove the Uzbek national from the country. The court also observed that the husband does visit his first wife sometimes. During the hearing, the court noted that the husband had married his first wife under Hindu rites and had later converted to Islam to marry the Uzbek national in 2010. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Wednesday sought support and assistance from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to fight the drug menace in the state. While delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of a three-day regional workshop on 'Combating Illicit Trafficking of Afghan Opiates: Developing a Comprehensive Approach' organised here by the UNODC. He said the drug menace was a "strategic conspiracy unleashed from across the international border". Rivulets in Punjab were being used to smuggle drugs as part of a strategic agenda that went beyond commercial reasons, he said. Expressing the confidence that his government would succeed in destroying the drugs business, he called for team work to battle the problem, and said the UNODC could play a pivotal role in this. While the Special Task Force and other agencies had been successful in catching mid-level peddlers, the big suppliers need to be apprehended too, he said, adding "we owe this to our future generations." He said it was a very critical issue, that had been going for a long time in Punjab. The state had seen a shift from traditional use of marijuana to synthetic stuff, which was posing a major threat. The seizure of a consignment that had come from Mandavi in Gujarat into Punjab clearly suggested that the aim of the drug smugglers was to starve the Indian Army of precious manpower, thus weakening the country's defence apparatus, Singh said. The STF set up to tackle the menace had shown remarkable results, he said, adding that 18,216 cases have been registered under the NDPS Act since April 1, 2017 and 21,489 persons arrested. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bengaluru on October 13 and he may address the employees of the state-owned aviation company. According to sources, Gandhi has been invited by the HAL employees' union. However, the Congress party or Gandhi's office did not divulge any details of the visit. Asked about the meeting at an AICC briefing, party spokesperson Jaipal Reddy said Gandhi is visiting as HAL has been the victim of the Rafale deal signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. "It has become the biggest victim because 10,000 employees of HAL are about to lose their jobs as it did not get the Rafale contract," he claimed. "If they (Modi government) had followed our contract and bought 18 aircraft in fly-away condition and built the rest in HAL, then the technology would have been absorbed in India and would have enhanced its (HAL's) manufacturing capacity. That is why Rahulji is rightly going to HAL," he told reporters. Reddy said the UPA's policy was to keep all defence matters with the public sector and it may have relaxed some conditions to bring in the private sector. The Congress spokesperson said if HAL had got the offset contract, it could have benefitted from things like technology transfer. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said his party will not make false promises but deliver on whatever it tells voters, even as he continued to slam Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale fighter deal. At a public meeting in Bikaner, Gandhi targeted Modi over corruption in the deal signed with France for the fighter aircraft, repeating the charge that Anil Ambani's Reliance group benefited from a related offset contract. He had levelled similar charges - denied earlier by the government and the Reliance group - in the meetings he addressed Tuesday in the state's Dholpur, Bharatpur and Dausa districts. At the 'Maha Sankalp Rally' on the Medical College grounds in Bikaner, he said Modi brought benefits for 15-20 top industrialists instead of the farmers. He said Congress will not make false promises to the voters. The party and its leaders will not make promises like depositing Rs 15 lakh in everyone's bank account and providing two crore jobs every year. Our chief minister and leaders will not deliver hollow speeches and tell lies, he said. But we will deliver on whatever we say from the stage," the Congress chief said. Assembly polls will take place in the state on December 7. Gandhi's rally in Bikaner was meant to influence voters in 24 assembly constituencies spread over the disricts of Bikaner, Hanumangarh, Sriganganagar and Churu. Farmers and party workers in large number from the districts attended the meeting. Gandhi claimed Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) was ignored in the Rafale deal while an "industrialist friend" of the prime minister benefitted. He reiterated the party's claim that the agreement for 36 aircraft was finalised at at higher price compared to what was negotiated by the previous Congress-led government. Gandhi accused to the BJP government at the Centre of failing to provide relief to debt-ridden farmers while wreaking havoc on the economy with demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He accused the prime minister of insulting people by belittling what the country had achieved in the last 70 years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seeking to step up his attack over the Rafale fighter jet deal, Congress President Rahul Gandhi is slated to meet on October 13 employees of the HAL, which the party has alleged was overlooked in the offsets contract with French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. Karnataka unit Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao said Gandhi will talk to the employees of the city-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited about the controversial deal and also address a rally here. Shri Rahul Gandhi will meet employees of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bengaluru on October 13. He will be talking about the controversial "#RafaleDeal, and will also address a party workers rally in the city, Karnataka Pradesh Congress tweeted quoting Rao as saying. The Congress, which has been accusing the government of benefiting the Reliance Defence Ltd of Anil Ambani from the deal, has also been demanding answers on why the state-run aerospace major HAL was not involved in the deal as finalised during the UPA. The party had been accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of snatching jobs of people of Karnataka by taking away the contract from HAL. Gandhi had been saying that had HAL been selected in place of Reliance Defence it could have generated employment to scores of unemployed youth in the state. The BJP has dismissed all allegations as false. Modi had announced the procurement of 36 Rafale fighters after holding talks with then French President Francois Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hospitality firm Rashi Eco Tourism ltd Wednesday said it would come out with an IPO in next three years to raise funds to take up eco-luxury projects in neighbouring states. "In next three years, we are eyeing to offer initial public offering (IPO). With this, we will raise Rs 100 crore to take up eco-luxury projects in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu," Rashi Eco Tourism Chief Spokesperson M J Srikant told reporters here. At present, the company has five eco-luxury projects and plans to set up ten more concept-based flagship attractionsin Karnataka, he said. Of the ten proposed properties, five would be owned by Rashi Eco Tourism Limited, he added. Earlier, the company had launched Siri Nature Roosts, an ensemble of unique nature blended luxury cottages. The firm had created the award winning 'Guhantara' in the city in 2008, which it claimed was the first cave resort in India. Siri Nature Roosts marks company's entry into the eco luxury premium segment, Srikant noted. Annually, nearly 2.50 lakh people experience the blend of ecotourism and hospitality at Rashi's nature themed projects, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After allowing the CBI to file a closure report in the case of disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked some media houses to retract from their websites and YouTube certain reports and videos which allegedly link him with terrorist organisation ISIS. Justice J R Midha issued the direction on a defamation suit moved by the student's mother, Fatima Nafees, contending that the reports and videos are defamatory and seeking an apology as well as Rs 2.2 crore in damages from the media houses. Advocate Nabila Hasan, who appeared for Nafees, said "the court has directed all the defendants (media houses) to retract all articles and video clips from their websites and also remove YouTube links". She said the matter was listed for further hearing on October 29 when it will take up Nafees' plea seeking an apology from the media houses. In the petition, Nafees has contended that even the Delhi Police during its investigation into Ahmed's disappearance, had not said that he had any links to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The High Court on Monday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a closure report in the case Najeeb Ahmed, who went missing from the university nearly two years ago. The CBI, which had taken over the probe on May 16 last year, had after more than a year of investigation said it had looked into all the aspects of the case and was of the opinion that no offence was committed against the missing student. Ahmed had gone missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here on October 15, 2016, following a scuffle with some students allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the previous night. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An auto-rickshaw driver has been arrested in Kalyan town in the district for allegedly abusing and assaulting a traffic woman constable. Nagesh Babu Awalgiri, who is in his twenties, was arrested under IPC sections 353 (assault on public servant), 334 (assault) and 279 (rash driving) late Tuesday night. The incident took place Tuesday evening near Deepak Hotel in Kalyan, said Thane police spokesperson Sukhada Narkar. As Awalgiri had stopped his rickshaw in the middle of the road to take passengers, leading to a traffic jam, constable Asha Gavande asked to see his license. Awalgiri allegedly refused and got into an argument. He allegedly hit her on her hand and drove off. The constable who was holding on to a side bar of the rickshaw was dragged with the vehicle for about 100 metres, the police spokesperson said. Her leg was injured, her complaint said. Following the complaint, the driver was arrested, said DCP traffic Amit Kale. Further probe is on. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, an ally of the NDA in Bihar, on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene over recent spurt in hate crimes against people from the state living in the BJP-ruled Gujarat. RLSP national general secretary and spokesman Madhaw Anand reminded the PM of the "enormous love showered upon him by the people of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh" in the Lok Sabha polls held four years ago. "The attacks on Biharis are a matter of grave concern. A Congress MLA (Alpesh Thakor) is being blamed for these hate crimes. If these allegations are true, we wonder where is the problem. The Congress is in opposition in the state as well as at the Centre while the BJP is in power at both places. the guilty can, hence, easily be brought to book and normalcy be restored", Anand said in a statement. The party urged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to ensure proper employment for people of the state migrating from Gujarat in the wake of attacks. "In view of thousands of Biharis having already returned to their home land, we would urge the Nitish Kumar government in the state to ensure that they get proper employment here since people tend to migrate in search of livelihood", the RLSP leader said. The RLSP is headed by Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, a former JD(U) leader who quit the party and floated his own outfit following differences with Kumar and who is said to have grown uncomfortable in the NDA ever since the Bihar Chief Minister returned to the coalition last year. Anand also said "our party has been saying time and again that we want Narendra Modi back as the Prime Minister in 2019. Therefore, we would urge him to intervene in the matter that involves his home state. He had received enormous love from the people of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the last elections. He must act before it is too late". Meanwhile, posters of Patidar leader Hardik Patel who has launched a "helpline" for Biharis facing tough times in Gujarat were seen at many places in the city. Senior BJP leader and minister Nand Kishore Yadav and JD(U) spokesman Ajay Alok dismissed the move by Patel and accusing him of being in cahoots with the Congress to which Thakor belonged. However, RJD MLA and spokesman Bhai Virendra welcomed the initiative by Patel who had met the party heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav during his visit to the Bihar capital earlier this year. Notably, Patel - earlier an admirer of Nitish Kumar who belongs to his community - had said on his Patna visit that he did not intend to meet the Chief Minister since he had joined hands with the BJP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The OECD Observer online archive takes you on a journey through half a century of public policy and world progress. Since November 1962, the OECDs experts and leading guests offer insights on the questions facing our member countries with concise and authoritative analysis, and provide our audiences with an excellent opportunity to understand policy debates and consider solutions. Each edition of the OECD Observer reports on a core theme of the OECDs on-going work, from economics and society through governance, finance, and the environment, and articles are bolstered by tables and graphs. Rohingya refugees in Delhi, who have been asked to fill nationality verification forms by the Home Ministry, say they fear getting deported back to Myanmar if they give their details to the government. Several of them living here for years said they have refugee cards certified by the UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, and are wary about taking their children, who were born in India, back to violence-hit Myanmar. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), the global organisation mandated to protect the rights of refugees, said it has contacted Indian authorities for more details on the Rohingya refugees being asked to fill nationality verification forms. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on October 1 said the state governments have been asked to identify Rohingya refugees in their regions and collect their biometric details. The Centre will send the biometric reports collected by states to the Myanmar government through diplomatic channel for resolution of the issue. The Delhi police has distributed the nationality verification forms to Rohingya living in various refugee camps across Delhi in the last two days. However, the Rohingyas here are apprehensive of filling these forms as they fear they would be deported back to Myanmar if they give their details. "We will not go back. The police is forcing us to fill the form but we have refugee cards certified by the UNHCR," said a Rohingya refugee from the Shaheen Bagh camp of Delhi on the condition of anonymity. The police, however, denies using any form of intimidation to make the Rohingyas fill the form. A senior police officer said, the exercise is being carried out on the directives of the Home Affairs Ministry. The Delhi Police Special Branch is the coordinating authority. He also said that close to 1000 forms have already been filled by the Rohingya refugees across the city. Another refugee who escaped from Myanmar in 2012 said they do not want to suffer the same fate as that of the seven Rohingyas who were deported back to Myanmar last week. The seven refugees were sent back to conflict-hit Myanmar after the government said they should be treated as illegal immigrants. "My children were born here, they will not be able to survive the violence of Myanmar. We have seen our homes getting burnt with our children inside. I beg government to not send us back," another teary-eyed Rohingya refugee said. She also said that police came on Monday with the forms and asked them to fill it by Tuesday when they refused so they were forced by it to fill it. When contacted, the UNHCR said it considers that the current conditions in Myanmar's Rakhine State are not conducive for safe dignified and sustainable return of Rohingya. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), the UN's Refugee Agency, is a global organisation mandated to protect the rights of refugees. The UNHCR said it is aware of reports that Rohingya refugees are being asked to fill up nationality verification forms and have contacted the authorities for more information in this regard. "The UNHCR is organising community meetings to address refugees' concerns and strengthening communication between refugees and UNHCR or partners," it said in emailed response to queries from PTI. The form seeks personal details of the Rohingya refugees. It has been written in Burmese along with the English translation, the form seeks to know the name, place of birth, religion, eye colour and national identity, along with details of any criminal case which may prevent them from travelling abroad. Myanmar has denied the Rohingya, who had lived for centuries in the Buddhist-majority country, citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. Rohingya refugees were displaced by two waves of violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine area of Myanmar in 2012. Thousands of people fled Myanmar then to take refuge in neighbouring countries, including India. The Rakhine area in Myanmmar again witnessed a recent surge in violence when a Myanmar military operation in the country's northwest in August sent nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh.The refugees reported killings, rapes and arson on a large scale. Some 40,000 Rohingyas have settled in India, and 16,000 of them have received refugee documentation, the UN estimates. In August 2017, the government first announced that it was planning to deport Rohingya refugees living in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) State Bank of India has signed an MoU with Kathmandu-based National Banking Institute (NBI) for the development of human resources of the latter, the country's largest lender said Wednesday. SBI signed the three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NBI to establish a mutually beneficial strategic alliance for development of NBI's human resources by imparting education, training and research, SBI said in a statement. Under the MoU, the strategic training unit of SBI will impart education, training and development to facilitate transformation of NBI's HR department. An apex banking academy of Nepal, National Banking Institute is already in tie ups with leading institutions in India including IIMs, MDI, ISB, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to provide in a sealed cover the details of decision making process, sans pricing and technical information, in the Rafale deal with France even as the government sought dismissal of the PILs on the issue, terming them "political petitions". Terming the averments made in the pleas as "grossly inadequate", a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi made it clear that the court was not issuing notice on the two PILs, but wanted to satisfy itself about legitimacy of the decision making process. The bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, asked the government to provide the information by October 29 and fixed the PILs, filed by lawyers Vineet Dhanda and M L Sharma, for hearing two days after that. "We are not on the issue of pricing and suitability of the Rafale jets but only on the decision making process," the bench said. At the outset, the bench asked Attorney General K K Venugopal, "Suppose we ask you (the Centre) to give the details of the decision making process only to the judges, how will you react." It cannot be shown to anyone in the interest of national security and other issues involved in the defence procurement process, Venugopal responded. The bench then posed another query, "What if we ask you to give details without technical details of aircraft?" In a 15-minute-long hearing, the bench heard submissions from Sharma, Dhanda and Venugopal. Venugopal said that the petitions have not raised any public interests concerning the poor and rather they are "political interest petitions" and the petitioners have selectively quoted the questions which have been answered in Parliament. He also said that a bitter political fight was going on in the country over the Rafale deal in the election year and entertaining the petitions may be used politically and moreover, such policy decisions cannot be reviewed judicially. "This is a political petition and not a public interest litigation and is part of bitter fight going on between ruling and opposition party. If notice is issued, it will go to the Prime Minister... Please don't entertain such petitions," Venugopal said. The bench said it was neither going into the averments made in the petitions nor issuing the notice on them and was asking information to satisfy itself. Sharma alleged that the pricing of the Rafale figher jets have been already disclosed in the French Parliament and the stand of the Centre was untenable. The apex court was hearing three petitions seeking several directions, including court-monitored SIT probe into the deal and submission of details of the agreement in a sealed cover to it. Congress leader and RTI activist Tehseen Poonawala, who had sought a direction against the Centre on why the Union Cabinet's approval was not sought as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) before signing the procurement deal with France on September 23, 2016, however, withdrew his PIL against the fighter jet deal at the start of the hearing. Dhanda, who has filed the petition, said, "In a PIL, my role is to bring an issue to the notice of the Court. The Court has perhaps also taken note of my plea regarding submission of documents in a sealed cover envelope. After the Court goes through the documents, I am sure, the truth will come out." In his plea, Dhanda referred to the recent "controversy" over the Rs 58,000 crore deal between India and Dassault Aviation, a French company, for purchasing 36 combat jets and sought judicial intervention to put an end to the raging debate. Sharma, who has sought a stay on the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France, claimed in his plea that the inter-government agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed. It was an "outcome of corruption" and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 (Parliament has power to make any law for implementing any inter-government agreement) of the Constitution, he said. The Rafale deal is a defence agreement signed between the governments of India and France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts in a fly-away condition as a part of the upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment. The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. Indian Air Force had advanced a proposal to buy 126 fighter aircraft in August 2007 and floated a tender. Following this, an invitation was sent to various aviation companies to participate in the bidding process. AAP Rajya Sabha lawmaker Sanjay Singh had also moved the apex court through his lawyer, Dheeraj Kumar Singh, by filing a separate petition seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the apex court to probe the deal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked lawyers to assist the Delhi High Court adopt "Live Transcription" for expediting the recording of evidence, especially in commercial matters. A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Jopseph, which had taken congizance on its own the delay in disposal of civil cases in Delhi High Court, was informed that fresh rules for civil cases have been approved and would come in force from November 1. Senior advocate Harish Salve, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae, said the new measures can be allowed to operate for three months to ascertain the efficacy and then corrective measures, if needed, can be taken. "We accept the suggestion of the amicus curiae and fix the matter in the second week of January, 2019 for further consideration," the bench said. Salve submitted that to expedite recording of evidence, particularly, in commercial matters, the system referred to as "Live Transcription" may be experimented and the effectiveness may be assessed later and if it was found effective, then it can be implemented. The court also said that the live demonstration of recording of evidence under the new technology be presented before the Attorney General, who, in turn, will offer his suggestions to the court. "We also request all concerned to make available the details of the aforesaid technology including its actual working, as recorded in a pen drive, to be filed before the Registry well in time to be laid before the Members of the Bench," the bench said and fixed the plea for hearing in the second week of January, 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered status quo on the demolition of an allegedly illegal structure constructed in a 50-year-old restaurant situated in a posh locality of Mumbai. The top court directed the trial court to decide the civil suit expeditiously, strictly on the basis of evidence adduced by the parties. A bench of Justices A M Sapre and Indu Malhotra said that it is not expressing any opinion on the merits and demerits of the controversy which is the subject matter of the civil dispute pending before the trial court. "We direct the concerned trial judge to ensure expeditious disposal of the civil suit filed by the petitioners against the respondents strictly on the basis of the evidence adduced by the parties in the suit," it said. The bench, while disposing of the appeal filed by the Rasraj restaurant said, "In the meantime, the status quo in respect of the suit property shall be maintained by the parties." It said that none of the observations made by the trial court, the High Court and this Court should influence the trial judge while deciding the suit. During the hearing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, advocates Kunal Vajani and Sumeer Sodhi contended that the municipal corporation before the trial court had submitted that demolition notice was issued on the basis of incorrect facts. Rohatgi said that it's a 50-year-old structure and if that is demolished, the civil suit pending before the trial court would become infructuous. The bench said it will ask the trial court to first decide the suit. The five-decade-old restaurant located at Ville Parle (West), Mumbai had challenged the Bombay High Court order of September 28, by which demolition of the structure of the property was allowed. The dispute relates to the shed structure of the Restaurant which belonged to the ground floor of the building. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, in 2014, had issued a demolition order against Rasraj Restaurant for the shed, calling it illegal and unauthorized. The owners of the restaurant had filed a civil suit against the demolition order of the civic body in the trial court and also moved an application seeking interim stay of the demolition proceedings. The trial court, dismissed the plea of owners for interim stay on demolition after which the order was challenged before the Bombay High Court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The head of an NDMC-run school in Wazirabad was suspended Wednesday for "segregating students" into Hindu and Muslim sections, the Commissioner of the civic body said here, while denouncing his action as "unimaginable" and "unpardonable". "I was apprised of the allegations by our officials. We decided to probe the accusations, and unfortunately they were found to be true. We have suspended the head of the school with immediate effect and initiated major penalty charge sheet against him," North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Commissioner Madhup Vyas told PTI. The Commissioner said the conduct of the official was "bizarre" and "unpardonable" and "goes against the grain of our pluralistic society". "During our probe, it was found that it was school-in-charge only, who had initiated this segregation. These are children coming from poor background and such acts would have deleterious effects on them. We will not tolerate such things, it is unpardonable," he said. The primary school falls in Wazirabad area of north Delhi and is administered by the NDMC. The area comes under the Civil Lines Zone of the civic body. All municipal corporation-run schools in Delhi are primary schools. Teachers in other municipal schools expressed shock over it. "Schools, primary level no less, should be kept away from politics, and religion and caste matters should not be mentioned, for a balanced growth of a child. When a student enters a school, he or she is not a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh or Christian, but an Indian and that is how we should educate them," a teacher in a civic school in Karol Bagh said, on condition of anonymity. "If the segregation is being done there, then it is condemnable, and we strongly disapprove of it. Schools should unite and not divide people, and these children are such impressionable minds, it will not bode well for their growth," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The head of an NDMC-run school in north Delhi's Wazirabad was suspended Wednesday for "segregating students" into Hindu and Muslim sections, the commissioner of the civic body said here, while denouncing his action as "unimaginable" and "unpardonable". "I was apprised of the allegations of students being segregated by our officials. We decided to probe the accusations, and unfortunately they were found to be true. We have suspended the head of the school with immediate effect and initiated major penalty charge sheet against him," North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Commissioner Madhup Vyas told PTI. The Commissioner said the conduct of the official was "bizarre" and "unpardonable" and "goes against the grain of our pluralistic society". C B Singh Sehrawat, a teacher, was made in-charge of the school in July after its principal was transferred, NDMC's Director of H K Hem said, adding a three-member probe team was sent on Wednesday to investigate the allegations. The commissioner said, "During our probe, it was found that it was the school-in-charge only, who had initiated this segregation. These are children coming from poor background and such acts would have deleterious effects on them. We will not tolerate such things, it is unpardonable." The primary school falls in Wazirabad area of north Delhi and is administered by the BJP-ruled NDMC. The area comes under the Civil Lines Zone of the civic body. Mayor of North Delhi Adesh Gupta said the school in-charge was "found to be guilty in preliminary investigation". "Social divide on the basis of caste, community or religion would not be tolerated in the schools of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. NDMC follows the spirit of the Constitution. If any such divide is found to be in practice, it would be rectified immediately and strict action would be taken against those found guilty," the mayor said. All municipal corporation-run schools in Delhi are primary schools. Teachers in other municipal schools expressed shock over it. "Schools, primary level no less, should be kept away from politics, and religion and caste matters should not be mentioned, for a balanced growth of a child. When a student enters a school, he or she is not a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh or Christian, but an Indian and that is how we should educate them," a teacher in a civic school in Karol Bagh said, on condition of anonymity. "If the segregation is being done there, then it is condemnable, and we strongly disapprove of it. Schools should unite and not divide people, and these children are such impressionable minds, it will not bode well for their growth," he said. Hem, the director of said, the school has about 700 students and boys outnumber girls. "It was the most shocking thing, I have never come across something of this nature in my entire career. We will conduct random inspections in other schools now, and if anyone is found guilty, we will take the strictest of actions," he told PTI. "Sehrawat will now face a departmental inquiry, which would begin in a week's time, and his services may be terminated, if found guilty in the inquiry," Hem said. The HRD Ministry Wednesday sought a report in the matter, while the Delhi government ordered a probe into it. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to set up special courts for speedy trial of cases involving atrocities on members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes within eight weeks. The direction was given by the full bench of the high court, which asked the government to start forthwith a consultative process to set up the special courts. The bench comprised Chief Justice DB Bhosale and included Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Yashwant Varma. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 26-year-old criminal, who carried a bounty of Rs 50,000 on his head, was arrested on Wednesday after a brief exchange of fire in south Delhi's Lado Sarai area, police said. The encounter took place near Lado Sarai's Children's Park at 6 pm, they said. The accused, identified as Manjeet Dalal, is a sharp shooter of Neeraj Bawana and Amit Bhura gang, they added. Dalal was wanted in a case of firing at a popular Pishori restaurant in Lajpat Nagar. Two persons were seriously injured in the firing which took place on March 3, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P S Kushwah said. Previously, Dalal was involved in nine criminal cases, including those of extortion and attempt to murder, in Delhi and UP, he said. In 2017, Dalal, along with his associates had demanded Rs 1 crore from a doctor based in Uttar Pradesh's Deoband at the behest of Amit Bhura. When the doctor refused to pay, they opened fire at him, the police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Realty firm Signature Global Wednesday delivered its first affordable housing project in Gurugram and said it plans to launch six projects in 2018-19 with an investment of Rs 1,000 core. Signature Global has launched 9 projects in Gurugram comprising 9,400 flats under Haryana government's affordable housing policy. The company Wednesday delivered its first housing project 'Solera' comprising 1,000 units. This project was launched in 2015. "We have delivered our first affordable housing project . We will hand over two more projects this fiscal comprising 1,800 units," company's chairman Pradeep Aggarwal told PTI. He said the company is planning to launch five housing projects in Gurugram and one in Ghaziabad comprising 7,000 units. The total construction cost is estimated at around Rs 1,000 core, he said. Signature Global, which is into affordable housing, recently announced plans to invest Rs 100 crore to develop its first shopping mall at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. In this mall, the Delhi-based company is also developing 80-rooms serviced apartments/suites to be managed by hospitality firm Clarks Premier. The total saleable area is 1 lakh sq ft in this shopping mall, which is expected to be operational by the end of the next year. The company last year raised Rs 200 crore fund from private equity player KKR. It had raised Rs 150 crore from ICICI Prudential in 2016. The 9 housing projects launched in Gurugram are in Rs 15-25 lakh price range. It has also started one housing project at Karnal in Haryana comprising 350 units. In these 10 projects, the company is constructing 2.5 lakh sq ft of commercial area as per the rules. The company said it targets to build 1 lakh affordable homes in Haryana, UP, Rajasthan and Maharashtra by 2022. With affordable housing segment getting infrastructure status in the last year's Budget, real estate developers are focussing on low cost homes. The government is also providing an interest subsidy on loans for affordable housing, besides levying lower GST of 8 per cent. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Noted social worker Sindhutai Sapkal, fondly called as the "Mother of Orphans", has been chosen for the 'Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar Narishakti Puraskar' for her contribution in the service of humanity. Sakpal, 69, would be presented the award at a ceremony to be held on October 14 here in Maharashtra, the function organisers told reporters Tuesday. The Pune-based activist has adopted more than 1,000 orphan children over her long career, and has received several awards for her social service. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal minister Sashi Panja has said skill development, greater exposure to technology and better coordination with education and health systems will help address the vulnerability of adolescents. Speaking at a workshop here Tuesday, the Women and Child Development and Social Welfare minister, said that nutritional needs of adolescents were being taken care of by the existing government schemes. But areas of self-reliance could be strengthened by linking them with 'Kanyashree' and 'Utkorsho Bangla', a skill development programme for youth, Panja said. A group of adolescents at the workshop described how a pilot programme at a Kolkata Municipal Corporation ward, under the aegis of the department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, has brought positive changes in their lives. The pilot programme had been undertaken at Ward no. 26 to meet the need to create safe spaces for the adolescents. The pilot programme in ward 26 by UNICEFs technical partner, Action for Childrens Environment Trust (ACE), with the support of CRY, identified the risks and vulnerabilities faced by adolescents. The programme has now been extended to another five KMC wards through an NGO. Speaking on the occasion, the adolescents sought the support of the authorities in making the environment friendlier and safer for the youngsters. The need for providing counselling services to address the issue of violence and abuse against adolescents was also discussed at the workshop. The event was organised by UNICEF in partnership with CRY (Child Rights and You), where a report A Safe and Inclusive City for Adolescents in Kolkata was released, a CRY statement said Tuesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration on Wednesday accused some JNUTA members of spreading misinformation against the Academic Council's approval of the ordinance related to application of CCS rules on service matters in the varsity. The JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) had said placing teachers under the Conduct of Central Services Rules (CCS), would mean the "very role that academics are supposed to play in the classroom and in civil society has become criminalised". The teachers' body had alleged that the current administration has decided to impose the rules, which restrict them from expressing dissent. The approval of the ordinance by the Academic Council on October 5 is in conformity with the earlier resolution of the Executive Council of JNU and a UGC letter dated May 1 this year, the university said. "The Executive Council of JNU had passed a resolution way back on November 14, 2011, according to which 'the University may follow and adopt the government of India/regulations/instructions in all service matters of teaching and non-teaching staff including inquiry, conduct and disciplinary rules, wherever the university statutes are silent'," it said. On May 1, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had communicated to the Registrar of JNU that until the university frames its rules on service matters, 'the University should follow the Govt of India rules/orders as applicable to Central Government civilian employees', it added. JNU is a public-funded university and it is important that in all administrative, financial, establishment and service matters, the university follows the government of India and UGC rules and formulates its ordinances and regulations accordingly, the varsity said. "However, what is extremely disappointing is that a small section of JNUTA, including its office-bearers, are deliberately campaigning against the UGC regulations and the resolutions passed by the statutory bodies of the University," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The son of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been indicted on charges of money laundering, as pressure mounts on the ousted leader's political allies. Panthongtae Shinawatra was arraigned Wednesday for allegedly receiving 10 million baht ($303,500) linked to an earlier corruption case in which Krungthai Bank executives were convicted of extending fraudulent loans. Panthongtae appeared Wednesday at the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases, where he was granted bail of 1 million baht ($30,340). Critics view the case as politically motivated ahead of elections planned for early next year. Authorities say they are also considering penalties against Thaksin's Pheu Thai party. Thaksin was prime minister in 2001-2006. He was ousted in a military coup amid accusations of corruption and alleged disrespect for the monarchy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Korea is supplying water in the North Korean border town of Kaesong using a facility in a now-shuttered factory park that had been jointly operated by the rivals. South Korea's Unification Ministry on Wednesday said the water is being supplied to a liaison office between the countries that opened in Kaesong last month and has been provided to the town's residents as well. The ministry says the resumption of water supply does not violate international sanctions against the North over its nuclear weapons and missile program. South Korea had shut down water and power supplies as it closed the Kaesong factory park in February 2016 following a North Korean nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court has extended till November 1 the judicial custody of a man accused of sending Rs 25 lakh cash to a senior Congress leader's residence in connection with the over Rs 5,000 crore-bank loan fraud case involving Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora, who had earlier issued open-ended non-bailable warrants against pharma firm's directors, including Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara and Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, extended the custody of Ranjit Malik alias Johny after he was produced before the court. An "open-ended NBW" does not carry a time limit for execution unlike non-bailable warrants (NBW). Special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana and advocate A R Aditya, appearing for the ED, told the court that further extension of the custody was required as the probe was at a crucial stage. Malik was arrested by the agency for allegedly sending Rs 25 lakh through one Rakesh Chandra to the politician's residence in the national capital. The ED in its charge sheet had told the court that the probe will continue in the matter and supplementary charge sheet is likely to be filed. The charge sheet against Malik also named Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan, who was arrested earlier in the case and is currently out on bail. Malik was allegedly a middleman for Dhawan. Besides Sandesra brother, the court had also issued NBW against Chetan's wife Dipti Sandesara, also a director in the firm, and her brother Hiteshkumar Narendrabhai Patel. The open-ended NBWs were issued after ED told the court that the four accused were likely to have left the country. In its charge sheet, the ED had told the court that the directors of the firm, along with others, had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which turned into non-performing asset (NPA) or bad loan. The ED registered a money laundering case in this instance after taking cognisance of an FIR filed earlier by the CBI. The CBI had booked Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech, its directors Nitin, Chetan, Dipti, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case. According to the FIR, the total pending dues of the group of companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Haryana government has decided to hold students' union elections in state colleges and universities on October 17. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar directed officials concerned to ensure smooth and peaceful conduct of the polls. The elections in the state are being held after a gap of 22 years. However, this year the government has decided to hold indirect polls to students' unions in Haryana. Through the indirect polls, class representatives (CRs) will be elected in colleges and department representatives (DRs) in universities, according to an official statement issued here. The CRs and DRs will further elect the president and other office bearers in the colleges and universities. Notably, the students' union polls were banned in 1996 by the then chief minister Bansi Lal following incidents of violence. "After a long period of 22 years, the present government has taken initiative to conduct the students' union elections in the state. No other previous government ever considered about conducting the elections of the students' unions," Khattar said. Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said the primary task of the district administration and the police would be to ensure that the elections are held peacefully. Meanwhile, various students' organisations in the state, including the NSUI, INSO and others, are against the state government's move to hold indirect polls. The elections will held in all the 293 colleges affiliated to all the state universities and about 4.50 lakh students are likely to participate in the polls, the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will attend a two-day conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Tajik capital Dushanbe beginning Thursday, which is expected to focus on boosting cooperation in fighting terrorism, besides deliberating on pressing regional and global issues. The meeting of the SCO's Council of Heads of Government (CHG) is also likely to review situation in Syria, Afghanistan and Korean peninsula, officials said. "The External Affairs Minister's programme in Dushanbe will include participation in the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, both in the restricted as well as extended formats," the Ministry of External Affairs said. It will be the second CHG meeting since India became a full member of SCO in June 2017. "The leaders will be discussing prospects for further development of SCO and will exchange in-depth views on current international and regional issues," the MEA said. India became a full member of the the China-dominated grouping last year and New Delhi's entry into it is expected to increase the bloc's heft in regional geo- and trade negotiations besides giving it a pan-Asian hue. India was an observer at the SCO since 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region. Along with India, Pakistan was also granted membership of SCO last year. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became its members last year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the official delegation to the SCO Summit in Chinese city of Qingdao in June. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The police arrested three Kashmiri students and seized an assault rifle and explosives in a raid at a college hostel in Jalandhar on Wednesday. Punjab's Director General of Police Suresh Arora described the three students as a module of Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind and said they had links with Jaish-e-Mohammed. The students were picked from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located at Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar in a joint operation by Punjab Police and the Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police. The team seized two weapons, including an assault rifle, and explosives from the hostel room of second semester B.Tech (Civil) student Zahid Gulzar, Arora said in a statement. Gulzar is a resident of Rajpora in Srinagar. He was arrested along with two Pulwama residents, Mohammed Idris Shah and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt. The DGP said the arrests followed leads about the activities of certain militant organisations and individuals operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. A case has been registered at Sadar Jalandhar police station. He said Punjab Police is working closely with Jammu and Kashmir Police to unravel the network built by these outfits in the two states. He said the busting of the terror module indicated efforts by Pakistan's spy agency ISI to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border. Recently, another Shopian resident, Gazi Ahmad Malik, was picked up by Punjab Police at Banur in Patiala, where he was studying at a polytechnic. The DGP said it was learnt that Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a J&K special police officer (SPO) who fled with seven rifles from the home of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA in Srinagar. The SPO is suspected to have joined Hizbul Mujahideen, the officer said. Gazi was later handed over to J&K Police. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The bodies of a couple and their daughter were found with stab injuries at their residence in Kishangarh area of southwest Delhi's Vasant Kunj on Wednesday morning, police said. The victims were attacked with a kitchen knife. The couple's son Suraj sustained injuries on his finger, they said. After being informed about the incident, police reached the three-room house at 5.20 am, and identified the victims as Mithlesh Verma, his wife Siya Verma and their daughter Neha. The weapon used for commission of the crime has been recovered, police said. Mithlesh Verma, a contractor, was living with his family in the house for the last 18 years. His son Suraj is pursuing civil engineering from a private college in Gurgaon, while his daughter Neha was studying in class 9 at a private school in Vasant Kunj, Mithlesh Verma's elder brother Chandra Bhan said. "I got a call from my family members in Kannauj at 5.30 am. Mithlesh's neighbours had informed them. I rushed to check on them and found their bodies lying in a pool of blood with multiple stab injuries," Bhan said, adding it it was a "cold-blooded murder". He, however, did not suspect any personal enmity behind the killings. According to a senior police officer, the entire house was ransacked, but no valuables were found missing. Eight police teams have been formed to probe the case. Mithlesh Verma's nephew Shiv Pratap, also a civil engineering student, said he saw his aunt lying in a pool of blood on the floor while his cousin Neha was lying on the bed with multiple stab injuries. Pratap said three days back, he had a casual chat with his cousin Suraj on Facebook and everything seemed normal. Verma's neigbhour Ishwar Lal said, early morning, his wife heard Suraj screaming for help. When they rushed to check on them, they got to know about the incident. they found Suraj was sitting near the gate of his house, weeping. Lal claimed that Suraj initially sought for help from one of their neighbours, Pintu, who was returning from hospital. Suraj's uncle Chandra Bhan said in 2013, Suraj was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified people when he had gone to a nearby market to buy books. Suraj is being interrogation in connection with the incident and the possibility of personal enmity being behind the killings is being investigated, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Wednesday accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of trying to divide the people of the state on religious lines by giving out doles during festivals to secure its vote bank. Reacting to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's announcement to give Rs 10,000 each to 28,000 Durga puja committees in the state, he told reporters here that the TMC government had earlier disbursed funds to Imams. When it faced the "anger of the Hindus" it decided to give funds to Durga Puja committees, Ghosh claimed. "From the very beginning, the TMC government has been trying to divide the people of the state on religious lines in order to secure its vote bank," he said. "The Hindus don't need doles from the TMC to celebrate Durga Puja... If the state government is so concerned about the Hindus celebrating Durga Puja then why didn't it give doles the previous years?" Ghosh asked. He claimed that in the last two years, the state government "tried to stop" Durga idol immersion on Vijayadashami as the dates clashed with Muharram. The state government had last year imposed restrictions on Durga idol immersion on Vijaydashami after 10 pm and had said no immersion would be allowed on October 1, the day Muharram was scheduled to be observed. "Where was the concern for Durga Puja then? Now as the Hindus are uniting, the TMC is afraid that it will face their backlash," Ghosh said. On September 10, Banerjee had declared that Rs 10,000 would be given to each of the 28,000 puja committees across West Bengal - 3,000 in the state capital and 25,000 in the districts, which will cost the exchequer Rs 28 crore. The Calcutta High Court Wednesday refused to interfere in the state government's decision to give doles to the Durga puja committees, and vacated an interim stay granted by it on disbursal of the funds. Disposing off a public interest litigation, it said the legislature is the appropriate forum to decide on such expenditure. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Wednesday accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of trying to divide the people of the state on religious lines by giving out doles during festivals to secure its vote bank. Reacting to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's announcement to give Rs 10,000 to 28,000 Durga puja committees in the state, he said the TMC government had earlier disbursed funds to Imams. When it faced the "anger of the Hindus", it decided to give funds to Durga Puja committees, Ghosh claimed. "From the very beginning, the TMC government has been trying to divide the people of the state on religious lines in order to secure its vote bank," he said. "The Hindus don't need doles from the TMC to celebrate Durga Puja... If the state government is so concerned about the Hindus celebrating Durga Puja then why didn't it give doles the previous years?" Ghosh asked. He claimed in the last two years the state government "tried to stop" Durga idol immersion on Vijaydashami as the dates clashed with Muharram. The state government had last year imposed restrictions on Durga idol immersion on Vijaydashami after 10 pm and had said no immersion would be allowed on October 1, the day Muharram was scheduled to be observed. "Where was the concern for Durga Puja then? Now, as the Hindus are uniting, the TMC is afraid that it will face their backlash," the West Bengal BJP chief said. On September 10, Banerjee had declared that Rs 10,000 would be given to each of the 28,000 puja committees across West Bengal - 3,000 in the state capital and 25,000 in the districts, which will cost the exchequer Rs 28 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Wednesday launched new initiatives in various departments, including flagging off new buses to be used in various transport divisions. He also inaugurated a new mofussil bus terminal at Madhavaram, to be used by north-bound buses, especially to Andhra Pradesh towns bordering Tamil Nadu. Palaniswami flagged off 471 new buses to be operated in the transport divisions of Villupuram, Salem, Coimbatore, Kumbakonam, Madurai and Tirunelveli, besides the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) here, an official release said. Some of these were luxury buses which were equipped with ACs and toilets, it added. Further, the mofussil bus stand inaugurated at Madhavaram will serve north-bound buses, especially to nearby Tiruvallur district, besides Tirupati, Kalahasthi and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, it said. Built at an estimated Rs 95 crore by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), it has been designed with various amenities including feeding rooms for lactating mothers and has parking lots with a capacity of 1,700 two-wheelers and 72 four-wheelers, the release said. The Chief Minister also inaugurated, through video-conferencing, buildings constructed for the Higher Eductaion department in various districts including Tiruchirappalli and Krishnagiri. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Frazzled by domestic strife, a woman threw her two children - a newborn girl and a four-year-old boy - into a canal here before jumping into it, police said Wednesday. The incident took place in Dumariya village under Town police station area of West Champaran district where the woman, Antima Devi, was rescued by bystanders who jumped into the Tirhut canal, SHO Mohd Ayub said. He said the woman has been arrested although the children, who were swept away by the strong current, could not be traced. He said the woman, who was now in a state of shock, said she was worked up over frequent quarrels with her husband which led her to take the extreme step late on Tuesday night. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telecom regulator has invited public views on calculation of for satellite-based services using systems installed in India under a special licence category. This follows the (DoT) seeking Trai's recommendation on BSNL's request to change the present method of levying on its satellite services as they are too expensive for subscribers. " has been requesting to change the present methodology of spectrum charging from formula based to Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) based for provision...this consultation paper has been prepared to discuss the issues involved," said in a consultation paper floated Wednesday. The satellite phone service of caters to government departments. The company was given licence under 'sui generis' category to meet the requirement of security forces on urgent basis. established the satellite gateway (or hub) in Ghaziabad and launched the Global Satellite Phone (GSP) Service in May 2017. The licence permits BSNL to provide all types of mobile satellite services. According to the paper floated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), BSNL had 3,448 satellite phone subscribers by the end of August 2018. As per the information provided by BSNL, average usage of a satellite phone user is about 15 minutes of voice calls and 7 SMSes in a month. The state-run firm is required to pay spectrum related charges as per the present norms that are linked to number of terminals and frequency of bandwidth used by them, at the rate of Rs 14,250 per annum per terminal. In addition, annual for the gateway are levied separately, which amounts to Rs 3.7 million per annum. BSNL has submitted that due to heavy spectrum charges, the service is not affordable. The company has also informed the that the client departments do not immediately place the orders and there is a gap of 3-6 months between BSNL procuring the handsets and the client getting the satphones. "BSNL pays this fee on behalf of the users in advance at the time of issue of Letter of Intent. BSNL has already paid about Rs. 11.4 crores towards the terminal based spectrum charges," the paper said, citing BSNL communication to the Out of the 8,000 satphone terminals imported by BSNL as of August 31, 2018, only 1,973 terminals were actually being used by the subscribers. has sought written comments on the consultation paper by October 31 and counter-comments by November 8 on the issues raised. The Tripura High Court on Wednesday stayed the deregistration of 'Daily Desher Katha', a mouthpiece of the CPI(M)'s state unit, paving way for the Bengali daily to resume publication. In a letter on October 1, the Registrar of Newspapers in India (RNI) said the publication of 'Daily Desher Katha' was being suspended based on a verdict passed by the district magistrate of West Tripura, Sandeep Mahatme. It cited "unauthorised change of ownership" as the reason behind the step. The stay was granted by Tripura High Court Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Rastogi. The future effect and operation of the order of the District Magistrate, West Tripura, dt. 01.10.2018, followed with the order passed by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Sadar, dt.01.10.2018, are hereby stayed, the court said. However, the respondents will be at liberty to file application for vacation/modification of the interim order after filing of the counter affidavit, it added. There is no restriction on publication of the newspaper anymore, the daily's counsel Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee told reporters at a press conference here. He alleged that West Tripura district magistrate's order was made under political influence and termed it as an attack on freedom of the press. 'Daily Desher Katha' had applied to the RNI to change its ownership details in 2015. The process was not completed due to red tape, Bhattacharjee said. After fresh papers were submitted, the RNI approved the revised details of editor, printer and publisher on October 01. The DM and SDM issued a notice outside their jurisdiction on the same day and wrote to the RNI to cancel the newspaper's registration. This cant be done without political intervention, he claimed. Gautam Das, secretary of Daily Desher Katha Society, which now runs the daily, said the newspaper will resume publication from Thursday. In August this year, a complaint was registered against 'Daily Desher Katha' for allegedly violating the Press and Registration of Books Act. The complainant had alleged that there was a mismatch between the information of editor, printer and publisher provided in the newspapers' declaration and data maintained with the RNI, among other issues. The daily, which had previously declared itself as a mouthpiece owned by the CPI(M) Tripura state committee, changed its ownership declaration as a newspaper published from Daily Desher Katha Society a few months before the new BJP-Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) coalition came to power in March. On October 6, the daily filed a writ petition challenging the order. Mahatme was not available for comment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump said he is certain that his daughter Ivanka would be "dynamite" as the US ambassador to the UN, but conceded that he would be "accused of nepotism" if he selected her to replace Indian-American Nikki Haley. Haley, 46, announced Tuesday she would resign from her post as the US ambassador to the UN effective at the end of 2018. As President Trump heaped praise on Haley's performance during her tenure as the the envoy to the world body, he said many people would like to replace her. Trump said that he expects to name a replacement for Haley in the next "two to three weeks," and said that he would be talking about candidates with the former South Carolina governor and others. Trump told reporters at the White House that his daughter Ivanka would make an "incredible" ambassador to the UN. "The people that know -- it's nothing to do with nepotism. But I want tell you: The people that know, know that Ivanka would be dynamite. But, you know, I'd then be accused of nepotism, if you can believe it," he said. "I think Ivanka would be incredible. That doesn't mean I'd pick her, because you'd be accused of nepotism, even though I'm not sure there's anybody more competent in the world. But that's okay," Trump said in response to a question. Soon after the President's remarks, Ivanka Trump took to Twitter to rule herself out of the running for ambassadorship. "It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me." Speculation that Ivanka would take on the post mounted after Haley praised her and her husband, Jared Kushner, in discussing her resignation in the Oval Office. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) U Mumba made a strong comeback to beat Jaipur Pink Panthers 39-32 in the Vivo Pro Kabaddi Season VI here Wednesday. Siddharth Desai scored 13 raid points for U Mumba and was their star performer. He was ably supported by Rohit Baliyan who chipped with seven raid points. It was a disappointing first game for Jaipur Pink Panthers as they squandered a healthy first half advantage. Anup Kumar had a quiet match as he scored just four points and Deepak Hooda too disappointed with just two points. The first half was a story of U Mumba's attack versus Jaipur Pink Panthers' defence. While U Mumba scored eight raid points, they could muster just three tackle points. Jaipur Pink Panthers, meanwhile had just two raid points but seven tackle points. Jaipur Pink Panthers started off brightly and led 7-2 after six minutes. Rohit Baliyan made a two-point raid in the next minute as U Mumba trailed 4-7. Jaipur Pink Panthers inflicted the first all out of the match in 9th minute to lead 11-5. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) For the first time, the UK will have a minister for suicide prevention to reduce the number of people who take their own lives. The move, intended to tackle the tragedy of 4,500 people taking their own lives in England each year, comes on World Mental Health Day. British Prime Minister Theresa May said the appointment of Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price to the additional role will help tackle the stigma surrounding suicide. "We can end the stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence. We can prevent the tragedy of suicide taking too many lives. And we can give the mental wellbeing of our children the priority it so profoundly deserves," May said in a statement. "We are not looking after our health if we are not looking after our mental health. So we need true parity between physical and mental health and not just in our health systems but in our classrooms, workplaces and communities too," she said. The new portfolio, Minister for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention, will involve leading a new national effort on suicide prevention. Around 4,500 people take their own lives each year in England and suicide remains the leading cause of death for men under 45. In her new role, Doyle-Price will lead government efforts to cut the number of suicides and overcome the stigma that stops people seeking help. "I understand how tragic, devastating and long-lasting the effect of suicide can be on families and communities," said Doyle-Price. "In my time as health minister I have met many people who have been bereaved by suicide and their stories of pain and loss will stay with me for a long time. It's these people who need to be at the heart of what we do and I welcome this opportunity to work closely with them," she said. As part of other measures announced by the UK government to mark World Mental Health Day, new funding of up to 1.8 million pounds will help ensure the Samaritans charity helpline remains free and can continue to provide immediate and lifesaving support to everyone who needs it, 24 hours a day. "We welcome the government's announcement of funding towards Samaritans' helpline, which will meet around 10 per cent of the total helpline costs for the next four years and help us to continue to provide our service free of charge," said Samaritans CEO Ruth Sutherland. "Samaritans 20,000 volunteers are available at any time for anyone who is struggling to cope. We respond to more than five million requests for help a year," she added. The UK government has also promised more support in schools, bringing in new mental health support teams and offering help in measuring students' health, including their mental well-being as part of the new initiatives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British authorities have banned a physics teacher from the classroom for life after he flew to Bangladesh to marry a 13-year-old girl in 2006, media reports said Wednesday. Joshim Nur was 22 when he began teaching at the London Nautical School, Lambeth, in 2006, a teaching disciplinary panel heard. Nur, now 34, claimed he thought the girl was 18 but a written statement from the girl showed she had told him her age before the arranged marriage. He also had a sexual relationship with the child, the panel heard. He flew to Bangladesh during a summer break and returned to the UK with the girl, named by the panel as Child A. In evidence, the girl told a Teaching Regulation Agency panel that sexual activity started shortly after her marriage to Nur in the summer of 2006. She also confirmed that she was taken to an appointment at a family planning clinic in 2007 and that she took contraceptive pills every day. The panel ruled that the Nur had a relationship with the girl from August 2006 to April 2009 in "circumstances when he should have known she was under the age of 16". Three days before the wedding, the girl had written to Nur to tell him she was 13 and in year 8 at school, the panel heard, the BBC reported. In written evidence, Nur said that he was '"deceived" by the girl's family as to his wife's age when they wed. Panel chairman Dr Robert Cawley said: "The panel did not find it plausible that Mr Nur could have mistaken a 13-year-old child for an 18-year-old, and that this misconception continued over a four-year period. "The panel was particularly concerned in light of the fact that he worked in a secondary school and had daily interactions with children of this age." Nur was found guilty of engaging in a relationship with the child and of having sex on more than one occasion when she was under 16 - charges he denied. The relationship ended in 2009, when the girl was 16. Nur's headteacher told the panel he was a "good teacher" and a "gifted and valued member of staff". The ruling branded Nur's behaviour as lacking "any insight into his actions or their impact on Child A." Decision maker Alan Meyrick said: "In my judgement, the lack of insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour."He then prohibited Nur from teaching indefinitely and said he shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach. Nur is not being prosecuted as the marriage took place abroad, not under the UK jurisdiction, the Daily Express reported. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has taken up the case of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi with Saudi authorities "at the highest level" and demanded answers from them over the mysterious disappearance of the Washington Post contributor. Khashoggi, a US resident, vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish authorities suspect he was abducted and murdered by the Saudis. But Riyadh insisted the 59-year-old journalist had left the building and that murder claims are "baseless". "This is a bad situation. We cannot let this happen. To reporters and to anybody, we cannot let this happen. We are going to to the bottom (of it), Trump told reporters at the White House. Trump said he has taken up this matter with the Saudi Arabia at the highest level. Let me say this, the highest level, he said in response to a question adding that this is a very serious situation. Turkish investigators are examining CCTV footage showing the moment the journalist entered the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents ahead of his marriage to his Turkish fiance Hatice Cengiz. Trump said he and the First Lady have received a letter from the fiance of the journalist. We are in contact with her now. And we want to bring her to the White House. It's very sad situation. It's a very bad situation. And we want to get to the bottom of it, he said. Meanwhile, White House National Security Advisor, John Bolton and White House Senior Advisor, Jared Kushner spoke to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Tuesday about the missing Washington Post journalist. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a follow up call with the Crown Prince to reiterate the United States request for information. In both calls they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process. We will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates as available, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. Later, at another White House event, Trump expressed his disappointment over the current situation. "We are going to have comment on that soon. We are very disappointed to see what is going on. Don't like it. Don't like it at all. And are going to get to the bottom of it, Trump told reporters in response to a question. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) has sent legal notices to his former Phanton Films partners Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, accusing them of defaming him, amid the sexual harassment allegations against the director. Last year, a woman employee at Phantom Films, which had Bahl as one of the partners alongside Kashyap, Motwane and Madhu Mantena, had alleged that Bahl behaved inappropriately with her during a trip to Goa in 2015. Before the victim's account went public in a recent Huffpost article, Kashyap and Motwane put out statements and announced that their production house Phantom Films stands dissolved. The notice, issued through Advocate Shamsher Garud of Jayakar and Partners, say the public comment made by Kashyap and Motwane were "opportunists" and out of "professional jealousy" with the intent to defame, malign and destroy Bahl's career. Bahl has "vehemently" denied all allegations against him. "It is by design that after having remained silent about the alleged incident and alleged victim for three years, you have now come forward and support the alleged victim. It is imperative to highlight that the alleged victim herself has mentioned that your sudden moral enlightenment is nothing but a hoax and there is a personal agenda behind it," the notice read. In the notices, Bahl has asked for an "unconditional apology" and to withdraw "contradictory" statements made by Kashyap and Motwane on social media. Bahl also accused the duo for using the allegations as an opportunity to dissolve Phantom Film and shift the blame to him. The "Queen" director said they were anyway discussing the dissolution of Phantom Films for the past few months because of creative and professional differences. "There have been ongoing discussions between all four directors at Phantom to part ways amicably owing to creative and professional differences. You have falsely portrayed to the media that the reason for parting ways is supposedly the alleged incident of May 2015 which is in fact false and has been done in bad taste and contradictory to your tweet dated October 6, 2018 where you have stated that the dissolution happened amicably," it read. Bahl's lawyers have also accused the Kashyap of bribing another employee at Phantom Films to come up with similar allegations against Bahl. "This makes us wonder whether the alleged incident of sexual assault also has any authenticity, given that the alleged victim was, in fact, working as your own employee, the notice said. The legal notice also mentions that Motwane is said to have initially believed there was no sexual harassment and showed his conversation with the alleged victim to Bahl. "This was to show that no sexual harassment incident had taken place. Yet, Motwane, after the victim outed him went ahead and issued statements against Bahl," the notice reads. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US "will take care" of the countries which will continue to import oil from Iran after November 4 deadline when US sanctions on Iranian oil purchases take effect. "We will take care of them," Trump told reporters when asked about the decision of some countries like India and China to continue to purchase oil from Iran. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said that two state refiners have placed orders for importing crude oil from Iran in November. He had said that India has its own energy requirements which it has to fulfill. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) together have placed order for 1.25 million tonne (MT) of crude oil from Iran. Trump in May withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, re-imposing economic sanctions against the Persian Gulf nation. Some sanctions took effect from August 6 while those affecting the oil and banking sectors will start from November 4. Iran is India's third-largest oil supplier behind Iraq and Saudi Arabia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Federation of Western Cine India Employees (FWCIE) on Wedesday assured that film personalities Alok Nath, Nana Patekar and Vikas Bahl will face a boycott from its members if they do not respond to their respective show cause notices in the given period. All three of them have been asked to respond to the notices within 10 days of their respective release. "Anyone, who is found guilty of harassment of any kind, will be boycotted by the federation. No one from the federation will work with that person, howsoever he or she is powerful," Ashoke Pandit, FWICE chief advisor, told reporters here. "If Nana Patekar, Vikas Bahl and Alok Nath fail to respond to our show cause notices within 10 days, the federation will boycott them," he added. Indian Film & Television Directors' Association (IFTDA) on Tuesday sent a show cause notice to Bahl after allegations of sexual harassment resurfaced against the director. Last year, a woman employee at the now dissolved Phantom Films, which had Bahl as one of the partners alongside Anurag Kashap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena, had alleged that Bahl behaved inappropriately with her during a trip to Goa. FWICE said it has set up a women grievances redressal cell. "The redressal committee will sit with the survivors and also provide them legal support," Pandit said. The three-member all-women committee will be headed by celebrated TV and film director Swapna Waghmare Joshi as chairperson, with Bhavna Talwar as convenor and Priyanka Ghatak as co-convenor and will be supported by IFTDA's executive committee. "We want to create a fear psychosis so that no one even dares to think about misusing his or her power. At the same time, we want to listen to the other party as well. So, we will give them time to respond. If they fail to respond, our workers will not work with them," Pandit added. After Patekar and Bahl, Nath is the latest celebrity from Hindi cinema to have been accused of sexual harassment. Days after writer-director Vinta Nanda accused Nath, who worked with her on '90s hit show "Tara", of rape, Sandhya Mridul alleged sexual harassment at the hands of the actor during the shooting of a telefilm in the beginning of her career. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A woman has filed a police complaint against Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Deepak Kesarkar, claiming he used inappropriate language when she met him to complain about inaction in nabbing culprits who allegedly gang-raped her and her daughter. The woman filed a complaint against Kesarkar at the Marine Drive police station in south Mumbai on Monday, a police official said here Wednesday. The woman said she and her minor daughter were gang-raped at Kalyan in Thane district in May 2017 by seven men after being drugged. She alleged that police registered complaint against a person but did not act against six others. In her complaint, the woman claimed that when she met Kesarkar in his Mantralaya office on Monday, the minister yelled at her saying, "Whats your worth, dont talk much", before she was shown the door. Meanwhile, Kesarkar rubbished the woman's claims, saying he gave her cordial treatment when she met him with her grievance. "I have made all efforts to ensure justice is done to the victim (of the gang-rape)," Kesarkar, a Shiv Sena leader, said. "There were 20-25 visitors in my office when she met me. They all saw what happened. So there is no truth in her claims that I used inappropriate language," the minister said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It can be subtle, like failing to make eye contact with a woman business owner but engaging in animated conversation with her male co-owner. Or more blatant, like asking an owner who's seeking investor money if she plans to have children. Many women business owners say they've encountered gender discrimination from potential investors, customers and employees who don't grasp the reality that a woman can be a CEO, trial attorney or own a technology company. Many women are taken aback at first and don't know how to respond to comments or behaviour they find insulting, intrusive and demeaning. But over time, they find strategies to deal with bias. When Amanda Bradford speaks at technology conferences and forums, discussing coding and algorithms, some men tell her afterward, "this is something I didn't expect when you opened your mouth." They assume that because she's a woman, she's the marketer, not the inventor of The League, a dating app. When Bradford sought funding for her San Francisco-based company, "I often felt like I didn't get the credit for having the technical experience," she says. Gender bias persists although the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. has grown to more than 10 million from 5.4 million in 1997. Susan Duffy, executive director of the Center for Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson College, says that while women owners are more visible and accepted than decades ago, "someone still assumes that if you're the CEO you're the white guy in the suit or the white guy in the hoodie." Potential customers or investors often assume that Gabby Slome and Alex Douzet, two of the co-founders of dog food manufacturer Ollie, are married. Outsiders can't seem to get their minds around the fact that Slome, who's married to someone else, could be running a business without her husband, or without him bankrolling her. "They think, he must have funded me. They don't understand that I'm doing this independently of him," says Slome, whose two-year-old company is based in Manhattan. Slome has learned to turn an uncomfortable moment into a pitch about Douzet and herself. "I tell them, we met because of shared business interests, and our joint abilities and skill sets make us good business partners," she says. Duffy, who oversees Babson's mentoring programs for women entrepreneurs, says gender discrimination and how to deal with it are frequently discussed at program meetings. "Have your antenna up so you know it when you see it and have two or three ready-to-go behaviors in your back pocket to manage it in the moment for the best outcome," Duffy says. Sally Strebel has noticed that when her male business partner leaves her side at meetings, "other men will approach and ask me a question about my company and then tell me how they are building something better and that I should watch out." Strebel, co-founder of Pagely, a website hosting company based in Tucson, Arizona, realizes they want to intimidate her. She's also been in meetings where she wasn't given the chance to speak. For a while, she was silent. But as time went on, she realized that she has the right to speak. "I have more power. I have a voice now. I can actually say, 'that's not OK,'" Strebel says. Noushin Ketabi has noticed that when she and her husband and business partner Rob Terenzi meet with male executives, they speak to him and don't make eye contact with her. They seem to perceive him as the ultimate decision-maker in their coffee company, Vega. Ketabi responds by acting as an equal co-owner of the Santa Barbara, California-based firm, speaking knowledgeably and authoritatively. She also uses humor to try to ease the awkwardness. Julia Fowler confronted the potential investor who asked if she planned to have children. "The question itself was extremely inappropriate and personal that had nothing to do with the company," says Fowler, co-founder of Edited, a retail technology company with offices in New York, San Francisco and London. At first Fowler was taken aback. Then, at a second meeting, she raised the issue. "I said to the partner who had asked, 'I want to understand why this is important to you.' He didn't have an explanation," Fowler says. Fowler's assertiveness wasn't a problem: Edited got the money. Michelle Kennedy has found potential investors don't trust that she knows her product and the market for it. She did market research before seeking investor funding for Peanut, an app that helps mothers connect with one another. But even as recently as 2016, potential investors would say, "I don't know. I need to speak to my wife or my secretary, my sister, my daughter who will know better" than she does, Kennedy says. Kennedy encounters less bias lately because she can show revenue and earnings numbers that prove her ability to run a company. Gender discrimination is often a topic of discussion when Elizabeth Pekin attends conferences with other women trial attorneys. They ask each other, "what do you say?" "Everyone is a little shocked when it happens and it's harder than you think," says Pekin, co-founder of Momentum Funding, a company that helps people finance litigation costs. "They've told me that when they go to court and sit at the bench, the defense attorney ignores them, thinking they're the paralegal." Pekin advises women to market themselves as being qualified simply because they are women. "Being a woman is something that can be a launching pad," she says. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thousands of people took out rallies here and different areas of Mizoram Wednesday demanding scraping of the Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC) established in 1972. The rallies were organised by the Young Mizo Association (YMA) president Vanlalruata said. He claimed that the CADC was created by the Centre in 1972 without consulting the people of Mizoram and said the Council has become a safe haven for Bangladeshi infiltrators. While the union government was alert in the event of intrusion from other border sectors, it seemed to have welcomed illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, especially Chakma Buddhists, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Despite thousands of jobs set to move to the continent due to Brexit, Britain's financial services minister said on Wednesday he would do all he can to ensure the City of London remains a major financial centre. John Glen told lawmakers that he agreed with Bank of England estimates that 5,000 financial services jobs will have moved to continental Europe by the time Britain is due to leave the European Union next March. Unsure of Britain's future trading relations with the EU, financial firms in the UK are looking to open hubs in Paris, Frankfurt and elsewhere by March, ... By Rodrigo Viga GaierRIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The far-right front-runner in Brazil's presidential election, Jair Bolsonaro, has no plans to privatise oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA in the short term if elected, the president of his party told Reuters on Wednesday.Gustavo Bebianno said the sale of Petrobras, Brazil's largest corporation, could still be considered in the medium term, but only after the company had been fully "revitalised" by changing its management.He said that would require the removal of political appointees made by the Workers Party (PT), the Brazilian Democratic ... By Rajendra JadhavMUMBAI (Reuters) - India's gold imports in September dropped more than 14 percent from a year ago as a rally in local prices due to a depreciating rupee reduced demand in the world's second-biggest consumer of bullion, provisional data from precious metals consultancy GFMS.The drop in demand from Indian importers could weigh on global prices, which have dropped 8.8 percent so far this year.But lower imports could help the South Asian country reduce its trade deficit and support the rupee, which hit a record low this week."In August demand was good but it fell in September ... By Stephanie KellyNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped more than $1 a barrel on Wednesday as U.S. equity markets broadly fell, but losses were limited as U.S. sanctions restricted Iranian exports and as Hurricane Michael closed nearly 40 percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output.Brent crude futures fell $1.43 to $83.57 a barrel, a 1.7 percent loss, by (1504 GMT). The global benchmark posted a 1.3 percent gain on Tuesday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down $1.56 to $73.40 a barrel, a 2.1 percent loss.U.S. stocks markets fell on Wednesday, weighing on oil prices. ... By Richa NaiduCHICAGO (Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co was informed on Tuesday that it is now exempt from the 25 percent U.S. tariff levied on imported Japanese and Swedish steel that is used in its Gillette and Venus razor blades, a company spokesman told Reuters.The exemption notification, from the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, came nearly four months after P&G's biggest razor rival, Edgewell Personal Care Co, received an exemption. Edgewell, owner of the Wilkinson Sword and Schick brands, filed an exemption application in late March and told Reuters it was ... The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will implement in full its directive that forces global payment companies to store data locally from this month, four sources told Reuters, a blow to the firms who had lobbied to dilute the measure. The RBI in April said all payments data should within six months be stored only in the country for "unfettered supervisory access". The deadline for the companies to adhere is Oct 15. The directive is part of a wider push by India to ask companies to store more of their data locally at a time when governments globally are enforcing more ... By Teis Jensen and Jacob Gronholt-PedersenCOPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish and Estonian financial crime agencies have not asked Russia to help investigate a massive money laundering scandal at Danske Bank involving Russian and other account holders, Russia's financial monitoring service told Reuters on Wednesday.The scandal involves 200 billion euros ($230 billion) in transactions processed by Denmark's biggest bank via its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015, many of which the bank said last month it thinks are suspicious."As of today, we have not received any official request from Estonian ... By Jessica Jaganathan and Nidhi VermaSINGAPORE/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, will supply Indian oil buyers with an additional 4 million barrels of crude oil in November, several sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The extra supply indicates a willingness by Saudi Arabia to increase crude supply to make up the shortfall once sanctions by the United States on oil exports from Iran, the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), start up on Nov. 4. India is Iran's top oil client after China, ... By Stephanie NebehayLAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Switzerland's highest court convened on Wednesday to decide whether prosecutors can pursue whistleblowers for breaking the country's bank secrecy law wherever they are in the world, a case drawing international scrutiny. The Swiss Banking Act requires employees of Swiss-regulated banks to keep client information confidential, but a number of staff have leaked account details to foreign authorities in the past decade as Western governments crack down on tax evasion.Zurich prosecutors had asked the Federal Supreme Court to interpret the law ... By Stephanie NebehayLAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Switzerland's highest court ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors cannot extend Swiss banking secrecy rules to all corners of the globe to pursue whistleblowers and other leakers at foreign subsidiaries.The Federal Supreme Court by a 3-2 majority rejected an appeal by Zurich prosecutors in a 14-year legal battle involving former private banker Rudolf Elmer, who had been acquitted of breaking secrecy laws.The case underscored how Swiss authorities continue to pursue people who leak client data even as strict banking secrecy erodes in an era ... By Roberta Rampton and Lisa LambertWASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated his threat to slap tariffs on an additional $267 billion of Chinese imports if Beijing retaliates for the recent levies and other measures the United States has imposed in an escalating trade war between the economic giants.Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, also said China is not ready to reach a deal on trade."China wants to make a deal, and I say they're not ready yet," Trump said. "I just say they're not ready yet. And we've canceled a couple of meetings because I say they're ... 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 The crisis at Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) has taken a turn for the worse. The Serious Fraud Investigation Office, which began its probe into affairs of the 'systemically important' non-banking financial company and its around 350 group entities last week, has reportedly unearthed bad news. Two government officials aware of the initial investigations conducted by the agency told The Economic Times that five IL&FS entities, accounting for more than 50% of the revenues of the entire group, could be guilty of culpable fund diversion and mismanagement. The five firms in SFIO's crosshairs are IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd, IL&FS Financial Services, IL&FS Energy Development, IL&FS Tamil Nadu Power and IL&FS Engineering and Construction. There was reportedly some evidence that funds were diverted by these firms in projects worth Rs 30,000 crore. "It is clear that management of other subsidiaries of group were also in collusion with the group management," said a source. He added that the investigating agency is checking whether there were any political payoffs in certain projects and is expected to submit a preliminary report by the month end. With the newly-constituted board of IL&FS finding as many as 348 entities within the group, much higher than the previously disclosed figure, the top management as well as the independent directors are sure to be questioned, likely even those who recently-resigned. For instance, Ramesh C Bawa quit as chief executive and managing director of IL&FS on September 21, the day it defaulted on an IDBI letter of credit. Four independent directors - Renu Challu, Shhubhalakshmi Panse, Uday Ved and SS Kohli - and non-executive board member Vibhav Kapoor also resigned along with Bawa. "IL&FS chief Ravi Parthasarathy may be called for questioning soon," another source told the daily, explaining that the inability of the company's independent directors to detect misrepresentation is also being probed. He added that arrests may be made if required. Parthasarathy, who quit in July, is currently in London on medical grounds. Meanwhile, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has also taken cognizance of the matter suo motu. Last week, it issued notices to the statutory auditors seeking an explanation. The auditor for IL&FS was SR Batliboi, an affiliate of EY India. "In addition, the ICAI is also in touch with other regulatory authorities, and based on the responses received, ICAI would be fast-tracking its investigation on the role of member/firm of the Institute allegedly involved in terms of the disciplinary mechanism as provided under the provisions of Chartered Accountants Act and the Rules framed thereunder," Naveen ND Gupta, president ICAI, told the daily. Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal The prolonged battle for Essar Steel has now taken a new turn. JSW Steel, which had bought out Rewant Ruia's contentious 25% stake in Russia's VTB Capital-backed Numetal ahead of the second round of bidding, reportedly wants to make an independent bid for the beleaguered steel company, one of the first 12 companies identified by the RBI for insolvency proceedings last June. According to The Financial Express, MV Seshagiri Rao, joint managing director, JSW Steel, yesterday said that the company was seeking legal opinion on whether it would be eligible to bid for Essar Steel together with contenders that had already thrown their hats in the ring: ArcelorMittal, Numetal and Vedanta. "It depends upon the legal opinion which we get and the views of the committee of creditors (CoC) and the resolution professional. If they take a positive view, then we are open to look at it. We are seeking a legal opinion and based on that opinion we will take a call," Rao told the daily. Given the Supreme Court last week set out the course of action for Essar's lenders as well as the interested bidders, it seems likely that that the Sajjan Jindal-led company will have to again knock on the apex court's doors to get permission to bid separately. On October 4, the Supreme Court had exercised its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to allow ArcelorMittal and Numetal to submit fresh bids for Essar Steel provided they clear their NPA dues in two weeks. So basically, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal-led ArcelorMittal has to clear the Rs 7,000 crore outstanding debt of the two companies it previously held stakes in, namely Uttam Galva and KSS Petron, in order to be considered eligible to bid. And Numetal would reportedly be eligible to bid after it pays off its dues of Rs 49,000 crore. Moreover, the Supreme Court granted the CoC a final eight-week window to finalise a bid, failing which the steel company will go into liquidation. The court also diluted the role of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), adding that they would step in only after resolution plans were approved by a majority (66%) of the CoC in the prescribed deadline. Despite the fact that Essar Steel boasts the third biggest debt pile (around Rs 49,000 crore) among the Dirty Dozen, it is a big prize to land and has hence seen very aggressive bidding. According to the daily, ArcelorMittal is understood to have offered Rs 42,000 crore for it, while Numetal's bid is believed to be in the region of Rs 37,000 crore. The bid by Anil-Agarwal promoted Vedanta trails at around Rs 35,000 crore. It's anybody's guess how fat a cheque JSW Steel would be willing to sign, if allowed to enter the race. The development comes as JSW Steel is fighting to retain its position as India's leading steel maker. Tata Steel has emerged a strong contender for the title having recently got the NCLT's nod to acquire Bhushan Steel, now renamed Tata Steel BSL. Moreover, if it also gets control of Bhushan Power and Steel, it would be able to add nearly three million tonne of capacity. Hence, acquiring Essar Steel - which boasts a 10 million tonne steel plant in Gujarat, India's largest single-location flat steel plant - independently fits neatly into JSW Steel's ambitions. It has reportedly targeted owning 25 million tonne of steel-making capacity in India in the near term. After asking as many as 400 of its senior employees to quit last year, Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) is on a firing spree again. Cognizant has asked 200 of its senior level employees to leave as they could not adjust to the "changing environment" of the company by giving them three-fourth months of severance package. The reason behind firing is believed to be Cognizant's focus on "newer digital requirements", the Times of India reported, adding the company would bear around $35 million in severance payout to these employees, who include director and above level employees. The employees were asked to leave as part of the 'voluntary separation' policy last year but this year's move is not voluntary. The company said the changes have been made to maintain the necessary skill sets, which are needed to meet the clients' needs. The current decision of the company seems to be in line with Cognizant President Rajeev Mehta's remarks last year that Cognizant was investing tens of millions of dollars every year to continuously deepen and broaden skills in areas like analytics. "This process has resulted in changes, including some employees transitioning out of the company. We continue to enhance our capabilities and hire for roles across all our practice areas in the company," the company told the newspaper. The American tech company did not reveal any details about severance payout or other employment opportunities offered to the outgoing employees. However, those leaving the company were asked to sign mutual agreements, stating they will not take legal action against the company's decision to let them go. Cognizant has over 2.56 lakh employees all over the world, of which about 1.5 lakh are in India. Last year, as many as 400 senior executives of Cognizant were asked to go as part of the company's voluntary separation package (VSP). Many of these employees were from India. Cognizant had offered these employees up to nine months' salary for leaving their jobs. Edited by Manoj Sharma India focused private equity firm ChrysCapital Advisors LLP has appointed former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya as an advisor. According to a report in The Economic Times, Bhattacharya will advise on firm's strategy and investments. She will be working with ChrysCapital managing partner Kunal Shroff and other partners. Established in 1999, ChrysCapital is a leading India focused investment firm with approximately $3 billion of assets under management across seven funds. Its marquee investors include institutions with a long-term horizon such as sovereign wealth funds, endowments, pension funds, fund of funds etc. ChrysCapital's current investments in financial services include South Indian Bank, NSE, HeroFinCorp, Magma, AU Small Finance Bank and Vartha. Its past investments include Axis Bank, Yes Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Shriram City, Federal Bank, Shriram Finance, ING Vysya Bank, Bajaj Auto Finance, Mahindra Finance, etc. The company claims to have made over 80 investments and returned over $4 billion to investors through 65-plus exits PE firms had hired several industry veterans in advisory roles as part of expanding the investment horizon. Former Reserve Bank deputy governor Anand Sinha had joined global private equity fund KKR as an industry advisor. Bhattacharya joined SBI in 1977 as a probationary officer and went on to become the first woman to head the bank as Chairman in 2013. After a four-year stint at the helm, she retired from the SBI last year in October. In her 40-year career, Bhattacharya held several positions at the SBI. She handled various departments such as foreign exchange, treasury, retail operations, human resources and investment banking. Bhattacharya was also the chief executive of SBI's Capital Markets. Under her tenure as the chairperson of SBI, Bhattacharya took several technology initiatives such as launching fully digital branches and wallet 'Buddy'. The NLC India stock rose in early trade after the company board cleared share buyback of equity shares worth Rs 1,250 crore. The stock gained up to 11.89% to 82.75 in morning trade on BSE. At 9:30 am, the stock was trading 7% higher at 79.10 level. The public sector firm in which the government holds 83.94% stake will carry out the buyback at Rs 88 per share, 18.99% higher than Tuesday's closing price of 73.95 on the BSE. The buyback will involve 14.19 crore shares or 9.28% stake in the company. The board of directors of the firm in a meeting held on Tuesday approved the proposal for buyback of NLC India shares. The navratna firm is engaged in lignite excavation and power generation using lignite excavated. The firm operates in two segments: lignite mining and power generation. The mid cap stock has been gaining for the last three days and has risen 9.78% during the period. The stock opened with a gain of 10.21% in trade today. It has lost 14.74% during the last one year and fallen 27.51% since the beginning of this year. On Monday, NLC India inked a memorandum of understanding with Coal India for formation of a joint venture company for setting up solar power projects of 3000 MW and thermal power projects of 2000 MW. The JV firm will involve equal equity participation of 50:50 and has a time line of 15 months for completion of solar power projects and 60 month period for thermal power projects. The projects will be financed through debt equity ralio of 70:30 as per the CERC norms. First, the State Bank of India issues an intriguing statement out of the blue Tuesday afternoon. Titled "SBI triples the target for purchase of loan portfolio", the statement says India's largest bank has stepped up its target to purchase "good quality portfolio of assets from NBFCs" as it believes that there is good opportunity to expand its loan portfolio at attractive rates. The bank's target had been raised from Rs 15,000 crore to up to Rs 45,000 crore during the fiscal. Bankers' and accountants' WhatsApp groups began buzzing soon after. Questioning, speculating, analysing, at times, even justifying the move unilaterally. Intriguing! Had the bank just woken up to the reality of buying out bad loans in the market? Had the government arm-twisted SBI and may be other PSU banks into buying NBFC loan portfolio? Or, was this all a ruse to cool the markets already spooked by rumours that the NBFC sector-particularly housing finance firms-were hiding significantly larger NPAs than reported? The Big Daddy of banking was descending to save the NBFCs too! If there was any doubt about who was behind SBI's sudden move, it was put to rest in less than an hour-54 minutes to be precise-when economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg synced his tweet with SBI's statement, almost verbatim: "SBI today stepped up substantially a facility for purchasing portfolio of assets from NBFCs to provide liquidity to NBFCs. SBI would buy such portfolios up to a total amount of Rs 45,000 cr. This measure should alleviate liquidity concerns to a great extent". SBI today stepped up substantially a facility for purchasing portfolio of assets from NBFCs to provide liquidity to NBFCs. SBI would buy such portfolios up to a total amount of Rs. 45000 cr. This measure should alleviate liquidity concerns to a great extent. - Subhash Chandra Garg (@SecretaryDEA) October 9, 2018 If there was any evidence required about how the country's two biggest cash-rich financial institutions-SBI and LIC-are being remote-controlled from the Centre, this is one for sure. But marshalling independent institutions as instruments of policy-making is fraught with danger. Short-term, myopic moves to dip into their reserves could cripple such institutions to such an extent that they could become incapable of handling their own affairs and finances-forget about salvaging other failing organisations. Since the government is their owner, they are in no position to protest or push back. But consider how decisions are being forced. SBI is still to digest the merger with the Mahila Bank and the 5 associate banks. Bank of Baroda is the white Knight for Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank. LIC is saving IDBI Bank. Perhaps, even IL&FS will be revived with active financial and managerial help from the LIC-SBI combine. Remember, last fiscal ONGC was made by buy HPCL which wiped out nearly all of its reserves. The question is how much will LIC and SBI spend on managing failing institutions! Centre has been nervous ever since the markets began gyrating to the rumours of an imminent collapse in the housing finance industry. Some within the government believe a conspiracy is brewing in the markets and among operators to scuttle the ruling party's chances in the upcoming state elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattishgarh, Mizoram, Telangana. Garg may have intended to soothe the nerves in the market about NBFC liquidity but it has sparked concerns about arm-twisting SBI. Perhaps, other PSU banks may follow. Neither of which is unfounded. 10 Oct 2018, 6:23 PM SC sends three directors of Amrapali group to policecustody The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent three directors of theAmrapali group to police custody admonishing them for playing "hide andseek" with the court and ordered they hand over all the documents of theembattled real estate major's 46 group companies to forensic auditors. It ordered that the three directors-- Anil Kumar Sharma,Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar-- will remain in police custody till they hand overall the documents. Google unveils Pixel 3, 3XL with a similar design,upgraded camera and assistant At its hardware fall event in New York, Google took thestage to officially unveil the new, extensively leaked, Pixel smartphones onTuesday. Featuring a bigger display in a design similar to 2017 Pixel 2devices, Google claims that the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL brings the best of Googlein a phone. Pre-orders for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL will begin startingOctober 11 and the phones will go on sale from November 1. SBI triples target for purchase of loan portfolio fromNBFCs The State Bank of India has decided to raise its target toacquire asset portfolios from non-banking financial companies (NBFC). The bankhas reportedly tripled the target from its previous level. In a statement onTuesday, India's biggest lender said that it is raising the target for purchaseof "good quality" asset portfolio from NBFC, "as it believesthat there is good opportunity to expand its loan portfolio at attractiverates". Delhi is home to 163 mega billionaires; Shiv Nadar topsrich list with net worth of Rs 37,400 crore The national capital is home to as many as 163 out of 831uber rich Indians with IT major HCL founder Shiv Nadar, whose net worth worksout to Rs 37,400 crore, bagging the top spot among the richest Delhiites,according to Barclays Hurun India Rich List 2018 released on Tuesday. The total number of Indians having a net worth of Rs 1,000crore or more in 2018 has gone up by a third from 617 in 2017. In the case ofDelhi the number of this ultra rich club has shot up by 46 this year from 117last year. RBI to pump in Rs 12,000 cr into system to meet festiveseason demand for funds The Reserve Bank on Tuesday announced it will inject Rs12,000 crore liquidity into the system through purchase of government bonds onOctober 11 to meet the festival season demand for funds. The government willpurchase bonds with maturity ranging between 2020 to 2030, the RBI said in astatement. WhatsApp sets up system to comply with RBI's datalocalisation norms With the clock ticking down to the RBI's deadline forcompliance with its data localisation norms, mobile messaging platform WhatsAppon Tuesday announced that it has built a system that stores payments-relateddata in India. In April the apex bank had issued a circular directingglobal payment companies to store transaction data of Indian customers in thecountry itself within six months. The new norms come into effect from October15. Last week, the telecom regulator's Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator report showed that the gross revenue of telecom service providers dipped 10% year-on-year to Rs 58,401 crore in the April-June quarter of this fiscal. Now comes more bad news for the sector. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) latest data, the sector also faces a shrinking mobile user base. The number of wireless connections has dropped to around 1.146 billion in April-June 2018 from nearly 1.187 billion in the same quarter last year, Mint reported. In fact, the number of wireless connections has consistently dipped in four of the last five quarters starting April-June 2017. This, along with the fact that telecom density has reached 89.72% as of June, suggests that the sector's subscriber growth boom is nearing its end. The fast growth of the last five years, where the market mushroomed from 873.36 million to 1.18 billion in user terms is unlikely to be replicated. Although TRAI counts each connection as a new subscriber - which does not factor in single customers with multiple SIMs - that's an impressive 35% increase, till the user base started shrinking last year. That's bad news for a sector already left bleeding by the price wars unleased by industry disrupter Reliance Jio Infocomm over the past two years. The Cellular Operators Association of India's (COAI) annual report for FY18 noted that the telecom operators are in "severe financial distress" with a cumulative debt of Rs 7.7 lakh crore and revenue under Rs 2.5 lakh crore. The price wars not only eroded profitability but also forced consolidation in the space. Smaller operators such as Aircel and Reliance Communications Ltd were forced to shut down their wireless operations, while Tata Teleservices and Telenor were acquired by Bharti Airtel Ltd, and Vodafone India and Idea Cellular recently merged to give India's telecom sector a new top cat after around 15 years. "With consolidation among operators, fewer users hold multiple SIMs," Mahesh Uppal, director at communications consulting firm ComFirst India, told the daily. Besides, with Jio's free voice calls and cheap data packs - offers matched by rivals - consumers no longer feel the need to keep multiple SIM cards for different uses. "Moreover, prices have crashed and the price arbitrage between SIMs has fallen considerably. So, market share and revenue are both relevant, the focus is more on usage than number of users. Thus, telcos are keener to convert feature phone users to data subscribers," Uppal added. In other words, telcos need to focus on driving more data usage per SIM instead of flooding the market with SIM cards. After all, according to India Brand Equity Foundation, a Trust established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, with 493.96 million internet subscribers (as of March 2018), and counting, India already stands second in terms of total internet users. Furthermore, although the overall number of wireless users is declining, the number of wireless internet subscribers has jumped from 409 million in Q1 FY18 to nearly 491 million in the corresponding quarter of the current fiscal. The government expects the rise in mobile phone penetration and the decline in data costs to add 500 million new internet users over the next five years. With monthly data usage per smartphone expected to shoot up 350% from 3.9 GB in 2017 to 18 GB by 2023, the stakeholders are increasingly focussing on their content. While Bharti Airtel is looking to boost its content offering through tie-ups with video platforms Netflix, Amazon Prime and ZEE5, Jio is looking at producing content in-house. In April-June, the latter reported 10.6GB of average data consumption per user per month while for Airtel the figure stood at 7.8 GB. "They [telcos] must focus on improving the quality of service because it is important for their content strategy also. The manner in which data is exploding on the network, the content strategy will fail if they don't fix networks," Amresh Nandan, vice president and analyst (tech industry) at Gartner, told the daily. So the writing is on the wall: With subscriber numbers becoming an increasingly inadequate metric to ascertain growth, experts say that telcos need to go beyond selling SIM cards to offering more enterprise solutions. news, latest-news Canberra may be billboard-free, but it's still to be seen whether our national institutions could be canvasses for commercial advertising after the National Capital Authority refused to say whether it would approve a request similar to that made by the Everest horse race advertisers for the Sydney Opera House. The Opera House's chief executive Louise Herron last week refused to project the barrier draw for the lucrative horse race on the opera house's sails, saying it wasn't a billboard. After political pressure to go ahead with the event, and a petition against it, the announcement is set to go ahead at 8pm on Tuesday, although the actual barrier draw was done privately on Tuesday morning. Much of the opposition to the horse race promotion on the opera house was due to the belief it would cheapen the landmark by advertising a brand with close ties to gambling. Canberra is full of landmarks and national institutions, that like the opera house, have proven during the Enlighten festival to be eye-catching venues for artistic projections. Could they also be home to the barrier draw for a horse race (and the accompanying political battle)? The National Capital Authority wouldn't be drawn on the question as it's a hypothetical, referring only to the National Capital Plan - six pages of which is devoted to signage. While the plan is proscriptive in banning signs that would change the silhouette of a building and neon lights, it leaves a lot to be interpreted about what could be rejected, but it seems unlikely the Everest or something similar would make the cut. Signs or projections could be rejected if the authority decides it could "adversely affect ... the architectural character or appearance of a building" or "a 'place' within the meaning of and subject to the provisions of the relevant Commonwealth heritage legislation," the plan said. While the Opera House has been used to project promotions for the Wallabies and the Ashes, no third party advertisers have ever asked to use the facades of Canberra's national institutions, so no precedent has been set on how the authority could wield its wide discretion. That doesn't mean the logos of commercial brands haven't been seen on projections or banners on buildings such as the War Memorial, the National Gallery or Old Parliament House. "Some of these banners include advertising commercial entities but that is in the context of a sponsorship related to an event or exhibition within the relevant institution," a National Capital Authority spokeswoman said. "These signs are agreed as they relate to the promotion of exhibitions or events that are taking place within the building and do not promote entities with no direct association with the institution." Projections approved in the past weren't advertising, the spokeswoman said. "The NCA has approved specific events related promotional projections such as Enlighten and Anzac Day Commemorative projections which again are not commercial in nature." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/f5ef547b-efbc-492f-8075-2bb4b3d8c6c7/r0_217_4256_2622_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news The widow of a former Canberra firefighter who died of cancer presumably contracted on the job has joined the United Firefighters Union in criticising ACT authorities' response to contamination caused by firefighting chemicals, and calling for a national response to the issue. But one of the ACT's top firefighters insists the territory is handling the issue, and with no clear evidence to suggest that poly- and per-fluoroalkyl chemicals - known as PFAS - cause cancer, it is unclear what more authorities can do. On Tuesday, a day before what would have been her 48th wedding anniversary, Robyn Wood said her husband Ken Wood deserved better at the end of a life of service that included seven years in the Navy, two years as a police officer and 28 years as a firefighter. Mr Wood died on August 30 last year, after being diagnosed in January 2015 with colorectal, liver, lung and secondary lung cancer. In July, Comcare accepted liability for Mr Wood's death and awarded Mrs Wood compensation of more than $725,000 under legislation that presumes employment as a firefighter is a significant factor in contracting certain cancers, including colorectal cancer. Mrs Wood said while she could not be certain PFAS caused her husband's death, Comcare's decision to accept liability had set a precedent and should demonstrate the need to act. She called on governments across Australia to work together on a national approach to PFAS contamination. "Compensation like this will not bring my husband back, but he would want to be assured that today's firefighters are being looked after," Mrs Wood said on Tuesday. "Tomorrow would have been my 48th wedding anniversary. "How many other firefighters' families will miss out on birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, weddings, grandchildren [and] Christmases before something is done?" Mrs Wood spoke at The Dickson Tradies after a United Firefighters Union national meeting on PFAS contamination. The union's ACT branch secretary, Greg McConville, said territory authorities had failed to protect past and present firefighters by not introducing measures like mandatory blood testing and early screening for cancer. In calling for a national approach, Mr McConville said all firefighting appliances should undergo specialised decontamination. He said when the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in Melbourne decontaminated its vehicles, it found the only appliances not contaminated by PFAS were brand new ones that had never responded to an incident. "Even where an appliance has ceased using this foam for many years, traces of it remain ... and cross-contamination can easily occur," Mr McConville said. Nine fire stations across the ACT have been identified as being potentially contaminated by PFAS, and the Sunday Canberra Times revealed last month that authorities took four months to stop people using a contaminated waterway at Wreck Bay, near Jervis Bay. ACT Fire and Rescue chief officer Mark Brown said the territory was one of the first jurisdictions to phase out PFAS chemicals, which had not been used by firefighters in the ACT since 2005. Mr Brown said most firefighting vehicles had been replaced since then, while those that were in service earlier had been thoroughly cleaned on several occasions. "We've got no legacy issues with exposure of firefighters beyond early 2005," he said. "... It concerns me that the [union] keep drawing this link that PFAS causes cancer." Mr Brown pointed out that the federal government's expert health panel for PFAS had found no evidence PFAS caused cancer and that it did not support any specific health or disease screening for highly exposed people in Australia. He also said ACT Fire and Rescue was already in discussions about introducing mandatory blood testing and early screening for cancer as part of a new enterprise bargaining agreement, and that it was "not helpful" for the union to imply to the media that the authority was inactive in that area. "Even if we did provide data to firefighters on the level of PFAS in their blood, what do they do with that information?" Mr Brown said. "There's no treatment and there's no evidence that it causes cancer." Mr Brown said ACT Fire and Rescue was in the process of engaging a contractor to carry out testing for contamination at the nine potentially affected fire stations. Professor Mark Taylor, a Macquarie University expert on environmental contaminants, said there was no known safe level of exposure to PFAS chemicals. He said it was a global problem, and that firefighters and authorities should actively seek to minimise exposure, not wait for more conclusive science. "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," Professor Taylor said. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/ec92b760-83ec-460c-bc3d-bb09f88ee996/r0_215_4256_2620_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news Hes been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, lives in New York City and hobnobs with some of the worlds hottest musicians. But Mick Jones thinks Canberra is the perfect place to spend a few days while he gears up for a major national tour with his band, Foreigner. One of the best-selling bands of all time, Foreigner are about to kick off their 40th anniversary tour of Australia, playing some of the hits that are still on high rotation on most classic rock radio stations. But theyll also be playing with a full orchestra, courtesy of the Australian National University School of Musics symphony orchestra. Its part of a first-time collaboration with the schools director Kenneth Lampl, his wife Kirsten Lampl, and cellist and composer David Eggar, who composed and played the orchestra component of the bands latest album. Jones said the idea began in Switzerland, where the band was offered the use of a full orchestra for the first time, and grew into a the basis for their latest album. We started to form this sort of jungle telegraph between New York and here, and it was just organic, it just built from there, he told Fairfax Media on Wednesday. I'd never really had a thought about it, but two things happened over the last couple of years. We discovered that we could really do a great acoustic show, and we went on tour with that. And then we sold out everywhere, and we thought - why didn't we think of this before? Jones, who co-founded the band in 1976, was speaking before being presented with the ANUs inaugural Vice-Chancellors Award for Distinguished Musical Achievement. It's another left-field sort of thing, and I'm very honoured to be awarded that, it means a lot, he said. He said in the lead-up to the bands first concert of the tour, at the Royal Theatre on Friday, he planned to take in some exhibitions, go for some walks, and think about relaxing. He admitted that, 40 years on from when the band was at its peak, much had changed. Where it used to be champagne bottles everywhere in the room, it's now spring water, he said, laughing. I don't think I'd be able to do this if I were still drinking or partying. He said while he had seen his fair share of rock n roll debauchery in his time, he had never really partaken enough to do any damage. I guess I spent a lot of time pretending I was debauched for the image, he said. I had a few rough passages, but basically I was lucky enough be able to keep my feet on the ground, and lucky enough to realise before it became a problem. This is part of the secret to the bands longevity and success; Foreigner has had nine Top 10 hits, and has sold more than 75 million albums. Its amazing - we came out at the dawn of punk and the height of disco, he said. We had a period when the band was unsettled during the 80s, grunge took over a lot, but then we survived through that. I've discovered ever since that time that so many of the younger bands really looked up to us and respected us, and it's nice to feel that we actually influenced the generation that was to come While he has always kept up with new music - it helps that his stepson is the music producer Mark Ronson - he said he had noticed the bands fan base growing younger, and had been amazed to see 15-year-olds singing along to some of their greatest hits. That's what keeps you going, seeing that energy you're creating, seeing people respond to it and seeing what it does to people, he said. Foreigners 40th anniversary concert is at the Royal Theatre on Friday, October 12. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/3f2384d1-5978-4127-854b-49e6ce266d13/r0_254_5000_3079_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, act-politics Changes to sexual consent laws in Canberra threaten to make rape trials "more aggressive" and force more jurors to "fall back on their own prejudices", the ACT Law Society has warned. 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. Currently, to prove a defendant is guilty of sexual intercourse without consent, prosecutors must prove four elements beyond a reasonable doubt - that the accused engaged in the act; that the act constituted sexual intercourse; that the complainant did not consent; and that the accused was reckless as to whether the complainant consented. ACT Law Society criminal law committee chair Michael Kukulies-Smith told a Legislative Assembly inquiry on Tuesday Ms Le Couteur's bill conflated two separate issues - whether consent was given and whether the defendant reasonably believed it was - and he would struggle to explain it to a first-year law student. Mr Kukulies-Smith said judges already spent between two and three hours explaining the legal tests to juries and "adding more law and more complexity is not simplifying that process". "I would suggest making it more likely [jurors] will fall back on their own prejudices, their own gut instincts in relation to the case rather than the legal tests that are being espoused," Mr Kukulies-Smith said. Really the question is how is a judge going to explain this to a jury? If the jury can't understand, it doesnt matter what the test is. If it becomes too convoluted for a jury to understand the test becomes irrelevant." Mr Kukulies-Smith said raising the threshold from belief there was consent to being satisfied on reasonable grounds there was consent was a "high bar to get over" and would likely lead to a more "aggressive" cross-examination of victims. This is because sexual assault cases rarely settle before trial, almost always result in jail time and are rarely supported by external evidence, meaning it often comes down to he-said, she-said, Mr Kukulies-Smith said. "This runs the risk of ... necessitating an approach to the litigation by defendants that impresses the amount of attack that will be needed to get over that bar," Mr Kukulies-Smith said. Mr Kukulies-Smith said the criminal law was the wrong instrument to enact social change, and suggested the ACT look at pursuing educational programs instead. "Normative change through the law works when laws are simple and easily understood, so [for example] drugs are illegal, its an easy concept, its easy for people to know cocaine is a drug, ecstasy is a drug and it's easy for the jury to understand it is illegal to possess that drug, its illegal to sell that drug so the law can have a normative effect in that case," he said. "The nuances of how sexual consent plays out in a bedroom is not something that is likely to be effectively changed by changes to the criminal law. "[The criminal law] is an instrument to determine guilt or innocence in a courtroom. The criminal law is not an effective instrument to determine social policy, there are other instruments available that are nowhere near as blunt in that regard." The inquiry also heard from Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia's Kajhal McIntyre, who said sexual assault cases should be heard by judges only, who had specifically been trained in that area of law. The idea stands in contrast to evidence provided from the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Jon White, who suggested the result of the high profile Lazarus trial would have had a different outcome if it happened in the ACT, as all sexual assault cases must be trialled by jury. Ms McIntyre said the presence of a jury in the courtroom could have a "harmful impact" on a victim and unlike judges, juries did not realise rationales for their decisions. "As long as jurors are making decisions around these cases, we have no ability to recognise or correct misapplications of the law and because we know the law is so complex in this area, it's extremely important we do have that transparency," Ms McIntyre said. The inquiry continues. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/e47244cb-0dbb-47ff-aae1-56f49b13f28e/r0_313_5472_3405_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rennie Sloan, rennie.sloan@cartercenter.org ATLANTAA new Lancet Commission report on mental health released today said that mental disorders are on the rise in every country in the world and will cost the global economy $16 trillion by 2030. The economic cost is primarily due to early onset of mental illness and lost productivity, with an estimated 12 billion working days lost due to mental illness every year. The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development brought together 28 global experts in psychiatry, public health, neuroscience and advocacy, as well as people with first-hand experience of mental health conditions. Launched at the Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit in London, the report recommends that mental health be reframed as a fundamental human right, and that the definition be expanded to promote mental wellbeing, prevent mental health problems, and enable recovery from mental disorders. "Mental health is often neglected and underfunded, even though nearly 2 billion people suffer from mental illness every year," said Lancet report co-author Dr. Janice Cooper, who leads the Carter Centers mental health work in Liberia. Our work in Liberia shows us that that we need to begin with young people and train teachers to identify and refer students for help. We have seen substantial progress working with the Liberian government to ramp up mental health care services in every county, including school-based clinics in more than 20 schools and services in 14 prisons. The report shows that in many countries, people with mental disorders still routinely suffer gross human rights violations including shackling, torture, and imprisonment. Bringing attention to these kinds of abuse and discrimination, the Commission calls for a human rights-based approach to ensure that people with mental health conditions are not denied any of their fundamental human rights not just to health but also to employment and education, among others. The report was launched during the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit, hosted by the UK Governments Department of Health in London. During the two-day summit, Carter Center Board of Trustees Chairman Jason Carter spoke about U.S. efforts to ensure mental health and substance use disorders are covered by insurance in the same manner as other health conditions, such as cancer and diabetes. Jason Carter is the grandson of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter, a mental health advocate for more than 45 years. As young people face the brunt of the global burden of mental illnesses, the report places great emphasis on experiences in childhood and adolescence, which shape life-long mental health. The Commission has inspired a group of young leaders to launch a campaign to fight stigma, create a worldwide community, and raise awareness, targeted at those younger than 35. "Weve seen a rise in mental illness in young people when, with all the knowledge we have, we should be seeing a decrease, said Professor Helen Herrman, President of the World Psychiatric Association. Treatment in hospitals needs to be complemented by care in the communities to bring mental health services to the masses. Since 2010, The Carter Center Mental Health Program in Liberia has worked with the Liberian government to pass its first Mental Health Act and build its mental health infrastructure. The Center has trained 268 mental health professionals through the collaboration to improve access to mental health services. More than 100 of these clinicians focus on youth and adolescent mental health. The clinicians work in primary care facilities, hospitals, and other settings children frequent, such as daycare centers and schools, across all 15 counties to provide much needed care as the country seeks to strengthen its mental health services. This group of Liberian nurses, physician assistants, and registered midwives completed a free, six-month, Child and Adolescent Post-Basic Mental Health Training Program at the Tubman National Institute of Medical Arts in Monrovia, Liberia. Liberia is on course to reach its goal of expanding access to mental health care to 70 percent of the population in the next few years. Liberias current population of 4.6 million has three psychiatrists and plans to train more to meet the needs of at least 300,000 Liberians suffering from mental illnesses. The Child and Adolescent Post-Basic Mental Health Training program is part of a three-year initiative to address the psychological effects of Liberia's Ebola crisis and to promote psychosocial health in the country. The project, Supporting Psychosocial Health and Resilience in Liberia, is funded by Japan through the Japan Social Development Fund, a trust fund administered by the World Bank. The project is expected to reach over 19,000 beneficiaries in Montserrado (including Monrovia) and Margibi counties working through county health teams. The most recent graduating class of 19 clinicians was the last in the collaboration with The Carter Center and Liberias Ministry of Health through funding from the World Bank and the Japanese government. The Ministry of Health, with support from The Carter Center, will continue to train child and adolescent clinicians through the DKI School of Midwifery. The Carter Center's Mental Health Program in Liberia is supported by contributions from individuals, governments, corporations, and foundations such as the UBS Optimus Foundation. Learn more about former U.S. First Lady Rosalynn Carters mental health leadership. Learn more about the Carter Centers Mental Health Program. Notes for Editors: A copy of the report and more on the newly formed Lancet Commission can be found at www.globalmentalhealthcommission.org. The Commission is being launched at the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit, hosted by the UK Governments Department of Health in London. The launch event will be livestreamed at www.globalmhsummit.com from 11.00 a.m. to 11.50 a.m. UK time on October 10, World Mental Health Day. ### "Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope." A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. Photo: The Canadian Press Grace Meng, the wife of missing Interpol President Meng Hongwei, who does not want her face shown, consults her mobile phone in the lobby of a hotel in Lyon, central France, where the police agency is based, on Sunday Oct. 7, 2018. Interpol said Saturday it has made a formal request to China for information about the agency's missing president, a senior Chinese security official who seemingly vanished while on a trip home. The call came at night and was chilling. "You listen, but you don't speak," the man on the other end said. "We've come in two work teams, two work teams just for you." In her first one-on-one interview since her husband's disappearance in China, the wife of the former head of Interpol described the threatening phone call that prompted authorities in the French city where the international law enforcement agency is headquartered to place her under police protection. French authorities are still trying to determine whether China did indeed, as the mysterious caller menaced, dispatch agents to get to Grace Meng, the wife of Meng Hongwei. But she has good reason to be fearful: Speaking out about the fate of her high-profile husband risks China's ire and, she said, is putting her "in great danger." However, she hopes that doing so will help other families in similar circumstances. "He has disappeared for so long and nobody has given me any information or told me where he has gone. This is very common now in China," she told The Associated Press during an interview. "I feel like I have a responsibility to stand up. Only when you've been through this much pain can you understand that even more people have been suffering." Meng Hongwei who was China's vice minister of public security while also leading Interpol vanished while on a trip to China late last month. A long-time Communist Party insider with decades of experience in China's sprawling security apparatus, the 64-year-old is the latest high-ranking official to fall victim to a sweeping purge against allegedly corrupt or disloyal officials under President Xi Jinping's authoritarian administration. Speaking to the AP late Monday at a hotel in Lyon, the French city where she lives and Interpol is based. Grace Meng said she had put their two boys to bed when she got the threatening call. It was one week after her last contact with her husband. On Sept, 25, he sent her from China an emoji of a knife suggesting to her he was in danger. The man who called her on her mobile phone spoke in Chinese, she said. She said the only clue he gave about his identity was saying that he used to work for Meng, suggesting that the man was part of China's security apparatus. He also said he knew where she was. "Just imagine: My husband was missing, my kids were asleep, all my other phones weren't working, and that was the only call I got. I was so frightened," she said. By speaking out about her husband's fate, she has taken a step practically unheard of in Chinese politics, where such moves are seen as confrontational. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday in Beijing. Chinese authorities said Monday that Meng Hongwei is being lawfully investigated for taking bribes and other crimes that were a result of his "wilfulness." Hours earlier, Interpol said Meng had resigned as the international police agency's president. It was not clear whether he did so of his own free will. His wife suggested that the bribery accusation is just an excuse for a lengthy detention. "As his wife, I think he's simply incapable of this," she said. She said she would be willing to make their bank accounts public. She refused to provide her real name to the AP, saying she was too afraid for the safety of her relatives in China. It is not customary for Chinese wives to adopt their husbands' names. Mrs. Meng said she has done so now to show her solidarity with her husband. Her English name, Grace, is one she has long used, she said. A French judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the AP that police are investigating the threat against her, but said the probe has yet to determine whether there were indeed Chinese teams sent to Lyon. China's move to go after the Interpol president, an official with international standing, was unusually audacious even for an administration that under Xi's leadership has sought to assert its interests more aggressively on the global stage. Poland's interior minister, Joachim Brudzinski, told AP on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting in Lyon Tuesday that he disapproved of Beijing's conduct. Brudzinski thinks it shows China believes it can act with impunity "in an ostentatious way, without limit." Grace Meng wouldn't speculate on why her husband may have fallen out of favour, saying he had stayed above the secrecy-shrouded world of factional party politics. She described her husband as a man of modest beginnings, the fifth of six children whose parents were school teachers. He rose through the ranks based on his own merit, she said, and remained an idealist who longed to see the rule of law established in China. Tearfully, she said she hasn't yet been able to tell their young sons about his detention. China's beleaguered rights activists point out that as someone with a seat atop the country's powerful public security apparatus, Meng has helped build the opaque system of largely unchecked power wielded by the ruling Communist Party to which he's now fallen victim. "Once an issue becomes political, there is no law. This has happened even to Meng Hongwei himself," said Hu Jia, a Beijing-based rights activist who is frequently placed under house arrest for his critical comments. "If his wife weren't in France and speaking to the media, his case would have been locked in a black box." Earlier this year Chinese officials established the National Supervision Commission, a party-led anti-corruption agency empowered to detain suspects for up to six months and to operate independent of the Cabinet, courts and prosecutors. "If Meng Hongwei weren't an Interpol chief, people would have no idea what kind of a police empire China has become," said Hu, the activist. Last week, archaeologists announced the discovery of a new dinosaur, thanks to an analysis of an ancient skeleton found on... Dangote to push ahead with London IPO ICR Newsroom By 10 October 2018 Dangote Cement Chairman and CEO, Aliko Dangote, says Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Standard Chartered Bank could be among the banks to organise Dangote Cements London public listing in 2019. Speaking at the Financial Times Africa summit, Dangote added the listing would go ahead in 2019 after the Nigerian elections, but he could not provide a date. Edwin Devakumar, group executive director at Dangote Industries Ltd, said in an interview in Lagos earlier this year: We are working on it and well look at it in 2019. We have grown to this extent mostly via greenfield investments. To grow much more, wed probably have to do it via acquisitions. He said a number of banks had been approached to arrange the IPO, but no mandates had been arranged yet. The amount of the IPO has not been disclosed to date. Published under Ukrainian embargo on Russian clinker imports will not affect supply 10 October 2018 The Ukrainian governments embargo on Russian clinker imports will not create a shortage of products on the countrys market, according to Pavlo Kachur, head of the Ukrcement Association of Cement Manufacturers. "There is enough capacity for burning clinker on the Ukrainian market, so we don't need to import it, especially from Russia. According to Pro-Consulting, the capacity of clinker burning facilities in Ukraine is more than 15Mt. In 2017, we made 6.3Mt of clinker and imported 877,000t from Russia. This means that we can easily replace imports with clinker made in Ukraine," Mr Kachur said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. Published under Picking up the pieces after a natural disaster can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there is a tool available for Californians dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster. Recently launched at InsureTech Connect, Jumpstart announced the release of a type of natural disaster insurance in California for earthquakes. The Cheat Sheet spoke with Kate Stillwell, the CEO of Jumpstart, to learn more about this technology. The Cheat Sheet: How did you get the idea for Jumpstart? Kate Stillwell: The idea was born way back in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina and reinforced again and again in each natural disaster since then. Im a structural engineer by trade, with a specialty in designing buildings to resist earthquakes, so its my lifes work to build safety and resilience. But Katrina was a professional crisis: What good are safe buildings if other pillars of resilience are missing? And one of those pillars is getting people the right amount of money, at the right time, to adapt to the new normal. If the Big One were to strike today, the amount of money flowing into the economy would be a tiny fraction of whats needed, because a small minority have a financial buffer such as emergency savings or insurance. (Earthquake insurance is not mandatory in California and very few people buy the conventional insurance thats available). So the need the opportunity is gaping. Jumpstart is not meant to make you whole, its meant as a financial jumpstart after a life-changing shock. Its enough of a cushion to tip the balance so they can stay, tough it out, be part of the rebuild, so at a macro level, we create an upward spiral of resilience and recovery. CS: How does Jumpstart work? KS: Jumpstart is powered by data. Its an entirely new product category known technically as parametric. Customers receive payouts based on the occurrence of an event, not human arbitration. Event occurrence is as measured by a completely transparent dataset, so it takes away the big-guy-little-guy dynamic that people hate about conventional insurance. CS: Who is the independent data source? KS: In the case of Jumpstart, the independent data source is the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Jumpstart pays a pre-established amount of money after an earthquake of a pre-specified shaking intensity as reported by the USGS. Jumpstart will automatically reach out to each customer in the impacted region via text message. Once a customer responds to confirm theyve been affected, the payment is automatically authorized for direct deposit, and they use it for whatever they need to bounce back. At the time of launch, insurance policies are underwritten and administered by AmWINS Group, Inc. and the insurer is The Channel Syndicate 2015 at Lloyds (of London)a non-U.S. surplus lines insurer qualified to accept insurance placements from California surplus line brokers for California insureds. CS: Is Jumpstart only for earthquakes or all natural disasters? KS: Right now, Jumpstart is only for earthquakes, but we have plans to roll out the product in other states and to expand to other types of natural disasters. CS: What advice would you give to individuals who are scrambling to recover financially after a natural disaster? How can they bounce back quickly? KS: The secret to bouncing back is to know what resources you have available, to tap them all, and share them all. When people find out Im a structural engineer they all ask me what they should do to prepare for an earthquake. My number one piece of advice is not retrofit your house or buy insurance but know your neighbors! Theres going to be all sorts of unexpected consequences and well all need to rely on each other you might have a big stash of water, but your neighbor might have plenty of solar chargers. You might have shovels but a bad back, your neighbor might have kids that need to be watched while they use your shovels. Knowing what resources are available also applies to financial resources. Know what you have and how to access it. Create options for yourself to tap into money at the moment its most needed. Its not going to be mass destruction like in the movies, but there will be unexpected consequences and flexible resource including a resourceful state of mind! This will go a long way toward adapting. CS: Anything to add? KS: At the end of the day, Jumpstart is fundamentally about resilience, ensuring more money comes into the system after natural disasters, creating an upward spiral of recovery. Jumpstart is an InsureTech startup thats creating value for both individuals and the community. Were democratizing natural disaster insurance by protecting more people at an accessible price point. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Pueblo police officer shoots and kills man said to have been armed The Norwegian Nobel Committee has selected two recipients for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, including Christian gynecologist Denis Mukwege, who has dedicated his life to caring for victims of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Mukwege, nicknamed Dr. Miracle for his specialized procedures, received the award alongside Nadia Murad, a young Yazidi activist who survived being kidnapped and raped by ISIS members in Iraq. The Nobel committee selected these two recipients saying that both winners modeled efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. The Nobel Peace Prize winner said that his Christian faith was a massive influence on his decision to pursue medicine and his strategy for patient care. The son of a Pentecostal minister, Mukwege told NPR that he was inspired to become a doctor after traveling with his father to pray for the sick. Mukwege attended the University of Angers in France to study gynecology and obstetrics. Over the past 20 years, Mukwege has treated tens of thousands of women in his Panzi Hospital in Bukavu which he founded in 1999 with the help of the Pentecostal Churches in Central Africa (CEPAC). The hospital provides care for women, many of whom have been gang raped by militants. Mukwege told NPR that he works not only to treat womentheir body, [but] also to fight for their own right, to bring them to be autonomous, and, of course, to support them psychologically. And all of this is a process of healing so women can regain their dignity. During a keynote speech last year at the Lutheran World Federation, Mukwege challenged the audience saying if Christians do not live their lives faithfully among their communities and neighbors, we cannot fulfill the mission entrusted to us by Christ, a mission he has spent his career trying to fulfill. Mukwege, 63, has been met with great support from Christian organizations in his fight against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the DRC. Dr. Mukweges incredible work with survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo inspires me, and many of us, Rick Santos, president of IMA World Health, said in a statement on Friday. We are honored to call him and Panzi Hospital a partner in the effort to eradicate SGBV in a place where it is so pervasive. Christianity Today reports that 3.9 million people have been killed and more than 40,000 have been raped in the decade since the civil war broke out in the DRC in 1996. The Globe and Mail has said of Mukwege that he is likely the worlds leading expert on repairing injuries of rape. Panzi hospital also offers services beyond surgery and injury repair. The institution also offers therapy, legal assistance, community resources, and help reintegrating into the community for their patients. Mukwege encourages other Christians to be a light in the ever darkening world and to consider the credibility of the gospel in the 21st century, to liberate the grace that we have received by making the church a light that still shines in this world of darkness through our struggles for justice, truth, law, freedom, in short, the dignity of man and woman. Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Win McNamee/Staff TIZI-OUZOU, Algeria, October 10, 2018 (Morning Star News) Two Christians in Algeria are facing trial after the Muslim wife of one accused them of suggesting she leave Islam, her husband said. Rachid Ouali and his 67-year-old friend, Ali Larchi, went before a judge in Bouira, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of Algiers, on Tuesday (Oct. 9), after Oualis wife filed a complaint in July accusing them of bringing her to a church service and of urging her to leave Islam, Ouali told Morning Star News. He and Larchi deny the accusations, which Oualis wife later told him she made under pressure from relatives, Ouali said. His wifes name is withheld. Residents of Lekser, 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of Bouira, Ouali and his wife went to have lunch at Alis home in nearby Bechloul in late June. Ali and his wife and five children are well-known in the area as Christians who receive guests of all kinds, Ouali said. Bouira Province lies in Kabylie Region, which has a sizeable population of Christian converts from Islam. As the two wives conversed and the two families were enjoying the meal, Ouali and Larchi began telling each other anecdotes of Christs faithfulness in their lives, Ouali said. Mentions of Jesus name and exclamations of Hallelujah were frequent, he said. Upon overhearing this conversation, Oualis wife suddenly jumped to her feet and cried out in anger, You have brought me here to convert me and to deny my religion. You laid a trap for me, Ouali said. She kept raising her voice to make herself heard outside, he said. She left the house and went to her parents nearby home, where she told relatives, including two brothers, about the meal. The two brothers, both policemen, demanded that she go to the National Gendarmerie to file a complaint against her husband and his friend, Ouali said. She filed a complaint on July 2 accusing her husband and Larchi of having brought her to a church service and trying to persuade her to leave Islam and become a Christian. Algerias Law 03/2006, commonly known as Law 03/06, calls for a prison term of two to five years and a fine of 500,000 to 1 million dinars (US$4,343 to US$8,687) for anyone who incites, constrains, or utilizes means of seduction tending to convert a Muslim to another religion, or using for this purpose the institutions of education, health, social, cultural, or educational institutions, or other establishment, or financial advantage; or makes, stores or distributes printed documents or films or other audiovisual medium or means intended to undermine the faith of a Muslim. Ouali said that his wife later confessed to him, I did not want to do it; it was my brothers who forced me to do it. The day before Tuesdays hearing, he added, she called him and told him, Im stuck between my family and my husband, I do not know what to do. The two Christians attorney, Sadek Najib, told Morning Star News that he is hopeful after Tuesdays (Oct. 9) hearing, when the trial was postponed until Nov. 6 at the complainants request. If this woman denies having been forced to be a Christian and to renounce Islam, the case will be closed, Najib said. The prosecution will be canceled since their accusation is unfounded. Christian leaders say the 03/06 law is unconstitutional, citing the Algerian constitutions Article 42, which guarantees freedom of belief, opinion and worship. Islam is the state religion in Algeria, where 99 percent of the population of 40 million are Muslim. Since 2000, thousands of Algerian Muslims have put their faith in Christ. Algerian officials estimate the number of Christians at 50,000, but others say it could be twice that number. Algeria ranked 42nd on Christian support organization Open Doors 2018 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews. org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. The office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced on Tuesday that Pope Francis will be invited to Pyongyang, North Korea to meet with Dictator Kim Jong Un. A Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom, reports that Francis will receive this invitation next week when Moon, also a Catholic, visits the Vatican. Moon will visit the Vatican on October 17 and 18 and is set to be received by the pope at the Vatican Apostolic Palace on the second day. According to Channel News Asia, Kim said, "President Moon will visit the Vatican on Oct. 17 and 18 to reaffirm its blessing and support for peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula. "Especially when he meets with Pope Francis, he will convey Chairman Kim's message that he will ardently welcome him if he visits Pyongyang," the news outlet added. According to Moons office, Kim told him last month during their meeting that Pope Francis would be "enthusiastically" welcomed into North Korea, despite the countries negative record with religious persecution. The Communist nation is known for its aggressive repression of religious freedom and restrictions on what illegal religious activities. According to the Christian Post, all worship must be state sanctioned, and if it is not it must be conducted in secrecy due to the fear of arrest. Currently, tens of thousands of people are being detained in North Korean in labor camps for their religious beliefs and defection. According to the watchdog group Open Doors USA, North Korea is consistently ranked the worst country in the world in regards to Christian persecution. The Associated Press reports that the Vatican has yet to comment on the pending invite or on the Popes likelihood of accepting Kims invitation. Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Pool Switzerlands lower house passed a bill in September that would add homophobia and transphobia to the national criminal code and require a fine or up to three years in prison for offenders. The bill passed the National Council, 118-60, and now goes to the upper house, the Council of States, according to the newspaper Le Temps. Five members abstained. The bill would place sexual orientation and gender identity alongside race, ethnicity and religion in the criminal code and ban incitement to hatred or discrimination against a person or group of persons, according to Le Temps. National Council member Mathias Reynard asserted that homophobia is not an opinion but instead a crime. Victory! he wrote on Twitter after the bill passed. Yves Nidegger, another member of the National Council, expressed concern about the laws legally problematic and indefinable terms. He also wondered whether pedophilia, bisexuality, gerontophilia, necrophilia, fetishism, zoophilia, and so on are sexual orientations that must be protected or not protected. Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com. Photo courtesy: Kirsty Lee/Unsplash When were at our best, the church isnt just another group on one side of the partisan political conflict that pits people against each other. What The Church Can Learn From The People Of New York About Being Repairers Of The Breach Read as Single Page Page 1 of 2 Thank you, New York. You taught me how to be a better Christian, pastor and peacemaker this week. For the past five days, my wife, my sisters, their husbands and I walked all over New York City with my parents as we celebrated their 60th anniversary. New York is filled with some of the most amazing sights, sounds and spectacles on earth. But more than that, its filled with an extraordinary mix of people. As grateful as I am for the chance to see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, and to honor the fallen at the World Trade Center, the most memorable parts of this trip were the people we met. Everyday, Extraordinary People I had a random conversation about writing and entrepreneurship with an NYU student who had set up a table at Washington Square Park to sell his self-published book of poems. Shelley and I listened to the stories of a 95-year-old Romanian man who was in town for the 100th anniversary of the reunification of Romania. Our whole family received genuine, warm hugs, smiles and prayers from fellow members of the body of Christ in one of the most racially diverse churches on earth Brooklyn Tabernacle. We got to meet up with Dave and Cheyenne, a Cornerstone couple who are having a once-in-lifetime adventure living in Brooklyn. Jack, a Cornerstone alum whos taking a shot at making it on Broadway. And we got to see Cornerstones own JR rock the house with his band who just happened to be playing in New York while we where there. But perhaps most memorably, we got to chat for about 15 minutes with a custodian at Ellis Island. This African-American grandmother told us the story of her family. Her face beamed as she showed us the grainy black-and-white photo of her white great-grandfather and black great-grandmother who had moved to New Jersey because blacks and whites couldnt get married in Italy. During a week in which the country was divided over another political, sociological and moral struggle, New York showed our family the best of America. During a week in which the country was divided over another political, sociological and moral struggle, New York showed our family the best of America. The church should be like that. We have been like that. We are still like that in many places. And we can be like that again. The Church Can Rise Above Partisanship When were at our best, the church isnt just another group on one side of the partisan political conflict that pits people against each other. Were the ones who should be a shining light of hope that rises above it all. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment This may be too scary for you. You may choose to opt out. If so, no problem. I understand. Or it might just be too distasteful. But I want to challenge you to put yourself in the shoes of those with whom you passionately differ. The people whose ideologies you find intolerable. See if you can view the world through their eyes. See if you can understand what makes them tick. See if you can articulate their position in a way that's acceptable to them, proving you understand, even while you reject. Will you give it a try? I'll help you think it through, step by step. The reason, though, that I say it can be scary is simple. It might cause you to modify your perspective. Or it might threaten your confidence. What if there's some merit to the other position? Someone once told me that, metaphorically speaking, it's easier to shoot a person with a long-range rifle than to shoot them up close with a pistol, when you can look in their eyes and feel their breath. The more human they become to you, the harder it is to pull the trigger. And getting into someone else's shoes can be distasteful because some of their viewpoints are so abhorrent to us that we don't want to give them the time of day. Why would we want to see the world through their eyes? We despise their worldview to the core of our being. Why should we even try to be sympathetic? The reason is simple, and in the end, it's worth it. Not only will you sharpen your own viewpoint, but you'll be able to respond to (and effectively rebut) the positions of those you oppose. I've engaged in many public debates over the years, and I can only rebut my opponent's position to the extent I understand it. And if I can feel the weight of my opponent's objections, all the better. My rebuttal will be that much more sensitive. That much more accurate. That much more powerful. And in the process, I might also learn something about the humanity of the person I differ with. How can that be bad? So, let's try this exercise with one of the most volatile issues of the hour: the assumed guilt or innocence of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. I'm personally glad he was nominated (although he wasn't my favorite candidate for the job). And, although I can't guarantee he is not guilty, I advocated voting for him based on his record, since his guilt was never proved. So, in that regard, I'm clearly on the pro-Trump, pro-Republican, pro-Kavanaugh side. That also means I have no tolerance for the shrieking crowds demonstrating in DC against his confirmation or for the Hollywood stars condemning him. Allow, me, then, to present their side of the story. And as I do, make an effort to see the world through their eyes. Surely you can see some aspects of truth and concern from their side of things. (Imagine your spouse or best friend held to this view. Don't just argue with them. Listen to them for a minute.) There is an epidemic of sexual abuse against women. Bill Cosby is finally getting his due. Harvey Weinstein is finally getting his due. Millions of rape victims now have a voice. At last, justice is being served. Finally, the tide is turning. And remember. These abused women could very well be your daughter or sister or mother (or, if you're a man, your wife). Unfortunately, President Trump has his own history of using women as sexual objects. At the least he talked the talk. (Imagine how you'd feel if this was Bill Clinton we were talking about, except that he was married three times, boasted in writing about his affairs, was caught on tape talking about grabbing a woman's [expletive], and had numerous women claiming he abused them.) And now, the President of the United States, the most powerful man on the planet, is mocking a respected female professor who has hundreds of people vouching for her character. (This woman did not want the limelight!) He is also dismissing two other women who have publicly accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, claiming it's all a lie. And he is ignoring all the witnesses who attest to Kavanaugh's drinking problems. (Why didn't the FBI interview them?) This has completely undermined the entire #MeToo movement. "You can't believe what these women have to say! The men are the real victims." Plus, we saw how surly Kavanaugh got before the Judiciary Committee, even if we can understand why he was so passionate in his lengthy opening speech. But did he have to be so belligerent in responding to fair questions? He even apologized for some of his words in the Wall Street Journal. Is that the kind of man we want on the highest court of the land for life? Can you really imagine him being impartial? Once again, this is not my own evaluation of the matter (most specifically, in terms of Kavanaugh's fitness for the job). But I do understand why some people see things like this. And when you add in the frenzied attempt to preserve Roe v. Wade, you can better understand the wrath and the fear. For those who are not in the pro-Kavanaugh camp, I can explain this side easily and quickly. First, the man is incredibly qualified. He is a brilliant jurist, quite mainstream in many ways, with an impeccable track record going back decades. Second, there is not one single corroborating eyewitness to any of the accusations. Not one! Either the alleged witnesses have no recollection of any such behavior, or they categorically deny it. These charges would not stand for a second in a court of law. Third, the sex-crimes prosecutor brought in by the Republicans to question the professor said she wouldn't even issue a search warrant after hearing the testimony. There was nothing to it. And it was riddled by contradictions upon closer examination. Fourth, the whole thing was one of the ugliest, political hit jobs in our nation's history a gory attempt at character assassination and anyone who can't see this is blind. Fifth, the president merely called attention to Ford's lack of clarity and memory, shouting to the nation what we all saw and what the liberal media ignored. Sixth, it's totally understandable that Kavanaugh responded the way he did. His whole life had just been destroyed a fine man was accused of being a serial gang rapist and was pronounced guilty by millions and if he didn't stand tall, we could have questioned his innocence. Seventh, you don't bow down to mobs. The Republicans are to be commended for holding their ground. Having said all this, my goal here was not to convince you of anything. My goal was to challenge you to see the world through the eyes of others. It can't hurt, but it can help. If you're right, your argument only gets stronger. If you're wrong, then you've just saved yourself from embarrassment and error. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Patrick Henry shouted, "Give me liberty, or give me death." The next generation shouted, "Give me liberty." The present generation shouts, "Give me." We are all born, without exception, selfish in the core of our beings. This self-focus is entrenched in our sinful nature, and though there are compassionate people in society, the general human tendency is not to be focused on the well-being of other people. Compassion is the focus of God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16, NIV). In the same way, as God's children, we are to be more concerned about other people than ourselves. We are to love and serve othersGod's entire ministry to us is about others. And to "love and serve others" doesn't mean just our friends! Jesus was clear when He said, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven." I have always believed that it is impossible to claim, "I am in Christ, and Christ is in me," and not be lovingly and compassionately invested in the physical, spiritual and emotional health and well-being of other peopleno matter who they are. For example, in 1997, about three years after coming to Times Square Church in New York City, I was invited to speak at Sullivan prison in Fallsburg, New York. I was ushered into a section of the prison with about 60 "lifers." These 60 men, whose greatest ambition was to kill a copin this case, an ex-cophad nothing left to lose. What would another life sentence matter to them? They were already going to die behind bars. David Berkowitz led the worship that night. You might remember him as the infamous Son of Sam and the string of six murders he committed between July 29, 1976, and July 31, 1977, in New York City. David is serving six life sentences and has asked to never be paroled because of the responsibility he now feels for the murders he committed and injuries he caused. He is now a wonderful Christian man, totally in love with his Lord. He has a ministry to prisoners who come in so beaten up that they can't brush their own teeth. He brushes their teeth for them and helps them wash themselves as he tells them how much God loves them. I know the Holy Spirit was and is with Davidfurther evidence that the Lord can save and completely transform anybody and anything. With the auditorium doors locked behind us, I was there with two unarmed guards, one trumpet player from Times Square Church named Angelo, and the 60 aforementioned lifers. As soon as I got up to speak, I told them that I was an ex-cop. Angelo, who was seated behind me, muttered, "Uh-oh." Angelo, who was a former inmate himself, scolded me later about how dangerous it was for me to confess that I used to be a cop, especially to lifers. No sooner had I mentioned that I was a former cop than one of the prisoners from the back of the auditorium stood up, walked down the aisle, sat down directly in front of me, folded his arms and glared at me. "I'm not here because I've got nothing better to do," I told them. "I'm not here because I'm a do-gooder. I'm here because God loves you. I'm here because you can be free, even if you never leave these walls. Your prison is not built by men; your prison is a matter of the heart, and you are captive because you don't know the love God has for you. You don't know the freedom Christ died to give you." When I finished speaking, I made an invitation. About eight men came forward. I hugged each one of them, one by one. It was a beautiful sight to seea cop hugging men with life sentences. Every one of them was weeping and shaking like a baby. What a privilege it was to tell them that God loved them. In Luke 4:1819 Jesus quoted the words of Isaiah 61:1, saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (NIV). Jesus stood in the synagogue, opened the Scripture and essentially said, "The Spirit of God is upon Me for you, and you, and you, and you..." There was no other reason the Spirit was upon Him except to alleviate human suffering and for the redemption of fallen humanity. Jesus' desire was to bring a fallen people into the knowledge of God and, ultimately, back to living with God for all eternity. Again, I've always believed it is impossible to say that "Christ is mine, and I am Christ's" yet remain self-absorbed. The apostle Paul, writing in 2 Timothy, warned that perilous times will come. "Men will be lovers of self," he wrote (2 Tim. 3:2, NASB). That self-love would be the underpinning of everything else he was about to write. Loving ourselves and giving ourselves preeminence in life automatically means that our relationships with others are a form of religion that lacks the power of God. Paul ultimately says to turn away from self-serving religion. Any faith based on the life of Jesus Christ within us must be lived for the benefit and the sake of other people. We can know in large measure the heart of God for people. I remember the story in Mark 8 where Jesus led the blind man away from the village of Bethsaida in order to restore his sight, which I think represents leading people away from a culture that confines and even tries to hijack the love of God and give credit to humankind for the things that God does. It's all about me, myself and Iwith no room left for God. "When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, 'Do you see anything?' [The man] looked up and said, 'I see people; they look like trees walking around.' Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, 'Don't even go into the village'" (Mark 8:2326, NIV). The man's sight was only partially restored at first. It wasn't until God touched him the second time that he saw clearly. That's how it often works in our walks with God. He continues to touch our eyes and our hearts as often as needed until we see clearly and love willingly, sincerely and genuinely. home World Kim Jong-un says he would welcome a visit to North Korea by Pope Francis Kim Jong-un would like the Pope to visit North Korea, according to a statement from South Korea's presidential office. North Korea's Supreme Leader reportedly extended the invitation during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month. The Pope would be 'enthusiastically' welcomed in communist North Korea, Kim reportedly said, despite the country being officially atheist. Kim Eui-kyeom, spokesman for the South Korean president, told reporters today: 'Chairman Kim said he will "ardently welcome the Pope if he visits Pyongyang".' President Moon is expected to pass on the invitation to Pope Francis when he meets him at the Vatican during a trip to Europe next week. The spokesman said President Moon would visit the Vatican on October 17 and 18 to 'reaffirm its blessing and support for peace and stability of the Korean peninsula'. The Vatican and Pyongyang do not currently have formal diplomatic relations and North Korea has a history of persecution towards Christians. The country is currently ranked number one in Open Doors' World Watch List of the 50 most dangerous countries to be a Christian a a position it has held for the last 16 years in a row. According to Open Doors, Christians in the country are faced with torture in prison and hard labour camps for their faith. North Korea is officially atheist and strictly controls religious activities, with the people instead taught to worship the Kim family. Practising Christianity is perceived as a threat to the state and the leadership. Despite the fierce oppression, Open Doors puts the number of Christians in North Korea at 300,000. News of the invitation to Pope Francis came days after US Secretary of State held a 'very productive' meeting with Kim in Pyongyang on Sunday. The meeting signaled a rekindling of negotiations between the two countries towards denuclearization in North Korea after talks stalled over the summer. Source: Christian Today North Korea wants to 'ardently welcome' Pope Francis, South says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has invited Pope Francis to visit Pyongyang, a gesture designed to highlight peace efforts, South Korea's presidential office said on Tuesday. South Korean President Moon Jae-in will deliver Kim's invitation when he meets Francis next week during a trip to Europe, spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said. North Korea and the Vatican have no diplomatic relations. 'President Moon will visit the Vatican on October 17 and 18 to reaffirm its blessing and support for peace and stability of the Korean peninsula,' the spokesman told a news briefing. 'When he meets with Pope Francis, he will convey Chairman Kim's message that he will ardently welcome him if he visits Pyongyang.' Kim told Moon of his wish to meet the pope during a meeting last month, the spokesman added, without elaborating on the possible timing. The pope has said he wants to visit Japan next year. The Vatican said in a statement that the pope will receive Moon at noon on October 17. The day before, in St Peter's Basilica, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state and the pope's second-in-command, will say a 'Mass for Peace' on the Korean peninsula. Moon will attend the mass, the Vatican said. North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion as long as it does not undermine the state, but beyond a handful of state-controlled places of worship, no open religious activity is allowed. The invitation to a pope is the first by a North Korean leader since Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, invited Pope John Paul in 2000, a trip that never happened. Asked about the possibility of a trip, a Vatican spokesman said: 'Let's wait for the invitation to arrive.' North Korea, which Church officials estimated had a Catholic community of about 55,000 just before the 1950-53 Korean War, does not allow priests to be permanently stationed in the country. 'Priests from the South occasionally visit, usually accompanying aid deliveries or humanitarian projects. Information about how many Catholic are still in North Korea is scarce. Religious agencies have said they number in the few hundreds to about 4,000. Kim held an unprecedented summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, and pledged to work toward denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. While Kim's actions since have fallen short of Washington's demands, the Trump administration is preparing for a second summit. Before the detente, the leaders regularly traded threats and insults as North Korea pushed to develop a nuclear missile capable of hitting the United States. The two Koreas have held three summits this year. On his European tour, scheduled for October 13 to 21, Moon will attend an AsiaEurope Meeting in Belgium, as well as France, Italy and Denmark, his office said. Shock win at Supreme Court in Ashers Bakery discrimination case The UK Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Ashers, the Belfast bakery owned by evangelical Christians who in 2014 refused to bake a cake featuring a slogan in support of same-sex marriage. The customer, Gareth Lee, said their action was discriminatory and the bakery was taken to court by the Equality Commission. Ashers was ordered to pay 500 in damages for breaching anti-discrimination laws, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal. Now the Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the owners. In a judgment delivered today, Lady Hale said: 'The bakers did not refuse to fulfil [Lee's] order because of his sexual orientation. They would have refused to make such a cake for any customer, irrespective of their sexual orientation. 'Their objection was to the message on the cake not to the personal characteristics of Mr Lee. 'Accordingly this court holds that there was no discrimination on the ground of the sexual orientation of Mr Lee.' After the five Supreme Court judges unanimously upheld the appeal, Ashers' general manager Daniel McArthur spoke to gathered media on the steps of the court. He said: 'I want to start by thanking God. He has been with us during the challenges of the last four years. Through the Bible and the support of Christians, he has comforted us and sustained us. He is our rock and all his ways are just. 'We're delighted and relieved at today's ruling. We always knew we hadn't done anything wrong in turning down this order. After more than four years, the Supreme Court has now recognised that and we're very grateful. Grateful to the judges and especially grateful to God. 'We're particularly pleased the Supreme Court emphatically accepted what we've said all along we did not turn down this order because of the person who made it, but because of the message itself. "The judges have given a clear signal today. In fact it couldn't be any clearer. Family businesses like ours are free to focus on giving all their customers the best service they can without being forced to promote other people's campaigns. 'I know a lot of people will be glad to hear this ruling today, because this ruling protects freedom of speech and freedom of conscience for everyone. 'On behalf of my family can I say thank you to everyone who has supported us or prayed for us through all this. 'I do want to take this opportunity to thank our whole legal team for working so hard for us over the last four years. And also to thank the entire Christian Institute staff for their help and support from the very beginning. 'We want to move on from this now, and I'm sure Mr Lee does too. And let me just finish by saying that he will always be welcome at any of our shops.' The Evangelical Alliance's UK director Peter Lynas has been campaigning on the issue and told Christian Today the verdict was 'absolutely brilliant news and absolutely the right decision'. 'It's clear the Supreme Court was taking this very seriously,' he said. The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland said in a statement it was 'disappointed in the judgment given today by the Supreme Court in the case of Lee v Ashers Baking Company Limited and Others'. It continued: 'This case was about Mr Lee being denied a service by the bakery, which he felt was discriminatory. The Belfast County Court and the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal found that Mr Lee had been discriminated against on grounds of sexual orientation, political opinion and religious belief, in line with case law developed over the years. 'The Supreme Court has overturned these findings and we will have to look at the implications of its judgment carefully.' Long-time gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell welcomed the ruling, saying: 'This verdict is a victory for freedom of expression. As well as meaning that Ashers cannot be legally forced to aid the promotion of same-sex marriage, it also means that gay bakers cannot be compelled by law to decorate cakes with anti-gay marriage slogans. 'Businesses can now lawfully refuse a customer's request to emblazon a political message if they have a conscientious objection to it. This includes the right to refuse messages that are sexist, xenophobic or anti-gay, which is a good thing. 'Although I profoundly disagree with Ashers opposition to marriage equality, in a free society neither they nor anyone else should be forced to facilitate a political idea that they oppose.' Ashers was supported by The Christian Institute, which funded its defence. Spokesman Simon Calvert said: 'We are delighted at this common-sense ruling. It's a total vindication of Ashers Baking Company and the McArthur family. The United Kingdom has a long and proud tradition of free speech and today's ruling is a resounding reassertion of that tradition. 'They have strongly underlined the law on compelled speech, quoting a previous case which said "Nobody should be forced to have or express a political opinion in which he does not believe." 'The Court recognised that this case was about declining to support a particular message, not declining to serve a particular customer. 'The Court strongly agreed with Ashers' lawyers that this case has always been about the message on the cake and not the customer; the message, not the messenger. 'Ashers is now free to go back to doing what it does best serving all its customers, from every walk of life.' A Francis Bacon masterpiece from The Collection of S.I. Newhouse Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing, from the collection of the mastermind behind Conde Nast and one of the greatest art collectors of the 20th century, realises $21,687,500 in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York Between 1959 and 1969, when he completed Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing, Francis Bacon painted his friend and muse at least 23 times (counting each triptych as one work). Martin Harrison, the writer, curator and authority on Bacons work, describes the picture, which was the artists final named portrait of Moraes, as the distillation of all the paintings, expressing his feelings for her and his understanding of her psyche. Born Audrey Wendy Abbott, in Simla, India, in 1931, Moraes was raised by an abusive grandmother in England. She never saw her father, who served in the Indian Air Force and deserted the family when her mother was pregnant. Escaping her troubled childhood, this self-styled Bohemian drifted into the Soho milieu inhabited by Bacon, and became a model for artists. An affair with Lucian Freud resulted in the painting Girl in a Blanket, 1953. Her great love, though, was reputedly the artist John Minton, who was a homosexual. She lived in what was, in effect, a menage-a-trois with Minton and the actor Norman Bowler, whom she married in 1956 and went on to have two children with. Minton took his own life in 1957, leaving her his house in Chelsea. Bacon had stayed here in 1953, and it was here that John Deakin took the notorious nude photographs of Henrietta around 1959, explains Harrison. In 1961, she married the Indian poet Dom Moraes, and although the union was short-lived, she decided to keep his name. Moraes typified Bacons ideal female friend sexually uninhibited, unconventional, spirited if vulnerable, gregarious, and a serious drinker. In 1969, when Bacon painted Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing, she was 38 years old and had behind her several suicide attempts and three failed marriages (her first husband, the film-maker Michael Law, had given her the name Henrietta). For her part, Moraes regarded Bacon as a prophet, principally because his paintings of her lying on a bed with a syringe in her arm had foretold the drug addiction to which she later succumbed. In December 1968, Bacons studio was trashed by his lover, George Dyer, in a fit of rage and jealousy. While it was being repaired, from January to August 1969, Bacon worked in a studio in the nearby Royal College of Art. The change of location coincided with Bacon starting to paint on yellow grounds, beginning with an atypical profile rendition in Portrait of Henrietta Moraes, 1969, writes Harrison. Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing was the first painting he completed after returning to his Reece Mews studio. Bacon approached the blank canvas with a mixture of confidence and apprehension. He was trying to convey feelings about himself, life and death, and of his subject that were problematic to express in paint. He would recount almost as if he had been assisted by a miracle of outside intervention that certain paintings had come off. He was referring to the gamble he took in the act of painting, one that relied on chance or accident. Working alone in his studio, and often feeling unwell or anxious, Bacon succeeded in maintaining the level of inspiration, energy and exhilaration that resulted in Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing. It is a painting that the viewer experiences viscerally, as Bacon said he felt his paintings in himself. Alex Rotter, Chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christies in New York, points out that the picture focuses not on Henrietta Moraess face, but the complexity of her psychological state, underlining the artists incomparable ability to convey emotions. Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing is a wonderful representation of Mr. Newhouses extraordinary eye for quality Guillaume Cerutti Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing was known formerly as Study of Henrietta Moraes, 1969, and was exhibited under that title in Bacons major retrospectives at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1971, and at the Tate Gallery in 1985. Beyond identifying body positions (Seated, Lying, Reclining) in his paintings, Bacon never appended descriptive adjectives to their titles, countering potentially anecdotal and narrative interpretations. Evidently, he soon regretted adding the word laughing, and had Marlborough Fine Art remove it from the official title. The viewers gaze is drawn to the eyes perhaps in the transitional motion of blinking and moves inevitably to the mouth, the site of the laugh. Moraess laugh, which could certainly be described as enigmatic, indicates that Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa was in the back of Bacons mind. Her neckline, too, is similar to La Giocondas. Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing also has affinities with Picassos portrait of Dora Maar, Femme assise, robe bleue, 1939, the smile in which has also been compared with that of the Mona Lisa. Bacon was probably aware, too, of the coincidence that Maars first name was actually Henriette. These correlations, if speculative, are compelling in the context of Bacons theoretical discourse with Picasso. Sign up today Christie's Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe An American Place: The Barney A. Ebsworth Collection comes to Christies The story of the greatest privately owned collection of American Modernist art ever to come to market, and Barney A. Ebsworths single-minded determination to buy only the very best including masterpieces by Hopper, Sheeler, OKeeffe, de Kooning, Pollock and more The Barney A. Ebsworth Collection represents an extraordinary achievement in the history of collecting, one that illuminates the rise of American art across the 20th century. The origins of this singular assemblage, however, lie across the Atlantic in France. My real interest in art didnt start until 1957, revealed Ebsworth (1934-2018) in his autobiography. I was not an art connoisseur. I visited [the Louvre] because it was such an integral part of Paris, and what I found there changed me. Ebsworth was serving in the US Army at the time, having willed himself to France after completing his basic training. Reading Proust at college had ignited his love of the country, and when he stepped off a train from Germany he described feeling that he was in a glamorous place covered in history. His first trip to Paris lasted three days and proved to be a pivotal moment in his life. He talked of walking from exhibit to exhibit in the Louvre in awe of how it felt to be surrounded by such great works of art. It made such a deep impression on him, that he left wanting to understand the pictures, the time periods they were from, the artists who had created them. Equipped with an enquiring mind and a thirst for knowledge, Ebsworth spent his spare time in the local library studying the art hed seen the previous weekend, and preparing for his next trip to the museum. With no mentor and no formal classes, I trained myself in art history just by reading and looking, he said. My eyes were my mentors. In real estate, they say three things matter: location, location, location. For me, collecting art was about quality, quality, quality Barney Ebsworth He had Paris to thank for more than just his new-found love of art. On New Years Eve 1956, Ebsworth met Martine deVisme, a 19-year-old French girl, at a USO party, and began dancing with her on the stroke of midnight. Little did I know that she was going to become my wife, he wrote years later. They married in March 1958, and Ebsworth brought his new bride home to St. Louis where they had a daughter, Christiane. He embarked on the first steps of what would become a hugely successful career in the travel industry, buying a small travel firm that would eventually grow into INTRAV, an international company providing luxury group travel around the globe. And as his career progressed, so too did his love of art. Nobody starts as a collector, Ebsworth mused. You buy a few things you like, and then eight or ten items in, someone says, Boy, you have a great collection, and then you realise you have a collection. His own journey began with 17th-century Dutch pictures and Japanese scroll paintings, until a 1971 business trip to Rotterdam led to a conversation over dinner, which set him on a different, more defining course. Barney Ebsworth in his Seattle home, known as An American Place, with (behind him) Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935), Standing Woman, 1932. Bronze. 88 in high. Estimate: $1,500,00-2,500,000. Sold for: $3,732,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York. Photograph: Brian Smale Ebsworth was invited to visit a private collection containing multiple Old Master paintings by Rembrandt and Frans Hals. Realising he could not compete, he returned home and arranged a meeting with Charles Buckley, then director of the St. Louis Art Museum. [Buckley] suggested French Impressionism, Ebsworth recalled. I told him I couldnt afford that. He then suggested School of Paris and I told him I couldnt afford that either. So he suggested American Impressionism, and I said, What is it? Somehow we got into American modernism, and thats how it started for me. It was agreed Ebsworth should start with the Ashcan School early 20th-century painters of ordinary New York scenes such as Robert Henri, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, George Luks and John Sloan. In real estate, they say three things matter: location, location, location. For me, said Ebsworth, collecting art was about quality, quality, quality. I would rather have a smaller collection of the finest pictures than dozens of so-so ones. Vowing that he would only buy the very best, or only what could hang on the museum wall right now, and not sometime in the future, Ebsworths other ground rules were to buy works only by dead artists so that he could make choices from their whole range of work and to focus on objects rather than artists. All that mattered was what I could see in the piece, and how well I understood it in comparison to the artists range of work, he explained. William James Glackens (1870-1938), Cafe Lafayette (Portrait of Kay Laurell), painted in 1914. Oil on canvas. 32 x 26 in (81.3 x 66 cm). Sold for: $792,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York In 1972, the year he founded the Royal Cruise Line, Ebsworth and Buckley identified William Glackens 1914 work Cafe Lafayette (Portrait of Kay Laurell), above, which was being offered at auction in New York. He described his initial impression as love at first sight. In the same sale was an intriguing watercolour by Charles E. Burchfield, which prompted Ebsworth to embark on a further bout of research. In my hour-long crash course, I decided that it was painted during his best period and that if the painting was in my range, I would buy it. He left New York as the proud new owner of both works. Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Chop Suey, painted in 1929. Oil on canvas. 32 x 38 in (81.3 x 96.5 cm). Sold for: $91,875,000 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York At his next auction, Ebsworth bought three pictures by Charles Sheeler. He then added small paintings by Stuart Davis and Albert Bierstadt before finding himself at another fork in the road. Was it to be early 20th-century or 19th-century art? He opted for the former. Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Still Life in the Street, painted in 1941. Oil on canvas. 10 x 12 in (25.7 x 30.8 cm). Sold for: $780,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York Acting as a trusted guide, Buckley encouraged Ebsworth to focus on the achievements of American Modernists such as Edward Hopper, Georgia OKeeffe, Charles Demuth, Joseph Stella, and Charles Sheeler. He also introduced the collector to reputable dealers such as Joan Washburn, Antoinette Kraushaar and Virginia Zabriskie. Buckley suggested to Ebsworth that he should build a collection of the best 12 American Modernist paintings he could buy. If he found a 13th painting that was better than one he already owned, he should sell that painting to buy the new one. Within a year, though, Ebsworth had moved to buy a 13th, 14th and 15th picture. Charles Sheeler (1883-1965), Cat-walk, painted in 1947. Oil on canvas. 24 x 20 in (61 x 50.8 cm). Sold for: $1,332,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York The next significant milestone was the 1973 auction of The Estate of Edith Gregor Halpert, owner of the Downtown Gallery and the primary American Modernist dealer after the death of Alfred Stieglitz. Ebsworth later admitted he should have bought all 20 paintings on offer, confessing that he subsquently paid $1.5 million for a work that had been hammered down for $35,000. In that auction, he lost out to John D. Rockefeller on a John Marin watercolour, but was the successful bidder for Black, White and Blue by Georgia OKeeffe, paying $47,000 for the work. When he was subsequently introduced to Lloyd Goodrich, the director of the Whitney Museum of Art and curator of the 1970 OKeeffe retrospective told him that he considered the 1930 abstract canvas to be OKeeffes greatest picture. Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), Horn and Feather, painted in 1937. Oil on canvas. 9 x 14 in (22.9 x 35.6 cm). Sold for: $612,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York The reason I understood Georgias work was that I came to American artists with European eyes, Ebsworth wrote. Europeans understood this type of art long before Americans did. We still had a cultural inferiority complex that told us all great works of art came from Europe. Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), Beauford Delaney, executed in 1943. Charcoal on paper. 24 x 18 in (62.9 x 47 cm). Sold for: $372,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York American art didnt blossom until after World War II with artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. Georgias work showed no influence; it didnt feel derivative of anything. It was purely American. Ebsworth would strike up a lasting friendship with OKeeffe and was married to his second wife, Patricia, with the artist as their witness at her Abiquiu home in New Mexico. Having satisfied himself that he had bought the very best available works of American Modernism, Ebsworth turned to museum-quality works by the great names of Abstract Expressionism, extending his quest to trace the unique creative experiment that saw traditions of the European canon being cast aside in favour of a bold, new interpretation of burgeoning national identity. Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), Woman as Landscape, painted in 1954-1955. Oil and charcoal on canvas. 65 x 49 in (166.3 x 125.4 cm). Sold for: $68,937,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York What I wanted to do by that time was to turn my American Modernist collection into the full American 20th century, Ebsworth told Christies in 2010. And that was when I became interested in buying a Klein, a de Kooning, a Pollock, a Jasper Johns, a Warhol and a Hockney. Historian Bruce Robertson has argued that the greatest performance in America as well as its most original creation is surely the United States itself. The Ebsworth Collection is a unique and powerful representation of that national experience, realised through the visionary talents of Hopper, OKeeffe, Pollock, Joan Mitchell, Franz Kline, de Kooning and others. Here, Robertson declares, is where the value of a single great collection returns. Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Composition with Red Strokes, painted in 1950. Oil, enamel and aluminium paint on canvas. 36 x 25 in (93 x 65.1 cm). Sold for: $55,437,500 on 13 November 2018 at Christies in New York Due to luck, timing and research, I managed to put together the best privately owned collection of American Modernist paintings in existence, Ebsworth reflected. In 1987-88, the collection toured to The St. Louis Art Museum, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as a second tour in 2000 where it was shown at the National Gallery of Art and the Seattle Art Museum. In many ways, the collection mirrors Barney Ebsworths own journey in connoisseurship. Buying American art of this period, Charles Buckley wrote, has been for Barney an act of strong personal commitment and discovery. Although the pleasure that he experiences from collecting is apparent to all who know him, it is what he learns from living with these paintings and sculpture that perhaps brings him the greatest satisfaction. In the tradition of such esteemed American collectors as Henry Clay Frick, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Albert C. Barnes, Ebsworth, with his third wife Pamela, conceived of his residence, designed by the renowned architect Jim Olson outside Seattle, Washington, as a dialogue between art and architecture. History is replete with houses that have contained great art, wrote curator Franklin Kelly of the National Gallery of Art, but not with houses where great art has been a central factor from their very inception. Sign up today Christie's Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe Feet first: Kazuo Shiraga and Gutai, the radical art movement that startled Japan With the offer of a spectacular oil work by Kazuo Shiraga at Christies in Paris on 17 October, we look back on the collective of experimental performance and multimedia artists whose impact on contemporary art is only now being fully recognised In 1954 the Gutai Bijutsu Kyokai, or Gutai group, became Japans first post-war radical art movement, says Christies post-war and contemporary art specialist Paul Nyzam. Their work encompassed painting, performance and happenings much in line with avant-garde artistic developments in Europe but passed largely under the radar in the West during the second half of the 20th century. In 2013, however, a comprehensive show of the Gutai groups work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York served as a reminder of the groups importance. Do what no one has done before! The Gutai group initially consisted of around 20 young artists who were brought together in the town of Ashiya, near Osaka, by Jiro Yoshihara, the scion of a family made wealthy by food oils. Their ambition was to fill a perceived cultural void left by the atrocities of the Second World War and the aftermath of the atomic bomb. The groups manifesto dictated that each member should follow their own individual path, and, in the words of Yoshihara, Do what no one has done before! Gutai translates loosely as concreteness, and reflects the groups readiness to engage with a remarkable range of materials, from paint to tar, mud, glue, newspaper and water. Shiraga wanted to create art in a way that no one had ever done before. His pioneering techniques and philosophy inspired many European and American artists such as Yves Klein and Georges Mathieu. Shiragas foot paintings During the Gutai movements first phase, from 1954 to 1961, Kazuo Shiraga was seen as its predominant force. Shiraga wanted to create art in a way that no one had ever done before, explains Nyzam. His pioneering techniques and philosophy inspired many European and American artists, such as Yves Klein and Georges Mathieu. To create works such as Hokei and Chigakusei Tekkyoshi (below), which is being sold at Christies in Paris on 17 October, he would suspend himself from harnesses above a canvas in front of an audience, performing the paintings creation with his feet. Despite the fact that this often caused him great pain, he believed that in using an untrained part of his body the work would be more spontaneous, and freed from academic tradition. From leaping through paper to sculpture from sawdust Other members of the Gutai group were equally as inventive. Saburo Murakami would leap through large sheets of paper; Atsuko Tanaka used bells and light bulbs in her theatrical performances; Chiyu Uemae made sculptures from sawdust. Chiyu Uemae (b. 1920), Untitled, 1964. Oil on canvas. 182 x 92 cm (71 x 36 in). Sold for HK$2,200,000 on 30 May 2015 at Christies in Hong Kong Gutais founder, Yoshihara a decade older, and perhaps more conservative than his younger followers was a keen disciple of American post-war art, and painted in a manner similar to Abstract Expressionism. He once wrote to Jackson Pollock, suggesting that there were coincidences between the two artists paintings, but never received a response. They collectively installed a vending machine inside an Osaka department store where visitors could purchase works of art created by an artist sitting inside the contraption Links with Art Informel In the late 1950s Yoshihara decided to shift the focus of the groups attention towards Art Informel, a highly gestural style of improvised Abstract Expressionism that was championed by the French critic and one-time Gutai supporter Michel Tapie. Between 1962 and 1972, the groups number swelled to 50, and a space dedicated to their work called the Gutai Pinacotheca was founded in Osaka. In addition to exhibiting the Gutai group, the gallery mounted shows by international artists such as Lucio Fontana, Guiseppe Capogrossi and Sam Francis. It was also visited by the artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, the musician John Cage and the British-born art critic and curator of the Guggenheim at the time, Lawrence Alloway. The vending machine that dispensed art During this decade the Gutai groups focus also shifted again, this time to multimedia art. They collectively installed a vending machine inside an Osaka department store where visitors could purchase works of art created by an artist sitting inside the contraption, thereby transforming the passive act of viewing art into an interaction. They also began experimenting with both industrial and natural found materials, such as electric lights, cellophane, smoke and water in order to push the boundaries of avant-garde art, says Nyzam. Jiro Yoshihara (1905-1972), Untitled, 1971. Oil on canvas. 53 x 45.5 cm (20 x 17 in). Sold for HK$2,800,000 on 28 May 2016 at Christies in Hong Kong For the 1970 World Expo: a firetruck that blew bubbles The groups crowning achievement however, came in 1970 when they were asked to participate in Japans World Expo in Osaka. There, they choreographed a performance art ceremony which included men levitating on huge balloons and a fire truck blowing bubbles. The Expo, however, foreshadowed the groups demise. Many of its major figures soon quit, while some of the younger artists in the group became disillusioned with their practices. The movement eventually petered out in 1972 after Yoshihara died. In her annual Fall Address, University of Houston President Renu Khator lauded growing enrollments and graduation rates at the institution and provided an update on the school's efforts to establish a college of medicine. Khator said Texas' Higher Education Coordinating Board is scheduled to take action on UH's application for its medical school later this month, and that about 35 officials are working to finish an application for national accreditation by December. If all goes according to plan, Khator said the medical school could be fully accredited by 2019 and could welcome its first class of students in the fall of 2020. "It's possible for us to introduce a program for medicine and help do what this university has always done: Serving the people and the community," Kahtor said Wednesday. KHATOR'S CLIMB: The 10 years that elevated UH and Renu Khator While an anonymous donor has provided $3 million to pay the inaugural class's tuition, gaining full accreditation for the school will be no easy feat. Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes has bemoaned the growth of academic programs at colleges statewide, instead pleading that schools focus on improving the programs they already operate. "We are expanding academic programs faster than the Legislature is even willing or able to support appropriately," he told higher education leaders in 2017, according to the Austin Statesman. "Unless we put a brake on expansion of programs, we are going to dilute the limited resources we have still more, and that's a certain recipe for statewide mediocrity. Frankly, we have an awful lot of mediocre academic programs in Texas." Still, the Coordinating Board approved a doctorate program in osteopathic medicine at Sam Houston State University in August. Khator also touted growing enrollments, rising graduation rates and some narrowing achievement gaps at the school. PRESIDENT'S PET: Renu Khator adopts stray dog that roamed campus for a week She said about 46,300 students are now enrolled at the flagship campus and, for the first time, more freshmen are enrolled than transfer students. Achievement gaps evidenced by graduation rates have also improved, the president said. The four-year graduation rates for African-American students is now two percentage points shy of the graduation rates for white students, shrinking from a 10 percent gap found in the class of 2017. There now is zero difference in the six-year graduation rate from Pell Grant recipients, who come from lower income households, to students who do not receive the federal assistance. Financial aide disbursements also have increased from $314 million in 2013-2014 to $364 million in 2013-2014. Still, tuition overall has risen by more than 50 percent at the school since Khator came to the college in 2008. This story will be updated. Check chron.com for updates. Photo courtesy of Urban Land Institute and Levy Park John Sandford American novelist will sign and discuss his new Virgil Flowers novel, "Holy Ghost." When: 6:30 p.m. Friday Where: Murder By The Book, 2342 Bissonnet Details: 713-524-8597, murderbooks.com Blues and the Spanish Tinge Da Camera of Houston presents virtuoso pianist Aaron Diehl, featuring works from classical, jazz and blues traditions. When: 7:30 p.m. Friday Where: Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby Details: $37.50-$72.50; dacamera.com Houston Maker Faire Event showcases makers across all spectrums of science, engineering, art, performance, craft and explorers of new forms and technologies. When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday Where: George R Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las Americas, Hall E Details: $15-$80; houston.makerfaire.com Wine Fest at Brenners on the Bayou Festival features wine sampling, food pairings and live music. When: 3-6 p.m. Saturday Where: 1 Birdsall Details: $99-$150; brennersfest.com Houston Pride Band 40th Anniversary Celebration Gala concert will feature dynamic music representing the bands history, present and future. When: 6-9:30 p.m. Saturday Where: Hobby Center, 800 Bagby Details: $15; thehobbycenter.org Haunted Pub Tour Spooky Saturdays A combination of ghost tour and pub crawl. Attendees will get to explore local haunted bars and buildings. When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday Where: Charbar, 305 Travis Details: $25; nightlyspirits.com/houston-tours Sunday Drum Jam An informal, facilitated drum circle session, participants are encouraged to bring drums, percussion instruments or other objects to create rhythmic sounds. When: 3:30-5 p.m. Sunday Where: Levy Park, 3801 Eastside Details: levyparkhouston.org/calendar/619 Cuatro Puntos Cardinales Film director Javier Kafie will discuss and screen Cuatro Puntos Cardinales, a cultural documentary that portrays stories from El Salvador. When: 6 p.m. Monday Where: Holocaust Museum Houston, 9220 Kirby, No. 100 Details: hmh.org Conversation with a Texas Liberator Texas Liberators and descendants will share their stories in a special event led by moderator and HMH board member David Bell. When: 6 p.m. Wednesday Where: Holocaust Museum Houston, 9220 Kirby, No. 100 Details: hmh.org Friends Trivia Night with Karbach Trivia game based on the characters, storylines and plots of the hit series Friends. When: 7-10 p.m. Monday Where: The Ginger Man Midtown, 160 W. Gray Details: facebook.com/events/339030696662102 Amigo the Devil Folk rock concert featuring Amigo the Devil, Harley Poe and D. Kosmo. When: 7 p.m. Thursday Where: White Oak Music Hall, 2915 N. Main Details: $15; whiteoakmusichall.com MIDDLETOWN Retired Gen. Sar Phouthasack surveyed the development of the Lao/Hmong Special Guerrilla Unit monument a UH-1H Iroquois Huey Helicopter installed outside the Greater Middletown Military Museum Tuesday. Amid a freshly laid circular entrance and fledgling grass on a perfect fall day, Phouthasack, a U.S. military-trained agent of the CIAs secret army during the Vietnam War in Laos, was there, along with museum founder Ron Organek, building committee Vice Chairman Ken McClellan, Seving Suparat Kimmy, a former prisoner of war, and volunteer Army Reserve Ambassador Lewis P. Vasquez. They were putting the finishing touches on the installation ahead of Saturdays planned daylong dedication. SGU veterans will conduct ceremonies and ribbon cutting for the monument at the Connecticut Trees of Honor in Veterans Memorial Park on Walnut Grove Road from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The museum is a 13-year labor of love for Organek, who was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968 and served with the 14th Armored Cavalry in Germany. The museum contains a trove of memorabilia letters, uniforms, books, weapons, flags and other relics of Middletown-area soldiers who served in war. The helicopter, placed in June on the museum grounds, came as a gift from the Army National Guard. Phouthasack, of Windsor, donated the metal base. Three of four poles, each of which will fly the American, Laotian, POW and Connecticut flags, have been installed. Inside the museum is a miniature model of the helicopter safely housed in plastic glass after an accident claimed the first one Vasquez built. Phouthasack conceived the installation some six years ago and it is now set on the skirts of the Trees of Honor. His initial attempts to have the monument located in Bristol were unsuccessful, so Vasquez put him in touch with museum organizers seven months ago, knowing it would be a perfect complement to the park. The army purchased the 50-year-old helicopter, which has flown 2,345 hours, in 1968. It took three hits in battle from gun-launched, nonexplosive ballistic projectiles and was hit in the cockpit, according to the general, who served in Laos for 26 years. He came to America in 1983. You hear about the killing fields in Cambodia but you never hear about the killing fields in Laos, he said. This country, it gave me an opportunity. I tell people this is a great country. You cant be lazy. I came here and I worked hard. More for you Cromwell Police Department welcomes new officer to 'family' There is a large contingent of Laoatians who settled in Connecticut: in New Britain, Bridgeport, New Haven, Windsor, Bristol, Middletown and Torrington. Kimmy, who had 11 siblings, was 13 when she joined the Laotian resistance. She fought for six years, and was eventually captured and held for nine years, four months and one day, Sar said. She and scores of others were forced to work in the rice fields, build roads and other manual labor. One night, Kimmy, who was seven months pregnant at the time, sneaked out of the concentration camp with her husband and young daughter. They traveled at least 50 miles to freedom, Sar said. To this day, she has no idea of what fate befell her father, uncle, siblings and other family members. Phouthasack and other veterans hope one day Middletowns installation will be declared a national monument. Organizers envision commissioning a bronze statue of a wounded pilot on a stretcher or something similar, which would involve extensive fundraising. Against many odds over more than a decade, Organek never gave up his hope of opening the museum. I had doubts, but then, every so often, things would happen that told me Lets do it, because theres a lot of history here that could have been lost, not only for Middletown but Portland, Cromwell and surrounding towns, Organek said Tuesday as he worked to compile written histories of WWI and WWII. McClellan has been involved in the project since its early days. Im a kid in a candy store. Our military history has always interested me, and just getting things like this and knowing were going to be able to preserve it, and let people see and tell stories about it is fulfilling. McClellan showed off a military outfit from the early 1918. Its the actual uniform from that picture, he said, pointing to a soldiers portrait. He was in Company B. Hes got three service stripes. I had to look up to see he was a private in the 26th Yankee Division: William Braren. We know who he is, something rare with military memorabilia, much of which made its way to the museum through family members who arent knowledgeable about the items provenance. Some of the donations, such as a trunk full of war correspondences, a shaving kit, Woodrow Wilson High School diploma, American flag and other personal items contain little information. People brought in foot lockers, boxes, and said, Here, this belongs to grandpa, leaving it up to museum officials to investigate its history, McClellan said. A former English teacher at Vinal Technical High School donated replicas of food rations created by her father, a POW and artist. He drew sketches of things [soldiers] would use to cook their food. They smuggled them out when they were leaving, he said. She had the students reproduce the cans of apple pudding, dried milk, salmon, chocolate bars, cooking utensils, pots and other containers. Saturdays event includes breakfast and lunch. The museum is slated to fully open in early spring, with a soft opening set for Veterans Day from noon 1 p.m. For information, visit gmvmm.com. Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com or Twitter @cassandrasdis. Harris County Sheriff's Office has charged a man with capital murder they suspect killed 25-year-old Ashley George, whose body was found in Clear Lake Park on April 24 along with her abandoned car, according to a statement released by the Sheriff's office in Aug. Darrell Burnside, 49, was transferred to Harris County jail on Sept. 5, said Tebben Lewis, a spokeswoman for Harris County Sheriff's Office. The man was charged in Aug. for what homicide investigators called "the retaliation murder" of George. The investigators believe Burnside was the boyfriend of George, and both were suspected of being involved in the murder of Burnside's wife in Mississippi in Feb. Burnside was arrested in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana on Aug. 3 for an outstanding warrant in Harris County, said Kim Meyers Oct. 10, spokeswoman for the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office. The release states that Harris County Investigators traveled to Calcasieu in Aug. to interview Burnside and was extradited to Harris County on Sept. 5. His court date is set for Nov. 12 and bail has not been set, said Lewis. Burnside faces no charges in Calcasieu Parish. RELATED: Cause of death released in murder of woman found at Clear Lake Park Harris County Court documents show that a paternity suit and motion for support was brought against a Darrell Burnside by Ashley George in Dec. 2017. On Tuesday, April 24, at approximately 4:15 a.m., Harris County Patrol Units located an abandoned, suspicious vehicle parked inside the Clear Lake Park on East NASA Parkway. The registered owner of the vehicle was contacted and it was determined that the vehicle had been driven the previous evening by George. A search of the immediate area was conducted and the body of George was located on the grounds of the park at the water's edge. The Institute Of Forensic Science determined that George had suffered multiple cutting wounds. jaimy.jones@chron.com Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message. The Texas Department of Insurance fined Humana $700,000 for putting patients at risk of high bills in Harris, Bexar and Travis counties. Texas law requires that insurance companies such as Humana ensure their benefits are reasonably available to customers. However, the state concluded that Humana provided an insufficient number of anesthesiologists in the three metro areas. Earlier this week, Entergy had announced a planned outage in the Dayton area to replace a utility pole, but those plans have been temporarily put on hold while crews head to Georgia to assist with Hurricane Michael. The pole, located at the corner of East Clayton and North Winfree streets in Dayton, was to be replaced between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11 because of damage that occurred when an automobile hit it. The outage would have affected about 300 customers while crews safely did the work. Customers were going to be called in advance notifying them of the outage until Michael. We are going to wait to do this while we help those affected by the hurricane, said Kacee Kirschvink, spokesperson for Entergy Texas. Entergy Texas, Inc. is sending 100 employees and contractors to assist with Hurricane Michael response. These folks represent all Entergy Texas networks, covering 27 Texas counties. In addition to crews, they are bringing with them bucket trucks, diggers and service trucks This emergency response is part of a mutual assistance network where utilities help one another during major storms or other disasters. The crews left Tuesday afternoon and drove to Hammond, Louisiana. They got up on Wednesday morning and then traveled to Macon, Georgia, where they will be ready to assist Georgia Power and other utilities, as needed, to restore power to the communities affected by the hurricane. Kirschvink said she didnt know when the scheduled power outage would occur but would notify the public again when crews return home and ready to get back to work on the project. As of Tuesday, the Liberty County News Advocate received more than 11,000 views and close to 200 shares on the notice. dtaylor@hcnonline.com Chef Drake Leonards moved to Houston from New Orleans to begin a new chapter in his culinary career just before Hurricane Harvey slammed into town. "I thought I was leaving a hurricane city. But I came to another," he said. "Of all the things in Houston, flooding is one of the things I didn't think I'd have to encounter." After that less than hospitable welcome, Leonards did what other chefs throughout the ravaged Gulf region did: he cooked. Using food donated by his chef friends in New Orleans, he made sausage with red beans and rice, and he cooked Bolognese sauce on crawfish boil burners on the front yard of his new home in Houston. Some 6,000 meals went to NRG Stadium which took in flood victims after the storm. At the time he said he was reminded about the generosity and kindness that Houston showed to New Orleanians after Hurricane Katrina, further cementing the unique relationship between the two cities. "Not only did Houston take us in, they've always been so good to us," he said. Leonards may have spent most of his career cooking in the Crescent City, but he's a Houstonian now. And he's ready to give to the city in a way it relishes eating. Last week Leonards opened his long-awaited Eunice, a restaurant that has had an unusually long gestation period; it was first announced in June 2016. But after a hurricane, construction delays and unwanted publicity, Eunice is now open. And Leonards is more than ready to show Houston his own style of cooking that is based on foods and flavors wholly familiar to H-town. The restaurant takes its name from the Louisiana town where Leonards grew up, halfway between Houston and New Orleans. Eunice, in the heart of Cajun country, is home to fields where rice and crawfish flourish in their cyclical union. Leonards said both his parents a Cajun/French mother and a German father cooked well. The family ate a lot of sausage and potatoes and Acadian fare. "We ate potato salad in our gumbo," he said. CLASSIC SOUTHERN BISCUITS: Best recipes for simple buttermilk biscuits Leonards' resume includes work at some of New Orleans' most popular restaurants (August, Domenica, Borgne, Luke and Shaya), but with Eunice he's going back to where he began. Although inspired by his little town, the food at Eunice is invested in big city flair, classic technique and worldly sophistication. The menu begins with chilled seafood: Gulf shrimp remoulade with mirliton; Gulf tuna with apples, tomato and miso; an open-face tartine piled with avocado and blue crab; raw oysters and a seafood tower. Shared plates include fried quail with Tabasco honey, roasted oysters, chicken liver mousse served with figs and country bread, and Brussels sprouts with hazelnuts, chili sauce and ricotta. Salads include fried oysters with bacon and buttermilk ranch dressing, heirloom beets with pear, blue cheese and Steen's cane syrup vinaigrette, and charred broccolini with parmesan and lemon. Main dishes include seafood gumbo; Gulf shrimp with green onion and sausage gravy over green chile grits; Texas redfish court-bouillon; Gulf grouper with cauliflower, brown butter, almonds and satsumas; slow-roasted cochon de lait; blue crab and shrimp etoufee over handmade pasta; roasted chicken with wild mushrooms and sweet potatoes; and grilled ribeye steak with French fries and bearnaise sauce. Leonards is sending out this menu in a grand setting. The double-height room with walls of glass was designed by Gin Braverman in blonde wood furniture and muslin-covered hanging lamps. Observant diners will notice a motif of ducks, a nod to the hunting traditions of Cajun country. Braverman's minimalist approach to what was essentially a big box space is full of warmth and whimsy. After almost a year delay, Leonards is happy to be in the kitchen that was a long time coming. "I missed working with people and being able to teach," he said, "And being able to grow and learn from the people around me." The 33-year-old chef said he's back to doing what he got into the business for in the first place: "To make people happy with hospitality, good food and drink." Eunice, 3737 Buffalo Speedway, 832-491-1717; eunicerestaurant.com. Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday 3 to 10 p.m.; Sunday brunch 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. followed by dinner until 9 p.m. happy hour daily from 3 to 6 p.m. Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture. A man shot his roommate in the hand during an argument in Humble Tuesday night, according to Metro Video. The two roommates were fighting at their residence around 10:30 p.m., when one of them pulled out a gun, police said. Houston officials updated major transportation and infrustructure initiatives and informed residents about items that will be on the ballot in November during the Kingwood Town Hall meeting Oct. 9 at the Kingwood Community Center. Northpark Drive expansion Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 10 Chairman Stan Sarman gave an update on the Northpark Drive Mobility Improvement Project. The mobility improvement project will widen Northpark Drive to a six-lane boulevard with landscaping and improve flood mitigation and storm water detention ponds. The thoroughfare is currently four lanes between Loop 494 to Woodland Hills Drive. The expansion is divided into two phases: the overpass project and the reconstruction project. The overpass project will expand the roadway starting from Hwy. 59 to Russell Palmer Road. Phase II the reconstruction project will start at Russell Palmer Road and span to Woodland Hills Drive. Construction for the overpass is estimated to start in 2020 and take approximately 30 months to complete. Costs for the overpass project is estimated at $38.8 million and will be locally funded. Houston is contributing $15.4 million for the design, right-of-way acquisition and construction costs. Phase II construction is estimated to start in 2023. The Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority, a subsidiary of TIRZ10, will fund the design, right-of-way acquisition and remaining 20 percent of construction costs. The reconstruction costs is estimated at $47 million. The key thing on Northpark is we have a couple of issues remaining with the city as far as agreements and as soon as those are approved well be going forward as quickly as we can, Sarman said. Debris removal update Tetra Tech was contracted by the city of Houstons Solid Waste Management Department to remove between 75,000 to 150,000 cubic yards of debris from Lake Houston in May. The project, which was estimated to cost between $8 and $20 million, is about 80 percent complete, Directors Ralph Natale and John Buri said. Natale said over the past 109 days they have collected 81,000 cubic yards of debris and covered about 63 miles of coastline around Lake Houston. We are about 80 percent done with the debris removal. The majority of the debris has been collected on a first pass and were going back to collect the remaining collections of debris, Natale said. Flood mitigation projects Chief Resiliency Officer Stephen Costello talked about several mitigation projects in the Lake Houston area, including an expansion of the Lake Houston dam. City of Houston and Harris County officials are working on constructing a 10-foot gate structure to supplement existing gates on the dam for increased storm water storage and release capacity. This project is a little over $48 million with a 25 percent local match from the city and county. Offcials submitted their application to FEMA in July and it is currently under review. Costello said the reviewing process could take as long as six months. Costello also addressed the necessity of further dredging the San Jacinto River and Lake Houston. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently overseeing a nearly $70 million dredging project to return the San Jacinto River to its pre-Harvey capacity. The current dredging project is expected to remove nearly 2 million cubic yards of shoal material, which will be deposited at a site west of Hwy. 59, south of Kingwood Drive; and a site east of Hwy. 59, south of the San Jacinto River. However, Costello said more dredging could be necessary. Costello presented a a graphic of the sedimentation that has occurred in the West Fork of the San Jacinto River and in Lake Houston between 2011 and 2018. The reason why Im showing you this exhibit is because when we go do the Harvey recovery, the sedimentation that were pumping out and dredging, it can only be the portion of the sedimentation that occurred as a result of Harvey. We dont have surveys of the sedimentation before Harvey and then the day after Harvey. We just have these surveys. So theres going to be a series of negotiations with the regulatory agencies on how much of the material we want to move, Costello said. Federal dollars for Harvey recovery Chief Recovery Officer Marvin Odum informed Kingwood residents about $2.5 billion in funding that should be coming from FEMA for Houston infrastructure repairs. Interesting thing about this category is that this money is not capped, Odum said. This is something where we have damage and we can prove this damage exists then we will get 90 percent of the money to fix it. During Tuesday nights town hall meeting Odum noted that only $200 million has been delivered so far from FEMA. This is a long-term process this is just painfully slow, Odum said. FEMA is overloaded, theres a lot of reasons for that but it is slow and we just have to recognize that; but the city is at a good position in terms of where were headed in that category. Odum also noted that about $1.15 billion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will be allocated to the City of Houston for unmet housing needs after Harvey. Pretty soon well be rolling out the program for how that will be distributed across the city, Odum said. That money is not expected to hit the ground until December, a full 16 months after the storm. Odum said even with the monies coming in from HUD it still may not be enough for Houston to fully recover. Through some data analysis the city has done, it was determined they will need at least three times more than what HUD is providing. If you think about the damage that was done during Harvey and you define the need for money for repair and to get people back on their feet it is much, much greater than that $1.15 billion that were getting, Odum said. November election Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Councilman Dave Martin also talked to the Kingwood crowd about Proposition A and Proposition B, which will be on the ballot in November. Proposition A, if approved, would have a secure budget that would only be allocated to flooding, drainage and street improvements. From 2012-2017 ReBuild Houston has provided more than $800 million for drainage improvements and paid $1.1 billion toward old debt. Proposition B, if approved, would require the City of Houston to give firefighters a minimum 25 percent raise the first year and additional raises equal to the police department. Turner said the raise would cost the city at least $100 million per year, which is more than the city could afford. Turner also mentioned during the meeting if Proposition B does not pass, his offer of a 9.5 percent raise is still available for the fire department. kaila.contreras@chron.com After the recent Supreme Court hearings and the fierce debate between United States senators, Heights resident Dawn Adams Cole decided to begin bridging the gap between Democrats and Republicans. She and her husband Burton Cole hosted a purple political discussion group and dinner Tuesday, Oct. 2, at their home. The small event brought together about 14 Americans of both red and blue political persuasions and allowed them to dialog about issues the nation faces like health care, education, gun violence and the great division between todays two major political parties. Adams Cole said for different reasons, she saw the humanity in the testimonies of both Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but she grew discouraged at the divisive words of senators on both sides of the aisle. When the senators came on board, thats when I just completely pivoted and thought, What a juxtaposition from such raw humanity we saw to such tribalism. It was just like vitriolic tribalism, and there was no seeking to understand, and it drove me crazy. I thought, Surely, someones got to see it like this, that wheres the humanity? Seeing a lot more conflict about the subject on Facebook, she created a post inviting people to a discussion where they could hash out some of their differences in front of one another in a civil, respectful environment. I want people to reclaim the idea that you can talk about politics. For so long, you cant talk about politics, you cant talk about sex, you cant talk about these things, and we need to be able to talk about them, Adams Cole said. While most of the people at the discussion leaned to the left politically, Patty Simpson called herself a token Republican and said she wanted fiscal responsibility but also wanted women to have the ability to choose what they do with their bodies. Simpson said she understands how politicians actions can lead to voting apathy. Really, I am a more moderate. I think I am anyway because I think there is so much not good on both sides, Simpson said. I can see why people stay away from the polls because they cant which evil do you vote for because I think we could talk about every candidate thats out there, and they all do buffoonish, selfish, corrupt things. And its very frustrating. Erica Courtenay-Mann grew up in the political machine of Chicago, and said her father would make her read the political section of the newspaper every Sunday. She voiced concerns that the nations next great leaders might never reach that point because their schools lack adequate funding or that a person would not survive cancer because he or she could not pay for mammogram. Courtenay-Mann said she wishes people could see that a Republican who is for families, jobs and less government is not that far off from a Democrat who is for quality education for his children, health care and womens rights. So I want to know how can we get that guy in the Appalachian Mountains and that guy in a Chicago two-flat to understand that theyre still Americans. Theyre still fellow Americans, and their viewpoints are not that different, Courtenay-Mann said. Adams Cole plans to hold another purple discussion in early November, just before the elections. She encouraged her guests to come again and bring someone else along next time that could share a viewpoint different than their own. I know today was the first step, but again like I said earlier, weve broken bread, and you break the ice of discussion. You just continue to grow because the issues will continue coming, she said. Its almost like today is just setting the foundation and bringing new people into the fold. tracy.maness@hcnonline.com Katy Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9182 reminds middle and high school youths that Oct. 31 is the deadline to submit their entries in the Voice of Democracy and Patriots Pen Scholarship competitions. The Voice of Democracy Scholarship provides local high school students the opportunity to compete for thousands of dollars in scholarships and a trip to Washington, D.C. Students must write and record a three-to-five minute essay on the selected theme using an audio CD or flash drive and present their recording, typed essay and completed entry form to their local VFW Post by Oct. 31. This years theme is Why My Vote Matters. Students begin by competing at the local post level. Post winners compete at the district level with the winner advancing to the state competition and that winner to national where first place is a $30,000 scholarship. Entergy Texas, Inc. wasted no time in deploying crews to the east coast just hours before Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday packing 155 mile per hour winds. Entergy sent about 150 employees and contractors to assist with hurricane response representing all Entergy Texas networks, covering 27 Texas counties. According to Kacee Kirschvink, with Entergys media relations department, emergency response is part of a mutual assistance network where utilities help one another during major storms or other disasters. The crews left this (Tuesday afternoon) and will drive to Hammond, Louisiana, she said. They will then travel to Macon, Georgia, where they will be ready to assist Georgia Power and other utilities, as needed, to restore power to the communities affected by the hurricane. Local crew members were ready to help. We dont really know what to expect - just pack for seven days, said Clayton Shafer, lineman in the Conroe Network. Im ready to get out there and get the lights on - do whatever it takes to get them on. Theres going to be a lot of other companies out there also. Joe Ozio, a serviceman with the Huntsville Network, echoed Shafer adding he was happy to help others in need. Its always different. Sometimes we sleep in our trucks, Ozio said. Its gratifying to help people. When the customers come up and say thank you, or they come up and give you a bottle of water, that does a world of good for the spirits of all the guys. I know most of the customers understand were away from our families. Were putting our business on hold to come and help them. cdominguez@hcnonline.com The Montgomery Council unanimously approved the resignation of Councilman Dave McCorquodale Tuesday night. Its been an absolute pleasure and honor to serve the city, McCorquodale, who has served on council for five years, said during the meeting at City Hall Tuesday night. McCorquodale submitted his resignation from City Council Place 5 Friday afternoon to City Administrator Jack Yates, Montgomery Mayor Sara Countryman, and City Secretary Susan Hensley in an email with an interest in applying for another position with the city. In the email he stated he had been in discussions with Yates regarding the specific needs of the job opening for the assistant to the city administrator. He stated in the email that an agreement had been reached in principle on him filling the role and in order to move forward with the employment, starting the next day on Wednesday, that he needed to vacate the council seat. McCorquodale believes he is qualified for the position and knows that his background in planning and landscape architecture will be an asset to the city. McCorquodale is a registered landscape architect in the state of Texas and holds a degree in community and regional planning. He worked in the private sector for 13 years and looks forward to working in the public sector. I hope what I have to offer will help this city move forward in a reasonable manner in uncertain (and exciting times) with all the development and outside questions that we face, he said. I look forward to it and I hope that you guys will all say yes to accepting my resignation. With a few chuckles the only two other council members who were present at the meeting Councilman T.J. Wilkerson and Councilwoman Rebecca Huss jokingly hesitated and debated if they should, but ultimately with obvious support voted 3-0 in favor of the resignation that required a majority vote. Councilman Jon Bickford and Councilman John Champagne Jr. were not present at the meeting. Yates said the decision to select McCorquodale for his new position with the city was made about a week and a half ago. The search began about two months ago with about three candidates interviewed. The reason I chose Dave was because of his land scape planning and city planning experience and his knowledge of the city, Yates said. I feel like we are getting an excellent person for the job. McCorquodale will primarily be working with the planning and zoning commission and on special projects. He will essentially be taking over the planning commission for me, Yates said. The reason it became available was because the council and I discussed various projects that I simply do not have the time to work on that the council considered a high enough priority to where they felt like it was worthwhile to get a quality person as the assistant to the administrator. City information from Yates said the state law allows the seat to stay empty or allows the council to appoint a replacement. The replacement person would stand for election at the next city election in May 2019, when the position is up for election. While no action regarding an appointment could be made at the meeting since the item was not specifically on the agenda, Yates informed the council they would have the option to direct the city administrator and city secretary to post an opening with or without an application process. It is entirely up to the council if you appoint, how you go about choosing a replacement person, Yates stated. McCorquodale offered his advice for the next person to fill the vacant council seat. One, have the heart of a servant, he said. Two, listen more than you talk. mellsworth@hcnonline.com Residents and stakeholders are invited to join Missouri City officials, staff and representatives of Niagara Bottling for the official grand opening of the newly expanded community playground that was made through a partnership with the entities and the National Recreation and Park Association. Were grateful for our partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association and the opportunity for our Team Members to volunteer in their city, said Kristen Venick, director of Niagara Cares. As a family owned and operated company, we value commitment to community and are thrilled to provide children with a fun and safe place to play. Several crashes caused major lane closures on Houstons freeways heading into rush hour this morning. Coming in from east Harris County, drivers are fighting slow traffic on Interstate 10 westbound at Sheldon Road. A Hazmat spill and crash has closed at least three lanes, TranStar reported. That crash happened around 4 a.m. Two vehicles were involved. The second crash, which was reported around 6 a.m., closed all lanes of Interstate 59 before Spur 527, according to the Houston Police Department. Three cars were involved in that wreck, according to Houston TranStar. It has since been cleared. Any injuries in the crashes are unknown at this time. Amid mounting pressure for the Vatican to atone for decades of mishandling sexual misconduct claims, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston agreed Wednesday to go public with a list of clergy who they believe have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children. Fourteen other Catholic dioceses in Texas have chosen to do the same, with Cardinal Daniel DiNardo attributing the decision as a response to the faithfuls call for greater accountability and transparency. There was no indication how many names would make each list or when they would be made available. An Archdiocese spokesperson said their list of bishops, priests and deacons accused of child molestation in the past seven decades would be compiled by an unidentified outside consultant and released before Jan. 31, 2019. "Every bishop in our state has made a statement expressing his concern for all who have been hurt and I want to express my personal sorrow at such fundamental violations of trust that have happened," wrote DiNardo, sharing a statement penned from Rome. For the second time since September, the cardinal is visiting the Vatican to attend the Synod on Young People, the Faith, and the Vocational Discernment. "We are completely committed to eradicating the evil of sexual abuse in the church and promoting healing among the faithful and those injured by this crime, wrote DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The participating dioceses are Galveston-Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Amarillo, Beaumont, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Laredo, Lubbock, San Angelo, Tyler and Victoria. Each of the bishops agreed last month to release the names during a recent meeting in Austin. The only Texas diocese listed on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website not participating in the independent review is the Diocese of The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, which is based at the St. Marys Seminary in Houston. "It will take some time for files to be reviewed, and there may be people who come forward with new information following this announcement, Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, of San Antonio, said in his own statement. Michael Norris, a member of the Houston chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called the decision to release the names a "positive step, but he took exception to the use of the phrase credibly accused. Thats a wiggle word. Who determines credibility, said Norris, who was sexually abused by a Kentucky priest child. Of the cases they have said are not credible, my cases is one of those. They told me my case was not credible, but hes sitting in prison today because a jury thought it was credible. Norris has called on Attorney General Ken Paxton to conduct a probe similar to the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report released in August. The sweeping document took two years to compile,with some cases dating back more than 70 years. Its 900 pages identify more than 300 accused priests and the systematic cover up by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and the Vatican. Why rely on people hired by the Catholic Church, Norris argued. The national network of priest abuse survivors also questioned the timing of the lists. This move is at best belated, at worst a distracting attempt to stave off inquiries from Texas law enforcement authorities, a SNAP spokesperson wrote in a statement. The fact remains that bishops have had the power to make these lists public for years. We are glad that public pressure has risen to the point where bishops felt compelled to take this step today. We hope that this pressure also compels law enforcement officials to follow in the footsteps of Pennsylvania and Michigan in launching an aggressive investigation. After learning of the promised lists Wednesday, 69-year-old Belinda Kaylani wondered if the list would name the priest who she says repeatedly groped her at a drive-in theater in Houstons East End. The priest, who Kaylani says has since died, allegedly abused her and two more family members while attending a Catholic school in the early 1960s. Kaylani said she initially saw the priest for counseling after daring to ask her mother for permission to date boys. Her weekly counsels with the priest escalated to inappropriate touching at the drive-in as her younger relatives sat in the backseat, she said. If you sat in the front seat, you got felt up, so we would rotate. As time went by I grew so disgusted, Kaylani said. She said her mother never thought it was odd at the time for a priest to take children to a drive-in theater to watch Doris Day and Rock Hudson flicks. I remember during one scene in the movie, Rock Hudson and Doris Day are going to kiss and you know he actually put his hands over my eyes so I wouldnt see, Kaylani said. What a nut. She kept the abuse a secret from her mother until she was in her 30s, when she learned the same priest was back in town to give a eulogy at a friends funeral. After speaking of the priest to the rest of her family, she learned one of her relatives endured more harrowing abuse at his hands. Kaylani considered bringing a lawsuit against the church but a lawyer warned her not to, she said. He told me they have a deep war chest and they will destroy you and your family. I let it go, Kaylani said, adding that she sees hope now that a lot of survivors are coming forward. Finally, she said. The pendulum is swinging. The pledge on Wednesday to release the names takes a cue from the Diocese of San Bernardino County, California, which on Monday released the identities of 34 priests accused of sexually abusing children, including six who were convicted of criminal charges. The Diocese used a similar term of credible allegations as the criteria for posting a list of the clergy accused of molestation to its website. The list dates back to 1978, when the diocese was formed. The Associated Press reported that all but one of the alleged abusers were removed from the priesthood, permanently banned from the ministry or had since died. The lone unaccounted for priest on the list left the diocese in 1993 and could not be found. One of the latest scandals to rock the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston was the arrest last month of Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, a Houston-area priest facing four counts of indecency with a child. He is accused of molesting a boy and girl, now adults, who attended Conroes Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Both have said that local Catholic leaders, including DiNardo, were dismissive of their stories. In an interview with the Chronicle, the man said that in August he was flown to Houston to meet with DiNardo. DiNardo, he said, told him, Well, you should've told us earlier." The Shenandoah City Council on Monday approved an ordinance restricting sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of child safety zones such as parks, playgrounds, pools and schools. As a general law city meaning the charter is drafted by the state for cities with a population of less than 5,000 people Shenandoah was previously unable to enact its own city policy on the subject of sex offender restrictions. Texas House Bill 1111, introduced by State Rep. Senfronia Thompson in the 85th Texas Legislature, made it possible for smaller cities to control the living situation of sex offenders inside their city limits. Up until two years ago, Shenandoah didnt have a sex offender registrar. I think its important that we send a message from our city that says, If youre a registered sex offender, theres not a welcome mat for you in the city of Shenandoah, said Council Member Ted Fletcher, who introduced the ordinance. You can find another place to live. The ordinance was signed into law Wednesday and restricts any future movement into the city by sex offenders, but includes an exception for those already living within 1,000 feet of a designated child safety zone. Four sex offenders currently live within Shenandoah city limits, Fletcher said all four are residing within 1,000 feet of a child safety zone. The identies of the sex offenders was not released during the meeting, but according to data on the Texas Department of Public Safetys Sex Offender Registry, three of the four people listed were categorized as low risk. Two of the people described were convicted of sex offenses with children, while one person was convicted of possessing child pornography and the fourth person was convicted of statutory rape in Missouri. Before the ordinance was passed, Shenandoah police officers could not legally do anything about a known sex offender who was not on parole or probation and residing within a designated child safety zone. Shenandoah Police Officer John Ferrand, who serves as the citys sex offender registrar, said that as the population of young children grows the 2010 census counted 20 percent of the citys 791 homes with minors under the age of 18 the department must work to make them safe. Thats why Im asking for this ordinance to move forward, Ferrand said. The ordinance was amended to change the definition of a minor from a 16- to a 17-year-old and passed on a 4-0 vote, with Council Member Charlie Bradt abstaining. Transportation updates The City Council unanimously approved the final iteration of its thoroughfare plan and city staff updated the council on various mobility projects throughout the area. The latest update of the thoroughfare plan includes a series of roads leading to the MetroPark Square development on the east side of Interstate 45, the reclassification of David J. Vetter Drive and Grogans Mill Road from minor arterials to collector roads and the reclassification of Six Pines and Pinecroft Drives from collectors to minor arterial roads. This is just one step that this council is trying to take to protect the residents, Mayor Ritch Wheeler said. Wheeler voiced his opposition to an overpass at Vision Park Drive and I-45, which has been eliminated from the thoroughfare plan, but would have led to the expansion of Grogans Mill Road within city limits to four lanes, the proposition of which was corrected to two lanes in the update. You can imagine what that would do to our businesses on Research Forest and you can imagine what that would do to our residents that live along Grogans Mill, Wheeler said. Staff also updated the council on several road projects in the city. A northbound u-turn at Research Forest Drive/ Tamina Road and I-45 and an extended southbound right turn lane at Research Forest Drive and I-45 and are slated to be finished within 12 months. The city is submitting an application for funding to the Houston-Galveston Area Council this month for the proposed extension of David Memorial Drive to State Highway 242. Miscellaneous notes City council approved the purchase of two Dodge pickup trucks as detective vehicles for the police department, modifying the original budget request for two Chevrolet Impalas. Public Works Director Joseph Peart and Finance Director Lisa Wasner were appointed as representatives of the city for the Montgomery County Hazard Mitigation Plan. The council also approved the November and December council meetings to be held on Nov. 14 and Dec. 12. mrincon@chron.com Standing in front of a camera, Lynzy Lab smiles, laughs and says that she wrote a song. The vertical camera view shows Lab, a dance lecturer at Texas State University, holding her ukulele in a YouTube video published Sunday. Days earlier, President Donald Trump described how the national debate surrounding the sexual misconduct accusations made against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh represents "a very scary time for young men." "It's a really scary time for dudes right now," she tweeted early Monday. "So I wrote a song about it." It was the president's line that made for the inspiration for "A Scary Time," a catchy political satire that's become an unlikely viral sensation in the days following Trump's comments and Kavanaugh's confirmation to the highest court in the land. "I can't walk to my car late at night while on the phone. I can't open up my windows when I'm home alone," she said. "I can't go to a bar without a chaperone. And I can't wear a miniskirt if it's the only one I own." Though Lab never directly mentions Trump or the newest Supreme Court justice, perhaps the most poignant part of the song comes with her use of the term "35 years," a reference to the time period that Christine Blasey Ford alleges Kavanaugh to have assaulted her at a high school party. The verse also reflects the time period of the second accusation from Deborah Ramirez, who said Kavanaugh assaulted her at a dorm party at Yale. (Kavanaugh denies the allegations.) "I can't jog around the city with headphones on my ears. I can't speak out against my rapist after 35 years. I can't be taken seriously if I'm holding back tears," Lab sang while plucking the ukulele. "And I can't ever speak earnestly about all my fears." By the end of a two-and-a-half-minute song that lists a number of everyday situations as to why it's "a scary time" not for men but for women, Lab morphed into the newest feminist voice of the Democratic resistance - even receiving celebrity endorsements - with her tune acting as a protest anthem for those frustrated with Trump or Kavanaugh just weeks away from the midterm elections. The success of "A Scary Time" is in the numbers. Since the YouTube video was published, it has gotten more than 438,000 views as of early Wednesday. The video on Instagram has racked up more than 40,000 likes. On Twitter, it has earned more than 220,000 likes and nearly 100,000 retweets. Before tweeting out the video on Monday, Lab, who now has more than 50,000 followers, hadn't posted to her account since March 2016. And a video of Lab's song posted on Facebook by NowThis Politics, the political channel of the video news content company, has been viewed roughly 28 million times since Monday. "I did not expect such an overwhelming response," Lab, a performance artist in San Marcos, Texas, told HuffPost on Tuesday. It was a response that got attention from the likes of actor Mark Ruffalo, who offered his support on Monday. "Listen to women like @MercedesLynz to give you an idea of the world as they experience it," Ruffalo tweeted. The Marvel actor added: "We are evolving toward greater equality, which is a great thing for us ALL. Don't be afraid to have greater awareness. It can not harm you nor diminish you." On Tuesday, Ellen DeGeneres, the popular daytime television talk show host, offered a one-word agreement to Lab's performance: "Yup." But it hasn't been all celebratory for Lab, as supporters of Trump, Kavanaugh or both have questioned her motivations. With Lab becoming a viral star in recent days, she took to Twitter early Wednesday to clear up whatever perceptions people have made about her or her reasoning for making the video. "I'm not here to delegitimize men's struggles. I'm just hoping that we can finally start legitimizing women's," she tweeted. "Regardless of what you've decided about me, I'm not 'anti-men'. I am, however, super 'pro-women'. You should be too." --- https://youtu.be/N34hehRgw9g The Education Department is investigating whether a Georgia school system's transgender bathroom policy, which permits students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, played any role in a young girl's alleged sexual assault. Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group, filed a civil rights complaint in June with the Education Department against City Schools of Decatur, and last month, the department wrote to say it was opening an investigation. The complaint outlines the girl's allegations that she was sexually assaulted in a girl's bathroom by a "gender fluid" classmate who was born male. The girl's attorneys have accused school officials of creating "a hostile and discriminatory learning environment for girls" in violation of Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in public schools that receive federal funding. City Schools of Decatur officials have contested the version of events laid out in the complaint, asking whether the assault reported by the girl did happened and contradicting claims that the classmate the girl identified is "gender fluid." A social service agency investigation determined the girl's allegations were "unfounded." The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights investigates thousands of civil rights complaints every year. Depending on its findings, it can demand that school systems change policies or practices, threatening to pull federal funding if they do not comply. The case in Decatur could have implications for school systems across the country as officials grapple with how to accommodate transgender students in school bathrooms and locker rooms. If the Education Department pushes the Georgia school district to abandon its transgender bathroom policy, other systems could do the same. The battle over how to accommodate transgender students in public schools has been waged in courthouses, statehouses and in school board meetings, including in Decatur, where a group of parents assembled to oppose the policy and publicized the alleged sexual assault on their Facebook page. Transgender students say that using the bathroom that matches their gender identity is critical for their health and well-being as they transition and that pushing them to use faculty restrooms can make them late for classes. But opponents of policies like the one in Decatur say they violate privacy and traditional values. In making their case, they have highlighted the specter of harassment or assault in restrooms, even though sexual assault experts have found no link between policies that accommodate transgender people and assaults. "These transgender restroom policies are not working," said Christiana Holcomb, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom. "They are failing to serve and protect the privacy and safety of little boys and girls at school, and that's not OK." According to the complaint, the girl, then a kindergartner at Oakhurst Elementary, reported to her mother in November that a classmate had pushed her up against a wall in a girls' bathroom and touched her private parts. The classmate, according to the complaint, was known as "gender fluid." In the aftermath of the alleged assault, the girl's attorneys say school officials treated the girl and her mother with indifference. They would not move the classmate the girl identified as her attacker to a different classroom. The Oakhurst Elementary principal told the mother that the school allowed students to choose what restrooms to use on the basis of their gender identity. The complaint also alleges that school officials reported to the social service agency that they suspected the mother had sexually abused her daughter, setting off an investigation of the girl's family. The classmate "was allowed there because of the school's new transgender restroom policy," Holcomb said. Decatur school officials have denied allegations laid out in the complaint, pointing out that police and a social service agency investigated the girl's claims and determined them to be "unfounded." School officials also contested the portrayal that the student the girl identified as her attacker is "gender fluid." He is a boy and identifies as such, they told the news website Decaturish. Schools spokeswoman Courtney Burnett confirmed the details of the article to The Washington Post. "We are aware of the unfounded allegations made by the Alliance Defending Freedom," Burnett said in a statement. "We fully disagree with their characterization of the situation and are addressing it" with the Office for Civil Rights. Under Title IX, school systems that receive reports of sexual assaults are required to conduct their own investigations to ensure that the educational rights of victims are safeguarded. Burnett did not respond when asked whether the district had conducted a Title IX investigation. The Alliance Defending Freedom has campaigned vigorously against policies that allow transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity. But the argument that the policies endanger and violate the privacy of other students has not fared well in court. Joshua Block, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has represented transgender students, said no federal court has ever agreed with the assertion that inclusive transgender policies endanger or violate the privacy of other children. During the Obama administration, the Education Department sided with transgender students who argued that schools violated Title IX when students were barred from using bathrooms matching their gender identity. Now, students who are not transgender are increasingly arguing the opposite: that their right to privacy is violated by policies that affirm transgender youths. In 2016, the Obama administration directed all public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that aligned with their gender identity. Opponents immediately sued, delaying implementation of the directive. Shortly after she was confirmed, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, along with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, withdrew the directive. As a result, the department no longer investigates on behalf of transgender students who file complaints about bathroom access. DeVos' track record on transgender student rights has advocates concerned that officials will bring politics into their investigation of the case in Decatur, Ga. "Our heart breaks for anyone dealing with the trauma of sexual violence, but there is simply no basis to the notion that policies protecting transgender students contribute to that violence," said Gillian Branstetter, spokeswoman for the National Center for Transgender Equality, an advocacy group. Education Department spokesman Nate Bailey denied that politics would play any role. Investigations are conducted by career employees, not political appointees. "Politics play no role in OCR investigations. They are conducted within the strict confines of the law," Bailey said. "It's an unfounded claim and an unjustified attack on OCR's dedicated investigators." An escalating war of words between Russia and the U.S. didn't prevent a chunk of pensions that belong to Californian firefighters and police officers from finding its way into debt sold by President Vladimir Putin's government. The California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, had about $460 million invested in Russian government bonds as of the end of June, up over 8 percent since last year, according to data provided to Bloomberg News. Based on publicly disclosed figures, that makes the state of California Russia's 10th-largest foreign creditor, behind other top U.S. investors including BlackRock Inc. and Stone Harbor Investment Partners. In the sanctions standoff between Russia and the U.S., the vulnerability goes both ways after two years of inflows from carry traders briefly turned Russian debt into an investor darling. The holdings in America's largest pension expose a dilemma for lawmakers who are considering targeting Russia's sovereign debt as part of new penalties being discussed to punish Putin's government for alleged election meddling. "It matters that pension funds are involved in Russian debt because they're likely arguing against sanctions against sovereign bonds" to the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said Koon Chow, a senior strategist in London at Union Bancaire Privee. "It may not have much impact though, given the bipartisan U.S. support for punishing Russia further." Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., co-sponsor of one of the bipartisan bills under consideration, said last month that concerns over sanctions on government bonds are a major sticking point. At the end of summer, U.S. investors accounted for 6 percent of Russian sovereign debt, including Eurobonds and ruble securities known as OFZs, according to the domestic rating company ACRA. "With all investment management decisions, Calpers follows federal and state laws, while also complying with any directive from the Calpers board as it relates to specific investment activities," spokeswoman Megan White said by email. Van Hollen's bill would trigger new sanctions on energy and financial sectors if the director of national intelligence determines Russia is continuing to interfere. The sovereign debt measure has already been modified to apply sanctions only to new bond issues, he said. A separate proposal in Senate, dubbed the "bill from hell" and sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., would also target Russia's debt and state banks, but the measures would take effect upon passage of the law. The legislature's leadership has suggested this plan would be watered down if it were to come up for a vote. Daleep Singh, a former Treasury official who helped write sanctions measures against Russia in 2014, came out in favor of curbs on sovereign debt in a hearing last month, arguing that there is "no credible reason why U.S. public pension funds and savings vehicles should fund the Russian government." Congress is unlikely to pass any new sanctions until after the November mid-term elections. Still the threat of the sanctions alone has led to redemptions from Russian sovereign bonds, with non-residents selling about $7.5 billion since April. Russian 10-year bond yields have recovered to near 8.8 percent after surging to a two-year high last month due to concern over tougher U.S. curbs and a wider emerging-market sell-off. Policy makers in Moscow have said that there is enough local demand to mop up bonds offloaded by foreigners if the market is hit by sanctions. Still, demand has been thin at recent auctions. The Russia investment hasn't been a topic of public discussions for the board of Calpers, which has been a leader among U.S. pensions pushing for socially responsible investing. Newly-elected Board President Jason Perez has said it shouldn't focus on divesting to meet ethical investing goals. Calpers has about $360 billion in assets, with about a fifth of the total invested in fixed income, according to a September presentation. --With assistance from Bloomberg's Anna Andrianova. Republican groups have been pulling back in more than a half dozen tough House races to focus their resources in districts where they see a better chance to defend against a building midterm surge by Democrats. With less than a month until the Nov. 6 election and scores of House races in play, national GOP groups and allied super political action committees are conducting financial triage that will alter the prospects for candidates of both parties. A Bloomberg analysis of post-Labor Day TV advertising, announced media buys by the largest super political action committees, Federal Election Commission filings and interviews with strategists shows that more than half a dozen House contests rated as competitive have largely fallen off the map when it comes to the allocation of major national GOP resources. That could hurt election prospects for Republican incumbents Rod Blum of Iowa, Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania and Mike Coffman of Colorado, while boosting the chances of Democrats like Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Dan McCready in North Carolina. The movement of money in the campaign's closing weeks will provide a strong indicator of where the two parties and their allies feel confident -- and where they think their chances of victory may be slim. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates 70 districts as being tossups or just leaning Democratic or Republican. All of the districts where national Republicans appear to be either holding their powder or in retreat are currently held by the GOP. If those districts are lost, they would offer a significant down payment on the 23 seats Democrats need to take control of the House and essentially halt President Donald Trump's agenda in Congress. Republicans are dealing with a record number of seats left open by retirements and resignations, while Democrats are forcing the GOP to play defense across the map by fielding candidates in more than 430 of the 435 congressional districts, one of the highest totals in history. "It was our clear goal, coming out of 2016, that we would not have a hole in the battlefield," said Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Spending on this year's midterm campaign is expected to break records, in part because there have been an unusually large number of competitive races. For local, state and congressional races, that will amount to $2.65 billion for local broadcast television, $975 million for local cable TV and $800 million for Internet ads, according to estimates from Kantar Media's CMAG, which tracks political advertising. The funding priorities and advertising plans for both parties still can change if polling shows a late shift or a political stumble by a candidate alters the trajectory of a race. Funding priorities for U.S. Senate races, which typically cost significantly more, will also be made in the coming weeks. While both parties have seen record fundraising, at this stage of the campaign resources are being burned quickly as advertising costs rise. The DCCC started September with $69.8 million in the bank, while the National Republican Congressional Committee had $64.6 million. Those totals, for the two primary national committees focused on House races, came as the DCCC out-raised the NRCC by nearly $10 million in August. Super PACs, especially the Congressional Leadership Fund that backs Republicans and the House Majority PAC that backs Democrats, are adding substantially to the spending. But the CLF, aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan and GOP leadership, is showing signs it thinks some of the races it targeted earlier this year may no longer be within reach. Those signals have primarily been sent by pulling previously announced advertising. "We're not taking anything for granted, but a number of recent moves by GOP groups seem to signal they're in an increasingly perilous situation as November approaches," said Jeb Fain, a House Majority PAC spokesman. "It's pretty clear, and not only from Republicans' triage, that Democrats are overwhelmingly, and more and more, on offense from coast to coast." The NRCC declined to comment. CLF has stressed that it will continue to run get-out-the-vote operations in districts where it has pulled back advertising plans and evaluate polling for possible changes in the closing weeks of the campaign. Below are some races rated as competitive where national GOP resources have been minimal in recent weeks: Oceanside/San Clemente/Carlsbad, California (CA-49) In a district where Hillary Clinton defeated Trump by eight percentage points and Republican Darrell Issa is retiring, the only Republican-aligned entities running broadcast TV advertising in September were GOP nominee Diane Harkey and the NRCC. In October, only Harkey has TV buys in place on the Republican side, while Democrat Mike Levin has them ordered along with the DCCC and other liberal groups. A Los Angeles Times poll released Thursday showed Levin leading by 14 percentage points. Allentown/Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (PA-07) Democrat Susan Wild, who is competing against Republican Marty Nothstein, was the only broadcast TV advertiser in the race during September. The NRCC had a buy in place that was supposed to start Oct. 2, according to CMAG data, but it hasn't so far. The DCCC started its latest buy on Oct. 2 and Wild is also on the air now. North Central New Jersey (NJ-11) Sherrill, who is competing against Republican state assemblyman Jay Webber in a race to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, has been the only one to run broadcast TV ads since Labor Day in a district Trump won by one percentage point. The House Majority PAC is the only outside group with October buys in place. Sherrill, a former prosecutor and Navy veteran, said she raised $2.7 million in the third quarter. Northeast Iowa (IA-01) Iowa's 1st congressional district is another place where national GOP resources aren't being sent in any major way. A New York Times/Siena College poll taken Sept. 18-20 showed Blum trailing Democratic challenger Abby Finkenauer by 15 percentage points. CLF hasn't run any broadcast TV ads in the district all year and Blum has been the only one running them from the Republican side since Labor Day, CMAG data shows. Pittsburgh Area (PA-17) A similar situation is playing out in Pennsylvania's 17th district near Pittsburgh, where redistricting has resulted in a rare incumbent-v.-incumbent contest between Rothfus and Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb. The Democrat has held the polling advantage and no outside groups have advertised there after Labor Day, according to CMAG data. The NRCC had buys in place starting Oct. 9 and running for much of the month, but it has canceled those reservations. The DCCC has reserved $305,000 for the final week of the campaign and the Patriot Majority, a nonprofit aligned with Democrats, has reserved $500,000 in time for the final two weeks of October. Suburban Charlotte (NC-09) In a district that backed Trump over Clinton by 12 percentage points, no outside groups ran broadcast TV advertising during September, although Patriot Majority started on Oct. 2. McCready ran more than six times as many spots as Republican Mark Harris during the month. A New York Times/Siena College poll released this week showed Harris leading McCready by five percentage points, so that could help draw more outside money to the race. Suburban Denver (CO-06) CLF has also pulled planned TV advertising from two districts where incumbent Republicans are facing strong challengers, in Colorado's 6th congressional district and Michigan's 8th congressional district. The Colorado district, which Coffman first won in 2008, had been one of the most expensive House contests in the nation. CLF's decision came after a New York Times/Siena College poll taken Sept. 12-14 found Democrat Jason Crow, an attorney and former Army Ranger, leading by 11 percentage points in a rapidly growing district that includes suburbs south of Denver. After CLF indicated its plans to cancel about $1 million in advertising to help Coffman, the NRCC said it would add about $600,000 in spending to the district. For now, the committee has buys in place in the district for much of October, CMAG data shows. WASHINGTON - U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who abruptly announced her departure Tuesday, will leave behind a job she helped elevate to one of the most influential in the Trump administration, raising the stakes for her successor and fueling speculation about her future. Haley served almost as a shadow secretary of state during the first year of the administration, wielding more influence than the man who held the job, Rex Tillerson, and winning the confidence of President Donald Trump with her strong defense of his policies at an institution filled with foreign officials opposed to his worldview, even as he sometimes chafed at her ambition. Her influence has been curtailed in recent months as new national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reclaimed policy and political ground that their predecessors ceded, but she departs with her relationship with Trump intact. "She's done a fantastic job, and we've done a fantastic job together," Trump said during a cordial Oval Office meeting with Haley before reporters. "She's a fantastic person, very importantly, but she also is somebody that gets it." Haley portrayed her departure as coming at a natural time - after accomplishing what she wanted. Many senior officials were surprised by the announcement and learned she was leaving just minutes before the news leaked - she was already in the West Wing with Trump preparing for the announcement - and lamented that it came so quickly after the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, which the White House hoped would continue to receive heavy news coverage. "It was a blessing to go into the U.N. with body armor every day and defend America," Haley said. "And I'll always do that; I'll never truly step aside from fighting for our country. But I will tell you that I think it's time." With questions swirling about what she will do next, Haley was quick to shoot down the idea that her ambitions include taking on Trump if the president looks vulnerable heading into his reelection in 2020. "For all of you that are going to ask about 2020 - no, I'm not running for 2020," Haley said unprompted with Trump sitting beside her. "I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one. So, I look forward to supporting the president in the next election." Trump grinned through her remarks - but it startled White House aides who already viewed her warily as a potential threat and a skeptic of the president's overall agenda. "That's so good, Nikki," Trump said. "Thank you." Haley's ability to raise the profile of the job of U.N. ambassador has focused more attention on who will replace her than is usually the case. Speculation swirled throughout the day that Trump's daughter, Ivanka, could be a contender, a move that would allow her and her family to return to New York. The president seemed eager to play along with the idea, telling reporters she would be "dynamite" before conceding she would face nepotism concerns. Ivanka Trump killed the rumor later in the day tweeting that her father would find a "formidable replacement" for Haley but that it "will not be me." That left the speculation focused on former senior White House aide Dina Powell, who Trump said is under consideration. Some Trump advisers were pushing Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany, for the post. Trump told reporters while on Air Force One heading to a rally in Iowa on Tuesday night that he has five names on his shortlist and that Grenell is not one of them. "He is doing so well in a position that is so important," Trump said. "Ric is doing so well that I wouldn't want to move him. I'd personally rather keep Ric where he is." Haley's resignation will be effective in January, which she wrote in her resignation letter would give Trump time to choose and confirm a replacement. Haley, 46, has long been mentioned as a potential Republican presidential or vice presidential candidate. Speculation had focused on 2024, after Trump either lost reelection or served a second term, but shifted to 2020 as Trump's potential legal problems mounted. Advisers said Haley was not interested in a Senate seat and was more likely to take board seats or secure other lucrative positions until after the 2020 election, noting her limited finances. "She needs to make some money," said one adviser who speaks to her regularly. Another adviser said regarding the timing of her departure that Haley had little to gain politically by staying in the job. "She knows there is nothing good that comes of staying around much longer," one close adviser said. "She leaves with a good reputation, on her own terms, and with the president still good with her." Haley took pride in keeping distance from the daily drama of the White House and she was determined to depart on her terms, both White House and Haley advisers said. While she maintained a good relationship with Trump throughout her tenure, the president was also leery of her ambitions and grew frustrated at times when she made announcements on TV, such as discussing new sanctions on Russia, or he saw large amounts of glowing press about her. She also made communications and policy moves without warning the communications staff, White House aides said. Haley has been privately skeptical of some of Trump's politics and tactics but has also marveled at his crowds and poll numbers. She was careful even at off-the-record dinners not to be critical of Trump, diplomats and friends who ate with her said. While not in his inner circle, officials said Haley was able to speak honestly and directly with Trump. Thomas Bossert, a former homeland security adviser, said she was often more candid with the president than other aides - and that Trump appreciated it. "She was not nervous on what to think or feel, and she was entirely comfortable in her own skin," he said. "Presidents get frustrated with that, and this one in particular can smell that. She was straightforward, tough and competent with him." Several officials questioned why Haley announced her decision before the midterm elections if she plans to stay through the end of the year, but one of her advisers said she would have delayed making her decision public if that was what Trump wanted. One day before Haley's surprise announcement, she was the subject of an ethics complaint filed by a government watchdog group. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called for an investigation into seven free flights that Haley and her husband accepted last year on private planes from three South Carolina business executives. A spokesman for the State Department referred questions about the complaint to the inspector general's office, which declined to respond to requests for comment. Haley leaves with foreign- policy credentials and a national and international standing she did not carry as a governor, and without the damage to her reputation or standing suffered by others who quit or were fired during the Trump presidency. A Quinnipiac poll in April found that Haley had the highest approval ratings of five Trump Cabinet members tested and was the only Cabinet member to hold majority approval among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Overall, 63 percent approved and 17 percent disapproved of her performance as U.N. ambassador. The cordial scene with Trump on Tuesday was all the more remarkable for the fact that Haley had quit during a private meeting with Trump on Oct. 3, nearly a week earlier. Trump and Haley agreed to announce it together this week, a Haley adviser said, and to tell almost no one else beforehand. Tuesday morning, there was a meeting with Haley, Trump and other staffers at which wording for the public announcement was discussed. No alternate explanation for her departure was given, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting. Trump said he chose to make the announcement in the Oval Office because it seemed appropriate "when you really think somebody's done a terrific job." Trump said Haley first told him about six months ago that she would like to "take a little time off" at the end of this year. Haley's tenure was praised Tuesday by fellow U.N. ambassadors, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and others. Sen. Robert Menendez, N.J., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the White House to name a successor immediately. "I am deeply concerned about the leadership vacuum she leaves and the national security impact of her departure at this time of continued disarray for this Administration," he said in a statement. During her time at the U.N., Haley told fellow ambassadors she would "take names" when countries disrespected or worked against the United States, and she was a fierce defender of Trump's agenda to confront Iran and defend Israel at the world body. She did not disguise disagreements with Trump, however, including over refugee and immigration policies that she argued harmed U.S. influence with allies. Although Haley advanced Trump's policies, she occasionally made public statements at odds with the White House and the president she served. In December, she said that women who had accused Trump of sexual misconduct "should be heard." When a White House adviser said Haley had been confused in prematurely announcing more sanctions against Russia, she said simply, "With all due respect, I don't get confused." - - - The Washington Post's Philip Rucker, Carol Morello, Beth Reinhard, John Hudson and Scott Clement contributed to this report. Who drew it, asks the president? Ninety-one leading scientists from 40 countries who together examined more than 6,000 scientific studies. Specialists like Katharine Mach, who studies new approaches to climate assessment at Stanford University; Tor Arve Benjaminsen, a human geographer at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences; and Raman Sukumar, an ecologist at the Indian Institute of Science. They are among the members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to make recommendations to world leaders. Their report, issued Monday, warns of environmental catastrophe as early as 2040 and advises that the worst can only be staved off if civilization is transformed more profoundly than at any point in recorded history. President Donald Trump, in comments to reporters Wednesday on the South Lawn, seemed unaware of the IPCC, as the body is known, and expressed doubts about its determinations. The remarks put him at odds with most world leaders, as well as with scientific fact - a familiar position for the brash former businessman who has long ridiculed concerns about the climate. More for you Before and after images show how climate change is destroying the planet "It was given to me. It was given to me, and I want to look at who drew, you know, which group drew it," the president said, as Hurricane Michael edged closer to the Florida's northern Gulf Coast, threatening devastating flooding, which scientists say is exacerbated by rising sea levels. Trump said some reports were good, while others were less good. "Because I can give you reports that are fabulous, and I can give you reports that aren't so good," he added. The 700-page report includes drawings of sorts - graphs and other visual renderings. But it is mostly detailed analysis, dense with citations, of the impacts of surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming over preindustrial levels. A 33-page summary for policymakers includes four main points, A through D, each with an elaborate set of sub points, arranged in digestible paragraphs. It anticipates skepticism. For each finding, the authors report a level of confidence, from very low to very high, "grounded in an evaluation of underlying evidence and agreement." For instance, the scientists have "high confidence" that human activities are contributing to significant warming and "very high confidence" that partnerships with nonstate actors, such as the banking system and scientific institutions, would help limit warming to livable levels. Trump assured reporters: "But I will be looking at it, absolutely." Yet he famously doesn't read much, so the chances he will look at it, let alone read it, are in question. He has scorned climate science and promised to yank the United States from the Paris climate agreement, which gave rise to the report issued this week. Meanwhile, he has pledged to speed up the burning of coal, which the report warns would block pathways to keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. And just Monday, the Trump administration announced that the Environmental Protection Agency would be changing a rule to allow year-round sales of E15, or fuel that is 15 percent ethanol by volume. "I want more industry. I want more energy. I want more," Trump told reporters Wednesday before leaving for a rally in Iowa. He said he was dissatisfied with the current price of crude oil per barrel, $74. "I want low prices, so I'm OK with it," he added. "You know, it's an amazing substance. You look at the Indy cars. They run 100 percent on ethanol." Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, hailed the plan to lift the ban on summer sales of high-ethanol blends, calling the long-expected White House announcement "a very good victory for agriculture." As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley has just finished leading the Republicans in a successful battle to install Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's embattled nominee, on the Supreme Court. Trump called the notion that year-round sales have a negative impact - the EPA previously cited smog concerns - a "misnomer," which is actually a misnomer, meaning an inaccurate use of a term. Conspiracy theories about the climate fill Trump's Twitter page. He has called global warming a "canard," speculated about global cooling and, on Election Day in 2012, claimed that "global warming was created by and for the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive." He frequently cites weather reports about rain and snow to argue, contrary to scientific consensus, that the planet can't be warming. "By the way, it's supposed to be 70 degrees today. It's freezing. Speaking of global warming, where is - we need some global warming!" he shouted in April 2016 during a rally in Rochester, New York. The EPA's acting administrator, Andrew Wheeler, told The Post recently that the U.S. would remain engaged in U.N. work on climate change, despite Trump's stated plan to withdraw from the Paris accord. But he declined to specify a level at which the country would seek to keep warming. Meanwhile, the administration has made climate predictions of its own. A 500-page impact statement drawn up over the summer by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration assumed that the planet would warm a calamitous seven degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. The statement, meant to rationalize Trump's decision to freeze certain fuel-efficiency standards, argued that temperatures would rise that amount over the average between 1986 and 2005 whether or not the Obama-era guidelines in question were stalled. From preindustrial levels, the analysis assumed a rise of roughly four degrees Celsius, or seven degrees Fahrenheit, vastly more than the U.N. panel says is sustainable. This sort of increase, scientists say, would have hellish consequences. It could put parts of Manhattan and Miami underwater, while causing heat waves that suffocate whole swaths of the globe. --- Video Embed Code Video: The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said "there is no documented historic precedent" for the sweeping changes required to control the planet's warming.(Danielle Kunitz,Osman Malik/The Washington Post) Embed code: Turning the ship before it hits the iceberg Zakharchenkos appeal against asset forfeiture dismissed RIA Novosti, Mikhail Voskresensky 11:15 10/10/2018 MOSCOW, October 10 (RAPSI) The Supreme Court of Russia has refused to consider a cassation appeal filed by the former anti-corruption official Dmitry Zakharchenko charged with corruption crimes against forfeiture of more than 9 billion rubles (about $136 million at the current exchange rate) and other assets to the State, according to the information published on the courts website. Earlier, the Moscow City Court dismissed 8 appeals against the seizure of Zakharchenkos assets lodged by the defendant, his partner Anastasia Pestrikova and his father Viktor Zakharchenko. On July 12, the Investigative Committee reported transfer of 9 billion rubles to its bank accounts. Earlier, a court granted a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor Generals Office and confiscated money and property belonging to Zakharachenko and his relatives. Overall, the property in this case is evaluated at 9 billion rubles, including 27 real estate objects in elite neighborhoods of Moscow, 4 high-priced cars, 8 billion rubles and a gold bar. The ruling came into force in March. Ex-Russian anti-corruption official Dmitry Zakharchenko was arrested on September 8, 2016. During searches at the apartment belonging to Zakharchenkos sister law enforcement officers found around 9 billion rubles. He denied any relation to seized funds. Zakharchenko was charged with receiving a 7-million-ruble ($102,000) bribe from an unknown source. He was also charged with abuse of office and hindering the conduct of preliminary investigation. In March, it was revealed that he is charged with two more instances of corruption crimes. According to case papers, Viktor Zakharchenko, the father of ex-official, is charged with being an accessory to embezzlement. He also pleaded not guilty. An elementary and middle school on Bolivar Peninsula will start classes later this morning because of high tides stemming from Hurricane Michael. Crenshaw Elementary/Middle School will start at 10 a.m., Galveston Independent School District posted on Twitter. Fire team commanders detention extended till late December in Kemerovo mall blaze case TASS, Alexander Patrin 12:35 10/10/2018 MOSCOW, October 10 (RAPSI) - The Kemerovo Regional Court has extended detention of a fire team commander Sergey Genin involved in the case on fire in a local shopping mall Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) that left 60 people dead until December 25, the courts press service has told RAPSI. According to investigators, Genin ignored information about scores of people at the cinema on the fourth floor and the nearest way to the movie hall he received from a witness of the fire. Other firemen obeyed their chief in accordance with applicable regulations. The defendant sent his subordinates to the far-away stairs and lost the time. His negligence resulted in the death of at least 37 people, the Investigative Committee said earlier. The blaze in the mall occurred on March 25. According to investigators, 60 people including dozens of children were killed by fire. Initially it was reported that 64 people died. A criminal case has been launched over involuntary manslaughter, violation of fire safety regulations that left more than two persons dead and provisions of services that dont meet safety requirements. There are twelve defendants in the case. Investigation into seven defendants in the case is complete. Probe into five other defendants is still ongoing. Houston ISDs chief technology officer has been temporarily relieved of his duties since Aug. 3, continuing to draw a $219,680 salary while officials investigate allegations that he ignored concerns about flaws in a now-abandoned student information system, made inappropriate racial remarks to colleagues and intimidated an employee during an internal investigation, according to internal memoranda and a complaint obtained by the Houston Chronicle. A letter sent to CTO Lenny Schad by interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan on Aug. 3 ordered him to work from home until an investigation is completed. Allegations against Schad first were reported to internal investigators on July 3, and focus primarily on his work with a vendor called Infinite Campus, a Minnesota-based education software company. Trustees voted in 2016 to give that group $3.7 million for phase one of a project that would create a new student information system to serve as the core of the educational ecosystem, according to board minutes. The system originally was to launch in the 2017-2018 school year, but it never reached that point. Trustees voted 8-0, with one abstention, to terminate the contract on Aug. 9. CROSBY ISD: District declares financial emergency to allow mid-year layoffs Records show the district already had paid the firm at least $1.75 million between Sept. 2016 and Feb. 2018. Christopher Tritico, a Houston attorney representing Schad, said he and his client fully participated in Houston ISDs investigation and answered all investigators questions and concerns. Its our expectation and belief once they complete their investigation, Mr. Schad will be completely exonerated from all these allegations, Tritico said Tuesday. Despite allegations about his work on the canceled student information system, HISD Board President Rhonda Skillern-Jones said trustees were told that Schad was ordered to work from home in connection with his personal conduct, not his work with Infinite Campus. Houston ISD Spokeswoman Lorena Cozzari declined comment Tuesday because the investigation is a personnel matter. In an Equal Employment Opportunity Complaint filed on July 3, Student Support Services Officer Susan Kaler alleged that Schad made inappropriate jokes about black employees in his office, calling each of them Kevin even though that was not their name, adding yall look the same to me. In a meeting with colleagues of Indian descent, he allegedly asked if they were feather or dot Indians. He also allegedly referred to Kaler using a pejorative term for women. After investigators began looking into the allegations, Lathan wrote that she received a report that Schad had approached another employee about the investigation, which made that person feel intimidated. I specifically directed you not to discuss the investigation with anyone, Lathan wrote. Based on the seriousness of these allegations, you will be temporarily relieved of your duties while the investigation is completed and/or until a decision is reached as to how the allegations will be resolved. Kalers complaint also alleged that Schad advocated for Infinite Campus after employees from her department and the technology department warned him for months that the firm was unable to provide a reporting platform that could send mandatory data to the Texas Education Agency. Failure to report accurate information to the state agency can impact funding, TEA Spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said Tuesday. Incorrect attendance data can impact school funding, incorrect student demographic data can impact a school and districts accountability ratings, and incorrect data about special programs can endanger federal and state funding for such things as special education and career-and-technical education. Kaler alleged that Schad told Lathans cabinet on June 4 that the launch of Infinite Campus system was too far along to cancel. Kaler said that when she asked him about the comment the next day, Schad told her and HISD Chief of Staff Silvia Saenz Trinh that his earlier statement was inaccurate. He allegedly said it was too late to cancel the new student systems launch because there were too many new people on cabinet and he didnt want them to make that decision. Kaler wrote that Trinh expressed frustration about the inaccurate information Schad allegedly gave to other cabinet members. Kaler said she and others in her department decided to contact other districts that had contracted with Infinite Campus. She said officials with Leander ISD had been in contact with Schad in an effort to work out kinks with the program. Leander ISD Spokesman Corey Ryan said the district had worked with Houston ISD on its student-information-system project provided through Infinite Campus. Ultimately, trustees in that district also voted unanimously to break their contract with the educational technology company on Aug. 23, according to board meeting minutes. Our board broke the contract and did so because of implementation problems, Ryan said Wednesday. We needed to move on. We needed a solution and couldnt implement theirs. Leander ISD ended up paying about $58,000 to Infinite Campus before breaking the contract, Ryan said. Infinite Campus did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday. HISD Trustee Sergio Lira said he could not comment on specific allegations about Schad or Infinite Campus, but said it appeared the new system was not prepared to handle the task of managing roughly 214,000 students data. Lira was not on the board when the original contract was signed. I think it was the right thing to pull that contract. They were not equipped to start on Day One with 214,000 students data, and it was just too risky, Lira said. Even if we take a loss, we have to minimize the loss. Schad came to Houston ISD in 2012 after serving as chief technology officer in Katy ISD for 9 years. Before that, he led the technology departments for the 1991 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations, the 1992 Republican National Convention and created technology departments for joint ventures and global organizations, according to Houston Chronicle archives. In Houston ISD, he oversaw the rollout of the districts PowerUp laptop program in 2014, which provides laptops to every student in 44 of Houston ISDs high schools. The program continues to provide laptops to nearly all the districts high school students, which are returned at the end of the year and refurbished before going out to other students the following fall. He recently was named the 2018 Chief Information Officer of the Year by the Houston CIO Leadership Association. Reporter Jacob Carpenter contributed to this story. shelby.webb@chron.com twitter.com/shelbywebb Houston area residents should be ready to pull out their hoodies or sweaters early next week as forecasters expect temperatures to drop below 60 degrees in the first cold front of the month. It will be a slight reprieve from what has been an unusually warm October in the Houston area, with high temperatures hovering near 90 degrees during the first weeks of the month. BRRRR: Cold front expected to hit the Houston area this week The Texas Panhandle is already feeling the affects of the fall season, as low temperatures are expected to dip into the 30s and 40s later this week. There's even a 30 percent chance for snow in the Dalhart area, located in the far north panhandle, according to the National Weather Service. In North Texas, low temperatures have been staying between 50 and 60 degrees, with a 49-degree low expected Monday night. In the Houston area, residents will start the work week with high temperatures in the 60s and 70s. But the 59-degree low on Monday and 61-degree low Tuesday will likely be the coldest it gets next week, said National Weather Service meteorologist Don Oettinger. "It will probably gradually warm back into the 80s," he said, adding that some rain could accompany the front on Monday. Earlier this month, temperatures reached 90 degrees for six consecutive days, which is tied for 3rd-most consecutive 90-degree days in October in the area, according to the National Weather Service. SWAMPED: Hurricane Michael could bring more inland flooding to southeast states The record for the month is eight consecutive days, the weather service said. Overall, it was the 6th warmest start to October in Houston. Other Texas residents who are already experiencing colder weather rejoiced on social media, including WFAA reporter Lauren Zakalik. "It's finally in the 50!!!!!" she said on Twitter. Other people were excited to dig into their winter wear. "Hoodie weather has finally reached Texas," said one Twitter user. Click through the gallery above to see how Texans are reacting to first waves of fall. 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 Halloween is nearly here and Houstonians are already lining up for the festivities. To avoid being left out, we've gathered some of the most notable events happening around Bayou City. The lead prosecutor in the trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting two toddlers who contracted gonorrhea told jurors in his opening statement Tuesday that the defendant was the only person with the disease who had contact with the children. But defense attorneys for Adrian Vigil, 26, urged the jury to listen closely to testimony during the trial because it will show Vigil didnt have time to commit the crime. Vigil is being retried in Felony Impact Court after his first one ended in a mistrial because the defense wasnt told beforehand, as required, about evidence the prosecution presented in court. Vigil was 23 when he was arrested and charged with super aggravated sexual assault of a child. The charges stemmed from medical examinations that determined two girls he knew, ages 1 and 3, tested positive for gonorrhea. The children were believed to have been assaulted sometime in October 2015. RELATED: Body cam video shows alleged intruder begging police for help after fatal gunfight with San Antonio area homeowner In his opening statement, prosecutor Steve Speir told the panel that they would hear testimony that Vigil changed his story so many times as to how he contracted the sexually transmitted disease and when he was around the girls that it raised a red flag with authorities. It all points to him, Speir told the jurors, and asked them to find Vigil guilty. In his opening statement, defense attorney David Woodard told the jurors to set aside their anger and disgust and listen carefully regarding the timeline of events as witnesses testify, because there was a lack of time for Vigil to do what is alleged of him. Vigils first trial began and ended April 10 in 187th state District Court. The state was presenting evidence when the mother of the children testified that one of the girls said Vigil had done something to the childs sister. A Bexar County prosecutor previously on the case did not share the information about that childs outcry with the defense, Woodard said at the time. The testimony prompted Woodard to immediately ask for a mistrial, citing an unfair surprise and a discovery violation because he was not told of the childs outcry. RELATED: Suspect who turned self in for gay strip shooting: 'I didn't do this' At the time, Woodard told the court he would have planned his defense strategy differently had he known the details beforehand. State District Judge Joey Contreras declared a mistrial, stating that the defense had been put at a severe disadvantage. Speir and assistant district attorney Brittany Byrd are prosecuting the case this time around, and visiting Judge Philip A. Kazen Jr. presiding. Super aggravated sexual assault of a child is a first-degree felony punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison. Elizabeth Zavala is a courts and crime reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 NASA's Johnson Space Center will open its doors to the public later this month, providing behind-the-scenes access to space fanatics. The free event is being held Oct. 27 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of NASA and the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station. During the open house, guests will hear from officials with programs such as space station, Orion and commercial crew. They'll also be able to check out some moon rocks collected during the Apollo missions as well as explore full-size mock ups of Orion and the space station. And if you think you've seen it all on the Space Center Houston tours, you'd be wrong. Several locations will be open to the public Oct. 27 that are not available during the museum tours. This is the first time in years that Johnson has been open to the public, according to NASA. "As we celebrate NASA's 60th anniversary, Johnson Space Center has played a key role in leading human space exploration and has been a part of the vibrant Houston community for nearly six decades," said Mark Geyer, Johnson director. "While the past 60 years represent the best of our country and the height of American ingenuity, the talented, dedicated and diverse team here in 'space city' Houston is excited about the next chapter in spaceflight as we work to launch humans farther into the solar system." The event will last from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 27, but the last visitors will be admitted at 1:30 p.m. For more information about where to park and what you'll be able to see on your trip, visit NASA's website here. Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. The long-awaited launch of Orion the spacecraft being built by NASA to take Americans back to the moon likely won't be ready for the planned mid-2020 lift-off because of cost and scheduling problems with the rocket that will send it into space. The delay, described Wednesday in a report from NASA's Office of Inspector General, is the second setback this week for the space agency, which reported Monday that the Hubble Space Telescope had been temporarily shut down because of a mechanical failure that crippled the groundbreaking observatory. The report concluded that NASA would need to spend an additional $1.2 billion if it wants Orion to launch in June 2020 as planned. The report did not provide a new launch date for the Space Launch System rocket, which has already been delayed multiple times. "We have concluded NASA will be unable to meet its (Exploration Mission-1) launch window currently scheduled between December 2019 and June 2020," according to the OIG report. NASA, however, remained optimistic that the Orion launch will go off as planned. "NASA has made significant progress on SLS, including core stage production, and the agency continues to plan for the launch of Exploration Mission-1 in 2020, but there are still technical and schedule risks," said Kathryn Hambleton, NASA spokeswoman. The first Orion spacecraft mission, Exploration Mission-1, is meant to go up without a crew on board. The second, Exploration Mission-2, will launch humans around the moon and is supposed to fly by no later than 2023. The OIG report puts the project's problems largely on the shoulders of Boeing, the contractor building the rocket's core stage, the body of the rocket that holds the fuel tanks and primary engines. "We found Boeing's poor performance is the main reason for the significant cost increases and schedule delays to developing the SLS core stage," the report states. Jason Davis, digital editor for The Planetary Society, expressed his disappointment at the delays, saying that NASA and Boeing have "utterly failed" to fulfill their promise to build the space agency's most powerful rocket. "You'd think by now NASA would know how to manage a rocket program," Davis said. "They've been doing that since the early days. But clearly this report shows that there's some problems." Private companies, meanwhile, continue to work to develop rockets that are reusable and cheaper. SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, sent a Tesla automobile into space earlier this year with a rocket built by the company. Double the cost Boeing was awarded a contract in 2012 to build two SLS cores for NASA, one for the first, uncrewed Orion flight and one for the second that would carry Americans around the moon. U.S. astronauts last landed on the moon in 1972. At that time, the uncrewed flight was expected to launch in 2017. But that timeline didn't work out as planned as the project has been plagued with construction delays and cost increases. "At Boeing's current expenditure rate, we project that NASA will spend at least $8.9 billion through 2021double the amount initially planned while delivery of the first Core Stage has slipped 2 years from June 2017 to December 2019 and may slip further," the report states. The report found the main reasons for the delays and cost increases were that Boeing underestimated the scope of the work and therefore the skills and workers required to complete it and continually failed to provide NASA with realistic estimates for schedule and cost. For example, the report highlighted a test of the rocket's four main engines, as well as its liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel tanks, that must be conducted. That test is 18 months behind schedule, the report added, and may not be conducted until May 2019. Boeing told the OIG that many of the problems were related to inadequate funding, though OIG officials and NASA vehemently disagreed. "An unprecedented rocket program has inherent challenges; developing the first unit of a system that will safely carry humans into space, even more so," Boeing said in a statement. NASA personnel are not blameless in the rocket problem, either, the report found. The report states that NASA has rated Boeing's performance on the contract as "excellent" and, in some cases, "very good" despite the delays and cost changes. The space agency also already awarded Boeing 90 percent, or $323 million, of the fees available through the contract. "Considering the SLS Program's cost overages and schedule delays, we question nearly $64 million of these award fees already provided to Boeing," the report stated. NASA officials, in a statement, said they have "experienced several challenges associated with design, development, and manufacturing of such a large and highly complex system for the first time." The agency added that it "fully supports the SLS program and the core stage prime contractor, Boeing, as they have already overcome many challenges and continue to show major improvements in efficiency and management." 'They utterly failed' The OIG report offered seven suggestions to better manage the contract for the rocket, which has drawn criticism for being too expensive and unsustainable. The office suggested reviewing the contract and seeking an independent federal cost estimate. Once that review is complete, the report suggests that the contract be renegotiated based on that information. Boeing said in the statement that many of the office's suggestions already are being implemented. "Boeing recognizes the importance of the SLS program to the nation and to the future of human space flight, and we are committed to its continued success," the statement said. "We have restructured our leadership team to better align with current program challenges and we are refining our approaches and tools to ensure a successful transition from development to production." Davis said he thinks the project will eventually be canceled replaced by a commercial rocket such as SpaceX's Falcon Heavy but that likely won't happen soon. He expects that, as long as the schedule doesn't slip further, a test flight will happen. "All NASA and Boeing had to do to answer that criticism was just build the rocket and fly it," Davis said. "They utterly failed to do that. That makes it really vulnerable to cancellation down the road." The announcement Wednesday comes on the heels of problems with the Hubble Space Telescope that forced the agency to put the groundbreaking observatory in "safe mode" for an unknown amount of time while NASA works to fix the problem. Hubble has been orbiting Earth for 28 years, credited with showing the world that the universe is 13.7 billion years old and that most galaxies harbor super-massive black holes. Hubble's problems can be traced back to worn-out gyroscopes, which keep the telescope pointed accurately for extended periods of time as it sends data back to scientists studying space. Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart on Wednesday proclaimed that the county's voting systems are secure and announced a campaign to encourage residents to participate in the upcoming midterm election. "Our message to voters is to be confident in the security of our elections process," Stanart said outside the Metropolitan Multi-Services Center on West Gray. "Don't stay home because you're fearful because your vote doesn't count." Stanart said Harris County's voting system were not compromised during the 2016 elections or elections since. Last summer, when Dallas County officials said their systems had been targeted by Russian hackers, Harris County refused to say whether hackers also attempted break-ins here. On Wednesday, Stanart said his office has taken a number of safeguards to thwart hackers. Voting machines are inspected before elections, voting is strictly supervised and the election systems are never connected to the internet, he said. The county clerk said that no procedures have changed since the 2016 election to address the possibility that hackers will again target American election systems. Rather, Stanart said his staff is being more diligent about following procedures already in place. In a campaign sponsored by advertising firm Clear Channel Outdoor, Harris County will place billboards in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese around the county encouraging voters to participate. Stanart, who himself is seeking re-election, reminded residents early voting begins on Oct. 22 and runs through Nov. 2. During that period, voters can cast ballots at any of 46 locations throughout the county. On Election Day, Nov. 6, residents must vote at their assigned polling places. Zach Despart covers Harris County for the Chronicle. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at zach.despart@chron.com. Russian Supreme Court upholds prison sentences for Far Eastern Guerilla gang members RIA Novosti, Vitaly Ankov 13:38 10/10/2018 MOSCOW, October 10 (RAPSI) The Supreme Court of Russia has upheld the prison sentences for five defendants found guilty of widespread killings and robbery as part of the so-called Far Eastern Guerilla gangs case, RAPSI correspondent reports from the courtroom. In May, after a retrial, the Primorsky Krai Court in Vladivostok sentenced Alexander Kovtun and Vladimir Ilyutikov to 25 years in prison each, Alexey Nikitin was given 23.5 years in prison, Maksim Kirillov was sentenced to 21.5 years and Vadim Kovtun, who was not directly involved in murders, received 8 years behind bars. Moreover, they were ordered to pay victims about 3 million rubles ($47,300) on their civil claim. The case was reconsidered by jurors, who delivered guilty verdict to the defendants. The Far Eastern Guerillas case returned to public attention after the Supreme Court of Russia overturned acquittal of five men, who were previously found innocent of several murders and robbery. In July 2016, after a retrial, jurors found evidence presented by prosecution not convincing and acquitted the defendants. The retrial was conducted with regard to the murder of four people, who were also robbed of valuables and drugs they had on them, in the Primorsky Krai. On July 28 of the same year, defendants Alexey Nikitin and Vadim Kovtun were released in a courtroom while Alexander Kovtun, Vladimir Ilyutikov and Maksim Kirillov were kept in detention as they were to serve their time in relation to two other criminal cases. On December 26, 2016, Russias Supreme Court reversed the acquittal. The group gained notoriety after a series of assaults on civilians and law enforcement officers in 2010 that left six dead. The Far Eastern Guerilla gang was tracked down in a flat in the city of Ussuriysk in June 2011 and surrounded by law enforcement officials. Two policemen were injured in a shootout with the gang members, two of whom committed suicide, according to the forensic medical examination. On February 4, 2014, five of the defendants were found guilty by the jury of having participated in a criminal gang, while one was acquitted. Four gang members were convicted of killing police officers, and five were convicted of the murder of civilians. Harris County added more than 11,000 voters to its rolls in the final week before the registration deadline, the last wave in a surge of half a million new Texas voters since the March primaries. Democrats are most likely to benefit from the increase because new voters, many of whom are young and/or nonwhite, are more likely to support their party, University of Houston political science Professor Brandon Rottinghaus said. There is a long legacy of Democrats seeking to get more people registered, and the investment is likely to pay off, Rottinghaus said. This is a moment where theres going to be a lot of nail biting from Republicans on election night. More than 66,000 residents registered to vote in Harris County since the spring, more than any other Texas county, according to the Texas Secretary of State. Since the 2014 midterms, Harris County has added 280,000 voters. Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett, who also serves as the county voter registrar, did not respond to a request for comment. Her office said Tuesday it had yet to calculate how many new voters had registered since September. Rottinghaus cautioned that there is a poor correlation between voter registration and turnout. Even as more eligible Harris County voters have registered since the 1990s, turnout has declined. Republicans, he said, are hampered by their past success since they already have registered most of their potential voters. Democrats have more room to grow, he said, especially with Latinos, African Americans, new citizens and young people. Harris Countys largest political parties had different takeaways from the voter registration surge. Democratic Party spokesman Odus Evbagharu said the jump in new voters will help the party dominate Harris County elections as it did in 2016, even as he acknowledged the challenge now lies with convincing those voters to actually show up at the polls. More Information Ten Counties with the biggest percentage increase in voter registration since the Texas Primary elections 1. HAYS - 8 percent 2. BRAZOS 5 percent 3. COMAL - 5 percent 4. TRAVIS -5 percent 5. RAINS - 5 percent 6. GUADALUPE - 5 percent 7. NACOGDOCHES - 5 percent 8. WILLIAMSON - 5 percent 9. KING - 5 percent 10. COLLIN - 5 percent See More Collapse Whether by phone, text or social media, we are contacting them constantly to remind them there is an election, he said. SECURITY: Stanart announces campaign to assure voters elections are secure Vlad Davidiuk, communications director for the Harris County Republicans, attributed the surge to registration drives by both parties. Since both parties have been working overtime to get their voters registered, and their registrations updated it does not indicate a surge of Democratic voters, he said. New numbers from the Texas Secretary of State show a record 15.7 million voters will be eligible to vote in the Nov. 6 midterm elections, which feature one of the hottest U.S. Senate races in the country between incumbent Republican Ted Cruz and Democratic Congressman Beto ORourke, the governor's race, and more than a half dozen highly competitive congressional races. SWIFT RESPONSE: Taylor Swift's endorsement of Democrats causes spike in voter registrations The two-week statewide surge is more in line with the number of voters Texas typically adds in an entire year. From 2002 to 2014, Texas added 116,000 voters a year. And the total is likely to rise as last-minute voter registrations are reported to the Texas Secretary of States office. The last day to register to vote in time for the midterm elections was Tuesday. The numbers come even as more than 2,000 voters had their registrations deemed incomplete because they registered online via the national Vote.org. Those voters have 10 days to resubmit their registrations. For subscribers: Houston Chronicles Voter Guide For subscribers: San Antonio Express-News Voter Guide Across Texas, voter registration increased 2 percent since March primary elections. In that time frame, no county has seen a jump in voter registrations larger than Hays County, just south of Austin and home to San Marcos, one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the United States. Hays has reported an 8 percent increase in voter registration since the March primary elections. Major metro counties, like Dallas, Bexar, and Harris counties have seen their voter registrations increase 3 percent since March. Suburban counties have seen a bigger jump. In Fort Bend and Montgomery counties near Houston, voter registrations grew 4 percent since March. In Collin County near Dallas, voter registrations climbed 5 percent. In Guadalupe and Comal counties north of San Antonio, voter registrations jumped 5 percent. Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos has said the surge of voter registrations and enthusiasm in this midterm election cycle is akin to what election officials often see in presidential election cycles. Early voting starts on Oct. 22, and Election Day is Nov. 6. zach.despart@chron.com jeremy.wallace@chron.com AUSTIN Today marks the final day for Texans to sign up to vote on Nov. 6 in an election year that has already seen a surprising surge in registration. As of Tuesday morning, more than 15.7 million Texas had registered to vote a record high, according to the Texas Secretary of State. Still, experts warn the challenge will be getting people to the polls. Texas ranks near bottom of the pack nationwide in voter turnout. The last time more than half of registered voters cast a ballot in a midterm election was 1994, when Democratic Gov. Ann Richards lost to Republican George W. Bush, according to state data. Pretrial hearing of high-profile theater embezzlement case set for October 17 RIA Novosti, Ramil Sitdikov 16:34 10/10/2018 MOSCOW, October 10 (RAPSI) Moscows Meshchansky District Court has scheduled a preliminary hearing of a high-profile embezzlement case involving the Gogol Center theater director Kirill Serebrennikov for October 17, the courts spokesperson Yulia Kotomina has told RAPSI. The hearing will be held according to the law, behind closed doors. Serebrennikov was arrested in late August 2017 and then placed under house arrest. In early November, Moscows Basmanny District Court seized assets belonging to Serebrennikov including apartment, car, and money in the amount of more than 360,000 rubles ($5,300), over 60,000, and $4,000. Investigators believe that he was an organizer of the budget money embezzlement. He allegedly created Seventh Studio stage company to actualize the Platforma project for promotion of art and called alleged accomplices into the organization. He pleaded not guilty. Other defendants in the case are ex-head of Seventh Studio stage company Yury Itin, ex-general producer Alexey Malobrodsky, and former Seventh Studio chief accountant Nina Maslyayeva, ex-official of Russias Culture Ministry and current director of the Russian Academic Youth Theater Sophia Apfelbaum. Producer Yekaterina Voronova, has been put on the international wanted list and arrested in absentia as part of the case. According to investigation, the defendants have embezzled 133 million rubles ($2 million) of 214 million rubles ($3.2 million) allocated from the budget to Seventh Studio for promotion of Russian contemporary art. Investigators claim that Itin, Malobrodsky, and Maslyayeva were falsifying data for the Platforma projects plans in 2011-2014 on the theater directors request. This data was provided to the Ministry of Culture as the rationale for financing from the state budget. Maslyayeva has testified against Serebrennikov. She said that Serebrennikov, Malobrodsky and Itin organized embezzlement of money allocated for a cultural event. Serebrennikov and Malobrodsky cashed the money with the assistance of Maslyayeva. The woman also said that she entered falsified data in financial reports. Apfelbaum, according to investigators, signed contracts on state grants in the amount of more than 214 million rubles with Serebrennikovs stage company on behalf of the Russian Culture Ministry, and provided further agreement of received reporting documents, which contained overstated information on quantity and cost of the held events, thus abetting the embezzlement. Apfelbaum admitted that she controlled the movement of cash but denied involvement in the crime. Russian ombudsman asks prosecutors to examine case against Ulmart co-owner RIA Novosti 17:56 10/10/2018 MOSCOW, October 10 (RAPSI) - Russian business ombudsman Boris Titov has asked Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman to examine criminal proceedings against a co-owner of Ulmart company Dmitry Kostygin, a defendant in a fraud case. According to Titov, the case against Kostygin is based on civil law and should be reviewed as a civil one. Kostygin also stands charged with large-scale credit fraud. According to case papers, the businessman acting as the Board Chairman of Ulmart provided false information on the companys financial position to Sberbank for signing a loan agreement. In April, Sberbank transferred 1 billion rubles ($17.3 million at the current exchange rate) to the companys account. The accused allegedly managed the money in his discretion. The defendant pleaded not guilty, his lawyer Konstantin Dobrynin told RAPSI earlier. Earlier, the Smolninsky District Court of St. Petersburg granted an application by Sberbank seeking to invalidate the contract concluded between Kostygin and businessman Oleg Morozov, on the basis of which a bankruptcy petition was filed against Ulmart. In February 2015, Ulmart received a 250-millionruble credit from Kostygin for a year. In early 2016, Kostygin assigned his right to claim a debt to Morozov. The businessman in turn filed a bankruptcy petition against Ulmart with a commercial court because the company did not pay the debt. Moreover, the Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg collected 653 million rubles ($11.3 million) in debt from Kostygin in favor of VTB bank. Ulmart group of companies is the largest Russian private Internet holding focusing on e-commerce segment. The companys distribution network consists of over 400 sales outlets across more than 240 Russian cities and towns. Canadas new, improved provincial pathways to immigration Third Quarter Report: Express Entry-linked Provincial Nominee Programs Stephen Smith Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Far from taking the summer off, Canadas Express Entry-linked Provincial Nominee Programs spent the months of July, August and September innovating and issuing more than 3,000 invitations to apply for a provincial nomination for Canadian permanent residence. The big news in the third quarter of 2018 included the largest invitation round so far this year through Ontarios Human Capital Priorities Stream, Saskatchewans switch to an Expression of Interest system for its Express Entry sub-category and the creation of Nova Scotias Labour Market Priorities Stream. Provincial Nominee Programs, or PNPs, allow participating Canadian provinces and territories to nominate a set number of immigration candidates for permanent residence each year. All Canadian provinces and territories with a PNP now have at least one enhanced nomination stream that is linked to the federal Express Entry system, which manages the profiles of candidates in Canadas three main federal economic immigration categories the Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class and the Canadian Experience Class. Express Entry candidates who receive a provincial nomination are awarded an additional 600 points toward their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score, which effectively fast-tracks them for an invitation to apply for Canadian permanent residence. Over the course of July, August and September, Express Entry-linked PNP streams across Canada issued more than 3,000 invitations to apply for a provincial nomination to Express Entry candidates. Explore Canadas Express Entry PNPs with the new CanadaVisa PNP Finder! Ontario drops 400 CRS minimum The largest invitation round of the third quarter was held through Ontarios Human Capital Priorities Stream on August 9, when it issued 947 Notifications of Interest (NOIs) to Express Entry candidates with a job offer in Ontario. The CRS scores of Express Entry candidates who were issued an NOI in this draw ranged from 350 to 439. The Human Capital Priorities Stream allows the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) to search the Express Entry pool for candidates who meet its specified federal and provincial criteria. The August 9 draw was the second of the year through this stream to target Express Entry candidates with a job offer in Ontario, despite the fact a job offer is not required under the streams eligibility requirements. Both these draws also deviated from the streams criteria by selecting Express Entry candidates with CRS scores below 400. In September, the likelihood of future draws with a CRS minimum under 400 grew with the OINPs revision of the streams minimum score criteria, which is now be set at the discretion of the OINPs director. The OINP told CIC News at the time that the likelihood of the minimum score continuing to drop below 400 will depend on a number of factors, including the number of eligible candidates in the Express Entry pool, Ontarios labour market needs and the provinces economic immigration priorities. Ontarios Express Entry-linked French-Speaking Skilled Worker Stream also had an active third quarter. The stream, which selects French-speaking Express Entry candidates with strong English language abilities (a minimum of CLB 6), among other criteria, held draws on an almost weekly basis through July, August and September and issued 419 NOIs. To find out if you are eligible for any Express Entry-linked PNPs, please fill out a free assessment. Saskatchewan goes EOI Another big story in the third quarter of 2018 was the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Programs adoption of an Expression of Interest system for its Express Entry sub-category in July. The change brought an end to the first-come, first-served approach to managing applications to the sub-category that had been in place, which favoured candidates who were quickest to apply during its periodic openings. Saskatchewan says the switch to an Expression of Interest (EOI) system allows its provincial nominee program, the SINP, to better target those most likely to succeed in Saskatchewans labour market. As the SINP says on the webpage outlining the new system, a goal of the EOI system is to ensure strong economic outcomes and long-term retention in Saskatchewan for those invited to apply. Under Saskatchewans EOI system, Express Entry candidates who would like to be considered for a nomination through Saskatchewans Express Entry Sub-category must first submit an Expression of Interest. Candidates register an EOI profile and are given a ranking score based on their answers to questions concerning work experience, education and proficiency in English or French, among other factors. Those who score at least 60 points on Saskatchewans assessment grid, and satisfy other eligibility requirements, are entered into the pool of candidates for the Express Entry Sub-category and the highest-ranked candidates are invited to apply for a provincial nomination through regular draws. After the switch to an EOI system became official on July 16, the SINP held two third-quarter draws from its new pool of candidates, on August 21 and September 27. A total of 691 invitations to apply for a provincial nomination from Saskatchewan were issued in the two draws. Nova Scotia launches new Express Entry stream Among Canadas Atlantic provinces, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Islands Express Entry-linked had an especially active third quarter. On August 2, Nova Scotia announced the creation of its Labour Market Priorities Stream, saying it will be used to invite Express Entry candidates who meet market-identified labour shortages to apply for a provincial nomination. A candidates CRS score is not a selection factor. The provinces Office of Immigration has described the stream as flexible and said the specified occupations could vary from draw to draw depending on Nova Scotias labour needs. The first invitation round through the new stream was held on August 8 and saw Nova Scotia issue 314 invitations to eligible Express Entry candidates with at least two years of eligible work experience as early childhood educators and assistants. Across the Northumberland Strait in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Express Entry candidates were invited to apply for a provincial nomination on three separate occasions in the third quarter through PEIs Express Entry Stream. Prince Edward Island does not provide the number of Express Entry candidates invited in an individual draw, so there is no total number of invitations available. However, Express Entry candidates were among the 302 candidates invited in the three Labour Impact and Express Entry invitation rounds held in the third quarter of 2018. One interesting development with PEIs Express Entry Stream during this last quarter was news that PEIs Office of Immigration has started contacting Express Entry candidates who may be a match for labour market needs in the province. While PEI welcomes Expressions of Interest from Express Entry candidates who would like to be considered for immigration to the province, this new development shows that PEI also may contact Express Entry candidates who have not submitted one if they have work experience required in the province. Looking for more information on Canadas 80+ PNPs? Use CanadaVisas new interactive PNP Finder to explore programs, filter your search and keep up to date on all PNP-related news. 2018 CICNews All rights Reserved Guwahati : A postmaster of Assams Biswanath district was suspended for allegedly looting several thousands of rupees by using forged passbook. According to the reports, the postmaster of Milanpur post office branch under Gohpur subdivision along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border had allegedly looted Rs 50,000 of a woman by using fake passbook. Report said that, a married woman named Bibari Basumutary met the postmaster identified as Hemen Hazarika last year and urged him to help her to fix deposit of an amount Rs 50,000 and handed over the amount in cash. Hemen Hazarika had given a passbook (no 9314774837) to the woman. When the woman went to the post office to know about her fixed deposit amount last month, she knew that, no amount was deposited against her name and the passbook given by the postmaster was a fake passbook. She immediately informed and lodged a complaint before higher authorities against the postmaster. When we have found his (Hemen Hazarika) guilty, higher authorities had suspended the postmaster with immediate effect, an official of Assam postal circle said. Few news organizations provide an opportunity for members of the public to engage top management with questions about how their enterprises are run or how they screen their commercial sponsors. But New York Public Radio, as a recipient of funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is required by federal law to do just that under the auspices of its Community Advisory Board. At the CABs Sept. 12 public meeting, New York Public Radio President and CEO Laura Walker was the featured guest and she was a bit on the defensive about how WNYC decides which corporate sponsors are allowed on its airwaves. One female listener told Walker that she was appalled that the public radio company had taken sponsorship money from Purdue Pharma, a drug company that has been probed by the Department of Justice and sued by many states and local governments over allegations that it bears responsibility for the opioid crisis. How could WNYC be the vehicle for whitewashing? the listener asked Walker, the head of the National Public Radio affiliate between WNYC, WAMU and a growing number of podcasts. The decision there originally was made in consultation with NPR, with a bunch of other stations that were taking it, Walker answered. Considerable care was taken as to the actual content of the sponsorship spot, she added. We werent saying they were great, and they went through a lot of iterations. Walker recently pulled the plug on the sponsorship after Purdue ran for a couple of weeks and dozens of listeners complained, she said. Maybe 30 or 40 people wrote in, we got a few phone calls, it might have been a little more than that and we made the decision we were not going to take them anymore. Its no surprise that the Purdue sponsorship spurred complaints. The drug manufacturer has been sued by 27 states, Puerto Rico and hundreds of local governments for its role in the opioid crisis, which kills tens of thousands Americans every year. New York state recently filed its own lawsuit. The opioid epidemic was manufactured by unscrupulous distributors who developed a $400 billion industry pumping human misery into our communities, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. The de Blasio administration filed its own half-billion-dollar lawsuit earlier this year. Purdue denied New Yorks charges and pointed out that U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to approve of its scientific and medical research, according to Reuters. Despite the risk of controversy, sponsorships from corporate entities like Purdue are a fast growing share of WNYCs revenue mix, both on air and via podcasts, as City & State reported in July. Revenue from member pledges, while rising, was surpassed by revenue generated by sponsorships, according to WNYCs latest financials (including 2016 and up until June 30, 2017). While revenue from listeners jumped from $23.7 million to $26.58 million year over year, there has been a seismic shift to sponsorship in just one year. In 2016, sponsorships accounted for $21.5 million. In 2017, sponsorship growth spiked to $30.6 million. Another controversial WNYC sponsor was The Williams Companies, which was dropped in January after pressure from grassroots anti-fracking environmentalists. The company was building the controversial 125-mile Constitution natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania in Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Schoharie counties in New York. Trellan Smith, one of the anti-fracking activists that pressured WNYC to drop Williams, was back at the September CAB meeting. WNYC can be a huge voice with NPR in saying we dont want this sponsorship, Smith said to those assembled at the CAB meeting They are really untouchable and hard to get through and you cant sit with their president. For WNYC to be really good is even more important. Walker said she did call up NPRs leadership after she got pushback on the Purdue campaign. I think I actually convinced (them), I am not sure this is right, both NPR and WAMU, because I also talked to my colleague there, I dont believe they are doing them anymore. So we try to use our voice and share our thoughts and sometimes we make mistakes. Walker explained to the couple of dozen listeners that attended what was billed as her annual report that such sponsorship deals were tough decisions even if you didnt take money from anybody who was under any kind of investigation or like with Exxon. I was talking to our news director, he had been at the New York Times, the New York Times took a lot of Exxon money after the Valdez, right? And he was defending that. Walker said the sponsorship decisions are taken seriously and debated internally. I bring in the general counsel, certainly, the news head, but we know in our hearts it is about perception. It is not about reality and I will say, what doesnt really get talked about often is the foundation and individual contributions, which also have a wall but sometimes that wall you find is a little more permeable. Theres a lot of gray. Attendees also raised concerns about a current radio campaign by Wells Fargo, which has been the subject of multiple federal investigations. In 2016 it was fined $185 million for fraudulently opening 1.5 million bank accounts. In August, the bank agreed to pay a $2.09 billion fine to the Department of Justice for selling thousands of mortgages knowing they contained misleading and incorrect income information, though it admitted no wrongdoing. Yet there are signs that WNYC has not shied away from scrutinizing the corporate entities that have run paid sponsorships with the radio station. In September, WNYC partnered with other news organizations on reports that were critical of The Williams Companies and its ties to elected officials in New York. And last year, WNYC ran a segment on the allegations against Purdue. In an October edition of Money Talking, Charlie Herman spoke with The New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe about his piece The Family That Built an Empire of Pain," which described the Sacklers role in the opioid epidemic. As health professionals and policymakers push for more funding to tackle the crisis, one group of people has remained largely quiet: the Sacklers, the family behind the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma that manufactures OxyContin, WNYC reported. On Wednesday night, the public will have another opportunity to get a look behind the scenes. The CAB will hear from Jen Chung and Jake Dobson, the Gothamist co-founders, about their plans for the future for the popular hyperlocal news website that New York Public Radio acquired earlier this year. The deal came just a few months after Gothamist and DNAinfo, another hyerlocal news site, had been shut down by owner Joe Ricketts after the workforce had voted to join a union. Ricketts and his family are major Republican donors as well as ardent supporters of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose anti-public union crusade won him a national following. New York Public Radio has several job openings at Gothamist, but a press spokesperson for the nonprofit said they are not union positions. Roughly 170 members New York Public Radios 600-person workforce are members of the SAG-AFTRA bargaining unit. When the station was municipally owned, a much higher percentage of the staff were unionized but belonged to AFSCME's District Council 37. Wednesday's CAB meeting is at 6:30 p.m. in the station's Jerome L. Greene Space, located at 44 Charlton St. in Manhattan. Editors note: Bob Hennelly was a reporter at WNYC from 2002 to 2013, when he resigned. He subsequently has appeared on WNYCs The Takeaway and The Brian Lehrer Show and continues to pitch segments to the station. Market forces have failed when it comes to the distribution of charitable activity across the UK, the chief executive of NPC said this morning. Delivering the opening speech of this years NPC Ignites conference in London this morning, Dan Corry, chief executive of NPC, said that worse-off areas of the UK tend to have fewer charities, receive less funding from grantmakers and government and, as a result, have been failed by market forces. Pointing to data from the Office of National Statistics, Corry said that charity funding from locals government has nearly halved since 2010/2011, which he said has hit poorer areas harder. He also said he wasnt holding my breath that the Charity Tax Commission which is looking into charitable tax breaks would have positive news. I am not holding my breath that they find themselves [tax breaks] going mainly to the places, people, causes and charities that need them most, he said. Using London as an example, Corry said that in general outer London boroughs have far lower charity density than inner London ones despite having many needs. He said this was symptomatic of the problem across all the major regions of the UK. If we take registered charities, mainly as the data is easier than including the non-registered, and try to look at those who mainly work locally, we find that the number of charities per 1,000 of the population varies a lot. While it is over 2 in the South East, South West and East of England, it is below 1.5 in the North East, North West, and only a bit above in Yorkshire and the Humber and in the West Midlands. Broadly speaking, while the pattern is not totally straightforward, the charity density is higher in the more prosperous regions. Passion trumps efficiency in sector In his speech Corry was critical of the lack of benchmarking and collaboration in the charity sector saying that often passion trumps efficiency and blinds charity workers to what their organisation is achieving. Passion trumps efficiency sometimes the love of the organisation completely distracts from the idea of social impact. Sometimes the passion makes us believe we are achieving when the evidence is much less clear. And focusing down on achieving impact in cost effective ways can be a hard if rewarding - slog. He also said that venture philanthropy does not really work in my view as risk aversion dominates at board and senior level in the charity sector. Stop the endless discussions To address this issue, Corry said that charity regulation should be changed to force people and boards to report their social impact and how to improve it. He also called for high class monitoring of what goes on in the sector; building better working relationships with the public sector and local authorities and a stronger focus on place based work. Yes, all this stuff is a bit abstract currently, he said. We all have responsibilities which go beyond our reponsibility to our own individual organisation: each one of us needs to look up and reach out. Corry also reiterated his calls for the creation of a Civil Society Improvement Agency, which he described as a sector led organisation, but not a membership one, joint funded by government that could act as a clearing house, an instigator; a depository of knowledge and an advocate for change. He said the Charity Commission should focus on regulation "in contrast to what the recent Charity Commission strategy pushes towards" leaving the new agency to focus on supporting the sector. In conclusion, Corry called on the sector to stop the endless discussions that reverberate only within our sector and work with all kinds of different organisations to achieve change, in the interests of beneficiaries. Defence minister Tobias Ellwood has called for a military charitys campaign to be VAT exempt after learning that sales of commemorative silhouettes were subject to the tax. Military charity There But Not There is selling silhouettes of World War One soldiers around the country to mark the 100th anniversary of the wars end. The charity hopes to raise 15m and will split this between six charities, and expects to have to pay around 3m in VAT. General the Lord Dannatt, patron of the campaign, has written to the government calling on it to either offer a tax rebate or make a substantive donation that honours a pledge to support military charities with Libor fines levied on the banks. According to the charity, Ellwood expressed support for Dannatts proposal in an open message to chancellor Philip Hammond. Ellwood wrote: I hope you agree, given the optics of this and the good causes supported, that there is a strong case for VAT to be exempted. Nia Griffith, Labours shadow defence secretary, has also supported the proposal. She said: I would also urge the government to do the right thing and to consider very carefully whether they should be keeping the money raised from the sale of the Tommies. Libor money In his letter, Dannatt also called for more Libor funding to be distributed to armed forces charities. Dannatt quoted a figure from a news story by The Sun earlier this year which claimed that 326m of Libor money intended for charities had been used to top up central government funds. Some 200m of this was assigned to the Department for Education for the creation of 50,000 new apprenticeships however it is unclear where the 326m figure comes from. Dannatt said: It is extraordinary that this Libor money has been used to fund projects that really should have been paid for from budgeted Departmental funds. It is my understanding that Libor fine money was never intended to top-up government departments and other budgets but support military veterans and charities. Johnny Mercer, Conservative MP and defence select committee member, is quoted as saying: We know not all the money pledged to military charities from Libor made its way to those that needed it most. Questions still need to be answered. It would go some way to help temper the mood of military charities however, if the Treasury supported this campaign - as it has with others - and pledged to match-fund money raised or at the very least donate the amount paid in VAT. A government spokesperson said: The Remembered - There But Not There campaign has been a wonderful and very poignant way of commemorating the end of the First World War, and the chancellor has said he will look into this issue. Through the Libor scheme, which has now ended, we have committed almost 800m to charities including military charities since 2012, including those working with the armed forces and emergency services. Labours shadow minister for civil society Steve Reed has criticised the Big Lottery Funds new 15m digital fund for not focusing on small charities. This week the Big Lottery Fund announced it would open two funding strands on 22 October, offering grants of up to 500,000. The first strand is aimed at charities with and income of at least 500,000, while the second is open to charities of all sizes that have been established since 2000 and are already highly digital. Reed criticised the first funding strand for excluding over four in five UK charities who have an income below 500,000. He said: Smaller charities are best placed to pilot new technologies, So I am very troubled by this announcement and I urge the Big Lottery Fund to look urgently at how they can support smaller charities to use digital technology to become more effective. On Twitter, the Small Charities Coalition also expressed disappointment, saying: Strand 1 excludes 80% of UK charities, Strand 2 requires charities to already be 'highly digital'. This is not the case for lots of #smallbutvital charities. Thanks for replying. We're still a little confused. Strand 1 excludes 80% of UK charities, Strand 2 requires charities to already be 'highly digital'. This is not the case for lots of #smallbutvital charities. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/szH3XXz4mz Small Charities Coalition (@sccoalition) 9 October 2018 Plans to support small charities next year A spokesperson for the Big Lottery Fund said it plans to allocate just over a third of the 15m fund to organisations with incomes of more than 500,000. They said: "The digital fund is a two-year 15m fund for both small and larger charities. "We have specific plans to support small charities within this fund - further details of which will be available in the New Year. "We work with small charities every day, and understand and value the work they do. "Through National Lottery Awards for All we provide around 90m of funding every year, the majority of which goes to small grassroots organisations, including to support digital activities. "This represents 90 per cent of the 10,000 grants we give out each year." There are three ways to deal with propagandafirst, to suppress it; second, to try to answer it by counterpropaganda; third, to analyze it, the journalist turned educator Clyde R. Miller said in a public lecture at Town Hall in New York in 1939. At that time, faced with the global rise of fascist regimes who were beaming propaganda across the world, as well as US demagogues spouting rhetoric against the government and world Jewry, the rise of Stalinism, and the beginning of the Red-baiting that foreshadowed McCarthyism, scholars and journalists were struggling to understand how people could fall for lies and overblown rhetoric. In response to this growing problem, Miller, who had been a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, founded the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1937. To get the institute up and running, Miller got a $10,000 grant from the department store magnate Edward A. Filene, who had by then begun making a name for himself as a liberal philanthropist. Based at Columbia Universitys Teachers College, with a staff of seven people, the IPA devoted its efforts to analyzing propaganda and misinformation in the news, publishing newsletters, and educating schoolchildren to be more tolerant of racial, religious, and ethnic differences. In order to understand what kind of people, under certain circumstances would be susceptible to fascism, some sociologists studied personality traits. While it was clear that Germanys defeat in World War I and subsequent economic conditions there, including widespread unemployment, had paved the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler, academics and journalists tried to parse just what made Nazi propaganda so effective at galvanizing public support for the regime. Theodor Adorno produced his famous F-scale (the F stands for fascist), which aimed to identify individuals more susceptible to the persuasions of authoritarianism. In recent years, the research of behavioral economist Karen Stenner has similarly examined the ways that innate personality traits coupled with changing social forces can push some segments of society toward intolerance.) For its part, the IPA, under Millers leadership, maintained that education was the American way of dealing with disinformation. Suppression of propaganda is contrary to democratic principles, specifically contrary to the provisions of the United States Constitution, Miller said in his 1939 speech. Counterpropaganda is legitimate but often intensifies cleavages. Analysis of propaganda, on the other hand, cannot hurt propaganda for a cause that we consider good. In other words, analyzing propaganda for a good cause would not undermine the cause itselfbut analysis of bad propaganda would allow audiences to dismantle its effects. In the 80 years since Clyde Miller first set out to tackle this problem, the dissemination of propaganda in our society has become only more sophisticated and perhaps more ubiquitous. The recent rise of Facebook and Twitter, along with the capabilities they offer to micro-target specific particular audience demographics, and the ongoing controversies of the 2016 electionamong them the prospect that ideologically motivated foreign actors used social media to disseminate false informationhave brought a renewed flurry of interest in the kind of propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation that pervaded the country nearly a century ago. So its not surprising that we again see growing interest in developing techniques for identifying and unraveling them. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Foundations including Hewlett Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, have begun slow and expensive efforts to educate people to think critically, build trust in media outlets, analyze disinformation, and fight propaganda. Governments around the world, including in Germany, Malaysia and the European Union, are starting to regulate social-media platforms, as evidenced by recent efforts by European governments to require Facebook and Twitter to crack down on illegal hate speech. But social media platforms have largely taken the stance that the onus is on the audience to figure out what is fake and what is not. Meanwhile, they tweak their algorithms, mount an array of technical fixes, and employ human moderators to block inflammatory content. In light of all this, its worth looking back to one of the earliest attempts to tackle this age-old problem. What, if anything, can we learn from the efforts of the IPA in the 1930s? And why are we again falling prey to the kinds of disinformation campaigns that it aimed to inoculate society against? In her Group Leaders Guide to Propaganda Analysis, the IPAs educational director, Violet Edwards, argued that industrialization and urbanization made society bigger and more complicated and so the common man had become tragically confused by an overload of secondhand information and the need to make decisions about subjects without having firsthand information. Instead of the town hall or the cracker barrel of yore, where citizens could meet to discuss the topics that affected them personally, Edwards wrote, they now had to rely on information from others about how society should be organized and which policies should be pursued far from home. Meanwhile, many others, including the American writer Walter Lippmann and the French philosopher Jacques Ellul, had begun arguing that journalism could become a means to sift through and distill the excessive information now available to the masses in part because of increasing newspaper circulation and radio broadcasts. To properly understand the secondhand information on which citizens depend, Edwards wrote, readers should adopt a scientific mindset of fact-finding and logical reasoning and think critically when confronted with secondhand information. The IPA developed techniques for analyzing information that would help audiences think rationally. They brought media literacy training into US schools in an attempt to inoculate young people from the contagion of propaganda by teaching them how to thoughtfully analyze what they read and heard. (Again, something that is being tried today.) Miller categorized propaganda into seven types. These included glittering generalities, name calling, testimonials, and transfer, a means by which the propagandist carries over the authority, sanction, and prestige of something we respect and revere to something he would have us accept. Using another tactic, Plain Folks, Miller argued, propagandists win our confidence by appearing to be people like ourselves, while bandwagon was a device to make us follow the crowd to accept the propagandists program en masse. Soon after the founding of the IPA, Miller was praised for bringing the newspaper mans passion for simplifying complicated subjects: Among the IPAs regular output, were analyses of political speeches, with little iconsthe emoji of the dayprinted next to each phrase to explain which of these techniques the speaker was using. One such book analyzed the anti-Semitic radio broadcasts of the infamous Father Coughlin, a Catholic priest in Detroit who was estimated to draw 30 million listeners for his attacks on the international Jewish population and President Roosevelt, among other topics. Miller also published something he called the ABCs of Propaganda Analysis, which exhorted readers to first concern themselves with propaganda, then figure out the agenda of the propagandist, view the propaganda with doubt and skepticism, evaluate ones reactions to it, and finally seek out the facts. He hoped audiences would use the ABCs to become active readers who could carefully analyze their reactions to propaganda. Additionally, Miller published a weekly Bulletin that described an important topic in the news, analyzed the propaganda techniques used by all sides, and included a detailed list of sources hed used and recommended further reading and discussion questions. This struck a nerve: Some 10,000 people subscribed to the Bulletin, which cost $2.00 a year (about $32.00 in todays terms), and 18,000 people bought the bound volume of back issues that was published at the end of each year. Heres a sample analysis of the fake news of the day, taken from the May 26, 1941, issue of the Bulletin: Persistently since the influx of refugees from the war areas began, a story has bobbed up in numerous American cities about the alleged heartlessand actually unrealdischarging of regular employes [sic] by stores to make places for foreigners. The story usually is anti-Semitic; the store with which it is connected has Jewish owners, and Jews are said to get the jobs. One large store in New York City which has been a victim of the story has spent considerable sums trying to trace the source and find some way of stopping it. The efforts have been fruitless. The story keeps reappearing, and mimeographed leaflets have even been circulated picturing the Jewish manager welcoming a long line of Jewish refugees while turning away another line of fine Nordic types. As part of the IPAs attempts to spread its message and techniques, the organization sought to put young students on guard against propaganda and to form them into sophisticated news consumers. The institute formed a relationship with Scholastic magazine, and in 1939 and 1940 produced a series that was distributed in schools, called What Makes You Think So?; Expert Guidance to Help You Think Clearly and Detect Propaganda in Any Form. By the late 1930s, 1 million school children were using IPAs methods to analyze propaganda, and the IPA corresponded with some 2,500 teachers. Anticipating contemporary critiques, such as the argument by danah boyd, founder of the technology-analysis organization Data & Society, that media-literacy programs can cause audiences to become dangerously mistrustful, the IPA maintained, in its teaching guides, that students needed to think critically as part of being engaged citizens: The teacher who acts as a guide to maturity helps her pupils to think critically and to act intelligently on the everyday problems they are meeting. [B]y its very nature [the] process will not build attitudes of cynicism and defeatism. The IPA also helped design curriculum aimed at promoting civic engagement and racial and religious tolerance that was piloted in the Springfield, Massachusetts, school district, whose superintendent was sympathetic to the IPAs mission. The Springfield Plan was influential and replicated in other districts but petered out in Springfield itself after a few years partly due to criticism by the Catholic Church and lack of local support as religious tensions rose locally after World War II. By the early 50s, as McCarthyism was taking hold, there were murmurings that the plan contained subversive elements. Miller spent 10 years at Columbia Teachers College as Communications Director and as an associate professor. In that time, IPA used up $1 million of Filenes money. It was World War II that caused the end of the IPA, in part because the US began producing its own propaganda to galvanize support for the fight against Hitler. Publication of the weekly Bulletin ceased in 1942, as the US entered the war. In its farewell issue of January 9, 1942, headlined We Say Au Revoir, the IPA explained that its board of directors had voted to suspend operations: The publication of its dispassionate analysis of all kinds of propaganda, good and bad, is easily misunderstood during a war emergency, and more important, the analyses could be misused for undesirable purposes by persons opposing the governments efforts. This final Bulletin expressed satisfaction with the work achieved by the IPA, warned that wartime is usually accompanied by a rise in intolerance, and expressed the hope that IPA techniques for analyzing propaganda would be used in the future, which indeed they were. Millers time at Teachers College came to a sad end, as he apparently fell victim to the very intolerance he had warned against. Along with some other faculty members, he was put on leave from the college in 1944, amid a financial crisis at the institution, and he never resumed work there. In 1948 Miller was officially let go. Miller was told his dismissal was the result of departmental restructuringbut William Randolph Hearsts animosity towards Miller may have contributed. Hearst was known for attacking Reds in the universities and schools and his paper, The World Telegram, had criticized some of the educational activities Miller was involved with. Hearst had complained to Teachers College about Miller, saying he should lay off. The House Unamerican Activities Committee in 1947 also attacked the IPA calling it a Communist front organization. The late 1940s were a prelude to the McCarthy years of the 1950s and HUAC had begun going after members of the American left. As far as we know, Miller was not a Communist or a Fellow Traveler but his involvement with IPA, the Methodist Church and the Springfield plan was enough to cause Hearsts papers to smear him. There were a lot of gray areas during the McCarthy era blacklists. Some professors were fired by their Universities while others were let go quietly. Miller may have been one of these. Miller lost his Columbia housing and salary and wrote repeatedly to Columbias president decrying the violation of tenure and academic freedom. He also told the New York Tribune, I can understand that during the depression and now in this period of post-war hysteria, academic freedom is a pretty hard thing to preserve. For a while Miller worked at The League for Fair Play, which was based in New York and helped publicize the Springfield Plan. But then the trail goes cold. On a trip to Australia in 1999, Miller died; hes buried there. Yet Millers legacy lives on. Although it was phased out in Springfield, the ideas of his education plan continued. According to Boston College education professor Lauri Johnson, the Springfield Plan became the most well-publicized intercultural educational curriculum in the 1940s, talked about and emulated by school districts across the country and into Canada. And after the dust from WWII had settled, researchers, led by Yales Carl Hovland, once again took up the discussion of media effects and propaganda. Rather than focusing on specific propaganda techniques, Hovland took a broader view, attempting to understand how the media garnered credibility. Among other topics, Hovland and his group of scholars tried to understand if the source of a message affects whether people trust it, whether the content of the message matters or (as with Adornos F-scale) if audience characteristics are the most important. Hovland believed that highly intelligent people may be more able to absorb new information but are also more skeptical. People with low self-esteem who manifested social inadequacyshowed the greatest opinion change. However, despite extensive studies as to what caused media persuasion, Hovlands findings were inconclusive. Scholars still grapple with the questions he tried to answer. Additionally, many of the techniques the IPA pioneered are still used today in media-literacy training classes in US schools. Many take as their foundation the IPAs pioneering ideas about how best to understand and combat propaganda, including a belief in the need for personal reflection and for understanding how personal experience shapes ones ideas. In fact, its striking how closely the IPAs discussions about disinformation and possible remedies to it resemble the conversation were having on this topic today. For instance, researchers such as Claire Wardle, the executive director of First Draft, a think tank at Harvards Kennedy School that aims to fight disinformation, along with various others, have called out the techniques used by people spreading propaganda, and delineated taxonomies of the different kinds in use. It would be nice to think that the IPAs efforts worked and a generation of children became inured to propaganda and disinformation. In fact, the rise of Nazism in Germany happened in part because of the effectiveness of German propaganda and the US also went down the road of McCarthyism and anti-Communist propaganda. Moreover, it turns out that its devilishly hard to prove that media literacy is very effective. New research by University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson suggests that the Russian disinformation campaign on social media may have worked because it reinforced the points made by Trump in his campaign. Moreover, people who believe in fake news keep believing it even when confronted with information. The lesson of the IPA is not just that media literacy education is hard to do well but that when societies become truly polarized, just teaching tolerance and critical thinking can be controversial. In the 1940s Clyde Miller was attacked for his efforts. In todays polarized world its not hard to imagine a similar backlash. Authors Note: Thanks to Chloe Oldham for her research, Andrea Gurwitt for her editing, and Professors Andie Tucher, Richard John, and Michael Schudson for their comments. Thanks to Thai Jones and the librarians working with the archives at the New York Public Library, Nicholas M. Butler Papers and the Columbia University Archives Central Files. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Anya Schiffrin is the director of the media and technology specialization at Columbia Universitys School of International and Public Affairs. Guwahati : Two rhino poachers were killed in an encounter with security forces in Assams Morigaon district last night. The encounter took place at Chitalmari Char area in the central Assams district, where a poacher gang was hiding and planning to kill one horned rhinoceros in Orang National Park. Based on intelligence input about presence of a poacher gang took shelter at the remote area a team of Special Task Force (STF) and Morigaon district police had launched operation at the area last night. When our team had reached at the area, the poachers started firing targeting us and heavy round of bullets exchanged resulting two poachers killed on spot. Other poachers had managed to flee from the area by taking advantage of darkness, a top police official said. Security personnel had recovered the bodies on along with one 303 rifle, several rounds of live ammunition, a silencer, a bag, two swimming tubes and other warlike stores from the encounter spot on Tuesday morning. It is to be mentioned that, Assam police had arrested two rhino poachers in Darrang district on Monday and seized huge cache of arms and ammunition. A South Carolina county is getting new flood maps for the first time in 14 years, but its possible theyre already out of date. The Post and Courier reports Charleston Countys new flood maps wont include data from floods of 2015, 2016 or 2017, meaning some areas that went underwater during those events wont be designated as high risk. The maps mainly are based on what areas would flood in a Category 3 hurricane, County Building Services Director Carl Simmons said, meaning they dont forecast floods like those from heavy rains in 2015 or if storm surge and heavy rain combine, as with Tropical Storm Irma in 2017. Simmons says the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesnt model a double punch of storm surge and heavy rainfall, as seen in last months Hurricane Florence. I dont think we have done a good job of finding out where a flood from the Atlantic Ocean and stormwater meet. I dont think we know where that line is, Simmons said. I think were going to have to work on locating that line. FEMA also doesnt consider sea-level rise projections, which could extend the reach of storm surge. Overall, the new Charleston County maps will remove 13,000 properties from flood zones, while putting 3,000 others into flood zones. The maps are the basis for building and land-use regulations in flood-prone areas, and affect insurance decisions. About 38 percent of properties in Charleston County have a policy through the National Flood Insurance Program, according to the Insurance Information Institute. We have a huge protection gap when it comes to flood insurance, said Lynne Yeates McChristian, executive director of the Center for Risk Management Education & Research at Florida State University. She said many homeowners wrongly assume if they dont have to buy flood insurance, they arent at risk. But more than a third of federal disaster assistance goes to flood victims outside flood hazard areas. The most protective measures, such as elevating building, typically only apply to high-risk zones, even though floodwaters rarely stay neatly within those boundaries. Charleston County requires all new structures in unincorporated areas to be built 2 feet above FEMAs standard level. The city of Charleston requires buildings in the highest-risk zones to be elevated 1 foot above FEMAs standard. There are also questions of increasing development and sea rise. In Charleston County, developed area has increased 18 percent between 1996 and 2010, and impervious surfaces such as pavement have increased 20 percent, contributing to flash flooding. One sea rise projection released this year by the Union of Concerned Scientists estimated that more than 16,000 homes in South Carolina could flood dozens of times a year by 2045. That would displace the roughly 24,000 people living there today, sink property values and possibly harm the regions economy. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. One year after a devastating series of wildfires ripped through Northern California wine country, destroying thousands of homes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers first experience cleaning up after a wildfire has turned into an expensive bureaucratic mess and Californias top emergency official suspects fraud played a role. In October 2017, state and local officials lacked the resources to quickly clear still-smoldering and toxic debris from 4,500 homes destroyed by a wildfire in and near Santa Rosa. So the Army was called in. The Army was in charge of awarding $1.3 billion in cleanup contracts to three contractors, which hired dozens of smaller companies to haul away the debris and dispose of it in landfills. The hauling companies were paid by the ton. The more they hauled, the more they earned. The first complaints started almost as soon as the first dump truck was loaded in November. Homeowners said workers were digging too deep and taking too much dirt from their lots. They also said perfectly fine driveways, retaining walls, sidewalks and the like were damaged or removed. By the summer, nearly 1,000 homeowners had flooded the Army, state and local officials with complaints. After its contractors hauled away 2 million tons (1.8 million metric tons) of debris, the U.S. Army Corps declared mission accomplished and left without responding to homeowners complaints, Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane said. These folks were traumatized by the fire and then traumatized again by the cleanup, said Zane, who represents Santa Rosas hardest-hit neighborhoods. Someone needed to help us. In August, Zane and a contingent of Sonoma County officials trekked to the state capital in Sacramento and persuaded the California Office of Emergency Services to fix what the Army wouldnt. Director Mark Ghilarducci said the Office of Emergency Services has spent millions repairing the damage, and more work remains. In a letter sent last month, Ghilarducci demanded that the Army reimburse the state and return to California to fix the lots still in need of repair. Ghilarducci said its probable that unscrupulous contractors committed fraud, citing egregious oversight by federal officials. Given these subcontractors were paid per ton of soil removed, it is probable this over-excavation was an intentional effort to capitalize on this tragedy by defrauding the government, Ghilarducci wrote to the U.S. Army Corps last month. Corps spokesman Mike Petersen said no evidence of fraud has been reported. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was preparing a response to Ghilarduccis letter. Ghilarducci also argued the U.S. Army Corps failed to properly monitor the cleanup and its subcontractors performance. Due to this egregious oversight, Ghilarducci wrote, contractors caused substantial damage to many survivors properties resulting in revictimization of the affected wildfire survivors. Several of them were cited by the Contractors State License Board for operating without a license. In addition, the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Chico-based Randy Hill Construction $11,700 after one of its workers was fatally struck by a truck while dumping debris. The agency found the trucks safety system was improperly disconnected and was the reason it accidentally started and ran over 60-year-old Ezekiel Sumner in December. Hill Construction did not return phone calls. Petersen said conditions varied widely at the 4,563 properties U.S. Army contractors cleared in four counties, and some sites required extensive digging to remove contaminated soil. He said the Corps was satisfied with the work of the three main contractors, and the great majority of subcontractors on the program operated with high professional standards. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a major Army command, composed of about 37,000 civilian and military personnel. Petersen said it was one of the biggest cleanup jobs after a natural disaster for the Corps, which is routinely called in after hurricanes and earthquakes but lacks experience with wildfires. This caused issues in the debris removal process, the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released last month. The GAO report made no recommendations but noted the cleanup effort was Californias biggest since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Most complaints about the cleanup come from Santa Rosa residents and other Sonoma County residents where the wildfire struck an urban center. But at least 100 homeowners in rural Mendocino County have lodge complaints of over excavation. Karen Erickson said the U.S. contractors added at least $200,000 to the cost of rebuilding her destroyed Santa Rosa home. She said contractors needlessly removed an undamaged driveway and dug so deep on her lot that they damaged her water pipes. Because the contractors showed up after an insurance adjuster inspected her property, Erickson said the damage done to her property by the cleanup wasnt factored into her insurance reimbursement. Paying those guys by the ton was stupid, she said. Who wouldnt load their trucks with as much as they could? Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. AKRON, Ohio - Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh hosted a forum on Tuesday at the House of the Lord Church to allow officials to discuss the impact Issue 1 could have on Summit County. The majority of attendees represented local law enforcement, the criminal justice system and the religious community. Most spoke against the proposed constitutional amendment that is promoted as favoring rehabilitation over incarceration for minor drug crimes. Issue 1 would reduce penalties for low-level drug offenses. It also would eliminate jail time for felony offenders who don't follow the requirements of their probation, unless they commit a new crime. Issue 1 supporters have said money saved by not jailing offenders could be used for treatment for drug addicts. But Walsh disputed that assertion at the Tuesday gathering. "The reality is, the largest portion of any cost savings will be at the expense of community safety and crime victims," Walsh said. Among the probation requirements that offenders could violate and still avoid jail time include: missing probation meetings, drug screenings and anger management sessions, cutting off GPS tracking monitors and violating no-contact orders, Walsh said. To get sentences reduced up to 25 percent, offenders, including violent offenders, need only participate in some jail programs, but don't need to complete them or participate in them with any success, Walsh said. "Issue 1 removes accountability and jeopardizes safety," she said. Issue 1 is also backed by people from California who don't understand the struggles or successes of those in Ohio, she said. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated $1 million to help pass the initiative in Ohio. House of the Lord Church Bishop Joey Johnson said he would not say definitively "yes" or "no" on Issue 1, but stated the issue needs to be given "thorough consideration." He said he supports laws that decriminalize possession of small amounts of substances such as marijuana, and that enable rehabilitation with earned credit. But he said he has misgivings about Issue 1 that "give me pause." "Whenever large sums of money are given by millionaires toward something like this outside our community, forgive me for my conspiracy theories, but I just don't believe it's for us," Johnson said. "I believe it's another agenda somewhere." Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said any cost savings under Issue 1 will be at the expense of community safety and victim rights. Common Pleas Court Judge Joy Malek Oldfield spoke about Summit County's drug-court program, Turning Point. Oldfield presides over Turning Point with Judge Christine Croce. Turning Point is one of 167 drug courts in Ohio that partner with community agencies to provide treatment, services and counseling to keep addicts convicted with felonies from going to prison, Oldfield said. The resources at Turning Point are available to all 23 trial judges in Summit County, she said. In 2016, Turning Point served 439 people with drug and alcohol issues, and 103 people graduated from the program, Oldfield said. "That's 103 lives turned around because they got arrested and charged with a felony," she said. Recent research on felons who graduated from Turning Point revealed that 89 percent hadn't been rearrested within one year of their conviction; 96 percent remained addiction free; and 100 percent had avoided re-incarceration, Oldfield said. Many of the people treated through the Turning Point program would not be eligible to receive those services if Issue 1 passes, she said. "These aren't the days where all people charged with felonies go to jail," she said. Judges across the state encourage treatment instead of prison, Oldfield said. There are 77 other treatment courts across Ohio that provide services specifically for veterans charged with felonies, while other special courts are specifically designed for violent offenders, she said. In addition, felony convictions can in some cases be expunged from permanent records, Oldfield said. One Summit County program allows cases to be sealed for offenders who enter an intervention program, and achieve one-year of sobriety, she said. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. AKRON, Ohio - Summit County Probate Court is again partnering with Summit DD (the Summit County Developmental Disabilities Board) to bring an art show to the Summit County Courthouse. Art created by Summit DD artists will be on display in the courthouse atrium and in the hallways near the Probate Court during regular courthouse hours, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, from Oct. 15 to Nov. 16. A reception with the artists is scheduled for noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Oct 22 in the courthouse atrium. Light refreshments will be served and the artists will discuss the inspiration for their work, much of which will be for sale. "Our partnership with Summit DD brings awareness of the abilities of these talented artists to the public eye and continues to allow respite through art in this amazing public space," Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer said in a news release. Stormer initiated the courthouse art show last year, as well as a free lunchtime concert series, which kicked off last Friday with Urban Troubadour, musicians who rove the city performing. "Once again, we see our community coming together to support the talents of people of all abilities," said Summit DD Superintendent John Trunk in the release. "When others, like Judge Stormer and the Probate Court, take the initiative to promote the achievements of people with disabilities, we at Summit DD feel like our emphasis on full community inclusion is really happening." The events also are intended to remind people that the courthouse belongs to the community and that the public is welcome there, said Community Outreach Specialist Lisa Mansfield. "People who are coming here for a difficult reason can stop for a minute and see something beautiful," she said. "For some of the people who come here, this is the worst day of their life. We see their faces change when they see the art." The Summit County Courthouse is located at 209 S. High St. in downtown Akron. For more information about the art show, call 330-643-7346 or send an email. Want more Akron news? , an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- OVI, Interstate 271: At 6:40 p.m. Oct. 4, police were called to an accident scene on I-271 southbound. One of the involved drivers, a Cincinnati man, 49, ran from the scene, but was apprehended nearby after a short foot chase. The man was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, obstructing official business and various traffic offenses. The man was also found to be impaired, leading to an OVI charge. Traffic complaint, Richmond Road: At 8:55 a.m. Oct. 3, a Shaker Heights bicyclist, 50, reported that the driver of a pickup truck had tried to run him off the road. Public indecency, Cedar Road: At 3:45 p.m. Oct. 4, police arrested a Cleveland man, 51, for urinating in the lot of Beachwood Place mall, 26300 Cedar Road. OVI, South Woodland Road: At 2:10 p.m. Oct. 4, police stopped a car due to a traffic offense. It was subsequently found that the driver, a Maple Heights man, 41, was intoxicated. The man was charged with OVI and for driving with a suspended license. Theft, Cedar Road: At 3:35 p.m. Oct. 5, police arrested an Akron woman, 28, for stealing merchandise worth $1,070 from Dillard's at Beachwood Place. The woman was additionally charged with receiving stolen property, possession of criminal tools, possession of narcotics equipment and child endangerment. The merchandise was recovered. OVI, I-271: At 1:30 a.m. Oct. 6, police stopped a car driven by a Cleveland man, 63, for marked lane violations. It was subsequently learned that the man was intoxicated. The man was charged with OVI, the traffic violation and for prohibited blood-alcohol content. Drug trafficking, Cedar Road: At 5:30 p.m. Oct. 6, police arrested three Cleveland men for drug trafficking at Beachwood Place, and a fourth Cleveland man for having weapons under disability. The arrested men are 23, 24, 25 and 26 years old. OVI, Richmond Road: At 3:05 a.m. Oct. 7, police stopped a car that was being driven left of center. The driver, a Cleveland woman, 37, was found to be intoxicated. She was charged with OVI and for the traffic violation. OVI, Cedar Road: At 5 a.m. Oct. 7, police stopped a car that was driving too slowly. The driver, a Cleveland man, 57, was found to be intoxicated. Inside his car was an open container of alcohol. The man was charged with OVI, for the open container and for prohibited blood-alcohol content. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A federal judge ruled Wednesday that notification forms Ohio sends to voters in its process to remove inactive voters from its rolls are compliant with federal law, dealing another blow to a group challenging the state's voter purge process. The groups suing Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said all voters the state deleted from its rolls from 1995 through 2016 through a disputed process were actually removed unlawfully because the state's notices for removal didn't comply with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Senior U.S. District Judge George Smith disagreed in an opinion issued Wednesday, largely ruling against the plaintiffs and saying the forms complied with federal law. He struck down arguments from the plaintiffs that said voters weren't told of the deadlines to respond to the forms and weren't informed of the consequences of failing to respond. He wrote, however, that past versions of the forms did not properly tell Ohio residents who moved out of state how they can maintain eligibility to vote, but noted that Husted's office added the required information to the form in 2016. Smith ordered the Secretary of State's Office to continue using the current version of the form or a similar one, and to add information to the office's website about registering to vote in another state. (You can read Smith's ruling here or at the bottom of this story.) The judge's decision comes after a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that upheld Ohio's voter purging processes. Smith's ruling only focused on the forms the state sent to inactive voters. Under the Ohio policy the Supreme Court upheld, failure to cast a ballot for two years triggers a process where notices are repeatedly sent to voters whose registration is flagged. Registration is canceled if there's no response to the notices, no votes are cast during the next four years and the voter's address isn't updated. A 2016 study by Reuters found that Ohio's policy struck voters from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at roughly twice the rate as in Republican neighborhoods, and those with a high proportion of poor, black residents were hit the hardest. Husted said the disputed policy and other updating procedures removed nearly 700,000 deceased Ohioans from voting rolls since he became secretary of state, and resolved the cases of more than 1.9 million voters who had multiple registrations. Proper maintenance of the state's voter list means fewer Ohioans have trouble casting a ballot and more ballots are counted, Husted argued. The Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, both of which sued in 2016, claimed the processes were illegal under federal laws that bar states from using voter inactivity to spark removal from the rolls, and contended it amounted to voter suppression. The Supreme Court's decision, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, said Ohio's process removed voters "on a permissible ground: change of residence." Husted, a Republican currently running for lieutenant governor on a ticket with Attorney General Mike DeWine, referred to the plaintiffs as "out-of-state activist litigators" in a statement sent through his office. "As multiple federal courts have stated, including in today's winning decision, Ohio is a national leader in making voting accessible to its residents," Husted said. "Ohio's process for managing its voter rolls has been upheld by multiple courts - including the U.S. Supreme Court. It's now time for the plaintiffs to move on and end their attempts to undermine Ohio's elections." Stuart Naifeh, a lawyer with Demos, a legal group representing the plaintiffs, noted in a statement that Smith said the state's notices were out of compliance in one way, but argued the judge "failed to recognize the multiple other ways in which Ohio had violated federal law." Naifeh also lamented the timing of the order - filed one day after the voter registration deadline and as early voting begins - and said they are considering their options following the ruling. SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- At a late September City Council meeting, a resident who lives in the vicinity of Bexley Park told council members about his frustration with seeing abandoned shopping carts in front of and around his home. On Monday, council's Planning & Zoning Committee met to discuss what it could do to alleviate the problem of shopping carts being pushed away from their businesses and then left abandoned in areas where they shouldn't be. Community Development Director Keith Benjamin said carts are frequently found in and around Warrensville Center Road. These carts mostly emanate from Walmart, 1868 Warrensville Center Road. While council took no formal action on the problem Monday, the committee discussed a plan that would make businesses with more than 10 shopping carts on their premises affix magnetic locks to them. One electronic wheel-locking system, SmartWheels, features locks on two cart wheels and a cable that serves as an antenna. When the cart is pushed to an electronic boundary in the lot, the wheels lock. "There are other methods, too," Benjamin said. "Aldi's (grocery stores) have (customers) put down a 25-cent deposit and they don't get that 25 cents back until they return the cart. "We receive many complaints from residents about shopping carts," Benjamin said. "Most complaints are regarding Walmart, because their carts end up on the street or the side of the road." In the past, City Council had sought to stem the problem by fining businesses when their carts were found off their properties, but Benjamin said that effort has been ineffective. Other stores with more than 10 carts would include Giant Eagle, Marc's and Walgreen's. Council plans to discuss the matter further before deciding on a solution. Health costs Ohio Revised Code states that every city in the state must "provide health services either through a city health district or by a valid contract or union with the county health district or an adjacent city health district." Other than Cleveland, no nearby city has such a city-operated health service provider. Communities such as South Euclid contract with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. The CCBH, in late September, informed cities it serves that the cost per capita it now charges -- $4.12 -- will be increased in 2019 to $4.74. In 2020, the cost will again be increased, this time to $5.45. Based on South Euclid's population of 22,295, as counted in the 2010 census, the 2019 increase would cost the city an additional $13,822. The 2020 increase would cost South Euclid an additional $29,652 over what it now pays. The CCBH provides services for South Euclid residents such as immunization clinics, chronic disease surveillance, rodent and mosquito control, health education programs, drinking water-quality tests and food protection, among other things. Before entering into the two-year contract, council is planning to host a CCBH representative who will explain the need for the cost increases. Council ward meetings Ward 3 Councilwoman Sara Continenza will hold a meeting for ward residents at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 16 at South Euclid City Hall, 1349 S. Green Road. Ward 1 Councilwoman Ruth Gray will hold a meeting for that ward's residents at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 23 at Inner Healing Ministries Church, 800 S. Green Road. Residents of all wards are permitted to attend the meetings. Free trees Ward 4 Councilwoman Jane Goodman said that the city's Tree Commission will have 150 trees to give to residents who would like to plant them in their yards. Residents can get the free trees from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 14 in the City Hall parking lot. CSX is providing the funding for the various species of trees. LYNDHURST, Ohio -- Receiving stolen property, Grenleigh Road: At 4:45 a.m. Oct. 6, a woman, 29, reported that her boyfriend, 30, was refusing to leave her home. The woman told police that nothing physical had taken place, and that the two had only argued. At the home, police found three guns, one of which is believed to have been stolen. The gun was in a lockbox, but the key was lost, so police are unsure if the gun is stolen. Police need a search warrant to enter the box. At this time, no charges have been filed. The matter has been referred to the city prosecutor to determine if domestic violence occurred, and it is still being determined whether receiving stolen property will be charged. Customer trouble, Landerbrook Drive: At 9:30 p.m. Oct. 7, the manager of Lyndhurst Grill, 5845 Landerbrook Drive, reported that a group of four customers, two men and two women, were refusing to pay their bill. At the scene, police found that one of the men, 29, of Cleveland, was wanted on a Shaker Heights police warrant. Shaker Heights police could not pick up the man, so he was released and issued a trespass warning keeping him from returning to the restaurant. Drug abuse, Mayfield Road: At 10:45 a.m. Oct. 6, an officer conducted a random registration check on the license plate of passing car. It was found that the plate's registration was not on file with the bureau of motor vehicles. A traffic stop was made. The officer learned that the driver, a Cleveland man, 21, did have proper paperwork, but that his license registration had not yet been filed at the BMV. The man, however, was found to be in possession of marijuana and was issued a misdemeanor citation for that offense. DUS, Mayfield Road: At 9:30 p.m. Oct. 5, an officer conducted a random registration check of a car and found that the driver, a Cleveland woman, 32, was wanted on two warrants and was driving with a suspended license. Assist person, Cedar Road: At 1 p.m. Oct. 5, a woman reported that someone egged her car while it was parked outside Giant Eagle, 25105 Cedar Road. Possession of drug paraphernalia, Ridgebury Boulevard: At 10:25 a.m. Oct. 5, a caller reported that two males were passed out in a car stopped in the intersection of Ridgebury Boulevard and Brainard Road. In the car were a Mayfield Heights man, 19, who was driving, and a South Euclid man, 29. The men were not impaired, however, the driver was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Domestic violence, Winchester Road: At 5 p.m. Oct. 4, an elderly woman reported she was being assaulted at her home by another woman. One of the two female suspects was a caregiver. Charged with assault was a 38-year-old, while a 49-year-old was charged with domestic violence. The caller suffered contusions. Theft, Cedar Road: At 9:10 a.m. Oct. 4, police arrested a Cleveland man, 27, for stealing $22 worth of merchandise from Giant Eagle. Drug abuse, Richmond Road: At 6:05 p.m. Oct. 3, while investigating a motor vehicle accident, police found marijuana inside one of the involved cars. A Highland Heights woman, 19, was charged with marijuana possession. Receiving stolen property, Mayfield Road: At 3:10 p.m. Oct. 2, an officer stopped a car that had a broken rear window. In the car were a man, 30, of East Cleveland, and a Virginia woman, 24. Police found inside the car $430 worth of suspected stolen merchandise from Micro Center in Mayfield Heights. Charges are pending as it is determined if the merchandise was stolen. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- Harassing communication, Mayfield Road: A McDonald's manager reported Oct. 3 that the mother of a 22-year-old employee used obscene language and threatened to beat up managers because her son is repeatedly spoken to about his tardiness. The manager requested that the woman, 52, be contacted and told to stop making harassing phone calls and to also be given a trespassing warning. Impaired driving, Cedar Road: A Warren, Ohio, man, 19, was arrested for OVI after he crashed into another vehicle around 11:15 p.m. Sept. 27. Breaking and entering, Mayfield Road: The owner of Kickin's Irish Pub reported Sept. 28 that the business had been broken into overnight and that approximately $6,000 cash had been taken from the office. Officers found that the front and rear doors of the bar had been forced open and papers and cash were scattered around the office. The incident is under investigation. Theft, Warrensville Center Road: A Garfield Heights woman, 55, was arrested at Walmart Sept. 28 for the suspected theft of $313 worth of items, which included steak and seafood. Vandalism, Plainfield Road: A resident reported Sept. 28 that someone had thrown a landscape stone through the back window of his vehicle. The incident is under investigation. Domestic violence, Warrensville Center Road: A man reported Sept. 29 that his girlfriend had pushed him out of a vehicle, then struck him twice with the vehicle. The man suffered minor injuries during the incident, but refused to sign charges. Based on the physical injury, police issued a warrant for the arrest of the 25-year-old Cleveland woman. Reports indicate that there was a 2-year-old child in the back seat during the incident. Domestic violence, West Anderson Road: A resident reported Sept. 29 that the father of her child had pointed a gun at her and her mother after an argument. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the 28-year-old Akron man. Menacing, Halsey Road: A man, 45, filed a menacing complaint Sept. 29 against his 20-year-old girlfriend. He said he had been having an extramarital affair with the woman. Police are investigating. Domestic violence, Miramar Boulevard: Officers responded to a home Sept. 29 after a woman, 66, reported a family disturbance. It was learned that the woman's grandson and granddaughter were arguing over food. No arrests were made. Theft, South Belvoir Boulevard: A resident reported Sept. 29 that someone had stolen a package from her front porch. She said it was delivered in August and contained a vintage children's tea set, valued at $50. No suspects were identified. Disturbance, Plainfield Road: A man and his wife reported Sept. 30 that their son was causing a disturbance at their home and that they no longer wanted him there. The son had left prior to the officer's arrival. The couple were told that they would have to evict their son through the municipal court. Neighbor trouble, Warrendale Road: A man, 63, said Oct. 2 that his 19-year-old next-door neighbor intentionally cut his grass. Officers advised both men to have their properties surveyed to find the property line. Mediation with the chief's office was also set up due to it being an ongoing issue. See more South Euclid news at Cleveland.com/south-euclid. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. BEDFORD, Ohio -- Local and state investigators are searching a Bedford home in connection with a homicide investigation that started Wednesday morning when East Cleveland discovered two burned bodies in the back of a car, police said. Bedford police were called just after 11:30 a.m. by East Cleveland police the bodies were discovered earlier in the day in the back seat of a burning silver Buick at a vacant lot in the 14000 block of Savannah Avenue, Bedford police Deputy Chief Rick Suts said. Officers entered the Gould Avenue home about 2:45 p.m. after they noticed a side door was open. Police cleared the two-story house in less than 10 minutes. Neighbors reported a strong stench of gasoline coming from the house, Suts said. Investigators said there it appears a struggle occurred in the home, but they stopped short of releasing any additional details. No one was found inside the home. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Bedford police are assisting East Cleveland police in the investigation. The burning car was discovered about 9:30 a.m. Firefighters doused the blaze and discovered the bodies that were burned beyond immediate identification. The person who rented to the Buick was traced back to the home on Gould Avenue, police said. The home is owned by Paul D. Bradley, according to Cuyahoga County Property records. Bradley, 39, bought the home in 2013 for about $7,600. Family members at the scene said they have not heard from him in several days. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. Guwahati, Oct 10 : A BSF jawan was died and another injured after one of their colleague opened fire upon them in Assams Karimganj district on Tuesday night. The incident took place at Lakhipur Border Out Post (BOP) in the Barak valley district along Indo-Bangladesh border. According to the reports, the incident happened at around 9-15 pm, while Shiv Yogi Yadav, a constable of 7th battalion of BSF posted at the BOP engaged into an argument with two of his colleagues and opened fire with his Insas rifle. In the incident, two head constables named Ashok Kumar Kangaria and A R Pal received serious injuries and they were immediately rushed to Karimganj civil hospital. Later, doctors declared Ashok Kumar Kangaria brought dead. Another injured BSF jawan has been referred to Guwahati Medical College Hospital for better treatement. Following the incident, the accused BSF jawan, Shiv Yogi Pandey had fled from the area with his Insas rifle, two loaded magazines with 40 rounds live ammunition, a wireless set. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Senate on Wednesday signed off on legislation that authorizes federal spending for water projects and demands that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers promptly release a long-awaited final report on keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. The legislation, which was previously approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, contains language that would require the Corps to "make every effort" to comply with a February deadline to release its Brandon Road Study on how to keep Asian Carp from entering the Great Lakes and threatening its $7 billion fishing industry. It also authorizes funding for a Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study (GLCRS) to protect and manage the Great Lakes coastline, and an increase in funds to modernize the Soo Locks in Michigan, which iron ore from Minnesota must traverse to reach Ohio's steel mills. It requires the Corps to implement a five-year demonstration program to develop technology to improve harmful algae bloom detection, and orders the Corps to undertake research on the management and eradication of invasive species in the Great Lakes, including Asian carp and zebra mussels. 99-1: Senate passes water infrastructure bill. Lee was only Senator to vote No. WRDA passed House by voice vote last month and now heads to White House. pic.twitter.com/Y0bVJoMzcD Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) October 10, 2018 "Lake Erie is a source of pride for Ohio -- it's important for local businesses, local jobs, and the local ecosystem," Ohio Democratic Sen. Brown said after the 99 - 1 vote. "These provisions will help us keep Lake Erie clean, keep cargo moving through our ports, and ensure the Lake will be enjoyed for generations to come." "This measure provides the resources necessary to upgrade our water infrastructure and ensure safe navigation around the country, as well as increasing the resources available to protect our Great Lakes from coastal erosion," agreed Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman. "Protecting the Great Lakes is one of my biggest priorities, and I look forward to the president signing this bipartisan legislation into law soon." Update: Great news for park waters! The Senate today passed a landmark water resources bill that includes critical protections for the Great Lakes, Hudson River, and the Everglades. https://t.co/tDmvjz6nNt National Parks Conservation Association (@NPCA) October 10, 2018 The bill also authorizes money to test for water system contamination and grants that Ohio communities can seek to update outdated sewage overflow systems whose failures threaten the health of waterways including Lake Erie and contribute to algae blooms and swimming bans. Brown noted that a 2012 EPA survey found more than 70 Ohio communities with serious sewage overflow problems. And it includes measures authored by Holmes County GOP Rep. Bob Gibbs that would require the Corps to speed up its planning process for disposing of the sediment it dredges from areas like the Port of Cleveland, which had had ongoing disputes with the Corps over dredging and sediment disposal "The Port of Cleveland, and many like it across the country, should not have to wait years for dredged material management plans to be studied and implemented," said a statement from Gibbs. The Brandon Road Study is the one thing delaying us from responsibly acting to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp. We need to keep to the schedule and my amendment to #WRDA, that just passed the House unanimously, promises that. pic.twitter.com/t5nHqIij7T Dave Joyce (@RepDaveJoyce) June 6, 2018 The bill also contains provisions authored by Bowling Green GOP Rep. Bob Latta that give state and local governments more flexibility to repay federal loans for water infrastructure repairs, and help disadvantaged communities better finance their water infrastructure projects. "Fixing and upgrading their water infrastructure is a significant issue that many Ohio communities face," said a statement from Latta. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The former Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice has backed out of taking a part-time job with an Ohio police department that recently agreed to hire him. Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice, announced at a Wednesday news conference that Timothy Loehmann rescinded his application to the Bellaire Police Department. Samaria Rice said she is relieved that Loehmann will not be patrolling Bellaire. "Hopefully he will never be employed by any [police department] in America," she said during the news conference. "He is unfit to be a police officer, period." Jeff Follmer, the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association union that represents rank-and-file officers, also confirmed that Loehmann decided not to take the job. Follmer cited "political pressure" as the reason Loehmann decided to rescind his application. The village of Bellaire hired Loehmann last week to serve as a part-time police officer. Bellaire is a small town of about 4,000 people that borders the Ohio River at the West Virginia border. Bellaire's police chief, Richard "Dick" Flanagan defended his decision in a statement to the Wheeling, West Virginia newspaper The Intelligencer: "(Loehmann) was cleared of any and all wrongdoing. He was never charged. It's over and done with." Attempts to reach Flanagan on Wednesday were not successful. Rice said during Wednesday's news conference that she strongly disagreed with Flanagan's decision to offer Loehmann a job, calling it a "personal attack on [her] family." "[Loehmann] doesn't deserve any second chances," she said. Rice said she has not spoken to Flanagan. But her Chicago-based attorney, Billy Joe Mills, reached Flanagan on Wednesday to discuss the job offer to Loehmann, she said. Activists, including from the Cleveland chapter of Black Lives Matter, contacted Bellaire officials and residents in the days after Loehmann's job offer was made public. Rice and BLM organizer Kareem Henton credited those efforts for getting Loehmann to back out of the part-time job. "This wouldn't have happened if it were not for outside forces putting pressure on Chief Flanagan," Henton said. Loehmann shot and killed Tamir Nov. 14, 2014 outside the Cudell Recreation Center on the city's West Side. Loehmann was a rookie officer, and a passenger in a car driving by veteran training officer Frank Garmback. The two officers responded to a 911 call about someone pointing a gun at people outside the recreation center. The 911 caller told a dispatcher that the gun looked fake, but that information was never relayed to the officers. Garmback drove his car within feet of the now-demolished gazebo, and Loehmann shot the 12-year-old boy almost immediately after he got out of the car. Tamir died early the next morning at a Cleveland hospital. A Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against Loehmann in Tamir's death, but the city of Cleveland fired him in May 2017, not for the shooting, but for lying on his application when he applied for his job. One of the more glaring omissions was that Loehmann did not disclose that he was dismissed from the Independence Police Department after they determined he was unfit to serve on its department. His personnel file from that job noted that Loehmann broke down and cried on the shooting range. Henton, during Wednesday's news conference, criticized the Bellaire Police Department for trying to hire Loehmann despite his history in Cleveland and Independence. "Once again, you had a municipality that was going to hire him despite the warning signs," Henton said. Loehmann has appealed the termination from his Cleveland job ,and the arbitration is still pending, said Henry Hilow, the attorney representing Loehmann in the arbitration case. To comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page. UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- A John Carroll University student has caused uproar over free speech after his column in the student newspaper called for an end to the annual school drag show. Op-ed Editor Declan Leary's piece in The Carroll News calls the event "a flagrant celebration of sexual perversity." Leary argues that the Jesuit school should embrace what he calls traditional Catholic values. Members of the school's LGBTQ community, already feeling isolated on campus, feel the column contained threatening and hostile language. Some critics are labeling the column hate speech. The fury is emblematic of debates on many college campuses: Where does free speech cross into hate speech? And should universities -- and student newspapers -- ban incendiary or hurtful expressions or view points? The university's center for diversity and inclusion posted a list of resources on its website to help students understand free and hate speech. Leary, a sophomore studying classics, said he received similar pushback on other columns. He says that by taking a conservative stance he's broken a "quiet consensus" that in order to fit in on campus, you must be liberal. He wrote about JCU President Michael Johnson's first decisions on campus: "Chief among them will be whether to redeem the muddled Catholic character of this institution or to continue its descent into heathenry and heresy. If he chooses the former, his most important task will be to purge this place of the evils which have invaded it in the names of tolerance and progress." Leary said there's no justification in calling the column hate speech. "The whole hate speech concept is very dangerous because we end up getting into very broad definitions and someone who suggests that ... a traditional Catholic sexual morality is what should be taught at a Catholic school, all of a sudden that becomes hate speech." His editor backed the column, and it went through numerous edits. Editor-in-chief Olivia Shackleton, a junior who is interning at cleveland.com this semester, said she, the managing editor and the newspaper's faculty advisor approved the column. "His language is a bit extreme, but he does it to make a point and he does it so people will talk about it," she said. Shackleton said Leary's perspective is rarely vocalized on JCU's campus. She sees how the column could come across as offensive, but defended the column as free speech under the First Amendment. Letters to the editor streamed in to The Carroll News, all but one criticizing the column, though Leary said he's received emails from students thanking him for his perspective. The paper published columns and letters to the editor supporting the drag show. Lillian Perkins, a senior studying philosophy who identifies as non-binary, meaning outside of male or female gender identities, wrote to the paper opposing the decision to publish the column. In an interview with cleveland.com Tuesday, Perkins said the issue isn't whether the paper is permitted to publish hate speech, but rather the paper's decision to do so. Perkins said JCU already has a complicated environment for LGBTQ students and allowing Leary's column could empower others to be hostile towards LGBTQ students. That makes the community nervous. "My identity is not up for debate," Perkins said. "This is not a hot-button topic in the first place. My LGBTQ+ peers are not an issue to be addressed in a newspaper ... The fact he even thinks it's up for debate is dehumanizing." Eric Hayes, communications and development director for the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland, said the center has worked with JCU on diversity and inclusion efforts before. He said there's a difference between having a debate on whether or not there should be a drag show on a Catholic university's campus and saying the show promotes immorality or perversion. "People think that religion and Christianity and being an LGBT person are mutually exclusive and they're not," Hayes said. A university spokeswoman, when asked about the column, emailed cleveland.com the following written statement: John Carroll University fosters a campus community where differing points of view and experiences are valued as part of the learning process. We support open dialogue, and are committed to inclusion and diversity as essential elements of our Jesuit and Catholic identity. In order for our community to thrive, we expect that all members represent and conduct themselves according to our mission and values. The columns in The Carroll News started as a written point and counterpoint amongst editors, and evolved into a larger conversation across campus. We encourage respectful dialogue and communication on these cultural and societal issues, and offer campus resources and programming to support those efforts. KENT, Ohio -- Kent State University, the University of Cincinnati and Heidelberg University will work together to research ways to integrate plants into architecture. The three will form the Greater Ohio Living Architecture Center, which will not only explore applications and best uses for features such as green walls and roofs, but also offer training to industry professionals. The new center, which will offer training sessions across all three campuses, is one of four of its kind selected by the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and the Green Infrastructure Foundation. Here's how plants can help buildings: managing stormwater, making them more attractive and purifying the air. Green roofs can last longer as well, according to Michigan State University research. But green architecture can lead to design challenges, as additional costs for installation and maintenance, despite the long life-span. "Understanding buildings as living operational systems nested within and leveraging natural phenomena is key to next generation sustainable approaches to how we build and live," Mark Mistur, dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Kent State, said in a press release. "Applying biological approaches to the design, construction, inhabitation and operation of buildings will transform our buildings and cities, as well as the way our students and faculty approach designing them." Faculty from all three schools will be involved in the center; Reid Coffman, associate professor of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Kent State, will lead the group. For more information, click here. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man is accused of attacking two women at the Jack Cleveland Casino because he refused to wait for them to complete their food order two minutes before the casino's kitchen closed. Rashawn Austin, 39, is charged with felonious assault. He is not in police custody and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The fight happened about 4:30 a.m. Sept. 29. A 21-year-old woman suffered a broken wrist and injuries to her face, shoulder and hip. Her 21-year-old friend suffered injuries to her face, hand, ribs and neck, police said. The two friends told police they were standing in line at a kiosk ordering food. An employee told the duo they needed to hurry up and order because the kitchen closed in two minutes, according to police reports. Austin and a woman he was with became impatient while standing behind the two women, police reports say. Austin shoved one of the women out of the way, police reports say. The 21-year-old woman said she turned Austin and said: "You don't need to put your hands on me," according to police. Austin replied that he didn't consider what he did to be "putting hands on," police reports say. "But this is," Austin said before attacking the women, according to police reports. Austin shoved the woman hard, causing the woman to fly "across the room," police reports say. The 21-year-old woman's friend went to help her friend and Austin's friend stepped in and started fighting. Austin grabbed the other 21-year-old woman, choked her with both hands, punched her in the face and threw her to the ground, police reports say. Austin and his friend left, and he was not arrested at the time. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. MIDDLETOWN, Ohio -- A man and woman are facing charges after they were accused of shooting and wounding a man during a road rage incident in a restaurant parking lot, according to reports. Chase Harris, 25, and Jessica Payne, 25, were arrested and jailed after the incident Monday night, police tell WLWT Channel 5. Harris is charged with felonious assault and endangering children, while Payne is charged with complicity to felonious assault and endangering children. The confrontation started on area streets and ended in the parking lot of a Rapid Fired Pizza at about 9:30 p.m. Monday, according to Fox 19. Harris is accused of following Charles Howard, 43, into the parking lot and the men got out of their cars and began arguing and fighting. Police tell Fox 19 that Payne got out of the vehicle and gave a handgun to Harris, who used it to shoot Howard in the right knee. The couple's two children, ages 1 and 3, were in the vehicle when the shooting occurred, WHIO Channel 7 reports. They were not harmed. Howard drove himself to the hospital after being wounded. Harris and Payne were arrested at the scene. The incident was recorded by the manager of the restaurant. Middletown is located near Dayton. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments section. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Tamir Rice's mother will hold a news conference Wednesday to address an Ohio police department's hiring of the officer who killed the 12-year-old boy in 2014. The Intelligencer, a Wheeling, West Virginia newspaper, reported Friday that the village of Bellaire hired Timothy Loehmann to serve as a part-time police officer. Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice, will discuss Loehmann's hiring at a 4 p.m. news conference at the Chandra Law Firm in downtown Cleveland. Cleveland.com will cover the news conference on Facebook Live. Bellaire is a small town of about 4,000 people that borders the Ohio River at the West Virginia border directly across from Wheeling. Samaria Rice criticized Bellaire police Chief Richard "Dick" Flanagan's decision to hire Loehmann in a statement issued Friday through attorney Subodh Chandra. "Ms. Rice believes that Timothy Loehmann does not belong on any police force, anywhere, period," Chandra said. "Someone with his record should not be subjected upon the citizenry. But she does hope that this means that he will not ever return to Cleveland." Loehmann shot and killed Tamir Nov. 14, 2014 outside the Cudell Recreation Center on the city's West Side. Loehmann was a rookie officer, and a passenger in a car driving by veteran training officer Frank Garmback. A Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against Loehmann in Tamir's death, but the city of Cleveland fired him in May 2017, not for the shooting, but for lying on his application when he applied for his job. Loehmann appealed the termination from his Cleveland job and the arbitration is still pending, said Henry Hilow, the attorney representing Loehmann in the arbitration case. To comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page. EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- East Cleveland police on Wednesday discovered two badly burned bodies in the backseat of a car abandoned on a vacant lot. The East Cleveland police received a call about 9:30 a.m. for a report of a car on fire in the lot in the 14000 block of Savannah Avenue, East Cleveland police Commander Scott Gardner said. Officers found the silver newer model Buick with New York license plates ablaze. Firefighters doused the blaze and discovered the two bodies that were burned beyond immediate identification. Gardner said the deaths are being investigated as a homicide. Police are not sure whether the fire killed the two people, or if they were killed before the fire was set. Investigators said the car was rented Sept. 30 from a Rocky River company to a man who lives in Bedford, Gardner said. No one has made contact with the man, police said. The car has not been reported stolen or late returned. The incident remains under investigation. The Ohio Fire Marshall, Bureau of Investigation and Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office are assisting East Cleveland police in the investigation. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. WASHINGTON, D.C. - In its first hearing after Brett Kavanaugh's divisive U.S. Supreme Court nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday debated whether to approve a pair of controversial Ohio federal court nominees. Ohio Solicitor General Eric Murphy and Chad Readler - who currently oversees more than 1,000 as head of the U.S. Justice Department's civil division - ran into flak from Democrats over positions they took in controversial cases. In a break with recent Senate tradition, the committee decided to hear their Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals nominations over objections from Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Many past Judiciary Committee chairmen refused to consider nominations without approval from both home-state senators. "I cannot support nominees who have actively worked to strip Ohioans of their rights," Brown told the committee. "That's exactly what Mr. Murphy and Mr. Readler have done on everything from health care, to voting rights, from marriage equality to public education." Ohio's Republican U.S. Senator - Rob Portman - backs both nominees. He said both nominees were rated "well qualified" to sit on the bench by a substantial majority of the American Bar Association Standing Committee, and each had "the highest references regarding their character and abilities. "They both have argued--and won--cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous lower courts," said Portman. "They both clerked for circuit court judges, which gives them unique insight into the roles they have been nominated to fill. Mr. Murphy has also clerked on the Supreme Court." Murphy - who was nominated to fill the vacancy created when Judge Alice Batchelder took senior status - drew fire from Brown and other Democrats for arguing the state's stance on issues including its procedures for purging inactive voters from its rolls and its ban on gay marriages. The gay marriage case's plaintiff, Jim Obergefell, released a statement through Brown's office on Tuesday that said: "Judges have power over the most personal, private decisions in our lives - decisions about our rights, our freedoms and our dignity. Eric Murphy's record is not worthy of that power." Murphy told Judiciary Committee members that his court arguments expressed the opinions of his client agencies in Ohio, not his personal views. "My positions were consistent with my clients' positions," he said. Brown also took exception to Readler, who was selected to fill the vacancy created when Judge Deborah Cook took senior status. He formerly chaired the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and - in Brown's words - worked on legal cases that would strip Ohioans of their voting rights" and "gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau." Democratic members of the committee also grilled Readler on legal briefs that he signed that challenged the legality of the Affordable Care Act's protection of Americans with pre-existing medical conditions, and that defended the Trump administration's immigration policies, including separation of undocumented immigrant children from their parents. Readler said that his name went on every legal brief produced by the Justice Department's civil division - as many as 30 each day - and his job was to defend policies set by others in the administration, not to set those policies. Democrats on the committee were skeptical of his explanation. "You were a political appointee at the Department of Justice," said Hawaii's Mazie Hirono. "You have a major role in crafting arguments and those arguments affect policy." Brown said there were more qualified conservative nominees available than Murphy and Readler. He said the White House and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell are trying pack the courts with younger GOP judges who will serve longer, after creating an artificially large number of vacancies by refusing to consider Democratic judicial nominees selected in the latter part of President Obama's term. Along with other Democrats, he criticized the committee for tossing out a longtime Senate tradition of only considering nominees that were approved - or "blue slipped" by both of the state's U.S. Senators. Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse said that doing so could enable the White House to appoint non-local candidates to oversee cases in areas where they had no ties. Republicans on the committee noted that the privilege allowed to home-state senators has been employed sporadically over the years. Utah's Mike Lee noted it was first implemented as a way to allow southern senators to block judges who would implement desegregation laws. "Under the Constitution, it is a president's prerogative to choose who to nominate and who not to nominate," said Lee. Brown and Portman both endorsed the other two Ohio nominees before the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday: Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Pamela Barker, who would fill the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio vacancy created when Judge Donald Nugent took senior status, and Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation Administrator Sarah Morrison, who would fill the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio vacancy created by Judge Gregory Frost's retirement. Brown said his backing for those nominees shows that "qualified and capable" individuals can be chosen through a bipartisan process. "I am confident that Administrator Morrison and Judge Barker have what it takes to serve Ohioans well on the federal bench, and believe they can and should receive broad bipartisan support," said Brown. The committee is expected to vote on their nominations in upcoming weeks. COLUMBUS, Ohio--In an unusual move, a Columbus-area Republican nominee for the state legislature has asked the chair of his own state party to stop sending out attack ads against his Democratic opponent. Erik Yassenoff, the GOP nominee for House District 24, wrote a letter to Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken on Wednesday stating that an ad mailed to voters in his district made "an inaccurate connection" between Democratic rival Allison Russo and what Democrats did the last time they controlled the Ohio House, in 2010. "Last time Democrats like Allison Russo were in control of Ohio, they raised taxes on the middle class, raided the state's rainy day fund, and lost over 350,000 jobs," the mailer stated. "Don't let our economy down. Vote against Allison Russo." Yassenoff, an Upper Arlington city councilman, wrote that such a claim is a "stretch," as Russo "was not a resident of the State of Ohio nor involved in public service during that period. "We simply do not know her views on the public policy decisions made at that time," Yassenoff stated. He added later: "I believe that if we are going to present policy positions for comparing and contrasting purposes it would be more appropriate to present evidence and information in a balanced manner." Ohio Republican Party spokesman Blaine Kelly defended the ad. "It is fair and we stand by it," he stated in an email Wednesday. Yassenoff posted his letter to Facebook on Wednesday morning. He didn't immediately return a phone call Wednesday morning. Russo, a health-policy researcher from Upper Arlington, said in an interview that she is "glad that Erik called out the lies in their advertising." As for Yassenoff's subtle jab at Russo over her not living in Ohio until recently, Russo said she is a military spouse and lived in Germany, North Carolina, Delaware, and the Washington, D.C. area before coming to Ohio. House District 24 covers parts of western and central Franklin County, including the Columbus suburbs of Hilliard and Upper Arlington. Republican Rep. Jim Hughes isn't seeking re-election, and as Hillary Clinton won the district in 2016 with 52 percent of the vote, it's considered by Democrats to be one of the most likely places for them to flip a GOP-held Ohio House seat this year. Here's the full letter from Yassenoff: The Polisario Front continues to violate the provisions of the ceasefire agreement that the UN Mission for the Sahara MINURSO has been monitoring in the buffer zone since it was signed in 1991. In the semi-annual report on the Sahara that he must submit later this October to the Security Council, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, notes the serious tensions between the MINURSO and the Polisario leadership. The Polisario, in violation of the ceasefire agreement, obstinately tries to shift the venue of meetings with the MINURSO civilian and military officials from the Rabouni camp located in southwestern Algeria, to the localities of Bir Lahlou and Tifariti, in the buffer zone to the east of the Moroccan defense wall and that the Polisario allegedly calls liberated territories. According to Guterres, the Polisario leader Brahim Ghali refuses to officially receive his Special Representative in Rabouni, in line with a long-established practice and insists that the meeting be held in the Western Sahara territory in the buffer area. This situation is a major obstacle to relations between MINURSO and the Polisario Front, said Guterres in his report, adding that since the beginning of 2018, the Polisario also demands that all meetings with the MINURSO Force Commander take place in the territory(Tifariti and Bir Lahlou), which places all high-level military contacts with the Polisario Front in a dead end. In his remarks and recommendations in anticipation of the next Security Council resolution on the Sahara, the UN Secretary General expresses concern about this situation and asks the Polisario once again to resume meetings with senior officials of the MINURSO in Rabouni. It is therefore a firm and unambiguous injunction of the UN Chief, which frustrates the Polisarios vain attempts to change the status quo in the buffer zone. CLEVELAND, Ohio - If you have or see any problems as you vote, we want to hear about it. Cleveland.com is part of Electionland, a project among newsrooms across the country and investigative news nonprofit ProPublica tracking problems on Election Day and during early voting, which began today in Ohio. Journalists across the country will monitor the polls through Electionland. ProPublica reporters will watch sources such as social media and Google search data for reports of long lines, voting machine problems, confusion and voter fraud allegations. Cleveland.com will use those tips to report on Ohio problems. We want you to share your voting experience, whether you're casting an absentee ballot by mail, voting early in person or visiting the polls on Election Day. Voters can report tips by phone text messaging (known as SMS), WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Sign up to participate: SMS WhatsApp: Facebook Messenger: Throughout early voting and on Election Day, we'll check in with you to find out how long it took to vote and whether you experienced or saw any problems. You can also report your voting experience by tagging us on Twitter @Electionland. Melinda Welsh, who is battling cancer, is paying close attention to a lawsuit that could unravel protections under the Affordable Care Act for pre-existing conditions. DAVIS, California -- Like many Americans, I was stunned in June when the Trump administration decided to agree with elimination of the pre-existing conditions provision of the Affordable Care Act. What? I thought we'd won that argument last year by convincing Congress that Republican and Democrat constituents alike wouldn't tolerate elimination of health care protections for the sick and elderly. But it's true. As directed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are attempting to use the courts to abolish a protection they were unable to get rid of in full view of the American people. On June 7, Justice Department lawyers filed a brief supporting the legal challenge filed in February by 20 conservative-led states, not including Ohio, seeking to have the courts declare as invalid several health care safeguards in the Affordable Care Act. That includes the one that ensures equal access to coverage for people who need it most. The lawsuit is currently being heard in federal court in Texas, but no matter what happens there, the case is expected to head to higher courts and set off a long legal fight. Here's why I care so much about this issue -- I've got cancer. Like 16 million other people in America right now, accelerated cell division in parts of my body is trying to take me down. I've been one of the lucky ones who have responded to immunotherapy and remain alive today despite several doctors' predictions years ago to the contrary. The fact makes me inexpressibly grateful for every day, but it also makes me a card-carrying member of the Pre-existing Conditions Club. So I feel the hypocrisy of this new DOJ assault deep in my bones. President Trump declared undying loyalty to America's sick last year when he said he'd never endanger those with pre-existing conditions. He famously promised to Bloomberg News that the GOP health overhaul proposal would "be every bit as good on pre-existing conditions as Obamacare." But actions speak louder. In joining the lawsuit, Trump and the DOJ have flat-out instructed the courts to dismantle pre-existing-conditions protections. Their argument goes like this: When Congress repealed the penalty for the ACA's "individual mandate" as part of the tax overhaul, the mandate itself could no longer be considered a tax. But the Supreme Court upheld the mandate in 2012 because it was considered a tax. That means, the DOJ brief says, that per prior congressional findings the "guaranteed-issue" and "community rating" protections for those with pre-existing conditions "are inseverable" from the individual mandate -- and must also be struck down. The first of the DOJ lawyers signing the brief was Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler, whom Trump has nominated for a vacancy on Ohio's 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Readler's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled for today. Do we really want to go back to the bad old days when insurers could deny coverage to sick people or, at best, charge them skyrocketing rates? It's not a small population we're talking about. An estimated 52 million Americans under the age of 65 have pre-existing conditions, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. Who among us doesn't have a friend or family member dealing with high blood pressure, diabetes, lung conditions, high cholesterol, heart disease, mental illness or cancer? Remember the fear that used to accompany a job switch because of those medical history questionnaires insurers used to require before granting coverage? That could come roaring back. As late night host Jimmy Kimmel reminded us last year, insurers even used to routinely deny future coverage to babies, like his newborn son who had the misfortune of being born with a heart condition. It's revealing that the Justice Department didn't give Republicans on Capitol Hill advance notice that they were preparing to attack the popular health care provision. That's probably because that move would have been greeted as insane by many members of Congress. We're heading into a crucial fall election after all, and poll after poll show that protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions has wide-scale bipartisan support. The pre-existing-conditions end run by the Trump team is ill-intentioned on its face - the DOJ would be wise to immediately withdraw its support for this wrongful lawsuit. Otherwise, get ready for a reckoning come November. This issue resonates in both blue and red neighborhoods. There are 52 million of us out there who belong to the Pre-existing Conditions Club. We have families and friends. We care. And we vote. Melinda Welsh has outlived a terminal prognosis (pre-existing condition) by almost three years thanks to immunotherapy and other scientific breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer. ************ Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the "Follow" option at the top of the comments, and look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- People seem to want to talk about Ohio State vs. Alabama, even though a potential matchup between the two wouldn't happen until December. So we're having an Ohio State-Alabama discussion this week on our Buckeye Talk Podcast, and talking about how these two teams are more alike than you'd think. Doug Lesmerises and Bill also talk about the Sampson James decommitment from OSU, and answer your questions on the Buckeyes. You can always submit questions via Twitter to the @BuckeyeTalkPod account. You can also now submit questions, comments and complaints via email to BuckeyeTalkPod@gmail.com. Before listening to the podcast below, make sure to subscribe to Buckeye Talk at any of these places: * Buckeye Talk on iTunes * Buckeye Talk on Google Play * Buckeye Talk on Stitcher * Buckeye Talk on Spotify Thank as always to ShopOhioState.com and MinuteManTickets.com for supporting Buckeye Talk. Media consolidation will continue as companies compete for unique franchises and greater scale, 21st Century Fox Vice Chair Chase Carey told CNBC on Tuesday. "To be successful, you either need scale that enables you to compete with the world you are heading into or really unique franchises that enable you to distinguish and build value off those unique strengths," Carey said in an interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin. Carey's comments come on the heels of Comcast's $40 billion takeover of Sky Media, which is just the latest in a torrent of mergers and acquisitions across the media sector. Comcast successfully outbid 21st Century Fox for the Sky assets in an auction that pitted two of the largest U.S. media companies against one another. Carey painted 21st Century Fox as a winner in the transaction. "For Fox, first, we had gone into that initial transaction owning 40 percent, we said we should own and control, or monetize. To be a minority stake[holder], even a large minority stake[holder], was not a long-term place to be, so Fox acted on that," he said. Europe's largest pay-TV operator, Sky has 22 million customers, produces almost 2 billion in annual profits and has scope for significant growth. Sky has also been successful in launching on-demand services, such as Now TV, that make it more competitive against rivals such as Netflix. Comcast's Sky acquisition, Carey said, was more of a play for a unique franchise than a play for scale, which is one component of staying relevant in an increasingly competitive media landscape. "In a world of unique franchises, Sky is an incredibly unique franchise," Carey said. "As it had a brighter light shined on it competition drives everything there was competition for a unique, scarce asset. And that's going to always affect values." Scale is the other approach traditional media companies are taking to compete against tech behemoths. It's been a huge year for media mergers and acquisitions. Earlier this year, despite antitrust concerns from the Department of Justice, AT&T won approval for its $85 billion takeover deal for Time Warner, opening the door for more media M&A activity. Disney and Comcast have gone toe-to-toe, bidding for 21st Century Fox assets, as competition from technology companies has driven large media companies to own both the content and the distribution platform. "I think we will continue to see an active [mergers and acquisitions] market across the sector," Morgan Stanley's Ben Swinburne said on CNBC's "Closing Bell." "A lot of the formerly very large media companies have become relatively small players. As you have seen with the likes of Amazon and Netflix and others, you have these huge, well-capitalized, global studio platforms ... and so that is causing a lot of anxiety in the sector, and you'll see continued consolidation." Furthermore, Netflix's size is still "underappreciated in the marketplace," Swinburne added. "If you think about Netflix's model, the ability to spend ... $10 million an episode on a season of 'The Crown' and amortize that across 100 million-plus subscribers globally is a huge scale advantage," he said. As the sheer scale of spending by technology giants changes the nature of the media game, Carey said, mergers and acquisitions activity will likely continue. "When you look at the resources that exist with the players like Google and Netflix and Amazon, clearly they are deploying enormous resources and spending billions of dollars, if not double-digit billions .. so the nature of this game is competing," he said. "I think there will be winners and losers, from a content perspective ... unique event content will be a winner. I think a lot of content will get commoditized, and I think all of that is going to drive change," he added. Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com. Music superstar and political activist John Legend sat down with CNBC's John Harwood to discuss a range of topics, including how he and his wife, Chrissy Teigen, speak out on political issues. John Harwood: I read an article where you'd said that your wife Chrissy makes you bolder in terms of speaking out on issues. John Legend: Yep. Harwood: Explain that. How is that? Legend: Well, she's obviously more dynamic and I'm more kind of laid-back and reserved. Harwood: She's a little sassier than you. Legend: Yes, exactly. And, I've kind of like, it's kind of rubbed off on me a little bit. I've been a little less reserved with some of my opinions since we've been together. Listen to this episode of Speakeasy on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Harwood: What would you say are her principal issues? Legend: She cares a lot about, I would say, women's reproductive freedom. So, we've donated to Planned Parenthood. She cares a lot about immigrant issues because her mother is an immigrant from Thailand, and so, we donated to the ACLU when we saw what was happening with the family separations at the border. So, I think those are some of the issues that animate her and I think everybody kind of finds their own personal connection and I think hers have to do with women's freedom and immigrant's rights. Music superstar and political activist John Legend sat down with CNBC's John Harwood to discuss a range of topics, including whether Democrats should run a celebrity against President Donald Trump in 2020. John Harwood: There are some people who are making the argument that Donald Trump has changed the political rules such that you need somebody with celebrity star power to compete. So, people talk about Oprah Winfrey, for example. Do you think a celebrity candidate is a good idea and whether now or in the future, is this something that you entertain at all? John Legend: I don't want to be president and I will never run for president. I know that for a fact. Harwood: How do you know that? Legend: I just know I won't. But, I do believe sometimes there's a place for people who already have name recognition and already loved by the people to run for office. It's funny, the Republicans hate when celebrities talk about politics, but they've been the ones that have elected all the celebrities. They've elected Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan. On the left, we've elected usually career politicians and people that are a little more wonky. So, there's an argument to be made that the left shouldn't always go for the wonky person and get somebody who is more of a celebrity, but honestly, I feel like the Trump administration is an argument against that. Listen to this episode of Speakeasy on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts. He won, but once we see how he's governed, he's not very good at actually governing and understanding how to use the leverage of power very well, even understanding the basics of policy. I would like my president to know the issues really well. I'm not saying a celebrity can't know them, but I would like someone that understands how government works and can actually be effective in the office. Harwood: So, you're not trying to draft Oprah into the 2020 race? Legend: The thing is, she's brilliant and she probably could learn anything. But that's not what she does right now, and I'd be hesitant to elect anybody that has to learn on the job about how the government works, and that doesn't have some really well-formed ideas about what they want to do in office. Harwood: I have heard some people say, looking to the future, say that 2020 may not be so smart for Democrats to have an African-American presidential nominee this time. Do you agree with that or not? Legend: I don't think it matters as much what the demographic of that person is. It's going to be the quality of that candidate. So, are they speaking to issues that people care about? Are they able to spar with President Trump, because he has a unique kind of campaigning style and debating style. You have to be tough, and you have to be witty, you have to be quick on your feet, and you have to be a great communicator and really a great marketer like he is to compete on that level. I think my kind of metric for how I'm going to get engaged with the primary process is, do I see a candidate that stands out when it comes to their ability to challenge President Trump? A U.S. helicopter from the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron Seven One lands on a Navy vessel. WASHINGTON The U.S. sold more than $54 billion in military equipment to foreign governments in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the Pentagon's top financial officer told a small group of reporters. "We've had a 62 percent increase in foreign military sales, over $54 billion," David Norquist, the Defense Department's comptroller, said alongside Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan on Oct. 3. "I don't know if it's a record, but if it is, and it's close to that, that matters. It matters, not only because it helps our industrial base, ... it helps our economy," Norquist explained, adding that the foreign military sales forge closer relationships with key allies. "Those are folks buying equipment that's interoperable, and those are allies that we're now working with on a close and more regular basis," Norquist said. The increase in foreign military sales comes amid intensifying trade tensions between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies, and increased sanctions on Russia. When asked if trade disputes were spilling into the industrial base, both Norquist and Shanahan downplayed concerns. "We haven't seen that so far," Shanahan, the Pentagon's No. 2 official, told CNBC. "As you know, the way I tend to think about that is that these relationships are very complex. They're not monolithic," he said, adding that Defense works closely with the State, Commerce and Treasury departments to navigate the economics of foreign military sales. India was one example Shanahan offered up. "The dilemma with India is forever [that] the Indians bought equipment from Russia," Shanahan said. "So you have to buy spare parts, you have to maintain it, and it's not like you cut that off," he added, noting that Congress is able to provide a waiver for certain military purchases with Russia. Last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a $5 billion deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the S-400 missile system, a deal that may peeve Washington but fall short of financial consequences. The Russian-made S-400 system is believed to have a longer range than the U.S.-made THAAD missile system and is estimated to cost significantly less. What's more, Turkey, a NATO ally, is also interested in buying the S-400, which raises concerns among other NATO partners as well as Washington, who are wary of Moscow's increasing military presence in the region. As Japan steps up to counter China's growing influence in Asia Pacific, Tokyo's efforts may not be as effective without "commitment" from the United States a situation which may disadvantage regional countries as well as Washington, an expert told CNBC. Tokyo's efforts to counter Beijing's influence in Asia have to be balanced with the U.S. asserting its economic commitment to the region, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor in the department of politics and international studies at the International Christian University in Tokyo. "Japan can't just do this alone. It just doesn't have the resources ... It needs the economic (support) as well as the security that the United States can provide to the region," Nagy told CNBC on Tuesday. Japan agreed to deepen cooperation with Southeast Asia during the 10th Mekong-Japan summit held in Tokyo on Tuesday. The meeting is part of Japan's efforts to boost its presence in the region as China's political and economic clout grows through infrastructure projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 'Future of the world's economy' The U.S. and its allies, including Japan, have adopted a "free and open Indo-Pacific" strategy to manage Beijing's aggressive expansion in the South China Sea. The Indo-Pacific area is of great strategic importance as it's the "future of the world's economy," Nagy said. The U.S. and Japan could lose out from capitalizing on Asia's rapidly growing consumer base if China dominates commerce and politics in the region, he added. Asian countries around the Indo-Pacific area will be looking at both the U.S. and Japan to counter rising Chinese influence, he said. "They would like a lot more of Japan but they would like the United States to not only have the military commitment to the region but also an economic commitment," Nagy added. President Donald Trump sits in a fire truck while participating in a Made in America event, with companies from 50 states featuring their products, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday, July 17, 2017. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images Cost of 'America first' policy "It is unclear if President Trump and his supporters understand that without the United States within the region ... an America first policy may result in an America last policy," Nagy said. If Washington does not actively engage with countries in Asia Pacific, Nagy said, "my concern is that the region will become more dominated by geopolitics between China and other regional powers that the consumer markets won't be open to American and other powers." In addition to losing access to commerce in the world's most populous region, there could be other destabilizing effects that may impact the U.S. in unpredictable ways, he warned. China's BRI comes with geopolitical ambitions of creating an economic hierarchy in the region with Beijing at the top and other countries dependent on China, Nagy explained. This could make it difficult for those countries to stick to their independent political views, he added. The Trump administration announced a plan that could put additional restrictions on foreign investment in U.S. companies. The Treasury said Wednesday it is expanding the power of a federal panel to review foreign investments beyond takeovers and controlling stakes to include noncontrolling stakes in U.S. businesses that are involved in technology that could be deemed critical to national security. The expanded review includes transactions in which the foreign investor would get nonpublic technical information, a place on the board of directors, or involvement in decision-making. This applies to businesses in several industries, including telecommunications, semiconductors and computers. The move is yet another bid to punish Beijing over its trade practices, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Already this federal panel, called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius, has been actively reviewing foreign takeovers of U.S. companies to make sure national security concerns are protected. Earlier this year, Cfius blocked Singapore-based Broadcom's attempted takeover of U.S.-based chipmaker Qualcomm. The Trump administration has been trying to prevent China from getting emerging technologies such as 5G, the next generation of wireless. President Donald Trump has been critical of China's trade practices, which he says restrict access to certain markets and force American firms doing business there to hand over valuable technology and trade secrets. This comes on top of tariffs the U.S. has slapped on some $250 billion of Chinese imports. China has retaliated with its own set of tariffs on U.S. goods. Trump had considered putting a set of sweeping investment restrictions on China but decided to go along with a plan to grant Cfius broader review power, a win for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who had been working behind the scenes to diffuse the trade spat, the Times reported. Read the Times story here. WATCH: A (brief) history of the world's trade wars Bad Feilnbach, GERMANY - OCTOBER 6: A cyclist rides past several election campaign posters on October 6, 2018 in Bad Feilnbach, Germany. (Photo by Andreas Gebert/Getty Images) Andreas Gebert | Getty Images News | Getty Images Regional elections are being held in Bavaria in Germany this weekend and the results could mean more bad news for Chancellor Angela Merkel and her fractious coalition government. The Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is contesting the vote on Sunday but there are concerns the party could lose its absolute majority amid both rising populism and anti-government sentiment. The CDU and CSU were once staunch allies but a very public spat over migration policy has marred the partnership in recent months and nearly brought about the coalition's collapse earlier in summer. The CSU has been openly critical of Merkel's more open policy towards migrants and is wary of losing more of its native political ground to the right-wing, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which did well in last October's federal election. As such, there's more at stake than just Bavaria's political future, the national government could be further weakened by the vote if the CSU fares badly and its performance is blamed on leader of the CSU, and Merkel's Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer. More than that, the vote is being seen as a referendum on the coalition government and Merkel herself. Teneo Intelligence's Macro Research team believed the CSU will lose its traditional absolute majority, having a knock-on impact on the party leadership. "The CSU will either require a coalition partner, or, depending on the magnitude of its losses, might even have to go into opposition," the team said in a note published Tuesday. "Rather than Bavarian Minister President Markus Soeder, the CSU will blame its leader, Merkel's Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. Bavarian attempts to oust him have the potential to cause another protracted government crisis in Berlin." Bavaria is an important voting ground as it is the largest state, and one of the richest, in Germany. It is the home to around 16 percent of the German population and accounts for 18.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product. "Bavaria matters," one economist noted ahead of said Sunday's regional elections, adding that it "could become an important milestone, either imminently or in the future." "Since the start of the new government in March this year, German politics have been hijacked by the forthcoming regional elections in Bavaria," ING economist Carsten Brzeski said in a note Tuesday. "In a bid to defend its absolute majority in Bavaria, the CSU has been openly criticising Merkel, starting several inner-coalition conflicts which almost led to a collapse of the government," he noted. The fractious behaviour with the CDU could have backfired on the CSU, however. "While the CSU tried to make the election a kind of referendum on Merkel's stance on refugees, the continuous nagging and trouble-seeking in Berlin, initiated by the CSU, has completely turned this around. According to the trend of latest opinion polls, the CSU's strategy to distance itself from Merkel in order to prevent a rise of the AfD in Bavaria seems to have been a double failure," he noted. A poll published by German broadcaster ARD last week showed that support for the conservative CSU had fallen further, at 33 percent, down from a typical vote share of around 50 percent, according to Deutsche Welle. The poll showed the Greens Party in second place, with 18 percent voter support, ahead of the Social Democrats (a coalition partner of the CDU and CSU in Berlin) with 11 percent and the far-right AfD with 10 percent. If the polls are borne out in the results, the CSU could see its worst performance on Sunday since 1950, when it received 27.4 percent of the vote. The CSU conundrum (From L to R, first row) German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May attend the opening ceremony at the 2018 NATO Summit at NATO headquarters on July 11, 2018 in Brussels, Belgium. The world is entering a "geopolitical recession," heralding the end of the U.S.-led global order, according to prominent political analyst Ian Bremmer. Speaking at the ANZ Finance & Treasury Forum in Singapore, Bremmer said: "This geopolitical recession is something really simple it's the end of the U.S.-led global order. And we don't know what is replacing it yet." Bremmer, who is the president and founder of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, suggested a new economic downturn would lead to greater fragmentation across the globe. He said: "I'm much more concerned that when the next economic recession hits And certainly there's not as much free money, and when the corporates are tightening their belts, then we'll get into trouble. In other words, the political implications of the next economic down-cycle will be much greater dislocation." He believes a major reason for the current political disruption is that the "geopolitical order is no longer as aligned with the United States and its allies." He added that the relationships between Americans and Europeans had deteriorated with the latter becoming weaker on the global stage. He also pointed to the rise of China and said that, overall, emerging markets are becoming more important. "The Americans are less interested in exporting democracy ... Today there is an argument to be made that the Americans are exporting populism," he said, pointing to the new anti-establishment government in Italy. Coming to power in early June, Italy currently has a ruling coalition that is made up of the right-wing Lega party and the left-leaning Five Star Movement. Chongqing Liangjiang Star rocket developed by China's first private rocket producer OneSpace is launched during its maiden flight at a test field in Northwestern China. China is upping bets on private space companies, leading among countries expanding market share in the nascent industry during the third quarter, according a report from Space Angels, an investing firm specializing in private space ventures. Chinese space companies drew $69 million of investment in the third quarter, more than any other country in that time. This year has seen China already pour $217 million in space companies, nearly matching the $230 million invested in all of last year. Of the $16.1 billion invested in private space companies and partnerships since 2009, China now represents 3 percent, with about half a billion dollars. That may not seem like much but nearly all of China's investment has come since 2016. "A few years ago, people suddenly started paying attention to the incredible progress [the Chinese] government was making," Space Angels CEO Chad Anderson told CNBC. "Now their market share of private investment in space has gone from 0 percent to 3 percent in just the last three years." Chinese companies may be getting a recent boost but "the U.S. still has the lion's share" of the global space market, Anderson said. The U.S. represents 60 percent of that total historical investment in private space companies although that's shrunk in the last few years. Source: Space Angels In the hot sector of small rockets, in which companies are targeting lucrative small satellite launches, the U.S. has four functioning companies Anderson said: Rocket Lab, Vector, Virgin Orbit and Astra Space. While the former reached orbit in January, the latter three are each deep into rocket testing programs, with the suborbital and orbital test launches scheduled in the coming months. "But there's also Gilmore Space in Australia and OneSpace in China, with four other Chinese small launch companies coming online," Anderson said. "The first Chinese investment was in 2014 with LinkSpace, but [China] only really started investing significantly in 2016." LinkSpace received the earliest investment but has yet to send a rocket to space. The company has conducted launch and landing "hop" tests for its rocket but has otherwise remained quiet. A LinkSpace rocket hovers in a hop test Bakery owners Amy and Daniel McArthur, who own 'Ashers' in Belfast, outside the Supreme Court after winning their appeal against a gay rights campaigner who took the business to court after they refused to make a cake, promoting same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has ruled that Christian owners of a bakery were entitled to refuse to bake a cake that supported same-sex marriage. Ashers Baking Company, based in Northern Ireland, was taken to court after it declined to take an order at its Belfast branch in 2014 from Gareth Lee, a gay rights activist. He had wanted the cake to include a slogan that said "support gay marriage" along with a picture of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street. The bakery initially took the order but later canceled it and refunded Lee. After the refusal, the Northern Irish Equality Commission took up legal action, warning that the gay man had been discriminated against on grounds of his sexuality. The bakery countered that it was expressing religious freedom. Donald Trump Jr. speaks during a campaign rally at Four Seasons Arena on July 5, 2018 in Great Falls, Montana. Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, is hosting a fundraiser for Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, as the congressman's Democratic opponent continues to make inroads in a district the GOP has held for over a decade. The fundraiser is set for Oct. 18 in Frisco, Texas, with tickets ranging from $2,700 to $10,000, according to an invitation seen by CNBC. Former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is also Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, will co-host the event, according to the invitation. "As conservative leaders who believe in defending our Constitutional rights and working to expand freedom and opportunity, we welcome them to Texas and thank them for supporting Congressman Sessions," a representative for the Sessions campaign told CNBC. A spokesman for Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle declined to comment. Sessions himself is expected to attend the event, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Republicans have shown increasing concern about Sessions' standing in Texas. He is facing former Tennessee Titans linebacker Colin Allred in November. Vice President Mike Pence campaigned for Sessions in Dallas on Monday, issuing a warning about the balance of power in the House. "He's in a competitive race," Pence, a former congressman himself, said about Sessions. "The balance of Congress may be decided in Texas in this district." Nonpartisan analysis site Sabato's Crystal Ball marks the 32nd District, which includes large portions of northeastern Dallas and the home of former President George W. Bush, as a toss-up. A New York Times Upshot poll showed Sessions, who has been in Congress since 1997, holding a one-point edge over Allred. According to the same survey, which polled 500 potential voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percent, 52 percent said they disapproved of President Donald Trump while 44 percent approved. Still, the tightening polls and dip in the president's job approval within the district hasn't stopped the elder Trump from weighing in on the race. He endorsed Sessions in an Oct. 3 tweet. Tweet Trump won Texas in the 2016 presidential election with a 9 percentage-point spread over Hillary Clinton. Sessions and Allred are also neck and neck when it comes to the fundraising game, considering Sessions is a longtime incumbent in a district the GOP has held for 15 years. While Sessions has raised $2.7 million, Allred has kept pace, bringing in $1.9 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Republican outside groups have also poured money into the district, including the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC dedicated to defending House districts this fall. In September, the group aired its first digital and television ad against Allred, linking him to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The PAC has also opened a field office in the district. Trump Jr.'s event for Sessions is just the latest instance of the president's son working the donor circuit for Republican candidates as he also oversees operations for the Trump Organization with his brother, Eric. On Tuesday, Trump Jr. worked a fundraiser in Charlotte, North Carolina, for Mark Harris, a pastor who upset North Carolina's 9th District Republican incumbent, Rep. Robert Pittenger, in their primary earlier this year. According to a person familiar with Trump Jr.'s operation, he raised over $75,000 for the Harris campaign. Sabato's Crystal Ball rates the district as "lean Democrat." Brett Kavanaugh, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, smiles as President Donald Trump, not pictured, speaks during a ceremonial swearing-in event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. A number of ethics complaints filed against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh have yet to be resolved and will be transferred to a new jurisdiction, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a letter Wednesday. The complaints, which concern public comments that Kavanaugh made during his confirmation process, will be reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, according to the letter. The 10th Circuit has jurisdiction over several district courts in the western United States. In recent weeks members of the public had filed multiple judicial misconduct complaints against Kavanaugh with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Kavanaugh was a member of that court until his elevation to the Supreme Court over the weekend. The chief judge on the D.C. appeals court, Merrick Garland, whom President Barack Obama nominated to the Supreme Court in 2016, recused himself from reviewing those complaints. After his recusal, Karen Henderson, another judge on the D.C. appeals court, then passed them on to Roberts, The Washington Post reported earlier this month. It is unclear what the 10th Circuit will do with the complaints. Kavanaugh, as a Supreme Court justice, is not subject to the lower court's judicial misconduct procedures. The complaints concern Kavanaugh's answers to questions lawmakers posed about his work in the George W. Bush administration, the Post reported, citing people familiar. Some of the complaints, the paper said, involve partisan comments that Kavanaugh made about Democrats during the confirmation process. The complaints do not relate to Christine Blasey Ford's accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her decades ago. Kavanaugh has categorically denied the allegation. A worker speaks on a mobile telephone as he passes Total SA branded oil drums stored in the warehouse at the Ladol free trade zone port in Lagos, Nigeria. Iran's crude export numbers are falling much faster than many analysts anticipated ahead of planned U.S. sanctions on the country's oil sector on November 4. Still, we don't have an oil price problem today, if Goldman Sachs' global head of commodities is to be believed but we may have one tomorrow. As OPEC's third largest oil producer sees its customers shrink away for fear of U.S. penalties, some market watchers predict oil surpassing $100 a barrel. Late September saw Brent crude break $80 a barrel, its highest level since 2014. The benchmark commodity is up 26.6 percent year-to-date, while WTI crude is up 24 percent in the same time period. Jeff Currie, global head of commodities for Goldman Sachs, is less bullish about oil prices for now. Speaking to CNBC's Street Signs Europe on Tuesday, he expressed skepticism about the triple-digit forecasts. "It's definitely not our base case. I'm not saying it cannot happen, but it would require a sustainable outage in Iranian exports going down to zero plus another disruption someplace like Venezuela," he said. "The way we're seeing it is long dated oil prices are rising, the front-end is weakening which is telling you that hey, we don't have a problem today, we potentially have a problem tomorrow." Data from this week showed Iran exported 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in first week of October down from 1.6 million in September and a far cry from its high of 2.6 million bpd in April of this year. That was one month before President Donald Trump announced U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which lifted economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. A worker pauses while preparing the Google stand the day before the CeBIT 2012 technology trade fair officially opens to the public on March 5, 2012 in Hanover, Germany. Sean Gallup | Getty Images When John Lewis heard that Google+ was shutting down after the discovery of a security bug that left private profile data exposed, it felt like a crushing blow even though he could see it coming. Lewis, a freelance writer who has spent nearly eight years living an isolated life in the Costa Rican rainforest, starts almost every morning sipping coffee while chatting with friends on Google+ and reading his feeds on the social network. "Plus has long been Google's orphan child," Lewis told CNBC by phone on Monday after Google announced that it's shuttering the 7-year-old service in the coming months. "I had hoped that it would stay that way forever." Lewis is among a tiny but fiercely loyal cadre of Google+ users who stuck with the site for years, undeterred even as Google carved it into pieces or outsiders declared it dead. It had become so irrelevant as a landing spot that, by Google's own admission, 90 percent of user sessions lasted less than five seconds. But for people like Lewis, that was all part of the charm. Unlike Facebook, which has thrived by getting billions of users to share baby photos alongside ads for shoes, and Twitter, where bullies and bots have proliferated, Google+ has remained a quiet social enclave where users say they're able to engage in meaningful conversations and get useful feedback. Most notably, Google+ fans say the site's lack of ads, the ability to write long posts, and a focus on topics to connect people instead of existing friendships or public figures created a platform that encouraged real, sustained dialogue with strangers. "It's really been a lifeline for me," said Lewis, who created a group called "Google+ Mass Migration" in the hopes of salvaging his adopted community. "The social interactions I'd have there I couldn't get anywhere else." Here's a look at the "Google+ Mass Migration" group Since Lewis started the group on Monday, it has gained more than 1,500 members who are using it as a place to vent, mourn, publish fond memories and suggest alternatives for when the site disappears. Meanwhile, a Change.org petition begging Google not to shut Plus down at all has over 18,000 signatures. It's all become a form of collective therapy following the company's decision on Monday to close Google+ after a security hole highlighted the challenge of keeping its small number of users safe. Edward Morbius, one member of Lewis' group, told CNBC by e-mail that he's met people from all walks of life on Google+, including some he considers his closest confidantes, even though they've only communicated online. Morbius, who doesn't use his real name on the site and appreciates that Google allows him to remain anonymous, said there's a depth to conversations on Google+ that you can't find on other social sites. "There are discussions which could extend over days, or weeks or months, even years, and do so productively," Morbius said. A eulogy for Plus That small fan base came together despite Google's recent negligence. After Google launched Plus in 2011, it quickly became known as a wannabe-rival to Facebook. At first, Google poured resources into the service, even forcing people to use Google+ as a way to connect and sign onto other services like YouTube, Calendar and Gmail. But unable to gain traction against Facebook, Google began to walk back its efforts. Vic Gundotra, who ran the product in its early days and was its chief evangelist, left in August 2014, after eight years at the company. The next year, it broke the product into parts and stopped requiring users to tie their Google+ profile to other services. After that, if you weren't a Google employee, odds are you didn't have an active profile on Google+. Peter Vogel was in the dedicated minority. Vogel, a physics teacher in Vancouver, Canada, has almost never skipped a day posting on the platform. He calls Plus a "learning environment" and said his posts about space, astronomy and cybersecurity elicit intelligent and thoughtful commentary. Similarly, Hans Franke, a longtime German user, said he still spends at least an hour a day actively posting and reading, and loves the diversity of smart, "unusual" people with whom he converses. As they and others in Lewis' group look for places to go when Google+ disappears, some have recommended smaller platforms like Mastodon and MeWe. Plus users have also been swarming to Pluspora, a community built through the Diaspora Foundation that was started about a month ago by a handful of people who feared that Google would eventually kill their favorite site. Diane Cleverley, a co-founder of Pluspora and a medical writer, said Plus filled a gap in her social life and created something that feels like an extended family. She's met artists and scientists and hosted internet friends in real life. Cleverley is grateful that she had the foresight to create Pluspora but is upset about the way Google is abandoning its users. Lewis shares that disappointment. Harsh goodbye The White House and an attorney for Flynn did not respond to a request for comment. Mueller, whose office declined to comment, is investigating whether the Trump campaign had improper contacts with the Russians. Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and has repeatedly called the probe a "witch hunt." Flynn pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian government officials, and has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller since then. He is due to be sentenced in December. That operative, Peter Smith, told associates during the 2016 presidential campaign that he was using Flynn's connections to help him track down the emails, the paper reported. An investment banker and Republican fundraiser, Smith died in an apparent suicide in 2017. A longtime Republican operative who spent the final months of his life seeking out thousands of Hillary Clinton's deleted emails developed a relationship with President Donald Trump 's former national security advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as early as 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Michael Flynn, former national security advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, walks out of the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse after a status hearing July 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Mueller's prosecutors are interested in whether anyone in Trump's orbit assisted Smith in his search for Clinton's emails, according to the Journal. One witness familiar with his search was called before a grand jury, the paper reported. And a grand jury subpoena sought out documents related to Smith's hunt. The quest for Clinton's emails drew Smith to the anti-secrecy organization Wikileaks, an anti-secrecy group which U.S. investigators have said was used by Russian intelligence services to disrupt the presidential election. The Journal said that in a December 2016 email, Smith told supporters that he had found "multiple individuals" who possessed Clinton's emails, and directed at least one of them to provide those emails to Wikileaks. The nature of Smith's death has raised some suspicion. He was found dead in a hotel in Minnesota days after telling The Wall Street Journal in an interview that he had been seeking Clinton's emails from Russian hackers. A suicide note found near him said: "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER." The reporter who interviewed Smith later wrote in a tweet that he saw "no indication that he was ill or planning to take his own life." In June, it was made public via a court filing that Kathryn Rakoczy, an attorney known for her work in violent crimes cases, had joined the Mueller probe. Trump himself repeatedly suggested during the 2016 election that the emails Clinton's attorneys deleted from her private server contained incriminating information. In a press conference in July of that year, the president appealed to Russian hackers to make the emails public. "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said at the time. This summer, Mueller's investigators obtained an indictment against 12 Russian hackers that accused them of attempting to break into Clinton's personal server for the first time that same day. WATCH: What you need to know about Comey's memos Huawei unveiled two new artificial intelligence chips aimed at data centers and smart devices, pitting it against major silicon players including Qualcomm and Nvidia, as the Chinese giant laid out a strategy it hopes will drive growth in the next few years. The new chipsets are called the Ascend 910 and Ascend 310 and were revealed Wednesday at the Huawei Connect conference in Shanghai, China. Huawei's Ascend 910 is aimed at data centers. Companies using AI applications require huge amounts of data to train smart algorithms, which can take several days or weeks. Huawei claims that its chip can process more data in a faster amount of time than its competitors and help train networks in a matter of minutes. The Chinese technology giant already offers cloud services and, by selling the hardware along with software and services, Huawei is hoping to drive further growth to its enterprise business. Huawei. Smith Collection/Gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images That business accounted for just over 9 percent of Huawei's revenues in 2017 and grew around 35 percent year-on-year. The company will be hoping the Ascend 910 can help continue the strong growth. It will be available in the second quarter of 2019. The Ascend 310, meanwhile, is aimed at internet-connected devices like smartphones, smartwatches and other gadgets tied to the so-called Internet of Things. Both chipsets will pit Huawei against major players such as Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia and Samsung. It's a big switch in strategy for Huawei, which has so far designed and made chips for its own smartphones. "In addition to the life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts, heavy rainfall is expected across a large portion of the southeastern U.S. along Michael's track," the National Hurricane Center said in a tweet. "These heavy rains are expected to extend well inland." The Category 4 storm was expected to make landfall on Wednesday. Federal forecasters warned that the storm could cause severe flooding along the Florida Panhandle and the Alabama coast as well as bring heavy rain through the Carolinas later this week. Airlines canceled dozens of flights on Wednesday in the Southern U.S. and scrapped date-change fees as "life-threatening" Hurricane Michael approached Florida's Gulf Coast, packing 140 mph winds. Airlines had canceled more than 150 flights in and out of Florida airports scheduled for Wednesday ahead of Hurricane Michael, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.com. Many of the airports affected by the storm are relatively small compared with recent hurricanes, particularly the trio of deadly storms that struck airlines' hub cities last year, prompting the cancellation of more than 25,000 flights. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines scrapped date-change and cancellation fees, expanding waivers for travelers affected by the storm that were originally for five cities in Florida and Alabama to airports in Georgia and South Carolina. Delta said in a note to customers that it does not expect "any impact to its operation at Hartsfield-Jackson as the storm is expected to remain southeast of Atlanta while winds and rain are forecast to remain within operational limits." The Atlanta airport is the world's busiest. tweet Southwest Airlines does not charge customers a fee to change their travel dates but requires them to pay a difference in fare. Its customers who are booked in or out of 10 airports, including Atlanta, can change their dates without paying the surcharge if their flights are affected by the storm. Train travel was also disrupted. Amtrak said its Silver Star service from New York to Miami would operate only from Miami to Jacksonville, and a New York to Savannah route would operate be cut short at Washington, D.C., starting Wednesday "for the safety of our customers and employees." WATCH: Hurricane Michael causes Gulf Coast residents to brace for impact Rising rates are shaking the market to its core as bond yields held at their highest level in seven years, but an unexpected group of winners is emerging. Bond proxies, often victim to rising rates, have held up surprisingly well. Sectors like consumer staples, utilities and real estate have been outperforming the broader market. And the biggest blue chip high-dividend stocks like Verizon, IBM, Exxon Mobil and Procter & Gamble are all in the green over the past three months. One of those names looks primed for a breakout, said JC O'Hara, chief market technician at MKM Partners. "One of our favorite charts is the chart of Verizon," O'Hara said Tuesday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "If we look at the recent price performance, we saw a bearish-to-bullish reversal here and to us that shows us that the bulls are back engaged in the stock." Dow stock Verizon tumbled 25 percent from its peak in mid-2016 to a trough in mid-2017. Its downward trend reversed itself from that July 2017 bottom and it has since rallied back to those 2016 highs, a gain of 30 percent. On a total return basis, Verizon has also broken out above a key resistance level stretching back to those highs more than two years ago, said O'Hara. "If you look at the total return, you actually see that bearish-to-bullish reversal, we saw the price broke out," said O'Hara. "We have a great chart that's breaking to new highs. That's something that we like." Verizon broke above its 2016 peak on a total return basis earlier this year. Verizon also finds a fan in Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management. "Verizon is my favorite name among all those high yielders for a completely different reason because of 5G," Schlossberg said Tuesday on "Trading Nation." The next generation of wireless networks, 5G, "could upend markets in gaming and broadcasting and Verizon is going to be the first player in that space." The other buy in the group, according to Schlossberg, is Exxon Mobil, another Dow stock he likes for its high dividend. He says the oil company should ride the energy wave as crude prices hold above more than $70 a barrel. Verizon has a dividend yield of 4.4 percent, while Exxon Mobil yields 3.8 percent. Lifeguards patrol the beach in advance of Hurricane Michael in Pensacola, Florida, U.S. October 9, 2018. HCA Healthcare , the largest investor-owned hospital operator in the U.S., has about 5 percent of its acute care beds in the path of the storm, according to analysts at Evercore ISI. That's followed by Community Health Systems , which has about 4 percent of its beds in the storm's path, and Universal Health Services with 1 percent. As Hurricane Michael rapidly approaches western Florida as a dangerous Category 4 storm, some of the nation's largest publicly traded hospital operators are working to limit the damage. HCA executives are meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the possible impact and preparations. A Community Health Systems' spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. A Universal Health Services spokesperson provided the following statement: Universal Health Services (UHS) and its facilities are closely monitoring Hurricane Michael. We have three Behavioral Health facilities in the Florida Panhandle region. While we remain fully operational at this time, we are making appropriate preparations for the storm. If evacuation orders are called in the areas in which we have facilities, we will comply with those orders. We will ensure the safety of our clients and staff by relocating operations. During this time, we will post timely updates and necessary instructions on our websites and via social media. When the threat passes and it is safe for clients and staff to return to our facilities, we will continue to post updates regarding the reopening and resumption of normal operations. Shares of HCA and Universal Health Services were marginally higher Wednesday, each up about 0.1 percent midmorning. Community Health Systems shares were up more than 3 percent. Damage from hurricanes Harvey and Irma in Texas, Florida and Louisiana last year showed in the hospitals' quarterly results. The two storms cost HCA an estimated $140 million, before insurance claims, the company said in its 2017 third-quarter earnings report. Community Health Systems said it suffered $40 million in losses due to Harvey and Irma, while Universal Health Services lost about $12 million to $13 million. "At this point the earnings risk from Michael seems significantly lower, though many hospital companies had facilities in the path of Hurricane Florence in September as well," said Evercore ISI analyst Michael Newshel in a research report to clients late Tuesday. Florida Gov. Rick Scott told residents early Wednesday that it was their "last chance" to evacuate before the storm hits the state's Gulf shore. Hurricane Michael was packing winds of up to 140 mph as of Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. WATCH: Life-threatening flash floods possible from Michael Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attends a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and Republican members of Congress in the Roosevelt Room of the White House December 5, 2017 in Washington, DC. The harsh words from the longtime lawmaker and close confidant of President Donald Trump , who discussed Khashoggi's disappearance shortly after Graham did, could indicate a forthcoming strain on the good will built between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia during the Trump administration. "I've never been more disturbed than I am right now," said Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "If this man was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, that would cross every line of normality in the international community." Graham told reporters at the Capitol that he would be speaking with the Saudi ambassador at 5:30 p.m. ET Wednesday. He cautioned that "we don't want to rush to judgment," but said that "the explanations I hear coming from Saudi Arabia make no sense." Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday that "there would be hell to pay" if missing journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi was killed by the Saudi government, as Turkish officials have claimed. "We are very disappointed to see what's going on. We don't like it. We don't like it at all. And we're going to get to the bottom of it," Trump said at a bill signing event Wednesday. A senior Turkish official told The New York Times that Khashoggi was murdered and gruesomely dismembered with a bone saw in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia, however, insists that Khashoggi left the consulate shortly after he arrived. Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who had criticized the kingdom's royal family and exiled himself to the United States, entered the consulate in Turkey on Oct. 2 and has not been seen outside it since, the Post reported. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that national security advisor John Bolton and Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had spoken about Khashoggi on Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo followed up with the crown prince afterward. In both phone calls, the U.S. officials asked for more details and for the Saudi government's transparency in its investigation, Sanders said. Her statement, posted below, made no mention of any action or acknowledgement on the Saudi side. White House National Security Advisor, Ambassador John Bolton and White House Senior Advisor, Jared Kushner spoke to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman yesterday about the missing Washington Post journalist. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then had a follow up call with the Crown Prince to reiterate the United States request for information. In both calls they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process. We will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates as available. Graham on Wednesday noted that he has "been very supportive of Saudi Arabia" in the past. As chair of the subcommittee on appropriations handling U.S. foreign assistance, he had voted in favor of a $500 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia in 2017. He has also called the kingdom "a valuable partner in the war on terror." "If you want to lose Saudi Arabia as an ally, be careful what you wish for," Graham said in 2016. Graham has met with the Saudi ambassador before, Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for the senator, told CNBC in an email. "If it did happen there would be hell to pay," Graham said. "If they're this brazen it shows contempt. Contempt for everything we stand for, contempt for the relationship." Shortly after Graham's remarks, Trump said in the Oval Office that he has already spoken with high-level Saudi officials about Khashoggi. He added that Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, has been in contact with his administration and may come to the White House. Other lawmakers have become involved in the inquiries about Khashoggi. "We have intelligence that reports to Saudi involvement. Obviously, if that's the case, they need to obviously follow up. This is serious," said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., on Wednesday. Flake said that he planned to view information about Khashoggi's disappearance in a secure room known as a "Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility." Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a tweet Monday that he had spoken with the Saudi ambassador. corker tweet "For now, we're pretty much saying to customers, be aware that the market is underestimating risk," he added. "And if you don't want to reduce overall equity exposure go to the MSCI World (a global equity index that represents just over 1,600 large and mid-cap companies across 23 developed markets countries) or take a little bit of risk in emerging markets." "What we're saying (to investors) at a bare minimum, is do acknowledge the fact that the U.S. is expensive by reducing (exposure to) the U.S.," Steen Jakobsen told CNBC Europe's 'Squawk Box.' U.S. markets are "going it alone" and investors are underestimating the amount of risk in the economy, the chief investment officer at Danish investment bank Saxo Bank, told CNBC on Wednesday. U.S. markets are fretting but concerns are centered on rising U.S. interest rates, particularly this week after a strong set of economic data last week that could prompt the U.S. Federal Reserve to hike rates further and faster. If that happened, the fund said in its latest 'Global Financial Stability Report,' it could trigger "a broad-based correction in global capital markets and a sharp tightening of global financial conditions." Jakobsen's comments were made of the same day the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that "a further escalation of trade tensions, as well as rising geopolitical risks and policy uncertainty in major economies, could lead to a sudden deterioration in risk sentiment ." Jakobsen, who's known for his bearish view on the U.S. economy, said it was "very prudent and right of the IMF to do this warning." "It's very rare that I (hold) sway with any policy institute globally but I absolutely think they're (the IMF) right," he said. "We have three drivers of tighter monetary conditions, one being the price of energy, of course with this bi-product of inflation risk, but we also see the price of moneyand the quantity of money, globally, is collapsing. So, in other words, the credit keg is lower so it's absolutely prudent of the IMF to do this." Jakobsen believed that U.S. markets were buoyant because of tax changes introduced by President Donald Trump which lowered corporate taxes and incentivized companies to repatriate overseas profits, with a one-time repatriation tax. The changes were also criticized for increasing the U.S. budget deficit, however. Saxo Bank's economist said the tax reforms had enabled U.S. companies to initiate share buyback programs, in which a company purchases its own stock from the marketplace, reducing the number of available shares and thus increasing its share price. Goldman Sachs said in August that U.S. companies are expected to buy back $1 trillion worth of shares in 2018. Jakobsen said this scenario meant the U.S. market was diverging from the rest of the world, "going it alone." "I think they're (the IMF) pointing to, especially in the Stability Report that just came out, the fact that the U.S. market is on its own, and the reasons it's on its own is because the tax plan in the U.S. has meant a massive amount of repatriation into the U.S. economy," Jakobsen said. "The buyback program in the U.S. this year is $1 trillion and that is basically $1 trillion used to reduce the amount of floating stocks in the world. Why is that relevant? Because it makes the volatility artificially low in the U.S. stock market. It's (the U.S. market) is almost going it alone," he said, adding; "So what the IMF is really doing is just pointing out that, if you exclude the U.S., the world is already moving to the brink. Whether we go beyond the brink I think is more an issue of how fast the Fed, and how insistent the Fed is, on having this projectory of higher rates," he said. He believed the Fed was ignoring the inflows as a result of tax reforms and could be hiking rates too quickly. "For my part, I think the Fed is doing a mistake by ignoring this massive inflow on the back of the tax plan in the U.S. and doing so, they do a policy mistake." Richard Pinedo, accused of identity theft by the U.S. special counsel investigating possible Russia election meddling, was sentenced to a one-year prison term on Wednesday. U.S. Judge Dabney Friedrich said Pinedo could serve half the sentence at home. Pinedo pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud in February. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office had said he operated an online auction service that trafficked stolen identities. WATCH: Trump's quotes on Putin, the Fed and Russian meddling Mike Bloomberg is a Democrat. Again. The billionaire former New York mayor, who is considering a run for the White House in 2020, announced on social media early Wednesday that he re-registered as a member of the Democratic Party. He had previously run for office as a Republican and an independent. In his Instagram post, Bloomberg cited a need for a check on power in Washington. The Republican Party holds the White House and Congress, and the Supreme Court has a widely perceived conservative majority now that Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed. "At key points in U.S. history, one of the two parties has served as a bulwark against those who threaten our Constitution. Two years ago at the Democratic Convention, I warned of those threats," Bloomberg wrote on Instagram. "Today, I have re-registered as a Democrat I had been a member for most of my life because we need Democrats to provide the checks and balance our nation so badly needs." He also took to Twitter. Bloomberg tweet The move comes as no surprise. Bloomberg has said he would shell out millions of dollars to support Democrats as they try to grab majorities in Congress in next month's midterm elections. Earlier this month, a super PAC funded primarily by Bloomberg spent more than $2 million in support of seven Democratic women looking to unseat Republicans in House races. That came after his pledge to invest $80 million to support Democratic congressional candidates this year. He also said he would donate $20 million to a super PAC dedicated to getting Democrats elected to the Senate. While he considers a run against President Donald Trump, Bloomberg has some work cut out for him if he wants to appeal to the base of his new party. While Bloomberg, who has previously flirted with the idea of running for president, has positioned himself as a socially progressive billionaire, advocating for gun control and environmentalist policies, he has taken some stances that might not be palatable to rank-and-file Democrats. In a recent New York Times interview, he chided liberals for pushing aggressive regulatory policies on big business and major banks. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, both considered potential contenders for the Democratic nomination in 2020, are popular among the party's base. Bloomberg has also defended the "stop and frisk" tactics once used by police in New York before a federal judge ruled that the policy was being applied in an unconstitutional manner. It's an issue on which Bloomberg shares some common ground with Trump, who called for its use in Chicago to reduce violent crimes there. "Stop and frisk works," the president said earlier this week at a police chiefs convention. Human rights activists and friends of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi hold his pictures during a protest outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 8, 2018. In a letter to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, several senators triggered an investigation and potential sanctions over the disappearance of Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The act would allow the president to impose sanctions on Saudi government officials if the investigation determines that Khashoggi's disappearance is a "gross violation of internationally recognized human rights" at the hands of the government. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi royal family, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Turkish officials have claimed that Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered by a team of Saudi agents working under royal orders. The senators Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. said in the letter that Trump should consider any relevant information in the investigation "including with respect to the highest ranking officials in the Government of Saudi Arabia." Corker said he believes that the investigation will pressure the White House to take action in response to Khashoggi's disappearance. Earlier on Wednesday, Graham said that "there would be hell to pay" if Khashoggi was killed by the Saudi government. "If this man was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that would cross every line of normality in the international community," he said. North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un (L) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) shake hands over the military demarcation line upon meeting for the Inter-Korean Summit on April 27, 2018 in Panmunjom, South Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in entered office with a pledge to reform the country's family-run conglomerates known as chaebols but critics say that initiative has been sidelined as the government focuses its attention on North Korea. Economic cooperation is a major element of Moon's peace initiative with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and chaebols play a defining role in that department. Investment from conglomerates will be crucial to establishing inter-Korea transport links and revitalizing an industrial park in the border region of Kaesong two projects close to Moon's heart. On a visit to Pyongyang last month, the president was accompanied by the heads of major chaebols who were present to assess potential business opportunities in the reclusive state. With those corporate behemoths now at the center of Moon's plans for inter-Korea partnerships, strategists say it's unlikely the president will push them on reforms that many consider essential to the economy's competitiveness. "President Moon is dependent on chaebols for economic cooperation between the two Koreas so given the circumstances, I don't think it's realistic to expect any fundamental reform of chaebols," said Sangin Park, a chaebol expert at Seoul National University. Even before the first inter-Korea summit in April, the administration did not lay out any concrete measures, added Park. "It is very disappointing." Chaebols also potentially have a significant role to play in rejuvenating the country's tepid economic growth and lackluster job creation, with the unemployment rate hitting an eight-year high in August. With North Korea and employment now the two most important policy areas for Seoul, "it is now very likely that President Moon has re-prioritized his policy agendas and sees chaebols, not as a subject of reform, but as an indispensable partner," said Woochan Kim, a finance professor specializing in corproate reform at Korea University Business School. A spokesperson for South Korea's presidential office acknowledged that corporate participation was important to driving investments in North Korea but warned that "neither the extent of chaebol reform nor the priority placed on it will be diminished." Michel Barnier, chief negotiator for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations with the UK under Article 50 of the Treaty on EU gives a press conference at the European Commission on December 6, 2016. Sterling rose half a percent to trade above $1.32 on Wednesday after European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier signalled progress on a deal with the UK over its withdrawal from the bloc, as well as on the crucial Irish border question. Barnier said 80-85 percent of the withdrawal deal was agreed. He also said the European Union wants to carry out Irish border checks after Brexit "in the least intrusive way possible". The Irish border has been a key sticking point in Brexit talks. The pound hit $1.3206, a fresh 3-1/2 month high and strengthened 0.2 percent versus the euro to trade at 87.31 pence. Check out the companies making headlines before the bell: International Paper International Paper announced a 5.3 percent increase in its quarterly dividend, bring it to 50 cents per share from 47 1/2 cents. The company also announced a new $2 billion share repurchase program. Amazon.com, Travelers The two companies have announced a home insurance partnership. Policyholders will receive discounts on Amazon Echo speakers, security cameras, and other devices, and Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant will be able to handle policy questions. Nio Nio shares are adding to Tuesday's gains, which followed news that major Tesla investor Baillie Gifford took an 11 percent stake in the China-based electric car maker. Procter & Gamble The consumer products giant received an exemption from the 25 percent tariffs imposed on imported steel from Japan and Sweden that is used in the company's Gillette and Venus razor blades. PPG Industries Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management took a stake in the Pittsburgh-based paint maker. Trian owns seven million shares in PPG, worth about $690 million and representing a 2.9 percent stake. Campbell Soup Daniel Loeb's Third Point raised its stake in Campbell Soup to nearly seven percent from 5.7 percent, according to an SEC filing. Sears Holdings The retailer has reached out to banks for possible bankruptcy financing, according to sources. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a bankruptcy filing could come as soon as this week. Amazon Amazon's Web services unit has signed new cloud deals worth a total of $1 billion with business software maker SAP and cybersecurity software maker Symantec, according to a Bloomberg report. McDonald's McDonald's was upgraded to "buy" from "neutral" at Guggenheim Securities in a valuation call, with a price target of $200 per share. Guggenheim said the valuation discount between McDonald's and its large cap peers has widened to an unjustifiable level. Snap The Snapchat parent announced the introduction of Snap Originals, which will feature original content including serialized shows and new documentary series. Fastenal The maker of industrial and construction supplies reported quarterly profit of 69 cents per share, two cents above estimates, with revenue also beating Wall Street forecasts. Kimberly-Clark, Church & Dwight, Clorox Deutsche Bank downgraded the three consumer products stocks to "sell" from "hold". The firm notes that the sector has done well for the past few months, on an increased appetite for defensive stocks, but now thinks those companies will face increased challenges related to currency fluctuations, emerging market issues, and competitive pressures. Dropbox The online storage service's stock was added to the J.P. Morgan Analyst Focus list, with the firm seeing outperformance of up to 50 percent in the stock following its meetings with management last month. Tony Hall, the director-general of the BBC, has urged journalists and editors to tackle any suggestion that his and other news organizations are responsible for "fake news," and revealed the corporation's plans for tackling it. In an address given to the U.K.-based Society of Editors earlier this week, Hall called the term "the weapon of choice for repressive regimes everywhere," after the term "fake news" went mainstream during the 2016 presidential election campaign. Fake news is the modern phenomenon of deliberate falsehoods or fiction masked as news circulating on the internet. The term has been "used by the Kremlin to dismiss the Salisbury Novichok attacks, and by powerful lobbies who counter objective facts with the assertion that they're all made up," he said, according to a transcript of his speech on the BBC's website. "The fake news tag has given street cred to mass disbelief. That doesn't just threaten journalism everywhere. It threatens people everywhere," Hall added. He said that so-called fake news originated in a small town in Macedonia, where online stories were made up, before the term went mainstream during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Closing the deal is just the beginning. Your favorite investors on "Shark Tank" check in with their investments on "Beyond The Tank" this fall on CNBC. On Wednesday night's episode, watch as Mark Cuban meets with wine-entrepreneur Jayla Siciliano, founder of Bon Affair, as they face the challenge of catching the attention of distributors. When a partnership with a well-established winery comes into play, Siciliano hopes this opportunity will open doors to even bigger sales. Could this wine spritzer business eventually become a happy-hour empire? In the words of Cuban: "Great companies don't happen in a day." Next, Daymond John takes a trip to Utah to visit Mission Belt founder Nate Holzapfel. As John gets a glimpse of this successful entrepreneur's new lifestyle, he's concerned Mission Belt is still too new to support the bells and whistles. With the right sales tactics and vision for the brand, John and Holzapfel tightly join forces to ensure things continue to run smoothly. Stick around for the finale as Lori Greiner offers a rare second chance to Tigere Chiriga, founder of Floating Mug. It's certainly not the offer Tigere had in mind, but it might just be the golden ticket to getting his business off the ground. Don't miss this episode of "Beyond the Tank" TONIGHT at 10P ET/PT Germany is planning to allow thousands of small businesses registered under British rules to convert to being German firms after Brexit. The draft bill, seen by CNBC and put forward by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, was adopted by the German government Wednesday. If passed through the German parliament, amendments could be made to the country's Transformation Act, affecting around 10,000 small to medium-sized businesses. Under EU freedoms, those businesses were able to register their firms under British rules despite being based in Germany. Reasons for this were that it was considered cheaper and simpler. Current laws dictate that to become a German limited liability company, small firms must have a minimum share capital of 25,000 euros ($28,809) higher than the share capital required to register as a British limited company. Share capital is the total value of all the shares that a company issues. Under the new regulation, companies registered as British will be able to convert without increasing their capital. President Donald Trump flexed his kingmaker ability in Republican primaries across the country this year, deciding whether to sink or help candidates in a party that has increasingly cast itself in his image. The president may soon realize his endorsements carry less weight in midterm election swing districts. So far, Trump has supported few GOP candidates in the most competitive House districts that will determine which party controls the chamber after November's elections. He picked up his endorsement pace in recent days with stops in battleground Minnesota, Kansas and Iowa districts, which he will follow with rallies in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. But early signs indicate Trump's backing holds less sway in some of the more ideologically divided districts that Republicans need to win to keep the House. While Trump's support should boost Republicans trying to unseat Senate Democrats in staunchly pro-Trump states, he may not help much in the battle for the House, where opposition to the president and his policies has defined many races. Polling suggests Trump's tweeted endorsement of candidates in two key GOP-held districts has failed to help. In western Pennsylvania's 17th District, where incumbent GOP Rep. Keith Rothfus and Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb face off due to redistricting, the president's support for the Republican has not moved the needle, according to a Monmouth University poll released Wednesday. Only 11 percent of likely voters there say the endorsement makes them more likely to support Rothfus, while 28 percent say it makes them less likely and 61 percent say it has no effect. Still, just 33 percent of likely voters have heard about Trump's endorsement. "It's probably good news for Rothfus that few voters are aware of Trump's endorsement because it really doesn't help him," Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement. The poll showed a double-digit lead for Lamb in three different voter turnout models. Trump also endorsed Jay Webber, a New Jersey state assemblyman competing with Democratic former prosecutor Mikie Sherrill to replace retiring GOP Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen in the state's 11th District. A Monmouth poll released Tuesday found a lead for Sherrill, but only 31 percent of likely voters said they heard about the president's support for the Republican. Regardless of whether they knew about Trump's endorsement, only 15 percent said it would make them more likely to vote for Webber. Twenty-eight percent responded that it would make them less likely to back the Republican, while 56 percent said it would make no difference. "It's no surprise that Webber has not been trumpeting the president's endorsement when you look at these poll numbers. Trump does not really help even though this is a Republican district," Murray said in a statement along with that poll release. Both districts have a slight Republican lean. The Pennsylvania and New Jersey seats rate as "R+3" seats, according to Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index. It measures how districts vote relative to the nation as a whole in recent presidential elections. Monmouth has not yet polled voters about a Trump endorsement in other swing districts, and CNBC could not find House surveys that asked a similar question. Trump only recently started backing more candidates in races considered highly competitive, including Republican Jim Hagedorn in Minnesota's Democratic-held 1st District and GOP Rep. David Young in Iowa's 3rd District. Nonpartisan forecasters consider both contests toss-ups. The Minnesota and Iowa seats have PVI ratings of "R+5" and "R+1," respectively. Of course, polls in two districts do not capture how Trump's endorsements will influence other races in distinct areas. But they suggest that Trump may have some tough decisions to make about whom to endorse and hold rallies for as he heads out on an arduous campaign schedule in the month before the elections. The composition of the House has big stakes for him, as Democratic control could make it harder for him to pass his priorities and lead to congressional investigations of his administration. The White House, for its part, thinks Republicans need to tie themselves more closely to Trump if they want to hold a House majority, according to The New York Times. A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request to comment on whether the administration thinks Trump could hurt some Republican House candidates. In addition, nothing indicates Trump's endorsement of Senate or House candidates in areas he won overwhelmingly hurts them. The president's support appears particularly important in states such as Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia, which he carried by roughly 20 points or more as he won the presidency. Vulnerable Democratic Senate incumbents in those states such as Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana have touted their efforts to work with Trump as they try to hold their seats. Recent polls have largely showed Heitkamp trailing GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer, while Donnelly has a slight lead over Republican former state lawmaker Mike Braun. WATCH: Here's why Republicans need Trump to boost his popularity A standout performance by LVMH's fashion and handbags business boosted third-quarter sales growth at the luxury goods company, providing an encouraging sign for an industry gripped by fears of a slowdown in China. The group, which has brands ranging from Louis Vuitton and couture label Givenchy to cognac maker Hennessy, has benefited along with a handful of rivals such as Gucci-owner Kering from rebounding demand among Chinese customers in the past two years. Concerns over a trade war between Beijing and Washington and a falling yuan has rattled luxury goods stocks in the past few weeks, though there is little sign of waning spending among young and digital-savvy Chinese shoppers with a taste for branded goods. LVMH on Tuesday produced a 14 percent rise in comparable sales in the division covering sales of high-margin handbags and fashion. That beat the 12 percent increase expected in an Inquiry Financial poll of analysts. This follows sales growth of 13 percent in the previous quarter, which the company said at the time was unfavourably distorted by accounting effects. Powered by Vuitton, the division is also home to fashion brand Christian Dior, which has been revamping its accessories with the recent relaunch of its 1990s Saddle bag. LVMH, the first luxury goods player to report for the three months to Sept. 30, said sales reached 11.4 billion euros ($13.1 billion) in the quarter and were up 10 percent on a comparable basis, in line with forecasts. 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. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Everyone who can is looking into using Blockchain, and Apple is no exception, though it will be a long time before we see any consumer-facing implementations of this. Apple looks at lots of technologies If its on the Gartner Hype Cycle, you can bet a few bucks Apple is looking at it. Thats why I think it will eventually introduce a 3D printer that works in conjunction with ARKit (unverified prediction), and also why it must be thinking about how to use blockchain. There has to be some way the distributed, decentralized ledger system that can record (and verify) every transaction may be useful to such a huge company. Its internal supply systems would surely benefit. Business processes Think about how blockchain could be used internally at Apple: iTunes and apps sales and Apple ID information, sales ledgers, stock, and inventory control.. Apple has all the internal processes of any other major multinational, and every blockchain evangelist has an argument that the distributed ledger technology can make these processes more efficient and more secure. Those arguments have some weight. That is why big companies like Walmart, Maersk, FedEx, UPS, and British Airways use blockchain components in their internal supply chain management systems. In fact, with most of Apples income based on hardware sales, it makes less sense for Apple not to explore use of the technology than for it to do so. It certainly seems possible the company will use it to help make internal processes more efficient. Evidence Apple is exploring blockchain While it makes sense that Apple should be looking into using blockchain, there is very little actual evidence that the company is doing that. There is a fragment: a patent published at the end of 2017 that talked about using blockchain-based tech to enhance the security of the Secure Element used in Apple devices. The idea is that if that element is compromised, other trusted parties with access to the blockchain will recognize this, acting as a new line of defense against such attack. A maliciously altered block in the blockchain will not be recognized by the device and will not be recognized by the Secure Element, and thus a bogus time value will not corrupt the state of the Secure Element, the patent explains. Cryptographic security for the rest of us Apples recently introduced T2 chip inside MacBook Pro has attracted controversy some call it a "kill switch" against independent repair shops. I dont think it is meant to be that I think it has been designed as a huge security improvement. The T2 handles things such as Siri and Touch ID, and it provides on-the-fly encryption and secure boot. This means all the data on your Mac can only be read by the Mac and that you must have your personal key to hand to access it. It also means that if someone gets into your machine using a sonic screwdriver (topical, huh?), they will still have a tough time extracting your data. The T2 shows that Apple is baking personal identity more tightly inside its products at a chip level despite Bloombergs incredibly questionable 2018 claims, which Apple (and everyone else who should know) strenuously refutes. My argument is that the chip (and the blockchain patent) betray some of the ways Apple is thinking about identity and data: It is attempting to automate ID verification at a hardware level it may even be able to use other devices/nodes on the network to provide verification for a device, making individual devices even harder to break. Apple knows your data is valuable Getting the device off the network is essential if you steal a system, want to sell it, or want to steal its data. That is why smartphone thieves try to grab iPhones from your hands while they are being used, so they can immediately switch them to AirPlane mode, as they are then impossible to track. This is also why you should always be aware when using these things on the street. I think Apple wants to connect a device up to an individual user in a fashion that is so secure that no one except the most highly paid government-backed cyber criminal will see any value in breaking that security. It's a good argument. Cyber criminals chasing a quick buck will already pour most of their effort into one of the many ineffectively protected platforms that for some reason continue to exist in the world. Though the world really should know better than to use or evangelize them. You know who they are. I see the outcome as like this: If every device your Apple device ever interacted with carried a fragment of proof concerning your devices identity, how would anyone ever be able to gain legitimate access to it? So long as a device is on the network, it can be verified. Apple isnt doing this out of any sense of altruism, of course. It wants to replace your wallet, and that means ensuring it can provide industry-leading protection for all it contains: money, health data, personal information, credit cards, and all the other keys to your own individual or enterprise magic kingdom. Delivering anything less would be irresponsible. The plan is also completely in tune with current thinking. Got a story? Please drop me a line via Twitter and let me know. I'd like it if you chose to follow me on Twitter so I can tell you about new articles I publish and reports I find. Google+? Hopefully you are already part of AppleHolic's Kool Aid Corner community, but as Google is closing its social network soon, please also follow me on Twitter and join me in testing my MeWe group, AppleHolics bar & grill. To help make life better for you, my loyal readers, I suffer by running Windows 7 and 10 on two harmless never hurt anyone in their lives PCs. Well, I did. But, in the last week I ran into not one, but two, showstopper update bugs. First, on Windows 10, I was one of those lucky people who had files vaporize when I updated to Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809). Because I only use Windows for trivial tasks, I didnt lose anything valuable when the patch decided to erase everything in the My Documents folder. Somehow, I think most Windows users use Windows for more important work than I do. I hope you have current backups. At least Computerworlds Woody Leonhard has some good news: You can get those deleted files back. The story, Microsoft now admits, is that the 1809 release erases, for some people, all files in the \Documents, \Pictures, \Music, and \Videos folders. The folders are still there, but nothings left in them. Its sort of the neutron bomb of Windows updates. How could this happen? Seriously, how can you have a release that does this to users? Where was the quality assurance team? Where were all those Windows 10 Insider Preview users? Oh, wait. The brave beta users had seen this problem! ZDNets Ed Bott reported last week that hed found a report from three months ago from a tester who said that my Documents folder had been overwritten with a new Documents folder, complete with custom icon. All contents were gone. Once more, and with feeling: WTH, Microsoft! You cant call this a fluke. Its not as if Windows 10 is some Teflon-coated operating system that has never done anything wrong with its updates. Remember the April 2018 Update (version 1803)? Thats the one that had conniption fits with SSD drivers and Avast antivirus software. I remember, and not fondly. How hard is this really, Microsoft? You literally have millions of Preview users. At least one of them spotted this newest bug months before release. There may not be many people running into this problem, but anything bad enough to destroy users files should be a red-letter, fix-it-now bug. It has proved bad enough that Microsoft has stopped the 1809 upgrade in its tracks until the problem gets resolved. Which, as I write this on Oct. 7, hasnt happened; the problem remains unfixed. Meanwhile, over on my Windows 7 box, I ran into that good old mystery error 0x8000FFFF notice. Lots of things can cause this error. The effect is always the same. You cant update Windows. I dont know about you, but I dont like running Windows PCs without the latest security updates. Im funny that way. In this latest go-round, I couldnt install Microsofts two most recent monthly security rollup updates or the September security-only update. This one had me puzzled. It turns out bear with me, because this gets messy I hadnt installed a critical (but not security-related) servicing stack update (SSU), KB 3177467, that Microsoft had released in October 2016. Unless I have a particular reason to do it, I dont install all critical Windows fixes. This will teach me. It turns out that the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) patch was not marked as being related to security, though it was. I wasnt the only one with this problem. Enterprises were hit, too. Microsoft staffer John Wilcox said that many organizations missed the update and decided to install only the default monthly security fixes instead of the full servicing stack update. Wilcox, taking a different tack than the company has done with the Windows 10 mess, also explained how Microsoft missed this problem. We test our monthly patches on fully patched, up-to-date systems, which is why this issue was not seen in our testing, or by any of our preview partners. I appreciate the candor. Going forward, this blunder wont happen again. Well, at least not exactly like this. First, Microsoft is reissuing the September update and tagging it as a security update to unblock any remaining customers from installing the August 2018 or later monthly security-only updates. Next, Microsoft is updating all release notes so they instruct you to install the latest SSU for your platform before installing the latest cumulative update. You do read the release notes, dont you? I dont care what operating system or program youre running, reading release notes will save you a lot of grief. Finally, if you dont read the notes, all future new SSUs will be marked as security, not just critical. This way, if you still are installing only security fixes, you wont be caught out again. Its worth noting that even today I prefer Windows 7 to 10, and I find it more than a little ironic that the Windows 7 problem has a better fix than the still-unresolved Windows 10 episode. Which leads to another question for Microsoft: Are you sure you want to kill off Windows 7? Just asking! Ben Roback is Head of Trade and International Policy at Cicero Group. There are a few things that become immediately clear when meeting Alec Shelbrooke. His passion for the Conservative Party and how it can deliver real impact for his constituency of Elmet and Rothwell is obvious. As is his love of West Ham United. But at the Conservative Party conference last week, we sat down to talk about his role as the Partys Vice Chair for International and how Conservatives can engage far beyond Westminster. What is the Vice Chair for International? Appointed in July 2017 by the Prime Minister, Shelbrookes role centres around building relationships with the Conservatives sister parties on the centre-right around the world. A lot of that is based on working with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the International Democratic Union, with a view to enhancing and strengthening democratic institutions and party structures in new democracies globally. It is effectively the Conservative Partys own arm of soft power at a time when a triumvirate of Government departments the FCO, DExEU and DIT are being tasked with turning Global Britain from a slogan into a reality. The top three priorities A wide-ranging brief with responsibility at a political level for all the Conservative Partys international relationships, the challenge is to ensure the Party is engaging effectively in global forums. His top priority is clear the Western Balkans, especially Bosnia Herzegovina where he describes corruption festering away under the surface. As the very real risk of political disenfranchisement breeding nationalistic tensions grows, the Conservative Party, through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, helps to strengthen democratic institutions and carry out a democratic domestic agenda. It is a part of the world that is looking increasingly westwards owing to the Russian threat from the east. That means the work of the Party, as well as the Foundation, is at a critical juncture. His next priority is in Southern Africa, where a host of young democracies effectively have what Shelbrooke describes as a clean sheet of paper that they can move forward with, assisted by the experience of a mature political party in a developed democracy like the Tories in the United Kingdom. Latin America completes the shortlist of regional priorities, where the mutual benefit of these relationships is best highlighted. In Argentina, there is a very real exchange of information that goes both ways. After the Conservatives were outperformed Labour on social and digital media in the 2017 snap election, there is now an ongoing dialogue to see how CCHQ can learn from Republican Proposals (PROs) campaign that was seen to lead the way in digital campaigning in Argentinian elections. And in the nearer term, Brexit dominates. At conference, Shelbrooke tells me much of time was dominated by conversations about opportunities after Brexit. In the long run, that is the responsibility of the three departments listed previously, but in the meantime the challenge is delivering on those conversations by getting local business groups and international chambers of commerce talking to each other. Brexit presents new opportunities with new countries around the world, he reinforces, and the tone of conversations he had with international visitors at conference suggests proof of that. Playing the Trump card It is impossible to have a conversation about international relations in the current climate without discussing President Trump. Discussing the November midterm elections, neither of us predicted the Republicans will hold on to their majority in the House of Representatives but both doubted talk of a so-called blue wave extending to the Senate. Citing Lord Ashcrofts September polling on political attitudes in the United States, Shebrookes view is that turnout will be the most likely decisive factor in the midterms. The Democratic base appears energised in their blanket opposition to everything President Trump does and stands for, though it remains without a natural successor to Hillary Clinton. The GOP base had expected to be deflated by a bruising campaign to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, but instead his victory has invigorated grassroots Republicans who will head into the midterms with another win in their pocket and a spring in their step. A new poll found the Democrats overall lead in the generic ballot has fallen from 10 points in July to just 2 points in October, within the margin of error proof of the Brett boost. While the gap in enthusiasm narrows, the challenge for the Democrats is two-fold in Shelbrookes view: Reluctant Trump supporters think hes doing a good job, by and large. And can Democrats turn out those who stayed at home and didnt come out for Hillary? Who will lead the Democrats next? Ask yourself who the Bill Clinton candidate is, he said. We discussed the shortlist of Democrats positioning themselves for a likely run in 2020 Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren but the name that prompted most interest was that of Mike Bloomberg. More broadly, the question of the next Republican president poses an interesting question. Now that the GOP has been re-cast as the party of Trump, will his Republican successor continue to pursue an America First policy abroad, playing favourites with both friends and foes? Or will we see a reset in Republican strategy, and a return to more classic international policy at global forums like the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation? Soft power in the age of populism and political upheaval The position of Vice Chair for International might not be one that is universally recognised. But in the current era of political populism, when established parties are fighting a wave of insurgent parties and personalities, soft power matters. It is important to have channels between centre-right parties around the world, so that they can learn from one another and further the relationships that create a framework for cooperation. In Alec Shelbrooke, the Conservative Party has a Vice Chair who recognises that importance and takes the role deeply seriously. Judy Terry is a marketing professional and a former local councillor in Suffolk. Our local and national politicians need to be radical, ambitious, and embrace change, says Luke Morris, Corporate Finance Partner at Scrutton Bland, one of the Eastern Regions leading financial services firms. He is also proud to serve as Chairman of the Ipswich & Suffolk Business Club, which provides a platform for exchanging ideas with key UK leaders and opinion formers in business and Government. Our members meet successful leaders at the forefront of their industries. During our debate about the High Street and how to revive it, he frequently quotes radical and bold in relation to grasping opportunities, whilst suggesting that Government backs off and not dictate policy. He says. The archaic system of business rates is an example of how Government tries to direct economic life, when solutions have to be targeted at their communities. Throughout history, industries and societies evolve, adapting to changing demand: Political leaders have to recognise and support evolution, which is exciting, adding a buzz to our towns and cities, rather than imposing their own policies and outdated legislation, which can be a stranglehold on the correct, tailored, development. He advocates, for example, rate free areas, and more flexible planning strategies, allowing complementary, non-retail, businesses, alongside more housing, in struggling High Streets. Retail is a brutal business, with, as were seeing from the demise of some retail dinosaurs, survival of the fittest. Encouraging independent retailers, and entrepreneurs, brings creativity, in the knowledge that customers are discerning in their decision-making before parting with hard earned money. Reminding us that five million SMEs (Small & Medium sized Enterprises) account for 99 per cent of UK businesses, and two-thirds of employment, he notes: They are the backbone of our economy, living and dying by levels of profit and loss! This focuses the mind. They dont have the time, or money, to indulge in changing their operational systems to comply with new diktats from officials. Government and local authorities need to listen to business, to understand the potential impact, before imposing new policies. Successful High Streets rely on prioritising safety, cheap parking, clean public lavatories with baby-changing facilities, alongside a range of cafes and a mix of chain and independent stores. Organising seasonal activities can also be a winner. Together with his young family, Morris was a regular visitor to the temporary sand pit with deck chairs and play area in the heart of Bury St. Edmunds shopping centre this summer. It attracted visitors from miles around, including tourists, benefiting the local economy, encouraging repeat business in the months and years to come as more people discover what else the town has to offer. Its success confirms the relevance of an eminent recent Business Club speakers advice. Lord Rose, a retired Executive Chairman of M&S, and Suffolk resident, emphasised the importance of making places welcoming, giving people a good experience. Its in our DNA to want to get together and trade, meeting friends and family in an appealing location, to visit a market, see a show, or gossip over a good cup of coffee or a meal. High Streets need to be destinations, not just about shopping. Local authorities should be more visionary and adventurous. Instead of pouring millions of borrowed pounds into commercial properties in remote towns and cities, building up frightening levels of debt to penalise the local taxpayer, they should use funds to invest in maximising the potential on their doorstep, including their cultural assets as an added draw. Even in those locations which have survived retail decline, this is no time for complacency; eventually improvements will be needed to make a positive impact as the economic climate adapts, and this includes the environment: cleaner streets and more trees, as well as public seating areas (if well maintained and not abused). There are other lessons to be learnt from the Continent, Morris says, I recently noted an interesting Linkedin post entitled, why are there no vacant shops in Berlin? It has virtually zero business rates for retail occupiers; There is no security of tenure, so when youre out, youre out; More small private ownership means individuality, with steady income more important than creating irrelevant big boom/bust developments; Germany has about 30 million sq.ft. less shopping centre space than the UK, and a fraction of the UKs retail parks, keeping High Streets strong; There is significantly less E-commerce dependency (at present). Mr. Morris is clear that, in the UK, a business rate review wont fix everything, but, he quotes Adam Smith, capital and labour flow into their most advantageous uses, and the state is spared any need to supervise and direct economic life. The problem, he asserts again, is interference, and analogue interference in a digital age at that! How bold it would be not to reform the archaic business rates, but to throw them out and try something else completely, particularly for independent retailers and pop-up shops? Just imagine how transformative it would be to have a vibrant network of varied shops if only Government did less, not more, and concentrated its energies on revolutionising public services, instead of on the private sector. With nearly 1,800 shops closing in the last year, we cant reverse the trend towards more on-line trading, because it is easy and convenient, but we can, and should, embrace the change, by refocusing on what todays customers want: somewhere to chill out and be tempted by something different and enjoyable as well as the best value for money deal. Dont forget high standards of customer service: a welcoming smile is always appreciated and an offer of assistance. The usual rush around Conservative Party conference led to a break in candidate selection coverage, while target seats continued selecting, so first off lets do a round-up of recent results since my last update. Newly-selected candidates Congratulations to four new candidates in target seats: Bishop Auckland: Dehenna Davison: A postgraduate researcher, Davison contested Tony Blairs former constituency of Sedgefield last year, and Kingston upon Hull North in 2015. She is a former Parliamentary secretary, a local government officer, and worked as a retail assistant to fund herself through her recent MA in International Politics. Dehenna Davison: A postgraduate researcher, Davison contested Tony Blairs former constituency of Sedgefield last year, and Kingston upon Hull North in 2015. She is a former Parliamentary secretary, a local government officer, and worked as a retail assistant to fund herself through her recent MA in International Politics. Bristol North West: Cllr Mark Weston: The Leader of the Conservative group on Bristol City Council, Weston works as Chief of Staff to Ashley Fox, MEP for the South West. He was the Conservative candidate for Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner in 2016, and contested Bristol South in last years General Election. He has written twice for this site. Cllr Mark Weston: The Leader of the Conservative group on Bristol City Council, Weston works as Chief of Staff to Ashley Fox, MEP for the South West. He was the Conservative candidate for Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner in 2016, and contested Bristol South in last years General Election. He has written twice for this site. Crewe and Nantwich: Dr Kieran Mullan. A doctor by profession, Mullan currently works in Accident & Emergency, and in health policy for the National Clinical Audit Commissioner. He contested Wolverhampton South East for the Conservatives in 2017, and Birmingham Hodge Hill in 2015. In addition to his work and political commitments, he is also a volunteer special constable. He has written for ConservativeHome, most recently on the Gosport hospital scandal. Dr Kieran Mullan. A doctor by profession, Mullan currently works in Accident & Emergency, and in health policy for the National Clinical Audit Commissioner. He contested Wolverhampton South East for the Conservatives in 2017, and Birmingham Hodge Hill in 2015. In addition to his work and political commitments, he is also a volunteer special constable. He has written for ConservativeHome, most recently on the Gosport hospital scandal. Ipswich: Tom Hunt: A former East Cambridgeshire District Councillor, Hunt contested Doncaster Central in the 2017 General Election and stood in the East of England constituency in the 2014 European Elections. He has worked as a Parliament Assistant to Oliver Dowden MP, before running media relations for the Countryside Alliance. Hunt is currently Chief of Staff to James Palmer, the elected mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (a role that required him to give up his council seat). He has written for ConservativeHome on a number of different topics, most recently the electoral impact of the issue of fox hunting. Shortlists Meanwhile, I can reveal two new shortlists for forthcoming selection meetings. Bedford The selection meeting for Bedford (Labour majority: 789) takes place tonight. The three finalists, from which association members will choose their candidate, are: Paul Bristow: Conservative candidate in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland in 2010, and also a former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor and cabinet member. Bristow is Managing Director of his own public affairs consultancy, and chairman of the Association of Professional Political Consultancies. He served as Conservative Future national chairman from 2003 to 2005. He has written for ConservativeHome, including on the topic of Momentum. Cllr Ryan Henson: An East Hertfordshire councillor, Hensons day job is as Senior Political Advisor to CAFOD, the international development charity. He too has written for ConservativeHome, most recently on social mobility and opportunity for working class white boys. **Update** Parvez Akhtar has withdrawn from the contest, and has therefore been replaced by: Cllr Darren Henry: A Wiltshire councillor, and Conservative Party Area Chairman for Wiltshire, he holds the councils planning portfolio. Henry is a former Squadron Leader in the RAF, and spent 26 years in the armed forces. He contested Wolverhampton North East in the 2015 General Election, and in his spare time he is a rugby referee. Bury North The Bury North (Labour majority: 4,375) selection will take place on Saturday 20th October. Best of luck to the three finalists, a trio of councillors: Andrew Mitchell: If Trumps America can hold the Saudis to account for their actions in Yemen, then so can we Every day, Cabinet Ministers and hardworking civil servants are balancing twin imperatives: protecting British citizens and improving the lives of some of the worlds most desperate people. For the most part, these imperatives complement and even enhance one another; responding to the deadly Ebola outbreak in 2015 was clearly the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. UK Aid and British expertise saved countless lives and stopped this deadly virus reaching our shores. And of course, tackling the extreme of international poverty make us safer in the UK, too. All of British development policy serves the British national interest; it is mutually beneficial: a win-win. However, I fear that the British Governments response to the conflict in Yemen does not pass this test. This is not a reflection on the tremendous impact of UK Aid, which is keeping millions of children alive during the worlds largest humanitarian crisis. Nor is it a slight on the brilliant men and women desperately trying to negotiate peace and deploying all their diplomatic clout to ensure vital goods can enter the country. But it is becoming increasingly clear to me that our complicity in this conflict is undermining these phenomenal efforts. The war in Yemen has been raging for over three years. In this time, daily life in Yemen an already poor and troubled nation has become unbearable. Violence, hunger and disease plague the lives of millions of ordinary citizens, who are caught in the cross-fires of this brutal conflict. Both sides in the war the rebel Houthi-forces and the Saudi-Emirati Coalition, working on behalf of the Government of Yemen continue to show a staggering disregard for human life. In just nine days this August, 131 children were killed. This includes 40 children who were killed when their school bus was targeted by an airstrike. They were travelling home from a picnic wearing their UNICEF backpacks a beautiful symbol of our global commitment to help all children in conflict. The next day, these children were either dead or digging graves for their friends a devastating symbol of the complete collapse of this commitment in Yemen. This airstrike was carried out by our allies, the Saudi-Emirati-led coalition. The bomb was made by the US. And yet, our government is still to condemn this attack. We are told as we have been told for the past three and a half years that instead, they are having a private word; urging the Coalition to uphold International Humanitarian Law and improve its targeting behind the scenes. I understand what is driving this. Saudi Arabia is a crucial ally. There is no doubt that our security relationship with Saudi Arabia is saving the lives of UK citizens, and that our economic relationship is creating British jobs. But I believe that we are selling ourselves short. In order to change behaviour, actions must have consequences. This is a universal rule; if actors think that they can get away with a certain behaviour, or it remains in their interests, then they will not change. At present, with the public support of their UK allies, there are few consequences for the Saudi-Emirati-led Coalition when they bomb children. I refuse to believe that Britain a founder and one of the largest members of NATO, a founder and permanent member of the UN Security Council, and the author of the Convention on the Rights of the Child does not have the global clout to influence our allies and urge them to rein in their activities. When we decide not to speak out, even when we know the action is plain wrong, we are grossly underestimating our strength and underestimating the extraordinary potential power of Global Britain. This is something many of our European allies have already realised. The State Department made numerous statements following the school bus attack. And a congressional defence spending bill signed by Donald Trump includes a clause requiring the Secretary of State to certify that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are taking steps to prevent civilian deaths. An uncomfortable and depressing silence from the UK diminishes us all. It is time for the UK to make clear it will no longer support what Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen, and redouble efforts to urge all parties to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities followed by negotiations. This is a pivotal moment to demonstrate post-Brexit Britains global values and global strengths. If Global Britain is to be a force for good in the world, we must stand up for these values and for good, old-fashioned British common sense. If we fail to act, we undermine all our efforts to deliver prosperity and security to the world and will be remembered on the wrong side of history. This article is an extract from Healthier, Safer, More Prosperous: The Case for British Leadership in International Development, a new book of essays published jointly by Conservative Friends of International Development & Save the Children. Craig Hoy is a former Westminster lobby journalist. As the SNP departs Glasgow, the drumbeat for Scottish independence is growing more menacing by the day. And as the threat of Indyref 2 increases, we should take a moment to remember an essential ingredient of success: to get into the heads of our opponents. We need to remember that the SNP want to reduce our politics and national identity into a single, indivisible issue. And that issue is grievance not hope, as Nicola Sturgeon proclaimed in her speech to her partys conference yesterday. In the misguided eyes of the Scots nationalists, to support Brexit and restore the fortunes our fishing industry is anti-Scottish. Thats despite the fact that one third of their own voters did precisely that: back Brexit. To want to balance the countrys books and erase a deficit which eats away at our future prosperity and competitiveness is, again, presented as an affront to our Scottish identity. Thats despite the fact that thrift is a Scottish value. And, worse still, the SNPs own Growth Commission recommends a hard austerity, way beyond that implemented in recent years. Furthermore, in the eyes of the SNP, to want to retain our nuclear defence at a time when the world appears to be reverting back to the bad old ways is, yes, you guessed it, anti-Scottish. Thats despite the fact that we are all undoubtedly safer with Trident than without. But we are where we are: living in a topsy-turvy Scotland. A Scotland in which the English Tories are still bizarrely blamed for 12 years of SNP failure in our schools and hospitals . Now more than ever its vital that the Scottish Tories as our countrys only real opposition redouble our efforts. Its time we celebrated the unique combination of values the party possesses: being Scottish, Conservative and Unionist. In the art world, the three parts of any triptych are intended to be appreciated together. We stand to offer more, and gain more, by remembering this. To win, we need to promote the positive case for the union something Ruth Davidson has done deftly during her time as leader. This will yield electoral dividends so long as the threat of Indyref 2 remains. But electoral success rests on more than this and Ruth Davidson and the new breed of bright and ambitious Scots Tories get this fact. Success at the ballot box in 2021 requires us to develop a unique set of centre-ground Scots policies. Token Tartan Toryism wont work. You cant wrap a random policy in a tartan shawl and expect Scots to buy it. So we need to use the period between now and 2021 to develop a uniquely Scottish and mainstream Conservative policy agenda. It needs to be patriotic, but it also practical and realistic setting our policy apart from socialist separatism and the narrow minded nationalism of our opponents. But being small c conservative should not require us to blunt the radical edge of our politics. We need to think out of the box, to look beyond our borders, to move out from our comfort zone. Having spent the last decade in South East Asia I am bewildered by the way we focus so much on rights and not enough on responsibilities. Scots are a fair nation, but we have allowed that focus on rights to eclipse responsibility. I spend a lot of time in Singapore a nation state which revels in its clean-cut, law-abiding reputation. Looking back from there to Scotland I am at a complete loss to understand why extreme anti-social behaviour is tolerated. Its as if weve given up. Gangs of teenagers causing havoc on our high streets are seen as undesirable but, at the same time, unavoidable. The actions of a small number in society, which leaves our elderly feeling vulnerable and afraid, isnt undesirable its unacceptable. And it falls to the Tories to say call time on this kind of social ill. Thats why safe injection zones for drug users, which at first might look like a pragmatic policy, should be rejected. We shouldnt be trying to find ways of making hard drug use safer or more mainstream: we should be finding ways of eradicating it. Because only by doing this will we break the destructive cycle of drug abuse, whereby the child of a drug user is far more likely themselves to fall into a world of abuse, despair and impoverishment than the other kids in their classroom. If this sort of social inequality isnt tolerated in countries such as Singapore then it shouldnt be tolerated in Scotland either. But we should not focus just on solving Scotlands ills. We need to be the party of real hope, not the false hope which barely masked the grievance of Sturgeon in her conference speech. We need to explain how we will embrace change, setting individuals and business free to compete on the world stage. Scotlands SME sector should be the lifeblood of our economy. In Germany, its called the Mittelstand with SMEs making up 99 per cent of all the countrys economy, many of these firms being worldwide market leaders. We should be throwing everything we have at building our own SME sector, call it a McMittelstand if you like. In education and healthcare, we should be looking to other developed economies to see how we can reform our systems to ensure both lead the world while, of course, remaining 100 per cent publicly funded. In truth, it would be all too easy to engage in constant political combat with the SNP on the constitutional future of our country. But we need to be more, to offer more, and to achieve more than simply being the party of the union. When Ruth Davidson becomes First Minister, which I hope and believe she will, we will have a government which truly takes decisions in Scotlands national interest and not in the narrow interests of the SNP. That should give each and every Scot hope. But before that there is a lot of hard work to do. James Brokenshire is Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup. To secure a future filled with prosperity and maintain our place at the worlds top table after Brexit, we need all parts of our country working to their full potential. This rings true for private bodies as much as it does for public ones. The historic ties we hold around the globe are going to be important as we take control of our own trade agreements, but they make sound business sense too. Our countrys future is dependent not just upon how we continue to trade with the European Union, but how we forge new relationships with the non-EU countries, which account for over 342 billion of our exports. The strong links we have with nations across the globe was reinforced for me at the Conservative Party conference last week. Speaking at Conservative Friends of India, Pakistan and Israel events should be a strong reminder of the internationalism in our partys DNA. Were at our best when we look outwards, embracing new ideas and sharing the best we have to offer with the rest of the world. Thats why Ive just returned from a trade visit to India together with Andy Street and Sir John Peace, Chair of the Midlands Engine Partnership. In my role as Midlands Engine Champion, I brought together senior British and Indian officials and businesses on this trip to reaffirm our commitment to the UKs, and in particular the Midlands, trading relationship with India. Last year, our trade in goods and services between the UK and India hit 19.6 billion an increase of 20 per cent on the year before. I want to see the Midlands and other regions enjoying the benefit of that trading relationship with India and with our trading partners around the globe. And its not just goods and services the expertise we stand to gain from fostering close partnerships between international regions cant be underestimated. Andy is delivering for the people of the West Midlands but, with the support of Conservative colleagues in Government, I know we can do more. For example, the Midlands-Maharashtra Technology Partnership is the regional product of the UK-India Technology Partnership signed by Theresa and Narendra Modi in April to increase partnerships in technology through industry, government, science and research, and to foster trade and investment opportunities in both directions. Technology is big business in India. Around 31 per cent of all Indian investments in the UK are in tech and incorporate 33,000 out of 110,000 jobs. Latest figures show that the UK exports around 344 million of digital services to India, and that continues to grow. During the visit, there were many positive conversations making the case to Indian organisations to join the likes of Bharat Forge and 780,000 businesses already established in the Midlands. Our future economic prosperity depends on looking beyond London and the South East. The Midlands is the heart of our automotive industry, with a skilled workforce driving further innovation. Its the engine room of UK economic growth, and can lead the way as we chart a positive new future for our country outside the EU. I also launched the UK-India FutureTech Festival, taking place in Delhi and across India this December. The festival is an exciting thought-leadership summit that will bring together business, policy makers, venture capital, scientists and entrepreneurs. Attracting the best and brightest business leaders, innovators, tech companies and entrepreneurs, the FutureTech Festival will drive trade, investment and partnerships across key sectors, and promote and celebrate the UK and India as major technology innovators and trading partners. As we leave the European Union, these relationships, at a sub-national level, will become increasingly important. My meeting with Anant Geete, Indias Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise Minister, highlighted the need to deepen the links between the Midlands Engine and Maharashtra. We both want to see our countries automotive industries push the boundaries in new technology, especially in electric and low emission vehicles. Thats why we need to strengthen collaboration between the two regions and our nations to ensure that our automotive industries have the tools and resources they need to compete in a globally competitive economy. Our local authorities and leaders will be instrumental in taking forward and maintaining relationships with overseas trading partners, as much as any of the dealmakers in Westminster. We recognise the value of these relationships. I call on all local authority leaders to rise to this challenge. As the best advocates for their regions, standing side by side with Ministers in Westminster will be crucial if we are to help secure valuable new trade relationships. Were determined to back our businesses, and showcase to the world just how great Britain and our regions are as a place to invest. We must do that together. Only the Conservatives are offering an optimistic vision of our nations future and I firmly believe we have an opportunity to shine, and to show the world that, with our new future status, they will continue to benefit from all the UK has to offer including from our great regions. Rebecca Lowe is Director of FREERa new initiative promoting economic and social liberalism, based at the IEA, where she is a Research Fellow. She is also an Assistant Editor of ConservativeHome. The increasing usefulness of the term Manichean counters George Orwells excellent advice about choosing short, simple words, wherever possible. Its stretchy, almost mystical implications suit a dualistic age of subjective emotion over objective fact, painted caricature over proven reality, and shouted assertions over reasoned argument. Yes Im purposefully being dramatically Manichean about modernity: after all, even our assessments about how very bad or very good things are seem suitably cleaved. That this is true in discussions about the economy is unsurprising. Economics is about picking between options, which means people often think of it as black and white. But its not, of course. For a start, we all know that Britain like most places in the world has a mixed economy: we dont have completely free markets; theres no complete government control. People on both sides might like to claim otherwise, for rhetorical gains, but of course its a mix, and, realistically, its going to remain that way. Unless, you shout, John McDonnell gets his way! The growing debate about nationalisation versus privatisation typifies these days of fighty dualism. For a start, such terms are rarely clarified. There are important differences between owning something, making overall decisions about it, making everyday decisions within it, working in it, and gaining from it. Theres also much political obfuscation about these differences. Many of the problems that certain politicos claim could be fixed by nationalising certain industries, for instance, are truly problems of state interference; proper liberalisation is, all too often, whats actually missing. And just like those politicians who suffocate their sinecure seats by pretending things have never been worse, those who blame failures on incorrect causes worsen the lives of the people they serve, trampling on their welfare and opportunities, in order to stay in power. A great example of this relates to the railways. Sure, theyre beset by many problems. But it was darkly funny to see Labour MPs claiming on Twitter that nationalisation could fix signals failures en route home from their party conference, when track infrastructure is, of course, owned and controlled by the state, with Network Rail basically acting as both a monopoly and a monopsony. The division between track and train, and the crazy state-run franchise system, with its price controls and disincentives for investment, hardly make the model of a freedom-based utility general. Now, those quasi-privatised bits have had their successes: more people use trains than ever, and cheap tickets are available at unusual times. But its not even as if the operators make much profit: its a relatively small amount of money, which would hardly (if it still existed) be spent on infrastructure improvements under state control, anyway. More likely, itd be used to meet demands for NHS funding, and so on. Trains are a niche interest in the UK, after all most non-drivers outside of London use buses instead. Similarly, all this depressing talk about energy price caps not only defies economic logic, it also implies that the problems we face here relate to the free market running out of control. This caricature is somewhat surprising, yet again, when used to depict a highly regulated, varyingly subsidised, and other ways state-infiltrated system, with a few big players, who love and push for its high barriers to entry. This system has little space for innovation driven by risk, and will only become more inflexible with the introduction of caps, which will push up prices as ever, costing the poorest (and least informed) the most. Then there are the arguments in favour of nationalising failure. One of the biggest myths we economic liberals urgently need to dispel is the topsy-turvy suggestion that we support crony-type capitalism: the kind of system that prevents the innovation that stems from competition and drives down prices. And that we favour the state interventions that protect only those who are too big to fail. Sure, there are often strong political reasons for politicians to try to prevent industries or organisations from failing: that doesnt mean that doing so is fundamentally the right thing, however, or that its beneficial to society. In Saving the X Industry, Henry Hazlitt neatly explains how X can benefit from such a move, only at the expense of the A, B and C industries. Taxpayers lose out, other workers suffer, other parts of town decline, and other parts of the country, too. One of the beauties of the genuine market is that, whether or not you yourself like its results, those results are fairer across the board; powerful interest groups cant lobby the market, directly. Yes, we can argue all day about fair access to the market in a time of global capital, but, for now, lets focus on the nation state. Were talking about nationalisation, after all. These debates always return to the same question: would the state do it better? We can offer case studies from history or international comparison: the struggles and costs of governments trying to allocate resources; the improvements to services, price reductions, and new technologies and ideas that flourish with true competition and all-round access to clear information. But theres another underlying question: should the state be getting involved, at all, regardless of the consequences of doing so? All too often, nationalisation equates to centralised, bureaucratic control: the idea that a small set of people, mostly likely in London, know whats best for over 60 million others. Yes, these policies tend to X-inefficiency, and those other well-known problems touched on above, as well as being extremely expensive to enact, beset by legal problems, and so on. But nationalisations Westminster-centricity problem is worthy of the inclusion of national in the word. And thats an issue in itself. Unless youre genuinely an anarchist, therell be some things you think the state should control, or own, or whatever. Life isnt neatly Manichean, after all. A monopoly on legitimate force or defence is the standard example, and there are endless debates about what else fits into that category: what should truly be considered a public good, and so on. But again, the national point comes back. Even if you think something is best provided, or controlled by the state, that doesnt necessarily mean the state should always mean London potentially hundreds of miles, both literally and figuratively, away from what shapes your personal package of public goods requirements. Locally-driven solutions, on the other hand even those involving state actors might give you some more control over your own life. We urgently need to discuss the way in which the so-called localisation agenda of the past decades has mostly been a sham, involving the decoupling of revenue raising from spending, and the general imposition of centralised control on local decision makers. Thats what we should be thinking about, rather than obsessing over a return to the 70s, or the 80s. We need to think afresh, not only in terms of desirable economic consequences, but also regarding the political legitimacy that comes from respecting each of us as individual creatures, capable of our own decisions and demands. Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow, a former Conservative Party Deputy Chairman, Chair of the Education Select Committee and President of Conservative Workers and Trade Unionists. Gloom and Optimism I arrived at Birmingham a little gloomy (as highlighted in my last ConservativeHome column). Would Conservatives have the solutions needed to deal with the anxieties felt by the British people, as captured by Labour the week before? Of course, underlying Jeremy Corbyns successful rhetoric are a number of deep pits containing the poison of extremism, anti-semitism and piles of debt, with all their unfunded spending commitments. Whilst Tories need to be honest about deep problems facing our country, the biggest problem with Corbyn is that he never seems to make hard choices. To the Corbynistas, everything is possible, and (taxpayers or borrowed) funds can always be found. By the end of the conference, I was unexpectedly optimistic. The Prime Minister returned to her roots becoming again the Theresa May we saw on the steps of Downing Street in 2016 by pledging to deal with burning injustices. She announced affordable housing, and greater funds for the NHS, particularly for cancer treatment. The fuel duty freeze was another great announcement that will help motorists and businesses hugely with the cost of living. Hopefully, this was a speech that signposts more to come. Will we see our Prime Minister wade through the Brexit fog with a serious domestic agenda that builds on what she said in Birmingham? On another note, it was good to see the next generation of Conservatives shine at conference: Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab and Damian Hinds, to name but a few. Tory Workers Speaking of Workers Conservatism, one of my personal conference highlights eachyear is attending dinner with Tory Workers. Under the guidance of Spencer Pitfield, Nick Denys and Richard Short, they campaign hard for social justice and Workers Conservatism. I was pleased to see the workers agenda being taken seriously at conference, with Tory Workers on the fringe and media. It is going from strength to strength, pushing a blue collar agenda that is getting a warmer and warmer reception across the Party. If you want to join, please sign up at www.toryworkers.co.uk. Universal Credit In the midst of the conference, I met with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to talk about their idea of a Brexit bonus for low income working families. The Prime Minister rightly highlighted in her speech that there are families who are struggling to make ends meet despite working hard. Increases to the income tax personal allowance have already taken the very lowest paid out of paying income tax all together. If we are to continue helping the lowest paid, perhaps now we should be reforming Universal Credit by increasing the work allowance (the work allowance is the amount you can earn before help from UC starts to be reduced so its a bit like a personal tax allowance). Increasing the work allowances to their original level for families with children would encourage people into work and provide a much needed budget boost for 9.6 million parents and children, once Universal Credit is rolled out. Announcing this at the Budget would see the measure that costs 2 billion come in just one week after Brexit. That would be a Brexit dividend indeed. Ted Conservatism is not enough. I went to the Boris Johnson speech in Birmingham. He sometimes reminds me of Mr Ted Clubberlang from Ted the Movie [see above] charismatic, engaging, big-hearted, humorous (sometimes shocking), and challenging the old order in unexpected ways. Without doubt, he makes a serious a case against Chequers. But it was not enough. Although some of the old Tory tunes were there a property owning democracy and tax cuts et al. I wanted better meat on the bones and, despite the movie stardust, I suspect many Conservatives did too. I thought that Boris should have used the opportunity to set out a serious vision in terms of social justice, education, skills, and real solutions to help broken communities. This would have been a conservatism for the twenty-first century. Perhaps that will come in the future. Although Ted the Movie was a blockbuster in terms of success, it is not enough to take conservatism to the next stage. We need more. And neither is Deliveroo Conservatism I have recently heard of this new and extraordinary phrase of the left luxury communism. But, we should not fall down the trap of luxury capitalism either. Focusing on opening up Deliveroo/Uber free markets to increase choice is irrelevant to millions of people who are struggling to pay their bus or train fare, let alone using Uber. We must also not forget about these businesses work practices in terms of their employees. Yes to free and fairer markets, but only in a way that really helps those who are just about managing, not those who are managing quite well enough already. Prime Ministers Questions were over before they started. A loyal collective murmur of support, consisting of deep and emphatic hear hears, greeted Theresa May as she entered the chamber at 11.58, and indicated that this was not a day on which the Tory tribe wished her to come to any harm. We were treated instead to a festival of modern piety, with MPs from both sides of the House competing to see who could offer the most cliche-ridden treatment of mental health, suicide, rough sleeping, modern slavery, plastic pollution in the worlds oceans, drug-related deaths in Kent, and, no doubt, a number of other worthy topics which were raised after the Chamber had sunk into a despairing torpor. The Prime Minister is in her element as she gives, with some slight variations, the same answer to every one of these inquiries: The Honourable Gentleman raises an important pointwhole House will want to send its deepest sympathy to family and friendsbring the details of this tragic case to the attention of the relevant minister, who will want to arrange a meetinglong-term planmuch achievedall agree there is more to be donetough decisionsnew code of conduct Thanks to the Speaker, who wishes to give backbenchers the chance to hold the Government to account, we today got 51 minutes of this guff, in place of the timetabled half hour. The Leader of the Opposition is allowed to ask six questions. Jeremy Corbyn devoted them to austerity as it affects mental health services, the police, teachers and benefit recipients. He too advanced, as it were, behind an ever-changing screen of victims. May offered an important distinction: Austerity is being brought to an end. What is not being brought to an end is fiscal responsibility. But she also wanted to show how much the Government is doing for each group of victims. Economics has become a branch of the language of moral concern in which every aspect of national life is now smothered to death. Kenneth Clarke, the Father of the House, asked a question about politics. He urged the Prime Minister to bring a compromise agreement back from Brussels which she will proceed courageously to get passed by the pro-Europeans on both sides of the House, although it will be rejected by the hard-line Bennites on the Labour front bench and the right-wing nationalists in our party. May refused to go there. The House of Commons, she indicated, is no place for politics, but somewhere everyone must put the national interest first. That at least is the moral club with which she will try, on returning from Brussels, to bludgeon her opponents into a bloody pulp. Boris Johnson is lumbering to the rescue of Sarah Wollaston. The Totnes MP is reportedly under threat of deselection. But regardless of what Tony Benn used to pronounce as the pershonalitish, what about the ishoos? Should Conservative MPs who are in breach of the manifesto pledges that they stood on last year be given the heave-ho? One starts with the thought that some may not be flouting those commitments at all. What must count is not what the Tory Manifesto promised to all voters, but what each Conservative MP pledged to his constituents. This principle has a striking effect in this case namely, that the more phobic the MP in question is about Brexit, the more likely he is to have made that view plain, last year, to voters in his patch. To pick a seat almost at random, few voters in Beaconsfield with an interest in Britains future relationship with Europe will have been unaware of the take of their local MP. The same is doubtless true in Totnes. The next consideration throws the question back into the lap of the each Association member. What is the appropriate sanction if the MP in question clearly is in breach? To that each individual must ultimately give his lonely answer. Is the MP a good local representative? Does he stand up for his constituents? Is he in thrall to the whips especially when the party is in government when, since he can rebel against legislation, his vote counts, in terms of crude political weight, for more? These questions matter. Reselection and deselection is not a single-policy trick. Then theres another dimension. MPs are sometimes in breach of manifesto commitments anyway even, arguably, often. For example, consider the case of the Conservative Manifesto commitment to lift the cap on Catholic faith schools (solemnly spelt out on page 50 of the text, for those with a special interest in the case). For one reason or another, Damian Hinds decided to breach the pledge, and keep the cap on new Catholic free schools while also backing new Catholic voluntary-aided schools. Most Tory MPs have not chirruped a peep about the decision. Why does any one violation matter more than another? Each local member must make up his own mind. What should count most is what an MP does rather than what he says, in other words how he votes. Many talk about the Conservative Manifesto and votes on a Brexit deal. Fewer may have read the manifesto about which they pronounce. The unsurprising truth is that the document is infuriatingly vague: no wonder, since it will deliberately have been crafted to be so. Much may turn on how one inteprets the clear commitment to have certainty and clarity over the control of our own laws. If any deal reached between the Government and the EU flouts that pledge than Tory MPs would be entitled not to vote for it. Next, there is the second referendum question. A commitment to honour the 2016 referendum result was unambiguously inferred in last years manifesto, which gives those MPs such as Wollaston no room for manoeuvre at all, unless they set out their position last summer. Following the historic referendum on 23rd June 2016, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union, the manifesto said. It also referred to Theresa Mays twelve Lancaster House principles, one of which was control of our own lawsthat means taking control of our own affairs, as those who voted in their millions to leave the European Union demanded we must. So local Association members would be within their rights to take a severe view of any MP who voted for a second referendum, especially in circumstances where the vote was not merely declaratory. But that prospect takes us into known unknowns and unknown unknows. We wont be in second referendum territory unless we are also in Brexit postponement territory. And we wont be in that until or unless any deal is voted down. If we are, and some Conservative MPs vote for a second referendum, the whips may take a view in any event especially if an election looms into view and a second referendum is again ruled out. A final point. Each local member isnt automatically entitled to a reselection vote. It is the Association Executive that decides whether to accept an MPs formal application for re-adoption. So those who have joined their local party to deselect their local MP are likely to be disappointed. They will have handed over 25 for nothing, as they see it, save to help fund the Party led by the author of Chequers. Experts say consumers diets can impact greenhouse gas emissions As many consumers struggle to deal with the stress of climate change, a new study conducted by researchers from the University of South Australia explored how our diets may impact the environment. The teams work showed that limiting consumption of unhealthy options like sweets, red meats, and processed foods may have positive environmental benefits. It is time we better acknowledge the environmental impacts of the type and amount of food we eat, considering the planet... SOUTH GLENGARRY, Ontario On Feb. 20, 2017 at approximately 5:45p.m., SD&G OPP Crime unit officers responded to a report of a theft of funds from a victim in South Glengarry Township. Investigation indicated that a female had made unauthorized removal of funds from the victim. The accused female was arrested on Sept. 7, 2018 Angela Zimmerman, 56, of South Glengarry is charged with; Fraud Over $5,000 She was released and scheduled to appear in Alexandria court on Oct. 10, 2018. ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION ON THE ABOVE OR ANY CRIME IS ASKED TO CALL SD&G OPP AT 1-888-310-1122 OR CRIME STOPPERS AT 1-800-222-8477. "Reconceptualizing Criminal Justice Reform For Offenders With Serious Mental Illness" | Main | "Unequal Justice: How Obsolete Laws and Unfair Trials Created North Carolinas Outsized Death Row" The question in this title of this post is prompted by this news as reported at Vox: "Kanye West will meet with Trump at the White House to talk prison reform, violence in Chicago." Here is some context: West is expected to visit Washington on Thursday to meet with President Trump as well as White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to the New York Times. The Times reports that West will meet with Kushner first and will then have lunch with Trump. The meeting was confirmed in a statement by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. West is expected to discuss a number of topics during his visit, including job opportunities for those released from prison, manufacturing jobs in Chicago, and gang violence. Sanders said West who grew up in Chicago and recently announced plans to move back into the area will also discuss what can be done to reduce violence in Chicago, days after Trump proposed implementing stop-and-frisk policing tactics in the city. The Thursday meeting wont be the first between Trump and West; the rapper previously went to Trump Tower in December 2016 to discuss multicultural issues. In May, Wests wife, reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian West, met with Trump to discuss prison reform and pardoning Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old black woman serving life in federal prison for a first-time drug offense. Trump commuted Johnsons sentence, and in the months since, Kardashian West has returned to the White House to continue to lobby for prison reform. Kanye West has become one of the presidents highest-profile celebrity supporters, and he has favorably tweeted about Trump on numerous occasions. Last month, West delivered a pro-Trump speech after a performance on Saturday Night Live. So many times that I talk to a white person about this, and they say, How could you support Trump? Hes racist. Well, if I was concerned about racism, West said, I would have moved out of America a long time ago.... The meeting also highlights the continued power of celebrities in the Trump era. While other presidents have often brought celebrities to White House Barack Obama notably invited rappers including J. Cole and Nicki Minaj to discuss criminal justice reform these gatherings were also accompanied by policy meetings with experts. President Trump, meanwhile, has almost exclusively relied on celebrity references from figures like Kardashian West and Sylvester Stallone, as well as input from conservative figures like Ted Cruz and outlets like Fox News, to shape his approach to aspects of the justice system like pardons. Policy meetings on prison reform and sentencing, on the other hand, have been largely left to aides and advisers like Kushner. The president has also fiercely criticized celebrities who speak out against his policies, most recently telling reporters that he likes Taylor Swifts music 25 percent less after her recent endorsement of Democrats running for office in Tennessee. Not every celebrity invited to the White House has gone. For example, rapper Meek Mill, who experienced a decade-long saga with the criminal justice system, dropped out of a May discussion on prison reform, telling reporters that the event had become focused on him and Trump rather than policy. Much of this seems to be the result of how much influence celebrities or at least celebrities with minimal criticism of Trump himself appear to hold in the Trump White House when it comes to matters of criminal justice. A September report from USA Today noted that the Trump administration has taken an often chaotic, ad hoc approach to clemency. The report added that the president has granted pardons to people who havent applied for them, bypassed the formal Justice Department review process, and focused his pardon power on a handful of politically charged, high-profile cases. While there have been efforts to create a more disciplined process, it is unclear if the president would respond positively to such a development. Despite fear-mongering opposition ads, drug sentencing and prison reform initiative polling strong in Ohio | Main | "Reconceptualizing Criminal Justice Reform For Offenders With Serious Mental Illness" As noted in this prior post, a new Supreme Court, due to the addition of new Justice Brett Kavanaugh, got started working this morning by hearing two cases concerning the application of the Armed Career Criminal Act. Via SCOTUSblog, I see the oral argument transcript in Stokeling v. United States is available on at this link and the transcript in United States v. Stitt is at this link. Helpfully, this additional post from SCOTUSblog provides these highlights: In Stokeling v. United States, about whether a state robbery offense that includes as an element the common-law requirement of overcoming victim resistance is categorically a violent felony under the ACCA. This argument has some moments that even young spectators seem to enjoy, such as when Roberts describes having his law clerks try to pull a dollar bill out of his hand while he held tight. (This was in response to an argument in the petitioners merits brief that robbery can occur where the offender does no more than grab cash from someones closed fist, tearing the bill without touching the person.) It tears easily if you go like this, Roberts says to Brenda Bryn, the lawyer for petitioner Denard Stokeling, motioning as if to tear a bill in half. But if youre really tugging on it it requires a lot of force, more than you might think. Justice Sonia Sotomayor asks about whether a ordinary pinch can involve sufficient force to break the law. And to demonstrate, she pinches her neighbor on her right, Justice Neil Gorsuch. At that moment, he is lifting his coffee mug for a sip, and his wide-eyed reaction to being pinched suggests a mix of bemusement and mild alarm. Whenever a justice asks a question, Kavanaugh looks down the bench at his colleague. He sometimes dons his reading glasses, and he jots notes. We cannot see whether he has his trademark Sharpie marker. At 10:25 a.m., Kavanaugh has his first question, asking Bryn about her arguments relating to a 2010 Supreme Court ACCA decision, Curtis Johnson v. United States. In Curtis Johnson, you rely heavily on the general statements of the court, but the application of those general statements was to something very specific: Battery and a mere tap on the shoulder, Kavanaugh says to Bryn. And all Curtis Johnson seemed to hold was that that was excluded. So why dont we follow what Curtis Johnson seemed to do in applying those general statements to the specific statute at issue here and why wouldnt that then encompass the Florida statute, which requires more than, say, a tap on the shoulder? In the second argument, for the consolidated cases of United States v. Stitt and United States v. Sims, the question is whether burglary of a nonpermanent or mobile structure that is adapted or used for overnight accommodation can qualify as burglary under the ACCA. Kennedy apparently decides that one hour of argument about the ACCA is enough, and he slips out at the break between the two arguments. The Stitt and Sims argument will lead to questions about cars with mattresses, homeless people living in their cars in New York and Washington, and unoccupied recreational vehicles and campers. Alito tells Erica Ross, an assistant to the solicitor general arguing that burglary of an unoccupied mobile structure should count as a strike under the ACCA, that the court has made one royal mess of its interpretations of the federal statute. Ross says that is something the court may need to think about in some case, but I apologize for continuing to bring us back to this case. This simple point really tickles Justice Clarence Thomas for some reason, and he laughs heartily for several seconds. Kavanaugh asks more questions in this second argument, though he also loses a couple of what I call faceoffs when two justices battle for the floor, continuing to speak until one relents. He defers to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at one point, and to Kagan at another. (Although the rule of thumb is that a junior justice ought to defer to a senior colleague in such situations, that rule is not always observed.) Kavanaugh will have several extended colloquies, appearing more at ease with each one. Several times, Jeffrey Fisher of Stanford Law School, the court-appointed lawyer for the respondents in the second case, begins his answer by saying, Well, Justice Kavanaugh, It is in those tiny moments that the reality sinks in that Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland is now an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. 2021 has been a banner year for cybercriminals, they have taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in remote work, attacking both technical and social vulnerabilities. This historic increase in cybercrime resulted in everything from financial fraud involving CARES Act stimulus funds and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to a spike in phishing schemes and bot traffic. Piled on top of that is a growing wave of ransomware and software supply chain attacks. The most vital and current cybersecurity stats below show how threats have grown in scale and complexity over the past year-plus. While most of the research cited here was released within the past year, it does not necessarily reflect todays risk environment. The data collectively suggest trends that are likely to continue into the near future. Top cybersecurity threats and trends A total of 5,258 confirmed data breaches occurred in 16 different industries and four world regions, according to the Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) , which analyzed data from 29,307 incidents. Of those breaches, 86% were financially motivated. Thats a sharp rise from the 3,950 confirmed breaches (out of 32,002 incidents) from the 2020 DBIR. Nearly half (49%) of IT executives said their top security priority is the protection of sensitive data, according to the 2020 IDG Security Priorities Study, which surveyed 522 IT and security executives. In 2020, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over 28,500 complaints related to COVID-19, according to the 2020 FBI Internet Crime Report. IC3 saw a 69% increase in complaints from 2019, receiving 791,790 complaints total, with losses exceeding $4.1 billion. According to IC3, the costliest attacks are business email compromise (BEC) schemes, with 19,369 total complaints and a loss of $1.8 billion. By September 2020, the average ransom payment peaked at $233,817, according to the 2021 Webroot Brightcloud Threat Report. The report also found that 86% of malware is unique to a single PC, and phishing spiked by 510% from January to February 2020 alone. Phishing statistics and trends Phishing and other forms of social engineering, with criminals targeting human rather than technical vulnerabilities, remains a tried-and-true attack method. According to the FBIs IC3, as of 2020 phishing is by far the most common attack performed by cybercriminals. In 2020, the key drivers for phishing and fraud were COVID-19, remote work, and technology, said the 2021 State of Phishing & Online Fraud Report. In 2020, 6.95 million new phishing and scam pages were created, with the highest number of new phishing and scam sites in one month of 206,310. Key themes used for scams include COVID, gift cards, and gaming hacks. The top three industries targeted in phishing attacks were technology, retail and finance. The top three countries where scams were hosted were US, Russia and British Virgin Isles. The top email service used for phishing kits was Gmail. Not surprisingly with the increase in phishing attacks, email security was ranked as the top IT security project of 2021, according to the Greathorn 2021 Email Security Benchmark Report. Botnet statistics and trends Cybercriminal groups use botnetsautomated collections of compromised, internet-connected devicesto disrupt targets via distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks or enhance the effectiveness of other activities. That includes sending large volumes of spam, stealing credentials at scale, or spying on people and organizations. Botnets have been a problem for years and its getting worse. Many internet of things (IoT) devices have few or no security features, and organizations often fail to follow best practices to mitigate the risks of device compromise. According to the 2021 Imperva Bad Bot Report, bad bot traffic amounted to 25.6% of all website traffic in 2020, up 6.2% from the previous year. Whats worse, advanced persistent bots (APBs) accounted for 57.1% of bad bot traffic in 2020. That indicates cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated in their use of botnets. How criminals use botnets varies by industry. Below is a breakdown of the most common malicious botnet activity in the top five industries with the most bad-bot traffic: Telecom and ISPs (45.7%): account takeover, competitive price scraping Computing and IT (41.1%): account takeover, scraping Sports (33.7%): data scraping of scores, betting odds News (33%): custom content scraping, ad fraud, comment spam Business services (29.7%): attacks on the API layer, data scraping, account takeover Over 28% of bots are self-reporting as mobile user agents, an increase of 12.9% from the previous year. This coincides with a drop of over 11% (79.4% to 68%) of bots self-reporting as either Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer for the same period. Cloud security statistics and trends With so many employees now working remote, either full time or in a hybrid environment, more business is also being done on cloud platforms, increasing the need for security policies and controls around cloud infrastructure. This is evident in the Unit 42 Cloud Threat Report , which found that in the early days of the pandemic employees working remotely grew from 20% to 71%. After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020, not only did remote work increase but organizations accelerated their cloud migration plans overall. Using data pulled from a global array of sensors, cloud threat researchers found a correlation between the increased cloud spend due to COVID-19 and security incidents. Enterprises quickly scaled their cloud spend in the third quarter of 2020 with an increase of 28% from the same quarter in 2019. In the second quarter of 2020, cloud security incidents: Increased by 188% overall Grew by 402% in retail Grew by 230% in manufacturing Grew by 205% in government Open-source and third-party risks As businesses accelerate their digital transformations, the popularity of code reuse, which includes open-source libraries and frameworks, has expanded with todays typical application containing dozens to hundreds of libraries for core functionality. The efficiencies of using libraries like this have in turn created another potential attack vector for cyber criminals. Today the average Java application has 50 open-source vulnerabilities, said the Contrast Labs Open Source Security Report. The average application has 118 libraries, but only 38% of those libraries are active . . The average library uses a version that is 6 years old and has 50 open-course vulnerabilities . . Java libraries in apps have a 16% chance of having a critical or major vulnerability in apps have a The odds of an app having a vulnerability in a Java library increase from 7% to 44% when the library ages from one to four years . . 69% of Java apps have a library with a high-risk license have a library with a 99% of organizations have at least one high-risk Java license. Cyber fraud statistics and trends The huge increase in traffic and volume across digital channels has led to an historic increase in cyber fraud, with criminals often using the volume to hide their activities. Experts estimate more than $1 trillion was lost globally to cybercrime in 2020. According to the Sift Q1 2021 Trust & Safety Index, in 2020 the pandemic increased online giving by 20.7%. This increase in traffic provided cover to fraudsters that hid behind transaction surges: Ransomware attacks grew by over 40%. grew by over Email malware attacks were up by 600% compared to 2019. compared to 2019. Loyalty merchants saw fraud rates jump by 275% compared to 2019. The top three targets by vertical in 2020 were: Transportation (8.4% attempted fraud rate) Crypto exchanges (4.6%) Gaming/gambling (3.7%) DDoS attack statistics and trends DDoS attacks are getting bolder and bigger. Akamai, the content delivery network (CDN) and cloud services company, reported mitigating some of the largest attacks ever seen, according to Akamais 2020 DDoS retrospective. In 2021 it had already seen more attacks over 50 Gbps than in all of 2019. Akamai also reports the number of customers targeted were up 57% year over year, with numbers increasing to record volume and diversity across regions and geographies. In March 2021, three of the six biggest volumetric DDoS attacks Akamai ever recorded occurred, including the two largest known DDoS extortion attacks to date. Ransomware statistics and trends Ransomware is one of the top threats in cybersecurity. With 878 cyberattacks in 2020, 18% of which were ransomware, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Organizations around the world are being held hostage by ransomware, with many paying up solely to avoid the cost and downtime of not paying the criminals. In short, cybercriminals are making and demanding more money than ever. The average ransom paid increased 171% from 2019 to 2020 ($115,123 to $312,493), said the 2021 Unit 42 Ransomware Threat Report. ($115,123 to $312,493), said the 2021 Unit 42 Ransomware Threat Report. The highest ransom paid doubled from 2019 to 2020 from $5 million to $10 million. Defensive preparation and response statistics and trends The unpredictability of planning for security and budgeting has become even more challenging with the advent of the pandemic. As threat actors have ramped up their efforts in the wake of the pandemic, 31% of respondents believe their risk response efforts are under-funded, According to the 2020 CSO Security Priorities Study. 38% said they will spend more on response planning. said they will spend 30% will update and modernize business continuity plans. will 28% were piloting zero-trust. 40% say its on their radar or they are evaluating options. Cybersecurity hiring/staffing statistics and trends With the increase in remote working and a reliance on technology tools and infrastructure, COVID-19 has shifted demand for certain roles, with an increased need for developers, as well as help desk and cybersecurity professionals, according to a study by Robert Half Technology. This is critical since according to 74% of workers they want to work remotely more frequently following the pandemic, regardless of their businesss hybrid work plans. IT managers (44%) said they have shortened the hiring process as a direct result of COVID-19 trying to get in demand skilled tech workers in the door before they get poached by other firms. For companies that cannot bring in qualified people from the outside, 42% of companies plan to launch upskilling initiatives, said a Korn Ferry study. The top three hiring changes Korn Ferry found US companies making due to COVID-19 were: Conducted remote interviews and onboarding (54%) Shortened the hiring process (42%) Advertised fully remote jobs (42%) There is considerable debate on the internet about whether cybersecurity truly faces a shortage of qualified workers, or whether corporate hiring practices and preferences are creating that perception. Nevertheless, one widely cited stat is ISC2's finding that more than half (57%) of organizations surveyed face increased risks due to staffing challenges. Google announced it is finally shuttering Google Plus and hey, by the way, six months ago it discovered an API bug that could potentially affect 500,000 Google Plus accounts. A Wall Street Journal report said the bug exposing data of hundreds of thousands of users had been around since 2015. When it was finally discovered in March 2018, Google decided not to disclose it in order to avoid possible regulatory scrutiny. It did, however, patch the software hole. The API bug allowed developers to retrieve the data of some users who never intended to share it publicly, according to WSJs sources. Because of a bug in the API, developers could collect the profile data of their users friends even if that data was explicitly marked nonpublic in Googles privacy settings. The full range of exposed profile data, according to an unnamed WSJ source, included full names, email addresses, birth dates, gender, profile photos, places lived, occupation and relationship status. [ How much does a data breach cost? Here's where the money goes. | Get the latest from CSO by signing up for our newsletters. ] Ben Smith, Google's vice president of engineering, explained that because Google kept the APIs log data for only two weeks, it could not confirm exactly which users were impacted; 438 apps may have used the buggy API. The companys analysis found no evidence of profile data being misused. Google determined that it didnt have to report the issue to users even though it goes beyond its legal requirement when deciding whether or not to notify users about their data being affected: Our Privacy & Data Protection Office reviewed this issue, looking at the type of data involved, whether we could accurately identify the users to inform, whether there was any evidence of misuse, and whether there were any actions a developer or user could take in response. None of these thresholds were met in this instance. Yet after reviewing an internal document created by Googles legal team, the WSJ said Google was worried that disclosing the issue would trigger immediate regulatory interest. Google was worried that going public about the incident in March could result in us coming into the spotlight alongside or even instead of Facebook despite having stayed under the radar throughout the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Googles Project Strobe was born after discovering the Google Plus incident. It will give users more control over the data they share with apps, starting with more granular Google Account permissions. When an app wants to access your Google account, you must grant it explicit permission. Google is limiting apps that want access to Gmail, SMS, Contacts or Phone permissions. More changes are coming somewhere down the road. Google Plus ran out of steam As for how you feel about the coming end of Google Plus and the bug that could have leaked personal information, you might not be overly concerned. Afterall, who still uses Google Plus? Google admitted, The consumer version of Google Plus currently has low usage and engagement: 90 percent of Google Plus user sessions are less than five seconds. While you might not use Google Plus, the company certainly tried hard to force you to use it. Back in 2011 after Google Plus was launched, Google tried to pull a Facebook and require real names; this round of nymwars resulted in some people who were using pseudonyms on their profiles being banned or having their accounts suspended. Three years later, Google finally changed its tune and removed the restriction on so users could use any name. The nymwar makes a mockery of Googles claim on Monday of: We made Google Plus with privacy in mind. For over two years, you could not create a Gmail or other Google account without creating a Google Plus profile. From January 2012 until September 2014, Google did not give users any option to opt out of Google Plus. Relaxing the mandatory Google Plus creation led some to speculate that Google might be ready to admit Google Plus was a failed social media platform. And now, four years later, Google is ready to admit it. Google Plus RIP: June 2011 August 2019. Yeppers, it will not sunset for another 10 months, giving people a chance to download and migrate their data. BRIDGEPORT A former Fairfield politician accused of seriously abusing two small dogs was sent to jail Wednesday. Under an agreement, Superior Court Judge Frank Iannotti increased the bond on Raymond Neuberger by $50 so that Neuberger will be incarcerated until Nov. 21 when a hearing will be held to determine whether he should get accelerated rehabilitation, a pretrial probation program. Kenneth Bernhard, the Westport lawyer appointed advocate for Thor and Charlie, the two King Charles Cavalier spaniels, said he agreed to go along with the deal and will not object to Neuberger getting accelerated rehabilitation. I was insisting that he get jail time because cruelty to animals is a serious crime and I had no confidence that he wouldnt offend again, Bernhard said. The message here should be that people who commit cruelty to animals are going to jail. Neubergers lawyer, John Gulash, declined comment. More News Fairfield PD: Delivery driver accidentally shot himself in the chest Neuberger, 34, of Stone Ridge Way, Fairfield, is charged with four counts of malicious wounding of an animal. A former Representative Town Meeting member who also ran an unsuccessful campaign for state representative, he is accused of pouring boiling water on Thor and breaking Charlies ribs. The alleged abuse was reported to police by veterinarians who treated the dogs. Neuberger had told his fiancee and police that Thor was burned when he accidentally spilled his coffee on the dog, although the veterinarian said the burn was too extensive to have been caused by hot coffee, police said. Under accelerated rehabilitation Neuberger would not plead guilty to the charges but would be placed on two years probation. If he committed no other crimes during that time, the charges against him would be dismissed. Bernhard said that as a condition of the probation, Neuberger would make a $23,500 donation to the Bridgeport animal shelter to greatly enhance and improve the living conditions and recreational opportunities for dogs and cats living there. Neuberger is also to have no contact with the two dogs for the next two years. In the meantime, the dogs are living with his parents. They have recovered from their injuries and are now in fine condition, Bernhard said. 3 1 of 3 Linda Conner Lambeck Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 3 BRIDGEPORT After a month spent fine-tuning a contract, the city school board has agreed to partner with the Carver Foundation of Norwalk to offer an extended-day program Classical Studies Magnet Academy starting next month. The Norwalk-based charitable foundation is prepared to run and partially fund Classicals 90-minute extended day. The fair will take place from December 4-8 this year in Hekou, Yunnan province, expected to have 1,500 stalls. Of these, Chinese businesses will have 1,000 while Vietnamese will have 500 stalls. They will showcase electronic items, electrical equipment, auto, machines, minerals, wooden products, seafood, clothes, footwear, farm produce and fruits. The fair is part of key national trade promotion program hosted annually to introduce products which the two countries have strengths to help businesses seek partners and boost export. Organization board plans to invite 600 Chinese and international partners and 1,200 businesses to attend the fair. The number of visitors is expected to hit 200,000. Stating at the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Phuong Dong proposed the organization board to send detailed information about the fair to introduce to businesses and associations. HCMC is willing to bridge businesses to the event. By THUY HAI Translated by Hai Mien George H.W. Bush was 46 when he became the ambassador to the United Nations in 1971. He served just under two years before stepping down to become chairman of the Republican National Committee after Richard Nixon's landslide reelection. New York is a short hop from Washington, but that distance helped keep Bush from becoming permanently tainted by Watergate the way that many of his contemporaries were - even though his perch at the RNC required him to be one of Nixon's most vigorous defenders as the scandal engulfed the administration. Bush didn't become president until 16 years after leaving Turtle Bay, a stretch that included stints as the U.S. envoy to China, CIA director and vice president. What will Nikki Haley, who is also 46, be doing in 2034? Sixteen years is a political eternity, but that's the question of the hour after her unexpected announcement Tuesday that she'll depart the U.N. job at the end of the year. Showing loyalty and deference to President Donald Trump, Haley announced that she will not challenge him in 2020. In turn, the president said she's made the role "more glamorous . . . than it was two years ago." It would be crazy to sell her political future short. She's the daughter of immigrants, popular with every faction of the GOP, served as governor of the first state in the South to hold a presidential primary and now has foreign policy experience. Haley exits with high positives. A Quinnipiac University poll from April found 75 percent of Republicans and even 55 percent of Democrats approved of the job she was doing. None of this means she'll be president, by any means, but her star certainly still has a lot of room to rise. Of the 29 to hold the U.N. job, only Bush became president. Historically, the U.N. ambassadorship went to elder statesmen types who had failed to realize their presidential dreams. Think Adlai Stevenson, William Scranton and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. More recently, others have tried to parlay the job into bids for higher office, such as Bill Richardson. Susan Rice has been flirting with challenging Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in 2020 since she cast the deciding vote last weekend to install Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. "Most likely, Haley is pausing to make some money," observes columnist Kathleen Parker, who is based in South Carolina and has covered her career closely for a decade. "In her statement, she suggested an imminent return to the private sector. She and her husband have accrued considerable debt, according to the Post and Courier. Also, her parents' home reportedly is in foreclosure. With her intimate knowledge of international trade, politics and relationships, Haley could pick her job - and name her salary - at any of several top-notch consulting firms. . . . It won't serve her presidential aspirations well to stay out of politics for long, as Haley surely knows. Thus, the burning question - what's next? - has only one certain answer: Whatever she wants." Regardless of what she does next, here are five takeaways from Haley's decision to exit the administration: 1. She's leaving on her terms and with her reputation intact. Haley is getting out before expected Democratic gains in the midterms and before special counsel Bob Mueller issues a possible report that could prove hurtful to the president. The abrupt and unexpected nature of her announcement also means Haley has "secured her membership in a singular club - the rare former White House official who leaves Trump's orbit as a political force who could pose a potential threat to the president," The Post's Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker write on the front page. "Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist and former adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that while Haley's departure was highly choreographed - 'Who gets to resign in the Oval Office? It's unbelievable.' - the challenge for Haley will be how she bides her time, especially if Trump seeks reelection in 2020 as expected. 'If she runs in 2024, she'll have to figure out how to keep her profile active for the next six years, and most politicians can't manage that,' Tyler said." 2. Haley's influence had diminished. She was able to exercise more power and had higher visibility when Rex Tillerson was secretary of state, partly because he didn't want the limelight. Haley was overshadowed by the arrival of Mike Pompeo at Foggy Bottom and national security adviser John Bolton, who has consolidated power from the West Wing. 3.Who Trump picks to replace Haley will signal which way U.S. foreign policy is headed. The president told reporters on Air Force One Tuesday night that he's narrowed down his choice for replacing Haley to five. He said former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, who spent last weekend with Haley in South Carolina, is on this shortlist. "Trump's praise for the 'glamour' Haley brought to the job suggests that he will want someone with celebrity appeal," The Post's Greg Jaffe, John Hudson and Missy Ryan report. "Bolton, meanwhile, is likely to push for an ideological fellow traveler who will join him in his career-long crusade to obliterate international law or anything that constrains U.S. sovereignty. Pompeo, one of the more pragmatic members of the administration, is likely to favor an ally who will defer to his leadership. . . . The fear in New York and among the more internationally minded members of the Washington foreign policy establishment is that a Bolton-style hard-liner could make strained relations at the United Nations even worse." This post requires Senate confirmation, which constrains Trump. "Internally, two camps are emerging," The Post's Josh Rogin reports. Powell "is close to Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and the others sometimes referred to derisively as the 'West Wing Democrats.' A Goldman Sachs executive with State Department experience, she would enjoy support from those who seek a more Wall Street-friendly, trade-friendly, internationalist foreign policy going forward. Powell is also said to have earned the trust of the president during her time in the White House and delivered Trump some significant wins, including the safe return of American hostages from Egypt and the administration's close relationship with Egypt and the Persian Gulf States. . . . "Speculation around Bolton's potential candidate centers on U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, a favorite of pro-Trump pundits who have already begun their public lobbying campaign. But Grenell's confirmation for his current job was held up for months due to Senate Democrats' concerns about his past undiplomatic behavior and derogatory remarks he made about women on Twitter. Since he has taken up his post in Berlin, Grenell's aggressive style has angered his German hosts. . . . Grenell's confirmation process would be tortured and slow. If Democrats somehow take control of the Senate, it would be impossible. That's likely why Trump threw cold water on the idea Tuesday afternoon, saying, 'He's doing so well in Germany. . . . Rather keep Ric where he is.' "Replacing Haley is the continuation of a struggle between Bolton and factions resistant to his brand of conservative foreign policy," an administration official told Rogin. "If Trump chooses someone more in the mold of Haley or Bolton himself, it's a big win for Bolton. Someone like Dina Powell means other forces are reasserting their control of personnel for the next two years." Ben White, who covers Wall Street for Politico, cites "two people familiar with the matter" to report that Powell is "the top candidate." Trump, of course, often changes his mind. 4. "When it comes to actual changes in U.S. foreign policy, the difference may be more in the style than the substance," The Post's Adam Taylor writes. "[Haley] privately opposed some administration policies, such as a recent reduction in the number of refugees resettled in the United States, and took a harder public stance on Russia than her boss. . . . [But] she personally supported many of his more controversial foreign policy moves, including recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv and withdrawing the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Council. She also supported Trump's push to cut U.S. funding to countries unwilling to support American foreign policy and took a hard line on foes such as Iran and Venezuela . . . Her critics will not remember her as an 'adult in the room' but as an enabler of Trump's frequently brutal foreign goals." 5. With the departure of an Indian American woman, the senior ranks of the administration will feature even fewer women and racial minorities. "Haley's departure leaves just four racial or ethnic minorities among the 23 Cabinet-level jobs. One, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, is among the five women left in those positions," The Post's David Nakamura reports. "In Trump's Cabinet, the only remaining minorities are Chao, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, whose father is from Lebanon. Inside the West Wing, the only ethnic minority among Trump's senior staff is legislative affairs director Shahira Knight, who emigrated from Egypt as a child." Haley's departure prompted a rebuke from Omarosa Manigault Newman, an African American woman who was fired from a high-ranking White House position last December: OMAROSA tweeted "Spent almost a year sitting in cabinet meetings with @nikkihaley. She is strong smart and authentic! Losing Haley (a WOC) right before the election will be more of a statement of #45's lack of diversity in this admin." --- With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve Following the shooting in Sandy Hook, where we live, Connecticut passed a comprehensive set of laws designed to reduce gun violence, including background checks on all firearm sales. Those 2013 gun reforms and New Yorks Safe Act were challenged and upheld as constitutional. Many other states followed suit, and those laws were similarly found to comply with the 2nd Amendment. These significant reforms have reduced gun violence without violating the rights of hunters, sportsmen or responsible firearm owners. Despite these reductions, gun violence remains a public health crisis in Connecticut, as crime guns flow in from states where firearms can be easily purchased and transported across state lines to be sold on our street corners. The crisis screams out for Congress to act, as it has done when other national public health issues have presented. Yet, Congress is mired in political gridlock, a victim of the two-party system where tribal politics dominate and the will of the people is subverted. Against this abdication of responsibility, states need to assume leadership. States need to form a comprehensive compact to fill the void left by Congressional paralysis. A gun violence prevention compact (GVP Compact) will bring states together to form an alliance centered around basic principles and reforms to reduce gun violence in all communities. Compacts are not new dating back to the countrys founding and are quite effective at addressing the areas that Congress has ignored. The most notable of these compacts address environmental protection. The Clean Power Plan is one such compact to develop multi-state compliance strategies. In an article published by the Harvard Environmental Policy Initiative, it was found that a regional compliance approach to the EPAs proposed rules would save approximately $3 billion annually, compared to sub-regional compliance paths. This helps all of the states involved do what is best for their constituents. Compacts have also been used when the federal government has proven insufficient to address needs in times of natural and man-made disaster. The Emergency Management Assistance Compact coordinates efforts among states to provide state-to-state assistance to help fellow states recover, most recently in Hawaii, California, and Kansas. Recently, some states entered an alliance around research on gun violence because Congress inhibits research by refusing to fund it. New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York have banded together to say, Not One More, seeking to identify new approaches to prevent gun-related crimes. This compact, however, is limited and not enough states are members. The effort needs to be broadened. Many of the approximately 30,000 people killed by firearms each year could be here today if not for the federal governments inaction on gun violence. Connecticuts comprehensive and common-sense gun laws work together with other measures, but those provisions stop at the border, and crime guns flow in from other states with lax laws. The compact model has been successfully used to fight climate change and protect people from the harms of natural disasters. It can now be used in the fight to address gun violence. Now is the critical point to discuss this issue in a comprehensive and informed manner. Now is the time for a new GVP Compact to develop a common set of principles and laws to provide a baseline for all members. For example, a state joining the Compact would be required to adopt background checks on all firearm sales, impose strict penalties for illegally transporting firearms across state lines, and enact extreme risk protective orders, measures that should find support among gun owners. In order to be successful, our governor would have to work to convince other states to join. A true independent governor would have the best chance to get broad support for the GVP Compact. Otherwise, the ask would be viewed through the lens of party politics. An independent governor on the other hand could start to build out the GVP Compact and thereby provide a larger buffer for Connecticut residents and create an opportunity to close the iron pipeline that brings crime guns to our state. Lets take action together as a state joining with the other states to form the GVP Compact, a union based on common goals to reduce gun violence, in the face of Congress inability to act. Monte Frank, of Newtown, is a candidate for lieutenant governor. Elizabeth Charash, of Newtown, is a recent graduate of the University of Connecticut where she was the chair of the UConn Students Against Gun Violence. Despite news reports of a "pro-Russian" party's victory in last Saturday's parliamentary election in Latvia, the election provides evidence that if Russian President Vladimir Putin makes any inroads in the Baltic states, it won't be through their democratic institutions. There's little doubt that Putin has his eye on the Baltics. As the Kremlin faces European sanctions for its Ukrainian adventures, it's only natural to look for a backdoor into the European Union through the large Russian minorities of Estonia and Latvia - about a quarter of each country's population - which often watch Russian state TV and end up in Russian-language filter bubbles on the social networks. "Putin will try to make sure your politicians don't feel safe," Mikhail Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia's richest man, now a political exile and one of Putin's highest-profile Russian opponents, told a Latvian magazine last month. "Leaning on marginal forces that exist in any country, he'll amplify conflicts. The goal is to weaken the political elite, make it feel dependent." Yet Latvia's election results, as well as demographic trends there and in Estonia next door, show how hard it would be to reach that goal. Harmony, the center-left Latvian party that came in first on Saturday with 19.8 percent of the vote, is easy to call "pro-Russian." Its leader, Nils Usakovs, mayor of the capital, Riga, is an ethnic Russian, and so is Vjaceslavs Dombrovskis, the party's candidate for prime minister. Harmony used to have a cooperation agreement with Putin's United Russia. And Latvian Russians have long preferred it to other parties because it has pledged to make it easier to get an education in Russian and to maintain closer economic ties with its giant neighbor. So, has a pro-Russian party won the election? Not really. Usakovs has long wanted to trade his party's "Russian" image for that of a mainstream social-democratic political force. Harmony dissolved the United Russia agreement last year when it joined the Party of European Socialists, which unites all the most influential center-left forces in the European Union. For Saturday's elections, it recruited ethnic Latvian politicians, some with government experience, to head its regional campaigns; Dombrovskis was the only Russian in the campaign's top ranks. "All these years," Usakovs said in a recent TV interview, "we have worked on turning into a fully-fledged party that can unite Latvians and non-Latvians." This attempt to straddle an electorate divided along ethnic lines makes it all but impossible for Harmony to pursue strongly pro-Kremlin policies. "We support the European Union's united stance on Russia no matter what it is," said Usakovs, adding that Latvia is one of the countries paying most dearly for Europe's sanctions against Russia. This is a weaker stance on sanctions than that of Italy's League party or Austria's far-right Freedom Party; both have active cooperation agreements with United Russia and both are part of their countries' governments. Usakovs's attempts to shed the "pro-Russian" image probably undermined Harmony's electoral performance. It won 28.4 percent of the vote in 2011, 23 percent in 2014 and less than 20 percent in 2018. Harmony has lost 36 percent of its ballot support since 2011, both because of its own reduced popularity and because of shrinking election turnouts in a country suffering from depopulation. Simply put, Harmony managed to pick up few Latvian votes but lost quite a few Russian ones. Some of these went to the Latvian Russian Union, a fringe party more favored by the Kremlin than Harmony because it advances one of Putin's favorite ideas - that of a "Russian world" to which ethnic Russians belong wherever they live. But the Latvian Russian Union only won 3.2 percent of the vote, failing to get into parliament. After the previous two elections, in which Harmony also finished first, other parties kept it out of government because they saw it as a Russian Trojan horse. A coalition without Harmony will be attempted this year, too, though it'll be harder to make deals given the success of KPV LV, the populist party led by the actor and radio host Artuss Kaimins. The anti-elite, anti-corruption KPV LV ("That's it, guys, the party is over," its leaders have threatened to tell the old political elite after the election) won 14.2 percent of the vote, coming in second after Harmony. But even if Usakovs' party ends up in government, it's unlikely that Latvia will turn more pro-Russian. The realities of coalition government will keep any pro-Moscow sentiments in check. That's what happened in Estonia, where the Center Party, which has its own lapsed cooperation agreement with United Russia and which most local Russians traditionally back, has been the senior partner in the governing coalition since 2016. When Mihhail Korb, a Center Party member and minister of public administration, mentioned last year that he wasn't in favor of Estonia's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it only took a day for Prime Minister Juri Ratas, also from the Center Party, to kick him out of the cabinet. Korb issued an apology, saying that NATO membership was essential for Estonia. Ratas has also been careful not to appear too pro-Russian on domestic issues such as cultural autonomy for the Russian-speaking minority. "The party leadership only needs Russians to pick up votes," said Rodion Denissov, publisher of the Russian-language Estonian news outlet Tribuna.ee. "The problem is that there are no alternatives: Other parties just berate Russia and Russians, so people keep voting Center even though they trust it less and less." The ethnic Russians of Latvia and Estonia aren't, for the most part, members or any potential fifth column. They are increasingly integrated, perhaps not so much into the Baltic states themselves as into the borderless Europe. "Excluded from the public sector in the 1990s and early 2000s as a result of citizenship and/or language policy, ethnic Russians established businesses in Estonia and Latvia's flourishing private sectors," Michele Commercio of the University of Vermont wrote earlier this year. "Economic stability, and in some cases prosperity, along with EU and NATO membership, discouraged Russians from leaving Estonia and Latvia and from protesting nationalisation policies in these countries. Indeed, it encouraged them to take advantage of available economic opportunities, naturalise, and raise their children bilingually. The end result is a new generation of integrated, bilingual ethnic Russians who are content with their lives in Estonia and Latvia." That is a bit of an oversimplification. In Estonia, according to official statistics, some 27 percent of ethnic Russians are officially at risk of poverty, compared with 18.7 percent of ethnic Estonians. It's not as if all ethnic Russians channeled their frustrated civic zeal into business activity; many have simply fallen by the wayside. But, for the most part, Russians in both Estonia and Latvia have figured out how to work the existing system, initially hostile to them, to their advantage. Latvia and Estonia granted citizenship to the few Russians who found themselves on their territory after the fall of the Soviet Union, hoping they would go home. Tough language tests were required to get on the citizenship path. As a result, today, only 64 percent of Latvia's ethnic Russians are citizens of Latvia, according to official data; in Estonia, the figure is 41 percent. The rest are split between Russian citizens (a minority) and holders of so-called alien passports that, for some people, provide the best of both worlds - visa-free travel both throughout the EU and to Russia (Latvian and Estonian citizens require visas for Russia). Just as Commercio pointed out, many of the alien-passport holders have willingly sacrificed their ability to vote in national elections for the chance to do business between Russia and the EU. Latvia has been steadily losing its population ever since it gained independence in 1991. Initially, other former Soviet republics, especially Russia, were the biggest destination for Latvia's emigres. The wealthier EU nations took over at the turn of the century. Latvia is still losing people to them - and it's losing ethnic Russians faster than residents in general. The new, European Russians, bred without any particular loyalty to their Baltic country of birth but without meaningful ties to Russia either, move away readily to seek their fortunes. Estonia is a wealthier country than Latvia - the average pension has reached 400 euros ($458) a month there, while in Latvia, it's 320 euros and raising it to 400 was a key Harmony election promise. Not coincidentally, Estonia has boasted positive net migration for the last three years. Its government statistical agency reports an influx of people with Russian citizenship; the small nation has become a magnet for Putin opponents who don't want to move too far away, and several well-known activists have settled there in recent years. If the Baltic nations have to worry about any Russians at all, it's those who were born in these countries but have Russian citizenship. These are largely people who have chosen the "Russian world." But there are only 17,761 such people in Estonia and 8,626 of them in Latvia. These aren't large numbers - 1.3 percent and 0.4 percent of the population, respectively - no fearsome fifth columns are anywhere on the horizon. Latvia has more to fear from its continuing depopulation. It's the young, well-trained people of every possible ethnicity who seek their fortunes overseas; that may explain the growing support of populist parties, backed by a less mobile rural population. Building up a social safety net, as Estonia is doing, could be a partial answer to the problem. As for the ethnic Russians, their behavior, including the determined centrist voting, mobility and economic activity, presents no danger to the Baltic states. Rather, it shows how Russians might have come to behave if Russia itself had never veered off the path of Westernization, which could have led it to the European Union. They'd still be Russians, but also Europeans. There's nothing Putin's anti-Western project has to offer them. --- Bershidsky is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European politics and business. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. At the meeting, the city leader highlighted the cooperation relations between Vietnam and Cuba. According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong, the HCMC City delegations visit to Cuba in June aimed at implementing agreements which were signed between leaders of the two countries, especially in the fields of health, education and tourism. He believed that Cuban Consul General will continue to be an important bridge in promoting the relationship between HCM City and Cuba. The municipal authorities will create advantages to strengthen the relation between the two sides. As her part, Ms. Indira Lopez Arguelles said that Cuba plans to enhance health cooperation, bringing doctors and medicine to the city. The country will also join biddings and supervise the implementation of its projects as well as promote Cuban tourism in HCM City. By THUY VU Translated by Kim Khanh You know how, after you watch a movie with a surprise ending, you sometimes replay the plot in your head to find the clues you missed the first time around? That's what I've been doing lately with the history of conservatism - a movement I had been part of since my teenage days as a conservative columnist at the University of California at Berkeley in the early 1990s. In the decades since, I have written for numerous conservative publications and served as a foreign policy adviser to three Republican presidential candidates. It would be nice to think that Donald Trump is an anomaly who came out of nowhere to take over an otherwise sane and sober movement. But it just isn't so. Upon closer examination, it's obvious that the history of modern conservative is permeated with racism, extremism, conspiracy-mongering, isolationism and know-nothingism. I disagree with progressives who argue that these disfigurations define the totality of conservatism; conservatives have also espoused high-minded principles that I still believe in, and the bigotry on the right appeared to be ameliorating in recent decades. But there has always been a dark underside to conservatism that I chose for most of my life to ignore. It's amazing how little you can see when your eyes are closed! The ur-conservatives of the 1950s - William F. Buckley Jr., Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and all the rest - were revolting not against a liberal administration but against the moderate conservatism of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ideological conservatives viewed Eisenhower as a sellout; John Birchers thought he was a communist agent. Why the animus against this war hero? Conservatives were furious that Eisenhower made no attempt to liberate the "captive nations" of Eastern Europe or repeal the New Deal, and that he did not support Joseph McCarthy's Red Scare. Worst of all, from the viewpoint of contemporary conservatives, Eisenhower was a moderate on racial issues. He appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren, who presided over the Supreme Court's school desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education, and then sent troops to Little Rock to enforce desegregation. Most Republicans in Congress voted in 1964 and 1965 for landmark civil rights legislation, but not Goldwater. In his 1960 bestseller "The Conscience of a Conservative," Goldwater wrote that "the federal Constitution does not require the states to maintain racially mixed schools." Goldwater was not personally a racist - he had integrated the Arizona Air National Guard - but, like his GOP successors, he was happy to make common cause with racists in order to wrest the South from the Democrats. Goldwater was just as extreme when it came to foreign affairs. He suggested that Americans needed to overcome their "craven fear of death." If the Soviets intervened to crush another uprising in Eastern Europe, like the one in Hungary in 1956, he wanted "to move a highly mobile task force equipped with appropriate nuclear weapons to the scene of the revolt." I used to think Goldwater's reputation as an extremist was a liberal libel. Reading his actual words - something I had not done before - reveals that he really was an extremist. The delegates to the 1964 Republican National Convention who chose Goldwater as their presidential nominee fully endorsed his far-right views. They lustily applauded Goldwater's assertion that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and that "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue," while booing and jeering Nelson Rockefeller when he tried to deliver a more moderate message. Goldwater didn't win in the fall, but his example still inspires conservatives, making clear that extremism is embedded in the DNA of the modern conservative movement, even though it was often not the dominant strand. In 1964, the GOP ceased to be the party of Lincoln and became the party of Southern whites. As I now look back with the clarity of hindsight, I am convinced that coded racial appeals had at least as much, if not more, to do with the electoral success of the modern Republican Party than all of the domestic and foreign policy proposals crafted by well-intentioned analysts like me. This is what liberals have been saying for decades. I never believed them. Now I do, because Trump won by making the racist appeal, hitherto relatively subtle, obvious even to someone such as me who used to be in denial. In fairness, many Republican voters and their leaders, from Wendell Willkie to Mitt Romney, have been a lot more moderate. Their very centrism stoked the fury of some on the right. The pattern was set early on, in 1964, with Phyllis Schlafly's best-selling tract "A Choice Not an Echo." Schlafly was baffled why Republicans candidates had lost presidential elections in 1936, 1940, 1944, 1948 and 1960. "It wasn't any accident," she wrote, ominously. "It was planned that way. In each of their losing presidential years, a small group of secret kingmakers, using hidden persuaders and psychological warfare techniques, manipulated the Republican National Convention to nominate candidates who would sidestep or suppress the key issues." These nefarious "kingmakers" were New York financiers who supposedly favored "a policy of aiding and abetting Red Russia and her satellites." And how did these "kingmakers" manipulate the GOP? By promulgating "false slogans" such as "Politics should stop at the water's edge." In other words, for Schlafly the very idea of bipartisanship was evidence of incipient treason. This was not the ranting of some marginal oddball. Schlafly was one of the leading lights of the right who in the 1970s would lead the successful campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment. Trump's claim that he is going to "Make America Great Again" - after it has been betrayed by disloyal elites - is simply an echo, as it were, of Schlafly's conspiratorial rants. The history of the modern Republican Party is the story of moderates being driven out and conservatives taking over - and then of those conservatives in turn being ousted by those even further to the right. A telling moment came in 1996, when the Republican presidential nominee, Bob Dole, visited an aged Barry Goldwater. Once upon a time, Dole and Goldwater had defined the Republican right, but by 1996, Dole joked, "Barry and I - we've sort of become the liberals." "We're the new liberals of the Republican Party," Goldwater agreed. "Can you imagine that?" The ascendance of extreme views, abetted in recent years by Fox News, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and the tea party movement, increasingly made the House Republican caucus ungovernable. The far-right Freedom Caucus drove House Speaker John Boehner into retirement in 2015. His successor, Paul Ryan, lasted only three years. Ryan's retirement signals the final repudiation of an optimistic, inclusive brand of Reaganesque conservatism focused on enhancing economic opportunity at home and promoting democracy and free trade abroad. The Republican Party will now be defined by Trump's dark, divisive vision, with his depiction of Democrats as America-hating, criminal-coddling traitors, his vilification of the press as the "enemy of the people," and his ugly invective against Mexicans and Muslims. The extremism that many Republicans of goodwill had been trying to push to the fringe of their party is now its governing ideology. That's why I can no longer be a Republican, and in fact wish ill fortune on my former party. I am now convinced that the Republican Party must suffer repeated and devastating defeats beginning in November. It must pay a heavy price for its embrace of white nationalism and know-nothingism. Only if the GOP as it is currently constituted is burned to the ground will there be any chance to build a reasonable center-right party out of the ashes. But that will require undoing the work of decades, not just of the past two years. --- This article is adapted from Max Boot's new book, "The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right." California Bans 'Secret' Election Bots California has signed into law a new piece of legislation which bans the use of undeclared bots during elections. Bots are automated online accounts which can be programmed to find and share information based around key words, themes or people. The new rule also applies at all times to bots used for sales purposes unless they are very clear about their identity. But one expert warned it could prove difficult to enforce. Russian-controlled bots were found to be very active on Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election, the firm has said. They retweeted Donald Trump's tweets 470,000 times, and Hillary Clinton's fewer than 50,000 times, the social network told Congress earlier this year. The new bill will come into force on 1 July 2019 after being signed by California governor Jerry Brown. "This bill would, with certain exceptions, make it unlawful for any person to use a bot to communicate or interact with another person in California online with the intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purpose of knowingly deceiving the person about the content of the communication in order to incentivise a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election," the document reads. "It's a very useful rule but it might become an arms race - can you catch them?" said Prof Ralph Schroeder from the Oxford Internet Institute. "They will have to decide whether to pursue someone, and at that stage it becomes difficult because bots are difficult to trace. "It also raises further questions about whether there are also positive bots and they get caught up in all this." Twitter has also announced an update in its work on its "election integrity" project, ahead of the US mid-term elections in November. These include updating its rules regarding fake accounts and sharing stolen information. It said it would now take into account stock avatar photos and copied profile bios in determining whether an account is genuine. You Might Also Read: For Subscribers How big a problem is violence against referees in high school sports? Verbal abuse is consistently listed a major reason people don't want to officiate youth sports. Is physical violence also a consistent problem? That data was synthesized from reports by plant quarantine divisions at Kim Thanh border gate in Lao Cai province, Thanh Thuy in Ha Giang, Tan Thanh in Lang Son and Mong Cai in Quang Ninh province. The department has recently sent a delegation to survey dragon fruit export to China at norther border gates according to the ministrys requirement, which has been made after information that dragon fruit price in southern and central regions dropped to VND1,000-2,000 a kilogram because Chinese traders have stopped buying. According to Mr. Trung, Chinas dragon fruit consumption demand is very high. Last year, Vietnam exported 1.5 million tons including 1.3 million tons to China. Export volume reached 1.32 million tons in the first nine months this year. Of these, over one million tons were shipped through border gates in Lao Cai, Lang Son and Quang Ninh and 280,000 tons were exported by sea and air in HCMC. Explaining the recent price drop in Binh Thuan, Tien Giang and Long An provinces, Mr. Le Son Tra, head of Plant Quarantine Division of the Plant Protection Department, said that there are many types of dragon fruits with different quality. Those with low quality are paid only few thousands of dong a kilogram while eye catching and good quality type meeting export standards fetches VND20,000-25,000 a kilogram. So the department rejected the information that China has stopped buying dragon fruit, saying the market has purchased up to 90 percent of Vietnamese dragon fruit. Still the agency warned that Chinese Government has tightened import through border gates and improved standards on quarantine and food safety and origin tracking to Vietnamese fruits including dragon fruits. Unofficial cross-border trade will be tightly controlled or even stopped so businesses should take the initiative in shifting to official export ways. The Plant Protection Department admitted that China is now developing dragon fruit farming area in Guangxi and Hainan with the total area of 20,000 hectares. It is expected to reach 30,000 hectares early 2019. In addition, the country has hired land to for dragon fruit plantation in Laos and Cambodia. That will impact Vietnams dragon fruit export in the upcoming time. The agency proposed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to assign Farm Produce Processing and Market Development Department to have detailed market research, collect more specific information about dragon fruit planting and consumption in China to assist Vietnamese farmers and businesses. Moreover, the ministry should work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to boost negotiations with China to increase the number of border gates permitted to import Vietnamese fresh fruits including dragon fruits. At a meeting in Hanoi on October 9, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong required authorized agencies to take the initiative in conducting market research and planning to prevent oversupply, bumper crop and price fall from recurring. By PHUC HAU Translated by Hai Mien Dear Editor: Are readers concerned about the dreadful news that children of immigrants and unaccompanied minors are being detained near our border with Mexico? So am I. But I do have some good local news to report about he care of migrant children. Here in New York state, and locally here in New Paltz, we have excellent child care centers giving the kids of our agricultural workers educational opportunities, along with medical and nutritional support. I visited our local center and felt so encouraged to see all these children, so lively, enjoying themselves. I felt proud that my state supports this program. It was a needed antidote to the scenes of distressed, detained kids in this summers news. I spoke with a staff member who said funding has been flat for many years. This makes cost-of-living raises for staff and expansion of services impossible. She would appreciate the support of community members. Writing to state legislators to ask for increased funding would be much appreciated. In addition, the center always is looking for high-quality outdoor gear such as childrens boots and jackets, childrens books in Spanish, and durable outdoor play toys like shovels, buckets and balls. Donations can be dropped off at the office at 355 Route 32N, near Horsenden Road, in New Paltz. The phone number is (845) 255-7571. For more information about the Agri-Business Child Development Program, go to on.ny.gov/2pKSNXR. For details on the New Paltz center, go to bit.ly/2PsndcV. Despite the fact that we are far away from our southern border, we still can actively support this local initiative. After all, this center takes excellent care of the children of the people who plant and harvest the food we eat. Caroline Paulson New Paltz, N.Y. WEST GOSHEN Christina Sappey, a candidate running for state representative for the 158th Legislative District, waited until the very end of the program to emphatically state what all five candidates at a forum had voiced earlier, to a lesser degree. Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, Sappey, a Democrat running against incumbent Republican Rep. Eric Roe, implored an audience of 150, at St. Pauls Baptist Church, Monday night. The forum was organized and run by the Chester County League of Women Voters and the West Chester Chapter of the NAACP. During the 21/2-hour forum, five Democratic candidates, all of whom are women, answered questions posed by the audience and event organizers about topics including, health care, water quality, literacy, business taxes and incarceration. All the candidates in the county were invited. There will be a similar forum with different speakers at St. Pauls, on Monday, Oct. 15, at 6:30 p.m. Democratic state Rep. Carolyn Comitta is running against Republican Nick Deminski in the 156th District, and told the attentive audience to vote for people who share their values. Your state representative is your last stop from protecting all the people, Comitta said. Elect someone who gets it. Your vote is your voice. Kristine Howard is a Democrat running in the 167th District against incumbent Republican Rep. Duane Milne. We need to elect the right legislators, she said, We need to take back our power from some extremists. This is a really important election. Democrat Danielle Friel Otten is facing off against Republican Rep. Becky Corbin in the 155th District. Educate yourself about who is on the ballot, vote, and talk to your neighbors, Friel Otten said. Sappey said that it all depends on who the public votes for. Its time for us to start electing people who are going to work together, Sappey said. Democrat Chrissy Houlahan is facing off against Republican Greg McCauley to fill the seat vacated by Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello in what she said is the new and improved 6th Congressional District, referencing a state Supreme Court decision to draw new congressional districts after finding the states previous congressional map violated the state constitution due to partisan gerrymandering that favored Republicans over Democrats. The business owner, MIT graduate, former teacher and veteran, listed health care, decent jobs, a great education and a safe planet as her priorities. The candidates were asked about reaching across the aisle. Friel Otten suggested that more women should be elected and that politics is not just a Democratic or Republican issue. We have the opportunity to look each other in the eye, she said. Said Comitta: Its all your perspective. Its about being in this role for the right reason. Sappey was a stay-at-home mom and said becoming a state rep is not her dream job. You have to enter every conversation knowing that you have to give something up, she said. The candidates were asked about incarceration. Howard talked about super long prison sentences. We had more juvenile lifers than any other state, Howard said. We have a very, very harsh justice system in this state and prosecutors hold all the cards. The group of candidates talked about supporting small businesses. Friel Otten said that when manufacturing goes overseas, people on Main Street can no longer exist. The burden of taxes is on the small business owner, Friel Otten said. Close the loopholes (for big businesses) and take the pressure off of small businesses. Sappey is a proponent of businesses. We need to make it more attractive for businesses to come to Pennsylvania, Sappey said. Comitta said that when you buy local, you make an investment in the community. For every dollar you spend in a local business, 68 cents goes back into the community, Comitta said. Education was also discussed. Our municipal government is in a position to choose between the youngest and oldest residents and that is a crime, Friel Otten said. Howard favors fair funding for schools. We know this is the right thing to do, we have the wrong people, Howard said. When asked about the natural gas boom and enacting an extraction tax, Comitta said Pennsylvania is sitting on a gold mine. Im not against people making a lot of money, but it needs to be done safely and cleanly and (any proposed tax) should be used for kids in schools. While Howard said the liquid gases need to be taxed, Friel Otten said that several alternatives should be addressed, such as, creation of siting agencies, oversight of out-of-state companies, and taking any new tax revenue to build renewable energy alternatives. Sappey reiterated the need to vote for reps supporting the Affordable Care Act. Make sure we vote for people who understand how important this issue is the costs are through the roof, Sappey said. The ACA was a good start, but significant barriers to accessibility and affordability still exist. We need to focus on adequate coverage and cost. Healthcare is complicated and expensive for employers, families and individuals, and we need to work toward a system that works for all of us. St. Pauls Pastor Wayne E. Croft Sr. welcomed the guests and said he was pleased that the NAACP and League of Women Voters had crafted a platform enabling voters to make informed decisions. Cassandra Jones, NAACP chair for political action committee, said that the audience was pleased to ask questions, face-to-face. Pamela Gray, president of the Chester County League of Women Voters appreciated the very engaged candidates and the turnout of prospective voters. [October 10, 2018] Helpshift Launches Partner Program Helpshift, the company revolutionizing the customer service industry through its AI-powered conversational messaging platform, today announced the launch of the Helpshift Partner Program. The new program will deliver developer and go-to-market support for organizations that partner with Helpshift to grow their businesses, transform the customer experience, and deliver better conversations to their customers. Helpshift's investment in its partner program will accelerate the company's go-to-market efforts and fuel the company's next stage of growth as it takes on a $350 billion customer service market. To learn more, visit: https://www.helpshift.com/company/helpshift-partner-program. "This new partner program represents a unique opportunity for services companies looking to help their clients transform to support the digital economy," said Chuck Coulson, Vice President of Business Development & Alliances at Helpshift. "With the Helpshift API and other developer tools, we are laying the groundwork for a new ecosystem that will add significant value to the Helpshift platform and, most importantly, to our customers." Over the past six years, Helpshift has redefined the customer experience industry by delivering a world-class customer support platform. The company also recently launched SensAI, the first artificial intelligence natively built for customer service. Using SensAI, brands can automate the support process to make service interactions more human-while reducing time to resolution, optimizing operations, lowering overhead in the contact center, and improving day-to-day life for agents. The vast majority of existing Helpshift customers have been able to self-deploy with the guidance of Helpshift's customer success department. As Helpshift has grown and expanded, however, the needs of the company's customer base have diversified. Through the new partner program, Helpshift customers now have access to additional services, including: Migration Implementation Change management Integration Other value-added services Helpshift services partners include 5CA, Goodbay Technologies, ModSquad and Keywords Solutions. These partners provide support to Helpshift customers who want to implement the Helpshift platform but do not have the development resources or domain expertise to get started on their own. These partners are staffed to provide the trained support agents brands require to implement a business process outsourcing (BPO) model. "5CA chose to partner with Helpshift because they make it easy to deliver quality conversational support," said Peter Gerson, Vice President of Sales and Business Development for 5CA. "Helpshift's messaging-first approach and focus on AI and automation capabilities really help drive efficiency without compromising the quality of the customer experience. We've enjoyed working with Helpshift these past few years and look forward to an even closer relationship in the years to come." Helpshift technology partners include Directly, Limitless, Playvox and Unbabel. These partners provide extensions to the Helpshift platform or integration to other systems, such as CRM, order management, and telephony platforms. "From the very beginning, we loved the unique value proposition Helpshift offers customers," said Edmund Ovington, the VP of Global Alliances for Unbabel. "We had some things in common, including the gaming and retail verticals and the shift towards messaging in customer service. We knew Helpshift was the right partner for us, and we are excited to join forces." About Helpshift Helpshift bridges the disconnect between conventional customer service channels-like email and phone support-and a growing consumer base that does more on mobile phones and has a strong preference for messaging as the primary mode of communication. Through Helpshift's AI-powered support platform, companies can resolve issues more efficiently, boosting customer satisfaction in the process. Companies such as Xfinity Home, Microsoft, Virgin Media, Zynga (News - Alert) , Viacom, and hundreds of other leading brands use the Helpshift platform to provide messaging-first customer support. Helpshift is installed on two billion devices worldwide and serves more than 820 million active consumers monthly. To learn more about Helpshift, visit helpshift.com and follow @helpshift on Twitter (News - Alert) . View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005284/en/ [ Back To SIP Trunking Home's Homepage ] COATESVILLE Gov. Tom Wolf is coming to Coatesville Sunday to support Democratic state representative candidate Dan Williams. Williams was recently endorsed by the governor and former President Barack Obama. He adds these to his endorsements by state Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), American Federation of Teachers, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood, National Association of Social Workers, and Pennsylvania American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). These are in addition to the many endorsements he has received from other organizations, local elected officials, area Democratic organizations and many prominent leaders in the community. Wolf will be in Coatesville Sunday afternoon to support Williams and other Chester County Democratic candidates. He will be visiting Williams church, New Life in Christ Fellowship, 1 South 5th Avenue, Coatesville, PA 19320; at 4 p.m. All are welcome to attend, but admission and seating will be limited and first come, first seated. Dan is a true advocate for working families and the constituents of the 74th District, said Wolf, who is running for re-election to his second term as governor. Harrisburg politicians are stuck in their ways and Dan Williams is a fresh voice in politics that will bring the kind of change we need to benefit seniors and the working people of Pennsylvania. Williams, known to many as Pastor Dan, has been Senior Pastor at New Life in Christ Fellowship in Coatesville for more than 28 years. Williams supports Wolfs agenda of creating jobs that pay sustainable salaries, schools that provide an equitable education and government that works. His legislative priorities also include holding the line on increasing property taxes, fighting the opioid crisis and rebuilding our failing infrastructure. I appreciate the endorsements of Governor Wolf, President Obama, and so many others, Williams said. Doing what is right for all raises the tide for each of us and leads to prosperity for everyone. Im a strong advocate for working families and senior citizens because I fully understand the devastating consequences of skyrocketing property taxes, job loss, wage disparity and living on a fixed income, explained Williams who describes himself as a professor, pastor, father and also a taxpayer and a citizen. Williams is the Democratic candidate for the 74th House District an open seat with the retirement of Republican Rep. Harry Lewis Jr. Amber Little-Turner is the Republican candidate for the 74th District. She previously worked as a constituent outreach specialist for Lewis. The 74th District includes the municipalities of Caln, East Caln, Coatesville, South Coatesville, Downingtown, East Fallowfield, Modena, Parkesburg, Sadsbury and Valley Township. More information about Williams, his endorsements and views on issues may be found at www.citizensforDanWilliams.com. Six months ago, Britain rolled out the red carpet in fine style for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the man who is the heir apparent in Saudi Arabia. He was given lunch with the Queen, enjoyed an earnest discussion about interfaith relations at Lambeth Palace with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and was hosted for dinner by the Prince of Wales. There were also long, detailed and doubtless highly profitable talks with Theresa May about British trade with Saudi Arabia, which reportedly established a 65billion trade and investment target, some of which would involve lucrative arms sales to the desert kingdom. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ,left, met the Queen, right, at Buckingham Palace during a private audience in March Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, pictured, is believed to have been murdered in gruesome circumstances by thugs employed by the Saudi monarchy Members of the Turkish-Arab journalist association, pictured, hold a demonstration outside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul to protest against the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi Earlier, the PM had said in the Commons that the link that we have with Saudi Arabia is historic, it is an important one, and it has saved the lives of potentially hundreds of people in this country. People who should have known much better hailed Bin Salman, who is only 33, as a great reformer whose mission is to drag his country into the 21st century. A hugely expensive PR campaign highlighted the fact that, thanks to him, Saudi cinemas are opening after decades of closure, while women are at last being allowed heresy of heresies to drive a car. But there has always been a dark side to this Saudi Crown Prince, and his Western admirers had absolutely no excuse not to know this. As he sat down with Mrs May, hundreds of his political opponents some of whom had been tortured in gruesome ways languished in Saudi jails. Meanwhile, the Saudi bombing campaign in neighbouring Yemen as part of a war against rebel forces seeking to overthrow the Yemeni government to which it is allied continued to claim thousands of innocent lives in what the United Nations has called the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, many very troubling question marks continue to surround the long Saudi relationship with the Al Qaeda terror group. But it has taken the disappearance of the exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to bring home the moral bankruptcy of the Bin Salman regime. This is because Mr Khashoggi, who is feared to have been murdered in gruesome circumstances by thugs employed by the Saudi monarchy, is known to many in the West. Indeed, he was here in Britain only a fortnight ago for a public meeting in which he criticised Saudi plans for a so-called deal of the century to undertake massive new construction programmes. Jamal Khashoggi, a gentle bear of a man, was a journalist of undoubted integrity who illuminated any conversation he took part in. He was no deranged revolutionary. He was not even against the House of Saud, the dynasty which British agents put on the throne almost 100 years ago. He supported gradual reform. For example, he supported capital punishment and, in its early stages at least, the Saudi offensive in Yemen. Though he lived in exile, he had close connections with the Saudi royal family. He used to be an adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal, ex-director of Saudi intelligence. It may be, says one source quietly, that he knew too much. The facts, according to Turkish police, are grim. Mr Khashoggi was planning to marry his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz. However, Turkish law does not allow polygamy. So he needed to get papers from Saudi Arabia proving that he was divorced from his first wife. Hence his visit last Tuesday to the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. But what should have been a routine event swiftly turned to horror. Turkish police believe that a 15-strong hit squad had been sent specially from Saudi Arabia. Flight records show that two Saudi planes arrived in Istanbul last Tuesday, and departed separately later the same day, hours after the journalist went missing. The suspicion now is that Mr Khashoggi was tortured, murdered, and then dismembered. In a further ghastly detail, Turkish police believe everything was videotaped by the assassins to prove that the mission was accomplished. Khashoggi appeared on CCTV entering the consulate, but he never emerged. Nothing has been seen or heard of him since, though Turkish officials say a convoy of vehicles left the consulate around two hours after Mr Khashoggi arrived there. Lets hope and pray that these horrifying reports, denied by the Saudi Crown Prince, are false. Certainly none of this has been confirmed by Turkish President Erdogan, who was a personal friend of Mr Khashoggi. Of course Erdogan has very strong reasons for remaining silent. His country faces a catastrophic financial crisis, and Saudi Arabian loans are his best hope of solvency. In Britain, Jeremy Hunt has spoken forcefully to the Saudi ambassador and the countrys foreign minister, and Downing Street says its working urgently to establish the facts. However weve still heard nothing from Prime Minister Theresa May herself. She, too, may have her reasons for remaining silent. But that silence is in danger of looking like hypocrisy. Britain rightly created an international outcry when two trained assassins from the GRU (Russian military intelligence) secretly entered Britain on a mission to murder former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. But a week after 15 Saudi goons are thought to have secretly flown into a Nato country to kill a well-known Saudi journalist, we surely should have heard from the Prime Minister on this serious matter. Britain claims to stand up for human rights and decency. We must show that we do. If we are only too happy to express outrage when one of our stated enemies such as Russia commits an atrocity, we must demonstrate robustly that we are not looking the other way when an ally such as Saudi Arabia does the same thing or worse. Otherwise it is double standards. The shocking truth is that the Saudis just like the Russians have a long history of abducting and silencing critics of the Riyadh regime. Fifteen years ago, Prince Sultan Bin Turki was abducted from Geneva after calling for political reform in his native Saudi Arabia. At least he wasnt killed, and later he was able to flee back to Europe. Others have not been so lucky. One dissident Saudi prince, Saud Bin Saif al-Nasr, vanished three years ago and like Mr Khashoggi has not been seen since. It is thought he may have been tricked into boarding a flight back to Saudi. Even the heroine of the campaign for women to drive, Loujain al Hathloul, was was arrested in May this year and imprisoned on charges that she has attempted to destabilise the Saudi kingdom. Till now, Britain has kept quiet about such cases, and our reticence is understandable. Tens of thousands of highly skilled British jobs depend on our arms trade with Saudi Arabia. British prime ministers feel they have a duty to preserve such jobs, even if it means effectively condoning terrible human rights abuses. And of course we rely on Saudi Arabia for oil. For the United States, the relationship with the Saudis is even more intimate. Mr Khashoggis sharp criticisms of the House of Sauds humiliating dependence on President Trump may be one reason he incurred the enmity of the regime. But we increasingly live in a world dominated by repressive regimes that dont care a damn for the truth, and will murder citizens at will in order to suppress criticism. Indeed, this has been a terrifying week for free speech. The head of Interpol was detained and forced to resign by the increasingly corrupt and autocratic Chinese regime. In Bulgaria, the investigative journalist Viktoria Marinova was raped and murdered. Jamal Khashoggi has vanished, presumed dead and Britain has, it seems, nothing to say. Theresa May may have calculated that, post-Brexit, our only hope is to do business with any regime, no matter how cruel. Its understandable, and some might argue patrotic. But arent we supposed to be better than that? At the very least it is time that Theresa May publicly asked one simple question of the Saudi Crown Prince: whats happened to Jamal Khashoggi? Much of what is holding up Brexit now is personal political vanity. You could see it on display in the Commons yesterday. We are at the late point and yes, folks, this miserable chapter in the British Establishments annals really will soon end where these miserable creatures, these grotesques, these wriggling puff adders, are looking for their personal endgames, trying to work out how they can square the final exit agreement with their past positions. How can I survive? How can I claim some credit? How can I say, See, I was right all along? For politicians it is the desire to get one over opponents in the House and enemies in their own parties. Dominic Raab can speak sentences whole paragraphs that sound like the English language but are entirely incomprehensible to anyone but a Whitehall policy expert For the Civil Service it is the hope of retaining enough complicated legal and customs arrangements which will mean they can still say no to citizens. Therein lies their power. Late in the afternoon the Commons Chamber got round to a Government statement on Brexits latest twists. This could have happened much earlier had Speaker Bercow not granted three urgent questions of a comparatively unpressing nature. First day back after a break, the Squeaker is always like this. He likes to reassert himself. Small children, when spoilt, often behave thus. Theresa May, who might normally have been expected to give the statement, did not attend the session. Hiding behind the sofa at No 10, perhaps. Where is she? demanded Labour. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab came along instead. Mr Raab, not a bad bloke, is a proper Leaver and a lawyer. He can speak sentences whole paragraphs that sound like the English language but are entirely incomprehensible to anyone but a Whitehall policy expert. Yesterday, in addition to that sort of legalistic and technical jargon, he kept saying that the European Union needed to match the ambition and pragmatism we have shown. The May regime has shown pragmatism? Ha! Good one. Madam Glumbucket has been told by Brussels that her Chequers plan is a non-starter. Same message from the Tory backbenches. Ditto the Labour party. Yet still she hawks it around, a dairymaid hoping to sell curdled cream. Not so much pragmatic as deranged, Boris Johnson might say. Boris was in the Chamber yesterday but did not try to catch the Speakers eye. Late in the afternoon the Commons Chamber got round to a Government statement on Brexits latest twists. This could have happened much earlier had Speaker Bercow not granted three urgent questions of a comparatively unpressing nature Sarah Wollaston (Con, Totnes) was still in favour of Chequers, though. She also wanted another referendum. You might want to put a fiver on the Tories losing Totnes at the next election if she is still their candidate. Another Tory Remainer, Kenneth Clarke (Rushcliffe), was first to be called. That is the prerogative of the Father of the House but Mr Clarke had not been present for the start of the statement and the protocols of the Chamber are that you should not contribute if you missed the start. Bercow always ignores that for Mr Clarke. The two of them go out for curry once a month at the Kennington Tandoori, see? Mr Clarke had nodded lustily when Labours Sir Keir Starmer had suggested that Mrs May could try to keep us all in the customs union. Sir Keir, who focused on matters so dustily procedural, they could have done with a squirt of Pledge, accused Mr Raab of reading prepared remarks. Er, he read this accusation off a script of his own. Hilary Benn (Lab), who chairs the Brexit select committee, used his question to say that his committee had been right all along about some detail of the arguments. Jeremy Corbyn was in attendance in a smart new green suit. One of his shoelaces was undone. Pity Mr Corbyns poor image polishers. In other news, Speaker Bercow told MPs they should help the parliamentary security staff by wearing their passes at all times. Before making this announcement, Bercow who almost never wears his pass put his own round his neck, employing a lanyard that was rainbow-coloured to show his support for gay people. Look at me. Aint I a livin Virtue? PHILIP FLOWER, the former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent As a police officer who served for 32 years, latterly as a Chief Superintendent, it saddens me to say it, but the former Acting Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Craig Mackey, is guilty of cowardice. Of course, I cannot know what was in his mind when, on March 22 last year, he watched from his locked car as one of his officers, PC Keith Palmer, was stabbed to death by the terrorist Khalid Masood at the gates of the Palace of Westminster. What I do know is that, if Id still been in the Met, Sir Craigs conduct would mean that I would never want to serve under him. Many current and former police officers, of all rank and file, feel the same way. They took to the airwaves and social media platforms yesterday to express their disbelief at his failure to act. During my policing career, I worked closely with four commissioners Paul Condon, John Stevens, Ian Blair and Bernard Hogan-Howe. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that in the same situation they would have got out of the car and gone to the aid of a colleague. Yes, Sir Craig, when giving evidence to the inquest into the Westminster terror attack, said it was his instinct to get out of the car but that it was not the right call because he was in shirt sleeves with no protective equipment after a meeting with the policing minister at the Commons. Danger He said that leaving the scene in New Palace Yard, as one of the police constables present insisted, was the right thing to do. Thats when I thought: I have got to start putting everything we need in place. Weve got no protective equipment, no radio, Ive got two colleagues with me who are traumatised, so we moved out. Ex-Acting Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Craig Mackey (above) is guilty of cowardice Well, I have news for Sir Craig. Senior police officers do not lead from behind a desk, or hurry back to it, as he did, to take control. They know they cannot ask their officers to be visible in their community and when necessary risk their lives to protect the public if they are not willing to do so themselves. After all, that is exactly what we swore to do in the oath we all took on entering the police service. Thats what young PC Charlie Guenigault did not hesitate to do during the London Bridge terror attack three months later. The 26-year-old had been having an after-work drink when three terrorists struck, targeting those enjoying the citys vibrant nightlife. He was knifed five times when he tried to tackle one of them Afterwards, the Mets then Deputy Commissioner, one Craig Mackey, said: For PC Charlie Guenigault there was no such thing as off duty. That summer night in Borough Market, Charlie ran towards the terrorists, putting himself in danger to protect the public. Without thought for himself, his bravery undoubtedly helped others. Wayne Marques, an officer with the British Transport Police, acted with similar courage that night, too. He fought off the terrorists with a baton and was stabbed multiple times. PC Keith Palmer (pictured) was a true hero, a man doing his job and fulfilling his duty, like so many coppers before and since Putting yourself on the line is part of a police officers daily work, and I have had the honour of working with numerous brave officers. Ive led teams arresting dangerous murderers and armed criminals and have always been proud of the way they carried out their work. On one occasion, we went to arrest a man who, just an hour before, had murdered someone, stabbed several others and fled to his home. The first person through the door was a petite female officer from the Mets Territorial Support Group. As we entered, a mountain of a man appeared at the top of the stairs. Did the officer flinch? No, she carried on up the stairs, confronted him, arrested him and took possession of his knife. I, too, have grappled in the street with a knife-wielding thief. In those days, we didnt have the police protection equipment, I was in my shirtsleeves. You just act on instinct. Obligation Fortunately for me, a colleague who had been forced to the ground managed to get up and kick the knife out of my assailants hand. Thankfully, we all went home that night. PC Keith Palmer did not go home. Keith was a true hero, a man doing his job and fulfilling his duty, like so many coppers before and since. He did not flinch, he did not turn and run. He stood his ground in front of the Mother of Parliaments. And he paid the ultimate price. When policemen and women are attacked, first and foremost they rely on one another. They expect they know that their colleagues will come to their aid. That knowledge, the mutual reliance, is the glue that helps bind them all together. It is part and parcel of the honour of holding the office of constable. And the higher up you are in the hierarchy, the greater is that obligation. Being a senior officer is about doing the right thing, being seen to do the right thing, about ensuring the policies and resources match the foreseeable risks that your officers are likely to face. It also means leading from the front. Re-reading Sir Craigs account at the inquest yesterday, of the horror and tragedy unfolding before his eyes, serving and former officers like me wonder why he didnt instruct his driver to use his car in all likelihood armour-plated to run Khalid Masood down? Shame Or open the car window and throw something at the assailant to distract him, just something, anything, that might have bought PC Keith Palmer time or brought others to his aid? There is always something that you can do. In a statement yesterday, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police explained that an operational decision had been made with a police officer at the scene that Sir Craig should not get out and that he and the two civilian police staff should leave immediately. There were officers present with the necessary skills to neutralise the threat and administer first aid, the spokesman added. A justification of sorts but I am still left wondering why he simply did not over-rule other officers? He was the Acting Met boss. He simply cannot hide behind this statement in my view. Or make the excuse that he didnt have a radio. What difference would that have made? If I was being kind, Id put it down to Sir Craigs lack of experience. He arrived at the Met in 2012 and may have reached the top but for almost 20 years he worked outside London in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Cumbria. There is very little on the front line there to compare with the violent situations regularly seen in the capital, let alone random terror attacks. Sir Craig, who reverted to the role of deputy commissioner in April last year, is retiring in December. Perhaps we should just leave him to live with his shame. Call me old school, but Id prefer it if he took some responsibility. If I was him, Id hand back my knighthood. The grand title and all it implies doesnt really fit with his actions the day a brave policeman was murdered by a terrorist. Women who were in their modelling heyday in the Nineties have been sweeping up and down the catwalk over the past month. This triumphal march of the middle-aged into fashion has been a bit of a spectacle to witness. Women in their 40s and 50s have been here, there and all over the place. Its been like playing supermodel bingo: Stella Tennant here, Shalom Harlow and Carla Bruni there, Eva Herzigova, Kristen McMenamy, Isabella Rossellini and lots more familiar faces last seen a decade ago or more. Then there was me. So utterly unfamous as to count as one of the newest old faces ever, Ive ended up appearing in designer Antonio Berardis lookbook for spring 2019. It wasnt on a catwalk. I was just standing there, in front of the camera, feeling self-conscious. But representing, I hope, just a small part of a revolution in broadening attitudes that needs to happen. Fashion journalist abd critic Sarah Mower (pictured) reluctantly made her mid-life modelling debut after being inspired by the wave of middle-aged models on catwalks this season That didnt stop my reaction when I read the email from Antonio requesting my help: a large yelp of Nooo way! I am not, and have never wanted to be, a model. Im a fashion journalist, chief critic for voguerunway.com. My job is writing about fashion as an observer, looking at models and working out how to describe ways in which their clothes are relevant or not. I began as the supes were being invented oh, the glory days of Linda, Christy, Cindy and Naomi! Besides, I come from a generation, pre-selfie, which was brought up being actively discouraged from vanity. I had one of those mothers who, upon hearing me fret over wearing some ghastly Laura Ashley lookalike dress to a party, said: Will you just stop fussing, dear? Nobodys going to look at you. There are barely any photos of me as a teenager. I hid from cameras. Possibly it was an act of revenge that I ended up with a career in fashion. But always from the position of fly on the wall. Ive often felt Id rather go about my work wearing an exquisitely tailored cloak of invisibility. Something else kicked in when Berardi asked me to join his shoot. Antonio said he was getting together a bunch of professional women he admires, whove been around the business since he was a young designer. Alison Loehnis, the 47-year-old president of Net-a-Porter, appears too in the photo shoot and can be seen in a beaded wide-leg jumpsuit Ive known him since he was the young British-Sicilian on the block in London in the Nineties; the same sort of Central Saint Martins graduate generation as Alexander McQueen. He can really cut red carpet dresses as well as tailoring and hes one of those male designers who loves women. Many designers pay lip service to that sentiment, but he really gets it. This time, though, Berardi was going to quit the catwalk and standard models, and show how his repertoire is designed to fit all kinds of characters and ages.It was going to be a kind of women-together community project. Ok then. I canvassed the opinion of colleagues. One has to be very careful not to cross lines in journalism. Go on, they said. I wasnt going to be paid and I wasnt going to review Berardis collection. So there I was, off to the apartment in Milan where Berardi now works. In a bit of a state. As for me and my accidental day as a model well , it was fun. Truth be told, Ive never been at all afraid of getting older. I associate it with coming into your own To be honest, part of me was relying on a get-out-of-jail card. Ha! Surely nothing was going to fit when I turned up. Im a good size 12. I dont do short. I never wear dresses. I cant wear anything see-through. I imagined ending up having a nice cappuccino and watching everyone else have a lovely time. Choose anything you want!, Antonio said, gesturing around a roomful of clothes. There was only one choice for me a blue brocade jacket and wide-legged black trousers of the sort which has become my personal uniform. Only this jacket was a super-snazzy evening version with undertones of Prince. Id love to wear that, and I know a lot of trouser-and-jacket type women who would, too. Even better or worse, I didnt know which Berardi had sizes to fit. The ministrations of a talented, low-intervention hair and make-up team were performed another terror was overcome. Then I was on, in front of a camera wielded praise be by a woman photographer. It was as quick and as irrevocable as that. Next on was Anna Dello Russo, another friend of Berardi. I daresay in her late 40s. Anna is the opposite of me; an Italian street-style star who only wears evening dress in the day. She looked her extreme, fabulous self in an orange ruffled up-to-here frock. Anna Dello Russo, in her late 40s, also took part. She is an Italian street-style star who only wears evening dress in the day. She looked her extreme, fabulous self in an orange ruffled up-to-here frock Alison Loehnis, the 47-year-old president of Net-a-Porter, appears too in a beaded wide-leg jumpsuit. In fact there were several of my peers, all of us different in shape and style. We were mixed alongside some regular, young models too. And isnt this what fashion should be? With something for everyone, a cross-generational spectrum in which everyone can find herself? As for me and my accidental day as a model well , it was fun. Truth be told, Ive never been at all afraid of getting older. I associate it with coming into your own, leaving behind the mass of insecurities most of us are in our teens and 20s. When I heard the wild applause and saw the expressions of quiet satisfaction that accompanied the comeback of all those stars of the catwalk this season, I thought: maybe a new attitude really is coming. Its about time. How great if this seasons middle-age wave cements a healthy change. Personally, I dont want to work in an industry that excludes people, on any count. Now were in, were in. Four months into her pregnancy, 18-year-old Brianna Rawlings was given the devastating news. She had an aggressive form of leukaemia, and so she had an awful choice to make: go ahead with the delivery of her child and thereby put her own life in peril, or terminate the pregnancy and boost her own chances of survival. The teenager, from Colyton in western Sydney, made her decision and despite battling excruciating body aches and fevers, she put her baby's welfare before her own. In choosing to proceed with the birth and give her son a fighting chance, she effectively halved her own chances of survival, as she would need to postpone urgent treatment of her own illness. Brianna Rawlings from Colyton in Sydney found out she had leukaemia when she was four months pregnant Ms Rawlings was given the heart breaking decision of either terminating the pregnancy, which would increase her own chances of survival, or carrying the baby to term 'My decision was about Kyden and Kyden only, he was my son and my little miracle,' she told FEMAIL. A miracle seemed to be what was required when the mother-to-be contracted an infection that had the potential to be passed on to Kyden, forcing an emergency caesarean three months early. For 12 days the 'beautiful little miracle' battled to cling onto life, before he died. 'It's been very hard, long, exhausting and painful. Even though Kyden is no longer with us he gave me the strength to go on and beat this,' she said. 'My decision was about Kyden and Kyden only, he was my son and my little miracle,' she told FEMAIL 'I was very happy and excited to be a mother - all I've ever wanted to have is a family. I was also scared of what the world had in stall for me.' Brianna, pictured with the baby's father Jackson, contracted an infection that could have passed on to Kyden Sadly when Ms Rawlings had just started enjoying the pregnancy she ended up being bedridden, suffering excruciating pain. 'Test after test finally revealed an infection somewhere in my body,' she said. 'The doctors didn't allow me to leave until they found the reason behind the pain and sickness. 'They checked my heart and all other organs but came up empty so they suggested a bone marrow biopsy. This was how they diagnosed leukaemia, discovering her body had been fighting against itself for months. NK Leukaemia is a rare and aggressive blood disease that was preventing her bone marrow from being able to produce healthy blood cells. NK Leukaemia is a rare and aggressive blood disease that was preventing her bone marrow from being able to produce healthy blood cells What is leukaemia? Leukaemia is a group of cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal white blood cells. These white blood cells are not fully developed and are called blasts or leukaemia cells. Aggressive NK-cell leukaemia is a disease with an aggressive, systemic proliferation of natural killer cells (NK cells) and a rapidly declining clinical course. It is also called aggressive NK-cell lymphoma. Source: Wikipedia Advertisement 'After it was explained to me I was very surprised and angry as I didn't expect it to be this serious, I just thought it was just morning sickness,' she explained. Despite the emergency caesarean due to a blood infection, Ms Rawlings said her son came out breathing on his own and was even crying. 'Those 12 days I was able to spend with my baby boy Kyden, holding him, counting his toes and fingers and talking to him like I would when he was in my tummy. They were just so special, they were the best 12 days of my life!' she said. 'Then the most shocking and heart-breaking news was when he picked up a stomach infection and within hours we were told to say our goodbyes. 'This infection took his precious life and our son grew his wings.' 'Those 12 days I was able to spend with my baby boy Kyden, holding him and talking to him like I would when he was in my tummy were the best 12 days of my life!' She said Ms Rawlings said she was told within hours of him picking up an infection that she would have to say goodbye After a heartbreaking few months Ms Rawlings said her health is now 'better than it's ever been'. Despite the trauma, she is able to leave hospital for day trips, her blood levels are on the rise and she is working hard to get her leg muscles working again. Now she aims to finish chemotherapy and keep her blood count up so she can have a successful transplant. 'I want to beat this horrible disease. I believe I can do this and I made a promise to my son,' she said. After a heartbreaking few months Ms Rawlings said her health is now 'better than it's ever been' 'I'm hoping to spend Christmas with my family and animals and spoil everyone with love and food.' Ms Rawlings case is so rare and aggressive she's been studied by students and doctors all over the world, which she enjoys being a part of. 'My case can hopefully help someone else's in the future. I'm telling my story so it gives hope to others out there who are fighting their own battles,' she said. 'To anyone out there fighting anything like this and is reading this, keep positive, stay strong, and surround yourself with supportive people, keep away from any kind of negativity, cherish the good days and fight the bad days. 'Be grateful of what you have in front of you.' The family of Ms Rawlings set up a Go Fund Me page to help with medical costs. Millions of Australians have just lost an hour of sleep thanks to daylight saving. And while turning the clock forward by one hour doesn't seem like a big deal, try telling that to your body. According to Yahoo, research has found the introduction of daylight saving can increase your appetite, reduce exercise endurance and decrease productivity. In some cases people have consumed 200 more calories the day after the clocks changed. Although losing an hour doesn't sound like a lot of lost time, research has proven otherwise Social scientist Silvia Damiano told Yahoo Lifestyle that she often sees the negative impact on clients when they don't meet the minimum of seven hours sleep. '[If] the five stages of sleep are not completed, it may translate into feelings of tiredness in the morning and being less sharp and ready to meet the challenges of the day,' she said. 'They may not be energised and happy about what they need to do and when they arrive at work they do not have the optimal mood necessary to influence and lead others towards achieving the best results.' Research has shown that it can cause an increased appetite, reduced exercise endurance and decreased productivity Daylight saving kicked in on October 7 in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The change in time can disrupt people's circadian rhythm and their internal clock. President of the Australasian Sleep Association Dr Peter Eastwood explained that our internal body clocks are synchronised to light. 'Light is the biggest stimulus to keep our body clock online. So if all of a sudden you change the clock outside of that and the timing between light and dark, sleep and wake changes, your body needs time to adjust,' he said. This change in time has an effect on people's circadian rhythm and can disrupt the internal clock Previously Daily Mail reported how people who lose 30 minutes of sleep every night during the week are 72 per cent more likely to become obese and suffer related health problems. And for those who struggle with poor sleep over six months, there is a significant increase in insulin resistance - which can lead to a pre-diabetic state and a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Diabetes carries an increased risk of blindness, heart attacks and strokes as well as damage to the nerves and blood vessels. Prof Shahrad Taheri, from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, said: 'We found that as little as 30 minutes a day sleep debt can have significant effects on obesity and insulin resistance.' Prince Edward and his wife Sophie will play a major role in the forthcoming Dutch royal visit - as Meghan is set to miss out on her first state banquet. Edward, 54, and Sophie, 53, will be accompanying Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands throughout the second day of their visit to London later this month. The royals will attend a breakfast with business representatives at Mansion House on October 23, before visiting HMS Belfast and Pop Brixton. Senior royals are also expected to attend a Buckingham Palace state banquet hosted by the Queen the previous night, although Prince Harry and Meghan will not be present as they will be on their tour Down Under. Prince Edward and his wife Sophie (pictured at a dinner in Paris in October) will play a major role in the forthcoming Dutch royal visit Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (pictured at the Hague for the annual opening of parliament last month) will enjoy two-day visit to the UK this month Maxima, 47, and Willem-Alexander, 51, will be welcomed by Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall, before enjoying a reception with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. The Dutch royals will also enjoy afternoon tea with Charles and Camilla at Clarence House, before a glittering state banquet in the evening. The following day, they will be accompanied by Edward and Sophie for a series of engagements. This is the first time in recent years the royal couple have played such a large role in an official state visit. Meghan (pictured at the Royal Academy of Arts last month) will miss out on her first Buckingham Palace state banquet as she will be in Fiji with Prince Harry During Queen Letizia and King Felipe's state visit last summer, Prince Harry joined the Spanish royals at one engagement, while the Duke of York also accompanied the couple. Royal biographer Dickie Arbiter suggested the decision to involve Sophie and Edward was not unusual, adding it may simply have been down to scheduling. He told FEMAIL: 'They've done previous state visits. Edward and Sophie are obviously happy to do it.' Dickie said other royals may have been unavailable, explaining 'engagements are planned long in advance, before state visits are announced.' Harry and Meghan will be in Fiji during the state visit, as part of their first major overseas tour as husband and wife. In the wake of the interschool fighting and messages on social media inciting violence, there is a real need for calm, cool heads and clear thinking. The government went some way towards achieving calm by simply immediately closing down the schools involved last week for the safety of all concerned. However that was also the time for some real thinking to be done about long term and lasting solutions for the few who have once again ignited these fights and rivalries. And that is what we should remember, the trouble makers are not the majority. This was not schools fighting each other en masse. Deduct those students who simply got swept up as they perhaps foolishly went to try to pull their friends away or protect them and the real protagonists were probably even fewer. And even if you add in the mob rule behavior of onlookers who got carried away with the excitement of it all, the original numbers are still relatively small. What was clear though, was that once again, it was Avele College students who were involved. Sadly over the past few years, they have almost always been the one common factor in interschool fights. Why? We need to know the answer to that question, and others. Perhaps it was inevitable that the school closure was followed by threats and knee jerk reactions from the Prime Minister and others wanting to attribute the blame and restore order in a sometimes brutal scatter-gun approach. It was understandable perhaps, when we had such a high-powered group of visitors attending a financial meeting for the week. Amongst all the rhetoric, was talk of restoring corporal punishment in schools. Singled out in the blame game, fingers were pointed at principals, teachers, parents, social media, the urban drift, the breakdown of traditional ways, the breakdown of society in general the list went on. What has never been made clear by this and former investigations, is the answer to the why question? Why did the fights start? A letter this week from one of our readers who did not wish to be named, recounted a previous incident about six years ago in the town area and what had ensued. Those involved at that time, were Don Bosco, St Josephs and yes, Avele College students. Despite videos and photos and statement taken to the police which showed the perpetrators who had smashed shop windows, there were no meaningful or practical consequences which addressed the damage they had caused. No monetary compensation for the damage, no offers of work or labour and no apology to those affected. Instead, the students made a showy, public and obviously meaningless apology to the Head of State and the Prime Minister. Again, why? And in spite of the written, visual and oral evidence, all charges were dropped. So what was learned? Nothing. Meanwhile the blame game does not solve problems and inspirational speeches and well meaning advice by former pupils who are much older, do not always touch the hearts and minds of the young. Few of us are advocates for corporal punishment even if there is a sentence in the Bible that can be interpreted as a reason for beating someone else. Meanwhile all we can hope is that decisions taken by those in positions of authority take into account the majority of the many students who have been let down by the few. Advertisement Australian firefighters have stripped off and posed with baby animals as part of the brand new 2019 Australian Firefighters Calendar. The release coincides with the project's recent announcement of a search for the world's sexiest, fittest firemen to join them on the Gold Coast in April 2019 for the making of the very first international edition of the iconic calendar. Firefighters from far flung corners of the globe will be vying for 11 coveted spots, with the aim of fundraising for animal charities worldwide. The Australian Firefighters Calendar has released a selection of smoking images from its 2019 collection The calendar is now searching for the world's sexiest, fittest firemen to feature in the next edition 'With the explosion of [international] interest in the calendar it only made sense for us to invite the hottest firefighters from around the globe here to the beautiful Gold Coast to be part of [this debut event],' Director of the Australian Firefighters Calendar David Rogers said. But a diverse range of nationalities is not the only addition to the latest calendar collection. As well as the chosen 11 men, a group of cats have already been photographed for one of the themed booklets. This decision comes on the back of last year's viral sensation which emerged when firefighters were pictured holding kittens. The Australian project is widely regarded as the 'world's most loved calendar' The 2019 Cat Calendar will join the popular Dog, Animal and Hot Firefighter editions The proceeds of the calendar collection will go to a variety of global animal rescue charities Director of the Calendar David Rodgers said the biggest interest in the project comes from Asia, Spain, Portugal, Mexico and South America The 2019 Cat Calendar joins the hugely popular Dog, Animal and Hot Firefighter editions. In 2017, the initiative recorded a social media reach of 2.7 billion people worldwide leading many to christen the project the 'world's most loved calendar'. 'The biggest interest in this calendar seems to be coming from Asia, Spain, Portugal, Mexico and South America,' Mr Rodgers said. 'We are very excited to work with local Australian as well as international animal shelters. 'We felt it was important to use the calendar's social media presence to shine a light on the incredible work [the emergency services and animal rescue organisations] do even a small donation can make an enormous difference.' 2019 marks the first edition of the calendar that will feature international emergency services Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, has voiced support for the project and it's animal causes Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, voiced her support for this year's project. 'We are so excited to be involved with the 2019 Australian Firefighters Calendar again,' she said. 'The funds they raise help to save and protect Australian native wildlife around the country; they really are wildlife warriors!' The Australian Firefighters Calendar was established in 1993 to support the Children's Hospital Foundation Over the course of 26 years, the initiative has raised over $2.8 million for a variety of different charities The project's official Facebook page currently boasts more than 201,000 followers The Australian Firefighters Calendar was established in 1993 to support the Children's Hospital Foundation, providing funds for research into childhood burns. Over the course of 26 years, the initiative has raised over $2.8 million for a variety of charities. The project's official Facebook page currently boasts more than 201,000 followers. It's what childhood dreams are made of - a toy superstore slated to opens its doors just in time for Christmas. And Toymate is set to grant the wishes of thousands of children with the launch of its newest, and largest, store on Saturday. Replacing the now-defunct mega size Toys 'R' Us in Bankstown, in Sydney's west, at 1800 square metres the toy-haven is set to be the biggest in New South Wales. Australian chain, Toymate is set to grant the wishes of thousands of children with the launch of its newest, and largest, store in Sydney on Saturday (pictured is the Toymate store at Robina Town Centre in Queensland) And its opening will be just as fun-sized and will include a string of activities including an ice-cream truck, face painting - and a $1000 giveaway. According to the Australian-owned chain's founder Danny Bloom 'magic' is central to the expansion's inspiration. 'We're focused on providing a magical shopping experience that not only encompasses an exceptional toy offering, but also offers a colourful world for children to lose themselves in, shop and play,' he said in a statement. Replacing the now-defunct mega size Toys 'R' Us in Bankstown, in Sydney's west, and at 1800sqm the toy-haven is set to be the biggest in New South Wales The launch also means good news for former Toys 'R' Us devotees who will be able to receive Gold Member status at Toymate, in a bid to 'restore faith' in the retail industry 'Bankstown is one of our most exciting store openings yet, we can't want to give all of our customers the best experience they could imagine.' The launch also means good news for former Toys 'R' Us devotees who will be able to receive Gold Member status at Toymate, in a bid to 'restore faith' in the retail industry. By swiping their old membership cards, shoppers can receive five per cent off purchases for life, in addition to exclusive deals and event invites. Toys 'R' Us's shut down of stores across the globe after it was placed in administration in early 2018 which resulted in the closure of all 44 of the brand's stores across the country as well as the loss of 700 jobs The move toward market domination comes on the back of Toys 'R' Us's shut down of stores across the globe after it was placed in administration in early 2018. In Australia, this resulted in the closure of all 44 of the brand's stores across the country as well as the loss of 700 jobs. So far Toymate have also made plans to re-open the Toys 'R' Us in Castle Hill, north-west Sydney, later this month and the Cannington, Western Australia branch in November. It's the best-selling fake tan brand in the world, and so when Bondi Sands release a new product, the beauty world sits up and listens. The Australian brand's latest innovation, dubbed Liquid Gold Self Tanning Foam, is set to shake up the industry once again, delivering a perfect golden glow as well as hydrating your thirsty, winter-starved skin. Retailing for $22.95 and available online and in pharmacies including Priceline, the Liquid Gold product is likely to fly off the shelves like other Bondi Sands' offerings. The brand behind the best-selling fake tan in the world, Bondi Sands, have launched a new product, Liquid Gold Self Tanning Foam (pictured with Allie Auton) that retails for $22.95 As a dry oil (pictured), all you need to do is smoothe it on to your skin, wait several seconds until it's touch dry and dress for the day So, if you invest in Liquid Gold Self Tanning Foam, what can you expect? As a dry oil, all you need to do is smoothe it on to your skin, wait several seconds until it's touch dry and dress for the day. Enriched with Argan oil and infused with the smell of coconut, your new tan will develop over the course of two to three hours, without having to be washed off. Enriched with Argan oil and infused with the smell of coconut, your new tan will develop over the course of two to three hours, without having to be washed off 'Bondi Sands Liquid Gold Self Tanning foam really is the perfect match [of Liquid Gold and Self Tanning Foam],' the co-founder of Bondi Sands, Blair James, told FEMAIL. The product (pictured) launched this month online and in pharmacies including Priceline 'Combining our world's best selling self tanning foam and the cult favourite Argan oil infused Liquid Gold, Liquid Gold Self Tanning Foam delivers a golden natural tan, that leaves your skin hydrated for a long lasting effortless tan.' Despite only launching this month, the product has already become a firm hit with beauty experts and influencers, including YouTuber Brittney Saunders, fitness personality Allie Auton and more. 'You guys know I've been a Bondi Sands girl for years now, every week without fail!, Brittney posted recently. 'I'm so excited about their newest addition to their range, Liquid Gold Tanning Foam! 'This baby is a combo of their best selling foam, mixed with their dry oil! It dries instantly, no shower required, pop it straight on and head out the door! LOVE!,' she posted. 'Bondi Sands Liquid Gold Self Tanning foam really is the perfect match [of Liquid Gold and Self Tanning Foam],' the co-founder of Bondi Sands, Blair James, told FEMAIL 'This baby is a combo of their best selling foam, mixed with their dry oil! It dries instantly, no shower required, pop it straight on and head out!,' Brittney Saunders (pictured) said This follows the news that Bondi Sands' 1 Hour Express Tanning Foam skyrocketed in January, making it the best-selling tan in the world. At home in Australia Priceline sees around 55,000 plus units fly off its shelves each month. Meanwhile, in the UK, it was reported that around 15,000 units were selling each month. Melbourne-based founders Blair James and Shaun Wilson launched the Bondi Sands brand five years ago - since then, it's become a runaway success Melbourne-based founders Blair James and Shaun Wilson launched the Bondi Sands brand five years ago. They couldn't keep up with demand in a salon and decided to start a brand available to the masses. The duo wanted to give consumers an affordable and natural-looking tan that didn't smell or look orange. The formula proved to be a success in the Australian market when many were looking for a way to get a healthy sun tan glow. With just 11 exquisitely chosen words, she launched her salvo: My name is Rebecca Humphries and I am not a victim. So said the very ex-girlfriend of Seann Walsh, the comedian who was Strictly nobody until caught doing a tongue-tango with his dance partner Katya Jones. Wow. In an age when victimhood seems to be a badge of honour, thats the first time Ive heard a woman rejecting the cloak of martyrdom. She went on, with intelligence, humour and generosity of spirit, to explain her side of the story. To own it, as the saying goes. Good for her. I especially loved the last line about her taking the couples cat. With just 11 exquisitely chosen words, she launched her salvo: My name is Rebecca Humphries and I am not a victim Conclusion: Walsh is even more of a creep than he appears on the surface. If the makers of Strictly Come Dancing had a shred of respect for his ex, theyd have booted him off the instant she made her devastating statement. Instead, theyve chased the ratings. The ghoulish spectacle of Seann and Katya doing the Charleston on Saturday night will no doubt draw the crowds. Remember that the next time the BBC crows about supporting women. Because Rebecca was not just another wronged partner. In her statement, she described the kind of experience that will be only too familiar to millions of women: being trapped in a relationship with a gaslighter. Thats the term for someone who, through subtle manipulation and sustained abuse of power, undermines their partners self-confidence, self-belief and, ultimately, their sanity, in a bid to keep them under the thumb. The term, well understood in psychiatric circles, has its origins in the 1944 film Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman as a wife whose husband attempts to convince her and those around them that she is delusional by making her question the reality of small, but significant, events in their life. Its a form of control, often exercised by vain individuals who feed their narcissistic needs by sucking the confidence out of others. That Walsh fits this pattern is not entirely surprising: any man with hair like his is bound to be in love only with himself. But Rebeccas rebuttal describes a textbook offender. Those pictures were taken on October 3rd, she wrote in her online post. It was my birthday. 'I was alone at home when Sean texted at 10pm saying the two of them were going for one innocent drink. 'We spoke and I told him, not for the first time, that his actions over the past three weeks had led me to believe something inappropriate was going on. He aggressively, and repeatedly, called me a psycho / nuts / mental. As he has done countless times throughout our relationship when Ive questioned his inappropriate, hurtful behaviour. Had the pair not been pictured in flagrante, Walsh would have succeeded in making Rebecca seem like the difficult one a hysterical troublemaker while feeding his own ego by dallying with the married Katya. Doing so on her birthday when a partner can expect to be made to feel a bit special was a particularly vicious twist. By denying her even that little scrap of self-worth, he showed just how willing he was to humiliate her. Happily, this nasty little exercise of his has failed. Maybe his vanity is such that he believed his girlfriend of five years would simply let him off. Or even that, at 32 an age when a womans mind is naturally distracted by the ticking of her biological clock she might take the view that the devil you know is better than nothing. But Rebecca is far stronger than that. Overcoming this bullying, male behaviour is not easy. The casual cruelty of it is a hammer-blow to the heart, especially if as she admits you happen to love the man, despite it all. Right now, it must seem like the worst of times for her (although I guarantee her friends and family will be celebrating). But shes certainly better off without him. I have no doubt this experience will enable her to go on to find someone who treats her with the love and respect she deserves. Until then, shes still got the cat. Jodie the diversity Doctor I tuned in to see Jodie Whittaker make history as the first female Doctor Who. And she did not disappoint Like millions, I tuned in to see Jodie Whittaker make history as the first female Doctor Who. And she did not disappoint: her Doctor (pictured) was fizzing with raw energy and mischievous delight. But did the BBC really have to make the script so self-consciously woke? We can honour who weve been and choose who we want to be next, said the Doctor, in her carefully selected regional accent, while her new (disabled, he has dyspraxia) companion gazed on adoringly. Yes, Auntie, we get it: you are very committed to diversity. But in future, can you please not let it get in the way of the plot? One year since #MeToo began and many people have been reflecting on where its got us. The great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, Dr Helen Pankhurst, has even drawn parallels with the battle for womens rights. One things for certain: anything that encourages people to speak out about genuine sexual abuse is to be encouraged. My worry is that were reaching a point where almost any sexual experience that didnt go quite according to plan, or that was in some way regrettable or unsatisfactory, is being recast as abuse. We need to think about this. It took generations for women to empower themselves sexually, to shake off the image of the defenceless victim. If were not careful, #MeToo will usher in a new era of puritanism and no one will ever be allowed to have fun again. Why we all want girls The Mail has exposed how consultants are helping couples evade the law in order to determine the sex of their child. The practice is popular among certain ethnic minorities, who still favour having a male child. Yet nine in ten white British couples who seek sex selection are after a daughter. No mystery. The Mail has exposed how consultants are helping couples evade the law in order to determine the sex of their child Statistically, girls have far better outcomes than boys in terms of academic achievement, and it seems every new high-profile appointment must, by rights, now be awarded to a female. Its the ultimate feminist triumph. All the more reason to crack down on sex selection: take it to the logical conclusion and there wont be any men left for us to complain about. Never mind all the controversy over the policing costs at Eugenies wedding my thoughts are entirely with her elder sister, Beatrice, who, as well as having to cope with recent heartbreak after splitting up with her long-term boyfriend, now finds herself following her younger sibling up the aisle. Not to mention the fact that everyone will be comparing her bottom to that of that other famous sister/bridesmaid, Pippa Middleton. The co-creator of Father Ted, Graham Linehan, has been given a police harassment warning after transgender activist Stephanie Hayden reported him for addressing her as he. This in the same week it was revealed that police dont even bother investigating a quarter of all crimes including sexual assaults and burglaries. Far easier to go after a comic who made a non-PC quip. It would be funny if it werent so tragic. Mental Health-the final taboo Today is World Mental Health Day. Im generally dismissive about these sorts of initiatives but, since I wrote in last weeks Mail about my struggles with antidepressants, I have been overwhelmed by the response from readers detailing their own murky adventures with the black dog. Reading your many letters has been both heart-breaking and humbling and has convinced me more than ever that mental ill-health is one of the greatest problems of our time, a hidden epidemic that is limiting the potential of millions of Britons. The key to resolving this is to lift the stigma surrounding depression, anxiety and similar conditions which is why its so heartening to see Health Secretary Matt Hancock announcing his ambition to achieve parity between physical and mental health in the NHS. It really is one of the last taboos and its only by speaking openly and honestly about it that we can even begin to tackle the problem. Prince Philip will decide on the morning of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank's wedding whether he goes or not, Palace insiders have revealed. And there could be another snub for the bride and groom-to-be, as Prince Harry and Meghan may be forced to miss the evening reception at the Royal Lodge in Windsor on Saturday night, due to their trip to Australia. An insider has suggested the Duke of Edinburgh - who is said to have a long-standing feud with Sarah Ferguson - will 'see how he feels' ahead of the ceremony at St George's Chapel in Windsor. It comes after it emerged earlier this week that the Duchess of Cornwall will not be attending the wedding due to prior commitments. Prince Philip will decide on the morning of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank's wedding whether he will attend or not, Palace insiders have revealed Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank (pictured at the Serpentine summer party in June) will tie the knot at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on Friday Commenting on whether Philip will attend the wedding, a source told the Telegraph: 'The Duke of Edinburgh may not go to the wedding, just as he and the Queen did not attend Prince Louis christening in July. 'Theres not a three line whip on these family occasions. Not unreasonably, when you consider his age, the Duke of Edinburgh will decide on the morning of the wedding if hes going to be there. 'He now very much operates on a "wake up and see how I feel" basis.' It comes after speculation that Philip, who did attend Harry and Meghan's wedding at May, is prepared to put aside his feud with Fergie to attend granddaughter Eugenie's wedding and pose in official photographs with Prince Andrew's ex-wife. Prince Harry and Meghan (pictured in Sussex last week) may be forced to miss Eugenie and Jack's reception at the Royal Lodge on Saturday, due to their Australian tour It is understood that Philip has avoided Fergie since photographs of her sunbathing topless were published in the media in 1992. Meanwhile, Meghan and Harry may be forced to miss Eugenie and Jack's reception at the Royal Lodge on Saturday, as they prepare to fly to Australia for their first major overseas tour. The couple are due to land in Sydney on Monday, which would mean they are likely to catch a Saturday night or Sunday morning flight. However, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to attend the ceremony on Friday at St George's Chapel, where they tied the knot in May. MailOnline has contacted Palace representatives for comment. A 69-year-old woman who is convinced she murdered a man more than 40 years ago says the police have branded her a liar - and refuse to charge her with any crime. Janet Holt says she shot farmer Fred Handford on Ball Beard Farm in Buxton, Derbyshire in 1976, after he raped her twice. Holt was 26 at the time and Handford 56, but Holt didn't confess to the killing until 2011 after reversion therapy brought back memories of the rapes and subsequent murder - including her digging a hole and burying her attacker's body. After extensive excavation of the farmland in question, including the field where Holt says Handford's body is buried, nothing has been found and police say Holt is a fantasist. Liar or dismissed by police for being troubled? Janet Holt, now 69, was 26 at the time when she claimed she shot Fred Handford in 1976, after she says he raped her twice. According to her rediscovered memories - following therapy in 2011, she then put him in a wheelbarrow and buried him in a shallow grave on Ball Beard Farm in Buxton In 1976, residents of New Mills in Derbyshire were shocked by the sudden and mysterious disappearance of farmer Fred Handford (pictured). Police launched a missing persons investigation, but he was never found and detectives concluded that he had taken his own life In new ITV documentary Am I A Murderer?, which airs tonight, there's another twist to the bizarre story; Holt's statements are re-examined by psychologist Jamie Hacker Hughes who says she is telling the truth. Holt's version of events from that fateful night in 1976 involve her being attacked twice by farmer Fred Handford before she snapped and shot him, after spotting his gun. She explains: 'Fred attacked and raped me twice. Then I was trapped in the kitchen. I thought hed lost his mind because he was talking rubbish about us getting married and having children. 'I thought he was going to attack me again. 'There was his gun, leaning against the wall. I picked it up and I shot it. There was nothing running through my mind... no emotion.' In November 2011, Janet Holt called the police and made her extraordinary confession pointing them in the direction of the shallow grave (pictured above). She told detectives that she had been raped by Fred and fearing he would do it again, she shot him at point blank range 'He fell to the ground...I went outside and dug a hole' How Janet Holt says Fred Handford's murder unfolded Janet Holt claims that after hypnotherapy to try and help her nightmares she discovered buried memories In November 2011, Janet Holt called the police and made her extraordinary confession. She told detectives that she had been raped by Fred Handford and, fearing he would do it again, she shot him at point blank range and dumped his body in a shallow grave. For more than 30 years Miss Holt, who worked with him at Ball Beard farm in Buxton, Derbyshire, had no clue what happened to Mr Handford. But she had repeated unexplained nightmares about Mr Handford and underwent therapy to see if there was something locked deep in her mind. Miss Holt said the recollection was terrifyingly clear following therapy sessions - she shot Fred after he twice raped her, then put his body in a wheelbarrow and buried him on their farm. Police arrested and interviewed her in 2011 after she went to officers and told them where she believed she had buried the body and police carried out extensive searches of the 50-acre farm. Police launched a missing persons investigation, but he was never found and detectives concluded that Fred had committed suicide. She was released and the case remains open. Janet claims that she had been raped by Fred Handford and fearing he would do it again, she shot him at point blank range and dumped his body in a shallow grave. But his body has never been found Advertisement She adds: 'He fell to the ground. I got a wheelbarrow, put him in it, took him round to the field and dug a hole. I dont think there was any panic.' Holt underwent therapy in 2011 and says memories of the details of the murder came flooding back. However, she says she's been dismissed by the police in spite of her admission of guilt. Officers investigating the murder insist she was innocent and has ulterior motives for her confession. Det. Insp Paul Cullen tells the programme: 'She has tried to con police and a psychologist to try and make financial gain.' Im absolutely certain my memories are true. Ive no doubt whatsoever. I know you can have false memories, but I dont believe that these are... Janet Holt on not being believed Further doubt was cast on Holt's story after an investigation into her background revealed she was a thief and a convicted fraudster. Then they discovered that Holt was working with a local journalist, Helen Parker, who was writing her autobiography. The police concluded that Holt had made up her story in order to sell her book. In the documentary, viewers see Holt visit memory expert and former president of the British Psychological Society, Jamie Hacker Hughes, to find out if he thinks her claims might be credible and he says that while her memories of the murder are vague the details of the rapes are compelling. Holt says in the documentary: 'Why would my memory have invented this story? What possible purpose? What could it be based on? And what purpose does it have?' Ball Beard Farm in Derbyshire, where Janet still lives, police excavated part of the field where Janet claimed to have put Freds body - but found nothing She adds: 'Im absolutely certain my memories are true. Ive no doubt whatsoever. But well see what the expert has to say I know thats a possibility that you can have false memories, but I dont believe that these are.' In the documentary Freds daughter Lynette Chapman also casts suspicion on Holt's story; she firmly believes Holt murdered him for monetary reasons, not rape. 'Ive read far too many murder mysteries and watched far too many crime thrillers,' she said. 'Who actually benefited the most from it all? And theres only one person I think thats Miss Janet Holt. 'If he'd committed suicide, surely some remains would have been discovered at some point because I don't really think it's your priority when your committing suicide to hide your body. 'So, unless you're in some really obscure place I can't see how a body can be hidden.' While Lynette doesn't believe her father raped Holt, she admits in the documentary that she 'once had to defend herself against her violent father with a knife, and he once attacked her mother'. Fred Handford's daughter Lynette Chapman firmly believes that Janet Holt murdered her father but not in self-defence but for monetary gain For more than 30 years Miss Holt, who worked with him at Ball Beard farm in Buxton, Derbyshire, had no clue what happened to Fred Handford. But she had repeated unexplained nightmares about Mr Handford and underwent therapy to see if there was something locked deep in her mind. Miss Holt said the recollection was terrifyingly clear - she shot Fred after he twice raped her, then put his body in a wheelbarrow and buried him on their farm. Police arrested and interviewed her in 2011 after she went to officers and told them where she believed she buried the body. But after extensive searches of the 50-acre farm, he was never found and she was released and the case remains open. In 1976, residents of New Mills in Derbyshire were shocked by the sudden and mysterious disappearance of farmer Fred Handford. Police launched a missing persons investigation, but he was never found and detectives concluded that Fred had committed suicide. Since Freds disappearance his business partner at Ballbeard Farm, Janet Holt, had been plagued by nightmares and eventually sought the help of a psychotherapist. It was during this treatment that Janet began to remember what happened on the day Fred disappeared and she was convinced she had committed a brutal murder. Janet says she always feels like she will have the murder hanging over her until it is proved she either did or didn't commit the crime: 'Its so frustrating when you feel that people are not even beginning to believe you and youre left with no other way of convincing them other than just repeating the truth all the time' Former duty detective inspector Shaun McElheron realised that there could be something in her claims after she was interviewed by his officers. He says: 'As the evening progressed, the more I got back from the officers, the more I thought there could well be something in this or certainly Janet knows a lot about the case that not many people would have known.' Police excavated part of the field where Janet claimed to have put Freds body - but found nothing. Holt, who still lives on the farm, says: 'They took about two foot off the top of the field and then brought me back to show me that there was nothing there.' In the documentary shares her frustrations over the entire case: 'Theres always the thought, of that possibility of a knock on the door in the future. But Ive done everything I can - and I cant do any more. 'Its so frustrating when you feel that people are not even beginning to believe you and youre left with no other way of convincing them other than just repeating the truth all the time.' Am I A Murderer? airs on ITV on Wednesday, 10th October at 9pm Following her wedding in May Meghan reportedly looked to the Duchess of Cambridge when it came to adopting a new 'royal style'. However, it seems that Kate has also looked to her sister-in-law when it comes to style inspiration. On Tuesday, Kate stepped out for her first official engagement with Prince William since her maternity leave. While the 36-year-old showcased her typical style in the form of a recycled lavender dress by Emilia Wickstead, but added a new element to her look with her choice of bag. The Duchess of Cambridge added a noticeably different accessory to her ensemble during her engagement at the Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit on Tuesday in the form of an Aspinal handbag (seen here) On the whole Kate tends to carry a clutch bag as seen the last time she wore the same lavender Emilia Wickstead dress in Hamburg last July Rather than carrying a clutch as she is wont to do during public appearances the mother-of-three carried a handbag. Complete with a handle and metal clasp the statement 695 Aspinal of London handbag was a far cry from the Duchess of Cambridge's normal style of bag - but not so far from the Duchess of Sussex. Meghan has been seen to favour cross-body bags and handbags throughout her time in the public right from her first engagement in Nottingham until her most recent to Sussex. Handbag expert Claudia Valentin at Prestige Pawnbrokers believes that Kate's choice in bag is reflective of her aiming to be more stylish and youthful. Speaking to the MailOnline she said: 'It was refreshing to see the Duchess of Cambridge carrying an Aspinal handbag on Tuesday to her engagement rather than her normal clutch. Handbag expert Claudia Valentin believes that Kate may have looked to sister-in-law Meghan when it came to her bag choice. Pictured: Meghan in Dublin in July (left) and at Wimbledon later that same month (right) Meghan has been seen to favour cross-body bags and handbags throughout her time in the public right from her first engagement in Nottingham until her most recent to Sussex (seen) Claudia says that the Duchess (seen on Tuesday) may have opted to use a handbag over a clutch to appear more youthful and says she has stayed true to one of her favorite designers in doing so 'It appears Kate may have taken note from sister in law Meghan who is rightly hailed as a fashionista with her choice of outfits perfectly chosen right down to the shoes and on-trend choice of handbag. 'Shes nails classic and sophisticated yet keeps within the latest trends and has set a precedence for wearing cross-body bags and carrying small bags with a handle. 'A clutch, although classic can sometimes appear a little dated and more suited to someone older than Kate.' Claudia said that while it was a change in style direction for the Duchess it was still reflective of her personal taste. She continued: 'Its no secret Kate has championed Aspinal as a brand for a number of years now alongside sister Pippa, Its wonderful to see the younger Royals championing a British brand who make beautiful stylish bags. The Duchess of Cambridge, 36, is rarely seen without her trusted clutch bag, even during day-time engagements. Pictured: At the RAF Centenary in July Experts have previously explained how Kate often holds her clutch with two hands in front of her to avoid awkward handshakes 'The small handbag worked perfectly with Kates outfit, befitting for the event she was attending making Kate appear more casual yes still super glamorous.' The Duchess of Cambridge, 36, is rarely seen without her trusted clutch bag, even during day-time engagements. Experts have previously explained how Kate often holds her clutch with two hands in front of her. The founder of Beaumont Etiquette Myka Meier told Good Housekeeping: 'When the Duchess is at an event, she holds her bag in front of her in both hands when shaking hands might be awkward.' Grant Harrold a former butler to Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, believes that Kate has adopted her signature pose as it's an elegant posture. 'The Duchess of Cambridge is often seen adapting a pose with her hands clasped in front of her with or without a clutch bag,' he explained to FEMAIL. 'This gesture is adapted by confident people and it is popular with presidents, government minsters and heads of state when they are standing in public.' However, it is not royal protocol to use a clutch bag at official engagements, as the Queen often carries her trademark Launer handbag. Sophie Wessex has a theme running through her Baltic royal tour wardrobe - the colour pink. The stylish 53-year-old opted for a pretty dress in a shade of candyfloss, after wearing a pink-and-black coat dress by Erdem yesterday. After arriving in Latvia yesterday, the Countess of Wessex and Prince Edward, 54, are already in Lithuania, having hopped over the Baltic border to meet the county's president, Dalia Grybauskaite, at the Presidential palace in Vilnius. Receiving a full military welcome, complete with saluting guards, the couple enjoyed a quick tour of one of Lithuania's most lavish homes. Scroll down for video The Countess of Wessex, 53, and Prince Edward, pictured with Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, enjoyed a tour of one of the country's most lavish buildings, the Presidential palace, after they travelled from Riga in Latvia this morning A full military guard greeted the couple with a salute as Sophie, wearing a pretty pink fit-and-flare dress, enjoyed a tour of the palace in Vilnius, the capital President Grybauskait explained the architectural details of the building as she took the couple around her current home Sophie has worn a splash of pink on both days of the three-day visit to the Baltic countries; accessorising today with a snakeskin clutch bag and a pair of simple drop earrings Appearing wide-eyed at the architecture and interiors, the couple are two days in to their three-day tour, with just Estonia left to visit. Sophie opted for a below-the-knee fit-and-flare pink dress, with three-quarter length sleeves. The countess finished the look with a snakeskin clutch bag and black suede knee-length boots. Wearing her highlighted hair tied back from her face, she donned a pair of drop pearl earrings. All smiles: the visit to Eastern Europe is designed to improve relations between Britain and Lithuania After a tour of the palace, the royal couple and President Grybauskaite posed for photographs with their respective country's flags Step this way...The two parties enjoyed a cordial meeting at the palace before they Sophie Wessex looked chic in a pink and black coat dress by Erdem as she joined Prince Edward for a visit to Latvia The Countess of Wessex, 53, finished off her stylish look with a pair of black strappy heels, and a co-ordinating clutch bag Yesterday, Sophie opted for a pink and black coat dress by Erdem - which she previously wore on Christmas Day last year - as she met Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis and his wife Iveta Vejone in Riga. She finished off her stylish ensemble with a pair of black strappy heels, and a co-ordinating clutch bag. The couple visited Riga Castle, along with the Freedom Monument, during their one-day tour of Latvia. Sophie then visited fashion label OWA Fashion, followed by co-working space OraculeTang and social business BlindArt, which helps those with visual impairments. Edward meanwhile attended a lunch at the National Library of Latvia to promote the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Sophie and Edward met Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis (second from right) and his wife Iveta Vejone ) far right) on arriving in Riga, the capital of Latvia, today Edward donated a book to the People's Bookshelf as he and Sophie visited the National Library in Riga today Sophie and Edward have completed a number of overseas visits of late, including a three-day trip to Paris last week. The couple were given a tour of the Palace of Versailles during their visit, as well as attending a glitzy dinner at the Hotel Perrinet de Jars next to the British Embassy. The royals later showed off their archery skills as they visited a training centre for elite athletes in Paris. Edward has also recently returned from a tour of the US, where he was promoting the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Next year's Met Gala will be a campy extravaganza - and if you need an example of that theme means, you should look no further than President Donald Trump. The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced on Tuesday that the theme of the upcoming Met Gala, and accompanying Costume Institute exhibit, will be Camp: Notes on Fashion a theme inspired by a 1964 essay in which Susan Sontag defined camp by its 'love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration'. While speaking about theme theme for the 2019 soiree - which will be chaired by Anna Wintour, along with Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, Serena Williams, and designer Alessandro Michele, the curator of the Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton, said that 'we are going through an extreme camp moment', before highlighting Trump as an example of modern-day camp. Campy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced on Tuesday that the theme of the upcoming Met Gala and its accompanying exhibition will be Camp: Notes on Fashion Does this earn him an invite? Donald Trump was described as 'very camp' by the curator of the Met's Costume Institute during an interview about the theme Examples? Trump has attended many a Met Gala in the past, both with current wife Melania (left) and ex-wife Ivana (right), as well as his daughter Ivanka (left) No more: Last year, Anna Wintour said Trump would not be invited back to the Gala, despite both him and his family, including Ivanka and her husband Jared, once being regular guests 'We are going through an extreme camp moment, and it felt very relevant to the cultural conversation to look at what is often dismissed as empty frivolity but can be actually a very sophisticated and powerful political tool, especially for marginalized cultures,' he told the New York Times. 'Whether it's pop camp, queer camp, high camp or political camp Trump is a very camp figure I think it's very timely.' Bolton, who views the current revival of camp as a response to populism and conservatism, added: 'Much of high camp is a reaction to something.' Using Trump as an example to illustrate the cultural relevance of the next Met Gala theme is an interesting one, not least because of his current political standing, but also because he was unceremoniously banned from the event by Wintour last year. During an appearance on James Corden's Late Late Show in October 2017, the Vogue Editor-in-Chief was asked, 'Who would you never invite back to the Met Gala?' Inspiration: Curator Andrew Bolton, 52, made the statement about Trump while saying that we are 'going through an extreme camp moment' Wintour barely missed a beat before firing back: 'Donald Trump' with a nod. Although Trump has not attended a Met Gala since long before his run for president, he was once a regular attendee at the star-studded bash, making multiple appearances on the red carpet, both with his current wife Melania and his ex-wife Ivana, as well as his daughter Ivanka. He last attended a Met Gala in 2012, however Ivanka and her husband Jared were guests at the 2016 event, just as Trump was hotting up his presidential campaign; they have not made an appearance at the soiree since their move to Washington, D.C. in 2017. It is unlikely that Bolton's decision to reference Trump as a 'camp' reference will earn the president an invite to the event this year, but other celebrity guests could look to him as an inspiration for their red carpet ensembles - and it may be that he features in the accompany's exhibit. As is customary, an exhibit exploring the gala's theme will open a few days after the glamorous bash. It will take place from May 9 to September 8, 2019, while the Met Gala is scheduled for May 6. The exhibit 'will explore the origins of the camp aesthetic and how it has evolved from a place of marginality to become an important influence on mainstream culture', the Met announced on Tuesday. It will analyze how fashion designers have used their craft and industry as a 'vehicle' for camp, and how they have explored it 'in a myriad of compelling, humorous, and sometimes incongruous ways'. Gucci and Conde Nast are partnering on the exhibit. Michele, an Italian fashion designer, is the head of the luxury fashion brand. Styles has served as served as one of its ambassadors, with Gucci's colorful suits becoming an essential part of his signature style. Glamorous bash: Lady Gaga, 32, and Serena Williams, 37, will serve as co-chairs for next year's event Joining in: Harry Styles, 24, is another one of the four people who will be Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour's co-chairs While Wintour oversees every detail of the star-studded event, including its highly exclusive guest list, it is customary for her to have co-chairs. Next year's co-chairs were Amal Clooney, Rihanna, and Donatella Versace. Previous co-chairs have included Beyonce, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Pharrell Williams, and Jeff Bezos. Back in May this year, the gala made headlines for its theme, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, which saw Rihanna attend the event donning a cardinal's hat. Past themes have included Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology, China: Through the Looking Glass, Punk: Chaos to Couture, and Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy. Group: Alessandro Michele, 46, Gucci's creative director, is also a co-chair 'Camp's disruptive nature and subversion of modern aesthetic values has often been trivialized, but this exhibition will reveal its profound influence on both high art and popular culture,' director of The Met Max Hollein said in a press release. 'By tracing its evolution and highlighting its defining elements, the show will embody the ironic sensibilities of this audacious style, challenge conventional understandings of beauty and taste, and establish the critical role this important genre has played in the history of art and fashion.' Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, added: 'Fashion is the most overt and enduring conduit of the camp aesthetic. 'Effectively illustrating Sontag's Notes on 'Camp, the exhibition will advance creative and critical dialogue about the ongoing and ever-evolving impact of camp on fashion.' The theme was overall met with enthusiasm by the fashion community and avid followers of the Met Gala. The New York Times' fashion director Vanessa Friedman viewed it as an 'about-face to the profane' after last year's religious-themed event, while Vanity Fair style writer Erika Hardwood saluted the inclusion of Gaga and Styles in next year's group of co-chairs, suggesting they might serve as style inspirations for other guests. 'While it may be difficult for guests to dress to theme on this one, having Styles and Gaga as co-chairs will provide some possibly needed encouragement,' she wrote. 'Lady Gaga, who's currently riding high on her role in the acclaimed A Star Is Born remake as well as a Vogue cover on newsstands, has built a career out of high-concept art and camp. Previously: In May this year, the gala made headlines for its theme, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, which saw Rihanna attend the event donning a cardinal's hat 'As for Styles, the former boy bander turned Gucci campaign star has taken up a transformation into a millennial David Bowie, embracing art and style as he ascends into full rock-star status.' The reveal of the theme was also met with delight on social media, particularly from fans of Styles and Gaga. 'HARRY STYLES? HOSTING THE MET GALA? CAMP THEME? I THINK YES,' one person wrote. 'OMG the Met Gala theme next year is camp, I'm so ready for the most flamboyant, Baz Luhrmann-esque fashion explosion ever,' someone else tweeted. 'Harry co-chairing the met gala when the theme is 'camp' is extremely appropriate,' one Twitter user remarked. One person deemed the announcement that Gaga would be co-chairing the gala 'the best news', adding: 'The irony is she's been wearing outfits that fit the theme of "Notes on camp" her whole career.' The exhibition opening three days after the gala will include about 175 items, including womenswear and menswear, paintings, drawings, and sculptures, all dating from the 17th century to the present. Versailles will be featured in the opening section of the exhibit as a 'camp Eden'. The show will explore the figure of the dandy as an 'ideal' of camp, and tell the story of the movement's origins from the queer subcultures having emerged in America and Europe at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century. Most of the exhibition will show how fashion has made use of camp's 'irony, humor, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality, and exaggeration'. Designers featured in the exhibit will include Cristobal Balenciaga, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Guccio Gucci (the founder of the Italian fashion house of the same name), Marc Jacobs, Charles James, Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld, gala co-chair Michele, Thierry Mugler, Paul Poiret, Miuccia Prada, Saint Laurent, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jeremy Scott, Anna Sui, Donatella Versace, and Vivienne Westwood. Advertisement Photography fan the Duchess of Cambridge was in her element on Wednesday evening when she stepped out to see a vast collection of pictures in a landmark museum. The royal mother of three who has published her own sweet pictures of her children visited the Victoria & Albert museum, not far from her Kensington Palace home, to have a preview of some of the 800,000 images in the new Photography Centre. The museum director Tristram Hunt showed Kate around including into the jewellery gallery where she saw the famous Victoria coronet and a more modern piece: Beyonce's papillon ring. It was the first time she had visited in an official capacity since becoming the first Royal Patron in March. Kate showed off her trim figure in a mid-calf fit-and-flare frock from British label Erdem's SS18 collection which she teamed with a small box clutch, vertiginous heels and 290 earrings which were also from Erdem. Kate clutched on to her minaudiere which matched the burgundy colour of her shoes and belt around her checked dress which also had a frayed hem Kate views the stereoscopic viewer which shows photographs by a woman in the 1850s who had ten children and photographed her daughters in staged settings . She thought it 'brought images like that to life for modern audiences,' Mr Hunt said Kate had 'an early sneak preview' of some of the exhibits during her private tour of the V&A tonight, a curator said, and was 'suitably impressed' by what she saw. The Duchess previously studied History of Art at St. Andrew's University Kate looked engrossed as she viewed some of the artwork during her visit to the V&A's new photography centre tonight. It was the first time she had visited in an official capacity since becoming the first Royal Patron in March Private tour: The museum director Tristram Hunt, far left, showed Kate around with the help of a senior curator including into the jewellery gallery where she saw the Victoria coronet and a more modern piece: Beyonce's papillon ring The museum director Tristram Hunt showed Kate around tonight including into the jewellery Gallery where she saw the Victoria coronet and a more modern piece: Beyonce's papillon ring Kate, pictured at the V&A tonight, toured the opening display, called 'Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital,' saw some of the historical prints and contemporary photography the center is showcasing and met the curators In her element: Kate, 36, who studied Art History at St. Andrew's University, holds the visual arts at the center of some of her public work: She is also patron of the National Portrait Gallery The Duchess was seen chatting animatedly as she signed the visitor's book after viewing the display. Among the photographers whose work is on display are pioneering women like Julia Margaret Cameron, Agnes Warburg and Cindy Sherman and the late Linda McCartney, and her daughter Mary McCartney Kate made sure to leave a note following her visit. After her engagement in London tonight, Kate is set to travel to Windsor with her family for the wedding of William's cousin, Princess Eugenie, on Friday Kate stunned in a check number, which boasted a bateau neckline. During her tour of the exhibition tonight, Kate, 36, will meet curators who have worked on the project, before unveiling a plaque to mark the official opening of the Centre Kate does Erdem! The Duchess, who returned from maternity leave just last week, will be given a personal tour the opening display at the new photography centre, entitled Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital The dress boasted a bateau neckline - a style favoured by Kate's sister-in-law the Duchess of Sussex - frayed sleeves and featured a purple Prince of Wales check pattern. Kate began the visit with a surprise when she was shown Queen Victoria's coronet - which her husband Prince Albert designed and had made for the Sovereign between 1840-42. The diamond and sapphire coronet was both a reminder of the name that the museum carries and a fitting moment to mark Kate's first visit as royal patron of the museum. It was among 3000 jewels in the William and Judith Bollinger Gallery and followed a walk through the Silver and the Sacred Silver and Stained Glass galleries. At the door of the new photography center she marvelled at some of the 150 cameras from 160 years that make up a display. She toured the opening display, called 'Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital,' saw some of the historical prints and contemporary photography the center is showcasing and met the curators. Among the photographers whose work is on display are pioneering women like Julia Margaret Cameron, Agnes Warburg and Cindy Sherman and the late Linda McCartney, and her daughter Mary McCartney. The Duchess of Cambridge, who is visiting the V&A museum's new Photography Centre tonight, showed off her trim figure in the mid-calf fit-and-flare frock which she teamed with a waist belt, small box clutch and vertiginous heels A nod to her father-in-law? The dress boasted a bateau neckline - a style favoured by Kate's sister-in-law the Duchess of Sussex - frayed sleeves and featured a purple Prince of Wales check pattern The Duchess in Erdem at the V&A tonight. The display explores photography from the medium's invention in the 19th century to the present day and will be of great interest to the Duchess, a keen amateur photographer Kate chatted animatedly ahead of her private tour of the exhibition. Drawn from the V&A's collection of over 800,000 photographs, the display showcases contemporary photography alongside seminal prints by pioneers William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron and Roger Fenton Duchess of Cambridge visited the Victoria & Albert museum and was all smiles as she arrived wearing a calf-length dress tied with a burgundy belt while being accompanied during the tour Kate tucked her glossy brown locks behind her ear to show off a stunning jewel and pearl encrusted earring that matched the buttons on her dress The Duchess lightly brushed her stomach as she chatted and laughed while being shown around the London museum in south Kensington The Duchess's locks appeared to be a lighter shade of brown as she looked around intently at the exhibition on show. The new centre, which Kate opened during her visit, more than doubles the among of space given over to the art form at the V&A The Duchess sported statement drop earrings with her check Erdem dress. The new centre, which Kate formally opened during her visit, more than doubles the among of space given over to the art form at the V&A The Duchess stayed on brand, teaming her Erdem dress with a pair of 290 floral earrings by the same British designer. Erdem has been widely rumoured to be the designer behind Princess Eugenie's wedding dress this week Kate, 36, who studied Art History at St. Andrew's University, holds the visual arts at the center of some of her public work: She is also patron of the National Portrait Gallery. She has also been seen photographing husband Prince William, 36, when he flew a helicopter over a lake in Canada in 2011 and released her own shots of the rainforest in 2012. Visitors enter the new centre through an installation of more than 150 cameras spanning 160 years and interactive displays help people understand how photographers view the world, through their equipment. The new centre, which Kate formally opened during her visit, more than doubles the among of space given over to the art form at the V&A. Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, said in a statement, 'Our collection established by the V&A's visionary first director Henry Cole - now seamlessly spans the entire history of photography, telling the story of the medium from the daguerreotype to the digital.' The Duchess was all smiles as she arrived at the museum, just a stone's throw from her Kensington Palace home. The new centre will more than double the space dedicated to photography where prints, negatives, camera equipment, photographic publications and original documents will be displayed together to tell a broader story of international photography Kate was at the museum to learn about its new photography centre where a frequently changing selection of new acquisitions, a 'Light Wall' for displaying the most cutting-edge photographic imagery, and a 'Dark Tent' projection area complete the new space 'Our new Photography Centre provides a world-class facility to re-establish photography as one of our defining collections. In an era when everyone's iPhone makes them a photographer, the V&A's Photography Centre explores and explains the medium in a compelling new way.' Martin Barnes, Senior Curator of Photographs at the V&A, added: 'The new Photography Centre brings to life some of the V&A's most beautiful original picture galleries and provides a permanent home for one of the finest and most inspiring collections of photography in the world. 'Photography is one of our most powerful forms ofglobal communication, and I'm thrilled that we can contextualise the past and present of this powerful medium in new and exciting ways.' The Duchess was named as the first ever royal patron of the Victoria & Albert in March 2018, just a month before welcoming her third child, Prince Louis, on April 23. Passion project: The Duchess, pictured arriving in south Kensington tonight, was named as the first ever royal patron of the Victoria & Albert in March 2018, just a month before welcoming her third child, Prince Louis, on April 23 Kate arriving at the V&A tonight. When her patronage was announced earlier this year, Kensington Palace said the new role would further the Duchess's interest in the visual arts, photography and design Easy journey: The V&A, which is a short distance from the Duchess's Kensington Palace home in west London, is the world's leading museum of art and design and Kate was announced as royal patron earlier this year Kate says her goodbyes after a private tour of the new exhibition. Her dress boasted a bateau neckline - a style favoured by Kate's sister-in-law the Duchess of Sussex - frayed sleeves and featured a purple Prince of Wales check pattern At the time, Kensington Palace said the patronage would further the Duchess's interest in the visual arts, photography and design. The V&A, which is a short distance from the Duchess's Kensington Palace home in west London, is the world's leading museum of art and design. It was founded in 1852 and named after the Duke of Cambridge's great-great-great-great-grandparents Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Kate revealed this evening that her eldest child, Prince George, is liable to blaming his pencils rather than his drawing ability. Shown a pencil drawing by William Henry Fox Talbot she was told the camera inventor blamed his lack of ability in drawing on the pencil, which inspired him to invent photography. He wanted nature to draw its own picture on the paper instead of failing with the pencil, Martin Barnes, senior curator of photographs at the V&A, explained. 'She said "George would do that!" that is blame the pencil, which was sweet,' he said afterwards. The conversation came as Barnes showed Kate the humble little wooden box with a simple lens was made by Fox Talbot in 1835. All in the detail: Kate, pictured leaving the museum tonight, teamed her Erdem dress with Erdem earrings made from mother-of-pearl beads with orange, black, and gray crystals. She carried a small box clutch and wore velvet pumps Busy week: After her engagement in London tonight, the Duchess of Cambridge is set to travel to Windsor with her family for the wedding of William's cousin, Princess Eugenie, on Friday 'It's a very special little object,' said the senior curator at the V&A. 'She was genuinely knowledgeable and excited about photography particularly the history. She was both interested in the technology and the results.' He also showed her the stereoscopic viewer which shows photographs by a local woman in the 1850s who had ten children and photographed her daughters in staged settings . She thought it 'brought images like that to life for modern audiences.' Tristram Hunt said of Kate's visit: 'She had an early sneak preview of the coronet and was very interested discussing the history of it and the design by Albert. We also showed her the Beyonce papillon ring a butterfly whose wings flap which was a very generous gift by Beyonce. She was suitably impressed. 'But she didn't get to touch it or try it on. 'It was hidden behind glass,' Mr. Hunt smiled Family connections: The V&A museum was founded some 166 years ago in 1852 and named after the Duke of Cambridge's great-great-great-great-grandparents Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Kate was taken back to her college days of when she studied Lewis Carroll. 'She talked about her undergraduate dissertation on photography so we looked at some of the Alice photographs,' he says. 'She was very knowledgable about the history of photography and interested in the galleries. We were delighted to host her. One of our curators had done a doctorate on the same lines and they had a very scholarly conversation . She said she worked incredibly hard on it.' After her engagement in London tonight, Kate is set to travel to Windsor with her family for the wedding of William's cousin, Princess Eugenie, on Friday. The proud couple will watch three-year-old Princess Charlotte take a starring role as a flower girl, while George, five, has been chosen as a page boy for the nuptials at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Lara and Eric Trump were spotted cozying up with Georgina Bloomberg at a charity event as it was revealed her dad, Michael Bloomberg, returned to the Democratic Party. For the first New York City Rescue Dogs Rock fundraising gala, Lara, 35, and Georgina, 35, co-chaired the event to raise awareness about the number of animals left in shelters or on the streets. While the children of the two prominent political figures seemed to play nice for the fundraiser, it came while former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg re-registered as a Democrat, sparking rumors of a 2020 presidential election run against Donald Trump. Making friends: Lara and Eric Trump, 35 and 34, attended a fundraising gala in New York City on Tuesday evening to raise awareness of dogs left on the streets and in shelters Big smiles: Georgina Bloomberg, 35, co-chaired the event with Lara to help raise money for Rescue Dogs Rock, a not-for-profit organization Bloomberg was registered as a Democrat before he left the party to become a Republican in 2001. Getting along: The pair seemed in high spirits amid rumors Michael Bloomberg, 76, and Donald Trump, 72, might go toe-to-toe in the 2020 election The liberal-leaning politician then later made another switch to become an 2007, but he recognized in an interview with The New York Times last month that a candidate needs to be represented by a major party to take the White House. The 76-year-old philanthropist confirmed his switch back to the Democratic Party in an Instagram post early Wednesday morning. In the caption, he wrote: 'At key points in U.S. history, one of the two parties has served as a bulwark against those who threaten our Constitution. 'Two years ago at the Democratic Convention, I warned of those threats. Today, I have re-registered as a Democrat I had been a member for most of my life because we need Democrats to provide the checks and balance our nation so badly needs.' Despite speculation of her father going toe-to-toe against President Donald Trump in the future, Georgina appeared all smiles as she chatted with her co-chair and Eric, 34. Enjoyable: Eric even brought the couple's two dogs, Ben and Charlie, to the event Adorable: Lara, pictured with her dogs and another guest at the event, worked with Georgina to make the first fundraising gala for the organization a success Poised: Hours after the fundraising event, Georgina's dad made it clear he had switched back to the Democratic Party on Instagram Close? Georgina (left) has also floated in similar event circles with Ivanka Trump, 36, (right). Pictured is the women together during the Trump Invitational Grand Prix in 2014 Adorable: The pair was also pictured with Ivanka's daughter Arabella during the event Included in the furry festivities were Lara and Eric's two dogs, Ben and Charlie. Future run? The philanthropist and former NYC mayor made it clear he thought joining the Democratic Party would help provide 'checks and balances' for the country During the fundraising gala, attendees were encouraged to raise money for the not-for-profit organization to help its mission on ridding the streets of homeless animals. Not only does Rescue Dogs Rock want to make people aware of the number animals on the street, but also the number of pets that end up getting euthanized because of the overflowing shelters. It appears the Trump and Bloomberg children fall in the the same socialite circle for charity events often because they have been spotted out together previously. In May, Georgina and Lara posed together while attending attended Big Dog Ranch Rescues 'Wine, Women and Shoes' at Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Ivanka, 36, and Georgina have also floated through the same billionaire circuit as their fathers after being caught at exclusive events scattered through NYC and Florida over the years. Although the pair have not been pictured together recently as Ivanka has become more focused on her political career alongside her father in Washington D.C. The political strife between Bloomberg and Donald Trump could hinder the children's friendly relationship as the 2020 election season starts to heat up in November. A couple who got divorced 40 years ago have married again after rekindling their romance - six decades on from their original wedding. Charlie Hailes, 88, and Audrey, 83, exchanged their vows in front of their six children in a ceremony held at the Manor Gatehouse registry office in Dartford, Kent, today. The couple, from Wilmington, originally tied the knot in 1955, after meeting at a dance hall in Peckham, south London. However, Charlie and Audrey divorced in 1978, before both going on to re-marry new partners in the subsequent years. Charlie Hailes, 88, and Audrey, 83, (pictured together at their wedding) tied the knot in Dartford, Kent, today, after getting divorced 40 years ago Charlie and Audrey originally tied the knot in 1955 (pictured, on their first wedding day), after meeting at a dance hall in Peckham, south London The couple found love again last year, following the death of Audrey's second husband. One of the couple's sons, Ian, 47, explained how his parents divorced in the late 1970s after a falling out over a 'massive mistake' that Charlie had made. 'I was seven and myself and my youngest sister stayed with my dad. My mum moved to Peterborough with my brother,' he explained. The couple's other three siblings were in their late teens and moved away on their own. Charlie and Audrey (pictured today on their wedding day) got married to each other for the second time today, more than six decades after their first wedding Charlie and Audrey (pictured outside the registry office) rekindled their romance last year, following the death of Audrey's second husband Charlie and Audrey (above with their registrar) tied the knot at the Manor Gatehouse registry office in Dartford today, with their six children present Ian said that all their children are now delighted their parents are finally back together. Following the divorce, both had remarried with new partners but according to Ian, they were never truly happy during their four decades apart. Ian said his parents got back together following the death of Audrey's husband, explaining: 'We said to dad, "you're not happy so why not live with mum?". 'And that's when it happened. They have seen sense. We didn't for one minute think they would remarry.' He added that it was a bittersweet feeling because he wished his parents sorted their problems out 40 years ago so they had more time together. Ian said he was 'very excited' to be his father Charlie's best man at the wedding. He explained that his mother Audrey broke her hip two weeks ago, so the reception is being rescheduled to allow her to dance with husband Charlie. Charlie and Audrey (pictured together in 1955) were together for nearly 20 years before they divorced, raising a family together Charlie and Audrey married for the first time in 1955 (above). They have now both married three times in total Just two weeks after a schoolgirl came out as transgender, her future stepfather was inspired to begin transitionin himself, from a woman into a man. Arianna Quizhpi was born and raised as a boy named Jorge in Cranford, New Jersey. But at the age of six, she told her mother Jasming Arce, 33, that she was transgender. And just two weeks after Arianna began her transition to female in July 2016, Jasming's girlfriend Jennifer Hull found the courage to come out as a man. Change: Eight-year-old Arianna Quizhpi was born a boy named Jorge (left) in Cranford, New Jersey but came out as transgender at age six and has since become a girl (right) Thoughtful: Arianna's mom Jasming Arce, 33 (left) noticed how unhappy her child was to be a boy (pictured before transition) Jasming, who identifies as being 'pansexual', had split from Jorge's father and was living with her girlfriend Jennifer. When Jasming's six-year-old son Jorge told her he was a girl, and started to go by Arianna, the change inspired Jennifer to speak up. Two weeks later, Jennifer began going by Braxton and started to transition from female to male. Jasming and Braxton, 36, are now married, and say brave Arianna is an inspiration to them and the wider trans community. Braxton, a mechanical engineer, said watching Arianna transition encouraged him to make the 'physical and emotional leap' he had buried since he was a young child. The family is now living as their authentic selves and have been a solid support to one another throughout their transitions. Tough: 'It made me feel pretty sad when everyone thought I was a boy because I always knew I was a girl,' Arianna (pictured before transition) said Embracing it: 'When I was allowed to be myself, I was really happy. Telling my mom really changed my life,' she said Braxton, who is also a dad to six-year-old Stella and four-year-old Nicholas said before Arianna spoke up, 'I was still in denial.' 'I grew up in a conservative family that was really religious. I never had a word to describe how I felt,' he explained. 'When I saw Arianna making this change it allowed me to traverse the unknown. 'I thought if this child can do this, and this can be accepted then maybe I could. She did what I couldnt do at her age. I decided to take the physical and emotional leap.' Braxton said Jasming was great during the changes. 'My wife is so open-minded, she is just amazing. Arianna is lucky to have such a wonderful mother who is so supportive,' he said. Arianna, now eight, added: 'I thought it was a little crazy that somebody else in the family was transgender but I felt happy because we could share stuff together. Surprise: Two weeks after Arianna's announcement, his mom's girlfriend Jennifer came out as trans, too (pictured left after transition) Take two: Jennifer made the transition from female to male and now goes by Braxton Thanks: Braxton (pictured right before transition) said Arianna inspired him 'It made me feel pretty sad when everyone thought I was a boy because I always knew I was a girl. When I was allowed to be myself, I was really happy. Telling my mom really changed my life.' Energy healer Jasming is pansexual, which is defined as someone who is 'romantically or emotionally attracted towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity'. She started dating Braxton, then called Jennifer, in June 2016, just a month before Jorge announced he wanted to become a girl called Arianna. Jasming, who married Braxton in July 2017, said the change in her daughter and husband since their transitions has been incredible. 'I noticed whenever Arianna used to draw, she would draw herself as a girl, or a female superhero rather than a male,' she said. 'It came to a point where she would get so upset when we tried to give her a haircut. She just didnt want to have her hair cut short like a boy. Family: Braxton and Jasming have now married. Braxton said Jasming, who identifies as pansexual, is very open-minded Braxton said: 'I thought if this child can do this, and this can be accepted then maybe I could. She did what I couldnt do at her age. I decided to take the physical and emotional leap' 'Something [is] different about her. From the beginning I was reluctant to push gender on her.' She recalled an afternoon when she asked Arianna if she liked being a boy. 'When she told me "No: I was a little bit overwhelmed, but Im a pretty open minded person. It wasnt such a big deal to me, I was proud that she could express who she is.' That isn't to say that Jasming didn't worry. 'At the beginning of her transition I mostly felt nervous for her, but I knew I had to help her be the person she was meant to be. 'When Arianna tried on her stepsisters clothes for the first time, I watched her light up. It gave me chills. She was just different.' That September, she started school as Ariana. 'When Braxton told be he was trans it made sense. I was actually really relieved and proud because it was his first step to living his authentic, true self,' she added. Baby: 'When Arianna tried on her stepsisters clothes for the first time, I watched her light up. It gave me chills. She was just different,' said Jasming (Arianna pictured before transition) Jasming added: 'It truly has been a blessing to witness them transition simultaneously without ever really second guessing the situation' Arianna shared her advice, saying: 'If you feel this way you should tell your parents and if they dont listen you should tell a teacher how you feel' 'It truly has been a blessing to witness them transition simultaneously without ever really second guessing the situation. It felt very natural to watch them take their true forms.' Although Braxton has changed his name and gender legally, the family is waiting until Arianna is older to legally change her name. The eight-year-old will begin hormone treatment when the first signs of puberty emerge. Arianna, who loves bowling, says she hopes her story will encourage other transgender children to confide in their parents. 'If you feel this way you should tell your parents and if they dont listen you should tell a teacher how you feel,' she said. 'I hope telling my story will help other kids.' Braxton added: 'Arianna is inspiring to me. She has such a strong voice and Im very proud of her. Vera Wang has opened up about the swift process that went behind designing Barbara Bush's wedding gown, revealing she had to work quickly because the former first daughter's wedding plans unfolded 'rather quickly'. Barbara, 36, tied the knot with writer Craig Coyne, 37, on Sunday at the Bush's family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine in front of 20 relatives after a secret, five-week engagement. The bride wore a custom Vera Wang gown, Larkspur & Hawk earrings that were given to her by her twin sister Jenna Bush Hager and served as her 'something blue', and Gianvito Rossi heels. Craft: Vera Wang has opened up about the swift process that went behind designing Barbara Bush's gown for her wedding, which took place on Sunday in Maine Barbara's dress featured spaghetti straps and a cowl neckline, and as well as a cape draping delicately over her shoulders and echoing the shape of her floor-length veil. 'The dress design process was not long as the wedding plans happened rather quickly,' Wang, 69, told Vogue. Barbara's gown, which was made out of silk crepe, had a 'seductive ease' thanks to its cowl neckline, the designer explained. But the bride also had some ideas about how to add a more ethereal quality to the gown, with Wang revealing that it was 'totally [Barbara's] idea to wear a sheer Italian silk cape that echoed the floor-length veil for a truly diaphanous effect'. Barbara tried on several different designs, and her final choice actually ended up being a mix of elements from a variety of Wang's previous creations. 'The main thing she definitely wished to achieve was a certain modernity with an ethereal, delicate feel,' the designer added, calling the former first daughter a 'minimalist' at heart. Barbara explained why she and Craig decided to get married so promptly in an interview published in the latest issue of People, telling the magazine that the death of her grandmother and namesake Barbara Bush at the age of 92 in April came as a wake-up call. 'Craig didn't get to meet my grandmother. I thought there would be plenty of time for that to happen,' she said. After Craig proposed, the pair decided to tie the knot promptly to make sure the bride's grandfather, 94-year-old George H.W. Bush, would be there. 'We actually would have gotten married the next week if we could have,' Barbara added. Celebration! Barbara, 36, tied the knot with writer Craig Coyne, 37, on Sunday at the Bush's family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine after a secret, five-week engagement Touching moment: Barbara's twin sister Jenna Bush Hager served as her matron of honor, after Barbara served as hers at her 2008 wedding to Henry Hager, now 40 'We just thought, let's try to do it soon. We knew we wanted to be married we'd already made that decision so we didn't need months of an engagement.' Barbara's wedding was a tremendously happy occasion for her family. Jenna took to Instagram on Tuesday morning to post photos of the family's celebration in Maine while sharing a heartfelt message for Barbara, saying she was still 'busting with love' over her twin's nuptials. The today co-anchor shared two photos from what appears to have been a weekend-long celebration, one of which shows the sisters and their parents, while the other captures Barbara and her nieces who served as her flower girls at the event. While it appears that the images weren't taken on Barbara's wedding day, it seems clear that they were taken as the family toasted the pair's wedding in Maine over the course of the weekend. The first image shows Jenna and Barbara with their parents, Laura Bush, 71, and George W. Bush, 72. Laura is on Barbara's left while George is on her right and rests a hand on her shoulder. Both parents are beaming, as is Jenna, who is standing on George W.'s right. The bride wears a white gown featuring lilac straps, in coordination with her father's button-down shirt. Jenna and Laura, meanwhile, are both wearing emerald green in the snap Laura in a long-sleeved design cinched at the waist with a belt, and Jenna in an off-the-shoulder number. Indeed, it appears that there was a purple-and-green theme to the occasion, given the coordinating ensembles being worn by the family at the event, which may perhaps have been the rehearsal dinner, or another pre-ceremony gathering. The second photo Jenna shared on Tuesday morning shows Barbara holding hands with both of her nieces, Jenna's daughters Mila, five, and Poppy, three. Over the moon: Jenna shared this photo of herself and her parents Laura Bush, 71, and George W. Bush, 72, celebrating the wedding of her twin sister Barbara Family: Jenna also shared this photo of Barbara holding hands with her nieces Mila, five, and Poppy, three, wearing a low-cut dress from Brock Collection that retails for an impressive $2,375 A beaming Barbara is wearing a very low-cut, slit $2,375 dress from Brock Collection which features long sleeves and a light pattern in the snap, with her dark hair down in her back. By her side are Mila and Poppy wearing matching white dresses with long sleeves and ruffled collars. Both Mila and Poppy served as flower girls on Barbara's wedding day, with Poppy taking on the additional duty of ring bearer. Jenna raved about the celebration in her Instagram post, writing: 'Just a couple more because although I'm waking up in NY my heart is in Maine. I'm still busting with LOVE for my beautiful sissy. Scroll to see three girls I love so much!' Anticipation: A photo of Barbara applying lipstick in the mirror while getting ready for her wedding was shared on an Instagram Story Another photo of Barbara that was shared on Instagram showed the bride-to-be getting prepared for her wedding while dressed in a white nightgown; the photo shows her carefully applying a red lipstick in the mirror, the final touches of her makeup for the day. It was revealed on Monday that Barbara had tied the knot in an 'intimate' ceremony after keeping her five-week engagement to her groom, a writer and Vanderbilt graduate, a closely-guarded secret. A beaming George W. proudly walked his daughter down the aisle at the event. The wedding, which was officiated by Barbara's aunt, Dorothy Bush Koch, came just six months after Barbara's grandmother, former First Lady Barbara, passed away. Barbara paid tribute to her late grandmother by wearing a piece of her jewelry a bracelet that had been given to her by George H. W. on their 70th wedding anniversary as her 'something borrowed'. Barbara and her groom wanted to tie the knot in Maine because that is where Barbara's grandfather resides, Jenna told Today. The bride's twin sister served as matron of honor during Barbara's nuptials a natural gesture, given that Barbara was her maid of honor when Jenna tied the knot with Henry Chase Hager, now 40, in 2008. 'I'm crying 24 hours later,' Jenna said on Today on Monday. 'There were so many happy tears.' Family: Barbara's twin sister Jenna Bush Hager (second from left), 36, was Barbara's matron of honor. Her daughters Mila (front, left), five, and Poppy (front, right), three, were both flower girls. Pictured left is Jenna's husband Henry Chase Hager, 40, center are Laura Bush, 71, and George W. Bush, 72 Together: Barbara posed for a sweet photo with her grandfather George H. W. Bush, 94 The matron of honor said the 'elusive' bride and her groom kept the ceremony on the down-low and focused on making it a family occasion. 'It was a very secret wedding, a little bit like my elusive sister,' Jenna added between tears. 'But also, just family in a place that means family love, and it was just beautiful.' Romantically, Craig proposed in the same spot where Barbara's grandparents got engaged. The groom, too, had his sibling by his side during the ceremony: his brother Edward Coyne III served as his best man, while his parents, Darlene, 63, and Edward James Jr., 65, were also in attendance - as was his sister Kathleen, 32, who is known as Katie. Both Katie and Kathleen did readings during the ceremony. Barbara and Craig are now planning to live in New York, which is where Barbara is based. For much of their relationship, the couple was doing long-distance because Craig was living in Los Angeles. Jenna and Barbara's grandmother, who died in April this year, was honored during the reception when Jenna read a letter that George H. W. wrote her years ago. 'I ended with a letter that my grandfather wrote to my grandmother because I searched all the romantics and Shakespeare just wasn't doing it. He was sitting right next to me as I read it,' Jenna told Today. Jenna paid tribute to her sister in an emotional Instagram post on Monday morning. She shared a photo of herself embracing her sister and wrote next to the shot: 'Happy tears, heart exploding as I watched this beautiful girl get married in the place that means love and family. I'm so proud to be this beauty's sister.' Barbara's father also took to social media to mark the happy occasion. He shared a photo of himself walking Barbara down the aisle and wrote: 'Barbara is named for a unique and strong woman - and rightly so, because she is unique and strong. @laurawbush and I are so proud of our compassionate, daring, fierce, kind, intelligent, loving daughter. And we're thrilled to welcome Craig Coyne to our family.' Barbara and Craig were set up on a blind date by friends in November last year and officially became an item by New Year's Eve. Craig proposed to Barbara just five weeks before they tied the knot, during a family gathering in Maine. 'It's just been a very sweet romance,' Barbara told People. 'And we've been long-distance for most of it he's been in LA and I've been in New York - but we've gotten to spend a lot of time together.' Barbara has long been more reserved than her twin sister. While Jenna has 611,000 followers on her Instagram account and regularly shares snapshots of her family life with Today viewers, Barbara does not have an official account on the platform and has worked as the co-founder of Global Health Corps, a nonprofit focused on public health. Who is Craig Coyne, the man who stole Barbara Bush's heart? The world was stunned when former first daughter Barbara announced that she had wed in an intimate ceremony over the weekend - but just who exactly is the man lucky enough to win her hand in marriage According to a statement from the Bush family, Craig Louis Coyne, 37, is a writer who originally hails from Georgia, and a graduate of Vanderbilt University. He is the son of Edward James Jr. and his wife Darlene, and has two siblings - older brother Edward James III, and a younger sister, Kathleen. As well as boasting credentials as a writer however, Craig has also worked as an actor, appearing in a handful of movies, including Jarhead (2005) and Unlovable (2018), as well as the web series Lonelygirl15 (2006) according to his IMDB page. Craig was cast by director Sam Mendes for Jarhead, which is based on the memoir of US Marine Anthony Swofford and stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the lead. The website for Craig's agent - Independent Talent - also reveals that he once worked as a Page in the U.S. House of Representatives. Pages in this position typically serve in their junior year of high school, meaning Craig likely worked as a page between 1997 and 1998, when Bill Clinton was in the White House. Since turning his hand to writing, Craig has worked on a live-action show for Comedy Central, and an original series with Parks and Rec star Jim OHeir, which is said to be in post-production. The groom, who creates web content and series with producers located in Los Angeles and in the UK, has also written a play, Delusions of Grammar, which has him a spot in the selection of the 2016 William Inge Theatre Festival in Kansas. Craig first met Barbara after the pair were set up on a blind date in November last year, and they then got engaged over the summer - in the same place that Barbara's grandfather popped the question. Advertisement Meanwhile, Coyne is a writer and former actor who appeared in a handful of movies, including Jarhead (2005), and Unlovable (2018), as well as the web series Lonelygirl15 (2006). Craig was cast by director Sam Mendes for Jarhead, which is based on the memoir of US Marine Anthony Swofford and stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the lead. Unlovable is an upcoming dramedy about a woman struggling with sex addiction. The Vanderbilt University alumni considers himself the 'world's biggest Chick-Fil-A fan' according to a website for one of his films. After graduating from Vanderbilt, the groom worked as a page in the U.S. House of Representatives before moving to Los Angeles. Pages in this position typically serve in their junior year of high school, meaning Craig likely worked as a page between 1997 and 1998. The president at the time was Bill Clinton, and Craig's new father-in-law George W. didn't enter the White House until January 2001. As a writer, Craig has worked on a live-action show for Comedy Central, as well as an original series with Parks and Rec star Jim O'Heir called Ask Play, which he also directed and which is said to be in post-production. The groom, who creates web content and series with producers located in Los Angeles and in the UK, has also written a play, Delusions of Grammar, which has him a spot in the selection of the 2016 William Inge Theatre Festival in Kansas. Reports that Barbara might be getting ready to tie the knot first surfaced last week however - despite the family's best efforts to keep the ceremony a secret. On Wednesday, Page Six reported that close friends and family of the bride and groom had been sent an invitation via Paperless Post to 'toast Barbara and Craig' at a Tribeca loft this coming Friday, just five days after the wedding took pace. The gathering is reportedly being hosted by Jenna and her husband Henry, and guests were told of the dress code: 'Sequins highly encouraged to get your groove on.' A friend of the couple said another party for 'only about 20 people' will then be held for just the close family and friends of Bush and Coyne on Saturday, however it is not known whether the source was in fact referring to Barbara's intimate wedding celebration. Barbara turns 37 years old November 25 and less than two years ago the Greenwich Village resident was believed to be dating filmmaker Andrew Jenks. The pair had been at a Rangers Game and Chris Gethard comedy show at the Lynn Redgrave Theater in December 2016. She was reportedly seeing Ping-Pong club SPiN business partner, Franck Raharinosy prior to that and the venue was often the location of events she hosted. A 10 per kg turkey from M&S has beaten its supermarket rivals the top spot in a blind taste test. Marks & Spencer's Pembrokeshire bronze free-range turkey was named top bird by judges at BBC Good Food magazine's annual Christmas Taste Awards, released this week. The awards seek to find the very best products for consumers ahead of the holiday season, to coincide with the release of its annual festive issue. Over four days in August, the expert panel blind-tasted some 166 products from 11 of the UKs leading retailers. Two of the big winners are at opposite ends of the price spectrum; M&S won in five categories and Morrisons won in three. The winner! Marks & Spencer's Pembrokeshire bronze free-range turkey, pictured, has been named as the best, beating its supermarket rivals to the top spot in a blind taste test The judges: Over four days in August, the expert panel, pictured, blind-tasted some 166 products from 11 of the UKs leading retailers for BBC's Good Food magazine Morrisons came out on top in both the mince pies and gluten-free mince pies categories. The judges loved the buttery, almost shortbread-like pastry on The Best deep-filled mince pies (pack of six, 2), as well as the design and the sugar dusting. Meanwhile, M&S Pembrokeshire bronze free-range turkey (10 per kg) won the turkey category. Commenting on the M&S bird, the judges said: This plump bird roasted to a lovely golden colour with a tasty, crisp skin. The breast meat was succulent and the legs were savoury and gamey. Christine Hayes, Editor-in-chief of BBC Good Food, said: This years results show that you dont have to blow the budget to enjoy great food. 'We always blind-taste all the products so that we judge solely on taste and appearance, and arent influenced by the packaging or the retailers reputation.' From salmon to stollen, this is BBC Good Foods definitive list of 2018s finest festive goodies. BBC Good Foods Christmas issue is on sale on 25th October at 4.50 with over 100 festive recipes (see bbcgoodfood.com for more information) TURKEY This Pembrokeshire Bronze Free Range Turkey from M&S (10 per kg) beat off stiff competition from the likes of Aldi in BBC Good Food's annual taste test, released this week Winner: Pembrokeshire Bronze Free Range Turkey, 10 per kg, M&S This plump bird roasted to a lovely golden colour with great crisp skin. The breast meat was moist and succulent while the legs were savoury and gamey. Highly commended: Aldi Specially selected Exquisite Ramburgh farm British free range whole turkey (8.99 per kg) Highly commended - Lidl Silverslate Turkey (under 9 per kilo MINCE PIES Morrisons The Best Deep Filled Mince Pies (6 pack), 2, pictured, were hailed for their 'buttery, shortbread-like' pastry by judges who blind-tasted some 166 products from 11 of the UKs leading retailers. Winner: Morrisons The Best Deep Filled Mince Pies (6 pack), 2, Morrisons Our judges loved the buttery, almost shortbread-like pastry on these, as well as the design and dusted sugar on top. The filling has juicy whole raisins and sultanas and a nice balance of sweetness and booze. Highly commended: Aldi Specially Selected Exquisite Mince Pies 2.99 Highly commended - Waitrose 1 All Butter Mince Pies 6's 2.50 CHRISTMAS PUDDING Proof is in the pudding: The winning Christmas pudding came from Asda, pictured, and was chosen for its great texture, 'kick of booze' and glossy exterior Winner: Extra Special Christmas Pudding (907g), 6.50, ASDA A good size pudding, with a nice glossy exterior. Plenty of nuts and plump cherries gives this moist, dense pudding a great texture while the kick of booze develops after each mouthful. Highly commended: Tesco Finest 12 Month Matured Christmas Pudding 907g 8 Highly commended: Sainsbury's Taste the Difference 18 month matured cognac laced Christmas pudding 9 STUFFING Not your average stuffing! Lidl's deluxe apricot and white stilton stuffing, pictured, beat off stiff competition from Tesco and Asda in the blind taste test. Judges l blind-tasted some 166 products from 11 of the UKs leading retailers Winner: Deluxe Apricot and White Stilton Stuffing, 2.39, Lidl These stuffing balls were hugely popular. We love the neat, fruit-studded appearance and balance of sweet apricot and savoury stilton. Highly commended: Tesco Festive Christmas Tree Stuffing 494g, 4.50 Highly commended: ASDA Extra Special Pork & Caramelised Onion Stuffing with Bacon Wraps 3.00 PANETTONE Aldi's panettone scooped the top spot, with judges impressed by its 'fluffy and moist' sponge exterior. They also praised its vanilla notes and 'billowy air pockets' Winner: Specially Selected Exquisite Panettone (800g), 6.99, Aldi Velvety soft, buttery and golden with lots of vanilla notes, the dough is light with billowy air pockets. Dont be fooled by the unglazed crust - once you cut into it, its fluffy and moist. Highly commended: Morrisons The Best Chocolate Orange and Brandy Panettone 8 HAM Waitrose's decadent ham, infused with juniper, was the clear winner when it came to pork - judges noted the meat was 'little on the salty side, but not overpoweringly so'. The judging panel blind-tasted some 166 products from 11 of the UKs leading retailers Winner: Juniper Smoked Spiral Crackling Gammon, 12.49 per kg, Waitrose & Partners Our favourite product of the entire taste test, this is a bone-in joint, so large and imposing with an unusual, crisp, pork-scratching-style crackling. The meat is a little on the salty side, but not overpoweringly so, and has bags of flavour. Highly commended: Booths Whisky & Orange Glazed British Gammon Joint 25.00 STOLLEN When it came to stollen, Lidl's offering was crowned the winner thanks to its notes of Jamaican rum. It was described as having 'almond flavour and generous fruit' Winner: Deluxe Luxury Stollen with Jamaican Rum, 3.99, Lidl A soft, enriched almost panettone-like dough with plenty of almond flavour and generous fruit. We love that you get marzipan in every mouthful. Highly commended: Booths 12 Festive Stollen Bites 3.25 Highly commended: ASDA Extra Special Chocolate, Hazelnut & Amaretto stollen loaf 5.50 ALTERNATIVE MEAT CENTREPIECES This British beef sirloin from M&S, costing 45, was chosen as the top 'alternative meat centrepiece' with judges blown away by its 'delicious truffle butter and mushroom topping' Winner: M&S Bristish Sirloin of beef (1.5kg), 45, M&S The cooking instructions are spot on for this. The meat is soft and tender and theres just the right amount of the delicious truffle butter and mushroom topping, which provides bags of flavour. Highly commended: Lidl Bone Marrow Pie 14.99 Highly commended - ASDA 30 Day Matured Beef Rump Joint with a Portobello, Porcini & Truffle Duxelle 20 per KG VEGETARIAN MAIN COURSE These M&S ricotta stacks were chosen as the best vegetarian main course by the judging panel who blind-tasted some 166 products from 11 of the UKs leading retailers Winner: Baked ricotta stacks with creamy white wine sauce (380g), 7, M&S Attractive presentation, and great to see a veggie dish without pastry! These stacks look smart and have a nice mix of layers and textures. SAVOURY CANAPES These spicy pulled pork tacos from M&S were chosen as the best savoury canapes thanks to the 'fresh additions of cool soured cream and salsa' Winner: 10 Spicy Pulled Pork Tacos (215g), 7, M&S We love the smoky, flavoursome meat, well-cooked tacos (soft yet with crunch), and fresh additions of cool soured cream and salsa in these colourful tacos. Plus, scatter over some coriander and they could pass as homemade. Highly commended: Lidl Chicken and Chorizo Cups 3.49 Highly commended - Booths 12 Chicken Panang Cups 7.00 SMOKED SALMON When it came to smoked salmon, judges agreed that Asda's heather honey and black pepper salmon beat its counterparts, with the Co-op's offering coming in at a close second Winner: Extra Special Heather Honey and Black Pepper Smoked Salmon, 3.99, ASDA This sweet-smoky salmon comes in neat, thick slices, edged with herbs and black pepper so looks great on the buffet table. Highly commended: Co-op Irresistible Smoked Salmon 100g 5.00 CENTREPIECE DESSERT This Beglian chocolate and cherry dessert from M&S was described by judges as 'festive and retro'. It costs 20 and is a practical shape to slice and serve, the panel said Winner: Belgian Chocolate & Cherry Dessert (1kg), 20, M&S Festive and retro, this dessert has a great texture with rich silky mousse, bitter chocolate and cherries and a hint of booze. Its also a practical shape to slice and serve. Highly commended: Iceland Luxury Black Forest Layered Pavlova 6 EpiPens routinely doled out by the NHS and used by millions of allergy sufferers across the world have potentially fatal flaws and are not fit for purpose, a coroner has said. Dr Sean Cummings, who presided over the inquest of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who died of an allergic reaction after eating a Pret a Manger sandwich, has slammed the pens as 'inherently unsafe' because they are too short to reach muscle and don't contain enough adrenaline. The 15-year-old passed away in a French hospital in 2016 despite being given two EpiPen injections from her father on a flight to Nice after eating a Pret sandwich that failed to fully list ingredients. In a damning report written after Natasha's inquest, Dr Cummings has demanded answers from Epipen manufacturer Pfizer over the inadequate length of the needle and the dosage in the device. Around 250,000 people in the UK rely on auto-injectors, of which the most popular is EpiPen, manufactured by Pfizer. Figures show around 3.6 million prescriptions for EpiPens are dished out in the US each year. They are available on prescription in the UK and are thought to cost the NHS around 50 for a twin-pack - but the same product costs up to $700 (531) in the US. Dr Sean Cummings presided over Natasha Ednan-Laperouse's inquest, who died of an allergic reaction after eating a Pret a Manger sandwich Dr Sean Cummings slammed the pens as being 'inherently unsafe' because they are too short to reach muscle and don't contain enough adrenaline (stock EpiPen) Patients with allergies to foods such as peanuts are told to carry with them at all times in case they suffer a reaction. In a damning report published after Natasha's inquest, Dr Cummings warned: 'The use of needles which access only subcutaneous tissue and not muscle is in my view inherently unsafe.' The UK Resuscitation Council, a professional body established in 1983, states adrenaline injection needles should be at least 25mm, to ensure they reach muscle to allow it to work quicker. Patients often have to stab through thick clothing to administer the shot of adrenaline in an emergency. But for some adults, mainly those who are obese, the body recommends the needle of an auto-injector should be around 38mm. For toddlers, it should be at least 16mm. HOW DO EPIPENS WORK? For countless allergy sufferers, an 'auto-injector' is a potential lifesaver. These are spring-loaded syringes that give a shot of adrenaline to stop a severe allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock. This can cause a catastrophic drop in blood pressure and trigger a cardiac arrest, or the airways swell so much it can become hard to breathe. About 20 people in the UK die as a result each year. Adrenaline is thought to halt this process - how is not quite clear - and those with severe allergies are prescribed an autoinjector such as an EpiPen (there is a variety of brands), loaded with epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, to carry at all times. In order to work quickly enough, the needle needs to get the adrenaline into the muscle below the fat layer directly under the skin. Once it's in the muscle, the adrenaline gets into the bloodstream, taking effect within five minutes. EpiPens, which are distributed around the world by Pennsylvania-based firm Mylan, who own the rights to the product, have a 16mm-long needle. The UK Resuscitation Council, a professional body established in 1983, states adrenaline injection needles should be at least 25mm, to ensure they reach muscle to allow it to work quicker. The body, headed by Professor Jonathan Wylie, also recommends that auto-injectors provide a dose of around 500 micrograms of adrenaline. But EpiPens contain only 300mcg. Advertisement EpiPens, which are distributed around the world by Pennsylvania-based firm Mylan, who own the rights to the product, have a 16mm-long needle. The Resuscitation Council, headed by Professor Jonathan Wylie, also recommends that auto-injectors provide a dose of around 500 micrograms of adrenaline. But Dr Cummings, in his report of Natasha's death, highlighted that an EpiPen contains only 300mcg - compared to the 500mcg found in an Emerade auto-injector. He added the combination of 'an inadequate dose of adrenaline and an inadequate length needle raises serious safety concerns', The Times reports. Because of a global shortage of EpiPens, at least one patient in the UK has had to rely on an EpiPen Junior - the child's version of the life-saving gadget. But they contain only 0.15mg of adrenaline - half the adult dose - and have a 13mm needle. Mother-of-two Abby Doherty last month told Good Health that pharmacies had ran out of the adult EpiPen and it was only the EpiPen Junior available to her - despite official guidance that patients who are unable to get an EpiPen should ask for an alternative brand of auto-adrenaline injectors. The issues were previously raised in the inquest but now Dr Cummings has demanded answers from officials over his concerns about EpiPens. Dr Cummings sent his report to Clive Schlee, chief executive of Pret-a-Manger, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the chief executive of Pfizer, and Michael Gove, secretary of state for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He gave them 56 days to respond. An MHRA spokesperson said: 'Natashas death was a tragedy and our heart goes out to her family at this difficult time. Epipens have a good safety record and situations like this are incredibly rare. 'Patient safety is our highest priority and our role, as regulator, is to make sure the medicines you and your family take are safe and effective. 'As with all medicines, the safety of Epipens is carefully monitored and we will consider any recommendations we receive from the coroner, as well as other sources of information about Epipens, and act as needed to protect public health.' A spokesperson for The Anaphylaxis Campaign said: 'It is important to note that The European Medicines Agency (EMA) completed a review of all adrenaline auto-injectors approved in the EU in 2017 and concluded that manufactures should carry out studies in humans to fully understand when and how much adrenaline reaches the blood stream, and how quickly and effectively it acts on body tissues when given through an auto-injector. 'These studies have started and will help to inform future recommendations for adrenaline auto-injectors.' Natasha begged her father to help her before collapsing on a British Airways flight to Nice. She fell ill within three minutes of consuming the baguette she bought at Pret's Heathrow Terminal 5 branch. She believed the sandwich, which contained artichoke, olive and tapenade, was safe to eat because sesame was not listed on the packaging. But Natasha started complaining of an itchy throat before hives broke out on her neck and midriff 20 minutes after take-off. Her father then gave her two EpiPens in the plane's toilet. Natasha, who was flying with BA to Nice with her father and a friend, later suffered a cardiac arrest on board and died in a French hospital. Dr Cumming's claims come amid a global shortage of EpiPens, which are prescribed by doctors in the UK but can be purchased by online pharmacies for around 45. There are no official figures on how many EpiPens remain in the UK but many pharmacies have reported that they do not have any of the auto-injectors left. The two other brands available in the UK, Jext and Emerade, are now also hard to find. Emerade's adult version has a 24mm long needle and contains 500mcg of adrenaline. Jext's adult version contains 300mcg and has a 16mm long needle - similar to an EpiPen. Regulators last month certified the use of some out-of-date EpiPens in the UK. Dr Cummings sent his report to Clive Schlee, chief executive of Pret-a-Manger, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the chief executive of Pfizer, and Michael Gove, secretary of state for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs EpiPen and EpiPen Junior devices, supplied by Pennsylvania-based firm Mylan, have faced shortages in the UK, US and other countries for months Children with severe allergies are not allowed to go to school without $700 EpiPen amid nationwide shortage of the life-saving drug Children with severe allergies across the US are being forced to stay home from school due to a nationwide EpiPen shortage. Chiquita Morris said her five-year-old son Eden was sent home on his first day of kindergarten at Spanaway Elementary School in Spanaway, Washington. She told KIRO 7 school officials told her that, due to her son's severe allergies, he wouldn't be able to attend class until he had an EpiPen on him. For more than a year, Morris says she's been trying to get her hands on the $700 injector, but with no luck. But the school district argues there's nothing it can do because state law requires children with 'life-threatening condition' to have the medication on file prior to attending school. With as many as two students affected by this in every classroom in the US, parents are calling on schools to have back-up EpiPens - or generic versions - on hand until their pharmacies can fill prescriptions for them. Chiquita Morris said her five-year-old son Eden was sent home on his first day of kindergarten at Spanaway Elementary School in Spanaway, Washington, because he didn't have an EpiPen on him for his severe allergies Advertisement The MHRA said the shelf-life of some batches of adult-use EpiPens can be extended by four months. But it did not apply to EpiPen Junior versions. ALKAbello, the Danish company that manufactures rival device Jext, said it was 'doing all we can to meet the increased demand' when asked about the shortage earlier this year. Cases of anaphylaxis have increased and so there is great demand for auto-injectors. According to NHS figures, 325,785 auto-injectors were prescribed in 2016, the most recent period for which figures are available. The first indications of the global shortage came in April when Mylan warned of supply problems. The crucial devices are used by allergy patients during a deadly anaphylactic shock - which can kill in minutes. Patients jab the needle into their thigh, giving them an immediate dose of adrenaline to temporarily stop symptoms and allow them enough time to reach hospital. EpiPens, which are distributed around the world by Pennsylvania-based firm Mylan, who own the rights to the product, have a 16mm-long needle. Emerade, an alternative auto-injector, has a 24mm long needle WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU CAN'T GET HOLD OF AN EPIPEN? ADVICE FROM EXPERTS IN THE UK Do not dispose of expired devices before receiving a new one. Remember, the four-month extension on expiry dates is advice from the Department of Health and Social Care/MHRA Keep trying. Anyone who doesnt have an auto-injector and cant get one should call all the pharmacies in their area until they find one that still has stock. Getting one may involve travelling. Be quick due to high demand, pharmacists wont reserve auto-injectors. One auto-injector is enough for most people, though those with more severe problems who carry two doses should continue to do so. Take extra care to avoid allergens. Dr Pamela Ewan, consultant allergist at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, says: Most allergic reactions can be treated with antihistamines. Small studies show that EpiPens can remain potent for years. Researchers in California found EpiPens that were 50 months out of date contained at least 90 per cent of the stated amount of the adrenaline. The drug does not become toxic. Ask your childs school to go nut-free. Dr Adrian Morris, an allergy doctor at the Surrey Allergy Clinic, says: Otherwise, make sure your school knows about your childs triggers and takes steps to minimise any contact during the school day. Schools may have a stock of EpiPens as they can buy them without prescription. If you cant get one, write to your childs teacher to see if there is one on site. If your child has severe allergies, and you cannot get an auto-injector then you could be justified in keeping them away from school. Dr Morris said: Children may have to be kept at home and out of harms way. In extreme cases, Dr Morris suggests asking your doctor for ampoules of adrenaline and syringes. The GP may need to prescribe the age- appropriate amounts and instruct the parent how to inject this into the child in a situation of anaphylaxis. Never try to make your own EpiPen, as some people are advocating online, says Dr Morris. They can fail and its really not a safe and reliable option. If youre travelling by air, the Anaphylaxis Campaign advises: Stick to plain foods without sauces and dressings and take safe, non-perishable snacks with you. If you dont know whats in the food, dont eat it. Some airlines have removed peanut snacks from flights, but you should carry wipes to clean surfaces on the aircraft to minimise the risk of skin contact with traces on seat-back trays and armrests. In an emergency whether or not you have an auto-injector call 999 or go to your nearest accident & emergency department, says Dr Ewan. Advertisement Children with severe allergies across the US are being forced to stay home from school due to a nationwide EpiPen shortage, DailyMail.com reported yesterday. Chiquita Morris said her five-year-old son Eden was sent home on his first day of kindergarten at Spanaway Elementary School in Spanaway, Washington. School officials reportedly told her that, due to her son's severe allergies, he wouldn't be able to attend class until he had an EpiPen on him. Figures state there were around 3.6 million Americans who were prescribed an EpiPen in 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the US, EpiPens cost around $700 (531). Mylan faced an outpouring of criticism after it raised the price of a pack of two in 2016. The same package cost $100 in 2008. Martin Shkreli - the 'Pharma Bro' who hiked the price of HIV medication Daraprim by 5,000 per cent - defended the firm two years ago. Officials at the US Food and Drug Administration have previously blasted the firm for deaths and illnesses reported after using faulty products. The agency said last September these deaths would have been preventable had the firm tested its products or investigated malfunctioning reports more thoroughly. The FDA granted approval to the first generic alternative for the EpiPen in August. It allowed Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals to market its auto-injector. Australia has been struck repeatedly by the global supply issues over EpiPens, which are the only approved adrenaline jab in the country. Health officials in Australia were forced to keep extending warnings of a nationwide shortage as patients were left fearing for their lives, it was reported in April. Around 200,000 couples a year try IVF. Two thirds of couples who try IVF experience failure at least once. Fertility is a murky area of science, and it is likely that we dont even know what questions to ask to find the answers to our current questions. But what is clear is that a significant proportion of failed cycles are down to issues with the embryo - and computers may be able to fix that. Two new papers being presented later today at this weeks American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference will reveal claims of unprecedented success at selecting viable embryos using artificial intelligence. In doing so, they could dramatically lower the risk of failed cycles, and miscarriages (70 percent of which are caused by embryo abnormalities). They could also put an end to the gung-ho (but, for now, necessary) approach of implanting multiple embryos to maximizes chances, which often leads to twins or triplets - and the risk of preterm birth, preeclampsia, and costly childbirth complications. Now the two teams - one from the US and one from Australia - are racing to patent their algorithms to enter the $7.5 billion AI market as the first barrier to human life. But there are some areas it still cannot cover... Many are investing hope in technology to get around another human fallacy in fertility: judgment WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE CURRENT SYSTEM OF SCREENING EMBRYOS? IVF and egg freezing now allow couples the chance to defy human biology to have babies despite fertility issues, or past the mother's 40th birthday. But the crucial step of picking the right blastocysts - which develop into embryos - is still left to the human eye. Within the parameters of what is clearly normal, and what is clearly abnormal, every embryologist has their own way of deciding whether they fancy the chances of a blastocyst to make it all the way. It's not a perfect art, so, naturally, hopes are high that technology could help us get around another human fallacy: judgement. WHAT DETERMINES IF AN EMBRYO WILL SURVIVE? There are many things that can derail the IVF process, including many factors that we dont even know about yet. When it comes to something like miscarriages - painfully common in IVF patients - embryos are the focus. Embryo abnormalities account for 70 percent of miscarriages, while the rest is down to other factors, such as the mothers response to hormones, uterine disorders, hormone levels, etc. From an embryologists perspective, there are three main areas to be concerned about: 1. Does it look normal? This is where AI could play a role. Embryologists decide which blastocysts to implant by assessing whether they look normal, and whether they are developing steadily (growing a little bit every 10 to 12 hours, rather than irregular bursts). Nobody knows what makes a blastocyst look normal or abnormal, or grow steadily. But the two new studies (described more below) showed that by training a computer to understand what looks normal and abnormal, we could achieve very reliable results. 2. The genetic factor: Is it chromosomally normal? This is where AI cannot help - yet. But other new tech can. AI is trained to learn what normal development looks like. Just like the humans that trained it, the computer cannot see whether the blastocyst has any genetic defects by sight alone. Zaninovic hopes to incorporate DNA screening into the AI model one day, but does not yet know how that would work. There are other tools, though, which could be used in conjunction with it. Last month, Columbia Universitys Dr S. Zev Williams announced a new DNA sequencer, a tiny handheld screening tool, between the size of a small chocolate bar and a USB, which can deliver verdicts within minutes, rather than weeks as current testing methods do. Dr Williams, who was once a fellow in the Cornell lab that developed one of the new AI techniques, said that this gadget could work 'synergistically' with the AI (if the AI does prove effective in more trials). 'What you'll end up saying is: within this group of normal embryos, which looks the healthiest? Or within this group of healthy-appearing embryos, which one has a regular number of chromosomes?' A whole other area of concern is an issue called 'mosaicism', when an embryo is borderline. It's an area we still don't fully understand, but the crux of it is that genetic testing has improved to such an extent that we don't just see normal or abnormal embryos, we see some in the middle. The problem is, that decision has to be put to the couple, who are already riding a whirlwind of emotions. Many couples undergoing fertility treatment yield few viable embryos. If their only one is mosaic, it can feel like an agonizing gamble. The goal is to be able to (a) determine how much of a problem mosaicism really is, and (b) distinguish between risky mosaic embryos and safe ones. But we're nowhere near that yet. 3. The mother factor: Will it implant? No technology can help in this regard yet, but pills might. Once an embryologist has selected the perfect embryo, which looks normal and is genetically sound, there is still a chance that it wont implant. Again, as with everything in fertility, it is not black and white. Sometimes its down to undiagnosed endometriosis (a disorder that affects the womb lining), or a blood clotting issue, or even that they have natural killer cells that react to the synthetic hormones as if they were a virus. One theory is that, for some women, the uterus spontaneously contracts in reaction to the procedure and the hormones, which prevents the embryo from implanting. In a bid to tackle - and capitalize on - this mysterious problem, a Swiss company, ObsEva, has developed a pill called Nolasiban which can be given to the patient four hours before implantation to balance her hormones and prevent these contractions. In a paper which won a prize from SART (the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology), they showed it improved the rate of embryos implanting by 32 percent. ObsEva CEO Ernest Loumaye, a gynecologist by trade, told DailyMail.com they expect to price the drug at around $3,000 per patient, though they are vying for reimbursement in Europe where IVF is subsidized by most states. It's an eye-watering cost but Loumaye defends it as 'much cheaper to insurance companies than the price of twins or triplets. They are more expensive during pregnancy, birth, and carry more risks'. HOW DO THE NEW A.I. SYSTEMS WORK - AND HOW WELL? Both of the studies being presented at this week's ASRM conference trained the AI network using time lapse images or videos, showing how an embryo developed over time. The first, led by Nikita Zaninovic at Cornell University, used 18,000 images to train the computer ('we call it The Beast,' Zaninovic told DailyMail.com), then they gave it another 32,000 to make a judgement on. First, it had to standardize the embryos. Currently, each embryologist has their own way of categorizing embryos, which changes from lab to lab - and can even change from embryologist to embryologist. Cornells AI was almost 100 percent successful (97.52 percent) at categorizing the embryos into groups of good, moderate and poor quality. It then had to select which embryo had the best chance of making it to live birth. Comparing the computers decisions to their live birth data from patients, they found the computer accurately selected a viable embryo 85 percent of the time. The other AI was developed by Aengus Tran, a medical undergraduate at the University of New South Wales, working with his brother, a business undergraduate also at UNSW. They developed a system, which they called Ivy, which was trained using time lapse videos then given to eight labs in four different countries. Those labs used the technique to screen 1,603 patients aged 22 to 50, with the results double-checked by an embryologist. It worked 93 percent of the time. These aren't the first AI algorithms designed to test embryos. Eeva was approved by the FDA in 2014, which can screen abnormalities, but it is not a dynamic system. It cannot react to new information like these 'deep-learning' AIs can. Beyond that, the internet is littered with online companies claiming to do the same. Zaninovic calls them 'cowboys'. 'I haven't seen their data. They don't come to conferences like this [ASRM] to share their data with the rest of the industry, or publish their work.' What's more, he says, 'they make some bombastic claims'. One company in Australia, Life Whisperer, has made headlines with the claim that they can spot Down syndrome using AI, a genetic disorder affecting chromosome 21. As far as we know, it's something that would need to be spotted in genetic screening, rather than on pure aesthetics. But we could be wrong. It could be that genetic abnormalities could be spotted using AI, and we just don't know it yet. The problem, Zaninovic warns, is that AI learns using data. It only understands what's normal and what's not by first seeing examples of what's normal and what's not. 'For AI to detect Down syndrome you would have to show it lots of examples of Down syndrome embryos. And let me tell you, there aren't many. That's why I'm skeptical,' he says. WILL THIS PUT EMBRYOLOGISTS OUT OF A JOB? Zaninovic insists it wont. People say Im shooting myself in the foot, he said. This isnt replacing embryologists, its just that your job will change. Hes probably right. In fact, a study by MIT last year compared human-only teams, robot-only teams and human-robot teams. They found that, by far, the most efficient category was the human-robot combination, which was 85 percent more efficient than the other two groups. The biggest change, he says, will be that hospitals and clinics that want to implement this technique will need a full team of IT support. Ultimately, the opportunity to relieve pain and suffering is so great that it shouldn't matter, he says. Dr Williams agrees. 'Most people after a loss they blame themselves,' he says. 'They lifted something to heavy, they got into an argument at work, they got stressed. So they're really upset with themselves, they feel a lot of self-blame and guilt, inappropriately. They shouldn't, but it's very natural of humans to do so. 'We have this ability to test and say no it wasn't because of these things it was because, from the moment that embryo was formed, it was destined to result in this, and laying on your back for 40 weeks would have made zero difference. It's very powerful to be able to show that.' 'Things like miscarriage and infertility are some of the most ancient diseases,' he adds. 'I think there's something poetic about solving that with some of the newest technology.' Women could be spared the heartbreak of miscarriage thanks to artificial intelligence that can help spot which pregnancies will fail. The breakthrough works with IVF treatment, using a super-computer to pick out good embryos or bad ones which could prevent a woman from giving birth or cause her to miscarry. Researchers found the computer, nicknamed The Beast, was able to predict which embryos would lead to a live birth with 85 per cent accuracy, correctly selecting 280 out of 328. The breakthrough works with IVF treatment, using a super-computer to pick out good embryos or bad ones which could prevent a woman from giving birth or cause her to miscarry Doctors who email a picture of an embryo to the computer can expect a result within minutes. And the technology is only five years away from being made available to couples, say the researchers. About half of miscarriages are caused by a problem with the embryo, where it has an abnormal number of chromosomes. Why young women shun folic acid Young women are failing to take folic acid when trying to conceive because the message is not put on social media. Those aged 18 to 24 could be ignorant of the vitamin as health campaigns do not target popular networks such as Instagram and Snapchat, experts warned. More than half of young women trying for a baby are not taking folic acid despite the risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida, a study by a British firm found. Dr Sarah Johnson, from SPD Development, led the research surveying almost 11,500 women and presented the findings to the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Denver yesterday. Younger people dont use traditional channels for getting information, they use social media, she said. The NHS advises all women to take 400mg of folic acid daily if trying to conceive. Advertisement The results of the study, which involved Cornell University in New York and Imperial College London, will be presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Denver. Dr Nikica Zaninovic, lead researcher in the US who was supported by Dr Zev Rosenwaks, said: If AI can recognise embryos that are normal and those that are abnormal chromosomally that will result in a reduced miscarriage and stillbirth rate, which is really our central reason for doing this research. At the moment, fertility clinics tend to judge if embryos are developing normally by looking at their shape, size or growing speed. Researchers trained the super-computer using almost 700 images of five-day-old embryos. They used time-lapse photography, where a photograph of embryos in an incubator is taken every ten minutes avoding the risks that come with an embryo being handled. British expert Professor Allan Pacey, of Sheffield University, said: The data from time-lapse systems is a very good idea as it may find patterns and algorithms that are not visible to the human eye. The new method could also avoid doctors implanting two embryos to boost chances of pregnancy. Dr Zaninovic said: We could help women avoid having twins and multiple births which lead to all kinds of complications. The scientist, who is seeking to patent the technology, added: Its all web-based. It doesnt mean every hospital will have to have this. It can just be done over the internet very easily. A surgeon has recorded gruesome footage of the moment he removed a live and wriggling leech from the nostril of one of his patients. The medic uses tweezers to pinch the blood-sucking worm, pluck it off the flesh inside the man's nose and pull it out, still alive and squirming. The unnamed patient in Malaysia was thought to have got himself into the unusual predicament while swimming in a river a couple of weeks earlier. And the amazed surgeon said he had never seen anything like it and that the situation had the potential to be 'very dangerous'. An unnamed Malaysian man visited a doctor complaining he could feel something moving around up his nose and, on examination, a leech was found sucking blood from inside his nostril A three-minute video shows the procedure taking place at a clinic in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia in south-east Asia. Dr Rahmat Omar, an experienced ear, nose and throat surgeon, made the stomach-churning discovery when the man turned up complaining he could feel something moving up his nose. When Dr Omar put a small camera up the patient's nose he discovered there was a leech latched onto the inside of his nostril. The video shows Dr Omar prodding the squelchy-looking worm with a metal rod, before he sends in the tweezers to grab and remove it. Dr Omar said: 'This was the first time I had ever seen this. I could not believe it!' 'It must have been so uncomfortable. It obviously could have been very dangerous.' Dr Rahmat Omar, an experienced ear, nose and throat surgeon in Kuala Lumpur, treated the patient and filmed himself working to begin with he prodded the squelchy-looking leech with a metal rod Dr Omar then sent in the tweezers and pinched the leech, plucking it off the inside of the man's nose when it was pulled off the skin it began to squirm and writhe around Dr Omar pulled the leech out through the man's nostril in the gruesome procedure, and said his patient tolerated it well The Malaysian man is thought to have picked up the leech while swimming in a river a couple of weeks earlier, and Dr Omar warned him to stay away from the river in future ARE LEECHES DANGEROUS? Contrary to popular belief, most leeches dont rely on drinking blood to survive. Some eat other small animals and some feed off decomposing bodies. Blood-sucking leeches only suck about a teaspoon of blood and when theyre full they naturally fall off. For humans, blood loss from a single leech would not be significant enough to be harmful, and their bites are not very painful becuase their saliva contains a numbing agent. Bites may bleed after the leech has gone because the saliva stops blood clots, but this usually heals on its own. Leech bites may cause infection in some circumstances but this should be easily treatable. Source: Mehdi Leech Therapy Advertisement The patient explained he had been swimming in a river two weeks earlier, leading Dr Omar to believe the leech had somehow swum into his nose then and latched on. The expert surgeon said the patient tolerated the procedure well, and gruesome footage of it has now been viewed more than 90,000 times on YouTube. After the leech is pulled from the nostril it can be seen squirming around and stretching its body. It appears to try and suck on a tissue the medics placed it on, and when the camera is inserted back into the man's nose there is blood on the inside of it. 'The patient is very lucky,' Dr Omar added. 'I told them to stay away from the river and I would recommend the same to other people.' A leech is a type of segmented worm which has suckers at both ends of its body, one of which contains the mouth and is used to suck blood for the creature to feed on. Leeches can range in size from minuscule to 20cm (eight inches) or longer when stretched out, and are found all over the world. Leeches feed on blood by making small cuts in their prey's skin then covering it in their saliva which numbs the area and increases blood flow. More than 300 leading academics have signed a letter urging Public Health England not to work with Drinkaware because it's funded by the alcohol industry. Experts are threatening to stop helping the government health body if it continues to work with companies which make and sell booze. They say PHE's reputation will be at 'significant risk' if it goes ahead with a campaign it's planning to run with Drinkaware, a charity meant to prevent unhealthy drinking. Public Health England will work with the charity on a new Drink Free Days campaign urging middle-aged people to have set days when they avoid alcohol. Although Drinkaware says it is independent, it openly receives funding from alcohol producers, pub companies and supermarkets. Even the World Health Organization has criticised the pairing and experts say they're 'alarmed' PHE officials don't seem bothered by the match-up. Public Health England's chief alcohol advisor, Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, resigned last month in protest against the health body working with Drinkaware, which is funded by companies which make profits from alcohol sales Some 332 academics have now signed the letter and say they would lose trust in Public Health England and reduce their co-operation with officials. People on the list include experts on drinking, smoking, obesity and cancer who have advised the Government on health policy, The Times reports. In the letter, organised by the University of Sheffield's John Holmes, the academics said: 'That PHE is seemingly not worried about such activity or believes that it is not vulnerable to industry influence is troubling. 'The reputational risk to PHEs status as a provider of impartial, evidence-based advice is significant.' Experts take issue with the fact Drinkaware receives funding from companies which profit from alcohol sales and therefore might act in their interest. OFFICIALS RECOMMEND TWO DRINK-FREE DAYS A WEEK Drinkers should have at least two alcohol-free days a week, health chiefs said last week. Public Health England's Drink Free Days campaign is urging regular drinkers to set a weekly target of non-drinking days to improve health and avoid dependency. One in five people drink above the recommended limit of 14 units a week, equivalent to a small 150ml glass of wine every day, a survey found. Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, said: 'Many of us enjoy a drink, but it's all too easy to let our drinking creep up on us. 'While the link with liver disease is well known, many people are not aware that alcohol can cause numerous other serious health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, as well as several cancers. 'Setting yourself a target of having more drink-free days every week is an easy way to drink less and reduce the risks to your health.' Advertisement They claim the drinks industry focuses on advice or rules it knows will not work, so it can avoid effective ones which might make it lose money. And they add there are 'clear-cut examples of inaccurate information on Drinkawares website' but do not give specific examples. PHE's chief alcohol advisor, Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, resigned last month because of the link-up with Drinkaware. Another of the body's alcohol advisors, Professor Petra Meier, has signed the letter, along with experts who advised on official drinking guidelines, professors Mark Petticrew and Dame Sally Macintyre. The editor of prestigious medical journal The Lancet, Richard Horton, has also signed. And the director of the UK centre for tobacco and alcohol studies, Professor John Britton, is threatening to resign his post as PHE's chief smoking advisor. But Public Health England has defended the move. Its chief executive, Duncan Selbie, told The Times: 'Drinkaware is not the alcohol industry, rather an education charity with millions of unique visitors each year. 'We are taking this opportunity to ensure the advice it gives is evidenced, pragmatic and sensible. The health harms of alcohol require action. 'Public health has always involved controversy and we will not shy away from this. 'Our work on food, on sugar and salt, initially met negative reaction but is now widely accepted.' The chief executive of Drinkaware, Elaine Hindal said the charity is 'scrutinised by an independent panel of medical experts, meets the exacting requirements of the department of healths Information Standard, and is regularly reviewed against other public sources, such as the NHS.' GPs fear the new NHS app will add to their workloads rather than reducing it, research suggests. Some 61 per cent of doctors expect more patients will request face-to-face appointments when the app is due to be launched at the end of the year, according to a survey of more than 1,000 GPs. The app, announced by the former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in September last year, will allow patients to book GP appointments, order repeat prescriptions and even opt out of organ donation at the click of a button. Mr Hunt claimed the app will end the 'death knell of the 8am scramble for GP appointments that infuriates so many patients'. It is expected to have 16 million users just one year after its launch, with up to three million GP appointments being made and seven million prescriptions ordered. GPs fear the new NHS app will add to their workloads rather than reducing it, according to a survey of over 1,000 doctors. Screenshots show the upcoming app will allow users to make GP appointments at the click of a button by putting in their preferred time, date and location The survey also suggested 60 per cent of GPs think the positive impact of digital services in the NHS is exaggerated. And 83 per cent are not confident the health service is capable of successfully rolling out these services. Doctors are also split over whether the app will actually improve the quality of care they provide, with just 52 per cent believing such services are important. And only 14 per cent expect the app will be ready for its roll out date this coming December. The overwhelming majority - 94 per cent - also think GPs should be involved in the development of digital services in order to support good patient care. 'Its clear that the views of GPs havent always been properly considered when it comes to the integration of digital services into the NHS,' according to Andrew Gardner, the chief executive of the digital health service provider Doctorlink, which commissioned the survey. Dr Bruce Websdale, a GP in south west London, told Pulse: 'These findings reinforce the importance of close collaboration between the people developing these services and the people using them on the frontline of the NHS.' The survey was carried out by the research consultancy ComRes. As well as the app being due to launch within the next two months, NHS Digital also hopes video consultations with GPs will be introduced in 2019. Critics have previously warned alternatives to face-to-face consultations are being implemented without a clear rationale. The British Medical Association has also stated GP clinics may 'go under' if they are inundated with e-consultations. Some 61 per cent of the doctors surveyed expect more patients will request face-to-face appointments when the app is due to be launched at the end of the year. Users will be able to input their preference for end of life care, with the results then being sent to their GPs Hunt set out the following 'eight challenges' that the NHS app would meet: Symptom checker Medical record access GP appointment booking Repeat prescription ordering Data sharing preferences Organ donation preferences End-of-life care choices 'Approved apps' promotion Following a freedom-of-information request last August, images revealed the app will allows patients to make GP appointments based on their preferred time, date and location, as well as them inputting their reason for needing to see a doctor. Although subject to change, the images also reveal users will be able to select medication they want repeating, with the request being sent off to their GPs before a notification tells them the prescription is ready to collect. The images, obtained by Gizmodo, show that just a few drop-down menus allow people to choose their end-of-life plan, such as where they would prefer to receive treatment, with such details then being sent to their GP. For legal reasons, lasting power of attorney and advanced decisions to refuse treatment will not be included on the app. Some 60 per cent of GPs think the positive impact of digital services in the NHS is exaggerated. Users of the app will be able to select their data sharing preferences WHAT IS THE NHS APP? The former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced in September 2017 plans to launch an NHS app by the end of 2018. This will allow patients to book GP appointments, order repeat prescriptions and even opt out of organ donation at the click of a button. The app is expected to have 16 million users just one year after its launch, with up to three million GP appointments being made and seven million prescriptions ordered. Hunt set out the following 'eight challenges' that the NHS app would meet: Symptom checker Medical record access GP appointment booking Repeat prescription ordering Data sharing preferences Organ donation preferences End-of-life care choices 'Approved apps' promotion Following a freedom-of-information request in August 2018, images revealed the app will allows patients to make GP appointments based on their preferred time, date and location, as well as them inputting their reason for needing to see a doctor. Although subject to change, the images also reveal users will be able to select medication they want repeating, with the request being sent off to their GPs before a notification tells them the prescription is ready to collect. The images, obtained by Gizmodo, show that just a few drop-down menus allow people to choose their end-of-life plan, such as where they would prefer to receive treatment, with such details then being sent to their GP. For legal reasons, lasting power of attorney and advanced decisions to refuse treatment will not be included on the app. As well as the app being due to launch by the end of 2018, NHS Digital also hopes video consultations with GPs will be introduced in 2019. Critics have previously warned alternatives to face-to-face consultations are being implemented without a clear rationale. The British Medical Association has also stated GP clinics may 'go under' if they are inundated with e-consultations. Advertisement Other criticism for the app includes how the different aspects of healthcare, such as GP surgeries, pharmacies and hospitals, will share the information put into it when they all have their own data systems. In an effort to overcome this, the app requires users create an account, which then connects to records at their GP surgeries and pharmacies. Although it may sound simple, in order for people to create an account, they first need to upload a photo of themselves, such as from their passports, and a 'video selfie' to verify their identities. Once a user's identity has been verified, which will take up to 24 hours, the app automatically connects to their GP surgery. Another criticsim is how the app will identify between those who genuinely need a doctor's appointment and so-called time wasters; a responsibility that is currently left to GP receptonists. To try and overcome this, when booking an appointment via the app, a prompt asks users if their symptoms could be treated at home. And 83 per cent of GPs are not confident the health service is capable of successfully rolling out digital services. The app has faced criticism over how it will differentiate between those who genuinely need a GP appointment and so-called time wasters Speaking of the app, Hunt previously said: 'The NHS app is a world-first which will put patients firmly in the driving seat and revolutionise the way we access health services. 'I want this innovation to mark the death knell of the 8am scramble for GP appointments that infuriates so many patients. 'Technology has transformed everyday life when it comes to banking, travel and shopping. 'Health matters much more to all of us, and the prize of that same digital revolution in healthcare isn't just convenience but lives improved, extended and saved.' Sarah Wilkinson, chief executive of NHS Digital, added: 'We are working hard to deliver the Secretary of State's vision for an NHS App which provides much easier access for individuals to key NHS services. 'I have no doubt that people will hugely welcome the ability to access self-help diagnostic tools, more easily book GP appointments, view test results and order repeat prescriptions, and tell us about their personal preferences with respect to organ donation, use of their data and other aspects of their care. 'We all know that demand for precious NHS services is escalating, and for a large portion of the population digital channels are a preferred means of access to data and services, so this is an opportunity to provide the easier access people want and relieve some burden from front-line providers.' 'Chemical-free' nail varnishes can contain toxic compounds that have been linked to everything from infertility to cancer, research suggests. Polishes marketed as '3-Free' claim to be void of the 'toxic trio' - DnBP, toluene and formaldehyde. However, they often still contain ingredients linked to brain toxicity and even foetal abnormalities, a Harvard study has found. Although the EU banned many chemicals from being used in cosmetics in 2004, scientists argue this led to 'regrettable substitution' - where one toxin is replaced by another. These chemicals are also often still used in the US, where cosmetics are allowed to go to market before they are tested for safety. 'Chemical-free' nail varnishes can contain toxic compounds that have been linked to everything from infertility to cancer, Harvard research suggests (stock) The researchers examined 40 different nail varnishes that had a variety of claims ranging from '3-Free' to '13-Free'. These polishes were made up of red and pink shades - the most popular colours; metallic, shimmery and glitter coats; and a clear top coat. Since the introduction of '3-Free' varnishes in around 2006, the trend has spread, with many polishes claiming to be '5-Free', '7-Free' and '10-Free'. The 40 varnishes were manufactured by 12 brands in total, which were not named in the study. For each of the polishes analysed, the scientists, led by doctoral student Anna Young, noted the online descriptions of their ingredients and labels. And the results show not all 'toxic free' nail polishes are void of chemicals. For instance, the hormone-disruptor TPHP was found at levels above 100ppm in three of the 'Free' brands. Hormone-disrupting chemicals have been linked to conditions such as infertility, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome and even certain cancers, like breast. DO HAIR PRODUCTS CONTAIN CHEMICALS LINKED TO CANCER? Nearly 80 percent of hair products aimed at black women contain chemicals linked to cancer, infertility and obesity, research suggested in April 2018. Up to 78 percent of relaxers, which are used to permanently straighten hair, contain hormone-disrupting chemicals, known as parabens, a study by the Silent Spring Institute, Massachusetts, found. Past studies suggest parabens, which are used as preservatives, mimic oestrogen and may cause cancer, weight gain and reduced muscle mass. Up to 78 percent of hair products, including leave-in conditioners, also contain phthalates, the research adds. Phthalates are added to prolong products' shelf lives and have been linked to breast and ovarian cancer, as well as early menopause. Out of the 18 products analysed, 11 contain chemicals that are banned under the EU cosmetic regulations due to their links to cancer and female infertility. Previous research suggests black women are more likely to use straightening and moisturising hair products to try and meet social beauty norms. Results further suggest that hair products aimed at black women contain up to 45 hormone-disrupting chemicals, which are not generally listed on their labels. All of the products contain at least one fragrance, which have previously been described as 'gender benders' due to them encouraging male-breast growth. The worst offenders were found in hair lotions, root stimulators and relaxers. Lotions claim to moisturise, while root stimulators are thought to encourage hair growth and strength. Advertisement THPH was added to around half of nail polishes on the market after DnBP was banned in the EU in 2004. It is thought to prevent chipping and maintain a varnish's colour. Results, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, further showed the hormone-disrupting chemical DEHP was in 60 per cent of the samples. The level of the chemical varied from trace amounts to more than 100ppm. DEHP is associated with infertility and is considered possibly cancer-causing to humans. It has been found to persist in indoor environments for years even with ventilation. This may put nail-salon workers at risk, the researchers warn. Other 'Free' polishes included chemicals like lead, which has been linked to vomiting, hearing loss and learning difficulties in children. Fragrances were also present. Regulators in the US, the FDA, allow phthalates to be listed as 'fragrance' due to trade secret concerns. Although the FDA regulates cosmetics, it does not require products to be approved for safety before they enter the market. Labeling and advertising claims like '3-Free' or 'non toxic' also do not need to be approved by the FDA or the Federal Trade Commission. 'With little standardisation or validation of the claims, it's challenging for consumers and nail salon workers to know what these labels really mean for health,' Dr Young said. 'It's not as simple as what substances aren't in nail polish; we have to address harmful chemicals still present or added as substitutes.' The scientists wrote 'nail polish labels would benefit from standardization and validation by a third unbiased party'. 'Certified labels could be useful tools for educating nail polish users, nail salon owners, and nail salon workers about toxic chemicals and how to make best purchasing decisions,' they added. This comes after research released last September suggested make-up and skincare products contain a cocktail of chemicals. After analysing more than a 100 women, scientists from George Mason University, Virginia, found those who have these chemicals in their urine produce abnormal amounts of the reproductive hormones oestrogen and progesterone. Excessive oestrogen has been linked to fibroids and polycystic ovary syndrome, while too much progesterone is associated with both breast cancer and unusual vaginal bleeding. Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, argues a financial contribution from social media sites would help to 'stem the tide of mental ill health' in the UK Social media companies should be forced to pay a 'mental health levy' to help address problems linked to sites like Facebook and Instagram, the head of the NHS has said. Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, argues a financial contribution from social media sites would help to 'stem the tide of mental ill health' in the UK. Growing evidence suggests overuse of social media can have a damaging effect on the mental health of children and young people, he said. The levy could be used to help expand mental health services, Mr Stevens added. Speaking on the second day of the Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit in London, Mr Stevens said the 'broader influences' on young people's mental health must be addressed. 'I think we've now got enough evidence and research into the impact of social media on mental health,' he said. 'Although it's not fully developed, there's widespread acceptance that overuse of these platforms can have a detrimental effect on children and young people. 'Mental health services, particularly for young people, are reporting an increased number of admissions linked to use of social media and some companies themselves are starting to recognise this.' Mr Stevens noted how the messaging service WhatsApp has raised the minimum age of use from 13 to 16. Growing evidence suggests overuse of social media, such as Facebook and the instant messaging service Whatsapp, can have a damaging effect on a person's mental health (stock) MENTAL HEALTH CHECKS FOR PUPILS Pupils are to be given routine mental health checks, Theresa May said last night. Primary and secondary schools will carry out wellbeing assessments to spot potential issues. Mrs May said half of all mental health problems arise by the age of 14 yet only one in three get the right treatment. The new checks are part of a 1.9billion plan to transform mental health services in schools. The Prime Minister also announced: The appointment of the worlds first minister for suicide prevention 1.8million to allow the Samaritans helpline to remain free for the next four years At least mental health specialists are to be trained to work in schools for the first time, with the first intake to start by the end of next year and a 8,000 to be recruited long-term Every school is to have a senior staff member responsible for mental health The Government will publish an annual state of the nation report on child mental health from next year Mrs May said: We can end the stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence. We can prevent the tragedy of suicide taking too many lives. And we can give the mental wellbeing of our children the priority it so profoundly deserves. The new mental health assessments are to be made available to all schools as part of new classes on mental resilience which will be part of the curriculum from 2020. Downing Street stressed that although the classes will be mandatory, it will be up to each school whether they use the assessments. But all teachers will be encouraged to use the tests in order to highlight any issues so they can better target their teaching. Officials envisage that most pupils will be assessed every year from the age of four. Advertisement He added: 'We now need to consider collectively what else social media platforms, which have expanded faster than regulations' ability to respond, need to do to help stem the tide of mental ill health in this country and others, or at least help pick up the pieces. 'In other countries, in other industries, where there are adverse consequences from commercial activities, each service contributes a portion of its turnover to an organisation or a cause intended to mitigate adverse side effects or to offset harm.' The gambling industry has already been asked to contribute some of their profits to the charity GambleAware, Mr Stevens noted. The banking levy, which was introduced in 2011 to discourage risky borrowing, has also helped to raise Government funds, he added. 'As evidence in this country emerges - and the Chief Medical Officer is currently looking at what we know and the impact of social media - we need to consider the links between health and technology for better, in many cases, but also for worse,' Mr Stevens said. 'And, under these circumstances, discuss whether the equivalent of a mental health levy would be a proportionate response, both in terms of changing behaviour on the part of the companies involved and in terms of providing a funding stream for the expanded services we all want to see.' Mental health problems among the young have increased six-fold over the past two decades and one in 10 children now has a diagnosable condition. Girls are most at risk, with self-harming reported among a fifth of those aged 14. Among adults, one in six in the UK experiences a mental health problem, like depression, in any given week, according to Mental Health Foundation. And a similar number of people are affected in the US. This comes after a report released earlier this month suggested mental health disorders are expected to cost the global economy 12 trillion ($16 trillion) a year by 2030. The Harvard scientists add the 'collective failure to respond to this global health crisis' will 'result in monumental loss of human capabilities and avoidable suffering'. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details. Have you ever seen the instruction on your medication 'do not take this medicine with grapefruit juice' and wondered why? You're not alone. At least 53 medications can be made less effective by the citrus fruit and people taking certain drugs should take extra care when deciding whether to eat it. Grapefruit contains a compound which interferes with an enzyme in the small intestine, which is responsible for breaking down nearly half of all medicines. As a result, the fruit can make medicines too strong or not strong enough by affecting how well your body absorbs them. Nurse and first aid trainer Emma Hammett, of First Aid For Life, explains in a piece for the Hippocratic Post how grapefruit could affect your medicines, and when to take extra care. Some medicines have instructions for patients to avoid eating grapefruit or drinking the juice when they're taking them because a chemical in the fruit can disrupt how well the body absorbs drugs Grapefruit can seriously affect the way your medicines work, especially if you are taking some of these common medicines for high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia, a statin to reduce your cholesterol, or fexofenadine for allergies such as hay fever. The extent of the interaction can be different depending on the person, the drug, and the amount of grapefruit juice you drink or fruit you eat. Most commonly the presence of grapefruit juice leads to more of the medication being able to enter the blood stream. AVOID GRAPEFRUIT IF YOU'RE TAKING ANY OF THESE 53 MEDICATIONS Budesonide corticosteroids Cancer drugs Crizotinib Dasatinib Erlotinib Everolimus Lapatinib Nilotinib Pazopanib Sunitinib Vandetanib Vemurafenib Infection drugs Erythromycin Halofantrine Maraviroc Primaquine Quinine Rilpivirine Statins Atorvastatin Lovastatin Simvastatin Heart/blood vessel drugs Amiodarone Apixaban Clopidogrel Dronedarone Eplerenone Felodipine Nifedipine Quinidine Rivaroxaban Ticagrelor Drugs for anxiety or the nervous system Oral alfentanil Buspirone Dextromethorphan Oral fentanyl Oral ketamine Lurasidone Oxycodone Pimozide Quetiapine Triazolam Ziprasidone Nausea drugs Domperidone Immunosuppressants Cyclosporine Everolimus Sirolimus Tacrolimus Urinary tract medications Darifenacin Fesoterodine Solifenain Silodosin Tamsulosin Viagra Fexofenadine (an anti-histamine) Advertisement For example, if you drink a lot of grapefruit juice alongside certain statin drugs (used to lower cholesterol), too much of the drug can be released into your bloodstream and takes longer to metabolise, therefore remaining in your body for longer. The higher dose in your bloodstream increases the risk of liver and muscle damage and can lead to kidney failure. Grapefruit contains a compound called furanocoumarin which inhibits a vital enzyme in the small intestine responsible for breaking down nearly half of all medicines. Many drugs are broken down with the help of a vital enzyme called CYP3A4 in the small intestine. The furanocoumarins within grapefruit frequently block the action of CYP3A4. Instead of being broken down, more of the drug enters the blood and stays in the body longer. The result: too much drug in your body for a longer period. The amount of the CYP3A4 enzyme in the intestine varies from person to person. Some people have a lot of enzymes and others just a little. Therefore, grapefruit juice may affect people differently even when taking the same medication. It doesn't take much grapefruit juice to boost the levels of drugs that are susceptible. Just a single glass of juice can reduce the production of the intestinal enzyme that regulates absorption by up to 47 per cent. The furanocoumarins take a while to be removed from your system and so a third of their impact is still evident after 24 hours. It will therefore have a continuing effect on the potency of your medication. Seville oranges (often used to make orange marmalade), pomelos, and tangelos (a cross between tangerines and grapefruit) often have the same effect as grapefruit juice. Avoid these fruits if your medicine interacts with grapefruit juice. Furanocoumarins are not present in varieties of sweet orange, such as naval or Valencia oranges and so these could be an alternative option for you. Grapefruit can work both ways. Sometimes it blocks the metabolism and allows too much of the drug to enter the bloodstream. Sometimes it has the opposite effect and with some medication it reduces the amount of drug in the blood stream. For example, with Fexofenadine (commonly taken for allergies), grapefruit juice can cause less fexofenadine to enter the blood, decreasing the potency of the medication and how well it works. Fexofenadine is also affected by orange or apple juice, so the drug label states 'do not take with fruit juices.' This opposite effect is caused by grapefruit juice affecting specific proteins in the body known as drug transporters. These proteins help move drugs into our cells for absorption. If the drug transporters are affected by the fruit juice, then less of the drug will enter the blood and the drug is not likely to be as effective. When drugs are swallowed, they are usually metabolised by enzymes and/or absorbed using transporters in cells found in the small intestine. Grapefruit juice can cause problems with these enzymes and transporters, causing too much or too little drug in the body. Grapefruit contains a compound which can stop the body absorbing enough of a medication or slow down the process so the drug stays in the bloodstream for too long, producing the effects of a higher dose and potentially causing side effects, Emma Hammett says Some drugs are broken down by a specific enzyme CYP3A4. Grapefruit juice can block the action of this enzyme. This leads to an increase in the amount of drug in the body and can cause more side effects. Grapefruit juice blocks the action of these transporters, decreasing the amount of drug in the bloodstream. This means the drug does not work as well. Despite this, some people may not experience any problems with it at all. Grapefruit is a healthy option, packed full of Vitamin C so, before banishing your beloved grapefruit from the breakfast table, find out if there are any reasons not to grapefruit juice while taking your medication. Your doctor, pharmacist or healthcare provider should be able to advise how much, if any, grapefruit juice or fruit is advised, which other fruits or juices may also affect your drug in a similar way to grapefruit juice. Or read the patient information leaflet that comes with your prescription drug to find out if grapefruit juice affects your drug. This article originally appeared on the Hippocratic Post and has been reproduced with their permission. With flu season upon us, some parents are taking an unusual approach to protect their children from germs. Sellers are marketing signs on Etsy and Amazon that moms and dads can attach to car seats and strollers telling strangers to not touch their kids. Some read: 'Look but please don't touch' while other signs are more direct: 'Please don't touch me or get too close! Your germs can hurt me.' Costing anywhere between $4.00 and $11.55, the signs have been circulating on parenting websites, with some commentators agreeing with the message while others argued that it was careful parenting taken too far. Costing anywhere between $4.00 and $11.55, some signs read: 'Look but please don't touch' while other signs are more direct: 'Please don't touch me or get too close! Your germs can hurt me\ The signs first gained traction in April, when the Facebook group Breastfeeding Mama Talk shared a photo of one of the placards and asked its followers if they would use put one of the signs are on their baby's car seat, reported Buzzfeed. The post received mixed reactions. Some parents say that babies need to be exposed to germs so they can build up their immune systems. 'Good Lawd how did we all survive...we were touched, handed to strangers in the grocery while Mom dug thru [sic] her purse cause we had no baby carrier, no car seats,' one person wrote on Facebook But others agreed and said that strangers too often touch their children without permission. 'I'm not afraid of the germs, I just don't like creepy strangers trying to touch my babies! Keep your hands to yourself, people,' another user wrote. Experts agree that in the first few weeks of a baby's life, the immune system is very fragile. 'I sort of love the idea,' Dr John Williams, chief of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Division at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, told Daily Mail Online. 'There's something about a baby. Everybody wants to touch the baby's face and the baby's little hand.' Dr Williams explained there are three reasons why really young infants are susceptible to infections: their immune systems aren't mature, they're expose to germs for the first time outside the uterus, and their size and anatomy. 'If you or I get a respiratory infection and we feel it in our chest, we can cough and still breathe. But a baby's lungs, they can easily get blocked and they can't breathe,' he explained. Dr Williams added that he agreed baby's need to be exposed to germs, but to a certain extent. 'Yes they need to be exposed, but they are exposed to billions of germs daily from their parents, pets and the environment,' he said. 'There's no benefit of exposing babies to disease-causing germs. Before vaccines, one in five children died before age five, likely due to infections.' A January 2018 study from McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, found that even briefly being exposed to bacterial or viral infections within days of birth can increased the risk of developmental conditions such as autism. Premature babies, who have weaker immune systems than full-term babies, are also at a greater risk when it comes to infections. During the last stages of pregnancy, antibodies from the mother's body travel through the placenta and umbilical cord to the baby. But a premature baby may be born before this stage and therefore is born without any protective antibodies. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 2017-18 season was one of the most severe on record. Across the US, 179 children died and thousands were hospitalized. The CDC said 80 percent of the children who died were not vaccinated. In response, the American Academy published a statement last month recommending everyone six months old or older get a flu shot by the end of October. The first year that a baby is vaccinated, he or she will receive two doses four weeks apart and just one jab every year afterwards. The only group of people who are ineligible for the vaccine - shot and spray - are babies under six months old. 'Babies under six months old are too young to get the vaccine so the number one thing you can do to protect them is to get your vaccine and have the baby get their vaccine when they're old enough,' said Dr Williams. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also notes that children under two years old who come down with the flu are at a high risk for serious health complications. These include sinus and ear infections, dehydration, brain dysfunction and pneumonia. Although the signs may help get the point across more directly, the AAP recommends using canopies and covers to protect babies. 'These may also help your baby sleep while in the stroller, and keep well-intentioned but nevertheless germ-covered hands from reaching in and touching your baby,' the website reads. An irregular heartbeat may increase a person's risk of developing dementia, warns new research. The study shows that people with a particular kind of irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation may experience a faster decline in thinking and memory skills, and have a greater risk of dementia than those without the condition. With atrial fibrillation, a form of arrhythmia, the heart's normal rhythm is out of sync. As a result, blood may pool in the heart, possibly forming clots that may go to the brain, causing a stroke. The good news from the study is that people with atrial fibrillation who were taking anticoagulants, or blood thinners, to keep their blood from clotting were actually less likely to develop dementia than those who did not take blood thinners. An irregular heartbeat may increase a person's risk of developing dementia (stock) Study author Dr Chengxuan Qiu, of the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University in Sweden, said: 'Compromised blood flow caused by atrial fibrillation may affect the brain in a number of ways. 'We know as people age, the chance of developing atrial fibrillation increases, as does the chance of developing dementia. 'Our research showed a clear link between the two and found that taking blood thinners may actually decrease the risk of dementia.' For the study, researchers looked at figures from 2,685 participants with an average age of 73 who were followed as part of a larger study. The participants were examined and interviewed at the start of the study, and then once after six years for those younger than 78 and once every three years for those 78 and older. All the participants were free of dementia at the start of the study, but 243 people (nine per cent) had atrial fibrillation. Through face-to-face interviews and medical examinations, the researchers gathered lifestyle and medical data at the start of the study and during each follow-up visit. All were screened for atrial fibrillation, for overall thinking and memory skills, as well as dementia. Over the course of the study, an additional 279 people (11 per cent) developed atrial fibrillation and 399 (15 per cent) developed dementia. Researchers found that those who had atrial fibrillation had a faster rate of decline in thinking and memory skills than those without the condition and were 40 per cent more likely to develop dementia. Of the 2,163 people who didn't have irregular heartbeat, 278 people developed dementia (10 per cent). Of the 522 people with irregular heartbeat, 121 developed dementia (23 per cent). Researchers also found that people who took blood thinners for atrial fibrillation had a 60 per cent decreased risk of dementia. Of the 342 people who did not take blood thinners for the condition, 76 people developed dementia (22 per cent). Of the 128 people taking blood thinners, 14 developed dementia (11 per cent). There was no decreased risk among people who took an antiplatelet treatment like aspirin. Dr Qiu added: 'Assuming that there was a cause-and-effect relationship between using blood thinners and the reduced risk of dementia, we estimated that about 54 per cent of the dementia cases would have been hypothetically prevented if all of the people with atrial fibrillation had been taking blood thinners. 'Additional efforts should be made to increase the use of blood thinners among older people with atrial fibrillation.' The findings were published online by the journal Neurology. Failings in social care are driving unprecedented levels of overcrowding in A&E units, the care watchdog warns today. Its annual audit of the NHS rated half of casualty departments as 'inadequate' or 'requiring improvement', with most overwhelmed by record numbers of patients. According to the Care Quality Commission, many patients end up in A&E because they have been denied social care. Vulnerable patients are much more likely to have a fall or contract a severe infection if they are not assisted with meals, taking medication or washing. Failings in social care are driving unprecedented levels of overcrowding in A&E units, the care watchdog warns today. Stock photo The CQC says many patients are suffering a 'care injustice' due to a lack of social care provision. The watchdog calls for the Government to come up with a funding plan for ailing social care services. It warned that without proper investment in social care, the Government's 20.5billion cash injection for the NHS over four years would be wasted. The Department of Health is due to publish a Green Paper later this Autumn to outline how social care should be paid for and services improved. But many healthcare experts are worried the proposals will be pushed back. Vulnerable patients are much more likely to have a fall or contract a severe infection if they are not assisted with meals, taking medication or washing. Stock photo The CQC also warns that overcrowding in A&E units is worsened by 'inadequate GP access', with patients waiting weeks for a routine appointment. Elderly patients end up in casualty unintentionally, when a preventable health condition deteriorates, while younger generations go there in the hope of being seen more quickly. The report is based on inspections of almost 30,000 hospital trusts, care homes and home help services, surgeries and ambulance trusts in England. One of the CQC's biggest causes of concern is the performance of A&E units. The watchdog has rated 41 per cent of England's 197 casualty departments as 'requires improvement' and another 7 per cent as 'inadequate.' But in terms of safety, 54 per cent are 'requires improvement' and 7 per cent 'inadequate', which is nearly two thirds. HALF OF MATERNITY UNITS ARE 'FAILING' Half of maternity units are 'inadequate' or 'require improvement', the Care Quality Commission's report said. Inspectors uncovered 'dysfunctional' relationships between midwives and consultants and staff not recognising births were going wrong. The ratings for maternity services are far worse than most other hospital departments. Overall, 3 per cent were rated 'inadequate' for safety and 47 per cent as requiring improvement. The findings will add to concerns over hospital maternity services, which are overstretched and understaffed. Advertisement CQC officials stressed that the problems would get worse without major improvements to the provision of social care. The report highlights how more than 15.4million patients showed up in casualty in 2017/18, a 9 per cent rise in 2011/12. Julywas the busiest month on record with nearly 1.4million patients. The watchdog highlighted four health and social care 'blackspots', regions where the provision of residential care and home visits is particularly poor. This has a knock-on effect on hospitals which are overwhelmed by patients who then cannot be discharged. The blackspots are Kent, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and the Wirral, in Merseyside. In its annual 'State of Care' report, the CQC warns that the problems will only get worse. Ian Trenholm, CQC chief executive, said: 'The challenge for Parliament, commissioners and providers is to change the way services are funded and work together, and how and where people are cared for.' Barbara Keeley MP, Labour's shadow cabinet minister for mental health and social care, said: 'No amount of plaster sticking from this Government will plug the deep holes.' Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK said: 'The crisis in social care is a national problem that requires a national solution.' A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'It is testament to our staff that the vast majority of patients continue to receive good, safe care.' Men who drink two cups of coffee or tea a day are more than twice as likely to get their partner pregnant, a study has suggested. Experts said the results of the US research could be due to caffeines effect on two chemicals, ATP and GTP. Men who drink two cups or coffee or tea every day are more than twice as likely to get their partner pregnant (file photo) The study also found that women who drink alcohol every other day are 26 per cent less likely to conceive Professor Sheena Lewis of Queens University in Belfast said: Caffeine prevents them from breaking down so more energy is available to sperm, so it can swim faster or longer. The research, led by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health, also found that women who drink alcohol every other day were 26 per cent less likely to conceive. Residents of Derby are the country's best-off in terms of disposable income, according to a study of household finances. Workers in the East Midlands city - which is strong in transport-related industry such as aerospace engineering giant Rolls-Royce - enjoy an average spending power of 1,456 per month after they have settled their fixed outgoings. That is 200 more per month than the British national average thanks to a cost of living that came in second-lowest among 30 UK cities, according to a study by finder.com. A study has revealed both the best and worst cities in the UK for average disposable income The survey compared average city salaries against local rent and other standard monthly outgoings for 30 UK cities, calculating the disposable income of city residents after deducting tax, bills and other necessary general outgoings such as travel and food. It discovered that the average British person gets to keep 1,083 per month after expenses and tax with the average monthly wage coming in at 2,073, while the average essential outgoings, such as rent, travel and food, total 990. Reading residents (included in the survey despite not having city status) earn significantly more than the national average, at 2,473 a month, keeping roughly 1,287 after bills and making it the second highest-earning location, after London. University town Reading has a large academic population, as does Southampton which comes in third, with a disposable income of 1,264. Brighton has come last in the countdown of cities with the best and worst disposable income Scottish cities Edinburgh and Aberdeen come just below the top three with Milton Keynes, Belfast and Swindon also featuring highly. At the other end of table, the residents of the buzzy seaside city of Brighton limp in last with just 751 a month after essentials, almost half the amount of those in Derby, a massive difference of 705. This is due to Brighton having the fifth highest living costs (1,170) but also the seventh lowest average salary (1,921). Finder.com have compared the average salary of those in cities with the cost of living in the UK Norwich comes just below as the second worst city for disposable income. It has the lowest monthly salary in the study (1,762), leaving locals with just 872 of spending money every month. Plymouth comes in third with locals receiving on average of 937 a month. Manchester and York finish the worst five cities with Portsmouth and Exeter just above. Despite Londoners' earning the highest wage, they also, unsurprisingly, have the most bills and so feature much lower on the overall list. Derby is the city that has highest disposable income, an average of 1,456 per month Their disposable income is 1,095, only 12 above the UK average in the study. Their monthly outgoings of 1,629 are also over 350 more than any other city. Hull is the city with the lowest outgoings of any city in the UK at just 767 per month. However, residents have a lower monthly wage of 1,816 which means their disposable income is 1,049, below the studys UK average. Jon Ostler, CEO at finder.com, said: 'If you're considering moving to a new city, it is important to have an idea of the cost of living there. 'It may seem counter-intuitive, but this analysis shows that a lower wage offered in a different city doesn't automatically mean you have less money to spend, and could actually see you keep more. 'If you want to keep a closer eye on what you're spending, budgeting apps are useful tools to track your outgoings. This will ensure you don't overreach financially but can also help you grow your savings or spot ways that you can easily save money.' A new report has named and shamed the roads in England that motorists told councils were in the worst condition. Using data gathered through Freedom of Information requests, online retailer Car Parts 4 Less listed the 10 routes that people repeatedly complained about last year, with Oldham Road, in Manchester, coming out on top and London's retail-heavy Oxford Street in second. The roads that had the most funds spent on their upkeep in 2017 were also revealed. England's worst roads: These are the 10 roads that councils received the most complaints about last year Oldham Road in Manchester, a four mile stretch from the city's ring road, heading north east to Hollinwood, was subject to the most criticism - mainly from disgruntled motorists. Manchester City Council tallied up no fewer than 741 complaints from drivers and riders last year - most of which were in relation to the poor condition of the tarmac. That's despite Manchester being given 19.8 million by the Government in 2015 for the maintenance of local highways until 2021, according to Department for Transport data. Last year, Manchester City Council spent only 24,800 on the maintenance and repair of Oldham Road - though it was the largest amount spent by the authority on a single road in the last 12 months. Nathan Blake, 23, from Manchester, was one of many to complain about the state of the road on social media, saying: 'I try to avoid Oldham Road as much as possible but sometimes I have to use it to drive into the town centre. It's full of potholes and I always worry about damaging my car - I got a flat tyre from a pothole just the other week.' Oldham Road, a four mile stretch from the Manchester's city Ring Road heads North East to Hollinwood The online car parts seller conducted the same Freedom of Information request a year ago. In 2017, it also found that the North West had the worst roads, with highways in Lancashire, Salford and Cheshire receiving the most complaints. The latest data showed that Westminster Council had the second highest volume of calls from unhappy members of the public regarding a single road. This was directly aimed at Oxford Street - one of the busiest routes in the country for drivers, riders and shoppers. A total of 589 complaints were made about the road by the public over 12 months. The study said the majority of road complaints made to councils are about potholes. According to AA, they cost drivers almost 684 million in repairs each year, with a pothole compensation claim made by Britons every 17 minutes. In 2016 to 2017, the UK government provided 4.5 billion to improve road conditions. Potholes are the biggest cause of complaints. The most moaned about road in Manchester had the highest maintenance spend of any route in that area Councils that spent the most on a single roads maintenance in the last 12 months Council Road Amount Spent on Maintenance Region Dorset County Council Bournemouth Spur Road (A338) 6,577,442.82 South West Kent County Council Thanet Way (A299) 5,800,000 South East Herefordshire Council Ledbury Road (A438) 3,400,000 West Midlands West Berkshire Council A339, Newbury 2,580,000 South East Bracknell Forest Council Bagshot Road (A322) 1,154,000 South East Four out of five councils that spent the most on a single road's maintenance over the 12 months are based in the South. A spokesperson from Car Parts 4 Less said: 'It interesting to see this year's worst and most expensive roads in direct comparison to last year. 'Once again the North West has the number one most complained about road, and year after year the South are spending the most on road maintenance. 'Although this tool won't fix the offending roads for drivers, it should help driver's awareness of the worst roads and which to avoid to protect their car from damage.' A new era in the U.S. Supreme Courts history began Saturday afternoon, October 6, when the U.S. Senate voted 50 to 48 to confirm the nomination of a federal judge who is expected to provide a fifth and majority vote against equal rights for LGBT people. LGBT legal activists say the replacement of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy with appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh will likely turn their focus away from the federal courts to state courts, meaning a significant slowdown in advancements toward equal rights for LGBT nationwide. But Kavanaughs record of supporting right-wing conservative positions, coupled with his expressed hostility to left-wing opposition groups, will almost certainly embolden groups like the anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom to take more appeals to the Supreme Court. And Saturdays vote had collateral damage for LGBT groups, too. A longtime ally of the LGBT community, U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), gave Kavanaugh the last vote he needed to secure the confirmation. In doing so, she acknowledged the concerns of LGBT people while dismissing them as misguided. In a political drama Friday afternoon that Collins clearly orchestrated for maximum attention, the senator referred to Kavanaughs carefully veiled remarks about two LGBT Supreme Court decisions as if his remarks were evidence of his support for equal rights for LGBT people. She noted that some people she met with regarding Kavanaughs nomination expressed concerns that Justice Kennedys retirement threatens the right of same sex couples to marry. Kennedy led the 5 to 4 majority in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 which struck down state laws banning equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. He also wrote a 7 to 2 decision this year in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado that gave voice to the importance of treating LGBT people with dignity and worth. Collins said that Judge Kavanaugh described the Obergefell decision as an important landmark precedent. She gave him credit for making mention of the fact that Kennedys decision said, The days of treating gay and lesbian Americans or gay and lesbian couples as second-class citizens who are inferior in dignity and worth are over in the Supreme Court. But in fact, during his original confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh repeatedly avoided answering direct questions about whether he believes Obergefell was correctly decided. His quoting of Kennedys decision did not come across as admiration but as an attempt to use up the limited time of Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who was questioning him about the decision. The most Kavanaugh would say was that Obergefell is precedent, a statement of the obvious. Kavanaugh dodged other questions from Democratic senators who sought to determine his positions and feelings about LGBT people and their legal rights. And when asked whether, as an adviser to President George W. Bush, he had expressed an opinion concerning Bushs support for a constitutional amendment to ban marriage for same-sex couples, Kavanaugh claimed, I dont recall. Fierce Anger at Collins LGBT legal and political activists seemed both stunned and furious at Collins apologia for Kavanaugh. Susan Collins attempt to clean up Brett Kavanaughs image was appalling, said Rea Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. Some might have thought Collins claims of Kavanaughs commitment to uphold marriage equality was unusually wishful thinking, but her intentions to deceive the public became clear the moment she cherry-picked his citation of the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. Kavanaugh will not be the vanguard for the rights of LGBTQ people, he will be the fifth vote to open the door to rampant discrimination based on a persons religious or moral objections to any other person they choose. Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin issued a statement within minutes of Collins announcement, criticizing her decision to sell us out. The harmful consequences of Senator Collins decision to support Brett Kavanaugh will last decades, said Griffin. Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, called Collins support of Kavanaugh a slap in the face to women and all sexual assault survivors and said he has little doubt that Kavanaugh will be a consistent vote against liberty and equality for LGBT people. Minter said LGBT legal activists will likely try to keep LGBT cases out of the Supreme Court whenever possible. Jenny Pizer of Lambda Legal said theres likely to be an increase in litigation in state courts now, as there has been in the past. Such was the strategy in the late 1980s after the Supreme Court ruled, in Bowers v. Hardwick, that states could ban and criminalize intimate relations between same-sex couples. The Immediate Fallout Chief Justice John Robert swore Kavanaugh into office shortly after the Senates vote Saturday afternoon. As he did, and for hours into the night, thousands of protesters stormed the plaza and doors of the Supreme Court building, expressing outrage over the confirmation. When they refused to move off the steps of the court, police arrested them. Although there were some signs in the crowd that referred to LGBTQ Rights, most protesters seemed unusually unified in their focus on opposing Kavanaugh because of allegations by at least three women that he was involved in sexually assaulting young women during his high school and college days. Under intense pressure from the public, the Republican leadership in the Senate announced it would ask President Trump to direct the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into those allegations. But within days, reports began emerging that the FBI was conducting a very limited investigation and ignoring calls and tips from former friends and associates who said they could provide relevant information about Kavanaughs behavior during that time. The FBI report on its investigation was not released to the public, but Republican leaders said it found no corroboration for the allegations pressed by a Stanford professor who said she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh when they were both in high school. Kavanaugh denied all the allegations. Political tensions escalated dramatically last week when President Trump, at one of his political rallies, mocked the Stanford professor, suggesting that her allegation was not believable. In front of another rally on Saturday night, Trump praised Kavanaugh and derided radical Democrats and the angry mob for opposing the nominee. He urged his supporters to vote in November to increase the Republican hold on the Senate and House majorities. You dont give power to an angry left-wing mob, Trump said. The Democrats have become too dangerous and extreme to govern. While Trump hopes to rally his supporters to preserve or expand Republican control of both houses, Democrats and opponents of Kavanaughs confirmation are vowing to elect enough Democrats to both chambers to give Democrats the majority. While winning control of the Senate could provide Democrats significant insurance against President Trump naming another nominee to the Supreme Court, the balance of that court is, for now, a decidedly unfriendly one for LGBT people. Mel B's former nanny Lorraine Gilles is not mentioned in the star's upcoming memoir called Brutally Honest - thanks to a secret settlement between the pair, DailyMailTV can reveal. Gilles was heavily featured in Mel's bitter divorce from husband Stephen Belafonte, after having lived with them for seven years, had a seven-year intimate relationship with Mel, engaged in three-way sex with the couple, and cared for their children, according to the suit. However, the 27-year-old German-born au pair will not be mentioned in the book once. The former Spice Girl had accused the blonde in court documents of a litany of wrongs. Drama: Mel had accused her nanny of becoming pregnant by ex-husband Stephen Belafonte (pictured together in 2015) Omitted: Lorraine Gilles (pictured in Long Beach, California) 27, will not be featured in Mel B's new memoir, despite having a large role in the former Spice Girl's divorce from Stephen Belafonte While admitting a lesbian affair with Gilles, America's Got Talent judge Mel also accused the nanny of becoming pregnant by her husband before aborting the child. Gilles later confirmed her sexual relationship with Mel and Belafonte in court papers but maintained that at no point did she 'and Belafonte engage in any sexual acts without Brown's knowledge or participation' nor was she pregnant with his child. Despite playing a significant role in Mel's life, DailyMailTV has learned the nanny has been omitted from the book thanks to a secret non-disclosure agreement the two women signed last year. It's understood the agreement was struck at the 11th hour, allowing Mel to avoid an embarrassing trial in her domestic violence case against her ex. The deal, which saw Mel dropping a restraining order against Gilles, also prevents her from ever talking about Mel in public. Brutally Honest, will be released on November 27, 2018, but will not include any of the salacious details involving Gilles A source with knowledge of the situation told DailyMailTV: 'Considering Lorraine played such a big part in the marriage of Mel and Stephen, her absence from the book will seem a little odd. 'The irony isn't lost, especially when the book is titled, Brutally Honest. 'Lorraine lived at Mel's home, looked after her children and went on vacation with her and Stephen for seven years. 'She then entered into a sexual and emotional relationship with Mel and had sex with her and her husband. 'If we're being brutally honest, this book isn't.' DailyMailTV understands Gilles has been battling depression since she was dragged in to the bitter divorce between Mel and Belafonte. She's also suing Mel for defamation over claims the star branded her a 'prostitute', 'home-wrecker' and 'extortionist' in court filings. That case, which was given the go ahead for trial by a judge, has been held up while Mel's lawyers appeal. Gilles recently traveled back to Germany to spend time with her family due to her emotional state. She has also recently divorced her tech entrepreneur husband Michael Bleau after the marriage was left in tatters by the series of salacious accusations made in court. Mel B and Stephen Belafonte were seen going to court over there kids once again in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Mel was accompanied by best friend, Gary Madatyan Gilles, who was snapped enjoying a day out in Long Beach with her dog and a friend, is working as a waitress in Hollywood while studying A source says Gilles is 'hugely relieved' she will not be mentioned in Mel's memoir and is keen to put the drama behind her She is seen wearing a yellow bikini in our exclusive photos, while sun bathing and swimming in the ocean A source close to Gilles said: 'It has been a tough 12 months for Lorraine, she was suffering depression because of the case and was even hospitalized over it. 'She also has to deal with the split from Michael which has been tough emotionally. 'So she decided to go back home to Europe for a month, take some time out, and spend time with friends and family. 'She's back to her best now and the recent media coverage about Mel's former manny Rusty Updegraff did not come as a surprise to Lorraine. 'She's also hugely relieved she won't feature in Mel's upcoming book, dragging her back into the limelight once again. She wants to put this whole sorry affair behind her.' DailyMail.com tried to reach out to Gilles for comment but did not get a response. It's understood Gilles is working as a waitress in Hollywood while studying, and was recently snapped enjoying a day out in Long Beach, California with a friend. The beauty is seen wearing a yellow bikini in our exclusive photos, while sun bathing and swimming in the ocean, as well as playing with her dog. Mel, 43, has dubbed the process of writing her book as 'therapy' and her 'own personal journey' as she has 'three daughters by three different men' and 'never wants to talk bad about their fathers.' 'It's the story mainly about the last 10 years,' she revealed in a recent interview, before continuing: 'I'm kind of just exposing what I've been through the last 10 years... my marriage and relationship quite the ups and downs.' Splitsville: The salacious accusations made in court even took a toll on Gilles's own marriage to tech entrepreneur Michael Bleau (pictured in March). The couple filed for divorce in March after 17 months Bad blood: German-born Gilles, worked as Mel and Belafonte's nanny for seven years and even engaged in an intimate relationship with her boss and enjoyed threesome sex with the couple - before being dragged through the mud in their divorce DailyMail.com understands her book, Brutally Honest, due to be published on November 27, will chronicle her roller coaster ten-year relationship with Stephen Belafonte, 43. It also reveals the truth behind her relationship with comic Eddie Murphy, her sadness at losing her father, and the Spice Girls reunion. Mel is mom to three children - Phoenix, 19, from Jimmy Gulzar, Angel, 11, from Eddie Murphy, and Madison, seven, from Belafonte. Mel and Belafonte's marriage fell apart in March last year when she filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences and she took out a domestic violence restraining order against him - abuse which he vehemently denies. She also took out a civil harassment restraining order against Gilles accusing her of an affair with her husband. Belafonte and Gilles repeatedly denied Mel's charges against them and fought the restraining orders through 20-plus court hearings till, at last, the case was set to go to trial in November 2017. But just hours before the trial was due to start, Mel and Belafonte reached a private settlement and Judge Mark Juhas dissolved the domestic violence restraining order. Gilles, pictured with a friend, is suing Mel for defamation over claims the star branded her a 'prostitute', 'home-wrecker' and 'extortionist' in court filings Three days later Mel also dropped her restraining order against Gilles and it's believed it was then that they both signed an NDA. The divorce became final last December 15 but the couple has continued to war over custody rights surrounding their daughter Madison. Mel was recently branded an 'alcoholic' and the 'world's worst mother' by former manny Rusty Updegraff, who the star had drafted in to help with child care. Restaurateur Rusty, 60, said his former friend drinks day and night, is addicted to sex and needs urgent help to get her on the straight and narrow. His bombshell deposition filed in LA Superior Court on August 31 led to a judge ruling the former Spice Girl had an alcohol and drug addiction and ordering her to undergo four months of regular medical tests. Belafonte also has temporary custody of daughter Madison until the matter is resolved. DailyMail.com has reached out to Mel's reps for comment. Brutally Honest will be released on November 27, 2018 and is available for pre-order on Amazon One of the oldest coal companies in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday to deal with more than $1.4 billion in debt amid declining demand for the fuel. Englewood, Colorado-based Westmoreland Coal Co. filed for voluntary Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston as part of a restructuring agreement with an unnamed group of lenders. Westmoreland, which operates mines across the U.S. and Canada, is the fourth major coal company to file for bankruptcy in the past three years, joining Peabody Energy Corp., Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources. Westmoreland officials said in a statement that operations won't be interrupted and there are no expected staff reductions. Westmoreland Coal Co. filed for voluntary Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston as part of a restructuring agreement with an unnamed group of lender. Pictures are Westmoreland coal mines near Colstrip, Montana 'After months of thoughtful and productive conversations with our creditors, we have developed a plan that allows Westmoreland to operate as usual while positioning Westmoreland for long-term success,' interim CEO Michael Hutchinson said in the statement. Coal companies have struggled as demand drops due to a glut of cheap natural gas, the rise of renewable energy sources and plans by some states to reduce or eliminate coal from their energy portfolios. There are no new coal plants being built in the U.S., and two major coal consumers, China and India, have canceled projects as they seek to reduce air pollution. Westmoreland officials warned in August that declining industry conditions and significant debt 'give rise to substantial doubt about our ability to pay our obligations as they come due,' according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Westmoreland has $770 million in assets and $1.4 billion in debt, according to the bankruptcy filing. One of its creditors is the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which Westmoreland owes $1.8 million in royalties, according to the bankruptcy filing. The restructuring agreement, which must be approved by a judge, includes refinancing an outstanding loan and a 'business transformation' meant to significantly increase cash flow, the company statement said, without providing details. The group of lenders that holds a majority of Westmoreland's debt also plans to bid for the company's assets, the statement said. An affiliated company, Westmoreland Resource Partners, is being sold off separately. Westmoreland was incorporated in 1854 in Pennsylvania. It has coal mines in Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Ohio, North Dakota and Texas, and a coal-fired power plant in North Carolina. Westmoreland also has mines in Canada that are not part of the bankruptcy filing. In Montana, coal demand involving Westmoreland's Rosebud mine is expected to drop when two of the four units of the Colstrip power plant cease operations by 2022. The company's other major Montana mine, the Absaloka mine on the Crow Indian Reservation, has already seen demand drop. Crow chairman Alvin 'A.J.' Not Afraid said the mine provides a significant portion of the tribe's revenue. But there is less potential for financial harm after Westmoreland renewed a contract earlier this year with an Xcel Energy power plant in Minnesota, which burns coal from the Absaloka mine. In New Mexico, Westmorland's San Juan mine also serves a power plant that's looking to get out of coal use earlier than expected. In response to the bankruptcy filing, conservation groups renewed calls for Westmoreland to ensure it has enough money in reserve to clean up its mines and pay severance to workers if it ceases operations. 'Nothing can stop America's shift away from coal and toward clean energy, but the transition should be managed to ensure workers are treated with respect and that vital environmental obligations are honored,' said Mary Anne Hitt of the Sierra Club. Westmoreland officials have previously said the company is fully bonded to cover future reclamation work at its mines. A rising star of the new series of the Apprentice is an ex-convict who was jailed for a violent assault, MailOnline can reveal. Tom Bunday, 28, spent four months in prison in Sweden several years ago for beating a man up who had cuts and bruises and required stitches. Mr Bunday, who has listed 'loyalty' as one of his best qualities, was arrested with a fellow tree-climbing enthusiast after they set upon a victim in a vicious attack. MailOnline has also learnt that the aspiring entrepreneur failed to reveal his criminal past to the BBC, while his conviction did not show up during checks on contestants because it is now spent in legal terms. Mr Bunday said: 'This incident is well in my past but I still feel a huge amount of regret for any distress caused. 'It was an extremely hard time for me and my family, but it made me realise I really wanted to give back to my family and society in general. Tom Bunday (pictured) said the assault is in his past and he has moved on with his life since serving one year in prison 'I have now created 23 full-time jobs through a company I started from scratch, which I'm extremely proud of, as well as being able to provide a stable income for my family.' Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 any person with a criminal conviction does not need to notify employers once a set time frame has passed. There are similar provisions under Swedish law. A BBC spokesperson confirmed he was not under obligation to tell the show's producers. A statement said: 'DBS checks are done for all The Apprentice candidates by the production company ahead of filming. 'A spent conviction is not disclosed under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. 'Spent convictions are designed to help people move on in life and not be excluded from opportunities to help further their careers.' The contestant's mother, Christine, 53, added: 'I'll let Tom sort this out for himself.' Mr Bunday did not inform BBC bosses he has a criminal conviction for a brutal assault in which a man was left with serious injuries The Apprentice contestant was convicted for attacking the man in Sweden and spent time behind bars Mr Bunday did not do well in school but went on to own businesses and write two books Mr Bunday has self-published two books Break It Down Start It Up and Scale It Don't Fail It to coincide with his appearance on the Apprentice. The titles were released within six days of each other. Both have attracted solid five-star reviews from users with names like Richard Major, Alex the Pirate and Mr DJ Edie. The 28-year-old promotes his own businesses so furiously on Facebook that in August, one of his friends commented: 'you know this isn't LinkedIn'. Mr Bunday (pictured far left, front row) does not have to inform new bosses of his conviction because in legal terms it is now spent Mr Bunday, an arboricultural (tree care) business owner describes himself as 'loyal' Mr Bunday struggled at school and failed to find his feet after leaving. His low point came when he was jailed after the attack, which left his victim in need of hospital treatment. After his release, he tried to leave his thuggish past behind and set himself up as an entrepreneur and self-help guru. He now runs his own tree surgery firm in his native Southampton, as well as a self-help company called Tradescaler, which gives advice to would-be entrepreneurs about how to 'scale' their projects. 'There are very few people that can genuinely say they're going to make it,' he said in an interview. 'But I know that I'm going to.' In the very first episode which aired last week the teams were sent to Malta. Mr Bunday battled with the appointed project manager during the first show to take control of a negotiation, saying he was 'very confident' he would be the one to succeed. Mr Bunday's mother did not comment on the conviction but said she would let her son 'sort this out' on his own Before the show Mr Bunday described immaturity as one of his personal attributes. He said: 'I am so immature when it comes to social environments, all the lads absolutely love me but all the lads absolutely hate me because I'm having such a good time. 'I think it's a good thing because it draws people to me. 'I am a very fair person and I think that if someone isn't being efficient, if someone isn't working their hardest, they are going to know about it because I haven't for people who are lazy or think that they are above other people.' President Donald Trump says he plans to review the UN report that warns of global warming-caused chaos unless drastic action is taken - although he says he's skeptical of its authors. 'It was given to me and I want to look at who drew it, which group drew it,' Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, as he left for an Iowa campaign rally. 'Because I can give you reports that are fabulous and I can give you reports that aren't so good,' he said. 'But I'll be looking at it, absolutely.' President Donald Trump says he plans to review the UN report that warns of global warming-caused chaos unless drastic action is taken - although he says he's skeptical of its authors. The landmark report released Monday said that time is running out to avert climate-induced disaster. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) declared it had 'high confidence' in its predictions. But as of Tuesday evening, Trump said he has not read it yet. It was Trump's first reaction to the report, which says that the Earth surface has warmed one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) and is on track toward an unliveable 3C or 4C rise. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Petteri Taalas attends a news conference after the release of the report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, October 8 The Trump administration has dismantled emissions reduction policies domestically, and vowed to ditch the Paris treaty on attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. However, Washington did not obstruct the report, as some had expected. Many in Trump's Republican party are self-described climate change skeptics, questioning whether the overwhelming consensus of scientists around the world about manmade causes for ever-rising temperatures is accurate. The UN's landmark report warned that the world has just 12 years to halt global warming before the planet is plunged into extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty. Preventing an extra single degree of heat could make a life-or-death difference in the next few decades for multitudes of people, scientists found. However, they provide little hope humanity will rise to the challenge. Overall, the Earth has to reduce the amount of CO2 produced each year by 45 per cent by 2030 and reduce CO2 production to zero by 2050. In order to reach this, society will need to make 'unprecedented' changes including closing hundreds of coal-fired power stations and rapidly switching to renewable energy. Limiting global warming to 1.5C will cost the world $2.4 trillion every year for the next two decades, the UN report warns. A landmark report by the UN has warned that the world has just 12 years to halt global warming. Use of coal needs to fall from around 38 per cent to 'close to 0 per cent' by 2050, the report found (stock image) The dramatic report warned that the planet is currently heading to warm by 3C - and to slash that to less than 1.5C as laid out in the Paris agreement will require 'rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society'. WHAT STEPS NEED TO HAPPEN TO LIMIT WARMING TO 1.5C? The dramatic report warned that the planet is currently heading to warm by 3C. To slash that to less than 1.5C as laid out in the Paris agreement will require 'rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society'. Scientists say humanity must make the following changes - 1. Global emissions of CO2 must decline by 45 per cent from 2010 to 2030. 2. Renewables need to provide 85 per cent of global electricity by 2050. 3. Use of coal needs to be reduced to close to zero 4. Seven million sq km of land will be given over to energy crops 5. By 2050 net emissions need to be zero. Advertisement Scientists have said the impacts of climate change, from droughts to rising seas, will be less extreme if temperature rises are curbed at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels than if they climb to 2C, the UN-backed study said. Pre-industrial levels refers to the climate before the industrial revolution when greenhouse gas emissions were stable. Since the mid-1800s the climate has already warmed by 1C. At the current rate of global warming, the world's temperatures are set to increase by another 1.5C between 2030 and 2052. To stop this happening, the world will need to make 'unprecedented' changes in power generation, industry, transport, buildings and potential shifts in lifestyle such as eating less meat, according to the International Panel on Climate Change. It will also require a vast ramp-up in renewables so they generate 70-85 per cent of electricity supplies by 2050, while use of coal needs to fall from around 38 per cent to 'close to 0 per cent' by 2050. This latest report backed by the United Nations says the scale of the challenge is vast and will be expensive to carry out. To illustrate how far off this is, CO2 levels rose about 3 per cent a year between 2000 and 2013, and by about 0.4 per cent a year between 2013 and 2016. Much of the slowdown since 2016 was driven by a combination in reductions by the US and China. However, that changed in 2017 with a 1.4 per cent increase in emissions from China. The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its gloomy report at a meeting in Incheon, South Korea. Anyone who sends a text message perceived as threatening or intimidating could be sentenced to five years in jail under new amendments to the criminal code. Acts of intimidation and stalking already carry a maximum penalty of five years jail in New South Wales, however, until now the law didn't specifically cover modern forms of harassment. The legislation will now include posting threatening or hurtful images or videos online and repeatedly sending unwanted text messages or abusive emails. The government said such types of harassment 'can make victims feel scared, powerless and depressed'. Scroll down for video 'Modern technology requires modern laws,' NSW State Attorney-General Mark Speakman said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said last week the change was in response to the ongoing trend of online abuse, which can cause great psychological damage and have tragic consequences. 'These changes are not aimed at policing free speech. They are aimed at preventing abuse,' she said. 'Unfortunately until this time the law in NSW hadnt caught up with this type of activity those individuals that seek to stalk, intimidate, threaten, abuse anybody through technology can be sentenced up to a period of five years.' NSW State Attorney-General Mark Speakman, who joined Ms Berejiklian and Police commissioner Mark Fuller, for the announcement said the changes are not 'about protecting peoples injured feelings' but are 'about protecting people against potentially devastating psychological and tragic consequences.' The state Government will amend legislation to include online bullying, harassment, stalking and intimidation to the criminal code which could see offenders jailed for up to five years (pictures is NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian) 'Modern technology requires modern laws, we have stalking and intimidation criminal offences in NSW but what is unclear is whether those offences extend to online abuse,' he said. Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the NSW police force welcomed the changes. 'We know that many when they get home, when they lock the door, they feel safe but through technology enabled crime it means that harassment can be 24/7. Which means that the victim is living in fear,' he said. NSW State Attorney-General Mark Speakman (centre) said 'modern technology required modern laws' 'These changes give NSW police the power to attack these offenders back in their homes.' 'We have the powers to arrest now and also take out apprehended domestic violence orders that include this type of cyber bullying.' Domestic Violence NSW chief executive Moo Baulch said she is 'delighted' about the amendments. 'We know a significant proportion, up to 98 per cent, of victims of domestic and family violence experienced online abuse. Its a devastating crime and its also somethingthat follows people into their homes. It can feel almost inescapable.' The changes will be made to the 'stalking' and 'intimidation' sections of the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 No 80 (file photo) Police Commissioner Mick Fuller (pictured) said the NSW police force welcomed the changes which will give police greater powers to fight against cyber bullying and intimidation The amendments will be made to the 'stalking' and 'intimidation' sections of the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 No 80. The act currently defines stalking as the 'following of a person about or the watching or frequenting of the vicinity of, or an approach to, a persons place of residence, business or work or any place that a person frequents for the purposes of any social or leisure activity'. It currently defines intimidation as 'conduct amounting to harassment or molestation of the person an approach made to the person by any means that causes the person to fear for his or her safety. And 'any conduct that causes a reasonable apprehension of injury to a person or to a person with whom he or she has a domestic relationship, or of violence or damage to any person or property'. These will now be amended to include digital avenues such as mobile phones and the internet being used to stalk or intimidate victims. This is the moment a drunken thug threw a cat through the air while his friend filmed it. Laughter can be heard as the animal is launched like a rugby ball as the two men are heard joking as one says: 'Hope you have nine lives.' The vile footage was shown to Llandudno court in Wales following the incident in Rhyl in July. Joshua Weir (left) walked free after his friend Lewis Brereton (right) filmed him throwing a cat into the air Weir (pictured) launched the cat into the air during a drunken episode in Rhyl this summer in shocking footage Lewis Brereton, 26, from Rhyl and Joshua Weir, 26, from Prestatyn admitted causing unnecessary cruelty by throwing the ginger cat, The Sun Online reports. Footage of Weir throwing the animal was posted on social media, with court chairman Darren Campbell saying the action was 'appalling behaviour'. RSPCA prosecutor Tudur Owen said the cat could be seen 'twisting in the air' after reaching 'a considerable height'. The cat can be seen twisting and turning as it was launched through the air during the drunken episode Defence lawyers for both of the men said they were remorseful and had been drinking at the time of the incident. Defending Brereton, Graham Parry said the men had been 'very drunk' by admitted the offence at the first opportunity. He added that his client found it 'excruciating' to watch the footage. The appears to recover and run away in the clip. Defending Weir, Rebecca Boswell said her client had lost his job caring for autistic people. He is training in London to do close protection work. Thankfully the cat recovered and can be seen running off down the road after its terrifying ordeal Brereton's probation officer said he'd been drinking to escape feelings of 'turmoil' about his ill mother. The court chairman noted their previous good character. Each were handed eight-week jail sentences suspended for six months. They were banned from keeping an animal for three years. Each must pay 490 costs. Advertisement Incredible colourised footage has brought the First World War to life after a painstaking project to memorialise British troops by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. Grainy video of soldiers in the bloody battle has been carefully remastered and turned into colour footage for the first time to mark the centenary of the conflict between 1914 and 1918. Three-time Oscar-winning Lord Of The Rings film-maker Mr Jackson used 100-year-old footage from Imperial War Museum archives to show it in previously unseen detail. Over four years the award winner edited hundreds of videos to produce the final piece, which masterfully melts black and white scenes into brightly coloured clips. The premiere at BFI Southbank next Tuesday, which will be attended by the Duke of Cambridge, will be followed by a Q&A with Jackson and will be simultaneously screened in 250 cinemas around the UK on the same day. Slide me Through a painstaking four year project director Peter Jackson has turned black and white images into stunning colour photographs and footage Black and white clips were turned into a coloured film after Peter Jackson 'reached through the fog of time to pull these men into the modern world' First glimpse of Peter Jackson's stunning new WWI film in which he colourises hours of grainy archive footage to 'bring veterans into the modern world' The First World War's centenary this year will be honoured in 3D after Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson plunged into the Imperial War Museum's archives to rescue grainy footage and present it as it would have looked to the very people who experienced the horrors of battle British troops in World War One were captured in hundreds of short clips which have now been made into a ninety minute film which will premier this month Stunning footage shows what the men on the front lines across Europe would have seen with their own eyes after four years of hard work by Mr Jackson Jackson said: 'I wanted to reach through the fog of time and pull these men into the modern world, so they can regain their humanity once more - rather than be seen only as Charlie Chaplin-type figures in the vintage archive film.' The 90-minute film is narrated with interviews from 120 veterans, from 600 clips recorded in 1964. New Zealand director Jackson was adamant the soldiers should tell their own stories. Old film was meticulously restored. Computers were used, not only to add colour to black and white footage, but to remove imperfections, fill splices and reconstruct missing frames from film that was shot with fewer frames per second than today. Forensic lip readers, who usually work with the police determining what people say on silent security camera footage, were able to decipherthe conversations that took place in the trenches and on the battlegrounds 100 years ago. Actors were hired to give the soldiers on screen a voice. 'There's been lots of documentaries made on the First World War...and I just decided for this one to strictly just use the voices of the guys that fought there,' Jackson, director of the 'Hobbit' and the 'Lord of the Rings' series told Reuters on Tuesday. 'It's not the story of the war. It's the story of the human experience of fighting in the war.' Men who were alive during the conflict were interviewed for the dramatic colour film, while lip reading experts were brought in for an accurate picture of what was being said Men slide down tanks in the footage which has been colourised with stunning results using records and recordings to establish what the scenes would have looked like at the time Smoking soldiers in trenches feature in the ninety-minute film which is being shown for the first time at the BFI London Film Festival Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old will mark the centenary of the Great War by premiering at the London festival in October alongside simultaneous screenings in cinemas across the country. This black and white footage will be seen in colour for the first time Jackson told Sky News he was inspired by a life-long interest in the war in which his grandfather was a serving solider in the British Army. 'You didn't really notice them when they were all sped up and jerky, but suddenly they just come into a focus,' he said. Jackson said he reached through 'the fog of time' to pull soldiers' First World War stories into the modern world in revitalised archive footage to be premiered in 3D at the BFI London Film Festival. 'They Shall Not Grow Old' will simultaneously air in cinemas across the UK in the coming weeks. The film was originally announced in January as part of a series of events announced by arts organisation 14-18 NOW. The premiere will be shown as the festival's Documentary Special Presentation next Tuesday when it will also be screened in both 2D and 3D in cinemas and venues across the country. Jackson will attend the premiere, which will be broadcast live, and will later attend a post-screening Q&A with film critic Mark Kermode. The film festival, held in association with American Express, kicks off today with Widows, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Viola Davis. It ends on October 21, with Laurel and Hardy film Stan And Ollie, starring Steve Coogan and John C Reilly and directed by Filth director Jon S Baird. The influx of low-skilled migrants from the EU has brought no clear benefit to Britain, the Governments immigration tsar said last night. Professor Alan Manning, chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, argued it had cost taxpayers money as overall they cost more in benefits and public services than they paid in taxes. Appearing before MPs, he said low-skilled migration since 2004, when Labour threw open the doors to Eastern Europeans, hasnt really had positive effects and has had negative effects. Professor Alan Manning, chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, argued it had cost taxpayers money as overall they cost more in benefits and public services than they paid in taxes Prof Manning added: Our view is for that lower-skilled migration, there is no clear benefit for UK residents. He also rejected claims from big business that cuts to migrants would damage the economy. Last month, a major report from the MAC called for more high-skilled migration and less low-skilled after free movement ends. Home Secretary Sajid Javid has endorsed its central proposal. But Labour MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee criticised Prof Manning, saying this was too restrictive and would damage the economy. He hit back, suggesting that firms had a vested interest in preserving cheap supplies of labour. Under the new immigration system starting in 2021, European migrants will have to apply for work visas in the same way as those from the rest of the world. Committee chairman Yvette Cooper warned that this could create friction and make it harder for migrants to gain entry. A New Jersey teacher has been accused of sending nude photos to a teenage student. Michelina Aichele, 29, was arrested on Friday after officials from the Montgomery High School reported inappropriate communication between her and a 17-year-old student, according to Somerset County Prosecutor Michael H. Robertson. The Montgomery Township Police Department was contacted by the school regarding sexually explicit communications between a teacher and a male student. Michelina Aichele (pictured), 29, of New Jersey, has been accused of sending nude photos to a teenage student. She was arrested Friday after officials from the Montgomery High School reported her According to Robertson, the teen was interviewed and revealed that he received nude photos from Aichele over several months. The teen also claimed Aichele engaged in sexually explicit conversations with him through social media sites and email. Aichele, who was an English teacher at the high school, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. She was later booked into the Somerset County Jail. According to Aichele's LinkedIn profile, she has taught at the school since 2012. Aicheles profile on Montgomery High Schoolshas been removed. Fertility regulators ignored warnings about British doctors helping illegal gender selection for 15 years, Lord Winston alleged yesterday. Britains leading fertility expert said he has long warned about couples being sent abroad to choose the sex of their baby, only for his concerns to fall on deaf ears. Lord Winston says he repeatedly raised the scandal and accused the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) of being extremely slow to act. He spoke out after a Mail investigation revealed that UK doctors are helping couples with gender selection, including an NHS consultant acting in a private capacity. Robert Winston, pictured, has warned the fertility regulator about some doctors in Britain being willing to offer 'designer babies' to couples undergoing IVF treatment allowing them to chose the sex of their child Couples can only chose the sex of their child in Britain if there is a chance of it inheriting a serious disease Allowing IVF couples to choose the sex of their baby is illegal in the UK except when a child risks inheriting a serious disease. But undercover Mail reporters found the British doctors assist gender selection for social reasons by completing preliminary tests and scans in the UK before sending patients to clinics in North Cyprus, Crete and Dubai for the final treatment. Following our expose, the HFEA launched an investigation, saying it would be extremely concerned about anyone promoting and facilitating such treatment. But Lord Winston, who works for the Genesis Research Trust at Imperial College London, said: I have repeatedly raised concerns about this so it is surprising to now see the HFEA throw up its hands in horror when it didnt do so before. The law on gender selection in this country has to be upheld or it makes a complete nonsense of the fertility regulator. The HFEA has been extremely slow in acting on it. Women who go abroad for IVF can come back with complications, such as multiple embryos, which the NHS then needs to deal with. This is just another example of how the fertility regulator has failed. There are growing calls for the doctors at the centre of the claims to face a full General Medical Council inquiry. Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee, yesterday called for a GMC inquiry. The HFEA allows gender selection only for medical reasons, to prevent serious hereditary diseases. Where there is evidence it is being carried out or facilitated for social reasons, not only should the HFEA investigate but the GMC should also do so. A Daily Mail investigation on Monday found some doctors were willing to cash in on the trend of 'illegal' designer babies Committee member Rosie Cooper said: I can only wonder why it has taken so long for the HFEA to react. This is clearly a way to make money by evading UK laws on gender selection. The GMC should also investigate this practice. Another committee member, Johnny Mercer, said: These are disturbing allegations if there are individuals lining their pockets for such a morally dubious procedure. This should be investigated by the GMC. Sarah Norcross, director of fertility charity the Progress Educational Trust, said: These doctors may not be breaking the law but they are not acting in the spirit of the law. If they believe that patients should be able to choose the sex of their children, then they should campaign to change the law rather than seeking to circumvent it. A HFEA spokesman said: We are confident that the vast majority of the UKs fertility clinics do not recommend sex selection either at home or abroad. However, we take allegations of sex selection seriously and will investigate any specific cases brought to our attention. We have no powers to regulate treatment that takes place abroad, but we do offer extensive advice on our website for any patients considering treatment outside the UK. Acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler 'liked' a racist Internet meme of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama depicted with a banana. Andrew Wheeler, who took over for Scott Pruitt after he resigned facing a raft of scandals, says he doesn't remember 'liking' the post, but says he has been a 'prolific social media user' who had 'inadvertently liked' posts. The post shows Obama in an unflattering pose with his tongue stuck to the inside of his mouth while seated alongside the first lady, along with an image of a banana. The former energy industry lobbyist has kept a low-profile since stepping in to replace the scandal-plagued Pruitt. The Huffington Post reported the social media posts on Tuesday. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said he has 'inadvertently' liked social media posts in the past. He took over for scandal-plagued Administrator Scott Pruitt Pruitt also retweeted a post about the infamous pizzagate controversy, which contended that Hillary Clinton was involved in an underground child sex ring run out of a pizza parlor. 'Over the years, I have been a prolific social media user and liked and inadvertently liked countless social media posts,' Wheeler said in a statement responding to the initial report. 'Specifically, I do not remember the post depicting President Obama and the First Lady. As for some of the other posts, I agreed with the content and was unaware of the sources,' he said. Acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler 'liked' a racist social media post featuring the Obamas In another online comment, Wheeler mocked Hillary Clinton on a page called the Atheist Republic, which mocked the lifelong Methodist for her comments on the Bible in a post that called her an atheist. 'I think she's mentioned in the Book of Revelations.right after the Four Horsemen,' commented Wheeler. Wheeler, a longtime Washington insider, has kept a low profile compared to Scott Pruitt, who was forced to resign as head of the EPA in July under a cloud of ethics allegations including that he made staff search hotels for special skin lotion. Wheeler also mocked Hillary Clinton in an online post Wheeler commented that Clinton was 'mentioned in the Book of Revelations ... right after the Four Horsemen' In January 2013, when Wheeler was a lobbyist for Murray Energy, a privately owned coal company, he liked an image on Facebook of former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle that depicted them staring at a banana, said the report, which listed other social media activity by Wheeler that critics said was inappropriate. Heidi Beirich, the head of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group, called the image of the Obamas 'blatantly racist.' She said the people Wheeler interacted with 'are just not folks a legitimate person should have anything to do with.' Wheeler defended his social media use in a statement. 'Over the years, I have been a prolific social media user and liked and inadvertently liked countless social media posts,' he said. 'Specifically, I do not remember the post depicting President Obama and the First Lady. As for some of the other posts, I agreed with the content and was unaware of the sources.' The Huffington Post uncovered Wheeler's online posts In September, Wheeler on his personal Twitter account liked a tweet by a conservative documentary filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza that cast doubt over Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh The report relied on posts uncovered by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic political action committee. In September, Wheeler on his personal Twitter account liked a tweet by a conservative documentary filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza that cast doubt over Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegations against recently confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who had denied the allegations. Later that month Wheeler liked a tweet from an editor at the website InfoWars that blamed Twitter's temporary suspension of actor James Woods on discrimination against conservative views. An anaesthetist who infected 55 women with hepatitis C is challenging his conviction, claiming the disease is now less harmful. In 2011, Dr James Peters, 68, pleaded guilty and was convicted of infecting 55 women with hepatitis C while they underwent pregnancy terminations at the Croydon Day Surgery. Her was sentenced to 14 years in jail by the Victorian Supreme Court. Anaesthetist Dr James Peters, (pictured) who infected 55 women with hepatitis C, is challenging his conviction, claiming the disease has become less harmful However, The Sydney Morning Herald is now reporting that Peters has lodged an application with the Court of Appeal for a retrial that could see his conviction altered or overturned. In 2011, the court heard Peters would inject himself with fentanyl, an opioid used for pain relief, before he would empty the remainder of the syringe into his female patients prior to their procedure. A source who was present at the original trial told the Sydney Morning Herald Peters was a 'vile human' who had no care or regard for anyone else. 'So now he wants to pile on the grief and create more misery for these women. The prospect of another trial will devastate them and he's already tried to have his sentence reduced,' the source said. A previous appeal on the grounds of excessive sentencing was rejected in 2013. Peters told the court he had become addicted to fentanyl, which was not discovered during routine drug testing because it wasn't one of the drugs specifically tested for. His appeal was lodged on the grounds that treatment for hepatitis C had advanced greatly since his conviction, and as a result, the impact of his crimes has been diminished. A year after his conviction, his victims were awarded a combined $13.75 million compensation in a class action against the surgery practice's boss Dr Mark Schulberg and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Dr James Peters, 68, pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2011 of infecting 55 women with hepatitis C and while they underwent pregnancy terminations at the Croydon Day Surgery (stock image) The new treatment for hepatitis C has a 95-97 per cent cure rate, however, if the disease goes untreated it can cause liver disease and even cancer. Despite the improvements in treatment for the disease, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that most of his victims were already suffering from 'crippling depression and anxiety'. During Peters' trial, Justice Terry Forrest questioned how a doctor with such experience wasn't aware or didn't care that he was infecting his victims with hepatitis C, the Herald Sun reported. Justice Forrest said he found Peters' actions 'truly reprehensible'. One of Peters' victims spoke with the Herald Sun after his conviction and said she thought she would die after being diagnosed. 'When I think of everything I have lost because of James Latham Peters, it is impossible to describe the anger and betrayal that I still feel to this day,' she said. 'Going back to when I was diagnosed, I initially thought that I was going to die and I couldnt think of anything else but that I wanted the person responsible to die too.' A date for his appeal is yet to be set. Yesterday he received the backing of Janie Hamilton, 66, a retired teacher who lost her son James following a battle with schizophrenia brought on by heavy cannabis use Campaigners have backed a new anti-drugs stance at a university that is seeking to curb substance misuse among students. The aim is to make illegal drugs socially unacceptable on campus, with undergraduates implicitly agreeing to shun them when they enrol. Buckingham University vice-chancellor Sir Anthony Seldon says they are working towards a psychological contract that will encourage physically and mentally healthy lifestyles. He believes it is vital to send a message to young people that drug use is harmful and the university does not condone it. Yesterday he received the backing of Janie Hamilton, 66, a retired teacher who lost her son James following a battle with schizophrenia brought on by heavy cannabis use. I agree with every word he says, said Mrs Hamilton, who believes drug-taking is too normalised among youngsters and now works with police in schools. I wish my son James had been able to attend a university which had adopted this approach. Young people do not understand how harmful drugs can be on the developing brain. There are so many other stories out there like James but often these people dont have a voice because their lives have fallen apart or they are locked in a mental health ward. I hope other universities will follow Buckingham. James died aged 36 from testicular cancer, with his inquest recording part of the cause was his cannabis-related psychosis, which had led him to refuse treatment. Mrs Hamilton added: Some people may turn a blind eye to all of this because they think it is too big of a problem. But we should try. It will be worth it if we can save others from suffering as my son did. Sir Anthonys strong stance on drugs was shaped by the death of one of his students when he was head at Brighton College. Hester Stewart, 21, died in 2009 after taking the party drug GBL. His new initiative follows an outcry at Sheffield University when its student union gave advice on how to take various hard drugs safely. The National Drug Prevention Alliance yesterday condemned that approach and said Sir Anthony was on the right lines because universities have a duty of care. Buckinghams campaign was also supported by drugs charity Mentor. Chief executive Boris Pomroy said: An ambition of a drug-free campus is certainly laudable, particularly if it has been developed in partnership with the students. Writing in the Daily Mail on Monday, Sir Anthony said drug-taking at university should be as socially unacceptable as smoking in public. Buckingham is now working with students to introduce a culture in which drugs are totally unwelcome on campus. Responding to Mrs Hamiltons backing yesterday, Sir Anthony said: It is extremely difficult for families of those whose lives have been ruined by drugs to speak out but I have been very moved by the response to this initiative from people who have lost a family member. The Scotland Yard chief who locked himself in his car as one of his officers was murdered in the Westminster terror attack faced calls to resign yesterday. A former firearms officer described Deputy Commissioner Sir Craig Mackeys position as untenable. Ex-police marksman Andy Redhead claimed that the policeman, who was acting commissioner on the day of the attack, had lost the respect of other officers after failing to intervene. A former firearms officer described Deputy Commissioner Sir Craig Mackeys (pictured) position as untenable The call for Sir Craig, 56, to quit came after he gave evidence to the inquest into the death of terrorist Khalid Masood at the Old Bailey. He had been visiting Policing Minister Brandon Lewis at the Houses of Parliament moments before the attack on March 22 last year. Sir Craig witnessed Masoods subsequent stabbing of PC Keith Palmer, 48. He described the terrorist as a clear threat but chose not to get out of his car and become involved. Instead, he locked the car doors and took orders from a police constable, who told him to make safe and go. Speaking on Nick Ferraris LBC Breakfast show, Mr Redhead said: I think he should reconsider his position. Mr Ferrari then asked: What could he have achieved in a short-sleeve white shirt? Mr Redhead replied: Do something is better than do nothing. The primary function of a police officer is to preserve life. Sir Craig told the inquest: I was in shirtsleeves, with no radio. We had no protective equipment.The way that the male came in, he was clearly a threat. He added: The attacker had one of those looks where, if they get you in that look they would be after you. Sir Craig earned more than 270,000 a year as acting commissioner and is due to retire in December. Last night a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: It was evident that there were officers already present with the necessary skills to neutralise the threat and to administer advanced first aid. The inquest continues. The millionaire founder of Money.net Harold Louis Van Arnem, 44, has been found dead in his Manhattan apartment. Van Arnem IV, also known as H.L., was found dead at his Greenwich Village apartment on Tuesday morning, a friend of the family told Daily Mail. He had not been at his company for several days before his body was discovered, they told us. Family sources say he was found sitting in a chair at his apartment on West 11th Street. He is believed to have died of 'natural causes.' Van Arnem IV, also known as H.L., was found dead at his apartment on Tuesday morning, a friend of the family told DailyMail.com Today his sister Heather Chidiac confirmed in a touching Facebook post that he had passed away 'suddenly and unexpectedly'. 'It's with a heavy heart and great sadness I share that my brother, HL Van Arnem, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly,' she wrote. 'He was loved by many, and I will be sharing details of the visitation and funeral arrangements once confirmed.' The NYPD are not currently investigating the death as suspicious. A family representative, Justin Near told Page Six: 'It's with a heavy heart and great sadness I can confirm that Harold Louis (H.L.) Van Arnem IV, a son, brother, uncle, and cherished friend, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. 'He was loved and respected by many, both personally and professionally, and we will all miss his kindness, quick wit, and passion for life.' Family and friends have also paid tribute to the businessman. Friend Heather F. Maloumian wrote :'Oh my goodness. This is utterly shocking and heartbreaking. We will so miss our lovely sweet HL.' Family sources say he was found sitting in a chair at his apartment on West 11th Street (pictured) He had not been at his company for several days before his body was discovered Laura Bohan, whose mother was Van Arnem's godmother, added: 'I am so saddened by this horrible news. We love your family so very much. Mom is devastated losing her Godson, friend and another piece of Karen.' Van Arnem, a graduate of the University of Miami, founded Money.net in 2014, which offers financial information for traders, RIAs, money managers, or anyone wanting to dabble in stocks, but for a fraction of the price of rivals Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. He served as as Chief Executive Officer of Money.net, Inc. until 2013, and later became Chief Operations Officer. He remained Chairman of Money.net, Inc. until his death. Van Arnem, a graduate of the University of Miami, founded Money.net in 1999 He was joined by partners Morgan Downey, Chief Executive Officer, and Janet Christofano at the company which has a $1.2 million revenue. Forbes wrote that Money.net was 'giving Bloomberg a run for its money' in 2015. The offices are based in Greenwich Village, New York, near Van Arnem's apartment. The 44-year-old, who appears to have been single at the time of his death, previously worked building the DART advertisement management business for DoubleClick and worked with with CyberGate (www.gate.net), Florida's first and largest internet service provider co-founded by his family. The year before founding Monet.net, he set up an international fax service for Decision Systems International. Van Arnem is survived by his father Harold 'Sonny' Van Arnem, stepmom Bridgette, his mom, three half brothers, Sean, Maxwell and Adam and his two sisters, Heather and Aleise, who works for Prudential Securities in the Midwest. His other sister, Heidi, became a quadriplegic at age 16 after an accident and died in her mid-thirties. The possibility of a terrorist attack involving chemical or biological weapons is getting closer as terrorists relentlessly pursue new methods to commit murder, Britain's security minister has warned. In a stark assessment, Ben Wallace said he sees plots where 'the only limits to the ambition of our adversaries is their imagination.' He told a conference in London on Tuesday: 'As I speak, terrorists continue to explore new ways to kill us on our streets. 'Chemical and biological weapons are marching in closer. 'They have developed and worked on a better arsenal, and we have to be prepared that might come to our streets here. Scroll down for video Britain's security minister Ben Wallace (pictured) that the possibility of a terrorist attack involving chemical or biological weapons is getting closer 'Be under no doubt the threat is real. Our open, liberal and free societies are easy prey to those that fear little and care even less.' Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer echoed Mr Wallace's warning that the threat must be taken seriously. Also speaking at the National Security Summit, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said: 'These things have been used on the battlefield, and what's used on the battlefield will eventually be adapted to be used on domestic soil. 'I think he (Mr Wallace) is as concerned as I am that these are the kind of threats that we've got to take very seriously and we've got to make sure that we have the right preparations to actually counter that threat, should it appear.' While the likelihood of terrorists successfully conducting a large-scale chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) strike is considered to be 'unlikely', Britain's security apparatus is alive to the danger. The Government's national risk register of civil emergencies says an attack involving CBRN materials has the potential to cause harm by contaminating people, animals, buildings, outdoor environments, water supplies and food. Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer Neil Basu (above) echoed Mr Wallace's warning The head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations (ACSO) Neil Basu, is delivering a speech at the National Security Summit in London this morning. #ActionCountersTerrorism pic.twitter.com/8GtDUaj16a Counter Terrorism Policing UK (@TerrorismPolice) October 9, 2018 It adds: 'Extremists remain interested in CBRN materials. However, alternative methods of attack such as employing firearms or conventional explosive devices remain far more likely.' The potential impact of a chemical weapons incident was underlined by the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury earlier this year. Last week, UK-based experts unveiled a major drive to revolutionise the response to a CBRN emergency. The research team has developed tools including technology to determine casualty exposure to poisons through rapid skin, breath and saliva tests, drone equipment to measure toxic fumes in the atmosphere and crisis communications techniques to stop the spread of fake news. Elsewhere, Mr Wallace denied that the UK refuses to take back British citizens suspected of fighting with Islamic State. He acknowledged that the return of 'foreign fighters' is a 'genuine challenge' because of the difficulties of gathering evidence about their activities overseas. The potential impact of a chemical weapons incident was underlined by the Novichok poisoning on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury earlier this year. Pictured, Skripal's home in Salisbury The Home Office minister pointed to Government plans which would make it illegal to travel to terror hotspots or 'designated areas' without a reasonable excuse. Under the proposed offence, those convicted could face up to 10 years in prison. The Government estimates that more than 900 individuals of 'national security concern' from the UK have travelled to engage with the conflict in Syria. Of those, around 20 per cent have been killed and approximately 40 per cent have returned. The majority of those who have come back did so in the earlier stages of the conflict, and a 'significant proportion' are assessed as no longer being of national security concern. In his speech, Mr Basu noted that there are 'plenty' of 'aspirant or frustrated' travellers who now have nowhere to go. Britain was hit by five attacks last year, and the Assistant Commissioner laid bare the scale of activity to stop further atrocities. 'We are operating at a pace not seen since the very height of the Troubles,' he said. Also speaking at the event, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation Max Hill QC called for a fresh review of the definition of terrorism as set out in the Terrorism Act 2000. He said this was necessary in light of the 'changing nature of the threat from international terrorism' and cited the Salisbury attack. 'The question of state terrorism and its inclusion or possibly exclusion from the definition is work in progress in my view,' he added. A woman whose semi-naked body was found dumped near a playground at a popular suburban park has been identified. Nicole Cartwright, 32, was found dead by a council worker at Buffalo Creek Reserve in Hunters Hill on Sydney's lower north shore about 7.30am on October 3. Her hands were bound and she was found with a dog collar around her neck, with drag marks up to 30metres long nearby. Ms Cartwright's devastated brother Ben shared an emotional message after Ms Cartwright's death was confirmed. 'Rest in peace my little sister. I love you with my all,' he said. Nicole Cartwright, 32, was found dead by a council worker at Buffalo Creek Reserve in Hunters Hill on Sydney's lower north shore about 7.30am on October 3 She lived with her parents in Lansvale, in the city's south-west and had a wide circle of friends, according to police Forensic police photograph Ms Cartwright's body which was discovered by a council worker Her devastated brother Ben shared an emotional message after his sister's death was confirmed 'It is with very sad and heavy hearts that we announce that our beloved daughter, sister and friend Nicole Cartwright has sadly passed away,' he posted to Facebook. 'Thank you for all the love and support we have received from family and friends over the last few days.' Ms Cartwright lived with her parents in Lansvale, in the city's south-west and had a wide circle of friends, according to police. She did not own a car but often travelled on public transport around Sydney. Homicide squad commander Scott Cook said Ms Cartwright's body was covered in leaves and bark when she was found. He said her parents Terry and Brenda were 'very, very sad', and her family was 'devastated'. Detective Superintendent Cook said police were unsure when her body was dumped at the park, and have appealed for information on her whereabouts from September 30 to October 3. 'At the time he was located she was wearing a dark jacket with a hood and a black and white dress with long black pants underneath. She also had a pair of black boots on and a purple collar,' he said. 'The clothing is consistent with the clothing she had at Muesum railway station and the clothing she had in her possession at the time.' 'We don't have a cause of death at this stage but she did suffer injuries suffice to say they're consistent with assault, she was bound, with hands in front of her body.' Images of Ms Cartwright captured on CCTV at Ashfield and Museum train stations on September 30 just days before her murder have been released. Detectives are investigating Ms Cartwright's murder after her body was found semi-naked with a studded dog collar around her neck and her hands bound together. Drag marks up to 30 metres in length were seen near Ms Cartwright's body, which had been dumped just metres from swings and a slide. Investigators were forced to rely on dental and forensic material to identify the body. The body had been partially concealed under a dark-coloured cloth, but beneath the covering Ms Cartwright (pictured) was semi-naked NSW Police have released this still from CCTV footage of Ms Cartwright at a train station on September 30 Appeals for Ms Cartwright's friends and family to come forward to police have been made, as they attempt to piece together her whereabouts from September 30 until her death. They are also hoping to speak to anyone who drove past Buffalo Creek Reserve with a dashcam in order to find out when Ms Cartwright's body was dumped at the park. The body had been partially concealed under a dark-coloured cloth, but beneath the covering Ms Cartwright was semi-naked. She also had massive injuries to her head, and her body was hidden with leaves. Shocked neighbours told Daily Mail Australia the incident was out of character for the quiet area, in the exclusive Sydney suburb. The park is popular with local families in the area and contains a newly renovated playground Ms Cartwright did not own a car but often travelled on public transport around Sydney 'It's devastating because it's such a quiet little area,' the local said. 'Every weekend that park is packed full of kids playing and families having barbecues, it's a lovely spot normally. 'A council worker comes and opens the gates at sunrise and closes them at sunset, and I believe he found the body.' The park is popular with local families in the area and it features a newly-renovated playground. Detectives from the homicide squad are investigating Ms Cartwright's death. Detectives from the homicide squad are investigating Ms Cartwright's death Samantha Armytage has been trolled on Twitter after she showed her support for a promotion for The Everest horse race being shown on the Sydney Opera House. The Sunrise co-host copped a barrage of criticism online, with users calling her 'clueless' and accusing her of trivialising the issue. The journalist took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to mock the protesters, saying: 'The people protesting lights on the SOH [Sydney Opera House]...shone...lights on the SOH #soSydney.' Scroll down for video Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage took to Twitter to support the controversial projection of the horse race advertisement on the Sydney Opera House Twitter users reacted with anger to her post, accusing her of being 'clueless'. 'They weren't protesting lights on the SOH (Sydney Opera House) - they were protesting the advertising of gambling on the SOH,' one person pointed out. Another simply wrote: 'Wow!!!! Could you be anymore clueless.' One Twitter user accused Miss Armytage of trivialising an important issue: 'Avoid the debate about serious social issues Sam, your attitude of trivialising such topics is the 'so Sydney' bit.' Her Twitter post copped much criticism online, with users calling her out for misunderstanding the reason for the backlash One Twitter user simply wrote; 'Wow!!!! Could you be anymore clueless.' Miss Armytage slammed the protesters on Wednesday morning, saying; 'The people protesting lights on the SOH...shone...lights on the SOH #soSydney.' In a report on the Sunrise breakfast show on Wednesday morning, Miss Armytage seemed to mock the protests, saying in a lighthearted voice: 'Many shone torches onto the building to light it up, in an attempt to disrupt the Everest projection.' She pointed out the alleged hypocrisy of the protesters, saying: 'None of these people were protesting when Samsung ran an ad, when the Wallabies, the Ashes, the State of Origin, Oprah Winfrey did a show and Hugh Jackman catapulted off a flying fox down there.' The promotion of The Everest draw was projected onto Australia's iconic Sydney Opera House on Tuesday evening, ahead of the weekend's horse racing event. The promotion sparked national backlash. Over 1000 people showed up in front of the Opera House on Tuesday evening to show their disdain for the advertisment, with many chanting 'it's our house'. Many in Australia have spoken out against the horse race advertising on the Sydney Opera House, deeming it wrong to advertise for a private event on such a landmark building Over 1000 protesters showed up in front of the Opera House on Tuesday evening. Some attempted to mask the illuminations by shining torches and spotlights onto the sails Some attempted to mask the illuminations by shining torches and spotlights onto the sails. Many in Australia have spoken out against the horse race advertising on the Sydney Opera House, deeming it wrong to advertise for a private event on such a landmark building. 311,326 Australians signed an online petition against beaming the barrier draw onto the World Heritage listed building. Racing NSW was forced to change the time of the projections from 8pm to 7.39pm due to the expected protests. Dollar Tree, the popular chain of stores that sells everyday items for $1 each to low- and middle-income shoppers, is being hit hard by President Donald Trumps trade war with China. The recent round of tariffs that Trump imposed on Chinese imports is being felt in the Virginia-based company whose 15,000 stores nationwide and in Canada stock Chinese-made products. If the tariffs persist, Dollar Tree and its sister Family Dollar discount variety shops could lose tens of millions of dollars, according to USA Today. The tariffs essentially amounts to a tax on products including vegetables, perfume, shampoo, makeup, dog leashes, handbags, paper, bed sheets, dishes, cups, carpet, batteries, clothing, hats, tweezer, screwdrivers, and lamps. Dollar Tree, the popular chain of stores that sells everyday items for $1 each to low- and middle-income shoppers, is being hit hard by President Donald Trumps trade war with China. A Dollar Tree store is seen above in Detroit in this 2016 file photo Dollar Tree and Family Dollar cater to low-earning customers. Last month, the Trump administration imposed a 10 per cent tariff on $200billion worth of Chinese goods. The latest tariffs were placed on everyday consumer items that Dollar Tree imports from China because they are too expensive to make in the United States. That means it costs more for Dollar Tree to import the products. As a result, Dollar Tree must either pass the cost on to the consumer - unlikely given the fact that the stores shoppers are low-earning Americans - or remove thousands of items from shelves. It could also bear the cost, which would eat into its profits. The store could also slow down its rate of openings and job hirings, which would directly impact struggling communities. Last year, the company opened 603 stores. It has also been hiring more than 6,000 retail associates a year. In total, the company employs 175,000 workers. Last month, the Trump administration imposed a 10 per cent tariff on $200billion worth of Chinese goods. The latest tariffs were placed on everyday consumer items that Dollar Tree imports from China because they are too expensive to make in the United States. To make matters even worse, the Trump administration is planning to escalate its trade dispute with China. On January 1, the latest tariff is expected to rise from 10 per cent to 25 per cent. Dollar Tree is a Fortune 150 company. It is estimated to be worth $22.2billion, according to Fortune. Last month, Dollar Tree CEO Gary Philbin sent a letter to the U.S. trade representative warning of the negative consequences the tariffs would have for his company. Philbin told the Trump administration that more than 60 per cent of Dollar Tree shoppers earn less than $40,000 in annual household income. Of that group, half earns less than $20,000 a year. They truly are among the most vulnerable U.S. consumers, Philbin wrote in the letter. The customers depend on the chain to make ends meet. The U.S. consumer will suffer, Philbin said. The Trump administration slapped tariffs on $200billion worth of Chinese goods last month and is threatening to impose duties on virtually all of the goods China exports to the United States. Trump has said signs of economic weakness in China and its slumping stock markets are proof of the effect U.S. tariffs are having on the Chinese economy. Still, Beijing has remained defiant, vowing to stimulate domestic demand to cushion the blow from any trade shocks. The Duchess of Cambridge demonstrated her arty streak yesterday when she was asked to contribute to a painting. Kate and Prince William were at a mental health summit when they were introduced to Colombia-born contemporary artist Dairo Vargas, who was painting a piece inspired by the event. He chatted to the couple before asking if they wanted to add their own touch to the 6ft by 6ft artwork, titled Someone To Turn To. William immediately demurred and pushed Kate forward saying: My wife, shes the arty one! Kate and Prince William were at a mental health summit when they were introduced to Colombia-born contemporary artist Dairo Vargas, who was painting a piece inspired by the event Kate, 36, who studied History of Art at St Andrews, where she first met her husband, laughed and took the brush from Mr Vargas, asking him: Where can you hide it? Mr Vargas pointed to a shoulder area and Kate made her brushstroke as William joked: Its almost ruined the picture. The duke and duchess were attending the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit in London, which is being hosted by the Government and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The summit sees political figures, academics and policy-makers from around the world meet to discuss issues surrounding the stigma of mental health and how to better address them. William, also 36, was later persuaded to take his turn with the paintbrush. Does it matter where I go? he asked. You are allowed to go anywhere, encouraged Kate, who was wearing a 1,500 bespoke lavender Emilia Wickstead dress previously seen on the couples 2017 tour to Germany with 510 Gianvito Rossi nude heels. He chatted to the couple before asking if they wanted to add their own touch to the 6ft by 6ft artwork, titled Someone To Turn To. William immediately demurred and pushed Kate forward saying: My wife, shes the arty one! The duke and duchess were attending the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit in London, which is being hosted by the Government and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development She added: This is a great, great compliment. Its great to have some creative reason in which the same [mental health] conversations are going on. Mr Vargas, who is based in London, described the couple as very fun. He said the concept behind his painting is the idea that mental health issues can stem from loneliness, adding: I think I am going to leave their contributions untouched! The duke and duchess, along with Prince Harry, have made mental health a cornerstone issue of their public work. At the summit, William and Kate visited a stand run by the non-profit organisation United for Global Mental Health, where they heard about the work of Dixon Chibanda, who started an initiative in Zimbabwe teaching elderly women the skills to offer therapy sessions on friendship benches. 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. This is the moment a cranky snake tries to bite a man in the eye as he attempts to remove it from a family home. Professional snake catcher Stuart McKenzie from the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane, is unaware how close he is to losing an eye as the snake lunges. 'I didn't think it was that close ... but it was an inch or two at most,' he said, after a friend took a screenshot from his video and sent it to him. The six-foot serpent is coiled in a hanging pot on a Queensland porch when McKenzie comes in to remove it. As he disturbs the serpent with his snake hook, the sleepy reptile becomes angry and lunges for his eyes, mouth wide open and fangs exposed. Seconds later it strikes again, aiming for McKenzie's jugular. McKenzie said the coastal carpet python is not poisonous or dangerous, but can give a painful bite, and sometimes their teeth break off in the victim. 'They've got a mouthful of small needle-like teeth,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday. 'They're small but sharp.' Seconds after the python lunges at his eyes, it strikes again, aiming for McKenzie's jugular PYTHON FACTS Coastal carpet pythons are one of the largest snakes to inhabit Australias east coast. They grow up to 3m (10 feet) in length. They have up to 80 needle-like teeth that point backwards and can break off in a victim. They are not poisonous and not aggressive unless they get frightened or disturbed. They are often found in the rooves of houses. Snakes are an important part of nature. If you have one in your home, don't disturb it, call your local snake catcher who will remove it. Sources: Queensland Museum, Snake Catcher Brisbane Advertisement The coastal carpet python is the largest snake species found in the Brisbane and Ipswich regions and has 80 backwards facing teeth. McKenzie said the snakes are not really aggressive, this one was just afraid that the 28-year-old snake catcher might be a predator. 'He followed me with his head the whole time and struck out - it was his way of saying: 'go away and leave me alone'.' People are likely to see more snakes at this time of year because the warmer spring weather brings them out looking for a mate, he said. 'This time of year, I'll get five or six calls a day,' he said. 'In summer it can be eight or ten.' The video shows the python trying to escape into some porch plants but the snake wrangler grabs it with both hands and wrestles it back to the porch. McKenzie, who has kept pet reptiles since he was six years old, drops the coastal carpet python safely into a big black bag then releases it into bushland. Stuart McKenzie, 28, has been handling snakes since he was six years old and he is not afraid After working for Australia Zoo, McKenzie started his own business: The Snake Catcher 24/7, and catches reptiles everywhere from North Brisbane to Noosa. 'I've caught snakes everywhere,' he said. 'Last night, a snake got behind a dishwasher at a ladies house. We pulled the dishwasher out and it disappeared into a small hole in the wall. 'Now it's in the wall of the house. 'We had to put flour on the ground around the kitchen to see the marks of when he comes out.' Earlier this year, he helped an 87-year-old lady who saw a common tree snake go up into her recliner chair. The hanging pot on the porch where the cranky python is resting before being removed The python tries to escape into the nearby pot plants but McKenzie gets the better of him A vile pervert who molested a young girl while her mother ducked inside for a few minutes is free to offend after being cut loose on a community order which doesn't even call for any community work. County Court of Victoria Judge Wendy Wilmoth said she was protecting the community more effectively by releasing Michael John Tetley back into the community on a two year order. 'Because your mental illness was closely connected to the offending that you committed, the purposes of the sentence in punishing you and protecting the community are best achieved by your treatment in the community,' she said. Sex offender Michael John Tetley in one of his Facebook images fit for publication Tetley snaps another photo of himself in his jocks. He also likes skateboarding and children Tetley posted a series of bizarre photos posted on Facebook in the months before facing sentence. Multiple images depict the porky predator bizarrely dressed in his undies, with at least one suggesting he's more than a tad excited. Tetley, from Melbourne's northeast, was arrested after he brazenly assaulted a four-year old girl in front of her seven-year old brother outside their own home. Their mum had been outside watching the kids and had only ducked inside for a few minutes when Tetley dropped his pants. What happened next was the stuff of nightmares, with their mum walking outside to catch Tetley in the act. She had already been suspicious of her neighbour after her kids were previously found playing in his unit and returning with treats and cash. The doting parent had a feeling Tetley's contact had been inappropriate and her gut was telling no lies. On November 17 last year, her children were outside playing on their scooters when the 54-year old got out his skateboard and joined them. When her boy went into the neighbour's home to grab a toy guitar, Tetley joined him and came out with a guitar of his own and a keyboard. Judge Wilmoth said the children's mother only took her eyes off them for a few minutes while they played on the driveway. Alone, Tetley took out his penis and the little girl performed a sex act on him. Busted, Tetley told the shocked mum he thought it was alright because his father had done it to him. He made full admissions to police and told them he had hoped he wouldn't be caught. Judge Wilmoth said such offending was 'generally deserving of severe punishment' and called for protection of the community. But the court heard Tetley suffered from schizophrenia, lived a lonely life and had been on a disability pension for years. A forensic psychiatrist said he was slow and found it difficult to understand people. But he had no issue understanding what he had done was wrong and still presented as a 'moderate risk' to the community, he said. Judge Wilmoth accepted Tetley had gone about organising himself some counselling and was sorry for what he'd done. County Court Judge Wendy Wilmoth was sympathetic to Tetley's history of mental illness Michael John Tetley captures another topless selfie. He also likes to get around in his undies He pleaded guilty to three counts of having sex in the presence of a child and one of sexual assault. The children's mother told the court the attack had devastated her family and required her to move out of their home. She said her daughter had been changed by the attack and her son suffered from anxiety. Judge Wilmoth said the kids were lucky to have such a good mum. But she refused to jail Tetley. 'The mitigating matters in the case mean a community corrections order is an adequate sentence meeting all necessary sentencing requirements without the need for an additional prison term,' she said. She sentenced Tetley to a two-year order without a community work component because he was already on a pension. Prosecutors had asked that Tetley spend a stint in jail before being put on a community order. Judge Wilmoth said she accepted Tetley's mental illness played a role in his disgusting behaviour. She further claimed the community order would act as a deterrent to Tetley, who must remain on the sex offender register for eight years. A convicted jihadi wife has claimed a local council breached her human rights by not giving her new home. Stock photo A convicted jihadi wife has taken her local authority to court for breaching her human rights by not rehoming her - despite having turned down seven council houses. The mother-of-two, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was freed from jail in September 2016. She lived in hotels and B&Bs with her sons, aged five and nine, for 16 months at an enormous cost to the taxpayer before being moved to temporary accommodation in Brent, north London, The Sun reports. In her High Court lawsuit, the woman maintained that the seven houses offered to her were not in the right location. But Judge Jennifer Eady ruled her human rights were not violated. However, the woman was granted anonymity. She complained in court that private landlords had refused her as a tenant because of her criminal record. Judge Jennifer Eady rejected the wife's case Yet, the woman who is on benefits - turned down 5,000 from officials to pay for a deposit on a house, according to The Sun. The woman's husband fled the UK to become a jihadi fighter in 2013. The following year, she was jailed for 28 months for a terrorist offence. She was released in July 2015, but was jailed again after breaching her licence. But she asked for a council house after she was let out of prison. She turned down two one-bedroom houses in south London in 2016 because they were too small. She also rejected four two-bedroom homes in Dulwich, Kidderminster and in Great Wryley in Staffordshire because they were too far away from her family. After being moved into temporary accommodation, she rejected two more offers. This is the moment a Staten Island man with crippling health issues is repeatedly punched and tased by an officer when police responded to a call about a domestic violence incident inside his apartment. In video obtained by DailyMail.com Tuesday night, William Colon, 24, who allegedly punched his girlfriend, Lissette Torres, in the face after she threatened to return his birthday gifts, stood in front of his locked door as police attempted to enter the apartment on September 28. One of the officers warned Colon that if he doesn't open the door, his team will break it down. 'There's no reason to, but OK,' Colon replied. An officer then ordered the 4'8", 85lb individual to step outside, when he replied, defiantly: 'I don't want to step outside.' That's when one of the officers, identified as Vincenzo Trabolse, stormed in the home, grabbed Colon and punched him when he refused to comply to police orders. William Colon, 24, is pictured standing in front of his apartment door when police arrived on September 28 Officers were responding to a domestic violence incident. Colon is shown as he is manhandled by a cop The Staten Island man, who has a variety of health problems, was tased and punched by police His brother, Jazz, also in the home, shouted at the officers as he told them that Colon suffers several medical problems. Aside from scoliosis, Colon also suffers Mauriac Syndrome, which is 'characterized by dwarfism, obesity and hepatomegaly in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus,' according to NCBI. He also has heart and intestinal problems, as well as asthma. 'He has scoliosis! It's all documented,' the brother yelled out in the video. 'This is what they doing! They have no warrant. He broke in my crib!' Trabolse repeatedly shocked Colon with the stun gun until he appeared to pass out. The officer also punched him as he was handcuffed face-down on the bed. The brother said: 'He has a medical condition! He will get hurt. I'm recording... I'm in my home. You have no right to come in here.' Colon, who has no criminal record, told the cops: 'I didn't do nothin' Colon denied punching his girlfriend in the face when she threatened to return his birthday gifts Colon, who has no criminal record, told the cops: 'I didn't do nothin'.' Deputy Communications Director of the Legal Aid Society, Redmond Haskins, spoke to DailyMail.com about Colon's injuries. 'Mr Colon suffered a brutal attack at the hands of Officer Trabolse, which given our clients medical condition, could have been fatal for him. 'Luckily, hospital staff was able to stabilize his condition, avoiding a possible life-threatening diabetic coma.' Haskins added: 'After the chokehold death of Eric Garner, were appalled to see that there are officers still on Staten Island that employ this degree of brute force at first impulse. 'New Yorkers deserve better from the Department in these situations.' The Legal Aid Society said Colon had been taken to the 121st Precinct after the incident. 'Mr Colon was in poor condition when he arrived at RUMC. Doctors determined that the taser had caused his blood sugar levels to sky rocket leading to a possible coma. 'They provided insulin to stabilize him, and they took x-rays to look for broken bones from the punches,' the statement said. Colon (seen far left) has been charged with third-degree assault, second-degree harassment, second-degree obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. The legal department said police had been responding to a call from a neighbor that day. The neighbor overheard a dispute inside the apartment. The dispute began after Colon's girlfriend told him she planned to return his birthday gifts for an unknown reason. Colon, who has been accused of punching Torres in the face, has denied doing so. He said, according to a criminal complaint, that he 'never touched' his girlfriend. Torres told another story Sunday while speaking with the New York Daily News. The girlfriend said she didn't want to press charges against her boyfriend, but police urged her to do so. 'They kept trying to get me to write a statement. I said I didnt want to press charges. 'They told me I was going to get locked up for vandalizing the house if I didn't. I was frightened... I didnt want to get arrested. They told me what to write word for word.' She said officers have continuously visited her home since the incident to make sure she is following through with the charges. An NYPD spokesperson, however, said: 'This is a case where the police responded to a domestic violence call where a woman suffered clear and obvious injuries to her face. 'Justice requires that we take that matter seriously, which we do in all domestic violence cases.' Colon has been charged with third-degree assault, second-degree harassment, second-degree obstructing governmental administration, as well as resisting arrest. Further investigation is now underway. Professional boxer Lauryn Eagle has been fined $500 and had her licence suspended for a year after she was caught driving drunk. The former TV presenter pleaded guilty to drink driving and refusing a breath test at the Waverley Local Court on Wednesday, according to 9News. In August, the 30-year-old refused an officer's request for a breath test after police caught Eagle driving the wrong way down a street in Bondi Beach, in Sydney's east. Details of that day were revealed in court, which included Eagle repeatedly swearing at officers, calling them 'f***ing dogs' and pleading with officers to let her go the Daily Telegraph reported. Scroll down for video Professional boxer Lauryn Eagle (pictured) left court of Wednesday after she was fined $500 and had her licence suspended for a year after she was caught driving drunk The lawyer insisted the court note the model and professional boxer had on Tuesday 'signed in for the traffic offenders' program' (Eagle is pictured in 2014) 'No please dont do this, yes Ive been drinking dont test me, please help me, the cops f****d me over last time, please.' The residential street where Eagle was stopped by police has one lane heading in either direction, separated by a grassed median strip. The incident isn't the first time Eagle has been in trouble with the law this year. In a separate incident, Eagle, who won Miss Teen International in 2005 and was a world champion water skier, had a drug-driving conviction quashed on July 5. At the time, Eagle argued she was unaware medication prescribed to her in the United States contained methylamphetamine. Judge Helen Syme noted it was a 'very unusual' case, involving the use of a legally prescribed medication. Eagle, who won Miss Teen International in 2005 and was a world champion water skier, had a drug-driving conviction quashed on July 5 (pictured) Judge Helen Syme noted it was a 'very unusual' case involving the use of a legally prescribed medication Despite Eagle's request to have the drug-driving conviction dealt with under mental health legislation, Judge Syme dismissed the charges and declined to record a conviction under section 10, the Daily Telegraph reported. Judge Syme said Eagle had no intention of driving with illicit drugs in her system and had already suffered because of the media coverage surrounding the case. Ms Symes found Eagle was unaware of the substances involved in her ADHD medication. Judge Syme found Eagle (pictured with lawyer Adam Houda) was unaware of the substances involved in her ADHD medication A young woman surprised her grandparents, who had never lived with electricity or running water, with a brand new home in Hawaii. In the video, Kahealani Paradis, 29, leads her grandparents to the home in Big Island, Hawaii. The unsuspecting couple are seen checking out the home's exterior with other relatives and friends. Kahealani Paradis, 29, surprised her grandparents, who had never lived with electricity or running water, with a brand new home in Hawaii. Her grandmother is seen walking up to the home Paradis' grandfather (right) looks at her in disbelief as her grandmother (left) says: 'Not! No lie' Her grandmother then turns away from the camera and buries her face in her hands as she cries tears of joy 'So, I think it's time that you guys get back something for all the years that you guys took care of people. For all the years that you guys help everybody else, it's time for you guys to get back. This is you guys' house,' Paradis tells her grandparents. Paradis' grandfather looks at her in disbelief as her grandmother says: 'Not! No lie.' Her grandmother then turns away from the camera and buries her face in her hands as she cries tears of joy. 'Wow,' her grandfather is heard saying as he tells his wife to 'stop crying'. A short time later, the family makes their way into the home, walking through the kitchen first. 'You deserve this,' one person is heard telling the couple. Paradis and her grandparents later posed for a sweet snap before heading inside the home A short time later, the family makes their way into the home, walking through the kitchen first 'You deserve this,' one person is heard telling the couple, which brings Paradis' grandmother to tears again Paradis (right) found the reasonably priced two-bedroom home on a quarter-acre of land and immediately purchased it for her grandmother (left), 69, and grandfather, 67. 'They have been really happy ever since,' Paradis added According to InsideEdition, Paradis cashed out her husbands retirement fund in order to purchase the home. 'Ive been wanting to get them a home for a really long time,' Paradis told the news site. 'The house they had is where I grew up, where my mother grew up, where all their kids grew up. It didnt have electricity or water. A lot of people live like this in Hawaii,' Paradis explained. Paradis found the reasonably priced two-bedroom home on a quarter-acre of land and immediately purchased it for her grandmother, 69, and grandfather, 67. 'They have been really happy ever since,' Paradis added. The sweet moment took place in March 2017. A sea of President Donald Trump's supporters chanted 'Lock her up!' Tuesday night during a speech in western Iowa, a full half-hour before the president mentioned Hillary Clinton's name. The crowd of about 7,500 was angry at Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who two weeks ago facilitated the public hearing testimony of Christine Blasey Ford against then-future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Trump rhetorically elbowed Feinstein at the tail end of a litany of anti-Democrat complaints, mocking her denial that her staff leaked a confidential letter in which Ford first accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when the two were teens. Mispronouncing her name 'Fein-steen' as he often does, the president pantomimed a moment during the September 27 hearing in which the senator asked staff director Jennifer Duck for reassurance that her own aides had honored Ford's request for privacy. President Donald Trump blasted Democrats on Tuesday as 'crazy' and 'the Dims' during a raucous Iowa speech that drew chants of 'Lock her up!' at the first mention of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's name The 'Lock her up!' shouting has long been a Trump crowd response to the mention of Hillary Clinton's name but on Tuesday it made its first appearance a half-hour before she did Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, fumbled during a hearing last month when asked if her staff leaked a letter from a woman who privately accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her decades earlier 'Did you leak the documents?' Trump asked, playing both sides of a Q-and-A with the ranking Demorcat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'Wha, wha, what? No, I didn't!' he replied, playing the role of Feinstein as she suddenly threw a glance over one shoulder to grill her underlings: 'Did we leak? Did we leak?' 'No! No! No we didn't!' Trump's fictional Feinstein said at last. The 'Lock her up!' chant grew from thready to full-throated Clintonian proportions in five seconds flat. 'I think they're talking about Feinstein! Can you believe that?' Trump laughed, judging her less than credible. 'Was that the worst body language? Honestly!' Trump said. 'In other words, did she leak it? 100 per cent! As cheers rocked the rafters, he stopped himself: 'No, I don't want to get sued. 99 per cent. See? Now I can't get sued.' In Council Bluffs, Iowa on Tuesday night, Trump pantomimed the exchange between Feinstein and her staff director during the Sept. 27 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Feinstein was at the time trying to quell Republicans' accusations that a leak from her office fored Christine Blasey Ford to declare publicly what her letter to the senator had said privately that Kavanaugh had pinned her to a bed and groped her during a drunken high school party in 1982 Trump concluded that Feinstein '100 per cent' leaked the letter, saying she sparked the weeks-long saga that nearly derailed Kavanaugh's confirmation to America's highest court The president did mention Clinton later during his free-wheeling rendering of political oral history, and the crowd was ready with a 'Lock her up!' reprise. The staccato slogan first hit America's national consciousness during the 2016 Republican National Convention as Trump's fans obsessed over Clinton's use of an unsecured private email server that hosted some classified material while she was secretary of state. Tuesday marked the first time a crowd in full Trump reverie weaponized it against someone else. The president's recent public rallies have been big on airing political grievances in the final weeks before the Nov. 6 congressional midterm elections. While he props up Republican candidates wherever he goes and sometimes mocks their opponents 'Abby Finkenauer! Who the hell is that?' he asked Tuesday of one Iowa Democratic congressional hopeful he typically reserves most of his firepower for liberals who might pose a threat to his re-election in 2020. Democrats, he said Tuesday, are 'too dangerous to govern. They've gone wacko!' And in a swipe at Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a favorite foil, he claimed Democrats have 'gone so far left that they consider Pocahontas to be a rational person.' The president kept his anger level high through most of Tuesday's rally speech, slamming Democrats as 'the party of crime' and complaining that they want to erase national borders and eliminate America's immigration authorities Trump's crowd of about 7,500 people stood in hours of rainfall to see him at the Mid-America Center near Iowa's border with Nebraska 'In their lust for power Democrats have become totally unhinged. They've gotten crazy!' Trump said as men, women and children cheered on Tuesday night Trump has needled Warren with that nickname for more than three years, ridiculing her claim to be part Cherokee Indian and claiming she used that ethnic identity to obtain preferential treatment in university hiring. 'Oh, I hope she runs!' he said Tuesday, boasting that it would allow Republicans to 'finally get down to the fact of whether or not she has Indian blood.' Warren has repeatedly refused to take a DNA test to confirm her ancestry. Trump also bashed New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, saying he 'ran Newark into the ground' as mayor, and blasted Connceticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumnethal as 'Da Nang Dick.' Blumenthal, he said, 'tried to convince people for 15 years that he was a great war hero' despite spending the Vietnam War stateside and out of harm's way. 'In their lust for power Democrats have become totally unhinged. They've gotten crazy!' he said, calling them 'the Dims' instead of 'the Dems.' Trump attributed that derisive nickname to Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs and Fox News Channel host sean Hannity. He continued to conjugate the rest of the Fox universe's star talent, including Jeanine Pirro, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Steve Doocy and Ainsely Earhardt, drawing thunderclaps of applause at each name. The president will have another rally Wednesday night in Erie, Pennsylvania Trump clobbered Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (left) for the poor economic performance of the city of Newark when he was mayor; he also ridiculed Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal for long claiming to have fought in the Vietnam War despite never having entered the country while in uniform The president continued his feud with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, jabbing her as 'Pocahontas' for her longstanding but unproven claim to be part Cherokee Tuesday night's rally at the Mid-America Center was techincally a campaign event, not a presidential speech, one of four this week, and he returned over and over to the coming election. He told his supporters that they would soon 'render your verdict on the Democrats outrageous conduct.' Council Bluffs is across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska, where early voting began Monday. Trump encouraged Nebraskans in the arena a large majority, judging from applause when he asked them to declare where they lived to take full advantage. 'Go! Vote! Get it over with ... Go do it immediately. Then you don't have to listen to me tonight,' he said. 'In fact, if you did early voting, go home!' 'Leave here now. Immediately,' he joked. 'Is it still open? Yes? Get the hell out of here.' Melbourne's love of coffee has been taken to the next level. Cafes in the city, which many argue is the coffee capital of the world, are selling a rare brew of coffee in glass goblets for $150. Coffee aficionados have been descending on Monk Bodhi Dharma, Admiral Cheng Ho and Bayano the Rebel cafes to try out the brew, the Herald Sun reported. Mars Shaw, who owns or co-owns each of the cafes, told the publication at least one $150 coffee is sold every two weeks across the three locations. Melbourne cafes are selling a coffee in glass goblets (pictured), with cafe Monk Bodhi Dharma saying on Instagram 'We are delighted to serve exquisite filter coffee and quite frankly we believe it should be served just like that... in a fine glass' 'It's important to remember, people are really paying for an experience,' he said. The coffee beans are from Jose Alfredo's #227 limited batch, which Bayano the Rebel described in an Instagram post as a 'game changer'. It has 'most complex florals and fruits' and includes lychee, passionfruit congnac and cocoa. The limited batch of coffee sells for US$5,000 (AU$7,000) per kilogram at auction, reportedly making it the most expensive coffee in the world. Monk Bodhi Dharma posted on Instagram: 'We are delighted to serve exquisite filter coffee and quite frankly we believe it should be served just like that... in a fine glass', accompanying a photo uploaded by a customer drinking coffee from a glass. The average price of a cup of coffee in Melbourne is reportedly hovering above $4.50. The coffee in a glass goblet comes from Jose Alfredo's #227 limited batch (pictured) Consumer psychologist Adam Ferrier told the Herald Sun coffee is now operating in the same category as craft beer, wine and whisky. Social media is being attributed to the rise in consumers keen on 'looking for new experiences and are prepared to pay for them'. Mr Ferrier said that when people are having '$20-something coffees in public spaces, it's because it makes them feel good about themselves'. 'As a cafe owner once said to me, "I have to make this cool; people are prepared to pay for cool",' he said. Advertisement It's always 5 o'clock somewhere, and Scott Morrison has been pictured taking a sip on an early morning schooner as he toured a brewery. The Prime Minister visited Six String Brewing Company, in Erina, on the NSW Central Coast, at 9am on Wednesday, with Robertson federal Liberal MP Lucy Wicks. He met with the owners of the brewery as part of his first stop on his first tour of the region. It's always 5 o'clock somewhere, and Scott Morrison has been pictured taking a sip on an early morning schooner as he toured a brewery Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison inspects brewing equipment during a visit to the Six Strings Brewery, in Erina, on the NSW Central Coast Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison along with Federal MP for Robertson Lucy Wicks visited the brewery on Wednesday According to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Morrison mentioned the area 11 times in the first minute of his speech as he was outlining his Government's support for small businesses, and the success of the NBN roll-out for businesses and homes on the Central Coast. 'They are living the dream on the Central Coast. They are living the dream here on the Central Coast and they are running their own business here on the Central Coast,' he said. 'This is what people aspire to on the Central Coast; to be able to live, work, play, raise a family all here on the Central Coast. 'Businesses succeeding here on the Central Coast is critical to achieving the lifestyle and the goals that people have on the Central Coast for their future.' Mr Morrison sampled the company's Dark Red IPA beer and was given a complimentary mixed six pack. He was also shown how to 'pull the perfect ale' and was commended for his efforts by the owner Chris Benson. 'He poured it quite well, he must have done it before,' Mr Benson said. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison along with Federal MP for Robertson Lucy Wicks (second left) and co-owners Chris Benson (left) and Ryan Harris during the tour Mr Morrison is pictured taking a sip of the beer as he listened to what the owners of the brewery have to say With a state and federal election due next year, the prime minister complimented the small business for their efforts With a state and federal election due next year, the prime minister complimented the small business for their efforts on 'getting the pool depreciation provisions and GST on a cash basis, the lower rate of tax and the instant asset write-off,' the publication reported. 'What that is doing is enabling businesses to realise their dreams, start their own businesses, to be successful in their business and to employ locals,' Mr Morrison said. 'It's really important in areas outside the big cities because it's those small and medium size businesses that are the heart and soul of those local economies.' The Royal College of Psychiatrists is to review its opposition to the legalisation of cannabis. The organisation has been wary of moves to decriminalise the drug because of concerns of possible negative effects on users' health. There is also an association between psychotic illnesses and high-strength varieties of the drug. The government is under pressure to allow the treatment of epilepsy using cannabis oil (pictured) But it is now reconsidering its stance due to arguments that legalising cannabis would give the government the power to both regulate its strength and generate tax from its sale. Over the summer, there was also a wave of pressure on the Government to relax the laws on cannabis to permit its use for medical treatment, particularly the use of cannabis oil to treat epilepsy. The college is setting up a panel to review current evidence from countries where the drug is already legal. Dr Adrian James, Royal College of Psychiatrists registrar and panel chairman, told the Daily Telegraph it would start with an 'open mind' and review the available research. The Royal College of Psychiatrists will keep an open mind as is it reviews its opposition to the legalisation of cannabis He said he remained concerned about the potential risks, but said he recognised the arguments that decriminalisation could prevent users becoming caught up in the criminal justice system. He said: 'As a forensic psychiatrist, the strongest argument is decriminalising behaviour.' He added: 'Our official view is that we are concerned about the health risks and we are against legalisation...on that basis, but there may be arguments that outweigh the psychiatric argument.' The college is only reviewing its opposition to decriminalisation at this stage, and may ultimately decide not to change its position. It will also review medical cannabis, which it supports as a therapy for certain conditions if it has been properly reviewed and approved by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence. Charlotte Caldwell has urged the government to allow the use of cannabis oil to treat her epileptic son, Billy (both are pictured in Belfast) In June, a six-month supply of cannabis oil was seized from Charlotte Caldwell, whose 12-year-old son Billy has acute epilepsy, as she arrived at Heathrow Airport from Canada. The product was later returned to the family following an outpouring of support from politicians and the public. Several other families came forward with their own stories of how cannabis oil had helped to control their children's seizures. Conservative MP Crispin Blunt - who co-chairs an all-parliamentary group on drug policy reform - described the UK's approach as 'frankly absurd' considering opiates are freely supplied for medicinal use. To date, more than 40 countries, including Italy, Finland, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Germany and the US, have voted to decriminalise cannabis in some form - often for medical purposes such as pain relief. Cannabis is one of the most commonly used drugs in the UK, with 6.6 per cent of adults - or 2.2 million people - having taken it. Thirty Labour MPs are set to rebel against Jeremy Corbyn and back Theresa May's Chequers-style Brexit deal. The mixed group is made up of MPs who oppose a second referendum or believe the proposal will never garner enough support in the House of Commons. A number of senior MPs told The Times a group of between 30 and 40 backbenchers could be ready to oppose Corbyn and back the deal the government makes on Brexit. A number of Senior MPs have said a group of between 30 and 40 backbenchers could be ready to oppose Corbyn and back the deal the government makes on Brexit The same group of MPs are also thought to be against the leadership's strategy of rejecting the deal the Prime Minister negotiates in order to trigger a general election. Rebellious Labour MPs will also argue the motion passed on Brexit at Labour conference commits the party to stopping a potentially catastrophic 'no deal' Brexit. Despite this Theresa May will face the Commons today amid intense Tory pressure to drop her Brexit plans as officials in Brussels gather to discuss their latest move in the talks. Top EU officials will be briefed behind closed doors by chief negotiator Michel Barnier following intensified talks in the run-up to a crunch summit next week. Mrs May will appear at the despatch box for the first session of Prime Minister's questions after a party conference season dominated by Brexit divisions. Former Brexit secretary David Davis warned on Tuesday of 'dire' consequences for Conservatives at the next general election if the Government sticks to its negotiating stance on EU withdrawal. In a letter to fellow Tory MPs, he said a deal based on Mrs May's Chequers plan would deliver 'none of the benefits of Brexit' and reduce the UK to being 'a rule-taker from Brussels'. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, meanwhile, said differences remained between the UK and EU on the withdrawal agreement but insisted 'we are closing in on workable solutions'. He told Tory Brexiteers their calls for a Canada-style trade deal would be a 'shortcut to no deal'. Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney warned of 'carnage' if Britain crashed out of the EU but said he believed it was 'unlikely' that would happen. Mrs May told her Cabinet that Britain will not accept an EU withdrawal deal without a 'precise' political declaration setting out how its requirements on trade and security will be delivered. Despite optimistic comments from senior EU figures about the prospect of progress at the October 17-18 European Council summit, the PM made clear that agreement has not yet been reached on key issues including the Irish border. A woman who pretended she had cancer to steal from her loved ones has been sentenced to jail after an eight-year web of lies unraveled. Kelly Val Smith of Adelaide's northwest suburb Port Adelaide was sentenced today to four years in jail with a non-parole period of two years by Adelaide District Court. The 40-year-old mother-of-three pretended she had ovarian cancer to gain sympathy from friends and family from whom she stole $400,000 over eight years. Scroll down for video Kelly Val Smith (pictured) pretended she had cancer to gain sympathy from loved ones. She was sentenced to four years' jail after stealing $400,000 from family during the saga of lies During the trial, the court also heard Smith had told family that she was to receive a 'victims of crime' payment and falsely promised to give at least one of her victims $2 million from it. Smith had earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of deception and one of dishonestly dealing with documents during the saga of lies which lasted from 2007 to 2015. Smith has already spent three months in prison. She was arrested in June and had her bail revoked after she attended Royal Adelaide Hospital. Judge Steven Milsteed declared he was 'satisfied that the defendant is feigning illness' and issued a warrant for her arrest. 'A key consideration in my decision to revoke bail is that I'm satisfied she has continued to offend,' he said. Kelly Val Smith confessed to her wrongdoing weeks before she was due to stand trial on serious charges of deception and dishonest dealing at the Adelaide District Court The court heard that during Smith's three months in prison she had reflected on her choices and participated in programs, and was a 'better person now for it', ABC News reported. Victims told the court during sentencing submissions how Smith's actions had devastated their lives. The court heard how one of Smith's former friends had lost two years' worth of mortgage repayments. The 40-year-old mother was arrested after attending Royal Adelaide Hospital in June and had her bail revoked as the judge said she was feigning illness and continuing to offend When her husband lost his job, the couple had to choose between paying the mortgage and eating. During the trial, Smith's step-mother-in-law, Michelle Ingley-Smith, said the family's fractured bonds may never be repaired. 'We truly loved Kelly, we all did she had long-term relationships with all of us, and this has divided us,' she told reporters. During sentencing submissions, she described Smith's behaviour as 'despicable'. A personal assistant who was facing prison time for stealing more than $1million worth of wine from his millionaire ex-boss leaped to his death from the 33rd floor of a New York City hotel while his lawyers waited for him in federal court. Nicholas DeMeyer was pronounced dead by authorities in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon at around 2:30pm just outside the Carlyle Hotel. His sister alerted hotel staff after she received text messages from DeMeyer in which he indicated he would harm himself, according to the New York Post. When security barged into his room, DeMeyer was sitting on the window sill naked. He smiled at them and then jumped out of the window. DeMeyer landed on a 17th floor balcony. Nicholas DeMeyer was pronounced dead by authorities in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon at around 2:30pm just outside the Carlyle Hotel (seen in the above stock image) The impact was so severe that it split his body into two - with the other half landing on a terrace on the 15th floor. The apparent suicide took place at about the same time that DeMeyer was expected in Manhattan federal court to enter a guilty plea. DeMeyer, a former personal assistant to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, was charged with stealing hundreds of bottles of wine worth more than $1.2 million from his former boss. DeMeyer's alleged theft scheme ran from 2014 to October 2016, when he stole seven bottles from the famed French estate Domaine de la Romanee-Conti in Burgundy that his boss had bought for $133,650. Using the alias Mark Miller, DeMeyer would sell stolen bottles to a North Carolina wine dealer, who would have them picked up at Solomon's Manhattan apartment, the indictment said. DeMeyer, a former personal assistant to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon (pictured), was reportedly set to plead guilty to stealing hundreds of bottles of wine worth more than $1.2 million from his former boss Solomon, known for his devotion to wine, and his wife Mary maintained an apartment at the prestigious San Remo co-op on Central Park West while the alleged scheme occurred, public records show. DeMeyer's responsibilities had included receiving wine at the apartment, and moving it to his former boss' wine cellar in East Hampton, New York, the indictment said. While Solomon was not identified by name in the indictment, Goldman spokesman Andrew Williams confirmed that Solomon was the 'victim' described there as DeMeyer's target. 'The theft was discovered in the fall of 2016 and reported to law enforcement at that time,' Williams said in an email. Prosecutors say DeMeyer stole hundreds of bottles of his boss's wine and sold them to a dealer in North Carolina, who would send a messenger to pick the bottles up from Solomon's apartment in the San Remo building in New York City (pictured) Among the bottles stolen were seven bottles from the famed French estate Domaine de la Romanee-Conti in Burgundy (a bottle from the winery pictured above) Solomon gook over as CEO of Goldman Sachs from Lloyd Blankfein on October 1, before which he served as co-COO. DeMeyer was arrested in January in Los Angeles. He was charged with one count of transporting stolen property across state lines. If convicted, he would have faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. It is unclear how long he would have had to serve in prison as part of the terms of a guilty plea. After his arrest, DeMeyer was released on a $1million bond secured by $200,000 in cash and his mothers home in Findlay, Ohio, where he was staying. Solomon issued a statement on Tuesday, saying: 'Mary and I are deeply saddened to hear that Nicolas took his own life. 'He was close to our family for several years, and we are all heartbroken to hear of his tragic end.' Several flights have been delayed and may even be cancelled as a supercell storm batters Sydney and the east coast of Australia. Sydney Airport has been smashed by strong winds, with 100km/h gales hitting the city late on Wednesday morning. Passengers have been warned to check with their airline before heading to the airport. Flights are also having difficulty landing at the airport because of poor visibility caused by the storm. Scroll down for video Several flights have been delayed and may even be cancelled as a supercell storm batters Sydney and the east coast of Australia Sydney Airport has been smashed by strong winds, with 100km/h gales hitting the city late on Wednesday morning Passengers have been warned to check with their airline before heading to the airport The delays come as two powerful weather systems sweeping over Australia are set to collide - bringing hail, damaging winds and torrential rain to a vast stretch of the east coast. A fierce 'supercell' storm is expected to hit south-east Queensland and northern NSW on Wednesday, as a high pressure system moving over north-west Australia crashes into a cold front heading north from Victoria. Parts of Queensland took a pummelling on Tuesday, with the Sunshine Coast town of Coolum receiving a month's worth of rain in just 15 minutes. Hailstorms lashed areas further inland, with massive balls of ice becoming lodged in fruit nets at a rural property at Glass House Mountains. Weather expert Garry Youngberry said thousands of residents should brace for even worse conditions, describing Wednesday as 'round three for severe thunderstorms'. 'The last two days we've had hail, destructive winds and very heavy rainfall. But today we are likely to see supercells,' he told the Nine Network. 'Any time from late morning to early afternoon we are likely to see thunderstorms light up right across south-east Queensland. 'It is very widespread. We are going to quite a light show and possibly damage later today.' Heavy rain is expected to persist in south-east Queensland for the next five days, with up to 150mm to fall in Brisbane. Two powerful weather systems sweeping over Australia are set to collide - bringing hail, damaging winds and torrential rain The 'supercell' storm will come as Queenslands mops up after two days of wild weather Massive balls of ice became lodged in fruit nets at a rural property at Queensland's Glass House Mountains WHAT IS A 'SUPERCELL' STORM? There are three simplified thunderstorm types: the single-cell, the multicell and the supercell. Of these, the multicell is the most common. A supercell thunderstorm is a special storm type which maintains an intense steady-state for many hours. They are a fascinating but dangerous cloud complex and they account for most of the serious thunderstorm events we experience. Source: Bureau of Meteorology Advertisement But Mr Youngberry said it will do nothing for farmers struggling to save their crops. 'Our farmers really can't win a trick. With thunderstorms, the rainfall is so heavy the only benefit for the farmers is the top up with their water tanks,' he said. 'It does more harm than good it runs off and no moisture soaking into the soil.' Weatherzone meteorologist Jacob Cronje said the two separate weather systems are typical of this time of year. 'A front is more of a winter-like system while the inland system is more like summer. It's the transition, it's typical to see this kind of set up,' he told Nine News. Parts of central and north-east NSW will also be affected, with wild thunderstorms expected to hit on Wednesday afternoon. Hundreds of Queenslanders took to social media to share photos of hail stones which hit parts of the state on Tuesday Pictured: A map of Australia with the expected rainfall over the next eight days Sydney will see showers with an expected top of just 17C, five below the October average. Rain is expected in the Harbour City until at least Sunday, before a cloudy and cool start to next week. Melbourne will experience strong winds with a top of 18C on Wednesday, while severe weather is expected to hit Victoria's Central, Gippsland and Wimmera regions. Adelaide will also be windy with a top of 20C, while Perth's morning storms will clear with an expected maximum of 27C. Showers are forecast in Canberra with a chilly top of 14C, and Hobart will see cloudy day with a 13C maximum. Darwin will be typically hot and sunny with and is expected to reach 34C. The heavy rainfall and wild weather will do nothing for Queendland's struggling farmers Hail storms lashed parts of Queensland on Tuesday - and residents have been warned to expect more of the same THE DAYS AHEAD IN YOUR CITY SYDNEY Wednesday: Min 15, Max 18, windy and showers Thursday: Min 13, Max 18, possible shower Friday: Min 14, Max 19, likely showers Saturday: Min 14, Max 20, shower CANBERRA Wednesday: Min 14, Max 17, clearing shower Thursday: Min 3, Max 15, mostly sunny Friday: Min 3, Max 16, partly cloudy Saturday: Min 4, Max 19, possible shower PERTH Wednesday: Min 15, Max 27, storms clearing, mostly sunny day Thursday: Min 14, Max 24, mostly sunny Friday: Min 14, Max 21, shower or two Saturday: Min 12, Max 20, showers easing DARWIN Wednesday: Min 24, Max 34, sunny Thursday: Min 24, Max 34, sunny Friday: Min 25, Max 33, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 25, Max 33, possible thunderstorm MELBOURNE Wednesday: Min 10, Max 18, partly cloudy Thursday: Min 7, Max 20, sunny Friday: Min 8, Max 22, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 11, Max 23, mostly sunny ADELAIDE Wednesday: Min 9, Max 20, mostly sunny Thursday: Min 10, Max 23, mostly sunny Friday: Min 13, Max 26, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 15, Max 27, Mostly sunny HOBART Wednesday: Min 7, Max 14, mostly sunny Thursday: Min 3, Max 16, mostly sunny Friday: Min 6, Max 19, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 7, Max 22, mostly sunny BRISBANE Wednesday: Min 17, Max 31, thunderstorms Thursday: Min 18, Max 22, showers Friday: Min 16, Max 20, showers Saturday: Min 16, Max 19, showers Source: Weatherzone Advertisement The east coast's wild weather comes after Australia was told to expect heatwaves and bushfires by the end of the year, with a 70 per cent chance of El Nino. This triple the likelihood of an El Nino system forming to bring drier than normal conditions by the end of 2018, the Bureau of Meteorology warned. 'Between the (above average) temperature and the lack of rainfall, this is not good news,' bureau climatologist Robyn Duell told AAP. 'This outlook on the back of such little rainfall and dry conditions makes it such a worry for people.' Australia endured its driest September since rainfall records began in 1900, Ms Duell said. The eastern tropical Indian Ocean is cooler than normal while the western part of the ocean is warmer than usual, which is common with El Nino, she said. Beer and wine drinkers are outraged at a new 'floor price' on alcohol purchases in some parts of Australia. The floor price was introduced on October 1 and states that every standard drink must cost at least $1.30, in a bid to reduce alcohol-related harm in the community. Northern Territory is the first state in Australia to introduce the new pricing, which means that a 750ml bottle of wine containing approximately 7.7 standard drinks cannot be sold for less than $10.01. Beer and wine drinkers are outraged at a new 'floor price' which has been added to alcohol in some parts of Australia, meaning bottles of wine cannot legally be sold for less than $10 It also pushes the price of Australia's famously cheap backpacker favourite 'goon' to a minimum of $27.82 for a 2 litre box, NT News reports. Chief Minister Michael Gunner established the initiative following an alcohol review earlier this year that found NT had the highest per-capita rate of alcohol consumption in Australia. The review also found that this rate was one of the highest in the world and that NT had the highest rate of hospitalisation due to alcohol misuse. Mayor of Katherine, Fay Miller has spoken out against the controversial pricing, saying that as the 'floor price' only applies to wines and beer, problem drinkers are likely to just switch to liquor. It also pushes the price of Australia's famously cheap backpacker favourite 'goon' to a minimum of $27.82 for a 2 litre box 'We're not happy,' she said, adding that all feedback she had heard was negative. 'The only thing that has worked in all the years I've been here, since 1989 is the police on bottle shops.' Mayor of Katherine, Fay Miller (pictured) has spoken out against the controversial pricing Ms Miller also suggested that the initiative could have an impact on future tourism, although she admitted it was too early to tell. Faye Hartley, president of the Australia Liquor Stores Association, believes that the new pricing is targeting the wrong people. 'None of the complaints have come from the long grassers, but they are all from ordinary Territorians who are not problem drinkers,' she said. She called the legislation 'just another nail in the coffin', noting that the cost of living for the average drinker is being forced 'up and up'. 'The feedback is that they are not happy, 'why are they getting picked on',' Ms Hartley said. 'A lot are older people who are on pensions or low income and like to have an affordable wine or beer with a meal.' However, the NT Council of Social Service (NTCOSS) has been supportive of the government's initiative. 'It is an unfortunate impact, but there is such a widespread alcohol problem in the Territory that the Territory as a whole has to wear the changes around alcohol pricing,' said executive Wendy Morton. A housekeeper who brazenly guzzled stolen liquor and ice cream before she blacked out in the kitchen of a Brooklyn apartment she was supposed to be cleaning apparently ravaged at least three other homes in the New York City area. In March 2016, Manhattan man Nicholas Gomes hired the unnamed maid from Joanna Cleaning Service. She was photographed August 27 blacked out in a Williamsburg apartment while wearing a top that said 'Eat, drink and be merry.' Gomes told the New York Post this week that he returned home to find the housekeeper 'nude waist down, lying on the couch on the verge of being asleep' at the time. He said that, while the housekeeper managed to clean most of his pad, the cleaning session seemingly went awry when the woman discovered his blackberry brandy. When the resident walked in the door, he was shocked to find the cleaning lady naked from the waist down, next to two demolished MacBook computers. When Gomes confronted her about the incident, she claimed she was assaulted by her significant other who entered the home. But the doormen disputed her claim and told Gomes no one else entered the place. Gomes added: 'She just stared at me confused, and I called the cops as I told her it was OK, I was getting her a friend to take her home.' The woman accepted a plea deal for disorderly conduct. However, Gomes said she only paid him $400 of the $2,000 owed. Another woman, from Brooklyn, only identified as Jennifer, said she hired the maid in January 2017. 'When I came home that day, I noticed the garbage in the hallway on the floor of my building and it smelled terribly and was like, "What is that?"' she told the Post. 'I went into the apartment and it looked like nothing had been cleaned and a bottle of mostly drunk wine was gone.' An Upper West Side couple spoke about their disastrous service in December 2017. This mischievous maid wearing a top that says 'Eat, drink and be merry' blacked out in a Brooklyn woman's home back in August. Now, several other New York City residents have come forward to share their nightmare experiences with the woman The housekeeper, shown here, was found blacked out in a Brooklyn home that was demolished in August Geevee Snow shared these photos to Facebook that show the drunk employee and an empty bottle of liquor They said they returned home to find a 'mess' and a glass of whiskey the woman had been drinking. The pair said she also loaded the dishwasher 'in a bizarre and hugely messy way.' Charges were not filed for either of the two incidents. Geevee Snow previously shared details about her nightmare experience with two housekeepers she hired from Joanna Cleaning Service - which has an almost five-star rating on Yelp. Snow said last Monday she welcomed two ladies from the housekeeping service in to tidy up her home on August 27, but by the time she and her roommate, Kristen Nepomuceno, returned to their Williamsburg apartment, they found the complete opposite had been done. 'CLEANING LADIES DRANK MY LIQUOR AND TRASHED MY APARTMENT,' Snow first wrote in the fiery Facebook post. Snow (pictured) wrote: 'They didnt clean a thing, just drank all my liquor and f**ked up my home... my roommate came home to one of them blacked out face-down in our kitchen and the other long gone' 'They didnt clean a thing, just drank all my liquor and f**ked up my home... my roommate came home to one of them blacked out face-down in our kitchen and the other long gone. 'My spice rack was smashed, my marble coffee table upended which smashed a stone bowl, keys were gone, booze was gone and chocolate ice cream left on the sofa.' Snow said she already paid Joanna Cleaning Service more than $400 and the owner has refused to refund her. 'Joanna refused to pay me back and I can't find a legitimate address for the business to take her to small claims or BBB (the address on their Facebook page is fake),' she said further. 'Help!!! Has anyone else used them and/or had this experience?' The owner of the company, Joanna Oltuszewska, said in an email published to Snow's Facebook page that the woman who passed out in her kitchen has been going through 'family problems' as of late. Oltuszewska told Snow that the since-fired employee's husband recently left her after 19 years of marriage. The employee has since been fired, the owner of the company said in an email The trashed Williamsburg apartment is pictured above after the August 27 incident Joanna Cleaning Service offered to pay for the food and alcohol the employee stole, clean the apartment once more and provide two free cleanings Furthermore, the day of her wild escapade on the job, the housekeeper learned her teenage daughter was pregnant. 'I am not a conflicting person, I hoped we can resolve this problem... the summer time is very slow for business, and usually we don't refund - we fix any problems,' the owner said. The owner offered to pay for the food and alcohol the employees stole, clean the apartment properly and provide two free cleanings. Joanna Cleaning Service could not be reached for comment by DailyMail.com late Tuesday night. Snow said she already paid Joanna Cleaning Service more than $400 and the company has refused to refund her Company owner Joanna Oltuszewska said in an email that the woman who passed out in her kitchen has been going through 'family problems' as of late Snow shared the concerning photos with the owner in this email thread The sister of a millionaire who amassed her fortune living a frugal lifestyle has won a court case to prove a postcard she wrote is a valid will. Kathleen Steiner, 59, from Taranaki on New Zealand's North Island, died in hospice care in her sister's arms after a 'very courageous battle' in January. Ms Steiner, whose estate was worth $NZ2.8 million ($AU2.1 million) when she died, did not formally prepare her will but wrote various notes on how she wished her estate would be allocated. Kathleen Steiner (pictured), who's estate was worth 2.8 million NZD when she died, did not formally prepare her will but wrote various notes including a postcard on how she wished her estate would be allocated Her sister, Margaret Steiner-Joyce, made an application to the High Court of New Zealand to declare the documents as valid, Stuff reported. Written on the back of a postcard and a law firm's note paper, the signed and dated documents varied in the length and detail. The informal wills requested Margaret, who worked as a legal executive, 'sort out who got what of her money'. The informal wills allocated cash gifts to Margaret and another sister, Rosina, while a third sister got nothing. A court document explained Margaret urged Ms Steiner to write a will and there was also a recorded conversation between the pair about a will and gifts Margaret wished to make. The sisters new about the wills and where to find them but they were not touched until after Ms Steiner died. Her sister, Margaret Steiner-Joyce, made an application to the High Court of New Zealand to declare the documents as valid Ms Steiner's wealth comprised of two North Taranaki properties, a $1000 car, chattels, bank accounts and cash investments. According to a court document, Ms Steiner lived in a farmhouse where she grew up and didn't marry or have children. 'She lived a frugal lifestyle and amassed considerable wealth in doing so,' the document stated. Justice Thomas ruled the documents expressed Ms Steiner's wishes concerning her estate and ordered Margaret to be the executor of the estate (pictured is a stock image) Justice Thomas ruled the documents expressed Ms Steiner's wishes concerning her estate and ordered Margaret to be the executor of the estate. 'I place quite some weight on the fact the three documents are all titled as her will, are signed and all bear the same date,' she said. 'In my assessment, read together, they appear to express her testamentary intentions.' The terrifying moments before a grandfather was killed in a horror crash have been caught on camera. Ross Anderson, 62, died after his car collided with another on Alexandriana Rd near Adelaide in January. The moments before the fatal crash were captured by his dashcam, 7News reported. Scroll down for video The terrifying moments before a grandfather was killed in a horror crash have been caught on camera Mr Anderson was captured driving down the near-empty road before a red Mitsubishi Mirage veered across the centre line. Mr Anderson's car rolled six times. He was killed instantly. His wife Tina, 61, was critically injured. Mr Anderson was remembered as a 'warm, friendly and intelligent man'. He spent many years working in the navy and Australian Submarine Corporation, Adelaide Now reported. He had only retired about a year before the fatal crash. Ross Anderson (pictured) died after a two-car crash near Adelaide earlier this year when a German tourist crossed the centre line The 66-year-old German tourist, Paul Welby, was charged with serious driving offences, including causing death by dangerous driving. The crash was deemed human error the driver had a momentary lapse of concentration, the court found. Welby was given a suspended sentence. A gender reveal party could land a father in hot water with police after he performed a burnout with coloured tyres. For what was supposed to be a day of celebration, the expectant father, from Canberra, opted for tyres instead of the traditional coloured balloons. Footage captured the moment he revved his bright green car, which was parked on his driveway, and blue smoke streamed out from behind the vehicle. Scroll down for video For what was supposed to be a day of celebration, the expectant father from ACT opted for tyres instead of the traditional coloured balloons (pictured) Blue smoke filled the garage and spilled out into the yard as a crowd of woman, men and children gathered around. The crowd can be heard cheering as the blue smoke billowed out into the street. 'It's a boy!' one person can be heard saying. Concerned neighbours reportedly called police. ACT Police did not look kindly on the dangerous actions of the driver and spoke with 9 News about their concerns. 'They are celebrating, and the conduct that these people were engaged in is dangerous, it is unsafe,' a police spokesman said. 'At one point you could be celebrating but then you could be burying someone. There is also the environmental concerns and people don''t need to put up with type of behaviour.' ACT Police did not look kindly on the dangerous actions of the driver Social media users also voiced their opinions on the gender reveal. 'Just because people have no interest in doing it or cant do it is no reason to condemn it,' one user wrote. 'Could be just trying to deter this from happening more. Probably dont want everyone doing burnouts in their garage,' another added. According to the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999, a burnout falls under the heading of Speeding and other dangerous driving but only if performed on a road or road related surface. However, because the burnout was performed on private property, any charges pressed against the father would be under the Environment Protection Act 1997. The burnout smoke could be deemed as a 'pollutant', entering the atmosphere at higher levels than the 'prescribed measure' and in turn causing environmental harm. Rest home caregiver Kaye Gillan (pictured left and right) has been awarded thousands of dollars in compensation after she sued for wrongful dismissal A rest home worker who was fired after taking a $1 bag of chips will be paid almost $20,000 in compensation after she was found to have been wrongfully dismissed. Kaye Gillan was sacked from her job at a rest home in Mosgiel, near Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island, in July 2016. Birchleigh Management Services dismissed Ms Gillan after she took the small packet of potato chips from a cupboard used to store refreshments for residents, the Otago Daily Times reported. Ms Gillan tasted the chips only to discover they were stale and threw them in the bin. She was later called in for a meeting with Birchleigh management where she said she took the chips but denied dishonest intent. Ms Gillan, a caregiver at the facility since 2004, was dismissed after management found her actions amounted to serious misconduct. She sued Birchleigh for wrongful dismissal and on Tuesday the Employment Relations Authority said the company's actions were 'unnecessarily severe'. Birchleigh Management Services dismissed Ms Gillan (pictured, right) after she took the small packet of potato chips from a cupboard used to store refreshments for residents The ERA awarded Ms Gillan $18,750 (AU$17,092) in compensation. She will also be reimbursed for lost wages but the amount she will receive has not yet been agreed to by the parties involved. The ERA determination noted 'a fair and reasonable employer could have found that Mrs Gillan was guilty of serious misconduct'. But it added 'such an employer could not have concluded, in all the circumstances, that the essential foundation of trust and confidence in Mrs Gillan had been undermined to such a significant degree to warrant her dismissal'. Ms Gillan told reporters after the determination was made she still does not 'regret being honest and saying that I took the chips and showing them in the rubbish bin'. She is now working as a carer for a different employer. Birchleigh is reportedly considering whether it will appeal the decision. Haunting footage showing the final hours of a woman whose bound and semi-naked body was found dumped near a children's playground has been revealed. Nicole Cartwright, 32, was found dead by a council worker at Buffalo Creek Reserve in Hunters Hill on Sydney's lower north shore about 7.30am on October 3. Her hands were bound and she was found with a dog collar around her neck, with drag marks up to 30metres long nearby. CCTV footage shows Ms Cartwright using public transport just four days before her body was found - the last time she was ever seen alive. NSW Police have released this still from CCTV footage of Ms Cartwright at a train station on September 30 Nicole Cartwright, 32, was found dead by a council worker at Buffalo Creek Reserve in Hunters Hill on Sydney's lower north shore about 7.30am on October 3 Ms Cartwright was seen at Museum train station at 9.14pm on September 30, just days before her death Forensic police photograph Ms Cartwright's body which was discovered by a council worker Homicide squad commander Scott Cook said police are unaware of Ms Cartwright's whereabouts from September 30 until her body was found on October 3. 'Investigators have been able to place Nicole on buses and at various railway stations between 27 and 30 September, but we are seeking information from then until she was found,' he said. 'We know that Nicole travelled by train from Bondi Junction to St Marys early on 29 September, and the following afternoon/evening, we have her at Strathfield, Central, Ashfield and then Museum Railway Stations. 'The last image we have located so far was captured as Nicole exited Museum Railway Station just before 9.15pm on the Sunday. 'We've been liaising with her family, who last had contact with Nicole on 28 September, when she sent a photo taken at Maroubra. 'Of particular interest to us is any sightings or contact with Nicole after that time, and we are appealing for those people to contact us as soon as possible.' Ms Cartwright's devastated brother Ben shared an emotional message after Ms Cartwright's death was confirmed. 'Rest in peace my little sister. I love you with my all,' he said. 'It is with very sad and heavy hearts that we announce that our beloved daughter, sister and friend Nicole Cartwright has sadly passed away,' he posted to Facebook. 'Thank you for all the love and support we have received from family and friends over the last few days.' Her devastated brother Ben shared an emotional message after his sister's death was confirmed The body had been partially concealed under a dark-coloured cloth, but beneath the covering Ms Cartwright (pictured) was semi-naked She lived with her parents in Lansvale, in the city's south-west and had a wide circle of friends, according to police CCTV footage shows Ms Cartwright using public transport just days before she disappeared Ms Cartwright lived with her parents in Lansvale, in the city's south-west and had a wide circle of friends, according to police. She did not own a car but often travelled on public transport around Sydney. He said her parents Terry and Brenda were 'very, very sad', and her family was 'devastated'. Detective Superintendent Cook said police were unsure when her body was dumped at the park. 'At the time she was located she was wearing a dark jacket with a hood and a black and white dress with long black pants underneath. She also had a pair of black boots on and a purple collar,' he said. They are also hoping to speak to anyone who drove past Buffalo Creek Reserve with a dashcam in order to find out when Ms Cartwright's body was dumped at the park. The park is popular with local families in the area and contains a newly renovated playground Ms Cartwright did not own a car but often travelled on public transport around Sydney Detectives are investigating Ms Cartwright's murder after her body was found semi-naked with a studded dog collar around her neck and her hands bound together Investigators believe Nicole's body was dumped at Buffalo Creek Reserve either late on the Tuesday night or very early hours of Wednesday morning 'We've been liaising with her family, who last had contact with Nicole on 28 September, when she sent a photo taken at Maroubra,' Det Supt Cook said. 'The last image we have located so far was captured as Nicole exited Museum Railway Station just before 9.15pm on the Sunday. 'Of particular interest to us is any sightings or contact with Nicole after that time, and we are appealing for those people to contact us as soon as possible.' Investigators believe Nicole's body was dumped at Buffalo Creek Reserve either late on the Tuesday night or very early hours of Wednesday morning. 'While it is most likely her body was brought to the area under darkness, we are still urging motorists with dashcam and travelling in that area at that time to provide us copies of their footage,' Det Supt Cook said. The body had been partially concealed under a dark-coloured cloth, but beneath the covering Ms Cartwright was semi-naked. She also had massive injuries to her head, and her body was hidden with leaves. Detectives from the homicide squad are investigating Ms Cartwright's death Shocked neighbours told Daily Mail Australia the incident was out of character for the quiet area, in the exclusive Sydney suburb. 'It's devastating because it's such a quiet little area,' the local said. 'Every weekend that park is packed full of kids playing and families having barbecues, it's a lovely spot normally. 'A council worker comes and opens the gates at sunrise and closes them at sunset, and I believe he found the body.' The park is popular with local families in the area and it features a newly-renovated playground. Detectives from the homicide squad are investigating Ms Cartwright's death. A man and two accomplices allegedly kidnapped a mother, grandmother, and two teenage boys in an ordeal that lasted 16 hours. Jason Scott McKay, 44 is the man police allege took the two women and two boys aged 13 and 14 from a farm in Ootha, in the NSW Central West, and drove them over 400km to the outskirts of Sydney. The lengthy ordeal came to an end in the Hawkesbury region on Tuesday night, when the grandmother and the teenagers were dropped off on the side of the road at Windsor. Mr McKay and the remaining woman, 41, were found about 11.30pm in bushland at Blaxlands Ridge, police said. Scroll down for video Jason Scott McKay (pictured) has been arrested by police after allegedly kidnapping two women and two teenage boys from a home in western NSW on Monday Mr McKay was arrested by police officers on Tuesday night The ordeal began at Ootha, in western NSW, and ended 400 kilometres away at Windsor, west of Sydney Police allege Mr McKay and two other men, Adam Thomas McKay, 29, and Samuel Towney, 23, broke into the fmaily's rural home at dawn on Tuesday. 'They forced their way into the premises and they held the occupants under duress,' NSW Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith told media on Tuesday. 'A 69-year-old male was assaulted a number of times and was dragged to the rear of the property, he was bound and he was left in a rear room.' Police allege McKay then forced the woman, her mother and the two boys into his four-wheel drive. The two other men at the property then allegedly poured 20 litres of fuel throughout the house and set it alight, before locking the gate and fleeing, police said. The alleged kidnapping began when police were called to a house at Ootha (pictured), almost 400km away in NSW's central west, which was allegedly set alight after the violent break-in As the house burned, the bloodied and bruised elderly man regained consciousness and managed to drive a tractor to a neighbouring property to raise the alarm. Police arrived at the property at 11am to find the house had burnt to the ground and the elderly man suffering critical injuries. A police pursuit for the three alleged kidnappers soon began, but had to be ended because of the dangerous driving of the men. The two men in their 20s were soon confronted by a police roadblock and allegedly drove their car at police, leading one officer to fire his gun at the two men. The three alleged kidnappers continued their wild police pursuit for 400 kilometres until they drove along Putty Road, at which point both vehicles stopped enabling the grandmother and two boys to escape. After Mr McKay drove off, the two younger alleged kidnappers gave themselves up. Police were able to arrest the 23-year-old and 29-year-old men, as they continued to pursue Mr McKay who was still holding the 41-year-old woman hostage. Just after 11.30pm, police found the woman and her alleged kidnapper in bushland near Blaxlands Ridge, about 20km north of Windsor, in Sydney's west. The grandmother and the two boys were able to escape after being held captive for almost 400 kilometres Allegedly armed with weapons including a shotgun, axe and knives, the three broke through the front door and attacked a man, 68, who is the grandmother's partner, knocking him unconscious Adam Thomas McKay and Samuel Towney were charged by police and are both due to face Penrith Local Court on Wednesday Mr McKay was arrested and is expected to be charged on Wednesday. Adam Thomas McKay and Samuel Towney were charged by police and are both due to face Penrith Local Court on Wednesday. Police said it was 'extraordinary' the elderly man did not die in the house fire. 'I think it is extraordinary, considering his age,' Acting Asst Commissioner Smith said. 'He had to break free from his bindings, he fell in and out of consciousness a number of times throughout the ordeal. 'He received head injuries throughout assault, so I think hats off to his bravery as to what he did next which is to alert neighbours.' The inquest into the deaths of four people at Dreamworld in 2016 has revealed a former ride operator and union representative claimed staff were being forced to urinate next to rides while waiting for relieving staff. In an email to management towards the end of 2014, Jason Drysdale complained about 'staff having to pee at their rides, leaving their rides unattended and even being hospitalised with a kidney infection'. 'But my major concern about this is in regards to the point I am trying to make is that staff say, supervisors just don't care, they are out to get you,' the email continued. In an email to management towards the end of 2014 Jason Drysdale complained about 'staff having to pee at their rides' (pictured; maintenance supervisor Stephen Murphy leaving court) The inquest into the deaths of four guests on Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids ride in October 2016 resumed on Monday Also giving evidence on Wednesday morning was a former ride operator who claimed that he was fired after a similar incident occoured on the Thunder Rapids ride two years before the deadly tragedy. Stephen Buss claimed he did not have to practice emergency drills and thought it was 'silly' he was fired after the incident. 'How is this doing any better... you're going to fire me and train someone up that doesn't have the experience on that ride,' he said in the statement to Workplace Health and Safety. Earlier, the inquest has heard the emergency stop button on the control panel of a Dreamworld ride on which four guests died was not subject to regular maintenance checks. The inquest into the deaths of Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi resumed on Monday at the Southport Coroners Court. The four guests were killed at the Gold Coast theme park in October 2016 while on the Thunder River Rapids ride. Maintenance supervisor Stephen Murphy told the inquest he had never used the emergency stop button on the main control panel of the ride. Cindy Low (top right), Kate Goodchild (bottom left), her brother Luke Dorsett (bottom right) and his partner Roozi Araghi (top left) tragically lost their lives in the incident Maintenance supervisor Stephen Murphy (pictured) told the inquest he had never used the emergency stop button on the main control panel of the ride Mr Murphy said he had no idea what the button exactly did and despite using other emergency stop buttons during his daily checks, he had never pressed the control panel button. 'That button was not a part of our pre-operational checks,' Mr Murphy said. The inquest also heard Mr Murphy had no knowledge of previous incidents on the ride in 2001 and 2014 when rafts had collided in similar circumstances to the fatal incident in 2016. He said he did not believe at the time of the incident that the rafts colliding was an obvious risk on the ride. Barrister Matthew Hickey, representing the family of Ms Low, asked what would happen if rafts did collide on the ride. 'We all know the consequences once that did happen,' Mr Murphy replied. 'Did you know it had happened before?' Mr Hickey asked, with Mr Murphy simply replying 'no'. The inquest also heard Dreamworld rides were allowed to break three times a day before they were shut down. Mr Murphy said he did not believe at the time of the incident that the rafts colliding was an obvious risk on the ride The breakdown policy had been changed in the lead-up to the fatal accident following a directive from management. Rides previously had to be shut off after two incidents, with Mr Murphy asked why the change had been made, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported. 'It was passed down from the management meeting that we would do it that way,' Mr Murphy told the inquest. On the day four guests were killed, the ride had already broken down twice prior to the tragedy unfolding. Mr Murphy said he could not remember when the new policy was implemented and added no explanation had been provided for the change. The inquest into the fatal Thunder River Rapids ride resumed at the Southport Coroners Court in Queensland on Monday Matthew Low (left), husband of victim Cindy Low, and barrister Matthew Hickey (right), representing the family of Ms Low, arrive at the Southport Magistrates Court on Monday The first two weeks of the inquest in June heard from ride supervisors and engineers who either worked at the park on the day of the tragedy or in the preceding days. The second portion of the inquest will hear from more senior park management including those in charge of engineering, maintenance and policy. Former Dreamworld employee Stephen Buss, who was fired after the 2014 incident, was expected to give evidence on Tuesday. Dreamworld general manager Troy Margetts was also expected to be called to give evidence during the two-week window. Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson resigned following the opening fortnight of the inquest. Dreamworld CEO Craig Davidson (pictured right) resigned during the first inquest. Ardent Leisure chairman Gary Weiss (pictured left) said Dreamworld was 'committed to ensuring Dreamworld becomes recognised as Australia's global benchmark for theme park safety' Since Mr Davidson's resignation Ardent Leisure, the parent company of the theme park, had announced Nicole Noye as acting CEO alongside new executive appointments Phil Tanner as director of safety and former Queensland police inspector Mike McKay as director for culture, community and external relations. Ardent Leisure said in August the inquest had hampered efforts to encourage visitors back to the park. The company reported a net loss of $90.7 million for the year to June 26, with attendance dropping to 1.658 million visits in 2017/18 from 1.663 million the year before. 'We are committed to ensuring Dreamworld becomes recognised as Australia's global benchmark for theme park safety - the Ardent board has no greater priority,' Ardent Leisure chairman Gary Weiss said in a statement. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has ruthlessly mocked Sydney with his own take on the controversial horse racing ad that was beamed over the Opera House. Over a thousand protesters shone torches in an attempt to drown out the projection of the barrier draw for The Everest on the iconic landmark on Tuesday night. As the debacle came a head, Mr Andrews trolled the Harbour City from his Melbourne home with a bold post on his Twitter and Facebook accounts. 'Look, I don't think advertising belongs on the Opera House either. But if they're going to, they may as well give Victoria a plug,' the premier wrote. He shared a series of photos of the landmark, superimposing images and text which boasted about Melbourne's supposed cultural edge over Sydney. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has ruthlessly mocked Sydney with his own take on the controversial horse racing ad that was beamed over the Opera House Mr Andrews trolled the Harbour City from his Melbourne home with a bold post on his Twitter and Facebook accounts '24-hour nightlife (with no lockouts),' read one phrase plastered over the main sails of the building. Other slogans included 'locally built transport', 'more jobs', '24-hour airport' and '24-hour transport'. Mr Andrews' posts sent social media into a frenzy, as thousands argued over which city held superiority. 'You forgot the ''No sun, perfect vampire weather'' one,' a Sydneysider noted. 'Look, I don't think advertising belongs on the Opera House either. But if they're going to, they may as well give Victoria a plug,' the premier (right) Slogans included 'locally built transport', 'more jobs', '24-hour airport' and '24-hour transport 'I wouldn't be plugging Melbourne transport too much. Sydney has a far superior transport system in my opinion,' another said. Others mocked Mr Andrews for his support of a new Apple Store at Melbourne's iconic Federation Square. 'But you're fine with selling off part of Fed Square to the highest bidder? I think you've been a good Premier, but that decision stinks to high heaven,' one wrote. 'You're knocking down a part of Federation Square to build a billboard for the richest company in the world,' another wrote, adding the hashtag 'hypocrite'. Mr Andrews' posts sent social media into a frenzy, as thousands argued over which city held superiority. The public turbulence over The Everest advertising began when 2GB shock-jock Alan Jones berated Opera House chief executive Louise Herron on air, calling for her sacking when she resisted the promotion because the building 'is not a billboard'. The outrage spiralled into more than a quarter-of-a-million signatures on a petition against the promotion and race organisers, in response, conducted the draw in private in the morning and beamed its results on the sails in the evening. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, speaking with Nine Network on Wednesday morning, skirted questions about Jones' role in the decision, shouldering responsibility for the controversial call. 'I want to make it perfectly clear it was the government's decision and the government's decision alone,' she said. The premier's final photo included text alluding to some of the top sporting events held in Melbourne NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (left) skirted questions about Alan Jones' (right) role in the decision, shouldering responsibility for the controversial call When asked if she 'fell into line' behind Jones the Premier said the government had been working to reach an 'amicable' decision with race promoters for a long time. Ms Berejiklian called for the debate around the issue to carry on in a 'respectful' way, saying she had been displeased with the way arguments had unfolded. 'I don't like the way the debate happened publicly and I don't like how people have been speaking about it to each other frankly.' Ms Berejiklian did not rule out considering the Everest and similar events again in the future in the same way. The richest turf race in the world will be held at Royal Randwick Racecourse on Saturday. The fiancee of a Saudi journalist who is feared to have been assassinated inside the kingdoms consulate in Istanbul is pleading with President Donald Trump to help uncover the truth about his fate. Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish woman, wrote an op-ed Tuesday in The Washington Post, the newspaper which also regularly printed commentary by her missing fiancee, Jamal Khashoggi. Although my hope slowly fades away each passing day, I remain confident that Jamal is still alive, Cengiz wrote. Perhaps Im simply trying to hide from the thought that I have lost a great man whose love I had earned. Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish woman, wrote an op-ed Tuesday in The Washington Post , the newspaper which also regularly printed commentary by her missing fiancee, Jamal Khashoggi As an individual who believes that life and death are in the hands of God, I pray to God alone for Jamals safe return. Conflicting reports about Khashoggis fate have abounded in recent hours. Turkish officials believe that Khashoggi, a man with close links to the Saudi government who became more vocal in his criticism in recent months, was killed on the orders of the highest levels of the Saudi royal court, The New York Times is reporting. Turkeys security services who are investigating Khashoggis disappearance believe that within two hours of his arrival at the Saudi consulate last week, a team of Saudi agents killed him and then dismembered him with a bone saw that was brought in specifically for that purpose. It is like Pulp Fiction, a Turkish official told the Times. Pulp Fiction is the 1990s Quentin Tarantino movie in which characters played by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson dispose of a dead body to conceal a murder. Turkish officials believe that Khashoggi, a man with close links to the Saudi government who became more vocal in his criticism in recent months, was killed in Istanbul on the orders of the highest levels of the Saudi royal court The Turkish reports contradict statements made by a source close to the Saudi royal family who told DailyMail.com that Khashoggi may still be alive. The source told DailyMail.com that Khashoggi was whisked out of Turkey in a private jet and held captive in the kingdom. The Turkish government is demanding access to the diplomatic facility to search it after allegations that Khashoggi had been chopped up inside the building and his body parts sent to Saudi in boxes, rocked Middle East relations. Khashoggi had gone to the embassy to collect divorce papers relating to his previous marriage, leaving Cengiz, his fiancee, with his phone on the street outside. Cengiz wrote on Tuesday: After seeing how relaxed he was, I waited patiently and full of hope. But after three hours I was overcome with fear and concern. I texted a few friends to inform them, and I asked about Jamal at the consular building. I received an answer that further fueled my fears: Jamal had already left, they told me, possibly without my noticing. Trying to stay calm, I immediately called Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and one of Jamals oldest friends. Since the incident came to the attention of the press and law enforcement, I have been waiting fearfully. DailyMail.com has obtained a grab of CCTV footage showing him walking in - he never walked back out. Now a source close to the Saudi royals has told DailyMail.com that an alternative version of events is being discussed inside high levels of the Saudi government. Into thin air: This CCTV photo shows the last moment Jamal Khashoggi is seen alive, walking into the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday The source said that after entering the embassy Khashoggi was taken in a black Mercedes S-500 and a white minivan with four Saudi officials to Istanbul airport, where he was flown on a private jet to Dubai and then Riyadh, where he is now being held. Flight records show that a Gulf Stream IV private jet, tail number HZ-SK2, landed in Istanbul at 3am on October 2, the day Khashoggi disappeared. The jet left later that day, stopping in Dubai and then flying on to Riyadh. Khashoggi was driven from there to Riyadh, and was held there, the source said. The source was told Khashoggi is still alive, contradicting the claims he was murdered in the Istanbul embassy. The different version of events cannot be independently verified. On Monday President Trump said that he was 'concerned' about reports on Khashoggi's disappearance. 'I am concerned about that,' Trump said. 'I don't like hearing about it and hopefully that will sort itself out. Right now, nobody knows anything about it.' 'There's some pretty bad stories about it. I do not like it,' he added. Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, said claims Khashoggi had been killed or detained by Saudi authorities were 'absolutely false, and baseless,' according to a statement provided to CNN. A Saudi security official arrives at Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday as demonstrators gather outside to mark their protest after the disappearance of Khashoggi Cengiz pleaded with Trump for help in finding out what happened to her fiancee. At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance, she wrote. I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate. Although this incident could potentially fuel a political crisis between the two nations, let us not lose sight of the human aspect of what happened. Jamal is a valuable person, an exemplary thinker and a courageous man who has been fighting for his principles. I dont know how I can keep living if he was abducted or killed in Turkey. An Indian-American businessman has been sentenced to 22 years in prison after being convicted of spiking his pregnant girlfriend's drink with an abortion-inducing drug. Manishkumar Patel, 45, was convicted in August of attempted first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child. His girlfriend never drank the spiked beverage, but miscarried weeks later. Patel was sentenced Tuesday in Outagamie County in Wisconsin. Manishkumar Patel (pictured in 2017) was convicted in August of attempted first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child and was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Tuesday The former Kaukauna man had been on the run since he was charged in 2007 and forfeited a $750,000 bond. He was arrested in January 2017 in New York. Patel said in court he didn't want another child because he was afraid the child would have the same medical problems as his son. But he said he realized that even if the child had medical issues, the child still would have had a life. According to an earlier India-West report, after his arrest, Kumar was held on seven felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child, stalking, burglary, and jumping bail. Wisconsin has high consequences for harming a fetus. Since 1998, the state has ruled that 'the killing of an unborn child at any stage of pre-natal development is first-degree intentional homicide, according to the states penal code. According to court records and media reports, Patel, who is married, began an affair with physician Darshana Patel in 2001. In 2004, the couple had a son. In 2006, Darshana again became pregnant, but miscarried. The following year, she became pregnant again. Manishkumar Patel, 34, sits with his attorney, Thomas Zoesch during his initial court appearance at the Outagamie County Justice Center in Appleton on November 2007 Patel in court in 2007 at an arraignment hearing relating to the charge of intentional homicide Darshana Patel told police she became suspicious when she watched Manishkumar stir a smoothie at an ice cream store and then offered it to her. She noticed a powdery substance on the rim of the cup and sent it off to a lab for testing. The substance turned out to be RU-486 mifepristone an abortion drug that is only administered by doctors. Darshana faked a stomach ache and did not ingest any of the drug-laced smoothie offered by her boyfriend, but miscarried nonetheless a few weeks later. She lodged a criminal complaint against her boyfriend in November 2007. Police searching Manishkumar Patels home found an envelope containing RU-486 pills. The suspect later told police he had obtained the drugs in India. He admitted to giving Darshana one pill. Patel told investigators he didnt need or want any more babies. At the time of his arrest, he owned 14 gas stations, a hotel, and other businesses in Wisconsin, with an estimated his net worth of $400,000. After his arrest in 2007, friends and family members gathered $750,000 to get the suspect released. Patel fled the country shortly after, and was believed to be hiding in India until last October, when he flew to Toronto, Canada. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) arrested the fugitive on January 19 in Bangor, New York. The CBP said in a statement that they initially let Patels car go through when it looked as though there was only a driver in the car. A few hours later, the CBP encountered the same vehicle which now had a passenger Patel and became suspicious of an alien smuggling attempt. Patel and the driver were taken into custody. CBP identified that Patel was a fugitive from justice and was facing homicide charges. In court May 22, Judge Brian Figy imposed a $50 million cash bail on Patel, saying: This highly unusual case deserves a highly unusual bond'. He noted that Patel through his friends and family has access to large amounts of cash, and had previously fled to India, while on release on a lesser bail amount. It is unclear whether the couple still remains married. Patels son by Darshana is now 13. Darshana Patel practices family medicine in Appleton, Wisconsin. According to media reports, Darshana allegedly bought a home for Manishkumar, where he lived with his wife, and also bought a car for him. Almost three quarters of Australian workers are not taking their full lunch breaks and nearly one in ten don't take a break at all, new research has found. The shocking finding comes from a survey of 1,253 professionals conducted by Hays recruiting experts. Participants were asked how much of their designated lunch break they took on average. Only 28 per cent of participants responded that they take their full break most days while 25 per cent take around three-quarters and 22 per cent take half. Almost three quarters of Australian workers are not taking their full lunch breaks and nearly one in ten don't take a break at all, a survey of 1,253 professionals conducted by Hays recruiting experts has found (stock image) While 18 per cent just take one quarter of their break, the final seven per cent of participants skip a break altogether as they're too busy. 'People often believe they're too busy or their to-do list is too long to be able to step out,' said Nick Deligiannis, Managing Director of Hays in Australia & New Zealand. 'But we don't always need to be available at our desk. We can step away to eat and take a break.' Despite the alarming findings, 93 per cent of participants admitted their productivity is benefited when they leave the office for a break. The workers were also asked what helps them remain fresh and alert at work and over half (65 per cent) responded with eating their lunch away from their desk. Despite the alarming findings, 93 per cent of participants admitted their productivity is benefited when they leave the office for a break This was followed by five-minute breaks for fresh air (56 per cent), a lunchtime break from all devices (50 per cent), minimising eye fatigue, such as looking away from the computer screen (44 per cent), gentle stretches at the desk (41 per cent), listening to music (37 per cent), exercise at lunchtime (36 per cent), regularly eating small, healthy meals or snacks (33 per cent) and mindfulness or meditation (20 per cent). Mr Deligiannis said taking a break can be beneficial as it helps overcome the afternoon slump. 'Stepping out for a lunchtime break can help avoid the 3pm slump and improve your afternoon productivity. You'll come back refreshed and your attention span will increase,' he said. 'People often believe they're too busy or their to-do list is too long to be able to step out,' said Nick Deligiannis, Managing Director of Hays in Australia & New Zealand (stock image) Mr Deligiannis also recommended that workers remove themselves from their devices when they take a break. 'Technology has blurred the lines between work and life, giving us a constant connection to work,' he said. 'It's important to down tools and step away from our devices during break times. Go for a walk to stretch your legs or sit in a nearby park. You'll notice the difference in your improved level of productivity.' Tom Arnold and Dean Cain almost came to blows after they Twitter feud boiled over into real life. The actors met backstage at Larry King's studio on Tuesday and footage shows them arguing, their faces just a few inches apart, over an incendiary tweet sent by Arnold last month. Arnold had called out Cain on Twitter, for appearing at the Values Voter Summit - hosted by conservative Christian group The Family Research Council. 'Dean Cain is another Donald Trump loving, fake Christian coward which makes Dean Cain anti-LGBTQ and racist #complicit,' Arnold tweeted on September 23. Tom Arnold and Dean Cain almost came to blows after they Twitter feud boiled over into real life 'Tom, you're a cowardly, slanderous weasel,' Cain hit back on Twitter. When they met in person, sparks began to fly. The cellphone video, obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, begins mid-argument with Cain, a Trump supporter, who is best known for his role as Superman in the New Adventures of Superman television series, insisting: 'I'm not a racist person; I never have been.' 'I've always supported gay rights,' Cain said. 'Let me finish for a second. You're giving me guilt by association.' Yet Arnold, who has become increasingly outspoken on politics in recent years, likened The Family Research Council to 'Nazis.' 'They're hurting people. You know how many suicides of f**king gay kids? They f**king shame them and they try to keep them out of f**king schools,' Arnold argued. 'Please hear me. I don't want those f**kers using you.' 'Nobody is using me. I speak my mind,' Cain countered. Tom Arnold (left) and Dean Cain (right) met backstage at Larry King's studio on Tuesday and footage shows them arguing, their faces just a few inches apart, over an incendiary tweet sent by Arnold last month A witness claims there were fears that the argument could escalate into violence. 'Dean was intense. He looked ready to do something if Arnold came at him,' said the witness, who filmed in secret after being ordered to put their phone down. The footage ended with the pair hugging it out, but it appears the fight was not over. Cain later tweeted: 'He called me #racist and said I was anti-LGBTQ. Totally untrue. After I confronted him, he backed down. That's how it always seems to work.' Arnold had a different version of events, telling THR: 'I was giving him a break by not assuming he was stupid about the FRC, which I do liken to Nazis, and now I see he's one of them.' Cain was at the studio in Glendale, California, to appear on Larry King Now to promote his anti-abortion film, Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer. Arnold was there to promote his series The Hunt for the Trump Tapes With Tom Arnold, which airs on Viceland. Heavily armed tactical officers have arrested three people outside a Bunnings Warehouse for drug-related offences. The arrest occurred on Wednesday at the Minchinbury Bunnings Warehouse, 38km west of Sydney, just off of the Great Western Highway. A NSW Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia officers 'pounced' on the trio at 12:45pm in the store carpark. During the arrest, police officers seized an unknown amount of heroin and methylamphetamine, the spokeswoman said. Heavily armed tactical police have arrested three people outside a Bunnings Warehouse (pictured) Two men and a woman were arrested at the scene. One of the men was transported to the Nepean Hospital for an undisclosed reason. Meanwhile, the other two suspects were taken to the Riverstone police station and remain in police custody. An image taken by a witness shows two tactical police standing over a handcuffed man wearing tradesman clothes. No Bunnings Warehouse staff or shoppers were caught up in the arrest. Police investigations and inquiries are continuing. A koala named Caramello and her joey Toffee wandered into a gym's Crossfit class after their home was sadly destroyed A koala named Caramello and her joey Toffee recently wandered into a gym's Crossfit class after their home was sadly destroyed. The pair crashed an evening class at a gym in Mansfield, a suburb in Brisbane's south, much to the delight of the Crossfitters. 'The gym is very small and people were hanging around when the koalas just walked through the roller doors,' Crossfit Gym director and co-owner, Kiriana Griffin, told Yahoo Lifestyle. 'They were completely unfazed by the lights or people,' she said. 'They proceeded to wander through our facility testing out the equipment until settling on some equipment to watch the workout.' Ms Giffin said she dimmed the lights and the class continued on with a 'mini and quiet' workout. The warm reception has a more serious undertone, as it is believed the koalas arrived at the facility as a result of urbanisation. 'The Koala population has been devastated over the last hundred years and is currently under great threat due to urbanisation and massive, uncontrolled habitat destruction,' according to Australia Zoo. The Australian Koala Foundation suggests that more than 80 per cent of koala habitats have been cleared this side of European settlement. It is even predicted that koalas could be headed to complete obsolescence in New South Wales come 2050. The RSPCA collected the animals before they were released in the Bullimba Creek Catchment, 20 minutes southeast of Brisbane. A woman who was expected to be sentenced for drug trafficking is on the run after telling her barrister she was popping outside court for a cigarette. Candice Bo Allen was to appear at Townsville Supreme Court in Queensland on Wednesday to be sentenced for trafficking dangerous drugs. Allen had previously pleaded guilty to the trafficking charge and was out on bail. A woman who was expected to be sentenced in a Queensland court for drug trafficking is on the run after telling her barrister she was popping outside for a cigarette The woman was expected to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment but instead is on the run after fleeing from court. Her barrister David James said that he had spoken to his client at about 10.20am when she told him she was going outside for a cigarette. 'She understood the matter was proceeding to sentence and there was a very strong likelihood that she would be going into custody,' Mr James said in court. 'She is not answering her phone. She is a constant user of social media we have tried to contact her. I am confident she has left without intention to return,' he said. The prosecution was reportedly seeking a sentence of about five years for trafficking methamphetamine, according to the Townsville Bulletin. Mr James told Justice North that Allen was 'distraught' when she arrived at court earlier and wanted to change her guilty plea. Two taxi drivers are under investigation after passengers reported being asked for cuddles. The New Zealand Transport Agency is investigating two drivers in the North Island and South Island due to dodgy behaviour, Stuff reported. One case involves a Nelson taxi driver, who skipped the country after allegedly sexually assaulting a passenger, and had previously been reprimanded by police for attempting to cuddle another. The New Zealand Transport Agency is investigating two cases involving dodgy behaviour from drivers. One driver worked for Nelson City Taxis (pictured) In Hamilton, another taxi driver allegedly asked for a cuddle instead of payment for the ride. NZ Taxi Federation executive director John Hart said when the passenger went inside her home to retrieve cash to pay for the fare, the driver for Smart Cabs alleged followed her. He then suggested, instead of the fare, they 'have a cuddle'. The driver was verbally warned by police, but continues to work for the company because no other complaints had been filed against him, Smart Cabs owner Vahab Asgari said. The Nelson driver, who worked for Nelson City Taxis, was fired after the company's executive director Graeme Page viewed the security footage. Detective sergeant Mark Kaveney said the alleged assault happened when the man drove a heavily intoxicated woman in her 20s home. The woman had not made a formal complaint as she was too traumatised, he said. The man reportedly left New Zealand before he could be interviewed by police. Two New Zealand taxi driver's are being investigated for questionable behaviour towards passengers. One driver works for Smart Cab (pictured) An NZTA spokeswoman said both cases were ongoing. There were a total of 75 complaints to NZTA about taxi drivers last year, of those, five were for sexual misconduct. Two of those did not have enough information to take them further and three were referred to police. NZTA has the authority to remove the endorsement needed by taxi drivers to work in New Zealand. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has pleaded with wavering senators to allow Australia's security agencies to snoop on encrypted messages to prevent a deadly terrorist attack. The federal government wants to give the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation new powers to monitor secret messaging apps. It introduced a bill to Parliament last month, sparking accusations from the Labor Opposition that it had tried to rush through new surveillance powers. Scroll down for video Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has pleaded with wavering senators to allow Australia's security agencies to snoop on encrypted messages to prevent a deadly terrorist attack Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm, a libertarian, described it as a 'draconian measure' that would 'invade Australians' civil rights'. Mr Dutton on Wednesday argued increased snooping powers were necessary to stop an improvised explosive device from killing Australians, in his first major address since he unsuccessfully challenged former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in August. The former Queensland police detective, who lost the immigration portfolio under new PM Scott Morrison's reshuffle, asked journalists at the National Press Club in Canberra to imagine a coronial inquest concluding that a terrorist attack could have been prevented. 'We find out there had been a flurry of exchange across encrypted message apps, about who was going to be where and who was bringing the IED and how people were going to unfold this event,' he said. 'People would rightly say, "Why didn't you discover that information?". The federal government wants to give the Australian Federal Police (officer pictured outside Parliament House in Canberra) new powers to monitor secret messaging apps Mr Dutton on Wednesday argued increased snooping powers (stock image of a laptop) were necessary to stop an improvised explosive device from killing Australians '"Why didn't you exploit that device or have a look at that laptop? Had you got there in time you would have stopped many people dying".' With the government needing the support of seven of the 19 crossbench senators to pass legislation opposed by Labor, he accused minor party MPs of jeopardising national security. 'We can't have on key national security bills compromises because we're dealing with five or six or eight different senators all with different motivations,' he said. Australia has been the scene of five fatal terrorist attacks since 2014. In September 2014 Numan Haider, who moved to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan as a child, was shot dead after he stabbed two counter-terrorism officers in Melbourne. Three months later, just before Christmas almost four years ago, Iranian-born former refugee Man Monis shot dead Sydney Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson at the end of a 16-hour siege that killed barrister Katrina Dawson. Less than a year later, in October 2015, 15-year-old gunman Farhad Jabar killed accountant Curtis Cheng outside police headquarters in Parramatta, in western Sydney, after reportedly visiting a mosque. In April 2017, two boys aged 15 and 16 were charged with allegedly stabbing Caltex service station worker Zeeshan Akbar at Queanbeyan, near Canberra, after reportedly being inspired by Islamic State. Two months later, Somali-born meth addict Yacqub Khayre killed a hostage in the name of IS and al-Qaeda in Melbourne before police shot him dead. A convicted rapist has had his lengthy jail sentence increased by nine months after attacking a prison guard. Derice Raymond Bert Amber, 22, will now remain bars until at least February 2028 following the unprovoked attack of an officer at a North Queensland correctional facility in December last year, The Cairns Post reported. Amber was high on ice and had only just been freed from jail in relation to a separate offence when he forced his way into a Mossman home in Far North Queensland and sexually assaulted a mother while she was asleep in her bedroom in August 2016. Derice Raymond Bert Amber has had his sentenced increased after he assaulted a prison guard at Townsville's Stuart Correctional Centre (pictured) Judge Julie Dick said the rape was a 'degrading, horrifying experience' and described Amber as 'cowardly criminal' when she sentenced him to 14 years in 2017. Amber was just five months into his sentence at Stuart Correctional Centre in Townsville when he assaulted a corrective services officer on December 6 last year, the publication reported. Police prosecutor Sergeant Sean Janes told the court Amber was being escorted to back his jail cell when he turned around and punched the guard in the face. The guard lost a part of a tooth in the unprovoked attack. Amber pleaded guilty to the charge in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court earlier this year and has since had his sentence increased by nine months. Derice Raymond Bert Amber was jailed last year after he raped a woman after breaking into her (stock image) The unprovoked assault of a prison guard happened at Stuart Correctional Centre (pictured) in Townsville in North Queensland A father and son were reportedly killed and two others were left injured after being gunned down in front of the horrified mother after a shooting at a shopping mall. Police say the gun attack targeted a family as they ate at a restaurant at the Bell Tower Shops in Fort Myers last night. The husband was blasted in the chest and the son was shot dead as he tried to flee the scene. A woman was reportedly celebrating her birthday at Society at the Bell Tower Shops when someone approached her family, then shot and killed her husband. Police said the shooting targeting a family as they ate at a restaurant at the Bell Tower Shops in Fort Myers was not random One witness reported hearing between 20 and 30 shots as the gunman shot at the family The Society restaurant at the Bell Tower Shops was the scene of the shooting last night where two men were killed and two others were injured The woman's son then tried to run before the gunman shot him as well. One eyewitness claimed to have heard at least 20 to 30 shots during the terrifying spree. Two others victims were also shot, but it is not clear how severely they were wounded. It is also unclear if they were all involved at the the woman's birthday celebration. Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno says the shooting did not appear to be random, according to The Fort Myers News-Press. He said: 'It does not appear to be random. I can tell you that, and as we get the details, we'll get them to you. One witness said the woman's son then tried to run before the gunman shot him as he fled the scene The shopping center was was busy with diners at around 9.30pm when the terrifying shooting took place 'Two people succumbed to their injuries, and two have been taken to a local area hospital. Their injuries are unknown.' Denise Mazzitti, who witnessed the shooting, told WBBH-TV: 'It was really scary. There were a couple of dead bodies. They had covered them up already and there were like ten police cars and EMTs.' Another witness, Zacary Hexter, added: 'We were just at the cafe when two black males started opening fire on the family and I watched one go down and the other one run. 'I personally watched him stumbled, twice and then fall, and then not move again.' Marceno said police responded to the shooting around 9:30pm and found the victims. Two victims were also shot but did not die, but it is not clear how severely they were wounded Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno says the shooting did not appear to be random and did not state the severity of the two injured victims Authorities haven't released their identities, and Marceno gave no further information. He added that the injured victims have been taken to a hospital with the severity of their wounds unknown. Deputies have not said exactly where the shooting took place, but witnesses said it was near a TGI Fridays. A mother at the centre of a wild kidnapping and police chase on Tuesday had fled to her parents' house with her two sons amid a deteriorating domestic situation just five days earlier. The woman, 41, her two teenage sons and elderly mother were allegedly kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, his adult son, 23, and Samuel Towney, 29, who forced their way into the parents' residence at Ootha, in rural New South Wales, Fairfax reports. Police allege the 44-year-old man drove away from the property with the two women and two boys while the other men stayed behind to pour 20 litres of accelerant around the house and set it alight - with the 68-year-old grandfather locked inside. The three have been charged with a slew of serious offences including setting fire to a dwelling with intent to murder, aggravated break and enter, and kidnapping. The revelation comes after police released dramatic footage showing the moment police captured the two younger men, after following them on a 400km high-speed chase after the alleged gunpoint early-morning kidnapping on Tuesday. Dramatic footage has been released capturing the moment police swarmed on two men (pictured) accused of leading officers on a wild 400km chase after kidnapping a family The ordeal began at Ootha, in western NSW, and ended 400 kilometres away at Windsor, west of Sydney In the footage, shot from a police helicopter, the two men can be seen running from behind a building near Windsor, west of Sydney, onto a field after ditching their cars. A team of police officers then rush out, guns drawn, and order the pair to drop the ground before swarming onto the field and arresting them on Tuesday night. Moments before the dramatic arrests, the grandmother and her teenage grandsons managed to escape after their car pulled over along Putty Road, at nearby Colo. It was another four hours before police, using thermal imaging and the dog squad, found the mother allegedly being held captive by her ex-boyfriend. The man was led away in handcuffs from bushland at Blaxlands Ridge with a large wound to his head and a limp at about 11.30pm. The grandmother and the two boys were able to escape after being held captive for almost 400 kilometres. Police allege the mother's ex-boyfriend was behind the plot The mother had allegedly fled home amid a relationship breakdown to escape her ex-boyfriend, only for him to find her staying at her parents' house The alleged kidnapping began when police were called to a house at Ootha (pictured), almost 400km away in NSW's central west, which was allegedly set alight after the violent break-in The 16-hour ordeal began at the grandparents' home early on Tuesday morning, when the three men allegedly burst into their home armed with a shotgun, axe and knives. Police allege the grandfather was beaten and left bound in the back room of his home after the pre-dawn invasion. It's alleged the two younger men poured 20 litres of accelerant through the house and set it alight, but the man was able to escape after regaining consciousness. He then drove a tractor, despite being struck in the head with a shotgun and bleeding profusely from a skull wound, to his neighbour's house one kilometre away. Police arrived at the property at 11am to find the house had burnt to the ground and the elderly man suffering critical injuries. A police pursuit for the three alleged kidnappers soon began, but had to be ended because of the dangerous driving of the men. The two men were soon confronted by a police roadblock and allegedly drove their car at police, leading one officer to fire his gun at the two men. The three alleged kidnappers continued their wild police pursuit for 400 kilometres until they drove along Putty Road, at which point both vehicles stopped, enabling the grandmother and two boys to escape. The pursuit came to a dramatic end when the men were forced to surrender, while the ex-boyfriend was apprehended several hours later. The three men were allegedly armed with weapons including a shotgun, axe and knives Police have heaped praise on the brave grandfather who raised the alarm after being left behind at his house gagged and bound before it was set alight Police have heaped praise on the brave grandfather who raised the alarm after being left behind. Police said it was 'extraordinary' the elderly man did not die in the house fire. 'I think it is extraordinary, considering his age,' Acting Asst Commissioner Smith said. 'He had to break free from his bindings, he fell in and out of consciousness a number of times throughout the ordeal. 'He received head injuries throughout assault, so I think hats off to his bravery as to what he did next which is to alert neighbours.' The two younger men were both refused bail on Wednesday. The older man is expected to be charged on Wednesday night. A teenage boy's hand has been saved by a tiny screw after the medical implant blocked a samurai sword during a vicious attack. Chris Dower, 18, was allegedly set upon while defending his younger brother from a group of teenagers brawling at a Yanchep park in Perth on Tuesday night. Police say Chris, a labourer, was struck in the hand with a sword when a metal screw, inserted after a previous injury, stopped the blade from cutting into his bone. Police said Mr Dower's right wrist was cut with a sword and is believed to have sliced a number of tendons and an artery. 'We were right in front of it. It was terrifying,' Mr Dower's mother Tammy Dower told PerthNow. 'There was a lot of blood. I don't want to even think about it.' Mr Dower, who was in severe pain, repeatedly called out for an ambulance and was saved by his father who tore his shirt off to stop his son's wrist from bleeding. An off-duty nurse was quick to stop by and helped Mr Dower, who laid him down and helped him relax. 'There was concern at one stage that he was going to lose his life,' said Ms Dower. Chris Dower, 18, was in an alleged attack at a Yanchep park in Perth, Western Australia when a metal screw stopped the blade from inserted after a previous injury Western Australia police said the cause of the attack is still unclear and are urging members in the public who may have information to come forward Mr Dower was in stable condition at Royal Perth Hospital for surgery. Police have said both sides had possessed weapons. Police have charged at 18-year-old with assault with intent to rob. Two others involved in the dispute are currently being questioned by police. Western Australia police said the cause of the attack is still unclear and are urging members in the public who may have information to come forward. Some residents of the Florida Panhandle have decided to risk their own lives by refusing to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Michael, with the window to flee the coast now officially closed. Despite days of dire warnings, these holdouts have decided to remain - and some even talk of attending a 'hurricane party' at a Panama City Beach bar that lies directly in Michael's path. As of 9am, the storm surge was forecast to reach 13 feet in places, and Michael had maximum sustained winds of 145mph. For those who refused to evacuate, FEMA Director Brock Long said on Wednesday that people 'who stick around and experience storm surge unfortunately don't usually live to tell about it.' Residents who chose not to evacuate gather at Buster's Beer & Bait for drinks in Panama City Beach on Tuesday night. The evacuation window closed on Wednesday morning Timothy Thomas is just a few hundred yards from the beach where Michael is expected to make landfall, but believes he will be safe in his second story apartment Larry Walker looks out at the water as Hurricane Michael begins to make landfall in Panama City, Florida on Wednesday. More than 370,000 people were ordered to evacuate Cameron Sadowski walks along where waves are crashing onto the beach as the outer bands of hurricane Michael arrive on Wednesday in Panama City Beach, Florida Hurricane Michael strengthened into a Category 4 storm early on Wednesday, hours before it is expected to plow into Florida's Gulf shore with towering waves and roof-shredding winds 'The time for evacuating along the coast has come and gone. First responders will not be able to come out in the middle of the storm,' Florida Governor Rick Scott said in a tweet on Wednesday morning. 'If you chose to stay in an evacuation zone, you must SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY,' Scott wrote. In Bay County, encompassing Panama City Beach where Michael is expected to make landfall as a Category 4 on Wednesday, roads are now closed and a mandatory shelter-in-place order has been issued. Fire and emergency medical services were suspended in Bay County just before 8am local time on Wednesday. 'Life threatening conditions are beginning to occur in Bay County. It is now time to shelter in place. Go inside, stay inside. Seek shelter in an interior room with few windows,' Bay County Emergency Services said in a flash bulletin. Panama City Beach resident Randy Simmons, 57, had made his own grim preparation after vowing to remain, writing his name on his arm in black marker so he can be identified if he dies. He wrote his name on his arm before the hurricane. "You just never whats going to happen" https://t.co/97v1CD9Ew6 #HurricaneMichael pic.twitter.com/QlF1ztZq7j Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) October 10, 2018 Sipping coffee on the deck of his condo just yards from the beach, Simmons calmly showed his arm to a Miami Herald reporter as the swells began to roil Wednesday morning. 'You just never what's going to happen in these situations,' he said. 'People do die.' Another evacuation holdout is Timothy Thomas, who isn't budging from his home in Panama City Beach, even though it's directly in the path of Hurricane Michael. Thomas, a 50-year-old air conditioning repairman, plans to defy an evacuation order and ride out the monster storm in an apartment that's just a few hundred yards from the beach and even closer to the tea-colored Grand Lagoon, which will rise as the massive storm pushes ocean water toward the coast. An Illinois native with a beard, long hair and a streak of independence, Thomas hasn't been through a major hurricane before; he's only lived in Panama City Beach about seven years. A neighbor with far more storm experience evacuated to higher ground. Dwight Williams (left) and Timothy Thomas debate whether to evacuate their neighborhood in Panama City Beach on Tuesday. Thomas figures he and his wife will be safe from rising ocean water since they live in a second-story apartment, but Williams planned to leave Local resident Marc Mills photographs a beach as Hurricane Michael approaches Panama City Beach on Wednesday morning. Evacuation routes out are now closed Slade David walks the empty streets as Hurricane Michael begins to make landfall in Panama City, Florida on Wednesday. More than 370,000 people in Florida were ordered to evacuate But police aren't being pushy about enforcing the order, and Thomas figures he, his wife and their puppy will be OK since they live in a second-floor apartment. It's more than 10 feet off the ground, after all, and forecasters say the water in his area isn't supposed to rise that much. 'If it does I guess we'll be swimming,' he said Tuesday evening as the sky darkened overhead. Thomas isn't alone; other residents along his street also plan to take on Michael head-on, even though authorities have told about 120,000 residents of Bay County to leave. Thomas' first-floor neighbors also plan to stay, and they're welcome upstairs if the water gets too high, Thomas said. So are his next-door neighbors and their dog. 'We've got canned food and a can opener. We have lots of water and food for the dogs, and I'm going to tape up the windows, cover the windows, just tack them up with sheets or whatever, to keep the glass from flying if that happens,' he said. As Thomas spoke, a hurricane party was going on less than two miles away at Buster's Beer and Bait, a dive bar popular both with locals and tourists who overwhelm the region during the summer. With Michael percolating out in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday night, dozens of people gathered outside Buster's as small palm trees swayed in the breeze nearby. On the bar's Facebook page, a $5 special was announced for a drink called the 'Storm Surge'. There was no answer at the bar when DailyMail.com attempted to reach it by phone on Wednesday morning. David Gage and Christal Gage and their dog, Bear, relax on the back of their pickup truck next to the ocean as they wait for the arrival of Hurricane Michael on Tuesday in Parker, Florida Sarah Scott (left) and Shawn Glasper walks through the streets as Hurricane Michael begins to make landfall in Panama City, Florida on Wednesday People sit on a dock as Hurricane Michael bears down on Carrabelle, Florida, on Tuesday People visit the beach while waiting for Hurricane Michael on Tuesday in Panama City Beach, Florida. As of Wednesday, anyone who hasn't evacuated the area is ordered to shelter in place Other places were shut down and locked up. The windows were covered with metal hurricane shutters at Pineapple Willie's, a popular beachfront restaurant, and sandbags blocked the entrance to a Wells Fargo bank. Plywood covered the front at Shrimp City, a small seafood market. Dwight Williams, who lives across the street from Thomas, wasn't taking any chances - he and his wife were packing to evacuate. They plan to stay with friends in DeFuniak Springs, a Panhandle town about 30 miles inland. Their single-story home is built to withstand winds blowing up to 130 mph, Williams said, but rising water is scary. 'What worries me is the storm surge,' said Williams, who has lived on the street about 24 years. Thomas said relatives in Illinois had urged him to leave and stay with them, but he didn't have a way to get so far north so quickly, and shelters aren't a good option in his view. 'You never know who you're sleeping beside,' he said. 'Here, I do.' So Thomas and his wife will stay put. And once the wind stops howling and the water recedes, Thomas will await the natural outcome of a hurricane for someone who works in the air conditioning business in a place known for hot, humid summers. 'After all the air conditioners go under water, we'll be busy,' he said. A beachgoer takes photos of the waves on Wednesday, at The Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach as Hurricane Michael impacts the coast Luke Ford finishes nailing some boards to the outside of a home before evacuating Wednesday, in Keaton Beach Cornell Silveira, of Keaton Beach, leaves with some of his belongings as he evacuates his home as Hurricane Michael approaches the area Wednesday A man eats breakfast as he and others seek safety in a shelter as Hurricane Michael approaches on Wednesday in Panama City, Florida Another Panama City Beach resident, Teri Vega, 53, said her husband and 12-year-old daughter will remain despite the evacuation order. 'We have a fairly new house,' Vega told NBC News before Michael strengthened to a Category 4 storm. 'It was built really well. We put the hurricane shutters up. We have tubs of water in each of the bathrooms so that we can still flush. We have a generator. We have a gas grill. Tons of canned food, water, Gatorade.' Inland in Panama City, Missy Theiss, 54, told NBC News that she lives just outside a mandatory evacuation zone, but planned to stay because they have five animals two cats, two small dogs, and a pit bull. 'Nobody is going to let a pit bull into a shelter,' Thiess said before Michael was upgraded. 'We've got five animals here. I'm not leaving them. Point blank. I'm not leaving them.' Thiess said the family is prepared with water, food and a generator. About 90 miles west of Panama City Beach, in Pensacola Beach, one man even planned to ride out the storm on his sailing boat. Though Pensacola is not projected to get dangerous storm surges, tropical storm force winds are predicted in the area. 'If I can move my lines up and down, the boat's good. And now it looks like, I know it's going to Panama City. We're watching this thing, it's an educated decision,' former Coast Guardsman Jeff Platke told Fox News. He said he'd chosen the marina where he'd make his stand carefully: 'This marina survived Ivan. Man, if I'm going to put myself somewhere, I'm going to put myself somewhere good.' 'I'm a sailor, I'm not a village idiot,' he added. Even some tourists in Pensacola Beach are opting to ride out the storm in their hotels rather than evacuate. 'We're staying,'' George Kirn of Chicago told the Pensacola News Journal. Kirn and his wife Christine were making their third trip to Pensacola Beach and are staying at a hotel on the beach. 'It's just Mother Nature,' he said. Christine Kirn said the couple is prepared to go without power and water for a short period. 'If we lose power, we have a little stove to cook with,'' she said. He added: 'And I'm not going to be without coffee.' Boris Johnson fired both barrels at Theresa May's Irish border backstop plan tonight - warning it would turn Britain into an 'EU colony'. The former foreign secretary delivered a furious tirade at the PM for trying to lock the UK into a subservient relationship with Brussels. The barrage came as Mrs May delivered a desperate plea for Remainer and Eurosceptic MPs to be realistic and support her proposals in the 'national interest'. The premier is hoping to unlock the negotiations with new proposals for a 'backstop' to avoid a hard Irish border. It could effectively keep the whole UK in the customs union as a 'temporary' measure until a broader trade agreement is finalised based on her Chequers blueprint. There are also likely to be increased regulatory checks in the Irish sea to protect the EU single. However, even if a deal can be done with the EU it is far from certain that such an arrangement would win the approval of MPs. The DUP - which is propping Mrs May up in power - ratcheted up tensions this afternoon by threatening to vote down the Budget if she breaches their 'red line' against extra checks between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain. And Mr Johnson waded in tonight by tweeting: 'Clearly No10 are negotiating a backstop that makes the UK a permanent EU colony. 'We cannot escape EU laws & ECJ until they allow us to which they may never do. Thats not what the biggest majority in our history voted for.' Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson (pictured in Westminster today) delivered a furious tirade at the PM for trying to lock the UK into a subservient relationship with Brussels. Theresa May took the first session of PMQs of the new term today following a party conference season dominated by Brexit divisions. In a stark message to MPs hoping to overturn the result of the referendum Mrs May warned: 'It is our duty to ensure that we leave.' Mr Johnson condemned the PM for proposals that would turn the UK into an 'EU colony' Mrs May (pictured at PMQs today) insists she will not accept EU demands for Northern Ireland to be hived off from the rest of the UK within the EU's customs jurisdiction Mr Johnson insisted the Irish border backstop - which has not been published - would rule out the looser Canada-style trade deal favoured by Tory Brexiteers. 'This backstop keeps the UK in the Customs Union, keeps Northern Ireland in the single market, and almost certainly enhances NI/GB checks. It *will* apply after 2020 unless the EU agrees it wont. And they will only agree if we keep our rules in lockstep with theirs,' he said. EU negotiator Michel Barnier twisted the knife this afternoon by ripping into Mrs May's Chequers plan and refusing to budge from his tough line on the Irish border. Mrs May is thought to be planning a meeting with Cabinet allies tomorrow evening to work out how to handle the latest difficulties. Jeremy Corbyn studiously ignored Brexit during PMQs today, instead focusing his questions on austerity. Barnier rips into May's Chequers plan and demands concessions on Irish border Michel Barnier said this afternoon that the EU would respect the UK's decision to leave the single market and customs union Michel Barnier signalled he is playing hardball on Brexit today by ripping into Theresa May's Chequers plan and refusing to budge from his tough line on the Irish border. The EU negotiator insisted 'checks' would be needed between the UK and the bloc in future, and they could not happen between Northern Ireland and the Republic. In a speech in Brussels, Mr Barnier repeated his plan for the province to stay within the EU's customs jurisdiction - suggesting barcode scanning and other technology could be used to ease 'political sensitivities'. Mrs May has insisted the idea is unacceptable as it would risk splitting up the UK. Mr Barnier also said Britain could ease the situation by joining a customs union - something the PM has ruled out as it would make trade deals elsewhere almost impossible. In a stinging putdown, he took aim at Mrs May's Chequers blueprint for future trade, warning it would undermine the single market and give the UK a 'huge competitive edge'. The intervention came amid a desperate scramble to put together a package that is acceptable to both sides. There have been faint signs of progress amid reports that the two sides are now working on a single text of a divorce agreement - rather than making counter-proposals. But Mr Barnier's comments suggest there is still a long way to go before the crucial issues are settled. 'The UK wants to leave and will leave the single market and the customs union,' he told the business event in Brussels. 'This means that there must be checks on goods travelling between the EU and the UK, checks that do not exist today - customs and VAT checks and compliance checks with our standards to protect our consumers, our economic traders and to protect your businesses.' Advertisement But veteran Europhile Tory Kenneth Clarke urged Mrs May to ignore hardline Brexiteers and bring forward a deal acceptable to pro-EU MPs on both sides of the Commons. The former chancellor said that would reveal that the 'hardline Eurosceptic views' of the 'Bennites' in the Labour leadership and the 'right-wing nationalists' on the Tory benches were in the minority in the Commons. Mrs May replied by insisting she is fighting for a 'good' outcome for the UK. 'When we come back with a deal I would hope everybody in this House would put the national interest first,' she said. The PM says she will not accept EU demands for Northern Ireland to be hived off from the rest of the UK within the EU's customs jurisdiction. Her alternative 'backstop' plan is designed to fall away in favour of a Chequers-style trade arrangement - that would effectively keep the UK in the single market for goods to keep the borders open. However, even if Mrs May can secure an agreement with the EU, it is far from certain that she will be able to get it past Parliament. Mr Corbyn says he would oppose arrangements that do not keep the UK more closely tied to Brussels - although there are claims that dozens of Labour MPs could defy him. And the DUP has warned of a 'blood red' line against any extra regulatory or customs checks between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland. The issues could come to a head at Cabinet on Tuesday, with several ministers on 'resignation watch'. Government sources told The Times they were expecting to be ambushed and told to get on board with the plan or resign. 'Will they 'do a Chequers' and say back it or f*** off,' the source asked. Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt raised fresh doubts about Mrs May's position yesterday by repeatedly stopping short of giving explicit backing to her Chequers blueprint. Meanwhile, former Brexit secretary David Davis warned of 'dire'consequences for Conservatives at the next general election if the Government sticks to its negotiating stance on EU withdrawal. In a letter to fellow Tory MPs, he said a deal based on Mrs May's Chequers plan would deliver 'none of the benefits of Brexit' and reduce the UK to being 'a rule-taker from Brussels'. The missive part of a coordinated 'grid' of action by Eurosceptics designed to force a change of course from Mrs May. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has tried to cool tempers by urging unity behind Mrs May's efforts to secure a Brexit deal. 'I think that the Prime Minister is doing an excellent job in difficult circumstances and I think that she has got to make the judgments about how we land a good deal, so I'm backing the Prime Minister to get a good deal and I think the whole nation should get behind her,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'We are entering the end phase of these negotiations, we all know that EU negotiations tend to run up to the last minute and the person to make the judgments on getting the best deal in the national interest is the Prime Minister.' In the Commons last night, Mr Raab differences remained between the UK and EU on the withdrawal agreement but insisted 'we are closing in on workable solutions'. He told Tory Brexiteers their calls for a Canada-style trade deal would be a 'shortcut to no deal'. The PM (pictured in Downing Street today) is set to gather Cabinet on the eve of a crunch EU summit to get sign-off for a divorce deal with Brussels Former Brexit Secretary David Davis warned Chequers could cost the Tories the next election in a letter to fellow MPs yesterday Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt (pictured in Downing Street yesterday) has insisted she 'fully supported' the PM - but stopped short of giving full-throated backing for her Brexit blueprint Arlene Foster (pictured, left in Brussels with DUP MEP Diane Dodds yesterday) has warned Mrs May to respect the DUP's 'blood red' line that no new checks are brought in between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK after Brexit Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney warned of 'carnage' if Britain crashed out of the EU but said he believed it was 'unlikely' that would happen. Mrs May told her Cabinet yesterday that Britain will not accept an EU withdrawal deal without a 'precise' political declaration setting out how its requirements on trade and security will be delivered. Despite optimistic comments from senior EU figures about the prospect of progress at the October 17-18 European Council summit, the PM made clear that agreement has not yet been reached on key issues including the Irish border. A wild supercell storm has continued to batter Australia's east coast bringing gale force winds, heavy rainfall and giant, damaging hailstones. Severe thunderstorms producing giant hailstones and winds up to 100km/h slammed Queensland and NSW on Wednesday night. Perth endured almost 9000 lightning strikes in just 24 hours, while in Sydney's north shore 27mm of rain fell in an hour with up to 20mm expected in coming days. Queenslanders are bracing for more storms off the back of huge bursts on Wednesday which saw 50mm fall in 15 minutes in the Sunshine Coast town of Coolum. A wild supercell storm has continued to batter Australia's east coast bringing gale force winds, heavy rainfall and giant damaging hailstones Brisbane will likely be hit in the coming hours as an area of low pressure moves north and triggers severe showers and storms in northern NSW and southeast Queensland, before finally stalling in Queensland. Storms were forecast to hit areas in the New South Wales north east, the Northwest Slopes, Central West and Upper Hunter region throughout Wednesday. The Bureau of Meterorology warned people in affected areas there were storms 'active at the moment' and urged them to stand by for severe storm warnings. 'Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding, large hailstones and damaging winds over the next several hours,' the BoM stated. People in areas including the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, North West Slopes and Plains and Northern Tablelands districts were told to prepare themselves. Those in Lismore, Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Armidale, Tamworth and Moree were also urged to remain vigilant as conditions were expected to worsen. Sever thunderstorms were forecast to hit areas in the New South Wales north east, the Northwest Slopes, Central West and Upper Hunter region throughout Wednesday The Bureau of Meterorology warned people in affected areas there was storms 'active at the moment' and urged them to stand by for severe storm warnings The State Emergency Service advised people to shift their cars to cover and away from trees, store loose items around the house and stay clear of fallen power lines. Sydney Airport was forced to suspend all departing flights Wednesday afternoon due to poor visibility, while incoming planes also struggled to land. The 'supercell' storm was expected to hit south-east Queensland and northern NSW on Wednesday, as a high pressure system moving over north-west Australia crashes into a cold front heading north from Victoria. Parts of Queensland took a pummelling on Tuesday, with the Sunshine Coast town of Coolum receiving a month's worth of rain in just 15 minutes. Hailstorms lashed areas further inland, with massive balls of ice becoming lodged in fruit nets at a rural property at Glass House Mountains. Weather expert Garry Youngberry said thousands of residents should brace for even worse conditions, describing Wednesday as 'round three for severe thunderstorms'. Several flights have been delayed and may even be cancelled as a supercell storm batters Sydney and the east coast of Australia Sydney Airport has been smashed by strong winds, with 100km/h gales hitting the city late on Wednesday morning Passengers have been warned to check with their airline before heading to the airport The delays come as two powerful weather systems sweeping over Australia were set to collide - bringing hail, damaging winds and torrential rain to a vast stretch of the east coast. 'The last two days we've had hail, destructive winds and very heavy rainfall. But today we are likely to see supercells,' Mr Youngberry told the Nine Network. 'Any time from late morning to early afternoon we are likely to see thunderstorms light up right across south-east Queensland. 'It is very widespread. We are going to quite a light show and possibly damage later today.' Heavy rain is expected to persist in south-east Queensland for the next five days, with up to 150mm to fall in Brisbane. The 'supercell' storm will come as Queenslands mops up after two days of wild weather Massive balls of ice became lodged in fruit nets at a rural property at Queensland's Glass House Mountains WHAT IS A 'SUPERCELL' STORM? There are three simplified thunderstorm types: the single-cell, the multicell and the supercell. Of these, the multicell is the most common. A supercell thunderstorm is a special storm type which maintains an intense steady-state for many hours. They are a fascinating but dangerous cloud complex and they account for most of the serious thunderstorm events we experience. Source: Bureau of Meteorology Advertisement But Mr Youngberry said it will do nothing for farmers struggling to save their crops. 'Our farmers really can't win a trick. With thunderstorms, the rainfall is so heavy the only benefit for the farmers is the top up with their water tanks,' he said. 'It does more harm than good it runs off and no moisture soaking into the soil.' Weatherzone meteorologist Jacob Cronje said the two separate weather systems are typical of this time of year. 'A front is more of a winter-like system while the inland system is more like summer. It's the transition, it's typical to see this kind of set up,' he told Nine News. Parts of central and north-east NSW will also be affected, with wild thunderstorms expected to hit on Wednesday afternoon. Hundreds of Queenslanders took to social media to share photos of hail stones which hit parts of the state on Tuesday Pictured: A map of Australia with the expected rainfall over the next eight days Sydney will see showers with an expected top of just 17C, five below the October average. Rain is expected in the Harbour City until at least Sunday, before a cloudy and cool start to next week. Melbourne will experience strong winds with a top of 18C on Wednesday, while severe weather is expected to hit Victoria's Central, Gippsland and Wimmera regions. Adelaide will also be windy with a top of 20C, while Perth's morning storms will clear with an expected maximum of 27C. Showers are forecast in Canberra with a chilly top of 14C, and Hobart will see cloudy day with a 13C maximum. Darwin will be typically hot and sunny with and is expected to reach 34C. The heavy rainfall and wild weather will do nothing for Queendland's struggling farmers Hail storms lashed parts of Queensland on Tuesday - and residents have been warned to expect more of the same THE DAYS AHEAD IN YOUR CITY SYDNEY Wednesday: Min 15, Max 18, windy and showers Thursday: Min 13, Max 18, possible shower Friday: Min 14, Max 19, likely showers Saturday: Min 14, Max 20, shower CANBERRA Wednesday: Min 14, Max 17, clearing shower Thursday: Min 3, Max 15, mostly sunny Friday: Min 3, Max 16, partly cloudy Saturday: Min 4, Max 19, possible shower PERTH Wednesday: Min 15, Max 27, storms clearing, mostly sunny day Thursday: Min 14, Max 24, mostly sunny Friday: Min 14, Max 21, shower or two Saturday: Min 12, Max 20, showers easing DARWIN Wednesday: Min 24, Max 34, sunny Thursday: Min 24, Max 34, sunny Friday: Min 25, Max 33, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 25, Max 33, possible thunderstorm MELBOURNE Wednesday: Min 10, Max 18, partly cloudy Thursday: Min 7, Max 20, sunny Friday: Min 8, Max 22, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 11, Max 23, mostly sunny ADELAIDE Wednesday: Min 9, Max 20, mostly sunny Thursday: Min 10, Max 23, mostly sunny Friday: Min 13, Max 26, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 15, Max 27, Mostly sunny HOBART Wednesday: Min 7, Max 14, mostly sunny Thursday: Min 3, Max 16, mostly sunny Friday: Min 6, Max 19, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 7, Max 22, mostly sunny BRISBANE Wednesday: Min 17, Max 31, thunderstorms Thursday: Min 18, Max 22, showers Friday: Min 16, Max 20, showers Saturday: Min 16, Max 19, showers Source: Weatherzone Advertisement The east coast's wild weather comes after Australia was told to expect heatwaves and bushfires by the end of the year, with a 70 per cent chance of El Nino. This triple the likelihood of an El Nino system forming to bring drier than normal conditions by the end of 2018, the Bureau of Meteorology warned. 'Between the (above average) temperature and the lack of rainfall, this is not good news,' bureau climatologist Robyn Duell told AAP. 'This outlook on the back of such little rainfall and dry conditions makes it such a worry for people.' Australia endured its driest September since rainfall records began in 1900, Ms Duell said. The eastern tropical Indian Ocean is cooler than normal while the western part of the ocean is warmer than usual, which is common with El Nino, she said. The heroics of brave police officers are once again being highlighted - as a London police chief is slammed for hiding during the Westminster terror attack. Sir Craig Mackey, the now deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, was slammed online as it was revealed he locked himself in his vehicle before being driven away as colleague PC Keith Palmer was stabbed to death outside the Houses of Parliament in March last year. Amid calls for him to quit, social media users have slammed Sir Craig on Twitter, with one branding him a 'disgrace' compared with hero police officer Wayne Marques, who fought London Bridge attackers while being stabbed in the head, leg and hand. The British Transport Police officer fought off terrorists Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba with just his baton, having been temporarily blinded in one eye as they lunged at him with their knives. Also during the London Bridge attack, off-duty Metropolitan Police officer Charlie Guenigault rushed to help the injured without protective clothing. Freddy Forsyth Tweeted today that Sir Craig was 'unlike BTP PC Wayne Marques who single-handedly ran at and engaged the 3 Muslim terrorists during the London Bridge attack in June '17 armed with only his police baton'. He added Sir Craig is an 'absolute coward' as Jess Clark pointed out that Mr Marques earned significantly less than the commissioner. Scroll down for video Sir Craig Mackey (pictured receiving his knighthood at Buckingham Palace in June) has been slammed online for not helping PC Keith Palmer as people compared him with the heroic officer Wayne Marques (right) Mr Guenigault rushed to the aid of victims during the London Bridge attack despite being off-duty and not having his Metropolitan Police protective clothing Mr Guenigault was out with friends when the terrorists smashed their van into a nearby restaurant. The 26-year-old, from Dartford in Kent, was stabbed multiple times after running towards the attackers and pushing one of them away from British Transport Police officer Wayne Marques. He lay still as the attackers fled the scene and was helped by passers-by Ellen Gauntlett and Justin Jones, who are also honoured in this year's list. The officer's award citation reads: 'Pc Guenigault was off-duty when he showed exemplary action in response to this terrorist attack. He tried to protect fellow police officers and members of the public by distracting and attempting to stop the terrorists. 'He placed himself in danger and was aware of the possibility of serious personal injury.' During his heroic actions, Pc Guenigault received stab wounds to his head, leg, back and stomach and had to undergo a three-hour operation to remove his spleen, He was awarded the George Medal. Some have highlighted the cases of Lisa Potts and Bernard Kenny, both of whom put themselves in grave danger to protect people from violence. Ms Potts suffered horrific injuries in 1996 when she tried to shield youngsters from machete-wielding paranoid schizophrenic Horrett Campbell in the grounds of St Luke's School, Blakenhall. Bernard Kenny was seriously injured when he was stabbed as he intervened when Thomas Mair attacked MP Jo Cox in June 2016. Her case was highlighted recently by Darren Randell, who was referring to it in light of Sir Craig's actions. Posting a picture of both Ms Potts and Sir Craig, he said: 'This is a photo of Lisa Potts returning to work in Jan 1997. The news about Sir Craig has brought to light the cases of Lisa Potts (left) and Bernard Kenny (right). Ms Potts suffered horrific injuries in 1996 when she tried to shield youngsters from machete-wielding paranoid schizophrenic Horrett Campbell. While Bernard Kenny was seriously injured when he was stabbed as he intervened when Thomas Mair attacked MP Jo Cox in June 2016 'In July 1996 she saved the lives of her primary school pupils by shielding them from a paranoid schizophrenic who was attacking them with a machete. 'Lisa suffered cuts to her head, back and arms.' 'The second photo is Sir Craig Mackey. Whilst PC Keith Palmer was being hacked to death by Khalid Masood, Sir Craig Mackey, who was nearby, stayed in his car and locked the doors.' In a similar vein to Ms Potts, Bernard Kenny was seriously injured when he was stabbed as he intervened when Thomas Mair attacked Mrs Cox in his home village of Birstall, West Yorkshire, in June 2016. His case has been referenced in light of Sir Craig by a Steve Brookstein. Writing on Facebook, he said: 'Metropolitan Police chief Sir Craig Mackey locked himself in his car when PC Palmer was being attacked in Westminster. 'A former miner in his 70s, Bernard Kenny was stabbed trying to save MP Jo Cox from her attacker. 'I'm not saying a word'. Darren Randall took to Facebook to highlight the case of Ms Potts in light of Sir Craig's actions. He posted two pictures - one showing Ms Potts and another showing Sir Craig Steve Brookstein highlighted the case of now deceased Bernard Kenny. He also juxtaposed the actions of Sir Craig against the heroics of another Others have also referenced Roy Larner, 48, who was repeatedly stabbed as he fought with Islamic terrorists who killed eight and injured 48 others in and Borough Market last 3 June. Larner famously shouted 'F*** you, I'm Millwall' as he grappled with the extremists. He was, however, since found to have launched into a racist outburst at his local MP's office in Brixton and given a suspended prison sentence. Furious police officers have also recently been sharing photoshopped images of Sir Craig Mackey holding a white feather of cowardice after news of his actions emerged. Sir Craig Mackey is facing intense scrutiny as it was revealed he locked himself in his vehicle before being driven away as colleague PC Keith Palmer was stabbed to death outside the Houses of Parliament in March last year. Fellow officers have mocked the top cop as 'Commissioner Coward' in police forums, sharing a image of him collecting his knighthood in June with the medal replaced with a white feather, a Victorian symbol for a lack of bravery or courage. Retired policemen and women called on the Met chief to resign from the role, with one former firearms officer claiming his position was now 'untenable'. Sir Craig earned more than 270,000 a year as acting commissioner and is due to retire from policing in December, when he will pick up a gold-plated pension. A photoshopped image mocking Sir Craig, swapping his knighthood (pictured left, in June this year) for a white feather (right) Masood's movements as he entered the Palace of Westminster during the sickening attack PC Keith Palmer (shown left) was stabbed to death by terrorist Khalid Masood (right) during last year's Westminster terror attack An anonymous police blogger, who goes by the name Inspector Gadget on Twitter, wrote that a moment such as the one Sir Craig faced is one that 'defines us forever' Peter Bleksley, a former undercover detective with the Met and star of Channel 4's Hunted, described the police chief's actions as 'utterly unforgivable'. During a debate on Good Morning Britain today, he called for Sir Craig to and 'be investigated and booted off the force'. While an anonymous police blogger, who goes by the name Inspector Gadget on Twitter, wrote earlier this week: 'We'll probably only face a genuinely fatal risk once in a 30 year career. How we act in that moment defines us forever.' Philip Flower, an ex-Metropolitan Police chief superintendent, also wrote on the issue in the Daily Mail today. Sir Craig Mackey's 34 years in policing Sir Craig began his career when joined Wiltshire Police in 1984. In 2001, he transferred to Gloucestershire Police to become its Assistant Chief Constable before later becoming Deputy Chief Constable. In September 2007, Sir Craig joined Cumbria Police as its Chief Constable, a post he remained in until his appointment as the Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner in 2012. Mackey was awarded the Queen's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in the 2009 New Year Honours and appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to Policing On the announcement of his knighthood, Scotland Yard praised his role in reforming the Met amid tightening budgets and his push for diversity within the force. When he retires in December, he will have been the longest serving Deputy Commissioner since the 1950s. Advertisement He said: 'What I do know is that, if I'd still been in the Met, Sir Craig's conduct would mean that I would never want to serve under him. 'Many current and former police officers, of all rank and file, feel the same way. They took to the airwaves and social media platforms yesterday to express their disbelief at his failure to act.' Calls for Sir Craig, who was then Commissioner of the Met, to quit came as he gave evidence to the inquest into the death of terrorist Khalid Masood at the Old Bailey. Now Deputy Commissioner, Sir Craig said he went to get out of the car but was told to 'shut the door' and locked it. But speaking on Good Morning Britain, Mr Bleksley said: 'A police officer's natural instinct is to get out and help. Always. That is what you do. 'Policing is a family, it is a collective, it is that thin blue line. We are talking about a senior officer who saw his colleague attacked and decided to sit tight in his car. 'During the London Bridge attack, PC Charlie Guenigault, without blinking an eye, he got involved. That's heroism, that's getting involved, that being a police officer.' PC Palmer staggered past Sir Craig's car, pursued by Masood, who was then shot dead by protection officers working for then-Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon. Sir Craig was then swept away around 30 seconds after Masood, who murdered five people that day, was gunned down. He told the inquest: 'I was in shirtsleeves, with no radio. We had no protective equipment. The way that the male came in, he was clearly a threat.' Peter Bleksley (left, alongside former chief Dal Babu), a former undercover detective with the Met, described the police chief's actions as 'utterly unforgivable' CCTV from the scene shows the Met Chief in his vehicle, circled, as it was swept away in the immediate aftermath of the attack Sir Craig said he went to get out of the car, which was passing through the vehicle barrier just inside the gates, but was told: 'Shut the door' and they drove off as the carnage unfolded He added: 'The attacker had one of those looks where, if they get you in that look they would be after you.' Dozens have been speaking out on Twitter as news of Sir Craig's actions became known. Writing on the social media platform, Patrice Duvere said: 'Sir Craig Mackey, you are not fit to wear your uniform and are a disgrace to the police profession. 'I award you a white feather of cowardice.' While another user, under the name TM30, wrote: 'Lots has been said about Sir Craig Mackey which I won't go over. Sir Craig Mackey has been slammed online after it was revealed he locked himself in his vehicle before being driven away as colleague PC Keith Palmer was stabbed to death outside the Houses of Parliament in March last year The only thing I will say is that in his own words he saw PC Keith Palmer stagger and fall backwards having been stabbed yet you did nothing. 'He was part of your family part of my family and you did nothing.' A white feather for a coward: A symbol to shame men into war The white feather has been a symbol of cowardice in Britain since the 18th century. The tradition is thought to derive from cockfighting and the belief that a cockerel sporting a white feather in its tail was likely to be a poor fighter. It resurfaced prominently during the First World War, when conscientious objectors were shamed by members of the Suffragette movement. The Order of the White Feather aimed to force men into enlisting in the army, by asking women to approach men in the street who were not wearing a uniform and hand them a white feather. This prompted the Home Secretary to issue politicians and public servants with lapel badges reading 'King and Country' to indicate that they too were serving the war effort. However, there were also unfortunate occasions when wounded soldiers on leave from the trenches wearing civilian clothes would sometimes be presented with a white feather by women unaware of their service. In one instance Private Ernest Atkins, who was on leave from the Western Front, was riding a tram when he was presented with a white feather by a girl sitting behind him. He smacked her across the face with his pay book and said: 'Certainly I'll take your feather back to the boys at Passchendaele. Advertisement Others were a little more sympathetic however. One user, called @janaKotlarova, said: 'Sir Craig Mackey would not be alive today if he intervened. There wouldn't be one but two police officers dead. 'What do you expect this old chubby unarmed officer to do? Fight a crazed man with knives? That's suicide.' A former firearms officer described Sir Craig's position as 'untenable'. Andy Redhead claimed that the policeman, who was acting commissioner on the day of the attack, had lost the 'respect' of other officers after failing to intervene. Speaking on Nick Ferrari's LBC Breakfast show, Mr Redhead said: 'I think he should reconsider his position.' Mr Ferrari then asked: 'What could he have achieved in a short-sleeve white shirt?' Mr Redhead replied: 'Do something is better than do nothing. The primary function of a police officer is to preserve life.' Sir Craig told the inquest: 'I was in shirtsleeves, with no radio. We had no protective equipment.The way that the male came in, he was clearly a threat.' He added: 'The attacker had one of those looks where, if they get you in that look they would be after you.' Sir Craig earned more than 270,000 a year as acting commissioner and is due to retire in December. Last night a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'It was evident that there were officers already present with the necessary skills to neutralise the threat and to administer advanced first aid.' The inquest continues. During a debate on Good Morning Britain today, Mr Bleksley called for Sir Craig to and 'be investigated and booted off the force' Cambridgeshire Mayor James Palmer said debate brings shame to the prestigious university Students at Cambridge University were slammed today after members of its students' union rejected a call to celebrate Remembrance Day next month. Attendees at the Cambridge University Students Union (CUSU) meeting on Monday rejected a motion for the commemoration of 'all those whose lives have been affected by war across the University of Cambridge'. The controversial move came after various amendments were made, including crossing out the phrases 'British war veterans', 'Remembrance Day' and 'Poppies'. An original motion to celebrate British war veterans on Remembrance Day was amended by Cambridge Defend Education activist Stella Swain, who wanted to broaden the commemorations to include victims of war globally. Ms Swain said she wanted to 'reflect the status of the University as an international institution' and argued that it was 'vital that we recognise all different background and don't just focus on British war veterans'. Cambridgeshire Mayor James Palmer said the debate 'brings great shame to Cambridge and the good name of this otherwise fine institution', adding that it showed 'disdain' for Britain's armed forces. Stella Swain, Cambridge Defend Education activist, said an original motion to remember British troops wasn't broad enough Ms Swain added that there are 'many tragedies around the world and instances of terrible violence that we should commemorate and reflect on'. The extended amendment was accepted with 30 votes in favour and one against. But it was then rejected by a Conservative Association Committee when it came to the final vote on the motion after it was deemed overly vague. Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA) responded to the decision on Facebook Mo Metcalf Fisher of Conservative Progress said: 'This is a shameful decision by Cambridge Students' Union. It is a grotesque insult to our troops who risk everything to keep us safe. 'We owe it to our fallen heroes to honour their sacrifice and remember them. Cambridge SU should do the decent thing and urgently reconsider their actions.' Mr Palmer added: 'This Student Union decision brings great shame to Cambridge and the good name of this otherwise fine institution. We must never normalise such disdain towards our armed forces.' The decision not to promote the day of commemoration was blasted by angry users on Facebook Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA) responded to the events on their Facebook page last night, writing: 'CUSU Council shockingly voted against the motion that they should promote commemorations this Remembrance Day and encourage students to support the Poppy Appeal.' They pointed to the amendments, which had struck through large sections of text, saying: ''British war veterans' crossed out. 'Remembrance Day' crossed out. 'Poppies' crossed out. This is a Students' Union that literally wants to erase our memory and gratitude to war heroes who sacrificed so much for so many.' A spokesperson for The Royal British Legion said: 'We take the view that Remembrance honours the sacrifices and contributions our Armed Forces community have made in defence of freedom, and so how people choose to Remember, or not to, must be a matter of personal choice. If Remembrance became compulsory it would lose its meaning and significance.' Minutes from the meeting show that 'British war veterans', 'Remembrance Day' and 'Poppies' were crossed out as the student union looked to broaden the people it commemorated on November 11 Stella Swain stood by her decision to amend the motion to include 'those affected by war worldwide' A Cambridge University Students' Union spokesperson told Mailonline: 'Discussions were not about erasing the past, but rather broadening the focus of our Remembrance to include those who suffered and died wherever they were in the world. We are a global university with students drawn from more than 120 countries, many of whom choose to recognise Remembrance in different ways.' 'The Presidents of both the Students' Union (undergraduates) and Graduate Union will also be laying wreaths at a Remembrance Sunday event on 11 November.' Lauren Coyle (pictured), 19, is appearing at Liverpool Crown Court charged with manslaughter alongside the child's stepfather, Reece Hitchcott, 20, and their lodger, Connor Kirby, 20 The grandmother of a 19-month-old girl who died after allegedly being forced to sleep bound and face down in bed has described the 'cage' she was kept in as 'horrific'. Louise Coyle thought the child may smother herself after visiting the home of her daughter Lauren Coyle, 19, and her baby, Ellie-May Minshull Coyle, aged 19 months, a week before the toddler died, Liverpool Crown Court heard. She was shown the purple bed the 'mischievous' and 'bubbly' toddler slept in, a purple Frozen bed based on the Disney children's film, which was allegedly turned into a 'monstrous cage' by the child's stepfather, Reece Hitchcott, 20, with the help of their lodger, Connor Kirby, 20. Christopher Tehrani QC, prosecuting, asked the witness: 'Was there anything that struck you as you walked into the bedroom?' Mrs Coyle replied: 'I just could not believe it. It was horrific. 'Reece said they had put a bed up. He asked me to go into the bedroom. He said he had made a bed for Ellie, so I went in and straight away I told him it was dangerous. 'I saw a Frozen bed, and he put some cot rails along the side of the bed, I don't know how they put them on, but there was blankets draped over the side of the rails and I told him he needed to take that bed down because it was dangerous and she could smother herself under the covers. 'I just thought he would have took it down anyway.' Ellie-May Minshull Coyle (pictured) was allegedly kept in a bed with tight ligatures across her chest and legs. Her ankles were also tied together, it was alleged, and the sleeping position compromised her breathing causing her death Ellie-May was allegedly tied to the mattress of her bed with tight ligatures across her chest and legs and a duvet placed over her. Her bed had been pushed against a wall and the open sides enclosed by the slatted sides of a cot lashed together with ligatures and electrical flex and tied to the bed frame, the court was told. Sheets and bedding were placed over the sides to prevent her seeing outside, no lights were working inside her bedroom and a mattress and sheet were also covering the window, the court heard. Her ankles were also tied together, it was alleged, and the sleeping position compromised her breathing causing her death, a jury of six men and six women were told. There were also marks on the child's wrists and ankles, suggesting she had been tied to the 'cage' at some point, the court heard. It is alleged the child's mother, stepfather and lodger living with the child in the two-bedroom flat at Ward Street, in Lostock Hall, Preston, all knew what was going on. Louise Coyle claims to have warned Reece Hitchcott (pictured) about the bed telling him that 'it was dangerous'. She told him that 'he needed to take that bed down', a court heard Lauren Coyle's 19, boyfriend, Reece Hitchcott, 20, (pictured left outside court) described as Ellie-May's stepfather, and their lodger, Connor Kirby, 20, (pictured right outside court) all deny manslaughter on March 23 last year All three deny manslaughter on March 23 last year. Mrs Coyle said she thought she also spoke to her daughter about the bed 'contraption'. Mr Tehrani asked: 'Did she ever mention about bars being around Ellie-May's bed?' The witness replied: 'No.' A post-mortem examination concluded the child's death was caused by 'forcible restraint by ligatures in a face down position complicated by hyperthermia'. Coyle, of Collins Road, Bamber Bridge, Preston, Hitchcott, of The Fieldings, Fulwood, Preston, and Kirby, of Octavia Court, Huyton, Liverpool, have all pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. They also each deny a count of causing or allowing the death of the child, one count of child cruelty by 'caging' the child in her bed and another count of child cruelty by restraining her in the bed. The trial continues. Al-Shabab terrorists claimed to have executed one Briton and three Americans that it accused of spying on Tuesday. The Somali militant group announced the killings on its Andalus radio station, saying they were carried out in a public square in Jilib town in Middle Jubba region. According to residents, the men were tied to poles and shot by a firing squad shortly after a self-proclaimed judge sentenced them to death. Militants for al-Shabab said they had executed one Briton, three Americans and one Somali accused of spying for intelligence services on Tuesday 'Five of them were publicly shot to death this afternoon after they admitted espionage before the court,' said Mohamed Abu Abdalla, Al-Shabab's governor for the Jubba regions. 'Awale Ahmed Mohamed, 32 spied for MI6 and he came from Britain to Somalia to establish Islamic State,' he told Reuters late on Tuesday. Three of the men spied for the United States and helped guide drones to carry out strikes in Somalia, while a fourth spied for the Somali government, he added. The government did not return telephone calls from Reuters to seek comment. The U.S. drones often carry out strikes against the Somali militants, with the U.S. military saying it killed one militant in an air strike in southern Somalia over the weekend. Al-Shabab is trying to overthrow Somalia's weak, U.N.-backed government and impose a strict form of Islamic law. The country has been torn apart by civil war since 1991, when clan warlords overthrew a dictator before turning on each other. The group's grip on the Horn of Africa nation has been weakening since it was pushed out of the capital by African Union peacekeepers in 2011, but the government and the U.S. military are beefing up an offensive against it. Despite losing territory, the extremist group continues to carry out deadly attacks in many parts of the country, especially the capital, Mogadishu. A truck bombing there in October 2017 killed 512 people. Michel Barnier signalled he is playing hardball on Brexit today by ripping into Theresa May's Chequers plan and refusing to budge from his tough line on the Irish border. The EU negotiator insisted 'checks' would be needed between the UK and the bloc in future, and they could not happen between Northern Ireland and the Republic. In a speech in Brussels, Mr Barnier repeated his plan for the province to stay within the EU's customs jurisdiction - suggesting barcode scanning and other technology could be used to ease 'political sensitivities'. Mrs May has insisted the idea is unacceptable as it would risk splitting up the UK. Mr Barnier also said Britain could ease the situation by joining a customs union - something the PM has ruled out as it would make trade deals elsewhere almost impossible. In a stinging putdown, he took aim at Mrs May's Chequers blueprint for future trade, warning it would undermine the single market and give the UK a 'huge competitive edge'. The intervention came amid a desperate scramble to put together a package that is acceptable to both sides. There have been faint signs of progress amid reports that the two sides are now working on a single text of a divorce agreement - rather than making counter-proposals. Michel Barnier said this afternoon that the EU would respect the UK's decision to leave the single market and customs union EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier highlighted the looming summit in Brussels during a private briefing at the European commission today Theresa May (pictured left in Downing Street today) is thought to be trying to unlock the negotiations with new plans for a 'backstop' to avoid a hard Irish border. The EU's top civil servant Martin Selmayr (pictured right in Strasbourg last month) urged officials to step up no-deal planning But Mr Barnier's comments suggest there is still a long way to go before the crucial issues are settled. 'The UK wants to leave and will leave the single market and the customs union,' he told the business event in Brussels. 'This means that there must be checks on goods travelling between the EU and the UK, checks that do not exist today - customs and VAT checks and compliance checks with our standards to protect our consumers, our economic traders and to protect your businesses.' The EU and UK have agreed that these checks 'cannot be performed at the border' and the EU proposes to carry them out 'in the least intrusive way possible', he said. DUP threaten to vote down the BUDGET if May breaks their red lines on border checks The DUP heaped pressure on Theresa May today by threatening to vote down the Budget if she breaks their Brexit red lines. Sources in the party - whose 10 MPs are propping up the PM in power - have warned it would be 'unacceptable' for Northern Ireland and mainland Britain to be 'treated differently'. The sabre-rattling came as Mrs May races against time to hammer out a divorce deal with Brussels. The premier is hoping to unlock the negotiations with new proposals for a 'backstop' to avoid a hard Irish border. It could effectively keep the whole UK in the customs union as a 'temporary' measure until a broader trade agreement is finalised based on her Chequers blueprint. But there are also likely to be increased regulatory checks in the Irish sea to protect the EU single market - something that could destroy relations with the DUP. Party leader Arlene Foster has warned that her line against anything that would risk splitting the UK are 'blood red'. Advertisement Under the European Commission's 'backstop' plan for the Irish border, customs and VAT checks would be carried out using existing customs transit procedures, to avoid the need for physical inspections at the border, he said. Mr Barnier vowed he would keep fighting to protect the integrity of the EU single market. 'Brexit brings no added value. It is a negative negotiation. It is a lose, lose game,' he said. Mrs May is thought to be trying to unlock the negotiations with new plans for a 'backstop' to avoid a hard Irish border. It could effectively keep the whole UK in the customs union as a 'temporary' measure until a broader trade agreement is finalised based on her Chequers blueprint. But there are also likely to be increased regulatory checks in the Irish sea to protect the EU single market. That could destroy relations between Mrs May and the DUP - which has warned it has a 'blood red' line on the issue. Sources in the party - whose 10 MPs are propping up the PM in power - today upped the ante by threatening to vote down the Budget if the deal sees Northern Ireland and mainland Britain 'treated differently'. EU commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Mr Barnier had told officials at a private meeting earlier that 'decisive progress must be made in time for the October European Council next week'. The EU's top civil servant Martin Selmayr is said to have led discussion of a document on the consequences of no-deal - which the bloc has apparently decided not to publish for fear of derailing negotiations. 'We are working hard for the Brexit negotiations to succeed. But since we can't guarantee the result right now, we have to prepare for all possible outcomes,' one diplomat said. 'There is a growing sense among the EU27 that outstanding preparedness questions have to be addressed very quickly and in a detailed way... 'The EU27 need to be ready on day one to address issues like citizen's rights, transport or customs coherently.' EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told a press conference: 'Michel Barnier and his team are working day and night to reach a deal, but we are not there yet.' At a bad-tempered PMQs today, Mrs May defended her approach and urged Remainers and Eurosceptics to act in the 'national interest DUP leader Arlene Foster has warned that her line against anything that would risk splitting the UK are 'blood red' Danuta Hubner, an MEP who helps coordinate Brexit issues at the European Parliament, said: 'My feeling is that there is a smaller probability for lack of deal now than we have had for some time.' Ambassadors from the 27 EU states will get another Brexit update from Mr Barnier on Friday. The sides will continue negotiations through the weekend with hopes for a breakthrough as early as Monday. Maximilian Straube has been allowed delay the start a curfew he was given for attacking a barman so he can travel to Dubai A wealthy thug who attacked a barman was let off his curfew so he can go on holiday to Dubai. Judge Michael Kay QC ruled Maximilian Straube, 20, could celebrate his father's birthday in the Emirates resort before beginning his sentence for assault. Straube could have been jailed but avoided prison with a 150 hours of community service and a three-month night-time curfew. But his punishment was delayed for ten days so the engineering student could jet off for his architect father's 50th birthday. Victim Zac Atkinson - who suffered a fractured eye-socket and broken nose in the fracas - slammed the move. The 20-year-old said: 'The whole situation is beyond a joke. There were three people kicking me on the floor. 'I had a broken eyes-socket and a broken nose I can't look up all the way in one of my eyes. I can't get too annoyed because the whole criminal justice system is a joke. He's just got away with it now, what's to stop him doing it again. 'I have had no compensation and I didn't get told about the hearings. I just feel let down why would I take anything through the court system again.' Victim Zac Atkinson had swollen black eyes and cuts to his face after the vicious attack Mr Atkinson was working in The Slug and Lettuce, in St Albans, at the time of the attack. He had finished his shift and was drinking with pals when a fracas broke out, so he stepped in and Straube was kicked out. Mr Atkinson, who is poised to begin a career in finance, was set upon when he went outside and was knocked down and attacked on the floor. The brutal assault left him with a fractured eye socket, a broken nose and vision loss. On Thursday St Albans Crown Court heard aggressor Straube unleashed 'horrific scenes' where unknown attackers kicked and punched the victim on the ground. The incident took place after midnight on November 4 last year. Straube was ejected from the Slug and Lettuce for grabbing someone around the neck after a cigarette was found in his drink. Despite his friend trying to pull him away, Straube began challenging Mr Atkinson inside the pub, saying: 'I am going to f**k you up.' Mr Atkinson said 'the whole criminal justice system is a joke' after hearing how judge Michael Kay QC (right) sanctioned his attacker's trip to the sun Judge Kay said Straube was 'angry and continuing to inflame the situation'. Someone else hit Mr Atkinson and the court decided it was not Straube. However this led to a struggle where the victim grabbed him and they fell to the ground. He added: 'Eventually the person came outside and you continued to aggravate the matter by being aggressive and abusive. 'Others at the scene, who you did not know saw an opportunity to indulge some primitive enjoyment by kicking another person.' He added: 'This is another depressing event from the streets of St Albans that persuades elderly people and the public not to go to the centre of St Albans at night as they may come across drunken and violent youths in the middle of an affray.' The sickening attack unfolded went Mr Atkinson, a barman, left St Albans Slug and Lettuce pub after he helped get Straube Straube, who divides his time between a house on a posh gated road in Redbourn, Herts, and Sheffield, previously pleaded guilty to common assault and affray - which can carry a prison sentence. He was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work and must abide by a curfew between 8pm and 6am for three months whilst on electronic tag. This will not begin until Monday, October 15. A spokesman for the judiciary said: 'All judges and magistrates deal with each case individually. 'They are required to base their sentencing decisions on the facts of each case and within the relevant sentencing guidelines for the offence. 'For example, there may be aggravating and mitigating factors in each case which may influence the outcome of the sentence.' A previous version of this article's headline stated that Mr Straube 'brutally beat' Zac Atkinson. As is made clear in the article text, Mr Straube was in fact found guilty of common assault and affray, with the injuries sustained by the victim being the result of blows struck by unknown assailants outside the pub. We are happy to make this clear, and apologise for any contrary impression given. The wife of the former Interpol president who disappeared in China says she fears for her life and the lives of her young children, as she fights for information about her husband's fate. Grace Meng said she received a threatening phone call warning of 'two teams' of agents coming for her. The stranger also said 'we know where you are.' She explained how she has so far managed to keep her husband, Meng Hongwei's disappearance from their seven-year-old sons by not letting them watch television. 'Maybe they can feel something happened,' she told CNN while wiping away tears. 'They see that Mummy is crying. I told them, Mummy has a cold. I don't want to break their hearts.' Grace Meng, the wife of missing Interpol President Meng Hongwei, who does not want her face shown, consults her mobile phone in the lobby of a hotel in Lyon on Sunday Beijing said Meng Hongwei is being investigated due to his own 'wilfulness and for bringing trouble upon himself', but remained tight-lipped regarding his whereabouts 'They (Chinese authorities) like things under the table, in the dark room to make the deal,' Mrs Meng added. Mrs Meng said her last contact with her husband was by text message, on September 25, when he wrote 'wait for my call' and sent her a knife emoji after travelling back to China. After a week with no news, on an evening when she was at home in Lyon having put their two young boys to bed, she had a threatening call on her mobile phone from a man speaking Chinese. 'He said, "You listen but you don't speak. We've come in two work teams, two work teams just for you",' Mrs Meng said. When she tried to ask a question, he repeated: 'You don't speak, you just listen to me.' As a result, Mrs Meng is under French police protection. 'I need help, I need security,' she said, adding that the Chinese consulate had been calling incessantly, but that she refused to meet them alone and would only do so with the media and a lawyer present. Chinese authorities said on Monday that Meng, who is also China's vice minister of public security, was being lawfully investigated for taking bribes and other crimes that were a result of his 'wilfulness', but remained tight-lipped regarding his whereabouts. A journalist holds Grace Meng's mobile phone, showing what she says is the last message exchanged with her husband: a text reading 'wait for my call' followed by a knife emoji The Chinese Ministry of Public Security released a statement saying the investigation is a result of Meng's 'insistence of doing things his own way' and he 'only has himself to blame'. Mrs Meng insisted that her husband is innocent: 'We are bright, we are open ... we are clean ... we never ever broke the law'. She had previously suggested the bribery accusation is just an excuse for 'making him disappear for so long'. 'As his wife, I think he's simply incapable of this,' she said, adding she would be willing to make their bank accounts public. 'I miss him very much. That's why I always wake up at night,' she said, unsure of when she will be able to see him again. She said she spoke out in the hope that it might help other families in similar circumstances. 'I do this for all of China's children, and for all of China's wives, for all of ... China's daddy, mommy,' she said, knowing that some elderly parents had also lost contact with their children in the disappearances. 'They died but can't see their children, their son, their daughter - they're lost. You can imagine. I have this responsibility to help the other people.' Mrs Meng denied bribery allegations against her high-profile husband, and told the Associated Press in a previous interview that speaking out about his disappearance was placing her 'in great danger'. She also added that disappearances like that of her husband are 'very common now in China'. He had told her that his colleagues would suddenly disappear with no reason. Interpol has appointed Kim Jong Yang (pictured) of South Korea as acting president Meng disappeared on a trip home to Beijing late last month after a visit to the Nordics. A long-time Communist Party insider with decades of experience in China's sprawling security apparatus, the 64-year-old appears to be the latest high-ranking official to fall victim to a sweeping purge against allegedly corrupt or disloyal officials under President Xi Jinping's authoritarian administration. The revelation that China's system of shady and often-arbitrary detentions could ensnare even a senior public security official with international stature has cast a shadow over the image Beijing has sought to cultivate in recent years as a modern country with the rule of law. Beijing said the investigation into Meng's suspected acceptance of bribery and violation of law was 'very timely, completely correct and very wise' and 'fully demonstrates that anyone who violates the law must be severely prosecuted and severely punished'. On Sunday night, Interpol said he had resigned as the international police agency's president. It was not clear whether he did so of his own free will. Interpol said South Korean national Kim Jong Yang would becomes its acting president, while it would appoint a new president at a November meeting of the organisation in Dubai. Kim said Interpol had not been told about the investigation of its chief. 'I find it regrettable that the top leader of the organization had to go out this way and that we weren't specifically notified of what was happening in advance,' Kim said in a phone interview. Grace Meng read a statement during her press conference in Lyon but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her safety and the safety of her two children 'We still don't have sufficient information about what's happening (with Meng) or whether it has anything to do with Chinese domestic politics,' he added. Mrs Meng had refused to speculate on what might have happened to him or whether he had been arrested, saying: 'In China, what happened, I'm not sure.' She refused to provide her real name to the AP, saying she was too afraid for the safety of her relatives in China. It is not customary for Chinese wives to adopt their husbands' names. Mrs Meng said she has done so now to show her solidarity with her husband. Her English name, Grace, is one she has long used, she said. A French judicial official confirmed to AP that police are investigating the threat against Mrs Meng, but said the probe has yet to determine whether Chinese teams were sent to Lyon. Previously, Interpol had said that reports about Meng's disappearance were 'a matter for the relevant authorities in both France and China.' The organisation went out of its way to say that its secretary general, not Meng, was responsible for the day-to-day running of the agency. Meng is now the latest high-ranking official, and one with an unusually prominent international standing, to fall victim to a sweeping crackdown by China's ruling party. Meng is now the latest high-ranking official, and one with an unusually prominent international standing, to fall victim to a sweeping crackdown by China's ruling party In a sign of how seriously the authorities regard the case, Zhao Lezhi, the minister for public security, chaired a meeting in the early hours of Monday morning with senior officials of the ministry's party committee to discuss it. The ministry's statement provided no details about the bribes Meng allegedly took or the other crimes he is accused of, but it suggested that he is also being investigated for political lapses. It indicated that Meng, a member of the Communist Party, may have somehow been tainted by the former security chief and ex-Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, who is now serving a life sentence for corruption. 'We should resolutely oppose corruption and resolutely eliminate the pernicious influence of Zhou Yongkang,' it said. Meng's various jobs likely put him in close contact with Zhou and other Chinese leaders in the security establishment, a sector long synonymous with corruption, opacity and human rights abuses. Zhou and other senior figures prosecuted in Chinese president Xi Jinping's anti-corruption crackdown were mostly convicted of corruption but officials have since also said they were accused of 'conspiring openly to usurp party leadership'. At Monday's meeting, officials were told that they 'must always maintain the political quality of being absolutely loyal to the party', the statement said. News of Meng's apparent disappearance comes after Chinese officials announced that Hollywood star Fan Bingbing (pictured) had been ordered to pay millions of dollars in taxes The 36-year-old actress was previously the highest paid Chinese actress following her role in X-Men (pictured) News of Meng's apparent disappearance comes after Chinese officials announced that Hollywood star Fan Bingbing, who also vanished without a trace several months ago, has been ordered to pay millions of dollars in alleged back taxes and penalties. Fan took to social media for the first time in months on Wednesday to apologise to fans and the Communist Party for tax evasion, shortly after news broke that authorities had ordered her to pay nearly $130 million in back taxes and fines. The 36-year-old took to China's Twitter-like Weibo to acknowledge her wrongs, beg for her supporters' forgiveness, and apologise to 'society, the friends who care about me, the public and the national tax authorities.' 'Without the Party and country's good policies, without the loving attention of the masses, there would be no Fan Bingbing,' she wrote to her 62 million followers. The actress, model and producer had been a ubiquitous household name in Chinafor years and tasted Hollywood success with a role in the 2014 blockbuster 'X-Men: Days of Future Past.' But she disappeared from the public eye and her once active social media presence went silent in May after allegations emerged that she had evaded taxes on a lucrative movie shoot, charges her studio called 'slander'. Saudi Arabia has blocked Turkey from entering the consulate where Jamal Khashoggi went missing last week after police announced they are hunting fifteen Saudi suspects in connection with his disappearance. On Tuesday, Saudi officials gave three Turkish police investigators access to all parts of the consulate, excluding the nearby consul's residence. But according to Turkish police, sources the Saudis changed their minds on Wednesday morning after fifteen names related to the ongoing investigation were leaked. Turkish newspaper Sabah released CCTV images of a group of men who flew into Istanbul on the day Khashoggi went missing last Tuesday after walking into the Saudi consulate. They were pictured arriving at Ataturk airport's border control on Tuesday last week having flown into Turkey in two private jets from the Saudi capital Riyadh. Scroll down for video Meshal Saad M Albostani (left), Salah Muhammad A Tubaigy (center), and Muhammed Saad H. Alzahrani (right), all flew in and out of Ataturk airport on the day Khashoggi disappeared Saif Saad Q Alqahtani (left) and Mustafa Muhammed M. Almadani (right) are also being sought for questioning in connection with the incident last week Turkish officials were last night considering whether to dig up the garden of the Saudi Arabian consul general in Istanbul to see if the remains of Jamal Khashoggi are buried there. Sources close to the investigation said they believe the journalist was dragged from Mohammed al-Otaibas office before being murdered by two men who then cut up his body. One told respected online publication, Middle East Eye: We know when Jamal was killed, in which room he was killed and where the body was taken to be dismembered. If the forensic team are allowed in they know exactly where to go. Khashoggi had arrived at the consulate in Istanbul shortly after 1pm on Oct 2nd to collect papers showing he was divorced in Saudi Arabia and free to marry his fiance the next day. Half an hour before he turned up the local Turkish staff working at the embassy were told to take the rest of the day off because a high-level diplomatic meeting was planned for the afternoon. The source told MEE that Khashoggi was greeted by an official and led straight to Mr al-Otaibas room . Shortly afterwards two men arrived, dragging the 59-year-old off into another room where they killed him., it was claimed Its not known how the journalist was killed, but the body was then taken to a third room where it was dismembered. Its understood the Turkish prosecutor general is now deliberating whether to dig up Mr al-Otaibas garden, to see whether Khashoggis remains were buried there. This is because one of the 22 vehicles registered to the consulate left the building at 3.15pm and went 200 metres to the address. The Turkish authorities are believed to have audio and video evidence of the killing but its not known how they got it. But, it seems unlikely Saudi Arabia would allow Turkish officials to dig up the garden at the consul. Naif Hassan S. Alarifi (left) Turki Musharraf M. Alsehri (center) and Khaled Aedh G. Altaibi (right) were also named by Turkish newspaper Sabah Turkish officials believe Khashoggi may have been murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and then taken out of the country by private jet. However, a Saudi source told Reuters that British intelligence believed there had been an attempt to drug Khashoggi inside the consulate that culminated in an overdose. He said the information came from a British intelligence source. Investigators are confident they may yet discover Khashoggi's fate despite their ban from the consulate, using data collected from his Apple Watch - which was connected to a phone he left outside with his fiancee. 'We have determined that it was on him when he walked into the consulate,' the security official said. Investigators are trying to determine what information the watch transmitted. 'Intelligence services, the prosecutor's office and a technology team are working on this. Turkey does not have the watch so we are trying to do it through connected devices,' he said. Tech experts say an Apple Watch can provide data such as location and heart rate. But what investigators can find out depends on the model of watch, whether it was connected to the internet, and whether it is near enough an iPhone to synchronize. Waleed Abdullah M. Alsehri (left) and Abdulaziz Muhammed M. Alhawsawi (right) are also wanted for questioning over the disappearance A still image taken from CCTV video shows Jamal Khashoggi's last sighting as he arrived at Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday The group of men identified by Sabah included Salah Muhammad A Tubaigy, 47, the head of the Saudi Forensic Medicine Institute. An expert on forensic evidence, he is known to have trained a large number of police officers in crime scene investigation. Another man, Muhammed Saad H. al-Zahrani, was revealed on Wednesday to have served as one of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's royal guards - a unit nicknamed the 'rough swords'. Mugshots of the middle-aged men, who flew into the country by private jet, were released alongside details of their ages and travel itineraries. Turkish television also revealed CCTV footage of them arriving at Istanbul airport and making their way through the streets of the city around the embassy. The men arrived at the embassy half-an-hour before Khashoggi turned up for his appointment. The 15 men reportedly divided into two teams on arrival. Ten stayed at the five-star Movenpick hotel, which boasts 249 luxury rooms and a ballroom. It is located just 650 yards from the Saudi embassy where Mr Khashoggi vanished. The remaining five checked in to the Wyndham Grand hotel, another five-star establishment 15 minutes' walk to the south, in the direction of the airport. The men, believed to hold Saudi passports, reportedly flew into Turkey on a number of different flights. Two members, Mansur Othman M Abahuseyin, 46, and Khaled Aedh G Altaibi, 30, arrived on two different commercial flights. Maher Abdulaziz M. Mutreb (left) Fahad Shabib A. Albalawi (center) and Thaar Ghaleb T. Alharbi were also part of the group who flew into Ataturk airport Mansur Othman M. Abahuseyin and Badr Lafi M. Alotaibi passing through border control on Tuesday last week Jamal Khashoggi has been missing since last Tuesday after walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul The rest travelled to the country on at least two private flights using jets owned by the Saudi company Sky Prime Aviation. Based in Riyadh airport, the exclusive airline boasts a fleet of 14 luxury aircraft. They left Istanbul on a private aircraft, understood to be destined for Egypt and Dubai. One man, Said Saad Q Alqahtani, 45, flew out using a commercial carrier. This morning, MailOnline pictured a black van with green diplomatic number plates, which has been at the centre of the investigation, outside the Saudi embassy. The van was seen on CCTV being loaded with boxes, which police believe may have been used to transport Khashoggi's remains to the airport. The van's diplomatic status is believed to render it immune to the investigation. Officials said it was part of a convoy of six cars, several with diplomatic number plates, which left the consulate grounds two hours after Khashoggi went inside. Turkish police were allowed into the building on Tuesday, a week after Khashoggi vanished, and said that CCTV footage from inside has gone missing and Turkish staff were abruptly told to take a holiday on the day in question. Yesterday, a source close to the Saudi royal family told DailyMail.com that the Washington Post writer, and long-standing critic of Saudi Arabia, is alive and being held captive in his home country after being flown to Riyadh in a private jet. According to the source, after entering the embassy Khashoggi was taken in a black Mercedes S-500 and a white minivan with four Saudi officials to Istanbul airport, where he was flown on a private jet to Riyadh and is now being held. Flight records show that a Gulf Stream IV private jet, tail number HZ-SK2, landed in Istanbul at 3am on October 2, the day Khashoggi disappeared. The black Mercedes van (pictured today) which police believe may have been used to transport Khashoggi's body to the airport Saudi officials gather outside the consulate in Istanbul last week, in front of the door where Mr Khashoggi entered, but never exited An aerial photo shows the Saudi Arabia consulate, centre, in Istanbul where Khashoggi was last seen on Tuesday last week The Saudi government claimed Khashoggi left and claimed they are 'just as concerned about his whereabouts' despite there being no CCTV evidence of him leaving the complex The jet left later that day, stopping in Dubai and then flying on to Riyadh. Khashoggi was driven from there to Riyadh, and was held there, the source said. The source was told Khashoggi is still alive, contradicting the claims he was murdered in the Istanbul embassy. Turkish police also revealed they are seeking information about a black Mercedes van on Monday in connection with Khashoggi's disappearance. WhatsApp records show Khashoggi last viewed his messages on his US cell phone at 1.06pm on Tuesday, around the time he entered the embassy. On Monday President Trump said that he was 'concerned' about reports on Khashoggi's disappearance. 'I am concerned about that,' Trump said. 'I don't like hearing about it and hopefully that will sort itself out. Right now, nobody knows anything about it.' 'There's some pretty bad stories about it. I do not like it,' he added. Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, said claims Khashoggi had been killed or detained by Saudi authorities were 'absolutely false, and baseless,' according to a statement provided to CNN. CCTV footage obtained from Turkish news agency DHA shows a Saudi team suspected of involvement in Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance on October 2 A security guard waits to enter Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul today, a week after Khashoggi went missing after entering the building A woman holds a portrait of missing journalist and Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi during a demonstration in front of the embassy yesterday 'There are many facts regarding his whereabouts that will hopefully be revealed through the ongoing investigation. 'Despite that, we have seen over the last few days various malicious leaks and grim rumors flying around about Jamal's whereabouts and fate,' the statement says. 'I assure you that the reports that suggest that Jamal Khashoggi went missing in the Consulate in Istanbul or that the Kingdom's authorities have detained him or killed him are absolutely false, and baseless.' Earlier Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi Arabia needs to prove that Khashoggi has, in fact, left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. 'He entered the general consulate himself, and if he has entered by himself and if he did not exit it, of course this should be proven by the general consulate,' said Erdogan at a press conference in Budapest. According to the Washington Post, who Khashoggi worked for as a contributor, US intelligence had previously intercepted communications from Saudi officials discussing plans to capture him. According to the Post's source, the intercepted material featured a discussion for the potential capture of Khashoggi - a longstanding critic of the Saudi government. Turkish TV channel TRT also revealed images of the private jet which allegedly ferried the men in and out of Turkey Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) warned Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi's disappearance on Wednesday afternoon The source claimed US officials found out Saudi agents planned to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia - although it was not clear whether they wanted to arrest and interrogate Khashoggi or to kill him from the information gathered. It is also not known whether the United States warned Khashoggi that he was a target, the source said. Saudi officials denied reports they sent a 15-man team to Istanbul on the day Khashoggi disappeared, saying that the only team they sent to Turkey consisted of investigators who arrived Saturday to help find the journalist. Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt issued a stark warning to Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi's disappearance on Wednesday afternoon. 'Just met the Saudi ambassador to seek urgent answers over Jamal Khashoggi,' he said in a tweet,' Violence against journalists worldwide is going up & is a grave threat to freedom of expression.' 'If media reports prove correct, we will treat the incident seriously - friendships depend on shared values.' He discussed the episode with the permanent secretary to the Foreign Office, Sir Simon McDonald, on Monday. Hunt also spoke with the Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir, for the first time raising the issue at ministerial level. Despite initially allowing investigators into the consulate complex on Tuesday, Turkish police sources say officials changed their minds after the leak of suspect's names on Wednesday Vanished without a trace: Who is Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi? Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who disappeared last week after a visit to his country's consulate in Turkey, was once a Saudi insider. A close aide to the kingdom's former spy chief, he had been a leading voice in the country's prominent dailies, including the main English newspapers. Now the 59-year-old journalist and contributor to The Washington Post is feared dead, and Turkish authorities believe he was slain inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, something Saudi officials vehemently deny. The US-educated Khashoggi was no stranger to controversy. A graduate of Indiana State University, Khashoggi began his career in the 1980s, covering the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the decade-long war that followed for the English-language daily Saudi Gazette. He traveled extensively in the Middle East, covering Algeria's 1990s war against Islamic militants, and the Islamists rise in Sudan. The former government adviser, pictured outside the BBC in London, has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year to avoid possible arrest. He interviewed Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before al-Qaida was formed, then met him in Sudan in 1995. Following bin Laden's rise likely helped cement Khashoggi's ties with powerful former Saudi spy chief, Turki Al-Faisal. Khashoggi rubbed shoulders with the Saudi royal family and supported efforts to nudge the kingdom's entrenched ultra-conservative clerics to accept reforms. He served as an editor for nine years on the Islamist-leaning al-Madina newspaper and was frequently quoted in the Western media as an expert on Islamic radicals and a reformist voice. However, he was fired from his post as an editor at Al-Watan, a liberal paper founded after the 9/11 terror attacks, just two months after he took the job in 2003. The country's ultra-conservative clerics had pushed back against his criticism of the powerful religious police and Ibn Taymiyah, a medieval cleric viewed as the spiritual forefather of Wahhabism, the conservative interpretation of Islam that is the founding tenant of the kingdom. Khoshaggi then served as media adviser to Al-Faisal, the former spy chief, who was at the time the ambassador to the United States. Khashoggi returned to Al-Watan in 2007, where he continued his criticism of the clerics as the late King Abdullah implemented cautious reforms to try to shake their hold. Three years later, he was forced to resign again after a series of articles criticizing Salafism, the ultra-conservative Sunni Islam movement from which Wahhabism stems. In 2010, Saudi billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal tapped him to lead his new TV station, touted as a rival to Qatari-funded Al-Jazeera, a staunch critic of the kingdom. But the new Al-Arab station, based in Bahrain, was shut down hours after it launched, for hosting a Bahraini opposition figure. Khoshaggi's final break with the Saudi authorities followed the Arab Spring protests that swept through the region in 2011, shaking the power base of traditional leaders and giving rise to Islamists, only to be followed by unprecedented crackdowns on those calling for change. Siding with the opposition in Egypt and Syria, Khashoggi became a vocal critic of his own government's stance there and a defender of moderate Islamists, which Riyadh considered an existential threat. 'This was a critical period in Arab history. I had to take a position. The Arab world had waited for this moment of freedom for a thousand years,' Khashoggi told a Turkey-based Syrian opposition television station last month, just days before he disappeared. He also criticized his government's diplomatic break with Qatar and war on Yemen as well as Riyadh's policy toward its archenemy, Iran, whose influence has grown in neighboring Yemen and in Syria. In the Sept. 23 interview, he called Saudi Arabia's foreign policy 'narrow minded,' and ridiculed its crackdown on political Islam, urging the kingdom to realign its policy to partner with Turkey, a close Qatar ally. 'Saudi is the mother and father of political Islam. It is based on political Islam,' Khoshaggi said. 'The only recipe to get Iranians out of Syria - it is not Trump or anyone else- it is through the support of the Syrian revolution. ... Saudi Arabia must return to supporting the Syrian revolution and partnering with Turkey on this.' Eight days later, on October 2, he disappeared while on a visit to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. The consulate insists the writer left its premises alive, contradicting Turkish officials. Before his disappearance, Khoshaggi had been living since last year in the U.S. in self-imposed exile, after he fled the kingdom amid a crackdown on intellectuals and activists who criticized policies of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. 'As of now, I would say Mohammed bin Salman is acting like Putin. He is imposing very selective justice,' Khashoggi wrote in the Post last year after he fled the kingdom, saying he feared returning home. He described 'dramatic' scenes of arrest of government critics accused of receiving Qatari funding. They included a friend of Khashoggi's who had just returned from a trip to the U.S. as part of an official Saudi delegation. 'That is how breathtakingly fast you can fall out of favor with Saudi Arabia,' he wrote. Advertisement Police CCTV video made available through Turkish Newspaper Sabah allegedly shows suspects wandering near the consulate on Tuesday One of the black Mercedes vans at the center of the operation was shown on CCTV leaving the consulate on Tuesday afternoon CCTV showed a balck Mercedes van police believe to have ferried suspects and possibly Khashoggi to the airport on Tuesday afternoon Ear-piercing footage shows a Chinese man breaking the world record for the most high-pitched note. Wang Xiaolong stormed to victory in the 'highest vocal note by a male' category. He can be seen letting out an earsplitting E in the 8th octave during a game show called Happy Camp. At the beginning of the clip, Wang walks calmly on stage as the crowds cheer excitedly. He then puts one hand to his ear and the other on his hip before releasing an ear-piercing noise. Audience members' jaws drop as he produces the deafeningly high-pitched sound. Guinness World Records adjudicators can be seen nearby supervising his attempt. Wang Xiaolong storming to victory in the 'highest vocal note by a male' category on Chinese television Wang lets out an earsplitting E in the 8th octave during a game show called Happy Camp A tense silence falls among spectators as she uses the sound monitoring equipment to establish whether he has has broken the record. The clip ends with Wang receiving his Guinness World Records certificate. Guinness World Records adjudicators monitoring Wang's attempt to reach the top spot Sandwich shop chain Pret A Manger has come under fire again today after a vegetarian customer found pork sausages in her veggie breakfast pot. Pret has apologised for the 'break down in procedure' which saw an office worker from London tucking into a breakfast which she thought was vegetarian. The life-long vegetarian, who asked not to be named, returned the pot to the store where staff apologised and issued her with a replacement. The chain apologised for the 'break down in procedure' after a vegetarian London office worker found sausages in her vegetarian breakfast However, when she returned to her office the 25-year-old discovered that the new pot also contained the pork sausages. Pret has said the whole batch of the veggie breakfast pots could have been affected and has said it has 're-trained' the staff involved. Speaking to The Sun, the woman said: 'The first time it happened I thought it could just be a fluke but when it happened again I was appalled. A spokeswoman from Pret said they were sorry for the experience had by the customer at the Victoria, London branch 'This is a big company, they should have proper checking processes. 'I am a life-long veggie, who has never knowingly eaten meat but imagine if I could not eat meat or pork on religious grounds.' A spokeswoman from Pret said: 'We are very sorry for our customer's experience, and we would like to invite her to get back in touch so we can give her the apology she deserves.' The woman added that the sausages had been at the bottom of the veggie pot and had been covered by beans hence why she didn't immediately notice them. One of the veggie options available at Pret is a chia seed and pomegranate pot When she returned to the shop in Victoria, London, a Pret worker apologised and got her a new breakfast from the shelf. Despite the effort from the staff member, this pot also contained sausages. She added: 'It was obviously the whole batch that was wrong this is a big branch in central London and you wonder just how many people have been affected.' The woman complained to Pret's head office and they launched an investigation following the incident on August 31. In a response to the customer the company said: 'The Safety Team has identified the members of the team who made this product that day. 'All kitchen team members have been re-trained on the existing robust production standards, which are in place to reduce the risk of cross contamination. 'Our products are always prepared separately, one batch at a time, and are labelled separately to reduce the risk of these being mixed up. Celia Marsh (left) died after eating a Pret flatbread which was supposed to be dairy free. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse (right) died after she had eaten a Pret baguette which contained sesame 'There was clearly a break-down in these procedures that day. Please rest assured that the general and kitchen managers will be keeping a very close eye on the production process following this incident.' The latest blow for Pret comes after 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse collapsed on board a flight in July 2016 and later died after eating an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette she had bought at a Pret outlet in Heathrow Airport. She was allergic to sesame, which was not listed on ingredients but was in bread. 42-year-old Celia Marsh, from Melksham, Wiltshire, died last year after eating a super-veg rainbow flatbread which was supposed to be dairy free. Caption: Fig. 1: Astronomer E. E. Barnard photographed the Rho Ophiuchi nebula near the border of Scorpius in 1905 through a 10-inch refractor. When he published the image in the Astrophysical Journal five years later, he discussed the possibility then fiercely debated that bright nebulae are partially transparent and dark nebulae are opaque, hiding material farther away. Other researchers argued that dark nebulae are simply regions where stars and gas are absent. Fig. 2a: Barnard's photo has been placed on the sky in its proper position and orientation and is displayed in WorldWide Telescope (WWT) superimposed on a false-color background image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). In Fig. 2b and 2c, Barnard's photo has been made partially and fully transparent, respectively, to reveal it in context. In the visible-light photo, gas glows brightly while dust appears in silhouette. In infrared light, as seen by WISE, dust glows brightly where in visible light there was nothing but blackness. Barnard was right! More than 30,000 celestial images that were all but lost to science are about to find their way back into researchers' hands thanks to the efforts of thousands of citizen scientists. he photographs, radio maps, and other telescopic images were scanned from the pages of dusty old journals for a cosmic reclamation project called Astronomy Rewind. Its goal is to bring these "zombie" images back to life so that astronomers can find them online and compare them with modern electronic data from ground- and space-based telescopes, making possible new studies of short- and long-term changes in the heavens. In its initial phase, launched in March 2017, volunteers using the Zooniverse citizen-science platform classified the scans into three broad categories: single images with coordinate axes, multiple images with such axes, and single or multiple images without such axes. During the next phase, which launches today, 9 October, visitors to Astronomy Rewind's Zooniverse site will use the coordinate axes (when available) or any rulers, arrows, captions, or other labels to determine each image's location on the sky, angular scale, and orientation. The images will then appear in WorldWide Telescope (WWT), a virtual sky explorer that doubles as a portal to the peer-reviewed literature and to archival images from the world's major observatories. "I was simply amazed at the Zoonizens' response to our first set of images," says Alyssa Goodman, one of the project's leaders at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "We thought it would take months to make the first pass through the scans, but our volunteers did it in a matter of days. Apparently random images of the sky look as cool to ordinary people as they do to professional astronomers!" Laura Trouille, co-lead for Zooniverse at the Adler Planetarium, suggests that with some 3,000 registered users (and another 1,500 or so anonymous ones) contributing to Astronomy Rewind, the roughly 10,000 images with coordinate axes should be placed into WWT within a few months -- though, if history is any guide, it could be sooner. The remaining 20,000 sky views will surely take longer, as volunteers will have to do a bit of detective work to figure out exactly where the images belong on the sky. Originally developed at Microsoft Research, WWT is now managed by the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The images digitized so far, some more than 100 years old, come from the AAS journals -- the Astronomical Journal (AJ), Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), ApJ Letters, and the ApJ Supplement Series -- and were provided by the Astrophysics Data System (ADS), a NASA-funded bibliographic service and archive at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), part of the CfA. Results from a related project, the ADS All Sky Survey (ADSASS), have already been poured into WWT and the European image-display tool Aladin, which enables users to click on any astronomical image that originally appeared in one of the AAS journals and immediately call up the corresponding research paper. "Without Astronomy Rewind, astronomers would be unlikely to make the effort to extract an image from an old article, place it on the sky, and find related images at other wavelengths for comparison," says Goodman. "Once our revivified pictures are incorporated into WorldWide Telescope, which includes images and catalogs from across the electromagnetic spectrum, contextualization will take only seconds, making it easy to compare observations from a century ago with modern data to see how celestial objects have moved or changed." Julie Steffen, AAS Director of Publishing, acknowledges that the work required to confirm the position, scale, and orientation of decades-old astronomical images will be more challenging than the simple classification that volunteers performed earlier. "I'm confident that our Zoonizens will do a terrific job, just like before," she says, "but in case they run into trouble they can use our online chat feature to get help from astronomy graduate students who will be standing by to assist." "Once this next phase of Astronomy Rewind is completed," adds Goodman, "anyone who's curious -- historian, scientist, or enthusiast of any other stripe -- will be able to see where our sky has been studied, when, why, and by whom, and to click on any image that appeared in any AAS journal going back to the 19th century and see it in context on the sky. How cool is that?!" More imagery Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. An Airbnb host in LA crashed through the window of a house he rented to a Boston couple while they slept before they barricaded themselves in the kitchen armed with a knife. Jaleesa Jackson, 29, and Chiedozie Uwandu, 28, were on holiday in Los Angeles when they rented a small guesthouse. The medical residents in anesthesiology traveled 3,000 miles for the beach break and were even greeted with a chilled bottle of wine on their arrival with a welcome note from their 'super host' JJ. But their trip turned to a nightmare when their host jumped through the window, leaving broken glass across the floor, demanding 'cleaning fees'. Jaleesa Jackson (left) and Chiedozie Uwandu (right) went to LA for a beach holiday but were shocked when their Airbnb 'super host' jumped through the window Trainee doctor Jaleesa Jackson told JJ to go away when he shouted through the door on their first night in LA Uwandu, who is 6ft tall, leapt out of bed and jumped on the man, pinning him down with a knee in his back - suspecting him to be a burglar. But as the man broke free and fled the scene Uwandu realized it was the same host who rented the couple the house. Jackson called 911 and told them their Airbnb host attacked them. Police scrambled a helicopter and squad cars to the house and brought 'JJ' back in handcuffs. While police were still at the scene and elderly lady arrived to ask who Jackson and Uwandu were as she rented the building to JJ, who was listing it on Airbnb without her knowledge. Uwandu told the Boston Globe: 'I had no idea what was happening. But I reacted like we were under attack.' The couple, who are both medical residents, were told by police JJ claimed Airbnb told him to evict them over 'cleaning fees' The bizarre events began on their first night when Jackson awoke to a loud banging at the door at around 5:30am in the morning. She heard an agitated man shout, 'I know you're in there, Kevin', and she opened the door ajar and told the man to go away before slamming it shut. When she rang JJ to tell him what happened he replied: 'Yeah, that was me. Sorry about the confusion. Life's too short for me to give you an explanation. Have a nice time in LA.' After the incident the couple went to stay in a nearby by hotel Then the next morning the couple, who met at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, Maryland, were stunned when JJ came through the large window wearing a grey jumper with a hood covering his head. After the police arrived one of the officers told Jackson and Uwandu that JJ claimed Airbnb told him to evict them over 'cleaning fees'. Uwandu added: 'He told the police that Airbnb had ordered him to evict us, over cleaning fees.' Airbnb said the company would refund the $708 they paid to rent the guesthouse, but the money didn't show up on their card until last week. The company offered to relocate the couple to another property but Jackson and Uwandu decided check into a nearby Hilton hotel, costing $2,300 for the room, parking, and expenses. They asked Airbnb for $5,000 compensation and the firm's final offer was $2,500, plus five therapy sessions to 'overcome the trauma', which Jackson and Uwandu turned down. A spokesman for Airbnb told DailyMail.com: 'Our original handling of this incident fell well below the high standards we set for ourselves. 'We have apologized to Dr. Jackson and Dr. Uwandu for our insufficient response. We are currently working with them to make this right, and we are reviewing every aspect of this case from the reports of the hosts disturbing behavior to our response. 'Our communitys safety is our priority, we are deeply sorry for the anguish and inconvenience our guests have experienced and again we are working to make it right.' Gold-toothed Viktor Lishavsky, 37, abused the children for whom he was the legal guardian A Russian paedophile who committed more than 900 rapes and sexual attacks on five underage schoolgirls in his care has been jailed for 22 years and six months. Gold-toothed Viktor Lishavsky, 37, abused the children for whom he was the legal guardian, treating them as his 'personal harem' and 'sexual slaves'. The stepfather admitted his guilt to all charges - but refused to give evidence at his closed-door trial in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in far east Russia. The former head of an evangelical church in the town of Amursk, he is believed to be the worst convicted paedophile in Russian history. A court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur found the 'monster' guilty of more than 900 counts of rape and violent sexual acts mostly against girls aged 13 in his care. He will serve his sentence in a 'strict regime' penal colony, after which he will face another two years unable to leave the town where he lives and reporting regularly to police. He was banned from working with children for a further two decades after his release. Lishavsky was caught after a five year reign of sexual terror when one of the girls confided in her foster mother Olga who had been entirely unaware of his abuse, the judge was told. Other victims then corroborated the accusations against him. The stepfather admitted his guilt to all charges - but refused to give evidence at his closed-door trial in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in far east Russia. Pictured: The children he cared for Lishavsky was found guilty of the rape of minors, including acts committed with 'particular cruelty' By day he ran a shoe repair shop but at night he regularly attacked the adolescent girls in his care. Lishavsky and his wife had three children of their own and fostered nine more. He was found guilty of the rape of minors, including acts committed with 'particular cruelty', and forcing his underage victims to commit acts of a sexual nature using the children's material dependency on him as a foster father, according to a statement from the court. He was also convicted of indecent acts without using violence against girls under 16 years old, and 'torture'. Further he was found guilty of improper performance of responsibilities for raising a minor along with the cruel treatment with a minor. State prosecutor Tatyana Filatova said: 'None of the girls complained because each considered him a father. Lishavsky was caught when one of the girls told her stepmother Olga (pictured) 'Some told each other about what had happened, but they were not in a hurry to complain to their mother. 'The children were taken from an orphanage, and none of them wanted to lose their family. 'They finally had both a mum and dad. The terrible details came to the surface only later. 'After discussing everything among themselves, one of the girls said that she was not afraid of her father - and would tell everything to her foster mother. 'The mother, in turn, went to the police.' The prosecutor said: 'All these years, the adoptive mother did not see anything, because she often was in hospital with her son. 'In court, they tried not to go deep into the details of the crimes in order not further harm the victims.' The hearing was held behind closed doors but a charge sheet showed he had been accused of 248 rapes plus 358 'violent sexual acts' against girls aged 13 or under. He faced another 22 accusations 'violent acts of a sexual nature' against girls below the age of 14. Lishavsky committed a further 11 rapes or other brutal sexual attacks in which he threatened murder or serious harm to health, the court was told. These involved 'particular cruelty', according to the charges. Several other charges relate to torturing the girls and abusing his role as a guardian. Separately, Lishavsky was accused of a further 122 crimes of 'a sexual nature with the use of violence, or threat of violence', and 151 charges of 'sexual intercourse taking advantage of the helpless state of the victim' - all these against underage girls between 14 and 17, according to Russian media reports of the case. He 'considered the girls to be his personal harem,' according to a report by Ren TV. One newspaper branded him a 'paedophile sex monster'. 'With the money that the government paid him as a foster parent, he rented an apartment where he had sex with either one or another foster daughter every other day, or every third day.' The stepfather admitted his guilt to all charges - but refused to give evidence at his closed-door trial in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in far east Russia The man was paid 265 a month by the state to care for each of the five adolescent girls he abused. Officials in the Khabarovsk region of eastern Russia are said to be 'deeply shocked' over the allegations against a man they viewed as a 'model foster father'. The court heard that he was thought to be 'respectable'. Alla Kuznetsova, education minister in the region, said the foster parents had passed repeated inspections by social services. 'In the case of this family, there were no alarms at all,' she said. In the first year there were five inspections. In subsequent years, two checks annually, she said. She confirmed: 'Those five girls for whom the man was guardian have been sent back to the orphanage.' Eisham Ashiq was just nine years old when she witnessed her mother Asia Bibi being beaten bloodied by an angry mob, accusing the 44-year-old Christian mother-of-five of insulting the Prophet Mohammed. Ms Bibi, now 53, was convicted of blasphemy in 2010, a crime which carries a death sentence in Muslim-majority Pakistan, and she has been in solitary confinement on death row ever since. This week, the Supreme Court reached a decision on Ms Bibi's final appeal, and the family are now waiting anxiously for the announcement of their ruling, which will seal her fate. If the court upholds the conviction, the 53-year-old will become the first person in Pakistan to be executed for blasphemy. Mother and daughter: Eisham Ashiq, 18, is the daughter of Asia Bibi, left, who is facing the death penalty after being convicted of insulting the Prophet Mohammed in Pakistan Happier times: Eisham, left, and her sister Esha, right, who has learning difficulties, are pictured with their mother Asia Bibi before she was accused of blasphemy Ms Ashiq, 18, and her father Ashiq Masih are currently in the UK, courtesy of Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. Speaking to MailOnline via an interpreter, Ms Ashiq, said: 'For nine years, I have been missing my mother very, very much. 'I was very close to her, and there hasn't been a day that I haven't been praying for her to come home.' She was a young child when her mother was first accused by fellow villagers in Sheikhupura, Punjab, of insulting Islam in 2009. They were the only Catholic family in the village, but although their religion had seen her parents sometime struggle to find work, Ms Ashiq had a happy childhood in a loving home. Hope: Ms Ashiq her father Ashiq Masih, pictured in Scotland this week, had an emotional meeting with Ms Bibi just days before the Supreme Court ruled on her appeal It was a hot day in June 2009, when her mother went to fetch water for her fellow farmhands while working in a field picking berries. The Muslim women she was labouring with objected, saying that as a non-Muslim Ms Bibi was unfit to drink from the same water bowl as them. Ms Bibi would later say that the women insulted her religion, to which she responded: 'I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind?' This prompted the Muslim women to go to a local imam and accuse Ms Bibi of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed. Before Ms Bibi could be arrested on any official charges, a violent mob descended on their family home, and beat Ms Bibi up in front of her children. The abuse was so violent, police were called to the scene, but after rescuing the mother-of-five, they arrested her and threw her in jail - and a year later she was convicted of blasphemy. Over the past nine years, Ms Ashiq, her father and her siblings - sisters Naseem, 29, Sidra, 26, Esha, 17, and brother Imran, 27 - have been taking turns in visiting Ms Bibi on death row. Missing their mother: Ms Ashiq, who now dreams of becoming a lawyer to help other poor people accused of blasphemy, is pictured far right with her sisters Esha, left, and Sidra, centre, in 2010, shortly after their mother was sentenced to death It takes them six hours to travel from their home in Punjab to the prison where Ms Bibi is being held, in the same solitary confinement cell since her 2009 arrest. They are allowed to see her for around 15 to 20 minutes under the watch of prison officers, before making the six-hour trip home. Ms Ashiq and Mr Masih say they are only able to make the long and expensive journey every few months, with two or three of them going each time. Jailed: Ms Bibi, now 53, was accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed by Muslim villagers and sentenced to death The family last saw Ms Bibi last Monday, a meeting which may well have been their last. Ms Ashiq said: 'It was a very emotional meeting, but I am confident in God and that He will set her free.' Ms Ashiq said she had to 'find inner strength' to overcome her mother being in prison while growing up. She currently attends a local school along with her sister Esha, who has a developmental disorder and is a special needs student. She dreams of becoming a lawyer, hoping to help poor people and those who, like her mother, have been accused of blasphemy. Mr Masih, a builder by trade, tells MailOnline: 'Asia is always saying "I am missing my children" and she is praying and praying to be free. 'We always trust in God to care for her during her suffering days. Physically and mentally she is as well as she can be. 'She has been in solitary confinement since day one as they fear someone might attack her. 'We believe they will set her free, but the circumstances are such that she would be unable to live in Pakistan as a free woman. She would not survive.' Ms Bibi's case has outraged Christians worldwide and been a source of division within Pakistan, where two politicians who sought to help her were assassinated, including Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who was shot by his own bodyguard. Fundamentalist groups have been protesting in the streets, calling for her execution to be carried out. One of the most vocal groups, the ultra-religious Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), has warned of 'terrible consequences' if she is granted leniency. The Supreme Court reached a decision on Monday, but their announcement is not expected until later this week or perhaps next, potentially due to a fear of mob violence. Long journeys: The family have been making 12-hour roundtrips for 15-20 minute visits to Ms Bibi in the prison where she has been kept in solitary confinement since her arrest in 2009 If the three-judge Supreme Court bench uphold the 53-year-old's conviction, her only recourse will be a direct appeal to the president for clemency. Ms Bibi has always denied blaspheming and her representatives have claimed she was involved in a dispute with her neighbours and that her accusers had contradicted themselves. Blasphemy is a charge so sensitive in Pakistan that anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes. The charge is punishable by a maximum penalty of death under legislation that rights groups say is routinely abused by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores. The law does not define what blasphemy constitutes, and evidence is often not reproduced in court for fear of committing a fresh offence. Despite this, calls for reform of the blasphemy law have regularly been met with violence and rejected. Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan launched a wholehearted defence of the laws during his election campaign earlier this year, vowing his party 'fully' supports the legislation and 'will defend it'. Pope Francis today compared having an abortion to hiring a 'contract killer'. 'Interrupting a pregnancy is like eliminating someone... getting rid of a human being is like resorting to a contract killer to solve a problem,' Francis said in an address to worshippers in the Vatican. His comments departed from the prepared text for his homily delivered during his weekly audience on Saint Peter's Square. The devil is alive and well and working overtime to undermine the Roman Catholic Church, according to Pope Francis (pictured on Saturday in the Vatican City) In his address, the Argentine pontiff complained of a 'depreciation of human life'. He cited wars, exploitation and what he called a culture of wastefulness, as well as abortion. 'How can an act that suppresses innocent life be therapeutic, civil or even human?' he asked. Francis this year opposed a bill that would have legalized abortion in Argentina. In August a lay campaign group said thousands of Argentine Catholics had renounced their membership of the church to protest against his opposition to the bill. It comes after Francis said the devil is working to undermine the Roman Catholic Church. He said that Satan is to blame for the sexual abuse crisis and has asked Catholics around the world to recite a special prayer every day in October to try to beat him back. '(The Church must be) saved from the attacks of the malign one, the great accuser and at the same time be made ever more aware of its guilt, its mistakes, and abuses committed in the present and the past,' Francis said in a message on September 29. Since he was elected in 2013, Francis has made clear that he believes the devil to be real. In a document in April on holiness in the modern world, Francis mentioned the devil more than a dozen times. 'We should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable,' he wrote in the document. Pope Francis talks as he meets youth and the Synod Fathers at the Pope Paul VI hall in the Vatican The Church has recently been hit by one sexual abuse scandal after another, from Germany, to the United States, to Chile. At the same time, a deepening polarisation between conservatives and liberals in the Church has played out on social media. Francis' use of the term 'the great accuser' to describe Satan hit a raw nerve with one of the pope's harshest conservative critics, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican's former ambassador to Washington. In an 11-page statement published on August 26, Vigano launched an unprecedented broadside by a Church insider against the pope and a long list of Vatican and US Church officials. He accused Francis of knowing about sexual misconduct by a former US cardinal with male adult seminarians but not doing anything about it. Vigano, concluding that his former boss had singled him out as the devil in disguise, complained in his next statement that Francis 'compared me to the great accuser, Satan, who sows scandal and division in the Church, though without ever uttering my name'. On Sunday, a top Vatican official issued a scathing open letter accusing Vigano of mounting a 'political frame job devoid of real foundation' and contesting his accusations against the pope point by point. Francis is so convinced that Satan is ultimately to blame for both the sexual abuse scandals and the divisions within the Church that he has enlisted the aid of St Michael the Archangel. Michael is mentioned several times in the Bible as the leader of the angels who ousted Lucifer, the fallen angel, from paradise. Catholics are being asked to recite the rosary daily in October and conclude it with a prayer to St Michael that was said after Mass until 1964 but then fell into disuse. The prayer reads: 'St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defence against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.' The Foreign Secretary (pictured in Downing Street yesterday) has voiced the UK's concerns about the case Jeremy Hunt has urged Saudi Arabia to give answers about the disappearance of a prominent journalist. The Foreign Secretary summoned the Saudi ambassador in London as well as calling his counterpart to voice the UK's concerns about the case. Jamal Khashoggi went missing after visiting the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul last week, sparking claims that he had been killed inside the building. Mr Hunt said that if reports of Mr Khashoggi's death proved correct, the UK would regard the situation as 'serious', adding: 'Friendships depend on shared values.' The Foreign Secretary met ambassador Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud yesterday after Downing Street said the UK was 'working urgently' to establish the facts behind Mr Khashoggi's disappearance. He also spoke to the Saudi foreign minister and called for 'urgent answers' about the case. The Turkish authorities are set to conduct a search of the Istanbul consulate building after announcing that Saudi Arabia had declared itself 'open to co-operation' in the investigation. A critic of the kingdom's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Mr Khashoggi was living in self-imposed exile in the US and writing opinion pieces for the Washington Post before his disappearance. Writing on Twitter, Mr Hunt said: 'Just met the Saudi ambassador to seek urgent answers over Jamal Khashoggi. 'Violence against journalists worldwide is going up and is a grave threat to freedom of expression. If media reports prove correct, we will treat the incident seriously - friendships depend on shared values.' He later spoke to Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir. A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'Mr Hunt urged the Saudi Government to co-operate fully with the Turkish investigation into the case, and to provide further information as soon as possible.' The Foreign Office's senior mandarin Sir Simon McDonald raised the case with the ambassador by phone on Monday evening. Mr Khashoggi visited the consulate last Tuesday to obtain a document confirming he had divorced his ex-wife, in order to allow him to remarry. Turkish officials have said he was killed on the premises and his body was then removed. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not confirmed the alleged killing, saying he would await the result of an investigation. A critic of the kingdom's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Jamal Khashoggi was living in self-imposed exile in the US and writing opinion pieces for the Washington Post before his disappearance Saudi officials have denied the allegations as baseless. Amnesty International UK's foreign affairs expert Polly Truscott said: 'Whether or not it is definitively established that Saudi Arabian officials were behind the disappearance - and possible murder - of Jamal Khashoggi, this case should act as a much-needed wake-up call for the UK in its dealings with Saudi Arabia. 'For far too long the UK has publicly downplayed the severity of the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, maintaining that 'dialogue' and 'access' were effective means of encouraging human rights reforms in the country. 'The UK needs to seriously rethink its strategy on Saudi Arabia's abysmal human rights record and the deeply concerning Khashoggi case may be the jolt that ministers need.' Theresa May today defended her flagship Universal Credit welfare reforms after Gordon Brown said they risk plunging the country into violent riots. The ex PM will use a speech in Edinburgh tonight to warn that Britain faces 'poll tax style chaos' in a summer of 'discontent'- if the overhaul goes ahead. In a rare intervention in domestic politics, the ex Labour leader will lash the welfare reform and warn it will condemn many more families to poverty. His fiery intervention comes days after it emerged that millions of families could lose as much as 200 each month under the welfare shake-up. But Mrs May defended her under-fire reforms during PMQs today - insisting that no one will lose out in the change over because extra funding has been put in place to help with the transition. Gordon Brown (pictured at the Jewish Labour Movement conference in London last month) will warn that Britain will be plunged into an angry summer of 'discontent' unless Theresa May scraps her planned roll-out of Universal Credit Theresa May (pictured in the Commons today) defended her under-fire reforms during PMQs - insisting that no one will lose out in the change over because extra funding has been put in place to help with the transition She said: 'I think it is right we are encouraging people into the workplace and wanting to ensure those people who are able to be in the workplace are given the support to enable them to do that. 'Of course we look at the impact of those assessments and the quality of those assessments - that is work the DWP does on a regular basis. 'But I think it is important we are undertaking those assessments.' In his speech tonight, Mr Brown will say: 'Surely the greatest burning injustice of all is children having to go to school ill-clad and hungry. 'It is the poverty of the innocent of children too young to know they are not to blame. WHAT IS UNIVERSAL CREDIT? What is Universal Credit? A radical change to the benefits system which combines six payments including tax credits, housing benefit and income support into a single, means-tested payment. How does it work? A claimant's benefits should be adjusted automatically if their wages change. Benefits will gradually 'taper' off if a claimant finds work or earns more. What is the timetable? After teething troubles with the computer systems implementation has been hit by delays. There are currently around 610,000 on UC and this will go up by anther 12 million over the next five years. Why a six-week delay on payments? Controversially the benefit is paid six weeks in arrears - this is because it is based on your previous month's earnings. Critics say this delay pushed people into debt. Advertisement 'But the Conservative government lit the torch of this burning injustice and they continue to fan the flames with their 3bn of cuts. 'A return to poll tax-style chaos in a summer of discontent lies ahead.' The UK erupted into widespread rioting and demonstrations in 1990 after Mrs Thatcher imposed the poll tax on the country. The policy saw every adult charged the same rate for the tax - no matter how rich or poor they were. The levy was one of Mrs Thatcher's most unpopular policies and helped contributes to her dramatic political downfall later the same year. Mr Brown will accuse Mrs May of ushering in a 'chaotic, cruel and vindictive' policy which will deepen child poverty. He will say: 'As one of the architects of tax credits I remind people that it was difficult enough to introduce them even when we were spending billions more and raising benefits. 'But to impose universal credit and to force three million to reapply for their benefits next year when, on top of a child benefits freeze, the government is spending 3bn less, is chaotic, cruel and vindictive, far beyond austerity. 'For the first time that any of us can remember, the safety net is not now the welfare state but charity and the lifeline for families in need is not social security but food banks. 'Voluntary groups are now being swamped with desperate and almost unanswerable requests for help.' Theresa May (pictured in Downing Street on Monday) is under mounting pressure to scrap the roll out of Universal Credit amid warnings millions of families will be plunged into poverty in the welfare shake-up The Government is facing a growing flood of warnings about the risk of going ahead with the planned roll out of Universal Credit. Th flagship welfare reform will see six benefit payments combined and welfare payments tapered so that claimants are incentivised to work. But the scheme has been blighted with delays and critics have warned that poor families are having their payments taken aaay wrongly. Work and Pensions Secretary, Esther McVey, told the Cabinet last week that millions of families, including half of all lone parents and two-thirds of working-age couples with children, will lose around 2,400 per year. Mr Brown's intervention comes after shadow chancellor John McDonnell said a Labour government would scrap Universal Credit. He said the welfare reform is turning into a 'shambles' and should be abandoned by ministers. Mr Brown will warn that soaring use of food banks in Britain shows the sheer sclae of poverty in the country. Work and Pensions Secretary, Esther McVey (pictured in Downing Sreet yesterday) told the Cabinet last week that millions of families, including half of all lone parents and two-thirds of working-age couples with children, will lose around 2,400 per year He will say: 'The online application process is so difficult that only 38 per cent who try to complete the identity check succeed. 'Esther McVey would not be announcing last week millions for Citizens Advice to aid the rollout of universal credit unless they were not deeply worried about the chaos ahead. 'And it is the fear of a poverty crisis that has led Michael Gove to announce funding for food for food banks.' He will add: 'What this government should be doing is immediately ordering a review into what is going wrong and give emergency help to those families now in despair because of benefit cuts.' Bakery owners Daniel and Amy McArthur arrive at the Supreme Court in London today The Christian owners of a bakery today won an appeal at Britain's highest court over a finding that they discriminated against a customer by refusing to make a 36.50 'Support Gay Marriage' cake. Five Supreme Court justices allowed a challenge by the McArthur family in a unanimous ruling in London today in what is known as the 'gay cake case'. The legal action was originally brought against the Ashers bakery in Belfast by gay rights activist Gareth Lee, who won his case in the county court and then at the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal. The legal battle has now lasted four-and-a-half years, costing around 500,000. The Equality Commission of Northern Ireland has spent 251,000 of public money on this case, while the 250,000 of costs for the bakers has been paid by a charity called The Christian Institute. Announcing the decision in favour of the family-run bakery, the court's president Lady Hale said: 'This conclusion is not in any way to diminish the need to protect gay people and people who support gay marriage from discrimination. The Belfast bakers refused to make a cake decorated with the words 'Support Gay Marriage' 'It is deeply humiliating, and an affront to human dignity, to deny someone a service because of that person's race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief. But that is not what happened in this case.' She went on: 'As to Mr Lee's claim based on sexual discrimination, the bakers did not refuse to fulfil his order because of his sexual orientation. They would have refused to make such a cake for any customer, irrespective of their sexual orientation.' The court also said Mr Lee had no claim against Ashers on the grounds of religious belief or political opinion. Lady Hale added: 'The bakers could not refuse to supply their goods to Mr Lee because he was a gay man or supported gay marriage. The legal action was originally brought against family-run Ashers bakery in Belfast by gay rights activist Gareth Lee (pictured speaking outside the Supreme Court this morning) 'But that is quite different from obliging them to supply a cake iced with a message with which they profoundly disagreed.' Daniel and Amy McArthur, who have said the law risked 'extinguishing' their consciences, were in court for the ruling. 'A lot of people will be glad to hear this ruling today': Full statement by bakery manager Ashers general manager Daniel McArthur said outside court: 'I want to start by thanking God. He has been with us during the challenges of the last four years. Through the Bible and the support of Christians, He has comforted us and sustained us. He is our rock and all His ways are just. 'We're delighted and relieved at today's ruling. We always knew we hadn't done anything wrong in turning down this order. After more than four years, the Supreme Court has now recognised that and we're very grateful. Grateful to the judges and especially grateful to God. 'We're particularly pleased the Supreme Court emphatically accepted what we've said all along we did not turn down this order because of the person who made it, but because of the message itself. 'The judges have given a clear signal today. In fact it couldn't be any clearer. Family businesses like ours are free to focus on giving all their customers the best service they can without being forced to promote other people's campaigns. 'I know a lot of people will be glad to hear this ruling today, because this ruling protects freedom of speech and freedom of conscience for everyone. 'On behalf of my family can I say thank you to everyone who has supported us or prayed for us through all this. 'I do want to take this opportunity to thank our whole legal team for working so hard for us over the last four years. And also to thank the entire Christian Institute staff for their help and support from the very beginning. 'We want to move on from this now, and I'm sure Mr Lee does too. And let me just finish by saying that he will always be welcome at any of our shops. Thank you'. Advertisement Mr Lee was also present for the latest ruling in a case which has attracted enormous attention. The bakery's appeal against the finding of discrimination was heard at the Supreme Court sitting in Belfast in May. During the hearing the justices were told that the owners were being forced to act against their religious beliefs. David Scoffield QC, for Ashers, argued that the state was penalising the baking firm, with the courts effectively compelling or forcing them to make a cake bearing a message with which they disagree as a matter of religious conscience. Speaking outside court, Mr McArthur said: 'We're delighted and relieved at today's ruling. We always knew we hadn't done anything wrong in turning down this order. 'After more than four years, the Supreme Court has now recognised that and we're very grateful. Grateful to the judges and especially grateful to God. 'We're particularly pleased the Supreme Court emphatically accepted what we've said all along we did not turn down this order because of the person who made it, but because of the message itself. 'The judges have given a clear signal today. In fact it couldn't be any clearer. Family businesses like ours are free to focus on giving all their customers the best service they can without being forced to promote other people's campaigns. 'I know a lot of people will be glad to hear this ruling today, because this ruling protects freedom of speech and freedom of conscience for everyone. 'On behalf of my family can I say thank you to everyone who has supported us or prayed for us through all this.' The legal action against Ashers was taken by Mr Lee with support from Northern Ireland's Equality Commission. Controversy first flared when Mr Lee, a member of the LGBT advocacy group QueerSpace, ordered a cake in 2014 featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie for a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia. His order was accepted and he paid in full but, two days later, the company called to say it could not proceed due to the message requested. In the original court case, District Judge Isobel Brownlie ruled that religious beliefs could not dictate the law and ordered the firm to pay damages of 500. Daniel McArthur said outside court that 'a lot of people will be glad to hear this ruling today' Mounting an unsuccessful challenge at the Court of Appeal in Belfast in 2016, Ashers contended that it never had an issue with Mr Lee's sexuality, rather the message he was seeking to put on the cake. Poll Do you agree with the Supreme Court's decision on the 'gay cake case' today? Yes No Do you agree with the Supreme Court's decision on the 'gay cake case' today? Yes 8020 votes No 602 votes Now share your opinion Mr Scoffield told the justices that the case, a simple transaction, raised an issue of principle since those with deeply-held religious or philosophical convictions could be compelled to act against their beliefs. Robin Allen QC, for Mr Lee, said: 'This was a relatively small incident in his life which has become enormously significant and continues to be so. That is a heavy burden to bear for one individual.' Speaking outside court, Mr Lee said: 'To me, this was never about a campaign or a statement. All I wanted was to order a cake in a shop that sold cakes to order. 'I paid my money, my money was taken and then a few days later it was refused. That made me feel like a second-class citizen. 'I'm concerned not just for the implications for myself and other gay people, but for every single one of us.' Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK or Ireland where same-sex marriage is outlawed, with Prime Minister Theresa May's DUP allies staunch opponents of changing the law. Following the ruling, DUP leader Arlene Foster said the judgment was 'historic and seminal', adding: 'This has been a long journey for everyone involved in the case. 'I commend Amy & Daniel McArthur for their grace and perseverance. This now provides clarity for people of all faiths and none.' And DUP MP Ian Paisley tweeted: 'Legal bill 360,000 for a 30 cake. Forced by the pathetic Equality Commission. They should be sacked!' He later added: 'Simple message is. There was no discrimination on the LGBT! A person has the right not be be obliged to express someone else's beliefs! This is common sense and the Equality Commission are still complaining.' How the 'gay cake case' has been running for four-and-a-half years Timeline of the 'gay cake case' May 9, 2014 : Gareth Lee asks the Ashers bakery for a cake to be decorated with the slogan 'Support Gay Marriage' : Gareth Lee asks the Ashers bakery for a cake to be decorated with the slogan 'Support Gay Marriage' May 12, 2014 : Owner Daniel McArthur calls Mr Lee to say that they would not print the cake because it goes against their beliefs. Mr Lee later gets another bakery to make the cake : Owner Daniel McArthur calls Mr Lee to say that they would not print the cake because it goes against their beliefs. Mr Lee later gets another bakery to make the cake June 26, 2014 : The Equality Commission sends the bakers a letter, claiming they had acted unlawfully : The Equality Commission sends the bakers a letter, claiming they had acted unlawfully October 27, 2014 : The Commission tells the the McArthurs they also breached political and religious discrimination laws : The Commission tells the the McArthurs they also breached political and religious discrimination laws November 7, 2014 : Legal action against the bakers is begun : Legal action against the bakers is begun March 26, 27 and 30, 2015 : Case is heard at Laganside Courts in Belfast : Case is heard at Laganside Courts in Belfast May 19, 2015 : Court rules the bakery breached political and sexual orientation discrimination regulations and orders it to pay 500 damages. : Court rules the bakery breached political and sexual orientation discrimination regulations and orders it to pay 500 damages. 9-12 May, 2015 : Appeal by the Ashers is heard at the Court of Appeal in Belfast : Appeal by the Ashers is heard at the Court of Appeal in Belfast October 24, 2016 : Court of Appeal rules against the bakery : Court of Appeal rules against the bakery May 1-2, 2018 : Hearing at the Supreme Court in Belfast : Hearing at the Supreme Court in Belfast October 10, 2018 : Bakers win their appeal over discrimination claims Advertisement Simon Calvert, the Christian Institute's deputy director for public affairs, said: 'Ashers is now free to go back to doing what it does best serving all its customers, from every walk of life. 'Because of today's ruling Muslim printers cannot be forced to print cartoons of Mohammed. Lesbian T-shirt firms can refuse to produce T-shirts calling gay marriage 'an abomination'. 'Freedom of speech and freedom of conscience are both protected by this ruling. Equality law was never intended to be used in the way the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland tried to use it in this case. 'Concerns about the Equality Commission's impartiality were expressed by the Court of Appeal and now the Supreme Court has done the same. Serious questions need to be asked about their role in all of this.' Dr Michael Wardlow, chief commissioner of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, said the judgment 'may raise uncertainty' about what businesses can do and what customers may expect. It also raises the prospect that 'the beliefs of business owners may take precedence over a customer's equality rights, which in our view is contrary to what the legislature intended', he said. But LGBT campaigner Peter Tatchell told Premier Christian Radio: 'Although I disagree with Ashers' opposition to marriage equality, in a free society neither they - nor anyone else - should be forced by law to facilitate a political idea that they oppose. 'What's significant about this ruling is that it doesn't permit anyone to discriminate against LGBT people - such discrimination would remain rightfully unlawful. 'But, in this case, Ashers did not discriminate against the customer because he was gay. They objected to the message he wanted on the cake. Five Supreme Court justices allowed a challenge by the McArthurs (pictured today) in London 'I think that the court has rightly decided that Ashers were operating within the realm of freedom of expression and that their case should be upheld.' The Rainbow Project, Northern Ireland's largest support organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, expressed its disappointment at the Supreme Court ruling. Director John O'Doherty said: 'Ashers agreed to make the cake. They entered into a contractual agreement to make this cake and then changed their mind. 'While sympathetic as some may be to the position in which the company finds itself, this does not change the facts of the case. 'I feel like a second class citizen', says gay activist after defeat Gay activist Gareth Lee said: 'To me, this was never about a campaign or a statement. All I wanted was to order a cake in a shop that sold cakes to order. 'I paid my money, my money was taken and then a few days later it was refused. That made me feel like a second-class citizen. 'I'm concerned not just for the implications for myself and other gay people, but for every single one of us.' Advertisement 'We believe this is direct discrimination for which there can be no justification. We will however take time to study this judgment by the Supreme Court to understand fully its implications for the rights of LGBT people to access goods, facilities and services without discrimination. 'We do not believe that this matter should have been brought to court. We believe that Ashers bakery should have accepted the Equality Commission's invitation to engage in mediation, where a remedy could have been found without the expense and division surrounding this court case. 'However, most damaging of all has been the attempt by politicians to use this case to justify amending the law to allow businesses to discriminate against LGBT people with the so-called 'conscience clause.' Yvonne Gallagher, Partner at Harbottle and Lewis, said: 'The tension between protection of religious beliefs and other rights has been profound and difficult. In resolving this dispute, the Supreme Court has adopted a rather pragmatic view, whilst successfully balancing the rights of the equality act.' 'In the Supreme Court's view, this case was not about discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation but rather one of freedom of thought, conscience and religion' Whilst some aspects are specific to Northern Ireland, the Supreme Court have now set a precedent, providing a helpful guide of vital importance to future cases of this nature' The 'gay cake' case gives us an important clarification of 'direct discrimination', legal expert DAVID SHEPPARD says By DAVID SHEPPARD, associate and lawyer at Capital Law, for MailOnline The UK Supreme Court has today released its judgment regarding the widely-reported 'gay cake' case. In 2014, a gay man and activist, Gareth Lee, made an order to Ashers Bakery in Belfast for a cake to have a message 'Support Gay Marriage' in icing, together with an image of Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie. The bakery refused to fulfil Mr Lee's order, explaining that they were a Christian business and could not print the message, and a full refund was given. Mr Lee brought proceedings against Ashers for direct discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and the Belfast County Court awarded 500 as damages. This decision was upheld by the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal. Ashers appealed, and the Supreme Court has ruled that the bakery did not commit direct discrimination against Mr Lee. In an important clarification of the concept of 'direct discrimination', it must be shown that an individual has been treated less favourably because of a protected characteristic, which in this case was Mr Lee's sexual orientation. In this case, no evidence was shown that Mr Lee was treated less favourably because he was gay, and Ashers objected only to the message being requested. Had Mr Lee not been gay but requested the same message, Ashers would have again refused, so there was no less favourable treatment linked to Mr Lee's sexual orientation. Rather than the individual messenger, it was the message Ashers was found to have discriminated against, which was not unlawful. Lady Hale stated that 'the bakers could not refuse to supply their goods to Mr Lee because he was a gay man or supported gay marriage, but that is quite different from obliging them to supply a cake iced with a message with which they profoundly disagreed.' This judgment clarifies the narrow scope of direct discrimination. There must be evidence that an individual's own protected characteristic was the reason for the less favourable treatment. Interestingly, had Mr Lee been a disabled person, and been refused a cake with a message supporting disability rights, it is arguably this would amount to 'discrimination arising from disability' and would be unlawful under the Equality Act, as it would be unfavourable treatment because of something arising in consequence of the individual's disability. However, this broader concept of protection is only available to disabled persons. Other protected characteristics, like sexual orientation, gender, race and age can only rely on the narrower concept of direct discrimination, the limits of which have been starkly highlighted by the Supreme Court. Awe-inspiring footage shows a group of men rescuing a 300lb bear after it got it's head stuck in a bucket for over a month. The bear, dubbed the bucket bear, had managed to get a bucket stuck around its head and was left panicking, unable to see or eat and roaming the woods in Pennsylvania. Passersby had seen the bear in distress and desperate to be freed but were afraid to come close to him. Pictures of the bear were posted on a Facebook page made for the cause 'Save the Bucket Bear' after rescue teams failed to free the shaken animal. Seeing the pictures online, one man went in search of the animal in the woods. The footage shows him trying to wrestle the animal and pull the stubborn piece of rubber from around its head. The bear had been seen by passersby but they were too afraid to approach it as they thought the wild animal would attack them The group of men risked their lives to free the distressed bear who had the bucket stuck on it's head for over a month. A group of other men saw what he was doing and chipped in to help but had to resort to a very dangerous solution. One man is seen in the video climbing on the bear's back as another tries to saw through the bucket. After an enormous amount of effort and bravery, the bear was able to go free and ran into the woods. The team used a small saw to carve the stubborn rubber bucket from the animal's head. The footage was posted online with many commentators commending them for their heroic actions The footage was put online with the caption: 'These guys saved a bear with a bucket stuck on his head...how selfless and brave!' It is not known who the men in the footage are but the footage has received an outpour of comments from gracious social media users. For more videos like this follow Daily Mails Watch show Not All Heroes Wear Capes The family of a murdered Tennessee woman shouted 'I'm going to watch you die,' and 'we'll be waiting' as the man accused of her killing and the brutal assault of her husband appeared in court yesterday. Kirby Wallace, 53, appeared at Stewart County Courthouse for the first time on Tuesday and sat stony faced and silent while a Judge ordered him to remain in jail without bond as he waits for a November preliminary hearing. Relatives of the victim, Indian Mound resident Brenda Smith, called out to Wallace as he was escorted from the room in a bulletproof vest and an orange jumpsuit. Kirby Gene Wallace enters the courtroom during his first appearance at the Stewart County Courthouse Tuesday, October 9 in Dover, Tennessee People gather to watch Kirby Wallace's first appearance at the Stewart County Courthouse. Wallace, a multiple-murder suspect who led Tennessee law enforcement on an intense 7-day manhunt was captured without a struggle Friday morning He did not enter a plea and waived a reading of his charges and rights, declining to speak at all during the arraignment proceedings. Wallace is charged with first-degree murder, murder in perpetration of a felony, attempted murder, aggravated arson, especially aggravated burglary, two counts of especially aggravated robbery and two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping all relating to the events of September 23 in which Smith, 63, was killed. Teddy and Brenda Smith had came home from church that day to find Wallace burglarizing their house in Indian Mound. He is charged with the murder of Indian Mound resident Brenda Smith, 63, who was killed in an attack that also seriously injured her husband Teddy Wallace, who was wanted in two counties on charges that include murder, arson and kidnapping, leaves the courthouse after his arraignment Wallace allegedly stabbed Teddy three times and shot him in the head, grazing his scalp. He then stabbed Brenda once before tying up the couple and setting the house on fire. Teddy miraculously survived while Brenda later died from her injuries. Wallace escaped by stealing the Smiths' car, taking between $5,000 and $20,000 of their cash with him. A Judge ordered him to remain in jail without bond as he waits for his preliminary hearing on November 6 He managed to evade police for a week, but was captured on Friday in a wooded area in Stewart County by Henry County Sheriff Monte Belew, Cpl. Stacey Bostwick and K-9 Rowdy. Police believe the events of September 23 lead to two other attacks; in the first, Wallace allegedly tied up a woman in Montgomery County and stole her car to drive to the Woodlawn area. He is further accused of the fatal shooting of a man, whose identity has not yet been released, in Woodlawn on October 1. He allegedly stole the victim's truck before crashing it and fleeing into the woods where he was eventually caught. Judge Andy Brigham during the arraignment in which Wallace did not enter a plea and waived a reading of his charges and rights Wallace has not yet been charged for either of these attacks, as the evidence has first been submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for testing. Sheriff John Fuson said investigators hope to build a 'capital case' against Wallace. Lynn Thompson, of Indian Mound, said she wanted to be in the audience of Wallace's Tuesday arraignment to see the man who had terrorized her community, the Leaf Chronicle reported. 'I just came here to see what the devil looks like,' she said. 'I'm really happy they caught him,' she said. Wallace's preliminary hearing will take place at 2.30pm on November 6. The manhunt to find Wallace Tennessee authorities launched a seven-day manhunt for the alleged multiple-murderer that included hundreds of law enforcement officers, helicopters, dogs and ATVs. Wallace's trail spanned two counties and ultimately lead them to his lair which contained a gun, crowbar and cash. The massive search operation began on September 29, as police hunted a suspect who attacked a couple and set their house on fire on September 23, killing the wife and seriously injuring the husband, and the October 1 fatal shooting of a man and stealing of his truck. The manhunt for Kirby Wallace, 53 (in undated mugshot), had been ongoing since September 29. He is accused of attacking a couple in their home, killing the wife and seriously injuring the husband, and fatally shooting a man and stealing his truck Wallace pictured in his new mugshot taken Friday after being captured during the manhunt Wallace was captured by authorities while wearing a camouflage sweatshirt and ripped pants. He is pictured in the back seat of a police cruiser on Friday morning Henry County Sheriff Monte Belew (in green) and Sheriff's Cpl. Stacey Bostwick (right) and K-9 Rowdy caught up to Wallace just hours after the manhunt search location was moved Authorities said they found a gun, wad of cash and crowbar where Wallace had been hiding Authorities said on the morning of Friday October 5 that Wallace had been apprehended just hours after the manhunt search territory was moved overnight. He had been spotted for a third time in Stewart County, Tennessee, where Sheriff Frankie Gray told NewsChannel 5 that his deputies were using K-9 units to encircle the suspect in a heavily wooded area. Just after 4am on October 5, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office tweeted that authorities had moved the search from Montgomery County to Stewart County 'after a credible sighting' in the area of Hayes Ridge Road and Wild Cat Creek Road and also said that the Cumberland City ferry would be temporarily closed during the search period. A source told the news station that a THP helicopter had picked up a 'heat signature,' which was being considered a confirmed Wallace sighting. A checkpoint at the new search area in Stewart County was set up at around 1am, News 2 reported. Wallace was arrested and handcuffed after being found in the woods on Friday Wallace pictured in a Stewart County Sheriff's patrol car, surrounded by EMS workers Authorities raised the reward for information leading to Wallace's arrest to $20,000 Thursday Wallace's alleged crime spree began September 23 with arson and a deadly home invasion. He then supposedly attacked a woman and stole her car, before killed a man to steal his truck The search moved overnight from Montgomery County to Stewart County The move to Stewart County was made after a Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopter was said to have picked up Wallace's 'heat signature' there Dozens of officers were said to be focusing their search efforts on the heavily-wooded area along Wildcat Creek Road, about five or six miles away from a search perimeter that they had set up earlier in the week. On Thursday morning, the sheriff's office wrote on Facebook that they had set up the search perimeter in the area around Poplar Springs Road after receiving an overnight call about 'a man attempting to enter a porch with a gun and then ran off into the woods' in addition to other calls 'of suspicious activity in the area.' Authorities said Wallace knew the woods, which have caves and other hiding places. Area schools were on 'soft lockdown' and had cancelled school bus routes to avoid having children exposed. Stewart County Schools authorities said that parents could either drive the children to school themselves or keep them home for the day. The manhunt for Wallace had been ongoing since September 29. Authorities searched the woods near Woodlawn, Tennessee, Thursday afternoon. Hours later, the search was moved to nearby Stewart County Authorities had established checkpoints and search perimeters in the Tennessee counties, while area schools are on 'soft lockdown' and have cancelled school bus routes At least 100 officers, search dogs and helicopters joined the manhunt for Wallace Authorities believed Wallace was armed and encouraged residents not to confront him After the deadly shooting of a man on Monday October 1, Wallace was seen driving the man's stolen truck. The truck was recovered Monday and investigators then believed Wallace was on foot. Wallace was said to be armed with a magnum revolver, semi-automatic long rifle, 12 gauge shotgun and a hunting rifle. Neighborhoods were closed off, leaving residents unable to return home as police search the area. A store in Woodlawn hung a sign on their door that says they will be closing at dusk and until the 'psycho' is caught. Stan Hembree, of Woodlawn, Tennessee, was alarmed when found a dry sleeping bag and blanket on his 100-acre farm while on a perimeter check with authorities this week. He told MSN Thursday he hadn't gotten sleep in two days since the evidence of Wallace was found on his property. 'Everything is locked up,' he said. 'My wife is staying in the house. I've been up two days straight.' The Tennessee Highway Patrol warned residents not to confront Wallace but instead call 911 and wait for law enforcement to arrive. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Thursday advised checking in and contacting friends and relatives within the search area if they hadn't been heard from in the past 24 hours. Wallace was considered to be 'dangerous fugitive' and was on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Top Ten Most Wanted list. The reward for information leading to his capture had been raised to $20,000. A travel card could provide crucial details of the final movements of the woman whose bound and semi-naked body was found dumped near a playground. Nicole Cartwright, 32, was found dead by a council worker at Buffalo Creek Reserve in Hunters Hill on Sydney's lower north shore about 7.30am on October 3. Police obtained her Opal card and discovered she had traveled to Bondi Junction, St Marys, Strathfield, Central, Ashfield and Museum stations by train in the days before her death. A travel card could provide crucial details of the final movements of Nicole Cartwright (pictured), whose bound and semi-naked body was found dumped near a playground last week She used her card for the final time at Museum Railway Station at 9.30pm on September 30, three days before she was found dead, Yahoo7 reported. In footage released by police on Wednesday of her passing through the station, she wore the same clothes identified on her body at the site of her death. Her hands were bound and she was found with a dog collar around her neck, with drag marks up to 30metres long nearby. Detectives relied on forensic testing to identify her body and on Wednesday released her name to the public. Homicide squad commander Scott Cook said police were unaware of Ms Cartwright's whereabouts from September 30 until her body was found October 3. The body had been partially concealed under a dark-coloured cloth, but beneath the covering Ms Cartwright (pictured) was semi-naked 'Investigators have been able to place Nicole on buses and at various railway stations between 27 and 30 September, but we are seeking information from then until she was found,' he said. 'We know that Nicole travelled by train from Bondi Junction to St Marys early on 29 September, and the following afternoon/evening, we have her at Strathfield, Central, Ashfield and then Museum Railway Stations. 'The last image we have located so far was captured as Nicole exited Museum Railway Station just before 9.15pm on the Sunday. 'We've been liaising with her family, who last had contact with Nicole on 28 September, when she sent a photo taken at Maroubra. He said police did not yet know the exact cause of her death, but confirmed her injuries were consistent with assault, stating 'she was bound with her hands tied in front of her body.' 'Of particular interest to us is any sightings or contact with Nicole after that time, and we are appealing for those people to contact us as soon as possible.' NSW Police have released this still from CCTV footage of Ms Cartwright at a train station on September 30 Forensic police photograph Ms Cartwright's body which was discovered by a council worker Det Supt Cook added once most homicide investigations went beyond a couple of days they became increasingly more 'baffling'. Ms Cartwright's devastated brother Ben shared an emotional message after Ms Cartwright's death was confirmed. 'Rest in peace my little sister. I love you with my all,' he said. 'It is with very sad and heavy hearts that we announce that our beloved daughter, sister and friend Nicole Cartwright has sadly passed away,' he posted to Facebook. 'Thank you for all the love and support we have received from family and friends over the last few days.' Nicole Cartwright, 32, was found dead by a council worker at Buffalo Creek Reserve in Hunters Hill on Sydney's lower north shore about 7.30am on October 3 Her devastated brother Ben shared an emotional message after his sister's death was confirmed She lived with her parents in Lansvale, in the city's south-west and had a wide circle of friends, according to police CCTV footage shows Ms Cartwright using public transport just days before she disappeared Ms Cartwright lived with her parents in Lansvale, in the city's south-west and had a wide circle of friends, according to police. She did not own a car but often travelled on public transport around Sydney. He said her parents Terry and Brenda were 'very, very sad', and her family was 'devastated'. Detective Superintendent Cook said police were unsure when her body was dumped at the park. 'At the time she was located she was wearing a dark jacket with a hood and a black and white dress with long black pants underneath. She also had a pair of black boots on and a purple collar,' he said. They are also hoping to speak to anyone who drove past Buffalo Creek Reserve with a dashcam in order to find out when Ms Cartwright's body was dumped at the park. The park is popular with local families in the area and contains a newly renovated playground Ms Cartwright did not own a car but often travelled on public transport around Sydney Detectives are investigating Ms Cartwright's murder after her body was found semi-naked with a studded dog collar around her neck and her hands bound together Investigators believe Nicole's body was dumped at Buffalo Creek Reserve either late on the Tuesday night or very early hours of Wednesday morning 'We've been liaising with her family, who last had contact with Nicole on 28 September, when she sent a photo taken at Maroubra,' Det Supt Cook said. 'The last image we have located so far was captured as Nicole exited Museum Railway Station just before 9.15pm on the Sunday. 'Of particular interest to us is any sightings or contact with Nicole after that time, and we are appealing for those people to contact us as soon as possible.' Investigators believe Nicole's body was dumped at Buffalo Creek Reserve either late on the Tuesday night or very early hours of Wednesday morning. 'While it is most likely her body was brought to the area under darkness, we are still urging motorists with dashcam and travelling in that area at that time to provide us copies of their footage,' Det Supt Cook said. The body had been partially concealed under a dark-coloured cloth, but beneath the covering Ms Cartwright was semi-naked. She also had massive injuries to her head, and her body was hidden with leaves. Detectives from the homicide squad are investigating Ms Cartwright's death Shocked neighbours told Daily Mail Australia the incident was out of character for the quiet area, in the exclusive Sydney suburb. 'It's devastating because it's such a quiet little area,' the local said. 'Every weekend that park is packed full of kids playing and families having barbecues, it's a lovely spot normally. 'A council worker comes and opens the gates at sunrise and closes them at sunset, and I believe he found the body.' The park is popular with local families in the area and it features a newly-renovated playground. Detectives from the homicide squad are investigating Ms Cartwright's death. This object is possibly the oldest of its kind ever catalogued: the hourglass-shaped remnant named CK Vulpeculae. Researchers from Keele University have worked with an international team of astronomers to find for the first time that a white dwarf and a brown dwarf collided in a 'blaze of glory' that was witnessed on Earth in 1670. Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile observed the debris from the explosion This is the first time such an event has been conclusively identified The dual rings of dust and gas - the debris from the explosion - resemble an hourglass Studying the remains of the merger, the researchers were able to detect the tell-tale signature of lithium The remains are also rich in organic molecules such as formaldehyde (H2CO) and methanamide (NH2CHO) The brown dwarf star was 'shredded' and dumped on the surface of a white dwarf star, leading to the 1670 eruption and the hourglass we see today Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, the international team of astronomers, including workers from the Universities of Keele, Manchester, South Wales, Arizona State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Warmia & Mazury, and the South African Astronomical Observatory, found evidence that a white dwarf (the remains of a star like the Sun at the end of its life) and a brown dwarf (a 'failed' star without sufficient mass to sustain thermonuclear fusion) collided in a short-lived blaze of glory that was witnessed on Earth in 1670 as Nova Cygni - 'a new star below the head of the Swan.' In July of 1670, observers on Earth witnessed a 'new star', or nova, in the constellation Cygnus - the Swan. Where previously there was no obvious star, there abruptly appeared a star as bright as those in the Plough, that gradually faded, reappeared, and finally disappeared from view. Modern astronomers studying the remains of this cosmic event initially thought it was triggered by the merging of two main-sequence stars - stars on the same evolutionary path as our Sun. This so-called 'new star' was long referred to as 'Nova Vulpeculae 1670', and later became known as CK Vulpeculae. However, we now know that CK Vulpeculae was not what we would today describe as a 'nova', but is in fact the merger of two stars - a white dwarf and a brown dwarf. By studying the debris from this explosion - which takes the form of dual rings of dust and gas, resembling an hourglass with a compact central object - the research team concluded that a brown dwarf, a so-called failed star without the mass to sustain nuclear fusion, had merged with a white dwarf. Professor Nye Evans, Professor of Astrophysics at Keele University and co-author on the paper appearing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society explains: "CK Vulpeculae has in the past been regarded as the oldest 'old nova'. However, the observations of CK Vulpeculae I have made over the years, using telescopes on the ground and in space, convinced me more and more that this was no nova. Everyone knew what it wasn't - but nobody knew what it was! But a stellar merger of some sort seemed the best bet. With our ALMA observations of the exquisite dusty hourglass and the warped disc, plus the presence of lithium and peculiar isotope abundances, the jig-saw all fitted together: in 1670 a brown dwarf star was 'shredded' and dumped on the surface of a white dwarf star, leading to the 1670 eruption and the hourglass we see today." The team of European, American and South African astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to examine the remains of the merger, with some interesting findings. By studying the light from two, more distant, stars as they shine through the dusty remains of the merger, the researchers were able to detect the tell-tale signature of the element lithium, which is easily destroyed in stellar interiors. Dr Stewart Eyres, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science at the University of South Wales and lead author on the paper explains: "The material in the hourglass contains the element lithium, normally easily destroyed in stellar interiors. The presence of lithium, together with unusual isotopic ratios of the elements C, N, O, indicate that an (astronomically!) small amount of material, in the form of a brown dwarf star, crashed onto the surface of a white dwarf in 1670, leading to thermonuclear 'burning', an eruption that led to the brightening seen by the Carthusian monk Anthelme and the astronomer Hevelius, and in the hourglass we see today." Professor Albert Zijlstra, from The University of Manchester's School of Physics & Astronomy, co-author of the study, says: "Stellar collisions are the most violent events in the Universe. Most attention is given to collisions between neutrons stars, between two white dwarfs - which can give a supernova - and star-planet collisions. "But it is very rare to actually see a collision, and where we believe one occurred, it is difficult to know what kind of stars collided. The type we believe that happened here is a new one, not previously considered or ever seen before. This is an extremely exciting discovery." Professor Sumner Starrfield, Regents' Professor of Astrophysics at Arizona State University comments: "The white dwarf would have been about 10 times more massive than the brown dwarf, so as the brown dwarf spiralled into the white dwarf it would have been ripped apart by the intense tidal forces exerted by the white dwarf. When these two objects collided, they spilled out a cocktail of molecules and unusual element isotopes. "These organic molecules, which we could not only detect with ALMA, but also measure how they were expanding into the surrounding environment, provide compelling evidence of the true origin of this blast. This is the first time such an event has been conclusively identified. "Intriguingly, the hourglass is also rich in organic molecules such as formaldehyde (H2CO), methanol (CH3OH) and methanamide (NH2CHO). These molecules would not survive in an environment undergoing nuclear fusion and must have been produced in the debris from the explosion. This lends further support to the conclusion that a brown dwarf met its demise in a star-on-star collision with a white dwarf." Since most star systems in the Milky Way are binary, stellar collisions are not that rare, the astronomers note. Professor Starrfield adds: "Such collisions are probably not rare and this material will eventually become part of a new planetary system, implying that they may already contain the building-blocks of organic molecules as they are forming." Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. A mother saw the funny side after her friend sank 12 pints while decorating her kitchen before accidentally smashing her 500 tiles and leaving the room looking like 'it had been bombed'. Diana Vettraino, 61, from Alwoodley, West Yorkshire, was stunned when she walked into her 15,000 kitchen and spotted the sparkly tiles she'd carefully chosen smashed to smithereens on the counter tops and the floor on Monday evening. The mother-of-one then realised that her unnamed friend, who had requested a couple of bottles of beer as he worked, had necked 12 pints during the three hours he spent carrying out the work. Before and after: The kitchen, left, before the 'work' and right, immediately afterwards After he had left Diana said she walked into the kitchen and burst into laughter when she clapped eyes on the DIY disaster. Diana said: 'When I walked into the kitchen I was in hysterics and so was my friend. You've got to laugh. At least he tried, there are bits falling off but it's just hilarious. 'I don't really know how this all happened. I think he was a bit drunk and just spread the adhesive everywhere but nothing stuck. 'When I walked into my kitchen all I saw was pieces of tiles falling from the walls onto the floor. Diana Vettraino, from from Alwoodley, West Yorkshire, was stunned when she walked into her 15,000 kitchen and spotted the sparkly tiles she'd carefully chosen smashed to smithereens 'Things do go wrong and looking at it now, I think maybe I should have done it myself.' The embarrassed workman has since agreed to come back to Diana's home this week with the materials and do a proper job. Diana, 61, added: 'He already apologised and said he'd come back to fix it all, but maybe he's already done enough. 'I might be better off trying to fix it myself as I've done a few DIY projects and I've never had anything like this happen.' Diana forked out 500 on the tiles and labour and bought a 24-pack of lager bottles for her pal to enjoy a few of as he completed the job. After the friend had left Diana said she walked into the kitchen and burst into laughter when she clapped eyes on the DIY disaster Private care assistant Diana, along with pal Amelia Woodhams, 21, settled in the living room to watch TV with a couple of bottles of wine as he carried out the work and only realised the kitchen blunder after he left later that evening. Despite forking out more than 500 on the sparkly ceramics and three hours' labour, Diana didn't get mad and instead burst out laughing when she saw the DIY disaster. Diana, who is originally from Hamilton, Scotland, said: 'When he got to my flat he asked for a couple bottles of beer, and I thought 'why not? What could go wrong?' 'He just kept asking me to get some beer for him and I thought it was a great idea, and before I knew it he'd finished a box of 24. The mother-of-one realised that her unnamed friend, who had requested a couple of bottles of beer as he worked, had necked 12 pints during the three hours he spent carrying out the work Private care assistant Diana, along with pal Amelia Woodhams, 21, settled in the living room to watch TV with a couple of bottles of wine as he carried out the work and only realised the kitchen blunder after he left later that evening 'He said it was lovely and we could go and look at it, but we were watching Coronation Street so we didn't think to check. 'When we finally got around to checking the kitchen we were hysterical, it looked like a bomb had gone off - it had turned into a disaster.' Interior design fan Diana loves scrolling through social media posts where people share their DIY successes but decided to showcase this disaster to make people smile. Diana said: 'All we ever see are these beautiful videos of their beautiful carpets, curtains, and everything looks wonderful and you never see the disasters. 'Things do go wrong, I think people forget this. I go on these DIY videos and pages all the time and you always see all the success stories but never things like this. The mother saw the funny side after her friend sank 12 pints while decorating her kitchen before accidentally smashing her 500 tiles and leaving the room looking like 'it had been bombed' 'I like making people laugh, I laugh all the time at every situation. 'I don't care about making a fool of myself, you've got to be able to laugh at yourself and at things that happen to you. 'I must have watched the video about 20 times, it just cheers me up and it seems to be doing the same for others. 'I think I needed incontinence pads the other night from all the laughing - I nearly wet myself. 'I don't know if I'd hire him again, but you never know. No-one can do the same amount of damage next time, that's for sure.' A woman was removed from a flight after an airline refused to let her fly with her 'emotional support squirrel'. Frontier Airlines got police to escort the woman off the plane after she brought the rodent onto the flight from Orlando to Cleveland last night. The passenger told the airline in her reservation she would be boarding with an animal, but she was taken off the plane because the firm did not know it was a squirrel, according to FOX8. She was told of the airline's policy but refused to leave when asked by staff and so Orlando Police were called to remove her while every passenger was also forced to disembark. Frontier say from next month the company will only allow emotional support cats and dogs on its flights. A spokesman for Frontier told ABC News: 'The passenger noted in their reservation that they were bringing an emotional support animal but it was not indicated that it was a squirrel. Rodents, including squirrels, are not allowed on Frontier flights. 'When she refused to deplane Orlando Police were called and requested that everyone be deplaned so they could deal with the passenger. 'Police eventually escorted the passenger off the aircraft and took her to the main terminal.' Passengers complained of having to wait two hours while the woman was escorted off the jet by police. The woman was escorted from the Orlando to Cleveland flight by police after she took her 'emotional support squirrel' on board Furious passengers complained they were forced to leave the plane so police could escort the woman and her squirrel off the flight Julia Papesch tweeted alongside a clip of police taking her off the plane: 'I just want everyone to know that all passengers had to deplane my flight to cleveland because a woman brought a SQUIRREL ON THE PLANE.' She added in a Snapchat clip: 'They made us deplane because a woman brought on a f****** squirrel. Now the police just went on to remove her.' Ken Casparis tweeted: 'Flight 1612 from to Cleveland was just deplaned. Word in the terminal is that a woman was claiming her squirrel was a dog and wouldn't get off the plane. Now if this isn't the most Florida thing I've ever seen...' Another passenger added: 'Well they just delayed a flight from Orlando to Cleveland for a squirrel. So you're saying, somebody had gotten this approved?' The passenger was taken off the flight because the airline did not allow exotic animals such as rodents or reptiles on board Passengers said they were delayed for two hours while they disembarked and then re-boarded the flight According to its website, Frontier's policy on support animals states: 'We do not accept unusual or exotic animals including but not limited to rodents, reptiles, insects, hedgehogs, rabbits, sugar gliders, non-household birds or improperly cleaned and/or animals with foul odor.' Other airlines have also cracked down on what animals qualify as emotional support pets, such as Delta Airlines who said in January it would thoroughly vet passengers' trying to fly with various exotic animals. A spokesman for Delta said some passengers in the past had tried to get 'comfort turkeys, gliding possums known as sugar gliders, snakes, spiders and more' on to flights. In January, a woman tried to bring a peacock on board a flight in Newark, New Jersey, and in Florida this year, a man was evicted from his apartment because his squirrel did not qualify as an emotional support pet. This is the shocking moment six motorcycle raiders with a pick axe drove into Brent Cross shopping centre before attempting to rob a watch shop in front of terrified customers. Footage taken around 10 seconds after the robbers struck at 7pm shows smoke from the shop's security system flooding the main concourse, as a large axe lies on the floor with its barcode tag still attached. Two police officers are then seen sprinting towards the shop amid the wail of security alarms. Footage taken around 10 seconds after the robbers struck at 7pm shows smoke from the shop's security system flooding the main concourse as onlookers flee Witness Gavin Henderson tweeted: 'Man rode a motorbike into the shopping centre holding what looks like a pick axe! Man ran off, bike left in concourse, no one attacked, police and dogs on scene immediately.' Members of the public tried to chase after the robbers, two of whom were arrested on conspiracy to rob, police said. One of the suspects was taken to hospital with a head injury, which was believed to be minor. The four other suspects managed to escape on their mopeds, while a police officer also suffered a minor head injury and was taken to hospital as a precaution. A woman in her 50s who witnessed the incident injured her arm but was assessed at the scene by ambulance crews. The Metropolitan Police said: 'At around 19.15hrs on Tuesday, 9 October, officers responded to an attempted robbery at a watch shop in Brent Cross Shopping Centre. Two police officers are then seen sprinting towards the shop amid the wail of security alarms A policeman shields his face from the smoke before entering the shop in pursuit of the suspects The Metropolitan Police has two of the suspects in their custody. Pictured: An officer with a police dog 'Officers intervened and arrested two of the suspects. One of the males was taken to hospital suffering injuries, which are believed to be minor. 'The second male was taken into custody at a north London police station. Both were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to rob. 'The four other suspects made off on two motorcycles. Urgent enquiries are underway to trace them. We await confirmation of whether anything was stolen.' Earlier this month, a group of Uber Eats drivers were forced to fight off two moped thieves in the middle of a road in Stratford, east London. The men, wearing crash helmets, were seen throwing punches and kicks at two men after the pair tried to jump on one of their mopeds and race off. One of the thieves was chased off while the other attempted to ride away on the moped, but he was kicked to the ground by the group. He was later able to flee. A woman in her 50s who witnessed the incident injured her arm but was assessed at the scene by ambulance crews. Pictured: Marked policemen attending the incident A large pick-axe was seen lying by a pillar in the main concourse with its shop barcode still attached Brussels could ground planes and block exports in revenge for Britain refusing to pay the 39billion divorce bill, a government watchdog warned today. Sir Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said it was 'not implausible' that a stand-off with the EU could turn bitter. He said measures to ease the impact of a no-deal Brexit, such as ensuring that flights could carry on, required 'goodwill'. The situation could turn nasty if Parliament voted against the divorce settlement and challenged the bloc to 'take us to court' for the money. Sir Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, told MPs it was 'not implausible' that a stand-off with the EU could turn bitter The dire assessment came as Sir Amyas gave evidence to the Commons Brexit Committee The dire assessment came as Sir Amyas gave evidence to the Commons Brexit Committee. He warned that despite an improvement in government planning for no deal, there were likely to be 'points of failure'. He also suggested that Chris Grayling's Department for Transport was not making enough preparations, saying there was a worry that they believed the situation was 'less risky than it actually is'. Tory Brexiteer Peter Bone put it to Sir Amyas that it was 'inconceivable' that planes would not be able to fly after March even if the UK crashes out. But the auditor replied: 'It is not implausible. It is not impossible, and it could happen by mistake rather than deliberately.' Sir Amyas said the outcome would depend on how 'friendly or unfriendly' the atmosphere was in the run-up to a no-deal. He mooted a situation where the UK said to the EU: 'Take us to court for whatever money.' 'It is not impossible for anyone.. to think about a scenario where people might not be terribly well disposed to us,' Sir Amyas said. 'The thing about all these scenarios, they do require goodwill to put in place,' he added. He cited the example of the 'very substantial' chemical exports from the UK to the EU. 'They could just stop if we don't get an agreement,' he said. 'There are other examples like that, we are relying on goodwill to get an agreement in place.' Sir Amyas also complained that secrecy within government about planning for no-deal had been 'taken a bit too far, frankly'. A wheelchair-bound man was booted out a clothing store after being told his mode of transport was 'too big', despite him shopping there without issue previously. Imtiaz Aziz felt 'humiliated' after being asked to leave Bes Mart in Otahuhu, south Auckland, where he was shopping for shirts with his sister on Tuesday morning. Mr Aziz was startled when the shop owner approached and ordered him to 'get out, get out, get out' while pointing towards the exit. Imtiaz Aziz (pictured with sister) was booted out a clothing store after being told his mode of transport was 'too big', despite him shopping there without issue previously 'I felt humiliated and embarrassed. Also feel like I was not wanted,' he told Daily Mail Australia. The 36-year-old said other staff told him the aisles were too narrow for his wheelchair - a claim he denied given he could 'fit easily inside'. 'I have been in that shop before and nothing happened. The shop is not small, it is big and my wheelchair is not huge, it can fit easily inside,' he told Stuff. Mr Aziz said the experience left him feeling 'down' so he complained to the Human Rights Commission and requested an apology from the store. Bes Mart claimed it asked Mr Aziz to leave because it had recently been targeted by thieves using wheelchairs to conceal items and exit the store undetected. Mr Aziz left 'humiliated' after being asked to leave Bes Mart (pictured) in Otahuhu, south Auckland, where he was shopping for shirts with his sister on Tuesday morning The 36-year-old (pictured with sister) said other staff told him the aisles were too narrow for his wheelchair - a claim he denied given he could 'fit easily inside' 'There's always someone pushing a wheelchair who comes here to steal,' the female shop owner said, adding she 'doesn't want those people to come'. She claimed the store was 'too busy' to tend to the needs of someone in a wheelchair the day Mr Aziz was kicked out. The male owner later denied he yelled at Mr Aziz, saying he had instead ask him to leave politely. The Human Rights Commission while it couldn't comment on the incident, there was a presumption that a provider of goods and services would take reasonable measures to accommodate disability under the Human Rights Act 1993. A truck sporting several bumper stickers in support of President Donald Trump was reportedly vandalized and set alight in Washington state. The word 'Trump' was spray-painted in white along the side of the now burnt-out vehicle, which was parked outside a bar in Vancouver on Sunday night. The owner said he believed this was a targeted attack, owing to the two pro-Trump stickers he had just recently placed on the Nissan Titan truck. Scroll down for video Johnny MacKay's truck parked outside Garage Bar and Grille in Vancouver, Washington state. The word 'Trump' was spray-painted along the right-hand side in large white letters 'All of a sudden I saw the tires were melted, the windows were shattered, and I was just in shock,' Johnny MacKay told KOIN-TV, a Oregon-based station. 'If you say anything that someone doesn't like, you are ultimately a target. 'You're automatically the enemy and they have to hurt you.' MacKay said he went for a few drinks in the Garage Bar and Grille, so decided to leave the truck in its parking lot overnight on Sunday while he took a taxi home. The burnt and melted interior of the Nissan Titan truck, which had two bumper stickers on it endorsing President Donald Trump MacKay, who said he did not actually vote for Trump but supports the Oval Office, makes his living as an Uber driver, so has also lost his source of income He said he left the vehicle under a light, hoping to discourage anyone from potentially breaking in. When he returned to the bar on Monday morning, however, the fire had almost completely gutted the truck. MacKay's vehicle had two stickers on its bumper endorsing the president, including one that said: 'TRUMP 2020'. 'I literally just put them on this weekend,' MacKay told the station. The two bumper stickers on the back of Johnny MacKay's truck, one of which endorses the President in the 2020 election 'If I would've known somebody would've taken politics this far... I saw them, I thought they were funny and apparently somebody didn't get the joke.' A resident who lives opposite the bar, Randy Sanchagrin, said he heard a loud explosion and ran outside to see the truck ablaze and consumed by flames. 'All of a sudden I hear a loud bomb and the windows shake,' Sanchagrin said. He told his sister to call 911 before going back outside to see if anyone was hurt. Fortunately, MacKay was home by this time and no other injuries are reported. Residents say they heard a loud explosion, following which the vehicle was entirely consumed by flames outside Garage Bar & Grille, 1101 W. Fourth Plain Blvd, Vancouver Several people alerted Vancouver police to the fire around 2.30am on Monday morning, and they are treating it as suspicious 'By the time I ran back to the street it was so bad there was no getting close to it,' Sanchagrin said. Vancouver Police said the fire was reported by several 911 callers around 2.30am Monday. Officers confirmed are they are treating it as suspicious. The burnt truck had severe damage, including charred doors and melted seats. 'We hear a loud boom, we feel the boom, it shakes our bed,' said Myia Flores, another local resident. The wreckage of the truck, which is now just a shell as the interior is completely melted and the doors charred 'Just opening the door and seeing the flamesit was like crazy, it was crazy to see.' A video posted to Twitter shows flames engulfing the truck, and its burned-out body in the aftermath. MacKay, who said he did not actually vote for Trump but supports the Oval Office, makes his living as an Uber driver. He said he had a message for the person who has also taken away his source of income. '(They) need help,' he said of the unknown culprit. 'Whether it was from drugs or a mental condition, this person needs to get help. If they blow up at this, who knows.' 'It's a crazy world, man. Right now, with all the politics and everything, it's a crazy situation,' MacKay told FOX12. Polish officials are hunting three girls who caused outrage after throwing Nazi salutes outside Auschwitz and posting a photo of it on social media. The girls deleted the image shortly after it appeared on Instagram on Tuesday, but it was picked up by museum authorities who have called in prosecutors. While giving a Nazi salute is not explicitly banned in Poland, the law does forbid hate speech based on religion and promoting fascist ideology, with prison sentences of up to three years for offenders. Polish authorities are trying to identify three girls who took a picture giving Nazi salutes outside Auschwitz this week before uploading it to Instagram The image came to light after it was reposted on Facebook group 'Racist and Xenophobic Behaviour Monitoring Centre'. Sharing the image online, the group said: 'The girls' "prank" proves how education about the horrors of the Holocaust and totalitarian systems is needed, especially with anti-Semitism growing in Poland.' The group added that 'young people unknowingly absorb hateful content'. Local authorities are in the process of identifying the teenagers and their school will be informed about the incident. This is not the only case of Nazi gestures being carried out by ignorant visitors of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp. In 2017, a group of Swedish teenagers were filmed making inappropriate gestures and remarks while visiting the memorial complex. Meanwhile, an Israeli student ended up in hot water when he dropped his trousers at the Majdanek concentration camp close to the Polish capital Warsaw. In that case, the Israeli Ministry of Education intervened and made the culprit pay a 250 fine. The picture was taken outside the 'gate of death' at the camp, with the girls facing hefty fines and prison sentences of up to three years if they are found to have breached hate laws Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, pictured with his wife Santa, says his family may leave the UK is 'antisemitic' Labour gain power Celebrated historian Simon Sebag Montefiore has said he could leave Britain if Jeremy Corbyn gets into power because of Labour's antisemitism. The award-winning writer, whose family has lived in the UK since the start of the 19th century, said history has taught him that Jewish people should have their 'suitcases psychologically packed' to escape persecution. The 53-year-old father-of-two said the hostility towards Jewish people displayed by some in the Labour party reminded him of the antisemitism under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. He insists his family 'love Britain' and consider themselves British, but they cannot ignore the 'vomiting of antisemitic bile'. He told The Times: 'I would not stay in England to see my children living in an environment hostile to Jewish people... virtually every Jewish family I know has discussed leaving Britain.' Mr Sebag Montefiore, who counts Prince Charles and David Cameron among his friends, denies that his comments are a political stunt. He added: 'This isn't a hysterical thing... the key lesson history teaches us is that, as things darken, leave in time. Don't just wait until it happens.' He is concerned about his children growing up in an antisemitic environment. The family are pictured at a book launch in 2008 Mr Sebag Montefiore, whose history books have been praised by world leaders, says the past informs Jews that should leave countries before persecution begins Mr Sebag Montefiore's father's family came from southern Europe and Morocco in the 1790s and 1820s while his mother escaped the 'pogrom' mob attacks on Jews before the Russian Revolution. He said he would consider going to continental Europe or the US if his fears about Corbyn are confirmed. He spoke of his concerns over Labour while promoting his new book Written in History: Letters that Changed the World. He also paid tribute to his sister-in-law, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, who died suddenly aged 45 last year due to a perforated ulcer. Mr Sebag Montefiore said was an 'extraordinary life force' who was 'irrepressible, tempestuous and unpredictable'. His comments come after ex-chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks warned that Jews are thinking about fleeing Britain if Corbyn wins power. Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of failing to take on the antisemites in his new-look Labour Lord Sacks told the BBC's Andrew Marr: 'Jews have been in Britain since 1656, I know of no other occasion in these 362 years when Jews - the majority of our community - are asking ''is this country safe to bring up our children''. Now, this is very, very worrying.' Asked directly if Jews were considering leaving over Mr Corbyn, Lord Sacks said: 'Of course.' He added: 'There is a danger Jeremy Corbyn might one day be Prime Minister. Until he expresses clear remorse for what he said and what his party has done to Jewish sympathisers, he is as great a danger as Enoch Powell was.' Mr Corbyn was filmed in 2013 saying 'some British Zionists', by which many took him to mean British Jews, 'can't understand English irony'. His party sparked fury among Jewish groups this summer when it failed to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism. After months of rows, it adopted the full definition. A mother-of-two who suffered years of pain following a 'botched breast reduction' is suing the Harley Street surgeon who performed the operation for damages. Samantha Sill, 50, from Worcester, went under the knife to reduce her breast size from a J-cup to a more comfortable C-cup. But days after the procedure, Mrs Sill, who has two daughters aged 20 and 25, says she realised something was wrong. Samantha Sill, 50, (pictured before the surgery) from Worcester, went under the knife to reduce her breast size from a J-cup to a more comfortable C-cup After taking the bandages off, she noticed her nipples were much higher than they had been before and the stitching was coming loose. She also had heavy scarring on her breasts and she was still in agonising pain. The estate agent, who lives with husband Julian, 54, is now suing Harley Street plastic surgeon Alberto di Giuseppe. She said: 'I am completely devastated by everything I have been through and I just feel I deserve answers as to what went wrong. All I want to do now is stop him going ahead and doing it to other people. A mother-of-two who suffered years of pain following a botched breast reduction (pictured) is suing the Harley Street surgeon who performed the operation for damages 'I'm 50 and can afford to get many of the things changed but can you imagine if it was one of my daughters, what would they do? 'I don't want anyone else to go through what I've been through because it's been three years of hell.' Mrs Sill paid 5,000 for the operation in April 2015 after suffering years of back pain as a result of her large chest. She added: 'Before I had the operation the pain had been building up over years because of the size of my breasts. 'It got to the stage where I could not raise my hands over my head - there was a constant ache which was getting progressively worse and I was taking Ibuprofen every morning and evening to control it. After taking the bandages off, she noticed her nipples were much higher than they had been before and the stitching was coming loose 'We knew that the pain I was in was caused by the size of my breasts and sooner or later the procedure needed to be done. 'The NHS do not do these type of operations so we had to go private. After the operation we realised something was wrong the following week because the wounds weren't healing and there was gaps in the stitching - I had to go back to the doctors every second day from April to November to get the wounds redone and cleaned with silver dressing. 'From September I was also had regular steroid injections that did nothing to help at all. 'I felt very sick after the surgery but it was suggested that I just needed rest. She also had heavy scarring (pictured) on her breasts and she was still in agonising pain 'I needed to attend hospital for checks on the wounds and for dressing changes for some time and I needed a lot of time off work. 'Then it was suggested I should have steroid injections, which I had to pay extra for. 'Yes it stopped the pain in my shoulders and neck but I've been left with a very deep dark purple scarring which is up to an inch thick below the breast and the nipples. 'The pain from the scars is not as bad as it was but the scars remain very itchy. 'I've got the breast size I always wanted but now I've not got the ability to wear nice clothing. 'It been a very frustrating time and I gained around three stone in weight. 'I can only wear big tops as the scarring is so bad it shows through my underwear. 'I'm an estate agent and I'm have to be careful what I wear, I have to wear smart cloths but I can never do things like take my jacket off. Samantha Sill with her husband (pictured) before her botched breast reduction surgery 'The whole point of the surgery was to improve my life but my confidence just hit the floor. 'My nipples are in the wrong place, they are too high up there is nothing that can be changed about them now, I've been told. 'The only option I have left is extensive plastic surgery in London. My confidence has fallen to zero, I literally have no confidence in myself. 'I needed months of treatment afterwards including steroid injections and the use of silicone gel.' Mrs Sill has instructed medical negligence lawyers Irwin Mitchell to launch legal proceedings against the surgeon. After failed attempts to contact him, over a number of months, proceedings were served on him in person. She has since received a judgment by default at the County Court after the surgeon failed to file an acknowledgment of service. Mrs Sill has instructed medical negligence lawyers to launch proceedings against the surgeon Solicitor Mandy Luckman, who is representing Mrs Sill, said: 'Samantha had hoped that the procedure would cure years of severe pain that she had experienced and improved her life. 'Instead the first-hand account about how she has continued to experience difficulties is extremely worrying. 'The defendant in this case has not responded to our initial efforts to make contact and we were therefore left with no choice but to launch legal proceedings but again he did not file an acknowledgement of service and judgment was passed in our client's favour by default. 'We would encourage Dr Di Giuseppe to enter into constructive dialogue with regards to Samantha's concerns so this case can be resolved at the earliest opportunity.' On website topdoctors.co.uk Dr Giuseppe boasts of being 'an internationally recognised consultant plastic surgeon'. As well as 'body contouring' and 'breast surgery' Dr Giuseppe also claims to be 'an expert in the Brazilian butt lift procedure'. Two explosions rocked the Spanish resort of Marbella this morning as police fear a drug war is spiralling out of control. The first blast happened outside a residential property on a gated estate in Benahavis which is popular with British expats and holidaymakers. The second occurred outside a car wash firm on an industrial estate in nearby San Pedro de Alcantara owned by the man whose home was targeted. No-one was injured but substantial damage was caused to property. Detectives believe both incidents are connected to 'score settling' between rival gangs and follow on from a kidnapping and murder in Estepona just a few days ago. Police fear a drugs' war on the Costa del Sol is spiralling out of control after two bomb attacks in Marbella in the early hours of this morning. Pictured: Damage from one of the blasts Police have already found a burnt-out luxury BMW car used in both attacks. The first happened in the upmarket residential area of Mirador de la Alqueria, in the municipality of Benahavis, around 12:30am when the front of a villa was destroyed by the explosion, as well as a car. Bomb squad officers were called out as part of the investigation. A few minutes later, there was a large fire, also as a result of an explosion, in the industrial estate of San Pedro, where at least five warehouses and about a dozen vehicles were affected. The target of the attack was a car wash, in the same ownership of the villa. Doors were blown off and windows shattered in the blast. Police are linking various recent episodes of score settling on the Costa del Sol, as well as the seizure in September of a home-made bomb which had to be deactivated in Marbella. A Dutchman was arrested yesterday in connection with planting this bomb. Detectives believe both incidents are connected to 'score settling' between rival gangs and follow on from a kidnapping and murder in Estepona just a few days ago. Pictured: Aftermath of the explosion in the industrial estate in San Pedro Police say the suspect belonged to a Dutch criminal organisation involved in extortion and drug trafficking which used explosives and firearms to attempt against the lives of members of other rival gangs in Spain. Spanish newspaper El Mundo says a gym near the car wash was gutted by fire last month in an attack which targeted a key drugs baron known as the 'Maradona' . He wasn't hurt in the fire but was shot dead a month later in Marbella following the communion of his son. Police are working on one theory that the owner of the villa and car wash is believed to have 'snitched' on the gang which incinerated the gym. Residents of the Costa del Sol say they are living in fear because of the constant score-settling. In previous drug-related incidents, one of the victims, a Brit aged 24, was attacked in broad daylight as he left a hair salon in the upmarket marina resort of Puerto Banus which is near Estepona. Residents of the Costa del Sol say they are living in fear because of the constant score-settling. Pictured: Aftermath of the explosion in the industrial estate in San Pedro He was taken by surprise as a man jumped out of a car and, without saying a word, stabbed him in both legs. His assailant then ran back to the vehicle and made his escape. The Briton was taken to the Costa del Sol Hospital but refused to make an official complaint. Police are treating the incident as a possible revenge attack and have the same theory about the earlier attack on another British man, also in Marbella. He was stabbed and shot in both legs but also had his cheeks slit from his mouth up to his ears in a so-called Glasgow Smile before being dumped in a ditch. He was later revealed as a 35-year-old criminal who had been jailed for his part in a robbery on a jewellery store in Nottingham in which a passer-by was killed. With owning shares you can still enjoy the experience of ownership but with a lot less expense. For anyone that loves horses or the sport, we would highly recommend it. That was one major reason Jennifer Dewaele of London, Ont., got involved in purchasing shares of horses in The Stable earlier this year. She now owns shares in 12 different horses. Dewaeles parents, Marion and Jack Rodd purchased their first horse in 1974 and lost the last one in 1980. They, just like others were first time owners whom knew nothing about the business but it was their love for horses that kept them in the business, explained Jen. Their biggest dream was to have a horse in the Hambletonian. Unfortunately it did not happen. During these years they, as well as my older brother Jeff, learned what they could about the horse business (horse stats, sires, mares). Even after we lost the last one most of the dinner conversations where all about horses. Who went how fast. What sire mated with what mare, to have which baby. My thought was mostly how beautiful they were and how big they can be. But when you are about four feet tall they can be very intimidating. Fast forward to the spring of 2018 when Jens Dad heard about The Stable through a very good friend. In June of this year, he, Jen and Jeff became shareholders and the three of them make up The 3 JJJS Stable. Combined, they currently own anywhere from five to 34 shares in 12 different horses. We have been to most of the races in Canada but unfortunately have not been to see them race in the states...yet, said Jen. Some of the top horses include three-year-old trotting colt Lawmaker, who did start in an elimination of the Hambletonian, but unfortunately made a break and didnt make it to the final. Eighteen days later he redeemed himself with a victory in the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes in a seasons best 1:53.3 Lawmaker has five top-three finishes and over $178,000 banked this season. To date over two racing seasons, he has four wins, 12 top-three finishes in 18 lifetime starts and almost $345,000 in earnings. Along with Lawmaker, The 3 JJJS Stable also has shares in pacing gelding Lincolnjames, two-year-old pacing fillies Hard Eight & Linnea, two-year-old trotting colt Cruisin With Angus, trotting mare Jilona, and a couple of yearlings. With only being part of The Stable since June of this year it has been an incredible as well very exciting experience so far, explained Jen. Anthony, Amy as well as their whole team have always taken time to answer all our questions/concerns no matter how busy they are. They ensure that all of their clients experiences are the highest of professionalism that they can give. We are looking forward to many more years with them. (Video provided by the OLG) Standardbred Canada is hosting the following free educational workshops during the weekend of the London Selected Yearling Sale: Friday, October 12 Horse Ownership 101 4:30 7:00 p.m. (Agriplex and The Raceway) Saturday, October 13 & Sunday, October 14 How to Read Pedigrees and Understanding Conformation 9:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m. (Agriplex) Limited seats available. Contact [email protected] or [email protected] to reserve your seat. Two young boys have signed a book deal after their Playmobile toy pirate ship sailed 3,700 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to Barbados. Ollie Ferguson, nine, and brother Harry, six, from Turriff, Aberdeenshire, have sold their story rights to New York-based publisher WW Norton & Company. The boys caught the attention of the book industry after their 40 ship set sail from Peterhead fitted with a tracker device and made it across the Atlantic. Ollie Ferguson, nine, and brother Harry, six, of Turriff, Aberdeenshire, have signed a book deal Their ship set sail from Peterhead fitted with a tracker device and made it across the Atlantic Since then, Ollie and Harry, along with parents MacNeill and Vicki, have documented their continuing adventures on a Facebook page called The Days are Just Packed. The boys' book - Ollie & Harry's Marvellous Adventures - is due to be released in autumn next year and will be published as part of the Norton Young Readers series. The brothers are writing it with their father and children's author Garry Jenkins. Mr Ferguson said: 'After the Playmobil ship was launched we got a lot of attention from all over the world which led to our now-agent Lucy Cleland getting in touch. Their Playmobile ship sailed 3,700 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to Barbados The boys' book - Ollie & Harry's Marvellous Adventures - is due to be released in autumn 2019 The onboard tracker last transmitted on May 12 when it was just 30 miles west of Barbados 'She loved the idea of what we were doing and proposed writing a book. The next day we got a call from Garry who suggested working together. The brothers are writing the book with their father and children's author Garry Jenkins 'Since then we have been busy slowly creating the book. We left the publishing side to Lucy and we have managed to secure a brilliant publisher.' His wife added: 'The boys are very grounded and they don't think that what they do is out of the norm and are used to sharing their adventures. 'We loved the concept of the book - it's all about inspiring other kids to go out and have their own adventures.' Ms Cleland said: 'Readers have so much to look forward to in the book, particularly those who have been wondering how Ollie and Harry pulled off their best adventures and how they can try something similar. 'All in all, Ollie and Harry are such a great example of how many interesting modern ways there are to create your own fun and have adventures that change your perspective on the world and your own capabilities.' As for any money made from the book deal, MacNeill said: 'It will either be put towards making bigger adventures for the boys - ones that we otherwise wouldn't be able to do - or perhaps it will go into a trust fund for when they are older.' A massive blaze at a fireworks factory has sent bright, colourful explosions into the sky in north-east China. The factory and storage facility in Dalian, Liaoning province caught fire at around 5pm local time on Monday, filling the sky with an impressive display. No injuries have been reported so far, according to Chinese media. A massive blaze at a fireworks factory has sent bright, colourful explosions into the sky in Dalian, north-east China's Liaoning province on Monday afternoon No injuries have been reported so far in the dramatic incident, according to Chinese media Video footage shows fireworks propelling in various directions above the warehouse in Pulandian district amid billowing smoke. Loud bangs and popping noises were heard as the blaze intensified, sending streaks of bright colours into the air. Instead of running for cover, many residents were seen taking videos and photos of the dramatic scene. Police officers cordoned off the scene and evacuated the area. Video footage shows fireworks propelling in various directions above the warehouse The blaze lasted for more than two hours and was finally put out by firefighters at 7:30pm Instead of running for cover, many residents were seen filming the impressive display The blaze lasted for more than two hours and was finally put out by firefighters at 7:30pm, according to Dalian Evening News. Witnesses said several parked cars nearby suffered some damage while debris and broken grass were seen strewn across the factory grounds. The cause of the fire is being investigated, according to the report. A woman whose 100ft trees left neighbours feeling 'imprisoned' in their homes has been told to cut them down. Susan Rhodes has been locked in a dispute with Ian Walker for more than five years over huge trees outside her home in Dundee. Mr Walker - who has complained the trees left him feeling 'depressed' - occupies the upper floor of a Victorian villa while Miss Rhodes owns the ground floor. Susan Rhodes has been locked in a dispute with Ian Walker over huge trees outside her home The dispute over the 100ft trees in Dundee has now been going on for more than five years Mr Walker used high hedge legislation to force his neighbour to take action after several attempts at resolving the issue failed. He said: 'My wife and I have lived in our upper storey flat for 35 years and are depressed and saddened by the deteriorating circumstances of our living conditions. 'This high hedge acts as a barrier, blocking natural light as we are acutely aware of our front rooms darkening yearly. 'The trees are 20 to 30 metres high, positioned close to the house, of considerable spread and still growing.' Mr Walker used high hedge legislation to force his neighbour in Dundee to take action He claimed the trees posed a safety risk, adding: 'The height and closeness of these trees adds to a claustrophobic feeling of being imprisoned and takes away from being at ease in our own home. 'This loss of a sense of openness is added to by the outlook from our windows being so restricted.' Dundee City Council bosses agreed and issued an order for five trees to be lopped to a maximum height of 23ft. They said: 'The council has decided that the hedge in question both constitutes a high hedge for the purposes of the Act and adversely affects the enjoyment of the domestic property which an occupant of that property could reasonably expect to have. Dundee City Council issued an order for five trees to be lopped to a maximum height of 23ft 'The council has decided that action should be taken in relation to the high hedge with a view to remedying the adverse effect and where stated, preventing its recurrence.' Miss Rhodes has challenged the council's decision and submitted an appeal to the Scottish Government. She has claimed the trees do not form a barrier to light and do not affect the Walkers' property. A reporter will issue a decision on her claims at a later date. High hedge laws were designed to address disputes between neighbours. Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price (file picture) will lead the national effort to improve suicide prevention despite her earlier comments about Beachy Head Britain's first ever Suicide Prevention Minister joked about jumping off Beachy head, it today emerged. Theresa May appointed Jackie Doyle-Price to the post last night in what is believed to be a world-first. Mrs Doyle-Price, a Health Minister, will lead the national effort and try to end the stigma which stops people from seeking help. But in a revelation that will spark questions about her appointment, it today emerged that she quipped about jumping off the notorious suicide spot. Speaking in 2014, the Tory MP for Thurrock said she would 'rather jump off Beachy Head' than defect to Ukip. Her remark came amid reports that she was one of the Conservatives who was ready to defect to the party at the time. Her local newspaper, the Thurrock Gazette, asked her about the possibility that she could walk out of the Tory Party. She told them: 'I would sooner jump off Beachy Head than join Ukip. 'I am a Conservative. I have never run away from a fight and I am not going to start now. The stakes are too high. 'This country cannot afford another Labour Government.' Her comments resurfaced this morning, on World Mental Health Day, and just hours after her new appointment was announced by the Prime Minister. Who is Jackie Doyle-Price, the new Suicide Prevention Minister? Britain's first Suicide Prevention Minister Jackie Doyle-Price has a reputation for being tough. A former civil servant, she was elected MP for Thurrock in Essex in 2010 by the wafer-thin majority of just 92 votes. She has fended off stiff competition to retain her seat in two more elections, and currently has a majority of 345. She hit the headlines in 2010 when she intervened to stop then Labour MP Eric Joyce after he headbutted Tory MP Stuart Andrew and two Conservative councilors. Mrs Doyle-Price leapt up to stop in raging MP from beating them up. She put herself between Mr Joyce and the others and said: 'If you are going to punch my staff, punch me first. You don't want to hit a lady.' She was made a Tory whip in 2015 and then moved to the department of health after the snap election last year. She is married to her office manager Mark Coxshall. Advertisement Jeremy Corbyn's official spokesman today tore into the remark. He said: 'any comment which increases the stigma or disrespect or lack of understanding for mental health issues, in particular in this case mental health issues around depression and suicide, are always inappropriate.' Around 4,500 people take their lives every year in England and suicide remains the leading cause of death among men under the age of 45. Commenting on her appointment, Mrs Doyle-Price, whose title is now Minister for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention, said: 'I understand how tragic, devastating and long-lasting the effect of suicide can be on families and communities. 'In my time as health minister I have met many people who have been bereaved by suicide and their stories of pain and loss will stay with me for a long time. 'It's these people who need to be at the heart of what we do and I welcome this opportunity to work closely with them, as well as experts, to oversee a cross-Government suicide prevention plan, making their sure their views are always heard.' MailOnline has contacted Mrs Doyle-Price's office for comment. The PM's spokesman said that in her new post, Mrs Doyle-Price will be taking forward the Government's commitment to tackling the stigma around mental health. He would not be drawn on whether she should apologise for the remark. John McFarlane (pictured) killed Mary Griffiths in front of her three daughters The murder of a 'wonderful mother' by a stalker slaughterman cannot be blamed on police, a top judge has ruled. Fitness instructor, Mary Griffiths, was shot dead by John McFarlane, in front of her three daughters, at her home in Bury St Edmunds on May 6 2009. Her children claimed their mother's phone call to police the day before on May 5 should have been graded as an emergency, and that police should have responded that very night. Even though she didn't dial 999, Suffolk Police had treated the call as a 999 call. The call was graded as a lower priority and although police pledged to visit her home on May 6, it was too late. McFarlane broke into her home with an axe and killed her with a captive bolt gun taken from the farm where he worked. These guns are used primarily to stun animals prior to slaughter. In the telephone call to police the 38-year-old had told an operator that McFarlane was harassing her and she was 'really frightened' of him. Her daughters, Jessica, 23, Hannah, 20, and Sophie, 19, sued the chief constable of Suffolk Police, Gareth Wilson, for damages at London's High Court. However, their hopes of compensation were today dashed after Mr Justice Ouseley said police were unaware that Ms Griffiths was at risk of 'serious harm'. 'There was clearly a risk of harassment and stalking, and of unwanted presence at Ms Griffiths' home, of which Suffolk Police knew on May 5,' he said. 'But there was nothing to suggest that it was an imminent risk, against which measures were required that night'. On the evening of May 5, Ms Griffiths' fateful call to police was only graded as requiring a response within four hours, and the operator said an officer would attend later that evening. The police control room contacted her later that night and the operator asked Ms Griffiths if it would be possible, in view of resources available to the police, if an officer could attend the following day. Ms Griffiths said 'that would be fine' and officers had not attended by 2.40am on May 6, when McFarlane smashed his way into her home. He dragged her into the street and shot her a number of times with the bolt gun in the presence of her children, the judge said. He had attempted suicide on May 2 by trying to hang himself from a beam in a barn on the farm where he worked as a slaughterman. Mary Griffiths (pictured) had previously told police that she was 'frightened' of McFarlane His mental condition had been assessed at hospital the following day and a decision was taken not to compulsorily admit him. The sisters also blamed mental health professionals for their mother's death, claiming McFarlane should never have been at large. Despite this, the judge rejected claims that McFarlane was so disturbed that he should have been admitted to hospital three days before the killing. Medics at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust had also been under no duty to warn the police and Ms Griffiths that he posed a danger. The judge said Ms Griffiths and McFarlane had been friends, but he reacted angrily after she told him she was not interested in a romantic relationship. McFarlane later pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to serve a minimum of 30 years behind bars. The sisters' lawyers claimed the police should have graded their mother's call as an emergency and responded straight away. Had he been admitted to hospital, either voluntarily or compulsorily, on May 3, Ms Griffiths would be alive today, they also argued. But Mr Justice Ouseley said there was 'no basis' for finding operational or systemic failings on the part of Suffolk Police. The family's lawyers had made 'many criticisms' of the way police handled the call and their response to it. But the judge said they 'do not begin to show that Suffolk Police had any knowledge, or ought to have had, of any risk to Ms Griffiths of serious physical harm. 'There was no failure to take a step which they ought to have done'. Arguments that an earlier police response would have prevented the murder were 'speculative', he added. The sisters' case against the NHS trust also failed and their damages claim was dismissed. An Indian woman has been arrested after burning a 13-year-old boy's genitals with a pair of tongs after her refused to have sex with her. The married woman, from a small village called Chapraula, on the outskirts of the country's capital, New Delhi, was said to have lured the boy to her house to try and seduce him. According to the boy's mother, the woman had allegedly tried several times to have made sexual advances towards her son. After the incident was reported to the police, the woman was said to have fled and is still missing. Police patrolling through Noida this week in search of the woman who fled her village after the incident Police said she has been charged with hurting the boy with a weapon), wrongful confinement, kidnapping and criminal intimidation. They say there are 'several questions unanswered' and are appealing for help in tracking her down. 'The married woman, apparently in her late 20s, had lured the boy to her house in the afternoon last Friday when she was alone,' the official said. 'The police are investigating the matter from all angles. The delay in approaching the police leaves several questions unanswered,' he added. The incident is the latest in a long line of high-profile rape scandals which have rocked India. Most recently two men filmed themselves raping a 45-year-old woman in the holy river Ganges as she can be heard in the footage pleading with her attackers to consider the 'sanctity' of the river. A lesbian couple are complaining to a Christian school about discrimination after the headmaster reportedly said their daughter's admission would be a 'problem' because of their same-sex relationship. Rebekah Shields, 35, and Claire Morgan, 47, say they were left 'dumbfounded' when the headteacher made the comments right in front of their 11-year-old daughter. The pair claim Adrian Parsonage, head of The River School, in Worcester - a non-denominational Christian school - told them they taught children the ethos that 'relationships should be between a man and a woman'. They said he went on to add he would need to speak to teachers 'about the problem' before deciding whether to give their daughter a place at the fee-paying independent school. Rebekah Shields (left) and Claire Morgan (right) say they were left shocked and upset after the alleged comments were made in front of their 11-year-old child during an admissions meeting at The River School in Worcester on Monday Rebekah Shields, 35, and Claire Morgan, 47, had taken their 11-year-old daughter to an admissions meeting at The River School in Worcester on Monday. But they claim headmaster Adrian Parsonage had said their daughter's admission might have a 'problem' because of the same-sex relationship But Mr Parsonage denies he made the claims at the meeting on Monday and has put the issue down to 'significant and most unfortunate misunderstandings'. Ms Shields and Ms Morgan have since complained to the school about discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation but have not yet heard anything back. The couple, who are engaged and live in Droitwich, Worcestershire, visited a number of potential schools and asked each one whether they had any other same-sex parents. Ms Shields said: 'Mr Parsonage said the school did not. 'I was dumbfounded when he told us that he would speak to other teachers about 'the problem', to which we replied 'there is no problem'. 'He went on to say how the school expects parents and students to respect their ethos, and how they believe that 'relationships should be between a man and a woman.' 'He said they were his views and how the children are taught. 'This was all said in front of my child who has had to gain their own confidence at school with having two mums. 'I had to leave without saying any more due to the fact that I didn't wish to embarrass my child. 'I told Mr Parsonage the school wouldn't be for us.' Ms Morgan added: 'We were both in shock, I worry for other children and parents.' Adrian Parsonage (left), headteacher at The River School, in Worcester claims the women's concerns have come from 'significant and most unfortunate misunderstandings' during the admissions meeting However Mr Parsonage has denied making the comment and said admission was open to all. In a statement released by the school today, he said: 'I had a meeting with prospective parents on Monday morning where there would appear to have been some significant and most unfortunate misunderstandings that took place regarding our Christian principles, our admissions policy and the school's approach to the teaching on relationships. 'The school did not describe, has never described and will not describe a child with same-sex parents, or the admission of such a child into the school as a 'problem'. 'We accept children of different backgrounds, faiths and beliefs which is reflected in our school policies. 'We do not discriminate against families with differing values or beliefs but follow the normal admission process with all applications. 'For the avoidance of doubt: admission is open to families with same-sex parents.' Rebekah Shields took to Facebook (pictured) after her meeting with Mr Parsonage. But he claims there were 'significant and most unfortunate misunderstandings' during the meeting He went on to say that the school has a Christian foundation and is designated as a school of religious character. He said: 'As such, it has a legal duty to teach in line with its Christian principles- like all faith schools. 'The River School teaches about ethical, social and moral issues from this standpoint while respecting the freedom of pupils to discuss and debate such matters. 'The school upholds and promotes British Values, Prevent and are very conscious of treating everyone with respect. 'The school has been in touch with Ms Shields and have offered her an opportunity to meet with the Chair of Trustees.' The River School, founded in 1985, caters for 123 boys and girls aged between two and 16 and was rated 'good' at its last Ofsted inspection in 2007. The report stated the school does not select pupils according to their ability or religious affiliation and it sees the bible as the basis for its educational philosophy and practice. A bodyguard wept today as he told how the Westminster terrorist came at him with knives 'covered in blood' - before he downed him with three rounds from his gun. Khalid Masood, 52, killed four pedestrians using a 4x4 before crashing into gates at the Palace of Westminster and drawing blades to slaughter PC Keith Palmer. Masood ran towards Parliament in March 2017 before he was shot three times in the chest with a Glock pistol by the close protection officer, referred to only as SA74. Khalid Masood's movements as he entered the Palace of Westminster during last year's attack SA74, who was one of two armed bodyguards for then defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon, told jurors at the inquest: 'The uniformed police had batons drawn. 'The batons were extended and they were frantically moving towards me trying to get away from something or someone. The bodyguard drew his pistol as soon as he saw Khalid Masood (pictured), jurors heard 'I simply didn't know what was happening but I was certain that...' - there was a long pause as the officer wiped away tears - 'something terrible was happening.' He said Masood came into view, 'running purposefully towards me, he was carrying two large knives and I could clearly see that they were covered in blood.' His voice faltered as he told jurors that Masood did not heed his warnings, adding: 'He was going to kill me.' He drew his pistol as soon as he saw Masood, saying: 'It was a quick succession of shots until the threat was no longer as perceived.' SA74 told the Old Bailey he was not entirely sure how many shots he fired but that he had continued to fire until Masood was brought down. The chaotic scenes outside the Palace of Westminster following the attack in March last year SA74's colleague, known only as SB73, told jurors how he risked his own safety to handcuff the attacker while he lay dying on the floor. 'At that time he was still breathing. His chest was still rising and falling. He was going grey,' he said. 'He basically stopped breathing so I started CPR, chest compressions.' Both officers gave evidence at Masood's inquest in the Old Bailey's Court One, with the media allowed only to listen to proceedings via video link from another room. SB73 also described how he was moving slightly behind and did not see Masood straight away. 'He was feet ahead and had the vision of the right hand side and I didn't have the vision - he obviously saw something and I was reacting to his words as it were,' said the officer. As soon as he shouted 'knife', I drew my weapon.' SA74 was one of two armed bodyguards for then defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon (centre). He is pictured previously in Westminster with security guards not thought to be those involved He said he saw Masood running with knives in both hands, 'I shouted verbal warnings, I'm not actually sure of what I said, I shouted some verbal warning of armed police stop.' PC Keith Palmer, 48, was stabbed to death during the attack in March last year SB73 told jurors he thought Masood was going to try and injure or kill one or both of them. 'I was ready to take action by shooting him. I believe I had taken aim ready to take a shot and placed my finger near or on the trigger,' he said. 'My colleague fired a number of shots which stopped the male. I heard the shots and the male slumped to the ground.' The officer then ran forward to handcuff Masood before plugging the gun shot wounds to his chest to stop the bleeding and beginning CPR. SB73 later attended hospital because of the large quantity of Masood's blood on his skin. The close protection officers had arrived at Parliament around 2pm and headed out into New Palace Yard about ten minutes before the attack began after having a coffee in the canteen. Masood used this knife (above) during his fatal attack on the officer who died at the scene They were stood by their vehicle near the Members' Entrance when they heard Masood's car crash into the perimeter wall. I simply didn't know what was happening but I was certain that... something terrible was happening Close protection officer, SA74 They heard shouts and screams, people running away from the noise and soon saw unarmed officers fleeing towards them in terror. Masood was shot dead after ramming the hired Hyundai 4x4 into at least 35 people on the bridge and leaving the vehicle to stab PC Palmer, 48, to death. Spanish teacher and mother-of-two Aysha Frade, 43, from London, US tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, window cleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75, and Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31, also died of their injuries. The inquest continues. Gilbert Conway was hit with 77 charges stemming from sexual assaults but he may have hundreds of victims A man in Michigan who is accused of raping multiple women was hit with more charges Tuesday after authorities found a slew of tapes with hundreds of more potential victims. County commissioners in the Flint area have set aside $20,000 to help investigators process hundreds of videos discovered at the home of Gilbert Conway, 60. Since his July arrest, Conway, has been hit with a total of 77 charges stemming from the alleged kidnappings and sexual assaults of six women over the course of several years. According to ABC12, Conway would allegedly seek out his victims at clubs and bars he frequented, one of which was The Diamond Girls Show Bar in Flint. Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton says the videos go back years and might reveal 'a whole lot more victims.' Authorities say he allegedly filmed sexual assaults of women in his Flint home (pictured) and have hours of tapes to comb through One of the clubs Conway frequented was The Diamond Girls Show Bar in Flint, where he was a regular Courtesy of WJRT 'We think most of them happened at his home where he had a video taping system set up,' Leyton added. Conway is in jail on criminal sexual conduct charges that were filed over the summer. He's pleaded not guilty. He returns to court on Oct. 17. Leyton calls it a 'major-league investigation.' He says his office is working with Flint police and the FBI. 'Each one of those hi8 tapes runs at least eight hours,' Leyton said. 'We believe from looking at some of the hi8 tapes that there are additional victims being sexually assaulted while being videotaped and we want to be able to look at those video tapes and hopefully identify these additional victims.' The money approved by commissioners Monday will help police transfer the videos to a digital format and pursue other evidence in the investigation. A deadly disease is striking down Australian tradesmen at epidemic rates, leaving hundreds struggling with daily tasks and relying on oxygen tanks just to survive. Stonemasons exposed to unsafe levels of silica dust from cutting engineered stone for kitchen benchtops are contracting silicosis at a more alarming rate than ever. Last month in Queensland, WorkCover received 22 silicosis claims, six of which involved people who had been diagnosed as terminally ill, the ABC reports. A dramatic spike has been predicted before the end of the year, with senior occupational physician Dr Graeme Edwards, who is assisting the screening process, expecting an additional 300 people to be diagnosed in Queensland alone. The national emergency has been compared to devastation caused by asbestos at the peak of its impact in Australia in the 1990s. Mr Edwards claimed one in three Queensland workers showed symptoms of silicosis, but only a portion knew they could be suffering from the potentially deadly disease. Scroll down for video Tahir Ozkul (pictured), 46, who was left looking like a 'snowman' every day for years while working at a small Melbourne factory, has silicosis and has to carry oxygen everywhere Stonemason Anthony White was diagnosed with silicosis in 2017 after working for a Gold Coast company - his condition has become terminal Tahir Ozkul, 46, who was left looking like a 'snowman' every day for years while working at a small Melbourne factory, has accelerated silicosis and has to carry oxygen everywhere. 'I can't do normal activity like walk, I can't go somewhere easily, I have to carry all the time my oxygen. The pain, the short breath is very bad, I feel very uncomfortable,' he told ABC's 7.30. He's one of many across the country suffering from the silent killer, with the Government last month issuing an urgent warning urging workers to be tested. The progressive and irreversible disease is contracted by breathing in tiny particles of silica dust that settle in the lungs. Stonemason Anthony White was diagnosed with silicosis in 2017 after working for a Gold Coast company - his condition has become terminal. 'We need all stonemasons informed of the grave risk of inhaling this dust, and we need more than just the Queensland government committing to these important legal changes,' Mr White said. 'I'm lucky I don't have kids who won't have to see me suffer but my mates do and I really worry for them.' Mr White (pictured), 36, said he was grateful he didn't have children because he would hate to put them through the stress of watching his condition decline Engineered stone is becoming more common as a substitute for marble benchtops, but is made of around 90 per cent crystalline silica - a major cause of silicosis Dr Edwards said 50 per cent of sufferers were going to have progressive massive fibrosis (severe lung scarring). 'It's horrendous, it's alarming,' he said. He said the situation was a public emergency because Australia's system could only accommodate about 200 lung transplants a year. Dr Edwards said a continuing rise of silicosis would add an extra 130 patients lining up for lung transplants in the next three to five years. The illness is an irreversible lung disease caused by long-term exposure to silica dust, and can take up to 30 years to develop Sixteen silicosis claims have been made by stonemasons in Victoria in the past three financial years, and a total of 23 silicosis claims in NSW, including by stonemasons. The biggest concern for doctors was the likelihood many workmen were completely unaware they were living with the disease, according to Melbourne-based respiratory physician Dr Ryan Hoy. 'I've seen more and more patients, about eight patients in the last 12 months. This is the largest occupational lung crisis we've seen since the peak of asbestos use in the 1960s and the 1970s,' Dr Hoy said. Engineered stone is becoming more common as a substitute for marble benchtops, but is made of around 90 per cent crystalline silica - a major cause of silicosis. Training wrapped up on a hot and humid morning Sunday at the Red Mile. There were few clouds to provide cover from the beaming sunshine; the old barns and trees in the backstretch providing a reprieve from the sweltering conditions. Jimmy Takter brought a horse in off the track and returned to his barn around 10 a.m. He was relaxed a day after having sent Lazarus to a second-place finish in the Allerage Farms Open Pace and the morning before starting Manchego and Tactical Landing on the Kentucky Futurity Card. Takter joined assistant Per Engblom at a table on the patio at the end of his barn facing the racetrack. Still in his black, white, and green driving colours, Takter sat back. Legs crossed and comfortable in the shade, he pulled up a replay on his phone of Great Vintages second-place effort in the $44,000 Open Handicap Pace at Yonkers the night before and smiled as he watched the 10-year-old battle with Bit Of A Legend in the stretch while pacing a 1:51.1 mile. This is one of my favourite horses, Takter said, his eyes glued to the screen. To do what hes done and still be going at 10 years old is amazing. Although Takters Hall of Fame resume includes four Hambletonians, six Hambletonian Oaks, 33 Breeders Crowns, an Elitlopp and a Prix dAmerique just to name a few, Takter still has items on his bucket list as the Grand Circuit season winds down in his final year of training. Namely, he has never won the International Trot. Its a race hes dreamed of winning since he started his career in Sweden. It was a race that I saw a lot before I even came here. The French horses came over and won. This was a classic, classic race. Im really glad they brought it back. People love it, Takter said. This was long before I came over here that I knew about the race and then it unfortunately disappeared for a while and wasnt on the radar. Now of course, we just have two $1 million races in the sport, the Hambletonian and this one. It would mean a lot. I would be really, really excited, he continued. This is my last year of training and to end up winning, thats another stripe on my shoulder. It would be something. Takter has competed in the International Trot twice before. He trained and drove Whiteland Image to a sixth-place finish in the 1995 edition, the last before the race would be revived in 2015. Takter started Creatine in the Yonkers International Trots reappearance; the Andover Hall horse returned from a European campaign to represent the United States (he ultimately finished third after having set the tempo). Long, long time ago. I dont even remember it to be honest with you. I dont think my horse was any good that day. They used me in the last spot, they had an opening or whatever, Takter said of his International debut with Whiteland Image. That was the year Melander won, His Majesty. Then I raced Creatine three years ago. He was third, so its time to do it now. This year, Takter will start Ariana G in the $1 million stakes. The four-year-old mare will represent the United States for owners Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld. One of the last of the 10 competitors to be announced, Takter accepted the invitation from Yonkers Raceway Race Secretary Steve Starr just after her win in the Dayton Trotting Derby on September 28. I had it in the back of my head that it would be interesting to race her there, Takter said. I know shes only four and you never know, but she showed she could compete against the aged horses. Especially now that she won at Dayton, I feel very good about it. I talked to Steve before Dayton and I told him, I dont want to go unless the filly is good, Takter continued. He actually called and invited me for the $250,000 (Harry Harvey Invitational), and I told him Im not going to jeopardize the Breeders Crown for that race, but Id do it for the International Trot. I waited to see how she raced at Dayton and when she won there, then I knew. Ariana G and Yannick Gingras, pictured winning the 2017 Hambletonian Oaks at the Meadowlands Racetrack (Lisa Photo) Ariana G entered the Dayton Trotting Derby off a third in the Maple Leaf Trot on September 1 and a sixth in the Preferred at Woodbine Mohawk Park on September 11. She tipped three-wide off the turn in the $150,000 stakes, ground down Guardian Angel AS and held off Warrawee Roo to post a 1:52.1 victory and establish a new track record. I thought she was going to race [well], but we were a little bit nervous because we had sick horses up in Canada and she hadnt raced [well] the start before, so we were really a little bit worried going into it that she wouldnt be herself, Takter admitted. I think she was 90 per cent and I think with this start in her, I think were going to be good. Ariana Gs closing win in the Dayton Trotting Classic was the 26th of her 37-race career. Victories in the Doherty Memorial, Peaceful Way, Hambletonian Oaks, Elegantimage, the Breeders Crown at two and three, the Graduate Final, and Hambletonian Maturity contributed to her $2.3 million bankroll. Shes been a world champion from two years old and shes just been phenomenal, Takter remarked. Every year, she just gets a little bit more mature. Now shes a four-year-old, shes starting to look more professional, but shes been a class horse from Day One. Despite her impressive record, Ariana G has never raced on a half-mile track and has never raced further than one and one-eighth miles. She will have to navigate the turns of Yonkers half-mile oval five times in the one and one-quarter-mile International Trot. Ariana G will face nine rivals in the Yonkers International Trot: Arazi Boko (Italy), Cruzado Dela Noche (Sweden), Lionel (Norway), Marion Marauder (Canada), Pastore Bob (Sweden), Ringostarr Treb (Italy), Slide So Easy (Denmark), Up And Quick (France), and Will Take Charge (Canada). She drew Post 4 and is 5-1 on the morning line. Yannick Gingras will be in her sulky. Shes never raced on a half-mile, but I dont think its going to be an issue. Shes pretty handy, Takter said. I really dont know the European horses too much. Theres a couple of horses who can really bust out of the gate [well] and I dont know if they have the stamina. I think the two horses that are big contenders are Ariana and Marion Marauder. Whoever gets the best trip is going to be close there. I dont think I want to see her do the dirty work too much, he continued. Its a mile-and-a-quarter. If shes sitting fourth or fifth with decent horses in front of her, maybe working out a second-over trip the last lap, would be the dream spot. The $1 million International Trot will head postward on Saturday, October 13 at Yonkers Raceway. The card will also feature a pair of $250,000 invitationals, the Harry Harvey Trot and Dan Rooney Pace. (SOA of NY) A millionaire lawyer who is currently suing the president and the son of said president are having it out with one another on Twitter. Michael Avenatti and Donald Trump Jr have been circling one another for months now, and on Tuesday the lawyer who represents Stormy Daniels lashed out in response to one of Don Jr's tweets this weekend. After seeing a story about the possible early release of Anthony Weiner from federal prison, Don Jr wrote: 'Who else is excited about Avanetti/Weiner 2020?!? Its gonna be Carlos Dangerous.' That glib remark then went ignored by Avenatti for almost 48 hours, but by Tuesday evening he was ready to speak out. Bro battle: Michael Avenatti (left) and Donald Trump Jr (rigth) took aim at one another on Twitter, with the first son throwing the first punch First ounch: 'Who else is excited about Avanetti/Weiner 2020?!? Its gonna be Carlos Dangerous,' wrote Don Jr over the weekend Clap back: Avenatti responded by tweeting: ''Bif: If I were you, the last thing I would be doing is referencing other people getting out of federal prison' 'Bif: If I were you, the last thing I would be doing is referencing other people getting out of federal prison. Because after you are indicted, you will likely be passing them on your way in,' tweeted Avenatti. 'BTW, they dont have silver spoons or gold toilets in the joint. Buckle up Buttercup.' Avenatti referred to Don Jr as 'Bif' in a nod to the character based on President Trump in the Back to the Future films. He then confirmed that he had discussed taking on Don Jr on i a mixed-martial arts fight earlier that day. Dylan Beyers of NBC News scored that scoop, tweeting: 'Im having lunch with @MichaelAvenatti at the Vanity Fair Summit and hes proposing a three-round mixed-martial arts fight with @DonaldTrumpJr for charity. No joke.' Avenatti retweeted that and said: 'This would be for two great causes. Im in.' He then added: 'My portion of the proceeds from the fight will be split 50% to rebuilding Puerto Rico and 50% to @RAINN. Just waiting on Bif to confirm.' Don Jr has yet to respond and Weiner, who was also roped into this Twitter war, is currently taking an extended vacation from social media. Avenatti's confident flirtation with a presidential run is being closely watched by Democrats in Washington and key political battleground states with a mix of intrigue and trepidation. President Donald Trump's victory over more experienced politicians in the 2016 campaign has reshaped traditional views of who would make a viable presidential candidate. Yet some party leaders are worried about trying to replicate Trump's approach by backing another untested and unpredictable candidate. That concern that was heightened after Avenatti's involvement in the recent Supreme Court confirmation fight. Still, Avenatti has so far managed to stand out among the senators, governors and mayors expected to vie for the Democratic presidential nomination. Early state operatives are offering him advice, and he's sold out Democratic Party dinners in Iowa and New Hampshire. Debt-laden retailer Sears Holdings Corp is now preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as early as Friday. Sears' Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert and a special board committee now accept that only a court-supervised process can determine the company's future, a source close to Lambert said. Talks are under way to arrange debtor-in-possession financing for a bankruptcy filing that could come in the next few days, the source added. The apparent decision to file for Chapter 11 protection comes on the heels of news that Sears had hired advisers to prepare for a possible bankruptcy filing that would come ahead of a major debt payment due next week. M-III Partners LLC, a boutique advisory firm, had been working on the potential filing in the past few weeks, while Sears continued to discuss other options and could still avert an in-court restructuring, sources told the Wall Street Journal Tuesday. Sears, which has been losing money for years, has $134million in debt due on October 16. Sears Holdings Corp is said to have hired restructuring advisers to prepare for a possible bankruptcy filing prior to the due date of a major debt payment next week A Sears special committee was said to be weighing a prior offer from Lampert, who also runs hedge fund ESL Investments Inc, to acquire the retailers Kenmore appliances brand and its home services business for as much as $480million. Sears warned it could go out of business as it waits for approval from the special committee on the deal. Lampert, who with his hedge fund owns about 50 per cent of Sears, has said the company should take steps to reduce its debt load to $1.2billion from $5.6billion through the selling of real estate and divesting itself of assets, including Kenmore. However, Lampert wanted to restructure the debt without filing for bankruptcy protection, because he views bankruptcy as risky for retailers as they often find themselves liquidating when that happens, the Wall Street Journal reported. Lampert also expected that Sears could get more value for its assets by selling them while it is a going concern, the newspaper added. Sears, which has closed nearly 400 stores since 2017, is said to be $5.6billion in debt Chief Executive Eddie Lampert wants to restructure the debt without filing for bankruptcy protection. His hedge fund, which owns about half of Sears, has offered to acquire Sears' Kenmore appliances brand for as much as $480million Lampert is said to have called in restructuring experts from advisory firm M-III Partners LLC, run by Mohsin Meghji (left), and restructuring expert and lawyer Alan Carr In the past, Lampert has bailed out Sears by making the debt payments for it. It had previously been reported that Lampert had also called in restructuring expert and lawyer Alan Carr, who has helped other companies navigate bankruptcy. Other companies Lampert is said to have tapped for advice include consulting firm AlixPartners; lawyers at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; and investment bank Lazard Ltd. Lampert created Sears Holding Corp. in 2005, after uniting Sears, Roebuck & Co. with Kmart. He had previously rescued Kmart from bankruptcy. Sears, which was the worlds largest retailer in the 1960s, has been struggling in recent decades, in the face of declining foot traffic at its brick-and-mortar stores as online shopping gains popularity. In May, Sears said it plans to shut 72 locations by the end of third quarter to stem losses in the face of deepening financial distress. Sears has closed nearly 400 stores since last year. It operates a network of stores with 866 full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States as of August 4, operating through Kmart and Sears. Since 2011, the Wall Street Journal reports, Sears has had more than $11billion in cumulative losses, while its annual sales have fallen nearly 60 per cent. To keep going, analysts have said that the company would need to raise $1billion a year. Frustrated residents in a Melbourne suburb are furious at their local council after they were stung with a series of fines for parking in their own street. Sunshine West pensioner Helena Guselev has parked her vehicle in the same spot for more than 10 years - but woke up one recent Sunday morning to discover a ticket on her car. Many of her neighbours have also been slugged by local rangers, with the combined amount totalling hundreds of dollars. Four neighbours in Sunshine North (pictured) show their respective fines after they were slugged for parking on nature strips in their residential street by local rangers in Melbourne The vehicle owner of the second car (pictured) was fined by a local ranger from Brimbank Council in Melbourne for not parking on the concrete 'My fine was because my husband was a bit over the white concrete,' an irate Mrs Guselev told A Current Affair. 'I think it's ridiculous and I could say a lot of words besides ridiculous but I can't say it on camera.' The locals have argued their case with council and numerous rangers, stating they are choosing to park on nature strips to allow other vehicles to get through the narrow street comfortably. But the council has hit back, pointing to a recent incident where an ambulance was unable to quickly attend to a patient due to cars being parked on both sides of the street. In a statement, Brimbank Council confirmed it had 'received complaints from residents about illegally parked cars damaging nature strips and restricting pedestrian access particularly on one side of the road where there is no footpath'. 'The Victorian Road Safety Rules 2017 prohibit cars from parking on nature strips,' the council said. 'Council is obliged to enforce these rules across Brimbank, including in Parry Drive, Sunshine West.' Kellyanne Conway ridiculed Hillary Clinton's roadshow as 'unfortunate and graceless' and her rhetoric as a 'little bit dangerous' as she tore into the former presidential candidate on Wednesday for her comments on civility. Clinton angered the right when she told CNN in a Tuesday interview: 'You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. That's why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate, that's when civility can start again.' Conway, a top adviser to the president and Trump's general election campaign chief, fired back on 'Fox & Friends' in an interview where she said, 'I think her discourse now is a little bit dangerous. I don't like the implications there.' 'It's one thing to call us deplorable, irredeemable, laugh at people who don't have all the privileges that she has had, with her Ivy League law degree and through her marriage to a much more popular man who was a two-term president that she'll never be,' Conway asserted. 'I don't like that kind of talk, and I avoid it.' After the interview, Conway charged that Clinton's remarks are 'less inspiring and more inciting' as she spoke to DailyMail.com in front of the White House. 'I know she and her husband are going to go out there and have a 13-stop tour. She needs to be seated next to him, I guess to get the crowds in there,' Conway scoffed. Kellyanne Conway ridiculed Hillary Clinton's roadshow as 'unfortunate and graceless' and her rhetoric as a 'little bit dangerous' as she tore into the former presidential candidate on Wednesday for her comments on civility Conway insisted that she neither thinks nor talks about Clinton that often - just before she rattled off the details of the ex-secretary of state's multi-city speaking extravaganza. 'I have a pretty good idea why the Democratic candidates this time aren't asking her to campaign with them, which is rich and ironic,' she said of the mid-term elections. 'And it's one thing to disagree, but you ought to disagree civilly, and her saying you can't be civil to a party that was looking to destroy your ideas is very dangerous. It takes it to a different level.' She went on to ask why Clinton doesn't do more for women and girls who have been sexually abused. 'I have no idea why she just can't take whatever platform and prestige that she has left and have a little bit more grace and class and try to channel that,' she pondered. Conway said that Clinton needs to 'tamp down the rhetoric' as she unloaded on the former first lady in a driveway gaggle. She had just finished arguing on Fox that Trump 'has called for civility' and has said 'that he represents all Americans' unlike Clinton who 'offends at least one half of the country' every time she opens her mouth, 'I don't see all those Democratic candidates banging down Hillary Clinton's door, asking her to lock arms,' she contended. 'Again, she has to go with her husband to do this 13-city tour, $120 million. And I assume that they're not going to donate to some center on women and girls. I don't see her doing that.' She added: 'I think it's not just unfortunate and graceless, but a little bit dangerous, and I would ask her to check that.' Hillary Clinton had lashed out at Donald Trump on Tuesday morning for his scorched-earth speech at a swearing-in ceremony for Brett Kavanaugh. She also refused comparisons of her husband's accusers to the Supreme Court Justice's and told Democrats they don't need to be civil to Trump The president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was also on the attack The president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was also on the attack on Wednesday morning. 'WOW: Hillary Clinton has said there will be no civility in American politics until Democrats are in control. She is threatening continued obstruction, destruction and incivility unless you do what she wants. Democrat agenda is impeachment; Republican making America even greater,' the former New York City mayor tweeted. Sen. Mitch McConnell struck a similar tone in statements from the Senate floor on Tuesday evening. 'She told CNN exactly how she views millions of Americans who hold different political views than her own,' the top Republican in the upper chamber said. 'No peace until they get their way? More of these unhinged tactics? Apparently, these are the left's rallying cry.' President Trump also ripped into Hillary Clinton this week after she called him out in the interview for his scorched-earth speech and apology 'on behalf of our nation' to Brett Kavanaugh at a swearing-in ceremony for the new Supreme Court justice. Clinton castigated it a 'political rally' that 'undermined' the integrity of the court. Responding to the comment from his former 2016 rival on Tuesday morning Trump said: 'I guess thats why she lost. She doesnt get it. She never did.' 'I knew that a long time ago. Hillary never got it thats why she lost. Anything else?' he asked reporters in the Oval Office, who were there to see the president announce the departure of U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. At a rally on Tuesday evening he revisited the topic. Mocking the Clinton's latest money-making venture he said, 'Theyre doing a tour, her and her husband or something. She made a statement, some ridiculous I said, "Well thats why she lost the election. Shes never gotten it.' The Council Bluffs, Iowa, crowd broke out into cries of 'Lock her up!' Clinton had lashed out at Trump on Tuesday morning over the Kavanaugh event. 'What was done last night in the White House was a political rally. It further undermined the image and integrity of the court,' she said. 'And that troubles me greatly. It saddens me. Because our judicial system has been viewed as one of the main pillars of our constitutional government,' Clinton told CNN. The former first lady argued that Trump has continually 'insulted, attacked, demeaned women' throughout his career, including when he ran against her, and he's 'been true to form' since he took control of the Oval Office. 'So I don't know how people are going to react to it,' she said of Monday night's speech. 'I think, given our divides, it will pretty much fall predictably between those who are for and those who are against.' Asked about Clinton's comments on Tuesday morning, Trump said: 'I guess thats why she lost. She doesnt get it. She never did' President Donald Trump made the comments about Clinton from the Oval Office as he announced that he has accepted the resignation of Nikki Haley as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations She slapped the GOP as an 'ideological party that is driven by the lust for power, that is funded by corporate interest who want a government that does its bidding' in comments in which she claimed that Democrats 'can be civil, but you cant overcome what they intend to do unless you win elections.' And she outright rejected comparisons of her husband, an admitted adulterer who settled a sex assault case out of court and lost his law licence, to President Trump. 'Bill had to be incredibly strong, first, to get elected, then to get reelected, and to survive. And it was not easy by any means, obviously. But he really believes that Democrats have to be tougher and have to stand up to the bullying and the intimidation,' he stated. 'So, I think Bill has things to say about his own experience and how it applies here. I will, certainly, have a lot to say about whats going on in the world today based on, not only my Secretary of State years, but my travels, and my book, "What Happened," which came out in paperback which has an afterward where I talk about these threats to democracy.' Clinton spoke to CNN a day after it was reported that she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would headline a multi-city tour for the first time, beginning next month. They're selling tickets to the roadshow that range in price from $70 to $700 at venues in Canada in the United States. The tour kicks off on Sunday, Nov. 18 in Las Vegas, Nevada. They're promoting the events as a 'one-of-a-kind conversation with two individuals who have helped shape our world and had a front seat to some of the most important moments in modern history' and pledging to 'provide a unique perspective on the past, and remarkable insight into where we go from here.' Hillary and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, are seen here on Oct. 3 in New York City. They said this week that they would headline a multi-city tour together in the U.S. and Canada The former secretary of state has found her perspective on Kavanaugh in demand since the judge complained in Senate Judiciary testimony that sexual assault accusations levied at him were a 'calculated and orchestrated political hit' and 'revenge on behalf of the Clintons' by Democrats who can't let go of Hillary's election loss and his work Ken Starr. 'Boy, Ill tell you, they give us a lot of credit,' she said last week at the Atlantic Festival. 'Thirty-six years ago, we started this against him,' she mocked with laughter. Kavanaugh assisted with the Starr investigation of the Clintons in the '90s. The probe began with real estate purchases and uncovered Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The House of Representatives brought articles of impeachment against the sitting president who was allowed to finish out his term after a vote of confidence in the Senate. Bill Clinton has lamented that he was 'dead broke' when he left office as a result of the mile-high legal bills. His wife openly opposed Kavanaugh's nomination over his stances on birth control and abortion before Ford and two other women ever spoke out. She said at the Atlantic Festival that she found Ford's testimony a week prior to be 'very credible' and her presentation to the Senate to 'be very convincing.' 'I felt a great swell of pride that she would be willing to put herself out there under these circumstances,' Clinton said. Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, right, ceremonially swears-in Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, as Ashley Kavanaugh holds the Bible while daughters Margaret, left, and Liza, look on. Trump told the family on Monday that he was sorry for their humiliation Trump, however, said that he was ashamed of the proceedings as he offered a public apology to Kavanaugh on Monday evening for the humiliation that his wife and daughters were subjected to during one of the most brutal battles over a Supreme Court seat that the nation has ever seen. In remarks from the East Room before the newest addition to the court's ceremonial swearing-in, Trump said he was sorry that Kavanaugh's wife, Ashley, and his daughters, Margaret and Liza, had to witness their father deny a slew of sexual assault allegations on national television. 'On behalf of our nation, I would like to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure,' the president said during a primetime address. Trump said Kavanaugh deserved 'a fair and dignified evaluation' not the 'campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception' that he was hit with by Democrats. 'A man or a woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty,' the president said to applause from supporters and staff stuffed into the room. 'You, sir, under historic scrutiny were proven innocent,' Trump declared. Addressing the controversy around his appointment, Kavanaugh admitted that it had 'tested' him in remarks of his own after his second swearing-in this week but he insisted there is 'no bitterness' in the speech before his peers that brought tears to his eyes. 'The Senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional. That process is over,' he said. 'On the Supreme Court, I will seek to be a force for stability and unity. My goal is to be a great justice for all Americans and for all of America. I will work very hard to achieve that goal.' President Trump opened his remarks at a public swearing-in ceremony for Justice Brett Kavanaugh with an apology for the way the judge, who was accused of sexual assault by several women, was treated in his confirmation process 'On behalf of our nation, I would like to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure,' the president said during a primetime address Sitting in the front left section were sitting Supreme Court Justices including Chief Justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Kavanaugh said his approach to the court remains the same and that he will act as an 'impartial decider' and be perform his duties 'independent' of any political party Kavanaugh's family sat in the front until it was time for them to him on stage while he took the Judicial Oath. His wife and daughters stood proudly by his side as his pledged to faithfully execute the law. In subsequent remarks, Kavanaugh vowed to move past the controversy that overshadowed his experience and qualifications while taking the time to highlight his across-the-board hiring of women to serve as his Supreme Court clerks and his support for women's equality. He did not mention the sexual assault allegations that delayed what was initially expected to be a party-line but routine vote to confirm the president's pick for the bench. Nor did he respond to Democratic complaints after his combative Senate Judiciary Committee testimony that he does not have the temperament to sit on the court. Speaking directly to country he sought reassure those Americans who share those beliefs that he can and will be a devoted judge who isn't beholden to any ideology and will decide cases based on the national interest. 'Every litigant int the Supreme Court can be assured that I will listen to their arguments with respect and an open mind,' he pledged. Kavanaugh said his approach to the court remains the same as it always has been. He pledged that he will act as a 'neutral and impartial decider' and be perform his duties 'independent' of political considerations. 'Although the Senate confirmation process tested me as it has tested others, it did not change me,' he asserted. 'A judge must interpret statutes as written. And a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.' The conservative judge who had served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals until his confirmation pointedly also promised to 'interpret the law, not make the law' in a nod to the right's long-standing concerns about judicial activism. 'As in the past, our nation today faces challenges and divisions. But I am an optimist,' he continued. 'I live on the sunrise side of the mountain. I see the day that is coming, not the day that is gone. I am optimistic about the future of America and the future of our independent judiciary, the crown jewel of our constitutional republic.' He told President Trump it was a 'great honor' to be serving on the court as he spoke from the podium for the second time since his July 9 appointment. 'I am grateful for your steadfast, unwavering support throughout this process,' he told the president who refused to withdraw the nomination in the face of troubling sex assault allegations and dueling testimony with accuser Christine Blasey Ford. 'And I'm grateful to you and Mrs. Trump for the exceptional, overwhelming courtesy you have extended to my family and me.' Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson announced on Tuesday that he would be playing the titular hero in the Netflix film 'John Henry and the Statesman' Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is getting flack for casting himself as an African-American folklore legend in an upcoming Netflix film he is also producing. Johnson announced on Tuesday that he would be playing the titular hero in the Netflix film 'John Henry and the Statesman.' 'When the man comes around. Honored to play a childhood hero of mine, JOHN HENRY & his disruptive band of fellow folklore legends from around the world,' the 46-year-old actor said on Twitter, along with a brief teaser trailer. '@Netflix are the perfect partners and platform to build.' On Instagram, he added: 'My dad would sing 'Big John' to me every time he would put me to bed.' The legend of John Henry tells the tale of a black steel-driver, and former slave, who raced against a steam-powered rock drilling machine supposedly in the 1800s. The legend of John Henry tells the tale of a black steel-driver, and former slave, who raced against a steam-powered rock drilling machine in the 1800s Henry would beat the machine, only for his heart to give out from the stress. He died with his hammer in his hand. Depictions of Henry show him as a young, dark-skinned black man. Actors Danny Glover and Roger Aaron Brown have both played the strapping hero on-screen and Henry was even featured on a postage stamp in 1996. Depictions of Henry show him as a young, dark-skinned black man. Actor Danny Glover played Henry in 1986's 'Tall Tales and Legends' Johnson is a biracial man - his father is black-Canadian, while his mother is Samoan - and he has played a slue of racially ambiguous roles. And fans of the folk tale brought that to the forefront of their arguments as to why it was questionable that the Moana star was playing such a historic role. 'John Henry has always been depicted as dark-skinned but o k a y,' said #KeepIt host, Ira Madison III. The sentiment was shared by Mikki Kendall, who added: 'Nope. He's great, but he's definitely not John Henry. This is a wonderful time for someone new to break in. John Henry was dark skinned & young.' 'Historically, John Henrys always been depicted as having a *very* dark skin complexion and while Dwayne Johnson is undeniably a black man, this is all quite (face with monocle emoji),' said Charles Pulliam-Moore. 'Im legitimately curious who the target audience for this movie is meant to be.' Roger Aaron Brown played the hero in the 1995 film 'Tall Tale' from Disney 'Check the source songs and stories. John Henry has always been imagined as a dark-skinned man,' another user said. 'Thats not up for debate. However, it is hilarious to see the same people who constantly tell dark-skinned women to just get over it throwing a hissy fit.' Henry was featured on a postage stamp in 1996 Many took issue with Johnson taking the role, comparing him to stars like Zoe Saldana and Amandla Stenberg who have received criticism for taking roles meant for someone described as having dark skin. Saldana was even blasted for her role as jazz icon Nina Simone, with the legend's estate telling the actress to 'Go to hell!' A user asserted: 'The Rock is black when it's profitable and racially ambiguous when it isn't. We need a proud, strong, all-day black man to play John Henry.' 'How can you play BOTH a Polynesian demigod in "Moana" and a black former slave, John Henry? I'll tell you why,' commented another user. '#onedroprule makes biracials "chameleons". And they will have NO problem taking those roles.' Several users shared names of actors they felt would have been perfect for the role, with 'This is Us' star Sterling K. Brown and Idris Elba leading the pack One user said: 'The Rock as John Henry?!!! I bet Morris Chesnut somewhere p***ed!' 'John Henry has always been depicted as dark-skinned but o k a y,' said #KeepIt host, Ira Madison III The sentiment was shared by Mikki Kendall, who added: 'Nope. He's great, but he's definitely not John Henry. This is a wonderful time for someone new to break in. John Henry was dark skinned & young' 'Historically, John Henrys always been depicted as having a *very* dark skin complexion and while Dwayne Johnson is undeniably a black man, this is all quite (face with monocle emoji),' said Charles Pulliam-Moore. 'Im legitimately curious who the target audience for this movie is meant to be' While Johnson produces and stars in the film, Jake Kasdan will be directing. The duo worked together on 2017's Jumanji. Seven Bucks Productions' Dany Garcia has also been tapped for the project, along with Hiram Garcia and Beau Flynn of FlynnPictureCo. 'We have been committed to an international storytelling model for more than a decade, Dany Garcia said, according to Variety. 'Our partnership with Netflix is giving us an incredible opportunity to reach a broad and diverse audience in the most accessible and intimate manner. We are absolutely thrilled with the opportunity.' DailyMail.com has reached out to both Johnson and Netflix for a comment. Five Jehovah's Witnesses have been detained in Russia and charged with possessing weapons and running an extremist group, investigators said on Wednesday, in the latest case targeting the banned religious movement. The Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested in the Kirov region northeast of Moscow, where authorities said they found two grenades and a landmine in searches of their homes. The Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian denomination that originated in the United States in the late 19th century. The Russian authorities consider the movement a totalitarian sect and last year the country's supreme court banned the Jehovah's Witnesses from operating in Russia. Russia's Supreme Court banned the Jehovah's Witnesses movement last year in a landmark ruling 'They had been conducting meetings and called on others to join their organisation,' Yevgenia Vorozhtsova, a spokeswoman for regional investigators, told AFP. She said officials were investigating how the members of the Jehovah's Witnesses had obtained the ammunition. She declined to provide further details. Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a member of the European Association of Jehovah's Christian Witnesses, said it was the first time Russian authorities accused members of the movement of possessing ammunition. 'We were shocked,' he told AFP from the Latvian capital Riga. 'It is both funny and strange. Why mines?' In a statement on Tuesday, investigators said the members of the Jehovah's Witnesses wanted the movement to continue operating in Kirov and nearby towns. Authorities said they organised clandestine meetings between August 2017 and September this year at which they sang hymns and read 'extremist' literature banned in Russia. They also collected more than 500,000 rubles ($7,500) in donations from supporters. The five have been detained and charged on suspicion of running and financing an 'extremist organisation', the statement said. Sivulskiy said the crackdown on Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia intensified after President Vladimir Putin was re-elected for a fourth term in March. Around 25 of their members are now in pre-trial detention in Russia, he said. In a report earlier this year, Human Rights Watch accused the Russian authorities of a 'sweeping campaign' of harassment and persecution against the movement. The Jehovah's Witnesses say they now number more than 170,000 in Russia, a country of 144 million people where most are Orthodox Christians. Thousands more of their members have fled to other countries. ABC News has released the first segment of its much anticipated interview with First Lady Melania Trump. In the preview of her special, set to air on Friday, the First Lady is asked if she supports the #MeToo movement, which was revived on the hells of over a dozen women accusing her own husband of sexual assault or harassment. 'I support the women and they need to be heard. We need to support them, and also men, not just women,' explains Melania. 'We need to have hard evidence that, you know, that if you are accused of something, show the evidence.' The interview took place while the First Lady was in Kenya, and she can be seen wearing the same Ralph Lauren riding boots and pants as well as her Pith helmet. 'Being Melania The First Lady' will air this Friday at 10pm on ABC, and the network claims that no question was off the table. Scroll down for video Prove it: Melania Trump says on her ABC special (above in a preview that aired on GMA) that will air on Friday that women need to show more evidence when coming forward with sexual misconduct claims So much support: 'I support the women and they need to be heard. We need to support them, and also men, not just women,' explains the First Lady (above with Tom Llamas) Riddles: 'I do stand with women but we need to show the evidence. You cannot just say to somebody, I was, you know, sexually assaulted and or you did that,' she adds (First Lady in Egypt on Saturday above) Chief National Affairs Correspondent Tom Llamas, who conducts the interview, points out that her answer to the #MeToo question might be seen as not supporting victims, a concern that the First Lady brushes aside. 'I do stand with women but we need to show the evidence. You cannot just say to somebody, I was, you know, sexually assaulted and or you did that to me,' she says. 'Because sometimes the media goes too far and the way they portray some stories, it's not correct. It's not right.' Prior to that, The First Lady was seen discussing how hard her job has been in the White House when it comes to finding partners with for her Be Best initiative. 'It's sad to see that organizations and foundations that I want to partner with chose not to because of the administration,' says the First Lady. 'I feel they are choosing the politics over helping others.' When asked to name a charity or initiative that turned her down, the First Lady declines. 'I'm not going to talk about it, they know who they are,' she tells Llamas. 'I'm not going to put them out in front of the world.' A preview aired on Tuesday also showed that the First Lady is asked about the state of her marriage and her husband's infidelity. 'You're not the first first lady to have to deal with your husband's infidelities, has this put a strain on your marriage,' he later asks the First Lady. The preview ends with him asking about 'the jacket,' which the First Lady wore soon after her husband's justice department enacted an order which allowed parents and their children to be separated at the border. On a visit to one of the facilities housing those children, The First Lady wore a Zara jackets which read: 'I Really Don't Care Do You?' People, it turned out, did in fact care. And lastly, Llamas asks the third Mrs. Trump what the biggest misconception is about her. Pressing questions: The First Lady is asked about the state of her marriage and her husband's infidelity (pair on left in September) in the interview and that jacket (right in June) It has been over a year since Melania last gave an interview with a major network, and almost all of her appearances on television have been by her husband's side. Last June, the First Lady spoke with 'Fox & Friends' host Ainsley Earhardt in a segment that was filmed during the annual Congressional picnic. In is she revealed that she could not be happier, just two weeks after moving into the White House with son Barron. 'We are enjoying it very much,' Melania said then of her time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When asked how her then 11-year-old son was handling the move, Melania said: 'He loves it, yes all settled. He loves it here.' 'I'm so busy and we're doing so many great stuff. So it's really special place and I love it here,' said Melania, who was born in Slovenia. She became a permanent resident of the United States back in 2001, and five years later she was able to obtain her citizenship after marrying President Trump. Melania, who is only the second first lady to have been born outside the country, also spoke a bit about putting together her first Congressional picnic. 'Tonight, it's a great picnic, Congressional, picnic with all of us getting together,' said Melania. 'It's New York City team. And we have carousel and great stuff outside.' That interview with 'Fox & Friends' was far briefer and toned down than her chat with ABC, and was filmed in the largely nondescript Map Room of the White House. It was also more Melania making a cameo in the interview, with a majority of the time being taken up by President Trump as he talked about healthcare, James Comey and what he believes are his biggest accomplishments since taking office. The First Lady, who was asked just four questions during the 20 minute interview, smiled and nodded along approvingly as her husband spoke. But there Donald will not be making an appearance in Friday's interview, instead allowing the limelight to fall solely on Melania. Theresa May will today ask her Brexit 'war cabinet' to support a plan to keep Britain in a customs union, after the DUP last night abstained from a Commons vote and threatened to bring the Government down. The PM will ask ministers to back an interim deal, keeping the whole of the UK in the EU customs area in order to avoid a 'hard border' in Northern Ireland, which would remain in the single market until a permanent deal with Brussels was agreed. It came after the DUP - whose 10 MPs are keeping Theresa May in power - did not take part in a fairly routine vote on a Labour amendment to the Agriculture Bill last night. Sources within the DUP said it was a warning shot to the PM and that they could bring down the Government by voting against the Budget on October 29. The party's Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said: 'We will not be bullied into propping up a soft-touch Government which gives in to the EU's demands. Theresa May, pictured leaving 10 Downing Street ahead of PMQs today, relies on the DUP's 10 MPs to govern after her party failed to win an overall majority at last year's general election Yesterday the DUP's leader Arlene Foster, pictured on a visit to Brussels, warned that her line against anything that would risk splitting the UK is 'blood red' What would Theresa May's backstop deal mean? The PM's backstop proposal would see the whole of the UK remain in the customs union and Northern Ireland remain in the single market. The current customs union guarantees tariff-free trade with no border checks. Keeping the UK in the customs union would avoid a 'hard' Irish border as goods would still be moving within the tariff-free zone. But it imposes a common external tariff which stops individual members striking their own free trade deals outside the bloc. Membership of the single market - which would only apply in Northern Ireland - allows for free trade within the EU and European Economic Area. It requires members to sign up to the 'four freedoms' including the free movement of people. Northern Ireland's membership would reduce friction on the Irish border but lead to greater checks across the Irish Sea. Boris Johnson and others support a Canada-style deal which would see Britain make its own trade agreement with Brussels. It would provide less access than the single market but give Britain complete freedom from EU regulations. Brussels says border controls would be required between Northern Ireland and the Republic to protect the single market and customs union. These would include health and sanitary inspections for animals and animal products. Under Mrs May's Chequers proposals Britain would remain in a 'combined customs territory' with the EU. Advertisement 'Now is not the time to try and sell even more compromise to satisfy the appetite of the EU to humiliate our country. 'The road which the leaks and briefings is outlining is the road to parliamentary defeat for any deal which the Prime Minister brings forward. 'If the Government is putting these proposals into the public domain to test the water, our advice is to get its toe out quickly or it is going to get burnt! 'She will not have DUP support regardless of whether the Government tries to bribe, bully or browbeat us into accepting it.' Under the PM's 'backstop' plans Britain would remain in the customs union until a permanent trade deal with Brussels was reached. The solution is intended to avoid a hard Irish border as the UK and Republic of Ireland would still be part of the tariff-free zone. However Northern Ireland remaining in the single market after mainland Britain had left would lead to greater checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea, further straining relations between the Tories and the DUP. The backstop would remain in force while negotiations over a free trade deal take place, which could take years. Eleven of Mrs May's most senior ministers will go to Downing Street at 5pm today for what Government sources said was an 'update'. The attendees will be the 12 ministers who formed the Brexit 'war Cabinet' which drafted Mrs May's proposal for a deal with the EU before it was agreed by the whole Cabinet at Chequers in the summer. In addition to the Prime Minister, the attendees will be Philip Hammond, Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt, Liam Fox, Michael Gove, David Lidington, Gavin Williamson, Greg Clark, Karen Bradley, Dominic Raab and Julian Smith. Cabinet sources told the newspaper they suspect the meeting has been called to bind the ministers into the proposed backstop plan so it can be presented having been decided, to the full Cabinet next week. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson slammed the plan, reigniting his row with Mrs May by saying the deal would make Britain a 'permanent EU colony'. Mr Johnson, who supports a 'Canada plus' or 'SuperCanada' deal, said: 'In the referendum both sides said Leave meant leaving the customs union and single market. 'Yet this backstop inevitably means Chequers, staying in both, no say in either, and no right to escape.' Yesterday the DUP's leader Arlene Foster warned that her line against anything that would risk splitting the UK is 'blood red'. Although the DUP has only 10 MPs they hold the balance of the power because the Conservatives fell nine short of a majority with 317 MPs. They agreed to support Mrs May after the general election after she sanctioned to a 1billion deal for extra spending on Northern Ireland. A source told the Telegraph that DUP members' abstention in the Commons last night 'gives an indication that we are not reassured' by a meeting with Government whips. The DUP met senior Tories including Jacob Rees-Mogg to discuss the proposals yesterday as party sources said it would be 'unacceptable' for Northern Ireland and mainland Britain to be 'treated differently' under a Brexit deal. . The 1billion deal with the DUP keeping Theresa May in power The DUP's MPs are keeping the Conservatives in power thanks to a deal last year to spend an extra 1billion on Northern Ireland. Theresa May's failed election gamble left the Conservatives without a majority in the House of Commons. But with the DUP and its 10 MPs agreeing to support the Tories Mrs May can command a narrow majority. The deal announced last June was immediately branded a 'bung'. It also included new flexibility over 500million of previously allocated cash. Labour said the deal could eventually be worth as much as 2billion, which would normally imply 59billion of extra spending in England, 6billion in Scotland and 3billion in Wales. The agreement guaranteed the DUP would vote with the Tories on the Queen's Speech, the Budget, and legislation relating to Brexit and national security. Advertisement Losing a vote on the Budget would previously have been seen as a confidence issue, leading to the end of the government. However, Downing Street suggested that was not the case any more and Mrs May would still press on as PM. 'It is unacceptable that we would be treated differently to the rest of the UK,' a DUP source told Sky News and the BBC. 'We will not be bounced into anything. If Theresa May doesn't take our concerns on board, she may not be the leader to take us through Brexit.' A DUP spokesman said: 'The Government is well aware of our position on this issue. Our position hasn't changed and we don't expect the Government will change its position.' Mr Barnier told a business audience in Brussels that agreement on a withdrawal deal was 'within reach' at the crunch October 17-18 summit of the European Council. But he made clear that the EU envisages a deal involving new customs and regulatory checks on goods travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland. The checks would include health and sanitary inspections for animals and animal products arriving in ports like Larne and Belfast from the rest of the UK. At a bad-tempered PMQs yesterday, Mrs May defended her approach and urged Remainers and Eurosceptics to act in the 'national interest'. But in a stark message to MPs hoping to overturn the result of the referendum she also warned: 'It is our duty to ensure that we leave.' Mrs May insists she will not accept EU demands for Northern Ireland to be hived off from the rest of the UK within the EU's customs jurisdiction. DUP leader Arlene Foster (pictured in Brussels this week) has warned that her line against anything that would risk splitting the UK is 'blood red' At a bad-tempered PMQs today, Mrs May defended her approach and urged Remainers and Eurosceptics to act in the 'national interest Michel Barnier (pictured in Brussels today) is leading the negotiations from the EU side Barnier warns 'decisive' progress is needed on Brexit within a week Michel Barnier today warned that 'decisive' progress on Brexit is needed before next week's EU summit. The negotiator delivered the message as he briefed top officials in Brussels behind closed doors. The commission's top civil servant Martin Selmayr also urged the Eurocrats to step up preparations for a no-deal outcome. The two sides still seem deadlocked on issues including the Irish border with just a week to go before the crunch summit. But Mr Barnier suggested there needed to be movement in order to pave the way for a deal at a special summit in November. Reports had suggested that Mr Barnier would present a draft paper setting out EU proposals for future trade. However, that has been delayed amid fears it could fuel tensions. Speaking after Mr Barnier's briefing, Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters: 'He recalled that decisive progress must be made in time for the October European Council next week. 'Negotiations at technical level will continue this week.' Mr Selmayr provided an update on preparations for Brexit, and reminded commissioners of 'the importance for all stakeholders to prepare for all outcomes at all levels', said Mr Schinas. Advertisement Her alternative 'backstop' plan is designed to fall away in favour of a Chequers-style trade arrangement - that would effectively keep the UK in the single market for goods to keep the borders open. However, even if Mrs May can secure an agreement with the EU and win over the DUP, it is far from certain that she will be able to get it past Parliament. Jeremy Corbyn says he would oppose arrangements that do not keep the UK more closely tied to Brussels - although there are claims that dozens of Labour MPs could defy him. Ms Foster, who is in Brussels for meetings, said today: 'Firstly, it is clear from our meetings that any form of border in Irish Sea will impede access for Northern Ireland to new UK trade deals. That removes one of the key benefits of leaving the EU. 'Secondly, best of both worlds is not on offer. The EU wants a one-way turnstile from GB and one-way rules from Brussels. 'Thirdly, if we have a regulatory border, the problem is not on day one after leaving the problems arise in the years after we leave. 'Northern Ireland will have to follow EU rules, with no power to influence them and have limited access to the UK single market.' The issues could come to a head at Cabinet on Tuesday, with several ministers on 'resignation watch'. Government sources told The Times they were expecting to be ambushed and told to get on board with the plan or resign. 'Will they 'do a Chequers' and say back it or f*** off,' the source asked. Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt raised fresh doubts about Mrs May's position yesterday by repeatedly stopping short of giving explicit backing to her Chequers blueprint. Meanwhile, former Brexit secretary David Davis warned of 'dire' consequences for Conservatives at the next general election if the Government sticks to its negotiating stance on EU withdrawal. Senior ministers Jeremy Hunt (left), Gavin Williamson (centre) and Philip Hammond (right) will be at the 'war cabinet' meeting where Mrs May will present her backstop proposals Michael Gove, Karen Bradley and Sajid Javid will also discuss the PM's proposals on Thursday In a letter to fellow Tory MPs, he said a deal based on Mrs May's Chequers plan would deliver 'none of the benefits of Brexit' and reduce the UK to being 'a rule-taker from Brussels'. The missive part of a coordinated 'grid' of action by Eurosceptics designed to force a change of course from Mrs May. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has tried to cool tempers by urging unity behind Mrs May's efforts to secure a Brexit deal. Thirty rebels who 'want a new referendum' By Jason Groves and David Churchill for the Daily Mail A band of more than 30 Remain-supporting Tory MPs are forming a movement to bring about a second referendum. Organisers say the group will vote down whatever Brexit deal Theresa May secures from the European Union. But the ultimate goal will be to hold another referendum on Brexit. The group is a rival for the Brexit-backing European Research Group led by Jacob Rees-Mogg. Those involved have not yet agreed a name, but one joked it could be the 'Patriots' to rile members of the Eurosceptic group. The final number of Tory rebels is likely to depend on the outcome of the negotiations, but organisers say the current figure is at least 30. Possible leaders in the frame include former education secretary Justine Greening who was the first MP to declare for another referendum. The group is planning to agree a name and organise a whipping operation by the end of the month in time to organise for the parliamentary vote on the final Brexit terms. Advertisement 'I think that the Prime Minister is doing an excellent job in difficult circumstances and I think that she has got to make the judgments about how we land a good deal, so I'm backing the Prime Minister to get a good deal and I think the whole nation should get behind her,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'We are entering the end phase of these negotiations, we all know that EU negotiations tend to run up to the last minute and the person to make the judgments on getting the best deal in the national interest is the Prime Minister.' In the Commons last night, Mr Raab differences remained between the UK and EU on the withdrawal agreement but insisted 'we are closing in on workable solutions'. He told Tory Brexiteers their calls for a Canada-style trade deal would be a 'shortcut to no deal'. Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney warned of 'carnage' if Britain crashed out of the EU but said he believed it was 'unlikely' that would happen. Mrs May told her Cabinet yesterday that Britain will not accept an EU withdrawal deal without a 'precise' political declaration setting out how its requirements on trade and security will be delivered. Despite optimistic comments from senior EU figures about the prospect of progress at the October 17-18 European Council summit, the PM made clear that agreement has not yet been reached on key issues including the Irish border. Arlene Foster (pictured left with DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds) has warned Mrs May to respect the DUP's 'blood red' line that no new checks are brought in between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK after Brexit Former Brexit Secretary David Davis warned Chequers could cost the Tories the next election in a letter to fellow MPs yesterday Islamist terrorism remains the biggest threat facing Britain - but the country is at growing risk from right-wing fanatics, the UK's terror watchdog today warns. Max Hill QC, Britain's independent reviewer of terror legislation, used his final report to warn that the threat from extreme right-wing terrorism is now 'considerable'. And he also warned that sectarian violence in Northern Ireland continues to pose a risk after it surged in recent years. Mr Hill said the right-wing terror threat has grown as part of a backlash against the bloody Islamist terror attacks on London and Manchester last year, which killed dozens and injured many more. He also revealed that the number of terror arrests rose dramatically last year as Britain was struck by four deadly attacks across the two cities. His annual report lays bare the sheer scale of the violent threat which lurks on Britain's streets. The shadowy far-right neo Nazi group National Action, which was founded in 2013, was made a banned organisation in December 2016. Scroll down for video Britain is facing a growing threat from extreme right-wing terrorism which has surged in the wake of last year's attacks on London and Manchester, Britain's terror watchdog today warned (pictured, an armed police officer stands guard in Manchester after last year's terror attack) Labour MP Jo Cox (pictured outside Parliament) was murdered by far right fanatic Thomas Mair (pictured right) shortly before the Brexit referendum in 2016 Mr Hill said: 'The threat we face from extreme right wing terrorism within the UK is considerable, and in my clear view it has grown in reaction to the terrorist atrocities on Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and at Manchester Arena last year. What were the terror attacks which hit Britain in 2017? Here is the list of terror attacks which wreaked carnage on Britain's streets in 2017: Westminster, March 22 Khalid Masood struck at the heart of British democracy - the Houses of Parliament He drove a hire car across Westminster Bridge, killing four pedestrians on the pavement and injuring dozens more. He then leapt out of his crashed car and ran into Parliament where he stabbed to death police officer Keith Palmer. Manchester, 22 May Salman Abedi blew himself up outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester killing 22 people - including many children. The youngest victim, Saffie Roussos, was just eight years old. London Bridge, June 3 Three killers ploughed their cars int pedestrians in London Bridge before going on a bloody knife rampage in Borough Market. Rachid Redouane, Khuram Butt and Youssef Zaghba - who were all wearing fake explosive vests - killed eight people before they were shot dead by armed police. Finsbury Park, June 19 Far-right fanatic Darren Osborne drove his van into a Mosque in Finsbury Park, killing father-of-six Makram Ali and injuring several others. Advertisement 'Terrorism takes many forms. Extreme right wing ideology breeds terrorism, and must be dealt with comprehensively.' He added: 'Daesh continued to represent the most significant terrorist threat, but not the only threat. 'Beneath that overall headline, the threat level for Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Great Britain remained at Substantial, meaning an attack was a strong possibility, and the threat in Northern Ireland remained at Severe throughout 2017. 'Further, the UK faced a continuing threat of violence and terrorism from extremism, including the extreme right wing and far right. 'Evidence for this is provided by the proscription of the extreme right wing group National Action in December 2016.' He also revealed that the number of terror arrests dramatically increased last year - rising from 261 in 2016 to 412 in 2017. Mr Hill's report is his final assessment as the government's independent reviewer of terror legislation before he moves to lead the Crown Prosecution Service. He will become director of public prosecutions, replacing Alison Saunders in the senior post. Mrs Saunders was forced to deny she had been forced out of the job amid widespread criticism at a string of failed prosecutions. She had presided over scandals on collapsed rape cases and false child sexual abuse allegations, and budget and staff cuts. Mr Hill was appointed the UK's terror watchdog in February last year - and was in post for one of the bloodiest years on Britain's streets for some time. The UK was hit by five major terror attacks last year - causing carnage which killed dozens and injured many more. The year of bloodshed began on March 22 last year when Khalid Masood struck at the heart of British democracy - the Houses of Parliament. Who is Max Hill QC, the independent reviewer of terror law? Max Hill (file picture) was appointed the Government's independent reviewer of terror legislation in February 2017 - a turbulent and deadly year for Britain's streets Britain's terror watchdog Max Hill is a leading QC who has prosecuted many terrorists. He secured the conviction of the failed 21/7 bombers - terrorists who plotted to blow up a London tube train in July 2005. He was appointed the Government's independent reviewer of terror legislation in February 2017 - a turbulent and deadly year for Britain's streets. The UK saw four deadly terror attacks strike across London and Manchester that year - killing dozens and injuring many more. He announced in July that he will be leaving his post to become the new head of the Crown Prosecution Service after Alison Saunders stepped down after a series of scandals. Mrs Saunders had faced widespread criticism for overseeing a series of botched investigations into historic sex crimes branded 'witch hunts' by her critics. Advertisement He drove a hire car across Westminster Bridge, killing four pedestrians on the pavement and injuring dozens more. He then leapt out of his crashed car and ran into Parliament where he stabbed to death police officer Keith Palmer. Just two months later, suicide bomber Salman Abedi blew himself up outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester killing 22 people - including many children. The youngest victim, Saffie Roussos, was just eight years old. On June 3 London was again plunged into terror when three killers ploughed their cars into pedestrians in London Bridge before going on a bloody knife rampage in Borough Market. Rachid Redouane, Khuram Butt and Youssef Zaghba - who were all wearing fake explosive vests - killed eight people before they were shot dead by armed police. A fortnight later far-right fanatic Darren Osborne drove his van into a Mosque in Finsbury Park, killing father-of-six Makram Ali and injuring several others. Mr Hill's report says the threat posed by Islamist terror groups such as Daesh - also known as ISIS or Islamic State - remains the biggest danger to Britain's streets. In his lengthy report which looks at how Britain's terror laws are operating, Mr Hill also revealed a woman who was arrested in the wake of the Manchester attack has received compensation after it was established she was not involved and police accepted her arrest was 'in effect collateral damage'. Mr Hill also suggested that Britain may need to change its definition of terrorism in the wake of the Novichok poison outrage. Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left fighting for their lives after being slipped the deadly nerve agent by two Russian spies in Salisbury in March this year. And British mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after finding the perfume bottle containing the Novichok - the most deadly poison ever invented - in Amesbury. Mr Hill said: 'It is arguable that the situation changed with events in Salisbury in March 2018 and Amesbury at the end of June. Britain was hit by five major terror attacks last year - causing carnage which killed dozens and injuring many more (pictured, mourners light candles for those killed at the Ariana Grande terror attack in May last year) 'The Novichok poisonings, and the question of the perpetrators and their origin or sponsorship, have inflamed the issue of what terrorism means, and whether our statutory definition provided by Parliament in 2000 works equally for state terrorism and non-state terrorism.' May's crackdown on streaming terror material online could backfire, watchdog warns Theresa May's mission to crack down on terror content shared online risks backfiring by driving the problem underground, the terror watchdog today warned. Earlier this year the Government unveiled the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill. It would update the offence of obtaining information likely to be useful to a terrorist to cover terrorist material that is just viewed or streamed over the internet, rather than downloaded to form a permanent record. Max Hill QC, Britain's independent reviewer of terror legislation, said in his annual report: 'Where these awful crimes are facilitated by the use of social media, we want to close down the criminals' ability to communicate. 'And yet, we must recognise that policing the internet, and controlling social media comes at a very high price if it interferes with the freedom of communication which every citizen enjoys, and which is also enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. 'This is uncertain territory. Driving material, however offensive, from open availability into underground spaces online would be counter-productive if would-be terrorists could still access it. 'And once this material goes underground, it is harder for law enforcement to detect and much harder for good people to argue against it, to show how wrong the radical propaganda really is.' Mr Hill, said he has 'heard the message' about technological advances which 'drive the imperative to intervene as a matter of law enforcement, without which terrorism may thrive unimpeded'. He added: 'However, some of the Bill clauses may have unintended consequences.' Advertisement Mr Hill also warned that Theresa May's mission to crack down on terror content shared online risks backfiring by driving the problem underground. Earlier this year, the Government unveiled the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill. It would update the offence of obtaining information likely to be useful to a terrorist to cover terrorist material that is just viewed or streamed over the internet, rather than downloaded to form a permanent record. He said: 'Where these awful crimes are facilitated by the use of social media, we want to close down the criminals' ability to communicate. 'And yet, we must recognise that policing the internet, and controlling social media comes at a very high price if it interferes with the freedom of communication which every citizen enjoys, and which is also enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. 'This is uncertain territory. Driving material, however offensive, from open availability into underground spaces online would be counter-productive if would-be terrorists could still access it. 'And once this material goes underground, it is harder for law enforcement to detect and much harder for good people to argue against it, to show how wrong the radical propaganda really is.' Mr Hill, said he has 'heard the message' about technological advances which 'drive the imperative to intervene as a matter of law enforcement, without which terrorism may thrive unimpeded'. He added: 'However, some of the Bill clauses may have unintended consequences.' Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: 'It's vital the work the police, security services and Government do to keep the public safe from terrorism is underpinned by effective and proportionate legislation. 'Earlier this year we published our updated counter-terrorism strategy and introduced the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill which will increase sentencing and other terrorism powers, update terrorism offences and ensure we are able to robustly respond to the new ways in which terrorists operate. 'Max Hill's independent oversight has been an important part of this process and I thank him for his efforts during his time as the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation. 'We will consider his recommendations carefully.' Police launched a public appeal, asking residents to check their home sheds He hitchhiked with an unknown woman who dropped him off a friends house Albert Smith, 88, has been missing since early Monday morning in Melbourne An Australian family whose elderly father has disappeared hold grave fears for his safety. Albert Smith, 88, was last seen hitchhiking in Ballan, a small town west of Melbourne, early on Monday morning. He has made no attempt to contact his family since. Scroll down for video Albert Smith (pictured) has been missing in Melbourne since Monday and his family hold grave fears for his safety Albert Smith, 88, (pictured) hasn't been in contact with his family since Monday and they are concerned for his welfare 'We are getting more upset as time goes by,' Wendy Smith, Albert's daughter, said. 'Dad is really frail and he's been without his pain medication for more than 48 hours.' Mr Smith has been recovering from a recent medical procedure and was supposed to return home this week. But with his final appointment looming, he disappeared. Daily Mail Australia understands Smith left the medical facility just after 5am on Monday morning. He walked in a westerly direction for close to half an hour, before he was picked up by a unknown woman. She dropped Mr Smith at a friend's house approximately half an later, but the residence was vacant. Police have since launched a public appeal, in the hope it can generate fresh leads. Wendy Smith, one of Albert's daughters, is hoping her father contacts her family immediately - he has been missing since Monday in Melbourne A recent photo of Albert Smith, 88, who has been missing since Monday in Melbourne - his family are concerned about his welfare 'At this stage we are just looking for another opening where we can start the search from again,' Inspector Brendon McCrory said. Police hold the belief Mr Smith has deliberately gone into hiding. Local residents are encouraged to check their backyards or sheds for the missing elderly man. Anyone with information regarding Mr Smith's whereabouts is urged to contact Ballan Police Station on (03) 5368 1303. Trot Insider has been informed that, effective immediately, Grand River Raceway has closed its racetrack for training. The racing surface will re-open next spring. Grand River officials would like to thank all horse owners and trainers for supporting racing at Grand River Raceway this past season, and look forward to seeing everyone next year. (With files from Grand River Raceway) Ivanka Trump said Tuesday evening after her father talked her up that she won't be moving back to New York City to replace Nikki Haley at the United Nations. That hasn't blunted speculation that she could be under consideration for the diplomatic position, though, after President Trump said she'd be 'dynamite' in the role as he spoke to DailyMail.com and other reporters hours earlier. The president revealed his short-list to be made up of five names later in the day. He said his former Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell is on the list and sitting U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell is not. He shed no light on the identities of the four other contenders. Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway told DailyMail.com on Wednesday morning, 'I'd love to see Ivanka on the shortlist, but I would miss her too much here. She's a cherished colleague. 'But she has taken herself off the list, and she's doing great work here on any number of areas, obviously, with women empowerment and global funding, but also working on the domestic agenda here with the re-skilling and employment opportunities,' Conway asserted. Ivanka Trump said Tuesday evening after her father talked her up that she won't be moving back to New York City to replace outgoing U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley. That hasn't blunted speculation that she could be under consideration, though Ivanka Trump took herself out of the running early Tuesday evening in a tweet that said: 'It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me.' Two hours prior her father had said Ivanka would make a 'incredible' United Nations ambassador but didn't want to be accused of 'nepotism' if he nominated her for the job. 'I've heard how good would Ivanka be,' he said at the White House on Tuesday afternoon before he left for a campaign rally in Iowa. 'Ivanka would be dynamite, but I would be accused of nepotism if you can believe it, right?' he explained. He repeatedly praised his daughter, who he hired to work as a senior adviser in the White House, but expressed his concerns about the criticism he'd face if he named her his top diplomat to the United Nations. 'I think Ivanka would be incredible, but I'm not sure I'd use her because I'd be accused of nepotism even though I'm not sure there's anyone more competent in the world, but that's OK. But we are looking at numerous people. It is interesting,' he said. First daughter Ivanka Trump said Tuesday that she would not be the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Outgoing UN Ambassador Nikki Haley lavished praise on Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who serve as advisers to President Trump, were in the Oval Office to hear Haley's glowing words White House Senior Advisors Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump listen to President Donald Trump announce that he has accepted the resignation of Nikki Haley as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Ivanka Trump's name was floated around Tuesday to replace outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who, in a move that caught many in the administration by surprise, announced she was leaving the plum post at the end of the year. But we are looking at numerous people. And it is interesting, the name you just mentioned. The president said he's considering a close friend of his daughter's. 'Dina is certainly a person I would consider and she is under consideration,' Trump said of his former deputy national security adviser who works for Goldman Sachs now. 'We have, actually, many, many names.' One of those names he's considering is apparently not son-in-law Jared Kushner. 'He's very talented, but no, I haven't only because I know you people. What would you do if I said that?' he said. Trump turned to a reporter for CNN and repeated himself. 'What would they do? Jared or Ivanka. How do you feel about Ivanka?' he asked. 'I think CNN would support her.' A decision is likely to be known soon. The president said earlier Tuesday he expects to name Haley's successor by the end of the month. 'Within the next two or three weeks, maybe sooner,' Trump said. Powell has had conversations with senior members of the administration about possibly replacing Haley, CNBC reported. She left Goldman Sachs to join the Trump administration after serving in the George W. Bush administration. She worked with Ivanka Trump on women's economic empowerment issues and later became deputy national security adviser for strategy before leaving the White House earlier this year to return to the financial firm. She is already living in New York, where the United Nations is headquartered, and is said to have called the ambassadorship her 'dream job.' Conway said Wednesday that Powell 'had a big hand' in creating the president's national security strategy and has an 'incredible resume' to boot. 'There are a number of folks who want to be considered and who the president is considering, so I don't want to get into the name game, that's up to the president,' she said. Conway said Trump will be seeking the counsel of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former U.N. Ambassador and current National Security Advisor John Bolton and Haley about the position. Former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell has also been mentioned for the U.N. job President Trump said Ivanka would be 'dynamite' as U.N. ambassador but he'd be accused of 'nepotism' if he appointed her Haley was in South Carolina over the weekend and tweeted this photo of her with former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, sparking speculation Powell could get her job Haley spent the weekend in her home state of South Carolina and Powell was with her in a photo that Haley tweeted. But it was Ivanka Trump, who does not take a salary for her White House gig, who became the center of attention after Haley lavished praise on the first daughter and her husband Jared Kushner in the Oval Office on Tuesday. 'I can't say enough good things about Jared and Ivanka,' Haley said at the announcement she was leaving her job at the end of the year. 'Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands.' 'And Ivanka has been just a great friend. And they do a lot of things behind the scenes that I wish more people knew about because we're a better country because they're in this administration,' Haley added. She did not offer specific examples of their work, other than the unrevealed Middle East peace plan that Kushner has been working on for nearly two years. The couple was in the Oval Office to hear Haley's glowing words. Ivanka Trump returned the praise in a twitter post with Haley and her husband, adding a picture of the three in the Oval Office. 'Ambassador Haley has served America with dignity + distinction. She is a bold reformer and has been an unwavering champion of truth, principled realism and integrity within the United Nations. Jared and I are grateful for her friendship a true blessing in our lives!,' the first daughter wrote. The U.N. Ambassador job is seen as America's poshest diplomatic posting. The job comes with a government-owned New York City condominium of nearly 6,000-square-feet. The ambassador used to live at the Waldorf Astoria hotel but was relocated due to security concerns after a new ownership group led by a Chinese insurance company bought the storied building. Haley was the first ambassador to live at the new location. The asking price for rent was $58,000 per month, according to a real estate listing. It includes 7 bedrooms, including two for housekeepers, a pair of master suites and dramatic views of New York City's skyline. Nikki Haley's praise for Ivanka and Jared 'It's not just the president I want to thank - the family in general. The first lady has been nothing but very kind to me. I can't say enough good things about Jared and Ivanka. Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands. To redo the NAFTA deal the way he did. What I've done working with him on the Middle East peace plan is so unbelievably well done. Ivanka has been a great friend and they do a lot of things behind the scenes that I wish more people knew about because we're a better country because they're in this administration.' Advertisement Ivanka Trump was with Haley and her father at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York City at the end of September, where she sat in on some of the president's meetings with world leaders and led a few briefs of her own. She delivered an anti-human trafficking speech during her time there, calling it 'the greatest human rights issue of our time.' 'This is a call for action, a call for global unity,' Ivanka Trump said at a panel hosted by Great Britain and Northern Ireland, noting that her father has said he is 'prepared to bring the full force and weight of our government' to combat human trafficking. It's not the first time that the president's elder daughter has been mentioned as a possible Haley replacement. In November of last year, The New York Times reported there was talk in the White House that Ivanka Trump could succeed Haley as ambassador to the United Nations if Haley became secretary of state. Mike Pompeo ended up taking the job instead after Haley said she wasn't interested. She said Wednesday that she plans to take a break now from public service after eight 'intense' years of politicking as South Carolina's governor before becoming a Cabinet member. Ivanka Trump returned the praise in a Twitter post President Trump said he would name Haley's replacement by the end of the month There was speculation last year Ivanka Trump could be named U.N. ambassador Ivanka Trump was at the U.N. General Assembly meeting with her husband Jared and half-sister Tiffany Haley sailed through her confirmation process with senators approving her nomination by a vote of 96-4. In the increasingly divided Senate, her replacement may not have such bipartisan support. President Trump said 'a number of people' would want the job since Haley had it. 'I think its become maybe a more glamorous position than it was two years ago,' he said. 'Shes made it a very glamorous position. Shes made it a more important -- more importantly, a more important position.' Should the White House name someone without universal support to the position, Trump would have to move fast on the confirmation process. If Democrats win control of the upper chamber in the November midterms, he'll have have a sum total of eight weeks to force through his agenda. Regardless of which party controls the Senate, the nominee will have to fill out extensive Senate disclosure forms on personal and family finances. The disclosure form could scare away some of the president's desired applicants, like his daughter and son-in-law. San Francisco might be the one of the most expensive place to live in the world but it has recently acquired a new, slightly less esteemed honor - the feces capital of America. A new study by the real estate listing website RealtyHop declares the California tech-hub to be the worst place in the US for 'poop sightings', with ten times as many as New York and 20 times more than Chicago in 2017. According to the study compiled from publicly available 311 data, there were 21,000 incidents of feces complaints last year, which is an average of 456 per each of San Francisco's 47 square miles. Some San Francisco streets are so covered in human feces that the city launched a 'Poop Patrol' to clean the mess 2017 was San Francisco's worst year so far for feces complaints, but it looks as though 2018 will be muckier still, with more than 16,000 calls so far. In fact, the number of complaints received by the city has risen every year since 2011 - and has almost tripled annually since then - so the problem has been getting worse for some time. The 311 now receive 65 complaints every single day about feces, both dog and human, on sidewalks. RealtyHop reported than unlike in Chicago and New York, the neighborhoods further out see fewer complaints than those in the centre (except for Golden Gate Park). The Poop Patrol will ride around the Tenderloin neighborhood in a vehicle equipped with a steam cleaner There was also no correlation between median home value and feces, nor when comparing homeownership with complaints by neighborhood. Like the others cities howeer, San Francisco residents mostly pick up the phone to complain on Mondays, closely followed by Tuesdays, and seem far more relaxed about it on the weekends. Clearly feeling that the story lacked a visual element, they also created an interactive brown and yellow map to show the neighborhoods of San Francisco with the highest concentration of reported feces. The SoMa (South of Market) area of the Californian city was the muckiest overall, while Presidio Heights was the cleanest The map shows that the city center was the dirtiest - with the SoMa area being the most complained about overall, and The Mission, Tenderloin, Portrero Hill and Hayes Valley following closely behind. The cleanest neighborhoods were Presidio Heights, Twin Peaks and Lakeshore. Data from 311 shows that there were 4,436 feces complaints about SoMa in 2017 - around 2,493 for every 10,000 households; a quarter of households have complained on average. As the report was compiled using only 311 complaint statistics, the real amount of feces on San Francisco's streets is likely to be much higher. To tackle to problem, San Francisco in August launched 'Poop Patrol' a team of full-time Public Works staffers, armed with a steam cleaner, who patrol alleyways in San Francisco's poop-hotspots. It is already illegal for dog owners not to pick up after their pets, but the city wants to spot and clean away the waste before the complaint comes in. 'We're trying to be proactive,' Public Works director Mohammed Nuru told The Chronicle. 'We're actually out there looking for it.' 'So, what happens is we're going to take one of those crews out and try to get ahead of those calls and look for these locations so that hopefully we can get less numbers of calls coming in,' he added. Mayor London Breed (L) of San Francisco, who was elected in June, has made unannounced inspections of neighborhoods, sometimes carrying a broom A number of syringes are scattered in the remains of a tent city being cleared by city workers along Division Street in San Francisco Nuru said the vast majority is from the city's 120,000 dogs, but the growing homeless population is the city is also a contributing factor. The city's new mayor, London Breed, has earmarked $1.05 million for new public toilets and expanding the opening hours at five existing locations. The city only operates 22 toilets at the moment and most of them close overnight, leaving few options for those who are sleeping rough. In April, then-Mayor Mark Farrell vowed to spend $750,000 hiring more people to pick up needles and $13 million over the next two years for more heavy duty steam cleaners and pit stop toilets. 'The trash, our homeless, the needles, the drug abuse on our streets, I've seen it all in our city and it's gotten to the point where we need to really change course,' Farrell said at the time. Just a 15 minute walk from the headquarters of wealthy tech-giants Twitter and Uber in the Tenderloin neighborhood is one of San Francisco's worst-kept streets. Heroin needles and excrement cover Hyde Street, which hosts an open-air narcotics market in broad daylight. This year, there already have been more than 8,300 requests to pick up waste and 3,700 for needles The excrement problem is especially bad here. 'Some parts of the Tenderloin, you're walking, and you smell it and you have to hold your breath,' said Yolanda Warren, a receptionist who works around the corner from Hyde Street. A New York Times report claims Hyde Street is the 'dirtiest block in the city.' Adam Mesnick, who lives in the SoMa neighborhood and owns two deli shops there, said San Francisco is 'finally kind of melting down' and that leaders have routinely ignored dangerous street behavior for years. The area, known as Tenderloin, is notorious in San Francisco, with an open-air narcotics market by day and the slumped bodies of drug users at night 'I cannot have my family down here, I can't have visitors. I can, but I don't choose to, have my nieces come here,' he said. 'It's horrifying for my family to walk down the street here.' The city's logged more than 24,300 requests last year for human waste cleanup and 9,500 for needle pick-up. This year, there already have been more than 8,300 requests to pick up waste and 3,700 for needles. San Francisco has budgeted $65 million out of a $10 billion citywide budget for street cleaning this year. This is the moment a 17-year-old girl crashes her father's car into a swimming pool - after taking it for a spin while he was asleep. The teenager stole the keys and drove her two friends for a pizza but ended up spectacularly losing control of the vehicle. CCTV captured the jaw-dropping accident, which happened in the early hours of the morning in the city of Cali, western Colombia. The car can be seen hurtling through palm trees bordering the swimming pool then somersaulting sideways and landing upside down in the water. As the car flips, one of the occupants - thought to be the driver - flies out of a window and lands at the poolside, apparently unconscious. Seconds later, the two passengers can be seen staggering out of the vehicle. All three were rushed to hospital for treatment. It is not clear what injuries they suffered. CCTV of the accident in the Colombian city of Cali shows the aftermath of the jaw-dropping crash The occupants can be seen staggering from the vehicle after the car somersaults into the water Path of destruction: Trees are flattened where the car ploughed into the poolside area and debris litters the area The driver's father said: 'I went to bed and she took the car. She says she was going for a pizza with friends. 'Paramedics called me to say she was in hospital. Thank God she's alright.' The swimming pool is located in the courtyard of a private house. Police are investigating the accident. A post-Brexit Britain could see people spreading insect-filled peanut butter, sprinkling their food with rat hair-infested paprika and eating mice faeces with their ginger. According to Business Insider, thats a terrifying vision of Britain being outlined by people critical of any Brexit deal that would involve the UK adopting the US food standards and removing tariffs and regulations on food. American food producers adhere to the FDA 'Defects Level Handbook', which sets out rules dictating the allowed amount of certain unavoidable defects in foods. The agency states that the levels set out present no health hazards for humans. A post-Brexit deal with the United States may see rat hair and insect legs appear in British food The regulations allow for an average of more than 75 insect fragments per 25 grams of paprika, as well as an average of more than 11 rodent hairs. Chocolate lovers may want to turn away as 100 grams of chocolate is allowed to contain 60 insect fragments, as well as one rodent hair. The European Union does not allow any foreign bodies in food products. Following Jacob Rees-Moggs statement that a reduction in regulation would see lower food prices, LBC Radio host James OBrien described the current food landscape in the US. He said: The FDA allows up to 4% of a can of cherries to have maggots, 5% if they are brined or Maraschino. Up to one maggot or five fly eggs per 250ml of canned fruit juice is also allowed under American food regulations. Tomato juice is good, you can have up to five fly eggs and one maggot per 100g of tomato juice, he added. Fifteen fly eggs and one maggot per 100g is allowed for tomato paste and other pizza sauces. If you need a little bit of help with the measurements, 100g of be a small glass of tomato juice. That's five fly eggs and one maggot. It means that Americans at the moment are on average are likely to ingest between one and two pounds, for imperial fans, pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it. As Brexiteers say we should reduce food regulation to reduce prices, James O'Brien explains what that would actually mean. And if we align ourselves with the US, that would mean eating 1-2lbs of flies and maggots every year.@mrjamesob pic.twitter.com/MRiYn8FuMT LBC (@LBC) October 1, 2018 Business Insider reported that MPs are worried that a US-UK deal overseen by Brexiteers could lead to such instances of contaminated food. Clearly the Tories have some very unpleasant surprises for UK dinner tables if they have their way with a fast-track trade deal with the United States,' Bill Esterson, Labour MP and Shadow Trade Minister, told Business Insider. The former leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas said: This is the gruesome reality of the US trade deal being touted by Liam Fox as one of the great benefits of leaving the EU. Sam Lowe, a trade specialist for the Centre For European Reform told Business Insider that the US would 'pressure' the UK to align its food standards closer with the FDA rules. 'The US actively dislikes many existing EU measures and will certainly pressurise the UK to jettison many of them in any FTA negotiations with the UK,' Lowe told BI this week. However, the UK Trade Secretary Liam Fox has dismissed the story as baseless and untrue, saying that the government will not compromise British food standards. I am happy to confirm that this government will not compromise British food or agricultural standards in any future UK-US free trading relationship. I hope this will put an end to this recurrent misreporting, he said. Following recurrent misreporting, @LiamFox once again confirms the government's commitment to British food and agricultural standards. The government has been clear pic.twitter.com/6GyYse53DX Department for International Trade (@tradegovuk) October 10, 2018 However, many politicians, like the Shadow Trade Minister, are calling on Fox to rule out adopting the US standards. The Conservatives must reject the unpalatable menu options which are being served up by US food producers. If Liam Fox means what he says, he should categorically rule out any acceptance of US food standards in a possible trade deal. UK families deserve better than this. Former White House communications director Hope Hicks got a high-powered recommendation for her new job at Fox in the form of a phone call President Trump placed to Fox chair Rupert Murdoch. Hicks, who served as Trump's press secretary as part of the original skeleton crew of his 2016 campaign, went on to become White House communications director, a post she exited in February. Also putting in a good word for the Trump loyalist was Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Vanity Fair reported, citing sources. Hicks previously advised Kushner's wife, Ivanka Trump, when she was working for the Trump Organization. LET ME KNOW IF THERE'S ANYTHING I CAN DO: President Donald Trump waves beside White House Communications Director Hope Hicks on one of her last days in his administration. He reportedly put in a call to Fox chair Rupert Murdoch on her behalf Her new gig reportedly comes with a seven-figure compensation package, when benefits and stock options are factored in. After leaving the White House, Hicks spent time in her home of Connecticut before relocating back to New York. Her new job, where she will work closely with Trump's eldest son Lachlan, has her moving to Los Angeles giving her the chance to make a fresh start while starting the next phase in her career. In New York, she was seen playing a game of cat and mouse with former White House aide Rob Porter, who resigned in disgrace facing spousal abuse allegations by two ex wives. BAGS PACKED: Hope Hicks will head to Los Angeles for her new job Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks is going Hollywood with a PR job at FOX, a new company being built out of the remains of Rupert Murdoch's empire that will include Fox News 'She's the greatest. I love it,' he told DailyMail.com on Tuesday afternoon. 'I'm very happy for FOX, because Hope is a winner. I'm very proud of Hope' President Trump gushed about Hicks on Tuesday when asked about her new job with a network that has provided favorable coverage to him on shows like 'Fox and Friends' and 'Hannity.' 'She's the greatest. I love it,' Trump told DailyMail.com. 'I'm very happy for FOX, because Hope is a winner. I'm very proud of Hope.' Kushner friend Aryeh Bourkoff, a Manhattan investor, reportedly lined up a competing job prospect. Page Six reported in August that Hicks was spotted lunching with Bourkoff. However a source told DailyMail.com Bourkoff did not extend Hicks either a formal or informal offer. FOX will consist of the remaining assets of Murdoch's company - such as Fox News, Fox Sports, and the broadcast television network - left out of the sale of most of 21st Century Fox to Disney for $71.3 billion. Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall at the Take Home A Nude Auction, New York Academy of Art Hicks will be top PR honcho at the rebuilt FOX and her duties include oversight of the communications shop for the company that owns the cable news channel her former boss loves to watch. Her title is executive vice president and chief communications officer for Fox. She will report to Viet Dinh, Fox's chief legal and policy officer. But she will work closely with Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of Rupert Murdoch, The New York Times reported. Lachlan Murdoch will be chair and chief executive of the reconstituted FOX. Hicks moved to New York after leaving the White House. She now has landed a job at Fox Fox News has repeatedly boosted Trump, and former company exec Bill Shine became Trump's chief of staff for communications after Hicks' departure. Another former Fox News host, Heather Nauert, is spokesperson at the State Department. And Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton is a former Fox News contributor. Trump has granted sit-down interviews to Hannity, as well as 'Fox and Friends,' and repeatedly called into the show during his successful presidential campaign. Hicks met with investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. She was among aides who participated when Trump dictated a misleading statement about Donald Trump Jr.'s June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians. The family of a raped and murdered 11-year-old girl is expressing their frustration just days after Texas' highest criminal appeals court put her planned killer's execution on hold. Juan Segundo, 55, was set to be executed Wednesday for the 1986 rape and strangulation death of 11-year-old Vanessa Villa in Forth Worth, Texas. Segundo was said to have climbed through a window to attack Villa in her home while her mother was out running errands. Segundo was finally arrested nearly 19 years later, in 2005, when a DNA match tied him to Villa's cold case slaying, and he was sentenced in 2006 to die by lethal injection. Juan Segundo, 55, received a stay of execution after his lawyers argued he is intellectually disabled. He was set to die for the 1986 rape and strangulation death of an 11-year-old girl Segundo received the death penalty for the slaying of 11-year-old Vanessa Villa, who he was found guilty of raped and strangling to death in her home in 1986 But, on Friday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that Segundo's execution be put on hold in light of a 2017 U.S. Supreme Court decision that invalidated the state's method of discerning intellectual disability. Attorneys for Segundo have argued that he's intellectually disabled and that his IQ is in the 60s or 70s, according to the Houston Chronicle. The average 'normal' IQ is said to be about 100. Villa's older brother, Enrique Estrada Balderas, told the Star-Telegram that he and other members of her family, including his sibling and an aunt, had planned to go to Huntsville, Texas, to watch Segundo's execution. It had finally been scheduled after 12 years. The stay of execution, however, has left Balderas and others frustrated about not getting the closure they have been seeking since Villa was killed, especially since it's unclear whether the Texas Attorney Generals Office plans to appeal the decision. 'Not knowing and thinking they are going to let him stay for the rest of his life in prison, he dont deserve it. He dont deserve it,' Balderas told the newspaper. 'He took my sisters life. She was 11 years old.' Ultimately, Balderas noted, 'I just want to make sure that hes gone.' Although crime scene techs had recovered semen from the scene of Villa's 1986 attack, they were unable to connect it to anyone at the time and the case went cold. Villa's older brother, Enrique Estrada Balderas (pictured), said that he and other family members were planning to travel to watch Segundo's execution but are now frustrated not know whether prosecutors will appeal the stay of execution Segundo's DNA was also linked to the murders of three other women, including Melissa Badillo, who were raped and strangled between 1994 and 1995 Balderas said that in the years after Villa's death, he and his family had a hard time trusting anybody as they were left wondering if that person might have been her killer. In 2005, however, a DNA database linked Villa's evidence with Segundo, who had given up a blood sample during an investigation into another crime in 2000. The DNA also connected Segundo to the rapes and strangulation deaths of three Fort Worth women Melissa Badillo, Maria Navarro, and Francene Williams in 1994 and 1995. Segundo was arrested, at which point Villa's family learned that her alleged attacker was the ex-husband of a woman who worked with Balderas and Villa's mother at a nursing home. It turned out that Segundo had actually attended Villa's funeral and even signed the guest book. 'How can you do something like that and then go see her... Come and see her laying there in her casket. What kind of people would do that?' Balderas told the Star-Telegram. Balderas said that his sister's murder had a dramatic impact on the way that he raised his own children, leaving him so paranoid that kids could be attacked that he had them sleep in bunk beds in the bedroom he shared with his wife until they were teenagers. He also said that he keeps a German Shepherd in his home 'at all times' and even nailed his windows closed so they can't be opened. One of Segundo's other victim's relative said that even if the death penalty is lifted, he will 'always have to look over his shoulder' for killing Villa. 'He will suffer for the rest of his life because hes a child killer and hes in prison with prisoners who dont like child killers,' Badillo's sister, Sylvia Sanchez, told the Star-Telegram. Sanchez, who had been acquainted with Segundo for years, does not believe the sudden assertion that he is intellectually disabled and hopes that prosecutors appeal his stay of execution. In addition to arguing that Segundo is intellectually disabled, his attorneys also have argued that the trial judge incorrectly allowed evidence on other offenses. Ten inmates have been put to death in Texas so far this year. The death of three-year-old Angel Atkins could have been avoided if it weren't for one fatal flaw in the home she wandered from into highway traffic where she was hit. Her parents have begged others to not make the same oversight they did and ensure the locks on the front door of their homes were fitted with a dead bolt, Seven News reported. Angel was able to twist the lock and wander from her home in Gosnells, south east of Perth, while her parents were sleeping on March 23. The death of three-year-old Angel Atkins (pictured) could have been avoided if it weren't for one fatal flaw in the home she wandered from into highway traffic where she was hit She walked towards the busy Albany Highway about 6am where she was fatally struck by Toyota Hilux about 300m from the rented house. Her father, Wayne, has urged parents to ensure their leasing agent upheld their responsibility to have a front door dead bolt or triple lock security door. Landlords have a legal requirement to provide these safeguards, according to Consumer Protection spokesman David Hillyard. The incident occurred near the turnoff into Verna Street in Gosnells, 20 kilometres east of the city, near the Gosnells Baptist Church. Her father, Wayne (pictured), has urged parents to ensure their leasing agent upheld their responsibility to have a front door dead bolt or triple lock security door Sharon Arkwright, 46, performed CPR on Angel before emergency crews arrived and took her to Armadale-Kelmscott Hospital where she later died. Mr Atkins held no malice towards the 30-year-old driver who struck his daughter, saying there was nothing he could have done to avoid the situation. 'I've got no hatred for him, I feel sorry for the poor fella,' he said. Ms Arkwright said the driver was distraught when she arrived at the scene, but all she could do was call his mother and tell him it wasn't his fault. She also recalled seeing Angel's brother in his pyjamas asking first responders if they had seen his sister. A Venezuelan children's hospital that specializes in cancer treatments has suspended chemotherapy, forcing worried parents to look for other alternatives. On Tuesday, administrators at the Dr. Jose Manuel de los Rios Children's Hospital in Caracas were forced to cancel the medical treatment for pediatric patients after the facility's lone laminar flow cabinet completely broke down. According to Katherine Martinez, who heads ONG Prepara Familia, an outreach program that offers support services to women who are victims of violence and the mothers and kids at the hospital, doctors handling oncology and hematology cases reported failures with the enclosed bench in December 2017. Their recent complaints fell on deaf ears. Parents and family members of children with cancer protest outside a Venezuelan children's hospital which on Tuesday announced it had to suspend indefinitely chemotherapy for kids The Dr. Jose Manuel de los Rios Children's Hospital in Caracas no longer administers chemotherapy treatments after a key instrument broke in December 2017 A doctor, who spoke to El Pitazo under the condition of anonymity, said the hospital's director Natalia Martinho asked for additional time to deal with the requests because had just taken over the lead administrator's role as of late August. 'But I can't tell the mother to wait,' the doctor said. A group of eight distraught mothers visited the Miraflores Palace on Tuesday to denounce the hospital's decision to discontinue its chemotherapy service. The cabinet prevents the contamination of semiconductor wafers, biological samples, or any particle sensitive materials. A new cabinet could cost the hospital a little over $2,000. The practitioner recalled the staff approached the Caracas Clinics Hospital once the cabinet malfunctioned, but its chemotherapy unit said it could not comply with the production of two months worth of treatments. The struggling oncology and hematology doctors at the children's hospital then sought the assistance of two nearby hospitals and a local blood bank center who came through in crunch time. Until just two weeks ago, nurses from the Dr. Jose Manuel de los Rios Children's Hospital would head to the three facilities to deliver the antineoplastic drugs that were essential in the preparation of the medicinal treatment. A brand new laminar flow cabinet, required for the preparation of chemotherapy drug mixture, costs a little over $2,000 Despite the temporary solution, the delayed process created a number critical problems. 'When the [chemotherapy medicines] arrived, the patients left the hospital late because the medications were applied late, after 4PM in the afternoon,' the doctor explained. 'At 7 o'clock at night we do not have the medical personnel, there is no one to supervise if the chemotherapy corresponds to the unit, there is no one to evaluate if there is any complication with the treatments. This is not viable for us.' Venezuelans have been crossing into countries across the region to escape food and medicine shortages and a deep economic crisis. More than 2 million Venezuelans have left their country in recent years, with most arriving in neighboring South American nations, according to the United Nations migration agency. During his visit to the United Nations in September, embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro welcomed U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet to visit any time after she urged Caracas to allow an international investigation of the humanitarian situation in the country. Hareton Jaime Rodriguez Sariol, who drew sympathy after he arrived from Cuba on a raft wearing his police uniform, confessed to decapitating his girlfriend and her granddaughter A man who once drew the sympathy of the Cuban exile community after arriving in a raft wearing his police uniform confessed to the decapitating his girlfriend and her granddaughter after he flew into a jealous rage. Hareton Jaime Rodriguez-Sariol pleaded guilty last Thursday to the killing of Elizabeth Rodriguez-Rubio, 48, and her granddaughter Angie Caroline Rodriguez-Rubio, 12, burying their heads near a Virginia highway on August 5. In exchange for avoiding the death penalty, he led authorities to victims' remains on September 7, two days after his arrest. Rodriguez-Sariol, who was part of a group of 26 Cubans that made it safely to the Florida Keys on a vessel in April 2016 after escaping the communist Caribbean, had just left a Sunday church service Harrisonburg, Virginia, as first reported by the Winchester Star., The 48-year-old, who served 28 years in Cuba's National Revolutionary Police, was supposed to head back to Elizabeth Rodriguez-Rubio's home in Maryland before the the car driven by the murderer's girlfriend drove off the highway and ended up in a ditch. Video footage obtained by the Rockingham County Commonwealths Attorney's office shows the couple arguing about two hours and a half after the start of the church service as Rodriguez-Sariol and his girlfriend stood outside his two-door vehicle. Elizabeth Rodriguez Rubio (right) and her granddaughter Angie Caroline Rodriguez Rubio (left) were savagely murdered in August after leaving a church service with her boyfriend The trio drove off with Rodriguez-Sariol sitting on the passenger seat and his girlfriend's daughter in the back seat. According to Rodriguez-Sariol's confession statement on September 5, the car later veered off into a ditch off Interstate 81. Elizabeth Rodriguez-Rubio immediately got out of the car to check on her granddaughter's well-being after she struck her heard. As the concerned granny tended young girl, Rodriguez-Sariol told authorities he completely lost it after he saw a text come across Elizabeth Rodriguez-Rubio's cellphone. According to Marsha Garst, the attorney for the Rockingham County Commonwealth, Rodriguez-Sariol never offered any exact details of the message that made him 'angry and jealous'. He then took a handgun and pointed it toward the back of the vehicle. The 12-year-old girl tried to get in front of her grandmother but Rodriguez-Sariol fired a bullet into her head before shooting Elizabeth Rodriguez-Rubio in the head and chest. Hareton Jaime Rodriguez Sariol made it safely to the Florida Keys in April 2016 after escaping communist Cuba Rodriguez-Sariol, who was arrested by cops in Pennsylvania on August 7, covered up the bodies and drove around, stopping at a Walmart to purchase knives, gloves and lighters. The Cuban man drove to different placed to rid himself of some of his murdered girlfriend's personal belongings and a few hours after the killing he dumped the bodies at Shenandoah National Park in Greene County. Rodriguez-Sariol told the Rockingham County Commonwealth attorney he cut their heads off and placed them inside a bag. Shortly after midnight on August 6 he returned to his job site and transferred the severed heads into a company truck. He then set the car on fire on Interstate 66 in Warren County and ditched the gun on a nearby field. Cops were able to seize them both as evidence. A friend got a call from Rodriguez-Sariol asking for a lift. Rodriguez-Sariol would then visit a Home Depot in Harrisonburg where purchased a a pickax and used it to bury the heads along I-81 in northern Shenandoah County before leaving to Pennsylvania. He is due in court February 12 when he is set to be sentenced to life in prison. A medical resident at a hospital in Argentina and her team of staff are facing disciplinary action after images of her performing her first c-section were posted online. Florencia Espinola, who has been practicing medicine since April 2017, shared a picture on Instagram and Facebook of the moment she extracted the newborn baby at the Evita Pueblo Hospital in Berazategui, Buenos Aires. The images show her securing the child's head in her hands as she pulls her out. The group thought it was the perfect moment to upload a number of pictures detailing the resident's first-ever cesarean section procedure on the same day as her birthday But Karina Fiquepron, the director of the hospital, has told Argentinian news outlet Todo Noticias that everyone involved could be subject to an investigation and even a three-day suspension, even though the patient gave the practitioners her consent. Florencia Espinola, who has been practicing medicine since April 2017, recently performed her first C-section delivery but could be sanctioned for sharing the birth pictures on social media Florencia Espinola has been called out by industry colleagues who questioned her ethics after she posted pictures of a c-section deliver on social media 'It should never happen, Fiqureron said on Wednesday. 'We do not endorse this type of practice, although we must also clarify that the patient's health was never put at risk.' The picture of the birth was split with a smiling image of Espinola as she leaned on a table where a birthday cake with a long candle lit beside her. 'This is how you start a happy birthday,' Espinola wrote on Instagram after accomplishing her medical feat at the Buenos Aires medical facility. 'Thanks to those who teach me every day. For the love of God I have to be taken out. Today we party twice over.' By Wednesday afternoon, Espinola's Facebook account had been deactivated. The Argentine medical resident also uploaded another image where a smiling female colleague holds a clear bottle behind Espinola's neck and doses her with an unidentified liquid while she tends to her patient on the operating table. A staff member (right) at an Argentine hospital doses liquid over resident doctor Florencia Espinola, a celebratory ritual called 'baptism' in Spanish, during a c-section procedure Florencia Espinola (left) with an unidentified person after the birth of her sister in July Espinola dubbed the occasion as a 'baptism' in Spanish on her Instagram Story feed. Medical professionals denounced the popular celebration of a doctor's first birth procedure, claiming it could have placed the mother and child in danger. 'It is true that residents have baptisms but not inside the operating room,' Fiquepron said. 'In this case, the mother was awake and gave tacit consent but in any case there is a vulnerability of the patient that one does not measure.' It's not the first time Espinola has taken to social media to share a childbirth from an operating room. In July, the first-year doctor shared a photo after witnessing her sister's birth. 'I do not know how many will have the chance to see their sister born,' Espinola wrote on Facebook. 'But I had it, and it's a wonderful gift, that I'm going to take forever with me.' Milo D. Folley Jr., 75, of Nicholasville, Ky., passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by his family, on Friday, October 5. Folley was a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. He had returned to Syracuse to study for his Master's when a friend introduced him to Marcia. It was the 1960s and her beautiful, long, strawberry-blonde hair and miniskirt caught his eye and they never looked back. Upon moving to Kentucky from Syracuse, N.Y., in 1969, Folley worked as an associate editor and photographer for The Horseman And Fair World, where he won multiple writing awards, while he and his wife were fixtures at the Red Mile. When their daughter, Brooke Folley (Counts) was born, Folley took a position at Almahurst Farm, which was expanding its bloodstock operations. Later, he joined his wife's new company, Classic Insurance. While raising their daughter, Milo and Marcia worked together insuring horses, farms, then police dogs. Classic Insurance wrote the first, and only, insurance program in the country to protect police, military, and service dogs. Milo, Marcia, and Brooke spent many weekends travelling the country showing their hall-of-fame Vizsla dogs. Folley also loved building furniture, working outdoors, and never missed the opportunity to tell a good joke. He basked in each of his roles, from husband, to Dad, and finally as Papa, when his granddaughter, Lauren, was born. Folley was preceded in death by his parents, Milo Folley Sr., a prominent architect, and Ruth Folley of Liverpool, NY, and will be remembered and loved by his wife of 49 years, Marcia; daughter, Brooke (Chris) Counts; granddaughter, Lauren Counts; and his brothers, Marc (Charlene), Craig (Carole, who preceded Milo in death), Cris (Kathy) and Erik (Tracie) and their families. A celebration of life will be held this Saturday (Oct. 13), from 3-6 p.m. at Milward Funeral Home, 391 Southland Drive, Lexington, KY 40503. Memorial contributions may be made to Friends and Vets Helping Pets, P.O. Box 910117, Lexington, KY 40591, or online at www.friendsandvetshelpingpets.org/. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Milo Folley Jr. (Harnessracing.com) A police officer raped a woman in her own home because she couldn't pay a fine, a court has heard. David Lomax, now retired and aged 83, is accused of 'blackmailing' his victim by threatening arrest before attacking her at her home in Leeds. The case had remained cold for 40 years until a review in 2016, when forensic evidence gathered at the time was re-examined and Lomax's DNA profile was matched. David Lomax (outside Leeds Crown Court today), 83, is accused of 'blackmailing' a woman into having sex with him by threatening to arrest her Mr Lomax is appearing at Leeds Crown Court denies rape and misconduct in a public office charges. The court heard the attack happened in 1978, when the defendant worked as a warrant officer for West Yorkshire Police. He is said to have visited the woman two weeks earlier to collect money but had agreed to give her more time. The jury heard he returned on October 20 when the woman's husband and child were out. Lomax told the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, he would have to take her to the police station before putting his hand on her shoulder and saying, 'well we could solve this', the court heard. Lomax, from Waterlooville, Hampshire, then led her to a bedroom and propositioned her where, the court heard, she initially refused but then had sex with him. The incident was reported to police days later and a DNA sample was taken from a towel. Lomax was arrested at the time but wasn't charged due to insufficient evidence. Pictured: The pensioner hides behind a jacket on his way into the courthouse today He was arrested again in July last year and told police when he arrived at the woman's home she jumped out of a window and ran away. The court heard he claimed while he was at the house he found a pornographic magazine, masturbated and then left. Prosecutor Sophie Drake believes the probability of DNA recovered from the scene belonging to anyone other than Lomax is 'a billion to one'. She said: 'The Crown say this act of intercourse was rape. She was in effect blackmailed in to having sex with him. 'She had no real choice but to have sex with him.' The trial continues. Amazon have removed an animal heating pad from sale after one bought by a mother caught fire and killed four three-day-old kittens. Belinda Carr spent 15.99 on a HUAYUU pet heating pad to keep the newborn Sphynx kittens warm at her home in Telford, Shropshire. The heartbreaking incident happened last month on the day the product arrived, just hours after the hairless kittens went to sleep. Disaster struck on September 24, the day the product arrived, just hours after the hairless kittens (pictured) went to sleep Monto (left) is Vito's (right) only remaining kitten. Belinda says the distressed cat saved her life when she woke her up in the middle of the night by rubbing against her face The kitten's mother Vito woke up Belinda in the middle of the night by rubbing against her face. Belinda then got a whiff of 'burnt sugar' and went to investigate. The pad and carpet had caught fire and she discovered that four of the five kittens were dead after being exposed to the extreme heat. After unplugging the pad and throwing it into the bath, she rescued one kitten, Monto. Belinda, 59, said rubbing against her face as she sleeps is something the cat never does, and believes her actions saved her life. Belinda spent 15.99 on a HUAYUU pet heating pad online from Amazon's website The pad (pictured) caught fire and four of the five kittens were dead from the heat Belinda said today: 'I'm very angry with Amazon. I have been a very loyal customer for many years. 'It's annoying they are making money out of items like this. I had a fire many years ago that nearly killed my son. It's devastating and disheartening. 'It was dreadful, honest to god. Thank God she woke me up, if she didn't I would have been gone with my house. I'm devastated. 'I tested it beforehand to make sure it was safe before I went to bed. 'One of my cats started to rub my face. I thought she just wanted attention, so I told her to go to bed. But, she kept going. 'I smelt a weird smell like burnt sugar before I turned on the lights to see the heat mat and the carpet was on fire.' Belinda holding Monto with her daughter Sian. A spokesman from Amazon said the 'company is deeply saddened by the incident' Belinda had bough the pad in order to keep the newborn Sphynx kittens warm at her home On its product listing on Amazon the heating pad was described as a device that 'makes pets feel better with warmth in cold weather' She added: 'It's heartbreaking to see Vito like this. She carries the last kitten, Monto, with her all the time and is constantly looking for the other kittens meowing. She's heartbroken. It's her first litter.' Her son, Chris Gould, 33, hit out at HUAYUU, who he said is 'culpable' for the death of the kittens. He said: 'It's a simple unit, plug in and heat. No control switch. What annoyed me was that no British company or amazon tests these for BSS standards.' 'HUAYUU failed, the unit was not bss tested. I advise people to be cautious when purchasing electrical items online.' On its product listing on Amazon the heating pad was described as a device that 'makes pets feel better with warmth in cold weather'. A spokesman for Amazon said: 'We are deeply saddened by this incident and are in touch with the customer. The product, bought from a third party seller, is no longer available. 'All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don't will be subject to action including potential removal of their account.' It has not been possible to contact HUAYUU. Chyane Stephenson-Dielhenn, 18, (seen outside court today) and a 16-year-old girl who cannot be named, held the victim hostage in a care home in Dagenham, Essex Two teenage girls who asked their Snapchat followers to suggest how they should next torture a 16-year-old girl after making her drink urine-soaked noodles have both been jailed. Chyane Stephenson-Dielhenn, 18, and a 16-year-old girl who cannot be named, held the victim hostage in a care home in Dagenham, Essex, for more than eight hours between 4 March and 5 March 2018. The 16-year-old victim was forced to swallow her own vomit and snort a mixture of salt and tea. The pair also physically attacked the victim: pouring sugar in her ears, burning her with cigarettes, punching her and tying her up. The horrific ordeal was filmed by the sadistic duo on Snapchat, with the cruel and sickening attacks being shown to the jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Instead of raising the alarm, recipients of the videos sent suggestions about what the girls should do to their victim next. She was able to escape when Stephenson-Dilhenn ordered her to have a shower and she made a break for it. The teenager made it to reception but was extremely frightened and sought refuge under a desk in the office. The attack left her psychologically scarred and with a black eye, the court heard. Prosecutor James Thacker described it as a wicked and despicable attack, and revealed the 16-year-old perpetrator had eight previous convictions for crimes including criminal damage, battery, robbery and theft. Passing sentence, Recorder Shaun Murphy said: The victim is scarred mentally and physically and this has caused her nightmares that still continue. Stephenson-Dielhenn, of Islington, north London, denied false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm but was found guilty following a trial last month. She was jailed for three years. The 16-year-old admitted false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Elaine Cousins, from the CPS, said: This was an unprovoked, cruel and sickening attack on an innocent young girl by people that she considered to be her friends. The behaviour displayed was sadistic. Stephenson-Dielhenn was jailed for three years at Snaresbrook Crown Court (pictured) while her accomplice, 16, received two and a half years The prosecution was able to prove its case through video evidence that showed exactly what took place that night. Together Stephenson-Dielhenn and her co-defendant egged each other on and took pleasure in controlling, humiliating and degrading the young victim. The victim was left understandably terrified and psychologically scarred. I would like to commend her for her bravery in reporting this crime and for taking part in the proceedings. I hope this conviction provides her with some comfort and makes clear that those who commit such vile acts will be prosecuted.' Litter busters have been kicked off a university campus for causing 'undue financial stress' to students. The litter officers, who work for private firm Kingdom, on behalf of Liverpool city council have been banned from patrolling the grounds of the University of Liverpool, after students complained that the firm were adding to exam stress, according to a statement from the Students' Union. The officers will however continue to patrol the outskirts of the university grounds and will issue penalty notices to those that litter. Kingdom officers will no longer work on the campus at The University of Liverpool (pictured) Jonathon Foster, vice-president of the Liverpool Guild of Students, made the announcement in a blog post. He said: 'After working with the university since the start of August, I am really pleased to let you all know that Kingdom Litter enforcement officers will no longer be patrolling our campus. 'Many students have been fined over the last year by Kingdom officers for petty littering, such as carelessly disposing of cigarette butts, which has added undue financial stress to many students, adding to the already high level of stress of meeting deadlines and revising for exams.' A city council statement said: 'Kingdom Services Group (Kingdom) will no longer patrol the campus of the University of Liverpool. 'They will, however, continue to patrol the outskirts of the university grounds and will issue fixed penalty notices to those who litter on property directly adjoining public land. 'This will be the land where there is no easily identifiable boundary or discernible barrier between the university land and the public realm that would prevent litter deposited on university land from being blown on to the public roads.' Jonathon Foster (pictured) highlighted that students must ensure they take responsibility for the appropriate disposal of waste Standard legislation states that fines of up to 80 can be issued for people dropping litter, cigarette butts or leaving dog foul. Mr Foster added: 'Of course, littering is not acceptable on our campus and as a student body we must ensure we continue to take responsibility for the appropriate disposal of our waste. 'We have a great team at the university and our own Green Team that works hard to to keep our environment as clean as possible.' Kingdom officers such as the one pictured have allegedly caused stress to students at the university by issuing them with fines The University of Liverpool has joined John Moores University in banning the controversial litter officers - with a growing number of city businesses and supermarkets also stating that they will not allow patrolling on their property. This comes as students at Manchester University were told to wave 'jazz hands' instead of clapping at the Students' Union to avoid triggering anxiety problems. Students have been told to wave 'jazz hands' instead of clapping at a university union to avoid triggering anxiety problems. Officers at the University of Manchester Students' Union argued that the loud noise of clapping and cheering can also trouble those with sensory issues. A motion was put forward by the union's liberation and access officer Sara Khan to replace it with British Sign Language clapping, also known as 'jazz hands'. A woman who has been suffering from stomach pains was shocked to discover she had an entire toothpick lodged inside her belly. The 57-year-old woman, surnamed Ye, complained to doctors in Nanchang, south-east China that her abdomen had been hurting for more than a month. Doctors immediately conducted an endoscopy - where a tiny plastic tube with an attached camera is inserted in the patient's body - and retrieved the seven-centimetre (2.8-inch) -long toothpick on Monday. Doctors conducted an endoscopy - where a tiny plastic tube with an attached camera is inserted into the patient's body - and retrieved the seven-centimetre (2.8-inch) -long toothpick The 57-year-old woman, surnamed Ye, complained to doctors in Nanchang, south-east China that her abdomen had been hurting for more than a month However, Ms Ye said she had no idea how the toothpick ended up in her stomach. 'I have no idea how it got there. I don't remember swallowing a toothpick!' the woman told video news site Pear. 'I was having stomach pains for more than a month and couldn't bear it any longer,' she said. Doctors discovered a foreign object lodged in a section of Ms Ye's duodenum, causing some swelling in the area, according to a news release by The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University on Wednesday, referring to the part of the small intestine immediately after the stomach where food is digested. However, the patient, Ms Ye, said she had no idea how the toothpick ended up in her stomach 'Luckily there were no main blood vessels or organs in that section,' one of the doctors said Dr Yang Zhenzhen from the Jiangxi hospital carefully extracted the object with a surgical clip, revealing the small pointed piece of wood. They also checked the patient for any internal bleeding. Ms Ye is said to be recovering well following the minor surgery. 'Luckily there were no main blood vessels or organs in that section,' one of the doctors said. He added that if she had prolonged her treatment further, the area could have gotten infected and could have led to peritonitis. Prosecutors in Wyoming say a woman mistakenly texted a police officer in her search for a gram of methamphetamine. Audrey K. Biggica, 23, pleaded not guilty Monday to attempting to possess a controlled substance and prostitution. Prosecutors allege Biggica indicated she was willing to perform a sex act as part of the payment. Audrey Biggica, 23, texted a wrong number while allegedly trying to obtain meth. Police Sgt. Paul Sapp, right, played along, pretending that he had meth to deliver and the trap was set... Powell Police Sgt. Paul Sapp reported receiving the misdirected text on September 17 according to the Powell Tribune. After she introduced herself as 'Audrey,' Sapp asked what she needed. Biggica explained that she was looking to purchase a gram of meth for her and her friends, according to Sapp's account of what happened. He played along and pretended to be a dealer, agreeing to meet Biggica who told him that a couple of people were with her and that they had $100-$150. Sapp asked if he knew them, continuing on the persona of a dealer. She ended up reaching a Powell, Wyoming police officer on his department-issued cellphone when she allegedly thought she was communicating with a drug dealer who supplied meth Biggica was arrested Friday afternoon in Powell and pleaded not guilty 'They r,' Biggica texted back, describing them as 'homeboys' she'd known for a long time and trusted. '... I promise on my life they r good ppl,' Biggica allegedly wrote. 'I don't [mess] with snitches or b******.' Biggica later asked Sapp to try to hurry, saying that she would 'make it worth it.' 'What ya got for me,' asked Sapp. 'Money and me,' Biggica replied. 'You got me comin quicker,' responded Sapp in character. However, because Sapp was in uniform so he asked Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Agent Chris Wallace to help. Sapp hid in the back seat of Wallace's truck when Wallace met Biggica in an alley. Wallace drove around town for a bit before pulling into the police department's parking lot and placing her under arrest. The 23-year-old, who'd brought $140 with her, told Wallace that 'she needed the [stuff] and then we could have some fun, whatever kind of fun, referring to having sex,' the affidavit from Sapp says. However, after a short drive around town, Wallace pulled into the parking lot of the Powell Police Department and explained who he was and that Sapp was in the back of the truck, according to the affidavit. Biggica told the officers she'd been buying the meth on behalf of another man and she agreed to place a recorded phone call to him in front of the officers although that man does not appear to have been charged with any crimes. 'I've been clean for like two months,' Biggica said as she pleaded not guilty in court. 'I don't have any desire to do drugs or anything like that. I just want to move forward with my life and being in jail just makes me stagnant and depressed.' A jury trial was tentatively set for December 27. A firefighter who met the love of his life as they battled to save lives during 9/11 proposed on the anniversary of the terror attack 17 years later. David O'Neal, 48, and Missy Epperson, 54, met as first responders at Ground Zero, where she worked with the K-9 police dog unit whilst he was a Station 43 fireman in Pennsylvania. They kept in touch online following the Twin Towers atrocity, but had not met again in the flesh until he moved from Staten Island, New York, to Illinois, in July to see Missy for the first time since the horror of that day, which killed nearly 3,000 people. After a whirlwind romance, David got down on one knee at a 9/11 memorial service and the couple are due to tie the knot on September 11 next year. Missy Epperson at the site of 9/11, when she had arrived three days after the terrorist attack from Maytoon, Illinois, to help with the relief effort David O'Neal at Ground Zero just days after the attack on New York. He met fiance Missy as they battled to saved lives David, now retired, said: 'I wanted to get engaged on 9/11 to turn it into a happy day. I wish I had married her onsite 17 years ago. 'Me and Missy talked at the time but it was nothing romantic. Everyone was just focused on working together as a team.' 'Everything just clicked in so many ways with us. She's my hero.' Part time firefighter David was just blocks away from the World Trade Center when the first plane hit on the morning of September 11, 2001. He was not on duty as a firefighter at the time of 9/11, but was meeting a friend near the the Twin Towers and rushed to help with the rescue effort due to his experience working at Station 43 in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. David was then assigned to help with the rescue efforts, as he had also had experience in high-rise demolition, and worked at the site for the next seven months. Three days after the terror attack, on September 14, Missy arrived with the midwest K-9 unit to help with the rescue effort. After reuniting 17 years after their first meeting at Ground Zero, David proposed at a 9/11 memorial in Illinois David was forced to retired from the fire service in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, in March 2002 after an accident at the North Tower Missy - who has assisted in over 50 relief missions from Hurricane Sandy and Katrina to the 2011 tsunami in Japan - stayed at the site for 33 days before returning to Illinois. Missy, of Maytoon, Illinois, said: 'I was stunned when he got down on one knee in front of everyone. 'It's made something happy out of something devastating. In a way, 9/11 brought us together. 'We're going to get married on the 9/11 anniversary next year. David has already picked out my dress - it's beautiful. 'We've been through a lot of bad times - but from now on, together, it'll just be good times.' Seven months later in March 2002 an accident on the site of the North tower forced David - who has two daughters from a previous marriage - to retire early. In the years that followed, the pair suffered from PTSD, as well as from a number of health problems as a result of their time spent at Ground Zero. Describing the terrible events of 2001, David added: 'I didn't see it, but I could hear it. The whole entire ground shook. It was chaos. The impact as a plane hit the South Tower. Nearly 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terror attack in 2001 David in his uniform before his retirement in 2002 (left) and (right) with new fiance Missy David O'Neal got down on one knee at a 9/11 memorial service and asked girlfriend Missy Epperson to walk down the aisle next year on September 11, 2019 'Everything started falling. There was shattered glass and pieces of steel coming from the sky. 'People were running out and screaming. I was across the street when the second plane hit. There were injured and dead everywhere. I was scared as hell. 'My job was to find the remains. They were splattered apart all over. When I found them, I had to bag them, tag them, and drop them down to the morgue. 'I saw a lot of stuff that no one would ever want to see.' David proposed to Missy at the 9/11 memorial in Decatur, Illinois, on the anniversary of the attack last month. Bride-to-be, Missy, a retired paramedic who has one daughter and three grandchildren from an earlier marriage, said: 'When I heard what happened [at 9/11] I immediately began making arrangements to volunteer. 'I knew what the loss of life was going to be, and I wanted to help. David and I were doing what we were supposed to do. The devastation was totally out of this world. 'Years later I added David as a friend on Facebook. 'If I was ever having a bad day, Davey was there for me - he understood. 'Earlier this year I asked him if he'd like to come visit me, because he said he needed a change. We had a special connection straight away.' A 65-year-old man has died at the hands of one of the massive supercell storms that battered Australia's east coast on Wednesday. He was killed when a large fig tree fell onto his cabin in Byron Bay during wild thunderstorms that devastated parts of New South Wales and Queensland. When authorities arrived about 7pm after being alerted by a neighbour, they found the man dead at the scene, Nine News reported. A 65-year-old man has died at the hands of one of the massive supercell storms that battered Australia's east coast on Wednesday (fallen tree pictured) A wild supercell storm has continued to batter Australia's east coast bringing gale force winds, heavy rainfall and giant damaging hailstones A powerful low pressure trough and cold front triggered heavy rainfall, strong winds and giant hailstones in some parts of NSW throughout Wednesday. Several severe weather warnings were issued in the afternoon due to growing intensity of thunderstorms across the state. The heaviest rain in seven months was collected in Bathurst, recording 18mm, with a whopping 66mm received in Norah Head and 5mm in West Wyalong. Deniliquin, on the NSW and Victorian border, recorded 15mm of rain between 9am and 8pm - its highest daily rainfall this year. Perth endured almost 9000 lightning strikes in just 24 hours, while in Sydney's north shore 27mm of rain fell in an hour with up to 20mm expected in coming days. More thunderstorms are expected for northern inland NSW on Thursday, however it is unlikely they will be as severe. Queenslanders experienced huge bursts on Wednesday which saw 50mm fall in 15 minutes in the Sunshine Coast town of Coolum. More thunderstorms are expected for northern inland NSW on Thursday, however it is unlikely they will be as severe (storm damage pictured) Severe thunderstorms were forecast to hit areas in the New South Wales north east, the Northwest Slopes, Central West and Upper Hunter region throughout Wednesday An unstable system arching across western and northern Australia into Queensland continues to bring fierce thunderstorms and supercells. Noosa has already received more than 70mm of rain in less than a day. 'Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding, large hailstones and damaging winds over the next several hours,' the BoM stated. People in areas including the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, North West Slopes and Plains and Northern Tablelands districts were told to prepare themselves. Those in Lismore, Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Armidale, Tamworth and Moree were also urged to remain vigilant as conditions were expected to worsen. The State Emergency Service advised people to shift their cars to cover and away from trees, store loose items around the house and stay clear of fallen power lines. Sydney Airport was forced to suspend all departing flights Wednesday afternoon due to poor visibility, while incoming planes also struggled to land. The Bureau of Meterorology warned people in affected areas there was storms 'active at the moment' and urged them to stand by for severe storm warnings Several flights have been delayed and may even be cancelled as a supercell storm batters Sydney and the east coast of Australia Sydney Airport has been smashed by strong winds, with 100km/h gales hitting the city late on Wednesday morning Massive balls of ice became lodged in fruit nets at a rural property at Queensland's Glass House Mountains Pictured: A map of Australia with the expected rainfall over the next eight days The heavy rainfall and wild weather will do nothing for Queendland's struggling farmers THE DAYS AHEAD IN YOUR CITY SYDNEY Thursday: Min 13, Max 18, possible shower Friday: Min 14, Max 19, likely showers Saturday: Min 14, Max 20, shower CANBERRA Thursday: Min 3, Max 15, mostly sunny Friday: Min 3, Max 16, partly cloudy Saturday: Min 4, Max 19, possible shower PERTH Thursday: Min 14, Max 24, mostly sunny Friday: Min 14, Max 21, shower or two Saturday: Min 12, Max 20, showers easing DARWIN Thursday: Min 24, Max 34, sunny Friday: Min 25, Max 33, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 25, Max 33, possible thunderstorm MELBOURNE Thursday: Min 7, Max 20, sunny Friday: Min 8, Max 22, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 11, Max 23, mostly sunny ADELAIDE Thursday: Min 10, Max 23, mostly sunny Friday: Min 13, Max 26, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 15, Max 27, Mostly sunny HOBART Thursday: Min 3, Max 16, mostly sunny Friday: Min 6, Max 19, mostly sunny Saturday: Min 7, Max 22, mostly sunny BRISBANE Thursday: Min 18, Max 22, showers Friday: Min 16, Max 20, showers Saturday: Min 16, Max 19, showers Source: Weatherzone Advertisement WHAT IS A 'SUPERCELL' STORM? There are three simplified thunderstorm types: the single-cell, the multicell and the supercell. Of these, the multicell is the most common. A supercell thunderstorm is a special storm type which maintains an intense steady-state for many hours. They are a fascinating but dangerous cloud complex and they account for most of the serious thunderstorm events we experience. Source: Bureau of Meteorology Advertisement The east coast's wild weather comes after Australia was told to expect heatwaves and bushfires by the end of the year, with a 70 per cent chance of El Nino. This triple the likelihood of an El Nino system forming to bring drier than normal conditions by the end of 2018, the Bureau of Meteorology warned. 'Between the (above average) temperature and the lack of rainfall, this is not good news,' bureau climatologist Robyn Duell told AAP. 'This outlook on the back of such little rainfall and dry conditions makes it such a worry for people.' Australia endured its driest September since rainfall records began in 1900, Ms Duell said. The eastern tropical Indian Ocean is cooler than normal while the western part of the ocean is warmer than usual, which is common with El Nino, she said. The man who passengers stopped from being deported from the UK is a foreign criminal convicted of serious offences, MailOnline can reveal. Dramatic video footage captured the moment passengers on a flight from London to Turkey stopped the unnamed man from being deported by demanding he be taken off the plane. The man had been brought onto the Turkish Airlines flight at Heathrow Airport shortly before it was due to depart for Istanbul on Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by four officials. The footage shows him screaming at the top of his lungs, shouting that he is being separated from his family and being taken to Somalia. Passengers on the flight intervened to help get the man removed from the plane after a protracted argument with Home Office staff on-board. But a source told MailOnline that the man was being deported from the UK because he is a 'foreign national offender' who has been convicted of serious offences. Result: The man was eventually removed from the Turkish Airlines flight at Heathrow Airport, after passengers demanded that he be taken off the plane In the footage a number of riled up passengers shout to 'take him off the plane' and a number others turn from their seats to start filming the confrontation. One passenger points out the man being deported says he is going to Mogadishu in Somalia and the officer responds: 'And you believe him?' In another incident a passenger claims that people die in Mogadishu, the official responds: 'They die in London, sir.' The Home Office worker then tells passengers he has been to Mogadishu several times and it was 'all right'. Dramatic: The man was brought onto the plane from the back and was seated with Home Office staff on either side of him A male passenger marches to the back row of the plane, where two Home Office staff are seated either side of the man, and tells the officials the man claims he is being separated from his family. According to a witness, passengers continue to argue with the Home Office staff members, saying they do not know if the man is a criminal. Eventually, the man is removed off the plane to the cheers of the passengers, and one can be heard shouting that he is 'a free man'. At first Home Office staff try to block the view of passengers demanding an explanation to the delay and the noise and try to reassure passengers that 'it will quiet down' once they are airborne. Stand-off: Several passengers became distressed as the man due to be deported kept screaming at the top of his lungs One official said: 'It's an attempt to get himself thrown off the aircraft so he can stay in the UK.' When some passengers tell the Home Office officials that the man's continuous screaming is scaring them, one of the staff members, dressed in a high-vis vest responds: 'Hang on, how many of you have babies? 'How many of them scream? You wont get scared when they scream.' Despite the attempt to quell their concerns, Home Office officials were forced to give in and remove the man after persistent pleas from passengers. A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We only return those with no legal right to remain in the UK, including foreign national offenders. 'All foreign nationals who are given a custodial sentence will be considered for removal. 'Foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes in the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them and we have removed more than 43,000 foreign offenders since 2010.' MailOnline has contacted Turkish Airlines for comment. GUILTY: MICHAEL FLYNN Pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Awaiting sentence Flynn was President Trump's former National Security Advisor and Robert Mueller's most senior scalp to date. He previously served when he was a three star general as President Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency but was fired. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his conversations with a Russian ambassador in December 2016. He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation. GUILTY AND JAILED: MICHAEL COHEN Pleaded guilty to eight counts including fraud and two campaign finance violations in August 2018. Pleaded guilty to further count of lying to Congress in November 2018. Sentenced to three years in prison and $2 million in fines and forfeitures in December 2018 Cohen was investigated by Mueller but the case was handed off to the Southern District of New York,leaving Manhattan's ferocious and fiercely independent federal prosecutors to run his case. Cohen was Trump's longtime personal attorney, starting working for him and the Trump Organization in 2007. He is the longest-serving member of Trump's inner circle to be implicated by Mueller. Cohen professed unswerving devotion to Trump - and organized payments to silence two women who alleged they had sex with the-then candidate: porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. He admitted that payments to both women were felony campaign finance violations - and admitted that he acted at the 'direction' of 'Candidate-1': Donald Trump. He also admitted tax fraud by lying about his income from loans he made, money from taxi medallions he owned, and other sources of income, at a cost to the Treasury of $1.3 million. And he admitted lying to Congress in a rare use of the offense. The judge in his case let him report for prison on March 6 and recommended he serve it in a medium-security facility close to New York City. GUILTY AND JAILED: PAUL MANAFORT Found guilty of eight charges of bank and tax fraud in August 2018. Sentenced to 47 months in March 2019. Pleaded guilty to two further charges - witness tampering and conspiracy against the United States. Jailed for total of seven and a half years in two separate sentences. Additionally indicted for mortgage fraud by Manhattan District Attorney, using evidence previously presented by Mueller Manafort worked for Trump's campaign from March 2016 and chaired it from June to August 2016, overseeing Trump being adopted as Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He is the most senior campaign official to be implicated by Mueller. Manafort was one of Washington D.C.'s longest-term and most influential lobbyists but in 2015, his money dried up and the next year he turned to Trump for help, offering to be his campaign chairman for free - in the hope of making more money afterwards. But Mueller unwound his previous finances and discovered years of tax and bank fraud as he coined in cash from pro-Russia political parties and oligarchs in Ukraine. Manafort pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud but was convicted of eight counts in August 2018. The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges. A second trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent due in September did not happen when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and witness tampering in a plea bargain. He was supposed to co-operate with Mueller but failed to. Minutes after his second sentencing hearing in March 2019, he was indicted on 16 counts of fraud and conspiracy by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., using evidence which included documents previously presented at his first federal trial. The president has no pardon power over charges by district and state attorneys. GUILTY AND GOING TO WEEKEND JAIL: RICK GATES Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements in February 2018. Sentenced to 45 days weekend jail and three years probation, December 17, 2018 Gates was Manafort's former deputy at political consulting firm DMP International. He admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government on financial activity, and to lying to investigators about a meeting Manafort had with a member of congress in 2013. As a result of his guilty plea and promise of cooperation, prosecutors vacated charges against Gates on bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, helping prepare false tax filings, and falsely amending tax returns. GUILTY AND JAILED: GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS Pleaded guilty to making false statements in October 2017. Sentenced to 14 days in September 2018, and reported to prison in November. Served 12 days and released on December 7, 2018 Papadopoulos was a member of Donald Trump's campaign foreign policy advisory committee. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his contacts with London professor Josef Mifsud and Ivan Timofeev, the director of a Russian government-funded think tank. GUILTY AND JAILED: RICHARD PINEDO Pleaded guilty to identity fraud in February 2018. Sentenced to a year in prison Pinedo is a 28-year-old computer specialist from Santa Paula, California. He admitted to selling bank account numbers to Russian nationals over the internet that he had obtained using stolen identities. GUILTY AND JAILED: ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN Pleaded guilty to making false statements in February 2018. He served a 30-day prison sentence and was deported to the Netherlands on his release Van der Zwaan was a Dutch attorney for Skadden Arps who worked on a Ukrainian political analysis report for Paul Manafort in 2012. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about when he last spoke with Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik. His law firm say he was fired. GUILTY: W. SAMUEL PATTEN Pleaded guilty in August 2018 to failing to register as a lobbyist while doing work for a Ukrainian political party. Sentenced to three years probation April 2019 Patten, a long-time D.C. lobbyist was a business partner of Paul Manafort. He pleaded guilty to admitting to arranging an illegal $50,000 donation to Trump's inauguration. He arranged for an American 'straw donor' to pay $50,000 to the inaugural committee, knowing that it was actually for a Ukrainian businessman. Neither the American or the Ukrainian have been named. CHARGED: KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK Indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. At large, probably in Russia Kilimnik is a former employee of Manafort's political consulting firm and helped him with lobbying work in Ukraine. He is accused of witness tampering, after he allegedly contacted individuals who had worked with Manafort to remind them that Manafort only performed lobbying work for them outside of the U.S. He has been linked to Russian intelligence and is currently thought to be in Russia - effectively beyond the reach of extradition by Mueller's team. INDICTED: THE RUSSIANS Twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian entities have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States. They remain at large in Russia Two of these Russian nationals were also indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 were indicted for conspiracy to launder money. Fifteen of them were also indicted for identity fraud. Vladimir Putin has ridiculed the charges. Russia effectively bars extradition of its nationals. The only prospect Mueller has of bringing any in front of a U.S. jury is if Interpol has their names on an international stop list - which is not made public - and they set foot in a territory which extradites to the U.S. INDICTED: MICHAEL FLYNN'S BUSINESS PARTNERS Bijan Kian (left), number two in now disgraced former national security adviser Mike Flynn's lobbying company, and the two's business partner Ekim Alptekin (right) were indicted for conspiracy to lobby illegally. Kian, an Iranian-American was arrested and appeared in court charged with a conspiracy to illegally lobby the U.S government without registering as a foreign agent. Their co-conspirator was Flynn, who is called 'Person A' in the indictment and is not charged, offering some insight into what charges he escaped with his plea deal. Kian, vice-president of Flynn's former lobbying firm, is alleged to have plotted with Alptekin to try to change U.S. policy on an exiled Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania and who is accused by Turkey's strongman president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of trying to depose him. Erdogan's government wanted him extradited from the U.S. and paid Flynn's firm through Alptekin for lobbying, including an op-ed in The Hill calling for Gulen to be ejected. Flynn and Kian both lied that the op-ed was not paid for by the Turkish government. The indictment is a sign of how Mueller is taking an interest in more than just Russian involvement in the 2016 election. GUILTY AND AWAITING SENTENCE: ROGER STONE Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign official and longtime informal advisor to Trump, was indited on seven counts including obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and lying to Congress about his communications with WikiLeaks in January 2019. Convicted on all counts November 15, 2019, awaiting sentence Stone was a person of interest to Mueller's investigators long before his January indictment, thanks in part due to his public pronouncements as well as internal emails about his contacts with WikiLeks. In campaign texts and emails, many of which had already been publicly revealed before showing up in Mueller's indictment, Stone communicated with associates about WikiLeaks following reports the organization had obtained a cache of Clinton-related emails. Stone, a former Nixon campaign adviser who has the disgraced former president's face permanently tattooed on his back, has long been portrayed as a central figure in the election interference scandal. 'They got nothing,' he said of the special counsel's investigation. Stone gave 'false and misleading' testimony about his requests for information from WikiLeaks. He then pressured a witness, comedian Randy Credico, to take the Fifth Amendment rather than testify, and pressured him in a series of emails. Following a prolonged dispute over testimony, he called him a 'rat' and threatened to 'take that dog away from you', in reference to Credico's pet, Bianca. Stone warned him: 'Let's get it on. Prepare to die.' CLEARED: GREG CRAIG Greg Craig, President Barack Obama's White House counsel, was indicted for failing to register as a foreign agent. Mueller's investigators uncovered Craig's work on behalf the government of Ukraine while probing Manafort, who did business with Craig. Prosecutors released a grand jury indictment of Craig in April 2019, after Craig's law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP agreed to pay more than $4.6 million as part of a settlement. The prominent firm also acknowledged it had failed to register, and placed much of the blame on Craig, a senior partner there. Craig's lawyer blasted the decision as an abuse of prosecutorial discretion, and prepared to argue that omission of information during an interview is not tantamount to making false statements. The charges stem from a 2012 report Craig and the firm produced on behalf of the Ukrainian government on opposition figure and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She was an opponent of Manafort's client , former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Craig was cleared on September 9 2019. Horse Ownership 101 - 4:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m.* ( *later, if staying for racing at The Raceway )- If you are considering purchasing a yearling or racehorse and would like to learn more about understanding pedigrees, conformation, and the owner-trainer experience, this workshop is for you! For more information, click here. A 21-year-old man allegedly high on drugs crashed a North Dakota church service on Tuesday morning and stripped off. Police allege Zachary Burdick had methamphetamine in his system when he entered the Spirit of Life Church about 9am. There, he took off his clothes, bathed in holy water and walked down the aisle touching himself. The wannabe rap star had been at the church earlier, police say, and was asked to leave after trying to bless people and hand out the Book of Mormon. Zachary Burdick (pictured), 21, has been arrested after stripping off, bathing in holy water and then masturbating in the aisle of a Catholic church during a service Burdick had been ejected from the Spirit of Life Catholic Church (holy water pictured) earlier on Tuesday morning for trying to bless people and hand out the Book of Mormon Officers in Mandan arrested Burdick on drug, criminal mischief and indecent exposure charges. Deputy police Chief Lori Flaten says preschool children were at the service. Burdick's Facebook page suggests the Mandan 21-year-old is an aspiring rapper with a penchant for marijuana. He performs under the stage name 'Unknwn', and with a band called 'Street Poetz'. A Soundcloud account for Burdick invites listeners to 'blow a cloud and enjoy the show'. The aspiring rapper was arrested on drug, criminal mischief and indecent exposure charges His social media is littered with memes about smoking weed and what appear to be rap lyrics about getting high. The 21-year-old is father to a daughter, aged five or six. The girl's mother, who is separated from Burdick, shared information about his arrest with friends on Facebook, remarking: 'Well, there goes child support'. The church plans to drain, sterilize and re-bless the holy water. The family of a mother-of-two who went missing nine days ago have urged her to get in touch as police looking for the missing woman said they are 'gravely concerned'. Christina Rack, 48, from Chorlton in Manchester has not been seen since October 1 and police say they are 'gravely concerned' for her safety. She was last seen by my her daughter at 8.15pm when she left the family home and police say they fear she has not taken vital medication since she went missing. Christina Rack, pictured, has not been seen since October 1 and police say they are 'gravely concerned' for her safety and fear she has not taken vital medication since she went missing Her family believe she was intending to meet her son for a walk in woodland at Chorlton Meadows. Today Christina's parents, Henry, 87, Judith, 82, brother, Martin, 44, and sister, Elizabeth, urged her to get in touch. Police have searched the area near her home, Chorlton Meadows, and the nearby Sale Water Park each day since she disappeared. Christina has mental health issues and left the home she shares with her daughter, Iola, 23, and Jacob, 25, without her medication. Her brother Martin said: 'She was last seen at quarter past eight at home by her daughter. She had been on the phone to her son, who was out walking in Chorlton Meadows area and she had agreed to go out and meet him, and walk the dog. She was to meet him at a bench. Christina's sister Elizabeth and her parents Judith and Henry Rack are appealing to find her 'Her daughter saw her leaving but then she didn't turn up at the bench. Her son rang her three or four times, she didn't answer and he came back home to find her. Then he went out on his bike to look for her and that was it, she has not been seen since. 'There was nothing to suspect that she was going to disappear. There was no issue, no argument within the family which had come to a head. 'She has mental health issues and had been on medication and there was some indication the week before that she was getting a bit anxious. 'Christina would go walking with the dog in the Meadows every day. Jacob was already out with the dog, Mable, a West Yorkshire terrier. 'Christina has had mental health issues and previously she has been missing for less than a day. But normally she would present as being confused and a member of the public would alert the police. 'She left home without her purse. She might have some cash with her. The mobile phone she had with her stopped working about an hour and a half after she left home. 'At 9.45pm the phone was located as being within that Sale Water Park area. After that either the battery has died or it has been switched off.' Jacob waited on a bench on a track for Christina in an area known as Ivy Green, a woodland area near footpaths and playing fields, about a ten minute walk from the family home. Her brother added: 'She was always going out with the dog, birdwatching, she is very chatty and personable. My mum and sister would talk to her every day for hours on end, and she's funny.' Martin said: 'I would just say to her get in contact - if it's not with us, with someone, so we know you are safe. 'She walked a lot. While the police search is focused on Sale Water Park and Chorlton Meadows, she could have gone further.' Christina has spent most of her life living in the Chorlton area and has done voluntary work with charities. She is 5ft 3', of medium build, with blonde, shoulder length hair. She was wearing a blue Fatface coat, grey jeans, and purple wellington boots. Henry said: 'She always has a good appearance, even if in a disturbed state, she always looks after her appearance. She was wearing fancy wellingtons.' Det Sgt Andrew Langlands, who has been involved in the search for Christina, said: 'We have had a report that someone saw a woman in Chorlton Water Park that they were concerned about which we followed up, but nothing more came of that. People also mentioned tents in that area, people thinking Christina may have been sleeping rough, but again that came to nothing. 'The search is ongoing. We have used the help of Bolton Mountain Rescue Team and the GMP Underwater Search Team involved as well, and our Tactical Aid Unit, on top of our neighbourhood officers. 'We are gravely concerned for Christina's safety, due to the time that she has been gone, the fact that she does suffer from mental health issues, and we are unsure as to whether she has access to funds. 'We know that she spoke to Iola before she left, but we are unsure as to whether she was going to meet Jacob or that things had got on top of her a little bit and she was actually leaving to get away for a while. She may have wanted to walk away to clear her head.' Anyone with information about Christina's whereabouts is asked to contact police on 0161 856 6031 quoting reference number 2085 of 01/10/2018. You can also call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Felicia Kufour, 66, was today sentenced for more than six years for conspiring to import cocaine, becoming the 14th and final member of her group to be dealt with by the courts A woman who tried to help a gang smuggle at least 32m worth of cocaine through Heathrow Airport with the help of corrupt British Airways baggage handlers was jailed for more than six years today. Felicia Kufour, 66, attempted to collect a drug-laden bag from arrivals but BA staff noticed the Rio suitcase should not have been there and wheeled it away. Kufour tried to flee only to be intercepted by Border Force. Corrupt BA baggage handler Joysen Jhurry, 41, had moved suitcases from Brazil off the international arrivals carousel to the domestic arrivals hall to avoid security checks. Jhurry was aided by another baggage handler, Mohammad Ali, 41, and his brother-in-law, Preetam Mungrah, 44, who acted as his right hand man. Kufour, of Bedford, received a text with a photo of the suitcase she was due to collect before she was arrested. She denied but was convicted of conspiring to import cocaine, and became the 14th and final member of the group to be dealt with when she was locked up for six years and three months today. Judge Michael Hopmeier had jailed the rest of the gang of baggage handlers, mules and dealers for a total of 139 years at Southwark Crown Court in April this year. Joysen Jhurry, 41, moved drug-laden suitcases flown in from Brazil from the international arrivals carousel to the domestic arrivals hall to avoid security checks Kufour was swamped by border agents as the drug trafficking gang was busted in 2016 Mark Agoro, 52, Damion Goodhall, 30, Wilfred Owusu, 30, and Michael Sutherland, 48, were the wholesalers with international contacts who were able to rake in cash for the gang. Owusu organised couriers including Danovan Bull, 45, and Moses Awopetu, 38, to fly in and collect the luggage and walk away without any customs checks, Southwark Crown Court heard. Leiona Townshend-Bartley, 32, Francisca Archer, 26 and Aziz Abdul, 37, had lesser roles as couriers or helpers. Cocaine was intercepted on six occasions by the National Crime Agency and a total of 223lbs was seized. The street value was 16m but there were undoubtedly other occasions when it is reasonable to infer and believe that cocaine was successfully smuggled into the country, said prosecutor Tim Probert-Wood. These other occasions mean the cash flow would have run into the tens of millions of pounds, he said. Corrupt staff in Brazil loaded bricks of unadulterated cocaine into ordinary bags stored in the planes hold. Crooked workers in the UK were then sent photos and descriptions of the bags to look out for through Blackberry Messenger. Rather than join the rest of the luggage going through security on the international arrivals carousel, bags were ripped off and placed on the domestic arrivals carousel before being collected. Couriers would arrive from Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen into Terminal 5 coinciding with the Rio flights and pick up bags in the arrivals hall. Jhurry and Ali, along with a team of other BA baggage handlers, were ready to rip off luggage from planes and take them to the domestic carousels. They had fobs which granted them access to air-side and they were also able to get into baggage trucks and drive across the runways. One of the six suitcases of drugs intercepted at Heathrow after they were moved from Rio to London via courier Townshend-Bartley and Awopetu worked as couriers, disembarking from domestic flights at the right time and picking up the luggage in arrivals. Agoro, Goodhall, Owusu, Sutherland and Abdul managed the couriers and their job was to get them to the correct airports and tell them what time the luggage would be expected. When consignments were intercepted the gang held meetings to discuss what went wrong. Jhurry called Mungrah after police intercepted a bag filled with 129 packages of coke and said Big f*** up, big f*** up. Agoro was arrested in connection with a separate conspiracy in August 2015 when he was caught handing across 141 grams of cocaine underneath a table at a Burger King in Kings Cross. The police swooped on 15 December 2016 and were able to catch almost all of the gang in coordinated strikes that day. When Jhurry was arrested by police they asked if he was expecting them, he replied, No, but Im glad you have come, its a relief to be honest - I am glad its all over. He claimed to be in fear of his life after a cartel in South America threatened to kill him. But Jhurry, of Banstead, Surrey, along with Goodhall, of Tooting, south London, admitted conspiracy to import class A drugs. Jhurry was jailed for 16 years. Agoro, of Chafford Hundred, Essex, Abdul, and Awopetu, of no fixed address, also admitted the charge. Agoro was jailed for 14 years and 6 months, Abdul for 9 years and 6 months, and Awopetu for 6 years and 9 months. Bull, of Clapham, admitted possession of class A drugs with intent to supply at Isleworth Crown Court in January 2016 and was sentenced to six years in prison Joysen Jhurry with Damion Goodhall, who sold the cocaine on after it reached the UK, are shown on surveillance footage as the drugs trafficking scam emerged Sutherland, of Croydon; Archer, of Stamford Hill; Townsend-Bartley, of Camberwell; Ali, of Slough; and Kufour, of Bedford, all denied conspiring to import cocaine but were convicted in February after a three month trial at Southwark Crown Court. Sutherland was jailed for 20 years, Archer for 6 years and 6 months, Townshend-Bartley for 6 years, Ali for 15 years and Kufour will be sentenced on 1 June due to health complications. Mungrah, of Thornton Heath, and Owusu, of Stoke Newington, were convicted of organising the importation of consignments after an eight week trial at Kingston Crown Court last October. Owusu was jailed for 20 years and Mungrah was given 13 years. NCA regional head of investigations Brendan Foreman said: This was a sophisticated plot and at the centre of it was a man who used his privileged access to Heathrow and insider knowledge of the airports systems for criminal purposes. This kind of corruption threatens the security of the UK border and the public at large which is why the NCA and its partners are tackling it as a priority. Border Force, Airport authorities and the airline community were vital in helping us to stop this organised crime group in its tracks and pull together the evidence which lead to them being sentenced to significant jail time today. A woman stabbed her friend with a knife at a Halloween attraction after mistakenly thinking it was a fake weapon. James 'Jay' Yochim suffered a 'severe laceration' to his arm after his friend, Tawnya Greenfield, knifed him at the Nashville Nightmare Halloween attraction in Madison, Tennessee, last Friday night. The 29-year-old was rushed to hospital needing nine stitches after a stranger dressed in a Halloween costume, who they assumed was a member of staff, came up to them and handed the woman a knife. The mystery man, who was wearing crystal skull make-up and a straw hat and 'talking in character', then goaded Tawnya stab James as a joke by saying 'well stab here', which she did because she thought it was a dummy weapon. James said the four friends had already been chased toy chainsaws and other weapons during the Halloween event. The woman stabbed her friend in the arm at the Nashville Nightmare Halloween attraction in Madison, Tennessee The group of friends were chased with dummy chainsaws and weapons before a stranger gave Tawnya a real knife He told USA TODAY: 'We'd had so much fun, we were jumping around. 'Keep in mind, we'd been chased by chainsaws, holding other weapons, all kinds of stuff all night, and it was all fake. So she stabs at me with it, and everything got really black.' According to a report filed by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, the stranger asked the woman if one of the group was 'f***ing' around with her'. Tawnya thought it was a joke and that he was an actor 'playing around' so when the stranger handed her the knife and told her to stab her friend she slashed at him, according to WZTV. She reportedly even said 'ha,ha' gotcha' as she knifed him, adding, 'his arm was gushing blood like something out of a horror scene'. The 'staff member' then reacted with horror telling the group, 'oh, I didn't know my knife was that sharp. I didn't know. I'm so sorry'. Nashville Nightmare Halloween bosses said a male employee had been placed on leave while the incident was investigated According to the police report, the unknown person was described as a skinny male wearing skull make-up on his face and a straw hat with a striped band, like a Mexican Day of the Dead character. The incident report given to Metro Nashville Police stated: 'As she pulled back, she realized that there was blood on the knife, there was a hole in the victims' shirt and blood was squirting from the victim's left arm.' Nashville Nightmare said a male member of staff had been put on leave while and investigation was carried out. Organizers said in a statement to USA TODAY: 'As we have continued to review the information, we believe that an employee was involved in some way, and he has been placed on leave until we can determine his involvement. 'We are going over all of our safety protocols with all of our staff again, as the safety and security of all of our patrons is always our main concern. "We are still confirming the facts, but I can tell you that on Friday night, a male patron was injured by a fellow patron outside the Nashville Nightmare house. 'Our medical staff responded immediately, and the injured party was transported to the hospital where we understand that he was treated and released. 'We have enjoyed a good reputation in this community, and our goal is always to host a festive, safe and professionally run Halloween event.' George Zimmerman's attorney said the former neighborhood watch volunteer will plead no contest to resolve misdemeanor charges accusing him of stalking a private investigator working for a documentary filmmaker. Zimmerman's attorney said Wednesday in a Florida courtroom that Zimmerman will enter a written plea of no contest next month and serve some probation. Under such a plea, a defendant doesn't admit guilt and a conviction is withheld if the conditions of the plea are met. George Zimmerman will plead no contest to resolve misdemeanor charges accusing him of stalking a private investigator working for a documentary filmmaker in December 2017 Private eye Dennis Warren said that Zimmerman had sent him harassing emails, texts and voicemails and called him 55 times while he was working on a Trayvon Martin docuseries Zimmerman had been accused of stalking private investigator Dennis Warren while Warren was working on the six-part docuseries, Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story, which was produced by rapper Jay-Z and aired on BET in July. Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges after fatally shooting unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Marin in 2012 During nine days in December 2017, Warren said that Zimmerman had called him 55 times, sent him 67 text messages and 27 emails, and left 36 voicemails. Authorities said that Zimmerman had also sent Warren a link to a news article and said, 'anyone who f**ks with my family will be fed to an alligator.' The same threat was said to have been levied against Jay-Z, too, according to WESH. Zimmerman had previously pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor stalking charges. His attorney Zahra Umansky said the terms of Zimmerman's no contest plea, including the length of probation, will be disclosed next month. In December 2017, Zimmerman said that the docuseries' executive producer had gone to his relatives' homes, unannounced, to try to capture them on film. Zimmerman claimed that the camera crews had harassed his family and declined to pay them to participate in the documentary, according to The Blast. Zimmerman fatally shot unarmed, black teenager Trayvon Martin, 17, in 2012 in the central Florida city of Sanford. He claimed that he shot Martin self defense. He was then acquitted of all charges in a case that raised questions about race and gun laws and helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement. Michael Bloomberg announced his decision to register as a Democrat on social media on Wednesday amid rumors hes running for President in 2020. The former New York City Mayor said on Instagram that he was inspired by recent events to re-join the political party. Bloomberg, 76, cited a need for Democrats to provide the checks and balances our nation so badly needs. He wrote: At key points in US history, one of the two parties has served as a bulwark against those who threaten our Constitution. Two years ago at the Democratic convention, I warned of those threats. Michael Bloomberg has re-registered as a Democrat amid rumors he's considering running for President in 2020 Should former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg run for president in 2020, he'll face serious competition from his own party and the Republicans Today, I have re-registered as a Democrat I had been a member for most of my life. This is just one of several moves Bloomberg and his team have made leading up to his potential run for Oval Office. According to CNBC, a super PAC funded by the millionaire spent over $2 million (1.5m) supporting seven Democratic women in their respective races to unseat House Republicans. Bloomberg vowed to invest $80 million (60m) to support Democratic candidates for Congress and $20 million (15.1m) to a super PAC that aims to get Democrats elected to the Senate. Should he decide to run for president, Bloomberg will have stiff competition. Hes expected to be facing Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2020 election. Want to know more about potential presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg? Heres the scoop. Who is Michael Bloomberg? Michael Rubens Bloomberg, born February 14, 1942, is an entrepreneur, politician and philanthropist. Hes perhaps best known for being the mayor of New York City from January 2002 until December 2013. Hes the founder, CEO and owner of Bloomberg LP, a financial services, media and software company. Bloomberg LP has become synonymous with Bloomberg Terminal, a software system that provides financial data to those in financial services. Bloomberg began focusing on the aforementioned venture in a more fulltime capacity after leaving his position as mayor of New York City in 2013. Bill de Blasio stepped into the role instead. He remained involved in politics after the end of his mayoral tenure. Bloomberg endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in the 2016 election. Michael Bloomberg wife Michael Bloomberg was married to a woman called Susan Elizabeth Barbara Brown in 1975. Shes a British national from Yorkshire. The pair tied the knot in 1975 and had two children together. Their first, Emma, was born in 1979, with second daughter Georgina following in 1983. Bloomberg and Brown divorced in 1993. They remain close, however. Hes since moved on with Diana Taylor, the New York state banking superintendent. They are not married, however. Michael Bloomberg net worth According to CBS News, Michael Bloombergs net worth is about $51.8 billion (39.2b). By this estimation, hes the eighth richest person in the United States and the 11th richest person in the world. Forbes estimates that its closer to $48.1 billion (36.4b). Bloombergs net worth has been a hot topic since 2016, when Donald Trump doubted that the former mayor had reached billionaire status. I dont believe that. I dont believe that, he said in an interview with CNN. Its a technology company I mean, if someone came in, frankly, and comes up with a better machine than him, people would stop using his machine. Despite Trumps doubts, Bloomberg has been said to be a billionaire for some time. Due to his immense wealth, he agreed to collect only $1 per year during his 12-year time as New Yorks mayor, Business Insider reported. Hes also joined The Giving Pledge, which requires that billionaires give away at least half their wealth. Michael Bloomberg house According to Curbed, Michael Bloomberg lives in a Beaux Arts townhouse in Manhattan. He owns five of the six apartments in the townhouse that neighbors his likely an attempt at creating a larger home for himself and his family. Bloomberg owns other homes in London, Bermuda and Colorado. Michael Bloomberg political affiliation Michael Bloomberg ran for mayor of New York City in 2001 as a Republican. He beat Mark Green in his first of what would be three races. He ran again in 2005 and won a second term. Two years later, he left the Republican party. During his second term, he campaigned to change New York Citys term limits law and won. In 2009 he was elected for a third mayoral term as an Independent. Michael Bloomberg political views Michael Bloomberg has been an outspoken advocate for stricter gun control laws and environmental policies. He co-chaired the Mayors for the Freedom to Marry effort in 2012, moved to make education more accessible to inmates at Rikers Island and has been anti-death penalty for some time. Hes also taken a hard stance against regulations on big businesses and banks and backed controversial stop and frisk tactics. Bloomberg has been anti-legalization of marijuana, which has become an important issue to voters in recent years. House Republicans leaders are preparing to introduce a bill to provide full funding for President Trump's border wall in a gambit to reinsert immigration into the midterm elections. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is introducing the 'Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act,' which would authorize the funding while also cutting off funds for 'sanctuary cities' and making it easier to deport immigrant gang members. Having McCarthy on board gives the effort a leadership seal of approval. The bill would authorize another $23 billion for the border wall, on top of the $1.6 billion in funding already appropriated. It would face long odds in the Senate, but that won't prevent lawmakers from using it for messaging. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Califoria, who is facing a challenge as he runs for speaker, is introducing legislation to provide $23 billion for President Trump's border wall The $1.6 billion came as part of a huge omnibus spending bill for the current year. It caps funding for 'border barrier planning and design' at $38 million, and targets the rest for border security. Trump and McCarthy have kept close throughout Trump's presidency, with Trump talking up his big for speaker though McCarthy once got caught on tape saying privately he thought Trump was one of two Republicans who could be bought by the Russians. He said he was joking. 'For decades, America's inability to secure our borders and stop illegal immigration has encouraged millions to undertake a dangerous journey to come here in violation of our laws and created a huge loophole to the legal channels to the immigration process where America welcomes immigrants to our country,' said McCarthy in a statement provided to Breitbart.com, the conservative outlet that first reported his sponsorship. 'We're building the wall,' Trump said at a campaign rally Tuesday in Iowa In this Aug. 11, 2017, file photo, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol vehicle passes along a section of border levee wall in Hidalgo, Texas. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, that it will waive environmental laws so it can build gates between sections of border barriers in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley. The waiver posted online Tuesday lists 11 locations where the government plans to install gates in existing fencing. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) U.S. workers are seen next to heavy machinery while working on a new bollard wall in El Paso, Texas, as seen from the Mexican side of the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., center, is introducing immigration as opinion polls show Democrats have a lead in the generic ballot test versus Democrats McCarthy is facing a challenge in his run for speaker from conservative Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Freedom Caucus member. 'President Trumps election was a wakeup call to Washington. The American people want us to build the wall and enforce the law. Maintaining strong borders is one of the basic responsibilities of any nation. For too long, America has failed in this responsibility,' McCarthy said. 'We intend on having a full-fledged discussion on how to complete our mission to secure the border, and yes, we will have a fight about this, Speaker Paul Ryan said this week. During Trump's evening rally in Iowa Tuesday, a boisterous crowd once again cheered 'Build that wall!' a staple of Trump campaign rallies in 2016. But Trump has dropped his repeated mention that Mexico will pay for it. 'And we've built the wall -- we're building the wall,' Trump said Tuesday evening. 'We've started. A lot of it's getting done right now. We got $1.6 billion. Another $1.6 billion. And another $1.6 billion. I want 'em to give us the money so I can build it we can build it in a year. But we've done a lot of it. It's going up right now,' Trump said. Trump continued: 'But when it comes to the wall, they feel we want it so badly, but we keep getting big chunks and we keep building that wall. And it's under construction. And we're going to get it finished sooner than anyone would believe. And if you could get me some Republicans, we'll get it done quickly. Quickly,' Trump said. McCarthy tweeted out a link to the story, and even included Trump's 'Make America Great Again' acronym. 'Few things are more fundamental to a nation than a protected border. Proud to introduce the Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act. #MAGA,' McCarthy wrote. UK Finance chief Stephen Jones has suggested taxing consumers on all payments to cover bank fraud costs Banks are facing a furious reaction from customers after saying they should foot the compensation bill for fraud by paying a tax on every transaction made. UK Finance chief Stephen Jones told MPs on the Treasury committee today that banks shouldn't always have to cover the costs when criminals con people into transferring money out of their accounts. A tiny levy on each payment made in the UK could be a solution to covering the rising cost of such scam schemes, Mr Jones said. The idea is not likely to please consumers with Gareth Shaw from consumer group Which? saying: 'Customers would feel very strongly about footing the bill- it definitely shouldn't be them or the victims paying.' Statistics released by UK Finance show that in the first half of 2018, consumers lost 92.9 million because of this type of fraud. 'Customers will pay if the banks have to pay. There's no such thing as a free lunch here. It's a question of how can the cost be fairly distributed across the system,' the former Santander executive told MPs. The finance chief also warned against introducing a blanket requirement for banks to payout to victims. He said that would 'attract more fraud into the system' by providing criminals with 'very very perverse incentives'. Mr Jones' comments provoked an angry response from consumer groups and money experts who say it's the banks' role to protect their customers' money at all costs. FBI Director Chris Wray confirmed during testimony Wednesday that there were limits placed on agents who conducted a background probe of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. At a Homeland Security Committee hearing in the Senate, Wray was questioned by Sen. Kamala Harrris of California, one of the Judiciary Committee Democrats who fumed before Kavanaugh's confirmation about reports of limits on the probe. 'I think I would say that our investigation here, our supplemental update to the previous background investigation was limited in scope and that that is consistent with the standard process for such investigations going back quite a long ways,' Wray testified. Asked if he got any direction from White House counsel Don McGahn, Wray was indirect. FBI Director Chris Wray said the bureau's Brett Kavanaugh background investigation was 'limited in scope' 'I can't speak to what anybody throughout the organization might have received instructions on. My understanding is that communications occurred between the White House Office of Security and the FBI Security Division,' Wray said. Wray said the way the probe was established was standard in keeping with other similar probes. But he declined to answer who was responsible for deciding agents not interview either Kavanaugh, who was confirmed on a 50-48 vote on Saturday, or his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. Agents also didn't interview a series of witnesses recommended by two other women who made sexual assault allegations about Kavanaugh that they said occurred decades ago. Harris, in her question, said there were 40 potential witnesses who did not get interviewed. Wray said communications took place between the White House Office of Security and the FBI Security Division during the investigation, which began on a Friday and ended late Wednesday before Kavanaugh's confirmation vote Wray would not respond directly to a question about whether Brett Kavanaugh lied during testimony to Congress Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen (L) and FBI Director Christopher Wray (R) testify during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on 'Threats to the Homeland' on Capitol Hill Sen. Kamala Harris, who sits on both panels, questioned Wray FBI agents contacted Deborah Ramirez, but did not contact some 40 potential witnesses, Harris said 'As is standard, the investigation was very specific in scope, limited in scope, and that that is the usual process and that my folks have assured me that the usual process was followed,' Wray testified. Democrats have been demanding any written communications between McGahn and the FBI, after initial reports agents were only to explore Blasey Ford's allegation. Agents ultimately interviewed Debbie Ramirez, who alleges Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a Yale party decades ago. Ask if there were written instructions, he said: 'I can't speak to that. I would have to see what would be appropriate,' he said. But Wray was unequivocal in saying the FBI had followed standard practice. 'I've spoken with our background investigation specialists and they have assured me this was handled in a way consistent with their experience and the standard process," he said. The extra background probe came about in a dramatic flourish after Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona negotiated with Democrats and agreed that the assault allegations demanded a look from the FBI. Following a probe that began Friday night and concluded late Wednesday, Senators who were allowed to view a single copy of interview documents ended up confirming Kavanaugh. Wray would not respond directly to a question about whether Brett Kavanaugh lied during testimony to Congress. 'That's not something I can discuss here,' he said. Democrats accuse the new justice of lying about whether he ever got black out drunk, whether his membership in an informal 'Beach Week Ralph Club' referred to vomiting, and whether his description of 'Devil's Triangle' in his high school yearbook entry as a drinking game was accurate. A seven-year-old boy whose life was saved by three organs from an 11-year-old girl who had been killed by a Land Rover has met the schoolgirl's parents for the first time. Daniel Hirst, who was born with his bowel outside his body, received a pancreas, liver and small bowel from victim Amelia Wood after her fatal accident. The schoolgirl died in hospital in Nottingham after a wheel came off a passing 4x4 as she walked to her school bus. Amelia's mother Hayley Hodson, 39, said after meeting Daniel that her daughter had 'given life to other children so more families do not feel as we do'. Seven-year-old Daniel Hirst (left) received organs from Amelia Wood, whose mother Hayley Hodson (right) met Daniel and his mother Helen Yardley (centre) at their home in Leeds 'Their lives would have stopped. Amelia giving her organs gives them a second chance,' she said. Four patients have received organs after Amelia's family agreed to donate them for transplant following her death on March 6. One young boy received a kidney after being on the waiting list for over a month while another waited just a few days. Amelia's liver was split, with one half given to Daniel and the other half transplanted to a woman in her 20s. After meeting Daniel and his parents in Leeds, Hayley said: 'It was like going to a friend's house. It was not as emotional as I thought it was going to be. There were no tears. 'Because he was born with his bowel outside of his body he was unable to feed and he needed a liver. Daniel Hirst (right), who was born with his bowel outside his body, received a pancreas, liver and small bowel from victim Amelia Wood (left) after her fatal accident 'His mum Helen and I had built up a friendship. Social media can be bad but in this case it has done good because we were both able to prepare for meeting one another. 'It was great to see Daniel, who is a normal boy like [Amelia's brothers] Dexter and Oscar and into dinosaurs and buses.' Hayley will be attending The Pride of Britain awards in London where she is a finalist to honour her fundraising in memory of Amelia. She is looking forward to meeting a host of celebrities, including Cheryl Cole, awards' host Carol Vorderman and the judges, with Coronation Street's Kym Marsh on the panel. Sales of the ribbons have helped boost the amount raised in her memory to over 30,000. Schoolgirl Amelia Wood (pictured) died in hospital in Nottingham after a wheel came off a passing 4x4 as she walked to her school bus The donations have been shared among Queen's Medical Centre, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire air ambulance and Sheffield Children's Hospital. The Sheffield hospital was where Amelia was treated and had beaten leukaemia from the age of three years. Hayley said: 'I am going to keep raising money for the charities like I do. My main aim is making more people aware of organ donation and giving blood. 'Currently there are 6,142 people on the transplant list awaiting organs and over 150 of them are children and teenagers. 'Sadly there are many people dying while they wait and heart transplants are down 10 per cent on last year and kidney transplant have gone down four per cent. Transplants from living patients are down 28 per cent,' she told. Daniel's mum Helen Yardley said: 'Hayley is wonderful and selfless. I am so glad we met and I am so proud of her being a finalist in The Pride of Britain.' Four former Northern Ireland secretaries have joined calls for the government to draw a line under investigations of former soldiers. The politicians were among those who have signed a letter urging ministers to prioritise compensation for victims over investigation. The missive comes as Northern Ireland's current Secretary of State considers a 150million plan to deal with the legacy of the Troubles. A consultation document has proposed a Historical Investigations Unit to continue outstanding investigations into deaths. Lord Hain said that while they were proposing a line be drawn under the past, they were not proposing an amnesty. He added they would not oppose the pursuit of a case if significant new evidence emerged. But the peer - who served in the Labour Cabinet - said victim support should be given more resources, instead of 'costly investigations that on past evidence would not deliver justice for victims'. Lord Hain (pictured in Parliament earlier this year) was among the four ex Northern Ireland Secretaries who wrote the letter joining calls for the government to draw a line under investigations of former soldiers The signatories include Lord King, the Tory Northern Ireland secretary from 1985 to 1989, Labour's Lord Reid, who held the post in 2000-01, shortly after the signing of the Belfast Agreement, Lord Murphy (2002-05) and Lord Hain (2005-07) as well as former Northern Ireland Office minister Lord Browne. The group also includes former Church of Ireland primate Lord Eames, who co-authored a report on dealing with the past in 2008, Lord Patten, who oversaw the creation of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and former Northern Ireland Affairs Committee chairman Lord Cormack. The letter says only a small number of investigations into the past yield prosecutions, and claims that of the 1,615 cases the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) investigated, just three resulted in prosecutions. 'We understand why many victims and others attach great importance to the prosecution, conviction and sentencing of those responsible for the appalling loss they have suffered,' they write. 'But experience suggests that it would be a mistake to expect judicial outcome in any but a tiny percentage of the crimes that have not already been dealt with.' The past has been one of the sticking points between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein through several rounds of failed talks to agree the return of powersharing at Stormont. Theresa May (pictured leaving Number Ten today) has come under repeated pressure to end the 'witch hunt' into troops who served in the Troubles The pursuit of former soldiers has also sparked outrage among the veterans community, particularly following the arrest of pensioner Dennis Hutchings. The 77-year-old from Cornwall is set to face trial for attempted murder over the fatal shooting of John Pat Cunningham, 27, in Co Tyrone in 1974. Prosecutors are also reportedly considering charging 18 British soldiers over involvement in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry. Lord Hain's letter on behalf of the group said past cases must be treated in an 'absolutely even-handed manner'. 'We note that currently prosecutions are being considered for former members of the armed forces - perhaps because records and information are more readily available - but none so far as we can establish for paramilitaries,' they wrote. 'That cannot be right. 'We believe that it is essential to treat past cases in an absolutely even-handed manner. 'That also means former military personnel cannot be exempt (as some are suggesting) while other former combatants, either loyalist or republican, are pursued. 'All in all, we are reinforced in our judgment that the priority is surely now to resource victims, not investigations that have little or no likelihood of either prosecution or alternative closure satisfactory to victims.' Three deputies managed to save the life of a week-old infant who stopped breathing after she began choking while at a shopping mall near Portland Oregon. Deputies Zacharkiw, Olson, and Russell could be seen on surveillance video rushing through the mall to the photography studio where baby Audrey was found pale and unresponsive after choking on some milk. 'I moved her out from under her blanket and she was a different color,' Audrey's mom Jessie Siefer said to KPTV. Parents Jessie Siefer and Kaylob Harmon were at Clackamas Town Center to capture their baby's first portrait photo when she suddenly stopped breathing They immediately called 911 as Harmon and attempted CPR while waiting for paramedics The 911 call brought the three deputies - Zacharkiw, Olson, and Russell - running through the mall to reach Audrey and her parents The parents say everything then seemed to be happening in slow motion but the surveillance video showed just how fast things really happened. Audrey's father began CPR on the infant and when the deputies arrived they took over, allowing the parents to watch as they worked hard to save their child. 'You can't describe what it's like to see your child turn blue. Not really knowing how to help or what the hell's going on,' dad Kaylob Harmon said to NBC4. It was a team effort. While everyone waited for the paramedics to arrive, Zacharkiw performed chest compressions, Olson used his finger to check the infant's airway as Russell stabilized her head, keeping her neck arched and airway open. Zacharkiw did chest compressions, Olson checked Audrey's airway and Russell stabilized her head. Zacharkiw turned her over, burped her to get the fluid out of her airway Paramedics arrived and took over. Baby Audrey was rushed to a nearby hospital Zacharkiw then turned Audrey on her stomach and used a burping chest pat to remove fluid from her airway. After he turned the baby back over, Russell used a bulbous nose sucker to extract fluid from baby Audrey's nose. The trio said they had never been in a situation before with an infant. About two minutes later, Clackamas Fire District 1 emergency crews arrived and took over CPR. The girl was taken to Oregon Health and Science University for treatment, where she remains in intensive care but is now doing a lot better than last weekend. On Tuesday evening, baby Audrey started breathing on her own again for the first time in more than a week. It is not yet clear when she might be released. Audrey's parents invited the deputies to visit the baby at the Oregon Health and Science University hospital so that she could meet the men who saved her life The deputies admitted to tearing up as they visited baby Audrey under much better conditions Audrey, pictured with mom, Siefer, has been on a ventilator at Doernbecher Children's Hospital. Doctors finally removed the breathing tube on Tuesday evening Parents Harmon and Siefer have been by their daughter's bedside since Sunday and although their baby girl is still in critical condition, they invited the deputies to come by the hospital in order to thank them in person. 'Kaylob told us he wanted a picture to show Audrey the guys who saved her life,' said Deputy Zacharkiw. The officers were touched by the gesture and heartened that she looked so much better than those few critical minutes in the mall. 'It was unbelievably heartwarming to be invited back, and amazing to see how far she has progressed since last Sunday,' he said. 'We really thought she was dead at the time,' Deputy Russell said. 'I just wanted to do whatever I could to give her a chance,' Deputy Zacharkiw added. 'Luckily we were where we were. Had this happened at home, it probably would have been an entirely different story,' Deputy Harmon said. Clackamas County deputies Zacharkiw, Olson, and Russell helped save newborn Audrey Harmon. Her parents, Kaylob Harmon and Jessie Siefer, asked them to visit to say thank you As a third-grade student, senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller would cover his hands with glue, peel it off, and eat it. Franklin elementary teacher Nikki Fiske taught the man credited as the architect of Trump's Muslim ban, and the policy of separating families at the border. She told The Hollywood Reporter in the year she spent with him at the Santa Monica school, he was 'a strange dude' who she had 'a lot' of concerns about. 'I remember he would take a bottle of glue we didn't have glue sticks in those days and he would pour the glue on his arm, let it dry, peel it off and then eat it,' she said. Nikki Fiske, third grade teacher to Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller, says he would pour glue on his body and eat it when it dried Fiske said Miller was a loner who would isolate himself from classmates (circled is Miller in third grade. Fiske is pictured far right) While he kept up with classmates academically, Miller struggled socially. Fiske says he was a 'loner', who had a messy desk and was would often isolate himself from classmates. 'Do you remember that character in Peanuts, the one called Pig Pen, with the dust cloud and crumbs flying all around him? That was Stephen Miller at eight,' she said. Miller's desk mate from third grade has also written a tell-all, part of which focused on the policy adviser's fascination with glue (stock image) Fiske's comments are, strangely, not the first to be made about the controversial right-wing activist's time in third grade. In June, classmate John Muller wrote a tell-all for Politico about the man who wrote Trump's inauguration speech's time in Fiske's class. Muller sat next to him, but said the pair were never friends. He, like Fiske, said Miller was difficult to get through to, and even claimed the eight-year-old had divided their table in half to establish a clear boundary. 'He especially was obsessed with tape and glue,' Muller wrote. 'Along the midpoint of our desk, Stephen laid down a piece of white masking tape, explaining that it marked the boundary of our sides and that I was not to cross it.' The former Harvard lecturer said he found it intriguing that for a child so determined to keep others out of his space, he took no care to maintain that space, and recollected Miller's desk being 'sticky and peeling' with pencils and bits of paper everywhere. Like Fiske, Muller also noticed Miller's fascination with glue. 'When Stephen wasnt picking at the tape [dividing the desk], he was playing with glue,' he said. 'He liked to pour it into his hands, forming grime-tinted glaciers in the valleys of his palms. Glue thusly in hand, he deployed his deepest powers of concentration to watch these pools harden.' Zaniyah Burns (above) was killed by gunfire from outside her home on Tuesday night A seven-year-old girl has been killed inside her home by gunfire that police believe was intended for her 16-year-old uncle. Zaniyah Burns was fatally struck in the head by the gunfire on Tuesday evening inside her home in Flint, Michigan. Flint police Chief Timothy Johnson says he believes the shots were fired at the home from nearby before the suspected shooter escaped. Police say the girl was inside the home with her mother and other family members when she was shot in the head. Johnson says the girl's 16-year-old uncle was believed to be the intended target. Family members leave the scene as Flint police investigate after a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed on Tuesday on the north side of Flint, Michigan Family members leave the scene after the shooting. Seven-year-old Zaniyah Burns was killed Zaniyah's great-grandfather William Long told ABC 12 that he heard five or six shots coming from the street behind the home. June Long, Zaniyah's great-grandmother, told the station that she had just been playing with the girl before she was shot. 'I looked at her and I said, 'Your hair is so pretty,'' June said, recalling their final moments together. 'We try to tell them every time they are around us that we love them. Police searched the area but made no arrests. Above, family members leave the scene An uncle walks away from police as he vacates the scene where Flint police investigate after a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed on Tuesday in Flint, Michigan She said the family would meet with their pastor to begin grieving their loss, and seek solace in God. 'There's a purpose for everything under the sun,' June Long said. 'We don't know why it had to happen to her, but there is a reason behind it. We don't know right, but we will know.' Police searched the neighborhood with K-9 units and a helicopter on Tuesday night but no arrests have been made. No information about a possible suspect has been released. Flint is about 50 miles northwest of Detroit. One resident of the Florida Panhandle who vowed to ride out Hurricane Michael has written his name on his arm in black marker to help identify his body if he dies. Randy Simmons, 57, made the grim preparation on Wednesday morning at his Panama City Beach condo, shortly before Michael made landfall as a potentially lethal Category 4 storm. Sipping coffee on the deck of his condo just yards from the beach, Simmons calmly showed his arm to a Miami Herald reporter as the swells began to roil. 'You just never what's going to happen in these situations,' he said. 'People do die.' He wrote his name on his arm before the hurricane. "You just never whats going to happen" https://t.co/97v1CD9Ew6 #HurricaneMichael pic.twitter.com/QlF1ztZq7j Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) October 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael is seen from orbit at 12.45pm on Wednesday as it makes landfall Simmons did plan to retreat a few miles inland to a second property before landfall, after finishing preparations at the beachfront condo. 'I was going to stay here until it go to a Category 4,' Simmons said. 'This is going to be a big mess.' Simmons is not alone among those who have ignored mandatory evacuation orders. Despite days of dire warnings, these holdouts have decided to remain - and some even talk of attending a 'hurricane party' at a Panama City Beach bar that lies directly in Michael's path. For those who refused to evacuate, FEMA Director Brock Long said on Wednesday that people 'who stick around and experience storm surge unfortunately don't usually live to tell about it.' Residents who chose not to evacuate gather at Buster's Beer & Bait for drinks in Panama City Beach on Tuesday night. The evacuation window closed on Wednesday morning Timothy Thomas is just a few hundred yards from the beach where Michael is expected to make landfall, but believes he will be safe in his second story apartment Cameron Sadowski walks along where waves are crashing onto the beach as the outer bands of hurricane Michael arrive on Wednesday in Panama City Beach, Florida Among the evacuation holdouts is Timothy Thomas, who isn't budging from his home in Panama City Beach, even though it's directly in the path of Hurricane Michael. Thomas, a 50-year-old air conditioning repairman, plans to defy an evacuation order and ride out the monster storm in an apartment that's just a few hundred yards from the beach and even closer to the tea-colored Grand Lagoon, which will rise as the massive storm pushes ocean water toward the coast. An Illinois native with a beard, long hair and a streak of independence, Thomas hasn't been through a major hurricane before; he's only lived in Panama City Beach about seven years. A neighbor with far more storm experience evacuated to higher ground. But police aren't being pushy about enforcing the order, and Thomas figures he, his wife and their puppy will be OK since they live in a second-floor apartment. It's more than 10 feet off the ground, after all, and forecasters say the water in his area isn't supposed to rise that much. 'If it does I guess we'll be swimming,' he said Tuesday evening as the sky darkened overhead. Dwight Williams (left) and Timothy Thomas debate whether to evacuate their neighborhood in Panama City Beach on Tuesday. Thomas figures he and his wife will be safe from rising ocean water since they live in a second-story apartment, but Williams planned to leave Local resident Marc Mills photographs a beach as Hurricane Michael approaches Panama City Beach on Wednesday morning. Evacuation routes out are now closed Slade David walks the empty streets as Hurricane Michael begins to make landfall in Panama City, Florida on Wednesday. More than 370,000 people in Florida were ordered to evacuate Thomas isn't alone; other residents along his street also plan to take on Michael head-on, even though authorities have told about 120,000 residents of Bay County to leave. Thomas' first-floor neighbors also plan to stay, and they're welcome upstairs if the water gets too high, Thomas said. So are his next-door neighbors and their dog. 'We've got canned food and a can opener. We have lots of water and food for the dogs, and I'm going to tape up the windows, cover the windows, just tack them up with sheets or whatever, to keep the glass from flying if that happens,' he said. As Thomas spoke, a hurricane party was going on less than two miles away at Buster's Beer and Bait, a dive bar popular both with locals and tourists who overwhelm the region during the summer. With Michael percolating out in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday night, dozens of people gathered outside Buster's as small palm trees swayed in the breeze nearby. On the bar's Facebook page, a $5 special was announced for a drink called the 'Storm Surge'. There was no answer at the bar when DailyMail.com attempted to reach it by phone on Wednesday morning. Jeff Platke (above) decided to ride out the storm on his boat in a marina in Pensacola, which is well west of the main storm track. 'I'm a sailor, I'm not a village idiot,' he said Sarah Scott (left) and Shawn Glasper walks through the streets as Hurricane Michael begins to make landfall in Panama City, Florida on Wednesday People sit on a dock as Hurricane Michael bears down on Carrabelle, Florida, on Tuesday David Gage and Christal Gage and their dog, Bear, relax on the back of their pickup truck next to the ocean as they wait for the arrival of Hurricane Michael on Tuesday in Parker, Florida People visit the beach while waiting for Hurricane Michael on Tuesday in Panama City Beach, Florida. As of Wednesday, anyone who hasn't evacuated the area is ordered to shelter in place Other places were shut down and locked up. The windows were covered with metal hurricane shutters at Pineapple Willie's, a popular beachfront restaurant, and sandbags blocked the entrance to a Wells Fargo bank. Plywood covered the front at Shrimp City, a small seafood market. Dwight Williams, who lives across the street from Thomas, wasn't taking any chances - he and his wife were packing to evacuate. They plan to stay with friends in DeFuniak Springs, a Panhandle town about 30 miles inland. Their single-story home is built to withstand winds blowing up to 130 mph, Williams said, but rising water is scary. 'What worries me is the storm surge,' said Williams, who has lived on the street about 24 years. Thomas said relatives in Illinois had urged him to leave and stay with them, but he didn't have a way to get so far north so quickly, and shelters aren't a good option in his view. 'You never know who you're sleeping beside,' he said. 'Here, I do.' So Thomas and his wife will stay put. And once the wind stops howling and the water recedes, Thomas will await the natural outcome of a hurricane for someone who works in the air conditioning business in a place known for hot, humid summers. 'After all the air conditioners go under water, we'll be busy,' he said. Debris hits vehicles, just before a canopy collapses, at a hotel during Hurricane Michael in Panama City Beach on Wednesday Hotel employees look at a canopy that just collapsed, as Hurricane Michael passes through in Panama City Beach on Wednesday Another Panama City Beach resident, Teri Vega, 53, said her husband and 12-year-old daughter will remain despite the evacuation order. 'We have a fairly new house,' Vega told NBC News before Michael strengthened to a Category 4 storm. 'It was built really well. We put the hurricane shutters up. We have tubs of water in each of the bathrooms so that we can still flush. We have a generator. We have a gas grill. Tons of canned food, water, Gatorade.' Inland in Panama City, Missy Theiss, 54, told NBC News that she lives just outside a mandatory evacuation zone, but planned to stay because they have five animals two cats, two small dogs, and a pit bull. 'Nobody is going to let a pit bull into a shelter,' Thiess said before Michael was upgraded. 'We've got five animals here. I'm not leaving them. Point blank. I'm not leaving them.' Thiess said the family is prepared with water, food and a generator. About 90 miles west of Panama City Beach, in Pensacola Beach, one man even planned to ride out the storm on his sailing boat. Though Pensacola is not projected to get dangerous storm surges, tropical storm force winds are predicted in the area. People take pictures of the ocean in advance of Hurricane Michael in Pensacola on Tuesday A beachgoer takes photos of the waves on Wednesday, at The Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach as Hurricane Michael impacts the coast 'If I can move my lines up and down, the boat's good. And now it looks like, I know it's going to Panama City. We're watching this thing, it's an educated decision,' former Coast Guardsman Jeff Platke told Fox News. He said he'd chosen the marina where he'd make his stand carefully: 'This marina survived Ivan. Man, if I'm going to put myself somewhere, I'm going to put myself somewhere good.' 'I'm a sailor, I'm not a village idiot,' he added. Even some tourists in Pensacola Beach are opting to ride out the storm in their hotels rather than evacuate. 'We're staying,'' George Kirn of Chicago told the Pensacola News Journal. Kirn and his wife Christine were making their third trip to Pensacola Beach and are staying at a hotel on the beach. 'It's just Mother Nature,' he said. Christine Kirn said the couple is prepared to go without power and water for a short period. 'If we lose power, we have a little stove to cook with,'' she said. He added: 'And I'm not going to be without coffee.' Donald Trump on Wednesday renewed his recurring complaint that television network news coverage of his administration skews deeply negative. 'Despite so many positive events and victories,' Trump tweeted, '92% of stories on Donald Trump are negative on ABC, CBS and ABC. It is FAKE NEWS!' In his haste, the president mentioned ABC twice and omitted NBC, the third broadcast network. He attributed the statistic to the Media Research Center, a conservative nonprofit that has tracked news coverage since 1987. Trump also blasted 'the Failing New York Times' for runnning Tuesday's front page without any mention of a high-profile White House ceremony where he swore in Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh the night before. President Donald Trump renewed his complaint that television network news coverage of his administration skews deeply negative Trump cited the Media Research Center, which has been analyzing news coverage and documenting journalistic biases since 1987 On Tuesday morning The New York Times covered Monday's ceremonial swearing-in of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on page A17, and Trump thought it should have been front-page news The Media Research Center concluded that between June and September the three broadcast networks 'continued to pound Donald Trump and his team with the most hostile coverage of a President in TV news history.' The group analyzed all 1,007 stories about the Trump administration that ran on evening news broadcasts, 1,960 minutes of airtime in all, tracking every comment anchors, reporters and non-partisan sources made and classifying them as positive or negative. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation was the most common topic, followed by immigration policy, the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fight, diplomacy with North Korea and U.S.-Russia relations. Those five topics consumed 1,271 broadcast minutes between June 1 and September 30. The same three networks devoted a total of just 14 minutes on the Trump administrations economic achievements, including what the Media ResearcH Center called 'positive effects of the tax cuts and deregulation, plus historic job growth.' Trump blasted the 'fake news' Tuesday night in Iowa The president has leveled a constantly renewable stream of invective at the White House press corps since before he took office, claiming that most reporters who cover him are unwilling to do it fairly. On the first day of the Trump administration a Time magazine journalist incorrectly reported that the new president had removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office. The 21 months that followed have been an alternatively awkward and angry dance betwen Trump and the media he loves to hate. The Media Research Center's statistics don't include cable networks like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. they also don't include newspapers or digital news outlets. A third Russian flew in and out of the UK at the same time as the two GRU agents accused of poisoning the Skripals with novichok, raising questions about whether they had an accomplice. The man, using the alias Sergey Fedotov, 45, flew to London on March 2, the same day as military intelligence agents Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - but on a different flight, a leading Russian news agency reported on Wednesday. And he left on the same flight to Moscow as the pair on March 4, according to an analysis of passenger lists by the respected independent Fontanka news agency. Fedotov - who used a passport with numbers similar to the two unmasked GRU agents - had earlier visited London in March 2016 and March 2017. Like Petrov and Boshirov, whose real names Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga, he had made a series of previous trips to other European destinations which, for him, included Prague, Kiev, Milan and Geneva. Scroll down for video A third Russian flew in and out of the UK at the same time as Ruslan Boshirov (left) and Alexander Petrov (right), the two GRU agents accused of poisoning the Skripals with novichok Sergei and Yulia Skripal (pictured) were poisoned with novichok in Salisbury in March Bellingcat revealed Dr Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin travelled to Salisbury under the alias Alexander Petrov Fontanka claimed the information about Fedotov - which it suggests is an alias - was 'available to Scotland Yard from the very beginning'. For unknown reasons, it had not been made public. Fontanka said Fedotov was 'perfect for the role of the third suspect.' No property or car ownership details match the name and age in Russia. He has no mobile phone registered to his name, nor any social media footprint. His passport number is only 'one or two digits different' from the passports issued in the names of Petrov and Boshirov. 'Obviously, Fedotov will be officially announced sooner or later, and private investigators, similar to the case of Petrov-Boshirov, will reveal his real name and biography,' claimed Fontanka. The news agency pointed to Fediotov's trip to Prague as significant. A Russian investigate website today published an apparent image of Mishkin's driving licence It is claimed that vehicle records show he bought this Mercedes from the other novichok assassin, Anatoliy Chepiga, in another example of pair failing to cover their tracks Earlier today, there were claims citing Czech secret services alleging that GRU agents using the names Petrov and Boshirov had visited Prague in 2014 at the same time Skripal was in the city. It comes after it emerged that one of novichok poisoners bought a Mercedes from the other in the latest schoolboy error by Putin's bungling GRU intelligence agency. The pair travelled to Salisbury on false passports during the botched operation to kill double agent Sergei Skripal and later insisted on TV that they were just tourists. But their real identities quickly unravelled and the second agent, previously known as Alexander Petrov, was today unmasked as Dr Alexander Mishkin. It comes after his accomplice - who travelled as 'Ruslan Boshirov' - was revealed to be GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga. In yet another example of the pair's failure to cover their tracks, Russian vehicle records reveal that Chepiga sold a Mercedes-Benz GLS 350 to Mishkin in September last year, according to the Russian investigative website Conflict Intelligence Team. It comes after investigators Bellingcat reported that Mishkin's grandmother has a picture of her grandson with Putin receiving his 'Hero of Russia' award and Gold Star medal in 2014 - but she has now mysteriously disappeared. Investigators travelled to his home village 400 miles from Moscow where family and neighbours confirmed his identity. They said his elderly grandmother regularly shows off a 'treasured' picture of her grandson shaking hands with the Russian President. Both spies had travelled to Salisbury on 'perfect' passports issued by the Russian state and visas issued after 'pressure' was allegedly placed on British embassy staff. Yet the pair outed themselves because they gave their addresses as the GRU's headquarters in Moscow. Mishkin, whose Volvo XC90 is also registered at the spy building, even used his first name and real date of birth for his alias in a yet another embarrassment for Putin's secret services. Both Chepiga and Mishkin, Bellingcat say, were given plush apartments in Moscow around the time they were awarded the 'Hero of Russian' medals for their activities in the Ukraine. The lavish homes - presumably a reward for their loyalty to the Russian state - are a different world from the tiny villages where both Chepiga and Mishkin grew up. Investigators have been to Mishkin's home village 400 miles from Moscow (pictured), which has no paved roads and his grandmother who lives there has no vanished The passport of Dr Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin. Dr Mishkin travelled to Salisbury with Anatoliy Chepiga and experts have used facial recognition software to confirm Mishkin is Petrov GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga travelled to Britain under the alias Ruslan Boshirov and both men outed themselves, investigators have said Now Russians claim 'strange pair' were trafficking steroids A Russian politician has claimed the novichok agents were in fact criminals buying drugs for bodybuilders during their visit to Britain. Kremlin loyalist Sergei Markov (pictured, below) repeated the claims that the GRU was not involved in poisoning Sergei Skripal. But he offered a new Russian line on the attack today - that 'Boshirov and Petrov' were buying steroids for Russian athletes. Mr Markov told Sky News: 'I think they are semi-criminal couriers who came to Great Britain to buy doping materials for Russian bodybuilders.' The bizarre theory is the latest of scores of claims put forward by the Kremlin since the nerve agent attack, in a campaign described as 'obfuscation and lies' by Theresa May. Advertisement Christo Grozev, from Bellingcat, told MPs that Alexander Mishkin was honoured by the Russian government in autumn 2014 for his work in Ukraine - the same year as Chepiga. Bellingcat's Mr Grozev said that their team of investigators went to Russia to Loyga in Arkhangelsk Oblast, where Mishkin's own family came confirmed his identity. He said: 'They confirmed that their homeboy Alexander Mishkin was the person who moved on to military school and then became a famous military doctor, and who received the award of Hero of the Russian Federation personally from President Putin. He told a news conference in the Houses of Parliament: 'His grandmother with whom he grew up who happens to be medical professional has a photograph, in her own words, that has been seen by everybody in the village, of President Putin shaking Mishkin's hand and giving him the award.' Chepiga was made Hero of the Russian Federation by decree of the president during a secret ceremony in the same year as his fellow assassin. Mishkin grew up in the snowy Russian village of Loyga, a snowy part of North eastern Russia which is covered by a permafrost for 11 months of the year. He and his partner in crime Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga both told the Russian state propaganda channel RT that they were in Britain because they wanted to visit Stonehenge, but they had to abandon their trip because of the snow and 'muddy slush'. But today Bellingcat revealed that Mishkin would have been very used to finding his way through the snow, which falls thickly in his home village. The hitman who used the name 'Boshirov' has already been revealed as Col Anatoly Chepiga CCTV image of Russian nationals Dr Alexander Mishkin (right) and Anatoliy Chepiga (left), pictured in Salisbury grinning after bungling their mission British politicians to be exposed for their links with Putin's Russia, Tory MP claims Tory MP Bob Seely (pictured in the Commons earlier this year) said the list - which includes peers sitting in the House of Lords - could be exposed within weeks A group of British politicians are about to be outed for their ties to Putin's Russia, a Tory MP today said. Bob Seely said the list - which includes peers sitting in the House of Lords - could be exposed within weeks. Mr Seely, who is a Russia security expert, declined to name the politicians. He said that while they are not on a Soviet-style spy list, they are suspected of having overstepped the mark with their ties to Putins state. He told BBC Radio 4s World at One: There are some parliamentarians who are, apparently from what I hear, going to be mentioned in a letter which is going to be made public in the next few weeks. I dont have more detail at the moment. I am pretty sure I know who the parliamentarians are but Ive been told in confidence so I cant say now. But that will probably generate some interest at the time and I think there is going to be some further action by government agencies on this front in the next few months.' Asked if there is a risk of a witch hunt against those with links to Russia he said: The Brits and the Russians tend to get on rather well and this is not the Russian people. This is the Kremlins political warfare, declared by President Putin in 2007 against the western liberal democracy for a variety of complex reasons. I quite agree you have to be careful. You are talking about people they havent got some Soviet era workbook, they are probably not on some KGB list that says these are our spies in the UK. They are people who probably stepped a mark over, and probably have worked for Russian oligarchs in the past. You are assuming its very black and white and I think nowadays there are shades of grey that do get manipulated. Open societies are facing a threat from closed and authoritarian societies who want to use our freedoms to damage us. And this is a more subtle threat than the Cold War and we need to get our heads around it. Advertisement Pointing to the picture of the home Mishkin grew up in, Mr Grozev said: 'He was born in Loyga in 1979 in a mountainous region of Russia. A tiny, tiny village.. 'It is a village in the middle of nowhere, it I on marshland here is literally no road access to the rest of Russia. 'We focused on the street where he grew up this phot was taken yesterday. This is literally the street where he drew up. It is muddy and slushy and that's exactly what he said he cannot tolerate. 'This is a village in Russia in permafrost and snow for about eleven and a half months of the year.' Today journalists from Bellingcat appeared in Parliament to reveal how they found out their identities. Amid a series of embarrassing failures President Putin personally gave a dressing down to the head of Russian spy agency GRU over 'deep incompetence' shown in the Salisbury poisonings and other international operations, it emerged today. GRU chief Col-Gen Igor Korobov, 62, reportedly emerged shaken and in sudden 'ill health' after his confrontation with the furious Russian president. Korobov's telling off came as the second Salisbury suspect was named as a GRU doctor, who gave himself away by using his first name and real date of birth on his fake identity passport. Dr Alexander Mishkin's false identification papers also listed GRU headquarters in Moscow as his home address. The identification of the novichok poisoning spook came as Russian Defence Ministry officials reportedly met with senior GRU staff to blast them over the agency's recent foreign operations. The secret meeting on Saturday reportedly heard furious accusations over the 'morons' behind missions in Britain, the Netherlands and the US. Those in charge of the catastrophic blunders were denounced for their 'deep incompetence' and 'infinite carelessness'. They were taunted: 'Why didn't you just wear Budenovka hats?' referring to the hats emblazoned with the Red star which were part of the Communist military uniform after the Russian Revolution. Yesterday, investigative website Bellingcat, who also outed the first Salisbury suspect Ruslan Boshirov as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, revealed the true identity of the second suspect. Russian documents including and facial recognition experts have been used to confirm that Alexander Petrov is actually Dr Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin, a trained military doctor in the GRU intelligence services. Bungling Dr Mishkin even used his own birth date and first names of his parents as part of his undercover identity as Alexander Petrov, and registered his home address as Khoroshevskoe Shosse 76B in Moscow - the headquarters of Putin's elite military intelligence services. Fuming: President Vladimir Putin is said to be fuming over the way his spy agency have been handling foreign operations, including the novichok poisoning in the UK Alexander Petrov (pictured right) has now been revealed as Dr Alexander Mishkin. Ruslan Boshirov (pictured left) was revealed two weeks ago as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga Telling off: The head of GRU, Col-Gen Igor Korobov, 62, reportedly emerged shaken and in sudden 'ill health' after being given a dressing down by the President himself Dr Mishkin was born in northern European Russia and graduated from the elite Military Medical Academies. He trained as a doctor for the Russian naval armed forces before being recruited by GRU, moving to Moscow in 2010, and assuming his undercover identity of Alexander Petrov. Bellingcat report author Christo Grozev outside Parliament today after briefing MPs about how they id'd the Salisbury poisoners Mishkin is said to have travelled extensively under his new identity, including making multiple trips to Ukraine. The website said: 'Bellingcat's identification process included multiple open sources, testimony from people familiar with the person, as well as copies of personally identifying documents, including a scanned copy of his passport.' Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by the chemical agent called novichok in Salisbury in March, leaving them critically ill in hospital. Dawn Sturgess, 44, was inadvertently poisoned when she discovered a perfume bottle filled with the deadly novichok nerve agent used on the Skripals, she later died. Conservative MP and Russia analyst Bob Seely said: 'This is yet another remarkable investigation by the Bellingcat team of digital detectives. 'It is appalling that a medical doctor appears to have been part of a team of GRU operatives that attempted to deliver a lethal poison to their target - and accidentally killed another person by mistake. 'Whilst this operation has been a botched embarrassment for the Kremlin from beginning to end, it worth remembering that we may not know about the GRU's successful operations and therefore shouldn't judge the GRU alone by their failures. 'The Government has shown strong resolve thus far, but it is yet more evidence that the UK needs to develop a long-term plan to understand and expose Russian subversion, as well as identifying the steps needed to protect our democracy.' Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by the chemical agent called novichok in Salisbury in March, leaving them critically ill in hospital The Skripal case and last week's revelations that the GRU also allegedly tried to hack into the world's chemical weapons watchdog in the Netherlands have further tattered Moscow's strained ties with the West. Last week Vladimir Putin lashed out at Sergei Skripal branding him a 'scumbag' and a 'traitor'. Dawn Sturgess died following exposure to the nerve agent Novichok in southwest England, four months after the same type of chemical was used against Sergei Skripal and his daughter The Kremlin has continued to denied it was behind the nerve agent attack on Skripal, a former double agent who sold Russian secrets to the British. But former KGB agent Putin reaffirmed his views on those who betray Russia last week in a furious outburst about Mr Skripal. Putin told an energy forum in Moscow: 'He is just a spy, a traitor to the motherland... He is just a scumbag.' Bellingcat last month revealed Boshirov was actually Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga. It was also revealed he was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by decree of the president during a secret ceremony in 2014. The disclosure, uncovered by Bellingcat in conjunction with The Telegraph, exposed Putin's claims that the Skripals' would-be killers were innocent 'civilians'. Col Chepiga and Dr Mishkin were charged over the March poisonings by the Crown Prosecution Service, but later appeared on Kremlin-funded news channel RT to reveal their bizarre cover story, prompting worldwide derision. Theresa May attacks Putin at the UN for his 'desperate fabrication' over the Salisbury spy poisoning The Prime Minister attacked Russia for its 'desperate fabrication' over the Salisbury spy poisoning as she addressed world leaders in New York in September. Britain has set out detailed evidence about the prime suspects in the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia while Russia has only sought to 'obfuscate', she said. Theresa May lambasted Russia for its 'desperate fabrication' over the Salisbury poisoning while addressing the General Assembly of the UN on Wednesday Mrs May told the United Nations Security Council: '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.' Mrs May called on Russia to rejoin the international consensus against the use of chemical weapons and said there should be no doubt of the international community's determination to take action if it did not. She said: 'We cannot let the framework be undermined today by those who reject the values and disregard the rules that have kept us safe. 'It will take collective engagement to reinforce it in the face of today's challenges. And in this, as has always been the case, the UK will play a leading role.' Advertisement Calling themselves tourists, they said they were only wandering around Salisbury after failing to get to Stonehenge because of snow, and stumbled on the Skripals' house - as shown on CCTV - because they were looking for Salisbury Cathedral, which has a 400ft spire and is 25 minutes in the other direction. The pair also refused to say why they booked into an east London hotel 127 miles away - or why it contained traces of Novichok - and failed to explain why they appeared to have no luggage when they hastily travelled home to Russia. RT even suggested the suspects weren't trained killers - hinting they were gay lovers on a romantic break because they had 'little beards, short hair cuts and tight pants'. Their claims were dismissed as 'lies and blatant fabrications' by Downing Street, and looked farcical in the light of the revelations about Chepiga's military links. He was eventually unmasked following a painstaking investigating relying on passport files, leaked address lists and public military information. Bellingcat is set to reveal how they unmasked Dr Mishkin on Tuesday. Now looking even more shaky... The 'farcical' RT interview that saw the would-be assassins claim they were innocent civilians Revelations about the military background of Colonel Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga make the interview he gave to RT in September alongside the second suspected assassin Alexander Petrov appear even more farcical. Observers quickly pointed out a number of gaping holes in their story, including: The 'accidental' visit to Skripal's home CCTV released by police places the two suspects at Sergei Skripal's suburban house. Today the men admitted they may have ended up there - but claimed it was an accident. The property, which had Novichok smeared on the door, is 25 minutes away from the city centre and its cathedral - which the men said they were there to see. Ruslan Boshirov said: 'Maybe we passed it, or maybe we didn't. I'd never heard about them before this nightmare started. I'd never heard this name before. I didn't know anything about them'. The hotel 127 miles from Salisbury Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were guests at the City Stay Hotel in Bow, East London, before poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. The Metropolitan Police confirmed today that 'low' levels of the nerve agent were found in the two-star 48 a night hotel in May. The men chose a spot some distance from Waterloo - the main rail route to Salisbury - despite making the Wiltshire city the focus of their visit. It is 127 miles from Salisbury. The 'bad' weather Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov claimed that they only stayed in Salisbury because of heavy snow. The pair visited days after the Beast from the East hit Britain bringing unseasonably cold weather. Describing the condition Boshirov said: 'It was impossible to get anywhere because of the snow. We were drenched up to our knees'. But CCTV pictures of the men shows the pavements were largely clear of snow. They also told RT that it snowed in the city that afternoon, but weather maps from that day show sunshine and clear skies. The missing luggage The men went straight from Salisbury to Heathrow for the evening flight. But CCTV suggested that they did not have any luggage with them on their way home. Advertisement Tesco CEO David Lewis told Southwark Crown Court he had 'no indication at all' that profits had been overestimated Tesco's chief executive has told a court of his 'genuine shock' upon learning of a 250million overstatement of the company's profits. The firm's shares plummeted by nearly 12%, wiping 2billion off the share value, when Tesco announced in September 2014 that the previous month it had overstated profits by about 250million. A document known as a legacy paper - showing the scale of the overstated profits - was released by Amit Soni, the UK finance manager, to Tesco's legal department. CEO David Lewis told a jury at Southwark Crown Court today that before seeing the report he had 'no indication at all' that profits had been overestimated. He said his initial reaction to the report was 'one of genuine shock, the level of what was implied in the paper was a way of operating I had not ever seen before'. He added that the report indicated Tesco had given 'an inaccurate reading to the market', and that his obligation was 'to verify if it is true and update the market'. He added: 'It took certainly two readings - I understood some of the terminology but the point that was most striking was that in the first half of 2014 there had been potentially a misstatement in the results communicated to the market.' Mr Lewis said former Tesco chairman Sir Richard Broadbent cut his holiday in Italy short when he was told what had happened. Two days later, a team of auditors had verified that the report was accurate and the market was informed the following morning, he added. There was 'an awful lot of financial pressure' on Tesco at the time, he told the jury. Two former directors at the supermarket chain are standing on trial accused of fraud. Christopher Bush (left), ex-UK managing director and John Scouler (right), the then-UK food commericial director, pictured outside court, were allegedly aware that income was being wrongly included in the company's financial records to meet targets Chris Bush, ex-UK managing director, and John Scouler, the then-UK food commercial director, were allegedly aware that income was being wrongly included in the company's financial records to meet targets and make Tesco look financially healthier than it was. A third man, former UK finance director Carl Rogberg, is charged with identical offences but is not currently well enough to stand trial. Scouler, 50, of St Albans, and Bush, 52, of Radnage, High Wycombe, each deny one count of fraud and another of false accounting and are on bail. They and Rogberg at the time had benefits packages with Tesco of more than 1 million each. The trial, before Sir John Royce, is expected to last three months. A former head of department at Coventry University today denied torturing children and tying up a mother so she could witness her two children being shot. The ex-wife of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, Agnes Taylor, faces eight torture charges. The 52-year-old is also accused of conspiring to use rape to torture women during the west African countrys civil war in 1990. Taylor, a former university lecturer, is said to have tortured one child victim by having them tied to a tree then witness the shooting of others. Coventry University lecturer Agnes Reeves Taylor, 52, pictured, is accused of inflicting severe pain or suffering in the performance of her official duties in the African country between 1989 and 1991 She appeared at the Old Bailey today by videolink from Bronzefield prison in Surrey, speaking only to confirm her name before entering not guilty pleas to all charges. The charges, which can now be reported for the first time, include one of conspiracy to torture and seven of torture and are listed in full below: Count one relates to alleged rapes by National Patriotic Front of Liberia forces in a Liberian village Counts two to four relate to the alleged torture of a 13-year-old boy by severely beating him Count five relates to the alleged torture of a man by severely beating him Count six relates to the alleged torture of another man by shooting him in the leg Count seven relates to the alleged torture of an unnamed child, who was allegedly tied to a tree and witnessed the shooting of others Count eight relates to the alleged torture of a 'pastors wife' in 1990 by tying her up and her witnessing the shooting of her two children Former Liberian president Charles Taylor (pictured) is the ex-husband of the defendant, who lives in Dagenham, east London Every alleged offence is said to have been committed while Taylor was 'a public official or person acting in an official capacity'. Each of the seven torture counts states her alleged actions were 'in the performance or purported performance of [her] official duties'. Taylor, who previously worked as a lecturer and head of department at Coventry University, faces trial in January next year before Mr Justice Sweeney. The defendant, of Dagenham, East London, remains in custody. President Donald Trump revealed that First Lady Melania Trump has joined the effort to 'get to the bottom' of what happened to missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi's fiancee Hatice Cengiz wrote an op-ed imploring Trump and the first lady to help, and has written a letter to the White House has gotten the pair's attention. 'It's a very sad situation, it's a very bad situation is, and we want to get to the bottom of it,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. 'And we cannot let this happen. To reporters, to anybody. We can't let this happen,' Trump said. President Donald Trump said First lady Melania Trump in efforts to get to the bottom of what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, and that both their offices have been contacted by Khashoggi's fiancee 'We're demanding everything,' Trump said, asked if his team was seeking information from the Saudis longtime allies who the Trump administration has hugged closely. Trump brought Kushner their in his first foreign visit as president, won Saudi support for his push to leave the Iran deal, pushed for low oil prices, 'We want to see what's going on. Its a very serious situation for us and for this White House ... We want to get to the bottom of it.' 'I would certainly concerned,' he said. 'In fact we have a call in to his wife, in fact his wife wrote a letter addressed to my wife and myself and we're in contact with her now and we want to bring her to the White House.' Trump was referring to Khashoggi's fancee. She had been waiting outside the consulate when her Khashoggi went inside. 'At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamal's disappearance,' she wrote. 'We're going to take a very serious look at it, it's a terrible thing,' Trump said. The White House also revealed in a statement by Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that two senior officials, the national security advisor and Trump's son-in-law, have contacted the Saudis on the matter. 'White House National Security Advisor, Ambassador John Bolton and White House Senior Advisor, Jared Kushner spoke to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman yesterday about the missing Washington Post journalist,' according to Sanders. 'Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then had a follow up call with the Crown Prince to reiterate the United States request for information. In both calls they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process. We will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates as available.' Sarah Sanders,' she said. The Saudis deny involvement. Hatice Cengiz, the Turkish fiancee of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, walks outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. Khashoggi, who has written Washington Post columns critical of the kingdom's assertive crown prince has gone missing after visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, the newspaper said Wednesday, raising concerns over his safety. Nobel Prize winner Tawakkol Karman holds a poster of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest outside Saudi Arabia's consulate on October 8, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istambul Oct. 2 Asked if Khoshoggi was dead, Trump responded: 'I hope not.' 'We have to find out who did it,' Trump said. Asked if he believed it was the Saudis, Trump responded: 'I would rather not say, but the answer is yes,' he said. Longtime diplomat Aaron David Miller, who has negotiated Middle East policy on behalf of multiple administrations, tweeted following Khashoggi's death: 'If Saudis were involved in Jamals death or disappearance, thats obviously on them. But in failing to call [Saudi Crown Prince] MBS out on just about anything, particularly repression at home, Trump Administration has emboldened him and given him [the] sense he can do anything,' he wrote. Trump encouraged reporters to contact the first lady's office, although a spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for information. 'It's a very sad situation, it's a very bad situation is, and we want to get to the bottom of it,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday 'They're in touch and she'll be most likely coming to the White House and we'll work on it together,' the president said. Khashoggi, who lived in the U.S. in exile and whose children are U.S. citizens, disappeared during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istambul Oct. 2. Turkish officials say he was killed by Saudi agents during the visit. Khsashoggi was a prominent critic of the Saudi regime. A pro-government Turkish newspaper published an account of a team of Saudis who flew to Istambul around the time of the disappearance. A detailed Washington Post report cites flight data and security camera footage surrounding the incident. The report states that a team of 15 Saudi flew to Istambul aboard private jets shortly before the incident. The team members departed immediately after Khashoggi's disappearance. Khashoggi has been a contributor to the Post's Global Opinions section. A loophole in a visa scheme for the super-rich allowed thousands of people to bring at least 3 billion of potentially dirty money into the UK, research found. About 3,000 individuals, many from 'high corruption risk' countries, invested at least 2million for permission to live in Britain, anti-corruption campaigners say. Transparency International UK claims minimal checks were carried out on whether they had acquired their wealth legitimately. The Home Office and UK banks reportedly both assumed the other performed necessary checks when applications were being processed for seven years before the loophole was found, a report says. The Home Office (pictured) and UK banks assumed the other had carried out the necessary checks, the report says A total of 1,126 of the successful applicants came from China during the 'blind faith' period from 2008 to 2015. The next largest national group were Russians, who numbered 706, the joint report by Transparency International and Global Witness found. It said over that time, 3,000 high-net-worth individuals entered the UK with at least 3.15 billion of 'questionable legitimacy'. Naomi Hirst, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, which campaigns on corruption, said: 'If you have a lot of money that you acquired through dubious means, securing a new place to call home far away from the place you stole from isnt just appealing, its sensible. 'Golden visa schemes offer a safe haven from authorities who might be looking to seize your stolen assets, and the freedom to travel without raising suspicion. Anti-corruption campaigners say the Home Office failed to carry out checks as thousands of individuals invested at least 2million for permission to live in Britain 'Given these inherent risks, these schemes must have the highest standards of due diligence checks, so that countries know who they are welcoming in and where their money came from. 'Unfortunately, that is not what we are seeing. This approach exposes countries to corrupt individuals, and risks the corruption of the state itself as profit-hungry governments disregard the dangers and enter into a race to the bottom.' The Government launched a review of visas awarded to rich Russians after the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal. Successful applicants for tier one investor visas can stay in the UK for three years and then apply for a two-year extension. They can apply to settle after two years if they invest 10 million or for 5 million after three years. The report looked at golden visa schemes across the European Union and found that the UK was one of three countries, along with Hungary and Latvia, that had granted residency to more than 90% of applicants. It said the high success rates raised doubts about the strictness of checks and controls in the process. The UK is one of the top earners from a golden visa scheme, receiving around 435 million on average annually. The Government launched a review of visas awarded to rich Russians after the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal (pictured, police at the scene in Salisbury) Since the scheme started in 2008, some 10,400 tier one visas have been granted to investors and their families, according to the report. Laure Brillaud, anti-money laundering policy officer at Transparency International EU, said: 'Poorly managed schemes allow corrupt individuals to work and travel unhindered throughout the EU and undermine our collective security. It is for this reason that EU-wide action is urgently required. 'Brussels needs to define standards for these programmes and ensure that they are adhered to in all member states offering citizenship and residence permits for investment.' The owners of a banned pitbull-type dog which horrifically mauled a toddler in a play park were sentenced to two years in jail today. Hayley Eldridge, 29, and Michael Thornton, 27, paid a 15-year-old girl with cannabis to walk their pet on the day it savagely attacked the 18-month-old girl. The couple had only had the animal, called Max, for six days and later told police they thought it was a Staffordshire bull terrier crossbreed. The dog mauled the child as she played with her sister in Chatham, Kent, on April 4 last year. Hayley Eldridge (left), 29, and Michael Thornton (right), 27, paid a 15-year-old girl with cannabis to walk their pet on the day it savagely attacked an 18-month-old girl It dragged the little girl around the playground by a ponytail before ripping it out and clamping its jaws on a second ponytail and biting the girl's head. Her injuries were so severe that she faces years of surgery. Her scalp could not be re-attached and her skull has been left exposed until she is old enough for a skin graft. Thornton and Eldridge, both from Chatham, were each sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court today after admitting being the owners of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury. Thornton, who did not attend court, was sentenced in his absence to two years in jail. The animal, called Max, was shot dead by police marksman after the attack on the Jenkins Dale estate in Chatham in April last year Eldridge was sentenced to one year and nine months along with a consecutive term of four months for perjury. They had both previously denied the charges but changed their pleas on the first day of their trial in August. Both Thornton and Eldridge were also banned from owning a dog for five years. Following the attack the little girl was taken to a London hospital by air ambulance in a critical condition. She remained in the hospital for several weeks and had to undergo a number of surgeries following the incident. Thornton and Eldridge's dog bit the little girls face before clamping its jaws around her head After the attack, police, including firearms officers, attended the scene. The five-year-old dog, which had been tied to a post, attempted to break free and, to ensure public safety, was shot dead. Tests later revealed it to be a banned breed under the Dangerous Dog Act. Thornton was arrested on the evening of the incident along with the teenage girl. Eldridge was arrested the following day. The court heard at a previous hearing that shortly before the attack, the dog had been repeatedly struck in its face with a chain by the teenager. The 16-year-old who walked the dog pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing in a youth court in October last year. She was handed a 12-month supervision order and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. The court heard Thornton and Eldridge, from Chatham, had only owned the dog for a week and believed it to be a lawful Staffordshire bull terrier cross-breed The court on that occasion heard a victim impact statement from the victim's father in which he spoke of how the incident had 'changed my family's life forever'. He said: 'I'm angry, I'm very angry. My little girl does not deserve what has happened to her. 'I do not understand how and why this happened to my little girl. I do not understand how the owners have let this happen, how did they let this happen to my little girl? Eldridge and Thornton 'left this dog in the care of a teenager and their sentences reflect their total lack of responsibility', Detective Constable Phil Pead said after sentencing 'This incident has changed my family's life forever.' He added: 'We have years of hospital visits when we should be taking our daughter to children's parties.' The father said he just wanted to 'forget' the horrible incident but it was just not possible. He and his wife have been off work due to stress. Investigating officer Detective Constable Phil Pead said after the sentencing: 'This was a horrific incident which left a young child with severe injuries to her face and head and has left her with permanent scarring. 'Thornton and Eldridge left this dog in the care of a teenager and their sentences reflect their total lack of responsibility and the danger into which they put members of the public. 'Max was of a banned type under the Dangerous Dogs Act and the presence of dangerous dogs within communities can cause fear and tension. 'Residents should be able to enjoy their local areas without fear or worry caused by such dogs. Kent Police will take any report of dangerous dogs seriously and I'd like to encourage anyone with concerns to get in touch with us. 'This incident will stay with the victim and her family forever as well as being etched into the memories of children in the play area and nearby residents who witnessed this terrible event. I'd like to commend the victim's family for the courage and dignity they have shown in dealing with this tragedy throughout the investigation and this court case.' Melania Trump sat down with ABC News Tom Llamas for a solo interview in which she spoke candidly on a variety of topics including her marriage and husbands infidelity. 'Being Melania The First Lady' is due to air this Friday at 10pm ET on ABC. Previews for the interview, which was shot during Melanias solo trip to Africa, show Tom asking difficult questions. You did agree to this interview, to your credit, with no preconditions, he says at one point. Melania Trump sat down for a pre-recorded interview with ABC News's Tom Llamas during her trip to Africa In the interview, the First Lady will provided answers to the questions on everyone's minds Knowing that there could be some tough questions asked. The networks Chief National Affairs Correspondent then asks: Can women in the #MeToo movement call you a supporter? Youre not the first lady to have to deal with your husbands infidelities, has this put a strain on your marriage?, he goes on to ask. Before the preview comes to a close, Tom questions the First Lady about the I Really Dont Care Do You? Zara jacket she wore shortly after her husband issued an order allowing parents and children to be separated at the border. Melanias in-depth answers arent featured in the interview trailer. Heres what you need to know before Being Melania The First Lady airs. Melania Trump ABC interview Melania Trump sat down with ABC News correspondent Tom Llamas to discuss a variety of topics during her trip to Africa recently. The interview will touch on her husbands alleged infidelity, the status of their marriage, the #MeToo movement and her now-infamous I Really Dont Care Do You? Zara jacket. A preview for the interview shows Melania sitting across from Tom smiling as he fires off questions. It does not, however, feature her responses. In fact, she speaks very little in the teaser for Melania Trump The First Lady. Melania Trump infidelity Donald Trump has been accused of having an affair with adult actress Stormy Daniels during his marriage to Melania. He also reportedly paid her for her silence. The President acknowledged that the 39-year-old received payment in a legal filing, according to Time. He maintained, however, that it was sent by his lawyer, Michael Cohen. In 2016, expenses were incurred by one of Donald J Trumps attorneys, Michael Cohen, the filing read. Mr Cohen sought reimbursement of those expenses and Mr Trump fully reimbursed Mr Cohen in 2017. Its unclear how Melania Trump will answer when questioned about her husbands alleged infidelity in Melania Trump The First Lady. Melania Trump Zara jacket Melania Trump will have to discuss her decision to wear a Zara jacket that read I Really Dont Care Do You? shortly after Donald Trump ordered that parents and children could be separated at the border. When is ABC News Melania Trump interview? Melania Trumps interview with ABC News Melania Trump The First Lady will air Friday, October 12, at 10pm ET on ABC. Advertisement The Northeast is home to eight of the 10 states with the highest average student loan burden in America, according to a new analysis. Connecticut topped the list with an average debt burden of $38,510, followed by Pennsylvania ($36,854), Rhode Island ($36,250), New Hampshire (34,415) and Delaware ($34,144), according to 2017 data from The Institute for College Access & Success. New Jersey came in sixth, with an average of $32,247 in student loans by the time of graduation, followed by Massachusetts (32,065), Alabama (31,889), Minnesota ($31,734) and Maine ($31,289). The Northeast is home to some of the most prestigious and expensive schools in the nation, including Harvard, MIT (both in Massachusetts), Yale (in Connecticut) and Princeton (in New Jersey). For students attending those universities, the payoff may be worth the price. However a recent report by LendingTree found that student loans account for 40 percent of debt held by U.S. Millennials the single biggest source of debt among that generation. The Northeast is home to eight of the 10 states with the highest average student loan burden in America. This visualization, by HowMuch.net illustrates the average debt held by graduates in each state and the percent of those graduates who carried a student loan balance in 2017 At the other end of the spectrum, Utah had the lowest average student loans, at $18,838. New Mexico was the next-lowest at $21,237, followed by Nevada ($22,064), Wyoming ($22,524) and California ($22,785), according to a visualization of the data by HowMuch.net. Rounding out the bottom 10 was Washington ($23,936), Arizona ($23,967), Florida ($24,041), Hawaii ($25,125) and Tennessee ($25,252). North Dakota was excluded from the list due to a lack of data. Student loans are an important issue, particularly for the 1 million people who defaulted on their debt last year, according to The Urban Institute. The Washington D.C.-based think tank found that 40 percent of student loan borrowers could default on their debt by 2023 and 250,000 default on federal student loans each quarter. It was the borrowers with the smallest amounts of student debt that were most likely to default, with 32 percent of those carrying a balance of $5,000 or less defaulting at least once within four years. Often, this is because they left school before graduating. 10 States with Highest Student Loan Debt State Connecticut Pennsylvania Rhode Island New Hampshire Delaware New Jersey Massachusetts Alabama Minnesota Maine Average Debt $38,510 $36,854 $36,250 $34,415 $34,144 $32,247 $32,065 $31,899 $31,734 $31,364 Advertisement 'Education is generally a great investment, one of the things student loans help people do is invest in themselves and put money into an education so that it pays off in the future,' said Kristin Blagg, a researcher at the Urban Institute. 'However, for some people this investment doesn't work out particularly if they don't end up finishing the degree they were working toward.' Those who do default typically see an average 50-90 point hit to their credit score in the 1-2 years prior to the default. This is likely due, in part, to the fact that the likelihood of defaulting increases when someone also carries other debt that has gone into collections for example medical or credit card debt. Students from low-income families are also more likely than other borrowers to default on their debt. Even when students aren't defaulting, many are putting off other life decisions including marriage, having children or buying a home as they plow through their debt obligations. Millennials born in the 1980s are at risk of becoming a 'Lost Generation' and never rebounding financially from the Great Recession because the downturn occurred during their prime earning and wealth accumulation years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Compared to all other generation, it was the 1980s babies who are the worst off in terms of wealth accumulation and amassing debt. Fewer than 45 percent of the Millennials owned homes by 2016 below expectations. In addition, a recent analysis of U.S. Census data found that Millennials are waiting longer to marry, which has contributed to an 18 percent drop in the U.S. divorce rate. The median age for marriage is now 30 for men and 27 for women up from 23 and 21, respectively, in 1968, according to Pew Research Center. Top chef star Fatima Ali is slowly responding to the outpouring of support directed her way after revealing that her cancer has returned in a heartbreaking essay, which called the disease 'cloud of death following me' and noting that she has a year left to live. Ali's emotional essay for Bon Appetit magazine went live on October 9. In the essay, she wrote that her Ewing Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, had returned despite undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy which doctors believed had cured the condition in January. Fans and famous well-wishers reacted immediately, hurrying to her Instagram and Twitter account to share their words of support. Ali, 29, began responding to some well-wishers on her Twitter feed soon after. Fatima Ali (pictured) has revealed her cancer has returned after doctors thought it was cured Fatima Ali (pictured) was voted season 15 fan favorite when she was a contestant on Top Chef When posting a link to her essay, Fatima thanked all those who had 'sent love' her way before Fatima said on Twitter she was 'humbled' after a New York Times food correspondent said the essay was 'perspective, brilliantly served' After New York Times food correspondent Kim Severson tweeted out a link to the story, calling it 'perspective served brilliantly,' Ali replied that she was 'humbled by your the response. Thank you so much.' Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson saw Severson's tweet and thanks Ali for writing the essay. 'Im floored,' Ali tweeted in response. 'Have always been a huge fan of yours @Nigella_Lawson.' The other person that Ali publicly thanked for her 'love and prayers' was a tweeter called @TentleSusan, who appears to be the mother of someone Ali knows. Ali does not appear to have started responding to the more than 3,670 comments she's received on her story post, but she did include a series of screengrabs of responses that people had had via Instagram Stories. Ali's story drew praise from prominent people including chef Andrew Zimmern, who wrote, 'The most inspiring thing Ive read in a long time. Puts it all in perspective. Chef Fatima Alis transparency is transformative. Wow. What courage and grace.' Benazir Bhutto's daughter, Aseefa B Zardari, also wrote, 'Sending love and prayers to @cheffati an extraordinary woman.' Celebrity chefs Nigella Lawson and Andrew Zimmern both commented on Ali's essay Fatima 'was floored' by the fact that Lawson thanked her for her essay Meanwhile, celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern and Benazir Bhutto's daughter, Aseefa B Zardari, both expressed their support for Fatima, praising her 'courage and grace' Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi (left) urged her twitter followers to pray for Fatima (right) Lakshmi posted several tweets Wednesday revealing her love for her friend On Wednesday, Ali's friend and Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi tweeted out a series of tweets both supporting Ali and revealing the ways in which Ali has supported her. 'Dear friends, I have seen @cheffati grow and blossom every day I walked into the @bravotopchef kitchen. I have seen her ambition sharpen over weeks of competition, seen Fatima soar along with all of you,' Lakshmi tweeted. 'Most of you will read @cheffatis writing for the first time in this @bonappetit piece. Since her diagnosis I have been fortunate enough to get to know her deeper and in a new light. Over these months, I have come to know her family. 'Her mother has shown me her older writing which is just as poignant. I am pleased to share my friends story with you all today. I am so proud of her. I can tell you that in these months I have not only seen her continue to find her voice, but been inspired by her exponentially. I have gotten to know most of her family and in them I see my own. I was in the hospital with her the morning she had surgery months ago and witnessed her courage. 'The day after my @nytimes piece came out, I went to see her, and she cheered me on by holding my hand from the hospital bed, assuring me I had not flayed myself in vain,' Lakshmi tweeted, referring to the op-ed she wrote revealing that she had been raped by an older man when she was 16. 'I was with her last night as she went in for radiation and she still turned back to smile at her mother and me when the nurse with the wheelchair came. I hope that this year brings her as much as she can hope for.' Then, addressing Ali directly, Lakshmi wrote, 'Youve said on @BravoTopChef that growing up I inspired you. But Fati, now, its you who inspire me. Everyday. I love you, @cheffati.' Ali suffers from Ewing Sarcoma, a very rare type of cancerous tumor that grows in bones or the soft tissue around the bones, such as cartilage or the nerves. It usually affects people from the ages of ten to 20 and in most cases it has a high rate of being cured. In her essay, Ali wrote: The cancer cells my doctors believed had vanished are back with a vengeance in my left hip and femur bone. My oncologist has told me that I have a year to live, with or without the new chemotherapy regimen. Ali broke the devastating news of her terminal prognosis on Twitter with a link to her essay Ali (pictured) is determined to do everything she ever wanted to do in her final months Fatima (pictured) shared the more lighthearted moments of her cancer journey on Instagram I was looking forward to being 30, flirty, and thriving. Guess I have to step it up on the flirting. I have no time to lose. Ali was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, shortly after competing in season 15 of the Bravo competition show which was filmed in Colorado. The shows Host Padma Lakshmi was with her in the hospital as she prepared for her surgery in January, calling on prayers from fans on Instagram and saying she was 'hoping for a great outcome'. Following her surgery, Ali said in July that she was 'technically cancer-free' but was undergoing two additional months on chemotherapy to help prevent it from returning. She continues: Ive spent more time in sterile hospital rooms in the past year than I have in my own apartment. This has become my new home, and the staff a part of my family. I wonder if Ill accidentally call my nurse 'Mom' when she sneaks in to check my vital signs in the middle of the night. My blood pressure always stays on the low side of calm. Everyones amazed that Im taking it so well. But when you hit rock bottom, there really is no place to go but up.' Ali also details her plans for the future in the Bon Appetit essay, acknowledging that she is 'scared' but has an odd sense of relief following the new diagnosis. Its funny, isnt it? When we think we have all the time in the world to live, we forget to indulge in the experiences of living. When that choice is yanked away from us, thats when we scramble to feel. I am desperate to overload my senses in the coming months, making reservations at the worlds best restaurants, reaching out to past lovers and friends, and smothering my family, giving them the time that I so selfishly guarded before. She previously said that she 'most certainly' planned on opening a restaurant of her own. However given her prognosis, she is is now focused on eating at the worlds most-acclaimed restaurants, including the Chefs Table at Brooklyn Fare and two-Michelin-starred Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark. Every day is an opportunity for me to experience something new. I used to dream of owning my own restaurant. Now I have an ever growing list of the ones I need to visit. 'From decadent uni and truffle toast at Chefs Table at Brooklyn Fare to spice-laden Szechuan hot pot in Flushing, Im sketching a plan to eat my way through New York and the boroughs while I can. Fatima (pictured) said she was looking forward to turning 30 in a few months but her terminal prognosis has given her a new perspective on life as she hopes to fulfill all of her wishes Fatima (pictured) said her cancer diagnosis has taught her to be kind to and spoil herself She also joked that she can finally live for herself and plans to dye her hair and do all the things she wanted to do. But she heartbreakingly admitted that she is scared of having so little time left. I call a local hair stylist to come to my hospital room to dye half my hair platinum blonde and buzz the rest. 'He panics a little as hes setting up, whispering to my brother in his thick Italian accent. Fatima was voted Fan Favorite on Season 15 of Top Chef and was loved by the contestants Fatima was given the nickname 'Baby Bear' on the show as she was the youngest competitor 'The dye it wont, uh, burn her scalp will it?' I tell him to carry on even if it does. Its the only sense of control I feel like I have right now. I have embraced my alter ego. She doesnt hold back. 'I love your hair! they all say when Im done. They think Im brave, but really, Im not. Im scared. 'I suspect I wont last very long. Theres a faint feeling deep inside my gut like a rumble of passing air, ever expanding and filling slowly until, one day, Ill pop.' At 18, Ali left her hometown in Pakistan to pursue her dream of becoming a chef and enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America. Upon graduation, she found her home with the Patina Restaurant Group in New York City, starting as a Junior Sous Chef at Cafe Centro. She moved on to work as an Executive Sous Chef at La Fonda Del Sol. A mother-of-two has been stabbed to death at a home in a quiet cul-de-sac in a suspected domestic violence attack. The 43-year-old woman was found by emergency services with serious stab wounds to her arms and back at her rental home on Grahame Avenue in Glenfield, in Sydney's south-west at 2am on Thursday. She was treated by paramedics at the scene but died shortly after police were called. The man who was arrested is believed to be the dead woman's partner. The 43-year-old woman was found by emergency services with serious stab wounds at her home on Grahame Avenue in Glenfield A 58-year-old man was arrested at the same house, and was taken to Campbelltown Police Station. A crime scene has been established at the home and detectives are investigating. The incident comes as a woman is charged with murder in a separate stabbing incident in Sydney's west. The 50-year-old woman has been charged with murder after a 47-year-old man died at Blacktown on Wednesday. He was suffering from a stab wound when emergency services found him at a home on Meroo Street about 5.20pm. Officers performed emergency CPR in an attempt to resuscitate the man but he died at the scene. The woman was refused bail to appear in Blacktown Local Court on Thursday. A baby girl from Oklahoma suffered severe burns to her face and body after she pulled a hot slow cooker off the counter, landing her in the hospital for two weeks. Vanesa Herrera said her one-year-old, Azra, sustained second-degree burns at the family's home in Blanchard on September 18, while the mother was making dinner. Herrara said she usually keeps Azra in her high chair while working in the kitchen, but on that evening, Azra was moving around the house in her walker. Scroll down for video Terrifying ordeal: One-year-old Azra Herrera (pictured left before the accident) suffered severe burns to her face after pulling a slow cooker off the counter in September Scalded: Meat juices spilled out of the Crock Pot onto the left side of the child's body and face, causing second-degree burns While Herrera was fetching something from the refrigerator and had her back turned, she said the child managed to make her way toward the kitchen island where meat was coking inside a Crock Pot, reported the station KFOR. Azra grabbed hold of the appliance and pulled on it, causing boiling juices to spill onto the left side of her body and face. Herrera said her daughter appeared shocked and only let out a small sound. The terrified mother screamed, grabbed the baby and rushed her to INTEGRIS Baptist Children's Hospital. The baby girl was airlifted to a hospital in Dallas, where she remained for two weeks Life-changing moment: Azra's mom, Vanesa (left), says the accident happened in the blink of an eye while she was getting something out of the refrigerator From there, Azra was airlifted to Parkland Hospitals pediatric burn center in Dallas to continue her treatment. Azra was released home on Tuesday. She is expected to make a full recovery. Her mother is now sharing the family's frightening ordeal to remind other parents of young children that common household items, such as a pot of boiling water or a slow cooker, could pose a serious risk. You never think it could happen to you, she said. When it does happen to you, there's just no words to really describe the feeling. First came the heavy rain, then the hurricane, and then, finally, the frogs. North Carolina is being plagued with tens of thousands of frogs and toads that are falling on their heads, hopping on kitchen counters, and even getting into their beds. They're stuck on sliding doors, hanging on kitchen windows, clinging to walls, and sticking to cars. Residents across the state's coastal plain have taken to Facebook to report new frog sightings and share plenty of pictures of their new neighbors. North Carolina is being plagued with tens of thousands of frogs and toads that are falling on their heads, hopping on kitchen counters, and even getting into their beds Residents across the state's coastal plain have taken to Facebook to report new frog sightings and share plenty of pictures of their new neighbors 'They poop everywhere!' one Outer Banks resident wrote. 'They're all over my windows,' another told the Outer Banks Voice. 'I had one jump on my face laying in bed!' While these pesky critters only started turning up after Hurricane Florence, biologists said the storm doesn't deserve all the blame 'And I had another in the kitchen on the cutting board. They're everywhere!' While these pesky critters only started turning up after Hurricane Florence, biologists said the storm doesn't deserve all the blame. North Carolina's coast is actually experiencing a convergence of two types of frog and toad populations explosions, state biologist Jeff Hall told The Charlotte Observer. The first wave comes from tadpoles that were born during June and July's abnormally heavy rains. And the second wave is due to a boom of 'explosively breeding' toads, who have made their love nests in the numerous puddles created by Hurricane Florence. Florence dumped more than 30 inches of rain in parts of eastern North Carolina last month, killing 49 people. Tens of thousands of buildings were damaged and thousands of homes were rendered uninhabitable. It also created a perfect breeding ground for the toads. While some frogs can remain in their tadpole stage for months, some toads only need two weeks to develop legs. Hall said the flooding across the plains has only made things worse as it forces the frogs to search for dry ground. 'This is why they're showing up in places they don't normally go,' he said. North Carolina's coast is actually experiencing a convergence of two types of frog and toad populations explosions The first wave comes from the tadpoles that were born during June and July's abnormally heavy rains 'I've heard of people stepping outside and frogs falling on their shoulder, freaking them out.' The second wave is due to a boom of 'explosively breeding' toads 'Frogs love tiny cracks, so they get in door seals.' Hall said coastal residents will continue to share space with the frogs and toads until the flood waters recede in the 10 most impacted counties. He advises that residents turn off their porch lights, which can attract bugs and moths. 'It's like a steak house buffet to a frog,' Hall said. But, Hall adds, the sudden arrival of thousands of frogs and toads isn't all bad. 'They don't pose a threat,' he said. 'It's best to try and deal with them as best we can until the situation changes.' 'There are people with hundreds of little toads running around in their yards and they don't like it - but toads do eat insects.' The Moroccan navy opened fire on a migrant boat carrying 58 people hitting a 16-year-old boy in the shoulder. The navy intercepted the migrant boat off the town of Larache late last night according to local media reports. A military source said the suspect captain failed to heed warning shots fired across his bow. The Moroccan Navy opened fire on the motor launch carrying migrants across the Mediterranean lat night. A 16-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder The migrants had bordered the boat from Larache beach which is about 70 miles from the Spanish coast The source told AFP: 'The motorboat that was carrying 58 migrants hidden under tarpaulin made a hostile move which forced the coastguard to fire at the captain.' One of the Moroccan migrants suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder in the overnight operation to intercept the vessel off the town of Larache, on Morocco's Atlantic coast. The wounded migrant - aged 16, according to media reports - was transferred to a hospital in Tangier. The others aboard the boat, including men and women of various ages, were brought ashore and handed over to the security forces, the source said. More than 43,000 migrants have made it to Spain since the start of the year, including around 38,000 by sea, according to the International Organization for Migration. Last weekend alone, around 1,800 migrants trying to reach the European Union were rescued in the Mediterranean by the Moroccan navy and Spanish coastguard. Since Tuesday, the Moroccan navy has rescued at least 452 migrants off the kingdom's Atlantic coast after they ran into trouble, the official MAP news agency reported, citing a military source. That figure includes 86 Moroccans saved Wednesday from a faltering vessel off the coast Moulay Bouselham, south of Tangier, according to the same source. Wednesday's shooting was the second of its kind in two weeks. On September 25, a Moroccan naval patrol opened fire on a 'go-fast' speedboat ferrying migrants to Spain, killing a 22-year-old student and wounding three other people. The authorities said that shooting was also in response to the boat's 'hostile manoeuvres' and said the migrants had been concealed under tarpaulin. A growing number of Moroccans are trying to leave their country illegally to reach Europe by sea or by crossing the fortified barriers between Morocco and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa. The kingdom is also a transit country for thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. The king of high-rise property development, Harry Triguboff, has rejected suggestions Australia's property market is set to crash. Industry experts have discussed the possibility house prices in Sydney and Melbourne will drop 40 per cent in the next 12 months. Mr Triguboff - who made his fortune as managing director of Meriton, Australia's largest apartment developer - said the market would be weak for a year, but there would be no doomsday scenario. 'Prices won't crash,' Mr Triguboff, otherwise known as 'Highrise Harry', told The Australian. The king of high-rise property development Harry Triguboff (pictured) has rejected suggestions Australia's property market is set to crash Industry experts have discussed the possibility house prices in Sydney and Melbourne will drop by 40 per cent over the next 12 months The Sydney-based multi-billionaire, who has been listed on every Rich List in its 25-year history and reportedly paid Delta Goodroom $250,000 to sing at his birthday party earlier this year, said governments would step in should prices fall too sharply. He said a raft of taxes, including foreign buyer levies and developer tariffs, will be relaxed to stimulate the market. 'The way Australians have always made money is on property. But prices have come down and mortgage arrears are growing,' he said, adding that strong migration would also safeguard the market. Research by Realestate.com.au confirms Mr Triguboff's predictions. Mr Triguboff has been in every Rich List in its 25-year history and reportedly paid Delta Goodroom $250,000 to sing at his birthday party earlier this year 'Prices won't crash,' said Mr Triguboff (pictured), who has earned the moniker 'Highrise Harry' The property site said that while demand for housing was down, claims that prices in Sydney and Melbourne could fall by 40 per cent were likely to be overblown. 'Despite recent headlines of doom and gloom, the report reveals that a 40 per cent decline in prices in Sydney and Melbourne is highly unlikely,' realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee said. 'However, the nation's biggest cities will continue to battle tough conditions for the remainder of the year.' The site's report, which calculates demand by using the number of property views in the past three months against the average number of property listings, suggests buyer demand nationwide is down 0.3 per cent. Most experts agree claims prices in Sydney and Melbourne could fall by 40 per cent look likely to be overblown Sydney was the heaviest hit location with buyer demand down 23 per cent. Manly in the city's northern beaches is pictured Sydney is the heaviest hit, with buyer demand down 23 per cent and price growth down 3.1 per cent to $790,000 from the previous year. Demand in Melbourne is also significantly lower than last year - down 20 per cent - but significant interest in the rental and foreign investment markets means prices are up by 1.3 per cent to $640,000 from last year. South Hobart and Battery Point in Tasmania topped the list of most in-demand suburbs, while Adelaide features two suburbs - Crafers West and Aldgate - in the top five. Three suburbs in Victoria are listed in the top 10 - Red Hill, Park Orchards and Middle Park - while Collaroy Plateau and Birchgrove in NSW also made the list. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wants to free more federal prisoners like Alice Johnson, the woman who he ordered released in June after she served 20 years of a life sentence for a first-time nonviolent drug conviction. 'I'd like to find a lot of people like Alice Johnson,' he told reporters in the Oval Office during a briefing about Hurricane Michael. 'There are a lot of people that are in a situation like that,' the president added, 'and we are actively looking for those situations.' Trump's acknowledgment that he could soon flex his presidential clemency muscle again came less than a day before Kanye West is expected to visit the White House. Alice Johnson, 63, (right) was given a life sentence for first-time nonviolent drug offenses in 1997 based on mandatory minimum sentencing. President Donald Trump commuted her sentence on June 6, one week after Kim Kardashian (left) met with him in the White House and encouraged him to do so. The two are pictured together on June 13 West's wife, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, brought the Johnson case to the president's attention this year and sold him on giving the 63-year-old Tennessee woman a second chance. Kardashian will not make the trip to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday but she has already pressed the administration on at least two other cases. Kanye wants to discuss job opportunities for ex-cons and manufacturing jobs in Chicago with Donald Trump at the White House Chris Young, 30, is serving life for dealing drugs, a sentence handed down by a federal judge who later quit his job in protest of one-size-fits-all mandatory minimums. Young has been incarcerated since December 2010, when he was arrested while talking to a drug dealer whose car, just steps away, contained eight ounces of powder cocaine and six ounces of crack cocaine. Young refused to plead guilty and accept a 14-year sentence; prosecutors convicted him of conspiracy to distribute the entire stash which happened to be within 1,000 feet of a high school and carrying a firearm while trafficking drugs. He had been convicted of minor drug possession crimes twice as a teen, checking the federal government's boxes and drawing a mandatory life sentence as a habitual offender. Judge Kevin Sharp, who left the bench last year in protest of an 'unfair' system that tied his hands, participated in a White House meeting in September that included Kardashian and senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner. Matthew Charles, 51, (pictured with his girlfriend Naomi Tharpe) was convicted on crack charges in 1996 and was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison, due to mandatory sentence minimums at the time. After Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010, Charles sought a reduced sentence and a judge who reviewed his case granted him early release. Charles was released on parole in 2016, nine years early, to a halfway house in Nashville, Tennessee Kim Kardashian, who has 60.2million followers on Twitter, tweeted about Charles in May, just two days before she met with President Trump in the White House to discuss prison reform and Alice Johnson's prison sentence Sharp told the Tennessean in 2017 that most drug defendants 'are not dangerous. They're just kids who lack any opportunities and any supervision, lack education and have ended up doing what appears to be at the time the path of least resistance to make a living.' 'If there was any way I could have not given him life in prison I would have done it,' he said of Young. Kardashian and Sharp stepped into the Oval Office for some presidential face-time after the early September meeting chaired by Kushner. They also raised the case of Matthew Charles, a Nashville man who was returned to prison this summer to complete a 35-year sentence for selling crack to a federal informant in the 1990s. He had served 21 years when the Obama administration unveiled a policy change meant to equalize the way the government views powder and crystal forms of the same drug. Like hundreds of other men, Charles found himself out of federal prison early in 2016. But prosecutors successfully convinced a judge that an earlier state prison sentence had mad Charles a 'career criminal' meaning the new guidelines didn't apply to him. In March federal judge Aleta Trauger told a packed courtroom that her 'hands were tied' and told Charles he had 45 days to surrender himself for 14 more years behind bars. A White House official told DailyMail.com this week that the president has fielded clemency requests in recent months from members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle. At least two, the official said, have linked their requests to Johnson's so-far successful new lease on life. Trump said Wednesday that 'there are a lot of people like that, that will unfortunately be locked up for many, many years.' 'And there's no reason for it,' he said, 'so we'll be we are looking for, we are actively looking for other situations exactly like that.' Alveda King, an evangelical leader whose uncle was Martin Luther King Jr., submitted a list of nearly 100 names to the White House in August. Seven women have been killed across Australia in the past eight days - with the majority allegedly at the hands of men known to them. Five of the dead women are mothers who have left behind young children and heartbroken families. One of the women was allegedly killed by a stalker who referred to himself as 'The Reaper' - while the body of another was dumped in a park with her hands bound together and a studded collar around her neck. One in three women in Australia have experienced physical violence carried out by a man. Scroll down for video Nicole Cartwright's (pictured) half-naked body was found dumped near a children's playground at a park in the exclusive suburb of Hunters Hill on Sydney's lower north shore NSW Police have released this still from CCTV footage of Ms Cartwright at a train station on September 30 - the last time she was seen alive Ms Cartwright's body which was discovered by a council worker at a park in Hunters Hill (pictured) In the latest incident, a 43-year-old Erana Nahu was allegedly stabbed to death by a man believed to be her partner at a home in a quiet cul-de-sac in Sydney's south-west early on Thursday morning. The mother-of-two is the seventh woman killed in Australia since October 3, when Nicole Cartwright's half-naked body was found dumped near a children's playground at a park in the exclusive suburb of Hunters Hill in the city's lower north shore. Ms Cartwright, 32, was found by a horrified council worker with a studded collar around her neck and her hands bound together. Police were forced to use dental and forensic records to identify her body. Ms Cartwright lived with her parents in Lansvale, in the city's south-west and had a wide circle of friends, according to police. She did not own a car but often travelled on public transport around Sydney. Homicide squad commander Scott Cook said Ms Cartwright's body was covered in leaves and bark when she was found. He said her parents Terry and Brenda were 'very, very sad', and her family was 'devastated'. Gayle Potter (pictured), 46, was killed in a hit-and-run at a home in Traralgon in Victoria's east Glenn Martyn - Ms Potter's ex-husband (pictured)- was charged with her murder after the incident Ms Potter died after the incident at a private property on Airfield Road in Traralgon (pictured) Also on October 3, Gayle Potter, 46, was killed in a hit-and-run at a home in Traralgon in Victoria's east. Devastated friends described the mother-of-three as a 'beautiful soul'. Her ex-husband Glenn Martyn, 53, has been charged with her murder. Ms Potter's current partner said: 'She was loved with all our hearts and she will be sorely missed.' Tributes have flowed from friends in the large regional town who say the nursery owner was a 'beautiful woman' and a 'dedicated mother who was always smiling'. Police discovered Ms Potter's body after they were called to the property on Airfield Road about 8.30pm. Ms Potter's death has devastated the local community, where she had lived most of her life. 'I'm devastated ... she was just an angel,' Traralgon local and friend Rick Hodgkiss told The Age. 'She never did anything wrong to anyone and was loved by so many people. I used to deliver goods to [her] family's business and Gayle used to unload my truck. She was just a beautiful soul and we always had a laugh.' Mother-of-two Dannyll Goodsell (pictured) was found dead in her Ballarat home, 100km north-west of Melbourne Officers were responding to reports of smoke at the Mount Pleasant unit at 8am, but instead made the grim discovery Later the same day, a woman was killed in an alleged assault in Palmerston in the Northern Territory. The 29-year-old died at her home, and a 34-year-old man was charged with her murder. The man was also charged with engaging in conduct that contravened a domestic violence order. On October 4, mother-of-two Dannyll Goodsell was found dead in her Ballarat home, 100km north-west of Melbourne. Scott Cameron, 35 was charged with her murder after firefighters discovered her body while trying to extinguish a blaze at the property. It is alleged Ms Goodsell suffered serious injuries before she was found in the fire. The inferno tore through Ms Goodsell's home at Kenworth Place. The same day, Kristie Powell was found dead with her throat slashed at her home in Bellambi, an hour south of Sydney. Her five-month-old baby son, Slater, was in the bedroom next to her's when her body was discovered. Bhanu Kirkman, a 29-year-old former employee of Ms Powell's, has been charged with her murder. She was killed months after she told friends a stalker calling himself 'The Reaper' - a nickname Kirkman allegedly used - was sending her threatening messages. She said many of the messages, from a man who worked at her dog-sitting business for four months in 2016, included 'die Kristie die'. Jacqueline Lynn Francis, 50, (pictured) was allegedly attacked after arriving at a patient's apartment in Rockingham, south of Perth, during a call out late on Saturday evening Patrons and staff at the Dome Cafe tried to cover the wound with paper towels (pictured) until paramedics arrived and rushed her to Fiona Stanley Hospital where she later died Shannon Scott Westerman Smith, 37, appeared in Rockingham Magistrate's Court charged with her murder Mr Kirkman, who uses 'Reaper' in an alternate Facebook name, was found hiding under a railway bridge in the Hunter region. He was arrested on unrelated drug, fraud, resisting arrest, and weapons charges for which there were outstanding warrants, and later charged with Ms Powell's murder. A former housemate said they kicked Mr Kirkman out of their home near Nowra about a year ago after they discovered a sickening diary. On October 6, mental health worker Jacqueline Francis died after she was allegedly stabbed in the neck before driving herself to a cafe in a desperate attempt to get help. Kristie Powell (pictured) was found dead with her throat slashed at her home in Bellambi, an hour south of Sydney Bhanu Kirkman (pictured), a 29-year-old former employee of Ms Powell's, was charged with her murder Shannon Scott Westerman Smith, 37, has since been charged with her murder. Finally, in the early hours of October 11, Erana Nahu was allegedly stabbed to death by a man in a suspected domestic violence attack in Glenfield, in Sydney's south-west. She was treated by paramedics at the scene but died shortly after police were called about 2am. A cousin of Ms Nahu said the family is in 'distress and disbelief'. The man who was arrested is believed to be the dead woman's partner. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' Personal Safety Survey shows one in six women have experienced physical or sexual violence from a current or former partner. Kristie Powell's sister-in-law Michelle posted the first photo of Slater (pictured) since he was rescued from the house where his mother died in the early hours of Friday morning Chief Justice John Roberts is referring complaints against new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to federal judges in Colorado and neighboring states. The 15 complaints deal with statements Kavanaugh made during his confirmation hearings. All were filed originally with Kavanaugh's old court, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the latest last Wednesday, while the battle over his confirmation was still under way. Two are known to have been filed by filed by the Democratic Coalition, a political action group, Buzzfeed reported. The first was filed on September 10, before the allegations of sexual assault came out, and accused Kavanaugh of lying when he told the Senate Judiciary Committee he didn't know he received information stolen from Senate Democrats when he was working in the Bush White House in the early 2000s. The second, filed September 27, claims Kavanaugh violated the judiciary's code of conduct by 'engaging in a public and partisan campaign of lies to cover-up and conceal sexual misconduct and crimes he committed in the past.' Action: Chief Justice John Roberts says he has asked asked federal judges on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to look into complaints against Kavanaugh Roberts said in a letter posted Wednesday on the D.C. Circuit website that he has asked judges who handle ethics complaints for the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to deal with the complaints. In a statement issued Saturday, D.C. Circuit Judge Karen Henderson said the complaints only 'seek investigations ... of the public statements he has made as a nominee to the Supreme Court.' The ethics complaints were filed against Kavanaugh when he was still a sitting federal judge which made him subject to conduct rules which are ultimately overseen by Roberts himself. Ironically they would ultimately have come under the supervision of Merick Garland, the Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Obama who never got a Senate confirmation hearing. Garland is chief judge of the D.C. circuit court of appeals, but recused himself from the ethics investigation process earlier this week. Discipline under those rules could have ranged from Kavanaugh getting a private talking-to by the chief judge on his circuit -Garland - to a suspension from hearing cases and even to a referral to the House of Representatives for possible impeachment proceedings. It is however unclear what Justice Roberts can do if there is an adverse finding by the judges now considering the complaints. Supreme Court justices only answer to Congress. There are also no defined rules for the justices. While Kavanaugh's political rhetoric during his fiery hearing could lead to calls for recusal on certain cases should he be elevated to the high court, he's under no obligation to do so. Kavanaugh began his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee with a 45-minute, 5,200-word opening statement to instead issue a fiery denunciation of Democrats, accusing them of wanting 'revenge for the Clintons' and on Trump's election as president. An Indian student has been arrested after being caught allegedly smuggling child exploitation material into Australia. The 21-year-old man was arrested and charged after Australian Border Force (AFB) officers found a large amount of child exploitation material on his mobile phone at Perth Airport. ABF officers stopped the man for a routine baggage examination after he arrived on a flight from Kuala Lumpur, on Wednesday. A 21-year-old Indian student (pictured) has been arrested after being caught allegedly smuggling child exploitation material into Australia While ABF inspected his phone they found nine videos and six photographs depicting a range of sexual activity involving children. Officers seized the phone and immediately cancelled the mans visitors visa. ABF officers charged the man with one count of importation of a prohibited import, Tier 2, which is defined as 'items of child pornography or of child abuse material'. ABF Regional Commander for Western Australia, Rod ODonnell, said the ABF was concerned about the number of foreign visitors to Australia found to be in possession of child exploitation material. 'ABF officers are highly skilled at identifying people at our airports who are attempting to carry this abhorrent material across the border,' he said. 'Unfortunately we are seeing too many cases where travellers have this material on their phones and other devices. Visitors need to be aware that possession of child exploitation material is viewed very seriously under Australian law.' 'Tackling child exploitation is an operational priority for the ABF as part of its role protecting the border from individuals who may pose a threat to the community.' The man is the second person this month who was arrested at customs for allegedly trying to bring child pornography into the country. ABF Regional Commander for Western Australia, Rod ODonnell, said the ABF was concerned about the number of foreign visitors to Australia found to be in possession of child exploitation material On October 3 a 32-year-old Pakistani man was detained at the same airport, Perth, where ABF officers allegedly found child exploitation and bestiality material on his mobile phone. 'During the examination of his phone officers allegedly found objectionable material in the form of a number of videos depicting sexual activity involving children and animals,' a Border Force spokesperson said in a statement. The man appeared in Perth Magistrates Court, on Monday, and is now in custody while awaiting another court appearance on October 26. The maximum penalty for the importation of child exploitation material is 10 years jail and a fine of up to $525,000. The pupils of Crathie primary school have long cherished their proximity to Balmoral, the Royal Familys home from home in Scotland. In days gone by, the Queen Mother used to send Princess Margarets birthday cake for the children to share, and each Christmas every pupil there are currently only 12 receives a gift from the Queen. But on Friday, as the focus turns to the wedding of the Queens granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, in Windsor, there promises to be a day of equal excitement for this tiny school, just across the River Dee from the castle. Are long-standing tensions with Andrew (pictured with Camilla at Guildhall) the reason she will not be at the wedding? For rather than joining her husband Prince Charles to witness the marriage of his niece to wine merchant Jack Brooksbank, the Duchess of Cornwall will be fulfilling a longstanding commitment to visit the school. While many will see the Duchesss action in putting duty before pleasure as commendable, others are baffled. Even locals who prize their close bond with the royals admit that while they are thrilled to have captured the presence of Prince Charless wife, they are also somewhat surprised. We are used to seeing the royals out and about they are part of the Crathie community and frankly they could drop in at any time, says one figure. I dont think anyone would have been too startled if the engagement was cancelled because of the wedding. Charles will witness the marriage of Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank (pictured) For the Royal Family, Camillas absence from St Georges Chapel risks becoming an unwelcome distraction for a wedding which is already facing criticism over the 2 million cost to the taxpayer for police and security. Inevitably, her decision to remain in Scotland at Birkhall, the retreat she and Charles share on the Balmoral estate, has led to speculation that other reasons may have been behind it. It is understood she and Charles, who will return to Scotland after the post-wedding lunch and miss the black-tie dinner being thrown by his brother, Prince Andrew, at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, are hosting a weekend house party at Birkhall. Friends insist there is no calculated snub and it is just due to an unavoidable clash of dates. I can disclose that Camilla sent a handwritten letter to Eugenie apologising for being unable to attend. In it, she explained that she had committed to visit a local school and did not want to let the children down. Yes, she has guests coming, but that has nothing to do with her not going to the wedding, says a close friend. She is fond of Eugenie and her sister Beatrice, and is very disappointed that she cannot be there. However, it is no secret that she is not close to the girls parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York. You would have thought the two womens shared experiences as royal outsiders might have brought them together. Indeed, both women were pointedly not invited to Prince Edwards wedding to Sophie Rhys-Jones, also in Windsor, in 1999. But if Camilla has little time for her fellow Duchess, there is also a coolness between her and Andrew. According to insiders, she feels that the Duke of York did not speak up for her and Charles when they were battling to get royal acceptance for their relationship after Dianas death. Camilla has always felt Andrew could have done more, says a close figure. The Queen listens to Andrew and he could have helped his brother at a time when he had few allies within the family. In fact, I would go so far as to say he was deeply unhelpful when support would have meant a huge amount to her and the Prince. Camilla (pictured between Charles and Andrew at Guildhall) will instead visit a Scottish school Looking back to when there was little public sympathy for Charles and Camilla, if not open hostility, it was a case of Andrew playing politics. Camilla hasnt forgotten. Her absence reveals how confident she has become. Not long ago, she wouldnt have dared miss such a high-profile family event (she was at Harrys wedding in May, of course). Prince Andrew, meanwhile, is under fire over the spiralling costs of his daughters wedding to the public purse. Eugenie and Jacks carriage ride through the streets of Windsor after the church service is being blamed because of the need for extra security. Although shorter than the route taken by Harry and Meghan, it requires considerable manpower. Even some royal officials are uncomfortable at the size of the growing bill for the wedding of a member of the Royal Family who does no public engagements. They have wondered why Eugenie did not follow the low-key template of the weddings of Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall both grandchildren of the Queen, who also dont do official duties. Friends of Prince Andrew insist that as an HRH, and along with her sister the only blood princesses of their generation, Eugenies wedding is in line with royal tradition. It is also entirely in character with Andrew, says a courtier. He has no hesitation saying: Dont forget that I am the son of the sovereign. Eugenie and Jack have chosen the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle for their official wedding photographs. These, of course, will be hugely significant because in all likelihood they could include the Duchess of York for so long not welcome at royal events posing alongside Prince Philip. (If, indeed, Philip is there. Yesterday, there were reports that the Duke, 97, may not attend the wedding. It was claimed he would wake up and see how he feels on the day.) It would be the first time the pair have been pictured together in 26 years. Philip has studiously avoided Fergie since paparazzi photographs of her sunbathing topless were published by a red-top newspaper in 1992. After the pictures have been taken, the Queen, Prince Philip and other members of the Royal Family will have lunch. At the same time, the remaining guests will arrive for the reception in three of the castles State apartments, the Grand Reception Room, the Garter Throne Room and Waterloo Chamber. The royals will then join the reception, with Prince Andrew observing his father-of-the-bride duties with a speech. The Queen and Philip are due to leave at 2pm, followed soon after by the bride and groom. The reception ends at 3pm, but many will be back for the evening party at Royal Lodge, the home which Andrew still shares with ex-wife Sarah. For those still standing, a third celebration will take place at Royal Lodge on Saturday. While the champagne is chilling for the wedding, the excitement is growing at Crathie school. The children are very keen to show the Duchess around the school and to share the excellent work they have been engaged in this term, says headteacher Mrs Lilian Field. One suspects that is just the kind of razzmatazz Camilla is looking forward to. President Trump gave his outgoing United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley his blessing on Wednesday to go out and 'make a lot of money' in the private sector and then return to government service. Trump said that Haley is an 'extraordinary person, good person' and a 'friend' to the administration 'Shes been great.' 'I want whoever it is to spend some time with Nikki before Nikki goes out and gets herself a job, and hopefully shes going to make a lot of money,' he said of Haley and her eventual replacement. President Trump gave his outgoing United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, his blessing on Wednesday to go out and 'make a lot of money' in the private sector and then return to government service Trump said that Haley is an 'extraordinary person, good person' and a 'friend' to the administration 'Shes been great' Dina Powell is considered a top choice for the job, although Trump denied that the Goldman Sachs executive is currently the front-runner. 'No, but she's somebody we're talking to. We like Dina,' he said. 'Dina did great here. She then went back into the private sector for a while, but she always wanted to come back. She loves this administration, so we're certainly looking at Dina, and were looking at others and some tremendously talented people.' Trump said a few moments later: 'And I think that Nikki will come back in some form, too.' Haley resigned without warning on Tuesday morning as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announcing plans from the Oval Office to depart the Trump administration in December. 'I think you have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and allow someone else to do the job. So, thank you, Mr. President,' she stated in hastily-arranged remarks. Trump told press she 'has been very special to me' and 'is a fantastic person' who has done exemplary work and is welcome to return at any time to his administration. 'She's done a fantastic job, and we've done a fantastic job together,' he said, citing the progress toward a nuclear deal with North Korea. 'We're all happy for you in one way, but we hate to hopefully, you'll be coming back at some point.' Dina Powell is considered a top choice for the job, although Trump denied that the Goldman Sachs executive is currently the front-runner Haley's weekend trip with former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell set off speculation that's she in line for U.N. ambassador Haley abruptly resigned on Tuesday morning as U.S. ambassador in the Oval Office He told Haley, who was once considered for secretary of state, that'd she'd made the U.N. job 'more glamorous' and 'more important' than it was in the last administration. 'I think she's helped make it a much better position, if you want to know the truth,' he said of her tenure at the United Nations, where she was known for fiery speeches defending America's interests. 'I wonder why, but it is. I mean, she's made it a more glamorous position. She's made it a more important more importantly, a more important position.' Haley had been considered a rising star within the Republican Party and a leading candidate for president in 2020, if Trump decides not to run for reelection. She put those rumors to rest on Tuesday, though, in the joint appearance, where she said she would be campaigning for the current Oval Office occupant. 'No I'm not running for 2020,' she said. 'I look forward to supporting the president in the next election.' President Trump said that she would hopefully she would return in another capacity - telling her she could have her pick of jobs if she wants to come back Haley spoke glowingly of the president and his family in their joint appearance in the Oval NOT A THREAT: 'No, I'm not running for 2020,' she said. 'I look forward to supporting the president in the next election' Haley praised Jared Kushner and the president's elder daughter Ivanka. The senior advisers to the president were present on Tuesday as Haley resigned publicly in the Oval Office Haley said she doesn't have 'anything set' on where she's going to go next. She noted that it has been eight years of 'intense time' in her life, having catapulted from governor of South Carolina to United Nations ambassador. She acknowledged that her departure would be picked apart by the pundits and insisted that the timing was intended to leave the Trump administration in the best possible position. 'For all of you that are going to ask about 2020, no, I am not running for 2020,' she said. 'I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one.' She said her family has been very supportive of her career and there are 'no personal reasons' for her departure other than a belief that public servants should be term-limited and recognize when it's time to leave. Trump said that they would stay in 'constant touch' and he would continue to rely on her for advice on foreign affairs. 'She got to know the players,' he said of China, Russia and India. 'She knows everybody on a very first-name basis, and they like her.' Haley spoke glowingly of the president and his family, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and the president's elder daughter. 'Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands,' she said. 'And Ivanka has been just a great friend.' She said the couple that volunteers their time at the White House in unpaid senior adviser positions 'do a lot of things behind the scenes that I wish more people knew about.' Haley credited Kushner, specifically, for his work on an as-of-yet unseen Middle East peace plan. 'Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands,' Haley said on Tuesday. 'And Ivanka has been such a great friend' Ivanka quickly emerged as a potential appointment to the position, as did her husband, with the president telling reporters, 'I think Ivanka would be incredible.' He immediately added: 'I would be accused of nepotism even though I'm not sure there's anyone more competent in the world, but that's OK.' Such an appointment would be unprecedented. That didn't stop the president from inviting his daughter and son-in-law to come work for him at the White House, and it's unlikely that it would keep him from promoting his daughter the position that would send her back to New York and heighten her profile on the world stage. Ivanka did her best to settle speculation on Tuesday night with a tweet in which she more or less turned down the job. All eyes returned to Powell on Wednesday, who had been photographed with Haley last weekend at a South Carolina lake. Trump indicated in Oval Office remarks that all of the prospects on his self-identified short list of five were members of or had been members of his administration. He said they'd already had 'very strong vetting' - and that 'some of the people are already with us.' 'Were looking at people who are already with us. We have some incredible talent in this administration,' he continued. 'We have some great, great talent and they have already been vetted. They're already approved.' Anyone who takes the position must be confirmed by a simple majority in the Senate. Republicans hold exactly that many seats until at least the end of the calendar year. Haley confers with President Trump as he chairs a United Nations Security Council meeting on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the United Nations at United Nations Headquarters in late September President Trump could find himself in a weaker position after the midterms, if Republicans perform poorly at the ballot box. He told reporters on Tuesday that he's looking to nominate and move someone through the Senate before it becomes a problem. 'I would say well name a successor, I dont know, within the next two or three weeks,' he offered in the Oval Office. 'Maybe sooner.' The reasons for Haley's departure were still murky on Wednesday with the midterms just four weeks away. But Trump insisted that she told him roughly six months ago that she want to take time off at the end of a two-year stint. 'There really is no good time.Sshe told me about this a long time ago, and frankly it's almost four weeks, so it's not that bad,' he said. 'I think it was very elegantly done...There's really no good time to do it.' Self-proclaimed spiritual healer, Nigel Kennedy (pictured), 51, has been charged with luring two women to his home, knocking them out with alcohol and raping them A self-proclaimed spiritual healer has been accused of luring two women to his home, knocking them out with alcohol and raping them. On two separate occasions, Nigel Kennedy, 51, allegedly held religious ceremonies for the victims. According to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Kennedy caused the women to lose consciousness and then had intercourse without their consent. Kennedy used to own a religious goods store called Psychic Kaballah, and calls himself a religious and spiritual leader. He allegedly met the victims at the store, which was located at 4714 Church Avenue in Brooklyn. The first incident occurred on August 30, 2016, around 10pm, when a 42-year-old woman went to Kennedy's apartment on East 52nd Street in East Flatbush for a church ceremony, according to the district attorney. Kennedy allegedly started chanting and poured a clear liquid that tasted like alcohol into the victim's mouth. The victim then lost consciousness, but when she regained consciousness, she told authorities that she felt a person on top of her. However, she was unable to move. She lost consciousness again and woke up at 5am the next day, naked on a bed. Kennedy used to own a religious goods store called Psychic Kaballah (pictured), and calls himself a religious and spiritual leader. He allegedly met the victims at the store, which was located at 4714 Church Avenue in Brooklyn The first incident occurred on August 30, 2016, around 10pm, when a 42-year-old woman went to Kennedy's apartment in East Flatbush for a church ceremony, according to the district attorney. This photo was taken inside Kennedy's religious store Kennedy allegedly told her he didn't know how she got naked and the victim left, suffering from nausea, vomiting and dizziness throughout the day. The second incident occurred on May 16, 2018, around 10.30am, when a 28-year-old woman went to Kennedy's home for a spiritual reading. According to prosecutors, Kennedy blew smoke in her face and poured a substance that tasted like alcohol into her mouth. The victim threw up and became dizzy as he poured more liquid into her mouth, authorities said. She then lost consciousness and, when she woke up, her pants were off and Kennedy was having intercourse with her. She tried to push him off but could not, prosecutors said. The victim told him to stop but Kennedy allegedly refused, telling her: 'Relax, it's part of the ritual.' Once he got off of her, she left his home. Both victims went to the hospital after they were raped, and sexual assault evidence collection kits were conducted, according to the indictment. The second incident occurred on May 16, 2018, around 10.30am, when a 28-year-old woman went to Kennedy's home (pictured) for a spiritual reading The same male DNA was recovered from both victims. And the second victim was able to identify Kennedy. He was subsequently arrested last month after at the John F Kennedy International Airport. He had just flown in from Trinidad. Kennedy's DNA came back as a match to the DNA recovered from the victims. 'We allege that this defendant is a sexual predator who used his religious stature to lure women, then drugged and raped them,' District Attorney Gonzalez said Wednesday. 'We will now seek to hold him accountable for these despicable alleged acts, and I encourage anyone else who may have been victimized by him to call the DA's Action Center at 718-250-2340,' Gonzalez added. Kennedy has been charged with first and third-degree rape and first and second-degree sexual abuse. He was ordered held on $35,000 bail and will return to court on December 11, 2018. If convicted, Kennedy faces up to 25 years in prison. Fuming residents and public officials of a central Florida city have called for the resignation of a board member who went on an explosive social media tirade in which she slut-shamed sexual assault accusers. Marion County board member Nancy Stacy said in a Monday Facebook post: 'Tired of WHORES destroying men! Set Bill Cosby free, says "Mama Bear" with sons!' The 81-year-old former Cosby Show actor was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for a 2004 incident in which he passed Andrea Constand three blue pills he called her 'friends' to help her 'relax'. He then molested her at his Philadelphia home. Cosby's punishment late last month concluded a two-day hearing at which the judge declared him a 'sexually violent predator'. Constand was just one of roughly 60 women who have come forward to accuse the comic of sexual misconduct. The 2004 incident was the only one that resulted in criminal charges. Residents and public officials in Marion County, Florida have called for board member Nancy Stacy (pictured) to resign after she called sexual assault accusers 'whores' and said Bill Cosby should be set free Stacy said in a Monday Facebook post: 'Tired of WHORES destroying men! Set Bill Cosby free, says "Mama Bear" with sons!' In one of her fiery posts, Stacy insinuated that Constand and other sexual assault survivors are at fault for following men to private places in the first place. 'If the girls followed him to his car or apartment, then what the heck did he think he needed from them. Fed up with these whores being victims.' She ranted on with the slut-shaming: 'I do not consider a whore to be a victim of rapes... they go to a motel with a rich man with hopes of getting preg(nant) so they can rape him financially for 18 years. 'If you walk into a lions cage and get attacked, its not the lions fault, either!!!' Stacy told the media Tuesday that if 'a woman is a prostitute and went there for sex' she doesn't 'believe the man raped her.' Stacy said she was attacked by 'evil venomous PROGRESSIVE liberals' after she expressed her opinion - adding that these individuals 'stalk' her tirelessly. Comedian Cosby is seen as he arrived for his sexual assault sentencing trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse on September 25, 2018 in Norristown, Pennsylvania Cosby accusers (L-R) Andrea Constand and Janice Dickinson depart after he was sentenced to 3-10 years in the assault retrial at the Montgomery County Courthouse on September 25, 2018 in Norristown 'We wanted to expose the fake FB names they post under and found many! Was fun blocking them! We are having a blast with liberals today blaming their "lady of the evening" friends for setting men up for political reasons or to get money from them. 'I have brilliantly sucked them all out to my page (none were on my friends list) this is I REALLY wanted them to see!! Look how angry the group of whackadoodle angry women are! 'Then look how happy conservatives are. Dont you want to convert to be happy like me all you "ladies of the evening" sympathizers?' While in attendance to a board meeting Tuesday night, Marion County residents denounced the board member's comments and deemed her unfit for the position. City council president Matthew Wardell (right) in Ocala said in a statement that Stacy's posts are 'deeply troubling' Stacy shared several other posts in which she slut-shamed women They also urged Stacy to resign. City council president Matthew Wardell in Ocala said in a statement that Stacy's posts are 'deeply troubling'. He added that the remarks 'do not reflect the conservative - and though political party has no place in this discussion - Republican values that a majority of Marion County prides itself on. 'The notion that a victim of sexual assault - drugged and raped by a man (Cosby) convicted of those crimes in a court of law by a jury of his peers - is a whore because she willingly went to the assailants home is sickening.' He went on: 'The fact that this conception is being put forth in a public post by a leader elected to serve is absolutely unacceptable.' The woman's Facebook posts have since been deleted. She was not given an open window to remark on the matter during the board meeting. An eerie final selfie captured on the phone of a murdered woman has emerged as homicide detectives race to piece together her final days. In the photo, Nicole Cartwright, 32, can be seen pouting at the camera while wearing a black top, green checked skirt, and a backpack in Maroubra, in Sydney's east. Ms Cartwright sent the selfie to family and friends just five hours before her semi-naked body was found near a children's playground in a park. A council worker made the grisly discovery at Buffalo Creek Reserve in Hunters Hill on Sydney's lower north shore about 7.30am on October 3. Scroll down for video Nicole Cartwright, 32, took this selfie in Maroubra on September 28 and sent it to family and friends NSW Police have released this still from CCTV footage of Ms Cartwright at a train station on September 30 Ms Cartwright's hand's were bound, and she was covered with leaves and wearing a dog collar, with 30metre drag marks visible nearby. Police have not confirmed the cause of death but said she suffered injuries 'consistent with assault'. Parents Terry and Brenda Cartwright have revealed that when they first heard the news that a body had been found, they didn't want to believe that it could be their daughter. 'We heard the description [on the] report and thought something was off,' Mr Cartwright told The Australian. 'She wasn't really missing she lived here but it wasn't unusual for her to leave for a week or so.' Ms Cartwright was found in the same clothes she was wearing when last spotted at Museum Railway Station at 9.30pm on September 30. Authorities are yet to uncover some key details surrounding the suspicious death, including the location of Ms Cartwright's phone, which remains missing. Police are also looking for any information regarding new relationships Ms Cartwright may have had leading up to her death. It is understood she broke up with a boyfriend several months ago. Her Opal card is now being examined by police, who said she had traveled to Bondi Junction, St Marys, Strathfield, Central, Ashfield and Museum stations by train in the days before her death. Nicole Cartwright, 32, was found dead by a council worker at Buffalo Creek Reserve in Hunters Hill on Sydney's lower north shore about 7.30am on October 3 Detectives are investigating after Ms Cartwright's body was found semi-naked with a studded dog collar around her neck and her hands bound together Homicide squad commander Scott Cook said police were unaware of Ms Cartwright's whereabouts from September 30 until her body was found October 3. 'Investigators have been able to place Nicole on buses and at various railway stations between 27 and 30 September, but we are seeking information from then until she was found,' he said. 'Of particular interest to us is any sightings or contact with Nicole after that time, and we are appealing for those people to contact us as soon as possible.' Det Supt Cook said that once homicide investigations went beyond a couple of days they became increasingly 'baffling'. Ms Cartwright lived with her parents in Lansvale, in the city's south-west and had a wide circle of friends, according to police. Detectives from the homicide squad are investigating Ms Cartwright's (pictured) death Forensic police photograph Ms Cartwright's body which was discovered by a council worker Investigators believe Nicole's body was dumped at Buffalo Creek Reserve either late on the Tuesday night or very early hours of Wednesday morning. The body had been partially concealed under a dark-coloured cloth but beneath the covering Ms Cartwright was semi-naked. She also had massive injuries to her head, and her body was hidden with leaves. Shocked neighbours told Daily Mail Australia the incident was out of character for the quiet area, in the exclusive Sydney suburb. 'It's devastating because it's such a quiet little area,' the local said. 'Every weekend that park is packed full of kids playing and families having barbecues, it's a lovely spot normally. 'A council worker comes and opens the gates at sunrise and closes them at sunset, and I believe he found the body.' The park is popular with local families in the area and it features a newly-renovated playground. Former Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a message for Georgia Democrats that skips the uplift of former First Lady Obama's admonition to 'go high' and urges Democrats tired of being on the receiving end to 'kick them.' Holder made the comments in an appearance in Georgia, where according to the Associated Press the GOP secretary of state who is running for governor is keeping 53,000 people off the voter rolls. 'Michelle always says that, you know, When they go low, we go high, Holder said, bringing up the famous phrase that the first lady employed in 2016 campaign rallies on behalf of Hillary Clinton and other Democrats. 'No. When they go low, we kick them. And thats what this new Democratic Party is about," Holder said. Were proud as hell to be Democrats. Were going to fight for the ideals of the Democratic Party,' he added. 'We're proud of out history, we're proud our present, and we're proud of the future that we can create for this country,' he said. His comment prompted cheers of 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' from fellow Democrats gathered in a small room for the speech. He said Republicans want to keep themselves in power and 'cater to the special interests.'It is time for us as Democrats to be as tough as they are, to be as committed as they are, to be as dedicated as they are.' Holder noted that his wife is friends with the former first lady. Republicans immediately tried to make hay out of the 'kick them' comments. 'When they go low, we kick them,' Holder told fellow Democrats in Georgia Former Attorney General Eric Holder is the latest Democrat to urge fellow party members to take a tough stance toward the opposition party The Republican National Committee tweeted out the snippet, as did RNC chair Ronna McDaniel who also included references to two other African American Democrats, Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Maxine Waters, along with Hillary Clinton. Holder's comments tapped into frustration among Democrats who held the White House for eight years but find themselves completely locked out of power in Washington. It came days after the party failed to stop the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh on a 50-48 vote after rallying around sexual assault allegations against him. He spoke in a state where according to the Associated Press the GOP Secretary of State who is running for the governorship is keeping 53,000 people off the rolls. Holder, who sometimes gets mentioned as a 2020 candidate, continued: 'Theyve tried to racial gerrymander, theyve tried to partisan gerrymander. ... They want to keep themselves in power. They want to cater to the special interests,' The Hill reported. UPLIFTING: Former First lady Michelle Obama said at the Democratic convention in 2016: 'When they go low, we go high' He continued with a paraphrase of one of Hillary Clinton's many campaign slogans. 'Were in this to win. And the reality is if we dont win, people who are less committed, less idealistic, less imbued with the values that make this nation really great, will run this country,' he said. He is among a series of Democrats competing with tough rhetoric. Hillary Clinton said you 'cannot be civil' with the GOP because it 'wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.' Vice President Joe Biden is calling for Democrats to 'take the president on' and Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti, a possible presidential candidate, is also calling for a tougher approach. After gaining strength overnight, Hurricane Michael will be a storm of unprecedented intensity for the Florida Panhandle when it is expected to make landfall later today (Oct. 10). This storm will bring deadly surge to the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend coast and is not comparable to anything we have seen before, the National Weather Service forecast office in Tallahassee said in a warning just after 1 a.m. ET. Hurricane Michael became a Category 4 storm overnight, packing 140 mph (220 km/h) winds with even stronger gusts. The storm would be the most powerful hurricane to hit the mainland United States this year. [Hurricane Season 2018: How Long It Lasts and What to Expect] Major Hurricane #Michael continues to strengthen this evening and now has max sustained winds of 125 MPH with higher gusts and a central pressure of 947 mb (27.96). (@NOAA GOES-East IR imagery) #FLwx pic.twitter.com/3tWFpreP2f NASA SPoRT (@NASA_SPoRT) 10 octobre 2018 Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 35 Florida counties ahead of the monstrous storm, and more than 100,000 people have been ordered to evacuate, according to the Tampa Bay Times. As of 5 a.m. ET, Michael was about 130 miles (215 kilometers) southwest of Apalachicola, Florida, and moving at about 13 mph (20 km/h), according to an advisory from the National Hurricane Center. Unlike slow-moving Hurricane Florence, which made landfall in North Carolina last month and dumped record-breaking amounts of rain, Hurricane Michael is moving quickly. The storm is fast-moving, so only 6-10+ inches (15-25+ centimeters) of precipitation are forecasted to fall over the Panhandle, Marangelly Fuentes, a NASA atmospheric scientist, told NASAs Earth Observatory. However, Hurricane Michaels strong winds and storm surge could be devastating. The worst storm surge is expected to occur between Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida, and Keaton Beach, Florida, and it could be up to 13 feet if it occurs at the same time as high tide. LIVE: Cat. 4 Hurricane Michael to slam into Florida Panhandle today. https://t.co/o31mXibnqL https://t.co/2blKuHQpNs NBC News (@NBCNews) 10 octobre 2018 The strength of the hurricane is especially alarming because many people in the Panhandle have little or no experience with storms this intense, Fuentes said. Only eight major hurricanes on record have passed within or near the projected landfall of Michael, and only three of those (Eloise 1975, Opal 1995 and Dennis 2005) occurred in the past 100 years. Michael already proved deadly in Central America, where at least 13 deaths associated with the heavy rains and flooding were reported across Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, according to the Associated Press. Dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Michael continues to churn towards the western panhandle of Florida. Very impressive satellite presentation this morning along with its well defined eye. Unfortunately, it looks like Michael will be at peak strength as it makes landfall later today pic.twitter.com/DOWS0BrjHC WeatherWorks (@WeatherWorks) 10 octobre 2018 After making landfall, Michael is expected to weaken as it swerves northeast over Georgia and South Carolina before reaching the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center. Be ready and prepared for this unprecedented Hurricane! Payers for Florida! By the way, you can support your Strange Sounds by becoming a Patron on Patreon or donating through Paypal. Please and thank you. Live Science Hurricane Michael Strengthens to Unprecedented Category 4 Storm Overnight Jeremy Corbyn has today unveiled proposals to ensure schoolchildren are taught about the legacy of Britain's role in slavery and colonialism. The move comes on the same day as Labour faces accusations that it is 'putting ideology first and children second' with its plans to impose a new rule book on all schools. The National Curriculum already recommends that children learn about the slave trade, the British Empire and colonies in America. But the Labour leader is backing a new educational trust aimed at teaching children about how 'slavery interrupted a rich African and black history' and about the 'resilience and sacrifice of those enslaved and the struggle for liberation'. Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in Bristol today) has today unveiled proposals to ensure schoolchildren are taught about the legacy of Britain's role in slavery and colonialism The Labour leader (pictured today with Thangam Debbonaire, Labour MP for Bristol West and members of the public) is backing a new educational trust aimed at teaching children about how 'slavery interrupted a rich African and black history' and about the 'resilience and sacrifice of those enslaved and the struggle for liberation' Mr Corbyn said that 'in the light of the Windrush scandal' it is 'more important now than ever' that children learn 'the role and legacy of the British Empire, colonisation and slavery'. A Labour source said the plans would not involve changing the curriculum, but encouraging 'black history and the slave trade to be taught more broadly.' Tory MPs last night questioned why Mr Corbyn did not want to focus on more positive aspects of Britain's history, such as its role in the world wars against 'tyranny and dictatorship'. Today's announcement by Mr Corbyn comes on the same day that Education Secretary Damian Hinds will urge Labour to 'leave our kids alone' and warn that his party's plans amount to 'dangerous control freakery' over education. At last month's party conference, Labour said it would force headteachers to follow a 'common rule book' drawn up by ministers. It is also planning to scrap the free schools programme, freeze the academies programme, and take powers from heads and hand them to local councillors and ministers instead. In a major speech at the launch of the Confederation of School Trusts, Mr Hinds said Labour is turning the clock back on education reform. A drawing from the 19th century shows slaves aboard a slave ship Under Tony Blair, the last Labour government introduced the academies programme, which gives schools freedom from local authority control. This was used to turn around sink schools in deprived areas and challenge the idea of the 'bog standard comprehensive'. The Tories hugely expanded this programme and introduced free schools, which can be set up by parents. Mr Hinds said the reforms have improved failing schools and by abandoning them, Labour is choosing 'Left-wing dogma' over standards. He accused the Opposition of 'attacking success and defending failure'. 'Labour saw the evidence,' he said in a speech at the British Library. 'They had a choice between what is working for children and what Left-wing dogma says. They have made their choice. For them, ideology comes before children's education. 'Under Labour, successful schools would be undermined by the whims of politicians, while schools that need help will be left to fail.' Mr Corbyn will say that 'in the light of the Windrush scandal' it is more important than ever that children learn 'the role and legacy of the British Empire, colonisation and slavery'. Pictured, immigrants arriving on the Empire Windrush in 1948 WHAT HE WANTS ON CURRICULUM Mr Corbyn is set to call for the story of Mary Seacole to be taught in schools Mr Corbyn is set to call for the story of Mary Seacole, the mixed-race nurse who became a heroine of the Crimean War, to be taught in schools even though she is already on the curriculum. He also wants lessons on the role of British civil rights activist Paul Stephenson, who organised a bus boycott in Bristol in the 1960s, to be taught alongside the story of the better-known American campaigner Rosa Parks. Teaching should be improved 'to help ensure their legacy is more widely understood across the country', he believes. Marking October as Black History Month, Mr Corbyn will today argue for the subject to be taught all year round. The Labour leader will say: 'In the light of the Windrush scandal, Black History Month has taken on a renewed significance.' Advertisement On imposing council control on schools, he will say: 'Angela Rayner (the shadow education secretary) may call it 'local democratic control'. I call it not trusting schools. Why do Labour want to put politicians in charge of schools? It's because they don't trust headteachers.' In a letter to Miss Rayner, he will demand parents are 'given honest answers about what Labour is really planning'. 'Since 2010, this government has given schools more freedom. Through the Free School and Academies programmes we made sure that failing schools were not left to fail but were removed from local political control and given new leaderships with teachers in charge. 'I find it puzzling that you and Jeremy Corbyn want to distance yourselves from reforms that have trusted teachers, turned around failing schools and played a significant part in the closing of the attainment gap between rich and poor.' Former international development secretary Priti Patel said a Labour Party 'whose politicians and activists act as apologists for the crimes of dictators and terrorists who have threatened our country should be let nowhere near our schools'. She added: 'We have already seen that Corbyn and his cronies want to brainwash school children and end the freedom of the Press, now they want to talk down our country.' Pauline Hanson's One Nation is forming an alliance with a gun owners' rights party that could shake up politics in Australia's biggest state. The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers won their first ever New South Wales seat in 2016, bagging the electorate of Orange in the state's central west with a mammoth 34 per cent swing on first-preference votes. This ended the National Party's 69-year hold on the seat. Scroll down for video Pauline Hanson's One Nation is forming an alliance with a gun owners' rights party that could shake up politics in Australia's biggest state One Nation, however, which is headquartered in Queensland, is out polling the Shooters party, just five months out from the NSW election. The Nationals have released polling to The Daily Telegraph showing One Nation recording a stronger primary vote in 13 of the state's 16 regional seats. Queensland senator Pauline Hanson, One Nation's founder and leader, said she was open to a preference swap with the minor party, which could help either party win seats in the upper and lower houses. 'We are very closely aligned in a lot of policy areas,' she told News Corp Australia. One Nation (Queensland senator Pauline Hanson pictured) is outpolling the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party, just five months out from the New South Wales state election 'I'd rather work with small parties instead of working against each other. 'Parties that are like-minded in their policies and views must work together.' Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian may struggle to win a majority in March, with a Newspoll earlier this year indicating a 50:50 result after preferences, which could see a hung parliament in NSW. The eight-year-old Coalition government is also struggling in regional areas, following the loss of the Wagga Wagga by-election in a seat which the Liberal Party had held for 60 years. Queensland senator Pauline Hanson, One Nation's founder and leader, said she was open to a preference swap with the Shooters party, which could see either party decide NSW's future One Nation or the Shooters party could decide who forms the next government were either party to win a lower house seat in a chamber where neither the Liberal-National Coalition nor Labor commanded a majority. The Shooters party has two MPs in the NSW upper house and one in the lower house seat of Orange. One Nation however hasn't won a seat in the NSW Parliament since 1999, when Senator Hanson's former chief adviser David Oldfield was elected for an eight-year term. Britain's response to Covid is set to be dramatically scaled back early next year as part of a pandemic 'exit strategy' codenamed Rampdown. The secret Whitehall plan is detailed in official Government documents leaked to The Mail on Sunday. They describe how much of the Government's 37 billion emergency programme for dealing with the virus will be dismantled and the country prepared for living with Covid 'for years to come'. The extraordinary 160-page dossier includes a string of documents marked 'official sensitive' drawn up by the senior Government officials tasked with winding down Britain's battle against the pandemic. The file reveals how the Government is set to: Axe the legal requirement for those who catch the virus to self-isolate for ten days; End free Covid tests and instead allow private companies to charge for lateral flow and PCR tests; Shut down the national 'Test and Trace' system, which identifies those who may have been exposed to the virus; Focus the fight against Covid on tackling local outbreaks and protecting 'highest risk settings', such as care homes; Scrap 500 payments for those on low incomes who must quarantine. In the documents, experts say Covid will remain at 'endemic' levels for years and that mutant strains of the virus will also 'remain a very real risk'. But, crucially, the Government's central planning assumption - described as the 'leaving soon' scenario - predicts there will be 'no winter resurgence' of the virus. The revelations come as the number of new Covid cases plunged by more than a quarter in just over three weeks - from 52,009 a day to 38,351 - and more than 12 million people have had their booster vaccines (top and bottom right). Phillip Hammond (pictured) is pursuing a policy once deemed politically toxic Philip Hammond was facing a backlash last night over plans for a 2billion Budget tax raid on small business. The Chancellor is examining controversial proposals to drag hundreds of thousands of firms into the VAT system as he looks for ways to balance the books this month. Similar plans were abandoned in the run-up to last years Budget following warnings they would be politically toxic. But Treasury sources have confirmed the idea is back as part of the drive to pay for a 20billion funding boost for the NHS promised by Theresa May. Sources said all options were now on the table. Yesterday, the Daily Mail revealed this could even include tearing up the manifesto pledge to raise income tax thresholds. Mr Hammond has also considered a raid on middle class pensions, although this is falling out of favour. At present, traders only have to charge VAT if their turnover tops 85,000 a year. A report by the Governments Office for Tax Simplification last year called for the exceptionally high threshold to be cut. The study found the UKs rate was the highest in the EU, where the average is just 20,000. Halving the threshold to 43,000 the level said to be favoured by the Chancellor would affect half a million small firms and raise up to 1.5billion for the Treasury in extra VAT receipts. Cutting the rate to 25,000 could yield up to 2billion, but would drag 1.5million small traders into the VAT system. Small business groups have cautioned against the move, warning it could push businesses over the edge. Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, warned Mr Hammond against a blatant tax grab. He said: VAT is the most time-consuming tax. A small VAT-registered business spends more than a working week every year complying with VAT admin on average. The idea is part of the drive to pay for a 20billion funding boost for the NHS promised by Theresa May There are issues with firms not wanting to cross the turnover threshold, but can you blame them when registering for VAT means taking on such a massive administrative burden? A blanket lowering of the VAT turnover threshold would represent a blatant tax grab. Certainly not the action of a pro-business government. Conservative MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan also warned Mr Hammond against the idea. She said: The risk of reducing VAT threshold for small businesses means that those who trade in services will be hurt the most. Instead of raising the threshold so that these small businesses can take on another member of staff, training up the next generation, without having to add 20 per cent to the customers bill, this latest Treasury bottom-drawer proposal would risk reducing the growth of these small businesses. But the Office of Tax Simplification report was unequivocal about the need for a reduction in the VAT threshold. The study found evidence of firms bunching just below the turnover threshold to avoid paying VAT. It said the VAT cut-off was acting as a significant disincentive to maximising the potential growth of some businesses, adding: Considering the numbers involved, this is likely to adversely impact economic growth. Londoners have been reporting a mystery 'weird chlorine smell' and haze drifting across the capital this evening. The stench, which has been described as 'like chlorine', 'noxious' and as 'Dettol meets battery acid', appears be affecting large swathes of south-east and east London. Lana Preston, 51, from Bermondsey told the BBC she was worried it might be 'something hazardous of poisonous.' She added: 'It's like a very strong smell - like a sweet rubber smell. I've never smelt anything like it.' A social media user described the smell as 'like Dettol meetings battery acid', while others complained about finding it difficult to breathe. Reports of the stench have been flooding in from various parts of east and south-east London this evening. Some have speculated it is to do with high air pollution On social media people were concerned about the causes of the stench might be poisonous or the cause of a fire in the capital. One twitter user said: 'There is an odd chemical smell lingering around London all day. Any thoughts?' Another social media user said: 'If you're in London right now I suggest you stay indoors if you can because that smell is nowhere near normal. My chest is killing me.' Dr Thomas Smith, who works at LSE, claimed the stench in London could be down to the high levels of air pollution in the city. He says: 'The air quality in London right now is "unhealthy". It's so bad that you can smell it. AQI 102 is the highest we've recorded @LSEGeographysince we began measuring in May.' Other people also picked up on this, another person said: 'Air in London scary today. A number of social media users have tweeted the Environment Agency to notify them of the bad smell. An actor best known for his role as Farouk, the lovable neighbour swept up in a legal battle in comedy classic The Castle, has now been appointed as a magistrate. After an almost 30-year career as a barrister, Constantinos 'Costas' Kilias was appointed as a Victorian magistrate on Wednesday. The Greek-Australian actor has starred in a number of roles on the big screen over the years, including films such as The Wog Boy and television series City Homicide. After an almost 30 year career as a barrister, Constantinos 'Costas' Kilias (pictured) was appointed as a Victorian magistrate on Wednesday Best known for his role as the lovable neighbour swept up in a legal battle in The Castle, the actor that played 'Farouk' (pictured in the role) has now been appointed as a magistrate In a stark contrast to his role in the 1997 movie, Mr Kilias is respected in legal circles for his 'fair manner'and 'sharp mind', The Herald Sun reported. As Darryl Kerrigan's Beirut-born neighbour, Farouk, he fought hard not to be kicked out of his home. His on-screen character threatened to have 'my friend come to your house, put bomb under your car and blow you to f***ing sky'. Now, he has to choose his words more carefully after being appointed a magistrate. Prior to his career as a barrister, where he dealt in mainly criminal matters, Mr Kilias worked as a solicitor. Talking to The Herald Sun about his new appointment, Mr Kilias said: 'I am excited, honoured and humbled to have been appointed a magistrate.' The Greek-Australian actor (pictured, left) has starred in a number of roles on the big screen over the years, including films such as The Wog Boy and television series City Homicide 'I would like to take this opportunity to thank my father and late mother for their Olympian support throughout my life.' Mr Kilias was one of three new appointments on Wednesday, along with Alanna Duffy and Timothy Hoare, made by Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula. 'These three new magistrates bring decades of collective experience to the Magistrates' Court of Victoria and I congratulate them on their appointments,' Mr Pakula said. Hatice Cengiz writes of the agonizing week since the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi More than a week has passed since our last meeting outside the consulate of Saudi Arabia, before his disappearance became global news. We were in the middle of making wedding plans, life plans. After the consulate, we were going to buy appliances for our new home and set a date. All we needed was a piece of paper. We were going to take my siblings and some of our closest friends to dinner to share the good news. Marriage is an important and special step for all couples. For us, but especially for Jamal, it was particularly significant. Spending more than a year in self-imposed exile in the United States away from his country, his family and his loved ones had taken a toll on him. I miss my country very much. I miss my friends and family very much, he told me. I feel this deep pain every single moment. Now we were about to be married and spend time between Washington and Istanbul. We were so expectant. He had been feeling so lonely, but I could see the clouds clearing. He wanted to build on his years of professional experience to become an influential journalist in Washington, as the Arab world set the stage for major developments. He was thankful to be able to write in The Washington Post, to be the voice of his colleagues who could no longer speak up. When I asked him why he decided to live in the United States, he said America was the worlds most powerful country, where one could feel the political pulse of the planet. Jamal had applied for U.S. citizenship, and his reason to visit to Turkey was our intended marriage. He was hoping to take care of all necessary paperwork before returning to Washington. On Sept. 28, Jamal visited the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for the first time, despite being somewhat concerned that he could be in danger. Yet he noted that there was no warrant for his arrest in his native country. Although his opinions had angered certain people, he said, the tensions between himself and Saudi Arabia did not amount to hate, grudges or threats. He was, however, increasingly worried about an unprecedented wave of arrests in his country. Yet Jamal did not think the Saudis could force him to stay at the consulate in Turkey, even if they wanted to arrest him. In other words, he did not mind walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul because he did not believe that something bad could happen on Turkish soil. It would be a violation of international law to harm, arrest or detain people at a diplomatic mission, he said, and noted that no such thing had ever happened in Turkeys history. After a positive first meeting with consular staff, who welcomed him warmly and assured him that the necessary paperwork would come through, Jamal was hardly concerned ahead of his second visit. He walked into the consulate of Saudi Arabia, his native country, without doubting he would be safe there. After seeing how relaxed he was, I waited patiently and full of hope. Khashoggi never imagined that he would be in any danger in a Saudi diplomatic mission on Turkish soil, according to his fiancee But after three hours I was overcome with fear and concern. I texted a few friends to inform them, and I asked about Jamal at the consular building. I received an answer that further fueled my fears: Jamal had already left, they told me, possibly without my noticing. Trying to stay calm, I immediately called Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and one of Jamals oldest friends. Since the incident came to the attention of the press and law enforcement, I have been waiting fearfully. This much is true: He entered the consulate, and theres no proof that he came out. In recent days, Ive witnessed the work of the Turkish authorities as they monitor the situation closely. I am confident in the abilities of Turkish government officials. At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance. I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate. Although this incident could potentially fuel a political crisis between the two nations, let us not lose sight of the human aspect of what happened. Jamal is a valuable person, an exemplary thinker and a courageous man who has been fighting for his principles. I dont know how I can keep living if he was abducted or killed in Turkey. Although my hope slowly fades away each passing day, I remain confident that Jamal is still alive. Perhaps Im simply trying to hide from the thought that I have lost a great man whose love I had earned. As an individual who believes that life and death are in the hands of God, I pray to God alone for Jamals safe return. Source: The Washington Post A third of fish found in the Thames Estuary have ingested microplastics, it has emerged, amid fresh warnings about Britain's polluted waters. Research into the severity of plastic pollution in the UK found that 28 per cent of fish living in the estuary have come into contact with plastic waste. Scientists, including those from the Natural History Museum, focused on the impact small pieces of plastic no larger than 5mm in size could have on fish populations. A third of fish found in the Thames Estuary have ingested microplastics, it has emerged Pictured, a plastic green fibre found in a fish in the Thames It was also revealed in the study that 39 per cent of fish in the Firth of Clyde estuary in Scotland were affected by the substance. The research of London NERC doctoral training partnership student Alexandra McGoran examined bottom dwelling and mid-water fish species at both sites. These included plaice, flounder, dogfish, and sole. Out of the 876 fish and shrimp examined from both estuaries, around a third had ingested microplastics, and the average number of plastic pieces that had been consumed was equal across the Thames and Clyde. Ms McGoran said: 'People have started to really take note of the severity of plastic pollution and our research further demonstrates why this is such pressing issue. 'Both rivers are extremely diverse ecosystems, home to hundreds of different species. 'To see this large number of species that our plastic waste is putting in danger is actually rather shocking. 'Our results show the need for more research into freshwater and estuarine ecosystems to be carried out so we can better understand the effects microplastics are having on their inhabitants.' Dr Paul Clark, from the Natural History Museum, said: 'Assuming current trends continue then the total amount of plastic produced by 2050 will be 33bn tonnes. 'Therefore the amount of plastic litter polluting our beautiful blue planet will dramatically escalate over the coming years. Scientists, including those from the Natural History Museum, focused on small pieces of plastic no larger than 5mm in size (Pictured, a plaice found in the Thames Estuary) Research found that 28 per cent of fish living in the estuary have come into contact with waste (Pictured, plastic found in the Thames under a microscope) 'Plastic pollution is on the same calamitous magnitude as climate change and deforestation. We are in need of a monumental behavioural change in human attitudes. 'What I find most depressing about plastic pollution of our aquatic environment is that it is now irreversible and its presence will persist for many generations.' This research was carried out in collaboration with Royal Holloway, University of London and University of the West of Scotland. The head of the U.S. space agency said that he's sure that investigators will determine the cause of a mysterious hole that appeared on the International Space Station, which his Russian counterpart has said was deliberately drilled. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine also said that collaboration with Russia's Roscosmos remains important, despite recent comments by agency head Dmitry Rogozin that Russia wouldn't accept a 'second-tier role' in a NASA-led plan to build an outpost near the moon. The hole that appeared in a Russian Soyuz capsule docked to the ISS caused a brief loss of air pressure in August before being patched. Scroll down for video Sabotage: Russian astronaut Sergei Prokopyev showed the original 'drilled hole' during a video released by the space agency Roscosmos The incident sparked wide speculation and consternation. 'I strongly believe we're going to get the right answer to what caused the hole on the International Space Station and that together we'll be able to continue our strong collaboration,' Bridenstine said. 'What we've got to do is we've got to very dispassionately allow the investigation to go forward without speculation, without rumor, without innuendo, without conspiracy.' Although the U.S. is working toward commercial launches to the ISS, Russia shouldn't regard itself as sidelined, he said. 'There is coming a day when we're going to have our own access to the International Space Station through a commercial crew. I want to be really clear that is not a replacement for the Russian Soyuz capabilities. We see it as redundancy and we want to make sure that even when a commercial crew is up and running we are still going to be launching American astronauts on Soyuz rockets and we would love to have Russian cosmonauts launching on commercial crew rockets in the United States,' Bridenstine said. WHAT COULD HAVE CAUSED A HOLE IN THE ISS? Theory one - it was caused by a small meteorite A tiny hole appeared in a Russian space capsule locked to the ISS on 30th August. The 'micro fracture' believed to be around 2mm wide in the $150 billion (115 billion) space station was discovered after astronauts noticed a drop in pressure. European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst reportedly put his finger over the hole before crew patched it with tape. The hole was confirmed repaired by Friday (31 August) after cabin pressure returned to normal. It was initially believed to have been caused by a small meteorite and astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a minor loss of pressure. Theory two - it was made deliberately while in orbit However, as the investigation went on it began to look like the hole was made from someone inside as opposed to outside, either back on Earth or in space, the Russian space agency claimed. Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said in September that the hole could have been drilled during manufacturing or while in orbit with a 'wavering hand'. He didn't say if he suspected any of the US crew, but the statement has caused some bewilderment. Sources suggest the question of how to fix the hole may have strained relations between Moscow and Houston. Rogozin has since reneged on his statement blaming the media for twisting his words and said that he 'never pointed the finger at U.S. astronauts'. Theory three - it was caused by a worker at Energia A leading theory from an unnamed source at Energia said the hole was made on the ground potentially caused by 'deliberate interference' with suggestions the person responsible may have already been identified. Another anonymous source said the hole was drilled by a worker who hid their mistake with a seal instead of reporting it. An unnamed source at Energia told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that '[t]he hole was made on the ground'. According to the source, '[t]he person responsible for the act of negligence has been identified'. Another anonymous source said the hole was not made intentionally but by a worker who hid their mistake with a seal instead of reporting it. The patchwork repair lasted the trip up to the ISS but after three weeks in orbit gradually peeled away. Advertisement Regarding the NASA-led Gateway project to build an orbiting moon outpost, Rogozin said recently that Russia couldn't afford to participate in other countries' projects in a secondary role. But Bridenstine said international involvement in the project was key. 'We're going to build an architecture between the earth and the moon where we can go back and forth a lot with robots and landers and rovers and humans ... the entire architecture between the Earth and the moon requires reusability. It requires international partners,' he said. Bridenstine met with Rogozin in Moscow on Tuesday and both will attend the Thursday launch of a manned capsule to the space station from Russia's space complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The 450 price tag is enough to make your hair stand on end. But the latest offering from Sir James Dyson uses ground-breaking technology to curl it instead with warm air alone. The Dyson Airwrap hair tongs, launched today, follow the British inventors re-imagining of the vacuum cleaner, desk fan, hand dryer and hairdryer. The Dyson Airwrap hair tongs, launched today, follow the British inventors re-imagining of the vacuum cleaner, desk fan, hand dryer and hairdryer A test showing the new Dyson Airwrap hair styling tool using the 'Coanda effect' to encourage the hair to curl around the barrel to style without the need for high temperatures They use a high-speed jet of air which flows around the surface of the tong. The company claims this achieves a better curling effect and also reduces the risk of heat damage to the hair of more conventional tongs, which work by wrapping hair around a hot central bar. The tongs utilise the Coanda effect found in Dysons bladeless desk fan and hairdryer. The tongs utilise the Coanda effect found in Dysons bladeless desk fan and hairdryer An area of high pressure is created at the top of the styling barrel which forces jets of air from six slots around the barrel encouraging the hair to curl around it. A clever switching mechanism directs airflow so that no matter which way you brush, the air flows in the direction of the hair. The Airwrap has been six years and 24million in the making and went through 642 prototypes. It is available online and at Dyson stores today priced from 399.99 to 449.99. Sir James said: We have been obsessively manipulating airflow for more than 25 years. It is one of our core areas of expertise. We have engineered a unique styling tool which prevents extreme heat damage when styling. Im immensely proud of what our engineers have achieved. Dysons bagless vacuum cleaner was launched in 1993 and has sold millions. It was followed by the AirBlade hand dryer, the Air Multiplier fan and the Supersonic hairdryer. The Airwrap has been six years and 24million in the making and went through 642 prototypes. It is available online and at Dyson stores today priced from 399.99 to 449.99 Scientists have developed a visual illusion that they say could help explain a peculiar phenomenon in our brains. The illusion, created by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), involves a series of beeps and flashes. First, users are instructed to focus on a cross in the middle of the screen, as three beeping sounds play seconds apart. Scroll down for video HOW TO DO THE ILLUSION Focus on the cross in the middle of the screen. Listen to the beeps and pay attention to the number of flashes on the bottom of the screen. Count the number of flashes you see. Next, watch for the number of flashes when there are no beeps played. If you saw three flashes, pay attention to where the second flash was located. Most people see the second flash between the first and last flash. In reality, there were only two flashes, which demonstrates 'postdiction' - a trick our brains play on us as a way to perceive certain situations. Advertisement At the same time, several quick flashes appear on the bottom of the screen. Most participants believe that three flashes occur in succession with the three beeps. However, this is actually the result of the brain playing a trick on the participant. Scientists refer to the illusion as the 'Illusory Rabbit.' 'Though only two flashes are played, most people viewing the illusion perceive three flashes, with an illusory flash coinciding with the second beep and appearing to be located in the center of the screen,' Caltech explained. This illusion can be explained by a phenomenon in the brain called 'postdictive processing.' 'When the final beep-flash pair is later presented, the brain assumes that it must have missed the flash associated with the unpaired beep and quite literally makes up the fact that there must have been a second flash that it missed,' Noelle Stiles, lead author of the study, told Caltech. 'This already implies a postdictive mechanism at work. Researchers used an illusion called ''Illusory Rabbit' to explain a phenomenon in our brain called postdiction. Postdiction involves our brains gathering information after an event has occurred, in order to retroactively explain what may have happened at the time of an event 'But even more importantly, the only way that you could perceive the illusory flash would be if the information that comes later in timethe final beep-flash combinationis being used to reconstruct the most likely location of the illusory flash as well.' Illusions can sometimes elicit postdiction, where our brains gather information after an event has occurred, in order to retroactively explain what may have happened at the time of an event. For this study, it explains how postdiction often centers around the ways in which our brains interpret different senses, as well as how our senses influence one another. 'Illusions are a really interesting window into the brain,' Stiles said. 'By investigating illusions, we can study the brain's decision-making process. For example, how does the brain determine reality with information from multiple senses that is at times noisy and conflicting? The illusion, created by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), involves a series of beeps and flashes that ultimately end up tricking the participant 'The brain uses assumptions about the environment to solve this problem. 'When these assumptions happen to be wrong, illusions can occur as the brain tries to make the best sense of a confusing situation. 'We can use these illusions to unveil the underlying inferences that the brain makes,' Stiles explained. Scientists say it can help explain how our brain combines the senses over space and time to develop an explanation of what occurred. 'Postdiction may sound mysterious, but it is notone must consider how long it takes the brain to process earlier visual stimuli, during which time subsequent stimuli from a different sense can affect or modulate the first,' Shinsuke Shimojo, a researcher in the study, explained. '...These illusions are among the very rare cases where sound affects vision, not vice versa, indicating dynamic aspects of neural processing that occur across space and time.' Leaked Google documents suggest the tech giant wants increased censorship of the internet and believes other internet firms should police debate online. The 85-page paper, leaked by a Google employee, claims that cyber harassment, racism and people venting their frustrations are 'eroding' free speech online. It says that the ability to post anonymously has 'empowered' online commenters to express their views 'recklessly' and 'with abandon'. Censoring the internet could make comment sections safer and more civil for everyone, the report concludes. In response to the leak, Google insisted the document was not company policy, though it admitted the research was something being considered by top bosses. Internet rights advocates said that censoring online debate risks hampering free speech and creating an environment in which the views of some groups are not tolerated by big technology firms. Cyber harassment, cyber racism and venting are among the listed reasons for the why users have behaved badly WHAT BEHAVIOURS DOES GOOGLE WANT TO CENSOR? - Angry people venting their frustrations - Anonymity of users - People sharing abhorrent or radical views - Online harassment - Racism and other hate speech - Trolling Advertisement The report reads: 'When they're angry, people vent their frustrations. 'But whereas people used to tell friends and family about bad experiences, the internet now provides a limitless audience for our gripes.' Anonymity of users is also earmarked as a potential danger online, claiming that people were more likely to share abhorrent or radical views due to the lack of accountability. Racism, hate speech, trolling and harassment are also mentioned in the extensive report, which was leaked to Breitbart. It adds: 'Although people have long been racist, sexist and hateful in many other ways, they weren't empowered by the internet to recklessly express their views with abandon.' Groups which were once minority have been emboldened to discuss their radical views online as the internet provides them with a safe space to communicate, the report suggests. The internal research document shows Google wants big tech firms to begin policing the tone of online debates in order to protect 'safe spaces' on the internet The research includes recommendations on how best to police content and organise online comment sections, such as guidelines on how to behave and a different way to organise search results that identify contentious search results Of harassment, Google says: 'From petty name-calling to more threatening behaviour, harassment is an unwelcome component of life online for all too many users.' It goes on to suggest that Google should monitor the tone of what is said as opposed to the content, and that the firm should not adopt a political standpoint in arguments. 'Shifting with the times', depending on the mood around censorship, is also not ruled out. The leaked Google document suggests that anonymity has played a role in spreading negative discourse Google also recommends that tech firms better explain the technology behind their sites and enforce standards and policies as clearly as possible WHAT IS GOOGLE'S 'PROJECT DRAGONFLY' SEARCH ENGINE? 'Dragonfly' was a rumoured effort inside Google to develop a search engine for China that would censor certain terms and news outlets, among other things. Reports claimed the tool ties users' Google searches to their personal phone numbers to help the Chinese government monitor its citizens. Outside of high-profile leaks, few details have emerged on what the search engine entailed as Google has kept tight-lipped on the project. A former Google employee warned of the web giant's 'disturbing' plans in a letter sent to the US's senate's commerce committee in August 2018. Jack Poulson said the proposed Dragonfly website was 'tailored to the censorship and surveillance demands of the Chinese government'. In his letter he also claimed that discussion of the plans among Google employees had been 'increasingly stifled'. Mr Poulson was a senior research scientist at Google until he resigned in July 2018 in protest at the Dragonfly proposals. Advertisement It states: 'Google might continue to shift with the times changing its stance on how much or how little it censors (due to public, governmental or commercial pressures). 'If it does, acknowledgment of what this shift in position means for users and for Google is essential. Shifting blindly or silently in one direction or another rightly incites users' fury.' An official Google source said the document is not to be considered an official company policy. Freedom of speech advocates warned that, though the document does not outline official Google plans, it highlights wider issues with internet censorship. Leaked Google documents suggest the tech giant wants increased censorship of the internet and believes other internet firms should police debate online (stock image) Jodie Ginsberg, Chief Executive of UK nonprofit Index on Censorship, told MailOnline: 'There is nothing "good" about censorship and it's not possible to be a "good censor". 'It's possible to encourage people to behave more respectfully to one another but actively censoring content to achieve that is a very different thing and will always, inevitably, result in "good" content being removed. 'Free speech means tolerating the views and opinions with which you disagree not just those you support. 'We do need to be worried about Google and others acting as censors-in-chief and the document is clear that people are concerned about this. We should be.' Richard Branson has warned space race rival Elon Musk that he must 'learn the art of delegation' and 'get some sleep' if he is to avoid further controversy. The British billionaire said Musk's late-night tweets - which have landed him in hot water a number of times this year - are a key 'flaw' he must overcome. He added that the Tesla chief needs to find more time for his family and health if he is to lead an 'enjoyable and happy life' - a feat Sir Richard claims to have achieved by surrounding himself with a strong team. Sir Richard's space firm Virgin Galactic is currently locked in a battle with Musk's rocket company SpaceX to be the first to send paying tourists into space. The Virgin founder revealed this week that his company is just weeks away from its first test flight beyond orbit, with manned missions planned 'not too long after'. Scroll down for video Richard Branson has warned space race rival Elon Musk that he must 'learn the art of delegation' and 'get some sleep' if he is to avoid further controversy The 68-year-old was asked by CNBC's Nancy Hungerford: 'If Elon Musk were to call you up, what advice would you give him?' He responded: 'I think he maybe needs to learn the art of delegation. It's important. 'He's got to find time for himself, he's got to find time for his health and for his family. He's a wonderfully creative person but he shouldn't be getting very little sleep. 'He should find a fantastic team of people around him and still jump in on all the major issues.' Sir Richard said that learning the art of delegation might address Musk's 'one flaw' - his controversial Twitter rants. 'Don't feel you have to put out tweets about public shareholders, leave the public game to people who enjoy that,' he said. Sir Richard's space firm Virgin Galactic is currently locked in a battle with Musk's rocket company SpaceX to be the first to send paying tourists into space. Pictured is Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spacecraft during a test flight earlier this year 'He obviously doesn't enjoy it, so (he should) clear the decks and concentrate on the creative side.' Musk tweeted in August that he had 'funding secured' to take electronic car maker Tesla off the stock market and into private ownership at a value of $420 per share. He reached an agreement with US regulators last month to step down as Tesla chair and pay a $20 million (15 million) fine for what the Securities and Exchange Commission called 'false and misleading' claims. Sir Richard also revealed this week that his space venture is 'weeks away' from sending one of its rockets into space for the first time. Sir Richard said that learning the art of delegation might address Musk's 'one flaw' - his controversial tweets. Musk was fined $20 million (15 million) by US regulators last month after he falsely claimed in a tweet that he was taking Tesla private Virgin Galactic, which is charging $250,000 (190,000) for a spot on one of its commercial flights, has previously said it would send passengers to space in 2019. Speaking to CNBC, Sir Richard said: 'We should be in space within weeks, not months. 'And then we will be in space with myself in months and not years.' 'We will be in space with people not too long after that so we have got a very, very exciting couple of months ahead,' he added. WHAT ARE THE TOP ALTITUDES REACHED BY VIRGIN GALACTIC, BLUE HORIZONS AND SPACEX? Three companies are leading the charge in commercial space travel as they race to get tourists beyond orbit. Tesla CEO Elon Musk's firm SpaceX, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are all vying to be the first companies to send up the first commercial space flight. But while Sir Richard believes Musk is 'doing fantastically well' in getting cargo into space - including his own car - the real tussle is between the Virgin boss and Bezos. Musk has reached dizzying heights with his numerous private space deliveries to the International Space Station at an altitude of around 1.4 million feet (408,000 metres), but is yet to fly any of his planned passenger-carrying craft. Blue Origin flew its New Shepherd spacepod, which launches aboard a traditional rocket capsule, to an altitude of 351,000 feet (107,000 metres) during a test flight near Van Horn, Texas, on April 29 (pictured) Virgin Galactic reached a top altitude of 170,800 feet (52,000 metres) during a test of its VSS Unity spacecraft, which has room for six passenger and is lifted toward space on a huge carrier aricraft, on May 29. Eventually, the company wants to fly space tourists to an altitude of 360,890 feet (110,000 metres) going beyond the 328,000 feet (100,000 metres) defined boundary of space. Blue Origin flew its New Shepherd spacepod, which launches aboard a traditional rocket capsule, to an altitude of 351,000 feet (107,000 metres) during a test flight near Van Horn, Texas, on April 29. The reusable New Shepard rocket and spacecraft is intended to carry up to six space tourists, researchers and/or experiments on brief suborbital flights, the company has said. Advertisement The business mogul has a long history of underestimating the time it takes his firm to get test flights into the air, and the company has repeatedly missed his lofty targets. Sir Richard conceded earlier this year that the number of spurious claims he has made about Virgin Galactic flight dates was 'embarrassing'. Virgin Galactic, founded by Branson in 2004, is working to carry tourists on a brief journey to space, dozens of miles above the Earth's surface. Tourists will spend several minutes floating in zero gravity, aboard a spaceship that approaches or passes through the Karman line, the boundary of Earth's atmosphere and space, some 62 miles (100 kilometers) high. For comparison, astronauts at the orbiting International Space Station fly some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. Bees go silent during total solar eclipses because they think it is night time - causing them to stop flying. That's the finding of the first direct study of a solar eclipse's influence on bee behaviour. It confirms past anecdotal evidence of bees stopping flying during eclipses, behaviour that is mirrored in the activity of other animals as totality occurs. Scroll down for video Bees go silent during total solar eclipses because they think it is night time causing them to stop flying. That's the finding of the first direct study of a solar eclipse's influence on bee behaviour Researchers at the University of Missouri organised a group of citizen scientists in setting up 16 acoustic monitoring stations as the path of totality moved over Oregon, Idaho, and Missouri. They were used to listen in on bees' buzzing - or lack thereof - as the 2017 eclipse passed over. The results were clear and consistent at locations across the country, showing bees stopped flying during the period of total solar eclipse. 'We anticipated, based on the smattering of reports in the literature, that bee activity would drop as light dimmed during the eclipse and would reach a minimum at totality,' said Candace Galen, professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri and lead researcher on the study. 'But, we had not expected that the change would be so abrupt, that bees would continue flying up until totality and only then stop, completely. 'It was like "lights out" at summer camp! That surprised us.' As anticipation mounted for the eclipse, 'it seemed as if everyone and their dog was asking me what animals would do during a total eclipse,' Professor Galen added. However, few formal studies had ever examined the behaviour of insects, specifically, during a solar eclipse, and none had looked at bees. Professor Galen and colleagues, meanwhile, had recently field-tested a system to track bee pollination remotely by listening for their flight buzzes in soundscape recordings. 'It seemed like the perfect fit,' she said. 'The tiny microphones and temperature sensors could be placed near flowers hours before the eclipse, leaving us free to put on our fancy glasses and enjoy the show.' Supported by a grant from the American Astronomical Society, the project engaged more than 400 participants - including scientists, members of the public, and elementary school teachers and students. Researchers at the University of Missouri organised a group of citizen scientists in setting up 16 acoustic monitoring stations as the path of totality moved over Oregon, Idaho, and Missouri Darkness swept across the US on Monday, August 21, 2017 as the eclipse travelled from coast to coast, ending just before 3pm EDT in South Carolina (pictured, the total eclipse in Oregon) At each location, small USB microphones were hung on lanyards near bee-pollinated flowers in areas away from foot and vehicle traffic. In some of the locations, light and temperature data were also captured. Participants then sent the devices to Professor Galen's lab, where the recordings were matched up with the eclipse periods from each location and analysed for the number and duration of bee flight buzzes. The recordings didn't allow for differentiation between bee species, but participant observations indicated most bees monitored were bumble bees or honey bees. The data showed that bees remained active during the partial-eclipse phases both before and after totality, but they essentially ceased flying during the period of totality. Just one buzz was recorded during totality in all of the 16 monitoring locations. However, shortly before and shortly after totality, bee flights tended to be longer in duration than at times early in the pre-totality phase and late in post-totality. Professor Galen and colleagues interpret these longer flight durations as an indicator of slower flight under reduced light or possibly as the bees returning to their nests. The full findings were published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Falling rocks can explode with such violent force that the blasts are only topped by nuclear bombs. The power produced by large falling rocks creates shockwaves that can snap tress hundreds of feet away, according to a new study. These 'extreme' rockfalls are caused when a mass of rock four times the size of an Olympic swimming pool falls hundreds of feet. Scientists warned that the deadly events, which have in the past levelled hundreds of trees with a single explosion, are more common than first thought. Scroll down for video Falling rocks can explode with such violent force that the blasts are only topped by nuclear bombs. The power produced by large falling rocks creates shockwaves that can snap tress hundreds of feet away, according to a new study (stock image) Researchers at the University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy investigated reports of 'extremely energetic' rockfalls spanning more than two decades. They attempted to characterise the falls - which have rarely been witnessed by humans - for the first time. 'They're extremely weird phenomena, which have been somehow overlooked,' study lead author Dr Fabio De Blasio told New Scientist. 'Typically they will develop in areas where erosion has been quite fast.' Most of the 22 falls confirmed by the team occurred in European Alps and the Dolomites in Italy. The first known example took place in Yosemite National Park, California, in July 1996, when two huge masses of rock fell 2,180 feet (665 metres) from Glacier Point. This video shows the explosive impact of a small rockfall triggered by two men rolling a huge rock off a cliff. The rockfalls examined in the new study were thousands of times more powerful than the impact shown The impact levelled 1,000 trees - some more than half a mile away - and produced a heavy cloud of abrasive sand. Researchers said extreme rockfalls are characterised by large clouds of dust produced by the obliterated stone. This requires a rock with a volume of at least 10,000 cubic metres picking up speed by falling several hundred feet, they found. Based on their calculations, the researchers showed these extreme rockfalls can release more than 80 billion joules of energy: more than any non-nuclear bomb. Extreme rockfalls are more powerful than the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) - the largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed - which released 47 billion joules of energy when it was dropped by US forces on Afghanistan in April 2017 (pictured) This includes the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) - the largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed - which released 47 billion joules of energy when it was dropped by US forces on Afghanistan in April 2017. Almost a fifth of the energy released by an extreme rockfall shreds the rock to dust, while the rest powers the shockwaves and dust cloud, calculations showed. Based on their research, scientists said the explosive events are more common around the world than first thought. They present a danger to anyone unlucky enough to be stood near to the 100-meter-per-second blast, which would hit with the force of a pyroclastic flow from a volcano. The dust clouds produced by the falls can spread for a mile and last for days, potentially obscuring nearby roads. Ancient inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) may have used their mysterious giant stone heads to mark sources of fresh water. Researchers have long been baffled by the giant statues across the island. However, now they believe they could be simply marking water sources needed by the lost civilization to survive. Scroll down for video Ancient inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) may have used their mysterious giant stone heads to mark sources of fresh water. Researchers have long been baffled by the giant statues across the island A new study found the lost civilization may have maintained a society of thousands by utilizing coastal groundwater discharge as their main source of 'freshwater'. A team of archaeologists including faculty at Binghamton University and State University at New York measured the salinity of coastal water around the island of Rapa Nui. They found areas close to the shores had a salt concentration low enough for humans to safely drink. The island's famous statues have a high concentration near the coasts. 'Now that we know more about the location of freshwater, however, the location of these monuments and other features makes tremendous sense: they are positioned where freshwater is immediately available,' Binghamton University Professor of Anthropology Carl Lipo said. Lipo said the group's next project is to try to understand how closely the availability of freshwater in certain locations is linked to the methods and means of building the large statues on the island. European accounts of first encounters with the island in the 18th century include passages where the natives appear to simply drink seawater. The island's famous statues have a high concentration near the coasts - and researchers believe they now know why Since the human body cannot process the high salt concentration of seawater, this supports the team's groundwater discharge theory. 'This information ultimately sheds light on the conditions that drove and enabled these communities to work together to achieve their feats of engineering,' Lipo said. 'By gaining knowledge about community scale behavior, we can gain insights into the general conditions necessary for group-level cooperation - whether in the past or in contemporary society.' The process of coastal groundwater discharge makes it possible for humans to collect drinkable freshwater directly where it emerges at the coast of the island. WHAT ARE THE STATUES ON EASTER ISLAND AND WHAT DO THEY MEAN? What are the statues? The Moai are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, between 1,250 and 1,500 AD. All the figures have overly-large heads and are thought to be living faces of deified ancestors. The 887 statues gaze inland across the island with an average height of 13ft (four metres). Nobody really knows how the colossal stone statues that guard Easter Island were moved into position. Nor why during the decades following the islands discovery by Dutch explorers in 1722, each statue was systematically toppled, or how the population of Rapa Nui islanders was decimated. Shrouded in mystery, this tiny triangular landmass, stranded in the middle of the South Pacific and 1,289 miles from its nearest neighbour, has been the subject of endless books, articles and scientific theories. All but 53 of the Moai were carved from tuff , compressed volcanic ash, and around 100 wear red pukao of scoria. What do they mean? In 1979 archaeologists said the statues were designed to hold coral eyes. The figures are believed to be symbol of authority and power. They may have embodied former chiefs and were repositories of spirits or 'mana'. They are positioned so that ancient ancestors watch over the villages, while seven look out to sea to help travellers find land. But it is a mystery as to how the vast carved stones were transported into position. In their remote location off the coast of Chile, the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island were believed to have been wiped out by bloody warfare, as they fought over the island's dwindling resources. All they left behind were the iconic giant stone heads and an island littered with sharp triangles of volcanic glass, which some archaeologists have long believed were used as weapons. Advertisement By measuring the percentage of salt in the coastal waters, and finding it safe for human consumption, and by eliminating other options as primary sources of drinking water, the researchers concluded that groundwater discharge was a critical factor in the sustenance of the large population the island is thought to have harbored. The 887 statues gaze inland across the island with an average height of 13ft (four metres). 'The porous volcanic soils quickly absorb rain, resulting in a lack of streams and rivers,' Lipo said. 'Fortunately, water beneath the ground flows downhill and ultimately exits the ground directly at the point at which the porous subterranean rock meets the ocean. 'When tides are low, this results in the flow of freshwater directly into the sea. WHERE IS THE WATER ON EASTER ISLAND? There are very few sources of freshwater on the island, including two lakes that are perilously difficult to access, no streams, and one spring that is often reduced to a wetland bog. Much of the opposition to the research of Lipo's team is the presence of taheta on the island, which are small, carved-out cisterns used for collecting rainfall. To refute this argument, Lipo's team explained that if collecting rainwater was extremely necessary to island survival, the cisterns would be much larger, instead of being able to hold only between two and four liters of water each. The team's research shows that the little amount of rainfall that Rapa Nui receives (1240 mm/yr), coupled with the basic evaporation rate of water in a climate such as the island's, means that on average, taheta could not be used as viable sources of drinking water 317 days out of the year. This led the researchers to conclude that there must be a different source of drinking water, in order for a population numbering in the thousands to sustain itself. Advertisement 'Humans can thus take advantage of these sources of freshwater by capturing the water at these points.' The freshwater mixes with the saltwater slightly, creating what's called brackish water, but not enough for the water to contain harmful levels of salt to human consumers. It does, however, mean that the islanders rarely used salt on their foods, because the water they drank contributed so drastically to their daily salt intake. It may sound like a lot of flannel, but what we wear in bed may be determining how well we snooze. According to researchers, swapping cotton or polyester pyjamas for woolly ones could help us nod off quickly and sleep longer. Dr Paul Swan, of the University of Sydney, said: 'Not so long ago sleeping under wool bedding was the norm, and science is now rediscovering the benefits of sleeping in wool. According to researchers, swapping cotton or polyester pyjamas for woolly ones could help us nod off quickly and sleep longer. 'Maybe it is not a coincidence because wool regulates your body temperature far better, keeping you in what is known as 'the thermal comfort zone'. The research suggests that people wearing wool pyjamas, particularly when the nights get colder, fall asleep quicker, sleep longer, but also have deeper, better quality sleep. 'Enjoying good sleep has become increasingly difficult in modern times, and so anything that helps is great for your mental and physical health.' Researchers did two studies. In the first, 17 students were monitored wearing pyjamas made of cotton or merino wool. The research suggests that people wearing wool pyjamas, particularly when the nights get colder, fall asleep quicker, sleep longer, but also have deeper, better quality sleep The second involved 36 adults aged 50-70 and evaluated polyester, cotton and merino PJs. In both studies, heart rate, skin temperature and relative humidity, and brain wave patterns were measured. In the study of young adults, those in wool enjoyed an additional seven minutes more sleep than those in cotton and fell asleep after just 11 minutes compared with 15 minutes for those wearing cotton. In the older adults 'wool performed better than cotton and polyester'. In particular, 65-70 year-olds fell asleep after 12 minutes in wool compared with 22 and 27 minutes in polyester and cotton respectively. In their conclusions, the authors wrote: 'These findings highlight wool, next to the skin, as an efficient insulator that may influence skin warming and hence promote sleep onset and sleep quality.' The findings, published in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep, have been highlighted to coincide with the Campaign For Wool's annual Wool Week. 'Dragonfly' was a rumoured effort inside Google to develop a search engine for China that would censor certain terms and news outlets, among other things. Reports claimed the tool ties users' Google searches to their personal phone numbers to help the Chinese government monitor its citizens. Outside of high-profile leaks, few details have emerged on what the search engine entailed as Google has kept tight-lipped on the project. A former Google employee warned of the web giant's 'disturbing' plans in a letter sent to the US's senate's commerce committee in August 2018. Jack Poulson said the proposed Dragonfly website was 'tailored to the censorship and surveillance demands of the Chinese government'. In his letter he also claimed that discussion of the plans among Google employees had been 'increasingly stifled'. Mr Poulson was a senior research scientist at Google until he resigned in July 2018 in protest at the Dragonfly proposals. This is the dramatic moment a great white shark is caught on camera attacking a smaller shark as they fight for food. The fascinating footage was captured by divers in Mossel Bay off the south coast of South Africa. It shows how both sharks go for a piece of bait that's been thrown into the water. The dramatic footage was captured by divers in Mossel Bay off the south coast of South Africa The larger shark can be seen making its way over to the smaller shark after missing a piece of bait But as the larger of the two animals fails to snag it, it becomes aggressive and sinks its teeth into the smaller shark nearby. The incident is said to have shocked the caged divers who saw the attack unfold. And they agreed that it demonstrates the way a shark's behaviour can change in a instant. However, luckily for the smaller shark, it didn't appear to be too badly injured after the attack. And one of the divers who filmed the attack said: 'The smaller shark left the area after the incident.' BBC wildlife expert Lizzie Daly told MailOnline Travel the clip shows how competitive sharks can be when it comes to food. The larger shark then takes its frustration out on the smaller shark by sinking its teeth into it The incident is said to have shocked the caged divers who saw the attack unfold She explained: 'Smaller sharks are easily predated by larger sharks. 'However you have to consider that this footage is taken near a boat with bait so this interaction may more be about competition than anything else. 'Also from what I can see the other shark isnt that small in size so again I think this is more about the situation than an attack. 'Its hard to know how frequent an interaction like this would happen in the wild, apart from of course before birth where shark embryo cannabalism is common... again all because of competition!' The world's longest non-stop commercial flight is set to take off for the first time tomorrow. Singapore Airlines is set to start its ultra-long-haul service from Changi Airport to New York's Newark Liberty International - a flight that will take almost 19 hours and cover 10,400 miles. The flight will use the long-range Airbus A350-900ULR, which will be configured to carry 161 passengers - 67 in business class and 94 in premium economy with extra leg room. Scroll down for video A Singapore Airlines Airbus A350 900ULR. This is the ultra-long-range aircraft that will make history when it takes off for the world's longest commercial flight between Singapore and New York tomorrow There is no standard economy class on board following concerns that it would be too cramped on such a long flight. The flight deck, meanwhile, will be occupied by four pilots working in shifts. The current longest-flight record holder is Qatar Airways, with its 17-hour 40-minute service from Auckland to Doha. That flight is only slightly longer than the non-stop Perth to London service operated by Qantas, which covers 9,000 miles and takes 17 hours 20 minutes. Singapore Airlines will be the first airline in the world to operate the A350-900ULR on the route, with seven on order with Airbus. The A350-900ULR is said to be designed for a more comfortable travelling experience with features such as higher ceilings, larger windows, an extra wide body, quieter cabins and lighting designed to reduce jet lag. Its carbon composite airframe, meanwhile, has been designed to allow for improved air quality due to a more optimised cabin altitude and humidity levels. A map showing some of the longest commercial flights in the world. The route between Singapore and New York will soon be the longest THE WORLD'S LONGEST COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS Singapore to New York - 19 hours (Singapore Airlines) Auckland to Doha - 17 hours 40 mins (Qatar Airways) Houston to Sydney - 17 hours 30 mins (United Airlines) Perth to London - 17 hours 20 mins (Qantas) Los Angeles to Singapore - 17 hours 20 mins (Singapore Airlines) Johannesburg to Atlanta - 16 hours 50 mins (Delta Air Lines) Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles - 16 hours 30 mins (Etihad) Advertisement The first two A350-900ULRs will be used for the launch of Singapore to New York services while subsequent aircraft will be used for Singapore to Los Angeles (which will start on November 2 and take 17 hours, 20 minutes), as well as to increase frequency on the existing Singapore to San Francisco route. Passengers on board tomorrow's Singapore to New York will be served a 'wellness cuisine' menu aimed at reducing jet lag. The carrier has partnered with 'wellness' brand Canyon Ranch to develop what it described as 'nutrition-focused' menus to aid sleep. And although Singapore Airlines hasn't revealed the full food service on offer, it has unveiled a sample menu. It will include an appetiser of wild caught prawn ceviche and lavosh with fresh orange, cucumber, grapefruit, cilantro, scallions and bell peppers. The main course is seared chicken and zucchini pappardelle featuring pasta-cut zucchini, parmesan, braised tomatoes, lemon vinaigrette and micro basil. Dessert will include lemon angel food cake with blueberry topping and breakfast will consist of lox eggs benedict with a whole wheat English muffin, chive cream cheese, smoked salmon, organic-egg omelette and yogurt hollandaise. The route between Singapore and New York will not have any standard economy seats. It will only consist of a premium economy cabin, pictured, and a business class cabin In the premium economy cabin, pictured, passengers will have extra legroom so they can still stretch out during the 19-hour journey There will be a total of 67 business class seats (pictured) on the plane. The cabins will also have higher ceilings, larger windows, an extra wide body and lighting designed to reduce jetlag The business class seats fully fold out into lie-flat beds so passengers can catch up on sleep during the mammoth journey Canyon Ranch has also been working with the carrier to devise sleep strategies, which will be passed on to help customers in all cabins try to get as much rest as possible on the flights. One of the strategies includes having specific light settings on board to provide better cabin ambience for rest and relaxation. Exercise physiologists from Canyon Ranch have also created a programme of stretching exercises to promote relaxation, which are available on the in-flight entertainment. Meanwhile there will also be over 1,200 hours of film and television to watch to keep customers entertained. The carrier has partnered with 'wellness' brand Canyon Ranch to develop what it described as 'nutrition-focused' menus to reduce jet lag. It will include a main course of seared chicken and zucchini pappardelle featuring pasta-cut zucchini, parmesan, braised tomatoes, lemon vinaigrette and micro basil (left). Breakfast will be a dish of lox eggs benedict (right) However, tickets for the service don't come cheap. Premium economy fares start at 1,639 while business class starts from 3,689. Singapore Airlines had flown a similar Singapore to New York route from 2004 until 2013 but cancelled it as it fell short of revenue expectations. The reinstatement comes as carriers look for new sources of revenue in a competitive environment, while long-haul flights often make more cash than those that require stops. The flight will take off tomorrow from Singapore's Changi Airport, pictured, en route for Newark Liberty International The flight from Singapore to New York might not hold the record for the longest commercial flight in the world for long. Earlier this year, Qantas revealed it was close to ordering ultra-long-range jets to carry out services between Sydney and London. The Australian carrier explained how it is considering an order for ultra-long-range jets such as the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 777X to carry out the service, which is expected to take 20 hours and 20 minutes. More than 30 years ago, The Jackson 5 performed to over two million Australian fans as the first black musicians to tour the country nationally. But while the band, including the late Michael Jackson, received a warm welcome Down Under, founding member Jackie Jackson has recalled a rather confronting incident from the group's visit to Sydney in July 1973. The 67-year-old told Daily Mail Australia that his late father Joseph Jackson, who was also the band's manager, stood up for Aboriginal fans who were allegedly banned from interacting with the group during their stay. EXCLUSIVE: 'They would not let them inside': Michael Jackson's brother Jackie has claimed their father intervened after a hotel banned Aboriginal fans from meeting the Jackson 5 during their Australian tour in the 1970s. Pictured: The Jackson 5 in 1971 Pictured: Jackie Jackson, who is one of the founding members of The Jackson 5 and the older brother of Michael Jackson The Jackson 5, now known as the Jacksons, are an American family band. Formed in 1964, the founding members were elder brothers Jackie, Tito and Jermaine; younger brothers Marlon and Michael joined soon after. While staying at a hotel in Sydney during their Australian tour, Jackie claimed that the establishment banned Aboriginal fans from meeting the group. Other fans were apparently allowed entry, however. He told Daily Mail Australia it was his father Joseph's bold ultimatum that convinced the hotel to reconsider its supposed policy. Jackie recalled: 'There was a lot of people and a lot of Aboriginal people outside of the hotel and the hotel would not let them inside. My father at the time he's passed away now - said if they didn't let them inside there'd be no Jackson concert. 'I remember it being like pandemonium. They wanted to see us too and the hotel wouldn't let them in, but my father said, "If you don't let these Aboriginal kids in, the Jacksons are not going on stage".' 'So they let them inside, I remember the whole thing,' he concluded. 'My father said, "If you don't let these Aboriginal kids in, the Jacksons are not going on stage"': Jackie claimed his father threatened to cancel a Jackson 5 concert in July 1973 if a Sydney hotel didn't allow Aboriginal fans to meet the group. Pictured: Joseph Jackson in May 2014 'Australia has been very supportive of the group': The Jackson 5, now called The Jacksons, have announced a national Australian tour for 2019. Pictured: The Jackson 5 in 1971 As the group returns in 2019 for a national tour, Jackie insisted 'Australia has always been very supportive of the group' over the years and is looking forward to arriving. The Australian tour, the group's first in five years, will also coincide with the Jacksons' appearance alongside The Village People, Pointer Sisters, Sister Sledge, and Kool & The Gang at The Sydney Summer Series festival in January 2019. Reflecting on his late brother Michael, who died in 2009 of a cardiac arrest, Jackie said the band continues to pay tribute to him on stage at every concert. 'We sing some of his songs': Reflecting on his late brother Michael (pictured in 1988), who died in 2009 of a cardiac arrest, Jackie said the band continues to pay tribute to him on stage 'We sing some of his songs and there's a lot of ballads that we sing. The audience usually cries when they see the pictures go up on the big stage monitor,' he said. 'We're just trying to keep the legacy going. That's what he would want us to do. We're happy to keep his name in the spotlight, because he was a special person and people loved him around the world. 'It's a really exciting moment that we get to pay tribute to our brother on stage... any given moment we knew exactly where he would be on the stage he was always giving 110 per cent.' Michael was involved in the original Jackson 5 up until 1983 when he began to focus on his successful career as a solo artist. 'We're just trying to keep the legacy going, that's what he would want us to do': Jackie claimed the brothers were doing what they could to keep Michael's name in the spotlight When Jackie admitted to being protective of his younger brothers while the band toured as a five-piece in the '70s and '80s, he said his siblings were always well behaved as they travelled the world. 'They never got in trouble. They just wanted to be the best they could be on stage, record records and make people happy,' he said. Jackie added that, unlike many pop stars of today, the band never partied after their performances. 'We were too young to go to nightclubs, so we would end the show, go to the hotel, talk a little bit about the concert, and then we'd go to bed, because it was a business,' he explained. Her relationship has gone from strength to strength as she revealed she's preparing to officially move in with her beau. And Zara McDermott looked as loved-up as ever with her boyfriend Adam Collard as they attended Adee Phelan's men's grooming SKNHEAD LONDON launch party at his Drury Lane Salon on Tuesday evening. The Love Island star, 21, caught the eye in a dark red satin bodysuit, which featured intricate lace details and a plunging neckline to reveal her perky cleavage. Smitten: Zara McDermott looked as loved-up as ever with her boyfriend Adam Collard as they attended Adee Phelan's men's grooming launch party at his Drury Lane Salon on Tuesday Maintaining her sultry display, the reality star complemented her garment by Lasula Boutique with a pair of high-waisted white trousers. The former government advisor injected a hint of pazzazz to her look as she enhanced her height with sparkling heeled sandals, while accessorising with a chain-strap handbag and hooped earrings. With her tresses worn in a sleek and straight style, Zara accentuated her out-of-this-world beauty with lashings of mascara and a dark red lipgloss. Wow-factor! The Love Island star, 21, caught the eye in a dark red satin bodysuit, which featured intricate lace details and a plunging neckline to reveal her perky cleavage Wow-factor! Maintaining her sultry display, the reality star complemented her garment by Lasula Boutique with a pair of high-waisted white trousers Radiant: The former government advisor injected a hint of pazzazz to her look as she enhanced her height with sparkling heeled sandals, while accessorising with a chain-strap handbag Sharp: Meanwhile, fitness guru Adam, 22, cut a dapper figure in a crisp white shirt, tied in with a pair of dark wash trousers Meanwhile, fitness guru Adam, 22, cut a dapper figure in a crisp white shirt, tied in with a pair of dark wash trousers. The personal trainer was a late entrant into the Love Island villa, where he became something of a villain due to his womanising ways, after racking up an incredible list of conquests including Rosie Williams, Darylle Sargeant, Kendall Rae-Knight and Zara. After being booted off the show, he pursued his romance with Zara and the duo have been displaying their loved-up status on social media ever since. BFFs: Zara beamed with delight as she was joined by her close pal Ellie Brown Striking: With her tresses worn in a sleek and straight style, Zara accentuated her out-of-this-world beauty with lashings of mascara and a dark red lipgloss A friend indeed: Their appearance comes after the brunette recently said she saw 'issues' and 'cracks' in Ellie's relationship with Charlie Brake Adam has been capitalising big time on his instant stardom with reports he will rake in 305,000 for a series of public appearances, reports The Sun. Meanwhile, Zara appeared to be in good company as she was joined by her BFF Ellie Brown, who continued to fuel romance rumours with Joey Essex outside the bash. The blonde, 20, appeared in high spirits as she grinned from ear-to-ear while resting her arm against the ex TOWIE star's '250,000' white Lamborghini. Turning up the heat: Ellie, 20, commanded attention in a form-fitting midi skirt and low-cut crop top by Missy Empire, flashing a glimpse of her toned abs Wow-factor! Adding to her petite frame, the Newcastle beauty sported a pair of bedazzled strappy heels, and kept accessories to a minimum Working it! The former business development manager brought summer chic to the autumn season with her glossy beachy waves, and accentuated her features in dewy make-up Happier: Ellie's appearance comes hours after she admitted she is finally feeling like herself again following her heartbreak from millionaire hunk Charlie, 23 In recent reports, Ellie and Joey, 28, were said to have enjoyed a steamy smooch at Amber's birthday party at Chigwell's Sheesh restaurant last Wednesday. A source told the Sun: 'Ellie and Joey were all over each other at Sheesh kissing and flirting together. Meanwhile, the blonde bombshell, who recently split from Love Island co-star Charlie Brake, appeared to be forget her love woes at the starry event, as she was joined by her BFF Zara McDermott. Cosy: Ellie continued to fuel relationship rumours with Joey Essex as they chatted up a storm outside the bash Budding relationship? She appeared in high spirits as she grinned from ear-to-ear while resting her arm against the ex TOWIE star's '250,000' white Lamborghini Romance: In recent reports, Ellie and Joey, 28, were said to have enjoyed a steamy smooch at Amber's birthday party at Chigwell's Sheesh restaurant last Wednesday Alleged kiss: 'Ellie and Joey were all over each other at Sheesh kissing and flirting together', a source told The Sun last week Ellie, who recently split from Love Island co-star Charlie Brake, commanded attention in a form-fitting midi skirt and low-cut crop top by Missy Empire, flashing a glimpse of her toned abs. Adding to her petite frame, the Newcastle beauty sported a pair of bedazzled strappy heels, and kept accessories to a minimum. The former business development manager brought summer chic to the autumn season with her glossy beachy waves, and accentuated her features in dewy make-up. Awkward? Darylle Sargeant appeared to narrowly avoid a run-in with Zara and Adam, who she previously struck up a romance with in the villa Dare to be bold: The eyebrow technician, 24, went braless as she slipped into a perilously plunging denim jumpsuit, finished off with red block heels Inked-up: The Watford native's tattoos were on full display during the star-studded event Something on his mind? Mike Thalassitis cracked a wide smile as he stepped out for the first time since he was spotted with his on/off girlfriend Megan McKenna in Dubai Zara's display comes after she defiantly said she isn't 'ashamed' of being a revenge porn victim. The TV personality who was excluded from school aged 14 after a boy leaked intimate photos of her, appeared on Channel 5 News on earlier this month to discuss her 'horrible and humiliating' experiences. Zara fell victim to revenge porn again this year after photos emerged while she was in the villa, with the reality star also talking about the moment she found out the pictures had become public on the show. Edgy: Pete Wicks opted for his typically quirky style as he donned a crisp blazer with ripped jeans Great spirits: The TOWIE star, 29, who currently stars in Celebrity Island, burst into laughter as he received a hair tutorial by Adee Phelan Industry pals: Love Island's Mike and Adam joined fellow TV stars Amber Tucker (far left), Danielle Sellers (centre) and Chyna Ellis (second from right) She said: 'The producers broke the news to me just after I came out of the villa. 'They told me that images had been released and I kind of had an instinct that would happen from a specific individual I was seeing just before I went in the villa. Admitting the offence is being dealt with authorities, Zara added: 'I think sending photos is something that everyone does, I'm not excusing it. I'm proud of my body and I'm not ashamed of sending the photos. Looking good: Glamour model Danielle, 23, wowed in a see-through lace top and grey culottes Stripes galore: Chyna, 24, accentuated her slimline figure in a clingy monochrome dress 'I shared a very intimate part of myself with someone I cared about, but sometimes I kick myself thinking 'why do I do it?' Later Zara posted a lengthy statement on Instagram, which detailed her traumatic experience with the incident, revealing she was 'suspended due to her "behaviour' and felt 'alone'. 'All I have ever wanted to do is help young people in any way that I can. Thats why I decided to work in Government, because of the gratification it brought me. I hope speaking out about my journey can help people too, but in a different way', she added. Chic: Absolutely Ascot star Amber, 18, stunned in a sleeveless houndstooth mini dress and pointed heels Ali Oetjen beamed as she arrived at KIIS FM studios in Sydney on Wednesday, ahead of her Bachelorette debut. The 32-year-old flashed a hint of cleavage in an olive green polka dot jumpsuit as she dutifully made her over to do press rounds. The fitness influencer paired the look with clear heels and showed off her golden tan while clutching a healthy drink. The countdown is on! Ali Oetjen flashes a hint of cleavage in a polka dot jumpsuit as she arrives at KIIS FM studios ahead of Bachelorette debut Ali flaunted the results of her gruelling gym regime as she displayed her svelte arms and slender stems in the form-fitting number. With her blonde curls cascading down her back, the star radiated health and well-being as she playfully sipped on her green smoothie. Ali certainly arrived in style to the popular radio station as she was seen pulling up in a shiny, black BMW. The star treatment continued for the incoming Bachelorette as a suited chauffeur was spotted opening the car door of her luxury ride. Beaming: Meanwhile the incoming Bachelorette (pictured) already appears to be receiving the VIP treatment as a suited chauffeur was spotted opening the blonde star's BMW A star is born: Ali (pictured) was given the star treatment as soon as she arrived at the KIIS FM studios in Sydney on Wednesday Glam: The beaming beauty stepped out of the luxury BMW in North Ryde Don't KALE my vibe: With her blonde curls cascading down her back, the star radiated health and well-being as she playfully sipped on her green smoothie Happier days! The 32-year-old (pictured) who has been at the centre of sensational cheating claims by her ex-boyfriend Grant Kemp looked relaxed and at ease as she stepped out to attend her pre-series media rounds Ready and raring for the premiere! The fitness influencer strutted down the walkway in the unique ensemble The glowing star also wore a generous coat of neutrally-toned dewy foundation, which enhanced her peaches and cream complexion. The bronzed star appeared to have a twinkle in her eye as she arrived at North Ryde which was no doubt intensified by her voluminous lashes. Ali's cheerful sighting comes after Grant sensationally accused the blonde of cheating on him while she was visiting him in Los Angeles back in March. Healthy glow: The glowing star also wore a generous coat of neutrally-toned dewy foundation, which enhanced her peaches and cream complexion Fighting fit: Ali (pictured) looked like the picture of health as she sipped on a green smoothie Lashes for days: The bronzed star appeared to have a twinkle in her eye as she arrived at North Ryde which was no doubt intensified by her voluminous lashes Trim and toned: Ali flaunted the results of her gruelling gym regime as she displayed her svelte arms and slender stems in the form-fitting number Later during her appearance on Kyle and Jackie O Show on Wednesday the Bachelorette star declined an opportunity to deny her ex boyfriend's claims. 'I don't want to give it any oxygen because it's private,' the 32-year-old account manager told Jackie 'O' Henderson and fill-in host Beau Ryan. Beau asked during the interview: 'Is there any truth behind [what Grant said]? Like, especially the detail people went into about you.' Allegations: Ali's sighting comes after Grant sensationally accused the blonde of cheating on him while she was visiting him in Los Angeles back in March 'I don't want to give it any oxygen because it's private': Later during her appearance on Kyle and Jackie O Show on Wednesday the Bachelorette star declined an opportunity to deny her ex boyfriend's claims Turning the other cheek? Ali told Jackie 'O' Henderson and fill-in host Beau Ryan she has chosen not to address Grant Kemp's sensational cheating claims 'Everyone has a past and I've chosen not to address it,' Ali replied. 'I don't want to give it any oxygen because it's private and I thought it would stay in that relationship. 'But obviously [Grant] wants to ride this wave with me and you know he's making the most of it, so good on him.' Grant, who met Ali on Bachelor in Paradise last year, sensationally accused his ex-girlfriend of cheating while she was visiting him in Los Angeles in March. The Bachelorette premieres Wednesday at 7:30pm on Network Ten Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse love to go on adventures together. The 22-year-old actress - who stars alongside Cole, 26, in the popular TV series 'Riverdale' - is typically reluctant to talk about her romantic life. But she has admitted that the loved-up duo relish exploring new places and new things together. So in love: Lili Reinhart gushes over her love for Cole Sprouse as she graces the cover of Teen Vogue's October issue. She shared: 'I like to go on adventures with Cole. Truly, adventures. He takes me to places where I'm like, 'How did you find this?' Lili explained that Cole's adventurous nature has meant she's been introduced to so many new things. The actress told Teen Vogue magazine: 'He's made me see these things that I would have never seen otherwise. It's escapism, which is so beautiful and wonderful.' By contrast, Lili previously admitted she thought Cole was 'annoying' when they first met. Inside the mag: The actress rested her head as she posed for the Teen Vogue photo shoot What a doting couple: Lili explained that Cole's adventurous nature has meant she's been introduced to so many new things She said: 'I thought his voice was annoying. I was like, 'That guy's got an annoying voice.' And now it's grown on me, I guess.' On the other hand, Cole felt Lili was a 'tough egg to crack.' The actor explained: 'Lili was a tough egg to crack. She's very shy at first and reserved. I think it was about halfway into the first season she started letting people in truly.' Now, though, Cole finds Lili to be an inspiring presence in his life, revealing she is constantly encouraging him to make the most of his talent. Dressed in silver and black: Cole and Lili made an interesting fashion statement when they attended the Met Gala in New York City back in May He said: 'She's one of those people that consistently pushes me to be better at the arts that I'm pursuing. 'That's just the kind of person she is. She inspires excellence out of everybody she works with.' And Lili now considers Cole to be 'one of the smartest' people she knows. She added: 'Cole is one of the smartest, the smartest person that I'm friends with. He's incredibly passionate about art, about photography, about acting, and I really admire that.' She recently admitted it has been a struggle moving on from Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins' after he dumped her on The Bachelor earlier this month. And on Wednesday, Cassandra Wood certainly showed the ex-Wallabies star, 31, what he's missing as she flaunted her pert derriere in a throwback snap from her Bali getaway. The former Home and Away star, 24, took to Instagram to showcase her bodacious backside in a very high-cut swimsuit as she rinsed off in an outdoor shower. Scroll down for video Showing Nick what he's missing? The Bachelor's Cassandra Wood flaunts her pert derriere in a VERY high-cut swimsuit in throwback snap from Bali 'Outdoor showers,' Cassandra captioned the shot. Cassandra, who's now lauded for her regular posterior posts offered fans another generous glimpse of her buxom behind. The stunning blonde also drew attention to her gym-honed pins and toned arms as she playfully turned her behind to the camera lens. Cheeky! Cassandra flashed her bottom to the camera while posing in different swumsuits Making a splash! Cassandra (right) was seen flaunting her bronzed backside once again in Manly, New South Wales in February 2018 Simultaneously, Cassandra showed off her ultra bronzed frame as water droplets cascaded off her barely-there black one piece. The fit beauty has been regularly reminding her 155,000 followers of her eye-popping assets in recent weeks. Earlier this month Cassandra accentuated her pert derriere once again in a black G-string bikini as she soaked up the sun in the Indonesian paradise. Oh derriere! The Bachelor's Cassandra Wood, 24, flaunted her pert posterior in a black G-string bikini whilst on vacation in Bali earlier this month When in Bali: Earlier this month, the blonde shared a very racy snap to Instagram where she sported a high-cut black swimsuit while sipping a cocktail Sporting a skimpy black triangle bikini top and G-string briefs, the student's semi-wet locks fell behind her toned back. Earlier this month, Cassandra took to Instagram again to reveal her sensational physique in a high-cut black swimsuit as she enjoyed a cocktail. On Sunday, Cassandra spoke to veteran journalist Lisa Wilkinson and tearfully admitted he's struggling to move on after being brutally dumped by the former Wallabies star on the show. 'I feel like a bit of a joke,' she said on The Project this week. Lisa asked Cassandra, 'Has it been easy to move on?' to which she replied, 'It hasn't been.' Heartbroken: Cassandra recently admitted it has been a struggle moving on from Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins' after he dumped her on The Bachelor earlier this month She's set to perform and is nominated for New Artist Of Year. And even before the show began, Dua Lipa got jaws dropping when she stepped out on the American Music Awards red carpet in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening. The 23-year-old was dressed in an off-white bridal inspired ensemble that was cinched in at the waist and mid-thigh. Scroll down for videos What a look! Even before the show began, Dua Lipa got jaws dropping when she stepped out on the American Music Awards red carpet in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening in a bold gothic chic ensemble Dua's bold ensemble drew attention to her enviable decolletage with its off-the-shoulder feature. The UK native's dress flared out into a pleated skirt and hid her shoes. She kept her accessories minimal with just a statement nail inspired choker and highlighter yellow nails. Unique: The 23-year-old was dressed in an off-white gothic yet chic ensemble that was cinched in at the waist and mid-thigh Big night ahead! She's set to perform and is nominated for New Artist Of Year Glamour queen: Dua's short brunette locks were styled out straight and styled to one side Dua's short brunette locks were styled out straight and styled to one side. Her makeup was matte with a sweep of blush, bold dark brows and a complimentary nude red lip. The IDGAF hitmaking beauty is set to perform two of her songs as is also nominated for New Artist Of The Year. Camila Cabello, Cardi B, Khalid and XXXTENACION will compete in the category. Stunner: Her makeup was matte with a sweep of blush, bold dark brows and a complimentary nude red lip She's ready: The IDGAF hitmaking beauty is set to perform two of her songs as is also nominated for New Artist Of The Year. Camila Cabello, Cardi B, Khalid and XXXTENACION will compete in the category Simplistic: She kept her accessories minimal with just a statement nail inspired choker and highlighter yellow nails Gothic chic: Dua's show stopping look got all heads turning on Tuesday night Taylor Swift will be open Tuesday's show with I Did Something Bad - marking her first awards show performance in nearly three years. She is also up for four nominations including: Artist of the Year against Drake, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons and Post Malone. Airing live on ABC Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross will be hosting the show for the second year in a row. Dave Hughes, 47, has spoken candidly about how his battle with depression led him to drugs and alcohol. The Hughesy & Kate co-host, who has been sober for 25 years, said he hit rock bottom in his early twenties because he felt as though his life had no direction. 'I was feeling depressed as a young man,' he told News.com.au on Wednesday. 'Young people can take life too seriously': Dave Hughes reveals how smoking marijuana and binge drinking made him more depressed before he finally got his life together. Pictured in January 2017 'I was drinking too much, and when I'd drink I would get drunk. As a teenager and in my early twenties I was struggling with my own ego that whole struggle to feel like you're achieving things,' he added. 'Young men and young people can take life too seriously and I think drinking certainly didn't help that as well as smoking marijuana.' Dave's depression began affecting his livelihood after he dropped out of two university degrees before ditching higher education altogether and eventually losing his job. Low point: Dave's depression began affecting his livelihood after he dropped out of two university degrees before ditching higher education altogether and eventually losing his job. Pictured in 2004 The comedian said drugs and alcohol only made things worse and he ultimately felt 'more lost'. He said like most depressed young men, he felt alone and wasn't comfortable speaking about it to friends. In the end, he turned to his mother, a nurse, who helped him quit drinking for good at age 21. Turned his life around: In the end, Dave turned to his mother, a nurse, who helped him quit drinking for good at age 21. Pictured in 2002 He told the Herald Sun in 2016 that he's never looked back. 'As soon as I stopped drinking and smoking, I felt better,' he said. 'It gave me control of my moods. Stopping the drinking and the drugs was the step to feeling less depressed.' Dave is married to journalist Holly Ife and they share three children: Rafferty, eight, Tess, four, and Sadie, six. If you or someone you know is struggling, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Everything is coming up roses for Cardi B. So it comes as no surprise that she would hit the red carpet in a fabulous floral ensemble. The 25-year-old rapper looked pretty in a patterned Dolce & Gabbana dress as she hit the red carpet at the 2018 American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Fabulous in floral: Cardi B looked pretty in patterns as she hit the red carpet at the 2018 American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Tuesday No doubt she turned heads as she rocked a flowy frock featuring a thigh-high split along with a huge matching headpiece. It was a very intricate look which featured a corset-like top and large skirt with a slit to show off her left leg complete with a strappy black heel with a pink flower on it. Her intricate headpiece as well as dress was adorned with artificial flowers sewn into them. Stunner: No doubt the 25-year-old hitmaker turned heads as she rocked a flowy frock featuring a thigh-high split along with a huge matching headpiece In the details: Her intricate headpiece as well as dress was adorned with artificial flowers sewn into them Leggy lady: It was a very intricate look which featured a corset-like top and large skirt with a slit to show off her left leg complete with a strappy black heel with a pink flower on it Pretty in patterns: Cardi accessorized with large dangling gold earrings as her raven-colored locks were pulled back in a fancy haird Cardi accessorized with large dangling gold earrings as her raven-colored locks were pulled back in a fancy hairdo. The I Like It hitmaker's accentuated her incredible ensemble with an equally colorful and fun makeup look, created by Erika La' Pearl for L'Oreal Paris. 'When I first saw Cardis dress, I had actually planned on creating a neutral look, but then as we were doing her makeup today we decided to have a little more fun and add some color,' Erika revealed. 'We opted for dewy skin with pops of purples and pinks on her eyes and a subtle, cobalt blue lash.' To create that dewy look, Erika used the newly-launched L'Oreal Derm Intensives Hyaluronic Acid Serum, and then followed up with the brand's True Match Lumi Glow Amour Drops, which were mixed with the Infallible Pro-Glow Foundation to create a glowing radiance. To add some color into the mix, Erika worked on the eyes, using pink tones from the Paradise Enchanted Palette all over the lid, then accentuating those shades with the Colour Riche Pocket Palettes, focusing on purple and pink hues. Cardi's eyes were then lined with purple liner - the Infallible Pro-Last Eyeliner - and given a final punch of pizzazz courtesy of the Voluminous Original Mascara in Cobalt Blue. Her red lip, meanwhile, was creating using the Colour Riche Matte Lipstick in Matte-ly in Love. Cardi was not alone on the red carpet as she was joined by husband Offset who is one-third of the platinum-selling hip-hop group Migos. Gorgeous: The I Like It hitmaker's accentuated her looks with complementary make-up topped off with a pop of color in the form of pink eyeshadow and bright red lipstick Showstopper: No doubt she turned heads at the gala event The happy couple - who welcomed their first daughter Kulture Kiari three months ago - weren't shy to pack on the PDA as they shared a kiss together on the red carpet. The 26-year-old Bad And Boujee hitmaker - real name Kiari Kendrell Cephus - looked dapper in a burgundy suit. He also sported a black and white striped dress shirt with several of the top buttons undone along with black dress shoes featured a silver embroidered design at the toebox. King and queen: Cardi was not alone on the red carpet as she was joined by husband Offset who is one-third of the platinum-selling hip-hop group Migos Sweet smooch: The happy couple - who welcomed their first daughter Kulture Kiari three months ago - weren't shy to pack on the PDA as they shared a kiss together on the red carpet Get a room: The two put on quite a passionate display Vibes: The 26-year-old Bad And Boujee hitmaker - real name Kiari Kendrell Cephus - looked dapper in a burgundy suit Offset had plenty of blinged out jewelry on display including multiple bracelets and rings. His braided locks were pulled back in a ponytail as she rocked a pair of gold-rimmed eyeglasses. It is shaping up to be a big night for Cardi as she earned the first award of the night in the Favorite Artist Rap/Hip-Hop category. Bad And Boujee: Offset had plenty of blinged out jewelry on display including multiple bracelets and rings Happy together: No doubt the two were happy to be on the town without their infant She impressively beat out Drake and Post Malone in the hotly-contested category. Cardi was definitely grateful for the awknowledgement as she said she was really nervous to accept the glass, pyramid-shaped award. She also gave a special shoutout to her daughter as she said: 'I really want to thank my daughter and not just because she's my daughter but because when I was pregnant I was so influenced to be like "yo I gotta do this, I gotta prove people wrong." Spec appeal: His braided locks were pulled back in a ponytail as she rocked a pair of gold-rimmed eyeglasses What a gent! Offset attempted to hold Cardi's hand as they strutted down the red carpet Bust a move:: The Bodak Yellow hitmaker looked in good spirits as she danced while arriving at her seat 'Now they said I wasn't gonna make it after I had a baby. And my husband, hey husband. Thank you so much everybody.' Cardi is tied with Drake for most nominations on the night with eight. The Bodak Yellow hitmaker received nominations including for New Artist of the Year, Favorite Female Artist - Pop/Rock, Favorite Artist - Rap/Hip-Hop and Favorite Social Artist as well as Collaboration of the Year for her song Finesse with Bruno Mars. She likes it like that: It is shaping up to be a big night for Cardi as she earned the first award of the night in the Favorite Artist Rap/Hip-Hop category 'Now they said I wasn't gonna make it after I had a baby': Cardi was definitely grateful for the awknowledgement as she said she was really nervous to accept the glass, pyramid-shaped award Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross is hosting the show with performances from Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Shawn Mendes, Dua Lipa, Jennifer Lopez, Post Malone and many more. Cardi's performance will be her first at an awards show since welcoming daughter Kulture Kiari with husband Offset in July. She will take the stage with Bad Bunny and J Balvin to perform I Like It. Dynamic duo: Cardi was seen posing up with Taylor Swift during the event Shining stars: Both women were big winners during the star-studded event Fancy seeing you here: Cardi and Taylor shared a laugh together as they hung out in the crowd Talented: The duo looked happy during the meeting as they both rocked very fashionable looks She recently made waves as she showed off her toned, post-baby body on Monday, however, she recently revealed that she wants to gain some of the baby weight back. 'Now that I lost all the baby weight, I gotta gain some back,' she captioned the sultry image. Cardi posed in a leather bra and matching pants just ahead of date night with husband Offset, 26, on Sunday. Hot mama! On Monday, Cardi B showed off her toned post-baby bod on Instagram, while claiming that she'd like to 'gain' a few pounds Madeleine West and Shannon Bennett were pictured kissing on a 'make or break' family holiday in Byron Bay on September 28, just weeks after announcing their split. And on Wednesday, a body language expert revealed the one small gesture that hints the former couple may be getting back together. Matchsmith founder Holly Bartter told Daily Mail Australia that the way Madeleine placed her hand on Shannon's lower back suggests there is still chemistry between them. 'There is still chemistry between them': A body language expert has revealed the one small gesture that may prove Madeleine West and Shannon Bennett are getting back together. Pictured on September 28 in Byron Bay 'Madeleine appears confident in her decisions as she places her hand affectionately on Shannon's lower back, and doesn't seem to care who sees,' Holly explained. 'By Shannon keeping his hands in his pockets, it could perhaps suggest that Madeleine's open displays of affection took him by pleasant surprise.' Holly went on to speculate that the family holiday could perhaps have reminded them of what they stand to lose should they separate permanently. 'It's evident there is still chemistry between the two - they look lost in their own world. And it's not a friendly cheek kiss or quick greeting,' she added. 'Even if a separation is on the cards, there's still plenty of romance there. Madeleine is pulling Shannon in closer, it seems like a peaceful moment for both of them.' Chemistry: Matchsmith founder Holly Bartter told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday that 'Madeleine appears confident in her decisions as she places her hand affectionately on Shannon's lower back'. The couple are pictured in March 2016, before their split The former Neighbours star, 38, and celebrity chef, 42, were joined on their 'make or break' holiday by their six children and Madeleine's mother. Madeleine wore a khaki blouse, skinny jeans and black boots, while Shannon dressed casually in tracksuit trousers and a navy hoodie. Shannon gazed affectionately at his former partner during their public display of affection as another male friend watched on. After exchanging pleasantries, the pair then went their separate ways as Madeleine climbed into a vehicle and drove away. Rumours: On Monday, a report in Woman's Day magazine alleged that Shannon was 'desperate for a reconciliation' with Madeleine and 'willing to do whatever it takes to woo her back' On Monday, a report in Woman's Day magazine alleged that Shannon was 'desperate for a reconciliation' with Madeleine. 'Shannon is willing to do whatever it takes to woo her back,' a source claimed. It comes after the Playing For Keeps star confirmed her separation from Shannon in an interview with Stellar magazine last month. She said at the time that raising a large family had put a strain on their romance. 'Having a public profile, having two high-pressure careers, having a multitude of children - and I will say they are a lot harder to train than dragons - it puts exponential pressures on a relationship, and cracks can form, and things that we don't necessarily plan in the beginning can happen,' she said. The estranged couple, who began dating in 2004 but never married, share six children: Phoenix, Hendrix, Xascha, Xanthe, Xahlia and Margaux. Halsey's on-again beau G-Eazy whispered sweet nothings in her ear as they posed on their first red carpet since their brief split at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The 24-year-old Grammy nominee beamed as she embraced the 29-year-old rapper, who was rocking snug black leather pants with a burgundy velvet blazer for their glamorous date night. The Him And I hitmakers - who just returned from their Italian holiday - officially rekindled their year-long romance in August after a month-long 'break.' 'PROM 2018!' Halsey's on-again beau G-Eazy whispered sweet nothings in her ear as they posed on their first red carpet since their split at the American Music Awards in LA on Tuesday Glamorous date night: The 24-year-old Grammy nominee beamed as she embraced the 29-year-old rapper, who was rocking snug black leather pants with a burgundy velvet blazer Halsey (born Ashley Frangipane) flaunted her legs and tattooed sleeves in a pink-and-black floral high-low frock and black stilettos selected by stylist Maeve Reilly. It was quite the frilly, feminine look for the A Star Is Born actress, whose strapless dress featured a sweetheart bodice. Hairstylist Joseph Chase dyed the Without Me songstress' pixie cut a rosy shade while make-up artist Denika Bedrossian dusted her eyes with blue shadow. Halsey previously romanced her Badlands producer Lido (born Peder Losnegard) from 2014-2016, while G-Eazy (born Gerald Gillum) ended his three-month fling with Lana Del Rey back in July 2017. The look of love: The Him And I hitmakers - who just returned from their Italian holiday - officially rekindled their year-long romance in August after a month-long 'break' Relies on stylist Maeve Reilly: Halsey (born Ashley Frangipane) flaunted her legs and tattooed sleeves in a pink-and-black floral high-low frock and black stilettos Djula custom diamond choker: It was quite the frilly, feminine look for the A Star Is Born actress, whose strapless dress featured a sweetheart bodice New hue: Hairstylist Joseph Chase dyed the Without Me songstress' pixie cut a rosy shade while make-up artist Denika Bedrossian dusted her eyes with blue shadow Solo moment: Halsey previously romanced her Badlands producer Lido (born Peder Losnegard) from 2014-2016, while G-Eazy (born Gerald Gillum) ended his three-month fling with Lana Del Rey back in July 2017 Legal woes: The bleach-haired 6ft4in hip-hop star - who's on probation - apologized May 6 on after he was convicted of assault, cocaine possession, and resisting arrest in Sweden The bleach-haired 6ft4in hip-hop star - who's on probation - apologized May 6 on Instagram four days after he was convicted of assault, cocaine possession, and resisting arrest in Sweden. The Jersey Girl is slated to perform Eastside alongside Benny Blanco and Khalid during the ABC telecast, which was held inside the Microsoft Theatre. The biracial, bisexual beauty changed out of her Zoe Costello and Redemption clothing and changed into a white corseted crop-top and unflattering doodled denim onstage. Talented trio: The Jersey Girl later performed Eastside alongside Benny Blanco (M) and Khalid (R) during the ABC telecast, which was held inside the Microsoft Theatre Second look: The biracial, bisexual beauty changed out of her Zoe Costello and Redemption clothing and changed into a white corseted crop-top and unflattering doodled denim onstage Kim Kardashian donned yet another very revealing outfit as she attended a party in New York Tuesday night. But it was her face that grabbed the attention with its extremely smooth skin and plumped up lips. Kim, 37, appeared to have possibly indulged in a little botox and some fillers for her appearance at the Tiffany Blue Book Collection launch. Madame Tussauds or the real deal? Kim Karashian looked like a waxwork figure at the Tiffany Blue Book Collection launch in New York on Tuesday Smooth operator: The 37-year-old looked appeared to have possibly indulged in a little botox and some fillers for her appearance Flaunting it: Kim donned yet another very revealing outfit The reality star went bra-less in a very low-cut white dress that featured a sleeveless top and floor-length skirt. The outfit, that was held together just under the bust, exposed her bare back as well as the top of her buttocks. She added a pair of towering perspex heels. Barely there: The reality star went bra-less in a very low-cut white dress that featured a sleeveless top and floor-length skirt Flashed plenty of skin: The outfit, that was held together just under the bust, exposed her bare back as well as the top of her buttocks Living doll: There wasn't a single wrinkle in sight Heavy makeup: Kim wore her long black wig and was made up with lashings of mascara and dark blush over her heavy foundation. She colored in her pout with glossy red color Kim wore her long black wig and was made up with lashings of mascara and dark blush over her heavy foundation. She colored in her pout with glossy red color. She was also very blinged out with a stunning diamond choker and several diamond rings. The wife of Kanye West, who robbed of jewelry worth millions of dollars in Paris in October 2017, explained on her social media that the jewels were borrowed and she had heavy security. Booty: Her famous derriere was definitely in the spotlight in her chosen outfit Guarded: Kim wore a stunning diamond choker and several diamond rings. The wife of Kanye West explained on her social media that the jewels were borrowed and she had heavy security Crime victim: Kim was famously robbed of millions of dollars-worth of jewelry while in Paris in October 2017 during which she was tied up and dumped in a bath tub Kim has always denied she's had plastic surgery to enhance her looks but has admitted to using Botox, which she insists isn't the same as going under the knife. 'Everyone always thinks I've had my nose done or my lips done or just anything to my face like besides Botox, which to me isn't plastic surgery,' she told Harper's bazaar back in 2012. She says that it's her contouring makeup that gives the illusion of a slimmer nose and other apparent changes to her features. Reality star: The KUWTK star has always denied having plastic surgery but admits to Botox Side cutouts: The reality star wore a white dress with side cutouts Choker necklace: Kim accessorized with a sparkling choker necklace 'It sucks when people make up surgery or photoshop lies when I am so disciplined & work so hard!' the Keeping Up With The Kardashians reality star tweeted in January 2014. Kim as well as her sisters and momager all sport plumped up lips as a signature look. In fact, her youngest half-sister Kylie Jenner recently seems to have returned to using lip fillers after publicly stopping using them several months ago. On Tuesday, the 21-year-old showed off much fuller lips on her social media while thanking a dermatology clinic for 'coming through late night with a lip touch up.' Claims she's all natural: Kim has always denied she's had plastic surgery to enhance her looks but has admitted to using Botox, which she insists isn't the same as going under the knife Influence: Kim's husband Kanye is headed to the White House on Thursday to have lunch with Donald trump and Jared Kushner following his SNL rant in support of the president Two generations: Kim's momager Kris Jenner joined her at the Tiffany bash, posing with her daughter on social media Catching up: La La Anthony had a word in private with Kim Bejeweled: The 62-year-old ex-wife of the late Robert Kardashian, who was on O.J. Simpson's defense team, also rocked some stunning diamonds Date night: Jenner wore a black coat with lacy skirt over a turtleneck and leggins and she was joined by her beau Corey Gamble There were plenty of other guests who also showed up to the invitation-only party. Priyanka Chopra shimmered in a chainmail-style backless dress with spaghetti straps. The Indian beauty, 36, who is engaged to Nick Jonas, showed off her legs thanks to a side slit and nude sandal heels. She was decked out in a fabulous diamond necklace and earrings. On trend: Priyanka Chopra shimmered in a chainmail-style backless dress with spaghetti straps. She showed off her legs thanks to a side slit and nude sandal heels Lovely: The actress, 36, who is engaged to Nick Jonas, was decked out in a fabulous diamond necklace and earrings as she showed off her glittering engagement ring Fashionable: Mary J. Blige put on a busty show in a green dress with bandeau top and high-waist skirt and laces providing a patterned overlay. She added shiny green sandal heels Stunner: Victoria's Secret Angel Josephine Skriver, 25, showed off her model figure in a dusky pink wraparound dress that revealed her cleavage and long lean legs Funky: Actress Olivia Cooke, 24, rocked a black mini dress with a long-sleeved cape-style top fastened at the neck with a bow Model moment: Australian model Jordan Barrett and Danish beauty Josephine Skriver looked chic as they headed inside the star-studded soiree Mary J. Blige put on a busty show in a green dress with bandeau top and high-waist skirt and laces providing a patterned overlay. The singer and actress, 47, added shiny green sandal heels. Victoria's Secret Angel Josephine Skriver, 25, showed off her model figure in a dusky pink wraparound dress that revealed her cleavage and long lean legs. Actress Olivia Cooke, 24, rocked a black mini dress with a long-sleeved cape-style top fastened at the neck with a bow. Zoe Kravitz paired a black strapless top with a full-length brown skirt belted with a big buckle. The 29-year-old actress wore her hair with a center parting and styled back from her ace and accessorized with hoop earrings and a bracelet. Working it: Zoe Kravitz paired a black strapless top with a full-length brown skirt belted with a big buckle Natural beauty: The 29-year-old actress wore her hair with a center parting and styled back from her ace and accessorized with hoop earrings and a bracelet Pretty look: Rachel Brosnahan, 27, looked gorgeous in a yellow sleeveless gown with a floral-themed panel around the bust and black straps with long sashes down the back Kelsey Asbille, 27, was on point in a camel-colored ensemble of tailored coat jacket and trousers rolled up at the bottoms and a pair of statement heels Rachel Brosnahan, 27, looked gorgeous in a yellow sleeveless gown with a floral-themed panel around the bust and black straps with long sashes down the back. Kelsey Asbille, 27, was on point in a camel-colored ensemble of tailored coat jacket and trousers rolled up at the bottoms and a pair of statement heels. South Korean actress Kim Tae-ri, 28, was elegant in a sleeveless black dress with a slit at the front and an eye-catching diamond necklace. Patti Hansen, 62, kept it classic in a v-neck black sweater and black tailored trousers. Oops! Model Emily DiDonato suffered a small wardrobe malfunction as her chic white dress accidentally slipped down as she posed for photographs Classy: South Korean actress Kim Tae-ri, 28, was elegant in a sleeveless black dress with a slit at the front and an eye-catching diamond necklace Sleek: Patti Hansen, 62, kept it classic in a v-neck black sweater and black tailored trousers Model Emily Didonato. 27, chose a sleeveless white jumpsuit with spaghetti straps and white sandal heels Fernanda Ly and Yuka Mannami put on a stylish show Japanese actress Hikari Mori, 26, opted for a white lace jumpsuit slashed to the navel Lala Rudge, left, wore a patterned black tailored jacket with matching trousers while Renell Medrano, right, chose a skintight black turtleneck romper and shiny boots Shauna Sexton insists she's still with Ben Affleck. The 22-year-old model told Radar on Tuesday that reports she's split from the A-lister, 46, are 'not accurate.' The relationship between the Gone Girl actor and the Playboy model came into question following a People report published on Tuesday claiming that the actor and model are no longer seeing one another following a trip to Montana over the weekend. Scroll below for video The latest: Shauna Sexton, 22, told Radar on Tuesday that reports she's split with the A-lister Ben Affleck, 46, are 'not accurate' An insider close to the actor, who was treated for addiction alcohol this year (on the heels of prior stints in 2017 and 2001), downplayed the idea that he and Sexton were in a serious relationship in the first place. 'There was nothing to split from as it has been casual,' the insider said. 'He enjoyed being with her but is working on himself, and being together with her at this time is not something that works.' The father-of-three - to daughters Violet, 12, and Seraphina, nine, and son Samuel, six, with ex Jennifer Garner, 46 - 'will date in the future, but for now his focus is on his sobriety, family and his next project,' the insider told People. Sexton and the Justice League star were first spotted with one another in mid-August, shortly before he was seen looking disheveled while in a vehicle with Garner en route to The Canyons rehab facility in Malibu, California. Not so fast: An insider downplayed the idea that Affleck and Sexton were in a serious relationship in the first place A step at a time: Affleck last week took to social media to state his gratitude for the support he received while in rehab Sexton was spotted visiting the actor while he was in the rehab facility, and at his home after he finished the program. Affleck last week thanked his his 'family, colleagues and fans' for support in a statement he posted to social media after finishing his 40-day program. 'So many people have reached out on social media and spoken about their own journeys with addiction,' the veteran actor said. 'To those people, I want to say thank you.' Affleck said that 'battling any addiction is a lifelong and difficult struggle,' and 'because of that, one is never really in or out of treatment. 'It is a full-time commitment,' he said. 'I am fighting for myself and my family.' Advertisement She is one of the top rap artists in the world. And it's easy to see why as Cardi B isn't afraid of getting a leg up on the competition. The 25-year-old hip-hop queen proudly put her flexibility on display while hitting the stage for I Like It at the 2018 American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Queen: Cardi B hit the stage for I Like It at the 2018 American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Tuesday Showing off: The 25-year-old hip-hop queen proudly put her flexibility on display Cardi laid in a rotating bed as she impressively lifted her foot over her head during the energetic performance. She put her impressive post-baby body on display as she rocked a patterned clinging bodysuit along with multi-colored checkered knee-high booties. Her curly brunette tresses were worn down in a middle-part as she hit all the challenging moves of the choreography. Stunning: She put her impressive post-baby body on display as she rocked a patterned clinging bodysuit along with multi-colored checkered knee-high booties Started from the bottom: Cardi laid in a rotating bed as she impressively lifted her foot over her head during the energetic performance Talented: The Get Up 10 hitmaker put on quite the energetic show Red hot: She jumped on one of the male dancers as they performed and impressive move together Having a blast: Cardi seemed to be in good spirits Cardi's make-up was complete with a swipe of bright red lip as she rapped the Latin hip-hop track which samples Pete Rodriguez 1967 classic Oh That's Nice. She was not alone for the performance as she was joined by J Balvin and Bad Bunny for the performance. No doubt Cardi's performance amped up the crowd as they gave her and her two collaborators a lengthy standing ovation. Pedal to the metal: At one point Cardi rode around on a golden bicycle She's a kid again: She playfully stuck her tongue out Talented: She was joined by collaborator J Balvin Tremendous trio: Bad Bunny also rapped his verse on the hit track as they stood together at the end of the performance And the crowd goes wild! The talented trio received a standing ovation It was quite the night for the Get Up 10 hitmaker as she won the very first award as she earned the Favorite Artist Rap/Hip-Hop gong. She impressively beat out Drake and Post Malone in the hotly-contested category. Taking the stage in a fabulous floral number, Cardi thanked her team and her daughter Kulture, who 'inspired' the star to be best and 'prove people wrong' by coming back with a vengeance after giving birth. She likes it like that: It is shaping up to be a big night for Cardi as she earned the first award of the night in the Favorite Artist Rap/Hip-Hop category 'Now they said I wasn't gonna make it after I had a baby': Cardi was definitely grateful for the awknowledgement as she said she was really nervous to accept the glass, pyramid-shaped award 'I really wanna thank my daughter, not just because she's my daughter,' she explained, '...While I was pregnant I was so influenced to be like, "Yo i gotta do this. I gotta show people wrong, I gotta prove people wrong. She went into a sing-song voice, continuing to knock haters saying: 'Because they said I wasn't gonna make it after I had a baby.' The New York native also thanked husband Offset, of rap group Migos. Earlier in the night she looked fabulous in floral as she rocked a flowy Dolce & Gabbana frock featuring a thigh-high split along with a huge matching headpiece. It was a very intricate look which featured a corset-like top and large skirt with a slit to show off her left leg complete with a strappy black heel with a pink flower on it. Her intricate headpiece as well as dress was adorned with artificial flowers sewn into them. Pop princess: Dua Lipa wore an ombre blond and blue wig while performing One Kiss in an orange crop top and white pants Neon dream: She switched tracks to Electricity, as black-light flooded the stage to highlight neon costumed before rain began to pour from the ceiling Behind the music: As Camila sang in an opera-appropriate outfit she was elegantly backed by an orchestra Sing your heart out: Camila Cabello looked glamorous in elbow length gloves and a monochrome gown as she belted her song Consequences Cardi accessorized with large dangling gold earrings as her raven-colored locks were pulled back in a fancy hairdo. The I Like It hitmaker's accentuated her looks with complementary make-up topped off with a pop of color in the form of pink eyeshadow and bright red lipstick. Cardi was not alone on the red carpet as she was joined by husband Offset who is one-third of the platinum-selling hip-hop group Migos. No limits! Jennifer Lopez debuted the track Limitless, the theme-song from her new movie Second Act Shining star: Post Malone donned a shiny silver suit while performing a medley of his songs Psycho and Better Now Another level: Ciara looked fierce and futuristic in white leotard with matching boots while performing Level Up with Missy Elliot Brand name: Missy sauntered on stage in a Gucci sweatsuit to perform her verse The happy couple - who welcomed their first daughter Kulture Kiari three months ago - weren't shy to pack on the PDA as they shared a kiss together on the red carpet. The 26-year-old Bad And Boujee hitmaker - real name Kiari Kendrell Cephus - looked dapper in a burgundy suit. He also sported a black and white striped dress shirt with several of the top buttons undone along with black dress shoes featured a silver embroidered design at the toebox. Pretty in pink: Mariah Carey performed the worldwide TV debut of her new song With You Message in a bottle: Carrie Underwood commanded attention with a performance of her song Spinning Bottles Atmosphere: The star brought a moody air to the stage, surrounded by candles on a turning stage while wearing a red dress over her baby bump In loving memory: The show finished on a joyous note as gospel/soul great Gladys Knight sang Amazing Grace in honor of the late Aretha Franklin Lost and found: Shawn Mendes was joined by Zedd for a performance of their song Lost In Japan Offset had plenty of blinged out jewelry on display including multiple bracelets and rings. His braided locks were pulled back in a ponytail as she rocked a pair of gold-rimmed eyeglasses. Cardi was definitely grateful for the awknowledgement as she said she was really nervous to accept the glass, pyramid-shaped award. A Swift win! Lenny Kravitz introduced Artist Of The Year, which went to Taylor Swift Meaningful: 'I understand how lucky I am to have anyone that cares about me or my music. Every time that you have made me lucky enough to ever get to stand on a stage and have something really sparkly in my hands and say thank you, every single time this happens ... it means something different to me' On the road: She later took the stage to accept the honor for Favorite Tour, which was handed out by Heidi Klum Solo act! Former Fifth Harmony member Camila proved she could do fine on her own as she took home her first two solo AMAs, one for Favorite Pop/Rock Song and the other for New Artist Of the Year Thanking the big man: 'Thank you God first and foremost,' the Nashville beauty began In the band: Migos won the Favorite Pop/Rock group category, marking their first AMA. Offset (right) and Quavo (left) accepted the trophy without bandmate Takeoff Happy for her guy! Cardi B looked ecstatic as she rooted for her hubby Offset from the audience Touched: 'Thank you guys so much,' the In My Blood singer said, 'I've just had the most unreal amount of support form everyone in this room and everyone around the world' Yee haw: Khalid won Favorite Soul/ R&B artist, giving a shout out to his mom and his friends in El Paso, Texas Fan male: Former child star Macaulay Culkin gave the Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist award to Post Malone She also gave a special shoutout to her daughter as she said: 'I really want to thank my daughter and not just because she's my daughter but because when I was pregnant I was so influenced to be like "yo I gotta do this, I gotta prove people wrong." Cardi is tied with Drake for most nominations on the night with eight. Dance off: Hostess Tracee Ellis Ross gave audiences quite a show as she opened things up with a dance medley that included Cardi B, Beyonce, Aretha Franklin, Bruno Mars and more Fierce! Then she announced how proud she was to wear entirely African American designers throughout the evening The Bodak Yellow hitmaker received nominations including for New Artist of the Year, Favorite Female Artist - Pop/Rock, Favorite Artist - Rap/Hip-Hop and Favorite Social Artist as well as Collaboration of the Year for her song Finesse with Bruno Mars. Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross is hosting the show with performances from Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Shawn Mendes, Dua Lipa, Jennifer Lopez, Post Malone and many more. Teamwork! Constance Wu and actress/singer Rita Ora gave out Favorite Pop/Rock duo or group, explaining how collaboration is the first step in making music magic Sibling rivalry: Tracee Ellis gave brother Evan Ross and sister in law Ashlee Simpson a funny intro before they handed out the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Song Chemistry! Veteran hunk John Stamos and Busy Philipps joked and flirted before presenting the award, as a very married Busy admitted she used to have a crush on the Full House favorite Rocking out: Rami Malek and his Bohemian Rhapsody castmates Joseph Mazzello and Gwilym Lee talked about the legacy of rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury as they introduced a special performance of the movie's namesake song Rhapsody in blue: Panic! At The Disco showed off their skills with their own rendition of the classic rock favorite Bohemian Rhapsody, performed at their show elsewhere Make your vote count! Billy Eichner joked that at 40 he was the oldest person allowed to be on stage, before making a plea for the young people watching to register to vote in 'the most important election of our lifetime' Teaming up: Sara Gilbert and Thomas Rhett handed out Favorite Country Female to Carrie Underwood Cardi's performance was be her first at an awards show since welcoming daughter Kulture Kiari with husband Offset in July. She recently made waves as she showed off her toned, post-baby body on Monday, however, she recently revealed that she wants to gain some of the baby weight back. 'Now that I lost all the baby weight, I gotta gain some back,' she captioned the sultry image. Cardi posed in a leather bra and matching pants just ahead of date night with husband Offset, 26, on Sunday. Dynamic duo: Cardi was seen posing up with Taylor Swift during the event Talented: The duo looked happy during the meeting as they both rocked very fashionable looks King and queen: Cardi was not alone on the red carpet as she was joined by husband Offset who is one-third of the platinum-selling hip-hop group Migos Sweet smooch: The happy couple - who welcomed their first daughter Kulture Kiari three months ago - weren't shy to pack on the PDA as they shared a kiss together on the red carpet She's the model and aspiring DJ who's never shy when it comes to flaunting her ample assets on red carpets. And Tuesday was no different for Chantel Jeffries when she stepped out in a risque strapless ensemble for the American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The 26-year-old put on a leggy display and insured all eyes were on her surgically enhanced cleavage. Scroll down for video Showstopper: Chantel Jeffries commanded all attention on Tuesday's American Music Awards red carpet when she stepped out in a risque mini dress that showcased her ample cleavage and trim legs Chantel's tiny mini dress was held together with two zips on either side. She opted to keep the bottom of the dress unzipped up to her upper thigh. The beauty also had her long lean legs out on show and completed the look with thin strappy heels. Keeping it together: Chantel's tiny mini dress was held together with two zips on either side Daring: She opted to keep the bottom of the dress unzipped up to her upper thigh Legs eleven: The beauty also had her long lean legs out on show and completed the look with thin strappy heels She accessorised her daring look with a silver metallic rectangular shaped clutch. Chantel's dark locks were styled out straight and sleek with a blunt cut. Her makeup was kept bronzed and luminous with contoured cheekbones and a dark eye. Gorgeous: Chantel's dark locks were styled out straight and sleek with a blunt cut Accessories: She accessorised her daring look with a silver metallic rectangular shaped clutch Glam: Along with bold brows, her look was completed with a pinky nude matte lip on her plump pout Along with bold brows, her look was completed with a pinky nude matte lip on her plump pout. 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. Nowadays Chantel is DJ and is signed with Universal Music Group label 10:22 pm helmed by Celine Joshua. Rise to fame: Chantel became a household name after dating Justin Bieber in 2014 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 Celine 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.' He's Australia's leading male model. And Jordan Barrett cut a smart casual figure in head-to-toe black at Tiffany & Co's Blue Book Collection in New York on Tuesday. The 21-year-old, who was accompanied by Victoria's Secret beauty Josephine Skriver, sported a slim-fit sweater teamed with cropped trousers and dress shoes. Black to basics! Jordan Barrett, 21, cut a smart casual figure in a black sweater and tailored trousers at Tiffany & Co's Blue Book collection in New York City on Tuesday Jordan accessorised with Tiffany & Co. jewellery for the occasion. After showing off his best angles on the media wall, Jordan mingled with Victoria's Secret model Josephine Skriver. The 25-year-old highlighted her leggy figure in a pink frock with a daring thigh split, and completed her look with nude strappy heels and a black clutch. Josephine's brunette locks were styled sleek and straight and she opted for an elegant makeup palette. The details: Jordan accessorised with Tiffany & Co. jewellery for the occasion Model pals: After showing off his best angles on the media wall, Jordan mingled with Victoria's Secret model Josephine Skriver, 25 The sighting comes just weeks after Jordan spoke about the gender pay gap in the modelling industry. He told the Courier Mail last month: '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. '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. Stunning: Josephine highlighted her leggy figure in a pastel pink frock with a daring thigh split, and accessorised with nude strappy heels and a black envelope clutch 'It is basically a women's industry. More women buy makeup, hair products and clothing than men. It is just simply that. Guys aren't generally out there buying tonnes of hair products. Girls buy more clothes than guys.' Jordan was discovered at age 14 by a model scout working for agency IMG. The chance meeting took place when he was caught stealing matches from a convenience store. Jordan previously told New York Magazine of the incident: 'I wanted to have a cigarette, but I couldn't get a lighter because apparently you have to be over 18, so I decided I was gonna take matches from the counter.' A Current Affair has tracked down Nick Cummins on holiday in Papua New Guinea. In an exclusive report set to air on Wednesday night, journalist Reid Butler ambushes the former Wallaby at a luxury hotel to ask about his decision to dump both finalists during last week's Bachelor finale. Channel Nine is promising a 'fiery confrontation' between Nick and the ACA team, with a trailer showing the sportsman reacting angrily to being caught off guard by a camera crew. 'Can we ask you about the mess you've left back home?' Furious Nick Cummins is confronted on A Current Affair as it's revealed he is living the high life in Papua New Guinea after dumping both women on The Bachelor In a 20-second preview shared to ACA's Instagram page, Reid walks straight up to Nick and says: 'Can I ask you a few questions about the mess you left back home?' 'Sorry?!' Nick replies, with a stunned look on his face. Before his on-camera ambush, the larrikin looked in relaxed spirits as he sipped cocktails and strolled around the resort in a white bathrobe. Relaxing: A Current Affair covertly recorded footage of Nick unwinding at a resort in Papua New Guinea. He is pictured on the right, dressed in a white bathrobe while standing at a bar It's believed A Current Affair's exclusive report was filmed shortly after Nick completed the Kokoda Trail walk. In another scene from the preview, Reid Butler finds himself surrounded by Nick's friends, who look angry and panicked as they try to escape the camera. The program is teasing the incident as a 'blow-up'. Who's the lucky lady? In another scene, the former Wallaby takes a swim in the resort's pool as he chats with a mystery brunette Will he ever face his critics? Nick has been spending time in Papua New Guinea in the wake of The Bachelor's explosive finale A Current Affair also covertly recorded footage of Nick unwinding at the resort. In the vision, he can be seen relaxing on a sun lounger before chatting with a friend at the hotel bar, seemingly without a care in the world. In another scene, he takes a swim in the pool and chats with a mystery brunette. Nick's public image as a likable Aussie bloke was shattered last week when he shocked the country by choosing no one in the Bachelor finale. The two finalists, Brittany Hockley and Sophie Tieman, later admitted they were both left heartbroken by the rugby star's inability to commit. The late Aretha Franklin was honored by an ensemble led by her friend Gladys Knight at the American Music Awards on Tuesday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Performers who joined Knight on stage - which had a massive image of Franklin in the backdrop - included CeCe Winans, Donnie McClurkin, Ledisi, Rickey Minor and Mary Mary's Erica Campbell and Tina Campbell. The segment began with a video retrospective documenting the unparalleled life of the Queen of Soul, who died at 76 on August 19 after battling pancreatic cancer. Scroll below for video Goodbye to a legend: The late Aretha Franklin was honored by an ensemble led by her friend Gladys Knight at the American Music Awards on Tuesday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles Among the career highlights included her AMA performance in 1986, hosting gigs in 1976 and 1983, and her six victories at the annual show. In the tribute, Knight emerged to the sounds of an organist and sang Amazing Grace, before she was flanked by Winans, McClurkin, Ledisi and Mary Mary, as the group performed a medley of Franklin's gospel greats. Songs included in the performance incluced Amazing Grace, Mary, Dont You Weep and How I Got Over. Knight said in a red carpet interview she was 'so very honored to have known her since [she and Aretha] were both little girls.' Icon: Knight, 74, emerged to the sounds of an organist and sang Amazing Grace Institution: Among Aretha's career highlights at the AMAs included her performance in 1986, hosting gigs in 1976 and 1983, and her six victories at the annual show Talented team: (L-R) Ledisi, Erica Campbell, Tracee Ellis Ross, Tina Campbell and CeCe Winans looked happy at the conclusion of the set Enduring: The AMAs tribute was the latest in a series of events honoring the late Queen of Soul The Georgia native, 74, told interviewers Jessie James Decker and Zach Sang one of the reasons Franklin's success was so enduring. 'The fact that her music has been so pure for all of these years - she touched everybody with her music simply because she chose it with her heart, she didnt choose anything she didnt believe,' Knight said. 'She deserves this recognition, this tribute, all of these things for being around for this long.' Playing off the crowd: Mary Mary thrived during their portion of the gospel-driven tribute Good as gold: Ledisi performed How I Got Over as part of the tribute Focused: CeCe Winans was tuned in as she performed Mary Don't You Weep Joyous: Donnie McClurkin perfored the classic Ain't No Mountain High Enough Well-earned: Knight said of her late friend, 'She deserves this recognition, this tribute, all of these things for being around for this long' Queens: Knight posed for a shot with Cardi B at the venue on the autumn evening It's the latest in a number of musical memorials in honor of the Queen of Soul, as she was included in an Emmy Awards In Memoriam segment, and honored by Madonna at the MTV Video Music Awards. Aretha's funeral was a veritable who's who of famous faces, as stars such as Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande were among those who performed at the August 31 event in her native Detroit. They've been dating since March 2017, but have kept a low profile for the past 18 months. But on Wednesday, actors Dev Patel and Tilda Cobham-Hervey appeared more than happy to be see together while promoting their new movie Hotel Mumbai at Adelaide's Hilton Hotel. With his mop top hair and scruffy beard, Dev, 28, was all smiles as he cosied up next to Australian actress Tilda, 24. Scroll down for video Dev Patel (right) made a rare public appearance with his girlfriend Tilda Cobham-Hervey (centre) on Wednesday as they promoted their new film Hotel Mumbai in Australia. Pictured with their co-star Armie Hammer (left) Dev, who wore a striped shirt, black T-shirt and jeans, looked the epitome of casual cool standing alongside Tilda and fellow actor Armie Hammer, 32. With her light brown hair pulled back into a low bun, Tilda opted for a satin longsleeve top and plain black trousers for the occasion. The Barracuda actress looked fresh-faced, wearing minimal makeup. Low-key couple: Dev and Tilda have been dating since March 2017, but have kept a relatively low profile for the past 18 months Meanwhile, Armie kept it casual in a black, cream and caramel striped jumper with faded blue jeans. Dev and Tilda met while filming the based-on-a-true-story drama, Hotel Mumbai. The Australian-American thriller is based on the 2009 documentary Surviving Mumbai about the attacks at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in India in 2008. Fitting right in: Armie (left) kept it casual in a striped jumper with faded blue jeans The movie focuses on the lives of the victims and survivors of the attacks. Dev plays the character of Arjun, Tilda plays Sally and Armie plays David. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7 and is due for release in 2019. Prior to dating Tilda, Dev was in a relationship with Freida Pinto from 2007 until 2014. Advertisement Hollywood's top female stars gathered together Tuesday night in LA. They were guests at the star-studded Porter's 3rd Annual Incredible Women Gala in honor of the fashion magazines winter issue. Kate Beckinsale, Miranda Kerr and Charlize Theron led the pack with their stylish outfits. Famous beauties: Kate Beckinsale, Charlize Theron and Miranda Kerr led the pack at the star-studded Porter's 3rd Annual Incredible Women Gala in Los Angeles Tuesday night Beckinsale, 45, showed off her toned midriff and legs in a dramatic black outfit with sheer patterned overlay. The British actress stepped out in black sandal heels and sported black polish on her finger and toe nails. Her long caramel locks were styled back from her face with a couple of tendrils left loose to soften the look and she kept her makeup light with a little mascara, rosy blush and glossy lip color. On trend: Beckinsale, 45, showed off her toned midriff and legs in a dramatic black outfit with sheer patterned overlay and she stepped out in black sandal heels Gorgeous: The British actress wore her hair styled back from her face with a couple of tendrils left loose and she kept her makeup light with a little mascara, rosy blush and glossy lip color Miranda Kerr also went for a leggy look with a long-sleeved mini dress. Her black and gold striped outfit had slightly padded shoulders and a high neck. The Australian supermodel, 35, rocked long dangly earrings and red nail polish and added black sandal heels. Lean limbs: Miranda Kerr, 35, also went for a leggy look with a long-sleeved mini dress and black sandal heels Working it: The Australian supermodel posed up a storm for photographers in her thigh-skimming frock Three's company: Kate Beckinsale, Miranda Kerr and Amber Heard looked typically stunning as they posed for photos Theron chose a black dress with a partially sheer bodice and tiered ankle-length skirt. She added black heeled boots and carried a small black purse. The Oscar winner's blonde hair was styled with an off-center parting and she wore dramatic earrings. A-list: Theron, 43, flashed cleavage in a black dress with a partial sheer bodice and her blonde hair was styled with an off-center parting Fashionable: The Oscar winner's dress had a tiered ankle-length skirt. She added black heeled boots and carried a small black purse Looking good: The actress was at her stylish best as she posed for photos at the event Anna Kendrick also flaunted her legs in a slinky metallic-themed halter dress slit to the thigh at the front. The Pitch Perfect star showcased her curves in the figure-hugging number that boasted a tasseled collar. She added shiny gold sandal heels and wore her hair in an updo with loose tendrils framing her face. Take a seat: Charlize was the picture of elegance as she settled at her table on Tuesday evening Say cheese: Gabrielle Union (C) joined Charlize and Amber for a photo opportunity at Los Angeles venue Ebell Flirty look: Anna Kendrick also flaunted her legs in a slinky metallic-themed halter dress slit to the thigh at the front and she added shiny gold sandal heels Side by side: Amber and Anna occupied seats at the same table at Ebell in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening Dazzling: Anna and Miranda competed for most glamorous on the night courtesy of their glittering evening dresses In good company: Alice Eve joined Australian model Miranda as they prepared for their evening meal at the event Pals: Anna rubbed shoulders with former Dawson's Creek star Busy Philipps as the glamorous night wore on Amber Heard, 32, made a dramatic entrance with her short blonde hair gelled into a quiff and wearing a white shirt with skinny black pants. She added a plush burgundy tuxedo jacket that was left undone and black pointed pumps. The ex-wife of Johnny Depp heavily lined her eyes with black kohl and mascara and accentuated her cheekbones with dark red blusher. Striking: Amber made a dramatic entrance with her short blonde hair gelled into a quiff and made up with dark blusher and glossy scarlet red lip color Eye-catching: The ex-wife of Johnny Depp was dressed in a white shirt with skinny black pants and a plush burgundy tuxedo jacket that was left undone. She added black pointed pumps Here she comes: Amber inevitably caught the eye as she made hr way inside the Los Angeles venue on Tuesday evening High spirits: The actress beamed as she signed autographs for a gathering of fans Over here Amber! A security guard looked on as she indulged the waiting crowd before making her way inside The finishing touch was glossy scarlet red lip color and matching nail polish. Minnie Driver, 48, bucked the trend with a sleeveless white frock with colorful motifs on the skirt. She wore purple sandal heels and her hair was styled in an updo. Driver accessorized with large diamond earrings and she added a purple shade of lipstick. Fancy meeting you here! The actress beamed as she shared a joked with British star Kate Face in the crowd: Charlize looked on as the star-studded event got underway Fresh: Minnie Driver, 48, bucked the trend with a sleeveless white frock with colorful motifs on the skirt. She wore purple sandal heels and her hair was styled in an updo Bright and beautiful: Actress Alice Eve, 36, showed off her cleavage in a colorful sequin-studded frock with a black sash at the waist Glowing: Alison Brie, 35, also put on a busty show in a dress with a white bustier-style bodice and a floral-themed skirt with tiers at the waist Rebecca Gayheart, 47, showed up in a one-shoulder asymmetrical white silk top and white flared trousers with gold shoes Style statement: Busy Phillips, 39, opted to wear a black bra under a tailored black jacket and paired them with sparkly black flares. She wore her blonde hair in ringlets Busy Phillips, 39, opted to wear a black bra under a tailored black jacket and paired them with sparkly black flares. She wore her blonde hair in ringlets and sported lashings of black mascara and pink lipstick. Tiffany Haddish, 38, attended the event in a silver Georges Chakra suit with an embossed paisley pattern, which she paired with some matching silver heels. Ellen Pompeo, 48, posed for photos in a black mini dress with long sleeves and black heels. Other celebrity guests included Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann, Storm Reid and Annie Lennox. Happy couple: Sam Taylor-Johnson and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were also in attendance at the event Shiny: Tiffany Haddish (L) attended the event in a silver Georges Chakra suit that was embossed with a paisley pattern, and a pair of silver heels, while Ellen Pompeo (R) posed for photos in a black mini dress with long sleeves and black heels Making movies: Husband and wife team Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann turned the gala into a date night Shoulder to shoulder: Alice Eve and Alison Brie looked equally stunning in wildly contrasting but no less glamorous evening dresses Striking: Music maker: Annie Lennox (L), chose a plum-colored tailor suit and a black top, while Storm Reid (R) looked pretty in a pale blue dress dotted with tiny silver embellishments Centre stage: Charlize later addressed the audience after taking to the podium She's no stranger to showing off her model figure. So Emily Ratajkowski didn't think twice before donning an eye-popping look out around New York on Tuesday. The actress/model, 27, offered up an eyeful of flesh wearing a floral coat just long enough to cover her body and worn with nothing underneath. Flower power: Emily Ratajkowski looked lovely in a floral coat with nothing beneath while out in NYC on Tuesday EmRat, as fans call her, put a sexy twist on the boxy floral blazer, flaunting her front by going bra-free underneath. The I Feel Pretty star's frock fell down to just above mid-thigh and was fastened with a single button to let the maximum amount of leg poke through. She rolled up the sleeves for another touch. Emily accessorized with pewter statement earrings and a pair of 90s style tortoiseshell sunglasses. Show off: EmRat, as fans call her, put a sexy twist on the boxy floral blazer, flaunting her front by going bra-free underneath Revealing: The I Feel Pretty star's frock fell down to just above mid-thigh and was fastened with a single button to let the maximum amount of leg poke through Adding both a fashionable and practical element, white sneakers rounded out the look. The wife of Sebastian Bear McClard carried her things in a chain-link purse and wore her tresses long and straight. Emily was arrested last week in Washington DC during a protest against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She was taken in along with Amy Schumer. Protesting: Emily was arrested last week in Washington DC during a protest against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Taking to Instagram to explain why she stood up against the judge, who was accused by multiple women of sexual assault, she shared an Instagram. 'Today I was arrested protesting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault. Men who hurt women can no longer be placed in positions of power. 'Kavanaughs confirmation as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a message to women in this country that they do not matter. I demand a government that acknowledges, respects and supports women as much as it does men.' Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins shocked Australia when he dumped both finalists, Brittany Hockley and Sophie Tieman, during last week's Bachelor finale. And after fleeing Australia for Papua New Guinea in anticipation of the inevitable backlash, the 31-year-old former Wallaby has seemingly broken his silence. In extracts from his book The Honey Badger Guide To Life, the rugby star appears to subtly reference the inner turmoil he experienced on the show. Scroll down for video 'Why carry that burden of guilt, sadness and grief with you?' Nick Cummins' new book seemingly alludes to his inner turmoil leading up to the shock Bachelor finale 'Why carry that burden of guilt, sadness and grief with you?' Nick pondered, as he reflected on his emotions in a chapter titled Boys Don't Cry. 'All that weight and bulls**t can only bring you down. How the hell are you going to be the best that you can be while dragging all that crap around? 'Blokes are a bit confused, and it's time we threw out the male behaviour books that were written too long ago. Fellas feel that they are perceived as being weak when talking about personal issues, but that's bulls**t.' The Honey Badger Guide To Life, which was released on Wednesday, is believed to have been written in the months after The Bachelor finale was filmed in late May. Candid: 'Why carry that burden of guilt, sadness and grief with you?' Nick pondered, as he reflected on his emotions in a chapter titled Boys Don't Cry. Pictured: Nick breaking up with Sophie Tieman in The Bachelor finale Facing the music: 'All that weight and bulls**t can only bring you down. How the hell are you going to be the best that you can be while dragging all that crap around?' Nick continued In the same chapter, Nick wrote: 'By talking about how you feel, you set yourself free. Laugh, cry and be honest with yourself. Then you'll truly know what it is to be alive.' Reflecting on the difficult times he has endured in the past, the former sportsman added: 'I've been through tough times, just like anyone. 'Like you, I've built walls and hidden away. The trouble is, you can't be heard through walls and unless you're Superman, you can't see through them.' Something on your mind? The Honey Badger Guide To Life, which was released on Wednesday, is believed to have been written in the months after The Bachelor finale was filmed in late May In the book, which is a mix of honest reflection and larrikin humour, Nick also reflected on his struggle with being in the public eye. 'As a rugby player with a rough melon and decent mop, I've secured a bit of a following,' he wrote. 'Some people think I've got it all covered. While I go after things and engage life, I still look for meaning and answers. We need to do this to improve ourselves.' 'Some people think I've got it all covered': In the book, which is a mix of honest reflection and larrikin humour, Nick also reflected on his struggle with being in the public eye The release of Nick's book comes after he rejected both Brittany Hockley and Sophie Tieman during The Bachelor finale last Thursday. While the two women have spent the past week fronting the media, Nick has remained off the grid while completing the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea. These emotional passages will presumably give both fans of Nick and The Bachelor an insight into his thought process before he made his fateful decision. The Honey Badger Guide To Life is available now She made her Paris Fashion Week debut during the Christophe Guillarme showcase in the French capital last week. And back in Los Angeles, Blanca Blanco kept up with her stylish displays. Attending the premiere for Wildfire at ArcLight Hollywood for IFC Films, the 37-year-old got all heads turning for her red ensemble. This comes just after she won an International Independent Film Award for her work as Best Supporting Actress for playing Melanie in Betrayed. Gorgeous: Blanca Blanco flaunted her red hot physique and ample cleavage at the Wildfire premiere on Tuesday Blanca opted for a tule mni dress that featured intricate stitching from the breast region downwards. Her ample cleavage was out on show and she completed the look with peep-toe black strappy heels. The actress had her brunette locks styled out and intro voluminous loose waves. Stunner: Blanca opted for a tule mni dress that featured intricate stitching from the breast region downwards Date night: Blanca was joined on the carpet by her long-term partner John Savage, 69 Busting out: Her ample cleavage was out on show and she completed the look with peep-toe black strappy heels Her glam was kept luminous with a dark eye with lash extensions and a semi-gloss nude lip. Blanca was joined on the carpet by her long-term partner John Savage, 69. John dressed sharp in a black dress shirt and a burgundy colored suit jacket. Looking dapper: John dressed sharp in a black dress shirt and a burgundy colored suit jacket Stunner: Actress Carey Mulligan opted for a floral ensemble that was complete with shoulder pads Actress Carey Mulligan opted for a floral ensemble that was complete with shoulder pads. Underneath the statement look she showcased a hint of her black lace bra. The Dr Who beauty had her blonde tresses styled back off of her face into a lose wave for the evening event. Racy in lace! Underneath the statement look she showcased a hint of her black lace bra Simplistic beauty: The Dr Who beauty had her blonde tresses styled back off of her face into a lose wave for the evening event Smile for the camera! Cary was seen posing alongside writer Zoe Kazan and her partner Paul Dano Stunner: Writer Zoe Kazan was a beauty in satin blue sleeveless mini dress. She completed her leggy display with round silver pumps Carey's glam consisted of blushed cheekbones and shadow with a glossy nude lip. Writer Zoe Kazan was a beauty in satin blue sleeveless mini dress. She completed her leggy display with round silver pumps. The beauty featured a clear complexion with blushed cheeks and a matching eye shadow shade. Stylish: The beauty featured a clear complexion with blushed cheeks and a matching eye shadow shade Out and about: Zoe also took a moment to pose with her partner Paul Dano She completed her look with a subtle red lip and had her brunette locks in ringlets. Zoe also took a moment to pose with her partner Paul Dano. Daughter of Meryl Streep, Grace Gummer showcased her cool chic style on Tuesday evening. Just like her mom! Daughter of Meryl Streep, Grace Gummer showcased her cool chic style on Tuesday evening Chic: She opted for a taupe colored crop top underneath a long cream suit jacket and matching high waisted trousers Gorgeous: Meryl's other daughter Mamie was also at the premiere on Tuesday and dressed in a similar style She opted for a taupe colored crop top underneath a long cream suit jacket and matching high waisted trousers. The actress completed her look with nude lips and accessorized with a dainty gold choker. The American Horror Story star had her balayage locks out and natural and a simple glam look. Style forward: She opted for a chic white shirt and black trousers underneath a taupe colored duster Date night: Actress Emily V. Gordon and her stand up comedian husband Kumail Nanjiani was also in attendance Wow! Carolina Catalino was a vision in blue with actor Vincent Spano Meryl's other daughter Mamie was also at the premiere on Tuesday and dressed in a similar style. She opted for a chic white shirt and black trousers underneath a taupe colored duster. The 35-year-old accessorised with a bold clutch and also sported a simple makeup look. Actress Emily V. Gordon and her stand up comedian husband Kumail Nanjiani was also in attendance. Other stars included: Carolina Catalino, Adele Heather Taylor, Alex Saks, Lou Taylor, Maya Karza, Thora Birch and Chi Han. Adele Heather Taylor opted for a gorgeous playsuit on the red carpet alongside Roberto Orci Producer Alex Saks keot warm in a full length dress and a matching dark jacket Lou Taylor looked very dapper in a brown striped shirt underneath a navy suit Actress Maya Kazan kept it smart with a sleeveless top and polka dot grey trousers Thora Birch stunned in stripes and a bold pink lip She recently spoke about how her husband, Lance 'Buddy' Franklin, helps her overcome her battle with crippling anxiety. And Jesinta Franklin (nee Campbell) took to Instagram to share a loved-up snap of the doting couple on Wednesday. The 27-year-old was pictured cuddling up to her beau in the elevator of five-star hotel, Six Senses, while vacationing in Singapore. 'Just us': Jesinta Franklin shared a sweet loved-up snap with beau Buddy while on vacation in Singapore... after admitting he helps overcome her battle with anxiety 'Just us and all our luggage,' she captioned the post. The blonde beauty cut a chic figure in a pair of denim shorts, a white shirt and quirky sunglasses as she leaned towards AFL star. And the lavish holiday comes after Jesinta's interview with Marie Claire magazine this month - where she spoke about her battle with anxiety. Cute: The blonde beauty cut a chic figure in a pair of denim shorts, a white shirt and quirky sunglasses as she leaned towards AFL star The model revealed she experienced her first anxiety attack when she won Miss Universe Australia back in 2010. 'There were days where it was really hard for me to even go outside because I felt like everyone was looking at me,' she told the publication. 'I was lying in bed and I felt like I couldn't breathe and that my chest was caving in.' After going to the doctor thinking she had a 'heart problem', Jesinta discovered she was in the midst of an anxiety attack. Support: The model credits her husband, Lance 'Buddy' Franklin with helping her through her anxiety. 'I think it's nice that we can talk about it together,' she said But the statuesque stunner said she's been able to work through it with the help of her husband, Buddy. 'My husband can sense when I'm anxious and helps me through it,' she said. 'He has been through his own battles with mental health, and I think it's nice that we can talk about it together.' She's had a long-running feud with Chloe Moretz, which started after the actress criticised one of her racy nude posts on Instagram back in 2016. And Kim Kardashian, 37, risked the most awkward of run-ins with the 21-year-old Kick-Ass star on Tuesday night, when they both arrived at The Polo Bar in New York City. Fresh from having attended the Tiffany Blue Book Collection launch at nearby Studio 525, the mother-of-three made her way to the upscale eatery with her close pal La La Anthony, at a similar time at Chloe arrived with one of her brothers. Awkward! Kim Kardashian, left, risked a very awkward run-in with Chloe Moretz, right, on Tuesday night, when they both made their way to The Polo Bar in New York City The beauties stepped out in contrasting styles, with Chloe sporting a black silk dress, while Kim draped her famous hourglass curves in a deeply plunging ivory gown, which boasted a backless feature. Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Kim's sleeveless frock of choice featured a fishtail silhouette, which gathered to create a short train. Chloe locked horns with Kim back in March 2016 when she criticised her for sharing a nude post on her Instagram account. Friends: Reality star Kim made her way to the upscale eatery with her close pal La La Anthony Hourglass curves: Kim draped her famous hourglass curves in a deeply plunging ivory gown Soiree: Earlier, she'd attended the Tiffany Blue Book Collection launch at nearby Studio 525 Dazzler: She wore a dazzling diamond choker, which she removed when she went out to dinner She tweeted: '@KimKardashian I truly hope you realize how important setting goals for young women, teaching them we have so much more to offer than just our bodies.' Reality star Kim snapped back: 'Let's all welcome @ChloeGMoretz to twitter, since no one knows who she is. Your Nylon cover is cute boo.' [sic] Later that year, Chloe took to social media to comment on Kim's husband Kanye West's longrunning feud with pop star Taylor Swift. She said: 'Everyone in this industry needs to get their heads out of a hole and look around to realize what's ACTUALLY happening in the REAL world. Stop wasting your voice on something so petulant and unimportant.' Black dress: Kick-Ass actress Chloe stepped out in a black silk dress under a matching coat Standing tall: The 21-year-old blonde beauty teamed her frock of choice with two-tone heels Family: The ex-girlfriend of Brooklyn Beckham dined at the restaurant with one of her brothers Their feud culminated in Kim declaring on Twitter that Chloe was included in her list of 'haters' who were set to receive a bottle of her KKW Kimoji Hearts perfume as a Valentine's Day gift earlier this year. The gesture put Chloe in the company of a host of stars, including Taylor Swift, Piers Morgan, Pink, Blac Chyna, and Sharon Osbourne all of whom have publicly clashed with Kim in some form in recent years. However, in an interview on Watch What Happens Live over the summer, Chloe revealed that her publicist decided against handing the gift over to her. The actress admitted she never received it because her management team stepped in and whipped it away before it got to her. Stunning: Power star La La caught the eye in a black sleeveless top with matching trousers Tress-ed to impress: The star's raven locks fell beyond her shoulders in long, lustrous waves Sparkle: Kim opted to largely forgo accessories for her meal, letting her dress do all the talking She told WWHL host Andy Cohen: 'I didn't even get it, my publicist just took it. I didn't even open it. I didn't have it. No, I never saw it. 'I literally got a video of it from my publicist and they were like, "They sent this, so we just kept it." So, thanks?' Asked if she had heard from Taylor after she defended her, Chloe, whose romance with Brooklyn Beckham ended earlier this year, said: 'Not personally, no, I didn't hear anything. 'But I think that I really like the new album and I like her new path that she's on in her career. It seems very honest, it seems very real, and it seems like she's really killing it.' Platinum: Former MTV VJ La La wore her hair in long platinum waves, which rested under a hat Backlash: Back in 2016, Kim caused a stir when she shared a snapshot of herself naked online Having her say: The Twitter post prompted Chloe to voice her opinion on the very racy image 'Stop wasting your voice': Chloe also had something to say when it came to Kanye West's feud with Taylor Swift the same year The Bachelor's shock finale saw Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins dump both Sophie Tieman and Brittany Hockley. And now rival dating series Take Me Out has taken a swipe at the show with a hilarious video, mocking the romance juggernaut for failing to deliver a fairytale ending 'after three months'. In the biting clip, the former Wallaby, 30, is seen surrounded by love hearts, one of which shatters before the caption 'No result' flashes on screen. 'No result after three months!' Take Me Out takes a swipe at rival dating show The Bachelor after Nick 'The Honey Badger' dumped both finalists during shock finale Cry baby! As animated tears fall from Nick's eyes, a voiceover says: 'No result after watching three months of the Bachelor?' As animated tears fall from Nick's eyes, a voiceover says: 'No result after watching three months of the Bachelor?' The clip then cuts to the Take Me Out studio where presenter Joel Creasey plays cupid with a gaggle of busty contestants for the affections of a hunky blonde suitor. While the contestants flirt shamelessly, the voiceover continues: 'There will a kiss, there will be a date, there will be a catfight.' Sore point! Presented by comedian Joel Creasey (pictured) the Seven dating series mocked the Ten romance juggernaut for failing to deliver a fairytale ending 'after three months' The voiceover then takes one last swipe at the Ten dating series, 'all the action, none of the boring bits!' The side-splitting clip comes shortly before Nick Cummins is confronted for dumping the two finalists on Wednesday night's episode of A Current Affair. In an exclusive report, journalist Reid Butler ambushes the former AFL player at a luxury hotel in Papua New Guinea to ask about his shock decision during last week's Bachelor finale. Prime target: The hopefuls are seen competing for the affections of a hunky blond suitor Channel Nine is promising a 'fiery confrontation' between Nick and the ACA team, with a trailer showing the sportsman reacting angrily to being caught off guard by a camera crew. In a 20-second preview shared to ACA's Instagram page, Reid walks straight up to Nick and says: 'Can I ask you a few questions about the mess you left back home?' 'Can we ask you about the mess you've left back home?' A furious Nick is confronted on A Current Affair as it's revealed he is living the high life in Papua New Guinea after dumping both women on The Bachelor 'Sorry?!' he replies, with a stunned look on his face. Nick's public image as a likable Aussie bloke was shattered last week when he shocked the country by choosing no one in the Bachelor finale. The two finalists, Brittany Hockley and Sophie Tieman, later admitted they were both left heartbroken by the rugby star's inability to commit. Is his career over? Nick's public image as a likable Aussie bloke was shattered last week when he shocked the country by choosing no one in the Bachelor finale. Pictured: The show's heartbroken finalists Brittany Hockley (left) and Sophie Tieman (right) She's been busy filming the upcoming comedy Greed with co-stars Isla Fisher and Steve Coogan on the Greek's Delos island. And on Wednesday, Shanina Shaik, 27, shared a racy photo of herself taking a well-deserved break as she posed in a sexy black swimsuit while in Mykonos. Taking to Instagram, the Victoria Secret model showed off her bronzed and slender frame while wearing an off-the-shoulder swimsuit and awaiting her boat ride. The boat here yet?': Shanina Shaik posed in sexy black swimwear after she was seen shooting scenes for new movie Greed with Isla Fisher in Greece She finished her look with a pair with black sunglasses, leaving her long brunette tresses swept away from her face in a high-bun. 'The boat here yet?' she captioned the sun-drenched snap. Work or play? She's been busy filming the upcoming comedy Greed with co-stars Isla Fisher and Steve Coogan on the Greek's Delos island Earlier this week, the brunette beauty was pictured next to her co-star Isla Fisher as they took a break from filming. Isla showed off her quick wit when she took to Instagram to pen a cheeky caption alongside a selfie with the supermodel. 'Instagram tip 1: to make myself look hot, I always like to pose next to someone fugly,' Isla jokingly wrote in the caption. 'I always like to pose next to someone fugly': Actress Isla Fisher shares a very cheeky selfie with Victoria's Secret model Shanina Shaik In the photo, The Now You See Me star candidly laughed as she cuddled up to Shanina, who looked stunning wearing a statement necklace. Both beauties were pictured sporting flower crowns amid their curled tresses. She credits her phenomenal figure to her gruelling fitness regime. And Padma Lakshmi, 48, looked astonishing on arrival at the glittering Take Home A Nude art auction at Sotheby's, in New York City on Tuesday. The host of Bravo's Top Chef turned heads in her shimmering metallic dress which flattered her enviable figure as she joined Naomi Watts and Helena Christensen. Fantastic figure! Padma Lakshmi, 48, slipped her enviable figure into her shimmering dress as she joined Naomi Watts and Helena Christensen at swanky art auction on Tuesday Padma looked effortlessly stylish as she accessorised with a necktie in the same dazzling material as her slinky number. Bringing a touch of golden to her party vibe, the model sauntered through the art auction in her shimmering steep heels. The American author drew attention to her age-defying features with defining strokes of make-up and she styled her brunette locks in loose waves. Take Home A Nude's star-studded party and auction was hosted as a benefit for the New York Academy of Art. It's party time! Bringing a touch of golden to her party vibe, the model sauntered through the art auction in her shimmering steep heels She's beautiful: The American author drew attention to her age-defying features with defining strokes of make-up and she styled her brunette locks in loose waves Naomi was a work of art in her floral pantsuit which was embroidered with poppies in red and blue dotted all over the ensemble. The star proved her beauty had stood the test of time in Hollywood after celebrating her 50th with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman's wife Deborra-lee Furness. Bringing the blazer in with a simple black belt, the King Kong actress displayed her slender figure when she headed into the bash. Looking fantastic! Naomi was a work of art in her floral pantsuit which was embroidered with poppies in red and blue dotted all over the ensemble Great times: The star proved her beauty had stood the test of time in Hollywood after celebrating her 50th with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman's wife Deborra-lee Furness So stylish: Bringing the blazer in with a simple black belt, the King Kong actress displayed her slender figure when she headed into the bash Naomi proved there was no animosity with her ex Liev Schreiber as they enjoyed each other's company at the art auction. The exes proved they were on friendly terms following the fall out of their split in September 2016 after 11 years together as a couple. Elsewhere, Helena, 49, looked ravishing in her black jumpsuit featuring a frilled neckline to ensure all eyes were cast over her cleavage. World's friendliest exes! Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts looked happy as they socialised at the art auction No ice! The duo looked comfortable in each other's company despite their split in 2016 after 11 years together as a couple The Danish model injected vibrant touches of colour with her bejeweled belt made up of stones in sapphire blue, lime green and red. Helena looked impossibly youthful as she styled her chocolate shade locks in bouncy waves and she accentuated her features with make-up. In March, Padma claimed she had to work out more than most people because of the huge amounts of food she devours as a chef. For the frill of it: Elsewhere, Helena, 49, looked ravishing in her black jumpsuit featuring a frilled neckline to ensure all eyes were cast over her cleavage Dazzling diva: The Danish model injected vibrant touches of colour with her bejeweled belt made up of stones in sapphire blue, lime green and red So trendy: Helena looked impossibly youthful as she styled her chocolate shade locks in bouncy waves and she accentuated her features with make-up Good fun: Helena was every inch the social butterfly as she mingled with a whole host of party guests inside the auction She explained to The Cut: 'I need to work out more than most other people because Im eating much more than other people. 'I do Pilates three times a week and I try to box twice a week and lift weights twice a week as well if I can. 'On average, if my schedule allows, I probably work out five to six times a week for 90 minutes to two hours.' Giddy! The model looked ecstatic as she laughed giddily on the red carpet Racy in red: Tali Lennox looked amazing in her scarlet dress as she joined a whole galaxy of stars the auction She is famed for her dazzling sense of style and ability to nail any trend. And Amber Heard proved just this on Tuesday evening as she started off her night in a frothy, girly gown at the American Music Awards, before zipping across town to hit the red carpet at the star-studded Porter's 3rd Annual Incredible Women Gala. Having kicked off her evening in the exquisite gold gown, the 32-year-old made a sensational arrival on the red carpet in the chic velvet blazer complete with skin-tight trousers and a neck tie while styling her hair into a mock-crop. Changing faces: Amber Heard proved just this on Tuesday evening as she started off her night in a frothy, girly gown at the American Music Awards, before zipping across town to hit the red carpet at the star-studded Porter's 3rd Annual Incredible Women Gala Amber was sure to show off her flawless style credentials at the glitzy bash as she posed this way and that in the sleek tuxedo and staggering heels. The burgundy blazer featured a fold-down black lapel which coordinated with her skin-tight black trousers and sky-high heels, which showed her penchant for all things designer due to their Yves Saint Laurent branded heel. Sporting a semi-sheer white shirt underneath the jacket, she injected a dazzling touch with the addition of a jewelled tie at her neck and a dangling locker. Amber's beauty regimen was as flawless as the rest of her look, as she went for sculpted contouring and a blood-red lipstick to highlight her plump pout. Strutting her stuff: Having kicked off her evening in the exquisite gold gown, the 32-year-old made a sensational arrival on the red carpet in the chic velvet blazer complete with skin-tight trousers and a neck tie while styling her hair into a mock-crop Suited and booted: Amber was sure to show off her flawless style credentials at the glitzy bash as she posed this way and that in the sleek tuxedo and staggering heels Slick: Amber's beauty regimen was as flawless as the rest of her look, as she went for sculpted contouring and a blood-red lipstick to highlight her plump pout The stunner, who recently divorced Johnny Depp and has been linked to Elon Musk and Heidi Klum's exVito Schnabel, was the definition of cutting edge style. In his first interview about his 'volatile' marriage to Amber, Johnny Depp has claimed his ex-wife's allegations turned him from 'Cinderella to Quasimodo' in Hollywood. Depp, 55, broke his silence for a cover story in GQ, telling the magazine that the past three years have 'felt like a perverse situation that was inicted on me.' The actor revealed that he felt people looked at him differently after Amber alleged he 'violently attacked her' at their Los Angeles penthouse, allegations he denies. Bedazzled: Sporting a semi-sheer white shirt underneath the jacket, she injected a dazzling touch with the addition of a jewelled tie at her neck and a dangling locker Sleek: Amber looked sensational on the red carpet as she showed her attention to detail Sleek: The burgundy blazer featured a fold-down black lapel which coordinated with her skin-tight black trousers and sky-high heels, which showed her penchant for all things designer due to their Yves Saint Laurent branded heel The star, who will next month appear as dark wizard Grindelwald in JK Rowling's Harry Potter spin-off series Fantastic Beasts, was accused of violence against his then wife in May 2016. Amber's attorney slammed Depp's interview, telling PageSix.com in a statement that the Pirates Of The Caribbean star was 'shamefully continuing his psychological abuse' of the actress. 'It is outrageous that GQ never spoke to any of the multiple witnesses to Mr. Depp's physical abuse of Ms. Heard prior to publishing its article,' the statement said... Strutting her stuff: Amber looked stunning for her second outing of the evening Meeting and greeting: Amber graciously met with fans as they were vying for her attention Lost love: The stunner, who recently divorced Johnny Depp and has been linked to Elon Musk and Heidi Klum's exVito Schnabel, was the definition of cutting edge style 'If GQ had done even a basic investigation into Mr. Depp's claims, it would have quickly realized that his statements are entirely untrue.' In a statement to MailOnline, Depp's attorney responded: 'In his GQ interview, Mr. Depp is simply defending himself against Ms. Heard's lingering false abuse accusations.' 'The only 'shameful psychological abuse' stems from Ms. Heard's continuing cynical manipulation of the important #metoo movement and its real victims, that she has used to pursue her own ends,' his representative said. She is returning to our screens with American Horror Story once again. But away from the spotlight, Emma Roberts looked relaxed as she grabbed her healthy green juice from Alfred's, in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday. The American Horror Story star, 27, opted for a comfortable chic vibe in her tangerine coloured T-shirt with striped sleeves. Raring to go: Emma Roberts looked comfortable in her T-shirt and jeans as she grabbed a green juice in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday Emma was on the move in her loafers and cut-off Mother Denim jeans as she enjoyed a spell of sunshine on her walk. The actress scraped her tresses back into a ponytail and she added tortoise shell sunglasses to her casual look. Having been seen with her engagement ring back on in recent months, Emma stayed coy as she covered her left hand with the striped sleeves of her top. Emma returns to TV screens in American Horror Story: Apocalypse, reprising her role as Madison Montgomery, who was first seen in Coven. Pout and about: Emma was on the move in her loafers and cut-off Mother Denim jeans as she enjoyed a spell of sunshine on her walk As well as bringing her villainous character back to the small screen, her role on the latest season also re-teams her with her beau Evan Peters. The couple were even engaged at one point, and recently Emma has been spotted on occasion with the engagement ring on. Back in 2013, the Scream Queens actress was arrested for alleged domestic abuse in Canada after officers responded to a report of a fight in a hotel room. Emma was taken into custody after they allegedly found One Tree Hill star Evan with a bloody nose and a bite mark. He declined to press charges and she was released several hours later, with the couple saying in a joint statement that it was 'an unfortunate incident and misunderstanding.' The pair have remained famously tight-lipped about their relationship since. She recently insisted to Daily Mail TV that she earned her stardom all alone and without her notorious link to the Kardashians. Yet it was back to business as usual for Blac Chyna on Tuesday as she was seen heading to a business meeting with comedian Michael Blackson in Los Angeles, where she was showing off her curves to perfection in a pink mini dress. Earlier in the day, the former exotic dancer stated that her fame came through her hard work alone, shooting down suggestions her stardom came from being linked to the Kardashians, saying she was already famous before meeting them. Pink: It was back to business as usual for Blac Chyna on Tuesday as she was seen heading to a business meeting with comedian Michael Blackson in Los Angeles, where she was showing off her curves to perfection in a pink mini Following her chat, Blac, real name Angela White, emerged looking sensational in her sizzling pink ensemble complete with a racy pink number. The mother-of-two, who has son King Cairo, five, with rapper Tyga and daughter Dream, one, with Rob Kardashian, was candid about her hopes to have more children, saying she'd like to have two more babies. She also revealed that she is slowly trying to launch a music career, setting up a small studio in her home, as she confessed her hopes of working with Drake, the artist who originally helped put her on the map. Blac held nothing back when she sat down with DailyMailTV for the second part of a two-part exclusive interview on Tuesday. Happy days: She stepped out with the funnyman following her explosive interview Chyna tells DailyMailTV she would 'love to do music', saying: 'I've been working on some music. I never been the type of person to really coast. I just want to test all my boundaries to see if I can actually kind of do it. 'My music is actually kind of fire. I have a little bit of singing, a little bit of rapping and I have a little love song.' She added: 'We are just testing it out right now. I'm not about to throw myself out there. [I want to] make sure everything is in line.' Famed: The mother-of-two, who has son King Cairo, five, with rapper Tyga and daughter Dream, one, with Rob Kardashian, was candid about her hopes to have more children, saying she'd like to have two more babies (pictured in 2016) Chyna said she would love to collaborate with Drake, saying: 'I'd be like Drake, you put me on that first time, maybe we could do a little 2.0. I would love that.' The mother-of-two first met Drake when she was living in Florida after moving from the Washington D.C. area to attend Johnson & Wales University to study business management. To earn some money to save up for school, Chyna began dancing as a stripper and continued to dance when she moved down to Miami for college, which led to her opportune meeting with Drake and helped her get discovered. Hit me up: The mother-of-two first met Drake when she was living in Florida after moving from the Washington D.C. area to attend Johnson & Wales University to study business management Chyna said: 'I actually had a booking and I think it was in Tennessee. These guys introduced me to Drake, and Drake you know put me in a song and I started doing all the music videos and the magazines.' Drake mentions Chyna in his 2010 song Miss Me, rapping: 'Call up King of Diamonds and tell Chyna it'll be worth the flight // I be at my table stackin' dollars till the perfect height.' It was through Drake that Chyna met Tyga; the rappers were on the same music label at the time. The two began a relationship and soon after Chyna became pregnant with their son King Cairo. The most controversial pair from one of Seven's most controversial reality shows have announced they are splitting up. Maria Di Geronimo and fiance Carlos Vannini, who starred in Channel Seven's Yummy Mummies, split last month and they admitted the television show was partly to blame for their demise. 'The pressures and judgments of the public to some degree took its toll.' Carlos told Adelaide Now. Yummy Mummies stars Maria Di Geronimo (right) and fiance Carlos Vannini (left) announce shock split... as Carlos reveals filming the hit reality show put a strain on their relationship 'The pressures of the show and the expectations of the producers throughout the pregnancy and after Valentina was born having the TV crew around all the time, didn't allow for the bonding time as a family which we required,' he continued. The Adelaide couple featured on the reality show that focused on wealthy mums-to-be had been together for four years. They were previously engaged prior to signing up to the program but agreed to re-enact the proposal for the show. Despite being the series' biggest star, Maria declined to appear in the second season of the show, with Carlos say she was 'not portrayed accurately'. Matching: The couple who shared their love of labels featured heavily on the series, with Carlos saying the mounting pressure of producers didn't allow for 'family bonding time' Loved up: The couple had been together for four years and had previously announced their engagement prior to filming the show, but agreed with producers to re-enact it for the television show 'Initially we agreed to the show on the premise that it would be an 'observational documentary' which we understood would be us going about our lives with the added extra of a camera to document it. However that was not the case at all,' Carlos said. Maria's Instagram is flooded with images of herself posing with her two-year-old daughter Valentina, often wearing head-to-toe designer labels. But Carlos makes little to no appearance in posts dating all the way back to her first upload in 2014. Famous: Maria was the breakout star of the series, but declined to return for the second season The couple are now in the process of selling their house in Adelaide's northern suburbs and Maria plans to move closer to her family's home. They will share custody of their two-year old daughter Valentina. It's been more than two years since they shocked fans with the announcement that their seemingly sold romance had come to an end. And Naomi Watts, 50, and Liev Schreiber, 51, showed they've remained friendly exes, when they attended the Take Home A Nude auction and party at Sotheby's in New York City on Tuesday night. The screen stars who share two sons appeared to be in high spirits as they laughed and chatted with one another while sitting among a host of well-heeled guests at the event, held to benefit the New York Academy of Art. Exes: Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts were the ultimate amicable exes, when they attended the Take Home A Nude auction and party at Sotheby's in New York City on Tuesday night Oscar-winning actress Naomi stepped out in style for the event, wearing a dark blue floral co-ord, which she teamed with a low neckline black top. With her golden locks resting about her shoulders in soft waves, she highlighted her natural beauty with a rich palette of makeup that included bold red lipstick. A female friend sat between Naomi and Liev, who cut a dapper figure in a dark suit and a black tie, but the pair merrily leaned in to jovially chat. Having a laugh: The pair leaned in to laugh and chat as they enjoyed the evening's festivities So friendly: A female friend sat between them, but it was clear to see how friendly they were Liev, who was with Naomi for 11 years before the couple announced their split, spoke with Willie Geist on the TODAY show about their relationship post-split. 'Its always hard, you know? You build a life with someone and things change,' he said. 'And I think the way that weve looked at it is that well always be partners with these kids.' 'Its important to support each other,' he added. 'I was making some jokes at breakfast about Mommy with the boys and their eyes light up when I talk about her. You can see how important it is to them that their parents care about each other.' Shock split: The screen stars were together for 11 years before announcing their split in 2016 Moving on: Since the split, Naomi has been linked to her Gypsy co-star Billy Crudup, while Liev has been dating 26-year-old Taylor Neisen The exes are the parents of sons Sasha, 11, and Samuel, nine, and have been regularly seen enjoying family time with their offspring since their split. Since the former couple's split, Naomi has moved on with Billy Crudup, her co-star on the short-lived Netflix series Gypsy. The duo were first outed as a couple in July 2017, and have been together for over a year. Liev, meanwhile, has been dating 26-year-old Taylor Neisen. The former Miss South Dakota has already met his boys, and even went on vacation with them to Costa Rica in February of last year. Stepping out in style: Oscar-winning actress Naomi stepped out in style for the event, wearing a dark blue floral co-ord by Sonia Rykiel, which she teamed with a low neckline black top Making waves: With her golden locks resting about her shoulders in soft waves, she highlighted her natural beauty with a rich palette of makeup that included bold red lipstick Strike a pose: At the event, she posed with New York Academy of Art president David Kratz Model: The event was attended by a host of well-heeled guests, including Helena Christensen Katie Price has been released by police pending further investigation following a five-day bender that ended up with her being arrested for drink driving after turning up uninvited to her ex-boyfriend's birthday party. It is thought the former glamour model was taken out through a back exit of Plumstead police station today, before returning to her Sussex home with her boyfriend Alex Adderson. The mother-of-five crashed her distinctive pink Range Rover in south-east London in the early hours of this morning after turning up uninvited to ex-boyfriend Kris Boyson's birthday. The 40-year-old is currently receiving treatment at The Priory and meant to be abstaining from alcohol, but it has now been revealed she went on a five day bender prior to her drink-drive arrest. Katie Price spotted being driven away by a friend with her boyfriend after police questioning over drink drive crash as one of her male friends collects her battered car Katie Price was released from a south London police station under investigation on Wednesday afternoon, hours after being taken into custody under suspicion of drink-driving Katie Price spotted being driven away by a friend with her boyfriend has been released under investigation was taken out through a back exit of Plumstead police station, before returning to her Sussex home The messy interior of Katie Price pink 4x4 left parked up after she was arrested for alleged drink driving on Shooters Hill, south-east London The interior of Katie Price's car is littered with various items of clothes, a baseball cap, a white shoe and a Prada bag The messy interior of Katie Price's distinctive pink 4x4. Police will continue to investigate the incident, which took place at around 2am in Woolwich, south London, shortly after Katie made an appearance at ex-boyfriend Kris Boyson's 30th birthday party Shock: Katie Price 's appeared worse-for-wear as she turned up unannounced at ex-boyfriend Kris Boyson's 30th birthday party on Tuesday night, just hours before she was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving (pictured in July). She has since been released under investigation The former glamour model enjoyed Strawberry Daquiris with boyfriend Alex Adderson at the weekend after fearing the 25-year-old would think she is a 'boring granny' if she didn't let her hair down, according to The Sun. A source said: 'Katie was knocking back Strawberry Daiquiris in Alexs house on Saturday night. 'She drove there so she wouldnt be tempted to drink but it didnt take much for her to fall off the wagon. 'They went out for a while, but Alex had to stop drinking after two champagnes because Katie was draining cocktails. She kept saying they are basically fruit salads and one of my five a day.' There to help? On Wednesday morning, fraught Kris was pictured at Plumstead police station, hours after she was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving. The personal trainer has been at the station since the early hours after the star crashed her 75k pink Range Rover into a bush in Woolwich After drinking with her 25-year-old boyfriend at the weekend the Loose Women panellist appeared worse-for-wear as she turned up unannounced and uninvited at her ex-boyfriend's party. With insiders telling MailOnline she had a blazing row with toyboy beau Alex Adderson, 25, and was seeking comfort from Kris, who is still close to the star. Sources said: 'We were having a few drinks when someone said to Kris, someone is here to see you... 'The next thing Katies there, Im not exactly sure why... She looked a bit worse for wear - I think she just turned up as everyone was quite shocked. Kris got up and welcomed her after the shock; I have met her before so she was OK with me. Kris and her walked off for a chat so we left them to it. More woes: Back in February, the mother-of-five was banned from driving for six months after doing 60mph on the 50mph A24 and she handed herself into police back in July for driving while on a six-month ban Crash: The damage on Katie's car was clear to see on Wednesday following the shock incident Taken away: The vehicle was driven off by an unidentified male on Wednesday evening following the smash Police will continue to investigate the incident, which took place at around 2am in Woolwich, south London, shortly after Katie made an appearance at ex-boyfriend Kris Boyson's 30th birthday party. On Wednesday morning, fraught Kris was pictured at Plumstead police station. The personal trainer has been at the station since the early hours after the star crashed her 75k pink Range Rover into a bush in Woolwich. On Katie's appearance the night before, the source insisted Katie did not drink when she arrived alone and left at 1.30am - just half an hour before her arrest: 'I believe she was alone, Im not sure if shes had a row with her new boyfriend. I know she left alone but not sure what happened then... Evidence: A policeman was later pictured leaving the station with what was thought to be Katie's Kenzo clutch bag in his hand - Kris was wearing a Kenzo jumper on the night Showing her support: Katie's sister Sophie broke her silence on social media on Wednesday afternoon when she posted about mental health struggles 'Kris has been a great friend to her and because he cares about her I dont think he wants to see her in a bad way, no matter what happened. To be honest I think hes daft, hes a nice lad but he can do better. Kris certainly appeared to be having a great time on the night, sharing a video of himself downing shots on Instagram hours before the crash, wearing the same clothes he was pictured in at the station. A Metropolitan Police spokesman told MailOnline: 'At approximately 02:00hrs on Wednesday, October 10, British Transport Police officers came across a car showing signs of damage stationary at the roadside in Shooters Hill Road, Woolwich. She has been released under investigation. 'A 40-year-old woman who was inside the car was arrested on suspicion of drink driving. She was taken to a south London police station where she remains. Officers from the Metropolitan Police investigate. Enquiries continue. A breath test was administered - we do not discuss results.' Katie could face six months in prison if she's found guilty of drink-driving. UK law states that a person found guilty of drink-driving can be fined, banned from the roads, and even imprisoned. Driving or attempting to drive while above the legal limit could see a person imprisoned for six months, given an unlimited fine or a driving ban of at least one year. It had previously been claimed that Katie had to change her phone number as Kris had been bombarding her with calls following their split. The latest comes amid a series of woes for Katie who is currently undergoing a 28-day stint at The Priory, where she is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. Regular: Katie has been pictured at the Meze restaurant with Kris before during her romance with Kris Raucous: Kris had shared a snap of himself downing shots on Instagram stories on Tuesday night, as he celebrated his 30th birthday, but Katie had not been pictured Down the hatch: Kris threw his head back as his friends poured shots into his mouth Where it all began: MailOnline has contacted the manager at The Meze restaurant in Bexleyheath, (pictured) for more information Sources claimed Katie's romance with Alex has escalated rapidly since they enjoyed a wild holiday in Mallorca - days after she was filmed rapping about 'loving coke'. She broke down after an intervention and admitted she needed help to get over her chaotic behaviour - which has been blamed on her PTSD. The couple were last pictured together on October 5, where they went to London haunt, Annabel's as well as the Mayfair hotel. As Alex climbed into the passenger's seat and Katie sat in the passenger's seat, she screamed at photographers, 'I hope your wives die' as one fell to the ground. Back in February, the mother-of-five was banned from driving for six months after doing 60mph on the 50mph A24. Moreover, she famously handed herself into police back in July for driving while on a six-month ban. Taking to Instagram, the former glamour model admitted that she thought the ban was over - but as soon as she realised it wasn't, confessed her wrongdoing to authorities to avoid a 'guilty conscience.' Trying to make it right? Kris looked incredibly worried as he paced up and down the foyer of the police station taking calls on his phone Ongoing: Katie is still thought to be being held at Plumstead police station following the crash Taking a break: Kris was later seen leaving the police station as he no doubt needed to get some air, with a couple of officers in tow Busy: He popped into a nearby shop to get some provisions before heading back to the station She said at the time: 'Been on such an emotional rollercoaster the last 6 months and my head has been all over the place, so much so, that I thought my driving ban was up. 'After driving to Harvey's Hospital appointment I have NOW found out that I don't get my licence back until 8th August. With this on my conscience I called police and reported myself,' Katie confessed. 'I've come such a long way and just want easy life now. 'I have got out of a hole and am finally happy and looking forward to being my old independent self.' Tumultuous: Katie split from toyboy Kris, 30, last month and she began a relationship with Alex Adderson, 29, (right) shortly after - pictured together on October 5 - the pair headed to London member's club Annabel's and the Mayfair hotel Not in the driving seat: Katie sat alongside Alex on her recent night out in London, who was behind the wheel on the night - she shouted at photographers, 'I hope your wives die' before climbing into the seat' as a photographer fell to the ground Katie's driving ban was first reported by The Sun, who revealed earlier this year that the businesswoman wouldn't be able to get behind the wheel for six months because she already had points on her licence when she was handed another six for her latest speeding offence. The reality star received a 750 fine as well as 200 in costs and a 75 surcharge following her conviction, according to the paper. Katie reportedly failed to inform police when she received the ticket for breaking the speeding limit in a 50mph limit on the A24 in Dial Post, West Sussex in 2017. It is almost six years since Katie was barred from driving on the roads for 12 months for the first time back in 2012. Caring: Katie's ex, Peter Andre is concerned for her as she's mother of his children, Junior and Princess and just wants to see her back to her best She claimed that she failed to see a pair of speeding tickets because her mother takes care of the mail. Katie was ordered to pay a total of 75 and she was slapped with the 12-month driving ban. Meanwhile, Kris was said to be devastated over the demise of his four-month romance with Katie last month. On Sunday night, he was pictured with 2017 Love Island star Chloe Crowhurst at Libertine nightclub, although a source said at the time they were not dating. Earlier in the day, Kris had opened up on his romance with Katie after he was asked in a Q&A on Instagram: 'Do you regret getting into a relationship with Katie?'He replied: 'No regrets. She's not a bad woman I wish her all the best.' Tough time: In June, it was revealed that Princess and Junior were living with the couple, as Katie dealt with her split from Kieran Hayler Meanwhile, a source really told The Mirror that Katie's ex, Peter Andre is concerned for her as she's mother of his children, Junior, 13, and Princess, 11. They said: 'Pete just wants Katie to be happy and healthy - he wants his kids to have a stable mum. 'She needs to get help for her problems - that's all Pete wants for her. Everything in his life is 100 per cent perfect except for this. In June, it was revealed that Princess and Junior were living with the couple, as Katie dealt with her split from Kieran Hayler. Explaining herself: Katie posted this explanation after she handed herself into police in July for driving while on a six-month ban Night out: Kris, partied with Love Island's Chloe Crowhurst in London at Libertine nightclub on Sunday... after insisting the TV star 'is not a bad woman' and he has 'no regrets' over romance It is also no doubt hitting Katie hard that her terminally ill mother, Amy, 'hasn't got long' left to live. She admitted back in April that her beloved mother 'could die within a month' because contracting an innocuous cold could have a fatal outcome for the lung condition she is battling, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Amy was diagnosed with IPF, a rare condition that causes progressive and irreversible scarring of the lungs, in 2017. Speaking to Now Magazine in an emotional interview. Katie shared: 'My mum is dying, its that simple. They normally diagnose is three to five years but Mum has already had to change her life. More woes for Katie as she faces bankruptcy... She narrowly avoided bankruptcy back in August, when she was given three months to come up with a plan to pay off her debts, totalling more than 250k, including more than 20k in tax debt. More trouble ahead? Katie has just three weeks before learning whether she'll officially be declared bankrupt She now Katie has just three weeks before learning whether she'll officially be declared bankrupt. The embattled starm, who was once thought to be worth 45m, was not present at the High Court Rolls building in London as her team submitted proposals for an individual voluntary agreement (IVA). The hearing, which lasted less than 30 seconds and which she did not attend in person, relates to tax owed to HMRC. A representative of HMRC said: 'The debtors insolvency practitioners made contact with HMRC and is considering submitting an IVA proposal and HMRC is not contesting it.' An IVA sees creditors paid back over an agreed period of time and her application will be heard in 12 weeks on October 30. The Sun had previously reported that she's relying on her wealthy toyboy beau Alex to pay for everything and she 'hopes to start over' as she 'expects' to be declared bankrupt. Katie is also said to already be trying to sell her 2million West Sussex mansion which she bought in 2014. She reportedly urged her ex Kieran to help her find new homes for her farmyard animals which includes two llamas, six rabbits and four horses, as well as her goats, sheep, ducks and pigs. A source revealed in the summer: 'Katie hasn't had the easiest time of late, and isn't as flush as she was. She told Kieran to get rid of the animals but he's been struggling to offload the llamas for 2,000 a pop. 'He's selling her prize horses for 7,000 to an equestrian centre near her West Sussex home. And she has been touting the guinea pigs, goats and rabbits to friends and family.' According to Heat, the glamour model continued to splash the cash at an alarming rate, with her expenses including 1,500 a month on twice-weekly manicures and pedicures. The star is also said to fork out 11,000 a month on a sizeable team of staff to help keep things ticking over at her Sussex mansion, reportedly employing two nannies, a housekeeper, a stable hand and a gardener. Among the other expenses reportedly on the mother-of-five's monthly list are 1,000 on maintaining her hairstyles, 800 for massages every other day, 800 for a makeup artist to keep her looking glam and 400 on facials. The star, who is said to spend 500 a month on age-reversing treatments, is also said to be shelling out an eye-watering 2,000 just to keep her grand abode warm. With a mortgage costing her a reported 10,000 a month, Katie who was once estimated to be worth 40million is also said to be spending 60,000 a year on such farm machinery as a milking machine and tractor. Additionally, she is believed to have continued spending 25,000 a year on the cosmetic surgeries for which she has become famous all while reportedly facing financial ruin as her once gargantuan fortune allegedly dries up. Bad times: Images of Katie's already-decrepit West Sussex mansion in various states of disrepair emerged amid the TV personality's ongoing financial woes He fled Australia to walk the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea just days before the Bachelor finale aired. And Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins was spotted cooling down in the pool after a long hike on Tuesday. The 31-year-old seemed to not have a care in the world as he cheerfully splashed around in the water and enjoyed a humorous exchange with friends. Not a care in the world! Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins looked far from heartbroken as he relaxed by the pool with friends... after shattering the hearts of Sophie Tieman and Brittany Hockley in shock Bachelor finale Nick was seen wrapped in a towel and a crisp white bathrobe as he approached the swimming pool barefoot. Holding a glass of Pina Colada in one hand, the former Wallaby sported a cheeky smile as he held his smart phone in the other hand. The curly-haired larrikin was seen displaying an eight-day beard as he let his iconic ringlet tresses out. Later, Nick grinned from ear-to-ear as he nestled in between his travel companions and enjoyed a quick dip in the pool. Something to smile about? Later, Nick grinned from ear-to-ear as he nestled in between his travel companions and enjoyed a quick dip in the pool Leaning on the side bench, the sportsman appeared to be having a good time as he gleefully participated in an amusing conversation. He then jumped out of the water and showed off his ripped physique in a pair of multicoloured underpants. The sighting comes after The Bachelor finale aired on Network Ten last Thursday. Nick became the first Australian Bachelor to end the series single after dumping both finalists, Brittany Hockley and Sophie Tieman. Stripping down! He then jumped out of the water and showed off his ripped physique in a pair of multicoloured underpants 'Right now, I can't give 100 percent to you. My head is very clouded. Right now, I'm a little bit lost,' he told Brittany, 30. 'I have to say that this time has come to an end and I'm letting you go.' Moments earlier, he delivered a similar break-up speech to Sophie, 25. At the end of the episode, a solemn-looking Nick said: 'I came here for a chance at love. Now I have to start again.' Kady McDermott left her boyfriend Myles Barnett's ex Courtney Green heartbroken when she burst on to the TOWIE scene in devastating moments. Yet the former Love Island star is making herself very well known among the stars of the show as she filmed her first scenes without Myles present on Wednesday as she chatted with Dan Edgar, Sam Mucklow and Liam Blackwell in the street. While she was dressed to impress and chatting away with the boys, elsewhere Shelby Tribble and Clelia Theodourou were capturing their own interior shots - no doubt upping the drama for the week's coming episode. Here she is! Kady McDermott left her boyfriend Myles Barnett's ex Courtney Green heartbroken when she burst on to the TOWIE scene in devastating moments Kady looked stunning as she hit the streets in her stylish ensemble complete with a flirty mini skirt, sharp white shirt and ankle boots to perfect the autumn look. She wore her brunette tresses in long flowing lengths over her shoulders while she chatted to the handsome trio in her beau's absence. She greeted the boys fondly and seemed to take shooting alone in her stride having only made her arrival on the show a fortnight previously. Myles' absence was down to a trip to South Africa, which he documented on social media, while Kady admitted she was missing her beau already. Here come the boys! Yet the former Love Island star is making herself very well known among the stars of the show as she filmed her first scenes without Myles present on Wednesday as she chatted with Dan Edgar, Sam Mucklow and Liam Blackwell in the street Happy days: Last month, Kady was reported to have began dating Myles, who had become something of a villain on the show due to his outrageous temper and various infidelities towards Courtney Fuming: Courtney was lashing out at her former flame in recent episodes Hey! She greeted the boys fondly and seemed to take shooting alone in her stride having only made her arrival on the show a fortnight previously Babe: Kady looked stunning as she hit the streets in her stylish ensemble Wow: She wore a flirty mini skirt, sharp white shirt and ankle boots to perfect the autumn look Loving life: Kady was all smiles as she strutted down the street in her towering heels Topping things off: She wore her brunette tresses in long flowing lengths over her shoulders and topped things off with a baker boy cap Last month, Kady was reported to have began dating Myles, who had become something of a villain on the show due to his outrageous temper and various infidelities towards Courtney. After Kady's entrance on to the show on Sunday, Courtney's loyal fan base flooded her Twitter with cruel comments regarding her appearance - with the main point of contention being the shape of her head, which was likened to an alien. It was previously unknown if Kady would join the show, although she was referenced on the series when Myles' enemy Chris Clark hit out at him saying he was only dating Kady because she boasts 'over a million Twitter followers'. Dashing: Dan Edgar looked typically handsome in black jeans and a denim jacket Happy again: Elsewhere, Yazmin Oukhellou was spotted on a date with her boyfriend James Lock having returned for the first time since revealing her battle with depression Legs eleven: The reality star, 25, briefly stepped away from the show to concentrate on her mental health but made her comeback with her beau this week With the idea of seeing her cheating ex-beau's new flame, Courtney ensured she was dressed to impress as she sported a flowing blue gown with her hair worn in flowing lengths to round out the preened ensemble. When rumours first surfaced earlier this month, the couple remained coy at first shortly before sources revealed the details of their love. Elsewhere, Yazmin Oukhellou was spotted on a date with her boyfriend James Lock having returned for the first time since revealing her battle with depression. Dashing: Visiting a farm alongside her brother Adam, who was bizarrely smartly dressed on the farm, the trio looked laid-back and she seemed chilled out Hold me close: She was looked chic and stylish as she made her return She's back! Fans were happy to see the return of fan favourite Yazmin The reality star, 25, briefly stepped away from the show to concentrate on her mental health but made her comeback with her beau this week. Visiting a farm alongside her brother Adam, who was bizarrely smartly dressed on the farm, the trio looked laid-back and she seemed chilled out. Clelia and Shelby - having had their fair share of drama early on in the series - looked to be getting in depth in their chat as they chatted in a bar. The latter was rocking a chic fluffy white top as she sat with her best pal while pairing the look with a chic checked mini skirt. AAAAND action! Clelia and Shelby - having had their fair share of drama early on in the series - looked to be getting in depth in their chat as they chatted in a bar Stylish: The latter was rocking a chic fluffy white top as she sat with her best pal while pairing the look with a chic checked mini skirt Snapping away: Clelia and Shelby - having had their fair share of drama early on in the series - looked to be getting in depth in their chat as they chatted in a bar Stylish: Elsewhere, Saffron Lempriere looked extremely sun-kissed as she stepped out She has gone under the knife countless times in a bid to alter her appearance. And Chloe Khan showed off her ever-changing image as she arrived at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport ahead of a last-minute Spanish sojourn on Tuesday morning. The Playboy star, 26, shunned comfortable flight togs for a typically glamorous get-up for her holiday jaunt, showing off her surgically-enhanced figure in a skintight ensemble and skyscraper heels. More surgery? Chloe Khan showed off her ever-changing image as she arrived at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport ahead of a last-minute Spanish sojourn on Tuesday morning Chloe drew attention to her svelte physique in rather risque co-ord that comprised a form-fitting midi skirt and a matching bralet that flashed major underboob, the beauty raising the stakes higher by going braless beneath the design. She banished the morning chill by pairing the midriff-flashing piece with a grey cropped jacket that was lined with a faux fur collar, while perspex Christian Louboutin heels, adorned with studs, completed her style. And Chloe's luggage wasn't any less opulent, as the former X Factor hopeful lugged a Louis Vuitton suitcase - which she also used as a seat when things took a more tiring turn. Every street's a catwalk! The Playboy star, 26, shunned comfortable flight togs for a typically glamorous get-up for her holiday jaunt Sizzling: Chloe drew attention to her svelte physique in rather risque co-ord that comprised a form-fitting midi skirt and a matching bralet that flashed major underboob Dare to bare: The TV personality raised the stakes higher by going braless beneath the design Chloe looked to have treated herself to some serious preening for her holiday as she sported voluminous blow-dried locks and a heavy, bronzed make-up look beneath her over-sized shades. Her sighting came after fans accused the Celebrity Big Brother star, who has been the victim of botched cosmetic surgery, of having more work done after noticing her face look different in her Instagram snaps. One wrote: 'Your chin is too long now and your lips are not really good... too much surgery.' Another added: 'Stop abusing your body, one day you will regret.' Bling: She banished the morning chill by pairing the midriff-flashing piece with a grey cropped jacket that was lined with a faux fur collar, and sported perspex Christian Louboutin heels Lavish: Chloe's luggage wasn't any less opulent, as the former X Factor hopeful lugged a Louis Vuitton suitcase - which she also used as a seat when things took a more tiring turn Pulling out the stops: Chloe looked to have treated herself to some serious preening for her holiday as she sported voluminous blow-dried locks 'Your chin its too long now and ur lips its not really good .. too much surgeries stop abusing ur body for too much operations one day u will regret..' a third chimed. While Chloe hasn't confirmed any recent procedures, she has been open about having nose jobs, lip enhancements, breast augmentations and even a bottom enlargement. In February, the jet-setter took a break from her travels to appear on Good Morning Britain to debate with Aisleyne-Horgan Wallace about corrective plastic surgery. Chloe, who has spent more than 100,000 on sculpting her figure, locked horns with the beauty when she argued the NHS shouldn't fund corrective procedures. Glam: The CBB star sported a heavy, bronzed make-up look beneath her over-sized shades Off she goes! Chloe looked ready to jet off as she toted her passport and put her shades on Aisleyne said: 'People don't go abroad and think, I'm going to have real bad problems when I come back, I'm going to have to turn to the NHS.' Chloe bit back: 'Do you not think that people should take responsibility for a choice, if you have surgery, it's your choice, you're taking a risk, you know that. 'I myself have had a very bad cosmetic surgery and I would never dream of looking to someone else to pay for it. It was abroad.' Aisleyne didn't hold back when she called out Chloe for getting expensive cosmetic procedures for free by advertising them. She called out: 'But you get your surgery for free because you advertise it!' leading Chloe to retort 'So, you've had things done for free as well! I've paid for surgery too.' Giggles: The model appeared to see the funny side after accidentally dropping her pricey Louis Vuitton handbag on the floor She's expecting her second child with husband Sam Burgess. And on Wednesday, WAG Phoebe Burgess, 29, shared some cute photos enjoying a date night with NRL husband Sam and 18-month-old daughter Poppy while on a trip to Fiji. Taking to her Instagram Story, the glowing expectant mother-to-be shared some tropical holiday snaps during their trip to the luxurious Laucala Island Resort. Family on vacation! Footy WAG Phoebe Burgess shared cute date night photos during a trip to Fiji... after husband Sam was cleared in NRL sexting scandal In one snap, Phoebe took a cheeky photo of her brood entering the Island's ornate Plantation House restaurant. 'Outdoing himself for date night,' she wrote alongside a photo of an extravagant sushi meal and tagged executive chef Daniel Boller. Later, Phoebe took a mirror selfie back in their lavish hotel room, where she looked relaxed and fresh-faced as she wore an off-shoulder white dress and sported a smile from ear-to-ear. Delicious: 'Outdoing himself for date night,' she wrote alongside a photo of an extravagant sushi meal Glowing: Later, Phoebe took a mirror selfie back in their lavish hotel room, where she looked relaxed and fresh-faced as she wore an off-shoulder white dress and sported a smile from ear-to-ear And the photos come after Phoebe's husband, Sam, was cleared of any involvement in a NRL sexting scandal that made headlines across the nation. Two Rabbitohs players, not Burgess, were believed to have exposed themselves to a woman over Facebook, who complained to the club via an anonymous email over a period of three months between May and August. Phoebe emerged for the first time following the scandal late last month for an outing with her 18-month-old daughter, Poppy, whom she shares with Sam. The pair are currently expecting the arrival of their second child as Phoebe reaches her 30th week of pregnancy. She's the ethereal Australian beauty who juggles a high-flying career with her family life. And in Teresa Palmer's latest Instagram post, she makes it look effortless. The 32-year-old actress appeared make-up free in a selfie with her two children, one-year-old Bodhi and four-year-old Forest. Teresa Palmer posted an adorable 'jetlagged' and make-up free selfie with her sons Forest Sage, four, and Bodhi Rain, one on her Instagram.. days after expressing her 'mum guilt' when spending time away from her children In the photo, the actress looked to be laying in bed, snuggling up to her two sons after a long-haul flight as she captioned the photo with 'jetlag'. The Lights Out actress, who regularly goes make-up free on her social media accounts, looked stunning as she stared directly into the camera. Her kids snuggled around her, with the trio clearly loving their mum and son time. The actress recently opened up about her struggles with spending time away from her brood while she filmed her upcoming television series A Discovery of Witches. She spoke candidly around her 'mum guilt' and confessed that time without her sons felt at first 'foreign' to her. Difficulties: The actress recently opened up about her struggles with spending time away from her brood while she filmed her upcoming television series A Discovery of Witches Responding to a question on her blog Your Zen Mama, Teresa wrote: 'I know how hard that can be, I think Mamas are always struggling with Mum guilt in some form. 'I got a couple of hours to myself which was very foreign at first, but then I really utilised the time to work towards some career goals.' In another blog post in June, Teresa revealed that she was navigating little Forest's separation anxiety and fear of loud noises. Hard working: 'I got a couple of hours to myself which was very foreign at first, but then I really utilised the time to work towards some career goals' Teresa said in a recent blog post 'He goes to anyone for cuddles but the action of dropping him off somewhere and saying goodbye is very confronting for him right now,' she penned. As a result, Teresa cancelled his summer trip to camp as Forest 'couldn't handle' being without his mother for 'two hours a day, a few times a week.' The Adelaide-born beauty shares her two children with husband and actor Mark Webber, 38. She is also a stepmum to Mark's son Issac, whom he shares with actress Frankie Shaw. She is fast headed towards her first birthday. And Ferne McCann's adorable daughter Sunday proved she is growing cuter by the day as she emerged with her mum in Essex on Wednesday. The 28-year-old former TOWIE star, who has been transforming her body with a new workout plan, was showing off her svelte frame in tight gym gear as she joined her daughter, who she shares with jailbird Arthur Collins, for a low-key outing. Happy days: Ferne McCann's adorable daughter Sunday proved she is growing cuter by the day as she emerged with her mum in Essex on Wednesday Ferne looked sensational as she hit the streets in her low-key look complete with tight leggings in a powder pink colour with grey overtones. Keeping out the autumnal chill, she zipped up a Nike jumper with the trademark tick of the brand over her chest and a funnel neckline. Going make-up free underneath her superstar worthy sunglasses, she showed off her glowing complexion and plumped-up pout. Ferne scraped her blonde locks into a high ponytail which not only showed off her stunning good looks but also meant she was ready for a workout. Happy days: The 28-year-old former TOWIE star, who has been transforming her body with a new workout plan, was showing off her svelte frame in tight gym gear as she joined her daughter, who she shares with jailbird Arthur Collins, for a low-key outing Stunner: Ferne looked sensational as she hit the streets in her low-key look complete with tight leggings in a powder pink colour with grey overtones The look of love: The bond between Ferne and Sunday was easy to see with their gaze Happy days: She looked as loved-up as ever with her beloved tot Ferne shares her baby with jailbird ex Arthur who was handed a 20-year prison sentence for a London nightclub acid attack in April last year. The former I'm A Celeb! star spoke to OK! magazine about the day-to-day dilemmas she faces without the baby's father around. 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... Just the two of us: 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 Me and you: The former I'm A Celeb! star spoke to OK! magazine about the day-to-day dilemmas she faces without the baby's father around '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.' Ferne moved back in with her own mother last year, four months after moving into her own home. After welcoming her baby, she now shares her own Brentwood home with just Sunday. As well as her various reality show projects, Ferne also has a cosmetics range with Poundland, which has been a huge success since its release earlier this year. Happy days: Ferne moved back in with her own mother last year, four months after moving into her own home. After welcoming her baby, she now shares her own Brentwood home with just Sunday Jennifer Garner wants to find love again. The 46-year-old Alias vet has been dating again, a source told People. Though she has yet to find someone she can be serious about, the West Virginia native is having 'fun,' according to the insider. And it was added the mother of three had put romance on hold until Ben was sober before she finalized her divorce. She wants to be happy: Jennifer Garner wants to find love again. The 46-year-old Alias vet has been dating again, a source told People . Though she has yet to find someone she can be serious about, the West Virginia native is having 'fun,' according to the insider Jubilant: Here the star was seen with a handler as she headed to Jimmy Kimmel's show in Hollywood on Tuesday Trying to be sober: Her ex has been in therapy and is working hard to stay healthy; seen in August 'Jen has been wanting to move on and now when the divorce is finalized, she finally can,' said the friend. 'She has had no choice but to be patient since Ben needed to finish his rehab treatment. But she was ready to sign the papers.' They finalized their divorce nearly a week ago at her Pacific Palisades, California masnion after a reported five hour sessions with lawyers. His visits with the kids - Violet, 12, Seraphine, nine, and Samuel, six - will be 'monitored.' Over? People claimed on Tuesday Ben had split from model Shauna Sexton, 22, but the beauty said not so fast; seen in August 'Jen doesnt want to be single for the rest of her life, so she is open to dating,' said the source. 'She has been on dates, but it seems she isnt serious about a guy. As always, she is mostly focused on her kids and her job.' UsWeekly went a step farther by saying there was someone specific in her life: 'She started dating someone new. Shes ready to start the next phase of her life.' She was last seen making her way into Jimmy Kimmel's Hollywood studio on Tuesday as she continues to promote her latest movie Peppermint. The Houston native wore a sleeveless navy blue dress with blue trimming around the neckline, that showed off her toned arms, and strappy black heels. They were happy for so long: The two were married for 10 years; seen in 2014 The Dallas Buyers Club actress wore her brown locks parted and down as she made her way into the studio, signing autographs for fans lined up at the Tinseltown venue. Last week, Jen and Ben, who tied the knot in June of 2005, hammered out an agreement at her LA-area home in a five hour meeting attended by attorneys and a judge, according to People. The summit brought to an end an elongated process that began with the pair's June 2015 separation, nearly two years before their actual April 2017 divorce filing. The mother-of-three was out amid reports that Ben, 46, and his 22-year-old girlfriend Shauna Sexton had parted ways after a brief romance that spanned Ben's recent stint at The Canyons rehab center in Malibu, California. The Golden Globe-winning actress had assisted in that effort, taking the wheel to drive a disheveled Ben to the facility in late August. Affleck 'will date in the future, but for now his focus is on his sobriety, family and his next project,' an insider told People Tuesday. Peppermint, which co-stars John Gallagher Jr., Annie Ilonzeh, Method Man and John Ortiz, is in theaters now. MURADNAGAR (Cumilla): Locals at Ghorashal area brought out a procession demanding proper steps to rescue the historic Ghorashal playground from land grabbers yesterday. TOWIE star Debbie Douglas has hit out at critics who claimed her 15-year-old daughter Roma has plumped her pout with lip fillers. In a stunning shot shared on her famous sister Lydia's Instagram page, the aspiring model posed with all her might while sporting an expertly-applied face of make-up complete with glimmering lip gloss and shiny highlighter. After some of Lydia's 965,000 followers queried in now-deleted messages that she may have artificially plumped her pout, fiercely protective Debbie spoke exclusively to MailOnline about the 'ridiculous' claims surrounding her 'blessed' daughter. Striking: TOWIE star Debbie Douglas has hit out at critics who claimed her 15-year-old daughter Roma has plumped her pout with lip fillers As Lydia shared the snap with her beloved sister, cruel fans lashed out with the claim she had undergone fillers at such a young age - yet this was clearly not the case. Taking to the comments, Debbie hit back as she said: 'My Roma was born with those lips I have photo proof'. Speaking to MailOnline after the criticism, she said: 'Roma gets so much abuse for it. I feel sorry for her. I'm so anti any surgery, everyone knows that... I believe in loving yourself, everyone is beautiful.' Just last month, Lydia was every inch the proud sister as she congratulated Roma on her first modelling job. She took to Instagram to share a snap of her younger sibling, where she announced that Roma would be entering the fashion world. Hitting back: As Lydia (pictured on Wednesday at a New Look bash) shared the snap with her beloved sister, cruel fans lashed out at the fact she had undergone fillers at such a young age - yet this was clearly not the case Hitting out: After some of Lydia's 965,000 followers queried in now-deleted messages that she may have artificially plumped her pout, fiercely protective Debbie spoke exclusively to MailOnline about the 'ridiculous' claims surrounding her daughter Lydia posted a picture of her sister beaming from ear to ear, stood against an idyllic backdrop, with the caption: 'My little lady got her first modelling job.' Roma was brought up with Lydia by Debbie who previously revealed that along with caring for her kids, she has also fostered more than 250 foster children. Debbie told MailOnline that she loves the chaos of life as a carer, while also juggling her own four children, yet admitted than the devastation of giving up babies she has looked after since they were just days old. Sister, sister: The girls are famously close and also live their life with hundreds of foster siblings Adorning mum: The mother of Lydia and Roma, Debbie previously revealed that along with caring for her kids, she has also fostered more than 250 foster children (pictured in June 2018) Speaking at the Polo At The Manor event at Wales' Celtic Manor Resort earlier this year, the reality favourite candidly discussed her life as a foster parent and the highs and lows of the tough yet rewarding job. Debbie burst on to TV screens nearly eight years ago in a supporting role on The Only Way Is Essex in support of her reality star daughter Lydia, before garnering huge praise from fans as one of the loving mums of the show. While she has kept her fostering off screens, Debbie has always spoken with passion about the work yet admits there are difficulties with the job. She told MailOnline: 'The hardest thing is when you have to give up babies, when you take a baby from a week old, a year or 18 months have to move on, thats heartbreaking. You have to remember you are just part of their journey... Rewarding: She has always praised her own children, including Georgia, Freddie for the positive effect they have had on their foster siblings 'Some of the behaviours are so difficult to deal with. Its much harder to unlearn behaviours than to learn them. If you dont get a child until theyre 10, sometimes you can break through but sometimes you cant... 'You know that child is going to have a difficult life, but they have to go through that journey to become that person theyll become in later life'. She has always praised her own children, including Georgia, Freddie for the positive effect they have had on their foster siblings. She continued: 'Im 57 now, so I started fostering 27/28 years ago, my kids were both babies. For us it's our lifestyle, all four of my kids dont know any different, its a lifestyle, theyre used to sharing their mum and dad.' Her ex-boyfriend Paul Knops claimed he ended their brief romance because she'd 'never be a wife'. But Laura Anderson put on a brave face as she rubbed shoulders with a reality TV crowd at New Look's autumn/winter shopping morning on London's Oxford Street on Wednesday. The Love Island star, 29, appeared to brush off the comments as she posed up a storm with former Geordie Shore favourite Vicky Pattison, as well as Laura's villa housemates Laura Crane and Samira Mighty. United: Love Island came to London via Newcastle on Wednesday morning as losing finalist Laura Anderson rubbed shoulders with former Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison at Oxford Streets New Look store The former air hostess caught the eye in a white and black roll-neck teamed with a thigh-skimming cream minidress. The reality star added to her look with a hounds-tooth check coat, white on-trend ankle socks and polished black shoes rounded things off. Joining Laura at the event, Vicky, 30, embraced its seasonal theme in a thick sweater teamed with high-slung, distressed jeans. Giving the look an extra splash of colour, the TV personality rounded things off with a co-ordinated mustard cap, matching clutch and ankle boots. Looking good: Making an entrance at the venue, Laura, 29, caught the eye in a white and black roll-neck teamed with a thigh-skimming cream minidress Finishing touches: The Love Island star added to her look with a hounds-tooth check coat, white on-trend ankle socks and polished black shoes rounded things off Upbeat: Laura was in high spirits as she made her way inside the Oxford Street flagship store Harsh: Laura was putting on a brave face at the high street fashion event after her ex, Paul Knops, claimed he dumped her because she'd 'never be a wife' The event served as a Love Island reunion for Laura, who was greeted by fellow former contestants Samira Mighty and Laura Crane. Opting for a simple white roll-neck beneath a plaid dungaree dress, Samira commanded attention as she browsed the latest New Look trends. The 22-year old completed her look with a pair of conventional strappy heels, while a red leather handbag gave an otherwise subdued ensemble a hint of vibrancy. Casual: Joining Laura at the event, Vicky, 30, embraced its seasonal theme in a thick sweater teamed with high-slung, distressed jeans Vibrant: Giving the look an extra splash of colour, the TV personality rounded things off with a co-ordinated mustard cap, matching clutch and ankle boots Incoming: Vicky flashed a beaming smile as she made her way inside, where she was greeted by a host of reality stars Meanwhile Laura opted for a casual black blouse and matching high-slung jeans, teamed with heavily buckled ankle boots. Wild colder weather setting in the professional surfer draped a heavy camel coat over her shoulders, while a black leather handbag proved to be her only visible accessory. There was also a TOWIE contingent on the day, with cast-members Lydia Bright, Chloe Meadows, Chloe Lewis and Courtney Green also in attendance. Fashion-first: Opting for a simple white roll-neck beneath a plaid dungaree dress, Samira commanded attention as she browsed the latest New Look trends In good company: Samira was joined by fellow former Love Island star Laura Crane at the event Subdued: Laura opted for a casual black blouse and matching high-slung jeans, teamed with heavily buckled ankle boots Let's shop: The Love Island girls were seen browsing for the latest Autumn trends on Wednesday morning The event comes after Laura's Love Island ex Paul Knops explained the reasons behind his decision to dump her, telling The Sun he was looking for 'a wife'. His harsh words may come as a shock to fans, with the hunky star alleging he did not use the former air hostess as they were both in the same competition, while he said: 'Laura wouldnt have come second without me and vice versa.' Last month, Laura and Paul parted ways the second couple to dramatically break-up following Samira and Frankie Foster's break-up. In attendance: The Only Way Is Essex stars Chloe Lewis (L) and Chloe Meadows (R) were also present at the event Here she comes: TOWIE star Lydia Bright posed for photos before joining her co-stars inside the sprawling Oxford Street store A vision in black: Courtney Green sported a stylish black jumpsuit at the autumnal event Spoiled for choice: Samira picked out a pair of earrings as she browsed the store on Wednesday morning Don't mind me: TOWIE star Chloe struck a pose as she browsed the aisles in a spotted black jumpsuit Their split came shortly after the couple were forced to fend off break-up rumours when they were spotted having a furious argument during a date night at The Cuckoo Club in Mayfair recently - before finally admitting they were done. Giving further insight into their romantic woes, Paul gave a callous version of events in which he revealed it was he who had split from Laura as he admitted she was left tearful and upset - before firmly stating: 'We are not friends'. He said: 'Obviously it isnt nice when someone says they dont want to be with you. We arent friends now we havent spoken, it is a sore subject. But I told her I would be there for her if she needed me... 'We werent right for each other and thats why we never made things official. Of course she was upset; there were tears.' Working it: David Hasselhoff's daughter Hayley stunned in a black denim jumpsuit, which was cinched at the waist with a sleek belt Strutting her stuff: The 26-year-old added a pair of suede ankle boots to her feet for a boosted height Incoming: Presenter Shanie Ryan posed for photos as she made her way into the Oxford Street flagship store She and Chris Hughes failed to find long-lasting love when they took part on 2017's season of Love Island. And in a bid to find a new man, Olivia Attwood will appear on the latest season of Celebs Go Dating - currently shooting the finale episodes in Greece. And Olivia, 27, revealed to MailOnline ahead of the trip that she wasn't going to be jetting off alone - having met someone on the show and inviting them with her for the sun-drenched final. Having a stroll: Olivia Attwood will appear on the latest season of Celebs Go Dating - currently shooting the finale episodes in Greece. And she told MailOnline that she was 'bringing someone' with her 'Doing the show has been really good its been a lot of fun. But its been a mixed bag too. 'Theres hope though. Im taking someone to film the finale, so thats a good sign isnt it?' Yet Olivia was snapped on the Greek beach on Wednesday, cutting a solitary figure, with no man in sight. Strolling alone in an orange baggy tee with 'NEVER' written across the front, the reality star proved that her time in the sunshine has been well spent regardless, as she showcased a deep bronzed tan. Chit chat: She perched on the edge of a sun lounger and chatted on the phone later on, finding something hilarious as she spoke Coupled up? Olivia, 27, revealed to MailOnline ahead of the trip that she wasn't going to be jetting off alone - having met someone on the show and inviting them with her for the sun-drenched final The leggy blonde strolled barefoot, brandishing a pair of shades and her phone. She perched on the edge of a sun lounger and chatted on the phone later on, finding something hilarious as she spoke. Something she didn't find funny, however, was the sudden disappearance of Nadia Essex, one of the show's celeb dating gurus, who quit the fifth season midway through it. Leggy: Yet Olivia was snapped on the Greek beach on Wednesday, cutting a solitary figure, with no man in sight Ex-colleagues: Olivia was saddened by the sudden disappearance of Nadia Essex, one of the show's celeb dating gurus, who quit the fifth season midway through it Weighing in: 'Paul is great he has really been a massive part of the show, we all love him,' Olivia said. 'But its sad about what happened. I really like Nadia' While the matter is still unclear, Nadia was suspended after she was said to have used a fake Twitter account to troll users who were trolling her. This was later cleared up when Nadia spoke exclusively to MailOnline, saying she was not 'trolling', merely 'defending herself against trolls' and that Celebs Go Dating producers at Lime Productions left her no other choice after they 'watched her like a hawk' following the exit of another former co-host, Eden Blackman. With both no longer on the series, the only guru left to preside over things is Paul Carrick Brunson. And then there was one: Nadia was part of the fabric of Celebs Go dating since the birth of the show in 2016 but she will no longer play a part - leaving the celebs in the hands of new love guru Paul Carrick Brunson [pictured] New line up: Following Nadia's departure from the series - which features the likes of Alik Alfus, Eyal Booker, Olivia Attwood and Chloe Sims - a representative for the E4 show said 'Nadia has been suspended following improper use of social media' 'Paul is great he has really been a massive part of the show, we all love him,' Olivia said. 'But its sad about what happened. I really like Nadia.' She also confirmed that no-one else has been brought in to fill Nadia's shoes. 'They havent replaced her. It's a shame how that all turned out, these things happen though...' Celebs Go Dating returns to E4 this month. Teresa Giudice's husband Joe received some bad news this week. The Real Housewives Of New Jersey star, who is serving out a three year prison sentence for fraud at FCI Allenwood in Pennsylvania, has been ordered to be deported back to Italy. The 46-year-old TV star came to the US as a baby, but never became a citizen. Soon after news broke, TMZ added that Teresa will not follow her husband to Italy because their four daughters - Gia, 17, Gabriella, 14, Milania, 12, and Audriana, nine - would face too much of a culture shock. Also challenging would be their lack of friends and family in the European country. Pack your bags? Teresa Giudice's husband Joe received some bad news this week. The Real Housewives Of New Jersey star, who is serving out a three year prison sentence for fraud, has been ordered to be deported back to Italy. Seen in 2014 Not easy: The actor, who came to the US as an infant, seen here in Superior Court in Paterson, NJ in 2014 It was also claimed by the site that in 2016 Teresa asked Donald Trump to write a character letter in support of Joe before he began his sentence. Teresa and Donald had become close after she starred on his reality TV show The Apprentice. His office told her no. 'Based upon the law, I find you deportable and ineligible for any kind of relief,' Judge John Ellington said during a hearing at Pennsylvania's York Immigration Court on Wednesday, the site added. 'Mr Giudice, no matter how this turns out, I wish you the best. I decided this case as a matter of law.' Joe, who was on teleconference, did not take the news well. 'I dont understand how I can be deported on this case. If you will, Ill tell you my side. I shouldnt even be here right now. I have to go back and tell my kids this, and theyve been waiting to hear from me.' But he has a big family in NJ: The TV star has four daughters with Teresa: Gia, 17, Gabriella, 14, Milania, 12, and Audriana, nine. Seen in 2013 Not happy: Joe, who was on teleconference, did not take the news well. 'I dont understand how I can be deported on this case. If you will, Ill tell you my side. I shouldnt even be here right now. I have to go back and tell my kids this, and theyve been waiting to hear from me.' Seen in 2016 before going to prison The site added he seemed 'shocked.' The couple pleaded guilty in 2014 to 41 counts of fraud. There were also unpaid taxes that totaled $200,000. Joe can appeal by November 9. Both of them have family and friends in New Jersey and have made their living their for decades. She is a single mom now: It is not known if Teresa and the kids will join him if he is deported to Italy Teresa has already served nearly a year in prison; she was released in 2015. Since then she has published a book and resumed her work on RHONJ as she raised the kids alone. Joe's sentence began in March 2016. His lawyer James J. Leonard said in June that Joe would not be deported. 'We remain optimistic that when the day comes where a court decides the fate of Mr. Giudice, they will return him home to his wife and four daughters where he belongs,' Leonard told Us Weekly at the time. 'But that is for a judge to decide.' Strong lady: Teresa has already served nearly a year in prison; she was released in 2015. Since then she has published a book and resumed her work on RHONJ as she raised the kids alone In the past Teresa has made light of moving to Italy as it's a beautiful place: 'Whatever God has planned for me, thats whats going to happen. I will embrace it the best I can.' While there have been rumours that Teresa may divorce Joe, she has always denied it. If the claims are true that she will not move to Italy for Joe, it may be likely that they go their separate ways. Happier times: Teresa and Joe during season two; now the show is on season nine Meanwhile a source told People on Wednesday afternoon that she is surprised. 'This is going to break her,' said a source. 'She always knew that this was a possibility, but she put it out of her head. Thats the only way she could go on living day to day.' The insider added she has a certain way of thinking and tries to always stay positive: 'Thats why she hates going to see him in prison, too. Its just like, "Keep busy and dont think about the bad stuff." [Its] a very Italian way to be.' The pal went on to say, 'Teresa is incredibly strong, and whether she admits it or not, I think she had secretly prepared for this. Since Joes been gone, Teresas grown into her independence. Shes taken control of her life, and shes raised those girls well.' Giudice has finished filming season nine of Bravo's RHONJ and will likely be a part of season 10. Malin Akerman and fiance Jack Donnelly looked very much in love on Tuesday in Los Angeles. The 40-year-old actress grabbed lunch with her husband-to-be in Studio City and the pair were spotted holding hands and nuzzling one another as they left the restaurant. The Billions star just celebrated the one year anniversary of her engagement to the British actor. In love: Malin Akerman and fiance Jack Donnelly looked very much in love on Tuesday in Los Angeles as they headed out for lunch Last October the Swedish born beauty announced on social media that Donnelly had popped the question on Friday the 13th. This week the couple was spotted looking like they just stepped out of the 1970s. Akerman's blonde hair was cut into a bob and parted in the middle. Her locks were flipped out just a smidge at the ends which gave her a modified Farrah Fawcett vibe. The Canadian actress wore what is sometimes described as a Canadian tuxedo AKA denim on denim. She opted for a pair of retro style flared jeans with a raw hem and a chambray shirt that she tucked tightly into the waistband. A stone colored pair of boots peaked out from the boot cut cuff of the jeans and she accessorized with an ornate silver bib necklace and a pair of big sunglasses. In keeping with her seventies vibe, a multicolored suede chevron print crossbody bag was the 27 Dresses star's purse of choice. Retro! The 40-year-old actress wore a retro looking outfit and opted for denim on denim Getting hitched: The British actor proposed to the Billions star on Friday the 13th last October Donnelly cut a handsome figure next to his fiancee. The Atlantis actor wore a pair of slim fit jeans with brown boots and a beige linen shirt that was left unbuttoned at the top. Malin and Jack went public as a couple last year when they were seen for the first time together at an event celebrating Ariana Rockefeller's collection of handbags, and then later seen kissing passionately while in Puerto Rico. The Wanderlust stunner shares her son Sebastian, 5, with ex Roberto Zincone, with whom she ended her six-year marriage to in 2013. Following the divorce, Malin opened up about the split, revealing her 'roll with the punches' attitude to life. Happy family: Malin told PEOPLE after her divorce that her next man would have to compete with her 5-year-old son Sebastian for attention, however Jack seems to be doing just fine She told People Magazine: 'You can't control life. I roll with the punches and ultimately it's like, "Where is the opportunity in this?" 'And that's been a nice way to look at it. Like, oh my God, I get to have so much special time with my son now.' But she added that any new man in her life would have to compete with Sebastian for attention. Malin added: 'It's hard because your heart is so full for your child, the next guy that comes along is going to have a lot of competition!' Last year Akerman took to Instagram with a selfie to announce her engagement to Jack and, not only gave a nod to their love but, also his relationship with Sebastian. She wrote: 'This sweet and loving man has stepped into our lives and stole both our hearts! I think were gonna keep him around for a while.' Kim Kardashian vowed to stop flashing diamonds on social media after she was robbed at gunpoint in her Paris hotel two years ago. And while the 37-year-old siren has followed her word, she seemed to go back to the old Kim on Tuesday night in NYC. The KUWTK TV star shared several images to Snapchat where she was flaunting gems. Bling it on KKW: Kim Karashian looked was dripping in diamonds at the Tiffany Blue Book Collection launch in New York on Tuesday Turns out they were not hers. On Wednesday the daughter of Kris Jenner, 62, thanked Tiffany & Co for the rocks. 'Thank you @tiffanyandco for having me at your beautiful Blue Book event and letting me wear some pretty serious jewels!' wrote the 5ft2in wonder. Borrowed? The KUWTK TV star shared several images to Snapchat where she was flaunting her gems The wife of Kanye West had on a choker and several rings. This is a big contrast to the lack of jewelry she wore in June when visiting Paris again. Ever since her robbery, here she was held at gunpoint by five burglars who took two cellphones and approximately $10 million worth of jewelry, she no longer keeps jewelry in the house or wears her best jewels to appearances, according to People. No diamond day: This is a big contrast to the lack of jewelry she wore in June when visiting Paris again No more ice: Kardashian vowed to stop flashing diamonds on social media after she was robbed at gunpoint in her Paris hotel two years ago 'Ever since the Paris robbery, Kim has made many changes in her life. She is much more careful about being flashy,' another source added to the site. And Kim does not keep expensive jewelry in her Hidden Hills mansion, it has been added. 'She doesnt wear expensive jewelry every day, so it makes no sense to keep it at the house. Kim is trying to eliminate as many concerns as possible,' the source said. Madame Tussauds or the real deal? Karashian looked like a waxwork figure Flaunting it: Kim donned yet another very revealing outfit for the fancy fete The reality star went bra-less in a very low-cut white dress that featured a sleeveless top and floor-length skirt. The outfit, that was held together just under the bust, exposed her bare back as well as the top of her buttocks. She added a pair of towering perspex heels. Barely there: The reality star went bra-less in a very low-cut white dress that featured a sleeveless top and floor-length skirt Kim wore her long black wig and was made up with lashings of mascara and dark blush over her heavy foundation. She colored in her pout with glossy red color. Kim has always denied she's had plastic surgery to enhance her looks but has admitted to using Botox, which she insists isn't the same as going under the knife. 'Everyone always thinks I've had my nose done or my lips done or just anything to my face like besides Botox, which to me isn't plastic surgery,' she told Harper's bazaar back in 2012. She says that it's her contouring makeup that gives the illusion of a slimmer nose and other apparent changes to her features. 'It sucks when people make up surgery or photoshop lies when I am so disciplined & work so hard!' the Keeping Up With The Kardashians reality star tweeted in January 2014. Kim as well as her sisters and momager all sport plumped up lips as a signature look. In fact, her youngest half-sister Kylie Jenner recently seems to have returned to using lip fillers after publicly stopping using them several months ago. On Tuesday, the 21-year-old showed off much fuller lips on her social media while thanking a dermatology clinic for 'coming through late night with a lip touch up.' Date night: Jenner wore a black coat with lacy skirt over a turtleneck and leggins and she was joined by her beau Corey Gamble There were plenty of other guests who also showed up to the invitation-only party. Priyanka Chopra shimmered in a chainmail-style backless dress with spaghetti straps. The Indian beauty, 36, who is engaged to Nick Jonas, showed off her legs thanks to a side slit and nude sandal heels. She was decked out in a fabulous diamond necklace and earrings. American Horror Story star Sarah Paulson stunned in a hot-pink Valentino chiffon-ruffled dress in a new feminist spread shot by Zoey Grossman. 'Interest in me sparked when I was in my very late 30s,' the 43-year-old Golden Globe winner said in the November edition of ELLE celebrating women in Hollywood. 'I have absolute terror and fear that someone's gonna go, "You turned 45. Bye-bye." I hope I dont get told to go back to bed. I have a lot more to do and say. But there's this notion that women fall apart after 45. Pretty in pink! American Horror Story star Sarah Paulson stunned in a hot-pink Valentino chiffon-ruffled dress in a new feminist spread shot by Zoey Grossman 'It's been perpetuated by Hollywood by not putting the stories of women over certain ages front and center. They're dictating what they think is interesting, and we are consuming it and deciding that what they're telling us is true.' The Tampa-born beauty paired her haute couture with Ana Khouri sapphire and diamond earrings as well as Hearts On Fire diamond rings selected by stylist Leslie Fremar. Hairstylist Chris McMillan slicked back Sarah's auburn short hair and make-up artist Adam Breuchaud made sure she was ready for her close-up. Paulson addressed her 'unconventional' May-December romance to 75-year-old actress Holland Taylor, whom she knew in passing for a decade until they reconnected in 2015 over Twitter. The 43-year-old Golden Globe winner told ELLE: 'Interest in me sparked when I was in my very late 30s. I have absolute terror and fear that someone's gonna go, "You turned 45. Bye-bye"' Neck tatt: The Tampa-born beauty paired her haute couture with Ana Khouri sapphire and diamond earrings as well as Hearts On Fire diamond rings selected by stylist Leslie Fremar 'I didn't choose to fall in love with the person I fell in love with. But I think why it's interesting to people is that on paper, it's unconventional,' the Ocean's 8 star explained. 'For a person who might find themselves in a situation that they fear will be misperceived or judged, maybe they could see me living my life in a way that is authentic to me - just trying to be as real as possible. If that inspires anybody else, that can't be a bad thing.' The Prada muse admitted she had no immediate plans for marriage or children because her career has been going so well. 'Somebody once said to me, "You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything." You can't be awake and asleep, or here and also at home. You have to make choices,' Sarah said. May-December romance: Sarah addressed her 'unconventional' relationship to 75-year-old actress Holland Taylor, whom she knew in passing for a decade until they reconnected in 2015 over Twitter (pictured September 17) Paulson explained: 'I didn't choose to fall in love with the person I fell in love with. But I think why it's interesting to people is that on paper, it's unconventional...Maybe they could see me living my life in a way that is authentic to me - just trying to be as real as possible. If that inspires anybody else, that can't be a bad thing' 'But I've gotta strike while the iron's hot. Right now, people are calling. They may stop really soon. So I want to make hay while the sun shines. That's a lot of things I just did there...iron, hay. But you know, the window is open. I'm just trying to muscle it open as long as I can and get it as wide as possible.' Paulson currently plays Coven witch Cordelia Goode and Murder House medium Billie Dean Howard in the eight-episode eighth season of AHS: Apocalypse, which airs Wednesdays on FX. The Feud guest star also did double duty by directing the October 17th episode titled 'Return To Murder House.' 'Feeling witchy': The Prada muse currently plays Coven witch Cordelia Goode and Murder House medium Billie Dean Howard in the eight-episode eighth season of AHS: Apocalypse, which airs Wednesdays on FX 'Dynamo of wit and talent!' The Emmy winner also did double duty by directing the October 17th episode titled 'Return To Murder House' featuring Jessica Lange (R) 'Change is hard for everyone,' the Emmy winner said of the #MeToo movement and the Time's Up initiative. 'I feel a sense of sisterhood, and a sense of linked arms and hands. You really feel youve got the support - the backbone - of other bodies.' Sarah continued: 'I have been very lucky because a lot of my sense of empowerment has come from working with [ACS and AHS creator] Ryan Murphy. It's a bit of an anomaly to have found my voice because of this one particular man. But it's also a way of saying this can happen. You don't need to push any gender out of the way to find your spot.' Diversity's Ashley Banjo has confirmed his wife Francesca is pregnant with the couple's first child. The dancer and choreographer, 30, took to his Instagram page on Wednesday afternoon to reveal the childhood sweethearts are 'so excited' to be expecting a baby girl after a 'difficult journey'. Alongside a sweet selfie of the couple holding a picture of their ultrasound scan, eh wrote: 'I am so excited to finally share the news that we are having a baby!! Now the time has come to finally say this out loud I have no idea what to say! Happy news! Diversity's Ashley Banjo has confirmed his wife Francesca is pregnant with the couple's first child, a baby girl 'I dont know if words alone can explain how full of joy and happiness we both are. It has been a more difficult journey to this point than most people know but we are now here with one of the most precious gifts in the world... A little girl! 'I have so many strong and incredible women around me, I know she will have great examples to follow. 'Especially this woman right here - my wife and my rock. You are going to be the best mum in the world. 'Im so excited to see our little one grow up and if by any chance she wanted to be like her daddy and bust a few moves, Ive already got the dancing shoes covered! Cant wait to meet you little sweetie.' Parents to be: The dancer and choreographer, 29, took to his Instagram page on Wednesday afternoon to reveal the childhood sweethearts are 'so excited' to be expecting a baby girl Grateful: In the lengthy message, the street dance pro hailed his wife as his 'rock' and said she will be the 'best mum in the world' Set to follow in their footsteps? Ashley also explained he will support his daughter if she wanted to 'bust a few moves' in the future Ashley's brother Jordan also took to Instagram to post a gushing message about the exciting announcement, alongside a snap of the dancer cradling his nephew. The Dancing On Ice presenter penned: My big bro is going to be a DAD @ashleybanjogram & @francescabanjo Im so proud of you guys, youre already the best aunty and uncle to my little Cass (as you can see Ashs huge smile holding his nephew). I cant wait to see the banjo family get even bigger! Love you guys, and I know Cass is buzzing to have a beautiful little cousin to play with, he concluded. 'My bro is going to be a DAD!': Ashley's brother Jordan also took to Instagram to post a gushing message about the announcement, alongside a snap of the dancer cradling his nephew New parents: The happy news comes just months after Ashley's brother Jordan welcomed his first baby in May when his girlfriend Naomi Courts give birth to son Cassius Ashley Banjo Ashley and Francesca are childhood sweethearts and have been together for 13 years; they got engaged in 2014 and tied the knot in 2015. Francesca is a member of another dance troupe called Out of the Shadow. The happy news comes just months after Ashley's brother Jordan welcomed his first baby in May when his girlfriend Naomi Courts give birth to son Cassius Ashley Banjo - with his middle name serving as a nod to his big brother. Long-time couple: Ashley and Francesca are childhood sweethearts and have been together for 13 years; they got engaged in 2014 and tied the knot in 2015 Fancy footwork: Ashley shot to fame when his dance troupe, Diversity, won the third series of Britain's Got Talent in 2009 Jordan recently told Lorraine Kelly: 'Ashley's a wicked uncle already! 'He's not even three weeks old yet and Ashley's already telling me how he wants him in Diversity so I've got to train him pretty quick.' Ashley shot to fame when his dance troupe, Diversity, won the third series of Britain's Got Talent in 2009. He later became a co-judge on Sky1's Got To Dance, and joined the judging panel of ITV1 celebrity skating show Dancing On Ice in January. On Wednesday, Paramount Pictures dropped the ominous first trailer for its Pet Sematary remake, which doesn't haunt US/UK theaters until April 5, 2019. In it, John Lithgow takes over the character of Jud Crandall, who warns his new neighbors of an ancient Mi'kmaq burial ground that can resurrect the dead with malevolent consequences. 'Kids used to dare each other to go into the woods at night,' Crandall said of the child-created cemetery for pets. 'Sometimes dead is better': On Wednesday, Paramount Pictures dropped the ominous first trailer for its Pet Sematary remake, which doesn't haunt US/UK theaters until April 5, 2019 'They knew the power of that place. They feared it.' Audiences then catch a glimpse at a group of fifties-era children wearing animal masks in a spooky sort of funereal procession in the forest, unaware that they were disturbing a Native American spirit. Jason Clarke plays patriarch Louis Creed, who brings his family from Boston to the small Maine town without realizing their home is on a country road where 18-wheeler trucks speed. In it, John Lithgow takes over the character of Jud Crandall, who warns his new neighbors of an ancient Mi'kmaq burial ground that can resurrect the dead - with malevolent consequences Crandall said of the child-created cemetery for pets: 'Kids used to dare each other to go into the woods at night. They knew the power of that place. They feared it' Disturbing a Native American spirit: Audiences then catch a glimpse at a group of fifties-era children wearing animal masks in a spooky sort of funereal procession in the forest Dad: Jason Clarke plays patriarch Louis Creed, who brings his family from Boston to the small Maine town without realizing their home is on a country road where 18-wheeler trucks speed Amy Seimetz plays Louis' concerned wife Rachel, their daughter Ellie is played by Jete Laurence, and their toddler son Gage is played by twins Hugo & Lucas Lavoie. Fans of the original will be pleased to see that the family's soon-to-be-resurrected cat Winston 'Church' Churchill is played by a Maine Coon (called Smucky) just like in the book. Directing duo Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer reportedly stuck closer to Stephen King's 1983 novel than director Mary Lambert did for the 1989 horror classic, which grossed $57.5M globally. Mom: Amy Seimetz (L) plays Louis' concerned wife Rachel, their daughter Ellie is played by Jete Laurence, and their toddler son Gage is played by twins Hugo & Lucas Lavoie (R) Meow: Fans of the original will be pleased to see that the family's soon-to-be-resurrected cat Winston 'Church' Churchill is played by a Maine Coon (called Smucky) just like in the book Blake Lively was have a tourist moment while in Paris on Tuesday. The wife of Ryan Reynolds was seen posing with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland Paris as she appeared to have no makeup on and was wearing her unbrushed dirty blonde hair down. There was no sign of her daughters James, aged three, and Inez, aged one. Fun in France: Blake Lively was have a tourist moment while in Paris on Tuesday The Gossip Girl vet looked to be having fun as she smiled in both photos with the chartacter. The knockout had on Minnie Mouse ears in pink and wore a black T-shirt with blue striped slacks. The cover girl from California has been wearing slacks all summer. Mickey was in his Halloween attire complete with orange top hat that had a spider and a spider web attached. Natural beauty: The Simple Favor star appeared to have no makeup on and was wearing her unbrushed dirty blonde hair down The beauty has been in France as Ryan works on his new action movie 6 Underground with co-star Melanie Laurent. He has also been filming in Italy. Also during her downtime from Paris Fashion Week, the Green Lantern actress posed for photographs in front of the Statue Of Liberty at Pont de Grenelle. Her brood: She shares daughters James, three, and Inez, one, with actor Ryan Reynolds. The family seen here in December 2016 The blonde beauty epitomized chic in her plaid pants and jacket combo. Around her slim waist Blake wore a brown leather belt and she slipped moccasins onto her feet. A cross body bag contained the starlet's personal effects. On Monday, Blake head to the Dior show during Paris Fashion Week wearing a kooky, layered ensemble. No stranger to wearing the Dior brand, Blake, who has been married to Ryan Reynolds since 2012, slipped into a tulle dress which had a sequin lattice overlay to pose for pictures. The number had an eye-catching nude corset underneath as she waved to fans on the red carpet. Blake slipped her feet into a pair of perspex and diamante Cinderella style heels by Christian Louboutin for the occasion. Her appearance comes after she told the Independent.ie that Ireland could soon become her 'second home' should her upcoming flick The Rhythm Section be well received. The blonde beauty moved to Dublin to film the Reed Morano-directed flick, which also stars Jude Law, with her husband Ryan Reynolds, 41, and two daughters; James, three, and Inez, one. She shared: 'If everybody goes and sees The Rhythm Section in theatres in February, then well have to do some more films in Ireland. Theres about five books so Ireland will be our second home. Dublin will be my second home.' Layer up: On Monday, Blake head to the Dior show during Paris Fashion Week wearing a kooky, layered ensemble While living in the country, it appeared the homemaker fell in love with Irish food and fashion retailer, Avoca and described it as 'heaven'. She said: 'Oh my god can we talk about Avoca, have you guys been to Avoca? You have to go to Ireland just to go to Avoca, it's just heaven. 'How it's described in the bible is inaccurate, heaven is what Avoca is it's just hand weavers and amazing pastries and it's just heaven. Everybody's gonna be like "she's disgracing the bible" - I was joking world.' RANGPUR: Enamul Habib, DC, Rangpur addressing a human chain in observance of the National Girl Child Day and Child Marriage Prevention Day as Chief Guest on Tuesday. She shot down reports she had split from Ben Affleck. And Shauna Sexton couldn't have looked happier as she posted a smiling, sunshine-soaked snap on Wednesday. In the photo, the former vet tech, 22, looked radiant as she enjoyed a day by the beach. Happy days! Shauna Sexton couldn't have looked happier as she posted a smiling, sunshine-soaked snap on Wednesday after denying that she's split up from Ben Affleck She wore a distressed jean jacket, ripped black jeans, and had her hair pulled up into a high ponytail. In the snap, the model looked relaxed and happy as she soaked up the sun while spending time outdoors. Meanwhile Ben was looking cheerful as he visited rehab in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Meanwhile Ben was looking cheerful as he visited rehab in Los Angeles on Wednesday The actor is still receiving outpatient care after a 40-day stint in rehab. Waving to onlookers as he made his way inside the building the Argo star looked casual in a plaid shirt and grey jeans. The Playboy model exclusively revealed she had not split from Ben in her first ever public comment on their relationship - telling DailyMailTV: 'Don't believe everything you read on the internet'. Recovery: The Argo star - who is receiving outpatient care - wore grey jeans and a plaid shirt as he carried an iced coffee with him Still going strong: Shauna denied break-up reports and insists she's still with Ben who she has been dating since August Shauna spent the weekend enjoying a romantic break with the 46-year-old actor fishing and wildlife watching in Big Sky, Montana. But recently, reports surfaced quoting an anonymous source who claimed the pair's six-week 'casual' relationship was over. Now Sexton, who lives in Woodland Hills, California, has hit back, angrily telling DailyMailTV: 'I know [there are lots of unnamed insiders] - and they just make s*** up, just like this.' Heart to heart: The model, pictured September 2018, told Radar that reports she's split from the A-lister, 46, are 'not accurate' The relationship between the Gone Girl actor and the Playboy model came into question following a People report published on Tuesday claiming that the actor and model are no longer seeing one another following a trip to Montana over the weekend. An insider close to the actor, who was treated for addiction alcohol this year (on the heels of prior stints in 2017 and 2001), downplayed the idea that he and Sexton were in a serious relationship in the first place. 'There was nothing to split from as it has been casual,' the insider said. 'He enjoyed being with her but is working on himself, and being together with her at this time is not something that works.' The father-of-three - to daughters Violet, 12, and Seraphina, nine, and son Samuel, six, with ex Jennifer Garner, 46 - 'will date in the future, but for now his focus is on his sobriety, family and his next project,' the insider told People. Mel B looked effortlessly chic as she headed to court with ex-husband Stephen Belafonte amid their custody battle over their children in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday. Supported by her best friend Gary Madatyan, the Spice Girls star, 43, opted for a sophisticated display in a semi-sheer blouse and pleated skirt. Mel and film producer Stephen, 43, are in court to battle over the custody of their two children Angel, 11, and Madison, seven. Elegant: Mel B looked effortlessly chic as she headed to court with ex-husband Stephen Belafonte amid their custody battle over their children in Los Angeles, on Wednesday The America's Got Talent judge, who is also mother to daughter Phoenix Chi Gulzar, 19, tied in her demure look with a pair of gold pointed heels and a cream chain-strap handbag. Oozing glamour in the accessory department, the Word Up hitmaker sported diamond hooped earrings, and accentuated her features with neutral-toned make-up. Meanwhile, Stephen put on a dapper display in a sleek grey suit and a light blue shirt, finished off with a waist belt by Gucci. During the ongoing battle, Mel has been ordered to submit four months of drug and alcohol testing after a judge demanded a 'full scale custody' evaluation. Ready for business: Supported by her best friend Gary Madatyan, the Spice Girls star, 43, opted for a sophisticated display in a semi-sheer blouse and pleated skirt Shortly before their court date, DailyMailTV revealed Mel's former nanny Lorraine Gilles is not mentioned in the star's upcoming memoir called Brutally Honest - thanks to a secret settlement between the pair. Gilles was heavily featured in Mel's bitter divorce from husband Stephen, after having lived with them for seven years, had a seven-year intimate relationship with Mel, engaged in three-way sex with the couple, and cared for their children, according to the suit. However, the 27-year-old German-born au pair will not be mentioned in the book once. Sharp: Meanwhile, Stephen, 43, put on a dapper display in a sleek grey suit and a light blue shirt, finished off with a waist belt by Gucci The former Spice Girl had accused the blonde in court documents of aiding Belafonte to drug and rape her and conspiring with her ex by threatening to release embarrassing sex tapes they had made - claims both Gilles and Belafonte have denied. While admitting a lesbian affair with Gilles, former X Factor judge Mel also accused the nanny of becoming pregnant by her husband before aborting the child. Gilles later confirmed her sexual relationship with Mel and Belafonte in court papers but maintained that at no point did she 'and Belafonte engage in any sexual acts without Brown's knowledge or participation' nor was she pregnant with his child. Happier times: Mel and film producer Stephen are in court to battle over the custody of their two children Angel (bottom left), 11, and Madison, seven (centre). She is also mother to daughter Phoenix Chi Gulzar (right). Pictured in January 2015 Despite playing a significant role in Mel's life, DailyMailTV has learned the nanny has been omitted from the book thanks to a secret non-disclosure agreement the two women signed last year. It's understood the agreement was struck at the 11th hour, allowing Mel to avoid an embarrassing trial in her domestic violence case against her ex. The deal, which saw Mel dropping a restraining order against Gilles, also prevents her from ever talking about Mel in public. Kanye West will get a front row seat when Donald Trump signs a new law to protect musicians and artists at the White House on Thursday. Ye had already been scheduled to attend the White House to sit down with the president about Chicago's gang violence problem, manufacturing jobs and prison reform - cause his wife, Kim Kardashian West, has previously championed. Now he will get to see history being made as Trump signs the Music Modernization Act into law. The rapper will be joined by Recording Academy Prez Neil Portnow and Kid Rock for the moment. The Act, which the House and Senate have already passed, updates licensing and royalties for artists, songwriters and producers with music played on streaming services. Kim hinted on Tuesday that her husband and the president had to discuss some 'exciting things' they 'have been planning'. Speaking to Extra at the Tiffany & Co. launch of the 2018 Tiffany Blue Book collection in New York City on Tuesday Kim said: 'I try to (give Kanye advice), I will try to help him communicate. Kanye West (left in Chicago, Wednesday) will get a front row seat when Donald Trump signs a new law to protect musicians and artists at the White House. His wife Kim Kardashian (right on Tuesday) had already revealed Kanye and Trump were meeting to discuss 'exciting things' 'I always say he isn't the best communicator, but he has the best heart. I know what he wants to accomplish ... and I can't wait to see that happen.' Teasing the topic of conversation, the curvaceous beauty spilled the pair will be discussing the 'city of Chicago and some exciting things that I feel like they have been planning, and I really hope the president listens'. It's not the first time Kanye has met with Trump as the rapper visited the Trump Tower in New York in December 2016 shortly after the businessman won the presidential vote. Pals: It's not the first time Kanye has met with Trump as the rapper visited Trump Tower in December 2016 shortly after the businessman won the presidential vote 'I always say he isn't the best communicator, but he has the best heart', Kim said that she tries to help her husband communicate better. They are pictured together in June Kim has previously met with Trump and convinced him to pardon 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson - who had received a life sentence following a 1996 conviction for a non-violent, first-time drug offence, in which her only role was answering phones. She had served 22 years behind bars. Speaking about her achievement, she said: 'That was a really good feeling. I always say no matter what your views are, it's not about the politics, it's about the people.' It was recently reported that Kim, Kanye and their three children were planning a move to Chicago, which the brunette confirmed on Tuesday night. 'I think so, we will have a few homes, we'll go back and forth, but I think that's happening,' Kardashian said when asked about the claims. Big meeting: Kanye is pictured in Chicago on Wednesday wearing a bright orange jacket and black pants The death of Austin Powers star, Verne Troyer, has been ruled a suicide. Troyer, who was best known for playing Mini-me in hit franchise, died from sequelae of alcohol intoxication, according to the Los Angeles County Department Medical Examiner-Cornor's office as reported by People. The actor was rushed to a hospital with possible alcohol poisoning in early April, and then passed away about three weeks later on April 21. He was 49. RIP: Verne Troyer's death has been ruled a suicide by alcohol intoxication Tests showed, Troyer consumed about three times the legal limit of alcohol before he was taken to the hospital. A friend told police and paramedic dispatchers at the time that he appeared to be very upset, drunk and suicidal. 'Verne was an extremely caring individual. He wanted to make everyone smile, be happy, and laugh. Anybody in need, he would help to any extent possible,' a statement on his Instagram read started shortly after his death. 'Over the years he's struggled and won, struggled and won, struggled and fought some more, but unfortunately this time was too much.' Grips of addiction: Troyer consumed about three times the legal limit of alcohol before he was taken to the hospital in early April Hollywood sensation: Troyer was best known for playing Mini-me in the Austin Power movie franchise The actor was hospitalized for alcohol addiction in April of 2017. 'I've been hearing from some concerned fans, so I'd like to address a very personal situation,' Troyer said in a statement to PEOPLE at the time. 'As you know, I've battled alcohol addiction in the past and while it's not always been an easy fight, I'm willing to continue my fight day by day.' Troyer was born with achondroplasia dwarfism, which caused him to stop growing at 2ft 8in. Austin Powers star Mike Myers called Troyer a 'consummate professional and a beacon of positivity' in a statement he issued after the actor's passing. 'It is a sad day, but I hope he is in a better place,' Myers said. 'He will be greatly missed.' Katie Price was filmed hurling vicious abuse at paparazzi five days before she was arrested for drink driving. The 40-year-old television personality was leaving upmarket London members club Annabels during the early hours of Saturday morning with toyboy boyfriend Alex Adderson, 25, when she launched into a foul mouthed rant. Concealing her face, she screamed at paparazzi 'I hope your f***ing wives die' before designated driver Alex sped away, nearly hitting a photographer. Shocking rant: Katie Price was filmed hurling vicious abuse at paparazzi in the early hours of Saturday five days before she was arrested for drink driving (pictured earlier in the evening) The video comes amid claims she was on a five-day bender before she was arrested on suspicion of drink driving in the early hours of Wednesday. Police will continue to investigate the incident, which took place at around 2am in Woolwich, south London, shortly after Katie made an appearance at ex-boyfriend Kris Boyson's 30th birthday party. The mother-of-five is currently receiving treatment at The Priory and meant to be abstaining from alcohol but is said to have fallen off the wagon during her night out with Alex. Leaving: The 40-year-old television personality was leaving upmarket London members club Annabels with toyboy boyfriend Alex Adderson when she launched into a foul mouthed rant The former glamour model enjoyed Strawberry Daquiris with boyfriend Alex Adderson at the weekend, according to The Sun. A source said: 'Katie was knocking back Strawberry Daiquiris in Alexs house on Saturday night. 'She drove there so she wouldnt be tempted to drink but it didnt take much for her to fall off the wagon. 'They went out for a while, but Alex had to stop drinking after two champagnes because Katie was draining cocktails. She kept saying "they are basically fruit salads" and "one of my five a day." After drinking with her 25-year-old boyfriend at the weekend the Loose Women panellist appeared worse-for-wear as she turned up unannounced and uninvited at her ex-boyfriend's party. Damage: The video comes amid claims she was on a five-day bender before she was arrested on suspicion of drink driving in the early hours of Wednesday Insiders told MailOnline she had a blazing row with Alex and was seeking comfort from Kris, who is still close to the star. Sources said: 'We were having a few drinks when someone said to Kris, someone is here to see you... 'The next thing Katies there, Im not exactly sure why... She looked a bit worse for wear - I think she just turned up as everyone was quite shocked. Kris got up and welcomed her after the shock; I have met her before so she was OK with me. Kris and her walked off for a chat so we left them to it. Katie could face six months in prison if she's found guilty of drink-driving. Josh Radnor is the latest addition to the Greys Anatomy cast. The How I Met Your Mother star will play Meredith Greys (Ellen Pompeo) love interest, according to People magazine. In a preview for Thursdays episode the fourth in the shows 15th season the widowed doctor sparks curiosity among her co-workers and friends when she shows up to work dolled up and ready for a blind date. Josh Radnor will appear on Grey's Anatomy in season 15 as Meredith Grey's new Love interest Meredith Grey and Josh Radnor's character will be set up on a blind date during Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy What happened? Are you going to a funeral?, Dr Amelia Shepard (Caterina Scorsone) asks in the trailer. Dr Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) follows that question up with: Whats wrong with you? You look weird. Oh my God, you have a date, Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) finally concludes. World's will collide TOMORROW during the 2-hour #GreysxStation19 crossover starting at 8|7c on ABC. pic.twitter.com/j7M8fwtEwo Station 19 (@Station19) October 10, 2018 Josh doesnt appear in the preview, however. What do you need to know before the 44-year-old actor makes his Greys Anatomy debut? Weve got you covered. Who is Josh Radnor? Josh Radnor is an American actor. Hes known best for playing Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, which aired on CBS for several seasons. He comes from Columbus, Ohio. After graduating from Kenyon College, he attended New York University, obtaining a degree in the schools graduate acting program. In 2002, Josh appeared in the stage version of The Graduate. His big break came in 2005 when he was cast in How I Met Your Mother. The show ran until 2014. In his personal life, Josh is an avid transcendental meditator. He doesnt drink, according to a GQ profile of him, and hes part of a staunch anti-pornography group. Josh once delivered an interview for the group in which he said he [stands] strong with anyone choosing to get porn out of their lives. He gave up swearing in 2016, telling the New York Times he wanted to get rid of the resonance of negativity in his life. Josh is not married. He dated Minka Kelly for several months, but they broke up in March 2017. Josh Radnor Greys Anatomy Josh Radnor will be introduced on Greys Anatomy in season 15, episode 4 on Thursday, October 11. Hes expected to play a love interest of Ellen Pompeos character, Meredith Grey. The pair will apparently be set up on a blind date. Greys Anatomy crossover The latest episode of Greys Anatomy is expected to be a big one. In addition to introducing Josh Radnor to the show, the fourth episode of season 15 will be a crossover with ABCs new fire fighter drama, Station 19. Characters from both shows will interact in the episode as they team up to tackle an emergency. Josh Radnor net worth Josh Radnors net worth is about $20 million (15.1m), according to Celebrity Net Worth. Hes made the majority of his fortune as an actor. He was paid an impressive $225,000 (170,602) per episode of How I Met Your Mother while the show was on the air. It ran from 2005 to 2014 on CBS. Two-time Grammy nominee Fabolous is reportedly facing 20 years in prison after being indicted on four felonies stemming from two 'arguments' he had with his babymama Emily Bustamante last March. According to TMZ, a grand jury concluded last week that the 40-year-old rapper committed one count of domestic violence, two counts of threatening to kill, and one count of weapon possession. In New Jersey, felons receive up to five years in prison for each third-degree crime. Legal woes: Two-time Grammy nominee Fabolous is reportedly facing 20 years in prison after being indicted on four felonies stemming from two 'arguments' he had with his babymama Emily Bustamante last March (pictured Wednesday) Acting relaxed? According to TMZ, a grand jury concluded last week that the 40-year-old rapper committed one count of domestic violence, two counts of threatening to kill, and one count of weapon possession The 37-year-old stylist and shoe designer had first alleged that the Bring It Back star punched her 'seven times in the face' causing 'severe damage' to two front teeth on March 7. Three weeks later, Fabolous (born John Jackson) brandished scissors at Emily B and her father, threatening to kill them, while in the driveway of their Englewood home. The Love & Hip Hop alum - who was only 21 when she began dating her Brooklyn-born beau in 2002 - has since made up with him and they share two sons Johan, 10; and Jonas, 3. Fixed her smile: The 37-year-old stylist and shoe designer had first alleged that the Bring It Back star punched her 'seven times in the face' causing 'severe damage' to two front teeth on March 7 (pictured August 14) Family feud: Three weeks later, Fabolous (born John Jackson) brandished scissors at Emily B and her father, threatening to kill them, while in the driveway of their Englewood home (pictured in 2016) August 21 family portrait: The Love & Hip Hop alum - who was only 21 when she began dating her Brooklyn-born beau in 2002 - has since made up with him and they share two sons Johan, 10; and Jonas, 3 (pictured with her daughter Taina Williams, 20; from an ex-partner) 'It's not your job to like me. It's mine,' the hot-tempered hip-hop star - who boasts 12.8M social media followers - wrote on Wednesday. 'You could give a ungrateful person the world & they'll complain bcuz you didn't gift wrap it!' Fabolous is next scheduled to headline JAM'N 107.5 Presents Boo Bomb 5 happening this Saturday at Oregon's Moda Center in Portland. The hot-tempered hip-hop star wrote on Wednesday: 'It's not your job to like me. It's mine. You could give a ungrateful person the world & they'll complain bcuz you didn't gift wrap it!' The Bachelorette fans took to Twitter during Wednesday's season premiere to express their surprise and confusion over Ali Oetjen's 'plastic face'. One viewer even criticised the 32-year-old account manager for her her apparent 'overuse' of Botox and fillers. The viewer backlash comes after a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon told Daily Mail Australia in June that Ali appears to have undergone several procedures in recent years. Scroll down for video 'She should have left the Botox alone!' Bachelorette viewers were left shocked by Ali Oetjen's 'plastic face' during the premiere. Pictured left in her teenage years, and right on Wednesday 'Ali's plastic face makes me cringe': One viewer criticised the 32-year-old account manager on Twitter (above) for her her apparent 'overuse' of Botox and fillers During Wednesday's episode, many viewers remarked on Ali's appearance, which has changed significantly since she first rose to fame on The Bachelor in 2013. 'Ali looked better before she had all that work done!' one fan tweeted. Another commented: 'I'm sorry but I just can't watch this season of The Bachelorette. Ali's plastic face makes me cringe every time I look at it. 'She should have left the Botox and fillers alone - she was much more attractive when she appeared on The Bachelor.' One viewer was also a little distracted by the blonde's augmented chest, tweeting: 'Where did Ali buy her fake boobs from?' Will she find love? Ali began her journey to find love on Wednesday's Bachelorette premiere Critics: During Wednesday's episode, many viewers remarked on Ali's appearance, which has changed significantly since she first rose to fame on The Bachelor in 2013 Expert opinion: The viewer backlash comes after a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon told Daily Mail Australia in June that Ali appears to have undergone several procedures in recent years. Pictured left: Ali in 2013, and right: Ali in 2017 However it wasn't all negative feedback, with several supportive fans claiming that Ali looked 'stunning' and 'beautiful' as the Bachelorette. In June, Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Urmen Desai told Daily Mail Australia he believes the fitness blogger has undergone multiple procedures in recent years. 'When looking at current images of her body [compared] to those when she starred on The Bachelor in 2013, it is clear she has had breast augmentation,' said Dr. Desai. Praise: However it wasn't all negative feedback, with several supportive fans claiming that Ali looked 'stunning' and 'beautiful' as the Bachelorette Breast enlargement: Harvard-educated surgeon Dr. Urmen Desai claimed earlier this year that Ali appears to have '[gone] from a large A-cup size to a small D-cup size'. Pictured left: Ali in her youth and right: Ali in 2017 Surgery: Ali has admitted in the past to undergoing a breast enlargement The Harvard-educated CEO of DesaiPlasticSurgery.com added that Ali 'likely went from a large A-cup size to a small D-cup size' as a result of the operation. 'With regards to her face, Ali has obviously had her upper and lower lips over-injected with fillers,' he further claimed. 'In addition to this, her forehead is frozen without any motion, which points to the fact that she likely had Botox injections to her forehead. 'Finally, in order to assist with reversing the ageing process, she has likely received filler injections to her cheeks to achieve a more youthful face.' Dr. Desai was also of the opinion that Ali could have undergone rhinoplasty. Plump pout: 'With regards to her face, Ali has obviously had her upper and lower lips over-injected with fillers,' Dr. Desai previously said. Pictured left: Ali in her youth and right: Ali in 2017 'She looks like Malibu Barbie': Rumours about Ali's possible surgical and cosmetic procedures intensified during her appearance on Bachelor In Paradise earlier this year 'Considering that her nose is a bit more defined than it was on The Bachelor in 2013, she may have had nose reshaping surgery in order to narrow her nasal tip as well as the bridge of her nose (nasal dorsum),' he said. 'This is highlighted in images of her taken straight on, as well as side profile views.' Ali is not a patient of Dr. Desai's and the surgeon made his professional assessment solely based upon before and after photos. Alexandra Daddario was spotted on the set of her new movie Can You Keep A Secret? in New York City on Wednesday. The 32-year-old actress was layered in autumn clothing including a colorful swaeter and a pair of worn in jeans. This is a big departure from the red swimsuit she wore to co-star with Pamela Anderson and Priyanka Chopra in the Baywatch movie last year. All work: Alexandra Daddario was spotted on the set of her new movie Can You Keep A Secret? in New York on Wednesday So close: The Hollywood favorite was also seen with co-star Tyler Hoechlin who had on a blue jacket over a light blue shirt and grey slacks The New York native appeared to be in great spirits as she was seen with her director, who was casual in a tank top, denim skirt and black sandals. Alexandra was eating a red apple and had her arm around the helmer. The Hollywood favorite was also seen with co-star Tyler Hoechlin who had on a blue jacket over a light blue shirt and grey slacks. The two were holding hands and looked very much like a couple. Taking a bite out of the Big Apple: Alexandra was eating a red apple while petting a black dog The film is based on a best-selling book. The synopsis reads: 'Thinking they're about to crash, Emma spills her secrets to a stranger on a plane. 'At least, she thought he was a stranger...Until she later meets Jack, her company's young CEO, who now knows every humiliating detail about her.' Also in the movie are Kimiko Glenn, Crystal Tweed and Kate Easton. Her last look: The siren had on a red swimsuit as she starred in the 2017 film Baywatch the movie with Zac Efron, The Rock and others Alexandra has also starred as Annabeth Chase in the Percy Jackson film series and Blake Gaines in San Andreas. She is working on the sequel to San Andreas, which starred The Rock. The two were also in Baywatch together. Daddario, whose father Richard Daddario was a prosecutor and former head of the New York City Police Department counter-terrorism unit under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, used to date Logan Lerman and Trey Songz. She was not afraid to showcase her sizzling physique in an array of bikinis during her stint on Love Island. And while she's miles away from the hot climes of Spain, Zara McDermott still managed to display her envy-inducing frame as she attended her co-star Dani Dyer's In The Style launch party alongside Samira Mighty and Georgia Steel in London on Wednesday. The former government advisor, 21, flashed some serious underboob as she struggled to contain her assets in a skimpy black bralet, tied in with a form-fitting midi skirt. Wow-factor! Zara McDermott displayed her envy-inducing frame as she attended her co-star Dani Dyer's In The Style launch party in London on Wednesday Maintaining the black colour theme, the reality star boosted her height in a pair of strappy heels, which showcased her blue pedicure. Zara let her outfit do the talking as she kept accessories to a minimum, sporting a pair of gold hooped earrings. She swept her ombre locks into a curly half up half down look, and accentuated her stunning looks with neutral-toned make-up for a sun-kissed appearance. Star-studded: Love Island's Samira Mighty (L) and Georgia Steel (R) also stunned at the event as they supported their close pal Dani Working it: The former government advisor, 21, flashed some serious underboob as she struggled to contain her assets in a skimpy black bralet, tied in with a form-fitting midi skirt Show-stopper: Maintaining the black colour theme, the reality star boosted her height in a pair of strappy heels, which showcased her blue pedicure Striking: Zara let her outfit do the talking as she kept accessories to a minimum, sporting a pair of gold hooped earrings Meanwhile, Samira, 22, was a vision in red as she rocked an off-shoulder ruffle mini dress, embellished with white polka dots throughout. The former West End star enhanced her frame in a pair of black wrap-up heels and carried her possessions in a quilted chain-strap bag. Framing her striking visage with voluminous curls, Samira oozed Old Hollywood glamour as she wore bright red lipstick and lashings of mascara. Stunning: Meanwhile, Samira, 22, was a vision in red as she rocked an off-shoulder ruffle mini dress, embellished with white polka dots throughout Looking good: The former West End star, who was joined by Hayley Hughes, enhanced her frame in a pair of black wrap-up heels and carried her possessions in a quilted chain-strap bag Wow-factor! Also putting on a chic display was self-proclaimed 'loyal' star Georgia, 20, who took a walk on the wild side with a plunging animal print dress Radiant: Opting for a full face of glamorous make-up, Georgia tied her glossy tresses into a sleek bun, finished off with twin bangs Also putting on a chic display was self-proclaimed 'loyal' star Georgia, 20, who took a walk on the wild side with a plunging animal print dress. The former bar worker lived up to her stylish ways with a studded mini handbag and sophisticated heels. Opting for a full face of glamorous make-up, Georgia tied her glossy tresses into a sleek bun, finished off with twin bangs. Family first: Woman of the hour Dani, 22, beamed with delight as she was joined by her parents, Danny and Joanne, as well as her doting boyfriend and fellow Love Island winner Jack Fincham All about her: The former Survival Of The Fittest star proved she was the star of the event as she wowed in a snakeskin print playsuit from her brand new collection Style savvy: Living up to her chic fashion sense, Dani added to her petite frame in a pair of nude gladiator heels and accessorised with a pink handbag, embellished with a studded sheer overlay Kiss kiss: The TV personality looked in the throes of love as she indulged in a romantic PDA session with her beau Jack, 26 It must be love: The couple quickly embarked on a relationship in the latest series of Love Island, and were later crowned the winners of the show Woman of the hour Dani, 22, beamed with delight as she was joined by her parents, Danny and Joanne, as well as her doting boyfriend and fellow Love Island winner Jack Fincham. The former Survival Of The Fittest star proved she was the star of the event as she wowed in a snakeskin print playsuit from her brand new collection. Living up to her chic fashion sense, Dani added to her petite frame in a pair of nude gladiator heels and accessorised with a pink handbag, embellished with a studded sheer overlay. Dapper: The former stationary sales manager sported a satin black shirt and off-white skinny trousers High spirits: The actor looked delighted as he struck a series of poses during his time at the event Sharp: Danny cut a suave figure in a pair of dark wash jeans, teamed with a crisp pink shirt and brown Oxford shoes Doting father: The Straightheads star planted a kiss on his daughter's cheek as they stopped for snaps on the red carpet 'I'm so proud of her': EastEnders star Danny, who is known for his hardman persona, was close to tears as he praised Dani in a sweet speech, posted to the reality star's Instagram account The TV personality looked in the throes of love as she indulged in a romantic PDA session with her beau Jack, 26. Proving to be every inch the doting parents, Danny and Joanne, both 41, couldn't contain their pride as they supported their eldest daughter. EastEnders star Danny, who is known for his hardman persona, was close to tears as he praised Dani in a sweet speech, posted to the reality star's Instagram account. Proud pal: Dani's former Survival Of The Fittest co-star Georgie Clarke flashed her toned abs in a low-cut bralet and stylish cropped joggers Loved-up: The 25-year-old was joined by Ryan Cleary, who looked typically cool in a turtleneck jumper and checked ankle-grazing trousers Blissful: Newlywed Olivia Buckland, who recently tied the knot to husband Alex Bowen, went solo for the outing, sporting a silk blouse with a thigh-skimming denim skirt Beaming: Dr Alex George opted for a casual look in a denim jacket, skinny jeans and platform trainers by Nike Joined by his stunning wife, he told the crowd: 'This is quite unbelievable, six months ago she would be queuing up to get in here! She is an incredible human being... I'm very f*****g proud of her. I'm slightly choked up at this point, thank you all so much!' Dani has teamed up with the online clothing brand to create a range catering to a wide range of sizes, and the star recently explained to MailOnline why the inclusive nature of the collaboration is so important to her. She said: 'I think that's what the real world should be now. I think it's so lovely how everyone is embracing everyone's different shapes and sizes and beauty. Steamy: Dani and Jack couldn't contain their love for one another as they enjoyed more smooches on their PDA-filled outing Smitten: Joanne and Danny, who have been together for over 20 years, proved romance is certaintly not dead as they kissed outside the venue Looking good: The Essex beauty styled her tresses into classic waves, and opted for a silver eyeshadow look, which was complemented with heavy strokes of foundation and bronzer Hi, there: Dani beamed as she greeted TOWIE's Pete Wicks, who looked effortlessly dapper in a tweed blazer Puff puff: The Outlaw star enjoyed a cigarette break during his family night out 'You don't have to be one specific person, you can be anything you want to be, and that's how I wanted it to be with a clothing brand. 'I didn't want it to be exclusive, I wanted any sort of girl to be able to go and shop on it and feel confident in it, and feel good really. She said: 'I love Ariana Grande. I love all of the oversized hoodies. When I bring out my next range with In The Style, I'm definitely going to do that. I like oversized stuff, I don't like things that are too tight.' Seeing double? Jack looked the spitting image of his close pal and co-star Sam Bird as they donned similar outfits Lights, camera, action: Former bar worker Georgia lived up to her stylish ways with a studded mini handbag and sophisticated heels Hand-in-hand: Hayley, 21, and Samira were all smiles as they supported their friend Speaking on her go-to piece, she said: 'My favourite item, that I'll be wearing on my launch, is a snake print playsuit, because I love playsuits, I've always loved a playsuit. 'I find them really flattering, especially because I'm only small. And, snake print is very in at the minute and I love the material, so I'm definitely gonna go with that.' 'There are things in my range which are really dressy, like for my launch, I'll be really dressed up. But, I don't dress that pretty a lot. 'So I wanted things in the collection that you could dress up or dress down. Where could wear it with trainers or heels.' Chic: Georgie and Zara continued to pose up a storm as they left the venue Happy: Olivia, 24, couldn't shake off the newlywed glow as she grinned from ear-to-ear Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a photo session with the new directors of the Association of Non-Government Television Channel Owners who paid a courtesy call on her at her office on Wednesday. BSS photo Maria Menounos and her new husband Keven Undergaro have officially entered the honeymoon stage. The second-time newlyweds are done with their wild wedding weekend and are finally getting some much needed rest and relaxation. Cameras caught the couple on Wednesday posing for photos and spending time with family and friends in a seaside town in Greece before jetting off to Italy Honeymoon time! Maria Menounos and her new husband Keven Undergaro were spotted on their honeymoon Wednesday in a seaside Greek town before jetting off to Italy. Wedded bliss! Maria's father Costas planned the couple's big fat Greek wedding in the small village where he grew up The 40-year-old Extra host tied the knot with her longtime beau last weekend in a lavish fairytale wedding in the village where her Greek father grew up. The duo had previously married in the USA on live television for Fox's New Year's Eve 2017 broadcast. Maria's father Costas played the role of father of the bride and wedding planner and organized the whole thing since he had missed out on the first celebration. Makeup free and absolutely glowing, the WWE star was casual in a grey T-shirt maxi dress with slits on the side and a thin bow belt. She trotted hand in hand with her husband in a pair of black flip flops in Nafplio, Greece. The couple, who've been together for 20 years, still looked very much in love as they smiled and posed for pictures and snapped selfies. The groom kept it simple in Nike sneakers, a white T-shirt and jeans. The newly minted Mr. and Mrs. managed to match with their accessories. Aside from wedding bands, each had a pair of sunglasses on their heads. Pose! The newlyweds posed for photos and even snapped a few selfies together before heading to Sicily PDA: Keven and Maria were spotted trotting around a small greek village hand in hand together on Wednesday Mamma mia! Maria and her love left Greece for the shores of Sicily. The television personality shared this post from a road in Italy After spending over a week in Greece for their nuptials and then some vacation time after, the reality stars hopped over to neighboring Italy. Maria shared the view from Sicily on her Instagram story. In a handful of photos, the NY Times best seller's nearly one million followers felt like they were on vacation too with a look at a stunning pool that reflected the azure blue Mediterranean sky. Maria also shared an awe inspiring cliff side, waterfront vista off the Italian coast that was peppered with palm trees. The star posted a selfie with her husband after touching down in Taormina, Italy and like most people who visit the country, food was their first order of business. Menounos wrote on Instagram: 'Landed in Italy and already grabbed some pizza' In the photo the couple tossed their heads back and puckered up for the camera while holding up two small pizza boxes. Pizza pizza: The couple's first order of business in Italy was to get some pizza I do! After tying the knot for the second time last week, Maria and Keven are spending some time relaxing by the Italian coast Each of them looked casual in sunglasses, with Keven in a T-shirt and Maria wearing a red sweatshirt. After a very nontraditional ceremony to make things legal on New Year's Eve, the couple's recent vow renewal did everything by the book. The Greek beauty wore a spectacular white silk organza off-the-shoulder gown by Greek designer Celia Kritharioti. Her lavish reception featured lemons everywhere; from lemon trees on the tables to lemony accents for place cards to citrusy yellow lighting. Her wedding planner said on Instagram that there were 1500 lemons used for the reception. Maria even changed into a lemon yellow lace dress for her after party when she and her husband took part in tradition Greek plate smashing. A huge four tier wedding cake that was practically bigger than the petite television star was the star of the show at the party. The giant confection had a rustic look with the crumb of the cake peaking out of the frosting and decorations of local berries. The television personality called the wedding a 'dream' and said on social media that the whole event was planned in less than a month. One of the men convicted of Brisbane's deadly Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing may return to Australia to tell a coroner what he knows about who was involved. James Finch served 15 years in prison and was deported to the UK in 1988 after he was convicted, along with John Andrew Stuart, over the 1973 attack that killed 15 people. Queensland's Police Commissioner Ian Stewart says he's sure the coroner, who will hear a new inquest into the attack will be interested in what Mr Finch has to say. Thousands of Australians will have the opportunity to work on the set of blockbuster film Godzilla vs Kong and Disney series Reef Break, with pre-production set to begin on the Gold Coast this month. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to officially announce the two productions during a visit to the sunshine state on Monday, which will boost the local economy by $100 million, News Corp reports. A $140 million tax break announced in this year's federal budget has helped lure film production to Australia, effectively doubling the existing rebate offered for films to 30 per cent. The federal government won't intervene to help Medecins Sans Frontieres continue providing mental health treatment for asylum seekers on Nauru. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) was given 24 hours to leave Nauru on Friday, after being told by the Nauruan government its free psychological and psychiatric services were no longer required. "The relationship between Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Nauruan government is a matter for them, but for us, we have been working in International Health and Medical Services, we will continue to focus on them," Health Minister Greg Hunt told ABC radio on Monday. Energy Minister Angus Taylor says it's up to developing countries to reduce their emissions, downplaying concerns over a major climate report which will reportedly call for coal to be phased out by 2050. Mr Taylor says Australia contributes a small fraction of global emissions and is on track to reduce emissions in the electricity sector by 26 per cent by 2030, based on 2005 levels. "The critical thing here is other countries, whether it's China or India, the developing world is where there's a great deal of growth in emissions. It's going to be crucial that they, of course, contribute over time," he told Sky News on Monday. The Commonwealth Bank has stepped in to keep banking services running at Australia Post in an agreement worth $22 million a year. The bank has signed a five-year deal to support the Bank@Post service, which lets people access basic banking - including making deposits and withdrawals - at more than 3,500 post offices across the nation. "This investment will not only help save a critical service in Post Offices serving the communities of Australia, it saves jobs and supports the financial viability of our local Post Office partners," Australia Post managing director Christine Holgate said. A man who spent nearly a week on the run before being arrested in Victoria for the murder of a South Australian mother-of-three has pleaded guilty to the charge. Travis Kirchner appeared in the South Australian Supreme Court for the first time on Monday where he admitted killing Sally Rothe at Murray Bridge in February. Kirchner was remanded in custody and will return to court on October 29 to start the sentencing process. Police discovered the body of 54-year-old Ms Rothe after responding to reports of a disturbance at her home. A witness saw a man attempting to kick in the front door. Kirchner had fled the scene, sparking a five-day manhunt across SA and Victoria. He was eventually arrested in the Melbourne suburb of Doveton after a tip-off. In court on Monday, prosecutors said sentencing submissions would refer to the post-mortem report on Ms Rothe as well as crime scene photos. A number of victim impact statements would also be read to the court. China has criticised Australia's former international development minister for her comments about the "debt trap" struggles of Pacific nations. Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells wrote in The Australian last week that China's use of loans to fund infrastructure in the Pacific was similar to World War II battles. "Today, the sovereign threat is less confrontational but the debt-trap diplomacy just as insidious," Senator Fierravanti-Wells wrote. "The high debt-to-gross domestic product ratio of various Pacific island countries is of genuine concern." The Chinese embassy hit back on Monday, accusing her of "unwarranted invective and blatant slander against China". "The ridiculous and absurd allegation, filled with cold-war mentality, reflected the senator's prejudice, arrogance and ignorance," an embassy statement said. "Whether China's assistance is productive or not ... the people of the island countries have the best say." Tongan Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva recently aired concerns the Chinese would seize facilities built with their money if the Pacific country couldn't meet its debt repayments. He later said China had never claimed it would take Tonga's assets. "Cooperation between China and the Island Countries is transparent and open," the Chinese embassy said. "Any attempt to obstruct the development of relations between China and the island countries is doomed to failure." Two of Japan's key political figures will meet their Australian counterparts in Sydney this week to discuss North Korea, regional security and trade. Foreign Minster Marise Payne and Defence Minister Christopher Pyne will meet Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya in Sydney on Wednesday. "We share a commitment to uphold the international rules-based order that has brought stability and prosperity to our region and enables countries of all sizes to pursue their interests free of coercion," Senator Payne said on Monday. The emergency stop button on the control panel of a Gold Coast theme park ride on which four guests died wasn't subject to regular maintenance checks, an inquest has heard. The inquest into the deaths of Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi at Dreamworld in October 2016 resumed on Monday at the Southport Coroners Court. Maintenance supervisor Stephen Murphy told the inquest he had never used the emergency stop button on the main control panel of the Thunder River Rapids ride. Mr Murphy said he had no idea what the button exactly did and despite using other emergency stop buttons during his daily checks, he'd never pressed the control panel button. "That button was not a part of our pre-operational checks," Mr Murphy said. The inquest also heard Mr Murphy had no knowledge of previous incidents on the ride in 2001 and 2014 when rafts had collided in similar circumstances to the fatal incident in 2016. He said he did not believe at the time of the incident that the rafts colliding was an obvious risk on the ride. Barrister Matthew Hickey, representing the family of Ms Low, asked what would happen if rafts did collide on the ride. ""We all know the consequences once that did happen," Mr Murphy replied. "Did you know it had happened before?" Mr Hickey asked, with Mr Murphy simply replying "no". Former Dreamworld employee Stephen Buss, who was fired after the 2014 incident, is expected to give evidence on Tuesday. Dreamworld general manager Troy Margetts is also expected to be called to give evidence during the two-week window. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she expected some "shocking" details would come out during the second part of the inquest. "I know the worst phone call I have ever received as premier was when the police commissioner rang to tell me about this tragedy," she told Today on Monday. She acknowledged the tragedy had a negative effect on theme park visitor numbers, but said she was confident the industry would recover. "It is up to all of the theme parks to assure the public that their safety is up to standard," she said. Trump slams Obama for being impotent about South China Sea problem PTI, Washington : US President Donald Trump today slammed his predecessor Barack Obama for being "impotent" and not stopping China from expanding its influence in the South China Sea, saying the Chinese Navy was now posing a confrontational challenge for America in the disputed region. President Trump's remarks came hours after he was briefed at the White House by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his meetings with the top Chinese leadership in Beijing this week. "The Obama administration was impotent about the South China Sea," Donald Trump said during an interaction with reporters abroad Air Force One. He said the Chinese Navy was now posing a confrontational challenge for America in the disputed South China Sea region. China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. They are also vital to global trade. China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the area. The US has been conducting regular patrols in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation in the area where Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. During Mike Pompeo's visit, Donald Trump earlier told reporters at the White House that China was sending a message to him, but those messages did not work. He said Mike Pompeo was treated with great respect during his trip to Beijing. "They're just trying to get me a message. But those messages don't work. They don't work. But no, I think they treated him with great respect, actually. You know, they had meetings besides just the news conference. And I think they treated him with great respect," he said when asked if he was concerned the way the Chinese treated Mr Pompeo. Scott Morrison has warned a Labor government would tie businesses up in union knots after Bill Shorten refused to rule out supporting a return to sector-wide bargaining. The prime minister is ramping up the rhetoric on industrial relations after unions dialled up pressure on the ALP to support plans to overhaul workplace laws. The Australian Council of Trade Unions wants workers in the same job to be able to negotiate pay agreements across industries, arguing enterprise bargaining has failed. Mr Shorten isn't ruling out supporting the ACTU's push for a return to industry-wide bargaining. "The coalition has no plan to lift wages in this country, so I do think it is time to examine how we can improve the level playing field for millions of Australian working people," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne. But Mr Morrison is adamant Labor will let the ACTU run the country if elected. "What the Labor Party will allow the ACTU to do is, they'll allow the law breakers to become the law makers," he told reporters on the Gold Coast. Small business will suffer if Mr Shorten makes changes to the way the industrial relations umpire makes decisions on wage disputes, the prime minister said. "Bill Shorten will increase their taxes, increase their regulation and tie them up in union knots," Mr Morrison said. Mr Shorten said under the coalition government, everything is going up except wages. "We need to see wages moving again," Mr Shorten said. The ACTU's Change The Rules campaign is in full swing, with a month-long advertising blitz kicking off on Sunday and rallies around the country planned over coming weeks. Canterbury captain Josh Jackson will miss most of the NRL summer after undergoing shoulder surgery that will limit him for up to four months. The club on Monday confirmed Jackson needed "stabilisation" on his right shoulder but he is expected to recover in time for their season-opener next year. The Bulldogs also gave an update on star playmaker Kieran Foran, who will require two more weeks in rehabilitation for toe and wrist operations. The 28-year-old made just 12 appearances in his maiden season at Belmore before being ruled out for the final three months due to injury. Centre Kerrod Holland is the only other key player whose pre-season has been set back by injury, having gone under the knife to address an ankle injury. He is expected to rejoin the main group by December. Second-rower Raymond Faitala-Mariner is pencilled in to be back for the club's pre-season return on November 1, having been sidelined since playing for New Zealand in Denver. Regular first-graders Adam Elliott (wrist), Marcelo Montoya (hamstring) and Matt Frawley (foot) are also likely to be ready despite addressing minor concerns. Late call-up Luke Keary says he is not expecting to nail down the Kangaroos No.6 jersey in Cameron Munster's absence. Sydney Roosters' NRL grand final hero Keary will make his international debut in Australia's end of year Tests against New Zealand on Saturday and Tonga on October 20 after playmaker Munster pulled out due to personal reasons. "There are a couple of boys there like Cam (ahead of me). All I can do is play my best footy this week and see what happens the week after," Keary said. Children left homeless or orphaned after Sulawesi's earthquake, tsunami and ongoing aftershocks are at risk of being preyed upon by child traffickers, an Australian aid agency warns. World Vision chief executive Tim Costello says his organisation is doing everything it can to stop any opportunistic predators, by educating parents and registering and tracking children in temporary shelter camps. "Most people show solidarity and decency, but a small number take advantage of chaos for their own personal evil," Mr Costello told AAP from Indonesia on Monday. Australia's open stance on foreign investment must not come before national security, the Treasury boss has told a Chinese investment forum. Treasury secretary Philip Gaetjens told the Chinese Investment and Australia Forum on Monday that Australia welcomes foreign investment to unlock new projects. "Whilst we approve the vast majority of proposed investments, having only rejected a handful of proposals in the last decade ... that openness is a means to an end, not an end in itself, nor an absolute," he said in his speech. "We do not resile from protecting our national security. "The Australian government has recognised the importance of addressing risks to critical infrastructure in a considered and proactive manner." Mr Gaetjens said Australia also has to consider the national interest of protecting unique industries or allowing concentration of too much market power. He also said Australia and China are important trading partners, with two-way trade reaching a record high of $183 billion in 2017. "We are already a reliable exporter of quality agricultural goods, with China accounting for around three-quarters of our wool, almost a third of our alcoholic beverages and around one quarter of our seafood product exports," Mr Gaetjens said. A new database tracking Chinese investment in Australia was launched on Monday, built through the Australian National University with the support of Treasury, businesses and large consultancies. "This database adds clarity about the scale and structure of Chinese investment in Australia in a way that we haven't had before," Professor Peter Drysdale said. Mr Gaetjens said the database would give Australians clarity about how much China is investing in Australia and where projects end up. "Amidst global trade tensions, it is important that we continue to support open and transparent trade and investment flows," he said. CHINESE INVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIA * Chinese investment in Australia was almost non-existent before 2007 * But it has hit $3 billion net inflows each year for the past three years * For three years in a row, China has been Australia's largest source of proposed foreign investment approvals * China accounted for about 25 per cent of the value of all approved investment in 2016/17 * However the stock of Chinese direct investment in Australia was still only 4.8 per cent of the total at the end of 2017. (Source: Treasury Secretary Philip Gaetjens) An unlicensed man has been charged with dangerous driving after his allegedly speeding car hit another vehicle, injuring a woman, before he fled the crash scene outside Melbourne. The 34-year-old from Geelong will face court in January on a raft of charges including reckless conduct endangering life, careless and unlicensed driving, speeding, and failing to stop and help after the crash. He is alleged to have rear-ended another vehicle on the Princes Freeway at Little River about 5.50am on Monday, sending it spinning into a freeway barrier and injuring the female driver, before he ran away only to be later nabbed by police. A scheme to help survivors of institutional child sex abuse has been described as "insensitive" at a hearing to examine its rollout. The scheme, which emerged out of the royal commission into abuse, fails to understand the intense and differing types of trauma suffered by victims, advocates say. It was described by one person giving evidence before a parliamentary committee in Melbourne as an "appalling document". Care Leavers Australasia Network vice president Frank Golding told the committee the scheme offers "nothing" for the majority of victims. He said it could lead to victims being unwilling to come forward because of the difficult process involved to apply. "It's far from survivor-focused. It's designed to suit government and institutions," Mr Golding said. "It puts undue stress on survivors to articulate exactly what happened to them. It's believed the ones who are best with words will get the best outcomes." Mr Golding, along with two other witnesses, said the scheme was too focused on "penetrative abuse" and had failed to properly address other forms of abuse. Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency manager Jeannie McIntyre said parts of the scheme showed "blatant disregard" towards the work of the royal commission. "We're after a fairer scheme for all survivors of abuse," Ms McIntyre said. The scheme was set-up in July to provide access to counselling services for victims, direct personal responses from the responsible institutions and trauma payments. The payments range from less than $10,000 to $150,000. Witnesses were critical that only victims who had suffered penetrative abuse would be eligible to receive the highest possible payment. Applications for the scheme will stay open until June 2027. Detectives have arrested a 29-year-old man after a Wollongong mother was allegedly murdered in her home while her five-month-old baby was just metres away. Officers discovered the body of 39-year-old Kristie Powell in her Bellambi house just after 1am on Friday with her five-month-old boy nearby uninjured. NSW Police on Saturday asked for public assistance to track down 29-year-old Bhanu Kirkman who they stated "may be able to assist with inquiries". Kirkman was arrested on Monday afternoon in Maitland and taken to the local police station where he remains in custody. Ms Powell earlier this year revealed on Facebook someone she formerly knew was "obsessed" with her and had become "a stalker". She said he called himself "the Reaper" and sent hundreds of threatening messages many saying "Die". Ms Powell lived alone in the Bellambi house with her son. A friend found her body and called triple-zero. Her baby was found in his bedroom while Ms Powell's body was found outside her bedroom, Detective Inspector Brad Ainsworth said on Friday. Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews says he is not in the business of telling people where to live but migration policy reform to that effect is a matter for Canberra. Federal Population Minister Alan Tudge wants to see new migrants move to regional Australia and cities other than Melbourne and Sydney under a new plan to be outlined on Tuesday. "I'm not about telling people where they should live, I'm about connecting people no matter where they live and building the infrastructure that is absolutely critical," Mr Andrews told reporters on Tuesday. Africa Cup offers Salah chance to regain scoring touch Liverpool star Mohamed Salah gets a chance to rediscover his scoring touch when he plays for Egypt against eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) in the Africa Cup of Nations this week. After notching 44 goals for the English Premier League club in all competitions last season, the 26-year-old has managed only three this season, and just one in eight games since August. When Salah last played for his country, he scored twice and missed two penalties as the record seven-time African champions romped to a 6-0 win over Niger during September. Niger are ranked 105 in the world -- 31 places above eSwatini -- so Egypt can realistically hope to score goals this Friday at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo. Salah is the pride of Egypt having won the best goal and finished third in the best player category behind Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo at the recent FIFA awards. He is also among 30 contenders for the Ballon d'Or prize bestowed annually by France Football magazine. His recent scarcity of goals for Liverpool, and being substituted in a match at Chelsea, has drawn sympathy from Egyptian pundits. "Salah must not look back at last season, whether it was his goal scoring or his exceptional form," said Islam el-Shater in Al-Masry Al-Youm. "He must do what his manager (Jurgen Klopp) asks of him so that he does not lose his starting place." Another columnist in that newspaper, Mohammed el-Bourmy, wrote: "Salah is being compared to Ronaldo and Messi and some possibly believed he could score 40 to 50 goals every season. "He is not required to do that, but rather to have a good season with 20 goals to his name and enjoy himself." Leading football commentator Hassan el-Mistekawi noted that "the Salah smile is missing since the start of the season because of the pressure he is under to score". While Egypt can boast of Salah, eSwatini have a caretaker coach and no stars with the squad comprised of locals and a sprinkling of players with South African second-tier clubs. The countries will meet twice during the Cup of Nations window with the return match next Tuesday in Manzini, where the southern African nation lost 2-0 to Tunisia last month. Tunisia tackle Niger, whose squad have been complaining of a "beans-and-water" diet and unpaid bonuses, and must believe they can collect maximum points to stay top of Group J. Struggling Gabon must have been encouraged by the two goals Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored for Arsenal against Fulham as they begin life under new coach Daniel Cousin. The Panthers have failed to spark in Group C -- losing away to Mali and being held at home by Burundi -- and need two wins over pointless South Sudan to get back into contention. Other Premier League stars set to feature include two team-mates of Salah at Liverpool -- Sadio Mane of Senegal and Naby Keita of Guinea. Senegal tackle Group A strugglers Sudan and will expect three points in Dakar and at least one from the return match in Khartoum, where sauna-like conditions present a challenge. Guinea share with Mali, Mauritania and Tunisia the distinction of having perfect records after two matchdays and should remain Group H leaders by beating Rwanda in Conakry. Ivory Coast are playing catch-up in the same section after a shock home loss to the Guineans and hope several Premier League players can help them overcome the Central African Republic. Eric Bailly of Manchester United will anchor the defence, Jean Michael Seri of Fulham is a midfield option, and Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace offers pace in attack. There are 48 fixtures spread over seven days, although doubts surround those between Ghana and Sierra Leone in Kumasi this Thursday and in Freetown next Monday. Sierra Leone, banned by FIFA from international competitions over government interference in the running of the sport, are racing against the clock to be reinstated. A South Australian man who left a fruitcake on his murder victim's head has destroyed the lives of so many by his inhumane actions, a court has been told. Leslie Kevin James Talbot, 51, was found guilty by a jury of the murder of David Saunders in February last year, the victim suffering at least six blows to the head and two stab wounds. In victim impact statements read to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the dead man's daughter said the world now seems more dark and evil while his former partner said the killing had left her feeling feeling angry and numb. "You have destroyed the lives of so many people by your inhumane actions," she told Talbot. A drug driver who hit and killed a Melbourne accountant while driving on the wrong side of the road was doing 216km/h moments before impact, a court has heard. Tomas Targownik was still speeding at 180km/h when he slammed into the back of 49-year-old Kandasamy "Sam" Uthayanan's car at Glen Waverley, as he ended a shift as a Uber driver in the early hours of last November 18. Targownik, who was 33 at the time and took methamphetamine before driving, pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing death, drug driving and reckless conduct endangering the life of another driver. Putting advertising logos on the Sydney Opera House could breach Australia's environment and heritage laws, one think tank says. The Australia Institute wants an urgent review of whether the decision to promote a horse race on the iconic building's sails conflicts with its heritage listing. "We have heritage laws for a reason," institute executive director Ben Oquist told reporters on Tuesday. "Whatever you think of the light show, it should comply with Commonwealth environment law." Mr Oquist says the federal Environment Department should look at the plan to promote The Everest horse race on the opera house to see if it breached the law. "There are mixed views about whether it should go ahead, but it is significantly controversial now and in that case, in that situation it's even more important that the law is upheld," he said. He called on Environment Minister Melissa Price and her department to step in. Mr Oquist said it was possible other light shows on the opera house had also breached environmental laws. He said when former Liberal environment minister Ian Campbell put the Sydney Opera House on the heritage list, the floodlit sails at night were a key part of the listing. Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week described the building as the "biggest billboard" in Sydney. The barrier draw for The Everest is due to be projected on the sails of the Opera House from 8pm AEDT on Tuesday, alongside a planned protest on the foreshore. Detectives are searching for two women and two boys after a house was destroyed by fire in an alleged domestic-related incident in NSW's central west. Two men armed with a shotgun, knife and an axe went to a home in Ootha, near Condobolin, about 5am on Tuesday and assaulted a 68-year-old male occupant and knocked him unconscious in a domestic-related incident, police said. Police say when the man regained consciousness, the home had been destroyed by fire and the 68-year-old couldn't find the other occupants - two women, aged 71 and 41 and two boys, aged 11 and 14. A police operation is under way to find the women and boys with officers holding "serious concerns" for their welfare, police said. Detectives are also searching for the two men who they believe may be travelling to the Hunter region or the Central Coast in a 1998 green Toyota four-wheel drive. The 68-year-old man has been airlifted to Orange Base Hospital in a critical condition. AFL premiership player Liam Ryan has been fined $1700 and banned from driving for 18 months after he was caught drink-driving. Ryan crashed his car into a tree and was nabbed at a nearby park in Armadale on July 2, with a subsequent blood alcohol sample revealing he had a reading of 0.138g. The West Coast Eagles forward and his lawyer Terry Dobson did not appear in Armadale Magistrates Court on Tuesday to enter a plea of guilty to exceeding 0.08g of alcohol per 100ml of blood. Instead, magistrate Nicholas Lemmon said he had received a letter, including a reference from a representative of Ryan's employer, indicating he could proceed with sentencing. Ryan, 22, was also ordered to pay court costs of $205. The Eagles suspended Ryan for two AFL games at the time of the incident. "Liam takes full responsibility for his actions and both he and the club accept that the penalty is fair and reasonable," West Coast said in a statement on Tuesday. "The club will continue to educate Liam around this matter, always placing his health and wellbeing as the major priority." Ryan told AAP last month he had turned his life around since the incident. "That car crash really straightened me up," he said. "I really had a lot of support from the boys. "I had a bit of stuff going on off the field but now I'm fine." A major employer group has urged federal Labor to rule out the union movement's push to bring back sector-wide bargaining. Australian Industry Group's head of workplace relations policy Stephen Smith said the Australian Council of Trade Unions' proposal to allow industry-wide pay agreements would bring the nation's economic success to a grinding halt. "If such a system was ever implemented, it would not be long before the Australian economy was crippled by strikes across the construction, maritime, mining, manufacturing, transport and other industries," Mr Smith told the annual Ron McCallum Debate in Sydney. He called for both major parties to reject the policy, arguing the existing enterprise bargaining system should be refreshed instead. Ai Group wants the Fair Work Act changed so the "better off overall test" is applied to employees at each classification level and not every worker potentially covered by an agreement. The Fair Work Commission should be able to overlook minor technical issues in assessing agreements. The commission should also give more weight to respecting deals between employers and employees, unless there's a clear disadvantage to workers. Mr Smith said the ACTU had proposed agreements be negotiated at the industry level by unions and employer representatives. "These days unions represent only nine per cent of employees in the private sector, and there are typically a number of employer groups with members in each industry," he said. He said no union or employer group had a legitimate mandate imposed on thousands of employers. But ACTU secretary Sally McManus is adamant sector-wide bargaining would be a tonic for sluggish wages growth and rising inequality. "Our narrow, restrictive system of single enterprise bargaining has failed in so many industries because business owners are encouraged to undercut one another to compete on wage costs," she said last week. British industrial barrister John Hendy QC was also set to speak in Tuesday's debate ahead of addressing the ACTU executive on Wednesday. Australia's digital exports are already the nation's fourth-largest export sector and are set to triple over the next 12 years, a new report shows. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham is pushing the global community to adopt clear and fair rules on digital trade, which has exploded in the past decade. A report from the Export Council of Australia, released on Wednesday, shows digital exports are booming but they need regulation. "Digital exports represent the fourth largest export sector for Australia today, and have the potential to grow even further," the report says. "By 2030, Australia's digital exports could grow by 210 per cent from today's levels, to reach $19 billion. "But many countries are adopting digital trade rules that could undermine Australian companies and the country's overall digital trade opportunity." Senator Birmingham says Australia is taking a leadership role within the World Trade Organisation, pushing for a solid set of rules. "Businesses need certainty around how and when they can transfer data across borders, sufficient freedom to responsibly do so and flexibility to safely store data wherever they choose to do so," he said. "These are all issues that, in some way, would be covered through a set of international digital trade rules." The trade minister says getting a global standard on digital trade would limit restrictive barriers to Australian trade. "Australia's initiative can send a strong signal that willing nations will not be deterred from getting on with developing the new rules required to ensure the success of the new economy." Senator Birmingham said 12 of Australia's 14 signed free trade deals include specific rules to support digital trade. Australia, Japan and Singapore have been leading more than 80 nations participating in talks about what an international e-commerce framework could look like. Alex de Minaur's late season charge has continued with the Australian winning through to the second round of the Shanghai Masters. De Minaur held his nerve to beat big-serving Canadian Vasek Pospisil, 6-4 7-6 (7-4). The 19 year-old held on to an early break and kept his nose ahead in the first set. Pospisil couldn't crack the world No.33, blowing five break point opportunities including four in one game. Games stayed on serve in the second set which went to a tiebreaker. De Minaur then made quick inroads into the Canadian's serve, streaking ahead to a 6-1 advantage. It took four match points but he eventually served out the match. The Sydneysider will look to capture more rankings points in the Masters series tournament as he closes in on a top 32 ranking and seeding for next year's Australian Open. De Minaur will next take on French qualifier Benoit Paire, who upset 15th seed Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3 6-4. But waiting in the wings for the newly minted Australian No.1 is world No.5 Alexander Zverev who shapes as a potential round of 16 opponent. Other early winners on Tuesday included Richard Gasquet and Hyeon Cheung. REACTION TO THE PLANNED SALE OF WA TAB AND NEW POINT OF CONSUMPTION TAX: - WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Chris Rodwell: Urged the state government to also sell poles and wires utility Western Power. - Australian Hotels Association WA chief executive Bradley Woods: Pubs, bars and taverns play a pivotal role in the racing industry, and the reforms acknowledge shifts in technology and the need to deliver support. - CPSU/CSA Assistant Secretary Rikki Hendon: It is a frustration to public sector workers, with questions still to be answered about simulated racing products, such as Trackside, and job security. A box containing what appears to be human ashes has been found in the boot of a stolen car and police are searching for its rightful owner. The box was found by police in the boot of a stolen hire car in Benjamin Street, Parkville in September 2017 but despite several inquiries they are yet to identify its origin. The car, reported stolen after it failed to be returned to Melbourne Airport the February before, is believed to have been used in numerous heists across across the northern suburbs. Morocco\'s Safia Salih (left) fights Thailand\'s Kanthida Saengsin during a Women\'s Taekwondo -55kg event at Youth Olympic Park during the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Tuesday. Latrell Mitchell can't guarantee he'll spare good friend Joseph Manu from a verbal onslaught when the Roosters centre pairing go head-to-head in the trans-Tasman Test. One of the highlights of Saturday's clash in Auckland will be the meeting of dynamic Kangaroos firebrand Mitchell and rising Kiwis star Manu, who played key roles in the Roosters' premiership. Both are making their international debut in what will test the bonds of friendship forged through the junior ranks of the Sydney club. Kangaroos fullback James Tedesco can't wait to see his club mates lock horns, believing two of rugby league's brightest talents bring with them contrasting styles. Quietly-spoken Manu has been a kingpin on defence throughout 2018 while Mitchell's attack was virtually peerless, along with his ability to impose himself mentally on opponents through verbal and extra-physical means. A prime example was his dominance over accomplished Melbourne Storm opposite Will Chambers in the grand final and during the State of Origin series. "I don't think Latrell will be carrying on too much against Joey because Joey's too nice but we'll see how they go," Tedesco said. However, 21-year-old Mitchell wasn't so sure he will contain himself, especially given how much it means to wear green and gold for the first time. "I don't want to say too much. I don't like to talk about how it will be at the weekend," he said. "I'm competitive, he's going to be competitive. Aggression just comes out. People take it as being grubby or what-not but it's just how I play. "I just want to beat my opponent at the other end." Mitchell said texts have been exchanged but he wasn't keen to show too much "respect". There will be few secrets between the pair given they've trained against each other for so long. "We've pretty much shown each other all year what we can do. "It's an awesome achievement for both of us and I'm really honoured and keen to go up against a good mate." Former federal Labor treasurer Wayne Swan says countries such as Great Britain, Canada, Europe and Japan should speak out against the "incredibly disruptive" actions of the US on the global economy. The comments by the now ALP National President come after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg called on China and the US to tone down their trade war. "We are all very interconnected. When something goes wrong in one area it can quickly spread if we don't have a decided and firm response from international authorities through bodies like the IMF and the G20," Mr Swan told Sky News on Wednesday. Five days after a light plane crash in regional Victoria, two survivors are recovering in hospital as investigators continue to examine the aircraft wreckage. The men, aged in their 40s, were flying in a fixed-wing aircraft which came down at Black Range, north of Stawell Airport, just before 1pm on Friday. One man, initially rushed to hospital in a critical condition, was on Wednesday listed in a stable condition at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital, while the other survivor is stable at the Royal Melbourne Hospital "Two investigators arrived for the on-site phase of the investigation on Monday and are still at the scene," an Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokesman said. The investigators will inspect the wreckage and speak to any witnesses before they start analysing potential causes of the crash, he added. The crash investigation could take some time, he noted. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has stressed the need for proposed new laws forcing tech giants to hand over encrypted information to law enforcement agencies. Mr Dutton warns Australia's security agencies are "losing their edge" against transnational terrorists and networks of paedophiles . "Terrorists and criminals are using encrypted communications to avoid detection and disruption and it makes the task of conducting an investigation ... more difficult than it has ever been," he told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday. Alex de Minaur has set up a tasty third round encounter with Alexander Zverev after a straight sets win at the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday. The Australian eased to a 6-4 6-3 win over Frenchman Benoit Paire as his late season run gains momentum. Already at a career high No.33 in the world, the 19 year-old is eyeing off more rankings points as he closes in on a seeding at next year's Australian Open. It is his first third round appearance at a Masters series event, the highest rated tournaments outside the grand slams. Standing in his way of a quarter-final appearance is German Zverev, who enjoyed an impressive second round win over in-form Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-5 6-4. World No.5 Zverev had too much in the tank for de Minaur in the Washington final back in August where he won in straight sets but the Australian pushed him to a fifth set tiebreaker at the Davis Cup earlier in the year. Kyle Edmund was another early winner on Wednesday, the Brit downing Andreas Seppi 6-3 6-4. Palestinian girls outside a school run by UNRWA in the Askar refugee camp east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 2, 2018 The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday expressed concern after Jerusalem's Israeli mayor said he would remove it from the city. Mayor Nir Barkat announced in a statement Thursday a "detailed plan to remove UNRWA from Jerusalem and replace its services with municipal services". UNRWA said such a move would affect its humanitarian operations and installations in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. The agency runs schools and health centres particularly in the Shuafat refugee camp where it says 24,000 Palestinians are estimated to live. UNRWA has come under pressure from Israel and the United States. The two countries object to the fact that Palestinians can pass refugee status to their children, and want the number of refugees covered by the agency to be sharply reduced. The US administration ending its funding to UNRWA in August, the latest in a series of controversial moves applauded by the Israeli government but criticised by the Palestinians and the international community. "The US decision has created a rare opportunity to replace UNRWA's services with services of the Jerusalem Municipality," Barkat said. "We are putting an end to the lie of the 'Palestinian refugee problem' and the attempts at creating a false sovereignty within a sovereignty," he added. The issue of Palestinian refugees -- along with the status of Jerusalem -- has long been a major sticking point in peace efforts. More than 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. They and their descendants are now classified as refugees who fall under UNRWA's mandate. Palestinian leaders continue to call for at least some of them to be allowed to return to their former homes now inside Israel under any peace deal. Israel says Palestinians must give up the so-called right of return and that allowing descendants of refugees to inherit their status only perpetuates the problem instead of solving it. Israel also considers all of Jerusalem as its united capital, while the Palestinians see the predominantly Arab eastern area as the capital of their future state. Some five million registered Palestinians refugees are eligible for UNRWA services in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the blockaded Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Barkat said that under his plan all UNRWA schools in east Jerusalem will be closed by the end of the current school year. Health centres will likewise be shut down. The municipality will also lobby Israeli political leaders and press them to exercise their "authority to remove UNRWA (headquarters) from Israel's sovereign territory" in Jerusalem. "In parallel, the city will work to expropriate the area for public purposes," he said. But on Friday UNRWA said it was "determined to continue to carrying out" its services in east Jerusalem and criticised Barkat's plan. "Such messaging challenges the core principles of impartial and independent humanitarian action and does not reflect the robust and structured dialogue and interaction that UNRWA and the State of Israel have traditionally maintained," the agency said. UN experts warn time is running out to stave off climate disaster Avoiding global climate chaos will require a major transformation of society and the world economy that is "unprecedented in scale," the UN said Monday in a landmark report that warns time is running out to avert disaster. Earth's surface has warmed one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) -- enough to lift oceans and unleash a crescendo of deadly storms, floods and droughts -- and is on track toward an unliveable 3C or 4C rise. At current levels of greenhouse gas emissions, we could pass the 1.5C marker as early as 2030, and no later than mid-century, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) reported with "high confidence". "The next few years are probably the most important in human history," Debra Roberts, head of the Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department in Durban, South Africa, and an IPCC co-chair, told AFP. A Summary for Policymakers of the 400-page tome underscores how quickly global warming has outstripped humanity's attempt to tame it, and outlines paradigm-shift options for avoiding the worst ravages of a climate-addled future. Before the Paris Agreement was inked in 2015, nearly a decade of scientific research rested on the assumption that 2C was the guardrail for a climate-safe world. The IPCC report, however, shows that global warming impacts have come sooner and hit harder than predicted. - Pay now or pay later - "Things that scientists have been saying would happen further in the future are happening now," Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, told AFP. To have at least a 50/50 chance of staying under the 1.5C cap without overshooting the mark, the world must, by 2050, become "carbon neutral," according to the report. "That means every tonne of CO2 we put into the atmosphere will have to be balanced by a tonne of CO2 taken out," said lead coordinating author Myles Allen, head of the University of Oxford's Climate Research Programme. Drawing from more than 6,000 recent scientific studies, the report laid out four "illustrative" pathways to that goal. New record global carbon emissions in 2017 The most ambitious would see a radical drawdown in energy consumption coupled with a rapid shift away from fossil fuels and a swift decline in CO2 emissions starting in 2020. It would also avoid an "overshoot" of the 1.5C threshold. A contrasting "pay later" scenario compensates for a high-consumption lifestyles and continued use of fossil fuels with a temporary breaching of the 1.5C ceiling. It depends heavily on the use of biofuels. But the scheme would need to plant an area twice the size of India in biofuel crops, and assumes that some 1,200 billion tonnes of CO2 -- 30 years' worth of emissions at current rates -- can be safely socked away underground. "Is it fair for the next generation to pay to take the CO2 out of the atmosphere that we are now putting into it?", asked Allen. "We have to start having that debate." - 'Hail of silver bullets' - The stakes are especially high for small island states, developing nations in the tropics, and countries with densely-populated delta regions already suffering from rising seas. "We have only the slimmest of opportunities remaining to avoid unthinkable damage to the climate system that supports life as we know it," said Amjad Abdulla, chief negotiator at UN climate talks for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). "Historians will look back at these findings as one of the defining moments in the course of human affairs." Limiting global warming to 1.5C comes with a hefty price tag: some $2.4 trillion (2.1 trillion euros) of investments in the global energy system every year between 2016 and 2035, or about 2.5 percent of world GDP. That amount, however, must be weighed against the even steeper cost of inaction, the report says. The path to a climate-safe world has become a tightrope, and will require an unprecedented marshalling of human ingenuity, the authors said. "The problem isn't going to be solved with a silver bullet," Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the University of Queensland's Global Change Institute, told AFP. "We need a hail of silver bullets." The IPCC report was timed to feed into the December UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, where world leaders will be under pressure to ramp up national carbon-cutting pledges which -- even if fulfilled -- would yield and 3C world. The week-long meeting in Incheon, South Korea -- already deep into overtime -- deadlocked on Saturday when oil giant Saudi Arabia demanded the deletion of a passage noting the need for global CO2 emissions to decline "well before 2030". The report was approved by consensus as soon as the Saudis backed down, participants to the meeting told AFP. Concerns that the United States would seek to obstruct the process proved unfounded. The Trump administration has dismantled emissions reduction policies domestically, and vowed to ditch the Paris treaty. The Nobel economics prize was created by the Swedish central bank in memory of Alfred Nobel The 2018 Nobel season, marked by the lack of a literature award for the first time in 70 years, winds up Monday with the economics prize which experts say could go to research on the climate or development. The Nobel economics prize was created by the Swedish central bank "in memory of Alfred Nobel" and first awarded in 1969, unlike the other prizes which were created in his last will and testament and first awarded in 1901. As with the other Nobels, nominations and deliberations are kept secret for 50 years, so it's nearly impossible to know which way the prize committee is leaning each year. "From a historical perspective, there are about as many conservative as liberal economists in recent years and the trend has been for diversification: the range of fields of research that have been honoured has been more vast, the choice of laureates has been more eclectic," economist Gabriel Soderberg of Sweden's Uppsala University told AFP. Last year the prize went to US economist Richard Thaler, a co-founder of the so-called "nudge" theory, which demonstrates how people can be persuaded to make decisions that leave them healthier and happier. "The heart of the Nobel prizes are the awards for science, peace and literature. The economics prize is not formally a Nobel prize," Soderberg said. That fact may make "the jury more attentive to public opinion, a little more sensitive to the way in which the laureate will be received," he said. This is why "societal questions are reflected in the prize. The issue of climate change is very important right now and (for this reason) William Nordhaus could be honoured," he said. Nordhaus, a Yale University professor known for his research on the economic consequences of global warming, bears two of the typical characteristics of a Nobel economics laureate: he's a man, and he's American, like 70 percent of previous prizewinners. At 77, he's a decade older than the average winner. - A woman's year ? - Only one woman has won the economics prize since 1969, Elinor Ostrom in 2009. Micael Dahlen, a professor at the Stockholm School of Economics, said that was all the more reason to give the nod to a woman this year. "I'd really like to see the prize go to (France's) Esther Duflo, whose research has focused on developing economies and gender equality, or Cuban-born American Carmen Reinhart, active in the field of public finance," Dahlen explained. Meanwhile, Hubert Fromlet, a professor at Sweden's University of Vaxjo singled out several American women who could be honoured: Anne Krueger, the first woman named the deputy head of the International Monetary Fund, Susan Athey, known for her work on auctions and decision making under uncertainty, and Claudia Goldin, who researches gender inequality. "I could also see the prize going to a macro-economist like Ben Bernanke," the former head of the US Federal Reserve, said Dahlen. Among the "usual suspects" cited frequently for the Nobel are US economists Paul Romer and Paul Milgrom, and Frenchman Olivier Blanchard, a former IMF chief economist. The youngest Nobel prize is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary. Created in 1968 to mark the tricentenary of the Swedish central bank, the Riksbank, it is the most prestigious prize an economics researcher can win. Nobel's will stipulated that the prizes shall go to people who have worked to create "a better world". According to Micael Dahlen, "economics has the same sweeping effects on society as the other disciplines and can therefore be considered a prerequisite for everything from scientific progress to culture and peace". "It's about understanding and creating the basis for well-being and development," Dahlen said. The prize is to be announced on Monday at 11:45 am (0945 GMT) in Stockholm, wrapping up the 2018 awards season in which the most highly-anticipated prize, that for peace, on Friday went to Yazidi women's campaigner Nadia Murad, a former Islamic State sex slave, and Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, who helps women recover from the violence and trauma of sexual abuse and rape in war. The Nobel, which consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a cheque for nine million kronor (around $1 million, 863,000 euros), will be handed over at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10. Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul The United States should "demand answers" from Saudi Arabia about the disappearance and alleged killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, The Washington Post said late Sunday -- and punish the kingdom if cooperation is lacking. Khashoggi, a contributor to the Post who has been critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, vanished after an appointment with Saudi officials on Tuesday at the consulate in Istanbul. A Turkish government source has said that police believe the journalist was murdered -- a claim denied by Riyadh. "The United States must now make a concerted effort to determine all the facts about Mr Khashoggi's disappearance," the Post said in an editorial, imploring Washington to "demand answers, loud and clear." Noting that President Donald Trump has treated Prince Mohammed as a "favored ally," the newspaper said the kingdom now should reciprocate with information about Khashoggi's whereabouts. "If the crown prince does not respond with full cooperation, Congress must, as a first step, suspend all military cooperation with the kingdom," the Post said. The newspaper called on Turkey to reveal any evidence that it has about Khashoggi's alleged murder, and to "spare no avenue to investigate." It also said that Riyadh should explain the presence of about 15 Saudi nationals, some of them officials, who traveled to Istanbul and were at the consulate at the same time as Khashoggi. "We are hoping against hope that Mr Khashoggi is unharmed and will soon return to his writing desk," the Post said. "If the reports of his murder prove true, grief must be accompanied by accountability for those who carried out the murder and those who ordered it." Turkish police believe Khashoggi was murdered by a Saudi hit squad inside the consulate Khashoggi, 59, is a former government advisor who has criticized some of Prince Mohammed's policies and Riyadh's intervention in the war in Yemen. He has lived in the United States since last year to avoid possible arrest, and has written a series of columns for the Post on Saudi affairs. South Korean President Moon Jae-in says a new order is emerging on the Korean Peninsula South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday he believed North Korea's Kim Jong Un would soon meet with the leaders of China and Russia as part of an ongoing diplomatic effort to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula. It comes a day after the North Korean leader agreed to hold a second summit with US President Donald Trump "as early as possible", following a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang. "Separately from the second US-North Korea summit, Chairman Kim Jong Un's visit to Russia and President Xi Jinping's visit to China are expected to take place soon," Moon told a cabinet meeting. The possibility of a summit between Kim and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is also "open", Moon said, adding: "A new order is being created on the Korean peninsula." Kim and Xi have met three times in China this year as the two countries seek to repair relations frayed by tensions over the North's nuclear activities and Beijing's backing of United Nations sanctions against its Cold War-era ally. The North Korean leader has yet to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has previously invited Kim to Moscow. Japan has historically taken a hard line on Pyongyang and stressed the need to maintain pressure on the regime. More recently, however, Abe has expressed interest in a face-to-face meeting with former international pariah Kim. The latest chapter in the diplomatic flurry comes as Trump sent Pompeo on a whirlwind trip to the region to rekindle stalled denuclearisation talks with Pyongyang. Pompeo tweeted Monday that he was heading to China to work on a "final, fully-verified" denuclearisation of North Korea. The first-ever summit between US and North Korean leaders was held in June this year -- a meeting critics say resulted in only a vague commitment by Kim towards denuclearisation. North Korea's vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui met with officials in Beijing on Saturday and is due to hold talks with Russian counterparts in Moscow followed by a trilateral meeting with China and Russia. The bleak "Ten Years Japan" film omnibus imagines a future of state-sponsored mind control and nuclear fallout Fears of a future clouded by nuclear fallout and state-sponsored mind control have been captured on film by a group of Japanese directors who were tasked with presenting their visions of where life in their country was headed. The "Ten Years Japan" omnibus has made its world premiere at the 23rd Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), the regions largest movie industry gathering, and it follows on from similar projects produced out of Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan. "We have so many dimensions when it comes to social issues in Japan, we made it clear to the filmmakers we wanted their take on what exactly it is that they see as the problems," explained Japanese producer Miyuki Takamatsu, who instigated the pan-Asian project. The five-part "Ten Years Japan" imagines citizens living underground to escape nuclear fallout -- but dreaming of life in the sun -- as well as coping under constant surveillance and with messages being transmitted into their brains via an implant. It also looks at how Japan might end up dealing with its rapidly ageing population, while other chapters focus on a daughter tapping into her deceased mothers digital data, and on life in Japan during a future war time. The production features work from directors Chie Hayakawa, Yusuke Kinoshita, Megumi Tsuno, Akiyo Fujimura and Kei Ishikawa. "We wanted to discover new talent," said Takamatsu. "We thought it would be a good challenge to see who could produce films for this difficult topic and here we are, we have found them." The original film in the "Ten Years" series came out of Hong Kong in 2015 and painted a bleak picture of the city under Chinese control. It was fiercely political, coming on the back of the "Occupy" pro-democracy sit-in protests that brought the centre of the city to a standstill for 79 days in 2014. Despite a limited local theatrical release and condemnation by mainland Chinese authorities and their supporters in Hong Kong, the film was a major hit, picking up the top prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards. The dystopian 'Ten Years' Hong Kong was the original film in the series in 2015 and painted a bleak picture of the city under Chinese control "Ten Years Thailand", which premiered at the Cannes festival in May, drew on the talents of the likes of acclaimed director Aditya Assarat ("Hi-So") and is primarily concerned with fears of censorship and state control, while "Ten Years Taiwan" debuted at the Taipei film festival and tackles social issues such as the threat of nuclear fallout and the hardship of rural life. The Japanese and Thai productions are slated for domestic release before the end of the year, while the Taiwanese film is set for a rollout in 2019. "Ten Years Japan" might lack some of its predecessors overtly politically charged bite but it taps into the talents of socially aware Cannes Palme dOr winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda -- who has his drama "Shoplifters" up for Oscar consideration -- and is onboard as executive producer. It reflects Kore-edas trademark languid style, often to chilling effect, even though Takamatsu said the director allowed the filmmakers full freedom in terms of subject matter and of style. "Hong Kong had one specific problem as its focus, in Japan there are many things to think about," said Takamatsu. "[Kore-eda] didnt make any rules or give advice during production but he was involved closely in reading the scripts and advising on changes, and on getting the money needed together." Veteran actor Jun Kunimura (know to Western audiences from "Kill Bill: Volume 1") plays a role in "Ten Years Japan" and said the experience had opened his eyes up to the worries of Japans modern youth. The "Ten Years" project came to life over coffee at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, in 2015 when the team from Golden Scene, which had distributed the original Hong Kong film, had been surprised by the positive - and inquisitive - audience reaction to a screening. On Takamatsus suggestion, and with another producer in Lorraine Ma on board, they decided to take the idea regional - and they are now considering extending the franchise into other Asian markets. "Its a great platform for the filmmakers to imagine what they think of the problems of their countries 10 years later," said Golden Scenes founder and managing director Winnie Tsang. "Different countries have different problems. Some of the problems maybe universal but we can see the different culture in each country." BIFF continues until Saturday. North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is ready to allow international inspectors in to see dismantled nuclear sites, said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo International inspectors will be allowed into North Korea's dismantled nuclear testing site, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday, after a meeting with Kim Jong Un in which he said "significant progress" was made towards denuclearisation. Pompeo met with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang on Sunday to rekindle stalled denuclearisation talks following a landmark summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore. "Chairman Kim said he's ready to allow them to come in" and see the dismantled Punggye-ri nuclear test site, Pompeo said. North Korea took apart the Punggye-ri facility in the country's northeast in May but has yet to allow international observers into the site to verify its claims. The facility, buried inside a mountain near the border with China, was the staging ground for all six of the North's nuclear tests. The inspectors will be allowed in as soon as the two sides agree on "logistics", Pompeo told reporters in Seoul before leaving for Beijing on a whirlwind diplomatic trip. Pompeo, however, did not comment on possible corresponding measures to be taken by Washington. Denuclearisation of North Korea is "a long process", Pompeo said, adding: "We made significant progress." The top US diplomat also said the two countries were "pretty close" to setting a date and location for the second summit between Kim and Trump. - 'A good meeting' - The visit was Pompeo's fourth to North Korea. Trump met Kim in Singapore in June for the first-ever summit between the two countries, resulting in what critics say was only a vague commitment by the North Korean leader towards denuclearisation. Kim "expressed his gratitude to President Trump for making sincere effort" to implement the Singapore agreement, according to a report on the Pompeo visit by North Korea's state news agency KCNA. "Kim Jong Un appreciated the positively developing situation on the Korean peninsula... (and) explained in detail the proposals for solving the denuclearization issue," KCNA said. The visit this week was Mike Pompeo's fourth to Noth Korea The North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried the meeting on its front page, with eight photos of the two men shaking hands and smiling broadly. Pompeo and Kim had "a good meeting", Trump tweeted, adding: "I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim again, in the near future." Washington and Pyongyang have sparred over the exact terms of the vaguely-worded agreement in Singapore, with the US pushing to maintain sanctions and pressure against the North until its "final, fully verified denuclearisation". Last month, the North's foreign minister told the United Nations there was "no way" his country would disarm first as long as tough US sanctions remain against his country. After a previous visit to Pyongyang in July, Pompeo had said the two foes made progress on key issues -- but within hours of his departure the North condemned "gangster-like" demands from the US, raising questions over how much the two sides really saw eye to eye. - Diplomatic strides - Moon said Monday that he believed Kim would soon meet with the leaders of China and Russia "soon" as a "new order is being created on the Korean peninsula". As Pyongyang continues to take big diplomatic strides, analysts say the US may soon be pushed into a corner to relax sanctions. "North Korea is bolstering its ties with China and Russia so although the US is maintaining the sanctions regime, it's on thin ice," said Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute. "President Trump is very close to losing control," he said. China and Russia -- North Korea's traditional allies -- called for relaxed sanctions against Pyongyang at the UN Security Council last month, saying "steps ... toward gradual disarmament should be followed by an easing of sanctions." Victor Mallet, a Financial Times journalist and vice president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong, has been give seven days to leave Hong Kong A leading Financial Times journalist has been given seven days to leave Hong Kong as a backlash mounted Monday against an unprecedented challenge to freedom of the press in the city. Victor Mallet, the FT's Asia news editor and a British national, angered authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong by hosting a speech at the city's press club by Andy Chan, the leader of a tiny pro-independence political party. Chan's party has since been banned as Beijing cracks down on any pro-independence sentiment in the semi-autonomous city. Last week it emerged Mallet's application for a renewal of his work visa had been rejected by Hong Kong immigration authorities. On Monday the FT said Mallet had only been granted a seven-day visitor visa after returning to the city from a trip on Sunday. Sources with direct knowledge of the situation told AFP that Mallet was questioned at immigration and was refused automatic entry. British citizens are usually allowed into Hong Kong without a visa and are permitted to stay for 180 days under immigration rules. Protestors campaign for press freedom in Hong Kong after authorities refuse to renew the visa of an FT journalist The FT said immigration officials had provided no explanation for the shortened visitor visa. "We continue to seek clarification from the Hong Kong authorities about the rejection of his work visa renewal," said the paper, which has its regional headquarters in Hong Kong. The FT's editorial board had earlier described the decision to refuse Mallet a work visa as sending a "chilling message to everyone in Hong Kong". - Lawyers hit back - In a strident speech in August at the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC), where Mallet serves as vice president, independence activist Chan attacked China as an empire trying to "annex" and "destroy" Hong Kong. China's foreign ministry had asked the club to pull the talk, but the FCC refused, arguing that all sides of a debate should be heard and that it hosted a variety of speakers, including Chinese officials. Andy Chan, founder of the Hong Kong National Party, spoke at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong in August Britain and the United States have expressed concern over the visa refusal and its impact on press freedom. On Monday, a group of the city's most influential lawyers also hit back. "Such rejection calls for an explanation in light of its unprecedented nature and its profound impact on Hong Kong's press freedom," 30 lawyers said in a statement. The group makes up the legal subsector of the electoral committee that chooses the city's leader. Another legal organisation, the Progressive Lawyers Group, said: "Any forced retreat of foreign media outlets would be a tragic loss for Hong Kong and must be vigilantly guarded against". A journalists' alliance handed over petitions with more than 15,000 signatures to the government Monday calling for an explanation of its visa rejection. Hong Kong authorities have said they cannot comment on Mallet's case. China's foreign ministry has said it supports Hong Kong "in handling the related matters in accordance with law", and warned other countries not to interfere. The October 20 parliamentary election is seen as a crucial dry run for next year's presidential vote and has already been marred by deadly violence The Taliban on Monday vowed to target government security forces in upcoming parliamentary elections, as US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with Afghan leaders to discuss ways to end the 17-year war. Describing the polls as a "malicious American conspiracy", Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the militants would pull no punches to disrupt the long-delayed ballot scheduled for October 20. "People who are trying to help in holding this process successfully by providing security should be targeted and no stone should be left unturned for the prevention and failure" of the election, Mujahid said in a statement published in English. The Taliban -- Afghanistan's largest militant group that was toppled from power in the 2001 US-led invasion -- typically issue inflammatory and hyperbolic statements about the Afghan government and its international backers. But this latest declaration comes just days before the parliamentary election, which is seen as a crucial dry run for next year's presidential vote and has already been marred by deadly violence. It also comes as Khalilzad meets with Afghan leaders for the first time since his appointment last month to steer peace efforts with the militants. Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's equivalent of prime minister, welcomed the visit by Afghanistan-born Khalilzad in televised remarks on Monday. "We believe if more attention is paid to the (peace) process, there is a good chance of success," Abdullah said. Khalilzad -- a high-profile former US ambassador to Kabul, Baghdad and the United Nations -- is on a 10-day regional trip that also includes Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. He met with President Ashraf Ghani and other top leaders on Sunday night to discuss "an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process", Ghani's office said in a statement. Afghan and international players have been ratcheting up efforts to hold talks with the Taliban. An unprecedented ceasefire in June followed by talks between US officials and Taliban representatives in Qatar in July fuelled hopes that negotiations could bring an end to the fighting. But a wave of violence involving the Taliban and the Islamic State group in recent months has poured cold water on the nascent optimism. Hurricane Michael, pictured in a satellite image taken on October 8, 2018, when it was still a tropical storm, could produce life-threatening flooding Residents of northwest Florida had until early Tuesday to leave their homes ahead of Hurricane Michael, forecast to crash ashore midweek as a major Category 3 storm with "life-threatening" flash flooding possible. Governor Rick Scott's office said mandatory evacuation orders were in place for parts of Bay County, which includes the popular Panama City beach resort, and areas in nearby Gulf and Franklin counties. "EVERY FAMILY must be prepared. We can rebuild your home, but we cannot rebuild your life," Scott said. The alert came after the tropical storm system strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds late Monday of 85 miles (140 kilometers) per hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. By 0001 GMT (Tuesday), Michael was off the western tip of Cuba's Pinar del Rio province, churning to the north at 12 miles per hour (19 kilometers per hour), across from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Michael was forecast to push through warm, relatively shallow Gulf of Mexico waters before moving inland over the northern Gulf coast of Florida. Michael was forecast to have the power to uproot trees, block roads and knock out power for days by the time it hits Florida on Wednesday. Then it is forecast to lash the southeastern United States through Thursday. "Steady to rapid strengthening is forecast during the next day or so, and Michael is forecast to become a major hurricane by Tuesday night," the NHC said. Earlier it said Michael could produce three life-threatening hazards along portions of the northeastern Gulf Coast: storm surge, heavy rainfall, and hurricane-force winds, with storm surge and hurricane watches in effect. The first rains from Michael already started to soak the Florida Keys on Monday. Up to four inches (10 centimeters) were expected to fall through Tuesday. Late Monday, residents of far western Cuba were forecast to get up to eight inches of rain. "This rainfall could lead to life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the NHC warned. - 'Another big one' - Hurricane Michael is expected to bring storm surges and heavy rainfall when it smashes into Florida midweek President Donald Trump, who was in Orlando delivering an address to a global association of police chiefs, said the federal government was ready and urged residents to be prepared for the worst. "Can you believe it? It looks like another big one," he said. Scott declared a state of emergency for 35 counties, activating 1,250 National Guard troops in preparation for the storm. "We are running out of time," the Republican governor said on Twitter. "TODAY is the day to get a plan, because tomorrow could be too late." "This storm will bring torrential rain, heavy winds and dangerous storm surges to many areas of our state," he tweeted. Florida State University announced it was closing for the week on Tuesday, along with schools in Leon County, home to the state capital Tallahassee. Tallahassee's Democratic Mayor Andrew Gillum, who is campaigning to succeed Scott as governor in next month's elections, suspended his campaign and returned to the state capital to oversee storm preparations. - Atomic bomb - Hurricane Michael comes less than a month after Hurricane Florence left dozens dead in the Carolinas The Carolinas are still recovering from Hurricane Florence, which left dozens dead and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage last month. It made landfall on the coast as a Category 1 hurricane on September 14 and drenched some parts of the state with 40 inches of rain. Last year saw a string of catastrophic storms batter the western Atlantic -- including Irma, Maria and Hurricane Harvey -- causing a record-equaling $125 billion in damage when it flooded the Houston metropolitan area. Scientists have long warned that global warming will make cyclones more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible. At their most fearsome, these low-pressure weather fronts pack more power than the energy released by the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima. A Saudi official looks through the door of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul during a demonstration for missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday called for a thorough and open probe by Washington's ally Saudi Arabia into the disappearance of Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi, after President Donald Trump voiced concern for the journalist. Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor and US resident, had written articles critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On the eve of Khashoggi's planned marriage to a Turkish woman, he entered the consulate on October 2 and has not been seen since. Turkish officials allege he was murdered inside the consulate. Riyadh denies that and claims he left the compound on his own. "We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to support a thorough investigation of Mr Khashoggi's disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation," Pompeo said in a statement. State Department senior officials have spoken with Saudi Arabia through diplomatic channels about the matter, the top US diplomat added. Pompeo's statement came after Trump earlier on Monday told reporters at the White House: "I am concerned. I don't like hearing about it. Hopefully that will sort itself out." "Right now, nobody knows anything about it. There are some pretty bad stories going around. I do not like it," he added The issue threatens to strain the close relationship Prince Mohammed has forged with the Trump administration, which until now has been willing to turn a blind eye to alleged Saudi human rights violations in Yemen, where it leads a coalition bombing Houthi rebels that has killed thousands of civilians. Trump has instead focused on US and Saudi shared interests in ratcheting up pressure on Iran. But two senior senators of Trump's Republican party warned Monday that the relationship could be imperiled if the stories about Khashoggi are correct. - 'A heavy price' - Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Riyadh must provide "honest answers" about the journalist. "We agree that if there was any truth to the allegations of wrongdoing by the Saudi government it would be devastating to the US-Saudi relationship and there will be a heavy price to be paid -- economically and otherwise," Graham tweeted. "Our country's values should be and must be a cornerstone of our foreign policy with foes and allies alike," he said. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned against governments attacking journalists outside their countries. "I have raised Jamal's disappearance personally with the Saudi ambassador, and while we await more information, know we will respond accordingly to any state that targets journalists abroad," he wrote. Vice President Mike Pence said he was "deeply troubled" about reports of Khashoggi's fate. "If true, this is a tragic day. Violence against journalists across the globe is a threat to freedom of the press & human rights. The free world deserves answers," Pence said on Twitter. The Washington Post, for which the self-exiled Khashoggi wrote columns over the past year, pressed for release of evidence. "If Mr Khashoggi was murdered inside the consulate, it will cast the Saudi regime and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a new and disturbing light and require a thorough reevaluation of US-Saudi relations," the newspaper said in an op-ed. Khashoggi, 59, had a long career as a senior journalist in Saudi Arabia and also as an advisor to top officials. But since the emergence of Prince Mohammed, 33, as the center of power in the kingdom last year, Khashoggi has been openly critical of the monarchy. He has assailed the prince's reforms as hollow, accusing him of introducing a new Saudi era of "fear, intimidation, arrests and public shaming." Rick Gates, left, struck a plea deal and is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US election campaign A top official in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign requested proposals from an Israeli company to help defeat Republican primary opponents and Trump's challenger Hillary Clinton with online manipulation, The New York Times reported Monday. The Times said there was no evidence that the Trump campaign followed through on the proposals to use social media manipulation and intelligence gathering. Citing interviews and copies of the proposals, the Times said the effort by Rick Gates seemed unrelated to an effort Russia was then escalating to interfere in the US election. US Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating those Russian efforts, as well as possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow. Trump has repeatedly denied there was any collusion. Gates is Trump's former deputy campaign chief, and among more than 30 individuals -- including other ex-administration officials -- indicted by Mueller. The Times reported that Gates sought a proposal to use bogus personas to target and sway delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention by attacking Senator Ted Cruz, Trump's main opponent at the time. Another proposal described opposition research and "complementary intelligence activities" about Clinton, according to the report. A third proposal by the company Psy-Group, staffed by former Israeli intelligence operatives, outlined a plan to help Trump using social media to reinforce divisions among rivals, the report said. Mueller's team has obtained copies of the proposals and questioned Psy-Group, the Times said, adding it was unclear whether the proposals would have violated laws governing foreign involvement in US elections. In February, Gates pledged to cooperate with Mueller as he pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States by failing to report offshore banking accounts, as well as to one count of lying over his work as a foreign agent for Ukraine. That same month, Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three companies in connection with a wide-ranging, multimillion-dollar enterprise to interfere with and "sow discord" in the American political system using social media. Twelve Russian intelligence officers were then indicted in July over large-scale cyber operations to interfere in the election by hacking Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic Party. Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the decision not to renew Victor Mallet's work visa was handed down by immigration authorities Hong Kong's leader Tuesday refused to say why the city had denied a visa to a leading Financial Times journalist, despite escalating demands for an explanation of the unprecedented challenge to freedom of the press. Victor Mallet, the FT's Asia news editor and a British national, angered authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong by hosting a speech at the city's press club by Andy Chan, the leader of a tiny pro-independence political party, in August. Chan's party was later banned as Beijing cracks down on any pro-independence sentiment in the semi-autonomous city. An application to renew Mallet's work visa has been refused and on Sunday he was given seven days to leave Hong Kong. Facing questions for the first time since the visa denial emerged last week, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the decision had been handed down by immigration authorities. She said linking it to the Chan talk was "pure speculation". "As a rule -- not only locally, but internationally -- we will never disclose, the immigration department will not disclose, the individual circumstances of the case or the considerations of this decision," Lam told reporters. Victor Mallet, the FT's Asia news editor, angered authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong by hosting a speech at the city's press club by the leader of a tiny pro-independence political party, in August She refused to directly acknowledge the specifics of the speculation over why Mallet was denied the visa, admitting only that she had "noticed there has been some talk on the street". However Lam said the government "will not tolerate any advocacy of Hong Kong independence and things that harm national security, territorial integrity and developmental interests". She refused to comment on how Mallet could be linked to any of those potential threats when it was pointed out that he was not an independence advocate but had simply chaired a talk by Chan at the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club, which has also hosted talks by Chinese officials. Asked whether journalists could now be punished for interviewing independence activists or writing about independence, Lam said she could give no guidance but insisted that freedom of reporting and expression were "still core values". Britain and the United States have expressed concern over the visa refusal and its impact on press freedom. On Monday, a group of the city's most influential lawyers also demanded an explanation, while the American Chamber of Commerce warned that curtailing press freedom could damage the city's competitiveness. A journalists' alliance handed over petitions with more than 15,000 signatures to the government Monday calling for an explanation of its visa rejection. While much of the vast continent is sparsely populated, Australia is growing at an annual rate of 1.6 percent -- one of the highest among OECD countries Australia is drawing up plans to require migrants to temporarily settle in regional and rural areas to ease congestion in major cities, the government announced Tuesday. While much of the vast continent is sparsely populated, Australia is growing at an annual rate of 1.6 percent -- one of the highest among OECD countries. Sydney, Melbourne and southeast Queensland are among the fastest-growing urban areas in the world thanks in part to overseas migration, said population minister Alan Tudge. The resulting strain on infrastructure in Australia's eastern cities cost the economy Aus$15 billion (US$10.6 billion) last year, with annual forecast losses of Aus$40 billion by 2030 if left unchecked, Tudge told an audience at the Menzies Research Centre think-tank in Melbourne. "This (congestion) is a serious challenge for families and a serious economic challenge for the nation," he said. "We are working on measures to have more new arrivals go to the smaller states and regions and require them to be there for at least a few years." Other parts of the country "have barely grown and (are) crying out for more people", he added. Tudge did not outline how new immigrants would be forced to remain in regional areas, saying this was still to be determined by the government. He flagged a number of other schemes to ease population pressure, including a bigger infrastructure spend and moving public servants out of the big cities. Critics such as former Australian Border Force chief Roman Quaedvlieg said requiring migrants to live in regional areas could be difficult to enforce. "Migrants will gravitate to opportunities & amenities in cities," he tweeted Tuesday. "It's not possible to police the condition without substantial resources, both identifying breaches & sanctioning them." Australia has since seen had an influx of migrants from across the world since the arrival of European settlers in the 18th century, with nearly half of Australians either born overseas or at least one parent born abroad. Yasaku Maezawa paid an undisclosed sum for a ticket on fellow tycoon Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket around the Moon as early as 2023 Billionaire Japanese tycoon and future space tourist Yusaku Maezawa's training to go the moon should not be too tricky, he joked Tuesday, adding that he planned to use free time from his six-hour work day to squeeze it in. The 42-year-old Maezawa paid an undisclosed sum for a ticket on fellow tycoon Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket around the moon as early as 2023 and the passionate art collector also plans to take around half a dozen artists with him on the trip. "It hasn't been decided yet what training I will need to undergo but Elon Musk has said it shouldn't be too hard," Maezawa jested, adding in Japanese, "I believe English will be a must." Asked how he could fit astronaut training around his already hectic schedule, he said he adhered to his own company policy of working a six-hour day and devoting the rest of the time to personal projects. "I don't go to work from morning to night. I'm there three or four times a week and I try to go home after six hours," Maezawa told a packed news conference in Tokyo. Maezawa will hitch a ride aboard Musk's Big Falcon Rocket, which SpaceX has acknowledged may not be ready for human flight for at least five years Maezawa will hitch a ride aboard Musk's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), which SpaceX has acknowledged may not be ready for human flight for at least five years. First announced in 2016 and estimated to cost $5 billion, the BFR was touted as the most powerful rocket in history, even more potent than the Saturn V moon rocket that launched the Apollo missions five decades ago. Maezawa said he had received "safety guarantees" that allowed him to be able to invite the artists along on the trip, although he confirmed he had not yet begun negotiations with potential fellow-travellers. He said he was most looking forward to seeing the entire Earth from space. "I look forward to getting close to the moon. I would like to see the Earth in full view... To see it with my own eyes, just thinking about it now makes tears well up in my own eyes," he said. Maezawa is chief executive of Japan's largest online fashion store and is the 13th richest person in Japan, with an estimated fortune of $2.8 billion, according to business magazine Forbes. He did not deny there were some commercial interests behind his decision to pay for a ticket to the moon, as the exposure has hugely boosted his profile. "I was formerly known as 'Maezawa the fashion guy' and now its been updated to 'Maezawa, who's going to the moon'," he said. Serena Williams holds the trophy following her 2017 Australian Open victory over Venus Williams Seven times champion Serena Williams will be back at the Australian Open in 2019 having missed her title defence this year after giving birth, organisers said Tuesday. The 23-time Grand Slam winner, who won on her last appearance in 2017 while pregnant, will be joined in January's tournament by double Melbourne Park champion Victoria Azarenka who was forced to withdraw from the 2018 event because of a custody battle with her baby's father. Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said Tuesday he was expecting a full contingent of the top 100 men and women players in Melbourne next year. "I'm delighted to announce that Serena Williams will return to the Australian Open in January," Tiley said while launching the 2019 event at Rod Laver Arena. "We last saw Serena here in Melbourne as our champion, holding the Daphne Ackhurst Memorial Cup in 2017. Of course what we didn't know at the time was that she was already eight weeks pregnant with baby Olympia," said Tiley. Williams needs one more Grand Slam singles victory to equal Australian Margaret Court's all-time record of 24. "Serena loves coming to Melbourne and I know she's excited about returning in January with her family, it's definitely a very special place for her," said Tiley. "She'll also be super-focused on winning here, and equalling Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles." Tiley said the tournament was gearing up to welcome back Azarenka and Williams -- and their children. "Vika (Azarenka) is also a new mum to toddler Leo and I'm looking forward to showing her, and Serena, our new creche facilities," said Tiley. "I'm sure they'll be appreciated." Six-time men's winners Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, who captured his 20th Grand Slam title in Melbourne in January, look to be among the players to beat again in 2019. Tiley was also looking forward to the return of Britain's Andy Murray, the five-time losing finalist who missed this year's tournament with injury. "With his incredible work ethic and competitive spirit it would be foolish to underestimate him," he said of the Scot. Tiley said prize money at the January 14-27 tournament will be increased to Aus$60.5 million ($42.9 million) from Aus$55 million in 2018 -- split equally between men's and women's tournaments. The 2018 singles winners Federer and Caroline Wozniacki both picked up cheques for Aus$4 million ($2.83 million). The tournament will also introduce a 25-second serve clock to speed up play, after the innovation made its Slam debut at this year's US Open. "The 25-second serve clock will be introduced for all matches," said Tiley. "We know there's a move to speed up play and we'll continue to work with the players on the best ways to do this." The election of Meng Hongwei as head of Interpol in 2016 was a triumph for President Xi Jinping's bid to burnish China's international profile Beijing's international image took a self-inflicted bruising with a secretive investigation into the former Chinese head of Interpol, highlighting its ruthless tactics even as it seeks global goodwill in a trade spat with the United States, analysts said. The election of Meng Hongwei as head of Interpol in 2016 was a triumph for President Xi Jinping's bid to burnish China's international profile through leadership posts in prestigious global organisations. But midway through his four-year term, Meng vanished after travelling to China from France, where Interpol is based. After days of silence, authorities accused him of taking bribes and he resigned. The Chinese vice public security minister's abrupt disappearance late last month caught Interpol off-guard, an embarrassing situation for an organisation whose mission is international police cooperation. It was also a stark reminder to the world of the Communist Party's harsh investigative tactics, which contrast with the due process and open court system afforded to suspects in democratic countries. China has said that Meng's fall from grace is evidence that no one is above the law. But critics who see Xi's six-year anti-corruption campaign as a tool to root out his political enemies are sceptical. "This will have a detrimental impact on China's soft power," said Willy Lam, politics professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Grace Meng, wife of the missing Interpol president, did not want her face shown at a press conference "It plays into the Americans' hands, adding more fodder to US attacks against China and the lack of rule of law," he said, referring to Vice President Mike Pence's searing speech last week assailing China's human rights record, foreign policies and trade practices. Seemingly kept in the dark by China, French police opened an investigation into his disappearance and Interpol asked for a "clarification" from Beijing on Saturday. But it was not until Monday that Chinese authorities revealed that Meng was being investigated for taking bribes, without providing details about the charges or his whereabouts. In one ominous sign, several posts on meetings and activities Meng participated in over recent years disappeared from the public security ministry's website Monday as an AFP reporter viewed them -- effectively erasing him from the agency's history. Adding to the intrigue, his wife Grace Meng spoke with her face hidden from cameras in Lyon on Sunday, telling reporters she did not know what had happened to her husband and showing his last text message to her: a knife emoji signalling danger. - 'No exceptions' - The organ investigating Meng, the National Supervisory Commission, can hold suspects for as long as six months without providing access to legal counsel. Xi's anti-graft campaign has punished more than one million officials, and is popular with citizens who are fed up with endemic corruption. But some analysts say it also enables the Chinese president to eliminate rivals. One of the most powerful to fall was former security ministry chief Zhou Yongkang, who promoted Meng more than a decade ago and was sentenced to life in prison in 2014. "Wait for my call," read a message to Grace, the wife of the missing Interpol president Meng Hongwei, followed four minutes later by an image of a knife emoji The public security ministry said Meng's case shows "that no one is above the law" and underscores the need to "thoroughly eliminate the pernicious influence of Zhou Yongkang". The state-run Global Times cited Tuesday a professor from a Communist Party school as saying that Meng's crimes might not be just related to corruption but that he could also have "jeopardised national security". Lam speculated that the anti-graft agency may have discovered something that sowed doubts about Meng's allegiances, and "Xi needs absolute loyalty". Beijing's handling of the case will make it harder for Chinese to take prominent spots at global bodies in the future, Lam said. Bonnie Glaser, senior Asia adviser at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said international organisations "should think twice going forward before considering a Chinese candidate to be its head." "Unless Interpol presses for an open investigation and due process for Meng Hongwei, it is definitely going to be criticised. How can the world's police organisation simply do nothing?" - Saving face? - But Cheng Xiaohe, an international relations professor at Renmin University, said that while the case "damages" China's image, it also demonstrates that it "does not care too much about saving face in anti-corruption matters". It shows "regardless of what damage is done to China's international image, the Chinese Communist Party and government will not be soft on corruption, and will punish those who deserve to be punished," he said. Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Monday that China would continue to act as a "responsible power" that will "play its necessary role in international affairs and multilateral organisations." But Meng's contributions were scrubbed from the security ministry's website, including a speech at an Interpol ceremony for fallen officers in March in which he hailed the "real heroes". "As the world's largest police cooperative organisation," he said, "Interpol has the responsibility and obligation to highlight the contribution of the police officers in public service, to remember their deeds and to comfort their families." North Korea's KIm has told the South that the Pope is welcome to visit North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has invited Pope Francis to visit, saying he would be "ardently welcomed", South Korea's presidency said Tuesday, adding it would pass on Pyongyang's message to the Vatican. South Korean President Moon Jae-in will have an audience with the Pope during a visit to the Vatican from October 17 to 18. "During the meeting with Pope Francis, he (Moon) will relay the message from chairman Kim Jong Un that he would ardently welcome the pope if he visits Pyongyang," Moon's spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, told reporters. Moon is embarking on a nine day tour of Europe from October 13 to 21 that will include stops in France, Italy and Denmark on top of the Vatican. The doveish Moon has pushed rapprochement with Kim, meeting him three times in the last year. During the most recent face to face -- a visit to Pyongyang last month -- Moon was accompanied by South Korean Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong. During a conversation with the visiting archbishop, Kim urged him to let the Vatican know his intention to build peace, according to Moon's spokesman. The young leader of the isolated, impoverished but nuclear-armed North has taken a series of reconciliatory gestures since early this year, including a land summit with US President Donald Trump in June. During last month's summit, Kim also reaffirmed efforts to ease military tension on the flashpoint peninsula but remained vague on measures on how to dismantle his widely-feared atomic arsenal. Religious freedom is enshrined in the North's constitution, but all religious activity is subject to extremely tight restrictions and completely banned outside of state-sanctioned institutions. In the early 20th century before the division of the peninsula, Pyongyang was a regional missionary hub with scores of churches and a thriving Christian community that earned it the title of "Jerusalem of the East". But Kim Il Sung, the North's late founding leader and the current ruler's grandfather, viewed Christianity as a threat to his authoritarian rule and eradicated it through executions and labour camps. The North's regime since then has allowed Catholic organisations to run aid projects in the impoverished country, but direct relations with the Vatican are non-existent. When Pope Francis visited South Korea in 2014, he held a special mass in Seoul dedicated to reunification of the two Koreas. A 2014 survey by Korea Gallup showed 22 percent of South Koreans identify themselves as Buddhist, while nearly 30 percent are Christian. White tigers are extremely rare and dangerous A white tiger attacked and killed a zookeeper in its enclosure in southern Japan but the animal will be kept alive at the request of the victim's family, officials said Tuesday. "A zookeeper was found collapsed in a cage, bleeding," a local police official told AFP, adding the man was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. The attack happened late Monday at the Hirakawa Zoological Park in the southern city of Kagoshima. Akira Furusho, 40, was discovered bleeding from the neck and officials believe he was mauled by one of the zoo's four rare white tigers, zoo officials said. The zoo said the five-year-old male tiger, named Riku, was sedated with a tranquiliser gun after the attack, as rescue workers and police rushed to the scene. "We plan not to kill Riku and continue to keep it because the bereaved family asked us to do so," said Takuro Nagasako, a zoo official. While the zoo was open as normal on Tuesday, the white tiger observation zone was restricted "as police continued to investigate the case," Nagasako told AFP. Riku -- about 1.8 metres (5.9 feet) in length and weighing some 170 kilogrammes (374 pounds) -- was born at the zoo with two other white tigers. Tiger attacks are extremely rare in Japan, with the last one dating back to 2008, when a Siberian tiger mauled to death a zookeeper who had been trying to encourage the animal to mate. In 1997, a Japanese couple were killed when they were attacked by tigers at a safari park in central Japan. Foreign aid teams have been told new rules bar them from searching for the dead in hard-hit parts of Palu, where thousands are missing since the quake-tsunami Indonesia on Tuesday told foreign aid workers their help was not needed in disaster-ravaged Palu and they should go home, frustrating relief efforts after a quake-tsunami killed more than 2,000 people. Foreign teams on the ground were told new rules barred them from searching for the dead in hard-hit parts of Palu, where thousands are missing since the September 28 twin disaster. Indonesia initially refused international help but President Joko Widodo reluctantly agreed to allow in overseas aid once the picture became clearer on Sulawesi island. Foreign aid poured into the ravaged city of Palu where authorities believe 5,000 people could be missing and 200,000 survivors desperately need food, water and other life-saving supplies. But international search and rescue teams were prevented Tuesday from accessing hard-hit parts of Palu, where thousands are believed to be buried underneath rubble. Ahmed Bham, from South African charity Gift of the Givers, was told that new rules barred foreign urban search and rescue teams (USAR) from playing any part in retrieving the dead. They were told "all foreign USAR teams should make their way obviously back to their countries. They don't need them in Indonesia", he said. Authorities believe 5,000 people could be missing in hard-hit Palu, where 200,000 survivors desperately need food, water and other life-saving supplies "We've got experienced search and rescue teams here in Indonesia with really specialised equipment. I'd like to use them," he told AFP in Palu. Their 27-strong team arrived in Palu three days ago from Johannesburg, but days of delay frustrated their wish to join the search for the dead. "A lot of days were wasted... where we could have assisted and used our expertise and skill," Bham said. "There seemed to be -- I won't say red-tape -- but it was just like, 'you can't work here, you can't do this, you can't do that'. It's something we haven't experienced in other major disasters like this." - 'They can't work' - Indonesia's disaster agency issued a set of rules over the weekend instructing international staff to leave Palu, and requiring foreign donations be channelled through local partners. Residents queue for cooking gas in Palu, which was devastated by the September 28 quake-tsunami "The truth is that they have put out a statement saying foreign personnel should be withdrawn," World Vision Australia chief advocate Tim Costello told Australian broadcaster ABC on Tuesday. "It is very odd as foreign journalists are free to walk around and report. This is what's very strange." He said aid was reaching survivors but "it is still, for us who are used to these crises, too slow". Bham said most of the international teams he had seen in Palu were at the airport. "They can't work. They are starting to make their way back to their countries," he said. Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said no foreign aid workers had been asked to leave Palu yet. Getting vital supplies to affected areas has proved hugely challenging "But in Lombok there were many (asked to leave)," he told reporters Tuesday. A string of earthquakes in Lombok in eastern Indonesia over the summer killed more than 550 people, sparking a major aid response. "The president said we didn't need foreign aid anymore but they kept coming." Getting vital supplies to the affected areas has proved hugely challenging as flights into Palu were limited by its small airport, leaving aid workers facing gruelling overland journeys. More than 70,000 people have been displaced since the 7.5-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami tore through Palu. Singapore heavily polices criticism of its judiciary A Singaporean activist and an opposition politician were Tuesday found guilty of contempt of court for seperate Facebook posts criticising the country's judiciary. Social worker and human rights activist Jolovan Wham wrote a Facebook post in April saying that judges in neighbouring Malaysia were more independent than their counterparts in Singapore on cases with political implications. He had made the observation as he commented on a legal challenge filed by a Malaysian online news portal against that country's law against fake news. Singapore's Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) initiated contempt of court proceedings against Wham for scandalising the judiciary. John Tan, a politician with the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, was also charged with contempt after he wrote a Facebook post saying that the AGC's actions against Wham proved that his comments were true. Wham and Tan argued that their comments constituted fair criticism and were covered under the constitutional provisions for free speech and expression. High Court Judge Woo Bih Lih however disagreed and convicted the pair. "Wham's post impugned the integrity and impartiality of Singapore's judges, and thus the Singapore courts," Woo said, adding it meant that local judges "are not completely independent and are partial to the government". The post also "posed risk that public confidence in the administration of justice would be undermined," the judge said. Woo said allegations in Tan's post "were not supported by argument and evidence" and "not made in good faith and did not constitute fair criticism of a court". Sentencing will be passed on another date. While Singapore is admired for its economic prosperity, it is regularly criticised by rights groups for tough rules on political dissent and freedom of expression. Last year, the AGC began contempt proceedings against Li Shengwu, a grandson of modern Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and a nephew of the current prime minister for a Facebook post in which he said the government was "very litigious and has a pliant court system". The AGC had described his post as "an egregious and baseless attack on the Singapore Judiciary and constitutes an offence of contempt of court". Anyone found guilty of contempt could be fined up to Sg$100,000 ($72,141) or jailed for up to three years, or both. Protesters claimed using the building to advertise a horse race - and by extension, gambling - threatened its heritage status The Sydney Opera House was lit up with a controversial advertisement for a major horse race Tuesday, despite days of fierce public backlash over the commercialisation of the world-famous landmark. The Aus$13 million (US$10 million) Everest race, which boasts the world's biggest turf race prize, takes place in Sydney on Saturday and organisers persisted through tense debate to promote it on the white sails of the Opera House. "Sydney is not Las Vegas, and our cultural icons should not be used to promote the racing industry, an industry which makes profit from problem gambling," prominent state MP Alex Greenwich told reporters ahead of the light show. The sails have been used previously to promote other major sporting events, including the Olympics, but Opera House management opposed much of the Everest promotion, claiming using the building as an advertising "billboard" threatened its heritage status. Hundreds of protestors armed with flashlights and mobile phones attempted to disrupt the display with light projections of their own The New South Wales government intervened, arguing the event provided the state with a huge tourism boon, forcing management to allow the race's trophy, colours and numbers to be beamed onto the structure. The move sparked a heated public debate, with politicians of all stripes weighing in. "This is one of the biggest events of the year. Why not put it on the biggest billboard Sydney has," said prime minister Scott Morrison, describing the promotion as a "no brainer". Opposition Labour leader Bill Shorten said the Opera House showed the world Australia was capable of creating "great beauty". "I don't look at the Opera House and see a billboard, I see a remarkable Australian achievement." A petition against the Everest light show attracted close to 300,000 signatures prior to Tuesday evening, while hundreds of protestors chanting "not for sale", armed with flashlights and mobile phones, attempted to disrupt it with light projections of their own. "I think it is a disgrace," 42-year-old protestor Tessa Boyd-Cane told AFP. "The Opera House is a national icon, it's a national treasure. It is not something that should be reflected in what is basically a promotion for gambling." Race organisers had planned do a barrier draw alongside the evening light show, but held it in secret earlier in the day to "circumvent any security risks that may exist." They also temporarily suspended betting on the race until the barriers were publicly revealed during the Opera House display. Khashoggi has been critical of some policies of the crown prince and Riyadh's intervention in the war in Yemen Saudi Arabia has agreed to let Turkish authorities search the kingdom's Istanbul consulate after prominent journalist and Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing last week, the Turkish foreign ministry said Tuesday. "Saudi authorities said they were open to cooperation and that a search can be conducted at the consulate building," the ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement. The search will take place as part of the official investigation, which was being conducted "in an intense manner", he said without giving any date. Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who wrote for Arab and Western media, vanished last Tuesday after visiting the consulate to obtain official documents. Turkish police were looking into two private aircraft which landed at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Tuesday at different times carrying 15 people of interest in the case, as well as the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped and taken aboard one of the planes, local media reported. Previously Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg that Riyadh would be ready to welcome Turkish officials to search the premises. Ankara sought permission Sunday to carry out a search after the foreign ministry summoned the Saudi ambassador for a second time, Turkish television reported. Riyadh's envoy in Ankara was first called to the ministry on Wednesday. Khashoggi, a former Saudi government adviser, had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year fearing possible arrest. He has been critical of some policies of the crown prince and Riyadh's intervention in the war in Yemen. - Mystery team of 15 - While Riyadh claimed he had left the consulate after his visit, Turkish police said Khashoggi did not emerge from the building. Government sources said police believe the journalist was killed inside the consulate. Police also said a team of 15 Saudis were sent to Istanbul and were in the building at the same time as Khashoggi. Turkish security officials were working to identify the 15 individuals, English-language state broadcaster TRT World reported, adding that Turkish officials believe the Saudis may have taken the consulate's CCTV footage with them when they returned to Saudi Arabia. According to pro-government daily Sabah, the team arrived in Istanbul on two private planes, one which landed after 03h00 (0000 GMT) on Tuesday while the second plane landed around 17h00 (1400 GMT) after Khashoggi entered the consulate. The individuals checked into two hotels close to the consulate, the daily said. Both planes later returned to Riyadh with one stopping in Dubai and the other in Egypt, Sabah reported, adding the police were looking into the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped. The planes belonged to a company based in Saudi Arabia which has links to the state. Istanbul police experts were analysing vehicles which entered and left the consulate, some of which were then seen on camera last Tuesday at the consul-general's residence, 200 metres away, the daily said. The newspaper also claimed that Turkish employees at the residence were "hastily" told to take a holiday on the day Khashoggi went missing. Since ending one-party rule in 1991, Sao Tome has become a model for democratic transition in central Africa The ruling party in Sao Tome and Principe emerged victorious in a weekend election but lost its majority in the small African island nation, according to initial results, as hundreds demonstrated against potential poll fraud but were dispersed by riot police. In power since 2014, the Independent Democratic Action party (ADI) won Sunday's poll, securing 25 of the 55 assembly seats, the Electoral Commission said late on Monday -- down on its previous tally of 33 seats. Protesters gathered on Monday night in front of the electoral commission claiming the ADI vote share had been boosted through fraud. The centre-right party plans to join forces with another smaller party that won two seats to form a government. But the opposition socialist MLSTP-PSD party won 23 seats and plans to form a coalition with five lawmakers from smaller parties. Sao Tome and Principe, a scattering of islands off the coast of western equatorial Africa that once served the slave and sugar trades of Portuguese colonial rulers, opened up to multiple party elections in 1991 after 15 years of Marxist one-party rule under President Manuel Pinto da Costa. Since then Sao Tome has seen a number of democratic elections. The final results of Sunday's poll are due to be announced in the next few days by the Constitutional Court. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's essay 'We Should All be Feminists' had made a major impact when it became a Ted talk hit in 2012 Women everywhere are sharing stories of sexual harassment and gender inequality but men still aren't really listening, Nigerian author and feminist icon Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie told the Frankfurt book fair Tuesday, urging men to read books by women. "All over the world today women are speaking up. Their stories are still not really heard," Adichie said at the opening of the world's biggest publishing event. "Women are still invisible. Women's experiences are still invisible." A year after the #MeToo movement went viral and ignited a global discussion about sexual harassment, Adichie said there was much work left to be done. "It is time for us to pay more than lip service to the fact that women's stories are for everyone," the celebrated author of "Americanah" and "Half of a Yellow Sun" said. "We know from studies that women read books by men and women. But men read books by men. It is time for men to read women." As well as being an award-winning novelist, Adichie shot to fame as a vocal advocate for women's rights after her essay "We Should All Be Feminists" became a TED talk hit in 2012. It has been viewed over five million times on YouTube. In a thinly veiled reference to US judge Brett Kavanaugh's controversial confirmation to the Supreme Court despite accusations of sexual misconduct, Adichie slammed the tendency not to believe victims of such assaults. "We seem to live in a world where many people believe large numbers of women can simply wake up one day and make up stories about having been assaulted," Adichie said. "I know many women who want to be famous. I don't know one single woman who wants to be famous for having been assaulted." - 'Call a lie a lie' - Adichie, who divides her time between the United States and Nigeria, said now was an "urgent" moment to stand up for what is right -- particularly in President Donald Trump's America. "The world is shifting, it's changing. It's darkening," the 41-year-old said. "The most powerful country in the world today feels like a feudal court, full of intrigues feeding on mendacity, drowning in its own hubris. "We must know what is true. We must say what is true. And we must call a lie a lie." Adichie was due to receive the PEN Pinter prize in London later on Tuesday, which recognises British and Commonwealth writers whose work takes an "unflinching, unswerving" look at the world. Judges praised Adichie's "understanding of gender, race, and global inequality". Adichie's appearance at the Frankfurt fair, which runs until Sunday, kicked off what promises to be a politically charged edition of the annual literature extravaganza, with organisers shining a spotlight on human rights and freedom of expression. Test debutant Bilal Asif snatched six wickets to spark a spectacular Australian collapse from 142-0 to 202 all out and put Pakistan in firm command of the first Test in Dubai Test debutant Bilal Asif snatched six wickets to spark a spectacular Australian collapse from 142-0 to 202 all out and put Pakistan in firm command of the first Test in Dubai on Tuesday. The 33-year-old off-spinner overshadowed his more experienced team-mate Yasir Shah by finishing with 6-36 as his efforts, the third best figures for a Pakistani bowler on Test debut, derailed Australia on a pitch which started to assist spinners on the third day. Despite being jolted by spinner Jon Holland's two key wickets of Mohammad Hafeez (17) and Azhar Ali (four), Pakistan closed the day on 45-3, having an overall lead of 325 with seven second-innings wickets intact to force a win. Opener Imam-ul-Haq was unbeaten on 23 while nightwatchman Asif was dismissed for nought, unable to guard Azhar from coming to bat in a crucial stage. But it was a day highlighted by Asif who triggered a memorable Australian collapse against spin in Asia. But by lunch Australia were well-placed at 137 without loss with Usman Khawaja (85) and debutant Aaron Finch (62), but the slump followed shortly after as the Baggy Greens lost all 10 wickets for just 60 runs. Asif, who had previously played three one-day internationals in 2015, came into his own after pacer Mohammad Abbas removed Finch following an opening stand of 142. In a spell of 22 balls Asif took four wickets as Australia slumped to 180-5 by tea. The second session belonged to Asif, who dismissed Khawaja, Shaun Marsh (seven), Travis Head (nought) and Marnus Labuschagne (nought) in the space of 29 runs. - Asif brilliance - Asif's feats on debut had only been bettered by fast bowler Mohammad Zahid (7-66 vs New Zealand in Rawalpindi in 1994) and spinner Mohammad Nazir (7-99 against New Zealand in Karachi in 1969). Asif is the 11th Pakistani bowler to take five or more wickets in an innings on Test debut. Before Asif's brilliance Abbas had forced Finch to drive straight into the hands of Asad Shafiq at short mid-on. Khawaja hit eight fours before miscuing a premeditated sweep and was caught at short leg while Finch had five boundaries and a six in his knock. Leg-spinner Yasir was unlucky not to be amongst wickets, having dropped Mitchell Marsh off his own bowling for two and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed missing a stump in the first session with Khawaja on 17. Yasir went wicketless after 28 probing overs. Earlier in the day Finch was more confident as he punched two boundaries and a six off Yasir before sweeping Asif for a boundary to reach his half-century. Khawaja, the Pakistan-born batsman, improved upon his previous best score in Asia of 26, made against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2011, by reaching his 13th Test half-century. The second and final Test starts in Abu Dhabi from October 16. Both teams will also play three Twenty20 internationals after Tests. Rapper Kanye West is lunching with US President Donald Trump at the White House October 11, 2018 The rapper Kanye West, one of Donald Trump's most glamorous supporters, will head to the White House for a meeting with the president and his son in law Jared Kushner on Thursday, officials said. Trump, who came under fire this week from another music superstar, Taylor Swift, will lunch with West, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. West -- best known as Kanye but recently stating that he wants to be known as just Ye -- will also meet with Kushner. "Topics of discussions will include manufacturing resurgence in America, prison reform, how to prevent gang violence, and what can be done to reduce violence in Chicago," Sanders said. West is planning to discuss the opening of employment opportunities for former prison convicts, a subject already being studied by the White House, according to The New York Times. West's wife, the TV celebrity Kim Kardashian, has previously met with Trump at the White House. Google faces growing concerns over a privacy glitch as it is preparing to launch a series of new gadgets Google was supposed to be focusing Tuesday on its launch of a new smartphone and other devices, but the event was being overshadowed by a firestorm over a privacy glitch that forced it to shut down its struggling social network. The Silicon Valley giant said Monday it found and fixed a bug exposing private data in as many as 500,000 accounts, but drew fire for failing to disclose the incident. The revelation heightened concerns in Washington over privacy practices by Silicon Valley giants after a series of missteps by Facebook that could have leaked data on millions. "In the last year, we've seen Google try to evade scrutiny -- both for its business practices and its treatment of user data," Senator Mark Warner said in a statement. Warner said that despite "consent" agreements with the US Federal Trade Commission "neither company appears to have been particularly chastened in their privacy practices" and added that "it's clear that Congress needs to step in" for privacy protections. Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the latest breach suggests the FTC has failed to do its job in protecting user data. "The Congress needs to establish a data protection agency in the United States," Rotenberg said. "Data breaches are increasing but the FTC lacks the political will to enforce its own legal judgments." - Rising tensions - An empty seat for Google is seen during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing concerning foreign influence operations' use of social media platforms on September 5, 2018 The internet search leader had already faced tensions with lawmakers after it decided against sending its top executive to testify at a hearing on privacy and data protection, prompting the committee to leave an empty seat for the company. Last month, Google indicated it would send chief executive Sundar Pichai to testify before Congress. Google has also been in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump, who alleged that its search results were biased against conservatives, although there was little evidence to support the claim. The rising tensions come with Google holding an event in New York widely expected to release its Pixel 3, the upgraded premium smartphone that aims to compete with high-end devices from Apple and Samsung. The Pixel phone is part of a suite of hardware products Google is releasing as part of an effort to keep consumers in its mobile ecosystem and challenge rivals like Apple and Amazon. On Monday, Google said it was unable to confirm which accounts were affected by the bug, but an analysis indicated it could have been as many as 500,000 Google+ accounts. Google did not specify how long the software flaw existed, or why it waited to disclose it. The Wall Street Journal reported that Google executives opted against notifying users earlier because of concerns it would catch the attention of regulators and draw comparisons to a data privacy scandal at Facebook. Earlier this year, Facebook acknowledged that tens of millions of users had personal data hijacked by Cambridge Analytica, a political firm working for Donald Trump in 2016. Google has also faced increasing tensions over a reported search engine which would be acceptable to Chinese censors, and over its work for the US military. On Tuesday, Google confirmed it is dropping out of the bidding for a huge Pentagon cloud computing contract that could be worth up to $10 billion, saying the deal would be inconsistent with its principles. A spokesperson for Drew Barrymore last week said the actress "did not participate" in the EgyptAir interview The publisher of EgyptAir's in-flight magazine apologised Tuesday over an article on US actress Drew Barrymore, which caused a furore online over its bizarre content. Horus magazine published what it called an interview with Barrymore that opened with a commentary on her private life, and her apparent responses raised eyebrows both for their content and poor English. A spokesperson for Barrymore told the Huffington Post website last week that the actress "did not participate" in the interview, but EgyptAir stood by the article. The actress' team said they was in touch with the airline and on Tuesday the publishing house behind the magazine, Ahram Advertising Agency, issued an explanation of the affair. "We apologise for any misunderstanding that might be interpreted as an offence to the great artist," it said in a statement. The agency said the interview was conducted in English by its Hollywood reporter, Aida Tekla, before being translated into Arabic and subsequently back into English. Barrymore's team agreed to the interview with Tekla "not knowing" that the journalist worked for the in-flight magazine as well as other publications, Ahram Advertising Agency said. The firm said it was "about to investigate" the sourcing of the article and the translator used to write the English version. Addressing the widely criticised introduction to the article, the publishing house said it had been penned by one of the magazine's editors. The opening lines of article suggest Barrymore had been "unstable in her relationships most of her life" and that she had been in "almost 17 relationships, engagements and marriages". "Psychologists believe that her behaviour is only natural since she lacked the male role model in her life," it says. Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan Famed former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is alive and well despite a brief Twitter hoax in which a Nobel-prize winning economist appeared to announce his death, Greenspan's company said Tuesday. The Twitter account which had announced the news quickly claimed the misinformation was in fact the work of famed Italian hoax artist Tommasso Debenedetti, who frequently makes premature announcements of celebrity deaths. The social media network briefly lit up early in the day when an unverified account in the name of Yale University economist William Nordhaus announced that Greenspan, 92, had died. Nordhaus, who was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics on Monday, was not immediately available for comment. However Greenspan & Associates, the former Fed chairman's Washington consultancy, told AFP the report was untrue. Greenspan's wife, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrew Mitchell, also took to Twitter to put the kibosh on all the loose talk. "By now you know the rumors are a hoax," she wrote. "Alan's doing great. In fact, he has a book out next week!" Debenedetti is reportedly behind serial false reports of the deaths of world figures such as former communist leaders Fidel Castro and Mikhail Gorbachev as well as Pope Benedict XVI, Syria's Bashar al-Assad and British author JK Rowling. "Death works well on Twitter," a person identifying himself as Debenedetti, a school teacher in Rome, told AFP in 2013. He said he aimed to "show that Twitter has become a news agency -- the least reliable in the world." Meanwhile, Tuesday was not the first time Greenspan -- who in 19 years as Fed chairman oversaw a period of economic boom and stepped down just before the United States headed into the Great Recession -- had been the subject of exaggerated reports of his demise. US stocks tumbled in June of 2000 after the Federal Reserve hesitated before denying a rumor that Greenspan had been killed in a car crash. Nikki Haley took the job of UN ambassador with little experience in foreign policy but quickly became the full-throated voice at the United Nations for the often unpopular agenda of Donald Trump Nikki Haley resigned Tuesday as the US ambassador to the United Nations, in the latest departure from President Donald Trump's national security team. Meeting Haley in the Oval Office, Trump said that Haley had done a "fantastic job" and would leave at the end of the year. "She told me probably six months ago," Trump told reporters, '"I want to take a little time off.'" Haley stayed coy on her reasons for quitting, saying only that it was "important to understand when it's time to stand aside." But she insisted that she was not planning to run for president herself against Trump in 2020, when she would likely be seen as a moderate Republican alternative. The former governor of South Carolina, Haley took the job with little experience in foreign policy but quickly became the full-throated voice at the United Nations for the often unpopular agenda of Trump. Haley has pressed for a hawkish line on Iran, justified US cuts to foreign assistance and earlier this year led the United States in bolting from the UN Human Rights Council, accusing it of bias against Washington and Israel. At the recent UN General Assembly session, Haley took the highly unusual step for a senior diplomat of joining street protesters against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, shouting from a megaphone that the leftist leader should leave office. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley had long been seen as a rising star in the Republican Party which has eagerly sought female and ethnic minorities to broaden the appeal beyond its traditional white demographic. Haley, whose given name was Nimrata Randhawa, was elected governor in 2010 of deeply Republican South Carolina and, during the 2016 campaign, had criticized Trump over his remarks on immigrants before their political reconciliation. Haley's is the latest resignation in a turbulent White House, where Trump is already on his third national security adviser and second secretary of state before even the midterm elections. Nikki Haley, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, rocketed to political stardom when she moved to New York as part of the Trump administration in 2017 Nikki Haley, who has resigned as President Donald Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, was a virtual unknown on the national and international stage when she joined the cabinet. After nearly two years as one of America's top voices on foreign policy, the 46-year-old South Carolina native will leave at year's end with a strong global profile -- and a reputation for standing up to the mercurial Trump. With speculation already building about her political future, she quickly denied any plans to challenge her boss in 2020, instead saying in the Oval Office on Tuesday it was "time to stand aside." "I don't have anything set on where I want to go," Haley said, with the president at her side. But wanting a break from the punishing Trump news cycle would surely be understandable. During her time at the United Nations, Haley -- a fellow Republican who previously served as South Carolina's governor -- was unafraid to speak her mind, often in fairly undiplomatic language. She was the face of the White House to the world on everything from North Korean denuclearization to the war in Syria. And the daughter of Indian immigrants, who was raised as a Sikh but identifies as Christian, was the face of diversity in a cabinet criticized for being too white. - Outsider perspective - Haley was not exactly on the Trump train from the get-go -- she endorsed Florida Senator Marco Rubio during the Republican primary race in 2016 before backing Senator Ted Cruz. Indeed, she called the brash Manhattan property baron "everything a governor doesn't want in a president," and just weeks before the election, she admitted she was "not a fan" of the candidate. Haley was a strong voice for US foreign policy at the United Nations So understandably, eyebrows were raised when Trump chose Haley -- who had little foreign policy experience -- as Washington's voice at the United Nations. But, as she said herself, she had a track record in shaking up staid, traditional government bodies -- a quality that surely appealed to Trump. "Institutions always benefit from an outsider's perspective," she told the Council on Foreign Relations think tank last year. "In South Carolina, I was the first minority governor and -- a real shock to the state -- the first girl governor as well." Born in 1972 in Bamberg, South Carolina, Nimrata "Nikki" Randhawa rose quickly in the southern state's politics, serving in its House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011 when she was elected governor. She was reportedly considered as a possible vice presidential pick by 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Her conservative views and plainspoken but warm style were popular in her home state. She then won national attention in 2015 by supporting the removal of the Confederate flag from the state house after a white gunman opened fire at a black church, killing nine parishioners. Haley is married to Michael Haley, an officer in the South Carolina National Guard and has two children. - 'I don't get confused' - In recent months, her star had faded a bit, with brash new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) taking over as Trump's chief spokesman on foreign policy At the United Nations, she found her voice, quickly outshining the secretary of state at the time, Rex Tillerson. She was a fierce defender of Israel, and also a ferocious critic of Russia -- even more so than her boss. And when a White House aide suggested in April this year that "confusion" had led her to mistakenly announce fresh sanctions on Russia, she quickly fired back. "With all due respect, I don't get confused," Haley said. She wanted to see what was happening on the ground, traveling to Israel, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Latin America. In recent months, her star had faded a bit, with Tillerson replaced by the brash Mike Pompeo and John Bolton taking over as national security advisor. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini with Jacqueline Gourault, a senior French interior ministry official, in Lyon on Tuesday. "All the ministers agreed that economic migrants can't be welcomed in Europe", he said Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini claimed growing support in the EU for his hardline immigration policies as he called Tuesday for French leader Emmanuel Macron to stop "insulting" him over the vexed issue. The remarks came as international interior ministers met to discuss the migrant crisis in the French city of Lyon, where EU members sought common ground. "I don't understand why Macron accuses me of racism or egotism because today all the ministers around the table agreed that economic migrants can't be welcomed in Europe," Salvini told reporters. The 45-year-old leader, who heads the far-right League party, has engaged in an open war of words with Macron sparked by Italy's decision to close its ports to charity rescue boats in the Mediterranean. Macron accused Salvini of "cynicism and irresponsibility" in June and an aide said last week that the new populist government was "living off" the crisis. The two leaders are positioning themselves ahead of European parliament elections next year, with hardliners like Salvini in one corner and Macron and other centrists endorsing deeper EU integration in the other. When it was pointed out to Salvini that Macron too wanted to reduce the flow of arrivals from Africa to Europe, he suggested they might eventually see eye to eye. "If Macron is on the same line, then we are fighting the same battle," he said. "Perhaps from time to time he could open the border at Ventimiglia (between France and Italy) and stop insulting us," he added. The European Union is riven by tensions over immigration, with many countries refusing to take in any refugees, while attempts to roll out a beefed-up EU border force have also hit snags. "There's no confrontation, there are simply positions that we are trying to... forge into a consensus and find common ground, which is needed in the European Union," Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said. In a sign of the widely diverging views, Poland's Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski announced at the end of the meeting that he would recommend that Warsaw quit a landmark UN charter on migration. Hungary has already abandoned the charter, but it is set to be signed by the rest of the EU at a December summit in Morocco. On Monday night over dinner, Brudzinski disappointed some of his counterparts by talking about a "migrant invasion" during his comments, one participant told AFP on condition of anonymity. At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, Kanye West jumped onstage after Taylor Swift (C) won the "Best Female Video" award, interrupting her speech -- and launching a feud The bad blood between Taylor Swift and Kanye West goes way back. At the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards, he famously interrupted an acceptance speech by the then 19-year-old Swift for Best Female Video to say that Beyonce deserved the honor. "Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!" he said, leaving Swift in tears. Now, their on-off feud has made the somewhat unlikely shift from the stage to the political arena. West is a vocal -- and somewhat improbable -- supporter of President Donald Trump and will sit down with him for lunch at the White House this week, after meeting his wife Kim Kardashian earlier this year. Last weekend, the rapper made headlines with an appearance on "Saturday Night Live" that ended with an off-camera defense of Trump -- while sporting a red "Make America Great Again" hat. "There's so many times I talk to, like, a white person about this and they say 'How could you like Trump? He's racist.'" said West, who is 41. "If someone inspires me and I connect with them, I don't have to believe in all their policies." Swift got press for her politics as well, shedding years of silence on her views just a month ahead of crucial midterm elections to endorse two Democrats running in Tennessee, where she has lived for years. At the 2015 edition of the MTV Music Video Awards, West (L) accepted the Video Vanguard prize from Swift -- a peacemaking of sorts The 28-year-old pop star is an outspoken feminist and backer of the #MeToo movement, but until she took to Instagram on Sunday, she had been famously apolitical. Not any more. Swift appealed to her 112 million followers to register to vote and cast their ballots for Democrats running for the Senate and House. "In the past I've been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now," Swift said. "I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country," she added. - '25 percent less' - Taylor Swift has shed her apolitical persona and endorsed Democrats running for the House and Senate in Tennessee, where she has lived since her teen years Trump has been a vocal Swift fan in the past, tweeting her praises on several occasions, but the Republican president has dialed down his affection for her. "Let's say that I like Taylor's music about 25 percent less now, okay?" Trump told reporters on Monday. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential hopeful whose daughter Sarah Sanders is the White House spokeswoman, fired off a dismissive tweet. "So @taylorswift13 has every right to be political but it won't impact election unless we allow 13 yr old girls to vote," Huckabee tweeted. The last laugh may be on Huckabee. Kamari Guthrie of Vote.org told Buzzfeed News that voter registrations have surged since Swift's Instagram post. Vote.org had received 65,000 registrations within the 24 hours after Swift's message, more than the 56,669 recorded in the entire month of August," Guthrie said. "Thank God for Taylor Swift," Guthrie told Buzzfeed. - 'How good is Kanye West?' - The White House meanwhile announced that West would have lunch with Trump on Thursday and would also meet with his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner. Kanye West and Donald Trump at Trump Tower in December 2016 "Topics of discussions will include manufacturing resurgence in America, prison reform, how to prevent gang violence, and what can be done to reduce violence in Chicago," Sanders said. West has taken flak for his support of Trump, who won less than 10 percent of the black vote in 2016. Despite Trump boasting regularly that black unemployment is at historic lows, only 10 percent of the African-Americans surveyed last month by Quinnipiac University said they like his policies. That has not stopped West from singing Trump's praises -- and the president returning the favor. "Republicans are delivering for African-Americans like never before," Trump said at an election rally last week in Tennessee. "And you saw that the other night with Kanye West," Trump said in a reference to the rapper's "SNL" appearance. "How good was Kanye West?" Protesters demonstrated in front of the Supreme Court, where Justice Brett Kavanaugh took his seat for the first time New US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh dove into his new job Tuesday, shrugging off the controversy over his nomination and firing off a handful of questions at his first hearing, a case on prison reform. A handful of protesters rallied outside the court in opposition to the conservative justice, who was confirmed on Saturday by the Senate by a razor-thin margin after weeks of partisan rancor. "We will not forget!" the group shouted -- a reference to the accusations of sexual assault that threatened to derail Kavanaugh's nomination, allegations that the 53-year-old strongly denied. The small group quickly broke up. Shortly afterwards, the US high court came to order with the traditional call of "Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye." In front of a packed courtroom, Chief Justice John Roberts welcomed the newest judge on the nine-member panel and wished him a "long and happy career." The justices then heard arguments in a series of cases about prison terms for repeat offenders and what constitutes a "violent felony" that would open up recidivists to more serious sentences. Kavanaugh jumped in, asking a series of questions during the proceedings. His arrival on the court tips the bench decidedly to the right -- with five conservative and four liberal justices. Kavanaugh promised to be a "impartial" judge and a "team player" during his ceremonial swearing-in at the White House late Monday. "The Supreme Court is an institution of law. It is not a partisan or political institution," he said. Kavanaugh's nomination was thrown into jeopardy when university research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford came forward with accusations that he had sexually assaulted her when they were teens in the Washington area. Both Kavanaugh and Blasey Ford spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee in an extraordinary day of raw testimony. Ultimately, Kavanaugh was confirmed by a vote of 50-48. The two-vote margin of victory in the Senate made it the closest Supreme Court confirmation vote since 1881 -- and by far the most contentious since Clarence Thomas in 1991. Only one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted for Trump's nominee. (L-R): US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley on July 20, 2018 in New York United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a message of "deep appreciation" for US envoy Nikki Haley on Tuesday after she announced she was stepping down from the post at the end of the year. Stephane Dujarric, Guterres's spokesman, said the UN had yet to receive formal notification of her resignation as Washington's permanent representative to the world body. "The secretary-general wishes to express his deep appreciation for the excellent cooperation and support that Ambassador Haley has always demonstrated," he said. "They had a very productive and strong working relationship during her tenure as United States permanent representative." Haley announced her unexpected decision at the White House with US President Donald Trump. She gave no reason for the move or what her next step would be except to say she did not plan to run in 2020 and would campaign for Trump's reelection. At the United Nations, she was a vocal defender of Trump's hardline foreign policy, which has challenged multilateral approaches to the world's biggest problems. She has pushed strongly for reform of the UN, which the Trump administration sees as bureaucratic and wasteful. During her tenure, the United States broke with traditional UN positions on the Palestinians, withdrew from UNESCO and cut funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and abandoned the UN Human Rights Council as biased against Israel. Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Karen Pierce, told AFP she was "very disappointed" by Haley's resignation, which she said learned through media reports. France's ambassador, Francois Delattre, praised Haley as one of the US administration's "most talented" officials. Despite some disagreements, he said, "we established a working relationship that was particularly close and trusting." Ashish Pradhan, an expert with the International Crisis Group, said Haley's departure raised the prospect of a more hardline replacement. "The fear now is whether the person who replaces her will take an even tougher line against the UN, especially with National Security Advisor John Bolton now in the White House," he said. US President Donald Trump has brushed aside concerns about climate change, pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement last year Exxon Mobil said Tuesday it would spend $1 million to support a US lobbying campaign behind a carbon tax, boosting an initiative that faces long odds in Washington in the near-term The US oil giant, which has long faced criticism on climate change, committed the funds to Americans for Carbon Dividends, a new group co-chaired by former Sens Trent Lott, a conservative Republican and John Breaux, a conservative Democrat, that supports a "gradually rising carbon fee." Under the scheme, which was developed under former Republicans Secretaries of State James Baker and George Shultz, dividend checks from the carbon tax would be returned to American taxpayers. Supporters have characterized the measure as a free market-oriented response to climate change. "We've been supportive of a revenue-neutral price on carbon for a decade," said Exxon Mobil spokesman Scott Silvestri. "Applying a uniform cost across the economy is consistent with our principles on how to manage the risk of climate change." News of Exxon Mobil's support came one day after the UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change warned that global policy makers must take swift action to avoid a calamitous rise in temperatures in the coming decades. US President Donald Trump has brushed aside concerns about climate change, taking the monumental step in 2017 of pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. - Long game - Supporters of US climate policy are playing a "long game" until macro dynamics improve, said Andrew Logan director of the oil and gas program at Ceres, an activist shareholder group focused on sustainability. "Clearly we're at a point where we're some time off from seeing anything actually enacted," he said. "We are at a stage where getting large companies who have traction with the right involved in the conversation is very positive," Logan said. "What Exxon is doing could have some role in normalizing the idea of climate policy for Republicans." The move is the latest shift for Exxon Mobil, which for years cast doubt on scientific findings on climate and repeatedly fought off shareholder proposals aimed at forcing action. But Exxon Mobil has been shifting course, joining the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative earlier this year and setting targets to reduce emissions from Canadian oil sands. "There's been a lot of investor pressure for Exxon to be more public about it support for a carbon tax and to actually put some resources behind it," said Logan, who called the investment "encouraging." But Mary Boeve, executive director of the activist 350.org, called Exxon Mobil's latest step more "smoke and mirrors." "Exxon wants a low price on carbon to keep its business afloat and box out more effective climate mitigation strategies, including holding fossil fuel companies legally accountable for the damage they've done to our planet," said Boeve, who called for a "sweeping" transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. A soldier from the UN's DR Congo mission patrols for members of the ADF militia, which is thought to have killed more than 700 civilians since 2014 "I am always anticipating an attack," says South African soldier Maijeke of how it feels to be in DR Congo's "triangle of death", where he is part of a UN peacekeeping force helping the Congolese army hunt down a militia group that is slaughtering civilians. There has been a recent spike in violence in this volatile eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a shadowy armed group rooted in Ugandan Islamism. Just last week, six civilians were killed during a night attack in the city of Beni by the ADF, which has no known leader and whose ideology and motives remain unclear. AFP photojournalist John Wessels travelled for three days with 30 soldiers from the UN mission MONUSCO and the Congolese army to the troubled North Kivu province, where the ADF has killed hundreds of civilians since 2014. A DR Congo soldier at a military base, often targeted by the ADF militia in raids for weapons, ammunition and medical supplies On Friday, after reports of heavy mortar and machine gun fire, the troops headed to the town of Oicha, north of Beni and near the border with Uganda. The town's residents greeted them by throwing stones. "The civilians get frustrated with us and MONUSCO, sometimes we arrive late, we have to fight harder to help the community change its mind about us," one of the Congolese soldiers said on the condition of anonymity. Several homes in Oicha had been looted by ADF members, who melt back into the jungle after raids and attacks. While the troops inspected the looted homes, deafening machine gunfire rang out from the jungle. It seemed to be coming from near the town of Mbau, where 20 civilians were shot dead by the ADF in May. A mother mourns the death of two of her sons, allegedly killed the night before by ADF militia forces, in Beni The troops are based outside Oicha, where the blue helmets sleep uneasily -- the ADF killed 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers in December in the deadliest attack on UN forces in 24 years. And the ADF, which is thought to have killed a total of more than 700 civilians over the last four years, regularly attacks Congolese army bases for weapons, ammunition and medical supplies. - 'Heartbreaking' - "This is my fourth deployment in the DRC, my first was in 2006," said UN peacekeeper Maijeke. "This is the most intense deployment for me, I am always anticipating an attack," he added.. "The biggest difference this time is the escalation in the killings of civilians, this is heartbreaking for me, a serious concern." A member of MONUSCO, the UN's largest peacekeeping force, in the DRC town of Oicha When the ADF killed 20 civilians in Beni in September, the locals condemned the failures of the Congolese army and the UN mission. However MONUSCO maintains its intervention has prevented even greater carnage. In the area known as the "triangle of death" between Beni, Mbau and Kamango, the troops face an enemy that knows every secret of the dense jungle and likely has informants in many communities. On Saturday, the troops headed to the scene of a particularly violent ADF onslaught a few days earlier. Members of the militia were said to have used two women as human shields during a shootout with Congolese troops that lasted four hours. Both women were killed. Oicha residents armed with machetes search for ADF members after their town was attacked Everything seemed quiet when the troops arrived, except for the sporadic sound of gunfire. The next day, Sunday, gunshots rang out again -- this time close to their base. The soldiers scrambled to put on their gear, but the jungle quietened down once their attention was turned to it. - What do they want? - Over three days hunting the ADF, some of the mystery surrounding them dissipated. It was clear they are well-equipped with heavy weapons and well organised. Their guerrilla tactics of sudden, brutal assaults are usually to gain strategic positions, or needed supplies. But much remains unknown. How many are they? Who is in charge? Who is arming them? And most of all, what is their goal? A Congolese soldier on patrol for members of the ADF Both Uganda and the DRC insist they have a jihadist motive, but many observers say this is too simplistic and there has been no proven link with the global jihadist underground. The ADF started out in 1989 with the aim of overthrowing Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, who was seen as hostile to Muslims. But it went on to absorb other rebel factions into its ranks and started carrying out attacks in 1995. Forced westwards by the Ugandan army, the group relocated most of its activities to DRC, finding a lucrative niche in the vast central African country's lawless, resource-rich east. For Maijeke, the most important thing is ending the violence. "There has to be a dialogue between the FARDC (Congolese army) and the ADF," he says. "The fighting is at the expense of innocent civilians -- mouths must finish this conflict, not bullets." Police say they have tightened security across the South Asian nation ahead of the verdict Security was tight in Bangladesh on Wednesday with a court expected to hand down a death sentence to a top opposition leader and dozens of others over a 2004 grenade attack on the current prime minister. Tarique Rahman, son of ex-premier Khaleda Zia and a key opposition leader, is among 49 people on trial over a 2004 grenade attack that injured Sheikh Hasina and killed 20 people. Prosecutors have charged Rahman with criminal conspiracy and multiple counts of murder over the attack, which happened when Zia -- a former ally-turned-archrival of Hasina -- was prime minister. Rahman, 50, has been tried in absentia after he fled the country for London in 2008. He now leads the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from exile after Zia was jailed in February for five years. Hasina was addressing a rally in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, on August 21, 2004, when the grenades exploded. She suffered severe injuries in one ear. Among the dead was the wife of a former president. Four years later, Hasina stormed back to power after leading a secular coalition to a landslide victory in elections in December 2008. Chief prosecutor Syed Rezaur Rahman said the prosecution has sought capital punishment for Rahman, saying his office was used to "hatch conspiracy to kill Hasina". "We have been able to prove the charges against him beyond any doubt," he said, adding that Rahman could be sentenced to death if found guilty. Two other ministers, former heads of the intelligence agencies and police and a key aide of Zia are also facing death sentences in the case. Three Islamist extremists were also charged over the attack, but later executed in a separate case. Death sentences are common in Bangladesh with hundreds of people on death row. All executions are by hanging, a legacy of the British colonial era. Since 2007, at least nine top Islamist extremists, five leaders of the country's largest Islamist party and a senior opposition leader have been hanged in Bangladesh's jails. Rahman's lawyer Sanaullah Mia said the charges against his client are politically motivated. He questioned the timing of the verdict, saying it was aimed at keeping Rahman out of elections expected to be held in December. "There was no evidence or witness against him. No witness could say that conspiracy was hatched at Hawa Bhaban," he told AFP, referring to a former BNP office used by Rahman. Police spokesman Sohel Rana said they have tightened security in courts and across the South Asian nation to avert any violence following the verdict. "Police are fully prepared to prevent any violence centring on the verdict," he told AFP. Bangladeshi police say they tightened security across the country ahead of the verdict A Bangladesh court on Wednesday sentenced 19 people to death over a 2004 grenade attack on the current prime minister, although a top opposition leader escaped with a life sentence. The attack in Dhaka on a rally by Sheikh Hasina, at the time in the opposition and now prime minister, left her injured and killed 20 people. Tarique Rahman, son of then-premier and Hasina's ally-turned-archrival Khaleda Zia, was among 49 people on trial, with Rahman charged with criminal conspiracy and multiple counts of murder. Rahman, 50, has been tried in absentia after he fled the country for London in 2008. He now leads the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from exile after Zia was jailed in February for five years for corruption. "We thank God for the verdict," prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain told reporters on Wednesday amid tight security. "We hoped that Tarique Rahman would get the death sentence," he said, adding the court observed that Rahman played a key role in the attack. Hasina was addressing the rally when the grenades exploded and suffered severe injuries in one ear. Among the dead was the wife of a former president. Four years later, Hasina stormed back to power after leading a secular coalition to a landslide victory in elections in December 2008. Two other ministers, former heads of the intelligence agencies and police and a key aide of Zia were also facing death sentences in the case. Three Islamist extremists were also charged over the attack and later executed in a separate trial. - Death row - Death sentences are common in Bangladesh, with hundreds of people on death row. All executions are by hanging, a legacy of the British colonial era. At least nine top Islamist extremists, five leaders of the country's largest Islamist party and a senior opposition leader have been hanged in Bangladesh's jails since 2007. Rahman's lawyer Sanaullah Mia said the charges against his client were politically motivated. He questioned the timing of the verdict, saying it was aimed at keeping Rahman out of elections expected for December. "There was no evidence or witness against him. No witness could say that conspiracy was hatched at Hawa Bhaban," he told AFP, referring to a former BNP office used by Rahman. Police spokesman Sohel Rana said security was tightened in courts and across the South Asian nation to avert any violence following the verdict. "Police are fully prepared to prevent any violence centring on the verdict," he told AFP earlier. Zia was transferred to hospital last weekend from the 19th-century Dhaka Central Jail, where she is the only prisoner. She has been on trial in a special room of the prison on additional graft charges that her supporters say are politically motivated. The 73-year-old was already suffering from health issues including arthritis, diabetes and knee replacements when she was sentenced in February. Her party boycotted the 2014 election in which Hasina returned to power but is expected to contest the election due in December. Polling day was largely peaceful in Mozambique after a 13-day campaign which was marred by clashes between rival party supporters Mozambique voted in local elections on Wednesday that could expose cracks in the country's peace process by fuelling tensions between the ruling Frelimo party and the Renamo opposition. Renamo alleged fraud at some polling stations and said police were biased as people went to the polls after a campaign marred by allegations that Frelimo engaged in violence and intimidation. Polling day was largely peaceful, though police fired gunshots to disperse people who said they had not been allowed to vote at three polling stations around the country. The 13-day election campaign, which ended at the weekend, saw several clashes between rival party supporters, with Renamo supporters saying they endured intimidation and came under attack. "The elections ... are the result of the sacrifices of all the Mozambican people," President Filipe Nyusi told reporters after voting in the capital Maputo. Renamo, the main opposition party which has maintained an armed wing since the end of the country's civil war, was running in the municipal vote for the first time in 10 years. In the mid-1970s, Renamo fought a brutal 16-year civil war against the Frelimo government that left one million people dead before the fighting stopped in 1992. Fresh violence erupted in 2013 between Renamo rebels and government troops, raising fears of a return to civil war, but the party declared a truce in 2016 and opened fresh peace talks. - A crucial test - Results in Mozambique's local elections are due out on Thursday Renamo spokesman Andre Magibire alleged ballot-box stuffing in the central Zambezia province, and intimidation by the security forces. "Renamo is concerned that cases of fraud occur at a time when we are seeking peace and national reconciliation," he said. "The police must stop working for Frelimo." Renamo has been hoping for a breakthrough in the local polls ahead of next year's general election. EXX risk consultancy, which is based in London, said such "landmark local elections" would "test the success of decentralisation measures agreed with the armed opposition and will act as an important political bellwether." But the fact that so much was at stake had heightened tensions around the vote. "The rewards at hand have rendered the political climate in Mozambique both tense and volatile, as highlighted by a series of violent incidents in the pre-election period." The results are due out on Thursday. - Long queues - The day started out with early queues at many polling stations, but they had long disappeared before voting closed. "I arrived at 5:00 am and only managed to vote at 9:00 am," said Ana Beatriz, a voter in Maputo. "The queues were disorganised but I am happy to have been able to exercise my right to vote." Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi raises his ink-stained finger after voting at a polling station in Maputo The vote was held in Mozambique's 53 municipalities, 49 of which are currently governed by Frelimo. The four other municipalities -- among them the cities of Beira, Nampula and Quelimane -- were won by the second opposition MDM party in the last elections. Parliament approved new electoral laws in July that means that a simple or relative majority is sufficient for a candidate to win election. Previously, an absolute majority of over 50 percent of votes was needed. The new laws could split the opposition vote. President Nyusi and Renamo's acting leader Ossufo Momade have recently made progress a key sticking point in the peace talks -- the disarmament and integration of former Renamo rebels into the police and army. As well as the internal political tensions, Mozambique has been rocked over the last year by the emergence of an Islamist insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which has rich offshore gas deposits. Despite a security crackdown, scores of civilians and police have been killed attacks by suspected jihadists in the northern coastal region. A file picture shows a Moroccan navy boat off the beach near Cap Spartel in Tangier on August 3, 2015 The Moroccan navy opened fire on a boat transporting migrants from the North African country, wounding one of them, a military source said on Wednesday. Despite warning shots, "the motorboat that was carrying 58 migrants hidden under tarpaulin made a hostile move which forced the coastguard to fire at the captain," said the source in Rabat who spoke on condition of anonymity. One of the Moroccan migrants suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder in the overnight operation to intercept the vessel off the town of Larache, on Morocco's Atlantic coast. The wounded migrant -- a 16-year-old according to media reports -- was transferred to a hospital in Tangier, the military source told AFP. The others aboard the boat, including men and women of various ages, were brought ashore and handed over to the security forces, the source said. More than 43,000 migrants have made it to Spain since the start of the year, including around 38,000 by sea, according to the International Organization for Migration. Last weekend alone, around 1,800 migrants trying to reach the European Union were rescued in the Mediterranean by the Moroccan navy and Spanish coastguard. Since Tuesday, the Moroccan navy had come to the aid of 15 inflatable boats carrying 366 migrants after they ran into trouble, the official MAP news agency reported, citing a military source. The latest shooting was the second of its kind in two weeks. On September 25, a Moroccan naval patrol opened fire on a "go-fast" speedboat ferrying migrants to Spain, killing a 22-year-old student and wounding three other people. The authorities said that shooting was also in response to the boat's "hostile manoeuvres" and pointed out that the migrants were concealed under tarpaulin. A growing number of Moroccans are trying to leave their country illegally to reach Europe by sea or by crossing the wire fencing between Morocco and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa. The kingdom is also a transit country for thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Libyan forces expelled the Islamic State group from its stronghold Sirte in December 2016 after eight months of deadly combat A mass grave containing 75 bodies has been found near the former jihadist bastion of Sirte in western Libya, an official said Wednesday. Mohamad al-Amial, the coastal city's municipal council spokesman, told AFP the mass grave was uncovered in an agricultural area of Al-Daheir, west of Sirte. "Seventy-five decomposed bodies were recovered" in the presence of the public prosecutor, Sirte's security force and the Red Crescent, he said. Amial said the find was made "a few days ago" and that the bodies were believed to be of Islamic State (IS) group members, although there was no confirmation. IS jihadists overran Sirte, 600 kilometres (375 miles) east of Tripoli, in June 2015. Forces of Libya's UN-backed unity government expelled IS from the coastal city in December 2016 after eight months of deadly combat. The group has since pulled back to desert outposts. It claimed responsibility for a suicide attack last month on the Tripoli headquarters of Libya's National Oil Corporation that killed two staffers as well as an assault in May on the country's electoral commission in which 14 people died. IS took advantage of the anarchy in Libya after the NATO-backed overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Moamer al-Kadhafi in 2011 to establish footholds in several parts of the country. Since their defeat in Sirte, the jihadists have kept up the fight from rural areas of western Libya. In April, the Tripoli-based unity government launched a campaign to flush them out. No caption A planned buffer zone in northwest Syria has been cleared of heavy armaments, Turkey said Wednesday, as a new deadline loomed for the tougher task of Ankara convincing jihadists to pull out. The demilitarised zone ringing the Idlib region is the result of a deal reached last month between rebel backer Turkey and government ally Russia to stave off a regime assault on Syria's last major rebel stronghold. The accord called for a complete withdrawal of all heavy weapons from the planned buffer by Wednesday, and rebels and jihadists appeared to have met that deadline. "The pullout of heavy weapons from the de-militarised zone was completed on October 10," the Turkish defence ministry said. Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said no heavy weapons were visible in the buffer already from Tuesday. He was unable to confirm any pullout from a part of the planned zone that falls inside Latakia province but said any such weaponry was not out in the open. "They could have been moved to trenches or secret locations," he said. The Turkey-backed National Liberation Front (NLF) rebel alliance said it had pulled out all heavy arms by Monday, and the Observatory said jihadists quietly followed suit. Despite the relatively speedy implementation of the accord's first deadline, observers say a thornier task lies ahead. Under the deal, the zone must be free by October 15 of all jihadists, including those of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the region's dominant force led by former Al-Qaeda fighters. With five days to go, HTS and other jihadist fighters remained inside the planned buffer area and showed no sign of leaving. - 'Harder point' - HTS, which controls more than two-thirds of the planned zone, has not officially responded to the Turkey-Russia deal. Haid Haid, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think-tank, said HTS had made the "pragmatic" move of pulling out its heavy weapons. "Of course implementing the heavy weapons point is easier," he said. "The harder point is withdrawing forces from the area." Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had expressed confidence in Turkey's ability to fulfil its side of the deal "because of its knowledge of factions" on the ground. HTS, jihadists from the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) and current Al-Qaeda outfit Hurras al-Deen control more than two-thirds of the planned buffer zone. Syrian rebels with the National Liberation Front (NLF) walk in a trench overlooking regime-held areas in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo province Many of HTS's fighters have battled for years in Syria under various groups and are keen to keep their influence in the war-ravaged country's largest remaining rebel bastion. "HTS is playing the long game in Idlib," said Nicholas Heras of the Center for a New American Security. "It is making the assessment that Turkey will allow it to continue to operate in northwest Syria, so long as HTS keeps a low profile," he added. "As long as HTS stays on Turkey's good side, it has a golden opportunity to set permanent roots in Idlib," Heras said. - 'Freeze the war' - In recent weeks, Turkey has dispatched convoys of troops to monitoring posts in the region and its soldiers are expected to patrol any future buffer zone. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have retaken large parts of Syria from opposition fighters and jihadists since Russia intervened in September 2015. After a series of victories near Damascus and in the south of the country earlier this year, a similar Moscow-backed assault had been expected against Idlib before the Russia-Turkey deal was announced. Despite progress in implementing the accord, Assad insisted on Sunday it was a "temporary measure" and that Idlib would eventually return to state control. Heras said Damascus and Moscow could use the grace period to focus on reconstructing Syria's war-ravaged infrastructure. "The Russians want to freeze the war in western Syria and get on with the business of rebuilding Assad's zone of control," he said. "Assad might want to reconquer Idlib, but for now he does not have a better option than this deal," he said. The Syrian war has killed more than 360,000 people since it erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. The appeal case of a Chadian child bride who has accused her husband, a man in his 50s, of kidnap and torture was postponed in N'Djamena Wednesday, her lawyer told AFP. Hawariya Mahamat Abdoulaye, 16, says she fled her husband in 2016 after marrying him years earlier when she was just 11 years old. Abdoulaye claims she was re-captured near the Chad-Sudan border, tied up and beaten, later going to live with her family where she filed a legal suit against her husband, Haroun Hissein. The case went to trial in the capital N'Djamena in 2017 but Hissein was found not guilty of abduction, with the case dismissed on a legal technicality. "The court of appeal in N'Djamena has postponed the trial to Wednesday, October 31," said one of her lawyers, Midaye Guerimbaye, citing a strike by civil servants. Chad has one of the highest rates of under-age marriage in Africa. Nicodeme Ayao Habia, pictured on September 29, had been staging a hunger strike in front of the Ghanaian embassy in Lome A Togolese opposition leader who had been on hunger strike was evacuated to a hospital in Ghana after his health deteriorated, his relatives said Wednesday. Nicodeme Ayao Habia, who had refused food since September 19, was evacuated to Ghana's capital of Accra on Tuesday after his condition worsened, his communication advisor Achille Mensah told AFP. "Mr. Habia was admitted to a clinic in the Ghanaian capital since yesterday after his health deteriorated. For the moment he is under medical supervision, he has not yet received any treatment," Mensah said. "It was on Saturday that he ended his strike, only taking fruit," he said. Habia had been staging his hunger strike in front of the Ghanaian embassy in Lome. Accra has been acting as a mediator in a long-running dispute between the Togolese government and opposition figures over constitutional reform. Habia began his strike to call for the release from prison of over 40 opposition activists who were arrested during protests demanding the resignation of Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe. In September, a Ghanaian military plane landed in Lome to transport Habia for medical care but it was not allowed to leave the airport due to a lack of detail about its mission, according to Togo's security minister General Yark Damehane. "Togo is not a colony of Ghana," said Damehane, adding that Ghana could not send a plane without letting the Togolese authorities know first. Referring to Habia's hunger strike, Damehane said: "It's theatre. You want us to play along?" 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. He has opposed changes to the constitution that would put a limit on presidential terms, sparking nationwide protests. Saudi officers walk past F-15 fighter jets, bombs and missiles at the King Salman airbase in Riyadh on January 25, 2017 Tunisia's air force is holding its first joint exercises with Saudi forces as part of a bilateral training programme, the Tunisian government said Wednesday. Training "to increase the combat readiness of pilots and exchange experiences in the fields of logistics and technical support" began Monday at a military base in Bizerte in northern Tunisia, the defence ministry said in a statement. The exercises will run until Friday and are limited to "exchanges of experiences, training and logistics", it said. Tunisia joined a military alliance launched by Saudi Arabia in late 2015, but it is not active in the Riyadh-led coalition fighting in Yemen since March the same year. Colombian Ambassador to the US Francisco Santos points to a piece of an indigenous art collection seized by the FBI and returned to the Colombian people during a handover ceremony at the Colombian Embassy in Washington on October 10, 2018 The United States returned to Colombia Wednesday 38 ancient artifacts plundered over decades by a private American collector described as a "modern-day Indiana Jones." The FBI recovered the artifacts -- pre-Colombian ceramic pottery from the southern Narino highlands and the Caribbean -- after receiving a complaint about the museum-like collection at the home in Indiana of one Donald Miller, a businessman with an interest in archeology. Investigators found thousands of pieces from China, Colombia, New Guinea and the United States. Pieces of the seized indigenous art collection are seen during a handover ceremony "This collector was a modern-day Indiana Jones. Remember that what Indiana Jones did was to steal all manners of cultural patrimony from other countries," Colombia's Ambassador in Washington Francisco Santos told reporters during a ceremony at the Colombian Embassy. "That's what this man was -- but he was a 90-year-old old man with a museum in his home. That was his hobby," Santos added. Twenty-nine of the recovered pieces were returned during the ceremony, and 11 more will be delivered in Bogota. "The items returned today are part of the largest collection of art and cultural property ever recovered by the FBI in the course of a single investigation," said FBI Special Agent Maxwell Marker. No charges were brought against Miller, who died shortly after the collection was seized. Santos (C) takes receipt of the seized indigenous art collection "His hobby was to travel around the world picking up these pieces and literally stealing the cultural heritage," Santos said. The Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History is set to assess the pieces and try to identify them. Trafficking in plundered artifacts is particularly destructive because of the loss of valuable knowledge that occurs as well as the physical objects. "We lose the ability to physically appreciate our heritage," said Santos. Jennifer Galt, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, said the objects were so small that they were easy to hide in luggage. Colombian Ambassador to the US Francisco Santos holds a piece of an indigenous art collection seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "Although we cannot return these items to their original context and recover that lost information, I am very pleased that the United States can return them to Colombia," she said. SAO PAULO (AP) - A far-right former army captain who expresses nostalgia for Brazil's military dictatorship won its presidential election by a surprisingly large margin Sunday but fell just short of getting enough votes to avoid a second-round runoff against a leftist rival. Jair Bolsonaro, whose last-minute surge almost gave him an electoral stunner, had 46.7 percent compared to 28.5 percent for former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad, Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal said after all the votes were counted. He needed over 50 percent support to win outright. Polls predicted Bolsonaro would come out in front on Sunday, but he far outperformed expectations, blazing past competitors with more financing, institutional backing of parties and free air time on television. Ultimately, Bolsonaro's strong showing reflects a yearning for the past as much as a sign of the future. The candidate from the tiny Social and Liberal Party made savvy use of Twitter and Facebook to spread his message that only he could end the corruption, crime and economic malaise that has seized Brazil in recent years - and bring back the good ol' days and traditional values. "I voted against thievery and corruption," said Mariana Prado, a 54-year-old human resources expert. "I know that everyone promises to end these two things, but I feel Bolsonaro is the only one can help end my anxieties." The two candidates have painted starkly different visions of the country's past and future. A boy waves a Brazilian flag during a celebration by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Official results showed that Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party will face Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right congressman in a second-round vote. (AP Photo/Ricardo Borges) Bolsonaro has portrayed a nation in collapse, where drug traffickers and politicians steal with equal impunity, and moral rot has set in. He has advocated loosening gun ownership laws so individuals can fight off criminals, giving police a freer hand to use force and restoring "traditional" Brazilian values - though some take issue with his definition of those values in light of his approving allusions to dictatorship era torturers and his derisive comments about women, blacks and gay people. He capitalized on Brazilians' deep anger with their traditional political class and "throw the bums out" rage after a massive corruption investigation revealed staggering levels of graft. Beginning in 2014, prosecutors alleged that Brazil's government was run like a cartel for years, with billions of dollars in public contracts handed out in exchange for kickbacks and bribes. Revelations of suitcases of cash, leaked recordings of incriminating exchanges between powerbrokers and the jailing of some of the of the country's most powerful people, including da Silva, unfolded like a Hollywood script - and then became one: Netflix released a (barely) fictionalized account of the probe this year. The Workers' Party was at the center of that investigation, and it has struggled to stage a comeback with Haddad, who has portrayed a country hijacked by an elite that will protect its privileges at all costs and can't bear to see the lives of poor and working class Brazilians improve. Haddad has promised to roll back President Michel Temer's economic reforms that he says eroded workers' rights, increase investment in social programs and bring back the boom years Brazil experienced under his mentor, da Silva. Though they come from opposite sides of the political spectrum, both Bolsonaro and Haddad ran campaigns based on nostalgia for a better time. Bolsonaro frequently evoked the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship amid promises of a return to traditional values and safer, simpler times. In one of his last appeals to voters before Sunday's voting, Bolsonaro tweeted that he would "defend the family and the innocence of children, treat criminals as such and not get involved in corruption schemes." The Workers' Party, meanwhile, pushed the narrative that a vote for Haddad would be a vote to bring back the boom years that Brazil experienced under the leadership of da Silva, his mentor. On the eve of the election, da Silva tweeted: "Reach back into your memory, remember what my eight years of government were like." Bolsonaro's poll numbers have increased by about 15 percent since he was stabbed Sept. 6. He was unable to campaign or participate in debates as he underwent surgeries during a three-week hospital stay, but instead brought messages directly to voters via Facebook and Twitter. "For a front-runner, the best thing to do is commit as few errors as possible," said Andre Portela from Getulio Vargas Foundation, a leading university and think tank. "Getting stabbed helped Bolsonaro in that. He wasn't exposed to debate, to people questioning him." The campaign to run Latin America's largest economy, which is a major trade partner for countries in the region and a diplomatic heavyweight, has been unpredictable and tense. Da Silva led initial polls by a wide margin, but was banned from running after a corruption conviction. Bolsonaro's stabbing forced candidates, and Bolsonaro himself, to shift strategies and recalibrate. All along, Brazilians have said their faith in leaders and their hopes for the future are waning. This election was once seen as the great hope for ending a turbulent era in which many politicians and business executives were jailed on corruption charges, a president was impeached and removed from office in controversial proceedings, and the region's largest economy suffered a protracted recession. Instead, the two front-runners merely reflect the rabid divisions that have opened up in Brazilian politics following former President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment and the revelations emerging from the "Car Wash" graft probe. Caught in the middle are Brazilians who dislike both candidates and see them as symbols of a broken system. "I think we're going to continue with the same polarization," if either Haddad or Bolsonaro wins, said Victor Aversa, a 27-year-old massage therapist who voted for center-left candidate Ciro Gomes, who had been polling third. "We've been on this path of crazy bipolarity. Haddad and Bolsonaro will both lead populist governments." ___ Prengaman reported from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press writers Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Beatrice Christofaro in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report. A supporter of Jair Bolsonaro, presidential candidate with the Social Liberal Party, show his support for the candidate in front of his house during the general elections in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ricardo Borges) People wait in line to vote in the general election at a polling station in the Mare Complex slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) A supporter of Brazil's presidential candidate for the Workers Party Fernando Haddad shouts slogans in support of him, during a campaign rally, in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 5, 2018. Brazil will hold general elections on Oct. 7. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, of the Social Liberal Party, flashes victory hand signs to supporters after voting at a polling station in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Workers' Party presidential candidate Fernando Haddad, accompanied by his wife Ana Estela, arrives at a polling station to cast his vote in the general election, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. The former Sao Paulo mayor surged into second place after being named last month to replace former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who is barred from running by electoral authorities following a corruption conviction. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine) A woman casts her vote in the general elections in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians have started trickling to voting booths to choose leaders in an election marked by intense anger at the ruling class following years of political and economic turmoil. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine) A woman casts her vote in the general elections in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians have started trickling to voting booths to choose leaders in an election marked by intense anger at the ruling class following years of political and economic turmoil. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine) A man buys a T-shirt with an image depicting Brazil's presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, at the Barra beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) People wait in line to vote in the general election at a polling station in the Mare Complex slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) A homeless person sits underneath a bridge where he spent the night as voters wait in line at a polling station in the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Ricardo Borges) Boys accompany their mom as she votes in the general election in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians have started trickling to voting booths to choose leaders in an election marked by intense anger at the ruling class following years of political and economic turmoil. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine) A woman, accompanied by a child, casts her vote in the general election in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians have started trickling to voting booths to choose leaders in an election marked by intense anger at the ruling class following years of political and economic turmoil. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine) Ciro Gomes, presidential candidate of the Democratic Labor Party, considers his response while speaking with reporters, after voting in the general elections, in Fortaleza, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Edmar Soares) A homeless person sits underneath a bridge where he spent the night as voters wait in line at a polling station in the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Ricardo Borges) A voter leaves a polling station after casting her ballot in the general election, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. With some voters hoping for a fresh start and others fearing the worst is yet to come, Brazilians cast ballots on Sunday in a divisive election that comes on the heels of major political scandals and economic demise. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, presidential candidate with the Social Liberal Party, gather in front of his house after general elections in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ricardo Borges) Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, presidential candidate with the Social Liberal Party celebrate in front of his house in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Official results showed that Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party will face Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right congressman in a second-round vote. (AP Photo/Ricardo Borges) Supreme Court moves right, but how far, how fast? WASHINGTON (AP) - The moment conservatives have dreamed about for decades has arrived with Brett Kavanaugh joining the Supreme Court. But with it comes the shadow of a bitter confirmation fight that is likely to hang over the court as it takes on divisive issues, especially those dealing with politics and women's rights. With Kavanaugh taking the place of the more moderate Anthony Kennedy, conservatives should have a working majority of five justices to restrict abortion rights, limit the use of race in college admissions and rein in federal regulators. The newly constituted court also might broaden gun rights, further relax campaign finance laws and halt the expansion of the rights of LGBT people, who three years ago won the right to marry nationwide with Kennedy in the majority. Yet Kavanaugh may have a hard time putting behind him the tumultuous confirmation process, which ended with the Senate voting 50-48 to confirm him Saturday, the narrowest margin of victory for a Supreme Court nominee in 137 years. "In the public mind, there will always be this dark cloud hanging over the court, even if Kavanaugh is eventually embraced by all his colleagues on the court," said Elizabeth Wydra, president of the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center. ___ McConnell says Senate 'not broken' after Kavanaugh fight WASHINGTON (AP) - Picking up the pieces after a contentious nomination battle, the Senate's majority leader said Sunday that the chamber won't be irreparably damaged by the wrenching debate over sexual misconduct that has swirled around new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. While Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Kavanaugh's confirmation was a shining moment for the GOP heading into next month's pivotal elections, GOP Gov. John Kasich of Ohio predicted "a good year" for Democrats and said he wonders about "the soul of our country" in the long term after the tumultuous hearings. McConnell, in two news show interviews, tried to distinguish between President Donald Trump's nomination of Kavanaugh this year and his own decision not to have the GOP-run Senate consider President Barack Obama's high court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016. McConnell called the current partisan divide a "low point," but he blamed Democrats. "The Senate's not broken," said McConnell. "We didn't attack Merrick Garland's background and try to destroy him." He asserted that "we simply followed the tradition of America." The climactic 50-48 roll call vote Saturday on Kavanaugh was the closest vote to confirm a justice since 1881. It capped a fight that seized the national conversation after claims emerged that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted women three decades ago. Kavanaugh emphatically denied the allegations. ___ 20 die when limo on way to birthday party blows stop sign SCHOHARIE, N.Y. (AP) - A limousine on its way to a birthday party blew a stop sign at the end of a highway, killing all 18 people in the limo and two pedestrians in the deadliest U.S. transportation accident in almost a decade, officials and a relative of one of the victims said Sunday. The collision turned a relaxed Saturday afternoon into chaos at an upstate New York spot popular with tourists taking in the fall foliage. An aunt of one of the victims in the vehicle said the group had been traveling to a birthday celebration. The 2001 Ford Excursion limousine was traveling southwest on Route 30 in Schoharie, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) north of New York City around 2 p.m. when it failed to stop at a T-junction with state Route 30A, State Police First Deputy Superintendent Christopher Fiore said at a news conference in Latham, New York. It went across the road and hit an unoccupied SUV parked at the Apple Barrel Country Store, killing the driver and 17 passengers, as well as two people outside the vehicle. The crash "sounded like an explosion," said Linda Riley, of nearby Schenectady, who was on a shopping trip with her sisters and had been in their parked car at the time at the store. ___ Wife says Interpol officer sent knife image as danger signal LYON, France (AP) - The wife of Interpol's president made an impassioned plea Sunday for help in bringing her missing husband to safety, saying she thinks he sent an image of a knife before he disappeared in China as a way to warn her he was in danger. Grace Meng detailed the last messages she exchanged with her husband, Interpol President Meng Hongwei, to reporters as part of her unusual appeal. Meng is China's vice minister for public security, and regularly traveled between Beijing and Lyon, France, where Interpol is based. His wife's plea underscored how China's system of shady and often-arbitrary detentions can ensnare even a senior public security official with international standing, leaving loved ones uninformed and in a panic. In news that could confirm her fears: China announced less than an hour after she spoke Sunday that Meng was under investigation on suspicion of unspecified legal violations, making him the latest high-ranking official to fall victim to a sweeping crackdown by the ruling Communist Party. Interpol then announced that Meng had resigned as president, effective immediately. It did not say why, or provide details about Meng's whereabouts or condition. He was elected to lead the international police agency in 2016 and his term was not set to end until 2020. ___ Missing Saudi journalist once a voice of reform in kingdom BEIRUT (AP) - Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who disappeared last week after a visit to his country's consulate in Turkey, was once a Saudi insider. A close aide to the kingdom's former spy chief, he had been a leading voice in the country's prominent dailies, including the main English newspapers. Now the 59-year-old journalist and contributor to The Washington Post is feared dead, and Turkish authorities believe he was slain inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, something Saudi officials vehemently deny. The U.S.-educated Khashoggi was no stranger to controversy. A graduate of Indiana State University, Khashoggi began his career in the 1980s, covering the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the decade-long war that followed for the English-language daily Saudi Gazette. He traveled extensively in the Middle East, covering Algeria's 1990s war against Islamic militants, and the Islamists rise in Sudan. He interviewed Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before al-Qaida was formed, then met him in Sudan in 1995. Following bin Laden's rise likely helped cement Khashoggi's ties with powerful former Saudi spy chief, Turki Al-Faisal. ___ Brazilian voters hope for fresh start, fear worst to come SAO PAULO (AP) - With some voters hoping for a fresh start and others fearing the worst is yet to come, Brazilians cast ballots on Sunday in a divisive election that comes on the heels of major political scandals and economic decline. Pre-election polls showed an increasingly tight race between a far-right congressman who waxes nostalgically about the dictatorship and a leftist stand-in for jailed ex-President Luiz Inacio da Silva, who was barred from running. The starkly competing visions have alienated as many people as they have attracted, bringing to the surface deep divisions along the lines of class, race, sexual orientation and "traditional values." A year ago, many believed that "throw-the-bums-out" rage would buoy the chances of an outsider and end the hegemony of the center-left Workers' Party and the center-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party, which have for years battled it out for the presidency. Like much in this election, it hasn't turned out as predicted. The man who has benefited most from widespread anger in the electorate is a 27-year veteran of Congress - Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party - whose outsider status is based largely on hard-right positions. His campaign has included praise for a military dictatorship, insults to women and gay people and calls to fight crime by loosening controls on already deadly police forces. ___ Bosnians vote in divisive election testing EU bid BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Bosnians voted Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war some 25 years ago. After polls closed, the two main contenders for the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-person presidency both said they were leading the election for the post, which appeared to be very tight. Preliminary official results are expected later. The ballot was seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in rivalries stemming from the 1992-95 war. More than half of Bosnia's 3.3 million eligible voters cast ballots, election officials said. Voters chose an array of institutions in Bosnia's complex governing system, which was created by a 1995 peace accord that ended the war that killed 100,000 people and left millions homeless. Election officials described the voting that took place as "extremely fair" despite several incidents. ___ Kavanaugh impartiality to be tested in blue state lawsuits Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court has put a spotlight on the dozens of federal cases pitting the Trump administration against Democratic-leaning states, on issues including auto emission standards, immigration and a free-flowing internet. He lashed out against "left-wing opposition groups" and others during the recent Senate hearing over a high school-era sexual assault allegation, raising questions about whether he can be impartial deciding cases that revolve around Democratic policies or that directly involve Democratic officials. Kavanaugh already was known as a conservative judge. But his partisan rhetoric created new worries for some who will bring or support cases that eventually could come before the nation's highest court. "I have even greater concerns about his judicial temperament and his ability to independently weigh cases that may involve the Trump administration," said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat who has joined more than a dozen lawsuits against the administration. Democratic states are in scores of legal battles with the Trump administration over health care, the environment, consumer protections, immigration and other issues. Marquette University political scientist Paul Nolette has tallied 61 times that states have banded together in lawsuits against the Trump administration. ___ Pompeo cites progress made with Kim Jong Un on N. Korea trip SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made unspecified progress Sunday toward an agreement for the North to give up its nuclear weapons, though there was no immediate indication whether Pompeo had managed to arrange a much-anticipated second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. Trump, tweeting from Washington, cited progress on agreements he made with Kim at their June meeting and said, "I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim again, in the near future." Arriving in Seoul after several hours in Pyongyang on his fourth visit to North Korea, Pompeo tweeted that he had a "good trip" and that he and Kim "continue to make progress on agreements made at Singapore summit." Trump and Kim held a historic summit there in June that resulted in a vague agreement for the North to denuclearize. The top U.S. diplomat offered no details, and upon landing in South Korea, he briefed White House national security adviser John Bolton and Trump chief of staff John Kelly on his trip, officials said. Pompeo, on the third stop of a four-leg Asian tour that began in Japan and was to end in China on Monday, then met South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in. Moon, who has met twice with Kim, asked Pompeo to make public as much information as he could about the trip. ___ Trump refugee policy leaves thousands stranded outside US WASHINGTON (AP) - Death threats drove Hadi Mohammed out of Iraq and to a small apartment in Nebraska, where he and his two young sons managed to settle as refugees. But the danger hasn't been enough to allow his wife to join them. Mohammed, who worked as a security guard for the U.S. military in Baghdad, says he was initially told his wife would be reunited with him and the boys within a month. The wait has now dragged on for more than a year as she goes through stricter screening imposed by the Trump administration. Mohammed says it's been an agonizing wait, especially for his 9-year-old son. "Every night he cries about mom, I need mom," he said in halting English as he sat on a couch with the boy in their apartment in Lincoln, Nebraska. Tens of thousands of people are experiencing similar anguished waits as the number of refugees entering the U.S. falls to historic lows because of tighter scrutiny that administration officials say is necessary for security. Critics say it amounts to an abandonment of the country's historic humanitarian role and discriminates against certain groups, particularly Muslims. The U.S. admitted 22,491 refugees in the budget year that ended Sept. 30. That's one-quarter of the number allowed to enter two years ago and the lowest since Congress passed a law in 1980 creating the modern resettlement system. WASHINGTON (AP) - Picking up the pieces after a contentious nomination battle, the Senate's majority leader said Sunday that the chamber won't be irreparably damaged by the wrenching debate over sexual misconduct that has swirled around new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. While Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Kavanaugh's confirmation was a shining moment for the GOP heading into next month's pivotal elections, GOP Gov. John Kasich of Ohio predicted "a good year" for Democrats and said he wonders about "the soul of our country" in the long term after the tumultuous hearings. McConnell, in two news show interviews, tried to distinguish between President Donald Trump's nomination of Kavanaugh this year and his own decision not to have the GOP-run Senate consider President Barack Obama's high court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016. McConnell called the current partisan divide a "low point," but he blamed Democrats. "The Senate's not broken," said McConnell. "We didn't attack Merrick Garland's background and try to destroy him." He asserted that "we simply followed the tradition of America." The climactic 50-48 roll call vote Saturday on Kavanaugh was the closest vote to confirm a justice since 1881. It capped a fight that seized the national conversation after claims emerged that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted women three decades ago. Kavanaugh emphatically denied the allegations. The accusations transformed the clash from a routine struggle over judicial ideology into an angry jumble of questions about victims' rights and personal attacks on nominees. Vice President Mike Pence announces the result of the vote for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in Washington. The bitterly polarized U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed Brett Kavanaugh on Saturday to join the Supreme Court, delivering an election-season triumph to President Donald Trump that could swing the court rightward for a generation after a battle that rubbed raw the country's cultural, gender and political divides. (AP Photo/APTN) Ultimately, every Democrat voted against Kavanaugh except for Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Kavanaugh was sworn in Saturday evening in a private ceremony as protesters chanted outside the court building. McConnell said the confirmation fight had energized Republican voters and he praised GOP senators, who he said had "stood up to the mob" in favor of the "presumption of innocence." He signaled that a Republican-controlled Senate would act on a fresh Trump nominee to the Supreme Court in 2020 - a presidential election year - should a vacancy arise. The court's two oldest justices are Democratic appointees: Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 85 and Stephen Breyer is 80. "We'll see if there is a vacancy in 2020," McConnell said. Two years ago, McConnell blocked a vote on Garland, citing what he said was a tradition of not filling vacancies in a presidential election year. But when asked again Sunday about it, he sought to clarify that a Senate case in 1880 suggested inaction on a nominee only when the chamber was controlled by the party opposing the president. Republicans currently hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, with several seats up for grabs in November. Trump has now put his stamp on the court with his second justice in as many years. Yet Kavanaugh is joining under a cloud. Accusations from several women remain under scrutiny, and House Democrats have pledged further investigation if they win the majority in November. Outside groups are culling an unusually long paper trail from his previous government and political work, with the National Archives and Records Administration expected to release a cache of millions of documents later this month. Still, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said he believed it would be premature for Democrats to talk about re-investigating Kavanaugh or a possible impeachment if the party takes control of the chamber in November, stressing a need to help heal the country. "Frankly, we are just less than a month away from an election," Coons said. "Folks who feel very strongly one way or the other about the issues in front of us should get out and vote and participate." McConnell spoke on "Fox News Sunday" and CBS' "Face the Nation," Kasich appeared on CNN's "State of the Union," and Coons was on NBC's "Meet the Press." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks to the chamber for the final vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) President Donald Trump, on board Air Force One, gestures while speaking to members of the travel press after watching a live television broadcast of the Senate confirmation vote of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. Trump was traveling from Washington enroute to Topeka, Kan., for a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Pro-Russia Serb leader Milorad Dodik won a race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-member presidency, deepening ethnic divisions in the country that faced a brutal war some 25 years ago. Preliminary official results from Sunday's election gave Dodik 56 percent of the vote and his main opponent, Mladen Ivanic, 42 percent. The projections were made with 44 percent of ballots counted. "The will of the people leaves no doubt what they want," Dodik said, adding that voters "punished" his opponent for his "servile policies toward the West." Ivanic conceded defeat, but said "it's too early for some definitive results." Complete official results are expected Monday. The presidency also has a Muslim and a Croat member. Dodik advocates eventual separation of Serbs from Bosnia. His election deals a blow to efforts to strengthen the country's unity after the 1992-95 war. Milorad Dodik, president of the Republic of Srpska, leaves after a news conference after claiming victory in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kilometers northwest of Sarajevo, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Dodik has declared victory in the race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-member presidency. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) The general election was seen as a test of whether Bosnia would move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in rivalries stemming from the war that killed 100,000 people and left millions homeless.. Russian President Vladimir Putin had endorsed the openly anti-West Dodik. The United States has imposed sanctions on Dodik for actively obstructing efforts to implement the 1995 Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian war. Voters in Sunday's election filled positions in the complex governing system the peace accord created. The country consists of two regional mini-states - one Serb-run and a Muslim-Croat entity - with joint institutions in a central government. . Along with the Bosnian presidency, voters picked the Serb president and the two entities' parliaments and cantonal authorities. The state election commission said a moderate candidate for the Croat member of the presidency, Zeljko Komsic, had 49 percent of the votes, while nationalist contender Dragan Covic had 38 percent. Sefik Dzaferovic, from the ruling Party of Democratic Action, won the Muslim seat in the presidency. More than half of Bosnia's 3.3 million eligible voters cast ballots, election officials said. The campaign was marred by divisive rhetoric and allegations of irregularities that fueled tensions. Election officials described the voting that took place as "extremely fair." ____ Sabina Niksic contributed from Sarajevo and Dusan Stojanovic from Belgrade, Serbia. Milorad Dodik, president of the Republic of Srpska, speaks during a news conference after claiming victory in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kilometers northwest of Sarajevo, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Dodik has declared victory in the race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-member presidency. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) Bosnian election workers prepare to count ballots at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians decide in a tense election this weekend whether to cement the ethnic divisions stemming from the 1992-95 war by supporting nationalist politicians or push for changes that would pave the way toward European Union and NATO integration. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian election workers prepare to count ballots at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians decide in a tense election this weekend whether to cement the ethnic divisions stemming from the 1992-95 war by supporting nationalist politicians or push for changes that would pave the way toward European Union and NATO integration. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian people wait in a line to cast their vote at poling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Polls have opened in Bosnia for a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement ethnic divisions drawn in a brutal war more than 20 years ago. Sunday's vote is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in war-era rivalries.(AP Photo/Amel Emric) A woman with a child casts her ballot at a polling station in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) Bosnian man cast his vote at poling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Polls have opened in Bosnia for a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement ethnic divisions drawn in a brutal war more than 20 years ago. Sunday's vote is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in war-era rivalries.(AP Photo/Amel Emric) A woman casts her ballot for a general election at a poling station in the Bosnian town of Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Sunday's vote is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in war-era rivalries. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) Serbian member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Mladen Ivanic casts his ballot at a polling station in Banja Luka, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Radivoje Pavicic) President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik carries his ballot at a polling station in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik speaks to journalists after voting in a general election in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik arrives at a polling station to cast his ballot in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) Fahrudin Radoncic, leader of SBB, Union for a Better Future of BiH, waits to cast his vote at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Fahrudin Radoncic, leader of SBB, Union for a Better Future of BiH, casts his vote at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Milorad Dodik, president of the Republic of Srpska, speaks during a news conference after claiming victory in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kilometers northwest of Sarajevo, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Dodik has declared victory in the race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-member presidency. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) Candidate of Party for Democratic Action Sefik Dzaferovic, left, talks with Bakir Izetbegovic, former Bosnian member of Bosnian tri partite Presidency, right, as they celebrate unofficial results of election in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Candidate of Party for Democratic Action Sefket Dzaferovic, center, Asim Sarajlic, left, and Bakir Izetbegovic gesture as he talks to workers who operate fireworks during press conference celebrating unofficial results of election in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made "significant progress" toward an agreement for the North to give up its nuclear weapons. While significant work remains to be done, he said he expected further results after an as-yet unscheduled second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. "It's a long process," Pompeo told a small group of reporters in the South Korean capital of Seoul where he traveled after meeting with Kim in Pyongyang on Sunday. "We made significant progress. We'll continue to make significant progress and we are further along in making that progress than any administration in an awfully long time." He would not be specific but said he and Kim had agreed to shortly begin working-level talks on the nuts and bolts of denuclearization, on the placement of international inspectors at one of North Korea's main nuclear facilities, and had come close to finalizing a date and venue for the next Kim-Trump summit. Trump, tweeting from Washington shortly after Pompeo left North Korea, cited progress Pompeo had made on agreements he and Kim came to at their June meeting in Singapore and said, "I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim again, in the near future.' Pompeo said he and Kim had gotten "pretty close" to fixing the logistics for the summit but stressed that "sometimes that last inch is hard to close." "Most importantly, both the leaders believe there is real progress that can be made, substantive progress that can be made at the next summit and so we are going to get it at a time that works for each of the two leaders and at a place that works for both of them," he said. "We are not quite there yet. But we will get there." In this photo provided by the North Korean government, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they pose for a photo in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Pompeo said that he and Kim made unspecified progress Sunday toward an agreement for the North to give up its nuclear weapons, though there was no immediate indication whether Pompeo had managed to arrange a much-anticipated second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) North Korea's state-run news agency KCNA, meanwhile, said Monday that Kim had "expressed his will and conviction that a great progress would surely be made in solving the issues of utmost concern of the world and in attaining the goal set forth at the last talks with the projected second DPRK-U.S. summit talks as an occasion." DPRK is the acronym for the country's official name: Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In an early Monday dispatch, KCNA called the talks "productive and wonderful" and said that "mutual stands were fully understood and opinions exchanged." In Seoul, before leaving for talks with Chinese officials in Beijing, Pompeo said Kim is expected soon to name deputy foreign minister Choe Son Hui as a counterpart for his new special envoy for North Korea, former Ford executive Stephen Biegun, who accompanied him on the trip. He and Biegun both said they expected meetings at the working level to begin soon and become quite frequent before the next summit. "We are starting to see a first wave of actions we can take on all four pillars of the Singapore communique," said Biegun, who will serve as Pompeo's pointman in negotiations with the North as well as work with South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and other countries that have an interest in the talks. In Pyongyang on Sunday, Pompeo and Kim met for about 3 1/2 hours, first in a business session and then in a 90-minute luncheon that the North Korean leader hosted at a state guesthouse, according to the pool report from the lone U.S. journalist allowed to accompany Pompeo on his Asia trip. "It's a very nice day that promises a good future for both countries," Kim told Pompeo through an interpreter as they sat down for the meal. "Yeah, so we had a great, great visit this morning," Pompeo replied. Before visiting Pyongyang, Pompeo held talks in Tokyo with Japan's prime minister, and pledged that the Trump administration would coordinate and unify its strategy for denuclearization with its allies. Japan has been wary of the initiative, but South Korea has embraced it. Pompeo has repeatedly refused to discuss details of negotiations, including a U.S. position on North Korea's demand for a declared end to the Korean War and a proposal from Seoul for such a declaration to be accompanied by a shutdown of the North's main known nuclear facility. The U.S. and Japan have pushed for the North to compile and turn over a detailed list of its nuclear sites to be dismantled as a next step in the process. The North has rejected that and South Korea has suggested it may not be a necessary next step. Pompeo, however, played down the differences. "I've never been involved in an international discussion where there weren't differences of view, not only between governments but inside of governments," he said. "But if you look at the approach, we are in lockstep with each of those two countries in terms of how we approach achieving the results that everyone is aimed at. And so there'll be tactical places where we'll have debates and disagreements, that is a necessary component of getting to the best deliverable." "But with respect to our relationship with the Republic of Korea and Japan on this issue, I have found that we are in lockstep on the most important issues and how to approach them," Pompeo said. Since the denuclearization effort got underway with a secret visit to the North by then-CIA chief Pompeo in April, there has been only limited progress, even since the June 12 Trump-Kim summit that many had hoped would jump-start the effort. North Korea so far has suspended nuclear and missile tests, freed three American prisoners and dismantled parts of a missile engine facility and tunnel entrances at a nuclear test site. It has not taken any steps to halt nuclear weapons or missile development. The North has accused Washington of making "unilateral and gangster-like" demands on denuclearization and has insisted that sanctions should be lifted before any progress in nuclear talks. U.S. officials have thus far said the penalties will remain in place until the North's denuclearization is fully verified. Also on Monday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he expects Kim to travel to Russia and for Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit North Korea soon amid a global diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear crisis. Moon said a second Trump-Kim summit could be accompanied by major diplomatic developments that could contribute to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and stabilizing peace. Moon also said there was a possibility of Kim holding a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon/Pool) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo greets South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha before meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (Kim Hong-ji/Pool Photo via AP) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, meets with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha before meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon/Pool) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, talks with U.S. General Vincent K. Brooks, commander of United States Forces Korea, upon his arrival at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, in South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, after his North Korea trip. Pompeo has wrapped up his fourth visit to North Korea after meeting Kim Jong Un to seek elusive progress in efforts to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons. ( Jung Yeon-je, Pool Photo via AP) South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon. Pool) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha before meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon/Pool) BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - The Latest on Bosnia's general election (all times local): 12:40 a.m. A partial vote count from Bosnia's general election shows a Bosnian Serb nationalist leader is ahead in the race for the Serb seat in the country's three-person presidency. Bosnia's election authorities said that with less than half of the ballots from Sunday's election counted, Milorad Dodik was leading with 55 percent of the vote. His main rival, Mladen Ivanic, was projected to have won nearly 42 percent. The state election commission said that with 43 percent of the vote tallied, a moderate candidate for the Croat member of the presidency, Zeljko Komsic, had captured 49 percent of the vote, while nationalist contender Dragan Covic had 38 percent. It said Sefik Dzaferovic, from the ruling Party of Democratic Action, has won the Muslim seat in the presidency. President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik arrives at a polling station to cast his ballot in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) ___ 11:45 p.m. Pro-Russian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has declared victory in the race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-member presidency. Dodik said he won 56 percent of the vote in Sunday's election and that his main opponent, Mladen Ivanic, won 44 percent. Dodik says his claim is a projection made with 85 percent of ballots counted and not expected to change significantly. He said "the people have decided." Preliminary official results are expected later. The presidency also has a Muslim and a Croat member. Dodik advocates eventual separation of Serbs from Bosnia. His election deals a blow to efforts to strengthen the country's unity more than 20 years after a brutal ethnic war in 1992-95 ___ 11:35 p.m. The two main contenders for the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-person presidency both say they are leading in the election for the post. The Bosnian Serb ruling coalition of President Milorad Dodik said Sunday that he was ahead of opposition candidate Mladen Ivanic, while the rival camp said the same. The two groups also had conflicting information about election results for main positions in Bosnia's Serb-run entity. The claims were based on a partial vote count and could not be independently confirmed. Official results are expected later. Bosnia's presidency also has a Muslim and a Croat member. Dodik is a pro-Russian nationalist who advocates separation of Serbs from the rest of Bosnia. Ivanic is considered to be more moderate. Election officials said more than half of 3.3 million voters cast ballots Sunday. ___ 7:10 p.m. Polls have closed in Bosnia, where a general election could decide whether the country remains locked in disputes from a brutal ethnic war or advances toward European Union and NATO membership. Some 3.3 million people were eligible to vote on Sunday for an array of institutions in Bosnia's complex governing system, created by a peace accord that ended the 1992-95 war that killed 100,000 people. The country consists of a Serb-run and a Muslim-Croat entity with joint institutions in a central government. Voters cast ballots for the three-person Bosnian presidency, the Serb president, and the two entities' parliaments and cantonal authorities. The campaign was marred by divisive rhetoric and allegations of irregularities. Bosnian election officials said several incidents were reported, but that they didn't jeopardize the election. ___ 3:05 p.m. A nationalist Bosnian Croat candidate seeking re-election to Bosnia's three-member presidency says he hopes the country's election leads to equality for all ethnic groups. Dragan Covic urged citizens on Sunday to "deliver a clear, new message" that Bosnia should become a place of "absolute constitutional equality." Bosnia consists of two regions with separate governing bodies, one Serb and the other Muslim-Croat. Covic has called for the creation for a third, Croat-only entity. He complains his ethnic group is outnumbered by Muslims in their joint region and thus not equally represented in the governing bodies. Moves by nationalist politicians to carve up Bosnia along ethnic lines sparked the 1992-95 war which killed 100,000 people and left millions homeless. A pro-unification Bosnian Croat candidate who wants Bosnia to rise above the ethnic partition from the war-era is challenging Covic. ___ 2:30 p.m. Liberal candidates for Bosnia's three-person presidency have expressed optimism that voters will support pro-European candidates over nationalist leaders seeking to cement ethnic divisions from the country's 1992-95 war. Opposition Social Democratic Party candidate Denis Becirovic said Sunday he expect voters to opt for a vision of Bosnia as country moving fast toward integration into the European Union and NATO. Becirovic describes himself as a "confident optimist" when it comes to his bid to win the Muslim seat in Bosnia's three-person joint presidency. The body also has a Serb and a Croat member. Anti-establishment candidate Borisa Falatar also believes that "change is possible" as he runs for the Croat presidency seat. He tells voters: "We must not miss this chance! Don't give up! Everything is possible." ___ 1:45 p.m. The pro-Russian leader of Bosnia's Serbs says he expects a "big victory" at Sunday's election, which he said would be in the interests of the Serb mini-state in Bosnia. Milorad Dodik said Sunday if he is elected to the three-person Bosnian federal presidency that would pave the way for "important tasks" to be carried out for Republika Srpska, the Serb-run part of Bosnia. Dodik advocates more autonomy and an eventual separation of Serbs from Bosnia, which also has a Muslim-Croat regional government. The two regions were established in the peace accord that ended Bosnia's bloody, divisive 1992-95 war. Sunday's vote is for all levels of governance. Dodik, who must leave his position leading the Serb mini-state due to term limits, is a key Balkan ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His victory would mean stronger Russian influence in the divided Balkan nation. ___ 1:15 p.m. A Bosnian Serb opposition candidate for the three-person Bosnian presidency says he's optimistic he will beat hard-line, pro-Russian Serb leader Milorad Dodik in Sunday's election race. Mladen Ivanic, who currently holds the Serb seat in the joint presidency, said upon casting his ballot Sunday that "I wouldn't run if I didn't believe I could win. Of course I expect victory." Ivanic is from the opposition Alliance for Victory group, made up of several opposition parties, which hopes to deal a blow to Dodik's long-ruling coalition in the part of Bosnia governed by Serbs. Up for election are positions in both the Serb-dominated and Muslim-Croat regions. The complex network of institutions stems from the peace accord that ended Bosnia's bloody 1992-95 war. ___ 11 a.m. A leading Muslim candidate for Bosnia's three-person presidency says he is confident of a victory and expects the country to move forward after the election. Sefik Dzaferovic said upon casting his ballot Sunday "I expect massive support from all citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina." He says Bosnia needs "stability, economic prosperity and (EU) integration." He says politicians in Bosnia must start working "as early as tomorrow ... to form governments at all levels and begin fulfilling the above-mentioned goals." Dzaferovic is from the Muslim Party of Democratic Action, or SDA. If he wins, Dzaferovic will replace the party leader Bakir Izetbegovic in the Bosnian presidency that also has a Serb and a Croat member. Bosnia consists of a Serb regional government and a Muslim-Croat one tied loosely by central institutions, including the presidency. ___ 8 a.m. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. The ballot is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in rivalries stemming from the 1992-95 war. Some 3.3 million people are eligible to vote for an array of institutions in Bosnia's complex governing system, which was created by a peace accord that ended the war that killed 100,000 people and left millions homeless. The country consists of a Serb regional government and a similar Muslim-Croat entity joined in a central government. Voters are casting ballots for the three-person Bosnian presidency, the Serb president, and the two entities' parliaments and cantonal authorities. The main focus is on the race for Bosnia's three-member presidency, because of the candidacy of hard-line Serb President Milorad Dodik, who advocates eventual Serb separation from Bosnia. Dodik is a key Balkan ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his victory would mean stronger Russian influence. Milorad Dodik, president of the Republic of Srpska, leaves after a news conference after claiming victory in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kilometers northwest of Sarajevo, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Dodik has declared victory in the race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-member presidency. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) Serbian member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Mladen Ivanic casts his ballot at a polling station in Banja Luka, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Radivoje Pavicic) Bosnian Muslim candidate for Bosnian Presidency, Party for Democratic Action (SDA), Sefik Dzaferovic cast his vote at a polling station in Zenica, 100 kms. (62 miles) north of Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians decide in a tense election this weekend whether to cement the ethnic divisions stemming from the 1992-95 war by supporting nationalist politicians or push for changes that would pave the way toward European Union and NATO integration. (AP Photo/STR) A woman prepares her ballot for a general election at a poling station in the Bosnian town of Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Sunday's vote is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in war-era rivalries. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) A Bosnian woman casts her vote at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian people wait in a line to cast their vote at poling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Polls have opened in Bosnia for a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement ethnic divisions drawn in a brutal war more than 20 years ago. Sunday's vote is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in war-era rivalries.(AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian man show his ID as he prepare to cast his vote at poling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Polls have opened in Bosnia for a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement ethnic divisions drawn in a brutal war more than 20 years ago. Sunday's vote is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in war-era rivalries. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian man cast his vote at poling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Polls have opened in Bosnia for a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement ethnic divisions drawn in a brutal war more than 20 years ago. Sunday's vote is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in war-era rivalries.(AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian man cast his vote at a poling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians decide in a tense election this weekend whether to cement the ethnic divisions stemming from the 1992-95 war by supporting nationalist politicians or push for changes that would pave the way toward European Union and NATO integration. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian man cast his vote at poling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnia is voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement ethnic divisions drawn in a brutal war more than 20 years ago. The ballot is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in rivalries stemming from the 1992-95 conflict.(AP Photo/Amel Emric) A Bosnian man casts his vote at poling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnia is voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement ethnic divisions drawn in a brutal war more than 20 years ago. The ballot is seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in rivalries stemming from the 1992-95 conflict. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik speaks to journalists after voting in a general election in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik leaves after voting in a general election in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik, right, and his wife Snjezana leave a polling station after voting in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik speaks to journalists after voting in a general election in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) Fahrudin Radoncic, leader of SBB, Union for a Better Future of BiH, waits to cast his vote at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian people wait in a line to cast their votes at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Fahrudin Radoncic, leader of SBB, Union for a Better Future of BiH, casts his vote at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) A woman with a child casts her ballot at a polling station in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) People wait in line at a polling station in Laktasi, northwest of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) A Bosnian woman casts her vote at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians were voting Sunday in a general election that could install a pro-Russian nationalist to a top post and cement the ethnic divisions of a country that faced a brutal war 25 years ago. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Milorad Dodik, president of the Republic of Srpska, speaks during a news conference after claiming victory in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kilometers northwest of Sarajevo, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Dodik has declared victory in the race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-member presidency. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) Milorad Dodik, president of the Republic of Srpska, speaks during a news conference after claiming victory in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kilometers northwest of Sarajevo, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Dodik has declared victory in the race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia's three-member presidency. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) Bosnian election workers prepare to count ballots at a polling station in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bosnians decide in a tense election this weekend whether to cement the ethnic divisions stemming from the 1992-95 war by supporting nationalist politicians or push for changes that would pave the way toward European Union and NATO integration. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The Latest on the magnitude 5.9 earthquake in northern Haiti (all times local): 3:45 p.m. The U.S. Geological Survey says a 5.2 magnitude aftershock has rattled northern Haiti, a day after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake left at least 12 dead and 188 injured at the same location. The USGS says the aftershock's epicenter was located 15.8 kilometers (9.8 miles) north-northwest of Port-de-Paix, and had a depth of 10 kilometers. It struck at about 3 p.m. local time on Sunday. "It was an aftershock. It was at the same location," Paul Caruso, geophysicist with the USGS. "This is the first significant aftershock". At the time, emergency teams were bringing relief to victims of Saturday's quake, which toppled cinderblock homes and rickety buildings. Authorities said at least 12 people died and 188 were injured. Sr Maryse Alsaint walks alongside a school damaged by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake the night before, in Gros Morne, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Emergency teams worked to provide relief in Haiti on Sunday after the quake killed at least 11 people and left dozens injured. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Haiti's civil protection agency issued a statement saying that houses were destroyed in cities of Port-de-Paix, Gros-Morne, Chansolme and Turtle Island by Saturday's temblor. ___ 8:41 a.m. A magnitude 5.9 earthquake in northern Haiti has killed at least 11 people and injured others. The government reported seven deaths in the Nord-Ouest province and four other deaths in the community of Gros-Morne in the province of Artibonite, the newspaper Le Nouvelliste quoted Secretary of State for Communications Eddy Jackson Alexis as saying. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 8:11 p.m. Saturday night (001 GMT) and was centered 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of Port-de-Paix, which is about 136 miles (219 kilometers) from the capital of Port-au-Prince. The quake was 7.3 miles (11.7 kilometers) below the surface. The country's civil protection agency issued a statement saying several people were injured and some houses were destroyed in Port-de-Paix, Gros Morne, Chansolme and Turtle Island. Among the structures damaged was the Saint-Michel church in Plaisance. The civil protection agency officially confirmed the deaths of at least 10 people. In 2010, a vastly larger magnitude 7.1 quake damaged much of the capital and killed an estimated 300,000 people. PORT-DE-PAIX, Haiti (AP) - Survivors sifting through the rubble of their earthquake-toppled cinderblock homes in Haiti on Sunday were rattled by a magnitude 5.2 aftershock that caused panic and threatened to raise the death toll even further from 12. The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the aftershock was located 9.8 miles (15.8 kilometers) north-northwest of Port-de-Paix, the city hard hit by Saturday night's 5.9 magnitude earthquake. Sunday's aftershock had a depth of 10 kilometers. "It was an aftershock. It was at the same location," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the USGS. "This is the first significant aftershock." The tremors caused panic on streets where emergency teams were providing relief to victims of Saturday's quake, which toppled cinderblock homes and rickety buildings in several cities. Haiti's civil protection agency said at least seven people died in the coastal city of Port-de-Paix and three people died in the nearby community of Gros-Morne in Artibonite province. Among the dead from Saturday night's quake were a 5-year-old boy crushed by his collapsing house and a man killed in a falling auditorium. A total of at least 12 people were killed in the quake, Interior Minister Fednel Monchery told radio station MAGK9. Authorities said 188 people were injured. Residents stand looking at a collapsed school damaged by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake the night before, in Gros Morne, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Emergency teams worked to provide relief in Haiti on Sunday after the quake killed at least 11 people and left dozens injured. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) "I feel like my life is not safe here," said nun Maryse Alsaint, director of the San Gabriel National School in Gros-Morne, where several classrooms were severely damaged. She said that about 500 students would not be able to return to school on Monday. The USGS said the quake was centered 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of Port-de-Paix, which is about 136 miles (219 kilometers) from the capital of Port-au-Prince. T It was felt lightly in the capital, as well as in the neighboring Dominican Republic and in eastern Cuba, where no damage was reported. In Haiti, officials have struggled to shore up buildings despite the two major fault lines along Hispaniola, which is the island shared with the Dominican Republic. Deep poverty and government instability have also rendered weaker homes and structures particularly vulnerable in earthquakes. Rescue workers in Haiti said they were not looking for any more victims. In the town of Gros-Morne, one bed was covered in rubble, while the exterior walls of some homes were visibly cracked. Others tilted at precarious angles. Pierre Jacques Baudre, a farmer and father of seven, said he was afraid to return to his home after one wall built with rocks and cement crumbled. "The house can fall at any time," he said. Meanwhile, dozens of people could be seen sifting through debris before hauling away rebar to recycle and sell. The civil protection agency issued a statement saying that houses were destroyed in Port-de-Paix, Gros-Morne, Chansolme and Turtle Island. Damage was also reported at the Saint-Michel church in Plaisance and the police station in Port-de-Paix. Parts of a hospital and an auditorium collapsed in Gros-Morne, where parliamentarian Alcide Audne told The Associated Press that two of the deaths occurred. It was not clear if there was an event in the auditorium at the time. Haiti President Jovenel Moise said on his Twitter account Sunday that civil protection brigades were working to clear debris. He also said the government had sent water and food. In 2010, a larger magnitude 7.1 quake damaged much of the capital and killed an estimated 300,000 people. Shelda Similien, who ran out of her before it collapsed when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit the night before, waits to be treated at a local hospital in Gros Morne, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Similien's five year-old son died when he became buried by the rubble of the collapsed home. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A bed is covered by rubble from a wall that collapsed during a magnitude 5.9 earthquake the night before, in Gros Morne, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Emergency teams worked to provide relief in Haiti on Sunday after the quake killed at least 11 people and left dozens injured. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Marcorel Maurice stands inside his home damaged by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake the night before, in Gros Morne, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Emergency teams worked to provide relief in Haiti on Sunday after the quake killed at least 11 people and left dozens injured. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Sr Maryse Alsaint walks alongside a school damaged by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake the night before, in Gros Morne, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Emergency teams worked to provide relief in Haiti on Sunday after the quake killed at least 11 people and left dozens injured. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A bed is covered in rubble caused by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake the night before, in Gros Morne, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Emergency teams worked to provide relief in Haiti on Sunday after the quake killed at least 11 people and left dozens injured. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Residents walk past a school damaged by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake the night before, in Gros Morne, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Emergency teams worked to provide relief in Haiti on Sunday after the quake killed at least 11 people and left dozens injured. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) SAO PAULO (AP) - The Latest on Brazilian elections (all times local): 11:20 p.m. Gerald Alckmin, the former governor of the state of Sao Paulo who came in fourth on Sunday, told well-wishers that he respected the outcome of Sunday's presidential election. Alckmin who got just 4.77 percent of the vote said his Brazilian Social Democracy Party will meet Tuesday in the capital city of Brasilia to begin "elaborating a second- round strategy. The right-leaning candidate's support of market-friendly economic policies, like scaling back the country's faltering social security system, made him at one point the darling of investors. ____ Supporters of presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party, gather in gather at Paulista avenue waiting for the results of the vote count, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who expresses nostalgia for Brazil's military dictatorship took a strong lead in its presidential election Sunday, rallying voters to his promises to rid Latin America's largest nation of rampant corruption, crime and moral rot. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine) 10:05 p.m. A far-right congressman and the leftist former Sao Paulo mayor trailing him will face each other in a runoff later this month. The country's Superior Electoral Tribunal announced the runoff late Sunday after all the votes were counted. In a national address, justice Rosa Weber said Jair Bolsonaro had 46.7 percent compared to 28.5 percent for former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad. The runoff between the two is scheduled for Oct. 28. ___ 9:33 p.m. Brazil's far-right candidate and the leftist trailing him appear headed to a runoff. With 97 percent of votes counted, Congressman Jair Bolsonaro had 46.5 percent compared to 28.5 percent for former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad. A runoff will be held Oct. 28 if Bolsonaro does not get more than 50 percent. The country's Superior Electoral Tribunal, which releases returns, had yet to officially pronounce a runoff. 7:48 p.m. With 79 percent of returns in, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is leading presidential race with 49 percent of votes. Fernando Haddad from the Workers' Party was in second place Sunday with 26 percent of the vote. If no candidate gets 50 percent, there will be a runoff Oct. 28. Supporters of Bolsonaro were gathering outside the Windsor Hotel, where the candidate is watching the returns. The initial results show Bolsonaro getting more votes than polls in recent weeks indicated, which put his support in the high 30s. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has run on a platform of promises to crack down on violence and rid Latin America's largest nation of endemic corruption. ___ 7:10 p.m. With 53 percent of returns in, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is leading presidential race with 49 percent of votes. Fernando Haddad from the Workers' Party was in second place Sunday with 26 percent of the vote. If no candidate gets 50 percent, there will be a runoff Oct. 28. The initial results show Bolsonaro getting more votes than polls in recent weeks indicated, which put his support in the high 30s. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has run on a platform of promises to crack down on violence and rid Latin America's largest nation of endemic corruption. ___ 4:45 p.m. Brazil's electoral court is investigating images that went viral on social media of supporters of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro bringing guns to their polling stations. One image shows a gun on the top of the electronic voting machine and Bolsonaro's face on the screen in a school of Sao Joao de Meriti, outside Rio de Janeiro. Another shows a voter using his gun to press buttons in the machine to vote for Bolsonaro in the southern Brazilian city of Cachoeiro do Sul. The two images quickly spread in WhatsApp groups, which are heavily used by Bolsonaro supporters to spread their messages. Guns are not allowed in polling stations in Brazil. ___ 4:30 p.m. Voting in Brazilian elections requires strategy and memory. On the country's voting machines, each candidate is assigned a number, with the first two digits of the number identifying the candidate's party. Some party numbers are well-known. But this year, far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party is the front-runner. Few voters will have ever pressed his party's 17. Brazilians are also electing state and federal legislators and governors in Sunday's vote-- which amounts to pressing dozens of the right buttons. Voters need to press four numbers - including the two of the party - to vote for a federal congress member and five to vote for a state congress member. They can also just vote for a party, not a specific candidate, or annul a vote by confirming a number that is not linked to anyone. ___ 1:50 p.m. Brazil's Superior Electoral Court says that at least 300 electronic voting machines were malfunctioning and have been replaced. A total of 454,500 voting machines are in use across the country as Brazilians go to the polls. Meanwhile, federal police say they have taken at least 40 people into custody for allegedly committing electoral crimes. Police said the most frequent crime has been the illegal transportation of voters to polling stations. Several people were detained for conducting exit polls after voters cast their ballots. ____ 12:30 p.m. Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has told reporters that "any candidacy that compromises democracy in Brazil is extremely dangerous." Shortly before casting her ballot, Rousseff said the result of Sunday's elections would determine "if we walk down the path toward democracy or down the path toward authoritarianism and fascism." She was referring to far-right congressman and poll leader Jair Bolsonaro. Rousseff was impeached in 2016 for manipulating the fiscal budget. She is running for a Senate seat for the state of MInas Gerais. ___ 11 a.m. The two leading presidential candidates in Brazil have cast their ballots. Far-right congressman and poll leader Jair Bolsonaro voted in Rio de Janeiro. He told reporters he thought there would be no need for a second round on Oct. 28 because he would get more than the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. A recent poll showed Bolsonaro garnering support among 36 percent of voters. Fernando Haddad, who is running in second place, voted in Sao Paulo. Brazilians in nearby buildings beat on pots to show their disapproval when he spoke afterward. While the pots were banging, Haddad's supporters chanted that he would be president, making it impossible to hear what the candidate said. ___ 10:30 a.m. Brazilians have started trickling to voting booths to choose leaders in an election marked by intense anger at the ruling class following years of political and economic turmoil. Far-right candidate and congressman Jair Bolsonaro is leading the polls. He is trailed by Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party, which has won the last four presidential elections. Bolsonaro garnered 36 percent in the latest Datafolha poll, with Haddad 14 points behind. The poll interviewed 19,552 people Friday and Saturday and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points. If no one gets a majority on Sunday, a runoff will be held Oct. 28. Voting booths will close at 5 p.m. local time. Voters wait in line at a polling station in the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Ricardo Borges) Voting information is displayed on a wall emblazoned with a mural of Nelson Mandela at a polling station in a suburb of Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) A woman walks on a path littered with electoral leaflets in the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Ricardo Borges) Presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, of the Social Liberal Party, left, flashes a thumbs up at a polling station in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) SCHOHARIE, N.Y. (AP) - A limousine carrying four sisters, other relatives and friends to a birthday celebration blew through a stop sign and slammed into a parked SUV outside a store in upstate New York, killing all 18 people in the limo and two pedestrians, officials and victims' relatives said Sunday. The weekend crash was characterized by authorities as the deadliest U.S. transportation accident in nearly a decade. The crash turned a relaxed Saturday afternoon to horror at a rural spot popular with tourists viewing the region's fall foliage. Relatives said the limousine was carrying the sisters and their friends to a 30th birthday celebration for the youngest. "They were wonderful girls," said their aunt, Barbara Douglas, speaking with reporters Sunday. "They'd do anything for you and they were very close to each other and they loved their family." Douglas said three of the sisters were with their husbands and she identified them as Amy and Axel Steenburg, Abigail and Adam Jackson, Mary and Rob Dyson and Allison King. "They did the responsible thing getting a limo so they wouldn't have to drive anywhere," she said, adding the couples had several children between them who they left at home. The 2001 Ford Excursion limousine was traveling southwest on Route 30 in Schoharie, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) north of New York City, when it failed to stop at 2 p.m. Saturday at a T-junction with state Route 30A, State Police First Deputy Superintendent Christopher Fiore said at a news conference in Latham, New York. A woman kneels after placing flowers, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at the scene where 20 people died as the result of a limousine crashing into a parked and unoccupied SUV at an intersection a day earlier, in Schoharie, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) It went across the road and hit an unoccupied SUV parked at the Apple Barrel Country Store, killing the limousine driver, the 17 passengers, and two people outside the vehicle. The crash "sounded like an explosion," said Linda Riley, of nearby Schenectady, who was on a shopping trip with her sisters. She had been in another car parked at the store, saw a body on the ground and heard people start screaming. The store manager, Jessica Kirby, told The New York Times the limo was coming down a hill at "probably over 60 mph." In an email to The Associated Press, she complained that the junction where the crashed occurred is accident-prone. "We have had 3 tractor trailer type trucks run through the stop through our driveway and into a field behind the business," Kirby wrote. "All of these occurred during business hours and could've killed someone then." She added that the state Department of Transportation has banned heavy trucks from the intersection but there are constant smaller crashes. "More accidents than I can count." The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. "This is one of the biggest losses of life that we've seen in a long, long time," NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said. It's the deadliest transportation accident since February 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed in Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people, Sumwalt said. And it appears to be the deadliest land-vehicle accident since a bus ferrying nursing home patients away from Hurricane Rita caught fire in Texas 2005, killing 23. At the news conference, Fiore didn't comment on the limo's speed, or whether the limo occupants were wearing seat belts. Authorities didn't release the names of the victims or speculate on what caused the limo to run the stop sign. Autopsies were being conducted. Speaking through tears on the telephone, Valerie Abeling said her 34-year-old niece Erin Vertucci was among the victims, along with Vertucci's newlywed husband, 30-year-old Shane McGowan. "She was a beautiful, sweet soul; he was too," Abeling said. The couple was married in June at a "beautiful wedding" in upstate New York, Abeling said. "They had everything going for them." Vertucci, who grew up in Amsterdam, New York, was an administrative assistant at St. Mary's Healthcare in Amsterdam, Abeling said. The vehicle was an after-market stretch limousine, according to an official briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and thus declined further identification. Safety issues on such vehicles have arisen before, most notably after a wreck on Long Island in July 2015 in which four women on a winery tour were killed. They were in a Lincoln Town Car that had been cut apart and rebuilt in a stretch configuration to accommodate more passengers. The limousine was trying to make a U-turn and was struck by a pickup. A grand jury found that vehicles converted into stretch limousines often don't have safety measures including side-impact air bags, reinforced rollover protection bars and accessible emergency exits. That grand jury called on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to assemble a task force on limousine safety. Limousines built in factories are already required to meet stringent safety regulations, but when cars are converted into limos, safety features are sometimes removed, leading to gaps in safety protocols, the grand jury wrote. On Sunday, New York's senior U.S. Sen., Chuck Schumer, noted he asked NTSB to toughen standards after the 2015 crash. "I commend the NTSB's immediate aid on scene and am very hopeful that we will have concrete answers soon," Schumer said. Limousine accidents remain rare, according to NTSB data. They accounted for only one death crash out of 34,439 fatal accidents in 2016, the last year for which data is available. Cuomo on Sunday released a statement saying, "My heart breaks for the 20 people who lost their lives in this horrific accident on Saturday in Schoharie. I commend the first responders who arrived on the scene and worked through the night to help ... I have directed state agencies to provide every resource necessary to aid in this investigation and determine what led to this tragedy." ___ Salsberg reported from Boston. Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo in New York City, John Kekis in Latham, New York, and David Klepper in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report. Flowers are placed at a roadside memorial at the scene of Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. A limousine loaded with revelers headed to a 30th birthday party blew a stop sign at the end of a highway and slammed into an SUV parked outside a store, killing all people in the limo and a few pedestrians, officials and relatives of the victims said Sunday. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Barbara Douglas, of Danamora, N.Y., talks to reporters about her four family members who died in Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. A limousine loaded with revelers headed to a 30th birthday party blew a stop sign at the end of a highway and slammed into an SUV parked outside a store, killing all people in the limo and a few pedestrians, officials and relatives of the victims said Sunday. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) A New York state trooper and a member of the National Transportation Safety Board view the scene of Saturday's fatal crash in Schoharie, N.Y., Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. A limousine loaded with revelers headed to a 30th birthday party blew a stop sign at the end of a highway and slammed into an SUV parked outside a store, killing all people in the limo and a few pedestrians, officials and relatives of the victims said Sunday. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) A New York state trooper and members of the National Transportation Safety Board view the scene of Saturday's fatal crash in Schoharie, N.Y., Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. A limousine loaded with revelers headed to a 30th birthday party blew a stop sign at the end of a highway and slammed into an SUV parked outside a store, killing all people in the limo and a few pedestrians, officials and relatives of the victims said Sunday. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Barbara Douglas of Danamora, N.Y., reacts while talking about her four family members who died in Saturday's fatal crash in Schoharie, N.Y., Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. A limousine loaded with revelers headed to a 30th birthday party blew a stop sign at the end of a highway and slammed into an SUV parked outside a store, killing all people in the limo and a few pedestrians, officials and relatives of the victims said Sunday. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court has put a spotlight on the dozens of federal cases pitting the Trump administration against Democratic-leaning states, on issues including auto emission standards, immigration and a free-flowing internet. He lashed out against "left-wing opposition groups" and others during the recent Senate hearing over a high school-era sexual assault allegation, raising questions about whether he can be impartial deciding cases that revolve around Democratic policies or that directly involve Democratic officials. Kavanaugh already was known as a conservative judge. But his partisan rhetoric created new worries for some who will bring or support cases that eventually could come before the nation's highest court. "I have even greater concerns about his judicial temperament and his ability to independently weigh cases that may involve the Trump administration," said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat who has joined more than a dozen lawsuits against the administration. Democratic states are in scores of legal battles with the Trump administration over health care, the environment, consumer protections, immigration and other issues. Marquette University political scientist Paul Nolette has tallied 61 times that states have banded together in lawsuits against the Trump administration. Trump's Department of Justice also has initiated legal action against blue states. Most recently, the department sued California just hours after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law requiring internet neutrality that runs counter to actions taken by the administration. FILE - In this July 13, 2016, file photo, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum poses for a photo at her office in Portland, Ore. Rosenblum, a Democrat who has joined more than a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration, has concerns about Brett Kavanaugh's judicial temperament and his ability to independently weigh cases that may involve the Trump administration. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File) Questions about Kavanaugh's ability to remain impartial and give a fair hearing to such cases escalated after his defiant statement Sept. 27 to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He railed against the sexual assault accusations as being orchestrated by Democrats, saying: "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." Kavanaugh, who denied the assault allegation, also said that "in the United States political system of the early 2000s, what goes around comes around" - a statement some observers took to be a threat. But Kavanaugh also said he would not be "swayed by public or political pressure." Since then, he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that "an independent and impartial judiciary is essential" and that he will "keep an open mind in every case." Lawsuits between the states and the Trump administration could test that. Pat Gallagher, director of the legal program at the Sierra Club, said he expects Kavanaugh would oppose environmental regulation regardless of who calls for it - as he has often done as an appeals court judge. With his confirmation, Gallagher said, "we're going to have to find ways to keep cases away from the Supreme Court." Despite questions about Kavanaugh's objectivity, many of the lawsuits involving blue states do not align neatly with partisan ideology. The core question is who has the power to regulate in that area - the federal government or the states? California's newly signed internet neutrality law is a prime example. It prohibits internet service providers from favoring specific websites or online content by cutting access or charging more for some than others. The state adopted the law last month in response to a Federal Communications Commission policy change earlier this year that ended a similar federal requirement. "The California legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy," U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement announcing a lawsuit against the state. California has sued - and been sued - multiple times since Trump took office. Its attorney general, Democrat Xavier Becerra, declined to comment, as did several other attorneys general involved in lawsuits against the administration. Similar questions over state vs. federal authority are in play in the Trump administration challenge of a law that set up California as a "sanctuary state" unwilling to cooperate with federal authorities in certain immigration matters. Thomas Saenz, president of MALDEF, a Latino civil rights organization, said Kavanaugh's hearing reinforced what he believed after studying the judge's previous rulings that touched on immigration. "The concern is that partisan ideology came first and then judicial philosophy, rather than the other way around," he said. The group is involved in legal battles over immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. Legal experts said it makes sense for blue states to keep pushing back against the administration, in part because not every case will reach the Supreme Court. Lawsuits can delay federal policies or force compromise. Both happened with the Trump administration's ban on travel to the U.S. from a group of Muslim-majority countries. After lower courts knocked it back and forced delays, the administration modified the policy. A ban is now in effect and has been upheld by the Supreme Court, but it's not as tough as Trump's first version. Some advocates have suggested that Kavanaugh should step aside on cases involving the administration and those he criticized during his confirmation hearing. Doing so is rare, though. "Justices don't recuse themselves simply because they've taken ideological or partisan positions in the past that might favor one side or the other," said Anthony Johnstone, a University of Montana law professor and former state solicitor. "Part of what presidents get with their Supreme Court nominations is their views." ___ Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2017, file photo, demonstrators rally in support of net neutrality outside a Verizon store in New York. Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court would put a spotlight on the dozens of federal cases pitting the Trump administration against Democratic-leaning states, on issues including auto emission standards, immigration and a free-flowing internet. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) Retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, right, administers the Judicial Oath to Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the Justices' Conference Room of the Supreme Court Building. Ashley Kavanaugh holds the Bible. At left are their daughters, Margaret, background, and Liza. (Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP) FILE - In this May 16, 2018, file photo, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., accompanied by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., left, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., second from left, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., right, and other Democratic congressmen, speak at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., after the Senate passed a resolution to reverse the FCC decision to end net neutrality. Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court would put a spotlight on the dozens of federal cases pitting the Trump administration against Democratic-leaning states, on issues including auto emission standards, immigration and a free-flowing internet. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) LATHAM, N.Y. (AP) - The Latest on a crash in upstate New York that killed 20 people (all times local): 7 p.m. The manager of the upstate New York store where a limousine crash killed 20 people says the site is a dangerous intersection that's been plagued by accidents. The Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe sits at a T-intersection where authorities say a limousine blew through a stop sign Saturday night and crashed into a parked SUV. Manager Jessica Kirby said in an interview that it's only the latest accident to happen there. Kirby says, "We have had 3 tractor trailer type trucks run through the stop through our driveway and into a field behind the business." She says all of those accidents occurred during business hours. Kirby says the local town supervisor worked with New York's Department of Transportation to bar heavy trucks from using the road. But she says smaller vehicles still have routinely crashed at that spot. Debris scatters an area Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at the site of yesterday's fatal crash Schoharie, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) ___ 6:30 p.m. A relative says the limousine that crashed in upstate New York was carrying revelers to a 30th birthday party for one of four sisters on board. That's according to Barbara Douglas, who identified herself as the sisters' aunt at the crash scene. She says all four sisters were killed. Douglas says the sisters "did the responsible thing getting a limo so they wouldn't have to drive anywhere." She declined to publicly release the names but says three of the sisters were accompanied by their husbands. Authorities say all 18 people in the limousine died as well as two pedestrians. ___ 4 p.m. The aunt of one of the victims in a limousine crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York says the vehicle was on its way to a birthday celebration. Valerie Abeling says newlyweds Erin Vertucci and Shane McGowan were among those killed. She says Vertucci was 34 and McGowan was 30. Abeling says her daughter had been invited along but was unable to go. She says the family has not learned much about the circumstances of the crash. She says "our lives have been changed forever." Officials say Saturday's crash in Schoharie (sko-HAYR'-ee) was the deadliest transportation accident in the U.S. since a 2009 plane crash in Buffalo, New York, killed 50 people. ___ 3:10 p.m. State police say the limousine in an upstate New York crash that killed 20 people failed to stop at an intersection. Authorities said at a news conference Sunday that the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine plowed into an unoccupied sport-utility vehicle in a parking lot across from the intersection. Two pedestrians there were also struck and died. The other 18 victims in Saturday's crash were in the limousine. Authorities say all the occupants died. The crash was in Schoharie, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) north of New York City. ___ 1:40 p.m. A witness says a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York "sounded like an explosion." Linda Riley of Schenectady, New York, says she was in a parked car at the Apple Barrel Country Store in Schoharie (skoh-HAY'-ree) on Saturday when she heard the noise. She says she got out and saw a body on the ground by her vehicle, and broken tree branches everywhere. A person with knowledge of the investigation tells The Associated Press that 18 of the victims were in a limousine and two were bystanders. Schoharie is about 170 miles (270 kilometers) north of New York City. ___ 12:15 p.m. A person with knowledge of the investigation into a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York tells The Associated Press that 18 of the victims were in a limousine. The person was not authorized to discuss the preliminary information publicly and spoke Sunday on the condition of anonymity. The person says that the other two victims were bystanders. State police said earlier that 20 people died in a two-vehicle crash at the Apple Barrel Country Store on Saturday in Schoharie (skoh-HAY'-ree). That's about 170 miles (270 kilometers) north of New York City. An afternoon news conference is planned. ___ Associated Press writer David Klepper in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed. ___ 11:35 a.m. State police say 20 people died in a crash in upstate New York that local officials say involved a limousine near a crowded tourist spot. The Times Union of Albany reported local officials said a limo speeding down a hill crashed into bystanders at the Apple Barrel Country Store on Saturday in Schoharie (skoh-HAY'-ree). That's about 170 miles (270 kilometers) north of New York City. The store is a popular spot for autumn leaf-peepers. Authorities on Sunday didn't release names of victims or specifics. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. An afternoon news conference is planned. FILE - In this May 9, 1999, file photo, emergency workers remove the body of one of the victims of a bus crash in New Orleans, where a chartered bus carrying members of a casino club on a Mother's Day gambling excursion ran off a highway, killing 22 people, in one of the nation's deadliest crashes. A limousine carrying 18 people crashed Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018, in upstate New York, killing all the occupants and two pedestrians, making it among the nation's deadliest ground-traffic accidents. (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File) A woman kneels after placing flowers, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at the scene where 20 people died as the result of a limousine crashing into a parked and unoccupied SUV at an intersection a day earlier, in Schoharie, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Recovery crews remove debris from the scene of a fatal crash, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, where a limousine crashed into a parked and unoccupied SUV killing 20 people at an intersection a day earlier, in Schoharie, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) People place flowers, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at the scene where 20 people died as the result of a limousine crashing into a parked and unoccupied SUV at an intersection a day earlier, in Schoharie, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Debris scatters an area Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at the site of yesterday's fatal crash Schoharie, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Members of the National Transportation Safety Board work at the scene of yesterday's fatal crash, in Schoharie, N.Y., Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) In this Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018 photo, a body is draped under a blanket at the scene of a fatal crash in Schoharie, N.Y. (Tom Heffernan Sr. via AP) Debris scatters an area Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at the site of yesterday's fatal crash Schoharie, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Members of the National Transportation Safety Board work at the scene of yesterday's fatal crash, in Schoharie, N.Y., Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) In this Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018 photo, a limousine, left, has landed in the woods following a fatal crash in Schoharie, N.Y. (Tom Heffernan Sr. via AP) In this Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018 photo, emergency personnel respond to the scene of a deadly crash in Schoharie, N.Y. (WTEN via AP) MIAMI (AP) - The Latest on Tropical Storm Michael (all times local): 11 p.m. Forecasters say Tropical Storm Michael is becoming an increasingly serious threat to Florida's Panhandle though still far off. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the tropical storm was crawling north toward the Yucatan Channel off of Mexico late Sunday night and was expected to unload heavy rains on western Cuba in the coming hours. It's expected to then become a hurricane Monday night or Tuesday while crossing the eastern Gulf of Mexico on a forecast track that would reach the Florida Panhandle sometime Wednesday. Michael could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in parts of western Cuba, forecasts say, with rains of 3-7 inches (7-17 centimeters) expected. Outer rain bands of the storm are expected to also produce total rain totals of 2-4 inches (5-10 centimeters) across the Florida Keys through Tuesday. At 11 p.m. EDT Sunday, Michael was about 105 miles (165 kilometers) east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. It was also about 135 miles (215 kilometers) south-southwest of the western tip of Cuba. The storm has top sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and is moving north at 5 mph (7 kph). This satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a view of Tropical Storm Michael, lower right, churning as it heads toward the Florida Panhandle, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at 6:52 p.m. Eastern Time. (NOAA via AP) ____ 7 p.m. Forecasters say Tropical Storm Michael has gotten a little stronger and is next expected to dump heavy rains over western Cuba in the coming hours before it makes its way toward the U.S. Gulf Coast. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Michael is packing top sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and is about 105 miles (170 kilometers) east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. The storm was about 140 miles (230 kilometers) south-southwest of the western tip of Cuba as of Sunday evening. The storm is headed north at 5 mph (7 kph) and forecasters say Michael should become a hurricane in the next few days. It's a on track expected to move over the eastern Gulf of Mexico late Monday through Tuesday night and approach the northeast U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday. Forecasters are calling on Florida Gulf Coast residents to monitor the storm's approach, warning of the possibility of storm surge, heavy rains and dangerous winds as it approaches the U.S. Southeast. ___ 6:20 p.m. Florida Gov. Rick Scott says a tropical storm heading for the Florida Panhandle could become a Category 2 hurricane by the time it makes landfall in the middle of the week. Scott said Sunday that he had issued an order for a state of emergency for 26 counties in the Florida Panhandle and the Big Bend area. He says winds in those areas could reach more than 100 mph (160 kph). The governor warned that storm surge could affect areas of Florida not in the storm's direct path. The U.S. National Hurricane Center on Sunday upgraded Michael from a tropical depression to a named tropical storm, saying Michael had winds of up to 50 mph (85 kph). The storm could strengthen into a hurricane by Monday night or Tuesday as its center moves over the Yucatan Channel, crosses the Gulf of Mexico and nears the Florida Panhandle coast sometime Wednesday. ___ 1:15 p.m. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says newly named Tropical Storm Michael could strengthen to a hurricane as it heads to the Florida Panhandle. The hurricane center on Sunday upgraded the tropical depression in the Caribbean to a named tropical storm, saying it had winds of up to 40 mph (65 kph). The hurricane center advised residents along the northeastern and central U.S. Gulf Coast to monitor the storm's progress. The storm was about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Cozumel, Mexico by mid-day Sunday. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth as well as the coast of Mexico from Tulum to Cabo Catoche. ___ 9:50 a.m. Forecasters say a tropical depression in the Caribbean could strengthen over the next several days and become a hurricane by midweek. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday that the tropical depression could strengthen into a hurricane by Tuesday night or Wednesday. The hurricane center advised residents along the northeastern and central U.S. Gulf Coast to monitor the storm's progress. The storm was about 100 miles (165 kilometers) northeast of Chetumal, Mexico early Sunday, and it was moving toward the north at about 3 mph (4.8 kph) with maximum sustained winds at 35 mph (56.3 kph). A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth as well as the coast of Mexico from Tulum to Cabo Catoche. KRALJEVA SUTJESKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - In a small village in central Bosnia that once was home to the country's kings, women keep tradition alive by donning folk costumes on important days like Sunday's election. The women of Kraljeva Sutjeska turned out to vote dressed in traditional village dresses and black head scarves, a style of dress that dates back centuries. "We want to show our folk clothes, we want to keep it (tradition) alive," said Nevenka Vazgec, 62. "As long as I live the clothes will live." Home to a Catholic monastery, an old mosque and a fortress, the village is considered a tourist attraction, but it has not escaped the fate of many other rural places that have virtually emptied since the 1992-95 war. Out of 12,000 pre-war residents, only 1,000 remain in the village now. The women say they still hope people will return and revive the village despite the hardship of everyday life in Bosnia. "Now everyone is gone," Ana Komso, 57, lamented. Bosnian Croat women wearing traditional costume walk to the polling stations to cast their votes in the country's general election, in Kraljeva Sutjeska, 60 kms north of Sarajevo, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. The women of Kraljeva Sutjeska said they expected the election results to bring them hope for the future, despite economic hardship and departure of youth from the small town that once was the seat of Bosnian kings. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) "Our children are gone. I wish my children were here," she said. "I would be really happy if my children came back home." Tens of thousands of Bosnians have left to look for a better life elsewhere because of unemployment and lack of hope. Divisive policies of nationalist politicians have held back the country's progress toward the European Union and NATO. On Sunday, Bosnians voted in a presidential and parliamentary election in which voters may decide to turn their back to ethnic divisions and embrace change and reform. Franciscan priest Zeljko Brkic said, "People are disappointed with everything politicians are doing, but they (women) hope this election will bring a better future." "You see they are singing, wearing these folk clothes, they cherish the tradition," he said. "They happily come out and vote for officials whom they believe could bring better conditions." ____ Jovana Gec contributed from Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnian Croat women wearing traditional costume walk to the polling station to cast their ballots in the country's general election, in Kraljeva Sutjeska, 60 kms north of Sarajevo, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. The women of Kraljeva Sutjeska said they expected the election results to bring them hope for the future, despite economic hardship and departure of youth from the small town that once was the seat of Bosnian kings. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian Croat women wearing traditional costume wait in the polling station to cast their ballots in the country's general election, in Kraljeva Sutjeska, 60 kms north of Sarajevo, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. The women of Kraljeva Sutjeska said they expected the election results to bring them hope for the future, despite economic hardship and departure of youth from the small town that once was the seat of Bosnian kings. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian Croat women wearing traditional costume read how to cast their ballots in a polling station in the country's general election, in Kraljeva Sutjeska, 60 kms north of Sarajevo, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. The women of Kraljeva Sutjeska said they expected the election results to bring them hope for the future, despite economic hardship and departure of youth from the small town that once was the seat of Bosnian kings. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Bosnian Croat women wearing traditional costume walk to the polling station to cast their ballots in the country's general election, in Kraljeva Sutjeska, 60 kms north of Sarajevo, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. The women of Kraljeva Sutjeska said they expected the election results to bring them hope for the future, despite economic hardship and departure of youth from the small town that once was the seat of Bosnian kings. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is facing a political firestorm back home a day after he became the only Democrat to support President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee. Republicans, including one of the president's sons, are on the attack. But the most passionate criticism is coming from Manchin's own Democratic base, a small but significant portion of the electorate he needs to turn out in force to win re-election next month. One sexual assault survivor, a Democratic candidate for the state legislature, says she felt "raped all over again" when she learned of Manchin's vote. Another county Democratic official says she'd abstain from voting in the Senate race. Manchin praised the women who shared their stories of sexual trauma, but defended his vote as being based on fact, not emotion. Democrat Senator Joe Manchin speaks about his recent vote in the Senate to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018 at IHOP Charleston W.Va. A day after Manchin broke with his party on what may be the most consequential vote of the young Trump era, the West Virginia Democrat faces a political firestorm back home. (AP Photo/Tyler Evert) Democrat Senator Joe Manchin speaks about his recent vote in the Senate to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018 at IHOP Charleston W.Va. A day after Manchin broke with his party on what may be the most consequential vote of the young Trump era, the West Virginia Democrat faces a political firestorm back home.(AP Photo/Tyler Evert) Senator Joe Manchin speaks to John Heron of Dunbar W.Va. about his recent vote in the Senate to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018 at IHOP Charleston W.Va. A day after Manchin broke with his party on what may be the most consequential vote of the young Trump era, the West Virginia Democrat faces a political firestorm back home.(AP Photo/Tyler Evert) Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin speaks about his recent vote in the Senate to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at an IHOP restaurant, in Charleston, W.Va. A day after Manchin broke with his party on what may be the most consequential vote of the young Trump era, the West Virginia Democrat faces a political firestorm back home. (AP Photo/Tyler Evert) Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin speaks to John Heron and Connie Hill about his recent vote in the Senate to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at an IHOP restaurant in Charleston, W.Va. (AP Photo/Tyler Evert) Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, center, speaks to John Heron and Connie Hill about his recent vote in the Senate to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at an IHOP restaurant in Charleston, W.Va. (AP Photo/Tyler Evert) WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, says she'll decide after next month's midterm elections whether to run for the Senate from Maine in 2020. Rice is weighing whether to try to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins, whose decision to support Brett Kavanaugh was key to his confirmation to the Supreme Court. Speaking Sunday in New York during The New Yorker Festival, Rice said Collins "put party and politics over her own stated principles" and that by supporting Kavanaugh "has betrayed women across this country." Kavanaugh is accused of sexually assaulting women when he was in high school and college. He emphatically denies the allegations. Rice, a Democrat, had hinted her interest in a Senate run in a tweet on Friday, but then seemed to walk it back. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida politicians are being forced to alter their campaigns to deal with the looming threat of Tropical Storm Michael, which could hit the state as a hurricane later this week. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum's campaign said Sunday that he was canceling South Florida events planned for this week to deal with storm preparations. Projections show the storm hitting northwest Florida. Republicans are currently airing television ads that fault the Tallahassee mayor for power outages following Hurricane Hermine in 2016. Gov. Rick Scott is running against U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. Scott spent Sunday huddling with state officials and discussing preparations with local officials. He also activated 500 members of the Florida National Guard. Scott has made his handling of past storms a theme in one of his current campaign ads. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The Latest on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to Asia (all times local): 12:05 p.m. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have made "significant progress" toward an agreement for the North to give up its nuclear weapons. Pompeo says that while significant work remains to be done, he expects further results after an as-yet unscheduled second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. The American diplomat says a date and venue for next summit are to be set soon. Pompeo spoke Monday to a small group of reporters in the South Korean capital of Seoul, which he visited after meeting with Kim in Pyongyang on Sunday. He said the nuclear effort is "a long process" and that significant progress has been made and more is expected. He would not be specific but said he and Kim had agreed to begin shortly working-level talks on the nuts and bolts of denuclearization. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center left, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walk together before their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Pompeo said that he and Kim made unspecified progress Sunday toward an agreement for the North to give up its nuclear weapons, though there was no immediate indication whether Pompeo had managed to arrange a much-anticipated second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) ___ 11:50 a.m. South Korean President Moon Jae-in says he expects North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to travel to Russia and for Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit North Korea soon amid a global diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear crisis. Moon's comments on Monday came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Kim in Pyongyang to discuss the country's nuclear disarmament and also setting up another meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump following their first summit in Singapore in June. Moon says a second Trump-Kim summit could be accompanied by major diplomatic developments that could contribute to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and stabilizing peace. Moon says there's also a possibility of Kim holding a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. ___ 9:30 a.m. U.S. and North Korean officials are offering positive reviews for the latest meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In Washington, President Donald Trump tweeted that he looked forward to meeting Kim again in the near future. The state-run Korean Central News Agency is calling the talks between Pompeo and Kim "productive and wonderful." Pompeo spent several hours in Pyongyang on his fourth visit to North Korea, saying Sunday he had a "good trip" and that he and Kim "continue to make progress on agreements made at the Singapore summit." Neither Pompeo nor North Korea offered details. Pompeo is on the third stop of a four-leg Asia tour that began in Japan and is scheduled to end in China on Monday. ___ 5:30 p.m. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has wrapped up his fourth visit to North Korea after meeting Kim Jong Un to seek elusive progress in efforts to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons. Pompeo tweeted on his arrival in Seoul that he had met with Kim and that they "continue to make progress on agreements made at Singapore Summit." He said, "Thanks for hosting me and my team." Pompeo had flown to Pyongyang from Tokyo after talks there with Japan's prime minister during which he pledged the Trump administration would coordinate and unify its strategy for denuclearization with allies. Japan has been wary of the initiative but South Korea has embraced it. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (Kim Hong-ji/Pool Photo via AP) South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon/Pool) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo greets South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha before meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (Kim Hong-ji/Pool Photo via AP) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, meets with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha before meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon/Pool) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, talks with U.S. General Vincent K. Brooks, commander of United States Forces Korea, upon his arrival at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, in South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, after his North Korea trip. Pompeo has wrapped up his fourth visit to North Korea after meeting Kim Jong Un to seek elusive progress in efforts to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons. ( Jung Yeon-je, Pool Photo via AP) South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon. Pool) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha before meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon/Pool) WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.N. report says limiting global warming to nearly a single degree or so could mean the difference between life and death for many people and ecosystems. But the scientists behind the report have little hope the world will rise to the challenge. The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued the report on Sunday at its meeting in South Korea. The nations of the world have set a goal of limiting warming of the planet to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, or a single degree Centigrade. But the scientists say there would be a big difference if that goal were cut in half. If that happened, they say, there would be fewer heat waves, downpours and extinctions, less sea-level rise and more coral reefs and ice sheets. FILE - In this Oct. 26, 2015 file photo, fish swim over a patch of bleached coral in Hawaii's Kaneohe Bay off the island of Oahu. Warmer water is repeatedly causing mass global bleaching events to Earth's fragile coral reefs. A United Nations science report released on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018 (Monday, Oct. 8, South Korea time) says limiting global warming by an extra degree could be a matter of life or death for people and ecosystems. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File) ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Sunday warned that a tropical storm headed for the Florida Panhandle could become a Category 2 hurricane with winds up to 100 miles per hour by the time it makes landfall at midweek. Scott issued an order for a state of emergency for 26 counties in the Florida Panhandle and the Big Bend area. The declaration will free up resources for storm preparation. "This storm will be life-threatening and extremely dangerous," Scott said after receiving a briefing at the State Emergency Operations Center. The governor warned that storm surge could affect areas of Florida not in the storm's direct path. "If this storm hit Panama City, Tampa could still have storm surge," said Scott, referring to two Florida cities about 375 miles (600 kilometers) apart by highway. "Every family must be prepared." Scott also activated 500 members of the Florida National Guard ahead of the storm. This satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a view of Tropical Storm Michael, lower right, churning as it heads toward the Florida Panhandle, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, at 6:52 p.m. Eastern Time. (NOAA via AP) The U.S. National Hurricane Center on Sunday upgraded Tropical Depression Michael to a named tropical storm, saying Michael earlier had winds of up to 50 mph (85 kph). But within a few hours it gained more strength and by Sunday evening, it had top sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph). The storm is expected to further strengthen into a hurricane by Monday night or Tuesday as its center moves over the Yucatan Channel, crosses the Gulf of Mexico and nears the Florida Panhandle coast sometime Wednesday. Forecasters advised residents along the northeastern and central U.S. Gulf Coast to monitor the storm's progress. The north Florida city of Tallahassee on Sunday opened two locations where residents could get sandbags in case of flooding. "While the impacts are still uncertain, our area could experience increased wind activity and heavy rainfall, which could cause localized flooding and downed trees," Tallahassee officials said in a statement. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who is the Democratic nominee for governor, had planned to campaign in South Florida Monday and Tuesday, but he said he would return to Tallahassee to help with storm preparations. The city of Pensacola tweeted to residents, "Be sure you have your emergency plan in place." The storm was located by 7 p.m. ET Sunday about 105 miles (170 kilometers) east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico and moving to the north at about 5 mph (7 kph). Tropical storm winds extended out 170 miles (275 kilometers), primarily to the northeast and southeast of the storm's center. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth as well as the coast of Mexico from Tulum to Cabo Catoche. A warning indicates tropical storm conditions are expected, in this case, within 24 hours. The hurricane center warned that the storm could produce a foot (30 centimeters) of rain in western Cuba, potentially triggering flash floods and mudslides in mountainous areas. The rains in Cuba's west were expected to begin Sunday night and continue Monday. An Air Force hurricane hunter airplane was sent into the storm to investigate, the hurricane center said. Michael is the 13th named storm of the 2018 hurricane season, according to hurricane center spokesman Dennis Feltgen. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - California Sen. Kamala Harris urged Democrats in Ohio on Sunday to channel their emotions about the confirmation process involving Brett Kavanaugh into ousting elected Republicans this fall. Rallying more than 1,000 of the party faithful at the Ohio Democratic Party's fall fundraising dinner, Harris said the confirmation process that prompted her to walk out at one point of the Senate Judiciary Committee was "a sham and a disgrace." Elections matter, she said, "and so let this last week - and all that we have experienced in terms of our frustrations and our anger and our sadness - let's use this week to give us all that extra energy that we know we have." The 53-year-old Harris, who's weighing a 2020 presidential bid, visited the closely divided swing state as fellow Democrats hope the year's political climate will break in their favor. Republicans control every branch of Ohio state government. State Democratic Chairman David Pepper told the crowd that statewide races - led by the contest between Democratic former consumer watchdog Richard Cordray and Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine - are all tight and winnable with good turnout. Early voting begins Tuesday. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listen as Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Friday, Sept. 28, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The committee advanced Brett Kavanaugh's nomination for the Supreme Court after agreeing to a late call from Flake for a one week investigation into sexual assault allegations against the high court nominee. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Harris called this "an inflection moment in the history of our country" not unlike the civil rights movement of the 1960s. "This is a moment in time that is requiring all of us collectively to look in the mirror and ask a question, that question being: 'Who are we?'" she said. "And part of the answer, Ohio, is we are better than this." She acknowledged the nation's swirling emotions around Kavanaugh's confirmation process, where Christine Blasey Ford testified that he sexually assaulted her in high school and Kavanaugh angrily denied her account. But Harris said she rejects the premise of America is deeply divided. "When we wake up in the middle of the night with that thought that has been weighing on us, sometimes we wake up in a cold sweat," she said. "Well, for the vast majority of Americans, when we wake up thinking that thought, it is never through the lens of the party for which we are registered to vote." She said those thoughts are about kitchen table issues like paying the bills, affording health care, paying for college or getting or keeping a job. Mandi Merritt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said Ohio voters rejected Democrats' policies in 2016, when Trump resoundingly won the state. "By bringing in California Kamala to attempt to rally middle America, the Ohio Democratic Party has shown just how out-of-touch they've become," she said in a statement. "Sherrod Brown, Richard Cordray and the Democratic ticket have left hardworking Ohioans behind and instead embraced a coastal-elitist agenda that is wrong for Ohio." Harris heads Monday to Cleveland. She wanted her Ohio visit to be longer, but was forced to cancel two planned appearances in Cincinnati on Saturday to remain in Washington for the Kavanaugh confirmation vote, where she and Brown voted no. She said she doesn't believe Kavanaugh's story is over. Harris said "truth is like the sun: It always comes up in the morning. And on these issues that were presented during those hearings, I believe the truth will eventually reveal itself." WASHINGTON (AP) - Facing pivotal November elections, President Donald Trump is misrepresenting the history of African-American voting and exaggerating his influence in boosting income and controlling prescription drug prices. He laments in campaign speeches on behalf of Republican candidates that blacks' support for Democrats had become "habit," having voted for them "for 100 years," and insists his administration's policies are changing that. In fact, most African-Americans were effectively blocked from the right to vote until 1965. Much of the income gains he claims for blacks and other minorities came during the Obama administration. On drug costs, Trump says he is "bringing them down." But few drugmakers have actually lowered prices as a result of his pressure. And in remarks at the hot core of the debate over his new Supreme Court justice, Trump distorted the testimony of Brett Kavanaugh's accuser in a mocking turn on a rally stage before the Senate elevated the judge to the high court on the weekend. A look at the past week's claims: BLACK VOTE President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a campaign rally Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018, in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) TRUMP, on black support for Democratic candidates in recent elections: "It's only habit. It's habit, because for 100 years, African-Americans have gone with Democrats." - Kansas rally Saturday. THE FACTS: No, black Americans did not primarily vote Democratic for 100 years, or anywhere close to it. Most African-Americans for much of U.S. history were disenfranchised, then effectively deterred from voting via poll taxes and literacy tests until passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed racial discrimination in voting. African-Americans who could vote before then generally backed Republican candidates until the 1932 election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His New Deal programs of economic relief won their support and helped spur a longer-term shift of black voting from Republican to Democratic. The Voting Rights Act eliminated literacy tests, clamped down on poll taxes that the 24th Amendment had banned in federal elections a year earlier and required a number of mostly Southern states with a history of discrimination to get advance federal approval to make changes to their election laws. Before that, only an estimated 23 percent of voting-age blacks were registered nationally, says the Library of Congress , but by 1969 that had jumped to 61 percent. ___ MEDIAN INCOME TRUMP: "How does your African-American, how do you vote for somebody else? I've done more for them in two years... And their median income is the highest. But not only for African-Americans, for Asian." - Minnesota rally Thursday. THE FACTS: He's wrong about median income now being the highest for African-Americans. He also exaggerates the economic gains he's accomplished for blacks and Asian-Americans. The median income last year for an African-American household was $40,258, according to the Census Bureau. That's below a 2000 peak of $42,348 and also statistically no better than 2016, which was Democratic President Barack Obama's last year in office. Many economists view the continued economic growth since the middle of 2009, in Obama's first term, as the primary explanation for recent hiring and income gains. More important, there are multiple signs that the racial wealth gap is now worsening and the administration appears to have done little, if anything, to address this problem specifically. As to Asian-Americans, the median income for a typical household last year was $81,331. That's no better than their median income of $83,182 in 2016. ___ KAVANAUGH TRUMP, as if recounting the questioning of Christine Blasey Ford at her Senate hearing: 'How did you get there?' 'I don't remember.' 'Where is the place?' 'I don't remember.' 'How many years ago was it?' 'I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.' 'What neighborhood was it in?' "I don't know.' 'Where's the house' 'I don't know.' Upstairs, downstairs, where was it?' 'I don't know. But I had one beer, that's the only thing I remember.' And a man's life is in tatters. A man's life is shattered. ... They want to destroy people. These are really evil people." - Mississippi rally Tuesday. THE FACTS: He's wrong to say Kavanaugh's accuser could not recall whether the alleged sexual assault happened upstairs or downstairs or any level of detail regarding the likely location. She described in vivid detail being in a locked upstairs bedroom with Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge while others were downstairs at a small house party. Trump also falsely stated that she did not remember how many years ago this happened. She identified the summer of 1982, when she was 15. It's true she could not identify the house, or remember how she got there or home, but said it was within a "20-minute drive" between her house and a country club in the Bethesda, Maryland, area. Researchers say it is common for people who have experienced a trauma to retain a searing memory of the event but not circumstances surrounding it. ___ DRUG PRICES TRUMP: "You might have seen last month where I called up some of the drug companies. I said, 'Folks, you just raised up the drug prices. You can't do that.' And they all reduced them. Do you believe it? That's when I said, 'I've a lot of power.' Pfizer, right? You saw that. Pfizer, Novartis, they raised their drug prices and I'm bringing them down. I said, 'What are you doing with raising them?' 'I'm sorry, Mr. President, we'll reduce them immediately.' I said, 'Man, this is a powerful position.'" - Minnesota rally Thursday. THE FACTS: His account is overstated. His call with Pfizer was at the beginning of July, not last month. It came right after he criticized Pfizer on Twitter for raising prices of about 40 drugs on July 1. Pfizer reversed those increases, meaning prices returned to their June 30 levels, though only until Jan. 1, 2019, at the latest. Novartis was one of several drugmakers that said they wouldn't raise any prices for the rest of 2018, but they'd already done so on nearly all of their drugs earlier in the year. Few drugmakers actually lowered prices as a result of Trump's pressure. A few drugs had price cuts for business reasons. More broadly, an Associated Press investigation of brand-name prescription drugs found 96 price increases for every price reduction in the first seven months of this year. There were fewer price increases this year from January through July than in comparable prior year periods, but companies still raised prices far more often than they cut them. AP analyzed 26,176 U.S. list price changes for brand-name prescription drugs from Jan. 1 through July 31 in the years 2015 through 2018, using data supplied by health information analytics firm Elsevier. ___ VETERANS TRUMP: "We just passed Choice. That was 44 years they've been trying to pass Choice, so that if you have to wait in line for 9 days, 30 days, 21 days, months, you don't do that anymore. If the line's big, and if you're unhappy with it, you go to a private doctor, they take care of you, and we paid the bill. It's better. They've been trying to pass that one for many, many decades. They couldn't do it. We got it passed." - Tennessee rally on Oct. 1. TRUMP: "We also passed Veterans' Choice. Forty-four years they tried to do it."- Mississippi rally Tuesday. THE FACTS: He's exaggerating improvements to the Department of Veterans Affairs by incorrectly stating a private-sector health care program was never passed by Congress before him. He also falsely suggests the newly expanded program will have immediate effect. Congress first approved the Veterans Choice program in 2014 in the wake of a scandal at the Phoenix VA medical center in which some veterans died while waiting months for appointments. The program allows veterans to see doctors outside the VA system if they must wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles to a VA facility. Trump signed legislation in June to expand the Choice program by giving veterans even wider access to private-sector doctors at government expense, subject to yet-to-be-finalized rules that will determine eligibility as well as available funding. Contrary to what Trump suggests, the effects of the newly expanded program are not immediate. Key to its success is an overhaul of the VA's electronic medical records to allow seamless sharing of medical records not only with the Pentagon but also private physicians, a process expected to take up to 10 years. The VA also has yet to resolve long-term financing for the program due to congressional budget caps that could put funding for VA or other domestic programs at risk of shortfalls next year. At a Senate hearing last month, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie made clear that full implementation of the expanded Choice program was "years" away. ___ IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT TRUMP: "The new platform of the Democrat Party is to abolish ICE - the brave, brave people of ICE. In other words, they want to abolish immigration enforcement entirely." - Mississippi rally Tuesday. THE FACTS: While some Democrats in the House and Senate have raised the prospect of eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement, no top Democrats in the House or Senate have called for such a move. Those Democrats who have expressed openness to eliminating ICE have said they would not abandon border enforcement, which is largely carried out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. ___ U.S.-MEXICO-CANADA TRADE TRUMP: "The agreement will govern nearly $1.2 trillion in trade, which makes it the biggest trade deal in the United States' history." - remarks Oct. 1. THE FACTS: That's wrong, simply by virtue of the number of trade partners involved. The proposed new agreement, replacing the North American Free Trade agreement, covers the same three countries. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiated by the Obama administration, included the three NAFTA partners - United States, Canada and Mexico - plus Japan and eight other Pacific Rim countries. Trump withdrew the United States from the pact on his third day in office. Even the Pacific deal pales in comparison with one that did go into effect with the U.S. on board, the Uruguay Round. Concluded in 1994, the round of negotiations created the World Trade Organization and was signed by 123 countries. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found the following year that the WTO's initial membership accounted for more than 90 percent of global economic output. ___ TRUMP: "This deal will also impose new standards requiring at least 75 percent of every automobile to be made in North America in order to qualify for the privilege of free access to our markets." - remarks Oct. 1. THE FACTS: That's true. But as with any such requirement, it could make autos more expensive by discouraging the use of cheaper components from overseas. The same could be true of another provision, requiring at least 40 percent of a car's content to be built where workers earn $16 an hour. The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement indeed contains greater worker protections, a trade-off that could mean higher costs. The pact, if approved by Congress, will raise the percentage of a car's content that must be built within the trade bloc to 75 percent from 62.5 percent if it is to qualify for duty-free status. Similarly, the deal would give pharmaceutical companies that make biologics -ultra-expensive drugs produced in living cells - 10 years of protection from generic competition, two more years than the Obama administration had negotiated under the Pacific deal. That also comes with the possible trade-off of higher costs for users of the drugs. ___ TRUMP, on overcoming the major hitch with Canada: "Dairy was a deal-breaker. And now for our farmers it's, as you know, substantially opened up much more. And I know they can't open it completely. They have farmers also. You know, they can't be overrun. And I fully - and I tell them that. I say, 'Look, I understand you have limits.' But they could do much better." - remarks Oct. 1. THE FACTS: That's a fair reading of one of the agreement's most significant changes - though dairy only accounts for about 0.1 percent of U.S.-Canada trade. Canada's tariffs on dairy imports can approach 300 percent. U.S. dairy farmers have also complained about Canadian policies that priced the U.S. out of the market for some dairy powders and allowed Canada to flood world markets with its own versions. The new agreement would end the discriminatory pricing and restrict Canadian exports of dairy powders. Still, it's in some respects an incremental advance from the Pacific deal that Trump walked away from. It would expand U.S. access to up to 3.75 percent of the Canadian dairy market, versus 3.25 percent in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Above that level, U.S. dairy farmers will still face Canada's punishing tariffs. ___ TRUMP: "As one primary aspect, it will transform North America back into a manufacturing powerhouse." - remarks Oct. 1. THE FACTS: North America already is a manufacturing powerhouse. The United States ranks No. 2 in the world behind China in manufacturing output. Mexico ranks 11th and Canada 13th, according to U.N. numbers pulled together by the Brookings Institution. ___ TRUMP: "I think my biggest concession was making the deal, because we could have done it a different way. But it would have been nasty, and it wouldn't have been nice, and I don't want to have that." - remarks Oct. 1. THE FACTS: Other concessions were made, as is typically the case in trade agreements. For one, the "supply management" system Canada uses to protect its farmers would remain largely intact. For another, 2.6 million passenger vehicles from Canada and Mexico each would be exempt from tariffs of up to 25 percent that he has been threatening to impose on imported cars, trucks and auto parts. And Canada prevailed in insisting that a NAFTA dispute-resolution process be retained. The U.S. wanted to get rid of it. ___ Associated Press writers Linda Johnson in Trenton, New Jersey, and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck WASHINGTON (AP) - The moment conservatives have dreamed about for decades has arrived with Brett Kavanaugh joining the Supreme Court. But with it comes the shadow of a bitter confirmation fight that is likely to hang over the court as it takes on divisive issues, especially those dealing with politics and women's rights. With Kavanaugh taking the place of the more moderate Anthony Kennedy, conservatives should have a working majority of five justices to restrict abortion rights, limit the use of race in college admissions and rein in federal regulators. The newly constituted court also might broaden gun rights, further relax campaign finance laws and halt the expansion of the rights of LGBT people, who three years ago won the right to marry nationwide with Kennedy in the majority. Yet Kavanaugh may have a hard time putting behind him the tumultuous confirmation process, which ended with the Senate voting 50-48 to confirm him Saturday, the narrowest margin of victory for a Supreme Court nominee in 137 years. "In the public mind, there will always be this dark cloud hanging over the court, even if Kavanaugh is eventually embraced by all his colleagues on the court," said Elizabeth Wydra, president of the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center. That cloud stems from allegations of sexual assault and other inappropriate behavior by Kavanaugh while he was in high school and college, along with his politically charged testimony that labeled the look into his past a political hit job by Democrats. The U.S. Supreme Court is seen at sunset in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Kavanaugh has forcefully denied any inappropriate behavior with women. He also acknowledged in a Wall Street Journal column that some of his testimony went too far, but did not apologize for anything he said. The bitter partisan fight over the confirmation could continue in another form if Democrats take control of the House after the November elections. Key House Democrats have said they would investigate Kavanaugh. In the meantime, the focus will be on the court's new majority's willingness to take on controversial issues. A potential early test is two cases involving state efforts to strip public money from Planned Parenthood. The justices are considering appeals from Kansas and Louisiana. Lower courts have blocked the states from going forward. The court could announce Tuesday that it has rejected the appeals, if the justices voted that way in their private conference Friday. But they also could defer action to allow Kavanaugh to weigh in. It is far from certain that the court will move precipitously on this or any high-profile issue. "It's not going to be lost on anyone on the court that everybody is going to be watching the new court to see which issues they engage in," said Paul Clement, solicitor general under President George W. Bush. The justices could look for cases that are more likely to produce consensus, including those about privacy protections in the digital age, Clement said. Some contentious issues, though, will be harder to avoid because federal law compels the court's involvement. In coming months, the issue of drawing political districts for partisan advantage will return to the court in a case from North Carolina. Last term, the justices failed to set limits on the practice known as partisan gerrymandering in cases from Maryland and Wisconsin. Kennedy was seen as the conservative justice most likely to side with liberals on the issue. His retirement dimmed the hopes of proponents of such limits. New state restrictions on abortion could make their way to the Supreme Court soon, along with challenges to the Affordable Care Act and protection from deportation for young immigrants. The leader of an anti-abortion group that supported Kavanaugh foreshadowed the fight to come in a statement issued just after the confirmation vote. "Judge Kavanaugh's distinguished judicial career has been built upon his constitutionalist approach to law, and we trust that this will serve all Americans well when Roe v. Wade inevitably comes before the Supreme Court for review," said Catherine Glenn Foster, president of Americans United for Life, referring to the court's landmark 1973 abortion rights ruling. Kavanaugh's arrival on the court after the most tumultuous confirmation battle since Clarence Thomas faced allegations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill in 1991 hardens the alignment of party and ideology: five conservatives appointed by Republican presidents and four liberals by Democrats. That was true with Kennedy on the bench, but he voted with the liberals in cases that preserved abortion rights and affirmative action, expanded LGBT rights and limited capital punishment. Two of those liberal justices, speaking Friday at Princeton University, talked about the court's legitimacy, without mentioning their new colleague. "Every single one of us needs to realize how precious the court's legitimacy is. You know we don't have an army. We don't have any money. The only way we can get people to do what we think they should do is because people respect us," Justice Elena Kagan said. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the nine justices recognize the small world they inhabit, suggesting that the tense atmosphere surrounding Kavanaugh's nomination is unlikely to be replicated on the court. "We have to rise above partisanship in our personal relationships. We have to treat each with respect and dignity and a sense of amicability that the rest of the world doesn't always share," Sotomayor said. Chief Justice John Roberts has been especially sensitive to portrayals of the court as a political institution. That perception has waxed and waned over the years, but it was particularly strong following the Bush v. Gore decision that sealed Bush's 2000 election. On a practical level, the four liberal justices need a vote from the right side of the court in which they otherwise divide on the familiar ideological fault lines. Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor were justices "who found the center," Kagan said, "and that's enabled the court to look as though it was not owned by one side of the other. It's not so clear that you know going forward that that sort of middle position - it's not so clear whether we'll have it." In stressing Kavanaugh's frequent agreement with Judge Merrick Garland on the federal appeals court in Washington, the new justice's backers seem to be suggesting that Kavanaugh's vote cannot be taken for granted. "I saw him rule in favor of liberal parties. I saw him rule in favor of criminal defendants who were unsympathetic. For 12 years, I saw him rule where the law led and I expect him to do the same on the Supreme Court," said Justin Walker, a University of Louisville law professor and former Kavanaugh law clerk. But the more widely held expectation among court watchers is that Roberts, who joined with the liberal justices to uphold President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, will determine how far and fast the court moves. "You might think of him as the swing vote, but it's less that he will be up in the air in various cases. But he will be important in determining which cases the court takes, how quickly they move and how they decide cases," Clement said. For Wydra, the new role for Roberts underscores the court's shift to the right. "I guess he is now the new center, which is rather frightening considering how conservative he is," she said. ___ Associated Press writer Mike Catalini contributed to this report from Princeton, New Jersey. ___ More reporting on the Supreme Court and Kavanaugh can be found at: http://apne.ws/IHcZXad 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) Jessica Campbell-Swanson, an activist from Denver, sits in the lap of a sculpture known as the Statue of Contemplation of Justice on the steps of the Supreme Court Building where she and others protested the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as the high court's newest justice, in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. Kavanaugh took the oath inside the building after the bitterly polarized U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed him, delivering an election-season triumph to President Donald Trump that could swing the court rightward for a generation. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Chief Justice John Roberts, right, administers the Constitutional Oath to Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the Justices' Conference Room of the Supreme Court Building. Ashley Kavanaugh holds the Bible. In the foreground are their daughters, Margaret, left, and Liza. (Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP) Police move activists as they protest on the steps of the Supreme Court after the confirmation vote of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) SAO PAULO (AP) - Long before Sunday's election that saw Jair Bolsonaro get 46 percent the vote in the first round of the presidential race, many observers flirted with the idea that the far-right congressman was a "tropical" Trump. Bolsonaro, who will now compete in a second round runoff on Oct. 28, presented himself as someone who tells it like it is while promising to dismantle a dysfunctional political system and seeking to capture the imagination of many citizens afraid of losing their place in an increasingly diverse and inclusive society. While Trump and Bolsonaro have many differences - before running, Trump was a billionaire businessman while Bolsonaro was long-time congressman with few legislative victories - many tactics used in their campaigns were remarkably similar. ___ 'STRAIGHT TALK' Perhaps the biggest similarity and likely the one that initially gave rise to the comparisons between Bolsonaro and Trump is that neither man appears to measure his words. In the 2016 U.S. elections, Trump often billed himself as the man who wasn't afraid to say what everyone else was thinking. Bolsonaro shares the same lack of filter. Some of the comments that have gotten him in trouble reflect longstanding ideological positions, like his repeated praise for Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Other comments may be more off the cuff and a wink at his reputation for shunning the "politically correct," like when he told an audience that he had a daughter "in a moment of weakness" after four sons. Both men "enjoy being outrageous and making statements for shock value," said Paulo Sotero, the director of the Brazil Institute at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington. ___ Presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, of the Social Liberal Party, left, accompanied by his son Flavio Bolsonaro, flashes a thumbs up as he arrives to vote in the general election, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Brazilians choose among 13 candidates for president Sunday in one of the most unpredictable and divisive elections in decades. If no one gets a majority in the first round, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) BASH MAINSTREAM MEDIA Bolsonaro and his three oldest sons, who are also politicians, have hammered away at Brazil's main media organizations, accusing them of everything from telling outright lies about the candidate to ignoring his rise in the polls and endorsements from other politicians. Like Trump, they accuse the media of propping up the country's traditional elite and of trying to derail a campaign that might threaten it. Carlos Bolsonaro, who is a city councilman in Rio de Janeiro, recently tweeted that the media and a major pollster "ignore growing rallies in favor of Bolsonaro, including in the farthest corners of Brazil, and they try to create a narrative of Bolsonaro's stagnation (in the polls). They really believe the population is blind and stupid!" ___ SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGING For candidates who don't trust the media, social networks provide the perfect outlet. Bolsonaro, like Trump, has made heavy use of Twitter and Facebook to talk directly to voters. That became especially important after the candidate was stabbed on Sept. 6 and confined to the hospital for more than three weeks. Last week, even after being released from the hospital, Bolsonaro skipped the most important televised debate on major network Globo, citing his doctors' orders. Instead he held nightly Facebook live sessions with political allies and did interviews with friendly stations. "The idea that you would skip the debate on health grounds but then have three 10-minute interviews with a friendly TV networks is very Trumpian at its core," said Matthew Taylor, associated professor of Latin American politics at American University, adding that for both men such a heavy reliance on social media helped them overcome initial resistance to their candidacies. ___ FLOATING FRAUD Bolsonaro has raised the specter of fraud and said it could rob him of the election. A week before the vote, he told a television station he would not accept any result but his own victory, implying that the size of support he had seen at street rallies indicated he would win, even though the polls were close. A few days later, he backed off those comments, saying he would accept the election results but wouldn't call his rival to concede. Sound familiar? Trump trod a very similar path. "Bolsonaro is essentially saying, 'Fairness means that I win. Anything else is fraud,'" said Jason Stanley, author of "How Fascism Works: The politics of us and them." ___ USE OF PROXIES Similar to how Trump's campaign had Donald Trump Jr. and other children sometimes speak for their dad, Bolsonaro has often depended on his three eldest sons to float ideas, deny critical press reports and make outlandish claims. The latest example: On Sunday, while Brazilians were going to the polls, Flavio Bolsonaro, who is running for the senate, shared a video on Twitter that purportedly appeared to show a voting machine that had been tampered with. Within hours, the country's electoral court announced that it was a false report. However, by then it had surely been seen by millions of people on Twitter and the messaging group WhatsApp. "The technique is to use people who speak for you but don't speak for you," said Taylor. "Trump or Bolsonaro can always say, 'I didn't or would never say that.'" ____ Follow Sarah DiLorenzo: twitter.com/sdilorenzo Follow Peter Prengaman: twitter.com/peterprengaman A woman sells T-shirts and flags with the image of the presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party, in front of the headquarters of the national congress, in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who expresses nostalgia for Brazil's military dictatorship took a strong lead in its presidential election, rallying voters to his promises to rid Latin America's largest nation of rampant corruption, crime and moral rot. With 79 percent of returns in, congressman Jair Bolsonaro is leading polls with 48 percent of the votes. (AP Photo / Eraldo Peres) A supporter of presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party, pray as they wait for the first results of the vote counting of the presidential elections, in front of the headquarters of the national congress, in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. In addition to voting for president, Brazilians are also deciding congressional races and electing state governors. (AP Photo / Eraldo Peres) Backdropped by a picture of the presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party, Gustavo Bebianno Rocha, president of the Social Liberal Party, speaks to journalists after his candidate spoke in a live broadcast on Facebook, at a hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Official results showed that Workers' Party candidate Fernando Haddad will face Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right congressman in a second-round vote. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - She is not on the ballot this fall, yet the fight over Susan Collins' political future is already raging. Interest in the Maine Republican senator's 2020 re-election has exploded in the days since she cast the deciding vote to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick - a vote that helped transform the balance of power on the nation's high court for a generation and suddenly complicates Collins' path to a fifth term. Half a dozen Democratic prospects are openly considering running against the Republican political powerhouse, while an online fund has generated $3.6 million - and counting - for Collins' ultimate Democratic challenger. The would-be candidates include Susan Rice, who had been one of President Barack Obama's closest aides. Rice is not currently a Maine resident - she has family ties to the state - but would bring political celebrity that could make it difficult for the state's shallow bench of lesser-known Democrats to stand out. The emergence of a crowded field in a Senate contest two years away underscores the extraordinary political moment triggered by the debate over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Fighting allegations of sexual misconduct from three decades ago, he won confirmation by a razor-thin margin on Saturday over the screaming objections of Democrats and women's groups in all corners of the nation. Collins' Alaska colleague, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, was the lone Republican to oppose the nomination. Now, Alaska GOP officials are considering whether to seek a replacement or encourage her not to seek re-election as a Republican when her term expires in 2022. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the lone Democrat to vote for Kavanaugh, faces a potential revolt from his own party's liberal base in his immediate re-election test in November. Manchin told The Associated Press last weekend that he followed Collins' lead. "She had an opportunity to make history," said Maine Democrat Rosa Scarcelli, a businesswoman who previously ran for governor and is among Collins' many potential challengers. "I'm disappointed and angry." Many Maine Democrats prefer that a woman take on Collins, although few, if any, enjoy the statewide notoriety and fundraising prowess needed to defeat New England's last remaining Republican senator. Many may try. The Democrats' prospect list is topped by Rep. Chellie Pingree, who Collins defeated once already, back in 2002. Pingree's daughter, Hannah, who served as the youngest woman elected state house speaker before stepping away from politics, said she's waiting until after the midterms to decide on a Collins challenge. "It's too soon to say what I might do," Hannah Pingree told the AP. "I have taken some time out of running for office to raise some young kids and they're getting a little older. It's not impossible." Maine Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon also hinted at a potential run. Gideon, who's often clashed with outgoing Republican Gov. Paul LePage, said she's focused on winning more Democratic seats in the Maine House for now. After November's midterm elections, however, she said she'd "be seriously considering how I can elevate the voices of people who deserve and demand to be heard and represented in DC." Other potential prospects include former state house speaker Emily Cain, state attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Janet Mills, and liberal activist Betsy Sweet. Sweet said a big factor would be whether Collins, 65, decides to run at all. She said Maine needs "someone who's not entrenched in the old way of doing things." "We need someone who's more transparent and more willing to actually meet and listen to the people of Maine," said Sweet, who acknowledged that she's also considering a run. Three men, current Democratic Senate nominee Zak Ringelstein, state Rep. Seth Berry and Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling, said they're more interested in supporting a female candidate than running themselves. "I have made it my personal mission to defeat Susan Collins," said Ringelstein, who said that he'd prefer to help a Collins' challenger as a U.S. senator but wouldn't rule out a second run in 2020 if he loses next month. Berry is also open to a Senate bid. Strimling said he's is not. "From my perspective we need a strong progressive woman to run, and that's who I'll be looking to support," Strimling said. Rice is a wildcard. She first served Obama as his ambassador to the United Nations and then as his national security adviser. Obama was considering nominating Rice to lead the State Department during his second term, but she withdrew her nomination after she became embroiled in the controversy over American deaths at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Collins was among the Republicans who said she was troubled by Rice's explanations for the deadly attack. Rice's public interest in the Senate seat was met with a combination of skepticism and curiosity among energized Maine Democrats, who have tried and failed for much of the last three decades to defeat Collins. The former Obama aide's connection to Maine has already emerged as a central issue. Rice, whose primary residence is in the Washington area, emphasized "long and deep" ties to Maine as she attacked Collins during a weekend appearance at the New Yorker Festival. "I think she did a disservice to people in Maine who were counting on her. She has betrayed women across this country," Rice charged. She said she'd give a possible Senate bid "due consideration after the midterms." Rice also said her family "goes back generations" in Maine and that she's owned a home in the state for the last 20 years. Her maternal grandparents emigrated to Maine from Jamaica in the 1910s. Rice's grandfather, David Augustus Dickson, worked as a shipper, porter and janitor. Her grandmother, Mary Dickson, a maid and seamstress, was named Maine State Mother of the Year in 1950. That same year, Rice's mother, Lois Dickson Rice, was valedictorian of Portland High School. Rice's great-uncles all graduated from Maine's Bowdoin College. Rice's family once lived on Lafayette Street in Portland's Munjoy Hill neighborhood, once an immigrant enclave now home to an expensive rental market. One neighborhood resident, Lisa Morris, said she was surprised to learn she lives on the same street that Rice's family once did. "It would be pretty awesome to have a senator from Maine who was a woman of color," said the 55-year-old university policy analyst. Not far away, 86-year-old Judy Halpert recalled walking to school with Rice's mother, whom she called a close friend. Halpert doesn't like Collins "at all," and pointed to Rice's long roots in the state. "She has a right to be a Mainer as well," she said. "I'd vote for her in a minute." ___ Peoples reported from New York. Pace reported from Washington. DALLAS (AP) - A construction worker is dead and five co-workers are hospitalized with injuries after a three-story town house they were building in Dallas collapsed during a thunderstorm. The collapse happened about 4 p.m. Monday about a mile (1.6 kilometers) west of the city's downtown. Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans says 20 to 30 people were working in and around the wood-frame structure when it collapsed, trapping six workers. One worker died at the scene, while five others were taken to hospitals. Evans says their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. The cause of the collapse remains under investigation. However, the National Weather Service reported wind gusts exceeding 60 mph (97 kph) and a rainfall rate of 4 inches (101 millimeters) per hour in the vicinity. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - At least one non-citizen and perhaps many more were improperly registered to vote in California by the Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV says about 1,500 people may have been incorrectly registered due to a "processing error." That includes legal residents who are not citizens. The DMV says none of the people mistakenly registered are people living in the country illegally. The Monday revelation prompted the secretary of state to demand a new investigation of the embattled agency. The secretary of state is cancelling incorrect registrations. The Los Angeles Times reports that a green card holder from Canada was mistakenly registered when he tried to replace his driver's license at the DMV. It's the latest error the department has reported with its new voter registration system. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration is moving to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol, a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater sales of the corn-based fuel. President Donald Trump is expected to announce he is lifting a federal ban on summer sales of high-ethanol blends during a trip to Iowa on Tuesday. The long-expected announcement is something of a reward to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman led a contentious but successful fight to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The veteran Republican lawmaker is the Senate's leading ethanol proponent and sharply criticized the Trump administration's proposed rollback in ethanol volumes earlier this year. At that time Grassley threatened to call for the resignation of the Environmental Protection Agency's chief, Scott Pruitt, if Pruitt did not work to fulfill the federal ethanol mandate. Pruitt later stepped down amid a host of ethics investigations. A senior administration official said Monday that the EPA will publish a rule in coming days to allow high-ethanol blends as part of a package of proposed changes to the ethanol mandate. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Trump's announcement. The change would allow year-round sales of gasoline blends with up to 15 percent ethanol. Gasoline typically contains 10 percent ethanol. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters upon arrival at White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018, from a trip to Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) The EPA currently bans the high-ethanol blend, called E15, during the summer because of concerns that it contributes to smog on hot days, a claim ethanol industry advocates say is unfounded. In May, Republican senators, including Grassley, announced a tentative agreement with the White House to allow year-round E15 sales, but the EPA did not propose a formal rule change. The senior administration official said the proposed rule intends to allow E15 sales next summer. Current regulations prevent retailers in much of the country from offering E15 from June 1 to Sept. 15. Lifting the summer ban is expected to be coupled with new restrictions on trading biofuel credits that underpin the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, commonly known as the ethanol mandate. The law sets out how much corn-based ethanol and other renewable fuels refiners must blend into gasoline each year. The Renewable Fuel Standard was intended to address global warming, reduce dependence on foreign oil and bolster the rural economy by requiring a steady increase in renewable fuels over time. The mandate has not worked as intended, and production levels of renewable fuels, mostly ethanol, routinely fail to reach minimum thresholds set in law. The oil industry opposes year-round sales of E15, warning that high-ethanol gasoline can damage car engines and fuel systems. Some car makers have warned against high-ethanol blends, although EPA has approved use of E15 in all light-duty vehicles built since 2001. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, many from oil-producing states, sent Trump a letter last week opposing expanded sales of high-ethanol gas. The lawmakers called the approach "misguided" and said it would do nothing to protect refinery jobs and "could hurt millions of consumers whose vehicles and equipment are not compatible with higher-ethanol blended gasoline." The letter was signed by 16 Republicans and four Democrats, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a key Trump ally. New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, whose state includes several refineries, also signed the letter. A spokeswoman for the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol industry trade group, said allowing E15 to be sold year-round would give consumers greater access to clean, low-cost, higher-octane fuel while expanding market access for ethanol producers. "The ability to sell E15 all year would also bring a significant boost to farmers across our country" and provide a significant economic boost to rural America, said spokeswoman Rachel Gantz. NEW YORK (AP) - The owner of the limo company in the crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York was someone well known to law enforcement. Shahed Hussain was a paid informant for authorities investigating domestic terrorist threats after the Sept. 11 attacks. The cases included one that resulted in convictions of four men in a thwarted 2009 scheme to attack synagogues and military planes. Hussain wore a wire and helped the FBI make hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes of the defendants picking targets for jihad and ranting against Jews. Defense lawyers portrayed the Pakistani immigrant as a master manipulator who entrapped a crew of aimless nobodies. His limo company, Prestige Limousine, said Monday it is investigating what caused Saturday's crash and has met with state and federal authorities. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Democratic Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly and Republican businessman Mike Braun don't agree on much. But both conceded one point Monday night, during their first debate: they support President Donald Trump. "I go against my party all the time," Donnelly said from the debate state in Westville. "I've been with president 62 percent of the time. That's what we're supposed to do." Unlike many Democratic campaigns across the U.S. that have been galvanized by Trump opposition, Donnelly touted his support for Trump's priorities. That's not entirely a surprise. The vulnerable incumbent is one of a handful of Democrats running for re-election in states Trump won. But Donnelly has cast several high-profile votes against Trump and in line with Democrats, including his "no" vote this weekend on Trump's Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh and the GOP led tax cut bill. That gave Braun an opening to attack. "He never sticks his neck out," Braun said. "He blows with the wind." Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, left, shakes hands with Republican former state Rep. Mike Braun following a U.S. Senate Debate, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018, in Westville, Ind. Libertarian Lucy Brenton also participated in the debate. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, Pool) Donnelly entered the debate wanting to sow doubts about Braun's trustworthiness, while raising concern that, as a Republican, he would try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which is sometimes referred to as "Obamacare." Braun, on the other hand, hoped to focus on his own record as a "job creator" and political "outsider" while going after Donnelly for being a "career politician" who voted for the health care law. But after years of Democrats running away from what had been a toxic issue at the polls, Donnelly boasted that he cast the "deciding vote" to save the health law- the same wording the GOP formerly used in attack ads. "I stand here proudly before you and all the people of Indiana to tell you I was the deciding vote that saved coverage for preexisting conditions," Donnelly said, before attacking Braun for supporting a GOP led lawsuit aimed at eliminating the heath care law, including coverage for those with preexisting conditions. "Mike I can hardly believe that you can stand here and tell everybody you are for coverage of preexisting conditions," Donnelly said. "Stand here tonight and tell us you'll denounce that lawsuit." While the two clashed, Donnelly showed an uncharacteristic willingness to go on the attack. Still, both largely stuck to well-rehearsed talking points that have been echoed throughout the campaign. "It's going to be an awfully long evening if we just simply listen to them repeat their commercials back and forth to each other," joked Libertarian candidate Lucy Brenton, who was also at the debate. While Braun argues he's a political outsider, that's not entirely true. He served on a school board near his hometown of Jasper and was elected to two terms in the Indiana House of Representatives - where he voted to hike the state's gas tax - before resigning to focus on his Senate campaign. But after several terms Congress and six years in the Senate, he said it was Donnelly's record that needs to be scrutinized. "He never speaks up. Doesn't want to shake things up," Braun said. "You got be willing to buck your party boss, (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer, who tells the senator what to do on all the important legislation." Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, middle, speaks duirng a U.S. Senate Debate against Republican former state Rep. Mike Braun and Libertarian Lucy Brenton, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018, in Westville, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, Pool) NEW YORK (AP) - The Coast Guard says a tanker loaded with asphalt has been safely towed to New York after an engine-room fire in the Atlantic Ocean more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) off Massachusetts. The 479-foot (146-meter) Feng Huang AO arrived Monday, three days after the fire. On-board fire suppression systems extinguished the blaze without any injuries to the 21-member crew, but the main engine and electrical generators were disabled with the ship 57 miles (92 kilometers) southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The Coast Guard arrived first, then salvage tugboats. The Fire Department of New York helped ensure the ship's safety coming into New York Harbor. Authorities haven't determined what caused the blaze. The corporate owner of the Hong Kong-flagged, 2-year-old ship hasn't immediately responded to a request for comment. SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California Roman Catholic diocese on Monday released a list of 34 priests who were accused of sexually abusing children, including six who were convicted of criminal charges. The Diocese of San Bernardino County listed clergy who were the subject of "credible allegations" of molestation since the diocese formed in 1978, according to its website. All but one were removed from the priesthood, permanently banned from ministry in the diocese or are dead. The remaining priest left the diocese in 1993, and his whereabouts are unknown, according to the list. "Apologies at this point can seem hollow, and I acknowledge that, because I can't imagine how painful this has been in the lives of many victims and their families. Still, I do want to state my sincere apology for our offenses and failures," Bishop Gerald Barnes said in a video message. The diocese east of Los Angeles has 1.7 million parishioners in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The bishop urged anyone who has been abused by a priest or knows of a victim to report it. The most recent allegation came from a boy who claimed that a priest made advances while driving him to a retreat in Palm Springs in 2014. The diocese reported the allegation to child welfare authorities, diocesan spokesman John Andrews told the San Bernardino Sun . The list included the Rev. Edward Ball, a former priest. He was convicted in 1992 of molesting three boys in the 1970s and spent nine months in jail. In 1999, he was convicted of molesting two brothers who were altar boys from about 1979 to 1986. Under a plea agreement, he was given a three-year sentence. The brothers sued and in 2003 received a $4.2 million settlement from the diocese and from Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Aurora, Illinois, where Ball was ordained. The Archdioceses of Los Angeles, the Diocese of Orange and the Diocese of San Diego previously released lists of priests accused or convicted of molestation and have updated them. In 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached a $660 million settlement with more than 500 victims of clergy abuse. UTQIAGVIK, Alaska (AP) - Local media reports that a whaling captain and a crew member from Utqiagvik died as they towed a whale back from a hunt. The Alaska Dispatch News says the names of those killed Sunday had not been released as of Monday. The Artic Sounder newspapers reports that the accident happened when the men's boat flipped in rough water as the crew towed the whale to shore. The Sounder reports that other nearby whalers said about a dozen other boats rushed to help. They couldn't get the two men out of the water in time. North Slope Borough Mayor Harry K. Brower Jr. issued a statement Monday asking the media to respect the wishes of the whaling community and Whaling Captains of Utqiagvik in not releasing more information. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration is moving to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol, a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater sales of the corn-based fuel. President Donald Trump announced he is lifting a federal ban on summer sales of high-ethanol blends during a trip to Iowa on Tuesday. "Today we are unleashing the power of E15 to fuel our country all year long," Trump said at a campaign rally, referring to gasoline blends with up to 15 percent ethanol. At the White House earlier Tuesday, Trump said: "It's an amazing substance. You look at the Indy cars. They run 100 percent on ethanol." He said he wants more energy production and to help farmers and refiners. "I want more because I don't like $74," Trump said, referring to the current price of a barrel of crude oil. "If I have to do more - whether it's through ethanol or another means - that's what I want. I want low prices." President Donald Trump speaks to reporters upon arrival at White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018, from a trip to Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) The long-expected announcement is something of a reward to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman led a contentious but successful fight to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The veteran Republican lawmaker is the Senate's leading ethanol proponent and sharply criticized the Trump administration's proposed rollback in ethanol volumes earlier this year. Grassley called the proposal "a very good victory for agriculture," ethanol workers and the environment. "Everything about this is good, good, good," Grassley said Tuesday after he and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, met with Trump at the White House. A senior administration official said Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency will publish a rule to allow high-ethanol blends as part of a package of proposed changes to the ethanol mandate. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Trump's announcement. Gasoline typically contains 10 percent ethanol. The EPA currently bans the high-ethanol blend, called E15, during the summer because of concerns that it contributes to smog on hot days, a claim ethanol industry advocates say is unfounded. In May, Republican senators, including Grassley, announced a tentative agreement with the White House to allow year-round E15 sales, but the EPA did not propose a formal rule change. The senior administration official said the proposed rule intends to allow E15 sales next summer. Current regulations prevent retailers in much of the country from offering E15 from June 1 to Sept. 15. Lifting the summer ban is expected to be coupled with new restrictions on trading biofuel credits that underpin the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, commonly known as the ethanol mandate. The law sets out how much corn-based ethanol and other renewable fuels refiners must blend into gasoline each year. The Renewable Fuel Standard was intended to address global warming, reduce dependence on foreign oil and bolster the rural economy by requiring a steady increase in renewable fuels over time. The mandate has not worked as intended, and production levels of renewable fuels, mostly ethanol, routinely fail to reach minimum thresholds set in law. The oil industry opposes year-round sales of E15, warning that high-ethanol gasoline can damage engines and fuel systems of older cars and motorcycles. Some carmakers have warned against high-ethanol blends, though EPA has approved use of E15 in all light-duty vehicles built since 2001. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, many from oil-producing states, sent Trump a letter last week opposing expanded sales of high-ethanol gas. The lawmakers called the approach "misguided" and said it would do nothing to protect refinery jobs and "could hurt millions of consumers whose vehicles and equipment are not compatible with higher-ethanol blended gasoline." The letter was signed by 16 Republicans and four Democrats, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Environment Committee. A spokeswoman for the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol industry trade group, said allowing E15 to be sold year-round would give consumers greater access to clean, low-cost, higher-octane fuel while expanding market access for ethanol producers. "The ability to sell E15 all year would also bring a significant boost to farmers across our country" and provide a significant economic boost to rural America, said spokeswoman Rachel Gantz. WASHINGTON (AP) - Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court fired the starting pistol for the final sprint to Election Day, with control of the House and Senate at stake. The nation's reckoning with power and who to believe about sexual misconduct has generated a new anger factor among the electorate and made the Nov. 6 balloting a referendum on more than President Donald Trump. What to watch over the final four weeks: ___ KAVANAUGH, TO THE COURT Kavanaugh was sworn in as the nation's 114th member of the Supreme Court after a savage battle that splintered the Senate and riveted the country. Kavanaugh took his oath of office to his lifetime seat on Saturday just hours after the climactic 50-48 roll call. It was the narrowest Senate vote to confirm a justice since 1881. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks to a crowd at a Get Out the Vote Rally at the RiverCenter in Davenport, Iowa, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. (Andy Abeyta/Quad City Times via AP) That was a fitting result for a 100-member chamber that represents a nation deeply split over an array of issues, from health care to who should be considered an American. A yawning divide has opened in the last year over whether allegations of sexual misconduct should be enough to topple accused men from the pinnacle of their professions. Enter Kavanaugh, the appellate court judge accused by Christine Blasey Ford in emotional sworn testimony of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s, while the two were in high school. Accusations from other women followed, none corroborated. Kavanaugh denies that he ever sexually assaulted anyone. In a frequently-shouted sworn statement of his own, he decried the Senate for putting his nomination in jeopardy. ___ THE KAVANAUGH EFFECT The Kavanaugh confirmation has blown open the midterm elections from being a national referendum on Trump's stewardship to a raw emotional discussion over the lack of women in power and how to handle sexual misconduct allegations. With Kavanaugh's ascension to the high court, Republicans, long dispirited by Trump's string of scandals and the prospect of losing their congressional majorities, are whooping it up. "It's turned our base on fire," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. He added Monday that the fight over Kavanaugh, particularly that his nomination was stymied by unproven allegations, injected the GOP with an "adrenaline shot that we had not been able to figure out how to achieve in any other way." Though Kavanaugh had been sworn in on Saturday, Trump hosted a glittering East Room ceremonial swearing-in for him Monday night. What's unclear is whether GOP unity is enough to preserve the GOP power in Congress. The same question faces the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct after the White House successfully argued that the Kavanaugh allegations should not be conflated with the rest of the movement. Even before the confirmation, Kavanaugh's opponents had a comeback line, printed on the back of jackets they wore to the Capitol: "November is coming." ___ NORTH DAKOTA Almost immediately after the Senate vote, Democrats felt the chill from faraway North Dakota. That's the state Trump won by 36 percentage points against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. And even before the Kavanaugh controversy, the Senate race there was among a handful of close contests that could decide whether Republicans keep control of the Senate, where they have a 51-49 majority. Then on Saturday, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp defied her state's support for Trump and voted against Kavanaugh's confirmation. Heitkamp said she was concerned about Kavanaugh's temperament after his emotional performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Without hesitation," Heitkamp told reporters, she believed Ford. Polls have put her Republican opponent, Rep. Kevin Cramer, comfortably ahead. He told The New York Times that #MeToo was a "movement toward victimization" that had caused a backlash. "The world got to see close up how ugly it can be when you go too far," he's quoted as saying. ___ FRAMING THE STORY Now it's a four-week race to tell the story. Trump has a busy campaign schedule to spread the word that the allegations against Kavanaugh were a "hoax that was set up by the Democrats" at what he's called a dangerous time for men who can be falsely accused. "I think you're going to see a lot of things happen on Nov. 6 that would not have happened before," Trump said Monday as he departed for an event in Florida. At Monday's East Room ceremony, Trump again invoked the rhetoric Republicans are using to frame the whole episode: Kavanaugh, Trump said, had been "proven innocent," even though critics say the investigation was not thorough enough to merit that conclusion. The campaign against Kavanaugh had been based on "lies," including by "evil" people. Trump is expected to spread that message over multiple campaign rallies, including this week in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. McConnell has cast Kavanaugh's opponents, many of whom protested in the halls of the Senate and yelled at lawmakers, as "the mob." Democrats are pointing to the Republicans' handling of the Kavanaugh confirmation as one more reason to oppose the president who nominated him and mocked Ford. "Folks who feel very strongly one way or the other about the issues in front of us should get out and vote," said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., on NBC's "Meet the Press." ___ 2020 CANDIDATES Yep, they're already running, ostensibly in support of other midterm election candidates. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., made a beeline from the Senate confirmation vote on Saturday for Iowa and the Democrats' big fall fundraiser there. "We're not defined by a president who mocks a hero, Dr. (Christine) Blasey Ford. We're not defined by a president who doesn't believe women," Booker told about 1,000 activists. The next day, Sen. Kamala Harris turned up in politically important Ohio, where she reminded more than 1,000 of the party faithful at the Ohio Democratic Party's fall fundraising dinner that she walked out of the Kavanaugh proceedings at one point because they had become "a sham and a disgrace." She said she doesn't believe the Kavanaugh story is over. "On these issues that were presented during those hearings, I believe the truth will eventually reveal itself." Sen. Bernie Sanders is embarking on a nine-state battleground tour on behalf of Democratic candidates to test the durability of the left-leaning coalition he assembled in 2016. And Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is spending heavily on Facebook ads in an effort to build a national base of support, according to the Boston Globe and the Center for Responsive Politics. ___ Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Louisville, Ky., and Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, N.J., contributed to this report. ___ Follow Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., arrives to view the FBI report on sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo, then Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, pauses while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kavanaugh's confirmation is a flashpoint for the November midterms. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - She is not on the ballot this fall, yet the fight over Susan Collins' political future is already raging. Interest in the Maine Republican senator's 2020 re-election has exploded in the days since she cast the deciding vote to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick - a vote that helped transform the balance of power on the nation's high court for a generation and suddenly complicates Collins' path to a fifth term. Half a dozen Democratic prospects are openly considering running against the Republican political powerhouse, while an online fund has generated $3.6 million - and counting - for Collins' ultimate Democratic challenger. The would-be candidates include Susan Rice, who had been one of President Barack Obama's closest aides. Rice is not currently a Maine resident - she has family ties to the state - but would bring political celebrity that could make it difficult for the state's shallow bench of lesser-known Democrats to stand out. The emergence of a crowded field in a Senate contest two years away underscores the extraordinary political moment triggered by the debate over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Fighting allegations of sexual misconduct from three decades ago, he won confirmation by a razor-thin margin on Saturday over the screaming objections of Democrats and women's groups in all corners of the nation. Collins' Alaska colleague, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, was the lone Republican to oppose the nomination. Now, Alaska GOP officials are considering whether to seek a replacement or encourage her not to seek re-election as a Republican when her term expires in 2022. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the lone Democrat to vote for Kavanaugh, faces a potential revolt from his own party's liberal base in his immediate re-election test in November. Manchin told The Associated Press last weekend that he followed Collins' lead. In this Sept. 21, 2018 photo, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, speaks to news media at Saint Anselm College, in Manchester, N.H. Collins is not on the ballot this fall, yet the fight over Susan Collins' political future is already raging. Interest in the Maine Republican senator's 2020 re-election has exploded in the days since she cast the deciding vote to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) "She had an opportunity to make history," said Maine Democrat Rosa Scarcelli, a businesswoman who previously ran for governor and is among Collins' many potential challengers. "I'm disappointed and angry." Many Maine Democrats prefer that a woman take on Collins, although few, if any, enjoy the statewide notoriety and fundraising prowess needed to defeat New England's last remaining Republican senator. Many may try. The Democrats' prospect list is topped by Rep. Chellie Pingree, who Collins defeated once already, back in 2002. Pingree's daughter, Hannah, who served as the youngest woman elected state house speaker before stepping away from politics, said she's waiting until after the midterms to decide on a Collins challenge. "It's too soon to say what I might do," Hannah Pingree told the AP. "I have taken some time out of running for office to raise some young kids and they're getting a little older. It's not impossible." Maine Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon also hinted at a potential run. Gideon, who's often clashed with outgoing Republican Gov. Paul LePage, said she's focused on winning more Democratic seats in the Maine House for now. After November's midterm elections, however, she said she'd "be seriously considering how I can elevate the voices of people who deserve and demand to be heard and represented in DC." Other potential prospects include former state house speaker Emily Cain, state attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Janet Mills, and liberal activist Betsy Sweet. Sweet said a big factor would be whether Collins, 65, decides to run at all. She said Maine needs "someone who's not entrenched in the old way of doing things." "We need someone who's more transparent and more willing to actually meet and listen to the people of Maine," said Sweet, who acknowledged that she's also considering a run. Three men, current Democratic Senate nominee Zak Ringelstein, state Rep. Seth Berry and Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling, said they're more interested in supporting a female candidate than running themselves. "I have made it my personal mission to defeat Susan Collins," said Ringelstein, who said that he'd prefer to help a Collins' challenger as a U.S. senator but wouldn't rule out a second run in 2020 if he loses next month. Berry is also open to a Senate bid. Strimling said he's is not. "From my perspective we need a strong progressive woman to run, and that's who I'll be looking to support," Strimling said. Rice is a wildcard. She first served Obama as his ambassador to the United Nations and then as his national security adviser. Obama was considering nominating Rice to lead the State Department during his second term, but she withdrew her nomination after she became embroiled in the controversy over American deaths at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Collins was among the Republicans who said she was troubled by Rice's explanations for the deadly attack. Rice's public interest in the Senate seat was met with a combination of skepticism and curiosity among energized Maine Democrats, who have tried and failed for much of the last three decades to defeat Collins. The former Obama aide's connection to Maine has already emerged as a central issue. Rice, whose primary residence is in the Washington area, emphasized "long and deep" ties to Maine as she attacked Collins during a weekend appearance at the New Yorker Festival. "I think she did a disservice to people in Maine who were counting on her. She has betrayed women across this country," Rice charged. She said she'd give a possible Senate bid "due consideration after the midterms." Rice also said her family "goes back generations" in Maine and that she's owned a home in the state for the last 20 years. Her maternal grandparents emigrated to Maine from Jamaica in the 1910s. Rice's grandfather, David Augustus Dickson, worked as a shipper, porter and janitor. Her grandmother, Mary Dickson, a maid and seamstress, was named Maine State Mother of the Year in 1950. That same year, Rice's mother, Lois Dickson Rice, was valedictorian of Portland High School. Rice's great-uncles all graduated from Maine's Bowdoin College. Rice's family once lived on Lafayette Street in Portland's Munjoy Hill neighborhood, once an immigrant enclave now home to an expensive rental market. One neighborhood resident, Lisa Morris, said she was surprised to learn she lives on the same street that Rice's family once did. "It would be pretty awesome to have a senator from Maine who was a woman of color," said the 55-year-old university policy analyst. Not far away, 86-year-old Judy Halpert recalled walking to school with Rice's mother, whom she called a close friend. Halpert doesn't like Collins "at all," and pointed to Rice's long roots in the state. "She has a right to be a Mainer as well," she said. "I'd vote for her in a minute." ___ Peoples reported from New York. Pace reported from Washington. WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Bernie Sanders is embarking on a nine-state battleground tour on behalf of Democratic candidates competing in the November elections, returning to the campaign trail ahead of a decision on another White House bid. The packed October schedule marks the Vermont independent's most extensive stretch of campaigning since the 2016 presidential race. It will include stops in Iowa and South Carolina, home to crucial early contests on the 2020 primary calendar. Sanders is expected to make a decision on whether to launch another campaign in the coming months and the tour could inform his decision. It will allow him to test the durability of the left-leaning coalition he assembled in 2016 and build relationships with elected officials who could serve as allies should he run again. "He wanted to go where he thinks he can be helpful in energizing the base and bringing in young people and independent voters and working-class voters who supported him," said Jeff Weaver, Sanders' 2016 campaign manager and longtime political adviser. Weaver said Sanders had "no timeline or deadline" for making a decision on 2020 but much of his consideration was focused on who is best able to defeat President Donald Trump. "His message has reached across the Democratic base and positions him well were he to decide to run in the primary but also in the general election as the candidate who can best beat Trump," he said. Sanders' challenge to Hillary Clinton made him the main alternative in the 2016 Democratic primaries, but the next presidential campaign is expected to be a wide-open contest that could include several senators such as Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, plus former Vice President Joe Biden, other members of Congress, governors and mayors. FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2018, file photo, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, gestures as he speaks during a campaign stop for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Gillum in Tampa, Fla. Sanders is embarking on a nine-state tour on behalf of Democratic candidates competing in the November elections, returning to the campaign trail ahead of a decision on another White House bid. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File) Sanders has been at the center of a debate over the party's future and whether his agenda of free college tuition, a $15 hourly minimum wage and a "Medicare for all" health care can win over general-election voters. The senator is coming off a victory after Amazon announced last week it would raise its wages for its workers to $15 per hour starting next month, and will raise pay for employees who make more than that, responding in part to pressure from Sanders. The tour kicks off on Oct. 19 in Bloomington, Indiana, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, with rallies and events on behalf of Liz Watson, who is challenging Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, R-Ind., and Gretchen Whitmer, who is running for Michigan governor. Sanders will hold rallies and other events in South Carolina and Iowa on Oct. 20-21, including stops in Iowa in Sioux City, Fort Dodge and Ames on behalf of J.D. Scholten, who is challenging Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. His Iowa visit, his first since February, will come amid a boost of political activity in the caucus state, including Booker, who addressed Democratic activists last weekend, and Trump, who will hold a rally in Council Bluffs on Tuesday night. The itinerary will also include rallies in Wisconsin, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and California, spanning a number of competitive races key to Democrats' electoral success. He will be campaigning alongside Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin; David Garcia, who faces Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey; Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo.; and Jacky Rosen, who is aiming to unseat Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev. Sanders' California swing will help Rep. Barbara Lee and two California congressional hopefuls, Ammar Campa-Najjar and Mike Levin. Through early October, Sanders has traveled to 17 states in support of Democratic candidates and an array of policy issues. An online fundraising powerhouse in 2016, Sanders has maintained a list of millions of his supporters that he can use to help endorsed candidates. Sanders is heavily favored to win re-election next month to a third term as Vermont's senator, allowing him to travel the nation in the weeks before the election. Sanders has called Trump a "pathological liar" who has bitterly divided the nation on social policies while overseeing an economic agenda that has further aggravated income and wealth inequality. "We are clearly in an unprecedented moment in American history, a very, very dangerous moment. We have an unstable president who is a liar, who has very strong authoritarian tendencies," Sanders said during a campaign event in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, last month. But he said there has been a "waking up among the American people, a desire to move this country in a very different direction, a disgust with the movement of this country toward oligarchy." __ Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC WASHINGTON (AP) - Forget "Obamacare." President Donald Trump has found a new target when it comes to ideas from the Democrats for the nation's health care system. In rallies for the November midterm elections, Trump is going after "Medicare for All," the rallying cry of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats. Trump is trying out attack lines echoed by other Republicans that a government-run system would wreck the existing and enormously popular Medicare program for seniors and disabled people. There definitely are serious questions about "Medicare for All," including the massive tax increases that would be needed to pay for it and longstanding differences in society about the proper function of government. But Trump omits any mention of improved benefits for seniors that Sanders and other Democrats promise. And he implies that Democrats are all lined up behind the idea, when they are not. A few recent examples: TRUMP: "You know what they're doing with Medicare? They'll destroy it. The majority of House Democrats have co-sponsored a socialist takeover of health care that would obliterate Medicare. Their plan is called Medicare for All, except they have no money. But it's really Medicare for none. Their plan would rob American seniors of the benefits they have paid - and they've paid these benefits and they've paid so much money for their entire lives and you take it away." - Minnesota rally Thursday. TRUMP: "Robbing our seniors of the benefits they paid into for their entire lives, giving it to people that don't deserve it. Giving it, by the way, to illegal aliens who come in to our country. OK?" - West Virginia rally on Sept. 29. THE FACTS: "Medicare for All" means different things to different Democrats. For Sanders, it's a "single-payer" system in which the government substitutes for private insurers and employers, paying for almost all medical care with tax money instead of premiums. President Donald Trump gives thumbs up as he steps off Air Force One as he arrives Monday, Oct. 8, 2018, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Trump is returning from Orlando, Fla. Forget "Obamacare." President Donald Trump has found a new target when it comes to ideas from the Democrats for the nation's health care system. Before the midterm elections, Trump is going after "Medicare for All," the rallying cry of Sen. Bernie Sanders. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) But for others, "Medicare for All" means allowing people to buy into a new government plan modeled on Medicare, while leaving private insurance in place. It's way too early to tell where Democrats are going to end up. Defining "Medicare for All" is expected to be one of the epic battles of the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries. Trump is also wrong to say that Democrats would "obliterate" Medicare. The options that allow younger people to buy into a Medicare-like plan don't involve overhauling the current program. The Sanders plan would expand Medicare to cover almost everyone in the country, which is a fundamental change. But current Medicare recipients would get improved benefits. Sanders would eliminate Medicare deductibles, limit copays, and provide coverage for dental and vision care, as well as hearing aids. A House single-payer bill calls for covering long-term care. The issue is whether the U.S. can afford to convert to a new government-run health care system, not that older Americans would be left uncovered. Trump is also stretching the facts when he implies that seniors' taxes from their working years have paid for their Medicare benefits. While inpatient care is financed with dedicated payroll taxes, about 75 percent of the cost of outpatient (Medicare Part B) and prescription drug coverage (Medicare Part D) is paid for by general tax revenues. Finally, it's unclear where Trump gets his assertion that Democrats would give Medicare to "illegal aliens." The single-payer bills in Congress call for covering all U.S. "residents." However, what qualifies as residency is not defined in the text but left to be worked out in regulations. Sanders' legislation calls for "inhibiting travel and immigration to the United States for the sole purpose of obtaining health care services." The House bill calls for reimbursement arrangements with other countries or self-pay for foreigners scheduling surgeries at U.S. hospitals. ___ Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck SCHOHARIE, N.Y. (AP) - Relatives of the limousine driver involved in a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York said Tuesday they believe he was unwittingly assigned an unsafe vehicle. The family of Scott Lisinicchia released a statement through a lawyer shortly after another attorney representing the limousine company, Prestige Limousine, said the driver might have been unfamiliar with the rural road. Lisinicchia was driving the limousine that ran through a stop sign Saturday at the bottom of a T-intersection on a rural road 25 miles west of Albany. Two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limo celebrating a woman's birthday died. The statement from Lisinicchia's lawyer said he would never have "knowingly put others in harm's way" and cautioned against jumping to conclusions. "The family believes that unbeknownst to him he was provided with a vehicle that was neither roadworthy nor safe for any of its occupants," according to the statement from Grant & Longworth. Prestige Limousine has been criticized for maintaining vehicles rife with violations and for employing a driver lacking a commercial license. The deadly crash also has shined fresh light on the controversial history of the business owner, a former FBI informant. Television networks broadcast at the roadside memorial scene of Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. A limousine loaded with people headed to a birthday party blew the stop sign at the end of a highway and slammed into an SUV parked outside a store, killing all people in the limo and a few pedestrians, officials and relatives of the victims said. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) The limousine that ran the stop sign was cited for code violations Sept. 4, including a problem with the antilock brake system malfunction indicator system. Four of the Gansevoort, New York-based company's limos were cited for 22 maintenance violations this year, though none were deemed critical. "Those safety issues had been addressed and corrected," attorney Lee Kindlon, who represents Prestige, told CBS News in a segment Tuesday. "Not all infractions are major. A lot of these things are minor and were fixed." Kindlon said he doesn't think those infractions contributed to the crash. He told the Times Union of Albany that the driver might have misjudged his ability to stop at the bottom of the long winding hill. "I think he came up over that hill unfamiliar with territory. You just can't the stop something like that," Kindlon said. "I think the state has been warned about that intersection for years and the Department of Transportation is just looking to point a finger." One of the victims, Erin McGowan, texted a friend saying the party bus that was supposed to take them to Cooperstown had broken down on the way to pick them up and that the group obtained a stretch limo instead, the friend, Melissa Healey, told The New York Times. McGowan texted that the limo was in poor condition, with its motor "making everyone deaf." The limousine, built from a 2001 Ford Excursion, ran the stop sign, crossed three lanes of traffic and hit a parked SUV before stopping in a wooded ditch. Federal transportation records show Prestige is owned by Shahed Hussain, who worked as an informant for the FBI after the Sept. 11 attacks. He infiltrated Muslim groups by posing as a terrorist sympathizer in at least three investigations. State police say Shahed Hussain is in Pakistan. On Monday his son, Nauman Hussain, who has operated the limo company, met with state police investigators for several hours, according to the Albany newspaper. Kindlon declined to comment on the interview to the newspaper. He did not return calls seeking comment from The Associated Press. In 2014, Nauman Hussain and his brother were accused by police of insisting they were each other after a traffic stop. Nauman Hussain was the passenger, but had a valid license. His brother did not. Police later discovered Nauman had an extensive suspension and conviction list which had been cleared, according to the Times Union. Prestige's address is listed as a modest motel outside Saratoga Springs that is owned by Hussain, according to tax records. Nearby residents complained to town code enforcement officials several times in recent years about the condition of Hussain's property. In spring 2017, the state health officials shut down the motel and its low-income residents were forced to temporarily move out after a sewer line failed. The owner claimed a disgruntled former tenant sabotaged the infrastructure, but a building inspector blamed the problem on improper fittings and lack of support for the waste lines. ___ Associated Press writer Chris Carola in Albany contributed to this report. A drone operator with the National Transportation Safety Board conducts an investigation at the scene of Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. A limousine loaded with revelers heading to a 30th birthday slammed into an SUV parked outside a store, killing all people in the limo and a few pedestrians. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Television networks broadcast at the roadside memorial scene of Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. A limousine loaded with people headed to a birthday party blew the stop sign at the end of a highway and slammed into an SUV parked outside a store, killing all people in the limo and a few pedestrians, officials and relatives of the victims said. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Family members and friends gather for a candlelight vigil memorial at Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook Pedestrian Bridge in Amsterdam, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. The memorial honored 20 people who died in Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) Maria Busch ,left, and Tammy Smith both of Amsterdam, N.Y., gather with family and friends for a candlelight vigil memorial at Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook Pedestrian Bridge in Amsterdam, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. The memorial honored 20 people who died in Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Starting a new life in Australia might not come with views of the Sydney Opera House or surfing at Sydney's Bondi Beach with the government considering a ban on some immigrants from settling in big cities. Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population Alan Tudge said Tuesday that his government wants to reduce the number of immigrants moving to Sydney and Melbourne in a bid to reduce congestion in Australia's two biggest cities. Tudge said placing conditions on visas that force immigrants to stay in less popular centers for several years would increase the likelihood that they would settle there permanently. He said some categories of immigrants would be exempt from geographic blocks, including those sponsored by employers and those who have married an Australian. TOKYO (AP) - The Japanese online retail tycoon who plans to travel to the moon on the SpaceX rocket says he respects and trusts Elon Musk as a fellow entrepreneur, despite his recent troubles. Zozo Chief Executive Yusaku Maezawa told reporters Tuesday that he was impressed by Musk's relationship with employees of Tesla and SpaceX, but people need to be careful what they tweet. Musk's tweet in August that declared he had secured financing for a Tesla buyout got him in trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Under a settlement, Tesla and Musk each must pay a $20 million penalty. Musk also stepped down as Tesla's chairman. Maezawa is set to be a passenger on Musk's Space X, the first-ever private commercial space trip, scheduled for blastoff in 2023. Zozo Chief Executive Yusaku Maezawa poses for the media prior to his news conference in Tokyo, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. The Japanese online retail tycoon who plans to travel to the moon on the SpaceX rocket says he respects and trusts Elon Musk as a fellow entrepreneur, despite his recent troubles. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) Zozo Chief Executive Yusaku Maezawa speaks during a news conference in Tokyo, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. The Japanese online retail tycoon who plans to travel to the moon on the SpaceX rocket says he respects and trusts Elon Musk as a fellow entrepreneur, despite his recent troubles. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) Zozo Chief Executive Yusaku Maezawa attends a news conference in Tokyo, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. The Japanese online retail tycoon who plans to travel to the moon on the SpaceX rocket says he respects and trusts Elon Musk as a fellow entrepreneur, despite his recent troubles. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) LOS ANGELES (AP) - Authorities say 10 people have been injured at a Hollywood rap event after a possible stampede. It happened shortly after 9 p.m. Monday outside the Hollywood & Highland shopping center, where the rapper Phora was holding a meet and greet in a shoe store. KABC-TV says when Phora stepped outside, he was engulfed by fans, some of whom had been standing for hours. Police called it a stampede. Fans said there was only pushing and shoving but some people hyperventilated and passed out. The Los Angeles Fire Department says 10 teenagers and young adults were treated for illness or injury from a crowd surge. Eight were taken to hospitals. None of the problems are life-threatening. Phora apologized to the fans and said he hoped nobody was seriously hurt. Police cleared the crowd. No arrests were made. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) - A man has been fatally shot by Tennessee police after a car chase in which the man crashed into an officer. News outlets quote the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as saying the man died Monday night in Oak Ridge. A TBI release says Oak Ridge police officer spotted a man with outstanding warrants earlier that evening driving a pickup truck. It says police attempted to pull him over, but he fled. It says the chase ended in a parking lot when officers again attempted to stop the man, who then hit an officer with his truck. It says at least one officer then shot at the man, who was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. The police officer who was hit was treated and released. Police did not release the names of the officer or suspect. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said Tuesday the government plans to new tax measures to help raise funds to pay off national debts that have snowballed due to corruption under the previous government. Lim said it will take the government three years to resolve its fiscal woes due to more than 1 trillion ringgit ($240.5 billion) in debt and another 35 billion ringgit ($8.4 billion) in newly discovered unpaid tax refunds that were not disclosed by the previous government. "Fiscal consolidation will not be achieved easily, and we must be willing to expect some pain and even offer some sacrifice. We would need 3 years to resolve the fiscal issues," Lim told an economic forum. He didn't give details of the tax measures but said these will be announced in the 2019 federal budget that will be unveiled Nov.2. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told the forum the fiscal problems have turned Malaysia from an Asian tiger into a "small kitten." "It is going to be tough for the government because it inherited a country that is completely disoriented," said Mahathir, who was elected a second time to become the world's oldest leader at 93. "We may have to devise new taxes in order to have the money to pay our debts. Of course the other thing we can do is to sell our assets." Anger over massive corruption at the 1MDB state investment fund prompted Mahathir - who led Malaysia for 22 years until 2003 - to make a political comeback and turn on his former party. Mahathir's alliance won a stunning victory in May 9 elections to oust scandal-tainted former Prime Minister Najib Razak, ushering in the country's first change of power since independence from Britain in 1957. In this Oct. 8, 2018, photo, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad delivers his speech during a rally for Anwar Ibrahim in Port Dickson. Prime Minister Mahathir told an economic forum that the fiscal problems had turned Malaysia from an Asian tiger into a "small kitten." (AP Photo/Vincent Thian) The country's huge debt is partly due to losses from the 1MDB fund set up by Najib that led voters to abandon him, and sparked investigations in the U.S. and several other countries. U.S. investigators say Najib's associates stole and laundered at least $4.5 billion from the fund. Najib and his wife Rosmah have been charged with multiple counts of corruption and money laundering linked to 1MDB, after Mahathir reopened investigations into the fund that were suppressed during Najib's rule. The couple have both pled not guilty and Najib has accused the government of seeking political vengeance against his family. The new government has reviewed large infrastructure projects, including Chinese investment, to cut costs. It also is seeking ways to bolster revenues to pay off debts and plug deficits expected after it scrapped an unpopular goods and services tax. Lim said the government may sell its equity in state-owned companies to raise funds but will aim to strike a balance between fiscal consolidation and ensuring productive spending and investment. "While it is imperative for the government to be prudent with our expenditure, we are equally cognizant that we must not fall into the austerity trap. What we want is merely to get a bigger bang for the buck," Lim said at the forum. LYON, France (AP) - European security chiefs struggled over solutions to the migrant crisis and oversaw a simulated terrorist attack on a stadium Tuesday, with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions looking on. Elite police forces staged the anti-terrorism exercise Tuesday in the French city of Lyon as part of meetings of interior ministers of six European countries plus Morocco. Sessions didn't speak publicly at the event. The officials differed over how best to tackle Europe's migrant influx given the EU's open internal borders. Poland's interior minister, Joachim Brudzinski, said that European countries are coming around to his nation's view that "migration today, whether it's legal or illegal, can be a threat to Europe." He said Italy's new populist government was among those coming around to Poland's hard-line position. "We do need European solidarity," he told The Associated Press. "But let's face it: there were some countries which back in 2015 weren't participating in this huge invitation of people that's come to Europe and I don't see why these countries now need to share the burden, share the responsibility of welcoming these people." The French hosts of Tuesday's meeting however are seeking a multi-country solution to migrant arrivals, working with governments around Europe and Africa. Members of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion (RAID) and Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) attend a training exercise in case of terrorist attack at the G6 Interior Ministers' meeting at the Groupama stadium in Decines, near Lyon, central France, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) And the European Union's commissioner for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, insisted that "No country in the European Union or out of the European Union can address these very challenging issues alone and we are ready to continue our cooperation." He promised EU support for Italy as "one of the frontline member states that has suffered a lot during the last few years." The interior ministers of Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Morocco took part in the meetings in Lyon, along with Sessions and U.S. Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Claire Grady. Sessions' appearance comes after U.S. President Donald Trump decided not to fire Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, despite Trump's anger over the U.S. probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Italian Interior Minister and deputy Premier Matteo Salvini arrives at the G6 Interior Ministers' meeting in Lyon, central France, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) From left, British Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Jean-Marc Chataigner, Ambassador and French Special Envoy for Sahel, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, US Secretary Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, German Ministry of the Interior Stephan Mayer, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, French Minister attached to the Interior Minister Jacqueline Gourault, Moroccoan Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, European Union Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos, European Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King, Polish Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski, attend a family picture at the G6 Interior Ministers' meeting in Decines, near Lyon, central France, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) SRINAGAR, India (AP) - A court in southern India released the chief editor of a prominent investigative magazine on Tuesday, hours after police arrested him on charges of publishing material that defamed the state governor. R.R. Gopal was arrested at the airport in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, on Tuesday morning as he was about to board a flight to a neighboring state, said a police official at the station where Gopal was detained. Police later took Gopal to a court in Chennai and sought his further custody. However, the magistrate refused the request and set him free. Outside the court, Gopal defended the magazine's report and vowed to continue with the probe. He accused the government of curtailing freedom of the press. Gopal was arrested after his influential Tamil-language magazine, "Nakkeeran," published reports linking the governor to a recent university sex scandal, said the police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy. The officer said the arrest was based on a complaint filed by an official associated with the governor's office, accusing Gopal of defaming the governor and spreading misinformation. He said the report was published in the magazine in April after the scandal surfaced the same month. Gov. Banwarilal Purohit ordered an investigation into the scandal, according to an official at the governor's office. Dozens of journalists and opposition politicians protested the arrest. They gathered outside the police station where Gopal was held and demanded his immediate release while shouting slogans against the government's action. The Chennai Press Club issued a statement condemning the arrest, calling it misuse of authority and law. M.K. Stalin, a prominent politician in the state, accused the authorities of "threatening media freedom." In July, the global watchdog Reporters Without Borders expressed serious concern at "an alarming deterioration in the working environment of journalists in India" and demanded that the government ensure the safety of reporters. India's press freedom ranking dropped by two points this year, placing the country 138th, according to the watchdog. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants Pope Francis to visit North Korea. South Korea's presidential office said in a statement Tuesday that Kim told President Moon Jae-in during their summit last month that the pope would be "enthusiastically" welcomed in North Korea. Kim has been intensely engaged in diplomacy in recent months in what's seen as an effort to leverage his nuclear weapons program for an easing of economic sanctions and military pressure. North Korea is officially atheist and strictly controls religious activities. A similar invitation for then-Pope John Paul II to visit after a 2000 inter-Korean summit never resulted in a meeting. The Vatican insisted that a papal visit would only be possible if Catholic priests were accepted in the country. MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that medical tests show he doesn't have cancer, but added that he won't release a detailed report on his health. "I'm not yet cancerous so do not be afraid to go near me. I will not contaminate you," the 73-year-old leader told a journalist in jest during a news conference. When asked if tissue samples taken from him tested negative for cancer, the president nodded. Interior officer in charge Eduardo Ano earlier told reporters that Duterte announced his test results in a Cabinet meeting Monday night, eliciting applause from top officials. Ano said the president looked well and attended back-to-back meetings Monday. "We can drink now, really. I'll give you a run for your money," Duterte told a journalist. He denied speculation he flew to Hong Kong over the weekend to seek treatment, saying he went there with his family to buy larger clothes because he had gained weight. Duterte said in a speech last week that he might have cancer and was awaiting test results, adding to growing uncertainty about his health. Duterte failed to hold a scheduled Cabinet meeting and skipped another ceremony last Wednesday, leading to speculation that he had been hospitalized. His spokesman, Harry Roque, denied that. In this Sept. 13, 2018, file photo, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte listens during a command conference on Typhoon Mangkhut, locally named Typhoon Ompong, at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council operations center in metropolitan Manila, Philippines. President Duterte said Thursday, Oct. 4, he might have cancer and added that "I don't know where I'm now physically" as he awaited the result of recent medical tests.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File) Rumors have swirled since last year that Duterte might have a serious illness. Duterte and his aides, however, have given assurances that he's generally fit, although he had said in recent months that he had grown tired of politics, including deeply entrenched government corruption and the country's drug problem. Duterte took office in June 2016 for a six-year term. He is known for his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, which has drawn international condemnation. He has said in the past that he has various ailments, including recurring migraines, as a result of a motorcycle accident and drinking. But he said his most serious ailment is Barrett's esophagus, a condition thought to be caused by stomach acid washing up into the esophagus. That may have been caused by his drinking, which he continued despite warnings from his doctors, he said. Duterte said he underwent an endoscopy and colonoscopy about a month ago but his doctor was advised recently to repeat the tests. Both tests aim to diagnose any abnormality in the digestive tract and colon. Roque said Duterte would abide by the country's constitution, which requires presidents to publicly disclose any serious illness, but he added that since "it is not serious, he will treat his medical condition as confidential." Duterte said the Cabinet would decide if a president is "fully incapacitated to discharge the functions of the office." The Philippine constitution provides that the vice president, currently opposition leader Leni Robredo, would take over if the president cannot lead the country due to health problems or other reasons. Duterte has questioned the competence of Robredo, a respected human rights lawyer, to lead the country and has suggested he preferred a military junta to take over in case he is removed from office. Top defense and military officials, however, have said they would follow the political succession specified by the constitution. BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian President Bashar Assad has granted general amnesty to army deserters both within Syria and those outside the country. A decree published by state media on Tuesday says the amnesty doesn't include "criminals" and those on the run unless they turn themselves in to authorities. Deserters in Syria have four months to do so; those abroad have six months. The amnesty could help boost the return of refugees, some of whom have not been able to go back home because they were blacklisted. The decree comes at a time when government forces have managed over the past year to capture wide areas once held by insurgents, including in southern Syria and the eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus. The flashpoint in Syria is now the country's northwestern province of Idlib. ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey said Tuesday it will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of a missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post, a week after he vanished during a visit there. The announcement came as the Post published a surveillance image of Jamal Khashoggi walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, just before he disappeared. Turkish officials have said they fear the columnist was killed inside the premises. Saudi Arabia has called the allegations that it killed 59-year-old Khashoggi "baseless" but has offered no evidence over the past seven days to show that he ever left the building. Tuesday's statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Hami Aksoy, said Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were "open to cooperation" and would allow the consulate building to be searched. The ministry did not say when the premises would be searched. Officials in Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The surveillance image released by the Post bore a date and time stamp, as well as a Turkish caption bearing Khashoggi's name and that he was arriving to the consulate. The Post said "a person close to the investigation" shared the image with them, without elaborating. The entrance to the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Turkey has summoned the Saudi ambassador to request the kingdom's "full cooperation" in an investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials say was killed while visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The 59-year-old Khashoggi went missing last Tuesday while visiting the consulate for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) The door Khashoggi walked in through appeared to be the main entrance of the consulate in Istanbul's 4th Levent neighborhood, a leafy, upscale district near the city's financial hub that's home to several other consulates. However, the consulate has other entrances and exits as well, through which Saudi officials insist he left. It's unclear which camera the footage came from, nor who operated it. However, a number of closed-circuit surveillance cameras surround the area. Friends of Khashoggi say Turkish police have taken possession of footage from the neighborhood as part of their investigation. The Saudis have offered no surveillance footage or evidence to corroborate their claims, nor have Turkish authorities offered proof to show why they believe the columnists was killed there. "If the story that was told about the murder is true, the Turks must have information and videotape and other documents to back it up," Fred Hiatt, the Post's editorial page editor, told The Associated Press. "If the story the Saudis are telling, that he just walked out ... after half an hour, if that's true, they ought to have facts and documents and evidence and tapes to back that up." Hiatt added that the "idea of a government luring one of its own citizens onto its own diplomatic property in a foreign country to murder him for the peaceful expression of his views would be unimaginable." Khashoggi had gone to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. He had been living since last year in the United States, in a self-imposed exile, in part due to the rise of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman. As a contributor to the Post, Khashoggi has written extensively about Saudi Arabia, including criticizing its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women's rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving. All those issues have been viewed as being pushed by Prince Mohammed, who similarly has led roundups of activists, businessmen and others in the kingdom. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged the Saudis to back up their claim that Khashoggi left the consulate. "Now when this person enters, whose duty is it to prove that he left or not? It is (the duty) of the consulate officials," Erdogan said during a visit to Hungary. "Don't you have cameras and other things? Why don't you prove it, you have to prove it." Turkey summoned the Saudi ambassador on Sunday to request the kingdom's "full cooperation" in the investigation, a Foreign Ministry official said. The Turkish private NTV television said Ankara asked for permission for its investigators to search the consulate building, but a Foreign Ministry official would not confirm the report. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters about the subject. Ties between Ankara and Riyadh are at a low point over Turkey's support for Qatar in its year-long dispute with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations. Turkey sent food to Qatar and deployed troops at its military base there. A Sunni power, Saudi Arabia is also annoyed by Ankara's rapprochement with the kingdom's Shiite archrival, Iran. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia faced increased scrutiny over Khashoggi's disappearance from officials in America, the kingdom's longtime ally. Even President Donald Trump, who took his first overseas trip as U.S. president to the kingdom and whose son-in-law Jared Kushner has close ties to Prince Mohammed, said he had concerns. "I don't like hearing about it. And hopefully that will sort itself out," Trump said. "Right now, nobody knows anything about it, but there are some pretty bad stories going around. I do not like it." ___ Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey, while Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Walter Ratliff in Washington contributed to this report. A members of the Turkish-Arab journalist association holds a poster with a photo of missing Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, as they hold a protest near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Khashoggi, 59, went missing on Oct 2 while on a visit to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. The consulate insists the writer left its premises, contradicting Turkish officials. He had been living since last year in the U.S. in a self-imposed exile, in part due to the rise of Prince Mohammed, the son of King Salman. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Members of the Turkish-Arab journalist Association hold posters with photos of missing Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, as they hold a protest near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Khashoggi, 59, went missing on Oct 2 while on a visit to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. The consulate insists the writer left its premises, contradicting Turkish officials. He had been living since last year in the U.S. in a self-imposed exile, in part due to the rise of Prince Mohammed, the son of King Salman. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) A journalist holding a poster of missing Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, speaks to camera near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Khashoggi, 59, went missing on Oct 2 while on a visit to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. The consulate insists the writer left its premises, contradicting Turkish officials. He had been living since last year in the U.S. in a self-imposed exile, in part due to the rise of Prince Mohammed, the son of King Salman. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) RUSE, Bulgaria (AP) - Bulgarian authorities on Tuesday will release and won't charge a man taken into custody in connection with the slaying of Bulgarian television reporter Viktoria Marinova, whose body was found after she highlighted possible government corruption. The man, who wasn't identified, would be freed "very shortly," said Teodor Atanassov, chief police officer of the northern town of Ruse. He declined to provide further details on the ongoing investigation. Police are investigating the rape and slaying of Marinova, 30, who was strangled. Her body was found Saturday near the Danube River. Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving European Union funds. The Interior Ministry said late Monday that prosecutors had opened an investigation into GP Group, a large private Bulgarian building company alleged to have misused the EU money, and froze 14 million euros ($16 million) of its assets. Interior Minister Mladen Marinov and Bulgaria's leading organized crime investigator, Ivaylo Spiridonov, are part of the investigating team. While Marinova didn't appear to have been closely involved in the fraud investigation, her show touched on a sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. The Balkan nation joined the EU in 2007 and was ranked 71st on Transparency International's corruption list last year. Joining the bloc opened an enormous spigot of possible new EU funding for Bulgarian infrastructure projects or other programs designed to bring the nation up to EU standards. This undated image made from video provided by TV Ruse shows journalist Viktoria Marinova in Bulgaria. Bulgarian police are investigating the rape, beating and slaying of a female television reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube River after she reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria. Authorities discovered the body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018 in the northern town of Ruse near the Romanian border. One Bulgarian media site demanded an EU investigation, fearing that Bulgarian officials were complicit in the corruption. (TV Ruse via AP) Journalists' groups and European leaders expressed shock at Marinova's murder. Margaritis Schinas, spokesman for European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said Monday that the commission expected "a swift and thorough investigation .... that will bring those responsible to justice and clarify whether this attack was linked to her work." The German government also sharply condemned the slaying, with the Foreign Ministry saying it was imperative "that there's a fast investigation and that this horrible event will be illuminated as comprehensively as possible." Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov insisted Monday there was no evidence to suggest the killing was linked to Marinova's work. Marinova was a director of TVN, a TV station in Ruse, and a TV presenter for two investigative programs. Her final show on Sept. 30 was a program about Attila Biro, an investigative journalist with the Rise Project Romania, and Dimitar Stoyanov from the Bulgarian investigative site Bivol.bg. The two men were briefly detained on Sept. 13 south of Sofia as they investigated a tip that documents connected to suspected fraud involving EU funds were being destroyed. Bivol.bg owner Assen Yordanov said he couldn't directly link Marinova's slaying to her work, but noted her show tackled "our very sensitive investigation into the misuse of EU funds." "This is a topic on which no other Bulgarian national media dared to report on," he told The Associated Press. Biro told the AP that he had never met Marinova - he said one of her colleagues had interviewed him and Stoyanov about their work. "They are on the right path, but let's see how the investigation proceeds," he said. ___ Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania, contributed to this report. A woman holds a candle next to a portrait of slain television reporter Viktoria Marinova during a vigil at the Liberty Monument in Ruse, Bulgaria, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Bulgarian police are investigating the rape, beating and slaying of a female television reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube River after she reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) A woman places flowers next to a portrait of slain television reporter Viktoria Marinova during a vigil at the Liberty Monument in Ruse, Bulgaria, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Bulgarian police are investigating the rape, beating and slaying of a female television reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube River after she reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) A man walks after lighting candles next to a portrait of slain television reporter Viktoria Marinova after a vigil at the Liberty Monument in Ruse, Bulgaria, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Bulgarian police are investigating the rape, beating and slaying of a female television reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube River after she reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) PRAGUE (AP) - The voices of the witnesses are quiet. Their heads are projected on screens behind a chain-link fence in complete darkness at the site of a former monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Their topic: the most painful moments in the history of Czechoslovakia. A multimedia exhibition is marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia by focusing on the nation's experience with two totalitarian regimes in the turbulent 20th century: the Nazi occupation in World War II and Communist rule. "The Memory of the Nation" has been created by the Post Bellum nonprofit organization, which has been recording oral histories of those who witnessed key historical moments. It starts in 1939, beginning with the Nazi invasion, and goes until the end of the communist regime in 1989. "The 20th century is full of traumas," said Jana Holcova, a Post Bellum spokeswoman. Czechoslovakia was created as an independent state on Oct 28, 1918, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed at the end of World War I. It ceased to exist in 1993, after the region peacefully split into two nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Here's a look at the exhibit that runs through Dec 9. In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, visitors view a multimedia exhibition that marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia, in Prague, Czech Republic. The Czechs are marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia with an exhibition at the site of a former monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that looks back at the most traumatic moments of its history. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) ___ A FITTING PLACE TO CONTEMPLATE HISTORY Visitors to the exhibit have a rare chance to see the huge, rarely-opened underground space just under the former Stalin monument site at Prague's Letna Park. The almost 16-meter (over 52-foot) granite statue of Stalin with other figures behind him, once considered the biggest representation of the brutal dictator outside the Soviet Union, was unveiled in 1955 after six years of work. Its creator, Otakar Svec, killed himself shortly before that, following the example of his wife. After Stalin's Soviet successor, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced Stalin's personality cult, the monument that was visible from many parts of Prague became a political problem. It was demolished in 1962. The space has been closed for decades. City Hall has proposed that the National Gallery turn it into a center for contemporary art while Post Bellum has suggested the current exhibition be expanded into a museum to totalitarianism. No final decision has been made. ___ TRAUMATIC MOMENTS IN A NATION'S PAST In one section, a video map with sound allows visitors to glimpse a bit of what it was like to be a RAF pilot shooting down a Nazi plane in World War II during the Battle of Britain, in which many Czechs participated. Other sections illustrate Nazi cruelty, an interrogation by the feared Communist-era secret police or the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, which crushed the liberal reforms known as the Prague Spring. A moment from the country's 1989 anti-Communist Velvet Revolution, which was led by Vaclav Havel, comes at the end as a relief. Witnesses speaking on the screen include Holocaust survivors, political prisoners and a communist investigator. Subtitles are in Czech and English. ___ THE WALL THAT DIVIDES The project includes a 5-meter (over 16-foot) high wall that runs for 50 meters (164 feet) and prevents people from seeing the elegant, cobblestoned city of Prague at a popular viewing spot. Martin Hejl, art director of the exhibition, said the wall symbolizes the country's totalitarian period, its suffocating censorship, the divisions of its people and "archetypical sites such as the Berlin Wall." ___ If you go: The site is on a hill at the edge of Letna Park, walking distance from downtown. Hours: Monday - Friday 8.30 a.m. - 7 p.m.; Saturday - Sunday 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Admission: 100 koruna ($4.70) but free for children, school groups, seniors and the disabled. In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, visitors view a multimedia exhibition that marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia, in Prague, Czech Republic. The Czechs are marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia with an exhibition at the site of a former monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that looks back at the most traumatic moments of its history. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, visitor views a multimedia exhibition that marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia, in Prague, Czech Republic. The Czechs are marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia with an exhibition at the site of a former monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that looks back at the most traumatic moments of its history. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, visitors view a multimedia exhibition that marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia, in Prague, Czech Republic. The Czechs are marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia with an exhibition at the site of a former monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that looks back at the most traumatic moments of its history. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) CAIRO (AP) - EgyptAir is trying to shift the blame to a local advertising agency for a bizarre article in its in-flight magazine purportedly based on an interview with actress Drew Barrymore. The airline said in a statement released on Monday that it has an agreement with Al-Ahram advertising agency, which edits articles and interviews for its in-flight magazine, Horus. EgyptAir says the agency is "totally responsible" for the magazine's editorial content. The article, riddled with misspellings and grammatical errors, led with a description of Barrymore as "being unstable in her relationships" and quoted her as saying that motherhood was "the most important role in my life." EgyptAir last week said it stands by the article, published in Horus' October edition. Barrymore has yet to issue an official statement on the interview. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The Latest on South Korea saying that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants Pope Francis to visit (all times local): 6:15 p.m. The Vatican has no immediate comment on a statement from South Korea's presidential office that the North Korean leader wants Pope Francis to visit officially. But the head of the Vatican press office released a statement Tuesday saying that the pope would receive South Korean President Moon-Jae-in in an audience at the Vatican on Oct. 18. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the audience will come a day after the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, celebrates a Mass for peace for the Korean Peninsula in St. Peter's Basilica. Moon will participate in the Mass. Francis visited South Korea in August 2014. On the plane ride back to Rome, he expressed hope that the divisions would be overcome, saying "the two Koreas are brothers, they speak the same language." FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2018, file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a joint press conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Paekhwawon State Guesthouse in Pyongyang, North Korea. South Korea says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants Pope Francis to visit North Korea. South Korea's presidential office in a statement on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, said Kim told President Moon Jae-in during their summit last month that the pope would be "enthusiastically" welcomed in Pyongyang. (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP, File) ___ 5 p.m. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants Pope Francis to visit the officially atheist country, South Korea said Tuesday. South Korea's presidential office said in a statement that Kim told President Moon Jae-in during their summit last month that the pope would be "enthusiastically" welcomed in North Korea. Kim has been intensely engaged in diplomacy in recent months in what's seen as an effort to leverage his nuclear weapons program for an easing of economic sanctions and military pressure. North Korea strictly controls the religious activities of its people, and a similar invitation for then-Pope John Paul II to visit after a 2000 inter-Korean summit never resulted in a meeting. The Vatican insisted at the time that a papal visit would only be possible if Catholic priests were accepted in North Korea. PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - A Kosovo court has put a suspect under a month's detention for allegedly taking part in terror groups in Syria as a foreign fighter. A statement from the capital Pristina court on Tuesday said the suspect, identified only as M.D., took part in paramilitary or police units in Syria "with organizations declared terrorist groups by the United Nations." It said that since March 2013 he had travelled several times to Syria via Germany. The suspect has not been charged. The court did not provide details on how and when the suspect was arrested. Kosovo authorities say they were not aware of other citizens joining extremist groups in Syria and Iraq in recent years. It said about 160 citizens are still actively supporting the groups there. As the deportees were led off the plane onto the steamy San Salvador tarmac, an anguished Araceli Ramos Bonilla burst into tears burst into tears, her face contorted with pain: "They want to steal my daughter!" It had been 10 weeks since Ramos last held her 2-year-old, Alexa. Ten weeks since she was arrested crossing the border into Texas and U.S. immigration authorities seized her daughter and told her she would never see the girl again. What followed - one foster family's initially successfully attempt to win full custody of Alexa - reveals what could happen to some of the infants, children and teens taken from their families at the border under a Trump administration policy earlier this year. The "zero-tolerance" crackdown ended in June, but hundreds of children remain in detention, shelters or foster care and U.S. officials say more than 200 are not eligible for reunification or release. Federal officials insist they are reuniting families and will continue to do so. But an Associated Press investigation drawing on hundreds of court documents, immigration records and interviews in the U.S. and Central America identified holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families - without notifying their parents. And today, with hundreds of those mothers and fathers deported thousands of miles away, the risk has grown exponentially. States usually seal child custody cases, and the federal agencies overseeing the migrant children don't track how often state court judges allow these kids to be given up for adoption. But by providing a child's name and birthdate to the specific district, probate or circuit court involved, the AP found that it's sometimes possible to track these children. Araceli Ramos walks with her five-year-old daughter, Alexa, in a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, on Aug. 18, 2018. An Associated Press investigation drawing on hundreds of court documents, immigration records and interviews in the U.S. and Central America identified holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families, without notifying their parents. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Alexa's case began in November 2015 under the Obama administration, after Ramos fled El Salvador to escape what she said was an abusive partner. Her 15-month separation from her mother exposes the fragile legal standing of children under the care of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and a flawed, piecemeal system that can change the course of a child's life. It took 28 minutes for a judge in a rural courthouse near Lake Michigan to grant Alexa's American foster parents, Sherri and Kory Barr, temporary guardianship. Alexa's mother and the little girl's immigration attorney were not even notified about the proceedings. Based on their experiences with Alexa, the Barrs had become convinced Ramos was a bad mother and that the little girl would be abused if she were reunited with her. "My wife and I are sick over this," Kory Barr told the judge, as he granted the foster parents' request two days after Christmas. The federal system that had custody of Alexa says the state courts never should have allowed foster parents to get that far, no matter how good their intentions. Each state court system, from New York to California, runs wardship and adoption proceedings differently, and variations sometimes even exist between counties. In 2014 in Missouri, a local couple permanently adopted the baby of a Guatemalan mother who was picked up in an immigration raid, after a seven-year legal battle. In a similar case in Nebraska, another Guatemalan mother prevailed, after five years and over $1 million in donated legal work. The Office of Refugee Resettlement and Bethany Christian Services, the agency that placed Alexa in foster care, would not comment on her case. But Bethany said foster parents are informed they're not allowed to adopt migrant children. Since the 1980's, however, Bethany acknowledged that Bethany said that nine of the 500 migrant children assigned to its foster program have been adopted by American families. The children, ages three to 18, were adopted after it was determined it wouldn't be safe or possible for them to go back to their families; at least one asked to be adopted by his foster parents, and another was a trafficking victim, Bethany said. "We never want families to be separated," said Bethany CEO Chris Palusky. "That's what we're about, is bringing families together." John Sandweg, who headed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Obama administration, said he worries that many more migrant children recently taken from their families may never see them again. "We have the kids in the U.S. and the parents down in Central America, and now they'll bring all these child welfare agencies into play," Sandweg said. "It's just a recipe for disaster." In Alexa's case, pressure from the Salvadoran government, child advocates and a series of viral videos Ramos posted on Facebook expressing her love for Alexa ultimately helped mother and daughter reunite. A month after the Barrs were granted guardianship of Alexa, the Justice Department weighed in sharply in the Michigan court. "The Barrs obtained their temporary guardianship order in violation of federal law," U.S. prosecutors argued in early 2017. The Barrs soon dropped their petition to keep Alexa, writing the judge that the federal government "seems to have us painted into a corner with no way out." Now back with her mother in El Salvador for more than a year, Alexa has relearned the Spanish she forgot, and has bonded again with her mother and brothers. When she wants attention, she whispers in her mother's ear and she often winds her small arms around her mother's waist and neck. And every now and then, Ramos allows Alexa to talk to the Barrs, who also love the little girl. Fearing for the parents separated from their children under the zero-tolerance policy, Ramos recently has taken to Facebook once again - to urge them to fight to get their kids back. "Never give up the struggle because we will go to the ends of the earth for our children," she said during an interview. "They are our children, not theirs." ___ Burke reported from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mendoza reported from San Miguel, El Salvador. Araceli Ramos holds her 5-year-old daughter, Alexa, on her lap during an interview in a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, on Aug. 18, 2018. The federal government offers all deported parents the chance to take their children with them, but Ramos said she was ordered to sign a waiver to leave Alexa behind. "The agent put his hand on mine, he held my hand, he forced me to sign," she said. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Five-year-old Alexa laughs with her mother, Araceli Ramos, while riding a merry-go-round at a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, on Aug. 18, 2018. Ramos scraped together $6,000 to pay a smuggler who could help her escape from the man who she said warned her she'd "never be at peace." On the month-long, 1,500-mile pilgrimage, she carried Alexa, a change of clothes, diapers, cookies, juice and water. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Araceli Ramos, with her five-year-old daughter, Alexa, peering over her shoulder, looks through Facebook pictures posted by Alexa's former foster family in Michigan, during an interview in a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, on Aug. 18, 2018. The Barrs, Kory, a physical therapist at a nearby rehabilitation hospital, and his wife, Sherri, who ran a home-organization business, had three daughters who were raised in a devout home and already had fostered two Salvadoran sisters in 2013. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Araceli Ramos sheds a tear as she describes her battle to be reunited with her 5-year-old daughter, Alexa, during an interview in a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, on Aug. 18, 2018. In Ramos' darkest days, she would lay on her bed, stare at the ceiling and sob, her hand on her stomach. "This girl, she was here, in my womb," she said. "We are meant to be together. Always." (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Five-year-old Alexa peers over the back of her chair as her mother, Araceli Ramos, speaks during an interview in a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, on Aug. 18, 2018. Returning to El Salvador in February 2017, Alexa had lost all her Spanish and spoke English to her mother, using words like "water" and "chicken." Ramos, who spoke almost no English herself, had to point to pictures or call friends to translate. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Five-year-old Alexa wears shoes depicting characters from Disney's "Frozen" movie as she and her mother Araceli Ramos meet with Associated Press journalists in a park in San Miguel, El Salvador, on Aug. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Aug. 19, 2018 photo, the Chaparrastique Volcano looms in the distance as people begin their day in a market area of central San Miguel, El Salvador. The smallest country in Central America, El Salvador is home to 6.3 million people. More than a million Salvadorans live in the U.S. where they've immigrated to flee violence or seek economic opportunity. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Aug. 19, 2018 photo, pigeons take flight in front of the cathedral in San Miguel, El Salvador. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Aug. 19, 2018 photo, a man looks at newspapers in front of a small mural in central San Miguel, El Salvador. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Aug. 18, 2018 photo, staff at the Combi Rock Cafe prepare beef, ribs, and tacos from the back of a converted van as the family-owned street restaurant celebrates its one year anniversary, in San Miguel, El Salvador. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Aug. 18, 2018 photo, cars drive along a commercial avenue in San Miguel, El Salvador. More than 26,000 people were deported from the US and Mexico to this Central American country last year. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Aug. 18, 2018 photo, commuters ride in the back of a pickup as night falls in San Miguel, El Salvador. More than 26,000 people were deported from the US and Mexico to this Central American country last year. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Aug. 18, 2018 photo, people eat inside a popular pupuseria, a restaurant serving traditional Salvadoran tortillas stuffed with savory fillings, in San Miguel, El Salvador. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018 photo, Chris Palusky, President and CEO of Bethany Christian Services, one of the nation's largest adoption agencies, explains their long term foster care program from their headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich. "We never want families to be separated," Palusky said. "That's what we're about, is bringing families together." (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Sarah Zuidema, a former Bethany Christian Services supervisor, poses in Grand Rapids, Mich. As the agency started receiving more Central American children, several former Bethany social workers said they were encouraged to recruit new foster families at the agency's traditional base, the Christian Reformed Church, and other local churches. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) ISTANBUL (AP) - The Latest on the mystery surrounding the fate of a Saudi journalist who disappeared while visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul (all times local): 11 p.m. Republican Sen. Rand Paul says he'll try to force a vote in the Senate this week blocking U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Paul told local radio in Kentucky he wants to end the arms shipments if there's "any indication" the Saudis are "implicated in killing this journalist that was critical of them." Khashoggi disappeared last week after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for routine paperwork ahead of his marriage. The Kentucky Republican, who's close to President Donald Trump, has long been a critic of the Saudi government. A staff member enters the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared a week ago after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate to obtain paperwork required for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee. Turkish officials have alleged he was killed in the compound while Saudis officials said he left the building unharmed. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Paul acknowledges he and Trump differ on their views of Saudi Arabia. "But who knows," he said, "the president may come around on this if there's any evidence they killed this journalist." ___ 6:30 p.m. A U.N. human rights expert says an investigation into the disappearance of a Saudi journalist in Turkey "should not be politicized," insisting the case has created a dilemma for the Turkish government. David Kaye, a U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression, said the disappearance of Saudi government critic Jamal Khashoggi "puts basically the Turks in the position of having both to maintain a diplomatic relationship and to deal with a real important, high-profile investigation." Kaye spoke to The Associated Press moments after he and two colleagues called for an international, independent investigation into the disappearance of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish prosecutors are already looking into the case. If either government seems to be in control of the investigation, Kaye said, "it's not going to be seen as credible by significant portions of the global community." Kaye said he didn't have "any particular plan" about what the international investigation would look like, but that "multiple models" - such as a U.N.-mandated probe - exist. Overall, he decried a "global epidemic" of stigmatization of journalists, "whether it's the United States and Donald Trump calling them 'the enemy of the people' or it's (President) Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines doing much the same thing - where any number of other places journalists are under threat." ___ 5:20 p.m. U.N. human rights experts have called for an immediate international investigation into the disappearance of a Saudi journalist who went missing after visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, with one insisting the case "should not be politicized." The experts said the "perpetrators and masterminds" who might be responsible for the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to the Washington Post who has criticized the Saudi government, "should be identified and brought to justice." The independent experts expressed concern that Khashoggi's criticism of recent Saudi policies might be "directly linked" to his disappearance. The experts are Bernard Duhaime, who researches involuntary disappearances; David Kaye, who specializes in freedom of expression; and Agnes Callamard, who focuses on summary executions. They are linked to the U.N. human rights office but do not speak for the United Nations. ___ 4 p.m. A senior Turkish official has welcomed Saudi Arabia's decision to allow authorities to inspect the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Numan Kurtulmus, deputy chairman of Turkey's ruling party, said in an interview with CNN-Turk television Tuesday that he hoped investigators would obtain clues leading to Khashoggi's whereabouts. He would not speculate as to what happened to the Saudi journalist but said investigators were assessing all possibilities. Kurtulmus called the journalist's disappearance a "dire, grisly and scary event." Turkish officials have said Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate after entering it on Oct. 2 and that his body was later taken away, without providing evidence. Saudi officials have adamantly denied the allegations, saying he left the consulate before he went missing, but have offered no evidence that he left the building. ___ 2:40 p.m. The European Union is adding its weight to international demands for official clarifications about what happened to missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini says the bloc stands side-by-side with the United States in urging authorities to clear up the journalist's disappearance in Turkey a week ago. Mogherini was asked on Tuesday by The Associated Press about Khashoggi. She says: "On this, let me subscribe 100 percent (to) what (U.S.) secretary (of state Mike) Pompeo said just a few hours ago. We are fully aligned with the United States on this, with the U.S. position on this." Mogherini added: "We expect a thorough investigation and full transparency from the Saudi authorities on what has happened." ___ 1:50 p.m. The U.N. human rights office says the disappearance of a Saudi journalist from the Saudi Consulate in Turkey's largest city is "of serious concern," and is urging the two countries to cooperate in investigating it. Rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani says it would be "truly shocking" if reports of the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi are confirmed. Shamdasani said during a U.N. briefing on Tuesday in Geneva that the rights office is urging Turkey and Saudi Arabia to cooperate and conduct an "impartial and independent investigation" into Khashoggi's disappearance in Istanbul, and "to make the findings public." She didn't call for a U.N. or other international investigations. Turkish prosecutors are already investigating the disappearance of Khashoggi, who has written columns critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. ___ 1:15 p.m. Turkey's Foreign Ministry says Turkish authorities will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The ministry says in a statement released on Tuesday that Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were "open to cooperation" and would allow the consulate building to be searched. The ministry didn't say when the premises would be searched. Khashoggi disappeared a week ago after entering the consulate to obtain paperwork required for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee. Turkish officials have alleged he was killed in the compound while Saudis officials said he left the building unharmed. ___ 8: 20 a.m. The Washington Post has published an image it described as the last surveillance photograph of its missing Saudi contributor. The Post's image showed Jamal Khashoggi walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul a week ago. Khashoggi disappeared immediately afterward. The image released on Tuesday bore a date and date stamp. The Post said "a person close to the investigation" shared the image with them. The 59-year-old Khashoggi went missing while on a visit to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. Turkish officials and Khashoggi's friends have told The Associated Press they fear the writer was killed at the consulate. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations as "baseless," but offered no evidence to show he ever left the building. Activists, members of the Human Rights Association Istanbul branch, holding posters with photos of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, talk to members of the media, during a protest in his support near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. The poster reads in Turkish: ' Jamal Khashoggi, missing since October 2, 2018'. Khashoggi disappeared after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate to obtain paperwork required for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee. Turkish officials have alleged he was killed in the compound while Saudis officials said he left the building unharmed. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Civilians wait to enter a blocked road leading to the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared a week ago after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate to obtain paperwork required for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee. Turkish officials have alleged he was killed in the compound while Saudis officials said he left the building unharmed. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Staff arrive at the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. Turkey said Tuesday it will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post, a week after he vanished during a visit there. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) A journalist holding a poster of missing Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, speaks to camera near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Khashoggi, 59, went missing on Oct 2 while on a visit to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. The consulate insists the writer left its premises, contradicting Turkish officials. He had been living since last year in the U.S. in a self-imposed exile, in part due to the rise of Prince Mohammed, the son of King Salman. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) An activist, member of the Human Rights Association Istanbul branch, holds a poster with a photo of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, during a protest in his support near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. Turkey said Tuesday it will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of a missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post, a week after he vanished during a visit there. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Photographers take pictures of an activist, a member of the Human Rights Association Istanbul branch, holding a poster with a photo of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, during a protest in his support, near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. Turkey said Tuesday it will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of a missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post, a week after he vanished during a visit there. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Members of the Turkish-Arab journalist Association hold posters with photos of missing Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, as they hold a protest near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Khashoggi, 59, went missing on Oct 2 while on a visit to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. The consulate insists the writer left its premises, contradicting Turkish officials. He had been living since last year in the U.S. in a self-imposed exile, in part due to the rise of Prince Mohammed, the son of King Salman. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) RUSE, Bulgaria (AP) - The Latest on the slaying of a female journalist in Bulgaria (all times local): 8:10 p.m. A senior Bulgarian police officer says authorities will release a man taken into custody and he won't be charged in connection with the slaying of a journalist who highlighted suspected government corruption. Teodor Atanassov, chief police officer of the northern town of Ruse, told reporters Tuesday that the man, who wasn't identified, would be freed "very shortly." He declined to provide further details on the ongoing investigation. Viktoria Marinova's body was found Saturday dumped near the Danube River. The 30-year-old Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving EU funds. ___ A portrait of the Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova, killed in the northern town of Ruse, is seen during a vigil in Sofia, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Bulgarian police are investigating the rape, beating and slaying of a female television reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube River after she reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova) 7:45 p.m. A U.S. freedom of expression group has called for a thorough and swift investigation into the slaying of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova. PEN America said Tuesday that "the horrifying rape and murder.... demands an immediate, rigorous and independent investigation." It said that if evidence emerged that she was killed because of her investigative work," she'd be the latest European journalist "killed while seeking to shine a light on corruption." Police are investigating the rape and slaying of the 30-year-old Marinova, whose strangled body was found Saturday near the Danube River. Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving European Union funds. ___ 5:30 p.m. Bulgaria's Interior Ministry says top investigators have been assigned to solve the "brutal" slaying of a Bulgarian journalist. The ministry said "a Romanian citizen of Ukrainian descent" was taken into custody Tuesday and others leads were being pursued. The body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova, a TV journalist who highlighted possible government corruption, was found Saturday dumped near the Danube River. Interior Minister Mladen Marinov and Bulgaria's leading organized crime investigator, Ivaylo Spiridonov, are part of the investigating team. The ministry says the "team continues to actively work on solving the brutal crime." Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving European Union funds. ___ 3:20 p.m. A senior Bulgarian police officer has confirmed that a man has been taken into custody in connection with the slaying of a journalist who highlighted suspected government corruption. Teodor Atanassov, chief police officer of the northern town of Ruse, on Tuesday said police were holding a man for 24 hours for questioning. He identified the individual as "a Romanian citizen of Ukrainian descent" and said the man had not been formally declared a suspect. The body of Viktoria Marinova was found Saturday dumped near the Danube River. Marinova, 30, hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving EU funds. ___ 3:15 p.m. Bulgarian national radio reports that a suspect has been arrested in connection with the slaying of Bulgarian television reporter Viktoria Marinova, whose body was found dumped after she highlighted possible government corruption. Tuesday's report said that according to unconfirmed information from the interior ministry, the suspect is "a Romanian citizen with a passport from Moldova." No other information was immediately available. Prosecutors said late Monday they had opened an investigation into the suspected misuse of European Union funds, as police investigate the rape and slaying of Marinova, whose strangled body was found Saturday dumped near the Danube River. Marinova, 30, hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving EU funds. ___ 1:15 p.m. Bulgarian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the suspected misuse of European Union funds, following the brutal slaying of a television reporter who highlighted possible government corruption. The interior ministry announced the probe late Monday. Television reporter Viktoria Marinova, whose strangled body was found Saturday, hosted a show last month where the EU funds fraud was reported by the investigative online site Bivol.bg. The ministry said prosecutors are examining the GP Group, the building company alleged to have misused the EU money, and froze 14 million euros ($16 million) of its assets. Meanwhile, police are investigating the rape and slaying of Marinova, 30, whose body was dumped near the Danube River. She was a director of TVN, a TV station in Ruse, and a TV presenter for two investigative programs. This undated image made from video provided by TV Ruse shows journalist Viktoria Marinova in Bulgaria. Bulgarian police are investigating the rape, beating and slaying of a female television reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube River after she reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria. Authorities discovered the body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018 in the northern town of Ruse near the Romanian border. One Bulgarian media site demanded an EU investigation, fearing that Bulgarian officials were complicit in the corruption. (TV Ruse via AP) A child lights candles next to a portrait of slain television reporter Viktoria Marinova during a vigil at the Liberty Monument in Ruse, Bulgaria, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Bulgarian police are investigating the rape, beating and slaying of a female television reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube River after she reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) A woman holds a candle next to a portrait of slain television reporter Viktoria Marinova during a vigil at the Liberty Monument in Ruse, Bulgaria, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Bulgarian police are investigating the rape, beating and slaying of a female television reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube River after she reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) A woman places flowers next to a portrait of slain television reporter Viktoria Marinova during a vigil at the Liberty Monument in Ruse, Bulgaria, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Bulgarian police are investigating the rape, beating and slaying of a female television reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube River after she reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) BERLIN (AP) - German exports dropped in August over the previous month for the second month in a row in the latest disappointing news about Europe's largest economy. The Federal Statistical Office reported Tuesday that exports were down 0.1 percent to 110.3 billion euros ($126.24 billion) in August, in seasonally and calendar adjusted numbers. Imports decreased 2.7 percent to 92 billion euros, narrowing the adjusted trade surplus to 18.3 billion euros. In unadjusted terms, the trade surplus was 17.2 billion euros. Compared to August 2017, exports were up 2.2 percent. ING economist Carsten Brzeski says "the traditional German growth engine is stuttering once again" with industrial production and exports losing momentum, "but reduced momentum from a high level is still no reason to worry." MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A Philippine official says China has raised concerns about a joint U.S.-Philippine military exercise that coincides with Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the country in November. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque says Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua raised the concern in a meeting Monday with President Rodrigo Duterte, who assured the Chinese envoy that the Philippines would not take part in the military maneuvers. Roque did not elaborate Tuesday on what particular drill China was concerned about. Roque said: "The general consensus was we don't want anything to mar the visit of President Xi." Philippine military officials, however, say they're unaware of any U.S. military exercise with Filipino forces next month. BERLIN (AP) - German's main industry association says political leaders need to make a major breakthrough at upcoming negotiations on ending Britain's membership in the European Union. The Federation of German Industries, known as BDI, cautioned Tuesday that a so-called hard Brexit with Britain leaving the bloc with no trade deal would be a "disaster" for businesses on both sides of the English Channel. BDI head Joachim Lang says "Europe needs to prevent a worst-case Brexit scenario" and be prepared to compromise at the upcoming talks. At the same time, "the prerequisite is that London finally grasps reality." He says that "otherwise Europe is in danger of sliding into a disorderly Brexit. A massive crisis would be the consequence." NEW DELHI (AP) - Nine people have died in a fiery explosion at a steel plant in central India. The state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited says in a statement that Tuesday morning's explosion at the SAIL Bhilai Steel Plant was sparked by a fire in a gas pipeline in a coke oven battery complex during scheduled maintenance. According to the statement, some of the injured sustained burns and were rushed to a local hospital. Fourteen people remain hospitalized. It was not immediately clear whether the plant had been evacuated. The steel authority said the fire was under control. Spokesman Mahesh Chandra Agrawal declined to provide additional details. The Bhilai plant, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Chhattisgarh state capital of Raipur, makes train tracks for the government-run India Railways system. LONDON (AP) - One of the two suspects in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in England is a military intelligence officer who was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by President Vladimir Putin in 2014, the British investigative group Bellingcat said Tuesday. The group identified the suspect in the March nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter as Alexander Mishkin, a doctor who works for Russia's GRU intelligence agency. British police say two GRU agents traveled under the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Borishov and used a Soviet-made nerve agent to poison the Skripals in the English city of Salisbury. Bellingcat said it relied on documents and other research to conclude Mishkin was the suspect known as Petrov. Last month, it named the other suspect, "Borishov," as GRU Col. Anatoly Chepiga. Moscow declined to comment on the group's stated findings. Bellingcat is a team of volunteer digital detectives that scours social media and open-source records to investigate crimes. Other cases it focused on include the downing of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine and chemical attacks in Syria. This undated handout image issued by Bellingcat shows photos of Dr Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin, the man the investigative website have alleged was who travelled to Salisbury under the alias Alexander Petrov, over the years. The investigative group Bellingcat is reporting that one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-spy in England is a doctor who works for Russian military intelligence. Bellingcat said on its website Monday, Oct. 8, 2018 that the man British authorities identified as Alexander Petrov is actually Alexander Mishkin, a trained doctor working for the Russian military intelligence unit known as GRU. (Bellingcat via AP) The group said it identified Mishkin through passport information, residents' databases, car registration records and phone records, as well as personal testimony from people who know him. The group said Mishkin was born in 1979, grew up in the remote marshland village of Loyga in northern Russia and studied medicine at the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg. Two former students at the academy confirmed Mishkin was the man British authorities identified as Alexander Petrov, Bellingcat reported. So did seven residents of his home village visited by the Insider, the British group's Russian partner organization. "They confirmed that their homeboy Alexander Mishkin was the person who moved on to military school and then became a famous military doctor and who received the award of Hero of the Russian Federation personally from President Putin," Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev said at a news conference at Britain's Parliament. Traveling under his assumed name of Petrov, Mishkin went to Ukraine and other neighboring countries to Russia between 2011 and 2013, Bellingcat said. In 2014, he was active in military operations in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists lead a violent breakaway movement. The same year, he was given one of Russia's highest honors. Mishkin's grandmother has a photograph "that has been seen by everybody in the village, of President Putin shaking Mishkin's hand and giving him the award," Grozev said. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin wouldn't discuss investigative reports and media articles on the Skripal poisoning. He reiterated Tuesday the government's claim that Britain stonewalled Russian requests to share details of the probe. Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer turned double agent for Britain, and his visiting daughter spent weeks in critical condition after the Salisbury attack. In June, two area residents who apparently came across a discarded vial that contained the poison fell ill; one of them died. Britain claims the poisoning was authorized at a top level of the Russian state - a claim Moscow denies. The Skripals' poisoning ignited a diplomatic confrontation in which hundreds of envoys were expelled by both Russia and Western nations. The attack on the Skripals has focused global attention on the GRU, an intelligence unit that Western officials say is linked to computer hacking and other covert operations around the world. British, Dutch and U.S. officials have accused the GRU of trying to hack the computers of international agencies, masterminding a devastating 2017 cyberattack on Ukraine and being behind stolen emails that roiled the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Last week, authorities in the Netherlands alleged that the GRU had tried and failed to hack the world's chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The U.S. Justice Department also charged seven GRU officers in an alleged international hacking rampage that targeted more than 250 athletes, a Pennsylvania-based nuclear energy company, a Swiss chemical laboratory and the chemical weapons watchdog. ___ Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this story. FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018 video grab file image provided by the RT channel on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018, a man identified as Alexander Petrov attends his first public appearance in an interview with the RT channel in Moscow, Russia. Investigative group Bellingcat reported Monday Oct. 8, 2018 on its website that the man British authorities identified as Alexander Petrov is actually Alexander Mishkin, a doctor working for the Russian military intelligence unit known as GRU. The other suspect in the March nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, - Ruslan Boshirov. - is a decorated Russian agent named Anatoliy Chepiga, Bellingcat reported last month. (RT channel video via AP, File) FILE - In this file combination photo made available by the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, shows men identified as Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov. Investigative group Bellingcat reported Monday Oct. 8, 2018 on its website that the man British authorities identified as Alexander Petrov is actually Alexander Mishkin, a doctor working for the Russian military intelligence unit known as GRU. The other suspect in the March nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, - Ruslan Boshirov. - is a decorated Russian agent named Anatoliy Chepiga, Bellingcat reported last month. (Metropolitan Police via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) - Rapper Kanye West has been invited to the White House. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that West is scheduled to have lunch with President Donald Trump and meet with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Sanders says they'll talk about manufacturing, prison reform, preventing gang violence and reducing violence in Chicago, where West grew up. The White House hasn't said when West will visit. Trump recently tweeted praise for West, who closed a "Saturday Night Live" show wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat and delivering an unscripted pro-Trump message after the credits rolled. West is married to reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who successfully pushed Trump to grant a pardon for a drug offender this year and has met with senior aides regarding criminal justice reform. SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Bosnian police say an officer has fired warning shots to stave off an attack by migrants in a northwestern town. A statement on Tuesday said the incident happened in a migrant camp in the town of Bihac, near the border with Croatia. Police say they were called to the scene on Monday evening over migrant clashes which injured several people. The statement says that while police were conducting interviews several dozen migrants first started throwing rocks and other objects before advancing toward officers. Police say that one of the officers fired four shots in the air to avert the attack. Migrants have been arriving in northwestern Bosnia to try to cross to neighboring EU country Croatia before moving on toward Western Europe. KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukrainian officials say that a fire at an ammunition depot in Ukraine has forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. There have been no injuries. The Emergencies Ministry says the blaze at the warehouse in the eastern Chernihiv region erupted early Tuesday. The ministry said the depot contained about 88,000 metric tons of munitions, but military officials claimed that half of them had been previously moved to other locations. The authorities blocked highways and a railroad in the area and suspended flights in the vicinity of the depot. The blaze was the latest in a series of devastating fires at Ukraine's military arsenals in recent years. Some officials alleged sabotage amid the tug-of-war with Russia, but others blamed them on negligence and disrespect for safety rules. Smoke rises after a powerful explosion at the ammunition depot of a military base near the town of Ichnya, about 170 km (110 mile) east of Kiev Ukraine, early Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. More than 10,000 residents have been evacuated after an ammunition depot exploded early Tuesday. (Vlad Musienko /Prime Minister Service Pool Photo via AP) TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A partisan brushfire blew up Tuesday amid the threat of Hurricane Michael over voter registration deadlines in the battleground state of Florida. The Florida Democratic Party sued in federal court on Tuesday, asking a judge to extend the state's registration deadline by at least a week. Florida's deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, 29 days ahead of the Nov. 6 election. Democrats including Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who is running for governor against Republican Ron DeSantis, called for an extension as Michael's imminent arrival prompted evacuations and the closing of government offices across the Panhandle. Shortly before midnight on Monday, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who works for Republican Gov. Rick Scott, told local election supervisors that if their offices were closed on Tuesday, then they could accept paper applications on the day their offices reopen. In his order, Detzner said giving some supervisors this extra day to accept paper registration forms would ensure all offices in the state will be open the same number of days. Democrats are contending in their lawsuit that Detzner's solution is inadequate and not equally available to all Floridians. The lawsuit asks what happens to people who evacuate and can't make it back to their local elections offices on the day they reopen. Accompanied by Florida governor Rick Scott, President Trump is welcomed at Orlando International Airport, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, at the Orange County Convention Center, in Orlando, Fla. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP) "This limited, confusing, and inconsistent solution is not sufficient to adequately protect the voting rights of Floridians," reads the lawsuit, filed in the federal court in Tallahassee. Democrats two years ago sued to extend Florida's voter registration deadline due to the disruption caused by Hurricane Matthew. A judge sided with Democrats and extended the deadline a week. Scott, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson this year, had been asked earlier Monday whether he would extend this year's deadline. Scott told reporters that state officials were considering it, but he pointed out that Florida now allows people to register to vote online, a key difference from 2016. Detzner in his memo noted that 40,000 people had used the online site in the last week to either register or update their registration. Florida had more than 13 million registered voters as of the end of August according to the state Division of Elections. Several statewide elections in recent years have been decided by very narrow margins. "I do think we ought to do whatever we can to extend registration to folks, especially given the fact that most people are trying to scurry away from these areas," Gillum said Monday. "They aren't thinking about voter registration." TIRANA, Albania (AP) - The Albanian government says it is against the takeover of the country's second-biggest mobile phone company by a Serbian counterpart. Prime Minister Edi Rama on Tuesday said Serbia Telekom "is not our preference" to buy Telekom Albania. He added, however, that companies from Serbia - historically Albania's regional rival - are generally welcome in Albania. Serbia Telekom was one of several companies interested in buying Telekom Albania, which is part of the Deutsche Telekom group and is up for sale. Governments sometimes veto foreign takeovers on national security grounds, though Albania has not explicitly said it would do so. Rama said the government does not typically play a role in private transactions, but wants to express its opinion because the mobile phone market "is a strategic sector." LONDON (AP) - The Bank of England has warned the European Union it is running short on time to mitigate disruption in trillions worth of complex financial contracts in the event Britain leaves the 28-nation bloc without a deal. The bank says in a report that the EU must act to protect against disruption to financial derivatives and insurance contracts as well as the transfer of personal data. The committee says the "need for authorities to complete mitigating actions is now pressing." It is the second warning of its kind. The bank warned in June that the EU needed to do more to prevent Brexit causing havoc in markets. The bank estimates that unless continuity to existing rules is created, some 41 trillion pounds ($53 trillion) in derivatives contracts face legal uncertainty after Brexit on March 29. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is declining to review an environmental ruling written by Brett Kavanaugh in his former role as an appeals court judge. The justices on Tuesday left in place an August 2017 ruling the new Supreme Court justice wrote that struck down an Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency rule. That rule was intended to limit the release of a class of chemicals that contribute to global warming. Kavanaugh wrote that EPA lacks the authority to regulate the chemicals under a part of the Clean Air Act that addresses ozone-depleting chemicals. The chemicals are hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. They are industrial chemicals primarily used in cooling that replaced ozone-eating compounds. The Trump administration says it agrees with the appellate ruling and that a new rule is in the works. NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Tuesday from a man convicted of joining a New Orleans police officer in the killing of her fellow officer and two other people during a 1995 restaurant robbery. The justices declined to review a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that upheld Roger LaCaze's three first-degree murder convictions. Lawyers for LaCaze said the judge should have stepped aside from the trial because of an appearance of possible impropriety. The judge's signature is on a form that the officer convicted in the killings, Antoinette Frank, used to obtain a handgun from the police evidence room. The judge denied that the signature was his. Authorities believe the weapon may have been used in the killings. But prosecutors say it was never proven that the gun was the murder weapon. They said the judge had no need to step aside because he did nothing wrong. Frank's arrest for the murders rocked a police department already plagued by scandal in the 1990s. Prosecutors said she and LaCaze murdered officer Ronald Williams II, Ha Vu and her brother, Cuong Vu. The Vus' parents owned the Kim Anh Restaurant in eastern New Orleans, and both Frank and Williams moonlighted there as security guards at times. Frank left the restaurant after the shootings and returned later under the guise of bringing help, a detective said at the time. But other Vu family members who hid in a large cooler during the rampage, identified her when she returned. Frank is on death row for the killings. LaCaze, who has long denied taking part in the killings, is serving a life sentence. PARIS (AP) - An anticipated reshuffling of French government ministers remained up in the air as the Cabinet prepared to meet Wednesday and President Emmanuel Macron departs for Armenia. Macron was expected to approve the naming of new ministers following the resignation of the interior minister last week. The French presidency said there would be no announcement Tuesday night. Before the weekly Cabinet meeting was viewed as a likely time to present the revised roster. Macron is scheduled to head to Armenia on Wednesday evening. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said last week the interior minister would be replaced "within a few days." Macron could seize the occasion to extend the restructuring to other government positions. He met with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Tuesday to discuss changes. Some ministers and junior ministers could be replaced or see changes to their functions. France's President Emmanuel Macron stands as he waits Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, prior to a meeting at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Philippe, speaking at the lower house of parliament Tuesday, said the government is "not febrile." Macron has seen his popularity plummet in recent months following a series of comments perceived by some as arrogant, and a scandal surrounding his ex-security aide. LONDON (AP) - A British union has called for a 24-hour strike of Uber drivers in London, Birmingham and Nottingham, putting up a "digital picket line" to demand better pay and conditions. The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, the IWGB, is asking the public to support drivers "by not crossing the digital picket line by not using the app during strike time." The strike begins Tuesday, and it was not clear how many drivers would join in. Union official James Farrar says "after years of watching take home pay plummet and with management bullying of workers on the rise, workers have been left with no choice but to take strike action." The union wants Uber to accept employment panel decisions that classify drivers as workers, not independent contractors. Uber is appealing. CAIRO (AP) - The U.N. children's agency says it has resumed emergency cash transfers to 9 million Yemenis after it was allowed to operate a call center to help monitor aid distribution. UNICEF spokeswoman Juliette Touma says the cash transfer program resumed Sunday, providing vital aid to some of the most impoverished people in the war-ravaged country. Last week, The Associated Press reported that the aid was suspended after Houthi rebels - who control northern Yemen- pressured UNICEF to close the call center. The Iran-aligned Houthis have been at war with a Saudi-led coalition since March 2015. The rebels have repeatedly been accused of diverting aid to their supporters. The cash injection comes at a critical time for many Yemenis facing price hikes after the recent freefall of the local currency. WASHINGTON (AP) - In the latest shake-up for President Donald Trump's turbulent administration, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley abruptly announced Tuesday she is resigning at the end of the year, raising fresh questions about the Trump team and about the outspoken diplomat's own political ambitions. The news blindsided some key U.S. allies and many congressional Republicans involved in foreign policy matters. And it came less than a month before congressional elections, thwarting White House efforts to project an image of stability, with the loss of one of the highest-profile women in the administration at a time when women's votes are being vigorously pursued. But Haley, the former South Carolina governor, has often been an unpredictable and independent force in the Trump administration. At times she has offered strikingly different perspectives on world events from her more isolationist-minded boss. A smiling Haley announced her decision at an Oval Office meeting alongside the president, bringing up her own political prospects even as she underscored her continued support for Trump. Without prompting from reporters, she said she had no plans to run for president "in 2020" and would campaign for Trump. Haley, who is 46 and not personally wealthy, hinted in her resignation letter to Trump that she is headed to the private sector. "I have given everything I've got these last eight years," she said, referring to her six years as governor as well as her time at the U.N. "And I do think it's good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it." President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Trump was asked why the announcement was made now since Haley is staying until the end of the year. Instead of answering directly, he recounted how she has had to work on tough issues, such as Iran and North Korea. White House officials had sought to put a hold on Trump's record-setting turnover in the run-up to the Nov. 6 elections, with aides being asked months ago to step down or commit to stay through Election Day to avoid adding to a sense of turmoil. Still, the prospect of post-midterm changes continues to hang over the West Wing, and Haley's exit was one that has been discussed, according to a senior administration official not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. A number of officials speculated that the timing was meant to preserve the ambassador's own political future. A post in the Trump administration has proven to be a rickety stepping-stone to either lucrative private sector work or hopes for higher office, and the risk to those ambitions might only increase after the elections if Democrats make significant gains in Congress. Trump said Haley first discussed leaving with him six months ago. The senior official noted that their conversation coincided with the appointments of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and John Bolton as national security adviser in an earlier upending of top foreign policy officials. Haley had expressed some frustration that her voice had been diminished as the two men became the aggressive new faces of Trump's international policy, the official said. More recently, there was the awkward moment at the U.N., when Trump's boasting of American economic strength under his leadership brought laughter at a General Assembly session. He insisted later that the delegates were laughing with him, not at him. The six-month timeline also coincides with a high-profile spat between Haley and the White House in April, when she drew the president's ire for previewing in a television appearance the administration's planned imposition of a new round of sanctions on Russia. When the sanctions never materialized, White House officials said the plans had changed without Haley being briefed, and economic adviser Larry Kudlow suggested she was confused. "I don't get confused," Haley said in a sharply-worded rejoinder to the West Wing. Haley was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trump's second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the Security Council. A rookie to international politics, the former South Carolina governor was an unusual pick for to be U.N. envoy. "It was a blessing to go into the U.N. every day with body armor," Haley said, saying her job was to defend America on the world stage. At the U.N., she helped spearhead the administration's efforts to combat what it alleged to be anti-American and anti-Israel actions by the international body, including the U.S. decision to leave the Human Rights Council and to stop funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian Refugees. Haley also secured three successively tougher Security Council sanction resolutions against North Korea - which the administration has credited with bringing Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table - and an arms embargo against South Sudan. But under Haley's tenure at the U.N., the U.S. has faced strong opposition from Russia when it comes to addressing the seven-year-old war in Syria, and frustration from European allies over reimposing nuclear sanctions against Iran. Trump said he was considering many candidates for Haley's job and that a successor would be named in two to three weeks - or maybe sooner. Among those under consideration, Trump said, is former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. Trump told reporters that he has heard his daughter Ivanka Trump's name discussed for the post, but said if he selected her he'd be accused of nepotism. U.S. Ambassador to the Germany Richard Grenell's name has also been floated for the post, according to an administration official. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley clashed with then-candidate Trump during the 2016 campaign, denouncing "the siren call of the angriest voices" that disrespected America's immigrants. Trump tweeted that "The people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley." Haley has one child in college and another approaching college age, and she has the potential to make much more money in the business world. She reported owing between $500,000 and $1 million on financial disclosures filed as part of her nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The debts included a personal mortgage of between $250,001 and $500,000, according to the report with the Office of Government Ethics. Before she was named by Trump to her U.N. post, Haley was elected the first female governor of South Carolina. She was re-elected in 2014. As governor, she developed a national reputation as a racial conciliator who helped lead the effort to bring down the Confederate flag at the Statehouse and helped guide the state through one of its darkest moments, the massacre at a black church. ___ Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump listens to a question during a meeting with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) SCHOHARIE, N.Y. (AP) - The Latest on the limousine crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York (all times local): 6:45 p.m. A state transportation official says the owner of the limousine that crashed and killed 20 people in upstate New York was warned not to operate the vehicle after it failed an inspection. Department of Transportation spokesman Joseph Morrissey says Tuesday that the 2001 Ford Excursion that crashed Saturday was placed out of service after a September inspection and was subject to additional inspections. Lee Kindlon, attorney for Prestige Limousine, says code violations cited in a Sept. 4 inspection had been corrected and the limousine cleared for service. Morrissey says that's "categorically false." The limousine ran a stop sign and crashed on a rural road 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Albany on Saturday, killing the driver, all 17 passengers and two pedestrians. Family members and friends gather for a candlelight vigil memorial at Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook Pedestrian Bridge in Amsterdam, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. The memorial honored 20 people who died in Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) State police and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating what caused the crash. ___ 4:15 p.m. Two days before a limousine crashed and killed 20 people in upstate New York, the limo company posted a vehicle for sale on Craigslist matching the description of the one in the fatal accident. The listing for the modified 2001 Ford Excursion asked $9,000 and described the vehicle as being in "excellent" condition, "DOT Ready full serviced," with 180,000 miles on the odometer. The listing, first reported by the Albany Times Union , had the same contact number as that of several companies owned by Shahed Hussain, owner of Gansevoort, New York-based Prestige Limousine. The limousine that ran a stop sign and crashed on a rural road 25 miles west of Albany Saturday was cited for code violations Sept. 4. The company's lawyer says the issues had been corrected. ___ 2:30 p.m. The family of the limousine driver involved in a deadly crash in upstate New York says they believe he was unwittingly assigned an unsafe vehicle. The family of Scott Lisinicchia (lis-ih-NIK'-ee-uh) released a statement through their lawyer Tuesday asking the public to not jump to conclusions about the cause of the crash that killed 20 people Saturday. Investigators are trying to find out why the limousine ran through a stop sign at the bottom of a T-intersection on a rural road 25 miles west of Albany. A lawyer for the limo company suggested the driver was unfamiliar with the roads. But the statement from the Lisinicchia family says they believe "that unbeknownst to him he was provided with a vehicle that was neither roadworthy nor safe for any of its occupants." ___ 2:15 p.m. New York State Police have officially released the identities and hometowns of the 20 people who were killed when a limousine crashed off a rural upstate road last weekend. Troopers released the information Tuesday afternoon, three days after the limo carrying 18 people crashed at an intersection in Schoharie (skoh-HAYR'-ee), 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Albany. The limo driver, all 17 passengers and two men standing in a store parking lot were killed. The cause of the crash is being investigated by state police and federal transportation officials. The identities of the victims have been previously reported in news articles. Authorities had said they would release a full list of names once all relatives were notified. ___ 12:50 p.m. Flags on New York state property will be lowered to half-staff to honor the 20 people killed in a limousine crash, among them three state employees. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday the flags would be lowered from Thursday through the victims' burials. Cuomo said "the entire family of New York mourns" for them. The victims were killed when a stretch limousine hit a parked SUV Saturday in Schoharie (skoh-HAY'-ree). It's about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the state capital in Albany. One victim, Patrick Cushing, worked in the state Senate's technology office. Another, Amy Steenburg, was a nurse who worked for the state Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs. A third, Brian Hough, taught geology at the State University of New York at Oswego. ___ 10:25 a.m. An attorney for the company whose limousine was involved in an upstate New York crash that killed 20 people says multiple safety violations on its vehicles were fixed before the tragedy. Attorney Lee Kindlon tells CBS News on Tuesday he doesn't think the recent infractions against Prestige limousine service contributed to Saturday's deadly crash. The limo ran a stop sign and hit a parked SUV in Schoharie (skoh-HAYR'-ee). Two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limo died. Kindlon tells the Times Union of Albany the driver may have been unfamiliar with the roadway and misjudged his ability to stop at the bottom of the hill. The owner of the company is out of the country. His son, Nauman Hussain, met with state police investigators Monday. ___ 12:30 a.m. A ceremony for the victims of the limousine crash that killed 20 people has ended with participants lifting candles above their heads to signal unity and perseverance. Over 1,000 people jammed a riverside park in Amsterdam, New York, for Monday night's vigil. Some victims lived in the small city. Some relatives of the dead shed tears as local officials expressed solidarity with them. U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko told the families, in his words, "We are crushed with you, we are crushed for you." He's a Democrat from Amsterdam. The 19-seater limo ran a stop sign and hit a parked SUV on Saturday in Schoharie (skoh-HAYR'-ee). Two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limo died. The passengers were headed to a 30th birthday party. Family members and friends gather for a candlelight vigil memorial at Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook Pedestrian Bridge in Amsterdam, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. The memorial honored 20 people who died in Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romania's president said Tuesday that the country needs "a mature approach and openness to dialogue" following a referendum that aimed to make it harder to legalize same-sex marriage. Low turnout voided the vote. President Klaus Iohannis was the first senior Romanian politician to come out in support of same-sex partnerships. Iohannis voted just before polls in the two-day vote closed Sunday and declined to comment. Backers of the failed referendum had characterized same-sex marriages as a threat to Romania. The president said Romanian society would fare well "without fear and alarm caused by imaginary dangers." In a related development, a spokesman for the Romanian Orthodox Church said the church opposed creating legal rights for couples in same-sex partnerships. Romania does not have civil unions or recognize those from other countries. Government officials and lawmakers have discussed drafting legislation to establish partnerships. A man sits draped in a rainbow flag in a nightclub in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018, after hearing of the partial voter turnout. Polls have closed in Romania after two days of voting on a constitutional amendment that would make it harder to legalize same-sex marriage. But the weekend referendum to redefine marriage failed to attract large numbers of voters and risk being voided. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru) Two men draped in rainbow flags in a nightclub in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Polls have closed in Romania after two days of voting on a constitutional amendment that would make it harder to legalize same-sex marriage. But the weekend referendum to redefine marriage failed to attract large numbers of voters and risk being voided. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru) OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) - A Catholic bishop in Kentucky says his diocese has received 66 sexual abuse allegations against 27 priests since 1937, the year the diocese was founded. Bishop William Medley of the Diocese of Owensboro told news outlets in a statement Monday that the diocese has compiled statistics regarding sexual abuse claims against priests and individuals who identified themselves as child sexual abuse victims. The statement says 62 people made the allegations and 11 of the 27 priests accused were dead at the time of the claim. It says 366 priests have served in the diocese in some capacity. Since 2002, the diocese has spent more than $1 million on background checks and abuse prevention training. Medley says the numbers were provided to encourage other victims to come forward and begin healing. ATLANTA (AP) - In this year's race for Georgia governor, the Republican candidate oversees elections and voter registration in the state and the Democrat claims he's misusing that responsibility. Former state Rep. Stacey Abrams has accused GOP Secretary of State Brian Kemp of suppressing access to the polls as their race heats up with roughly one month before the Nov. 6 election. But Kemp says Abrams and allied liberal activists are twisting his record of guarding Georgia elections against voter fraud. One major policy the two have sparred over is Georgia's "exact match" registration verification process. Under the policy, information on voter applications must precisely match information on file with the Georgia Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration. Election officials can place non-matching applications on hold. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the resignation of U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (all times local): 6:35 p.m. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley's abrupt announcement that she is resigning has raised fresh questions about President Donald Trump's team. The news has blindsided some key U.S. allies and many congressional Republicans involved in foreign policy matters. It comes less than a month before congressional elections, thwarting White House efforts to project an image of stability. The loss of one of the highest-profile women in the administration comes at a time when women's votes are being vigorously pursued. Trump says he's narrowed down a short list of five people to replace Haley. Former White House adviser Dina Powell is among those on the short list. President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ___ 6:25 p.m. Ivanka Trump says she won't replace Nikki Haley as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations despite her father, President Donald Trump, saying she'd be "incredible" in the role. In a tweet Tuesday evening, the presidential senior adviser and elder daughter said her father will "nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley." She adds: "That replacement will not be me." Trump and Haley announced Tuesday that she will be departing the administration at the end of the year. The timing of the announcement was surprising, coming just weeks ahead of the midterm elections. Trump told reporters that selecting his daughter would spark concerns about nepotism. But he also said there is no one more competent in the world for the role than Ivanka. The post requires Senate confirmation. ___ 5:05 p.m. Russia's ambassador to the United Nations says despite serious differences between Moscow and Washington on foreign policy, he has "good working and personal relations" with U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Vassily Nebenzia told reporters at U.N. headquarters Tuesday that the announcement of Haley's resignation "was a surprise - not a very pleasant one for me, personally." Nebenzia says Russia never loses hope about improving relations with the United States. But Nebenzia says differences with the U.S. were evident in some of the "successes" Haley enumerated on Tuesday. For example, Moscow doesn't consider the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal a success. As for Haley's future, Nebenzia said, "She's young, she's energetic, she's ambitious. I think we will see her after she has this well-deserved respite that she was referring to." ___ 4:25 p.m. Nikki Haley's fellow ambassadors on the U.N. Security Council are reacting with surprise to her resignation and warm personal words about their friendship with her - even though their country may have serious policy differences with the Trump administration. France's U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre first met Haley when she was governor of South Carolina. He calls her "one of the most talented, most authentic U.S. government officials that I have ever met." Sweden's U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog says even "where we don't always see eye to eye ... there has always been a very close relationship. I'm going to miss her a lot." Bolivia's U.N. Ambassador Sasha Llorentty Soliz says the 15-member Security Council "is like a family - sometimes a dysfunctional family, but nevertheless we care about each other and I really like Nikki very much." He adds, "we are very, very much against the U.S. policies in many, many fields," including the Mideast, the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal , and the Paris climate change agreement. ___ 4:05 p.m. President Donald Trump says former aide Dina Powell is under consideration to replace departing U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Trump told reporters Tuesday that he has heard his daughter Ivanka Trump's name discussed for the post. He says she'd be "incredible" in the role, but he knows if he selected her he'd be accused of nepotism. Powell served as deputy national security adviser to Trump for most of his first year in the White House, departing in mid-January. She previously worked for Goldman Sachs and served in President George W. Bush's administration. Trump and Haley announced Tuesday that she will be departing the administration at the end of the year. The timing of the announcement was surprising, coming just weeks ahead of the midterm elections. ___ 3:35 p.m. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the nation "benefited greatly" from Nikki Haley's leadership as ambassador to the U.N. McConnell opened the Senate on Tuesday thanking Haley for her service. The GOP leader called her a "skillful advocate" for the nation's interests and a "forceful spokeswoman" for its principles. Earlier, Haley and President Donald Trump announced at the White House that she would be stepping down at the end of the year. The Senate voted overwhelmingly to confirm Haley as U.N. ambassador in 2017. She is a former governor of South Carolina. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee called her a "fierce advocate for U.S. interests." ___ 1:35 p.m. The United Nations says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expressing "deep appreciation for the excellent cooperation and support" from U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley - despite major policy differences on issues including climate change and Palestinian refugees. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric tells reporters at U.N. headquarters that the U.N.-U.S. relationship, and the relationship between the secretary-general and the U.S. ambassador, is "very critical." He says Guterres and Haley had "a very productive and strong working relationship" and "worked hard to promote constructive ties between the United Nations and the United States." He adds, the U.N.'s differences with the Trump administration "are open and for all to see." ___ 12:35 p.m. The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations committee says Nikki Haley's resignation as United Nations ambassador is "yet another sign of the Trump administration's chaotic foreign policy." New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez says in a statement he's "deeply concerned about the leadership vacuum" that will be created by Haley's departure. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced Haley will be leaving the administration at the end of the year. Trump says Haley told him six months ago she might want to take some time off. Haley is a former South Carolina governor who is speculated to have aspirations for higher office. She said at the White House she's not running for president in 2020. Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tweets he expects Haley will continue to be a "key player" in their party. ___ 10:50 a.m. President Donald Trump says U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley will be "leaving" his administration "at the end of the year." Trump and Haley confirmed Tuesday in the Oval Office that the president had accepted her resignation. Trump calls Haley a "very special" person "who gets it," adding that she told him six months ago that she might want to take some time off. Trump says that together they "solved a lot of problems." Trump announced, "At the end of the year Nikki will be leaving." Haley is 46 years old and says she has no immediate plans. She denies she is running for president in 2020. Haley is the former governor of South Carolina. Haley and Trump tangled before he won the 2016 presidential race. ___ 10:25 a.m. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley plans to resign, The Associated Press has learned. President Donald Trump tweeted that he has a "big announcement with my friend Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Oval Office at 10:30 a.m." Congressional and Trump administration officials told the AP that Haley plans to resign. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak on the record ahead of Trump's announcement. They did not provide a reason. Haley was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016. Before she was named by Trump to her U.N. post, Haley was governor of South Carolina, the first woman to hold the post. She was re-elected in 2014. President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) - A new law requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency to investigate how it came to award Hurricane Maria relief contracts to a company with an unproven record. The Associated Press reported last year that the newly-formed contractor, Florida-based Bronze Star, LLC, won more than $30 million in FEMA contracts but never delivered the emergency tarps and plastic sheeting for repairs of damaged homes in Puerto Rico. Democrat Sean Maloney of New York proposed the legislation, which was included in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, citing the AP's reporting. The provision passed both houses overwhelmingly and was signed into law by President Donald Trump on Friday. The Inspector General of the Homeland Security Department must begin an audit within 30 days and issue a report within 270 days. TOKYO (AP) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told Myanmar's leader that a credible investigation into alleged human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims is key to resolving tensions in the country's Rakhine state. Abe told a joint news conference after holding talks on Tuesday with Aung San Suu Kyi that Japan will support efforts by her country to accommodate Rohingya who return home from refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar's military is accused of widespread rights violations, including rape, murder, torture and burning villages, which sent about 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh since August last year. Buddhist-dominated Myanmar has denied abuses by its military. Suu Kyi's government has rejected independent international investigations into the alleged abuses and has commissioned its own probe. JOHANNESBURG (AP) - South Africa's finance minister has resigned after acknowledging missteps during the scandal-tainted tenure of former president Jacob Zuma. The resignation of Nhlanhla Nene was announced Tuesday by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has pledged to clean up corruption and revive South Africa's struggling economy. The new finance minister is Tito Mboweni, former head of the South African Reserve Bank. Nene told a corruption inquiry that he had visited the home of a business family linked to alleged graft under Zuma and he later apologized. He said the visits occurred when he was deputy finance minister and also finance minister before Zuma fired him from that post in 2015. Ramaphosa, a former deputy president, had brought Nene back into the Cabinet after replacing Zuma in February. YORK, S.C. (AP) - Police in South Carolina are searching for a probate court judge candidate accused of punching her husband in the eye. The Herald of Rock Hill reported Monday that Diondra Chianta Love is charged with second-degree domestic violence in an August attack on Steven Love. York Police Chief Andy Robinson says he learned last week that a warrant had been issued for the Democratic candidate. Robinson says officers haven't found her to serve the warrant. Love's campaign didn't respond to an email message Tuesday from The Associated Press. The campaign issued a Twitter statement saying it was aware of the allegations and said "we remain in complete support of her during this time." Social media posts show Love has campaigned since the alleged assault and continues to raise money. ___ Information from: The Herald, http://www.heraldonline.com "Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism" (HarperOne), by Nadya Tolokonnikova Power to the people: Where have we heard that before? In the 1960s, to be sure. And again today in "Read & Riot," an invigorating new guide to radical protest by Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova. Most of the world first heard of the punk art collective when Tolokonnikova and two others were arrested in an anti-Putin protest inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 2012. Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, whose prison memoir, "Riot Days," came out last year, were sentenced to two years in prison on charges of hooliganism. Since their pardon in late 2013 as the Kremlin tried to clean up its image before the Sochi Olympics, they have traveled the world as global celebrities, speaking out about their ordeal behind bars. Tolokonnikova's stomach-churning description of the barbarous conditions of the labor camp where she was sent will resonate with activists in the U.S. protesting the penal system here. This cover image released by HarperOne shows "Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism," by Nadya Tolokonnikova. (HarperOne via AP) She sees numerous parallels between the two countries - "When two people fight for a long time, they end up looking more and more alike" - and between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. She hopes to spark protest against "a cosmic rise in inequality, the global empowerment of oligarchs, threats to public education and health care, plus a potentially fatal environmental crisis" with a DIY spirit and "pirate" mentality. The book is divided into a series of 10 "rules," one per chapter, each accompanied by tactics and strategies and enlivened by quotes from some of her cultural and political heroes. That's a long list that includes Vaclav Havel and Noam Chomsky, Emmeline Pankhurst and bell hooks, Bernie Sanders and Diogenes the Cynic. Tolokonnikova, a self-described nerd who has read widely and deeply, fairly bursts with all the energy and passion you'd expect of a bright, thoughtful idealist who's not even 30. She credits the Riot Grrls feminist punk movement of the 1990s for inspiration as well as the radical protesters of the 1960s, who took their fight for civil rights and against the Vietnam War to the streets. Her joyously anarchic, radically egalitarian spirit recalls a revolutionary of that earlier era, Abbie Hoffman, whose 1971 manifesto, "Steal This Book," offered tips on how to live for free and on the run. While much has changed since Hoffman was the face of youthful rebellion, he would no doubt be smiling at a how-to section of Tolokonnikova's book devoted to shoplifting in Moscow. DALLAS (AP) - The Latest on the search for four people missing in West Texas flooding (all times local): 4 p.m. Weather officials say the rain has stopped in a small West Texas city where four people went missing after floodwaters overran a recreational vehicle park. Authorities resumed searching at daybreak Tuesday. The four people went missing after heavy rains caused the South Llano River to in Junction, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Austin. Meteorologists say more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain has fallen in the area since Sunday. National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Decker says cloudy and rainy conditions in the area Tuesday morning gave way to clear skies by afternoon. He said the next chance of rain in the area will be on Friday. This photo from video provided by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows a helicopter crew from the Texas Department of Public Safety performing a rescue from the South Llano River near Junction, Texas, on Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Rescue crews in boats and helicopters are searching for several people missing since heavy rain washed away a recreational vehicle park in the small West Texas city. (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department via AP) ___ 1:30 p.m. An official says swift-water boats are patrolling a 35-mile stretch of river for four people who went missing after floodwaters overran a recreational vehicle park in a small West Texas city. Texas Game Warden Rachel Kellner said Tuesday afternoon that the boats were patrolling a stretch downstream from the RV park located on the South Llano River in Junction, a city about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Austin. She said the boats would be slowly going down the river, as crews hoped to hear anyone who might be in a tree or on a riverbank. Kellner said an unmanned drone was also on its way to be used in the search. ___ 10:30 a.m. The search has resumed for four people missing after a West Texas RV park was overrun by raging floodwaters. Texas Game Warden Rachel Kellner says the search resumed Tuesday morning with crews walking the banks of the South Llano River downstream from Junction, Texas, and a few boats going in. She says it is very windy and that the river is rising again, with more rain expected. She says the current is too strong for some boats to get into the river and because of the weather conditions, no helicopters can get into the air. Kellner says the four missing are one woman and three men. Earlier, officials said all four are men. Emergency personnel in helicopters and boats rescued 19 people Monday in Junction, a small city about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Austin. ___ 7:30 a.m. Four men remain missing after a West Texas RV park was overrun by raging floodwaters and authorities are awaiting daybreak to resume their search. Texas Game Warden Rachel Kellner said early Tuesday that the South Llano River at Junction is a "muddy mess," full of debris and too dangerous to search until after sunrise. Kellner says the men are co-workers whose recreational vehicle was among several swept away in the floods after heavy rain late Sunday. Emergency personnel in helicopters and boats rescued 19 people Monday in the small city about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Austin. Kellner says she knows of no one else still missing. She says all those rescued Monday were checked out by medical emergency personnel. She doesn't know if any of them required hospitalization. This photo from video provided by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows a helicopter crew from the Texas Department of Public Safety performing a rescue from the South Llano River near Junction, Texas, on Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Rescue crews in boats and helicopters are searching for several people missing since heavy rain washed away a recreational vehicle park in the small West Texas city. (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department via AP) A crumpled recreational vehicle lies on the grounds of the Kimble County River Park in Junction, Texas, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Heavy rains the area caused the Llano River to flood and about 19 people were rescued. One woman swept away by floodwaters drifted approximately 25 miles before she was rescued, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. (Jerry Lara/The San Antonio Express-News via AP) A recreation vehicle is seen on its side at the South Llano River RV Park and Resort in Junction, Texas, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Heavy rains the area caused the Llano River to flood and about 19 people were rescued. One woman swept away by floodwaters drifted approximately 25 miles before she was rescued, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. (Jerry Lara/The San Antonio Express-News via AP) Three-time beach Olympic volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings has a new partner as she tries to qualify for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. Walsh Jennings tells The Associated Press she will pair with Rio Olympian Brooke Sweat, a defensive specialist. Walsh Jennings, who will turn 42 shortly after the Tokyo Games, won three gold medals with Misty May-Treanor. When May-Treanor retired, Walsh Jennings paired with April Ross in Rio and earned bronze. Sweat is a four-time defensive player of the year on the AVP tour. She qualified for the 2016 Games with Lauren Fendrick. They were eliminated in pool play after losing all three matches. The new partners will compete together for the first time Oct. 18-21 at the p1440 tour event in Las Vegas. LYON, France (AP) - The call came at night and was chilling. "You listen, but you don't speak," the man on the other end said. "We've come in two work teams, two work teams just for you." In her first one-on-one interview since her husband's disappearance in China, the wife of the former head of Interpol described the threatening phone call that prompted authorities in the French city where the international law enforcement agency is headquartered to place her under police protection. French authorities are still trying to determine whether China did indeed, as the mysterious caller menaced, dispatch agents to get to Grace Meng, the wife of Meng Hongwei. But she has good reason to be fearful: Speaking out about the fate of her high-profile husband risks China's ire and, she said, is putting her "in great danger." However, she hopes that doing so will help other families in similar circumstances. "He has disappeared for so long and nobody has given me any information or told me where he has gone. This is very common now in China," she told The Associated Press during an interview. "I feel like I have a responsibility to stand up. Only when you've been through this much pain can you understand that even more people have been suffering." Grace Meng, the wife of missing Interpol President Meng Hongwei, who does not want her face shown, consults her mobile phone in the lobby of a hotel in Lyon, central France, where the police agency is based, on Sunday Oct. 7, 2018. Interpol said Saturday it has made a formal request to China for information about the agency's missing president, a senior Chinese security official who seemingly vanished while on a trip home. (AP Photo/John Leicester) Meng Hongwei - who was China's vice minister of public security while also leading Interpol - vanished while on a trip to China late last month. A long-time Communist Party insider with decades of experience in China's sprawling security apparatus, the 64-year-old is the latest high-ranking official to fall victim to a sweeping purge against allegedly corrupt or disloyal officials under President Xi Jinping's authoritarian administration. Speaking to the AP late Monday at a hotel in Lyon, the French city where she lives and Interpol is based. Grace Meng said she had put their two boys to bed when she got the threatening call. It was one week after her last contact with her husband. On Sept, 25, he sent her from China an emoji of a knife - suggesting to her he was in danger. The man who called her on her mobile phone spoke in Chinese, she said. She said the only clue he gave about his identity was saying that he used to work for Meng, suggesting that the man was part of China's security apparatus. He also said he knew where she was. "Just imagine: My husband was missing, my kids were asleep, all my other phones weren't working, and that was the only call I got. I was so frightened," she said. By speaking out about her husband's fate, she has taken a step practically unheard of in Chinese politics, where such moves are seen as confrontational. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday in Beijing. Chinese authorities said Monday that Meng Hongwei is being lawfully investigated for taking bribes and other crimes that were a result of his "willfulness." Hours earlier, Interpol said Meng had resigned as the international police agency's president. It was not clear whether he did so of his own free will. His wife suggested that the bribery accusation is just an excuse for a lengthy detention. "As his wife, I think he's simply incapable of this," she said. She said she would be willing to make their bank accounts public. She refused to provide her real name to the AP, saying she was too afraid for the safety of her relatives in China. It is not customary for Chinese wives to adopt their husbands' names. Mrs. Meng said she has done so now to show her solidarity with her husband. Her English name, Grace, is one she has long used, she said. A French judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the AP that police are investigating the threat against her, but said the probe has yet to determine whether there were indeed Chinese teams sent to Lyon. China's move to go after the Interpol president, an official with international standing, was unusually audacious even for an administration that under Xi's leadership has sought to assert its interests more aggressively on the global stage. Poland's interior minister, Joachim Brudzinski, told AP on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting in Lyon Tuesday that he disapproved of Beijing's conduct. Brudzinski thinks it shows China believes it can act with impunity "in an ostentatious way, without limit." Grace Meng wouldn't speculate on why her husband may have fallen out of favor, saying he had stayed above the secrecy-shrouded world of factional party politics. She described her husband as a man of modest beginnings, the fifth of six children whose parents were school teachers. He rose through the ranks based on his own merit, she said, and remained an idealist who longed to see the rule of law established in China. Tearfully, she said she hasn't yet been able to tell their young sons about his detention. China's beleaguered rights activists point out that as someone with a seat atop the country's powerful public security apparatus, Meng has helped build the opaque system of largely unchecked power wielded by the ruling Communist Party to which he's now fallen victim. "Once an issue becomes political, there is no law. This has happened even to Meng Hongwei himself," said Hu Jia, a Beijing-based rights activist who is frequently placed under house arrest for his critical comments. "If his wife weren't in France and speaking to the media, his case would have been locked in a black box." Earlier this year Chinese officials established the National Supervision Commission, a party-led anti-corruption agency empowered to detain suspects for up to six months and to operate independent of the Cabinet, courts and prosecutors. "If Meng Hongwei weren't an Interpol chief, people would have no idea what kind of a police empire China has become," said Hu, the activist. ___ Wong reported from Beijing. FILE - In this July 4, 2017, file photo, Interpol President Meng Hongwei delivers his opening address at the Interpol World congress, in Singapore. Chinese authorities say they are investigating the former president of Interpol for bribery and other crimes and indicate that political transgressions may have also landed him in trouble. In a statement posted on a government website Monday, Oct. 8, 2018, the authorities said Meng Hongwei, China's vice minister for public security, was being investigated due to his own "willfulness and for bringing trouble upon himself." (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File) This photo dated Nov. 5, 2015, provided by Interpol shows Kim Jong Yang. Interpol has appointed Kim Jong Yang of South Korea as acting president. (Interpol via AP) In this Jan. 23, 2018, photo, Kim Jong Yang, the senior vice president of Interpol executive committee, speaks during a press conference in Changwon, South Korea. Kim, the acting president of Interpol said it had not been told about the investigation of its chief. "I find it regrettable that the top leader of the organization had to go out this way and that we weren't specifically notified of what was happening in advance," Kim said on Monday, Oct. 8, 2018, in a phone interview. (Kang Kyung-kook/Newsis via AP) This photo shows the last message sent by missing Interpol President, Meng Hongwei, to his wife, Grace Meng. Mrs. Meng showed reporters the message, on her mobile phone, during a press conference in Lyon, central France, Sunday Oct. 7, 2018, where Interpol is based. The message from Meng at 12:26 on Sept. 26 says "wait for my call." Four minutes later, he sent the photo of the knife. Earlier that day she had sent him a photo of two animal figurines, one of a bear and another of a horse, meant to represent their two children; one of them loves horses, she said, and the other "looks like the bear." (AP Photo/John Leicester) HOUSTON (AP) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it will waive environmental laws so it can build gates between sections of border barriers in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley. The waiver posted online lists 11 locations where the government plans to install gates in existing fencing. DHS has in recent months issued similar waivers of environmental laws for other projects to construct barriers along the southwest border. The U.S. government already has around 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) of fencing on the southwest border. In far South Texas, segments of fencing stop and start along the levee built next to the Rio Grande, the river separating the U.S. and Mexico. Many parts of the fencing are built a significant distance from the river, in some cases bisecting private property. The proposed gates would seal some of those gaps in Cameron County. U.S. Customs and Border Protection typically grants affected residents access to the gates so they can get to the other side of their land. The government also separately plans to begin building new barriers to fulfill President Donald Trump's signature campaign pledge to build a border wall. Congress earlier this year approved $1.6 billion for new border wall spending, which included funding for 33 miles (53 kilometers) of construction in the Rio Grande Valley. Some of the planned construction would cut through the National Butterfly Center and other environmentally sensitive areas. It may also leave some border town residents on the so-called "Mexican side," still on American land but cut off by a wall. FILE - In this Aug. 11, 2017, file photo, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol vehicle passes along a section of border levee wall in Hidalgo, Texas. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, that it will waive environmental laws so it can build gates between sections of border barriers in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley. The waiver posted online Tuesday lists 11 locations where the government plans to install gates in existing fencing. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) The valley is the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings, and U.S. government officials say it is targeted by human and drug traffickers. In the waiver, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen writes that there is "an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads" along the border. Nielsen waived regulations under the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and about two dozen other laws. The waiver "continues to chip away at crucial protections for people and wildlife in the Rio Grande Valley," said Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity. "They deserve clean air, clean water and the same legal rights as everyone else in the country." Scott Nicol, a resident of the region who co-chairs the Sierra Club's Borderlands team, said it appeared several gates would affect access to farmland on the other side of existing fencing. But he said the government had not adequately informed residents or tried to have a community dialogue. "The fact that you have to learn about this when they're going to waive the law ... is very telling about the way this administration operates," he said. A former CBP official said in March that the agency wanted to start installing the gates in October. CBP declined Tuesday to confirm that is still the agency's plan. LONDON (AP) - A little-known website that fingered two Russians with military intelligence backgrounds in the poisoning of an ex-spy derived its name from an old fable about mice discussing how best to deal with a hungry cat. The mice decide that hanging a bell around its neck - "belling the cat" - is the solution, but none volunteers for the job. The investigators behind Bellingcat see themselves as the ones willing to take on dangerous tasks -in this case, exposing men accused of attempting a hit job. The British website has scooped the rest of the media with its reports on the nerve agent attack that nearly killed the ex-spy and his daughter in England, providing evidence the Russians had identities far more intriguing than the aliases they used as supposed tourists. Founded in 2014, Bellingcat is the brainchild of Eliot Higgins, a self-described citizen journalist. Its staff members and contributor dig through social media and open-source records to investigate crimes. The site's published work also has focused on conflicts in the Middle East, including the war in Syria. Its latest investigation went up Monday night, when Bellingcat reported that one of the suspects in the March poisoning was actually Alexander Mishkin, a military doctor who was awarded one of Russia's highest honors by President Vladimir Putin. Bellingcat previously unmasked the other suspect as Col. Anatoly Chepiga, linking him as well to Russian military intelligence agency GRU. British authorities charged both last month under their assumed names, saying at the time they thought the Russian men were not who they said they were. The British government has not confirmed the names published by Bellingcat, but officials have not challenged the investigative group's findings. FILE - In this file still image taken from CCTV and issued by the Metropolitan Police in London on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, shows a man identified as Alexander Petrov at Gatwick airport, England on March 2, 2018. Investigative group Bellingcat reported Monday Oct. 8, 2018 on its website that the man British authorities identified as Alexander Petrov is actually Alexander Mishkin, a doctor working for the Russian military intelligence unit known as GRU. The other suspect in the March nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, - Ruslan Boshirov. - is a decorated Russian agent named Anatoliy Chepiga, Bellingcat reported last month. (Metropolitan Police via AP, File) Bellingcat said it worked with a Russian partner, the Insider, which was founded by Russian journalist and political activist Roman Dobrokhotov. The Insider's publications have targeted official corruption, exposed fake news in state-funded media and unmasked Kremlin secrets. When Bellingcat researchers started looking into the men accused of using the Soviet-developed Novichok to attack Sergei Skripal and his daughter, they had little to work with - only photographs of the suspects released by British police and the assumed names that they used to travel to England. Bellingcat said it identified Mishkin using passport information, phone records, car registration records, other databases and interviews with people who knew him. ___ AP writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed. This undated handout image issued by Bellingcat shows the passport Dr Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin, the man the investigative website have alleged was who travelled to Salisbury under the alias Alexander Petrov. The investigative group Bellingcat is reporting that one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-spy in England is a doctor who works for Russian military intelligence. Bellingcat said on its website Monday, Oct. 8, 2018 that the man British authorities identified as Alexander Petrov is actually Alexander Mishkin, a trained doctor working for the Russian military intelligence unit known as GRU. (Bellingcat via AP) FILE - In this file combination photo made available by the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, shows men identified as Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov. Investigative group Bellingcat reported Monday Oct. 8, 2018 on its website that the man British authorities identified as Alexander Petrov is actually Alexander Mishkin, a doctor working for the Russian military intelligence unit known as GRU. The other suspect in the March nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, - Ruslan Boshirov. - is a decorated Russian agent named Anatoliy Chepiga, Bellingcat reported last month. (Metropolitan Police via AP) DALLAS (AP) - The search resumed Tuesday morning for four people missing since a West Texas recreational vehicle park was overrun by raging floodwaters that prompted dramatic air and water rescues in a small West Texas city. Heavy rains Sunday night caused the South Llano River to rise and submerge parts of Junction, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Austin. Emergency crews looked for the four Monday, but abandoned the search as darkness fell and more rain set in. Texas Game Warden Rachel Kellner said Tuesday afternoon that swift-water boats were patrolling a 35-mile stretch of the river downstream from the RV park located on the South Llano River in Junction. "There's a lot of brush, there's a lot of tree line, so they're slowing down and hopefully if there's anybody that's hung up on a bank or in a tree, they can at least hear them," said Kellner, who added that a drone is on its way to help in the search. Kellner says the four missing are one woman and three men. Officials on Monday said all four missing were men. She said there were no other people known to be missing. Right after the RV park was overtaken with water Monday, officials were able to rescue about 40 people by throwing them life jackets or ropes. But then the water got too high and they needed helicopters and boats for the rescues. Recreation vehicles are seen strewn about at the South Llano River RV Park and Resort in Junction, Texas, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Heavy rains the area caused the Llano River to flood and about 19 people were rescued. One woman swept away by floodwaters drifted approximately 25 miles before she was rescued, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. (Jerry Lara/The San Antonio Express-News via AP) Authorities rescued 15 by boat and four by helicopter Monday, including, Kellner said, two people and a dog who were plucked from a tree. She said one woman floated about 18 miles (28 kilometers) down the river on debris before being rescued. She only sustained cuts and bruises. National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Harrison said more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain has fallen in the area since Sunday and that more is expected. "There's still the possibility some more flooding could occur in that area," Harrison said Tuesday, adding that the afternoon was forecast to be dry. Jamie McDonald captured one of the helicopter rescues on camera outside his hotel. McDonald, also known as "Adventureman," is an author and motivational speaker and was visiting the city as he runs across America to raise money for children's hospitals. McDonald said he heard people shouting and screaming and opened the hotel room door. He found people on the balcony and saw a man in the water holding onto a tree. "There was one guy just clinging on to dear life," he said in an interview Monday, describing the scene as "heartbreaking." At one point, McDonald said the man became separated from a tree and it was uncertain whether he would make it out OK because the current was so strong. McDonald's footage shows onlookers worrying from afar. "Get a hold of something," one person says. "God help him please," another says. Later, the man was hoisted up from the water by helicopter and safely lowered down to a parking lot, McDonald said. He said the man, who was naked, appeared bruised and battered. "I can't believe they actually rescued him," McDonald says on the video. "That was incredible, just amazing support." ___ Associated Press reporter Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. A man who bystanders said was clinging to a tree in the South Llano River is rescued by helicopter, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018 in Junction, Texas. Crews in boats and helicopters are searching for at least four people missing since heavy rain washed away a recreational vehicle park in a small West Texas city. (Jamie "Adventureman" McDonald via AP) This photo from video provided by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows a helicopter crew from the Texas Department of Public Safety performing a rescue from the South Llano River near Junction, Texas, on Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Rescue crews in boats and helicopters are searching for several people missing since heavy rain washed away a recreational vehicle park in the small West Texas city. (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department via AP) This photo from video provided by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows a helicopter crew from the Texas Department of Public Safety performing a rescue from the South Llano River near Junction, Texas, on Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Rescue crews in boats and helicopters are searching for several people missing since heavy rain washed away a recreational vehicle park in the small West Texas city. (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department via AP) People try to upright a trailer on the grounds of the Kimble County River Park in Junction, Texas, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Heavy rains the area caused the Llano River to flood and about 19 people were rescued. One woman swept away by floodwaters drifted approximately 25 miles before she was rescued, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. (Jerry Lara/The San Antonio Express-News via AP) A recreation vehicle is seen on its side at the South Llano River RV Park and Resort in Junction, Texas, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Heavy rains the area caused the Llano River to flood and about 19 people were rescued. One woman swept away by floodwaters drifted approximately 25 miles before she was rescued, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. (Jerry Lara/The San Antonio Express-News via AP) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - The International Olympic Committee has approved three candidate bids for the 2026 Winter Games and will pick a winner next June. IOC members have formally backed three bids recommended last week by their executive board: Calgary, Canada; Stockholm, Sweden; and the combined Italian bid of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. A fourth contender, Erzurum in Turkey, was dropped by the board last week. The election timetable has been brought forward three months because of the Italian bid. Because Milan is a candidate, it cannot host the IOC meeting including the 2026 vote that was scheduled next September. The IOC will stage the next annual meeting in its home city of Lausanne, Switzerland, around the June 23 inauguration of its new $200 million headquarters. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, center, leads the poll to elect Senegal to host the 2022 Youth Olympic Games during the 133th IOC session in Buenos Aires, Argentina Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Senegal will become the first African nation to host an Olympic event. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) ___ More AP sports: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Minnesota judge abruptly dismissed charges against three climate change activists during their trial on Tuesday, saying prosecutors failed to prove that the protesters' attempt to shut down two Enbridge Energy oil pipelines caused any damage. Clearwater County District Judge Robert Tiffany threw the case out after prosecutors rested their case and before the protesters could use their defense: that the threat of climate change from using crude oil drilled from Canadian tar sands was so imminent that the activists' actions were not only morally right, but necessary. The attorneys had long fought to use a "necessity defense" during the trial of the three Seattle-area residents, two of whom admitted turning the emergency shut-off valves on the northwest Minnesota pipelines in 2016 as part of a coordinated action in four states. Such a defense has been used by other activists protesting pipelines. Their attorney, Lauren Regan, acknowledged outside the courthouse in Bagley that she and her clients were surprised that the judge granted their motion to dismiss the case. The three defendants faced felony charges involving criminal damage to critical public service facilities. They could have faced up to a year in jail, according to prosecutors. "I'm very relieved the state of Minnesota acknowledged that we did no damage and intended to do no damage," defendant Emily Johnston said. "I also admit that I am disappointed that we did not get to put on the trial that we hoped for." Clearwater County Attorney Alan Rogalla declined to comment afterward. Defendant Annette Klapstein, center, speaks outside Clearwater County courthouse in Bagley, Minn., after she was acquitted along with two other defendants on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (Dan Kraker /Minnesota Public Radio via AP) Climate change activists have increasingly turned to direct actions against oil and gas pipelines, with mixed legal success . Valve-turner cases in other states resulted in convictions that are under appeal. A Massachusetts judge in March cleared 13 gas pipeline protesters who used a necessity defense. While the cases generally have not set binding legal precedents, activists are hoping they help legitimize direct action as a tactic against climate change. In the Minnesota case, Johnston and Annette Klapstein readily acknowledged turning the emergency shut-off valves on two Enbridge Energy pipelines on Oct. 11, 2016, near Leonard, about 210 miles (338 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis. A third defendant, Ben Joldersma, called in a warning to Enbridge. Charges were earlier dropped against a fourth defendant. They did it as part of a coordinated action by Climate Direct Action activists to shut down five Canadian tar sands crude pipelines in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and Washington state. A total of 11 activists were charged in the four states. Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge temporarily shut down the two pipelines as a precaution before any damage occurred. The company issued a statement Tuesday saying the protest was "reckless and dangerous." "The individuals involved in these activities claimed to be protecting the environment, but they did the opposite and put the environment and the safety of people at risk - including themselves, first responders and neighboring communities and landowners," the company said. The defendants insisted there was never any danger. "We did everything in our power to make sure this was a safe action, and we did this to protect our children and all of your children from the devastating effects of climate change," Klaptstein said at the activists' news conference afterward. While the judge took the unusual step of allowing allowed the necessity defense in a ruling last October, he said the defendants had to clear a high legal bar to succeed. He said the defense applies "only in emergency situations where the peril is instant, overwhelming, and leaves no alternative but the conduct in question." The valve turners had hoped to put climate change itself on trial by presenting expert witnesses who would have backed up their claims that climate change was making natural disasters worse, and that the threat of climate change from Canadian tar sands crude - which generates more climate-damaging carbon dioxide than other forms of oil - was so imminent that they had no legal alternatives. But they never got the chance. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - In the storm-weary Carolinas, Hurricane Michael's approach is stoking fresh fears among homeowners who still have tarps on their roofs or industrial dehumidifiers drying their floors from destruction left by Hurricane Florence. Thousands of homes in North and South Carolina were damaged when the September hurricane smashed trees into rooftops and pushed floodwater into living rooms. Both states are still tallying damage, and homeowners are just starting to tear out moldy carpets, toss ruined furniture and negotiate with insurance adjusters. They fear delays or further damage from the new storm, which is expected to start lashing the Carolinas on Wednesday as it moves inland. While the Carolinas won't get a direct hit from Michael, even a weakening storm is expected to bring strong winds and inches of rain. "It absolutely is a concern for me, as my house is still tarped," said Shane Fernando, 38, who lives near downtown Wilmington where trees toppled by Florence blocked roads and fell into houses - including his. "Of course that makes me anxious." North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned that Michael is expected to bring tropical-force winds and 2-5 inches (5-12.7 centimeters) of rain across much of the state. While the storm wasn't expected to cause major river flooding like Florence, he urged people to stay vigilant. "I know people are fatigued from Florence, but don't let this storm catch you with your guard down," Cooper said. FILE - In a Friday, Sept. 14, 2018 file photo, Shane Fernando takes a photo of fallen trees near his home in Wilmington, N.C., after Hurricane Florence made landfall. Fernando is worried about the approach of Hurricane Michael because he sustained tree damage to his house in Florence and has tarps covering parts of the exterior. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File) While the state hasn't provided a detailed damage estimate, it's clear Florence affected thousands of homes. More than 24,000 homeowners and renters have received FEMA housing assistance. "We also have repairs beginning in many homes. A number of homes have rooftop tarps that could be damaged or blown away with this wind," Cooper said Tuesday. In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster estimated Florence's damage would top $1 billion in a letter to the federal government. Earlier this month, the state said about 1,600 homes - and counting - were damaged, including 55 that were destroyed. South Carolina emergency officials warned the state will have heavy rain, gusty winds, storm surge and possible tornadoes from Michael. And not everywhere has dried out from the last storm: The Waccamaw River remained out of its banks more than three weeks after Florence made landfall. Forecasters don't expect widespread Carolinas flooding, but warn Michael's winds could be stronger than Florence's. "I wouldn't expect massive amounts of flooding. It's moving a lot faster. The rivers will go up briefly, but they shouldn't come near the levels after Florence," said National Weather Service meteorologist Carl Morgan. Back in Wilmington, tarps cover Fernando's roof and walls where a tree was blown over in his neighborhood a few miles from Florence's landfall. He worries about new damage from Michael just as he's dried residual moisture from the earlier storm. "This is ironic, but we just finished the drying phase. We gutted the rooms that were affected and had industrial dehumidifiers to dry it out," he said. He's been working with his homeowners' insurance while paying for some work out of pocket with hopes of reimbursement: "That's all still being worked out, little by little." In Pender County, Michael threatened to compound the woes for the Cross Creek neighborhood, where homeowners sustained flood and tree damage from Florence. Sarah Robles' family has been staying at her father's house after floodwater seeped into floors, mold grew on ceilings and the windows and roof were damaged. "Trees went through people's houses, and they didn't even get a chance to repair them, and now there's going to be more rain and wind that's going to get back in people's houses," she said. "We're fighting mold as it is." ___ Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. ___ Follow Drew at www.twitter.com/JonathanLDrew and Collins at www.twitter.com/JSCollinsAP ATLANTA (AP) - Two former educators convicted in a major test-cheating scandal in Atlanta say they plan to begin their prison sentences after they were convicted of racketeering. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Tamara Cotman and Angela Williamson will be the first to go to prison for participating in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating conspiracy. Several former teachers and administrators changed students' answers on tests to get bonuses and raises based on the phony scores. Cotman are Williamson were among 11 people convicted of racketeering in 2015. Both had remained free on bond during their appeals, but the U.S. Supreme Court last week announced that it wouldn't review their case. Cotman, a former school reform team executive director, was sentenced to three years in prison. Williamson, a former elementary school, teacher, is to serve two years. ___ Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - A senior Israeli cabinet minister sent a letter to the University of Michigan president over campus incidents the politician described as "vitriolic hatred against the Jewish state." Naftali Bennett, the minister responsible for education and diaspora affairs, wrote the letter Monday to University President Mark Schlissel to express concerns over a Thursday lecture at the Ann Arbor school. In it, artist Emory Douglas shared his work, including a collage of side-by-side images of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Adolf Hitler and the phrase "guilty of genocide." Bennett urged Schlissel to "make a strong stand against" such incidents. University officials say in a statement the "school does not control or censor what speakers present" during the series. The letter also criticized a Michigan professor's recent decision not to recommend a student for a study program in Israel. HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) - An animal sanctuary and a farm are working together to spare a young slaughterhouse-bound pig to promote local agriculture in New Hampshire. Beans and Greens Farm of Gilford is hoping to send the pig named Grover to the Tomten Farm and Sanctuary in Haverhill where it will live out its days. The Caledonian-Record reports Grover, described as the "runtiest of runts," has touched the lives of people who know him via the farm stand's petting zoo. Sanctuary founder Jenifer Vickery says Grover was to have become "a farm to table meal." She says they're fundraising to expand the sanctuary's pig area to accommodate Grover and future pig rescues. She's hopeful the collaboration with the Gilford farm stand will "stimulate thought and conversation" between other sanctuaries and farms. ___ In this undated photo provided by taken in Gilford, N.H., Grover is held by Michele Devereaux. An animal sanctuary and a farm are working together to spare Grover, a slaughterhouse-bound piglet, to promote local agriculture in New Hampshire. Beans and Greens Farm of Gilford is hoping to take Grover to the Tomten Farm and Sanctuary in Haverhill where it will live out its days. (Jenifer Vickery/Tomtem Farm and Sanctuary via AP) Information from: The Caledonian-Record, http://www.caledonianrecord.com CHICAGO (AP) - The Trump administration on Tuesday sharply criticized a draft plan hammered out between the nation's third-largest city and the state of Illinois that envisions far-reaching reforms of Chicago's 12,000-officer force under close federal court supervision. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Department of Justice will file "a statement of interest" opposing the plan, which was drawn up after the city broke off talks with Sessions' department on reforms for the beleaguered Chicago Police Department. "It is imperative that the city not repeat the mistakes of the past - the safety of Chicago depends on it," Sessions said in a statement he issued Tuesday. The police reform plan, which is more than 200 pages and still subject to approval by a federal judge in Chicago, foresees far stricter rules on the use of force by officers. One provision requires officers to file paperwork each time they point their weapons, even if they don't fire. In a joint statement later Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson responded to Sessions, saying: "The Trump Administration never ceases to amaze, and this is just further proof that they are out of step with the people of Chicago and out of touch with reality." Sessions' comments came a day after President Donald Trump singled out Chicago in a speech to officers at a convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Orlando, Florida. Trump said he would direct the Justice Department to work with Chicago officials to stem violence in the city. President Trump delivers remarks Monday, Oct. 8, 2018, at the International Association of Chiefs of Police, at the Orange County Convention Center, in Orlando, Fla. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP) Sessions didn't specify parts of the plan he opposed. But he has expressed reservations before about reform plans supervised by judges, also called consent decrees, saying they can unfairly malign officers. Chicago's police union argued the consent decree will make it harder for officers to do their jobs. Illinois Attorney Lisa Madigan - without objection from Emanuel - sued the city last year in U.S. District Court in Chicago to ensure any police reforms would be overseen by a federal judge. That legal action killed a draft plan negotiated with Trump's administration that didn't envision a court role in reforming the department - a departure from the practice during President Barack Obama's administration of using courts to change troubled departments. The Obama administration launched a civil rights investigation of Chicago police after a video released in 2015 showed a white Chicago police officer, Jason Van Dyke, shooting black teen Laquan McDonald 16 times as he walked away from police. Jurors convicted Van Dyke of second-degree murder last week in the 2014 shooting. The civil rights investigation led to a damning report, which in turn, put enormous pressure on Chicago to implement sweeping police reforms. At the convention speech Monday, Trump also criticized a 3-year-old agreement between Chicago and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois to curb stop-and-frisk procedures by police. The ACLU had said police inordinately targeted blacks. Sessions echoed that criticism in his statement Tuesday. "Chicago's agreement with the ACLU in late 2015 dramatically undercut proactive policing in the city and kicked off perhaps the greatest surge in murder ever suffered by a major American city," Sessions said. Chicago officials and the ACLU have said those and similar claims by Trump administration officials are exaggerated, get the data on crime in Chicago wrong and misstate the underlying causes of crime. ___ Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mtarm WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump in Iowa (all times local): 9:20 p.m. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein is calling President Donald Trump's attack on her handling of an allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh "ridiculous and an embarrassment." The ranking member of the Judiciary Committee is again denying she breached the confidence of Christine Blasey Ford, who claimed Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. Kavanaugh denied the allegation. Feinstein says: "Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence, she and her lawyers said so repeatedly. Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasn't me or my staff. The president's remarks are ridiculous and an embarrassment." At a political rally in Iowa on Tuesday, Trump alleged Feinstein leaked the allegation to sink Kavanaugh's confirmation. The crowd chanted "Lock her up!" President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) ___ 8:15 p.m. The crowd at an Iowa rally for President Donald Trump is chanting "Lock her up!" about Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. Trump has alleged that Feinstein, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, leaked an allegation of sexual assault against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford in an attempt to sink his confirmation. Feinstein denied her office was the source of the leak. Ford sought to remain anonymous in a letter with her accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, but after reporters started contacting her, Ford went public. Kavanaugh denied the allegation. Trump said Tuesday of Feinstein: "Did she leak that? 100 percent." He quickly added: "I don't want to get sued so 99 percent." ___ 7:55 p.m. President Donald Trump is celebrating the swearing-in of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as he seeks to boost Republican enthusiasm going into next month's midterm elections. Speaking at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Trump says Kavanaugh was "proudly" sworn in Monday in a ceremonial event at the White House. Trump's mention of Kavanaugh drew rave applause from the crowd of thousands in the western Iowa city. Kavanaugh faced multiple allegations of decades-old sexual misconduct as the Senate considered his nomination. Kavanaugh denied the accusations. He was confirmed on Saturday. Trump says: "I want to thank our incredible Republican senators for refusing to back down." He also praised Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa as "a very tough cookie" for how he handled the confirmation process. ___ This item has been corrected to show that Council Bluffs is in western Iowa, not eastern Iowa. ___ 6:25 p.m. President Donald Trump says his second summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un will have to wait until after next month's midterm elections. Trump tells reporters traveling with him to a rally in Iowa that he doesn't have time for a foreign trip as he's crisscrossing the country holding rallies to try to boost Republican turnout in November. He tells reporters aboard Air Force One, "I just can't leave now." ___ 1:30 p.m. President Donald Trump is heading to Iowa to boost Republican candidates and roll out new summer fuel standards. Trump's rally in Council Bluffs is the latest stop on a busy tour campaigning for Republican candidates in the lead-up to November's midterm congressional elections. Trump is expected to announce a long-expected move lifting the federal ban on summer sales of gasoline with high-ethanol blends that will allow year-round sales. The change is a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater sales of the corn-based fuel. It's also seen as a reward for Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who led the contentious but successful fight to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) People react as President Donald Trump takes to the stage to speak at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) Crowds react to words by President Donald Trump during a Make America Great Again rally at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - The winning can all go away in an instant. That was the message that Donald Trump Jr. had for Georgia Republicans as he urged them to support Brian Kemp for governor. With less than a month before November's election, the hotly contested race is attracting visits from national heavyweights that show just how seriously both Democrats and Republicans are taking the contest. Trump Jr. headlined an event for Kemp on Tuesday evening in Athens. Earlier in the day U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, along with Ayanna Pressley, fresh off her primary victory over 10-term U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in Massachusetts, were in Jonesboro with Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, manning phones and firing up volunteers. Abrams is vying to become the first black female governor of any state. The dueling visits seem sure to fire up the progressive and conservative bases of each party, in a race that recent public polling shows locked in a dead heat. FILE- In this Aug. 3, 2018, file photo, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is greeted before speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists in Detroit. With less than a month before November's election, the hotly contested race for Georgia governor is attracting visits from national heavyweights that show just how seriously both Democrats and Republicans are taking the race. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File) In Athens, Trump Jr. said that electing Republicans like Kemp to positions of power in states was key to the success of his father, President Donald Trump. He touted policies implemented by his father including recent federal tax cuts and negotiations with North Korea before complimenting Kemp's leadership in Georgia. "As successful as my father has been, he cannot do it alone. He needs all of your help. We can keep this going," Trump said. David Ellis, a 59 year-old Statesboro resident, wore a bright red Make America Great Again hat as he listened to Trump Jr. from the back of the crowded conference room in Athens. Ellis said that he was motivated to vote Republican "especially after the Judge Kavanaugh issue," saying he felt the process was unfair to Kavanaugh. Ellis also said that illegal immigration was a driving factor in his support for Trump and Kemp. "I just feel that you should come into the U.S. legally and not jump a fence," Ellis said. "If the far left would stop working against him he would already have that wall built," added Ellis's sister, 55 year-old Vidalia resident Susan Sheppard. Warren, meanwhile, made several campaign stops in Georgia for Abrams, and even made a few phone calls to rally support. "Hello, this is Elizabeth Warren." "I know you know this, but we've got less than 28 days to go and we need supporters that are going to help us make the difference," Warren said during one call. Monica Jones, a 45 year old Riverdale resident who came out to see Warren and Abrams campaign, said that health care was a big issue motivating her to support Abrams. Jones said she has aging parents and worried about the cost of their care. She said that Abrams was the only candidate in the race that would expand Medicaid and that appealed to her. Warren told Abrams' supporters that the race was about more than just the future of the Peach State. "Every now and again you watch what's going on in Washington, and as my daddy used to say, 'a fish rots from the head,'" Warren said, portraying President Donald Trump as a corrupt and inept leader. "We're gonna return power to the people and call out what's going on in Washington. It's corruption pure and simple and it's going to stop," Warren told the office packed with Abrams' supporters. Warren has been a frequent critic of President Trump's, and Trump has been happy to return the favor. Trump mockingly referred to Warren, who is white, as "Pocahontas" in the past, a reference to Warren claiming Native American heritage during her academic career. Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, left, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, right, call voters Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, to rally support for Abrams at an event in Jonesboro, Ga. With less than a month before November's election, the hotly contested race for Georgia governor is attracting visits from national heavyweights that show just how seriously both Democrats and Republicans are taking the race. (AP Photo/Ben Nadler) FILE - In a Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 file photo, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., greets womens' rights activists in the Hart Senate Office Building as the Senate Judiciary Committee hears from Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, his accuser, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Warren, along with Ayanna Pressley, fresh off her primary victory over 10-term U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in Massachusetts, were in Jonesboro on Tuesday, Oct. 9. 2018 with Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Donald Trump Jr., speaks to the crowd during a campaign event of Republican nominee for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, right, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) DOVER, Tenn. (AP) - A man accused of killing a Tennessee woman and attacking her husband in a case that led to an intense, weeklong manhunt has appeared before a judge, who ordered him to remain in jail without bond. News outlets report 53-year-old Kirby Gene Wallace appeared in Stewart County court Tuesday, wearing a bulletproof vest over an orange jumpsuit. When asked by a judge, he said he didn't commit the crimes. He's charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, arson, burglary, robbery and kidnapping in the Sept. 23 attack. He is also a suspect in another death in Montgomery County. Relatives of victim Brenda Smith taunted Wallace as he was escorted from the courtroom. Wallace was arrested Friday after a manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies, helicopters and dogs in rugged terrain. Kirby Gene Wallace enters the courtroom during his first appearance at the Stewart County Courthouse Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Dover, Tenn. Wallace, a multiple-murder suspect who led Tennessee law enforcement on an intense 7-day manhunt was captured without a struggle Friday morning, Oct. 5, in a wooded area about two hours northwest of Nashville. Wallace is wanted in two counties on charges that include murder, arson and kidnapping. (Courtney Pedroza/The Tennessean via AP, Pool) Kirby Gene Wallace exits the Stewart County Courthouse for his first appearance Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Dover, Tenn. Wallace, a multiple-murder suspect who led Tennessee law enforcement on an intense 7-day manhunt was captured without a struggle Friday morning, Oct. 5, in a wooded area about two hours northwest of Nashville. Wallace was wanted in two counties on charges that include murder, arson and kidnapping. (Courtney Pedroza/The Tennessean via AP, Pool) People gather to watch Kirby Gene Wallace's first appearance at the Stewart County Courthouse Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Dover, Tenn. Wallace, a multiple-murder suspect who led Tennessee law enforcement on an intense 7-day manhunt was captured without a struggle Friday morning, Oct. 5, in a wooded area about two hours northwest of Nashville. Wallace was wanted in two counties on charges that include murder, arson and kidnapping. (Courtney Pedroza/The Tennessean via AP, Pool) Kirby Gene Wallace sits before Judge Andy Brigham during his first appearance at the Stewart County Courthouse Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Dover, Tenn. Wallace, a multiple-murder suspect who led Tennessee law enforcement on an intense 7-day manhunt was captured without a struggle Friday morning, Oct. 5, in a wooded area about two hours northwest of Nashville. Wallace was wanted in two counties on charges that include murder, arson and kidnapping. (Courtney Pedroza/The Tennessean via AP, Pool) OGDENSBURG, N.J. (AP) - The New Jersey Democrat hoping to ride a blue wave to victory in a long-held Republican district, and her GOP rival, who has President Donald Trump's endorsement, traded jabs Tuesday in their first debate, clashing over immigration, Nancy Pelosi and term limits. Democrat Mikie Sherrill, a former federal prosecutor and Navy veteran, and Republican Assemblyman Jay Webber met at a fire hall in Ogdensburg, in rural Sussex County, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of New York, along with two other candidates in the open 11th District seat. Twelve-term Republican incumbent Rodney Frelinghuysen is retiring. Webber started on the offensive, praising the economy under Trump and casting Sherill a ticket-mate of fellow Democrats who have called for abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. "I want an immigration system that enforces the law. Mikie runs with people who want to abolish ICE. Mikie runs with people who want open borders," Webber said. Sherrill responded that she doesn't want to abolish the agency and said she would not support Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi for speaker if Democrats take back the House. She ignored a Webber jab at Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, whom he called "disgraced" over a federal corruption indictment that later resulted in charges being dropped. Menendez is on the top of the ticket this year. Supporters of Democratic congressional candidate Mikie Sherrill cheer as she arrives for a candidate forum at the UJC of MetroWest New Jersey, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Whippany, N.J. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) "I've always worked with people from very different backgrounds and gotten the mission accomplished and Jay Webber hasn't," she said. The race is among the most closely watched this year as Republicans defend their House majority and Democrats hope to flip about two dozen seats to take control. Webber, a six-term incumbent in the Assembly, also said he supported term limits for House members in response to a question from the moderator. Sherrill didn't answer directly and said Democrats should consider term limits for committee chairmen. Polls have shown the race is close, though Sherrill has had a slight edge in surveys. Webber got a Twitter endorsement last month from Trump, who carried the district by a close margin in 2016. Neither candidate mentioned the polarizing president by name during the debate. Republicans have more registered voters than Democrats in the district, but Sherrill has raised more cash. Sherrill has about $2.9 million cash on hand as of June 30, according to the Federal Election. Sherrill and Webber will meet again Wednesday in a debate on statewide TV at NJTV. Libertarian Ryan Martinez and no-label candidate Robert Crook are also on the ballot and participated in the debate. Democratic congressional candidate Mikie Sherrill speaks during a candidate forum at the UJC of MetroWest New Jersey, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Whippany, N.J. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Republican Assemblyman Jay Webber speaks during a candidate forum at the UJC of MetroWest New Jersey, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Whippany, N.J. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Democratic congressional candidate Mikie Sherrill speaks during a candidate forum at the UJC of MetroWest New Jersey, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Whippany, N.J. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Republican Assemblyman Jay Webber speaks during a candidate forum at the UJC of MetroWest New Jersey, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Whippany, N.J. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Democratic congressional candidate Mikie Sherrill greets voters during a candidate forum at the UJC of MetroWest New Jersey, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Whippany, N.J. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Supporters of Republican Assemblyman Jay Webber cheer as he arrives for a candidate forum at the UJC of MetroWest New Jersey, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Whippany, N.J. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Democrat gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean said Tuesday he would happily sign Medicaid expansion into law in Tennessee, while his opponent Republican Bill Lee countered he would oppose such efforts. The two top candidates detailed their positions during the second gubernatorial debate at the Toy F. Reid Employee Center in Kingsport. Similar to the first debate, Dean and Lee refrained from aggressively attacking each other in an overall tame event - with Lee even making a point to thank Dean's positive tone throughout the campaign during the opening remarks. However, the two made sure to split on key health care and education issues over the course of the one-hour debate. "We have literally given up $4 billion. That is money being spent in other states," Dean said. "There are now billboards in Tennessee that say 'thank you for paying for our health care.' We need to get our Medicaid dollars back here." Under the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. government pays at least 90 percent of the cost of expanding Medicaid while states pick up the rest. Despite the savings promoted by supporters, Tennessee lawmakers have long refused to consider expanding its Medicaid program - known as TennCare - even with Republican Gov. Bill Haslam advocating for the change. That opposition would continue under Lee's administration should the Republican win in November. Tennessee gubernatorial candidate, Republican Bill Lee speaks during his debate with Democrat Karl Dean, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Kingsport, Tenn. (David Crigger/The Bristol Herald-Courier via AP) "Taking federal money is not free money," Lee said. "We shouldn't expose Tennesseans to that. We expanded Medicaid before, it ended up failing and it almost broke the state." In 2003, the former Gov. Phil Bredesen found a way to stem budget gaps and exploding cost growths at TennCare by cutting 170,000 adults from the program and reducing benefits to thousands more. Lee did not provide specific details during the debate on what exactly he would do to improve health care access and lower costs, but later told reporters he believed he could help oversee better coordinated care and utilizing technology - such as telemedicine - as governor within the first few years. On education, Dean criticized Lee's support of using vouchers that use taxpayer money to pay for tuition to private or religious schools. "I do not believe in vouchers, vouchers actually take dollars way from the public education system," Dean said. Lee said he supports giving families more choices and flexibility to give the best option to their kids and would make sure he would do nothing to diminish the quality of public education. He never used the word voucher in his response. "I believe that choice is very important," he said. Lee, who is running for political office for the first time, made multiple references to his Franklin mechanical contracting, facilities and home services company to serve as examples of his leadership style, referencing his ability to navigate during lean budget years and managing health care costs spikes. "In business, if you don't manage a budget you go bankrupt," he said. "In government, if you don't manage a budget, you raise taxes." Dean, former Nashville mayor, disagreed with Lee's assessment. "I have been in government and that's not how it works," Dean said. "We had to make all of the tough decisions a government has to make. We had to make the cuts and we had to eliminate positions." Dean and Lee are vying to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Bill Haslam A third debate has also been scheduled for this week on Oct. 12 in Nashville. Tennessee gubernatorial candidate, Democrat Karl Dean speaks during his debate with Republican Bill Lee, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Kingsport, Tenn. (David Crigger/The Bristol Herald-Courier via AP) Tennessee gubernatorial candidate, Democrat Karl Dean speaks during his debate with Republican Bill Lee, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Kingsport, Tenn. (David Crigger/The Bristol Herald-Courier via AP) Tennessee gubernatorial candidate, Republican Bill Lee speaks during his debate with Democrat Karl Dean, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Kingsport, Tenn. (David Crigger/The Bristol Herald-Courier via AP) Tennessee gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Karl Dean, left, and Republican Bill Lee debate at the Toy R. Reid Employee Center at Tennessee Eastman, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Kingsport, Tenn. (David Crigger/The Bristol Herald-Courier via AP) Tennessee gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Karl Dean, left, and Republican Bill Lee greet one another at the beginning of their debate at the Toy R. Reid Employee Center at Tennessee Eastman, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Kingsport, Tenn. (David Crigger/The Bristol Herald-Courier via AP) KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh (AP) - At an age when many young Rohingya women have children, Rahima Akter has other plans. From the refugee camp in southern Bangladesh where she was born, Akter, a 19-year-old with a confident smile who goes by the name Khushi, says she aspires to become the most educated Rohingya woman in the world. Akter was born and has lived her whole life in the camp, a makeshift settlement of bamboo and tarpaulin huts spread out over rolling hills that were once protected forestland. Her parents were among a wave of 250,000 Rohingya Muslims who escaped forced labor, religious persecution and violent attacks from Buddhist mobs in Myanmar during the early 1990s. She sees education as her ticket out of the camp. "If we take education then we will be able to lead our life as a life," she said. In this Aug. 27, 2018, photo, Rahima Akter walks through Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh. Rahima is a 19-year-old refugee who dreams of becoming the most educated Rohingya woman in the world. She recently finished high school and hopes to study human rights in college. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) Akter has supplemented her family's income by working as a translator for aid groups and journalists responding to a new influx of Rohingya refugees who have flooded the camp since August 2017, when the Myanmar military and Buddhist mobs began "clearance operations" against Rohingya in retaliation for insurgent attacks on security posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state. A United Nations fact-finding mission reported last month that at least 10,000 Rohingya are believed to have died in the violence. The U.N. has called for Myanmar's top military generals to be prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity. But while the Rohingya have found a measure of safety in southern Bangladesh, access to education is far from assured. Akter said she is among only a few Rohingya refugee girls to have completed the Bangladeshi equivalent of high school, a feat she could only achieve by sneaking past the camp's checkpoints and bribing Bangladeshi public school officials for a placement. More than 1,200 temporary schools teach English, math, Burmese, science and the arts to about 140,000 children between the ages of 6 and 14, just over a quarter of the more than half a million refugee children living in the camp, according to UNICEF. But the schooling only goes up to 5th grade, so Akter and other refugees have had to secretly enroll in schools in Cox's Bazar or other towns to complete their studies. Because of the limited educational opportunities for them, UNICEF calls the refugee children "a lost generation." "The international community has failed these children," UNICEF spokesman Sakil Faizullah said, adding that the agency plans to start offering basic classes for older refugee students on the assumption they will receive formal education when they return to Myanmar. But in the current anti-Rohingya climate in Myanmar, Akter said her family's return has not been possible. In order to go to school, Akter said she disguised her Rohingya identity by speaking only in Bengali, and dressing like a Bangladeshi girl. But it was the battles she had to fight at home that were the most challenging, she said. Most Rohingya girls are expected to get married by the age of 16, and sometimes as early as 14. She had to fight off her father who said her time for marriage had come. Akter cried for days and begged her parents with hands clasped to let her continue studying. Her mother, Minara Begum, a refugee who fled Myanmar as a child and never attended school, not only convinced her husband to let their eldest daughter study, but also fought off rebukes from the elders in her community who warned that sending girls out into the world was a sin. "I told them 'let Allah punish me then,'" Begum said. "What about our lives as refugees that have gone in vain because of our illiteracy? If I can help my children get a better future by education, then that is what I am going to do." Begum now sends three of her four daughters to school and hopes to educate her youngest daughter and only son as well. Akter and two of her sisters live on their own near the school in Cox's Bazar, about two hours' drive from the camp. Akter's sisters were able to enroll in the Bangladeshi school after she had secured a place for herself there. Begum said the family has skimped on food to cover the costs of sending the children to school, hoping that they can build a future for themselves that is not bound by the stigma of being a refugee. "We are Rohingya. There is no land under our feet. We have no future. We are in the same situation as chicken in a cage," Begum said, adding that they "can't even claim ownership over the fruit from a tree that we planted." Begum's dedication to her children's education seems to be paying off already. Akter now earns more money than the rest of her family's income combined. While she is mostly busy preparing university applications, Akter also spends time going door-to-door at the expansive camp, documenting accounts of people who fled Myanmar last year. She hopes to eventually publish her research when she is in college, where she plans to study human rights. "Why do people have to lead their lives in such a situation?" she said. "One day maybe I'll be able to raise up my voice about human rights for the Rohingya." In this Aug. 22, 2018, photo, Rahima Akter, left, teaches her siblings inside the family hut in Kutupalong refugee camp, in Bangladesh. Rahima is a 19-year-old refugee who dreams of becoming the most educated Rohingya woman in the world. While she is mostly busy preparing university applications, Rahima spends her spare time going door-to-door at the expansive camps, documenting first-person accounts of people who fled Myanmar last year. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 27, 2018, photo, Rohingya refugee woman Minara Begum, mother of Rahima Akter, holds her youngest daughter Arohi Zannat inside the family hut in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh. Begum, 34, a refugee who fled Myanmar as a child and never attended school, not only convinced her husband to let their eldest daughter Rahima study, but she also fought off rebukes from the elders in her community who warned that sending girls out into the world was a sin. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 27, 2018, photo, Rohingya girl Rahima Akter walks out of a hut after interviewing a Rohingya refugee in Balukhali Refugee Camp in Bangladesh. Rahima is a 19-year-old refugee who dreams of becoming the most educated Rohingya woman in the world. While she is mostly busy preparing university applications, Rahima spends her spare time going door-to-door at the expansive camps, documenting first-person accounts of people who fled Myanmar last year. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 27, 2018, photo, Rohingya refugee children attend a UNICEF run school in Balukhali refugee camp, Bangladesh. More than 1,200 temporary schools across the refugee camps teach English, math, Burmese, science and the arts to about 140,000 children between the ages of 6-14, just over a quarter of the more than half a million refugee children, according to UNICEF. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 27, 2018, photo, Rohingya refugee children attend a UNICEF run school in Balukhali refugee camp, Bangladesh. More than 1,200 temporary schools across the refugee camps teach English, math, Burmese, science and the arts to about 140,000 children between the ages of 6-14, just over a quarter of the more than half a million refugee children, according to UNICEF. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 27, 2018, photo, Rohingya refugee woman Minara Begum, mother of Rahima Akter, sits by her youngest daughter Arohi Zannat inside the family hut in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh. Begum, 34, a refugee who fled Myanmar as a child and never attended school, not only convinced her husband to let their eldest daughter Rahima study, but she also fought off rebukes from the elders in her community who warned that sending girls out into the world was a sin. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 27, 2018, photo, Rohingya girl Rahima Akter speaks to Hosen Ali, a Rohingya refugee, inside his hut in Balukhali Refugee Camp in Bangladesh. Rahima is a 19-year-old refugee who dreams of becoming the most educated Rohingya woman in the world. While she is mostly busy preparing university applications, Rahima spends her spare time going door-to-door at the expansive camps, documenting first-person accounts of people who fled Myanmar last year. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 28, 2018, photo, a Rohingya refugee girl sells vegetables in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh. More than half a million Rohingya children live in the congested camps. They rely on 1,200 learning centers set up by aid organizations that can't accommodate everyone and only offer classes up to a 5th-grade level. Most Rohingya girls are expected to get married by the age of 16, and sometimes as early as 14. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 26, 2018, photo, a Rohingya refugee girl stands by a fence at Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh. More than half a million Rohingya children live in the congested camps. They rely on 1,200 learning centers set up by aid organizations that can't accommodate everyone and only offer classes up to a 5th-grade level. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 23, 2018, photo, a Rohingya refugee child rides a merry-go-round at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. More than half a million Rohingya children live in the congested camps. They rely on 1,200 learning centers set up by aid organizations that can't accommodate everyone and only offer classes up to a 5th-grade level. Most Rohingya girls are expected to get married by the age of 16, and sometimes as early as 14. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) In this Aug. 23, 2018, photo, a Rohingya refugee woman sits under an umbrella as she sells fruit at a playground in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh. More than half a million Rohingya children live in the congested camps. They rely on 1,200 learning centers set up by aid organizations that can't accommodate everyone and only offer classes up to a 5th-grade level. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Nikki Haley came to her job as the top U.S. diplomat at the United Nations with no foreign policy experience, but in less than two years she made many friends - even among ambassadors from countries at odds with the Trump administration's policies. Tuesday's sudden announcement that she was leaving by the end of the year ricocheted through U.N. headquarters like a lightning bolt, with many expressing shock, and some sadness. "It was a surprise, not a very pleasant one for me personally," said Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. The ambassadors on the powerful U.N. Security Council who worked closely with Haley praised her - a testament to her skills and success as a diplomat - though many of their countries, including America's traditional allies, have issues with U.S. policy. Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2018 file photo, American Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Myanmar at United Nations headquarters. Haley is tendering her resignation, two sources tell The Associated Press, marking the latest shake-up in the turbulent Trump administration just weeks before the midterm election. She was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trump's second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the U.N. Security Council. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) ISTANBUL (AP) - Two Gulfstream jets carrying 15 Saudis landed at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport before dawn on the day last week that journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate and vanished. The men checked into hotels and left Turkey later that night. Turkish media, which released surveillance camera video of the men on Wednesday, said they were members of an elite Saudi "assassination squad," sent to kill Khashoggi, a Saudi critic. Saudi Arabia remained silent at the accusation as the images were seen around the world, raising pressure on the kingdom to explain what happened to the writer, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Adding to the macabre mystery, a Turkish official told The Associated Press that one member of the team was an "autopsy expert." Saudi Arabia has dismissed allegations it played a role in Khashoggi's disappearance as "baseless," but it has offered no evidence to support its contention he left the consulate unharmed last week and vanished into Istanbul while his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, waited outside. The video, shown on the state-run broadcaster TRT and others, did not offer definitive proof about Khashoggi's fate. Turkish officials have said that they fear the team killed him. A security guard stands outside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Turkish officials have said they believe Saudi writer and government critic Jamal Khashoggi, was killed inside the consulate after he visited the mission to obtain a document required to marry his Turkish fiancee. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) U.S. National security adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner have spoken to the crown prince about the 59-year-old Washington Post contributor, the White House announced. President Donald Trump said the U.S. is "demanding" answers from its close ally, but he did not disclose any details. "It's a very serious situation for us and this White House," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "We do not like seeing what's going on. Now, as you know, they're saying 'We had nothing to do with it.' But so far everyone's saying they had nothing to do with it." Trump added: "Nobody knows what happened yet. We don't know what happened yet." The Turkish security camera video was reminiscent of the surveillance video sleuthing done by officials investigating the assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai in 2010 or the slaying of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half brother in Malaysia in 2017. The silent video showed one of two private Gulfstream jets that Turkish media said carried the Saudi group, who flew in and out of Istanbul on Oct. 2. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published images of what it referred to as the "assassination squad," apparently taken at passport control at the airport. The state-run Anadola news agency published the names and birth dates of all 15 Saudis. The footage shows some of the Saudis leaving a hotel and Khashoggi entering the consulate, walking past a black Mercedes van with diplomatic plates parked adjacent to the entrance. An hour and 54 minutes later, according to the time stamp, a black Mercedes van drives about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to the consul's home, where it was parked in a garage. The footage all seemed to come from surveillance cameras, which would have been located throughout the neighborhood housing the Saudi Consulate and other diplomatic missions. No footage has emerged of Khashoggi leaving the consulate. Two Turkish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to the AP because the investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance was still ongoing, confirmed the authenticity of the images in the Turkish media. One of the officials describes a member of the Saudi team as an "autopsy expert" amid earlier allegations that Khashoggi had been killed and dismembered. The Hurriyet newspaper and other media alleged that the Saudi Consulate's 28 local staff were given the day off Oct. 2 because a "diplomats' meeting" would be held there on that day. The reports did not cite a source and there was no official confirmation. Turkey's private NTV news channel identified one of the 15 Saudis who arrived as the head of a Saudi forensic science agency. It alleged that he may have been responsible for cleaning up any incriminating evidence. The station did not cite a source for its report. Khashoggi had written a series of columns for the Post that were critical of Saudi Arabia's assertive Prince Mohammed, who has led a widely publicized drive to reform the conservative Sunni monarchy but has also presided over the arrests of activists and businessmen. Erdogan has not accused Saudi Arabia of being responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance but has said that if the Saudis have video footage of him leaving the consulate, they should release it. Saudi Arabia is a major investor in Turkey, despite Ankara's support for the Gulf nation of Qatar, which is under a blockade led by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations. Police and investigators in Turkey typically release video and information through state-run or otherwise government-friendly media outlets, as opposed to holding briefings like those common in Western nations. On Wednesday, the Post published a column by Cengiz, who said her fiance first visited the consulate on Sept. 28 "despite being somewhat concerned that he could be in danger." He returned there Oct. 2 after being promised the necessary paperwork so the two could be married. "At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamal's disappearance," Cengiz wrote. "I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate." Trump told reporters that Cengiz will "most likely be coming to the White House. It's a terrible thing." Khashoggi had sought to become a U.S. citizen after living in self-imposed exile since last year, fearing repercussions for his criticism of the prince, Cengiz wrote. Trump, whose first overseas trip as U.S. president was to the kingdom and whose son-in-law Jared Kushner has close ties to Prince Mohammed, said Tuesday he had not yet talked to the Saudis about Khashoggi, "but I will be at some point." Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said Tuesday that Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were "open to cooperation" and would allow the consulate building to be searched. It's unclear when such a search would take place. Embassies and consulates under the Vienna Convention are technically foreign soil and must be protected by host nations. Saudi Arabia may have agreed to the search in order to reassure its Western allies and the international community. ___ Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey, and Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut and Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed. This image taken from surveillance camera shows a still image of people inside Ataturk International Airport, Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2, 2018. The text on the screen from source in Turkish reads: "nine people enter from airport's E Gate on Oct. 2, 2018 around 03:37." A Turkish television station has aired surveillance video of missing writer Jamal Khashoggi walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and a black van leaving later for the consul's home. The footage aired Wednesday begins by showing the arrival of one of two private jets, then two cars can be seen taking the men to Gate E, where eight of them are seen on camera passing through passport control. (TRT World via AP) A man reads the Sabah newspaper, with a headline that reads "15-member assassination squad " in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Sabah on Wednesday revealed the identities of what it called a "mysterious" 15-member "assassination squad" who were allegedly involved in Saudi writer and government critic Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance inside his country's consulate in Istanbul. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2015, file photo, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi speaks during a press conference in Manama, Bahrain. Turkish claims that Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post, was slain inside a Saudi diplomatic mission in Turkey, has put the Trump administration in a delicate spot with one of its closest Mid-east allies. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File) A security guard waits to enter Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Turkish officials have said they believe Saudi writer and government critic Jamal Khashoggi, was killed inside the consulate after he visited the mission to obtain a document required to marry his Turkish fiancee. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) A man exits Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Turkish officials have said they believe Saudi writer and government critic Jamal Khashoggi, was killed inside the consulate after he visited the mission to obtain a document required to marry his Turkish fiancee. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a Turkey-Africa business forum in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a Turkey-Africa business forum in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool) A security guard waits to enter Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Turkish officials have said they believe Saudi writer and government critic Jamal Khashoggi, was killed inside the consulate after he visited the mission to obtain a document required to marry his Turkish fiancee. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Alyssa Edling, center, and Thomas Malia, second from right, both with PEN America, join others as they hold signs of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, during a news conference about his disappearance in Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in front of The Washington Post in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Nihad Awad, right, executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, speaks during a news conference with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., left, asking for answers about journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance in Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in front of The Washington Post in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) WASHINGTON (AP) - Gerard Murphy never met his uncle Richard. But the Potomac, Maryland, native grew up hearing stories of the former journalist who enlisted in the Marines during World War II and disappeared during the Jan. 15, 1944, amphibious assault on the Pacific island of Saipan. "This was a mystery in our family for basically my entire life," said Gerard Murphy, a lawyer. "It's bad enough to lose someone in a war. Having them missing in action is an added burden and grief to carry." That all changed in 2015, when Gerard Murphy was contacted by Ted Darcy, an independent researcher specializing in identifying World War II-era military remains. Darcy, a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, believed he had made a match between Richard Murphy's dental records and the remains of an unidentified Saipan casualty buried in the Philippines as unknown soldier X-15. Three years and many steps later Richard Murphy's remains are finally coming home. Darcy's efforts resulted in the military disinterring the remains in the X-15 grave and bringing them to Hawaii for genetic testing. Gerard Murphy and one of his cousins provided DNA samples - "basically we spit in a bag" - and the military was able to make a positive match. Richard Murphy's remains are expected to arrive in late November, where they will be reburied in a cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland, "right next to his mother," Gerard Murphy said. A native of Washington, D.C., Richard Murphy graduated from Georgetown University and worked for several years for the Washington Evening Star, an afternoon newspaper that ceased publication in 1981. When the U.S. entered World War II, Murphy enlisted in the Marines as a combat correspondent, island hopping through the Pacific with American troops. This 2011 photo provided by Ted Darcy, shows the unknown soldier grave site of Richard Murphy at the Manila American Cemetery at suburban Taguig city, east of Manila, Philippines. The body of the former journalist and U.S. Marine spent decades in this unknown soldier grave. The efforts of a volunteer researcher prompted the military to exhume the body for further testing in Hawaii. Now Murphy's remains are expected to be brought to the Washington area in late November to be buried alongside his mother and other relatives in a family plot in Silver Spring, MD. (Ted Darcy via AP) "He carried his M-1 rifle and his typewriter," Gerard Murphy said. "All my life we heard about Uncle Richard. Having his remains brought home feels really amazing - very spiritual." Working from his home in Florida, Darcy was able to make the match by comparing dental records from Richard Murphy's enlistment with those of unknown soldier X-15, all supplied for a fee by the National Archives and Records Administration. Darcy said he has dealt with dozens of such cases and often ends up dealing directly with family members - sometimes with divergent reactions to news of a long-dead relative. "Some are very, very grateful," he said. "Some don't want to be bothered." Darcy said he has personally helped complete 15 such unknown soldier cases from World War II, a small fraction of the nearly 9,000 unknown soldier cases from that conflict. His work frequently brings him in contact with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA. Darcy expressed some frustration with the pace of the process on the military's end. "It took three years for them to decide to disinter (Murphy), go get the body and ship it to Hawaii for DNA testing," Darcy said. "I've got 48 more on my desk right now. How long is it going to take to get them through those?" Hattie Johnson, a service casualty officer for the Marine Corps, has been handling the Murphy case and said there's a renewed sense of urgency surrounding the World War II cases because "the family members of these soldiers are starting to die off." The situation is complicated by the relatively primitive nature of the medical and dental records back then, Johnson said. For example, the dental records on file for each American soldier and Marine were essentially done by hand instead of with an X-ray machine. "Back then, the dentist would literally look into your mouth and manually fill out a chart," she said. Still, Darcy was able to make that connection using the same records. "The military said they tried but they couldn't figure it out," he said. "I think they're just overwhelmed." WASHINGTON (AP) - In the latest shake-up for President Donald Trump's turbulent administration, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley abruptly announced she is resigning at the end of the year, raising questions about who will fill the key national security post and about the outspoken diplomat's own political ambitions. Trump later told reporters he was considering five candidates for Haley's job and that a successor would be named in two to three weeks - or maybe sooner. Among those under consideration, Trump said, is former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. The Goldman Sachs executive and former Bush administration official is a close ally of Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner - both senior White House aides. The news of Haley's departure blindsided some key U.S. allies and many congressional Republicans involved in foreign policy matters. And it came less than a month before congressional elections, thwarting White House efforts to project an image of stability, with the loss of one of the highest-profile women in the administration at a time when women's votes are being vigorously pursued. But Haley, the first female governor of South Carolina, has often been an unpredictable and independent force in the Trump administration. At times she has offered strikingly different perspectives on world events from her more isolationist-minded boss. A smiling Haley announced her decision at an Oval Office meeting alongside the president, bringing up her own political prospects even as she underscored her continued support for Trump. Without prompting from reporters, she said she had no plans to run for president "in 2020" and would campaign for Trump. President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Trump told reporters that he has heard Ivanka Trump's name discussed for the post, adding she'd be "incredible," but said if he selected her he'd be accused of nepotism. In a tweet, the presidential senior adviser praised Haley, saying Trump will "nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador." She added: "That replacement will not be me." U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell's name has also been floated for the post, but Trump suggested he'd rather keep him in his current post "because he's doing such a good job." Haley, who is 46 and not personally wealthy, hinted in her resignation letter to Trump that she is headed to the private sector. She has one child in college and another approaching college age, and she has the potential to make much more money in the business world. "I have given everything I've got these last eight years," she said, referring to her six years as governor as well as her time at the U.N. "And I do think it's good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it." White House officials had sought to put a hold on Trump's record-setting turnover in the run-up to the Nov. 6 elections, with aides being asked months ago to step down or commit to stay through Election Day to avoid adding to a sense of turmoil. The prospect of post-midterm changes continues to hang over the West Wing, and Haley's exit was one that has been discussed, according to a senior administration official not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. A number of officials speculated that the timing was meant to preserve the ambassador's own political future. A post in the Trump administration has proven to be a rickety stepping-stone to either lucrative private sector work or hopes for higher office, and the risk to those ambitions might only increase after the elections if Democrats make significant gains in Congress. Trump said Haley first discussed leaving with him six months ago. The senior official noted that their conversation coincided with the appointments of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and John Bolton as national security adviser in an earlier upending of top foreign policy officials. Haley had expressed some frustration that her voice had been diminished as the two men became the aggressive new faces of Trump's international policy, the official said. More recently, there was the awkward moment at the U.N., when Trump's boasting of American economic strength under his leadership brought laughter at a General Assembly session. He insisted later that the delegates were laughing with him, not at him. The six-month timeline also coincides with a high-profile spat between Haley and the White House in April, when she drew the president's ire for previewing in a television appearance the administration's planned imposition of a new round of sanctions on Russia. When the sanctions never materialized, White House officials said the plans had changed without Haley being briefed, and economic adviser Larry Kudlow suggested she was confused. "I don't get confused," Haley said in a sharply worded response to the West Wing. Haley was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trump's second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the Security Council. At the U.N., she helped spearhead the administration's efforts to combat what it alleged to be anti-American and anti-Israel actions by the international body, including the U.S. decision to leave the Human Rights Council and to stop funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian Refugees. Haley also secured three successively tougher Security Council sanction resolutions against North Korea - which the administration has credited with bringing Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table - and an arms embargo against South Sudan. But under Haley's tenure at the U.N., the U.S. has faced strong opposition from Russia when it comes to addressing the 7-year-old war in Syria, and frustration from European allies over reimposing nuclear sanctions against Iran. ___ Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Jill Colvin from Omaha, Nebraska, and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump listens to a question during a meeting with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ERIE, Pa. (AP) - As Hurricane Michael pounded Florida on Wednesday, President Donald Trump took shelter at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, where he sought to boost Republicans before the midterms. Trump acknowledged the hurricane at the top of his rally in Erie, offering his "thoughts and prayers" to those in the storm's path and promising to "spare no effort" in the response. He promised to travel to Florida "very shortly." He added: "We will always pull through. ... We will always be successful at what we do." Then Trump turned back to politics. His Pennsylvania rally was the latest stop on an all-out midterms blitz. With weeks to go before the November elections, Trump and his fellow Republicans have been invigorated by the successful nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and are seeking to use the contentious moment to unify the GOP and stave off Democratic energy at the polls. That Trump kept his appointment in Erie underscored the importance of this effort to Republicans. Earlier in the day, Trump received a hurricane briefing at the White House on the Category 4 storm. He told reporters he faced a "quagmire" about whether to attend the Pennsylvania rally because "thousands of people" were already lined up for the event. Trump, who won Pennsylvania in 2016, touted Republican Reps. Mike Kelly and Lou Barletta. Kelly is facing a challenge from Democrat Ron DiNicola, while Barletta is mounting an uphill campaign to unseat two-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. The president, who attended a fundraiser before the rally, also praised GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner. President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. As Hurricane Michael pounded the Southeast on Wednesday, Trump took shelter at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where he sought to boost Republicans before the midterms. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) After his comments about the hurricane, Trump pivoted to the midterms, celebrating Kavanaugh's appointment despite Democratic opposition and sexual misconduct allegations against him. Trump called it a "historic week," saying, "What the radical Democrats did to Brett Kavanaugh and his beautiful family is a national disgrace." For weeks Trump has been escalating his attacks on Democrats. He continued that effort Wednesday, claiming that Democrats want to "impose socialism and take over and destroy American health care." He added: "Democrats want to abolish America's borders and allow drugs and gangs to pour into our country." Trump also returned to one of his favorite themes - reliving his stunning 2016 victory. "Was that the most exciting evening?" he said to cheers. Trump also ticked through what he sees as his top achievements, including tax cuts and a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. He talked about exiting the Iran nuclear deal and drew wild applause for mentioning his plans for a Space Force. Trump attacked Casey for opposing Kavanaugh's nomination, saying he had "joined the left-wing mob." He also accused Casey, named for his politician father, for "banking on the name of his father." Trump's own father, Fred, was a successful real estate developer who set his son up in business. The New York Times recently reported that Donald Trump received at least $413 million from his father over the decades, much of that through dubious tax dodges, including outright fraud. Earlier Wednesday, Trump published an op-ed in USA Today that attacked Democrats over "Medicare for All" health care proposals. In his op-ed, Trump said Democrats have moved away from centrism, claiming the "new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America's economy after Venezuela." He added: "Government-run health care is just the beginning. Democrats are also pushing massive government control of education, private-sector businesses and other major sectors of the U.S. economy." Trump's attack on Medicare for All omits any mention of improved benefits for seniors that Democrats promise. Medicare for All means different things to different Democrats. The plan pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who challenged Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, would expand Medicare to cover almost everyone in the country, and current Medicare recipients would get improved benefits. Other Democratic plans would allow people to buy into a new government system modeled on Medicare, moving toward the goal of coverage for all while leaving private insurance in place. Democrats, who think health care is a winning issue going into the midterms, also sought to focus voter attention Wednesday. In the Senate, Democrats unsuccessfully sought to scuttle Trump's push for short-term health insurance plans, which are less expensive but provide skimpier coverage. While the vote failed, Democrats think the move will help them in November. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. As Hurricane Michael pounded the Southeast on Wednesday, Trump took shelter at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where he sought to boost Republicans before the midterms. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump arrives to speak during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. As Hurricane Michael pounded the Southeast on Wednesday, Trump took shelter at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where he sought to boost Republicans before the midterms. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump, right, speaks at a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. As Hurricane Michael pounded the Southeast on Wednesday, Trump took shelter at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where he sought to boost Republicans before the midterms. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump pauses as he speaks at a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. As Hurricane Michael pounded the Southeast on Wednesday, Trump took shelter at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where he sought to boost Republicans before the midterms. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Supporters of President Donald Trump cheer as he arrives to speak at a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. As Hurricane Michael pounded the Southeast on Wednesday, Trump took shelter at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where he sought to boost Republicans before the midterms. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump demanded answers Wednesday from Saudi Arabia about the fate of a missing Saudi writer as lawmakers pushed for sanctions and a top Republican said the man was likely killed after entering a Saudi consulate in Turkey. Trump said he didn't know what happened to Jamal Khashoggi and expressed hope that the 59-year-old writer, who went missing a week ago, was still alive. But senior members of Congress with access to U.S. intelligence reporting feared the worst. More than 20 Republican and Democratic senators instructed Trump to order an investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance under legislation that authorizes imposition of sanctions for perpetrators of extrajudicial killings, torture or other gross human rights violations. While no suspects were named, and the lawmakers' letter to the president is only a preliminary step toward taking punitive action, it marked a departure from decades of close U.S.-Saudi relations that have only intensified under Trump. Riyadh has supported the administration's tough stance toward Iran, a key rival of Saudi Arabia in the volatile Middle East. Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has reviewed the U.S. intelligence into what happened to Khashoggi, said "the likelihood is he was killed on the day he walked into the consulate." He said that "there was Saudi involvement" in whatever happened with the journalist, who wrote columns for The Washington Post. "The Saudis have a lot of explaining to do because all indications are that they have been involved at minimum with his disappearance," Corker told The Associated Press. "Everything points to them." President Donald Trump speaks during his meeting to discuss potential damage from Hurricane Michael, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Khashoggi, a wealthy former government insider who had been living in the U.S. in self-imposed exile, had gone to the consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to get paperwork he needed for his upcoming marriage while his Turkish fiancee waited outside. Turkish authorities have said he was killed by members of an elite Saudi "assassination squad," an allegation the Saudi government has dismissed. The Washington Post reported Wednesday evening that U.S. intelligence intercepts outlined a Saudi plan to detain Khashoggi. The Post, citing anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence, said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered an operation to lure Jamal Khashoggi from his home in Virginia to Saudi Arabia and then detain him. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he has a call in to Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who has appealed to the president and first lady Melania Trump for help. Trump said he had spoken with the Saudis about what he called a "bad situation," but he did not disclose details of his conversations. He also said the U.S. was working "very closely" with Turkey, "and I think we'll get to the bottom of it." White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said national security adviser John Bolton and presidential senior adviser Jared Kushner spoke Tuesday to Crown Prince Mohammed about Khashoggi. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then had a follow-up call with the crown prince to reiterate the U.S. request for information and a thorough, transparent investigation. While angry members of Congress likely won't cause the administration to end decades of close security ties with Saudi Arabia, the initiation on Wednesday of possible sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act indicated the depth of concern on Capitol Hill over Khashoggi's case. Lawmakers could also throw a wrench into arms sales that require their approval and demand the U.S. scale back support for the Saudi military campaign against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said if Saudi Arabia had lured a U.S. resident into a consulate and killed him, "it's time for the United States to rethink our military, political and economic relationship with Saudi Arabia." Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a longtime critic of the Saudi government, said he'll try to force a vote in the Senate this week blocking U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia. He told local radio in his home state Tuesday that he wants to end the arms shipments if there's "any indication" the Saudis are "implicated in killing this journalist that was critical of them." The Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, has described the allegations as "malicious leaks and grim rumors" and said the kingdom is "gravely concerned" about Khashoggi. Saudi officials maintain he left the consulate shortly after entering, though it has failed to provide evidence to back that up, such as video footage. Trump's comments Wednesday were the toughest yet from his administration. The reaction from European governments has also been cautious - in part because of uncertainty over whether strained relations between Ankara and Riyadh might have colored Turkey's reporting of events. The Trump administration, from the president on down, is heavily invested in the Saudi relationship. That's unlikely to change, said Robin Wright, a scholar at the Wilson Center think tank and close friend of the missing writer. The administration's Middle East agenda heavily depends on the Saudis, including efforts to counter Iranian influence in the region, fight extremism and build support for an expected plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Indication of those stakes came within four months of Trump taking office, when Saudi Arabia became his first destination on a presidential trip and he announced $110 billion in proposed arms sales. Crown Prince Mohammed has introduced some economic and social reforms, allowing women to drive and opening movie theaters in the deeply conservative Muslim nation. The flip side, however, is that he's also squelched dissent and imprisoned activists. He has championed the three-year military campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen that has pushed that nation toward famine and caused many civilian deaths. Still, the Trump administration last month stood behind its support for that campaign with weapons, logistics and intelligence, certifying that the Saudis were taking adequate steps to prevent civilian deaths despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Karen Elliott House, a veteran writer on Saudi affairs and chairwoman of the board of trustees at RAND Corp., said U.S. support for the Yemen war is likely to be the focus of congressional criticism but won't endanger a relationship that has endured for decades, underpinned by shared strategic interests. Even under the Obama administration, which had difficult relations with Riyadh compared with Trump, there were some $65 billion in completed arms sales. "The U.S.-Saudi relationship is certainly not about shared moral values," House said. "It's about shared security interests." ___ Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Susannah George, Matthew Lee and Deb Riechmann and video journalist Padmananda Rama contributed to this report. FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2015, file photo, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi speaks during a press conference in Manama, Bahrain. Turkish claims that Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post, was slain inside a Saudi diplomatic mission in Turkey, has put the Trump administration in a delicate spot with one of its closest Mid-east allies. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File) Alyssa Edling, center, and Thomas Malia, second from right, both with PEN America, join others as they hold signs of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, during a news conference about his disappearance in Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in front of The Washington Post in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Nihad Awad, right, executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, speaks during a news conference with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., left, asking for answers about journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance in Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in front of The Washington Post in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) - Decades after they died, the military is seeing a surge in identifications of U.S. service members who had been classified as missing in action. The number of identifications is expected to reach 200 this year, more than triple what used to be the norm. The increase by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is credited to increased funding and new techniques for tracking remains and identifying them. The soaring number of identifications followed years of complaints that the process was ineffective. The increase has led to a surge of long-delayed memorial services and burials across the country as families and entire communities honor those killed. Joani McGinnis, of Shenandoah, Iowa, said her family is planning a service Friday now that they understand what happened to her uncle, Sgt. Melvin. C. Anderson. In this Sept. 13, 2018 photo, military personnel perform an honorable carry of flag-draped transfer cases containing remains of unidentified service members from a C-17 Globemaster plane to waiting trucks, at Offutt AFB in Bellevue, Neb. The remains were gathered through various DPAA missions in Europe and are being delivered to the lab at Offutt to begin the identification process. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Sept. 13, 2018 photo, flag-draped transfer cases containing remains of unidentified service members sit inside a C-17 Globemaster plane after arriving at Offutt AFB in Bellevue, Neb. The remains were gathered through various Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) missions in Europe and are being delivered to the lab at Offutt to begin the identification process. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Sept. 18, 2018 photo, various items including shoe soles, a watch and a partial ID tag are processed at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Identification laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Neb. The various artifacts found with the remains of unidentified soldiers are used in the identification process. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Sept. 18, 2018 photo, Penny Minturn, forensic anthropologist and archeologist at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Identification laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Neb., discusses various artifacts found with the remains of unidentified soldiers and how they aid in the identification process. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Sept. 18, 2018 photo, various buckles and hardware thought to be from a parachute are processed at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Identification laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Neb. The various artifacts found with the remains of unidentified soldiers are used in the identification process. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Sept. 18, 2018 photo, Dr. Carrie Brown, forensic anthropologist and director of the USS Oklahoma Project at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Identification laboratory, points to images on posters showing the names and photos of the victims of the USS Oklahoma, sunk by the Japanese in Pearl Harbor. Decades after they died, the military is seeing a surge in identifications of U.S. service members who had been classified as missing in action. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Sept. 18, 2018 photo, a watch and a partial ID tag are processed at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Identification laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Neb. The various artifacts found with the remains of unidentified soldiers are used in the identification process. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Sept. 18, 2018 photo, Franklin Damann, deputy lab director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Identification laboratory, in charge of the Offutt AFB lab, speaks during an interview in front of a window into the identification lab, at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Neb. Officials believe remains of nearly half of the 83,000 unidentified service members killed since World War II could be identified and returned to relatives. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Sept 27, 2018 photo, Joani McGinnis of Shenandoah, Iowa, reviews documents relating to her uncle, Sgt. Melvin C. Anderson, who died in 1944 in the battle of the Hurtgen Forest in Germany, and was recently identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Identification laboratory at Offutt AFB in Bellevue, Neb. Sgt. Anderson will be buried at the Omaha National Cemetery on Oct. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) In this Sept 27, 2018 photo, Joani McGinnis of Shenandoah, Iowa, holds a photo of her uncle, Sgt. Melvin C. Anderson, who died in 1944 in the battle of the Hurtgen Forest in Germany, and was recently identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Identification laboratory at Offutt AFB in Bellevue, Neb. Sgt. Anderson will be buried at the Omaha National Cemetery on Oct. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) TUCUMCARI, N.M. (AP) - Gary Johnson's decades-old quest to shrink government and let free enterprise and pot-smoking liberty reign comes with a new twist in November elections. The former governor of New Mexico and two-time presidential candidate under the Libertarian ticket wants to occupy a potentially powerful swing seat in the U.S. Senate, as Republican and Democrats jockey for the majority in November elections. Democrats are being forced to defend what had seemed like a secure seat for incumbent, first-term Sen. Martin Heinrich, fending off Johnson's allure among local voters as an uncompromising fiscal conservative with a quirky brand of free-market, pro-cannabis policies. FILE - In this May 18, 2016, file photo, then-Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson speaks with legislators at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. Johnson wants to occupy a potentially powerful swing seat in the U.S. Senate, as Republican and Democrats jockey for the majority in November 2018 elections. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File) FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2018, file photo, Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Gary Johnson, right, talks with disabled military veteran Henry Pacheco during a campaign stop in Tucumcari, N.M. Former governor of New Mexico and two-time presidential candidate Johnson says he would act as an influential swing vote and a voice of reason in a bitterly divided Senate. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File) SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The Latest on South Korea saying it's considering lifting sanctions against North Korea to help diplomacy (all times local): 2:25 a.m. President Donald Trump says a South Korean proposal to lift some unilateral sanctions on the North will only take place with his say-so. Asked about Seoul considering lifting some sanctions to create space for diplomacy with North Korea, Trump says: "They won't do that without our approval. They do nothing without our approval." Trump has encouraged U.S. allies to maintain sanctions on North Korea until it denuclearizes as part of what his administration has termed a campaign of "maximum pressure" against Kim Jong-Un's government. South Korea's foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha said Wednesday the government is reviewing whether to lift sanctions imposed on the North in 2010 following a deadly attack on a warship that killed 45 South Korean sailors. The move would be largely symbolic because of tough U.S. and U.N. sanctions. FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018, file photo, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha poses for the media at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul. On Wednesday, Kang says Seoul is considering lifting some of its unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang to create more momentum for diplomacy aimed at improving relations and defuse the nuclear crisis. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP) ___ 11 p.m. South Korea's foreign minister says U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed displeasure over an agreement reached between the rival Koreas last month to reduce conventional military threats between them. Kang Kyung-wha replied "Yes" on Wednesday when a lawmaker asked her whether a Japanese media report was correct that Pompeo had complained strongly about the agreement, which was announced during a summit between the Koreas in Pyongyang last month. Kang did not specify what Pompeo was unhappy about. She said Pompeo asked "multiple questions" about the content of the agreement. The agreement calls for the creation of buffer zones along the Koreas' land and sea boundaries and a no-fly zone above the border to prevent accidental clashes. It also provides for a reduction of weaponry and guards at the border and the demining of sections of the Demilitarized Zone. Kang's comments are likely to fuel speculation that Washington wasn't fully on board before Seoul signed the agreement. ___ 3:10 p.m. South Korea's foreign minister says Seoul is considering lifting some of its unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang to create more momentum for diplomacy aimed at improving relations and defusing the nuclear crisis. Kang Kyung-wha told lawmakers on Wednesday that the government is reviewing whether to lift sanctions South Korea imposed on the North in 2010 following a deadly attack on a warship that killed 45 South Korean sailors. Seoul then effectively shut down all cross-border economic cooperation except for a joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, where business activities and investment were also scaled back. Seoul shut down the Kaesong factory park in February 2016 in retaliation of a North Korean nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. Seoul's potential removal of unilateral sanctions would be a largely symbolic move as it's virtually impossible for South Korea to resume joint economic projects with North Korea under U.S.-led international sanctions, which have been strengthened considerably since 2016 as the North accelerated its nuclear and missile tests. ___ 11:30 a.m. South Korea is supplying water in the North Korean border town of Kaesong using a facility in a now-shuttered factory park that had been jointly operated by the rivals. South Korea's Unification Ministry on Wednesday said the water is being supplied to a liaison office between the countries that opened in Kaesong last month and has been provided to the town's residents as well. The ministry says the resumption of water supply does not violate international sanctions against the North over its nuclear weapons and missile program. South Korea had shut down water and power supplies as it closed the Kaesong factory park in February 2016 following a North Korean nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. PANAMA CITY, Florida (AP) - The Latest on Hurricane Michael (all times Eastern): 11 p.m. Forecasters say Michael is weakening but still a hurricane with 75-mph (120-kph) winds as it crosses central Georgia. The National Hurricane Center said Michael was located at 11 p.m. EDT Wednesday about 45 miles (70 kilometers) south-southwest of Macon, Georgia. The low-level Category 1 hurricane was picking up speed and moving to the northeast at 20 mph (32 kph). The Miami-based hurricane center says Michael will move across Georgia through the night and early Thursday morning. It is expected to then cross the Carolinas and move off the Mid-Atlantic coast by early Friday. Forecasters say Michael is expected to become a tropical storm sometime Thursday morning. Haley Nelson inspects damages to her family properties in the Panama City, Fla., spring field area after Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida's Panhandle on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods before continuing its march inland. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via AP) Michael made landfall Wednesday afternoon in the Florida Panhandle as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, with at least one death reported there. ___ 8:45 p.m. Hurricane Michael has begun weakening as it charges across southwestern Georgia with damaging winds and rains. It has dropped from a once formidable Category 4 to a bottom-tier Category 1 storm. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the eye of Michael was about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Albany, Georgia, at 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday. It had top sustained winds of 90 mph (145 kph) and was moving to the northeast at 17 mph (27 kph). Forecasters say storm flooding is still occurring along the Florida Gulf Coast after Michael crashed ashore Wednesday afternoon as a fierce storm with 155 mph winds. The storm is expected to head to the northeast as it crosses south and central Georgia into the Carolinas in coming hours. ___ 8:30 p.m. The National Weather Service issued multiple tornado warnings in Georgia as Hurricane Michael pushed through the state, and local media report three of them may have touched down. News media in Macon reported that by early evening Wednesday, tornadoes had touched down near Roberta, Perry and Fort Valley in Georgia's midstate region. Crawford County officials said a possible tornado damaged five homes near Roberta. The county's emergency management director told news media it touched down on Highway 128 and knocked down power lines and trees. No injuries were reported. Weather officials had warned that the massive storm, which came ashore Wednesday afternoon in Florida's Panhandle region, could spawn tornadoes as it moves northeast. ___ 7:25 p.m. Hurricane Michael has left extensive damage in Panama City, with broken and uprooted trees and power lines down nearly everywhere. Roofs were peeled off and homes split open by fallen trees. Twisted street signs lay on the ground. Residents emerged early Wednesday evening to assess damage when rains stopped, though skies were still overcast and windy. A pine tree punched a hole in the roof of the apartment where 29-year-old Vance Beu was staying with his mother. The roar of the storm sounded like a jet engine as the wind accelerated, and their ears popped as pressure dropped. Beu said, "It was terrifying, honestly. There was a lot of noise. We thought the windows were going to break at any time. We had the inside windows kind of barricaded in with mattresses. We did whatever we could to kind of hunker down." ___ 7 p.m. Authorities say a Florida Panhandle man was killed by a falling tree as Hurricane Michael tore through the state. Gadsden County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Anglie Hightower says they received a call around 6 p.m. Wednesday, saying a tree had crashed through the roof of the man's Greensboro home and trapped him. Emergency crews were heading to the home, but downed power lines and blocked roads were making the trip difficult. Officials hadn't immediately confirmed the man's name. ___ 6:55 p.m. Florida Gov. Rick Scott says search and rescue teams are heading into the state's hardest-hit areas to help survivors of Hurricane Michael. Scott held a news conference Wednesday evening and urged people to stay off roads and leave them open to first responders as they begin the work of search and rescue - and recovery. He says flash flooding and tornadoes are still possible, and says officials have heard reports of at least two tornadoes in Florida. Scott said at least 192,000 homes and businesses are without power, but vowed "a massive wave of response" with thousands of utility personnel fanning out to restore power, along with medical teams, law enforcement personnel and the search and rescue squads. ___ 6:55 p.m. More than 32,000 homes and businesses in Georgia were without power Wednesday evening as parts of the state were beginning to feel the impact from Hurricane Michael. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Georgia Power said around 4:30 p.m. that 17,580 customers had lost power. Georgia EMC said that about 15,376 of its customers were also without power. For Georgia EMC, most of its affected customers were in five counties in southwest Georgia, where more than 13,500 customers were without power. In metro Atlanta, just 17 customers were without power. In an email, an EMC spokesperson said winds had caused trees to fall onto power lines, prompting the outages. As of Wednesday evening, Hurricane Michael was a Category 3 storm. It made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm around 1:40 p.m. ___ 6:20 p.m. The National Hurricane Center says Michael's eye has crossed from the Florida Panhandle into southwestern Georgia as a dangerous Category 3 storm, the strongest to hit that part of the state in recorded history. Maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) were recorded in Seminole County, Georgia, Wednesday evening. The storm made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, as a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane earlier Wednesday afternoon. According to a 6 p.m. advisory, the storm was located 20 miles (32 kilometers) west-northwest of Bainbridge, Georgia, and 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Albany, Georgia. It was moving north-northeast at 13 mph (21 kph). Dangerous storm surge continues along the coast of the Florida Panhandle. ___ 5:10 p.m. Tallahassee mayor and Democratic nominee for Florida governor Andrew Gillum says his city is prepared and ready to help its neighbors in the region. Gillum told CNN during a Wednesday interview that, "We're going to be here for each other." Gillum says power crews are ready to begin assessing damage as soon as the storm completely passes. He warned residents to stay inside until they've received an all-clear from public safety officials. Tallahassee is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Mexico Beach, which is near where Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday afternoon ___ 4:20 p.m. A Red Cross official says it's possible that as many as 320,000 people on Florida's Gulf Coast did not evacuate and are likely riding out the storm. Evacuation orders were sent by state and local officials to about 325,000 people. Emergency managers say they don't know how many left the area, but there were about 6,000 people in 80 shelters in five states, including nearly 1,200 who are still in shelters following Hurricane Florence. Michael went from a tropical storm to a projected Category 3 hurricane in around six hours and could have caught thousands off guard. Brad Kieserman is the Vice President of Operations and Logistics for the American Red Cross. He says the storm "intensified extremely quickly and didn't give anyone enough time to do much." ___ 3:30 p.m. The director of the National Hurricane Center says Michael is going to keep its strength even as it moves into Alabama and Georgia. By 3 p.m. EDT, Michael still had top sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph) as its core moved over Florida's Panhandle. Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, earlier Wednesday afternoon with 155 mph (250 kph) winds. Hurricane center director Ken Graham says that when a storm comes ashore with winds that strong, "it's going to stay a hurricane for a while." Michael's large size means its winds will continue pushing storm surge inland as well. The hurricane center said a National Ocean Service water level station in Apalachicola has reported storm surge of nearly 8 feet (2.5 meters) above ground. ___ 3 p.m. Authorities say lifeguards had to save three children who were playing in the ocean at a South Carolina beach as Hurricane Michael approached. Beaufort County Emergency Management Division Commander Neil Baxley said a 15-year-old and two 9-year-olds were on boogie boards off Hilton Head Island around 12:15 p.m. Wednesday when the waves quickly started to pull them from shore. Baxley says rescuers were able to make it to the children and bring them to safety. Baxley said at a news conference there is no reason to be in the ocean Wednesday. Beaufort County is under a tropical storm warning as Michael makes landfall about 325 miles (520 kilometers) southwest in the Florida Panhandle. ___ 1:45 p.m. The National Hurricane Center says Michael is making landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, as a catastrophic Category 4 Hurricane, pushing a deadly storm surge and whipping the coast with 155 mph (250 kph) winds. Forecasters mark landfall as the place and time when the center of the eye strikes land. Minutes earlier, Michael's eyewall came ashore between Panama City and St. Vincent Island, and the hurricane center warned everyone inside the relative calm of the eye not to venture outside. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 45 miles (75 km) from the center. Those winds were tearing some buildings apart in Panama City Beach. One beachfront structure under construction could be seen collapsing, and metal roofing material flew sideways across parking lots amid sheets of rain. ___ 12:50 p.m. U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said Michael is "a hurricane of the worst kind." He said there are about 3,000 FEMA employees in the field, plus aircraft and search and rescue teams staged to move into Florida and Georgia as well. "The citizens in Georgia need to wake up and pay attention," Long said. He says this hurricane will likely be the worst storm that anyone in southwest and central Georgia will have seen in decades. Long applauded local officials who urged evacuations, and said "people are going to die as a result of not heeding the warnings." ___ 12:30 p.m. President Donald Trump is being briefed on Hurricane Michael as it closes in on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic 150 mph winds. Trump is warning of the power of the storm as he meets with his Homeland Security Secretary and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long. Long is describing the storm as a "Gulf Coast hurricane of the worst kind," which he says will be similar in strength to "an EF3 tornado making landfall." Trump says he spoke with Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday and says the federal government is coordinating with all of the states that could be impacted. The Category 4 storm could be most powerful storm on record ever to hit the region. More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast have been warned to evacuate. ___ 12:15 p.m. Thousands of people along Florida's northern Gulf Coast have heeded warnings to evacuate, and many are cramming into high schools put to use as shelters. Diane Farris and her son Waine Hall walked to the shelter nearest their home in Panama City, Rutherford High School, and found about 1,100 people crammed into a space meant for about half as many. She says the cafeteria and gym are full so they're putting people in the hallways and almost every room. And she says more people are coming every minute. Farris says she's terrified about predictions of "the big one" and desperate to know where her relatives are. Another shelter resident, Michigan native Pamela Cowley, says she's nervous because people are saying they could go weeks without electricity. ___ 10:30 a.m. The storm surge from Hurricane Michael has come ashore and is growing deeper. According to a National Hurricane Center update, a National Ocean Service water level station at Apalachicola reported over 4 feet (1 meter) of inundation above ground level by midmorning Wednesday. Forecasters have said the hurricane could push up to 14 feet (4 meters) of ocean water ashore in Apalachicola, surging over normal tides. Waves are already gnawing away at the base of sand dunes at Panama City Beach. Officials are upset that holdouts will soon be surrounded by water. About 50 people resisted evacuating from St. George Island, and two people on Dog Island, which is only accessible by boat, also ignored evacuation orders. Franklin County emergency management coordinator Tress Dameron told The News Herald in Panama City that people who stayed better be wearing their life jackets. ___ 9:50 a.m. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has ordered 1,500 National Guard troops on standby, ready for deployment as needed as Hurricane Michael blows in. Hurricanes weaken after landfall, but Michael is a catastrophic Category 4 storm and is expected to remain a hurricane as it plows over Georgia. Transportation officials are already anticipating gale-force winds by closing the main bridge over the Savannah River between Savannah and South Carolina. The Georgia Department of Transportation said the Talmadge Memorial Bridge on U.S. 17 will close at 9 p.m. Wednesday, because it will be too difficult for motorists to control their vehicles in such conditions. South Alabama is another inland area that won't be spared. Alabama's Geneva County has announced a curfew beginning at 8 p.m. Wednesday, and the local emergency management agency has urged people to voluntarily evacuate from mobile homes and other places that could be unstable in the storm's high winds. ___ 9:30 a.m. FEMA Director Brock Long says his agency has nearly 3,000 people in the field ready to assist with Hurricane Michael. He says teams and aircraft are ready to support any search and rescue missions in Florida or elsewhere, and that staging areas with commodities needed after storms have been set up in Atlanta and at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. He also says the Federal Emergency Management Agency is working "hand-in-hand" with Florida Gov. Rick Scott. He praised Florida's use on Tuesday evening of the wireless emergency alert system to let residents know that the storm was getting stronger. As for the many people who ignored orders to evacuate, Long said Wednesday that people "who stick around and experience storm surge unfortunately don't usually live to tell about it." ___ 9:25 a.m. National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham is warning that a Category 4 hurricane will bring catastrophic damage to Florida's Panhandle. Graham says Michael's top winds of 145 mph (230 kph) are powerful enough to peel off roofs and cause the "complete destruction of houses." Stretches of the coast could see storm surge of at least 6 feet (2 meters), with waters rising in some places up to 14 feet (4 meters) above the ground. Graham wants people to think about how tall they are, and just how high that water can be. Michael is powerful enough to remain a hurricane well inland as it travels over Georgia on Thursday. Graham says falling trees will pull down utility lines, leaving some areas without power for weeks, and hazardous conditions will persist long after the storm blows through. He says the aftermath of a hurricane is "not the time to start learning to use that chain saw." ___ 9:15 a.m. Florida Gov. Rick Scott says the impact of Hurricane Michael will be "horrible," the worst storm to hit the Panhandle in a century. Scott said Wednesday he's "scared to death" that people in places such as St. George Island along the state's coast had ignored evacuation orders. He said he hopes that no one kept children with them as they chose to ride it out, but the time to evacuate from coastal areas has "come and gone." The governor said state authorities are now focusing on the recovery effort once the fast-moving storm blows through. He has activated up 3,500 members of the Florida National Guard and says thousands of utility workers are on stand-by. ___ 9:05 a.m. Huge waves are pounding the shore at Panama City Beach, where officials have announced they are now unable to respond to any calls for service. Just inland in Panama City, the fire department says it will respond to only life-threatening emergencies and only within the city limits. The biggest waves are shooting frothy green water between homes and up to the base of wooden stairs over the dunes and the skies appear menacing as tropical-storm-force winds lash the coast. Landfall is expected about midday Wednesday. ___ 7:45 a.m. Florida Gov. Rick Scott is warning people in the path of massive Hurricane Michael that it's too late to evacuate. In a tweet on Wednesday morning, Scott said "If you chose to state in an evacuation zone, you must SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY." Hurricane Michael grew into a Category 4 storm overnight and officials at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say a storm that strong has never hit the Florida Panhandle. Meanwhile the Bay County Sheriff's Office warned residents that a "shelter-in-place" order has been issued, and urged everyone to stay off the roads. Sheriff's officials say deputies will continue to respond to calls for now, but that will change as the storm approaches the coastline. ___ 7:15 a.m. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Hurricane Michael would be the first Category 4 storm to hit Florida's Panhandle. In a Facebook post, NHC spokesman Dennis Feltgen said "we are in new territory with now Hurricane Michael and its 130 mph sustained winds." Feltgen says Bay County is the likely "ground zero" for Hurricane Michael on Wednesday afternoon. The outer bands of the massive storm are beginning to reach the Gulf Coast. At 7 a.m. the center of the storm was about 105 miles (165 kilometers) south-southwest of Panama City. A NOAA buoy located some 90 miles south-southwest of Panama City recorded sustained winds of 76 mph (122 kmh) early Wednesday. Forecasters also said a wind gust of 54 mph (87 kph) was reported at Apalachicola Regional Airport. ___ 5:30 a.m. Some of the worst storm surge from Category 4 Hurricane Michael is expected to hit Florida's Tyndall Air Force Base, which has ordered all non-essential personnel to evacuate. The National Hurricane Center's latest forecast shows as much as 13 feet of water on top of the usual waves and tides could inundate the base, which is home to more than 600 families and on an island about 12 miles east of Panama City. All base residents were ordered to leave when Tyndall moved to "HURCON 1" status as the storm closes in. The base provided transportation but limited families to one large piece of luggage per family and one carry-on piece per person. Tyndall is home to the 325th Fighter Wing. ___ 2:10 a.m. The National Hurricane Center says Michael has become an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm. At 2:00 a.m. Wednesday, the eye of Michael was about 180 miles (289 kilometers) south-southwest of Panama City, Florida. It also was about 170 miles (273 kilometers) southwest of Apalachicola, Florida. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles (72 kilometers) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles (281 kilometers). Michael was expected to become one of the Panhandle's worst hurricanes in memory with a life-threatening storm surge of up to 13 feet (4 meters). Florida officials said roughly 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast had been urged or ordered to evacuate. Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Florida Panhandle into north central Florida. ___ 12:30 a.m. Hurricane Michael is roaring down on the Florida Panhandle, gaining strength so quickly that forecasters expect it to become a Category 4 monster once it slams into the white-sand beaches, fishing villages and coastal communities. The brute storm that sprang from a weekend tropical depression gained in fury and size just hours ahead of Wednesday's projected midday landfall, packed 125 mph (200 kph) winds as a dangerous Category 3 storm. Forecasters say it's expected to keep strengthening in the final hours before it crashes ashore as potentially one of the worst hurricanes in the region's history. Florida officials said roughly 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast had been urged or ordered to evacuate. Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Florida Panhandle into north central Florida. ___ For more of the latest on Hurricane Michael, visit https://www.apnews.com/tag/Hurricanes Tamiya Waldon looks out at the damage to her neighborhood in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Hurricane Michael formed off the coast of Cuba carrying major Category 4 landfall in the Florida Panhandle. Surge in the Big Bend area, along with catastrophic winds at 155mph. Port St. Joe Lodge number 111, at right, lay in ruins on Reid Avenue on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Port St. Joe, Fla., after Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle. (Douglas R. Clifford/The Tampa Bay Times via AP) The St. Marks River overflows into the city of St. Marks, Fla., ahead of Hurricane Michael, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. The hurricane center says Michael will be the first Category 4 hurricane to make landfall on the Florida Panhandle. (AP Photo/Brendan Farrington) A storm chaser climbs into his vehicle during the eye of Hurricane Michael to retrieve equipment after a hotel canopy collapsed in Panama City Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) This photo made available by NASA shows they eye of Hurricane Michael, as seen from the International Space Station on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (NASA via AP) President Donald Trump points towards maps while discussing potential damage from Hurricane Michael with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and FEMA Administrator Brock Long in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) President Donald Trump meets with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and FEMA Administrator Brock Long in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) CORRECTS HURRICANE NAME TO MICHAEL NOT MATTHEW - Earnest Sweet sits while his daughters Terri, 4, center, and Anna, 7, sleep at an evacuation shelter set up at Rutherford High School, in advance of Hurricane Michael, which is expected to make landfall today, in Panama City Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) CORRECTS NAME OF HURRICANE TO MICHAEL FROM MATTHEW - Mokeyonia Bell takes her child, Jerah'monie Anthony Bell, 2 months, from godmother Ashley Fillingim, at an evacuation shelter set up at Rutherford High School, in advance of Hurricane Michael, which is expected to make landfall today, in Panama City Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) CORRECTS NAME OF HURRICANE TO MICHAEL FROM MATTHEW - Emily Hindle lies on the floor at an evacuation shelter set up at Rutherford High School, in advance of Hurricane Michael, which is expected to make landfall today, in Panama City Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) CORRECTS HURRICANE NAME TO MICHAEL NOT MATTHEW - Sean Pelham holds his daughter Sophia, 2, in a hallway at an evacuation shelter set up at Rutherford High School in advance of Hurricane Michael, which is expected to make landfall today, in Panama City Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) CORRECTS NAME OF HURRICANE TO MICHAEL FROM MATTHEW - Ashley Fillingim holds her godson Jerah'monie Anthony Bell, 2 months, at an evacuation shelter set up at Rutherford High School, in Panama City Beach, Fla., in advance of Hurricane Michael, which is expected to make landfall, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) CORRECTS NAME OF HURRICANE TO MICHAEL FROM MATTHEW - Jeff Ready and his wife Julie Ready rest in a a hallway at an evacuation shelter set up at Rutherford High School, in advance of Hurricane Michael, which is expected to make landfall today, in Panama City Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) An unidentified person takes pictures of the surf and fishing pier on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, as Hurricane Michael approaches the Florida Gulf Coast. [Devon Ravine/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP) Heavy surf from the approaching Hurricane Michael pounds the fishing pier on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (Devon Ravine/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP) Jayden Morgan carries his dog through a flooded street in St. Marks, Fla., on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, as his family evacuates at the last minute before Hurricane Michael hits the state. (AP Photo/Brendan Farrington) This Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 satellite image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Michael, center, in the Gulf of Mexico. (NOAA via AP) A woman checks on her vehicle as Hurricane Michael passes through, after the hotel canopy had just collapsed, in Panama City Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Hotel employees look at a canopy that just collapsed, as Hurricane Michael passes through in Panama City Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) High tide from offshore Hurricane Michael creeps up into the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 after the Anclote River backs up. (Jim Damaske/The Tampa Bay Times via AP) An electric transformer explodes in the distance as heavy rains and wind from Hurricane Michael blanket the Florida State University campus Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) High tide from offshore Hurricane Michael creeps up into the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 after the Anclote River backs up. (Jim Damaske/The Tampa Bay Times via AP) Pine trees litter a yard in Port St. Joe, Fla., on Garrison Avenue on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, after Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle. Hurricane Michael formed off the coast of Cuba carrying major Category 4 landfall in the Florida Panhandle. Surge in the Big Bend area, along with catastrophic winds at 155mph. (Douglas R. Clifford/The Tampa Bay Times via AP) James Prescott surveys the damage as the remnants of Hurricane Michael move through Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. He was visiting a friend and was not able to leave the street due to downed trees. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Pam Heckstall surveys the damage as the remnants of Hurricane Michael move through Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. She is not able to leave her street due to downed trees. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) A hubcap blows by as a man runs to his car during Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Megan Williams, left, and roommate Kaylee O'Brian take belongings from their destroyed home after several trees fell on the house during Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) The Oceanis is grounded by a tidal surge at the Port St. Joe Marina, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 in Port St. Joe, Fla. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP) Kaylee O'Brian weeps inside her home after several trees fell on it during Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Port St. Joe Lodge No. 111 lay in ruins after Hurricane Michael made landfall, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 in Port St. Joe, Fla. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP) A marina warehouse is damaged at the Port St. Joe Marina, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 in Port St. Joe, Fla. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP) Boats lay sunk and damaged at the Port St. Joe Marina, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 in Port St. Joe, Fla. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP) Derailed box cars are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Storm Surge retreats from inland areas, foreground, where boats lay sunk and damaged at the Port St. Joe Marina, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 in Port St. Joe, Fla. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP) Derailed box cars are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Derailed box cars are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Shredded trees, derailed train cars and a sunken trailer are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Officials in Bulgaria say a suspect in the rape and killing of an investigative journalist has been arrested in Germany. Bulgaria's prosecutor general, Sotir Tsatsarov, confirmed the arrest of Severin Krasimirov, a Bulgarian citizen, but gave no further details. Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said investigators had found DNA evidence on the clothes and body of Viktoria Marinova, who was raped and killed on Saturday in the northern town of Ruse. "There is physical evidence to link to the murder," Marinov said Wednesday. He said Krasimirov, a resident of Ruse, had a criminal record for scrap metal theft. The minister said investigators had spoken to Marinova's family and friends and "there is no apparent link to her work." Marinova, 30, hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving EU funds. DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - A Bangladeshi court sentenced 19 people to death and the son of the opposition leader to life imprisonment on Wednesday over a deadly 2004 attack at a political rally held by current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The grenade attack killed two dozen people and wounded about 300 others. Hasina narrowly escaped, having been whisked away by party members to a waiting car from a dais in front of the headquarters of her Awami League party near where several grenades exploded. Judge Shahed Nuruddin delivered the verdicts - interrupted twice by power cuts - at the court in Dhaka for 49 defendants facing multiple charges stemming from the attack. Nuruddin said the attack was intended to eliminate the Awami League's leadership, including Hasina. Lutfuzzaman Babar, one of two former Cabinet ministers among the 19 condemned to death, told reporters after the verdict that he was innocent. "God knows everything. I was not behind it," he said. Tarique Rahman, the oldest son of opposition leader Khaleda Zia, received a life sentence for each of two conspiracy charges stemming from the attack. He lives in London and was tried in absentia. Eighteen others were also sentenced to life imprisonment, and 11 received six months to two years in prison. Lutfuzzaman Babar, one of two former Cabinet ministers among those condemned to death arrives before a Bangladeshi tribunal verdict in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. A Bangladeshi tribunal sentenced 19 people to death and the opposition's heir-apparent to life imprisonment Wednesday for a deadly 2004 attack at a political rally of then-opposition leader and current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. (AP Photo) Rahman's conviction could help Hasina retain power in elections due in December. Zia, 73, a former prime minister, has been serving a prison sentence on a corruption conviction since February but was transferred to a state-run hospital on Saturday for what her party says are multiple medical problems. Armed guards stood outside the courtroom in the old part of the capital on Wednesday to quell any protests, but the streets were calm. Bangladesh Law Minister Anisul Huq welcomed the verdict and pledged he would try to bring the fugitives back, but the opposition immediately rejected the ruling. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of Zia's party, termed the verdict politically motivated and said it was a "naked manifestation of political vengeance" by the ruling party. Zia's party also announced a week of protests, including nationwide rallies starting Thursday. Nuruddin said the parties had 30 days to appeal the verdict. Zia was convicted of embezzling about $250,000 in donations meant for an orphanage trust established when she first became prime minister in 1991. Rahman was also sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection with the case. Zia faces more than 30 other charges, ranging from corruption to sedition, which her party has denounced as a government effort to keep her out of the elections. The government has denied the allegations. Zia was the country's prime minister three times - twice for full five-year terms and once for a brief period. Bangladeshi politics are deeply divided, with rivals Hasina and Zia, both from political dynasties, alternately ruling the country since 1991, when democracy was restored. In this April 2, 2007 file photo, Bangladeshi police escort Tarique Rahman, to Dhaka Court, in Dhaka. A Bangladeshi tribunal has sentenced 19 people to death and 19 others to life in prison for a deadly attack at a political rally of then-opposition leader and now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The tribunal in Dhaka delivered a verdict Wednesday on nearly 50 cases stemming from the grenade attack 14 years ago that killed two dozen people and wounded hundreds. Two former Cabinet ministers were condemned to death. Jailed former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman received a life sentence. Eleven defendants were given six months to two years in prison. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman, File) Awami League supporters celebrate a Bangladeshi tribunal verdict in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. A Bangladeshi tribunal sentenced 19 people to death and the opposition's heir-apparent to life imprisonment Wednesday for a deadly 2004 attack at a political rally of then-opposition leader and current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. (AP Photo) JOHANNESBURG (AP) - South African opposition parties are pushing for wider scrutiny of President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Cabinet after the resignation of a finance minister who acknowledged meeting with a business family linked to alleged corruption under the former administration. The Democratic Alliance, South Africa's biggest opposition party, on Wednesday urged Ramaphosa to testify before a commission of inquiry about what he knew as a senior ruling party official and deputy to Jacob Zuma, the scandal-tainted president who resigned in February. Ramaphosa has said he would be willing to testify before the commission. Ramaphosa on Tuesday accepted the resignation of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister and said the recession-hit country must uncover the "full extent" of alleged looting of state resources to make sure that it doesn't happen again. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Seamer Mohammad Abbas ripped Australia's top order apart on Wednesday as the visitors struggled at 136-3 on the fourth day of the first test after Pakistan set a huge target of 462 runs. Pakistan declared its second innings at 181-6 for an overall lead of 461, but Australia yet again couldn't capitalize on a good start provided by Aaron Finch (49) and Usman Khawaja (50 not out). Khawaja was lucky to notch another half century. Asad Shafiq couldn't hold on to a late sharp chance in the first slip before the left-hander completed his fifty in the last over of the day. Travis Head was not out on 34 as both batsmen tried to revive the innings after Abbas' (3-26) burst had left Australia reeling at 87-3. Australia faces a monumental task to survive the last day on a wearing wicket. The team requires a further 326 runs or to bat out the minimum of 90 overs on the last day. Australia's highest ever successful run chase to win a test match came in 1948 when it chased down 404 against England in Leeds. Finch and Khawaja had carried Australia to 87-0 before Abbas claimed three wickets in two overs after tea. Finch played half forward to Abbas' incoming delivery and was trapped leg before wicket. One ball later, coming around the wicket, the right-arm seamer found the faint edge of left-hander Shaun Marsh's bat. Mitchell Marsh also fell lbw to Abbas' sharp incoming delivery with Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed going for the television referral. The collapse was similar to Australia's first innings effort of 202 runs when the visitors lost 10 wickets for just 60 runs after Finch and Khawaja had provided a solid opening stand of 142 runs. Both Australian openers had negotiated the early twin spin threat of Yasir Shah and Bilal Asif after Pakistan declared its second innings. Khawaja didn't allow Shah to settle down early, reverse sweeping the legspinner with authority, while Finch played some exquisite cover drives. Both batsmen looked comfortable until Abbas returned after tea and toppled Australia's inexperienced top order. Pakistan, which scored an impressive 482 in the first innings, declared half an hour after lunch when Shafiq (41) missed out on a half century and holed out in the deep while going for quick runs. Resuming on 45-3, Pakistan added a further 110 runs in the first session and took the total to 155-5 as the Australian spinners couldn't stop the flow of runs. Opener Imam-ul-Haq scored a fluent 48 and first innings century-maker Haris Sohail made 39 before both batsmen fell at the same total of 110. Imam offered a tame return catch to left-arm spinner Jon Holland (3-83) and Sohail was trapped leg before wicket by Marnus Labuschagne. Nathan Lyon (2-58) surpassed West Indies great Lance Gibbs' test wickets tally of 309 when Shafiq was caught by Marsh at deep midwicket before Ahmed declared. ___ More AP sports: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman says he is "not aware of the situation" surrounding reports that the wife of the detained Chinese former president of Interpol has been threatened. However, Lu Kang told reporters Wednesday that it would be "natural" for Chinese consular officials to contact the wife of Meng Hongwei, who vanished after traveling to China late last month from France, where Interpol is headquartered. Days later, China said Meng was under investigation for graft and possibly other crimes. His wife, Grace Meng, said she received a phone call from a man speaking Chinese who told her that a pair of "work teams" had been dispatched for possible action against her. Meng has been placed under French police protection in the city of Lyon. BRUSSELS (AP) - Google has appealed a record $5 billion fine that European Union authorities levied against the tech giant for allegedly abusing the dominance of its Android operating system to stifle competitors. A spokesman for the company, Al Verney, confirmed Wednesday that the company has filed its legal challenge to the July ruling. The EU's executive Commission issued the fine in July after it found Google forced smartphone makers using Android to install the company's search and browser apps. Under the ruling, Google must take measures to fix the problem by the end of October or risk further fines. Google, which had said it would appeal, argued that its free operating system has led to lower-price phones and stoked competition with its chief rival, Apple. VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis has compared abortion to a mafia-style killing, saying it's the equivalent of hiring a hit man to "take out a human life to solve a problem." Francis made the comments, among his strongest yet against abortion, during his weekly Wednesday audience dedicated to the commandment exhorting the faithful not to kill. Francis said some people justify abortion as respecting other rights. But, he asked, "How can an act that suppresses innocent and defenseless life as it blossoms be therapeutic, civil or simply human?" He asked if it was fair "to take out a human life" to solve a problem: "Is it fair to hire a hit man to solve a problem? It is not fair. We cannot take out a human being, even if it is small." Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives with the popemobile in St.Peter's Square to held his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union's Brexit negotiator said Wednesday that an agreement on Britain's exit "is within reach" if negotiations make progress ahead of a summit next week. Michel Barnier said that up to 85 percent of the work on a deal is done but that the issue remains of how to ensure a transparent border on the island of Ireland. He offered suggestions to make sure border checks are be kept to a minimum. Yet he also warned that some British proposals as they stood would give the U.K. too much of a competitive trade advantage. With good will from both sides, he said, "agreement is within reach if we have the negotiations on the 17th of October," when Theresa May will meet her 27 counterparts in Brussels. EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told reporters Wednesday that Barnier and his team "are working day and night to reach a deal." Britain is to leave the EU on March 29 and the possibility of there being no deal on future relations - particularly trade - is worrying businesses and politicians. EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier arrives for a weekly meeting at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Brexit negotiations are in a crucial phase just one week ahead of an EU summit, where major progress is needed if Britain it is avoid leaving the EU next week without proper withdrawal procedures in place. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) As part of the EU, Britain benefits from seamless trade with the bloc, its biggest trading partner. And the question is how to let Britain exit the EU without too much disruption to trade and without reinstalling a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Britain's Northern Ireland. EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier prior to a weekly meeting at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Brexit negotiations are in a crucial phase just one week ahead of an EU summit, where major progress is needed if Britain it is avoid leaving the EU next week without proper withdrawal procedures in place. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The Latest on Polish judicial reforms (all times local): 4 p.m. Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok has urged that a solution be found to Poland's dispute with European Union leaders over the government's sweeping changes to the judiciary. Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz hosted Blok Wednesday for talks on European Union matters including questions over Poland's rule of law under the conservative government. EU leaders say that recent changes to Poland's judiciary put judges under political control. Blok said Poland has a big role in the building of European cooperation based on common rules. He urged a solution to the controversy and a stop to Poland's drawn-out discussions with EU leaders. Poland's Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, left, and his counterpart from The Netherlands, Stef Blok, right, chat prior to talks on bilateral and European Union matters at the Belvedere Palace in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) On Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda appointed new judges to the Supreme Court, ignoring rulings that have suspended appointments pending a procedure before the European Court of Justice. ___ 12:05 p.m. Poland's president has sworn in new Supreme Court judges, stepping up the conflict over control of the judiciary and ignoring another top court that said the appointments should be suspended pending an opinion by European Union judges. A spokesman for President Andrzej Duda said Wednesday that 27 judges took the oath to serve on the Supreme Court. It is part of changes made to the judiciary by the ruling conservative party, which says that judges active during the communist era must be replaced. Many of the court's judges have been forced to retire, but argue that the move was unconstitutional. The court is seeking the opinion of the EU's Court of Justice and, backed by the Supreme Administrative Court, has suspended the nomination of new judges. Duda ignored that, however. The president of the Mormon church has warned that nicknames are a major victory for Satan as he urged members and the media to use the faiths full name. Addressing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints twice-yearly conference in Salt Lake City, Russell M. Nelson said the churchs name is not negotiable. Mr Nelson rejected what he calls worldly arguments including the benefits of internet search engine optimisation with the word Mormon. The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performs during the event (Rick Bowmer/AP) If people use Mormon to describe the church or its members, Mr Nelson urged adherents to be courteous and patient in their efforts to correct them. It comes after the church announced on Friday that the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be called the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. It is the first big change since Mr Nelson announced guidelines in August requesting that people stop using previously accepted shorthand names. Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley is to meet Stormonts five main political parties on Monday. She will also hold talks with church leaders and the Irish Government in what she termed another important step forward in her clear plan to restore devolved government. Powersharing collapsed early last year and negotiations are at an impasse. Ms Bradley said: I am deeply committed and determined to see the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland at the earliest opportunity. She has not ruled out appointing an external mediator to help break the deadlock. The Northern Ireland Secretary has promised to cut Stormont Assembly members pay by more than 13,000 and clarify civil service powers, which have been severely curtailed in the absence of ministers. Steps are expected to be taken this autumn to allow for policing-related appointments and a Government consultation on addressing the legacy of thousands of conflict deaths has just closed after receiving a massive response. Ms Bradley added: Since my statement in September, Ive continued to engage with the political parties and the Irish Government, as appropriate, seeking their views on both the legislation I will shortly be taking forward and the means of restarting talks aimed at restoring devolution. Today is another important step in that process. She said she was particularly pleased to be meeting church leaders and welcomed their recent initiative in meeting the political parties. She added: It appears to have been a constructive discussion and I am keen to encourage the church leaders to continue that dialogue as we strive to seek as wide a consensus as possible on the way forward. I believe that the people of Northern Ireland want to see a restoration of their political institutions and that is what this Government is committed to achieving. Stormont collapsed in a row over the DUPs handling of a botched green energy incentive scheme. Since then, endless rounds of negotiations have failed to engineer restoration of the institutions, with the two main parties the DUP and Sinn Fein fundamentally split over issues like Brexit. Stormont collapsed in a row over a botched green energy scheme and repeated rounds of negotiations have failed to resurrect it (Steve Parsons/PA) Sinn Fein is seeking guarantees around what it terms rights and equality issues like the use of the Irish language and claims the DUP reneged on a draft agreement. The DUP has accused its former coalition partners of damaging public services by walking away from devolved government. It has urged greater involvement of direct rule ministers from London as the hiatus stretches on. A series of important reforms have been delayed in the absence of ministers. A landmark court judgment said a senior civil servant over-reached his powers in granting planning approval for a waste incinerator in Co Antrim last year without ministerial approval. More than 260,000 diabetes inpatients experienced a medication error during their hospital stay last year putting them at risk of lasting harm or death, a report has warned. The charity Diabetes UK said that of these, 9,600 diabetes inpatients experienced a serious and potentially life-threatening episode of hypoglycaemia because of poor insulin management during their hospital stay. More than a million people with diabetes were admitted to hospital last year, and one in six hospital beds are currently occupied by people with diabetes. This number is expected to rise to one in four by 2030. The report was compiled from visits to hospitals across the UK where the authors spoke to patients with diabetes, inpatient teams, healthcare professionals and hospital managers. Diabetes UK called the figures `shocking and unacceptable (Peter Byrne/PA) The charity said it is now calling for hospitals to adopt six key requirements which would make them safe for people with diabetes, lead to better patient experiences, and shorter lengths of stay. Inpatients with diabetes have higher infection rates and longer lengths of stay (one to three days longer than patients without diabetes), leading to greater NHS spending and workload. Diabetes inpatient care costs the NHS 2.5 billion a year 11% of the annual inpatient budget. Diabetes UK said adopting its recommendations and having the right workforce in place could significantly reduce NHS spending and alleviate the strain on services. For example, investing 5 million on new diabetes inpatient specialist nursing services in 54 trusts would yield savings of 14 million a year, a net saving of 9 million annually. It also suggests better training for health care professionals to help them understand diabetes and more support to help hospitals learn from mistakes. Emily Watts, the charitys inpatient programme manager and co-author of the report, said: Nine thousand six hundred people experiencing a severe, potentially life-threatening episode of hypoglycaemia because of inadequate care whilst in hospital, a place where people should feel supported and safe, is shocking and unacceptable. We hope our report will serve as a wake-up call, and lead to system-wide changes which make hospitals safe for people living with diabetes. Over a million people with diabetes spend time in hospital every year. Diabetes UK said it hoped the report would trigger changes in treatment (Peter Byrne/PA) Its essential that hospitals are safe places for each and every one of these people. But the sad truth is that currently, not all of them are. Everything recommended in our report already exists in certain hospitals across England. We want hospitals to stop working alone, and start learning from each others successes. Diabetes UK chief executive, Chris Askew, said: The NHS is under immense strain, and diabetes is just one of the complex issues competing to be a priority. However, the number of diabetes inpatients receiving inadequate levels of care is a clear reflection that more must be done to make hospitals safe for those living with diabetes. The evidence clearly shows that fully resourced, proactive diabetes inpatient teams and an educated inpatient workforce can lead to happier, better supported patients and shorter lengths of stay. We will continue to work for better care for people with diabetes until every patient feels safe in hospital, from the time of admission to the point of discharge. A spokeswoman for NHS England said: NHS England has recently invested 10 million to increase the number of specialist diabetes nurses working in hospitals, and evidence shows they help reduce lengths of stay and medication errors for patients with diabetes. As we draw up the long term plan for the NHS, we need to build on existing work, including the Diabetes Treatment and Care programme, to help tackle this growing problem. Royal Bank of Scotlands tarnished reputation could take another 10 years to recover from its role in the financial crisis and a string of scandals, the lenders chief executive has warned. Ross McEwan told the Press Association that while the bank has managed to regain its financial footing since its 45 billion bailout in 2008 recording its first annual profit in a decade this year customers are still distrustful of the once global titan. There are two things that any financial service organisation has one is our financial strength and the second is our reputation, he said. And what RBS did 10 years ago, it had lost both of those. It got very close to collapse and with that went its financial reputation. And weve been hit with reputational issues as a consequence of what happened in the financial crisis, from conduct to litigation issues to GRG (the Global Restructuring Group) to all sorts of issues that over the last 10 years have embroiled this organisation. RBS which is still 62% owned by the UK taxpayer earlier this year reached a 4.9 billion US dollar (3.8 billion) settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) over the mis-selling of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2008. While RBS has not admitted the allegations put forward by US authorities, documents released by the DoJ show RBS bankers admitted at the time that they were selling total f***ing garbage to investors and made light of destroying the housing market in the lead-up to the financial crisis. Royal Bank of Scotland boss Ross McEwan (PA) The banks now-defunct Global Restructuring Group (GRG) was caught up in a separate scandal, having been accused by victims of pushing firms towards failure in the hope of picking up assets on the cheap, but was let off the hook by the UK regulatory in July. Those scandals have contributed to a drop in public esteem for the bank, which Mr McEwan said resulted in a fall from grace. RBS recently came at the bottom of recent service rankings by the Competition and Market Authority for both business and retail banking, though other brands under the RBS Group umbrella NatWest and Ulster fared slightly better. Mr McEwan said he was concerned and disappointed, but not surprised. I think the reputation piece will take another 5-10 years and thats what it is when your reputation gets tarnished so badly, Mr McEwan said. However, he is surprised that it has taken this long for the bank to recover from the 2008 crash. Since I joined in 2012 I would have thought another three years would have seen most of it out. He admitted that former executives made a mess of mistakes in the lead-up to the crash, but said they were caught up in an insatiable quest for growth that led to the banks near-collapse. Its pretty clear that RBS got a lot of things wrong in the lead up to the financial crisis. But like many other banks, growth was the big agenda. Everybody wanted scale, everybody saw that was the way to get more profitable and I think we got caught up, being RBS, in that euphoria for growth and being big. We ended as the biggest in the world with the acquisition of ABN Amro as the final move. Mr McEwan also went on to acknowledge RBSs role in the financial collapse. We were very much part of it and I think we forgot why we, as a bank, were here which was to serve customers and like many other banks they really started to think they were to serve their own needs and the shareholders needs only. So, look, we were a big part of it particularly here in the UK. We werent on our own, but were were certainly a big part of it. Downing Street is braced for another week of Brexit battles as it faces flashpoints with both Brussels and hardline Tory MPs. Despite key EU leaders sounding more upbeat at the prospects of a deal in recent days, Brussels appears set to reject key aspects of Prime Minister Theresa Mays Chequers proposals on Wednesday. However, it was reported that Mrs May hopes to break the deadlock over the Irish border issue by keeping the EUs present customs arrangements beyond when the transition period is due to end in December 2020. Anti-EU Tory MPs have made it clear to the PM that this option could last no longer than the slated general election in 2022, according to The Times. This comes after optimistic noises from the EU that a deal could be completed within weeks, with Irelands deputy prime minister Simon Coveney insisting that both sides were 90% there. Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has made positive noises about a Brexit deal (Niall Carson/PA) Brexiteers opposed to Mrs Mays withdrawal proposals were buoyed by Japans prime minister Shinzo Abe saying he would welcome the UK into the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc with open arms in the future. Such a move would need the UK to be outside the EU customs union and able to set its own tariffs. Leading Brexiteers like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Iain Duncan Smith have increased pressure on the PM by signalling they are prepared to soften their stance by accepting EU officials being stationed at UK ports post-Brexit in a bid to sink the Chequers plan. Time is running out for London and Brussels to strike a deal as EU leaders insist substantive progress must have been made by a leaders summit on October 17 for the bloc to agree a further Brexit gathering in November. In the run-up to the summit, Brussels is expected to release a draft policy paper on Brexit this week. EU leaders have already expressed concern at prime features of the Chequers plan such as the UK collecting tariffs on behalf of the EU. Tory hardline Brexiteers want a much looser association with the EU than envisaged by Chequers, one that would be close to a wider-ranging version of the free trade deal Brussels has agreed with Canada. Prisoners are getting help to prepare for the world of work under a new training scheme. The three-week course aims to boost inmates employability by focusing on soft skills such as confidence-building, time-keeping and managing workplace relationships. Run by Virgin Trains, the initiative has been piloted at HMP Styal, a womens jail near Manchester, and the operator is in talks about rolling it out at other establishments. The programme covers topics such as team-building and problem-solving. At the end of the course, participants are guaranteed an interview with Virgin Trains. Three courses have been piloted at HMP Styal this year, in partnership with prison education and training provider Novus. The latest group graduated on Friday. Of 16 trainees on the first two courses, nearly half have been offered permanent positions. Carla (no surname given), 34, who was recently released from HMP Styal on her graduation with Kathryn Wildman, Virgin Trains talent acquisition manager (Brian Hickey/Virgin Trains/PA) Earlier this year, the Government announced a package of measures aimed at bosting prisoners chances of securing work on release after figures showed only 17% of offenders are in PAYE employment a year after release. Unveiling the strategy in May, Justice Secretary David Gauke suggested ex-offenders could help bolster the UKs workforce after Brexit. Prisons Minister Rory Stewart welcomed the new Virgin Trains scheme and called for more businesses to follow suit. He said: Im delighted to see the launch of this programme as I believe passionately that, through work, people can turn their backs on crime and start a new chapter in their lives. The recent launch of our employment and education strategy shows our commitment to getting offenders into work, and I want to see more employers really stepping up and looking past an offenders conviction to their future potential. Virgin Trains says it has been proactively recruiting those with convictions for five years and currently employs more than 30 people who were recruited directly from prison. Kathryn Wildman, talent acquisition manager for the train operator, said: We know that hiring from prisons has meant that weve benefited from access to great talent and were keen to see more businesses do the same. At Virgin Trains we want to hire the best talent no matter what their background and we hope that this course will help people with convictions find jobs and give a bright future for them as employees. Barbara McDonough, chief operating officer for Novus, said: We know the value of employment in reducing re-offending. The mother of a suspected Islamic State terrorist from the UK will start a legal challenge over the Governments refusal to ensure her son and another suspect will not face the death penalty in the US. Alexandra Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh are said to have been members of a brutal four-man cell of IS executioners in Syria and Iraq, nicknamed The Beatles because of their British accents, who were responsible for killing a number of high-profile Western captives. The pair were captured in January, sparking a row over whether they should be returned to the UK for trial or face justice in another jurisdiction. Elsheikhs mother Maha Elgizouli is bringing a case at the High Court, challenging Home Secretary Sajid Javids decision to share intelligence with US authorities under a mutual legal assistance (MLA) agreement without seeking assurances the men would not face execution if they were extradited and tried there. Her case will be heard by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and Mr Justice Garnham on Monday and Tuesday. Mr Javid faced intense criticism over his decision after a letter he wrote to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions was leaked, with MPs accusing him of breaching the UKs long-standing opposition to the death penalty. Home Secretary Sajid Javids decision to share intelligence with US authorities over two UK terror suspects, without seeking assurances they will not face the death penalty, is being challenged at the High Court (PA/Aaron Chown) The Governments former reviewer of anti-terror legislation Lord Carlile branded the move extraordinary and said it was a dramatic change of policy. After Ms Elgizouli launched legal action, the Home Office announced in July that it had agreed to a short-term pause of the MLA process with the US. Lawyers from Birnberg Peirce Solicitors, who are representing Ms Elgizouli, said the case will explore whether the claimed rationale for the Home Secretarys decision was profoundly flawed. They said in a statement: The claimants case is that it is neither a lawful nor a legal exercise of power to afford assistance when it facilitates the imposition of the death penalty in the US. The claim raises questions of enormous constitutional importance, including the ability of a minister without reference to Parliament to agree to a complete departure from a prohibition understood by all to have the status of constitutional certainty and without any public debate. The ministers letter revealed a clear and dramatic departure from the UKs longstanding international and domestic commitment to oppose the continuing exercise of the death penalty. Kotey and Elsheikh are said to have been members of the cell which also included Mohammed Emwazi known as Jihadi John who was killed in a US air strike in 2015, and Aine Davis, who has been jailed in Turkey. Emwazi appeared in a number of videos in which hostages, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, were killed. Mr Foleys mother Diane said she was opposed to the death penalty. Prime Minister Theresa May supported Mr Javids original decision, which was also backed by Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary. But the MLA sparked widespread criticism in Westminster from across the political divide. A number of Tories raised concerns, with former attorney general Dominic Grieve warning the decision represented a major departure from normal policy. Shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti said Mr Javid appeared to have secretly and unilaterally abandoned Britains opposition to the death penalty. A new UN report warns of the unprecedented changes needed by society to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Here is what you need to know. Limiting #globalwarming to 1.5C will require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society but bring clear benefits to people, ecosystems and #globalgoals, says new @IPCC_CH report. Every bit of extra warming matters #SR15 #climatechange pic.twitter.com/7JQy8cMLnA IPCC (@IPCC_CH) October 8, 2018 What is significant about 1.5C of warming? While warming of 2C above pre-industrial levels has widely been thought of as the threshold beyond which dangerous climate change will occur, vulnerable countries such as low-lying island states warn rises above 1.5C will threaten their survival. Their concerns meant a pledge to pursue efforts to limit temperature rises to 1.5C was included after tough negotiations alongside the commitment to keep them well below 2C in the global Paris climate agreement in 2015. So why this report? The UN has released a new report on effects of global warming (PA) When the target was put into the Paris Agreement, relatively little was known about the climate risks that would be avoided in a 1.5C warmer world compared with a 2C warmer world, or about the action needed to limit temperature rises to that level. So the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was tasked with providing the answers. What does the report say? It warns the world is well off track to keep to the 1.5C limit. Even with the promises countries have made as part of the Paris Agreement to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, the world is set to breach the 1.5C threshold by around 2040. Based on those promises, we are heading for 3C by 2100 and even warmer after that. As more greenhouse gases lead to more warming, stabilising the planets temperature at any level will require emissions to fall to zero overall To keep temperatures from rising to more than 1.5C in the long term, countries need to cut carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and to net zero by 2050, with steep cuts in other greenhouse gases such as methane. Methods to take excess carbon out of the atmosphere will also be needed. It is not impossible to limit global warming to 1.5C, according to the new @IPCC_ch report. But it will require urgent, unprecedented & collective #ClimateAction in all areas. There is no time to waste. https://t.co/m3HQkSmAHY Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 8, 2018 How can all that be done? Well, it will require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented change across the whole of society, according to the report. Renewables would have to supply 70% to 85% of electricity in 2050, there would be a small role for gas power with technology that captured and stored its carbon, while coal would be virtually non-existent. The feasibility of solar, wind and battery storage has improved significantly in recent years, which could signal the system is transforming, the report says. But it is not just electricity: transport, buildings and industry would have to become significantly cleaner. Taking excess carbon from the atmosphere requires measures such as planting new forests or, more controversially, burning plant material for energy and capturing the carbon to store underground, which is known as BECCS. Millions of square kilometres would need to be turned into forest or used for growing renewable energy crops which could undermine food production. There are clear benefits to limiting global warming to 1.5C rather than 2C or higher, new @IPCC_ch report confirms. Every bit of warming matters. https://t.co/oIrUQkyFMJ #ClimateAction pic.twitter.com/MWgAqghgej United Nations (@UN) October 8, 2018 Why make all that effort for 0.5C? The report says a 2C rise will lead to more heatwaves and extreme rainstorms, more people facing water shortages and drought, greater economic losses and lower yields for major crops than 1.5C. Sea level rises would be 10cm lower with a 1.5C temperature rise compared to 2C by the end of the century. While coral reefs could decline 70% to 90% with 1.5C of warming, virtually all the worlds reefs would be lost at 2C, while far more creatures and plants across the world face losing a large part of their range. The Arctic is likely to be ice-free in summer around once a century at 1.5C but at least once a decade if warming climbs to 2C. How has this report been drawn up? The IPCC does not do any of its own research, so the report draws on more than 6,000 research papers to reach its conclusions. The reports authors and representatives of 195 governments which are members of the IPCC have then met to finalise the summary for policymakers report, which involves agreeing it line-by-line. The aim is to make the report as clear as possible while still scientifically robust and to ensure that everybody is behind the document. What does the report mean for the UK? The Government and its climate advisers have been waiting for the findings of the report. The UK already has a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and pressure has been building to set a zero-emissions target for mid-century. In light of the report, those calls are likely to get louder still and if it set, the transformation to a clean, low carbon economy will have to be even faster. A far-right former army captain has won Brazils presidential election by a surprisingly large margin but fell just short of getting enough votes to avoid a second-round runoff against a leftist rival. Jair Bolsonaro, whose last-minute surge almost gave him an electoral stunner, had 46% compared to 29% for former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad, according to figures from Brazils Superior Electoral Tribunal with 99.9% of the vote counted. He needed over 50% support to win outright. Polls predicted Mr Bolsonaro would come out in front on Sunday, but he far outperformed expectations, blazing past competitors with more financing, institutional backing of parties and free air time on television. Ultimately, Mr Bolsonaros strong showing reflects a yearning for the past as much as a sign of the future. Workers Party candidate Fernando Haddad, left, and Jair Bolsonaro, of the Social Liberal Party (Silvia Izquierdo/AP) The candidate from the tiny Social and Liberal Party made savvy use of Twitter and Facebook to spread his message that only he could end the corruption, crime and economic malaise that has seized Brazil in recent years. I voted against thievery and corruption, said Mariana Prado, a 54-year-old human resources expert. I know that everyone promises to end these two things, but I feel Bolsonaro is the only one can help end my anxieties. The two candidates have painted starkly different visions of the countrys past and future. Mr Bolsonaro has portrayed a nation in collapse and has advocated loosening gun ownership laws so individuals can fight off criminals, giving police a freer hand to use force and restoring traditional Brazilian values. He capitalised on Brazilians deep anger with their traditional political class and throw the bums out rage after a massive corruption investigation revealed staggering levels of graft. Beginning in 2014, prosecutors alleged that Brazils government was run like a cartel for years, with billions of dollars in public contracts handed out in exchange for kickbacks and bribes. The Workers Party was at the centre of that investigation, and it has struggled to stage a comeback with Mr Haddad. Mr Haddad has promised to roll back President Michel Temers economic reforms that he says eroded workers rights, increase investment in social programmes and bring back the boom years Brazil experienced under his mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro celebrate in front of his house in Rio de Janeiro (Ricardo Borges/AP) Though they come from opposite sides of the political spectrum, both Mr Bolsonaro and Mr Haddad ran campaigns based on nostalgia for a better time. Mr Bolsonaro frequently evoked the countrys 1964-1985 military dictatorship amid promises of a return to traditional values and safer, simpler times. In one of his last appeals to voters before Sundays voting, Mr Bolsonaro tweeted that he would defend the family and the innocence of children, treat criminals as such and not get involved in corruption schemes. Mr Bolsonaros poll numbers have increased by about 15% since he was stabbed on September 6. He was unable to campaign or participate in debates as he underwent surgeries during a three-week hospital stay, but instead brought messages directly to voters via Facebook and Twitter. The campaign to run Latin Americas largest economy, which is a major trade partner for countries in the region and a diplomatic heavyweight, has been unpredictable and tense. Mr da Silva led initial polls by a wide margin, but was banned from running after a corruption conviction. Mr Bolsonaros stabbing forced candidates, and Mr Bolsonaro himself, to shift strategies and recalibrate. All along, Brazilians have said their faith in leaders and their hopes for the future are waning. This election was once seen as the great hope for ending a turbulent era in which many politicians and business executives were jailed on corruption charges, a president was impeached and removed from office in controversial proceedings, and the regions largest economy suffered a protracted recession. Caught in the middle are Brazilians who dislike both candidates and see them as symbols of a broken system. I think were going to continue with the same polarisation, if either Mr Haddad or Mr Bolsonaro wins, said Victor Aversa, a 27-year-old massage therapist who voted for centre-left candidate Ciro Gomes, who had been polling third. Weve been on this path of crazy bipolarity. Haddad and Bolsonaro will both lead populist governments. A plan to project a horse racing advertisement on the famed sails of the Sydney Opera House is dividing Australians. The New South Wales state government stepped in to allow the advertisement to be displayed on Tuesday after the opera house chief executive Louise Herron opposed it. State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday the advertising for The Everest horse race had been toned down since its original proposal. Its important for us to support our major events, its important for us to promote New South Wales but, of course, do it in good taste and I believe that tomorrow evening strikes that right balance, Ms Berejiklian told reporters. This is a global event that receives global attention, she added, referring to the Sydney horse race, which will be run on Sunday. From the moment the winning design was announced and in the many years since, the Sydney Opera House has stirred emotions and ignited debate. This extraordinary building is loved by people around the world, and we appreciate all the messages we have received. pic.twitter.com/AE3R2UttuZ Sydney Opera House (@SydOperaHouse) October 8, 2018 More than 130,000 people signed an online petition by early Monday to stop the promotion. An artists impression of how horse race advertising will look on the Sydney Opera House (Racing NSW via AP) While some have defended the promotion as having economic benefits, others say it is crass commercialism and threatens the iconic buildings value as a World Heritage site. Anti-gambling campaigner Tim Costello said the advertising demonstrated the power of the Australian horse racing industry that made a profit of 3.3 billion Australian dollars (1.7 billion) last year. The gambling lobby, particularly in New South Wales, is the equivalent of the National Rifle Association in America. It has politicians in the palm of its hand, Mr Costello, a spokesman for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a former tourism marketer, described the Opera House as the biggest billboard Sydney has. These events generate massive economic opportunities. I dont know why people are getting so precious about it, Mr Morrison said. Its not as if theyre painting it on there. I mean, its some lights flashing up there for a brief moment of time, he added. I just dont understand why we tie ourselves up in knots about these things. Graham Quint, a National Trust of Australia manager, said the advertising contravened federal and state laws governing use of the Opera House. People have a great deal of respect for the Opera House, its World Heritage so people worldwide treasure it and the idea that wed use it as a Parramatta Road billboard is quite wrong this is just crass commercialism, Mr Quint said. The World Heritage listing requires not only that the building be preserved in its fabric, but also that it be presented properly and no way under the current conservation management plan should this be allowed, Mr Quint added. Racing NSW chief executive Peter Vlandys wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Monday that his organisation had wanted to advertise the race on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. But the state government blocked that plan and offered the Opera House instead. Lets be clear, Racing NSW never intended for the sails of the Opera House to be used as a billboard, Mr Vlandys wrote. The Everest has 23 million Australian dollars (12 million) in prize money and is billed as the worlds richest turf race. The barrier draw is to be advertised on Tuesday. More than a third of girls in school uniform have been sexually harassed in public, a survey has found. The data from Plan International UK shows that 35% of girls have received unwanted sexual attention or contact such as being groped, stared at, catcalled and wolf-whistled while wearing their school uniform in public. One in eight girls reported being 12 years old or younger when she first experienced unwanted sexual attention. The poll of 1,004 girls aged 14-21 also found that one in seven girls had been followed while in uniform, while 8% said they had been filmed or photographed by a stranger without their permission, or someone had taken a photograph up their school skirt. Some 37% of the girls questioned said they had been been sexually harassed while travelling to or from school. Sixteen-year-old Jess, from Glasgow, said, When I was 15, I was in school uniform and sat on a train and this guy kept trying to put his hand on my leg. More than a third of girls in school uniform have been sexually harassed in public, a survey finds I was like, What am I supposed to do? I ended up getting off the train at the next stop and just being completely lost. She added: It was such a horrible experience. I was going to see my biology tutor and I arrived at the library in tears, I was really upset about it. I think the worst part was feeling guilty because I was wearing a skirt, which is stupid because it shouldnt matter what I was wearing, but in the moment it did. The findings come as Plan International UK launches a new report into the impact of street harassment on girls and women in the UK. The charity is calling on the Government to recognise harassment in public as a form of gender-based violence in its strategy to end violence against women and girls. Tanya Barron, chief executive at Plan International UK, said, It is shocking and deeply concerning that girls, many of whom are clearly of school age because they are in uniform, are being targeted and sexually harassed by perpetrators in the street. Its simply not acceptable that girls as young as 12 are being wolf-whistled at in public, touched against their will, stared at or even followed. This disgraceful behaviour needs to be called out and stopped. Chinese authorities are investigating the former president of Interpol for bribery and other crimes and indicate that political transgressions may also have landed him in trouble. Meng Hongwei, Chinas vice minister for public security, is being investigated due to his own wilfulness and for bringing trouble upon himself, Beijing said. The last message sent by missing Interpol President, Meng Hongwei, to his wife, Grace Meng (AP) Interpol announced that Meng had resigned as president of the international police agency, effective immediately, shortly after China made a brief announcement that he was under investigation. Mengs unexplained disappearance in China late last month, which had prompted the French government and Interpol to make their concerns known publicly, threatened to further tarnish Beijings image. A man has suffered potentially life-changing injuries after being shot in the leg, police said. The paramilitary-style attack took place in the Norglen Road area of West Belfast on Sunday evening. The victim, in his 30s, was taken to hospital. Police are currently at the scene of a shooting incident at Norglen Road/Monagh Crescent, Belfast. A man has sustained a gunshot wound to his leg. Info to 101 quoting ref 1416 07/10/18 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) October 8, 2018 A PSNI detective said: We are treating this brutal shooting as a paramilitary-style attack. This incident is another example of how criminal groups seek to control communities through fear and violence. He appealed for anyone with information to contact detectives. US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been sworn in at a White House ceremony, but not before President Donald Trump criticised Mr Kavanaughs opponents for a campaign of personal destruction. In a ceremony that could have been a unifying moment for the nation, Mr Trump instead delivered remarks that even he acknowledged began differently than perhaps any other event of such magnitude. On behalf of our nation, I want to apologise to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure, Mr Trump said, addressing the bitter partisan fight over Mr Kavanaughs nomination that became a firestorm after the emergence of sexual misconduct allegations, which Kavanaugh emphatically denied. With all the sitting justices in attendance, along with Mr Kavanaughs family and top admiration officials, Mr Trump said Mr Kavanaugh had been the victim of a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. But, he told the new justice, You, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent. Mr Kavanaugh officially became a member of the high court on Saturday and has already been at work preparing for his first day on the bench on Tuesday. In his own remarks, Mr Kavanaugh, who has faced criticism that he appeared too politicised in his Senate testimony, tried to assure the American public that he would approach the job fairly. He said the high court is not a partisan or political institution and assured he took the job with no bitterness. The Senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional. That process is over. My focus now is to be the best justice I can be, he said. Donald Trump shakes hands with Brett Kavanaugh before a ceremonial swearing-in at the White House (Susan Walsh/AP) It was the end of a deeply contentious nomination process that sparked mass protests, an FBI investigation and it comes less than a month before pivotal midterm elections that will determine which party controls Congress. Ceremonial swearing-ins are unusual for new justices. Only Samuel Alito and Stephen Breyer participated in White House events after they had been sworn in and begun work as justices, according to the courts records on the current crop of justices. Mr Kavanaugh and his law clerks already have been at the Supreme Court preparing for his first day on the bench on Tuesday, when the justices will hear arguments in two cases about longer prison terms for repeat offenders. The new justices four clerks all are women, the first time that has happened. The clerks are Kim Jackson, who previously worked for Mr Kavanaugh on the federal appeals court in Washington, Shannon Grammel, Megan Lacy and Sara Nommensen. The latter three all worked for other Republican-nominated judges. Ms Lacy had been working at the White House in support of Mr Kavanaughs nomination. Confirmed, 50-48: Brett M. Kavanaugh, of Maryland, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Senate Judiciary Republicans (@SenJudiciaryGOP) October 6, 2018 In his Senate testimony last month, in which he denied allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in high school and accused Democrats of orchestrating a partisan campaign against him, Mr Kavanaugh promised: Ill be the first justice in the history of the Supreme Court to have a group of all-women law clerks. That is who I am. Mr Trumps ceremony speech hammered a theme he has been hitting on all week: hoping to energise Republicans by attacking Democrats for opposing Mr Kavanaugh. Mr Kavanaugh was caught up in a hoax that was set up by the Democrats, Mr Trump said as he left the White House earlier in the day for a trip to Florida. It was all made up, it was fabricated and its a disgrace, he said. Later, in Orlando, he called Kavanaugh a flawless person and said evil people had tried to derail him with False charges and False accusations. Horrible statements that were totally untrue that he knew nothing about. It was a disgraceful situation brought about by people that are evil. And he toughed it out, Mr Trump said at the International Association of Chiefs of Police meeting. The climactic 50-48 roll call vote Saturday on Mr Kavanaugh was the closest vote to confirm a justice since 1881. The so-called Strictly curse continues to make headlines on Tuesday, alongside new claims about the identity of one of the Salisbury poisoning suspects. The Daily Mirror leads on what it describes as a scathing attack from the girlfriend of Strictly star Seann Walsh after he was pictured kissing his professional partner Katya Jones. Rebecca Humphries dumped the comedian and released a statement in which she said she thought something inappropriate had been going on for weeks, the paper says. The former couple are pictured on the front of the Daily Telegraph, which reports that the actress said she had confronted Walsh but he responded by calling her psycho. The papers main story claims that the UK is attempting to block the return of at least nine Britons held in Syria over links to Isil. TELEGRAPH: UK refuses to take back ISIL fighters from Syria #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/WGkgCQgXeP Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) October 8, 2018 Meanwhile, The Times leads on claims by the Bellingcat website that the second suspect in the Salisbury poisoning is a military doctor working for Russian intelligence. What the papers say - October 9 The paper says Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin allegedly travelled to Britain in March under the pseudonym Alexander Petrov to carry out the nerve agent attack. Tomorrow's Times front page: Military doctor named as second novichok spy pic.twitter.com/vGCATbpMLR The Times (@thetimes) October 8, 2018 Celia Marsh features on the front of several papers after she was named as the second customer of Pret A Manger to die following an allergic reaction. The Metro says the dental nurse was a mother of five daughters and had three stepsons. METRO: Victim of Pret wrap is mum of five #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/3xkGFSwAdT Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) October 8, 2018 The Daily Mail claims the sandwich chains baguettes are made in a French factory and can keep for up to a year. Elsewhere, The Sun reports that Facebook has been branded immoral for paying 7.4 million in UK tax despite sales of more than 1.2 billion. Tomorrow's front page: Fury as Facebook pays just 7.4million tax in UK despite making 1.3billion https://t.co/zWaDMSSLtj pic.twitter.com/0eR2SSwAHc The Sun (@TheSun) October 8, 2018 The Guardian reports that the Metropolitan Polices use of force has risen sharply in the past year. The Guardian front page, Tuesday 9 October 2018 | Revealed: sharp rise as Met uses force on suspects 270 times a day pic.twitter.com/6OF1SshhYk The Guardian (@guardian) October 8, 2018 The Daily Express says just six of Britains cash-strapped police forces have officers on their front desks despite soaring violent crime. And the i says a 40 DNA test can predict the risk of a heart attack. Hillary Clinton will deliver a keynote address at a conference marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The former US first lady, who lost the race for the White House to Donald Trump in 2016, will speak at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford. The conference is called Confronting Illiberalism: The Role Of The Media, Civil Society And Universities. Hillary Clinton unveils a new statue of Eleanor Roosevelt outside the Bonavero Institute in Oxford (Victoria Jones/PA) On the eve of her speech, Mrs Clinton said democracy is under siege and that she cannot understand why people are so reluctant to call out what the Russians have been doing. The former US secretary of state said on Monday evening: As we learn more about the role that (Vladimir) Putin, oligarchs around him, the Russian government particularly, the intelligence forces have played, we see that its not just what they did in our election in the United States. They have been actively supporting right wing political parties and politicians. Mrs Clinton added: I dont understand why the press, the political establishment and the public are so reluctant to call out what the Russians have been doing. What they did in Brexit, what they did in the United States. Mrs Clinton at Oxford University on Monday evening (Victoria Jones/PA) Mrs Clinton said the list is really long now, adding: The internet has given them a great advantage because they are able to sow discontent, divisiveness and false information incredibly easily. She added: Its only going to get worse, and this is something that I think everybody needs to pay attention to. The technology has advanced so much that its not only the false stories that the phoney news services are now directing at your Facebook feed, it will be taking the words you say out of many different contexts and putting it together to say something you never said. Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, former principal of Mansfield College, joined Mrs Clinton in conversation on the role that women have played in promoting and protecting human rights. Mrs Clinton unveiled a statue of Americas war time first lady Eleanor Roosevelt outside the institute and became an honorary fellow of Mansfield College. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are due to attend the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit an initiative to help improve mental health around the world. Political figures, experts and policy makers are due at the event in London to discuss issues such as how to deal with the stigma attached to mental health. Another policy up for discussion is a declaration committing to putting mental health on an equal footing with physical health. Last #WorldMentalHealthDay, our research showed us that only 4 in 10 people found talking about their own mental health helpful. But if they'd had a recent conversation this doubled to 8 in 10 people. It is your determination that has kept these conversations going. pic.twitter.com/7DCCd1Ry19 Heads Together (@heads_together) October 8, 2018 William and Kate have long been involved in mental health initiatives through their Heads Together campaign. The summit is being held at Londons County Hall on the South Bank. Kate only returned to royal duties last week after taking maternity leave for the birth of the couples third child Prince Louis. Kate and William (Chris Jackson/PA) Ahead of the summit, the Department of Health and Social Care began a social media campaign using the hash tag #TheWorldNeeds to ask people what we need to change in the way we treat and perceive mental health. Details of the second man allegedly sent to carry out a deadly nerve agent attack in Salisbury are even scarcer than that of his accomplice, an investigative group has said. Dr Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin was named on Monday night as the man travelling under the alias Alexander Petrov. His accomplice using the name Ruslan Boshirov was previously named by Bellingcat as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga. Mishkin was allegedly born in a village in the Arkhangelsk District in the north of European Russia. The website reports Alexander Mishkin travelled to Salisbury under the alias Alexander Petrov (Bellingcat/PA) His rank is unknown, but he is believed to be a military doctor and a graduate of one of Russias elite military medical academies. He would have graduated with at least the rank of senior lieutenant, and is likely to have reached the rank of lieutenant colonel or full colonel in the 15 years since leaving medical school. He was reportedly recruited by Russias intelligence agency the GRU while still a student, and was given the alias Alexander Petrov including an identity card and a passport in 2010. Between 2011 and 2018 he travelled extensively under his new identity, Bellingcat said, including making frequent trips to Ukraine. The last of which was reportedly in December 2013, just ahead of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution which led to Russias annexation of Crimea. The suspects in the Salisbury nerve agent attack told the Kremlin-funded RT channel that they wanted to visit the `wonderful town of Salisbury and see its famous cathedral (Metropolitan Police/PA) For his cover identity he used most of his own details, including his date of birth and first name, and the first names of his parents. Until September 2014 his home address was registered as the Moscow headquarters of the GRU. He then moved to an apartment shared with Chepiga. Bellingcat said it had interviewed multiple sources familiar with Mishkin, both in St Petersburg and his native Loyga. Prison officers are to be given canisters of synthetic pepper spray in a bid to combat violence in jails, prisons minister Rory Stewart has said. The incapacitant PAVA spray has been trialled in four prisons, and will now be rolled out at all jails which house male prisoners, he said. The news comes ahead of a speech by Andrea Albutt, the president of the Prison Governors Association (PGA), in which she is expected to accuse the Government of failing to respond quickly enough to the jail safety crisis. Speaking to The Sun, Mr Stewart said trials of the PAVA spray had already shown positive results, without the officer needing to use the spray. The mere fact that an officer is wearing the canister on their belt acts as a deterrent and can prevent incidents getting out of hand, he said. He added that the decision to arm prison officers with the spray had come following serious thought, but that safer prisons are vital for all of us. Incapacitant PAVA spray has been trialled in four prisons (Victoria Jones/PA) He said: Our prison officers are doing one of the most important and heroic jobs in our society. We must give them the means to do their job. The prisons system has been under intense scrutiny after levels of violence, self-harm and drug use behind bars surged. At the PGAs annual conference on Tuesday, Ms Albutt will paint a bleak picture of the state of jails, pointing to horrendous quarterly statistics on violence. She is expected to say: We have crumbling prisons and an inability to give a safe, decent and secure regime to large numbers of men and women in our care due to lack of staff, not fit for purpose contracts and a much more violent, disrespectful, gang and drug affiliated population. The Ministry Of Justice said it acknowledged the challenges prison officers faced, and that it had taken meaningful action to address them. As many as 40 hardcore Tory Brexiteers will resist attempts to coerce them into supporting a Brexit deal with Brussels based on Theresa Mays Chequers planl, a former minister has warned. Steve Baker said he stood by his previous claim that 80 Conservatives would be prepared to oppose the Prime Minister if her deal with the EU kept Britain too closely aligned to it. Mr Baker, a senior figure in the hardline Brexiteer European Research Group, told BBC Radio 4s Today that he was expecting the Tory Whips to go to work on the rebels but that half of them would stand firm against her regardless. He said that they will not tolerate a half-in, half-out Brexit after reports that Mrs May hopes to break the deadlock over the Irish border by keeping the EUs present customs arrangements beyond when the transition period is due to end in December 2020. If 40 Tories rebelled it would leave a Brexit deal at serious risk of failing to gain Parliamentary approval, with the Prime Minister needing Labour votes to get it through. Mr Baker, a former Brexit minister, told BBC Radio 4s Today: I always try to be accurate on the numbers rather than have a bluff to be called. We are in a position where, as we roll forward, colleagues will not tolerate a half-in, half-out Brexit. Steve Baker said a hard core of 40 Tory Brexiteers would resist attempts to force them to back Theresa May on Brexit (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA) I did a concrete canvas of colleagues when it was amendments to legislation, and came up with the number of nearly 80. Of course the Government are going to whip this vote extremely hard, but what I would say is that the whips would be doing incredibly well if they were to halve the numbers, and my estimate is that there are at least 40 colleagues who are not going to accept a half-in, half-out Chequers deal or indeed a backstop that leaves us in the internal market and the Customs Union, come what may. If you listened to the Brexit segment on @BBCr4today and wanted more context, these 5 short videos may be helpful:https://t.co/pAm1ALYpZP Get the transcripts here:https://t.co/KgPRlWviuQ#PlanAPlus Steve Baker MP FRSA (@SteveBakerHW) October 9, 2018 His comments came as the Governments allies in the Democratic Unionist Party headed to Brussels for their own talks with the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Tuesday. On the eve of the meeting, DUP leader Arlene Foster set out the partys red lines, saying that any border effectively being drawn in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and Britain would be catastrophic. The PMs spokesman said on Monday that Mrs May had always made clear that any joint customs arrangements with the EU would be temporary, and stressed that this remained the case. Theresa May has also been urged to evolve her deal into a free trade deal that the whole party can support. Mark Harper, who was a Home Office minister during Mrs Mays tenure in the department and later Chief Whip, told the Telegraph that relying on Labour rebels would not work, saying: We are going to have to carry this deal on our own benches. If youre the Prime Minister, you do have to listen to colleagues. A candlelit vigil has taken place for the 20 people killed in a limousine crash in New York state. Participants lifted candles above their heads as more than 1,000 people jammed a riverside park in Amsterdam. Relatives have tried to come to grips with the tragedy that happened as a group of friends and family were on their way to a 30th birthday party. My heart breaks for the 20 people who lost their lives in the horrific accident on Saturday in Schoharie. I have directed State agencies to provide every resource necessary to aid in the investigation, and I join all New Yorkers in mourning during this extremely difficult time. Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) October 7, 2018 The super-sized limo ran through a stop sign and hit a parked SUV on Saturday in Schoharie. Authorities have yet to say how fast the limo was going or determine why it failed to stop and sped off the road at the bottom of a long hill a known danger spot for traffic. The 19-seat vehicle had at least some seat belts, but it was unclear whether anyone was wearing them, US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chairman Robert Sumwalt said. Barbara Douglas lost four family members in the tragedy in New York state (AP) The crash, about 170 miles north of New York City, came three years after another deadly stretch-limo crash in New York state spurred calls for governor Andrew Cuomo to examine such vehicles safety. There is no evidence the state took any steps to do so. Some relatives of the dead shed tears as local officials expressed solidarity with them. US representative Paul Tonko, a Democrat from Amsterdam, told a crowd that spilled onto a bridge spanning the Mohawk River: We are crushed with you, we are crushed for you. Hundreds of people took part in the ceremony in Amsterdam (AP) Some relatives shed tears as a woman sang Amazing Grace. The crash killed two pedestrians and all 18 people in the vehicle, run by Prestige Limousine, including four sisters who were headed with friends and relatives to a brewery for a party for one of the sisters. The four sisters aunt, Barbara Douglas, said they had felt they did the responsible thing getting a limo so they wouldnt have to drive anywhere. My heart is sunken. Its in a place where Ive never felt this type of pain before, said Karina Halse, who lost her 26-year-old sister Amanda. Inquiries are ongoing into the crash (AP) The state moved to shut down the vehicles owner, Prestige Limousine, as state and federal authorities investigate the crash. Investigators plan to examine the mangled limos data recorders and mechanical systems as well as the road, which has a history as a danger spot. They are also looking into the drivers record and qualifications and conducting an examination to see if drugs or alcohol were factors. Officials have determined that the driver did not have the necessary commercial licence, and the vehicle failed a state inspection that examined such things as the chassis, suspension and brakes. Debris scattered in the crash site in Schoharie (AP) The limo built by cutting apart a heavy-duty SUV and lengthening it was also found to have been created without federal certification, though NTSB officials said they had not yet determined whether the vehicle met federal standards. Prestige Limousine issued a statement Monday expressing condolences to victims families and saying it was conducting a detailed internal investigation while also meeting with state and federal authorities. After a stretch limousine was involved in an accident on New Yorks Long Island in 2015, killing four women, a special grand jury implored Mr Cuomo to examine the safety of such vehicles. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants Pope Francis to visit his country, South Korean officials said. Mr Kim told South Korean president Moon Jae-in during their summit last month that the pope would be enthusiastically welcomed in North Korea, South Koreas presidential office said. The North Korean leader has been intensely engaged in diplomacy in recent months in what is seen as an effort to leverage his nuclear weapons programme for an easing of economic sanctions and military pressure. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has stepped up diplomatic efforts in the past year (AP) North Korea is officially atheist and strictly controls religious activities. A similar invitation for then-Pope John Paul II to visit after a 2000 inter-Korean summit never resulted in a meeting. The Vatican insisted that a papal visit would only be possible if Catholic priests were accepted in the country. Royal Bank of Scotlands boss has called for regulation of small business lending in the UK, despite dodging disciplinary action over the mistreatment of SMEs by its Global Restructuring Group earlier this year. Ross McEwan did not say whether the responsibility should fall at the door of City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), but admitted that the market sorely required proper checks and routes for complaints. I think somebody needs to be there to put a second view around the SME market place, he said in an interview with the Press Association. Some sort of regulation around that seems to be needed. His backing comes as a surprise given that the lack of regulation of small business lending helped RBS avoid disciplinary action from the FCA earlier this year. The watchdog this summer concluded that the the activities of RBSs now-defunct Global Restructuring Group (GRG) were not within its remit and that its powers did not apply. The GRG has been accused of pushing firms towards failure in the hope of picking up assets on the cheap, though the FCA said there was no evidence of dishonesty or lack of integrity. The influential Treasury Committee headed by Conservative MP Nicky Morgan said it was disappointing and bewildering that the FCA is not able to act, adding that the case demonstrated the need for change in how lending for SMEs is regulated. Ms Morgan said in July: The Government should stand ready to introduce any legislation required when it sees the outcome of current reports on redress and should also urgently consider what additional powers the FCA requires to act in cases such as GRG. While the FCA has proposed expanding the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to small business complaints, the Treasury Committee has questioned whether the FOS can handle an expanded remit. The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fair Business Banking is also calling for a Financial Services Tribunal that would help SMEs resolve financial disputes with banks, holding powers to rule on awards of up to 1 million. Kevin Hollinrake, MP and co-chair of the APPG said: If commercial lending had been regulated then the systemic abuse of SME customers by RBS and other banks on this scale would not have occurred. The entrance to the Royal Bank of Scotland branch in Constitution Street, Edinburgh (PA) The absence of meaningful regulation has exposed the fundamental lack of redress mechanisms available for businesses in disputes with their banks. It is for this reason that the APPG has proposed an independent Financial Services Tribunal that will offer quick, efficient and cheap access to justice for claimants and will act as a deterrent to prevent future malpractice. While Mr McEwans call for oversight of the SME lending sector will likely be welcomed by advocates, he also warned UK authorities to be careful over putting UK banks at a disadvantage by over-regulating the financial sector. This industry needed to be pulled back into line to consider customers again and to be financially strong, so I think the regulators have done the right thing, he said. What we need to be careful of now is that we stay competitive with other regulatory frameworks around the world, and I think at this stage we are, but we shouldnt put our banks at a disadvantage of other financial institutions that we compete with. However, he stressed that he is very strongly supportive of moves meant to increase capital levels across the banking sector and impose better controls around customers. These are our customers, we should have been taking the concern for them, and unfortunately its taken a regulator to come into this industry and tell us how to run our industry, which I think is a blight on our industry, not on the regulators themselves. Turkish authorities are to search the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Foreign Ministry said Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they are open to co-operation and will allow the consulate building to be searched. The ministry did not say when the premises would be searched. Mr Khashoggi disappeared a week ago after entering the consulate to obtain paperwork for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee. Turkish officials have alleged he was killed in the compound, but Saudis officials said he left the building unharmed. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have arrived at a summit in London aimed at helping to improve mental health around the world. William and Kate were greeted by Health Secretary Matt Hancock as they arrived at the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit at County Hall. Political figures, experts from around the world and policy makers are due at the two-day event to discuss issues such as how to deal with the stigma attached to mental health. Another policy up for discussion at the summit, which is co-hosted by the UK Government and the OECD, is a declaration committing to putting mental health on an equal footing with physical health. Ahead of tomorrows #WorldMentalHealthDay2018 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit, which aims to promote better mental health for all. pic.twitter.com/G4HqxuseuU The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 9, 2018 The royal couple, who were cheered by crowds gathered in the street outside County Hall, have long been involved in mental health initiatives through their Heads Together campaign. They are due to meet young people from the UK on Tuesday who have either had or are dealing with mental health issues and will hear about case studies of mental health projects in the US and India. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Jonathan Brady/PA) A poll published this week showed that almost a quarter of patients with a mental health problem are waiting more than three months to see an NHS specialist. The Royal College of Psychiatrists said that long waits for mental health care have been deemed acceptable. The college has launched a new campaign urging medical students to become doctors who specialise in mental health. Ahead of the summit, the Department of Health and Social Care began a social media campaign using the hash tag #TheWorldNeeds to ask people what needs to change in the way mental health is treated and perceived. An Edinburgh minister and grandfather of three has been selected as the new Moderator of the Church of Scotlands General Assembly. Reverend Colin Sinclair will succeed the Rt Rev Susan Brown in the role next year. Rev Sinclair, originally from Glasgow, is the minister for Palmerston Place Church in Edinburgh. The Stirling University economics graduate, who has worked for decades with Scripture Union, said he was honoured to take up the role. Rev Sinclair with his family (Church of Scotland/PA) He said: I am honoured to be selected for this opportunity to represent the Church of Scotland nationally and internationally. It will be a pleasure to encourage church members in their faith and to see the impact of their faith in communities across our country. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a parish minister and despite the challenges we face I believe the Christian Faith is still relevant to Scotland. Our message is still Good News and it still changes lives. Rev Sinclair first became interested in the Christian faith as a pupil at Glasgow Academy when, to escape getting into trouble after a prefect saw him taking the wrong staircase, he dodged into a room where a Scripture Union camp video was showing. A keen rugby player at university, it was also while a student that he took a holiday job as a film extra playing a Roman soldier in the 1975 comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Through his work with Scripture Union he spent three years travelling around Zambia, living out of his car and speaking at schools, churches and hospitals. After being ordained his first solo parish was at Newton on Ayr in South Ayrshire. Rev Sinclair is married to Ruth Murray, a medical social worker, and the couple have four children and three grandchildren. Scotlands Justice Secretary said Labour is seen as working against ethnic minorities. Humza Yousaf said his rival party was historically seen as standing up for ethnic minorities but this has changed and raised questions over structural racism. He highlighted two Labour councillors who were suspended for alleged racism and a row over the internal party selection process in areas Glasgow. Labour suspended Davie McLachlan, the leader of the South Lanarkshire Council group, after he allegedly told Anas Sarwar MSP he could not back him for Scottish Labour leadership as Scotland was not ready for a brown, Muslim Paki. Dumfries and Galloway Labour councillor Jim Dempster was suspended after he allegedly told government officials if Mr Yousaf had visited the area no-one would have seen him under his burka. Both councillors deny the allegations. Humza Yousaf said his rival party was historically seen as standing up for ethnic minorities but this has changed (Jane Barlow/PA) Speaking at a fringe event at the SNP conference in Glasgow, Mr Yousaf said: My point is you add all these things together and there is a question around, and I use purposely the term, structural racism. He said police, government, all political parties and companies have to look at whether they have structural biases in their institutions, arguing the world isnt colourblind and saying he faces racism daily, which can be structural. He added: My point in all of this, is to question Labour, you used to be the party that stood up for minorities. You are now the party that is seen rightly or wrongly so I just ask the question to be working against ethnic minorities. EgyptAir is trying to shift the blame to a local advertising agency for a bizarre article in its in-flight magazine purportedly based on an interview with actress Drew Barrymore. The airline said it has an agreement with the Al-Ahram advertising agency, which edits articles and interviews for the Egyptian carriers in-flight magazine, Horus. According to EgyptAir, the agency is totally responsible for the magazines editorial content. The article, riddled with misspellings and grammatical errors, led with a description of Barrymore as being unstable in her relationships and quoted her as saying that motherhood was the most important role in my life. A separate statement by the advertising agency said the introductory paragraphs of the purported interview were not written by the interviewer, Aida Tekla. It is a product of the editors creativity, the agency said, adding that it would investigate whether the lead of the interview reflected what the actress said. Drew Barrymore (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File) We apologise for any misunderstanding that might be interpreted as an offence to the great artist (Barrymore), the statement said. EgyptAir last week said it stood by the article, published in Horuss October edition. US press reports have quoted Barrymores representatives as denying any such interview took place, with some suggesting the author must have based her article on misinterpretations of a press conference. Barrymore has yet to issue an official statement on the interview, but Al-Ahram said a representative of the actress contacted Ms Tekla about the interview to say the American actress never spoke to Horus. The representative did not know that Ms Tekla, a senior member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, contributed to Horus, said the agency. The article said Barrymore had failed relationships because her parents divorced. It is known that Barrymore had almost 17 relationships, engagements and marriages; psychologists believe that her behaviour is only natural since she lacked the male role model in her life after her parents divorce, Ms Tekla wrote. In another passage, she quoted Barrymore as being pleased with recent weight loss after having a second daughter. Another quote describes Barrymore as celebrating womens achievements in the West because they handle tasks men cannot. Women exert tremendous efforts that men are incapable of exerting due to their numerous commitments and obligations, the article quoted Barrymore as saying. EgyptAirs in-flight magazine has Arabic and English sections, but translations are often poor and English-language articles are filled with errors. Birkbeck, University of London, is withdrawing from UK university rankings because it feels they do not fairly recognise its strengths, or represent it in a way helpful to students. It is pulling out of future domestic tables, arguing that, despite having highly-rated teaching and research, other factors caused by its teaching model and unrelated to its performance push it down the ratings. Birkbecks governors believe it would be better to be absent from the tables than to have an entry which gives a totally misleading view of the college. However, it will continue to be included in international tables. Birkbeck says league table methodologies fail to do it justice because they reward entry tariffs, retention rates and student spend. Professor David Latchman, Master at Birkbeck, said: Essentially Birkbeck is being penalised for having a different teaching model to all other UK universities. Birkbeck is withdrawing from UK university tables (Birkbeck/PA) People will assume this is a case of sour grapes because we dont do well. But the truth is that Birkbeck is doing exceptionally well in the ways that matter most our teaching and research are excellent and we are fulfilling our mission to open up high-quality education to a broader range of students. The tables struggle to deal with anything other than a campus university catering to 18-year-olds who have just moved away from home. We are poorly served by these tables and so are the students who glance at our position and may be put off from studying here. Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: I think this is a fascinating and brave decision. It may well make sense for Birkbeck because the league tables take a one-size-fits-all approach. The decision may also make sense for the league table compilers because it removes an outlier that doesnt sit easily alongside the other institutions. He added that overall there are positives and negatives to league tables, but they are not going to disappear. Mr Hillman continued: So my preference would be to have more of them. That would help to show that every university is excellent at something. I would also urge university governors to be wary about holding vice chancellors to account for an institutions league table positions. As with Birkbeck, the league table inputs dont always match well with the mission of individual institutions. Nationalists who are pressing for Nicola Sturgeon to call a second referendum on independence have been told they must wait for the right moment for such a ballot. Scottish Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell told those who want another vote on leaving the UK to be held sooner rather than later that the right time was not the moment that best relieves our natural impatience. Another referendum should only take place when Scotland is persuaded, ready and determined to win, he added. Mr Russell used his speech to the SNP annual conference in Glasgow to urge those pressing for what has been dubbed IndyRef2 to be patient. A section of the SNP has been been urging party leaders to push ahead with another ballot, offering independence it as an alternative to Brexit. With the UK due to leave the European in less than six months time, Mr Russell criticised Theresa Mays destructive, dysfunctional UK Government. Mike Russell said nationalists must wait till the `time is right for another independence vote (Jane Barlow/PA) He stressed independence was more than just an alternative future for Scots who voted against Brexit in 2016 but could also lead to the creation of a better Scotland. Mr Russell said: Deciding the when can only come after agreeing on the why. Because the why isnt just about grabbing a lifeboat in choppy and dangerous seas. The why is about a route to a better Scotland, in a better Europe influencing the creation of a better world. However he was clear: It can only happen when we find the right moment and the right arguments to make it happen. Our job as a party and as a Government is to both make sure that Scotland flourishes, no matter the circumstances but also to ensure that at the right moment the choice of independence can be made. The right moment not the most comfortable moment or the moment that best relieves our natural impatience. The moment at which our country is persuaded, ready and determined to win. These are difficult times. They may become more difficult still and that is why the Scottish Government is working so hard to try and ensure that even in the event of a disastrous no deal we will be able to offer some mitigation and some protection. We could stay in the EU, which is what Scotland voted for. But if we are forced to leave, for no matter how short a period, the only sensible, evidence led, option is to stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union. - @Feorlean #SNP18 pic.twitter.com/NWI6SljH7N Kevin Stewart SNP (@KevinStewartSNP) October 9, 2018 Ms Sturgeon has already warned the PM her partys MPs will vote against any Brexit deal at Westminster which takes the UK out of the single market and the customs union. Mr Russell echoed this, stating the SNP will not be the midwives of Brexit, willing dislocation and disaster upon our country. He told the conference: Let me put it this unequivocal way, if there is no offer and no possibility, at the very least, of a single market and customs union outcome, either for the UK as a whole or for Scotland as a differentiated part of these islands, then there is no meaningful option being offered at all, and no option that can or will have SNP support. He said if Scotland was forced to leave the EU for no matter how short a period, the only sensible, evidence led, option is to stay in the single market and the customs union. He was warned of the impact Brexit could have on devolution with relationships between the Scottish and UK governments having already become strained after Holyrood voted against giving consent the EU Withdrawal Act. That vote took place after Scottish ministers raised fears the legislation was being used as a power grab to take responsibilities away from Holyrood. And Mr Russell warned these tensions could worsen after the UK leaves the EU, saying: Those who are keenest on Brexit are also those who dislike devolution the most. Their voices are loud and some of them are heard at the heart of the UK Government. These extremists regard anything that interferes with the so called sovereignty of Westminster as dangerous and unacceptable. Speaking about the hardline Brexiteers, he added: A no deal Brexit is their ideal destination, allowing them to pretend that Britannia still rules the waves. And they will waive the rules to get it. So I fear that if they have their way it is not just Europe that is dispensable. Devolution is dispensable too, as are Scotland, and Wales and even Northern Ireland where the threat to devolution is also a threat to peace and security. Hillary Clinton has criticised Conservative MEPs for refusing to vote against an EU censure of the widely-criticised Hungarian government, saying they have come a long way since the days of Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. The former US presidential nominee also said democracy was in crisis as she accused President Donald Trump of spreading corruption and discrediting truth while Russian President Vladimir Putin waged cyber warfare and manipulated social media. Mrs Clinton was marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford. In her wide-ranging speech, Mrs Clinton said: Its disheartening to watch conservatives in Brussels vote to shield Viktor Orban from censure, including British Tories. They have come a long way since the days of Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. Last month, just three Conservative MEPs voted against triggering an EU sanctions process against Mr Orbans government after reports emerged of press freedom violations and anti-Semitism. Mr Orban eventually lost the vote by 448-197. Mrs Clinton went on: Lets not be fooled by the masquerade that countries like Turkey and Hungary are still real democracies, just illiberal ones. Illiberal democracy is a contradiction in terms. Hungarys election was not enough to qualify it as a democracy, she said, as she called on the EU to resist alleged human rights violations. Hillary Clinton speaks in Oxford (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Mrs Clinton said: [Democracy] also requires free expression and a free press, the rule of law and an independent judiciary. Without these things illiberal democracy is no democracy at all, it is just authoritarianism by another name. I hope the European Union will resist the backsliding we are seeing in the east. The former First Lady also discussed the state of human rights and democracy in America, criticising what she called Mr Trumps discrediting of truth. Mrs Clinton, who lost the presidential vote to Mr Trump in 2016, told the audience: Even in what we once thought of as sturdy democracies, freedom is under threat, and when freedom is threatened, human rights are vulnerable. The crisis extends to my own country, the worlds oldest democracy. Since day one, the Trump administration has shown hostility to civil rights. The president is degrading rule of law, delegitimising our elections, spreading corruption, undermining our national unity, and discrediting truth, facts, and reason itself. Referencing Mr Trumps travel ban, the prevention of trans people from serving in the military and the separation of undocumented families at the border, Mrs Clinton said: The United States is facing a toxic backlash to years of social and economic change. She went on: Our divisions even make us targets for foreign manipulation, which seeks to sow chaos and pit us against each other. New threats are upon us, especially at the intersection of technology and autocracy. The whole world now knows that Putin is waging cyber warfare and manipulating social media to influence elections, and referenda, and to polarise and cripple democracies across the west. Its not just the United States, in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Baltic countries and beyond, Kremlin-backed hackers and propagandists have sought to inflame divisions and advance an extreme right-wing agenda. Tasers are more humane than bludgeoning someone into submission using a baton, the Scottish Police Federation head has said. Calum Steele, general secretary of the federation, which represents rank and file police officers, said battering someone with metal rod uses more force than a Taser. Speaking at a fringe organised by the federation at the SNP conference in Glasgow, he said: The alternative to using a Taser is to bludgeon someone into submission using a metal pole. When it comes to the continuum of the escalation of force that police officers to the Taser falls below the use of a baton. He said in order of force to deal with situations police officers use their voice, hands and feet to restrain, incapacity spray, Taser and then their baton. Which is more humane, is it more humane to put a dot on someone and say behave or youre going to be sore? he said. Police Scotland expanded the number of officers equipped by Tasers earlier this year (Aaron Chown/PA) Or is more humane to beat them until they stop fighting. Thats where the discussion about taser is. He added: If you give someone two-and-a-half feet of gun-metal to batter someone until they stop fighting with you, thats much more inhumane than any officers carrying Tasers. Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said it was interesting how often the red dot of the Taser appeared to be enough to get someone to stop without deploying the full force of device. He said it would not be far away from the parliamentary conversation on the issue of Taser use. Police Scotland expanded the number of officers equipped by Tasers earlier this year in response to a rise in assaults on police. Around 500 trained officers were given Tasers at the start of June while previously, only armed response vehicle officers had been trained to use the devices. Supermarket giant Morrisons faces a potentially vast compensation payout over a leak of staff data on the internet despite being innocent of any wrongdoing, leading judges have heard. A lawyer representing the company told the Court of Appeal it is challenging a ruling that it is vicariously liable for the criminal online disclosure of significant quantities of payroll data effected by a rogue employee. Anya Proops QC said at a hearing in London on Tuesday in the latest round of the first data leak class action in the UK that if the decision of a High Court judge last year was allowed to stand Morrisons was exposed to compensation claims on a potentially vast scale. Litigation was launched after a security breach in 2014 when Andrew Skelton, a senior internal auditor at the retailers Bradford headquarters, leaked the payroll data of around 100,000 employees including names, addresses, bank account details and salaries. In July 2015 Skelton was found guilty at Bradford Crown Court of fraud, securing unauthorised access to computer material and disclosing personal data, and was jailed for eight years. A group of 5,518 former and current employees are seeking compensation for the distress caused in a case with potential implications for every individual and business in the country. Supermarket Morrisons is going to the Court of Appeal to challenge a ruling on its liability over a data leak (Chris Radburn/PA) The supermarket giant said it could not be held directly or vicariously liable for the criminal misuse of the data, and that any other conclusion would be grossly unjust. But Mr Justice Langstaff found in December that vicarious liability had been established. Ms Proops told Master of the Rolls Sir Terence Etherton, Lord Justice Bean and Lord Justice Flaux that the ruling was made despite Morrisons being entirely innocent of any material wrongdoing. The QC said that Morrisons, although entirely blameless, was potentially exposed to compensation claims not only in respect of the 5,518 but from all of the individuals affected by the criminal disclosure. She said there was no dispute that Skelton effected his criminal disclosure as an act of vengeance and specifically in order to damage Morrisons interests. In a statement issued before the latest round of the dispute over liability, Nick McAleenan, a partner and data privacy law specialist at JMW Solicitors, who is representing the claimants, described it as a classic David and Goliath case. He said Morrisons was seeking to reverse the High Courts findings of vicarious liability made in the claimants favour, thereby denying the claimants any compensation whatsoever for the considerable distress and inconvenience caused by Mr Skeltons actions. He said: It cannot be right that there is no legal recourse where employee information has been handed to one of the largest companies in the UK and then leaked on such a large scale, in such circumstances. Senior judges have expressed their sympathy for the family of an incurably-ill man who ended his life in a Swiss clinic while challenging the UKs ban on assisted dying. Omid T died at the Lifecircle clinic in Switzerland on October 4 while awaiting the outcome of a legal action launched in March 2017. The 55-year-old former property developer was diagnosed with multiple systems atrophy in 2014 and was effectively bed-bound for more than two years. At the High Court in London on Tuesday, Lord Justice Irwin, sitting with Mr Justice Phillips, said the court had heard the sad news that Omid had died. The judges said: We wish to express our sympathy for the family and their loss. The comments were made as they gave a preliminary ruling on Omids case. Omid T with Lifecircle physician Dr Erika Preisig (Andi Reiss/PA) Read our full statement on the death of our member Omid T: https://t.co/QHzDTkonJr #VictoriaLIVE Humanists UK (@Humanists_UK) October 5, 2018 His challenge will now cease unless another person comes forward in Omids place. After his death, his solicitors Bindmans said in a statement: Omid died peacefully and contentedly knowing that his suffering was about to end and that he would be released from the living hell which he had been in for several years. Saimo Chahal QC of Bindmans added that Omids only hope was that somebody else would take up the challenge, and take up what he had started with such high hopes and conviction. Phil Cheatle, co-ordinator of My Death-My Decision, a campaign group which supported Omids legal challenge, said: Omid is the latest in a growing list of people who take the extreme action of arranging an assisted death in Switzerland, or end their own life to avoid incurable suffering. He added: Omid did not deserve to be forced abroad to die with dignity. It is time for our law to change. Hurricane Michael has strengthened into a Category 2 storm with top wind speeds of 100mph as it continues towards northern Florida. The storm is moving north-north-west over the southern Gulf of Mexico, and mandatory evacuations are in effect along much of Floridas northern Gulf Coast, stretching from the Panhandle into the area known as the Big Bend. Michael is forecast to hit the Florida coast on Wednesday before moving over Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas on Wednesday night and Thursday. (PA Graphics) Mandatory evacuation orders came into effect on Tuesday morning for 120,000 people in Panama City Beach and across other low-lying parts of the coast. Parts of Floridas marshy, lightly populated Big Bend area could see up to 12ft of storm surge, while Michael also could dump up to 1ft of rain over some Panhandle communities as it moves inland, forecasters said. People need to start leaving now, Sheriff Tommy Ford told an emergency meeting on Monday night. He said people will not be dragged out of their homes, but anyone who stays behind will be on their own once the storm hits. Forecasters warned that Michael could dump 1ft of rain in western Cuba, triggering flash floods and mudslides in mountainous areas. Hurricane Michael is moving north-northwestward over the Gulf of Mexico. Here are the 4 am CDT October 9th Key Messages on Hurricane #Michael. pic.twitter.com/zKG49aiLqY National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 9, 2018 Disaster agencies in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua reported 13 deaths as roofs collapsed and residents were carried away by swollen rivers. Six people died in Honduras, four in Nicaragua and three in El Salvador. Authorities were also searching for a boy swept away by a river in Guatemala. Most of the rain was blamed on a low-pressure system off the Pacific coast, but Hurricane Michael in the Caribbean could have also contributed. Florida governor Rick Scott called Michael a monstrous hurricane with devastating potential from high winds, storm surge and heavy rains. This morning, Im at the State Emergency Operations Center to give an update on Hurricane Michael as it approaches FL. The window of time to prepare is closing. This is a serious and life-threatening situation- dont take any chances. If you have been told to evacuate, leave. Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) October 9, 2018 He declared a state of emergency for 35 counties, from the Panhandle to Tampa Bay, activated hundreds of Florida National Guard members and waived tolls to encourage evacuations. He also warned carers at north Florida hospitals and nursing homes to do all possible to assure the safety of the elderly and infirm. Following Hurricane Irma last year, 14 people died when a South Florida nursing home lost power and air conditioning. If youre responsible for a patient, youre responsible for the patient. Take care of them, he said. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan bluntly advised residents choosing to ride it out that first-responders will not be able to reach them while Michael smashes into the coast. If you decide to stay in your home and a tree falls on your house or the storm surge catches you and youre now calling for help, theres no one that can respond to help you, Mr Morgan said at a news conference. On the state level we are prepared, now is the time for residents in south Alabama to review your emergency preparedness plans and also get prepared. Go to https://t.co/bmgmSZWtUX for more info on how to create & execute a preparedness plan. Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) October 8, 2018 The entire state of Alabama is under an emergency declaration, and governor Kay Ivey said she fears widespread power outages and other problems. Forecasters warned spin-off tornadoes would also be a threat. With the storm next entering the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, which has warm water and favourable atmospheric conditions, there is a real possibility that Michael will strengthen to a major hurricane before landfall, said Robbie Berg, a hurricane specialist at the Miami-based storm forecasting hub. The Scottish Police Federation General Secretary has warned Humza Yousaf of sending a dangerous message on allegations as he waded into the row around US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Mr Yousaf brought up US President Donald Trump mocking Christine Blasey Fords testimony in which she alleged Mr Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party in 1982, claims the newly-appointed justice denies. Speaking at a fringe event at the SNP conference, the Scottish Justice Secretary said: She is saying it is sexual assault. You can allege whether it was Brett Kavanaugh or somebody else but she is telling you she has been sexually assaulted. You can argue around the veracity and the truth about who did it, who didnt do it. My point is you can see from her testimony how harrowing it was. Scottish Police Federation General Secretary Calum Steele raised concerns about automatically believing those who make allegations. Scottish Justice Secretary warned about his message on allegations (Jane Barlow/PA) He said: The reality is that is an alleged assault. Its not, she was assaulted and it might have been Brett Kavanaugh. That kind of basic narrative that starts at a political level of we will believe you regardless is problematic. I have a deep concern around the general principle of the allegation being the basis on which the assumption should be made that a crime has been committed. Thats a dangerous position to adopt for anyone. Just because someone says something happened it doesnt mean that it did. A public consultation on updating and consolidating Scotland's hate crime laws will include the question of how legislation might be strengthened to help tackle misogynistic behaviour, Justice Secretary @HumzaYousaf has said. Read more here: https://t.co/4GwHhjvstt#equallysafe ScotGov Justice (@ScotGovJustice) October 7, 2018 Mr Steele also questioned the Scottish need to create a specific offence of misogyny as a hate crime aggravator, as is being consulted on by the Scottish Government, saying it could lead to people being called speccy, fat or ginger being considered hate crime aggravators. Mr Yousaf said people wearing glasses would not be likely to believe there is a gap in the law regarding discrimination over their appearance. He said the question being asked in the consultation is if there is a gap in the law regarding misogyny. Gillian Anderson has backed calls for the creation of the largest protected area on Earth in the Antarctic Ocean. The X Files and The Fall star joined Greenpeace to hand in a petition to the Government signed by more than 350,000 people in the UK urging protection of a vast area of Antarctic waters. Greenpeace is calling for a 1.8 million square kilometre ocean sanctuary, which would be a safe haven to wildlife including penguins, whales and seals, to be created at a meeting of governments in Tasmania later this month. Gillian Anderson helped deliver the 350,000-strong petition to the Foreign Office (David Mirzoeff/PA) They were joined to hand in the petition at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London by one of the penguin sculptures which have been spotted marching for protection in cities around the world. The petition backing an Antarctic sanctuary in the Weddell Sea, to protect its wildlife and habitats from damaging activities such as large-scale fishing, has been signed by two million people worldwide. Anderson, a Greenpeace Antarctic ambassador, said: Sadly we have been all too quick to exploit our global oceans, and all too slow to protect them. Despite scientists agreeing we urgently need massive ocean sanctuaries to protect marine life, progress is glacially slow. Thats why I support Greenpeaces campaign to create a huge Antarctic Ocean sanctuary. Anderson was joined by a penguin sculpture `marching for protection to deliver the Antarctic petition (David Mirzoeff/PA) Louisa Casson, of Greenpeaces Protect the Antarctic campaign, said: Its easy to feel remote from the other side of the planet, but what happens in the Antarctic affects us all. This month, governments have the opportunity to create the largest protected area on Earth an Antarctic Ocean sanctuary which would be a safe haven for penguins, whales and seals, put the area off-limits to industrial fishing and help to tackle climate change. In two weeks, governments will meet to decide whether to create a vast Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary! Nows the time to make a difference >> https://t.co/AgbtwzSk1D pic.twitter.com/bZB3BIyWh3 Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) October 9, 2018 The Antarctic doesnt have a voice, but we are a global movement of over two million people and we do, she said. Ms Casson welcomed the Governments support for ocean protection and said 350,000 people were calling on UK officials to do everything they could to protect Antarctic waters at the meeting this month. Sir Alan Duncan, Foreign Office minister for the polar regions, said: The UK has been unwavering in our commitment to establish marine protected areas in Antarctica and we are using our voice internationally to make the case for practical action. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge put their artistic skills on display as they visited a mental health event in London. William joked that he and Kate might have ruined a picture being painted during the two-day Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit. The royal couple both somewhat nervously added a single brushstroke to Dairo Vargas artwork after meeting people working to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world. William and Kate view the work of Dairo Vargas (Eddie Mulholland/PA) Following Kates handiwork, William told his wife, much to her amusement: Thats pretty much ruined the picture. After picking up the paintbrush himself he then told the artist: This is how you properly ruin a picture. When Mr Vargas invited the pair to add to the painting, Kate told him: This is very brave of you. William and Kate have long been involved in mental health awareness through Heads Together (Victoria Jones/PA) The Colombian artist, whose work is entitled Someone To Turn To, said he hoped to have input from a number of people throughout the summit, symbolising how everyone can help to tackle mental health issues. Describing the royal touch as amazing, he added: I feel very excited and happy to be part of this project. William, who wore a dark suit, and Kate, wearing a lilac dress, were greeted by Health Secretary Matt Hancock as they arrived to cheers from crowds waiting in the street at County Hall. Political figures, experts from around the world and policy makers are attending the event to discuss issues such as how to deal with the stigma attached to mental health. The couple heard from professionals involved in tackling mental health issues around the world (Eddie Mulholland/PA) Another policy up for discussion at the summit, which is co-hosted by the UK Government and the OECD, is a declaration committing to putting mental health on an equal footing with physical health. William and Kate have long been involved in mental health initiatives through their Heads Together campaign. They were reunited on Tuesday with Elisha London, who worked on that campaign, as they learned about a Zimbabwean project called the Friendship Bench. William visits the exhibition area (Eddie Mulholland/PA) The trio sat on a replica bench to the original one in the project which started in Harare, as Ms London explained how so-called community grandmothers people trained to help those experiencing mental health problems listen to and support locals within their communities. Alexandra Almeida, from the My Mind Our Humanity campaign as part of the Lancet commission on global mental health, said it was very nice to meet William and Kate and have their support. Ms Almeida, from Portugal, said: They wanted to know if we feel there has been a change in mental health and how the young people view mental health in Britain and other places across the world. The duchess adds her contribution to the painting (Eddie Mulholland/PA) We told them there has indeed been a change but we are not there yet. The royals also met young people who have either had or are dealing with mental health issues and heard about case studies of mental health projects in the USA and India. They were hosted during their visit by Sue Baker, director of Time to Change, and Professor Tim Kendall, national clinical director for mental health with NHS England. A poll published this week showed that almost a quarter of patients with a mental health problem are waiting more than three months to see an NHS specialist. Today sees the start of the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit in London which will see the world's leading voices in mental health and people with lived experience of mental ill-health commit to global action to treat mental and physical health equally #GlobalMHSummit pic.twitter.com/6nKIx9z2Hu Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) October 9, 2018 The Royal College of Psychiatrists said that long waits for mental health care have been deemed acceptable. The college has launched a new campaign urging medical students to become doctors who specialise in mental health. Ahead of the summit, the Department of Health and Social Care began a social media campaign using the hash tag #TheWorldNeeds to ask people what needs to change in the way mental health is treated and perceived. The second suspect in the Salisbury nerve agent attack was also a highly decorated officer in Russian military intelligence, it has been claimed. The suspect was named on Monday by the Bellingcat investigative website as Alexander Mishkin, a military doctor in the GRU intelligence agency. At a news conference in the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, Bellingcat investigator Cristo Grozev said Mishkin had received the award of Hero of the Russian Federation from President Vladimir Putin. A lot more coming on the second Skripal suspect from @the_ins_ru and Bellingcat tomorrow. Bellingcat (@bellingcat) October 8, 2018 Skripal suspect Alexander Mishkin was born on 13.07.1979 in the village of Loyga, in the Archangelsk District in Northern European Russia. pic.twitter.com/9NzBJzNTgb Bellingcat (@bellingcat) October 8, 2018 Mr Grozev said the reporters from the Russian website The Insider had managed to reach Mishkins home village of Loyga, where they spoke to seven people who confirmed his identity. They confirmed that their homeboy Alexander Mishkin was the person who moved on to military school and then became a famous military doctor and who received the award of Hero of the Russian Federation personally from President Putin, he said. His grandmother, with whom he grew up who happens to be a medical professional, has a photograph, in her own words, that has been seen by everybody in the village, of President Putin shaking Mishkins hand and giving him the award. A fire at an ammunition depot in Ukraine has forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people, officials said. The Emergencies Ministry said the blaze at the warehouse in the eastern Chernihiv region erupted early on Tuesday. The ministry said the depot contained about 88,000 metric tons of munitions, but military officials claimed half of them had been moved to other locations. The authorities blocked major roads and a railway line in the area and suspended flights in the vicinity of the depot. There have been no injuries. The blaze was the latest in a series of devastating fires at Ukraines military arsenals in recent years. Some officials alleged sabotage amid the tug-of-war with Russia, but others blamed them on negligence and disrespect for safety rules. Rapper Kanye West has been invited to the White House. West is scheduled to have lunch with President Donald Trump and meet Mr Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. Ms Sanders said they will talk about manufacturing, prison reform, preventing gang violence and reducing violence in Chicago, where West grew up. Donald Trump and Kanye West in 2016 (Seth Wenig/AP) The White House has not said when West will visit. Mr Trump recently tweeted praise for West, who closed a Saturday Night Live show wearing a Make America Great Again hat and delivering an unscripted pro-Trump message after the credits rolled. West is married to reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who successfully pushed Mr Trump to grant a pardon for a drug offender this year and has met senior aides regarding criminal justice reform. Former Manchester United manager David Moyes believes Jose Mourinho retains the full backing of both the club and their supporters. Mourinho reportedly faced the sack regardless of the outcome of Saturdays fixture with Newcastle, but after their recovery from two goals down to win 3-2 at Old Trafford he has so far remained in his position. Moyes experienced the ruthlessness of executive vice-chairman Ed Woodwards regime when he was dismissed during his first season there, despite having the support of his influential predecessor Sir Alex Ferguson. Louis van Gaal was sacked by Manchester United after winning the FA Cup (Nick Potts/PA) Louis van Gaal was similarly sacked despite winning the FA Cup, but even amid the intense pressure surrounding Mourinho, Moyes senses the Portuguese will be given the time he was not and that Mourinhos history of success would justify them doing so. I think the club are firmly behind the manager, and hes been a winner, Jose, throughout his career, so I dont see why that should suddenly change, the Scot, 55, told Press Association Sport. It was a great result any team that comes from 2-0 down. But the one thing that happens at Old Trafford is the crowd gets right behind you, and is always supportive of the manager and the players. They knew that the team needed help; the support helped them, and it was a great win for them for any team to come from 2-0 down is a great result. Frank Lampard, left, believes Jose Mourinho will overcome recent difficulties at Manchester United (Martin Rickett/PA) Uniteds inconsistency has contributed to questions surrounding whether Mourinho retains his motivational abilities, but Derby manager Frank Lampard who recently led his side to an unexpected Carabao Cup victory at Old Trafford is convinced that he does. Lampard thrived under Mourinho as the key player in Chelseas midfield, and he believes that after Saturdays comeback the onus should instead be on Uniteds players to raise their standards. It was a big win, the 40-year-old told Press Association Sport. Theyre a team full of quality players; a club that success is demanded of, week-in, week-out, season on season. For Jose Mourinho, being a manager myself now, I know how tough it is when things arent quite going right. Lampard said United had a massive win by coming from behind to beat Newcastle (Martin Rickett/PA) It was a massive win, which I was personally very happy with for him, and now its down to the players. The players have to perform at the level they did in the second half against Newcastle every week, As a manager you need to be able to handle every circumstance. Sometimes its all great and you maybe dont have to do much; things tick over and go well. Sometimes things are hard and you have to make difficult decisions, try and influence people around you, influence your players to try and get the best out of them. I think hes got all those attributes so I hope that it turns around for him going forward. Britain must face up to the possibility of a chemical or biological attack as terrorists relentlessly pursue new methods to commit murder, the Security Minister has warned. In a stark assessment, Ben Wallace said he sees plots where the only limits to the ambition of our adversaries is their imagination. He told a conference in London: As I speak, terrorists continue to explore new ways to kill us on our streets. Chemical and biological weapons are marching in closer. They have developed and worked on a better arsenal, and we have to be prepared that might come to our streets here. Be under no doubt the threat is real. Our open, liberal and free societies are easy prey to those that fear little and care even less. Britains most senior counter-terrorism officer echoed Mr Wallaces warning that the threat must be taken seriously. Also speaking at the National Security Summit, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said: These things have been used on the battlefield, and whats used on the battlefield will eventually be adapted to be used on domestic soil. I think he (Mr Wallace) is as concerned as I am that these are the kind of threats that weve got to take very seriously and weve got to make sure that we have the right preparations to actually counter that threat, should it appear. The head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations (ACSO) Neil Basu, is delivering a speech at the National Security Summit in London this morning. #ActionCountersTerrorism pic.twitter.com/8GtDUaj16a Counter Terrorism Policing UK (@TerrorismPolice) October 9, 2018 While the likelihood of terrorists successfully conducting a large-scale chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) strike is considered to be unlikely, Britains security apparatus is alive to the danger. The Governments national risk register of civil emergencies says an attack involving CBRN materials has the potential to cause harm by contaminating people, animals, buildings, outdoor environments, water supplies and food. It adds: Extremists remain interested in CBRN materials. However, alternative methods of attack such as employing firearms or conventional explosive devices remain far more likely. The potential impact of a chemical weapons incident was underlined by the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury earlier this year. The home of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal (Jonathan Brady/PA) Last week, UK-based experts unveiled a major drive to revolutionise the response to a CBRN emergency. The research team has developed tools including technology to determine casualty exposure to poisons through rapid skin, breath and saliva tests, drone equipment to measure toxic fumes in the atmosphere and crisis communications techniques to stop the spread of fake news. Elsewhere, Mr Wallace denied that the UK refuses to take back British citizens suspected of fighting with Islamic State. He acknowledged that the return of foreign fighters is a genuine challenge because of the difficulties of gathering evidence about their activities overseas. The Home Office minister pointed to Government plans which would make it illegal to travel to terror hotspots or designated areas without a reasonable excuse. Under the proposed offence, those convicted could face up to 10 years in prison. The Government estimates that more than 900 individuals of national security concern from the UK have travelled to engage with the conflict in Syria. Of those, around 20% have been killed and approximately 40% have returned. The majority of those who have come back did so in the earlier stages of the conflict, and a significant proportion are assessed as no longer being of national security concern. In his speech, Mr Basu noted that there are plenty of aspirant or frustrated travellers who now have nowhere to go. Britain was hit by five attacks last year, and the Assistant Commissioner laid bare the scale of activity to stop further atrocities. We are operating at a pace not seen since the very height of the Troubles, he said. Also speaking at the event, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation Max Hill QC called for a fresh review of the definition of terrorism as set out in the Terrorism Act 2000. He said this was necessary in light of the changing nature of the threat from international terrorism and cited the Salisbury attack, adding: The question of state terrorism and its inclusion or possibly exclusion from the definition is work in progress in my view. The designs for two HS2 stations in Birmingham and Solihull have been unveiled. The plans for the new developments at Curzon Street in central Birmingham and Interchange Station in Solihull will be displayed at Birmingham Library. It will be the first in a series of events over October giving the public the chance to see the images and give feedback, HS2 executives said. On its completion, Curzon Street will be the first brand new intercity station built in Britain since the 19th century. The plans for the exterior of the new HS2 interchange at Curzon Street in Birmingham (HS2) It is due to open with seven high speed platforms in 2026, and will be linked to the tram network, as well as conventional rail networks to the rest of the city and the wider West Midlands, HS2 said. Interchange Station is intended to be a part of a new public transport interchange serving Solihull, the West Midlands, Birmingham Airport and Birminghams National Exhibition Centre. Artists impression of the planned Interchange station which will serve Solihull (Grimshaw Architects/PA) Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, marked the start of works on the Curzon Street site last week. Works are now under way on 60 sites across the route from London to Birmingham. Mr Street said: These brand new stations will be catalysts for regeneration, creating jobs and opportunities for local people and economic benefits for Birmingham and the Midlands. Curzon Street station will put Birmingham at the heart of Britains new high speed network and enhance the rail connectivity for the city, whilst Interchange provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help drive the growth of the region. (PA Graphics) HS2 chief executive Mark Thurston said: Preparatory work for the stations is well under way, with a variety of enabling works including the construction of access roads and archaeological investigations. As part of our plans to deliver a green corridor across the whole route, were also creating new ecological habitats, community and amenity spaces to help integrate the new line and our stations into the surrounding landscape and environment. All of this activity is already creating job opportunities not just in the region, but across the whole country. HS2 Minister Nusrat Ghani said: Unveiling the station designs for Curzon Street and the Solihull Interchange is a milestone moment. These stations will be catalysts for local jobs and new homes, as well as giving passengers access to thousands more seats, more services and better journeys. Two alleged Islamic State terrorists suspected of involvement in a series of beheadings must not be released back on to the battlefield, senior judges have heard. El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexander Kotey are said to have been members of a brutal four-man cell of IS executioners in Syria and Iraq, nicknamed The Beatles because of their British accents, responsible for killing a number of high-profile Western captives. Elsheikhs mother Maha Elgizouli has mounted a High Court challenge over the UKs sharing of evidence with US authorities under a mutual legal assistance (MLA) agreement. She says it was unlawful for the Government to do so without obtaining any assurance the pair will not face execution if convicted in the US. Lawyers for Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who is contesting Ms Elgizoulis case, said it was not yet known whether the pair will be charged in the US, but that there is the most powerful interest in a proper investigation of their alleged crimes. James Eadie QC told the court on Tuesday: The claimants son is a suspected terrorist fighter in Syria, he is suspected of involvement in the beheading of individuals which was filmed. Those films were broadcast on the internet and then used to promote the interests of Daesh (Islamic State). The seriousness of those crimes, as Im sure the court will need no reminding, is at the apex of seriousness. There is, for that reason alone, the most powerful interest in the proper investigation of those crimes and the most powerful interest in ensuring that, whatever options might be on the table, the option of releasing this individual back onto the battlefield to resume these activities is one thoroughly not to be desired. Mr Eadie said there was no hard-edged obligation on the UK Government to refuse to provide assistance to a friendly foreign state which has the death penalty. He added that Mr Javid had considered this case with conspicuous care and made a lawful decision to seek to assist the US investigation. Kotey and Elsheikh are accused of belonging to a cell which also included Mohammed Emwazi known as Jihadi John who was killed in a US air strike in 2015, and Aine Davis, who has been jailed in Turkey. The group is suspected of involvement in the beheading of 27 people, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and US citizens James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig. Emwazi was filmed carrying out a number of the murders and the videos were broadcast online. Kotey and Elsheikh, who were raised in the UK, are believed to have been detained by Kurdish forces in Syria in January and have been stripped of their British citizenship. They may face a federal trial in the US after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided there was insufficient evidence for them to be tried in the UK. Mr Eadie told the court Elsheikh had chosen to go to Syria and therefore has no legal rights as he placed himself beyond the UK jurisdiction and is no longer a British citizen. Alexanda Kotey, one of two Britons suspected of having been part of the Islamic State extremist group dubbed `The Beatles (ITV/PA) Edward Fitzgerald QC, for Ms Elgizouli, previously told the court her legal team is in the dark as to the nature of the material requested by the US, but that it includes 600 witness statements gathered by the Metropolitan Polices counter terrorism command. He also said it was not known why the CPS decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute and that the stance of US officials was that the pair should be tried in the UK. After Ms Elgizouli launched legal action, the Home Office announced in July that it had agreed to a short-term pause of the MLA process with the US. Prime Minister Theresa May supported Mr Javids original decision, which was also backed by Boris Johnson when he was Foreign Secretary. But the MLA sparked widespread criticism in Westminster from across the political divide. The case is being heard by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and Mr Justice Garnham, who are expected to deliver their ruling at a later date. Scotland is less prepared for Brexit than the rest of the UK, because of a complacency created by SNP ministers high profile stance on Europe, a leading lawyer has said. Jamie Kerr, a lawyer who specialises in migration and immigration, warned that leaving the European Union would cause us damage, socially, culturally, and economically as well. But he said individuals and businesses in places such as Manchester and London were more prepared for this. He told a fringe event at the SNP annual conference in Glasgow that was because in part the high profile work of Holyrood ministers had created the impression the Scottish Government will sort it all out. .@jamiejkerr also warns Scottish businesses may be relatively underprepared for #brexit and cautions against complacency #snp18 Law Society Scotland (@Lawscot) October 9, 2018 Mr Kerr warned party activists: I dont think we are prepared for Brexit, and in the work I do I think individuals and businesses in Scotland are less prepared than they are in the rest of the UK. I work across the UK, the approach in Manchester, in London, they are much more prepared than we are here. London is more prepared for Brexit than Scotland, a lawyer told the SNP conference (Jonathan Brady/PA) I think there is a complacency in Scotland and part of it I think is because the Scottish Government have been so active, we watch the ministers, the First Ministers, being very active and speaking to industry, speaking to businesses are affected. And in a way it makes us think actually it will all be fine, the Scottish Government will sort it all out. I dont think thats going to be the case and I sometimes wonder if we all realise how steep a slope we are actually about to face because I think Brexit as a process is going to cause us damage, socially, culturally, and economically as well. The Scottish Finance Secretarys flagship conference policy announcement of financial health checks for older people and those on low incomes was reheated, opponents claim. Derek Mackay used his speech at the SNP conference in Glasgow to announce the 3.3 million two-year scheme would launch next month. He said: Working with Citizens Advice Scotland, the financial health check should help an additional 15,000 people. It will cover things like access to free school meals, school clothing grants, benefit uptake, and cheaper deals on energy and other utilities to reduce household costs. .@DerekMackaySNP has announced a new Financial Health Check for older people and low income families backed by 3.3 million over the next two years. #SNP18 The SNP (@theSNP) October 9, 2018 Nicola Sturgeon first announced the policy at the 2016 SNP conference and also included it in her recent programme for government. Mr Mackay also pledged to launch an economic action plan by the end of October and announced a 730,000 grant for Clyde Gateway for the creation of a new 2 million headquarters for the STUC in Glasgows east end. Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay faced criticism over his conference speech (Jane Barlow/PA) He claimed the SNP is winning the argument on the economics of independence and expressed scepticism over Theresa Mays announcement on the end of austerity saying, Spare us the soundbites show us the money. Scottish Labours finance spokesman James Kelly said: Labour welcomes the idea of financial health checks for older people and low income families. We welcomed it in the 2017 Programme for Government, the 2018 Programme for Government and when Nicola Sturgeon announced it in 2016 as well. Shameless soundbites and reheated announcements wont cover the fact that Derek Mackay has not asked the richest to pay a fair share. His Conservative counterpart, Dean Lockhart, said: Its entirely in keeping with this tired SNP government that the only big things in this speech were a re-announced plan for financial health checks, and yet more commissions and action plans. After 11 years in government, it shows that the SNP has very little left in the tank. The wife of the former Interpol president who disappeared in China says she received a threatening phone call warning of agents coming for her while she fights for information about her husbands fate. In her first one-on-one interview since Meng Hongwei went missing, Grace Meng denied bribery allegations against her high-profile husband, and told the Associated Press that speaking out about his disappearance was placing her in great danger. Meng Hongwei who is also Chinas vice minister of public security disappeared on a trip home to China late last month. A long-time Communist Party insider with decades of experience in Chinas sprawling security apparatus, the 64-year-old appears to be the latest high-ranking official to fall victim to a sweeping purge against allegedly corrupt or disloyal officials under President Xi Jinpings authoritarian administration. Grace Meng in the lobby of a hotel in Lyon (John Leicester/AP) Speaking to the AP, Mrs Meng said her last contact with her husband was by text message, on September 25, when he wrote wait for my call and sent her an emoji image of a knife after travelling back to China. After a week with no news, and on an evening when she was at home in Lyon having put their two young boys to bed, she had a threatening call on her mobile phone from a man speaking Chinese. He said, You listen but you dont speak. Weve come in two work teams, two work teams just for you. She said the man also said: We know where you are, and that when she tried to ask a question, he repeated: You dont speak, you just listen to me. As a result, Mrs Meng is under French police protection. Chinese authorities said on Monday that her husband was being lawfully investigated for taking bribes and other crimes that were a result of his wilfulness. Hours earlier, Interpol said he had resigned as the international police agencys president. It was not clear whether he did so of his own free will. Mrs Meng suggested the bribery accusation is just an excuse for making him disappear for so long. As his wife, I think hes simply incapable of this, she said, adding she would be willing to make their bank accounts public. She said she spoke out in the hope that it might help other families in similar circumstances. Mrs Meng refused to provide her real name to the AP, saying she was too afraid for the safety of her relatives in China. It is not customary for Chinese wives to adopt their husbands names. Mrs Meng said she has done so now to show her solidarity with her husband. Her English name, Grace, is one she has long used, she said. A French judicial official confirmed to AP that police are investigating the threat against Mrs Meng, but said the probe has yet to determine whether Chinese teams were sent to Lyon. Turkey says it will search the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of a missing Saudi contributor to the Washington Post, a week after he vanished during a visit there. The announcement came as a surveillance image surfaced of Jamal Khashoggi walking into the consulate just before he disappeared. Turkish officials fear the columnist was killed at the premises. Saudi Arabia has called allegations that it killed the 59-year-old baseless but has offered no evidence to show he left the building. US President Donald Trump has expressed concern about the writers disappearance, and secretary of state Mike Pompeo said US officials have raised the matter with their Saudi counterparts. Activists holding posters of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi(Lefteris Pitarakis/AP) We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to support a thorough investigation of Mr Khashoggis disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation, Mr Pompeo said. Tuesdays statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were open to co-operation and would allow the consulate building to be searched. The ministry did not say when the premises would be searched. A search would be an extraordinary development, as embassies and consulates under the Vienna Convention are technically foreign soil and must be protected by host nations. However, activists protesting outside the consulate said more needed to be done. The surveillance image bore a date and time stamp, as well as a Turkish caption saying Mr Khashoggi was arriving at the consulate. A man said to be Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate (CCTV/Hurriyet/AP) The Post, which first published the photo, said a person close to the investigation shared the image with them. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet also published the image. The door Mr Khashoggi walked through appeared to be the main entrance of the consulate in Istanbuls 4th Levent neighbourhood, a leafy, upscale district near the citys financial hub which is home to several other consulates. However, the consulate has other entrances and exits through which Saudi officials insist he left. It is unclear which camera the footage came from or who operated it. However, a number of CCTV cameras surround the area. Friends of Mr Khashoggi say Turkish police have taken possession of footage from the neighbourhood as part of their investigation. The Saudis have offered no surveillance footage or evidence to corroborate their claims that he left the consulate, and Turkish authorities have not provided evidence to show why they believe the columnist was killed there. If the story that was told about the murder is true, the Turks must have information and videotape and other documents to back it up, said Fred Hiatt, the Posts editorial page editor. If the story the Saudis are telling, that he just walked out after half an hour, if thats true, they ought to have facts and documents and evidence and tapes to back that up. He added that the idea of a government luring one of its own citizens on to its own diplomatic property in a foreign country to murder him for the peaceful expression of his views would be unimaginable. Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Tamas Kovacs/MTI/AP) Mr Khashoggi had gone to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. He had been living since last year in the US, in part due to the rise of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has shown little tolerance for criticism. As a contributor to the Post, Mr Khashoggi has written extensively about Saudi Arabia, including criticising its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of womens rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving. Those policies are all seen as initiatives of the crown prince, who has also presided over a round-up of activists and businessmen. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged the Saudis to back up their claim that Mr Khashoggi left the consulate. Now when this person enters, whose duty is it to prove that he left or not? It is (the duty) of the consulate officials, he said. Dont you have cameras and other things? Why dont you prove it? You have to prove it. Saudi Arabia is a long-time ally of the US, but on Monday senior officials in Washington expressed alarm over Mr Khashoggis disappearance. President Donald Trump said: I dont like hearing about it. And hopefully that will sort itself out. Right now, nobody knows anything about it, but there are some pretty bad stories going around. I do not like it. Craft brewery BrewDog has said a stock market debut remains firmly on the cards despite recent flotation woes. Co-founder James Watt told the Press Association plans for an initial public offering (IPO) were still on track for 2020. The independent Scottish brewer which was valued at 1 billion last year after selling a 22% stake to private equity is considering an IPO in either the UK or the United States, although Mr Watts said London was the firms preference at this stage. He said Aberdeenshire-based BrewDog has not been put off by the recent IPO jitters sparked by the flotations of luxury car maker Aston Martin and peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle, which have seen shares tumble since going public. Mr Watt said: For us, its a very different sector. We are working to schedule to at least be in a position to have the option to list some time in 2020, if market conditions are right. James Watt (left) and Martin Dickie co-founded BrewDog 10 years ago (Duncan brown/PA) He added that, with around 90,000 so-called equity punk investors on board thanks to hugely successful crowdfunding efforts, an IPO would be the natural next step. We see a long term IPO as an evolution of that model, he said. A stock market listing will also offer its crowdfunding retail investors the opportunity to cash in their investments, as they can only trade shares once a year on websites what match buyers and sellers. An IPO would give some long term liquidity for our equity punks, Mr Watt added. But he said crowdfunding will remain massively important to us, with the group having just beaten its target for the fifth round of fundraising by 13 million. His comments come as the group outlined a raft of ambitious plans for the next decade, including the launch of a new franchise BrewDog bar offering with retail investors and a 200,000 annual development fund for start-up craft breweries. In its BrewDog Blueprint, the group announced it is offering retail investors the opportunity to open their own franchise BrewDog bars, with an initial trial across 10 locations. It will add to plans for a host of extra own-managed bar openings across Paris, Hamburg, Londons Brixton and Canary Wharf, Manchester, Dublin, Toronto, Budapest and Brisbane as it looks to expand to 110 in the next year. The Blueprint also unveiled the BrewDog Foundation, a 1 million annual fund that will be donated to charitable causes chosen by the brewerys team and retail investors, as well as measures to help other breweries and start-ups. Alongside its new and increased development fund, it said it will cut payment to seven days for small breweries that supply them with beers. But Mr Watt said Brexit has cast a cloud of uncertainty, with implications for the group and its growing export to a raft of European markets. He said: At the moment theres all of this uncertainty, but theres no short term way we can hedge against that. It would take a couple of years to build something in mainland Europe, so were just waiting to see what happens. The Irish government has released a responsible Budget for a modern and caring Ireland with additional funding for health and housing. Finance minister Paschal Donohoe announced tax and spending measures including funding for challenges related to Brexit in next years budget in the Irish parliament on Tuesday. Boosted spending on social welfare, housing and income tax reforms were among the key points announced in the one hour and 17 minute speech at Dublins parliament Dail Eireann. Journalists and lobbyists take notes as Paschal Donohoe delivers his Budget (Niall Carson/PA) Mr Donohoe said: It is a responsible Budget for a modern and caring Ireland that aims to be at the centre of a changing world. Key points from the Budget included: 110 million euros will be set aside for Brexit-related measures across the government. The higher rate of income tax will be raised by 750 euros to 35,300 for a single worker. VAT on Irelands booming tourism sector will increase to 13.5%, producing an extra 466 million euros. An extra five cents on a packet of 20 cigarettes. Social welfare payments are to rise by five euros. An extra two weeks paid parental leave. The health budget increases by one billion euros. 50 cent reduction in prescription charges for those aged over 70. An extra 470 million euros for housing amid what critics claim is a homelessness crisis across the country. Extra money for rural regeneration. Mr Donohoe added that the government had been thoroughly planning its strategy for the UKs exit from the EU, including protecting hard-won peace in Northern Ireland. Protester Colm Roddy outside Leinster House in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA) An initiative worth 300 million euros, and a Future Growth Loan Scheme for SMEs and the Irish agriculture and food sector were announced. A provision of more than 110 million euros for Brexit measures will be divided across a number of government departments and will see an increase in funding for the Peace programme, which funds community groups on both sides of the Irish border. This is responsible; this is sensible; this is consistent with maintaining stability in the public finances, Mr Donohoe said. Most importantly this is a caring Budget that recognises the real social needs our citizens face and provides the sustainable funding and effective policies to address them. It addresses the risks we face both domestically and on the international front. The Budget I have announced today is a progressive budget with an emphasis on strengthening our national finances. A man is in serious condition in hospital after he was targeted in an unprovoked and brutal attack by two teenagers trying to steal his mobile phone. The 24-year-old was walking north on a cycle path near to Connaught Place in Edinburgh when two youths came towards him. As they passed they tried to steal his mobile phone and then attacked him. The victim suffered serious injuries to his arms and abdomen and was taken by ambulance to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where he remains in a serious but stable condition. Police are treating the attack as attempted murder and appealed for information about the incident, which happened at around 7.50pm on Monday. Detective Inspector Kevin Harkins said: This was an unprovoked and brutal attack that has left the victim with serious injuries. Police are treating the attack as attempted murder (David Cheskin/PA) I am eager to hear from anyone who may have been in the area close to Connaught Place last night and who saw what happened. Similarly, anyone who has any information to assist with our inquiries into this incident, and in tracing those involved, is asked to contact officers immediately. The suspects are both white, aged in their mid to late-teens and were wearing dark-coloured trousers. One was wearing a dark coloured hooded top and the other a light-coloured top. Police said one of the youths was wearing black Adidas trainers and it is believed they both spoke with Scottish accents. Anyone with information is asked to contact Gayfield CID via 101, quoting incident number 3438 of October 8, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. The SNPs goal of Scottish independence is clearly in sight, Nicola Sturgeon has told party members. With less than six months to go until the UK formally leaves the European Union the First Minister said Westminster was stumbling from disaster to disaster, while the Scottish Government was living up to its responsibilities and helping with meeting the global challenges of our age. Speaking at the SNP conference in Glasgow, Ms Sturgeon said: Just think how much more we could do, free of the chaos and incompetence of Westminster. Just think how much more hope will be possible when we take Scotlands future into Scotlands hands and become an independent country. An independent Scotland, just as Scotland is now, will be a beacon for progressive values equality, opportunity, diversity and fairness. Indeed, those values feel more important today than at any time in my life. The First Minister said Westminster was stumbling `from disaster to disaster (Jane Barlow/PA) "Just think how much more we could do, free of the chaos and incompetence of Westminster" #SNP18 pic.twitter.com/VYJwAHSGM0 Alison Thewliss (@alisonthewliss) October 9, 2018 The speech comes after Ms Sturgeon made it plain SNP MPs would back a so-called Peoples Vote on Brexit if the issue comes before the House of Commons. She also insisted a referendum on the final terms of the UKs departure deal with Europe would not set a precedent for Scotland. The First Minister will outline her thinking on the possibility of a second independence referendum when more details are known about the impact of Brexit. Turning to Theresa Mays Conservative administration, she said: It is a shambles. It is hard to watch that unfolding calamity with anything other than horror. FM @NicolaSturgeon hits out at Westminster Tories, telling #SNP18 "A political system that throws up Jacob Rees-Mogg or Boris Johnson as contenders for Prime Minister has clearly gone very badly wrong" Katrine Bussey (@KatrineBussey) October 9, 2018 She went on to sent a blunt message to the Prime Minister, urging her to end the UK Governments hostile environment policy towards immigrants. The First Minister continued: In the face of rising prejudice and intolerance across the world, I am proud that our party welcomes those who come here from other countries. To everyone who has chosen to make Scotland your home, no matter where you come from, let me say this again today we value your contribution. Ours is a better country for having you here and we want you to stay. The British Army has transformed since its last major exercise in Oman and huge efforts have been made to rectify the mistakes of the past, two senior officers have said. Exercise Saif Sareea 3 is the UKs biggest military exercise for almost two decades, and will see 5,500 British personnel and 65,000 of their Omani counterparts train across the country. It was in 2001 that Britain last took part in Saif Sareea 2, and saw defence chiefs criticised by the National Audit Office (NAO) for poor planning that resulted in equipment and kit failing in the harsh desert. Brigadier Zac Stenning, Commander of 1 Armoured Infantry Brigade, says the Army is more lethal now(Ben Birchall/PA) A report by Whitehalls spending watchdog in 2002 found that helicopters, self-propelled guns and heavy lifting vehicles all struggled in the heat and dust, while boots simply fell apart. Pressed on whether any lessons have been learnt, Major General Stuart Skeates, the Standing Joint Force Commander, said the NAO report formed a lot of the planning for the exercise. We have made huge efforts to try and avoid, and rectify the mistakes of the past, he told the Press Association. He said training and exercises help to identify shortfalls in equipment, and also how tactics and procedures need to be changed or addressed. A Puma takes off behind a Challenger II Main Battle Tank in the Oman desert (Ben Birchall/PA) Our equipment is much better, it is much more technologically advanced, Maj Gen Skeates said. We have up-armoured significantly not just in terms of our armoured vehicles but in terms of what our people wear. So, body armour, eye protection, hearing protection and so fourth is a generational level of difference from that which we had in Saif Sareea 2. Brigadier Zac Stenning, commander of 1 UK Armoured Infantry Brigade, said a lot of work has been done to mitigate the issues of the last exercise in terms of the tanks and Warrior armoured vehicles. A British soldier removes his boots during a pause in manoeuvres in the searing heat of the Oman desert (Ben Birchall/PA He said the Army has transformed since Saif Sareea 2, especially with large and long campaigns in both Iraq and Afghanistan during the 17 years since. Brig Stenning said they have spent a significant amount of time de-risking their activity in Oman to make themselves better at the start of this exercise. Work has included testing the fleet of tanks and armoured vehicles in the UK, bringing in and using special air filters, and creating a detailed acclimatisation programme for troops. A soldier from the Royal Tank Regiment hangs out washing on a makeshift line on his Challenger II Main Battle Tank (Ben Birchall/PA) During the month-long Saif Sareea 3, which means swift sword in Arabic, the exercise will take place in locations across Oman including Shafa, the port of Duqm and Thumrait. Equipment that will be used includes 18 Challenger 2 battle tanks, 61 Warriors, Chinook and Puma helicopters, Typhoon jets, as well as the amphibious assault ship HMS Albion. This is in stark contrast to the 66 Challenger 2 tanks and the 22,500 troops that took part in Saif Sareea 2 in 2001 a change which Brig Stenning defended. It is not always about size, it is about the lethality, the survivability of a modern western army force can deliver. We are more lethal, more survivable and more competitive, he said. His comments also come amid a reduction in the size of Britains Army falling from 102,000 regular troops in 2010 to just 76,880 in July. Brig Stenning said the way in which armies expand and contract before and after war is a constant, and added: We will expand again. What we have got to do is get as many of our men and women ready to form the nucleus of the next fight. The total cost of Saif Sareea 3 is expected to be more than 100 million, something both Maj Gen Skeates and Brig Stenning stood by and said is justified. Brig Stenning said bringing everything would be disproportionately expensive, and that equipment and troops will be repositioned to operations in the Middle East and around the world following the exercise. The way we should be looking at the expenditure for Saif Sareea 3 is that it is a sensible investment in our presence here in the Middle East, and particularly our relationship with Oman, Maj Gen Skeates said. He stressed that the exercise also improves their process of working with Oman, demonstrates the UKs ability to project a joint force in order to assist a close ally if needed, and shows Britain is a player both globally and within the Middle East. Brig Stenning also said the austere and dusty environment is exceptionally important to train in for the troops, and that the Army has a lot to learn about how to operate in the most demanding environmental conditions. A CAMCORDER VIDEO CAPTURES THE SETTING OF THE STORY, AN ANTIQUE PADDLE WHEELER BOAT ON THE MOVE - THREE TIERS OF WHITE EDWARDIAN ... James McClean has insisted someone would have to put a gun to my head to stop him turning out for the Republic of Ireland after Harry Arter was welcomed back into the squad. Arter on Tuesday rejoined his international colleagues for the first time since making himself unavailable for last months games against Wales and Poland after a summer bust-up with assistant manager Roy Keane. McClean welcomed the Bournemouth player, currently on loan at Cardiff, back into the fold, but having earlier voiced his opinion over Arters decision to stay away, the Stoke midfielder admitted it would take more than a row to keep him away. Harry Arter is back in the Republic of Ireland squad (Brian Lawless/PA) He said: Id tell Harry myself that I dont agree with that. Youd have to put a gun to my head for me to not show up and play for Ireland. But obviously everyone is different, and hes here now. Hes a team-mate. Hes here to play for Ireland. Hes got my backing, 100 per cent. Im pleased to see him back. Hes a good lad, hes a good player and at the minute, we need all the good players we can get. Audio of Stephen Wards version of Arters exchange with Keane and another between Martin ONeills number two and Jonathan Walters prompted suggestions of damaged morale within the camp last month. The manager said: I probably believe that it should make Harry stronger for it all. If theres criticism coming your way, take it in some sort of spirit and attempt to prove someone wrong if the criticism is levelled at you, and if someone is praising you, then try to prove them right. In this case, I think Harry wants to do that I think he wants to do it not just here, but also that Bournemouth were wrong to let him leave or certainly go out this year on loan, so hes got a bit to prove, which is great. I think players should always have something to prove, as we should as managers as well. Jurgen Klopp is not a fan of the Nations League (Martin Rickett/PA) The Republic certainly have something to prove after last months 4-1 defeat in Cardiff, and McClean was withering when asked about Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopps dismissal of the Nations League as the most senseless competition in the world. He said: Were here to play for our country. It doesnt matter whether its a friendly, a UEFA Nations League (game) or a qualifier. It means something. It means everything well, to me anyway. I couldnt care less what Jurgen Klopp says, to be honest. Im here to represent Ireland and that means everything. Donald Trump has said UN ambassador Nikki Haley will leave his administration at the end of the year. The president spoke as he and Ms Haley met in the Oval Office, shortly after word came of her plans to resign. He called her a very special person, adding that she told him six months ago that she might want to take some time off. Mr Trump said that together they had solved a lot of problems. It is the latest shake-up in the turbulent Trump administration, weeks before the November midterm elections. No reason for the resignation was immediately provided. Donald Trump confers with Nikki Haley at the UN General Assembly (Evan Vucci/AP) Ms Haley, 46, was appointed to the UN post in November 2016 and last month co-ordinated Mr Trumps second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the Security Council. Before she was named by Mr Trump to her UN post, she was governor of South Carolina, the first woman to hold the post. She was re-elected in 2014. Last month she wrote an article in the Washington Post discussing her policy disagreements but also her pride in working for Mr Trump. It came in response to an anonymous essay in the New York Times by a senior administration official that alleged there was a secret resistance effort from the right in the administration and internal discussions of invoking the 25th amendment to remove Mr Trump from office. I proudly serve in this administration, and I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country, Ms Haley wrote. But I dont agree with the president on everything. As South Carolina governor, she developed a national reputation as a racial conciliator who led the charge to bring down the Confederate flag at the Statehouse and guided the state through one of its darkest moments, the massacre at a black church. A man has been jailed for two years and eight months after admitting falsely imprisoning and threatening to kill his wife, police said. Christopher Jansons, 62, was arrested by officers as he stood over his wife on the floor of their bedroom in Bridgwater, Somerset. Avon and Somerset Police said Jansons had secretly recorded her discussing their relationship with a friend on the evening of May 26. He took his wifes phone from her and kept her from leaving the bedroom, the force said. A man has been jailed after admitting to falsely imprisoning and threatening to kill his wife. Christopher Jansons, 62, of Bridgwater, was arrested by officers as he stood over his wife after she secretly called 999. More here: https://t.co/E0Xsx9IyGu pic.twitter.com/HTEuVJ0RZ5 Avon and Somerset Police (@ASPolice) October 9, 2018 The woman had secretly managed to call police on another phone and was able to tell the call handler what was happening, as well as her address. She then hid the phone and left the line open, with the handler remaining on the phone until police arrived at the scene. Christopher Jansons threatened to kill his wife (Avon and Somerset Police/PA) Body-worn video shown to Taunton Crown Court shows the moment Jansons was arrested in the bedroom. Detective Constable Mark Humphrey said: Christopher Jansons could not accept his marriage had broken down and took his anger out on his wife. In that moment she was terrified of the man she had spent the majority of her life with and I shudder to think what could have happened if she wasnt able to call us on a hidden phone. There are no excuses for domestic abuse and Id urge anyone who is subjected to it, whether it be physical or emotional abuse, to speak to someone. If you contact us we will take any report seriously and investigate any offences with the utmost care and sensitivity. You are not alone we will there for you every step of the way. Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster has been lambasted as not representing the majority view in Northern Ireland on Brexit. Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle ONeill made her comments after Mrs Foster and Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann met EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels on Tuesday. Speaking after the meeting, Mrs Foster said she will not back any Brexit deal that could lead to new economic barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Meeting with @MichelBarnier . - As outlined in par 50 of the Dec 2017 joint report, there cannot be barriers to trade erected between NI and the rest of the UK. GB is our main market. - The UK voted to leave the EU. Result must be respected. The nation must leave together. pic.twitter.com/fVWBoIvOQW Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) October 9, 2018 The UK Government has promised to set out further proposals on the backstop arrangement aimed at avoiding a hard border with Ireland, with speculation that it could involve regulatory checks on goods travelling between Britain and Northern Ireland. The EUs proposed backstop would see Northern Ireland effectively remain in the customs union and single market while the rest of the UK shifts away from Brussels rules, something the Prime Minister has already said would be unacceptable. Mrs Foster warned her party will not back any Brexit deal unless it matches their red line. Mr Swann also voiced his partys opposition to the backstop to Mr Barnier. We made it clear to him that unionists in Northern Ireland are deeply concerned by the proposed backstop and its implications for our place within the United Kingdom, he said. The efforts to de-dramatise do not go to the heart of unionist concerns and we underlined to Michel Barnier why the outworkings of the backstop are so problematic for us. Ms ONeill spoke out against the unionist parties, claiming they do not represent the majority view on Brexit. The DUP do not speak for the majority of people here on Brexit, just as they do not on a range of social issues, including the rights of women, Irish speakers, victims and the LGBT community, she said. Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle ONeill (Stefan Rousseau/PA) I also believe that Arlene Fosters so-called blood red lines are out of step with many in the unionist community who are growing increasingly concerned at the DUPs willingness to endanger our economy in order to avoid an imaginary line on the Irish Sea. Ms ONeill, along with the leaders of the SDLP, Alliance Party and Green Party, met with Mr Barnier last week. We did so as the majority voice of the people here, she said. All those parties made it clear that, in terms of Brexit, the DUP should not have a veto. We also re-iterated our common position that the backstop as already agreed must be maintained and is the absolute bottom line for Sinn Fein, SDLP, Alliance and Green Party as we enter the endgame of the Brexit negotiations. SDLP MLA Claire Hanna also criticised the DUPs position on Brexit. The DUP wanted Brexit, campaigned for Brexit and funded Brexit, but they do not acknowledge the reality of Brexit. The DUP need to review their contradictory red lines and accept either full alignment with the single market and customs union, or some regulatory checks. Alliance MLA Stephen Farry added: The DUP is not representing this regions economic and political interests. Their current stance is taking us over the cliff to a no-deal Brexit. Medics taking part in the UKs biggest military exercise for almost two decades are trialing a cutting-edge app that has been hailed as worth its weight in gold. Exercise Saif Sareea 3 officially began on October 5 and will see more than 5,500 UK personnel and 65,000 of their Omani counterparts take part over the coming month. Lieutenant Colonel David Wilson, of the Royal Medical Corps, based in Camp Shafa for the exercise, said they have been testing and using a new app called Proximie. He revealed that telemedicine technology allows medics to overlay x-rays onto a patient, and that a camera is linked up back to the UK to a consultant in the relevant medical field. This allows the consultant, who is often miles away, to see what is being done and offer precision instruction and advice during a procedure. Soldiers at 22 field hospital attend to a simulated casualty in the Field Surgical Teams operating theatre (Ben Birchall/PA) It is huge, 41-year-old Lt Col Wilson from Aldershot, Hampshire, said when asked about the impact of the app. This is the next century coming into where we are now, this is what we have been hoping for, he said. Even though computers are evolving twice the speed every year, they havent necessarily delivered us the advantages we had hoped. This thing could genuinely be a leap forward in an operation it has proved itself out here, it is worth its weight in gold. Lt Col Wilson revealed that for exercise Saif Sareea 3 a tented medical facility, covering an area of 75 metres by 75 metres, has been deployed for the first time in almost 20 years. Soldiers at 22 field hospital attend to a simulated casualty (Ben Birchall/PA) Inside there is a two-bed intensive care unit, 12 low dependency ward beds, a two-bed emergency department and one surgical table available for use. He said during the exercise they have been training with mock patients who have injuries that mimic battle-related trauma. And with more than 40 real casualties so far, Lt Col Wilson said most of the health issues among troops are non battle related diseases and lower level stuff. The boys and girls are absolutely loving delivering care, and touch wood, fingers crossed, no one gets hurt and no one needs our support, he said. If we do nothing for three months that is a really good thing for the soldiers. The field hospital is also where the Medical Emergency Response Team (Mert) bring those who have been out in the field on exercise and need further medical treatment. With Puma and Chinook helicopters on hand, casualties can be taken to hospital by aircraft and also away from the area to return to the UK. Squadron Leader Rob James, 35, from Plymouth, is currently on his first Mert deployment as a doctor and works with the Devon Air Ambulance back in the UK. It is great to come out and actually do what I have been working towards for so long, he said. Asked how important the exercise is to develop and maintain his Mert skills, Sqn Ldr James, said: Operating in this environment with military kit and military aircraft is vital in preparing for anything else we might have to do in a non-exercise role. And I think from a wider defence point of view getting to operate in this environment with our Omani partners is equally valuable. An award-winning chef and hotel owner has slammed the Irish governments budget plans to increase the hospitality VAT rate as the single worst blow to the industry in years. The revenue-raising measure abolishing the 9% special hospitality VAT rate, and a return to 13.5% within the sector was announced as part of the 2019 budget on Tuesday. The 9% rate was introduced in 2011 in an attempt to reduce some of the financial stresses on the hospitality sector during Irelands recession. Brian McDermott, who opened Movilles Foyle Hotel in Co Donegal just months ago, and has already won Newcomer of the Year 2019 says job losses are inevitable. Its just shocking, we opened a hotel that had been closed for ten years after the recession, weve created 38 jobs, built an entire business plan around the VAT rate, and this is how were treated, he said. Brian McDermott (Brian McDermott/PA) Were the newest player, and this is how were rewarded for that. Our model was to employ local staff, use local suppliers, all going towards the local economy. This is a roller coaster for jobs and positions, and it is unacceptable, I suppose now, we charged to try and reverse this because this means job losses without shadow of a doubt, this is not a knee jerk reaction, he said. The Foyle Hotel, located on Donegals Wild Atlantic Way is a wine bar, eatery and boutique hotel. The 200 year-old building was refurbished and renovated after previous owners closed the hotel during Irelands post-2008 recession. Were hit with this news 12 weeks after opening, where is the support from the government? This is how were rewarded, Im responsible for these peoples jobs. An almost 50% increase, from 9 to 13.5, at a time when occupancy levels are down in hotel rooms outside of the major cities, Mr McDermott added. Critics of the new VAT rate have announced the hike will hit rural communities the hardest. Independent TD for Kerry, Michael Healy-Rae was quick to criticise the plans, saying he was disgusted and angry, calling it a slap in the face to small and rural operators. We have lost our 9% VAT rate in the hospitality sector, this will be to the detriment of many small operators #Budget19 pic.twitter.com/nfshyfyiU0 Michael Healy-Rae (@MHealyRae) October 9, 2018 Mr McDermott echoed Mr Healy-Raes sentiments and suggested the government should have considered a city tax rather than a generic VAT hike across the country. It should have been a city tax increase, the government should think about the rural side of this, a VAT rate cant be generic for a country. I was in Dublin last week, I couldnt get a room, they were booked out and it was around 230 euro as an average price. In our case, were closed on Mondays because the business isnt there, how can a VAT increase be standardised across the country? We cant add this increase onto our customer, theyre not going to pay it. Tourism is what kept, and is keeping Ireland afloat, and this is how were treated. You cant hide your reaction, what this has done to me as a business owner is obvious, and my staff are entitled to be worried, the impact will be felt in the next month ahead, this is the single worst blow the hospitality industry has had in years. Sky chairman James Murdoch has resigned from the broadcaster as US cable giant Comcast took control of the British firm. Comcast said on Tuesday that it has acquired more than 75% of Sky after snapping up the 39% stake that belonged to Rupert Murdochs 21st Century Fox. Alongside the announcement, James Murdoch and a string of other Sky directors resigned from the firm. They include John Nallen, Chase Carey, Martin Gilbert, Andy Sukawaty, Tracy Clarke and Katrin Wehr-Seiter. Comcast boss Brian Roberts said: We are pleased today to be the majority owner of Sky. Led by Jeremy Darroch and his superb team, now together with Comcast, our combined global leadership in technology and content paves the way for us to accelerate investment and growth in Skys brand and premier platforms. The Murdochs are saying goodbye to the Sky (PA) We are also fully committed to ensuring Sky News future, maintaining its editorial independence, and preserving its strong track record for trusted, high quality, impartial news. Comcast emerged victorious in the takeover for the pay TV giant last month after beating 21st Century Fox, controlled by the Murdoch family, in a long running takeover battle. The group tabled a 30 billion bid for Sky, dwarfing Foxs bid by a distance. It means the Murdochs have relinquished their holding in Sky, having twice failed to take full control of the broadcaster. Sky boss Jeremy Darroch said: Comcast have committed to investment in Sky, including our Osterley and European headquarters and we very much look forward to working with Brian and the Comcast team to achieve further growth and development of Skys business. Separately, Sky News will benefit greatly from Comcasts funding commitments over the coming years and the arrangements that will be put in place to preserve and enhance its editorial independence. About 120,000 people along the Florida Panhandle have been ordered to clear out as Hurricane Michael picks up steam in the Gulf of Mexico and closes in with winds of 110mph and a potential storm surge of 12ft. Beach dwellers rushed to board up their homes and sandbag their properties against the fast-moving hurricane, which is expected to blow ashore around noon on Wednesday. The speed of the storm gave many people a dwindling number of hours to prepare or flee before being caught up in damaging wind and rain. Guess what? Thats today, National Hurricane Centre director Ken Graham said. If they tell you to leave, you have to leave. Here are the 10 AM CDT Key Messages for #Michael https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/X4GMc7grfP National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 9, 2018 Michael is just below the strength of a Category 3 hurricane and is getting stronger, drawing energy from warm Gulf waters. Florida governor Rick Scott also warned people across north-west Florida that the monstrous hurricane was hours away, bringing deadly risks from wind, storm surge and heavy rain. His Democratic opponent in Floridas Senate race, Bill Nelson, said a wall of water could cause major destruction along the Panhandle. Dont think that you can ride this out if youre in a low-lying area, he said. Water levels will rise well in advance of the arrival of #Michael. It's essential that residents within the storm surge warning area finish preparations to protect life and property today. pic.twitter.com/0Xz3nNkAnr NHC Storm Surge (@NHC_Surge) October 9, 2018 Mandatory evacuation orders came into effect for 120,000 people in Panama City Beach and across other low-lying parts of the coast. Forecasters said parts of Floridas marshy, lightly populated Big Bend area the crook of Floridas elbow could see up to 12ft of storm surge. Michael could dump up to 1ft of rain over some Panhandle communities before it sweeps through the south east and goes out to sea over the next few days. Forecasters said it could also bring 3in to 6in of rain to Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, triggering flash flooding in a corner of the country still recovering from Hurricane Florence. (PA Graphics) I know people are fatigued from Florence, but dont let this storm catch you with your guard down, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper said. At the western end of the Florida Panhandle, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan bluntly warned people: If you decide to stay in your home and a tree falls on your house or the storm surge catches you and youre now calling for help, theres no one that can respond to help you. In Cuba, the storm dumped more than 10in of rain in places, flooding fields, damaging roads, knocking out power and destroying some homes in the western province of Pinar del Rio. Cuban authorities said they evacuated about 400 people from low-lying areas. Disaster agencies in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua reported 13 deaths as roofs collapsed and residents were carried away by swollen rivers. I understand that evacuations are inconvenient, but this storm will bring torrential rain and heavy wind, along with dangerous storm surge throughout the panhandle. If you have been told to leave, you need to go. It could be the difference between life & death. Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) October 9, 2018 In Florida, Mr Scott declared a state of emergency for 35 counties, from the Panhandle to Tampa Bay, activated hundreds of Florida National Guard members and waived tolls to encourage evacuations. The governors of Alabama and Georgia also declared emergencies. Mr Scott also told Florida hospitals and nursing homes to do all they can to assure the safety of the elderly and infirm. After Hurricane Irma last year, 14 people died when a south Florida nursing home lost power and air conditioning. If youre responsible for a patient, youre responsible for the patient. Take care of them, he said. A 96-year-old widow has accused the Government of forcing pensioners to wait until after the winter months before they see the small boost to their pension. Mother-of-six Bet Nunan said the extra five euro a week should be brought in with immediate effect to help hard-pressed pensioners pay for heating costs. Mrs Nunan listened to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe unveil the budget at her home in Blackrock in south Dublin. She described the increase in social welfare payments as a boost that will make a little bit of difference but said more needs to be done to help the countrys poorest. Its not very much, it wont help poor people. Its okay for the likes of me as I have enough buts a very small rise, she said. We got the Christmas bonus which is decent enough. A couple of elderly residents at a nursing home (John Stillwell/PA) The extra five euro a week will make a little bit of difference, its a modest increase but I feel the poorest should be helped more each month. Waiting until March until we get the extra money is a very long delay, its almost six months. The retired civil servant said elderly people will have to go through the winter months with no extra money for heating costs. Mrs Nunan added: By April next year we will be OK as it will be warmer so those two things are not well thought out for older people. They should be brought in with immediate effect so we can use it over the winter months. Everyone is hanging on. Anna McCabe of Age Action, said: An increase in the State Pension was overwhelmingly the top priority for our members in Budget 2019. An increasing number of older people on a fixed income are finding it difficult to pay essential daily bills in the context of current taxes and rising prices. Putting the finishing touches to #Budget19 speech. Cabinet meeting at 10am for final discussion and speech to the #Dail at 1pm. Balancing our books for the first time in a decade will better position us in the years ahead for a more secure and resilient future pic.twitter.com/ObBkVVUAd8 Paschal Donohoe (@Paschald) October 9, 2018 This makes the pension increase all the more vital and we are pleased the government is delivering its promise to reverse the damage to older peoples incomes from previous austerity budgets. The organisation, however expressed disappointment at the delay on the pension increase. Ms McCabe added: It is disappointing that, for the third time, were seeing a delay in the pension increase, especially when it is perhaps most needed in January and February to help during the coldest months. We welcome the restoration of the final 15% of the Christmas Bonus and payment as a double week for Christmas 2018 for all social welfare recipients. It has also emerged that the granny-grant flat initiative has been granted funding to allow older homeowners to modify their family-sized home. Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy said the Abhaile Project would allow homeowners to create a ground floor independent living area for themselves and a rental property upstairs. It is to be trialled through a pilot scheme. Former City trader Kweku Adoboli, who gambled away 1.4 billion in the UKs biggest banking fraud, has been bailed from detention pending a decision over his deportation. The 38-year-old, who has been held at an immigration centre near Heathrow Airport for 36 days, will travel to Livingston, West Lothian, to live with a friend following a legal hearing on Tuesday. Despite living in the UK since he was 12, the former public schoolboy and Nottingham University alumnus faces deportation to Ghana, where he has not lived since age four. He was granted a last-minute injunction blocking his deportation on September 18 and now awaits the outcome of a judicial review on the matter scheduled for October 23. A group of school and university friends appeared before a judge at Hatton Cross tribunal centre to provide a surety of 120,000. As a foreign national sentenced to a jail sentence of more than four years, Adoboli is subject to automatic deportation under UK immigration laws. Kweku Adoboli faces being deported to Ghana (Lewis Whyld/PA) Granting the decision, immigration judge Stephen Pedro said: I cant see theres anything to indicate theres substantial grounds for risk of reoffending or absconding. From what I can see he has been on immigration bail for three years or so without fault. You should be released later today. Home Office official Matthew Williams appeared at the hearing to oppose bail. The rogue former trader, who was jailed for seven years in 2012, brought Swiss bank UBS to its knees by exceeding his trading limits and failing to mitigate the risk of reckless deals. He was released in 2015 and has lived in with a long-time university friend in Scotland since then, looking after two godchildren. Speaking after the hearing, his partner Alice Gray said: Im delighted, ecstatic. I didnt expect this at all. Im going to go and collect him now. More than 130 MPs and MSPs have signed an open letter to Home Secretary Sajid Javid asking him to intervene and block the deportation. Nearly 75,000 people have signed a petition calling for the deportation to be halted. Adoboli admitted the enormous losses but claimed that he was pressured by staff to take risks, culminating in a catastrophe that wiped 2.8 billion off the banks share value. He was found guilty at Londons Southwark Crown Court of two counts of fraud by abuse of position in 2012 and freed from jail in 2015. Since his release he has spoken to students and business and military leaders about toxic risk-taking aspects of City culture and how it can lead traders to commit financial crimes. Nicola Sturgeon has said the SNPs goal of independence for Scotland is clearly in sight, as she hit out at the chaos and incompetence of Westminster. The First Minister closed her partys annual conference in Glasgow with an address in which she compared the future Scotland could have outside of the UK to that offered by the Conservatives and Brexit. She attacked the Tories on their policies on issues such as immigration and social security, saying: Westminster hasnt delivered strength and security. It has brought chaos, incompetence and confusion. With the UKs departure date from the European Union now less than six months away, and with tens of thousands of campaigners having marched through Edinburgh in support of independence just days ago, the First Minister said she was more confident than ever that Scotland will be independent. FM: So know this. Believe in this. Work for this. Hope is possible. A better future is within our grasp. And together we are going to make it happen. #SNP18 pic.twitter.com/whhco7kl0m The SNP (@theSNP) October 9, 2018 But with her Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell having earlier said supporters would have to wait for the right moment for a second referendum, Ms Sturgeon made clear more details about Brexit need to be known before such a vote could take place. She accused Theresa Mays government of a disgraceful failure of leadership on this and added: The future relationship between the UK and the EU will determine the context in which Scotland would become independent. And so the detail of that will shape some of the answers that people want. As we wait impatiently, at times, I know for this phase of negotiations to conclude and for the fog of Brexit to clear, be in no doubt about this. The last two years have shown why Scotland needs to be independent. And I am more confident than ever that Scotland will be independent. She blasted the UK Government for taking Holyrood ministers to the Supreme Court, after the Scottish Parliament refused to back the UKs EU Withdrawal Bill and instead passed its own Brexit legislation. That is Westminster control, the First Minister declared. And she hailed independence as being the opposite of Brexit, offering Scotland the chance to have a real partnership with other countries across Europe and the world. While much of her 50-minute long address focused on the big issues of Brexit and independence, the First Minister included a number of policy announcements. @NicolaSturgeon tells #SNP18 her party is "making hope possible" with policies such as the babybox. She says: "That is what our government is about. And I am proud of it." Katrine Bussey (@KatrineBussey) October 9, 2018 Bursaries for student nurses which were retained in Scotland after being scrapped south of the border will be increased from 6,500 a year to 10,000 a year by the year 2020-21. Such a move will help Scotland attract more people into nursing when the recruitment challenge which already faces the health service becomes more challenging in the wake of Brexit. That was welcomed by the Royal College of Nursing, whose Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said: The increased bursary is an important step in valuing those who choose to nurse and in making nursing an attractive career. Meanwhile the charity Social Bite will receive 6.5 million for work to help vulnerable people with complex needs find a settled place to stay. This money, Ms Sturgeon told the conference, will help 800 people to be lifted out of homelessness for good. To help small to medium sized businesses looking to expand and modernise, she revealed up to 18 million of European cash would be used by the Scottish Government to set up an advanced manufacturing fund saying that by doing this the SNP were reindustrialising Scotland. But the Tories claimed there was little in the speech apart from independence, with Conservative MSP Annie Wells branding it a tired speech from a tired government which has run out of ideas, apart from the only one theyve ever had. Scottish Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell earlier said supporters would have to wait for the `right moment for a second independence referendum (Jane Barlow/PA) She added: Nicola Sturgeon asked her supporters to stay patient the truth is that most people lost patience with the SNP a long time ago. Astonishingly, in a speech littered with references to independence, there was just a glancing reference to education. It was a staggering omission and it tells you all you need to know. Education isnt her number one priority the only priority the SNP has is separating our country in two. Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said while education was the supposed top priority of Ms Sturgeons government, this had barely merited a passing mention in her speech. Meanwhile Pamela Nash, chief executive of the pro-UK Scotland in Union group, said: Nicola Sturgeon made it clear what her only goal is independence at any cost. Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton also hit out, saying: Nicola Sturgeon needs to stop trying to turn Brexit into the break-up of the UK. But Mark Ruskell MSP from the pro-independence Scottish Greens said: Brexit is already causing chaos and will result in an unprecedented loss of civil rights. Independence in the EU is the right choice for Scotland, giving us self-determination whilst working with neighbours to build a better Europe. HSBC has agreed a 765 million US dollars (582 million) settlement with US regulators over claims it mis-sold toxic mortgages in the run-up to the financial crisis. The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday that federally-insured financial institutions and others suffered major losses from investing in Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) issued and underwritten by HSBC between 2005 and 2007. The multimillion pound penalty relates to HSBCs packaging, securitisation, issuance, marketing and sale of RMBS. HSBC said that it will pay up without admitting liability or wrongdoing. HSBC made choices that hurt people and abused their trust, said Bob Troyer, United States Attorney for the District of Colorado. He added: HSBC chose to use a due diligence process it knew from the start didnt work. It chose to put lots of defective mortgages into its deals. When HSBC saw problems, it chose to rush those deals out the door. When deals went south, investors who trusted HSBC suffered. HSBC has reached a settlement with the DoJ (PA) And when the mortgages failed, communities across the country were blighted by foreclosure. If you make choices like this, beware. You will pay. HSBC is the latest in a long line of banks to have settled with US authorities over the products and other crisis era misconduct claims. RBS, Barclays and Deutsche Bank have all reached big bucks deals with the DoJ. We are pleased to put this investigation related to activity that occurred more than a decade ago behind us, said Patrick Burke, president and chief executive officer of HSBC USA. Since the financial crisis, HSBC has been strengthening our culture, processes and internal controls to ensure fair outcomes for our clients. The US management team is focused on putting historical matters into the rear view mirror and completing the turn-around of HSBCs US operations. Google has unveiled its new flagship smartphones, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, as it looks to keep pace with Apples iPhone. The two new phones were announced alongside a range of new products, including the Pixel Slate tablet and a new screen-enabled smart home speaker, the Google Home Hub. The Pixel 3 comes with a 5.5in display and the XL with a 6.3-in screen. Introducing the new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL: designed from the inside out to be the smartest, most helpful device in your life. #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/GpZTkvCGHA Google (@Google) October 9, 2018 Google said the new devices were built around improved camera systems powered by artificial intelligence, including the new Top Shot feature, which can identify the best images taken in a burst. The phones also feature improved low-light photography capabilities, and a new Group Selfie camera capable of capturing wider angle images from the front-facing camera, traditionally used to take selfies. The company claimed the feature can capture 184% more of a scene than the front-facing camera of the new iPhone XS. (Google) The cameras also house Google Lens, which uses AI to identify objects, landmarks and words seen through the camera. The two phones will go on sale in the UK on November 1, with the Pixel 3 starting at 739 and the XL at 869. Also announced at the event in New York, the new Google Home Hub smart speaker responds to voice commands like other smart home devices but also features a display from which users can access news and weather information visually, as well as watch YouTube videos, use Google Maps and control other smart home devices. Introducing Google Home Hub. Help at a glance when you need it, designed to blend in when you dont. #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/pdLPVsf6A8 Google (@Google) October 9, 2018 The tech giants Diya Jolly said the company also made a conscious decision not to include a camera to respect user privacy. It will go on sale at the end of October, costing 139. The Hub is Googles answer to the Echo Show, Amazons smart speaker with a built-in display which was introduced last year. More than a tablet. More than a laptop. Its our new Pixel Slate. What do you want to know? Ask us in the comments. #PixelSlate #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/xGBOPgmlb0 Made By Google (@madebygoogle) October 9, 2018 Google also announced a new tablet, the Pixel Slate, which runs on the companys own Chrome OS and has an attachable keyboard. The device contains virtual helper Google Assistant and will be released in the UK later this year, Google confirmed. It will go on sale at the end of November, starting at 549. A hairdresser in north Dublin has said the governments VAT hike will discourage others from opening their own businesses and threaten jobs in the industry. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed the VAT for the hospitality sector will surge from 9 to 13.5% from January 1 in Tuesdays budget announcement. Critics have questioned the move, saying the hike would unfairly target rural Ireland and small businesses in the hotel and bar sector, as well as hairdressers, who are also listed under hospitality industry. Karen Murtugh who owns K-Styles in Balbriggan and employs three staff says the news comes as another blow to an already overlooked industry. Karen Murtugh, owner and hairdresser at K Styles Hair Salon (Liam McBurney/PA) Its a bit mad obviously, I wasnt expecting this high an increase as it is already high enough, and we pay an additional VAT on hairdressing products. Theres no doubt it will impact prices, you dont want to put up prices as customers already give out about how expensive its be become. Youre forced to make a decision, is it coming out of my own pocket or do I put up prices in the salon, which means less customers. Even paying the current VAT is hard enough, this will definitely will impact a lot of salons. One of the first to criticise the move was Independent Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae, who called the move a slap in the face that unfairly targets rural communities. We have lost our 9% VAT rate in the hospitality sector, this will be to the detriment of many small operators #Budget19 pic.twitter.com/nfshyfyiU0 Michael Healy-Rae (@MHealyRae) October 9, 2018 Ms Murtugh agrees with the criticisms, saying smaller businesses will suffer unfairly, forcing customers into the cities and effecting local economies. Bigger salons wont be as affected, but smaller businesses will be forced to put people out of jobs or take a step back from hiring, she said. You cant compare Dublin city centre and a little village salon. Where I am, its a little salon, a pub, a shop and thats it. I feel like youll see a lot of smaller towns without hairdressers after this. Ms Murtugh, who opened her salon six years ago says she has received no help from the government, and has built the business herself from the ground up. Ive never once got help from anyone, youre on your own with prices going up constantly. Its crazy, you feel unfairly targeted, the government should do more for small businesses, they think of big businesses all the time, that employ 500 people, but what about us? I dont even know why were listed as hospitality, I feel like they have nowhere to put us. Its because were looked down upon, theres this mentality like; Sure theyre only hairdressers, but everyone you know has a hairdresser, every town has one, its horrible and tough. If I knew all this at the start, I probably wouldnt have opened my own business, she said. The current 9% rate was introduced in 2011 in an attempt to reduce some of the financial stresses on the hospitality sector during Irelands recession. The Restaurants Association of Ireland has called on Tourism Minister Shane Ross to resign over the VAT hike, saying he has consistently failed the sector. Democratic Unionist MEP Diane Dodds has said her party will not accept any additional checks within the UK after Brexit even over lasagne. Mrs Dodds was speaking to the media after meeting with the EUs Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier. DUP leader Arlene Foster made clear her opposition to any Brexit deal that could lead to new economic barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Mrs Dodds illustrated what they were opposing by saying an attempt to avoid a hard border with Ireland could mean more regulatory checks on goods travelling between Britain and Northern Ireland. She claimed under the EU position, there could be scores of checks on live animals and food products travelling within the UK. BREAKING NEWS BREXIT is all about taking back control of all ready meals Diane Dodds MEP said DUP would not accept lasagne being checked in the Irish Sea! pic.twitter.com/P3VzxmmDw4 Martina Anderson Sinn Fein (@M_AndersonSF) October 9, 2018 Mrs Dodds says currently veterinary certificates are checked for animals coming into Northern Ireland, with physical checks carried out on 10% of those. File photo dated 06/05/14 of DUP MEP Diane Dodds who has rejected "missing an opportunity" by not meeting the European Unions Brexit negotiator during a visit to the Irish border. If we followed Mr Barniers advice, my information is that those checks would become 100%, although with a veterinary agreement in a future trade deal, that might be reduced somewhat, she said. But remember, thats checks on live animals, thats the only checks that we currently have. SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) checks are something that is much much wider, that animals, plants and everything that is derived there from, that would therefore mean checks on food so therefore, our beef lasagnes, our yoghurts, our milk. We could be in the rather ridiculous position where milk produced in Northern Ireland by Northern Ireland farmers is processed in England, but has to be checked when it comes back because yogurts are protein drinks. Thats the disruptions that that would mean in the UK internal market. Mrs Foster added: Those are the sorts of things that we have to be very concerned about, so economically, we will very much want to protect our businesses in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein MLA Mairtin O Muilleoir claimed that the comments signalled a bizarre new low for the DUP over Brexit. Never mind the catastrophic impact on our economy and communities across Ireland, none of that matters to the DUP if theres going to be checks on lasagne crossing the Irish Sea, he said. If that is the best argument the DUP can come up with for undermining our economy, our peace process and imposing a new border on the island of Ireland, then they really are out of step with the vast majority of people on this island and across Europe. Millions of euros have been set aside for a stepped-up inspection regime as Ireland gears up for Brexit. Food safety, agricultural and customs inspectors are to be appointed in an effort to build resilience to the shock of British departure from the EU. Extra money has also been allocated by finance minister Paschal Donohoe to support small businesses training for the red tape they will encounter trading with Britain after next Marchs divorce. He increased funding for the PEACE programme which boosts community groups around the Irish border. Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said: The decisions announced by minister Donohoe today to balance the countrys books, to establish our rainy day fund and to invest in key domestic infrastructure, including our ports and airport, will help ensure Ireland is ready for whatever change Brexit brings. Measures announced in the budget included: The Irish Government has announced measures to meet the challenges posed by Brexit (Niall Carson/PA) Educational spending of 300 million euro (262 million) for training and re-skilling of sectors and regions which are vulnerable to Brexit. An additional 80 million euro (69 million) to agriculture. Eight million euro (6.9 million) in business funding to help target new markets. An extra five million euro (4.3 million) for local enterprise offices to support small businesses thorough a new customs training programme. An additional one million euro (874,000) for the cross-border Intertrade Ireland to support mainly border businesses. Ten million euro (8.7 million) was given for customs staff for East-West work, four million euro (3.4 million) for sanitary inspectors and 2.5 million (2.1 million) for food safety inspectors. No planning has been made for a border on the island of Ireland. Extra money was also provided to help offset the effects of Brexit on tourism businesses. Mr Coveney said: Minister Donohoes 22 or 23 page budget speech this year was a long speech with a lot in it. You will have noticed that virtually every page Brexit gets a mention and that is because across multiple Government departments and across multiple agencies we are focused on ensuring that we do everything within our power to anticipate and plan for the change that may be coming linked to our closest neighbours leaving the EU and the consequences of that. We will be spending hundreds of millions of euros preparing for the creation of as much resilience as we can create across the Irish economy for the new realities that we face. Mr Donohoe announced more than 110 million euro (96 million) for Brexit-related measures across a number of Departments. He also launched a future growth loan scheme for small and medium-sized businesses and the agriculture and food sector; Dominic Raab categorically ruled out an indefinite customs union to resolve Irish border difficulties in the Brexit talks, amid Tory warnings over the Governments gung-ho approach to no deal. The Brexit Secretary told MPs that talks with the EU have intensified in recent weeks and the two sides are closing in on workable solutions to all of the key outstanding issues before urging Brussels to match the UKs ambitions and pragmatism. Labour accused Mr Raab of pretending that everything is going according to plan and urged him to scotch rumours that the Government is not intending to publish an Irish border backstop proposal by next week, before questioning if an indefinite UK-wide customs union would be part of the offer. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer also asked Mr Raab to rule out a vague or blind Brexit, adding: No government has the right to plunge the country into chaos as a result of its own failure. The UK is leaving the EU (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Time is running out but there is still time to change course and I urge the Secretary of State to do so. Mr Raab, in reply to Sir Keir on the suggestion of an indefinite customs union, said: No, categorically that is not correct. He suggested Sir Keir had almost become the prince of process given his questions before accusing Labours leadership of having trashed their promise at the last election to deliver on Brexit. Conservative former home secretary Amber Rudd later criticised the gung-ho approach to no deal as she warned that security matters are not yet in place to keep the UK safe in such an event. She said: I remain very concerned about the somewhat gung-ho approach to no deal given that the security matters are not yet in place to ensure that our country remains safe from terrorists, safe from organised crime, and that the EU has the same benefits. Mr Raab replied: Im confident that in the medium to long-term we would of course resume all of the kinds of cooperation that one would expect, but its right to say that in a no deal scenario we could not rely on the EU to continue that in the short term. Tory former Brexit minister Steve Baker, of the European Research Group of MPs, argued the UK could secure a free trade arrangement with the EU. He said: Time and again customs experts from a range of countries in the EU including Holland and Ireland tell us that a free trade agreement can be made to work across the Irish border using pragmatic arrangements. When will the Government take this key that has been handed to them, keeping us in the prison of this negotiation, and admit that we can leave into an FTA basis which will make this a proper independent country able to control its domestic regulations as well as its tariffs so that we can lead the world into a new era of free trade. Mr Raab replied that his suggestion was a shortcut to no deal. He replied that whilst it may be theoretically possible for us to do that, we cannot do it and have a deal with the EU, adding: The EU are not offering us Canada, super Canada, an FTA without keeping to the commitment that we made when he was in Government in December to come up with a legally binding backstop, so that is a shortcut to no deal and weve always said that wed be ready if that outcome is forced on us, but the optimum aim here, the optimum objective that were working towards is a good deal with the EU. We couldnt get that if we pursued what hes suggesting. DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said his MPs would not tolerate any separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and threatened to withdraw support as they did last December. He said: The idea that the sort of proposals that are floating about from the EU side, and indeed some officials on our side in Brussels, are necessary to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland is of course complete rubbish. There already is infrastructure on the border and there are already financial, fiscal and other differences because its an international border. Of course it can be managed. He needs to understand that as far as were concerned, as the Democratic Unionist Party, we will not tolerate anything that separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK in terms of customs or single market as we leave the EU. Weve been clear about that from day one. Its why we had the debacle in December. Lets not repeat that mistake. The Irish Government has missed a trick by failing to help crippled retailers struggling to compete, it has been claimed. Duggans Jewellers shop owner Damian Duggan said more and more retailers were struggling to compete because of the Governments penal VAT rate of 23% and the Government had not introduced anything in the budget to help them. Mr Duggan said: Give us a level playing pitch, give us a level where we can compete. Were being crippled. Irelands Finance minister Paschal Donohoe delivered the countrys Budget for 2019 on Tuesday afternoon. For the self-employed the earned income credit is set to be increased by 200 euro to 1,350 euro next year, but still does not bring it into line with Paye workers income credit. The minister also announced targeted changes to the Keep scheme to help small and medium sized businesses attract and retain key staff. A special VAT rate for the hospital sector was also scrapped. The hospitality sector has been highly critical of the budget because Mr Donohoe announced its 9% VAT rate would be upped to 13.5% next year. But Mr Duggan said he and other small businesses would only be too happy to pay that rate as they were paying 23% VAT. Retailers, such as book shops, newsagents and jewellers, are liable to pay VAT at 23%. The jeweller, who is secretary treasury of the Association of Fine Jewellers said: There are an awful lot of businesses that are on the verge or they have closed in the last few years because of very penal VAT rates. Mr Duggan said the VAT rate had been increased from 21% to 23% as a temperary measure eight years ago, but there was no sign of it being reverted any time soon. The retailer, who has been in business in Dublins Fairview for 38 years, said he reckoned that most people who were in any way savvy travelled across the border to shop and benefit from a lower VAT rate of 20% and weak sterling. We cannot compete with that, we will try our damnedest, we bend over backwards to please our customers but how can we compete. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has delivered his Budget (Niall Carson/PA) He said the Government was failing to collect any online revenue from any companies. Marc ODwyer, chief executive of cloud accounting software firm Big Red Cloud, said he believed the Government had missed an opportunity to help small businesses. The Dublin-based company has 25 employees in Ireland and five in Vietnam. Mr ODwyer said: There are about 200,000 small businesses in Ireland and about 3,500 businesses are set up on a monthly basis and there dont seem to be any grants or tax reliefs for existing business owners to reinvent their businesses, who are on a daily basis employing staff, paying employers PRSI and paying money to the Irish revenue. He added: Theres no real incentive to get people out of normal employment to give them a kick-start to be an entrepreneur and keep reinvesting in business. The Government has missed a trick. They should be supporting them much more so. Hauliers have slammed Irelands budget for failing to tackle rising diesel costs. Following days of speculation, diesel and petrol prices remains untouched however critics have claimed that the budget has failed the licensed haulage sector. Verona Murphy, President of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), said that while it welcomes no changes in excise levels for diesel, it has raised concerns that the measures announced on Tuesday does not address the rising cost of diesel for the haulage industry. Ms Murphy slammed the so-called Brexit-proof budget saying it has utterly failed hauliers in Ireland. While the IRHA welcomes the absence of an increase in Carbon Tax and no changes to the excise levels for diesel, we are very concerned that the measures announced make no allowance for the rising cost of diesel for the licensed haulage sector, she said. These rapidly rising costs are threatening the very viability of our sector, at a time when we are facing into the abyss with Brexit. The IRHA urged Minister Donohoe to revamp the existing Diesel Rebate Scheme to take account of rising fuel costs and to ensure that the sector could be Brexit-ready. The Ministers failure to incorporate this into the Budget is hugely disappointing and shows us that this government simply do not get what we as an industry are facing at this time, Ms Murphy added. She said that the threat of a no-deal Brexit is adding to fears that the price of diesel will continue to rise on top of the 14% increase in the last year. Ms Murphy added: Economist Jim Power said recently that the potential cost of Brexit to the haulage industry in the first year he believes could well exceed the initial estimation of 180 million euro. There are fears diesel prices could rise (Lewis Whyld/PA) If this Government is serious about having Irish industry Brexit ready then the Finance Bill needs to reflect revised measures on the Diesel Rebate Scheme. Ms Murphy said that she would be seeking an urgent meeting with Minister Donohoe to voice her members concerns. My members are concerned and angry at the Governments unwillingness to recognise their precarious plight. Plans to encourage the uptake of gas-propelled commercial vehicles as an alternative to diesel was also unveiled in the budget. The Finance Minister is to introduce a new accelerated capital allowances scheme for gas-propelled vehicles and refuelling equipment. Ms Murphy added: The proposed Gas Capital Allowance Scheme for Commercial Vehicles represents an Alice In Wonderland proposal and will do little for 99% of the national haulage fleet, addressing rising fuel costs will make a real difference. The Irish Government has said Brexit is the economic challenge of our generation as it unveiled budgetary measures worth nearly three quarters of a billion euros to tackle the threat. The Republic is preparing for increased customs checks and challenges for businesses trading with England, Scotland and Wales. It launched a special fund to support firms caught in the headwinds of Britains EU divorce as part of a lengthy budget statement laced with references to the greatest upheaval facing the country for decades. Increased funding for a special programme supporting community groups on either side of the Irish border represents a clear statement of intent by ministers in Dublin to protect Northern Irelands hard-won peace. An important part of #Budget19 as we continue our preparations for #Brexit https://t.co/4Ba2GkQE57 Irish Foreign Ministry (@dfatirl) October 9, 2018 The future of the Irish land border with Northern Ireland is the most vexed issue still facing negotiators in Brussels and London. The health budget increased by about one billion euro, VAT on the booming tourism industry is set to rise to 13.5% and an extra 470 million euro (410 million) was allocated to housing after a political furore over the number left homeless, finance minister Paschal Donohoe said. Finance minister Paschal Donohoe outside Government Buildings, Dublin (PA) He said: Brexit is the political, economic and diplomatic challenge of our generation. The Government has been clear on our objectives, robust in our negotiations and thorough in our planning. We will remain at the heart of the European Union and open to the world. We will protect our hard-won peace. We will implement responsible but ambitious policies for the future of our country. Irelands coalition government, led by Fine Gael and supported by independent public representatives, published its budget for next year with the backing of its political rivals Fianna Fail after the last election left no party with a clear majority. After years of austerity following the financial crash of a decade ago, this was a spending plan characterised by extra cash for a wide range of areas but also the establishment of a rainy day fund in a bid to demonstrate prudent management of public finances. Next year, Ireland will balance its books for the first time in a decade while planning a significant increase in capital spending. Income tax changes which will save squeezed middle families around five euro (4.37) a week. Around 710 million euro (620 million) were earmarked to address the fall out from Brexit. Boosted spending on social welfare and housing were among other key points announced by the finance minister in the one hour and 17 minute speech at Dublins parliament Dail Eireann. Irelands economy has grown rapidly after the financial crisis of a decade ago and soaring house and rent prices have left many unable to find accommodation, prompting street protests and a parliamentary attempt to unseat the Government. Mr Donohoe said: It is a responsible Budget for a modern and caring Ireland that aims to be at the centre of a changing world. Key points from the Budget included: 110 million euro (96 million) will be set aside for Brexit-related measures across central government. The higher rate of income tax will be raised by 750 euro (655) to 35,300 (30,867) for a single worker. VAT on the tourism sector will increase to 13.5%, producing an extra 466 million euro (407 million). An extra five cents on a packet of 20 cigarettes. Social welfare payments are to rise by five euro. An extra two weeks paid parental leave. The health budget increases by one billion euro. 50 cent reduction in prescription charges for those aged over 70. An extra 470 million euro (410 million) for housing amid what critics claim is a homelessness crisis. Mr Donohoe said: This is responsible; this is sensible; this is consistent with maintaining stability in the public finances. Most importantly this is a caring Budget that recognises the real social needs our citizens face and provides the sustainable funding and effective policies to address them. It addresses the risks we face both domestically and on the international front. The Budget I have announced today is a progressive budget with an emphasis on strengthening our national finances. Theres been increasing confusing over the legality of delta-8, a cannabis derivative that can be found in vape cartridges, tinctures and candy at smoke shops and CBD stores in Texas. While the Texas health department maintains that delta-8 is a controlled substance and is on the states list of unlawful drugs, the 2018 federal Farm Bill legalized the production of hemp, which naturally contains delta-8 and has less than 0.3% THC. In 2019, Texas also legalized hemp growing. Delta-8 retailers believed the substance was as legal to sell as hemp. Delta-8 is legal in Texas for now after a Travis County judge blocked the state from criminalizing it. Should delta-8 continue to be legal in Texas? You voted: Dominic Raab has suggested the preferred Brexit approach touted by eurosceptic Tories would be a shortcut to no deal. The Brexit Secretary was urged by Steve Baker, a former Brexit minister and member of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, to pursue a free trade agreement with the EU and use pragmatic arrangements to deal with the Irish border. Mr Raab said the Canada-style approach was theoretically possible but could not be done and result in a deal with the EU. He also told MPs that talks with the EU have intensified in recent weeks and the two sides are closing in on workable solutions to all of the key outstanding issues before urging Brussels to match the UKs ambitions and pragmatism. The UK is seeking to leave the EU by March 2019 (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Labour accused Mr Raab of pretending that everything is going according to plan and urged him to scotch rumours that the Government is not intending to publish an Irish border backstop proposal by next week, before questioning if an indefinite UK-wide customs union would be part of the offer. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer also asked Mr Raab to rule out a vague or blind Brexit, adding: No government has the right to plunge the country into chaos as a result of its own failure. Time is running out but there is still time to change course and I urge the Secretary of State to do so. Mr Raab ruled out a blindfolded Brexit in which MPs would be kept in the dark over the detail of a deal, and also categorically ruled out an indefinite customs union to resolve Irish border difficulties in the Brexit talks. Conservative former home secretary Amber Rudd criticised the gung-ho approach to no deal as she warned that security matters are not yet in place to keep the UK safe in such an event. Later, Mr Baker told the Commons: Time and again customs experts from a range of countries in the EU including Holland and Ireland tell us that a free trade agreement can be made to work across the Irish border using pragmatic arrangements. When will the Government take this key that has been handed to them, keeping us in the prison of this negotiation, and admit that we can leave into an FTA basis which will make this a proper independent country able to control its domestic regulations as well as its tariffs so that we can lead the world into a new era of free trade. Mr Raab replied that his suggestion was a shortcut to no deal. He replied that whilst it may be theoretically possible for us to do that, we cannot do it and have a deal with the EU. Mr Raab went on: The EU are not offering us Canada, super Canada, an FTA without keeping to the commitment that we made when he was in Government in December to come up with a legally binding backstop, so that is a shortcut to no deal and weve always said that wed be ready if that outcome is forced on us, but the optimum aim here, the optimum objective that were working towards is a good deal with the EU. We couldnt get that if we pursued what hes suggesting. When asked by Labour former minister Chris Leslie if he was ruling out a blind Brexit, Mr Raab said: First of all theres no question of some kind of blindfolded Brexit. He added: We want to make sure in the political declaration on the future relationship that we have enough detail and enough of substance so that this House and the country at large can understand the choice of the model of economic and security cooperation that were going to be pursuing. DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said his MPs would not tolerate any separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and threatened to withdraw support as they did last December. He said: The idea that the sort of proposals that are floating about from the EU side, and indeed some officials on our side in Brussels, are necessary to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland is of course complete rubbish. There already is infrastructure on the border and there are already financial, fiscal and other differences because its an international border. Of course it can be managed. He needs to understand that as far as were concerned, as the Democratic Unionist Party, we will not tolerate anything that separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK in terms of customs or single market as we leave the EU. Weve been clear about that from day one. Its why we had the debacle in December. Lets not repeat that mistake. Three teenagers have been charged in connection with a fire at an indoor market, police said. More than than 60 firefighters were involved in tackling the blaze at Hilltown Indoor Market in Dundee on September 12. Police Scotland said that three boys aged 13, 15 and 16 have been charged in connection with the fire. The 13-year-old and the 15-year-old will be reported to the Childrens Reporter and the Procurator Fiscal. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal in respect of the 16-year-old. Police said inquiries are continuing. The Prime Minister has appointed what is thought to be the worlds first Minister for Suicide Prevention in a bid to cut the number of people taking their own lives. Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price will lead the national effort and try to end the stigma which stops people from seeking help, Theresa May announced as she marked World Mental Health Day. Around 4,5000 people take their lives every year in England and suicide remains the leading cause of death among men under the age of 45. The Prime Minister has also pledged up to 1.8 million to ensure the Samaritans helpline remains free for the next four years, to help those most in need. Speaking at a reception to mark World Mental Health Day, Mrs May is expected to say: When I first became Prime Minister, I stood on the steps of Downing Street and pledged to fight the burning injustices in our society. There are few greater examples than the injustices facing those with mental health conditions. But together we can change that. Theresa May has pledged action on suicides (Dominic Lipinski/ PA) We can end the stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence. We can prevent the tragedy of suicide taking too many lives. And we can give the mental wellbeing of our children the priority it so profoundly deserves. The Prime Minister will also say that parity of care is a priority of the NHS long-term plan, which will include record investment in mental health. Today marks the start of our groundbreaking #GlobalMHSummit. With the UK leading the drive, this summit is a fantastic opportunity to tackle mental ill-health at the global level Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) October 9, 2018 Ms Doyle-Price, now Minister for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention, will ensure every local area has effective plans in place to stop unnecessary deaths and investigate how technology can help identify those most at risk. She said: I understand how tragic, devastating and long-lasting the effect of suicide can be on families and communities. In my time as health minister I have met many people who have been bereaved by suicide and their stories of pain and loss will stay with me for a long time. Its these people who need to be at the heart of what we do and I welcome this opportunity to work closely with them, as well as experts, to oversee a cross-Government suicide prevention plan, making their sure their views are always heard. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: Were already making progress when it comes to suicide prevention, the suicide rate is at its lowest for seven years. But we need to do more to challenge the stigma that people with mental ill-health face and make sure they feel they can reach out for help. I am delighted we are appointing Jackie Doyle-Price as our dedicated Minister for Suicide Prevention, and I know she will make a real difference. Every suicide is a preventable death and we are determined to do everything we can to tackle the tragedy of suicide. The Government has also reasserted its commitment to tackling mental health among young people. A new report will be published into the state of young peoples mental health every year on World Mental Health Day, it said. The second day of the Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit in London takes place on Wednesday. Donald Trumps daughter Ivanka has said she will not be replacing Nikki Haley as the US ambassador to the United Nations despite her father saying she would be incredible in the role. In a tweet on Tuesday evening, the presidential senior adviser and the US presidents eldest daughter said her father will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. She adds: That replacement will not be me. It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me. Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 9, 2018 Mr Trump and Ms Haley announced on Tuesday that she will be departing the administration at the end of the year. The timing of the announcement was surprising, coming just weeks ahead of the midterm elections. Mr Trump told reporters that selecting his daughter would spark concerns about nepotism. But he also said there is no one more competent in the world for the role than Ivanka. Ivanka Trump has ruled herself out of succeeding Nikki Haley as the US ambassador to the UN (Andrew Milligan/PA) The post requires confirmation from the US Senate. Ambassador Haley has served America with dignity + distinction. She is a bold reformer and has been an unwavering champion of truth, principled realism and integrity within the United Nations. Jared and I are grateful for her friendship a true blessing in our lives! pic.twitter.com/sidkwXzPZB Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 9, 2018 Mr Trump said former aide Dina Powell is under consideration to replace Ms Haley. Ms Powell served as deputy national security adviser to Mr Trump for most of his first year in the White House and departed in mid-January. She previously worked for Goldman Sachs and served in President George W Bushs administration. A behind the scenes documentary about the Prince of Wales is to be broadcast by BBC One to mark the heir to the thrones 70th birthday. Filmmaker John Bridcut has been given access to the Prince over the past 12 months, both at work and away from the public stage. The Prince of Wales turns 70 on November 14 (John Linton/PA) Charless wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, and his sons, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex, have been interviewed for the programme. The 60-minute documentary, which will be broadcast next month, is entitled Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70, and has been described by the BBC as intimate documentary offering a unique insight into the future king. Harry and William have been interviewed for the BBC documentary about their father (Toby Melville/PA) Charles the nations longest serving heir to the throne turns 70 on November 14. Charlotte Moore, director of BBC Content, said: Its a real privilege to be given access to the Prince of Wales and those closest to him to mark his 70th birthday. This intimate documentary will offer a unique insight into his life and work and those who know him best. Charles and the Queen at the state opening of parliament (Suzanne Plunkett/PA) According to the BBC, the programme reveals how Charles, who has established a host of charities and is patron of more than 400 organisations, believes his work is far from finished. What emerges is a revealing and intimate portrait of the longest-serving heir to the throne, who still feels he has a lot more to do, the BBC said. Bridcut previously worked with the prince on The Passionate Prince (2008) and The Prince and the Composer (2011), as well as on two film portraits of the Queen, Elizabeth at 90 (2016) and A Jubilee Tribute (2012) for the BBC. A variety of topics including issues facing young people, welfare and Strictly make headlines on Wednesday along with a dash of Brexit. Theresa May has announced that school children as young as four will be given routine mental health checks as the Government tries to tackle rising rates of problems among pupils, the Daily Mail says. A large proportion of young people are shunning alcohol and the number who have never tried it has doubled in the past decade, according to new research that leads The Times. Tomorrow's front page: A third of under-25s now drink no alcohol pic.twitter.com/lr20qo4k34 The Times (@thetimes) October 9, 2018 The Daily Express says rocketing property prices are forcing more than a quarter of 20 to 24-year-olds to live at home. The Guardian leads with a warning by former prime minister Gordon Brown that the scheduled roll-out of universal credit will trigger a summer of discontent akin to that sparked by the poll tax. Wednesday's Guardian: "Tory benefit cuts will spark poll tax-style chaos, claims Brown" (via @BBCHelenaLee) #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/VRCfYFRaSr BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) October 9, 2018 The Royal College of Psychiatrists is reviewing its opposition to decriminalising cannabis, which could prompt the Government to change its stance, the Daily Telegraph reports. What the papers say - October 10 The Bank of England has urged officials to act quickly to address regulatory uncertainty around 41 trillion of derivatives contracts held in the City of London that are due to mature after Brexit, the Financial Times says. Front page of the Financial Times, London edition, for Wednesday 10 October 2018 pic.twitter.com/r5Kz1r27GB Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) October 9, 2018 And health experts are calling for volunteers to be allowed to help relieve some exhausted NHS staff, the i reports. Wednesday's front page: The NHS needs you - health chiefs call for army of unpaid helpers to relieve 'exhausted' medical staff #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/9jhZ24yIbC i newspaper (@theipaper) October 9, 2018 Meanwhile, homeless people have been told to vacate parts of Windsor town centre ahead of Princess Eugenies 2.25 million wedding to Jack Brooksbank on Friday, the Daily Mirror reports. The Sun leads with Strictly contestant Seann Walsh, who along with dance partner Katya Jones has faced scrutiny after they were photographed kissing. Tomorrow's front page: This is the moment Strictly love rat Seann Walsh branded his girlfriend a psycho for questioning his friendship with dancer Katya Jones. https://t.co/9HUpoyiUMd pic.twitter.com/bIbQD3JymZ The Sun (@TheSun) October 9, 2018 One of the spies suspected of being behind the Salisbury poisonings was outed as a decorated member of the Russian military by his grandmother, the Metro reports. And The Independent leads with a counter-terrorism police chiefs warning that preventing aspiring jihadis from travelling from Britain to Syria could increase the risk of them carrying out attacks at home. A pedestrian has suffered serious injuries after she was hit by an SUV. The incident happened in High Street, Banchory, Aberdeenshire, at around 5pm on Tuesday, It involved a black Nissan Qashqai, which was being driven by a 48-year-old man. The 51-year-old woman was crossing the road at the time. She was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where she is being treated for serious injuries. The occupants of the vehicle were unhurt. The woman was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (David Cheskin/PA) Police Scotland is appealing for witnesses following a serious road traffic collision which occurred at High Street, Banchory, Aberdeenshire on Tuesday 9th October 2018 at around 1700 hours.https://t.co/qcOSygMz9s North East Police (@NorthEPolice) October 10, 2018 Sergeant Rob Warnock, from the Inverurie Road Policing Unit, said: Inquiries into the circumstances of the incident are at an early stage and I am appealing to anyone who witnessed the incident or saw the black Nissan Qashqai or the female pedestrian prior to the incident to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number PS-20181009-2666. The mother of a man allegedly murdered by one of Britains most wanted fugitives has issued a renewed appeal for help finding her sons suspected killer. Shane OBrien, 29, is the chief suspect in the murder of 21-year-old Josh Hanson, who was stabbed to death in a bar in Hillingdon, west London, on October 11 2015. To mark the third anniversary of the killing, Tracey Hanson handed out leaflets at Victoria Station in central London advertising a 50,000 reward for information leading to OBriens arrest. Shane OBrien has a distinctive tattoo, covering up a previous one which could have identified him (Met Police/PA) She told the Press Association: No-one wants to see a sandwich board with murder on their morning commute but its the reality of my life. Im desperate, something needs to be done. I wish the story of my life was different and that it was Josh walking out of that station. The moment I received that phone call, my life stopped. The public have been absolutely unbelievable, if it wasnt for their support Weve had posters in Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, all over Europe. Its the public that we need. Her daughter Brooke, 28, joined her in appealing for help to find the alleged killer of fitness fanatic and Spurs fan Josh, who worked as a roads planner. Joshs mother Tracey Hanson (David Mirzoeff/PA) In February last year, OBrien was arrested in Prague over criminal damage and assault, but used the Italian alias of Enzo Mellonceli, supported by false documentation, and was bailed pending further inquiries. An image taken then shows he has grown his hair, has a full beard and has a large distinctive new tattoo of an owl holding a skull on his back, which covers up his previous Shannon 15-04-06 tattoo. He is currently believed to be in Europe and has also used the alias Enzo Machado. The suspect, who tops the National Crime Agencys most wanted list, is said to have fled the country by private jet after the killing and has spent time in the Germany and Dubai. Josh Hanson was killed on October 11 2015 (Met Police/PA) Detective Chief Inspector Noel McHugh, from the Mets homicide and major crime command, said he wanted the public to keep making it uncomfortable for OBrien until we effectively flush him out by sharing his image and calling in any potential sightings. A small group of people are believed to be helping him with cash, the hire of a private plane, false identities, and moving between borders, he said. DCI McHugh urged the public to share images of the suspect far and wide among their contacts, and to call anything in as soon as they see it. He said that every lead would be followed up. This family have been ripped apart by what happened, he said. Two British nationals are among the victims of a devastating flood that hit the popular tourist island of Majorca overnight. At least five people are believed to have died when torrential rainstorms deluged the town of Sant Llorenc, about 40 miles east of the capital Palma, on Tuesday evening. The deputy mayor of the town, Antonia Bauza, confirmed to Cadena SER radio that two of the victims were British, while two others killed in the town were locals. The fifth victim died in the town of Sillot. The Foreign Office said it was urgently seeking updates from Spanish authorities about the fate of any British people stranded in the area. Spain has been hit by widespread torrential rain (Emilio Morenatti/AP) The two British victims, believed to be a couple, were reportedly in a taxi when they were caught in a flash flood. The Foreign Office said in a statement: We are in contact with the Spanish authorities responding to flooding in Majorca, and urgently seeking updates from them. Hundreds of displaced residents are seeking shelter in emergency relief centres, while soldiers have been sent to assist the rescue effort, Spanish authorities said. The Spanish weather agency reported around eight inches of rain fell in four hours on Tuesday evening on parts of the island. The University of Bristol has become the first to launch a happiness course for students in the UK, teaching strategies for a more fulfilling life. The optional 10-week course, which starts on World Mental Health Day, draws on the latest research in psychology and neuroscience. It explores what happiness is, how to achieve it and teaches tangible practices for students to apply in their everyday lives, the university says. The science of happiness course comes amid growing concerns around the mental health and well-being of students. Recently 94% of universities have experienced a sharp increase in the number of people trying to access support services. The University of Bristol points out that the course is one part of the institutions approaches to improving well-being and pastoral care. The front of the Wills Memorial Building, part of Bristol University (PA) Thousands of students have signed up to an opt-in scheme, agreeing for university staff to inform a designated parent, guardian or friend if there are serious concerns about their well-being. Professor Judith Squires, pro vice-chancellor at the university, said: Were really excited to launch this new course, which is pioneering in the UK. We hope it will be hugely beneficial to our students, not just during their time at university but throughout their lives. Its an example of how our own research can directly benefit the well-being of our community, equipping them with the personal skills to thrive and grow in an increasingly complex world. The course was inspired by Yale Universitys successful psychology and good life course, which one in four students enrolled on. It will be led by Professor Bruce Hood, who has carried out world-leading research into how the brain works. Science of happiness begins by asking students to measure their own happiness levels and discover personal strengths, which will be developed and reflected throughout the course. Classes will address a series of core issues such as whether happiness is in the genes and can really be changed, how our minds distort happiness and the role of culture in happiness. Students will also consider how to pursue experience rather than possessions and learn how to reset their happiness levels. They will be asked to select an exercise to put into practice for one week, then discuss the effect it has. These exercises are: taking time to savour enjoyment, expressing gratitude for people and things, practising random acts of kindness, making social connections, increasing physical activity, sleeping more or meditating. Prof Hood said: Were living in a climate where there are challenges to mental well-being, especially among younger generations. Most people think that the path to happiness is success in jobs, salaries, material possessions and relationships. While these goals are associated with happiness, they do not necessarily guarantee happiness and indeed, the relentless pursuit of these may actually contribute to unhappiness. The course is aimed at all students and not just those who might identify as having challenges with their well-being. Ultimately, the aim of this course is to give students a greater understanding of what happiness is and how the human mind often sabotages happiness. Greater awareness amongst the student body will equip students to pre-empt and improve the mental health of themselves and others. Bank of England officials are to be grilled by MPs after new figures showed a concerning spike in bullying and harassment cases during Mark Carneys term as Governor. The influential Treasury Select Committee is set to probe the Bank as figures obtained by the Press Association show at least 23 bullying and harassment cases were formally investigated by the institution between July 2013 when Mr Carney took the reins and June 2018. The data, gathered via Freedom of Information requests, accounted for incidents both in and out of the workplace, such as business trips, events and work-related social functions. But the total figure may be as high as 39, based on the upper limit of two periods during Mr Carneys term, for which the Bank only said the number of cases was less than 10. It said 21 of the cases were investigated between January 2014 and May 2018. Even the most conservative figure means the number of internal harassment investigations surpasses those logged during the final years under former governor Mervyn King, whose tenure ran from June 2003 to June 2013. Fewer than 10 cases were investigated between June 2009 and June 2013, the only period for which the Bank said centralised records were available. The figures are likely to cause particular embarrassment as they come on World Mental Health Day, which promotes wellness in the workplace. The Treasury Committee has called the trend concerning and is now planning to grill Bank officials over the increase. Chairwoman Nicky Morgan said: An increase in bullying and harassment cases at the Bank of England is concerning. The Treasury Committee will no doubt look to get to the bottom of this when we next take evidence from the Court of the Bank of England. The Press Association also requested a gendered breakdown of the complainants and defendants from the Bank, but this was not provided, despite an appeal arguing that the data was in the public interest given concerns over a lack of diversity among the Banks senior ranks. The Bank of England in London (Kirsty OConnor/PA) The Bank said it could not provide the breakdown of the genders or the number of staff involved as there were fewer than 10 people involved in each case. It said the information would therefore amount to personal information and would breach data protection rules. It also claimed that individuals could potentially be identified if these low numbers were disclosed. Details regarding the outcome of the cases were withheld on the same grounds, though the Bank said upheld cases could have resulted in a verbal or written warning, a note on the employees record, or even dismissal. But it is unclear whether the Banks working environment is contributing to a lack of diversity at its most senior levels. One of the Banks deputy governors, Ben Broadbent, was forced to apologise after being accused of sexism when he controversially described the UK economy as menopausal earlier this year. The Treasury Committee and its chairman have been outspoken on the issue of diversity, particularly in the wake of Jonathan Haskels appointment to the Monetary Policy Committee. Mr Haskel won the appointment in May despite a female-dominated shortlist, with four women having been in the running. It leaves just one woman on the Banks nine-strong rate-setting committee Silvana Tenreyro. The Bank of Englands annual report shows that the proportion of women in senior roles has fallen from 30% to 29%, while the proportion of black, Asian, minority ethnic (BAME) employees in senior management is down to 5%. The central bank itself launched an Inclusion Strategy in 2017, meant to help strengthen our diverse and inclusive culture and support an environment that brings cognitive differences to the fore and a culture that allows everyone to contribute and maximise their potential. The Christian owners of a bakery at the centre of the so-called gay cake case expressed their delight and relief after winning a Supreme Court appeal over a claim that they had discriminated against a customer. Five justices at the UKs highest court allowed a challenge by the McArthur family, who run Ashers bakery in Belfast, in a unanimous ruling in London. The legal action was originally brought by gay rights activist Gareth Lee, who claimed he had been discriminated against when the firm refused to make him a cake iced with the slogan Support Gay Marriage. Mr Lee initially won his case in the county court and then at the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal, but the McArthurs then challenged those rulings at a Supreme Court hearing in Belfast in May. Gay rights activist Gareth Lee brought the original discrimination action against Ashers bakery (PA/Brian Lawless) Speaking outside court after the ruling on Wednesday, the bakerys general manager, Daniel McArthur, who attended court with his wife Amy, said: Were delighted and relieved at todays ruling. We always knew we hadnt done anything wrong in turning down this order. Were particularly pleased the Supreme Court emphatically accepted what weve said all along we did not turn down this order because of the person who made it, but because of the message itself. I know a lot of people will be glad to hear this ruling today, because this ruling protects freedom of speech and freedom of conscience for everyone. Daniel and Amy McArthur challenged a ruling that they discriminated against a customer by refusing to make a cake decorated with the words `Support Gay Marriage (Niall Carson/PA) Controversy first flared when Mr Lee, a member of the LGBT advocacy group QueerSpace, ordered a 36.50 cake in 2014 featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie for a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia. His order was accepted and he paid in full but, two days later, the company called to say it could not proceed due to the message requested. Mr Lee, who was supported by Northern Irelands Equality Commission, was also present for the latest ruling in the case, which has attracted enormous attention. Please read our statement in relation to the judgment given this morning by the Supreme Court in the case of Lee V Ashers Baking Company Limited and Others https://t.co/UT9pnXSSNW pic.twitter.com/BBHGRARSnp Equality Commission (@EqualityCommNI) October 10, 2018 Speaking to the media after the ruling was announced, he said: To me, this was never about a campaign or a statement. All I wanted was to order a cake in a shop that sold cakes to order. I paid my money, my money was taken and then a few days later it was refused. That made me feel like a second-class citizen. Im concerned not just for the implications for myself and other gay people, but for every single one of us. In a brief statement announcing the courts decision, its president, Lady Hale, said the McArthur family hold the religious belief that the only form of marriage consistent with the Bible and acceptable to God is between a man and a woman. She said: As to Mr Lees claim based on sexual discrimination, the bakers did not refuse to fulfil his order because of his sexual orientation. They would have refused to make such a cake for any customer, irrespective of their sexual orientation. Their objection was to the message on the cake, not to the personal characteristics of Mr Lee or of anyone else with whom he was associated. The message on the cake would not just be for the benefit of gay people but also for their families and friends and anyone who recognises the social benefits which the commitment involved in gay marriage can bring. Accordingly, this court holds that there was no discrimination on the ground of the sexual orientation of Mr Lee or anyone else with whom he was associated. Gareth Lee outside the Supreme Court after five justices ruled that the Christian owners of a bakery did not discriminate against the gay rights activist on the ground of sexual orientation (Victoria Jones/PA) The court also found that Mr Lee had no claim against Ashers on the grounds of religious belief or political opinion, holding that no-one should be forced to have or express a political opinion in which he does not believe. Lady Hale said: The bakers could not refuse to supply their goods to Mr Lee because he was a gay man or supported gay marriage, but that is quite different from obliging them to supply a cake iced with a message with which they profoundly disagreed. After announcing that the bakerys appeal was allowed, she added: This conclusion is not in any way to diminish the need to protect gay people and people who support gay marriage from discrimination. It is deeply humiliating, and an affront to human dignity, to deny someone a service because of that persons race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief. But that is not what happened in this case. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK or Ireland where same-sex marriage is outlawed, with Prime Minister Theresa Mays DUP allies staunch opponents of changing the law. Mr Lee said he is considering his options regarding an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Poll tax riots-style chaos will result if the Government pushes on with the national Universal Credit roll out, Gordon Brown has warned. The former prime minister and chancellor branded the welfare reforms a harmful and hated experiment that will risk public disorder. His intervention came after charities warned the nationwide introduction of Universal Credit would trigger a surge in the number of people using food banks. According to reports, millions of families could be left up to 200-a-month worse off when the new system is introduced in July. In a speech at the University of Edinburgh, in memory of the late Motor Neurone Disease campaigner Gordon Aikman, Mr Brown will say Universal Credit would remove 3 billion from the social security budget on top of cuts to child tax credits and benefit, which he helped introduce. He is expected to say: For the first time that any of us can remember, the safety net is not now the welfare state but charity and the lifeline for families in need is not social security but food banks. In my own home town food bank demand has doubled in just a year because of Universal Credit and the benefit changes around it as family after family is pushed into poverty. He will warn child poverty is rising inexorably and is expected to hit five million in 2022. A return to poll tax-style chaos in a summer of discontent lies ahead, he is expected to add. So I am calling today for the Government to abandon the 2019 national roll out of Universal Credit and end this harsh, harmful and hated experiment. Along with Mr Brown, shadow chancellor John McDonnell and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby are among a growing number of figures to call for the roll-out to be halted. Labour had planned on pausing the roll-out if it gets into Government, but Mr McDonnell said the party would now scrap it. Spot on from Gordon Brown. We cant stand by and let this government inflict this level of suffering on our people. I urge everyone to back the Mirrors campaign. https://t.co/mBDLDh2eVb John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) October 10, 2018 Touted as the most radical reform to welfare since the Second World War, Universal Credit rolls six means-tested benefits and tax credits into one payment. It is also designed to encourage people to take up work by ensuring they will always be better off having a job. However, critics have warned that in areas where it has already been introduced there has been an increase in food bank use. The Trussell Trust, a charity that runs hundreds of food banks across the country, also said it received reports people had not been able to access the help they require under the new system. There are concerns that the number of people who have to reapply when it is rolled out next year will place the system under significant pressure. The Government has announced it will give Citizens Advice 39 million to help people claim. Injured protester in Trafalgar Square, London, during a Poll Tax riot (Michael Stephens/PA) The poll tax riots in March 1990 erupted after a peaceful march by 70,000 protesters in London broke down into violent disorder. There were 400 arrests and 113 people, including 45 police, were injured. The march was in opposition to the Community Charge, dubbed the poll tax, which later became council tax. The riots contributed to the the downfall of Margaret Thatcher, who resigned as prime minister in November 1990. Organised crime has flourished in jails where there is a shortage of experienced staff, a former chief inspector of prisons has said. Professor Nick Hardwick told MPs the absence of long-serving officers had left a vacuum which has been filled by inmates involved in the illicit trade in drugs behind bars. He suggested an alternative structure has developed where prisoners had too great an influence in some establishments. Prof Hardwick said: Im quite sure that in some prisons the absence of experienced staff has left a vacuum that organised crime has filled. If you want to have a profitable trade in drugs, you need some rules and structures by which that trade operates. Theres a lot of money at stake. People need to pay you cant go to the small claims court if theyre not. Professor Nick Hardwick, former chief inspector of prisons, gave evidence to the Commons Justice Committee (PA) Whats certainly happened in some prisons is an alternative structure has developed where prisoners are running too much of what is happening. Once established, that becomes very difficult to break down. Prof Hardwick did not single out specific prisons, but his remarks to the Commons Justice Committee chime with warnings raised in recent reports published by his successor as chief inspector Peter Clarke. An assessment of HMP Birmingham warned violent prisoners could act with near impunity and blatant use of illegal substances went largely unchallenged amid a looming lack of control. A report on HMP Bedford found inmates had effectively taken control at the violent, overcrowded and vermin-infested jail. Authorities estimate there are around 6,500 prisoners with links to organised crime in England and Wales. The Government has announced a string of measures aimed at loosening the grip of gangs and stopping criminal kingpins from continuing their activities from behind bars. In the latest step, announced earlier this month by Justice Secretary David Gauke, a new specialist unit will identify and freeze bank accounts linked to organised crime. Prof Hardwick also warned that prisons are struggling to retain staff amid surging levels of violence. He told the committee: You get punched. Why would you turn up to work with these levels of violence? Secondly you can earn more money in comparable or less stressful jobs close by. He also cited training and staff support as potential factors behind the retention problem. The deed having been done, everyone is now bracing for what might follow. India went in for the purchase of the S400 missile system from Russia, knowing full well the possible implications of this deal falling foul of the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) passed by the US Congress. But even as many in India fear the worst sanctions being imposed by the US on Indian entities under CAATSA the hope is that the Trump administration will give India a waiver in order to keep the strategic relationship which has been blossoming for some time. Balancing acts: India has good ties on both sides (Photo: Reuters) But who can say for sure what US President Donald Trump will do? After all, if he could read the riot act to Americas European allies, and take on the Chinese, Russians and the Iranians, end the years of US prevarication on Pakistan, then expecting him to show sensitivity to Indias flight of fancy of maintaining its strategic autonomy is nothing more than a gamble. This became clear when on the sidelines of the 2+2 Dialogue, a top US official, when asked how the US President would react to the S400 deal, quipped that even he had no idea what Trump would do! They knew who was really deciding the agenda. (Photo: Reuters) While there is a lot to be said in favour of acquiring the S400 system for enhancing Indias security architecture and filling critical gaps in defence preparedness, conflating it with something as vague and nebulous as a concept like strategic autonomy does not make much sense. If anything, such conflation only undercuts and undermines the security argument that India has made to the Americans to get a waiver from any sort of sanctions. In fact, Indias continuing dependence on Russia for many of its defence needs is in and of itself both evidence and argument on the non-existence of strategic autonomy. Is this really about our 'strategic autonomy' - or fostering more dependence? (Photo: PTI) To put it differently, Indias dependence on Russian supplies circumscribe its claims to strategic autonomy. Cut through the clap-trap, and it becomes clear that for all the gravitas that it exudes, 'Strategic Autonomy' is nothing more than a slogan, more so for middle-level powers like India which depend on other Great Powers for weapon systems, political and diplomatic support, technology and markets. That even Great Powers have limits to their strategic autonomy is another matter. It is one thing to declare that Strategic Autonomy as a policy principle, and quite another to get taken in or fooled by your own rhetoric and grandstanding. Many principles of policy arent always implementable or even sensible. Realpolitik demands that having once publicly declared a particular concept as a principle of policy strategic autonomy in the current case nation states should be wise and flexible enough to at least tweak, if not entirely ignore the principle to protect their national interests. It is patently foolish to let declared policy bind the country into a commitment trap. In other words, it is all very well for India to declare that it only adheres to multilateral sanctions under the aegis of the UN and doesnt recognise unilateral sanctions imposed by any country on another country but such a declaration of principle cannot be divorced from the reality that adhering to it will exact a very heavy price which is probably not worth paying. Clearly, India took a calculated risk by going ahead with the S400, despite the threat of CAATSA. Given the growing strategic convergence between the US and India, and the fact that Trump has been somewhat well disposed towards India, there is reasonable chance that he might agree to a waiver for India. To not do so would jeopardise the entire strategic partnership between the two countries. After India signed on two of the three foundational agreements LEMOA and COMCASA imposing sanctions would mean tearing up these agreements. This is so because unlike some other countries, which have floated Special Purpose Vehicles to evade the CAATSA, in Indias case, the S400 is being procured for the Indian Air Force. If either the IAF or the Ministry of Defence in India was to now become a sanctioned entity, it would sound the death knell for the strategic relationship between the US and India. But having taken the risk entailed in a difficult decision to buy the S400, the chest-thumping on establishing Indias strategic autonomy was quite unnecessary even less so considering the fact that after the deal was signed, there were a spate of reports about how India was working overtime to placate the Americans and even thinking of some big-ticket purchases from the US to humour Trump. If indeed India was so sure about not compromising on its strategic autonomy, then instead of trying to appease the Americans, India would be quite nonchalant about how the Trump administration would react. Will India now need to do more weapons shopping in the USA? Perhaps the grandstanding was done with an eye on domestic politics, to prove to the people of India that the current dispensation will not succumb to pressure and will stand up for Indias right and take the decisions it feels are in the country's best interest. But this could have been done without blowing the trumpet of strategic autonomy, which is a bit fictional. Take, for instance, the petroleum ministers announcement that India will continue to buy oil from Iran, defying the US sanctions. Coming as it did soon after the S400 deal, this statement was like throwing fuel on fire. India announcing oil purchases from Iran was like pouring fuel on the S400 fire. (Photo: Reuters) Not only was it a diplomatic blooper, it was also economical with the facts on ground. The truth is that India is hoping for a waiver on zero oil from Iran. But if the waiver doesnt come there are some analysts who believe that the US might give a waiver on S400 but will not on Iran oil then whether or not India likes it, there is going to be no oil that it will buy from Iran. Even if any petroleum company was willing to cock a snook at the US, it will still find it difficult to buy the oil because of the transactional, logistical, financial and other difficulties that will hinder oil trade with Iran. Clearly, it makes no sense for the government of India to put its entire economic stability on the line for the sake of maintaining the myth of strategic autonomy. While India can keep mouthing the mantra of multipolarity and other diplomatic mumbo-jumbo like strategic autonomy, it is important that it weighs the economic, strategic, political and diplomatic content of its relationship with the US against its relationship with Iran or Russia or any other country. On virtually every single parameter, the other relationships just dont stack up to India's relationship with the US. Instead of nostalgia, realism and national interest must guide India's foreign policy. Also read: Why Vladimir Putin's India visit is of great significance After a long and tortured eight years, Asia Noreen Bibi a poor agricultural worker, who has been sitting on death row on allegations of blasphemy finally had her appeal heard by Pakistans Supreme Court. But, like many actions taken by the countrys highest court recently, the long-awaited judgment caused some consternation by not being announced. Asia Noreen Bibi stands accused of insulting Prophet Mohammed. (Source: Twitter) The decision to reserve the judgment has often been the practice in high-profile political or social cases. In Asia Bibis case, the court is likely concerned about the anticipated reaction from Pakistan extremist Islamist groups some of whom are already threatening adverse consequences if Bibi is acquitted. Even under Pakistans flawed blasphemy laws, the case against Bibi was based on contradictory testimony and should result in acquittal on appeal, in the view of most legal experts. The Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), the influential Islamist group which won 2.2 million votes out of 40 million votes cast, and which came second or third in some key contests, beating established political parties, is leading the charge against Asia Bibis acquittal. Prime Minister Imran Khan gave the group its first victory by sacking distinguished Princeton University economist, Atif Mian, from the Economic Advisory Council because of his Ahmadi faith. The TLP has made punishing blasphemy its rallying cry and lionises Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard who murdered former Punjab governor Salman Taseer in January 2011 for advocating changes to Pakistans blasphemy law. Salman Taseer was killed for speaking out against the blasphemy law. (Source: Reuters) The partys leaders have now warned the Supreme Court against any "concession or softness" for Bibi and have said that there would be terrible consequences if, as has been suggested, Asia Bibi is allowed to proceed abroad for her safety after acquittal by the Supreme Court. TLP leader Pir Afzal Qadri has reportedly declared that the judge who orders Asia Bibis release must be killed because he is an absolute apostate and only an apostate can pardon a blasphemer. In his view, evidence and the application of relevant laws are irrelevant. According to Qadri, the government should hang the lenient judge otherwise Prophet lovers would kill him. And there lies the peril of Pakistans non-debate on its draconian blasphemy laws. Not only is someone convicted under the law punishable by death, even someone who acquits an accused person runs the risk of being labelled an apostate it is as if an allegation of blasphemy is of itself the beginning as well as the end of the entire legal process. Bibi, an illiterate berry picker, was convicted on the grounds of defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed. Her Muslim neighbours objected to her drinking water from the same glass as them because she was Christian. Whatever she said in response was reported by the neighbours as blasphemous, starting the poor womans eight-year long ordeal. Under Pakistan's blasphemy law, Bibis alleged comment is punishable by death. In 2010, Bibi, at age 45, was sentenced to death by hanging a decision that attracted international condemnation. Western governments and religious freedom advocates have voiced support for Bibi and in February this year, Pope Francis described Bibi, alongside a Nigerian woman who was captured by Boko Haram, as martyrs. Caught between domestic demands against any tolerance of alleged blasphemy and international pressure for Asia Bibis release, successive Pakistani governments have kept her case lingering through Pakistans generally slow legal system. But even if she is finally spared the gallows and allowed to leave the country, Asia Bibis case will continue to illustrate how blasphemy laws are used to persecute the weakest of the weak among Pakistan's religious minorities. Can Pakistan's Supreme Court grant Asia Bibi her freedom? (Source: Reuters) As a poor Christian from a lower caste, Bibi was among the most vulnerable and susceptible to discrimination. And the legal system which, in theory, should be designed to protect the innocent failed her in every way. Threats of violence by religious vigilantes and the tendency of Pakistani leaders to bow down to extremists have made it virtually impossible to amend the unjust laws. Pakistan's blasphemy laws date back to the military dictatorship of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. In 1980, making a derogatory remark against any Islamic personage was defined as a crime under Pakistan's Penal Code Section 295, punishable by three years in prison. In 1982, another clause was added that prescribed life imprisonment for "wilful desecration of the Quran" and, in 1986, a separate clause was added to punish blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed with "death, or imprisonment for life". Bibi's case isn't the first in which Pakistan's blasphemy laws have been used to punish minority groups. Since Zia-ul-Haq imposed the laws, their application has unleashed extremist religious frenzy. Procedures for investigation and prosecution lend themselves to widespread abuse. Assertion by a Muslim witness that blasphemy was committed is sufficient for filing of charges and the arrest of a suspect even without corroborating evidence. Furthermore, the testimony of non-Muslim witnesses in defence carries less weight, and, in most cases, the filing of charges is tantamount to punishment, because bail is denied. Worse still, once blasphemy is alleged, mob violence or targeted killing becomes a possibility. According to researcher Mohammed Nafees, from 1990-2011, there were over 50 cases "wherein blasphemy suspects were either extra-judicially murdered or died in jail". To quote a 2016 Amnesty International report, As Good as Dead: The Impact of Blasphemy laws in Pakistan, once an individual is accused of blasphemy, "They become ensnared in a system that offers them few protections, presumes them guilty, and fails to safeguard them against people willing to use violence." Lawyers who dare to represent someone accused of blasphemy have also been killed. In 2014, Rashid Rehman, a distinguished human rights lawyer brave enough to represent those most vulnerable to blasphemy charges women and children of religious minorities, people with mental disabilities, and the weak and impoverished was shot dead in his office by two unidentified gunmen. Meanwhile, judges who have dared to acquit an alleged blasphemer or convict the killer of an alleged blasphemer have either had to flee the country or face death. It remains to be seen whether Pakistans Supreme Court can change that unfortunate recent history by granting Asia Bibi the freedom she deserves. Eventually, Pakistanis have to find the courage to confront religious extremists and subdue the passions over blasphemy that undermine their countrys capacity to protect religious minorities. Also read: Sometimes, you censor yourself in journalism - and totally un-censor yourself in fiction The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now. Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market. In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender. India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex. Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted. But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted? Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner. If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems. I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now. I want more variation in masturbation I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own. If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end. What is sex toys for Indian? Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation. It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms. They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable. Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner. The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner. It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past. In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping. Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order. In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing. Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own. But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance. More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around. Sextoy situation in India Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years. In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India. Mumbai Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Chennai Hyderabad These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India. In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well. If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too. If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it. What are Sextoys for beginner? Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms. Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy. I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion. I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy. If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma. Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it. Advantages of using sextoy for Indians There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways. Can have stimulating sex Can develop new sexual zones If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern. However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways. You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation. Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever. There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure. This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it. When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems. It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms). For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles [Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou... Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India. Sextoy for beginner men in India So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners. For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men! The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men Masturbator Cock rings Love Doll Sex Lubricants Toys for the prostate Lets check each one in detail. Masturbator The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products. It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands. Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands. They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.) Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much. Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! ! Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa SEXToys India PR (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018 Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood. If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ... [For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien... Cock Ring A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis. It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow. It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber. In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection. Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction. It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it. Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time. Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function. Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy. You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect. [Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat... Love Doll Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex. There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women. Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price. The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true. You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste. There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice. You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls. If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to... Sex lubricants Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules. It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution. Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse. There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent. Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent. If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here. What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many... Toys for the Prostate Another sextoy for men is prostate toys. The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line. Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men. Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men. What is the prostate? The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm. You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus. By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms. Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.) The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation. Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure. sextoy for beinner women in India The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy. The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy. Vibrator. Dildo Electric Masserger Lets check out what each one is in detail. If you want to check out womens toys, click here. [BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm... Vibrators A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator. Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy. It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy. Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women. For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators. Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex. Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself. This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual. Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men. When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons. Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most... Dildo A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis. It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass. A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it. They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well. It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device. A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo. Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands. For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis. This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one. To learn more about dildo, please click here. What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th... Electric Masserger A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores. It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low. Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels. Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation. It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure. For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm. It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out. If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager? To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here. What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th... How to choose a sextoy for Indian Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one. Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)? Does the size fit you (your partner)? Is the environment able to produce sound without problems? Price range First of all, the choice of size is quite important. Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women. For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage. Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems. Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise. If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level. Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it. Finally, there is the price range. The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest. Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy. Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy? I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance. For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics. If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out. How to buy sextoys in India The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping. For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below. Sextoy is one of them. Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping. SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India. They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry. Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card. To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy. ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal. Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on. Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture. Cautions for Indians using sextoy When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind Keep sex toys clean Watch out for electrical leakage Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone. Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there. It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case. In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness. Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful. If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it. You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly. Summary What did you think? In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India. The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future. As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values. However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health. If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try? Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women. I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it. Warner Music NashvilleChris Janson kicks off his Waitin on 5 Fall Tour this Friday at Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee. The nearly-twenty-city run will find the Drunk Girl hitmaker playing his first-ever headlining show in Los Angeles at The Novo on November 30. The three-time CMA nominee is also busy planning for next year. Hell be the co-chair of National Hunting and Fishing Day in 2019, along with his fellow outdoorsman Luke Bryan. The annual celebration takes place on the fourth Saturday in September every year. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. By Trend The United Nations Security Council should reconsider its sanctions against Pyongyang, deputy foreign ministers of Russia, China and North Korea said in a joint communique released after their consultations in Moscow on Wednesday, TASS reports. "Taking into account the important steps towards denuclearization made by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the sides believe the UN Security Council should start in due time revising the sanctions against the DPRK," Igor Morgulov, Kong Xuanyou and Choe Son-hui said in the communique. The high-ranking diplomats confirmed their stance against unilateral sanctions against North Korea. The sides share stance that there is no alternative to settling the problems of the Korean Peninsula by peaceful and diplomatic means. They praised the efforts by the involved countries on promoting dialogue in the interests of this settlement. The diplomats also called for holding talks between Pyongyang and Washington, and also between Pyongyang and Seoul "to alleviate mutual concerns and normalize ties." The deputy foreign ministers confirmed the sides aspiration to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and create there a mechanism of peace. "There is general understanding that this process, the priority goal of which is to establish mutual trust, should be of a step-by-step and synchronized character and accompanied by reciprocal steps of the involved states." Russia, China and North Korea consider that the Korean Peninsulas denuclearization process should be step-by-step and synchronized, and it requires reciprocal steps by the involved countries, according to the joint communique. The diplomats discussed in detail the need to enhance bilateral and multilateral coordination with the goal of setting up a mechanism of a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. According to analysts' consensus price target of C$2.38, Africa Oil has a forecasted upside of from its current price of C$0.00. 4.4 Community Rank Outperform Votes Africa Oil has received 90 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Africa Oil has received 45 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Africa Oil has received 66.67% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Africa Oil and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe AOI will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe AOI will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next 8 hours ago Tyson Foods Is A Hedge Against Inflation? Tyson Foods Beats Top And Bottom Line With Higher Prices As surprising as it may sound, Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) may be a hedge against the rising tide of consumer inflation. Call it a stretch, but the company is part of the infrastructure of American food and thereby qualifies as a real asset, at least to some degree. Read Article 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 BP: 200 PS Overseas Holdings Inc., 563916 Alberta Ltd., ACP (Malaysia) Inc., AE Cedar Creek Holdings LLC, AE Goshen II Holdings LLC, AE Goshen II Wind Farm LLC, AE Power Services LLC, AE Wind PartsCo LLC, AM/PM International Inc., ARCO, ARCO British International, ARCO British Limited, ARCO Coal Australia Inc., ARCO El-Djazair Holdings Inc., ARCO Environmental Remediation L.L.C., ARCO Exploration Inc., ARCO Gaviota Company, ARCO International Investments Inc., ARCO International Services Inc., ARCO Midcon LLC, ARCO Oil Company Nigeria Unlimited, ARCO Oman Inc, ARCO Resources Limited, ARCO Trinidad Exploration and Production Company Limited, ARCO Unimar Holdings LLC, Actomat B.V., Advance Petroleum Holdings Pty Ltd, Advance Petroleum Pty Ltd, Air BP Albania SHA, Air BP Brasil Ltda., Air BP Canada LLC, Air BP Croatia d.o.o., Air BP Finland Oy, Air BP Iceland, Air BP Limited, Air BP Norway AS, Air BP Sales Romania S.R.L., Air BP Sweden AB, Air Refuel Pty Ltd, Allgreen Pty Ltd, AmProp Finance Company, American Oil Company, Amoco (Fiddich) Limited, Amoco (U.K.) Exploration Company LLC., Amoco Bolivia Petroleum Company, Amoco Bolivia Services Company Inc., Amoco Canada International Holdings B.V., Amoco Capline Pipeline Company, Amoco Chemical (Europe) S.A., Amoco Chemicals (FSC) B.V., Amoco Cypress Pipeline Company, Amoco Destin Pipeline Company, Amoco Environmental Services Company, Amoco Exploration Holdings B.V., Amoco Guatemala Petroleum Company, Amoco International Finance Corporation, Amoco International Petroleum Company, Amoco Leasing Corporation, Amoco Louisiana Fractionator Company, Amoco MB Fractionation Company, Amoco MBF Company, Amoco Main Pass Gathering Company, Amoco Marketing Environmental Services Company, Amoco Netherlands Petroleum Company, Amoco Nigeria Exploration Company Limited, Amoco Nigeria Oil Company Limited, Amoco Nigeria Petroleum Company, Amoco Nigeria Petroleum Company Limited, Amoco Norway Oil Company, Amoco Oil Holding Company, Amoco Olefins Corporation, Amoco Overseas Exploration Company, Amoco Pipeline Asset Company, Amoco Pipeline Holding Company, Amoco Properties Incorporated, Amoco Remediation Management Services Corporation, Amoco Research Operating Company, Amoco Rio Grande Pipeline Company, Amoco Somalia Petroleum Company, Amoco Sulfur Recovery Company, Amoco Tri-States NGL Pipeline Company, Amoco Trinidad Gas B.V., Amoco U.K. Petroleum Limited, Amprop Illinois I Limited, Amprop Inc., Anaconda Arizona Inc., Arabian Production And Marketing Lubricants, Aral Aktiengesellschaft, Aral Luxembourg S.A., Aral Services Luxembourg Sarl, Aral Tankstellen Services Sarl, Arco Mediterraneo Inversiones S.L., Areas Noriega S.L., Areas Singulares Reyes S.L., Aspac Lubricants (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Atlantic 2/3 UK Holdings Limited, Atlantic Richfield Company, Atlantic Richfield Companyd, Autino Holdings Limited, Autino Limited, Auwahi Wind Energy Holdings LLC, B2Mobility GmbH, BASS Management Pty Ltd, BP (Abu Dhabi) Limited, BP (Barbados) Holding SRL, BP (Barbican) Limited, BP (China) Holdings Limited, BP (China) Industrial Lubricants Limited, BP (GTA Mauritania) Finance Limited, BP (GTA Senegal) Finance Limited, BP (Gibraltar) Limited, BP (Guangzhou) Advanced Mobility Limited, BP (Hunan) Petroleum Company Limited, BP (Indian Agencies) Limited, BP (Shandong) Petroleum Co. Ltd, BP (Shanghai) Trading Limited, BP - Castrol (Thailand) Limited, BP AMI Leasing Inc., BP Absheron Limited, BP Advanced Mobility Limited, BP Africa Limited, BP Africa Oil Limited, BP Akaryakit Ortakligi, BP Alaska LNG LLC, BP Alternative Energy Holdings Limited, BP Alternative Energy Investments Limited, BP Alternative Energy North America Inc., BP Alternative Energy Trinidad and Tobago Limited, BP America Chembel Holding LLC, BP America Chemicals Company, BP America Foreign Investments Inc., BP America Inc, BP America Inc., BP America Limited, BP America Production Company, BP Amoco Chemical Company, BP Amoco Chemical Holding Company, BP Amoco Chemical Indonesia Limited, BP Amoco Chemical Malaysia Holding Company, BP Amoco Exploration (Faroes) Limited, BP Amoco Exploration (In Amenas) Limited, BP Andaman II Ltd, BP Angola (Block 18) B.V., BP Argentina Exploration Company, BP Argentina Holdings LLC, BP Aromatics Holdings Limited, BP Aromatics Limited, BP Asia Limited, BP Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., BP Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, BP Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, BP Australia Capital Markets Limited, BP Australia Employee Share Plan Proprietary Limited, BP Australia Group Pty Ltde, BP Australia Investments Pty Ltd, BP Australia Nominees Proprietary Limited, BP Australia Pty Ltd, BP Australia Shipping Pty Ltd, BP Australia Swaps Management Limited, BP Aviation A/S, BP Benevolent Fund Trustees Limited, BP Berau Ltd., BP Biocombustiveis S.A., BP Bioenergia Campina Verde Ltda., BP Bioenergia Ituiutaba Ltda., BP Bioenergia Itumbiara S.A., BP Bioenergia Tropical S.A., BP Biofuels Advanced Technology Inc., BP Biofuels Brazil Investments Limited, BP Biofuels Louisiana LLC, BP Biofuels North America LLC, BP Biofuels Trading Comercio Exportacao Ltda., BP Bomberai Ltd., BP Brasil Ltda., BP Brazil Tracking L.L.C., BP Bulwer Island Pty Ltd, BP Business Service Centre Asia Sdn Bhd, BP Business Service Centre KFT, BP CIV Pty Ltd, BP Canada Energy Development Company, BP Canada Energy Group ULC, BP Canada Energy Marketing Corp., BP Canada International Holdings B.V., BP Canada Investments Inc., BP Capellen Sarl, BP Capital Markets, BP Capital Markets America, BP Capital Markets America Inc., BP Capital Markets p.l.c., BP Car Fleet Limited, BP Caribbean Company, BP Castrol KK, BP Castrol Lubricants (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., BP Central Pipelines LLC, BP Chembel, BP Chemicals (Korea) Limited, BP Chemicals East China Investments Limited, BP Chemicals Investments Limited, BP Chemicals Limited, BP China Exploration and Production Company, BP Comercializadora de Energia Ltda., BP Commodities Trading Limited, BP Commodity Supply B.V., BP Company North America, BP Company North America Inc., BP Containment Response Limited, BP Containment Response System Holdings LLC, BP Continental Holdings Limited, BP Corporate Holdings, BP Corporate Holdings Limited, BP Corporation North America, BP Corporation North America Inc., BP D-B Pipeline Company LLC, BP D230 Limited, BP Danmark A/S, BP Developments Australia Pty. Ltd., BP Dogal Gaz Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, BP East Kalimantan CBM Limited, BP Eastern Mediterranean Limited, BP Egypt Company, BP Egypt East Delta Marine Corporation, BP Egypt East Tanka B.V., BP Egypt Production B.V., BP Egypt Ras El Barr B.V., BP Egypt West Mediterranean (Block B) B.V., BP Energy Asia Pte. Limited, BP Energy Colombia Limited, BP Energy Company, BP Energy Europe Limited, BP Energy Solutions B.V., BP Energy do Brasil Ltda., BP Energia Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., BP Espana S.A. Unipersonal, BP Estaciones y Servicios Energeticos Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, BP Europa SE, BP Exploracion de Venezuela S.A., BP Exploration & Production Inc., BP Exploration (Absheron) Limited, BP Exploration (Alaska), BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., BP Exploration (Algeria) Limited, BP Exploration (Alpha), BP Exploration (Alpha) Limited, BP Exploration (Angola), BP Exploration (Angola) Limited, BP Exploration (Azerbaijan), BP Exploration (Azerbaijan) Limited, BP Exploration (Canada) Limited, BP Exploration (Caspian Sea), BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Limited, BP Exploration (D230) Limited, BP Exploration (Delta), BP Exploration (Delta) Limited, BP Exploration (El Djazair) Limited, BP Exploration (Epsilon) Limited, BP Exploration (Gambia) Limited, BP Exploration (Greenland) Limited, BP Exploration (Madagascar) Limited, BP Exploration (Morocco) Limited, BP Exploration (Namibia) Limited, BP Exploration (Nigeria Finance) Limited, BP Exploration (Nigeria) Limited, BP Exploration (Psi) Limited, BP Exploration (STP) Limited, BP Exploration (Shafag-Asiman) Limited, BP Exploration (Shah Deniz) Limited, BP Exploration (South Atlantic) Limited, BP Exploration (Xazar) Pte. Ltd., BP Exploration Angola (Kwanza Benguela) Limited, BP Exploration Argentina Limited, BP Exploration Australia Pty Ltd Level 15, BP Exploration Beta Limited, BP Exploration China Limited, BP Exploration Company (Middle East) Limited, BP Exploration Company Limited, BP Exploration Indonesia Limited, BP Exploration Libya Limited, BP Exploration Mexico Limited, BP Exploration Mexico S.A. De C.V., BP Exploration North Africa Limited, BP Exploration Operating Company, BP Exploration Operating Company Limited, BP Exploration Orinoco Limited, BP Exploration Personnel Company Limited, BP Exploration Peru Limited, BP Express Shopping Limited, BP Finance Australia Pty Ltd, BP Finance p.l.c., BP Foundation Incorporated, BP France, BP Fuels & Lubricants AS, BP Fuels Deutschland GmbH, BP GOM Logistics LLC, BP Gas & Power Investments Limited, BP Gas Europe S.A.U., BP Gas Marketing Limited, BP Gas Supply (Angola) LLC, BP Ghana Limited, BP Global Investments, BP Global Investments Limited, BP Global Investments Salalah & Co LLC, BP Global West Africa Limited, BP Greece Limited, BP Guangdong Limited, BP High Density Polyethylene - France, BP Holdings (Thailand) Limited, BP Holdings B.V., BP Holdings Canada, BP Holdings Canada Limited, BP Holdings International B.V., BP Holdings North America, BP Holdings North America Limited, BP Hong Kong Limited, BP India Private Limited, BP Indonesia Investment Limited, BP International, BP International Limited, BP International Services Company, BP Investment Management Limited, BP Investments Asia Limited, BP Iran Limited, BP Iraq N.V., BP Italia SpA, BP Japan K.K., BP Korea Limited, BP Kuwait Limited, BP LNG Shipping Limited, BP Latin America LLC, BP Latin America Upstream Services Inc., BP Lubricants KK, BP Lubricants USA Inc., BP Luxembourg S.A., BP Malaysia Holdings Sdn. Bhd., BP Management International B.V., BP Management Netherlands B.V., BP Marine Limited, BP Mariner Holding Company LLC, BP Maritime Services (Singapore) Pte. Limited, BP Marketing Egypt LLC, BP Mauritania Investments Limited, BP Mauritius Limited (in liquidation), BP Middle East Enterprises Corporation, BP Middle East LLC, BP Middle East Limited, BP Midstream Partners GP LLC, BP Midstream Partners Holdings LLC, BP Midstream Partners LP, BP Midwest Product Pipelines Holdings LLC, BP Mocambique Limitada, BP Mocambique Limited, BP Muturi Holdings B.V., BP Nederland Holdings BV, BP Netherlands Upstream B.V., BP New Ventures Middle East Limited, BP New Zealand Holdings Limited, BP New Zealand Share Scheme Limited, BP Nutrition Inc., BP Offshore Gathering Systems Inc., BP Offshore Pipelines Company LLC, BP Offshore Response Company LLC, BP Oil (Thailand) Limited, BP Oil Australia Pty Ltd, BP Oil Espana S.A., BP Oil Hellenic S.A., BP Oil International, BP Oil International Limited, BP Oil Kent Refinery Limited (in liquidation), BP Oil Llandarcy Refinery Limited, BP Oil Logistics UK Limited, BP Oil New Zealand Limited, BP Oil Pipeline Company, BP Oil Senegal S.A., BP Oil Shipping Company, BP Oil UK Limited, BP Oil Venezuela Limited, BP Oil Vietnam Limited, BP Oil Yemen Limited, BP Olex Fanal Mineralol GmbH, BP One Pipeline Company LLC, BP Pacific Investments Ltd, BP Pakistan (Badin) Inc., BP Pakistan Exploration and Production Inc., BP Pension Escrow Limited, BP Pension Trustees Limited, BP Pensions (Overseas) Limited, BP Pensions Limited, BP Petrochemicals India Investments Limited, BP Petroleo y Gas S.A., BP Petrolleri Anonim Sirketi, BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc., BP Pipelines (BTC) Limited, BP Pipelines (North America) Inc., BP Pipelines (SCP) Limited, BP Pipelines (TANAP) Limited, BP Pipelines TAP Limited, BP Polska Services Sp. z o.o. Ul., BP Portugal -Comercio de Combustiveis e Lubrificantes SA, BP Poseidon Limited, BP Products North America, BP Products North America Inc., BP Properties Limited, BP Raffinaderij Rotterdam B.V., BP Refinery (Kwinana) Proprietary Limited, BP Regional Australasia Holdings Pty Ltd, BP River Rouge Pipeline Company LLC, BP Russian Investments Limited, BP Russian Ventures Limited, BP SC Holdings LLC, BP Scale Up Factory Limited, BP Senegal Investments Limited, BP Services International Limited, BP Servicios de Combustibles S.A. de C.V., BP Servicios territoriales S.A., BP Shafag-Asiman Limited, BP Shipping Limited, BP Singapore Pte. Limited, BP Solar Energy North America LLC, BP Solar Espana S.A., BP Solar International Inc., BP Solar Pty Ltd, BP South America Holdings Ltd, BP Southern Africa Proprietary Limited, BP Southern Cone Company, BP Subsea Well Response (Brazil) Limited, BP Subsea Well Response Limited, BP Taiwan Marketing Limited, BP Technology Ventures Inc., BP Technology Ventures Limited, BP Train 2/3 Holding SRL, BP Transportation (Alaska) Inc., BP Trinidad Processing Limited, BP Trinidad and Tobago, BP Trinidad and Tobago LLC, BP Turkey Refining Limited, BP Two Pipeline Company LLC, BP UK Retained Holdings Limited, BP Venezuela Investments B.V., BP West Aru I Limited, BP West Aru II Limited, BP West Papua I Limited, BP West Papua III Limited, BP Wind Energy North America Inc., BP Wiriagar Ltd., BP World-Wide Technical Services Limited, BP Zhuhai Chemical Company Limited, BP+Amoco International Limited, BP-AIOC Exploration (TISA) LLC, BPA Investment Holding Company, BPNE International B.V., BPRY Caribbean Ventures LLC, BPX (Eagle Ford) Gathering LLC, BPX (KCS Resources) LLC, BPX (Karnes) Gathering LLC, BPX (Permian) Gathering LLC, BPX (WSF Operating) Inc., BPX Energy Inc., BPX Midstream LLC, BPX Operating Company, BPX Production Company, BPX Properties (GP) LLC, BPX Properties (LP) LLC, BPX Properties (NA) LP, BTC Pipeline Holding Company Limited, BXL Plastics Limitedv, Bahia de Bizkaia Electridad S.L., Baltimore Ennis Land Company Inc., Black Lake Pipe Line Company, Brian Jasper Nominees Pty Ltd, Britannic Energy Trading Limited, Britannic Investments Iraq Limited, Britannic Marketing Limited, Britannic Strategies Limited, Britannic Trading Limited, Britoil Limited, Burmah Castrol, Burmah Castrol Australia Pty Ltd, Burmah Castrol Holdings Inc., Burmah Castrol PLC, Burmah Castrol South Africa (Pty) Limited, Burmah Chile SpA, Butamax Advanced Biofuels, CASTROL Austria GmbHb, CH-Twenty Inc., CNAA, Cadman DBP Limited, Casitas Pipeline Company, Castrol (China) Limited, Castrol (Ireland) Limited, Castrol (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Castrol (Shenzhen) Company Limited, Castrol (Tianjin) Lubricants Co. Ltd., Castrol (U.K.) Limited, Castrol Australia Pty. Limited, Castrol B.V., Castrol BP Petco Limited Liability Company, Castrol Brasil Ltda., Castrol Caribbean & Central America Inc., Castrol Colombia Ltda., Castrol Del Peru S.A., Castrol Egypt Lubricants S.A.E., Castrol India Limited, Castrol Industrie und Service GmbH, Castrol KK, Castrol Limited, Castrol Lubricants RO S.R.L, Castrol Mexico S.A., Castrol Namibia (Pty) Limited, Castrol Offshore Limited, Castrol Pakistan (Private) Limited, Castrol Philippines Inc., Castrol Servicos Ltda., Castrol Ukraine LLC, Castrol Zimbabwe (Private) Limited, Centrel Pty Ltd, Charge Your Car Limitedc, Chargemaster, Chargemaster (Europe) GmbH, Chargemaster Limited, Charging Solutions Limited, Clarisse Holdings Pty Ltd, Coastwise Trading Company Inc., Consolidada de Energia y Lubricantes (CENERLUB) C.A., Conti Cross Keys Inn Inc., Coro Trading NZ Limited, Cuyama Pipeline Company, DHC Solvent Chemie GmbH, Dermody Developments Pty Ltd, Dermody Holdings Pty Ltd, Dermody Investments Pty Ltd, Dermody Petroleum Pty. Ltd., Dome Beaufort Petroleum Limited, Dome Wallis (1980) Limited Partnership, ECM Markets SA (Pty) Ltd, Elektromotive Limited, Elite Customer Solutions Pty Ltd, Elm Holdings Inc., Energy Global Investments (USA) Inc., Enstar LLC, Estacion de Servicio Alto Campoo S.L., Estacion de Servicio Ganzo 10 S.L., Estacion de Servicio Reocin 9 S.L., Estacion de Servicio Santillana II S.L., Estacion de Servicio Sardinero S.L., Estonian Aviation Fuelling Services, Europa Oil NZ Limited, Exomet Inc., Expandite Contract Services Limited, Exploration (Luderitz Basin) Limited, Exploration Service Company Limited, FWK (2017) Limited, FWK Holdings (2017) LTD, Finite Carbon, Flat Ridge 2 Holdings LLC, Flat Ridge Wind Energy LLC, Foseco Holding Inc., Foseco Holding International B.V., Foseco Inc., Fosroc Expandite Limited, Fotech Solutions Ltd, Fowler Ridge Holdings LLC, Fowler Ridge I Land Investments LLC, Fowler Ridge II Holdings LLC, Fowler Ridge III Wind Farm LLC, FreeBees B.V., Fuel & Retail Aviat ion Sweden AB, Fuelplane- Sociedade Abastecedora De Aeronaves Unipessoal Lda, GOAM 1 C.I S. A .S, Gardena Holdings Inc., Gelsenkirchen Raffinerie Netz GmbH, Grampian Aviation Fuelling Services Limited, Guangdong Investments Limited, Highlands Ethanol LLC, Hosteleria Noriega S.L., IGI Resources Inc., Insight Analytics Solutions Holdings Limited, Insight Analytics Solutions Limited, Insight Analytics Solutions USA Inc., International Bunker Supplies Pty Ltd, Iraq Petroleum Company Limited, Jupiter Insurance Limited, Ken-Chas Reserve Company, Kenilworth Oil Company Limited, Kingbook Inversiones Socimi S.A., Latin Energy Argentina S.A., Lebanese Aviation Technical Services S.A.L., Limited Liability Company BP Toplivnaya Kompania, Limited liability company Setra Lubricants, Lubricants UK Limited, Lytt Limited, Manormaker (Nominee No. 1) Limited, Manormaker (Nominee No. 2) Limited, Manormaker GP Limited (99.90%) 11 Black Horse Lane, Mardi Gras Transportation System Company LLC, Markoil S.A., Masana Petroleum Solutions (Pty) Ltd, Mayaro Initiative for Private Enterprise Development, Mehoopany Holdings LLC, Mes Tecnologia En Servicios Y Energia S.A., Minza Pty. Ltd., Mountain City Remediation LLC, No. 1 Riverside Quay Proprietary Limited, Nordic Lubricants A/S, Nordic Lubricants AB, North America Funding Company, OMD87 Inc., OOO BP STL, Omega Oil Company, OnSight Analytics Solutions India Private Ltd., Orion Delaware Mountain Wind Farm LP, Orion Energy Holdings LLC, Orion Energy L.L.C.b, Orion Post Land Investments LLC, Oyambre 1 S.L., PRODUITS METALLURGIE DOITTAU, PT BP Petrochemicals, PT Castrol Indonesia, PT Castrol Manufacturing Indonesia, PT Jasatama Petroindo, Pacroy (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Peaks America Inc., Pearl River Delta Investments Limited, Petrocorner Retail S.L.U., Phoenix Petroleum Services Limited, Pozuelo 4 S.L., Prospect International C.A. (In liquidation), Puente Arce 4 S.L., Remediation Management Services Company, Richfield Oil Corporation, Rio Corvo 2 S.L., Rolling Thunder I Power Partners LLC, Romax Insight Korea Ltd., Ropemaker Deansgate Limited, Ropemaker Properties Limited, Ruhr Oel GmbH, Rusdene GSS Limited, SOFAST Limited, SRHP, Saturn Insurance Inc., Sherbino I Holdings LLC, Sherbino Mesa I Land Investments LLC, Sociedade de Promocao Imobiliaria Quinta do Loureiro SA, Societe de Gestion de Depots d'Hydrocarbures - GDH, South Texas Shale LLC, Southeast Texas Biofuels LLC, Southern Ridge Pipeline Holding Company, Southern Ridge Pipeline LP LLC, Sp/f Decision3 (GreenSteam) Company, Standard Oil Company, Standard Oil Company Inc., Standard Oil of Ohio, Stryde Limited, Sunrise Oil Sands Partnership, TISA Education Complex LLC, TJKK, Taradadis Pty. Ltd., Telcom General Corporation, Terre de Grace Partnership, The Anaconda Company, The BP Share Plans Trustees Limited, The Burmah Oil Company (Pakistan Trading) Limited, The Standard Oil Company, Toledo Refinery Holding Company LLC, Torrelavega 7 S.L., Union Texas International Corporation, Vastar Pipeline LLC, Veba Oel AG Veba Oel, Verenium, Viceroy Investments Limited, Villacarriedo 8 S.L., Warrenville Development Limited, Water Way Trading and Petroleum Services LLC, Welchem Inc., West Kimberley Fuels Pty Ltd, Westlake Houston Development LLC, Whiting Clean Energy Inc., Windpark Energy Nederland B.V., and Winwell Resources L.L.C. More than a third (35 per cent) of the 'goal accounts' created by millennials in the UAE was created to save for a rainy day, suggesting that positive saving habits, said Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the region. Liv., the lifestyle digital bank by Emirates NBD has released information about the saving habits of the UAEs millennial population revealing that the countrys 20-30 somethings have ambitious goals to set money aside for the things they value most. Born between 1981 and 1996, millennials comprise one of the largest demographics in the UAE. Emirates NBD launched Liv. as a digital-only bank with a unique lifestyle-led proposition, aligned with the connected generations preference for convenience and access to services anytime, anywhere. In its role as a financial buddy that helps customers better manage their finances, Liv.s Goal Account enables users to set and save towards financial goals, helping them to achieve more of what they want whether that is travel, buying a new gadget or a gift for a loved one, or simply saving for a rainy day, while earning an attractive 2 per cent return on their balances. So far, goals have been created by several thousand Liv. customers, more than half of whom were aged below 25 years-demonstrating that young millennials are just as likely to save as their older counterparts-with women being 70 per cent more likely to save for a goal than men. Jayash Patel, head of Liv., said, By examining customers Goal Accounts, we can infer the priorities and responsibilities of the UAEs millennial generation, who are proving to be capable of recognising the importance of saving to meet both their long and short-term goals. Liv. provides customers with an exciting new way to manage their money, tapping into the need for always-on banking in line with their digital mindsets. Positive saving habits are being formed amongst the millennial generation who understand the importance of creating a nest egg for the future, rather than simply saving to reach a short-term goal, such as buying a car, a mobile phone or gadgets such as laptops and cameras. But experiences are still important for Liv.s young customers: 40 per cent of them created goals to save for what they love, or to go see new places, with the top travel destinations being Europe, as well as Japan and Bali. Women appear keener to save for travel, whereas gadgets and cars top the list for men who interestingly are also more likely to save for marriages than ladies! Six in ten Liv. customers prefer to save money with the one-shot saving option or through the set and forget route, which automatically moves money into their Goal Accounts at specified intervals. Liv. is today the fastest growing bank in the UAE and was adjudged the Most Innovative Digital Bank in the UAE by Global Finance Worlds Best Consumer Digital Banks in the ME Awards 2018held in Dubai last month. TradeArabia News Service Civitas Solutions, Inc. provides home- and community-based health and human services to must-serve individuals with intellectual, developmental, behavioral, and/or medically complex challenges in the United States. It operates through three segments: Community Support Services (CSS), Specialty Rehabilitation Services (SRS), and Children & Family Services (CFS). The CSS segment offers services to adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its services include residential support, day habilitation, vocational, case management, crisis intervention, and hourly support care. The SRS segment delivers services to individuals who have suffered acquired brain injury, spinal injuries, and other catastrophic injuries and illnesses. Its services range from sub-acute healthcare for individuals with intensive medical needs to day treatment programs comprising neurorehabilitation, neurobehavioral rehabilitation, specialized nursing, physical, occupational and speech therapies, supported living, outpatient treatment, and pre-vocational services. The CFS segment offers services to youth with emotional, behavioral, and/or medically complex challenges. Its services include therapeutic foster care, family preservation, adoption services, early intervention, school-based services, and juvenile offender programs. The company also delivers elder services, such as case management, nursing oversight, medication management, nutrition, daily living assistance, therapeutic services, and transportation. It serves state, local, and other government payors and non-public payors. As of September 30, 2018, the company served approximately 12,700 individuals in residential settings and 19,000 individuals in non-residential settings in 36 states. The company was formerly known as NMH Holdings, Inc. The company was founded in 1980 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. Civitas Solutions, Inc. is a subsidiary of Vestar Capital Partners. Read More Shaker Group, the sole distributor for LG Air Conditioners in Saudi Arabia, has inaugurated the expansion of its integrated LG Air Conditioning Academy. The academy, funded by LG Air Conditioners, is located at Shaker's premises in Riyadh. The event was attended by the top management and representatives of LG and Shaker, said a statement. The academy embraces a wide range of LG commercial air-conditioning solutions demonstrating pre-sales solutions with the ultimate goal of providing industry-leading after-sales services, it said. Azzam Saud Almudaiheem, chief executive officer at Shaker Group, said: The launch of the academy establishes the parallel strategic directions of Shaker & LG as they endeavour to provide the best Product Knowledge and education about advanced technologies in LG air-conditioning products. The training sessions are designed to support our business partners in maintaining their best practice standards. Over the years, LG and Shaker Group have dedicated their efforts to improving the quality of life for all customers by delivering ground-breaking, energy-efficiency solutions, he said. The academy has been implemented to ensure that the best practical training support and skills are being provided to young Saudi professionals in the market. The academy covers a diverse range of topics, ranging from LG Multi V (VRF) system selection, installation practices and comprehensive servicing for all products. The innovative new platform, delivered using the unique experiences of the academys professional staff, encompasses Application Showroom, Lecture Room, and industry-leading practical Training Room facilities, which incorporate the latest technological advancements in the market. Kevin Cha, LG regional headquarters president, said: The demand for best practice installation training has increased due to significant technological advancements in the air conditioning market. Our company is proud to sponsor and collaborate with Shaker Group in launching the LG-Shaker Air Conditioning Academy here in Saudi Arabia, he said. We have a deeply rooted commitment to provide our workers with high-level training to mirror the best practices for the industry at a state-of-the-art facility, he added. Trainees will gain valuable first-hand experience in the implementation processes of the products' installation, operation, and centralised network solution under the guidance of professional experts. The Application Showroom, however, has also been equipped to illustrate the different applications of LG Multi V products across a variety of targeted HVAC sectors. The academy recognises that separate zones reflect the Multi V implementation across residential, hotel, schools, and office applications. The academy project is part of the Shaker and LG development plans for the Saudi market, with the overall aim to enhance the depth and breadth of HVAC solutions. Through expanding sector growth, Shaker and LG strive to improve the capabilities of young Saudi professionals and educate them on the availability of Energy Efficiency Solutions in line with the Saudi Vision 2030, it stated. TradeArabia News Service MAG Silver has been the subject of 5 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock. According to analysts' consensus price target of C$28.79, MAG Silver has a forecasted upside of 10.4% from its current price of C$26.08. MAG Silver has received a consensus rating of Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.67, and is based on 4 buy ratings, 2 hold ratings, and no sell ratings. 3.9 Community Rank Outperform Votes MAG Silver has received 182 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes MAG Silver has received 128 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment MAG Silver has received 58.71% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about MAG Silver and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe MAG will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe MAG will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Xcel Energy, Inc. operates as a holding company, which engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity. It operates through the following three segments: Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility and All Others. The Regulated Electric Utility segment generates, transmits and distributes electricity primarily in portions of generates, transmits and distributes electricity in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. In addition, this segment includes sales for resale and provides wholesale transmission service to various entities in the United States. It also includes commodity trading operations. The Regulated Natural Gas Utility segment transports, stores, and distributes natural gas primarily in portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Michigan and Colorado. The All Others segment engages in steam, appliance repair services, nonutility real estate activities, processing solid waste into refuse-derived fuel and investments in rental housing projects that qualify for low-income housing tax credits. The company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Western Union: Banco Western Union do Brasil S.A., Coins, Custom House, Custom House (Online) Ltd., Custom House Currency Exchange (Australia) Pty. Limited, Custom House Currency Exchange (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Custom House Financial (UK) Limited, Custom House Financial Ltd., Custom House Holdings (USA) Ltd., Custom House ULC, E Commerce Group Products Inc., First Financial Management Corporation, Global Collection Services S.A., Global Corporate Real Estate Advisors LLC, Grupo Dinamico Empresarial S.A. de C.V., MT (Bermuda) 1 Ltd, MT (Bermuda) 2 Ltd, MT Caribbean Holdings SRL, MT Financial Holdings Ltd., MT Global Holdings Ltd., MT Group Investment Holdings Ltd., MT Group Ltd., MT Holdings (Bermuda) Ltd., MT Holdings Limited, MT Holdings Switzerland GmbH, MT International Holdings Ltd., MT International Operations Partnership, MT International Operations SRL, MT Network Holdings Ltd., MT Payment Services Ltd., MT Payment Services Operations EU/EEA Limited, MT Worldwide Holdings Ltd., Money Transfer Financial Services Limited, Operaciones Internacionales OV S.A. de C.V., Opus Software Technologies Private Limited, PT Western Union Indonesia, Paymap Inc., RII Holdings Inc., Red Global S.A., Ruesch Holding LLC, Ruesch International (Delaware) LLC, Ruesch International L.L.C., Servicio Electronico de Pago S.A., Servicio Integral de Envios S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios de Apoyo GDE S.A. de C.V., SpeedPay Inc., Speedpay, The Western Union Real Estate Holdings LLC, Transfer Express de Panama S.A., Travelex, Union del Oeste de Costa Rica SRL, Vigo Remittance Canada Company, Vigo Remittance Corp., WU BP Peru S.R.L., WU Technology Engineering Services Private Limited, WUBS Financial Services (Singapore) Pte Limited, WUBS Payments Limited, Western Union (Bermuda) Holding Finance Ltd., Western Union (Hellas) International Holdings S.A., Western Union Acquisition Partnership, Western Union Benelux MT Ltd., Western Union Business Solutions (Australia) Pty Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (Hong Kong) Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (Malta) Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (SA) Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (Singapore) Pte Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (UK) Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (USA) LLC, Western Union Business Solutions Japan KK, Western Union Chile Limitada, Western Union Communications Inc., Western Union Consulting Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Western Union Corretora de Cambio S.A., Western Union Financial Holdings L.L.C., Western Union Financial Services (Australia) PTY Ltd., Western Union Financial Services (Canada), Western Union Financial Services (Hong Kong) Limited, Western Union Financial Services (Korea) Inc., Western Union Financial Services (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Western Union Financial Services Argentina S.R.L., Western Union Financial Services Eastern Europe LLC, Western Union Financial Services GmbH, Western Union Financial Services Inc., Western Union Financial Services International (France) SARL, Western Union GB Limited, Western Union Global Network Pte. Ltd, Western Union Holdings Inc., Western Union International Bank GmbH, Western Union International Holdings LLC, Western Union International Limited, Western Union International Services LLC, Western Union Ireland Holdings Limited, Western Union Ireland Partnership, Western Union Japan K.K., Western Union LLC, Western Union Luxembourg Holdings 1 S.a.r.l., Western Union Luxembourg Holdings 2 S.a.r.l., Western Union Luxembourg Holdings 3 S.a.r.l., Western Union MT (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Western Union MT East Ltd., Western Union Malta Holdings Limited, Western Union Malta Limited, Western Union Morocco SARL, Western Union Network (Canada) Company, Western Union Network (France) SAS, Western Union Network (Ireland) Limited, Western Union Network Belgium SPRL, Western Union Northern Europe GmbH, Western Union Online Limited, Western Union Overseas Limited, Western Union Payment Services (India) Private Limited, Western Union Payment Services GB Limited, Western Union Payment Services Ireland Limited, Western Union Payment Services Network (Canada) ULC, Western Union Payment Services Network EU/EEA Limited, Western Union Payment Services UK Limited, Western Union Payments (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., Western Union Peru S.A., Western Union Processing Limited, Western Union Processing Lithuania UAB, Western Union Processing Services Inc., Western Union Regional Panama S.A., Western Union Retail Services Belgium, Western Union Retail Services GB Limited, Western Union Retail Services Ireland Limited, Western Union Retail Services Italy S.r.l., Western Union Retail Services Norway AS, Western Union Retail Services RO SRL, Western Union Retail Services Spain S.A., Western Union Retail Services Sweden AB, Western Union Services (Philippines) Inc., Western Union Services (Spain) S.L., Western Union Services India Private Limited, Western Union Services S.L., Western Union Services Singapore Private Limited, Western Union Singapore Limited, Western Union South Africa (PTY) Limited, Western Union Support Services (Nigeria) Limited, Western Union Support Services Cote dlvoire, Western Union Turkey Odeme Hizmetleri Anonim Sirketi, Western Union do Brasil Participacoes Limitada, and Western Union do Brasil Servicos e Participacoes Ltda.. Zurich Insurance Group AG is a holding company. The Company and its subsidiaries provide insurance products and related services. Its segments include General Insurance, Global Life, Farmers, Other Operating Businesses and Non-Core Businesses. The General Insurance segment provides a range of motor, home and commercial products and services for individuals, as well as small and large businesses. The Global Life segment is engaged in providing unit-linked, protection and corporate propositions through global distribution and proposition pillars. The Farmers segment, through Farmers Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries, provides certain non-claims administrative and management services to the Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange, Truck Insurance Exchange, and their subsidiaries and affiliates. The Other Operating Businesses segment includes the Company's Holding and Financing activities. The Non-Core Businesses segment includes its insurance and reinsurance businesses. Read More Leading Russian developer Pioneer Group showcased its portfolio of projects coming up in the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg, with the support of leading Japanese urban design firm Nikken Sekkei, at the recent Cityscape Global expo held in Dubai. Pioneer specialises in the implementation of urban planning projects with multi-functional and complex residential developments and subsequent management services. Since 2001, the company has attracted funds from institutional investors and private individuals at the construction stage. Unveiling the projects, Pioneer Group said it was looking for potential investors and partners to bring its unique mid-market YES apart-hotels brand to the UAE and the wider GCC. The YES apart-hotels boasts high quality finishes, which come fully equipped with European furniture and household appliances. The developer also offers professional property management support. Pioneer Group chairman Leonid Maksimov said: "The YES apart-hotel brand is a unique mid-market product, accessible to a wide range of investors, offering apartments fully furnished and ready for leasing with the added benefit of professional hotel management." "This format is ideal for both business and leisure visitors - long staying corporate guests as well as short stay family getaways, affording investors a regular monthly income, with annual returns of up to 10 per cent," he added. According to Dubais tourism authority, Russian tourist arrivals for the first half of 2018 grew year-on-year by 74 per cent to 405,000 and is now one of the emirates top five source markets. That is why YES is such an attractive proposition for UAE investors. Russian tourists particularly those from Moscow and St. Petersburg will recognize the brand and its value-led offering. With more and more mid-market tourists expected to arrive in the UAE from Russia, demand will be robust and sustainable explained Maksimov. In Moscow, Nikken is collaborating with Pioneer in the creation of the master plan and architectural concept design for Life-Varshavskaya, in the South of the city, following its successful Smart City project at Botanichesky Sad. The 600,000 sq m brown site will be turned into an environmentally-friendly community, with sprawling lush green areas and pedestrian routes, in stark contrast to its current form. It will include residential, educational, medical and commercial facilities, a church, plus parking and social Infrastructure. Maksimov said the unique characteristics of the YES apart-hotel brand guarantee a high occupancy rate in the first year of operation. "The financial model of the project provides for an annual yield of 10 per cent, which is approximately 1.5 - twice more profitable than independently investing in any one-room apartment," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Asanko Gold Inc. engages in the exploration, development, and production of gold properties. Its principal project is the Asanko Gold Mine, which consists of two gold projects, such as the Obotan Project and the Esaase Project located in the Amansie West District of the Republic of Ghana, West Africa. The company was formerly known as Keegan Resources Inc. and changed its name to Asanko Gold Inc. in February 2013. Asanko Gold Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Read More There is not enough analysis data for BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund II. 4.7 Community Rank Outperform Votes BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund II has received 88 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund II has received 36 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund II has received 70.97% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund II and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe MQT will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe MQT will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Dubai Health Authority (DHA), an official supporter of Expo 2020 Dubai, said it will set up medical facilities at the Expo to ensure the health and safety of the event, which is likely to attract around 25 million visits from 180 countries. The announcement was made following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the DHA and Expo 2020 Dubai today (October 10) in the presence of Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and director general Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau and Humaid Al Qutami, director general of DHA. The DHA and Expo 2020 Dubai signed the MoU to launch the first emergency centre that will cater to patients during the construction phase. The other three centres will be set up at a later stage to cater to the surge in the number of visitors. Dr Ahmed Ibrahim Bin Kalban, CEO of Specialised Healthcare Services Sector at the DHA and Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali, executive director of the Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau signed the MoU. Al Hashimy said: Health and safety are important priorities for Expo 2020 Dubai, and this collaboration will play a key role in further enhancing our efforts as the pace of our preparations continue to accelerate. We are very pleased to be working with the Dubai Health Authority in delivering a world class event where innovation and creativity can flourish, enabling us to easily deliver Expos message to the whole world. Al Qutami said hosting an event of this magnitude is a testimony of the capabilities of the UAE, as it represents the strong and positive role this country has in the international arena and reaffirms that it has all the capabilities needed to succeed in hosting such an international event. Al Qutami said the DHA recognises the importance of Expo 2020 Dubai and is keen to fulfil its role of providing a safe and healthy environment before, during and after the Expo, therefore it has formed a specialised committee responsible for ensuring the preparedness of these medical centres. He said that the DHA has put in place a strategy that connects all medical networks with one another using smart systems and added that the DHA has started implementing advanced training programmes to strengthen the capabilities of its medical teams and technical support staff to prepare and respond to any emergency promptly. Al Qutami emphasised that the medical facilities provided by the DHA for the Expo 2020 Dubai site are equipped with state-of-the-art technology. TradeArabia News Service Mitie Group plc, through with its subsidiaries, provides strategic outsourcing services in the United Kingdom and internationally. The company operates in six segments: Business Services, Technical Services, Care & Custody, Landscapes, Waste, and Interserve. The Business Services segment offers security services, such as manned guarding and technology-backed monitoring solutions, together with fire and security systems installations; cleaning focuses on general, specialist, and technical cleaning services that include clean rooms, high-security environments, and window cleaning; and office services comprises document management, vetting, and front of house. The Technical Services segment provides a range of technology-backed engineering; maintenance, repair, and M&E project activities; energy, carbon, and water management services; air conditioning/disinfection solutions; and digital workplace services. The Care & Custody segment provides critical public services in immigration, criminal justice, and healthcare. The Landscapes segment offers landscaping, focused on horticultural and winter services. The Waste segment engages in waste management business, providing waste reduction and treatment solutions. The Interserve segment offers facilities management services to central government departments, shopping centres, transport providers, manufacturing and industrial companies, healthcare providers, schools and universities, emergency services, and local authorities. It also provides professional, connected workspace, international, sustainability, risk management, and occupier services. The company was incorporated in 1936 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More Castleton Technology plc, an investment holding company, provides software and managed services to the public and not-for-profit sectors in the United Kingdom and Australia. It operates through Managed Services and Software Solutions segments. The Managed Services segment offers information technology (IT) infrastructure and support for businesses. The Software Solutions segment provides business processes to social landlords covering tenant engagement, rent collection, financial planning and control, document management, and repairs management, as well as integrated software solutions to the housing association sector. The company's software solutions include AI, a solution for integrating Amazon Alexa services into current applications; Agile, a point of service delivery tool that is designed for field based workforce and customers and enables to complete forms, take photos, link to workflows, view documents, and others; CRM software for social housing sector; Electronic Document and Records Management (EDRM) software to access physical and electronic documents; and Financials, a finance system. Its software solutions also comprise Housing for managing arrears and raising repairs; P2P system, which allows suppliers to submit their invoices, and check the status of orders and invoices, as well as scheduled payment dates; Strategic Modelling, a time-based modelling solution for business leaders in the social housing sector; Castleton.DIGITAL software solution to build Web portals and apps; Community, a housing management solution; and Data Services to combat illegal subletting and validates data. The company was formerly known as Redstone plc. Castleton Technology plc was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Sutton Coldfield, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Clean Harbors: 510127 NB Inc., Altair Disposal Services LLC, BCT Structures ULC, Baton Rouge Disposal LLC, Bridgeport Disposal LLC, CH International Holdings LLC, CTVI Inc., Cat Tech International Ltd., Clean Harbors (Mexico) Inc., Clean Harbors Andover LLC, Clean Harbors Antioch LLC, Clean Harbors Aragonite LLC, Clean Harbors Arizona LLC, Clean Harbors BDT LLC, Clean Harbors Baton Rouge LLC, Clean Harbors Buttonwillow LLC, Clean Harbors Canada Inc., Clean Harbors Caribe Inc., Clean Harbors Catalyst Services Ltd., Clean Harbors Chattanooga LLC, Clean Harbors Clive LLC, Clean Harbors Coffeyville LLC, Clean Harbors Colfax LLC, Clean Harbors Deer Park LLC, Clean Harbors Deer Trail LLC, Clean Harbors Development LLC, Clean Harbors Directional Boring Services LP, Clean Harbors Directional Boring Services ULC, Clean Harbors Disposal Services Inc., Clean Harbors El Dorado LLC, Clean Harbors Energy Services ULC, Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Services Corp., Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Services LP, Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Western Ltd., Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc., Clean Harbors Exploration Services Inc., Clean Harbors Exploration Services LP, Clean Harbors Exploration Services ULC, Clean Harbors Florida LLC, Clean Harbors Grassy Mountain LLC, Clean Harbors Industrial Services Canada Inc., Clean Harbors Industrial Services Inc., Clean Harbors Innu Environmental Services Inc., Clean Harbors Kansas LLC, Clean Harbors Kingston Facility Corporation, Clean Harbors LaPorte LLC, Clean Harbors Laurel LLC, Clean Harbors Lodging Services LP, Clean Harbors Lodging Services ULC, Clean Harbors Lone Mountain LLC, Clean Harbors Lone Star Corp., Clean Harbors Los Angeles LLC, Clean Harbors Mercier Inc., Clean Harbors PPM LLC, Clean Harbors Pecatonica LLC, Clean Harbors Production Services ULC, Clean Harbors Quebec Inc., Clean Harbors Recycling Services of Chicago LLC, Clean Harbors Recycling Services of Ohio LLC, Clean Harbors Reidsville LLC, Clean Harbors San Jose LLC, Clean Harbors San Leon Inc., Clean Harbors Services Inc., Clean Harbors Surface Rentals Partnership, Clean Harbors Surface Rentals ULC, Clean Harbors Surface Rentals USA Inc., Clean Harbors Tennessee LLC, Clean Harbors Westmorland LLC, Clean Harbors White Castle LLC, Clean Harbors Wichita LLC, Clean Harbors Wilmington LLC, Clean Harbors of Baltimore Inc., Clean Harbors of Braintree Inc., Clean Harbors of Connecticut Inc., Crowley Disposal LLC, Destiny Resource Services, Disposal Properties LLC, Emerald Services Inc., Emerald Services Montana LLC, Emerald West LLC, EnviroSORT Inc., Environnement Services Et Machinerie E.S.M. Inc., Eveready, Evergreen Holdings, GSX Disposal LLC, Grizzco Camp Services ULC, Heckmann Environmental Services Inc., Hilliard Disposal LLC, Industrial Service Oil Company Inc., JL Filtration Inc., JL Filtration Operating Limited Partnership, Laidlaw Environmental Services de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Lonestar West, Murphy's Waste Oil Service Inc., Oily Waste Processors Inc., Peak Energy Services, Plaquemine Remediation Services LLC, RS Used Oil Services Inc., Roebuck Disposal LLC, Romic Environmental Technologies, Rosemead Oil Products Inc., SK DIncineration, SK Holding Company Inc., SK Servicios Ambientales Administrativos S. de R.L. de C.V., Safety-Kleen, Safety-Kleen Canada Inc., Safety-Kleen Envirosystems Company, Safety-Kleen Envirosystems Company of Puerto Rico Inc., Safety-Kleen Inc., Safety-Kleen International Asia Investment Company Limited, Safety-Kleen International Inc., Safety-Kleen Systems Inc., Safety-Kleen de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Safety-Kleen of California Inc., Sanitherm ULC, Sanitherm USA Inc., Sawyer Disposal Services LLC, Service Chemical LLC, Spring Grove Resource Recovery Inc., The Solvents Recovery Service of New Jersey Inc., Thermo Fluids, Thermo Fluids Inc., Tri-vax Enterprises Ltd., Tulsa Disposal LLC, Universal Environmental, Versant Energy Services Inc., Versant Energy Services LP, and Vulsay Industries Ltd.. iShares MSCI Israel ETF's stock was trading at $45.06 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EIS stock has increased by 76.5% and is now trading at $79.51. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Saudi Arabia's $500-billion futuristic city, Neom, has constituted its global advisory board comprising experts from several major sectors including urban planning, architecture, design, technology, sustainability, energy and manufacturing. The destination for the future of living being developed in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, Neom said these members will provide industry insight and advise on key milestones besides forging strategic connections for the kingdom's ambitious project. The members include Sam Altman, president of YC Group and co-chairman of Open AI; Lord Norman Foster, founder and executive chairman of Foster + Partners; Peter R Voser, chairman of ABB Group; Masayoshi Son, the chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corporation; Marc Andreessen, the co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz; Tim Brown, the chief executive and president of Ideo, Timothy Collins, founder and CEO of Ripplewood Advisors; Alexandra Cousteau, senior advisor to Oceana; Dan Doctoroff, founder and CEO of Sidewalk Labs; Jean Frechet, distinguished professor of chemistry; Travis Kalanick, CEO of City Storage Systems; Neelie Kroes, former vice president of the European Commission. The board also boasts high-profile members such as Andrew Liveris, former chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical and executive chairman of DowDuPont; Ernest J Moniz, president and CEO of the Energy Futures Initiative; Marc Raibert, founder and CEO of Boston Dynamics; Carlo Ratti, professor of urban technologies and planning director at MITs Senseable City Lab; John Rossant, founder and chairman at the NewCities Foundation and Rob Speyer, president and CEO of Tishman Speyer. Lauding the move, CEO Nadhmi Al Nasr said: "We welcome the global and diverse expertise of the advisory board and are confident that each of them will make huge contributions to the development of the $500-billion giant city. It will also help shape Neoms future through its detailed knowledge and connections with potential long-term strategic partners." Those members have previously been engaged with Neom in a meeting held in New York, US, in August to review Neoms strategy and discuss updates on the project. Each of these advisory board members has been carefully chosen for their expertise and has demonstrated relevant experience, a global business background, familiarity with large-scale projects, senior board-level roles, international influence and enthusiasm for the aims of Neom. Altman is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer and blogger. He was named the top investor under 30 by Forbes in 2015 and one of the "Best Young Entrepreneurs in Technology" by Businessweek in 2008. He is also the Chairman of two energy companies, Helion and Oklo. Lord Foster is the president of the Norman Foster Foundation. His company, Foster + Partners, is a global studio for architecture, urbanism and design with several notable projects including Reichstag in Berlin, the Great Court of British Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, headquarters of Apple, Bloomberg and Comcast and airports in Hong Kong and Beijing. Voser is an industry veteran with several years of experience in the industrial energy field. Before taking up his position as chairman of the board of technology giant ABB, Voser served as CEO at Shell, amongst other positions with the company. He currently serves as a board member at Roche, IBM and Temasek, as well as several non-profit organisations. Son is the founder of SoftBank, a global technology company that aspires to drive the Information Revolution and has expanded its business to cover a range of technologies, including telecommunications, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy. In 2017, SoftBank announced the first major close of the SoftBank Vision Fund to support the transformational companies at the forefront of the Information Revolution. Andreessen is a pioneer in the tech world who has founded software companies like Opsware, Mosaic, Netscape and Ning. He sits on the board of directors of Facebook, eBay and Hewlett Packard Enterprise among others. Andreessen was one of six inductees in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame announced at the First International Conference on the World-Wide Web in 1994. Brown is an industrial designer by training and has earned numerous design awards, as well as advising senior business leaders. As chief executive of Ideo, a company which focuses on the value of design thinking to business people and designers, Brown discusses the concept of design thinking around the world, including at the World Economic Forum in Davos and through TED Talks. Collins is currently the chairman of the Yale Som Advisory Board. He had founded investment firm Ripplewood in 1995, with his previous experience at Onex Corporation, Lazard Freres & Company, Booz Allen Hamilton and Cummins Engine Company. He has also served on a number of corporate boards. Cousteau is an expert in environmental issues and is currently a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, filmmaker and global oceans expert. Doctoroff was earlier the president and CEO of Bloomberg. Before that Doctoroff had been the deputy mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding in New York and managing partner of Oak Hill Capital Partners. He presently serves on the boards of the University of Chicago, World Resources Institute, the US Olympic Committee, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Human Rights First. He also helped found several charitable organizations. Frechet is a Professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley and vice-president for research at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. He is a leader in developing strategies and managing resources to support interdisciplinary, collaborative research bridging science and engineering. He is the author of over 800 publications with more than 106,000 citations and 200 patents. Kalanick is the chief executive of City Storage Systems, a holding company focused on redeveloping real estate assets to fuel urban job creation and neighbourhood rejuvenation. He is also co-founder and former CEO of Uber. During his seven years at the helm in Uber, the company grew to operate in more than 70 countries, employed over 15,000 people and provided three million drivers with flexible work opportunities to complete over five billion rider trips. Prior to Uber, he founded Red Swoosh, a networking software company. Kroes is a former Minister for Transport, Public Works and Telecommunication in the Netherlands. She had earlier held the position of EU Commissioner - the first term as EU Commissioner for Competition Policy and the second term as commissioner in charge of the Digital Agenda for Europe. In the last term, she was also vice-president of the European Commission. Kroes currently serves on various international company boards. Liveris, an industry veteran, ran Dow, a producer and marketer of chemical, materials, plastics and speciality chemicals for over 14 years and was responsible for transforming Dow and DuPont into the largest chemical company in the world. He has advised two US presidents, written a seminal book on the criticality of manufacturing to economic development and is on the boards of Saudi Aramco, WorleyParsons and IBM, and an advisor to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Dr Moniz had served as the 13th United States Secretary of Energy from 2013 to January 2017. He is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems emeritus and Special Advisor to the MIT President. Dr Moniz is also CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative and of the Energy Futures Initiative and the inaugural Distinguished Fellow of the Emerson Collective. Raibert leads the development of some of the world's most advanced robots. Before founding Boston Dynamics in 1992, he was a professor at MIT and Carnegie Mellon University, and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Ratti is an architect and engineer by training and currently teaches at MIT. He has co-authored over 500 publications and patents. Rossant founded the NewCities Foundation in 2010 with an aim to shape the future of urban projects. He was previously responsible for the production of global forums, such as the e-G8 in Paris and the World Economic Forum in Davos and is also the CEO and chief curator of LA CoMotion, the annual conference and event on future mobility. He is a board member of the Fondation Tocqueville in Paris and Humanity in Action in New York. Speyer, as its president and CEO, has grown Tishman Speyer into a leading global real estate company with $50 billion in assets. He is the chairman of the advisory board of the Mayors Fund to Advance New York City, and in 2013 became the youngest-ever chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York. He currently serves on the advisory council of Exor as well as several charitable ventures. Neom has announced that several more industry experts are likely to join the advisory board in the coming months. The Saudi futuristic city's emphasis on sustainability and innovation makes it a core pillar of Vision 2030, the kingdoms ambitious blueprint to diversify its economy and enable wider societal transformation. Neom forms part of the Saudi giga-projects investment pool for the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia. The giga-projects are integrated economic ecosystems that will support the economic transformation of the Kingdom and act as a catalyst for investment across various sectors, and in addition to Neom include The Red Sea Project, and Qiddiya.-TradeArabia News Service GlaxoSmithKline Plc is a healthcare company, which engages in the research, development, and manufacture of pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines, and consumer healthcare products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceuticals; Pharmaceuticals R&D; Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare. The Pharmaceuticals segment focuses on developing medicines in respiratory and infectious diseases, oncology, and immuno-inflammation. The Pharmaceuticals R&D segment focuses on science related to the immune system, the use of human genetics and advanced technologies, and is driven by the multiplier effect of Science x Technology x Culture. The Vaccines segment produces pediatric and adult vaccines to prevent a range of infectious diseases including, hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, polio, typhoid, influenza, and bacterial meningitis. The Consumer Healthcare segment develops and markets brands in the oral health, pain relief, respiratory, nutrition and gastro intestinal, and skin health categories. The company was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Middlesex, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Ingersoll Rand: 211 E. Russell Road LLC, Air-Relief, Belliss & Morcom Brasil, Belliss and Morcom, Boardwalk Enterprises, Charm Merger Sub Inc., CompAir, CompAir (Hankook) Korea Co. Ltd., CompAir Acquisition (No. 2) Ltd., CompAir Acquisition Ltd., CompAir BroomWade Ltd., CompAir Canada, CompAir Finance Ltd., CompAir GmbH, CompAir Holdings Limited, CompAir Holman Ltd, CompAir International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CompAir Korea Ltd, CompAir South Africa (SA) (Pty) Ltd., CompAir UK Ltd, CompAir USA, Consolidated Distribution Holdings Ltd., DV Systems Inc., Emco Wheaton, Emco Wheaton GmbH Branch, Emco Wheaton Gmbh, Emco Wheaton UK, Emco Wheaton USA Inc, Enza Air Propriety Limited (South Africa), GD Aria Holdings #2 Limited, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Investments Limited, GD First UK Ltd, GD German Holdings GmbH, GD German Holdings I Gmbh, GD German Holdings II GmbH, GD German Investments GmbH, GD Global Holdings, GD Global Holdings II, GD Global Holdings UK II Ltd., GD Global Ventures I B.V., GD Global Ventures II B.V., GD Global Ventures III B.V., GD Industrial Products Malaysia SDN. BHD., GD Investment KY, GD UK Finance Ltd., Gardner Denver (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Austria GmbH, Gardner Denver Bad Neustadt Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Belgium NV, Gardner Denver Brasil Industria E Comercio de Maquinas Ltda., Gardner Denver CZ + SK sro, Gardner Denver Canada Corp, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Ltd., Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Ltd. - US Branch, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Ltd., Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Ltd. - US Branch, Gardner Denver Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Engineered Products India Private Limited, Gardner Denver FZE, Gardner Denver Finance II LLC, Gardner Denver Finance Inc & Co KG, Gardner Denver France SA, Gardner Denver France SAS, Gardner Denver Group Services Ltd, Gardner Denver Group Svcs Ltd, Gardner Denver Hoffman, Gardner Denver Holdings, Gardner Denver Holdings Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Ltd, Gardner Denver Iberica, Gardner Denver Industries Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd. Branch, Gardner Denver International, Gardner Denver International Ltd., Gardner Denver Intl Ltd Middle East Regional Rep Office, Gardner Denver Investments, Gardner Denver Italy Holdings S.r.L., Gardner Denver Japan, Gardner Denver Kirchhain Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Korea, Gardner Denver Korea Ltd, Gardner Denver Ltd, Gardner Denver Ltd South Africa, Gardner Denver Ltd., Gardner Denver Ltd. Branch (Ireland), Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co, Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Gardner Denver Nash Brasil Industria E Comercio De Bombas Ltda, Gardner Denver Nash Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Nash LLC, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd., Gardner Denver Nederland BV, Gardner Denver Nederland Investments B.V., Gardner Denver Oberdorfer Pumps, Gardner Denver Oy, Gardner Denver Petroleum Pumps, Gardner Denver Polska Sp z.o.o., Gardner Denver Pte Ltd., Gardner Denver S.r.l., Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH, Gardner Denver Schopfheim Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Schweiz AG, Gardner Denver Slovakia, Gardner Denver SudAmerica S.r.l., Gardner Denver Sweden AB, Gardner Denver Taiwan Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas, Gardner Denver Thomas GmbH, Gardner Denver Thomas Pneumatic Systems (Wuxi) Co., Gardner Denver Thomas Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver UK, Gardner Denver Water Jetting Systems, Garo Dott. Ing. Roberto Gabbioneta S.r.l., Hamworthy Belliss & Morcom, ILMVAC (UK) Ltd., ILS Innovative Labor Systeme, ILS Inovative Laborsysteme GmbH, Indonesia Foreign Trade Representative Office, LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MP Pumps Inc., Mako Compressors, Nash, Nash Elmo, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Robuschi, Rotary Compression Technologies, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Syltone, TCM Investments, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, TODO AB, Tamrotor Marine Compressors AS, Thomas Industries, Thomas Industries Inc., Tri-Continent Scientific, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, and Zinsser NA. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF's stock was trading at $37.46 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EEM shares have increased by 38.4% and is now trading at $51.83. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec), in collaboration with its subsidiary Nawah Energy Company, hosted a Supplier Forum today (October 10) in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The forum brought together delegates representing a diverse range of UAE-based companies as well as employees from Enec and Nawah. The forum is an integral component of Enecs ongoing efforts to support the development and growth of a local supply chain that can meet operational service, spare part and consumable requirements for the safe, secure and efficient construction and operation of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant for the next 60 years or more. The forum highlighted the requirements to qualify as a supplier to the Barakah project and described the opportunities for provision of goods and services that will be available over the next decade. The nuclear energy industry has some of the most stringent quality, technical and risk management standards in the world, and Enec is committed to working alongside local and international companies, to ensure they meet the unique requirements of the peaceful nuclear energy industry. Enec chief executive officer Mohamed Al Hammadi said: The UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program is already supporting many strategic sectors through the enhancement of local businesses, the development of new industries, and the creation of high-value jobs. Through this forum we hope to continue to enhance our relationships with key suppliers and share upcoming opportunities with both local and international companies. By supporting the growth and development of a local supply chain, Enec is not only ensuring the future sustainability of the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program, but contributing to the UAEs economic diversification and transition to a knowledge-based economy, in line with the Abu Dhabi Plan, added Al Hammadi. More than 1,500local companies have been contracted for the delivery of products and services for the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, with contracts worth over Dh14 billion ($3.8 billion). The contracts include companies such as Emirates Steel, National Cement, Dubai Cable Company (DUCAB), National Marine Dredging Company, Western Bainoona Group, and Hilalco. TradeArabia News Service Direxion Daily South Korea Bull 3X Shares' stock was trading at $13.95 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, KORU stock has increased by 89.0% and is now trading at $26.36. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. There is not enough analysis data for Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund. 4.1 Community Rank Outperform Votes Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund has received 179 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund has received 111 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund has received 61.72% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe KYN will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe KYN will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next There is not enough analysis data for MedEquities Realty Trust. 4.3 Community Rank Outperform Votes MedEquities Realty Trust has received 224 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes MedEquities Realty Trust has received 126 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment MedEquities Realty Trust has received 64.00% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about MedEquities Realty Trust and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe MRT will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe MRT will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next The following companies are subsidiares of Occidental Petroleum: 1PointFive Inc., 1PointFive P1 LLC, APC Aviation Inc., APC International Holdings LLC, APC Midstream Holdings LLC, APC Venezuela Srl, ARCO Long Beach, Altura Energy, Amarok Gathering LLC, Anadarko 20-25 Company, Anadarko 20-36 Company, Anadarko 20-47 Company, Anadarko 20-48 Company, Anadarko 20-49 Company, Anadarko Algeria Block 403 c/e Company, Anadarko Algeria Block 406B Company, Anadarko Algeria Company LLC, Anadarko Algeria Oil & Gas Company, Anadarko Brazil Investment I LLC, Anadarko Brazil Investment II LLC, Anadarko Canada E&P Limited, Anadarko China Holdings 2 Company, Anadarko Colombia Company, Anadarko Consolidated Holdings LLC, Anadarko Cote d'Ivoire Block 103 Company, Anadarko Cote d'Ivoire Company, Anadarko DBMOS Operator LLC, Anadarko Development Company, Anadarko Development Holding Limited, Anadarko E&P Onshore LLC, Anadarko Egypt Holdings Company, Anadarko Energy Holding Limited, Anadarko Energy Services Company, Anadarko Exploracao e Producao de Petroleo e Gas Natural Ltda., Anadarko Finance Company, Anadarko Gabon Company, Anadarko Ghana Mahogany-1 Company, Anadarko Global Energy S.a.r.l, Anadarko Global Funding 1 Company, Anadarko Global Funding II Ltd., Anadarko Guyana Company, Anadarko Holding Company, Anadarko International Development S.a.r.l, Anadarko International Energy Company, Anadarko International O&G Company, Anadarko International Trading Corporation, Anadarko Jordan Company, Anadarko Kenya Company, Anadarko LMM S.a.r.l, Anadarko Land Corp., Anadarko Mexico B.V., Anadarko Mexico S.a.r.l, Anadarko Midkiff/Chaney Dell BR Corp., Anadarko Midkiff/Chaney Dell LLC, Anadarko Natural Gas Company LLC, Anadarko New Zealand Company, Anadarko OGC Company, Anadarko Offshore Holding Company LLC, Anadarko Offshore Well Containment Company LLC, Anadarko Oil & Gas 5 LLC, Anadarko Peru B.V., Anadarko Petroleum, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Anadarko Realty LLC, Anadarko Rockies LLC, Anadarko Royalty Holdings Company, Anadarko UK Corporate Limited, Anadarko US Offshore LLC, Anadarko USH1 Corporation, Anadarko Venezuela Company, Anadarko Venezuela LLC, Anadarko Venezuela Srl, Anadarko WCTP Company, Anadarko West Texas BR Corp., Anadarko West Texas LLC, Anadarko Worldwide Holdings C.V., Atlantic Rim Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Aventine LLC, Baseball Merger Sub 2 Inc., Bear Branch Exploration LLC, Big Island Trona Company, Bitter Creek Coal Company, Bravo Pipeline Company, Cain Chemical, Cain Chemical Inc., Carbon Finance Labs LLC, Concord Petroleum Corporation, Conn Creek Shale Company, D.S. Ventures LLC, DMM Financial LLC, Deerwood Exploration LLC, Downtown Plaza II, Elk Hills Field, FLAG Development LLC, FP Westport Commodities Limited, FP Westport GmbH, FP Westport LLC, FP Westport Limited, FP Westport Services LLC, FP Westport Trading LLC, Fosters Mill Exploration LLC, Glenn Springs Holdings Inc., Globrep Representaciones S.A., Grand Bassa Tankers Inc., Grupo OxyChem de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Headwater II LLC, Houndstooth Resources LLC, INDSPEC Chemical B.V., INDSPEC Chemical Corporation, INDSPEC Chemical Corporation, INDSPEC Chemical Export Sales LLC, INDSPEC Holding Corporation, Ingleside Cogeneration GP LLC, Ingleside Cogeneration Limited Partnership, Interore Trading Ltd., Joslyn Partnership, KERR-McGEE TT E&P LTD., KM BM-C-Seven Ltd., KM International Insurance Ltd., Kerr-McGee Corporation, Kerr-McGee Natural Gas Company Inc., Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore LP, Kerr-McGee Shared Services Company LLC, Kerr-McGee Stored Power Corporation, Kerr-McGee U.K. Energy Corporation, Kerr-McGee Worldwide Corporation, Kerr-McGee do Brasil Ltda., Kerr-McGee of Canada Northwest Ltd., Laguna Petroleum Corp., Laguna Petroleum LLC, Liwa Oil & Gas Ltd., MC2 Technologies LLC, Mariana Properties Inc., Marico Exploration Inc., Miller Springs Remediation Management Inc., Moncrief Minerals Partnership L.P., NGL Ventures LLC, Natural Gas Odorizing Inc., New OPL LLC, OEVC Energy LLC, OEVC Midstream Projects LLC, OIH LLC, OLCV CE Holdings ULC, OLCV CE US Holdings Inc., OLCV Net Power LLC, OLCV Services LLC, OOG Partner LLC, OOOI Chem Holdings LLC, OOOI Chem Sub LLC, OOOI Chemical International LLC, OOOI Chile Holder LLC, OOOI Ecuador Management LLC, OOOI Oil and Gas Sub LLC, OOOI South America Management LLC, OPM GP Inc., OPM Holdco LLC, OTCF LLC, OTH LLC, OXY CV Pipeline LLC, OXY Campus LLC, OXY Inc., OXY LPG LLC, OXY Libya E&P Area 103 BR4 B.V., OXY Libya E&P Area 35 Ltd., OXY Libya E&P Concession 103 Ltd., OXY Libya E&P EPSA 102 B.V., OXY Libya E&P EPSA 1981 Ltd., OXY Libya E&P EPSA 1985 Ltd., OXY Libya E&P NC 143 144 145 150 B.V., OXY Libya Exploration SPC, OXY Libya LLC, OXY Little Knife LLC, OXY Mexico Holdings I LLC, OXY Mexico Holdings II LLC, OXY Middle East Holdings Ltd., OXY Oil Partners Inc., OXY PBLP Manager LLC, OXY Support Services LLC, OXY Tulsa Inc., OXY USA Inc., OXY USA WTP LP, OXY VPP Investments LLC, OXY West LLC, OXY of Saudi Arabia Ltd., OXYCHEM (CANADA) INC., OXYMAR, Oakwood Exploration LLC, Occidental (Bermuda) Ltd., Occidental (East Shabwa) LLC, Occidental Advance Sale Finance Inc., Occidental Al Hosn LLC, Occidental Angola Holdings Ltd., Occidental CIS Services Inc., Occidental Canada Holdings Ltd., Occidental Chemical Asia Limited, Occidental Chemical Belgium B.V.B.A., Occidental Chemical Chile Limitada, Occidental Chemical Corporation, Occidental Chemical Export Sales LLC, Occidental Chemical Far East Limited, Occidental Chemical Holding Corporation, Occidental Chemical International LLC, Occidental Chemical Investment (Canada) 1 Inc., Occidental Chemical Receivables LLC, Occidental Chemical de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Occidental Chile Investments LLC, Occidental Chile Minority Holder LLC, Occidental Colombia (Series G) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series J) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series K) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series L) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series M) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series N) Ltd., Occidental Colombia (Series O) Ltd., Occidental Crude Sales Inc. (Canada), Occidental Crude Sales Inc. (International), Occidental Dolphin Holdings Ltd., Occidental Energy Marketing Inc., Occidental Energy Ventures LLC, Occidental Exploradora del Peru Ltd., Occidental Exploration and Production Company, Occidental Hafar LLC, Occidental International (Libya) Inc., Occidental International Corporation, Occidental International Exploration and Production Company, Occidental International Holdings Ltd., Occidental International Oil and Gas Ltd., Occidental International Services Inc., Occidental Joslyn GP 2 Co., Occidental LNG (Malaysia) Ltd., Occidental Latin America Holdings LLC, Occidental Libya Oil & Gas B.V., Occidental MENA Manager Ltd., Occidental Middle East Development Company, Occidental Midland Basin LLC, Occidental Mukhaizna LLC, Occidental Oil Asia Pte. Ltd., Occidental Oil Shale Inc., Occidental Oil and Gas (Oman) Ltd., Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation, Occidental Oil and Gas International Inc., Occidental Oil and Gas International LLC, Occidental Oil and Gas Pakistan LLC, Occidental Oil and Gas of Peru LLC, Occidental Oman (Block 27) Holdings Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 51 Holding Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 51 LLC, Occidental Oman Block 65 Holding Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 65 LLC, Occidental Oman Block 72 Holding Ltd., Occidental Oman Block 72 LLC, Occidental Oman Gas Company LLC, Occidental Oman Gas Holdings Ltd., Occidental Oman North Holdings Ltd., Occidental Oriente Exploration and Production Ltd., Occidental Overseas Holdings B.V., Occidental PVC LLC, Occidental Peninsula II Inc., Occidental Peninsula LLC, Occidental Permian Ltd., Occidental Permian Manager LLC, Occidental Permian Services Inc., Occidental Peruana Inc., Occidental Petrolera del Peru (Block 101) Inc., Occidental Petrolera del Peru (Block 103) Inc., Occidental Petroleum (Pakistan) Inc., Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Occidental Petroleum Corporation Political Action Committee, Occidental Petroleum de Venezuela S.A., Occidental Petroleum of Nigeria, Occidental Petroleum of Oman Ltd., Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd., Occidental Power Marketing L.P., Occidental Power Services Inc., Occidental Qatar Energy Company LLC, Occidental Red Sea Development LLC, Occidental Research Corporation, Occidental Resource Recovery Systems Inc., Occidental Resources Company, Occidental Shah Gas Holdings Ltd., Occidental South America Finance LLC, Occidental Specialty Marketing Inc., Occidental Tower Corporation, Occidental Transportation Holding Corporation, Occidental West Texas Overthrust Inc., Occidental Yemen Ltd., Occidental Yemen Sabatain Inc., Occidental del Ecuador Inc., Occidental of Abu Dhabi (Bab) Ltd., Occidental of Abu Dhabi (Shah) Ltd., Occidental of Abu Dhabi Holdings Ltd., Occidental of Abu Dhabi LLC, Occidental of Abu Dhabi Ltd., Occidental of Bahrain Ltd., Occidental of Bangladesh Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Chipiron) Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Cosecha) Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Medina) Inc., Occidental of Colombia (Putumayo) Ltd., Occidental of Colombia (Teca) Ltd., Occidental of Colombia PUT-36 LLC, Occidental of Dubai Inc., Occidental of Iraq Holdings Ltd., Occidental of Iraq LLC, Occidental of Oman Inc., Occidental of Russia Ltd., Occidental of South Africa (Offshore) Inc., Occidental of Yemen (Block 75) LLC, Oceanic Marine Transport Ltd., Opcal Insurance Inc., Oryx Crude Trading & Transportation Inc., Oxy BridgeTex Limited Partnership, Oxy C & I Bulk Sales LLC, Oxy Canada Sales Inc., Oxy Carbon Solutions LLC, Oxy Carbon Storage LLC, Oxy Climate Ventures Inc., Oxy Cogeneration Holding Company LLC, Oxy Colombia Holdings LLC, Oxy Colombia TopCo Ltd., Oxy Delaware Basin LLC, Oxy Delaware Basin Plant LLC, Oxy Dolphin E&P LLC, Oxy Dolphin Pipeline LLC, Oxy Energy Canada Inc., Oxy Energy Services LLC, Oxy Expatriate Services Inc., Oxy FFT Holdings Inc., Oxy Holding Company (Pipeline) Inc., Oxy International Ventures Ltd., Oxy LPG Terminal LLC, Oxy Levelland Pipeline Company LLC, Oxy Levelland Terminal Company LLC, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, Oxy Midstream Strategic Development LLC, Oxy Oleoducto SOP LLC, Oxy Overseas Services Ltd., Oxy Permian Gathering LLC, Oxy Permian Plaza LLC, Oxy Petroleum de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Oxy Renewable Energy LLC, Oxy Salt Creek Pipeline LLC, Oxy TL LLC, Oxy Taft Hub LLC, Oxy Technology Ventures Inc., Oxy Transport I Company LLC, Oxy Vinyls Canada Co., Oxy Vinyls Export Sales LLC, Oxy Vinyls LP, Oxy Westwood Corporation, Oxy Y-1 Company, OxyChem Ingleside Ethylene Holdings Inc., OxyChem do Brasil Ltda., OxyChile Investments LLC, Oxychem Shipping Ltd., Permian Basin JV Tax Matters Member LLC, Permian Basin Limited Partnership, Permian VPP Holder LP, Permian VPP Manager LLC, Phibro, Placid Oil LLC, Ramlat Oxy Ltd., Rio de Viento Inc., Rodeo Midland Basin LLC, San Patricio Pipeline LLC, Scanports Shipping LLC, SequestCo LLC, Stetson Exploration LLC, Sun Offshore Gathering Company, Swiflite Aircraft Corporation, Transok Properties LLC, Troy Potter Inc., Turavent Oil GmbH [in liquidation], Tuscaloosa Holdings Inc., UP Petroleo III Ltd., Upland Industries Corporation, Venezuela US SRL, Vintage Gas Inc., Vintage Petroleum, Vintage Petroleum Argentina Ltd., Vintage Petroleum Boliviana Ltd., Vintage Petroleum International Finance B.V., Vintage Petroleum International Holdings LLC, Vintage Petroleum International LLC, Vintage Petroleum International Ventures Inc., Vintage Petroleum Italy Inc., Vintage Petroleum South America Holdings Inc., Vintage Petroleum South America LLC, Vintage Petroleum Turkey Inc., WGR Asset Holding Company LLC, WGR Canada Inc., Wardner Ranch Inc., Western Gas Resources Inc., Western Gas Resources-Westana Inc., Western Midstream Holdings LLC, Woodlands International Insurance Ltd., and YT Ranch LLC. The following companies are subsidiares of Pentair: Aplex Industries Inc., Aqua Membranes Inc. , Aquion, Aquion (Xi'an) Water Treatment Equipment Co. Ltd., Aquion Hong Kong Limited, Aquion Inc., Be the Change Labs Inc., Bylin Engineered Systems Inc, Century Mfg. Co., Chansuba Pumps Private Limited , Clean Process Technologies, ClearWater Tech L.L.C., ETE Coliban Pty Limited, Enviro Water Solutions LLC, Epps Ltd., Erico Global, Everpure Japan Kabushiki Kaisha, FARADYNE Motors (Suzhou) Co. Ltd , Faradyne Motors LLC , FilterSoft LLC, Fleck Controls Inc., Goyen Controls Co. Pty. Limited, Goyen Valve LLC, Greenspan Environmental Technology Pty Ltd, Haffmans B.V., Haffmans North America Inc., Hawley Group Canada Limited, Holding Nijhuis Pompen B.V., Hypro EU Limited, Infinite Water Solutions Private Limited, Jung Pumpen GmbH, Ken's Beverage, Lincoln Automotive Company, MECAIR S.r.L., McNeil (Ohio) Corporation, Milperra Developments Pty Limited, Mobile Pool Builder Inc., Moraine Properties LLC, Nano Terra Inc., Nijhuis Pompen B.V., Nuheat, PES Pty Ltd, PFAM Inc., PTG Accessories Corp., Panthro Acquisition Co., Pelican Holding Corporation, Pentair (NZ) Limited, Pentair Aquatic Eco-Systems Inc., Pentair Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Pentair Canada Inc., Pentair Clean Process Technologies India Private Limited, Pentair Denmark Holding ApS, Pentair Environmental Systems Limited, Pentair Epsilon Limited, Pentair Federal Pump LLC, Pentair Filtration Sales & Service Company LLC, Pentair Filtration Solutions LLC, Pentair Finance Group GmbH, Pentair Finance Holding GmbH, Pentair Finance S.a.r.l., Pentair Flow Control International Pty Limited, Pentair Flow Services AG, Pentair Flow Technologies LLC, Pentair Flow Technologies Pacific Pty Ltd, Pentair Flow Technologies de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Pentair France SARL, Pentair Germany GmbH, Pentair Global Holdings B.V., Pentair Global S.a.r.l., Pentair Group (Thailand) Limited , Pentair Holdings Inc., Pentair Holdings S.a.r.l., Pentair Housing Inc., Pentair Housing LP, Pentair Inc., Pentair International (UK) Ltd, Pentair International Holding S.a.r.l., Pentair International Sarl, Pentair Investments Switzerland GmbH, Pentair Ireland Limited, Pentair Janus Holding LLC, Pentair Janus Holdings, Pentair Kenya Limited, Pentair Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Pentair Management Company, Pentair Manufacturing Belgium BV, Pentair Manufacturing Italy S.r.L., Pentair Middle East FZE, Pentair Nanosoft US Holdings LLC, Pentair Netherlands Euro Finance B.V., Pentair Netherlands Finance B.V., Pentair Netherlands Holding B.V., Pentair Pacific Rim (Water) Limited, Pentair Pacific Rim Limited, Pentair Philippines Inc., Pentair Residential Filtration LLC, Pentair Sales LLC, Pentair Services France S.A.S., Pentair Sudmo GmbH, Pentair Tamimi LLC, Pentair Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Pentair Transport Inc., Pentair Tubing Limited, Pentair UK Group Limited, Pentair UK Holdings Limited, Pentair US LLC 1, Pentair US LLC 2, Pentair US LP, Pentair Valves & Controls del Uruguay S.A., Pentair Water (Suzhou) Company Ltd., Pentair Water Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Pentair Water Australia Pty Ltd, Pentair Water Belgium BV, Pentair Water Brazil LLC, Pentair Water France SAS, Pentair Water Group Inc., Pentair Water Holdings LLC, Pentair Water India Private Limited, Pentair Water Italy S.r.l., Pentair Water LLC, Pentair Water Latinamerica S.A., Pentair Water Operations Australia Pty Ltd, Pentair Water Polska Sp.zoo, Pentair Water Pool and Spa Inc., Pentair Water Proces Technologie Holding B.V., Pentair Water Process Technology B.V., Pentair Water Purification Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Pentair Water Spain S.L., Pentair Water Treatment (OH) Company, Pentair Water Treatment Company, Pentair Water Treatment Private Limited, Pentair Water do Brasil Ltda., Pentair Water-Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Penwald Insurance Company, Pigeon Point Systems Inc., Plymouth Products Inc., Porous Media Corp., Procam Controls Inc., Rocean, Seneca Enterprises Co., Sta-Rite Industries LLC, Sta-Rite de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Sta-Rite de Puerto Rico Inc., Surface Logix LLC, Tupelo Real Estate LLC, Tyco Flow Control, Union Engineering (NingBo) Co. Ltd., Union Engineering A/S, Union Engineering Holding II A/S, Union Engineering Holding LLC, Union Engineering Latam Ltda, Union Engineering North America LLC, Urban Organics Pentair Group LLC, Urban Organics Schmidt Real Estate Group LLC, Urban Organics St. Paul LLC, Voltea Ltd., Water Ingenuity Holdings Corp., Webster Electric Company LLC, Wicor Industries (Australia) Pty. Ltd., and X-Flow B.V.. The UAE is taking part as the first Arabian partner of the 15th China International Small & Medium Enterprises Fair (CISMEF) being held in Guangzhoua city in Chinas Guangdong Province. The event which opened yesterday (October 9) will run until October 13. The UAE is occupying an area of 1,000 sq m at the venue, with 78 different platforms dedicated to the countrys small and medium enterprises and other national entities, said a statement from the company. The UAE delegation is being headed by Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Saleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs on behalf of Engineer Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy and head of the Small and Medium Enterprises Council. The visit is organised by the Ministry of Economy, Small and Medium Enterprises Council through its executive arm The National Program of Small and Medium Enterprises. The delegation includes an elite group of over 120 participants from federal and local entities as well as the private sector, including about 85 UAE entrepreneurs and SME owners from the country, it said. The visit was conducted in the presence of Rahma bin Abdulrahman Al Shamsi UAE Consul-General in the Chinese city of Guangzhou; and the delegation included Dr Adeeb Afify, director of the National SMEs Programme; Mohammed Nasser Hamdan Al Zaabi, director of the Trade Promotion Department at the Ministry of Economy, as well as other high-ranking officials of local government entities and the private sector. CISMEF is considered to be one of the most important regional and international platforms in the entrepreneurship sector, attracting more than 200,000 visitors every year. In his speech, Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Saleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs said the CISMEF has evolved into a leading platform for economic partnership between SMEs at the global level and provides a unique opportunity for SMEs of participating countries to exchange expertise and forge strategic trade relations. Al Saleh said that bilateral relations between the UAE and China are robust and rapidly growing, as evidenced by the intensity of the official and trade visits between leaders of both nations. He pointed out that the historic visit of HH Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China to Abu Dhabi several months ago, played a prominent role in consolidating the partnership between both countries. Al Saleh added that China is the largest non-oil trade partner of the UAE and that external trade between both countries grew by 15 per cent during 2017, with a total value of $53.3 billion. He said that the UAE accounted for around 30 per cent of the total exports of China among the Arab countries, and about 22 per cent of the total Arab-China trade during 2017. China is one of the top 10 ten tourism markets of the UAE. He pointed out that participation in the exhibition was strategically important, as it is provided the perfect opportunity to educate the private sector and businessmen about the opportunities for trade and investment, and said that the SME sector was the mainstay of economic development, owing to which the UAE accords the highest priority to this sector, as well as to the development of a legislative system and business environment conducive to supporting entrepreneurs, as per international best practices. For his part Dr Adeeb Afify, director of the National SMEs Programme, emphasised that CISMEF is considered to be the largest trade delegation outside the country, in terms of the number of UAE SME owners that participate in the fair, including about 85 small and medium national companies from various business and service sectors, pointing out that the visit comes in line with the programmes efforts to promote and empower local entrepreneurs to easily access external markets. Wang Yongqing, vice-director of the Information and Industry Minister and deputy of organising committee of fair, said that the CISMEF is now one of the most important international exhibitions for supporting entrepreneurship. He highlighted the importance of UAEs participation in the exhibition as the partner country, since it enjoyed strong economic and trade relations with China. The UAE is the largest trading partner of China in the Middle East, as well as a pivot in the Belt and Road initiative. TradeArabia News Service The following companies are subsidiares of Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc.. Red Hat, Inc. provides open source software solutions to develop and offer operating system, virtualization, management, middleware, cloud, mobile, and storage technologies to various enterprises worldwide. It offers infrastructure-related solutions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, an operating system platform that runs on hardware for use in hybrid cloud environments; Red Hat Satellite, a system management offering that helps to deploy, scale, and manage in hybrid cloud environments; and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, a software solution that allows customers to utilize and manage a common hardware infrastructure to run multiple operating systems and applications. The company offers application development-related and other technology solutions, such as Red Hat JBoss Middleware, a solution for developing, deploying, and managing applications; integrating applications, data, and devices; and automating business processes in hybrid cloud environments; The company's application development-related and other technology solutions also includes Red Hat cloud offerings, a software solution that enables customers to build and manage various cloud computing environments; Red Hat Mobile, a software development platform that enables customers to develop, integrate, deploy, and manage mobile applications for enterprises; and Red Hat Storage, a software solution that enables customers to manage large, unstructured, or semi-structured data in hybrid cloud environments. It also provides consulting, support, and training services; and realtime operating system, distributed computing, directory services, and user authentication. Red Hat, Inc. has collaboration with Juniper Networks Expand to provide a unified solution for enterprises designed to manage and run applications and services. The company was formerly known as Red Hat Software, Inc. and changed its name to Red Hat, Inc. in June 1999. Red Hat, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Read More Freeport-McMoRan, Inc. engages in the mining of copper, gold and molybdenum. It operates through the following segments: North America Copper Mines, South America Mining; Indonesia Mining, Molybdenum Mines, Rod and Refining, Atlantic Copper Smelting and Refining and Corporate, Other and Eliminations. The North America Copper Mines segment operates open-pit copper mines in Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita and Miami in Arizona and Chino and Tyrone in New Mexico. The South America Mining segment includes Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile. The Indonesia Mining segment handles the operations of Grasberg minerals district that produces copper concentrate that contains significant quantities of gold and silver. The Molybdenum Mines segment includes the Henderson underground mine and Climax open-pit mine, both in Colorado. The Rod and Refining segment consists of copper conversion facilities located in North America and includes a refinery, rod mills, and a specialty copper products facility. The Atlantic Copper Smelting and Refining segment smelts and refines copper concentrate and markets refined copper and precious metals in slimes. The Corporate, Other and Eliminations segment Read More Royal Dutch Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company worldwide. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Oil Products, Chemicals segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure necessary to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, biofuel, lubricants, bitumen, and sulphur; produces and sells petrochemicals for industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Royal Dutch Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. Read More 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. Kingston Technology Europe, a world leader in memory products, will unveil a wide range of memory solutions including its pioneering line of encrypted SSDs and its latest portfolio of encrypted USBs at the upcoming Gitex Technology Week in Dubai, UAE. The 38th edition of Gitex Technology Week, the biggest and boldest technology show in the Mena and South Asia regions, which will take place from October 14 to 18 at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC). According to the company's senior executives, Kingston Technology's presence at this year's Gitex show will serve as a perfect opportunity to demonstrate its UV500, the companys first 3D NAND-enabled SSD featuring full-disk encryption and TCG Opal 2.0 support. Pegged as an encrypted solution for every user, the UV500 helps improve system responsiveness with incredible boot, loading and data transfer times. The UV500 brings users the advantage of 256-bit hardware-based encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) when activated with TCG Opal 2.0 specification programs like Symantec, McAfee and WinMagic. It is a critical component of compliance with global industry standards and regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Meanwhile, Kingston Technology will feature and demonstrate the power of its forthcoming DC1000M 2.5-inch U.2 NVMe SSD, which boasts of high storage capabilities--fully integrated with a Gen 3.0 x4 NVMe interface that results in high throughput and low latency. This SSD works seamlessly with today's current line of next-gen servers that utilize PCle and U.2 blackplanes. Antoine Harb, team leader Mena, Kingston Technology, said, We are looking forward to our participation at this year's edition of Gitex as we are set to introduce our latest range of powerful SSDs and USBs--consolidating our leading presence in the memory products and technology solutions segments. Aside from demonstrating our pioneering line of UV500 SSDs and fully encrypted range of USBs, the event provides Kingston Technology with the strategic opportunity of increasing awareness on the significant role that data protection plays and how we help address privacy challenges in the region. Meanwhile, Kingston Technology will also highlight its newest line of fully encrypted USBs. The company will feature the DataTraveler 2000, which has been developed with an alphanumeric keypad that locks and unlocks the drive with number combination, for easy-to-use PIN protection. The USB also comes with a unique auto-lock feature that is immediately activated upon removal from a device and deletes the encryption key after 10-failed intrusion attempts. Also, being highlighted is the DataTraveler Vault Privacy 3.0, which is affordable enterprise-grade security with 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption in XTS mode. It protects 100 percent of stored data and enforces complex password protection with minimum characteristics to prevent unauthorized access. Another affordable security tool is the DataTraveler 4000G2 with Management capabilities--presented with 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption in XTS mode, to safeguard 100 percent of confidential data. It provides companies with the most commonly required security for USBs. Lastly, Kingston Technology will also showcase its latest IronKey models, the D300 and the S1000. The IronKey D300 is FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certified and comes with 256-bit AES hardware encryption in XTS mode. The IronKey S1000 is the ultimate security drive with its 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption, in XTS mode, and FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validation with dedicated on-device Cryptochip Encryption Key management. The S1000 can immediately detect and react to physical tampering and provides automatic data protection upon drive removal. As with all its USBs, these models lock down and reformat after 10 invalid password attempts to protect against brute force attacks, among other key features that make Kingston Technology a leader in data security. All of the solutions that we will showcase ensure full protection of stored data and enforces the use of complex password protection with minimum characteristics to prevent unauthorized access. As with all our products, these new lines of encrypted USBs and encrypted SSDs are backed by legendary Kingston pre- and post-sales support and a five-year limited warranty, concluded Harb. TradeArabia News Service Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. engages in the provision of equipment, systems, and value-added services for the rail industry. It operates through the following segments: Freight and Transit. The Freight segment involves in the manufacture and offers services components for new and existing locomotives and freight cars; supplies rail control and infrastructure products such as electronics, positive train control equipment, and signal design and engineering services; overhauls locomotives; and provides heat exchangers and cooling systems for rail and other industrial markets. The Transit segments includes the manufacture and providing services components for new and existing passenger transit vehicles, including regional trains, high speed trains, subway cars, light-rail vehicles, and buses; supplies rail control and infrastructure products such as electronics, positive train control equipment, and signal design and engineering services; builds new commuter locomotives; and renovate passenger transit vehicles. The company was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. Read More Forbes Middle East, a licensee of Forbes Media, has unveiled 2018s most successful startups, investors and changemakers shaping the Middle Easts business landscape. Its October issue features three lists: Top 100 Startups in the Middle East; The 50 most active investors; and 12 Up and Coming Companies. Khuloud Al Omian, editor-in-chief of Forbes Middle East said, The Middle East is becoming a stronger community for both angel investors and venture capitalists. With this progress, many startups are showing significant growth, with a substantial number of businesses maturing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region. Governments are now actively supporting the startup communities in their respective countries. The UAE is considered a hub to convert ideas into innovation. The government are not leaving any stones unturned to provide their maximum support to budding entrepreneurs. Other countries like Egypt, Jordon, Lebanon are not far behind, with Jordans government recently launching a $98 million fund to help startups access early stage financing. The Top 100 Startups list highlights companies offering innovative solutions to some of the major challenges faced by regional businesses and consumers. The 50 most Active Investors have been successfully identifying and funding entrepreneurial talent across the region. For the first time, Forbes Middle East has also formed a separate list for 12 Up and Coming Companiesthe businesses bagging the highest amount of funding. Investors have now increased their appetite as they continue to fund Mena-based startups that fix transit systems, insure people, facilitate e-payments and offer robo-backed investment advisory solutions. TradeArabia News Service - T. S. Eliot Thoughts After Lambeth "The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide." Artificial Intelligence (AI) could increase hotel revenues by over 10 per cent and reduce costs by more than 15 per cent, a new research revealed. AI is driving a new wave of responsive, guest-centric hospitality and hotel operators expect technology such as voice and facial recognition, virtual reality and biometrics to be mainstream by 2025, the latest research conducted by Colliers International showed. Further to this, the research estimates 73 per cent of manual activities in the hospitality industry have the technical potential for automation, with many global hotel operators including Marriott, Hilton, and Accor already investing in automating elements of their human resources. Arabian Travel Market (ATM), taking place at Dubai World Trade Centre from April 28 May 1, 2019, will be adopting cutting-edge technology and innovation as its official show theme. Danielle Curtis, exhibition director ME, Arabian Travel Market, said: It is important to highlight that the GCC is one of the fastest growing regional hospitality markets on a global scale and an innovative technology-reliant industry. Its impact on hotels and travel and tourism is multi-dimensional, ranging from voice and facial recognition, chatbots and beacon technology to virtual reality, blockchain and robot concierge. Throughout ATM 2019, the spotlight theme will be launched as a platform to create awareness and inspire the travel and hospitality industry about the next generation of technology, while bringing together senior travel executives to meet and conduct business with innovative tech providers. While automation is forecast to replace a large number of jobs, between 39 and 73 million in the US alone, according to a study by McKinsey Global Institute, the report also states that innovative technology will not be a purely negative disrupter. New jobs will be created; existing roles will be redefined, and workers will have the opportunity to further their career with additional training. The challenge, therefore, will be preparing for and managing the transition between now and 2030. Curtis said: With technologies like AI and automation quickly maturing, the hospitality and travel and tourism industry must prepare for a wave of disruption in order to reap the overall benefits of these technologies. Equipping workers with the necessary skills and training and creating new tech-augmented jobs that can assist with this innovative technology will be key to making this transition a success. Discussing the defining evolutions of hospitality technology, the Travel Tech Show will return to ATM 2019 with dedicated international exhibitors and an influential agenda of discussion and debate in the Travel Tech Theatre. On the show floor, attendees will be able to meet with exhibitors such as TravelClick, Amadeus IT Group, Travco Corporation Ltd, The Booking Expert, Beta Travel, GT Beds and Global Innovations International amongst many others. Looking to the future, the use of robots within the hospitality industry is becoming more commonplace with Colliers predicting the global sale of guest relation robots to reach 66,000 units by 2020. Deployed to improve guests overall experience in a hotel, these robots offer a range of uses from artificially intelligent chatbots designed to assist with the customer service process, through to robot concierge and butlers which have the ability to deliver luggage, handle check-in and check-outs and deliver meals 24/7 to guests efficiently. In 2015, the worlds first robot-run hotel opened in Japan. Henn-na Hotel features a multi-lingual animatronic dinosaur at the reception that helps with check-in and check-out as well as robot porters and a giant mechanical arm that stores luggage in individual drawers. Hoteliers have been cautious of technology taking away the human touch from the guest service and experience. However, by giving guests the power to choose every part of their hotel experience, hoteliers can learn the right balance between staff interaction and AI-powered, automated customer service, Curtis said. Hospitality is in the business of selling experiences. With more and more AI innovations available for guests to express both satisfaction and grievance, the influence of such technology and the usage of social listening tools are expected to become standard as we move closer to 2030. While a robot may not have a smile, it can recognise faces, remember names and most importantly remember guest preferences, characteristics and behaviours. ATM considered by industry professionals as a barometer for the Middle East and North Africa tourism sector, welcomed over 39,000 people to its 2018 event, showcasing the largest exhibition in the history of the show, with hotels comprising 20 per cent of the floor area. ATM 2019 will build on the success of this years edition with a host of seminar sessions discussing the ongoing unprecedented digital disruption and the emergence of innovative technologies that will fundamentally alter the way in which the hospitality industry operates in the region. - TradeArabia News Service Minor Hotels, a hotel owner, operator and investor, has signed two new management contracts in China under the companys established M Collection brand of hotels and bespoke travel experiences. Partnering with Zhuhai Da Heng Qin Company Limited, Hengqin Zhuhai will be the first M Collection branded hotel in China. Scheduled to open in 2020, M Collection Hengqin Zhuhai is located at the heart of Pearl River Delta along a mountain top reservoir with peaceful surroundings, and mountain views in the southern corner of Zhuhai. Hengqin Zhuhais 100 keys will be a collection of suites and pool villas. The hotel will also offer an all-day dining restaurant, two specialty restaurants, a tea house and a lobby lounge. Other facilities include state of the art fitness and gym facilities, swimming pool, kids club and spa. The coastal island of Hengqin is located only 200 metres away from Macao and the island has been selected as a new area to enhance economic ties with both Hong Kong and Macao. A bridge connecting Hengqin with Macao and Hong Kong is scheduled to open in late 2018. When it is completed, it will take 5 minutes to drive to Macao and 40 minutes to drive to Hong Kong. The second resort to be signed under the M Collection brand in China is a 54-key all-villa resort in Hangzhou Yuhang, in the Zhejiang Province, scheduled to be completed in 2022. The new hotel will be part of the 433-hectare Lvjingtang Eco-Park which is located approximately 55 km northwest of Hangzhou city centre in Yuhang district, near the Alibaba headquarters and new private jet aviation centre. The 54 keys will consist of 18 suites and 36 villas. Facilities include an all-day dining restaurant, Pan Asian- themed restaurant, continental restaurant, wine cellar, VIP Club, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a wellness centre, luxury forest mountaintop spa, an organic farm and agricultural activities for guests. The area has rich natural resources and agriculture (farm to table) including tea plantations surrounded by mountains. The resorts partners, Hangzhou Lichuan Environmental Agricultural Development Co. Ltd.s core business includes ecological conservation and plantation of eco-agriculture products. Minor Hotels currently operates three properties in China under the Anantara brand in Xishuangbanna, Sanya and Guiyang and has a further strong pipeline in the region across all brands. - TradeArabia News Service Rotana, one of the leading hotel management companies in the region, has announced that its current president and CEO, Omer Kaddouri, will be stepping down from the role at the end of 2018. Kaddouri assumed the position of president and CEO of Rotana in January 2014, as part of an illustrious 20 years with the company during which he held several senior management positions, including a five-year tenure as chief operating officer. Kaddouri will continue to lead Rotana until the end of the year and will hand over the helm to Guy Hutchinson, who will be acting president and CEO. Hutchinson joined Rotana as chief operating officer in January 2014 and has been leading the brands operations and driving the quality standards and financial performance. Throughout his 20 years with Rotana and nearly five years as president and CEO, Omer played an instrumental role in driving the companys strategic growth and rapid expansion, building a remarkable team and laying the groundwork for our continuing success, said Selim El Zyr, co-founder and vice chairman of Rotana. Following this announcement, our core focus will be to ensure a smooth and seamless transition for our guests, owners, and colleagues as we strive to continually enhance the Rotana brand. We are grateful to Omer for his visionary stewardship, and wish him every success in his future endeavours. We have no doubt that Guy Hutchinson will continue to drive the companys expansion and growth forward, added Nasser Al Nowais, chairman of Rotana. I feel absolutely honoured and privileged to have led Rotana, and will continue to do so until my final day of being part of this remarkable company. I am sincerely grateful to all of my colleagues, without whom, we would not be where we are today, said Kaddouri. Throughout my career with Rotana, I have received tremendous support from our co-founders, Nasser Al Nowais and Selim El Zyr, our Board of Directors and wonderful hotel owners. I wish Rotana continuing success as it enters its next phase of growth and expansion. Following his departure, Kaddouri will be relocating to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he will explore fresh avenues in developing and investing in restaurants and hospitality projects. - TradeArabia News Service Marriott International continues to reinforce its position as a leading hospitality company in the UAE with the expected addition of 11 new properties by year-end and a robust development outlook over the next five years. Year-to-date, the company has added six new properties and is scheduled to add five more in the country - bringing its portfolio in the UAE to 59 properties and over 17,000 rooms across six emirates by the end of the year. Two of the company's openings this year feature regional brand debuts - the eco-conscious Element Hotels brand, which opened earlier this year in Dubai, and the Edition brand, which is scheduled to open in Abu Dhabi later this year. Fueled by a strong demand for its diverse range of well-established lifestyle brands, each offering different attributes that cater instantaneously to an ever-changing and evolving marketplace, the company plans to further enhance its footprint in the UAE with the addition of more than 20 new properties in the next five years. Arne Sorenson, president and chief executive officer, Marriott International, commented: "Our success in the Middle East stems from our long-established presence in the market and the value we deliver to our owner-partners. It is the trust owners have in Marriott International, combined with our differentiated brands and collective strength of our global platform, that has put us in a position to further expand our portfolio in the country and strengthen guest loyalty." He added, "We are privileged to have the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing growth and diversification of the UAE's economy and remain committed to supporting the direction of its visionary leaders to further enhance the tourism sector." "With a presence in the market that dates back over three decades, we have witnessed and been a part of the transformation of the UAE as one of the world's most dynamic travel destinations," said Alex Kyriakidis, president and managing director, Middle East and Africa, Marriott International. "Our established and growing portfolio of hotels underscore the substantial demand for our brands in this market. We remain very optimistic about the UAE and continue to explore opportunities to further amplify our growth in the country through new deal signings and conversion opportunities." Milestone year for openings in the UAE 2018 has been a milestone year for Marriott International in the UAE, with the company anticipating having added a total of 11 properties and over 2,600 rooms by year-end. The design-led Aloft Hotels made its debut in Dubai with three new openings - Aloft Palm Jumeirah, Aloft Me'aisam and Aloft City Centre Deira - all within the first half the year. The company launched its eco-conscious Element Hotels brand in the region with the opening of Element Me'aisam. In the luxury space, the Ritz-Carlton brand opened its fifth property in the UAE - The Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Hamra Beach in Ras Al Khaimah. The company also took over the operations of the Yas Island Hotel, which is scheduled to be flagged as a W Hotel early next year - marking the debut of the brand in Abu Dhabi. Building off the momentum of the first nine months, the company is gearing up to open five more properties by the end of the year. These include the Courtyard by Marriott Al Barsha; Four Points by Sheraton Sharjah the company's second property in Sharjah; Aloft Dubai South the first hotel to open in the Dubai South district; The Abu Dhabi Edition the Edition brand's first property in the region; and W Dubai - The Palm. Select-service brands fuel growth The UAE is currently home to 16 of Marriott International's brands with over 50 per cent of its existing portfolio across its upper-upscale brands, including Marriott Hotels, Sheraton and Le Meridien. The company is also a leader in the luxury space with 15 properties across five luxury brands in the country. While the company's development pipeline highlights solid growth for its upper-upscale and luxury portfolio, its select-service brands represent over 70 per cent of the development pipeline for the UAE. The growth of its select-service portfolio, which features brands such as Courtyard by Marriott, Aloft Hotels, Element Hotels and Residence Inn by Marriott, is in line with the UAE government's efforts to expand the mid-scale segment in the country. Increased demand for high-end, branded residences Marriott International recently announced that its global branded residential portfolio is expected to grow by more than 70 per cent in four years as consumers increasingly seek residences in communities that offer a convenient lifestyle, array of amenities and services while real estate developers seek to differentiate and elevate their products with trusted brands. The company is seeing an increased demand for branded residences in the UAE and across the region. Across the Middle East and Africa, Marriott currently operates three branded residential properties, including the Bulgari Residences in Dubai, and anticipates to more than double its residential portfolio in the region with eight projects scheduled to open by 2022. - TradeArabia News Service It's tough to miss the hypnotic sound of drumming as it reverberates across Dal's Studley Campus each October as part of the university's Mawio'mi. And as in past years, those beckoned by the beat to Dal's ninth-annual powwow next Thursday (October 11) will discover food, music and dancing. Dalhousie Mawiomi Thursday, October 11 11 a.m. feast, 12 p.m. grand entry Studley Quad (rain location: SUB McInnes Room) But event organizer Michele Graveline, Dals Indigenous student advisor, says she is also excited for attendees to come out to see the work of some of the many talented Indigenous artists and entrepreneurs invited in as vendors for this years event. Links to the past Gravelines enthusiasm stems not only from an appreciation of the work itself but also from an understanding of the historical significance of inviting Indigneous vendors to Halifax an act in keeping with the Peace and Friendship Treaty signed between the Mikmaq people and the governor of Nova Scotia in 1752. Reading that into a modern-day context, the vendors become really important, she says, referencing a clause in the Treaty that specifies Mikmaq people are to be given free liberty to bring items for sale to Halifax and other locations across Nova Scotia. For Graveline, its through these links to the past that we can come to better understand critical issues such as reconciliation and Indigenization today. We use language like We are all Treaty People as part of our official land acknowledgement, but what do those terms really mean for the average person on campus?" she says. This years Mawiomi is meant to give people room to think about just that. In Mikmaq culture, a Mawiomi is a spiritual occasion that marks a coming together of community in celebration and healing. Dals Mawiomi was first started in 2010 by a group of Indigenous students and has played an important role over the years in raising awareness about Indigenous culture at the university, which sits on unceded Mi'kmaq territory. About a dozen vendors from across the Mikmaq territory (encompassing primarily Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I) will be on site this year to showcase and sell their wares, including visual artists, beadwork artists, jewelers, clothiers, textile artists, and nature-based products like essential oils. As the event has grown over the years, so too have the types of vendors. This year, a new organization called Reclaiming Our Roots will have a table. The group aims to reconnect urban Indigenous youth with meaningful land-based knowledge rooted in Mikmaq values. We have been working on this for a few months now using our own knowledge and connections, says group co-founder Chenise Hache, who has a background in Indigenous youth support in Nova Scotia. Now, Dal has given us an opportunity to open it up to a broader community. She and other co-founder James Doucette hope to network and promote the groups hunting and fishing workshops to Indigenous students at Dal, while also gaining insights into how to refine the project moving forward. Mikmaq values will also be on display later in the day during the Grand Entry parade, which will feature male and female dancers in regalia, Elders, a veteran and other significant community members. It will be followed by an afternoon of music, dancing and drumming on the quad. Growing enthusiasm The turnout was so high for last years Mawiomi that Graveline has ordered an additional 100 food servings this year in an effort to ensure theres enough for all who want to join the feast, which happens just prior to the afternoon activities. Graveline, who used to bring junior and high school students to the event when she worked as an Aboriginal support worker with the Halifax Regional School Board, says shes thrilled to see the Mawiomi continue to grow year after year. And the bigger the turnout, the greater the opportunity to strike up important new dialogues about those bigger priorities such as reconciliation through connections with vendors and more. In these times of reconciliation, we want people to consider questions about buying Indigenous wares, says Graveline, noting that some may see it as an act of reconciliation and others may ponder how they can wear an item in a respectful way. Its exactly these kinds of deeper considerations Graveline hopes this years Mawiomi will foster more of. Next Thursday also marks the launch of the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Legacy Space at Dalhousie at the Killam Memorial Library from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. The Mawio'mi follows immediately after with vendors set up by 10:30, a feast at 11 and the Grand Entry at noon. Mawio'mi rain location: McInnes Room. On a typical weekday morning, the new Irving Oil Auditorium on Dalhousies Sexton Campus would be packed with hundreds of students. But this Wednesday morning was anything but typical on Dals downtown campus home to the Faculties of Engineering and Architecture & Planning. Thats because partners from the Government of Canada, the Province of Nova Scotia, the private sector as well as donors, alumni, and students were on hand to mark the official opening of new facilities created on campus as part of the $64-million IDEA renewal project. Anchored by two new academic buildings, and with stunning upgrades to labs and other features in five existing buildings, the IDEA Project (which stands for Innovation and Design in Engineering and Architecture) has transformed the century-plus old campus into a modern hub of collaborative learning, research, design and innovation. Scott Brison speaks at the IDEA Project grand opening. This is big, and it should be big, said the Honourable Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board of Canada and Minister of Digital Government, in remarks at the event. [This] will be a place where big ideas are built into big game-changers right here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Dal broke ground on the project two years ago shortly after the federal government pledged $32-million in support through its Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund (SIF), building on an earlier $1-million donation from Marjorie Lindsay (wife of late Engineering alum John Lindsay Sr.) and a commitment of future support from students themselves through an annual fee. Marjorie Lindsay at Wednesday's event. Recognizing those who made it possible The opening provided a chance to recognize these supporters and the many others who have come on board to back the project over the past two years as construction reshaped the campus. These include generous contributions from corporate donors, private donors (like international business leader Lukas Lundin, who gave $2 million) as well as alumni, including Halifax business leader Richard Murray whose $6-million donation was announced for the first time Wednesday by Dal President Richard Florizone. Richard Murray thanked by guests for his donation. In recognition of Murrays gift, the university will name one of the two new buildings constructed on the campus the Richard Murray Design Building. The Emera IDEA Building next door was named in recognition of a $10-million gift from the Halifax-based energy company that will be used to support cutting-edge startup incubation spaces and programming. This is like the mother of all Christmas mornings for me, said President Florizone in remarks thanking supporters at the event. It is, I think, a watershed moment, a pivot for us at Dalhousie and what we are trying to do in this region. He spoke about the substantial physical expansion included as part of the IDEA project, but also about its impact on how the campus fits into downtown Halifaxs growing innovation district. President Richard Florizone This project has brought us even closer to the companies, creators and entrepreneurs here in Halifax, he said. Together, were deepening those networks of collaboration, reshaping our city and our region and inspiring that next generation to make an impact on communities and the world. The power of collaboration Collaboration was a common theme with other speakers as well, including the Honourable Stephen McNeil, premier of Nova Scotia. Premier Stephen McNeil. While these bricks and mortar are wonderful, he said, it is the spirit inside of this initiative that is what is driving this province. He mentioned the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (COVE) in Dartmouth and Volta, a rapidly expanding innovation hub also located downtown, as two additional examples of a spirit of collaboration and innovation that I dont think this province has ever seen before. Dal News Video: IDEA Project grand opening A specific case in point as part of the IDEA Project is the Emera ideaHUB, a dedicated innovation and collaboration space located inside the Emera IDEA Building that will help drive economic growth. Scott Balfour, Emeras president and CEO, spoke about his companys decision to support the project. Scott Balfour, Emera CEO. Enabling strong, innovative communities is important because together we are facing big challenges and big opportunities, he said, noting the unprecedented change taking place in the energy sector and other industries. Our investment in the Emera ideaHUB is going to help develop the leaders of tomorrow, and were counting on those new leaders and new ideas to continue the work that were doing today. Programming in the Emera ideaHUB is being supported by a $2.5-million gift from Micco Companies and Clearwater Seafoods. Alice Aiken, Dal's vice-president of research and innovation and MC at the opening ceremony, also set the project in the larger context of the universitys role as an innovator in the region, highlighting some of the many programs set to roll out on Sexton and elsewhere at Dal under the universitys new Dal Innovates initiative. She also shared the wording on one of the two cornerstones being installed in the buildings. Unveiled with the help of a robotic arm developed by a Faculty of Engineering student-research team, the cornerstone includes a precedent-setting acknowledement that the land the university sits on is the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq. She said all new cornerstones at Dal going forward will include this acknowledgment. A first look at a truly "student-centred campus" Attendees had a chance to explore some of the exciting new spaces, including state-of-the-art workshops, renovated labs and student study areas, and to chat with students and researchers about some of their projects on display for the event. John Newhook, dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and Christine Macy, dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, spoke about the importance of the project for researchers and for students alike. What we have as a result is stunning example of a student-centred campus, said Dr. Macy, taking time to thank architects from DSRA Architecture (also Dal alumni) who gave shape to the IDEA Project. Dr. Newhook also expressed gratitude to his predecessor, Josh Leon, and to Dr. Macy for their crucial role in defining the project early on and getting it off the ground. Students Katie Kirkpatrick and Sierra Sparks. Engineering student Sierra Sparks, who spoke at the event alongside Architecture student Katie Kirkpatrick, said theres no doubt that the IDEA Project was developed with us, the students, in mind. She pointed out that the 450-seat lecture hall made possible as part of a $2.2-million donation from Irving Oil ensures for the first time that Dal has the space to accommodate even the largest classes on Sexton Campus. And new labs and workshops ensure students will have more opportunities for hands-on experiential learning. Sparks also drew attention to the valuable new study and collaboration spaces throughout, including the John Lindsay Sr. Design Commons a vast, open-concept student space created with the aforementioned donation from Mrs. Lindsay and named after her late husband. In introducing Sierra and Katie near the end of the official portion of the days events, Mrs. Lindsay spoke of her husbands fondness for Dalhousie and about the impact the IDEA Project promises for students on the Engineering campus he so loved. It represents a transformation to the educational experience here at Dalhousie university for students now and generations to come. 1400 E. Fifth Street, Dayton, OH 45402 [ map it Free Event Come wrap up your holiday shopping with a special gift from this old-world style Christmas Market. Enjoy the ambience of traditional food, drink, and Gluhwein! Christkindlmarkt: Old-World Christmas Market Tradition Visit the Liederkranz for the annual celebration of the centuries old Christmas market tradition that originated in Nurnberg, Germany. Quality vendors will offer hand crafted ornaments, beer steins, German collectible items, antiques, unique jewelry, note cards & gifts, paper cut outs, etc. The annual Liederkranz Christmas Raffle will also feature many wonderful items. Delicious traditional food and beverages available on-site or for carry-out. Disinvestment of Air India may be possible only after the macroeconomic conditions and market conditions are favourable. (Photo: File | AFP) Hyderabad: The Centre is likely to finalise a revival package for the ailing Air India in a month, a top official of the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Tuesday assuring "need-based" support to the debt-laden carrier. Civil Aviation Secretary, RN Choubey also said the safety audit that the Director General of Civil Aviation ordered on domestic airlines "did not find any backlog of any safety steps that they should have taken." "Whenever there is a need for financial support to Air India, it will be examined on need basis and such financial support on need basis will be provided. I only wish to tell you that all support will be provided. Air India's competitiveness and efficiency will not be compromised. We have nearly finalised the package and there will not be any problem for Air India. Within this month yes. Certainly," Choubey told reporters here. He was responding to a query about the revival package for Air India. He said the disinvestment of Air India may be possible only after the macroeconomic conditions and market conditions are favourable and expected that the airlines would improve its efficiency and operational capabilities. The official further said the rising fuel prices and sliding Rupee against Dollar, impacted the profitability of the industry during the past two quarters and the ministry was also working separately on various measures to support the airlines sector in general. "The intention is to bring down the cost. You must appreciate that the cost of operations has gone up because the rental has gone up on account of devaluation of Rupee and fuel prices have also led to the cost increase in operations. So our intention is to bring down the cost. Thats what we are wanting to provide," he said. On the crisis-hit Jet Airways, he said the carrier has not approached the government for any support and it (government) "is monitoring the situation." New Delhi: After getting approvals from their respective boards, state-run Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank have sent the proposal to merge all the three lenders to the government for a final approval, a bank official said. The government had announced the merger of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank on September 17, to create the country's third largest lender. The boards of all the three banks have approved (the merger proposal) and sent the recommendations to the government. We are in early stages of rolling this out. The next step would be the government approving formally the merger process, and then the swap ratio, Bank of Baroda managing director and chief executive officer PS Jayakumar told reporters here. He said the merger will take four to six months to complete. Late last month, the boards of all the three lenders had given in-principle approvals for the proposed merger. The envisaged amalgamation will be the first-ever three-way consolidation of banks in the country, with a combined business of Rs 14.82 lakh crore, making it the third largest bank after State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank. The merger of the three banks would be through share swap, which will be the part of the scheme of merger. In April 2017, SBI had merged with itself five of its subsidiary banks and taking over Bharatiya Mahila Bank, catapulting it to be among top 50 global lenders with over $550 billion in combined assets. After the merger of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank, the number of state-run banks will come down to 19. When asked whether he will continue to head Bank of Baroda after his term ends this week, Jayakumar said he was open but it is for the government to take the decision. Jayakumar was one of the two chiefs of public sector banks selected from the private sector and had joined the state-owned bank in October 2015. He was appointed for a three-year term, which will come to an end on October 12. The government on Friday cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.5 a litre, sacrificing Rs 10,500 crore revenue in the current financial year. New Delhi: The excise duty cut on petrol and diesel is credit negative for India as it will reduce government revenue and increase fiscal deficit by 0.1 per cent to 3.4 per cent of GDP in FY19, Moodys Investors Service said on Tuesday. Also, the earning of public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) would be negatively affected as they also absorbed Rs 1 per litre cut in their pricing, Moodys said. The government on Friday cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.5 a litre, sacrificing Rs 10,500 crore revenue in the current financial year. Overall, excise duty cuts are credit negative because they will reduce government revenue collection and increase fiscal deficit, Moodys said in a statement. The US-based rating agency said these measures create downside risks to the central governments fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP for fiscal 2018. Because the government had already met 94.7 per cent of the budgeted annual deficit by August, to achieve its deficit target it will likely need to compress capital expenditure, the statement said, adding, Consequently, we expect the central government deficit target to slip modestly to 3.4 per cent of GDP, while the combined general government deficit (central and state) should remain at about 6.3 per cent of GDP. It said that the government revenue from excise duties on petroleum products has more than doubled since fiscal 2014. State governments charge value added tax (VAT) on fuel as a percentage of prices and have therefore benefited from rising oil prices. The centre had appealed to state governments to cut VAT rates on petrol and diesel by Rs 2.5 per litre, following which several BJP and NDA ruled states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Assam, Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh followed suit. On government asking OMCs to absorb a Rs 1 per litre in pricing, Moodys said even as the government so far has been committed to market-based pricing, going ahead there are risks to going back on deregulation. Chennai: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has blamed the Congress-led UPA regime for public and private sector banks facing huge corporate bad loans. The loans were provided without following due diligence and as a result, defaulters fled the country and the banks had no money to lend, Sitharaman said while referring to fugitive business barons like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. Sitharaman had also held the portfolios of corporate affairs and finance (Minister of State) and was the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Commerce and Industry. Huge loans were provided by banks at the drop of a hat "when a phone call was made," by the powers that be, the minister said, addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party traders wing meet here on Tuesday. Since such loans were not paid back till date, the banks faced a crunch and could not lend for new businesses, she claimed. "Public and private sector banks are all facing difficulty due to this. Though policy allowed banks to provide loans, banks are not prepared to lend as they do not have money. Why this happened," she asked. Loans were provided to "acquaintances" without any assessment, scrutiny or background check to ascertain if the promoters could actually carry on the business and pay back the loan, and it was "crony capitalism," followed by the UPA regime, she alleged. "Under the guise of providing loans to do business, banks were made to lend without assessing factors like repayment capabilities, assets and expertise and they (apparently referring to Vijay Mallya and others) have departed with the money and the banks do not have money," Sitharaman said. Under such circumstances, to achieve 7.5 to 8 per cent growth (GDP) rate, several efforts have been taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said. To tackle the issue of defaulters fleeing the country after cheating banks, an enabling legislation - The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 - was passed which envisaged attachment of properties, she said. "This law was not brought during their (UPA) regime)," she said. The defaulters fled the country in view of tough action. Even if the defaulters had fled the country, efforts are being made to bring them back home to justice and attach their properties as well for default, she said. Sitharaman said the BJP-led Centre has given good governance and all welfare schemes have to be taken to the people. If a comparison was made between the 48 years rule of the Congress and other parties at the Centre and the BJP-led NDA for the past 48 months, she said it could be understood that what the Centre has been doing was a "herculean task". "During the 10 years of the UPA regime, they did nothing to give good governance," she said. "At that time, even at the cost of "betrayal" of the country, those who held power eyed only things that could be "grabbed," and the then prime minister Manmohan Singh was not bothered about it even as corruption reigned," she alleged. Sitharaman spoke about other welfare schemes of the Centre like the 'Ayushman Bharat.' The traders' wing meet was the starting point to the Lok Sabha campaign in Tamil Nadu, she said. Actor Siddarth said the allegations against lyricist Vairamuthu should be heard out and investigated without any prejudice. He also hopes that Nadigar Sangam and Producers Council would do something to create an environment for the survivors of this movement. In a series of tweets, he expressed his views, Multiple women are speaking out against Kavignar #Vairamuthu. Without judging anyone, they must be heard. When somebody of @Chinmayi's stature, who has so much to lose stands by the accusers, that's huge! There will be investigation. First Step # ListenToTheAccuser #MeToo #Timesup If the accuser names herself, you say she's doing it for attention. If the accuser stays anonymous, you question her authenticity. The identity of the accuser is not relevant. That she chose to identify her abuser publicly is! Courage & closure. Supersede all else. #MeToo #Timesup #TamilCinema took to the streets when #Jayalalithaa was arrested on corruption charges. I have faith that #ProducersCounciland #NadigarSangam will come together soon and create a safe environment for survivors in this movement. Lets talk@ VishalKOfficial # MeToo #Timesup, Siddarth concluded. Trivikram Srinivass action-drama film Aravinda Sametha comes out this Friday, and the filmmaker promises that its unlike any other weve seen before. While there have been many films set in Rayalaseema, we have tried to explore an untouched side of the region, he says, adding, Usually, men are willing to listen to everyone but their wives. But what would happen if we took their advice perhaps women would be able to stop wars and other conflicts. We have explored the possibility of women having their way while staying true to Rayalaseemas culture and traditions. Just as the film was nearing completion, the films lead actor, Jr NTR, lost his father in a road accident. Talking about how Jr NTR insisted on wrapping the film up on time, the director says, The producer (China Babu) and I decided to postpone the release to next summer, but Jr NTR called me up and said that he wanted to resume shooting. We told him that it wasnt the right time to think about the film. But he showed tremendous character, kept his loss to himself and ensured that the films release wasnt affected; kudos to him. Its especially significant that Trivikram touts his upcoming film as unique, given that he faced a lot of flak earlier this year after being accused by a French filmmaker of plagiarising his film while making the Pawan Kalyan-starrer Agnathavaasi. Addressing the controversy, the director says, I neither paid that filmmaker nor T-series (which was rumoured to have bought the Indian rights to his film). They said that they would launch legal proceedings, but nothing has happened yet. Neither of them has approached me. But since the film (Agnathavaasi) was a failure, I returned my remuneration to the producer. Thats all I could do. In the 16 years since his debut, Trivikram has only made 10 films. Ask him about his lack of releases, and he says, Im a bit lazy. But I am happy with the way I spend time writing. I want to make my scripts compact and slick, for which good writing is key. He adds that over the years, hes learnt to let things happen naturally. For instance, you cant insert a comedy track into a film just for the heck of it. The track should fit in naturally, he says. HT05 Telugu actor Adarsh Balakrishna has landed an exciting role in a web-series based on the surgical strikes conducted by the Indian army. Confirming the news, he says, Yes, I am doing a web series, and it will be the first of its kind for me. He adds that he will be seen playing an army officer, and the show will be filmed in the Hindi. The series is based on a very relevant topic, and its being directed by Raj Acharya. I did the Hindi film Iqbal 13 years ago, and now, I am doing this Hindi series, he says, revealing that he landed the project through the recommendation of a friend. Adarsh has finished shooting for the first schedule of the web-series in Mumbai, and the team is now headed to Jammu and Kashmir for the rest of the shoot. The actor says that hes glad that digital platforms are giving actors and filmmakers the opportunity to explore new topics and genres. There is freedom of creativity, people can choose completely different subjects. I can explore opportunities in other languages too. The future is digital, he says. Adarsh became a popular name when he finished as the runner-up on the first season of the reality show Bigg Boss. He admits, however, that he hasnt received as many offers as expected since then. Now, it looks like things are picking up for him. The actor has signed a film with Sudheer Varma and Sharwanand, and he also appears in a cameo in the upcoming film Aravinda Sametha. HT05 It is difficult to put into words. If you had taken a hold of me a year ago and shaken me and said, listen, listen this is what will happen to you then I would have laughed at you... Daisy Johnson, at 27, has become the youngest author ever to be a part of the Man Booker Prize shortlist. The record was previously held by Eleanor Catton, who was 28 when she won the prize for her novel, The Luminaries, in 2013. Chosen for her novel Everything Under, a book described by judge Val MacDermid, as one that epitomises 'fluidity', Johnson, says that much of the act/art of writing is 'isolated' and going over each sentence multiple times in the middle of the night, coupled with self-doubt and that she finds herself grinning uncontrollably at all times of the day, dancing around my kitchen. I am young but I have been writing since before I knew what a writer was," she says on her inclusion in the shortlist. Born in Paignton, UK, in 1990, Johnson debuted in the literary world with a short story collection Fen in 2016. Having already received rave reviews and accolades for her earlier work, Johnson's debut novel Everything Under is the one which got her to the shortlist. The book is about a young woman who grew up on a canal boat on the river with her wild, fierce mother and the young author describes, is about abandonment, a journey, a quest and remembrance. She elaborates, "When she was young her mother abandoned her, and the book is, in part, about her journey to try and find her mother. As she is searching for her mother she remembers more and more of what happened when she was a child and lived on the river. A strange boy appears near their boat and there is something living in the water, haunting the people who live in the waterways." Johnson says that the seed of the novel was a Greek myth which she grew obsessed with and wanted to retell. "It is a novel about memory and trauma and family," she says, adding. "It is also a novel about how the language we use makes us the people we are." But mostly, Johnson explains, the book is a 'strange, dark myth about fate and guilt.' Currently living in Oxford by the river, Johnson was partly inspired by the landscape there for her novel. The author who revealed that she loves wild, watery places adds that her first book Fen too was born from the land where she grew up, perhaps hinting towards the inspiration nature plays on her works. With the inclusion of Esi Edugyan, Anna Burns, Rachel Kushner and Johnson, this years Man Booker shortlist sees a majority in the number of women being selected, a fact, Johnson says is 'terrible' that 'this is only the first time!' The young author explains, "I like to think that we are riding a wave and that it might be a long-living wave. It is difficult, some days, to feel any hope in this regard. So often the books we read are limited to particular voices or experiences and I think we have a very long way to go to rectify this. I like to think, though, that the anger a lot of people are feeling at the moment will drive us forward into a better, more interesting and wider reading experience." Everything Under has been described as a story of family and identity, of fate, language and love. Much like language which has an ever-changing life of its own, the author says these concepts too are flexible and metamorphose continuously. This is a book about people living on the margins who see family and identity and love and, especially, language in their own original way. Commenting on the inclusion of American fiction in The Man Booker, a topic hotly debated by authors across the world, Johnson reveals that in this regard, she is of two minds. "I agree that it is important to have prizes only for the UK and the Commonwealth and to celebrate that literature. However I think we need to remember that when the prize opened to America it also opened to the rest of the world, as long as the book was published in English in the UK. And I think that this is really exciting. Because I would love to see authors from Pakistan or Peru or Kenya in the prize. This is not something we are really seeing yet which I think is a shame." As for some writerly words of wisdom, she concludes, "If you want to write you need to read. That is non-negotiable. Read everything you can get your hands on. Read the manual for the washing machine. Read without snobbery but with open eyes, looking for what works and what doesnt, for what peaks your writerly attention." Johnson is currently working on her third book, a horror novel set in Yorkshire about two sisters living in a house. The 2018 winner will be announced on Tuesday 16 October in Londons Guildhall, at a dinner that brings together the shortlisted authors and well-known figures from the cultural world. Acting on a tip-off, a trap was laid at around 6:40 pm on Monday and a biker was intercepted, police said. (Photo: Representational | PTI) New Delhi: A 23-year-old suspected burglar, who was inspired by the character portrayed by actor John Abraham in the film 'Dhoom', was arrested from near Uttam Nagar area, police said on Wednesday. The accused was identified as Jitender, they said. Acting on a tip-off, a trap was laid at around 6:40 pm on Monday and a biker was intercepted, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse. During interrogation, Jitender revealed that he had carried out several burglaries in Uttam Nagar, Bindapur and Dabri area. Jitender is a notorious criminal and has been arrested earlier in several other cases, the DCP said, adding that the accused kept a loaded firearm with him during burglaries. An avid movie lover, he was inspired by the character Kabir portrayed by Abraham in the film 'Dhoom', Alphonse added. A motorcycle, one country-made pistol and a live round of 8 mm were seized from his possession, he said. The incident came to light when her mother returned from work and saw her daughter carrying her slippers and was walking out of Babu's room with her underpants pulled downwards. Bengaluru: The Marathahalli police have arrested a 52-year-old man for allegedly sexually abusing a three-year-old girl in Devarabeesanahalli on Monday. The accused has been identified as Babu alias Chandrababu, a native of Vellore in Tamil Nadu and works as a welder in Devarabeesanahalli. The police said that he had left his family back in his hometown three years ago and was staying in a rented house near the victim's house. According to the police, the incident took place around 1.30 pm while the victim was playing in front of her house. Babu who was aware that her parents had gone for work, came near her house. He lured her by offering chocolates, took her to his room and allegedly abused her. The incident came to light when her mother returned from work and saw her daughter carrying her slippers and was walking out of Babu's room with her underpants pulled downwards. When she rushed to Babu's room she saw that he was clad in underwear. She immediately raised an alarm and the locals gathered, who informed the police control room. The Marathahalli police rushed to the spot and nabbed the culprit. The victim was taken to a private hospital where the doctors confirmed sexual abuse. As the examinations were to be done at a government hospital, the police once again took the victim and the accused in separate vehicles to the Bowring Hospital for medical examination. Babu was booked under Sections 7 and 8 of the POCSO Act, produced before a magistrate, who remanded him to judicial custody. The milk collected from the cattle was again adulterated and sold to the milk vendors and ice-cream manufacturers in the city, said the SOT police. (Representational Images) Hyderabad: Three persons from the old city area have been arrested by the Rachakonda Special Operations Team sleuths for using Oxytocin injections on the cattle to increase the milk production. The milk collected from the cattle was again adulterated and sold to the milk vendors and ice-cream manufacturers in the city, said the SOT police. The sleuths of SOT on Thursday raided an adulterated milk making unit at Madannapet and apprehended Mohammed Rasheed, 25, Syed Moinuddin Quadri, 49, and Mohammed Shoaib, 20, an intermediate student. SOT inspector G. Naveen Kumar said that accused Quadri has been doing cattle business for the last 15 years. In order to increase the production of milk, he was purchasing Oxytocin injections from one Nasir of Gujarat through one Mohammed Sajjad and was injecting the same to the cattle, despite knowing that it was harmful to the consumers. The accused also added substandard milk powder to the milk collected from the cattle. Accused Rasheed purchased the milk powder from Rajasthan and supplied them to Quadri through Shoaib. They were turning 20 litres of milk to 100 litres. The accused also confessed to selling the milk to vendors and also to some ice-cream manufacturers in the city, said the inspector. He said that the accused have been handed over to the Vanasthalipuram police who registered a case under Sections 420, 272, 273 and 188 of IPC, while efforts are on to nab the absconding Nasir and Sajjad. The team seized 200 bottles of Oxytocin, 204 kg of substandard milk powder, Rs 15,000 cash, a packing machine and three phones from the arrested persons and produced them before court for judicial remand. Child rights activist and President of Child Rights Trust Nagasimha G. Rao opined that teenagers and youngsters should never be left in isolation. Bengaluru: With the World Health Organisations (WHO) theme for this years World Mental Health Day on Wednesday being Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World, experts and educators in the city have designed numerous initiatives for the mental well-being of youngsters. Among schools Bethany High in Koramangala has taken steps to reduce childrens exposure to gadgets and internet. It observes Mondays as Digital Detox Day and urges teachers, parents and students to be off their smartphones, computers and other gadgets both at school and at home. Dr Akash Ryall , Director of Bethany Group of Institutions, told Deccan Chronicle, We are losing the art of real communication nowadays. Even though the number of contacts increase, the quality of communication has seen a decline. At homes, families have been losing out on their family time after the invasion of such gadgets. This initiative has made lives much easier and happier for everyone. He added that the move has helped parents lend their ears to their children, making family conversations possible daily at least during dinner time. Child rights activist and President of Child Rights Trust Nagasimha G. Rao opined that teenagers and youngsters should never be left in isolation. They face a lot of mental pressure trying to clear a series of confusions that they face. All this amounts to mental stress when added with societal expectations of their academic and moral conduct. Youngsters tend to be seeking advice from their elders, always wanting to share their experiences with their loved ones on a daily basis. Once they feel theres nobody to listen, they easily get addicted to something else gadgets, alcohol, drugs or anything else which would then amount to further personality deterioration, he said. Kumar Jahgirdar, National President of Childrens Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), an NGO in the city, said that early intervention in such cases will contribute towards preventing untoward incidents. As responsible elders and dear guardians we should equip our youngsters with resilience providing support and treatment, if needed, at the right time. We should make them know that they are never alone in whatever they are struggling with. Listen to others with care and support, build healthy relationships both individually and in the family encouraging family communication built with trust and respect, he said. Sampath was injured in a motor vehicle accident in an operation area during the 1965 Indo-Pak war. (Representional Image) Hyderabad: The Central government has spent Rs 106.91 crore between 2014 and 2017 as lawyers fees to fight cases against disabled veterans, with regard to pensions and compensation claims. An internal verbal settlement between the defence and the veterans could have saved the legal fee, was one of the suggestions discussed in Parliament. These are long- pending unsolved cases hanging in the courts since the UPA regime. A classic example to explain how these cases run for years incurring expenditure to both parties, the veterans and the government, who pay for the legal fee, is the case of veteran M. Sampath from Mutfort, Hyderabad. Sampath was injured in a motor vehicle accident in an operation area during the 1965 Indo-Pak war. Following the incident, he insisted that his case should be considered as battle casualty and not a battle accident. In 2014, he filed a case in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), Chennai, to change the classification, but the case was kept pending till 2017. It should be noted that as a battle casualty, he would draw a higher pension. In 2017, the tribunal in Chennai passed a judgment in favour of the veteran based on the letter issued by the then Deputy Chief of the Army Staff to consider Mr Sampath as a battle casualty and give him the appropriate pension. Sampath and his family thought they had won the case. The tribunal changed the classification but did not allocate any monetary help which means I continue to get the same pension of a battle accident veteran, Mr Sampath said The whole reason behind fighting the case in the AFT was to get the pension of battle casualty (a higher amount). When we approached the bank for a revised pension, it was revealed that no such orders were passed by the Allahabad pensioners office to the bank, also a certain amount was deducted from my pension. Never heard of the Army cutting money from pension. Our entire effort to fight the case, despite having concrete evidence has gone in vain. We have again approached the AFT and the case is slated for hearing on November 12, said the veteran. Chennai: A new-born was abandoned at Sivakanchi bus stop in Kanchipuram district on Monday night. According to the complainant, a nurse who works at the Kanchipuram government hospital identified as Gajalakshmi, 35, was waiting at the bus stop to board a bus back home after work at around 7 pm when a young woman, around 25 years old handed a baby over to her on the pretext of using the washroom. The woman had said that it would be unhygienic to take the baby inside the washroom and requested Gajalakshmi to hold her. The woman didnt return even after an hour, Gajalakshmi said in her complaint. Worried, she asked other women at the bus stop to go check if the mother had fainted or something else had happened in the washroom. She even handed over the baby to another woman and went to check around the bus station, even requesting announcements to be made. However, after nobody approached her to claim the baby, Gajalakshmi went to the Sivakanchi police station. A case has been registered with the police who are keeping a lookout and combing through CCTV footages. Police said that if they do not find the mother within a week, the baby will be handed over to an orphanage. The baby is now in Kanchipuram government hospital where the pediatric department, under Dr Arun Mirthra is ensuring his safety. Chennai: Politicians and activists have slammed the charges against veteran journalist and editor Nakkeeran Gopal arrested by the Chennai police for allegedly defaming Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit. Soon after Gopal's arrest at the Chennai airport, many, including politicians and activists questioned why the police arrested him when the Governor could have filed a defamation case instead. Leader of Opposition and DMK president M.K. Stalin said the arrest of Gopal showed that there was no freedom of press in Tamil Nadu. "It shows that the BJP government at the Centre is controlling in Tamil Nadu. The BJP government is using the governor to make the AIADMK government surrender itself in an attempt to bury democracy in the state," he said. DMK MP Kanimozhi slammed the Tamil Nadu government and said that Gopal's arrest points to selective application of law in the state. "The government is able to act so swiftly now but nothing has moved in S Ve Shekher's or H. Raja's case. This is undemocratic and an attempt to muzzle freedom of the press and freedom of expression," she said. General secretary of the VCK D. Ravikumar, who is also a lawyer, also condemned Gopal's arrest on 'frivolous grounds' stating that Section 124 is not applicable in Gopal's case. "Section 124 is a special provision for Governors and President of India. It is against any physical attack. It is not meant for criticism. If the Governor feels it is defamatory, he can file a defamation case. In fact, anyone can. Using Section 124 is not correct," he said. The journalist community, condemned the arrest of the editor, stating that it was an action that attempted to suppress the freedom of the press. Bharathi Tamil, the joint secretary of the Chennai Press Club, said if the government is going to book a journalist for sedition, then it would be much easier for them to issue an order declaring all journalists as traitors. "This would make the current government under Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to go down in history," he said. Calling this arrest an action by the government against all journalists, he said, "There is no freedom of speech, expression or thought in this state. This arrest shows that the government wants journalists to write only good things about it like an advertisement." Of the 14 injured people admitted to the burns unit of the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai, two succumbed Tuesday late night. (Photo: PTI) Raipur: Two employees, who were critically injured in an explosion at the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh, succumbed to injuries at a hospital, taking the death toll in the blast to 11, an official said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, nine people had died and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at the plant of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Durg district, located around 30 km away from here. Of the 14 injured people admitted to the burns unit of the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai, two succumbed Tuesday late night, a public relations officer of the Bhilai Steel Plant told PTI. "The two had received over 80 per cent burns," he said, adding that a few other injured people were also in a critical condition. Also Read: Death toll rises to 9 after gas pipeline explodes at Bhilai steel plant The explosion had taken place in the gas pipeline connected to the coke oven section of the plant during a maintenance job, the SAIL had said. Of the nine people who died on Tuesday, six worked in the plant's energy management department, while three were employees of its fire brigade unit, the official said. Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh are scheduled to visit the hospital in Bhilai to see the injured people admitted there, an official said. They will also take stock of the incident from the plant management and the Durg district administration. Inspector General of Police (Durg Range) G P Singh had said earlier that after receiving the postmortem report of the deceased, a case under the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) will be registered followed by an inquiry into the incident. Union Minister of State for Steel Vishnudeo Sai had said Tuesday that a four-member high-level committee was constituted by SAIL to probe the incident. Adequate compensation will be given to families of the deceased, Sai had said, adding that the injured were being provided the best possible medical treatment. In June 2014, six persons, including two deputy general managers, were killed and many others affected when a poisonous gas leaked in the plant, he said. Through its embassy in Delhi, China reached out to India after US imposed steep tariffs on Chinese goods. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: India and China need to deepen cooperation to fight trade protectionism in the wake of the unilateral approach being adopted by the US on trade-related disputes, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi said on Wednesday. It said practising unilateral trade protectionism in the name of "national security" and "fair trade" will not only affect China's economic development, but also undermine the external environment of India and hinder India's booming economy. "As the two largest developing countries and major emerging markets, China and India are both in the vital stage of deepening reform and developing economy, and both need stable external environment," said Counselor Ji Rong, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India. He was replying to media queries relating to trade friction between China and the US. Last month, US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs worth USD 200 billion on Chinese imports. China retaliated by imposing tariffs on about USD 60 billion on US imports. Washington threatened to impose additional tariffs of over USD 260 billion on Chinese imports if China retaliates again. "Under the current circumstances, China and India need to deepen their cooperation to fight trade protectionism," Ji said. He said China and India share common interests in defending the multilateral trading system and free trade and referred to comments by President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to safeguard the multilateral trading system and free trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Facing unilateralism and bullying activities, China and India have more reasons to join efforts to build a more just and reasonable international order," said. The Chinese Embassy spokesperson also said the US should reflect on its own practice of interfering in the internal affairs of developing countries such as China and India under the pretext of human rights and religious matters. "The so-called 'militarisation' of South China Sea by China is distorting of facts. The US should stop making troubles and creating tensions, and respect the efforts of relevant parties to resolve problems through negotiation and consultation," Ji claimed. Referring to the Indo-Pacific region, the spokesperson said China was firmly against attempts to use the Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter China. At the same time, Ji said, Beijing was open to all initiatives that will help regional development and cooperation. "The allegation that China has put some developing countries into 'debt trap' is nothing but an attempt to sow discord," Ji claimed. He also claimed that China's economic cooperation with other developing countries is to ensure win-win situation and common development. "China is open to all initiatives that will help regional development and cooperation. What we are firmly against is attempts to use the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter China He said China was looking forward to the US taking concrete steps to become a trusted partner of the developing countries. In this composite picture made from two images released by the Indian Meteriological Department (IMD) is seen the depression over Bay of Bengal (R), on Wednesday, October 10, 2018. (Photo: PTI) Bhubaneswar: Cyclone Titli has intensified into a "very severe cyclonic storm" and will make a landfall in areas bordering Odisha and Andhra Pradesh along the eastern coast Thursday morning, the NDMA said Wednesday. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who took stock of the situation, asked collectors of Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Kendrapara and Jagtsinghpur districts to begin immediate evacuation of people in low-lying areas in the coastal belt. Chief Secretary A P Padhi said the district administration of Ganjam has already started evacuating people in Gopalpur area, where very severe cyclone 'Titli' is likely to make a landfall at about 5.30 am Thursday. So far, about 1,000 people have been shifted to a safer place, he said. Padhi said immediate evacuation was being launched in view of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast of a tidal surge of about 1 m during landfall of cyclone Titli. The chief secretary said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) personnel have already been positioned in vulnerable districts. "We have not yet sought help from the Army. If required we may go for it," Padhi said replying a question. The chief minister has also asked the authorities to ensure "zero casualties" and keep cyclone shelters ready for housing people during the disaster. Patnaik has also ordered the closure of all schools, colleges and anganwadi centres on Thursday and Friday in view of the IMD's forecast of heavy to very heavy rainfall across the state. The college students union elections, earlier scheduled to be held on Thursday, have also been cancelled. The IMD said cyclone Titli moved at a speed of about 15 kmph during last six hours over west-central Bay of Bengal and lay centred at about 280 km south-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha. The storm is likely to move north-northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coast between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam around Thursday morning, it said. Thereafter, it is likely to re-curve northeastward, move towards Gangetic West Bengal across Odisha and weaken gradually, said Director of the Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar, H R Biswas. While several areas in coastal Odisha were lashed by rain on Wednesday, the IMD has forecast "heavy to very heavy rainfall" at several places and "extremely heavy rainfall" at isolated areas till Thursday under the impact of the very severe cyclonic storm. Districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Thursday, the IMD said. It also forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall for Kandhamal, Boudh and Dhenkanal district from Thursday. The IMD said rainfall would be accompanied by gale wind speed reaching 140 to 150 kmph and gusting to 165 kmph along and off Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh coasts. The sea condition is very high over west-central Bay of Bengal. It is very likely to be phenomenal over the west-central and the adjoining north Bay of Bengal and along and off the south Odisha coast till Thursday, it said. Storm surge of height of about 1 metre above astronomical tide is very likely to inundate the low-lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts, it said. The IMD advised total suspension of fishing operations and shifting of coastal hutment dwellers to safe places. Around 300 motor boats have been arranged to assist in rescue operation as there is a likelihood of flood situation due to possibility of heavy rains till October 11. All the 836 cyclone and flood shelters have also been kept in a state of preparedness, while adequate relief materials arranged, he said. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday clarified over his alleged statement that BJP made tall promises in 2014 elections. (Photo: Twitter | ANI) New Delhi: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday clarified over his alleged statement that BJP made tall promises in 2014 elections, hours after media reports went viral. Terming the reports as false and baseless, the senior BJP leader said that he did not say anything on Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the Indian government and depositing Rs 15 lakh in everyones account. This is false. I did not say anything on Modi ji or 15 lakhs etc, the Union minister said. Gadkari further criticised Congress president Rahul Gandhi for sharing a video, which is part of an interview with a Marathi television channel, on Twitter without cross-checking. He wondered since when Rahul Gandhi started to understand Marathi. The program was in Marathi and I wonder since when has Rahul ji starting understanding Marathi, Gadkari said. The minister also suggested Congress chief to get the video translated by someone who understands Marathi. Earlier, several reports claimed that during an interview to a Marathi news channel, Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the Narendra Modi government came to power on the basis of unrealistic promises. Also Read: BJP was advised to make tall promises to come to power: Nitin Gadkari We were very certain that we can never come to power. So we were advised to make tall promises. If we dont come to the power, we wont be responsible anyway, Gadkari reportedly told in an interview. Soon after, the Congress took a dig at the Modi government with Rahul Gandhi sharing the video and saying, You are right (Gadkari). Even the people think that the BJP used their dreams and faith for the partys gain to come to power. Chennai: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Tuesday informed the Madras high court that no cognizable offence is made out on the complaint from DMK against Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami, alleging irregularities in the award of contracts for road projects in the state. Advocate general Vijay Narayan made the submission when the petition filed by R.S.Bharathi, organizing secretary of DMK, came up for hearing before Justice A.D.Jagdish Chandira. The judge reserved orders after hearing arguments from both sides. Earlier, senior counsel N.R.Elango, appearing for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner has lost confidence on DVAC as it was supporting the chief minister from day one. Since the petitioner came to the conclusion that DVAC will not conduct a fair investigation, he has filed an additional affidavit seeking SIT probe, Elango added. Denying the allegation, advocate general submitted that on the complaint made by Bharathi, the DVAC conducted a preliminary enquiry as per the procedures laid down and forwarded its findings to Vigilance Commissioner. The Supreme Court clarified that it does not want information on pricing and technical details of the Rafale fighter jet deal. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to provide details of Rafale decision making process in sealed cover. The apex court clarified that it does not want information on pricing and technical details of the Rafale fighter jet deal. Petitioner ML Sharma argued that there was corruption in the Rs 59,000 crore deal for 36 fighters from France's Dassault. The court clarified that it is not taking into account allegations made in petitions. The deal was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former French president Francois Hollande in 2016. "We are not issuing notice to the government. We make it clear that the court hasn't bought into the arguments made by the petitioner. Their arguments are grossly inadequate," the Supreme Court said, adding, "We want to satisfy ourselves on the steps taken in the decision-making. We are not going into the issue of suitability keeping in mind the sensitivity of the issue." The Centre has opposed pleas on Rafale fighter jet deal filed in the apex court and sought their dismissal on ground that they have been filed to gain political mileage. Attorney General KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court that the Rafale deal pertains to national security and such issues cannot be reviewed judicially. "National security is involved and the court is being used on the eve of polls to gain politically in the bitter fight between the government and the opposition," KK Venugopal said. Chennai: Apprehending arrest in connection with the multi-crore gutka scam case, an inspector of police approached the Madras high court, seeking anticipatory bail. Justice M.Dhandapani, before whom the anticipatory bail petition filed by V.Sampath, working as Arumuganeri law and order inspector of police, Sipcot, Tuticorin district, ordered notice to the CBI and posted the next hearing to October 22. According to petitioner, during the year 2015 Central Crime Branch, Chennai, under the guidance of Jeyakumar, deputy commissioner, CCB, raided a warehouse in Red Hills and found materials consisting of tobacco and pan masala. After the raid, the materials were handed over to the Red Hills police station, where Mannar Mannan was the assistant commissioner of police and the petitioner was the then inspector of police from February 16, 2014, to January 20, 2016. He has no knowledge about the raid and the materials seized in the raid or even the purpose of the raid, he added. He said after examination of the materials, the food safety officer decided to destroy the food substances which were seized. He only accompanied the FSO while the materials were destroyed, he added. He said he has been transferred from the particular station on January 20, 2016, and have been serving as the station house officer, Arumuganeri. The CBI under the pretext of inquiry, have raided his residence situated at Royapuram in Chennai as well as his residence situated at the police quarters in Arumuganeri and his relatives house as well under the apprehension that he was also involved in the alleged crime, that having found nothing, the CBI have not initiated any further action against him and all along he was treated badly since the investigation clearly revealed that neither his relatives nor himself had involved in the alleged crime. After some time, he came to know some of the officers were arrested including the FSO and the owners of the warehouse. While so, he was issued with summons for his personal appearance thrice. For the only reason, he was in charge of the station house, the CBI police are attempting to arrest him while he was not involved in the crime. There is a serious threat and apprehension of his arrest. Hence, he filed the present petition, he added. The cyclone is very likely to intensify further into a very severe cyclonic storm during the next 18 hours. (Photo: Twitter | @ndmaindia) Bhubaneswar: Cyclone 'Titli' over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a severe cyclonic storm on Wednesday and is moving towards the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh coast, triggering rainfall in several parts of Odisha, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The cyclonic storm is likely to make a landfall between Gopalpur in Odisha and Kalingapatanam in Andhra Pradesh early on Thursday morning at a wind speed of 145 kmph, it said. "Titli moved with a speed of about 10 kmph and intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and lay centred over west-central Bay of Bengal, about 370 km south-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha," the IMD said in a bulletin. It is very likely to intensify further into a very severe cyclonic storm during the next 18 hours. The storm is likely to move north-northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coast between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam around Thursday morning, it said. Thereafter, it is likely to re-curve northeastward, move towards Gangetic West Bengal across Odisha and weaken gradually, said Director of the Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar, H R Biswas told PTI. While some areas in coastal Odisha recorded rainfall Wednesday, the IMD has forecast "heavy to very heavy rainfall" at several places and "extremely heavy rainfall" at isolated areas till Thursday under the impact of the severe cyclonic storm. The districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Thursday, the IMD said. It also forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall for Kandhamal, Boudh and Dhenkanal district from Thursday. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Twitter said that in Andhra Pradesh, damage is expected over the districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam. The IMD said rainfall would be accompanied by gale wind speed reaching 60-70 kmph and gusting to 80 kmph along and off Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh coasts. The wind speed will gradually increase to 120-130 kmph and gusting to 145 kmph from Wednesday night along and off south Odisha coast and 70-80 kmph gusting to 95 kmph along and off north the Odisha coast, the IMD bulletin said. The sea condition is very high over the west-central Bay of Bengal. It is very likely to be phenomenal over the west-central and the adjoining north Bay of Bengal and along and off the south Odisha coast till Thursday, it said. Storm surge of height of about 1 metre above astronomical tide is very likely to inundate low lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts, it said. The IMD advised total suspension of fishing operations and shifting of coastal hutment dwellers to safe places. Fishermen along the Odisha coast, and central and north Bay of Bengal were advised not to venture into sea till Friday. In view of the adverse weather conditions, it has advised hoisting of local warning signal LW-4 at all ports of Odisha. The Odisha government was also cautioned about the possible floods in view of the heavy rainfall across the state. The state government has already issued high alert in all districts, particularly those in the coastal region, to face the ensuing situation. The government geared up to face the situation setting a target of "zero casualty". The district collectors have been asked to remain alert and make necessary arrangements to shift people living in low-lying areas, the officials said. The state government has ordered closure of schools, colleges and anganwadi centres in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri and Jagtsinghpur districts from Wednesday. Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) B P Sethi said steps have been taken for shifting people in vulnerable and low-lying areas to multi-purpose shelters. Around 300 motor boats have been arranged to assist in rescue operation as there is a likelihood of flood situation due to possibility of heavy rains till October 11. All the 879 cyclone and flood shelters have also been kept in a state of preparedness, he said. The state has put the districts on high alert and asked the authorities to evacuate those living in low-lying areas and in 'kutchha' houses along the coast. Chief Secretary A P Padhi said the cyclone was likely to make a landfall early on Thursday morning. "Zero casualty is part of the state government's disaster management policy. Stocking of food and shifting of people to cyclone shelters are also included in the policy," Padhi said. Sethi said teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) along with Fire Service personnel have been sent to various districts. Union Minister of Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday took urgent review of the developing scenario of cyclonic storm Titli over the Bay of Bengal and another cyclonic storm Luban over the Arabian sea. A release from the Press Information Bureau added that the Union Minister had directed all senior officials to closely monitor the situation and ensure that all precautions are taken. There too while checking the complaint register she found that the zone had received majority of complaints relating to non functioning street lights. Bengaluru: BBMP Mayor Ms Gangambike who inspected northern parts of Bengaluru at around 8pm on Tuesday was taken by surprise as majority of the street lights in the area were not functioning. Right after Government Veterinary College even after traveling for nearly two kilometres she couldn't see any street light glowing. Angered by looking at the dark streets of Sanjaynagar, Ganganagar and Hebbal BBMP Mayor Gangambike directed officials to levy Rs 25,000 each on two different contractors who were tasked with the job to maintain street lights. She also gave a surprise visit to the control room at Hebbal. There too while checking the complaint register she found that the zone had received majority of complaints relating to non functioning street lights. She asked the concerned BBMP engineer to serve notices for non functioning street lights and take appropriate action immediately. Chennai: The Madras high court has observed that considering the cost of the transponders and the continuous problems which the fishermen face all along, the government should come forward to provide financial assistance to the fishermen by extending the subsidy to the maximum. A division bench comprising Justices S.Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad posted to October 12, further hearing of the petition filed by Fisherman Care, represented by its president LTA Peter Rayan. When the case came up for hearing on Tuesday, as directed by the court earlier, an officer from ISRO appeared before the Bench and explained about functioning of transponders. It was also explained that to fix one transponder the cost will be around Rs 40,000. Recording the same, the bench made the above observation. Deputy Inspector general of Indian Coast Guard ,Dony Michael filed a report before the court. In his report, he said non-mechanized or country crafts were not fitted with any of the communication/navigational equipment. Distress Alert Transponders (DATS) (to be transmitted only in distress), developed by ISRO have been issued to fishermen at subsidized rates. He said if only the fishing boats were fitted with AIS transponders, the detection and the identity of the fishing boats can be ascertained. However, presently fitments of AIS transponder onboard fishing boats were not mandatory and hence none of the fishing boats were fitted with AIS transponder. To monitor through other passive electronic means, in Phase II of construction of shore radar stations, the Radar Station Olaikunda at Rameswaram and Tondi were planned to be commissioned by end of 2019/early 2020 would largely augment in existing ICG efforts to enhance electronic surveillance in the area. Matter for fitment of VHF sets onboard country crafts was essentially recommended and may be made compulsory for positive registration, he added. The window that was broke open by the prisoner. Image; DC Coimbatore: The Coimbatore police have launched a massive search for a 30-year-old prisoner who escaped through the toilet window of the Government hospital here in the early hours of Tuesday where he was admitted for treatment. Police said, Selvam of Athur near Salem was arrested and lodged at Coimbatore central prison in connection with a clash that happened three months ago. Strangely, on October 6, Selvam had attempted to commit suicide by consuming mosquito pest at the prison premises and was admitted to prison ward at Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH). Coimbatore GH. Image: DC While being treated there, Selvam again attempted suicide by slitting his wrist vein. However, doctors rescued him and shifted him to ICU with police protection. Meanwhile, in a dramatic turn of events in the early hours of Tuesday, Selvam had entered the rest room inside the hospital after getting the permission of Saravana Kumar, the policeman on duty. Despite waiting outside for more than 15 minutes Saravana Kumar under suspicion, knocked the toilet door and as there was no response, he entered it by breaking open the door. He was shocked to see the toilet window broken and Selvam had gone missing. The remand prisoner had apparently jumped out and fled. On receiving information from Saravana Kumar, prison officials alerted the Race course police. A complaint has been lodged and further investigations are on to nab Selvam who is on the run. Maoists Koti Purushotham and his wife Koti Vinodhini surrender before Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar in Basheerbagh on Tuesday. (Photo:S. Surender Reddy) Hyderabad: In a major setback to the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a Maoist couple, who were in the top cadre working as Regional Committee Member and Commander, and worked for over 31 years, surrendered before the Hydeabad city police on Tuesday. The police said that the surrendered Maoist couple Koti Purushotham and Koti Vinodhini, were carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively, and played a vital role in propaganda and recruitment of cadre, said Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar. Koti Purshotham alias Vijay alias Sharath Chandra (68) and his wife Koti Vinodhini alias Bharathakka (63), both residents of Addagutta in Secunderabad joined the CPI(M) in 1981. A graduate in Bachelor of Oriental Languages from Andhra Saraswatha Parishad and with a masters degree in history, Purushotham worked as a headmaster for a private school in Addagutta. While working there, he came in contact with Malloujla Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji and KG Satyamurthy, both top cadre, and joined the movement . The next year, he married Vinodhini, who was also a teacher at a private school and she also joined her husband in the Naxal movement. Purushotham worked as a City Committee Member for Hyderabad, and later became City Committee Secretary and worked from 1981 to 1986, but continued to be the headmaster of the school. His wife also continued to work as a teacher as a cover job and assisted in recruitment. They went underground in 1986 and lived in Krishnanagar Colony. Addressing the media, Mr Anjani Kumarsaid The couple recruited approximately 60 cadre and sent them to forest areas for training. They worked in Vishakhapatnam on transfer from the city and lived there for 10 years till 1996. They chose to teach as a profession for cover. He said that the couple was arrested by the erstwhile AP police in 1991 at Vishakhapatnam along with two others, but were released after the kidnap of Congress party youth secretary P. Sudheer Kumar. Those who are against womens Sabarimala entry claim that the majority of women do not wish to enter the shrine. Talking about Sabarimala darshan is like going for a morning walk in a minefield. You need to tread carefully, for one wrong step could be your last. To go or not to go that is the question. The 2018 Supreme Court verdict means Kerala High Court was wrong in 1991. Thus an entire generation of women was unjustly restrained from worshipping at Sabarimala. The hysterical response of some women believers indicates that most of them dont even realize theyre discriminated against. In fact were all creatures of a patriarchal structure where religious discrimination reinforces social discrimination and vice versa. Those who are against womens Sabarimala entry claim that the majority of women do not wish to enter the shrine. Thats a fallacy. The majority is always silent. The truth will reveal itself in due course, but for the time being even a single young woman is enough to break the taboo. State force can no longer be used to prevent women from worshipping. Trupti Desai of Shani Shingnapur fame has already announced her intention to be present on October 17 when the temple opens. Swamiye saranam Ayyappa! Actress Jayamala said that as a young woman she had entered the sanctum sanctorum and touched the idol. Lord Ayyappa showered his blessings on her and she became a minister in Karnataka. Bureaucrat TKA Nair had his choroonu in Sabarimala and later became Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. I dont think anything bad happened to his mom either. The Travancore Maharani went to the shrine in the prime of her youth and she was fine too. Women who want to visit Sabarimala need no further proof. No, the flood will not come! What the Judges Said Chief Justice Deepak Misra observed that the Devaswom Board had deposed before the High Court that women in the 10 to 50 age group used to visit the temple and their entry was restricted only during Mandalam, Makaravilakku and Vishu. The High Court had found that during the 20 years preceding 1991, women irrespective of age were allowed to visit the temple. The apex court observed that, The respondents failed to establish that the exclusion of women from Sabarimala is either an obligatory part of religion or has been consistently practised over the years. Referring to Lord Ayyappas naishtika brahmachari status, Justice Chandrachud said, There is an assumption here that cannot stand constitutional scrutiny...that a deviation from the celibacy and austerity observed by the followers would be caused by the presence of women...Its effect is to impose the burden of a mans celibacy on a woman and construct her as a cause for deviation from celibacy. He added, To suggest that women cannot keep the vratham is to stigmatize them and stereotype them as being weak and lesser human beings. Case History The TDB in a 1955 notification stated In order to maintain the sanctity and dignity of this great temple and keep up the past traditions, it is hereby notified that Ayyappans who do not observe the usual vrithams are prohibited from entering the temple by stepping the Pathinettampadi and women between the ages of 10 and 55 are forbidden from entering the temple. This did not restrain male devotees in any way. Nobody bothered to check if they were observing the 41-day penance or not. In 1991 Kerala High Court went a step further and directed the Government to block the entry of women between the ages of 10 and 50 (S Mahendran vs The Secretary, TDB). Note that age 55 suddenly became 50. It seems the honourable judges failed to distinguish between age, menopause and sexuality. Perhaps they believed that bleeding stops at 50 and women become unattractive and celibate. Whats even more ridiculous was the naive assumption that 50+ women cannot damage the vows of the holy multitude of Ayyappans. In 2006 the matter reached the Supreme Court and the rest is history. Games Politicians Play The Congress and the BJP in Kerala vied with each other to oppose the judgement ostensibly to protect the sentiments of the believing public. A large number of local leaders maintained a deafening silence. At the national level, however, Congress and BJP leaders welcomed the verdict. Bindhu Krishna of the Congress expressed her desire to have Ayyappa darshan. CPM legislator M Swaraj condemned the centuries old mindset of the naysayers. Congress legislator V T Balarams FB post said its not surprising that many of those opposing womens entry into Sabarimala are themselves women. He drew a parallel with the abolition of slavery in the United States, when many former slaves lamented that they no longer had a master. Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, proved once again that he has a firm head on his shoulders. In a press conference on October 8 he reminded the public that after the 1991 Kerala High Court verdict the Government had been preventing women in the 10-50 age group from entering Sabarimala. Now in the light of the SC verdict it would ensure that no woman is denied entry. He also mentioned that Kummanam Rajasekharan of the BJP had written a letter to the tantri stating that the shrine was being used for cinema shooting, dancing and wedding ceremonies. Now thats a revelation! Amidst the churning of the religio-political ocean a peculiar argument is being propagated to rope in Muslim support, namely that the SC judgment is the first step towards a Uniform Civil Code, and that a major conspiracy is underfoot. This conspiracy theory is put forth by Rahul Eashwar, a young and eloquent scion of the tantri family, and a budding politician. He doesnt name the conspirators, however. Now Im personally in favour of a Uniform Civil Code. If I cant have four husbands, I dont see why some men should be allowed to have four wives. Ive always envied Muslim males their special privileges, especially those of the triple talaq variety. In my next life Id like to be born a Muslim man in India, of course. Justice Chandrachud recently made a remark that the Constitution is essentially feminist. I simply love that one! Id like to throw this at Rahul Eashwar who in his numerous TV debates makes the word feminist sound like a swear word. Why TDB needs a New Head The neck of the bottle is always at the top. The Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran tries to run with the hare and hunt with the hound. The moment the verdict was announced he deftly passed the buck to the Travancore Devaswom Board. No wonder TDB president Padmakumar was emboldened to take a ridiculous position which he thought he could get away with. No woman from my family intends to go to Sabarimala, he told the media. What did he mean? That in typical patriarchal fashion he would be the one deciding on behalf of all females in his house? Or as a henpecked husband was he merely following his wifes orders when there were no orders from the minister? The SC judgment affects all women, not merely Padmakumars women, or Malayali women or even Indian women. This embarrassing incident showcases the absence of women members on the TDB, a glaring omission by the otherwise right-thinking Left government. Some hard truths Who filed the review petition? The tantri family, which is a Brahmin family, the NSS, which represents the Nair community and the Pandalam royals who are upper caste Hindus. The lower castes, Dalits and others have no stake. Can the State pass legislation or ordinance to subvert the SC judgment? Not unless it wants to cut a sorry figure when the law/ordinance is struck down. Can Parliament pass a law? Same answer. What chance does a review petition have? Negligible. Can a larger bench overrule the verdict of the 5 member bench? Yes, but... Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra dumped a 400-year-old anti-woman tradition following a Mumbai High Court judgment. Haji Ali shrine in Mumbai did likewise. The thaen-abhishekham ceremony, a privilege of tribal people, was a Sabarimala tradition that has quietly disappeared. Thulabharam is a new tradition that has appeared. I suspect hard-nosed economic interests are at the bottom of these disappearances and appearances. 100 years ago a woman could not enter Padmanabhaswamy temple unless she exposed her breasts. That tradition was broken. The Travancore Maharajas 1936 Temple Entry Proclamation is legendary. Until then lower castes were barred from temples. Is there anyone today who would like to reintroduce these traditions? How did the gruesome practice of sati go away? Delhi Sultan Mohammed bin Tughlak tried to ban it in the 14th century. The Portuguese tried, the French tried and finally the British brought the 1829 ban. Yet sati did not disappear until the late 20th century. It took hundreds of years. Today no one would dare to suggest that a woman be burnt on the pyre of her dead husband. When the devadasi system was outlawed, when child marriage was abolished, when temples were opened to Dalits, when Sree Narayana guru installed an Ezhava Sivan, there was resistance. Ayyappa did not make the rules, the priestly class did. If all traditions are good, then triple talaq and polygamy cannot be faulted. The arguments go on. SIMPLE QUESTIONS: I would like to ask the Ready-to-Wait brigade: How do you know you will live to cross age 50? Have you ever thought of women with terminal illnesses who might have a desire for Sabarimala darshan? Would you tell them to go to other temples? Until a generation ago women were isolated and untouchable during their periods, thanks to peculiar notions of purity and pollution. Would you like to reintroduce this tradition? If women are impure because bleeding makes them impure then shouldnt they be barred from temple worship altogether? Why only Sabarimala? Dont you think Lord Ayyappa is strong enough to maintain his own celibacy? Does he really need your help? If menstruation makes women unclean then why is it that phlegm, urine and faeces dont make men unclean, not to mention bleeding wounds, pus, and other body fluids? Why is it that menstrual blood is unclean while semen is clean? For the many misguided males like K Sudhakaran, who insist that women are unclean during the period I have a question: Can you touch your heart and swear you have never approached a woman for sex during her period? My dear sisters who are hitting the streets in order to preserve the chastity of Lord Ayyappa, pause for a moment and ask yourselves whether your partner has never asked for sex during your period or during his 41-day vratham? I have no further questions. The way forward Theres a simple solution to the dual problem of protecting women worshippers from male predators during the trek to the hilltop, and protecting the celibacy vows of the male devotees when attractive females are around. The Government can allot separate days for men and women to enter Sabarimala (an idea they seem to have considered and rejected). The Supreme Court judges are receiving richly deserved encomiums. The members of the Young Lawyers Association who fought the legal battle must be honoured and the role of former Devaswom minister, G Sudhakaran, must be recognized. Women who welcome the verdict must remember that in matters of social justice the Left is often right. Those who now speak of discussion and consensus-building would do well to remember the words of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher: The Old Testament fathers did not say, Brothers, we need a consensus. They said, This is my faith. This is what I sincerely believe. If you believe it too, then come with me! (The author is an IT professional) Salem/ Namakkal: In what looks a replica of toxic foams in Bengaluru lakes, a similar environmental hazard has scared local residents and farmers living close to the Thirumanimuthaaru river in Salem and Namakkal districts as the water body heavily frothed along different stretches on Tuesday. The Thirumanimuthaaru, which begins near Salem flows through various parts of the district before entering Namakkal district and is an important irrigation source for farmers along its banks particularly during the Northeast monsoon season, informed sources told DC. With heavy pre-monsoon rains in the last two days in these districts, the river was getting copious flows. But what worried the farmers today was thick coat of foam noticed at different places on Thirumanimuthaaru river. At Aathukaadu near Veerapandi near Salem, locals were in for a big shock when they noticed the river frothing this morning. Farmers and local residents complained that this frothing phenomenon could be the result of untreated chemical effluents let out by cloth dyeing units and other factories directly into the river mixing with a heavy volume of water in the wake of the monsoon rains. A similar thick coat of froth in the river up to a height of ten feet was seen in some stretches of the same river at Madhiyampatti village near Rasipuram in Namakkal district also. Farmers expressed apprehension that 500 acres of cultivated land there could be severely affected due to this frothing in the river. The white foamy substance was so large that it spilled over into the Madhiyampatti-Mallasamudram road, affecting movement of vehicular traffic for several hours today. Drivers found negotiating the road very risky, they said. Demanding action by the Pollution Control Board to stop industrial units from discharging raw effluents into the river, locals also pointed out that when more effluents are discharged by the industries taking advantage of the heavy rains, this sort of frothing phenomenon occurred. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the sealing of seven properties of the Amrapali group at Noida and Greater Noida where the documents related to its 46 group companies are kept. A bench of Justices Uday Lalit and D.Y. Chandrachud also ordered sealing of two properties of the group at Rajgir and Buxar in Bihar and said that after the sealing the keys be handed over by the Police to the Registrar of the apex court. On Tuesday the court had directed that three Directors of Amrapali group be taken to police custody till the documents are recovered and handed over to the Forensic Auditors. Today the Bench further said that only the court appointed forensic auditors and their authorised representatives could enter the premises, which are to be sealed. Modifying yesterdays order, the court said that the group promoter Anil Sharma and the two other directors Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar of the real estate group will be released if the police were able to seal the properties by tonight. The court said if the sealing of the nine premises were not possible to be completed by today, then the directors would be kept inside the police station and not kept in lock up as was done last night. The court asked them to be present in the court at 2 pm on Thursday for further directions. The bench had directed forensic audit to find out whether the money invested by the homebuyers were diverted for some other purposes. The bench had summoned the directors to seek information regarding the documents to be produced. The bench while ordering the arrest told them We dont know if it will take one day or one month. But you will be in custody until all the documents are given to the auditors. Hyderabad: A day after journalist Priya Ramani spoke out about the sexual harassment that Mr Akbar had subjected her to, other journalists also shared their stories. Among the many voices demanding the resignation of Mr Akbar is that of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi. He tweeted, "Horrible this bloody Perpetrator (M J Akbar) shame on you and you stood in Parliament during the Triple talaq bill & spoke about muslim women's empowerment & to stop their exploitation. PMO India sack this minister of yours if you truly believe in Beti Bachao.' Meanwhile, senior CPM leader Brinda Karat Wednesday said it was shameful that the law dealing with sexual harassment at workplaces was not being implemented in most of the organisations in the country. Karthik hailed from Kattupalayam in Anthiyur taluk of Erode district, and was serving at the TSP, mostly in VIP security, at Chennai when the two became close. Chennai: It was a case of cake and bullets for her. Little did the family members of Saraswathy, a second-year medical student, expect that her birthday would turn tragic on Wednesday. After presenting her a birthday cake, her Facebook-friend-turned-lover Karthikvel, a constable at TSP, Chennai, shot her dead with his service pistol at her house in Anniyur near Gingee. He then killed himself with the same gun, police said. They said Saraswathy (22), a student of second-year MBBS at the ESIC medical college in KK Nagar, Chennai, had met TSP constable Karthikvel (30) on facebook about four years back and the two became lovers in course of time. Karthik hailed from Kattupalayam in Anthiyur taluk of Erode district, and was serving at the TSP, mostly in VIP security, at Chennai when the two became close. However, with Saraswathy getting serious in pursuing her medical education and also realising that Karthik was not so qualified, problems started cropping up in their relationship as she began to avoid him. She went home on short leave to celebrate her birthday on Wednesday and Karthik too followed her with birthday gifts in the hope of patching up and getting a marriage commitment from her. According to Saraswathy's family, the birthday party had gone on well and they cut the cake brought by Karthik. And some of them even had retired to bed when they heard the two engage in heated argument. "Then we heard three gun shots and came out of the room to find them both dead", said Saraswathy's sister. "He brought a cake for my daughter. We cut the cake and we had dinner. There was an argument and I told him let her finish her studies and we will talk. But he lost his temper", sobbed father Sekar. Chennai: Tiruvallur police arrested four men including two juveniles who raped a 26-year-old woman on Tuesday. The drunken gang attacked the newly-wed couple who were on their way home in Gopal Reddy Kandigai after visiting a temple in Kumaran Naikenpet on Monday night. The gang threatened to murder the woman and slit the hand of the man with a knife. Unable to help his wife, the man ran into a village to call for help. Meanwhile, the four men raped the woman. Hearing the sound of the villagers, the four fled the spot. Police said, The couple was returning home at around 7.30 pm. The incident happened almost a kilometre away from the nearest village, where there are no streetlights and no human movement during the night. The couple had no other way than to take the route since the festival at the temple was delayed. They were riding their two-wheeler when the gang stopped the couple. After interrogation, the police identified the men and arrested them on Tuesday morning. The accused were identified as M. Munusamy (36), M. Mohan (29), and two juveniles. The juveniles are school dropouts and had joined a cement slab making company in the village. Munusamy and Mohan work as basket makers. Gummidipoondi Sipcot police registered a case of sexual assault and rape. All four men were arrested and the juveniles were sent to the government observatory home. Chennai: Henceforth the big Chennai mofussil bus terminus (CMBT) in Koyambedu will be called Puratchi Thalaivar Dr MGR Bus Stand (Puratchi Thalaivar Dr MGR Perunthu Nilaiyam). This change came into effect from Wednesday after Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced this a week ago. The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), which maintains the bus stand, changed the name on Tuesday night with lighting. The new name was also displayed at places and platforms where government buses are lined up. A CMDA official noted that they are considering erecting a concrete arch with the new name. It may be noted that after the Chief Minister made such announcement, the DMK and ruling AIADMK opposition traded charges against this move with DMK chief M. K Stalin strongly opposing move stating that former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi laid the foundation stone for the bus stand. However, former AIADMK Mayor of Chennai Corporation, Saidai Duraisamy issued a statement that a proposal to construct was originally made during MGR regime. Later, former DMK Mayor and current MLA M Subramanian countered his statement that Duraisamy had no knowledge on the construction of bus stand. Hyderabad: Scientists, engineers and employees working in the laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are kept under strict surveillance by their respective laboratory vigilance wings, in a joint operation with the states Intelligence Bureau. Employees activities and their contacts are thoroughly screened by the vigilance officials under the direction of the Director General, Vigilance. Yet this high profile surveillance could not detect the growing connection between BrahMos Aerospace scientist Nishant Agarwal and Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Nishants name came up not through the lab surveillance but while interrogating another spy, Achyutanand Mishra of the BSF who was allegedly honey-trapped by the ISI, Nishant Agarwal was arrested from a BrahMos facility in the DRDOs facility in Nagpur for leaking sensitive data about India's defence establishments and plans. When this correspondent enquired about the role of the DRDO lab vigilance, a source in the DRDO explained, Scientists working with DRDO are answerable to the nation, thus projects and production are kept a secret. Employees, be it scientists or engineers, are barred from carrying CDs, floppy discs, pen drives, cell phones or other electronic gadget that can transmit sensitive data. The Mediapart article says the document shows a top Dassault official had explained to its staff that the joint venture was a 'counterpart', 'imperative and mandatory' to win the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale deal. New Delhi: As the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Modi government to provide details of the steps taken in the decision making process that led to closing the Rafale deal with France, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman headed to France on a three-day visit starting Thursday that comes in the backdrop of a fresh new controversy over the purchase of 36 Rafale jets with documents claiming that Dassault had no choice but to pick Anil Ambani as their offset partner. French newspaper, Mediapart went public with an internal document of Dassault Aviation, the makers of the Rafale fighters which shows the aerospace major picked Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence as the offset partner in India as it was "mandatory" for the 36 jet deal, according to a report by French investigative journal. The Mediapart article says the document shows a top Dassault official had explained to its staff that the joint venture was a 'counterpart', 'imperative and mandatory' to win the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale deal. Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeted PM Modi over "corruption" in the Rafale deal repeating the charge that Anil Ambani's Reliance group benefited from a related offset contract. Speaking at a public meeting in Bikaner in poll-bound Rajasthan, Mr Gandhi accused the Modi government of manipulating the process of the Rafale agreement by "punishing" bureaucrats who raised objections to the deal and rewarding "obliging officials". Raising questions on Defence Minister Sitharaman's France visit, Mr Gandhi alleged that "work has begun to justify the prime minister's decision to buy the Rafale aircraft from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation". Hyderabad: Websites hosted by state departments have to comply with the Guidelines for Telangana Government Websites (GTGW) by October 31. Currently there are only 30 websites which are in compliance with the guidelines and 450 which are not. There has been a lukewarm response despite officials conducting orientation programmes. Following bifurcation, several websites changed the name from .ap.gov.in to .telangana.gov.in. According to officials, there are a good number of websites where the names were changed without proper verification. Consequently, if a website of AP is hacked or has exposed Aadhaar data, it is possible that the same can happen to the Telangana websites, which was raising concerns. The IT department under instructions of Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi took up the T-Web initiative to audit every website hosted by state departments and to ensure that they comply with the guidelines. The GTGW which has 160 parameters includes 150 adopted from the GIGW (Guidelines for India Government Websites). Another 10 parameters were added in the GTGW which are in compliance with Aadhaar, IT and RTI Acts, social media integration and localisation of websites in Telugu. These parameters are framed to ensure that the websites are neither hacked nor defaced. According to an official of the IT department, the target for Phase 1 is to achieve Level 1 compliance for 250 websites. The official said, So far 30 websites have complied to the GTGW. To achieve Level 1, there are 141 parameters that the websites need to comply with, out of which 97 are considered mandatory. If any website fails to comply or is found sharing Aadhaar details, public access to it will be restricted after October 31. Despite letters from the Chief Secretary there has been reluctance from the departments to update websites, said an official. Several letters have been sent from the CS office and while some departments are working on their updates, we cannot really quantify it yet. All the 32 departments have to comply with the guidelines, the official said. We are focusing on departments which have a lot of websites like municipal administration and urban development which has 120 websites out of which 80 belong to the CDMA. Panchayat Raj and IT department have responded well and are giving regular updates. AICC Screening Committee headed by Mr Bhakta Charan Das has almost finalised the Congress candidates list except in about 20 constituencies during a meeting with the TPCC Election Committee in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Hyderabad: AICC Screening Committee headed by Mr Bhakta Charan Das has almost finalised the Congress candidates list except in about 20 constituencies during a meeting with the TPCC Election Committee in Hyderabad on Wednesday. According to sources in the TPCC, in around 40 constituencies, the committee has finalised single names. The committee has also identified around 20 constituencies as controversial as there are more number of aspirants. The committee will meet again on Thursday and finalise the candidates for these constituencies also. AICC Central Election Committee meeting is on 12th October at UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi's residence to decide the party candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in five states including Telangana. The AICC Screening Committee will finalize the list of Congress candidates for Telangana assembly elections by Thursday and submit the report to the party leadership. Based on this report, AICC Central Election Committee will decide upon the final candidates. AICC Screening Committee is finalising the candidates for 100 assembly constituencies and TPCC has decided to allot 19 constituencies to TD, CPI and TJS. TPCC has decided to allot 11 constituencies to TD and 3 constituencies to CPI and five constituencies to TJS. TPCC is clear on which constituencies to be allotted to TD and CPI. But regarding TJS, TPCC is not yet clear which constituencies to be allotted. Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy wrote an open letter to caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) to answer questions raised by his nephew and caretaker minister T. Harish Rao. I was delighted to read the letter sent by Harish Rao wherein he predicted that the Congress was coming to power in Telangana state in the next elections. Harish Rao even stated that we are coming to power in alliance with the TD. We felt very happy on receiving the letter and we thank you for the same, Uttam Kumar Reddy said. Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said Mr Harish Raos letter was a confession that the TRS dream of winning 100 seats in the Assembly election had already shattered and the time had now come for Mr Chandrasekhar Rao to permanently retire to his farmhouse. He also questioned Mr Chandrasekhar Rao saying, The TD was a pro-Telangana party in 2009 during your (TRS) alliance. Why is the TRS treating it as being anti-Telangana now? Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said there was no need for the Congress to give any explanation on having an alliance with the TD. Instead, he said the TRS owed an explanation to the people of Telangana on its performance during the last four-and-a-half years. He said, The peoples welfare took a back seat and the entire State had been pushed into a huge debt trap. Telangana emerged top in corruption, crimes, horse-trading of legislators, rapes and sale of liquor. It was the fear of a humiliating defeat which is prompting TRS leaders to target the alliance between the Congress, TD and other parties. Responding to Mr Harish Raos question over Mr Naidus complaint over Telangana projects, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the projects being pursued by the TRS regime were originally started during the Congress government. He said, It was a common practice for the neighboring states to complain against the irrigation projects being constructed in a state by the Centre. The previous Congress Governments had guts to fight with the neighboring states and complete the projects. However, TRS lacked strength to fight with others to protect Telanganas interest. The powers to resolve the disputes over irrigation projects, employees, distribution of water and several other issues lie with the Centre. Instead of making proper and effective representation with the Centre, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao remained busy singing bhajans in praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He added, The allegations of Chandrababu Naidu causing obstructions in the Mission Bhagiratha works only shows the inefficiency of the TRS Government. The Government procured loans of thousands of crores in the name of Mission Bhagiratha and looted the State. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao had vowed that he would not seek votes if he failed to provide drinking water through taps to all households. However, just to cover up his failure and inability to fulfill the promise, he is blaming Chandrababu Naidu. TRS was wrongly blaming Naidu of snatching away 460 MW Cellular Power Project of Rs. 5,000 crore from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh, the TRS Government did not make a single representation with the Centre to get this project for Telangana. The local people are putting up boards asking BJP leaders not to enter their villages for various reasons. Lucknow: The no entry boards for BJP leaders that are mushrooming in various districts of Uttar Pradesh are now becoming a major cause for worry for the ruling BJP. What was seen as an exception till now is becoming a rule with an alarming regularity. The local people are putting up boards asking BJP leaders not to enter their villages for various reasons. The development, which signals towards a growing resentment at the grassroots levels, has left the BJP worried. MLAs and MPs have been asked to spend time in their constituencies but the lawmakers are in no mood to face their voters. When we are confronted with issues like reservation in promotion and the overdrive on OBCs and Muslims, we have no answers. It is safer to stay away from the constituencies till the tempers come down, said a BJP MLA from the Terai region. Hubballi: Former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda said that he is trying to convince Madhu Bangarappa, son of former chief minister late S. Bangarappa to contest as the JD(S)-Congress coalition candidate from the Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat for which the poll will be held on November 3. Addressing mediapersons in Indi taluk in Vijayapura district on Wednesday, Mr Gowda claimed that he is touch with Madhu Bangarappa who is expected to return from his Denmark tour on Thursday. He clarified that the JD(S) will support the candidate chosen by the Congress if Madhu refuses to contest. Asserting that no members from his family will contest from the Mandya Lok Sabha seat, he said that the party will identify a local leader of the district for fielding in the election. As for the coalition candidate for the Ballari Lok Sabha seat, the Congress will finalise the name, he said. Congress and JD(S) will campaign together in all five constituencies where byelections will be held on November 3. We will work together to keep the BJP away from power as the party is creating a communal rift in the country, the JD(S) supremo said. Asserting that the coalition government will not fall at any cost, he said the results of the by-elections in the five constituencies will give an answer to all those spreading rumours that the government will collapse. Claiming that the coalition is working for the welfare of the farming community, he said the government has formulated the Debt Relief Act to free farmers from the clutches of private money lenders who are tormenting them. Mr Gowda also said the coalition government has waived agriculture loans to the tune of Rs 47,000 crore which no state in the country has done. Rafale should have been lethal ammunition for the Opposition parties in their campaign to strike at the ruling BJP. Instead, they seem to have left it only to the Congress. The Congress Party has been exceptionally vocal on the Rafale fighter jet deal, levying charges of misuse of authority and crony capitalism against the Narendra Modi government. Except for the Left parties, the rest of the Opposition has, however, been inexplicably silent. Neither Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, N. Chandrababu Naidu, M.K. Stalin nor even H.D. Deve Gowda have taken up cudgels on the issue. Sharad Pawar, president of the Nationalist Congress Party, is the only one to have broken his silence. But he, quite astonishingly, chose to give a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi instead of leading the Opposition onslaught as a former defence minister. He later tried to backtrack, but not unequivocally. One might be forgiven for wondering what the silence of the Opposition parties and the flip-flop by Mr Pawar means, especially at a time when there is talk of a grand Opposition alliance to take on the Modi government in the 2019 general election. This should have been lethal ammunition for the Opposition parties in their campaign to strike at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Instead, they seem to have left it only to the Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi to lead the charge. The silence of these parties could be because not all regional leaders and parties may feel confident of speaking on a technical and defence-related issue. It may also be that some of the regional Opposition parties want to wait for the results of the state Assembly elections in December before speaking out. On both counts it is up to the Congress to evolve a joint Opposition strategy to launch an effective attack on the government. This still does not explain Mr Pawars personal clean chit to the Prime Minister. Even though he has made a show of trying to retrieve lost ground, there can be little doubt that Mr Pawar has provided tremendous psychological relief to the beleaguered Prime Minister.Mr Pawar, however, has been the real loser of his obfuscation. The clean chit to Mr Modi was so incredulous that his partys tallest leader in North India, Tariq Anwar, not only resigned from the NCP but also from the Lok Sabha in disgust. Only Mr Pawar can discount speculation about his own interests or that of corporate houses close to him being involved or whether he acted as he did because of pressure on him and his kin. As a veteran politician, he is well aware that he cannot afford to go with the BJP in 2019 because the BJP governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra face a virulent Maratha agitation. It is curious, however, that the Rafale fighter jet deal has not as yet caught the imagination of the public in the same way that the Bofors scandal had in the run-up to the 1989 general election. Then the public anger had led to the ouster of Rajiv Gandhi from power. This is surprising considering that the size of the Rafale deal at `59,000 crores is four times the cost of the Bofors deal at `15,000 crores. An ill-informed Opposition cannot be the only reason why the Rafale controversy has not reached its Bofors moment. It may also be that while the Bofors scam involved a specific sum of money, `64 crores, there is no comparable figure for the Rafale deal. No one can say for sure what proportion, if any, of the offset the money to be spent in India 30 per cent of the `59,000 crores cost of the Rafale contract may have gone as kickback to any politician or political party. Clearly, the public impact of a direct corruption charge is much more effective than merely the suggestion of corruption. Another reason why the Rafale controversy may not have caught the public imagination could be that the volume of reporting which could turn public opinion into outrage is missing. The Bofors scam was broken by the Swedish Radio in April 1987. This was followed by a series of investigative reports by two national newspapers, Indian Express and The Hindu, who took up the issue with dogged determination. Although the first major breakthrough in the Rafale deal has also come from a foreign source French website mediapart.fr Indian media houses have failed to follow up with their own investigations. They have neither sent their reporters to France nor commissioned French journaists to carry out investigations or look for whistleblowers from Dassault Aviation to take the story forward. That critical mass of reportage that could enrage the public on the issue is unlikely to be generated by the Indian media, which has become fairly obsequious. There is also no ground to assume that the French media will step in to make up for the moral shortfall in India. The Bofors scandal also saw V.P. Singh putting his credibility and political future on the line by accusing Rajiv Gandhi. He resigned from the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet to take up the Bofors campaign. That this allegation has not been proven till today is another matter, but V.P. Singhs stance had led to the election slogan Raja nahin faqir hai, desh ki taqdir hai (He is not a king but an ascetic, he is the future of the nation). In the Rafale controversy, unlike V.P. Singh, Rahul Gandhi risks nothing. He is in fact trying to gain some credibility by campaigning on the Rafale controversy. The Congress will clearly have to find a better way of projecting the irregularities and cronyism inherent in the Rafale deal, or else it risks wasting its limited political resources. If it cannot generate critical public opinion on Rafale, it would make better sense to use its political energies to mobilise people on issues of critical importance which they can really relate to growing unemployment, farmers distress, the attacks on the minorities and the unconstitutional and divisive Hindutva ideology of the BJP. B04 The exodus of Biharis from Gujarat was caused by the entire community in the state being tarred with a single brush because one migrant worker may have been guilty of rape. This form of racism/provincialism discriminating against anyone not a son of the soil is a sad commentary on our society, which hasnt matured beyond caste, community and state of origin feelings. It stands to reason that if theres a criminal among people who has committed a despicable crime like rape, the individual should be targeted, brought to book and made to pay the penalty. To mistreat an entire community over one criminal is to indulge in a terrible form of tribalism that has no place in modern society, that too in a nation that swears by democracy and the right to move freely across state borders for jobs, education, business, etc. The comment of the senior police officer who tried to gloss over the exodus of several hundred Biharis by saying they were just going home to celebrate the coming festivals is despicable. The officer should have been the first to reassure the migrant community, offer them protection and convince them not to surrender to pressure. His forces should have been hunting for those who threatened Biharis and caused the panic or even held them in captivity, as some have reportedly been. Action should be taken to fix the guilt on those who used the situation politically to drive the wedge further. If the state was seen to be taking firm action against the guilty, it would send a clear message that the law must be respected and adhered to. There are states in India whose traditional agricultural activities cant support waves of succeeding generations. Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and many states in the Northeast are known for economic migrants who move all over India in search of work, with the less qualified seeking construction jobs while the others explore the trade and services sectors. The idea of India will be threatened or demolished by these mass movements back home for safety, as we saw in the case of people from the Northeast leaving South India on mere rumours spread deliberately to cause panic. Huge preferences in education and jobs for sons of the soil arent supported by the laws governing the nation. Truth to tell, political movements and parties have thrived on stoking Bhumiputra sentiments and built themselves into strong positions in the fabric of Indias national life. The fear of jobs being taken away by locals is part of the larger problem of why outsiders are sometimes targeted. It is the duty of governments not to allow such sentiments to harden into an upheaval and an exodus born out of fear. The idea of one India is too precious to be frittered away. B04 The German word for a mobile phone is Handy. Seen from the perspective of English language, a mobile phone by far is the most handy thing in everyones hands these days. From clicking endless selfies to finding places and for that matter, anything under the sun, the Handy is indeed very handy. Much before the mobile phones began to be handy and were used as alarm clocks, among other things, and when one was not readily available, the other sure way, as taught to us by my beloved papa, was, Just ask your guardian angel to wake you up at the fixed time. And bang! It worked always, without fail. Thanks to the many modern technologies, the Handy being just one of them, we are slowly but surely losing touch with many God given, unfathomable gifts and wonders to us individuals and in nature. For Christians, October, like other months, brings some important feast days of saints to remember them and to emulate their teachings. Right in the beginning of October, Christians celebrate the feast of the Guardian Angels, deeply treasured by most believers. Unfortunately, many of us remain unaware of a guardian angels presence within us and therefore are unable to tap into the great many resources provided us by God through a guardian angel. Christians believe that at each ones birth, God gifts him/her a guardian angel, that accompanies, protects, and eventually leads each one to ones creator. Devotion to the angels is, basically an expression of faith in Gods enduring love and providential care extended to each person day in and day out. Though this devotion to angels comes in play mostly seeking protection and guidance for children, their presence is helpful for all. For, they represent individuals before God, to watch over them always, to help them pray, and to present their souls to God at death. A few modern Christian theologians have raised problems with the concept of and devotion to the angels. Jesus words in Matthews gospel, however, come in support to remove the doubts about their role in our life: See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father. Why not then be reawakened to guardian angels presence in us that actually helps us pray and grow in our spiritual life, apart from being always by our side, especially during difficult moments? Since an angel opens great possibilities for us, let us then begin all over again to pray what we were taught as children, Angel of God, my guardian dear; To whom His love commits me here; ever this day, be at my side; to light and guard, to rule and guide, amen. B05 What happens when the unequivocal recitation of truth birthed by avarice, human fragility and error becomes a festering sore? In the cathedral of greed, also an echo chamber, a compelling story is laminated with half truths and sold to one and all. The management chants a mantra that all is well, even as the blood begins to coagulate. At IL&FS, this became the norm. A closed user group (CUG) enjoyed the fruits of a poisoned tree for 30 years as all oversight mechanisms failed to nail the malfeasance. Finally, when the government woke up to the rot, courtesy an alert media, realising that a grave contagion could take the burning house down with it, it is now imperative that a few fingerlings are not caught while the blue whale gets away. Each and every member of this CUG which ran IL&FS into the ground has to be brought to book. The happy cabal went about its merry ways spending public money at will. For years we heard rumours of excesses, but the improprieties stayed under the radar. Actually, it is only after the new Land Acquisition Bill was notified on January 1, 2014 that the cracks appeared and then widened into fissures. As concessions went awry, and the government woke up to the ticking time bomb and liquidity crunch facing the company, it was obvious that the imminent defaults would have a cascading effect on the entire banking system and larger financial markets, not limited to the mutual fund industry and money markets. Finance minister Arun Jaitley personally supervised operation takeover knowing fully well what the doom of such an institution would mean for the economy. That is why after the takeover, he said last week, since IL&FS is an internal factor to India, it should be contained so no adverse impact is felt. In an election year, an entity called the Titanic in the Union government petition to the NCLT capsising would have meant catastrophe. Mr Jaitley had come under pressure to act after receiving formal letters, including one from Opposition leader K.V. Thomas, raising concerns about operations at IL&FS. Jaitleys team sent a confidential note to the ministry of corporate affairs recommending that the NCLT be approached for the reconstitution and supersession of the over geared IL&FS board. The sheer negligence and incompetence of the board of directors had brought the company to ruin. The holding company IL&FS alone has a mountain of debt staring at its face, in the vicinity of Rs 57,000 crores, out of the total group debt of Rs 91,091 crores. This Rs 57,000-crore debt is from public sector banks and institutions. And if nothing had been done, this would turn into NPAs. Even now, one doesnt know how much of it will turn into bad loans. Moreover, the majority of the capital invested in the holding company is by public financial institutions like LIC, SBI, CBI, besides UTI AMC. Which means it has linkages across the Indian economy, and perhaps that is why that it was too big to fail and the government stepped in to avert a cataclysmic situation. The current management had to be superseded because it was completely unforgiving in showing its incompetence while managing the affairs of the holding company even as group companies were a party to major infrastructure and financial projects and as such accountable for their misdeeds. A list of all the entities of the holding company IL&FS is nothing short of surreal. There are as many as 334 entities, which include domestic and foreign entities. The losses of the key subsidiaries are a tale of woe. The group debt shot up to Rs 91,091 crores in 2018 from Rs 48,671 crores in 2014, virtually doubling itself. The worst part was that interest outgo rose to Rs 7,922 crores from Rs 3,907 crores during the same period. Then came the ultimate denouement by 2018, it was unable to meet its debt-servicing obligations. In this cosy club of silence, a code not dissimilar to Omerta, the management, auditors and rating agencies were all complicit. This collusion at the highest level carried on till as recently as August 1, 2018 when IL&FS in its private placement prospectus announced that it would be declaring a dividend of `6 per share to its equity shareholders and the company is current on all its debt obligations. This way IL&FS was able to raise `50 crores from its debt investors with a green shoe option of Rs 25 crores. The said issue closed on August 27, 2018, with IL&FS relying on good ratings from CARE and ICRA to market the issue that took on record the standalone financial numbers for the financial year 2018, which showed a profit of `584 crores, but gave no hint of the consolidated losses of Rs 2,400 crores. The blind, deaf and dumb show continued unhindered till August 30, 2018 after the issue closed, when IL&FS declared that it had slashed dividend payout to Rs 1 per share and by September 27, 2018, two days before the AGM, the company actually went ahead and scrapped the entire dividend payout. Lies and more lies had been nailed. This too after the debenture trustee Centbank Financial Services not granting permission to the company to offer dividend to its shareholders. Domino one has fallen. These acts of misrepresentation and falsehoods about the financial state of affairs at IL&FS jeopardised and imperiled the nations fiscal health. The unscrupulous manner in which public money was frittered away with utter and complete disdain came to such a sorry pass that that it was no longer in a position to service its debt, no assets left to raise funds, no credibility with banks, no takers for its promises and nothing to offer to its stakeholders and the public at large to assure its continuation. A debt obligation storm had hit the front door. The sheer enormity of the situation can be best summed up in this manner On a consolidated basis, the borrowing of IL&FS from banks and financial institutions (debentures, loans, cash credit and commercial paper) comes to about Rs 63,000 crores as per the 2017-18 balance sheet. If the exposure on banks is assumed to be Rs 57,000 crores, then considering that the exposure of the entire banking sector to all NBFCs is about Rs 3.3 lakh crore, IL&FS is not inconsequential, but critical to financial stability as its share in the total exposure of the banks to the NBFCs is about 16 per cent. The gravity of public interest in ensuring financial solvency and good governance and prudent management of this group was vital. The IL&FS Group has shown a loss of Rs 2,670 crores for 2017-18 in the consolidated balance sheet, which is a leverage of about 13 times, as the borrowing of approximately Rs 91,000 crores is on the base of equity capital and reserves of about Rs 6,950 crores. The indebtedness of IL&FS was approximately Rs 16,468 crores, with the debt market drying up for this company. Any future debt assimilation would be impossible as leverage levels were already extremely elevated. As the process of untangling the knots begins, it will be long and arduous. The independent directors who were party to this carnage and should have been the first to red flag the murky goings on in this secret society are equally culpable. Instead, they dashed off a missive to the government-appointed non-executive chairman Uday Kotak trying to distance themselves from this mess. The letter stated. Despite several attempts during our tenure, IL&FS was unable to raise additional equity directly or at the level of its subsidiaries. It was also unable to complete a merger with a strategic party which failed to consummate in the final stretch. With its mounting counter-party receivables and the need to continue with existing projects and the absence of long-term financial support in the markets, the asset-liability mismatch continued to aggravate almost inexorably... we believe that this structural conundrum needs to addressed for all infrastructure financing in the country. This explanation simply doesnt wash. The Government had argued earlier: The financial mismanagement of IL&FS is apparent from its rapid debt built up and misrepresentation of the true state of financial fragility, which is being reflected in unprecedented rating downgrade from highly rated to a default category, What were these pre-eminent worthies doing all this while? Did they raise Cain over the gross mismanagement? No. They chose to follow the code of silence. B05 When discussing the latest targeted attack campaign, the question invariably arises, Who was behind it? Its a simple question, but one which has become increasingly difficult and complex to answer. Attribution of cyber attacks has never been an exact science. Security researchers typically cluster attack incidents together and try to attribute them to known attack groups based on similarity of digital fingerprints, such as code similarities, shared tools and shared infrastructure. However, attribution using such methods is becoming increasingly difficult with the trend of attackers living off the land, eschewing custom tools in favor of using standard operating system features and off-the-shelf tools to compromise their targets. Theres also the classic problem of attackers inserting false flags including purposeful misdirection, obfuscation, and fake clues designed to mask their identities. Despite these challenges, attribution remains an important part of attack analysis. By tying activity to specific groups, we start to see patterns of behaviour that allow us to better understand the attackers motivation, their target profile, and the assets theyre pursuing. Generating this intelligence is critical to protecting our customers, as well as assisting law enforcement, an area where Symantec has a significant history. But there are limits to how far we can go with attribution. Even if we can tie specific incidents to a known attack group, identifying who or what organisation is directing or funding that activity is not in the scope or focus of what we do. This level of attribution requires the substantial resources and access to information that is generally available only to law enforcement or government intelligence agencies. These agencies have demonstrated growing success in this area, such as the US government attributing the 2016 election interference campaigns to the Russian government. More recently, the Department of Justice filed charges against a North Korean hacker for the WannaCry attacks and other campaigns. This outcome was achieved through collaboration with members of the security industry, including Symantec. Symantec regularly supports and collaborates with law enforcement and intelligence agencies by sharing our attack data to support their investigations. Our focus continues to be on researching the methods, tools, and techniques used by targeted attackers so that we can develop entirely new capabilities to protect our customers. Symantecs Targeted Attack Analytics is just one recent example of a new innovation thats developed to help customers to automate the discovery of entirely new and sophisticated attacks. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Washington: Nikki Haley, who resigned as the US Ambassador to the United Nations, has been a great advocate of the India-US relationship and actively engaged with Indian-Americans, according to eminent community members, who believe she would soon emerge in a stronger role given her nationwide popularity. Haley, the first-ever Indian-American in any presidential cabinet, surprised many when she announced her resignation on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump has accepted the 46-year-old Haley's resignation. She will stay in the job till the year end. Her successor will be nominated and hopefully confirmed by the Senate by that time. "Nikki Haley has been one the most successful Indian-American politician. She has been relentless supporter of strong US-India partnership," Mukesh Aghi of the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) said. "We will definitely miss her presence in the current administration where she was seen as a true champion of US-India alliance. We also believe she will re-emerge soon in a stronger position because she has a very bright future," Aghi told PTI. Silicon Valley-based top Indian-American venture capitalist and philanthropist M R Rangaswami said Haley had actively engaged with the diaspora. "Nikki Haley actively engaged with the Indiaspora community and listened to our issues and helped us. We fondly remember the interaction with her Sikh parents at the dinner we hosted for her in New York," he said. "We wish her well in her future endeavours!" Rangaswami added. As the highest ranking Indian-American in the Trump Administration, the first Indian-American to hold the position of the UN Ambassador and the first Indian-American woman elected as governor, Haley has served the US with distinction, said the recently formed Indian-American Impact Project, a group of Indian-American philanthropists, community leaders, and political operatives. "We are proud of her service and leadership, and grateful that she has inspired countless Indian Americans aspiring to careers in public service and foreign service. We wish her the best in her future endeavours," it said. Haley did an outstanding job of representing United States at United Nations, said Dallas-based eminent Indian-American Republican Ashok Mago. "Wish she had stayed for another couple of years. President admired her outstanding work. She may not be running in 2020 to be president but it is matter of time. Hope eventually she will decide to run may be in 2024," Mago said. "On behalf of all American Sikhs nationwide, we are proud of Nikki Haley, who was born to Indian Sikh Immigrants, for her work as the 29th United States Ambassador to the United Nations; where she served with great respect and dignity," said Gurinder Singh Khalsa, of the Indiana-based SikhsPAC. "Her steadfast efforts throughout her career have broken barriers for all women. We are extremely proud of her and I personally feel that in the near future she may be the first woman president of the United States," Khalsa said. "We would like to commend Ambassador Haley on all she has accomplished in so many capacities. We are proud of her and wish her all the best in future endeavors," said Deepak Raj, co-founder of Impact, chairman of Pratham USA and founder of the Raj Centre on Indian Economic Policies at Columbia University. According to Ranju Batra from New York, Haley has become a role model for women across the world who wish to work to make a better world. "Personally, as chair of the Diwali Foundation USA, Inc., I'm most grateful to Nikki for having United States of America as a co-sponsor, in addition to 25 other nations, to our 2017 inaugural Diwali - 'Power of One' awards, that recognised six exceptional former Permanent Representatives and high ranking UN leaders," she said. The daughter of Indian immigrants from Punjab, Haley said she wanted to take a break after nearly eight years of hectic public life including six years as the governor of South Carolina. Born Nimrata "Nikki" Randhawa, Haley is latest Republican to exit the Trump administration. Pompeo, who met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday in Pyongyang to discuss a future summit, told reporters that the two countries are back on a path toward denuclearisation. (Photo: AFP | File) Washington: The US has made a "real progress" with North Korea toward the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but still there is a long way to go, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday. Pompeo, who met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday in Pyongyang to discuss a future summit, told reporters that the two countries are back on a path toward denuclearisation. "While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path to where we'll achieve the ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearisation of North Korea," Pompeo told reporters at the White House after a lunch with President Donald Trump. Pompeo returned from a Asia trip Monday night, during which travelled to Japan, South Korea, North Korea and China. Pompeo's trip was intended to set the table for a second summit between Trump and Kim, who held an historic summit in Singapore on June 12. On Indian-American Nikki Haley resigning as the US Ambassador to the UN, Pompeo said she was his "great partner. "I want to thank Amb Haley for the good work that she has done. She has been a great partner of mine for the five months that she and I have been working together, Pompeo said. I want to wish her very well whatever comes next for her, Pompeo said. In a surprise move, Haley on Tuesday resigned as the US Ambassador to the United Nations, becoming the latest casualty in the dysfunctional Trump administration just weeks before the crucial mid-term elections.'Real progress' made with North Korea toward denuclearisation: Pompeo Francis this year opposed a bill that would have legalized abortion in Argentina. (Photo: AP | File) Vatican City: Pope Francis on Wednesday compared having an abortion to hiring a "contract killer". "Interrupting a pregnancy is like eliminating someone," Francis said in an address to worshippers in the Vatican. "Getting rid of a human being is like resorting to a contract killer to solve a problem," he added. "Is it just to resort to a contract killer to solve a problem?" His comments departed from the prepared text for his homily delivered during his weekly audience on Saint Peter's Square. In his address, the Argentine pontiff complained of a "depreciation of human life". He cited wars, exploitation and what he called a culture of wastefulness, as well as abortion. "How can an act that suppresses innocent life be therapeutic, civil or even human?" he asked. Francis this year opposed a bill that would have legalized abortion in Argentina. In August a lay campaign group said thousands of Argentine Catholics had renounced their membership of the church to protest against his opposition to the bill. Khashoggi had written a series of columns for the Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Arabia's assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has led a widely publicized drive to reform the Sunni monarchy but has also presided over the arrests of activists and businessmen. (Photo: AFP) Istanbul: A newspaper close to the Turkish president published photos Wednesday of what it said was a 15-member "assassination squad" allegedly sent to target Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last week. Turkish officials suspect Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate, allegations rejected by Saudi Arabia, which says he left the premises. Turkey has been given permission to search the diplomatic post, an extraordinary development that shows the increasing international pressure the kingdom faces over Khashoggi's disappearance. A new report by @sabah revealed the names of 15 Saudis who were in Istanbul at the time of Jamal Khashoggis disappearance. They travelled to Istanbul in two planes, HZ SK1 and HZ SK2. Here are the alleged names of the Saudi squad pic.twitter.com/1t8rv6SQCo Ragp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) October 9, 2018 The report by the Sabah newspaper, which is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published images of the men apparently taken at passport control. It said they checked into two hotels in Istanbul on Oct. 2, the day Khashoggi went missing, and left later that day. Khashoggi had written a series of columns for the Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Arabia's assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has led a widely publicized drive to reform the Sunni monarchy but has also presided over the arrests of activists and businessmen. On Wednesday, the Post published a column by Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. She acknowledged the writer first visited the consulate on Sept. 28 "despite being somewhat concerned that he could be in danger." He later returned Oct. 2 after being promised needed paperwork so the two could be married. A surveillance video image surfaced Tuesday showing Khashoggi walking into the consulate in Istanbul's upscale 4th Levent neighbourhood. No evidence of him leaving the consulate has been made public, but Turkish officials also have yet to provide evidence he was kidnapped or killed. "At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamal's disappearance," Cengiz wrote. "I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate." She added: "Although this incident could potentially fuel a political crisis between the two nations, let us not lose sight of the human aspect of what happened." 0Khashoggi had sought to become a US citizen after living in self-imposed exile since last year, fearing repercussions for his criticism of the prince, Cengiz wrote. Trump, who took his first overseas trip as US president to the kingdom and whose son-in-law Jared Kushner has close ties to Prince Mohammed, said Tuesday he had not yet talked to the Saudis about Khashoggi, "but I will be at some point," without elaborating. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said Tuesday that Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were "open to cooperation" and would allow the consulate building to be searched. It's unclear when such a search would take place. Embassies and consulates under the Vienna Convention are technically foreign soil and must be protected by host nations. Saudi Arabia may have agreed to the search in order to reassure its Western allies and the international community. GLENOLDEN- The First Presbyterian Church, 2 South Chester Pike, Glenolden, will hold its 25th annual Thanksgiving day meal at 12 noon Thursday, Nov. 22. Everyone is invited to share a Thanksgiving Day meal of turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, yams, string beans, salad, coffee, tea and dessert. If anyone in the community knows someone who needs a meal, they can contact the church at 610-583-1342, with the name, address, phone number and number in household to make a reservation. The church is collecting items for the dinner. Items needed are turkeys cooked and uncooked, rolls, small cans of cranberry sauce and gravy, 10 apple and pumpkin pies, boxes of mashed potatoes, precut aluminum foil in box, divided take-out trays for meals and small containers for pies, and stuffing. Numerous cardboard boxes for deliveries to those who cannot physically attend the dinner and financial support to defray cost Anyone who wishes to help out can call the office for more information and leave name and number . Volunteers wishing to help on Thanksgiving Day can volunteer from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Thanksgiving Eve we meet in Fellowship Hall at 7 pm. (second glass door off parking lot) Volunteers are needed the week before for preparations, such as putting Map Quests on boxes, organizing hall, setting up tables, making up trays of food. To help in any way, contact Robert or Norma Teta at 610- 608-6012, or Bob or Debbie Hadden at 610-352-3851 or the church office 610-583-1342. Last year, the church and its community volunteers delivered over 1,000 meals to 33 towns and fed over120 people at the free sit-down dinner Employment expo at Springfield Country Club Thursday The Delaware County Transportation Management Association and Delaware County Council will present the 2018 employment and career expo, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11 at Springfield Country Club, 400 West Sproul Rd., Springfield. Open to the public, last years event attracted over 600 candidates looking for employment in a wide array of industries, including health care, senior care, staffing agencies, financial institutions, education, hospitality, non-profit, transportation, and more. Candidates are encouraged to wear business attire, and bring a number of resumes. The Delaware County Library System will be on hand so job seekers can easily apply on site. In addition, the DCTMA will provide a free shuttle to the event from three locations in Chester. Visit dctma.org for full details. Expo partners also include Pennsylvania CareerLink, the Delaware County Commerce Center, Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, and Delaware County Workforce Investment Board. For more information, call 610-892-9440. White elephant items and pumpkins galore at Christ Church pumpkin festival Christ Church, 104 Nevin Street, Ridley Park will hold its annual White Elephant Sale and Pumpkin Festival 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 20. The festival will offer indoor white elephant tables, hundreds of pumpkins for sale, hotdogs and pretzels, bake sale, youth table, craft table and photos in the pumpkin patch. Cash or checks will be accepted. Everyone is welcome. For more information, call 610-521-1626. Rose Valley Chorus & Orchestra to stage The Sorcerer The Rose Valley Chorus & Orchestra opens its 112TH season with the extravagant Gilbert & Sullivan operetta The Sorcerer, based on the book by William S. Gilbert and music by Arthur S. Sullivan. Performances of this fully staged show, accompanied by a full orchestra, take place at 8 p.m. Nov. 14, 15, and 17 and at 2 p.m., November 17 and 18. All performances are held in the theater of the Strath Haven Middle School, 200 South Providence Rd., Wallingford. Tickets, available at the door, are $20 for adults, $17 for adults 60 and over and students, and $7 for children 12 years and under. Wednesday night tickets are two- for- one. Advance tickets are discounted and group rates for 10 or more attending the same performance are $12. For more information and directions to the theater, call 610-565-5010, or visit www.rvco.org. Free presentation offered on common sense money management Residents 55 and over can learn how to cut some of their monthly costs of living, and where the safest places are to save what money they have, in a special presentation by Robert and Dana Breslin, Esq., and Hollie A. McDonald, Organizational Planner, 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8 at the Brookhaven Municipal Building, 2 Cambridge Road, Brookhaven. The free presentation is sponsored by Senior Community Services. To register, call Eileen at 484-496-2137. Trunk or Treat event planned in Norwood Norwood United Methodist Church, 315 Chester Pike, Norwood, will host a harvest festival and a trunk or treat event in Cavanaghs Funeral Homes parking lot, next door to Norwood church. Saturday, Oct. 27. Games and activities will be held from 6-6:30 p.m., with the trunk or treat from 6:30-7 p.m. p.m. Children are invited to come for some pre-Halloween fun and to dress up, but no scary costumes. Visit http://www.norwoodumc.org/ for all upcoming events. Author to speak at Neumann event The Cultural Arts Forum at Neumann University will present another special edition Authors Corner featuring author, Annabel Liu, 1:30 p.m. Friday, October 19 in the Fred P. Meagher Theatre in the Thomas A. Bruder, Jr. Life Center on campus. A bilingual writer who began writing in English at the age of 75, Lui has written three memoirs, each about a different facet of her life. The speaker was born in Shanghai, China, and has written many essays, feature stories, and 11 books in Chinese and English. A resident of Wallingford, she taught journalism at Iowa State University and the University of Tennessee. This event is presented by the Cultural Arts Forum, which has been sponsoring events to support adult women students at Neumann University through the endowed scholarship named in honor of the founder of the Forum, Margaret Mary Kearney. Since its founding in 1970, the Forum has presented more than 250 events and seminars. There is no admission, but free will donations will be accepted. For more information, contact Nicholas DiMarino at 610-558-5626 or at dimarinn@neumann.edu. Readers can e-mail community news and photos to Peg DeGrassa at pdegrassa@21st-centurymedia.com When most people think about gerrymandering in Utah, they think of partisan battles over dicing up liberal Salt Lake County. I think about family reunions. Like many Utah families, mine gathers every other year (or so) for potluck and lawn games, catching up and reminiscing. Though we may look to an outsider like a homogeneous bunch and though we are bound by common values the daily issues we face couldnt be more different. We city dwellers on the Wasatch Front struggle with the challenges of rapid growth: outrageous housing costs, horrible air quality and trouble finding skilled workers in a climate of low unemployment. Our country relatives off the Wasatch Front struggle to thrive while job opportunities shrink, area poverty grows and access to top-quality health care feels increasingly tenuous. At a gut level, the idea that one person in Congress can effectively represent all our needs seems absurd. Yet this is our situation. Relatives in Castle Dale and Sandy are both represented by Rep. John Curtis, while cousins less than five miles away in Holladay have Rep. Mia Love, who also represents family in Mount Pleasant. It makes no sense. Our current system for creating congressional districts has resulted in four watered-down districts where rural and urban areas are blended in ways that diminish our identities and overlook our needs. In Salt Lake City, its difficult to keep track of who your representative is, since a move across town may change everything. In rural Utah, its difficult to feel connected to your representative, since they are likely to live far away and have a very different set of life experiences. The result is bad enough for us on the Wasatch Front, but its worse for people in rural counties. According to Fair Redistricting: A Better Deal for Rural Utah, a new report from the ABU Education Fund, the rural-urban mix of our districts allows lawmakers to ignore the needs of rural voters. Here are just two uncomfortable facts from the report: A total of 61.3 percent of rural Utahns are not represented at the federal level by a person from rural Utah. Love, Curtis and Rep. Chris Stewart all live on the Wasatch Front, while Rep. Rob Bishop lives up north in Brigham City. Imagine how isolated a voter in Kanab must feel. All four Utah representatives voted for the House Farm Bill this past June, which requires recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to spend 20 hours a week working or in a work training program. If even one representative had the needs of rural Utah top of mind, they may have amended the bill to accommodate its lived reality: the jobs arent there, and job programs are difficult to access. Utah Proposition 4, the Independent Redistricting Commission Initiative, is a promising way to address this situation. Rather than leaving districting decisions up to the state Legislature alone, Proposition 4 creates an independent commission that will draw boundaries for the U.S. House, Utah Senate and Utah House and present them to the Legislature for approval or rejection. Independent commissions arent focused on protecting incumbents, so they have a better track record of drawing boundaries that are geographically compact and keep communities of interest together. Our current set of mixed rural-urban districts dilutes the voice of rural voters. Its like holding every family reunion in Salt Lake City, regardless of where your relatives live. Fairness requires a system that values the distinct needs of all Utahns and gives all of us the chance to send someone to Washington who shares our everyday concerns and experiences, no matter where we live. WASHINGTON Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court fired the starting pistol for the final sprint to Election Day, with control of the House and Senate at stake. The nation's reckoning with power and who to believe about sexual misconduct has generated a new anger factor among the electorate and made the Nov. 6 balloting a referendum on more than President Donald Trump. What to watch over the final four weeks: ___ KAVANAUGH, TO THE COURT Kavanaugh was sworn in as the nation's 114th member of the Supreme Court after a savage battle that splintered the Senate and riveted the country. Kavanaugh took his oath of office to his lifetime seat on Saturday just hours after the climactic 50-48 roll call. It was the narrowest Senate vote to confirm a justice since 1881. That was a fitting result for a 100-member chamber that represents a nation deeply split over an array of issues, from health care to who should be considered an American. A yawning divide has opened in the last year over whether allegations of sexual misconduct should be enough to topple accused men from the pinnacle of their professions. Enter Kavanaugh, the appellate court judge accused by Christine Blasey Ford in emotional sworn testimony of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s, while the two were in high school. Accusations from other women followed, none corroborated. Kavanaugh denies that he ever sexually assaulted anyone. In a frequently-shouted sworn statement of his own, he decried the Senate for putting his nomination in jeopardy. ___ THE KAVANAUGH EFFECT The Kavanaugh confirmation has blown open the midterm elections from being a national referendum on Trump's stewardship to a raw emotional discussion over the lack of women in power and how to handle sexual misconduct allegations. With Kavanaugh's ascension to the high court, Republicans, long dispirited by Trump's string of scandals and the prospect of losing their congressional majorities, are whooping it up. "It's turned our base on fire," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. He added Monday that the fight over Kavanaugh, particularly that his nomination was stymied by unproven allegations, injected the GOP with an "adrenaline shot that we had not been able to figure out how to achieve in any other way." Though Kavanaugh had been sworn in on Saturday, Trump hosted a glittering East Room ceremonial swearing-in for him Monday night. What's unclear is whether GOP unity is enough to preserve the GOP power in Congress. The same question faces the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct after the White House successfully argued that the Kavanaugh allegations should not be conflated with the rest of the movement. Even before the confirmation, Kavanaugh's opponents had a comeback line, printed on the back of jackets they wore to the Capitol: "November is coming." ___ NORTH DAKOTA Almost immediately after the Senate vote, Democrats felt the chill from faraway North Dakota. That's the state Trump won by 36 percentage points against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. And even before the Kavanaugh controversy, the Senate race there was among a handful of close contests that could decide whether Republicans keep control of the Senate, where they have a 51-49 majority. Then on Saturday, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp defied her state's support for Trump and voted against Kavanaugh's confirmation. Heitkamp said she was concerned about Kavanaugh's temperament after his emotional performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Without hesitation," Heitkamp told reporters, she believed Ford. Polls have put her Republican opponent, Rep. Kevin Cramer, comfortably ahead. He told The New York Times that #MeToo was a "movement toward victimization" that had caused a backlash. "The world got to see close up how ugly it can be when you go too far," he's quoted as saying. ___ FRAMING THE STORY Now it's a four-week race to tell the story. Trump has a busy campaign schedule to spread the word that the allegations against Kavanaugh were a "hoax that was set up by the Democrats" at what he's called a dangerous time for men who can be falsely accused. "I think you're going to see a lot of things happen on Nov. 6 that would not have happened before," Trump said Monday as he departed for an event in Florida. At Monday's East Room ceremony, Trump again invoked the rhetoric Republicans are using to frame the whole episode: Kavanaugh, Trump said, had been "proven innocent," even though critics say the investigation was not thorough enough to merit that conclusion. The campaign against Kavanaugh had been based on "lies," including by "evil" people. Trump is expected to spread that message over multiple campaign rallies, including this week in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. McConnell has cast Kavanaugh's opponents, many of whom protested in the halls of the Senate and yelled at lawmakers, as "the mob." Democrats are pointing to the Republicans' handling of the Kavanaugh confirmation as one more reason to oppose the president who nominated him and mocked Ford. "Folks who feel very strongly one way or the other about the issues in front of us should get out and vote," said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., on NBC's "Meet the Press." ___ 2020 CANDIDATES Yep, they're already running, ostensibly in support of other midterm election candidates. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., made a beeline from the Senate confirmation vote on Saturday for Iowa and the Democrats' big fall fundraiser there. "We're not defined by a president who mocks a hero, Dr. (Christine) Blasey Ford. We're not defined by a president who doesn't believe women," Booker told about 1,000 activists. The next day, Sen. Kamala Harris turned up in politically important Ohio, where she reminded more than 1,000 of the party faithful at the Ohio Democratic Party's fall fundraising dinner that she walked out of the Kavanaugh proceedings at one point because they had become "a sham and a disgrace." She said she doesn't believe the Kavanaugh story is over. "On these issues that were presented during those hearings, I believe the truth will eventually reveal itself." Sen. Bernie Sanders is embarking on a nine-state battleground tour on behalf of Democratic candidates to test the durability of the left-leaning coalition he assembled in 2016. And Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is spending heavily on Facebook ads in an effort to build a national base of support, according to the Boston Globe and the Center for Responsive Politics. ___ Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Louisville, Ky., and Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, N.J., contributed to this report. SALT LAKE CITY The first TV commercial from an outside organization is set to air in the 4th Congressional District race, supporting Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, and slamming her Democratic opponent, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams. The 30-second spot is from the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super political action committee that's spending more than $100 million nationwide to maintain the Republican majority in the U.S. House. Love is praised for "helping Utah grow, lower taxes, fewer burdensome regulations and a balanced budget amendment to control spending," while McAdams is labeled a professional politician who believes in bigger government. The commercial claims that as Salt Lake County mayor, McAdams "grew his budget by over $500 million and rewarded himself with pay raises every year," and shows a man holding his head in his hands as a narrator says, "That's your money McAdams is wasting." McAdams' campaign manager, Andrew Roberts said in a statement that "voters are disappointed in Rep. Love's record of saying one thing in Utah while doing another in Washington" and called her "part of a deeply divided, corrupt do-nothing Congress." Roberts said the campaign had not seen the ad. Campaigns are not allowed to coordinate what's considered independent expenditures in political races. According to the Federal Election Commission, about $234,000 has been spent to support Love, mostly from the Virgin Islands GOP. The FEC lists a single $44 independent expenditure made on behalf of McAdams, from the Human Rights Campaign, a national organization advocating for LGBT equality. The FEC numbers don't include recent expenditures, including by the Congressional Leadership Fund. Love's campaign manager, Dave Hansen, said it's "a pretty big buy that they've made," nearly $1 million in TV time. Hansen said he isn't surprised the PAC is paying for TV commercials in the race, seen as a toss-up by the Cook Political Report and other national ratings entities. He said the fund also ran a commercial for Love in 2016. But that was "a pretty soft ad," Hansen said that featured a woman considering her choices in the congressional district that includes portions of Salt Lake and Utah counties. This time, he said the fund's commercial is similar to "the messages we've been hitting about both Mia and about Ben." Hansen said while he is "not sure" the campaign needs the help, "we'll certainly take it." Chris Karpowitz, co-director of BYU's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, said the introduction of independently funded commercials into the race reflects its competitiveness, despite Utah's strong GOP tilt. "Republicans are trying to defend districts in very Republican states. So that's not a great sign if you're a Republican hoping to maintain the congressional majority," he said. "But I don't think it necessarily means she's in trouble." Karpowitz said the race, seen for some time as likely to be close, is "one where outside messaging might make a difference," especially if it's on behalf of the Republican. "For a Democrat to win in the state of Utah, he has to distinguish himself from the national Democratic Party brand," Karpowitz said, meaning any efforts by national Democrats for McAdams may not be helpful. SALT LAKE CITY Historically, anger has not been considered a virtue; in fact, wrath is one of the seven deadly sins. But amid the #MeToo movement and the now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh hearings, anger has become something to celebrate, and women are at the forefront of a pro-anger movement. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, has said she plans to use anger to win more seats for Democrats in Congress. Ana Maria Archila, the woman whose taped encounter with Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, outside an elevator went viral, said her impassioned words that reportedly influenced Flake to call for an FBI investigation into accusations against Kavanaugh before the confirmation vote by the Senate were motivated by rage. And three new books Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly, Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister and "Eloquent Rage" by Brittney Cooper extol anger as a superpower that women have left unused for too long. By effectively severing anger from good womanhood, we chose to sever girls and women from the emotion that best protects us from danger and injustice, Chemaly writes in Rage Becomes Her. Chemaly argues that repressed anger leads to depression, anxiety and other chronic health issues, and she shuns the concept of "anger management," saying that women instead should develop what she calls "anger competence." But psychologists consider anger a negative emotion, and the health consequences of anger are well established. Chronic anger is associated with high blood pressure and cardiovascular problems, as well as to damaging behavior such as substance abuse and overeating. And in religious traditions, anger is considered a sin. Jesus addresses it in the Sermon on the Mount, saying anyone who is angry without cause is subject to judgment. Writing in the journal First Things, editor R.R. Reno warned that by introducing the politics of rage into the Kavanaugh debate, Democrats ran the risk of becoming the instruments of rage, instead of its master. Others argue that anger simply doesnt work and makes matters worse by increasing polarization. "Our organization categorically rejects anger as an effective tool of change," said Sharlee Mullins Glenn, founder of the Utah-based Mormon Women for Ethical Government. Can anger solve America's problems, or is it adding to them? Brett Kavanaugh was allowed to be angry. Dr. Ford wasnt. Women grow up hearing that being angry makes us unattractive. Well, today, Im angry and I own it. I plan to use that anger to take back the House, take back the Senate, & put Democrats in charge. Are you with me? pic.twitter.com/c9DebKTQEV Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 30, 2018 Anger and power Womens anger is not a modern phenomenon, nor is it unique to the United States. In 1789, thousands of French women furious over food shortages picked up pitchforks and spears and stormed the Palace of Versailles, forcing King Louis XVI to flee in a pivotal event in the French Revolution. Two hundred and twenty-eight years later, in Washington, D.C., hundreds of thousands of women convened on Jan. 21, 2017, to promote women's rights and protest past misogynistic behavior by newly elected President Donald Trump. Despite these and other moments of collective rage that dot history, anger has traditionally been an emotion that women felt they had to disguise, Traister writes in Good and Mad. Most of the time, female anger is discouraged, repressed, ignored, swallowed. Or transformed into something more palatable and less recognizable as fury something like tears. When women are truly livid, they often weep, Traister wrote in The New York Times. But the revelations of sexual misconduct that led to the #MeToo movement, coupled with the accusations against Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings were the equivalent of grease thrown into a fire for women who have other issues to be angry about among them persistent inequity in salaries, leadership roles and the division of labor at home. Traister and other women point to the testimonies of Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, as proof of a double standard when it comes to the expression of anger. Brett Kavanaugh was allowed to be angry. Dr. Ford wasnt, Warren, the Massachusetts senator, said after Kavanaughs testimony before a Senate committee about accusations of sexual assault by Ford and other women. Research has shown that anger in women is perceived differently than when it is expressed by men. Angry men are perceived as more powerful, while angry women are seen as out of control. Moreover, angry men are more likely to be seen as being temporarily angry while women who express anger are perceived as being angry people generally. There is, however, one category of female anger that society is more apt to tolerate, according to Traister the anger of mothers defending their children. As an example, she cites Mary Harris Jones, who came to be known as "Mother Jones" for her activism on behalf of mine workers and child laborers. More recently, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tried to harness the political power of "Mama Grizzlies." Disparate standards Ryan Martin, a psychology professor who studies anger, said he believes that Ford was probably just as angry as Kavanaugh in their testimony before the Senate, but Ford knew she had to conceal the emotion. There is research that shows women who express anger at work are seen as less competent. The consequences to her would have been very different if she had yelled, said Martin, chairman of the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and co-host of a podcast "All the Rage." The disparate standards go back to old notions about how men and women should behave, notions that were cemented centuries before large numbers of women entered the workforce and became the majority of college graduates in the U.S. I think there are very clear messages we send to boys versus girls about how to express emotions, and what is OK, and what is not OK, Martin said. This was confirmed in a recent survey conducted by the Washington, D.C., polling firm PerryUndem for Plan International USA. When children and teens ages 10 through 19 were asked how society expects men to behave when they are angry, a majority said men are expected to yell or be aggressive. When asked how society expects women to behave, the teens said women are expected to cry, which is always perceived as a sign of weakness, even if the impetus for the tears is suppressed rage. The current celebration of rage, therefore, is seen by some as another step in the ladder to gender equality. If men get to be angry, women should, too, the thinking goes. But members of the advocacy group Mormon Women for Ethical Government (which is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) promotes more peaceable ways of resolving disputes, said Glenn, the groups founder. Not only is getting angry and hateful not the right way to do things; its not effective, Glenn said. Hate fuels more hate, anger fuels more anger. Until we can see each other as human beings and treat each other with deep respect, were never going to heal this rift. Instead of vying for the right to be angry like men, women should be encouraging men and women to find other ways of solving disputes, she said. The vitriol and the lack of civility and the hate and the yelling and extreme polarization we saw, particularly during the 2016 election cycle, really rattled us. Its time for women to lead the way in a very different way, Glenn said. Why anger works "Good and Mad", too, might be seen as lacking civility, as its cover is overlaid with rows of an expletive that makes up the background. In the book, Traister writes of exploring a "deep, rich, curdled fury that for years I tried to pretty up and make easier on everyone's stomach." When she began to voice her anger in her writing, Traister said she found it was an effective tool of communication that surprisingly served as a balm for others dealing with their own anger. Rage, she writes, is "a force that injects energy, intensity and urgency into battles that must be intense and urgent if they are to be won." Moreover, it can work, says the University of Wisconsin's Martin, describing anger as a tried-and-true mechanism for motivating voters. There are two emotions that politicians use to get people to the polls. One is anger, the other is fear. Theres a little bit of pride or joy that candidates may use, but by and large, its to be scared about what some person is going to do, or to be angry. People are more likely to click on an angry political post than a neutral one," he said. Both Chemaly and Cooper write about the frequency with which they have been told by men to smile an evolutionary tactic used by a variety of species to show others that were not a threat. And plastic surgeons are touting procedures to erase angry face from women and men. Youd be prettier if youd smile is a classic chestnut that women hear many times over the course of their lives, Chemaly wrote. Martin considers anger a healthy emotion with evolutionary roots. An angry face warns others to keep their distance and allows us to protect boundaries and our tribe. And a rush of anger sets off biological changes that prepare us to fight. Our blood flow increases, our pupils dilate, our muscles tense, and our digestive functions slow in preparation for conflict. Its one of our brains ways of energizing us to confront injustice, Martin said. But its those same responses that also contribute to poor cardiovascular health and other health problems. And anger doesnt only affect angry people, but also the people around them. I had an angry father, Martin said. He wasnt always angry at me, but when he was angry at other people, I found it scary. I think thats something for people to be aware of. (Anger) may damage relationships, not in the way we typically think of, but it may make your kid scared of you. Before adopting anger as a strategy, Think about the consequences to those around you, and decide whether or not its worth it, he advises. While Chemaly believes that anger is an important tool to help women to combat injustice, she argues for its mature expression, not destructive acts. For herself, writing has been a mechanism for converting very powerful negative feelings into immensely satisfying and productive work. Other examples she cites include Jacqueline Wernimont, an assistant professor at Arizona State University who maintains a database she calls an angry bibliography, and sports journalists who started a feminist podcast called Burn It All Down. Plan how to best use the anger you feel. Focus, think and analyze, Chemaly advises, arguing for a wise anger that isnt destructive or reactive. Reinvisioned, anger can be the most feminine of virtues: compassionate, fierce, wise and powerful, she says. SALT LAKE CITY He climbed the ladder again and she did her best not to gawk through the fabric of the T-shirt he wore at the play of muscles in his shoulders and his back. Thats about as racy as it gets in RaeAnne Thaynes new book, Season of Wonder. The Smithfield resident and longtime romance novelist admits, Theyre not the sexy books that people might think of with romance novels, but that doesnt seem to have slowed her career at all. Since her debut in 1995, Thayne has written more than 60 novels. Thayne visited the Deseret News offices to discuss her career, her personal life and the ways they impact one another. My prose is a little bit sparse compared to a lot of writers, Thayne said. I think thats one of the things that my journalism helped me to do, is give sparse details and let the readers imagination do the rest. Before her literary career, Thayne was an editor at the Herald Journal in Logan. She often spent her days reading content that came over the news wire, deciding which to include and which to omit for the next day's paper. So it was depressing, she recalled. You think about all the dark and depressing things I had to read about. So I loved the idea that I could read something that was not that dark and depressing, and that I could also create something that was making people happy. What a great job, to make people happy for a living. She had dreamed of writing romance novels since her teenage years. While on maternity leave with her first child, Thayne gave it a go. The results were mixed. I look back and I just cringe, she said. The idea wasnt strong, and the prose wasnt. I didnt know anything about writing fiction. After only a few chapters, Thayne abandoned the story and began writing another. That book, and the one that followed, got published though by her own admission, Theyre not great either. Part of her challenge was finding a distinctive tone and voice. In time, Thayne developed what she called a sweet, small town contemporary style. Though romance always plays a part, Thayne said her stories focus on communities where people really care for each other. Characters do volunteer work and bring meals to their neighbors. And I live in a community like that, she explained. And when people say, Well, thats not realistic, I say, Well, you need to live in my life. We have been the recipients of so much care from our neighbors and our friends, so I know what its like to rely on a community. I feel like I can tell that story with authenticity. Thaynes 21-year-old son Avery has cerebral palsy and requires total care. In her Smithfield community, she said, strangers will approach her at the grocery store and offer to help with her son, or to load her groceries for her. Part of her career success, she said, might be the publics collective desire for community connections in a social landscape thats increasingly digital. I think they yearn for the age when you knew your neighbors and you cared about your neighbors, and you knew there were people you could count on, she said. Another big reason for Thaynes success is the Amazon Kindle. Released in 2007, the e-reader spiked Thaynes notoriety around 2010, when her publisher, Harlequin Enterprises, released free Kindle books from a number of its authors. Over the four years that Thaynes book, Dancing in the Moonlight, was free on Kindle, she estimates it received approximately 2 million downloads. However, she said traditional paperback sales still comprise most of her business. These days, Thayne said she hopes another revolution in story distribution streaming video services could aid her career. A number of her romance novelist friends, she said, have sold series rights to Netflix. Hallmark has also launched its own streaming service. Reading a Thayne book, the setting seems tailor-made for a Hallmark movie. Readers know what theyre going to get when they pick up my book, she said. They know its going to be a happy ending, they know its going to be sweet, warm, theres going to be emotion, theyre going to cry, probably, at some point, theyll laugh through several parts. Until Hallmark or Netflix comes calling, and probably long after, Thayne will continue writing. Every book is harder than the one before, she said. And youd think that after 60 books youd figure it out, but every book is honestly harder. I did every easy idea that I had in probably my first 20 or 30 books. DUGWAY Splashy colored bands of wild horses looked healthy Tuesday morning in a field adjacent to the sprawling expanse of Dugway Proving Ground. The rangeland? Not so much. Gus Warr kicked a cowboy boot at the Russian thistle, an invasive plant that appeared to be the one of the few surviving species of vegetation in the area. He pointed to some mountains east of the horses, noting how they were full of vegetation, but the bands of horses were acclimated to the lowlands. "I wish as a manager I could whisper in their ear and tell them what to do," said Warr, who supervises the Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Program in Utah. Warr spoke to members of the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Tuesday in front of Utah's show-and-tell herd of wild horses, who have become so habituated to humans it is easy to walk among some of them. The Onaqui herd rambles through Skull Valley on the eastern edge of the Dugway Proving Ground, sporting close to 500 members. The BLM sets the "appropriate management level" for this population at between 121 and 210 animals, so they are nearing a tripling of their ranks. Board members, plus wild horse advocates, examined the rangeland conditions, got a close-up look at the animals and delved into some policy discussions. The tour is in advance of a two-day meeting in Salt Lake City Wednesday and Thursday at the Courtyard Marriott where board members will discuss a wide range of management strategies for the animals and listen to public input. According to the BLM, wild horse populations across Utah and the rest of the West are beyond a tipping point. In 2017, there were 86,000 animals, but targeted management goals are at 26,715, according to the agency. The herds can double in size every four years and increase in size by 15 to 20 percent each year. Adoptions are failing to keep pace, officials noted, resulting in 60 percent of the agency's $81 million budget devoted to keeping horses in long-term holding pens at a lifetime cost per animal estimated at $48,000. "The forage problem is serious," said board chairman Fred Woehl. "We need more tools in the tool box it is a complicated issue that over the years the BLM has not been proactive enough on." The BLM uses both its staff and trained volunteers to dart the horses for fertility control, but there are critics who question its effectiveness. During the next two days, board members will be discussing an array of management options for wild horse and burro populations, with varying degrees of aggressiveness to reach population targets, including $1,000 cash incentives for adoption as well as a euthanasia program or slaughter sales. Those options are detailed in a report released to Congress. After the board came up with a list of recommendations in 2016, Woehl said he received 4,000 death threats on an issue that is highly emotional for advocates, rural leaders, cattle ranchers and others. Advocates contend there is a wide range of options at the agency's disposal that don't include euthanasia, including expanding the geographic territory of wild horse management areas. Ginger Kathrens, executive director of The Cloud Foundation, attended the tour Tuesday. "It's not too late to begin to do the right thing," she said. Advocates plan to deliver at least 250,000 signatures on a petition during the Thursday session of the national board meeting, asking the agency to cease its roundups of wild horses. Kristin Bail, who works in the BLM's national office as assistant director for resources and planning, said the wild horse issue promises to be contentious as solutions are hammered out. "People are passionate about it and there are no easy answers," she said. "We work hard to have conversations about this, and not debates." SALT LAKE CITY Oprah Winfrey is coming to Utah. More importantly, shell be speaking in the Beehive State. Theres no telling if shell be giving away free cars. The inspiration speaker and media superstar will be the keynote speaker at the Qualtrics X4 Experience Management Summit at the Salt Palace Convention Center, the company announced over the weekend. Winfrey will speak at the event, which takes place from March 5 to 8. The event brings together Qualtrics clients, employees and tech enthusiasts for a conference that often includes high-profile keynote speakers. Last year, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tony Hawk and Magic Johnson spoke at the event, according to my reports for the Deseret News. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps spoke two years ago at the event, too. Earlier this year, rumors sparked that Winfrey would run for president in 2020. But Winfrey has since denied those rumors, saying a presidential run would kill me. "In that political structure all the non-truths, the bull----, the crap, the nastiness, the backhanded backroom stuff that goes on I feel like I could not exist," Winfrey told British Vogue. "I would not be able to do it. It's not a clean business. It would kill me." SALT LAKE CITY The Utah Republican Party petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to hear its appeal of a lower court ruling that upheld the state's controversial law dealing with how political parties nominate candidates. The 2014 law, known as SB54, was upheld earlier this year by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. A request by the Utah GOP for a full hearing by the appeals court was denied. The party's attorney, Gene Schaerr, said in his petition to the Supreme Court that the First Amendment "gives 'special protections' to 'the process by which a political party selects a standard bearer'" and that the law violated the party's rights. Utah Elections Director Justin Lee had no comment on the pending litigation. SB54 allows candidates to choose to gather voter signatures for a place on the primary ballot, allowing them to bypass the traditional caucus and convention system used by political parties to select nominees. The controversial law has caused considerable contention within the Republican Party, with some leaders pushing to end the court fight while others in the GOP turned to a private donor for help paying the legal bills. Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Anderson told the Deseret News Tuesday evening, "This is the final step to resolution of this lawsuit that's been going on for four years. So I look forward to the Supreme Court's decision on whether they take action and hear it or not." "It's the last step of a contentious period in the Utah Republican Party. Let's bring this to a finality and let the Republican Party be heard." Don Guymon, spokesman for the Utah Republican Party Constitutional Defense Committee, said in a statement released Tuesday that all of the bills associated with the legal challenge have been paid. "This enables us to keep the principled fight for every Utah citizen's First Amendment freedoms alive, so that every Utah neighborhood has a real and meaningful voice in Utah politics," Guymon said. The writ filed with the Supreme Court follows a failed attempt by backers of the Count My Vote initiative petition intended to strengthen SB54 to qualify for the November ballot. Count My Vote sparked the law four years ago by circulating an initiative that would have eliminated the ability of political parties to advance candidates to a primary ballot. SB54 was the result of a compromise between Count My Vote and the Republican-controlled Utah Legislature. Contributing: Ashley Imlay SALT LAKE CITY Former Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder, a Democrat, has endorsed the Republican candidate running for sheriff. On Tuesday, Jim Winder, who stepped down as sheriff in 2017 to become Moab's police chief, announced Tuesday he is endorsing Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal. Every elected position in Utah is viewed through a partisan lens and it should not be, especially when it comes to the Salt Lake County sheriff. Victims of crime do not care whether a Democrat or Republican is serving them. They just want someone to help and hear," Winder said in a prepared statement. "That's why I'm supporting Justin Hoyal for Salt Lake County sheriff. Simply put, he is the best person for the job." Hoyal was the public information officer for the department while Winder was sheriff and later served as his chief deputy. Hoyal will be facing off in November against current Sheriff Rosie Rivera, who was selected by Democrats to fulfill the remainder of Winder's term after he left. Like Hoyal, Rivera was also a public information officer for the department, and was the former deputy chief for the Riverton precinct. Winder called Hoyal a "dedicated public servant." "Justin is not driven by ego. The trappings of office can often lead to focusing on what they're doing, but Justin's humility and ability to focus on the right thing is very critical," he said. "Everybody wants community policing. Everybody wants 'smart on crime.' So here's a person that lives and breathes it. That's what we're doing here, and I hope that both Democrats and Republicans would put aside those banners for one race and elect an individual who will do a very good job for everyone. Parties aside, Justin is the right guy for this job," according to Winder. SALT LAKE CITY A new Deseret News poll shows 64 percent of likely Utah voters support Proposition 2, the state's medical marijuana legalization ballot initiative. Thirty-three percent of respondents to the poll, conducted on behalf of the newspaper by ScottRasmussen.com/HarrisX, said they oppose Proposition 2. Perhaps most noteworthy, just 3 percent said they were "not sure" whether they support or oppose the measure, indicating the vast majority of Utah voters are cognizant of the issue of medical marijuana legalization and have taken a position on the initiative. This is a polarizing topic causing people to break one way or the other. Overall we see a hardening of opinions after exposure to information rather than uncertainty on the topic," said Cory Brown, vice president of custom research for HarrisX. The findings also show 43 percent of respondents "strongly support" the initiative while 21 percent "somewhat support" it; 21 percent "strongly oppose" it and 12 percent "somewhat oppose" the ballot initiative. The finding of overall support is identical to a Utah Policy poll conducted in August, in which 64 percent of respondents favored the initiative. The support for Proposition 2 was strikingly consistent across several groups in the new Deseret News poll. For example: Support for the measure is equal among men and women 65 percent among women and 64 percent among men. It doesn't seem to matter where people live. Among those in urban areas, 64 percent support the initiative, with 65 percent support among Utahns in the suburbs and 63 percent of rural residents. The results are similar in each of Utah's four congressional districts, with support numbers between 60 and 69 percent. Among those with at least four years of college, 57 percent support the measure compared to 64 percent of those without a high school degree. Results were relatively consistent across age generations, too, with millennials (at 62 percent in favor) slightly less likely to support Proposition 2 than both Generation X voters (69 percent) and those in the Baby Boomer generation or older (63 percent). "Proposition 2 is a popular initiative," Brown said. Some of the larger disparities were along political lines, as 86 percent of Democrats compared to 71 percent of independents and 53 percent of Republicans said they support Proposition 2. Although conservatives were generally less likely to support the initiative, it still has traction among those who identify as a "strong conservative," who were split 49 percent to 49 percent on whether they favor it. The poll found 94 percent of those who identify as a "strong liberal" favor Proposition 2. However, respondents also expressed some anxiety over whether Proposition 2 could lead to recreational use of marijuana. They were asked, "To what extent are you concerned or not concerned about Proposition 2 paving the way for legalizing recreational marijuana use if it is enacted into law?" In response, 57 percent said they were at least somewhat concerned. The survey also asked "if a doctor without any specialized training could provide a six-month medical marijuana card in a 15-minute office visit, to what extent does that make you more likely or less likely to support Proposition 2, or does it have no effect on your vote?" Forty-three percent said it would make them at least somewhat less likely to vote for it. Another question asked was whether they agree with Proposition 2 advocates that "those suffering have suffered long enough and should have access to marijuana without waiting for the Legislature and governor to come together with a legislative solution." Sixty-one percent agreed with that sentiment. Among religious groups, 56 percent of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who identify as "very active" agree with their church leaders' opposition to Proposition 2. Of all self-identified Latter-day Saint respondents, 53 percent support the initiative and 45 percent are opposed to it. Sixty-nine percent of Utah Catholics favor Proposition 2, as do 77 percent of respondents who identify with another Christian faith and 88 percent of those who are atheistic or agnostic, the poll found. After being asked whether or not they support Proposition 2, respondents were given another 10 questions about specific aspects of the measure, describing both criticisms and endorsements of it by various organizations that have weighed in on the issue. Following those questions, asked in random order to different respondents, they were asked again whether they support or oppose Proposition 2, at which point 57 percent said they favored it and 40 percent were against it representing a 14 percentage point shrink in its advantage. After those questions, 3 percent again said they were unsure whether they support it. Effect on debate The poll questioned 1,087 likely Utah voters and was conducted Sept. 30 to Oct. 7. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.97 percentage points. On Oct. 2, the Deseret News first reported that the Utah Patients Coalition, which is the campaign that gathered the signatures to get Proposition 2 on the ballot, and some of the initiative's most vocal critics such as the Utah Medical Association, had agreed to a written compromise bill after private talks with state legislative leaders. Those groups, along with state leaders and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which opposes Proposition 2, formally announced that agreement Oct. 4. Utah Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, and House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, said last week that they plan to do everything in their power to secure the passage of the compromise bill in a special session expected to be called by Gov. Gary Herbert after Election Day in November. Herbert said he and legislative leaders will see to it that the compromise gets passed by state lawmakers regardless of whether or not Utah voters pass Proposition 2. The Church of Jesus Christ, Utah Medical Association and Utah Patients Coalition all said they would de-escalate their campaign efforts on the ballot initiative, though they each maintained that their position about whether it should pass has not changed. The news that those groups had agreed on a compromise bill did not materially affect Utahns' support of Proposition 2 itself, according to Brown. "We just did not see any significant shifts in opinion," he told the Deseret News. Michelle McOmber, CEO of the Utah Medical Association, said she anticipates the pressure from some national marijuana advocacy groups will build on Utah legislators if Proposition 2 passes to leave it as is, which is why her group would still like to see it defeated at the ballot box, despite the mutual agreement with initiative supporters not to campaign. "We've seen in other states where you've had a ballot initiative passed they've come in and really pushed and pushed and said, 'This is the will of the people' and they've really put a lot of pressures on legislators," McOmber said. "There are enormous pressures when something goes through on a ballot initiative, and that's a concern, and that's why we still say we don't want to see Proposition 2 pass because of that." Walter Plumb, president of anti-Proposition 2 group Drug Safe Utah, said he has "real confidence" in Utah legislators that if the initiative passes, the Legislature will "do the right thing" even amid potential pressure to leave the measure largely untouched. But Plumb, who unlike other Proposition 2 opponents voiced some dissatisfaction with some of the compromises made in the agreement announced last week, is still holding out hope the measure will fail despite the consistently strong polling. "Usually things narrow toward the end. I think in the end voters are going to show up and see through these guys," Plumb said. DJ Schanz, director of the Utah Patients Coalition campaign that got Proposition 2 on the ballot in the first place, said the new poll's findings are not surprising because "the level of support has always been pretty consistent." Passing the measure, he said, will go a long way in holding Utah lawmakers accountable to keeping the promises made in the agreement. If voters pass Proposition 2, "it sends a clear message that the public wants a workable medical cannabis program," Schanz said. Schanz also said the most recent round of strong polling does not leave him with any regrets agreeing to a compromise bill with Proposition 2's opponents. "The Legislature had every intention of changing Proposition 2 upon passage," he said. "Our numbers have always been strong. We just feel this agreement is best for the long term access to cannabis for patients." Marty Stephens, director of community and government relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he can see how "some people may say, Well, we can go ahead and vote for this now because there's a compromise and it doesn't matter," but he disagrees. "At least one legislator said to me, Well, wait a minute, if this initiative passes, and that's the vote of the people I'm going to have a hard time voting for the compromise, even though I know it's better policy, because I hate to go against the vote of the people in my district,'" Stephens said. "So if the people want this compromise without the kind of complications that will come with the passage of the initiative and then trying to get the compromise passed afterwards I think the wise thing to do is to vote down poor public policy, which is the initiative." SALT LAKE CITY A southern Utah man accused of killing his girlfriend's young child tried to cover up the crime by claiming there was an ATV accident, then convinced the boy's mother to go along with the story, prosecutors say. Gavin Michael Haar, 25, was charged Wednesday in Iron County's 5th District Court with murder, a first-degree felony; child abuse, a second-degree felony; and child abuse, a third-degree felony. His girlfriend, Brittany Juanita Hall, 25, was charged with child abuse and obstructing justice, second-degree felonies, and child abuse, a third-degree felony. Haar lived in Cedar City with Hall, who was the biological mother of the 2-year-old boy, according to court records. "Hall and Haar would live in the homes of different friends or family members," charging documents state. On June 12, while Hall was at work and Haar was home watching the boy, she received a text message from Haar that there was an emergency. Just a little over an hour after Hall received the first message, the boy was pronounced dead at a Cedar City hospital, according to the charges. His body "was covered with numerous bruises on his forehead, eyes, ears, mouth and several circular bruises on the chest and abdomen," the charges state. "The medical examiner concluded that (the boy) died of blunt force injuries to the abdomen. The medical examiner determined the manner of death was homicide." Haar told investigators that he was riding on a four-wheel ATV with the boy three days earlier and was going too fast and rolled, the charges state. He claimed the boy "was pinned under the four-wheeler where the gas tank was on his chest and the handle bars across his face." Despite the crash, Haar claimed that the boy "was fine and (he) did not take him to the doctor," according to the charges. Hall also told police that the couple had gone camping, that Haar rolled his ATV, and that her son "cried because he was scared but that he did not complain of any pain." But charging documents also note that "there were stark inconsistencies between Hall's version of events and Haar's version as to the time of day of the crash, and the details of the camping trip." Upon further investigation, police learned that the mother was actually working on the night of the alleged camping trip "and could not have been on the mountain camping when she reportedly witnessed the four-wheeler accident," the charges state. When confronted by police about the apparent lie and why she told her story, Hall said "because that is what he tells me and that's all I have to go off of," investigators wrote in the court documents. When asked whose idea it was to tell the camping story, the mother replied: "It's him if he is telling me. I'm not the one coming up with it; he is telling me what is going on," the charges state. Haar later claimed he also took the boy to a playground the day after the ATV crash and that he "fell off of some playground equipment and hit his face and hurt his mouth," according to the charges. Prosecutors further discovered that Haar was kicked out of one of the homes they had lived in "due to his bad temper and the abusive manner in which he treated (the girlfriend and boy)," charging documents say. Police also said they discovered more text messages on Haar's phone that were allegedly sent about 6 hours before the boy was taken to the hospital. In the message, he appears to be upset with something Hall did. "I'm (expletive) livid. And your son is about to get (a) beating," one text states, according to court records. About 45 minutes after Hall left for work, Haar texted her to say that the boy was not breathing, the charges state. Correction: In an earlier version, the deceased child was identified in one instance as a girl. The child was a boy. 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 Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.s name has come up as a possible replacement for United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced her resignation this week. Political analyst Tom Rogan lists Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, among three people whom President Donald Trump should strongly consider for the job. The others are Heather Nauert, undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell. Rogan writes in an opinion piece for the Washington Examiner that Huntsman is respected across the Republican Party and by Democrats. He notes that Huntsman served as ambassador to China under former President Barack Obama. "In that regard, Huntsman has personal experience dealing with America's two chief adversaries on the U.N. Security Council. That would give Huntsman a good grounding to win easy confirmation to the U.N. position, and the understanding necessary to hit the ground running, Rogan wrote. The U.S. cant afford to have an inexperienced ambassador at the U.N. with so many important foreign police issues on the table, he said. Huntsman has served as the U.S. envoy in Moscow since last October. He joined Trump at the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July. Huntsman was the U.S. ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011 and the U.S. ambassador to Singapore from 1992 to 1993. He also has worked in the administration of five presidents and ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. Haley, the former South Carolina governor, announced Tuesday that she would leave by the end of the year. Trump has a list of contenders to succeed Haley, but has not shared it widely with even the most senior White House officials, one senior White House official told CNN. Trump's former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, senior adviser and daughter of the president Ivanka Trump and Grenell are among possible replacements. "We actually have many names," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn after Haley's resignation announcement. Trump later said on Air Force One during his trip to Iowa that he has five people on his shortlist, but Grenell isn't one of them. Sky and Space Global (SAS), whose core business is to operate a communications infrastructure based on nanosatellite technology, has been awarded an EU R&D grant for approximately $355,000 to initiate a project studying machine-to-machine (M2M) device innovation. In line with the SAS business strategy, the project will focus on rural locations in Africa and South America and working with operators on improving network capabilities in these remote geographies where conventional connectivity services are limited and very costly. The company describes its vision as to provide affordable communication coverage and services to anyone, anywhere, anytime with relatively low maintenance costs. The company will use the funds for the creation of a research and development centre in Poland, and for the purchase of equipment to initiate a full-scale industrial research project into innovation involving M2M devices and smart grids via the SAS nanosatellite constellation. The project will be established in collaboration with the Faculty of Electronics at the Wroclaw University of Technology in Poland. Nanosatellites are fully operational satellites with a mass of less than 10kg. The SAS constellation of nanosatellites (approximately 200 when completed), placed in carefully selected orbits giving equatorial coverage of the Earth, will create a global communication network for voice, data and instant messaging. Due to miniaturization of technology, nanosatellites are capable of providing accurate altitude and orbit control and communication services. Since the first nanosatellite launch in 2003 they have become popular for diverse commercial uses. Their low mass and high capabilities make them affordable building blocks for constellations. Following the successful launch of its first three satellites (known as the 3 Diamonds) in 2017, SAS plans to launch 200 more by 2020, providing equatorial coverage and beyond. The SAS network is a narrowband communication network suitable for IoT, M2M, personal voice and messaging. As 5G testing, pricing and trialling continues, three areas India, Slovenia and Reunion have made news recently, though not all for good reasons. The Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has set a price of 492 crore Indian rupees ($66.4 million) per MHz of 5G spectrum for its forthcoming spectrum auction. With blocks of 20MHz blocks being auctioned off, Indian telcos will be obliged to spend a minimum of $1.4 billion to secure spectrum at the auction. The government has defended its pricing strategy, but this announcement may not be popular with telcos in a market where margins are tight and competition intense. Theres been controversy in Eastern Europe of a different sort. Slovenias Former Minister of Public Administration Boris Koprivnikar has resigned his position as Executive Director of Business Transformation at local industrial group BTC. This follows press allegations that he had influenced the award of 5G trial frequencies (BTC had been awarded trial spectrum in the 700MHz and 3.6GHz bands). Mr Koprivnikar denies any wrongdoing and BTC has said it will return its trial permits. The regulator has promised a review of the frequency allocation procedure. On a more cheerful note, telecoms company Altice Frances subsidiary in the East African island of Reunion has trialled 5G technology, achieving download speeds of 1.6Gbps. The operator is planning to commercialise the technology in the 2020-21 time period. Tanaiste to open the 6th Africa Ireland Economic Forum Press release Key event for promoting trade between Africa and Ireland High level leaders from Ireland and Africa in politics, business and agribusiness The Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney T.D,, will deliver the opening address to the Africa Ireland Economic Forum, to be held tomorrow (11 October 2018) in the Convention Centre Dublin. Speaking ahead of the Forum, the Tanaiste said: Since 2014, Irelands trade with Africa has increased by 13%. Irish food and drink companies have been particularly successful, with Bord Bia estimating that exports to the continent have gone up by 28% over the past two years. This is impressive and important growth, particularly at a time when Irish companies are looking to diversify markets. The Africa Ireland Economic Forum provides a platform for more Irish companies to explore the opportunities in African marketplaces, to meet potential partners and to deepen their engagement with the worlds fastest growing continent. Keynote speakers at the Forum include Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D., and the Cabinet Secretary for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives from Kenya, Peter Munya. Also at the Forum, the Tanaiste will announce the expansion of the Africa Agri-Food Development Programme (AADP), to allow Irish companies the option of partnering with local enterprises in five new countries, Botswana, Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Namibia and Rwanda. In addition, women entrepreneurs, who have not used the fund to date, will be encouraged to apply. The programme had previously been limited to countries which host an Irish embassy. The Tanaiste said: The Africa Agri-food Development Programme has potential to develop in an innovative manner, building on past successes while being more ambitious in its scope. The inclusion of these five additional countries opens new opportunities for dynamic partnerships, and it is really important that we encourage more women to participate in business. Minister Michael Creed added: The two themes of the Forum, Agri-business and Women in Business resonate strongly within my Department, not only underpinning the sustainable development of the agri-food sector in Ireland, but also as a cornerstone to Irelands international development assistance strategy. In addition, the AADP illustrates very well the potential for further partnerships between the Irish and African agri-food sectors. Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development, Mr Ciaran Cannon TD, who will deliver the closing address at tomorrows Forum, said: Ireland has a long and proud history of engaging in Africa. The Africa Ireland Economic Forum provides a unique opportunity both to reaffirm that close engagement, and to develop new contacts and opportunities for further cooperation. I very much look forward to this opportunity to engage with a range of African and Irish businesspeople tomorrow, and to the future economic opportunities which may develop between Ireland and Africa as a result. Ends Press Office 10 October 2018 Notes to Editor The Africa Ireland Economic Forum is organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, in partnership with the resident African Embassies in Ireland. It will focus this year on the complementary themes of agri-food and women in business, bringing together over three hundred business leaders and policy makers from Ireland and Africa to hear about the opportunities for enhanced trade and investment. This is the sixth Africa Ireland Economic Forum since the inaugural Forum in 2012. The Africa Agri-Food Development Programme is jointly operated by the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. This Programme develops partnerships between Irish agri-food companies and African partners, with the aim of supporting sustainable inclusive growth. To date, Irish companies could access the AADP for partnerships in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia Previous Item | Next Item Centre offers Rs30 lakh to kin of Bhilai Steel Plant accident victims, toll rises to 11 The centre has announced compensation of Rs30 lakh each to the families of those who lost their lives in the accident at Bhilai Steel Plant, Rs15 lakh each to those who have serious injuries and Rs2 lakh each for those with minor injuries. Two more employees have succumbed to their injuries taking the total death toll to eleven. Ten persons continue to receive treatment in the burns ward of Bhilai Steel Plant Hospital and two persons are admitted in the ICU in critical condition. Union minister of steel Chaudhary Birender Singh, also reached Bhilai today morning to enquire about the treatment being given and condition of those injured in yesterdays fire incident. The minister also interacted with their family members. The families of the deceased will receive statutory compensation ranging from Rs33 to 90 lakh in addition to the compensation announced by the minister. Steel minister also directed SAIL to provide employment to the next of kin who died in the accident and free education to be given to children up to graduation level. Dr Maneesh Singhal, Head of Department of Burns Unit of AIIMS, Delhi, has reached Bhilai and has expressed satisfaction with the treatment being provided in the Bhilai Steel Plant Hospital. The steel ministry is in the process of setting up an external committee of experts and orders will be issued soon. The minister also held an internal meeting of SAIL officials after his visit to the hospital and directed that one senior official of Bhilai Steel Plant be made responsible for all rehabilitation measures to the families of those who have lost their lives and those who are injured and to ensure that all payments are made promptly. Two senior officials of Bhilai Steel Plant have been suspended and CEO of Bhilai Steel Plant has been divested of his duties for the occurrence of the accident. Tata Motors reports 12% fall in Jaguar Land Rover sales, shares crash Tata Motors-owned luxury automobile brand Jaguar Land Rover posted a 12.3 per cent fall in the global sales to 57,114 vehicles in September. The news caused a crash in Tata Motors stock by as much as 20 per cent. Shares of Tata Motors hit a 7-year low on Tuesday with about 116 million equity shares changing hands on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), while about 11 million equity shares were traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The stock of Tata Motors, which began trading in the negative territory, started falling further within an hour of stock market opening on Tuesday. Tata Motors-owned luxury automobile brand Jaguar Land Rover posted a 12.3 per cent fall in the global sales to 57,114 vehicles in September. The steep decline in the global vehicle sales was largely due to the much lower demand in Mainland China. As a business we are continuing to experience challenging conditions in some of our key markets. Customer demand in China in particular has struggled to recover following changes in import tariffs in July and intensifying competition on price, while ongoing global negotiations on potential trade agreements have dampened purchase considerations. Despite this, we expect lower tariffs on UK imports to be beneficial over the full year, said Felix Brautigam, chief commercial officer, Jaguar Land Rover. Tata Motors sales in China dropped by 46.2 per cent during September. Centre decides to close NJMC, its subsidiary and Biecco Lawrie Ltd The government will close loss-making central public sector units National Jute Manufactures Corporation Ltd (NJMC) and its subsidiary Birds Jute & Exports Ltd (BJEL) as well as Biecco Lawrie Limited (BLL). NJMC has been incurring losses for several years and was under reference to BIFR since 1993. The company's primary product was hessian jute bags used for packaging of food grain used by the various state governments. Over the years, the demand for hessian bags has eroded and to that extent, it has been found to be no longer commercially viable to run the company. The Mills of NJMC which were proposed for revival, namely, Kinnison Mill at Titagarh, Khardah Mill at Khardah and RBHM Mill at Katihar are under suspension since August 2016 (the last mill to be closed was Kinnison Jute Mill on 31 August 2016), because of the failure of the job contractor to execute the job efficiently and problems with the local labour. The different models of outsourcing operations which were attempted have not been successful. Considering its past performance, market conditions and the competition from plastics and the capacity of private jute mills, it was noted that NJMC would not be in a position to recoup its negative net worth through operational profits. Also, NJMC has no staff/workers on its rolls. Hence, the closure. BJEL, the subsidiary of NJMC, was referred to BIFR, which had considered a revival scheme. The draft revival scheme could not be implemented as conversion of land use was not agreed to by the West Bengal government and the representative. BJEL has no staff and as the factory is not in operation and its closure does not have any adverse implications. The union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved the closure and disposal of fixed assets as well as current assets and depositing the proceeds from the sale of assets, after meeting the liabilities, in the Consolidated Fund of India. As per the DPE guidelines, a Land Management Agency (LMA) will be engaged for disposal of assets. The LMA will be directed to carry out a thorough verification of the assets before undertaking their disposal in accordance with the DPE guidelines. Ministry of Textiles does not propose to use any land or building of BJEL for its own purposes or for any of its other CPSEs and the Land Management Agency will be informed upfront accordingly. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the proposal for closure of the Biecco Lawrie Limited (BLL) including giving Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS)/ Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) to the employees of the Company. The idling assets of BLL will be subsequently put into productive use after meeting all the liabilities in accordance with the extant guidelines of the government. The petroleum ministry had taken various steps for revival of the company from time to time. However, it could not be revived and there appeared no possibility of revival of the company considering the competitive business environment as well as huge capital requirement. Continued loss has made further operations of the company not only unviable but also resulted in substantial distress to officials and staff due to uncertain future. BLL is a Schedule C CPSE with 67.33 per cent and 32.33 per cent equity share held by Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB) and Government of India respectively. The remaining 0.44 per cent shares are held by others. The latest Storm Callum weather forecast from Met Eireann has warned of a severe impact. Meteorologist Michelle Dillon put the country on alert in the latest TV bulletin from the State forecaster after the RTE 1 9pm News. She said the Atlantic storm would begin to hit on Thursday night and its impact will be felt through Friday and well into the weekend in the shape of wind and heavy rain. "By midnight (Thursday) we are looking at some very strong winds, severe gusts, damaging gusts up to storm force in some western counties. Then those winds will pick up everywhere as the low pressure tracks north," said Ms Dillon. While the strongest winds will have passed by Friday noon, Ms Dillon said it would continue to be windy right through Friday and into Saturday and be accompanied by heavy rain. The heaviest of the rain is expected to fall in the south and east of Ireland. Before all that happens Thursday will be a day of heavy rain in many places. Met Eireann has issued Orange and Yellow warnings for Storm Callum. More than 90 people attended the annual Connecting for Life conference on suicide prevention in Letterkenny on Friday last. In his opening address to the conference Leas Cathaoirleach of Donegal County Council Cllr. Martin Harley described the issue of suicide in our communities as deeply sensitive and devastating saying in the world we live in today with people facing many different types of difficult situations and challenges it is hard to think of anyone who has not been directly affected by suicide or mental health issues. Now, more so than ever, we must stress the importance and value of community, community spirit, and cooperation to combat these issues. We as a Local Authority have an onus to help people with mental health issues and focus on providing support to people who are in crisis, whether it be housing, job creation or promoting social inclusion. Our aim here today is to bring people together from different sectors, services and communities in order to strengthen our collective ability to be a major force for change in suicide prevention in Donegal. The conference was delivered as part of the Connecting for Life Donegal action plan which is a 5 year plan (2015 -2020) for suicide prevention that involves a broad range of organisations and individuals from the statutory, non-statutory, the community and voluntary sector, and also the general public. This local plan forms part of the national Connecting for Life strategy which sets a minimum target of a 10% reduction in the suicide rate in Ireland by 2020. Representatives from various sectors and organisations attended including An Garda Siochana, Donegal Travellers Project, health, private, community and voluntary organisations. The purpose of the conference was to share good practices and build connections in the area of suicide prevention with contributions from Dr Colette Corry, National Suicide Research Foundation on the Impact of suicide on families; Dr Cliff Haley, Executive Clinical Director, Mental Health Services; Cllr Ian McGarvey on his personal experience of living with a death by suicide in a family; Barry Mc Gale, Suicide Prevention Consultant on the impact suicide has on a workplace; Ruth Garvey Williams from Insight Inishowen on the impact of suicide on a community; Anne Sheridan, HSE on new Suicide Bereavement Awareness training; and Marie Burke Pieta House and Michael ORuaric, HSE on support services for suicide bereaved in Donegal. The conference was chaired by Liam Ward, Director of Community, Development & Planning Services in Donegal County Council. Dr. Kevin Malone, Professor of Psychiatry & Mental Health in UCD closed the event with an overview of the national and local picture in terms of suicide rates and encouraged the audience to keep strengthening their cooperation and build deeper connections as this is the best means of promoting positive mental health and reducing rates of suicide. The conference ended with a beautiful performance from the Intergenerational Choir of Ages Ceol le Cheile. The conference was followed by the official opening of the Lived Lives Lost exhibition, an exhibition of stories of young lives lost to suicide in Ireland, at the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny. 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 S.S. Dundalk was torpedoed on 14th October 1918 just weeks before the end of World War 1. Twenty lives were lost and there were twelve survivors. The ship T.S.S. Dundalk was built in Glasgow in 1899 at a cost of 40,000, as a flagship for the Dundalk and Newry Steampacket Company. She was too big for the Newry Canal and operated from Dundalk, she was 235 ft long powered by a triple expansion engine and could be encouraged to reach a speed of 16 knots. Her main trade was in carrying cattle and produce from Dundalk to Liverpool and other goods on the return journey. She also carried passengers. Her Captain was Hugh ONeill, from Killowen, Co. Down and he was a very experience mariner. Each week during the war the S.S. Dundalk made the journey from Dundalk to Liverpool and back, in spite of all the dangers involved. There was considerable loss of shipping from attacks by German submarines in the Irish Sea particularly from 1917 onwards. The S.S. Dundalk was a target of one such attack in December 1917. There were 52 shells fired at the steamer, one of which damaged a life boat, which was blown to pieces. Captain ONeill adopted a zig zag course and smoke boxes were used . After about an hour and a half the Dundalk managed to make it safely to the Isle of Man. The Captain and crew were commended for their bravery. On the night of 14th October 1918 the S.S. Dundalk was not so lucky. She left Liverpool at 5 pm on Monday 14th October and headed northwest on her regular course between Anglesey and the Isle of Man intending to reach the docks in Dundalk by early morning. Shortly after 11pm she was attacked by a U boat without warning. Capt Hugh ONeill was on the starboard side of the Bridge having just relieved the Mate John Higgins. The torpedo hit the S. S. Dundalk amidships on the port side and practically split the steamer in two. She began to sink immediately; Timber and iron were blown into mid air and the survivors stated that they were blinded with ashes and cinders. The steamer went down head on in about three minutes. The Captain was on the Bridge when the vessel sank. It is believed that a number of men working below deck were killed by the explosion while the others had not time to reach the deck. The mate John Higgins (He was there in place of his brother James) and seaman Patrick Byrne succeeded in getting one of the life boats released from the derricks just as the Dundalk sank. Three others Frank Deery, Patrick Kearney, James Tuite, managed to get to this life boat and Kearney was injured in the effort. This life boat was badly damaged and nearly sinking. Two of the gunners Alexander Ferguson and Timothy Connors were pulled from the water, Ferguson was very ill with flu and clad only in his underwear. Another boat was also launched by the deck hands Pat Moonan,and Patrick McCourt. They pulled Thomas Fitzgerald, Hugh ONeill, and John Mulqueen, from the water. Mulqueen was badly injured. The submarine came to the surface as the men were being pulled from the water. It stayed for about 5 minutes but made no attempt to rescue the men. The submarine moved away and almost immediately, the S.S.Carlingford also came on the scene. It nearly ran over one of the lifeboats. The men shouted and believed they received an answering call but the steamer didnt stop. The actions of the crew of the S.S. Carlingford caused controversy in the town and led to families being split in the aftermath. It was a difficult dilemma for the S.S. Carlingford since the Admiralty instructions were quite clear. No ocean-going British merchant vessel is permitted to go to the assistance of a ship which has been torpedoed by a submarine The subsequent telegram from Captain Hughes explains the actions of the Carlingford. Master Hughes, S.S. Carlingford reports when in position 18 miles North by West of the Skerries at 23.45 pm October 14th, sighted 2 ships boats full of men. After making an effort to pick up survivors, observed conning tower of submarine-effort abandoned and proceeded on voyage The men in the two lifeboats in the darkness lost sight of each other. The men were very cold and hungry. They had no food and very little water. The lifeboats were damaged and water had to baled throughout the night. The next morning in one of the lifeboats Ferguson, the gunner who was sick, used a ompass to steer a course for the Welsh coast. The rudder of the boat was broken. They rowed all day. In the evening they were spotted by a seaplane and shortly afterwards the trawler Stormcock picked them up and brought them to Holyhead. The five men in the other lifeboat after 16 hours at sea were picked up by the S.S Douglas and brought to the Isle of Man. Some of the men from both lifeboats were hospitalised. 20 lives were lost in the disaster 19 men and 1 woman. Quite a number of the crew had been replacements for the regular crew. On 8th October eleven men were taken from the ship at Dundalk suffering from influenza. Substitutes had to be found for these men and also for Patrick Hanratty (Fireman) who was taken ashore in Liverpool and died there. It was thought his coffin was on the S.S. Dundalk when she was torpedoed as this had been reported in one of the newspapers the following week. This was not the case. Patrick Hanratty died in Liverpool on the 14th October, the day of the disaster and was buried in Ford Cemetery in Liverpool on 21st October. He was from the Point Road in Dundalk but was living in Liverpool with his wife and 7 children. In Dundalk, Patrick Roddy died and was buried on the 13th October. He had a large family and had over twenty years service with the Company. His family were included in the allocation of funding from the Dundalk Disaster Fund. In Dundalk when the ship didnt arrive as expected the families were very alarmed. It was some time before the news of the disaster reached the town. Because of the war there was an embargo on news and what could be published. It was only when the survivors returned to Dundalk did the full story emerged. Cluid Housing, which provides 411 homes in Louth, has welcomed the 2.3 billion for the housing programme in 2019 but has said that a dedicated affordable rental scheme is desperately needed. This is different, it says, from the affordable purchase scheme announced in the budget. "Affordable rental (sometimes called cost rental)", Cluid explains, "provides housing to the squeezed middle people whose incomes are above the eligibility level for social housing but who cannot afford to pay market rents. It has the capacity to make a significant contribution to a greater mix of tenures in Co Louth." Yesterday Minister Donohoe announced that funding for the Serviced Sites Fund would be trebled over three years to 310 million up to 2021. This aims to provide up to 6,000 affordable purchase homes during this period. Speaking on this mornings RTEs Morning Ireland, Cluids New Business Director Fiona Cormican said: Cluid welcomes the focus on housing in Budget 2019, and particularly the money being made available for affordable housing. "To have a sustainable tenure mix we need to address the needs of a wide range of people. Wed like to see more focus on affordable rental. A large sector of the market are the squeezed middle who dont qualify for social housing and theyre squeezed out of the private market. "These households are struggling to afford very high private rents, cannot access social housing and are limited in their ability to secure mortgages by the amount they are forced to spend on rent. Head of Policy for Cluid, Simon Brooke said: Where rent constitutes more than 30% of net household income, the rent is considered to be unaffordable, so affordable rental aims to provide high quality rental housing where rents are less than 30% of take-home pay. "This was promised in the governments housing plan Rebuilding Ireland, but up to now not a single affordable tenancy has been created. Together with other approved housing bodies we are working on developing a viable affordable rental scheme to make this a reality. Ms. Cormican added: Currently Cluid has 411 homes in Louth and we are continually looking for new opportunities to develop further in the county and beyond. "We want to partner with developers and local authorities to deliver 2,500 units nationwide over three years. Cluid Housing is the largest housing association in Ireland, delivering 6,500 high quality, affordable homes to people in housing need all over Ireland. Housing associations are independent, not-for-profit charities. Its one of the first questions that pops into every aspiring entrepreneurs head when it comes to starting a business. As daunting as it seems, the reality is that there is no simple answer and the consequences of getting this single decision wrong may be catastrophic. Every business has its own unique needs and personality. The founders of the company have different goals and personalities as well and all these factors need to be considered. In my opinion, seed funding can be ideal for businesses that are more certain and where you can easily explain the business to a backer because the business idea is quite conventional. What I mean by this is a business thats involved in assets, such as a retail business, where the investor can see there will be tangible assets in the business that will reduce risk. Or the alternative is where the business is a new kind of idea that could change the world so the potential upside to investing is massive and so a backer will understand the risk profile is higher, but the payoff is massive. Internet-based businesses are a good example here. The problem with seed funding is in situations between those two extremes. For example, what if you have a new idea that has never been done before, so it is risky. But it is not an idea that is going to be a multi-billion dollar company if it does succeed. Whats surprising is most ideas are like this and they are new, risky but not Google, Apple or Uber. This is the area that seed funding can be a terrible idea. In this case, the risk is there but the reward is also limited. You are talking high risk and low reward, and thats a terrible place to be for someone who wants to back your new idea. Thats the place I found myself in back in 1995 when I was trying to develop a new product. I could not get any backing, and people thought I was mad as I was doing it all wrong. The result is that ideas that can be perfectly viable get totally destroyed by the investment community because they wont back it. One of the main issues is investors will often do their market research and then believe what you are doing is wrong as that is not how the industry works. I am sure the people in the ice harvesting business thought that about refrigeration. The result is, its a lot harder to get a new idea to be accepted before it has been proven in the market. What all this means is that the best seed funding you can get for a new type of idea is funding generated by selling your product. There is no better proof in your idea than seeing it sell and generate income. So I say, go for it. Try and get your product functioning and get someone to buy it. Even if it is a smaller, simpler version of your dream product. Even if it is a slightly different group of people than you really want to go after long term. But just find a way to generate income. Use that income to fund your growth and then slowly expand and get better. Honda started with motorbikes, then eventually moved into cars and now they make jet engines and aircraft. What a story. Make that your story and prove to the world your idea is robust and profitable by just going for it. Whats the worst that can happen? You will learn a lot and get experiences from bootstrapping that you never would get from a large investment. Its a totally different type of business because its core will be creativity. Blackmagic Design started out being driven by creativity and we continue to be a creative company. We found employees and customers that shared our creative passion, and if you surround yourself with like-minded people who want to innovate, you can achieve anything and your whole community will benefit. It is best kind of win-win scenario possible! Grant Petty, CEO & Founder, Blackmagic Design. World Mental Health Day was on the 10th of October and in Australia mental illness is a common problem. According to Black Dog Institute, one in five (20%) Australians aged 16-85 experience a mental illness in any year. Mental health issues are the leading cause of sickness absence and long-term work incapacity in Australia, costing Australian business up to $10.9 billion per year. The problem is driving people to suicide at an unprecedented rate eight Australians die by their own hand each day. Crucially, a massive 20 per cent of suicides are linked to work due to factors such as; job strain a high-pressure environment involving high stress or long hours; a lack of respect or values including situations where employees are facing bullying or harassment; and occupational uncertainty particularly if finances are an issue. As a result, one in five Australians (21%) have taken time off work in the past 12 months because they felt stressed, anxious, depressed or mentally unhealthy. So, its clear the workplace can play a huge role in our mental health, so what can we do to look after ourselves and improve our own wellbeing in the workplace? To cope with the stresses of work and overcome lifes daily challenges, it is important we stay as mentally well as possible. This can help us better overcome challenges, build healthy relationships and work more productively. When you work without breaks youre busy, but not necessarily productive. Its important to have opportunities to rest and recharge. Its a mistake to think that more hours worked equals more productivity. When you sleep is when everything in your body repairs itself and allows your body to recover from exertion. You need to allow your thought process to do the same by providing mentaldowntime. According to Xeros Travel Habits Report, Aussies have more than 111 million days of unused annual leave each year. So with the summer weather fast approaching, now is a great time to book a day off and take a personal day if youre lucky, your employer may even offer paid time off just for this purpose. Plan your day purposefully ensure you take it during a quieter period so you wont be bothered by colleagues needing your help and you wont feel guilty for abandoning them. Then book in something you wont want to sacrifice so you wont be tempted to cancel your day off at the last minute. Book a massage or make plans with a friend. Make sure your colleagues have everything you need while youre gone and tell them to call you if its an emergency, that way you wont need to check your emails. Then trust them to do their jobs. Once youve booked the day off, how do you spend it to make the most of the break? While its tempting to enjoy the opportunity to do nothing, you wont feel rejuvenated if you waste the day binge watching Netflix. But likewise, dont fill the day with life admin and appointments that feel like chores. Think about what really makes you tick, what fills your cup, and plan your day around ensuring you give yourself what you really need mentally. This could be spending time outdoors in nature, a trip to a day spa, or pulling the kids out of school for the day and heading to the beach. If you dont do so every day at work, 20-30 minutes micro-learning can really refresh your brain. For each person the ideal day will be different but try to find a balance of activities that help reduce anxiety and promote relaxation, such as spending time with loved ones, laughing, squeezing in an outdoor workout, and even a daytime nap if youve been exhausted. Try to avoid unhealthy activities that will deplete your mind and body further, including isolating yourself or drinking all day. After a well spent personal day, you should feel rejuvenated and better able to face the tasks that were challenging yesterday. One day off here and there can be a fantastic reminder of life outside of work. There is always another perspective. You just have to move to see it. So, book yourself a day off, sit back and relax its technically not even wagging! Tara OSullivan, Chief Marketing Officer at Skillsoft. B2B Lead Generation Service Reach key decision makers with sales-ready leads that shorten your sales process. Move the needle by delivering funnel qualified leads to your sales team. Learn more. The European Parliament on Wednesday approved a directive aimed at protecting the intellectual property of copyright holders on the Internet. It would require online platforms to scrutinize content their users post online and enter licensing agreements with rights holders. The Parliament approved the copyright directive with a vote of 438-226, with 39 abstentions. "I am very glad that despite the very strong lobbying campaign by the Internet giants, there is now a majority in the full house backing the need to protect the principle of fair pay for European creatives," said Parliament member Axel Voss. "There has been much heated debate around this directive and I believe that Parliament has listened carefully to the concerns raised. Thus, we have addressed concerns raised about innovation by excluding small and micro platforms or aggregators from the scope," he said. "I am convinced that once the dust has settled, the Internet will be as free as it is today, creators and journalists will be earning a fairer share of the revenues generated by their works, and we will be wondering what all the fuss was about," Voss added. Protecting Online Freedom The latest version of the measure contains provisions to protect the intellectual propery of rights holders while preserving freedom on the Internet, according to proponents. For example, sharing hyperlinks and descriptions won't be subject to copyright constraints. The directive also requires Internet platforms to design filtering systems that avoid catching "non-infringing" works. The systems must also have "rapid redress" processes for quick resolution of copyright disputes. Wikipedia and open source software platforms, like GitHub, are excluded from compliance with copyright rules. The directive will guarantee that artists (notably musicians, performers and script authors), news publishers and journalists are paid for their work when it is used by sharing platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, or news aggregators such as Google News, according to its supporters. Making Sharing Difficult Although the directive applies only to European nations, its impact is likely to be felt globally. "Because it will be easier for most tech companies to comply with European law for global operations, most Internet users will be affected the way European users are affected," said Gus Rossi, global policy director at Public Knowledge, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. "We're going to see very broad application in non-EU contexts, because the stakes for getting it wrong are too high," said Cory Doctorow, a special advisor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online rights advocacy group based in San Francisco. "There are high statutory damages," he explained. "They vary from country to country, but they tend to be in the six-figure range per download." The directive will make it harder for users to share information, knowledge and political satire, as well as to create new forms of content, Rossi told the E-Commerce Times. Under the directive, Internet platforms are required to compensate rights holders for links to their content posted on the platforms. "If a platform doesn't agree to pay news sources, then users won't be able to share trustworthy information created by professional journalists," Rossi pointed out. That could feed the distribution of fake news on the Internet. "Users who wish to share information with their contacts will opt to share less-trustworthy information," Rossi explained. "Instead of sharing information from The New York Times, they'll share information from a random blog post they found online. That creates a problem for trustworthiness of information online." In the past, licensing schemes have been tried in Spain and Germany, he noted, but "in both countries, they failed dramatically." Feeding US Dominance The directive would lead to censorship, Rossi also maintained. The directive makes Internet platforms responsible for what their users post, which "will chill speech online," he said. "It creates incentives for Internet websites to censor content." Another provision in the directive requires platforms to filter all the content posted by their users to prevent copyright infringement. "That's going to make the U.S. Internet companies a lot more dominant," Doctorow said. "There's not really anyone outside a few companies in China and one or two in Russia that can afford this kind of compliance. All the small European companies will be put out of business at the stroke of a pen when this comes into effect," he predicted. "The filters that we're talking about are outrageously expensive," Doctorow observed. "The one that YouTube uses just tracks the audio tracks of videos, and it cost (US)$60 miliion to build," he noted. "To operate a platform where users share video and text and 3D models and audio and all the things we see frequently shared on a single platform will mean hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance costs." Scaremongering Tactics The new directive is aimed largely at harmonizing copyright law across the European Union, but only two provisions seem to be garnering any attention, remarked Roy S. Kaufman, managing director for business development at the Copyright Clearance Center, a copyright licensing services provider in Danvers, Massachusetts. "Why?" he asked. "Because these two provisions -- one creating a 'neighboring right' for publishers and one holding platforms at least somewhat responsible for the infringing content on which they profit -- led to a major counteroffensive by technology platforms," he told the E-Commerce Times. "To the platforms, their lobbyists and astroturf organizations, these provisions will 'break the Internet,'" Kaufman noted. However, "the EU has rejected this scaremongering," he said. "The EU sensibly looked at the concentration of power in the platforms, the harm to democracy and free expression that comes from continued economic takings from authors, musicians, artists -- and yes, publishers, newspapers, studios and recording labels -- and concluded, on balance, that culture was under threat." What's Next The copyright directive next goes to something called "trilogue negotiations," where representatives of the EU parliament, European Council and the European Commission will hammer out a final version of the law. Then the directive will go to the European Parliament for final action. Because European Parliament elections will be held in the second half of 2019, however, the directive needs to clear the body by the end of the spring or face an indefinite delay. Whether the Parliament approves the finalized directive or not will depend on how much of a third rail it becomes between now and then. "There isn't anyone who's going to go home and campaign on 'Vote for me, I did this copyright thing,'" Doctorow said, "but there are plenty of voters who might vote against someone for breaking the Internet." John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. B2B Lead Generation Service Reach key decision makers with sales-ready leads that shorten your sales process. Move the needle by delivering funnel qualified leads to your sales team. Learn more. An empty chair reserved for Google became the focal point for harsh criticism Wednesday at the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee's hearing on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. After thanking Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for agreeing to testify at the forum, Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., added, "I'm disappointed Google decided against sending the right senior level executive to participate in what I truly expect to be a productive discussion." Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner, D-Va., also expressed displeasure. "I'm deeply disappointed that Google, one of the most influential digital platforms in the world, chose not to send its own top corporate leadership to engage this committee." Google needs to answer questions about conspiracy theories surfacing on Google Search, divisive videos posted to YouTube by Russian agents, and Gmail hacks by state-sponsored operatives, Warner maintained. "Google has an immense responsibility in this space," he observed. "Given its size and influence, I would have thought the leadership of Google would have wanted to demonstrate how seriously it takes these challenges and actually take a leadership role in this important discussion." U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on foreign influence operations' use of social media platforms, Sept 5, 2018. Arrogance or Dodging Questions? Google dodged the hearing either because it was "arrogant" or because it did not want answer questions about a Google Transparency Project report that revealed how easy it is for Russian troll farms to buy advertising on the service, suggested Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. "Perhaps Google didn't send a senior executive today because they've recently taken actions -- such as terminating cooperation they've had with the American military on programs like artificial intelligence -- that are designed not just to protect our troops and help them fight and win our country's wars, but to protect civilians as well," said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. "This is at the very same time that they continue to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party on matters like artificial intelligence or partner with Huawei and other Chinese telecom companies that are effectively arms of the Chinese Communist Party," he continued. "Credible reports" suggest that Google has been working to develop a new search engine to satisfy the Chinese Communist Party's censorship standards, after having disclaimed any intent to do so eight years ago, Cotton said. "Perhaps they didn't send a witness to answer these questions because there is no answer to those questions," he said. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg testifies before The Senate Intelligence Committee in a hearing on foreign influence operations and their use of social media platforms on Sept. 5, 2018. Communication Breakdown Despite committee members' suggestions to the contrary, Google said it has been cooperating with the Senate panel for months. "Over the last 18 months we've met with dozens of committee members and briefed major congressional committees numerous times on our work to prevent foreign interference in U.S. elections," Google spokesperson Riva B. Sciuto said. "Our senior vice president of global affairs and chief legal officer, who reports directly to our CEO and is responsible for our work in this area, will be in Washington, D.C., today (Wednesday), where he will deliver written testimony, brief members of Congress on our work, and answer any questions they have," she continued. "We had informed the Senate Intelligence Committee of this in late July and had understood that he would be an appropriate witness for this hearing," Sciuto added. If Google were dodging the hearing, it could be a bad miscalculation for the company. "Google hiding out will backfire, since this isn't going away," said James A. Lewis, senior vice president and the director of the technology and public policy program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization in Washington, D.C. Social Animal of Different Color Although Google appears to have been ready to take its place in the empty chair beside Sandberg and Dorsey, it may have less in common with Facebook and Twitter than the miffed members of the Intelligence committee would like to believe. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before The Senate Intelligence Committee in a hearing on foreign influence operations and their use of social media platforms on Sept. 5, 2018. "Google has a very different story to tell than Twitter or Facebook," said Karen North, director of USC Annenberg's Digital Social Media program. "They provide people with searches for products and services," she told TechNewsWorld. "What they're not doing is providing social interaction like Facebook and Twitter." Google may have some things in common with social networks, but it "doesn't want to be lumped together with Twitter and Facebook," he told TechNewsWorld. "Google has issues with privacy, with monopoly, but search is different from social media." Changes Coming The Intelligence Committee's Wednesday hearing was the fourth in a series of forums on Russian election meddling. Where the lawmakers will take the information they've gathered from the sessions remains to be seen. One target for legislation may be advertising. "It's likely these hearings will result in the laws on advertising imposed on traditional media being extended to social media," USC's North said, "but for the daily users of social media, there won't be much change, except the reduction of misleading ads that look like news stories." Regulating social media will be hard because of free speech issues, the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Lewis told TechNewsWorld. That doesn't mean, however, that the companies won't change their ways. "People are tired of the companies disclaiming responsibility by saying they are only the platform," he said. "In response, the companies will change how they do business." Problem Without a Solution Still, the social media companies may be unable to address their problems without legislative intervention, Lewis suggested. "It will be hard to craft regulation in the U.S., but the Europeans will be less constrained and are very unhappy with the U.S. giants," he said. "The best solution might be holding the companies accountable, through regulation, on being transparent to their users about other users and news sources." The Senate hearings are primarily an exercise in public relations, noted John Carroll, assistant professor of mass communication at Boston University. "The lawmakers want to seem like they're addressing these problems, and the tech companies want to seem like they're addressing the problems," he told TechNewsWorld. "Many of these problems are essentially unsolvable. The digital space is just too vast for them to control it in the way that some lawmakers want it to be controlled." John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. Hurricane Michael intensified into a Category 4 storm early Wednesday morning as it whirled towards the Florida Panhandle, where it is expected to make landfall this afternoon, CNN reported. If it retains its strength, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said it could be the strongest hurricane to hit the Panhandle in recorded history. It could also be the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. this year. "I guess it's the worst case scenario. I don't think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle," meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com told The Associated Press. "This is going to have structure damaging winds along the coast and hurricane force winds inland."The National Hurricane Center called the storm "extremely dangerous" and "life threatening." The National Hurricane Center called the storm "extremely dangerous" and "life threatening." Florida officials ordered about 375,000 people living in 22 counties from the Panhandle into north central Florida to evacuate, but Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford expressed concern that not enough people were following the order. "I am not seeing the level of traffic on the roadways that I would expect when we've called for the evacuation of 75 percent of this county," he told The Associated Press. The National Hurricane Center warned that the stretch of the Florida Gulf Coast from Mexico to Keaton Beach could see a storm surge of 9 to 13 feet. Florida Governor Rick Scott took to Twitter to urge people to evacuate. "The decisions you & your family make over the coming hours could be the difference between life & death," he wrote. He further warned the storm surge "means that the water will come miles in shore and could easily be over the roofs of houses," CNN reported. His opponent in the Florida Senate race, Democrat Bill Nelson, agreed with him on the issue of evacuation. "Don't think that you can ride this out if you're in a low-lying area," Nelson said on CNN, The Associated Press reported. Scott has declared a state of emergency in 35 counties and mobilized 2,500 members of the National Guard, CNN reported. In addition to the storm surge, Michael could bring 12 inches of rain to Florida's Panhandle and Big Bend, as well as southeastern Alabama and southern Georgia. Southern Virginia, as well as parts of the Carolinas recently inundated by rainfall from Hurricane Florence, could get up to six inches of rain. Strong winds are also predicted for Florida, southeastern Alabama and southern Georgia, and the storm could spawn tornadoes Wednesday and Thursday. The Florida Panhandle has only seen three major hurricanes in the past half-century: Eloise in 1975, Opal in 1995 and Dennis in 2005. Monsanto will ask a San Francisco judge on Wednesday to throw out a jury's $289 million award to a former school groundskeeper who claimed the company's glyphosate-based weedkillers, Roundup and Ranger Pro, caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos, who oversaw the trial, has the power to overturn the verdict, reduce the award amount or order a new trial. The plaintiff, Dewayne Johnson, was the first among 8,700 people in the U.S. who have made similar cancer claims against Monsanto, which is now owned by Germany's Bayer. The Associated Press reported: Attorneys for the company say Johnson failed to prove that Roundup or similar herbicides caused his lymphoma, and presented no evidence that Monsanto executives were malicious in marketing Roundup. Bolanos was not expected to rule immediately. Regulators around the world have concluded on "multiple occasions" that the active ingredient in Roundup glyphosate is not a human carcinogen, the attorneys said in court documents. They called the jury verdict "extraordinary" and said it requires "exceptional scrutiny." A judgement in favor of the company could discourage the other lawsuits and allow Bayer to avoid a "rush to trial after trial," Bloomberg reported. More trials over the controversial herbicide are scheduled for February. Jonas Oxgaard, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., estimated to Bloomberg that Bayer's market value is discounted by as much as $15 billion due to the jury's verdict. "Getting the first ruling overturned would be huge for Bayerlikely reversing most of the discount," Oxgaard told the publication. Johnson's lawyer, Brent Wisner, said the jury made the right decision in August when they awarded his client with $289 million in damages. "This was a considerate, thoughtful and well-educated jury that looked at the science to conclude glyphosate causes cancer," Wisner told Reuters in August. "Mr. Johnson's story is tragic and could have been prevented if Monsanto actually showed a modicum of care about human safety," Johnson's lawyers also responded in court documents cited by the AP. Dementia is a health condition that affects your memory in ways that can make it difficult to carry out your usual daily tasks. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, which causes abnormal changes that kill brain cells. However, there are many other types of dementia. Overall, dementia is a long-term illness, and most people live from four to 10 years after being diagnosed. When you are first diagnosed with dementia, your goals may be to preserve your ability to perform your daily activities. But as the disease progresses, your goals may shift and your preferences for your care may shift with them. Eventually, you may wish to make sure that your preferences and expectations are known, particularly for end-of-life care. You may also want to be sure those wishes can be put into action by those who might make decisions for you when you don't feel comfortable or are no longer able to make them on your own. Healthcare providers can use a tool called "goal attainment scaling" (GAS) to help you set your personal health goals and measure whether you're meeting them. Researchers have been using GAS for decades to measure the effects of mental health and rehabilitation efforts. In a new study, researchers used GAS when caring for people with dementia to learn more about these individuals' personalized goals for care. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Participants were recruited from the UCLA Alzheimer's and Dementia Care (ADC) program, a dementia care management program. The program uses nurse practitioners partnered with primary care providers and community-based organizations. It addresses the complex care needs not only of people living with dementia but also of their caregivers. The study participants were required to have a diagnosis of dementia, and to have a family member or friend serving as a caregiver who also was willing to participate in the study. The researchers developed a process for using GAS to set goals and to measure whether participants reached those goals. In a first phase of the study, they tested goal setting with 32 people who had dementia and their caregivers. Caregivers were spouses or children, and most lived with the patient. The researchers also trained five nurse practitioner dementia care managers (DCMs) in using GAS. In the next phase, the dementia care managers helped an additional 101 people with dementia and their caregivers set care goals. The research team used a scale to measure how well the participants achieved their goals 6 and 12 months after setting them. The researchers then conducted interviews with the patient-caregiver teams as well as with the DCMs to explore goal setting and measurement. The researchers learned that 84 percent of goals set by patient or caregivers were non-medical, meaning they didn't address healthcare treatments specifically. Most often, the goals focused on improving quality of life for the person with dementia, followed by caregiver support goals (goals that help reduce caregiver stress or make caregiving as easy as possible). Some commonly chosen goals for the person with dementia included: - Maintaining physical safety - Continuing to live at home - Receiving medical care related to dementia - Avoiding hospitalization - Maintaining mental stimulation - Remaining physically active Commonly chosen caregiver goals included: - Maintaining the caregiver's own health - Managing stress - Minimizing family conflict related to dementia caregiving The researchers concluded that goal-setting measures could be useful in caring for people with dementia, but that more research is needed. The researchers concluded that GAS can be used in clinical care to help people with dementia and their caregivers set and achieve personalized health goals. Goal setting may help people with dementia work with healthcare professionals and caregivers to identify and achieve realistic goals that are most important to them. ### This summary is from "Personalized Goal Attainment in Dementia Care: Measuring what Persons with Dementia and their Caregivers Want." It appears online ahead of print in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study authors are Lee A. Jennings, MD, MSHS; Karina D. Ramirez, MPH; Ron D. Hays, PhD; Neil S. Wenger MD, MPH; and David B. Reuben, MD. About the Health in Aging Foundation This research summary was developed as a public education tool by the Health in Aging Foundation. The Foundation is a national non-profit established in 1999 by the American Geriatrics Society to bring the knowledge and expertise of geriatrics healthcare professionals to the public. We are committed to ensuring that people are empowered to advocate for high-quality care by providing them with trustworthy information and reliable resources. Last year, we reached nearly 1 million people with our resources through HealthinAging.org. We also help nurture current and future geriatrics leaders by supporting opportunities to attend educational events and increase exposure to principles of excellence on caring for older adults. For more information or to support the Foundation's work, visit http://www.HealthinAgingFoundation.org. About the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Included in more than 9,000 library collections around the world, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) highlights emerging insights on principles of aging, approaches to older patients, geriatric syndromes, geriatric psychiatry, and geriatric diseases and disorders. First published in 1953, JAGS is now one of the oldest and most impactful publications on gerontology and geriatrics, according to ISI Journal Citation Reports. Visit wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/JGS for more details. About the American Geriatrics Society Founded in 1942, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is a nationwide, not-for-profit society of geriatrics healthcare professionals that has--for 75 years--worked to improve the health, independence, and quality of life of older people. Its nearly 6,000 members include geriatricians, geriatric nurses, social workers, family practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and internists. The Society provides leadership to healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public by implementing and advocating for programs in patient care, research, professional and public education, and public policy. For more information, visit AmericanGeriatrics.org. An investigation by The BMJ reveals how vaginal mesh implant manufacturers "aggressively hustled" their products into widespread use, how regulators approved them "on the flimsiest of evidence" and how the medical profession failed to set up registries that might have picked up problems far sooner. It also names prominent individuals - all on mesh guidelines committees - who take money from mesh manufacturers for various activities including research grants, speaker honorarium and consultancy, as do the medical royal colleges, creating a potential for bias. And even where payments are declared, it is very hard to unpick their value, and there is no obligation on clinicians to declare their interests. Altogether, this "hair raising" story offers lessons for the entire medical community, manufacturers and regulators, says author andinvestigative journalist, Jonathan Gornall. Vaginal mesh implants were introduced in 1998 as a quick and easy way to treat stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse in women. Twenty years on, their use in the NHS is suspended pending the findings of a major government review - and companies are facing tens of thousands of compensation claims. In a series of special reports published today, Gornall charts the rapid rise of mesh in the UK and tracks down some of the doctors who warned of the consequences of mass launching a product on flimsy evidence. He also tracks the failure of the surgical profession to register patients getting mesh implants, despite warnings from NICE and others dating back to 2003. It wasn't until February 2018 that Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, announced that his department would be investing 1.1m "to develop a comprehensive database for vaginal mesh to improve clinical practice and identify issues." If all of [these warnings] had been heeded, "today's mesh crisis might have been largely averted," argues Gornall. In a second report, Gornall goes in search of Ulf Ulmsten, the Swedish obstetrician who invented mesh, and uncovers how the original evidence was mired in a multimillion pound deal, industry funded research, and undisclosed conflicts of interest. Gornall describes how, in March 1997, Ulmsten was paid $1m by global medical giant Johnson and Johnson ahead of a study to test the effectiveness and safety of his new tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) procedure. While Johnson and Johnson deny allegations that the payment was conditional on the study proving successful, and rejected any suggestion that this had compromised the results of that trial, Gornall questions whether this was 'wallet driven' research. Finally, Gornall reports on the NHS surgeons, professional bodies, royal colleges and medical conferences that benefit from corporate funding and how this financial involvement is hidden from patients. He describes how, despite government guidance on conflicts of interests, it remains difficult to unpick industry funding of clinicians in the UK - and specialists in vaginal mesh are no exception. But it isn't only individual clinicians who have financial links with industry, says Gornall, who cites links between some of the leading mesh device companies and several royal colleges, including the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. The UK Pelvic Floor Society, whose members use synthetic meshes for prolapse and incontinence surgery, is also supported by Shire, Cook Medical, Medtronic, THD, and BK Medical, he adds. But regardless of the perceived or actual effect of such extensive industry influence within specialist branches of the medical profession, none of this information is freely or easily available to the public in the UK, argues Gornall. The UK trails far behind the US in putting the relationship between doctors and industry in plain sight, he writes. Without legislation, he believes that "it is all too easy for patients to draw conclusions harmful to public confidence in the healthcare system." In an editorial, Chris Allan and colleagues at Newcastle University warn that Europe's new device regulations "will fail to protect the public, unless they are reinforced." They argue that the new rules, which come into force on 26 May 2020, "require further tightening to protect public safety." At the very least, for all high risk devices, national authorities such as Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK "should take over conformity assessments to reduce commercial conflicts of interest," they write. And they say clinical studies of both efficacy and effectiveness "should be a condition of pre-market approval," and all data including clinical studies and investigations "should be available to everyone, ending differential rights of access for regulators and the public." Dr Fiona Godlee, The BMJ's Editor in Chief and Professor Carl Heneghan of Oxford University's Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, say the postmarketing assessment of vaginal mesh has been "a shameful episode in the history of implantable devices." Surgeons, manufacturers, regulators, and governments have all played their part in this failing, they write in an editorial. "Mandated national registries are needed for all implantable devices, to protect patients, improve outcomes, reduce costs, and identify best practice. Another mesh tragedy is otherwise inevitable." ### Externally peer-reviewed? No Type of evidence: Investigation; Opinion (linked editorials) Subjects: People Scientists studying how genetics impact brain disease have long sought a better experimental model. Cultures of genetically-modified cell lines can reveal some clues to how certain genes influence the development of psychiatric disorders and brain cancers. But such models cannot offer the true-to-form look at brain function that can be provided by genetically-modified mice. Even then, carefully breeding mice to study how genes impact the brain has several drawbacks. The breeding cycles are lengthy and costly, and the desired gene specificity can only be verified -- but not guaranteed -- when mouse pups are born. In today's Nature, scientists from Boston Children's Hospital and UC San Francisco describe a new way to create customized mouse models for studying the brain. First, a natural toxin can be used in mouse embryos to kill off the young brain cells that normally grow into the forebrain. The animals' developing forebrains can then be reconstituted from genetically engineered stem cells containing the specific genetic modifications desired for study. This "forebrain substitution" results in fully functioning mouse pups that have tightly controlled genetics, allowing scientists to study how specific genes influence disorders of the brain with a greater degree of control. "We think of this strategy as a completely new platform for neurobiologists to study many aspects of the brain, from basic knowledge of which genes control brain development to potentially finding new gene therapies for brain cancers and psychiatric disorders," says Fred Alt, PhD, a co-senior author on the new paper and the director of the Boston Children's Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. "Mice with embryonic-stem-cell-derived brain regions are indistinguishable from normal mice in memory and learning tasks," notes Bjoern Schwer, MD, PhD, a former trainee in Alt's lab who is now an assistant professor at UCSF and co-senior author on the paper. Alt and his team, including Schwer, are also publishing a detailed set of instructions so that scientists around the world can rapidly implement the technique in their own neurobiology laboratories. Studying gene breakage and rare brain diseases A particular goal of the Alt lab in developing this technique is to use it as a platform to study a set of genes that they recently discovered are highly susceptible to breaking in mouse brain progenitor cells. They want determine the frequency and mechanisms by which these genes may break, and determine whether this breakage process contributes to neuropsychiatric diseases and brain cancers. What's more, Alt and Schwer believe the technique could be implemented to aid personalized medicine. By creating custom mouse brain models, physician-scientists could mimic the unique genetic profile of undiagnosed patients with rare brain diseases and disorders. ### Amelia Chang, Zhuoyi Liang and Hai-Qiang Dai of the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children's share first authorship of the paper. The study was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston Children's Hospital's Department of Medicine, the Charles H. Hood Foundation, Inc., The Sidney Kimmel Foundation, the UCSF Brain Tumor SPORE Career Development Program, the American Cancer Society, the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation, the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation, and The V Foundation for Cancer Research. About Boston Children's Hospital Boston Children's Hospital, the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center. Its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. Today, more than 3,000 scientists, including 8 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine and 12 Howard Hughes Medical Investigators comprise Boston Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Boston Children's is now a 415-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care. For more, visit our Vector and Thriving blogs and follow us on social media @BostonChildrens, @BCH_Innovation, Facebook and YouTube. LOS ANGELES -- Growth rates of brain circuits in infancy may help experts predict what a child's intelligence and emotional health could be when the child turns 4, a new study has found. Along with prior research, these findings could help future physicians identify cognitive and behavioral challenges in the first months and years of life, leading to early treatment. About 15 percent of children in the U.S. between age 2 and 8 are diagnosed with at least one mental, behavioral or developmental disorder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These disorders include learning difficulties, delays in language acquisition, attention deficit disorder, autism and other problems. The new study, published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, adds to the understanding of how infant brain development can provide important early clues to these disorders. The study was conducted by investigators at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The team built on earlier research in which they performed MRI scans on more than 1,000 healthy infants to examine how and when connections developed between the brain's emotional regulator, called the amygdala, and the rest of the brain. They found that while newborns lack the connectivity of adult brains, rapid development of the circuits occurred in the first year of life, followed by strengthening and fine-tuning at age 2. For their latest study, the team evaluated 223 of the children who participated in the earlier study. The investigators studied the children at 4 years old to see whether their brain scans as infants had predicted later behavior. In addition to IQ tests specially designed for 4-year-olds to measure cognitive development, the researchers surveyed the children's parents and used standardized tests such as the Behavior Assessment System for Children and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function to measure levels of anxiety, self-control skills and other behaviors. "Our results confirmed that emotional circuit development during infancy affects children as they grow up," said Wei Gao, PhD, associate professor of Biomedical Sciences and director of Neuroimaging Research at the Cedars-Sinai Biomedical Imaging Research Institute. "Using the functional connectivity of infants' brains to predict emotional and cognitive outcomes could become a powerful tool to identify problems early on and design effective treatment plans." Gao was co-senior author of the study, along with John Gilmore, MD, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Project scientist Andrew Salzwedel, PhD, from Gao's laboratory was the first author. Charles Simmons, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai, said the findings address an important health issue. "New predictive biomarkers of neurological development are needed because a significant number of children are at risk of adverse neurological development due to genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors," he explained. "These studies provide hope that in the near future we may be able to more accurately diagnose, intervene and optimize neonatal and infant development." Gao said the team's next goal is to establish more comprehensive, imaging-based models to predict a wider variety of developmental outcomes during and beyond early childhood. The team also plans to apply its model to at-risk populations, including babies with premature birth and prenatal drug exposure. ### This study received funding from Cedars-Sinai Precision Health, which seeks to drive the development of the newest technology and best research, coupled with the finest clinical practice, to rapidly enable a new era of personalized health; and from the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01DA042988, R01DA043678, R21NS088975, R21DA043171, R03DA036645, T32-MH106440, U01MH110274, R01MH064065 and R01HD05300. In the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE, the immune system produces antibodies against parts of the body itself. How cells that produce those antibodies escape the normal "checks and balances" has been unclear, but recent research from Emory University School of Medicine sheds light on a missing link. Investigators led by Ignacio Sanz, MD, studied blood samples from 90 people living with SLE, focusing on a particular type of B cells. These "DN2" B cells are relatively scarce in healthy people but substantially increased in people with SLE. People with lupus can experience a variety of symptoms, such as fatigue, joint pain, skin rashes and kidney problems. Levels of the DN2 cells were higher in people with more severe disease or kidney problems. DN2 B cells are thought to be "extra-follicular," which means they are outside the B cell follicles, regions of the lymph nodes where B cells are activated in an immune response. "Overall, our model is that a lot of lupus auto-antibodies come from a continuous churning out of new responses," says postdoctoral fellow Scott Jenks, PhD, co-first author of the paper. "There is good evidence that DN2 cells are part of the early B cell activation pathway happening outside B cells' normal homes in lymph nodes." Previous research at Emory has shown that African American women have significantly higher rates of lupus than white women. In the current study, the researchers observed that the frequency of DN2 cells was greater in African American patients. Participants in the study were recruited by Emory, University of Rochester and Johns Hopkins. Sanz, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, is director of the Lowance Center for Human Immunology and head of the division of rheumatology in the Department of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. Co-first authors are Jenks, postdoctoral fellow Kevin Cashman, PhD and Esther Zumaquero-Martinez, PhD at the University of Alabama. The lab of Frances Lund, PhD at University of Alabama, as well as postdoc Urko Marigorta, PhD from Georgia Tech contributed to the paper. The researchers examined the characteristics of DN2 cells and the patterns of genes turned on in those cells. DN2 cells appear to be precursors to the plasmablasts that produce autoreactive antibodies, which cause so much trouble for people with lupus. Plasmablasts are an important source of antibodies that help get rid of bacteria or viruses during an infection. But in lupus, subsets of B cells and plasmablasts persist in unhealthy ways. In general, we can think of plasmablasts as weapon factories, and B cells as a library of blueprints for various antibodies/weapons. Understanding where the problem plasmablasts come from can provide clues on how to target them and how to control the disease. Molecular probing showed that DN2 cells in SLE patients are hypersensitive to activation through TLR7, a pathway by which the immune system senses viral infections. This may be how they get over-expanded, Jenks says. "Our work provides further support for the importance for TLR7 in lupus pathology," he says. "Targeting TLR7 might both block the generation of pathological B cells and prevent their subsequent activation and differentiation into plasma cells." Previous work in Sanz's lab had shown that a group of "activated naive" B cells are precursors to the problem plasmablasts. Those cells are very similar, in their molecular markers, to DN2 cells. Jenks says the researchers are now figuring out the relationship between DN2 and activated naive cells, as well as investigating additional intervention strategies that could specifically control those cells. ### The research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U19AI110483, R37AI049660, P01AI125180, P01AI078907, R01AI110508, R01AI121252 and U19AI109962) and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (AR043737, AR069572 -- Hopkins Lupus Cohort), Annapolis, MD; October 10, 2018--While millions of Americans took a break from their daily routines on August 21, 2017, to witness a total solar eclipse, they might not have noticed a similar phenomenon happening nearby: In the path of totality, bees took a break from their daily routines, too. In an unprecedented study of a solar eclipse's influence on bee behavior, researchers at the University of Missouri organized a cadre of citizen scientists and elementary school classrooms in setting up acoustic monitoring stations to listen in on bees' buzzing--or lack thereof--as the 2017 eclipse passed over. The results, published October 10 in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, were clear and consistent at locations across the country: Bees stopped flying during the period of total solar eclipse. "We anticipated, based on the smattering of reports in the literature, that bee activity would drop as light dimmed during the eclipse and would reach a minimum at totality," says Candace Galen, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri and lead researcher on the study. "But, we had not expected that the change would be so abrupt, that bees would continue flying up until totality and only then stop, completely. It was like 'lights out' at summer camp! That surprised us." As anticipation mounted for the eclipse, "it seemed as if everyone and their dog was asking me what animals would do during a total eclipse," Galen says. However, few formal studies had ever examined the behavior of insects, specifically, during a solar eclipse, and none had looked at bees. Galen and colleagues, meanwhile, had recently field-tested a system to track bee pollination remotely by listening for their flight buzzes in soundscape recordings. "It seemed like the perfect fit," Galen says. "The tiny microphones and temperature sensors could be placed near flowers hours before the eclipse, leaving us free to put on our fancy glasses and enjoy the show." Supported by a grant from the American Astronomical Society, the project engaged more than 400 participants--including scientists, members of the public, and elementary school teachers and students--in setting up 16 monitoring stations in the path of totality in Oregon, Idaho, and Missouri. At each location, small USB microphones were hung on lanyards near bee-pollinated flowers in areas away from foot and vehicle traffic. In some of the locations, light and temperature data were also captured. Participants then sent the devices to Galen's lab, where the recordings were matched up with the eclipse periods from each location and analyzed for the number and duration of bee flight buzzes. The recordings didn't allow for differentiation between bee species, but participant observations indicated most bees monitored were bumble bees (genus Bombus) or honey bees (Apis mellifera). The data showed that bees remained active during the partial-eclipse phases both before and after totality, but they essentially ceased flying during the period of totality. (Just one buzz was recorded during totality in all of the 16 monitoring locations.) However, shortly before and shortly after totality, bee flights tended to be longer in duration than at times early in the pre-totality phase and late in post-totality. Galen and colleagues interpret these longer flight durations as an indicator of slower flight under reduced light or possibly as the bees returning to their nests. Bees commonly fly more slowly at dusk and return to their colonies at night, and so the same behavior triggered by a solar eclipse offers evidence about how they respond to environmental cues when those cues occur unexpectedly. "The eclipse gave us an opportunity to ask whether the novel environmental context--mid-day, open skies--would alter the bees' behavioral response to dim light and darkness. As we found, complete darkness elicits the same behavior in bees, regardless of timing or context. And that's new information about bee cognition," Galen says. Another total solar eclipse for North America is not far away: April 8, 2024. Galen says her team is working to enhance its audio-analysis software to distinguish the flights that foraging bees make when they leave or return to their colonies. Thus prepared, she hopes to answer the question of whether bees return home when the "lights go out" at totality in 2024. It likely won't be difficult to find willing citizen scientists and students to help out again. "The total solar eclipse was a complete crowd-pleaser, and it was great fun to hitch bee research to its tidal wave of enthusiasm," Galen says. ### "Pollination on the Dark Side: Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Impacts of a Total Solar Eclipse on Flight Behavior and Activity Schedule of Foraging Bees," will be published online on October 10, 2018, in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Journalists may request advance copies of the article via the contact below or access the published paper after 10 a.m. October 10, 2018, at https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/say035. CONTACT: Joe Rominiecki, jrominiecki@entsoc.org, 301-731-4535 x3009 ABOUT: ESA is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Founded in 1889, ESA today has nearly 7,000 members affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, the Society stands ready as a non-partisan scientific and educational resource for all insect-related topics. For more information, visit http://www.entsoc.org. The Annals of the Entomological Society of America publishes cutting-edge entomological research, reviews, collections of articles, and discussions of topics of broad interest and national or international importance. It aims to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue across the entomological disciplines and advance cooperative interaction among diverse groups of entomologists. For more information, visit https://academic.oup.com/aesa, or visit http://www.insectscience.org to view the full portfolio of ESA journals and publications. As Europe's most active volcano, Mount Etna is intensively monitored by scientists and Italian authorities. Satellite-based measurements have shown that the southeastern flank of the volcano is slowly sliding towards the sea, while the other slopes are largely stable. To date, it has been entirely unknown if and how movement continues under water, as satellite-based measurements are impossible below the ocean surface. With the new GeoSEA seafloor geodetic monitoring network, scientists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, the Kiel University, priority research area Kiel Marine Science, and the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) have now been able to detect for the first time the horizontal and vertical movement of a submerged volcanic flank. The results confirm that the entire southeastern flank is in motion. The driving force of flank movement is most likely gravity, and not the ascent of magma, as previously assumed. Catastrophic collapse involving the entire flank or large parts of it cannot be excluded and would trigger a major tsunami with extreme effects in the region. The results of the study have been published today in the international journal Science Advances. "At Mount Etna we used a sound based underwater geodetic monitoring network, the so-called marine geodesy, on a volcano for the first time ", says Dr. Morelia Urlaub, lead author of the study. She led the investigations as part of the "MAGOMET - Marine geodesy for offshore monitoring of Mount Etna" project. In April 2016, the GEOMAR team placed a total of five acoustic monitoring transponder stations across the fault line that represents the boundary between the sliding flank and the stable slope. "We placed three on the sliding sector and two on the presumably stable side of the fault line," says Dr. Urlaub. During their mission each transponder was sending an acoustic signal every 90 minutes. Since the speed of sound in water is known, the travel time of the signals between transponders gave information on the distances between transponders on the seafloor with a precision of less than one centimeter. "We noticed that in May 2017 the distances between transponders on different sides of the fault clearly changed. The flank slipped by four centimeters seawards and subsided by one centimeter within a period of eight days," explains Dr. Urlaub. This movement can be compared to a very slow earthquake, a so-called "slow slip event". It was the first time that the horizontal movement of such a slow slip event was recorded under water. In total, the system delivered data for about 15 months. A comparison with ground deformation data obtained by satellite showed that the southeastern flank above sea level moved by a similar distance during the same observation period. "So the entire southeast flank changed its position," says Dr. Urlaub. "Overall, our results indicate that the slope is sliding due to gravity and not due to the rise of magma," she continues. If magma dynamics in the centre of the volcano triggered flank deformation, displacement of the flank would be expected to be larger onshore than below water. This is crucial for hazard assessments. "The entire slope is in motion due to gravity. It is therefore quite possible that it could collapse catastrophically, which could trigger a tsunami in the entire Mediterranean," explains Professor Heidrun Kopp, coordinator of the GeoSEA array and co-author of the study. However, the results of the study do not allow a prediction whether and when such an event might occur. "Further basic research is needed to understand the geological processes at and around Etna and other coastal volcanoes. Our investigation shows that the sound-based geodetic monitoring network can be a tremendous help in this respect," summarises Dr. Urlaub. ### Wednesday, 10th of October, Rockville, MD - While the many concepts in artificial intelligence date back to the 20th century, the revolution in deep learning started around 2014-2015 when AI systems started outperforming humans in many tasks ranging from video games and image recognition to autonomous driving. The concept of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) was only introduced in 2014 and went mainstream in 2016 with the publication of the first "AI-imagined" images generated using GANs from natural language. However, due to the gap in domain expertise between chemists, biologists, and next-generation AI scientists and the lengthy validation cycles, only today we start noticing the propagation of deep learning into these fields. While there is still a gap in domain expertise in biology and chemistry in the machine learning community, it is rapidly closing and many advances are propagating into drug discovery and biomarker development. The special issue on deep learning for drug discovery and biomarker development provides an overview of the recent applications of modern AI. Today, Insilico Medicine, one of the industry leaders bridging deep learning for biology, chemistry and digital medicine, announced the publication of a special issue dedicated to "Deep Learing for Drug Discovery and Biomarker Development" in one of the top industry journals celebrating its 15th anniversary published by the American Chemical Society, Molecular Pharmaceutics. The special issue starts with an article by the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, titled "Artificial Intelligence for Drug Discovery, Biomarker Development, and Generation of Novel Chemistry". "The special issue dedicated to deep learning for drug discovery and biomarker development brings together the contributions made by some of the top academics and industry experts. The collection of papers in the special issue may provide a quick introduction into the field and specifically into generative chemistry. We are very happy to see this special issue ", said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder, and CEO of Insilico Medicine. The special issue is mostly focused on generative chemistry using GANs and Reinforcement Learning (RL) for de-novo molecular design. Some of the articles, including the "Entangled Conditional Adversarial Autoencoder (ECAAE) for de-novo Drug Discovery" demonstrate for the first time the experimental validation of the molecules generated using these architectures. ECAAE was used to generate a novel inhibitor of Janus Kinase 3 (JAK3), implicated in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and vitiligo. The discovered molecule was tested in vitro and demonstrated high activity and selectivity. Molecular Pharmaceutics is one of the first journals to recognize the trend in deep learning for biomedicine with the publication of the first review paper on this emerging subject in 2016. ### Insilico Medicine is regularly publishing research papers in peer-reviewed journals. The company was first who applied deep generative adversarial networks (GANs) to the generation of new molecular structures with specified parameters and published seminal proof of concept papers in the field. The paper published in Molecular Pharmaceutics in 2016 demonstrated the proof of concept of the application of deep neural networks for predicting the therapeutic class of the molecule using the transcriptional response data, received the American Chemical Society Editors' Choice Award. A recent paper published in November 2017 described the application of the next-generation AI and blockchain technologies to return the control over personal data back to the individual. One of the latest papers published in the Journals of Gerontology demonstrated the application of the deep neural networks to assess the biological age of the patients. Paper citation: Artificial Intelligence for Drug Discovery, Biomarker Development, and Generation of Novel Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.8b00930 www: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.8b00930 For further information, images or interviews, please contact: Contact: Qingsong Zhu, PhD zhu@pharma.ai Website: http://www.insilico.com About Insilico Medicine, Inc Insilico Medicine, Inc. is an artificial intelligence company headquartered in Rockville, with R&D and management resources in Belgium, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Russia, UK, Taiwan, and Korea sourced through hackathons and competitions. The company and its scientists are dedicated to extending human productive longevity and transforming every step of the drug discovery and drug development process by developing a comprehensive end-to-end learning system covering the many steps of the pharmaceutical R&D ranging from hypothesis generation, biomarker development, target ID, generative chemistry all the way to digital medicine and real-world insights. Insilico pioneered the applications of the generative adversarial networks (GANs) and reinforcement learning (RL) for generation of novel molecular structures for the diseases with a known target and with no known targets. It also pioneered the application of GAN/GAN-RL systems for generation of synthetic human data with the desired characteristics. In addition to working collaborations with the large pharmaceutical companies, the company is pursuing internal drug discovery programs in cancer, dermatological diseases, fibrosis, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, ALS, diabetes, sarcopenia, and aging. Through a partnership with LifeExtension.com, the company launched a range of nutraceutical products compounded using the advanced bioinformatics techniques and deep learning approaches. It also provides a range of consumer-facing applications including Young.AI. In 2017, NVIDIA selected Insilico Medicine as one of the Top 5 AI companies in its potential for social impact. In 2018, the company was named one of the global top 100 AI companies by CB Insights. In 2018 it received the Frost & Sullivan 2018 North American Artificial Intelligence for Aging Research and Drug Development Award accompanied with the industry brief. Brief company video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62jlwgL3v8. Ever wonder why things that normally feel gentle, like putting on soft shirts, are painful after a sunburn? In a study of four patients with a rare genetic disorder, NIH researchers found that PIEZO2, a gene previously shown to control our sense of our bodies in space and gentle touch, may also be responsible for tactile allodynia: the skin's reaction to injury that makes normally gentle touches feel painful. This and a second NIH-funded study, both published in Science Translational Medicine, used mice to show how the gene may play an essential role in the nervous system's reaction to injury and inflammation, making PIEZO2 a target for developing precise treatments for relieving the pain caused by cuts, burns, and other skin injuries. "For years scientists have been trying to solve the mystery of how gentle touch becomes painful. These results suggest PIEZO2 is the gene for tactile allodynia. We hope that these results will help researchers develop better treatments for managing this form of pain," said Alexander T. Chesler, Ph.D., a Stadtman Investigator at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and a senior author of one of the studies. The PIEZO2 gene encodes what scientists call a mechanosensitive protein which produces electrical nerve signals in response to changes in cell shape, such as when skin cells and neurons of the hand are pressed against a table. Since its discovery in mice by a team led by Ardem Patapoutian, Ph.D., Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, the lead author of the second paper, scientists have proposed that PIEZO2 plays an important role in touch and pain in humans. In 2016, Dr. Chesler's team worked with the group of Carsten G. Bonnemann, M.D., senior investigator at the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), to show that two patients who had mutations in PIEZO2 that eliminated its activity lacked proprioception, or a sixth sense of how our bodies are positioned in space. They were also unable to feel vibrations and were less sensitive to certain forms of gentle touch. In this new study, Drs. Chesler and Bonnemann worked with pain expert Catherine Bushnell, Ph.D., at NCCIH, to examine four more patients at the NIH's Clinical Center and found that PIEZO2 controls tactile allodynia after a skin injury. To test for allodynia the researchers had participants sit at a table facing a barrier that blocked their view of their arms. The researchers then dabbed two creams onto a participant's arm. One was a placebo, which had no effect, and the other contained capsaicin, the ingredient that makes chili peppers hot and causes inflammation, as seen with sunburns. The researchers found stark differences between how the capsaicin affected control participants and ones with mutations in PIEZO2. Swiping a cotton swab around the capsaicin patch consistently caused control participants to feel pain, which allowed each one to correctly identify where the inflammation was even though they could not see their arms. In contrast, the participants with the PIEZO2 mutation felt no difference between the areas where capsaicin and placebo had been applied. "What's remarkable about the PIEZO2-deficient participants is the 'clarity' of their conditions. With their help we're getting fundamental new insights about how the loss of PIEZO2 affects them specifically and learning what PIEZO2 is normally used for, which could be of immense medical importance to all other people," said Dr. Bonnemann. "This type of PIEZO2-dependent pain makes it very hard to apply bandages to burns and wounds that are important for healing. Most pain treatments numb large areas of the body. Our results suggest that if we could shut down PIEZO2 in the area of a wound, we would hopefully relieve the pain and speed recovery." Further experiments in mice by Dr. Chesler and Dr. Patapoutian confirmed the results observed in patients. Deleting PIEZO2 eliminated gentle touch sensations in mice as well as those felt during inflammation and injury. Although neither study shows exactly how inflammation causes pain, their results suggest that inflammation does not alter the ability of PIEZO2 to detect gentle touches. For instance, Dr. Chesler's group showed in control mice that inflammation had no major effect on how the PIEZO2-containing neurons fired in response to gentle brushing. Instead, their results support the Gate Theory, which states that inflammation causes gentle touches to feel painful because neurons in the brain or spinal cord reinterpret signals from the rest of the body. "It appears that inflammation doesn't change the ability of neurons in the skin to sense gentle touch but instead reroutes the information that's sent throughout the rest of the nervous system," said Dr. Patapoutian. "We hope these results help pain researchers better understand the mechanisms behind tactile allodynia." ### This work was supported by the NCCIH and NINDS intramural research programs, NIH grants (NS105067, DE022358, DE025329), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, European Research Council grant (AdG 789128), and the Berlin Institute for Health. References: Szczot, M. et al. "The molecular basis of injury-related tactile pain," Science Translational Medicine. October 10, 2018. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aat9892 Murthy, S. et al. "The mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo2 mediates sensitivity to mechanical pain in mice," Science Translational Medicine. October 10, 2018. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aat9897 For more information, visit: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/ nccih.nih.gov neuroscience.nih.gov/ninds/Home.aspx nccih.nih.gov/research/intramural clinicalcenter.nih.gov http://www.nidcr.nih.gov http://www.irp.nih.gov/ About the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH): NCCIH's mission is to define, through rigorous scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care. For additional information, call NCCIH's Clearinghouse toll free at 1-888-644-6226. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The NINDS is the nation's leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) is the nation's leading funder of research on oral, dental, and craniofacial health. To learn more about NIDCR, visit http://www.nidcr.nih.gov. About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov. NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite examined Hurricane Michael after it reached Category 4 status and neared the Florida Panhandle on Oct. 10. Suomi NPP provided an infrared and night-time view of the powerful storm. At 9 a.m. EDT on Oct. 10, water levels were quickly rising and winds increasing along the Florida panhandle as potentially catastrophic Michael approached. Satellite Imagery Reveal NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite obtained an infrared view of Hurricane Michael in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 10 at 0732 UTC (2:32 a.m. CDT). At the time, Michael was a Category 4 hurricane and the eye was so well-defined it could be seen clearly by moonlight. Infrared imagery revealed strong thunderstorms and tropospheric gravity waves in the northwest and western and eastern edges of the hurricane. National Hurricane Center forecaster Daniel Brown described Hurricane Michael in visible and infrared imagery, "Michael is an extremely impressive hurricane in visible and infrared satellite imagery this morning. The eye has continued to warm and become even more distinct, while remaining embedded within an area of very cold cloud tops." Many Warnings and Watches in Effect NOAA's National Hurricane Center has noted many warnings and watches in effect. A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for Okaloosa/Walton County Line, Florida to Anclote River, Florida. A Storm Surge Watch is in effect from Anclote River, Florida to Anna Maria Island Florida, including Tampa Bay. A Hurricane Warning is in effect from the Alabama/Florida border to Suwannee River, Florida. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from the Alabama/Florida border to the Mississippi/Alabama border and from Suwanee River Florida to Chassahowitzka, Florida and north of Fernandina Beach, Florida to Surf City, North Carolina. A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect from Chassahowitzka to Anna Maria Island, Florida, including Tampa Bay; from the Mississippi/Alabama border to the Mouth of the Pearl River; from Surf City, North Carolina to Duck, North Carolina, and for the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds. Status of Michael at 11 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 NOAA's National Hurricane Center reported at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Michael was located near latitude 29.4 degrees north and longitude 86.0 degrees west. Michael is moving toward the north-northeast near 14 mph (22 kph). A turn toward the northeast is expected this afternoon or tonight. A motion toward the northeast at a faster forward speed is forecast on Thursday through Friday night. On the forecast track, the core of Michael is expected to move ashore along the Florida Panhandle early this afternoon, move northeastward across the southeastern United States tonight and Thursday, and then move off the Mid-Atlantic coast away from the United States on Friday, Oct 12. Data from NOAA and Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds are near 145 mph (230 kph) with higher gusts. Michael is an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Some strengthening is still possible before landfall. After landfall, Michael should weaken as it crosses the southeastern United States. Michael is forecast to become a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, and strengthening is forecast as the system moves over the western Atlantic. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles (75 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles (280 km). A private weather station at Bald Point, Florida, recently reported a sustained wind of 54 mph (87 kph) with a gust to 61 mph (98 kph). A wind gust to 46 mph (74 kph) was recently reported inland at Tallahassee, Florida. The latest minimum central pressure based on data from the reconnaissance aircraft is 928 millibars. For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov For local warnings and forecasts, visit: http://www.weather.gov ### NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Hurricane Leslie that revealed strong storms circled the center. At 1:55 a.m. EDT (0555 UTC) on Oct. 3 the MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite gathered infrared data on Leslie. Infrared data provides temperature information. Strongest thunderstorms were fragmented as they circled the center and were in a thick band northeast of center where MODIS found cloud top temperatures as cold as minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 Celsius). NASA research has shown that cloud tops with temperatures that cold were high in the troposphere and have the ability to generate heavy rain. The National Hurricane Center or NHC noted "Deep convection surrounding the center of Leslie has become better organized overnight, with the development of a ragged eye in infrared satellite images." A microwave image revealed a well-defined low-level eye with a ring of broken convection surrounding it. At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the center of Hurricane Leslie was located near latitude 29.6 degrees north and longitude 56.9 degrees west. That's about 505 miles (810 km) east-southeast of Bermuda. Leslie is nearly stationary, and little motion is expected today. A northward motion is forecast to begin tonight, and this motion should continue through Friday night. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 75 mph (120 kph) with higher gusts. Some additional strengthening is forecast during the next day or so. NHC noted "The hurricane is forecast to remain within favorable environmental conditions consisting of warm water and low vertical wind shear over the next day or two. These conditions should allow for some additional strengthening." ### For updated forecasts on Leslie, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov Rob Gutro NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Today's manufacturers struggle to keep pace with rapid changes in technology because of the inability to adapt and the new skills required of their workforce. Purdue University researchers in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Indiana University will be developing new technologies alongside a platform that will allow manufacturers to realistically simulate interactions between workers, robots and machines to prepare for the factories of just five to 10 years from now. The work is supported by a $2.5 million grant by the National Science Foundation's Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier program, one of 10 new Big Ideas for Future Investment. Simulating factory settings with new technologies before they are available would help manufacturers assess business success and risks, offset costs, scale efforts for training workers and stay competitive. The work aligns with Purdue's Giant Leaps celebration, acknowledging the university's global advancements made in artificial intelligence, algorithms and automation as part of Purdue's 150th anniversary. This is one of the four themes of the yearlong celebration's Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues. "Any time you introduce a technological advancement or a new piece of equipment, the learning curve is pretty steep until you get comfortable with the technology and how it interfaces with the human," said Doug Mansfield, the president and chief operating officer of manufacturing at Kirby Risk, an Indiana-based private enterprise that specializes in electrical supply, wiring harness and control panel assembly, precision machining and motor repair and power transmission. The simulation platform would involve artificial intelligence and "augmented reality," which means that objects in the real world are "augmented," or enhanced, by what a computer helps the user to perceive. The platform will also use the "Internet of Things" to wirelessly connect machines with humans and robots, allowing them to communicate and collaborate with one another. Watch a YouTube video at https://youtu.be/RHYQJNf7BEY. "Augmented reality and the Internet of Things would allow robots to extend the mind and hands of a worker, so workers could do much more challenging tasks that robots cannot do, like repairing a compressor, with minimal training," said Karthik Ramani, the project lead and Purdue's Donald W. Feddersen Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Simulations could be of an entire factory, warehouse or of a specific new workflow, such as simulating how robots working with humans would pick up packages and deliver them to a conveyor belt. The simulations would also serve as a way to pre-skill workers for collaborating with the robots that would not only take over routine tasks, but also share work with other robots. A team led by Kylie Peppler, associate professor of learning sciences at IU, will contribute expertise on helping engineering students to become interested and engaged in what factories of the future will involve by developing the skills needed at the same time. Shimon Nof, Purdue professor of industrial engineering and director of the PRISM Center for Production, Robotics and Integration Software for Manufacturing and Management, and his team will be investigating the various ways that humans could collaborate with robots using this new platform. Other Purdue researchers involved in this project include Thomas Redick, associate professor of cognitive psychology, and Alex Quinn, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, who will study how skills and labor are transferred with the system. Helping new types of workers to learn on the job and to work with robots is vital: Studies have shown that new technologies introduced over the last 20 years have failed to sufficiently increase the demand for labor. "This failure is partly because new technologies have automated a range of tasks previously performed by labor, displacing workers from their jobs, and partly because they have not increased productivity to generate enough demand from other tasks and sectors," said Daron Acemoglu, the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. Acemoglu's team, as part of this project, will be researching the labor market implications of augmenting humans with robotics. "The hope is that a new generation of technologies, powered by artificial intelligence and augmented reality, can both generate greater productivity growth and complement rather than replace workers," he said. The NSF-funded effort also anticipates that by teaching students design and prototyping with electronics and coding, they will become new kinds of workers that increase the capabilities of a smart factory. The technologies developed with the platform will be progressively introduced into the workplace as well as educational settings to pre-skill young people across the U.S. "The idea is to create and serve future manufacturing, rather than just trying to fix problems in the present," Ramani said. ### Corporations and other organizations supporting this work include Kirby Risk, the Parametric Technology Corporation, General Electric Global Research, Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Companies, Cook Biotech, the Imagination Station, the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network and Tata Consultancy Services Cincinnati Innovation Labs. The work is further supported by the Purdue University Office of Graduate Diversity Initiatives, College of Engineering, the Gifted Education Resource Institute and the Purdue University Foundry. A paper published in Nature Communications by Sufei Shi, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer, increases our understanding of how light interacts with atomically thin semiconductors and creates unique excitonic complex particles, multiple electrons, and holes strongly bound together. These particles possess a new quantum degree of freedom, called "valley spin." The "valley spin" is similar to the spin of electrons, which has been extensively used in information storage such as hard drives and is also a promising candidate for quantum computing. The paper, titled "Revealing the biexciton and trion-exciton complexes in BN encapsulated WSe2," was published in the Sept. 13, 2018, edition of Nature Communications. Results of this research could lead to novel applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices, such as solar energy harvesting, new types of lasers, and quantum sensing. Shi's research focuses on low dimensional quantum materials and their quantum effects, with a particular interest in materials with strong light-matter interactions. These materials include graphene, transitional metal dichacogenides (TMDs), such as tungsten diselenide (WSe2), and topological insulators. TMDs represent a new class of atomically thin semiconductors with superior optical and optoelectronic properties. Optical excitation on the two-dimensional single-layer TMDs will generate a strongly bound electron-hole pair called an exciton, instead of freely moving electrons and holes as in traditional bulk semiconductors. This is due to the giant binding energy in monolayer TMDs, which is orders of magnitude larger than that of conventional semiconductors. As a result, the exciton can survive at room temperature and can thus be used for application of excitonic devices. As the density of the exciton increases, more electrons and holes pair together, forming four-particle and even five-particle excitonic complexes. An understanding of the many-particle excitonic complexes not only gives rise to a fundamental understanding of the light-matter interaction in two dimensions, it also leads to novel applications, since the many-particle excitonic complexes maintain the "valley spin" properties better than the exciton. However, despite recent developments in the understanding of excitons and trions in TMDs, said Shi, an unambiguous measure of the biexciton-binding energy has remained elusive. "Now, for the first time, we have revealed the true biexciton state, a unique four-particle complex responding to light," said Shi. "We also revealed the nature of the charged biexciton, a five-particle complex." At Rensselaer, Shi's team has developed a way to build an extremely clean sample to reveal this unique light-matter interaction. The device was built by stacking multiple atomically thin materials together, including graphene, boron nitride (BN), and WSe2, through van der Waals (vdW) interaction, representing the state-of-the-art fabrication technique of two-dimensional materials. This work was performed in collaboration with the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahasee, Florida, and researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, as well as with Shengbai Zhang, the Kodosky Constellation Professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy at Rensselaer, whose work played a critical role in developing a theoretical understanding of the biexciton. The results of this research could potentially lead to robust many-particle optical physics, and illustrate possible novel applications based on 2D semiconductors, Shi said. Shi has received funding from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Zhang was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Science. ### The research also was recently featured in Nature Nanotechnology. Shi joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer in July 2015. He earned his B.S. at Nanjing University, and his Ph.D. at Cornell University. He then held a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley. Shi also holds a joint appointment with the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer. About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is America's first technological research university. For nearly 200 years, Rensselaer has been defining the scientific and technological advances of our world. Rensselaer faculty and alumni represent 86 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 18 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 8 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 8 members of the National Academy of Inventors, and 5 members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, as well as 6 National Medal of Technology winners, 5 National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With 7,000 students and nearly 100,000 living alumni, Rensselaer is addressing the global challenges facing the 21st century--to change lives, to advance society, and to change the world. To learn more, go to http://www.rpi.edu. Contact newsmedia@rpi.edu Visit the Rensselaer research and discovery blog: everydaymatters.rpi.edu Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RPInews Confidential communication is vital in modern society. Quantum secure direct communication is a new kind of secure communication with no encryption. In a classical secure communication, the sender and the receiver have to share a secret key in advance, then a plaintext is encoded into ciphertext, and sent to receiver through a classical channel. The ciphertext is then decoded to plaintext by receiver to complete the communication. In this structure, there exist three potential security loopholes, which are: (1) loss of key during the distribution process; (2) loss of key in storage and management; (3) interception of ciphertext by Eve for later cryptanalysis. With the development of supercomputers and quantum computers, these threats become more and more serious. Quantum communication whose security is guarded by quantum physics principles is an important scheme resists these attacks. Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) is a unique in its kind of secure communication, which does not require key distribution, key storage and management, and does not use ciphertext. It eliminates the three loopholes in classical secure communication efficiently. The key problem of practical QSDC is that apparatuses used in practical quantum communication system have some defects, and these imperfections, especially defects in the measurement devices, can lead to leakage of information and affect the security of practical QSDC. Recently, a research team led by Prof. Gui-Lu Long from Tsinghua University proposed a measurement- device- independent (MDI) QSDC protocol using Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pairs. This protocol eliminates all loopholes related to measurement devices, overcoming a key obstacle of practical QSDC. Besides, the MDI-QSDC has a twice communication distance, and a high communication capacity. ### This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant Nos. 2017YFA0303700 and 2015CB921001, National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 61726801, 11474168 and 11474181. See the article: Peng-Hao Niu, Zeng-Rong Zhou, Zai-Sheng Lin, Yu-Bo Sheng, Liu-Guo Yin, and Gui-Lu Long. Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Communication without Encryption, Science Bulletin, doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2018.09.009, 2018 More than 100 patients afflicted by mysterious illnesses have been diagnosed through a network of detective-doctors who investigate unidentified diseases, reports a study conducted by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and multiple collaborating institutes. The long-awaited diagnoses are the fruits of the Undiagnosed Disease Network, a program created by the National Institutes of Health in 2014. "Our goal is to take on the hardest cases in medicine -- to find patients and families with conditions that no one has been able to solve," said Euan Ashley, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford. "We wanted to provide a place that these people could come, so the Undiagnosed Disease Network came together to try to answer that need." The group, made up of hundreds of doctors across the United States, has so far sleuthed out 132 of 382 previously unknown ailments -- roughly 35 percent. "Some of these patients had been waiting decades to put a name to their illness. They tell us how much of a relief it is simply to know what they were up against," Ashley said. But what's most exciting, he said, was that for 80 percent of the network's diagnoses, they distilled actionable information, such as changes to patient therapy, adjustments to future diagnostic testing and recommendations for family screening. "Our findings underscore the impact that establishing a clear diagnosis can have on clinical decision-making for previously undiagnosed patients," said Kimberly Splinter, associate director of research operations for the network's coordinating center and a genetic counselor at Harvard Medical School. "We hope that the results of this analysis will provide a compelling case for adopting some of the network's diagnostic approaches more broadly in an attempt to clarify diagnoses and refine treatment for patients with rare conditions." A paper describing the study will publish online Oct. 11 in The New England Journal of Medicine. Ashley is the senior author and Splinter is the lead author. Cracking the cases The effort sprung to life four years ago when the NIH tapped Ashley to co-chair a consortium of cross-disciplinary doctors who would work to crack some of medicine's most perplexing cases -- at no charge to the patient. Of the 1,519 applications from patients, 601 were accepted based on the likelihood that the network would be able to help them, given their past medical records and available data. The network continues to accept applications; to date, they've received 2,780 applications, accepted 1,179 and reviewed 907. Now, Ashley and the team of physicians have seen more than half of those patients, combining traditional medicine with increasingly cutting-edge diagnostic tests. "We do this Sherlock Holmes-like detective work-up by carefully observing, gathering information, and asking pointed questions, but we're also pairing that with the most advanced genomic technologies to try to solve their case," Ashley said. Every patient had their genome sequenced, even those whose genomes had been previously sequenced. The field of genetic and genomic testing moves so quickly, Ashley explained, that even patients who've had their genome sequenced six months ago benefit from another look. In coordination with genome sequencing, the physicians looked at patients' RNA profiles, analyzing precursor molecules to the proteins found in their bodies. They also broke down a collection of molecules called metabolites, which form as a product of metabolism and can hint at where metabolic processes go wrong. "Some cases are solved simply because we know more today than we did a year ago," Ashley said. Among those diagnosed, most exhibited rare versions of known diseases, broadening the symptomatic information doctors can look for when evaluating patients for those particular diseases in the future. But in 31 patients, the network identified previously unknown syndromes. One that sticks out to study co-author Matthew Wheeler, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Stanford and executive director of the Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases, is the case of a patient who the network followed for multiple years. The patient had mysterious and life-threatening episodes of something called lactic acidosis, a dangerous buildup of lactic acid in the body. "It's sort of like an extreme version of when you exercise intensely, and you feel that burn from the lactate buildup -- only it's your whole body that feels that way," Wheeler said. "Lactic acidosis can also cause your acid-base balance to be out of whack, and when people have severe acid-base disturbances, they're at high risk for arrhythmia or death." It wasn't clear why the patient was experiencing these symptoms, which seemed to be prompted by a cold or flu. After giving the patient the full gamut of tests and analyzing sequencing information, a team of Stanford scientists found the culprit: a single mutation in the gene ATP5F1D, which is involved in the function of mitochondria, the cell's powerhouse. The genetic oddity and symptoms had never been classified together officially, but from connections within the network and in some instances word of mouth, the scientists found that other doctors around the world had patients plagued by this syndrome. In verifying that the mutation causes the syndrome -- called mitochondrial complex V deficiency, nuclear type 5 -- network collaborators on the study developed animal models to show causality. Continuing the search "This is a new type of scientific odyssey," Ashley said. "We're learning about biology in a way that could help not just one family, but potentially dozens, even hundreds, of families who suffer that same rare condition. That's the biggest benefit of this network effect -- the impact of identifying one patient's disease could end up being global." Even the patients who did not receive a diagnosis benefit from knowing that a team continues to investigate their conditions and that the future may hold an answer even if the present does not. "We've had patients tell us that just knowing that there is a team looking into their condition, that there is someone in the world who has not given up on them, scientists continuing to keep an eye on the literature -- that provides hope," Ashley said. Now, Ashley and his colleagues are moving into the second phase as they expand network sites and continue to accept applications and see patients. "Let's face it, solving a third of these cases in the first phase was great -- when they came in the door it was 0 percent. So to get to more than 30 percent -- we are happy with that, but that still leaves the majority of cases unsolved and many patients still suffering, so we need to do better," Ashley said. ### Other Stanford authors of the study are Jonathan Bernstein, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics; and genetic counselor Chloe Reuter. Ashley is a member of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford Bio-X and the Stanford Child Health Research Institute. Researchers from Harvard University, the NIH Clinical Center, Baylor University, University of Maryland, Vanderbilt University, HudsonAlpha Institutes for Biotechnology, University of Oregon, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of California, Los Angeles, Duke University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Human Genome Research Institute contributed to the study. The study was funded by the NIH (grants U01HG007709, U01HG007672, U01HG007690, U01HG007708, U01HG00773, U01HG007674, U01HG007942, U01HG007943, U01TR001395, U54NS093793 and R01GM113230). Stanford's Department of Medicine also supported the work. The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://med.stanford.edu/school.html. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children's Health. For information about all three, please visit http://med.stanford.edu. Print media contact: Hanae Armitage at (650) 725-5376 (harmitag@stanford.edu) Broadcast media contact: Margarita Gallardo at (650) 723-7897 (mjgallardo@stanford.edu) LA JOLLA, CA - Oct. 10, 2018 - If you've ever been sunburned, you've experienced the dreaded pain of putting on a shirt the next day. Fabric that should feel soft turns into a layer of painful pressure. That kind of pain-from what should feel like a gentle touch-is called allodynia, and it's a fact of life for many people who suffer from chronic conditions, such as fibromyalgia or nerve damage from chemotherapy. There are limited options to help these patients. Now scientists at Scripps Research have identified the molecule in neurons responsible for tactile allodynia, a protein called PIEZO2. It was originally discovered in the lab of Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, who led the work to determine its role in allodynia in mice. The new Scripps Research study was published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine alongside a study led by the National Institutes of Health that showed Piezo2 is also responsible for allodynia in humans. "These two studies provide validation that targeting PIEZO2 could be beneficial in the clinic," says Patapoutian, professor at Scripps Research and investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "We hope that these results will help researchers develop better treatments for managing this common form of pain," says Alexander T. Chesler, PhD, a Stadtman Investigator at the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and study author of the study in humans. For both studies, the researchers induced allodynia using various methods including application of capsaicin, the irritating molecule active in chili peppers, to areas of the skin. Capsaicin is known to sensitize neurons, causing inflammation similar to a sunburn. Swetha Murthy, PhD, first author of the Scripps Research study, looked at how mice reacted to gentle touch after they were exposed to capsaicin. While normal mice experienced allodynia, the mice with PIEZO2 "knocked out" did not react. The same held true when Chesler tested humans with mutations that inactivated their PIEZO2. "It was very gratifying to see this in both studies," says Murthy. "It usually takes years to confirm if results observed in mice hold true in humans, so I think it was mutually exciting for both groups." Going forward, the researchers want to understand exactly how inflammation interferes with normal touch signals. They are also interested in identifying small molecules that block PIEZO2. Topical application of such PIEZO2 blockers could be beneficial for patients suffering from neuropathic pain. ### In addition to Patapoutian and Murthy, authors of the study, "The mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo2 mediates sensitivity to mechanical pain in mice," were Meaghan C. Loud, Ihab Daou, Kara L. Marshall, Allain G. Francisco, William T. Keenan and Adrienne E. Dubin of Scripps Research; Frederick Schwaller and Johannes Kuhnemund of the Max-Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine; and Gary R. Lewin of the Max-Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine and Charite Universitatsmedizen. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants R01 DE022358 613, R35 NS105067 and R21DE025329), an ERC grant (AdG 789128), the Berlin Institute for Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. About Scripps Research Scripps Research is ranked the most influential scientific institution in the world for its impact on innovation. A nonprofit research organization, Scripps expands basic knowledge in the biosciences and uses these fundamental advancements to develop profound innovations that improve well-being. Scripps researchers lead breakthrough studies that address the world's most pressing health concerns, accelerating the creation and delivery of medical breakthroughs to better human health across the globe. Our educational and training programs mold talented and committed students and postdocs into the next generation of leading scientists. Activation of precancerous pathways seen with obesity; secondary findings suggest that NSAIDs may lower the levels of pro-inflammatory proteins in the colon BOSTON (Oct. 10, 2018)--Studies in mice have demonstrated that obesity-induced inflammation contributes to the risk of colorectal cancer, but evidence in humans has been scarce. A new study shows that two inflammatory proteins in the colon increase in parallel with increasing weight in humans. An incremental rise in these pro-inflammatory proteins (called cytokines) was observed along the entire spectrum of subjects' weights, which extended from lean to obese individuals. In participants with obesity, there was evidence that two pre-cancerous cellular pathways known to be triggered by these cytokines were also activated. The study, while modest in size, provides new evidence that obesity promotes cancer through inflammation. Secondary findings suggest that NSAIDS lower the levels of pro-inflammatory proteins in the colon, regardless of a person's weight. The study is published online in advance of print in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Led by Joel B. Mason, M.D., a gastroenterologist who studies nutrition and cancer prevention at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (HNRCA), the study included 42 Caucasian participants. Sixteen research participants were lean, with a BMI between 18.1 and 24.9, while 26 participants with obesity had a BMI ranging from 30.0 to 45.7. The participants were between the ages of 45 and 70 years of age and were undergoing routine screening colonoscopies at Tufts Medical Center. Using blood samples and colonic biopsies, the researchers determined that the concentrations of two major cytokines rose in parallel with BMI. Cytokines are proteins that mediate and regulate immunity and inflammation, among other things. In addition to evidence that they can promote cancer risk in certain tissues, pro-inflammatory cytokines have been identified as actors in insulin resistance and diabetes, as well as inflammatory disorders such as arthritis. In addition to the work analyzing cytokines, the research team studied differences in the mucosal transcriptome between the two sets of research participants, finding changes indicative of activation in two gene expression networks that are pivotal in the development of colon cancer in the participants with obesity. "Our results establish, for the first time, that concentrations in the colon of two major cytokines increase in concert with increasing BMI in humans. The increased concentrations are accompanied by changes in gene activation within the lining of the colon that are pro-cancerous in nature," said senior author Joel B. Mason, M.D., director of the Vitamins and Carcinogenesis Laboratory at the HNRCA. In an effort to identify potential confounding factors, the research team determined that thirteen of the 42 study participants were also regular users of NSAIDs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen. The research team discovered that participants who took NSAIDs at least once per week, compared to those who did not, had lower levels of pro-inflammatory proteins in the colon. This pattern was consistent across the two BMI groups. "Observational and clinical trials show aspirin can reduce the risk of colon cancer, but it continues to be controversial because of the risk of serious gastrointestinal bleeding. NSAIDs are probably working through multiple avenues, one of which is cytokines. Our observation underscores prior work that has suggested that some NSAIDs reduce the risk of colon cancer, presumed to occur through a reduction in colonic inflammation. Their use, however, has to be weighed against the potential adverse effects," said Mason. The authors noted that the modest study size and the Caucasian population are limitations of the study, writing "given the cross-sectional nature of this study, the results cannot prove that the observed changes in the colonic transcriptome are due to the rise in cytokines...Observations from this study nevertheless underscore the potential contribution that the establishment of an inflammatory milieu in the colonic mucosa may play in explaining the enhanced risk of colon cancer due to obesity." In the United States, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of death among cancers that affect both men and women, according to the CDC. The American Cancer Society reports that the overall lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is about 1 in 22 for men and 1 in 24 for women. The first author on the study is Anna C. Pfalzer, a Ph.D. graduate in biochemical and molecular nutrition from the Friedman School and former member of Mason's laboratory. Pfalzer is now at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Joel Mason is also a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts and a gastroenterologist at Tufts Medical Center. ### This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. Any opinions, findings, conclusion, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Additional authors on the study are Keith Leung, Jimmy W. Crott, Susan J. Kim, Gail Rogers, and M. Kyla Shea of the HNRCA; Frederick K. Kamanu and Paloma E. Garcia, formerly of the HNRCA; Laurence D. Parnell of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service; Albert K. Tai of Tufts University School of Medicine, and Zhenhua Liu of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Pfalzer, A. C., Leung, K., Crott, J. W., Kim, S. J., Tai, A. K., Parnell, L. D., Kamanu, F. K., Liu, Z., Rogers, G., Shea, M. K., Garcia, P.E., and Mason, J. B. (Oct. 5, 2018, uncorrected proof). Incremental elevations in TNF-alpha and IL-6 in the human colon and pro-cancerous changes in the mucosal transcriptome accompany adiposity. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-18-0121 About the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University For three decades, the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University has studied the relationship between good nutrition and good health in aging populations. Tufts research scientists work with federal agencies to establish the Dietary Guidelines, the Dietary Reference Intakes, and other significant public policies. By determining the molecular signatures of Alzheimer's, CTE and other conditions, research team to pave way for treatments that target hallmarks of neurodegenerative disease NEW YORK -- Anthony Fitzpatrick, PhD, a Principal Investigator at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute and Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), together with scientists from the Mayo Clinic and Boston Children's Hospital, has been awarded $7.8 million to map the three-dimensional structures of protein tangles that accumulate in the human brain. These tangles are believed to play a critical role in the progression of a variety of deadly neurodegenerative diseases. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), for which Columbia Professor Joachim Frank, PhD, shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017, Dr. Fitzpatrick's team will focus their efforts primarily on tau tangles, clumps of misfolded tau protein that have been implicated in a host of diseases, most notably Alzheimer's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. By reconstructing the structure of tau tangles in these diseases -- atom by atom -- the researchers hope to gain new insight into how tangles form, how they grow and how they drive disease progression. These findings will enable researchers to design drug molecules that prevent tangle buildup. They will also aid development of new biomarkers that detect the disease early, before symptoms arise. Dr. Fitzpatrick will serve as lead principal investigator of this five-year project, which will be administered by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). He will be joined by Leonard Petrucelli, PhD, Chair and Professor of Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic's Florida campus, and Judith Steen, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard University and Boston Children's Hospital. "The brains of advanced Alzheimer's or CTE patients are often replete with tau tangles," said Dr. Fitzpatrick, who is also Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at CUIMC. "But all efforts to rid the brains of these tangles have come up short. This failure ultimately stems from a lack of understanding of the tangles' unique molecular signature for each neurodegenerative disease. With this generous support from the NINDS, we can now expand our cryo-EM program to accelerate discovery and overcome this gap in knowledge." This project builds on previous work by Dr. Fitzpatrick and others to decode tau. In 2017, Dr. Fitzpatrick became the first person in the world to map the three-dimensional structure of tau protein tangles, which are highly abundant in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. To do so, he used cryo-EM, the revolutionary imaging technology that fires beams of electrons at protein molecules that have been frozen in solution to deduce the protein's structure. "With cryo-EM, we first capture snapshots of a protein complex from different perspectives, and then painstakingly reconstruct its three-dimensional structure," explains Dr. Fitzpatrick, who was the recipient of the Thermo Fisher Scientific 2017-2018 Young Investigator Award for cryo-EM and is a Dana Foundation David Mahoney Neuroimaging Fellow. After solving the structures of tau tangles in Alzheimer's disease, Dr. Fitzpatrick and his collaborators next sought to expand their investigations into other disorders associated with aberrant aggregation of tau, known collectively as 'tauopathies.' One such tauopathy, CTE, has been of particular interest to the scientific and medical community. Like Alzheimer's, CTE is characterized by the abnormal accumulation of tau tangles. Unlike Alzheimer's, CTE is caused by repetitive head trauma. A July 2017 study of the brains of 111 ex-NFL players revealed that 99% showed signs of CTE; their brains were riddled with tau tangles. "If we can understand how CTE progresses at the molecular level, we could use that knowledge to develop better diagnostic tools to catch the earliest signs of CTE and intervene in a way that slows down or even halts disease progression," says Dr. Fitzpatrick. By deciphering the molecular signatures of these two forms of tau tangles, the researchers can then determine how any similarities -- and differences -- between the two structures impact disease progression. This information will prove critical for developing drug molecules that eliminate tau tangles -- and potentially improve cognition. The researchers will use this approach as a paradigm for continued and expanded efforts into other tauopathies, as well as the abnormal accumulation of TDP-43, a protein implicated in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), which, after Alzheimer's disease, is the second most common cause of dementia. ### Award details are as follows: Title: "Patient-Based Structural Biology of Tauopathies and TDP-43 Proteinopathies using Cryo-Electron Microscopy and Mass Spectrometry" (1 U01 NS110438-01) Total award: $7,788,010 over five years. Principal Investigators: Anthony Fitzpatrick, PhD, Principal Investigator at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Member of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain Leonard Petrucelli, PhD, Chair and Professor of Neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic's Florida campus Judith A. Steen, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard University and Director of the Neuroproteomics Laboratory at Boston Children's Hospital. Columbia University's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute brings together a group of world-class scientists and scholars to pursue the most urgent and exciting challenge of our time: understanding the brain and mind. A deeper understanding of the brain promises to transform human health and society. From effective treatments for disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, depression and autism to advances in fields as fundamental as computer science, economics, law, the arts and social policy, the potential for humanity is staggering. To learn more, visit: zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu. Columbia University Irving Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Irving Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. The campus that Columbia University Irving Medical Center shares with its hospital partner, NewYork-Presbyterian, is now called the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. For more information, visit cuimc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital brings together researchers and clinicians across disciplines to uncover the causes of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other age-related brain diseases, and to discover ways to treat, prevent, and ultimately cure these diseases. In collaboration with the Departments of Pathology & Cell Biology and Neurology, research in the Taub Institute integrates genetic analysis, molecular and cellular studies, and clinical investigation to better understand complex neurodegenerative disorders. Funding for the Taub Institute's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center is provided by the NIH National Institute on Aging. In 2016, the Taub Institute was designated as a Center of Excellence for Alzheimer's Disease by the New York State Department of Health. For more information, visit The Taub Institute at http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/taub/ It is now possible to tell the story of mankind's presence and evolution on the planet by analyzing trends in soil and sediment accumulation of fecal sterols, chemical compounds which are crucial in human physiology. Scientists at Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes of the National Research Council (CNR-IDPA) have identified and dated traces of sterols within the sediments of two New Zealand lakes, thus proving the presence of the Maori people who, starting from around 1280, colonized the two oceanic islands and cleared them of forests in just a few decades to make space for fields and pastures. The study has just been published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports. The analyses were carried out in the laboratories of Venice on cores of sediment taken from Lakes Diamond and Kirkpatrick, located on New Zealand's South Island. By analyzing the microparticles of coal and pollen, researchers had already found evidence of significant forest fires as well as of sudden changes to the New Zealand landscape during the fourteenth century, when the deforested areas made space available for grass and shrubs to grow quickly and in a manner that was without precedent. Archaeological and paleoecological evidence quite conclusively attribute the deforestation to the Maori people, but this new study provides definitive scientific proof of their arrival in the area and of the enormous impact that a group of so few individuals had on the native forest in a very short time, to the extent that it was irreversibly jeopardized. In addition, the research demonstrates the validity of the method tested by the Italian researchers for reconstructing the history of humankind's presence in a given region. "Lakes collect traces of the feces of populations that have lived in surrounding areas, and these are deposited on the lake floors," explains Elena Argiriadis, postdoc at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics at Ca' Foscari, one of the authors of the study, "offering a continuous recording of the centuries of human presence. The concentration of coprostanol, the sterol most abundant in human feces, graphs a trend which over time nearly matches that of fire-related biomarkers, with a peak between 1345 and 1365 approximately, and is consistent with the profound environmental transformation which took place in New Zealand following the arrival of the Maori." "This research is part of a series of studies on mankind's impact, through our history and prehistory, on environment and climate, analyzing biomarkers archived within ice or sediment extracts from all over the planet (the Early Human Impact project, funded by the European Research Council)," explains Carlo Barbante, professor of Analytical Chemistry at Ca' Foscari and director of the CNR-IDPA. "Traces of human excrement also tell of the Europeans' arrival on the southern island of New Zealand, starting in the 1800s. The exponential growth in the concentration of fecal sterols vividly demonstrates the rapid increase in the population of the area, which has been ongoing since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The method can now be applied to nearby lake sediments and soils, in which the history of human settlement is not so well-documented as in the case of New Zealand, helping to map the movements of populations over time". ### The study was conducted in collaboration with scientists from Montana State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, the Landcare Research center of New Zealand and the University of Auckland. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, will use the genomics of lettuce to combat a pathogen that causes losses in the $3 billion industry each year. The Foundation of Food and Agriculture Research, or FFAR, awarded Richard Michelmore, professor and director of the UC Davis Genome Center, the first research grant through the Crops of the Future Collaborative. UC Davis will receive $2.5 million from FFAR and matching funds from the Crops of the Future Leafy Greens Participants for a total of $5 million. The award will allow researchers to exploit genomics approaches to combat downy mildew, which is the most economically important pathogen infecting lettuce. The highly variable pathogen can cause losses in the field and after harvest. "Downy mildew threatens production wherever the lettuce crop is grown, requiring expensive chemical control measures and resulting in loss of quality for consumers," said Michelmore. The project will enable rational deployment of new resistance genes resulting in more durable disease resistance and less use of control chemicals. The research will benefit both conventional and organic farmers by reducing crop losses and improving profitability. It also will help reduce food waste and provide consumers food that has been produced using fewer chemicals. "FFAR's investment will increase our knowledge of plant resistance and pathogen variability leading to more efficient, knowledge-driven breeding of lettuce cultivars with more durable resistance to downy mildew," said Michelmore. The matching funds are provided by a multinational consortium of 14 large and small breeding and biotechnology companies in order to address significant problems in lettuce production. "This award is an example of how public-private partnerships effectively leverage funding for research that will provide benefit to farmers, producers, and consumers," said Sally Rockey, executive director of FFAR. "This consortium approach provides smaller companies an exceptional opportunity to combine their R&D resources with larger multinationals to address shared pre-competitive issues important to the lettuce industry." ### Crops of the Future Leafy Greens Participants include: BASF Vegetable Seeds, Bejo Zaden B.V., Benson Hill Biosytems, Inc., Enza Zaden Research and Development, B.V., Gautier Semences, Keygene, N.V., Progeny Advanced Genetics Inc., Ramiro Arnedo S.A., Rijk Zwaan Zaadteelt en Zaadhandel B.V., Sakata Seed Corporation, Syngenta Crop Protection AG, Takii and Company Ltd., Tanimura & Antle Value Added LLC., and Vilmorin S.A. A new study by researchers from the University of California, Riverside, and the Rotterdam School of Management finds that fear of missing out motivates investors to give money early to startups with a disruptive vision. However, those backers are reluctant to invest too much in unproven ideas that might not take off. In other words, disruptive startups are more likely to raise money, but they receive smaller amounts than less-threatening ventures. Entrepreneurs set themselves apart using two primary strategies. The first involves emphasizing the track records and past accomplishments of the entrepreneurs, the startup's initial market success, or its unique resources. The other tack sees them touting what the venture will become and what the entrepreneurs will achieve. Disruptive visions fall in the second category. Disruptive innovations are those that introduce a fundamental change, disturbance, or re-ordering of the ways in which organizations, markets, and business ecosystems operate. Netflix transformed the video-rental industry, for example, and TiVo changed the way we watch TV. The startup world has a love affair with the concept of disruption, as evidenced by entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, who wins investors by communicating disruptive visions: one where humanity explores Mars, such as SpaceX, and another where the world transitions quickly to sustainable energy, such as Tesla. In spite of this trend, whether investors applaud or dismiss self-claimed disruptors has never been studied. Ashish Sood, an associate professor of marketing at the UC Riverside School of Business, decided to put that to the test. To find out how successful disruptive visions were at attracting investors, Sood and his colleagues at Rotterdam School of Management, Timo van Balen and Murat Tarakci, studied 918 startups in Israel seeking a first round of funding. Israel has more high-tech startups per capita than any other country and has produced a number of highly lucrative ventures. The researchers collaborated with Startup Nation Central --a nonprofit that offers an exhaustive platform for the Israeli startup ecosystem -- to gather detailed data. They found that a small increase in the disruptiveness articulated by the startup's communications improved the odds of receiving a first round of funding by 22 percent. Surprisingly, disruptive visions gathered 24 percent fewer funds in the first round. A disruptive vision caused the typical Israeli venture to lose $87,000 in the first round and $361,000 in the second round. "Why might investors be so positively biased toward disruptive visions, yet opt for investing for so little?" Sood said. "Our research reveals that talking about disruption can be a double-edged sword." The researchers recruited 203 people with previous investment experience in exchange-traded commodities or funds, government bonds, stocks, unit trusts, angel investing, private equity funds, venture capital funds, options, or crowdfunding to answer questions about two fictitious vision statements, identical except for the degree of disruptiveness they expressed. Each respondent was given only one of the statements, along with other company information, and asked questions about the kinds of investment decisions they would make. The results of the experiment matched what the researchers had found in the Israeli database. Investors funded disruptive startups eagerly but less generously. What lured the investors? "Expectations of making extraordinary returns is what entices investors to fund the self-claimed disruptors," Tarakci explained. A small increase in the amount of extraordinary returns investors expected made them four times more likely to fund the venture. Nonetheless, investors do not follow the enchanting promises of those disruptors blindly. They are aware that young companies with daring, untried ideas or products stand a high chance of failure. Investing a small amount at an early stage is like buying an option to invest more at a later stage when doing so might be less risky. The study concludes that a disruptive vision can attract investors who wish to obtain extraordinary returns and join a celebrated group of early investors in unicorns. But it can also deter investors from making large, speculative investments into the venture because they prefer to hedge risk against wait. "For entrepreneurs seeking early stage investments, we have the following simple but important advice: carefully craft your message," Sood said. "If you are looking to acquire large sums of money, perhaps you should keep your disruptive plans quiet." ### The paper, "Do Disruptive Visions Pay Off? The Impact of Disruptive Entrepreneurial Visions on Venture," is published in the Journal of Management Studies. The authors also discuss their findings in the Harvard Business Review. About UC Riverside The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment is now nearly 23,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS. Irvine, CA - October 10, 2018 - Researchers in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine have discovered the molecular basis for a therapeutic action of an ancient herbal medicine used across Africa to treat various illnesses, including epilepsy. The herbal medicine, a leaf extract from the shrub Mallotus oppositifolius, was previously found to be effective in controlling seizures but the mechanism was unknown. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, found that two components of the Mallotus leaf extract activate KCNQ2/3, a potassium ion channel essential for controlling electrical activity in the brain. The two components were somewhat effective alone, but in combination were highly effective both at activating KCNQ2/3 channels and at preventing life-threatening seizures. The UCI research team, comprising postdoctoral fellow Rian Manville, PhD and principal investigator Geoffrey Abbott, MSc, PhD, screened individual compounds from the leaf extract for channel opening activity, and then combined the two most active compounds to discover the therapeutic synergy contained in an African folk remedy used for centuries. Strikingly, one of the two compounds identified, isovaleric acid, is also a main component of valerian root, an herb used in ancient Greece as an insomnia sleep remedy, and for centuries by the English and also native Americans as an anticonvulsant. Valerian root is still used by as many as 2 million people each week in the United States as an herbal remedy for anxiety and insomnia. "We are very interested in taking a molecular approach to ethnobotany - the study of plants and their use by local populations - to discover the molecular mechanisms for ancient remedies and to use this knowledge to create safer and more effective drugs. The KCNQ channels we study are typically opened by electrical activity, but we know that they are also incredibly sensitive to the presence of small molecules, including neurotransmitters, but also molecules from outside, such as drugs, and constituents of food and herbal extracts," said Abbott. "Some folk medicines are in danger of being lost, either because traditional practices are being forgotten, or because the plant species used are endangered. Species loss can arise from over-collecting, habitat destruction, or climate change. There is a race against time to prevent this incredible resource being lost forever." The UCI team found that the herbal extract they studied had different channel subtype preferences than modern drugs that activate the KCNQ2/3 channel, such as the anticonvulsant drug, retigabine. Because of this, by combining the herbal compounds with retigabine, they were able to completely lock open the channel, a feat not previously achieved. "Locking open the channel is a neat trick, but it could also have clinical implications. Retigabine was removed from the market last year because of a surprising side effect: it turns the skin and whites of the eyes blue. However, by combining retigabine with the herbal components, we found we could greatly reduce the retigabine dosage required for activity. This type of strategy might one day enable us to use drugs like retigabine at dosages low enough to be safe, whilst retaining or even enhancing their efficacy by combining them with natural booster compounds derived from plants," said Abbott. In addition to the booster effects of the herbal extract, identification of the ability of specific chemicals within plants to activate influential ion channels such as KCNQ2/3 may lead one day to new epilepsy, anxiety and pain drugs that exploit the alternative chemical spaces offered by the molecular constituents of ethnobotanicals. ### This study was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (GM115189). About the UCI School of Medicine Each year, the UCI School of Medicine educates more than 400 medical students, as well as 200 doctoral and master's students. More than 600 residents and fellows are trained at UC Irvine Medical Center and affiliated institutions. The UCI School of Medicine offers an MD degree, a dual MD/PhD medical scientist training program, PhDs and master's degrees in anatomy and neurobiology, biomedical sciences, genetic counseling, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, pathology, pharmacology, physiology and biophysics, and translational sciences. Medical students also may pursue an MD/MBA program, a combined MD/Master's in Public Health or a dual MD/master's program called the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC). UCI School of Medicine is accredited by Liaison Committee on Medical Accreditation (LCME), and ranks among the top 50 nationwide for research. For more information, visit: som.uci.edu. About the University of California, Irvine Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 30,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. Located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities, UCI is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www.uci.edu. "Ongoing nervousness" about the use of e-cigarettes in stop-smoking services can be a "significant" barrier to people finding support, research revealed during "Stoptober" shows. New research by the University of Exeter and University of Melbourne, funded by Cancer Research UK, suggests stop smoking services which are e-cigarette friendly should advertise this more openly, and says greater use of e-cigarettes has the potential to make considerable impact in helping people give up smoking. England has led the way internationally by proposing that stop smoking services become 'e-cigarette friendly', but many services fail to advertise this and consequently smokers, particularly those in deprived groups, may miss out on valuable behavioural support that may make the difference between success and failure in quitting. The research shows strong leadership from organisations such as Public Health England has made a difference in changing attitudes. But the nervousness among some working in public health services and local councils about the use of e-cigarettes is preventing the widespread establishment of stop smoking services which support vapers. As part of the study, published in the journal Harm Reduction, academics interviewed staff from eight different stop smoking services in the South-West of England. They found many services are becoming more e-cigarette friendly, welcoming e-cigarette users into their service, however they often fail to advertise this. Dr Hannah Farrimond, from the University of Exeter, who led the research with Professor Charles Abraham, said: "There are real opportunities for stop smoking services to use e-cigarettes more actively to help people give up smoking, but for this to happen policies around the country need to be consistent, and people need to share best practice and know what others are doing. This is particularly important given cuts to the council budget which have significantly reduced services." The experts found although some stop smoking services labelled themselves "e-cigarette friendly", there was no consensus over what this should entail. Some were actively incorporating e-cigarettes, working with local vape shops, and in the case of one service, offering e-cigarettes through a voucher scheme to disadvantaged groups because they wanted to do things differently and help those in poorer communities and people with mental health problems. However, some of the 25 staff interviewed were worried about using e-cigarettes because they felt they were addictive and not medically licensed, and they didn't want to be seen as "wedded" to the vaping industry. Currently, e-cigarettes are not available on prescription within the NHS. Nobody reported turning away e-cigarette users from services. MPs in the recent Commons report, Public Health England (PHE) and the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) have all suggested vaping may have a role to play in stop-smoking services. Giving people behavioural support and pharmacotherapy has been shown to be the most effective method of helping people give up smoking. Dr Farrimond said: "It is arguable that for smoking cessation work to succeed, it is going to have to move beyond specialist clinics which few smokers attend, and engage with vulnerable populations in their communities. Initiatives to support smoking cessation could occur in psychiatric units, community mental health settings, in addiction clinics, in community centres and smoke-free hospitals. E-cigarettes have the potential to allow stop smoking services to do things differently for marginalized and harder to treat smokers." Only one stop smoking service in this sample was currently offering e-cigarettes to users. Staff worked with local vaping shops to offer clients a combination of nicotine replacement therapy, NRT, and medication to treat nicotine addiction, and an e-cigarette voucher with behavioural and social support. Advisors noted the positive experience of working with the vape shops. One said: 'I think they're just really, really professional and really caring and really genuinely want to help people quit smoking alongside me'. George Butterworth, Cancer Research UK's senior policy manager, said: "The evidence so far suggests that e-cigarettes are far less harmful than tobacco cigarettes. But this study shows attitudes to vaping vary. "Smokers are much more likely to quit with the support of a Stop Smoking Service. And 'e-cigarette friendly' services help smokers who try to quit by vaping with behavioural support from a professional, giving them the best chance of quitting tobacco for good. "It's vital that everyone across the country is aware of the options available to them as e-cigarettes may have a particularly important role in helping vulnerable or disadvantaged groups to quit." Developing E-cigarette friendly smoking cessation services in England: staff perspectives, is published in the journal Harm Reduction. Cancer Research UK requested a widening of the original sample of staff prior to issuing funding, but had no involvement in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data or writing the manuscript. ### Immobilizing nuclear waste in glass logs - a process known as vitrification - is currently used in the United States to safeguard waste from sites associated with defense activities. Some other countries also use the process to capture waste from nuclear power plants. Researchers know, however, that the glass can begin to dissolve after a long period of time, and the durability of these glass logs remains an active area of research. Researchers from the University of Houston, the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Pittsburgh are working on one of the most pressing issues - what causes the glass to begin to deteriorate relatively quickly at some point, potentially releasing radioactive waste at levels exceeding regulatory thresholds? Over time, zeolite crystals start to form in the glass, facilitating faster dissolution, said Jeffrey Rimer, Abraham E. Dukler Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and principal investigator on an $800,000 grant from the Department of Energy to study the problem. "We are looking more closely at the early stage of zeolite formation and thinking about ways to slow or completely impede the process," Rimer said. That should lead to new ways of designing the glass materials to improve safety. Rimer's collaborators include James Neeway, Jarrod Crum and Radha Motkuri of PNNL and Giannis Mpourmpakis of the University of Pittsburgh. Researchers know the type of zeolite involved - one of two polymorphs of the small-pore zeolite P. Several years ago Rimer and Motkuri collaborated on a zeolite synthesis project involving these crystals, reporting their discoveries about the polymorphs, named P1 and P2. The more thermally-stable polymorph P2 is the crystal involved in the dissolution of nuclear waste glass. Rimer has worked with zeolites throughout his career, with applications ranging from ion exchange to petrochemical manufacturing. This DOE project involves a new twist, investigating how to prevent zeolites from forming rather than developing new ways to produce them. The project has both experimental and computational aspects; Rimer's lab will handle the experimental tasks involving zeolite formation, while researchers at PNNL will work on the experimental aspect of glass dissolution. "We have long observed from laboratory studies that zeolite formation in glass corrosion tests resulted in an increase in the glass corrosion rate," said Neeway, a researcher at PNNL. "With the expertise of Dr. Rimer, we hope to understand why zeolites lead to an increase in glass alteration rates and why only certain zeolites cause changes, with the long-term goal of preventing their formation." Mpourmpakis, an expert on simulations of materials growth and catalytic reactions, will conduct computational studies of zeolite nucleation at the Center for Research Computing at the University of Pittsburgh. "We are very excited to be part of this excellent team of researchers and try to find ways for safer storage of nuclear waste," said Mpourmpakis, the Bicentennial Alumni Faculty Fellow and assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering. Zeolite P, the zeolite that forms from the glass, is affected by temperature - Rimer said researchers synthesize it in the lab at 100 C - but they don't yet know how crystallization proceeds at lower temperatures and they don't have methods to deter its formation. But controlling temperatures in the geologic formations designated as nuclear waste repositories is not necessarily practical, thus researchers are looking for other factors that might affect crystal growth, including components of the glass. ### Researchers have revealed the structure of an essential immune protein, creating future possibilities to develop more effective medicines for a range of illnesses from cancer to neurological diseases. University of Tokyo researchers made this discovery with computerized image analysis and modern electron microscope imaging. Researchers verified the structure of natural immunoglobulin M (IgM) protein, an important part of the immune system, using mouse and human versions of the protein. IgM is now understood to be shaped like an incomplete hexagon, or a pentagon with a wedge-shaped gap. "We'll have to revise the textbooks," said Professor Toru Miyazaki, the leader of the laboratory where the IgM structure was identified at the Graduate School of Medicine. IgM is the first immune system protein that develops in the human fetus and remains the first responder to pathogens throughout life. The structure of IgM was first identified in 1969 as a "five-pointed, star-shaped table" and updated in 2009 to be a five-sided dome or "mushroom cap." "The original IgM model was made by looking at a few individual molecules by hand with what today we think is a low-resolution microscope. Now we have clearer pictures and the computer can examine thousands of individual IgM molecules," said Miyazaki. The 2018 discovery of the incomplete hexagon was actually a secondary interest for Miyazaki, originally a medical doctor who has built his research career studying a different protein called apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage (AIM). Since identifying the correct shape of IgM, researchers now understand that inactive AIM is nestled inside the gap of the IgM incomplete hexagon. The structural connection between IgM and AIM means that drugs with the ability to regulate the release of AIM could be used to create AIM-based disease therapies. "We can think of AIM as a fighter jet and IgM as the aircraft carrier ship. When other molecules activate the immune system, IgM releases AIM. The much smaller AIM protein goes around the body to clear away damaged cells and prevent disease," said Miyazaki. Miyazaki identified AIM in 1999 while working at the Basel Institute for Immunology Institute in Switzerland. Its small size means AIM is easily eliminated from the body by the kidneys and excreted in urine, so staying bound within the larger IgM protects AIM from being removed before it is needed. AIM is a common molecule in the bloodstream, but it is only active when the body develops a disease. AIM is known to be important for preventing obesity, fatty liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), multiple sclerosis (MS), fungus-induced peritonitis (inflammation of the abdominal wall membrane), and acute kidney injury. The incomplete hexagon structure is still only a 2D understanding of IgM structure. Miyazaki and his team continue to do additional analysis and hope to report the 3D structure of IgM soon. ### About the research: The research team includes members of the University of Tokyo and the Max Planck-The University of Tokyo Center for Integrative Inflammology. Journal Article E. Hiramoto, A. Tsutsumi, R. Suzuki, S. Matsuoka, S. Arai, M. Kikkawa, T. Miyazaki, The IgM pentamer is an asymmetric pentagon with an open groove that binds the AIM protein. Science Advances 4: eaau1199 (2018). Other articles mentioned in this press release: 1. Feinstein A, Munn E.A. Conformation of the Free and Antigen-bound IgM Antibody Molecules. Nature 224(5226): 1307-1309 (1969). DOI: 10.1038/2241307a0 https://www.nature.com/articles/2241307a0.pdf 2. Czajkowsky DM and Shao Z. The human IgM pentamer is a mushroom-shaped molecule with a flexural bias. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106(39): 14960-14965 (2009). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0903805106 http://www.pnas.org/content/106/35/14960.full Related Links Center for Disease Biology and Integrative Medicine website: http://www.cdbim.m.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/index.php Graduate School of Medicine and Faculty of Medicine website: http://www.m.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/index.html Laboratory of Molecular Biomedicine for Pathogenesis homepage: http://tmlab.m.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/index.html Previous news from Miyazaki Lab: https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/features/f_00005.html Research Contact Professor Toru Miyazaki Laboratory of Molecular Biomedicine for Pathogenesis, Center for Disease Biology and Integrative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan Tel: +81-(0)3-5841-1436 Email: tm@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp Press Contacts Ms. Caitlin Devor Division for Strategic Public Relations, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 133-8654, JAPAN Tel: +81-3-5841-0876 Email: press-releases.adm@mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp Public Relations Team Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo Hospital, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 133-8654, JAPAN Tel: +81-(0)3-5841-3304 E-mail: ishomu@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp About the University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 2,000 international students. Find out more at http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en. By the time non-avian dinosaurs went extinct, plant-eating sauropods like the Brontosaurus had grown to gargantuan proportions. Weighing in as much as 100 tons, the long-neck behemoths are the largest land animals to ever walk the earth. How they grew so large from ancestors that were small enough to be found in a modern-day petting zoo has remained a mystery. A new, in-depth anatomical description of the best preserved specimens of a car-sized sauropod relative from North America could help paleontologists with unraveling the mystery. Adam Marsh, a paleontologist at Petrified Forest National Park, led the description of the dinosaur while earning his master's degree from The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. The findings were published on Oct. 10 in the journal PLOS ONE. Marsh co-authored the paper with his advisor, Jackson School Professor Timothy Rowe. The dinosaur--called Sarahsaurus aurifontanalis-- lived about 185 million years ago during the Early Jurassic. It could hold important clues about sauropods' size because it belonged to the dinosaur grouping that preceded them. Its evolutionary placement combined with the exquisite preservation of the specimens is giving researchers a detailed look into its anatomy and how it relates to its larger cousins. "Sarahsaurus preserves in its anatomy the anatomical changes that were happening in the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic that were occurring in the evolutionary lineage," Marsh said. "It can help tell us how getting big happens." The description is based on two skeletons discovered in Arizona by Rowe in 1997. The bones belong to the Navajo Nation, which owns the land where the fossils were discovered, and are curated by the Jackson School Museum of Earth History Vertebrate Paleontology Collections. The bones are slightly crushed, and in some cases still linked together into body parts such as the hand and tail. The only major missing part is the skull. "The specimens are well preserved in three dimensions and remarkably complete, which is very rare in the fossil record," said collections Director Matthew Brown. "Such complete specimens help paleontologists better understand the fragmentary and incomplete fossils remains we typically find." Marsh describes Sarahsaurus as a "ground sloth-like" dinosaur. It stood upright, walked on its hind-legs and had powerful forelimbs with a large, curved claw capping the first finger of each hand. It had a lot in common with the earliest sauropod ancestors--like walking on two legs--but it was also starting to show features that would foreshadow how its massive relatives would evolve--such as an increase in body size and a lengthening of the neck vertebrae. "It's starting to gain the characters of getting large compared to the earliest members of the group," Marsh said. Size and neck-length are features that sauropods would take to extremes as they evolved. By studying these traits and others in Sarahsaurus, and seeing how they compare to those of other dinosaurs, scientists can help reveal how these changes occurred across evolutionary history and how different dinosaurs relate to one another. For example, the anatomical review helped clarify the relationship between Sarahsaurus and two other sauropod relatives that lived in North America during the Early Jurassic. The researchers found that the three don't have a common North American ancestor--instead they evolved from dinosaur lineages that came to North America independently. Marsh is currently working on another study that could shed more light on how sauropods evolved. Led by Sterling Nesbitt, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech and research associate at the Jackson School's vertebrate collections, the project involves tracking anatomical differences in dinosaur limb bones to determine which features relate to evolution and which relate to the age of an animal. Marsh said that the two Sarahsaurus skeletons examined for this paper are a great addition to the project. "We've got two individuals from basically the same hole in the ground with different bumps and grooves on their femora," Marsh said. "It lends itself really well to this comprehensive anatomical description and it's going to be really important for comparisons of early dinosaur anatomy." ### The research was funded by the Jackson School of Geosciences and the National Science Foundation. The Sarahsaurus specimens were collected under permit from the Navajo Nation Minerals Department. During surgery, anesthesiologists monitor and manage patients to make sure they are safe and breathing well. But these doctors can't always predict when complications will arise. Now researchers at the University of Washington have developed a new machine-learning system, called Prescience, which uses input from patient charts and standard operating room sensors to predict the likelihood that a patient will develop hypoxemia -- a condition when blood oxygen levels dip slightly below normal. Hypoxemia can lead to serious consequences, such as infections and abnormal heart behavior. Prescience also provides real-world explanations behind its predictions. With this information, anesthesiologists can better understand why a patient is at risk for hypoxemia and prevent it before it happens. The team, which will publish its findings Oct. 10 in Nature Biomedical Engineering, estimates that Prescience could improve the ability of anesthesiologists to anticipate and prevent 2.4 million more hypoxemia cases in the United States every year. "Modern machine-learning methods often just spit out a prediction result. They don't explain to you what patient features contributed to that prediction," said Su-In Lee, an associate professor in the UW's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and senior author of the paper. "Our new method opens this black box and actually enables us to understand why two different patients might develop hypoxemia. That's the power." Lee and Scott Lundberg, a doctoral student in the Allen School, started the project by meeting with collaborators from UW Medicine to find out what they needed in the operating room. "One of the things the anesthesiologists said was: 'We are not really satisfied with just a prediction. We want to know why,'" Lee said. "So that got us thinking." Lee and Lundberg set out to create a machine-learning system that could both make predictions and explain them. First, they acquired a dataset of 50,000 real surgeries from University of Washington Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. These data include patient intake information like age and weight as well as real-time, minute-by-minute information -- heart rate, blood oxygen levels and more -- throughout the surgeries. The scientists used all of these data to teach Prescience to make predictions. The team wanted Prescience to solve two different kinds of problems. Prescience needed to look at pre-surgery information and predict whether any given patient would have hypoxemia while under anesthesia. Prescience also had to predict hypoxemia at any point throughout surgery by looking at real-time information. Finally, Lee and Lundberg developed a new approach to train Prescience to generate understandable explanations behind its predictions. For the pre-surgery data, Prescience found that body mass index was one important feature that contributed to a prediction that a patient would experience hypoxemia during surgery. But during surgery, the blood oxygen levels themselves contributed the most to a prediction. With this information in mind, it was time to put Prescience to the test. Lee and Lundberg created a web interface that ran anesthesiologists through pre-surgery and real-time cases from surgeries in the dataset that were not used to train Prescience. For the real-time test, the researchers specifically chose cases that would be hard to predict, such as when a patient's blood oxygen level is stable for 10 minutes and then drops. "We wanted to know if this was going to be informative to anesthesiologists," said Lundberg, who is the first author on the paper. "So for some of their cases, they got a bar of additional information from Prescience." Prescience improved the doctors' ability to correctly predict a patient's hypoxemia risk by 16 percent before a surgery and by 12 percent in real time during a surgery. Overall, with the help of Prescience, the anesthesiologists were able to correctly distinguish between the two scenarios nearly 80 percent of the time both before and during surgery. "This research will allow us to better anticipate complications and target our treatment to each patient," said co-author Dr. Monica Vavilala, professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the UW School of Medicine and director of the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center. "If we know there's one aspect that's causing the problem, then we can approach that first and more quickly. This could really change the way we practice, so this is a really big deal." Prescience isn't quite ready to be in operating rooms yet. Lee and Lundberg plan to continue working with anesthesiologists to improve Prescience and give it an interface that's both intuitive and useful. In addition, the team hopes that later versions of Prescience will be able to predict other harmful conditions, such as low blood pressure, and recommend treatment plans. Regardless of Prescience's future, one point is clear: This technology is meant to help anesthesiologists take better care of their patients, Lundberg said. "Prescience doesn't treat anyone," he said. "Instead it tells you why it's concerned, which then enables the doctor to make better treatment decisions." ### Co-author Dr. Bala Nair, research associate professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the UW School of Medicine, helped Lee and Lundberg acquire the dataset. Another co-author, Dr. Jerry Kim, assistant professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Seattle Children's Hospital, proposed the initial project with Lee. Other co-authors include Shu-Fang Newman, UW Medicine Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine; Dr. Mayumi Horibe, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System; and Dr. Michael Eisses, Dr. Trevor Adams, Dr. David Liston and Dr. Daniel Low, Seattle Children's Hospital. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (DBI-1355899), NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1256082), and a UW eScience/ITHS seed grant, "Machine Learning in Operating Rooms." For more information, contact Lee at suinlee@cs.washington.edu. Scientists have developed a successful method to make truly personalised predictions of future disease outcomes for patients with certain types of chronic blood cancers. The study from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, the University of Cambridge, and their collaborators, combined extensive genetic and clinical information to predict the prognosis for patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms. The research also identified eight different genetic subgroups of the disease that link with patterns of clinical disease and patient prognosis. Published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, this work could lead to personalised medicine for patients with these blood cancers. It will help doctors identify those patients who are likely to have a very good future outlook, and which patients may benefit from specific treatments or clinical trials. Myeloproliferative neoplasms are a group of blood cancers affecting around 30,000 patients in the UK. These cancers are chronic, long term conditions and patients suffer from a risk of blood clots and bleeding. In addition, these cancers can progress to more advanced forms of disease, including acute leukaemia, that have a poor outlook. It is important to patients to know how their disease is likely to progress in the future, but it has not previously been possible to provide personalised predictions for each individual patient. The current classification system for these blood cancers was created in the 1950s when myeloproliferative neoplasms were divided into three clinical types. However, there are known to be challenges with this classification system. This lack of accurate classification can make it difficult for doctors to decide on the most appropriate treatment for patients and to provide information on future outlook. To understand the biological factors causing myeloproliferative neoplasms the researchers studied 69 cancer genes from over 2,000 patients with these blood cancers. Using this genetic information, they found there were eight different subtypes of these cancers. These genetic subtypes were also found to be clinically different from each other, indicating that the researchers had identified real differences between patient groups. Combining the genetic information for each person with their clinical information, the researchers were then able to develop a method to make personally tailored disease predictions for individual patients suffering from these cancers. They found this personalised method outperformed all current schemes available to make disease predictions and had the additional advantage of giving patient-specific predictions, rather than simply classifying patients into broad risk categories. Dr Jyoti Nangalia, a first author on the study from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Despite some knowledge of the risks of myeloproliferative neoplasms we have been unable to make accurate personal predictions for individual patients. Our new online calculator takes genetic and clinical information available for a patient and makes a prediction of the future outcome of that particular person's disease. In the future this could be used to reassure patients who have a good predicted outcome, and identify patients who are at risk of developing severe disease who could benefit from an alternative treatment approach." Professor Tony Green, a senior author on the paper from the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and the University of Cambridge, Department of Haematology, said: "This work represents a step change in our understanding of the myeloproliferative neoplasms. Not only does it reveal a new classification based on causal mechanisms but it also provides for the first time personally-tailored predictions to guide patient management." The study also revealed that some subgroups shared features with other blood cancers. This work could bring clarity to disease classification of blood cancers in the future and enable the development and testing of new treatments. Dr Peter Campbell, a senior author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "This research proves the potential of personalised medicine, using genetics. Modern genomics will empower clinicians and support their decisions regarding the best therapies and clinical trials for each patient. We hope our study will be a game changer for patients with these blood cancers by providing better predictions for how their disease may behave in the future, and inform treatment choice." ### Notes to editors: About Myeloproliferative neoplasms: Myeloproliferative neoplasms are a group of rare disorders of the bone marrow that cause an increase in the number of red or white blood cells or platelets. The aim of treatment is usually to control symptoms rather than cure the condition. More info about these blood cancers is available from Cancer Research UK website: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/other-conditions/myeloproliferative-neoplasms Selected Websites: Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute The Cambridge Stem Cell Institute is a world-leading centre for stem cell research with a mission to transform human health through a deep understanding of stem cell biology. Our scientists study stem cell behaviour, both normal and pathological, and use their findings to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. http://www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk/ Follow @SCICambridge University of Cambridge The mission of the University of Cambridge is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. To date, 98 affiliates of the University have won the Nobel Prize. Founded in 1209, the University comprises 31 autonomous Colleges, which admit undergraduates and provide small-group tuition, and 150 departments, faculties and institutions. Cambridge is a global university. Its 19,000 student body includes 3,700 international students from 120 countries. Cambridge researchers collaborate with colleagues worldwide, and the University has established larger-scale partnerships in Asia, Africa and America. The University sits at the heart of one of the world's largest technology clusters. The 'Cambridge Phenomenon' has created 1,500 hi-tech companies, 14 of them valued at over US$1 billion and two at over US$10 billion. Cambridge promotes the interface between academia and business, and has a global reputation for innovation. http://www.cam.ac.uk/ The Wellcome Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease. To celebrate its 25th year in 2018, the Institute is sequencing 25 new genomes of species in the UK. Find out more at http://www.sanger.ac.uk or follow @sangerinstitute Wellcome Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive. We're a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations and spark debate. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk TORONTO, October 10, 2018 - A new study led by York University researchers has found that fluoride levels in urine are twice as high for pregnant women living in Canadian cities where fluoride is added to public drinking water as for those living in cities that do not add fluoride to public water supplies. The study "Community Water Fluoridation and Urinary Fluoride Concentrations in a National Sample of Pregnant Women in Canada" was published today in Environmental Health Perspectives. It is the first study in North America to examine how fluoride in water contributes to urinary fluoride levels in pregnant women. The research was conducted as part of a larger study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigating whether early life exposure to fluoride affects the developing brain. "We found that fluoride in drinking water was the major source of exposure for pregnant women living in Canada. Women living in fluoridated communities have two times the amount of fluoride in their urine as women living in non-fluoridated communities," said Christine Till, an associate professor of Psychology in York's Faculty of Health and lead author on the study. The Maternal Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) study recruited 2,001 pregnant women between 2008 and 2011. The women lived in 10 large cities across Canada. Seven of the cities (Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Sudbury, Halifax, Edmonton and Winnipeg) added fluoride to municipal water while three (Vancouver, Montreal and Kingston) did not. Urine samples were collected during each trimester of pregnancy for over 1,500 women. Fluoride levels in municipal water treatment plants that provided water to each women's home were obtained. Information about each woman's demographics, lifestyle and medical history was also collected. In addition to fluoridated water, sources of fluoride can include toothpastes, mouth rinses, as well as processed beverages and food, especially those made with fluoridated water. Beyond water, products such as tea have previously been found to have high concentrations of natural fluoride. In this study, fluoride level in water was the main determinant of fluoride level in the women's urine. Higher consumption of black tea was also correlated with higher levels of urinary fluoride in pregnant women. The levels of fluoride among pregnant women living in fluoridated communities in Canada were similar with levels reported in a prior study of pregnant women living in Mexico City where fluoride is added to table salt. "This finding is concerning because prenatal exposure to fluoride in the Mexican sample has been associated with lower IQ in children. New evidence published today in Environment International also reported an association between higher levels of fluoride in pregnancy and inattentive behaviours among children in the same Mexican sample," said Till. The research team, including experts from Simon Fraser University, Universite Laval, Indiana University, University of Montreal and Cincinnati Children's Hospital, is investigating whether prenatal exposure to fluoride in Canadian children results in IQ deficits, similar to the Mexican study. Fluoride has been added to public drinking water in Canadian and American communities since the 1940s as a means of preventing tooth decay. Today, about 40 per cent of Canadians and 74 percent of the U.S. population on public water supplies receive fluoridated water. ### York University champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. York students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world's most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. York U is an internationally recognized research university - our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, York is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni. York U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. Media Contacts: Anjum Nayyar, York University Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca Out of all of the major ***USD FX pairs, the GBPUSD pair is outperforming Standard and textbook bullish breakout pattern identified British Pound pushing higher against Dollar The performance of the Pound to dollar exchange rate (GBP/USD) has been an impressive example of support and resilience. This strength has been especially important when compared against the positive performance of the DXY (US Dollar Index) and JXY (Japanese Yen Index). GBP/USD has held and made positive gains while its peers have dropped - the EUR/USD FX pair made new 2-month lows. Both the AUD/USD FX pair and the NZD/USD FX pair both made new yearly lows. Cable has driven higher since October 3rd, showing a +1.77% gain. Pound to dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate chart analysis - Bullish breakout detected Above: GBP/USD exchange rate outperforming peers. The GBP to USD exchange rate made a new swing high of 1.3299 on September 20th, 2018. It then promptly sold off where it found support at 1.2921 on October 3rd. The broader market showed a similar technical move, but as written in the paragraph above, a majority of ***USD pairs sold off. The Pound, instead, bounced from the bottom of a bullish flag channel. The strength of the move was reflected by how price moved outside of the flagging channel and held. There was a significant attempt by short traders to push the GBPUSD back into the channel (which did happen), but buyers stepped in and supported price. Fundamentals supporting Pound (GBP) exchange rates' strength Lloyds reported that the underlying economic health of the UK is bullish and strong. Unemployment is low and continues to move lower, reaching 4% - lowest since 1975. Two more rate increases are expected in the future, with the Q3 of 2019 representing the near-term expected rate hike. There do remain some concerns related to the pace of growth. Additionally, the continued positive outlook for the economy is putting pressure on the Bank of Englands current easing. Key Levels ahead for GBP/USD exchange rate The strength of the most recent swing in the GBP/USD exchange rate, new key areas to break as resistance should be observed. Intraday trading has shown some short-term resistance against an important Gann arc but no selling pressure has stepped in. The key near-term resistance rests at the 1.3298 value area, which is an important Major 4/8th Harmonic. That value area and harmonic level represent the strongest and toughest area for price to break above. The current move could represent the third wave of a broader Elliot impulse wave. If that is the case, then the resistance at 1.3298 will need to be breached with extremely strong pressure. Near-term support should be maintained on the current 45-degree angle. 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. State of the Blog I'm not keeping up the blog like I used to. Posts will be here and there, as the mood strikes. Most of what I have to say is in my book. Thank you for reading. Welcome to the News Release Wire Selection Control Panel. Instant News Wire U.S. crude oil exports are expected to more than double by 2020, and unlike the pipeline constraints hampering the booming Permian Basin oil field, the Texas Gulf Coast will be ready to ship the larger volumes to the world, according to two studies released this week. Crude exports from the United States are expected to climb to 4 million barrels a day, reshaping energy markets as the nation expands its share of the global oil sales. Much of the exports will flow from Texas shale fields, providing new markets for the Permians record output and helping drive the growth of the Texas economy. Exports bring new money into a local economy money that can create wealth, fuel new investments and generate jobs. Exports mean that you can keep increasing production that means you can keep selling barrels, that means you can keep investing, so you have jobs, economic growth and government revenue, said Christopher Guith, senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerces Global Energy Institute, a policy development and education group. RELATED: Texas oil fights anti-fracking measure in Colorado Reports released by the financial services firm Raymond James, and the research and data company S&P Global Platts each predicted that U.S. crude exports would double from roughly 2 million barrels a day in June and July, according to government figures. June exports set a record of 2.2 million barrels a day. Shale oil fields such as the Permian Basin in West Texas, Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and Bakken Shale in North Dakota will drive the export growth, the reports said. U.S. refiners dont have the capacity to process much more U.S. crude oil, in large part because most are configured to process heavier crudes from the Middle East, Canada and Latin America. That means excess production will go to foreign markets, said Danny Oliver, senior vice president at the San Antonio pipeline company NuStar Energy. For the most part, Oliver said, the new production thats coming out of these fields will have to find a home, and thats whats driving the export story. Companies such as NuStar, Buckeye Partners of Houston and until recently Occidental Petroleum, also of Houston, are building pipelines, storage and export terminals at Gulf Coast ports to capitalize on the flood of oil coming from the Permian and other shale plays. Occidental, also known as Oxy, said it was selling its expanding Ingleside crude oil storage and export terminal near Corpus Christi to Moda Midstream, a Houston pipeline and storage company. Oliver said NuStar which partnered with Houston producer ConocoPhillips to ship the first crude oil after the crude export ban was lifted in December 2015 is building another 1 million barrels of storage capacity at the Port of Corpus Christi. The storage facility will hook into one of three pipelines that will carry oil from the Permian. Those pipelines, still under construction, will have a combined capacity of about 2 million barrels a day. RELATED: Millions of Texas oil dollars flowing into carbon fee fight in Washington state So far, however, the lack of pipelines to move oil from West Texas to the Gulf Coast has slowed the growth of crude exports, said Ed Hirs, an energy economist at the University of Houston. But, Hirs added, We have all the (export) terminals and capacity we need. The United States has exported refined products such as gasoline and diesel for years, and some of the pipelines, storage and terminals can be repurposed for crude exports, Hirs said. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP, system, for example, was developed to import crude oil, but has reversed the direction of pipelines and recently loaded at least two tankers for export. LOOP is the only Gulf Coast port that can handle fully laden very large crude carriers or VLCC, which can hold up to 2 million barrels of oil. Because the water depths in U.S. ports are too shallow, VLCCs can only partially load there. They then must cruise offshore to finish loading crude from smaller tankers in a practice called reverse lightering. At least three proposals to build or expand Gulf Coast port facilities to handle VLCCs are under consideration. In July, the Houston energy company Enterprise Products Partners said it would build an offshore crude oil terminal capable of fully loading VLCCs. The Swiss company Trafigura filed a permit application that same month to develop a similar offshore loading terminal near Corpus Christi. The Port of Corpus Christi, meanwhile, is eyeing a piece of property it owns on Harbor Island, about 2 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, for an inland VLCC loading and export terminal. The port is opposing Trafiguras planned offshore facility, which would be a competitor. The U.S. State Department has released the data on the total number of U.S. strategic offensive weapons as of September 1, 2018. The data is aimed at indicating that the U.S. has achieved levels under the Article 2 of New START. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the result announced by the State Department disagrees with the real state of affairs, and that Washington exceeds the maximum allowed number of strategic offensive weapons by 101 units. The Russian Foreign Ministry urged the State Department to ensure the fulfillment by the US side of its obligations under the most important international treaty in the sphere of reducing and limiting nuclear missile weapons. This is far from the only aspect of Russian-American interaction, on which the parties cannot come to an understanding. The head of the department of international organizations and global political processes of Moscow State University, Andrei Sidorov, is convinced that it is impossible to negotiate with the US and NATO in the present situation in Washington: "Trump constantly says that he is ready for a dialogue with Russia, but there is nothing to talk about ... It's difficult to offer anything the United States and its allies in Europe - all this will be ignored. I dont think that the November elections in the United States will improve the situation, as an internal struggle will be there. We shouldn't hope that the struggle will make a change to the Washington administration. I dont believe impeachment is likely. The current American establishment has decided that it is capable of crushing Russia and will continue this pressure. In such circumstances, simply offering a dialogue is beyond the pale." According to the head of the European Security Department of the Institute of Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor at the Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs Dmitry Danilov, engaging in dialogue for the sake of dialogue is unsuccessful tactics: If you continue the dialogue, then you need to focus on some results. Even if this is a negative agenda - reducing risks, minimizing damages - you need results anyway. And if you need results, then you need specialized consultations, interaction. NATO refuses to interact. The Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, reiterated that NATO is not ready and cannot step over its April 2014 position to cease all contacts in the field of practical interaction." The expert suggests to unblock the situation through selective interaction, mentioned by the EU in relation to Russia. At the same time, Dmitry Danilov admits that all practical decisions by the United States and NATO are based on allegations of Russia's aggressive actions: "Thus, the justification of programs to counter cyber threats is passed on Russia." On October 4, a press conference was held in The Hague, during which accusations were made that Russia's representatives allegedly prepared a cyber attack against the OPCW in April. The Russian side regarded the detention and expulsion of Russian citizens as a provocation in connection with Russia's policy in the OPCW, directed against the politicization of the activities of this authoritative international structure. "No evidence has been presented. They name the guilty ones, the Main Intelligence Directorate, after which they say that the attack was stopped, but after this Stoltenberg says that Russia has taken similar actions in many places. That is, at first there are unsubstantiated accusations, then a completely practical reaction to them, and then also the transfer of these accusations to a broader context. This formula is used in NATO now not just in terms of its policy towards Russia, but also with regard to justification of functional and operational planning," the expert explains. The superintendents of the region's two largest school districts called Tuesday for a community conversation about the impact of charter schools growth on traditional public school systems. They said recent losses of students to charters had hurt their enrollments and budgets to a degree that prompted both to seek a local government response. In a meeting with the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board, Northside Independent School Districts Brian Woods and North East ISDs Brian Gottardy suggested city and county governments can and should take action to slow or control charter school expansion. City and county governments should no longer agree to make it easier for charter networks to borrow money by allowing them to sell tax-exempt bonds, and cities could use zoning powers to directly intervene in the charter networks decisions on where to locate schools, they said. READ ALSO: UTSA student science showcase now in its 10th year Such moves would stand a better chance than relying on the Legislature to prevent irrational spending on redundant campuses concentrated in too small an area, Gottardy and Woods said. In Austin, the political will for that does not exist, Woods said. Several Bexar County school districts, large and small, have reported enrollment declines that have reduced their state funding. They have said part of the declines were caused by families deciding to move their kids to charter schools. The costs of staffing schools remain, and as newer charters have moved into more affluent areas of the city, the impact on Northside and North East has reached a tipping point, Woods and Gottardy said. The two districts enroll a combined 170,000-plus students. Both superintendents stressed that they werent at war with charter networks and acknowledged competition from charters would be a permanent part of the educational landscape. Gottardy said, however, that funding two parallel school systems for the same number of students split between them is a colossal waste of taxpayers money. Gottardy and Woods said they have been communicating with other school districts about how to get their message out. In recent years, the response of the traditional Bexar County districts has been to vigorously market the choices and innovations they offer students. Some have criticized state policies and philanthropic decisions that have eased charters expansion here, though officials at San Antonio ISD, the countys third largest, more recently spoke of the need to learn from or collaborate with charters. READ ALSO: Alamo Colleges chancellor retires - with bonus North East ISD estimates about 3,000 of its students have made the switch to charters in the past five years. Northside lost about 1,600 students to charter schools in the past year, which cost the district about $15.5 million in state revenue, Woods said. North East has lost enrollment and Northside no longer is growing after years of expansion, the superintendents said. Woods said the districts want to discuss ordinances that could limit where charter schools are located or require some kind of equity measure to ensure their enrollments match the demographics of their neighboring public schools. At least in the short term, the way to deal with this is at a local level, he said. Both superintendents asked the City Council last month to deny a request from the charter network IDEA Public Schools to issue tax-exempt bonds. Officials in virtually every school district in Bexar County called for changes to the states school funding system during budget discussions this summer. Bruce Marchand, chief operating officer of the Texas Charter Schools Association, said the goal of charters is to offer a quality educational choice for all kids and called it a bit of a false argument to assume that all charter school students are from the surrounding neighborhood and have left neighboring public schools. Open-enrollment charter schools can accept students from anywhere, and those who learn at campuses within Northsides or North Easts boundaries could be from other parts of the city, he said. Its unfortunate that, I think, ISDs feel threatened by charters, and thats not the purpose of charters, to take over, Marchand said. Its simply to offer those great options for kids that havent had a lot of choices. Mark Larson, KIPP Texas Chief Growth Officer, said his charter network has had productive conversations about collaborating with traditional school districts, such as a partnership with SAISD to improve college counseling. READ ALSO: Southwest ISD launches aeronautical program for all grades Kipp plans to continue to expand in San Antonio but so far has located six schools in areas of the city designed to attract economically disadvantaged students. He said the same claim about the inefficiencies of parallel charter and public school systems could be made for Bexars 16 traditional public school districts. Ordinances like the kind proposed by Woods, or decisions by local elected officials to limit charter schools ability to issue tax-exempt bonds, would have the impact of limiting parent and family choice, Larson said. He blamed the states school finance system for creating a scarcity issue that makes it difficult for traditional districts to be flexible in a shifting educational landscape, with limited funds allocated to both charter schools and traditional public schools. The sun was still rising behind them Wednesday morning as Sarah King Elementary students Famida and Lailuma Fnu walked to school with Lizette Vega, a City Year Americorps member who quizzed them on math along the way. Vega stopped and waited with them at intersections, waving to San Antonio Police Officer Alfred Gomez as he stopped traffic so they could cross Merida Street. The students joined more than 50 others from the Cassiano Homes community in a walk to school Wednesday, cheered on by volunteers passing out flashlights and pencils as they got closer to the campus. Many of the kids do it regularly, joining a Walking School Bus spearheaded by community members and Metro Health every Monday and Friday. Jennifer Lopez-Garza, a Community Health Worker, had arrived at a nearby corner while it was still dark to wait for the first students to arrive. The program started last winter at the request of parents who wanted their children to be safer while walking to school, she said. Volunteers, who all have to pass background checks with the school, meet students along the way and walk with them, knocking on doors to round up stragglers. It gives kids a chance to socialize and get some physical activity before they start school, Metro Health's Alex Miller Mattingly said. Were out here every Monday and Friday, rain or shine, and theyre building that trust with us, said Lopez-Garza, who was eagerly greeted by kids running up for a high-five or a hug. Officer Gomez chatted with some students about their schoolwork. He often asks them spelling questions while they wait at the corner before their weekly tests. Assistant Principal Edith Silva said the school, in the San Antonio Independent School District, is looking at data to determine whether the program is improving attendance. But campus officials already have noticed kids are eager to walk to school with the group, she said. When it rains, they even bring tarps to walk under together, she said. Wednesdays celebration included greetings from the Animal Care Services mascots Chips and Salsa, city officials and volunteers from Union Pacific, FedEx and other companies. Just before heading into class, Traey Irvy stopped to talk to Police Chief William McManus, who was waiting on the sidewalk. The 8-year-old told McManus he wants to be a police officer. The chief told him to make good choices, with good consequences. Lopez-Garza said the Walking School Bus program could expand. Metro Health and the San Antonio Housing Authority are looking at other schools and neighborhoods where it could be implemented, she said. lteitz@express-news.net | @LizTeitz As a pipeline worker himself, Steve Turner often stays in local RV parks when traveling for jobs. That's what his sister and two of his best friends were doing in Junction when heavy storms overflowed the Llano River and upended an RV park, sweeping away several people and their vehicles. Turner said Charlotte Moye, Joey Huss and Mike McGee are among the four people officials say are still missing after the storms cleared the area on Tuesday. The three were in the area working on a pipeline project, the Flomaton, Alabama, man said. "We travel all over the place and you'd never think of something like this happening," Turner said. "It's been pretty tough." RELATED: Severe thunderstorms make their way into San Antonio On Tuesday morning first responders were briefly prevented from searching for them as more thunderstorms passed through the area. Since the band of thunderstorms moved east into San Antonio, several boat crews have been out looking for them, according to Texas A&M Forest Service public information officer Logan Schersphel. Aircrafts and drones will also be used to aid in the search as soon as the weather stabilizes, Schersphel said. First responders rescued 19 people from the park Monday, as the the area began to flood. The additional rainfall the Hill Country received on Tuesday led to another rise in the river's crest, though Schersphel said the river was at about 22 feet, 10 feet less than Monday's peak. Turner remained in Alabama after hearing the news, but he's been contacting city officials about their rescue efforts. "I couldn't ask for (search efforts) to be any better. They're doing an excellent job for the conditions they're facing," Turner said. "I'm just hoping for the best." Turner wondered why the residents of the park weren't updated sooner about the potential for flooding by officials or local law enforcement. "They didn't know how severe the flooding would be but they knew they would get a lot of rain," Turner said. "Why didn't they send police there to get them out?" Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA A San Antonio-based foundation has sued its former executive director and finance officer, saying the two hijacked critical passwords and computer accounts to make it impossible for the group to do its work helping Green Berets and their families. The federal lawsuit says the foundations executive director, Jennifer Paquette, and its finance director, Melissa Pucino resigned as the board was preparing to fire them, but then moved to freeze the groups access to its records, including an email account containing 40,000 contacts, and to steal client and donor information. It says Paquette and Pucino have willfully and maliciously interfered with GBFs ability to perform its basic mission as part of a coordinated campaign to paralyze and destroy the foundation. The nonprofit has provided direct financial assistance to thousands of Green Berets and their families since it was created in 2009. READ ALSO: Foundation company owners accused of defrauding nearly $150,000 from S.A. area residents It helps members of the Armys elite special forces and those moving into the civilian world. It has spent between $1 million and $2 million per year from 2013 through 2017, with about 90 percent of it going to services and programs until 2015, when that share began dropping to 82 percent in 2017, according to the groups website. The group announced the departure of Paquette and Pucino on Sept. 23, saying it was part of the ongoing evolution of the Green Beret Foundation. But the polite facade already was dissolving. A confrontation at the groups headquarters a day earlier, involving the ousted executives and two of the groups remaining employees, had drawn police to the scene. Paquettes husband had called 911 to say an unauthorized former employee was inside, but the foundations development manager told an officer she had arrived to find the newly resigned Pucino in the office and asked her to leave, the police report states. After speaking to all involved, I could tell that the situation was not a burglary in progress but instead a much bigger civil issue, the reporting officer wrote. In court documents, Paquette has denied the allegations in the lawsuit, originally filed in state District Court in Bexar County but moved to federal court Oct. 4. READ ALSO: Workforce Solutions Alamo settles lawsuit by ex-CEO Paquette has been the groups executive director since 2011. The suit said her performance had deteriorated significantly in 2018 and her behavior became increasingly unprofessional, erratic and destructive. She and Pucino submitted similar resignation letters Sept. 19 that included unreasonable demands for payments, benefits and even the removal of half of GBF's board and their replacement with Paquette's candidates. After their resignations, the two have improperly and illegally accessed and misappropriated GBFs confidential and proprietary information, withheld passwords to critical databases, disabled GBFs email and electronic document repositories, deleted content, removed content, and copied confidential and proprietary information, the suit says. Paquette, reached at her home, said pretty much all of the allegations in the suit were untrue. I mean, its full-on lying, she said. Theyre claiming that I locked them out of accounts and stuff when in reality they have access to all of those accounts. Its all just silliness and drama. She said there are some good ones on the foundations board, but a portion of them, four of them, have discounted, not responded, to key constituents of the foundation, including the mothers of fallen soldiers, major donors and wounded troops. And thats something I just wont tolerate. Ive been around long enough to say, Im not only the hair club president, but I am a member of the hair club and there are certain things that Im just not going to tolerate. READ ALSO: Famed inventor Dr. Julio Palmaz settles lawsuits over failed company Her husband, Roland Paquette, lost both legs to a roadside explosive while serving as a Green Beret medic in Afghanistan in 2005, according to published reports. Pucino did not return calls. Foundation leaders would not comment. Its board chairman, retired Army Maj. Gen. Simeon G. Trombitas, declined to discuss the situation. In announcing their departure, Trombitas had praised both women, saying: They have been integral to our work and during their tenures more than 3,500 families have benefited. We wish them the best of luck as they pursue new opportunities. The lawsuit, however, says Paquette regularly threatened and intimidated foundation employees and quoted Paquette as telling them and others that she was going to burn GBF to the ground after she left, and that if she cant kill em, shell sue em. The suit saus the foundation board had ample grounds to fire Paquette and Pucino. Reportedly, Pucino re-entered the foundation's offices at 14402 Blanco Road on Sept. 22, the day the board accepted their resignations, despite being asked to leave. A locksmith reportedly was prevented from from changing the locks at the office, prompting the foundation to hire a security firm. It says the foundation repeatedly had asked the defendants and their attorneys to return all misappropriated GBF property, cease and desist in all actions intended to disrupt, destroy and harm GBFs business and reputation, and provide essential information such as access codes. And the lawsuit accuses the defendants of embarking on a misinformation campaign and spreading falsehoods, smearing GBF and making defamatory personal attacks. Angie Fennen, after taking the helm as interim executive director, wrote in a Sept. 24 message on the groups Facebook page that we have regained control of our main social media channel, and thanked Paquette and Pucino for their years of work that helped make our organization what it is today, not to mention, their ongoing commitment to our U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers and their families. READ ALSO: Lawsuit: La Cantera Resort & Spa managers threatened to fire employees who spoke Spanish at work It was not clear what social media channel she meant, but the lawsuit says one of the items Paquette and Pucino controlled was a Box.com account that includes the foundations personnel files, donor lists, personal service records and other confidential information. The suit says a user activity report showed Paquette and Pucino had accessed the Box.com account numerous times after their resignation and had downloaded documents from it after they were no longer with the foundation. Paquette changed the permissions on the Box.com account to limit access and freeze GBF out of its own account, preventing the foundation from seeing the records, the suit states. Because of defendants actions in changing permission and access, GBF is frozen out and incapable of running its business and serving the Green Beret community. The suit says Paquette, as the super administrator with exclusive access to the foundations Google G Suite account, has made it impossible for GBF employees to access company email. The lawsuit says the foundation, moreover, cant access open case files for wounded Green Beret veterans that include services ranging for paying for prescription drugs to mortgages. It is not an overstatement to say that stopping defendants unlawful actions is a matter of life and death for those GBF clients who depend on GBF for funds to pay for food, health care and medications, the suit states. The suit also accuses Paquette of changing the passwords to Fennens foundation email account about two hours after being told her resignation had been accepted Sept. 22. One person responding to Fennens Sept. 24 announcement on Facebook, Adnarim Yoccm, asked, What does the statement now that we have regained control of our main social media channel mean? Were GBF accounts hacked? Quite shocking to hear that Jen resigned. Will there be an additional statement of explanation? That will matter to many donors. Another person, David Marshall, wrote: Stay the course everyone as the mission is the greatest part of this foundation. A former member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years and one month in prison without parole for his part in a March 2006 hit on a member of the rival Hells Angels. Jesse James Kronic Benavidez, 42, of San Antonio was the getaway driver of the car from which the fatal shot was fired that killed Anthony W. Benesh III outside a pizza restaurant in Austin. Benesh, 44, had been trying to establish a chapter of the Hells Angels in Texas, which is considered the Bandidos territory. Benavidez apologized for his role Tuesday, and he and his lawyer told Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra that Benavidez had detached himself from the Bandidos by the time he was released from prison in 2014, after serving a five-year term for cocaine distribution conspiracy. RELATED: Ex-Bandido involved in hit on Hell's Angels member gets nearly 22 years in prison Like three others involved in the murder, Benavidez had already put the unsolved Benesh slaying in his rear-view mirror. But the case was resurrected as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety conducted a racketeering investigation of the Bandidos leadership. They arrested Benavidez in March 2017 along with three other ex-members of the Bandidos for the Benesh killing, a hit ordered by Bandidos leaders. Benavidez immediately confessed to his part in the Benesh slaying, and corroborated details that included the roles of others involved, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Fuchs. He was not called to testify at the trial this spring of former national president Jeffrey Fay Pike of Conroe and Pikes vice president, John Xavier Portillo of San Antonio. Benavidez did, however, point prosecutors to news articles that contradicted the testimony of Pike, who claimed that there was no bad blood between the Bandidos and the Hells Angels at the time of the Benesh slaying. RELATED: San Antonio Bandido who killed Hell's Angel member gets 18 years in prison without parole Pike, 63, and Portillo, 59, were convicted of charges that they ordered, sanctioned or led the Bandidos racketeering conspiracy that included attacks or murders on rivals and wayward Bandidos. Both were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Benavidez faced 30 years to life in prison for his guilty plea to discharging a firearm in a racketeering murder, but the government asked the judge to give him no more than 15 years in prison because of his cooperation. Benavidezs lawyer, Monica Guerrero, asked for a sentence of 10 to 12 years in prison. Last week, Ezra sentenced Johnny Downtown Romo to 15 years in prison and his brother Robert Romo to 18 years in prison, both without parole, for their roles in the Benesh slaying. Johnny Romo, a former national sergeant-at-arms for the Bandidos, put together the hit crew after orders were passed down from the leaders. Robert Romo shot Benesh with a hunting rifle from a vehicle driven by Benavidez, according to Robert Romos testimony. RELATED: San Antonio judge sends Bandidos chief to federal prison for life without parole Ezra also last week sentenced another former Bandidos member who was part of the hit crew, Norberto Hammer Serna Jr., to 21 years and eight months in prison. Serna did not cooperate and did not testify. Two more ex-Bandidos who cooperated in the racketeering case are scheduled for sentencing: Justin Cole Forster, who was a national sergeant-at-arms, faces sentencing Wednesday, and Andrew Corky Gomez on Thursday. Alamo Plaza long has been associated with many things in San Antonio, but not the words wait times. For much of its 300-year history, the plaza has been wide open to the public a crossroads, a marketplace, a center of commerce and attractions and a gathering place for all manner of celebrations. Now, a plan to make over the plaza will change the unrestricted way that San Antonians have enjoyed the famous public space. That becomes clear in a lease that would transfer control and maybe even ownership one day of the plaza from the city to the state government. RELATED: San Antonio would lease Alamo Plaza to state. What will it get in return? Once fences, barriers and gates are added to the perimeter of the plaza, the public would, most of the time, have one way in and out during daytime business hours, the lease states. The prospect that people would have to wait in lines just to walk through the plaza prompted Mayor Ron Nirenberg to ask for a specific addition to the lease to address access. One of the much debated aspects of the plan has been maintaining the publics access while converting it into an outdoor museum-like space. Details of how to do both have been elusive. Two Alamo Plaza meetings Wednesday: The City Council will hear a presentation on the plan at a 2 p.m. workshop in the Municipal Plaza Building on Main Plaza. Also Wednesday: the Planning Commission will consider the lease agreement in a joint meeting on the plan with the Historic and Design Review Commission at 5:30 p.m. in the Development and Business Services Board Room, 1901 S. Alamo St. See More Collapse Nirenberg said one of his goals that the plaza remain the center of civic life requires there be 24-hour free, unhindered access as part of the plan. One section added to the proposed lease spells out an elaborate system for regulating the possibility of long waits and logjams, particularly if crowds get larger with the opening of a new museum and visitors center. The Alamo consistently draws about 1.6 million people a year. On Wednesday, the lease will come up for discussion at the City Council and will be voted on later by two city boards. The Texas General Land Office would restrict access through one west side entry point during museum hours, about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. If wait times consistently exceed 10 minutes, two auxiliary entry points could be opened on the north and south ends, under the long-term agreement for the Land Office to lease and manage the plaza. The concept of wait times puts more definition around the opening of the other two portals, rather than leaving it completely to the discretion of the Land Office, Nirenberg said. On most days, it should take less than a minute to enter Alamo Plaza through the one access point, according to Alamo CEO Douglass McDonald. RELATED: Mayor signs off on Alamo Plaza plan Visitors and San Antonians eventually could be subject to bag searches or metal detectors when entering during the day, he said. Since the plaza makeover is set for completion in 2024, McDonald was reluctant to speculate what security measures would be in place. He envisions people streaming through an entry up to 40 feet wide, in up to 12 lines. We dont know what the entry system is going to be, he said. It could be simply walking past an attendant. It could be that youre doing a simple bag check for people who have bags with them. It could be that youre going through a metal detector. The lease sets a target wait time of less than five minutes. If waits exceed 10 minutes, for longer than 30 minutes per day, the Land Office and city will meet and discuss actions to achieve these targets. The plaza would be more open, accessible through six open gates, after museum hours. Access to the plaza is one of three areas of concern the San Antonio Conservation Society raised in its petition to save Alamo Plaza. The group plans to submit the petition with about 7,500 signatures when the City Council considers the plan, possibly on Oct. 18. Gary Foreman, a filmmaker and historical re-enactor who created a design for Alamo Plaza in 2006, said the plan has to balance security with interpretation of the plaza, which was at the center of the battleground of March 6, 1836. How we deal with pedestrian traffic there is a new frontier, because weve never done that before, he said. Foremans design envisioned replication of the Alamos west and south walls, with open access to the north and south, and gaps where people could enter the plaza. Depending on crowds, I dont want to see people have to wait for anything, if they can just walk in, he said. But he said the state will be responsible for security and may have to use airport-type measures, such as metal detection that are common at many historic sites elsewhere in the country. Foreman generally supports the plan to add a museum and interpret the plaza as a battlefield. I encourage everyone to have the integrity and courage to move this forward, he said. People will be blown away by how immense and global this story is. AUSTIN The final day of voter registration in Texas saw volunteers across the state at community centers, outside government offices and schools, encouraging residents to sign up for the Nov. 6 general election, with lines forming in several cities as the surprising surge in registration continued. As of Tuesday morning, more than 15.7 million Texas had registered to vote a record high, according to the Texas Secretary of State. In Bexar County alone, 1,092,734 people were registered to vote, said Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen. That number is only going to rise, she said, noting the robust lines at the county elections office. Final numbers for the county and the state wont be available until next week at the earliest, after the mail-in registrations are counted. So long as the application was postmarked by midnight Oct. 9, it will be accepted. While the higher registration numbers are welcome, experts warn the challenge will be getting people to the polls. Texas ranks near bottom of the pack nationwide in voter turnout. The last time more than half of registered voters cast a ballot in a midterm election was 1994, when Democratic Gov. Ann Richards lost to Republican George W. Bush, according to state data. Competitive races like that one help drive turnout, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. Since that year, Democrats havent won a statewide election. If elections aren't competitive, then one side of the partisan divide feels like they are not being included in the process, Rottinghaus said. This cycle, a barn-burner race for U.S. Senate and a handful of hotly contested Congressional seats could help drive more voters to the ballot box, he said. From a tactical point of view, the fact so many groups have been registering voters for so long gives a competitive candidate an opportunity to harness those votes, Rottinghaus said. That excitement over contested races was evident among those waiting at the Bexar County elections office Tuesday, which also saw people coming in for absentee ballots, to change address and simply to verify that they were properly registered to vote. Darlene Castano-Diaz, 35, went to the department to register in Bexar after living in Atascosa for eight years. She said she just wanted her to make her voice heard. I vote all the time but more so this year because of everything thats going on, Castano-Diaz said. The only way its going to count is if you come down here and vote. Jimmie Andrews, 58, of San Antonio, was particularly energized. She cheered Way to go, way to go to people waiting in line to register at the departments office. Andrews said she was there to get an absentee ballot, but she was excited that it seemed like a lot of young people and women were in the line. She said she was particularly excited to vote for U.S. Rep. Beto ORourke in his challenge against Sen. Ted Cruz. I like his energy, Andrews said. I think its time for a change in Texas. Elias Herrera, a 22-year-old San Antonio resident who moved recently from California, also said he was inspired by the El Paso congressmans campaign. This is actually my first time voting, he said. Others said they were there to keep Republicans in office. Dick and Kay Cary, octogenarians from San Antonio, collected their absentee ballots Tuesday. They said theyve voted in every election since they were 18. The Democrats have been especially ugly, Kay Cary said of her motivation for voting in November. Paul Foley, 61, was more blunt. He said Democrats have lost their minds. By the end of September, Texas voter rolls reached a record 15.6 million people roughly 1.6 million more since the last midterm election in 2014, according to the Texas Secretary of States office. Early voting begins Oct. 22 and continues until Nov. 2. amorris@express-news.net The Go Vote No campaign on Tuesday released a second recording of firefighters union president Chris Steele, this time capturing him telling on-duty firefighters that their union had the backing of five council members and that City Manager Sheryl Sculley cant even make a dent in them. Four of the five named council members Shirley Gonzales, Ana Sandoval, Manny Pelaez and Clayton Perry rejected Steeles statement, surreptitiously recorded in late 2017 by an unnamed Fire Department employee at a San Antonio fire station. Greg Brockhouse, the fifth council member, said its no secret that he supports the union. Gonzales, Pelaez and Sandoval stood shoulder to shoulder in a cramped hallway inside the Go Vote No campaign headquarters Tuesday at a hastily called news conference, where they denounced the comments made by Steele, who heads the president of the San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association. Today I want to reassure everybody that nobody owns my vote, Pelaez said. Not a single political operative, no union, no special interest owns my vote. I was really saddened and disappointed to hear that said about the three of us. Gonzales and Sandoval made similar statements. All three said the proposed charter amendments would harm the city and their constituents. Perry later issued a statement saying the assumptions made by Steele on the recording are just that and went on to say hes not going to actively support one side or the other but that hes personally going to vote against the amendments because he doesnt think they would help the city move forward. The minute-long audio recording is the second segment released by Go Vote No in as many weeks. Both segments came from the same meeting in late 2017. Campaign manager Christian Archer said there are no plans to release additional recordings. In the recording released Tuesday, Steele suggests that council members were lining up to support the unions efforts to kill a lawsuit the city had filed, seeking to declare a portion of its collective-bargaining agreement unconstitutional. This summer, the Texas Supreme Court denied the citys appeal to hear the case, effectively handing victory to the union. RELATED: San Antonio's fire union president reprimanded for fake uniform Steele suggests that city officials wouldnt agree that the two sides were at impasse on contract negotiations because doing so would trigger arbitration, where Steele predicted the union would defeat the city. But we gonna have council on our side. We got five solid votes now. Five solid: Greg Brockhouse in (district) 6 hes heading that up; Ana Sandoval in 7, Manny Pelaez in 8, Clayton Perry in 10 and Shirley Gonzales in 5, Steele said on the recording. Were solid. (City Manager Sheryl) Sculley cant even make a dent in them at this point. So were in a better position than we have been in many years, but we dont have six, though. Steele did not return a phone call seeking comment. David Van Os, the unions former labor lawyer and a newly appointed campaign spokesman, said theres absolutely nothing wrong with what Steele said on the recording and that people speculate on council votes all the time. Youre suggesting that Chris Steele and the firefighters dont have the right to engage in the political process, and they dont have the right to try to figure out where their votes are, and they dont have the right to be mistaken? he said. Van Os pointed out that Steele never asserts that he owned the council members or that they were paid off. Brockhouse called the release of excerpts of the recordings a political game and suggested that the campaign should release the entire recording along with the time and context surrounding it. He said its no secret that he advocated for the city to drop its lawsuit against the fire union. The recording, he said, was much ado about nothing. These snippets of a recording expose the totally obvious, he said. Once again nothing new, except that the media is getting used as the marketing arm for The Go Vote No campaign as they advertise this for maximum political gain. The Go Vote No campaign is deploying a full court press in trying to defeat the three controversial amendments placed on the Nov. 6 ballot by the fire union, which would make it easier to use referendums to challenge council decisions, including on tax and utility rates; cap the salary of future city managers and impose a term limit; and give the fire union unilateral power to decide when contract negotiations would be taken to binding arbitration. The campaign has deployed blockwalkers, made television ad buys and used social media to push its message. On Tuesday, more than two dozen campaign workers huddled inside headquarters making phone calls to potential voters as the council members held their news conference. RELATED: In secret recording, Steele lays out San Antonio firefighter union's plans Archer and Mayor Ron Nirenberg have also attacked Steele as the figurehead of the ABC campaign that supports the amendments. In turn, Steele and his supporters have accused them of launching personal attacks, though Steele has made personal attacks on Sculley for years. Pelaez and Gonzales have won endorsements previously from the firefighters union, and both said they support firefighters, but that doesnt equate to a blind vote of support for everything the union does. I take this job very seriously, Gonzales said. My votes are always thoughtful and with the best interest of my constituents. Sandoval was perplexed why she was included in the list of Steele backers. She ousted Councilman Cris Medina, who was one of the unions more ardent supporters. Ive spoken with Mr. Steele once in my life, and it was months before I ever took office, she said. For him to say he has my vote locked up is baseless. Perrys statement lamented the long-standing feud between Steele and the city, and placed blame on both sides. I wish this would not have gotten to this point, but we are in a nasty battle that will only get nastier over the next several weeks, he said. Matt Mackowiak respects what Beto ORourke has achieved in this election campaign. Mackowiak, the Austin-based GOP consultant and chairman of the Travis County Republican Party, wants (and expects) to see ORourke, the Democratic challenger for Republican incumbent Ted Cruzs U.S. Senate seat, fail in his upset bid next month. But he recognizes ORourke has exceeded all expectations in a state where Democrats have a 24-year winless streak in statewide races. Beto has overperformed in so many ways that I think you have to stop and give him some credit for what theyve built, Mackowiak said on this weeks episode of the Express-News Puro Politics podcast. Hes raised more money for the United States Senate than any Democrat running, incumbent or challenger, in the country this cycle, by far. His donor file is going to be extremely valuable going forward. Hes created enthusiasm. Mackowiak is nonetheless confident that all of ORourkes overflow crowds, viral videos, yard signs, celebrity endorsements and gushing newspaper and magazine profiles dont add up to a formula for victory. And while the GOP consultant is unabashedly biased, the poll numbers seem to back him up. READ ALSO: Can Beto O'Rourke get college students to the polls? The latest RealClear Politics average of poll results gives Cruz a six-point lead. That margin is remarkably tight if you consider the historical context, which is that no Texas Democrat has gotten within 10 points of any Republican in a U.S. Senate contest since 1988. That margin is disappointing, however, in the context of a 2018 campaign in which ORourke has elevated hopes to the point where the impossible has seemed within reach for long-suffering Texas progressives. Last Tuesday, Karl Rove, the Republican architect of former President George W. Bushs political career, spoke at the Headliners Club in Austin and described ORourke as a charismatic figure who is the most reckless candidate Ive ever seen. In particular, Rove criticized ORourke for declining the services of a general consultant and putting so much emphasis on visiting all 254 counties in the state, a move that Rove dismissed as a waste. Mackowiak faulted ORourke for refusing to bend his platform to meet the values of what has historically been a very conservative state (even when it was conservative Democrats, rather than conservative Republicans, running the show). The consultant said an ORourke victory requires three factors coming together perfectly for the El Paso congressman: massive Democratic turnout, three-fourths of the independent vote and least 10 percent of the GOP vote. The big Democratic turnout seems attainable, but the other two pieces of the puzzle will be harder to achieve. The independent piece to me is the part that I really dont understand, Mackowiak said. If you look at Beto, he has not moved to the middle in any meaningful way on any meaningful issue. READ ALSO: PAC backing Ted Cruz falsely says Beto O'Rourke voted against body armor for border sheriffs This is where political calculation can get thorny. If recent election cycles have taught us anything, its that twisting yourself into something youre not is a guarantee of failure, a sure way to alienate your true believers while failing to convince opposition party voters. ORourke has made concerted efforts to speak to Republican and independents, and detach himself from the baggage of political partisanship. At the same time, he has clung to his deeply held progressive views on issues ranging from health care to gun control to the legalization of marijuana. In 2014, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis moved to the right by supporting an open carry gun law, which made her seem inauthentic. (A move that she later conceded was a mistake.) Mackowiak acknowledged that Davis pandering effort didnt seem all that honest, but he insists ORourke cant win in this state if he doesnt make some concessions to the political center. Mackowiak suggested the race shifted in Cruzs direction with the first debate, a clash in which Cruz took the offensive and caricatured ORourke as a cop hater open to the idea of legalizing hard drugs. Mackowiak said the debate marked the moment when the race moved from a battle of personalities to a contest over issues. On personalities, Beto has an advantage, I think we all know that, Mackowiak said. On issues, in Texas, its not clear to me that he has anything but a disadvantage. So the more this gets back to issues, the better it is for Cruz, which is why hes going to be fine. I think Beto is running a campaign in a state that he hopes exists, not the state that does exist. ORourke supporters would say that hes pointing the way to a new, increasingly diverse Texas that is in the process of coming into existence. The question is whether his campaign will prove to be too much, too soon. 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 No politicians will succeed in destroying centuries-old ties between Russian and Ukrainian peoples, State Secretary, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, Grigory Karasin, said in an interview with Izvestia. He also spoke about prospects of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement with new leader of Armenia in power. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko terminated the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia of 1997. What will be the consequences of this decision? "The Ukrainian side has officially notified us of its desire to terminate this agreement. It served as a solid foundation for building cooperation between the two countries in almost all areas of our mutual relations. After the coup in February of 2014, Kiev, despite obvious damage to its own national interests, decided to destroy what has been created by peoples of Russia and Ukraine for many decades. The Ukrainian government's decision to let a decades-old friendship pact with Russia to expire ahead of presidential polls next spring appeals to its base. It is obviously done by authorities in Kiev to improve their slumping ratings ahead of the 2019 presidential elections," Karasin said, Urdo Point reported. What actions does Russia take to free journalist, chief editor of RIA Novosti - Ukraine, Kirill Vyshinsky? "Moscow is taking every step to put global pressure on Kiev to free Kirill Vyshinsky. We are doing everything in our powers, including on global arenas, to remind our partners about the case of Kirill Vyshinsky in order to speed up his release He is a victim of Ukraine's crackdown on media that dare contradict the government on what is going on in the country," Karasin noted. Your recently met Zurab Abashidze, special representative of Georgia on relations with Russia, for the third time this year. Did improvement of Russian-Georgian relations advance this year? Will the visa issue be resolbed soon? "Tbilisi has turned down all our offers to restore diplomatic ties and continues its hostile actions against us on the international scale, contributing to the NATO strategy of containing Russia Georgia's aggressive behavior threatens the normalization process that started in 2012 and has benefited citizens of both countries. Russia was open to a deal on visa-free travel with the South Caucasus country but needed diplomatic relations to resume first. We do not exclude, in principle, a visa-free regime with Georgia on a mutual basis. But it is difficult to implement due to lack of a diplomatic relationship. Russia's current visa policies were shaped by an uneasy international situation, specifically a rise in terrorism and illegal migration," Karasin said, Sputnik reported. Armenian leadership has changed this spring. Many people in Russia are worried that new authorities will complicate relations between Moscow and Yerevan. Can we say that Russia and Armenia are still allies? How has Russian-Armenian cooperation changed since then? "High-level Russian-Armenian dialogue continues despite political changes in Armenia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has had three meetings with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and the Prime Ministers of the two countries have met twice over a few months. The leaders have also talked on phone. The main political outcome of these contacts is the confirmation of the unchanged course of further reinforcement of Russian-Armenian allied relations both in bilateral format and within common integration frameworks such as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Despite some domestic political instability in Armenia, systematic joint work on specific areas of cooperation continues. A testament to that is the positive dynamics in commodity turnover, which made $925.6 million in the first half of 2018, marking a 23.4% growth as compared to the same period of 2017," Karasin noted, armradio.am reported. Are there any prospects for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement under new leader of Armenia? "There is only one perspective a peaceful settlement through negotiations. The vital interest of the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples in security, stability and development forms the basis and political driving force for the negotiation process, which Russia strongly supports As an OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing country, Russia is working closely with the other members of the trio France and USA. In compliance with the general line of the co-chairs, in the framework of the decisions taken on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we also strive to do our part to the best of our ability to assist the parties to the conflict in developing peace agreements. This position of ours remains unchanged. It is fixed in the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation and confirmed during Vladimir Putins recent meetings with the leaders of the two countries," armradio.am quoted him as saying. First responders in Uvalde County are searching for a motorist who was swept away in flood waters early Wednesday near the Sabinal River. The driver attempted to traverse Shudde's Crossing on Ranch Road 187 South at about 1:50 a.m., but both he and his vehicle were swept away, according to a Facebook post from Sabinal Mayor Pro Tem Javier Flores. Let me be one of the early ones here in town to congratulate Brett Kavanaugh, a decent man and constitutional conservative, on his appointment to the Supreme Court. It is, however, a huge black eye for the United States that he was forced to face a despicable, lowdown attempt at political assassination. This was, of course, orchestrated by our radical left (Democratic Party), aided and abetted by our fake news mainstream media. The left still cant get over the fact that it lost the 2016 election fair and square, so it is resorting to every filthy, underhanded trick in the book to thwart President Donald Trump and his agenda. This latest big lie, coming on the heels of the Kavanaugh victory, is the story from fake news central (the New York Times) accusing the president and his father of cheating on taxes. And now a word to Stormy Daniels, Christine Blasey Ford, et. al, who lied about the president or Justice Kavanaugh. Your stories didnt fly, even though you lied on national television. You have seriously hurt the cases of women who have been actually assaulted and made a complete fool of yourselves. The left is predicting a big win in the midterms due to the Kavanaugh victory, but they may continue to be wrong. A lot of people are working now who werent under President Barack Obama, and the general economy is in considerably better shape than it was two years ago, just for openers. Ill be curious to see how the left and the mainstream media try to cover up those facts. Robert E. Blake Watershed moment The psychological and physical control of women by men was enshrined in Western civilization over 2,000 ago in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. There, we read that Eve was supposedly created from Adams rib; thus she became his property (along with his animals and later his pickup). All was well until a talking snake convinced Eve to eat an apple and then seduce innocent Adam into doing likewise. Therefore, she and all future women were blamed as the source of all misery and hardships bestowed upon men forever. Western civilizations women may now be at a watershed moment in history if they reject the above as fake news and demand equality with men. If they do not, then they will silently slink back into their predestined corners and beg men to be forgiven for their momentary uppity behavior. Charles Chuck Mire Chairman of the Armenian parliament Ara Babloyan is departing on October 12 for Moscow on a working visit, Aysor reported citing NA press service. NA chairman is expected to meet with the Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin. On October 13 the delegation headed by the head of the parliament will depart for Geneva to participate in the works of the 139th summit of Inter-Parliamentary Union. The delegation consists of vice speaker Michael Melkumyan, lawmakers Shake Isayan and Shushan Sardaryan. Bilateral meetings are expected during the visit to Switzerland. GREENWICH Gun control has emerged as an issue in the race for the State Senate between incumbent Republican L. Scott Frantz and Democrat Alexandra Bergstein. The two have gone back and forth over Frantzs record on gun laws during the past two weeks, including in a competing Op-Ed and paid advertisement in Greenwich Time. Bergstein has said Frantz attempted to weaken gun law reforms which were put in place after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Frantz says he was strongly invested in those laws and making them appeal to a bipartisan Legislature. Speaking during a Democratic candidates panel on gun violence last week, and writing in a Sept. 27 Op-Ed, Bergstein said Frantz had attempted to weaken the Sandy Hook reforms and what is known as the Lori Jackson Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act, which prohibits the possession and purchase of firearms by those subject to temporary restraining orders. Bergstein said Frantz tried to pass strike amendments to undermine the legislation. These actions reveal Scott Frantzs true allegiance, Bergstein wrote in her Op-Ed. He stands with pro-gun Republicans and will sacrifice our safety for political gain. Bergstein pledged her commitment to strengthening existing laws and fighting attempts to weaken them. Frantz responded in an Oct. 7 ad in which he wrote there is no such thing as a strike amendment and that he had no idea why she would make up the term. There is such a thing as a strike all-amendment but that would have entirely gutted the bill, Frantz said, adding he had no interest in doing so since he helped craft the legislation as part of the Gun Violence Prevention and Childrens Safety Task Force. Frantz said he was charged with helping to craft a bill that would not only include the strongest gun laws in the country, but one that would receive bipartisan support. Bergstein said on Tuesday she chose the term strike amendment deliberately. When I researched Scotts full record on gun safety, I learned that the kind of amendments he introduced and voted for when the bipartisan bill came for a vote on the floor are referred to in the Senate as killer amendments, Bergstein said. As the term suggests, the intention of such amendments is to delay, derail or kill a bill. I purposely chose not to use this term because I felt it was inflammatory and disrespectful for an Op-Ed on gun safety. Bergstein added she felt the amendments Frantz introduced were not intended in any way to strengthen the bill or draw more support because there were bipartisan votes against all seven of the amendments and the final bill had overwhelming bipartisan support. On Wednesday, Frantz again took issue with Bergsteins interpretation of what happened, saying there is no such thing as killer amendments. Theres nothing like that at all, Frantz said. Theres no killer amendment or strike amendment. I dont think she understands how it works. There is a strike all amendment but theres no reason I would use that on my own bill. This is something I put my heart and soul into to make sure it was bipartisan. Why would I want to kill my own bill? That makes no sense. In his ad, Frantz said Bergstein was trying to mislead the voters in a dangerous way about his record. Frantz voted in favor of both the post-Sandy Hook reforms and the Lori Jackson bill. Frantz said the amendments he offered were designed to get that bipartisan support because sport shooters, like himself, felt shotguns didnt need to face additional restrictions. He also tried to carve out 22 caliber guns, which are used by Boy Scouts and, Frantz said, not a safety issue. Another ammendment would have limited magazines to 17 rounds, instead of the approved 10, because professional security guards were begging on their knees for him to push larger clips as a safety precaution, he said. Since I never heard from Ms. Bergstein when we were working to pass this legislation, this appears to be a new issue for political gain for her and it is revealing that she would be spreading misleading information, Frantz wrote. Frantz said that he felt the closing weeks of the election would be more about economic issues in the state. Were trying to get them to focus on the elephant in the room which is Connecticuts fiscal crisis, Frantz said. We made some progress with our bi-partisan budget, but if we dont get the right people back up in Hartford, we could be facing some very serious problems in the not-so-distant future. Bergstein said she believed many issues would be on peoples minds. I think voters deserve more credit than that, Bergstein said. In all of my conversations, they express concern about the real issues that face Connecticut and how they affect them and their families. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com GREENWICH In September 1989, James Tillman was convicted of a brutal crime. A woman in Hartford was warming up her car when a man pushed his way inside the vehicle and, after driving her to a secluded spot, proceeded to beat her, rob her and rape her. Tillman was arrested, stood trial and was sentenced to 45 years in prison after being found guilty, primarily based on eyewitness identification. But he didnt do it. After 18-and-a-half years in prison, Tillman was released in 2006 after DNA evidence exonerated him of the crime. Tillman shared his story Wednesday morning before the Retired Mens Association of Greenwich, speaking along with Audrey Levitan, director of development and external affairs for The Innocence Project. That group worked to introduce the DNA evidence that ultimately cleared Tillmans name. I was locked in some of the toughest prisons, and all for a crime I did not commit, Tillman said. The details of his time in prison would scare the audience, he said, calling it hell on Earth. What Tillman most wanted to share, though, was his story of forgiveness and love. He discussed the word conviction and its dual meanings. Tillman said he knows both what it is like to live with conviction and to be wrongly convicted. Conviction can be a powerful thing, he said. When you have conviction it means you hold beliefs that are so strong that nobody can take them away. When I was locked up, nobody in the world besides my mother and my brother thought I was innocent, but I held conviction Conviction can also be used in a negative way. We convict others or we judge them and talk about them negatively when they dont deserve it. We convict others out of ignorance, but we find freedom when we live in love, not hate, and when we seek redemption, not revenge, and when we ask for forgiveness. The investigation into the crime was incomplete, Tillman said. He was sent to prison not because he committed the crime, Tillman said, but because he could have. Before a verdict came in, prosecutors presented him with a plea bargain that would have meant a year in prison with good behavior if he confessed to the crime, Tillman said. But he turned it down. I didnt even have to think about it, Tillman said. I would rather serve 100 years in prison before I admitted to something that I didnt do. In 2005, the Innocence Project took on Tillmans case. Advanced DNA testing on all of the samples taken after the assault proved he was not the perpetrator. On June 6, 2006, his conviction was vacated, and a month later all the charges were dropped. By then, Tillman said he had already taken all his anger over the unjust conviction and flipped it to turn it into love and faith after all his years in prison. When Tillman and others tell about their experiences, Levitan said, it puts a face on problems in the criminal justice system and increase the call for reforms. There is nothing like hearing the story of someone who has been wrongfully convicted to really understand what this really is all about and the tragedies that are caused by our criminal justice system, she said. The Innocence Project, with chapters around the country, recently marked its 25th year as a national organization. Originally established at the Cardozo Law School, the organization uses DNA evidence to help free those who have been wrongfully convicted. Before it was formed, only five people had been exonerated by DNA evidence, and no state had post-conviction DNA testing statutes. Since the project began, 362 people including 20 on death row have been exonerated by DNA testing, and all 50 states have statutes that allow DNA testing, Levitan said. As a result of proving factual innocence in these extreme and serious cases, numerous states have abolished the death penalty, she said. In 158 cases, the guilty criminal was found using the same evidence. Our mission is to free the wrongfully convicted through DNA testing and reform the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment, Levitan said. It started a movement and now there are close to 60 organizations across the country working locally and in jurisdictions to free innocent people. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com BRIDGEPORT Words werent minced by one school board member after the city offered to assume $250,000 worth of district bills rather than paying up. Hell no, said Board Vice Chairman Hernan Illingworth. The rest of the nine-member panel concurred, voting unanimously Tuesday to have the boards attorney send city officials a letter demanding the full amount the City Council appropriated to the district for the 2018-19 fiscal year. Under state statutes, the contribution must be in cash, board member Maria Pereira said. Anything else, she said, would results in an illegal lowering of the citys Minimum Budget Requirement for funding education. Such a reduction could lead to a state fine and lower school budgets for years to come, Pereira added. I agree it is illegal for us to allow the city to do that, said Dennis Bradley, another board member. If the city is unwilling to give us the money, we place them on legal notice that we will take whatever action we need to, legally. The issue stems from a $250,000 discrepancy in the districts 2018-19 operating budgets bottom line. School finance officials say the districts operating budget should be $230,394,025, not the $230,144,025 advanced by the citys budget office. The city council approved a $1,039,000 increase for this year. City Budget Director Nestor Nkwo effectively lowered the increase to $789,419, declaring that part of the citys 2017-18 increase was to compensate for a mid-year rescission of $250,000 by the state in its Education Cost Share grant to the city. As such, he maintained it should not be carried forward as part of the minimum budget requirement. The rescission came months after the City Council had approved its contribution to the school budget. State law prohibits municipalities like Bridgeport from reducing school budget contributions for any reason. School and city officials have met several times over the discrepancy and on Friday city officials said a solution was in the works. The city is working in cooperation with the BOE to cover the $250,000 shortfall for this year, said Rowena White, a spokeswoman to Mayor Joe Ganim. The city promised to pay for $250,000 worth of school board expenses without transferring the funds to the district, and to also restore that amount to the districts 2019-20 operating budget, White said the offer is not in-kind services because the citys proposal is to take and pay for school board bills. She also said the city cant comment on the school boards letter until it is received. Schools Superintendent Aresta Johnson told the board to be mindful of city promises. It may not necessarily come through, Johnson told the board on Tuesday. There are no guarantees. She recommended that the board press for the cash. School board Finance Committee Chairwoman Jessica Martinez agreed. Illingworth said this is not the first time the city administration has tried to shortchange the district and its 21,000 students. It keeps happening over and over and over again, Illingworth said. Its not Nestor, its the mayor, board member Chris Taylor said. While he agreed the district is entitled to the money approved by the City Council, Taylor said he did not like the idea of spending a lot on money on legal fees to get $250,000. FAIRFIELD A Trumbull man who was in critical condition after a shooting at Wings Over Fairfield is a restaurant employee who accidentally shot himself, police said. Lt. Robert Kalamaras said Wednesday that the 24-year-old man whose identity has not yet been released by police was in critical but stable condition after the Tuesday night shooting. There was no update on the mans condition Wednesday evening. Shortly after 9 p.m., an employee at the Wings Over Fairfield at 2705 Black Rock Turnpike called 911 to report that a restaurant delivery driver had been shot behind the building. Officers found the victim lying on his back in the rear hallway of the business with a gunshot wound to the chest. A preliminary investigation and evidence recovered at the scene revealed that this is an isolated incident and that there is no public threat, Kalamaras said. Police believe the shooting was self-inflicted and accidental, Kalamaras said. After the shooting, the man was taken to St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport, where he underwent emergency surgery. Police said the man shot himself with a revolver, but were unable to release details on whether he had an active gun permit. Back in 2013, a Bridgeport police officer shot himself in the leg while checking out a gun in a crowded Bagel King in Bridgeport. No one else was injured. Initially, there were protests for the officer, 56-year-old Juan Santiago, to be arrested. Instead, then-Chief Joseph Gaudett turned the investigation over to state police. In the end, Santiago, a 29-year veteran of the police force, was granted entry to a special probation program. There is not enough analysis data for Enel Generacion Chile. 4.1 Community Rank Outperform Votes Enel Generacion Chile has received 205 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Enel Generacion Chile has received 122 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Enel Generacion Chile has received 62.69% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Enel Generacion Chile and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe EOCC will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe EOCC will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Dina Powell, the Goldman Sachs executive and former senior White House official, is the top candidate to replace outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, two people familiar with the matter said. Powell, who returned to Goldman in a senior role after leaving her job as U.S. President Donald Trumps deputy national security adviser, is said to be strongly considering the job but also weighing family concerns. Trump yesterday described Powell as a "person I would consider" when asked about her possible nomination. "She is under consideration. We have, actually, many names," the president stressed. Other potential successors to Haley include Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, who previously served as a spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the U.N.; and Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Politico reported. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company. It provides financial and investment banking services. The firm offers a range of investment banking products and services in all capital markets, including advising on corporate strategy and structure, capital raising in equity and debt markets, risk management, market making in cash securities and derivative instruments, and brokerage and research. It operates through the following segments: Consumer and Community Banking, Corporate and Investment Bank, Commercial Banking, and Asset and Wealth Management. The Consumer and Community Banking segment serves consumers and businesses through personal service at bank branches and through automated teller machine, online, mobile, and telephone banking. The Corporate and Investment Bank segment offers a suite of investment banking, market-making, prime brokerage, and treasury and securities products and services to a global client base of corporations, investors, financial institutions, government and municipal entities. The Commercial Banking segment delivers services to U.S. and its multinational clients, including corporations, municipalities, financial institutions, and non profit Read More 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 Magna International Inc. designs, engineers, and manufactures components, assemblies, systems, subsystems, and modules for original equipment manufacturers of vehicles and light trucks worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Body Exteriors & Structures, Power & Vision, Seating Systems, and Complete Vehicles. Its Body Exteriors & Structures segment provides body and chassis systems, as well as engineering and testing services; exterior systems, including fascia and trims, front end modules, front integration panels, liftgate modules, active aerodynamics, engineered glass, running boards, truck bed access products, and side doors; and roof systems, such as modular and textile folding roofs, and hard and soft tops. The company's Power & Vision segment offers dedicated hybrid, dual and e-clutch, and manual transmissions; engine drive plates and accessories; AWD/4WD products, rear drive modules, and hybrid and battery electric drive systems; transmission, engine, and driveline components; advanced driver assistance systems, camera systems, ultrasonic sensors, and electronic controllers; interior and exterior mirrors, actuators, door handles, overhead consoles, and camera monitoring systems; head, tail, and fog lamps; signal and other lighting products; and latching systems, door modules, window systems, power closure systems, hinges and wire forming, and handle assemblies. Its Seating Systems segment provides seat structures, mechanism and hardware solutions, and foam and trim products. The company's Complete Vehicles segment offers vehicle manufacturing and engineering services. It also designs, engineers, and manufactures tooling products. Magna International Inc. was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Aurora, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Molina Healthcare: Aetna & Humana - Medicare Advantage, Affinity Health Plan, AmericanWork Inc., Better Health Network, Camelot Care Centers Inc, Children's Behavioral Health Inc., Choices Group Inc., College Community Services, Dockside Services Inc, Family Preservation Services Inc., Family Preservation Services of Florida Inc., Family Preservation Services of North Carolina Inc., Family Preservation Services of Washington D.C. Inc., Family Preservation Services of West Virginia Inc., Florida NetPASS LLC, Hclb Inc., Magellan Complete Care, Maple Star Nevada Inc., Maple Star Oregon Inc., Mercy CarePlus, Molina Clinical Services LLC, Molina Healthcare Data Center Inc., Molina Healthcare of Arizona Inc., Molina Healthcare of California, Molina Healthcare of Florida Inc., Molina Healthcare of Georgia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Molina Healthcare of Iowa Inc., Molina Healthcare of Louisiana Inc., Molina Healthcare of Maryland Inc., Molina Healthcare of Michigan Inc., Molina Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Molina Healthcare of Nevada Inc., Molina Healthcare of New Mexico Inc., Molina Healthcare of New York Inc., Molina Healthcare of North Carolina Inc., Molina Healthcare of Ohio Inc., Molina Healthcare of Oklahoma Inc., Molina Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Molina Healthcare of Puerto Rico Inc., Molina Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, Molina Healthcare of Texas Inc., Molina Healthcare of Texas Insurance Company, Molina Healthcare of Utah Inc., Molina Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Washington Inc., Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin Inc., Molina Holdings Corporation, Molina Hospital Management LLC, Molina Information Systems LLC dba Molina Medicaid Solutions, Molina Medical Management Inc., Molina Pathways LLC, Molina Pathways of Texas Inc., Molina Youth Academy, NextLevel Health Illinois, Pathways Community Corrections Inc., Pathways Community Services LLC, Pathways Community Support of Texas Inc., Pathways Health and Community Support LLC, Pathways Human Services LLC., Pathways of Arizona Inc., Pathways of Delaware Inc., Pathways of Idaho LLC, Pathways of Maine Inc., Pathways of Massachusetts LLC, Pathways of Oklahoma Inc., Pathways of Washington Inc., Providence Community Services, Providence Human Services, Raystown Developmental Services Inc., The Game of Work LLC, The RedCo Group Inc., Total Care Medicaid plan, Transitional Family Services Inc., Unisys -Health Information Management, and YourCare Health Plan. Georgia's parliament has postponed the discussion of the marijuana regulatory bill for two months, based on the decision of the parliament health committee. The bill would regulate the rules and procedures of marijuana cultivation for export, for medical and cosmetic purposes only, which is strongly opposed by the opposition and the church. The bill reads that the licenses for marijuana cultivation will be issued for five years and the cultivation of marijuana will be allowed only in a closed environment in an area equipped by surveillance cameras. Both the interior and the exterior of such areas must be under 24-hour surveillance, Agenda.ge reported. The government will at first only issue 10 licenses for marijuana cultivation and the cost of the license will amount to 25,000 GEL. Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze had earlier said that the legislative body suspended discussions on the bill in order to dispel doubts around the initiative and inform public. A farmer responsible for one of the worst cases of animal neglect seen by a judge has now been banned from keeping livestock for life. Rodney Pascoe, 65, of Under Lane, Delabole, appeared at Bodmin Magistrates Court to answer ten charges of causing unnecessary suffering and failing in his duty of care to his animals. Mr Pascoe pleaded guilty to all charges, which were bought before the court following a joint investigation between by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Rural Payments Agency and Cornwall Council. Passing sentence, District Judge Diana Baker told Mr Pascoe that this was the worst case she had seen in years. The court had heard how animals were found in an awful condition, with cattle drowning in muck, so emaciated they could not stand up and in many cases close to death. Mr Pascoe was banned for life from keeping or owning farmed animals to include horses and poultry, and was handed a 16 week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months. He was also told to either sell, or remove from his land, his remaining cattle within 28 days, and ordered to pay costs of 4,952 to Cornwall Council within the same period. He was also handed an additional victim surcharge of 115. Jane Tomlinson, Cornwall Councils Trading Standards Manager, stressed that this case is not typical of the high standards that farmers in Cornwall usually uphold. It is regrettable that prosecution action had to be taken in this case against a farmer based in Cornwall, she said. However despite attempts by the relevant agencies to advise him, he failed to provide the most basic needs for his animals. The application window for a new subsidised hedge laying training course is now open for Welsh farmers. Hedgerows are massively important to most farmers. Not only do they assist in managing stock and provide a visual and aesthetic effect on the landscape, but they are also important conservation features, providing corridors of shelter and food for many species of birds and small mammals. The Welsh Government scheme Farming Connect is offering up to 80% support for farmers completing practical hedge laying courses. The courses will be delivered this autumn through its network of approved training providers at locations throughout Wales. The final application window of 2018 for all subsidised Farming Connect training is open now and closes on Friday 26 October 2018. The training course will cover topics including health and safety; the choice and maintenance of hedging tools and cover a range of hedge species which are suited to the Welsh geology and climate. Farmers will learn basic hedge laying practices which suit the local style as well as maintenance skills through demonstrations and practice sessions. 'Important' Sarah Lewis, deputy director of Lantra Wales, which delivers the Lifelong Learning and Development programme on behalf of Farming Connect, explained why this new course has been introduced. She said: Hedgerows are an important part of any landscape; they provide boundary definition, shelter and benefit the wildlife, but to fulfil this role it is important that they are planted appropriately to ensure they are fit for purpose and survive. The aim of this new training course, which were providing for the first time, is to ensure that every attendee is aware of the need for correct safety procedures in order to reduce the risk of accidents and secondly, that theyll know how to lay hedges which help regenerate the plants, allowing continuity of growth way beyond their natural age, Ms Lewis said. Farmers will need to complete a Personal Development Plan (PDP) before submitting a funding application form. For more information visit Farming Connect. A farmer hopes to take the world by storm with the "cutest sheep ever" after successfully breeding them in New Zealand. Sally Strathdee and husband Lindsay, who farm in the countryside near Motueka, South Island, came across a Facebook photo of Valais Blacknose sheep five years ago. Since then, they became hooked on the breed, and the couple have tried to find a way of breeding the sheep in New Zealand. Initially trying New Zealand, Australia and the United States, but to no prevail, the couple identified British breeders who had gained top placings in the Carlisle show. Breeders in Scotland agreed to help the couple, but New Zealand's strict import laws around livestock prevented live animals being brought from the UK to their home country. Sally and Lindsay worked closely with the breeders to give them the confidence they could gain entry to NZ at a time when the entry conditions were still being updated. A small gleam at the end of the tunnel occurred, and a change in the NZ biosecurity laws finally meant the import of embryos was going to be a possibility. In May 2017, after wading through an enormous amount of red tape, numerous visits to breeders to select foundation stock, and finding a couple of breeders willing to undergo stringent requirements, the couple finally had embryos frozen and put on a plane to travel 11,000km. Embryos arrived began to arrive, and 16 Valais Blacknose sheep were born shortly after. The couple, who run the 12,000 follower strong Valais Blacknose New Zealand Facebook page, are now waiting for the green light to begin exports to North America. The National Farmers' Union has urged the Government to ensure food production is at the heart of the Agriculture Bill as its heads for its Second Reading today. The Agriculture Bill enters into a crucial Second Reading in the House of Commons on Wednesday (10 October), setting out a range of industry and political views. First published on 12 September 2018, it sets out how farmers and land managers will in future be paid for public goods, such as better air and water quality and improved soil health. The Second Reading will set the agenda for the Committee Stage of the Bill, which will see detailed amendments tabled and voted upon. The NFU has used the beginning of the Second Reading to urge Government to drive any future agricultural policy towards that of ensuring food production is profitable, safe and secure. The union has set out priorities for an agricultural policy that recognises the role of farming and the services it provides to the nation including food, plants and flowers, energy and environmental management. It says the Bill should promote the nations strategic priorities by supporting domestic agriculture to ensure food security, and promote improvements in the competitiveness and financial resilience of farm businesses, helping farmers to better manage risk and periods of poor market returns. A multi-annual budgetary framework is also needed, according to the NFU, which would provide certainty for farmers and allow them to plan and invest for the future. 'Once-in-a-generation' NFU President, Minette Batters said the Agriculture Bill offers the Government a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to shape the future of farming policy. A Bill that has an explicit and clear overarching agricultural focus, with food production at its heart, can ensure farmers continue to deliver sustainable food while maintaining our high environmental and animal welfare standards, Mrs Batters said. As showcased during Back British Farming day, it is clear that British food and farming has overwhelming support from parliamentarians. We have seen it on countless occasions and today I am urging them to continue backing British farming by ensuring food production is at the heart of this Bill. The NFU President added: British farmers and growers deliver the high-quality, traceable and affordable food that the British public expect and support. It is vital that a future policy enables British farmers to continue doing what they do best producing food for the nation. A lot of industry comment has focused on whether the Bill has the right balance of measures between incentivising environmental protection and supporting productivity. For example, the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has challenged MPs to "grasp the enormity" of setting out new farming policies during the Second Reading, and the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has called for more certainty on Government funding plans for the industry post-2022. However, following the release of the UN's IPCC report which highlights how a further half a degree of extra warming on the planet will affect hundreds of millions of people, UK environmental groups and green advocates have called for sustainable farming practices to be advocated in the Agriculture Bill. Farmers and those in the wider industry are being encouraged to talk more about their feelings and well-being today for World Mental Health Day. The Day is observed on 10 October every year, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilising efforts in support of mental health. It provides an opportunity for farmers to talk about their work, and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for the industry. Poor mental health is the biggest health topic in the UK at present - one in four people have been diagnosed with a mental illness and in farming, mental health issues continue to be of great concern. The leading cause of death for people aged between 20 and 34 is suicide - and approximately, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), more than one agricultural worker a week in the UK dies by suicide. The Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) is urging those within the industry not to hide problems from themselves, their families and friends and to talk about their personal feelings. The FUW made a commitment at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show in 2017 to continue raising awareness of mental health problems in rural communities, and is therefore renewing the call for those who might be suffering from mental health problems to seek help. FUW President, Glyn Roberts said: This year's theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is young people and mental health in a changing world. Our young people are faced with an uncertain future and their world is changing rapidly, which will no doubt cause anxiety and stress to many. Their farming businesses are under threat, our export markets post March 2019 are unclear and any support for the industry has still not been finalised. He added: Add to that the growing problem of bovine TB and you have a recipe for the perfect storm. But we must break the stigma attached to mental health, so if youre feeling vulnerable, stressed, or anxious, please open-up - dont bottle it up and speak to someone. That doesnt just mean today, but always. Farmers and farming families need to continue talking openly about what they are experiencing. Rural-based charities such as the Farming Community Network and Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution help farmers who are suffering from mental health issues. Job in Siyaram Silk Mills Limited for Counter Sales Executive Counter Sales Executive Posted On : Siyaram Silk Mills Limited Job Location : Bengaluru (India) Experience : 2-7 Years Salary : Undisclosed Job Description Responsible for managing the P&L and driving sales for the store through efficient store operations, customer service delivery, motivation and retention of store personnel and adherence to company norms. Completes store operational requirements by ensuring optimum utilization of resources and manpower. Planning and managing the store visual & merchandise displays, implementation of the sales development & promotional activities as per the plan. Planning and forecasting Inventory requirements for the store and adherence to replenishment schedule. Monitor all point of sales activities in the store including sales transactions, tracking payments, maintaining inventory updates (stock taking), handling returns and refunds, gathering consumer data for feedback. Maintain store hygiene and adherence to policies and SOPs. Key Skill sales,Market Research,Marketing,Business Development,Product Knowledge Eligibility Criteria Any Graduate Informations: Salary : Undisclosed Category : Marketing & Sales Subcategory : Marketing Executive/Manager Gender Prefrence : Any Position : 1 Role Counter Sales Executive Company Profile Siyaram Silk Mills Limited We are one of the largest manufacturers of blended Suiting & Shirting (30 lakh Mt.p.m) with annual Turnover of Rs.325Cr.Part of Rs.1000 Cr.Siyaram poddar Group.We have world class manufacturing facilities at Silvasa,Tarapur near Mumbai with our HO at Mumbai.We are providing India with world class fashion fabrics.We are looking for an enthusiastic team of professionals with fresh ideas for our Garment division having reknown brands like J.HAMPSTEAD, OXEMBERG & MSD. The pavilion of Georgia has been opened at the Frankfurt Book Fair last evening. The set-up of the pavilion reflects the theme of the Georgian showcase the 33 letters of the Georgian alphabet, which serve to introduce various sides of the countrys literature, art and culture. Georgia's Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini have participated in the opening ceremony of the pavilion with other guests. "We are honored to be the Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair which has a 500-years history. Participation in this prestigious and large scale event provides a unique opportunity for us to represent ancient and rich Georgian culture as well as showcase the civilizational unity that connects Georgians and Europeans," Agenda.ge cited Bakhtadze as saying. The PM added that Georgias every achievement, democratic or economic development and leadership position in the region are the results of the countys Euro-Atlantic choice. Bakhtadze has expressed his hope that the Frankfurt Book Fair will further support Georgias cultural integration to the EU and advance the bilateral relations. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Brazil live up to billing as medallists shine Brazil take deserved gold and dominate stats Russia and Egypt also finish on the podium Hosts Argentina struggled for consistency The Men's Youth Olympic Futsal Tournament at Buenos Aires 2018 offered up a high standard of play for a competition at U-18 level. Overall, the event was a huge hit with spectators and showed the discipline in an excellent light during its historic debut as an Olympic sport. The tournament featured 26 matches over the space of 12 days, a tough schedule for the ten teams involved, each of which consisted of just ten players. The competitors were tested both mentally and physically, but the quality of the futsal did not suffer in the slightest. Instead, the thousands of fans who took in the action at the Main Futsal Hall and CeNARD Hall were treated to an event that yielded worthy champions, deserved medal winners and an average of 6.69 goals per game. Tanushree Dutta Nana Patekar Controversy: Tanushree files FIR against Nana; Watch video | FilmiBeat Tanushree Dutta lodged a complaint against Nana Patekar with the Maharashtra Women Commission and they've sent the actor a legal notice, for which he has to reply within 10 days. The notice has been slapped at the Horn OK Please producer Samee Siddiqui, director Rakesh Sarang and choreographer Ganesh Acharya as well, and all of them have been given the 10-day bracket to respond to the notice. Aishwarya Rai Walked Out Of A Film To Support Flora Saini Against Sexual Harassment! #MeToo Also, the Mumbai police has swung into action and will record Tanushree Dutta's statements at her residence and it is reported that the process will begin at 5:30 PM. The entire controversy blew out when Tanushree Dutta returned from the United States a month ago after a decade of being away from India and the film industry and levelled allegations against Nana Patekar that he sexually harassed her on the sets of Horn OK Please in 2008. When she turned down his advances, he called up goons from the MNS party and they vandalised her car and threatened her with dire consequences. Several celebrities came out in support of Tanushree Dutta and the others supported Nana Patekar claiming that he's innocent. Nana Patekar has stuck to his words saying that Tanushree Dutta is lying and had also cancelled a press conference, citing that his lawyers advised him to do so. Now that the police will soon investigate on the matter, we hope justice will be served for whoever has done wrong. Abhijeet Bhattacharya Accused Of Sexual Harassment; Says 'Only Fat & Ugly Girls Do It For Attention' Rishi Kapoor's grey hair: Here is the Real reason behind | FilmiBeat Actor Rishi Kapoor, who is in New York for a medical treatment, said his grey hair has nothing to do with his health, but said it is a part of his look that he is sporting in an upcoming film. The actor was seen with grey hair in his pictures with actor Sonali Bendre and Priyanka Chopra, which led to speculation on social media that it has got something to do with his health. Taking to Twitter, Kapoor denied that his hair turned grey overnight and clarified that he dyed it for his look in the film. "This is to dispel all notions and wrong speculations of my hair turning grey/white overnight. My hair was dyed by Awan Contractor for a film produced byHoney Trehan and Sony pictures directed by Hitesh Bhatia. Film is untitled. Trust this clears the air," he wrote. He also shared a picture of the final look of the character and said, "This is the final look of the film. Sharma ji. All grey! Will revert to original hair colour soon." Shahid Talks About His Break-up With Kareena; Reveals The Distress Situation Earlier this month, there were reports that Rishi was suffering from a serious illness following his absence from the funeral of his mother, Krishna Raj Kapoor, who passed away on October 1. His brother, Randhir, denied the reports and had said to PTI, "He is at the moment fine. As he is in great pain, he will be undergoing test. He did discuss it with us regarding his health." Credits - PTI Odiyan, the much-awaited film of Mohanlal, has been ruling the minds of the audiences ever since its announcement days. There has been a huge wait for the arrival of the trailer of the movie as well and now, it has come to an end, as the trailer of Odiyan has hit the online circuits. Mohanlal took to his official Facebook page to launch the much-awaited trailer of Odiyan and it has indeed opened to a grand reception at the word go. The trailer is 1 minute 28 seconds and this one is sure to give goosebumps to the Malayalam film audiences. The trailer assures that Odiyan will be a fine mass entertainer with Mohanlal in top form. Mohanlal has ruled the trailer and his various getups as Odiyan Manikyan is sure to be a big treat for the audiences. The trailer features some snippets of the magnificent mass moments that the movie has to offer. Odiyan's trailer has also shown glimpses of other prominent actors of the movies like Manju Warrier, Prakash Raj, Nandu, Innocent, Siddique, Narein, Manoj Joshi etc. The glimpses of the action sequences shown in the trailer assure some never-seen-before kind of fight sequences in Malayalam cinema. Take a look at the trailer of Odiyan here... Meanwhile, the trailer is gearing up to be screened in the theatres where Kayamkulam Kochunni will be playing from tomorrow (October 11, 2018). Odiyan has been scheduled to hit the theatres on December 14, 2018. There's no denying the fact that the charming Suriya is one of the most popular and bankable stars in the Tamil film industry. He enjoys a strong fan following thanks to his good looks, dashing personality, down-to-earth nature and sincere performances. Over the years, he has starred in some of Kollywood's most popular films and this has made him an integral part of the industry. Now, Suriya is in the limelight for an awesome reason. The buzz is that Suriya is set to collaborate with Studio Green for a Tamil-Telugu bilingual that is also going to feature Tollywood sensation Vijay Deverakonda in the lead. The two-hero project is likely to help the Arjun Reddy star to find a firm footing in Kollywood. Similarly, it might help Suriya strengthen his position in the Telugu market. Interestingly, post the release of Thaanaa Serndha Koottam, it was rumoured that Suriya would not be collaborating with Studio Green again. However, based on the latest news, it seems that there has been a change in plans. On a related note, Suriya currently has NGK and Suriya 37 in his kitty. NGK is a political-thriller and has been directed by Selvaraghavan. On the other hand, Suriya 37 is being directed by KV Anand and also has Mohanlal in a key role. Vijay Deverakonda too is a busy man these days. He was last seen in the recently released NOTA. He currently has Taxiwala in his kitty. UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has met Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the leader congratulating Nurmagomedov on his win over Conor McGregor which Putin described as worthy and convincing, RT reports. The pair reportedly met on the sidelines of the Russia Country of Sports forum in the city of Ulyanovsk on Wednesday. Footage of the meeting showed Nurmagomedov and his father and trainer, Abdulmanap, chatting with Putin around a table with tea and various delicacies. Putin congratulated the undefeated UFC lightweight champion on his win, and also asked the fighters father not to punish his son too strictly for the scenes which followed after the bout, when Nurmagomedov leapt into the crowd to confront members of McGregors team. I will ask you father not to punish you too strictly, because you achieved the main task, worthily and convincingly, Putin said of the Dagestani fighters fourth-round submission of McGregor. Another Man Answered Chahatt's Phone In the interview, Farhan revealed that he spent a night with Chahatt after her birthday at her parents' house in Virar. He said, "But the next day when we came back, she simply refused to attend my calls. Finally, a male voice answered and she came on the phone only to reject my lunch proposal and say that she does not want to be with me anymore." Chahatt Apparently Asked For A Divorce Farhan said that for a couple of days later, following her birthday, he received a message from Chahatt and she wrote, "Peace is all I have left you for. I am not missing you and I am filing for divorce. I don't hate you. But I hate myself to do this to myself. You will soon see the kids and me". He Further Added "I don't know where they have disappeared. Lekin haan, on September 9, I got an message from Chahat's phone that 'you can meet the kids around 9 in Bandra. When I was about to reach there, she texted me come to Sahara Star in Andheri. I met my daughters and Chahat. She was literally in tears. She said she cannot talk to me much since her family was around, and cannot be with me either. After that, she simply left." Farhan Questions Her Social Media Activity Going by Farhan's statement, he received no help from the cops and had to go to the court to know what's happening with his marriage and family. He said, "Why is my wife and her entire family staying in a hotel like Sahara Star? On the other hand, strangely, she is quite active on social media, busy posting pictures from bathtubs and bedrooms! Beats me!" This Is What Chahatt Had To Say When Chahatt was approached for a comment, she said, "Farhan is lying to put me down. But I don't want to wash my dirty linen in public. There are many things which will shake up if I open my mouth. So, I rather be quiet about it and let people think what they want to. I really don't want to say anything, at least not at this point." Sandhya Shares Her Ordeal: Alok Nath Babuji Praised Sandhya Sandhya shared a lengthy note and captioned it as, "In truth & solidarity. I'm with you @vintananda #metoo." The note read, "At the very start of my career, I was shooting a telefilm for zee in Kodaikanal. I was the lead. And very excited. Alok Nath was my on-screen father and Reema Lagoo my mother. Alok Nath was very impressed with me and called me "God's own child" and openly praised me every day. I was over the moon. I was a huge fan of this wonderful Babuji.. I felt so fortunate happy and confident." - (sic) How Alok Made Sandhya Nervous & Uncomfortable? "Till one night after an early pack up. The cast went out for dinner. At dinner he got progressively drunk and started insisting I sit with him and that I belonged to him and other stuff that I don't clearly remember but it made me very nervous and uncomfortable. My co-star realised what was happening and got me out of there." - (sic) Sandhya Writes "We went back to the hotel without dinner. It was late and I was back in my room and the costume dada came to my room to give me my clothes for the next day as I had a very early call time. Few minutes after he left there was a knock on my door I opened the door thinking it was him again ..." - (sic) Inebriated Alok Nath Lunged At Her "It was an inebriated Alok Nath I instinctively tried to shut the door but he pushed it and lunged at me, I stepped aside he went flying past me into the room .. I fell back toward the bathroom door he lunged at me again screaming I want you you're mine .. I dodged again he went into the bathroom and I think I latched the loo door and ran out of my room down the corridor into the lobby. Fortunately, my DoP was there making a call from the reception ..." - (sic) Alok Tried To Grab Her "He came back to my room what ensued was traumatic because a belligerent Alok Nath refused to leave.. kept screaming shouting threatening abusing trying to grab me.. but at some point we managed to make him leave. The hairdresser was called and made to sleep in my room I was so shaken up." - (sic) It Was Difficult For Sandhya To Shoot With Alok! "In a few hours I had scenes with Bauji, in one I had to sit on his lap and cry. I still feel nauseous when i think of it. It didn't stop there .. every evening he would drink and every night calls were made to my room. I dreaded the ring.. I had to keep it off the hook most of the times. But then he would come calling. It was a catch 22 situation. I had the hairdresser moved in to my room permanently. I was a nervous wreck." - (sic) Alok Cried & Apologised "Few days later I got very sick & was laid up and couldn't shoot. The stress had broken me. He continued to traumatise me with calls. And knocks. The hairdresser would answer. One day when he landed up at the door and cried and begged to be allowed in to sodas to me to apologise.. I couldn't take it anymore I told her to accompany him in..." - (sic) He Said He Had Learnt His Lesson "He pulled a chair next to my bed and howled. Said he was an alcoholic and that he had destroyed everything his family his marriage everything's and I was like his daughter and he respected me and that he was very sorry. He says he had learnt his lesson and that he would go to therapy and change it all..." - (sic) Sandhya Broke Her Silence "I finally broke my silence I screamed shouted cried and it was done. I believed him. I had to. He left. He got away. I don't know how I shot with him for the remaining days and weeks. I'm grateful to my co-actors , my DOP & especially the late Reema lagoo for finally taking him on & protecting me like a mother from then on." - (sic) The Damage Was Done "But it was too late. The damage was done. A very disillusioned, disgraced & unsure me returned home. He went on to return to Bombay and tell people I was difficult and arrogant. All apologies forgotten. He was a popular man I was a newbie. He laid the foundation others like him built on. All those who heard 'No'. Attitude my biggest crime. The deal breaker." - (sic) I Stand By Vinita! "Mr. Alok Nath. You know this to be true. As do few others. I had to forgive you for myself then and for my sanity but I will never forgive you for what you did with Vinta. Whom I have always respected and loved. I stand by you Vinita. What I went through is nothing compared to you. I'm so sorry. More power to you." - (sic) Xiaozhu.com, China's rapidly growing rival to Airbnb, has raised $300 million in Series F funding, led by Jack Ma-backed Yunfeng Capital and Advantech Capital. Most of Xiaozhu's existing investors have joined this new round of financing, including Joy Capital, Morningside Ventures, and Capital Today. The home rental company has even landed GIC as an investor the Singaporean state-backed fund is a frequent investor in many of Jack Ma's companies, from Alibaba to its affiliate firms. Viewed as the unicorn of the home rental market in China, Xiaozhus valuation has grown rapidly and already exceeds $1 billion after its fifth round of financing. It currently... TSX Venture: KBLT OTCQX: CBLLF FRA: 27O TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. ("Cobalt 27" or the "Company") (TSXV: KBLT)(OTCQX: CBLLF)(FRA: 27O), is pleased to announce that its common shares are now trading on the OTCQX Best Market, a U.S. market operated by OTC Markets Group in New York, under the symbol CBLLF. Cobalt 27's common shares will continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol KBLT, and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 27O. "As the leading electric metals investment vehicle, Cobalt 27 offers direct exposure to metals integral to electric vehicles and grid energy storage systems. Trading on the OTCQX, will provide Cobalt 27 with a platform to expand our U.S. shareholder profile and allow a broader group of investors to participate in the global market for battery metals through Cobalt 27's targeted cobalt and nickel metal streams, royalties and physical cobalt position," commented Anthony Milewski, Chairman and CEO. The OTCQX Best Market provides added service, value and convenience to U.S. investors, brokers and institutions seeking to trade CBLLF. The OTCQX Best Market is OTC Markets Group's premier market for established, investor-focused U.S. and international companies. To be eligible, companies must meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance, demonstrate compliance with U.S. securities laws, be current in their disclosure, and have a professional third-party sponsor introduction. Cobalt 27 is in the process of securing Depository Trust Company ("DTC") eligibility for its common shares. DTC manages electronic clearing and settlement of publicly traded companies across the United States and in 131 other countries. Trading through DTC allows for cost-effective clearing and guaranteed settlement, simplifying and accelerating the settlement process of daily trades. U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com/stock/CBLLF/quote. The Company also announces the retirement of John Kanellitsas from the Board of Directors, in order to focus his efforts as Executive Vice Chairman of Lithium Americas Corp., including the development of its Cauchari-Olaroz project in Argentina, and his primary responsibility for managing the company's recently announced collaboration with Ganfeng Lithium. Mr. Kanellitsas has agreed to continue his contributions to Cobalt 27 in the capacity of a member of the Company's Advisory Board. About Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. is a leading electric metals investment vehicle offering exposure to metals integral to key technologies of the electric vehicle and battery energy storage markets. The Company has acquired a cobalt stream on Vale's world-class Voisey's Bay mine? beginning in 2021, including the announced underground expansion, is acquiring the world's first producing cobalt nickel stream on the low-cost, long-life Ramu Nickel-Cobalt Mine, and holds one of the World's largest stockpiles of physical cobalt. The Company also manages a portfolio of nine royalties and intends to continue to invest in a cobalt-focused portfolio of streams, royalties and direct interests in mineral properties containing cobalt. For further information please visit the Company website at www.cobalt27.com or contact: Betty Joy LeBlanc, BA, MBA Director, Corporate Communications +1-604-828-0999 info@cobalt27.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. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release. Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains certain information which constitutes 'forward-looking statements' and 'forward-looking information' within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements pertaining to the Company's listing on The OTCQX Best Market. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, most of which are beyond the Company's control. For more details on these and other risk factors see the Company's most recent Annual Information Form on file with Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the heading "Risk Factors". Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties underlying these forward-looking statements materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this release and, other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise it to reflect new events or circumstances. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. On 13-14 November, 2018, CMT's 20th Asia CemenTrade Summit in Bangkok will analyse the changing dynamics of Asia's cement industry -- vis-a-vis US-China trade wars, rapid infrastructure boom in the Philippines, Indonesia's overcapacities, M&As in China, digitalization and much more. BANGKOK, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The annual cement summit starts off with Dr. Amonthep Chawla, SVP & Head of Research Office, CIMB Thailand Public Company presenting the 'Global Economic Outlook' highlighting the impact of trade tensions between USA/China and USA/Europe, EU's slowdown and its impact on Asia plus the outlook for ASEAN economies. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/754427/Asia_CemenTrade_Summit.jpg Eminent cement manufacturers from Asia namely, Mr. Dennis van Heezik, CEO, Insee Digital and CIO/Chief Digital Officer, Siam City Cement will share their perspective on 'Digital Disruption in Cement Industry'. Mr. Mufti Arimurti, SVP of Sales of PT Semen Indonesia (Persero) discusses the 'Promising Cement Market in Indonesia Despite Current Overcapacity' - highlighting demand/supply projections, growth drivers to minimize the supply/demand gap and the impact of new players on market share and profitability. Insightful presentations on the cement markets in the Philippines, India, Nepal and Iran will be discussed by leading cement producers and traders. Dr. Ishmael Ordonez, VP - Operations and Admin, Big Boss Cement presents on 'Build, Build, Build Infrastructure Program and the Effect on Cement Demand in the Philippines' pinpointing clinker and cement demand/supply projections vis-a-vis country's construction boom. Mr. Mayank Gupta, Senior GM, Ultratech Cement shares the 'Bullish Outlook in India's Cement Market' focusing on demand/supply and impact of higher petcoke, coal and diesel prices and the alternatives. In addition, the fast growing 'Cement Markets in Nepal' and the impact on small players and clinker supply with local production - is analysed by Mr. Satish Kumar More, Director, Hongshi Shivam Cement and Chairman, Lucky Group -- as the Nepalese cement market is getting crowded with new expansion and investments. Further the 'Cement Market of Iran and Export Markets' is shared by Mr. Seyed Hosein Parhizgar, MD, Khalagh Tadbir Pars. Organized by Centre for Management Technology (CMT), the summit also features: Global Cement/Clinker Market Outlook - USA, Latin America , Europe , Africa & Asia - IA Cement , , & - Cement Carrier Market - KGJ Cement Filter media for tough environment -- ready for alternative fuels - Evonik India View event website or contact Ms. Grace oh - grace@cmtsp.com.sg or call +65 6346 9147 for more details. Regulatory News: GeNeuro (Paris: GNRO) (Euronext Paris: CH0308403085 GNRO) announced today that 12-month data from the CHANGE-MS Phase 2b study of GNbAC1 in multiple sclerosis (MS) will be presented in an oral presentation at the 34th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research on Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS 2018) meeting held 10-12 October 2018, in Berlin, Germany. The presentation will cover the results of this 270-patient study, measuring through MRI the anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects of GNbAC1, an antibody neutralizing the pHERV-W Env protein. This protein is present in the brain of MS patients, is pathogenic and thought to be a key factor in the progression of the disease. Conference Details What: Week 48 results from a phase 2b trial of GNbAC1 in patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (CHANGE-MS; clinical trial assessing the HERV-W Env antagonist GNbAC1 for Efficacy in MS) Who: Prof. Hans-Peter Hartung, chairman of the Department of Neurology of the University Hospital Dusseldorf and principal investigator of the CHANGE-MS study When: Thursday, October 11 at 08:30 am, in the session Free Communications 2: Clinical, Hall B CHANGE-MS is an international, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 270 RRMS patients, investigating GNbAC1 for the treatment of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). GNbAC1 is a monoclonal antibody which neutralizes a retroviral envelope protein encoded by a pathogenic member of the HERV-W family (pHERV-W env). About CHANGE-MS (Clinical trial assessing the HERV-W Env Antagonist GNbAC1 for Efficacy in Multiple Sclerosis) Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 270 RRMS patients in 50 clinical centers in 12 European countries 6-month study with extension to one year for secondary endpoints Primary endpoint: assess the efficacy based on the number of inflammatory lesions on brain MRI, assessed at the end of the placebo-controlled period Secondary endpoints: MRI measures of neurodegeneration, clinical parameters at 6 and 12 months, and biomarkers, including pHERV-W env About GNbAC1 GNbAC1 is a monoclonal antibody designed to neutralize a pathogenic protein encoded by a member of the human endogenous retroviruses (HERV-W) family, pHERV-W env. In a phase 2b clinical study of 270 RRMS patients, GNbAC1 was found to be safe and demonstrated a consistent benefit on MRI measures of neurodegeneration associated with disease progression, including a reduction in T1 black hole formation and brain atrophy. GNbAC1 is also being investigated in a Phase 2a study of adults with Type 1 diabetes. About GeNeuro GeNeuro's mission is to develop safe and effective treatments against neurological disorders and autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and Type 1 diabetes, by neutralizing causal factors encoded by HERVs, which represent 8% of human DNA. GeNeuro is based in Geneva, Switzerland and has R&D facilities in Lyon, France. It has 28 employees and rights to 17 patent families protecting its technology. For more information, visit: www.geneuro.com Disclaimer This press release contains certain forward looking statements and estimates concerning GeNeuro's financial condition, operating results, strategy, projects and future performance and the markets in which it operates. Such forward-looking statements and estimates may be identified by words, such as "anticipate," "believe," "can," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "is designed to," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "objective," "should," or the negative of these and similar expressions. They incorporate all topics that are not historical facts. Forward looking statements, forecasts and estimates are based on management's current assumptions and assessment of risks, uncertainties and other factors, known and unknown, which were deemed to be reasonable at the time they were made but which may turn out to be incorrect. Events and outcomes are difficult to predict and depend on factors beyond the company's control. Consequently, the actual results, financial condition, performances and/or achievements of GeNeuro or of the industry may turn out to differ materially from the future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by these statements, forecasts and estimates. Owing to these uncertainties, no representation is made as to the correctness or fairness of these forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates speak only as of the date on which they are made, and GeNeuro undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of them, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181009006045/en/ Contacts: GeNeuro's contacts: GeNeuro Jesus Martin-Garcia, +41 22 552 4800 Chairman and CEO investors@geneuro.com or NewCap (France) Emmanuel Huynh Mathilde Bohin (investors), +33 1 44 71 98 52 Nicolas Merigeau (media), +33 1 44 71 94 98 geneuro@newcap.eu or Halsin Partners Mike Sinclair (media), +44 20 7318 2955 msinclair@halsin.com or LifeSci Advisors Chris Maggos (investors), +1-646-597-6970 +41 79 367 6254 chris@lifesciadvisors.com MADRID, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ProColombia will host at the Istanbul Congress Centre more than 300 Colombian exporters during the Business Matchmaking Forum in Turkey . The event will take place on October 17 and 18. . The event will take place on and 18. Buyers from Europe , Asia and Africa have confirmed their attendance This autumn, ProColombia is presenting buyers from Europe, Asia and Africa a select sample of Colombian products at the Business Matchmaking Forum, which will be held on October 17 and 18 at the Istanbul Congress Centre. "Colombia arrives in Turkey - the gateway to three continents - with a huge offer, based on the manufacturing sector, IT and agribusiness. The country is a pantry to the world, it is one of the territories identified by the FAO with the greatest agricultural potential," said Flavia Santoro, president of ProColombia. More than 300 Colombian exporters will travel across the Atlantic to Turkey, one of the emerging logistic hubs due to its strategic location serving the European, Asian and African markets. The delegation of Colombian businessmen is led by Juliana Villegas, vice president of exports at ProColombia. The event is expecting 150 buyers seeking products and services, mainly coming from Spain, Turkey, Germany, France, Holland, India, United Kingdom, Korea, China, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Vietnam, among others. The key offer is concentrated in the IT, chemical, manufacturing, agricultural, fashion, apparel and accessories industries. There are about 90 Colombian goods and services that will be displayed at business meetings; the most representative are fruit pulps, fresh fruits such as avocado, gooseberry (physalis), gulupa, banana, palm oil, confectionery, meat, natural ingredients for cosmetic use, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, chemicals, girdles, underwear, swimwear, jewellery, leather, furniture, digital creative industries, software and crafts. During the months of January and July 2018, Colombia exported around 1,300 million euros to the European Union, mainly in agricultural products such as bananas, coffee, oils and fats, fresh fruits, and manufactures such as plastic and clothing. Colombia is a member of the OCDE since May 2018. The OECD highlighted the Colombian economy as one of the most resistant to the recent fall in the prices of raw materials; ECLAC assures that the country has the highest expectation of growth of its exports in South America; and UNCTAD places it as the third Latin American destination that attracts the most foreign investment and one of the 30 in the world. Register Now Through December 2 to Save 200 on Briefings Pass SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 10, 2018, the world's leading producer of information security events, announces its return to London with the release of its initial Briefings lineup. The world's brightest information security professionals and researchers will gather for the event's 17th installment to reveal new vulnerabilities (and defenses) spanning everything from popular social media platforms, mobile devices, widely used operating systems and more. Black Hat Europe 2018 will take place December 3-6 at the ExCeL London, in London, England. For more information and to save 200 on your Briefings Pass by December 2 please visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/ Black Hat Europe will host a week of immersive programming that will unveil the latest InfoSec research, development, and trends. The event will kick-off with its technical Trainings followed by Black Hat's Briefings, and a Business Hall housing the industry's leading innovators. Highlights of Black Hat Europe's Briefings so far: Defending against Artificial Intelligence (AI) maliciousness, including a talk that will delve into disturbing Deep fake technology, a human image blending method that can be used as a means to perform identity theft (https://www.blackhat.com/eu-18/briefings/schedule/ai-gone-rogue-exterminating-deep-fakes-before-they-cause-menace-13033) and create political propaganda, revenge porn, and other materials with the intent to cause political, economic and emotional damages. An in-depth look at malware with a talk that details a UEFI rootkit attack from the group linked to high-profile cyber-attacks including the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak scandal (https://www.blackhat.com/eu-18/briefings/schedule/malware-buried-deep-down-the-spi-flash-sednit39s-first-uefi-rootkit-found-in-the-wild-12543). Mobile threats , including an attack on Apple Filing System (APFS) on iOS (https://www.blackhat.com/eu-18/briefings/schedule/index.htmlthe-last-line-of-defense-understanding-and-attackingapple-file-system-on-ios-12682) that allows an attacker to gain access to private user data and tamper with any file or directory on a system. A look at attacks on the enterprise with a talk that explains potential abuse of the Windows 10 security questions feature to create a backdoor (https://www.blackhat.com/eu-18/briefings/schedule/when-everyone39s-dog-is-named-fluffy-abusing-the-brand-new-security-questions-in-windows-10-to-gain-domain-wide-persistence-12863) which can then be remotely distributed to any Windows 10 machine in a network. Social media account identification attacks (https://www.blackhat.com/eu-18/briefings/schedule/i-block-you-because-i-love-you-social-account-identification-attack-against-a-website-visitor-12912) against website visitors that can be used on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Google+, Twitter, eBay, Xbox Live, Ashley Madison and more. Be sure to check back for the latest schedule as more Briefings are added, here: blackhat.com/eu-18/briefings/schedule/index.html ANNOUNCED: Black Hat Arsenal Tools Arsenal will return to Black Hat Europe and welcome researchers, both local and from afar, from the open source community to display their latest tools and products and offer live demonstrations. Arsenal gives researchers the opportunity to showcase their latest code and offers attendees the chance to interact with presenters and gain hands-on experience. Arsenal will host nearly 50 tools this year covering Android, iOS and mobile hacking, Internet of Things, cryptography and more. For more information and to view all recently selected tools, please visit: blackhat.com/us-18/arsenal/schedule/index.html Black Hat Trainings: Register by Dec. 2 and Save 200 In addition to the world-class Briefings schedule, Black Hat Europe 2018 will offer deeply technical, hands-on Training sessions led by some of the information security industry's top trainers and professionals. Running December 3-6, the Trainings offer a separate set of courses for attendees spanning everything from advanced infrastructure hacking to assessing and exploiting control systems, web hacking, and more. For more information and to save 200 on your selected course Black Hat Student Scholarships: Submission Deadline: October 26 The Black Hat Student Scholarship Program is back for its fifth year in Europe. As a way to introduce the next generation of security professionals to the Black Hat community, a limited number of complimentary Academic Passes will be awarded to student applicants for Black Hat Europe 2018. Qualified students may submit applications by Friday, October 26, 2018. For more information and requirements, visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/student-scholarship.html Top Sponsors of Black Hat Europe 2018 include : Diamond Sponsors: Agari, NCC Group, SecurityScorecard, Spirent Communications, Tenable; Platinum Sponsors: Cybereason, Facebook, Illumio, Neustar, Nominet, Qualys, Recorded Future, Splunk For more information on sponsorship opportunities as well as the full list of exhibiting companies, visit:blackhat.com/eu-18/business-hall.html Future Black Hat Dates and Events Black Hat Trainings 2018 , Chicago, Illinois, October 22-23, 2018 Black Hat Europe 2018 , London, England, December 3-6, 2018 Black Hat Asia 2019 , Singapore, March 26-29, 2019 Black Hat USA 2019, Las Vegas, Nevada, August 3-8, 2019 About Black Hat For more than 20 years, Black Hat has provided attendees with the very latest in information security research, development, and trends. These high-profile global events and trainings are driven by the needs of the security community, striving to bring together the best minds in the industry. Black Hat inspires professionals at all career levels, encouraging growth and collaboration among academia, world-class researchers, and leaders in the public and private sectors. Black Hat Briefings and Trainings are held annually in the United States, Europe and Asia. More information is available at: blackhat.com. Black Hat 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 news and information, visit www.ubm.com and www.informa.com. LUXEMBOURG, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Inceptua Group today announces that Maria Eklind-Cervenka joins as new Chief Medical Officer (CMO). (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/739136/Inceptua_Group_Logo.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/766813/Inceptua_Group.jpg ) "With Maria joining we are increasing our Medical Leadership, continuing to develop our platform as the partner of choice for pharma and biotech companies, while ensuring we keep patient safety at the heart of our operations," says Alan Raffensperger, CEO, Inceptua Group. Maria Eklind-Cervenka joins Inceptua as CMO (Chief Medical Officer) from Sobi where she held the position of Head of Global Medical Affairs, Specialty Care. Maria has led several successful medical strategy and implementation efforts. She has broad experience steering international teams, both at Sobi and in previous roles at Astra-Zeneca and Boehringer-Ingelheim. Maria is a specialist in cardiology and internal medicine, and has practiced at leading hospitals in Sweden. "I'm delighted to be joining Inceptua. My professional focus has always been about helping patients get the right treatment, and this is exactly what Inceptua is there to support," says Maria Eklind-Cervenka. In her new role, Maria's core focus will be on supporting Inceptua's Commercial Products unit as it expands its reach into new markets and therapy areas. EVP of Commercial Products at Inceptua, Stefan Fraenkel says: "The recruitment of Maria, underlines our drive to be a leading pharma partner supporting throughout the product journey. We are able to assume partial or full product responsibility, and our full company offering spans the life-cycle, from trials, through pre-approval and market access, to product launch, and the successful marketing of speciality and rare disease products." About Inceptua Inceptua is a pharmaceutical and service company helping pharma and biotech companies throughout the entire product lifecycle. Our core focus areas are clinical services, pre-approval and expanded access programs as well as commercialization of specialty care and rare disease products. Inceptua is headquartered in Luxembourg and has global operations with offices in Europe, USA and Asia. For further information, please contact: Inceptua Group Communications Miranda McLaughlan, Communications Manager Phone: +49-30-1202-1353 E-Mail: miranda.mclaughlan@inceptua.com Up to 50,000 Consumer Sends via Smartphones Directly into Bank Accounts Around the World The Western Union Company, a leader in global cross-border, cross-currency money movement, today announced its foray into the multibillion-dollar bank account-to-account money transfer sector for consumers, by launching high-value digital transfers from the United Kingdom to around the world. Consumers in the United Kingdom can now send up to 50,000 via their smartphones from wu.com or the Western Union mobile app, funded from accounts directly into bank accounts in many countries around the world. Over the last few years, Western Union has undergone a dramatic digital transformation, driving a multi-layer digital strategy allowing customers to begin their transactions on mobile via app or web browser. Today, Western Union's digital business has seen continued double-digit growth, and now 70 percent of digital transactions originate on mobile devices. The company's boosted investments in real-time compliance controls and expansion of its bank payout network to billions of accounts now allows consumers to send high-value money transfers, commencing in the U.K. with other major money-sending countries to follow. "With this launch, we have added one more milestone in our quest to serve the diverse money transfer needs of our customers many of whom are global citizens with assets and holdings in multiple countries," said Graham Baker, U.K. Country Head Global Money Transfer, Western Union. "The opportunity to send 50,000 per transaction, 24/7, around the world, enables our customers representing a mix of affluent expats and natives, to send money in larger values with confidence. They send money between their bank accounts across countries for high-value purchases such as real estate, or financial payments such as mortgages or investments," he said. Western Union's annual global digital revenue was over $400 million in 2017 larger than many of the digital start-ups in the space. The company's digital growth continued to be strong, with 22 percent wu.com revenue growth in quarter two, this year. In the same quarter, about 30 percent of the wu.com principal moved globally was delivered into accounts. "On top of our existing digital offerings for global business customers, we have custom built our digital account-to-account service drawing from our fast-growing global account payout network. Now our money transfer customers can also connect to billions of accounts in more than 70 countries and this will continue to accelerate," said Jean Claude Farah, President, Global Payments, Western Union. Western Union's global account payout network connects to local banks, national payment settlement switches, third-party payment processors as well as mobile wallets, prepaid and other card connections. Western Union serves more than 150 million consumer-to-consumer and business-to-business customers whether they are sending or receiving money using web, apps, accounts, mobile wallets or retail, every year, to more than 200 countries and territories. In the U.K., more than USD $26 billion was sent in person-to-person transfers to the rest of the world in 20171, according to the World Bank, with more than 60 percent of those funds directed into bank accounts. More than USD $13 billion of these funds were sent to a mix of developed and emerging nations led largely by Nigeria and India and closely followed by France, Germany, Pakistan, Poland and China. Western Union has been operating in the U.K. for 30 years and in 2017, moved money into more than 200 countries and territories. About Western Union's Cross-Border Platform Western Union's cross-border, cross-currency platform including a robust digital footprint, settlement, treasury and compliance infrastructure, and a vast global network of over half a million locations, billions of consumer accounts and mobile wallets sets the standard for international money movement. With locations in more than 200 countries and territories, Western Union's platform processed an average of 32 transactions every second and moved $300 billion across 130 currencies in 2017. Connecting the digital and physical worlds of money, Western Union's technology stack, APIs, foreign exchange and settlement engine, agent network, anti-money laundering and fraud detection capabilities make it one of the largest digital and physical money movers for consumers and businesses around the globe. For more information, visit the Western Union newsroom atwww.westernunion.com/news. About Western Union The Western Union Company is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement. Our omnichannel platform connects the digital and physical worlds and makes it possible for consumers and businesses to send and receive money and make payments with speed, ease and reliability. As of June 30, 2018, our network included over 550,000 retail agent locations offering Western Union, Vigo or Orlandi Valuta branded services in more than 200 countries and territories, with the capability to send money to billions of accounts. Additionally, westernunion.com, our fastest growing channel in 2017, is available in 45 countries and territories to move money around the world. In 2017, we moved over $300 billion in principal in nearly 130 currencies and processed 32 transactions every second across all our services. With our global reach, Western Union moves money for better, connecting family, friends and businesses to enable financial inclusion and support economic growth. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com. 1 The World Bank's Bilateral Remittance Matrix 2017 (updated as of Apr. 2018) View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005267/en/ Contacts: For further information, please contact: Western Union Pia De Lima, +1 954 260 5732 pia.delima@wu.com or Carolina Laurijssen, +44 (0) 7740 542 203 carolina.laurijssen@wu.com Any change of status for the Golan Heights would violate UN resolution, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, commenting on Israel's intention to declare sovereignty over the Golan Heights. "To change the status means to violate directly the Security Council resolutions," Anadolu Agency cited the Russian diplomat as saying. Lavrov also confirmed that the Russian administration and Israeli government officials were working to set a date for an expected visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Russia. SELBYVILLE, Delaware, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Well Intervention Market will surpass the revenue of USD 18 billion by 2024; as reported in the latest study by Global Market Insights, Inc. Growing number of matured oil fields coupled with rising concerns toward depletion of conventional reserves will foster the well intervention market. Ongoing development of urban areas across the emerging economies along with rising demand for petroleum products will propel the industry growth. In addition, rapid technological advancements across the oil field services sector will enhance the technology adoption. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661916/GMI.jpg ) Indonesia market will surpass USD 350 Million by 2024. Increasing need toward revitalizing of aging oil fields on account of escalating demand for crude oil will boost the industry growth. In addition, the changing regulatory scenario along with introduction of favorable policies by the government authority will positively influence the technology adoption. Upsurge in investments toward development of advanced technologies to enhance the production from maturing fields will further compliment the business landscape. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1302 Favorable regulatory policies toward the development of deep and ultra-deep drilling projects coupled with expansion of subsea production systems will propel the offshore well intervention market. In addition, the availability of large volume of offshore reserves across the Northern Continental Shelf (NSC) and Persian Gulf will encourage the technology adoption. High well intervention market will witness gain of over 7% by 2024. Increasing investments toward exploration and production activities across the offshore areas will positively influence the business growth. The technology is widely used to replace futile parts including tubing, pumps and valves from the wellbore and to plug & abandon the well which are not feasible for production. Browse key industry insights spread across 400 pages with 564 market data tables & 32 figures & charts from the report, "Well Intervention Market Size By Service (Logging & Bottom Hole Survey, Tubing/Power Failure & Repair, Stimulation, Remedial Cementing, Zonal Isolation, Sand Control, Artificial Lift, Fishing, Reperforation), By Intervention (Light, medium, High), By Application (Onshore, Offshore {Shallow, Deep, Ultra deep}), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, Norway, Netherlands, Romania, Poland, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Vietnam, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Iran, Kuwait, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Angola, Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia) Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 - 2024"in detail along with the table of contents: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/well-intervention-market Accelerating number of stripper and marginal wells along with increasing demand for crude oil will foster the artificial lift systems market. Reliability, limited risk exposure, and ease of drilling across the subsea intervention are some of the key features which will propel the business growth. Increasing focus toward development of unconventional wells coupled with favorable regulatory policies to enhance oil production primarily across OPEC countries will fuel the global market. Increasing exploration activities across the subsea areas including Norwegian basins will stimulate the Norway market. In addition, increasing government focus toward the development of aging oil and gas fields along with favorable regulatory schemes pertaining to offshore production will complement the industry landscape. Increasing investments by national oil companies coupled with ongoing shale revolution across the U.S., Middle East and China will propel the remedial cementing market share. The service is used to rectify the issues related to the primary cementing and to deal with issues which are caused during production. It further involves the use of cement plugs and squeeze cementing which prevents the mixing of other fluids with the cement. Key players across global market includes Archer, Haliburton, Exxon, Weatherford, Schlumberger, Calfrac, Tenaris, Cudd Energy, GE, National OilWell Varaco, DeepWell, Superior Energy, Technipfmc, Trican, Weltec, Omega, Basic Energy, Expro, Hunting Energy, Helix, Oceaneering, and Altus. Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1302 Browse Related Reports: Drill Pipe Market Size2018- 2024 Global Drill Pipe Market revenue was valued at over USD 800 million with annual deployment to exceed 35 million feet by 2024. Growing investments across upstream sector coupled with ongoing exploration & production of unconventional resources including shale and tight gas will drive the drill pipe market outlook. https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/drill-pipe-market Cryogenic Equipment Market Size2018- 2024 Cryogenic Equipment Market outlook was valued at over USD 15 billion in 2017 and is poised to grow over 7% by 2024, driven by ongoing investments toward the expansion of existing manufacturing facilities coupled with supportive government policies across emerging economies. https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/cryogenic-equipment-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. SAN FRANCISCO, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The global process spectroscopy market size is estimated to reach USD 25.10 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., progressing at a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period. Growing efforts in the pharmaceutical industry to undertake advanced research and development is leading to increased adoption of various spectroscopy techniques over the forecast period. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg ) The technology is anticipated to witness healthy growth owing to rising awareness regarding the importance of product quality among industries. Reducing operational expenditure is another factor expected to drive the market over the forecast period. Furthermore, significant R&D activities are undertaken, which have led to several drug discoveries. Increasing number of drug discovery processes is leading to a greater number of treatment options for various diseases. Treatment options include drugs as well as non-drug therapies such as surgeries and radiations. Surging demand for spectroscopic techniques and related equipment installations across the globe are poised to augment the market over the forecast period. The process spectroscopy market is likely to witness tremendous growth over the forecast years, owing to increasing awareness of quality spectroscopic devices among end-use industries. Technological advancements necessitate matching international quality standards, such as ISO or Six Sigma, and cost- & time-saving approaches of companies are encouraging adoption of process spectroscopic instruments. Increasing availability of counterfeit products in the market are mandating governments globally to educate masses about quality products and quality standards. Molecular spectroscopy is a technology that is widely adopted across different application sectors including pharmaceuticals and food & agriculture. The molecular spectroscopy segment held the largest share in the market in 2017 and is projected to maintain its dominance over the forecast period. Additionally, the Raman spectroscopy technology is gaining popularity across the agricultural sector owing to its ability to allow non-destructive extraction of chemicals and physical information about samples of fruits, vegetables, and food grains and it helps in rapid analysis of these food items. Hence, these advantages of spectroscopic techniques are attracting new applications across the food & agricultural sector, ultimately fostering the growth of the global process spectroscopy market. Although, the considerable initial investment required for installation of spectroscopic equipment have forced industry players to pass the cost onto consumers, thereby increasing prices of process spectroscopic instruments. However, emergence of cost-effective technologies in the coming years can lead to reduction in prices of these instruments. Browse full research report with TOC on"Process Spectroscopy Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Technology (Molecular, Mass, Atomic), By Application (Pharmaceutical, Food & Agriculture), By Component, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025" at:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/process-spectroscopy-market F urther Key Findings From the Report Suggest: Several law enforcement authorities and government regulatory bodies imposed for betterment of product quality in the food & agriculture sector are encouraging the manufacturing & packaging industries to adopt measures to meet imposed specifications The adoption of various spectroscopic techniques is expected to rise significantly over the forecast period in the pharmaceutical and food & agriculture segments The Asia Pacific market is estimated to witness tremendous growth over the forecast period market is estimated to witness tremendous growth over the forecast period The key industry participants include ABB Group, Buchi Labortechnik AG, Danaher Corporation, Shimadzu Corporation, and Sartorius AG The prominent strategies followed by large market players include signing partnerships or distribution agreements and mergers & acquisitions along with enriching their portfolios by involving in intense R&D practices. Browse related reports by Grand View Research: Energy Management Systems (EMS) Market - The global energy management systems (EMS) market size was USD 23.05 billion in 2015. The global energy management systems (EMS) market size was in 2015. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market - The UAV market is projected to grow at an approximate CAGR of 10 % from 2016 to 2024. The UAV market is projected to grow at an approximate CAGR of 10 % from 2016 to 2024. Mixed Reality Market - The Mixed Reality (MR) market is expected to witness a substantial growth over the forecast period. The Mixed Reality (MR) market is expected to witness a substantial growth over the forecast period. Cognitive Computing Market - The cognitive computing market size was valued at over USD 8.00 billion in 2015 and is anticipated to gain traction over the forecast period. Grand View Research has segmented the global process spectroscopy market based on technology, application, component, and region: Process Spectroscopy Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2025) Molecular Spectroscopy Near Infrared (NIR) Fourier-Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Raman Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Others Mass Spectroscopy Atomic Spectroscopy Process Spectroscopy Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2025) Polymer Oil & Gas Pharmaceuticals Food & Agriculture Chemicals Water & Wastewater Pulp & Paper Metal & Mining Others Process Spectroscopy Component Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2025) Hardware Software Process Spectroscopy Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany U.K. Asia Pacific China Japan India South America Brazil Middle East & Africa (MEA) Explore the BI enabled intuitive market research database,Grand View Compass, by Grand View Research, Inc. About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. Contact: Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc Phone: +1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (OTCQX: LXRP) (CSE: LXX) (the 'Company' or 'Lexaria'), a drug delivery platform innovator, is pleased to announce it has completed the creation of four wholly-owned subsidiary companies. This new corporate structure more suitably reflects the distinct customer bases and business applications for each subsidiary, thereby allowing the Company to focus its future research and consider financing structures and industry partnerships specifically optimized to each. Each of the companies has a new website currently under construction that is individualized for corporate purposes specific to that company, but also clearly branded as part of the Lexaria group of companies. The subsidiaries are each empowered with Lexaria's patented DehydraTECHTM technology. Lexaria CanPharm Corp., a Canadian company focused on providing DehydraTECH technology and other enhancements to the global cannabis industry. Lexaria CanPharm Corp. administers the Company's current cannabis-related patent portfolio, which is one of the largest cannabis-focused intellectual property suites in the world. Lexaria CanPharm is in active discussions related to licensing its technology to companies located in Canada, the USA, and Europe. Lexaria Nicotine Corp., a US company with a global license to provide DehydraTECH technology to the global nicotine and tobacco industries. Lexaria Nicotine Corp. administers the Company's nicotine-related patent portfolio. Since mid 2017 the Company has had discussions with several leading nicotine/tobacco companies around the world and will continue to work towards a healthier consumer nicotine sector with potential industry partners well-established in the industry. Lexaria Nicotine Corp. is focused on reduced-risk nicotine solutions to help hundreds of million of existing smokers lead healthier lives with lessened risk of cancer through avoidance of combustible products. Lexaria Hemp Corp., a US company globally licensed to provide DehydraTECH to the rapidly growing hemp-based foods and supplements industries. Lexaria Hemp Corp. is currently involved in discussions with a number of companies regarding the utilization of its technology in CBD-from-hemp products for the Canadian and US markets following recent announcements of regulatory advancement in both countries. Discussions with companies in other global markets are also underway with reportable progress expected soon. Lexaria Hemp Corp. will also soon announce the creation of a new wholly-owned brand that will be introducing a new category-killer product at the upcoming MJBiz conference in Las Vegas on November 14-16, 2018 where Lexaria will be exhibiting at booth 3227. Lexaria will set new standards that exceed consumers expectations and continue to advance the industry as we have done so since 2014. Lexaria Pharmaceutical Corp., a US company globally empowered to license DehydraTECH to the large and diverse pharmaceutical sectors, including pain relief, vitamins, PDE5 inhibitors, hormone treatments, central nervous system conditions, and more. Lexaria Pharma will manage the broadest set of intellectual property of all the Lexaria family of companies and is in the R&D and product development phase. Lexaria also announces it will utilize wholly-owned Poviva Tea Corp., to advance the existing ViPova Tea and Coffee consumer brands. Recent signs of legislative easing in the US support the possibility of renewed distribution possibilities for these brands. Separately, Lexaria has received US$33,000 from the exercise of 330,000 options at the price of US$0.10 previously granted to a third party who is neither an officer nor director of the Company. No commissions or placement fees have been paid related to the funds received from these options exercised. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. About Lexaria Lexaria Bioscience Corp. has developed and out-licenses its disruptive delivery technology that promotes healthier ingestion methods, lower overall dosing and higher effectiveness of lipophilic active molecules. Lexaria has eight patents granted in the USA and in Australia and has filed over 50 patent applications worldwide across ten patent families. Lexaria's technology provides increases in intestinal absorption rates; more rapid delivery to the bloodstream; and important taste-masking benefits, for orally administered bioactive molecules including cannabinoids, vitamins, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), nicotine and other molecules. www.lexariabioscience.com For regular updates, connect with Lexaria on Twitter https://twitter.com/lexariacorp and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lexariabioscience/ FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Lexaria Bioscience Corp. Alex Blanchard, Communications Manager (778) 796-1897 Or NetworkNewsWire (NNW) www.NetworkNewsWire.com FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This release includes forward-looking statements. Statements which are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. The Company makes forward-looking public statements concerning its expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, including statements that include words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: that any additional stock warrants or stock options will be exercised. Such forward-looking statements are estimates reflecting the Company's best judgment based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that other factors will not affect the accuracy of such forward-looking statements. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the Company include, but are not limited to, government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, the effect of adverse publicity, litigation, competition, the patent application and approval process and other factors which may be identified from time to time in the Company's public announcements and filings. There is no assurance that existing capital is sufficient for the Company's needs or that it will be able to raise additional capital. There is no assurance that Lexaria will successfully complete any other contemplated or existing technology license agreements; or that results from any studies will be favorable or in any way support future business activities of any kind. Scientific R&D is often unpredictable and unanticipated results could emerge from any study and have a material impact as can any results that cannot be reproduced in subsequent testing. There is no assurance that any planned corporate activity, scientific study, R&D, business venture, or initiative will be pursued, or if pursued, will be successful. There is no assurance that any of Lexaria's postulated uses, benefits, or advantages for the patented and patent-pending technology will in fact be realized in any manner or in any part. No statement herein has been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). TurboCBDTM, DehydraTECH TM technology and ViPovaTM products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Lexaria Bioscience Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/513762/Lexaria-Bioscience-Creates-and-Brands-Subsidiary-Companies Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - Ely Gold Royalties Inc. ("Ely Gold" or the "Company") (TSXV: ELY) (OTCQB: ELYGF) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a letter agreement (the "Agreement") with Balmoral Resources Ltd. ("Balmoral") whereby Ely Gold will acquire 100% of all rights and interests in the 1% (one percent) net smelter royalty (the "Royalty") on the Fenelon Mine Property, operated by Wallbridge Mining Company Limited ("Wallbridge"), located in west-central, Quebec (see figure #1). Under the Agreement, Ely Gold will pay Balmoral a cash consideration of Cdn$500,000, issue 1,000,000 Ely Gold common shares in favour of Balmoral and issue to Balmoral 1,000,000 full common share purchase warrants. The closing date of the proposed transaction is expected to be on or around October 15, 2018 and is subject to completion of a definitive purchase and assignment agreement, the acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange and Wallbridge. The 1,000,000 Ely Gold shares to be issued under the Agreement will be subject to a regulatory hold period of four months following the date of closing. The strike price was set at Cdn$0.10 for the 1,000,000 common share purchase warrants based on the closing price of October 9, 2018 and they will have a term of 18 months. Trey Wasser, President and CEO of Ely Gold commented on the Transaction, "We are very pleased to add another quality asset to our growing royalty portfolio. The Fenelon Property is demonstrating excellent grades in minable intercepts and the project operator has indicated its belief that the resource has significant potential for increased resources. We look forward to delivering more news on the high-profile Fenelon Property Royalty in the near future." The Fenelon Balmoral Royalty The Fenelon Balmoral Royalty was created pursuant to a purchase agreement, dated July 25, 2016, between Wallbridge and Balmoral. The 1,052 hectare Fenelon Mine property hosts the Discovery Gold deposit and surrounding four km strike length of a gold-bearing shear corridor (see figure #2). Subsequently, Wallbridge completed an updated resource estimate for the Fenelon Property in 2016 (see Technical Report and Mineral Resources Estimate for the Fenelon Mine Property, August 2, 2016) and produced a positive pre-feasibility study (PFS) on the Mineral Reserves in 2017. (see Technical Report on Wallbridge's Sudbury Area Properties, Ontario (Canada), December 31, 2017), both reports are available under the Wallbridge issuer profile at www.sedar.com. The 2017 Mineral Reserves are as follows: Category Mined Tonnes Recovered Tonnes Grams Recovered New Ounces Proven 6,321 6,670 62,970 2,025 Probable 83,974 89,951 836,600 26,897 Total 90,295 96,721 899,570 28,922 Since the acquisition, Wallbridge has announced the completion of 33 drill holes totalling 6,348 metres in three surface exploration drilling campaigns at Fenelon. Results from the surface drilling program confirmed the high-grade nature of the near surface mineralization at Fenelon and led the identification of new zones of mineralization proximal to the existing mine workings established in 2004. Highlights from the recent drill program include: FA-17-07 intersected three zones including 141.16 g/t of gold over 7.06 metres in the Viper Zone; FA-17-17 intersected four zones including 311.08 g/t of gold over 3.06 metres, also in the Viper Zone; FA-17-26 intersected two zones including 260.44 g/t of gold over 7.02 metres, also in the Viper Zone; and FA-17-27 intersected 80.42 g/t gold over 4.73 metres in the Habanero Zone Wallbridge is currently conducting an underground bulk sample program expected to produce approximately 20,000 ounces of gold from 35,000 tonnes. The bulk sample program is designed to mine selected stopes in several zones, across six levels. Wallbridge also reports that the cash flow from its bulk sample program will fund a 10,000-metre underground and surface drill program. Underground drilling outside the confines of the historical and current resource envelope was anticipated to have commenced during the current quarter. Stephen Kenwood, P. Geo, is a director of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Kenwood has reviewed and approved the technical information in this press release. About Ely Gold Ely Gold Royalties Inc. is a Vancouver based, emerging royalty company with development assets focused in Nevada and the Western US. Its current portfolio includes 24 Deeded Royalties and 22 properties optioned to third parties. Ely Gold's royalty portfolio includes fully permitted mines, mines under construction and development projects that are being permitted for mine construction. The Company is actively purchasing existing third-party royalties for its portfolio and all the Company's Option Properties will produce royalties, if exercised. The royalty and option portfolios are currently generating significant revenue. Ely Gold is well positioned with its current portfolio of over 20 available properties to generate additional operating revenue through option and sale transactions. The Company has a proven track record of maximizing the value of its properties through claim consolidation and advancement using its extensive, proprietary data base. All portfolio properties are sold or optioned on a 100% basis, while the Company retains net smelter royalty interests. Management believes that due to the Company's ability to generate royalty transactions, its successful strategy of organically creating royalties, its equity portfolio and its current low valuation, Ely Gold offers shareholders a low-risk leverage to the current price of gold and low-cost access to long-term mineral royalties. On Behalf of the Board of Directors Signed "Trey Wasser" Trey Wasser, President & CEO For further information, please contact: Trey Wasser, President & CEO trey@elygoldinc.com 972-803-3087 Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations Officer jjobin@elygoldinc.com 604-488-1104 Neither 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. Disclaimer: This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the Company's contemplated acquisition of the Royalty relating to Wallbridge's Fenelon Property, and Wallbridge's stated plans for further near-term exploration and development of the Fenelon Property. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the risk of accidents and other risks associated with Wallbridge's mineral exploration, development and extraction operations, the risk that Wallbridge will encounter unanticipated geological factors, or the possibility that Wallbridge may not be able to secure permitting and other governmental clearances, necessary to carry out its stated plans for the Fenelon Property, the Company's inability to secure the required TSXV acceptance required for the Transaction, and the risk of political uncertainties and regulatory or legal disputes or changes in the jurisdictions where the Company carries on its business that might interfere with the Company's business and prospects. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects Figure #1 Fenelon Property Location Map To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4181/40250_a1539116744910_52.jpg Figure #2 Fenelon Property, Discovery Zone Overview To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4181/40250_a1539116745016_39.jpg Daniel Melamed Brought in an Ice Cream Truck to the Ronald McDonald House on Long Island, Providing Sweet Treats to Families and Staff LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / Daniel Melamed, a successful real estate investor with a passion for philanthropy, is pleased to announce that he recently made the days both brighter and sweeter for the guests of a local Ronald McDonald House. Melamed brought in an ice cream truck to the Ronald McDonald House on Long Island, New York, treating both the families who are staying there and the staff to a sweet treat of their choice. To learn more about Daniel Melamed and his company, Excalibur Equities, please visit https://www.danielmelamed.com/. As a spokesperson for Melamed noted, this was actually the second time that he paid a visit to the Ronald McDonald House in recent weeks. Not too long ago, Melamed stopped by the Ronald McDonald House with toys for the children, food and other snacks. 'Daniel was excited to once again visit the Ronald McDonald House and show his support for this great non-profit organization,' the spokesperson noted, adding that it was a perfect day for ice cream in Long Island. 'He looks forward to continuing his support of this beautiful foundation.' In addition to his two visits to the Ronald McDonald House, Melamed has made a number of other philanthropic donations in recent months. During back to school time, he gave a large number of backpacks, all filled with essential school supplies, to children in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Earlier this year, Melamed also went to the Cohen Children's Medical Center in Long Island to donate a variety of fun toys for the young patients to play with; this included LEGO sets, a video game system, arts and crafts and more. For Melamed, who founded Excalibur Equities in 2015 and owns and operates a number of properties throughout New York City, these donations are all part of his passion for giving back to the community whenever possible. About Excalibur Equities Corp.: Excalibur Equities Corp., the Property Management division of Daniel Melamed, is a ten-year private family-owned real estate services company. Excalibur Equities prides itself on its hands-on style, which leads to a closer landlord-tenant relationship, and is the key to Excalibur Equities' success. Thanks to Melamed's hard work and dedication, Excalibur Equities has earned a reputation as a compassionate, flexible and reliable management service. For more information, please visit https://www.danielmelamed.com/. Contact: Maxwell Xu mxu@nxtfactor.com (917) 633-7217 SOURCE: Excalibur Equities Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/513776/Real-Estate-Investor-and-Philanthropist-Daniel-Melamed-Makes-a-Second-Generous-Donation-to-the-Ronald-McDonald-House 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. AUSTIN, Texas, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- New study by Wi-Fi Alliance projects increasing Wi-Fi economic contribution in next five years A new report commissioned by Wi-Fi Alliance estimates the current annual global economic value of Wi-Fi at $1.96 trillion, projecting that number to surpass $3.47 trillion by 2023. Wi-Fi brings the greatest impact to the economy in four key categories: developing alternative technologies to expand consumer choice, creating innovative business models to deliver unique services, expanding access to communications services for fixed and mobile networks, and complementing wireline and cellular technologies to enhance their effectiveness. In addition to determining Wi-Fi's global impact, the study evaluates individual economies of six countries, highlighting the incredible value of Wi-Fi and underscoring the need for adequate unlicensed spectrum to ensure Wi-Fi continues to deliver benefits to consumers, business, and economies. Key findings of the report include: United States : Wi-Fi contributes $499 billion in economic value today, $993 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 United Kingdom : Wi-Fi contributes $54 billion in economic value today, $71 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 France : Wi-Fi contributes $44 billion in economic value today, $64 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 Germany : Wi-Fi contributes $94 billion in economic value today, $132 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 Japan : Wi-Fi contributes $171 billion in economic value today, $248 billion by 2023 Wi-Fi contributes in economic value today, by 2023 South Korea : Wi-Fi contributes $68 billion in economic value today, $138 billion by 2023 "Wi-Fi has a powerful and often underestimated economic impact all over the world," said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. "This study brings attention to the tremendous economic benefit from Wi-Fi, and underscores the importance of favorable spectrum policy to ensure Wi-Fi continues delivering even greater economic and societal benefits for many years to come." Consumers and business depend on Wi-Fi for connectivity, productivity, and critical operations each day, but the true economic value of Wi-Fi has been difficult to define due to diverse unlicensed spectrum environments. The study defines economic value by looking at the tangible, economic gains that Wi-Fi provides consumers and producers, and net contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The study also estimates Wi-Fi's role in job creation in each country through a valuation of its impact on different categories of employment. "Wi-Fi technology should be recognized as one of the dominant economic engines of the digital ecosystem," said Dr. Raul Katz, Wi-Fi Economic Study author and President of Telecom Advisory Services. "Governments should develop the right incentives to stimulate the social and economic benefits of Wi-Fi, including assigning enough spectrum to avoid congestion across the globe, promoting the development of start-ups that rely on Wi-Fi to create applications, and leveraging Wi-Fi technology to address the digital divide barrier." Please visit http://www.valueofwifi.com for more information and to download the full report. Note on methodology Wi-Fi Alliance commissioned a study from Telecom Advisory Services (TAS), headed by economist Dr. Raul Katz, to analyze the economic contribution of Wi-Fi in 2018 and forecast expected economic value in 2023. The study, which also estimates global value and job creation attributed to Wi-Fi, focuses on six world economies, and then calculates an estimated global value. The countries studied are the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea. About Wi-Fi Alliance http://www.wi-fi.org Wi-Fi Alliance is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 40,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet's traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day. ANDOVER, Massachusetts, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- InstantEye Robotics announced today the next evolution in its family of combat-proven, small, unmanned aerial systems, the InstantEye Mk-3 series. These new systems incorporate state-of-the-art data encryption, enhanced payload support, and a new operator interface with expanded features and capabilities. Cyber security of unmanned systems is increasingly important as the number and variety of robotic systems grows. To address cyber threats, InstantEye Mk-3 systems incorporate sophisticated data protection and communication security architectures. The all-digital communication links use advanced encryption methods to reduce the risk of eavesdropping on telemetered data. Layered on top of the control systems are threat protection frameworks designed to detect and isolate various spoofing, takeover and denial-of-service attacks. InstantEye Robotics is dedicated to protecting the security of its systems, ensuring the operator receives the information they need, when they need it. A key feature of all InstantEye systems is their ability to use different payloads depending on mission needs. To support the ever-increasing number and complexity of new payloads, InstantEye Mk-3 systems have an enhanced plug-and-play interface that expands the types of payloads that can be carried and the amount of data that is telemetered to the operator. InstantEye systems are noted for ease of operation with an intuitive ground control system (GCS). The new InstantEye Mk-3 systems use an Android-based tablet computer and provide increased functionality with a new hand controller. The tablet computer provides real-time processing of system data for immediate situational awareness. Like the InstantEye Mk-2 GCS, the system is self-contained, maximizing tactical maneuvering capability of the operator. The systems currently being offered in the product line are the InstantEye Mk-3 GEN5-D1/D2 and the InstantEye Mk-3 GEN4-D1/D2. The InstantEye Mk-3 GEN5-D1/D2, is the smallest aircraft in the family, with low audible and visual signatures, allowing it to execute close-area target reconnaissance (CATR) undetected. The InstantEye Mk-3 GEN4-D1/D2 is the largest aircraft in the family, with a payload carrying capacity of over three pounds. Coming in 2019 is the InstantEye Mk-3 GEN4-E1, which utilizes a networked military software-defined radio and will offer an optional SAASM GPS configuration. InstantEye Robotics is a division of Physical Sciences Inc., both located in Andover Massachusetts. InstantEye Robotics is a global leader in tactical unmanned aircraft systems. When customers need a reliable, portfolio-manageable, multi-mission system, they choose InstantEye. Press Contacts Kimberly Kohlhepp InstantEye Robotics 978.918.7364 kkohlhepp@instanteyerobotics.com www.instanteyerobotics.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/766329/InstantEye_Mk_3_GEN5_D1.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633038/InstantEye_Robotics_Logo.jpg VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / Skeena Resources Limited (TSX-V: SKE, OTCQX: SKREF) ('Skeena' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce additional Au-Ag drill results for three drill holes from the ongoing Phase I surface drilling program at the Eskay Creek Project ('Eskay Creek') located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. The multifaceted Phase I program is being performed in the historically drill defined 21A, 21C and 22 Zones. A cross section and tabled data are presented at the end of this release and on the Company's website. Eskay Creek Phase I Drilling Highlights 9.49 g/t Au, 111 g/t Ag, 10.97 g/t AuEq over 42.65 m (SK-18-009) Including: 17.35 g/t Au, 147 g/t Ag, 19.31 g/t AuEq over 19.65 m 5.93 g/t Au, 166 g/t Ag, 8.14 g/t AuEq over 36.25 m (SK-18-010) Including: 5.66 g/t Au, 296 g/t Ag, 9.61 g/t AuEq over 14.00 m 7.95 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag, 9.82 g/t AuEq over 33.60 m (SK-18-011) Gold Equivalent (AuEq) was calculated with the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 75]. Reported core lengths represent 80-100% of true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling. Length weighted AuEq composites were constrained by geological considerations as well as a calculated 1.0 g/t AuEq assay grade cutoff assuming reasonable prospects for economic extraction via open pit mining methods. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length weighted AuEq composites. Processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are disclosed at 100% due to a lack of supporting information. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero. Phase I Drilling Discussion The Phase I drilling program on the 21A, 21C and 22 Zones is designed to infill and improve definition in areas with low drill density to a drill spacing sufficient to allow for future economic analyses, and to collect fresh material for an upcoming metallurgical characterization and testing program. As no historical drill core remains for any zones at Eskay Creek, new material must be collected for this purpose. Overall, the metallurgical drilling program is designed to gather unbiased, representative material that is spatially distributed throughout the various zones that will ultimately be used to optimize future economic analyses. The 21A Zone represents a significant portion of the pit constrained resources hosted at Eskay Creek, containing Indicated Resources of 207,000 oz AuEq grading 5.9 g/t AuEq and Inferred Resources of 418,000 oz AuEq grading 4.6 g/t AuEq. Designed to infill an area of Inferred Resources, three drillholes were collared on section 10020N, all of which intersected continuous intervals of exhalative mudstone and footwall rhyolite hosted mineralization. Most notably, drillhole SK-18-009 intersected 9.49 g/t Au, 111 g/t Ag (10.97 g/t AuEq) over 42.65 metres including a subinterval within the mudstone averaging 17.35 g/t Au, 147 g/t Ag, (19.31 g/t AuEq) over 19.65 metres. Situated immediately downdip, Phase I drillholes SK-18-010 and SK-18-011 intersected 5.93 g/t Au, 166 g/t Ag (8.14 g/t AuEq) over 36.25 metres and 7.95 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag (9.82 g/t AuEq) over 33.60 metres respectively. The 21A Zone continues to demonstrate excellent geological and grade continuity and will be further infill drilled during the continuing Phase I program to 20 metre drill spacings to upgrade Inferred Resources to the Indicated category. The 21A Zone is currently drill defined over a large area measuring 420 m along strike and 180 m down dip with true widths ranging from 1 to 80 m in thickness. 21A and 21B Zones - Analogous Mineralization Styles The 21B Zone is geologically and geochemically equivalent to the 21A Zone and accounted for the bulk of mineralization historically mined at Eskay Creek. The 21B Zone occurs as a tabular, stratiform, fault bounded body characterized by well-bedded, reworked sulfides and sulfosalts interbedded with unmineralized, carbonaceous argillite (mudstone). In addition to the extremely high precious metal grades, Eskay Creek as a whole, particularly the 21A and 21B Zones, is distinguished from conventional VMS deposits by the association with elements of the epithermal suite (Sb-HgAs). Elevated concentrations of Sb-Hg-As in the 21A and 21B Zones are not evenly distributed throughout the zones but rather occur as isolated clusters due to later stage localized, hydrothermal overprinting. Although the bulk of the mined material was hosted in the contact mudstone, significant unmined mineralization exists in proximal feeder structures in the footwall rhyolites (21C and Pumphouse Zones). These zones differ geochemically from the 21A and 21B Zones in that they contain low levels of Sb-Hg-As as compared to those hosted in the contact mudstone. 21B Zone Historical Reconciliation Underground mining at Eskay Creek was performed using the drift and fill mining method with run of mine material either milled at site to generate a concentrate or as direct shipping ore ('DSO'), to smelters. Due to the elevated concentrations of Sb-Hg-As in the 21B Zone, smelter penalties were often prevented via blending with slightly less deleterious material hence diluting the penalty elements while maintaining a profitable head grade. Based upon historical internal technical reports from the Eskay Creek Mine, the parameters for determining reserves in 2006 were based upon a gold price of US$475.00 per ounce, a silver price of US$8.50 per ounce and a copper price of US$1.50 per pound. The determination of whether material was milled on site versus shipped directly to an offsite smelter was based on mercury concentrations less than 200 ppm and antimony concentrations less than 1% for onsite milling and greater than 200 ppm mercury and greater than 1% antimony for smelter DSO. The same 2006 mill performance report indicates metallurgical recoveries from onsite milling of the 21B Zone at 84% for gold and 96% for silver. Despite the substantial precious metal grades and base metal credits of the 21A Zone, in the opinion of the Company, the 21A Zone was historically uneconomic due to prevailing low commodity prices combined with smelter penalties and the necessary high cut-off grade used. As well, antimony was treated as a penalty element, but now has the potential to offer significant by-product credits. About Eskay Creek In December 2017, Skeena secured an option to acquire 100% interest in the Eskay Creek property. Discovered in the Golden Triangle in 1988, the former Eskay Creek mine produced approximately 3.3 million ounces of gold and 160 million ounces of silver at average grades of 45 g/t gold and 2,224 g/t silver and was once the world's highest-grade gold mine and fifth-largest silver mine by volume. A precious and base metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit, Eskay-style mineralization has been the focus of considerable exploration activity in the Golden Triangle dating back to 1932. Exploration programs in 1988 led to the discovery of the 21A and 21B zones, followed by underground development of the 21B zone starting in 1990 with the official opening of the Eskay Creek mine in 1994. Over the 14-year life of the mine, approximately 2.2 million tonnes of ore were mined with cut-off grades ranging from 12 to 15 g/t AuEq for mill ore and 30 g/t AuEq for direct shipping smelter ore. Eskay is endowed with excellent infrastructure including all-weather road access and proximity to the new 287-kilovolt Northwest Transmission Line. The Property consists of 8 mineral leases, 2 surface leases and several unpatented mining claims totaling 6,151 hectares. Eskay is in the traditional territory of the Tahltan Nation. Skeena has a positive working relationship with the Tahltan Central Government ('TCG') and has signed Exploration and Communication Agreements with the TCG that cover the Company's other projects in Tahltan territory (see new releases dated September 25, 2017 and January 24, 2017). About Skeena Skeena Resources Limited is a junior Canadian mining exploration company focused on developing prospective precious and base metal properties in the Golden Triangle of northwest British Columbia, Canada. The Company's primary activities are the exploration and development of the past-producing Snip mine and the recently optioned Eskay Creek mine, both acquired from Barrick. In addition, the Company has completed a Preliminary Economic Assessment on the GJ copper-gold porphyry project. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Skeena Resources Limited, Walter Coles Jr. President & CEO Qualified Persons Exploration activities at the Eskay Creek Project are administered on site by the Company's Exploration Managers, Colin Russell, P.Geo. and Adrian Newton, P.Geo. In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Paul Geddes, P.Geo. Vice President Exploration and Resource Development, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting its exploration activities on its exploration projects. Quality Assurance - Quality Control Once received from the drill and processed, all drill core samples are sawn in half, labelled and bagged. The remaining drill core is subsequently securely stored on site. Numbered security tags are applied to lab shipments for chain of custody requirements. The Company inserts quality control (QC) samples at regular intervals in the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QAQC program was designed and approved by Lynda Bloom, P.Geo. of Analytical Solutions Ltd., and is overseen by the Company's Qualified Person, Paul Geddes, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and Resource Development. Drill core samples are submitted to ALS Geochemistry's analytical facility in North Vancouver, British Columbia for preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for gold assays and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is crushed and 1kg is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 50g fire assay fusion with atomic absorption (AAS) finish with a lower limit of 0.01 ppm and upper limit of 100 ppm. Samples with gold assays greater than 100ppm are re-analyzed using a 50g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish. Analysis for silver is by 50g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish with a lower limit of 5ppm and upper limit of 10,000ppm. Samples with silver assays greater than 10,000ppm are re-analyzed using a gravimetric silver concentrate method. A selected number of samples are also analyzed using a 48 multi-elemental geochemical package by a 4-acid digestion, followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and also for mercury using an aqua regia digest with Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish. Samples with sulfur reporting greater than 10% from the multi-element analysis are re-analyzed for total sulfur by Leco furnace and infrared spectroscopy. Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements Certain statements made and information contained herein may constitute 'forward looking information' and 'forward looking statements' within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. These statements and information are based on facts currently available to the Company and there is no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements and information may be identified by such terms as 'anticipates,' 'believes,' 'targets,' 'estimates,' 'plans,' 'expects,' 'may,' 'will,' 'could' or 'would'. Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and other matters. While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or information except as may be required by applicable securities laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Table 1: Eskay Creek Project Phase I 21A Zone length weighted drill hole gold and silver composites: HOLE-ID FROM (M) TO (M) CORE LENGTH (M) AU (G/T) AG (G/T) AUEQ (G/T) SK-18-009 78.35 121.00 42.65 9.49 111 10.97 INCLUDING 78.35 98.00 19.65 17.35 147 19.31 INCLUDING 81.15 82.50 1.35 28.40 558 35.84 AND 82.50 83.00 0.50 10.40 55 11.13 AND 83.00 84.60 1.60 9.86 163 12.03 AND 86.00 87.50 1.50 14.85 81 15.93 AND 87.50 89.00 1.50 72.60 126 74.28 AND 89.00 90.32 1.32 48.80 166 51.01 AND 90.32 90.93 0.61 13.20 1,645 35.13 AND 96.50 98.00 1.50 23.60 23 23.91 SK-18-010 80.25 116.50 36.25 5.93 166 8.14 INCLUDING 87.00 101.00 14.00 5.66 296 9.61 INCLUDING 95.00 96.50 1.50 4.46 503 11.17 AND 97.50 98.45 0.95 24.80 310 28.93 AND 98.45 99.42 0.97 9.21 205 11.94 INCLUDING 105.50 113.50 8.00 12.82 115 14.35 INCLUDING 105.50 107.00 1.50 11.45 6 11.53 AND 107.00 108.50 1.50 12.05 30 12.45 AND 108.50 110.00 1.50 12.45 31 12.86 AND 110.00 110.92 0.92 12.00 457 18.09 AND 110.92 112.00 1.08 18.40 310 22.53 AND 112.00 113.50 1.50 11.80 42 12.36 SK-18-011 81.68 115.28 33.60 7.95 140 9.82 INCLUDING 82.59 84.00 1.41 9.86 98 11.17 AND 84.00 85.30 1.30 28.70 197 31.33 AND 85.30 86.15 0.85 92.70 83 93.81 AND 93.00 94.50 1.50 5.48 541 12.69 AND 94.50 96.00 1.50 10.40 404 15.79 AND 96.00 97.50 1.50 11.55 334 16.00 AND 99.00 100.50 1.50 6.94 304 10.99 Gold Equivalent (AuEq) was calculated with the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 75]. Reported core lengths represent 80-100% of true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling. Length weighted AuEq composites were constrained by geological considerations as well as a calculated 1.0 g/t AuEq assay grade cutoff assuming reasonable prospects for economic extraction via open pit mining methods. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length weighted AuEq composites. Processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are disclosed at 100% due to a lack of supporting information. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero. Table 2: Mine grid Phase I drill hole locations and orientations HOLE-ID EASTING NORTHING ELEVATION LENGTH (M) AZIMUTH DIP SK-18-009 9807.5 10021.0 1043.6 149.0 89.6 -44.6 SK-18-010 9807.5 10021.0 1043.6 152.5 90.8 -52.4 SK-18-011 9807.5 10021.0 1043.6 152.5 89.0 -60.6 Contact: info@skeenaresources.com SOURCE: Skeena Resources Limited View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/513775/Skeena-Intersects-1097-gt-AuEq-Over-4265-Metres-at-Eskay-Creek One in a flurry of emails begins like this: I have to congratulate you for your 'big swing and miss' with the statement that you will vote for Bredesen for Senate, what an irresponsible thing to do in such a sad time in our country. Have you watched any of the Kavanaugh circus/hearing/confirmation? Do you support these paid protestors?? The ridiculous pounding on the doors of the senate building by unhinged people who want mob rule, is this what you want for us as a nation which is what we will have if we have a Democratic majority win in November? Trust me, this is just one in a pile of protests I have received after I wrote a story on Monday, I Believe Bredesen. The story did not say nor in any way imply that I will vote for the former Governor when early voting for the Nov. 6 general election begins next week. Rather, it said that when Phil answered a reporters pointed question if he would have supported the Kavanaugh nomination, he said that he would have. Had Bredesen been a Senator and done so, he would have been the only Democrat other than West Virginias Joe Manchin. But the righteous right among us immediately called Bredesen a liar, saying his motives instead were to attract moderate Republicans and independents to his side of the ballot. I am different in that I can find no reason to not believe the man after he served our state in a very fair and honorable way for two terms. I believe Bredesen told the truth, just as I could also find no reason to believe Brett Kavanaugh was not telling the truth when he swore he had never sexually attacked anyone. And here is what I also believe, this after a conversation with a female psychologist I believe Dr. Christine Ford told the truth that as a 15-year-old girl some lout did indeed pounce on her. But here is the disclaimer, as it was explained to me: Such an attack would have been a major trauma to a child. The fact she could not recall some of the simplest facts not back then or she would still remember indicates the assault was a tremendous mental shock. It is possible her mind could have somehow put Kavanaughs face, someone she recognized, on that of the attacker? I do not know the answer, even as far-fetched as it may seem, but I do know I just watched the Democratic Party stoop to the lowest level of politics I can remember. There was a big story in the Washington Post on Tuesday that observed, Republicans have cast the Trump resistance movement as an angry mob, a term used by many of them to describe a faceless amalgamation of forces that they say threaten the countrys order and, they hope, energize their voters for the mid-term elections. Last month Ted Kruz, the Republican Senator from Texas who is now in a hotly-contested race, went to a trendy Washington restaurant with his wife. To everyones surprise an angry group of liberals verbally attacked the couple, this at the height of the Kavanaugh hearings. Chanting, We believe survivors! the Senator and his wife Heidi were run out of the restaurant. Videos of the incident were almost immediately posted on the networks and you want the biggest surprise: The very next day unsolicited contributions to the Cruz re-election were the highest in this campaign. Jeff Roe, a Republican strategist, told the Post writers likening the Democrats to an anarchist-type mob is working. Their tactics are too hot. They insult Republicans and turn off independents even more than the prospect of impeachment does, Roe said. Shortly after West Virginias Manchin gave his support to Kavanaugh last week, a cluster of reporters wanted his comments but Manchin was unable to answer due to an unruly mob that shouted him down. Shame on you! Look at me look at me! Are you going to let our Democracy die!! The best part of yesterdays story in the Washington newspaper for me was also what I believe to be the truth: Voters say they are tired of the anger and polarization emanating from Washington. They say they crave compromise. Yet these same voters view the rival party with disdain and frequently punish politicians for reaching across partisan lines. They want the anger to stop but cant stop being angry. royexum@aol.com Russia's Minister of Science and Higher Education Mikhail Kotyukov, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, told about the ministry's plans for the development of science in the North Caucasus. "While working with the Academy, we paid a lot of attention to the North Caucasus. Not to mention regular retreats, we did serious work on reorganizing research institutes. Today we have a North Caucasian Agrarian Science center with the base institution in Stavropol and units in different regions. We have a unique observatory in Arkhyz, one of the best in the world.A very ambitious scientific project is being implemented in the Baksan Gorge, which, if it all works out, may receive the highest international recognition," the minister said. "Now we are faced with the task of forming a research and educational center in the North Caucasian Federal District, which should be created as part of national projects. It will include scientific organizations and universities. Now we are considering what jurisdictions can be involved and which industrial partners will take part in the project. The North Caucasus receives our close attention, and there will be quite positive changes in the scientific and educational sphere," Mikhail Kotyukov assured. SURREY, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / Gungnir Resources Inc. (TSX-V: GUG; OTC PINK: ASWRF) ('Gungnir' or the 'Company') comments on the response to the Company's news release issued on October 4, 2018. The share price has been negatively impacted with what the Company believes to be a very positive development with a new discovery of the Rodingtrask target on the Company's Knaften property. Jari Paakki Gungnir's CEO stated, 'New discovery targets like this don't come along everyday. Rodingtrask is located in VMS country in northern Sweden with active mines and deposits near-by making this target very relevant. So far, we have drilled into a large mineralized halo (smoke) of a probable new VMS system, and now we need to get into the guts of it (vent area) to test for potentially higher-grade mineralization. Assays in KN18-07 confirmed we have the right metals in the system (smoke), and were not presented in any manner to indicate potential mining grade.' Rodingtrask is Gungnir's top target on Knaften right now, and we are definitely looking forward to moving this one forward. Results from holes KN18-08, -09 and -10 will help determine where we sit in the mineralized system and what direction the Company needs to direct its next round of exploration. Gungnir also plans to investigate additional targets along trend, both north and south of Rodingtrask which occur over several kilometres. Details on Rodingtrask are available for viewing via the home page link (Rodingtrask 2018) on the Company's website at www.gungnirresources.com. About Gungnir Resources Gungnir Resources Inc. is a Canadian-based TSX-V listed mineral exploration company (GUG: TSX-V) with gold and base metal permits in northern Sweden within a region hosting 12 million ounces of gold delineated in existing and mined resources plus several past-producing and producing base metal mines. The Company's key project, Knaften (includes new Rodingtrask target), is situated at the southern extension of the 'Gold Line' which hosts a number of gold deposits including Faboliden and Svartliden (Dragon Mining), and Barsele VMS-gold (Agnico Eagle and Barsele Minerals). The Company additionally holds a royalty stream from the sale of the Kenville Gold Project in BC with $3,000,000 still due in three further annual advance cash payments of $1,000,000 each. Further information about the Company and its properties may be found at www.gungnirresources.com or at www.sedar.com. On behalf of the Board, Jari Paakki, CEO and Director For further information contact: Head Office/Investor Relations Phone: +1-604-683-0484 Jari Paakki, CEO Email: jpaakki@eastlink.ca Chris Robbins, CFO Email: robbinscr@shaw.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. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements made herein may contain forward-looking statements or information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as 'plans,' 'expects,' 'is expected,' 'budget,' 'scheduled,' 'estimates,' 'forecasts,' 'intends,' 'anticipates' 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,' or the negative of these words or comparable terminology. By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual performance of the Company to be materially different from any anticipated performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements or information include, but are not limited to, statements or information with respect to Gungnir Resources' plan for future funding, and exploration and development of its properties. Forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of estimates and assumptions and 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 or information. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying estimates and assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements or information. For example, there is no certainty, that any economically viable mineral deposit will be located on the properties, or that the Company will receive or be able to raise sufficient capital to complete all of its exploration programs. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements or information. Gungnir does not expect to update forward-looking statements or information continually as conditions change, except as may be required by securities law. SOURCE: Gungnir Resources Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/513779/Gungnir-Comments-on-Response-to-Knaften-News-Release NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / KYN Capital Group Inc. (OTC PINK: KYNC) Board of Directors announced today that the company has signed an agreement to acquire ATAX Cloud, a financial equipment leasing and tax preparation company. This subsidiary is a franchise that provides Financial Services, Leasing, Tax preparation, Payroll, and other ancillary services in the financial sector. This acquisition is expected to close by October 20, 2018. Mr. Yeboah, The CEO of KYNC, Stated, "This acquisition enables the company to provide key services in the Equipment Leasing and Financing area as well as tax preparation, financial statements for both public and private companies. ATAX has multiple revenue streams and the company will discuss the value of them with its shareholders after October 20, 2018." This acquisition is the first of many to come for KYNC which gives us the ability to have the equipment necessary for organic grow rooms for other companies we plan to acquire. The board of directors are very excited about the future of the company and believe this will create greater share value for its shareholders. Safe Harbor Statement: Certain statements made in this press release constitute forward-looking statements that are based on management's expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "scheduled," "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements made herein. Please refer to KYN Capital's Disclosure Statement ("Disclosure Statement") first published on May 28, 2015, on www.otcmarkets.com, and most recently updated on August 31, 2018 for a more complete description of KYN Capital's operations. Any summary description contained herein is qualified in its entirety to the fuller description contained in the Disclosure Statement. SOURCE: KYN CAPITAL GROUP INC. Clem Yeboah, President/CEO info@kyncapitalinc.com SOURCE: KYN Capital Group Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/513785/KYN-CAPITAL-GROUP-INC-Announces-the-acquisition-of-ATAX-Financial-Inc-to-Begin-Equipment-Leasing-for-Organic-Grow-Rooms-with-Acquisition-Partners ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / Findit, Inc. (OTC PINK: FDIT), a Nevada Corporation has made significant updates to Findit.com in 2018. These updates have included a revamp of the following content sections inside a Findit Members "site." News - Revamped to display a single press release from a member that can be shared to other social networking platforms from a members News Page. The member who submitted the release can share it to their social networking accounts along with anyone who visits the members news page. Below each news or press release are the previous releases from the members whose news page a reader is on. These updates can help readers view previous releases submitted by the member and share the releases they wish to their social networking accounts. This can increase the number of views a Findit member receives on each press release. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_3ilfjCR8 Pictures - Pictures are a vital component of online marketing, whether the picture is intended to be marketed or not, people view pictures with the hope of liking them and sharing them with others. The picture section was updated to provide members the ability to create individual picture galleries that they can title. The gallery title gives the visitor in Findit an idea of what a particular picture gallery may contain. In addition to a title, each gallery can also contain a description that the Findit member can include. The gallery title and description also provides Findit search as well as Google, Yahoo and Bing and idea of what the gallery contains when the page is crawled to index them in search results under images accordingly. Each picture in a gallery also has a placeholder for a title and a description that can also be crawled by search engine for individual indexing of each and every image uploaded into a members Findit Picture section. Peter Tosto with Zion Williamson Pre Duke Audio / Music - The Music section which will soon be labeled Audio in the navigation was updated in the third quarter of 2018. The updates were visual on both the backend and the frontend to create a more user-friendly experience. Members can upload an Album or Single Audio files. Each Album and Track has fields that text is required to provide search engines the ability to index each audio file uploaded. Tracks can include a title, a genre, and details about the artist and lyrics. Members with Podcasts can upload them as well and use the fields to title what the podcast is about, the host and guests and length of the podcast. Visually on the frontend, the updates were done to be more aesthetically pleasing to a visitor so they would spend more time viewing and listening to songs or podcasts. Right Now - The Right Now section received a makeover and it has shown to be beneficial in the short amount of time the updates went live. The updates include removing the text that use to overlay a picture by placing the copy above the image on the website and on the Findit Right Now App (available in Google and Apple). The images now are in full display making each Right Now post more visually appealing to visitors, which we believe may prompt them to more readily share a Right Now Post than when the Right Now posts had text covering a large portion of the image. The picture update also is intended to encourage members to post more pictures because the Right Now feed is now more visually appealing and like other content posted to Findit, Right Now posts can be shared as well to other social networking platforms. The platforms include, but are not limited to, Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR), Google + (GOOG) and posts are also crawled by search engines for indexing in organic search results. The power of a Right Now post when a member experiences the results first hand can often persuade a member to do Right Now posts in Findit and from their Right Now page, share their posts to their other social networking accounts. The results tend to be more sharing which equates to more people seeing what you posted. Moreover, when members see their posts indexing in search results, it is very rewarding to know that the content they are posting can be found by people that may not be friends with them on Facebook or following them on Twitter or Instagram, yet can come across their posts from a search result in Google and see and share that post to their social accounts. With new improved Findit Right Now posts, more people seem to be sharing them now then they did prior to the recent visual update. In each Right Now post, a member can include as many words in the content section, as many pictures in the picture section, one video, a link, audio file and a press release. Posts can be scheduled out like Facebook offers and backdated if you want to fill in your feed. Post to Findit Get Seen Shared and Indexed Real Estate - Real Estate was the latest content section updated in a Findit members site. The Real Estate section will only display on a Findit member's site that want to include real estate listings on Findit; it will not display on those who do not have real estate listings posted. Like News, Real Estate has to be activated to display in the navigation of a members' Findit site. Listings can be posted for free. Members can post real estate listings for sale, for rent or vacation rentals. All listings can include an address, a complete description of the property, a video, contact information of the real estate agent, the property manager or the owner who is selling or renting the property themselves. Multiple listings display on one page so that buyers or renters get to see your inventory of properties and can click to an individual listing. From there, each listing goes to a page featuring that listing as well as displaying the other listings by that Findit member. All listings can be shared to social networking sites and are crawled by Google. Peter Tosto of Findit stated, "The above updates were done through the third quarter of 2018. We will continue to strive to deliver a platform for our members that has the tools they need to get their content posted, seen, shared and indexed. We are hopeful that as members see the results and visitors come across them more people will join Findit to post even more content to get it seen. shared and indexed. This will help Findit continue to grow while improving our overall traffic ranking." As a result of these updates and other unknown factors, Findit.com has seen an improvement in its Alexa Ranking (AMZN). Findit was ranked 194,210 Globally on April 10th, 2018. As of October 8th, 2018, Findit has seen an improvement in our Global Ranking of 98,115 positions bringing Findit's ranking to 96,095 globally. Findit has also brought on its first Brand Ambassador Calvin Corzine, a Yoga Instructor based out of Los Angeles, California who teaches classes at Yoga Works (YOGA). The addition of Calvin Corzine was to show other individuals that Findit is for anyone - individuals, organizations, businesses, churches, schools - to utilize Findit to share their updates with as many people as they can reach while sharing their posts on Findit to their Facebook page and other social accounts that they desire to share them to. You can find Calvin on Findit under the address Findit.com/calvmonster. Brand Ambassador Calvin Corzine Findit.com/calvmonster Findit offers every member the option of having their own unique Findit address. Currently, these are found on the Findit site under Keyword URLs. Findit will be making updates to this section, along with Findit Prime and the Findit home page; these updates are currently underway. The purpose of these updates is to convert more visitors to the home page into members and more members to Findit Prime and the current Keyword URL page into purchases of these features to increase passive revenue and earnings. Findit to date in 2018 has posted a loss in the first two quarters of $8,126.00. The third quarter numbers have not yet been reported. Findit, in addition to the web updates and the launch of the new Findit Right Now native app, will be focusing on taking on more online marketing clients to increase revenue and get to profitability. About Findit, Inc. Findit, Inc., owns Findit.com which is a Social Media Content Management Platform that provides an interactive search engine for all content posted in Findit to appear in Findit search. The site is an open platform that provides access to Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines access to its content posted to Findit so it can be indexed in these search engines as well. Findit provides Members the ability to post, share and manage their content. Once they have posted in Findit, we ensure the content gets indexed in Findit Search results. Findit provides an option for anyone to submit URLs that they want indexed in Findit search result, along with posting status updates through Findit Right Now. Status Updates posted in Findit can be crawled by outside search engines which can result in additional organic indexing. All posts on Findit can be shared to other social and bookmarking sites by members and non-members. Findit provides Real Estate Agents the ability to create their own Findit Site where they can pull in their listing and others through their IDX account. Findit offers News and Press Release Distribution. Findit, Inc., is focused on the development of monetized Internet-based web products that can provide an increased brand awareness of our members. Findit, Inc., trades under the stock symbol FDIT on the OTCPinksheets. Safe Harbor: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), including statements regarding potential sales, the success of the company's business, as well as statements that include the word believe or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Findit, Inc. to differ materially from those implied or expressed by such forward-looking statements. This press release speaks as of the date first set forth above, and Findit, Inc. assumes no responsibility to update the information included herein for events occurring after the date hereof. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to factors such as the lack of capital, timely development of products, inability to deliver products when ordered, inability of potential customers to pay for ordered products, and political and economic risks inherent in international trade. Contact: Peter Tosto Phone 404 443 3224 SOURCE: Findit, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/513748/Findit-Inc-Owner-of-Finditcom-Provides-Year-to-Date-Update-on-Social-Media-Content-Management-Platform Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - Gunpowder Capital Corp., (CSE: GPC), (CSE: GPC.PR.A), (OTCQB: GNPWF), (FSE: YS6N), ("Gunpowder" or the "Corporation") announced today that the Corporation's wholly owned subsidiary, GP Financial Services Corp., has acquired Alpha Invoice Inc. ("Alpha") an online portal providing short term financing solutions to business by factoring invoices. Alpha has an existing customer base and had unaudited revenues of approximately Three Hundred Thousand Dollars ("$300,000.00") CDN last year. Mr. Paul Haber Stated: "Small businesses most often need short-term loans instead of long-term debt financing. Most term loans, classified as short-term, usually have a maturity of one year or less. Alpha Invoice factoring loans with short maturities can help businesses meet an immediate need for financing. We feel that the acquisition of this portal will serve as a very useful tool in expanding our current loan portfolio and will assist in growing GP Financial Services Corp." Total consideration paid for this acquisition was Five Thousand Dollars ("$5,000.00") CDN. About Alpha Invoice When businesses have to wait 30 to 120 days to get paid for the work that they have done from existing customers it may put strain on new & current business as well day to day operations. Alpha Invoice provides them with instant cash flow by purchasing the very invoices they are waiting for from their customer base. As a Factor, Alpha Invoice helps small to medium businesses bridge their cash flow challenges when they sell their goods and services to large credit worthy customers but must wait 30 to 120 days to get paid. Alpha Invoice buys their invoices (credit receivables), at a discount, and provides immediate financing.. For more information please visit www.alphainvoice.com. About Gunpowder Capital Corp. Gunpowder Capital Corp., is a merchant bank and advisory services firm based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Gunpowder invests in both publicly traded and private businesses that have successful management teams and attractive economic models. Gunpowder partners with these businesses to support their growth initiatives with its proven methodology of appropriate financing and structured exits. Gunpowder offers debt financing, including mezzanine and bridge loans, equity financing and advisory services. Gunpowder is also building a portfolio of companies in which it takes a long term position and view. For more information please visit www.gunpowdercapitalcorp.com. For further information please contact: Mr. Frank Kordy CEO & Director Gunpowder Capital Corp. T: (647) 466-4037 E: frank.kordy@gunpowdercapitalcorp.com Mr. Paul Haber CFO Gunpowder Capital Corp. T: (416) 363-3833 E: paul.haber@gunpowdercapitalcorp.com Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made as of the date of this document and the Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although Management believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. - 30 - Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - Miramont Resources Corp. (CSE: MONT) (OTCQB: MRRMF) (FSE: 6MR) ("Miramont" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update of activities at the Lukkacha and Cerro Hermoso projects in Peru. Lukkacha Miramont reports important progress in the Peruvian Government's evaluation for the Supreme Decree necessary to operate at Lukkacha. The decree is required for any foreign company to work within 50 kms of the international boundary - Lukkacha is approximately 35 km from the border. The Company has been notified by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (the "MEM") that Miramont's request for developing and acquiring the project has received favorable opinion from the Defense Ministry. This is the key hurdle in the approval process, as the restriction applicable to foreign companies is based on national security reasons. MEM will now complete its internal review. Miramont anticipates that a formal recommendation will be made for the issuance of the Decree in the coming months. Lukkacha is Miramont's new copper porphyry prospect located in Tacna Department of Peru. Miramont has an option to acquire 100% of the property. It is found within the southern Peruvian copper belt - one of the world's most important copper regions where over 750,000 tonnes of copper are produced annually. The property is 50 km southeast of the operating Toquepala Mine and in an active area of exploration interest for major copper producers. The Company has received a report on the detailed mapping and geochemical sampling carried out by the local project vendor. Mapping has defined a core zone of interest covering an area of 2 by 2 kilometers. It is characterized by extensive alteration, mineralization and structures associated with copper porphyry deposits. Initial drill targets have been identified and will be further defined by future geophysical surveys prior to drilling. Miramont proposes to begin this work as soon as all approvals are received. Further information can be found on the Company's website. In anticipation of the issuance of the decree and the start of exploration under Miramont's direction, the Company has begun discussion with the local communities with an aim to finalizing a long-term exploration agreement. A framework for an agreement has been reached with the local community in principal. When finalized this will allow for all surface prospecting activity up to and including a discovery and resource definition drill program. The Company has also contracted Social Capital Group to update a socio-economic diagnosis of the area with special focus on the presence of indigenous groups that may be affected by the project. This will help the company anticipate the need for the government to engage in any community consultation process (consulta previa) if required here. Cerro Hermoso The Company is actively working with Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines as it continues to evaluate local community conditions in the Cerro Hermoso area. A recent reorganization of agencies within the Ministry should result in a simplification and a shortening of the time required for this review process. Miramont has successfully amended its option agreement for the two principal concessions at Cerro Hermoso. The amendment reduces current payments and extends the option period by an additional year. This provides Miramont the opportunity to reduce current costs while it waits for the final drill permit. The final terms of future payments are: Sept 26, 2018 $ 70,000 Sept 26, 2019 $156,000 Sept 26, 2020 $100,000 Sept 26, 2021 $3,000,000 National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. William Pincus, CPG, President and CEO of Miramont and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About Miramont Resources Corp. Miramont is a Canadian based exploration company with a focus on acquiring and developing mineral prospects within world-class belts of South America. Miramont's key assets are located in southern Peru. The Cerro Hermoso property hosts a 1.4km diameter breccia pipe targeting gold - polymetallic mineralization, while the Lukkacha property is targeting porphyry copper mineralization. On behalf of the Board of Directors, MIRAMONT RESOURCES CORP. "William Pincus" William Pincus, President and CEO For more information, please contact the Company at: Telephone: (604) 398-4493 info@miramontresources.com www.miramontresources.com Reader Advisory This news release may contain statements which constitute "forward-looking information", including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, fluctuations in market prices, successes of the operations of the Company, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such information will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking information except as required under the applicable securities laws. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Veteran life settlements professional Moritz Roever takes over ownership and management of company from Tom Moran, looks to drive ASG to new levels of success Asset Servicing Group, LLC (ASG), an Oklahoma City-based life settlement and viatical servicing firm, today announced that the company has been sold to life settlement industry professional Moritz Roever, who has also taken the position of Managing Director at ASG. Tom Moran, former owner and CEO of ASG, stated, "I have known Moritz a long time. He is honest, reliable and knowledgeable. I am very glad to have found the perfect successor in Moritz and ASG is now in his capable hands. This is a great step for the company because the new plans and fresh ideas through his leadership will move ASG into even greater levels of success." "I have worked with the Asset Servicing Group team for more than a decade and have always been deeply impressed by the legacy that Tom built, as well as ASG's excellent and incredibly knowledgeable management team," said Mr. Roever. "I am very proud to be part of the ASG team and very aware of the responsibility to lead ASG's transition in the ever-evolving life settlements market." Mr. Roever started his career at Bloomberg in New York, before he joined the investment banking departments of Citibank and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Frankfurt, Germany. Between 2002 to 2005, Moritz was Managing Director at Germany-based Scope Group, a leading European rating agency in structured finance, where he oversaw the rating of more than 40 longevity-linked structures in the US, UK and Germany. Since 2005, he has served as Managing Partner at Puerta Grande Investment Management (PGIM), an investment firm specializing in the structuring, origination and sales of longevity-linked products and services. He has successfully transacted more than $3 billion in life insurance assets and has been mandated as a consultant and re-structuring manager for various life settlement funds. He is also co-founder of LifebondXchange, Luxembourg, the first tertiary market trading platform for U.S. senior life settlements in Europe, enabling institutional market participants to trade their exposure in a fully transparent and efficient manner. Under Mr. Roever's leadership, ASG will continue providing its time-tested life settlement portfolio administration services, while developing and integrating cutting-edge technology into its proprietary technology platform to ensure compliance and data security. "It is ASG's mission to further expand on its fully integrated servicing platform and continue to be a pioneer on expanding the scope of services and management solutions to its global client base," said Mr. Roever. ASG offers the full range of life settlement portfolio servicing, including general policy administration, premium payment administration, medical processing services, and insured and death claims management. The company is now expanding its platform by offering sophisticated asset management solutions to institutional and private investors. These include due diligence and forensic accounting, policy premium optimization, portfolio valuation services and policy purchase and disposition administration, as well as advisory services. Through its network of trusted partners, the ASG platform also offers securities intermediary and custodial services, portfolio origination and auction services, escrow services, receivership and bankruptcy services, investor relations as well as noticing and general administration. "This new strategy allows us to immediately become a true one-stop platform in the global life settlement investment community, granting value-add benefits and excellent experience," said Mr. Roever. "We look forward to expanding the partnership with our existing and new clients, helping them manage their life assets exposure in a most efficient, effective and professional manner." For more information, please visit www.asgllc.us. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005215/en/ Contacts: Asset Servicing Group, LLC Moritz Roever mroever@asgllc.us Recognized for Product Innovation in Supply Chain, Logistics, and Distribution PRINCETON, New Jersey, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Systech, the global leader in supply chain security and product authentication, won in the category of "Excellence in Pharma: Supply Chain, Logistics, and Distribution" at the CPhI Pharma Awards Gala last night. The award recognizes UniSecure, Systech's non-additive authentication solution that works with existing packaging and a mobile app. Its digital e-Fingerprint technology delivers a revolutionary defense against the increasing threats of product diversion and counterfeiting. Systech rose above the competition in this strongly-contested category of 10 shortlisted companies, including last year's winner. Commenting on the win, Ara Ohanian, CEO, Systech said "We are dedicated to innovating the way the industry addresses attacks to their supply chain. UniSecure technology is empowering companies to protect their consumers, brand reputation and revenue from the counterfeit challenges of tomorrow, today." Joe Belenardo, SVP, Systech added, "This award validates that leading pharmaceutical companies are embracing our technology." The CPhI Pharma Awards are among the most respected in the pharmaceutical industry, celebrating innovations breaking new ground and advocating companies committed to industry advances and thought leadership. This year's awards attracted more than 250 entries-a record number-from 174 companies across 17 categories. About Systech: Systech is the global technology leader in supply chain security and product authentication. For more than 30 years, we have put technology on the line. Systech pioneered pharmaceutical serialization as well as innovations in line vision and inspection, overall packaging line management and track and trace. Today, Systech is revolutionizing brand protection. Our software solutions ensure products are authentic, safe and connected-from manufacturing to the consumer's hands. Contact: Systech Stacey Owens-Perrotta T +1 609 235 3639 stacey.owens-perrotta@systechone.com Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-fudKKWjEg Awarded multiple customers with the "Cloud Data Center Super User Award 2018" and Released the Full-Stack Private Cloud Solution FusionCloud 6.5 SHANGHAI, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, at HUAWEI CONNECT 2018, Huawei held a summit themed of "Activate Intelligence: The Innovative Path to Intelligent Cloud Data Centers". At the summit, Hou Jinlong, President of Huawei's IT Product Line, delivered a speech "Activate Intelligence: Innovative Path to Huawei Intelligent Full-Stack Cloud". The representatives from finance, healthcare, energy, and Internet companies shared their joint innovation practices in AI, cloud, and HPC fields. Huawei awarded customers with the "Cloud Data Center Super User Award 2018" to commend their consistent support to Huawei. Also, Huawei released the full-stack private cloud solution FusionCloud 6.5 and introduced the new-generation mission-critical cloud storage FusionStorage. These solutions add new capabilities to Huawei's substantial array of cloud and storage support to lay a solid foundation for building an intelligent world. Hou Jinlong said: "Extensive applications of AI technologies drive our society into a more intelligent world. Huawei is committed to integrating AI technologies with IT infrastructure such as cloud data centers, intelligent cloud computing and storage, helping customers create business value in their digital and intelligent transformations by leveraging full-stack cloud solutions with full lifecycle service capabilities and comprehensive ecosystem competitiveness." To commend customers' support, Huawei presented "Cloud Data Center Super User Award 2018" to following Huawei customers: Best Innovation Practices of the Year: China Merchants Bank (CMB) Best Digital Enterprise Transformation of the Year: Sonatrach Best AI Exploration in Healthcare of the Year: KingMed Diagnostics Best Cloud Service Deployment of the Year: Sina Corporation Best Cloud Data Center Practices of the Year: China Mobile Group Beijing Co., Ltd. Most Improved IT Efficiency of the Year: Sberbank of Russia Best Cloud Transformation of the Year: Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. Best Huawei Cloud Practices of the Year: Kingnet Network Co., Ltd. At this summit, Huawei released the next-generation full-stack private cloud solution FusionCloud 6.5 and introduced the new-generation mission-critical cloud storage FusionStorage. FusionCloud 6.5 offers many new capabilities: Compared to FusionCloud 6.3, FusionCloud 6.5 provides more than 50 cloud services in nine categories. With enhanced capabilities in AI-powered heterogeneous computing, enterprise intelligence, and hybrid cloud, FusionCloud 6.5 allows Huawei's full-stack AI solutions to be deployed on private cloud platforms and offers cloud-edge-cloud synergy. With an eye toward next-generation networking, FusionCloud 6.5 enables enterprises to extend data from private clouds to the Internet edge. Huawei's FusionCloud solution helps enterprises implement large-scale, intelligent edge-computing management and collaboration. FusionCloud 6.5 also expands the integration of Independent Software Vendor (ISV) algorithms and applications so that ISVs can quickly integrate their AI algorithms and applications into private cloud platforms. Huawei's FusionCloud Private Cloud Solution provides a unified experience that ensures consistent on- and off-premises connectivity through standardized public and private cloud architectures. FusionCloud 6.5 supports today's increasing demands for cloud-computing services such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Data-as-a-Service (DaaS). FusionCloud 6.5 shares unified architectures, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), services, and ecosystems with HUAWEI CLOUD to allow users to leverage more than 100 online cloud services. The solution can also connect to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and other third-party public cloud platforms through hybrid clouds. This versatility enables seamless cross-cloud business deployment and migration that provides long-term support for business development. FusionCloud 6.5 provides full-stack services, platform, and ecosystem to help meet customers' digital transformation requirements. The new-generation FusionStorage offers advanced cloud storage capabilities for enterprise mission-critical applications: FusionStorage leverages the technology innovations of storage software and compatibility with industry-leading hardware to provide the ultimate performance, robust reliability, and on-demand storage resource services for mission-critical applications. With this platform, enterprises can easily cope with the challenges of migrating core applications to the cloud. FusionStorage offers distributed linear expansion capabilities that include linear expansion of EB-level storage capacity, IOPS, and throughput. FusionStorage also implements coordinated storage of hybrid cloud data on- and off-premises, and boasts industry-leading reliability and ease of use, so that mission-critical applications can securely run in cloud resource pools. FusionStorage also delivers multi-level business continuity assurance for users to deploy on demand. Equipped with Huawei's unique fully distributed gateway-free active-active solution, FusionStorage provides 99.9999 percent solution-level reliability to ensure uninterrupted business operations in virtualization and database scenarios. Additionally, this solution offers the industry's only asynchronous replication technology that supports Recovery Point Objective (RPO) at the level of seconds for long-distance data protection scenarios. Huawei is committed to working with customers in the long term and takes a future-oriented approach to drive enterprise digital transformation through the power of the platform. So far, 211 of the Fortune Global 500 companies (including 48 Fortune Global 100 companies) have selected Huawei as their digital transformation partner. HUAWEI CONNECT 2018 - "Activate Intelligence" - is held at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center and Expo Center from October 10 to 12.This year's HUAWEI CONNECT conference is designed to help all businesses and organizations step over the threshold and stake their claim in the intelligent world. You will be joined by the best minds in the industry - including global ICT leaders, industry experts, and ecosystem partners - to chart the way forward and explore new opportunities. For more information, please visit: https://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/events/huaweiconnect2018?ic_medium=hwdc&ic_source=corp_banner_allwayson&source=corp_banner Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/766839/Huawei_IT_Hou_Jinlong.jpg (CSE: API) (OTCQB: APAAF) (FSE:: A0I.F) (FSE: A0I.MU) (FSE: A0I.BE)is pleased to announce the completion of the Summer exploration program (the "") carried out on the Alces Lake Property (the "") in northern Saskatchewan. The Property encompasses some of the highest-grade total and critical REE mineralization in the world with average grades ranging from 2.0 to 47.2 weight% Total Rare Earth Oxide. Assay results for the 2018 exploration work are still pending and will be announced as they are received and analyzed by the Company. The Program consisted of i) overburden stripping that delineated seven surface zones (Figure 1; Bell, Charles, Dante, Dylan, Ivan, Wilson and Wilson South-Central), ii) the collection of 844 systematic channel samples taken from all seven exposed zones, iii) the collection of 6 heavy mineral black beach sand samples exploring for sediment-hosted monazite and rare earth elements ("REEs") at surface, and iv) the completion of 15 diamond drill holes into 3 of the zones (Charles, Ivan and Wilson). Mr. James Sykes, Appia's Vice President, Exploration and Development comments, "The diamond drill program was the first-ever on the Alces Lake property. The drilling phase of the Program has successfully shown that concentrations of semi-massive to massive monazite mineralization exposed at surface continues to depths of 5 to 10 metres below surface and appears to be open at depth. We are equally excited about the discovery of three new monazite occurrences between 8 and 15 m below surface at the Charles and Ivan zones. These new discoveries prove the sub-surface of the Property remains highly prospective for more concentrated REE zones similar to those discovered to date (see Figure 2)." The surface stripping, channel sampling and diamond drilling have provided valuable geological insights that will help the Company target areas of potential mineralization beneath the surface. All drill core samples have been hand delivered to the Saskatchewan Research Council's ("SRC") Geoanalytical Laboratory, an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (CAN-P-4E) certified laboratory in Saskatoon. The Alces Lake Property encompasses some of the highest-grade total and critical REE mineralization in the world, hosted within seven surface showings that remain open in all directions (see *Note below). Critical rare earth elements are defined here as those that are in short-supply and high-demand for use in permanent magnets, for electric vehicles, wind turbines and other modern electronic applications (i.e: Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium (Pr) and Dysprosium (Dy)). The Alces Lake project area is 14,334 hectares (35,420 acres) in size. *Note: The Alces Lake REE grades were compared with global REE deposit grades. The global REE deposit information was derived from publicly available information as of January 31, 2018, from individual company websites, SEDAR technical report filings, and the Technology Metals Research Advanced Rare Earth Projects Index (http://www.techmetalsresearch.com/metrics-indices/tmr-advanced-rare-earth-projects-index/). About Appia Appia is a Canadian publicly-traded company in the uranium and rare earth element sectors. The Company is currently focusing on delineating high-grade critical rare earth elements ("REE") and uranium on the Alces Lake property, as well as prospecting for high-grade uranium in the prolific Athabasca Basin on its Loranger, North Wollaston and Eastside, properties. The Company holds 100% of the surface rights to exploration over 63,980 hectares (158,098 acres) in Saskatchewan. The Company also has NI 43-101 compliant resources of 8.0 M lbs U 3 O 8 and 47.7 M lbs Total REE Indicated and 20.1 M lbs U 3 O 8 and 133.2 M lbs Total REE Inferred in the Teasdale Zone plus 27.6 M lbs U 3 O 8 Inferred in the Banana Lake Zone in the historic mining camp of Elliot Lake in Ontario (previously reported in the Company's news release dated August 14, 2013). The resources are largely unconstrained along strike and down dip. Appia's technical team is directed by James Sykes, who has had direct and indirect involvement with over 450 M lbs. U 3 O 8 being discovered in five deposits in the Athabasca Basin. Appia currently has 58.4 million common shares outstanding, 76.6 million shares fully diluted. The technical content in this news release was reviewed and approved by Thomas Skimming, P.Eng, a Director of Appia, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This News Release contains forward-looking statements which are typically preceded by, followed by or including the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "intends", "plans" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance as they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward- looking statements and shareholders are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such statements. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information, please contact: Tom Drivas, President, CEO and Director: (tel) 416-546-2707, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) appia@appiaenergy.ca James Sykes, VP Exploration & Development, (tel) 306-221-8717, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) jsykes@uraniumgeologist.com Frank van de Water, Chief Financial Officer and Director, (tel) 416-546-2707, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) fvandewater@rogers.com Figure 1: Aerial view of high-grade critical REE zones currently delineated at surface. No scale. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5416/40268_a1539173392230_46.jpg NOTE: Bell, Dante, Dylan, Ivan and Wilson zone outlines are based on surface radioactivity measured at surface (>10,000 cps, >1,000 cps for pink zone at Wilson South-Central). Charles zone outline is based on >0.1 wt% Total Rare Earth Oxide cutoff. Figure 2: Drill hole CH-18-006 @ 11.5 m drill hole depth - massive monazite mineralization within a new sub-surface discovery below the Charles zone. Radioactivity for this piece measures up to 8000 counts-per-second, the second highest radioactivity measured from all 15 drill holes. BQ-size drill core, 15 cm length. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5416/40268_a1539173392387_2.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - QMC Quantum Minerals Corp. (TSXV: QMC) (FSE: 3LQ) (OTC Pink: QMCQF) ("QMC" or "the Company") today provides an update on the Company's 100%-owned Irgon Mine Project located within the prolific Cat Lake-Winnipeg River rare-element pegmatite field of S.E. Manitoba, which also hosts Cabot Corporation's nearby Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada ("TANCO") rare-element pegmatite. QMC is pleased to report that a chip sample taken from the Central Pegmatite Dike returned 4.16% Li 2 O, as detailed below. Company personnel, in conjunction with the recent SGS property site visit, undertook an initial regional evaluation of the lithium-bearing potential of the CAT 2 Claim south of Cat Lake, Manitoba, and have confirmed significant visual spodumene mineralization in the Central Pegmatite Dike. The Central Dike is locally visible along an escarpment immediately adjacent to a creek. It has also been exposed in two old overgrown pits on the dike. Abundant coarse-grained spodumene mineralization was observed within the dike where it is locally visible in these locations. A chip sample taken from the escarpment face of this dike returned 4.16% Li 2 O. QMC crews will work to better reveal this dike prior to undertaking a program of channel sampling along the strike length. The visually abundant spodumene mineralization exposed on the Central Dike can be traced in outcrop over a length of approximately 50 meters; the dike, which occurs as a flat-lying sill, is estimated to be over 2 meters thick. QMC will undertake to expose the actual length, depth and width through a program of overburden stripping on this well-mineralized dike. HISTORICAL RESOURCE Between 1953-1954, the Lithium Corporation of Canada Limited drilled 25 holes into the Irgon Dike and subsequently reported a historical resource estimate of 1.2 million tons grading 1.51% Li 2 0 over a strike length of 365 meters and to a depth of 213 meters (Northern Miner, Vol. 41, no.19, Aug. 4, 1955, p.3). This historical resource is documented in a 1956 Assessment Report by B. B. Bannatyne for the Lithium Corporation of Canada Ltd. (Manitoba Assessment Report No. 94932). This historical estimate is believed to be based on reasonable assumptions, and neither the Company nor the QP has any reason to contest the document's relevance and reliability. The detailed channel sampling and a subsequent drill program will be required to update this historical resource to current NI 43-101 standards. Historic metallurgical tests reported an 87% recovery from which a concentrate averaging 5.9% Li 2 O was obtained. During this historical 1950-era work program, a complete mining plant was installed onsite to process 500 tons of ore per day, and a three-compartment shaft was sunk to a depth of 74 meters. On the 61-metre level, lateral development was extended off the shaft for a total of 366 meters of drifting, from which seven crosscuts transected the dike. The work was suspended in 1957 awaiting a more favourable market for lithium oxides; at this time the mine buildings were removed. The mineral reserve cited above is presented as a historical estimate and uses historical terminology which does not conform to current NI43-101 standards. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Although the historical estimates are believed to be based on reasonable assumptions, they were calculated prior to the implementation of National Instrument 43-101. These historical estimates do not meet current standards as defined under sections 1.2 and 1.3 of NI 43-101; consequently, the issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Bruce E. Goad, P. Geo., who is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About the Company QMC is a British Columbia based company engaged in the business of acquisition, exploration and development of resource properties. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious, base, rare metal and resource properties of merit. The Company's properties include the Irgon Lithium Mine project and two VMS properties, the Rocky Lake and Rocky-Namew, known collectively as the Namew Lake District Project. Currently, all of the company's properties are located in Manitoba. For more information visit www.QMCMinerals.com On behalf of the Board of Directors of QMC QUANTUM MINERALS CORP. "Balraj Mann" Balraj Mann President and Chief Executive Officer Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Corporate Communications Contact: NetworkNewsWire (NNW) New York, New York www.NetworkNewsWire.com 212.418.1217 Office Editor@NetworkNewsWire.com UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's city of Ulyanovsk. The champion is now heading to meet Putin at the Russia Country of Sports forum in the city of Ulyanovsk, according to RT. Footage has appeared online of Nurmagomedov looking suited a booted on a plane heading to Ulyanovsk. When asked if he was planning to meet Putin at the forum, Nurmagomedov replied: "Yes, thats why we are flying." But the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the he knows nothing about Putin's possible meeting with Khabib. Los Angeles, California--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - NUGL Inc. (OTC Pink: NUGL) (the "Company"), the cannabis industry's new standard of technology, today reports a major update to its iOS app available in the Apple Store and its Android app available in the Google Play Store. NUGL has taken major steps in the past 30 days to address community feedback and demand for a more robust mobile application. With a marketing launch underway, the Company has created an open dialogue, enabling its user base to give input and have that input directly affect future software development. "We have received a substantive amount of feedback from our user base and we listen to it. Then we act on it. A large portion of our user base lives an on-the-go mobile lifestyle, and they want all the functionality and features we offer to be accessible on their phones. When you are building a software application that is this massive and has an abundance of features, it is not an easy task. Even companies like Instagram and LinkedIn do not offer all of their desktop features on their mobile versions," stated Ryan Bartlette, CMO of NUGL. NUGL has expanded its development team this month and is putting major focus on the functionality of the NUGL mobile application. The Company plans to make every feature offered on its web application available for the mobile application, as well. "Industry standards for fortune 500 technology companies generally do not allow a lot of the backend administrative functionality to be included in the mobile versions of software. The reason for this is certain functions are done more easily on a larger computer screen. It is much more difficult to create a good user experience on a smaller platform such as a phone. Our community is heavily based on their phones, so we will make NUGL as mobile and app friendly as possible," said Brandon Vargas, CEO of NUGL. LANEWS.org recently reported: "Mobile application store market is expected to witness robust growth through 2020. Gaming applications are playing a key role in the growth of the global mobile application stores market." NUGL understands what its users want and the NUGL team is not afraid to be unconventional in accomplishing its goals. The Company employs "By the people, for the people" as its methodology for building software, and this is just another example of that methodology in action. NUGL is launching a major mobile application update today that will include: Profiles Newly redesigned profile pages Updated brand profiles to match style and layout of listing profiles Addition of new swipe gestures to profile pages Addition of social media links to profile pages Addition of menu tabs to profiles Addition of social share links to profiles Updated styling for buttons Addition of photo cropping tool for image uploads Search Updated search bar styling Addition of new search options and filters Addition of brand search functionality Newly redesigned and refreshed icons About NUGL NUGL is the world's first cannabis search app built for the people, by the people. Our goal is to build the most user-friendly app experience in the cannabis industry by listening to our users and giving them what they want. NUGL is the only cannabis search app that offers equal and unbiased search results. We don't sell top-spot listings or fake reviews, so our data stays true. Use NUGL to search for genuine user-rated dispensaries, strains, doctors, lawyers, cannabis service providers, vape shops, hydro stores, brands and more. NUGL's flexible web app has no geographic limitations and can rapidly connect cannabis companies, related vertical services and users. The NUGL iOS and Android app brings a powerful cannabis search tool within reach of anyone, anytime, anywhere with the ease of a smartphone. For more information and updates, visit one of the links below. Website: http://www.nugl.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justnuglit/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justnuglit/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JustNUGLit LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/justnuglit/ Newsletter: https://nugl.us16.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=219fe8bb6995a19827c9f36cb&id=dc46712578 Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release may be considered "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may include projections of matters that affect revenue, operating expenses or net earnings; projections of growth; and assumptions relating to the foregoing. Such forward-looking statements are generally qualified by terms such as: "plans", "anticipates," "expects," "believes" or similar words of like kind. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or qualified. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set forth in, contemplated by, or underlying the forward-looking information. These factors are discussed in greater detail in the company's business plan and filings with the OTC Markets Group. Contact Information: Website: www.nugl.com Email: info@nugl.com Phone: (714) 383-9982 Corporate Communications Contact: NetworkNewsWire (NNW) New York, New York www.NetworkNewsWire.com 212.418.1217 Office Editor@NetworkNewsWire.com Niagara Falls, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - EnerDynamic Hybrid Technologies Corp. (TSXV: EHT) ("EHT") together with its African partner Maple Leaf Holdings SA, have reached the final stage necessary to proceed with the previously announced (see July 19, 2018 news release) order from the Government of Burkina Faso Housing Authority to immediately start the construction of EHT ENERTEC housing to help satisfy the need to build up to 40,000 homes. EHT management has confirmed, by a site visit this week, that the site services for the project are ready thus allowing EHT to commence fabrication this fall following materials delivery and set up. EHT will send one ENERTEC house, based on the approved design, to be used as the model home. Shipment from EHT is expected on or about the first week of November with arrival in Burkina Faso in early January. That ENERTEC model home will be used to take deposits from purchasers and will eventually be sold, offsetting EHT's costs associated with its creation. All the homes are to be sold to the end buyer that have been pre-screened by the government and financial institutions. This screening process has been completed for the first 200 homeowners and deposits have been made. EHT will receive this deposit on each home before EHT will start the build and final payment will be on completion. The homes will sell, depending on the final design and amount of solar capacity selected, for $25,000 to $35,000 USD. The contract granted to Maple Leaf Holdings SA ("Maple Leaf"), will be subcontracted to EHT who is also a shareholder in Maple Leaf. EHT was selected by the Ministry after testing of other building systems that failed to match EHT's superior ENERTEC product for build time and solar roof integration. Over the last 2 years, the existing construction companies have managed to complete just 500 homes of the 40,000 promised by the Government. EHT management began detailed discussions with the appropriate government departments last November and, after the process of design approval and inspections of the ENERTEC sample homes in Ivory Coast, approval has been granted to move forward. EHT will target a rolling increase in production and installation towards a targeted rate of 1,200 homes per annum by late 2019. EHT has also been asked to provide 1 Kw of Solar with 1.5 Kw Inverters and Battery to the previously built houses using the EHT ENERTEC Solar panels since no power has been brought to the site. Mr. John Gamble, EHT's CEO, commented that, "Management has worked very hard to bring this contract to this final stage. An established, critical factor in any of these large, government contracts has proven to be the delays in getting sites serviced and concrete pads poured, both of which are necessary first steps prior to construction. Having sites already serviced and ready to go overcomes the long delays we have experienced in other markets. We are a couple of months behind in shipping the model home due to delays in water and sewer service installation. The Government has continued to take the deposits on the houses during this period and I am very pleased to say this project has all green lights." About EnerDynamic Hybrid Technologies EHT delivers proprietary, turn-key energy solutions which are intelligent, bankable and sustainable. EHT's expertise includes the development of its ENERTEC module structures with full integration of smart energy solutions. Using a proprietary skin and foam core that is stronger than traditional wood or steel structural insulated panels, EHT provides exceptional thermal energy efficiency in modular homes, cold storage facilities, residential/commercial out buildings and emergency/temporary shelters. EHT works with its partners worldwide to erect the buildings on-site utilizing EHT staff and local crews. In addition to traditional support to established electrical networks, ENERTEC buildings excel where no electrical grid exists. About ENERTEC The EHT advanced ENERTEC Modular Wall and Roof System uses a proprietary skin and foam core that is stronger and more energy efficient than traditional wood or steel structures providing the highest ratings for energy efficiency. EHT works with its partners worldwide to erect the buildings on-site utilizing EHT staff and local crews. After installation, each structure can be furnished and finished to meet the customer's requirements including siding, tile, kitchens and bathrooms or segregated commercial rooms. The finished wall product can be shipped on pallets and delivered via rail, truck or water in standard formats. At the core of the ENERTEC product line is the ENERTEC Embedded Solar Roof Module. Solar cells can be embedded in a proprietary fire proof skin resulting in substantial cost savings by eliminating heavy glass panels and aluminum racking required for traditional solar panels. Two barriers to greater adoption of solar energy are weight limitations of the roof on which solar panels could be deployed and onerous shipping and labour costs. A lighter product at a better price point will open a larger market for solar due to the faster return of capital investment especially for rural and remote users looking to go off-grid. Furthermore, the entire EHT embedded solar roof becomes a massive solar panel capable of producing significantly more energy than the home requires, allowing the structure to then become an important source of power for the local micro grid or large battery storage systems. 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. The statements herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements.Forward-looking information involves risk, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Although EHT believes that the assumptions used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. EHT disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: John Gamble Director (289) 488-1699 jgamble@ehthybrid.com info@ehthybrid.com Company Website: www.ehthybrid.com CLEVELAND and BELLEVUE, Washington, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE: TDG) and Esterline Technologies Corporation (NYSE: ESL) announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which TransDigm will purchase all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Esterline for $122.50 per share in cash, which represents a premium of 38% to Esterline's closing price on October 9, 2018, or a total transaction value of approximately $4.0 billion including the assumption of debt. The transaction has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies. TransDigm expects the acquisition to be financed primarily through cash on hand and the incurrence of new term loans, and currently anticipates the acquisition to be modestly accretive to TransDigm's adjusted earnings per share within the first year of ownership. The acquisition of Esterline expands TransDigm's platform of proprietary and sole source content for the aerospace and defense industries, including significant aftermarket exposure. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Esterline is an industry leader in specialized manufacturing for these sectors with anticipated fiscal year 2018 revenue of approximately $2.0 billion. The company consists of 28 business units organized across eight platforms to deliver specialty aerospace, defense and industrial products. The company employs over 12,500 employees in more than 50 operating locations throughout the world. Esterline has attractive platform positions in both the OEM and aftermarket and has substantial content on many important commercial aircraft variants, many regional and business jet aircraft and major defense platforms. "We are pleased to have reached agreement to acquire a collection of businesses that fit well with our focused and consistent strategy," stated W. Nicholas Howley, TransDigm's Executive Chairman. "Esterline's core aerospace and defense business consists of primarily proprietary, sole source products with significant and growing aftermarket exposure. We view this as highly complementary to our existing business. We are confident that the combination of Esterline's leading positions and our proven track record of driving performance will enable us to deliver the private equity-like returns our investors have come to expect from this investment." Kevin Stein, TransDigm's President and Chief Executive Officer stated, "We are excited to acquire Esterline's wide range of complementary products and see a path to create significant value for TransDigm shareholders, customers and stakeholders. Upon completion of the transaction, Bob Henderson, TransDigm's current Vice-Chairman, will oversee the integration and operations of Esterline. Mr. Henderson has been a key member of TransDigm's management team for close to 25 years and has overseen the integration of numerous acquisitions during this period, including our recent acquisition of Kirkhill from Esterline." "Our combination with TransDigm delivers a compelling value for our shareholders," said Curtis Reusser, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Esterline. "I am pleased with the outcome of our thoughtful strategic review process, and we believe it is the best result for all Esterline stakeholders. I am very proud of the commitment and focus of our employees to serving the needs of our customers, and I am confident the combined companies will be well positioned to succeed in the global market we serve." The acquisition will be financed through a combination of existing cash on hand of approximately $2 billion and the incurrence of new term loans. TransDigm has obtained commitments for the full amount of financing required for the transaction. Immediately upon closing, the combined company will maintain the financial flexibility to meet any anticipated operating, acquisition, and other opportunities that may arise though a combination of cash on hand, undrawn revolver, and under certain circumstances, additional availability under its credit agreement. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including Esterline stockholder approval and the receipt of required regulatory approvals. The companies expect to complete the transaction in the second half of calendar 2019. Advisors Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisor to TransDigm. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Baker & Hostetler LLP acted as TransDigm's lead legal counsel. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as financial advisor to Esterline and Evercore Group L.L.C. served as advisor to Esterline's Board of Directors. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom served as legal counsel to Esterline. Conference Call TransDigm will hold a conference call to discuss this announcement beginning at 10:45 a.m. ET Wednesday, October 10. To join the call, dial (888) 558-9538 and enter the passcode 5278399. International callers should dial (760) 666-3183 and use the same passcode. A slideshow accompanying the presentation will be posted to http://www.transdigm.com prior to the call. A telephone replay will be available for one week by dialing (855) 859-2056 and entering the pass code 5278399. International callers should dial (404) 537-3406 and use the same passcode. About TransDigm Group TransDigm Group Incorporated, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, is a leading global designer, producer and supplier of highly engineered aircraft components for use on nearly all commercial and military aircraft in service today. Major product offerings, substantially all of which are ultimately provided to end-users in the aerospace industry, include mechanical/electro-mechanical actuators and controls, ignition systems and engine technology, specialized pumps and valves, power conditioning devices, specialized AC/DC electric motors and generators, NiCad batteries and chargers, engineered latching and locking devices, rods and locking devices, engineered connectors and elastomers, cockpit security components and systems, specialized cockpit displays, aircraft audio systems, specialized lavatory components, seatbelts and safety restraints, engineered interior surfaces and related components, lighting and control technology, military personnel parachutes, high performance hoists, winches and lifting devices, and cargo loading, handling and delivery systems. About Esterline Esterline Corporation is a leading worldwide supplier to the aerospace and defense industry specializing in three core business segments: Advanced Materials; Avionics & Controls; and Sensors & Systems. Operations within the Advanced Materials segment focus on technologies including high-temperature-resistant materials and components used for a wide range of military and commercial aerospace purposes, and combustible ordinance and electronic warfare countermeasure products. Operations within the Avionics & Controls segment focus on technology interface systems for commercial and military aircraft and similar devices for land- and sea-based military vehicles, integrated cockpit systems, display technologies for avionics, training and simulation markets, secure communications systems, specialized medical equipment, and other high-end industrial applications. The Sensors & Systems segment includes operations that produce high-precision temperature and pressure sensors, specialized harsh-environment connectors, electrical power distribution equipment, and other related systems principally for aerospace and defense customers. Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release which are not historic facts are forward-looking statements under the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to expectations of Esterline's future performance, profitability, growth and earnings; expectations of TransDigm's earnings per share and the financial impact of the proposed transaction; the financing of the proposed transaction; and the timing of the proposed transaction. All statements other than statements of historical fact that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements, including, in particular, statements about our plans, objectives, strategies and prospects regarding, among other things, the acquired business. We have identified some of these forward-looking statements with words like "believe," "may," "will," "should," "expect," "intend," "plan," predict," "anticipate," "estimate" or "continue" and other words and terms of similar meaning. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which could affect TransDigm's actual results and could cause its actual results or the benefits of the proposed transaction to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of TransDigm. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, closing conditions to the proposed transaction may not be achieved, the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the Merger Agreement, the effect of the announcement or pendency of the proposed transaction on the TransDigm's and Esterline's business relationships, operating results and business generally, risks related to diverting management's attention from ongoing business operations, the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted related to the Merger Agreement or the proposed transaction, unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the proposed transaction, Esterline's actual financial results for the year ended September 28, 2018 may differ from expected results, TransDigm may have difficulty obtaining required approvals, TransDigm may have difficulty implementing its strategic value drivers, and TransDigm may be impacted by the effects of general economic and industry conditions. Except as required by law, TransDigm undertakes no obligation to revise or update the forward-looking information contained in this press release. Additional Information and Where to Find It This communication is being made in respect of the proposed transaction involving TransDigm and Esterline. In connection with the proposed transaction, Esterline intends to file relevant materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including a preliminary proxy statement on Schedule 14A. Promptly after filing its definitive proxy statement with the SEC, Esterline will mail the definitive proxy statement and a proxy card to each stockholder of Esterline entitled to vote at the stockholder meeting relating to the proposed transaction. This communication is not a substitute for the proxy statement or any other document that Esterline may file with the SEC or send to its stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING DECISION, STOCKHOLDERS OF ESTERLINE ARE URGED TO READ THESE MATERIALS (INCLUDING ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION THAT ESTERLINE WILL FILE WITH THE SEC WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT ESTERLINE AND THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. The definitive proxy statement, the preliminary proxy statement and other relevant materials in connection with the proposed transaction (when they become available), and any other documents filed by Esterline with the SEC, may be obtained free of charge at the SEC's website (http://www.sec.gov) or at Esterline's website (http://www.esterline.com/) or by contacting Esterline's Investor Relations at 500 108th Avenue NE, Suite 1500, Bellevue, Washington 98004, or by calling (425) 453-9400. Participants in the Solicitation Esterline and TransDigm and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from Esterline's stockholders with respect to the proposed transaction. Information about Esterline's directors and executive officers and their ownership of Esterline's common stock is set forth in its proxy statement for its 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders which was filed with the SEC on December 27, 2017, and its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 29, 2017, which was filed with the SEC on November 21, 2017, and the Amendment No. 1 on Form 10-K/A, which was filed with the SEC on March 30, 2018. Information about TransDigm's directors and executive officers is set forth in its proxy statement for its 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K. These documents may be obtained for free at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Additional information regarding the potential participants, and their direct or indirect interests in the proposed transaction, by security holdings or otherwise, will be set forth in the proxy statement and other materials to be filed with SEC in connection with the proposed transaction. WASHINGTON, Oct 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Normet supports education at Savonia University of Applied Sciences by donating 10 000 euros to Savonia. The donation was handed over at Normet factory in Iisalmi, Finland on October 10, 2018 by Normet's CEO robin Lindahl and it was received by Seppo Lyyra, CFO of Savonia. "Savonia University of Applied Sciences is an important partner to us and we want to deepen our cooperation with Savonia further. Savonia has been involved in training of our personnel. In a constantly evolving world, also our business changes and develops. It is therefore important to us to take care of the skills of our personnel and ensure the availability of skilled new personnel", tells Robin Lindahl, CEO Normet Group. Mervi Vidgren, the principal of Savonia University of Applied Sciences, is delighted with the donation. She says that engineers graduated from various programs in Savonia are desired experts in the technology industry. "It is important to Savonia that businesses see us as a strong producer of experts. Our work is particularly beneficial for companies and organizations in the region who get the best experts for their workforce now and in the future," she says. "We are strongly involved in innovation and R&D activities of the companies." Additional Information: Normet Oy: Robin Lindahl President and CEO Normet Group e-mail: robin.lindahl@normet.com mobile: +358 50 5959616 Oulun University of Applied Sciences: Mervi Vidgren Principal e-mail: mervi.vidgren@savonia.fi mobile: +358 44 785 5001 Normet is an innovative, fast growing technology company. We are underground experts driven by continuous improvement and care for environment. We offer complete technical solutions increasing our customers' profitability through improved safety, cost savings and shortened process cycle. Normet has a broad offering for underground mining and tunnelling: equipment, construction chemicals, rock reinforcement products and services. Normet currently employs over 1200 business professionals and the net sales in 2017 was over 250 million Euro. Normet is a Finnish company operating globally with over 50 locations in 30 countries. For more information, visit www.normet.com. Savonia University of Applied Sciences is a significant educator of experts in technology. From 2015 to 2017 a total of 775 engineers graduated from Savonia. Savonia has three campuses: in Kuopio, Varkaus and Iisalmi, Finland This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/normet/r/normet-supports-education-at-savonia-university-of-applied-sciences,c2640330 The following files are available for download: $50 million earmarked for commercial litigation led by women to provide an economic incentive for change Equity Project Champions from top law firms and companies are named NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Burford Capital, a leading global finance and investment management firm focused on law, is proud to announce the launch of The Equity Project, a groundbreaking initiative designed to help close the gender gap in law by providing an economic incentive for change through a $50 million pool of capital earmarked for financing commercial litigation and arbitration matters led by women. An over $800 billion annual industry globally, law presents significant gender-based inequities. For example, Major, Lindsey & Africa found that women partners at London law firms earn 24% less than men. According to the ABA, just 19% of equity partners at US law firms are women, and women are significantly underrepresented in leadership positions in law firms and in first chair roles in litigation. The Equity Project provides an incentive for change by providing a pool of capital reserved for matters led by women, including matters in which a woman litigator is first chair; a woman serves as plaintiffs' lead counsel or chairs the plaintiffs' steering committee; a women-owned law firm is representing the client; a woman litigator earns origination credit; or a woman partner is the client relationship manager. Cases financed by The Equity Project must also meet Burford's standard investment criteria. With capital from The Equity Project: Women litigators and women-owned firms can pitch clients knowing that they can offer attractive alternative fee arrangements. Law firms committed to gender diversity can share risk with Burford and encourage women litigators to pitch client-friendly alternative billing arrangements to their management committees for new business. Women can pursue leadership positions in significant matters and ease pathways towards origination and client relationship credit with a competitive edge for them and their firms. The Equity Project is a global initiative led by Burford's Aviva Will, Senior Managing Director of its investment team and formerly a senior litigation manager and Assistant General Counsel at Time Warner Inc. and a senior litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Ms. Will commented: "There's no question that there remains a significant gender gap in law. The question is how to close this gap-quickly. Diversity and mentoring programs play a part, but to change the outcomes more quickly, we need to change the economics." Ms. Will notes: "Burford has received thousands of requests for financing, but over the nearly ten years we've been in business, under ten percent were for matters run by women. We can and must change this-and we believe this capital commitment can have an immediate impact on women lawyers' ability to generate business." Christopher Bogart, CEO of Burford, commented: "At Burford, half our senior leadership are women. We're proud of that not only because of what it says about our culture-we also think it's one reason for our business success, because as McKinsey and others have shown, companies with more gender diversity on their executive teams outperform on profitability and value creation. The Equity Project is about improving business outcomes and about closing the gender gap in law." Burford has also announced a group of Equity Project Champions (list in formation), corporate and law firm leaders who will support and spread awareness of the initiative: Wendy J. Miles QC , Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton , Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton The Honorable Katherine B. Forrest, Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Former U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York Tara Lee , Chair, Transnational Litigation Group, Quinn Emanuel , Chair, Transnational Litigation Group, Sue Prevezer QC, Chair, International Trial Practice, Quinn Emanuel Sophie Nappert , International arbitrator, Moderator, OGEMID , International arbitrator, Moderator, OGEMID Sophie J. Lamb QC , Global Co-Chair, International Arbitration Practice, Latham & Watkins , Global Co-Chair, International Arbitration Practice, Latham & Watkins Roberta D. Liebenberg , Senior Partner, Fine, Kaplan and Black; Co-Chair, ABA Presidential Initiative on Achieving Long-Term Careers for Women in Law , Senior Partner, Fine, Kaplan and Black; Co-Chair, ABA Presidential Initiative on Achieving Long-Term Careers for Women in Law Nicole D. Galli , Managing Partner, Law Offices of N.D. Galli; Founder and President, Women Owned Law , Managing Partner, Law Offices of N.D. Galli; Founder and President, Women Owned Law Dr. Nadine Herrmann , Managing Partner and Chair, EU and German Competition Law Practice, Quinn Emanuel , Managing Partner and Chair, EU and German Competition Law Practice, Megan E. Jones , Partner, Hausfeld; Founder, Women Antitrust Plaintiffs' Attorneys , Partner, Hausfeld; Founder, Women Antitrust Plaintiffs' Attorneys Carolyn Lamm , Partner, White & Case; Member, ICCA Governing Board , Partner, White & Case; Member, ICCA Governing Board Caren Ulrich Stacy , Founder & CEO, Diversity Lab & OnRamp Fellowship , Founder & CEO, Diversity Lab & OnRamp Fellowship Amy Frey , Partner, Trial and Global Disputes, King & Spalding , Partner, Trial and Global Disputes, King & Spalding Alan Bryan , Senior Associate General Counsel, Walmart; Founder, National Association of Women Lawyers Challenge Club, and In-House Advisory Board Member, National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms In addition to committing capital, The Equity Project is intended to generate insights and awareness. Matters financed through The Equity Project will be analyzed to study differences in outcomes and efficiencies in matters led by women. Additionally, Burford will partner with organizations devoted to changing outcomes for women in law, and sponsor events aimed at bringing together in-house lawyers, law firm leaders and rainmakers, and emerging legal-industry leaders. About Burford Capital Burford Capital is a leading global finance and investment management firm focused on law. Its businesses include litigation finance and risk management, asset recovery and a wide range of legal finance and advisory activities. Burford is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, and it works with law firms and clients around the world from its principal offices in New York, London, Chicago and Singapore. For more information about Burford: www.burfordcapital.com. MONROE, Louisiana, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Signaling further validation of its leadership in hybrid networking, hybrid cloud and IT services, CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) has been named a Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Services Provider (MSP). The certification recognizes CenturyLink's investment in resources, training and technology to deliver successful outcomes for their customers on Microsoft Azure. Inclusion in the Microsoft Azure Expert MSP program is awarded to partners that meet a stringent set of requirements, including verified proof of excellence in customer delivery and technical expertise, and the successful completion of an independent audit of their managed services, people, processes, and technologies. Only the most high-fidelity cloud managed services providers are awarded the Azure Expert MSP badge. "After two decades of experience supporting IT solutions for our customers around Microsoft technologies, we are now well-positioned to capitalize on our recent accreditation as a Microsoft Azure Expert MSP," said David Shacochis, vice president of product management, CenturyLink. "This achievement validates CenturyLink's cloud strategy of connecting workloads to the right cloud, on the right network, with the right value-added services that allow business customers to focus their resources on delighting their customers." Before obtaining the certification, Microsoft conducted a rigorous audit to confirm CenturyLink met or exceeded several requirements such as optimizing operations, delivering lifetime value to customers, and enhancing Azure's service offerings. "Partners play a central role in Microsoft's development to support companies in their digital transformation projects," said Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft corporate vice president, One Commercial Partner (OCP). "Our customers are increasingly demanding the skills and expertise they expect from our partner ecosystem. That's why we establish specific certifications - in this case, on the expertise of Microsoft Azure. We are pleased that CenturyLink is committed to our customers and contributes to the strong growth of innovative projects on Azure." CenturyLink achieved the status thanks to its Cloud Application Manager service , a hybrid cloud management platform that helps customers achieve increased visibility, consistency and control over their cloud deployments from the network to application layer. This award-winning platform allows companies to automate application deployments, optimize costs, scale workloads, and manage connections across disparate operating environments. CenturyLink also offers numerous secure network connectivity options - the CenturyLink Cloud Connect Solutions portfolio was designed to deliver secure, high-performance and enterprise-grade networking connections, along with extensive layer 1, 2 and 3 dynamic connectivity options to allow for a reliable, low-latency, highly responsive experience for hybrid-cloud applications. Cloud Connect and Azure ExpressRoute provide a secure, high-performance network for enterprises to operate a seamless IT environment between their corporate networks and private on-premises infrastructure or third-party data centers and the Azure cloud platform. CenturyLink has been a long-time provider of Microsoft-based IT solutions, with the Expert MSP audit as the culmination of years of CenturyLink investment in Microsoft technology platforms. Additional Resources For more information on CenturyLink's work with Microsoft Azure, visit: http://www.centurylink.com/Microsoft For more information on CenturyLink Cloud Application Manager, visit: https://www.ctl.io/cloud-application-manager/ For more information about the MSP program, visit: https://partner.microsoft.com/en-au/membership/azure-expert-msp About CenturyLink CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is the second largest U.S. communications provider to global enterprise customers. With customers in more than 60 countries and an intense focus on the customer experience, CenturyLink strives to be the world's best networking company by solving customers' increased demand for reliable and secure connections. The company also serves as its customers' trusted partner, helping them manage increased network and IT complexity and providing managed network and cyber security solutions that help protect their business. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/325657/centurylink_logo.jpg LONDON, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 700 square kilometres of known hazardous areas in Afghanistan are plagued by antipersonnel mines, anti-vehicle mines, cluster munitions and improvised explosive devices. Defence IQ's recent report with insights from Robert Hyde-Bales, Consulting Editor, Counter-IED Report, argues that enduring conflicts and the political landscape within Afghanistan is majorly inhibiting the work of both the UN and the multiple NGOs working to clear these areas. They key challenge of IED and mine clearance in Afghanistan is the enduring Taliban presence in 70% of the country. This has led in the past six months to the highest number of fatalities since records started, with 1,692 people killed in from January to July 2018 and IEDs as a leading cause of death. In Defence IQ's report, the problem of explosive threat and landmine clearance is discussed in detail, and it is estimated that Afghanistan could double its agricultural production if land mines were eliminated. However, due to the dysfunctional nature of government, plagued by rampant corruption, Hyde-Bales says in the report that "it is very difficult at the moment to see a light at the end of the Afghan tunnel". Although landmine use globally has significantly reduced over the past decade, it is estimated that there are still 110 million land mines currently in the ground and clearance challenges remain as countries including Afghanistan continue to make use of landmines despite the detrimental impact they can have on the lives of civilians. Defence IQ's report was produced in the lead up to the Countering Explosive Threat and Demining Conference. This event is the inaugural gathering of the world's EOD community and is being held with support from the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Explosive Threats, and supported by Counter-IED UK. This conference is a unique forum that will bring together key stakeholders and decision makers from the complete, global EOD community. Robert Hyde-Bales, Consulting Editor, Counter-IED Report will be speaking at Countering Explosive Threat and Demining Conference taking place in London from the 11th- 12thDecember 2018. Read the full report here About Defence IQ Defence IQ is an authoritative news source for high quality and exclusive commentary and analysis on global defence and military-related topics. Sourcing interviews, features and insight directly from senior military and industry professionals on air defence, cyber warfare, armoured vehicles, naval defence, land defence and many more topics, Defence IQ is a unique multimedia platform to discuss and learn about the latest developments within the defence sector. For more information or to reserve your place at this event call +44-(0)-207-036-1300 or email enquire@iqpc.co.uk The Securities and Exchange Commission is closely monitoring the impact of Hurricane Michael on investors and capital markets. "The dedicated staff of the SEC is preparing to provide support for market participants as Hurricane Michael approaches the Gulf," said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. "While we assess the need to extend deadlines for filings and other regulatory requirements, work to help ensure access to securities accounts, and monitor for storm-related fraud, we encourage all of those in its path to pay close attention to directions from local officials before, during, and after the storm." The SEC divisions and offices that oversee companies, accountants, investment advisers, mutual funds, brokerage firms, transfer agents, and other regulated entities and investment professionals will continue to closely track developments. They will evaluate the possibility of granting relief from filing deadlines and other regulatory requirements for those affected by the storm. Entities and investment professionals affected by Hurricane Michael are encouraged to contact Commission staff with questions and concerns: Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations staff in the Commission's Miami Regional Office can be reached by phone at 305-982-6300 or email at miami@sec.gov Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations staff in the Commission's Atlanta Regional Office can be reached by phone at 404-842-7600 or email at atlanta@sec.gov Division of Corporation Finance staff can be reached by phone at 202-551-3500 or via online submission at www.sec.gov/forms/corp_fin_interpretive Division of Investment Management staff can be reached by phone at 202-551-6825 or email at imocc@sec.gov Division of Trading and Markets staff can be reached by phone at 202-551-5777 or email at tradingandmarkets@sec.gov Office of Municipal Securities staff can be reached by phone at 202-551-5680 or email at munis@sec.gov Individuals experiencing problems accessing their securities accounts or with similar questions or concerns relating to the hurricane are encouraged to contact the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy by phone at 1-800-SEC-0330 or email at help@sec.gov. Investors should be vigilant for Hurricane Michael-related securities scams and check the background of anyone offering them an investment by using the free and simple search tool on Investor.gov. The Division of Enforcement will vigorously prosecute those who attempt to defraud victims of the storm. The SEC is asking investors to report any suspicious solicitations at www.sec.gov/complaint/tipscomplaint.shtml. DETROIT, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Opportunities in the Indian Aerospace Composites Market by Opportunity Type (Export Opportunities and Indigenous Opportunities), by Aircraft Type (Civil Aviation, Military Aviation, and Space), by Resin Type (Epoxy Composites, Phenolic Composites, and Others), by Fiber Type (Carbon Fiber Composites, Glass Fiber Composites, and Aramid Fiber Composites), by Application Type (Exterior and Interior), and by Process Type (Hand Layup and Others), Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660595/Stratview_Research_Logo.jpg ) This market report, from Stratview Research, studies the Indian aerospace composites market over the trend and forecast period of 2012 to 2017 and 2018 to 2023, respectively. The report provides detailed insights on the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market. Opportunities in the Indian Aerospace Composites Market: Research Highlights The next five years for the Indian aerospace composites market are going to be extremely vigorous with significant growth opportunities in both indigenous as well as export market. It is estimated that the market for aerospace composites in India including export potential is likely to reach a value of US$ 302.5 million in 2023. Currently, the market is relatively very small with the presence of a few local players, which possess good composite capabilities. However, it is expected that the Indian market is likely to evolve rapidly in terms of both demand as well as technology in order to cater to the huge indigenous demand for commercial as well as military aircraft. Increasing defense budgets coupled with offset policy, increasing penetration of composites in the next-generation aircraft programs, increasing production rate of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), increasing export opportunities for aerospace composites, make in India campaign, and availability of low-cost skilled manpower in India are some of the major factors proliferating the demand for composites in the Indian aerospace industry. The demand is stimulating the global players to either open their branches or form JVs or partnerships with local companies to fulfill the offset obligation imposed by the Indian government. Major Indian conglomerates are eyeing the market and are forming strategic alliances with global companies in order to develop defense capabilities targeting the growing Indian market as well as export potential. Various leading global players are targeting India as their new revenue pocket and are eagerly eyeing various defense projects in India. For instance, Airbus Group, which is sourcing composites from more than 45 Indian suppliers, has sourced about US$ 550 million of parts in the year 2017 and is actively looking for tie-ups with Indian companies to set-up base for composite parts manufacturing in India. Adani Group is one of the leading companies that has announced to set-up carbon composites aerostructure facility in India to cater to the OEMs, like Airbus Group. Click here and run through the detailed TOC of the report However, the road of the growth is not that lucrative as it seems. The industry stakeholders have to efficiently eliminate the existing bottlenecks in order to reap the benefits in a profitable manner. For instance, the Indian aerospace industry currently lacks the presence of a large number of composite part molders that have good capabilities to fabricate composite parts using advanced manufacturing processes. There is an immense requirement of such players that bring good composite technological capability in India and augment it for the Indian aerospace industry. As per the research findings, civil aviation and military aviation are likely to remain the growth engines of the market in the foreseeable future. Majority of demand for composite parts for the commercial aviation segment is mainly coming from the global market, whereas there is an impressive indigenous demand for composite parts in the military aviation segment. Based on the application type, the exterior segment is likely to remain dominant in the market during the forecast period. Composites are increasingly used in aircraft exterior with a purpose to leverage the potential of composites including lightweight, corrosion resistance, and abrasion resistance. Register here for a free sample of the detailed report Some of the key players in the aerospace composites market in India are Tata Group, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), Kineco Kaman Composites - India Private Ltd., Valeth High Tech Composites Pvt Ltd, Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Limited, and Adani Defense and Aerospace Group. Execution of joint ventures and partnership and development of new composite applications are the key strategies adopted by the major players in the Indian aerospace composites market. Report Features This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. Following are the key features of the report: Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis Market trend and forecast analysis Market segment trend and forecast Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc. Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities Emerging trends Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players Key success factors This report studies the Indian aerospace composites market and has segmented the market in six ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. The following are the six ways in which the market is segmented: Indian Aerospace Composites Market Opportunities by Opportunity Type: Indigenous Opportunities Export opportunities Indian Aerospace Composites Market Opportunities by Aircraft Type: Civil Aviation Military Aviation Spacecraft Indian Aerospace Composites Market Opportunities by Application Type: Aerospace Exterior Composites Aerospace Interior Composites Indian Aerospace Composites Market Opportunities by Resin Type: Epoxy Composites Phenolic Composites Other Composites Indian Aerospace Composites Market Opportunities by Fiber Type: Carbon Fiber Composites Glass Fiber Composites Aramid Fiber Composites Indian Aerospace Composites Market Opportunities by Process Type: Hand Layup Other Processes Stratview Research has several high value market reports in the aerospace & defenseindustry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports: Click Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Aerospace & Defense Industry About Stratview Research Stratview 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. For enquiries, Contact: Stratview Research E-mail: sales@stratviewresearch.com USA: +1-313-307-4176, India: +91-771-490-7070 French oil giant Total SA has stopped buying Iranian oil in July, its CEO Patrick Pouyanne said, as companies start cutting imports before the U.S. deadline to end purchases of Iranian oil as part of renewed sanctions. The U.S. administration has set November 4 as a deadline to end purchases of Iranian oil as part of return of Washingtons sanctions against Tehran. Speaking at the Oil & Money conference in London, the CEO said that the global oil market is "well supplied". "Inventories are continuing to grow, prices are high not because of demand but because of political issues," the WSJ cited Pouyanne as saying. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - Jaxon Mining Inc. (TSXV: JAX) (FSE: OU31) (OTC: JXMNF) is pleased to announce completion of its first diamond drill hole, BB18-01, as part of its Phase One diamond drilling program on the Backbone gold-bearing tourmaline breccia zone at its Red Springs project. Red Springs is located on part of Jaxon's 44,000-hectare Hazelton property in the Skeena Arch area of northwest British Columbia, Canada. Drilling Program Highlights: BB18-01, a diamond drill hole with HQ core (63.5 mm in diameter), has now been completed to a depth of 148 metres with a dip angle of -50 degrees. BB18-01 intercepts the gold-bearing tourmaline breccia zone from a depth of 18 metres to 35 metres, which includes 6 metres of strongly silicified and sulphide mineralization from 20 metres to 26 metres (Pictures 1 to 3, below). BB18-01 confirms the dip extension of the high-grade gold-bearing tourmaline breccia mineralization at the Channel A outcrop, which has reported a channel sample with a gold grade of up to 6.57 grams per tonne (g/t), 1.35% copper and 0.04% cobalt. Drilling has commenced on the second drill hole, BB18-02, with a dip angle of -85 degrees to test the IP chargeability anomaly which are interpreted to be associated with sulphide mineralization (Figure 2, below), using the same drill pad and azimuth as BB18-01. Picture 1 - a segment of strong sulphided (Pyrite and Arsenopyrite) tourmalization breccia mineralization core at 25.80 metres from drill hole BB18-01 at Jaxon's Red Springs project. To view an enhanced version of Picture 1, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/881/40262_a1539143604227_60.jpg Picture 2 - a segment of strong sulphided (Pyrrhotite and Arsenopyrite) tourmalization breccia mineralization core at 21.20 metres from drill hole BB18-01 at Jaxon's Red Springs project. To view an enhanced version of Picture 2, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/881/40262_a1539143604352_40.jpg Picture 3 - drill cores from 17.4 metres to 26.7 metres at drill hole BB18-01 at Jaxon's Red Springs project, exhibiting very strong silicified and sulphide mineralization. To view an enhanced version of Picture 3, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/881/40262_a1539143604759_83.jpg Tony Guo, Jaxon's COO, commented: "We are encouraged that we have intercepted a very strong silicified and sulphide tourmaline breccia zone with a reasonable thickness at our first drill hole, BB18-01. We are expecting our second drill hole to confirm this tourmaline breccia zone again and also test a moderate IP chargeability anomaly at a depth of 150 to 200 metres in the Backbone area." About Jaxon's Red Springs Drilling Program Jaxon's Phase One of a 2,000 to 2,200-metre diamond drilling program consists of eight drill holes on the Backbone gold-bearing tourmaline breccia zone. Drilling commenced October 4th of 2018 and is due to be completed by the end of October 2018. The Backbone gold-bearing tourmaline breccia zone target has a 1000-metre long strike with up to 15-metre-width outcrops on surface, (Figure 1, below). This zone, per previously released assay results, indicates the mineralization existence of high-grade gold of up to 25.86 g/t with cobalt, copper, antimony and silver credits. The objective of the Phase One drilling program is to determine the width, continuity and grade of gold-bearing tourmaline breccia mineralisation at depth. A further objective is to demonstrate the viability of IP geophysics as an exploration tool for the mineralisation at the Red Springs project and will provide the opportunity for further down-hole geophysics to better define the geometry of any mineralisation intersected during the program (Figure 2). In addition, it is anticipated that the results will add to Jaxon's knowledge of the nature of the tourmaline breccia mineralisation and its controls. The Company will provide further information as it becomes available and will release updates on the progress of drilling over the coming weeks, including posting videos and photos on its website at www.jaxonmining.com. Figure 1 - Backbone high grade gold-bearing tourmaline breccia zone at the Red Springs project. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/881/40262_a1539143605040_15.jpg Figure 2 - 2D resistivity and 2D IP chargeability anomalies at Backbone tourmaline breccia zone. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2 , please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/881/40262_a1539143605431_65.jpg Qualified Person Yingting (Tony) Guo, P.Geo., COO for Jaxon Mining Inc., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed the drilling program, prepared the scientific and technical information and verified the data supporting such scientific and technical information contained in this news release. About Jaxon Mining Inc. Jaxon is a precious and base metals exploration company with a regional focus on Western Canada. The Company is currently focused on advancing its Hazelton Project in north-central British Columbia and the More Creek Project (consolidating the Wishbone and Foremore properties) in British Columbia's Golden Triangle. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS JAXON MINING INC. "John King Burns" John King Burns, Chairman For Head of Capital Markets for Jaxon Mining Inc., please call 778-938-4459, for Investor Relations enquiries, please call 604-609-6152, and for Corporate enquiries, please call 604-608-0400, or Toll free: 1-877-608-0007. This news release may contain forward-looking information, which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release may include, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR. 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, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames, or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Neither TSX Venture exchange nor its Regulations 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. Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - Transition Metals Corp (TSXV: XTM) ("Transition") is pleased to announce that Forum Energy Metals (Forum) has completed a four-hole, 447m diamond drill program on the Janice Lake Sedimentary Copper Project located in northern Saskatchewan's Wollaston Copperbelt. All four holes encountered copper mineralization within 80m of surface with Hole FEM-01 intersecting 19m grading 1.0% Copper, including 5.7m of 2.18% Copper within a 50.5m interval grading 0.45% Copper. The Janice Lake Project is under option to Forum which can earn a 100% interest in the property subject to a 2.0% Net Smelter Return royalty and certain future milestone payments (see Transition Release of February 6, 2018). A summary of assay results are shown below in Table 1. Drill hole locations and a cross section are shown in Figures 1 and 2. TABLE 1: Assay Results from the 2018 Diamond Drill Program Drill hole Number From (m) To (m) Length (m) % Cu FEM-01 Total 27 77.5 50.5 0.45 including 58.5 77.5 19 1 and 64 69.7 5.7 2.18 FEM-02 Total 38.5 55.5 17 0.43 including 41 53.5 12.5 0.57 and 48 53.5 5.5 1.02 FEM-03 Total 22 28 6 0.25 38 52.5 14.5 0.31 including 42.5 52.5 10 0.41 and 43.5 47 3.5 0.7 FEM-04 Total 11.3 47.5 36.2 0.21 including 19.5 24.5 5 0.56 Scott McLean, President & CEO of Transition Metals commented, "We consider the drill results to be very encouraging as they highlight the potential of the Janice Lake Project. We look forward to Forum continuing to advance this project since the demand for copper as a strategic energy metal is projected to grow. Transition holds a significant stock position with in Forum, a production royalty and two future cash milestone payments." Drill Program Summary A total of 447m of drilling were completed with copper mineralization being intersected at shallow depths in all 4 holes as chalcocite and native copper, with lesser malachite and azurite. A correlation of copper and silver values has been observed and further silver assays are pending. Copper mineralization began at the bedrock surface in holes FEM-04 and FEM-01. Foliation was observed to be 70 degrees to the core axis and true thickness is estimated to be close to the drill thickness (+/- 10%). FEM-01 was located between historic Phelps Dodge holes JL03-38 and JL03-41, which are located 100m apart, and was drilled at an angle of -70 to the southeast. FEM-02 was located 170m to the northeast of FEM-01 and also drilled at -70 to the southeast. FEM-03 was located 30m to the southeast of FEM-01 to test the up-dip potential of the mineralization, and was drilled at -65 to the southeast. FEM-04 was located 200m northeast of historic Noranda hole PL93-10 and approximately 200m west of FEM-01 and drilled at an angle of -70 to the southeast. Figure 1: 2018 Drill Hole Location Map, JL1 Showing area. Copper has also been intersected in historical drilling at the Jansem 1, JL3 and Jansem 2 showings. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2766/40269_trans.jpg Figure 2: Cross-Section of DDH FEM-01 and 03.The gold area is the interpreted copper mineralization dipping to the northwest at 40 degrees (approx.). To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2766/40269_a1539175613761_94.jpg Quality Assurance/Quality Control After retrieval from the drill, the core was collected in a core logging facility where it was collated and marked by the geologist. The core was logged in detail and RQD collected for further evaluation. Core was marked in 0.5m sections (or based on changes in geology) for cutting. After cutting the core was placed in sealed plastic bags which were placed into sealed shipping containers and forwarded to Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) in Saskatoon for analysis. SRC has a rigid Quality Control/Quality Assurance program. The laboratory also participates in a Certified Inter-laboratory Testing Program (CCRMP/PTP-MAL) for Cu. SRC completed the chemical analyses using Aqua Regia digestion followed by ICP-OES techniques. To compensate for the presence of native copper a Metallic Assay was also performed. The laboratory included analysis of standards every 20 samples and duplicates of the sample pulps every 40 samples. Examination of the results indicates that the standards and duplicates resulted in satisfactory results with Relative Percent Differences (RPD) for duplicates and Standard Deviation (SD) for the standards in acceptable ranges. The QP has determined that this level of QA/QC is sufficient for this stage in the exploration program. Ken Wheatley, P.Geo. and Forum's VP, Exploration and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Information Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will" and include without limitation, statements regarding estimated capital and operating costs, expected production timeline, benefits of updated development plans, foreign exchange assumptions and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, metal prices, competition, risks inherent in the mining industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, the Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Further information is available at www.transitionmetalscorp.com or by contacting: Scott McLean President and CEO Transition Metals Corp. Tel: (705) 669-1777 The education platform is accepting a new intake of prescribing physicians in anticipation of imminent UK legislation change The Academy of Medical Cannabis is endorsed by End Our Pain, one of Europe's leading medical cannabis advocacy groups LONDON, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthcare professionals in the UK and Ireland can now sign up for access to The Academy of Medical Cannabis (www.taomc.org), Europe's first ever medical cannabis online education platform, where physicians can better understand Cannabis-Based Medicinal Products (also known as medical cannabis), giving them the confidence to consult with their patients and the knowledge to prescribe this new treatment option safely and effectively. Professor Mike Barnes, one of Europe's most learned experts in medical cannabis and medical cannabis policy and Director of Education for The Academy of Medical Cannabis has developed a series of "bite sized" modules providing essential guidance on all aspects of this increasingly relevant treatment option. The Academy of Medical Cannabis will set the European standard for medical cannabis education and be available to any UK and Ireland physician with an interest in medical cannabis. The platform will also be made available to healthcare professionals in other European countries as their medical cannabis legislation is updated. The launch coincides with the planned UK rescheduling of cannabis-based medical products from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. Professor Barnes said of the platform, "The Academy of Medical Cannabis is critical in arming the medical profession with the information it needs to prescribe medical cannabis safely, effectively and with confidence. "While the Royal College of Physicians, NICE, and other health organisations set standards on guidance and pathways, it is down to The Academy of Medical Cannabis to deliver a deep and thorough learning platform for all doctors, ensuring that patient needs are met as quickly and safely as possible, as part of a functional medical cannabis system," said Professor Barnes. The 12 educational modules are comprised of video lectures, animations, interactive illustrations and short tests with each of them featuring a different aspect of medical cannabis prescribing. Subjects include a background to the endocannabinoid system in humans, the plant itself, and its medical uses, from neurological indications through to mental health and GI disorders. Participating authors include Dr Edmund Bonikowski, a consultant in rehabilitation medicine, who is a medical cannabis expert and has held acute and community based NHS posts in neurological rehabilitation, along with other medical experts in specific therapeutic areas. The Academy of Medical Cannabis is a free and independent platform for all medical professionals to use. For more information about The Academy of Medical Cannabis visit www.taomc.org. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/766908/The_Academy_of_Medial_Cannabis_Logo.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - HTEC (Hydrogen Technology & Energy Corporation) and Harnois Groupe petrolier (HGP) today announced they have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to partner on hydrogen refueling activities. HTEC is a globally recognized leader in sustainable hydrogen fuel supply solutions for zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). HGP is a leading station owner and petroleum-product supplier operating more than 400 gas stations in Quebec; the company plans to open the province's first hydrogen refueling station in Quebec City within the next few months. HTEC and Harnois Logos Cannot view this image? Visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6108/40224_logos.jpg The terms of the LOI outline the steps HTEC and HGP will take to build a partnership to develop a retail hydrogen refueling station network in Quebec and other regions in Canada. HTEC is building a six-station network to support the initial rollout of fuel cell electric vehicles in British Columbia, and opened Canada's first retail hydrogen station in Vancouver in June. The knowledge and experience HTEC has developed in BC will help expedite the network rollout in Quebec. Station infrastructure in the province is needed to help car companies comply with Quebec's recently introduced Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. QUOTES We couldn't develop the first wave of hydrogen refueling stations in Canada without strong working relationships with companies supporting the drive towards cleaner transportation solutions. Quebec is a market primed for zero-emission vehicles and Harnois, with its large station network, is an important connection as we expand into the province. With the BC station network well underway, we are excited to be working with Harnois to explore possibilities for Quebec's hydrogen refueling network. Colin Armstrong, CEO, HTEC We see hydrogen as an important part of our portfolio of future energy alternatives. We want to work with companies who have the expertise required to help us to deliver refueling solutions that make sense for our business and our customers. We are proud to be working with a Canadian company like HTEC to help shape the multi-energy refueling station of tomorrow. Serge Harnois, Chairman and CEO, Harnois Groupe Petrolier ### About HTEC HTEC is unlocking the potential of hydrogen to reduce urban air pollution and the impacts of climate change by designing and building hydrogen fuel supply solutions to support the deployment of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. Partnering with government, industrial gas companies, key equipment suppliers, automotive companies, and energy companies, HTEC is delivering safe, reliable, convenient, sustainable and low-cost hydrogen to customers and consumers, how, when and where they need it. HTEC is currently running a crowdfunding campaign. Learn more at htec.ca/invest. HTEC: Fueling the Drive to Hydrogen. About Harnois Groupe petrolier Harnois Groupe petrolier (HGP) was founded in 1958 and specializes in the sale and distribution of wholesale and retail petroleum products, lubricants and speciality products. It serves markets in Quebec, Nunavut and Labrador and is currently expanding to other Canadian provinces. The company is supported by a network of associated companies and a wide network of sub-distributors to meet the needs of consumers in six market segments: retail, commercial/service, industrial, residential, agricultural and aviation. Harnois Groupe petrolier distributes products and services under the Esso and Mobil brands as well as under private labels Harnois, Petro-T, H-Go, Diesel Express and Le magasin. Contacts HTEC - industry inquiries Jeff Grant 1.604.315.5965 jgrant@htec.ca HTEC - media inquiries Rebecca Johnston 1.604.803.2184 rebecca@puzzlewood.ca Harnois Groupe petrolier - media inquiries Naomie Briand 514-757-8365 naomiebriand@harnoisgroupepetrolier.com NOTTINGHAM, England, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading telecommunications company, Esendex, will be hosting and presenting at one of the GSMA's biggest events of the year: The A2P Messaging Lab London. The A2P Messaging Lab is designed to bring together some of the industry's leading players to discuss operational and commercial requirements for Rich Communication Services (RCS) . The session will ensure that RCS becomes an industry-leading business messaging platform, with a focus on bridging the gap between brands and their customers. The GSMA have invited Esendex to present their approach to RCS at the October event. Their relationship with Google, as a member of their Early Access Program, will enable them to offer their customers early access to RCS for notifications, updates and promotional opportunities, as seen during their live demo at MWC Barcelona. Jill Cooper, Programme Marketing Director for GSMA commented: "We are very excited to have Esendex as our keynote speaker at the A2P Messaging Lab in October. Their forward-thinking approach to Rich Messaging is helping to shape the business messaging market." Esendex's approach will mean that brands can send rich messages to their entire client base, whether they have an RCS-enabled device or not. This is done using their new messaging product, Studio, which will send either an RCS message or a Landing Page message, depending on the capabilities of the end user's phone. Dave Attenborough, Head of Product at Esendex, is a long-time advocate of RCS and will be presenting the Esendex approach to the future of business messaging at the event. "We are proud to offer our customers a unique approach to business messaging. These rich messaging campaigns, coupled with the impressive 95% open rate of SMS, should ensure a far more engaging journey for the end user, as well as an improved conversion rate for the brand. This is why we are so excited about RCS and believe it to be the future of business messaging." The event will take place on Wednesday 24th October and will be held at a stunning venue overlooking London Bridge. For a detailed view of the event visit the Esendex website. Amy Robinson amy.robinson@esendex.com 01159895144 A world-renowned market intelligence solutions provider, Infiniti Research, has announced the completion of their latest study on the target market segmentation strategy for a beverages company. The client is one of the leading manufacturers of healthy drinks. The 100% certified organic healthy drinks produced/manufactured by the client are expeditiously gaining popularity across the world. Based out of Germany, the foremost aim of the company was to develop a business plan for delivering high-quality products to the intended target audience. As the sales cost were high, they needed a robust market segmentation strategy. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005730/en/ 5 Essential Criteria for Developing a Target Market Segmentation Strategy An Infiniti Research Case Study on the Healthy Drinks Segment (Graphic: Business Wire) Target market segmentation strategy plays a decisive role in the success of any business. Consequently, most of the business organizations streamline their marketing initiatives by dividing the target market into specific sub-segments. Establishments then customize their market strategies to appeal to such groups. Target market segmentation gives a precise overview of how a market segment should be assessed since different segments respond differently to marketing strategies. It also becomes imperative for the businesses to abstain from spending extensively on large market segments with no spending power. According to the healthcare industry experts at Infiniti's Research, "It's essential to define the differences between market segments to implement an effective marketing campaign, products, and marketing tools, without being overlapped." Request a proposal to know the complete scope of target market segmentation strategy. Marketing strategies based on accurate target market segmentation helps to identify the size of the market in terms of volume or sales. Such insights help to formulate strategies that can be developed to suit the individual's market needs. To abstain establishments from overspending, it is critical to gauge every market segment based on their viability as every market has a practical value, such that its characteristics, which are easily quantifiable. The market segmentation experts at Infiniti Research helped the client to analyze the varied segments of healthy drinks market before targeting the key segments with high potential. The proposed targeted market segmentation solution helped the manufacturers to analyze their market in detail and analyze every segment within the healthy drinks market. It also assisted them to formulate a target market segmentation strategy to capitalize on the high potential market segments. Implementing the strategy offered also helped the healthy drinks manufacturer to align their business decisions with the market segmentation strategy, the capabilities, and resources. Target market segmentation strategy Benefits: Developed a customized business plan for targeting the precise market segments. Provided market insights on customer intelligence to deliver high-quality customer service. To know your market segments explicitly, Request a free proposal Target market segmentation strategy Predictive Insights: Procuring insights on target market segmentation to generate sales leads. Implementing new marketing initiatives based on market segments. To know how target market segmentation strategy can boost ROIs for your business, request a free consultation About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. Learn more at https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005730/en/ Contacts: Infiniti Research Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 844 778 0600 UK: +44 203 893 3400 https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - AXMIN Inc. (TSXV: AXM) ("AXMIN" or the "Company") announces that it has entered into an agreement to settle a long standing accounts payable by the Company. As previously announced on November 15, 2013, the Company entered into a consultancy agreement (the "Consulting Agreement") to assist AXMIN with securing its ownership of licenses in the Central African Republic. Under this Consulting Agreement the consultant was entitled to remuneration upon the successful completion of its services. The total outstanding payments due under this Consulting Agreement amount to US$2 million and were duly recorded in the Company's accounts payable. The Company has benefited from the renewal of its respective licenses and permits and is in good standing with the Government of the Central African Republic. After extended negotiations as referenced in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, the Company has agreed to a settlement of this accounts payable by making a payment of US$1.2 million and the issuance of 3.46 million shares at a price of C$0.30 per share (the "Settlement Agreement"). The transaction relating to the Settlement Agreement was unanimously approved by the Board of AXMIN, and has also received conditional approval from the TSX Venture Exchange; closing of the transaction will occur immediately following final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange. The shares issued pursuant to the above-referenced Settlement Agreement will be subject to transfer restrictions under a two (2) year lock-up agreement, during which time the shares may not be sold. The transfer restrictions under the lock-up agreement will expire two (2) years plus one day from the date of grant. AXMIN Chairman Lucy Yan said, "The Company appreciates the assistance and value provided during this difficult period of force majeure. AXMIN also appreciates the patience provided in settling this long outstanding invoice and the confidence expressed in our Company by the acceptance of shares in lieu of a cash payment. The resulting improvement of AXMIN's balance sheet is very good news for our Company and we look forward to getting back on site in the Central African Republic as soon as possible." About AXMIN AXMIN is a Canadian exploration and development company with a strong focus on the African continent. AXMIN continues to closely monitor the political situation at its Feasibility Stage Passendro Gold Project in the Central African Republic. For more information regarding AXMIN visit our website at www.axmininc.com. For additional information, please contact AXMIN Inc.: Lucy Yan Chairman and CEO ceo@axmininc.com AXMIN Inc. General Enquiries Jin Kuang Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary j.kuang@axmininc.com 604-339-7688 Investor Relations ir@axmininc.com www.axmininc.com There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from AXMIN's expectations have been disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in AXMIN's documents filed from time-to-time with the TSX Venture Exchange and other regulatory authorities. AXMIN disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether resulting from new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) -Pan Andean Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: PAD) ("PAD" or the "Company") is pleased to welcome Dr. Jay Han and Dr. Doo Jae Min to its Advisory Board. Dr. Jay Han has worked with biomedical companies for over 20 years, driving R&D, product innovation, and technology commercialization in the US and Korea. He has led product development and project management in life sciences/in-vitro diagnostics, focusing on microfluidic technology and point-of-care testing In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) applications. He served a pivotal role in growing the companies and positioning them for successful acquisition based and IPO based exits. Dr. Han specializes in R&D and innovation management, product commercialization and strategic positioning. He also offers the expertise to search, define, validate and execute new business models and partnerships that bridge the gaps between early stage technology, R&D and manufacturing, and life sciences/IVD industries. Dr. Han earned his official certificate of PMP (Project Management Professional) showing his fully demonstrated understanding and in-depth knowledge & skills to lead/direct various projects. In Siloam, he built up a Quality Management System (QMS) pursuing an FDA qualified facility under a QSR (Quality System Regulation) for medical devices. Dr. Han obtained his Ph.D. degree with a specialty in MEMS (Micro-Electric-Mechanical Systems) and BioMEMS from the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at University of Cincinnati. Dr. Doo Jae Min has over 18 years of experience in both academia and the business world, acting as chief executive officer of medical device and cosmetic companies. Dr. Min is currently a professor at the department of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the Korea University Medical School. Dr. Min is a member of both the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the Korean Society of Anesthesiologists. Dr. Min is a member of the medical device standard development committee in Korea and has co-written over 50 peer-reviewed publications for which he has received over 5,000 citations. Dr. Min has been awarded multiple prizes in his scientific field, including: Dong-Soong Best Scientist Award (2011), Best Anesthesia and Pain Medicine Article of the Year (2016), and Best Artificial Intelligence Application in the medical field (2018). Dr. Min received his PhD in medical science from the Graduate School of Korea University (Seoul, Korea) in 2010 and his postgraduate from the Business School of Korea University (advanced management program) in February 2018. "Dr. Jay Han and Dr. Doo Jae Min bring a wealth of hands-on expertise in the biomedical and medical device industry market that will be extremely valuable to the company as we further explore alternative opportunities in the emerging markets and pursue growth for the company," said Spencer Sung Bum Huh, president and chief executive officer of Pan Andean Minerals. "We are very excited to have both of top-notch professionals from the U.S. and Korea join our advisory board." About Pan Andean Minerals Ltd. Pan Andean is a Vancouver-based junior resource company that has been listed on the TSX Venture Exchange for 10 years, with a focus on copper and gold exploration. The Company acquires prospective gold and copper-gold exploration properties considered to have significant mineral potential by staking, option or purchase agreements. The Company currently has a portfolio of properties in Peru and Yukon with the focus being Peru. The Company is currently pursuing alternative business opportunities. On behalf of the Board of Directors Sung Bum "Spencer" Huh CEO, Director 604-355-6463 shuh@panandeanminerals.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 IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES Presenters Include BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Delta Air Lines, Gates Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Merck and Co., Open Banking, Sharp HealthCare, Shell Global Solutions International B.V. and World Wide Fund for Nature Ping Identity, the leader in Identity Defined Security, today announced keynote speakers and dates of its 2018 IDENTIFY customer conference series taking place in London, San Francisco and New York. Each year, IDENTIFY brings together business leaders, security influencers and thought leaders to discuss best practices in identity and access management (IAM) across multi-cloud and hybrid IT environments. And, it doesn't stop there. Additional topics also will explore the latest trends and innovations in the industry, including intelligent identity, API security and multi-factor authentication (MFA). The content is designed around sharing real stories from real enterprises. Attendees will hear from CISOs and IAM professionals at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Delta Air Lines, Gates Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Merck and Co., Open Banking, Sharp HealthCare, Shell Global Solutions International B.V. and World Wide Fund for Nature. These presentations will share how identity solutions can drive revenue and accelerate digital business initiatives within their organizations. Attendees will learn how to: Make identity more secure through advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning Connect everyone to everything with a global authentication authority Manage identity across multi-cloud and hybrid IT environments Increased security and convenience with the Ping Identity Platform Leverage MFA everywhere for diverse use cases spanning customers, partners and the workforce "The IDENTIFY conference series offers valuable knowledge for all of our customers, prospects and partners, regardless of whether they are in the early stages of deployment or power users of the Ping Identity Platform," said Brian Bell, CMO, Ping Identity. "We're excited about the content we have in store for our attendees this year. They will have an opportunity to participate in honest conversations with enterprise leaders about security challenges related to digital transformation, and walk away with best practices to maximize their investment in Ping's solutions to improve overall security postures." Join the Ping Identity Community IDENTIFY events are always free to attend and exclusive to Ping Identity customers, partners and prospects. To learn more or to register for the events, click the preferred location below: London, October 16 San Francisco, October 24 New York, November 7 Attendees are encouraged to socialize the events and share what they've learned with IDENTIFY2018. Sponsors IDENTIFY 2018 sponsors include Axway, BeyondTrust, Column Information Security, CTI Global, HYPR, iC Consult, IDMWORKS, KPMG, Optiv, ProofID, RAIDIUM, SailPoint, Saviynt, Simeio, and Yubico. For more information, visit: www.pingidentity.com/identify. About Ping Identity The Identity Defined Security Company Ping Identity envisions a digital world powered by identity. As the identity security company, we simplify how the world's largest organizations prevent security breaches, increase employee and partner productivity and provide personalized customer experiences. Enterprises choose Ping for our identity expertise, open standards leadership, partnership with companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google, and collaboration with customers like Boeing, Cisco, GE, Kraft Foods, Walgreens and over half of the Fortune 100. The Ping Identity Platform allows enterprises and their users to securely access cloud, mobile and on-premises applications while managing identity and profile data at scale. Architects and developers have flexible options to enhance and extend their existing applications and environments with multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, access management, directory and data governance capabilities. Visit www.pingidentity.com. Ping Identity Contacts Ping Identity Corporation Follow Us on Twitter: @PingIdentity Join our LinkedIn Group: Ping Identity Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: PingIdentityTV Like Us on Facebook: PingIdentityPage View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005294/en/ Contacts: Ping Identity Candace Flynn, 303.476.0019 candaceflynn@pingidentity.com Prof Fabien Zoulim will report that the Phase 1b trial reached its safety primary endpoint and that the therapeutic vaccine TG1050 breaks immune tolerance in patients with chronic hepatis B virus (HBV) infection Transgene will also present new and promising preclinical data set on combination studies of TG1050 with antivirals and immunomodulators Regulatory News: Transgene (Paris:TNG), a biotech company that designs and develops virus-based immunotherapies, announces that the detailed results of the Phase 1b clinical trial using TG1050 confirm that the safety primary endpoint was reached and that TG1050 breaks immune tolerance through improvement of immune response directed against HBV antigens in patients with chronic HBV receiving standard antiviral therapies. The complete Phase 1b data will be presented by Prof Fabien Zoulim, MD, PhD, on November 9, 2018, at the annual meeting of the AASLD (American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases) in San Francisco (USA). Transgene will also present new and promising preclinical data that showed an improved antiviral activity of TG1050 (including on the decrease of circulating HBV surface antigen HBsAg) when administered in combination with direct acting antivirals or immunomodulators in HBV-persistent mice. Safety and Immunogenicity of Single and Multiple Injections of the Therapeutic Vaccine TG1050 in NUC-Suppressed Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) Patients: Unblinded Analysis of a Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase 1b Study Presenter: Prof Fabien Zoulim, principal investigator of the trial and head of the gastro-enterology service of the Croix-Rousse Hospital (Lyon, France) Abstract number: 426 Session date, time and location: Session I, November 9, 2018, 12 pm-1.30 pm (PT), Hall C Investigational treatment combining TG1050, an HBV-specific immunotherapeutic, with direct acting antivirals or immunomodulators, improves sustained antiviral effects and immune responses in HBV-persistent mice Presenter: Roland Kratzer, Transgene Abstract number: 438 Session date, time and location: Session I, November 9, 2018, 12 pm-1.30 pm (PT), Hall C Both abstracts published in Hepatology can be downloaded from the AASLD website. -End- About TG1050 TG1050 is a targeted immunotherapy candidate for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, based on a viral vector expressing three HBV antigens (POL, CORE, ENV). The first-in-man Phase 1/1b trial met its primary safety endpoint and also showed that TG1050 is able to break immune tolerance in patients chronically infected with HBV. Preclinical results have demonstrated TG1050's capacity to induce robust, broad, and long-lasting HBV-specific T cells with characteristics similar to those found in patients whose infection has been resolved. Antiviral effects of TG1050 have also been shown1 2. The technology of TG1050 is also being developed in Greater China by Tasly Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. About the Phase 1b trial evaluating TG1050 This international first-in-man Phase 1/1b trial of TG1050 has recruited patients who are being treated for chronic HBV infection with standard-of-care antiviral therapies. This trial is randomized, multi-center, double-blind, and placebo-controlled. The primary objectives of the Phase 1/1b study are safety and tolerability of TG1050 administered in single and multiple doses and to determine the dose and schedule of TG1050 administration for further development. Secondary objectives correspond to the exploration of antiviral activity and immune responses to TG1050. 48 patients were enrolled (Europe and North America), randomized 1:1:1 across 3 dose levels of 109, 1010, 1011 viral particles (vp) and then 3:1 within each dose level to placebo. 12 patients were enrolled in the single dose cohort and received a single subcutaneous (sc) injection while 36 patients enrolled in the multiple dose cohort received 3 weekly sc injections. At inclusion, patients had to be HBV DNA negative after at least 2 years of NUC therapy. About Chronic Hepatitis B Hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening liver disease caused by HBV infection. It puts patients at high risk of death from cirrhosis and liver cancer. Recent figures indicate the number of patients being treated for chronic hepatitis B was 200,000 in total in the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom and 100,000 patients in Japan. The eligible Chinese market represents 500,000 patients. Those numbers are expected to increase (Sources: ECDC- Incidence of Hepatitis B, Decision Resources: expert opinions). Currently available antiviral treatments can control the disease but not cure it. Patients in the developed world must take these treatments for an average of 15 years and often throughout their lifetime. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic approaches to improve the cure rate. The latest publications on TG1050 are available on:www.transgene.fr About Transgene Transgene (Euronext: TNG) is a publicly traded French biotechnology company focused on designing and developing targeted immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. Transgene's programs utilize viral vector technology with the goal of indirectly or directly killing infected or cancerous cells. The Company's lead clinical-stage programs are: TG4010, a therapeutic vaccine against non-small cell lung cancer, Pexa-Vec, an oncolytic virus against liver cancer, and TG4001, a therapeutic vaccine against HPV-positive head and neck cancers. The Company has several other programs in clinical development, including TG1050 (a therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B) and TG6002 (an oncolytic virus for the treatment of solid tumors). With its proprietary Invir.IOTM, Transgene builds on its expertise in viral vectors engineering to design a new generation of multifunctional oncolytic viruses. MyvacTM, an individualized MVA-based immunotherapy integrating neoantigens, completes this innovative research portfolio. Additional information about Transgene is available at www.transgene.frFollow us on Twitter: @TransgeneSA Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. The occurrence of any of these risks could have a significant negative outcome for the Company's activities, perspectives, financial situation, results, regulatory authorities' agreement with development phases, and development. The Company's ability to commercialize its products depends on but is not limited to the following factors: positive pre-clinical data may not be predictive of human clinical results, the success of clinical studies, the ability to obtain financing and/or partnerships for product manufacturing, development and commercialization, and marketing approval by government regulatory authorities. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company's actual results, financial condition, performance, or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors ("Facteurs de Risque") section of the Document de Reference, available on the AMF website (http://www.amf-france.org) or on Transgene's website (www.transgene.fr). Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Transgene undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. 1 Gut. 2015; TG1050, an immunotherapeutic to treat chronic hepatitis B, induces robust T cells and exerts an antiviral effect in HBV-persistent mice.Martin P et al., 2015 Dec, 64(12):1961-71. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2014-308041 2 Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2018; A meta-analysis of the antiviral activity of the HBV-specific immunotherapeutic TG1050 confirms its value over a wide range of HBsAg levels in a persistent HBV pre-clinical model, Kratzer R. et al., 2018 Jun 3;14(6):1417-1422. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005608/en/ Contacts: Transgene: Lucie Larguier Director Corporate Communications IR +33 (0)3 88 27 91 04 investorrelations@transgene.fr or Media contacts: Citigate Dewe Rogerson David Dible/Marine Perrier + 44 (0)20 7638 9571 transgene@citigatedewerogerson.com Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan attended the opening ceremony of the third Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries Parliaments (MSEAP 3) in Antalya on October 9__Photo: VNA , Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan attended the opening ceremony of the third Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries Parliaments (MSEAP 3) in Antalya, Turkey on October 9.The event, themed Economic Co-operation, Environment and Sustainable Development in Eurasia, attracted the participation of 40 parliamentary delegations.At the opening, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that Eurasian parliamentary co-operation played a very important role in promoting co-operation and friendship for peace, stability and democracy among countries in the region and the world as a whole, particularly in the context of unpredictable changes in the global situation.Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Binali Yildirim said the MSEAP 3 aimed to find solutions for global challenges, which would be a difficult task but he believed it could be done with the co-operation of parliaments of countries in the region.He names some of the challenges as environmental pollution, war, poverty, disease, terrorism, natural disasters, trade protectionism, food security, among others.As co-chair of MSEAP3 along with Turkey and Russia, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Moon Hee-sang said MSEAP member parliaments should share law-making experience and professional knowledge for the common prosperity of Eurasia. He underlined that the proactive sharing of information would help parliaments quickly find effective solutions to problems facing countries.Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin expressed the hope that the meeting would discuss economic, humanitarian and peace issues on the basis of non-interference into each others internal affairs and respect for member countries sovereignty and rules.He said it was time to promote more discussion among Eurasian parliaments.Chairwoman Ngan was to deliver a speech at the first plenary session the same day.MSEAP is a Eurasian parliamentary co-operation mechanism initiated by the Chairman of the State Duma of Russia and the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. The annual meeting offers a chance for legislative bodies in the region to coordinate for action and improve the role of parliamentary diplomacy. The final document of MSEAP is the Joint Statement signed by heads of the participating delegations.On Monday, Ngan met with Duma chairman Volodin, expressing her belief that MSEAP 3 would be a success and the mechanism would continue to be held in the future.Regarding Viet Nam-Russia relations, both Ngan and Volodin agreed that the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership were developing well.Ngan told Volodin that Vietnam was preparing for his official visit slated for later this year, during which both sides would have in-depth discussions on how to deepen relations between the two nations and parliaments as well as issues of mutual concern.Volodin reiterated proposals made by Vice Chairwoman of the State Duma Olga Epifanova during her working session with Ngan in Hanoi in late September, including an initiative to set up a bilateral inter-parliamentary committee.He stressed the need for the two countries to lift bilateral ties to a new height, create a mechanism to solve issues related to their citizens and work together to raise two-way trade.- Internationally recognized leaders in total hip arthroplasty (THA) to present the value of EOS along the hip care pathway through 7 podium presentations and 3 posters Regulatory News: EOS imaging (Euronext, FR0011191766 EOSI Eligible PEA SME), the pioneer of 2D/3D imaging and data solutions for orthopedics, will demonstrate its online hipEOS 3D surgical planning software at its booth during the International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty's (ISTA) 31st Annual Congress, being held October 10-13 in London, UK. The ISTA Congress is dedicated to advancing the art and science of technology in joint replacement by connecting leading clinicians, engineers, researchers with industry members from around the globe to address new and foundational topics in arthroplasty. Seven podium presentations and three posters will highlight the value of EOS as a unique solution along the THA care pathway. This will include clinical results related to the improvement of THA outcomes through a better inclusion of pelvis/spine relations, global body compensation mechanisms, standing and seated functional positions, and image-based quality control tools. In particular, teams from two of the top ten 'Best Hospitals for Orthopedics"1, the Hospital of Special Surgery (HSS) and New York University (NYU), from Imperial College, London, and Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital (Paris) will address how these improvements can be facilitated through EOS full body, weight-bearing and seated exams and of the hipEOS software. The latest generation of the hipEOS software addresses the risk of implant impingement based on the planed size and position of the components in standing and seated EOS images. The software calculates the theoretical sitting position and offers a range of motion simulation to check for implant impingement based on each patient's unique anatomy. Marie Meynadier, Chief Executive Officer of EOS imaging, commented, "Our full body, low dose solution is being recognized across the globe as a superior alternative to traditional imaging. Our EOSapps suite of 3D surgical planning solutions offer an easy way to identify patients at risk, create a personalized plan, and discuss the procedure with patients. We are happy to see our solutions widely represented by worldwide leaders at ISTA and committed to developing innovative solutions that make these growing volume procedures easier and safer for the whole medical community." For more information, visit our booth or contact us at: contact@eos-imaging.com ABOUT EOS IMAGING EOS imaging is listed on Compartment C of Euronext Paris ISIN: FR0011191766 Ticker: EOSI EOS imaging designs, develops and markets EOS, a major innovative medical imaging solution dedicated to osteoarticular pathologies and orthopedics combining equipment and services and targeting a $2B per year market opportunity. EOS imaging is currently present in 33 countries, including the United States under FDA agreement, Japan, China and the European Union under CE labelling, through the over 280 installed EOS platforms representing more than one million patient exams every year. Revenues were 37.1M in 2017, e.g. a +32% CAGR over 2012-2017. For more information, please visit www.eos-imaging.com. EOS imaging has been selected to integrate the EnterNext PEA PME 150 index, composed of 150 French, listed companies on the Euronext markets in Paris. 1https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings/orthopedics View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005743/en/ Contacts: EOS imaging Marie Meynadier CEO Ph: +33 (0)1 55 25 60 60 investors@eos-imaging.com or Investor Relations (US) Matt Picciano Emma Poalillo The Ruth Group Ph: 646-536-7008 7024 EOS-imagingIR@theruthgroup.com or Press Relations (US) Kirsten Thomas The Ruth Group Ph: 508-280-6592 kthomas@theruthgroup.com Q3 2018 Revenue Conference Call Philippe Lazare Chairman and CEO is pleased to invite you to our third quarter revenue conference call on Wednesday, October 24 at 6pm (CET) Please dial the following numbers to join the call: France Toll: +33 1 72 72 74 03 UK Toll: +44 20 7194 3759 USA Toll: +1 646 722 4916 Conference pin: 13948420# A press release and a presentation will be available on www.ingenico.com (http://www.ingenico.com) prior to the call at (5:40pm). About Ingenico Group Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the world's largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the world's best known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise. Stay in touch with us: www.ingenico.com (http://www.ingenico.com) twitter.com/ingenico (http://twitter.com/ingenico/) PDF VERSION (http://hugin.info/143483/R/2219969/868499.pdf) This announcement is distributed by West Corporation on behalf of West Corporation clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: INGENICO via Globenewswire F&C UK Real Estate Investments Ltd - Notice of AGM F&C UK Real Estate Investments Limited (a closed-ended investment company incorporated in Guernsey with registration number 41870) LEI Number: 2138001XRCB89W6XTR23 (The "Company") 10 October 2018 NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Notice is hereby given that the fourteenth Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held at the offices of BMO Global Asset Management, Exchange House, Primose Street, London, EC2A 2NY on 21 November 2018 at 12noon. The Notice of AGM together with the Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 June 2018 has been posted to shareholders. In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.3, the Notice of Annual General Meeting, proxy form and accounts have been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at: www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM Enquiries: Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited The Company Secretary Trafalgar Court Les Banques St Peter Port Guernsey GY1 3QL Tel: 01481 745001 END SHANGHAI, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Eighth Asia International Dye Industry, Pigments and Textile Chemicals Exhibition ("Interdye Asia"), hosted by the China Dyestuff Industry Association, the China Dyeing and Printing Association and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Shanghai Sub-Council and co-organized by the China Dyestuff Industry Association and Shanghai International Exhibition Service Co., Ltd., will be held at the Saigon Exhibition & Convention Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from November 21 to November 24, 2018. The exhibition has attracted more than 100 exhibitors from India, Malaysia, mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Exhibitors plan to showcase a wide range of advanced environmentally-friendly dyestuffs, organic pigments, catalysts, intermediates, environmental impact assessment equipment as well as printing and dyeing automation equipment. In its eighth year, the exhibition has injected international elements into Vietnam's textile market As a companion exhibition of the prestigious dyeing exhibition China Interdye, Interdye Asia aims to create a platform for the dyestuffs and chemicals producers worldwide where they can make their debut and expand their commercial channels, facilitating the development of the industry. Interdye Asia has been successfully held for seven years in major markets for dyestuff producers and importers including Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Turkey. With the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank becoming operational and large amounts of capital including that provided by the Silk Road Fund flowing into the countries along the One Belt, One Road route, the textile market in Vietnam is undergoing rapid development. As a traditionally agricultural country, however, Vietnam's chemical industry has a weak foundation, with 70 percent of its textile materials and dyestuffs relying on imports. During the five-year period between 2013 and 2017, China's dyestuff exports to Vietnam grew from 10,063 tons to 15,842 tons, with an annual growth rate of 12 percent. The success of an earlier edition of the exhibition in Hanoi in 2014 established the reputation and influence of the event early on. This time, Interdye Asia transitioned to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's economic capital, to provide an opportunity for direct communication between production and demand and attract world-class dyeing and chemical manufacturers to Vietnam's textile market. In addition, the exhibition will be held jointly with the 18th Vietnam International Textile & Garment Machinery Exhibition, creating a one-stop purchasing platform for textile printing and dyeing complemented by upstream and downstream components. With the reputation of the organizers and the brand itself, the exhibition not only attracted many internationally recognized manufacturers, but also the ongoing participation of Indian and Taiwanese exhibitor delegations. The exhibition is expected to become a key event for exchanges between the world's leading dyeing and chemicals makers and local Vietnamese counterparts. The next exhibition will, as before, be concurrently held with China International Digital Textile Printing and Dyeing Automatics Exhibition on April 10-12, 2019, with the aim of creating a one-stop shop for textile printing and dyeing procurement and creating a broader platform for the development of the industry. LONDON, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- - The Rt. Hon. Dr Liam Fox MP speaks on deepening UK-China relations - Latest comments coincide with a reception at the House of Commons - BrandZTM rankings reveal UK can learn from China's innovative brands Innovative Chinese brands present greater opportunities for strengthening economic UK-China relations post-Brexit, the Secretary of State for International Trade, the Rt. Hon. Dr Liam Fox MP, said as an audience from both nations gathered for a reception at the House of Commons this evening, where brand equity experts for BrandZTM from WPP and Kantar Millward Brown revealed insights for British firms wanting to do business in China. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/513554/Kantar_Millward_Brown_Logo.jpg ) Over 150 British and Chinese guests from political and business circles were at the event as the International Trade Secretary reiterated the significance of deeper UK-China economic ties with the UK drawing closer to leaving the European Union. The event highlighted findings from the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2018 ranking and The Top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders study. The latter revealed the UK has the most positive attitude towards Chinese brands, with innovation the key factor behind their growth. By contrast, the BrandZ UK Top 75 showed the need for British brands to embrace innovation. The Secretary of State for International Trade, Rt. Hon. Liam Fox MP, said: "The UK-China trading relationship is already worth 67.5 billion and the opportunities to deepen our trade ties as the UK leaves the EU are vast. "As a champion for free trade the UK is an ideal partner for trail blazing innovative Chinese brands looking to expand and invest abroad, and with world leading expertise in creative industries, we are perfectly placed to support them." The event also explored the drivers of success for fast-growth Chinese businesses on a global stage - and the lessons for British brands. Speakers included Roberto Quarta, chairman of WPP, the world leader in communications services, and representatives from major Chinese brands such as Alibaba, the e-commerce, retail, Internet, AI and technology conglomerate which was ranked second in the BrandZ China Top 100 ranking having grown 53% year-on-year to achieve a brand value of $88.6 billion[1]. The growth of Chinese brands is due to the pace at which they are pursuing global expansion. Chinese brands are championing the nation's own call to go global, with innovation-driven development spurring inroads overseas as part of President Xi Jinping's 'Belt and Road' initiative. BrandZ reported the total brand value of China's Top 10 brands grew more than double that of US brands last year (47% versus 23% year-on-year) and that, overall, the China Top 100 grew 80% over five years, outpacing the BrandZ Global Top 100 which grew 27%. David Roth, Chairman of BrandZ and BAV Group WPP said: "Companies that back their brands with the power of creativity and ideas will be the winners in today's world of innovation and change - and China excels in this respect. China is WPP's third largest market and for the creative industries in particular there are vast opportunities to support and do business with one of the most competitive markets in the world. "Today 14 Chinese brands appear in our BrandZ list of the Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands compared with just one in 2006. Moreover, trailblazing Chinese brands also dominate the fastest risers and British brands that can align themselves with them stand to reap the benefits." Other dignitaries at the BrandZ event included Minister Ma Hui of the Chinese Embassy in London and Sir Geoffrey-Clifton Brown MP, the Chair of the APPG for International Trade and Investment, Conservative Party Board Member and Chairman of the Conservative Friends of the Chinese. The BrandZ Global Brand Builders highlight the Chinese brands making an impact with consumers in international markets. BrandZ reports and rankings offer unparalleled insight into what consumers think of brands are available online and via the BrandZ app which is free to download from www.brandz.com/mobile, iTunes or Google Play. About BrandZ BrandZ is the world's largest and most definitive brand building platform, calculating brand value by combining financial and market data with primary research data from interviews with more than 3.6m consumers in 51 countries on their views about over 122,000 brands. BrandZ is trusted by many of the world's most established financial institutions, with the BrandZ valuations fed directly into the Bloomberg terminals, used by over 300,000 of the world's most influential decision makers. BrandZ is the only brand valuation ranking that takes into account the opinions of consumers - the people who buy from brands and whose daily spending decisions determine their rise and fall. This insight into consumers allows us not only say if a brand's value has increased or decreased but also look into our data and pinpoint why. About the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2018 The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2018 is the most definitive and robust ranking of Chinese brands, combining trusted financial data from Bloomberg and Kantar Worldpanel with consumer opinions gathered from interviews with over 400,000 Chinese consumers to give a dollar value to how brand powers business. In 2018, the brands achieved record growth with a 23% rise in brand value, from $557.1 billion last year to $683.9 billion in 2018. This represents the greatest one-year growth since the BrandZ China Top 100 ranking was first published in 2014. 2018 China Top 100 Brand YoY Brand Value Value Rank 2018 Brand Category (Millions $) change 1 Tencent Technology 132,213 25% 2 Alibaba Retail 88,623 53% 3 China Mobile Telecom Providers 49,231 -15% 4 ICBC Banks 37,213 18% 5 Baidu Technology 24,990 5% 6 Huawei Technology 24,115 18% 7 Moutai Alcohol 23,175 43% 8 Ping An Insurance 22,363 36% 9 China Construction Bank Banks 20,120 9% 10 Agricultural Bank of China Banks 16,158 9% About BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders 2018 The BrandZ 'Brand Power' score represents the strength of the brand from the perspective of overseas consumers in important country markets. The score is calculated using an algorithm applied to 168 Chinese brands across 12 product categories. % Change 2018 vs Rank 2018 Brand Category Brand Power 2018 2017 1 Lenovo Consumer Electronics 1,697 1% 2 Huawei Consumer Electronics 1,530 22% 3 Alibaba E-commerce 1,101 5% 4 Xiaomi Consumer Electronics 757 6% 5 Air China Airlines 730 3% 6 Elex Mobile Gaming 724 -22% 7 Anker Consumer Electronics 612 22% 8 Haier Home Appliances 578 1% 9 Hisense Home Appliances 530 10% Mobile Gaming/Internet 10 Cheetah Mobile Services 512 3% About WPP WPP is the world leader in communications services. The company provides a comprehensive range of services including digital, ecommerce and shopper marketing; advertising & media investment management; data investment management; public relations & public affairs; brand consulting; health & wellness communications; and specialist communications. China is WPP's third largest market after the US and the UK. In Greater China, WPP companies generate revenues of $1.2 billion, with almost 10,000 people in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and many other cities and provinces. About Kantar Millward Brown Kantar Millward Brown is a leading global research agency specialising in advertising effectiveness, strategic communication, media and digital, and brand equity research. The company helps clients grow great brands through comprehensive research-based qualitative and quantitative solutions. Kantar Millward Brown operates in more than 55 countries and is part of WPP's Kantar group, one of the world's leading data, insight and consultancy companies. Learn more at www.millwardbrown.com . For media enquiries please contact Edd.Ross@hkstrategies.com +44-0-207-973-4470 [1] In the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2018 ranking launched 26 March 2018. Zoning for New Housing in California Becomes More Developer-Friendly LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / According to Neil Shekhter, developers of new housing are expecting less hurdles to jump over as well as less local governmental interference, thanks to the new housing zoning bill recently signed into law by California's governor. Two new bills recently approved by Governor Jerry Brown makes dense housing more possible throughout the state since these new pieces of legislation require local zoning officials to zone for housing to meet local need in the present as well as in the future. Senate Bill 828, signed into law this week by Governor Brown, requires local governments to structure zoning to accommodate 100 percent of the projected local housing need. State Senator Scott Weiner, who authored the bill, originally asked for 200 percent but that figure was reduced to 100 percent after considerable debate by members of the legislation. Assembly Bill 1771 is the second newly approved zoning bill which could prove extremely beneficial for developers, requiring increased data for determining just what the local housing needs are. This new formula helps prevent local governments from fudging the numbers simply to reduce the amount of residential zoning now required in their areas. Previously, zoning law merely required local governments to zone for future need, but SB 828 now requires zoning that reflects existing need as well. A California city that projected 1,000 new citizens in their future could previously limit new housing to 1,000 units, even if in reality, that city was already short 2,000 units. Today, that city's local government is mandated to also zone for the existing 2,000 units needed. This new zoning law could result in as much as a 150 percent increase in local units. California has for decades endured a serious housing crisis, and passage of this bill enables developers to accommodate the long-standing housing shortage without being unduly hampered by local governments. The current housing shortage not only creates skyrocketing rents and home prices, it has also stimulated other potential new legislation such as Proposition 10 which gives local governments more power regarding rent regulation. Developers throughout the state facing few development opportunities could now see more dense residential zoning in numerous cities, without facing interference from local governments who have long opposed densification. Although real estate industry trade groups and respected developers support SB 828, a number of neighborhood groups and cities in southern California, have expressed their opposition to current housing zoning limitations, fearing more power in the hands of the state government and less control over how neighborhoods develop in the hands of local government. NMS has offered quality rentals in the Los Angeles area for nearly three decades. Since 1988, NMS has developed and managed a large portfolio of premier apartment buildings and commercial properties in Santa Monica, West Los Angeles, Brentwood and the San Fernando Valley By: Jessica Zalban NMS Properties, Inc. linkedin.com/neilshekhter crunchbase.com/neil-shekhter levo.com/neil-shekhter twitter.com/neilshekhter angel.co/neil-shekhter forbes.com/Neil-Shekhter SOURCE: NMS Properties, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/513849/Hopefully-We-Can-Expect-More-Friendly-Zoning-in-California-Neil-Shekhter Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Gary Goldsholle, a senior policy adviser in the Division of Trading and Markets, will leave the agency on Oct. 12. Mr. Goldsholle joined the SEC staff in 2015 as a deputy director in the Division of Trading and Markets with responsibility for its Offices of Market Supervision, Chief Counsel, and Clearance and Settlement. In that role, he was substantially involved in many market structure initiatives, including the SEC's approval of new national securities exchanges, approval of the plan to establish the Consolidated Audit Trail, and rulemakings to enhance operational transparency for alternative trading systems and expand order handling disclosures. Mr. Goldsholle also worked on rules to support a new regulatory regime for security-based swaps (SBS), including SBS dealer registration, SBS data repositories, and business conduct standards. In addition, he oversaw SEC rulemakings to strengthen the regulatory framework for clearing agencies, and to reduce the standard settlement cycle from three days (T+3) to two days (T+2), as well as the agency's issuance of a concept release and notice of potential rulemaking for transfer agents. More recently, Mr. Goldsholle served as a key member of the SEC's Fintech Working Group, where he worked closely with other SEC divisions on cryptocurrency and digital asset security issues, including registration, custody, trading practices, and compliance for market participants seeking to conduct initial coin offerings and trade in digital asset securities. "Gary's leadership in the Division of Trading and Markets and his commitment to the SEC's mission have served the interests of our markets and investors," said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. "I am grateful for Gary's thoughtful, cooperative, and practical approach toward addressing market issues with fellow colleagues." "It has been an honor and a privilege to contribute to the work of the SEC," said Mr. Goldsholle. "I have been fortunate to work with an incredible group of talented and dedicated professionals who share a deep commitment to the Commission's mission, and collaboratively work on some of the most important policy issues we face as our markets continuously evolve." Previously, Mr. Goldsholle was the general counsel of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. Before that, Mr. Goldsholle spent 15 years at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, serving as vice president and associate general counsel. Earlier in his career he was an attorney at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and in private practice. Mr. Goldsholle graduated with degrees in computer science and economics from Duke University in 1988, and received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1991. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - October 10, 2018: Cordoba Minerals Corp. (TSXV: CDB) (OTCQX: CDBMF) ("Cordoba" or the "Company") announces today that it plans to raise US$2.0 million through a non-brokered private placement (the "Placement") of units ("Units") with the Company's majority shareholder, High Power Exploration Inc. ("HPX"). Proceeds from the Placement are expected to be used to advance regional exploration at Cordoba's 100%-owned San Matias Copper-Gold Project in Colombia, to fund ongoing drilling activities at the Perseverance copper porphyry project in Arizona, USA, and for general working capital purposes. Pursuant to the Placement, Cordoba proposes to issue HPX 26,605,128 Units in the Company at a deemed price of C$0.0975 per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one common share ("Share") and one common share purchase warrant ("Warrant") of the Company. Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Share at an exercise price of $0.13 per Share for a period of 24 months following the closing of the Placement. Completion of the Placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval and closing is expected to occur on, or about, October 19, 2018. The Shares and Warrants to be issued under the Placement will be subject to a statutory four month hold period. The Placement is considered a "related party transaction" under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") because HPX is a related party to Cordoba as the majority shareholder. Pursuant to Section 5.5(b) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, the Company is exempt from obtaining a formal valuation and approval of the Company's minority shareholders because the Company is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and the fair market value of HPX's participation in the Placement is less than 25% of the Company's market capitalization for purposes of MI 61-101. The Company will file a material change report in respect of the Placement. However, the material change report will be filed less than 21 days prior to the closing of the Placement, which is consistent with market practice and the Company deems reasonable in the circumstances. About Cordoba Minerals Cordoba Minerals Corp. is a Toronto-based mineral exploration company focused on the exploration and acquisition of copper and gold projects. Cordoba is currently focused on its 100%-owned San Matias Copper-Gold Project, which includes the advanced-stage Alacran Deposit, located in the Department of Cordoba. Cordoba has also entered into a joint venture and earn-in agreement to explore the Perseverance coppery porphyry project located in Arizona, USA. For further information, please visit www.cordobaminerals.com. About High Power Exploration HPX is a private, metals-focused exploration and development company, investing in mineral projects that have high potential for value uplift with HPX's technology, industry expertise, and capital. ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY Mario Stifano, President and CEO Cordoba Minerals Corp. For further information, please contact: Evan Young, Director, Investor Relations Email: eyoung@cordobamineralscorp.com Phone: +1 (647) 808-2141 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements including, without limitation: (i) all statements regarding the timing and completion of the Placement to HPX at a price of C$0.0975 per Unit for gross proceeds to Cordoba of approximately US$2 million; and (ii) statements regarding the proposed use of proceeds from the Placement. Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "potential", "target", "budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management based on the business and markets in which the Company operates, are inherently subject to significant operational, economic, and competitive uncertainties, risks and contingencies. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results, and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include actual exploration results, interpretation of metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, delays or inability to receive required approvals, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators, including those described under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's most recently filed MD&A. The Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable law. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES MEXICO / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / Elementia (BMV: ELEMENT*) today announced that it will hold its Third Quarter 2018 Conference Call in English on Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. Mexico City Time / 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, which will be presented by Mr. Fernando Ruiz Jacques- Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Juan Francisco Sanchez Kramer - Chief Financial Officer. Elementia will report its Third Quarter 2018 results on Wednesday, October 24, 2018 after the market closes. The conference call can be accessed through the following numbers: 1-877-830-2576 (U.S. participants) 1-785-424-1726 (International participants) Passcode: ELEMENTIA To access the audio webcast, visit: https://webcasts.eqs.com/elementia20181025 Participants are requested to connect 15 minutes prior to the call Conference Replay: A replay of this call will be available on October 25, 2018 at 1:00 p.m. EST for 7 days, and will also be available at www.elementia.com in the Investor Relations section. 1 (844) 488-7474 (U.S. participants) 1 (862) 902-0129 (International participants) Conference Replay ID: 52149663 About Elementia Elementia is a unique platform that manufactures and commercializes building materials for the construction industry and adds value to all stages of this industry. The Company has grown, both organically and through strategic mergers and acquisitions, consolidating operations in 9 countries in the Americas, showing strong growth in its Cement business unit, while maintaining its leadership in the Metals business, and through our Building Systems unit, we offer lightweight construction products, which is the main building trend in the market. This has been possible thanks to the passion and dedication of its more than 7,000 employees and the leadership of its main brands, including: Cementos Fortaleza, Giant, Keystone and Dragon; Nacobre; Allura, Mexalit, Plycem, Eternit, Duralit and Fibraforte, among others. SOURCE: Elementia S.A.B. DE C.V. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/513861/Elementia-Announces-Its-Third-Quarter-2018-Earnings-Conference-Call-and-Reporting-Schedule Weekly net asset value ("NAV") is calculated as of the close of business on each Tuesday and posted on the following business day. In the event that Tuesday is not a business day, the Company will calculate the close-of-business NAV as of the business day immediately preceding that Tuesday. The end-of-month NAV is calculated as of the close of business on the last day of the month and posted on the following business day. For weeks that include a month-end NAV report, PSH will provide only the month-end NAV and not report the Tuesday NAV. Monthly NAVs are published in accordance with the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings under the Wft (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiele ondernemingen Wft). 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. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) - Match Capital Resources Corporation (TSXV: MHC.H) ("Match") is pleased to announce that, further to its June 6, 2018 press release, it has entered into a binding definitive agreement dated as of September 17, 2018 (the "Definitive Agreement") with Braingrid Corporation ("Braingrid"), to acquire a 100% interest in Braingrid, which will constitute a reverse takeover of Match by the shareholders of Braingrid (the "Transaction"). It is expected that the Transaction will be completed by way of a three-cornered amalgamation among Match, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Match and Braingrid. Match has applied for listing of its common shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE"), with such listing to be effective concurrently with the completion of the Transaction and the delisting of the common shares from the TSX Venture Exchange. In connection with the Transaction, Match will hold an annual and special meeting of shareholders on October 26, 2018 (the "Meeting") to among other things, approve a share consolidation on the basis of one (1) new common share of Match for every eight (8) existing common shares and approve a name change of the Company to "Braingrid Limited" or such other name as may be approved by the directors. On closing of the Transaction, Match will have 1,076,931 post consolidation common shares outstanding, will have no debt and no convertible securities outstanding. Braingrid intends to hold a special meeting of shareholders on October 23, 2018 to approve, among other things, the Transaction. Pursuant to the Transaction, the issued and outstanding common shares of Braingrid will be exchanged for common shares of Match on a two (2) post consolidation shares for one (1) share basis and all outstanding convertible securities of Braingrid will be adjusted in accordance with their terms to provide that such securities will become exercisable into common shares of the Resulting Issuer with such adjustments being made on the same 2 to 1 exchange ratio referenced above. Match has mailed an information and proxy circular, proxy form and related meeting materials (collectively, the "Meeting Materials") to the shareholders of Match of record on September 7, 2018. The board of directors of Match unanimously recommends that shareholder vote in favour of all matters to be considered by shareholders at the Meeting. The approval of these items are necessary to the successful completion of the Transaction. Further details on the proposed Transaction, including all matters to be approved at the Meeting, are included in the Meeting Materials and the Definitive Agreement, which may be accessed through the Company's profile on the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com). About of Braingrid Braingrid is a Canadian controlled private corporation based in Toronto, Ontario. It was incorporated federally in Canada in 2012. Braingrid is a precision agriculture technology company that provides an affordable, versatile, and quick-to-install global sensor platform that captures the critical real-time data needed by licensed cannabis producers to increase revenues, reduce costs and reduce risks. Braingrid has commercialized a proprietary device called the "Sentroller". These Sentrollers connect to sensors, which measure environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and CO2. This data is communicated wirelessly to a Braingrid gateway in the facility, which in turn sends the data via cellular modem to Internet-based servers. This data can then be accessed by customers via online dashboards and reports. In addition, the platform can send email alarms to the customer when out-of-bounds conditions are sensed. Braingrid has business agreements with Ample Organics Inc., WeedMD Inc., Beleave Kannabis Corp. and R2G Global, LLC to develop and deploy its technology. For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2018, Braingrid had net sales of approximately $45,872 (audited) and a net loss of approximately $1,386,672 (unaudited). As at April 30, 2018, Braingrid had total assets of approximately $1.8 million (unaudited), including cash of approximately $1.5 million (unaudited) and shareholders' equity of approximately $1.7 million (unaudited). The major shareholders of Braingrid are its founder Mr. Michael Kadonoff of Toronto, Ontario, who indirectly owns approximately 27% of Braingrid's current issued and outstanding common shares, and Mr. Kenneth Kadonoff, of Toronto, Ontario, who indirectly owns approximately 27%, of Braingrid's current issued and outstanding common shares. Proposed Directors and Officers of the Resulting Issuer The following sets out details of the proposed directors and management of the Resulting Issuer: Michael Kadonoff, Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director Prior to founding Braingrid in 2012, Michael Kadonoff worked as a professional hardware designer at General Electric Grid IQ on the premier design team for energy grid automation and control products. Michael is an avid inventor and a passionate energy reform visionary. Michael has a B.Eng from McMaster University and a Technologist Diploma in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Lakehead University. Matthew Skynner, President & Chief Operating Officer Matt Skynner has over 25 years of high tech experience, including leading a global, $1B technology business as Corporate Vice President and General Manager at AMD. Matt spent 17 years in various roles at AMD (previously ATI) including Vice President, Corporate Marketing; Vice President, Product Marketing; and Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Graphics Business Unit. Matt gained deep experience with sensing, control and automation systems during his 10-year tenure at Honeywell Limited. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the IT Association of Canada. Matt is a Professional Engineer and holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and an MBA from the University of Manitoba. Kenneth Kadonoff, Executive Chairman Ken Kadonoff is a nimble, hands-on leader in business development, problem-solving, legal work and interim management in a variety of industries. Mr. Kadonoff practiced commercial law with top Toronto law firms since 1978, then transitioned to COO for a TSX-listed company, and was Vice-Chairman of the Canadian Franchise Association. He has deep established network relationships, business and legal experience across many industries. Mr. Kadonoff holds a B. Comm. from Concordia University (Mtl.) and B.C.L and LL.B. degrees from McGill University (Mtl.). Doug Harris, Chief Financial Officer Doug Harris is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Business Valuator with over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector, including accounting, operations, corporate finance, equity research, private equity and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Harris has a BSc. in Physical Geography from the University of Guelph and a MBA (Accg) from the University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management. David E. Argudo, Director David Argudo is the Chief Executive Officer of High Hampton Holdings Corp. Mr. Argudo is currently an elected City Official in California and brings a near decade of political experience and over 25 years of leadership in Cannabis advocacy work in California. Mr. Argudo helped pass the Compassionate Act (known as Prop. 215) in 1996 and has since consulted and developed cannabis policies for states and local municipalities, as well as, pioneered local tax measures for cannabis in California. In addition to over 25 years of technical expertise in Cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, retail and distribution, he brings extensive cannabis experience pertaining to the areas of biopharmaceuticals, cancer research, real estate and mortgage financing and has helped license over 420k sq. ft. of cultivation/ manufacturing building space. Mr. Argudo is a Member of the California Growers Association and a Member of the Humboldt Interdisciplinary Institute for Marijuana Research (HiiMR). Mr. Argudo also brings international consulting experience in countries like Germany, Colombia, and Chile. Eric R. Klein, Director (Chairman, Audit Committee) Eric Klein focuses on complex mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, financings as well as joint ventures and business valuations of mid-sized Canadian corporations. With more than 30 years of experience, he focuses on providing results-driven corporate finance services for mid-market Canadian companies. Recently, Mr. Klein was a senior executive with a Canadian public financial institution. Prior to that Mr. Klein was the Founder and Managing Director of the Corporate Finance, Valuations & Transaction practice of Farber Financial Group. Mr. Klein is a graduate of McGill University and holds designations as a Chartered Public Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator. David A. Posner, Director David Posner is a consultant to Quinsam Capital Corp. and serves as Chief Executive Officer and President of Nutritional High International Inc. He has been a Director of Nutritional High International Inc. since 2014 and its Chairman since 2016. Mr. Posner is a Director of DigiCrypts Blockchain Solutions Inc., as well a director of The Lineage Grow Company Ltd., Capricorn Business Acquisitions Inc. and Aura Health Corp. He served as a director at The Tinley Beverage Company Inc. until 2017. Mr. Posner holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from York University. Trading Halt Match's common shares are currently halted and Match anticipates they will remain halted until the completion of the Transaction. MATCH CAPITAL RESOURCES CORPORATION Nadim Wakeam Director Telephone: (416) 593-2980 Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including TSX Venture Exchange acceptance, and if applicable, disinterested shareholder approval. The Transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approvals are 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 disclosure documentation to be prepared in connection with the Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of Match should be considered highly speculative. The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed Transaction and has neither approved or disapproved the contents of this press release. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES SOURCE: Match Capital Resources Corporation Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2018) -Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. (TSX: AVL) (OTCQX: AVLNF) ("Avalon" or the "Company") is pleased to provide a progress report on its 100% owned Nechalacho Rare Earths Project near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories ("Nechalacho" or "the "Project"), since announcing the re-activation of the Project on May 15, 2018. Concerns about security of supply of these critical elements are growing, as the trade dispute between China and the United States escalates. China still controls over 90% of global primary rare earth supply and investors well remember when China restricted rare earths exports in 2010 over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea. Over the past four months, Avalon has successfully renewed its Land Use Permit and completed the perimeter survey of several contiguous mineral claims in order to bring them to lease. The lease application has been submitted and approval is expected by late October. Avalon completed a field program in September to conduct additional sampling in the area of the T-Zone and Tardiff Lakes Zones to begin assessing their potential as sources of neodymium and praseodymium ("Nd-Pr") rich concentrates currently in high demand for magnet applications. Sampling was also done in the T-Zone to begin assessing the resource potential of widespread lithium mineralization occurring as the lithium mica polylithionite. Lastly, work continued on the independent scoping study on the East Arm-Yellowknife Road and hydro power infrastructure corridor. The recent field program resulted in 41 drill core and rock samples and 80 biogeochemistry samples being shipped for analysis for rare earths and lithium. Analytical results are expected in early November. The rare earths in the high-grade sections of the North T-Zone are contained largely in the ore mineral bastnaesite, which has a relatively high rare earth content of around 24%, and may be easily concentrated by ore-sorting methods. Additional samples of the bastnaesite mineralization were collected for initial ore-sorting process testwork contemplated for this fall. Avalon plans to investigate the possibility of developing Nechalacho as a near-term, small-scale producer of Nd-Pr rich concentrates for export, potentially involving a low-cost mining, crushing and ore-sorting operation. The South T-Zone is also known to contain lithium and rare earth mineralization, although the original exploration drilling in the 1980's was focused on beryllium and no formal resource estimate was established for rare earths or lithium. Once the assays are received for the core samples from the North and South T-Zones, Avalon intends to update the resource estimate for rare earths and develop a new resource model for lithium in these two deposits. Previous work by Avalon at Nechalacho focused on the heavy rare earth-rich Basal Zone deposit, which was the subject of the Company's 2013 Feasibility Study. In the course of drilling the Basal Zone, very high grade Nd-Pr mineralization in bastnaesite was intersected near surface in the Tardiff Lakes area, with grades of up to 10.78% total rare earth oxides over 11 metres being intersected. To better map the extent of the near-surface Tardiff Lakes mineralization, which is largely overburden covered, the field crew collected 80 biogeochemistry samples to test this method for outlining near-surface rare earth mineralization: a method which has proven to be very effective in recent exploration for lithium on the Company's Separation Rapids property in northwestern Ontario. The Nechalacho Project is located in the traditional territory of the Akaitcho First Nations. Avalon would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Government of the Northwest Territories towards the infrastructure scoping study and the recent field program through a Mineral Incentive Grant. Separation Rapids Lithium Project PEA Further to the Company's news release of August 21st, 2018, in which the results of its Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") were disclosed, the report entitled "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Production of Petalite Concentrate from the Separation Rapids Lithium Deposit, Kenora, Ontario" was filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) on September 28th, 2018 and is available on Avalon's website (http://avalonadvancedmaterials.com/_resources/reports/AVL-SeparationRapids-PEA2018.pdf). In accordance with the regulations under NI 43-101, it is noted that the PEA must be considered preliminary in nature, as it includes Inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. The technical information included in this news release has been reviewed and approved by the Company's Vice President, Exploration, Dr. William Mercer, P. Geo (Ont), who is a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. About Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. is a Canadian mineral development company specializing in niche market metals and minerals with growing demand in new technology. The Company has three advanced stage projects, all 100%-owned, providing investors with exposure to lithium, tin and indium, as well as rare earth elements, tantalum, niobium, and zirconium. Avalon is currently focusing on developing its Separation Rapids Lithium Project, Kenora, ON and its East Kemptville Tin-Indium Project, Yarmouth, NS to production, while continuing to advance its Nechalacho Rare Earths asset. Social responsibility and environmental stewardship are corporate cornerstones. For questions and feedback, please e-mail the Company at ir@AvalonAM.com, or phone Don Bubar, President & CEO, at 416-364-4938. This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to statements about the expecting timing of the approval of the lease application, that analytical results are expected in early November, that the Company is investigating the possibility of developing Nechalacho as a near-term, small-scale producer of Nd-Pr rich concentrates, and that this may have significant advantages over the already approved project from an environmental and cost standpoint, that Avalon intends to update the resource estimate for rare earths and develop a new resource model for lithium in two deposits, that further work would include metallurgical testing on recovery of rare earths from bastnaesite. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "potential", "scheduled", "anticipates", "continues", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "scheduled", "targeted", "planned", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" or "will not be" taken, reached or result, "will occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Avalon to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made. Although Avalon has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expected results described in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to market conditions, and the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses as well as those risk factors set out in the Company's current Annual Information Form, Management's Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure documents available under the Company's profile at www.SEDAR.com. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Such forward-looking statements have been provided for the purpose of assisting investors in understanding the Company's plans and objectives and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Avalon does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are contained herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, October 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- THIS NEWS RELEASE IS INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION IN CANADA ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. MYM Nutraceuticals Inc. ("MYM" or the "Company") (CSE: MYM) (MYM.CN) (FRANKFURT: 0MY) (OTCMKTS: MYMMF) is pleased to announce that it has filed a final short form base shelf prospectus (the "Base Shelf Prospectus") with the securities commissions in each of the Provinces of Canada, other than Quebec. The shelf prospectus filings allow MYM to make offerings of common shares, warrants, subscription receipts, units or debt securities, or a combination thereof, up to an aggregate total of Cdn$50 million during the 25-month period that the Base Shelf Prospectus remains effective. Such securities may be offered in amounts, at prices and on terms to be determined based on market conditions at the time of sale and set forth in one or more shelf prospectus supplement(s). Information regarding the use of proceeds from a sale of such securities will be included in the applicable prospectus supplement. This news release shall not in any circumstances constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the applicable securities laws of any jurisdiction. A copy of the Base Shelf Prospectus can be found on SEDAR website at http://www.sedar.com . About MYM Nutraceuticals Inc. MYM Nutraceuticals Inc. is an innovative company focused on acquiring Health Canada licenses to produce and sell high-end organic medicinal cannabis supplements and topical products. MYM is a shareholder in two production projects in Quebec that when completed will have over 1.5 million sf of production space. MYM is also a shareholder in a 1.2 million sf production project (Northern Rivers Project) in New South Wales, Australia. Australia is an exciting new market that has recently legalized medicinal cannabis. To ensure a strong presence and growth potential within the industry, MYM is actively looking to acquire complementary businesses and assets in the technology, nutraceuticals and CBD sectors. MYM shares trade in Canada, Germany and the USA under the following symbols: (CSE:MYM) (OTC:MYMMF) (FRA:0MY) (DEU:0MY) (MUN:0MY) (STU:0MY). On behalf of the Board of Directors "Erick Factor" Executive Chairman Investor Relations investors@mym.ca FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE or CNSX Markets), nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE), accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain statements ("forward-looking statements") in this news release may contain forward-looking information concerning the Base Shelf Prospectus, any potential prospectus supplement and the amount and terms of any securities to be offered under the Base Shelf Prospectus or any shelf prospectus supplements, plans related to the Company's business, the anticipated production capacity of the Company's projects and other matters that may occur in the future, made as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to regulatory approval of the Base Shelf Prospectus and shelf prospectus supplement filings, MYM's ability to raise additional capital, the Company's use of proceeds, and the Company's ability to complete its projects as anticipated. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions that management believes are reasonable at the time they are made. In making the forward-looking statements included in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that regulatory approval of the Base Shelf Prospectus and any shelf prospectus filings and related offerings will be obtained in a timely fashion, that the Company will be able to raise additional capital and the use thereof will proceed as planned, and the Company will be able to complete production projects as anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities law and may not be offered or sold in the "United States", as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. Terry Brown +1-855-696-2261 terry.brown@mym.ca Engineering and infrastructure company RCR Tomlinsonhas entered into an Interim Project Alliance Agreement with City Rail Link to carry out project services on the Auckland City Rail Link Project.This is along with its design partner Opus International Consultants in joint venture as the Systems Integration, Testing and Commissioning Alliance.Under the Interim Project Alliance Agreement, SITC will work in collaboration with City Rail Link, Auckland Transport and Kiwi Rail to develop an alliance proposal for the C7 Rail Project.Shares in RCR Tomlinsonclosed 1.04 per cent lower to 95 cents yesterday. During UPA regime, huge loans were provided by banks at the drop of a hat 'when a phone call was made,' by the powers that be, said Nirmala Sitharaman, Chennai: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday blamed the Congress-led UPA regime for public and private sector banks facing huge corporate bad loans. Loans were provided without following due diligence and as a result, defaulters fled the country and the banks had no money to lend, Sitharaman said obviously referring to fugitive business barons like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. Sitharaman had also held the portfolios of corporate affairs and finance (Minister of State) and was the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Commerce and Industry. Huge loans were provided by banks at the drop of a hat "when a phone call was made," by the powers that be, the minister said, addressing a BJP traders wing meet here. Since such loans were not paid back till date, the banks faced a crunch and could not lend for new businesses. "Public and private sector banks are all facing difficulty due to this. Though policy allowed banks to provide loans, banks are not prepared to lend as they do not have money. Why this happened?" she asked. Loans were provided to "acquaintances" without any assessment, scrutiny or background check to ascertain if the promoters could actually carry on the business and pay back the loan, and it was "crony capitalism," followed by the UPA regime, she alleged. "Under the guise of providing loans to do business, banks were made to lend without assessing factors like repayment capabilities, assets and expertise and they (apparently referring to Vijay Mallya and others) have departed with the money and the banks do not have money," Sitharaman said. Under such circumstances, to achieve 7.5 to 8 percent growth (GDP) rate, several efforts have been taken by Prime Minister Modi, she said. To tackle the issue of defaulters fleeing the country after cheating banks, an enabling legislation --The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 -- was passed which envisaged attachment of properties, she said. "This law was not brought during their (UPA) regime),"she said. Defaulters fled the country in view of tough action. Still, even if defaulters had fled the country, efforts are being made to bring them back home to justice and attach their properties as well for default, she said. Sitharaman said the BJP-led Centre has given good governance and all welfare schemes have to be taken to the people. If a comparison was made between the 48 years rule of the Congress and other parties at the Centre and the BJP-led NDA for the past 48 months, she said it could be understood that what the Centre has been doing was a "herculean task." "During the 10 years of the UPA regime, they did nothing to give good governance," she said. At that time, even at the cost of "betrayal," of the country, those who held power eyed only things that could be "grabbed," and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not bothered about it even as corruption reigned, she alleged. She blamed the UPA regime for its "corrupt governance," and leaving the economy in a shambles. Sitharaman dwelt about other welfare schemes of the Centre like the 'Ayushman Bharat'. The traders's wing meet was the starting point to the Lok Sabha campaign in Tamil Nadu, she said. All certificates issued by chartered accountants will have a unique document identification number from January next year as part of efforts to prevent forgery of documents. New Delhi: All certificates issued by chartered accountants will have a unique document identification number from January next year as part of efforts to prevent forgery of documents. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), which has more than 2.92 lakh members, on Tuesday said it has introduced the Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) for the members. According to the institute, there has been an increasing trend to forge the stamp and signature of chartered accountants. The UDIN would be "mandatory for all practicing chartered accountants w.e.f. 1 January, 2019 to register all certificates issued by them with UDIN portal which can be verified by users/ stakeholders," the institute said in a release. A number would be generated for every document certified or attested by a chartered accountant and the same would be registered with the UDIN portal. In a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the initiative, the institute said that UDIN would help curb the menace of fake or forged documents. In its release, the ICAI cited an order by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court passed on 21 June related to one Binod Kumar Agarwala and Income Tax Department wherein the institute was directed to initiate appropriate action against the concerned chartered accountants firm. "The high court while passing the orders observed that the firm had prepared a balance sheet of the assessee i.e. Binod Kumar Agarwala by projecting a rosy picture as to the credit worthiness of the assessee for the purpose of availing credit facilities from the bank," the release said. Later, the ICAI issued a show-cause notice to the firm seeking an explanation. "However, the said firm of chartered accountants has vehemently denied stating that their firm had not prepared those documents and their signatures and stamp has been forged. "The firm had also submitted of having filed a FIR with Kharagpur Police and a sworn affidavit affirming their non-association in this matter. However, Director (Discipline), ICAI is further examining the matter," the release said. By Daphne Psaledakis LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - European Union nations, voicing concern over a U.N. report on global warming, agreed on Tuesday to seek a 35 percent cut in car emissions by 2030, as Germany warned that overly challenging targets risked harming industry and jobs By Daphne Psaledakis LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - European Union nations, voicing concern over a U.N. report on global warming, agreed on Tuesday to seek a 35 percent cut in car emissions by 2030, as Germany warned that overly challenging targets risked harming industry and jobs. Torn between reducing pollution and preserving industry competitiveness, EU environment ministers meeting in Luxembourg talked for more than 13 hours until nearly midnight to reach a compromise over what 2030 carbon dioxide limits to impose on Europe's powerful carmakers. The final rules will now be hashed out in talks beginning on Wednesday with the EU's two other lawmaking bodies: the European Parliament, which is seeking a more ambitious climate target, and the European Commission, which proposed a lower one. In a joint statement earlier, the EU ministers expressed deep concern over a U.N. report calling for rapid and unprecedented action to contain global warming but held back from increasing their pledge to reduce emissions under the 2015 Paris climate accord. Several countries had sought a higher, 40 percent reduction in car emissions, in line with targets backed by EU lawmakers last week, with Ireland and the Netherlands among those voicing disappointment with the compromise deal. Germany, with its big auto sector, had backed an EU executive proposal for a 30 percent cut for fleets of new cars and vans by 2030, compared with 2021 levels. DOWN TO THE WIRE Climate campaigners say Germany has still not learned to be tougher on the auto industry, despite the scandal that engulfed Volkswagen in 2015 when it admitted to using illegal software to mask emissions on up to 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide. Germany, with the backing of eastern European nations, had held a blocking minority among the 28 nations against the more ambitious targets, EU sources said. But a last-minute amendment helped ease concerns among poorer member states over the new rules, which also create a crediting system encouraging carmakers to raise sales of electric cars. It would allow for a different accounting in countries where the current market penetration of zero- and low-emissions vehicles is less than 60 percent below the average in the bloc. CLIMATE AMBITION Curbs on the transport sector, the only industry in which emissions are still rising, aim to help the bloc meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gases by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Extreme temperatures across the northern hemisphere this summer have fuelled concerns climate change is gathering pace, leading some countries to call for emissions to be cut at a faster rate than planned. But a call by the EU's climate commissioner and 15 EU nations for the bloc to increase its pledge to cut emissions by 45 percent under the Paris accord has met with resistance. Ahead of U.N. climate talks in Poland in December, the bloc's 28 environment ministers renewed their commitment to leading the fight to limit global warming. They said the EU was ready to "communicate or update" its Nationally Determined Contribution, the efforts by each country to reduce emissions, by 2020. Raising it would require the approval of all 28 nations. That may be too hard to achieve before the U.N. talks, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said, but the bloc is likely to exceed its Paris pledge following a reform of its Emission Trading System (ETS) and new targets on renewable energy and energy efficiency. "We do not need new legislation on this one because everything is already done. We are just going to get better results than expected," Sefcovic told Reuters on Monday. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen and Alissa de Carbonnel in Brussels; Editing by Edmund Blair, Mark Potter and James Dalgleish) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. There is yet another way of providing relief to farmers, easy and popular though not necessarily the best way to address the issue waiving off their loans. Apart from a higher minimum support price (MSP) for their produce which the Union Cabinet announced last week for the rabi crops as it had done for the kharif crops in July this year the agitating farmers have been insisting on loan waivers because of growing indebtedness. According to the Situational Assessment Survey (SAS) of 2013 released in 2016, 52 percent of an estimated 90.2 million farm households in rural India were indebted up from 48.6 percent a decade earlier in 2003. In 2013, the average of outstanding loan for farm households was Rs 47,000. The indebtedness went up progressively with the size of landholdings from 41.9 percent for those at the bottom with less than 0.01 hectare to 78.7 percent for those with more than 10 hectare. Southern states were at the top: Andhra Pradesh (92.9 percent) Telangana (89.1 percent) and Tamil Nadu (82.5 percent). The states at the bottom were Assam (17.5 percent), Jharkhand (28.9 percent) and Chhattisgarh (37.2 percent). In 2003, the average amount of outstanding loan for farm household was Rs 12,585. Indebtedness was lowest among the landholdings both at the top and at the bottom in terms of landholding 1.4 percent for those with less than 0.01 hectare and 0.8 percent for those with more than 10 hectare. Almost 80 percent of indebted farmer households possessed two hectare or less. Indebtedness was higher among the southern states: Andhra Pradesh (82 percent), Tamil Nadu (74.5 percent) and Punjab (65.4 percent) Kerala (64.4 percent) and Karnataka (61.6 percent). At the bottom were Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand with less than 10 percent farmer households indebted. Clearly, the dynamics of indebtedness has changed in many ways between the two surveys. Not only farmers indebtedness has increased in terms of percentage of households but also in terms of amount. The reasons for availing loans have also gone through a sea change. In 2003, two most important purposes for taking loan were capital expenditure in farm business and current expenditure in farm business, accounting for 58.4 percent of the total. The next was marriages and ceremonies, followed by other non-farm businesses, education and medical treatment. A decade later in 2013, the tables turned with farm loans in rural areas accounting for only 28.6 percent of the loan while those from non-farm business accounting for 60 percent. Where do the farmers get their loans from? The 2016 SAS report says, 60 percent of outstanding loans were taken from institutional sources, the rest from non-institutional or informal sources, including 26 percent from moneylenders. The share of institutional loan increases with the increase in the landholding. While the poorest (landholding less than 0.01 hectare) sourced only 15 percent of outstanding loans from institutional sources, that for the richest (more than 10 hectare) was 79 percent. No wonder, when it comes to mounting an agitation, the rich and poor farmers participate with equal enthusiasm. Why has the indebtedness gone up? Poor remuneration from agriculture produce has been cited as one of the prime reasons. The input costs have gone up four times in the first half of the current decade alone while income has more or less stagnated. Nearly 57 percent of the average monthly income from farm business (cultivation and farming of livestock) is spent on crop production 24 percent on fertilisers, 21 percent on labour and 11 percent on seeds. The Government of India has taken three initiatives to reduce debt burdens on farmers : (a) popularising Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) for short-term loans up to Rs 3 lakh for cultivation at 7 percent and interest subvention of 3 percent, (b) RBI is providing relief measures in areas affected by calamities, including restructuring of loans and moratorium and (c) Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) providing comprehensive insurance cover against crop failures. While PMFBY has not been as successful as the government would have liked from delay of claim payment for as long as 18 months to declining enrolment prompting it to declare penalties for delayed payments, there has been a substantial decline in long-term credit (or investment credit) in agriculture, causing concern in many quarters. The Economic Survey of 2015-16 pointed out that long-term credits had declined from 55 percent in 2006-7 to 39 percent in 2011-12 and sought immediate measures to arrest the decline. This was followed by an increase in allocation for long-term credit fund (LTRCF) of NABARD, the result of which is not yet clear. There is yet another way of providing relief to farmers, easy and popular though not necessarily the best way to address the issue waiving off their loans. Karnataka is only the latest state to join the long list of states. Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry have announced farm loan waivers. But the central government has stood firm in its resolve not to take recourse to it even when angry farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have pitched their tents in the capitals outskirts. Less than a year to go for the general elections, the face-off between the government and farmers has set the stage for an interesting battle for the next few days. Read Part 1 here: Low income major cause of agrarian distress, but is higher MSP solution to farmers' woes? Behavioural science can be used in recruitment to develop tools that protect against hiring bias (e.g. gender, race, self-selection), or behavioural tools to create closer collaboration amongst teams The annual United Nations Young Changemakers Conclave (UNYCC) will be held in Mumbai on 27 October. This will be the ninth edition of the event. Started in 2011, the conclave has had speakers as diverse as Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada to Raghuram Rajan, former governor, Reserve Bank of India to Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister. UNYCC is an initiative by X Billion Action Lab and UNIC for India and Bhutan to enable a dialogue about creating systemic change and reimagining impact in the digital age. The theme of this years conclave is 'Re-imagining Impact' in the digital age and will explore topics such as 'Re-imagining Content', 'Re-imagining Society', 'Re-imagining God', 'Re-imagining Money' and 'Re-imagining Conflict'. This year's speakers include Smriti Irani, Union Minister of Textiles, Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Radhanath Swami of ISKCON, Junaid Ahmad, India country head of World Bank and Umang Bedi, President of Dailyhunt. To attend the ninth edition of the UNYCC, you can register here: https://bit.ly/2QdClvm Firstpost spoke with one of the speakers at the UNYCC, Sanna Balsari Palsule, a personality scientist from the University of Cambridge, who specializes in leveraging behavior to help people be more productive and lead more fulfilling work lives. She is an expert on how individuals adapt their behavior to be more successful at work. Excerpts from the conversation: What is behavioural science in the context of corporates/corporation? Behavioural science can be applied across the entire organisation - across departments from communications to operations to sales to marketing, hierarchical levels, and individuals. It is universally relevant and creates an impact. It is essentially the study of how people make decisions and behave in a chaotic, noisy, complex world. In the context of the workplace, behavioural science is about a deeper understanding of behaviour at work, and using these insights to design solutions, realign policies and implement programmes that improve the quality of employees lives. One part of behavioural science at work is 'nudging' - this involves designing solutions that guide people towards better choices based on how people actually behave. The important idea here is that a small tweak can go a long way. For example, Google did this when nudging its employees towards healthier eating habits by labelling healthy dishes more indulgent names to make them more enticing and placing healthier meal options at eye-level. Is the science at par with what Burrhus Frederic Skinner propagated, for instance, or is it not about conditioning at all? Behavioural science is different to what Burrhus Frederic Skinner propagated. Skinner led the field of behaviourism and was a leading behaviorist in the 60s and 70s. Skinner was fascinated by how our actions are shaped by the environment and context around us. However, Skinner was not interested in the internal psychological factors that guide and influence behaviour. Behavioural science is concerned with both the influence of internal forces (e.g. cognitive biases, mental shortcuts) and external forces (e.g context) on behaviour. How does behavioral science differ from psychology? Psychology is a larger umbrella term for the discipline as a whole and incorporates a number of different sub-disciplines such as clinical psychology, forensic psychology, developmental psychology, judgment and decision-making. Behavioural science involves the science of human behaviour, such as why habits form. Behavioural science is based on the principles and findings from decades of research in psychology, but actually emerged as a discipline from economics when researchers challenged the tenet that people are perfectly rational beings who weigh up the costs and benefits of all their decisions (instead, we find that we are predictably irrational!) What are the major developments in this science? I would say that we are currently in the midst of a behavioural science revolution so much so that companies are increasingly building behavioural science capabilities within their organisations and departments so that they can design better solutions to motivate, manage and lead employees effectively. Outside of the context of the workplace, behavioural science is increasingly being used to address some of societys most pressing problems, and even integrate into policy. Do you see a population/employee choosing bad behaviour just because the leader does so? Yes, it can happen. One can draw on principles from behavioural science on the principle of social norms to understand the powerful force of behaviour. That is, when individuals view others in their eco-system behaving in a certain way, they are more likely to feel the pressure to mimic and follow this behaviour. This can be dangerous when leaders role-model negative traits, but can equally be positive with inspirational leadership. What do you think organisations need to be cognizant about with regard to behaviour in the backdrop of behavioural science. Organisations need to remember that individuals are not rational actors who always know how to make the best choice and act on it. We tend to assume that individuals behave in certain ways, but we need more realistic models of how people actually behave in their day to day work lives, the internal biases they carry and the ability to be influenced by the context. In the light of this, there are endless opportunities and possibilities for integrating a deeper, more nuanced understanding of individuals into our organisations. For example, behavioural science can be used in recruitment to develop tools that protect against hiring bias (e.g. gender, race, self-selection), or behavioural tools to create closer collaboration amongst teams. Similarly, behavioural science can be used to help people be less distracted at work, and cultivate better work habits amongst employees. By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose about one percent on Tuesday on growing evidence of falling Iranian crude exports before the imposition of new U.S. sanctions, as well as a partial production shutdown in the Gulf of Mexico because of Hurricane Michael By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose about one percent on Tuesday on growing evidence of falling Iranian crude exports before the imposition of new U.S. sanctions, as well as a partial production shutdown in the Gulf of Mexico because of Hurricane Michael. Brent crude futures rose $1.09 to settle at $85.00 a barrel, a 1.30 percent gain. The global benchmark hit a four-year high of $86.74 last week but slipped as low as $82.66 on Monday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 67 cents to settle at $74.96 a barrel, a 0.90 percent gain. Iran's crude exports fell further in the first week of October, according to tanker data and an industry source, as buyers sought alternatives ahead of U.S. sanctions that take effect on Nov. 4. Iran, OPEC's third-largest producer, exported 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in that seven-day period, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. An industry source who also tracks exports said October shipments so far were below 1 million bpd. That is down from at least 2.5 million bpd in April, before U.S. President Donald Trump in May withdrew the United States from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed sanctions. The figure also marks a further fall from 1.6 million bpd in September. A vessel carrying 2 million barrels of Iranian oil discharged the crude into a bonded storage tank at the port of Dalian in northeast China on Monday, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and a shipping agent with knowledge of the matter. The country previously held oil in storage at Dalian during the last round of sanctions in 2014 that was later sold to buyers in South Korea and India. Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, last week said it would increase crude output next month to 10.7 million bpd, a record. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh on Monday described a Saudi claim that the kingdom could replace Iran's crude exports as "nonsense." "There is growing concern that suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia will struggle to compensate for potential production declines from Iran and Venezuela, which has supported oil prices in today's trading session," said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy in London. Meanwhile, producers in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday cut oil production by about 40 percent as Hurricane Michael approached the Florida coast, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said, citing reports from 27 companies. If forecasts prove accurate, the hurricane would largely miss major oil-producing assets, analysts said, but a change of track could widen the impact. The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its global economic growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019, saying trade tensions and rising import tariffs were taking a toll on commerce while emerging markets struggle with tighter financial conditions and capital outflows. Industry and government data on U.S. crude inventories will be delayed by one day this week because of Monday's U.S. Columbus Day holiday. The American Petroleum Institute is due to release data on Wednesday, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration is due to publish on Thursday. (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York, Christopher Johnson in London and Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo; Editing by Susan Thomas and Marguerita Choy) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The SBI is not an asset reconstruction company (ARC) so as to be scouting for receivables that it can buy at a bargain price. The State Bank of India (SBI) is gearing itself to buy a whopping Rs 45,000 crore from the books of Non Banking Financial Company (NBFCs) some of which predictably would also include the loan portfolio of the beleaguered Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) and its myriad labyrinthine subsidiaries. It says it senses a business opportunity here as in its perception the NBFCs would be happy to unload some of their loan portfolios at a discount. The SBI says it is scouting for good quality assets. Now that seems to be one big gamble and also a contradiction. Why on earth should NBFCs sell good quality portfolios at a discount even if its for beefing up its precarious liquidity? It is widely known that NBFCs cater to small businesses that cannot either stand the heat of the more intense application scrutiny of the regular banks or are in a tearing hurry to jump ahead of the red tape. The SBI should not buy a pig in a poke. That it is indeed doing so is clear from the fact that it does not seem to have done extensive investigative work about the loan portfolios it is buying as evident from the extraordinary speed with which it has announced its move. In the event, one suspects if SBI is cast in the role of knight in the shining armor by the government for which it is in any case ill-suited what with its own financials not in ship shape. SBI itself is in knee-deep in trouble with NPAs on the back of behest lending more than others plaguing it continually. Now is it going to rescue damsels in distress? Is the talk of business opportunity hiding something sinister---another government company sticking its neck out? LIC and the government are being pilloried for the former being ever-ready to rescue about every other public sector undertaking in distress. The recent bailout of the failing IDBI Bank by LIC and the storm it created is fresh in everyones mind. LIC at least is not a listed company but SBI is and it has a lot to answer for to its shareholders. It is not as if shareholder interests are more vital than policyholders. To be sure, LIC too is guilty of compromising policyholders interests by donning the robes of the knight in shining armor again and again but SBIs brinkmanship has invited greater skepticism and justified questioning in the face of its relative weak financials. The SBI is not an asset reconstruction company (ARC) so as to be scouting for receivables that it can buy at a bargain price. The few ARCs we have themselves have nothing to write home about on this admittedly dicey business. In the event, SBI could be accused of rushing in where angels fear to tread. ARCs by definition are supposed to fish in troubled waters and also swoop down on troubled assets like vultures but a bank with a lot of exposure to NPAs has to remain within the confines of the straight and the narrow lest it takes more beatings in the rough and tumble of the loan market. The Firstpost story in this regard also makes a cynic like this writer flag more issues. The National Housing Bank (NHB), which regulates the non-banking finance companies, also said that it will enhance the refinance limit for NBFCs to Rs 30,000 crore to inject liquidity in the face of the heightened needs of liquidity by them in the face of the IL&FS scare that has indeed made them risk incarnate. But then it is one thing for a refinancer to assume greater risk but quite another for a banker to do so. Institutions like SIDBI were specially set up for giving a leg-up to small and medium sectors mainly through guarantees. But over the years SBI has lent itself supinely to be the prime lender for politically interesting causes like loan melas to farmers and so on despite losses writ large on them. (The writer is a senior columnist and tweets @smurlidharan) Apparently, the Supreme Court suspects huge diversion of funds and hence it is looking beyond the companies themselves to retrieve the money to the extent possible for the beleaguered and hapless home buyers. The Supreme Court on 9 October 2018 warmed the cockles of home buyers in general and buyers from Amrapali group in particular. It ordered the arrest of three of its directors for playing hide-and-seek with it and not cooperating in forensic audit of its accounts as well as those of its directors. Apparently, the apex court suspects huge diversion of funds and hence it is looking beyond the companies themselves to retrieve the money to the extent possible for the beleaguered and hapless home buyers. It is common knowledge that crooked promoters float labyrinthine subsidiaries to funnel off funds belonging to the holding company which is why the presence of numerous subsidiaries always invites fear and revulsion in equal measure. The commendable action of the apex court has envisioned and kindled hopes of it mounting a Skipper-type retrieval operation some three decades ago. The only difference is it was then for the benefit of those booking commercial flats in what is today Videocon towers in the heart of Delhi whereas it is now taking up cudgels for the humble and less endowed hoi polloi -- home buyers, many of them first-time buyers sinking their precious savings into the bottomless coffers of the unscrupulous promoters. The corporate veil indeed needs to be pierced and lifted when promoters indulge in defrauding other stakeholders, be they the taxman or retail shareholders or homebuyers as in this case. And when labyrinthine subsidiaries are used to salt away the parent companys funds, hundreds of such veils may have to be pierced and lifted. The sanctity of limited liability of promoters has perforce to be violated willy-nilly if they abuse this protection. In Skipper, it was a rich haul that came handy for either paying back the bookers of commercial flats or getting them what they had paid for namely a flat. One hopes the SCs initiative in Amrapali culminates in the same reliefs for the wannabe homebuyers. The SC initiative in Amrapali is in a way a disavowal of its own verdict in Jaypee Infrastructure Ltd case as recently as on 9th August 2018. The home buyers in general and those in Jaypee were disconcerted when the SC vide that order remitted the matter back to the Allahabad Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) when Jaypees wannabe homebuyers were waiting with bated breath for a Skipper-like rescue operation. It is not as if Amrapali is not before the NCLT under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). It is. Yet the SC has chosen to read the riot act to it and start its own parallel proceedings against its directors. One wonders why the apex court did not take up similar action against Jaypee and its directors. Maybe it did not suspect such brazen diversion of funds as in Amrapali. The group chairman and managing director of Amrapali had come under the apex court scrutiny and incurred its wrath after he declared a wealth of Rs. 67 crore -- against Rs. 847 crore in his affidavit filed during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when he had unsuccessfully contested as a Janata Dal (United) candidate from Bihar's Jehanabad constituency. It must, however, be conceded that the SC cannot be expected to don the robes of the knight in shining armor in each and every case. That it did so in Skipper has no doubt aroused tremendous expectations from it. But we need to put a legal and judicial mechanism in place for recovering such loot amassed through diversion of funds down the labyrinthine subsidiary route. Builders have always exposed themselves to the charge of diversion in the face of the reality that while other sectors can complain of and take shelter behind the vicissitudes-of-business alibi for their defaults, the construction industry especially those who build with funds already supplied by the homebuyers, cannot. (The author is a senior columnist and tweets @smurlidharan) The three directors of Amrapali moved an application before a bench comprising Justices UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud stating that they were willing to hand over all the documents but the police was unaware about which one needed to be seized. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the sealing of nine properties of embattled real estate company Amrapali after its three directors, who are in police custody, said that the documents related to the group's 46 firms were stored there. The three directors moved an application before a bench comprising Justices UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud stating that they were willing to hand over all the documents but the police was unaware about which one needed to be seized. The court's order came a day after three directors of the group Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar were ordered to be taken into police custody and the firm was castigated for playing "hide and seek" with the court by not complying with its orders to hand over all the documents to the forensic auditors. These directors told the bench that documents related to Amrapali's 46 group companies were kept in seven locations at Noida and Greater Noida and two premises Rajgir and Buxar districts in Bihar. "We direct the concerned police, Superintendent of Police of Noida and Greater Noida to seal all the seven premises in the presence of these directors," the bench said. "We direct the Superintendent of Police of Rajgir and Buxar to immediately go to these (two) places and seal it," the bench said. It further directed that after the sealing of these nine premises, the keys be handed over to the registrar of the apex court. The bench also made it clear that only the court-appointed forensic auditors Ravi Bhatia and Pawan Kumar Aggarwal and persons authorised by them would enter these premises after they were sealed. The court also asked the three directors to furnish an undertaking before it by Thursday stating that all the documents were available at these nine premises only and not a single document was lying at any other place. The three directors also told the bench that they be kept at police station and not in the lock up during this period. "If the entire exercise of sealing of these seven premises at Noida and Greater Noida will be completed today (Wednesday), the presence of these three applicants will not be insisted upon by the police," the bench said. "If the exercise will not be completed, the present status will continue," the bench said and asked the Delhi Police to keep these three directors at the police station but not in the lock up. The bench said that compliance report of its order be placed before the court and directed that the three directors would also remain present before it on Thursday. The bench noted the submissions of the counsel appearing for the three directors that the group has received e-mail from the forensic auditors indicating the documents required by them. The directors also told the court that company wise list of all bank accounts were available till 2015 and after that, raw data was available with them and they would hand over all the documents in entirety. The bench directed that its order be communicated via a telephone call to the Superintendent of Police of Rajgir and Buxar so that they could take appropriate steps. The court is seized of a batch of petitions filed by home buyers who are seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in projects of the Amrapali group. During the hearing, the counsel appearing for the home buyers told the bench that the auditors have given the list of documents required by them and the group should hand over, year wise and company wise, the documents of all their firms. "We will ensure the presence of these three persons (directors) whenever the forensic auditors want," the bench said, adding, "The basic idea is to have the documents. We will have the forensic auditors tomorrow (Thursday) to know about the modalities and how would they like to proceed". The two auditors, appointed by the court to conduct forensic audit of Amrapali Group, had on Tuesday told the court that they have not yet received all the documents. The bench had noted that as per the two auditors, documents of only two out of 46 firms Amrapali Zodiac and Amrapali Princely Estates were handed over to them despite court's order to provide all documents. The court had also issued notice to all these companies and their directors asking why contempt proceedings be not initiated against them. It had also directed that other directors of the firm shall surrender their passport to the police and would not leave the country. Air India is surviving on a bailout package extended by the previous UPA government in 2012. New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday held a meeting with Air India chief Pradeep Singh Kharola and reviewed the future roadmap for the debt-laden airline, according to a tweet. The meeting also comes at a time when the government is working on a revival package for the national carrier, which is grappling with financial woes. The proposed strategic disinvestment of Air India, which has a debt burden of more than Rs 50,000 crore, failed to take off in May. "Held a meeting with Mr Pradeep Singh Kharola, CMD of Air India today. Had detailed discussions on issues related to Air India and reviewed the future roadmap for the airline," Prabhu said in a tweet. Held a meeting with Mr. Pradeep Singh Kharola, CMD of Air India today. Had detailed discussions on issues related to Air India and reviewed the future roadmap for the airline. pic.twitter.com/Hu16PPNdwy Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) October 9, 2018 Specific details about the meeting could not be ascertained immediately. On 4 October, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said the government was likely to finalise a revival package for Air India in 10 to 15 days. Air India is surviving on a bailout package extended by the previous UPA government in 2012. By Jarrett Renshaw and Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump launched an effort on Tuesday to increase ethanol use in the nation's gasoline pool, delivering a long-sought political victory to the nation's Farm Belt and angering refiners ahead of November's Congressional elections By Jarrett Renshaw and Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump launched an effort on Tuesday to increase ethanol use in the nation's gasoline pool, delivering a long-sought political victory to the nation's Farm Belt and angering refiners ahead of November's Congressional elections. Trump announced the lifting of a ban on summer sales of gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol, known as E15, at a closed-door meeting at the White House, Republican senators told reporters after the meeting. The announcement caps a months-long effort by the White House to thread the needle between rival corn and oil industry interests, in an attempt to boost ethanol demand while cutting compliance costs for refiners. In the end, Trump is moving ahead without the support of the refining industry, who wanted more in return for agreeing to lift the summer ban. The move is also aimed at helping the political fortunes of Republican candidates in the Midwest saddled with a rough farm economy and Trump's trade wars. Iowa is the nation's biggest producer of corn, and farmers there have been frustrated with falling corn and soybean prices hurt by the trade war between the United States and China. [nL1N1V71YS] "It's about time," Warren Bachman, a 72-year-old corn and soybean farmer in Iowa. "With all the trade wars, tariffs and low crop prices, it seems like we are taking it in the shorts and bearing all the burden." Trump will be in Council Bluffs, Iowa, later in the day for a rally where he will talk up the changes, though the move requires the Environmental Protection Agency to draft a rule on the removal of the ban. The EPA prohibits summer sales of E15 in certain areas due to smog concerns. It must now draft and finalise a rule in the spring, and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue told Reuters that he hoped the new rule could be in place by next summer's driving season. "Year-round sale of E15 will increase demand for corn, which is obviously good for growers," Purdue said in a statement. Biofuel advocates hope the lifting of the ban will boost ethanol sales; estimates suggest corn demand could increase by some 2 billion bushels annually. The industry called the move a great first step, but note it faces significant political and legal opposition. "We are happy, but we know there's still a long road ahead," Geoff Cooper, head of the Renewable Fuels Association, said. Since ethanol is cheaper than gasoline, the administration hopes to lower pump prices, which currently average $2.91 a gallon, more than 40 cents higher than this time a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association. 'CERTAINTY FOR A LAWSUIT' The rule would be coupled with restrictions on the multibillion-dollar biofuel credit trading industry sought by merchant refiners like Valero Energy Corp and PBF Energy Inc. Those rules will seek stop parties from hoarding the credits and driving up the cost of complying with biofuels blending laws. Refiners are required to blend increasing amounts of biofuels like ethanol into the fuel pool annually, or buy credits from competitors who do. Refining companies that buy the credits have complained about volatile prices. The EPA will consider forcing blenders, retailers and trading houses to sell credits more quickly to reduce market volatility, a White House official said. But this is not enough for the refiners. The American Petroleum Institute, the largest U.S. oil trade association, opposes lifting the ban, saying E15 gasoline ruins older cars and potentially voids warranties. "The only certainty from today's actions is a lawsuit," Chet Thompson, head of American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. He said the industry would challenge the finalised rule in court, saying the EPA has acknowledged it lacks the authority to change this rule. Last year, biofuel credit prices rose to nearly $1 each, near a five year high, as merchant refiners warned plants may be forced to close without federal action. Prices dropped after the EPA expanded its use of waivers freeing small refiners from their obligations. The credits were trading at roughly 12 cents each on Tuesday, traders said. (Editing by Marguerita Choy) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The tussle is between the families of Yes Bank founders -- Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur. New Delhi: Two warring promoter families of Yes Bank are believed to be in talks to settle their differences and a meeting of representatives from both sides is likely on Wednesday, sources said. The tussle is between the families of Yes Bank founders -- Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur. After the death of Kapur, his wife Madhu Kapur wanted her daughter Shagun Kapur Gogia to be nominated on the bank's board but the proposal was rejected, following which the matter reached the Bombay High Court. Shagun Kapur Gogia and Yes Bank Senior Group President Rajat Monga -- on behalf of Rana Kapoor -- may have a meeting Wednesday, sources told PTI on Tuesday. The meeting was to happen last Friday, they added. "The promoter and founding member families are believed to be in talks to resolve the matter at the earliest, keeping behind the past, as it wouthe ld be in interest of all the stakeholders as well as the 20,000 plus employees of Yes Bank," sources said. The meeting may take place this week, possibly Wednesday, said sources. Madhu Kapur had moved the Bombay High Court in June 2013, seeking to quash the appointment of three directors on its board and also alleged that Rana Kapoor was attempting to deprive her and her children a place in the board as the legal heir of late Ashok Kapur. As on 30 June 2018, the promoter and promoter group had a total 19.98 shareholding in Yes Bank. Of this, Rana Kapoor owns 4.34 percent and Madhu Kapur 7.62 percent, respectively in their individual capacities. "The single bench of the Bombay High Court has settled most of the points, so the court order (whenever it comes) could serve as the common ground for the truce," according to sources. "Rana Kapoor is keen on resolving the issue as soon as possible as the long-pending legal battle between the two promoter group families is not doing any good to anybody," they said. Following RBI directive on non-continuance of Kapoor beyond January 2019, Yes Bank board has sought more time from the regulator till September for a suitable successor. The board of the bank has formed a five-member panel including two members from outside the bank to find a successor to founder CEO Rana Kapoor. Former IRDA chief T S Vijayan and former SBI chief O P Bhatt have been appointed as external members in the search committee. The panel will also consist of board members Brahm Dutt, Lt Gen (Retd) Mukesh Sabharwal and SC Kalia. The MD selection panel will hold its first meeting on 11 October. Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought support and assistance from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to fight the drug menace. Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought support and assistance from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to fight the drug menace in the state. While delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of a three-day regional workshop on 'Combating Illicit Trafficking of Afghan Opiates: Developing a Comprehensive Approach' organised by the UNODC, he said the drug menace was a "strategic conspiracy unleashed from across the international border". Rivulets in Punjab were being used to smuggle drugs as part of a strategic agenda that went beyond commercial reasons, he said. Expressing the confidence that his government would succeed in destroying the drugs business, he called for team work to battle the problem, and said the UNODC could play a pivotal role in this. While the Special Task Force and other agencies had been successful in catching mid-level peddlers, the big suppliers need to be apprehended too, he said, adding "we owe this to our future generations." He said it was a very critical issue, that had been going for a long time in Punjab. The state had seen a shift from traditional use of marijuana to synthetic stuff, which was posing a major threat. The seizure of a consignment that had come from Mandavi in Gujarat into Punjab clearly suggested that the aim of the drug smugglers was to starve the Indian Army of precious manpower, thus weakening the country's defence apparatus, Singh said. The STF set up to tackle the menace had shown remarkable results, he said, adding that 18,216 cases have been registered under the NDPS Act since 1 April, 2017 and 21,489 persons arrested. In Assam, Aadhaar had fuelled a controversy with civil society groups and political parties raising concerns that its benefits would be reaped by foreign nationals. Enrolment for Aadhaar has begun once again in Assam after being abruptly stalled on two occasions earlier following concerns that illegal migrants would avail the facility to claim citizenship. A total of 1,241 Aadhaar enrollment centres has been set up in the state with the deputy commissioners designated as the enrolment authorities in every district. A government employee will also verify all the documents on proof of identity, birth and address at every centre across the state. An official said that there was no deadline for the enrolment and issue of the card but banks have been told to allocate more manpower for speedy implementation of the scheme. He added that a rough estimate would be one year to cover the 3.16 crore residents in the state. Given the remoteness of some villages along the inter-state borders and the international boundaries (Assam shares its borders with Bangladesh and Bhutan), the government has also decided on a series of campaigns for publicity and awareness which will be carried out by the general administration department (GAD) of the government with the help of UIDAI. In Assam, Aadhaar had fuelled a controversy with civil society groups and political parties raising concerns that its benefits would be reaped by foreign nationals. They demanded that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) must first publish the complete list of citizens before Aadhaar cards are issued. In March 2017, the state government had also informed the Supreme Court of its inability to stick to the 31 March deadline for linking Aadhaar with other core services. But following a series of meetings between the Assam government and the Ministry of Home Affairs in the past few months, it was decided to issue Aadhaar in the state since it is not linked to citizenship. Some core services would be linked to the card and a large chunk of residents including the declared and suspected foreign nationals would avail the facility. The government feels that gathering biometric details could help track the movement of illegal migrants in the country who have been settling in different states across the country. Last year, the government had informed Parliament that around 2 crore of illegal Bangladeshi migrants were living in the country. Besides Assam, opposition to Aadhaar had also surfaced in Nagaland and Meghalaya among the northeastern states which explain the low enrollment rates in the twin hill states. In Assam, only about 9 percent of the total population has availed Aadhaar in the districts of Sonitpur, Nagaon and Golaghat. The project was started last year by the government and the home department asked to monitor the exercise. More than a thousand locations were identified as Aadhaar Kendras for the enrollment. Some banks had also begun the process for their customers but the process was again stalled following objections raised by the civil society groups. After he was stopped for questioning, the Bengaluru man Rudresh became infuriated and started throwing bricks and stones at the policemen. A reportedly drunken man in Davangere, almost 260 km from Bengaluru, allegedly assaulted two traffic police on Tuesday, when he was asked to stop his motorcycle. The incident happened around 12 pm on Wednesday when the police were inspecting vehicles for breathalyser test, News18 reported. #WATCH: A man who was allegedly drunk assaulted two traffic policemen in Karnataka's Davangere earlier today. Police arrested the man and a case has been registered against him. pic.twitter.com/kahGksU0A7 ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 The man, identified as Rudresh, was under the influence of alcohol when the police caught him. After he was stopped for questioning, Rudresh became infuriated and started throwing bricks and stones at the policemen. The assault on the officers was recorded by the passerby. According to NDTV, one of the two policemen suffered from a deep cut on his forehead. Rudresh also was seen arguing with the policeman before pushing him to the ground. The Superintendent of Police Davengere Chetan Singh Rathore said a case has been registered against the accused. The police are waiting for his medical report before pressing charges for drunk driving. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who held a high-level meeting in Bhubaneswar to take stock of the situation, directed the collectors of Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Kendrapara and Jagtsinghpur districts to go for an immediate evacuation of the low-laying areas in the coastal belt. As Cyclone Titli over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a "very severe" cyclonic storm and moved towards Odisha-Andhra Pradesh coast on Wednesday, state authorities stepped up measures to ensure minimum damage. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who held a high-level meeting in Bhubaneswar to take stock of the situation, directed the collectors of Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Kendrapara and Jagtsinghpur districts to go for an immediate evacuation of the low-laying areas in the coastal belt. Odisha chief secretary AP Padhi said the district administration of Ganjam has already started evacuating people in Gopalpur area, where the very severe storm is likely to make a landfall at about 5.30 am on Thursday. So far, about 1,000 people have been shifted to safer place, he said. Padhi said immediate evacuation was being launched in view of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast of a tidal surge of about 1 metre during landfall of Cyclone Titli. The state has deployed National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) personnel in vulnerable districts. "We have not yet sought help of the army. If it is required, we may go for it," Padhi said, while replying to a question. According to ANI, while 14 NDRF teams have been positioned in Odisha's Balasore, Sambhalpur, Gajapati, Nayagarh, Puri, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam and Bhubaneswar, four NDRF teams have been deployed in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam, Srikakulum and Vijaynagram. The Odisha chief minister has also asked the authorities to ensure "zero casualty" and keep the cyclone shelters ready for housing the people during disaster. Schools, colleges, and anganwadi centres will be closed in Odisha on Thursday and Friday. The student union elections in colleges, earlier scheduled to be held on Thursday, have also been cancelled. On Congress president Rahul Gandhi's direction, the Odisha unit of the party opened a 24-hour emergency cell, which will function from the evening of 10 October to 16 October. The people in the affected districts can contact on the Congress helpline numbers 7609852131, 8895203001, 9861011962, 7008799364, 9348161633, 8847858020, 9937948868 and 9237010939. Odisha's food supplies and consumer welfare minister SN Patro urged the people to not to go for panic buying of essential commodities. He instructed all district collectors to keep a tab on the market as a section of traders are allegedly attempting to hoard essential items. "There are sufficient food materials in the state and the people should not go for panic buying in view of the cyclone," Patro said. Meanwhile, a high alert was sounded on Wednesday in north coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. "The very severe cyclonic storm will continue till 11.30 am on 11 October and the wind intensity is going to be 140-150 kmph, gusting to 165 kmph. The storm will cross near Srikakulam of north coastal Andhra Pradesh," State Disaster Management Authority said in Amaravati. IMD forecast for Odisha, Andhra Pradesh While several areas in coastal Odisha were lashed by rain on Wednesday, the IMD has forecast "heavy to very heavy rainfall" at several places and "extremely heavy rainfall" at isolated areas till Thursday. While districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Thursday, the IMD has also forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall for Kandhamal, Boudh and Dhenkanal district from Thursday. The IMD said rainfall would be accompanied by gale wind speed reaching 140 to 150 kilometres per hour (kmph) and gusting to 165 kmph along and off Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh coasts. Storm surge of height of about 1 metre above astronomical tide is very likely to inundate the low-lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts. The IMD has advised total suspension of fishing operations along the Odisha coast, and central and north Bay of Bengal. Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) BP Sethi said the Odisha government was prepared to face the possible floods in view of the heavy rainfall across the state. Around 300 motor boats have been arranged to assist in rescue operation. All the 836 cyclone and flood shelters have also been kept in a state of preparedness, while adequate relief materials arranged, Sethi was quoted as saying by PTI. Heavy rainfall warning in West Bengal Amid heightened Durga Puja preparations across West Bengal, the Regional Meteorological Department in Kolkata on Wednesday warned of intense spells of thundershower accompanied by gusty wind in six districts for the next four days. "The cyclone is currently 240 kilometres away in the south-east direction from Odisha's Gopalpur. It is expected to hit the coastal areas of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh by tomorrow (Thursday) morning and curb towards Gangetic West Bengal," a meteorological department official told IANS. He said the storm would gradually lose its intensity after hitting the land. "Due to the cyclone, there will be moderate to heavy rainfall in the south Bengal districts from 10 to 13 October, while the coastal districts like East and West Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas, Hoogly and Howrah are likely to receive heavy rainfall," the official said. According to the IMD office, heavy to very heavy rainfall is on the cards for Kolkata and Howrah on 12 and 13 October. "The clouds are likely to clear out from 14 October, which means the weather will be good on the five days of Durga Puja festivity, to be held from 15 to 19 October," the official added. With inputs from agencies and 101Reporters Congress has also been questioning the silence of the ruling party and Union ministers over the allegations against MJ Akbar. After at least a half dozen women accused former journalist and junior minister in the Ministry of External Affairs MJ Akbar of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour, the Opposition demanded an inquiry or his resignation. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi reacted to the development on Twitter: Horrible this bloody perpetrator @mjakbar shame on you and you stood in parliament during T Talaaq Bill & spoke about Muslim women empowerment & to stop their exploitation, @PMOIndia sack this Minister of yours if you truly believe in Beti Bachao https://t.co/nTiRI7YIzk Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) October 10, 2018 Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ghanshyam Tiwari was quoted as saying by The Hindu, "The allegations against Akbar is India's Harvey Weinstein moment. The Modi government talks of beti bachao, beti padhao (save the girl child, educate her), but the people of India have built a movement which seeks justice for women. Akbar should resign." Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy, said at a press conference Wednesday, "I think MJ Akbar must either offer a satisfactory explanation or resign forthwith. How can he be in the ministry with serious allegations being levelled against him by responsible journalists who worked with him? Let there be an inquiry. We demand an inquiry into MJ Akbar's conduct." Reddy also questioned External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's silence on the issue, and said she is evading responsibility by not being prepared to comment on her subordinate. Swaraj on Tuesday evaded questions whether the government will take any action against Akbar. Manish Tewari, another Congress spokesperson, called it a very "serious matter" and said, "The minister concerned needs to speak up. Silence cannot be a way out. This matter should be investigated. We would like to hear from both the minister in question and the prime minister on this issue". The Congress has been questioning the ruling party's 'silence' over the allegations against Akbar. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who briefed reporters about Cabinet decisions Wednesday, also refused to answer any question other than those pertaining to Cabinet decisions, including on Akbar and the #MeToo campaign. "Today the issue is Cabinet decisions, please concentrate on that," he said in response to a question about allegations against Akbar. PTI reported Tuesday that at a regular party briefing, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra was also asked a volley of questions but declined to respond. While Union minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi did not directly respond to the allegations against Akbar, she told a TV news channel Tuesday, "Men who are in positions of power often do this. And it applies to the media as well as to politics or senior personnel in companies." She said when women have started talking, their allegations should be taken seriously. "Women are scared to speak out because they think people would make fun of them and doubt their character but now when they are speaking out we should take action on each and every allegation," she said. With inputs from agencies Symbiosis alumni had taken to social media platforms and shared harrowing accounts of harassment by some faculty members and their seniors. They alleged the authorities did not do anything through the incidents were brought to their notice. The #MeToo movement rocked the Symbiosis Centre for Media and Communication (SCMC) in Pune, with several former students accusing their seniors and some faculty members of sexual harassment. The SCMC authorities apologised to the women and said the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) were instructed to hear their complaints. The educational institute on Saturday took to Twitter to encourage conversation with students, saying: The former students had taken to social media platforms and shared harrowing accounts of harassment by some faculty members and their seniors. They alleged the authorities did not do anything through the incidents were brought to their notice. Taking cognisance, the SCMC authorities on Monday also issued a statement via Facebook and invited the women for a discussion in the institute through a Google form. Symbiosis International University Pro-Chancellor Vidya Yeravdekar said there after several allegations were made by the former students against the faculty, the ICC was instructed to hear the complaints. Network 18, of which Firstpost is a part, has received complaints of sexual harassment as well. The complaints which are within the purview of the workplace have been forwarded to our PoSH committee for appropriate action. For most so-called opinion leaders, it would be news that Guruji was a sadhu of the Ram Krishna Mission who received diksha (initiation) from Swami Akhandananda, gurubhai (disciple of same guru) of Swami Vivekananda, whose math was situated in Sargachhi, Bengal. There is a sudden interest in Guruji (MS Golwalkar), the second and the longest-serving sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), after the saffron organisations high-profile three-day lecture series Bhavishya Ka Bharat last month in Delhi. Many critics are happy that Golwalkar has been dumped by the RSS, which tells us that critics of the outfit have not even tried to understand or study it. The study is too superficial to understand the secret of RSS sustained growth, flowering into multiple national-level organisation and the totally unselfish commitment of its workers. For millennials, Guruji is an unknown personality presented as a frightening extremist Hindutva proponent. Nothing could be further from the truth. For most so-called opinion leaders, it would be news that Guruji was a sadhu of the Ram Krishna Mission who received diksha (initiation) from Swami Akhandananda, gurubhai (disciple of same guru) of Swami Vivekananda, whose math was situated in Sargachhi, Bengal. He was persuaded not to take that path, but serve Hindu society by RSS founding sarsanghachalak KB Hedgewar. As Guruji put it, I wanted to go to the Himalayas to gain peace, but then I decided that the peace of Himalayas will come to my heart. Ranga Hari recounts in his biography of Guruji (The Incomparable Guru Golwalkar) that the sarsanghachalaks name appeared in the list of probable successors to the Shankaracharya of Govardhan Peeth of Jagannath Puri. Guruji politely declined, saying his life is dedicated to the RSS and he cannot do justice to the post -- this was the recognition of this selfless scholar. This goodwill led to the foundation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in 1964 at Sandeepany Ashram of Swami Chinmayananda, another fiery sage who was the first to bring the Hindu religion without any apologetic secular cover to the West after Swami Vivekananda with his scientific Geeta Yagnas. The VHP was the first common platform for various maths born out of Vedic civilisation. The VHPs first conference was organised at the Prayag Kumbh Mela in 1966. What surprised the world and Hindu society was the presence of heads of every sect, community, maths, Jain seers, Buddhist monks and Sikh saints on a single platform for the first time in the 6,000 years of documented history of Hindu civilisation. All the saints and gurus sat at the same level while Guruji was in the audience. In fact, Golwalkar had offered to exchange his normal khadi kurta with the saffron kurta of a saint who wanted a special seat for himself, saying he cant be a sage if he believed in such discrimination. And the seer did attend the conferencesuch was the respect Guruji commanded. Gurujis biggest achievement at the conference was to persuade the gathering to disown the varnashrama, or the caste system, and unanimously passed a resolution Hindavaha sadoraha, na Hindu patito bhavet (All Hindus are born out of the same womb (of Mother India). Therefore, they are brothers and no Hindu can be treated as untouchable. This was the biggest reformist push anybody could have imagined as the signatories included all the shankaracharyas who were firm believers in the caste system. To brand such a man as forcing brahminical hegemony is most ill-informed criticism or deliberate propaganda. Golwalkar had earned the displeasure of Swami Karpatri, the founder-head of political party Ram Rajya Parishad, when he politely refused to propagate varnashrama as part of Hindu religion using RSS swayamsevaks. Gurujis role in leading from the front during the dark days of partition has been well documented. In fact, such was his popularity that the BBC once said, The only person who can beat Nehru in popularity is RSS chief Golwalkar. He was in Sindh on 7 August, 1947 when most of the Congress leaders had fled to the safer environs of partitioned India, sometimes taking help of the RSS. He refused to be cowed down into non-violence when millions were being butchered as advocated by Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. But he was equally clear that one must be strong and should retaliate only when attacked. RSS volunteers saved thousands of Hindus and Sikhs at the cost of their lives, home and families. They worked from Sindh to Punjab to Jammu and Kashmir to Bengal. Golwalkar was felicitated in Punjab by the jathedars (leaders of takhts) of Gurdwara Gursagar Mastuana Sahib, Sangru, in recognition of his work as a saviour of society. He was as allergic to publicity as Hedgewar and even refused to release a book recounting the RSS role during this period. One doesnt publish the news of serving ones mother. We carried out our duty. We do not complement our swayamsevaks as they were just doing their duty to the motherland, he said. Guruji, who was clear about a united India, didnt reconcile with Partition and believed, like Sri Aurobindo, that it would end one day. Critics often quote his fiery speeches to demean his stature and abuse the RSS. If one understands the context of these speeches of that time, one would understand the angst that he and swayamsevaks felt about that period. His life beyond this period was that of a highly positive force of Hindu consolidation. I will not go into the history of the RSS ban, Satyagraha and unconditional lifting of the ban apart from the submission of a written constitution of the organisation which only described what it was already following. But the ban had proved very costly in terms of the breakdown of organisational machinery and personal losses suffered by swayamsevaks who lost their jobs, businesses or years in studies. Golwalkar put his head down to rebuild the organisation. In his 33 years as RSS chief, he travelled through the whole country 66 times, mostly by train in the third class while battling cancer in the terminal stage. The railway compartment is my home, he once said. Even under immense pain, he was always sunny, smiling and laughing with his colleagues. My body is suffering, I am not, he said. Guruji believed in positive approach to problems of Hindu society. When a swayamsevak Sadashiv Katre, himself cured of leprosy, complained that churches used such medical care to convert people, he suggested that he should channelise his energy to create another organisation that worked without lure resulting in Kushtha Nivarak Sangh in Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, he advised Ramakant Keshav Deshpande to set up Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram to serve tribals rather than complain about churches converting them with deceit or lure. Guruji did not hate Muslims. He told swayamsevaks doing social service that there can be no discrimination in sewa (service) on basis of religion, caste or creed. In an interview with the editor of The Illustrated Weekly in November 1972, he said Indianisation does not mean making all people Hindus let us realise that we are all the children of this soil coming from same stock, that our great forefathers were one and our aspirations are also one. This is all, I believe, the meaning of Indianisation. In another interview to veteran scholar Jeelani in Organiser weekly in August 1972, he said, I would say that only right policy towards Muslims is to win their loyalty by love. ...I am an optimist and feel that Hindus and Muslims will learn to live with each other. Interestingly, on a Uniform Civil Code, he felt that a mechanical approach is not correct. I would be happy if they arrive at the conclusion that polygamy is not good for them, but I would only like to persuade them. Gurujis was a true selfless savant who gave his all for the motherland, Bharat. The author is a freelance writer and columnist. He authored the book Secrets of the RSS. Main reference source for this article is Incomparable Guruji biography by Ranga Hari, translated by Ratan Sharda, Prabhat Prakashan, Delhi. Nambi Narayanan was reportedly accused of selling vital Indian space technology secrets to Pakistan. The Supreme Court had, however, cleared him of spy charges and termed his arrest as 'needless' and 'unnecessary'. Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan presented a cheque of Rs 50 lakh as compensation to former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist Nambi Narayanan, who was arrested in an alleged spy scandal in 1994. This comes as a follow up to the Supreme Court's order directing the Kerala government to pay a sum of Rs 50 lakh as compensation to the appellant. The scientist was reportedly accused of selling vital Indian space technology secrets to Pakistan. The apex court had, however, cleared him of spy charges and termed his arrest as "needless" and "unnecessary". A three-judge bench of the top court, headed by former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, had also announced the constitution of a committee which would be headed by retired Supreme Court judge DK Jain to investigate the role of Kerala police officials in the arrest of Narayanan. The Uttar Pradesh minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi was repeatedly summoned in the case dating back to 2010. Lucknow: A special court on Tuesday issued a non-bailable warrant against Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi after she failed to appear before the court in connection with a case of violating the Model Code of Conduct. The Uttar Pradesh minister was repeatedly summoned in the case dating back to 2010. The MP-MLA Special Court in Allahabad issued the warrant against Joshi. In 2010, the case was registered against Joshi at Wazirganj police station for violating Section 144 and entering the Vidhan Sabha forcefully when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was in power. She was also accused of misbehaving with the police force. Till now, 12 hearings have been held in the case. A PIL was filed in the Bombay High Court for regulation of online web streaming portals like Netflix. Recently, a PIL was filed in the Bombay High Court by a law clerk working at the Nagpur bench of the court for regulation of online web streaming portals like Netflix for showcasing programmes containing nude content and vulgar language. It was alleged that some of the content violates provisions of Cinematograph Act, Indian Penal Code, Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986 and Information Technology Act, 2000. While pursuing the matter, the High Court has issued notice to various ministries under the Union of India. The petition states, The contents of the aforesaid serial 'Sacred Games', which has gained popularity among the masses, it was observed by the Petitioner that highly vulgar language has been used to depict the underworld environment and the dark side of the society besides there being certain sexually unpleasant and indecent scenes, which are beyond the permissible limits. It is submitted that, more importance is given to nudity, obscenity and vulgarity than the original plot of the story just to fetch the attention of youth. The crucial fact that the petition fails to notice is that Netflix and other such web streaming portals can only be bought by adults above the age of 18. This means that only adults are exposed to the sexual content unless they themselves allow children to use their accounts. If this is the case, that adult has the personal liberty to undertake any act without the interference of anyone. Therefore, the dramatic work that the adult may wish to view on Netflix forms a part of his Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. The word obscene is not clearly defined in the Indian Penal Code but has a mention under Section 292. The concept is based on 19th century Victorian ideas of prudery, regarding anything that concerns sex as obscene. Under the section, a representation is said to be obscene if it is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such that it tends to deprave or corrupt the persons who are likely to read or see it. At the outset, a bare reading shows that the definition of obscenity, like indecency, is extremely vague, context-based and subject to different interpretations. What might be obscene for one class of individuals can be totally normal for some other class. Another major point that should be looked into in such matters is the theory of free will. With respect to the indecent representation of women, modern feminism argues that women should be free to do whatever they desire. In the consideration of womens issues arising within the confines of indecency, obscenity and immorality, it is necessary to ask what space is provided by law (or denied by it, for that matter) for a womans own will and desire, and a potential desire and right to express themselves sexually. Sadly, the definition of indecency under the Act fails to envisage a situation in which a woman may choose to represent herself in a way that is deemed indecent by the State. Imagine a situation where a woman wants to publish a photograph or represent herself in a manner that is sexually explicit, obscene or indecent, and considered to deprave or corrupt public morality. Can such a woman be booked under provisions that have been put in place to protect her in the first place? And if that is the case, it in turn brings to light perhaps the most important question: What exactly are these laws protecting? Is it women, or the idea of pure traditional womanhood, womanhood that is confined within the accepted patriarchal notions? Claims of striking down such content on Netflix will lead to the question of whether the government or the judiciary would then also regulate such scenes of nudity, obscenity and vulgarity in Hollywood or Tollywood films. Another probable question that could arise thereafter is whether the government or judiciary would then block all pornographic websites. A ban on the same was put in 2014 but the government later backtracked and put a ban only on child pornography. In fact, the Supreme Court had rejected a petition for a ban on the same on the grounds of its infringement upon the right to personal liberty and right to privacy. If a logical extension of this is applied to the present case, the privacy and choice of an individual should be respected even with the shows available on Netflix and thus, the petition should be dismissed on the face of it. In the end, the wise words of Manto need special focus. After getting accused of immoral writing for his work Thanda Gosht he stated, Literature can never be obscene. For the conservatives, it is implored that they should take the literary and dramatic work for what it is and what message it sends as a whole. Raghav Pandey is an Assistant Professor of Law at Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai and Neelabh Bist is a Fourth Year student of law at Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai. The busting of the terror module belonging to AGH, and the seizure of weapons in Punjab's Jalandhar , was indicative of efforts by Pakistan's ISI to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border. Chandigarh/Srinagar: In a joint operation, the Punjab Police and the Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday arrested three students and busted a module of Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) in Jalandhar. The students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar, Director General of Police Suresh Arora said in a statement. The joint team which conducted a raid at the hostel also seized two weapons, including an assault rifle and explosives, from the hostel room of Zahid Gulzar, a B.Tech (Civil) student from Rajpora, PS Awantipora, Srinagar. Zahid was arrested along with Mohd. Idriss Shah alias Nadeem and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, both residents Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama. The DGP said the arrests followed the development and corroboration of various leads and inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organisations and individuals operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. A case has been registered in PS Sadar Jalandhar in this regard. Further investigations are in progress and the Punjab Police is working closely with the Jammu and Kashmir Police to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, said the DGP. He said the busting of the terror module belonging to AGH, and the seizure of weapons in Jalandhar, was indicative of efforts by Pakistan's ISI to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border. It may be mentioned that Gazi Ahmad Malik, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian, was recently picked up by the Punjab Police from Banur, Patiala, where he was studying in Aryans Group Polytechnic College. It was learnt that Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a Jammu and Kashmir Police special police officer who had fled with seven rifles from the residence of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA in Srinagar, and was suspected to have joined militant group Hizbul Mujahideen, he said. He was later handed over to the Jammu and Kashmir police for further investigations. The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will leave for France on Wednesday night on a three-day visit amid controversy around the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation. Official sources said Sitharaman will hold wide-ranging talks with her French counterpart Florence Parly on ways to deepen strategic cooperation and also deliberate on major regional and global issues of mutual interests. Sitharaman, who will hold with Parly the first edition of defence dialogue, will conclude her visit on Saturday, they said. Sources said besides exploring ways to boost bilateral defence cooperation, Sitharaman will also take stock of progress in the supply of 36 Rafale jets by Dassault to the Indian Air Force under a Rs 58,000-crore deal. The Rafale deal is a defence agreement signed between the governments of India and France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in a fly-away condition as a part of the upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment. The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. Indian Air Force had advanced a proposal to buy 126 fighter aircraft in August 2007 and floated a tender. Following this, an invitation was sent to various aviation companies to participate in the bidding process. Sources said Sitharaman will discuss with Parly ways to expand Indo-French maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. The two ministers are also likely to deliberate on joint production of military platforms and weapons by the two countries. French president Emmanuel Macron visited India in March during which the two countries decided to expand strategic ties and deepen counter-terror cooperation. The two sides also inked a strategic pact providing for the use of each other's military facilities including opening naval bases to warships. Modi and Macron also decided to create an annual defence dialogue at the ministerial level to explore ways to further deepen defence and strategic ties. 'Provide details of decision making process' This comes even as the Supreme Court asked the Centre on Wednesday to provide details of the decision making process in the Rafale deal in a sealed cover by 29 October but clarified that it does not want information on pricing and technical particulars. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it was not issuing a formal notice to the Centre as it has not considered the averments with regard to the allegations of corruption made in two PILs filed by two separate lawyers. At the outset, the bench, also comprising justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph asked the Centre what if it sought details of the decision making process without the technical details and the prices of the Rafale fighter jets. Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said details on the deal cannot be shown to anybody in the interest of national security and other issues involved in the defence procurement process. The court sought information from the Centre on the decision-making process in the deal in a sealed cover by 29 October and fixed the next hearing on the PILs to 31 October. "We are not on the issue of pricing and suitability of the Rafale jets but only on the decision-making process," it said. It added that the court was seeking the information only to satisfy itself, without considering the averments made in the petitions. The Centre sought dismissal of the PILs on various grounds. It said they were not public interest litigation petitions and were filed to gain political mileage. Moreover, it added, such issues cannot be reviewed judicially. The apex court was hearing various petitions seeking directions, including asking the Centre to reveal details of the deal and the comparative prices during the UPA and NDA rule in a sealed cover to the apex court. Congress leader and RTI activist Tehseen Poonawala, who had sought a direction against the Centre on why the Union Cabinet's approval was not sought as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) before signing the procurement deal with France on 23 September, 2016, withdrew his PIL against the fighter jet deal. In his plea, lawyer Vineet Dhanda referred to the recent "controversy" over the Rs 58,000 crore deal between India and Dassault Aviation, a French company, for purchasing 36 combat jets and sought judicial intervention to put an end to the raging debate. Lawyer ML Sharma, who has sought a stay on the Rafale fighter jet deal, claimed in his plea that the inter-government agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed. It was an "outcome of corruption" and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 (Parliament has power to make any law for implementing any inter-government agreement) of the Constitution, he said. AAP Rajya Sabha lawmaker Sanjay Singh had also moved the apex court through his lawyer, Dheeraj Kumar Singh, by filing a separate petition and sought the setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the supervision of the apex court to probe the Rafale deal. Singh said the SIT should probe the reasons for cancelling the earlier deal entered into by the UPA government for the purchase of 126 fighter jets. Rahul to meet HAL authorities Meanwhile, Congress president Rahul Gandhi is set to meet Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) authorities in Bengaluru Saturday to ramp up pressure on the BJP government over the controversial deal, ANI reported. The Deccan Chronicle reported that Rahul will also address a party workers rally in the city. It will be a quick visit, he will fly down to Bengaluru, head straight to the HAL employees meeting and then address party workers," KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao said, according to the report. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after talks with the then French president Francois Hollande on 10 April, 2015 in Paris. The final deal was sealed on 23 September, 2016. The Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, saying the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government when it was negotiating the deal. The Congress has also been targeting the government over the selection of Reliance Defence as an offset partner for Dassault. The government has vehemently rejected the allegations and asserted that it did not have any role in the selection of Reliance Defence. Last month, Hollande was quoted by French publication Mediapart as saying that France was given "no choice" on the selection of the Indian partner for Dassault and the Indian government proposed the name of Reliance to partner with the French aerospace giant. The former French president's comments triggered a massive political row. With inputs from agencies Nirmala Sitharamans visit to France amid the huge political row is aimed at reinforcing the perception that the government has nothing to be defensive about on this issue. Two developments have again stirred the Rafale pot (not that it needed any stirring). In hearing a batch of petitions on the fighter jet contract, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to issue a notice to the Centre but has asked the government to provide all details of the decision-making process in a sealed envelope by 29 October and fixed the next date of hearing on 31 October. The apex court, however, has clarified that it does not want any information from the Centre on pricing and technical details. In the days second development, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has left for France on a three-day trip where among other things, she will take stock of the progress in the supply of 36 Rafale jets by Dassault Aviation to the Indian Air Force under a Rs 58,000-crore deal. The twin developments point to a fight of competing narratives. The Opposition seems desperate to stall the deal alleging wrongdoing, the government seems bent on marching forward in stoic determination. The narrative conflict is now reaching a decisive stage. The Rafale deal is no longer a defence acquisition. It is a full-blown political war that could soon spill over into the judicial domain. Politicisation of any issue has an inevitable fallout. The battle becomes one of perception. Despite his shrill rhetoric, Twitter quips and dramatics Congress president Rahul Gandhi has so far failed to convince even own allies that he has a case on Rafale. However, his determination to make the fighter jet one of his key election planks, the still-considerable clout of Congress ecosystem and a little bit of help from a former French president have contributed towards creating a situation where the government can no longer avoid a debate on the issue citing national security. Rahul may have been unsuccessful in providing any proof of malfeasance in the deal except levelling rather wild allegations, but nevertheless, he has been successful in painting the deal as controversial. If the dominant narrative identifies the deal as controversial instead of clean, that is half the battle won. The median of the debate is tilted already. Despite the fact that not an iota of evidence has so far come to light that may point towards any scam, the onus has shifted to the government to prove that its contract was clean, not controversial. Truth, facts or data are not necessarily redundant in a perception battle, but these are not the determinants in the eventual outcome. Despite their claims to rationality, human decisions are not always based on sound, impartial assessment of options. It is evident even more so in politics where decisions align more with political preferences and confirmation bias. A perception battle may be won not on the strength of facts and data alone but also on the ability of a side to weave a story that connects and convinces people. For instance, with Assembly elections around the corner and a few months to go for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has deliberately stepped up the attack on NDAs Rafale. Rahul reckons that whether or not the deal is free of cronyism is unimportant. What matters is whether the voters think so. If he is able to convince the electorate that Rafale contract is mired in cronyism and corruption, his job is done. To get their point across, political parties and leaders use all sorts of signals and symbolism. The Congress has stepped up its game on social media. Rahul wastes no opportunity in taking potshots at the prime minister over Rafale. In seminars abroad, news conferences or elections rallies, the Congress president has made the purported scam a single-point agenda against Modi. His often-colorful accusations are not backed by proof but made from a conviction that relentless muck-racking will eventually be enough to penetrate Modis shield of incorruptibility and reflect in the ballot box. The NDA tried to initially sidestep the debate but realised quickly that the strategy is counterproductive. In a change of stance, the government now says that it is ready to fight the perception battle by aggressively countering Congress propaganda and should there be a need, senior leaders such as defence minister Sitharaman will tour India to send the message across. Sitharamans visit to France amid the huge political row is aimed at reinforcing the perception that the government has nothing to be defensive about on this issue since the government-to-government deal involves no middlemen, there has been no deviation from due process and no cronyism in Dassault Aviations choice of Indian offset partners. Therefore, it is business as usual as far as the government is concerned. While a report by news agency PTI says the Indian defence minister may take stock of Rafales progress in delivering the two squadron of fighter aircraft (slated to arrive in India from 2019), Sitharaman told CNN-News18 in an interview that she may pay a visit to the plant during her trip. The minister also indicated during an interview with Economic Times newspaper that she and her delegation (comprising representatives from the defence ministry, army, navy and air force) may visit a few French air force and naval bases to tighten the defence partnership between two nations. The defence minister is also slated to meet her counterpart Florence Parly on ways to expand Indo-French maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the PTI report. All these are part of the due process, but also calibrated to send an impression that India-France partnership will not fall prey to political opposition and Rafale deal shall not be grounded. It is worth pointing out here that while the row over Rafale in India was at its peak, three Rafale fighter jets arrived in India on a training mission and left the Gwalior airbase after spending three low-key days in the country. The three jets, that flew joint sorties with IAF Mirage 2000 pilots, were part of Frances Mission PEGASE, a force projection mission that involved stop-overs in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore, according to a report in Livefist. Though the event was downplayed by the government and IAF, the very fact that the jets flew in and out of India at the height of controversy points to resolve in the government that political brinkmanship wont be allowed to shoot down the deal. Additionally, the defence minister appeared for a spate of media interviews where she took all questions on Rafale and sought to sort the wheat from the chaff. She told The Hindu that the government followed all due process on the contract, did not scale down the deal and welcomed CAGs audit. Rafale is vital to national security. It will boost IAFs squadron strength and enhance technical capabilities. The deal is also central to and vital for India-France defence partnership, given the fact that Paris had stood firm beside India in the aftermath of Pokhran-II nuclear tests. In his piece for The Tribune, KP Nayar writes how Modis foreign policy intervention was vital in striking the deal, and Modis decision, in turn, was influenced by the fact if India now has a respected presence at the Group of Twenty summits, it is originally owed to the French who broke new ground in 2003 by inviting Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the G-8 summit in Evian-les-Bains. This invitation was the seed which germinated as todays G-20. Rafale, among other things, is also the embodiment of Indo-French cooperation and the government must not let it be grounded. It must stand rock solid amid all muck-racking. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had set the ground for the offensive by terming the opposition to the apex court verdict as against the ethos of the secular outlook and culture of equality that the state has imbibed from a series of renaissance movements. The offensive strategy adopted by Keralas ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) against the raging protests over the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all age groups to enter the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple has raised eyebrows in political and religious circles in the state. However, political observers are least surprised by the counter campaign. They have viewed the partys decision to field its women and youth wings to take on the protestors as part of a clever move by the CPM to derive political capital from the progressive stand it has taken on the issue. While the All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA) has been tasked with the responsibility of driving home the message of gender equality among women, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) has been asked to expose the political game plan behind the protests being spearheaded by the Sangh Parivar outfits, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. While the AIDWA has already kicked off the campaign with a public rally at Pathanamthitta on Tuesday, the DYFI will be taking to the streets on 13 October. The CPM is also trying to bring its partners in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) into the scene. An emergency meeting of the LDF state committee has been convened on 11 October to discuss the strategy. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had set the ground for the offensive by terming the opposition to the apex court verdict as against the ethos of the secular outlook and culture of equality that the state has imbibed from a series of renaissance movements. Party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan went a step further and saw seeds of a second liberation struggle against the government in the ganging up of right-wing parties and community organisations against the implementation of the apex court verdict by the party government. Such a gang up by the Congress, NSS and the Catholic Church against educational and agrarian reforms had brought down the first democratically elected communist government in 1957. Party strategists believe that the campaign would strike a chord with the people since the BJP has been trying to create unrest by unleashing violence. A spate of attacks on Devasom offices in different parts of the state is seen as part of a deliberate attempt by the Sangh Parivar to create trouble. The party chiefs argument evoked immediate support from unexpected quarters. The backing came from Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, a socio-cultural body of the lower caste Ezhava Hindu community that joined the saffron bandwagon by floating a political party in 2015. Subscribing to Balakrishnans view, SNDP general secretary Vellappally Natesan said that the ongoing protests were an attempt to bring down the LDF government. We suspect that the organisations spearheading the present protests are planning to create a second liberation struggle. We will not support this. If it continues, the SNDP will come forward with parallel protests and unmask the forces conspiring against the elected government," said Natesan. CPM leaders also hope that the women who are protesting against the Supreme Court verdict now may also finally accept their stand since it is against the discrimination meted out to them by the feudal system. A senior party leader has viewed the womens upsurge against the verdict as an emotional reaction spurred by religious and political leaders. Political analysts feel that the CPM may have taken a strong stand on implementing the Supreme Court verdict since it was not worried about its support base among the Hindus. Jacob George, a political analyst based at Thiruvananthapuram, said that the party was not expecting any erosion in their Hindu vote bank as it consists of committed cadres belonging to the lower castes, particularly the Ezhavas. The Congress had expected a crack in the CPM support base among the Ezhavas when the new political party floated by the SNDP joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP. Contrary to this perception, the alliance cost the Congress more than the CPM in the subsequent elections. The support extended to the CPM by the SNDP has further emboldened the CPM, which believes that the stand taken by the Congress against the Supreme Court verdict may only benefit the BJP. The party doesnt mind this since it will benefit them indirectly. However, the CPM is counting more on the benefit from the backlash of the BJP bid to polarise the Hindu votes from the minority communities, who account for about 45 percent of the state population. Jacob said that the CPM may cash in on the backlash by highlighting the aggressive Hindutva line of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar and the soft Hindutva approach of the Congress and the UDF among the minorities. The campaign may pay political dividend to the LDF since the minority communities, especially the Muslims, have been upset over the steady rise of the BJP in the electoral front. The CPM was able to make inroads into the Muslim belt in Malappuram in the last Assembly election in 2016 by highlighting the UDFs soft Hindutva line and projecting itself as the protector of minorities, Jacob told Firstpost. He said that the LDF had won the recent Chengannur by-election by playing up the Hindutva fears in the minds of minorities, who were apprehensive of the Congress decision to field a hardcore Hindu activist in the election. The Congress went for such a gamble as it found a steady erosion in its traditional Hindu vote bank following the rise of the BJP. Jacob said that the offensive launched by the CPM against the BJP and the Congress campaign was with an eye on the Lok Sabha election. He said that the government could seek more time to implement the Supreme Court verdict citing the devastation caused by the flood. The plea may not have been rejected by the court since the flood had wreaked heavy damage in Sabarimala itself. However, the government was not ready to wait as the Supreme Court verdict put both the Congress and the BJP in a dilemma. Both had welcomed the Constitution bench verdict initially. Top leaders of the two parties had maintained that the apex court order was the law of the land and everybody is bound to abide by it. The BJP president PS Sreedharan had even termed the verdict in tune with his partys stand for equality in all places of worship. However, he changed the stand later saying that the verdict was against the faith of the devotees and the customs and rituals of the temple. Same has been the case of the Congress. The leader of the party in the state Assembly Ramesh Chennithala had initially maintained that the Supreme Court order was applicable to everybody and the party too would obey it. But he too took a U-turn later and asked the state and Central governments to nullify the verdict by promulgating an ordinance. Political observers view this double game by the two parties as a naked attempt to draw political benefit from the issue. None had expected such a massive upsurge against the verdict, especially from women who are less visible in the political space. The BJP and the Congress saw this as an opportunity to woo them into their fold and consolidate their support base among the Hindus, said Jacob. While the Congress backed the women devotees by expressing solidarity with their struggle, the BJP joined hands with them in opposing the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict. Besides supporting the agitation by various Hindu outfits, the party has also launched a long march from Pandalam, which is believed to be the birth place of Lord Ayyappa. to the state secretariat at Thiruvananthapuram. Apart from this, the Mahila Morcha, the womens wing of the BJP, will also lend support to various Hindu organizations trying to create a human shield against women who come to Sabarimala for the five-day monthly pooja beginning on 18 October by holding a day-long fast. Jacob said that the BJP was trying to use the temple issue to the hilt since its attempt to polarise the Hindu votes with its soft Hindutva approach had failed to yield political dividend during elections. The party also saw an opportunity to come close to the NSS, a socio-cultural forum of upper caste Nairs, which is in the forefront of the legal battle and current agitation against the womens entry into Sabarimala. The BJP has been trying to woo the NSS into the NDA fold as part of its strategy to bring all Hindu bodies under one platform. While the SNDP, the Ezhava counterpart of the NSS, heeded the call, NSS defied it saying that they did not want a Hindutva tag. The NSS has been maintaining equidistance from political parties ever since it disbanded its political arm-the National Democratic Party in the late 1990s. An alliance with the NSS, which holds sway over the Nair community, is top in the agenda of the present BJP president, who has close ties with NSS leadership. The Nair community accounted for about 15 percent of the total population of the state as per the 2011 census. The BJP chief considers the support of NSS vital in achieving the partys objective of winning 12 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 General Elections. When the Supreme Court delivered the judgment on 28 September, the main plea of BJP chief to the stakeholders was not to make Sabarimala a conflict zone. However, many fears that the massive build up for a show of strength during the monthly pooja beginning from 17 October may turn Sabarimala into even a war zone. Nine policemen were injured in clashes at the Jagannath Puri temple on 3 October during protests against a queue system for devotees being introduced at the Odisha shrine. The Supreme Court on Wednesday took note of the 3 October violence at Puri's Jagannath temple and said that no policeman should enter the temple armed and wearing shoes. The violence had broken out during a protest against the introduction of a queue system for devotees, which was being tested that day. The court order comes on an application was filed by petitioner Debasish Misra, who alleged that the police entered the temple with guns, which resulted in violence in the temple premises. A two-judge bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta also sought responses within two weeks from the Odisha government, the amicus curiae in the case former Solicitor General of India Gopal Subramanium the petitioner and the temple administration. The Odisha government told the Supreme Court that 47 people had been arrested in connection with the violence at the Jagannath temple in Puri on 3 October. The state also asserted that there was no violence inside the Jagannath temple, but the office of the temple administration was attacked and ransacked. Nine policemen were injured in the clashes that broke out during a 12-hour strike called by socio-cultural organisation Sri Jagannath Sena in protest against the introduction of a queue system for devotees visiting the Jagannath temple. According to the Odisha police, the dawn-to-dusk shutdown in the seaside town called by the Sena turned violent as a mob barged into the 12th Century shrine, uprooted barricades erected at the Baisi Pahacha (the inner gate of the temple) and near the Singhadwara (the main entry) and ransacked the office of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration. The protesters also ransacked a police outpost, an information centre near the Singhadwara as well as the town police station, besides burning tyres and indulging in stone pelting, the police had said. While around nine police officers were injured in stone pelting, many structures suffered extensive damage in the mob attack, prompting the police to use mild force to control the situation. The Jagannath Puri temple administration had introduced the queue system on an experimental basis. A temple official said they will review the decision as local resident and devotees were opposed to it. With inputs from PTI and 101 Reporters Like China, Punjab has tried many solutions, even drafting an agricultural policy that talks about a paddy straw challenge fund to reduce the menace. Editor's Note: Late sowing, lack of government incentive to remove stubble mechanically have often led farmers in Punjab and Haryana to burn paddy stubble during autumn to immediately prepare the fields for wheat cultivation. Consequently, the stubble burning occurs on such a huge scale that it even engulfs Delhi in a canopy of smog: thus causing serious pollution for days and health issues. In this, part one of a three-part series, Firstpost seeks to find out why stubble is still burnt despite obvious ill-effects and a solution, if possible. This is the second part of the series. Ludhiana: North Indias smog problem a cause of much tension between states seems to have left politicians, farmers and even experts stumped. In Punjab, the governments measures to tackle stubble-burning have reaped little dividend, as the farmers, many of them debt-ridden, say that at the end of the harvesting season, they are still left with no option but to set paddy straw on fire in order to clear their fields. This wasnt always so, though. Take the case of Jagjivan Singh, 45, a small farmer in Pharwahi village of the states Barnala district, who till some years ago used to manually get the paddy straw removed and dumped in a huge pit along his three-acre farm to prepare manure. This was done before the wheat planting season. After the state government in 2008 ordered farmers to plant paddy only after 10 June, Singh, like many others, was forced to start burning his paddy stalks soon after harvest to quickly make way for wheat-sowing. As he says: Why would we like to cause pollution by burning the residue of paddy? Only because we do not have an option do we burn it. The situation of Buta Singh, 42, another farmer from Rajiana village of Moga district is similar but his reasons for burning the paddy straw are different. For the past few years, with a drop in migratory workers coming to Punjab, the cost of labour has increased. It is thus no longer possible for Buta Singh to get the clearing work done manually after harvest. Failed government policy A study by the Department of Economics and Sociology of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, found that 95 percent of the residue of paddy and 25 that of wheat is burnt every year. Lack of buyers, shortage of labour and time for the next crop, and little assistance by the state government emerged as the major reasons behind the ongoing practice, the study said. To curb the burning of straw, Punjab has tried methods such as the imposition of fines on farmers, offered machinery for clearance at subsidised rates, and suggested monitoring of stubble-burning through satellite imagery. But, as an economist and former professor at Patialas Punjabi University Gian Singh, points outs, the financial condition of the majority of farmers is such that they can neither employ manual nor mechanical labour to remove the straw. The government has to understand that paddy is not a crop that belongs to Punjab. It was brought to the state during the Green Revolution and, with minimum support price on it, entered the crop cycle of the state, said Singh. Deterrents such as registration of FIRs and imposition of fines have not helped either. The National Green Tribunal has already ordered penalty ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 15,000 on the erring farmers. Four farmers were even booked under IPC section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) for burning paddy straw in Taran district, while a total fine amounting nearly Rs 55,000 was imposed on 22 others recently. Yet, the farmers continue to burn stubble because they believe that hiring machinery to remove paddy will cost them more than fines. The Punjab government is also reluctant to take strict action due to political compulsions, as the farmers constitute a strong vote-bank in the state. Chinese conundrum and possible solutions Every year, apart from national capital Delhi, Chinese capital Beijing is also in the news for high pollution levels. Indias neighbour has been facing the same cause of toxicity burning of straw. An article published on NASAs website stated that traditionally, Chinese families used to collect and store the biomass of crop residue, weeds, branches and leaves as irreplaceable fuel for cooking or heating, and the practice continues in rural areas. But, recently, due to rapid economic growth and urbanisation in China, crop residues have often been burnt post-harvest to prepare fields for planting the next season's crop, the article states. Like China, Punjab has tried many solutions, even drafting an agricultural policy that talks about a paddy straw challenge fund to reduce the menace. A multi-pronged approach to take care of crop residue is finalised in consultation with experts in the field. Accordingly, a paddy straw challenge fund has been announced to attract new ideas to solve the residue management problem, the draft policy stated. While governments and experts mull over these solutions, farmers believe that using straw for commercial purposes might help more. Jagjivan Singh suggested that using the leftovers after paddy harvest in the paper industry could be a good idea. The government should devise ways to procure paddy straw for use in the paper or cardboard industry, he said. The PAU study had noted other solutions suggested by the sampled farmers to deal with the problem, such as utilising the stalks as animal feed, subsidy on machines like happy seeder, generating lesser amount of straw during harvest, use in cardboard factories, power generation, compost-making, and new crop varieties producing lesser residue. One of the recommendations being taken up seriously is the on-site management of paddy after harvesting. Opinder Singh Sandhu, assistant professor at PAUs Krishi Vigyan Kendra, said many machines had been developed by the university, including straw choppers, that could be used for in-situ techniques. After the harvesting process, straw can be used to prepare compost, biogas, cattle bedding and even grow mushrooms, Sandhu said. NGOs in Punjab have stepped up the campaign against stubble-burning and are urging the farmers not to set their fields on fire. Sahibjot Singh Chawla, of Helping Army, an NGO that urges the youth of Punjab to fight against social evils, believes the state is being defamed for a sin that it is not committing. The state, as well as Central governments, should understand that farmers need to be provided with an alternative so that they do not burn straw. Meanwhile, we are campaigning in different parts of the state and asking farmers not to burn stubble this year, Chawla said. According to economist Singh, the only solution to the problem is the cultivation of those crops that suit the agro-climatic conditions of the state. Also Read Stubble burning: Delhi at risk of another smog attack as Punjab farmers have little alternative but burn straw The author is Ludhiana-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com. A police constable allegedly shot dead his girlfriend at her home in Villupuram area of Tamil Nadu on her birthday before shooting himself following an argument, officials said Wednesday. Villupuram: A police constable allegedly shot dead his girlfriend at her home in Villupuram area of Tamil Nadu on her birthday before shooting himself following an argument, officials said Wednesday. Sarawathi (21), who was pursuing a career in medicine, had befriended 25-year-old Karthick on social media, the officials said. The incident occurred on Tuesday when Karthick went to the woman's house. An argument broke out between the two and suddenly, in a fit of rage, he shot her dead using his revolver and then shot himself in the head, they added. On Tuesday, nine people had died and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at the Bhilai plant of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Durg district, located around 30 km away from Raipur. Raipur: Two employees, who were critically injured in an explosion at the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh, succumbed to injuries at a hospital, taking the death toll in the blast to 11, an official said Wednesday. On Tuesday, nine people had died and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at the plant of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Durg district, located around 30 km away from Raipur. Of the 14 injured people admitted to the burns unit of the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai, two succumbed Tuesday late night, a public relations officer of the Bhilai Steel Plant told PTI. "The two had received over 80 per cent burns," he said, adding that a few other injured people were also in a critical condition. The explosion had taken place in the gas pipeline connected to the coke oven section of the plant during a maintenance job, the SAIL had said. Of the nine people who died on Tuesday, six worked in the plant's energy management department, while three were employees of its fire brigade unit, the official said. Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh are scheduled to visit the hospital in Bhilai to see the injured people admitted there, an official said. They will also take stock of the incident from the plant management and the Durg district administration. Inspector General of Police (Durg Range) GP Singh had said earlier that after receiving the postmortem report of the deceased, a case under the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) will be registered followed by an inquiry into the incident. Union Minister of State for Steel Vishnudeo Sai had said Tuesday that a four-member high-level committee was constituted by SAIL to probe the incident. Adequate compensation will be given to families of the deceased, Sai had said, adding that the injured were being provided the best possible medical treatment. In June 2014, six persons, including two deputy general managers, were killed and many others affected when a poisonous gas leaked in the plant, he said. A Nagpur court on Tuesday granted to Uttar Pradesh Police the three-day transit remand of scientist Nishant Agrawal, arrested a day earlier on charge of spying for Pakistan intelligence agency ISI and other countries, officials said. Nagpur: A Nagpur court on Tuesday granted to Uttar Pradesh Police the three-day transit remand of scientist Nishant Agrawal, arrested a day earlier on charge of spying for Pakistan intelligence agency ISI and other countries, officials said. The Uttar Pradesh Police will soon take him to Lucknow for obtaining his proper remand and will further investigate the sensational case. The UP Police informed Judicial Magistrate (First Class) SM Joshi that the accused, working in the BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd and arrested under the Official Secrets Act, was in touch with certain Pakistani intelligence operatives via two Facebook accounts operated under assumed names of 'Pooja Rajan' and 'Neha Sharma'. These accounts, created in Pakistan capital Islamabad, are reportedly operated by the Inter-Services Intelligence and Agrawal was found chatting with them, police said after presenting the accused in the court on Tuesday. The UP-ATS had monitored these fake accounts aimed to honeytrap key officials working in sensitive defence-related organisations in India. Agrawal was accused of leaking sensitive information on the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to foreign countries. The ATS said that certain secret and ultra-sensitive information was found on Agrawal's personal computer which it said "should not have been there, and it violates the provisions of the OSA." The joint ATS teams of the two states also searched his office and from another location seized an old laptop which is being examined. They said that after the investigations into what kind of chats he was indulging in with the fake accounts on Facebook, the accused may be slapped with additional charges. The UP-ATS also raided two other persons in Agra and Kanpur and seized their laptops for investigations. As per preliminary information, Agrawal was reportedly passing on certain highly classified information to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as well as the USA. However, official circles here are not aware of his access to the type of sensitive information or security clearance levels Agrawal enjoyed in the company. Hailing from Roorkee in Uttarakhand, the young scientist had been living in rented home in Ujjwala Nagar of Nagpur in central India, and got married earlier this year. Among other things, the BrahMos centre in Nagpur is involved in manufacturing certain critical components for the BrahMos missile, considered the world's fastest cruise missile that can be launched from land, ships, aircraft or submarines. The Indo-Russian joint venture's development of the latest version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile has elicited keen interest in global defence circles and several major political powers in the world. The missile successfully test-fired on July 16 from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore in Odisha is an outcome of a joint venture of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia Corp since 2011. BJP president Amit Shah Tuesday said 'illegal infiltrators' took away jobs of youths in the country and alleged that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and other opposition parties had opposed the NRC when 40 lakh such settlers were identified under the exercise. Shivpuri: BJP president Amit Shah Tuesday said "illegal infiltrators" took away jobs of youths in the country and alleged that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and other opposition parties had opposed the NRC when 40 lakh such settlers were identified under the exercise. Addressing a convention of BJP workers at Polo Ground in Shivpuri, Shah said the BJP governments would "drive each and every infiltrator out of the country" after winning elections in 2018 and 2019. Taking a dig at Gandhi, Shah said he should "stop daydreaming" about the Congress coming to power after elections. Referring to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam, he said the BJP government would drive each of the 40 lakh "illegal infiltrators" out of the country as the party stands for national security and rights of Indians. "When the NRC identified 40 lakh illegal migrants in Assam, Rahul baba and parties like the SP (Samajwadi Party), BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) and Trinmool Congress (TMC) raised a hue and cry and opposed the exercise," Shah said. He said the youths of the country lost their jobs to the illegal immigrants. "These migrants took away the jobs of our youths. They (opposition parties) lacked concern for our youths and for the hunger of the people of this country. We will drive each infiltrator out after winning elections in 2018 and 2019," he said. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in the next two months in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram. While first three of the above states are currently ruled by the BJP, the Congress is in power in the northeastern state. Telangana was ruled by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) before chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao dissolved the assembly. Lok Sabha elections are slated to be held next year. "Rahul Baba should stop daydreaming. The Congress' condition is that it would (soon) be difficult to find them even with the help of binoculars," Shah said. He said the Congress lacked any issues with which it could go to the people seeking votes in the Madhya Pradesh polls. "How can the Congress succeed in winning polls in Madhya Pradesh? Will you seek votes from people with the help of a 'raja' (former chief minister Digvijaya Singh who is an erstwhile royal), a 'maharaja' (former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia who is a royal descendant) and an industrialist (state Congress chief Kamal Nath) who have never seen poverty?" he questioned. Shah said Madhya Pradesh became a BIMARU state in the rule of the then chief minister Digvijaya Singh, whereas Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan pulled the state out of poverty and turned it into a developed state. Digvijaya Singh had helmed the state between 1993 to 2003. "The state budget under the then Congress government was only Rs 20,000 crore, which has gone up to Rs 2 lakh crore. The per capita income has also shot up to Rs 80,000 from Rs 15,000. "Simultaneously, power generation has also increased from 3000 MW to 18000 MW under the BJP rule. During the time of the Congress, people of the state used to receive power supply for only 3 to 5 hours everyday," the BJP chief claimed. Turning to Rahul Gandhi, Shah said the Congress chief had "insulted" jawans by asking for evidence of surgical strike conducted by the Army on terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in 2016. "During the Congress regime, Pakistan used to threaten India. Our government taught a lesson to Pakistan through the surgical strike. But Rahul baba was asking for the proof," Shah claimed. "After our government conducted the surgical strike, even mediapersons who used to talk about 'Mauni Baba' (a jibe the BJP uses to attack former PM Manmohan Singh) became silent," Shah said. He claimed that before the surgical operation, the US and Israel were the only countries known to avenge death of their soldiers, but the prime minister added India's name to the list. Shah announced that the BJP-led governments across the country would celebrate the birth centenary year of Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia, one of the founder members of the BJP. Before addressing the convention, Shah garlanded statue of Tatya Tope, a general in the 1857 rebellion against the British, at Shivpuri and recalled his contribution. After addressing BJP workers, Shah travelled to Guna, around 90 kms from Shivpuri, where he held a roadshow, after offering prayers at a Hanuman temple. Guna is the Lok Sabha constituency of state Congress campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia. BJP leaders, including Chouhan, state unit president Rakesh Singh, MP Prabhat Jha and others participated in the roadshow. The BJP, which used social media to gain some stunning advantages in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, is in action on social media once again. The BJP, which used social media to gain some stunning advantages in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, is in action on social media once again in this high-decibel election year of 2018-2019. In both the poll-bound states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the party has become active in strengthening its volunteer base using social media as a tool. And it is being done by organising competitions for the young, the biggest consumers of all that is on offer on social media. BJPs strategy in Madhya Pradesh The Madhya Pradesh BJP organised Kaun Banega Miss Social a 'beauty-with-brains' contest at the end of September to add a dash of glamour to the war between political parties on social media. With a participant turnout of 35,000 young women between the ages of 15 and 25 years, the state BJP must have been pretty pleased at the trump card it has thrown on the political table. What remains to be seen, however, is whether most of these young women participated to do some genuine 'social' service for the party. Organised by the BJP Mahila Morcha the party's women's wing in Madhya Pradesh the contest saw participants from block and village levels to state capital Bhopal. The objective behind the competition, which involved writing a test, was to include young volunteers with a knowledge of social media in the BJP cadre. The test comprises two sets with 50 marks each on general awareness and on knowledge of social media. Were not looking for any short-term benefit from this competition. Its for a long-term association of participants with the party. Prior to conducting the test, we asked participants whether they would like to join as volunteers. On the basis of the final result, top 20 candidates from each district will be enrolled as social media volunteers, RH Lata, state social media convener of BJP Mahila Morcha, told Firstpost. The role of selected volunteers would be to disseminate information about governments (both central and the state) welfare schemes through social media platforms, besides tracking developments, collecting feedback from masses about the efficacy of the schemes and on other issues. The prerequisite condition to participate in the competition was to have the Narendra Modi App or NaMo app on ones mobile handset. Having a personal mobile handset wasnt mandatory. It could be that of a parent or any family member. But, NaMo app on the handset was compulsory. We included girls from 15 years onwards because children do come up with creative ideas and can think out-of-the-box. As quality volunteers, they will be an asset for the party in the long run. Special training will be provided to them, added Lata, an academician for the past 22 years. A special committee has been formed to prepare the final list of successful candidates. While the state-level winner will get a laptop, the district and block level winners will get tablets and mobile phones. The list of winners is expected to be announced within a week. The party clearly seems to have an eye on 2019 Lok Sabha polls. With 20 women volunteers from each district, the BJP will have a battery of 1,040 volunteers from 52 districts on the partys social media platform. BJPs strategy in Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh state BJP has organised a Social Media Volunteer Meet, Chhattisgarh at Raipur on 12 October. The meeting will be headed by BJP president Amit Shah. However, making it into the meet is not an easy task and the candidates wont be selected through any test. The BJP president in the past, while fixing a target of 65 (to win 65 seats in Chhattisgarh Assembly polls), had told party workers and volunteers to be active on social media, enhance their outreach and increase the numbers of shares and likes they get on the posts they made. The invitation for the social media meet is not open to all. What I could gather that invitation has been sent after monitoring activities of party workers on Facebook and Twitter, frequency of posts by volunteers, shares and likes on posts etc. Its about how a party worker is active on social media, a party worker from Chhattisgarh, who has received an invitation, told Firstpost on condition of anonymity. The Chhattisgarh government under its Sanchar Kranti Yojna has begun distributing free smartphones with six months of free data from September. The target is to distribute the same to 4.4 million beneficiaries, including college students, rural population and people living below poverty line in urban areas. Will these strategies be effective? However, distributing freebies to voters, especially to those driven by non-party goals, can sometimes backfire. How dedicated the smartphone beneficiaries are going to be to the cause of Chhattisgarh BJP and how effective they would prove in the partys social media drive remains a matter of conjecture. But this instantly reminds one of the distribution of laptops to the state's youth by Akhilesh Yadav when he was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The young people had turned out in droves to be given laptops by the chief minister himself in a widely publicised and well-attended ceremony. However, soon thereafter, news reports had surfaced of how quite a few young people had traded their free laptops for something they needed more, or simply for cash. Considering that Akhilesh Yadav had lost the next Assembly election, it was clear that his laptops had failed to convince the beneficiaries of the intentions of the benefactor. Cutting back to the present, 'Miss Social' volunteers in Madhya Pradesh and their counterparts in Chhattisgarh will have a difficult role cut out for them as the state is going to the polls in November, followed by 2019 Lok Sabha election. Tharoor's tweet came when the Congress continued targetting Modi government over Rafale deal. The party accused the Centre on Wednesday of 'manipulating' the process of Rafale fighter jet agreement by 'punishing' bureaucrats who raised objections to the deal and rewarding 'obliging officials'. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Wednesday cited a French media report to allege that Dassault Aviation entered into an agreement with Reliance Defence as it was presented as a "trade-off" which was "imperative and obligatory" to "clinch the Rafale deal". Sharing a report by French investigative website Mediapart, Tharoor wrote on Twitter: Explosive revelation in French media: an internal Dassault document says the Reliance offset deal was a trade-off, imperative and obligatory to clinch the #Rafale deal. @INCIndia https://t.co/2xiMmgwL9K Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 10, 2018 According to NDTV, Mediapartwhich claimed to have accessed a document on the matterreported that Dassault considered this alliance as a "counterpart" to enter the Indian market. Tharoor's tweet came even as the Congress continued targeting the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal. The Congress accused the Centre Wednesday of "manipulating" the process of Rafale fighter jet agreement by "punishing" bureaucrats who raised objections to the deal and rewarding "obliging officials". Ahead of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's visit to France, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, too, stepped up his attack and questioned the visit. The Supreme Court has asked for the #RAFALE decision making process. Its quite simple really... The PM decided. The processes to justify his decision are yet to be invented. But work has begun. Ps. In this connection, Raksha Mantri is leaving for France tonight. https://t.co/FJJzlBulb0 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 10, 2018 Defence Minister Sitharaman is scheduled to leave for France on Wednesday on a three-day visit, which comes amid the backdrop of controversy over the purchase of 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation. The Opposition, led by the Congress, has been accusing the government of benefiting Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence Limited from the Rafale deal. The government and Reliance Defence have dismissed all the allegations as false. With inputs from PTI The polling for the second phase of civic body elections in Kashmir continued to remain grim as the voter turnout was 3 percent. Srinagar: The polling for the second phase of civic body elections in the Valley continued to remain grim as the voter turnout was 3 percent. The turnout was low since the morning and in the first two hours of polling, the turnout was 0.4 percent in Anantnang, 4.3 percent in Bandipora, 1.1 percent in Baramulla, 2.1 percent in Kupwara and 0.2 percent in Srinagar from the total strength of 32,904, 7,910, 270, 609, 1,77,183 voters respectively. By the next four hours, it was only 0.8, 22.2, 3.7, 3.3 and 1.4 percent in the districts of Anantnag, Bandipora, Baramulla, Kupwara and Srinagar respectively and these numbers were 1, 28.8, 5.2, 3.4 and 1.8 percent by 2 pm. When polls concluded at 4 pm, the turnout was 3 percent in the entire Valley. In 2005, as the municipal polls were held after a gap of 25 years, the polling percentage recorded in some areas was even 60 to 80 percent. In 2011 panchayat elections in Kashmir, similar voting trends were witnessed even as it was held after months of agitation in 2010 in which at least 120 people were killed. In 1996 Assembly elections in Kashmir region, the turnout was nearly 45 percent, while it was 29 percent in 2002 Assembly polls. The elections in 1996 were, however, also marked by allegations of coercion by forces to drive out people to vote. Leaders of mainstream political parties conceded that their space has shrunk after the killing of at least 75 people and injuries to thousands of youth in the agitation in 2016 which was triggered over the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander, Burhan Muzafar Wani. In 2017 by-elections in the Lok Sabha constituency of Srinagar, the turnout was merely 7 percent, while authorities cancelled the Anantnag seat bypolls after seven people were killed during the protests on poll day in Srinagar. The trend has not been bucked in these elections. Former minister and senior National Conference (NC) leader Ali Mohammad Sagar said that the low voter turnout was a snub to the Government of India (GoI) and was on account of the fact that the situation in Kashmir has been worst since last four years after the PDP-BJP coalition government assumed office in Kashmir and peoples resentment against the BJP government. "The government is playing with the sentiments and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the elections were held even as it was known that last time, there was only 7 percent turnout on Srinagar parliamentary seat. The elections were not held in Anantang last year even as the campaign was run and nomination papers were filed, this time polls were held to mislead that there was no problem in Kashmir, said Sagar. The low turnout was registered even as Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) decided to increase the polling time to 10 hours, from 6 am to 4 pm. The authorities have said that this was done to increase the voter turnout, but Sagar said that it was only done to rig the elections. The elections were rigged. What is the justification for changing time? Do they expect people to wake up in the night to cast the votes? he said. NC vice-president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted that the timing may have been changed to discourage journalists from checking the veracity of the polls. State vice-president of Congress GN Monga said that this was only done to rig polls. Although Sagar said that the pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan sentiment was earlier also responsible for the decline in the voter turnout, but the percentage was the lowest ever this time. In 2011 panchayat elections, 75 to 80 percent polling was registered in Kashmir while in some areas of Jammu, it touched 90 percent. Though the turnout earlier also remained low in Srinagar and different towns, these elections were the worst in terms of polling percentage, said Sagar. The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a conglomerate of different separatist organisations, has hailed the decision of the people to boycott the polls. With the announcement of Mayor of Srinagar city by the state authority, manipulation of election timing to 6 am, further military deployments across the Valley, continuous arrest of pro-freedom activists and youth, internet bans, the farce of this discredited and preposterous election being undertaken by the authoritarian state gets more and more exposed with each passing phase, the JRL said in a statement. Local residents said that the lack of basic amenities in the village and the failures of previous administrations compelled the local residents of Inderkoot to participate despite boycott calls by Kashmiri separatists and militant threats. On Wednesday, residents of the Inderkoot village in north Kashmirs Bandipora district say they took matters into their own hands. As the second phase of polling for the municipal committee began at 6 in the morning, residents thronged the polling station half an hour earlier. Ahead of the municipal elections, residents of the village gathered to discuss the prospects of fielding their own people as candidates who are expected to work for their own people. Several residents finally managed to convince two other local residents to contest the elections. We have been ignored by repeated governments, said Ghulam Hassan Dar, a farmer in his 50s. We are here against those who wanted to win unopposed or with a few votes. We decided to put up our own candidates against these opportunists. Inside the polling station, the villages government-run middle school, men and women jostled in long queues to cast their vote at 1 pm. One middle-aged voter licked his index finger immediately after leaving the booth, to remove the ink stains. But it wasnt for the fear of being identified as a voter by militant sympathisers. I have to cast another vote, he said, smiling. By late afternoon, the queues had thinned but votes were still being cast in greater numbers than other stations in the Valley. Fear of separatist backlash, however, was palpable. Local residents did not want to be photographed or speak to the press. Of those who did, many were reluctant divulge their identities. Heavy deployments of security forces the army, the Border Security Force, and the local police surrounded the polling station but the only difficulty that they faced there, as per one policeman, was shooing away children running amok in the schools lawns. At the end of the polling, the Sumbal municipal committee, under which Inderkoot falls, saw the highest voter turnout, at about 35.64 percent, in the Kashmir region. Local residents said that the lack of basic amenities in the village and the failures of previous administrations compelled the local residents of Inderkoot to participate despite boycott calls by Kashmiri separatists and militant threats. Besides, this was an opportunity to break free from the clutches of politicians who, as one villager described habitually broke promises. The official boycott of the polls by the states regional unionist parties paved the way for first-time candidates like Ali Mohammad Parray, one of the two that residents of Inderkoot had convinced to contest the elections for Ward No. 11 of Inderkoot. As the polling continued, Parray stood inside the polling station. In his early 30s, Parray has a doctorate degree in pharmacology from the University of Mumbai. Aspiring for a government job and unable to find one, Parray felt contesting the elections would help him work for the people and to prevent a waste of resources that were already scarce. Outside the polling station, residents spoke of the threat of the Bharatiya Janata Party coming to power. We dont want the BJP here, said Dar as other residents, gathered around him, agreed. If we dont elect our own ward heads, someone from the outside would have taken over. We do not want to bend before them. At this point, a young man, part of the gathering, interrupted Dar. They have made a sacrifice for the community, he said of the two independent candidates that the village collectively pushed to contest elections. We have long been ignored. We are only a few kilometres from the town but we do not have water in our homes, we have produce in our fields but no roads to transport it. In another locality in Inderkoot, however, the enthusiasm for the polls was not as high. Residents said that they were still unaware of candidates contesting in their ward even as polling continued. We do not support the elections, said a young man, adding that it was only the neighbouring locality, populated by a different sect of Muslims, which supported elections. Other residents, more aware of the happenings in the village, said that it was only the National Conference that stayed away from the polls. For Ward No. 9, two contestants are known to be members of the Peoples Democratic Party while one each, residents believe, are part of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. The elections to local bodies, Dar said, was a matter of local necessities and did not affect the politics of the state. As such, taking control of their own affairs meant choosing their own interests over those of politicians and a hope of better days ahead. If our candidates win, said Dar, it will be the poor mans rule. We are hoping for that. As the MeToo fire rages on, charring reputations as more women narrate their experiences of unsolicited sexual behaviour with Union minister MJ Akbar and actor Alok Nath among those named for their alleged actions, Congress demanded the resignation of the junior minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs. As the MeToo fire rages on, charring reputations as more women narrate their experiences of unsolicited sexual behaviour with Union minister MJ Akbar and actor Alok Nath among those named for their alleged actions, Congress demanded the resignation of the junior minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs. What could add to the turmoil for the minister, Akbar faces accusations from more than one woman as his once illustrious career as a journalist now nearly stand on the verge of demolition. Congress leader and former Union minister Jaipal Reddy, at a press conference, said, "MJ Akbar has his own stature of being a veteran journalist in addition to being junior minister with the External Affairs Ministry. Sushma Swaraj could not comment on her own subordinate. Akbar should either come out with a satisfactory explanation or he must resign from his post in the government. We demand an enquiry into these allegations. If Justice Brett Kavanaugh can be asked for an explanation then why not MJ Akbar who allegedly did whatever he did much later in his life than Kavanaugh." Union Minister M J Akbar should either give a satisfactory answer to the allegations or he should resign.We demand an inquiry into the matter: Jaipal Reddy,Congress #MeToo pic.twitter.com/KKmf91bwuz ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 While women from across the media have flooded social media with harrowing stories of their encounter, politicians, Union ministers and leaders of ruling parties had maintained a stoic silence, except Maneka Gandhi. Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka, is the only BJP leader who, so far, has openly reacted to the stream of survivors' accounts, naming prominent personalities, pouring out on social media. Though the minister did not explicitly react to allegations against Akbar, she did assert that the survivors' voice should not be questioned and a probe should be carried out in such cases. Maneka spoke to India Today after the accusations against Akbar, and others, made headlines: "There should be an investigation. Those who are in positions of power always use it, whether it is film, media or industry. Whenever women make such allegations, we should take them very seriously," she said. "Women are scared of speaking out thinking people will make fun of them or question their character. Now that women are speaking up we should take action on each and every allegation," she added while responding to a questions specifically about a "big politician" named in multiple survivors' accounts. Women began to share their encounters with Akbar after journalist Priya Ramani re-plugged her article in Vogue from October 2017. Written after a string of women accused Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, Priya wrote about her experience with Akbar, but did not name him. In the Vogue article, Ramani said that Akbar had invited her to a hotel room in Mumbai for an interview and made uncomfortable advances towards her. She was 23 years old, while he was 43. I began this piece with my MJ Akbar story. Never named him because he didnt do anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predator maybe theyll share." I began this piece with my MJ Akbar story. Never named him because he didnt do anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predatormaybe theyll share. #ulti https://t.co/5jVU5WHHo7 Priya Ramani (@priyaramani) October 8, 2018 Soon after Ramani shared her tweet, a number of women retweeted and shared their own encounters with Akbar, accusing him of making them feel uncomfortable by calling them to his hotel rooms for interviews, inviting himself to their houses with a bottle of alcohol to even turning up at their houses "for coffee". Even as this latest addition to the #MeToo movement took over headlines, Sushma on Tuesday refused to respond when she was asked whether there would be an internal investigation into the allegations against Akbar. TimesNow and India Today reporters yell out to her, reminding her that she is a "woman minister", and ask her what action she would take against Akbar, but Sushma chooses to stay mum. Even as Sushma refused to comment on the allegations against Akbar, Congress national spokesperson Manish Tewari said the case dates back to when Akbar was a journalist, not a political leader. "MJ should come up and speak on this. The prime minister should speak on the allegations against his minister," he said. "The minister concerned (Akbar) should speak up. Silence cannot be a way out. It's an extremely serious matter and should be investigated." The #MeToo movement, which began with sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein last year, picked up pace again in India after actor Tanushree Dutta accused her co-star from 10 years ago Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of Horn Ok Pleasss. Buoyed by her move to speak up against sexual misconduct by men, women beyond the realms of just Bollywood have been sharing their experiences and the trauma they have gone through. Notable among them have been the accounts shared by female journalists, bringing to light the prevalence of sexual harassment in the media. 'Top journo-turned-politician/MP whom everyone is too scared to name' was a recurring theme on social media, several of which alluded to Firstpost's piece, written by a contributor who sought anonymity to avoid causing anguish to her family the author and this website have chosen to adhere to that original position. "My #MeToo moment: Founding editor of national paper forced himself on me" - another story of sexual assault by top journo-turned-politician/MP whom everyone is too scared to name, but so many women have stories about.https://t.co/7Q20HsVNLy Prasanto K Roy (@prasanto) October 8, 2018 A journalist quoted Ramanis tweet, saying, So many of us have an MJ story. So many of us have an MJ story. "Can I come over to your house with a bottle of rum?" he said. NO, was the answer.... Couldnt 'do' anything. Some dont get the meaning of No... they move on to the next, dont they https://t.co/eMnO6Y3PNX Harinder Baweja (@shammybaweja) October 8, 2018 Another Twitter user, who had tweeted her experience with a "brilliant, flamboyant editor who dabbled in politics" on Sunday, revealed on Tuesday that it was Akbar who had called her to his his hotel room to "discuss work" and "made life at work hell" when she refused his advances". @It was #MJAkbar I do not say this lightly..i know the consequences of false accusations &it has been now 17 yrs &i have no concrete proof. but i was young, just made features editor, super impressed with our brilliant editor, sensitive writer(read Riot after Riot), 1/4 prerna singh bindra (@prernabindra) October 9, 2018 Another Twitter user said she had gone through an experience with Akbar similar to Ramani's at a hotel in Kolkata in 1995, after which she declined the job offer. I must clarify, however, that he didn't actually do anything. But the whole experience of an interview sitting on a bed in a hotel room followed by an invitation to come over for a drink that evening was rattling and deeply uncomfortable, she wrote. In this case, #MeToo. Year: 1995, Place Taj Bengal, Kolkata. After that encounter, I declined the job offer. Shuma Raha (@ShumaRaha) October 8, 2018 A woman recounted how he turned up at my friends house one night for a coffee and how he made life hell for her at their workplace after she did not let him in. OMG! He turned up at my friend's house one night for a coffee. As a single mother with a sleeping child she told him she could neither invite him in nor go out with him. From next day he made life hell for her at their workplace https://t.co/3XRj7oWK94 Sujata Anandan (@sujataanandan) October 8, 2018 Another Twitter user highlighted an account from 1999, which he said was based on Akbar. This 1999 KP piece was about MJ Akbar (the pseudonym Editor the Great reveals more than it hides)https://t.co/hlNWW9Q38b Thejaswi Udupa (@udupendra) October 8, 2018 Scroll.in quoted a former journalist who worked under Akbar in the 1990s as saying that Akbar would try his luck with anything that moved, but was not particularly vindictive. I think Akbar is slimy in many ways. There was a clear category of successful male behaviour that he fell within this was the trouble. People didnt even realise or think that there is anything wrong with this behaviour, she added. The website quoted another journalist who worked with Akbar as saying that he would try and manipulate young, impressionable women. There were always more young women than men in office, and it used to be called Akbars harem. This was the reputation he came with, the report quoted her as saying. BJP president Amit Shah Tuesday sought to project the forthcoming elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan as a contest between 'individual-centric' parties and those driven by ideologies. Gwalior: BJP president Amit Shah Tuesday sought to project the forthcoming elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan as a contest between "individual-centric" parties and those driven by ideologies. He said the elections in the three states can "change the nation". Addressing a convention of youths in Gwalior, the Bharatiya Janata Party chief said the parties that lack leadership and policies cannot provide a stable government. "Upcoming elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan will prove to be ones that can change the nation because the contest will decide whether people elect parties which are individual-centric or those driven by ideology," Shah said in an apparent reference to political dynasties. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in the next two months in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram. While first three of the above states are currently ruled by the BJP, the Congress is in power in the northeastern state. Telangana was ruled by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) before Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao dissolved the assembly. Lok Sabha elections are slated to be held next year. "How is it possible for these parties to provide a strong government when they don't have any leader and even their policies are not yet decided," Shah said. Targetting the Congress, he said the only agenda of that party is "Modi Hatao" (defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi) in contrast to the PM's goal of "eradicating poverty and corruption" from the country. He said the BJP is the only party where an ordinary worker can go on to become a prime minister or a chief minister of a state. "This is the reason why a tea-seller has become the prime minister of our country... Is this possible in Congress, BSP or SP? The main aim of the opposition parties is to make their sons and daughters an MLA or an MP and there is no place for an ordinary worker to claim these positions," he said. Shah said most political parties in the country lacked "democracy". "How can leaders of such parties will protect democracy of the nation?" he asked. "In such a scenario, there is no possibility of any development in the country. The Congress ruled for 55 years but failed to usher in development," Shah said. Referring to the prime minister's ambitious schemes that are aimed at providing power and toilets in every village of the country, Shah said the Modi government is working hard to fulfil this objective. Before addressing the convention, Shah visited memorials of Rani Lakshmibai and Vijayaraje Scindia, popularly known as 'Rajmata'. The Scindia family had ruled Gwalior state during the pre-independence period. "Those people who lived for the country can only inspire the youth," he said. Referring to the 2016 Uri attack and subsequent surgical strike, Shah said, "Within 10 days of the attack at (the Army camp in) Uri, Indian soldiers entered Pakistan and killed terrorists". Shah said Madhya Pradesh was brought out of BIMARU tag and turned into a developed state by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The BJP chief also took potshots at the state Congress which is known to be a divided house. "The Congress has not yet decided on its chief ministerial face while in the BJP, Shivraj Singh Chouhan will become a chief minister again," he said. Similarly, it is not yet clear who will be the Opposition leader in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but Narendra Modi will become prime minister again from the BJP, he said. Earlier in the day, Shah addressed party workers in Shivpuri and conducted a roadshow in Guna, the Lok Sabha constituency of senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia. The announcement comes after the Supreme Court sought a report from the Centre on the details involved in finalising the Rafale deal with France. The three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph gave the order without issuing a notice to the Centr Congress president Rahul Gandhi will meet with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) authorities in Bengaluru on Saturday to up pressure on the BJP government over the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal, ANI reported. The Deccan Chronicle reported that Rahul will also address a party workers rally in the city. It will be a quick visit, he will fly down to Bengaluru, head straight to the HAL employees meeting and then address party workers," KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao said. The announcement comes after the Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a report from the Centre on the details of the decision-making process involved in finalising the Rafale deal with France. The three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph gave the order without issuing a notice to the Centre, Bar and Bench reported. #RafaleDeal: Attorney Genenral KK Venugopal responding. "If notice is issued, notice will go to PM etc. This is political petition and not a public interest litigation and is part of bitter fight going on between ruling and opposition party. Please dont entertain such petitions" Bar & Bench (@barandbench) October 10, 2018 Prior to the apex court's statement, the Centre called the PILs filed in the matter 'politically motivated.' In the PIL, the petitioner, lawyer Vineet Dhanda, had sought a direction to the Centre to reveal details of the agreement and comparative prices agreed upon during the tenures of both the United Progressive Alliance and the incumbent National Democratic Alliance. The bench heard another PIL by lawyer ML Sharma, who had sought to have the hearing adjourned till Wednesday to file additional documents in the case. In his petition, Sharma alleged discrepancies in the fighter jet deal with France and sought a stay on it. His petition says that the inter-government agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an "outcome of corruption" and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 of the Constitution, as per which, Parliament has the power to make any law to implement any inter-government agreement. Sharma, on Wednesday, made submissions on the loss the State exchequer had incurred because of the contract on the fighter aircraft and the higher price paid for each unit. He also made arguments on the history of the deal. Representing the Centre, Attorney General of India KK Venugopal said the matter cannot be examined judicially as it was "about national security" and urged the Supreme Court to not entertain such petitions. "If a notice is issued, it will go to the prime minister, etc. This is a political petition, not a public interest litigation, and is part of a bitter fight going on between the ruling and Opposition party. Please don't entertain such petitions," the attorney general argued. Rahul Gandhi levelled a slew of allegations at the BJP-led government, claiming it failed to provide relief to debt-saddled farmers while wreaking havoc on the economy with his demonetisation and GST moves. Dholpur/Bharatpur: A combative Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging he gave "brooms to the poor" in the name of the Swachh Bharat Mission while allowing his industrialist "friends to clean money from the banks". Rahul also levelled a slew of allegations at the BJP-led Centre, claiming it failed to provide relief to debt-saddled farmers while wreaking havoc on the economy with his demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) moves. He accused the prime minister of insulting the people by belittling what the country had achieved in the last 70 years. The Congress president began a roadshow from eastern Rajasthan's Dholpur district, considered the home turf of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, aiming to boost his party's prospects in the assembly elections slated for 7 December. Beginning the roadshow in Mania town, which shares borders with Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, he levelled allegations against the government on a range of issues ranging from the Rafale deal, law and order, and even the attack on people from other states in Gujarat. The Congress chief said it was not a party or a person but the people who by the dint of their hard work made India stand up after Independence. "They were your parents and grandparents who put in efforts to make India stand but Prime Minister Narendra Modi says that nothing was done in the last 70 years. He says everything happened only after he came to power. How arrogant this person is," charged Rahul at a public meeting in Bayana town of Bharatpur during his 150-kilometre long roadshow. The Congress chief, in his public meetings during the roadshow, also said while Modi gave "brooms to the poor and asked them to clean India under Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and at the same time, he asked top 15-20 industrialists to clean money from banks". Attacking the Centre's economic and agricultural policies, he said, "Not a single rupee of farmers' loans was waived by the Modi government" and the Make In India campaign had "failed" with even phones and T-shirts being outsourced from China. The Congress wants phones to be made in India with the tag of 'Made in Dholpur,' he said. Rahul said the prime minister during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls had said he wanted to be a 'chowkidar' but never clarified for whom. "Now people are laughing. He never told that whose chowkidar he wanted to be. They got to know later that Anil Ambani is being protected," he alleged. Ambani-led Reliance Group has already rejected Congress' allegations. In Rajasthan, Rahul alleged that Modi benefitted 15-20 top industrialists of the country instead of the farmers. The Congress president reiterated his allegation on the Rafale deal that the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited was ignored and an "industrialist friend" benefitted from the deal which he claimed was finalised at higher prices compared to rates decided by the former UPA government. He also alleged that people like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya had benefitted under the present dispensation. Mr. Modi has divided India into two parts. One that belongs to the rich like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, who are indifferent to the rest. Vijay Mallya met FM @arunjaitley before he fled to London with 9000Cr public money: Congress President @RahulGandhi #_ pic.twitter.com/Ovl8eIt9AR Congress (@INCIndia) October 9, 2018 Rahul claimed that Vijay Mallya had alleged he had met Union minister Arun Jaitley before leaving the country. Significantly, Jaitley has rubbished any charges of impropriety. He claimed the former UPA government waived off farmers' loans worth Rs 70,000 crore but even as bad debt worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore were written off by the present government, not even Rs 1 of farmers was waived. "Former UPA government gave MGNREGA, brought a tribal bill, rights of food and information, meal to students in schools, waived off farmers' loan worth Rs 70,000 crore. In Rajasthan, the Ashok Gehlot government introduced free medicine schemes but what Narendra Modi and Vasundhara Raje governments did for the poor? he asked. I went to the prime minister's office only once and that too to raise farmers' issues but Modi remained silent and did not utter a single word, he claimed. "Demonetisation and GST have finished the country's economy," he said continuing the attack. Referring to law and order issues, he alleged, "A BJP MLA allegedly raped a woman in UP but the prime minister did not utter a word. They say Beti Bachao, they have forgotten Beti Padhao...BJP se Bachao (save from the BJP)," he said taking a jibe. Targeting Vasundhara Raje, the Congress president alleged that Lalit Modi gave money directly to Raje's son. However, he did not specify when and why Lalit Modi allegedly paid Raje's son Dushyant Singh. On the attack on migrants in Gujarat, he said youths from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were being attacked and forced to leave. "Youth trusted Modi but Modi betrayed their trust," he charged. Rahul exuded confidence that the Congress would win the assembly elections in Rajasthan. He said the Congress government in the state will work as per people's 'Mann ki Baat'. He also urged people to form a Congress government at the Centre which would work for the poor, farmers and youths. He said people should try making RSS and BJP understand that there is no benefit in "dividing" the country. Congress state chief Sachin Pilot targeted Raje, saying she announced free electricity to farmers half an hour before the Model Code of Conduct came in force and asked where she was for over four and a half years. Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and other leaders were also present. tech2 News Staff Flipkart's big billion days sale and Amazon's Great Indian Festival have already begun, and while both are offering massive discounts, they've also announced the use of Aadhaar number to get credit. This is worrying because, as of now, according to the lastest Aadhaar hearing, Supreme Court has decided to strike down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, which means that private entities are no longer allowed to use Aadhaar for verification purposes. It is the flagship sale for both the online retail companies, and we can imagine what it means to them. However, letting people get instant credit upon using Aadhaar and without any credit or debit card doesn't really make sense given the recent verdict. Amazon and Flipkart customers are offered instant loans, if they lack sufficient money or credit, so they can buy during the sale season. Credits up to Rs 60,000 can be taken on both the e-commerce websites. To do so, users will have to enter their PAN and Aadhaar numbers, and then check how much credit has been approved. According to a report by The Times of India, lawyers believe that this offer is in direct violation of the verdict. P Wilson, who is the former additional solicitor general of India, told the publication that "the SC verdict is very clear and there can be no justification for private companies asking for such details." Reuters France has asked Google to remove photos of prisons from the internet, including one from which a notorious criminal known as the the jailbreak king escaped by helicopter this year. Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said she had written to the internet search engine to request the removal of sensitive photos, but no action had been taken. Its not normal that photos of security buildings such as our prisons are out there on the internet, Belloubet said in an interview on RTL radio station. Ive written to Google asking for action to remove (photos of) these penitentiary sites but nothing has happened so far, she said. I may have to ask to meet the people I wrote to. A Google spokesman said applications such as Google Maps and Google Earth drew on images from external sources. We have given our suppliers a list of sensitive locations and asked them to take the necessary steps as soon as possible to conform with the law, said the spokesman, adding that the list also included nuclear plants and army bases. The minister was discussing the case of Redoine Faid, whose escape in July from the open courtyard of a jail complex south of Paris drew attention to the absence of anti-helicopter nets and the presence on the web of clear aerial photos of the site. Faid was recaptured last week, three months after accomplices landed a hijacked helicopter in the yard of Reau prison, hacked their way into an adjacent visitor room with power-grinders to free him, and flew back out. In a previous escape, Faid, a serial robber jailed for a botched cash-transport truck heist in which a policewoman died, took four wardens hostage and used dynamite to blast his way out of another prison. Belloubet said Faid, who has declared himself to be on a hunger strike, was now in solitary confinement and banned from receiving visits at his new prison in northern France, of which photos are also readily accessible on the web. Faid became a notorious semi-celebrity in France after writing a book about his colourful life, describing how he was born into crime in high-rise housing estates of the kind that sprang up around Paris in the 1960s and 1970s. He has said his life of crime was inspired by blockbuster films such as Scarface and Reservoir Dogs. Sheldon Pinto At the Made by Google launch event held in New York, its now clear that Google has mastered the art of doing more with less. And thats a good thing. Google unveiled the successors to its Pixel smartphone line-up with the standard-sized Pixel 3 (for normal humans) and a bigger Pixel 3 XL which basically gets you the same core features with a bigger battery and a gigantic display notch (more like a notch with a display attached to it) for those who are into that stuff. But as was witnessed from the presentation at the launch event, Google didnt talk specifications. In fact, Liza Ma, a Google product manager, and Brian Rakowski, vice president of product management, barely touched upon hardware, save for when it came to design (and a mention of the new security chip). This again shows Googles reliance on software innovation, while other manufacturers battle it out to deliver smartphones with triple cameras and even quad-cameras on the back of their devices. While lesser hardware also means lower component costs for Google, it also helps the Pixel brand deliver a slimmer design giving them more space inside to add other critical components, like new security chip called Titan M. In short, with just one camera at the back, your smartphone will look less intimidating to your subjects as well. So, as Huawei (P20 Pro) and Samsung (Galaxy A7) keep adding cameras at the back, Google makes them look like fools, by delivering similar or even better image quality using just one camera using the power of machine learning, computer vision and software. Googles Pixel 3 camera innovations indeed make the new cameras on Apples iPhone XS look drab and old school. While we have yet to compare the two camera behemoths in a detailed camera comparison, lets have a look at what the new Pixel 3 delivers using just software and a single camera. Top Shot The new feature reduces the need to re-take a picture that either came out blurry, with closed eyes or a composition that usually gets missed out when our shots are not timed right. Top Shot basically is a built-in feature that does not need to be activated but works out-of-the-box in the default camera mode. Click a picture with Motion set to ON or AUTO and if someone blinked, you simply tap to open the image you just clicked and Top Shot will get you a number of images both before and after your capture, that has been stored in the camera buffer. These are high-quality HDR images that have been shot before and even after the image you have captured almost giving you the ability time travel. The cool bit here is that this works for images that you have just clicked (with Motion ON/AUTO) and can be handpicked at a later time as well since all the images are stored. This will however take up some space. Super Res Zoom Aptly named, this is Pixels version of digital zoom that lets you take clearer photos using the same camera at the back (theres only one here, to begin with). But instead of just cropping the output from the sensor as most other smartphones do, the Pixel 3 will shoot a burst of photos, as your hand naturally moves (pitches) back and forth while composing. Then it uses data from all the images to deliver more detailed images when zoomed in, than what you get from a regular digital zoom mode on other smartphones.. As mentioned by Brian Rakowski, the same technology is being used to image the surface of Mars. So yes, the inspiration is out of this world indeed. Group Selfie Cam Indeed, this is the one area where Google did add an extra camera (or hardware), on the front. The setup delivers wider selfie shots branded as the Group Selfie Cam that will not only widen the field of view, but also helps you get more people in the frame. While other manufacturers like Oppo have done this in the past, Googles implementation of the same in the camera UI makes the transition from standard to wide, smooth and seamless using just the scrubber at the bottom to zoom out of a frame while shooting using the selfie camera. Night Sight Night Sight is an upcoming feature that again uses the power of machine learning to produce vibrant photographs in dim or low light conditions. The enhancement uses machine learning to determine the right colours in a dimly lit scene. Google at the presentation claimed that this almost eliminates the need for using a flash that often results in blown out highlights in low light images. Night Sight arrives on the Google Pixel 3 and older Pixel devices in November. Motion Auto Focus If you have subjects (kids, pets) that are too active to stay still and pose for you, the Pixels Motion Auto Focus may be the solution. All you have to do is tap on your subject and the camera will track and keep the subject in focus all the time. Advanced Portrait Mode While the Portrait mode using a single lens blew us away last year, Google has added some improvements to the mode that lets you tweak those photos as well. The Portrait mode now lets you edit the depth of field, change the focal subject of the photograph and even adjust the colours, like on an iPhone. Google has indeed turned smartphone photography into a science by using complicated algorithms to process the minutest difference between photographs to deliver better quality images using minimal camera hardware. Thankfully, all of those complicated calculations are done behind the scenes, meaning all of you can focus on capturing the moment. tech2 News Staff Launching the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL at an event in New York, Google also announced the rebranding of its augmented reality stickers feature to Playground. As per what was announced on stage, Playground will now exist as a mode within the Pixel camera and it will suggest new AR animations to fit the scene youre in. As per a report by The Verge, this works while using the front as well as the rear-facing lenses. That's not all. Leaving aside the rebranding, Google is also launching four new AR animation packs, calling them Playmoji. For the uninitiated, Googles AR stickers are basically a trick up Google's sleeve to take on Apple's Animoji feature which debuted last year. You can drop animated characters, sometimes promotional ones like Star Wars stormtroopers or the Stranger Things crew into the frame of your camera and enhance your Instagram game in the process. As per the report, the new "Playmoji" packs include a bunch of animated pets, interactive signs and visuals, weather effects and a host of other comic-strip styled animations. These new packs should be accessible directly from the Play Store or through the Playground camera mode on the phone. Google has also joined hands with Marvel, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to bring themed AR stickers to Pixel phones. Later this year, a Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino themed AR sticker pack is also expected to arrive. While these are impressive considering Google's ARCore is at the helm of it all, but we would love Playground to be available on more devices, rather than having it as a Pixel exclusive feature. tech2 News Staff There is no place for bullying on Instagram...As the new Head of Instagram, Im proud to build on our commitment to making Instagram a kind and safe community for everyone, Instagrams newly appointed chief Adam Mosseri writes in his first blog addressing the users of the platform. In these efforts, Instagram has announced a new set of anti-cyberbullying features. The platform has also announced a new machine learning algorithm that will be able to scan photo posts and captions to detect bullying. The detected posts will then be sent to Instagrams community moderators for review. This basically means the machine learning algorithm could help put the posts to rest where harassers just scrawl out threatening or defamatory notes and then post a photo of them to bypass Instagrams text filters for bullying. Be it text or a photo, the machine learning tech is meant to filter through both. This feature will be rolled out to all Instagram users in the next few weeks. It was back in May, that Instagram had launched the text filter for bullying. Now, the platform is extending this feature to the Live Videos as well. This is now globally available for all live videos. In addition to that, Instagram is also introducing a new camera effect to help spread kindness in Stories. We tried out this feature on Instagram Stories. While the new face filter has started to show up, it doesnt seem to be working for us. We tried to shut and reboot the app and then try out the filter as well, but it just doesn't seem to be working. Below is my disappointed face. This filter has been launched in partnership with New York Times best-selling teen author, dancer and actor, Maddie Ziegler, who has been speaking out against online bullying since she started experiencing it. Reuters Microsoft Corp said on 9 October its expanded Azure cloud service to help government clients save data on their own servers would be available by the end of the first quarter of 2019, as it battles with Amazon.com for a $10 billion Pentagon contract. The two companies are left in the fray for the lucrative contract after Alphabet Incs Google dropped out on 8 October, saying the companys new ethical guidelines do not align with the project. Pentagons JEDI, or Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, cloud computing solution contract is part of the Department of Defenses efforts to modernize its IT infrastructure. The expanded Azure Government Secret cloud service will make Microsoft a strong option for the JEDI contract, said Julia White, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure, adding that the company is capable of meeting the highest classification requirement for handling top secret US classified data. Reuters Microsoft is investing in Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm Grab as part of a partnership that the two companies said will allow them to collaborate on technology projects, including big data and artificial intelligence. The companies did not disclose the deal value. Grab had earlier said it planned to raise roughly $3 billion by year-end, of which it has already raised $2 billion. Last week, Reuters reported that existing backer SoftBank Group was closing in on a deal to invest about $500 million in Grab as part of the funding round. Sources told Reuters that Grab is likely to tap strategic and financial firms for the remainder of the funding. Before the 9 October deal, it raised $2 billion in 2018, led by Toyota Motor and financial firms, including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allens Vulcan Capital. Singapore-headquartered Grab has taken its ride-hailing business to 235 cities in eight countries in Southeast Asia in the past six years. It is looking to transform itself into a leading consumer technology group, offering services such as food and parcel deliveries, electronic money transfers, micro-loans and mobile payments, besides ride-hailing. Grab will work with Microsoft to explore mobile facial recognition, image recognition and computer vision technologies to improve the pick-up experience, the companies said in a statement on 9 October. For example, passengers will be able to take a photo of their current location and have it translated into an actual address for the driver. Other areas of the five year-agreement include Grab adopting Microsofts Azure as its preferred cloud platform and using it for data analytics and fraud detection services. Southeast Asia, home to some 640 million people, is shaping up as a battleground for global technology giants such as Alibaba, Tencent Holdings Ltd, JD.com, Google and SoftBank, particularly in ride-hailing, online payments and e-commerce. Competition for Grab is heating up with Indonesian rival Go-Jek also expanding in the region. Indo-Asian News Service Engineers at American aerospace company Lockheed Martin are using Microsoft's mixed reality smartglass HoloLens to build NASA's Orion spacecraft designed to transport humans to destinations such as the Moon and eventually Mars, and return them safely back to Earth, the MIT Technology Review reported. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor building NASA's Orion spaceship. The technicians at the firm use the HoloLens to learn a task or check the directions in 15-minute increments rather than for a constant feed of instructions. For the team constructing the heat shield skeleton of Orion, the new technology takes the place of a 1,500-page binder full of written work instructions, thereby helping them to perform tasks faster, said the report on Tuesday. NASA's partnership with Microsoft on HoloLens is not new. In 2015, the US space agency announced that it was teaming up with the software giant to develop Sidekick, a new project using commercial technology to empower astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Sidekick uses Microsoft HoloLens to provide virtual aid to astronauts working off the Earth, for the Earth. A pair of the devices was launched to the ISS on December 6, 2015. In 2017, Microsoft said that NASA was using the HoloLens to find the best places on Mars to build bases that would one day house astronauts exploring the planet. Rather than putting users in a fully computer-generated world, as virtual reality does, HoloLens allows users to place 3D digital models in the room alongside them. Madhavan Narayanan It is not surprising that Facebook-owned WhatsApp has decided to fall in line with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) demand to store critical financial data in local storage silos in the virtual world. With 200 million users in the country equal to 10 times the population of all of Australia WhatsApp has a huge market to lose if it decides to ignore or fight regulation in the world's fastest growing economy. Only this week, Facebook celebrated its 'India Startup Day' with a plan to double the number of developers it supports through various means to 100,000, within a year as part of a project that talks of "coding for a billion." In the emerging landscape of Digital India, Facebook is the platform for social connectivity spanning various languages in a country where people in remote areas are easily linked by increasingly cheaper smartphones. In such a backdrop, WhatsApp connections constitute the virtual equivalent of a bank or e-commerce platform once a combination of a payments mechanism is loaded on a growing potential user base much higher than the current WhatsApp count. Why would Facebook founder and the reigning lord of Instagram and WhatsApp, Mark Zuckerberg, want to miss out on the financial party? Wall Street would rely heavily on Facebook's "India Story" for the company's share price to move strong. The framework is already in place in India for mobile wallets and payments including payment banks, and time is of importance for WhatsApp to catch up with the likes of Paytm and Google Pay assuming WhatsApp also conforms well to know-your-customer requirements. Local data storage has been the biggest obstacle thus far, apart from an image challenge linked to the spread of rumours and fake news on the popular messenger service. There is no doubt that there is now a nationalist lobby within the Internet sector. It is a strange beast fed by Japanese and Chinese money from the likes of Softbank and Alibaba, but nevertheless nurturing ambitions of forming an economic moat that protects Indian entrepreneurs and startups. An emerging consensus around data protection built around the proposed data protection law clearly underlines not just the ownership of data in the hands of those who generate the personal data, but it also calls out for a policing and regulatory mechanism to supervise or prosecute transgressions. The demand for local storage of vital financial data is but a logical conclusion from this. No doubt this is a pain for WhatsApp and other foreign players who would rather have a "mirror copy" in India of data stored elsewhere. But they face RBI's 15 October deadline-laden diktat. Even if the deadline is stretched, it would take time for Facebook and others to wade through a labyrinth of lobbying measures as the Srikrishna committee's draft data protection law forms a back-up to a thinking that what happens in India must be policeable in India. The panel's draft requiring that "critical" data should be stored "only" in Indian servers looms alongside the RBI rules. There is a huge opportunity out there, and local players like Paytm and Flipkart-linked PhonePe are keen on data localisation. Given Facebook Inc's commitment to India as a long-term market, it would be too much of a business risk for WhatsApp to not comply with local data regulation demands amid growing competition. Representatives of Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Google, Amazon and Facebook have met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, to secure an extension of the deadline for local storage of payments data. As far as the Srikrishna draft is concerned, it would be unwise to expect a quick decision on the issue from an election-bound government that must wear its nationalistic colours on its sleeves. To "hasten slowly" must now be the best option then for the US-centric big brands and that means conforming as much, but as slow as possible, with protectionist or locally concerned regulations. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) that has a significant presence of leading US giants has been quibbling over the draft data protection bill, and all signs are that this is going to be a long haul, even if it manages to get some leeway. From all indications, Amazon is also gearing to comply with data storage norms that enable local control as it prepares to unroll its own payment universe to power its e-commerce ambitions. In a world where "data is money" the giant purveyors of data, inspite of regulatory restrictions that increase the cost of business, stand to gain from emerging opportunities. Therefore, the chances are high that they will fight to reduce the headaches and get the playing field as level as possible, to reduce the height of the economic moat that the digital nationalists are pleading for. Financial payments are possibly the most challenging ground for regulators and law enforcers but the juiciest link to build growth for the big players. A tug-of-war between startups and giants alike, it is likely to continue for some time to set rules that would minimise threats and maximise opportunities for each. The author is a senior journalist and commentator. He tweets @madversity. Jaideep Sarin When Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh flew over Punjab and Haryana last week, he admitted he saw agriculture fields emitting plumes of smoke at several places meaning that stubble-burning of the harvested paddy crop was taking place with impunity in both agrarian states despite official strictures. Despite threats of action including registration of legal cases as well as incentives in the form of subsidies for machines and equipment and awareness campaigns, farmers in north India continue to go in for the "quicker" option of getting rid of the crop residue to get their fields ready for the next crop. Stubble-burning of paddy straw to clear fields The residue burning chokes the whole of north India during the winter months (November to January) with heavy smog (smoke+fog) over the region. National capital Delhi and nearby areas are the worst affected by the smog. "We have westerly winds in this part (of the region) coming from Afghanistan and blowing towards Punjab and Delhi. That is why this (smog) problem arises in Delhi," Amarinder Singh said. Paddy is grown over 65 lakh acres in Punjab. After harvesting, over 20 million tonnes of paddy, straw is left in the fields to be managed by farmers before sowing the next rabi crops (wheat and others). It is estimated that 15 million tonnes of paddy straw is burnt by farmers for early and easy clearance of the fields. Punjab alone contributes 65 per cent of the total residue produced by the northwestern states. The claims of the Punjab and Haryana governments notwithstanding, stubble-burning continues to be a ground reality as farmers say that they don't have alternative ways of getting rid of the crop residue. Beginning of paddy harvest season In "Green Revolution" state of Punjab, which is targetting a bumper paddy procurement of 200 lakh tonnes this season (October 1 to November 30), there are over 17.5 lakh farming families. Over 10 lakh (one million) of them have land holdings of two to five acres and cannot afford to go in for mechanised farming. With the paddy harvesting season starting and the fear of environment pollution looming large due to stubble-burning by farmers, the Punjab government has decided to appoint nodal officers in 8,000 paddy growing villages in a move to check the menace. The nodal officers will undertake various activities, ranging from holding meetings with the farmers, arranging Crop Residue Management (CRM) machines and distribution of awareness material in villages, besides making announcements in gurdwaras or by other modes. The villages have been identified by the Punjab Agriculture Department as those where paddy stubble is traditionally being burnt, an official said here.\ "The Punjab government is committed to achieve zero paddy straw burning in the state. It has been decided that senior administrative secretaries of Punjab shall be allotted districts for monitoring of the activities related to stopping of crop residue burning," the official said. The Punjab Pollution Control Board has been asked to ensure that all the incidents of paddy residue burning are properly recorded through satellite imagery and the report of burning incidents are shared with the concerned administrative secretaries, deputy commissioners and other related officers for action on the ground. An incentive for farmers that comply "All Deputy Commissioners have already been asked to depute officials for each of the affected villages to spread awareness on the dangers of stubble-burning for health and environment," Additional Chief Secretary (Development) Viswajeet Khanna said. "As many as 24,315 subidised agro-machines and other equipment are being supplied to the farmers, Cooperative Societies and Custom Hiring Centres to achieve zero burning of paddy straw," a Punjab government spokesperson said. Amarinder Singh had recently written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking Rs 100 per quintal as compensation only for those farmers who abstain from burning paddy residue under the state government's ambitious programme for management of paddy straw. "The compensation should be given only to those farmers who refrain from burning paddy residue," Amarinder said in the communication. The use of new machines for managing crop residue puts an additional burden of Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 per acre on the farmers, which they are unable to afford. Youth clubs in Punjab's villages have been asked to chip in to spread awareness among farmers against burning of paddy residue. Farmers who have not burnt the paddy in the last few years are being urged to interact with their peers. In neighbouring Haryana, where paddy procurement is around 60 lakh tonnes, the state government has earmarked Rs 137.84 crore for crop residue management during the current financial year, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister O P Dhankar said. Dhankar said that 900 Custom Hiring Centres were being established at a distance of every 50 km in the state to collect crop residue at one place. After a Supreme Court ruling last year, the central government sanctioned Rs 665 crore for 2018-20 to generate awareness and boost the use of subsidised machinery for processing the crop residue instead of burning it in Punjab. Of this, Rs 269 crore is being spent this year, while Rs 396 crore will be spent in 2019. However, stubble-burning is on the rise in both states despite scores of farmers being booked by the authorities. The Spanish holiday island of Majorca witnessed devastating flash floods after the Mediterranean island was pounded with heavy rain in just a few hours on Wednesday Madrid: Torrential rainstorms that caused flash flooding of water and mud on the Spanish island of Mallorca (Majorca) killed at least nine people, authorities said on Wednesday. A spokeswoman with the regional emergency service said two British nationals and a Dutch woman were among the victims, but she couldn't confirm whether six more people were still missing at midday as local media reported. The Britons and two local residents died in the town of Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, the town's deputy mayor, Antonia Bauza, told Cadena SER radio. Sant Llorenc, which is about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of Mallorca's capital, Palma, is where a dry creek overflowed amid heavy downpours, creating a strong current of water and mud that buried cars and tore trees along the way, according to witness accounts. The Balearic Islands' emergency services spokeswoman, who wasn't authorized to be named in media reports, told The Associated Press that the body of a Dutch woman was recovered from the garage of a house in Arta, another nearby town. Other victims were found in Arta and the coastal town of S'illot, where the overflowed creek reaches the sea. Public broadcaster TVE showed footage of flooded streets and overturned cars along the guardrails of a major road. "It all happened in less than 10 minutes," an unidentified witness with wet clothes and a blanket over his shoulders told TVE. "We had to swim to try to survive." Authorities said 80 soldiers and seven vehicles from the military's emergency unit had joined Wednesday more than 100 rescuers who had been working in the area overnight. At least three towns closed schools and hundreds of people were sheltered in sport facilities and a local horse racing track, authorities said. The flooding also affected phone communications, destroyed two bridges and forced the closure of 11 roads. Some parts of the island received up to 23 centimeters (nine inches) of rainfall in around four hours on Tuesday evening, national weather authorities reported. The weather agency, AEMET, said more heavy rainfall is expected Wednesday in eastern and southern parts of the Iberian peninsula. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called news of the flooding "devastating " on Twitter: "My solidarity and support goes out to the families and friends of victims and all the affected by these tragic floods." Sanchez will be flying to the area later Wednesday, his office said. The National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Michael is expected to slam ashore later in the day along the Florida Panhandle Panama City: Hurricane Michael swelled to an 'extremely dangerous' category four storm as it rumbled toward the Gulf Coast of Florida early on Wednesday in what forecasters warned was an unprecedented weather event for the area. The National Hurricane Center said the storm is now packing maximum wind gusts of 210 kilometers, could grow even more and is expected to slam ashore later in the day along the Florida Panhandle or Big Bend area as a "life-threatening event". As outer rainbands from the storm began to lash the coast, the center said a monster storm surge of up to four meters is expected in some areas. Separately, the National Weather Service (NWS) office in the state capital Tallahassee issued a dramatic appeal for people to comply with evacuation orders. They tweeted saying "Hurricane Michael is an unprecedented event and cannot be compared to any of our previous events. Do not risk your life, leave NOW if you were told to do so," The hurricane was forecast to make landfall somewhere along the Florida Panhandle a finger-shaped strip of land on the Gulf of Mexico or the Big Bend, which connects the former to the peninsula jutting south. The storm was expected to bring hurricane force winds and heavy rainfall, the Miami-based NHC said. It will then move across the southeastern US for another day or so as it heads toward the Atlantic. The NWS office in Tallahassee said it had searched its historical database for category four hurricanes the second highest level on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale that made landfall in the panhandle and Big Bend and found none. It posted a map of the coast on its tweeter feed. "This map says it all it's BLANK this situation has NEVER happened before," the office said. Governor Rick Scott has activated 2,500 members of the National Guard and warned Michael could be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida Panhandle in decades. President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration for the state, freeing up federal funds for relief operations and providing the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and even tweeted. FLORIDA - It is imperative that you heed the directions of your State and Local Officials. Please be prepared, be careful and be SAFE! #HurricaneMichael https://t.co/VP6PBXfzm9 pic.twitter.com/aKmaDNgZve Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2018 State officials issued disaster declarations in Alabama and Georgia, both of which are also expected to feel the impact from the storm. As of 06.00 am, Michael was about 290 kilometers south of Panama City and moving north at 19 kph. Flash flood, tornado warnings The NHC said some areas of the Florida coast could expect storm surges of nine to 13 feet and as much as a foot of rain. The heavy rains could cause flash floods, the NHC said, and spawn tornados in northwestern Florida. About 1,20,000 residents were under mandatory evacuation orders in Bay County in the panhandle, a low-lying area of beachfront resorts and retirement communities. In other areas, residents of mobile homes were urged to leave. Michael was forecast to have the power to uproot trees, block roads and knock out power for days when it hits Florida. It is expected to weaken as it moves up into the southeastern US. Drivers waited in long lines at gas stations and residents hurried to fill sandbags, while tolls were suspended on some roads to aid movement ahead of the storm's landfall. "Since 6:00 am it's been backed up. We're just now running out of regular (gasoline)," Danny Hess, an employee at a gas station in Panama City, told local WJHG television. The Carolinas are still recovering from Hurricane Florence, which left dozens dead and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage last month. It made landfall on the coast as a Category 1 hurricane on 14 September and drenched some parts of the state with 40 inches of rain. Last year saw a string of catastrophic storms batter the western Atlantic including Irma, Maria and Harvey, which caused a record-equaling $125 billion in damage when it flooded the Houston metropolitan area. Scientists have long warned that global warming will make storms more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible. At their most fearsome, these low-pressure weather fronts pack more power than the energy released by the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima. Hurricane Michael is one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., and the proof is strewn across miles of Florida's coastline: Roofs and awnings peeled from buildings, pieces of homes scattered amid snapped trees and downed power lines, chunks of beaches washed away. Hurricane Michael is one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., and the proof is strewn across miles of Florida's coastline: Roofs and awnings peeled from buildings, pieces of homes scattered amid snapped trees and downed power lines, chunks of beaches washed away. After landfall in Florida, Michael's strong winds and heavy rains will thrash Georgia and the Carolinas next, including areas that got a soaking last month from Hurricane Florence. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods. It was the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years. Its winds shrieking, the Category 4 storm crashed ashore in the early afternoon near Mexico Beach, a tourist town about midway along the Panhandle, a lightly populated, 200-mile stretch of white-sand beach resorts, fishing towns and military bases. Michael battered the shoreline with sideways rain, powerful gusts and crashing waves, swamping streets and docks, flattening trees, stripped away leaves, shredding awnings and peeling away shingles. It also set off transformer explosions and knocked out power to more than 190,000 homes and businesses. "We are catching some hell," said Timothy Thomas, who rode out the storm with his wife in their second-floor apartment in Panama City Beach. With the hurricane still pounding the state hours after it came ashore, and conditions too dangerous in places for search-and-rescue teams to go out, there were no immediate reports of any deaths or serious injuries. Michael was a meteorological brute that sprang quickly from a weekend tropical depression, going from a Category 2 on Tuesday to a Category 4 by the time it came ashore. It was the most powerful hurricane on record to hit the Panhandle. "I've had to take antacids I'm so sick to my stomach today because of this impending catastrophe," National Hurricane Center scientist Eric Blake tweeted as the storm drawing energy from the unusually warm, 84-degree Gulf waters became more menacing. More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast were urged to evacuate as Michael closed in. But the fast-moving, fast-strengthening storm didn't give people much time to prepare, and emergency authorities lamented that many ignored the warnings and seemed to think they could ride it out. "While it might be their constitutional right to be an idiot, it's not their right to endanger everyone else!" Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson tweeted. Diane Farris, 57, and her son walked to a high school-turned-shelter near their home in Panama City to find about 1,100 people crammed into a space meant for about half as many. Neither she nor her son had any way to communicate because their lone cellphone got wet and quit working. "I'm worried about my daughter and grandbaby. I don't know where they are. You know, that's hard," she said, choking back tears. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 45 miles (75 kilometers) from Michael's center. Forecasters said rainfall could reach up to a foot (30 centimeters), and the life-threatening storm surge could swell to 14 feet (4 meters). A water-level station in Apalachicola, close to where Michael came ashore, reported a surge of nearly 8 feet (2.5 meters). Based on its internal barometric pressure, Michael was the third most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland, behind the unnamed Labor Day storm of 1935 and Camille in 1969. Based on wind speed, it was the fourth-strongest, behind the Labor Day storm (184 mph, or 296 kph), Camille and Andrew in 1992. It appeared to be so powerful that it was expected to remain a hurricane as it moved into Alabama and Georgia early Thursday. Forecasters said it will unleash damaging wind and rain all the way into the Carolinas, which are still recovering from Hurricane Florence's epic flooding. At the White House, President Donald Trump said the government is "absolutely ready for the storm." ''God bless everyone because it's going to be a rough one," he said. "A very dangerous one." In Mexico Beach, population 1,000, the storm shattered homes, leaving floating piles of lumber. The lead-gray water was so high that roofs were about all that could be seen of many homes. In Panama City, plywood and metal flew off the front of a Holiday Inn Express. Part of the awning fell and shattered the glass front door of the hotel, and the rest of the awning wound up on vehicles parked below it. "Oh my God, what are we seeing?" said evacuee Rachel Franklin, her mouth hanging open. The hotel swimming pool had whitecaps, and people's ears popped because of the drop in barometric pressure. The roar from the hurricane sounded like an airplane taking off. Meteorologists watched satellite imagery in complete awe as the storm intensified. "We are in new territory," National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. "The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle." Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach said in an email: "I really fear for what things are going to look like there tomorrow at this time." The storm is likely to fire up the debate over global warming. Scientists say global warming is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather, such as storms, droughts, floods and fires. But without extensive study, they cannot directly link a single weather event to the changing climate. With Election Day less than a month away, the crisis was seen as a test of leadership for Scott, a Republican running for the Senate, and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum , the Democratic nominee for governor. Just as Northern politicians are judged on how they handle snowstorms, their Southern counterparts are watched closely for how they deal with hurricanes. Thousands of evacuees sought shelter in Tallahassee, which is about 25 miles from the coast but is covered by live oak and pine trees that can fall and cause power outages even in smaller storms. As winds started to topple trees in Tallahassee, one of them landed on Joe Marino's chimney. "It was like an earthquake. The bookshelf shook and a frame fell down," he said. "It was weird. We went outside and you could smell the pine, and there it was, laying on the chimney." Marino, who lives with his girlfriend and her grandmother, said water started dripping through the chimney, and they feared the wind would send the tree crashing through the roof. They planned to stay on the first floor. "Upstairs is a no-go zone," he said. Only a skeleton staff remained at Tyndall Air Force Base, situated on a peninsula just south of Panama City. Hundreds of military families were moved out, and the base's aircraft, which include F-22 Raptors, were flown to safety hundreds of miles away. In St. Marks, John Hargan and his family gathered up their pets and moved to a raised building constructed to withstand a Category 5 after water from the St. Marks River began surrounding their home. Hargan's 11-year-old son, Jayden, carried one of the family's dogs in a laundry basket in one arm and held a skateboard in the other as he waded through calf-high water. Hargan, a bartender at a riverfront restaurant, feared he would lose his home and his job to the storm. "We basically just walked away from everything and said goodbye to it," he said, tears welling up. "I'm freakin' scared I'm going to lose everything I own, man." J. Michael Holloway, an independent on the ballot in Tennessees 30th State House district, on Wednesday announced his endorsement and support for Joda Thongnopnua, the Democratic nominee seeking the open seat. Mr. Holloway, an attorney and East Brainerd native, stated that while his name is on the ballot, he was urging voters in Tennessees 30th State House district to vote for Mr. Thongnopnua for the seat. After picking up papers and subsequently qualifying for the ballot in April, Mr. Holloway said he determined that Mr. Thongnopnua is the best candidate for the job. Mr. Holloway said at a press conference at the election office, Over the past several months, its become clear to me that Joda is the best choice for District 30 and Tennessee. He has demonstrated he will show up, work hard, and get things done for working families in our community. Although I will be on the ballot on Election Day, I encourage every voter in District 30 to vote Joda for State Representative. Holloway cited Mr. Thongnopnuas experience running a local non-profit and working with elected leaders from both parties as reasons for supporting him. As an independent, he said he was choosing to support the candidate "he believed would work across the aisle and focus on problem-solving over partisanship." Mr. Holloway said, Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am not a partisan person. I have voted for candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as candidates from third parties and Independent candidates. I believe in Jodas vision and his commitment to work with people of all walks of life and across party lines. Politics is as divided as ever and we need public servants willing to bridge that divide and go to work for Tennesseans. Im confident that Joda will do that and I'm confident that Joda is the kind of leader we need. Mr. Holloway said he had intended on seeking the seat aggressively prior to the announcement of an addition to their family. He and his wife, Donna, are expecting their first child in early November. While the deadline to remove his name from the ballot has passed, Mr. Holloway said he would be out on the campaign trail in the final weeks of the election to let voters know of his support for the Thongnopnua candidacy. Mr. Thongnopnua said, after discussing the race with Mr. Holloway, it was clear that the two candidates had several values and priorities in common. He said, I am honored by Michaels support. Hes a capable attorney and a guy who has the best interests of his community at heart. When we sat down and talked, I couldnt help but notice how many priorities we both shared. From an opportunity to continue reforming our criminal justice system to ensuring every Tennessean has a shot at the American Dream, Michael and I are on the same page. Esther Helton, East Ridge City Council member, is running as a Republican for the seat being vacated by Marc Gravitt, who was elected to head the register of deeds office. By Orhan Coskun, Sarah Dadouch and Stephen Kalin ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Jamal Khashoggi believed he was safe in Turkey. Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist and newspaper editor, had lived in exile in Washington for more than a year, writing a column for the Washington Post in which he regularly criticised his country's crackdown on dissent, its war in Yemen and sanctions imposed on Qatar. By Orhan Coskun, Sarah Dadouch and Stephen Kalin ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Jamal Khashoggi believed he was safe in Turkey. Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist and newspaper editor, had lived in exile in Washington for more than a year, writing a column for the Washington Post in which he regularly criticised his country's crackdown on dissent, its war in Yemen and sanctions imposed on Qatar. He said he could write freely in the United States in a way that was impossible at home, according to friends and colleagues, but he was increasingly worried that Riyadh could hurt him or his family. In Turkey, though, Khashoggi had friends in high places, including some of President Tayyip Erdogan's advisers. So when he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2, he hoped the appointment would be brief, a simple bureaucratic task that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee, whom he had met four months earlier. "He said the safest country in the world for Saudi Arabians was Turkey," said Yasin Aktay, an Erdogan aide and close friend of Khashoggi. Friends and family have not seen him since. Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi, 59, was killed inside the consulate. Saudi Arabia has strongly rejected the accusation. The kingdom's ambassador to the United States, Prince Khalid bin Salman, said reports suggesting Khashoggi went missing in the Istanbul consulate or that Saudi Arabia had killed him "are absolutely false and baseless" and a product of "malicious leaks and grim rumors." "Jamal is a Saudi citizen who went missing after leaving the Consulate," the ambassador said in a statement. Saudi Arabia has sent a team of investigators to work with Turkish authorities and "chase every lead to uncover the truth behind his disappearance." In interviews, Turkish officials provided new details of their investigation into the missing journalist. Two senior Turkish officials revealed the existence of an object that may provide important clues to Khashoggi's fate: the black Apple watch he was wearing when he entered the consulate. The watch was connected to a mobile phone he left outside, they said. Investigators are also focusing on 15 Saudi men who entered the consulate around the same time as Khashoggi and left a short time later. These men had arrived hours earlier from Riyadh, most of them by private plane, the officials said. By the end of the day, they were on their way back to the kingdom. Turkish newspaper Sabah said on Wednesday it had identified the 15 as members of a Saudi intelligence team. They included a forensic expert. A Turkish official did not dispute the report. And investigators are trying to trace a vehicle that left the Saudi consulate at the same time as two cars destined for the airport, one of the officials said. This vehicle didn't turn towards the airport, but set off in the opposite direction. This story is based on interviews with Turkish officials, Khashoggi's fiancee and more than a dozen of his friends, who gave insight into the columnist's state of mind in the days leading up to his disappearance, and explained why he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, not the embassy in his adopted home of Washington. The case threatens to drive wedges between Saudi Arabia and Turkey and between Riyadh and its western allies. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Oct. 9 he plans to speak with Saudi Arabian officials about Khashoggi's disappearance. The mystery also threatens to undermine Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's drive to attract foreign investors and new high-tech business to a country that is too dependent on oil revenues. A NEW LIFE Khashoggi met his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who is 23 years his junior, in May at a conference in Istanbul, according to Cengiz and a close friend of the Saudi journalist. Their relationship quickly evolved, and Khashoggi spoke about wanting to start a new life with her. By August, the couple had decided to marry in Turkey, where Cengiz lived, and spend much of their time there. "Jamal bought an apartment in Istanbul and we were furnishing our new home," Cengiz told Reuters on Oct. 9. "We were planning to marry this week before Jamal flew back to Washington." The decision to marry in Istanbul, whose mosques reminded Khashoggi of his hometown Medina, set off a paper chase that ultimately ended in Khashoggi's disappearance. Turkish law required that Khashoggi, who was divorced, provide proof that he did not have a wife. He asked if he could get the document from the Saudi embassy in Washington, according to a friend in Europe, but was told the consulate in Turkey was better placed to help. Cengiz said Khashoggi wouldnt have applied for the document in Istanbul if he could have avoided it. Asked to comment, a Saudi official said it was "not accurate" that Khashoggi was told to go to Istanbul. The friend recounted how he warned Khashoggi against getting the paper in Istanbul for fear the Saudis might arrest him if he set foot in the consulate. "He told me there is no solution except to arrange for this paper with the consulate in Turkey," said the friend, who was in frequent contact with Khashoggi in the days before he disappeared. Khashoggi reassured him, he said, that his good connections in Turkey meant "no one can do anything to harm me in Istanbul." Khashoggi visited the consulate without an appointment on Friday, Sept 28. Cengiz waited outside. That first meeting went smoothly. Khashoggi told Cengiz and several friends that officials in the consulate had treated him politely. They explained the paperwork would take time to prepare. Khashoggi exchanged phone numbers with a consulate official named Sultan so he could call and check on progress, according to three friends. Sultan said the document would be ready early the following week. Reuters has not been able to locate Sultan or confirm his role at the consulate. The consul declined to comment on who Khashoggi spoke to. "He came out smiling. He told me 'inshallah (God willing) I will receive this paper after I come back from London,'" Cengiz said. Confident he would soon have the paperwork he needed, Khashoggi flew to London later the same day to attend a conference. He was asked there by colleagues about the threat he faced from the Saudi authorities for his work, according to some of those present. "One of my colleagues at dinner asked if he saw a possibility that his citizenship would be withdrawn," said Daud Abdullah, director of Middle East Monitor which organized the conference. "He discounted that - he didn't think the authorities would go that far." An exiled Saudi dissident who spoke to Khashoggi in the days before his disappearance, said his friend was worried that he might face interrogation by the Saudis, but nothing more. Another friend, British-Palestinian activist Azzam Tamimi, who saw Khashoggi during that trip to London, said he "didn't seem scared at all. The opposite. He was relaxed and calm." Tamimi saw Khashoggi off at the airport in London. MYSTERY MEN Khashoggi flew back to Istanbul from London on Monday evening, Oct 1. The following morning, he spoke again with consul worker Sultan, who told him to collect the document at 1 p.m the same day. Outside the consulate, a low rise building at the edge of one of Istanbul's business districts, Khashoggi handed Cengiz his two mobile phones, the fiancee told Reuters. He left instructions that she should call Aktay, the Erdogan aide, if he didn't reappear. Khashoggi was wearing his black Apple Watch, connected to one of the phones, when he entered the building. A senior Turkish government official and a senior security official said the two inter-connected devices are at the heart of the investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance. "We have determined that it was on him when he walked into the consulate," the security official said. Investigators are trying to determine what information the watch transmitted. "Intelligence services, the prosecutor's office and a technology team are working on this. Turkey does not have the watch so we are trying to do it through connected devices," he said. Tech experts say an Apple Watch can provide data such as location and heart rate. But what investigators can find out depends on the model of watch, whether it was connected to the internet, and whether it is near enough an iPhone to synchronize. When Khashoggi did not emerge quickly, Cengiz said she at first hoped he had got the document and was talking with consul staff. "But when time passed and employees started leaving the building and he still wasn't out, I panicked," she said. She called Aktay, the Erdogan aide, around 4.30 p.m and told him her fiance was missing. As soon as he received the call, Aktay told Reuters, he contacted Turkish security forces and intelligence officials. "Of course I also called the office of the president, who was in a senior party committee meeting at that point," Aktay said. "After about half an hour, everybody was informed and ready to take the measures needed in this case. And of course then, a long period of tension and expectation started." Local and international media reported Khashoggi's disappearance the next day, Wednesday, Oct. 3. Turkish authorities said there was no evidence to suggest Khashoggi had left the building, and they believed he was still inside. Saudi authorities countered that their citizen had left the consulate and that they were investigating. Two Turkish security sources told Reuters that security camera recordings showed Khashoggi had not left the consulate by either of its two exits. They said that 15 Saudi men had entered the building at around the time Khashoggi went in, having flown into Istanbul earlier in the day, most of them on a private aircraft from Riyadh and some on commercial flights. The men left after "some time" in two cars and returned to the airport, the sources said. They said a third vehicle left at the same time but turned in the opposite direction. Investigators are trying to trace its route by analysing surveillance cameras. The Istanbul consulate referred questions about the 15 men and the vehicles to Saudi authorities, who did not respond to a request for comment. "It is a very mysterious situation. Diplomats that came in private jets, stay in Turkey for a few hours, and leave. It is also very easy for them to pass through security due to their diplomatic immunity," one of the security sources said. According to Flight Tracker, an online flight tracking system, a private plane that brought nine of the men in the early hours of Oct. 2 was registered to a company called Sky Prime Aviation Services. A company official confirmed that Sky Prime Aviation owned the plane and that it was in use on Oct. 2, but gave no further details. He said the firm was owned by a private company registered in Saudi Arabia. Two industry sources said the firm belongs to the Saudi government. The Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment. The other six men arrived on commercial flights, the security source said. The 15 men checked in, briefly, to two hotels, the Movenpick and Wyndham, which are close to the Saudi consulate. The hotels declined to comment. As pressure built on Saudi Arabia to locate their missing citizen, Saudi officials in Istanbul showed a Reuters reporter around the consulate on Saturday, Oct. 6, opening cupboards and inviting him to inspect the ladies' bathroom. A few hours later, Turkish authorities said they believed Khashoggi had been killed. A Saudi source told Reuters that British intelligence believed there had been an attempt to drug Khashoggi inside the consulate that culminated in an overdose. He said the information came from a British intelligence source. Contacted by Reuters, British intelligence did not comment. Asked about this account, a Saudi official said: "This death is not true." REFORM NOT REVOLUTION Khashoggi's message in his columns for the Washington Post was one of reform, not revolution. He often championed political change but did not question the Saudi monarchy as an institution. He criticized the royal family for misusing Saudi's oil wealth and questioned specific policies, such as the war in Yemen and the arrests of Saudi intellectuals and activists. His bumpy relations with the Saudi authorities and the clerical establishment predated the rise of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. In 2003 he was fired as editor-in-chief of reform newspaper Al Watan, less than two months into his tenure, after publishing columns critical of the growing influence of the religious establishment in Saudi Arabia. In 2007, he was named editor-in-chief of Al Watan for a second time but was forced to resign three years later after publishing an article that challenged some elements of Salafism, a branch of Sunni Islam. Khashoggi was also the consummate insider, as an adviser to former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal and a confidant of billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Yet by early 2017, he was feeling the heat again. The authorities ordered him to stop writing and tweeting, then he watched as other writers, including several friends, were detained in a crackdown on dissent in September, 2017. "He was outside (the country), so he didn't return," said his friend, Tamimi. In the United States, he felt he could speak freely. Karen Attiah, his editor at the Washington Post, said it was as if he had rediscovered journalism. "When he was in the newsroom, when I brought him the first time, he became energized. He took a selfie and said, 'I miss this. I miss being in a newsroom.' We spoke about editing and what it was like to talk to writers. He just lit up," she said. An acquaintance said Khashoggi was considering launching new projects from Washington. One idea focused on bringing attention to political prisoners in Saudi Arabia and promoting democracy in the Arab world, said the acquaintance. Attiah, the global opinions editor of the Washington Post, said Khashoggi rarely expressed fears for himself but he was "really torn up" about the pressures on his family. "I did worry about Jamal," she said. "I just thought, 'Who would be so brazen to go after him?'" (Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Editing by Janet McBride and Nick Tattersall) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The report says that action must be taken to ensure that human civilisation becomes a zero-emission project by mid-century. An increasing number of independent studies and official reports released over the past couple of decades, including the voluminous and hugely influential Stern report, have made it absolutely clear that greenhouse gas emissions, mainly those of carbon dioxide, which accounted for over 80 percent going by 2015 data, must be drastically reduced. The latest such report to sound the alarm is one put together for policymakers by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report says that action must be taken to ensure that human civilisation becomes a zero-emission project by mid-century to cap global temperature rise by 1.5C rather than the 2C earlier envisioned. To achieve this outcome, the nationally determined contributions envisaged under the Paris agreement on climate change (which was signed in December 2015 and came into effect in November 2016) must be speedily implemented. It says that human action has already caused temperatures to rise by 1C. A rise of 0.5C might not sound catastrophic but the report says that accepting a 1.5C rise rather than a 2C rise could, for instance, save 420 million people from being exposed to heat waves. Global warming and climate change, more generally speaking, pose catastrophic threats to agriculture, public health, biodiversity, cities, the availability of water, which is one of the most stressed of resources, and much else. Therefore, the IPCC report says, unprecedented transitions in all walks of life must be set in motion in the next 10 to 20 years. The global community must ensure that the goal of finalising the Paris agreements implementation guidelines at the annual UN Climate Change Conference this December in Katowice, Poland, is met. This is all very well, except for one small matter. Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the United States, historically the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and currently the second largest after China, contributing 15 percent of global emissions going by 2014 data, has pulled out of the Paris agreement. Without its compliance, meeting the 1.5C target will be all but impossible. When Trump rescinded former president Barack Obamas decision of accession to the deal, the global community was aghast, but it could do precious little to convince the mercurial occupant of the White House. Many groups in the US, including those with corporate interests, have pledged to independently pursue the commitments under the Paris agreements. Even the fossil fuel industry, the most inveterate of climate change deniers, has embraced change. But that might not be enough. In December 2017, for instance, the Trump administration opened part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development and in January, it announced a new, five-year draft plan for offshore drilling leases. These decisions will not only endanger the fragile ecosystem of the area but will also spur a drilling war which, according to US interior secretary Ryan Zinke, is part of a new path for energy dominance in America. This new path can have only one outcome: more emissions of greenhouse gases. On the other hand, the fact that China, which in 2014 contributed almost 30 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions is emphatically on board, is a positive development. The Trump administrations Alaska policy focuses attention yet again on of the big casualties of climate change: the polar glaciers, which are melting at a furious pace. That is not just a concern in itself, because of what is happening to one kind of ecosystem, but also because it is contributing to the rise in sea levels, which especially threatens island nations and riverine, deltaic regions. Think northern India. Let us be clear about one thing though. The Paris agreement was a climbdown from the basic structure of the global architecture of plans to counter climate change laid down in the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997 and came into effect in 2015. It was ratified by all major countries other than the US. Canada pulled out of it in 2012, citing the specious excuse that the US was not a party. The Kyoto Protocol looked at the problem of emissions from a historical perspective, which is to say that it recognised that the already industrialized countries had contributed an overwhelming portion of the stock of GHGs in the atmosphere: over the period 1800-1998, it has been estimated, countries from North America and Europe that were part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development had contributed 46.30 percent, while the Soviet Unions share was 12.50 percent. That works out to a total of almost 60 percent. The Kyoto Protocol, thus, enunciated the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities according to which one set of countries, mainly the developed West and the Warsaw Pact countries, had to take on obligatory and binding emission-reduction targets, while developing countries were to meet targets set by themselves keeping in mind their development needs. They were given what was called an emission space. The developed world was, additionally, given the responsibility of providing funds and technologies to help the developing world pursue cleaner development strategies. Kyoto Protocol targets were not met, primarily because the countries that had apparently been driving the battle against climate change, those of Western Europe, reneged on their commitments. In any case, the basic architecture of the Kyoto Protocol, and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, was junked by the Paris agreement, with the express purpose of bringing the US on board. That objective was secured, when Obama signed up. This fundamental change was a debatable move, but, for the moment, let us accept it was necessary given the urgency of action and the fact that it is the developing world, precisely, that will be worst affected by climate change. With Trumps decision to withdraw from the pact, the justification for the change in the basic architecture of the global regulatory framework has disappeared. Still, it can be argued, given the new IPCC report, that all countries have to put their shoulders to the wheel to get it rolling in the right direction. The question, however, is, despite the pieties of the IPCC, will it be possible to achieve even near zero-emission world without the USs participation? Common sense suggests that it wont. By Devika Krishna Kumar TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - 'Monstrous' Hurricane Michael bore down on northwestern Florida on Tuesday and was expected to strengthen into a powerful Category 3 storm before hitting land on Wednesday, triggering dangerous coastal flooding and bringing high winds and torrential rains. By Devika Krishna Kumar TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - "Monstrous" Hurricane Michael bore down on northwestern Florida on Tuesday and was expected to strengthen into a powerful Category 3 storm before hitting land on Wednesday, triggering dangerous coastal flooding and bringing high winds and torrential rains. Authorities told tens of thousands of residents and tourists in at least 20 Florida counties to evacuate coastal areas along the 200-mile (322 km) long Panhandle and Big Bend region. The storm was expected to hit land around midday Wednesday, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Kenneth Widelski. Michael, carrying top winds of 110 miles per hour (175 km per hour), caused major disruption to U.S. oil production as it headed north over the Gulf of Mexico. It was expected to strengthen into a Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale before hitting land, said the National Hurricane Center, which classifies storms of Category 3 and above as major hurricanes. That would make it the most powerful storm to strike the Panhandle in more than a decade. Authorities stressed the danger of the storm surge, when hurricanes push sea water high above their normal levels causing coastal flooding. Forecasters said Michael could cause a storm surge of up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) above normal sea water levels in Florida. "Hurricane Michael is a monstrous storm and the forecast just keeps getting more dangerous, we are now just hours from seeing impacts," Florida Governor Rick Scott said on Tuesday afternoon. "If you don't follow warnings from officials this storm could kill you," said the Republican governor, who is campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat in the November congressional elections. Producers in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday cut oil production by about 40 percent and natural gas output by 28 percent as Michael approached the coast, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said, citing reports from 27 companies. The Gulf produces 17 percent of daily U.S. crude oil output and 5 percent of daily natural gas output, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The partial shutdown ahead of Michael helped push oil prices slightly higher on Tuesday. Scott declared a state of emergency in 35 counties in Florida's Panhandle and Big Bend regions, mostly rural areas known for small tourist cities, beaches and wildlife reserves, and the state capital, Tallahassee. The hurricane was forecast to deliver as much as 1 foot (30 cm) of rain in parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Western Cuba was also forecast to get torrential rains. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had numerous teams deployed and ready to respond, said FEMA spokesman Jeff Byard. About 2500 National Guard soldiers were assisting and more than 4,000 troops were on standby. Some 13,000 utility restoration workers were also on standby. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House the country was very well prepared for the hurricane, adding it was much bigger than had been expected. 'BUTTONED UP, TIGHTENED DOWN' In Panhandle counties, most state offices, schools and universities were closed for the rest of the week. Lines at gasoline stations grew as people left. Those who stayed emptied grocery store shelves of water and other supplies. Gary Givens, owner of Gary's Oyster Shack in Panama City, Florida, said he was closing his restaurant around lunchtime on Tuesday with the help of his crew ahead of the storm's arrival. But Givens said he was staying put because he owns two businesses in the area. "I just got a crew that came in that are staying also and they're in here helping me get everything buttoned up, tightened down, getting the food secure," Givens said. Some Panama City residents were on the beach enjoying a cool breeze ahead of the storm, while others were loading up cars with luggage, and visitors were checking out of hotels. The last major hurricane to hit the Panhandle was Hurricane Dennis in 2005, according to hurricane centre data. At 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT), Michael's centre was about 310 miles (500 km) south-southwest of Apalachicola, Florida, heading north at around 12 mph (19 kph), the NHC said. On its current track, it would hit land somewhere along a coastline that includes the cities and towns of Fort Walton Beach, Panama City Beach, Port St. Joe, St. Teresa and the wildlife reserves bordering Apalachee Bay. However, forecasters always note it is not possible to say where a hurricane will land until it is closer to the coast. A hurricane warning was in effect for the coastline from the Florida-Alabama border to the Suwannee River in Florida. Torrential downpours and flash flooding from the storm over the weekend caused 13 deaths in Central America. The storm was forecast to move through the southeastern United States on Wednesday night and Thursday, passing through Georgia and the Carolinas, which are still recovering from Hurricane Florence last month. It would head off the Mid-Atlantic coast by Friday, the NHC said. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for 92 counties in the state. (Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Roberta Rampton in Washington, Gina Cherelus and Barbara Goldberg in New York, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Liz Hampton in Houston, Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Frances Kerry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The appointment of Lieutenant General Asim Munir as the new ISI chief is of relevance to India as Pakistan's spy agency is believed to run intelligence operations in the country. Lieutenant General Asim Munir was appointed the new Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. He will take over the post from Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar, who retired from the post of the ISI chief on 1 October. In September, the Pakistan Army had approved the promotion of Munir and five other major generals to the rank of Lieutenant Generals. Munir was earlier the Director General of Military Intelligence. He was also the 2018 recipient of the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, which is Pakistan's second-highest civilian award that is given to both civilians and military officers for "highest degree of service to the State and for services to international diplomacy". The new ISI chief has also served as the commander of the Force Command Northern Areas. The appointment of a new ISI chief is of relevance to India as Pakistan's spy agency is believed to run intelligence operations in the country. Just two days ago, on 8 October, an employee at the BrahMos Aerospace unit in Maharashtra's Nagpur was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squads on suspicion of spying for the ISI and leaking technical secrets to Pakistan. On Wednesday, the Inter-Services Public Relations of Pakistan, the media wing of the Pakistani military , on its website also announced the appointments of Lieutenant General Azhar Saleh Abbasi as the Chief of Logistics Staff at the General Headquarters, Lieutenant General Nadeem Zaki as the Commander of the Mangla Corps, Lieutenant General Shaheen Mazher as the Commander of the Peshawar Corps, Lieutenant General Abdul Aziz as the Military Secretary at the General Headquarters, Lieutenant General Muhammad Adnan as the Vice-Chief of General Staff and Lieutenant General Waseem Ashraf as the Inspector General Arms. Nhlanhla Nene resigned over undisclosed meetings with a business family at the heart of a corruption scandal, dealing a blow to President Cyril Ramaphosa. Cape Town: South African finance minister Nhlanhla Nene resigned Tuesday over undisclosed meetings with a business family at the heart of a corruption scandal, dealing a blow to President Cyril Ramaphosa. Nene was seen as one of Ramaphosa's closest allies and a leading figure in the government's efforts to tackle graft that allegedly flourished under former president Jacob Zuma, who was ousted in February. But Nene revealed to a judicial inquiry last week that he had met with the Gupta business family at their home and offices six times contradicting earlier statements that he had only met them in passing at social occasions. "I have decided to accept his resignation," Ramaphosa told a televised press briefing in Cape Town. He added that Nene feared his testimony to the inquiry "detracted from the important task of serving the people of South Africa particularly as we work to re-establish public trust in government." Ramaphosa stressed that Nene "has not been implicated in any act of wrongdoing himself" and hailed him as a minister who had "defended the cause of proper financial management as well as clean governance." Nene, who was widely respected by investors, served as finance minister from 2014 to 2015 until he was sacked by Zuma and was re-appointed by Ramaphosa earlier this year. Apology letter Nene apologised after giving testimony to the inquiry, which is probing allegations of systematic corruption under Zuma's government involving the three Gupta brothers. "I was wrong in meeting the Guptas at their residence and not in my office or at least a public place," his public apology letter read. "These visits do cast a shadow on my conduct as a public office bearer. I deeply regret these lapses and beg your forgiveness." Former central bank governor Tito Mboweni was named as Nene's successor the fifth finance minister in less than three years. The Guptas are a trio of Indian-born brothers accused of fraudulently profiting from vast government contracts and energy and transport deals under Zuma, who ruled from 2009 to 2018. Ramaphosa has vowed to crack down on corruption as he tries to revive the economy and boost declining support for the ruling ANC party ahead of elections next year. "Ramaphosa is cleaning things up and laying a platform so that he is able to campaign confidently when it is election time," Kwandiwe Kondlo, politics professor at the University of Johannesburg, told AFP. "He was lucky because Nene is the kind of person who would admit when he has made a mistake without being pushed." Kondlo said Mboweni was likely to take a hard line against public sector wage increases, and could provoke friction with the country's influential trade unions. The rand gained 0.9 percent to 14.71 per dollar by 5:25 pm in Johannesburg, reversing an earlier decline of as much as 1.4 percent on the news. 'No one above scrutiny' At the graft inquiry, Nene accused Zuma of pushing policies designed to benefit the Guptas, including a massive nuclear power expansion programme. Nene, speaking under oath at the hearings, also said that his then deputy Mcebisi Jonas was offered his job after Nene refused to back the nuclear proposals. The inquiry, which opened in August, is investigating allegations that Zuma organised the plunder of government departments and public enterprises in a scandal known as "state capture". "No person should be above scrutiny," Ramaphosa said Tuesday, calling on officials to cooperate with the inquiry. The main Opposition Democratic Alliance party welcomed Mboweni's appointment, saying he was a safe pair of hands. "(He) will have the advantage of being able to hit the ground running and is, at least, known to market participants, ratings agencies and international financial institutions," it said. South Africa, Africa's most advanced economy, slipped into recession in the second quarter of this year, and suffers a stubbornly high unemployment of about 28 percent. All eyes will now be on a much anticipated announcement by Moodys on SAs sovereign credit rating on Friday, and Mboweni's maiden medium-term budget policy statement in two weeks. Gaining frightening fury overnight, Hurricane Michael closed in Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic winds of 145 mph, the most powerful storm on record ever to menace the stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches. Panama City: Gaining frightening fury overnight, Hurricane Michael closed in Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic winds of 145 mph, the most powerful storm on record ever to menace the stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches. Meanwhile, North Carolina's governor has declared a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Michael. The storm's path is forecast to run through the state where many are still reeling after last month's Hurricane Florence. With more than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast warned to clear out, the hurricane's leading edge began lashing the white-sand shoreline with tropical storm-force winds, rain and rising seas before daybreak, hours before Michael's center was expected to blow ashore. "I really fear for what things are going to look like there tomorrow at this time," Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach said in an email. The unexpected brute quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression, reaching Category 4 early Wednesday as it drew energy from the Gulf of Mexico's warm waters, an unseasonably high 84 degrees. Less than a day earlier, Michael was a Category 2. "The time to evacuate has come and gone ... SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY," Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted, while the sheriff in Panama City's Bay County issued a shelter-in-place order before dawn. In St. Marks, John Hargan and his family gathered up their pets and evacuated to a raised building constructed to withstand a Category 5 after water from the St. Marks River began surrounding their home. His 11-year-old son, Jayden, carried one of the family's dogs in a laundry basket in one arm and held a skateboard in the other as he waded through calf-high water. Hargan, a bartender at a riverfront restaurant, feared he would lose his home and his job to the storm. "We basically just walked away from everything and said goodbye to it," he said, tears welling up. "I'm freakin' scared I'm going to lose everything I own, man." At 8 a.m. EDT, Michael was centered was about 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Panama City and Apalachicola, moving fast at 13 mph (21 kph). Tropical storm winds extended 185 miles (295 kilometers) from the center, and hurricane-force winds reached out 45 miles (75 kilometers). Rainfall could reach up to a foot (30 centimeters), and the life-threatening storm surge could swell to 14 feet (4 meters). The storm appeared to be so powerful that it is expected to remain a hurricane as it moves over Georgia early Thursday. Forecasters said it will unleash damaging wind and rain all the way into the Carolinas, still recovering from Hurricane Florence's epic flooding. "We are in new territory," National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. "The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle." With Election Day less than a month away, the crisis was seen as a test of leadership for Scott, a Republican running for the Senate, and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for governor. Just as Northern politicians are judged on how they handle snowstorms, their Southern counterparts are watched closely for how they deal with hurricanes. Several hours ahead of landfall, seawater was already lapping over the docks at Massalina Bayou near downtown Panama City, and knee-deep water was rising against buildings in St. Marks, which sits on an inlet south of Tallahassee. Huge waves pounded the white sands of Panama City Beach, shooting frothy water all the way to the base of wooden stairs that lead to the beach. More than 5,000 evacuees sought shelter in the capital city, which is about 25 miles from the coast but is covered by live oak and pine trees that can fall and cause power outages even in smaller storms. Only a skeleton staff remained at Tyndall Air Force Base, situated on a peninsula just south of Panama City. The home of the 325th Fighter Wing and some 600 military families appeared squarely targeted for the worst of the storm's fury, and leaders declared HURCON 1 status, ordering out all but essential personnel. The base's aircraft, which include F-22 Raptors, were flown hundreds of miles away as a precaution. Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Florida Panhandle into north-central Florida. But civilians don't have to follow orders, and authorities feared many failed to heed their warnings to get out. "We've told those who stayed to have their life jackets on when the storm comes," Tress Dameron, Franklin County emergency management coordinator, told The News Herald in Panama City. Meteorologists watched in real time as a new government satellite showed the hurricane's eye tightening, surrounded by lightning that lit it up "like a Christmas tree." "I guess it's the worst-case scenario. I don't think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle," meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com said. "This is going to have structure-damaging winds along the coast and hurricane-force winds inland." The University of Georgia's Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society, called it a "life-altering event," writing on Facebook that he watched the storm's growth on satellite images with a pit in his stomach. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States had no advance knowledge of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggis disappearance, State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said on Wednesday. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that U.S. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States had no advance knowledge of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggis disappearance, State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said on Wednesday. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence intercepted the communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him, citing an unidentified person familiar with the information. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by James Dalgleish) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Back in May, Google introduced Smart Compose in Gmail on the web, which uses machine learning to help you draft emails faster. Now, Google announced that it is bringing Smart Compose to the Gmail mobile app, starting with Pixel 3. Smart Compose will offer writing suggestions as you type and if you like what you see, just swipe right to use it. It is powered by artificial intelligence and will help you draft emails from a lot faster. The Gmail Smart Compose feature will suggest users in completing the sentences in your emails so that you can finish the draft with ease. Since A.I works in the background, you can write an email like you normally would, and Smart Compose will offer suggestions as you type. Smart Compose has already rolled out globally in English and in the coming months, Google is planning on expanding the supporting to four new languages: Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese and more supported device beginning in 2019. Source Dazzling bright white chocolate destined to be a big hit on Instagram is the new brainchild of Cargill, drawing inspiration from the adage that you eat with your... Read More According to the proverb, "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Turns out that the combination is more apt than you might realize. As Motley Fool Answers podcast hosts Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp explain in this episode, a "negative wealth shock" -- defined as the loss of 75% or more of your net worth -- is likely to have a significant impact on your health, and can markedly reduce your lifespan. You read that right: Getting poor can kill you. Since our goal at The Fool is to "make the world smarter, happier, and richer" (why, yes, we did just change our motto!), helping you avoid such unpleasant outcomes is a natural fit for our agenda. So in this segment, Southwick and Brokamp discuss the most common causes of financial disasters, and lay out some moves you can make pre-emptively to keep them from striking you -- or mitigate the effects if they do. A full transcript follows the video. This video was recorded on Oct. 2, 2018. Robert Brokamp: Alison, a few episodes back we discussed this study which found that from 2013 to 2016 there was a twofold increase in the rate at which older Americans [age 65 and older] filed for bankruptcy. Well, thanks to an article sent to me by my favorite podcast co-host... Alison Southwick: That was me, and I sent it over Slack. Brokamp: Yes, you did. That is true. I learned about another study that investigated the fallout from financial calamities. It was discussed in a really good article on Quartz by Corinne Purtill and the study is entitled [ready for this?], Association of a Negative Wealth Shock With All-cause Mortality in Middle-aged and Older Adults in the United States . That's pretty long. It was written by several authors, but the lead author was Dr. Lindsay Pool, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern. This is what they did. The study looked at almost 9,000 middle-aged Americans. They really looked at two things; No. 1, whether they experienced a negative wealth shock of 75% or more over any two-year period from 1994 to 2014. In other words, did their net worth drop 75% or more? And two, their mortality over this period. In other words, were they still alive? And here are the findings. Of these 9,000 people, 9% had a negative net worth. They just didn't have any money or they were so in debt they had a negative net worth. 28% experienced a negative wealth shock. Southwick: Of losing 75% of their wealth? Brokamp: Over any two-year period. 28%. But then -- and here was the real shocker -- those who experienced a negative wealth shock were 50% or more likely to die in the following 20 years. In other words, they didn't just lose their wealth. They lost their health. The stress [part of the reason] that comes from experiencing such a financially traumatic event increased the chances that they would die. Southwick: Or did they lose 75% of their wealth because they were unhealthy to begin with? Brokamp: So they controlled for all kinds of factors, like preexisting health conditions, divorce [at least being divorced beforehand], and all kinds of things so that most of it was just what the effects were of the drop in their net worth. Southwick: Was there a common thread to why people lost 75% of their wealth? Brokamp: They didn't look at that. They just measured how much they had in things, like whether they lost a business, or whether they had a drop in home equity, or whether they had a drop in investments. And definitely one of the events that was most correlated with dying sooner was a foreclosure on your house. And this period, 1994 to 2014, includes the Great Recession, so a lot of people did have that experience in that period. It didn't get into the causes, though, of exactly why their wealth dropped. The bottom line is, dear listeners, that we would like you to avoid a negative wealth shock and we definitely want you to live a long and happy life. So today what we're going to talk about is how to disaster-proof your finances. When you look at what causes a financial disaster, it basically comes down to three categories. No. 1 is a loss of income. It could be a job loss. Layoffs in your industry. I remember back in the day when there were video stores. We would go to a local video store and there was this one woman who worked there. That video store went out of business. We all went to a different video store and she ended up getting a job there. That went out of business. Then she went to work at the local Radio Shack. Radio Shack went out of business. So I think of her a lot when somebody is trying to work hard but just had a series of bad luck. The other reason you'd have a loss of income is disability. Something happens to you medically which means you can't do your job and, of course, for a household in general it could be death. One of the breadwinners in the household passes away. So No. 1 is a loss of income. No. 2 could be an unexpected and unmanageable expense. In most situations that is medical. Some sort of thing that happens that costs you thousands and thousands of dollars. I just had knee surgery and the total cost [not to me, thank goodness, because we have good insurance] was $5,000. And I look at that and I'm like, "What would I have done if I didn't have insurance, or if I didn't have particularly good insurance?" So thank you Motley Fool, by the way, for taking care of my knee. It might not be medical. It could also be car repairs. Home repairs. Having to bail out other relatives. There are lots of reasons why you could have a big-ticket, unexpected expense. And then No. 3 is a significant loss of assets in property. It could be your portfolio takes a significant dive. Now if it's a well-diversified portfolio over this time period, it has recovered, but that is not the case for everyone. They might have had too much of their money in company stock. They might have had a business that went under. It could be, like we mentioned, the home foreclosure. Or for some people it's actually as simple as a loss of transportation. For probably the average people listening to this podcast, if something happened to your car you probably have insurance, or you'd be able to pay. But a lot of people, especially if you're working an hourly job, if you lose your transportation, you've lost a lot of your income, especially if you then have to rely on something like Uber until you can save enough to get another car. Those are the three main reasons why someone had some sort of financial calamity. What can you do about that to either prevent it from happening or when it does happen, mitigate the fallout from it? Here we go. No. 1 is to share the risk with someone else, and by that what I mean is insurance. Health insurance is crucial. Absolutely crucial. When you look at bankruptcies, the No. 1 reason people go bankrupt is because of healthcare expenses. So having good health insurance. Southwick: Easier said than done. Brokamp: Easier said than done. Southwick: In many cases. Brokamp: Yes. Life insurance is the other one. As far as I'm concerned, if someone in your family is relying on your income, you need life insurance. There's really no question about it. If no one relies on your income, you probably don't need it. But if you're a parent, or you're taking care of relatives, or you're a married couple and only one person is earning money, that person needs life insurance, and the person who's not earning money [if you're a stay-at-home parent], that person might need life insurance, too, so that there's enough money to replace and pay for the services that they're providing. Of course, property insurance. If anything happens to your house or your car. I'm a big fan of high-deductible insurance, because it will save you a lot of money. That does mean you have to have some cash on the side, but that's what's that made for, is to take care of these big-ticket expenses that you didn't expect, but to make sure that you're adequately insured for those types of things. I'm sure maybe people right now in the Carolinas are going through this situation with all the flooding hoping that they have enough insurance to cover all that. And the final one is disability, and I said this is the one that's always been more challenging for me. Statistically what many financial planners will point out is that you are more likely to become disabled than to die. You're more likely to become disabled before your normal retirement age than to die before your normal retirement age, and a lot of these stats come from the Social Security Administration. Basically you're three to four times more likely to become disabled before age 65 than to die. Those are the stats. My anecdotal experience is it doesn't happen that often. I even checked this with our head of HR here at The Motley Fool, because we do provide disability insurance as a benefit. How many Fools have ever become disabled? It is pretty rare. This is one of those types of insurance where I don't say you definitely need it. It partially depends on your job. If you're like me, as a writer, I could be pretty physically disabled and still do my job. If you are a surgeon, or if you have a job that requires a lot of physical effort, that to me argues more for disability insurance. I don't have a definite opinion about it. It's definitely something to consider. No. 2 in how to disaster-proof your finances [it's the most boring advice in the world] is have adequate resources to replace your income or to pay for any expense. What that means, of course, is... Southwick: Emergency funds. Brokamp: Emergency funds! Three to six months of must-pay expenses somewhere safe in cash. It's a simple warning, but it's so important. Southwick: Well, it's not boring. You probably think it's boring because it's advice you give to everyone. Brokamp: And everyone gives to everyone. Southwick: But it's still good advice! Brokamp: It's still good advice. But it's not just that. You have other resources if your emergency fund isn't enough or you don't have it. You could rely on home equity. You could rely on your retirement accounts. But before you can even rely on those, you have to build them up. A key component of disaster-proofing your financial plan is start building up assets in any way you can do it but having something you can rely on. Even some forms of life insurance, as well. The key is just to start building that up. Southwick: Say it again. What do you need in your emergency fund? Brokamp: I say three to six months of must-pay expenses and the more you have kids in your house, and the more if you have a mortgage and car payments, you need a bigger emergency fund. If you're single and you rent, you usually take the subway or the metro, you're probably going to be OK if something happens to your job. You have more flexibility. That's the way I think about it. No. 3 is keep your must-pay expenses manageable. What causes a lot of people to get in trouble is they lose their job or they have this big expense and they have no room in their budget. That usually comes down to three related things: one, a big mortgage; two, a big car payment; or three, any other kind of debt. And, of course, mortgages and car loans are just another form of debt, but basically these are things you can't get out of unless you sell those assets. So the more you can keep those manageable, the more you're going to be able to handle any other unexpected event to your financial plan. No. 4 is get your legal documents in order. Again, this is also pretty standard advice. You need the will, you need a living will, and you need to designate your Durable Power of Attorney. And when it comes to disaster-proofing your finances, that one is key and probably underappreciated. If something happens to you and you are in no position to handle your financial affairs, someone has to be able to do that. To pay your bills. File your taxes. Make medical decisions and financial decisions for you. That's pretty important to have in place. You don't want to have a situation where, let's say, someone's in a car accident. They're in a coma and then nobody knows anything about their finances. Nobody is legally able to make any decisions about their finances or their healthcare. You want that in place beforehand. Southwick: If you don't have a Durable Power of Attorney, is there a hierarchy? Like your spouse automatically has [power of attorney], and if you're not married, then your mom? I don't know. Brokamp: It depends on the state. The medical stuff -- doctors will make decisions if it's medically necessary and if your life depends on it. Finances are different. If no one can access your bank account and your mortgage has to get paid, it has to get paid somehow, and you have to go through legal rigmarole to be able to access someone else's checking account and to take over their bills. Southwick: But that's not just Durable Power of Attorney. That's also making sure people have a password to your accounts. Brokamp: And that's the final point. Thank you for leading into that. Basically tell people where to find it all and how to access it all. You make that document. You share it with people who are going to take over if necessary and they know where to find all of this stuff. They don't have to go routing through your files. In fact, that's difficult, because they can't even get into your house legally. It should really all be set up beforehand. Southwick: It's so funny how it starts getting into the nitty-gritty where it's like, "Yeah, make sure they have the Durable Power of Attorney and also a key to your house." I didn't even think about that. Brokamp: And even if it's your brother, you're not allowed to break a window to break into their house to get their legal documents. So yes, you have to take care of all of that ahead of time. Southwick: It's almost like you need to do a fire drill where it's like, "OK, I'm dead. Go!" And then see where the process falls down. "Well, I literally couldn't get into your house to log on to your computer to pay your power bill." Brokamp: Right. Exactly. And then of course, it's not just you, but if something happens to one of your relatives, you're going to have to be the person who's picking up the pieces so you've got to encourage them to do as well. Your siblings. Your parents. Anyone else for whom you might have to step in and take care of something for them. The last two things. One is just work on your relationships and take corrective action if you sense any disaster ahead. We've already talked about divorce. Divorce is financially devastating. That doesn't mean you should stay married to the person, but you definitely want to try to work on that. And if you sense that is happening -- that there's a divorce on the horizon -- you have to take corrective action for yourself. You have to build up your own credit score. You have to build up your own retirement savings. You have to start thinking about your career on your own, and things like that. But also, in any situation where someone needs help, who steps in? It's either friends or family. So to the extent that you can build a good network to be there for other people and for the people to be there for you, that will help you. Southwick: Bro's advice. Just go make more friends! Brokamp: Exactly. Southwick: You need more friends! Brokamp: Yes. And then I've got a bonus one. One more is to factor in employee benefits when choosing an employer or just knowing what's offered. A lot of the stuff we have talked about here, already, is offered by many employers. Health insurance. Life insurance. Disability insurance. Accidental death and dismemberment insurance. Here at The Motley Fool if you lose an arm, you get paid a certain amount of money. If you lose two arms, you get a different amount of money. We have that policy here. Is there a family leave policy where you are if you have to go and take care of somebody? The ability to build and access retirement funds. Not only do I have a good match that I can retire when I want, but the more and faster you can build up your 401(k), the more you can access it in an emergency if your employer allows it. Of course, we don't recommend that, but it's good to have there if you absolutely need it. More and more employers now have what's called an employee assistance program [EAP]. Southwick: We have that, too. Brokamp: Yes. It's basically an outside company and they offer all kinds of services from counseling to stress leave. Some do financial planning. Some do help with debt consolidation and things like that. Southwick: They helped us to find Hanna's day care. Which is a very competitive thing in Northern Virginia. Brokamp: Yes, so definitely be aware of that. Some employers offer Prepaid Legal. There are all kinds of ways. Travel assistance. I just recently went through all the stuff The Fool offers, and they offer travel assistance. If you're traveling and something happens to you, we have travel assistance that can help you take care of it. Many of the problems that happen while you're away. So No. 1, if you're out looking for a new job, factor that in. And, as we mentioned earlier, the health insurance is probably key among all of those in where you decide to work. Don't just base it on the salary. But also review the stuff that is offered by your [current] employer, because you might be offered something, already, that you just had forgotten about. And then finally, getting back, again, to the whole mortality thing. There's just no question that there's a connection between health and wealth. The better in shape you are, the less likely you are to need any healthcare. The quicker you'll be able to rebound from any sort of health issues that you have. There have been surveys of people in retirement and they ask them what the No. 1 determinant of their happiness is, and by far it is health, not wealth; so make sure you take care of your health, because that will have a big impact on whether you'll be in any sort of disaster, but also your ability to cope with any disaster. The bottom line is you can't prevent the unexpected. Just by definition it's going to happen. But you can mitigate the fallout by taking steps, now, to reduce the chances that a surprise doesn't turn into a disaster and increase the chances that you'll live a long, healthy, and happy life. Southwick: Which is what we want for all of our listeners. Brokamp: Which is what we want for all of you. Curio Collection by Hilton Introduces Parisian Hospitality with Romance of New York Located in the heart of Paris eighth district, Maison Astor Paris joins the collections expanding European portfolio October 10, 2018 // Franchising.com // PARIS and MCLEAN, Va. - Famed Parisian hotel, Maison Astor Paris, joins the exclusive Curio Collection by Hilton portfolio, a collection of more than 50 upper upscale, one-of-a-kind hotels and resorts, all celebrated for their individuality and appeal to travelers seeking local discovery. The hotel has a rich history with roots stemming back to the States. John Jacob Astor IV, a member of the prominent Astor family, was born and raised in the opulence of the New Yorkers aristocracy; a circle he felt he would never fit in. Attracted by the City of Lights, he and his wife moved to the French capital and established their residence at the hotel in 1907. However, the couple did not call the residence home for long as they met their heartbreaking end aboard the RMS Titanic just a few years later. The legacy of this New York couple continues to positively reflect through this iconic space. Dressed by the Parisian Studio Marc Hertrich & Nicolas Adnet (MHNA), Maison Astor Paris is just steps from haute-couture shops and a short metro ride from the Eiffel tower. It sits on a quiet street between the Opera Garnier and the Champs-Elysees, making the hotel a peaceful hideaway amidst Pariss bustling city centre. We are delighted to welcome this Curio Collection hotel in Paris, a city which is seeing record tourism numbers, exceeding 23 million hotel arrivals[1] for the first time ever in 2017, said Mark Nogal, global head, Curio Collection by Hilton. With its elevated, apartment-inspired accommodations and convenient location, Maison Astor Paris provides the ideal base for visitors to explore all that the French capital has to offer, and is a great addition to our growing portfolio of world-class hotels in Europe, with hotels located in major destinations, including Barcelona, Reykjavik, Hamburg, Siena and more. Hotel Highlights Contemporary design: the hotels 131 modernized guest rooms and suites take inspiration from classic Parisian apartments, featuring large windows, beautiful French balconies and high ceilings. All rooms offer complimentary WiFi, an HDTV, work space and Nespresso machine. Suites offer options such as an ornamental fireplace, terrace, private bedroom, rooftop views and a duplex-style layout. the hotels 131 modernized guest rooms and suites take inspiration from classic Parisian apartments, featuring large windows, beautiful French balconies and high ceilings. All rooms offer complimentary WiFi, an HDTV, work space and Nespresso machine. Suites offer options such as an ornamental fireplace, terrace, private bedroom, rooftop views and a duplex-style layout. Culinary experience: A culinary crossing between Paris and New York City, the hotels intimate fine-dining restaurant, Salle a Manger, sits under a bright glass roof offering delicious French dishes made from local, organic ingredients. Guests can enjoy unique and personalized cocktails at the speakeasy-style bar. Room service is also available 24/7. A culinary crossing between Paris and New York City, the hotels intimate fine-dining restaurant, Salle a Manger, sits under a bright glass roof offering delicious French dishes made from local, organic ingredients. Guests can enjoy unique and personalized cocktails at the speakeasy-style bar. Room service is also available 24/7. Business and leisure facilities: The hotel offers two intimate meeting spaces, equipped with TV screens and LCD projectors: Perfect for private dining experiences, The Travel Study can host up to ten people. For small meetings, Kittys Library can host up to 30 people. The hotel also has a 24/7 elite concierge service, Clef dOr, and 24/7 fitness centre. Our team warmly invites guests to feel at home at our distinctly Parisian, yet one-of-a-kind hotel, said Morgan Mondoloni, general manager. The hotel will provide an experience in itself to curious travelers from across the globe, with its rich legacy dating back over a hundred years, unparalleled service and modern amenities. Maison Astor Paris, Curio Collection by Hilton is also part of Hilton Honors, the award-winning guest-loyalty program for Hilton's 14 distinct hotel brands. Members who book directly have access to instant benefits, including a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of Points and money to book a stay, an exclusive member discount, free standard Wi-Fi and the Hilton Honors mobile app. For more information, or to make a reservation visit the hotels website on curiocollection.com or call +33-6-43836448. More information on recent and upcoming Curio Collection by Hilton openings is available at newsroom.hilton.com/curio. [1] https://press.parisinfo.com/news/press-releases/Paris-record-tourist-numbers-in-2017 SOURCE Curio Collection by Hilton ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Keller Williams Expands Across South America, Launches in Trinidad and Tobago October 10, 2018 // Franchising.com // AUSTIN, TEXAS - Keller Williams, the world's largest real estate franchise by agent count and the U.S. leader in units and sales volume, has awarded a license for a new master franchise in Trinidad and Tobago, a dual-island Caribbean nation off the coast of Venezuela. The new Keller Williams master franchise in Trinidad and Tobago is currently initializing operations and is expecting to launch its first office before the end of 2018. Keller Williams has now launched in nine countries across Central and South America with 21 market centers and more than 750 agents. This new launch comes just as the KW Argentina Region launches a second market center in their first year in business and KW Colombia expands beyond 200 agents across the country. Operating Principal Gregory Camejo, with a strong team of core leaders, will lead Keller Williams' growth across Trinidad and Tobago. Camejo also serves as a senior executive of corporate and strategic services for the OCM Group and has developed an extensive network in talent acquisition and real estate across the country. The OCM Group operates as the parent company of the Trinidad Express newspaper and CCN TV6, the largest private television broadcaster in Trinidad and Tobago. "Trinidad and Tobago is one more critical step in KW's growth through the Caribbean as well as South America and we have found the right leader who shares our common vision and culture," said William E. Soteroff, president, Keller Williams Worldwide, the international division of Keller Williams. "Gregory rapidly adopted Keller Williams systems, built a strong core group and attracted top producers to our agent-centric business model." The Trinidad and Tobago real estate market has a high demand for housing with not enough supply in the middle income-earner bracket: a trend that is beginning to change, according to Camejo. The market has also shifted recently to becoming more of a buyer's market. "The real estate market in Trinidad and Tobago has mostly been a cottage industry, with small boutique-type home offices for the majority of real estate practitioners," said Camejo. "The real estate industry in Trinidad and Tobago is underdeveloped in terms of management and understanding how to create a value-added service," said Camejo. "There are great agents, yet the industry doesn't recognize its own great potential. That's where we see the opportunity." "The cultural aspect of the Keller Williams value proposition attracted us. Understanding the idea of influencing the person and guiding them toward purpose excited me," said Camejo. "The Keller Williams proposition is about changing the current mindset as well as building the right values into a company, team, and eventually the industry." Across the globe, KWW is home to more than 6,900 international agents, 171 market centers, and more than 30 regions operating outside of the United States and Canada. "As many have come to expect from Keller Williams, we continue to grow for our people," said Ellen Curtis, COO, KWW. "Gregory continues this focus on helping the agent capture more market share and build their local business. We are excited to see the next phase of growth that the KW Trinidad and Tobago team, along with our teams across Central and South America, will create for all agents in these countries." Outside of the U.S. and Canada, Keller Williams regions now include Argentina; Belgium; Belize; Bermuda; Cambodia; Colombia; Costa Rica; Czech Republic; Dubai, UAE; France; Greater Shanghai, China; Greece; Indonesia; Israel; Jamaica; Luxembourg; Mexico; Monaco; Nicaragua; Northern Cyprus; Panama; Philippines; Poland; Portugal; Puerto Rico; Romania; Southern Africa; Southern Cyprus; Spain; Trinidad and Tobago; Turkey; United Kingdom; and Vietnam. About Keller Williams Austin, Texas-based Keller Williams, the world's largest real estate franchise by agent count, has more than 975 offices and 186,000 associates. The franchise is also No. 1 in units and sales volume in the United States. In 2015, Keller Williams began its evolution into a technology company, now building the real estate platform that agents' buyers and sellers prefer. Since 1983, the company has cultivated an agent-centric, technology-driven and education-based culture that rewards agents as stakeholders. For more information, visit kw.com and kwworldwide.com. Media Contact: Darryl Frost (254) 466-3627 Darryl.frost@kw.com SOURCE Keller Williams ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus News Fearing shortage, VFD amps up recruiting efforts STUART VILLANUEVA/ The Daily News League City firefighter Karrie Parada inspects air tanks inside a firetruck in the truck bay at Fire Station 2 in League City on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News League City firefighter Jason Frank checks tools on a firetruck in the bay at Fire Station 2 in League City on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News League City firefighter Karrie Parada inspects air tanks inside a firetruck as her husband and fellow firefighter Dan Parada checks the vehicles exterior control panel in the truck bay at Fire Station 2 in League City on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News League City Fire Chief Gary Warren, right, listens as District Chief Daniel Gibbs speaks Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 about the departments need for more volunteers. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News League City firefighter Dan Parada closes the door of a firetruck in the truck bay at Fire Station 2 in League City on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News A helmet hangs in an equipment compartment of a firetruck in the truck bay at Fire Station 2 in League City on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. LEAGUE CITY From its foundation in 1939 with one station and 10 firefighters, League Citys volunteer fire department has come a long way expanding to about 125 volunteers and five fire stations, with a sixth on its way. But, for all of the positives, some are worried that not enough people are volunteering to keep up with the citys tremendous growth, officials said. Nationally, volunteerism is down across the board, District Chief Daniel Gibbs said. While the departments size has grown from about 90 volunteers to its current 125 since Gibbs joined in 2003, there hasnt been much of a change in numbers for about 10 years, he said. Thats despite the fact that calls for service in Galveston Countys largest city are growing at about 5 percent each year, Gibbs said. League Citys struggles to find new volunteer firefighters isnt unique. Cities across the nation are having trouble attracting new volunteer firefighters, according to a 2007 report by the National Volunteer Fire Council. Locally, Tiki Island, for instance, recently also has reported struggling to recruit new firefighters. But what sets League City apart is that its one of the few cities of its size in the country to still rely almost entirely on volunteer firefighters. Only about 1.6 percent of the countrys more than 300 fire departments in cities with more than 100,000 residents is mostly volunteer, according to a 2015 survey by the National Fire Protection Association. The citys population in January was just shy of 105,000, up from about 102,634 at the same time in 2017, officials said. But, only about 52 percent of League City is developed and projections show that, once fully developed, the population could rise above 200,000, officials said. Despite that rapid growth, there isnt currently a plan to transition to career firefighters, Gibbs said. While the departments chief and two others are paid employees, all of the firefighters are volunteers, Gibbs said. Weve decreased our response time from about 9 minutes to less than 8 minutes, Gibbs said. Instead, fire officials are focused on recruiting more volunteers. Were getting good coverage from our volunteer fire department, Chief Gary Warren said. Its reflecting well in our insurance rates. The department in recent years has had about 15 applications and about eight fire academy graduates, Gibbs said. The goal is to increase that number to have about 20 people graduating from the academy each year, Gibbs said. Officials must contend with several different issues during the recruiting drive, namely, that the department keeps each volunteer about five or six years and that its difficult for an increasingly white-collar population to work shifts and meet a 120-call and 12-training sessions requirement, Gibbs said. To combat those issues, officials are reaching out to local high schools and planning to seek people from different backgrounds, Gibbs said. Karrie Parada, who joined in a support role in 2016 and became a firefighter in May, might personify that new type of recruit. Parada initially joined to support her husband, who also is a volunteer firefighter, and her son, who is one of the departments youngest volunteers, serving in a support position, she said. Its been a hell of a experience, she said. I really enjoy it. The departments 2019 budget is about $2.7 million. City officials previously estimated it would cost anywhere from $7 million to $10 million if it switched to an all-paid department. This focus on recruiting is going to need to go on for several years, Warren said. Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. 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oi-Vivek Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 2i will be available on Mi.com Xiaomi is known for launching smartphones and accessories in RED color, and now, the company has launched new red colored 10000 mAh power bank in India. The Red color on the Xiaomi's 10000 mAh power bank is similar to the red colored Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro and the Xiaomi Mi A2. The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 2i is a "made-in-India" product with a full metal unibody design (made using anodized aluminium alloy body) with support for two way fast charging. Price and availability The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 2i Red will be available in India from the 10th of August on Mi.com for Rs 899. Similarly, the Mi Power Bank 2i is also on offer (Black Edition) and available on Amazon for Rs 699. Buy the Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 2i Red here Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 2i Red features and specifications The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 2i Red comes with a full metal unibody enclosure with 5.0V-2.0A / 9V-12A 18W input and 5.0V / 2.0A, 9.0V / 2.0A and 12V / 1.5A 15W output. The power bank takes 4.2 hours to charge from 0 to 100% using an 18W charger with a 93% conversion rate. The Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 2i Red has a single USB port for power output with a micro USB port for charging with a single button to activate low-power mode to charge devices like Xiaomi Mi Band 3, Bluetooth earphones, and Mi headset. The Mi Power Bank 2iHeat-sensitive and temperature control mechanism ensures that Li-poly batteries and offer automatic protection to the motherboard and when a short circuit occurs. The power bank can also detect when the charger is inserted incorrectly and automatically stops charging and monitors output current and shuts off when current exceeds the maximum limit to protect the device. The Mi Power Bank 2i Red weights 240grams with 147 x 71.2 x 14.2mm dimensions. Except for the difference in color, the Xiaomi Mi Band 2i offers similar features as of the standard Mi Power Bank 2i (Black Edition). 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 Android 9 Pie now available for Nokia 6.1 Plus on Nokia phones beta labs News oi-Vivek Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with Android One support The Nokia 7 Plus is the first smartphone from HMD Global to receive Android 9 Pie update. And now, the company has officially announced that the Nokia 6.1 Plus will be the next smartphone from the company to get the latest mobile operating system from Google. The Android 9 Pie is already available for the Nokia 6.1 Plus, albeit on Nokia phones beta lab. So, users who are interested in testing out the Android 9 Pie can sign-up on the Nokia phones beta lab to taste the pie before the official release. The smartphone is available in India for Rs 15,999 with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. Sign-up Nokia phones beta labs here Hungry for pie? If you're a Nokia 6.1 Plus user, you'll be happy to know that Android 9 is now available to test in #Nokiamobilebetalabs. https://t.co/siaoX5xEmR #Nokiamobile #Android9 pic.twitter.com/0oiLr0NI09 Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) October 9, 2018 if you are using the Nokia 6.1 Plus as a primary device, then we do not recommend to install the beta software, which might interfere with the day to day tasks, which might even cause data loss. Nokia 6.1 Plus specifications The Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with a 5.8-inch IPS LCD screen with 2.5D curved tempered glass protection. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 is the chipset that powers the smartphone with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB internal storage with a micro SD card slot for additional storage expansion. The phone has a premium all-glass design with a metallic mid-frame with a USB type C port and a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the bottom portion. The Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with a dual camera setup with a 16 MP primary camera and a 5 MP depth sensor. On the front, the device has a 16 MP selfie camera. The primary camera can record 4K videos with features like panorama, portrait mode, HDR, and slow motion video recording. The device runs on a 3060 mAh Li-ion sealed battery with support 10W fast charging via USB type C port. The smartphone runs on stock Android 8.1 Oreo (Android One) and will be updated to Android 9 Pie in the coming weeks. 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 Design With the new A-series model, Samsung decided to go ahead with a glass back, with polycarbonate frames running along the edges. Despite housing a triple camera setup on the rear panel, that protrudes a bit, the Galaxy A7 still manages to be as slim as 7.5mm. This offers a good grip to the palm and makes its ideal for one hand usage. Samsung has also stuck to its design formula and still managed to avoid the controversial notch. Samsung also relocated the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy A7 2018. The sensor now sits on the right side of the device below the volume rockers. The fingerprint sensor also doubles as the power/ wake-up key. In a time where major smartphone makers are doing away with the 3.5mm audio jack in favor of the Type-C port, Samsung also managed to keep the functionality alive through all its devices. The Galaxy A7 2018 also continues the tradition, making it easy for the users to use a wide range of third-party hands-free products. Display Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 comes with a brilliant 6-inch Super AMOLED display with True FHD+ resolution and 1080 x 2220 pixels. The screen offers an aspect ratio of 18:5:9 which really makes the viewing experience better and ideal for multimedia consumption. The display is also protected by Gorilla Glass, but the version isn't mentioned. The sunlight legibility of the device is also decent, and we didn't face any major issues using the phone in direct sunlight. The display setting also offers different color profiles to choose from according to users visual requairements. The Always-on display adds to the overall equation, making it convenient to check the time and notifications without having to wake up the screen. The company has also added an Always on home button which can be used to wake up the phone by tapping on it twice. The color reproduction on the display is impressive making the colors look crisp and vivid. The 6-inch display has a True FHD+ resolution and is Widewine L1 certified, meaning the display is capable of playing HD videos from all the video streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and others. Side-mounted fingerprint sensor With the latest smartphone, Samsung has changed the way of unlocking the device. The Galaxy A7 comes with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, which is very convenient to unlock the device without moving the fingers. It is an active fingerprint sensor which means you just need to place your thumb on it to unlock the device. The unlock process was swift most of the times, however, we did notice that the sensor failed to recognize the fingerprint few times. The company was previously criticized for its the fingerprint sensor placement on devices like the Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy S8. The company has taken queues from the consumer feedback and made appropriate alterations to the placement of the sensor on the new phone. Although Samsung did try to offer a new functionality with the side-mounted fingerprint sensor, it would have made the device even more special if it had the in-display fingerprint sensor, which the company is said to be working on. This would have made the device stand out in the much crowded mid-range market, which is dominated by Oppo and Vivo at the moment. Recently, Vivo also launched its V11 Pro with an in-display sensor and falls in the same price bracket as the Galaxy A7. Performance Under the hood, the Galaxy A7 2018 is powered by an Exynos 7885 processor with two 2.2GHz Cortex-A73 CPU cores and six 1.6GHz Cortex-A53 CPU cores. Samsung used the same chipset for its Galaxy A8+ as well. The SoC is backed by 4GB/6GB of RAM. Both variants come with an expandable memory of 512GB. The good part is that the Galaxy A7 allows users to install the apps on the memory card, or move their social media content directly to the card. This feature isn't quite popular among other smartphones in this price range. The smartphone runs Android 8.0 Oreo with Experience UI 9.5 on the top. Though the UI offers a lot of bloatware, it still manages to easily handle the tasks. However, we did notice the UI lagging at times while switching between the apps and running numerous apps in the background. The device also has support for Samsung's smart assistant Bixby and offers Bixby vision which is a smart way to interact with the surroundings. The device is also ready with Samsung pay, so users can make payments without reaching out for their wallets. But Samsung has only provided the mini version of the service, which means you won't be able to use your phones at PoS terminals. The Galaxy A7 2018 is juiced by a 3300mAh battery, which is capable enough to keep the device running for a whole day. In case of a moderate user, the device could easily last for one and a half day. The device doesn't support fast charging which seems like a missed opportunity by Samsung, as many phones in the similar price segment come with the fast charging tech. Verdict Overall, the Samsung Galaxy qualifies as an impressive performer. It offers a good set of cameras, decent performance, and an excellent battery backup. Starting at a price of Rs 23,990, it is still cheaper than the Galaxy A6+ at the time of launch. It is good to see the company bringing high-end smartphones at an aggressive price. There are a few areas where the phone could have done a little extra to gain more buyers, but overall this is a good package. There are other phones who offer better specifications on paper, but the Galaxy A7 2018 is a great bargain as well. If you are okay with a phone that has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, alongside a good camera performance, then spending Rs 23,990 isn't a bad deal. Though the 6GB/128GB variant might be a little expensive for the features it brings along. As we mentioned earlier in our first impressions of the device - the 4GB / 64GB variant is a clear winner in our opinion, but the 6GB/128GB variant... well, not so much. Microsoft resumes Windows 10 October 2018 update which reportedly wiped user data News oi-Sandeep Sarkar Microsoft has identified and fixed all the known bugs and flaws in the Windows 10 October 2018 update. Microsoft had recently suspended the rollout of Windows 10 October update following the bug which reportedly deleted the documents stored in the users' devices following the update. Microsoft had earlier informed the users that it is halting the rollout of the Windows 10 October update due to this bug on a community support forum. Now, the Redmond Giant has reportedly has identified and fixed all the known bugs and flaws in the Windows 10 October 2018 update. The company has now resumed rolling out the latest key update for all its supported devices. A wide number of users took it to various online forums to narrate their ordeal and had complained that upon installing the Windows 10 October update the data stored on their devices started wiping on its own. Acting swiftly on all these complaints Microsoft halted the rollout of the Windows 10 October update (version 1809). John Cable, Director of Program Management, Windows Servicing and Delivery said that the company is also investigated the reports which claimed to have lost their data following the update. "We have fully investigated all reports of data loss, identified and fixed all known issues in the update, and conducted internal validation." In addition to this Cable also said that "At just two days into the roll-out when we paused, the number of customers taking the October 2018 Update was limited. While the reports of actual data loss are few (one one-hundredth of one percent of version 1809 installs), any data loss is serious". Microsoft is also said to be working on recovering the data which the customers have reportedly lost after the Windows 10 October 2018 update. Cable further said, "While we cannot guarantee the outcome of any file recovery work, if you have manually checked for updates and believe you have an issue with missing files, please minimize your use of the affected device and contact us directly". 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 Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bo Watson said on Wednesday that he thinks Tennessee made a very strong case to continue to garner the highest AAA rankings from all three of the nations top credit rating agencies. Senator Watson joined Governor Bill Haslam, Comptroller Justin P. Wilson, Deputy Comptroller Jason Mumpower, Tennessee Finance and Administration Commissioner Larry Martin, Secretary of State Tre Hargett and Treasurer David H. Lillard in meetings with the agencies this week in New York City. The group talked about Tennessees success as they made the case for the state to keep its AAA-rated excellent bond ratings. We presented a great financial story that I am optimistic will keep our top credit rating, Senator Watson said. We have been very conservative and responsible in our budget practices. Our pension plans are among the best funded in the nation, we have the lowest debt ratio of any state, and our reserves are at the highest level in state history. In addition, we have a very robust economy and low unemployment rate which is further strengthened by smart investments by the state in education, technology and infrastructure. Tennessee has been rated AAA by Fitch Ratings, Moodys Investor Services, and Standard and Poors since 2016. Watson said this is a reflection of the extremely strong confidence the rating agencies have in the states capacity to meet its financial commitments. "I was in those exact same seats, watching these very same performances." Though those same seats she referred to were in Malta, not Glasgow, the sentiment expressed by Kristen Estelle rang through. Her hard work and pursuit of her musical dreams brought her back to northeastern Montana to perform and answer questions from local music students. The Northeastern Arts Network's (NAN) Big Sky Series brings in a diverse array of musical performers each fall and winter for public performances and for the artist informance program (AIP). The AIP takes the artists into local schools to perform for students, answer questions, and inspire students to nurture their own artistic and musical talents. Over the course of five days, musicians make appearances at 10 schools, and perform three community concerts. NAN committee member Allison Nichols estimates the program reaches 10,000 people in northeastern Montana. On Oct. 2, Kristen Estelle and the Heartstrings, composed of Patrick James on electric bass, Sam Quiggens on cello, Molly Aronson on cello, Trevor New on viola, and Ally Jenkins on violin, put on a special interactive performance in the Glasgow High School Auditorium for eighth-grade and high school music students. Performing covers of contemporary music and original compositions, the performance was interspersed with music lessons and inspirational messages for students. Estelle's enthusiasm for her art was on full display as she sang and answered students' questions. Students even took to the stage to participate in an improv performance and dance back-up for the band. All members of the group teach music in New York City, though Estelle stressed that teaching is done on a smaller scale, one to four students at a time. In Glasgow, Estelle said, "I was amazed with this group. The students had really good questions," Her overall lesson to the students was one of persistence. She asked them to surround themselves with people who are level-headed and believe in them in order to find their way musically. She was thankful to have the chance to come back to northeastern Montana and give back to the communities that supported her in the pursuit of her musical dreams. The program enjoys the support of area music teachers as well. Luree Green-Chappell said, "The Northeastern Arts Network Concert series benefits our kids by showing them the scope of careers available in music and allows them the opportunity to meet professional musicians. Another benefit is that students get to see music they like merged with a more classic style which not only diversifies their tastes, but allows them to develop an appreciation for music history." Glasgow senior Ben Miller, who is looking to study computer tech with a focus on sound engineering, said, "I think it's really cool to get to see mobile sound setups and the equipment the performers use. It's also a great opportunity to talk to professionals and ask questions about how to get better or how the professionals got better. It helps the music students learn, and it shows the public a variety of traveling artists." The Big Sky Series is made possible in part by the Montana Performing Arts Consortium Presenter Development Program which is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Montana Arts Council, and legislative grants from Montana's Cultural Trust, and the Western States Arts Federation. Current District 17 Judge Yvonne Laird is seeking to retain her position this coming November. Judge Laird discussed her experience, her positions for the post and her motivation for keeping her seat with the Courier. Born in Havre, Mont., Judge Laird spent her formidable years on a farm and ranch outside Gilford, Mont., a small town east of Havre along Highway 2. After graduating Blue Sky High School she went on to Concordia University in Moorhead, Minn., where she earned her Bachelors of Arts in International Relations and double minored in political science and economics. Following college, the Judge moved to Chicago for three years before returning to Montana and attending the University of Montana School of Law. Following graduation in 1996, she became the Deputy County Attorney in Blaine County and moved to Chinook in December 1996. Laird would hold that post until 2003 and would become county attorney through 2006. In 2007, she took on a new role working for the Montana Legal Services Association, which provides civil legal services at reduced or no cost for low income residents in Montana. That association focused on family and related consumer law cases. In August 2011, the Judge left MLSA for private law. During her private practice she began contracting with the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation to provide legal services. That position would eventually lead to an appointment as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney working for the Fort Belknap Tribes under grant funding. After Judge McKean retired, Laird applied and was appointed to the position of 17th Judicial District Judge. She was appointed by Governor Steve Bullock assuming the bench in Nov. 2016. When asked why she would be the most qualified for the position Judge Laird highlighted her diverse legal experiences saying, "Having prosecuted in the three different courts is a unique case in it of itself." Laird said she had prosecuted cases as diverse as disorderly conduct all the way up to making cases for the death penalty. Laird also pointed out that she had served as an interim justice on the Montana Supreme Court, a case that occurs when a justice has to recuse themselves from a particular case. Adding to her diverse legal experience she highlighted that she also knows what it feels like to testify and be a juror in cases. "I also have testified in state and federal court and before BIA investigators and a police commission, said Laird, adding that she also served as a juror on a felony case. The judge pointed out that the experience of being in every position in the court room makes her, "The most well-rounded option for the 17 th Judicial District." Judge Laird discussed her qualifications and her belief that those unique experiences made her the best choice stating, "I have the capacity and foundation to sit on the bench." Laird would also add that, "I realize that each case is the most important to the parties involved." Laird also said that she was not intimidated by the idea of ruling contrary to the popular decision of the public. Laird pointed out that ruling contrary to the law would be a disservice to the judiciary. Laird finished up the interview discussing her motivation for continuing to serve on the bench saying, "I've always been committed to the Hi-Line and the rural lifestyle and respect the Hi-Line communities. I believe that is something that needs to be preserved." She would go on to highlight her belief that serving the Hi-Line is important and that the people here deserve the same quality of government services as the rest of the state. "People on the Hi-Line deserve qualified, competent, professional district judges. They should not have to settle for less because they have chosen to live on the Hi-Line," explained Laird before adding, "I don't believe the state revolves around Helena." Bellingcat: Second Novichok Suspect Also Honored By Putin As 'Hero Of Russia' RFE/RL October 09, 2018 Cybersleuthing group Bellingcat says it has found that two men that Britain suspects of poisoning former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were awarded Hero of the Russian Federation medals by President Vladimir Putin four years ago for conducting covert operations in Ukraine. Releasing details about its latest findings on October 9, Bellingcat said that Aleksandr Mishkin was decorated at around the same time as Anatoly Chepiga in 2014 -- the year Russia seized Crimea and fomented separatism in eastern Ukraine, helping start a war that has killed more than 10,300 people. A day earlier, Bellingcat said it determined that the suspect who traveled to Britain in March on a passport under the name Aleksandr Petrov is actually Mishkin, a military doctor employed by Russia's military intelligence agency, widely known as the GRU. The British-based open-source investigation group's founder, Eliot Higgins, and researcher Christo Grozev told reporters at an event at the British Parliament that they found out that Mishkin had participated in covert operations in Ukraine and Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniester. People acquainted with his family said they thought the hero award was given for activities "either in Crimea or in relation to [former Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych," according to the Bellingcat report. Bellingcat said it sought out hundreds of Mishkin's fellow graduates at the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg, and that two remembered Mishkin, but they said that all members of the class had been contacted recently and told not to speak about him. The organization added that The Insider, Bellingcat's investigative partner in Russia, sent a reporter to the northern Russian village of Loyga, where at least seven people recognized photos of the man identified initially as Petrov as "our local boy" Mishkin. The reporter heard that a woman identified as Mishkin's grandmother had shown many villagers a photograph of Putin shaking hands with her grandson and was very proud of it. Bellingcat said the reporter was not able to talk directly to the grandmother. Bellingcat made waves late last month when it said that Chepiga was the true identity of the other suspect, who had a passport in the name of Ruslan Boshirov, and that he was a GRU colonel decorated with the Hero award. British authorities allege that the two Russians smeared a Soviet-designed nerve agent called Novichok on the front door of Skripal's home in the English city of Salisbury on March 4, the day the former spy and his daughter were found incapacitated on a bench and rushed to the hospital. Both survived after weeks in critical condition, but Dawn Sturgess, a woman who authorities said came in contact with the poison after her boyfriend found a fake perfume bottle containing it, died in July. The poisonings have added tension to already severely strained ties between Russia and the West, leading to additional U.S. and European Union sanctions on Moscow and to an exchange of diplomatic expulsions. Russia denies involvement, but Bellingcat's findings have added to the evidence against Moscow and exposed the GRU to ridicule. Putin has insisted that the two men identified by Britain as poisoning the Skripals were ordinary Russian civilians. With reporting by AP and AFP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/bellingcat- second-novichok-suspect-also-honored-by- putin-as-hero-of-russia-/29534185.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 Bellingcat Claims Alleged Salisbury Suspect Bestowed Hero of Russia in 2014 Sputnik News 18:21 09.10.2018(updated 18:24 09.10.2018) LONDON (Sputnik) - UK-based investigative blogger group Bellingcat presented on Tuesday a report claiming that "trained military doctor" Alexander Mishkin, the alleged true identity of Skripal poisoning suspect Alexander Petrov, received the Hero of the Russian Federation Award in 2014. The group, which has previously issued unfounded materials, presented the report in the UK parliament at the invitation of Bob Seely, a member of the UK House of Commons' international committee. "In the latter part of 2014, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin bestowed Alexander Mishkin with the Hero of the Russian Federation Award. People closely familiar with Mishkin's family reported to us that they believe Russia's highest award was given for Mishkin's activities 'either in Crimea or in relation to [former Ukrainian president Victor] Yanukovich,'" the group claimed. Bellingcat admitted, however, that it had "not found any publicly accessible document" to confirm the allegations on Mishkin being the recipient of the award. According to the group, Mishkin was born on July 13, 1979, in Russia's northwest region of Archangelsk and recruited to work for the security services while studying at a military medical academy. By 2010, he moved to Moscow with "an undercover identity, including a second national ID and travel passport, under the alias Alexander Petrov," the group claimed. Commenting on the allegations that Mishkin was the real name of Petrov, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to explain any of Bellingcat's claims in the absence of official information from London. The Russian Embassy to the United Kingdom echoed Peskov, saying that it would not comment on the data provided by Bellingcat. In early September, UK prosecutors charged Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with the attempted murder of the Skripals and UK police officer Nick Bailey in the UK city of Salisbury in March. UK Prime Minister Theresa May expressed a belief that the suspects worked for the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (formerly known as the GRU), albeit without providing any evidence. In late September, Bellingcat claimed that it could "definitely confirm" that "both 'Alexander Petrov' and 'Ruslan Boshirov' are active GRU officers." Such an assumption was explained by the fact that their internal passport under the names of Petrov and Boshirov were issued in 2009, while no records allegedly exist for these individuals prior to this year. Later that month, the group in cooperation with The Insider Russia media outlet claimed that they had identified Boshirov as Russian military intelligence colonel Anatoliy Chepiga. Russian Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov has said that "the Directorate of the Federal Migration Service has no departments that were subordinates of the GRU or someone else." He added that it was impossible to understand whether a person works in the GRU just by looking at the migration service's database. The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has also criticized the materials issued by Bellingcat. Moscow has repeatedly denied all accusations, saying that the Skripal case was falling apart due to the lack of evidence proving the purported Russian involvement. The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent some 60 diplomatic notes to the UK Foreign Office demanding that Russia is given access to the investigation and the Skripals, as well as proposing legal assistance and cooperation, including on the joint inquiry. The UK authorities have not responded to any of these notes. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Unmasking of 2nd Alleged Skripal Poisoner May Prompt Kremlin Purge of GRU By Jamie Dettmer October 09, 2018 The unmasking of a second Russian intelligence officer suspected of carrying out a nerve-agent attack in England earlier this year is prompting behind-the-scenes fury in the Kremlin, which is likely to respond by purging the senior ranks of Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, Russian media is reporting. On Monday, the investigative website Bellingcat identified the second suspect responsible for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia as Alexander Mishkin, a medical doctor working for Russia's GRU. The website said it had been able to make the identification after obtaining a scanned copy of his actual passport and confirming the details about the man both with people who knew him and by using other open source information. Last month, Bellingcat, along with its partner investigators at the news-site Insider, identified the other suspected poisoner as special-forces veteran Anatoliy Chepiga, a colonel in the GRU. Chepiga used the alias Ruslan Boshirov and Mishkin used the alias Alexander Petrov. Former British foreign secretary William Hague says the revelations by Bellingcat and others on the GRU assassination attempt have "illuminated the duplicity of the endless denials" by the Kremlin of any Russian involvement in the murder bid. "The eyes of other governments and the wider public will have been opened to what is really going on," Hague said. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin officials have dismissed allegations about GRU operatives mounting the murder attempt on Skripal, and they also reject claims of the Russian intelligence services carrying out other so-called active measures in Europe and elsewhere as "fantasies." The Kremlin has maintained variously that the Skripal poisoning never happened, that it was carried out by the British spies in order to blame Russia or that murky third parties were responsible. 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 Cold War-style 2010 spy swap and settled in the English cathedral town of Salisbury. Moscow's denials have not been helped by the trail left behind by the would-be GRU assassins. Nor has the Kremlin been helped by other GRU agents in recent Russian espionage operations in Europe, who appeared also weak on the basics of traditional spycraft. Last week, Dutch and British authorities revealed a four-man GRU team attempted earlier this year to hack the computers in the Netherlands of the world's chemical weapons watchdog. The poison used, according to British authorities, was novichok, an especially dangerous nerve agent, and, analysts say, it was almost certainly Mishkin's role to apply the poison, which is thought to have been smeared on the handle of Skripal's front-door. "Dr. Mishkin probably knew, better than most assassins, exactly what he was trying to do," commented Ben Macintyre, a spy historian, in Tuesday's edition of The Times. British lawmaker Bob Seely, a member of the British parliament's foreign affairs committee, said, "It is appalling that a medical doctor appears to have been part of a team of GRU operatives." A local woman not connected to the original attack in Salisbury died in July after being exposed to the same toxin, which was contained in a perfume bottle discarded in a trash bin. The British woman, Dawn Sturgess, died after unwittingly spraying the novichok on her wrists. According to Bellingcat, Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin was born in 1979. "He studied and graduated from one of Russia's elite Military Medical Academies, and was trained as a military doctor for the Russian naval armed forces," Bellingcat says, adding that the GRU recruited him while he was studying medicine and by 2010 had relocated to Moscow, where he received a national ID and travel passport under the alias Alexander Petrov. Curiously, Mishkin's cover identity retained a lot of his authentic biography, including his real birth-date, his first and patronymic names, and the first names of his parents. For several years he used, inexplicably say analysts, the address of the GRU headquarters as his home address. British Security Minister Ben Wallace warned Tuesday against underestimating Russian espionage. While recent failings by the GRU had made it easy to mock the spy agency, he said, it would be foolish not to take them seriously. "It is easy to laugh at some of the GRU's poor tradecraft and their abilities, but we should not underestimate them nor indeed the dangerous and reckless use of nerve agent on our streets," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Department of Defense Press Operations News Release No. NR-288-18 October 09, 2018 Readout of Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis' Meeting with Greek Defense Minister Panagiotis Kammenos Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White provided the following readout: Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis met with Greek Defense Minister Panagiotis Kammenos today at the Pentagon to reaffirm the long-standing defense relationship between the United States and Greece. The secretary thanked Minister Kammenos for his country's continued support for U.S. basing at Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, a critical logistics hub. Secretary Mattis also praised Minister Kammenos on Greece's commitment to 2 percent defense spending and recent signing of a $1.5 billion F-16 upgrade. He also thanked the Greek defense minister for his country's recent actions to combat Russian malign activities in the region, and the two agreed to continue to hold Russia accountable. http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1657778/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni Army targets Saudi mercenaries in Najran, ASir IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Oct 9, IRNA -- Yemeni Army targeted positions of the Saudi Army's mercenaries with Katyusha and artillery shells in Najrn and Asir military bases, south of the country. According to Almasirah news network, Yemeni Army's missile and artillery units and popular committees fired a large number of Katyush rockets and artillery shells at the foothold of the Saudi mercenaries in Asir region, inflicting heavy damages on them. Meanwhile, Yemeni Army and popular committees hit Saudi Army's mercenaries in Najran. Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing back 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 Saudis suffer heavy blow in Jizan from Yemeni forces IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Oct 9, IRNA -- Yemeni Army announced in a statement on Monday that the Army and popular committees inflicted heavy losses on Saudi Arabia in Jizan, south of the country. According to Almasirah news website, during the operations, Yemeni Army and popular committees captured a number of villages and Saudi forces' positions. They also destroyed three spying drones and three Abrams tanks, killing a number of Saudi forces. Yemeni Army's special operations took place concurrent with the second anniversary of the Saudi air raid on a funeral ceremony in Sana'a. In October 2016, Saudi jet fighters attacked funeral procession, killing 140 and wounding 525 others. Meanwhile, dozens of Saudi Arabian mercenaries were killed or wounded over the past 24 hours in Yemeni Army's aerial and artillery operations. Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing back 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 Secretary General thanks Slovenia for its contributions to NATO NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 09 Oct. 2018 Visiting Ljubljana on Tuesday (9 October 2018), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg congratulated Prime Minister Marjan Sarec on taking office and praised Slovenia's contributions to NATO. Slovenian troops serve in the Alliance's missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as in the NATO battlegroup in Latvia. The Secretary General also welcomed that Slovenian troops will participate in NATO exercise Trident Juncture in Norway. He stressed that the Alliance's deterrence and defence relies on fairer burden-sharing. "Slovenia is currently spending just about 1% of GDP on defence, so I encourage you to do more to increase, and as you said, this is in our security interest," said Mr. Stoltenberg. During his visit, the Secretary General also held talks with the President of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, to discuss NATO's ongoing adaptation. Later, Mr. Stoltenberg will address the National Assembly and meet with its President, Dejan Zidan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trident Juncture 2018 Press Conference with Admiral James G. Foggo, Commander of the Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy, and Lieutenant General Rune Jakobsen, Commander of the Norwegian Joint Headquarters in Bod, Norway NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 09 Oct. 2018 Piers Cazalet: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, apologies for the delay this morning. We have just come out of a long North Atlantic Council meeting where the Admiral was briefing ambassadors on Trident Juncture. So if Admiral Foggo could first of all say a few words, and then we will pass to General Jakobsen. Admiral. Admiral Foggo: Thank you Piers, for bringing us here together today. Ladies and gentlemen, again apologies for running late, we didn't expect the meeting to go that long. I thought we would be here thirty minutes ago. I did a similar event here last year that some of you may have attended, and I am pleased to be back at this marvellous NATO headquarters today with Lieutenant General Jakobsen and Lieutenant General Christian Juneau. Christian is my honourable deputy, in Naples, he is a Canadian Forces Officer, as you can see, and he will be operating with the Land Component on the ground for Exercise Trident Juncture alongside General Jakobsen while I am at sea doing what I do best. The Trident Juncture exercise will take place in and around Norway from October 25th to November 7th. We have been very open about these dates, and they have been consistent. We will have advance activities taking place in and around Iceland from October 15th to the 17th. General Juneau will oversee the exercise from the NATO Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger and I will travel throughout the region, be there for the amphibious landings and get ashore and do key leader engagement and observe the exercise as it takes place. I will also be on the beach for the conduct of the DV Day [Distinguished Visitors' Day] on the 30th October. We are boiling down Trident Juncture to a core theme of just a few words, I call it the three Ds NATO is a Defensive alliance, Trident Juncture Demonstrates our credible capability, and together we Deter potential adversaries. All 29-member NATO nations will participate in the exercise, along with our partners from Sweden and Finland. And we are delighted about that. Trident Juncture illustrates NATO's relevance and unity, and that we are ready to defend ourselves and the territory which is contained within those 29 allied nations. At the core of the exercise is the NATO Response Force and within that, the 5000 person-plus Spearhead force, otherwise known as the VJTF or the Very High Readiness Joint Taskforce. Today it is my privilege to announce that the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its striker, including its ships and aircraft, will participate in Trident Juncture, adding about 6000 personnel to the mix. That puts our total strength up at 45 plus 5 you can do the math. The US Navy is demonstrating its capability because of our flexibility, our agility and our commitment to the Alliance. And we have deployed the Harry S. Truman as a function of our dynamic force employment planning throughout the globe. And it's one of the first platforms to actually participate in dynamic force employment; it came to the theatre, went back to the States and then returned just a month ago. While Truman remains ready rapidly to respond to any crisis anywhere, I am thrilled to announce my intent to employ this very capable striker in Trident Juncture commencing on the 25th October. I am confident Trident Juncture will be an outstanding opportunity to demonstrate our unity and resolve, and I am very grateful to our very capable NATO Ally and host nation Norway. General Jakobsen commands Norway's joint force headquarters in Bodo, I had the pleasure of visiting him the headquarters this year, and I am thrilled with their incorporation of NATO into Norway's Total defence concept. Their planning and support has been nothing short of stellar. Over to you for your prospective. Lt Gen Jakobsen: Thank you very much Admiral for your kind words and I take the opportunity to highlight the outstanding partnership we have enjoyed with Joint Force Command Naples in all aspects of the preparation for the exercise. Our political leaders were very pleased five years ago when NATO decided to execute Trident Juncture 18 in Norway. Additionally to the benefits of stress-testing our national defence plans, we provide NATO Allies with first-hand experience of NATO's Northern flank and hopefully, in challenging weather conditions. Norway is a small country and our defence relies heavily on NATO's collective defence. Invoking Article 5 means to be able to receive Allied forces and reinforcements, and to that we must have plans and we mush rehearse the plans. That is why Trident Juncture 18 is important for us. The exercise will give us the opportunity to test, evaluate, further develop our Total Defence Concept, as well as national reception plans. During the exercise, the regional forces will cooperate closely with civil emergency services, the police, the railway, port and transportation authorities, as well as with local and national businesses. The size and complexity of the exercise ensure a very realistic stress test for everybody. More than 10 thousand Norwegian troops will participate directly or indirectly, and both on the tactical and operational level; the field exercise will facilitate for testing of the interoperability and training cooperation between Allies, in a high-intensity war fighting scenario. I believe Norway will provide a unique training opportunity for all participants: with large sea, air and land areas available for manoeuvre, with very high freedom of manoeuvre in all dimensions. Allied training in Norway is also highly appreciated by the normal population. More than 76% of our population are positive to NATO, and hopefully all allied soldiers will enjoy the hospitality of the local people in the exercise area. I would also like to highlight the excellent partnership we have with our neighbouring countries Sweden and Finland, who will host aircraft deployments and make their airspace available for operations. My most important task as the Joint Force Commander is to provide a good training experience for all participating troops and nations. And facilitate for every unit to meet their training objectives through the best possible host nation support. The only important task for me is to support the Commander to create a safe exercise environment. Thanks for your attention I will give the word to Piers to lead. Piers Cazalet: Thank you very much, now we have some time for questions. If you have a question could you, please say your name and your outlet. Yes, please? Bulgarian Club Z media: How far from the Russian border will it take place, that's the first question; and second question, so, according to the scenario, NATO will repel attack from the North. Does it mean that this imaginary attack will come from Russia? Thank you. Adm. Foggo: How far from the Russian border, well, Norway has a border with Russia, and we are operating in Norway and we are operating North as far as Tromso and Alta. I will let Commander Jakobsen comment on that or add to that if he desires. This exercise has several messages, that is, NATO is capable of defending, it is capable of deterring any adversary, not anyone in particular, no particular adversary, in the conduct of its operations throughout the theatre of the Alliance. And that is what we intend to do, so I wouldn't comment on any particular country. This is a message to anyone who might conduct any kind of aggressive act leading to an Article 5 scenario inside the NATO Alliance. Did you want to comment? Lt. Gen. Jakobsen: Yeah, the core exercise area is more than one thousand kilometres from the Russian border, and air operations could take place up to five hundred kilometres away from the border, so there should not be any reason for the Russians to get scared, or see this as something else than a defensive exercise. And the six brigades training, they train both offensive and defensive operations, so the scenario is designed to make the units on the battalion and brigade level meet their training outcomes. ARD: I was just wondering, Admiral, can you say anything about the role of the German contribution of the exercise and second, I would like to have some personal views of your dedication to the transatlantic security environment and your personal dedication to NATO? Admiral Foggo: I was born in Monchengladbach in NATO in Northern Army headquarters of Rheindahlen in 1959, so you might say I was born into NATO. This is my fifth assignment in Europe, my forth command in NATO if you include the JTF that I commanded during the Unified Protector transition. I am a firm transatlanticist; I have been educated in Europe, at Strasburg the heart of the European community, and that's the reason I think I'm here in this job. It is a dream job for me and every day I wake up and pinch myself knowing that I'm a NATO commander in Naples and I am able to get underway and go to sea with a force of over 45 thousand soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, to defend the interest of this Alliance that I believe so strongly in. As to the German contribution, I am pleased to say that when I was in Berlin earlier last month I had a chance to visit General Zorn, the German CHOD, and complement and congratulate him on the contribution of 85 hundred personnel and their associated kit, if you will, the equipment that they are bringing into Norway. Germany is part of the German-Netherlands Corps, which is part and parcel of the 5 thousand-plus Spearhead Force that I told you about, the very high readiness joint task force, which shows that NATO can move quickly. Part of the discussion during the Summit in July was the proposition to be able to do the 30 / 30 / 30 point, so that was to move 30 battalions, 30 aircraft squadrons or 30 ships in 30 days. The alliance aspires to be able to do that extremely well, and we will demonstrate that with the heavy logistics capability that will be demonstrated in this exercise. I think I have said it before: logistics is the sixth domain of warfare. And you can see that play out through Trident Juncture. Thank you for your question. Lt. Gen. Jakobsen: If I can add to that the Admiral mentioned the contribution of Germany; from the land perspective they are going to provide a brigade a very robust brigade that will be part of the primary training audience, because the live portion of Trident Juncture 18 is focused at the brigade level. So, they have an extremely important role from the land perspective to play. Piers Cazalet: Can we have a question over here? Wall Street Journal Can you talk a little bit more about the challenge of getting all the equipment into Norway because logistics and military mobility is a very big issue in Europe the European Union is working with NATO on this how does this play into all of that? Thank you. Adm. Foggo: When you are talking about moving over 45 thousand soldiers, sailors and marines, over 60 ships large ships, 120 aircraft and 10 thousand vehicles to respond to a crisis, that is no small feat. It has to be done through sealift, airlift or by land. The United Kingdom has chosen to drive its force on the land, so they're testing their ability to do that through landlines. We have plenty of forces, lots of US forces, lots of US Marines coming from the United States, that will be exercising our ability to operate in sea lines of communication. So, part of the victory of all this is that everybody shows up on Day One on the 25th October with their associated support and ready to defend. And so, that's when I say, logistics is the sixth domain of warfare we are testing that. It's not going to be perfect, we have about 10% of the personnel and the equipment on the ground right now. So we've got a heavy lift over the next 18 days to get the rest of those folks there and ready to defend; and it was designed that way, because that's kind of the way we would approach a crisis if something happens, we have got to respond. NATO is working this through its logistics programme for delivery of equipment with all various means of delivery from the sea, from the air and from the land. And there will be some significant lessons learned out of this; and we don't expect it to go perfectly. That's why we do exercises. So, thanks for your question. Christian? Lt Gen Juneau: When we talk about over 10 thousand vehicles on Norway's roads, that will present a traffic control challenge that will stress-test the system. The second point I want to make is the weather in Norway, in late October-early November, will be a factor, for sure. As a Canadian I know what it can look like in a northern country during that time of the year. They have already had some snow in Norway, so that will certainly be stressing the movement control in our logistics, as well. Jane's Defence: I just wanted to build on the question about military mobility two quick questions, how much of the NRF is going to be deployed, and I assume it's the entire Spearhead that will be deployed? If not, could you tell us what percentages of both of those are at play? And is the way that the NRF going to be deployed in Norway designed to specifically to test military mobility, or are you relying on air transports in the past for the Spearhead? Thank you. Christian: The whole of NRF will be deployed, it's a brigade part of the German Netherland brigade, it will deploy from Europe it will finish an exercise, get on ships and aircraft and fly in theatre like it would happen during a conflict. Jane's Defence: No overland movement? Christian: No, not from that element Jane's Defence: Is that how it will always be in a war case situation? Christian: Well, it depends on where you are going, right? So, Norway there are very few countries from where you can drive to Norway. I know the United Kingdom will deploy a significant element over land, so they're going to drive all the way to Denmark and then they're going to sail to Norway, just to test that military mobility that you're talking about. Jane's Defence: I guess, I'm just wondering if you shouldn't be testing more overland, testing more of the movement of the NRF overland in case in future Trident Juncture was held strictly in Eastern Europe with no sea access. Lt Gen Juneau: Well, there are other exercises that are testing that, actually. The Noble Jump exercise that was conducted last summer in 2017, we had troops moving from Greece all the way to Romania overland. DPA: I have a question in the same direction, a lot of experts are wondering if NATO is really capable to deploy troops very quickly wouldn't it makes sense to also do so called snap exercises like Russia what do you think about it? Admiral Foggo: I would like to get some training value out of an exercise; and whereas a snap ex will tell you something about your readiness and your ability to respond on very short notice, I think that through a deliberate plan and over the course of time, when you have an opportunity to look at different scenarios throughout the European theatre and then apply the full force and capability of NATO, is probably better training and better lessons-learned to come out of it. Particularly with regard to monitors and assessors. So, there is a lot that comes to bear to do an exercise of the volume of which Trident Juncture has become. And so I think that deliberate approach is going to allow us to take lessons learned away from this, to refine and improve our training tactics of procedures in the future, more so, than a snap ex would do. Would you like to comment on that? Lt Gen Juneau: I can partly answer your question or concern the VJTF very High Readiness Taskforce, as part of their annual training plan, there is an alert exercise that is taking place. So we do that, we bring the folks in, bring the vehicles in, we don't necessarily deploy them right away, but at least part of that readiness is tested that way. Europa Press: Could you talk a little bit more if there is going to be any kind of training or putting into test any kind of cyber capabilities and also maybe against A2AD into the exercise? Thank you. Admiral Foggo: I wouldn't talk about offensive cyber capabilities, I wouldn't talk about specific operational aspects the exercise but, I would tell you that we intend to defend our networks against anyone who might have any kind of ulterior motives while we are in the exercise; and I believe they are very robust so we will get a chance to test that. Piers Cazalet: Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much Admiral, Generals thank you for your time. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Navy Seabees Complete Well Drilling Operations in Colombia Navy News Service Story Number: NNS181009-19 Release Date: 10/9/2018 11:46:00 AM From Southern Partnership Station 2018 Public Affairs RIOHACHA, Colombia (NNS) -- Sailors assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 133 completed water-well drilling exploration operations Oct. 3 in the rural community of Riohacha, Colombia as part of Southern Partnership Station (SPS) 2018. The operations resulted in a supply of readily available water in the region and was celebrated with an official hand over ceremony held at the well site. NMCB-133 completed the project in close coordination with members of the Wayuu population who are indigenous to Riohacha, located in the country's La Guajira Department, in an effort to bring a greater supply of water to the community. Capt. Brian Diebold, commodore of Destroyer Squadron 40, highlighted the importance of cooperation and collaboration SPS had with various local entitities, noting that the well could not have been completed without a multitude of organizations contributing. "Without the Colombian army providing security to the site daily, the United States Navy would not have been successful in constructing a well," said Diebold. "Without the Riohacha Metropolitan Police force providing security escorts, we could not have constructed the well." We would not have been successful without collaboration between the Colombian Government and the United States Embassy, added Diebold. According to Brunilda Morales, a linguist and instructor of languages for Wayuu, from La Guajira's Office of Indigenous Affairs, a readily available source of water is a much needed commodity in this drought-stricken part of the country. "This community has been in a state of drought for the last 8 to 10 years, but in the last 2 or 3 years, it has been much worse," said Morales. She added, "This prolonged dry season is affecting our well-being. Water is everything to us. Plants, animals and people continue to live through water." The project took nearly a month to complete, and was the result of months of planning, coordination, and logistics movements. The SPS mission is normally supported by the expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Spearhead (T-EPF 1), but this engagement saw NMCB-133 Sailors arrive to Colombia aboard the Whidbey Island-class amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44). After arrival in country, the team completed a 6-hour [trip] over the road transit. For Sailors assigned to NMCB-133, participating in the project served as an opportunity to help those in need get access to vital resources. "It was awesome to participate in this project," said Utilitiesman 2nd Class Patrick Cannon. "I joined the Navy to do humanitarian missions, and I wanted to be a Seabee. This is the first time I have been able to really go out there and assist a community in need." "The water aspect of it is cool because I don't think a lot of people realize that how much of an impact it has. Water gives everyone life, and life can't can't go on without water", added Cannon. Held on an annual basis by U.S. Southern Command and executed by U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet, Southern Partnership Station is a U.S. Navy deployment focused on SMEEs with partner nation militaries and security forces in the Caribbean, Central and South America. SPS-18 operates under the leadership of Capt. Brian J. Diebold, commodore of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 40. Focused on enhancing cooperative partnerships with regional maritime services, SPS aims to improve operational readiness for all participants. Additionally, the mission will provide an opportunity for U.S. and partner nations to operate in a multinational environment, refine coordination, improve interoperability, and demonstrate flexibility. SPS is a demonstration of the strong U.S. commitment to partners in the Caribbean, Central and South America, fostering goodwill and enhancing our collective ability to respond to natural disasters and humanitarian crises. SPS 18 will conclude in October 2018. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Decatur Renders Assistance to Sri Lankan Fishermen Navy News Service Story Number: NNS181009-05 Release Date: 10/9/2018 9:23:00 AM From Commander, Task Force 70 Public Affairs INDIAN OCEAN (NNS) -- The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Decatur (DDG 73) rendered assistance to seven distressed mariners, Oct. 7 - 8, whose fishing boat had suffered an engine malfunction, rendering the vessel inoperable. Decatur was conducting a routine patrol Oct. 7, in the waters south of Sri Lanka when watch standers sighted a fishing vessel with fishermen onboard frantically waving rags in the air. After pulling alongside the fishing vessel in a rigid-hull inflatable boat (RHIB), two of the fishermen were brought onboard Decatur. The fishermen stated that their vessel had experienced engine trouble and was unable to return to shore. The Decatur crew immediately offered to provide medical and towing assistance. The fishermen requested for the ship to contact the Sri Lankan authorities. Decatur provided food and water to the fishermen while they waited for the arrival of the Sri Lankan Off-Shore Patrol Ship SLNS Jayesagara (P 601) which arrived Oct. 8. Decatur is forward-deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hariri hopes for speedy Lebanon govt. formation after concessions made Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 09:37PM Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri says all political sides have made concessions on their demands for posts in the next Cabinet, expressing hope that a new government would be formed after President Michel Aoun returns from a trip abroad. "The economic situation requires everyone to compromise a bit for the sake of the country," Hariri said before heading into a meeting of his Future Movement parliamentary bloc in Beirut on Tuesday. "The current situation prompted everyone to make compromises, including the Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement, and all the complications are on the way to be resolved," he pointed out. Aoun is scheduled to travel to Armenia on Wednesday, and is expected to be back in Lebanon Friday. Hariri further noted that there has been a change in the proposed Cabinet line-up, but did not give additional details. "The only criterion that I am following in the formation of the government is forming a national entente Cabinet. The moment we set standards for the government formation, we will bind ourselves. Setting a standard is neither constitutional nor a norm," he commented. Lebanon's first parliamentary vote in nine years was held on May 6, with over 500 candidates vying for seats. Turnout was 49.2 percent, according to officials. According to official results, Hezbollah and its political allies secured over half the seats. Hezbollah as well as groups and individuals affiliated to it won at least 67 seats in Lebanon's parliament, according to the results cited by politicians and campaigns and reported in Lebanese media. Hezbollah's allies include the Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the Christian Free Patriotic Movement founded by Aoun. The parliamentary seats are split evenly -- 64 for Christians and 64 for Muslims, including Druze, with the two halves further divided among 11 religious groups. Hariri had called on political parties to "show modesty" in their demands regarding the new government, emphasizing that he is not responsible for the serious delay. "They are blaming me for the delay whereas each party is clinging to its stances and demands," he told reporters on August 7 ahead of a meeting for the Future Movement parliamentary bloc. "Everyone must display modesty and sacrifice for the sake of the country," Hariri said. Political rivalry led to years of governmental paralysis in Lebanon, and the country did not produce a state budget from 2005 until last year. The International Monetary Fund has said that Lebanon must urgently address its fiscal policy in order to sustain its high levels of public debt. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Deadly blast hits election rally in Afghanistan's Helmand Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 01:42PM A bomb attack at an election rally in southern Afghanistan has claimed the lives of at least eight people and wounded 10 others, local Afghan officials say. The attack was carried out by a bomber on Tuesday in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, a southern province bordering Pakistan that has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the Taliban insurgency. Haji Abdul Aahad Sultanzoy, a member of the provincial council said that the attack took place in the office of a parliamentary election candidate while a campaign rally was underway. According to reports, Saleh Mohammad Achakzai, an election candidate, was among those killed in the blast. The Taliban have ordered its militants to attack authorities who are helping organize this month's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan. They have also called on candidates and voters to boycott the polls. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has recently said that the militants would pull no punches to disrupt the long-delayed vote scheduled for October 20. "People who are trying to help in holding this process successfully by providing security should be targeted and no stone should be left unturned for the prevention and failure [of the election]," Mujahid said in a statement. The warning coincides with an increase in the number of militant attacks in the country ahead of the polls. A bomb attack on October 2 hit an election campaign rally in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 13 people and wounding many more. Back in April, nearly 60 people were killed and 120 others wounded in a bomb attack at the doorway of an identity card distribution and voter registration center in Kabul's Dasht-e-Barchi area, a neighborhood where many of the Hazara Shia Muslims live and have frequently been targeted by bombers. The Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the bombing. Candidates will contest the 249 seats in the National Assembly for five-year terms. Regional elections will also be held in districts across Afghanistan. The polls were originally set to be held in 2015 following presidential elections the previous year but were repeatedly pushed back due to security fears and logistical problems. Preparations for the ballot have been in turmoil for months and there has been widespread speculation about whether the vote would go ahead. Bureaucratic inefficiency, allegations of industrial-scale fraud and an eleventh-hour pledge for biometric verification of voters threaten to derail the process and any hope of a credible result. Afghan people still face insecurity 17 years after the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. Although the Taliban militant group was removed from power as a result of the invasion, the country remains occupied and many areas are still threatened by insecurity. The Taliban have repeatedly declared that they will not enter talks until US-led foreign troops leave the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Netanyahu: World must recognize occupied Golan as Israel's Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 08:29AM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the international community should recognize as "Israeli territory" the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory which has been under the regime's occupation for over five decades. "Israel on the Golan Heights is a fact that the international community must recognize and as long as it depends on me, the Golan Heights will always remain under Israeli sovereignty," Netanyahu said on Monday during a visit to the occupied territory. The premier claimed that if Israel withdraws from the occupied Golan, the regime will find itself with Iran and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah on the "shores of the Kinneret (sea of Galilee)" in the northern part of occupied territories. Iran and Hezbollah are "trying constantly to establish a force opposite us that would operate against the Golan Heights and the Galilee," he claimed. Israel is deeply angered by Iran's military advisory assistance to Syrian armed forces in their operations against the terrorist groups, which have the backing of Tel Aviv and its allies. Iran's presence in Syria comes at the request of the government in Damascus. Hezbollah forces have also been assisting the Syrian government on the ground to clear areas bordering Lebanon from terrorist groups. Israel has been on high alert in recent days as Syrian government forces have made significant gains against foreign-backed terrorists near the Golan Heights. Tel Aviv has frequently attacked military targets inside Syria in an attempt to prop up terrorist groups that have been suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces. Tel Aviv has also carried out sporadic strikes against Syrian forces to blunt their advances against terrorists. The Syrian army has also repeatedly seized huge quantities of Israeli-made weapons and advanced military equipment from the militant groups. Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and has continued to occupy two-thirds of the strategically-important territory ever since, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community. The Tel Aviv regime has built tens of illegal settlements in the area since its occupation and has used the region to carry out a number of military operations against the Syrian government Tel Aviv has also been pressing the US administration under Israel-friendly President Donald Trump to recognize its claim to sovereignty over the occupied territory in defiance of international law, Syria has repeatedly reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Golan Heights, saying the territory must be completely restored to its control. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At Least Eight Killed In Afghan Election Rally Blast RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 09, 2018 A suspected suicide bomb attack at an election rally in southern Afghanistan has killed at least eight people, officials say, as militants escalate their attacks across the country ahead of general elections scheduled for later this month. Umar Shakti, the provincial governor's spokesman, told RFE/RL that 11 people were also injured in the bombing, which took place in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold. The bomb struck the office of a parliamentary election candidate, Saleh Mohammad Khan Achakzai, while a campaign rally was under way, said Haji Abdul Aahad Sultanzoy, a member of the provincial council Achakzai was among those wounded. No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, which comes as the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) militant groups have stepped up attacks across Afghanistan ahead of long-delayed parliamentary polls set for October 20. Last week in the eastern province of Nangarhar, at least 18 people were killed in a suicide bombing at an election rally. The IS group claimed responsibility for that attack. And the Taliban on October 8 vowed to do everything in its power to block the vote, which the group called an "American conspiracy to further justify the foreign occupation." The militants said that they will target anyone who tries to help the election process to succeed, especially the Afghan security forces. On October 9, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) insisted that taking part in elections was a citizen's right enshrined in the Afghan Constitution and a basic human right for all people. "Afghan men and women have a basic human right to freely choose their government and leaders," Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan and the head of UNAMA said in a statement. Yamamoto called on "all actors in Afghan society do everything within their power to safeguard this fundamental right so that citizens can cast their vote without obstruction, threat, or intimidation." At least eight parliamentary candidates have been reported killed across Afghanistan in the past two months. In the northern province of Jawzjan, officials said that a Taliban assault killed at least 12 members of Afghanistan's security forces and wunded 10 others in the northern province of Jawzjan. Provincial police chief General Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani said the attack occurred in Qosh Tepa district late on October 8. Jawzjani added that 30 militants were also killed and another 19 wounded in the attack, which he described as a failed attempt to capture the district. Abdul Hai Hayat, the head of Jawzjan Province's council, said a total of 13 security forces were killed and another 20 were wounded in the overnight assault. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group was claiming responsibility for the attack. With reporting by AP, Reuters, dpa, and TOLOnews Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/at-least-12-afghan -security-personnel-reported-killed- in-taliban-assault/29533570.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 Nikki Haley Leaves The UN: What To Know And What Comes Next Mike Eckel October 09, 2018 WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump caught Washington, and a good portion of the U.S. political world, off guard when he made the unexpected announcement that Nikki Haley, his ambassador to the United Nations, was leaving her post. A former governor of South Carolina, Haley held a prominent position in Trump's cabinet and was widely seen as a solid diplomat who put to rest doubts about her lack of foreign affairs credentials. Her diplomatic work, at least publicly, brought Trump's punchy, confrontational approach to foreign policy into the meetings of the Security Council. Her comments on October 9, made in the Oval Office as Trump announced her planned departure, also echoed that brash approach. "Look at what has happened in two years with the United States on foreign policy. Now, the United States is respected," she said. "Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do. They know that if we say we're going to do something, we follow it through. And the president proved that." She outlasted Trump's first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who, unlike Haley, generated friction with Trump: on substance, on style, on mannerisms, and other matters. Here are several things to know about Trump's first ambassador to the world body. Sharp-Elbowed Diplomacy? In one of her first statements upon taking up the job two years ago, Haley was decidedly undiplomatic. "For those that don't have our back, we're taking names. We will make points to respond to that accordingly," she said. That was a clear indication of the approach she sought at the UN, and she followed through, at least publicly. In Security Council meetings and elsewhere, she routinely called out Iran and Syria and engaged in rhetorical jousting with other members. In fact, she also called out the Security Council itself, accusing the body of "obsessing over Israel." "Truth be told, the Security Council often makes the Middle East more complicated than it actually is. It obsesses over Israel. And it refuses to acknowledge one of the chief sources of conflict and killing in the Middle East that is, Iran and its partner militia, Lebanese Hizballah," she said in August 2017. In May, when clashes along Israel's border with Gaza resulted in more than 60 Palestinians being killed, Haley walked out of an emergency Security Council meeting when the Palestinian UN envoy began giving his speech. As one of the top foreign policy officials in the U.S. administration, she also was at the forefront of the effort to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That move, which was hailed by Israel but derided by many U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe, was cited by Haley in her remarks alongside Trump on October 9. Haley also led the White House charge against the UN Human Rights Council, which Republicans, and some Democrats, have criticized for giving seats to countries with horrible human rights records: Venezuela, China, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, among others. "For too long, the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers," she said in June in announcing the United States' withdrawal from it. Other achievements she has claimed credit for include cutting the UN budget by $1.3 billion; imposing an arms embargo on South Sudan; passing three sets of sanctions on North Korea; and highlighting what she said was Iran's continuing efforts to destabilize the Middle East: "Bringing attention to the world that every country needs to understand you can't overlook all of the bad things they're doing; you have to see them for the threat that they are." Same Page, Different Page Trump's decision to tap Haley for the UN post raised eyebrows not just because of her relative lack of foreign policy experience. Haley was a critic of Trump during the 2016 election campaign, and she supported one of Trump's rivals for the Republican nomination -- moves that have typically been immediate disqualifiers for Trump, who sees such behavior as signs of disloyalty. Though her work at the UN largely reflected Trump policy, she eked out some distance from the White House. On Russia, for example, she has been an outspoken critic, putting her at odds with Trump, who has regularly called for a more conciliatory approach toward Moscow. In May, she called Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula "a textbook example of the direct violation of the sovereignty of one member state by another member state." In September, after Britain publicly accused Russian intelligence officers of carrying out the nerve-agent poisoning of an ex-Russian double agent in England, Haley ripped into Moscow. Also last month, she publicly accused Russia of cheating on UN sanctions imposed on North Korea: "Its violations are not one-offs. They are systematic. The United States has evidence of consistent and wide-ranging Russian violations." The perception that she wasn't entirely on the same page as Trump's White House came into sharpest focus in April, when she appeared to preempt a White House announcement about imposing new sanctions on Russian companies working with Syria. After one White House official, Larry Kudlow, told reporters that there might have been "some momentary confusion," Haley pointedly responded: "With all due respect, I don't get confused." Haley has also diverged from Trump on domestic affairs, as well, most notably after Trump blamed "both sides" for the violence that erupted at a demonstration of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. Days after Trump's comments drew pointed criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike, Haley said publicly that she "had a personal conversation with the president about Charlottesville, and I will leave it at that" remarks that most interpreted as her criticizing the president. And in an op-ed article published in The Washington Post, she put a marker down on her willingness to challenge Trump. "I don't agree with the president on everything," she wrote. Who's Next? Haley said she will remain in her post until the end of 2018. The timing of the announcement prompted quick speculation that she was planning to challenge Trump for the presidency in 2020. However, she put that to rest quickly, saying explicitly that she wasn't going to run and that she planned to support Trump. That gave way to more immediate speculation about whom Trump would tap to replace her. In her Oval Office remarks, Haley gave fulsome praise to Trump's daughter Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, who has been a White House envoy on Israel and Middle East policies, including the move of the U.S. Embassy. That led to some open discussion about whether one of them could end up with the UN portfolio. Ethics experts, however, point out that would be problematic due to nepotism issues. Other names that have floated include Heather Nauert, who, before becoming spokeswoman for the State Department, was a correspondent for ABC News and a host on Fox News. Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser earlier in Trump's administration, has also been mentioned in U.S. media reports as a possible successor, as has Richard Grenell, currently the U.S. ambassador to Germany and formerly a spokesman for John Bolton when he served as UN ambassador in the early 2000s. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/at-least-12-afghan -security-personnel-reported-killed- in-taliban-assault/29533570.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 'Accelerated Schedule:' US Army Prioritizing Long-Range Strike Munitions Sputnik News 23:30 09.10.2018 The US Army seeks to field a new long-range precision strike munition by the early 2020s, expediting the timeline for onboarding the new weapon by about four years. The Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) program was dubbed one of the highest priorities for capability modernization by the Association of the United States Army in 2017. As 2018 winds down, the Army now seeks to onboard the newly-named Precision Strike Munition (PrSM) program as early as 2023, Defense News reported Tuesday. Until now, the service hadn't planned for PrSM to be ready until 2027, the defense outlet noted. "We are on what I will call an accelerated schedule" to produce the missile technology for the Army, said Frank St. John, an executive at Lockheed Martin, which has been contracted to research and develop the munitions. The current Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) is starting to show its age and the range of capabilities it's able to develop, Col. John Raffert, the LRPF cross-functional lead, told Defense News. Designed in the 1970s, ATACMS was built in the 1980s. Although the US military has poured funds into upgrading its navigation, lethality and propulsion, "we've taken it as far as we can," Rafferty said. The Army requires the new surface-to-surface missile to have a range of 499 kilometers, approximately 40 percent further than ATACMS' range of 300 kilometers. "PrSM was originally a 2027 program, so that just shows you what can be done with focus and leadership," Rafferty noted. Raytheon and Lockheed are both preparing bids for the final contract awards. Raytheon announced Monday that its Deep Strike missile had been successfully integrated with truck-mounted launchers. (Deep Strike is another name for the Precision Strike Munition program.) Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CSTO to Start Tracking Down Militants, Routes of Arms Trafficking in 2019 Sputnik News 23:14 09.10.2018 MINSK (Sputnik) The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will start to hold special operations on detecting routes of movement of militants and arms trafficking into the areas of high terror activities, the CSTO deputy secretary general said on Tuesday. "Starting from 2019, we will conduct special operations in the CSTO format aimed at detection of routes of the militants' redeployment and arms trafficking into the areas of high terror activities, and at gathering information on the use of third countries by CSTO member states' citizens for providing support for the international terror organizations," Valery Semerikov said at the international conference Preventing and Countering Terrorism in the Digital Age in Minsk. The CSTO is an international military alliance aimed at improving security cooperation between the member states. The organization includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. Its key objective is to fight against international terrorism and other security threats. The CSTO alliance was established on the basis of the Collective Security Treaty, signed by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states on May 15, 1992. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Truman to Sail in Massive NATO Exercises Sputnik News 22:05 09.10.2018(updated 22:16 09.10.2018) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is set to kick off the military alliance's biggest exercise in 20 years later this month, with the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group participating in the drills, NATO officials said Tuesday. Speaking in Brussels Tuesday at NATO headquarters, Adm. James G. Foggo announced, "The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its striker, including its ships and aircraft, will participate in Trident Juncture." Foggo is a commander in the US Navy and is the chief of NATO naval forces. The Trident Juncture will feature military participation from all 29 NATO members and will include cooperation from Sweden and Finland. According to Foggo, the exercise has three themes, known as the three D's: "NATO is a defensive alliance, Trident Juncture demonstrates our credible capability, and together we deter potential adversaries." The drills will take place in Norway from October 25 through November 7, according to NATO officials. In sum, approximately 50,000 personnel are expected to train in the drills. When asked about the drills' proximity to Russian borders, Norwegian Lt. Gen. Rune Jakobsen said, "The core exercise area is more than 1,000 kilometers from the Russian border, and air operations could take place up to 500 kilometers away from the border, so there should not be any reason for the Russians to get scared or see this as something else than a defensive exercise." The USS Truman was previously stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea conducting operations against the terrorist group Daesh. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address With Wyoming and South Dakota in our rear view mirror, we look toward Colorado, and a hot spot I have been anxious to visit. Trinidad Colorado is located just a few miles north of the Colorado New Mexico border, and home to the Trinidad Reservoir. This area also is where I hope to fill in a few target birds, like the newly spilt Woodhouses Scrub Jay, Pinyon Jays and Prairie Falcons. Jeanne and I parked the 5th wheel in the Trinidad Lake Campground, and found it to be perhaps the nicest campground we had ever been in. Most campgrounds are primitive sites, with an occasional area having water but that is it. The Trinidad Lake CG had power at each site, beautiful restrooms, complete with showers, and a laundry facility. This all mixed in with a very nice bunch of birds. The very first thing I noticed was a Williamson Sapsucker on the tree as I backed the 5th wheel into our assigned site. Before we could even get camp set up, one of my targets flew over head and landed in a nearby Juniper tree. A new Lifer, the Woodhouses Scrub jay was split away from the Western Scrub Jay. The resulting spilt added the California Scrub Jay as the other half, and a bird that was much more common for the west coast where I have been frequenting. Here is that Williamsons Sapsucker. This lovely bird is the new Woodhouses Scrub Jay. We have encountered quite a few Mountain Bluebirds in the last 3-4 weeks, but the bulk have been the grayer females. They still have a blue back, and primaries, but just dont pop like the all blue males. Here at Trinidad, I was able to find some male Mountain Bluebirds, as seen below, and even a few Western Bluebirds. Here is the gray toned female Mountain Bluebirds. And this is the all blue colored male Mountain Bluebird. One morning, I woke up to see a White-breasted Nuthatch in the tree right behind our 5th wheel, but before I could get out there with my camera, it was gone, never to see seen in the next three days. While I stood there looking for it, a beautiful male Western Tanager showed up for his big chance to be featured on 10000 Birds. We took a break and tried our hands at fishing, with no luck what so ever, but the many Osprey over head all seem to be able to find fish. Guess I was just not holding my mouth right? The west end of the lake has been designated as a Watchable Wildlife Reserve, with some nice walking trails and a couple of very nice hides built overlooking some varied waterways. Mallards, Blue-wing Teal, American Wigeon, and a bunch of American Coots were taking advantage of the well managed wetland areas. In the past, seeing some of these Ring-necked Ducks would have been rather scarce, so here is a shot of the small group that were on the larger pond. As we walked back along the trails, we flushed a Prairie Falcon out of the rim rocks above our head. It was gone so quickly, there was no chance to get a photo. Right after that, I spotted a Rock Wren, hopping around the nearby rocks, and went in search of a nice picture. Of course, as I focused on the Rock Wren, the Prairie Falcon flew back and directly over my head, again.no picture! Its not Prairie Falcon, but it is a great little Rock Wren. We got to see several Bands of Wild Turkeys around the lake. This male Lesser Goldfinch posed nicely for me. We have been feeling a push to get the 5th wheel down to Tucson, Arizona, which will be our home for the winter, and get prepped for another trip out of the US before the end of the year. So, we were off and away to Dalhart, Texas, and the Rita Blanca Reservoir. Following along with some of the eBird.org reports, there have been a huge bunch of warblers and other migrants gathering around the lake in the last couple of weeks. We had no real plans to go to Texas, but the last report from Rita Blanca was very impressive. For those of you that have never been thru any part of Texas, especially the northwest corner, it is very flat! And, I might point out, incredible windy! Driving down the highway, with a posted speed limit of 80 MPH, I am doing a very cautious 55-60 MPH, and battling a 25-35 MPH cross wind. Our 30 foot 5th wheel has quite a bit of windage, which is designed for head winds, as we travel down the road. Winds coming from the side make it really bounce around, so I wanted to get off that highway as soon as possible. We got to the RV Park in one piece, and get set up in time for me to make a assessment of the lake before dark. The man made body of water is narrow, but nearly a mile long, and had an incredible number of waterfowl on it. The riparian areas were well covered in willows, cattails, alders and much other nice bird holding type cover. The next morning, the winds showed no signs of abating, and if possible might have gotten a bit stronger, along with some dark clouds that threatened rain. I spent half a day walking along the lake, hoping for things to calm down, but no luck. There were a few birds moving around, some basics, like Yellow-rumped Warblers, Chipping Sparrows and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, along with the large numbers of ducks, but nothing compared to the reports that had been posted. The largest group of ducks turned out to be the Ruddy Ducks, with well over 200 in three or four large rafts. Northern Pintails, Mallards, Blue-wing Teal, Redheads, Gadwalls and even one single Canvasback covered the lake. The biggest surprise came when I spotted a Snow Goose on the far north end of the lake. Next week we will spend some time in New Mexico. There are some quail I would like to track down, as well as some of these migrant warblers that seem to be just ahead of me. We also are taking a couple of days to photograph the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. The numbers are as follows: Little Big Year Species 892 eBird.org submissions 294 U.S.A. species 224 Explosion at Election Campaign Office in Afghanistan Kills 10 - Official Sputnik News 13:41 09.10.2018(updated 16:47 09.10.2018) The incident followed a blast at an election rally in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, in which 14 people were killed and more than 30 were injured. Daesh* terror group claimed responsibility for the attack The governor's press service said in a Tuesday statement obtained by Sputnik, that at least 10 were killed and 10 more wounded by the blast at the campaign office in the city of Lashkargah in Helmand Province. "The suicide attack left 10 people killed and 10 more injured, including the parliamentary candidate [Saleh Mohammad Achekzai]," the statement read. Earlier on Monday, Gen. Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani, the provincial police chief in Jawzjan, stated that 12 members of security forces were killed during a failed attempt to capture Qush Typa district. Following the incident, the Taliban* claimed responsibility for the attack. All the incidents followed the statement of the Taliban, where the movement promised to carry out attacks targeting polling places during the upcoming parliamentary and district council elections. The parliamentary election in Afghanistan is slated for October 20 and will be the first such election in the country since 2010. The vote was supposed to take place in 2016; however, it was postponed due to the country's unstable security situation. * Daesh (also known as IS/ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State) and Taliban are terrorist groups, banned in Russia Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Poland Not Going to Join US Nuclear Sharing Program - Foreign Minister Sputnik News 12:48 09.10.2018(updated 12:52 09.10.2018) WARSAW (Sputnik) - Warsaw is not going to join the nuclear sharing program to gain access to US nuclear weapons, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said in an interview. "This is not the subject of negotiations This is not the subject of consideration as well," Czaputowicz told the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper. At the same time, he confirmed that the Polish side is awaiting a decision on the deployment of a permanent base of US troops in the country in early 2019. "It is about spring next year," the minister said. On September 18, US President Donald Trump said at a meeting with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda that the United States was considering the possibility of deploying a permanent military base in Poland. Trump also stated at a press conference with Duda that the Polish president offered to pay "much more than $2 billion" toward the cost of the base. The Polish president suggested that it might be called Fort Trump. The United States has dozens of nuclear weapons stockpiled in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Suicide Blast Kills Afghan Parliamentary Candidate By Ayaz Gul October 09, 2018 A suicide blast in southern Afghanistan has killed a parliamentary candidate along with nine supporters, a day after the Taliban insurgent group announced it would disrupt the upcoming national elections with violent attacks. An official said the bomber targeted a campaign office in Lashkargah, capital of the southern Helmand province. Provincial police spokesman Abdul Salam Afghan told VOA that the blast wounded at least 15 people. He identified the slain candidate as Saleh Mohammad Achakzai, who was contesting a seat in the lower house of parliament, the Wolesi Jirga. Witnesses expect the number of casualties to rise because the campaign office was crowed at the time of the attack. Monday, the Taliban said it ordered insurgent fighters to halt the election process by staging attacks on officials and Afghan security forces protecting voters, as well as thousands of polling stations around Afghanistan. The Islamist insurgency denounced the democratic process as an American ploy to bring its "stooges" to the parliament to prolong the "foreign occupation" of the country. The Taliban urged Afghan voters and candidates to boycott the elections. Election officials say more than 2,500 candidates, including over 400 women, are competing for the 249 seats in the Wolesi Jirga. The elections are taking place after a delay of more than three years due to a lack of reforms and security reasons. Intimidation and attacks against candidates, their agents and supporters during the October campaigning period have already killed more than 20 people and wounded dozens more. Candidates, their security guards and relatives were among the victims. Helmand is the largest Afghan province, in which most of the districts are controlled or hotly contested by the Taliban. The insurgents are also entrenched around Lashkargah. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Ambassador: Political Settlement Only Solution to Crisis in Yemen By Fatiha Belfakir October 09, 2018 The ongoing conflict in Yemen cannot be resolved militarily, rather efforts should be made by all parties to the conflict to find a political solution, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen told U.S.-funded Alhurra TV last week. "I do believe that we have a path forward with a strong international consensus to continue to push towards a political solution," U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Matthew Tueller said. He added the U.S remains committed to finding a political solution to the conflict in the war-torn country. "I believe ultimately that Yemenis themselves know that there must be a political solution," Tueller said. Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, the Yemeni Ambassador to the U.S, told VOA that while his government supports U.S. and U.N. efforts to find a political solution to the war, military pressure is needed. "We believe, up until now, that the only solution to the Yemeni conflict is the political solution.We believe also from our experience with the Houthis that they will not come to the negotiation table unless there is a certain level of military pressure," Bin Mubarak said. UN conference The United Nations has been trying to mediate between the warring sides in Yemen to an effort to resolve the conflict. Last month, it convened a three-day conference in Geneva to discuss an end to the conflict, but the Houthis did not attend. "We did not manage to get Ansarullah's delegation, the delegation from Sanaa to come here," U.N. special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said, expressing disappointment over the Houthi boycott of the meeting. But Griffiths showed optimism and said his team will continue to engage all sides. "We were engaged throughout these days in discussions and negotiations and arrangements and options and alternatives to get them [Houthis] here," he said. Meanwhile, Ambassador Tueller said Iran played a role in preventing the Houthis from attending the Geneva meeting. "I see in many negotiations, strategies and tactics that Houthis have used throughout numerous negotiations held internationally, they followed tactics that are very familiar to us as we have engaged with Iran, always following a path where negotiations are very difficult," Tueller said. But he said the Houthis are not fully controlled by Iran. "We have to work with these modern elements on the political side of Houthis, who do not want to see Iran or any other country having a role meddling inside Yemen," Tueller added. Worst humanitarian crisis The civil war in Yemen began in 2014 between the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has the support of a Saudi-led coalition, and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. U.N. and international rights groups are calling the conflict the worst crisis in the world. "Yemen is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. As the conflict enters its fourth year, more than 22 million people, three-quarters of the population, need humanitarian aid and protection," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a donor conference in Geneva earlier this year. Meanwhile, the U.N. World Food Program said the current level of hunger in Yemen is unprecedented. "Now, 17 million people in the country are food insecure, meaning they do not have enough food. Of these, 6.8 million -- that is almost 1 in 4 people -- are severely food insecure and rely entirely on external assistance," the U.N. agency said. While calling the Yemen crisis a catastrophe, Michael Page of Human Rights Watch blamed both Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition for restricting aid to certain areas in Yemen. "Houthis are restricting aid and detaining humanitarian workers," Page said. "A substantial amount of blame is on the Saudi-led coalition for the bombing campaign, which has hit or destroyed schools, hospitals and mosques." Extremists As the crisis deeps in Yemen, some rights organizations are concerned that extremists groups could exploit the situation. In an interview with NPR, International Rescue Committee President David Miliband said the conflict in Yemen is in a stalemate stage, breeding not only a humanitarian crisis but also paving the way for other nonstate actors to exploit the situation. "In the chaos, other groups are emerging, separatists groups in the south, al-Qaida of the Arab Peninsula in the east and ISIS is growing [in the country] as well," Miliband told Lisa Mullins, the host of NPR's Here & Now show on Monday. "At the same time, there is a political emergency, too, because the only side that's gaining from the current stalemate are the extremists of al-Qaida and ISIS and it's a country now which is on the verge of meltdown, not just a humanitarian meltdown but a political meltdown," Miliband added, using an acronym for the Islamic State terror group. Regional rivalry Some analysts like Houchang Hassan Yari, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, believe that at the heart of the conflict in Yemen lies the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia. "Iranians are using Houthis to fight Saudis, and Saudis are fighting Houthis indirectly to fight Iranians," Yari said." Iranians are showing their muscles in the region as they believe Iran is a power." A senior official of the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the Saudi-led coalition, told VOA that his country and the Saudi-led coalition supports a political solution. "We fully support U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths' efforts and encourage all the relevant parties to engage in a constructive dialogue that could ultimately lead to an end to the conflict," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media about Yemen. Civilian casualties In addition to displacing millions of people, the conflict has reportedly claimed the lives of more than 10,000 innocent people since it began. Page, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, blamed both the Houthis and Saudi-led coalition for indiscriminate use of force in Yemen. "The Saudis are not using these weapons precisely, they are sometimes purposely and deliberately targeting an area and indiscriminately killing civilians," Page said. A senior U.S. State Department official told VOA that the U.S. has urged all parties in the conflict to respect the law of armed conflict. "Throughout this conflict, the United States has urged all parties to abide by the Law of Armed Conflict, work to prevent harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure, and thoroughly investigate and ensure accountability for any violations," the official said. State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Envoy to UN Haley Announces Resignation By Steve Herman October 09, 2018 U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is resigning. "It has been an honor of a lifetime," said Haley, sitting alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, where on Tuesday they announced her pending departure. "I'm not leaving until the end of the year." "We will miss you," Trump said to Haley. "You have done a fantastic job." Thanking Haley for her service, Trump characterized the diplomat as "very special to me" and someone whom he had teamed with and "solved a lot of problems," citing, in particular, issues with Iran and North Korea. "Hopefully, you'll be coming back at some point," added the president, saying "you can have your pick" of other jobs in his administration. "I don't have anything set on where I'm going to go," said Haley. The former governor of South Carolina has been seen by some as a relatively moderate voice in Trump's Cabinet. Her appointment as ambassador to the U.N. was seen as a surprise because she had been viewed as a critic of Trump's confrontational style during the 2016 presidential campaign. She also has been a proponent of free markets and global trade, in contrast to the president's "America First" policies. "Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do," Haley said Tuesday, summarizing her tenure as Trump's envoy to the world body. Speaking to reporters later in the day, Trump said his daughter, Ivanka Trump, who works in the White House as an adviser to her father, could succeed Haley. Ivanka Trump "would be dynamite, but then I would be accused of nepotism if you can believe it," he said. "I'm not sure there's anybody more competent in the world." Trump also said, in an extended exchange with reporters on the South Lawn: "I think CNN would support her." Trump also mentioned Dina Habib Powell, an Egyptian-born fluent Arabic speaker who was previously his deputy national security adviser for strategy. "Dina's certainly a person I would consider and she's under consideration," he said. Proud of administration role Haley responded recently to an anonymous opinion article in The New York Times by an unnamed senior official who claimed to be part of a "resistance" inside the Trump administration to thwart parts of the president's agenda and his "worst inclinations." Haley, writing in The Washington Post, said that she was proudly serving in Trump administration and "I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country." As ambassador to the world body, Haley had clashed with her first immediate boss in the Trump administration, Rex Tillerson, who was fired by the president in March. Current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Haley "for the good work that she's done," saying she has been a great partner. "She has been unique in this administration, not because she's pushed a strong U.S. agenda, but in showing that to accomplish our goals we need to sit down with other countries and work in concert with allies and friendly countries," Richard Boucher, a Brown University Watson Institute senior fellow and former assistant secretary of state, told VOA. "Secretary Pompeo now takes this approach as well. Others have tended to bluster and think that's how to get what we want." Former diplomat Mintaro Oba, who spent three years on the Korea desk at the State Department, said he did not see Haley's departure prompting any major changes for most policies, including those related to North Korea. "A bigger question mark is how the United States will replace the relationships and trust she built with others at the U.N. and how that will impact key U.S. initiatives in the U.N. Security Council, like the North Korea pressure campaign," Oba told VOA. Trump agenda Trump has been a loud and frequent critic of the United Nations, and Haley pushed his agenda against what he saw as mismanagement and biases at the world body. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described his relationship with Haley as "very productive and strong," lauding her for promoting "constructive ties between the United Nations and the United States, showing the value of the United Nations." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Twitter, thanked Haley for leading what he termed "the uncompromising struggle against hypocrisy at the U.N., and on behalf of the truth and justice of our country." As governor of South Carolina, Haley came to national prominence for taking down the flag of the Confederacy at the State House in Columbia. The flag is a symbol of the losing Southern side during America's mid-19th century Civil War. Haley, 46, whose parents emigrated from India, is one of six women in Trump's Cabinet and has been regarded by some as a potential Republican Party presidential contender. "No, I'm not running for 2020," Haley told reporters Tuesday, adding that she would be campaigning for Trump's re-election in the next presidential election. Heritage Foundation fellow Brett Schaefer, who focuses on the U.N., said, "I think she's absolutely a star in the making. She's relatively young. She has a bright political future ahead of her, in my opinion." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Guard members mobilize as Hurricane Michael approaches U.S. By Steve Marshall | National Guard Bureau October 9, 2018 ARLINGTON, Va. -- Governors in Alabama, Florida and Georgia have declared states of emergency prior to the landfall of Hurricane Michael, which is predicted for Wednesday. And National Guard members are mobilizing to assist communities and residents in need. Florida Gov. Rick Scott pulled no punches in warning state residents in the storm's path: "I can not emphasize enough - Hurricane Michael is forecast to be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida panhandle in decades. It will be life-threatening and extremely dangerous. You cannot hide from this storm. You can rebuild your home; you cannot rebuild your life." In a tweet, Scott said 2,500 Florida National Guard members have been activated. The governor said the state has more than 4,000 Guard members available for deployment. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey urged residents to prepare. "Please stay weather-aware today and tomorrow for any forecast changes," she said. "Most importantly, heed all warnings and instructions from local authorities." "We have vehicles, equipment and manpower ready. If you need us, we are always there," the Alabama National Guard said on its Facebook page. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency for 92 counties Tuesday morning and urged residents to pay attention to forecasts and to authorities. As of Tuesday afternoon, the storm packed winds of 110 mph, just below the threshold for a Category 3 hurricane. Its predicted storm surge was 12 feet. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK Says Cyber Capabilities Would Be Used in 'Accordance With International Law' Sputnik News 02:03 09.10.2018(updated 05:55 09.10.2018) LONDON (Sputnik) - The UK Foreign Office has declined to comment on media reports alleging that UK troops staged military exercises which included war-gaming a cyberattack to "black out Moscow" in response to "aggression," the Russia Embassy said late on Monday. The Sunday Times newspaper reported on October 7, citing senior security sources in the UK government, that the country's authorities had been ordered to boost cyberattack capabilities to be able to "turn out the lights" in the Kremlin. The newspaper reported that London wanted to have means of hitting back at Moscow in case it tried to seize small Baltic Sea islands or invade Libya to take over its oil reserves and trigger a new migrant crisis in Europe. "Today we have received a reply from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office [FCO] which implies that, as before, the British side is not going to provide us with any details that may serve as the basis of the accusations At the same time the FCO states that media publications should be considered a display of freedom of public debate into which the UK Government does not interfere. As for the alleged plans of carrying out cyberattacks against Russia, the FCO has confirmed that the UK does possess offensive cyber capabilities, but stated that it would be used solely in accordance with international law," the embassy's spokesperson said in a statement. Although the UK Foreign Office has decided to dissociate itself from "irresponsible" media reports, such coverage may seriously harm London's reputation in the world, according to the embassy. "This reply by the FCO begs the question on how to treat leaks in the British media containing references to anonymous officials. In case their statements are distorted, let alone fabricated, the government must find a way to react by signaling to the British public and foreign states that it is a matter of fake news. Otherwise, the media can seriously harm the UK reputation in the eyes of many countries, something that can be already witnessed. Contrary to the FCO's statements, this is not the case of free public debate, but an abuse of the freedom of press to the detriment of the reader," the spokesperson stressed. The United Kingdom has repeatedly accused Russia of cybercrimes, including a recent alleged attempt by its spies to hack the international chemical weapons watchdog in the Hague. Russia has responded by accusing the West of rampant spy mania. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NASA's Voyager 2 Probe Will Soon Leave the Solar System Sputnik News 22:01 09.10.2018(updated 22:04 09.10.2018) Judging by a recent increase in cosmic rays, scientists estimate that the Voyager 2 probe may be nearing the edge of the solar system. Once it passes through the heliopause, the 41-year-old probe will become only the second man-made object to enter interstellar space. The two Voyager probes have been on a deep space sojourn since 1977, and Voyager 2 has covered roughly 11 billion miles in that time, or more than 118 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Voyager 1 left the solar system in 2012 and is slightly farther away, at 13.2 billion miles from the Sun. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported on October 5 that the Voyager 2 probe has been detecting a roughly 5 percent increase in cosmic rays in the last two months an important sign that it's nearing the edge of the Sun's influence, where our star's vast magnetic field no longer blocks oncoming rays from outer space. Beyond that barrier, called the heliopause, lies open space. "We're seeing a change in the environment around Voyager 2, there's no doubt about that," Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone told the JPL. "We're going to learn a lot in the coming months, but we still don't know when we'll reach the heliopause. We're not there yet that's one thing I can say with confidence." In May 2012, Voyager 1 experienced what Voyager 2 is seeing now, and it passed through the heliopauce about three months afterward. However, NASA scientists caution that Voyager 2's timeline may be a bit different, since it's not passing the same way its sister probe did. The two probes' primary missions were to photograph Jupiter and Saturn up-close for the first time. After that, though, their paths split: Voyager 1 was sent on a special mission to photograph Saturn's largest moon, Titan, which, with its thick atmosphere and large size, scientists consider "one of the most Earth-like worlds we have found to date," Space.com quoted NASA as saying. Voyager 1 then shot out of the solar system at an oblique angle, away from the solar system's disk, which is how it left the system first. Voyager 2, on the other hand, continued onward to the outer planets, photographing Uranus and Neptune in significant detail for the first time. After that, the two probes began the Voyager Interstellar Mission, which has provided NASA scientists with the first measurements of the vast outer regions of the solar system beyond the eight planets, and now interstellar space. However, the two spacecrafts' batteries are slowly failing. Last year, NASA scientists told Space.com the Voyager 1 probe may only have "two to three years" left before its systems no longer receive enough charge to continue functioning, while Voyager 2 is estimated to continue sending back data until around 2025 or so. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address After Meeting Kim, Pompeo Says Now Sees Path to Denuclearized North Korea Sputnik News 21:32 09.10.2018(updated 21:35 09.10.2018) WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that after his recent meeting with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un, he can now see a path forward toward the goal of denuclearizing North Korea. "While there is still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path to where we'll achieve the ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearization of North Korea," Pompeo told reporters. The State Department said Pompeo and Kim held a productive discussion on Sunday about the four elements contained in the joint statement signed by Trump and Kim at their first summit in June. Kim invited inspectors to visit the Punggye-ri nuclear test site to confirm it has been irreversibly dismantled, and both Kim and Pompeo agreed to have working-level teams meet in the near future to discuss other unresolved issues from the Singapore summit, the State Department added. Kim and Pompeo also discussed preparations for a second summit, and earlier on Tuesday Trump confirmed that the talks were centered around three or four possible locations for that meeting. The first summit between the US and North Korean leaders took place in Singapore in June. During the meeting, the two sides reached an agreement stipulating that Pyongyang would make efforts toward the promotion of complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in exchange for security guarantees for North Korea. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Critical food programmes in North Korea can't wait for 'diplomatic progress', UN food agency warns 9 October 2018 - North Korea's humanitarian situation remains dire, with widespread chronic food insecurity and malnutrition, the United Nations emergency food relief agency has warned, urging greater and sustained funding for its aid operations there. According to Herve Verhoosel, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN agency is staring at a massive 73 per cent shortfall in funding for 2018, hurting critical programmes such as nutritional support for children. "We must not wait for diplomatic progress to alleviate the suffering of millions of people - funds are urgently needed now," said Mr. Verhoosel. "Any donation we receive today will take at least six months to reach the people who need it, due to the time it takes to purchase and transport food." Diplomatic efforts continue to build confidence and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. A lack of funding risks reversing small gains in nutrition for mothers and children, made over the past four years, on the back of concerted efforts by humanitarians. Limited funding has also resulted in the suspension of operations to build resilience among disaster-hit and vulnerable communities. WFP needs $15.2 million over the next five months to avoid further cuts to programmes which help feed around 650,000 women and children each month. Across the country, which is officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), more than 10 million people almost 40 per cent of the population are undernourished and in need of support, with one in five children stunted due to chronic malnutrition. The country is also vulnerable to natural disasters, such as drought and flooding, which affect agricultural production and livelihoods. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kansas City Corporate Housing has emerged as one of the top options for anyone who is on the lookout for the best kind of corporate apartments. The company has created a niche for itself and has earned rave reviews. Kansas City Corporate Housing is undoubtedly one of the top companies who has become the ace choice for those looking for an impeccable apartment to stay. The company has been offering some of the best fully furnished corporate apartments for sale. With their services, travelling for longer periods can really become easy as rather than staying at a high end hotel, one can choose the best of corporate apartments which come packed with the right kind of amenities. One of the key spokesmen for the company was quoted as saying, At Kansas City Corporate Housing, our main aim is to ensure that our clients are at ease. We are always looking to offer them the best of housing solutions which they are sure to love. We have an array of options as our work is spread across endless areas in Kansas City. We are sure that our business is likely to expand further in the times to come. The company offers massive flexibility when it comes to leasing plans. They have 3, 6 and even 9 months lease plans. Along with it, the company makes it a point to offer clear details because they do not believe in any kind of hidden fees. With their state of the art apartments, people staying here can truly enjoy their vacation while feeling that they are truly at ease. It has managed to redefine the whole traveling experience by leaps and bounds. Hence, anyone looking to ensure that they can find the best of corporate apartments and enjoy their stay at Kansas City should make it a point to check out KansasCityCorporateHousing.com About Kansas City Corporate Housing Kansas City Corporate Housing is one of the top companies that has been doing a great work as far as offering the best of corporate apartments at justified pricing is concerned. The company has a massive list of the best apartments which are fully furnished and packed with the finest utilities as well. Media Contact Company Name: Kansas City Corporate Housing Contact Person: Media Relations Email: Send Email Phone: 844-816-1218 Address:Two Pershing Square, 2300 S Main St. City: Kansas City State: Missouri 64108 Country: United States Website: https://www.kansascitycorporatehousing.com/contact-us Iran's Minister of Defense: Iran becomes a power in air IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Oct, IRNA -- Iranian Minister of Defense says Iran has become a power in gaining significant development in the field of air power, with a revolutionary jihadist approach and with tolerance of fragile sanctions. Brigadier General Amir Hatami said on Tuesday at a conference on the role of air power in the Ministry of Defense's Air Industry, 'After the Islamic Revolution's glorious victory, despite imposing all sanctions on the great people of Iran, there were special sanctions on Air force and air industry, and with the departure of foreign military advisers from the country, they thought that the air force would fail.' He continued, 'Today, we are in a position where the defense industry's capabilities of knowledge-based companies and great universities of the country are in harmony with each other working and strengthening the air power of the country. Hatami, referring to the advanced technology of designing and constructing a jet fighter, said, 'Currently, many developed countries in the world are still dependant in these areas and they are meeting their great needs at great expense.' Iranian Minister of Defense disclosed measures underway for preparation of the Kosar 88 training jet with the indegenious design, construction, and technology in the near future and added, 'Strategic comments from aeronautical experts, have been received in order to advance this industry.' 9455**1420 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Defense Minister: Iran turns to a power in aerial field IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Oct 9, IRNA -- Minister of Defense and Logistics of Armed Forces Brigadier General Amir Hatami said on Tuesday that Iran has turned to a power in aerial field. He said that today knowledge-based companies, together with Iran's universities have joined their facilities in defense industry and through coordination are strengthening and promoting aerial fields. The minister acknowledged preparation for training jet of Kosar-88 with indigenous and domestic design, construction and technology in the near future. General Hatami said that aerial power is an important and determinable sector of country's defensive might and stressed that in this field different sectors of radar, drone, air defense and air force are among elements of aerial power, gaining noticeable progress in the past 40 years. 1391**1420 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address "Konarak" missile launcher warship joins Iranian Navy's fleet ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency Tue / 9 October 2018 / 12:38 Tehran (ISNA) Iran's missile launcher warship dubbed "Konarak" has formally joined the country's Naval fleet. In a ceremony at a naval base in Iran's southeastern port city of Konarak, the warship of "Konarak" came into service. Iran's Navy Commander, Real Admiral Khanzadi, governor of Konarak and a number of local officials attended the event. "Konarak" warship joined Iran's Naval fleet to enhance the Navy's combat capabilities in the country's southern waters. End Item NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia planning to turn Libya into 'new Syria': UK intelligence Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 10:58AM The UK intelligence agencies have reportedly warned Prime Minister Theresa May that Russia is sending weapons and troops to Libya in order to turn the North African country into a "new Syria," an allegation that is likely to further muddy the waters between Moscow and London. The Sun newspaper reported Monday that "dozens" of officers from the Russia's GRU military intelligence service as well as its Special Forces wing, Spetznaz, had already been deployed to Libya upon Russian President Vladimir Putin's order. The tabloid newspaper claimed that seizing control of the biggest illegal immigration route to Europe was Moscow's biggest objective. The report further claimed that the Russian military was already operating two bases in Libya's coastal towns of Tobruk and Benghazi under the cover of a Russian private military company called the Wagner Group. Russia is also believed to have deployed batteries of its Kalibr anti-ship missiles and S-300 air defense systems on the ground in Libya, the report stated. "What Putin is doing in Libya is straight out of his playbook for Syria," one government source claimed, referring to Russia's military campaign in support of the Syrian government against terrorist groups across the country. The official went on to liken Russia's practices to the 2014 re-integration of the Crimean Peninsula to Russia. "It is a potentially catastrophic move to allow him to undermine Western democracy, but again we are doing nothing about it," the source added. The report caused uproar among members of the UK parliament, prompting senior MPs to call for government action. "It's is extremely alarming Russia wants to open up a new front against the West in Libya, but it should also come as no surprise," Commons Foreign Affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat. "We need a coordinated government response because the destabilization of a sub-Saharan country is intimately linked to UK national security," he added. Russian officials have agreed to meet with Libyan strongman General Khalifa Haftar in the past. However, the Kremlin denies allegations that it has forces on the ground in the country. Haftar, who leads the Libyan National Army and is considered the de facto military ruler of much of Eastern Libya, was one of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's senior commanders but later switched sides. Libya has faced chaos since an uprising and a NATO military intervention resulted in the downfall of Gaddafi in 2011. The oil-rich country has been grappling with insecurity and the emergence of numerous militant groups, including Daesh, since then. Tensions are already running high between Britain and Russia. London has taken an aggressive line with Moscow over the past months, accusing it of increased submarine activity near British waters, poisoning a former Russian double-agent and more importantly, carrying out regular hacking attacks against British infrastructure. Russia has time and again denied the charges, dismissing them as "Russophobic hysteria" being spread by the West. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Reports Alleging Moscow's Military Plans in Libya Unfounded - Contact Group Sputnik News 23:48 09.10.2018 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The UK media reports about Russia's alleged plans to establish a stronghold against the West in Libya represent misinterpretation of Moscow's policy in the country, which only aims to restore economic ties with Tripoli, Lev Dengov, the head of the Russian Contact Group for intra-Libyan settlement, told Sputnik on Tuesday. On Monday, The Sun tabloid newspaper said that the UK intelligence had warned UK Prime Minister Theresa May of Moscow's alleged plans to send weapons and troops to Libya to turn it into a "new Syria." The news outlet claimed that Russia wanted to take control of migration routes leading to Europe and, by doing this, to increase influence on the West. "Facts published in the British newspaper 'The Sun' have nothing to do with reality. As of today, the Russian leadership has set a clear state policy regarding Libya. It comprises specific tasks aimed at restoring economic ties between Russia and Libya. In order to implement it, the country's leadership decided to engage with all parties to the Libyan conflict as well as with the key international actors interested in resolving the conflict such as Italy, France, and some regional states," Dengov stressed. He added that such policy had yielded concrete results, which was reflected by a series of visits of representatives of Tripoli, Tobruk and other Libyan regions' representatives to Russia. "It is not the first time that we see reports claiming that the Russian Federation is sided with one of the actors in Libya. Information that Russia supports one party to the conflict does not correspond to reality," Dengov reiterated. Libya has been in turmoil since the overthrow of its long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country is divided between two governments, with the eastern part controlled by the Libyan National Army and the western part governed by the UN-backed Government of National Accord of Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK Intel Claims Putin Aims to Make Libya "New Syria" to Pressure West - Reports Sputnik News 09:57 09.10.2018(updated 10:04 09.10.2018) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK intelligence agencies have told Prime Minister Theresa May that Russia wanted to "turn Libya into a new Syria" in order to take control of migration flows and flood Europe with refugees, thus increasing its influence on the West, The Sun newspaper reported. The Sun newspaper alleged, citing a high-ranking source in the British government, that Moscow supported Haftar, "supplying his troops with heavy equipment." According to the publication, dozens of officers from Russian military intelligence service GRU and its special forces are already deployed in eastern Libya, "initially carrying out training and liaison roles." The newspaper claimed that two Russian military bases were already operating in the coastal cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, using Russian private military company Wagner Group as a cover for their activities. The publication also wrote, without providing sources and proof, that "Russia's devastating Kalibr anti-ship missiles and state-of-the-art S-300 air defence missile systems are also now believed to be on the ground in Libya." "It's is extremely alarming Russia wants to open up a new front against the West in Libya, but it should also come as no surprise. They will without a doubt try to exploit migration routes across Africa," the chairman of the UK parliament's lower house's Foreign Affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat, told the UK government in a statement, as quoted by the publication. Tugendhat urged Downing Street to ensure a coordinated response, saying that the Libyan issue was linked to UK national security. The lack of the single central government and army in Libya resulted in the surge of trafficking activities and the development of militant groups and terror organizations in the country. Libya is also the major gate for migrants from all of the Northern Africa, which attempt to cross the Mediterranean and settle in Europe, which became one of the main reasons of the European migration crisis in recent years. After long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, Libya descended into civil war and control of the country is now divided between two rival entities. The UN-recognized Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) controls the country's western part, while its eastern regions are governed by the elected parliament backed by the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by military commander Khalifa Haftar. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Myanmar 'unwilling' to probe Rohingya genocide: UN Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 10:04AM The United Nations (UN)'s special envoy to Myanmar says the Myanmarese government is "unwilling" to investigate state-sponsored violence against the Rohingya Muslim community in the country, calling on the international community to take action before it is too late. UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee said in a report published on her Twitter account on Monday that the Myanmarese government had taken "limited and insufficient steps" to investigate the atrocities against Rohingya Muslims. Last year, Myanmar's armed forces, backed by Buddhist extremist mobs, launched a state-sponsored crackdown against the Muslim community in Rakhine State. Thousands have been killed and over 700,000 Rohingya have only survived by fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh, where they are camped in overcrowded refugee centers in dire living conditions. "[Myanmar] is unable and unwilling to discharge its obligation to conduct credible, prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations and prosecutions," Lee said. The UN has already concluded that the atrocities constitute genocide. Myanmar, however, has blatantly denied the violence. However, massive evidence has been collected by international observers, medics, and journalists, even though the government has blocked access to the ground zero of the violence, namely Rakhine. 'Case should be forwarded to ICC immediately' Given the government's refusal to hold itself accountable for the atrocities, Lee urged "the international community to take action." "Any delay in instituting justice will only result in more violations," she warned, saying that the UN had to "refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) immediately." The Hague-based court had already said last month that it had opened a preliminary investigation into the military's crimes. Myanmar is not a member of the court, but the membership of Bangladesh, which is home to tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees, is enough basis for its jurisdiction over the case. Lee herself has been barred from entering Myanmar since December last year, after her sharp criticisms of the government's treatment of the Rohingya. She has asked India for permission to meet Rohingya Muslim refugees there but received no response from New Delhi. An estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to India. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pakistan Plans to Buy High-End Drones in China Amid India's S-400 Deal Sputnik News 16:28 09.10.2018 If confirmed, the delivery of the state-of-the-art Wing Loong II drones to Pakistan would become China's largest such export deal to date. Shortly after India announced it was buying the S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia, China said it would sell 48 advanced Wing Loong II military drones to Pakistan. While the official figures of the deal were not disclosed, Chinese media reported that Beijing will supply the multi-role UAVs to its longstanding friend Pakistan, The Global Times wrote. The Wing Loong II is a medium-altitude long-endurance drone designed for surveillance and aerial reconnaissance missions. Fitted with a variety of weapons, the UAV drone has the ability to perform combat operations and can also be used for civil tasks, such as disaster assessment, meteorological operations and environmental protection. According to the Chinese newspaper The Global Times, the Wing Loong II reconnaissance, strike and multi-role unmanned aerial vehicle will be jointly manufactured by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China's Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Company and Pakistan's Kamra Aeronautical Complex. China's Xinhua news agency earlier reported that the Wing Loong II made its maiden flight in February. If confirmed, the supply of 48 Wing Loong II drones would be China's largest such export deal to date, military expert and TV commentator Song Zhongping told The Global Times. "US drones like the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper are technologically more advanced, but Washington limits their export Chinese drones will eventually be more successful in the international market in the future as they perform similarly at a lower cost," Song said. He added that Chinese-made Cauhong-series of UAVs were popular in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. China's announcement about the planned delivery of Wing Loong II drones to Pakistan came shortly after India inked a deal to buy five regiments of S-400 missiles from Russia to the tune of $5.4 billion. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Moscow to Establish Military Representation in CAR - Draft Document Sputnik News 01:23 09.10.2018(updated 01:38 09.10.2018) MOSCOW (Sputnik) Russia will offer the Central African Republic (CAR) to establish a representation of the Russian Defense Ministry at the CAR Defense Ministry, according to a document published on the official portal of legal information on Monday. "To approve the draft agreement between the governments of Russia and the CAR, submitted by the Russian Defense Ministry and coordinated with the Russian Foreign Ministry, on the establishment of a representation of the Russian Defense Ministry at the CAR Defense Ministry," the document reads. The Russian Defense Ministry is expected to hold talks with the CAR and on behalf of the Russian government, to sign the agreement. Non-fundamental changes to the draft are allowed if necessary, the statement adds. The goal of the draft deal is to assist the CAR in resolving issues of military and defense industry cooperation, as well as to train the CAR military personnel by the Russian specialists, the statement reads. According to the project, the representation will be maintained at the expense of the Russian side, and will consist of five people. The staff of the mission will not participate in hostilities in the territory of the CAR. If they find themselves in an emergency situation, the CAR authorities will take measures to ensure their safety, the document says. Since 2012, the CAR has been destabilized by the conflict between the Muslim armed group Seleka, Christian Anti-balaka militias and the government. In late August, Seleka and Anti-balaka signed a declaration of understanding after a Russia-brokered peace meeting in Khartoum. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pompeo calls on Saudi Arabia to back 'thorough investigation' into missing journalist Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 08:01AM US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on Saudi Arabia to back a "thorough investigation" into the disappearance of prominent Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. "We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to support a thorough investigation of Mr. Khashoggi's disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation," Pompeo said in a statement on Monday. This comes after the Washington Post urged the US government to "demand answers" from Saudi Arabia about Khashoggi an opinion writer for the newspaper. "The United States must now make a concerted effort to determine all the facts about Mr. Khashoggi's disappearance," the newspaper said in an editorial late Sunday. Khashoggi was known for his critical views on Riyadh. He lived in self-imposed exile in the US since September 2017, when he left Saudi Arabia amid a crackdown on dissident voices. The New Yorker said in a recent article that the journalist had told it in August that he was worried about his life. Khashoggi also opposed Riyadh's aggression on Yemen. The 59-year-old was reported missing last week after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he intended to obtain a document necessary to finalize his divorce from his wife. He reportedly never came out of the consulate. Turkish sources later told the Reuters news agency that the journalist had been killed inside the building. An adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that he believed Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate. The reports of his unconfirmed death have sparked outrage. US President Donald Trump on Monday said he was "concerned" about Khashoggi's disappearance, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was monitoring the case closely. Erdogan said Saudi Arabia's consulate must "prove" that Khashoggi made exit from the mission. In a Bloomberg interview conducted on Wednesday and published on Friday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman claimed that Khashoggi "entered" the consulate and "got out after a few minutes or one hour." Yemeni activist and 2011 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Tawakkol Karman said she believed Khashoggi "was kidnapped in this gangster's den that is supposed to be a consulate." Pompeo in his statement on Monday said that the US had received conflicting accounts of Khashoggi's disappearance. He added that State Department officials have contacted Saudi authorities and are looking into the issue. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mezzanine Debt Due Diligence Update Perth, Oct 10, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Altech Chemicals Limited (Altech/the Company) ( ASX:ATC ) ( FRA:A3Y ) is pleased to provide an update on the progress of detailed project due diligence by an independent technical consultant appointed by the proposed mezzanine debt and steam facility providers.Highlights- Due diligence commenced end of July 2018- Advisian appointed as independent technical consultant- Due diligence is well advanced and on track- CRU Consulting appointed as HPA market due diligence consultant- Construction to run concurrent to project finance closeOn 11 May 2018 Altech announced that it had received an indicative non-binding mezzanine debt term sheet for a drawdown facility of US$90 million from a global investment bank for its proposed Malaysian high purity alumina (HPA) project. On 15 June 2018 Altech announced that it has executed an indicative non-binding term sheet for a US$60 million stream finance facility with a US based global alternative investment group.The proposed mezzanine debt provider and the proposed stream facility provider appointed Advisian, the independent consulting arm of WorleyParsons Group, as independent technical adviser in July 2018. Project due diligence commenced on 27 July 2018 with a kick-off meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, which was attended by Altech management and representatives from m.Plan International (technical consultant to the senior lender - KfW IPEX-Bank); SMS group (Altech's appointed EPC contractor); the proposed mezzanine lender; the proposed stream facility provider; and Advisian.Whilst Advisian has benefited from the extensive amount of information generated during senior lender due diligence, it is currently anticipated that Advisian will require until the end of November 2018 to finalise its work, resulting in a 4-month due diligence process. In comparison, senior debt due diligence took approximately 15 months to complete.Assuming a positive result from the Advisian due diligence, the next step for both the proposed mezzanine lender and the stream finance facility provider will be to present the project to respective internal investment committees for final approval. An updated HPA market report from CRU Consulting is also likely to be commissioned prior to respective investment committee consideration. Upon investment committee approval, a binding term sheet and an exclusive mandate can be executed for each proposed facility. The processes of final loan documentation and the negotiation of inter-creditor arrangements with the senior lender can then proceed, then ultimately project finance close.HPA plant construction in parallel to project finance closeThe decision by the Company to equity fund Stage 1 construction of its proposed Malaysian HPA plant in parallel with project finance close, rather than wait for close to occur, is allowing project momentum to be maintained which is considered important by the Company given the forecast near-term surge in HPA demand. At the Company's Johor HPA site, clearance of the site is now complete, a ground-breaking ceremony was conducted on 8 August 2018 and geotechnical drilling is now also complete - allowing for the submission of a site development order application to local Johor authorities. Once the development order is approved, site earth works, drainage, foundation piling and the construction of a workshop building and of an electrical substation will commence.Altech managing director, Mr Iggy Tan said "the mezzanine debt and stream facility technical due diligence is on track and proceeding as planned. Detailed project due diligence is a requirement of the respective proposed lenders internal credit approval processes and will take time to complete. Altech is working very closely with the proposed lenders to ensure a detailed evaluation of the project is successfully concluded. Importantly, the time taken to complete due diligence and to reach finance close will not hinder construction progress, as Stage 1 construction is already funded and will commence imminently. Construction of the Company's HPA plant will run in parallel to finance close."About Altech Chemicals Ltd Altech Chemicals Limited (ASX:ATC) (FRA:A3Y) is aiming to become one of the world's leading suppliers of 99.99% (4N) high purity alumina (Al2O3) through the construction and operation of a 4,500tpa high purity alumina (HPA) processing plant at Johor, Malaysia. Feedstock for the plant will be sourced from the Company's 100%-owned kaolin deposit at Meckering, Western Australia and shipped to Malaysia. HPA is a high-value, high margin and highly demanded product as it is the critical ingredient required for the production of synthetic sapphire. Synthetic sapphire is used in the manufacture of substrates for LED lights, semiconductor wafers used in the electronics industry, and scratch-resistant sapphire glass used for wristwatch faces, optical windows and smartphone components. Increasingly HPA is used by lithium-ion battery manufacturers as the coating on the battery's separator, which improves performance, longevity and safety of the battery. With global HPA demand approximately 19,000t (2018), it is estimated that this demand will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% (2018-2028); by 2028 HPA market demand will be approximately 272,000t, driven by the increasing adoption of LEDs worldwide as well as the demand for HPA by lithium-ion battery manufacturers to serve the surging electric vehicle market. Turkey vows to put on trial all, including Saudi officials, tied to Khashoggi case Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 07:17AM An advisor to Turkey's president has vowed that the country will prosecute all those involved in the suspected kidnapping or murder of a dissident Saudi journalist in Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul, even if it involves the Saudi consul himself. Yasin Aktay made the comments to the Palestinian Shehab news agency on Tuesday, adding, "Turkey is a state of law and prosecutes anyone who commits crimes in its territory." "This will be a file between Saudi Arabia and us," the Turkish official warned. On Friday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Turkey could search the consulate for the missing dissident. He claimed that Khashoggi had left the building not long after he entered earlier this week. "If he's in Saudi Arabia, I would know that." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Saudi officials must prove that Khashoggi had indeed left the mission. Aktay said bin Salman's decision to allow the inspection of the building several days after Khashoggi's disappearance showed "contempt for Turkey." He also complained that the Saudi consulate and authorities had ignored Turkish contacts following the disappearance of Khashoggi. "As if the Saudi authorities were asleep and there was a strange silence at a time when the news of Khashoggi's disappearance was spread in the world," he noted. Meanwhile, the head of the Turkish-Arab Media Association in Turkey, Turan Kislakci has told Shebab that Turkish officials had assured him of Khashoggi having been brutally murdered inside the consulate. Aktay further said, "To insult the man who comes to the consulate and kill him at your home is one of the worst acts and gravest sins." A Turkish forensics team is, meanwhile, poised to enter the premises in Istanbul, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news portal reported. 'Mysterious boxes taken out of consulate' On Monday, London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi paper said Turkish investigators looking at footage from security cameras at the consulate saw men taking some boxes from the building to a black car following the disappearance. It said Turkish officials had accused Saudi authorities of killing the 59-year-old inside the facility using a special force sent from Riyadh. Saudi Consul General, Mohammed al-Otaibi, however, invited journalists into the building on Saturday to try to prove that Khashoggi was not there, saying reports of his detention were false. Separately, reports surfaced online, saying that Riyadh had expelled the Turkish ambassador over Khashoggi's case. In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry reacted to one such report "published in one of the websites" as "totally baseless and false." UN urges probe Also on Tuesday, the United Nations voiced deep concern over the reports about Khashoggi, urging Turkey and Saudi Arabia to investigate the matter. "Yes, this is of serious concern, the apparent enforced disappearance of Mr Khashoggi from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul," UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva news briefing. "If reports of his death and the extraordinary circumstances leading up to it are true, this is truly shocking," she added. "We call for cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the circumstances of Mr Khashoggi's disappearance and to make the findings public." The countries are mandated to do so under both criminal law and international human rights law, Shamdasani noted. Turkey: Consulate to be searched Shortly afterwards, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a written statement that although the Vienna convention says consulate buildings enjoy immunity, they can be searched by host country authorities with the consent of the mission chief. "The consulate building will be searched in the framework of the investigation," the statement said, noting that an investigation focusing on Khashoggi was "continuing intensively." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to Be Searched After Journalist Disappears - Ankara Sputnik News 13:03 09.10.2018(updated 15:59 09.10.2018) On Friday, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that he was ready to grant Turkish authorities permission to search for the missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi within the diplomatic facility. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Riyadh has given official permission to search its Consulate General in Istanbul in order to investigate the disappearance of Khashoggi. Addressing the case, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Saudi Arabia to provide evidence that the journalist had exited the diplomatic facility, adding that he was personally overseeing the investigation. "Although in accordance with the Vienna Convention consular premises enjoy immunity, upon receiving the consent of the head of the diplomatic mission the authorities of a country, where this diplomatic mission is located, can carry out investigation there," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy's statement, obtained by Sputnik, read. According to the official, Riyadh stated it was open for cooperation, and an investigation can be carried out in the building of the consulate general, Over the weekend, Ankara claimed that Khashoggi, who was working as an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, might have been killed inside the consulate building. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations, stressing that the journalist has neither been killed nor abducted by Saudi authorities. Khashoggi, who left Saudi Arabia last year out of fear of arrest, went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up documents necessary for his upcoming marriage. According to the missing journalist's fiancee, 11 hours after entering the building, Saudi guards told her that he had already left. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pompeo Urges Saudi Govt to Support a Thorough Probe Into Khashoggi Disappearance Sputnik News 05:44 09.10.2018(updated 06:00 09.10.2018) MOSCOW (Sputnik) The United States urged Saudi Arabia to ensure that a thorough investigation is conducted into the vanishing of a prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Monday. "State Department senior officials have spoken with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through diplomatic channels about this matter We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to support a thorough investigation of Mr. Khashoggi's disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation," the statement reads. Turkish media reported last week that Jamal Khashoggi went missing on Wednesday, last seen entering the Saudi consulate. In particular, the Anadolu news agency cited Khashoggi's fiancee saying he had been invited to the mission to get documents required for their wedding. After waiting for five hours outside the consulate she was told he had already left. According to the Saudi Press Agency, citing the country's Consulate General, the journalist disappeared after he left the diplomatic mission's compound. The Saudi Consulate General also stated that it was cooperating with Turkish authorities to determine the circumstances surrounding the journalist's disappearance. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Monday he was also troubled by reports about the Saudi journalist's unclear fate. "I am concerned about it. I don't like hearing about it. And hopefully that will sort itself out. Right now nobody knows anything about it, but there are some pretty bad stories going around. I do not like it," Trump was quoted saying by Reuters at the White House on Monday. The Washington Post said Saturday, citing sources familiar with the inquiry, that its columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, had been killed by a 15-man Saudi assassination team that was sent to Turkey "specifically for the murder." The Washington Post offered no specific evidence to support their claim. However, a Saudi source at the Istanbul consulate denied that had been killed at the mission, and said that the accusations were wrong. The Saudi consulate also denied that Khashoggi was abducted, Reuters reported. Khashoggi reportedly left Saudi Arabia last year, claiming that he feared retribution for his criticism of Saudi policy in the Yemen war and the kingdom's crackdown on dissent. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkey to Search Saudi Consulate in Missing Saudi Journalist Case By Ken Bredemeier, Chris Hannas October 09, 2018 Turkey's Foreign Ministry says authorities will search Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul in connection with the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A ministry statement said Saudi Arabia indicated it was open to cooperation, but there were no details about when the search would take place. Turkey said the investigation is being conducted "in an intense manner." Turkish police are looking into two private aircraft that landed at the Istanbul airport a week ago that were believed to be carrying 15 Saudis of interest in the case, along with the possibility that Khashoggi might have been kidnapped and taken aboard one of the planes. The Turkish daily newspaper Sabah reported that both planes returned to Riyadh, with one stopping first in Dubai and the other in Egypt. The planes belonged to a Saudi company with links to the government. The newspaper said Turkish employees at the consulate were "hastily" told to take a holiday on the day that Khashoggi was there. Khashoggi has not been seen since entering the consulate last week. Turkish officials have said he was murdered there, while Saudi Arabia says he safely left the building and have called the allegations that he was killed "baseless." But the the Saudis have offered no evidence to show he left the building, nor have Turkish officials offered proof that he was killed. U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House he plans to talk to the Saudis about the case, but had no information about Khashoggi's fate. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building after arriving last Tuesday to get a document for his upcoming marriage. His Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who waited for him outside the consulate, said he never came out of the building. "We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying 'he has left,'" Erdogan said Monday on a visit to Budapest. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last week Riyadh was "ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises," because it had "nothing to hide" about the missing journalist. Khashoggi, who had been critical of the Salman government, has been living for a year in self-imposed exile in the United States after a Riyadh crackdown on dissent in the kingdom. Protesters have gathered outside the Saudi consulate demanding to know what had happened to Khashoggi. Banners read, "We will not leave without Jamal Khashoggi." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Saudi Arabia to support a thorough, transparent investigation. "We have seen conflicting reports on the safety and whereabouts of prominent Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi," Pompeo said in a statement late Monday. "State Department senior officials have spoken with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through diplomatic channels about this matter." His comments came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concern about the situation. "Right now, nobody knows anything about it.I do not like it," Trump told reporters at the White House. U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he and other lawmakers "agree if there was any truth to the allegations of wrongdoing by the Saudi government, it would be devastating to the U.S.-Saudi relationship and there will be a heavy price to be paid - economically and otherwise." A Turkish official told the Reuters news agency "the initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Mr. Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Urges Transparent Investigation Into Disappearance of Saudi Journalist By VOA News October 09, 2018 U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on Saudi Arabia to support a thorough, transparent investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has not been seen since entering the country's consulate in Istanbul last week. Turkish officials have said Khashoggi was murdered inside the diplomatic outpost, while Saudi Arabia says he safely left the building. "We have seen conflicting reports on the safety and whereabouts of prominent Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi," Pompeo said in a statement late Monday. "State Department senior officials have spoken with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through diplomatic channels about this matter." His comments came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concern about the situation. "Right now nobody knows anything about it. I do not like it," Trump told reporters at the White House. Turkey on Monday sought permission to search the Saudi consulate to look for clues. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last week that Riyadh was "ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises," because it had "nothing to hide" about the missing journalist. But it was not immediately clear whether Turkish officials were granted access to the consulate after Monday's request. Saudi officials say the Turkish investigators' claim that Khashoggi was murdered are "baseless." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building after arriving last Tuesday to get a document for his upcoming marriage. His Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who waited for him outside the consulate, said he never came out of the building. "We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, 'He has left,'" Erdogan said on a visit to Budapest. Khashoggi, who had been critical of the Salman government, has been living for a year in self-imposed exile in the United States after a Riyadh crackdown on dissent in the kingdom. Protesters gathered outside the Saudi consulate Monday demanding to know what had happened to Khashoggi. Banners read, "We will not leave without Jamal Khashoggi." U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he and other lawmakers "agree if there was any truth to the allegations of wrongdoing by the Saudi government, it would be devastating to the U.S.-Saudi relationship and there will be a heavy price to be paid - economically and otherwise." A Turkish official told the Reuters news agency, "The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Mr. Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate." Reuters' Turkish sources did not say how they thought Khashoggi was killed. Police said earlier that about 15 Saudis arrived in Istanbul on two flights last Tuesday and were at the consulate at the same time as Khashoggi. The Washington Post editorial board said Sunday that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States "bear inescapable responsibility" to act in response to Khashoggi's disappearance. The board said Saudi Arabia has to identify the 15 officials who were at the consulate and exactly what happened inside. Turkey, it said, must back up its conclusion Khashoggi was killed by making public any evidence it has. Amnesty International's Middle East research director, Lynn Maalouf, said if the reports of Khashoggi's killing are true, it "would be an abysmal new low" and "amount to an extrajudicial execution. This case sends a shockwave among Saudi Arabian human rights defenders and dissidents everywhere, eroding any notion of seeking safe haven abroad." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syria grants general amnesty for military deserters IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Oct 9, IRNA -- President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday issued the legislative decree granting a general amnesty for military deserters inside and outside the country and the crimes included in the Military Penalties Law issued by Legislative Decree No. 61 for 1950. This decree does not include fugitives from justice unless they turn themselves in within 4 months for those inside the country and 6 months for those outside the country, SANA reported. The legislative decree also provides for granting a general amnesty for the full penalty for crimes included in the law of Military Service No. 30 of 2007 and its amendments. 1396**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian President Assad grants amnesty to army deserters, draft dodgers Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 11:05AM Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has signed a decree, granting amnesty to those who have either deserted the army or avoided military service, and giving them several months to report for duty. In the decree issued on his social media feeds on Tuesday, President Assad said the amnesty covered all punishments for desertion inside or outside Syria. Men inside Syria will have four months to turn themselves in to authorities for investigations while those outside will have six months, according to the decree. While the amnesty covers desertion, it does not cover fighting against the government or joining the terrorists. "This decree does not include fugitives from justice unless they turn themselves in within 4 months for those inside the country and 6 months for those outside the country," Syria's SANA news agency reported. Tens of thousands of Syrian men are wanted by the government for not serving in the military or deserting the army during the years-long war waged by terrorists. Under Syrian military law, deserters could be jailed for years if they leave their posts and do not report for service within a set amount of time. The amnesty comes as Syria seems to be emerging from over seven years of foreign-backed militancy with the government preparing to liberate Idlib Province, the last terrorist stronghold in the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address President to lay out strategies for Taiwan in National Day speech ROC Central News Agency 2018/10/09 23:13:44 Taipei, Oct. 9 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen () will lay out three major strategies in her National Day speech to strengthen Taiwan's resilience amid the changing environment with the aim of making the country an indispensable member of the global community to safeguard its existence, a spokesman for the Presidential Office said Tuesday. Tsai will address the country and the international community on what Taiwan sees as factors that threaten the international order and the country's responses to the challenges facing it, in a speech to be delivered at the Oct. 10 National Day celebrations, Alex Huang () said. Tsai will mention the activities by China that are disturbing stability in the region and becoming issues of real concern for the world, Huang said. She will point out that Taiwan must reinforce its resilience so as to better respond to the challenges and act as a responsible and reliable stakeholder in the international community so that it can be an indispensable partner for the world, because that is crucial to the country's existence, Huang went on. The three major strategies Tsai will set out will include boosting national security, strengthening economic power and providing a comprehensive social security network, Huang said. The president will reassure the international community that Taiwan will not act recklessly to escalate regional tension, neither will it bow to external pressure, Huang said. Tsai will stress that her administration will stand firm to safeguard the people's way of life in Taiwan, which embraces the values of freedom and democracy, and to continue to maintain regional stability and security, because that is the best strategy for Taiwan's sustainable development, Huang said. (By Shih Hsiu-chuan) Enditem/J NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taiwan conducts drill in presence of Paraguay president Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 09:38AM Taiwan's ground and air forces have conducted a drill, with the self-ruled island's president Tsai Ing-wen and Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez attending the military exercises. Taiwan's defense ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi said the Tuesday drill demonstrated the combat readiness and efficacy of the Taiwanese military. Taiwanese forces fought back a "simulated invasion by [an] opposing force" near the northern city of Taoyuan during the drill. The military drill comes amid tensions between Taiwan and China, which has warned that it will defend by force if necessary its "One China" principle under which the self-ruling island is regarded as part of Chinese territory, pending reunification. Most world countries adhere to that policy. Paraguay's visiting President Mario Abdo Benitez attended the drill along with the island's president Tsai Ing-wen. Chung-Chi told media that the drill would also have a positive effect on future exchanges between Taiwan and Paraguay. Tsai paid a visit to Paraguay and Belize in August to boost ties with the only two Latin American nations that maintain ties with Taipei. Only 17 countries worldwide still maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Erdogan urges EU to be sincere about Turkish membership Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 01:42PM Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the European Union (EU) to demonstrate sincerity about his country's accession to the 28-member politico-economic bloc. "It needs to be clear whether or not the EU will accept Turkey," Erdogan said during a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban in Budapest. "Turkey has been stalled since 1963. No EU member state has been treated in such a way," he added. Earlier this month, Erdogan suggested that he could take Turkey to a referendum over its EU membership bid. "If the European Union continues wasting Turkey's time in its accession to the union, then the country could hold a referendum over its membership bid. It is better to see this process faster so that Turkey can determine its way," the Turkish president said at an international forum in Istanbul on October 4. On June 27, Ankara slammed the European Union as "hypocritical" and "prejudiced" after the bloc said Ankara was moving further away from Europe. The reaction came a day after ministers of European affairs said during a meeting in Luxembourg that Turkey's long-stalled accession negotiations -- which began officially in 2005 -- had "effectively come to a standstill," and Turkey was "moving further away from the European Union." "Once again it is shown how the EU does not treat Turkey fairly or sincerely," the Turkish foreign ministry responded in a statement, describing the ministers' conclusions as "hypocritical and incoherent." It added that the ministers' statement also reflected the "prejudiced and unjust attitude" against Turkey. Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said on Twitter the conclusions showed that the EU was "confused," with statements that "lacked vision" and were "full of contradictions." Relations between Turkey and the EU have been strained for several years, but especially after the July 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan, which the Ankara government accuses to have been masterminded by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen. The EU has often criticized the crackdown and attacks on freedom of speech in the wake of the botched putsch, in which tens of thousands of people, including journalists, have been arrested. Ankara, in return, has accused Brussels of being unsupportive of the multiple terror threats it faces. Turkey has also rejected any offer of partnership with the EU that falls short of full membership, warning that the current situation gave Turkey no reason to maintain its refugee deal with the bloc. The EU and Turkey struck a deal worth billions of euros in March 2016, under which Turkey would take back migrants in exchange for visa liberalization. It has yet to take effect for Turkish nationals. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Arnhem Land TCC4 Project Drilling Update Brisbane, Oct 10, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Alligator Energy Limited ( ASX:AGE ) (Alligator or the Company) advises that it has completed its exploration drilling program at the TCC4 uranium prospect in the Alligator Rivers Uranium Province (ARUP) in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. This work is in support of AGE's strategy to discover 100 Mlbs of uranium in the ARUP region.Highlights- Seven holes were completed to depths of between 200 and 400 metres over a strike length of 1600 metres (refer Figure 1 in link below).- This is the first drilling in a very prospective 4 by 2km undercover target area and has been highly encouraging, and will provide valuable information for future targeting.- The Cahill Formation (host formation for Ranger and Jabiluka) was intersected and drilled as anticipated.- The unconformity between the overlying sandstone and the basement Cahill Formation was intersected as predicted, with depths varying from 108 metres to 209 metres.- Significant alteration of host rocks was found in five holes, this is similar alteration to that found at known uranium deposits of the province.- It is believed this alteration successfully reflects the SAM geophysics conductivity results.- Alteration is located in both the Cahill and the overlying sandstone.- While no significant intercepts of uranium were found based on scintillometer readings, selected assays are being sent for analysis and will be reported when complete.There is now significant work to be undertaken over the coming weeks in finalising core logging and assaying, along with stratigraphic and lithological interpretation. This will then be collated into Alligator's geological database to allow re-interpretation of the geology and targeting based on these results.Alligator has engaged one of the worlds most experienced uranium geologists to assist our exploration team in this task. The geologist has extensive global uranium experience and has been successful in exploration in both the ARUP, and the Athabasca basin in Canada.AGE's CEO Greg Hall commented today: "The first drilling at the TCC4 prospect has, we believe, proved many aspects of our geophysics and geochemical targeting, and has provided excellent first in-ground geological information. We will be refining our models based around this for future planned work. While no immediate significant uranium has been identified based on scintillometer readings, we have covered only part of our target area. It must be remembered that even drilling 100m away from the Ranger deposits would have found no anomalous uranium mineralisation.TCC4 uranium prospect drilling summaryAlligator advised on 4 September 2018 the commencement of its Alligator Rivers Uranium Province (ARUP) drilling program, targeting its advanced TCC4 uranium prospect.Drilling at the TCC4 prospect has been conducted along four target lines across 1,600 metres at the north eastern end of a 4,000 metre long zone of coincident SAM geophysical and radiogenic pathfinder surface anomalies. This represents 40% of the anomalous strike length.Seven holes for a total of 2138m were completed between 1st September and the 10th October (refer Table 1 in link below). Being the first holes targeting concealed uranium deposits under sandstone cover using Alligator's combined proprietary geochemical sampling and geophysical methods, results have proved highly encouraging.From the seven holes drilled, five have intersected key target features, including:- Graphitic schists of the Cahill formation.- Brecciated basement structures not reflected in sandstone cover.- Chlorite and haematite alteration in both basement and overlying sandstone cover.- Garnetiferous schists comparable to Mid-Cahill found proximal to Ranger and Jabiluka.- Carbonate veins at depth believed to be re-mobilised from deeper Lower Cahill formation.These key features indicate geophysical and stratigraphic targeting has been successful with Lower Cahill indicated further to the north-west. The drill rig and drilling crew have now commenced demobilisation.Over the coming weeks, ongoing geological interpretation and modelling will be completed to further refine future targeting methods and the interpreted location of Lower Cahill formation. Drill samples will be assayed for geochemical pathfinders, including radiogenic isotopes. Values will be modelled downhole and in conjunction with existing surface samples to further vector the source(s) of the TCC4 anomaly. Select samples will also be sent to NTGS for Hylogger analysis to identify potential hydrothermal clay alteration halos similar to those observed above the Angularli deposit, also in the ARUP. Once alteration, geochemistry and geology from this drilling have been modelled, it will be utilised to direct follow up drilling where favourable Lower Cahill stratigraphy is interpreted to intersect fertile structures proximal to the unconformity.To view tables and figures, please visit:About Alligator Energy Ltd Alligator Energy Ltd (ASX:AGE) is an Australian, ASX-listed, exploration company focused on uranium and energy related minerals, principally cobalt-nickel. Alligator's Directors have significant experience in the exploration, development and operations of both uranium and nickel projects (both laterites and sulphides). Turkey arrests 90 over 'links to Kurdish militants' in several provinces Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 10:01AM Turkey has detained 90 people over suspected ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group in simultaneous operations conducted across eight provinces. In a statement released on Tuesday, the Turkish Interior Ministry said 80 arrests were made in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir and the remaining in Istanbul, Mersin, Van, Sirnak, Sanliurfa, Batman and Mardin. It also noted that the raids had been carried out to prevent the activities of PKK militants, and that the operation was still ongoing. The ministry, however, did not release the identity of those taken into custody. It further said that many documents and digital material related to the militant group had been seized from the suspects during the raids. The arrests came a week after 10 Turkish soldiers were killed and wounded in a bombing by Kurdish militants that targeted a military convoy in the country's southeastern Batman Province. A shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 was declared null and void by the militants in 2015 in the wake of a large-scale Turkish military campaign against the group. The Turkish air force has been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country's troubled southeastern border region as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria. Turkey, along with the European Union and the United States, has declared the PKK a terrorist group and banned it. The militant group has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed during the three-decade conflict between Turkey and the autonomy-seeking militant group. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine evacuating 10,000 after ammo depot blasts Iran Press TV Tue Oct 9, 2018 08:41AM Multiple blasts and an ensuing fire at an ammunition depot in northern Ukraine has prompted the compulsory evacuation of nearly 10,000 people in the area. The fiery incident occurred early Tuesday morning at a Ukrainian Defense Ministry depot near the city of Chernigov, about 180 kilometers east of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, officials said. The area was placed on lockdown for air and land travel immediately following the explosions, they added. No casualties have so far been reported as a result of the incident, and it was not instantly clear whether the blasts were the outcome of an accident or sabotage. According to a statement by Ukraine's emergency services, the airspace within a 20-kilometer radius of the military site has been closed and road and rail transport in the immediate vicinity has also been suspended. "About 10,000 people were evacuated," said the statement. "From 04:22 am (0122 GMT) the airspace within a radius of 20 km has been closed. The movement of rail and road transport is suspended." The statement further said that hundreds of emergency workers had been deployed to the munitions depot and that the chief of Ukraine's armed forces had also traveled to the location. Huge explosions also occurred last year at a military depot in Ukraine's Vynnytsya region, 270 kilometers west of Kiev, prompting local authorities to evacuate 24,000 people. The incident occurred a day after Ukrainian military started a series of large-scale aerial war games with the United States and other NATO member countries. The "Clear Sky 2018" war games, which will run until October 19, are being held in western Ukraine. Ukraine is involved in a military crackdown on ethnic Russians in the east of the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Thousands Evacuated As Blasts, Blaze Rip Through Ukraine Ammo Dump RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service October 09, 2018 An intense series of explosions and a fast-moving fire ripped through an ammunition depot in Ukraine, prompting the evacuation of thousands of people and igniting suspicions of sabotage in a country mired in a simmering war with Russia-backed separatists. Authorities said about 12,000 people were evacuated from their homes after the blaze and blasts began before dawn on October 9 at the munitions dump near the Chernihiv region town of Ichnya, some 180 kilometers east of Kyiv. Regional authorities said 63 people came to hospitals, saying they felt ill after inhaling smoke, but a Defense Ministry statement said no civilians or military personnel were injured or killed. "As of 7 a.m. [local time], the intensity of explosions is two to three explosions per second," it said. The country's Security Service (SBU) said in a statement that the military prosecutor's office in central Ukraine launched an investigation on suspicion of negligence, but that the SBU is considering all possible causes including sabotage. A deputy chief of the Armed Forces General Staff, Major General Rodion Tymoshenko, said he suspects sabotage, though he did not point to a possible culprit. "There were two simultaneous explosions first and they were followed by two other explosions on the other side of the depot. The explosions caused the fire," Tymoshenko told reporters in Kyiv. "The intensity of the explosions in different parts of the depot indicate that it was most likely a sabotage," he said. The emergency services said in a statement that authorities temporarily closed the airspace in a 30-kilometer radius around the site, as well as rail and road traffic. 'Restrictive Measures' The fire and explosions began at around 3:30 a.m. local time at the Defense Ministry's depot No. 6, which covers about 700 hectares, a statement said. Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman and the head of the country's armed forces, Viktor Muzhenko, traveled to the site. Muzhenko said that "appropriate restrictive measures" were being introduced across the Chernihiv region. There have been several explosions and fires at Ukrainian arms depots in recent years, amid fighting between government forces and the Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, a few hundred kilometers southeast of the depot site. The war has killed more than 10,300 people since it began after Russia seized Crimea and fomented separatism following the ouster of Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled in the face of months of pro-European protests in Kyiv. Cease-fire deals signed in Belarus's capital, Minsk, in September 2014 and February 2015, have failed to end the conflict. 'Significant Shortcomings' In March 2017, a massive conflagration at a munitions depot near the eastern city of Kharkiv prompted the evacuation of about 20,000 residents living within a 20-kilometer radius of the site. And in September 2017, more than 30,000 people were evacuated after artillery warehouses on a military installation exploded in the Vinnytsya region, southwest of Kyiv. Authorities have frequently blamed the blasts on sabotage, and the government has allocated 100 million hryvnyas ($3.6 million) for protection of the country's ammunition storage facilities. After the fires in 2017, a parliamentary defense committee inspected other depots and said that there were "significant" shortcomings in the way the site near Ichnya was managed, according to a lawmaker on the committee, Dmytro Tymchuk. In a post on Facebook, Tymchuk said that he had sent a document to the heads of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff of the Armed Forces that "listed the shortcomings" and included "a request to intervene in the situation and solve existing problems." With reporting by Reuters, UNIAN, and Ukrayinska Pravda Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-ammunition-depot -blast-evacuations-chernihiv/29533332.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 Latest Headlines Calls for property management regulation grow The Government should regulate the property management sector as part of its current reform of the rental market, according to industry insiders. Wednesday, October 10th 2018, 11:33AM by Miriam Bell Concerns about the property management industry have led 26 organisations to band together and call for the sector to be subject to a compulsory regulatory regime. The group which includes REINZ, Barfoot & Thompson, property management company Real-IQ, and lobby group Anglican Advocacy have presented Housing Minister Phil Twyford with an open letter on the issue. They say that property managers have a valuable service to offer, but the conduct of rogue operators is bringing the entire industry into disrepute. Currently, property managers require no Government mandated training, qualifications, or licence to operate. But the group says that recent research by Auckland City Council, Consumer NZ and Anglican Advocacy provide evidence that the lack of regulation in this sector is causing harm to consumers. Tenants and property owners deserve to know they are dealing with qualified, licensed professionals who abide by sector standards. This situation was prompting them to call on Twyford to regulate the residential property management sector and work towards ensuring that all landlords are licensed. Their call comes as the Government is consulting on proposed reforms to the Residential Tenancies Act which do not cover the regulation of property managers. Barfoot & Thompson director Kiri Barfoot says they have long voiced the need for more regulation of the sector to help ensure both landlords and renters are better serviced and protected. Property managers have significant responsibility and are trusted not only with peoples assets, but the place they call home. Not to include the regulation of property managers in the Governments current reforms would be an opportunity lost and could leave a significant gap in the proposed rental reforms. She says this will allow less scrupulous operators to continue to take advantage of unsuspecting or misinformed landlords and renters. With more than a third of Kiwis now renting, and demand continuing to increase, we need to take this opportunity to ensure we have modern systems in place to meet the needs of both renters and landlords. This year has seen increasing calls for the regulation of the property management industry. Last week the Select Committee reporting back on the letting fees ban Bill urged the Government to consider introducing a regulatory regime for property managers. Meanwhile, REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell says her organisation has been calling for the regulation of property managers for many years as it will better protect both landlords and tenants. Back in July, the Independent Property Managers Association announced it was joining up with the Property Institute in a bid to improve standards in the property management industry. It is understood that Twyford also has concerns about the property management sector but has said he will only act after the Government has finished introducing its current programme of tenancy reforms. Read more: Regulate property managers REINZ New alliance to up property manager standards Special Offers Comments from our readers No comments yet Sign In to add your comment NSW Exploration Update Perth, Oct 11, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Emmerson Resources Limited ( ASX:ERM ) ( OTCMKTS:EMMRF ) announces NSW Exploration Update.Highlights- Large scale pervasive alteration encountered from an enlarged auger drill program at the Whatling Hill project with geochemical results pending- Correlation with previous encouraging rockchip samples have potential to greatly expand the copper and gold footprint of the underlying mineralisation- Rock chip values of up to 2% copper and 0.25g/t gold in quartz stockwork veins within altered monzonite intrusives- Recent age dating and "green rock" studies of alteration suggest similarities to other metal fertile Ordovician intrusive centres (e.g. Newcrest's world class Cadia-Ridgeway copper-gold deposit that contains resources of 8.7Mt Cu & 42Moz gold)- New tenement granted to consolidate existing ground position at Fifield and Kadungle- Ground based geophysical surveys planned for November to assist in defining drill targetsEmmerson's Managing Director; Mr Rob Bills commented:"An expanded soil geochemical survey over our recently discovered Whatling Hill copper-gold project continues to exhibit the hallmarks of an early stage discovery. Alteration and quartz veining from this expanded auger drill program suggests extensions of the original mineralisation to the south. Assay results are pending and, if positive, will provide a focus for future geophysical and drilling programs."Emmerson has expanded its ground position in the region which demonstrates our confidence in the prospcetivity and potential. These copper-gold porphyry deposits typically cluster and we are in a very fertile metallogenic province, bounded by the Macquarie Arc and Lachlan Transfer Zone."Whatling Hill (see Figures 1, 2 & 3 in link below)Early indications from the expanded auger drill progam has encountered widespread pervasive epidote and chlorite alteration - consistent with intersecting the outer zone of a porphyry copper-gold system (see Figure 4 in link below). Whilst assay results are pending, it is anticipated that when combined with the encouraging rock chip results (ASX June 2018), the prospective footprint of such a system has expanded to over 4km2. This grid based auger program also intersected altered monzonite intrusives and volcanics which we believe are consistent with the host rocks of other similar, Ordovician aged poprhyry systems in the belt (for example the North Parkes and Cadia-Ridgeway deposits). This expanded soil grid covered previously reported copper and gold mineralisation from quartz stockwork magnetite veins within highly altered monzonite intrusives. This project (plus our five other NSW projects) were selected from the application of proprietary predictive targeting models, aimed to increase the probability of a major discovery of copper and gold.Given that Whatling Hill has never been drill tested nor seen systematic exploration, the proposed exploration program aims to pinpoint the best parts of the mineralisation of what we now consider a large copper-gold system. Typically these porphyry style systems occur in clusters and this is why we have now expanded our ground holding in the Lachlan Transfer Zone of the Macquarie Arc.The next stages of exploration at Whatling Hill include assaying and processing of the latest geochemical results, before pinpointing the best areas to undertake geophysical (Induced Polarisation) surveys. This will provide further insights into the underlying alteration and mineralisation ahead of drilling.Other NSW ProjectsThe results of alteration and age dating from samples across our five other NSW projects continue to be assessed as part of our sponsorship of the University of Tasmania, CODES ARC Linkage project. This project aims to provide cutting edge science that complement our field based activities - mainly through analysis of the alteration (trace and rare earth elements within the outer green rock or epidote/chlorite zone). Initial findings at Kadungle and Fifield suggest we are within the geochemical footprint of a porphyry system. Moreover, age dating of the monzonite intrusion within the Raggatt Volcanics at Fifield yielded a Late Ordovician to Early Silurian age - consistent with dates of the mineralised intrusions at the world class North Parkes and Cadia-Ridgeway gold-copper deposits.To view figures, please visit:About Emmerson Resources Limited Emmerson Resources Limited (ASX:ERM) (FRA:42E) recently commenced exploration on new gold-copper projects in NSW, identified (with our strategic alliance partner Kenex Limited) from the application of 2D and 3D predictive targeting models aimed at increasing the probability of discovery. The highly prospective Macquarie Arc in NSW hosts >80Mozs gold and >13Mt copper with these resources heavily weighted to areas of outcrop or limited cover. Emmerson's five exploration projects contain many attributes of the known deposits within the Macquarie Arc but remain under explored due to historical impediments, including an overlying cover (plus farmlands) and a lack of exploration focus. Kadungle is a JV with Aurelia Metals covering 43km2 adjacent to Emmerson's Fifield project. In addition, Emmerson is exploring the Tennant Creek Mineral Field (TCMF), one of Australia's highest-grade gold and copper fields producing over 5.5 Mozs of gold and 470,000 tonnes of copper from deposits including Warrego, White Devil, Orlando, Gecko, Chariot and Golden Forty. These high-grade deposits are highly valuable exploration targets, and to date discoveries include high-grade gold at Edna Beryl and Mauretania, plus copper-gold at Goanna and Monitor. These are the first discoveries in the TCMF for over a decade. Hundreds of Christian children in Zhejiang province have been asked to fill out a form stating that they did not follow a religion and "shamed" for their faith, a persecution watchdog has revealed. According to World Watch Monitor, over 300 children from two high schools in the region, which has been referred to as the "Jerusalem of the East" for its strong Christian presence, were handed a "questionnaire in class about faith." "Children in this part of China would write 'Christian' because of 1) their innocence and 2) they come from families of fervent believers who do not compromise their faith," a source told WWM. In the first school, which has around 200 Christian students, the teacher demanded they rewrite the questionnaire, stating that they had "no religion." But when filling out the next questionnaire, half of the children maintained that they were Christians. Following further warnings, in the end all but one child complied. In the other school, which has around 100 children, it was the class prefect who forced the Christians to resubmit their papers, stating that they had "no religion." While "it is normal for a school to ask parents to fill out a form which includes questions of faith when a child is first enrolled in school, for many years this hasn't been an issue," the source said. "[C]hildren were handed a questionnaire in class about faith, which is not normal. It seems this is part of the new push to identify Christians and give them pressure of one sort or another," the source explained. Schools in China are government-controlled and financed and therefore Communist in ideology, notes WWM. Some Christian children have have faced "shaming" incidents for their faith, according to the outlet, "but the extent of such shaming was to prevent them from joining the Communist Youth League, thereby denying them any of the perks that come with a progression to Communist Party Member later in life." The incident is part of a larger crackdown on Christianity as the Chinese government continues to impose Chinese ideology on religion in the country. The continued crackdown, which has included the demolition of churches, imprisonment of pastors, and taking down of rooftop crosses, is also seeing children being banned from attending worship services. As earlier reported, Chinese officials previously warned Christian parents that if they continue to take their children to churches not approved by the government, their offspring will be banned from attending college or serving in the military, and will face legal action. The government sanctioned Protestant church, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, specifically forbids its members from "brainwashing" teenagers with religious beliefs and bringing children to religious activities. China is ranked 39th on Open Door USA's World Watch List of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Over the past year, President Xi Jinping has directed the party to "Sinicize" - or bring under Chinese tradition - the country's ethnic and religious minorities in efforts to counter religious "extremism." Authorities believe Christianity, whose followers are said to rival in number the 85 million members of the Communist Party, "poses a major threat" to its long-term stability. A Chinese pastor is being targeted by Communist officials after he signed a statement denouncing the government's efforts to restrict Christianity and vowing to "bear all losses" for the sake of the Gospel. Persecution watchdog China Aid reports that Pastor Yan Xiaojie of Shangjiang Church in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, was among hundreds of pastors who signed a public joint statement titled "A Declaration of the Christian Faith." Shortly after signing the statement, Yan posted an "urgent prayer request" online, stating that personnel from three different government offices stopped by his home the previous day to speak with him. He said, "I was not home, so they threatened my mom and wife, telling them that they must see me and investigate two things: one is that I signed the petition, and the other that I will travel abroad in October. I am communicating with them now. May the Lord Jesus be with me. I hope [Christian] brothers and sisters will pray hard for me." In the statement, 344 pastors addressed the Chinese government's continued crackdown on Christian churches and vowed to bear all losses - "even the loss of our freedom and our lives," for the sake of the Gospel. "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," the pastors said. "We also will not accept any 'ban' or 'fine' imposed on our churches due to our faith." China Aid notes that this is not the first time Yan has been targeted for his faith. In 2015, he was put under administrative detention on false "disturbing social order" charges by the Longwan District Public Security Bureau as crosses and churches were being demolished across his province. The following month, he was transferred to criminal detention and then placed under surveillance. In February 2016, he returned home on bail, his trial pending, and had restricted freedom of movement. Last week US congressman Chris Smith condemned the continued persecution Christians, accusing Chinese authorities of "taking a hammer and sickle to the Cross". "Burning Bibles, destroying churches, and jailing Muslims by the million is only part of the Chinese Communist Party's audaciously repressive assault on conscience and religion," he said, adding that the US would respond by ensuring "a tougher China policy, one with widespread, bipartisan and even global support". Employers were staged into auto-enrolment over almost 5 years, with the UKs largest employers going first. Those employees fortunate enough to have been auto-enrolled from the beginning might have saved in a workplace pension for six years now. Over the last six years, the total minimum contribution, shared between the employee and the employer, has risen from 2% to 5% and will increase to 8% in April 2019. Aegons analysis found that an employee earning the UKs average income, who was auto-enrolled in October 2012, and contributed the minimum amount over the last six years, will have already generated a pension pot of 3,353, including 1,099 of their own pension contributions. As well as their own contributions, this total comprises of employer contributions, government tax relief and the amount accrued through investment returns. As minimum contribution levels are set to increase from 5% to 8% in April 2019, that same pension fund, with minimum contributions, will increase to 16,251 over the next six years to October 2024, including 6,395 of their own pension contributions. The hope, however, is that people and their employees contribute more than just the minimum and keep on saving. Kate Smith, Head of Pensions at Aegon, said: Six years on, auto-enrolment is delivering on its objective with more people saving into a workplace pensions than ever. Pension saving is fast becoming the social norm and auto-enrolment has been the catalyst for many to start saving for their financial future. What our figures show is that for those who have been saving since the outset of auto-enrolment, around two thirds of the value of the pension comes from employer contributions, tax relief or investment growth, highlighting the value of the scheme over simply putting more in cash savings. Few people have opted out of pension saving following the April increase in the minimum contribution, but we shouldnt be resting on our laurels as the total amounts saved by those paying the minimum are relatively small. Although some employers are going the extra mile, far too many people and employers are simply paying the minimum pension contribution, and even when this increases to 8%, its not going to generate sufficient funds for most people to live on in later life. People are living longer, taking gaps in their working lives and social care costs are falling at the feet of more retirees. The harsh reality is that people need to save around 12 to 15% of their earnings over their working like to cover all eventualities. If people, and their employers, choose to increase their contributions by even a small percentage each month, the long term investment returns will prove extremely beneficial. The report reveals that the United States endured two tropical cyclone landfalls during the month - Tropical Storm Gordon and the costlier Florence, which made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane. At least 53 people were killed directly or indirectly by Florence, with total economic losses set to minimally exceed USD10 billion, and insured losses expected to reach low-digit billions due to low flood insurance penetration. Elsewhere, Typhoon Jebi made landfall in Japan and prompted widespread wind and flood damage across numerous prefectures. Total economic losses were expected to reach well into the billions of dollars (USD), and the General Insurance Association of Japan (GIAJ) cited that nearly 486,000 insurance claims had been filed, with the expectation of a multi-billion-dollar payout. Super Typhoon Mangkhut caused widespread impacts in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and China. The one-time Category 5 storm killed at least 102 people, and damaged more than 210,000 homes in the Philippines alone. Total combined economic damage and net loss business interruption was expected to reach into the billions of dollars (USD), while the local insurance industry in China and Hong Kong forecast payouts approaching or exceeding USD1 billion. A major magnitude-7.5 earthquake and tsunami caused catastrophic damage across Indonesias Sulawesi Island on September 28, killing more than 2,000, with many more missing. Total economic damage was expected to approach or exceed USD1 billion. Another strong earthquake struck the Japanese island of Hokkaido on September 6, killing 41 people and injuring 680 others. The GIAJ cited that 12,279 insurance claims had been filed. Steve Bowen, Impact Forecasting Director and Meteorologist, said: September will be recorded as the costliest month so far of 2018, as global economic losses from natural catastrophes are expected to reach into the tens of billions of dollars. A series of significant catastrophes including Hurricane Florence, Typhoon Jebi, Typhoon Mangkhut, and the Indonesian earthquake were poised to cause tens of billions in economic damage. Each of these events were also noteworthy since the majority of losses are likely to be uninsured. This once again highlights that whether a country is considered mature or emerging, there continue to be gaps in insurance coverage on either a market-wide or individual peril basis. As natural peril risks increase, it becomes even more important to close those gaps to help people in the recovery process. Further natural hazard events to have occurred worldwide during September include: Significant flooding impacted many areas around the globe during the month. In Mexico, more than 300,000 homes were inundated by floodwaters in the hardest-hit state of Sinaloa. Other severe flooding events impacted parts of the United States, West Africa, China, India, North Korea, and, Vietnam. Outbreaks of severe weather led to bouts of tornado, straight-line wind, or hail damage in parts of the United States and Canada (including an EF3 tornado which touched down in Ontario province). Total combined economic losses were expected to reach into the hundreds of millions (USD). A series of windstorms marked an early start to European Windstorm season. Three storms Ali, Bronagh, and Fabienne brought periods of heavy rain and hurricane-force winds to parts of Western, Northern, and Central Europe. A rare medicane also impacted Greece. View the full Impact Forecasting September 2018 Global Catastrophe Recap report The fashion industry in most cases does not really cater to the needs of the plus-sized individual. Finding plus sized clothes, is, therefore, a very tough venture. Most times even when the clothes are available, they appear to be frumpy apparels, hastily made and not designed to look fashionable in the least. However, thanks to the advent of online retailing, many retailers are now attempting to make fashionable clothes to fit the plus sized individuals. We have made a list of online shopping clothes where plus-sized people, can find suitable clothes which flatter their figure, are trendy and are made of quality fabric. Addition Elle This online fashion retailer offers chic and stylish plus size women's clothing, as well as plus size lingerie, jeans and dresses. They are popularly known to collaborate with plus-sized bloggers in order to design the best fits for plus sized women. They also hold a lot of sales and their products are usually sold at affordable prices. Sizes: The sizes of their clothes usually range from X to 4X and 12 to 24. Price: Clothes could be sold as low as $10 and as high as $250. Shipping: They offer free shipping for orders over $120 and returns are also free. Hudsons Bay The bay is another online shop that stocks luxury brands such as Carmakoma Plus, Junarose, Nic + Zoe and Jessica Simpson for the plus sized. They have a lot of regular sales and days they call Bay days. They sell everything from casual wears to work clothes. Sizes: They go as high as size 24 Price: You can find clothing from $50 to $500 Shipping: Orders over $99 qualify for free shipping while orders under $99 cost $8 for standard shipping. Old Navy Old Navy offers basic clothing items for the plus sized and is also one of the few online stores that have a section for plus sized individuals. They do a lot of super sales where you can get articles for as low as 50% of the original price. Sizes: Sizes go as high up as size 30. Price: You can find items of clothing for as low as $5 to and they go as high up as $100 Shipping: Orders on $50 or more qualify for free standard shipping, while express shipping costs $8 to $22. ASOS ASOS have a plus size section called ASOS curve and plus size. They carry affordable clothing for plus sized women, from inners to outerwear and all things in-between. They also sell shoes and accessories and offer free shipping and returns for high budget orders. They also have a men's plus-sized line. Sizes: The sizes go as high up as 28. Price: From as low as $5 to as high as $255. Shipping: $30 standard shipping. City Chic City chic sells everything from basics, to work wear, lingerie and outerwear for plus sized individuals. Sizes: Sizes range from 14 to 24 Price: Prices can be as low as $30 to as high as $200 Shipping: $5 standard shipping The Dalton Police Department is asking for the publics help to identify a woman who took a cell phone left behind by a customer at Office Depot. The woman was recorded by store surveillance. The incident happened at the Office Depot location at 101 West Walnut Avenue last Thursday. While making copies, a customer left her cell phone on a counter and accidentally forgot to pick it back up after finishing the task. The customer left the store before realizing she did not have her phone. When she came back in moments later, her phone was missing. Surveillance video shows a white female entering the store with a stack of paperwork in her hand. This woman began to make copies of what appeared to be a drivers license and also other paperwork. When an employee turned their back, the suspect picked up the phone off of the counter and tucked it into her folded papers. The woman then left the store. The suspect was a white woman with curly brown hair, approximately 40-50 years old with a heavy-set build. She wore a dark purple sleeveless shirt. The phone was a black Alcatel smart phone. Anyone who recognizes this suspect or who has information on this crime is asked to contact Officer Jacob Allen at 706 278-9085, extension 9241 or by email at jallen@cityofdalton-ga.gov. Spending less money on the products and services you use on a regular basis may seem like a small step toward financial independence, but the impact can drastically change your lifestyleas long as youre consistent with it. Imagine spending just 10 percent less on items in a given month; with the median household income around $59,000, we can assume monthly spending of $3-5,000 for most families, which would translate to $3-500 of monthly savings, or $3,600 to $6,000 a year. Over the course of a decade or two, smart investing could turn that into tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. So what strategies can you use to save money on almost everything you buy? Learn When to Splurge and When to Save First, you should learn when its appropriate to splurge and when its better to buy less expensive products; in some cases, buying a cheap product can be more hassle than its worth. For example, buying a cheap mattress can lead you to sleepless nights, back pain, and other health problems that cost you far more than youd pay for a better mattress. When it comes to your health and wellness, more expensive products arent necessarily better, but you shouldnt intentionally spend less money if its going to result in an inferior experience (or expose you to specific threats). On the other hand, there are many areas where buying less expensive products makes little to no difference; for example, there are rarely significant differences between name-brand and generic breakfast cereals. Find and Use Coupons Next, work on finding and using coupons whenever possible. Coupons can be offered by a variety of sources, including the manufacturer of a product (like a toothpaste company) and the retailers offering those products (like a pharmacy or grocery store). In some cases, youll be able to use coupons from multiple different sources in combination with each other, resulting in heavily discountedor even free products. It usually takes a few minutes or less to look for coupons for the products you need most, and they could save you a ton of money. Comparison Shop You can almost always save money by comparison shopping, on multiple levels. If you have a favorite brand of a given product, like food or a hygiene product, consider looking at other brandsthey may be able to offer a similar product experience for less money. You can also look for your favorite brands products at a different store, where it could be offered for a lower price. A few minutes of research could knock several dollars off the total price. Wait for Specials Most products tend to fluctuate in price from season to season, as supply and demand change over time. For example, in areas with cold winters, lawnmowers and other yard-related items tend to be heavily discounted toward the end of summer, when the need for such items is waning but stock in stores remains high. During the winter holidays, consumer electronics and other popular gift categories tend to be heavily discounted to encourage gift sales. Sometimes, waiting a few months for the right time can save you a ton of moneyespecially on big-ticket items worth hundreds to thousands of dollars. Negotiate Youd be surprised how much is negotiable. At estate sales, auctions, flea markets, and other peer-to-peer opportunities, you can easily talk your way down to a lower price. You may even be able to negotiate rates for doctors appointments, and with other professional services. And if youre willing to put in the time, you may be able to negotiate your credit card rates, or your loan payments. Simply asking for a better deal is sometimes all it takes to get one. Trade In or Sell Old Items If youre buying something new, you likely have an older product that needs replacing. Instead of simply getting rid of it, consider trading it in or selling it. This is especially true for electronics, which still hold significant value, or other practical items with high resale value. These strategies are meant to apply generally, so you can get used to using them in a variety of contexts, but there are ways to save money in specific categories as well; for example, you can save money on a home by buying smaller than you can afford and putting down a bigger down payment. You can also save money by buying fewer things in general, cutting down your entertainment budget or downsizing your lifestyle a bit. In any case, the combination of smart saving strategies and frugal living can, over time, make a big difference in your bottom-line finances. Dont underestimate the power of these strategies. Toronto would be having a book Self-Publishing + Marketing - Question & Answer Session on Saturday, October 20, 2018 2:00 PM 3:30 PM EDT. Venue is in Toronto`s Greektown area. The session will be hosted by an author with Agora Books of over 10 titles, who has over twenty years of experience in the book publishing industry. He is also a member of the University of Toronto, with a background in teaching law and designing successful news blogs. The session is aimed at helping aspiring authors learn the vital steps needed to produce, market and distribute high quality and mass-marketable self-published books. The event also seeks to empower writers to self-publish commercially successful high quality and mass-marketable books while also avoiding critical costly mistakes self-published authors. Prospective participants are advised to add AgoraCosmopolitan to their Skype contact list in order to join this event or send a text message for more information: (514) 712-7516. Tickets for the events would be sold at the rate of CA$ 25 for general admissions and CA$ 90 for extended VIP professional consulting-For one scheduled hour after event. Agora is a not-for-profit corporation that was founded in 1997by a member of the University of Toronto community to provide an alternative to often bureaucratized university presses. Agora publishing makes book publishing accessible to all writers across Canada and internationally. This includes university and community college professors as well as teachers who seek to self-publish books for their courses. AgoraPublishing.com offers among other services: Book Self-Publishing Services AgoraPublishing.com specializes in helping university and community college professors/departments as well as teachers publish and re-publish high quality book for courses or mass-market distribution. Indeed, AgoraPublishing.com Agora Books offers its many book self-publishing services as a partner in facilitating your book production, marketing and distribution. Book Distribution for Writers Agora Publishing Consortium is a not-for-profit and charitable-oriented book distributor which help authors and independent publishers across Canada and internationally distribute their books and other publications. They also enable authors and independent publishers to display and publicize their books. Agora is a not for profit organization and accept donations up to $200 from individuals. SEO for Writers Search engine optimization (SEO) can be described as strategies and tactics used to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine. The goal of successful SEO is to obtain a high-ranking placement in the search The higher a website naturally ranks in organic results of a search, the greater the chance that site will be visited by a user. SEO is typically a set of "white hat" best practices that webmasters and Web content producers follow to help them achieve a better ranking in search engine results. A similar event on book publishing by the same host, is also scheduled to hold on October 22 2018. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is caught in an intricate game of political chess as he seeks to stamp his authority on the government while maintaining a semblance of party unity before elections next year. While his finance minister and political ally, Nhlanhla Nene, resigned Tuesday after lying about meeting with businessmen under investigation for looting state funds, other ministers with worse track records remain. Following a razor-thin victory for control of the ruling African National Congress in December, Ramaphosa still faces staunch opposition among supporters of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, to a wholesale clear-out of the government. "This is a careful, difficult strategic game that Ramaphosa is involved with," Daniel Silke, the director of Political Futures Consultancy in Cape Town, said by phone. "We have seen a very softly-softly approach from Ramaphosa, which may not be to everybody's liking and might create additional frustrations, but I suppose the long game is for the survival of the Ramaphosa faction." A lawyer and former labor-union leader who helped negotiate an end to white-minority rule, Ramaphosa took office in February after the ANC forced Zuma to quit, following a scandal-marred tenure of almost nine years. Since then, Ramaphosa has vowed to eradicate corruption and woo $100 billion in new investment to help rebuild the economy - plans that may hinge on his ability to cement political control. Although Ramaphosa fired a number of Zuma allies from the cabinet, others have retained their posts. They include Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba and Women Affairs Minister Bathabile Dlamini, who've been found to have perjured themselves in court. Another, Communications Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, has been accused by opposition parties of mismanaging the Water and Sanitation Department's budget to the point of bankruptcy in her previous portfolio. Nene's departure may have cheered both Zuma supporters and the Economic Freedom Fighters, a radical opposition party that had pushed for his removal, Darias Jonker, an Africa analyst at risk-advisory firm Eurasia Group, said in an emailed note. "By forcing Ramaphosa to replace a key ally, both the EFF and the Zuma faction have won a significant round in their fight to undermine his reform agenda and eventually remove him from power," he said. - - - Within the ANC, Ramaphosa's biggest headache is Ace Magashule, who as secretary-general oversees the day-to-day running of the party. Magashule, who had campaigned for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to lead the party, met with Zuma and other ANC leaders last month in what the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times newspaper described as a plot to oust the president, without citing anyone. Magashule denies the allegation. Ramaphosa's weakness stems from his tenuous control over the party and the fact that he's never led it to an election victory, according to Tinyiko Maluleke, a political analyst at the University of Pretoria. "The party is a complex machine and every ANC president has to juggle and negotiate," Maluleke said. "After the elections, he will certainly have more scope to appoint a cabinet that is entirely his and not have to take over cabinet ministers from a previous president, but it's not as if even after the elections he will have free rein. ANC presidents never do." - - - In the short term, Ramaphosa's appointment of former central bank Governor Tito Mboweni as his new finance chief should limit the fallout from Nene's resignation, according to Silke. "He's secured a victory from the jaws of defeat in that he's been able to replace a relatively highly regarded finance minister with Mboweni," Silke said. "The appointment of Mboweni brings a real anchor to finance and to the Treasury at a critical time for the country. I think ultimately this is a win for Ramaphosa." GREENWICH The son of State Sen. L. Scott Frantz was arrested last month in Washington D.C. and cited for unlawful possession of ammunition. Court records state that Scott McKinley Frantz, 20, pleaded not guilty to the charge in a court appearance on Wednesday and is next expected to appear in court for a status hearing on Oct. 26. The charge was filed after police said Frantz had ammunition in his car for a shotgun that was not registered in Washington D.C. No weapon was found in the car at the time. Frantz attorney could not be reached for comment. According to the affidavit filed with the Superior Court in the District of Columbia, on Sept. 10 while on patrol outside of the U.S. Capitol officers responded to the scene of two people arguing inside a vehicle near the U.S. Capitol. The report states the vehicle belonged to Frantz. The responding officers said they found in plain sight a large amount of yellow shotgun shells in the back left storage area of the trunk of the vehicle. After a count was done, police said there were 28 20-gauge shells and 18 12-gauge shells in the trunk. Frantz allegedly told officers that the shotgun shells were his and they had been left there in the trunk for a year after he had come to Connecticut for a hunting trip. Police said they found no weapons in the vehicle or in Frantzs possession. The report said that Frantz told police he had not registered the ammunition and did not know that he had to under Washington D.C. code. No additional charges have been filed. According The Hill newspaper, Frantz was working in Washington as an intern for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). A member of Cruzs Washington asked office about Frantzs status Wednesday said he could not comment on personnel matters, and a message to Cruzs press office was not returned. CNN.com reported that Cruzs office placed Frantz on leave following the arrest. On Wednesday, Sen. Frantz confirmed the family had gone sport shooting around the time his son said the shells were left in the trunk of the car. He said it was the kind of mistake a 20-year-old kid makes by not cleaning his car out. Weve talked to the legal folks in D.C. and have been told that very minor cases like this have happened before and other charges have been dropped precipitously, Frantz said. The arrest comes as the elder Frantz is running for re-election to the State Senates 36th District, which covers all of Greenwich as well as portions of Stamford and New Canaan. While they have disagreed about Frantzs record on gun laws, Frantzs Democratic opponent Alexandra Bergstein said Wednesday she did not consider the arrest an issue for campaign and would be focusing on the facts and issues facing Connecticut. As a parent, I feel for the Frantzes and believe the actions of Scotts children pertain to his personal life and should not be part of any political campaign, Bergstein said. Bergstein has criticized Frantz for advocating for shotgun exceptions in post-Sandy Hook gun law reforms, which Frantz has said he did to win bipartisan support for the reforms because sport shooters, like himself, felt shotguns didnt need additional restrictions. Frantz was part of the task force that helped craft the reform legislation, of which he voted in favor. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com OK, so I imagine it goes something like this: Two twenty-something guys are in a room in Danbury. They are sprawled on two futons, and there is probably a bong somewhere in the picture. Maybe Game of Thrones is on. Guy #1: I know its weird, right? This Greenwich mother wants me to drive her kid up to Southport every morning for three weeks. Guy #2: Three weeks? Guy #1: I guess shes got a gap until her next help moves in. She cant get all her kids to school at the same time. So Ive got to stay there. Guy #2: Wait. You have to move in for three weeks? Guy #1: The kid gets up at 6:30 to get driven to school. I am not driving down there every morning for that. Guy #2: Living the high life in Greenwich. Is it a hot mom situation? Guy #1: Dude, I am helping her drive her kids. Guy #2: Whoa are you saying you cant get that? Come on, man! Game on. Which bring us back to Greenwich and my autumn of logistical hell. Our former and much loved au pair got a once-in-a-lifetime dream job offer in August. Unfortunately, he had to start right away. That left me looking down the barrel of no driving help for our already dreaded back-to-school season. My eldest son is due at school in Southport every day at the same time my other two kids are due at school in Greenwich. The two schools are 50 minutes apart. This is one reason we hire an au pair, lest you roll your eyes and think, Oh, Greenwich lady has trouble with the help. (Sort of like the way my brothers do). Its also why we hired Guy #1, who helped me out for three weeks until our new au pair arrived from Brazil. So enter Guy # 1. Talk about helping me out in a pinch. Highly recommended and great with my kids, this guy totally saved us. And then about halfway through his brief tenure with us, I noticed some friendly gestures coming my way as he met me in our kitchen every morning at 6:45 a.m. to drive Louie to school. OK, lets pause here to consider what 6:45 a.m. looks like around here. When I wake up in the morning it is not pretty. My hair looks like I have just been electrocuted, I cant see for a solid 20 minutes and I dont know or care if my sweatshirt is on inside out or backwards. If I lived in Salem circa 1692, those Colonists would have taken one look at me and gotten out the lighter fuel. I realize Greenwich is not Salem, mostly, and that some moms run around in Lululemon all day. Sometimes I do, too but its often inside out. The point is the mere concept of being attractive while getting the kids ready for school is a thought pattern from another stage of life. Besides, I dont have time for it. Imagine my surprise, then, when on week two our twenty-something driving savior started greeted me in our kitchen with, Good morning, beautiful! Beautiful? Apparently, he had said this from the start, but I am partially deaf until about 10 a.m. Let me assure you, I am not beautiful at 6:45 a.m. And then he made a three-course breakfast for the kids one morning. Of course, I hardly noticed, as I dashed around like a lunatic, over and around the obstacle course of lunch boxes and knapsacks that have become our morning ritual. Normally, we gobble down cereal. And here I am thinking I was making your life easier this morning, he chuckled, playfully. Do you want me to make you breakfast? Breakfast? And then I began to wonder: Was he just being nice, just trying to help a harried Greenwich mom? Or was something else going on? Then again, I was so pumped to have found someone in a pinch I could very easily be confusing things here. But why would he make breakfast for a grouchy, overweight 47-year-old witch with anger issues? And why was I thinking about this so much? When I bounced this all off Ian, the more grounded thinker in our family, he looked at me like in was ... a witch in Salem. So, game on. Can you pass me the Tupperware, beautiful, I shot back to Guy #1 the next day. I did not smile. And while we are at it, ENOUGH about the new Eminem video please, kiddo. All three kids were on the verge of being severely late to their noncentrally located schools, because they were trying to rap with da man. But heres the thing: There are days when I feel like Im a human handwipe in our house. Suffice it to say the concept of beautiful had been sucked out by our central vac years ago. I mean, who has the time? Thats a problem, my friend tells me, citing the tomes that have been written about the topic, written mostly by really annoying French women. So, yes, here I am. I am not French, but please note: My kids are in school on time. I am well loved, regardless of what they would do to me in Salem. And I like it that way no, in fact, I love it. Mess and all. And to all you twenty-somethings out there: Go make yourselves great in the big, wide world while we moms make sure your socks are clean. And avoid Salem. Claire Tisne Haft is a former publishing and film executive, raising her family in Greenwich while working on a freelance basis on books and films. GREENWICH YWCA Greenwich will welcome students from Cos Cob elementary school for a free, full-day program through Friday while the school remains closed. YWCA joins the Boys and Girls Club in offering parents such services after Greenwich Public Schools closed Cos Cob for a full week due to extensive damages a broken pipe caused. Maryland Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous accused Gov. Larry Hogan of "bullying" him with the release of a campaign video that mocks him for several gaffes, including one where he said he is running for governor of Virginia. Jealous said on Tuesday the mistakes were due to the stutter he has had since he was a child, which at times involves saying a different word than what he intended to say. "These ads are bullying," Jealous said at a news conference in Baltimore. "While I can take it, it encourages the bullying of young people, and it's not OK . . . It is a new low in Maryland politics." On Monday, the Hogan campaign released a 33-second video that highlights three gaffes. In one part of the clip Jealous says he is running "to remove Hogan from the White House." In another, Jealous says that if elected he would be "the first black president." And in the third segment, recorded at an event on Saturday, Jealous tells union members that with their help "you'll be looking at the next governor of Virginia." "A stutter is like a speed bump in your brain, and word replacement is a way that you deal with it," Jealous said when asked if he was blaming the gaffes on his speech impediment. He said in the heat of a campaign, when candidates are going without much sleep, "things might be more likely to go wrong. It goes right most of the time but occasionally it doesn't." A Hogan campaign spokesman said the video is not mocking Jealous for his stutter but instead is pointing out "embarrassing" mistakes during the campaign. "Whether it is dropping the f-bomb to a reporter, saying he is running for governor of Virginia or promising to raise taxes, Mr. Jealous can't simply disown his words every time he gets in trouble with voters," Scott Sloofman said in an email. The "f-bomb" reference refers to Jealous using profanity at a news conference in August when a reporter pressed him on whether he identified with the term socialist, a label Hogan had applied to him. Jealous, who is trailing Hogan in polls and fundraising, compared Hogan's use of the video with what he described as President Donald Trump's bullying tactics. He was joined at the news conference by ardent supporters, including officials with the Maryland State Educators Association and Service Employees International Union 1199. "We all have differences and ways that we cope with those differences, and its unfortunate that the governor instead is using bullying tactics," said Cheryl Bost, president of the teachers union. Recalling a Facebook post of Hogan's in 2016, she said the governor "has bullied us as educators, calling us union thugs." Jealous has only spoken publicly about his stutter since he launched his campaign last year. In his first debate appearance in the Democratic primary, he stumbled over his words in his introduction. In August, he visited the National Therapy Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to talk about stuttering, saying he sometimes experiences abnormal silences - also known as "blocks" - while speaking on television or in interviews. The Hogan campaign appeared to take advantage of one of those "blocks" in July, releasing a video titled "Ben Jealous' 7 Seconds of Silence" that showed Jealous pausing before answering a question about the Eastern Shore. The video suggested the pause showed Jealous did not know much about the region. At the time, a spokesman declined to comment on the use of the video, and Jealous did not attack the campaign for using it, instead saying it was "no different than anything that I've dealt with my entire life. I didn't sweat it." For years now, China has been at war against the United States in the South China Sea - except Washington didn't notice until the process was well underway. The Chinese way of war - modeled after the philosopher of middle antiquity, Sun Tzu - is to win without ever having to fight. Thus the Chinese have been proceeding by microsteps: reclaim an island here, build a runway there, install a missile battery in a third place, deploy an oil-exploration rig temporarily in disputed waters, establish a governorate and so on. Each step is designed to create a small fact, but without eliciting a military response from the other side, since the Chinese know they may be a generation away from matching the U.S. Navy and Air Force in fighting capability. The latest chapter in this process occurred earlier this month, when a Chinese warship dangerously came within 45 yards of the USS Decatur, a guided missile destroyer, in the vicinity of the Gaven Reefs. China is not a rogue state and its policy makes perfect sense, given its legitimate geopolitical aims. Beijing's approach to the South China Sea is quite comparable to the United States' approach to the Caribbean during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it sought to establish strategic dominance over its adjacent sea. Domination of the Caribbean gave the United States effective control over the Western Hemisphere, allowing it to pivotally affect the balance of power in the Eastern Hemisphere throughout the 20th century. Chinese domination of the South China Sea in the 21st century will do no less for China. Effective control of the South China Sea will give China unfettered access to the wider Pacific, permit it to further soften up Taiwan - the northern boundary of the South China Sea - and, most important, make it a two-ocean naval power. Indeed, the South China Sea is the gateway to the Indian Ocean - the 21st century's most critical body of water, which functions as the global energy interstate connecting the hydrocarbon fields of the Middle East with the middle-class conurbations of East Asia. China's military actions in the South China Sea are inseparable from its commercial empire-building across the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal and the eastern Mediterranean. From the Chinese viewpoint, though, the United States is the aggressive hegemon. After all, the U.S. Navy sails its warships from North America to the faraway South China Sea, which, from China's geographical reference point, is its home waters - just as the Caribbean Sea is to Americans. The very fact that the U.S. Coast Guard clusters ships in and around the Caribbean demonstrates how the United States, in a very real psychological sense, takes ownership of it. The Chinese, believing similarly, have coast-guard vessels as well as a fishing fleet in the South China Sea region. The United States must face up to an important fact: the western Pacific is no longer a unipolar American naval lake, as it was for decades after World War II. The return of China to the status of a great power ensures a more complicated multipolar situation. The United States must make at least some room for Chinese air and naval power in the Indo-Pacific region. How much room is the key question. Remember that the United States' principal allies bordering the South China Sea - Vietnam and the Philippines - have no choice but to get along with a much larger, economically dominant and more proximate China. They require the United States as a balancer against China, not as an outright enemy of it. They know the United States has a robust military presence in Asia ultimately by choice - making its policies uncertain - whereas China is the region's central organizing principle. President Trump has communicated more uncertainty in the minds of our Asian allies than any previous U.S. leader of modern times. This might force them to conclude separate understandings with China. Such a process will be insidious, rarely admitted and almost never on the front pages. Yet one day we will wake up and realize that Asia has irrevocably changed. Indeed, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' security strategy in the South China Sea is being undermined by Trump's trade policies. Don't believe for a moment that the United States can use trade as a lever against China in the South China Sea, where Beijing has a well-grounded, long-term grand strategy, as opposed to Trump's zigzagging whims. Unless the United States wants a shooting war in the South China Sea, its only defense against China's policy of gradual encroachment is a U.S. system of free trade and democratic alliance-building that buttresses its military posture and counters China's own imperial system. Power is not only military and economic, but moral. And by "moral" I do not, in this instance, mean humanitarian or moralistic. I mean something harder: the constancy of one's word so that allies can depend upon you. Only with that will littoral states such as Vietnam and the Philippines - to say nothing of Taiwan and South Korea - see it in their own interests to keep a safe distance from China. In sum, there is a direct contradiction between Trump's aggressive economic nationalism and his administration's commitment to defend the South China Sea. The South China Sea is not the United States' home waters; it is China's. Geography still matters. And because the United States is so far away, its only hope is to offer an uplifting regional vision that anchors its military one. - - - Kaplan is the author of "The Return of Marco Polo's World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-first Century." He is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a senior adviser at Eurasia Group. With Google announcing its duo of flagship smartphones yesterday, many of you are probably wondering when will they arrive in your home country and at what price. Unfortunately, availability remains a big issue with the Pixel phones even though the lineup has matured and it's now in its third generation. Pre-orders have already started in all markets to get the phones, except for India and Taiwan. This year Google has added four more markets to the rather short list that now consists of 13 countries - UK, US, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Ireland, India and Canada. Here are the prices and launch dates across those for the base 4GB/64GB models. Country Pixel 3 Pixel 3 XL Launch date US $799 $899 Oct 18 UK 739 869 3-4 weeks Australia AUD1,199 AUD1,349 3-4 weeks Germany 849 949 3-4 weeks Italy 899 999 3-4 weeks Canada CAD999 CAD1,129 3-4 weeks Spain 849 949 3-4 weeks India INR71,000 INR83,000 "Coming soon" Singapore SGD1,249 SGD1,399 3-4 weeks Japan JPY95,000 JPY119,000 3-4 weeks Ireland 899 999 3-4 weeks Taiwan N/A N/A N/A France 859 959 3-4 weeks Unfortunately, the Taiwanese Google store doesn't disclose any availability dates or prices so for now. Also, the Pixels in India are exclusively available through Flipkart and the pre-order starts tomorrow, October 11. Haiti - Justice : The great battles of the Minister of Justice Monday Jean Roudy Aly, the Minister of Justice, firmly resolved to engage the battle against prolonged preventive detention, land insecurity and human trafficking brought together at the Ministry, the commissioners of the Government close to the Courts of First Instance, the Central Director of the Judicial Police and the departmental directors of the National Police. Addressing the scourge of prolonged pretrial detention, Minister Aly highlighted the severe dysfunction of the judicial system as the main cause of this problem. Several participants raised several causes generating and / or aggravating this scourge: the absence of files for the prisoners, abuses, irresponsibility or dishonesty of certain actors of the system (police or justice), administrative lightness etc. Aly asked the commissioners of the government, to assume their responsibilities and to take the measures of right (increase of the hearings, reconstitution of the files, administrative recovery, holding of assizes criminal ...) to unclog the detention centers "Act quickly, but act well with public safety and peace," he insisted, recalling that the Ministry will ensure the availability of legal aid in all jurisdictions. In addition, the Minister indicated that from now on the Public Prosecutors will have to send the Ministry, by e-mail, the judicial information sheet, which will provide information on the nature and number of cases handled and on the prison situation. On land insecurity, Minister Aly highlighted the direct and negative consequences for the state's efforts to open the territory to foreign private investment and to those in the diaspora. He urged the concerned actors not to be complicit in the spoliations, saying that the Ministry intends to open the eye to this issue and reminding the government commissioners that they are the protectors of the peasant. The minister's instructions are formal in this regard: zero tolerance vis-a-vis the spoliators and grabbers of property of others; attention to surveyors, notaries, bailiffs, government commissioners and anyone in the justice system who is involved in land insecurity. With regard human trafficking, a transnational crime, the Minister has called for the utmost vigilance of the police authorities and the government commissioners of the jurisdictions of the border areas in particular. He believes that this issue requires the coordinated intervention of several other state institutions such as: the Institute of Social Welfare and Research (IBESR) and the National Office of Migration (ONM). Minister Aly called on justice / security actors "to crack down on the rigors of the law against the perpetrators of this despicable crime". Minister Jean Roudy Aly intends, within a short time, to discuss these 3 scourges with the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSPJ), a question of setting the tone in this quest for harmony for a healthy distribution of justice. Synergie was the final motto for this work session that lasted nearly four hours. HL/ HaitiLibre By Vasia Orion | Published on 2018/10/09 Science and religion clash in OCN's upcoming medical exorcism drama, "Priest", and so do their representatives. Yeon Woo-jin's priest and Jung Yoo-mi's doctor will have a lot to process as their worlds come together in a Catholic hospital about to witness a spike in creepy patients. The drama has released its first stills of the two leads. Advertisement I can already tell the bickering will be strong in this one, because the stills themselves look like a snapshot before a big fight. Jung Yoo-mi's Ham Eun-ho has her arms crossed, and doesn't seem all too happy to see Yeon Woo-jin's Oh Soo-min, who looks like he got lost on his way to priest camp. Maybe he carries his tools of the trade more casually than "The Guest - Drama"'s Matteo (Kim Jae-wook). Since the floodgates opened with "Save Me" last year, I hope OCN will tackle religious themes in different ways. According to the news attached to the stills, the production has stated that everything from the directing to the special effects of "Priest" aims to surpass film quality. Let's hope that "Priest" will find its own unique charm. The drama premieres in November. Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings' Sources (1) Published on 2018/10/09 | Source On the latest episode of jTBC's "Beauty Inside - Drama", Kang Sa-ra (Lee Da-hee) started feel strangely towards Ryoo Eun-ho (Ahn Jae-hyun). Advertisement Kang Sa-ra was shopping at a department store when she ran into Ahn Jae-hyun who handed her a perfume bottle shaped like a flower. She asked him if he was following her and he said, "Frankly, you're the one that appeared at my workplace". Kang Sa-ra then asked, "Are you saying that I'm following you?" and Ryoo Eun-ho said, "It's all right. I get that all the time". Meanwhile, Han Se-gye (Seo Hyun-jin) met the producer who made her a top star. However, he thought she'd changed and rejected her. He added that there was no opportunity for her anymore. Han Se-gye ended up kneeling before him and Chae Yoo-ri (Ryu Hwa-young) who was also there to see the producer, scoffed at her. Independent candidate for House District 28 Bob Sivertsen is running against Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, and Libertarian candidate Conor Burns for a seat in the Legislature. "I don't care about politics," Sivertsen said, "all I care about are the issues and I've always done my background work on issues so that I knew what was going on, and I think that's what's really key." Sivertsen, 80, was born and raised in the Bear Paw Mountains on a ranch 50 miles south of Chinook, he said. He graduated from Chinook High School in 1955 and from the Western School of Auctioneering in Billings in 1968, he added. After graduating high school he left home, at the age of 17, to start his life and career, rodeoing and building his own ranch. In 1974 Sivertsen ran as a Republican for the Montana House and won, serving eight years as a representative. While in the Legislature Sivertsen served on the Transportation Committee from 1978 to 1982 and the state Water Task Force from 1978 to 1981. He said that before being elected in 1974 he was already very active in local politics and encouraged everybody to get involved as well. When the seat opened up in the Legislature, Sivertsen said, people asked him if he would run. At first he told them no, he said, because he had a lot on his plate already, but reconsidered after thinking about it, he said. "I've been telling people that you've got to be involved and I was telling them no," he said. Participating in local government is the responsibility of a citizen, he said. There cannot be a government by the people and for the people if people do not participate. "Same as today," Sivertsen said, adding that it didn't take him long, this time, to say yes because he said it's his responsibility as a community member to be involved. Sivertsen said that as an independent he will be able to work with anybody and everybody. "I'll let the people determine if I am the best candidate," Sivertsen said, "but I can tell you that Havre and the Hi-Line has some grave issues here, number one being the economy." He said if Havre doesn't get a handle on its economy it will continue to lose people, adding that Havre has the same or even fewer people living in the area as it did in 1974. "Very few people, including our politicians, will acknowledge that," Sivertsen added. Some say the decline in the economy is due to online shopping, causing traditional brick-and-mortar stores to close, he said, adding that is just not the case. "When (Interstate) 94 was completed in the '70s we lost 40 percent of the traffic on U.S. Highway 2," Sivertsen said, adding that was when the community began to die. Businesses closed and people left, he added, "and we have never recovered." But, Sivertsen said, he has a plan, adding that no other politician on the docket or in the Legislature has a plan on how exactly to bring back the Hi-Line's economy except for him. The plan, he said, starts with building an adequate highway, the first step in economic development. If there is not an adequate highway, the Hi-Line cannot compete for business, Sivertsen said, adding that businesses looking to locate, relocate or expand will do so near four lane highways. U.S. Highway 2 is the only segment in the Great Northern corridor, from Seattle to Chicago and Rochester, N.Y., that is not a four lane, Sivertsen said. He said a study done in 1981 proved that Highway 2 is considered the shortest, most efficient route from Seattle to the Twin Cities with fewer elevations to traverse. But commerce and trade avoid the highway, "skirting the Hi-Line," because of safety issues, he said. Sivertsen said the routes that the truckers take may be longer, but companies will always use the safer highway. He added that Havre is sitting on a "gold mine," the Hi-Line being a gateway to three of the strongest economies in North America, Alberta, Saskatchewan and North Dakota. Sivertsen said concerns about programs being cut in the special legislative session held last fall to address projected revenue shortfalls might have been due to a "misnomer." A lot of the budgets were not cut that much, Sivertsen said, the programs just didn't get as much money as they were asking for. He added that a few programs were cut but the majority of them just did not receive the funds requested. Montana has a constitutional requirement to have a balanced budget, he said. Because the budget that was passed in the last session was not balanced after revenue projections dropped, a special session was required. Sivertsen said the Legislature had to find another $237 million and there was cutting, transferring and "raiding" of funds in the state in order to make up for the shortfall. He added that the next session will be tough. Because of the budget ending up not balanced last year, money will have to paid back into those funds. "It's all about common sense," he said. Sivertsen added that the Legislatures also voted last year for $160 million "over and above" the budget approved. He said there is a fundamental problem with that because it does not display fiscal responsibility. "That's why I don't care about politics, because they are not being truthful with the people," Sivertsen said. "I've spent six decades dedicated to defending and fighting for our middle class, our hard-working families, our working people, our main street businesses and our farmers and ranches," he said, adding that the middle class bears the brunt of this fiscal responsibility. Sivertsen said he believes his greatest attribute is that he has the knowledge. "I know how the government works," he said. "I know about balancing budgets. I've been in the private sector for all my life and I think that I could contribute a lot to the main objective in Montana, and that would be to improve our business climate, broaden our tax base. So we can fund education to the extent that it needs to be, so we can repair our streets and build an adequate highway and infrastructure." "When are we going to take, really take, a hard look at what it's going to take to grow our economy rather than playing politics with it?" Sivertsen asked. Editors note: This corrects when Burns was deployed and his affiliation with VFW Post 497 in Havre. Libertarian candidate for Montana House District 28 Conor Burns is facing off against Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, and independent candidate Bob Sivertsen for a seat in the Legislature in this November's election. Burns, 37, was born in Great Falls and grew up in Cut Bank. In 1999 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a gunner's mate. As a gunner's mate, Burns said, he was part of the boarding team, operating and maintained a five-inch gun mount, and was the artillery maintenance person on his ship. He earned his GED while serving in the Navy. In 2001, shortly before the 9/11 attacks, he was deployed to the Persian Gulf before being stationed in San Diego, California, in 2003. The year he came out of active duty he first moved to Detroit, working as an ironworker, before returning to Montana and taking classes at the University of Montana in Missoula, studying forestry. In 2005, Burns was called back to active duty serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. After his time on active duty he returned to Montana and the University of Montana, this time to study communications. Over the summers, he said, he also fought fires for the U.S. Forest Service and then worked for a couple of years for the Bureau of Land Management. In 2010, Burns said, he took a job as a machinist apprentice in Kalispell, manufacturing guns and aerospace parts. In February 2014, BNSF Railway hired Burns as a machinist diesel mechanic, he said, and the job brought him to Havre. Burns said he was also one of the founding members of the tea party in the state, although he added that he walked away from the party after it got away from the roots of what it was supposed to be. He is also one of the officers for the state board of the Libertarian Party, Burns said, adding that he also helped start and organize the Hill County Libertarian Party. Burns is a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, he said, serving as a junior vice commander in Kalispell and later a senior vice commander before moving to Havre. He has transferred his membership to Havres VFW Post 497, but he has not been active due to scheduling conflicts. He added that he married Janelle Warren Burns, who works for New Media Broadcasters, in June of this year. They have two dogs, Yogi and Callie, he said. Burns said he is the best candidate for representing HD28 because he has put his life on the line to protect people's rights before. "My big thing is to protect people's rights," he said. "I'm not one to mince words, not one to back down. I won't suffer hypocrisy," Burns added. He said he has done independent research on the Constitution over the years, enjoys economic studies and likes to read authors such as John Locke in his personal time. He understands what the government is supposed to do and what it is not to do, Burns said. What he also brings is a worldly perspective, he said, adding "perspective is everything." "I've been to war, lived in peace, been to impoverished areas, been to wealthy areas," he said. "I just think that all of those things combined has made me a well-rounded person and someone that can see the bigger picture of different policies." Burns said it is a benefit to be able to see the bigger picture in the laws the Legislature wants to pass, and he can very quickly determine if the laws being looked at are good for the people of Havre or not. Burns said when the Legislature went into a special session last fall to address projected revenue shortfalls the lawmakers could have looked at some other options, some other places the Legislature could have made the cuts needed. "The state is not allowed to run a deficit," he added. "Unlike the federal government, we have to stay within our budget." For the next legislative session, Burns said one of the bigger issues for the people is property tax. He added that property tax needs to be reformed or eliminated. "Because after you are done renting your house from the bank, you rent your property from the government for the rest of your life," Burns said. "That means you don't actually own your house, don't actually own your property. That is not what this country was founded on." He added that another big issue that faces the state is the protection of gun rights. "We need to keep guns in the hands of the people," Burns said. "If anything you need to take guns away from the government." He said another important issue is public lands. "I think public lands are poorly managed," Burns said. "I say that after being a firefighter for multiple agencies and looking at multiple fires around the state." One of the things that needs to be looked at, he said, is in reforming the process by which environmental impact statements are used. If somebody wants to go into and log an area, he said, they need to have an environmental impact statement done, but even after that is complete anyone can request a new statement be done and interrupt work. It stops people from utilizing the public lands, he said. "Either we can manage the lands that we have as a resource to the people of Montana or we can let nature take it back," Burns said. "I think they need to be managed much better than they have in the past." Montana Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, is running for re-election for his seat in legislature representing House District 28, facing off against independent candidate Bob Sivertsen and Libertarian candidate Conor Burns. He said, as a young person, he has the time, energy and passion to continue to effectively represent the community in the best way possible. Bachmeier was born in Havre in 1998 and has lived in Havre all of his life, he said. He graduated from Havre High School in 2016 and is attending college at Montana State University-Northern, where he is studying secondary education. He said he is considering changing his major to criminology because he is considering a career in law enforcement. Law enforcement, Bachmeier said, deeply fascinates him and is a field he thinks he could contribute a lot to. In 2014, he became politically involved, working on a couple of campaigns with former Montana Sen. and Public Service Commissioner Greg Jergeson, when Jergeson ran an unsuccessful campaign to return to the Senate. Bachmeier said he was also a volunteer with Gov. Steve Bullock's campaign for office. In 2016, Bachmeier made his first bid for an elected office, running for election in Montana House District 28 and won. Bachmeier said he is working with various political organizations besides his own campaign for re-election for state Legislature. That includes working with a group called the Montana Victory Team, which is campaigning for the re-election of U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. Tester faces Montana Republican Auditor Matt Rosendale and Libertarian Rick Breckenridge in the November election. As chair of the Hill County Democratic Party, Bachmeier also is working toward getting Democrat Doug Kaercher of Havre and Democrat Paul Tuss elected. Kaercher who is running against Republican Randy Pinocci of Sun Ricer, for a seat on the Public Service Commission and Tuss is running against Montana Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, for the seat in Senate District 14. Bachmeier said he was born and raised in this community, and as someone who is going to continue to make his life here, he is very invested in the development of the community, infrastructure and the creation of jobs for every day Montanans. "I've been so proud and honored to represent this community for the last two years," he said. He added that he looks forward to continuing to fight for Montana, fighting for resources along the Hi-Line to create development. Bachmeier said he has a deep understanding of Montana's outdoor heritage, and the security of public lands is a subject that is very important to him and something that is fundamental to people's culture. "As someone who wants to begin the rest of his life in this community and have a family here," Bachmeier said, "protecting our outdoor heritage and increasing public lands is something that I'm really excited to continue to fight for." Another subject that Bachmeier said is important to him is the strength of the public education system. "I think that with my experience of going through Havre Public Schools and now being a student at Northern, I think I've got a good understanding of this community's education system." Bachmeier said the budget cuts made when the Legislature went into a special session last fall to deal with projected revenue shortfalls were "deeply tragic and unnecessary." He said he fought hard last session to secure a responsible budget and adequate revenue for the people of Montana and the state's most vulnerable people who have been affected by these cuts. "I was disappointed that not all of my colleagues shared the same vision," Bachmeier said. "I think going into the 2018 session, continuing to fight for everyday Montanans is something that I'm going to be very passionate about." Because of last year's session, one of the biggest issues Montana will face in the next legislative session is to make sure the state is going to have adequate revenue, he said. The state needs to come up with a better tax system, Bachmeier said, one that is more fair to everyday working Montanans. Bachmeier said he supports the state raising the capital gains tax for people earning more than a million dollars a year. Bachmeier said this is going to be critical to create a tax structure that is more fair and provide adequate funding for the state. Public lands will also be a big issue he will focus on, he said. Thousands of blocked areas exist in the state, Bachmeier said, which is something the Legislature should work to correct. The state should make sure it is dealing appropriately with property owners like the Wilks brothers - wealthy Texans who own large amounts of Montana land - and putting fines in place for people who are blocking access to public lands that are a part of Montana heritage, he said In 2019, if the Medicaid expansion isn't continued by the voters passing Initiative 185, the Montana Legislature will have to be faced with a decision on what the future of the program is going to be, Bachmeier said. He said he thinks the debate will come down to how the Legislature will create a way to sustain the Medicaid program for rural communities, such as Havre. Members of Montana's low-income working class are the most-vulnerable people in every community and should be protected, Bachmeier added. Bachmeier's grandfather recently died due to brain cancer, and he said it has been tough to campaign after seeing what his grandfather had been going through. He said his grandfather was his biggest supporter in 2016 and worked hard to get him elected. "Ultimately, what I'm doing in the Legislature is fighting for people like my grandpa and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing," Bachmeier said. "I've been deeply humbled to represent this community and I think that I have Havre running through my blood," he said. "I'm excited to continue to work to represent this community and I look forward to continuing building my family here and my work life here." https://www.aish.com/ci/s/The-Nobel-Peace-Prize-Winners-Israel-Connection.html For Nadia Murad, the Jewish people inspire activism and hope. In 2014, pick-up trucks bearing the ISIS black flag stormed into the village of Kocho in northern Iraq, with the stated goal of ethnically cleansing all Yazidis. While 19-year-old Nadia Murad watched in horror, jihadists savagely slaughtered over 1,000 people including her six brothers and mother. Survivors were forced to convert to Islam. Then, Yazidi boys were sent to train as jihadist fighters, while thousands of young women and girls including Nadia were tortured, gang-raped, and sold on the slave market. After a harrowing escape from ISIS captivity (taking advantage of false identity papers and a liberal German immigration policy), Nadia launched a global crusade to advocate for victims of sex crimes and human trafficking. Those efforts culminated this week as she joined a list of heroes including Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Elie Wiesel as recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Behind this remarkable story is a Jewish connection. Over the millennia, Yazidis have been repeatedly subjected to massacres, often at the hands of Muslim extremists. That's why a half-million Yazidis lived in isolated, mountainous regions near the Iraqi-Syrian border, where they formed independent villages and clung tenaciously to their unique culture and heritage. Visiting Israel last year, Nadia spoke of the Yazidis' kinship with the Jewish people: Like the Jewish people, we have always survived. These experiences inspire us to hold onto our culture and identity. And importantly, our experiences drive us to stand up for others who are being persecuted... For three years, ISIS has stolen the authorship of the Yazidi story. But we will not let them write our future. My time in Israel has shown me that in the wake of oppression and genocide, a community can emerge stronger. Nadia's 2017 memoir, The Last Girl, became a best-seller and raised awareness of efforts to end sexual violence as a weapon of war long before the #MeToo movement swept the world. Just as Nazi officers were prosecuted by the global community, Nadia is determined that crimes committed by ISIS will be punished. Speaking last year in Israel, she said: We must work together with determination to prove that genocidal campaigns will not only fail, but lead to accountability for the perpetrators and justice for the survivors... Many girls in the refugee camps who are survivors of the genocide are ready to give evidence... to talk about what happened to them. Today, Nadia uses her growing international platform to advocate for the safe return of 3,000 Yazidis still in captivity, and for the Yazidi people's "return to our homeland." In 2017, addressing a packed hall at Beit Hat'futsot in Tel Aviv, Nadia thanked the Jewish people "for giving us hope and requested Jewish "mentorship to rebuild our community": Like the Jews, the Yazidis have shown resilience in the face of oppression. Holding onto your identity can be a force of resistance. Every time we practice a traditional custom or stand up for one another we refuse to let our perpetrators be stronger than us... The Jews and the Yazidis share a common history of genocide that has shaped the identity of our peoples, but we must transform our pain into action... I respect how you rebuilt a global Jewish community in the wake of genocide. This is a journey that lies ahead of my community. In the spirit of the Torah teaching, "Don't stand idly by" (Leviticus 19:16), we hope that Nadia Murad, with a Nobel Peace Prize on her resume, inspires people worldwide to join the fight for freedom and justice for all. Press release Fish, Wildlife and Parks will have a public information session Oct. 15 in Chester regarding Chronic Wasting Disease and planned surveillance efforts for the upcoming hunting season. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Chester High School auditorium, 511 Main St. Last year, FWP discovered CWD in deer south of Billings and north of Chester. CWD is an always fatal disease of deer, elk and moose and if left unmanaged can cause significant population declines over time. It is not known to affect humans or livestock. FWP will conduct extra surveillance during the general fall hunting season in high-priority areas in parts of northern and western Montana, including Hunting Districts 401 and 403. Check stations for collecting samples from deer and elk will be in operation in Chester and Shelby, from Thursdays through Mondays, during the HD 401 and 403 general deer season, Oct. 20 to Nov. 11. From Nov 12-25 the check stations will be open Fridays through Sundays. Exact locations will be announced later. All hunters must stop at all check stations, but submission of CWD samples is voluntary. To learn more visit http://www.fwp.mt.gov/cwd/. FWP ensures that its meetings are fully accessible to persons with disabilities. To request special accommodations for the Oct. 15 meeting, or if there are any questions, call FWP Region 4 in Great Falls at 406-454-5840. The Havre School board in its monthly meeting Tuesday at Havre Middle School approved taking bids to add another project at Havre High School. Superintendent Andy Carlson offered a proposal to get a bid on renovations to science classrooms at Havre High. Carlson said he is projecting a total cost of $1.3 million, which includes the bathroom renovations that are presently underway. Carlson said since construction is already scheduled at Havre High it would make sense to have the company that is tasked with the current bathroom renovations to review the science room designs and offer the school a bid. The current classrooms are 50-plus years old, Carlson said, and he hopes that even just renovating a couple of them will help them last another 50 plus years. The board approved the motion to get a bid on the cost of renovating the science rooms at Havre High. Carlson also told the board about overall enrollment at the Havre schools. I guess the bright side, Ill start with that is our kindergarten numbers, Carlson said. Pretty solid actually. We hit 160. For kindergarten through eighth grade, the number of enrolled students is 1,230 and for high school it is 508. Carlson said last year the high school enrollment numbers were about 540 at this time. The numbers in the spring time for enrollment tend to be 30 or 40 less than the fall, Carlson said. I wish I had a better enrollment report to share with you, he added. Karla Geda, director of special services for Havre Schools, gave a presentation about Native American week. Geda said Schools had been doing readings from Native American literature and other activities, as well. The celebration of Native American culture isnt just going to be a week-long event, Geda said, and highlighted an event coming up next week. Jim Magera, a former Havre High School history teacher, will be showing his own personal collection of Native American artifacts at the Havre Middle School auditorium from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, through Wednesday, Oct. 17. The event is for the students, but Geda said she is sure that anyone is welcome to attend who wants to attend. The board was asked by Havre High Activities Director Dennis Murphy if they would be willing to approve travel for the wrestling team to the Tri-State Classic in Coeur DAlene, Idaho. The tournament takes place Dec. 14 and 15, but Murphy said with travel days factored in, they are looking at Dec. 13 as the departing date and Dec. 16 as the return date. Murphy said the tournament has some of the top wrestlers from Washington, Montana and Idaho. The number of Havre students who would be attending the tournament is not yet known, Murphy added. The board asked Murphy to go over expenses for the trip. In 2016, he said, it cost $5,400 to send the wrestling team to the tournament but that included sending wrestlers to a junior varsity tournament in Great Falls. In 2017, no wrestlers were sent to Great Falls and the cost for that trip was about $5,100. Murphy said he estimates the cost to send wrestlers to Idaho this year would be about $5,600 and that is not including sending any wrestlers to Great Falls to compete. The board unanimously approved the decision to send the wrestlers to Idaho. We know that in that universe of executives, there was some population that needed to get themselves in check, said Johnny Taylor, president and chief executive officer of SHRM. Im not convinced we wouldve done it without the identification of those Weinstein cases. Human resources consultant Sharon Sellers confirmed the shift. There are executives who are being more cautious about what theyre saying and what is said in the workplace, said Sellers, founder of SLS Consulting LLC in Santee, South Carolina. But changes may have gone too far in some instances, with men over-correcting and leaving women out of business discussions or mentoring opportunities. One executive told Sellers he now wouldnt get into an elevator alone with a woman. Unintended Consequences Im extremely concerned there may be unintended consequences, Sellers said. Thats consistent with a Pew Research Center survey released in April that found 20% of respondents believed that the increased awareness of sexual harassment may lead to fewer opportunities for women. The SHRM poll, released on Thursday, found 45% of those surveyed said they havent changed the way they act all, and another 21% said they had made only small changes. Since not all executives had behavior that needed changing that isnt a surprise, Taylor said. Showing employees that you are sympathetic to their struggles can be as simple as making reasonable adjustments to employment conditions or expectations for a particular employee, said Jewell. Jewell said that if an employee feels discriminated against based on a mental illness, this could exacerbate it further. The employee may also be eligible to make a claim under the general protections provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (cth). Jewell advised that employees suffering from a mental health condition should seek medical advice before revealing a condition to their employer. Moreover, recent research by Robert Half found that while most companies have already introduced initiatives for staff, 93% think a number of other initiatives should be introduced. Researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine took three big steps that could someday help people with neuromuscular diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spinal muscular atrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and hereditary spastic paraplegia. Armed with the knowledge that motor neurons in the spine particularly the axons of these cells dysfunction in certain inherited neuromuscular conditions, Mario Saporta, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, assistant professor of neurology and human genetics and director of the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA) Center of Excellence at the Miller School, and colleagues set out to learn more. First, Dr. Saporta and colleagues grew motor neurons using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from three healthy volunteers. This relatively new technology allowed them to overcome a historical research obstacle an inability to study nerve cells from a living human. The use of human, stem-cell derived motor neurons provides a unique opportunity to investigate this process and its role in health and disease, said Dr. Saporta. Next, they figured out how these motor neurons orchestrate all their functions under normal conditions. In so doing, they became the first researchers to map the entire transcriptome, a complete set of genetic instructions in the axons of these cells. This transcriptome helps the motor cell axons with mitochondrial function, microtubule-based transport, and other vital tasks. The third step, once the researchers gained a clear picture of which gene expressions are essential, was determining what goes awry for people with neuromuscular disorders. Their findings were featured as the cover story in the September 2018 issue of Experimental Neurology. Dr. Saporta, lead author Renata Maciel, Ph.D., MBA, and their colleagues were able to distinguish gene expression among different parts of the neuron, such as the axonal component versus the somatodendritic compartment. This allowed them to appreciate the importance of local activity. They also narrowed down the more than 19,000 genes detected in these two compartments. They identified the 1,000 genes with the highest average expression in each and also discovered the compartments shared 859 of these genes in common. This left the investigators with about 150 distinct genes to assess further. The research also confirms the role of messenger RNA (mRNA) in normal axon functioning. We demonstrated that approximately 13 percent of total mRNA are enriched in the axonal compartment of human iPSC-derived motor neurons, in accordance with recent studies using rat motor neurons and human glutamatergic cortical neurons, said Dr. Saporta. The mRNAs help cells translate the instructions from the genetic transcriptome into proteins that carry out various tasks. At the axons, these mRNAs are essential for axonal outgrowth and regeneration, for example. Again, the local angle is important. The identification of locally expressed mRNA in the axon of motor neurons is extremely important for the better understanding of normal axonal function and its role in neurological diseases, said Dr. Saporta. Also, discovery of the transcripts enriched in the axons may create a platform for drug discovery using those genes as therapeutic targets. All of these research advances were accomplished at the Miller School, demonstrating the institutions leading role in neurological disease modeling with iPSC and next-generation RNA sequencing. The next phase of the research is underway. Dr. Saporta and colleagues are looking at motor neurons derived from patients with inherited neuropathies and comparing their axonal transcriptome to neurons from healthy controls. Additionally, they are developing high-throughput drug-screening platforms for drug development for genetic neuropathies using human iPSC-derived motor neurons. The Department of Neurology and the Department of Human Genetics at the Miller School funded the research. Miller School of Medicine In the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE, the immune system produces antibodies against parts of the body itself. How cells that produce those antibodies escape the normal checks and balances has been unclear, but recent research from Emory University School of Medicine sheds light on a missing link. Investigators led by Ignacio (Inaki) Sanz, MD, studied blood samples from 90 people living with SLE, focusing on a particular type of B cells. These DN2 B cells are relatively scarce in healthy people but substantially increased in people with SLE. The results were published online Tuesday in the journal Immunity. People with lupus can experience a variety of symptoms, such as fatigue, joint pain, skin rashes and kidney problems. Levels of the DN2 cells were higher in people with more severe disease or kidney problems. DN2 B cells are thought to be extra-follicular, which means they are outside the B cell follicles, regions of the lymph nodes where B cells are activated in an immune response. Overall, our model is that a lot of lupus auto-antibodies come from a continuous churning out of new responses, says postdoctoral fellow Scott Jenks, PhD, co-first author of the paper. There is good evidence that DN2 cells are part of the early B cell activation pathway happening outside B cells normal homes in lymph nodes. Previous research at Emory has shown that African American women have significantly higher rates of lupus than white women. In the current study, the researchers observed that the frequency of DN2 cells was greater in African American patients. Participants in the study were recruited by Emory, University of Rochester and Johns Hopkins. Sanz, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, is director of the Lowance Center for Human Immunology and head of the division of rheumatology in the Department of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. Co-first authors are Jenks, postdoctoral fellow Kevin Cashman, PhD and Esther Zumaquero-Martinez, PhD at the University of Alabama. The lab of Frances Lund, PhD at University of Alabama, as well as postdoc Urko Marigorta, PhD from Georgia Tech contributed to the paper. The researchers examined the characteristics of DN2 cells and the patterns of genes turned on in those cells. DN2 cells appear to be precursors to the plasmablasts that produce autoreactive antibodies, which cause so much trouble for people with lupus. Plasmablasts are an important source of antibodies that help get rid of bacteria or viruses during an infection. But in lupus, subsets of B cells and plasmablasts persist in unhealthy ways. In general, we can think of plasmablasts as weapon factories, and B cells as a library of blueprints for various antibodies/weapons. Understanding where the problem plasmablasts come from can provide clues on how to target them and how to control the disease. Molecular probing showed that DN2 cells in SLE patients are hypersensitive to activation through TLR7, a pathway by which the immune system senses viral infections. This may be how they get over-expanded, Jenks says. Our work provides further support for the importance for TLR7 in lupus pathology, he says. Targeting TLR7 might both block the generation of pathological B cells and prevent their subsequent activation and differentiation into plasma cells. Previous work in Sanzs lab had shown that a group of activated naive B cells are precursors to the problem plasmablasts. Those cells are very similar, in their molecular markers, to DN2 cells. Jenks says the researchers are now figuring out the relationship between DN2 and activated naive cells, as well as investigating additional intervention strategies that could specifically control those cells. The research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U19AI110483, R37AI049660, P01AI125180, P01AI078907, R01AI110508, R01AI121252 and U19AI109962) and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (AR043737, AR069572 Hopkins Lupus Cohort). Emory University We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here It looks like High Dive found a way to bring the 2000s to Gainesville. Matthew Landoli never expected to see one of his childhood favorites in North Florida. But now the 21-year-old UF finance senior hopes to hear the Drake and Josh theme song live in Gainesville. Musician and actor Drake Bell, known for his role in Nickelodeons Drake and Josh, will perform Dec. 4 at High Dive, located at 210 SW 2nd Ave. Doors open at 7 p.m., said Pat Lavery, the High Dive facility and events manager. General admission tickets for ages 18 and older are $15, and attendees under 21 will be charged a $3 cover at the door. Meet-and-greet tickets will cost $100, Lavery said. Local opening acts will kick off the show at 8 p.m., followed by Bells hour-long set of his own songs and covers of bands like the Beach Boys and the Beatles, Lavery said. High Dive has not announced who will perform the opening acts. Bell was not sought out by High Dive. The agreement was made after his team reached out to the venue, Lavery said. Although Landoli kept up with Bells recent cover of Gucci Gang by Lil Pump, he said seeing him in person would be surreal. I never expected someone that I watched as a 10-year-old to be performing in my college town and I would get a chance to see them almost 10 years later, he said. Contact Tranelle at tmaner@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @manertt Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now A mother-of-one who stole a handbag from a city centre store had "form" for theft, a court heard. Leanna Kenny (26) took the bag last February 19 while she was paying for other goods and "funds were low". Judge Ann Ryan adjourned the case for a probation report. Kenny, with an address at a hostel on Gardiner Street, Dublin, pleaded guilty to theft. She went to Penneys on Mary Street and selected a number of items from around the store. She paid for most of the items, but not a 14 handbag. She left the shop with the bag but was stopped by security and gardai were called. The bag was recovered undamaged and in a saleable condition. Kenny was co-operative with the gardai and gave them "no trouble", the court heard. Apologised She had a number of previous theft convictions. Kenny was on social welfare, she and her partner had a young child and "funds were low", her solicitor Matthew De Courcy said. She apologised for the offence, he added. Kenny had had difficulties with drugs in the past but had "progressed significantly", Mr De Courcy said. She was on methadone and in stable accommodation. The birth of her child had been a catalyst for change for her, and she had made "massive strides", Mr De Courcy said. He accepted that while the value of the goods was low, "there is form". Judge Ryan said she was taking account of the low value of what was taken, but Kenny had "quite a number of previous convictions". The accused was remanded on continuing bail. Leinster House was on an election footing last night as opposition figures accused the Government of trying to curry favour with voters while failing to address the housing crisis. Fianna Fail made moves to claim a number of Budget wins, saying it forced the Government's hand on key issues as part of its confidence and supply arrangement with Fine Gael. Sinn Fein said measures to address the housing crisis lacked ambition, while Labour's Joan Burton compared Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to his predecessor in the Celtic Tiger years, Charlie McCreevy. "If it looks like an election budget, if it sings like an election budget, if Leo's choir cheers it like an election budget, well then it is an election budget," said the Dublin West TD. "It was Minister Paschal Donohoe who was delivering the speech but it is the voice of my former college classmate Charlie McCreevy that came through as if we were back to the grand old days that we had foolishly thought to be banished forever. Budget prudence goes out the window when there is an election in the air." Fianna Fail's finance spokesperson Michael McGrath said his party could claim ownership of a number of measures introduced in the Budget. He claimed the party had secured a 300m affordable housing package over the next three years, while blasting Fine Gael's record. "Under this Government's watch, home ownership has become a distant dream for more and more of our people," Mr McGrath said. Affordable "Home ownership is falling rapidly under Fine Gael. Fianna Fail makes no apologies for insisting on a major focus on affordable housing in this Budget." The party's public expenditure spokesman Barry Cowen said Fianna Fail facilitated three budgets for the good of the Government. It is now expected to enter negotiations with Fine Gael about extending the confidence and supply arrangement. "Other parties have been content to sit on their hands. In Brendan Behan's words they are 'like eunuchs in a brothel: they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves'," Mr Cowen said. The coffin of tragic mother-of-five Emma Mhic Mhathuna is taken to Seipeal na Carraige church in Baile na nGall, Co Kerry, for her requiem mass, during which she was hailed as an inspiration Emma Mhic Mhathuna's funeral cortege will pause outside Aras an Uachtarain, the Dail and Department of Health today as a gesture of solidarity with Irish women affected by the CervicalCheck scandal. The news came as the mother-of-five was hailed in Kerry as an inspiration for her total devotion to her children and her fearless campaigning over the CervicalCheck issue. Moving scenes marked the requiem mass of the 37-year-old at Seipeal na Carraige at Baile na nGall in the west Kerry Gaeltacht. She died on Sunday at University Hospital Kerry (UHK), just over four months on from the CervicalCheck scandal coming to light. Solidarity As a gesture of solidarity with Emma and the other 200 women hit by the scandal, many women attending yesterday's requiem mass opted to wear red coats and outfits - red being the colour Emma wore when she settled her High Court action against the HSE and a US laboratory over her incorrect smear test results. Expand Close Emma Mhic Mhatuna / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Emma Mhic Mhatuna In a gesture specifically requested by Emma, the media was thanked by her uncles, John and Brendan Moran, for the key role it played in helping highlight Emma's case. "Emma wanted to thank you from the bottom of her heart for what you have done to highlight this," John said. Fr Eoghan O'Cadhla told the congregation that Emma's death had shocked the tight-knit Gaeltacht community where she had lived for the past 18 months with her five children, Natasha, Seamus, Mario, Oisin and Donnacha. "Her love for her beautiful children will live with me forever," Fr O'Cadhla said. "Her courage, her faith, her dignity and her resilience are an inspiration to me and all the people who got to know her in Corca Dhuibhne and far beyond this place. "We know that her five children are broken-hearted by her loss. She was very selfless in helping others and we often questioned where she got her strength from when she was so very ill." The mourners were led by Emma's children. Mourners also included Emma's father, Peter, her uncles and her aunts, including Elaine to whom she was particularly close. Reading Her children took an active role in the requiem mass. Mario delivered the second reading, while Natasha, Seamus and Mario also took offertory gifts to the altar. These included the An Ghaeltacht GAA jerseys of Seamus and Mario, bouquets of wild fuchsia which was Emma's favourite flower in west Kerry, a family photo, a Bible, rosary beads and a painting. Emma had commissioned five miniature busts of herself as special mementos for each of her children. Natasha took one of the busts to the altar in memory of her mother. Emma will have a second requiem mass at Dublin's Pro Cathedral at lunchtime today. The Pro Cathedral was chosen because Emma attended an Irish school nearby and regularly attended the cathedral to say prayers and light candles for loved ones. An Irish tourist has pleaded guilty to carving his name into a wall at the former Auschwitz concentration camp. The 32-year-old man was arrested on Sunday after security guards at the former Nazi extermination camp saw him engrave his name in one of the bunkhouses with a coin. He was brought to Oswiecim police station, where he was questioned in relation to the crime of damaging a building of special cultural interest. Punishment A spokeswoman said the Irish tourist was later brought to the district prosecutor and charged with the offence. He pleaded guilty to the charge and has since been released, with a punishment expected to be set over the coming weeks. The maximum sentence for damaging a culturally significant building is up to 10 years' imprisonment. The police spokeswoman said: "Police in Oswiecim were informed by the museum guard of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau of the capturing of an Irish national (32), suspected of the inscribing by a coin his name on one of the bunkhouse in Brzezinka. "By his act, he committed a crime of damaging the building of special cultural interest, that's why he was arrested and brought to the police station in Oswiecim." In 2016, two Portuguese teenagers received two-year suspended sentences after carving their names in antique bricks at the site. More than 1.1 million people were killed at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp between 1940 and 1945. The pensioner has been described as "completely innocent", but local gardai are trying to establish if a younger relative was the intended target. Gardai are investigating a firebomb attack on a south Dublin house while an elderly woman was asleep inside. A petrol bomb was thrown at the property in Crumlin on Monday night, and gardai are looking into whether the incident is linked to a recent attack in the midlands. A source told the Herald it was a "miracle" that the pensioner, aged in her 70s and understood to be very ill, was not killed in the indiscriminate attack. Innocent She has been described as "completely innocent", but local gardai are trying to establish if a younger relative was the intended target. Emergency services were called to the scene at around 9pm on Monday. A lone male is believed to have approached the property before throwing a rock through a front window. A petrol canister was then set alight and thrown at the house. The firebomb failed to ignite inside the property, but caused damage to the front. The suspect then fled the scene in a car. A garda spokeswoman said officers at Sundrive Road Garda Station were investigating "an incident of criminal damage in the Rutland area at around 9pm on Monday night". No arrests have yet been made and investigations are continuing. A source said gardai were investigating if it was part of a dispute linked to a recent serious attack in a county in the midlands. "There could easily have been a fatality in this case if the petrol canister had ignited inside the house," the source said. "The pensioner, who is quite ill, was sleeping inside when it was thrown at the house. Criminality "She is obviously a completely innocent person and investigators are attempting to establish if a younger relative was the intended target." A number of younger males known to the woman have been involved in criminality over the past three decades. However, Monday night's incident has been described as a localised dispute not directly linked to their long criminal history. Parents will still have to fork out to help schools meet running costs after the Budget increase of only 5pc in day-to-day funding grants. The Irish National Teachers' Organisation said it would have "no noticeable impact on the crisis in funding facing schools around the country". Overall, the Department of Education saw a 674m increase, bringing its budget to a record 10.7bn next year. The 674m includes 147m to meet pension and lump sum costs, a higher than usual allocation at this time, which has been agreed to avoid the need for a supplementary estimate later in 2019. It also includes 122m to cover pay rises. Education Minister Richard Bruton insisted that the Budget would "help us make significant progress on our journey to becoming the best education and training service in Europe by 2026". Regrettable The 5pc rise in school capitation grants restores 8.50 of the 30-a-year cut to primary schools since 2010. At second level, the increase is 14.80, against a cut of 49. John Curtis of the Joint Managerial Body, representing two in three post-primary schools, said that at a time when there has been restoration of most of the cuts implemented during the recession, "it is regrettable that students, parents and schools are disadvantaged". Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland president Breda Lynch said it was "not enough". Catholic Primary School Management Association general secretary Seamus Mulconry welcomed it as the "first small but positive step to restoring financing". Fianna Fail education spokesperson Thomas Byrne said the increase "met a significant level of resistance at Cabinet that was difficult to comprehend". There will be 1,300 more teachers and special needs assistants to cater for extra pupils, as well as some extra supports for principals. The Irish Universities Association said 57m extra for higher education, while welcome, "only allows the system to tread water". There is also 41.5m for further education and training programmes and, from January 2020, there will be a 300m five-year Human Capital Initiative to boost skills across the economy. The Technological Higher Education Association, representing institutes of technology, was more welcoming of the funding announcements. Up to 5,000 jobs will be lost in restaurants, cafe and bar food businesses because of Shane Ross's failure to stop the VAT increase and he should resign immediately, the head of Ireland's restaurant association has said. Jobs have also been put on the line by the VAT hikes in the hairdressing business, said leading stylist David Marshall. "I'm flabbergasted. I can't see it not putting people out of business," said the top Dublin hairdresser. Budget 2019 will increase VAT rates from 9pc to 13.5pc in January for hotels, restaurants, cafes, hairdressers, cinemas and theatres. "This VAT increase has just cost 5,000 jobs in restaurants, cafes and bars serving food," said Restaurant Association of Ireland chief executive Adrian Cummins. "Minister Ross failed to defend us in the negotiations in the Budget. "If VAT increased from 9.5pc to 11pc then we might have given the minister a pass mark. But we give him zero percent for complete failure and he should now resign." The higher VAT rate will come into force on the same day that the minimum wage goes up from 9.55 to 9.80, so his 3,000 members will be hit twice, Mr Cummins added. He said 80pc of the coming job losses would be due to the VAT hike while the other 20pc would be caused by the hike in the minimum wage. "This is a black day for us. In one fell swoop we have these increases and the arrival of Brexit in March," he told the Herald. "This is deeply annoying. It will cost the industry 440m next year. It's a 50pc hike in our VAT bills." Mr Cummins said the VAT hike would lead to the loss of 10,000 jobs if the hotel sector was included. The rate increase would have a particularly negative impact in the Border areas and in the Midlands, he added. Bad "Dublin is fine but down the country this will be very bad," Mr Cummins said, adding that it would be "the end" for some restaurants. Hairdresser Mr Marshall was "flabbergasted" to learn of the VAT rate hike. "It's too much, it really is," he said. "They are squeezing the life out of the hairdressing business." The VAT rise comes on top of the commercial rates set by the city council which have also gone up in recent years, he said. "In our case, they went from 16,000 to 24,000 a year," Mr Marshall added. "Now they are talking about putting up the VAT while we are in the process of reducing our prices. "The whole dynamics of the business has totally changed. "We are a very labour-intensive business. The hairdressing industry is giving a lot of employment. "I think they don't seem to recognise this. "It just puts pressure on taking on extra employees. "Rents have gone up, rates have gone up, VAT is now going up - it really is squeezing the last ounce of life out of it. "We can't pass on that extra charge to clients...because they just stop coming and I can understand clearly why," said the hairdresser, who is based on Fade Street and South Great Georges Street. "I am very surprised and I am very shocked and I am actually very concerned to be honest with you," he said. "The margins now are so tight already. I can't believe it to be honest. I can't see it not putting people out of business." Hoteliers said the VAT hike was "a devastating blow" and a setback for rural Ireland. Irish Hotels Federation president Michael Lennon said: "The increase is a serious jolt to the tourism industry. "It represents a reckless failure to recognise its economic potential and importance, particularly to rural Ireland." Mr Lennon urged Mr Ross to defer the increase until there was clarity over Brexit and to allow existing contracts for group bookings to be completed as prices have already been agreed. "Ireland will now have a higher tourism VAT rate than 26 countries in Europe with which we compete," he said. "We are already a very high- cost economy by international standards so it is astonishing that the Government is now imposing additional taxes on tourists and making our country less attractive as a destination. "Regional businesses will bear the brunt, as about 300m of the 466m in additional taxes will be taken from the rural economy, which has been slower to recover from the economic crisis. "This is a devastating blow for the many tourism businesses that struggle to break even or stay open outside the peak season." Crutch Mr Lennon said the industry was already facing enormous difficulties due to the uncertainty around Brexit and weakened sterling. "Today the tourism industry supports over 235,000 jobs in every county and town, generating over 2bn in taxes each year," he said. Fianna Fail's finance spokesman, Michael McGrath, said the 9pc Vat rate "was always designed as a temporary crutch until the sector repaired itself". "The tourism and hospitality sector has had the benefit of the reduced rate for seven years," he said. Chanae Jackson-Baker never had a black teacher until she was in middle school. Born and raised in Gainesville, Jackson-Baker, 39, said shes seen the disparity between white and black students firsthand. Before graduating from Eastside High School in 1997, she said she was often the only black student in classes. She said that prior to having her first black teacher, Frankie Hill, she had never seen any black women doing anything successful. I had no sense of my own identity, she said. I was very quiet and afraid to speak up in middle school. I just faded in the background. Representation was one of the issues on the agenda at a meeting Monday night at the DaySpring Missionary Baptist Church, at 1945 NE Eighth Ave., aimed at improving the new equity plan that was put in place in Alachua County Sept. 18. The plan would help bridge the countys achievement gap between white and black students, which is the widest gap in Florida. Out of about 29,500 students in Alachua County, 44 percent are white, 34 percent are African American, 10 percent are Hispanic and 5 percent are Asian. However, 81 percent of the countys teachers are white, 11 percent as black and 6 percent as Hispanic, according to the equity plan. Goals of the plan include the reduction of the achievement gap between black and white students on standardized tests, an increase in graduation rates of black students and greater involvement of black students in advanced courses. About 20 parents, teachers and school staff were frustrated that the school board put the plan in place without addressing the concerns of the community, such as more representation for black students, a lack of parental involvement and little mention of students with disabilities, Jackson-Baker, who has one child in public school, said. She said the board has shown a resistance to feedback and these meetings are necessary to engage with the community. We dont want to fight, we want to collaborate, she said. Janay Brockington, 30, a teacher in the district, said that she came out to the meeting to see peoples ideas for solutions and their opinions on the role of teachers. (I wanted) to see what people actually think we do, she said. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now The most important thing to do is create an oversight committee for the school board that is proportional to the demographics of students, Jackson-Baker said. This would help improve representation. This committee would be made up of teachers, parents and school board members to create a stronger relationship between the board and community and come up with new solutions for the achievement gap, she said. We have a school board thats not listening, she said. Were not getting creative because were too busy blaming each other. A future meeting will be held to create a more solid, strategic plan, Jackson-Baker said. A date and location have yet to be set. Tina Certain, an Alachua County school board member-elect, said the plan is a living document and can still be changed to address the concerns of the community. Certain agreed with the implementation of the committee because she said power is currently retained only by district employees. I dont want students who look like me to be shortchanged, Certain said. Larry Green, 48, and Chanae Jackson-Baker, 39, address the assembled attendants at a meeting to reform a recent racial equity plan by the Alachua County School Board on Monday night at DaySpring Missionary Baptist Church in Gainesville. Waldo Branch Library is a single room that serves as a catch-all for crafting, computer classes and the excited chatter of children during storytime. With an upcoming expansion, though, the Waldo branch of the Alachua County Library District will move into a building that is five times larger, said Nickie Kortus, the marketing and public relations manager for the Alachua County Library District. Construction on the new space began in September and it will tentatively open in April 2019. The new location, at 15150 NE U.S. Highway 301 in Waldo, was previously home to a Dollar General store, Kortus said. The library district will pay $815,000 to renovate the existing building into a new library. The new space will be 8,100 square feet, Kortus said. The library district will use part of the building for storage, with 5,000 square feet remaining for traditional library use. The fate of the current library building has not been determined by city officials from Waldo, Kortus said. However, it is certain that it will no longer be a library once the new building opens. The 12 libraries in the district offer more than just books, Kortus said. They offer a wide range of programs, including sewing, yoga and computer training. The new space will allow the library to provide resources like 12 new computers, Kortus said. This will allow for one-on-one computer training to teach basic computer literacy skills, like setting up an email or filling out an online job application. By doing this in the local library you allow people to come in and share their skills, their knowledge and learn from others, Kortus said. Before the expansion, the Waldo library housed larger events in places like the community center and outside, Kortus said. In 2017, the number of patron visits to the library increased by six percent, said Kerry Dowd, the Waldo library branch manager. Program attendance during that time increased by 77 percent. The new space will help with this need, she said. She is particularly excited about the addition of a new ARTspace, which will be used for crafting, Dowd said. There has been a push for libraries throughout the area to have spaces for making creations. We are thrilled to be able to offer so much more for this area, Dowd said. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Contact Gillian Sweeney at gsweeney@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @gilliangsweeney The front of the construction for the new Waldo Branch Library. Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett Monday announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing $181 million in 88 projects that will build community infrastructure and facilities in 27 states. Rural Development State Director Jim Tracy announced today that USDA is investing over $2.3 million in six projects in Tennessee, including South Pittsburg. In order for rural Tennessee communities to prosper, they must have the proper infrastructure in place to meet the needs of their citizens, Mr. Tracy said. I am excited that USDA is committed to assisting communities in making infrastructure a priority. USDA is making the investments through the Community Facilities Direct Loan Program. The funding helps rural areas make infrastructure improvements and provide essential facilities such as schools, libraries and day care centers. Tennessee projects include: The city of South Pittsburg will use a $204,500 loan and $38,500 grant to purchase three cars that will be used by the police department, a fire department vehicle and three light duty pick-up trucks that will be used by the public works department. The city will also buy a compact track loader with tilting bucket, brush cutter and street sweeper attachments to better serve a community of 3,000. The Nolichuckey Valley Volunteer Fire Department will use a $975,000 loan and $47,500 grant to construct a fire hall in Chuckey. This project will establish permanent location for the volunteer fire department, which provides services to about 6,800 residents. Additional funding will be provided by Washington County. Lewis County will use a $264,000 loan and $50,000 grant to purchase a replacement chip spreader to allow the Lewis County Highway Department to reservice rural county roads. The town of Brighton will use a $500,000 loan to purchase a new fire engine and additional equipment to better serve the occupants of approximately 2,735 residential dwellings and three county schools that house 3,100 students and 300 staff. The Monroe Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. will use a $65,000 loan to purchase a new brush truck. The truck will allow the fire department fight fires in rural and mountainous areas, better serving the 3,000 area residents. Additional funding includes a $15,000 Rural Development Impact Initiative grant. The city of Mt. Pleasant will use a $170,000 loan to purchase a new mini pumper fire truck to replace a 32 year old vehicle. The truck will be primarily used within the city limits but will also provide mutual aid to surrounding areas on an as needed basis, which would include a total of around 10,000 residents. Additional funding includes $47,500 in Rural Development Economic Impact Initiative grants. The additional projects announced yesterday will help improve the quality of life for 1.1 million rural residents in Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. More than 100 types of projects are eligible for Community Facilities funding. Eligible applicants include municipalities, public bodies, nonprofit organizations and federally and state-recognized Native American tribes. Applicants and projects must be in rural areas with a population of 20,000 or less. Loan amounts have ranged from $10,000 to $165 million. The Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus spending bill increased the budget for the Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant program to $2.8 billion, up $200 million from FY 2017. In April 2017, President Donald J. Trump established the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity to identify legislative, regulatory and policy changes that could promote agriculture and prosperity in rural communities. In January 2018, Secretary Perdue presented the Task Forces findings to President Trump. These findings included 31 recommendations to align the federal government with state, local and tribal governments to take advantage of opportunities that exist in rural America. Increasing investments in rural infrastructure is a key recommendation of the task force. To view the report in its entirety, please view the Report to the President of the United States from the Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity (PDF, 5.4 MB). In addition, to view the categories of the recommendations, please view the Rural Prosperity infographic (PDF, 190 KB). USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov. For Subscribers Haven't got your turkey yet? Don't plan on getting one farm-raised Last year, Thanksgiving dinners had smaller turkeys because of the pandemic. This year, farmers say they're nearly sold out. Grocers say they're set. Taking note of a harassment complaint by Tanushree Dutta, Maharashtra State Commission for Women on Tuesday issued notices to actor Nana Patekar, producer Samee Siddiqui, choreographer Ganesh Acharya and director Rakesh Sarang. The commission has sent notices to those named by Tanushree and asked them to revert within 10 days with their response, its chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar said. The commission has also written to Mumbai police, seeking information on the action it had taken on Duttas complaint in this regard. Dutta had sought the commissions intervention after claiming that Nana allegedly misbehaved with her on the sets of a film in 2008. Nana has dismissed the allegations against him. In a video statement, Rahatkar said the panel has taken cognisance of Tanushrees complaint on her alleged sexual harassment. We have asked them (Patekar and the three others) to present their side within 10 days. We have also asked Dutta to appear before the commission and share more information in the matter, Rahatkar said. Tanushree Dutta and Nana Patekar worked in a film called Horn OK Pleassss in 2008 when the incident happened. The commission wrote to Mumbai police commissioner seeking an update about the progress made in the case after Tanushree filed a complaint with the Oshiwara police station on Saturday. The commission also asked film producers, media houses and cine artist associations to set up an internal committee to address complaints filed by women in Bollywood.I have sent a letter to production houses and artists association to ensure that an internal complaints committee, which is mandated by law, is set up, she said. In her complaint, Tanushree claimed that during the shooting of a song sequence for the film Horn OK Pleassss in 2008, she was being inappropriately touched by Nana even after she had clearly mentioned that she will not enact or perform any lewd, vulgar or uncomfortable steps. She said she had complained to Ganesh but was forced to do scenes which were intimate and included Nana touching her inappropriately. After she decided to walk out of the film, her car was vandalised by goons, which she alleged were from the Raj Thackeray-led MNS. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) Follow @htshowbiz for more Rishi Kapoor is in New York for his medical treatment, an information he had shared with his fans on Twitter before leaving on September 29. Updating on his whereabouts, the senior actor had recently shared a video on Twitter while hanging out with Anupam Kher. The Mulk actor had tweeted, New York,Manhattan. Kher-free or is it Care-freeon Madison Avenue with colleague and old friend Anupam Kher this afternoon! New York,Manhattan. "Kher-free" or is it "Care-free"on Madison Avenue with colleague and old friend Anupam Kher this afternoon! pic.twitter.com/6qwfUufuML Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) October 7, 2018 However, his fans couldnt ignore his grey hair in the video and were concerned about his health. Bringing some respite to his well-wishers, Rishi took to the social media to reveal that the hair is actually for a role in an untitled film being directed by Hitesh Bhatia. He even shared a glimpse from his salon session with an explanation. He wrote, This is to dispel all notions and wrong speculations of my hair turning grey/white overnight. My hair was dyed by Awan Contractor for a film produced by Honey Trehan and Sony pictures directed by Hitesh Bhatia. Film is untitled. Trust this clears the air. This is to dispel all notions and wrong speculations of my hair turning grey/white overnight. My hair was dyed by Awan Contractor for a film produced by Honey Trehan and Sony pictures directed by Hitesh Bhatia. Film is untitled. Trust this clears the air pic.twitter.com/0v5Z0nFcDN Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) October 9, 2018 He also went to disclose the name of his character in the film along with his new look, This is the final look of the film. Sharma ji. All grey! Will revert to original hair colour soon. This is the final look of the film. Sharma ji. All grey! Will revert to original hair colour soon pic.twitter.com/luM4MKGVs1 Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) October 9, 2018 Rishi also met Priyanka Chopra and Sonali Bendre in New York and their pictures are proof that it was a fun-filled get-together. The senior actor has been undergoing treatment in New York and has his family for company. On October 1, his mother Krishna Raj Kapoor left for her heavenly abode. Since the actor couldnt attend her last rites, this led to further speculations about his health. His brother Randhir Kapoor had however, rubbished the rumours of Rishi battling cancer. Follow @htshowbiz for more A couple and their daughter were found stabbed to death while their 18-year-old son was injured at their home in south Delhis Kishangarh near Vasant Kunj early Wednesday morning. Police are probing the triple murder case from all possible angles. Ajay Chaudhary, joint commissioner of police (New Delhi range) said the first-floor flat where the family lived was locked from inside when some neighbours reached there after hearing the couples injured son screaming for help from the balcony. The teenager opened the gate and led the neighbours to the two rooms where his parents and 16-year-old sister were found unconscious and bleeding with multiple stab wounds. The injured person, Suraj, has told us that two men entered his house and attacked him and his family members. He has suffered a cut wound in his finger. When we asked him how he survived, Suraj claimed he became unconscious after being attacked, said Chaudhary. The house was found partially ransacked but cash, jewellery and other valuables were found intact. A murder case was registered at the Vasant Kunj police station. The dead were identified as Mithilesh, 45, his wife Siya, 40, and daughter, Neha. The family originally belonged to Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh. Mithilesh worked as a contractor of building materials. Police said they received the call from a neighbour at around 5 am, nearly 30 minutes after some neighbours, out for a morning walk, heard Surajs screams for help The neighbours rushed to his flat and found it locked from inside. Suraj opened the gate using a key and let the neighbours come inside. The neighbours found the couple and their daughter bleeding in two separate rooms. Suraj told them that his mother saved his life as she stood in front of him when one of the attackers tried to stab him. We are verifying Surajs claims. As of now, he is also one of the suspects, said a police officer, associated with the case. The injured family members were rushed to a nearby hospital where the couple and their daughter were declared brought dead. Their bodies were shifted to the hospitals mortuary for autopsy. Delhi Police told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it is adopting a new policy to minimise traffic bottlenecks caused by a high volume of impounded vehicles parked outside police stations in different parts of the national capital. One of the places that the court highlighted as a case in point while asking the police in August to fix the problem outside Nizamuddin police station, where, it had said, junked vehicles caused congestion and were a breeding ground for mosquitoes. HT also singled out Nizamuddin police station as a problem area in a front page report on May 8. Delhi Police said in its affidavit that it has drawn up a policy to dispose of seized vehicles, including their quick release on Superdari, shifting to new centralised malkhanas (godowns), and continuous follow-ups with courts and civic authorities for the disposal of seized goods that are lying unclaimed for an extended period of time. Superdari means that the owner of the property has to safeguard it till the case is finalised. Delhi Police told the court it will have centralised godowns in every police district so that vehicles can be moved out of the individual police stations and stored there instead. Apart from the regular malkhanas of police stations, Delhi Police has started the concept of centralised malkhanas in districts. These are spaces identified and earmarked by different districts in which the voluminous case properties, especially vehicles of various police stations, are kept under police record and custody, reads the affidavit. The affidavit, filed by joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Alok Kumar, adds that the storage capacity of existing malkhanas is grossly insufficient in police stations, and the malkhanas are clogged by seized vehicles and illicit liquor. As per the affidavit, as of July 31,2018, 40,233 vehicles were in various police stations across the national capital. In addition, as of August 31, 2018, there were 802,370 litres of seized liquor in police stations 184,639 full bottles, 73,521 halves, 347,205 quarters and over 65,000 pouches. The affidavit says that when the police has taken charge of any unclaimed property, it will release the property to the rightful owner as soon as possible. And when any person does not turn up to claim the property, it shall be forwarded to the central malkhana. As for the disposal of narcotics, the affidavit says that drugs that are of medical and industrial use can be sold as per the advice of authorities. In August, the apex court bench of justice Madan Lokur and justice Deepak Gupta directed Delhis police commissioner to make a policy on impounded vehicles that were lying abandoned in Delhi police stations and stinking up Delhi. The bench had said there must be a policy in this regard, adding that residents were frightened to go to the police stations because they had become a junkyard for vehicles. HT had in a May 8 report highlighted how the traffic flow on the Nizamuddin roundabout was severely affected by o illegally parked and impounded vehicles right outside the police station, leading to congestion on the Sabz Burj roundabout, Mathura Road, Lala Lajpat Rai Road and Lodi Road. Sushant Sinha, a road design and traffic engineering expert, said that it was high time the agencies adopted measures to clear roads of dumped vehicles that eat up space and cause bottlenecks. The roads outside police stations are a mess. Not just Nizamuddin, if you look at the IP police station, an entire lane has been eaten up by impounded vehicles or case properties. A time-frame must be put in such cases after which these vehicles should be moved to a larger pit or should be auctioned off, Sinha said. Had Rajiv Nagar in Rohini not been under a lockdown late Monday night as part of a search operation to find two girls missing from the neighbourhood, a man who was trying to escape after allegedly murdering his wife would have not been arrested. Police said, the 22-year-old who works at an electronics factory was caught as soon as he stepped out of his building, initially over the suspicion of his involvement in the abduction of two girls aged six and one. However, his interrogation unveiled a different story altogether. Police said Atul Pal, hailing from Budaun in Uttar Pradesh, started running as soon as he saw the police patrolling team. Since we were looking for the missing girls, we suspected his involvement in their abduction so a patrolling team chased and pinned him down. He was brought to the Begumpur police station and was questioned, during which he told he has murdered his wife, said a police officer who is investigating the case but is not authorised to speak with media. The officer said the man led them to his house where his wife Kanchans body was found. The woman was lying on a folding bed. Pal told us that he used to have frequent fights with his wife. He also said that he suspected her of being involved in an illicit relationship. He said they had got married in 2016. He said, last year Kanchan had slapped a case against him of demanding dowry so he had decided to get rid of her, the officer said. Police said the man allegedly confessed that after a heated argument with his wife around 11.30pm he returned and pretended to patch up with her. He then took her dupatta off her body and strangled her with it. Since his room on the third floor of the building was next to three other rooms, where other tenants lived, he could not dispose of the body and decided to leave the city. Soon as he stepped out of his house he bumped into the police patrolling team, the officer said. Pal told cops that despite frequent altercations, he was living with his wife due to the pressure from her family members. Deputy commissioner of police (Rohini) Rajneesh Gupta said that Pal was arrested because of the vigilant police team of Begumpur police station which spotted and chased him. The man was booked under sectipn 302 of the IPC for murder, Gupta said. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast cloudy skies and light rain and thundershowers in parts of Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) on Thursday which, along with a slightly higher wind speed, will improve air quality marginally until Friday. It rarely rains in October in the capital because the south-west monsoon usually withdraws completely by this time. There was no rain in October last year. There was 2 mm rain in 2016; 0.4 mm in 2015; and 2.22 mm in 2014. October 2013 was unusually wet, with Delhi getting 72.7 mm of rainfall. The high humidity due to outflow of the Luban cyclone in the Arabian Sea is bringing moisture to the region, with a cyclonic circulation over Rajasthan due to a western disturbance creating favourable conditions for clouds and light thundershowers in parts of Delhi-NCR. The relative humidity on October 9 was about 63% and maximum humidity till 8.30 am on Wednesday was 98%. According to IMD meteorologists, humidity should be less than 50% at this time of the year. The IMD has also forecast thunderstorms accompanied by hailstorms in parts of Punjab, northern parts of Haryana, Chandigarh and western Uttar Pradesh. We are seeing medium to high clouds in Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh. Moisture is also higher than normal. This is mainly because of the moisture from the cyclone over Arabian Sea and a cyclonic circulation over Rajasthan induced by a western disturbance. These conditions may bring light rain to the capital. But after Thursday, it will become dry again, said BP Yadav, deputy director general, IMD. Though there is a slight dip in minimum temperature compared to September, the minimum temperature on Wednesday was 2 degrees above normal at 23 degrees C. The dry winter chill will set in Delhi in the first week of November, when the maximum daytime temperature will also fall. We are already seeing a slight dip in minimum temperature, especially during early morning and night but daytime temperature is usually higher in October compared to September because of a clearer sky and direct sunlight. Daytime temperature will start falling from the first week of November, Yadav said. The forecast for Thursday is a partly cloudy sky with a possibility of light thundershowers. The maximum temperature is likely to be around 34 degrees C, and the minimum around 23 degrees C, according to the Regional Meteorological Centre in Delhi. Air quality in Delhi will improve marginally on Thursday and Friday because of rain and a slightly higher wind speed. The forecast we have from IMD says conditions are favourable for dispersal of pollutants on October 11 and 12. The wind speed at about 15 km per hour will (help/aid?) dispersal. We havent got the forecast for later, said VK Shukla, in-charge of the air lab at the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Farm fires have led to a dip in air quality, with 400 fires reported in Punjab and 328 in Haryana till October 9, according to a CPCB official. The data we have shows fire incidents are lower this year compared to last year during the same period. An analysis of fire incidents is being compiled, he said. Delhis air quality has been mostly in the poor category since October 4. On Wednesday, the average PM 2.5 (fine, respirable pollution particles mainly from combustion sources) concentration was about 102 micrograms per cubic metres against a safe standard of 60 micrograms per cubic metres, PM 10 (coarse pollution particles like dust) concentration was about 271 micrograms per cubic metres against a safe standard of 100 micrograms per cubic metres. Farmers, government officials and scientists met on Wednesday in Chandigarh to discuss the stubble burning problem responsible for impairing air quality in northern India at this time of the year. Punjabs chief principal secretary, Suresh Kumar, said, Punjabs farmers are the worst hit despite, and due to, the policies and schemes of the green revolution. Penalising and arresting farmers without addressing their concerns at the ground level is not something a democratically elected government should be encouraging. He added: There is a need for a variety of viable choices to be made available to the farmer. Some of the schemes that the government has initiated include in situ management, which is part of the solution. According to a statement by Climate Trends, an organisation focusing on communication of environmental issues, which organised the meeting. CPCB officials said air pollution levels may pick up if fires in Punjab and Haryana intensify and coincide with the festivities next week and transition of meteorological conditions to the arrival of winter. The Delhi Traffic Police, working with the state governments environment department, has identified 52 silence zones where honking is prohibited, adding to the 103 such zones that already exist in the city, usually in and around schools and hospitals, and at busy intersections. The police plan to slap a fine of Rs 100 each on people who violate the rule. Some of the citys new silent zones are: Lok Nayak Hospital on Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Sri Aurobindo Marg crossing; All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital; Pusa Road crossing; and Bhagwan Dass Road from Mathura Road to the Tilak Marg crossing. Senior traffic officials said that the new zones include roads around hospitals, educational institutions, residential neighbourhoods and libraries. A special drive has been started around these no-honking areas that involves not just fines but also an awareness campaign. It is important that people are sensitive towards such rules. Our job is to remind them and strengthen implementation. There is zero tolerance for causing such public nuisance. Such sensitivity should come naturally, said joint commissioner of police (traffic) Alok Kumar. This year, between January and September, 13,243 fines were collected from commuters who were found honking around the existing silence zones. In fact, the traffic police started a special drive from Monday, when 834 fines were collected in one day. Experts who have been leading the fight against incessant honking in the capital say that awareness is fine but that there should be more stringent laws to clamp down on noise polluters. No one talks about the city being among the noisiest in the country, said Dhirendra Shekhawat, a noise control activist. He said that the problem was with the innate attitude of people who think that honking will magically clear traffic and give them smooth passage. At any traffic signal, if you take a second longer to start your car, the ones behind you will honk till you move. That attitude needs to change, Shekhawat said. A study carried out by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in 2011 showed that in several commercial and industrial zones in the city the noise levels were crossing the 100dB (decibel) mark, while in residential areas the ambient noise levels were close to 90dB during the peak traffic rush against the standard of 55dB. The study showed that at the Income Tax Office intersection, among the busiest stretches in the city, noise levels were recorded at between 77.6dB and 106.9dB. The AIIMS crossing saw noise levels touching the unhealthy 98dB mark. The Gujarat Model of economic development was one of the key factors behind the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Partys stellar victory in the 2014 elections. Ironical as it may sound, one of the key pillars of this model is under threat from social contradictions within the state. After a migrant worker was accused of sexually assaulting a minor, an atmosphere of hostility has been created against the migrant workers, especially those from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in what is one of Indias most industrialised states. This migrant workforce has played a key role in furthering Gujarats economic growth. Two sets of statistics can be given to prove this point. The average non-farm rural wage in Gujarat in 2017-18 was 10% less than the all-India average. In fact, the only major states (among the ones for which data is available), which had a lower average non-farm wage than Gujarat were Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha. Non-farm rural wages are a good proxy for urban demand for labour, which, logically speaking, should be much higher in Gujarat, given its higher levels of industrialisation. What explains this discrepancy? Large inflow of migrants from states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh has allowed the Gujarati entrepreneurs to keep wages down. The 2016-17 Economic Survey gave a list of top 30 interstate migration routes listing inflow and outflow states. Gujarat had the second-highest share among states Delhi was the first which figured in the inflow list. The corresponding outflow states were Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Gujarat boasts of housing some of Indias most state-of-the-art industries such as petrochemicals. However, the state also has a large number of labour-intensive industries such as textiles, jewellery and ceramics. These are the industries that have unleashed the now-famous Gujarati entrepreneurship and contributed to enhanced well-being in the state. What is also true is the fact that a lot of these industries will lose their competitiveness if the labour costs were to rise significantly. This is exactly what will happen if the migrant workforce in the state were forced to leave. Should this happen now, it will be a third disruption for the Gujarati small and medium industry after the shocks from demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax. The attempt to whip up hostility against migrant workers in Gujarat is a classic case of bad politics and bad economics. Unlike many other high-profile members of the Donald Trump administration, Nikki Haley, the first Indian-American to hold a cabinet position, is stepping down as the US ambassador to the United Nations on her own terms. Her resignation has not come under the shadow of a scandal, or followed a terminal breakdown in relations with the mercurial Mr Trump, a reason behind the acrimonious ouster of so many other senior members of the administration. At her appearance with Mr Trump to announce her decision to leave her job at the end of the year, Ms Haley was effusive in her praise of the president and listed what she described as his achievements in the field of diplomacy that have resulted in the US being respected around the world. Some of the matters cited by her as achievements may be questionable, though Mr Trump was equally complimentary and approving of her work at the UN and within his national security circle, and even went on to say he hoped she would return to the administration at some point. The surprise resignation, however, has led to intense speculation about the reasons behind it and Ms Haleys plans, given that she is seen as one of the rising stars of the Republican Party and considered a potential rival to Mr Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Ms Haley has already addressed the issue of the next US elections by saying in her resignation that she will not be a candidate for any office in 2020 and that she will be out campaigning for Mr Trumps re-election. Though Ms Haley was the only member of the administration to appear with Mr Trump to announce her resignation, there have been reports that she has been unhappy at being left out of debates on key issues this year, and that she was frustrated by criticism of her within the White House, especially by some aides of Mr Trump who thought she was getting ahead of the president on policy matters. Ms Haleys decision to quit just ahead of crucial midterm elections and after a contentious campaign to confirm a much-criticised nominee for the Supreme Court, which divided the US along gender lines, will continue to fuel speculation about her exit. Perhaps, she believed the time had come for her to make a clean break from the Trump administration to focus on her long-term plans. Just because Ms Haley has ruled out running in the next presidential race doesnt mean she doesnt have her eyes on the 2024 elections. In the past week, the value of rupee against dollar fell by an astonishing margin, reaching an unprecedented, all-time low. Currently, the value of rupee, which was at 65/dollar just a year ago, has dropped to 74/dollar, significantly impacting the lives and businesses of Indians connected to the US. A considerable impact of this steep decline has been felt by students aspiring to study overseas especially in the US. The declining rupee has caused overseas education costs to skyrocket and students who were supposed to pay their fees for the fall semester in September/October are bearing the brunt. With the cost of rupee expected to fall further, experts have opined that student travel of India will go down by 20% in the wake of this decline. Students who had applied to their preferred universities in the March/April cycle, would be required to pay their tuition fees around this time for the autumn intake. According to overseas education experts, the decline in rupee will cost anywhere between Rs. 4,00,000 6,00,000 for studying abroad. Students planning to study abroad already spend a huge sum of money on IELTS and similar exams, visa application, cost of living and university tuition fees. The cost can lie anywhere between $15,000 30,000, depending on the university and country. This hefty sum, increased further due to the weak Rupee, will result in numerous students having to give up on their dream of studying abroad. According to research, almost 50% families take education loans in order to send students abroad for further studies. However, with the devaluation of rupee, this amount will increase approximately by 10 Lakh, making it next to impossible for families to cover costs even after securing hefty loans. The cost plays an important factor and definitively rupee depreciation will make students think twice while a study abroad destination. However there are other factors also which helps in deciding destination which are favourable policies for International students across countries. On the other hand, destinations such as Australia and Japan present themselves as attractive options for student willing to go overseas for studies without breaking their banks. These countries are offering a wholesome and holistic alternative to the US as an academic destination for those who are planning their overseas education. Further, students who are truly inclined to study overseas can opt for other alternatives to fund their education. Students can secure part time jobs while studying in order to pay for their living expenses. A part of their tuition fees can still be covered by educational loans that they are required to repay only when they land a job post their course. Further, students who have excellent grades can also secure scholarships in order to significantly cut down their tuition fees. Students planning to get a Masters degree can opt for countries such as Germany which offer free of costs Masters programs. Finally, even if students keep a track of their budget and lifestyle while studying abroad, they can save a significant amount of money. Evidently, there are a lot of ways to save money and cover costs if a student has a burning desire to study abroad. It all boils down to the policies of a country with regards to foreign students. Certain countries are very accommodating of students and offer several scholarships and campus job options in order to help students fulfil their dreams. Identifying such accommodating universities and countries is currently the key to successfully studying and eventually getting placed overseas. The parents and students should do a thorough research of the economic factors and relationship between both the countries while planning for study abroad. Factors such as currency depreciation, political relationships, working opportunities should be among the priority of the students while planning, studying abroad is all about the experience, so keeping that in mind prior careful planning is a must. For best advice, one must visit a consultant who has vast experience in the immigration industry and better understanding of the immigration policies. (The author is director, ESS GlobalStudy Abroad Consultant . Views expressed here are personal.) According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the US is the most preferred destination for Indian students seeking a foreign degree. As of July 2018, there are 7.5 lakh Indians studying abroad and 28% or 2.1 lakh students are studying in the US. Apart from the vast difference in the quality of learning in India and the US, Indian students prefer an American degree because it often serves as an easy route to finding a job and settling in the country. However, growing rhetoric against immigration, increased focus on H-1B visa misuse, controversial proposals like revocation of the AC21 rule, and adverse rule changes to the H4 visa means conventional options are no longer a simple route to the green card as in the past. After a US degree, one can opt for Optional Practical Training (OPT) which is a work permit valid for one year only but the job must be related to the F1 field of study. Similarly, a two-year extension to the OPT is possible but is available to certain STEM graduates only. One can also obtain a 3-year H-1B visa with a 3-year extension but finding a sponsoring employer for this non-immigrant visa is very tough and this restricts job mobility and scope for negotiations. Further, lottery process means approval is a matter of luck. If one considers applying for the green card on H-1B visa, under AC21 rule, such persons can stay and work in the US until a decision on their application. But the status is completely dependent on the AC21 rule. Adverse change or revocation of the rule can result in deportation Slow processing of green card application means lots of uncertainty and prolonged waiting time for permanent residence. ABOUT THE EB-5 Seeking a simpler, faster, and less uncertain visa process, Indian students are now exploring the EB-5 visa route to pursue higher studies in the US. Under this program, an applicant fulfilling these two requirements is granted a conditional two-year green card. * Make an at-risk investment of $1 million ($500,000 if investment is made in a Targeted Employment Area) in a commercial enterprise * Create ten permanent jobs for American workers The conditions are removed if the conditions of the program are met over the two-year period. The EB-5 visa offers numerous advantages for somebody planning to pursue higher studies in the USA. Qualifying for the green card by putting in an amount equal to the average cost of an American degree offers great value for money with numerous benefits and advantages. FAST-TRACK GREEN CARD Unlike other EB-category visas, qualifying for the green card under the EB-5 visa is a two-stage process with a two-year conditional green card issued upon approval of the EB-5 I-526 petition. Based on current processing period of the I-526 petition, a successful Indian EB-5 applicant is likely to become a conditional green card holder in approximately two years. After a two-year conditional status, he/she can apply for removal of conditions and get an unconditional green card. So, effectively, the applicant gets permanent residence status in approximately two years and continues to remain so with only the conditions being removed in the future. This will simplify things for the student when searching for jobs and negotiating with employers in the US. ZERO RISK OF POLITICAL OR LEGAL UNCERTAINTIES The EB-5 visa offers a direct route to permanent residence. The student can avoid using short-term work permits or applying for extensions for temporary immigration permits. Timing the application properly can help the student time the green card approval with the completion of the course. AN ATTRACTIVE FUTURE With an EB-5 visa in hand, an Indian graduating with an American degree can search for jobs, setup a startup, invest in an existing business, or even lead a retired life if he or she chooses with virtually no restrictions. For most Indians, studying in the US is merely the first step towards a prosperous and stable future. With existing options offering little long-term stability, the EB-5 visa may be the simplest and most elegant way to live the American Dream. (The author is Founder and CEO, EB5 BRICS. Views expressed here are personal) On October 5, the Narendra Modi government strongly protested the sharing of stage by Pakistan federal religious affairs minister Noor-ul-Qadri with Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed in Islamabad. Such endorsement of a UN designated and internationally proscribed terrorist, who is the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack of 26 November, 2008, is in blatant violation of provisions of sanctions regime under UN Security Council Resolution 1267; a further step in its continued breach of its obligations under the sanctions regime; and also breach of Pakistans bilateral commitment not to support terrorism against India in any form. Government of India once again calls upon Pakistan to fulfill by its international obligations and abide by its bilateral commitment to not allow any territory under its control to be used for terrorism. Still, a decade after the terror attack that killed 174 Indians, Americans, Britons, and Israelis, theres little to show that Pakistan has acted against the masterminds; the actual attack was carried out by 10 terrorists from Karachi. Nine of them were killed in the hostilities; the sole surviving one, Ajmal Kasab, was captured, and executed after due trial on November 21, 2012. Saeed remains the most visible among the perpetrators (as evident from his September 30 appearance with the minister) but he isnt the only one who is active. His chief operation planner Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi met Lashkar cadres on military training centres in Gujranwala on June 2 while on bail and his external operations commander Sajjid Mir continues to operate under the identity of Arshad Awan from Faisalabad after facial surgery post 26/11. While Saeed, who has a $10 million bounty on his head since April 2012, conceptualized and planned the 26/11 attack with the help of Pakistans spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, Lakhvi and Mir brutally executed the massacre by directing the gunmen on mobile phones, whose Indian SIM cards were arranged by Omani national Ali Abdul Aziz Al-Hooti. It was Hooti who procured the five SIM cards through his two Kashmiri contacts while he was in Mumbai from November 9-16, 2008. It is a matter of record that the then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee informed then (and current) Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi over the phone about LeTs involvement in the 26/11 attack on November 28 that year itself when the latter was in Delhi for a bilateral visit. India issued a note verbale to Pakistan on November 29, 2008 and all material including transcripts of terrorist Ajmal Kasabs interrogation, details of communication links of the gunmen with their Karachi control room handlers and GPS data were sent to Pakistan on January 5, 2009. To date, South Block officials say, only four minor Lashkar operatives have been arrested by Pakistan for the Mumbai attack. Both the military trainers, ex-commandos Abdur Rehman Syed and Haroon, as well as the ISI trainers, Major Sameer Ali and Major Iqbal from Lahore Cantonment, of the 10 gunmen, have gone scot-free. Soon after the Income Tax raids on multiple premises linked to Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot on Wednesday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he owed an apology to the people of Delhi. Referring to earlier raids on him, Delhi minister Satyendra Jain and deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Kejriwal tweeted, What was the outcome of these raids? Nothing? Before any such raid in future, you need to apologise to the people of Delhi for constantly harassing an elected government. The Income Tax Department conducted searches on multiple premises linked to Delhi Transport minister Kailash Gahlot in connection with an alleged tax evasion case, officials said. They said at least 16 locations in and around the national capital were raided by a team of about 30 officials. The Aam Aadmi Party called the raids a political vendetta. The party tweeted that the people of Delhi are aware of the developments and will pronounce their verdict in 2019. Arunoday, the media advisor to Manish Sisodia, also tweeted after the raids and wrote: IT raids on Minister Kailash Gahlot. When will you understand Sahab, you wont be able to bog AAP down with these tactics. AAP has been counting raids since it put you the mat in Delhi and you were left red faced on the massive defeat. The Delhi government has had several run-ins with the Central government over raids on its ministers. In May, The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the residence of Delhi PWD Satyendar Jain in connection with alleged violation of norms in hiring architects for the department . The investigating agency had also registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) against Sisodia, following a complaint forwarded by the Delhi governments Vigilance Department. Last year, the CBI had questioned Sisodias for alleged irregularities in the partys Talk to AK campaignan interactive session with the chief minister during which he took questions from the publicwhich was broadcast online in July last year. In 2015, Kejriwal accused the Centre of vendetta politics, after the CBI raided his office. CBI raids my office. When Modi couldnt handle me politically, he resorted to this cowardice. Modi is a coward and a psycopath, the CM tweeted as several party leaders called the incident shameful. But, CBI denied carrying out any raids saying investigators raided the office of senior bureaucrat and CMs secretary Rajender Kumar for allegedly favouring private firms in state tenders. Its feasible for India to have two time zones that will increase productivity in all the north-eastern states according to a scientific study by the countrys official timekeeper. The Indian Standard Time (IST) applicable across the country is 5.30 hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time (UCT, 0.00), which is based on the imaginary longitude line that runs through Greenwich in the UK. The scientific paper by scientists from the Delhi-based CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL) examines the feasibility of implementing a second time zone for the north-eastern states that will be 6.30 hours ahead UCT to save daylight hours. This means clocks in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands will run one hour ahead of clocks in the rest of India. The sun rises and sets earlier in the north-eastern states than the rest of India, which causes loss of many daylight hours. The problem worsens in winter when days get shorter, leading to lost productivity and higher electricity consumption. The study estimated that if two time zones are implemented, the annual electricity saving will be 20 million kWh. This is a scientific paper where we have examined whether having two time zones is feasible for India and how it can be implemented. Just like previous research on the subject, we found that having a UTC plus six-and-a half-hour time zone will increase the productivity in Port Blair and the north-eastern states, said Dinesh K Aswal, director, NPL. Previous studies had raised some concerns, he said. For example, it was suggested that having two time zones could lead to railway collisions, but we have shown in the paper that if the train clocks are switched at Alipurduar Junction on the West Bengal and Assam border, such collisions can be avoided, said Aswal, who is also one of the studys authors. This is the scientific proof we have provided, now the political decision rests with the government. It is up to the ministry to decide whether or not to implement it, added Aswal. To implement and generate IST-II, NPL will have to establish a Primary Time Scale (PTS), which is an ensemble of five caesium clocks and one hydrogen maser, in one of the north-eastern states similar to PTS for IST-I, which is located in Delhi. A caesium clock measures time on the basis of the resonance (or change of energy state of an isotope of caesium) and a hydrogen maser, which measures time on the basis of the resonance of hydrogen across energy states. The paper on Necessity of two time zones: IST-I (UTC +5:30 h) and IST-II (UTC +6:30 h) in India and its implementation has been published in the journal Current Science by the Indian Academy of Sciences. During British rule, India was divided into the Bombay and Calcutta time zones. Indian Standard Time was established on September 1, 1947, and corresponds to the time near Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, with states located to the west of this longitude having more daylight hours compared to those in the east. In 2014, Assam decided to follow chaibagaan or bagaan time (tea estate time) unofficially, which is a daylight schedule set one hour ahead of the IST, and which was used by the British for tea estates, collieries and the oil industry. Last year, the Gauhati high court dismissed a public interest litigation that sought a separate time zone for the northeast, but in June 2017, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu reiterated the demand for a separate time zone to increase productivity. The chief executive officer of state-run Steel Authority of India Limiteds Bhilai plant in Chhattisgarhs Durg district was removed and two other senior officials were suspended on Wednesday, a day after more than 10 employees were killed in a gas pipeline blast. Union steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said while speaking to reporters that M Ravi has been removed and general manager (safety) T Pandya Raja and deputy general manager (energy) Naveen Kumar were suspended. The death toll in the explosion at the Bhilai Steel Plant went up to 11 on Wednesday after two employees, who were critically injured, succumbed to their injuries at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai, an official said. Nine people were killed and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at the plant of the state-owned steel maker located around 30km away from Raipur. The blast took place around 10:45am on Tuesday following a fire in a gas pipeline in the gas pipeline connected to the coke oven section of the plant during a scheduled maintenance job, SAIL said in a statement. There was uneven pressure in the gas pipeline for last two days and it was to be attended. The maintenance was to be done by a protocol because it was a highly sensitive line, SP Dey, a worker at the Coke Oven Battery complex, said. On Tuesday, everything was at the spot as per the protocol including fire brigade and ambulance but after opening the bolts of the joint of the pipeline the blast took place, Dey, who is also the president of Bhilai unit of Centre for Indian Trade Union, said. Singh and Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh are scheduled to visit the hospital in Bhilai to see the injured admitted there, an official said. They will also take stock of the incident from the senior official of the plant as well as Durgs district administration. Inspector general of police (Durg range) GP Singh had said earlier that after receiving the postmortem report of the dead, a case will be registered under the Indian Penal Codes section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) followed by an inquiry into the incident. Union minister of state for steel Vishnudeo Sai said on Tuesday that a four-member high-level committee was constituted by SAIL to probe the incident. The bodies of five children, all brothers aged between one and five years, were found floating in a well in a village of Madhya Pradeshs Barwani district Wednesday while their parents were missing, police said. The incident came to light in the morning when some residents of Chikli village in Barwani district, some 350 km southwest of Bhopal, spotted the bodies in the well and informed the police. The bodies, which seemed to have been in the water for at least 24 hours, were taken out and sent for postmortem. The childrens clothes were found lying near the well. Barwanis superintendent of police Vijay Khatri said all the boys were the son of Bhattar Singh from his two wives - Sangeeta who is the mother of four of them and Sunita who is mother of one child. However, Singh and Sangeeta are now missing, he said, adding police talked to Sunita, who said that her husband had come to meet her at her fathers house in a nearby village on Sunday and had taken away her boy with him. She had come to Chikli on Tuesday, but on finding his house deserted, returned to her fathers house. The SP said they are still not sure whether it is a case of accident or murder. No one from the village has seen the boys being led by their parents to the well, which is right next to an unpaved road used by villagers. However, the fact that the parents are missing raises suspicion of possible foul play, he added. Police said the villagers told them that Singh had been away for quite some time as he was working as a labourer in Maharashtra and had returned recently. During his absence, both his wives were living at the houses of their parents. A division bench of the Calcutta high court rejected on Wednesday a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the state governments decision to give Rs 10,000 each to organisers of 28,000 community Durga pujas in West Bengal. Durga Puja is scheduled to be held this year from October 16 to October 20. State advocate general Kishore Dutta said the decision to grant the money was taken so that the organisers could initiate a road safety campaign, and pointed out that the court cannot interfere in the executive order. There is no question of victory or defeat. But there are a few professional litigants who want to retard Bengal. We are grateful to the court for its verdict, remarked urban development minister Firhad Hakim. One of the petitioners, Sourav Dutta, 49, and his counsel Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyaa, a former mayor of Kolkata, said they were planning to move the Supreme Court against the order. Our means are limited but at this stage we just cannot leave the fight, said Bhattacharyaa. BJP Bengal units general secretary, Sayantan Basu, said: We have the highest regard for the legal system and, therefore, I would not like make any comment on the order. The Congress on Wednesday stepped up its attack on junior external affairs minister MJ Akbar over allegations of sexual harassment, saying that he should either come up with a satisfactory counter to the charges or resign. We demand an inquiry into the matter, Congress spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy said after the four women accused the union minister of harassment as part of the #MeToo movement in India. Neither Akbar nor the government has responded to the charges. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj did not answer yesterday when asked to comment on the charges against her junior minister. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was addressing a media briefing on cabinet decisions on Wednesday, also declined comment. Today the issue is cabinet decisions, please concentrate on that, he said. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi is the only prominent minister to have spoken on the #Metoo groundswell. Men who are in positions of power often do this. And it applies to the media as well as to politics or senior personnel in companies, Gandhi told TV news channel here on Tuesday, according to news agency PTI. She said the allegations should be taken seriously since women had now started speaking out. She said women were scared to speak out because they think people would make fun of them and doubt their character. But now that they are speaking out, we should take action against each and every allegation. The #MeToo movement, which started from the United States where Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual misconduct last year, has snowballed in India too after actor Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexual harassment on the sets of a film in 2008. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) Congress MLA from Palwal Karan Singh Dalal on Wednesday accused two Haryana ministers of having interests in a Delhi-based mining firm. He alleged that the firm continues to excavate stone from Bhiwanis Pichopa Kalan mines, violating the terms and conditions of the auction. Talking to mediapersons, Dalal alleged that mines and geology minister OP Dhankar deliberately overlooked the fact that the mining company, M/s Pioneer Partners, had violated the terms and conditions of the auction by roping in two new partners. Government say allegations baseless However, a spokesperson of the mines and geology department said the request of the firm to add two new partners was rejected. The allegations are incorrect and baseless, the spokesperson said. The MLA said that Pioneer Partners had emerged as the highest bidder during the February 2016 auction. At the time of the auction in February 2016, it had only four partners. A lease deed for conducting mining was executed between the firm and director general, mines and geology in November 2016. However, the partnership deed of May 16, 2016 submitted by the firm at the time of execution of lease deed showed that the firm reconstituted the partnership deed and have two new partners, he claimed. Dalal said that since addition of partners before the execution of lease deed was not permissible, the deed executed between the firm and director general, mines and geology was illegal since it violated the terms and conditions of the auction. The department should have cancelled it. Mines and geology minister OP Dhankar is directly responsible for allowing the firm to continue, despite the illegality, he alleged. Despite HT repeated attempts, Dhankar was not available for comments Denying the allegations, the mines and geology department spokesperson said, The lease deed for carrying out mining was executed on the strength of four existing partners. It is a matter of record. The allegations are incorrect. Accusing finance minister Capt Abhimanyu of having financial interests in the mining firm, the Congress MLA alleged that one of the two new partners added to the firm was the son of a former personal assistant of the finance minister. One of them is the son of a former personal assistant of Capt Abhimanyu. He was brought in the firm as a partner just to secure the financial interests of the minister, Dalal alleged. Capt Abhimanyu chose not to respond to the allegations. The Congress MLA said that he has submitted a memorandum in this regard to Haryana governor demanding action against the two ministers and officials The Congress has taken exception to Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Maliks remarks that a foreign-educated person will be the next Srinagar mayor. The governor gave the comment to a TV channel on Monday, when the first-phase of the four-phase elections began. Senior J&K Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Monga claimed that ongoing local bodies elections have lost credibility due to Maliks remarks. The BJP and RSS have already decided who the next Srinagar mayor will be. The governor has failed to uphold the Constitutional authority of the Raj Bhavan. Being the constitutional head of the state, he should not play in the hands of BJP and RSS, he said. The governors remark was widely interpreted as alluding to Junaid Azim Mattu, who quit the National Conference leader to contest the municipal polls from Srinagar city. It is surprising to see such an irresponsible statement having come from the governor of the state. The statement is going to cause a severe damage to the ongoing electoral exercise in the state, Monga said. BJP state spokesman Altaf Thakur said that only Malik can explain his statement. Being a political party we will try to get numbers so that Srinagar will get new BJP mayor, he said. Very severe cyclonic storm Titli, the strongest cyclone formed on Bay of Bengal this year, is set to make landfall near Gopalpur coast in coastal Ganjam district within the hour with maximum sustained wind speed of 140-150 km per hour gusting to 165 km per hour. (Follow live updates here) Schools and other educational institutions have been closed across the state, and lakhs of people have been evacuated while armed forces are on standby. As the cyclone moved across the Bay of Bengal towards the Indian coastline where it is likely to make landfall between Odishas Gopalpur and Andhra Pradeshs Kalingapatanam around 6.30 am at a wind speed gusting up to 165 kilometres per hour, there was heavy rainfall in many parts of Odisha under its influence. Titli moved with a speed of about 15 kmph and intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm and lay centred over the west-central Bay of Bengal, around 200 km south by southwest of Gopalpur, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a bulletin on Wednesday evening. The Joint Typhoon Warning Centre of the US Navy also said the cyclone continued to rapidly consolidate and indications of a nascent eye beginning to form. According to the IMD, Cyclone Titli intensified further into a very severe cyclonic storm during at 11.30 am on Wednesday and may lead to waves rising up to 1 metre on the coast. Under its impact, heavy rains had already started in Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Balasore and Kendrapara districts. With a sustained windspeed of 140 km per hour, Titli would hit the coast around 5.30 am on October 11 and then rage on for next 5-6 hours with a similar force. It would however gradually weaken and re-curve northeastwards and move towards Gangetic West Bengal across Odisha by Thursday afternoon, said HR Biswas, Director of Bhubaneswar Meterological Ofiice The regional meteorological department in Kolkata also warned of intense spells of thundershower accompanied by gusty wind in six south Bengal districts for the next four days, triggered by Titli even as brief rain played spoilsport amid heightened Durga Puja preparations across the state, as per IANS. IMD has also predicted the cyclonic wind to chew away a large part of Andhra Pradesh districts like Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam and Odisha districts of Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri and Kendrapara. It advised fishermen to suspend their operations and said coastal hutment dwellers must shift to safe places. Fishermen along the Odisha coast and central and north Bay of Bengal were advised not to venture into sea till Friday. In view of the adverse weather conditions, it has advised hoisting of local warning signal LW-4 at all ports of Odisha. The Odisha government was also cautioned about the possible flooding in view of the heavy rainfall across the state. It has already issued a high alert in all districts, particularly those in the coastal region, to face the ensuing situation and geared up to face the situation setting a target of zero casualty. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik said that over three lakh people from the five coastal districts of Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara have been evacuated to safer places as a precautionary step. After holding the second review meeting at the office of the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), he said, If required, more people will be evacuated to safer places, reported PTI. Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said collectors of 17 of the states 30 districts have been put on red alert, the highest state of emergency preparedness, over the possibility of heavy to very heavy rainfall under the impact of Cyclone Titli from Thursday. Read | Cyclone Titli upgraded to very severe storm: What cyclone categories mean These districts are Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Kandhamal, Boudh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Khurda, Nayagarh, Kalahandi, Koraput and Rayagada. As many as 879 multi-purpose cyclone and flood shelters and 300 boats have been kept ready, teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) have also been positioned at different places for rescue operations and the three armed forces have also been put on alert. The Centre has rushed nearly 1,000 NDRF personnel to Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal Wednesday besides issuing directions for storage of food, fuel and maintaining power supply and telecommunication lines.The preparation for the cyclone was discussed at a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, as per PTI. Odisha government also warned about possible flooding in view of the heavy rainfall across the state. Water resources secretary Pradip Jena said: The most affected will be Rushikulya and Bansadhara river systems as they will come under the direct impact of the cyclone and experience heavy rainfall. But as there was no rainfall in these areas over the past 15 to 20 days, there is little to panic. Odisha chief secretary AP Padhi said all schools and colleges in the state would be shut for the next two days, and the students union elections in colleges scheduled Thursday have also been cancelled. He, however, said there was nothing to panic as Titli was weaker than the two previous cyclones -- Phailin in 2013 and Hudhud in 2014 -- that hit the Odisha coast. State food supplies and consumer welfare minister SN Patro Wednesday appealed to the people not to go for panic buying as people not only bought extra provisions but also queued up at petrol pumps to stock up on fuel, reported PTI. The minister also said he has instructed all district collectors to keep a tab on the market as a section of traders are allegedly attempting to hoard essential items. The East Coast Railway zone meanwhile decided to stop movement of trains on the Chennai-Howrah section from this afternoon. From 10 pm Wednesday, no trains would run between Khurda Road and Vizianagaram. Trains from Howrah/Kharagpur will not be allowed to run from Bhadrak after 5.15 pm. till further orders, said East Coast Railway in a bulletin. Some trains may be cancelled or may be cancelled partially as per the situation. Sand art sculptor Sudarshan Patnaik mounted an art installation on Titli at Puri beach with the words Do not panic! Have Courage. This is the second cyclonic storm formed over the Bay of Bengal and hitting the east coast this year. The first one, Daye, hit Odisha and northern Andhra Pradesh last month Patnaik reviews preparedness Reviewed Special Relief Commissioners preparedness for landfall of Cyclone Titli; with 3 lakh evacuations so far and monitoring of water reservoirs and supply of essential services and goods, we are geared up; urge people to restrain from rumours and panic: Naveen Patnaik on Twitter. Reviewed @SRC_Odisha 's preparedness for landfall of #CycloneTitli; with 3 lakh evacuations so far and monitoring of water reservoirs and supply of essential services and goods, we are geared up; urge people to restrain from rumours and panic pic.twitter.com/opnq8PkEug Naveen Patnaik (@Naveen_Odisha) October 10, 2018 Bangladesh on alert Bangladesh on alert over cyclone in Bay of Bengal, reports AP. Centre rushes 1,000 NDRF personnel to Odisha, AP, Bengal The Centre rushed nearly 1,000 NDRF personnel to Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal as Cyclone Titli made its way towards the coast, besides issuing directions for storage of food, fuel and maintaining power supply and telecommunication lines, reports PTI. 3 lakh evacuated in Odisha: CM Around 3 lakh people evacuated to safer places in Odisha ahead of landfall of very severe cyclonic storm Titli: CM Naveen Patnaik, reports PTI. Fishermen missing Four fishermen from Odishas Kendrapara district who had ventured into the Bay of Bengal three days ago are missing, police said on Wednesday. RRB exams cancelled Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) exam scheduled on October 11 and 12 in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Khurda and Berhamapur cancelled.Revised dates and place to be sent to candidates on their registered mobile numbers and email:chairman, RRB, Bhubaneshwar, reports ANI NDRF teams deployed 14 NDRF teams deployed in Odishas Balasore, Sambhalpur, Gajapati, Nayagarh, Puri, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam and Bhubaneswar. Four NDRF teams deployed in Andhra Pradeshs Visakhapatnam, Srikakulum and Vijaynagram, reports ANI. Odisha Cong opens help cell The Odisha unit of Congress opened a 24-hour emergency cell to help people likely to be affected by Cyclone Titli, reports PTI Heavy rainfall warning in Bengal ahead of Durga Puja The Regional Meteorological Department in West Bengal warned of intense spells of thundershower accompanied by gusty wind in six south Bengal districts for the next four days, amid heightened Durga Puja preparations across the state, reports IANS. Workers try to protect an idol of Goddess Durga by covering it with plastic sheets as sudden rain poured in as an effect of Cyclone Titli, in Kolkata. ( Samir Jana/HT Photo ) Minister advises people against panic buying Odishas food supplies and consumer welfare minister SN Patro appealed to people not to go for panic buying of essential commodities as the very severe cyclone Titli approaches the states coast, reports PTI. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik reviews preparedness CM @Naveen_Odisha reviewed preparedness for cyclonic storm #Titli & ordered officials to target #zerocasualty. He also ordered all schools, colleges, anganwadis to remain shut for next two days; people living in low lying areas in affected districts to be relocated to safe places pic.twitter.com/MpbSDtc9P9 CMO Odisha (@CMO_Odisha) October 10, 2018 Schools and colleges to shut on Oct 11 and 12 All schools, colleges and anganwadi centres will remain closed on October 11 and 12: Aditya Prasad Padhi, chief secretary, Odisha Titli land fall expected at 5.30 am tomorrow: Odisha cief secy Cyclone Titli has been upgraded to very severe cyclonic storm. Land fall is expected at 5.30 am tomorrow in south Odisha. Collectors of five districts have been directed to start evacuation of people living in low lying areas. Adequate relief provisions have been made: Aditya Prasad Padhi, chief secretary, Odisha Restrictions on train services In view of Cyclone Titli, down trains from Hyderabad/Visakhapatnam will not be allowed from Duvvada after 6.40pm and no movement of passenger trains will take place between Khurda Road and Vizianagaram section after 10pm till further advice, reports ANI. Train services hit In view of Cyclone Titli, train services between Khurda Road and Vizianagaram will not be allowed after 10 pm and up trains from Howrah/Kharagpur will not be allowed from Bhadrak after 5.15pm till further notice, reports ANI. Odisha CM orders evacuation of coastal areas Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik took stock of the situation and asked the collectors of Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Kendrapara and Jagtsinghpur districts to go for an immediate evacuation of people in the low-lying areas in the coastal belt, reports PTI. A French media report on Wednesday suggested that a senior official in Dassault Aviation saw the partnership with Anil Ambanis Reliance Group as imperative and mandatory to getting the export contract with India for the Rafale aircraft. Mediapart quoted an internal Dassault Aviation document detailing a presentation that deputy chief executive officer Loik Segalen gave to worker representatives explaining the rationale for setting up a joint venture in Nagpur with Reliance Aerospace. During the presentation, the report said, Segalen described the joint venture as a contrepartie to getting the export contract India. Contrepartie roughly translates to compensation or to refer to something given as compensation. This could be a reference to the offsets. Elections are due to take place in five states in November and December leading up to the 2019 general election. The attorney general also argued against the court seeking details of the of the decision-making process and said the matter pertains to national security and even he would not be supplied with any information pertaining to the deal. The petitions have been filed by lawyers Vineet Dhanda and ML Sharma. Aam Aadmi Partys Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh has also moved the top court against the Rafale deal; Sanjay Singh has sought a court order for the formation of a special team to probe the matter under the Supreme Courts oversight. The AAP leader said SIT should probe as to how the figure of 36 fighter jets was arrived at without the formalities associated/ with such a highly sensitive defence procurement.. The NDAs decision to enter an $8.7 billion government-to-government deal with France to buy the 36 Rafale warplanes made by Dassault was announced in April 2015, with an agreement signed a little over a year later. This replaced the previous United Progressive Alliance regimes decision to buy 126 Rafale aircraft, 108 of which were to be made in India by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. The deal has become controversial with the opposition, led by the Congress, claiming that the price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft now is 1,670 crore for each, three times the 526 crore, the initial bid by the company when the UPA was trying to buy the aircraft. It has also claimed the previous deal included a technology transfer agreement with HAL. The NDA has not disclosed details of the price, but the UPA deal, struck in 2012, was not a viable one, former defence minister Manohar Parrikar has previously said, implying that it would have never been closed and that, therefore, any comparison is moot. Indeed, the UPA was not able to close the deal till 2014, largely over discussions related to pricing of items not included in the initial bid. The NDA has said that the current deal also includes customized weaponry. The deal has also become controversial on account of the fact that one of the offset deals signed by Dassault is with the Reliance Group of Anil Ambani. The Congress claims the earlier deal was scrapped and a new one signed just to provide Ambani this opportunity for an offset deal. Former French President Francois Hollande has said that Reliance was made Dassaults offset partner at Indias insistence. The French and the Indian governments, and Dassault and Reliance have repeatedly denied this. Sniffing an electoral opportunity in the Rafale deal, the Congress has been relentlessly keeping up the heat. Gandhi has claimed that it is the corruption of the century. The opposition party also said that it would make Rafale one of the main issues in its poll campaign and claims it resonates strongly with the electorate. The NDA government has said that it cannot disclose the details of the price on two counts: a confidentiality agreement with France, and the strategic reason of not showing its hand to Indias enemies The central government on Wednesday notified the minimum environmental flows for river Ganga that has to be maintained at various locations on the river. Environmental flows refer to the acceptable flow regimes that are required to maintain a river in the desired environmental or predetermined state. The discussions on notifying environmental flow of Ganga have been going on for a long time. We have taken this step to ensure a minimum amount of flow in the river, Union minister of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari said at a press conference on Wednesday. The notification issued by the government aims to ensure that the river has the minimum required environmental flow of water even after the river flow gets diverted by projects and structures for purposes like irrigation, hydropower, domestic and industrial use. This is a huge step taken for the river Ganga today. We will do it for Ganga, Yamuna and other rivers also, all the rivers of the country will also say me too now, said cabinet minister for drinking water and sanitation Uma Bharti. The government also announced that the draft Ganga Act will soon be sent to the cabinet for approval. The draft Act addresses critical issues pertaining to Ganga on its cleanliness (Nirmalta) and uninterrupted environmental flow (Aviralta) and provides corresponding provisions thereof. The Centre had formed a committee in 2016 under the chairmanship of Justice (retired) Giridhar Malviya to frame a draft for the Ganga act, in a bid to provide stricter action against polluting the river. The committee has adopted certain stricter provision to increase accountability and responsibility for use of resources made available by National River Ganga, the ministry had said in a statement. The compliance of minimum environmental flow is applicable to all existing, under-construction and future projects. The existing projects which currently do not meet the norms will have to ensure that the desired environmental flow norms are complied with within a period of three years, the ministry said in a statement. The notification also states that the centre through the National Mission for Clean Ganga may direct the release of additional water in the river to meet special demand as and when required. This also comes in the backdrop of a protest by a GD Agarwal who was former professor of civil and environmental engineering at IIT, Kanpur. Agrawal has been on a hunger strike for over a month, protesting about the Ganga is being conceptualized and administered. The government has not defined the methodology in the process. What they have referred to is a minimum flow of the river which is very unclear. There is no clarity on the reference they have taken for the minimum environment flow; whether it was the flow in the 1950s or the 70s. The other issue is on how they are going to maintain the flow because they will have to cut supply from somewhere to cater to dry areas, so there has to be clarity on these things otherwise this is merely a political announcement, said Dr Suresh Kumar Rohilla Programme Director-Water Programme Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). On the issue of construction of hydro-power projects in Uttarakhand, Gadkari said that views of various stakeholders are being taken and a considered decision will then be taken in this regard. On being alleged for commenting that the government was advised to make tall promises in a television interview, Gadkari said that the videos were fabricated. I would request Rahul Gandhi to learn Marathi first before sharing any videos in Twitter. In the interview which I gave in Marathi I never mentioned either the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), Narendra Modi or Rs 15 lakh. The media reports are completely fabricated, he clarified. The Gujarat State Human Right Commission has taken cognisance of the attacks on migrant labourers and has sought a report from the state government on their reported exodus. Thousands of labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar reportedly fled after attacks following the rape of a toddler in Sabarkantha district allegedly by a migrant labourer. We have sought a report from the state government, director general of police and commissioner of police, Ahmedabad,said chairperson Abhilasha Kumari. She added that the commission has asked them to submit a report within 20 days. Meanwhile, various social organisations, industrial estate associations and the administration have joined hands to conduct confidence building measures in the affected areas of Ahmedabad, Mehsana and Sabarkantha. At Khokhra in Ahmedabad, local residents have extended special invitation to around 250 migrant families for a garba dance event on the first day of Navratri on Wednesday. Uttar Bhartiya Vikas Parishad, a social organisation of migrants from north India, has organised a dialogue in Ahmedabad on Wednesday on the theme Hamara Gujarat, surakshit Gujarat (Our Gujarat, safe Gujarat). Industrialists, local residents and migrants have been invited to share their views. As part of the outreach, authorities of Ahmedabad and Vadodara, including collectors and superintendents of police, visited railway stations to persuade migrant from leaving. No body told us that they were going out of fear. Most of them have tickets booked a month back, said Ahmedabad collector Vikrant Pande. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday hit out at the Gujarat government, alleging that it was allowing the situation to foment instead of containing it. This violence has led to an exodus of thousands of workers and their families fearing for their lives. The BJP government in Gujarat, instead of containing this violence, is allowing these tensions to foment, stated the central committee in its statement. What is happening in Gujarat is serious. Fanning hate, violence and discord is no solution for unemployment and peoples economic woes, tweeted CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury. (With PTI inputs) The way India fights its enemies could change with Integrated Battle Groups (IBG) comprising critical elements such as artillery, mechanised infantry, armour, signals and air support likely to replace the current somewhat, antiquated structures, Corps and Brigades. IBG is one of the key issues before army commanders who are meeting in New Delhi, a top defence ministry official aware of the matter said, asking not to be identified. The proposal is set to be cleared, this person added. Integrated Battle Groups will change things in several ways. For one, IBG will bring in more mobility, increase our ability to concentrate force within a specific battle theatre and, should the need arise, make it much easier to switch forces across theatres, a top Indian army officer said on condition of anonymity. These are self-contained, light fighting units that can deliver the required punch if backed by the right kind of resources and technology. Response to a situation and movement of troops will become much faster, Lieutenant General KJ Singh (retd) the former Western Army Commander said, explaining the rationale and benefits of IBG. The fighting formations of the army are divided between Holding Corps , whose main task is defensive i.e. to hold ground , and Strike Corps who are assigned an offensive role inside enemy territory. Despite efforts over the past few years, Strike Corps do take time to move towards the border or the areas of thrust. Movements of Strike Corps or their elements are also always under intense scrutiny by enemy countries. IBG will allow for more flexibility, deployment and employment. It allows the Indian Army to be much more pro-active. All battles today are fought in an integrated manner, Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia (retd) said, adding a caveat that the idea still needs to be implemented with care. Today, corps, each comprising at least three divisions, which, in turn, have three brigades under them, are the largest operational field formations. The brigades, comprising at least three regiments, each with around 800 fighting men, are the lynchpins or the base units that are used to project force. In case of hostilities, brigades often need to be augmented with Air, Mechanised Infantry, Armour, Artillery elements according to the mission and requirement. Once IBG come into play, having to augment formations with air, artillery etc is done away with since they are organised with all these units to start with and function as composite fighting unit, another senior army official said on condition of anonymity. IBG, however, will not completely replace the current structure of corps being the main pivots or field formations. They will be deployed according to the terrain and the task at hand, the army official said. The coming of IBG will also bring about changes in the command and control structure. Currently, a Lieutenant General commands a Corps and a Major General leads a Division. According to one of the proposals before the army commanders a Major General will head an Integrated Battle Group. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Municipal elections being held in J-K after 13 years Municipal elections in Jammu and Kashmir are being held after 13 years. Two lone candidates declared elected unopposed in Kulgam, Badgam Two lone candidates declared elected unopposed in Kulgam and Badgam districts. With this, the poll process in these two districts of the Kashmir ended on Wednesday. Single digit voting percentage in Kashmir Valley except Bandipora till 12 noon The Jammu division saw brisk polling but the voting percentage remained in single digit in the Kashmir Valley except for Bandipora district, during the first four hours. Bandipora recorded 22% voting till 12 noon compared to 63% in Ramban. Former militant Farooq Ahmad Khan, contesting on BJP ticket, casts his vote #JammuAndKashmir: Former terrorist Farooq Ahmad Khan, who is contesting local body election on a BJP ticket, cast his vote at a polling station in Srinagar. pic.twitter.com/LMXuFDqhak ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 Voting process robust, voters feeling safe, says Bandipora SSP Our security arrangements are robust. Voting process is going on very well. Voters are feeling safe. People are coming out in large numbers to cast their vote: SSP Bandipora Zulfikar Azad on voting for the second phase of local body elections in J-K Srinagar records 0.8% voting, Kathua 39.4% till 10am The Valley continues to record low polling percentage, with 0.8% in Srinagar and 0.6% in Anantnag till 10am. In comparison, Kathua had recorded 39.4% and Reasi 35.7%. #JammuAndKashmir: Voter turnout recorded till 10 am in the second phase of local body elections in the state. pic.twitter.com/OAc5FNq6Ag ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 Low polling percentage in Kashmir Valley, 0.2% voter turnout in Srinagar till 8an #JammuAndKashmir: Voter turnout recorded till 8 am in the second phase of local body elections in the state. pic.twitter.com/RfWjVm9rBM ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 BJP candidate in Ramban dies of cardiac arrest, polling cancelled BJP candidate from ward no. 2 of Ramban, Azad Singh, died due to cardiac arrest early on Wednesday morning following which polling was cancelled in the ward. 61 candidates in fray for 18 seats in Ramban district There are 61 candidates in the fray for contesting for 18 seats in Ramban district. 3 Cong candidates elected unopposed in Banihal Till 8 am, 14 percent polling was reported from Ramban,Batote and Banihal districts of Jammu. Three candidates belonging to Congress party were already elected unopposed in Banihal. People queue up to vote in Udhampur #JammuAndKashmir: People queue up outside a polling booth in Udhampur to cast their votes for the second phase of local body elections. pic.twitter.com/15Sy9VXxC7 ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 Low voter turnout in Kashmir Valley in first phase on Monday The first phase of urban local bodies elections in the state on Monday drew tepid response in Kashmir Valley and saw a low voter turnout of 8.3%. Voting in progress at a polling booth in Srinagar #JammuAndKashmir: Voting for the second phase of local body elections is underway in 13 districts of the state. Visuals from a polling booth in Srinagar's Lawaypora. pic.twitter.com/kIii52avFS ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 Mobile internet services suspended in south Kashmir Mobile internet services have been suspended in the entire south Kashmir as voting for 13 districts in the second phase of urban local bodies elections takes place in the state. The mobile internet services have been reduced to 2G in rest of Kashmir. Voting underway in 13 districts of #JammuAndKashmir in the second phase of urban local bodies elections; #visuals from a polling station in Reasi pic.twitter.com/CpRO7ZFFow ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 Shutdown call by separatists in poll-bound areas Separatists have asked people to observe a shutdown in the areas going to polls in second phase in these sham elections. Joint Resistance Leadership, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Mohammad Yasin Malik, in a statement, said, People will show their total disconnect and dismissal by staying away and boycotting this drama. Voters begin arriving early to cast their votes. Voters began arriving at polling booths since early morning to cast their votes in the second phase of urban bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir. A 21-year-old man in Jaipur hired six unemployed men to rob motorcycles, gold chains and mobile phones, offering them a monthly salary of Rs 15,000 each and setting a target of at least one crime daily - otherwise that days pay was deducted, police said. Deputy commissioner of police, Jaipur east, Gaurav Yadav said seven members of the gang, including the leader, were arrested on Tuesday on charges of snatching gold chains and mobile phones and looting motorcycles in the Jawahar Circle area, Shivdaspura, Kho Nagoriyan, Sanaganer and other areas of the city. After a spurt in cases of chain and mobile snatching in the area, a special team scanned CCTV footage and tracked stolen mobile phones locations to identify the gang. On Sunday, the team got a tip-off that the gang members were hiding in a rented house in Pratap Nagar area and raided it. A total of 33 mobile phones, a laptop, two chains and four motorcycles were recovered from the gang, who used stolen motorcycles in their bids to snatch chains and mobile phones. The loot was deposited with gang leader Ashish Meena who made money by selling it. According to the DCP,. Meena alias Amit, was in Gangapur City town of Sawai Madhopur district when he came in contact with the gang members. They are all illiterate and were jobless. Ashish gave them an offer of a monthly salary to commit crime. They shifted to a house in Jaipur to operate, the police officer said. The gang members were recruited in July and they have confessed to committing at least 36 crimes, Yadav added. The six robbers have been identified as Nandram Meena (20), Lakhan Meena (22), Indraj Bairwa (19), Salman Khan (23), and Khalil (24) of Karauli district and Kapil Meena (20) of Sawai Madhopur district. They said they were on Ashish Meenas payroll. They said they would lose the days salary if they failed to commit a crime on a particular day, the DCP said. The Congress is set to up its ante against the Rafale deal in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with party chief Rahul Gandhi likely to meet the employees union of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the state-run aircraft maker, during his visit to Bengaluru on October 13. A Congress functionary familiar with the development said the venue of the meeting between Gandhi and the HAL employees is being finalised. Congress spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy said HAL has been the biggest victim of the Rafale deal. It employs 30,000 people. Because of the denial of the Rafale contract, they will be throwing out 10,000 people and they will be denying 10,000 jobs to new people, he said. Reddy, who heads a party panel of talking heads on the Rafale deal, said HAL is not only in Bengaluru but in various parts of India. HAL would have benefitted in so many ways had it got the offset contract. It would have been able to absorb the Transfer of Technology and manufactured aircraft. Under the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) contract, HAL were to manufacture 90 aircraft, though, of course in technical collaboration with Dassault Aviation, he said. The Congress president has repeatedly been attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government, accusing it of causing a huge loss to the public exchequer and endangering national security by sidestepping HAL in favour of Anil Ambanis company, Reliance Defence, for an offset contract in the Rafale jet deal. The Congress claims the earlier deal was scrapped and a new one signed just to provide Ambani the opportunity for an offset deal. Both the government and Reliance have repeatedly denied this. Former HAL chief T Suvarna Raju had last month told Hindustan Times that the state-run plane maker could have built Rafale fighters in India had the government managed to close the original negotiations with Dassault Aviation and actually signed a work-share contract with the French company. Raju, who was heading HAL till recently, had also questioned why the Union government was not putting out the files in public. Responding to the charges, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had blamed the UPA government for delaying the negotiations that resulted in the omission of HAL from the Rafale deal. Gandhi again raked up the issue during his public meeting at Bikaner in Rajasthan on Wednesday, calling the Rafale deal the countrys biggest defence scam and attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Alleging corruption in the deal, Gandhi claimed HAL was ignored in the Rafale deal to benefit an industrialist friend of the Prime Minister. The Congress chief reiterated his partys claim that the agreement for 36 aircraft was finalised at a higher price compared to the cost negotiated by the UPA regime. The National Democratic Alliance government has said that it cannot disclose the details of the price on two counts: a confidentiality agreement with France, and the strategic reason of not showing its hand to Indias enemies. A policeman allegedly shot dead his 23-year-old girlfriend and killed himself with his service revolver on Wednesday after celebrating her birthday in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, officials said. Sources in Kanjanur Police said the dead have been identified as S Saraswathi from Anniyur village in Villupuram district and 30-year-old K Karthikeyan from Sathyamangalam of Erode district. A preliminary inquiry revealed Saraswathi was a third-year medical student in a private college in Chennai and Karthikeyan served in Tamil Nadu polices special battalion force in Vellore. Since it was the birthday of Saraswathi, Karthikeyan visited the formers house in Anniyur along with his friends. Though they celebrated the birthday together, later they had a heated argument, sources said. Karthikeyan took the pistol and opened fire on Saraswathi. On hearing the pistols sound, Saraswathis father rushed to the hall where they celebrated her birthday and found his daughters body in the pool of blood. Subsequently, Karthikeyan himself too killed himself by opening firing on his head, they added. Kanjanur Police have sent the bodies to the Government Villupuram Medical College for a post-mortem examination. Did the two constables accused in Vivek Tiwari murder case walk away leaving behind their patrol motorcycle on the spot after it was allegedly hit by the SUV or did they call for another vehicle to assist them? In either case, the sequence of events is incomplete, and may not reveal the real story behind Tiwaris killing. There are many such unanswered questions even after 10 days of investigation by the police and special investigation team (SIT). BIKE DAMAGES UNDER SCRUTINY When a motorcycle is hit by a heavy vehicle like an SUV, the first impact is on its handle, shocker and rim. However, the left side of the bikes handle, shockers and its rims were not found damaged, said an expert. He reiterated that there are remote chances that these things remained undamaged even after being hit by the SUV or being run over by it. Neither the accused constables Prashant Chaudhary and Sandeep Kumar nor any official associated with the probe has given any clarification on it so far. According to the initial statement of the accused and the crime scene preserved by cops, the constables left behind the motorcycle on the spot after being hit by Tiwaris SUV in Gomti Nagar extension, but it is not clear how they left the spot after that. The patrol bike was found in a damaged condition with his front facing towards Shaheed Path (right direction) when media and other senior officials reached the spot on September 29 morning after coming to know about Tiwaris killing. This is not the only point that raises doubt over the police theory. There are many other reasons to believe that cops at Gomti Nagar police station and some other police officials allegedly tried to manipulate facts and tamper evidences in favour of the two constables. DID POLICE TAMPER EVIDENCES? There are several other points like delay in carrying out medical examination of the two accused constables that raise apprehensions that the police tried to tamper evidences and manipulate facts since the beginning. The two accused were sent for medical examination on Saturday morning nearly eight hours after Tiwari was shot around 1.30 am on Friday-Saturday night. Prashant Chowdharys uniform and service pistol were also allegedly sent for forensic and ballistic examination after a delay of around four days. The police hurriedly filed an FIR showing Sana as the complainant when Vivek Tewaris wife and family members had already reached the hospital. The statements of the lone eyewitness Sana Khan also suggest that the facts and evidences were manipulated to prove that the constables opened fire on Tiwari, after he hit the patrol motorcycle. If members of the state police motor transport (MT) wing, who carried out a technical examination of Tiwaris SUV, are to be believed, the SUV would have been damaged from the left side if it had hit the patrol bike. But a technical examination suggested that the damage caused to the SUV was mainly due to collision with the pillar of the under pass of Shaheed Path and not while trying to hit any motorcycle. A source said the damages to the SUV were caused mainly due to collision with the pillar, as mostly its right side and front were damaged and both airbags of the front seats were open. The opening of airbags also suggests that both Tiwari and his ex-colleague Sana Khan, who was the co-passenger in the SUV, were wearing safety belts. The airbags work only when occupants are wearing safety belts. The technical examination of the police patrol motorcycle is still being carried out by experts of UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC). Initial findings by the team raise suspicion on the damages caused to the two-wheeler as the bikes shockers and rims were found to be intact. It is common phenomenon that when a motorcycle is hit by a heavy vehicle like an SUV, the first impact is on its handle, shocker and rim. However, the left side of the bikes handle, shockers and its rims were not found damaged, said one of the experts. The expert reiterated that there are remote chances that these things remained undamaged even after being hit by the SUV or being run over by it. Constable Prashant Chaudhary, who allegedly opened fire on Tiwari, had earlier claimed that he fired in self-defence when the SUV rider tried to run him and the patrol bike over. He had later stated that the pistol went off accidentally when he took it out to warn Tiwari and stop his SUV. In her statement, Sana Khan had also mentioned that the SUV just grazed the motorcycle when Tiwari tried to move on when cops tried to intercept his vehicle. She reiterated before the police and media that constable Prashant Chowdhary opened fire on Tiwari without any provocation. There are several other points like delay in carrying out medical examination of the two accused constables that raise apprehensions that the police tried to tamper evidences and manipulate facts since the beginning. The two accused were sent for medical examination on Saturday morning nearly around eight hours after Tiwari was shot at around 1.30 am on Friday-Saturday night. Prashant Chowdharys uniform and service pistol were also allegedly sent for forensic and ballistic examination after a delay of around four days. Moreover, the police hurriedly filed an FIR showing Sana as the complainant when Vivek Tewaris wife and family members had already reached the hospital. Suspecting foul play, Vivek Tewaris wife, Kalpana, had already questioned the polices intentions, saying cops should have asked the family to lodge a complaint when she and other family members had reached Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital around 3 am on Saturday. Tewaris colleagues alleged that the police intentionally made Sana complainant in the FIR so that they could mount pressure on her to turn hostile in the case during the course of investigation. They said the police knew that the family would pursue the case properly and would not turn hostile or succumb to any pressure. Sana also alleged that she was first taken to the Qaiserbagh police station from the hospital and kept there for a few hours before again being taken back to the Gomti Nagar police station. She stated that accused constable Prashant Chowdharys wife Rakhi Malik, who is also a police constable, accompanied her along and was questioning her all through during police detention. Nearly half of Maharashtras villages are running out of water, perhaps even staring at drought, as they received lower rainfall this monsoon. The scarcity may get worse as water sources dry up. The state government said it was assessing the situation and will likely declare drought in the worst-hit villages by the end of this month. Water is scarce in at least 20,000 of the states 40,559 villages across 201 tehsils as they received less than 75% of the average required rainfall. The state government said it was assessing the situation in all these villages and is in the process of declaring drought, which may take around two weeks. Until then, it is likely to declare a drought-like situation to enable it to start putting relief measures in place. On Tuesday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis asked his council of ministers to visit the affected tehsils and submit reports on the ground situation to a cabinet sub-committee on drought by October 30. He also empowered the panel, headed by relief and rehabilitation minister Chandrakant Patil, to take a decision on what measures are needed to mitigate the effects of drought. I have asked the ministers to visit all tehsils affected by water scarcity, Fadnavis told reporters at Mantralaya, the state headquarters, after the meeting of council of ministers. Each minister may have to visit three or four tehsils and submit reports to the state government. The state will then take a decision over declaring drought, by October 31, he said. Patil said the governments initial estimate of the number of affected villages stands at 100 villages from each of the 201 tehsils. We will declare a drought-like situation in the next eight days in the affected areas so relief measures can be started. Drought will be declared after that, he said on Tuesday. The last time the state faced a similar water scarcity was in 2016, when 28,662 of the 40,559 villages (around 70%) were declared drought-hit. At the time, the Vidarbha region, comprising Nagpur and Amravati revenue divisions, and Marathwada, were hit the worst. This time, 12 districts in Marathwada and north Maharashtra are faced with drought. These include Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Nanded, Latur, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Dhule, Nandurbar, Ahmednagar and Jalgaon. Currently, 354 tankers have been deployed to supply water to affected areas. Of them, 198 tankers go to Marathwada alone;125 tankers have been deployed to north Maharashtra, according to figures from the state water supply and sanitation department. The state will soon need to deploy more tankers to supplying water, said a senior official, requesting not to be names. According to fresh rules under the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF), to get financial assistance for drought mitigation from the Centre, the state can declare drought in affected areas based on a report of the National Centre for Crop Forecasting (NCCF) a forecast agency that works under Union agriculture ministry, and ground-truthing (GT) in 10% of the total affected villages which need to be selected randomly. GT is the verification of the situation in the drought-hit areas. The relief and rehabilitation minister, however, said if 20,000 villages were reeling under a water crisis, it doesnt mean all of them will be declared drought-hit. The number may decrease or it may remain the same. Everything depends upon the NCCF report and ground-truthing, Patil said. Professor HM Desarda, agriculture economist and former member of the state planning commission said that this is not a natural but man-made disaster. Most of the tehsils have received more than 60% rainfall which is adequate enough to ensure drinking water and irrigation for a crop season. But the successive governments in Maharashtra have failed to do drought-proofing which led to the situation. For every 100 mm of rain, we get average a million litre water on each hectare and barring few tehsils all the others have received rainfall between 300 to 500 mm, Desarda said. World mental health day was first observed on October 10, 1992. It became an annual affair, thanks to the efforts taken by world federation for mental health to create awareness about the illness. Mental illness, which has been on a significant rise over the last few years, is mostly affecting younger population, said experts. As many as 40 per cent of them are in the age group between 16 and 29 years, they said. Common mental health disorders (CMHD) include anxiety, depression, learning disabilities and adjustment disorder. Experts say that the scenario was different 10 years ago when only schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were seen as mental illness. Dr Sukhada Chimote, central head and consultant psychiatrist at Institute of Psychological Health (IPH), said, We used to see cases of severe mental illness like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder earlier. Now, young people come to us with problems related to adjustment disorder, anxiety and depression. I have patients as young as three. People between the age group of 16 and 29) come to me, in the outpatient department. Similarly Dr Swati Bhave, executive director of association of adolescent and child care in India (AACCI), who is also attached to the Jehangir hospital said, There is a drastic change in the aetiology of mental illness. We are seeing more of young people with depression coming for treatment. The reasons include academic pressure, changing educational patterns, relationship issue and ragging. According to a report by World health organisation, the suicidal rate has increased by 40 percent globally in the last few years ( HOW MANY YEARS) Bhave said that out of the patients who come to her, close to 40 percent are patients under depression. If timely help is not provided to such patients, there are chances of the patients committing suicide, she said. Bhave, who conducts workshops on how to pick up early signs of suicides, says , Signs of suicidal tendency are easy to spot. One needs to be watchful of signs in people suffering from depressions. Common signs include insomnia or change in sleeping patterns, eating excessively or drop in weight and lack of interest in activities. Parents and teachers can easily spot the symptoms and seek help. Rather than counting the number of suicides, we should come up with preventive measures. Awareness and early intervention are two tools to help patients with mental illness, said Dr Chimote. Need more psychiatrists Dr MK Raju, past president of Indian psychiatry society (IPS), said, We do not have a registry on the number of mental disorders reported in India. There is no data available. There is a rise in the cases of depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. IPS has suggested for a national registry. It will help us in studying the evolvement of mental illness and its aetiology. For the very first time in 2016, a national mental survey was conducted. The survey found out that close to 15 crore of the Indian population (then) had some kind of mental illness. Only early treatment and awareness can help. Also, we are in dire need of psychiatrists in India. Right now, we have only one psychiatrist for three lakh people and this is not a good ratio. We need more psychiatrists. Activities galore Regional mental hospital has been conducting various activities from October 3 onwards. Dr Ajit Phadnis, medical superintendent of the hospital told HT, We have started with lectures and workshops in schools and colleges. We have planned to cover 9 schools and colleges in all. The last lecture will be held on October 11 at Army public school, Dighi. The hospital will also be conducting a street play in association with Chaitanya mental health care centre to create awareness among masses. The street play will be performed in Pune, Ahmednagar and Satara. Rony George, founder, Chaitanya mental health care centre said, The street play is based on youth and mental health in the changing world. Schizophrenia Awareness association (SAA) has announced an internship programme for college students named Sakham where students will be equipped with basic information on mental health and illnesses. They will be also working on eradicating stigma from the society regarding mental illness and work towards sensitising students from different schools and colleges. The internship programme will start from next month onwards, ended Anil Vartak, vice president of the association. For more details contact Anil Vartak: 9503710859 On Wednesday, when a joint team of the Punjab Police and the special operations group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police entered the hostel room of a third year student of civil engineering at the CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar, they found something not usually found in such rooms: an AK-47 rifle. The student, Zahid Gulzar, a resident of Rajpora in Srinagar, and two others in his room at the time, Mohammed Idriss Shah alias Nadeem and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, both residents of Pulwama, were arrested and all three are suspected to be linked to terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), according to Punjab director general of police Suresh Arora. The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early on Wednesday, also seized another weapon and explosives from the room. Bhatt is also a B Tech student at the same college and Shah is a BSc (medical lab science) student at the nearby St Soldier Management College, Arora added. According to him, the trio has been living in Jalandhar for the past two to three years and became involved in terror activities over the past year. A case has been registered under sections 121 (waging, or attempting to wage war against the country), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sadar police station. Relevant sections of the arms act and explosives act have also been added, the DGP said. Arora said the busting of the terror module and the seizure of weapons is indicative of efforts by Pakistans Inter-Services Agency (ISI) o expand the arc of militancy on Indias western border. Investigations have indicated AGHs links with Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Jalandhar, an education hub, has at least 500 students from J&K at different campuses. Wednesdays arrests have left Punjab Police worried. There is a large number of Kashmiri students in the state and their links to terror groups is definitely a cause of concern, said a senior police official. On April 27, the police arrested two suspected pro-Pakistan Kashmiri hackers, from Jalandhar and Rajpura. Both were students and have been accused of hacking over 500 Indian websites. Chairman of the CT Group, Charanjit Singh Channi, said the institute cant check the bags of every student or an outsider coming to the college, citing privacy issues. We cant look at everyone with suspicion, he added. Recently, Gazi Ahmad Malik, a resident of Shopian, was detained by Punjab Police from Banur, Patiala where he was studying in a polytechnic. It is believed that Gazi is closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a J & K police special police officer who fled with seven rifles from the residence of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA in Srinagar and is suspected to have joined the Hizbul Mujahideen. What if morphine works only as a powerful painkiller without side-effects like addiction, drowsiness, constipation and respiratory distress? Scientists believe such drug improvements are within sight. Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpurs biological sciences and bio-engineering department are studying how certain signalling pathways in the body can be nurtured to be targeted and unwanted pathways subdued. According to Arun Shukla, associate professor, European Molecular Biology Organization young investigator and lead scientist on the project, about 40% of currently prescribed drugs target GPCRs (G-protein coupled receptors), which are responsible for transfer of information across the cell membrane. This is because GPCRs can sense molecules outside the cell membrane and activate signal pathways, leading to a variety of cellular responses. GPCR targeting drugs are mostly used in congestive heart failure, hypertension, asthma, allergies, schizophrenia, Parkinsons disease and cancer. But these drugs also activate other information pathways along with GPCRs, leading to unwanted effects of drugs. We are studying how we can modify the drug, change its chemical structure so that only one pathway is activated, said Shukla, whose project was showcased as a young achiever project at the ongoing India International Science Festival (IISF). Another project being done by Shuklas team is developing synthetic antibodies to accelerate GPCR research. These antibodies will help us visualise the structure of the drug bound to the receptor, so we can see how we can improve the structure of the drug, he added. His teams research is similar to this years Nobel Prize winning project in chemistry that has recognised evolution of new proteins, antibodies for producing new pharmaceuticals, Shukla said. The IIT-Kanpur team has proposed developing a national facility for synthetic antibody generation to the department of biotechnology (DBT). Other young scientists who shared their ideas at the Young Scientists Conference include Nitin Sisodia, a National Institute of Design graduate and founder of Sohum Innovation Lab, who is working on providing a cost-effective screening technology for hearing loss among newborns. He has partnered with the Rajasthan and Tripura governments to start screening work. ...I want to ensure that infant auditory brain stem response screening is available and affordable, he said. Inspired by the similarity in the structure of the different colours in peacock feathers found abundantly on campus, Kantesh Balani, a professor at IIT Kanpur, is developing colours that do not fade. Balani is also working on materials that can resist thermal damage and withstand even 10,000 degree temperatures. This can be applied in making fire suits and spacecraft material. After House of Cards was discontinued after lead actor Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual assault in the #MeToo movement, Netflix is now contemplating the fate of Phantoms Sacred Games Season 2. In 2017, nearly a year ago when the Me Too movement broke out internationally, Netflix took a stand to boot out House of Cards from the platform. Exactly a year later, the Me Too movement has reached India. Ironically, Netflix once again finds itself in the heat of the controversy. Sacred Games directors, Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, appear to have lost the peoples confidence as more and more accuse them of not taking a more stern stand against their colleague at Phantom Films, Vikas Bahl, who has been accused of molestation by a former employee of the production studio. Sources share, There have been a lot of discussions taking place internally, while Netflix had taken a strong stand against being associated with sexual offenders by discontinuing House of Cards, the fate of Indias hugely popular Sacred Games is being debated. Issuing a statement about House of Cards, Netflix had earlier taken a stance, Netflix will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey. Anurag has already started feeling the pressure from public. He announced on Wednesday that he would be stepping down as board member of the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) amid a shadow of doubt that he remained silent when a woman complained to him of being sexually harassed by his business partner Vikas Bahl. Kashyap, who along with his business partners at Phantom Films announced the companys dissolution last week, has been at the receiving end of questions as to why he did not do anything about the complaint. Meanwhile, Vikas has sent a legal notice to Anurag and Vikramaditya for defaming him on social media. He also demanded an unconditional apology and withdrawal of messages posted on micro-blogging website Twitter. Could Netlfix take a hard stand against Anurag as well? Follow @htshowbiz for more Dark circles formed like warning signs beneath Yu Fen Wangs eyes as she worked 12-hour graveyard shifts in a Queens, New York, maternity centre that operated on the margins of legality. Her family said she had grown gaunt, could not sleep and told her husband she no longer wanted to live. Her employers, however, said they needed her to work. And her family needed the money. She earned less than $100 a day, they said, working in a private house that had been converted into a combined nursery and hotel for newborn babies and their mothers. An open secret in the Flushing community, the centre was part of an underground industry catering to a demanding clientele: local mothers resting after childbirth and Chinese visitors coming to have their babies in the United States, a practice known as birth tourism. On September 21, at 3:40 am, these dangers collided to near-fatal effect when, the police say, Wang stabbed three babies sleeping in bassinets on the first floor all girls and two adults. She then turned the knife on her own neck and wrists. The victims all survived. But the horrific act turned a spotlight on a pocket of immigrant New York, where a loose network of businesses tend to mothers and infants in the crucial, fragile month after childbirth but operate without any government oversight. The centre, Mei Xin Care, is one of dozens in the area that vary widely in amenities and quality, leaving workers with few avenues for complaint, and families with little to guide them other than word-of-mouth, internet advertisements and blind trust. There are victims at all sides of the spectrum, said Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Democrat who represents Queens. Centres like this one which was alternately known as Mei Bao, or beautiful baby in Chinese provide two services. The first is for newly-arrived immigrant mothers practising a Chinese tradition some 1,000 years old in which they recuperate for a month after childbirth while other women, often called aunties, care for their infants. Authorities said the centres also provide assistance to women from China who wish to give birth in the United States in order to obtain instant citizenship for their children, which is legal under immigration law. There are some 40 such maternity centres in private homes and apartments advertising their services online in the New York and New Jersey area, and nearly 20 in the Flushing neighbourhood. At Mei Xin Care, employees were paid off the books, Wangs family said. One of its nannies, Darong Wang, 63, got the job despite being arrested in May for promoting prostitution at a massage parlor in downtown Flushing. She was slashed in the attack, requiring 20 stitches on her face; a father of one of the children was stabbed in the leg and wrist. Stuffy and cramped The crime took place in a three-floor brick apartment house with white metal lattice balconies on the outskirts of Flushing. Its only advertisement existed on the internet, on a Craigslist of sorts for the local Chinese immigrant community. Mei Xin Care appears to be a combination of the names of two owners: Meiying Gao and Xuexin Lin. Local employment agencies said the owners had been in the business for about a decade but opened their latest location in 2016, when city records show they bought the building for $1.5 million. Reached by phone, the owners declined to comment. One neighbour said in an interview that she saw a steady stream of clients arriving, sometimes in fancy cars. Some of them would have been following the custom of a monthlong rest after childbirth. The period culminates in a red egg celebration to mark the babys survival of its fragile first weeks, said Margaret M. Chin, a professor of sociology in the Asian American Studies program at Hunter College. The centres are an alternative to obtaining visas so family members can fly to the United States, or returning to China, where health care is often less sophisticated. For several thousand dollars, new mothers have access to 24-hour nannies and cooks. Michael Cheng and his Shanghai-born wife, who live in Flushing, considered using the center for her recuperation period. They toured the facility twice in the spring and were quoted a fee of $4,800 in cash. Cheng said babies were sleeping on the first floor, while their mothers slept in small bedrooms on the second and third floors. He remembered seeing five to six workers, whom he estimated to be in their 40s and 50s. They were working 24 hours in shifts, he said. I can imagine that it was a very high-stress job. Cheng said his wife, who did not want to give her name, spoke with some of the residents on the upper floors, one from China and another who was a New Yorker. Before we walked out, I was like, Are you sure you like this place? to my wife, Cheng said in an interview. To me, it felt stuffy in there. He was skeptical and asked to see a license. The owners sent a copy of a generic business operation certificate and another for maternity nutrition. In hindsight, he said, if there was more talk about these places, and people knew if you go to one of these centers that they had to hang their licenses right out in front, some kind of regulations around that, maybe it would help. Ultimately, the couple felt uneasy about Mei Xin Care and opted to spend the month at Chengs parents home on Long Island after their daughter was born. They got their $800 deposit back when another mother quickly filled the spot. A shortcut to US citizenship After the stabbings occurred, Flushing was in an uproar. At temples, in food courts and on the streets beneath bright signs in Chinese, residents worried that the incident would stir up anti-immigrant attitudes toward their community. Others decried the centers second purpose, easing the path for birth tourism. They should not come through loopholes, said Catherine Chan, 50, a bar owner in Queens who used to work on Wall Street. She came to the United States from China when she was 6, after a long process involving family sponsorship, she said. There is no shortcut. Birth tourism is a well-known phenomenon. In recent years, it has drawn mostly well-off mothers from China, Korea, Russia, Turkey, Egypt and Nigeria to the United States for birthright citizenship, which President Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate. It can be legal, as long as pregnant foreigners applying for visas state their intention to give birth when they are in the United States and prove that they can cover the cost. If they conceal their real purpose for traveling they could be subject to visa fraud. Once US citizens turn 21, they are eligible to sponsor a parent for a green card, giving their parents the option of eventually settling there. Parents do not always use that opportunity, and immigration officials could deny a green card, claiming the parents had willingly defrauded the American government. Many are more concerned about securing the future of their children who, as American citizens, have the option of schooling in the United States or in competitive private Chinese schools that have lower entry standards for foreign students. They can travel to other countries without having to apply for a visa. It is seen as a status symbol in China. For Chinese birth tourists, Los Angeles is the marquee destination. Centers compete with each other by advertising stays at plush hotels, shopping extravaganzas in nearby malls, and state-of-the-art hospitals. Fees can range from $50,000 to $80,000. In 2015, immigration enforcement authorities raided the Los Angeles centers, saying owners had avoided paying taxes. Still, the raids did not deter business owners who saw an opportunity. As Chinese internet services like Weibo and WeChat expanded, so did advertisements for birth tourism services in New York. In the New York metropolitan area, more upscale maternity centres tend to exist in New Jersey and Long Island suburbs. The ones in Flushing appear to be smaller, and less expensive, options, where mothers stay in rooms that often have been subdivided. Annie Gao, the owner of one upscale birth centre in Center Moriches, on Long Island, expressed disdain for the cramped and somewhat secretive operations of the Flushing centres. Gao, who opened her centre in Flushing in 2004, said that several years ago she tried to convince other owners to join an association that could self-regulate and keep out cut-rate, potentially unsafe, centres. Gao thought that some centres skimped on food quality and cleaning services, noting that ones she had seen looked dirty. But those owners disagreed, she said. These centres elude city and state licensing categories and zoning codes. They do not qualify as day care centres because mothers are on-site; they do not need a medical license because owners offer Chinese nutritional practices. There isnt a real category for these type of activities, and they were able to leverage it and apply for a general business license and pretend that was OK for their clients, Kim, the assemblyman, said. Although neighbours of Mei Xin Care filed complaints that it was operating as a hotel, city buildings inspectors were denied access three times, which automatically closes the complaint. Neighbours can file an affidavit to warrant a full inspection, but city records show that did not happen. The state Office of Child and Family Services, the citys administration for Childrens Services, the state Department of Health and the city Department of Health all said such centres did not fall under their purview. The police shut down Mei Xin Care after the stabbing, but less than three weeks later, the centre seemed to have reopened. Women could be seen through the windows, and a pile of diapers sat outside. She wanted to die After spending most of her life in poor, southeastern Fujian province in China, Yu Fen Wang, 52, sought a better future. When her husband, Peter, secured an employment visa, he brought his two adult sons and wife to New York in 2010. There, the Wangs became immersed in a bustling community of Fujianese immigrants. Peter worked in restaurants, as did his two sons. Yu Fen Wang began cleaning homes and taking care of children privately for families. About two years later, she began working at Mei Xin Cares first location near downtown Flushing. Her husband suffered leg pain that made it too difficult to work, he said, so the burden of providing for their family fell on Wang. When she came home after tending newborns, she also took care of her three small grandchildren. Their son Danny said that about six months ago, the family noticed a change in Wang. She kept forgetting her keys and her phone at home. She became unfocused and unable to sleep. She lost a lot of weight. At a different maternity center where Wang briefly worked in June so she could do a day shift, one mother saw her napping on couches when the babies were sleeping, telling infants to drink faster when nursing, and complaining about changing diapers. She looked tired, and her impatience also suggested she was very tired, that mother, Jane, 36, said in an interview. She declined to give her last name because she feared repercussions from the owners. That centre fired Wang after just two days, and she returned to the graveyard shift at Mei Xin Care. By then, her mental state had visibly declined, according to her family. About two or three months ago, Wang told her husband that her life had no meaning and she wanted to die, her son said. Peter Wang insisted she take two weeks off. They all knew that her older sister back in China had tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide. Danny Wang said his mother saw a doctor who prescribed her sleeping medication and a tranquilliser. That is when the owners of Mei Xin called her to come back to work on the 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. shift, her family said. She felt obligated, despite the protestations of her husband and sons. Fair or not fair, we cant do anything about it, Danny said. Its just reality. Wang appeared to live in her own darker reality. Her lawyer, Jean Wang, who is not related to her client, said she intended to pursue an insanity defence. It was left untreated, and finally it just blew, the lawyer said. Charged with five counts of attempted murder, Wang pleaded not guilty and is under suicide watch at Rikers Island. In jail, her family and lawyer said, Wang has become even more isolated and distraught. She tried to kill herself by smashing her head against the cell. A spokeswoman for the citys correctional health services said she could not comment on Wangs mental state because of privacy laws. When that first attempt failed, Wangs lawyer said, she tried to bite her tongue off, a distinctively Chinese form of suicide. She did not succeed. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Tarique Rahman, the fugitive son of former Bangladesh premier Khaleda Zia, was sentenced to life and 19 others were given death sentence by a court here on Wednesday over the 2004 grenade attack that killed 24 people and injured 500 others, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 targeted Hasina, who was the opposition leader at that time . Hasina survived the attack with a partial hearing loss. Security was tightened in the capital as the accused were brought to the court. Rahman, 50, was tried in absentia with the court declaring him a fugitive. He now lives in London where he is believed to have sought asylum though the British authorities have declined to reveal his immigration status. Judge Shahed Nuruddin of Dhakas fast track Tribunal pronounced the judgment ordering Rahman to be sent to prison for life along with 18 others. Former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar is among 19 people who were sentenced to death. Rahman, two former ministers including Babar and former top police and intelligence officials of the then BNP-led four-party alliance government were among 49 accused in the cases. The judge made 12-point observations on the background, motive and consequences of the attack. Investigations found an influential quarter of the then BNP-led government, including Rahman, masterminded and sponsored the attackers -- the operatives of militant Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI). Investigators said Hasina was the main target of the attack. Hasina was injured in the attack while partys women front chief and former president Zillur Rahmans wife Ivy Rahman were among the dead. Zia, who is now serving a five-year imprisonment in a graft case, was not made an accused in the case. The fiancee of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has asked President Donald Trump to help uncover what happened to the Riyadh critic who she said had been fighting for his principles. Hatice Cengiz made the appeal on Tuesday in an opinion piece for The Washington Post newspaper, where Khashoggi was a columnist and an outspoken critic of some of Riyadhs policies. A veteran journalist, Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 after entering Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to arrange paperwork for his wedding to Cengiz, a Turk. Government sources in Turkey said police believe the 59-year-old was killed inside the consulate, claims which Riyadh dismissed as baseless. Cengiz wrote that she was confident in the abilities of Turkish government officials. At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamals disappearance, she said. I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate, Cengiz wrote. Trump on Monday expressed concern about Khashoggis case and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a thorough investigation. Turkish police were also looking into the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped, local media reported. Riyadh has said Khashoggi left the consulate after his visit. Although Khashoggi knew that his opinions had angered certain people, he entered the consulate without doubting he would be safe there, his fiancee wrote, but after three hours of waiting fear and concern overcame her. Khashoggi had fled his homeland in September last year and had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States, where he had applied for US citizenship, Cengiz said. A former Saudi government advisor, Khashoggi has been openly critical of Prince Mohammed, accusing him of introducing a new era of fear, intimidation, arrests and public shaming. Cengiz wrote she remains confident that the great man is still alive, although my hope slowly fades away each passing day. President Donald Trump believes his daughter Ivanka Trump would be dynamite if she succeeds Nikki Haley as the US envoy to the United Nations, but says he has a shortlist of five candidates. He did not name all contenders, only confirming that former deputy national security advisor Dina Powell is on the list. The people that know, know that Ivanka would be dynamite. But...Id then be accused of nepotism, if you can believe it, Trump told reporters about his daughter, who serves as his adviser. Ivanka Trump, however, took herself out of speculation. I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me, she tweeted. She shot to the top of the list of names after Haley spoke glowingly about her at the joint announcement with Trump on Wednesday about her plans to leave the key post at the end of the year. Dina would love it, Trump said about Powell, who is now in the private sector. Jon Huntsman, US ambassador to Russia, Richard Grenell, US ambassador to Germany who was with the US permanent mission to the UN, and Heather Nauert, state department spokesperson and undersecretary for public affairs, are also on the list, according to media reports. Rebranding 10 October 2018 Acquisition Highlights: Iconic boutique resort located in the affluent and high barriers-to-entry Santa Fe, New Mexico market proximate to the historic Santa Fe Plaza Exceptional amenities including four food & beverage outlets, an award-winning full-service spa and 7,800 square feet of indoor/outdoor meeting space Revenue per available room (RevPAR) of $155 for the 12 months ended August 31, 2018 The Property is a member of Marriott's Tribute Portfolio Property is in excellent physical condition with limited capex needs In connection with this acquisition, Ashford Inc. has committed to provide Ashford Trust with approximately $5 million under the terms of the Enhanced Return Funding Program ("ERFP") Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE: AHT) ("Ashford Trust" or the "Company") today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the 157-room La Posada de Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico ("La Posada" or the "Property") for $50 million. The acquisition is expected to close in late October, but because the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, the Company can give no assurance that the purchase will be consummated by such date, or at all. La Posada is located on over five beautifully landscaped acres three blocks from the historic Santa Fe Plaza. With its strong brand affiliation and world-class amenities, the boutique hotel is positioned as one of the leading properties in a lodging market with very high barriers to entry. Located in northern New Mexico approximately 60 miles north of Albuquerque, Santa Fe is one of the country's most prominent, popular and dynamic leisure destinations. Beyond the first-class hotel experience, guests have easy access to the Santa Fe area's many amenities and activities, including over 250 art galleries, boutiques and restaurants. Additionally, the Property is proximate to the area's most renowned tourist demand generators, including the world-famous Santa Fe Opera House, Georgia O'Keefe Museum, Museum Hill, Dale Ball Trails and La Tierra Trails, among others. La Posada has 157 luxurious and spacious rooms, including 30 suites, spread across 26 structures throughout the resort. The Property also offers an array of amenities, including the award-winning 4,500 sq. ft. full-service Spa Sage, four food and beverage outlets, including the acclaimed Julia - Spirited Restaurant & Bar, 7,800 sq. ft. of flexible indoor/outdoor meeting space, an outdoor pool, 24-hour state-of-the-art fitness club as well as an on-site curator service with prominent paintings and sculptures displayed for sale throughout the property. Pipeline 10 October 2018 AccorHotels, the world's leading travel & lifestyle group is set to make its debut in Mozambique in a strategic move that expands its presence in Southeastern Africa. The Group has signed an agreement with developer Matreal Property Services to operate Movenpick Hotel Maputo, a 150-room modern upscale property conveniently located next to Maputo International Airport and just 5km from the centre of the capital city. Set to open in 2021, the upcoming property will capitalise on Mozambique's ongoing growth and development, with projects under way that could see the country emerge as one of the world's top natural gas exporters in the near future. The 150-room property will cater to the growing number of corporate and government-related travellers visiting the Mozambique capital to conduct business, as well as local companies looking to stage meetings and events with a number of meeting and conference facilities in addition to attractive dining options. China will promote a higher level of opening up and will continue to be an ideal place for foreign investment, Premier Li Keqiang said Wednesday in Beijing during his meeting with Harald Kruger, chairman of German carmaker BMW Group. "Deepening pragmatic cooperation between China and Germany serves common interests of both sides," Li said. He noted that a new cooperation project between BMW and China, in the northeastern city of Shenyang, will be the first to benefit from the ease of limits on foreign stakes in automobile joint ventures in China. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (Third R) meets with Harald Kruger, chairman of German carmaker BMW Group in Beijing on Wednesday, October 10, 2018. [Photo: gov.cn] The upcoming project indicated that China's new opening up measures are being translated into concrete actions, Li said. "In the future, these measures will be even stronger, a higher level of opening up will be established, and China will continue to be a hot place for foreign investment in the long run," he said. "We welcome enterprises from different countries, including German enterprises, to seize the opportunity and expand investment in China and better achieve common development and win-win results," he said. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with Harald Kruger, chairman of German carmaker BMW Group in Beijing on Wednesday, October 10, 2018. [Photo: gov.cn] Kruger said China is the largest market for BMW and the company cherished the opportunity to invest in the country. He said BMW will take the opportunity of launching the new factory in Shenyang to expand cooperation with China and create a mutually beneficial and win-win situation as certain models of BMW cars will be sold in global markets including China. Appointment 10 October 2018 BENCHMARK, a global hospitality company, has named Pete Page as executive chef for Chaminade Resort & Spa, a Benchmark Resorts & Hotels historic property located in Santa Cruz, California. Kevin Herbst, general manager, made the announcement. Pete Page was previously executive chef at the landmark NOPSI Hotel in New Orleans, a property which he helped opened in 2017. Prior to this he served as executive chef for the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Earlier Mr. Page was executive chef of events and catering for Chef John Folse' legendary White Oak Plantation, located in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana. While here Chef Page traveled around Louisiana and the entire country working with some of the most talented and celebrated chefs in America. Chef Page is a ServSafe Certified Executive Chef (since 2001) and a Certified Hospitality Supervisor by the AHLA. He participated yearly as a local Celebrity Chef for Chef Folse's celebrated Dining by Design in Baton Rouge, featuring such culinary greats as Norman Van Aken, Dean Fearing, Stephan Pyles, Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand. Chef Page is a past silver medalist the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience, as well as a multi-year winner of the United Way's Got Gumbo Challenge. Pete Page studied music at Boston University and is a graduate of University of Oklahoma, where he earned his Bachelor's degree in mathematics. He is relocating to the Santa Cruz area. Supplier News 10 October 2018 Hospitality is a very important in a travel industry. The hotel owners should do everything in their power to provide the highest excellence accommodation and offer professional facilities. Nevertheless, it is worth to not forget about guest satisfaction and this article will tell more about improving guest experience. Every hotel owner should take care of the hotel guest from booking a room until he arrives in home. It is important to offer the hotel guests something more than it is provided by the other hotels from your area. What is more, nowadays, the millennials are extremely demanding because they always need to experience something new, something unique. As an outcome, it is worth considering using the Our.Guide software that was designed to provide the highest excellence services - the guidebook. The guidebook consists of local tourist attractions and events that are placed about 50 kilometres from the particular hotel. Moreover, the hotels that are equipped with Our.Guide may also create pre-stay trip plans and send them via email to the hotel guests before they show up in the hotel. Through the application, it is possible to enhance guest experience and encourage them to see the tourist attractions that are located in the closest neighbourhood. Furthermore, the hotel guests appreciate the fact that they may get quick information about local tourist attractions and they often leave positive feedback. It is worth to underlie that the more positive opinions on the hotel, the more direct bookings at the website. A renowned community landmark located in Ogdensburg, N.Y., this 46-room family-owned-and-operated hotel sits in a lush country setting just minutes from the beautiful 1000 Islands and a short drive from both Ottawa and Montreal, Canada. The Inn at Gran View Ogdensburg is the latest hotel to join the Ascend Hotel Collection portfolio by Choice Hotels International (NYSE: CHH). A renowned community landmark located in Ogdensburg, N.Y., this 46-room family-owned-and-operated hotel sits in a lush country setting just minutes from the beautiful 1000 Islands and a short drive from both Ottawa and Montreal, Canada. The Inn at Gran View Ogdensburg has provided guests with outstanding cuisine, impeccable service, and unforgettable sunsets since it was opened by the Williams family in 1957. The hotel offers easy access to local attractions like the Frederick Remington Art Museum, Chippewa Bay, Thousand Islands, and Boldt Castle. With over 60 years of love, hard work and a dedication, the hotel has become known for supplying an unforgettable travel experience to guests that have included international celebrities to local and national dignitaries. Top features of The Inn at Gran View Ogdensburg include: The Gran View Restaurant, featuring locally inspired cuisine Max's Outlook a recently added outdoor deck offering views of the St. Lawrence river Complimentary continental breakfast Large riverside swimming pool with shuffle board area and lawn games Fully equipped fitness room Guest laundry center Two private meeting rooms and a large ballroom for weddings and formal dinners Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource While a majority of women overall feel that their gender positively impacts their ability to pursue a career in tech, 77% still acknowledge that they face more challenges to grow and succeed than men. The strong appeal of tech to the next generation of female talent offers a vital opportunity to drive change. Booking.com has revealed the first set of research findings from a global study aimed at better understanding the continuing gender diversity challenge in the technology sector and the perceptions, experiences and ambitions of women worldwide with respect to career opportunities in tech. Conducted among women who work in tech and female students interested in pursuing a career in the industry, the research reveals that women globally find the tech sector appealing and hold a positive view of the potential it offers. However, recruitment bias, the current workforce composition and a lack of female decision-makers and visible role models are chief among the hurdles they face. More than three in five women (64%) working in tech globally and students interested in the field say that being female positively impacts their ability to pursue a career in tech. This favorable outlook is primarily due to the recognized shortage of women currently in the industry (34%), an opportunity especially acknowledged by female undergraduates (43%) and high school students (37%). Women globally are also drawn to the tech industry for a myriad of reasons they find it to be innovative (50%), creative (44%), and inspiring (26%), while also offering work that challenges them (34%). For many, securing a position in tech equates with landing their 'dream job' or ideal career role. When asked what criteria women globally would use to define their 'dream job,' more than four in five cited doing work that inspires them (84%), followed by work that aligns with their natural skillset (83%) and a job that allows them to carve their own path (81%). Gender bias during recruitment and a lack of visible female leaders continue to undermine women's tech opportunities Despite the appeal of the tech sector and the perceived opportunities, Booking.com's research indicates that women globally still have reservations, and at certain key touch-points in their pursuit of a tech career, view being female as more detrimental. For more than half (52%), this is the case because of the tech sector's largely male-dominated workforce, followed by nearly a third (32%) who cite gender bias during the recruitment process as a hurdle. Interestingly, perceptions of gender bias at the hiring stage vary greatly across markets. In Brazil, one in two women (50%) feels that gender bias during recruitment negatively impacts chances of securing a career in tech, the highest among the countries surveyed, while fewer women in European countries feel this way (18% in the Netherlands and 22% in both the UK and Germany). In addition, nearly one in three women globally (32%) feels a lack of female decision makers holds back tech career potential, echoed the most by female high school students (40%). These factors are all likely contributors to the fact that more than three in four women globally feel they face more challenges to enter (78%) and grow and succeed (77%) in certain careers than men. "Women are still vastly underrepresented in the tech sector. What our research now tells us is exactly where women experience the biggest barriers and where the opportunity to initiate change is," said Gillian Tans, CEO at Booking.com. "The optimism and ambition that we see from women globally to be successful in a technology or IT field is inspiring, particularly among the younger generation, who see the potential for a career in tech to deliver against the high aspirations they hold for themselves." "But to empower women to truly succeed in tech, we as an industry have an opportunity to do more. This includes putting forth more female role models, eliminating gender bias that starts right from the recruitment process before a woman is even hired, and investing in initiatives that spotlight the industry as attractive and welcoming at all stages, from new entrants up to the most senior leadership," Tans continued. Advertisement The appeal of tech to young women provides significant opportunity to initiate change Booking.com's research reaffirms the desirability of the tech sector to the next generation of talent, and simultaneously highlights where efforts to close the gender gap can begin. Globally, female high school students (43%) and college undergraduates (40%) feel most strongly that a career in tech gives them the freedom to be creative in their role (vs. 33% global average). High school students are especially drawn to tech because it offers them the chance to be successful from a young age (29% vs. 20% among experienced tech professionals), as well as the ability to carve their own career path (30% vs. 22% of experienced tech professionals). Above all, female students want to be inspired by their chosen career, cited by 88% of high school students and 85% of undergraduates. While the technology sector today delivers on several of these fronts, technology companies and the industry at large have a greater opportunity to engage women who aspire to work in the industry, to not only nurture their ambitions and articulate the ways they can excel in the field, but also to eliminate the obstacles that put them off. "The technology industry has tremendous potential to fulfil the criteria cited by women globally when defining their 'dream job' and career aspirations," said Tans. "Helping to unlock this and channel more women into tech is a directive that crosses education, societal development, corporate responsibility and government initiatives. If the tech industry is to retain a balanced future pipeline of talent, we must all work tirelessly to engage women throughout their years of education, to act as positive sources of influence in shaping girls' perceptions of STEM." Bridging the tech gender gap begins with education and parental encouragement When it comes to career choice, learning and education early on has a significant influence on womens eventual career selections, according to the research. Globally, nearly four in five women say their career choices are influenced by the skills they learn in school and in higher education (79%) and by the subjects they studied (77%). In India and China in particular, women are much more likely to follow in the career footsteps of their parents (64% and 52% respectively vs. 40% global average). In addition, when sourcing information on potential career options, women in China and India are also more likely to turn to tech-related organizations they are part of (e.g., Girls Who Code) (36% and 27% respectively vs. 20% global average). These findings may help explain why the participation and graduation rates of girls in STEM education are generally higher in Asian countries compared to the West [1], and also how early action can help positively shape a more balanced tech workforce. [1] - World Economic Forum, Human Capital Report 2016: http://reports.weforum.org/human-capital-report-2016/ Research commissioned by Booking.com and independently conducted among 6,898 respondents (from the UK, USA, France, Brazil, The Netherlands, Germany, China, Australia, India and Spain). Respondents completed an online survey from August 2nd to September 6th, 2018. Click here ( Adobe Acrobat PDF file) to download the research report. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Global Venture Fund joins syndicate of real estate owners and VCs backing the owner-specific project management platform JLL Spark, a division of JLL (NYSE: JLL), announced today an investment in Honest Buildings a market-leading project management platform built for and backed by real estate owners. The new investment will be used to help fuel Honest Buildings' expansion into new international markets and deliver real estate owners with purpose built, enterprise grade platforms that will be instrumental to the future of the real estate industry. JLL Spark's investment closely follows the recent close of Honest Buildings' Series B round of $30M, from industry investors including Brookfield Property Partners, Oxford Properties Group, The Durst Organization, DivcoWest Real Estate Investments, Rudin Ventures, First Capital Realty, QuadReal, Altus Group LTD, and C-III Capital Partners, in addition to leading venture capital funds Thrive Capital, Navitas Capital, Greensoil Building Innovation Fund, The Westly Group, Rockport Capital, and Circle Ventures. Total investment to date is $50 million and is comprised of a strategic group of leading owners and venture investors. JLL uses Honest Buildings' platform to manage total project value for institutional clients by centralizing project data, automating bid management, managing capital and standardizing reporting--resulting in increased transparency. "Investing in best-in-class technology like Honest Buildings is a big part of the JLL Spark Global Venture Fund strategy," said Mihir Shah, Co-CEO of JLL Spark. "We are constantly looking to understand our clients' ecosystems so that we can identify the greatest pain points and determine where technology can have the greatest impact. The level of value Honest Buildings has already brought to some of JLL's most prominent owner clients is extremely high and this investment allows us to further ensure that JLL, and our clients, continue to benefit from transparency into capital and construction projects." Riggs Kubiak, founder and CEO of Honest Buildings, said, "The future of real estate tech requires a deep collaboration and integration between the real estate owners and the technology companies themselves. JLL is one of the largest services firms that we work with focused on owners globally and this partnership will further expand Honest Buildings' global reach. Having JLL Spark on board only further validates that what we're doing is bigger than just buildings -- it's the future of urban progress." This new investment will allow Honest Buildings to invest further in its product to continue to scale the company's impact on progressing the urban landscape by empowering collaborative, data-driven decision making for commercial real estate owners. Additionally, Honest Buildings will continue its global expansion, starting with Australia and the UK. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Amber Rose, fondly known as Muva by her fans, has never been one to shy away from speaking her truth - no matter how uncomfortable it might make some people feel, or how many people she may offend. The model and entrepreneur has recently been making headlines for appearing at her annual transnational protest march, SlutWalk, with a new beau in tow. The blonde haired man was immediately identified as Alexander Edwards, a Def Jam Records executive. Rose was criticized for the move with commentators on social media being quick to point out that not too long ago, Rose was in a relationship with Denver Nuggets baller, Monte Morris. One Instagram user wrote, "Damn. I just got over her and 21 Savage. Now she dating a new dude when I ain't even got use to The Monte Morris dude," while another shared, "I literally blinked my eyes, and she was in a new relationship ." Amber's assistant and close friend Isaiah Jospeph came to Rose's defense reminding readers that she has never been one to abide by convention. "She's not afraid of love," he wrote. "She also doesn't settle." In a comment left on one of Edwards' pictures, Amber revealed that she would have like to have begun dating the executive earlier. "I wish we could have been together this whole time," she wrote. "From the day I met you in 2015, it just wasn't the right time for us I guess, but now ur allllll miiiiine Twin!" she continued. View the comment below. There was a time when Kanye West and Jay-Z were the best of friends. Ye even looked to Jay as a sort of big brother, rapping about it on Graduation. While we did receive some teases of a forthcoming collaborative album between Yeezy and Hov, Watch The Throne 2 may be suffering a major setback considering Kanye and his wife have reportedly been completely written off by Jay and Beyonce. We were all seriously crossing our fingers that the two would link up to fulfill a promise that Ye tweeted out a few weeks ago. It seemed odd for Kanye to be saying that Throne 2 was on the way because we've all heard about his rocky friendship with Jigga. We can probably put that on the backburner for now because there are reports saying that Bey and Jay are "severing all ties" with the Keeping Up couple. According to Daily Mail, the decision to cut off Ye and Kim has to do with their political support of Donald Trump. The Chicago superstar has been incredibly vocal about his support for the President and although Kim has said in the past that she does not agree with his views, she met with him several times in the Oval Office. Things have gotten so bad that the power couple wants absolutely nothing to do with KimYe. Despite their private nature, both Bey and Jay supported Hillary Clinton as she ran against the eventual President. The Carters have just wrapped up their ultra-successful tour and will be enjoying some much-deserved rest. Maybe they'll turn around on Kim and Ye... but probably not. Tekashi 6ix9ine has failed to be diligent with his court appearances and legal authorities are growing impatient with the boisterous rapper. Judge Edwin Novillo has warned 69's legal representation of the consequences he might face for the constant failure to appear in court. The "FEFE" artist skipped out on his court date Wednesday, leading to the judge's stern warning. Novillo told Tekashi's lawyer that an official call for the defendant's arrest will be issued if he bails on his responsibilities again. "Counselor, if your client is not here on Tuesday, [there'll be] a bench warrant." Lawyers tried to justify his absences, claiming that the entertainer had previously missed court this summer after being kidnapped and robbed. His latest instance of being MIA was chalked up to his busy work schedule. Lawyers stated that his professional obligations caused a delay in his return to New York, citing issues with flight schedules. "The defendant was in Dubai, was in the Netherlands, and is trying to come back today." The reasoning did not, however, intimidate the opposing party. The prosecutor shot back a response, pointing to a lack of responsibility. "All that [means] is he should have booked a flight a day early." The "STOOPID" artist is expected to appear in court on Tuesday. A few days ago, Vic Mensa found himself making headlines under morally questionable circumstances. During a performance in the BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher, he reportedly took a shot at the late XXXTentacion, with particular emphasis on his domestic abuse allegations. The fact that X's mother was in attendance did little to help Mensa's cause, and the fallout has since proven volatile. Many in X's inner circle immediately set their sights on Mensa with varying degrees of hostility; Denzel Curry tweeted vocal displeasure, while Trippie Redd straight up challenged Mensa to fisticuffs. Though Mensa previously issued an apology of sorts, he has maintained adamant in his stance against abuse. The ostensible lack of compassion for the late XXXTentacion has kept Mensa's name atop many a sh*t-list, a place he seems surprisingly comfortable occupying. Case in point, Mensa has taken to Instagram to essentially challenge his detractors. "All I'm saying is, I'm on a plane leaving South Korea," says Vic. "Who want to fight me though?" He smiles, embracing the "heel" persona like the wrestlers of yore. "Really though?" He might have a long list of responses to sift through. Given the heat he's since been catching, it's entirely possible that Mensa's return to American soil is akin to Tekken's "The King Of Iron Fist Tournament." Hopefully this situation can dissipate before further violence is reached; either way, Mensa seems to relish in the prospect of a challenge. https://www.instagram.com/p/BovJazGgfyO Water in Texas comes in two quantities: too much or not enough. As Texas population rapidly approaches 30 million, controlling and conserving water become more critical by the day. And with climate change underway, that means preparing for more severe storms and harsher droughts. Texas businesses and governments have spent billions digging channels and pouring concrete to control nature. The American Water Works Association estimates the U.S. will need to spend $1 trillion over the next 25 years just to meet the growing need for drinking water. Much of the spending will focus on Texas, which has a plethora of water problems and the fastest-growing population in the nation. But experts say new technologies offer alternatives to traditional construction or make existing systems more efficient. On HoustonChronicle.com: Climate change is upon us, and businesses need to adjust The second InvestH20 Forum in Houston next week promotes the application of 21st-century knowledge to the ancient problem of water management. Organizers introduce public works officials and investors to university researchers, major corporations and startup companies to identify issues and promote solutions. When you have real and existential threats persistent drought, persistent flooding, cybersecurity issues the more those threats become consistent and financially damaging, the more reasons you have to open up your eyes and realize the way weve always done it is not the way to move forward, said Richard Seline, executive director of AccelerateH2O, the nonprofit behind the conference. Most major public works projects are financed with taxpayer money and tend to rely on 30-year-old civil engineering processes. But Seline said governments should employ public-private partnerships on new projects to deploy new moneysaving technologies. The thing about innovation is that no one wants to be the first one off the high diving board, Seline added. You have to do it where you are mitigating any kind of risk, which is why public-private partnerships are the best way to mitigate the risk. Seline said the conference also asks federal, state and local authorities to dust off their after-action reports from past crises and convinces executives to pull out their lessons-learned to describe to entrepreneurs and investors what they need to prevent the next crisis. AccelerateH2O, a San Antonio-based organization nurturing new water technologies, will then organize governments, companies and investors into teams to follow up on whats discussed. We should be demonstrating technologies at scale and coming up with solutions, he said. AccelerateH20 operates seven demonstration hubs across the state. A facility in El Paso works on desalination and advanced water treatment, while one in Houston focuses on optimizing municipal water systems and flood control. Smart Cover, a San Antonio company, makes a manhole cover that detects the flow of water both above and below it, and the team is developing a new model that measures the water quality as well. Another firm, Opti, has sensors and equipment that can identify, monitor and control floodwater detention and retention ponds to manage the flow. Through a regional demonstration project with AccelerateH2O, the Boston company determined that 70 percent of the potential detention capacity in Greater Houston is on private land that the city and county dont control. We are exploring a public-private partnership model on how to leverage additional retention and detention as an offset against more expensive alternatives to flood control, Seline explained. What starts in the U.S. can quickly spread worldwide. One-third of the planets population does not have access to clean water. About 2.7 billion people a year dont have access to sufficient water supplies for a month or more. Flooding destroys hundreds of thousands of homes every year. On HoustonChronicle.com: Developers lobby for moral hazard, picking our pockets The U.S. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates global spending on water projects will total $6.7 trillion by 2030, especially as sea levels rise and storms worsen due to climate change. Early investors in successful technologies will become wealthy. Ill be conducting an onstage interview with two leading investors at the conference to discuss the potential returns from investing in water management startups. After Hurricane Harvey, I called on Houston to become the worlds leader in water resiliency. And that means not just developing new ways to deal with floods, but also how to maintain industrial production when drought strikes upstream or finding new ways to guarantee plentiful and affordable drinking water. Anyone calling this humanitarian work, though, will miss the boat. Water crises cost the global economy $470 billion a year, according to the World Bank. History shows that when you give people safe, managed water, the economy accelerates dramatically. Smart investors will make sure the best water technologies reach the market and then profit while making the world a better place. Houston-born/Austin-based film director Richard Linklater has a new project but it's not one you're going to be seeing in movie theaters. Instead, the filmmaker is stepping into the political ring with an anti-Ted Cruz commercial called "Tough as Texas" that was released on YouTube Monday night. In it, the man behind the movies "Dazed and Confused," "Last Flag Flying" and "Boyhood" re-creates a scene from his 2011 film "Bernie" with actor Sonny Carl Davis -- playing a stereotypically crusty Texan -- who riffs on why he doesn't think senator Cruz, who's running for re-election against El Paso congressman Beto O'Rourke, is as "tough as Texas." Seated in a diner, Davis -- wearing a cap featuring a cannon and the words "come and take it" -- says derisively, "I mean, come on. If someone called my wife a dog, and said my daddy was in on the Kennedy assassination, I wouldn't be kissing their ass. "You stick a finger in their chest and give 'em a few choice words. Or you drag their ass out by the woodshed and kick their ass, Ted. "Come on, Ted." He's referring to the battle for the Republican nomination in 2016 when then candidate Donald Trump nicknamed fellow candidate Cruz "Lyin' Ted" and said he was going to "spill the beans" on Cruz's wife, Heidi. Also, he posted an unbecoming photo of Heidi on Twitter and claimed that Cruz's father might have had something to do with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In response, Cruz called Trump "a sniveling coward" and demanded that he "leave Heidi the hell alone." In September's debate between Cruz and O'Rourke, Cruz defended his decision to bury the hatchet with president Trump. "After the election in 2016, I faced a choice," he said, according to the Dallas Morning News. "Donald Trump had been elected president we had an opportunity ... to do something extraordinary. ... I could have chosen to make it about myself... to say my feelings are hurt and take my marbles and go home." The ad is sponsored by the Fire Ted Cruz PAC, a group independent from the O'Rourke campaign. It was formed by Marc Stanley, a Dallas lawyer and Democratic donor. "It's not in Beto's DNA to be negative," Stanley told the Dallas Morning News. "That's one of the reasons that we started Fire Ted Cruz PAC, so that we could tell people how awful Ted Cruz is." The commercial echoes a scene in "Bernie" where Davis, playing a customer in a restaurant, breaks down the differences between the "five states of Texas" from the People's Republic of Austin, with its "hairy-legged women and liberal fruitcakes," to the Carcinogenic Coast of Houston and the snobby Mercedes drivers of Dallas. Linklater is no stranger to getting involved in political issues. He has donated $1500 to the O'Rourke campaign so far and last year made a commercial, called "Taking a Seat, Making a Stand," decrying a bill that would have forbidden public school students in Texas from using bathrooms that reflect their gender identity. cary.darling@chron.com Hollywood composers are responsible for no shortage of spooky original music, from Bernard Herrmann and Wojciech Kilars respective scores for Psycho and Bram Stokers Dracula to John Carpenters immortal or is that undead? theme for Halloween. But classical music has been stirring up supernatural forces a lot longer than that. An unsettling interval (the distance between notes on a staff) known as the devils tritone, or diabolus in musica, has been haunting composers and audiences since the Middle Ages. The Dies Irae, a medieval hymn sung in the Catholic funeral Mass, has been quoted by dozens of composers, including Verdi, Holst, Rachmaninoff and Mahler. When Rosemarys Baby was all the rage, Franz Liszts Mephisto Waltz lent its title to a film in which an elderly concert pianist conspires with Satan to transplant his soul into the body of a young music journalist (a pre-M*A*S*H* Alan Alda). Thankfully, the following works arent quite so obviously shoehorned into the plot of their films, but they provide a mood fitting for this time of the year. Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565) By Johann Sebastian Bach Film: The Black Cat (1934) Along with the first few notes of Beethovens Fifth Symphony, the introductory bars of BWV 565 rank as perhaps the most instantly recognizable theme in all of classical music. Jarring and almost unspeakably dark, the music seems to open a direct portal to the netherworld; today, these notes are as identified with Halloween as a jack-o-lantern. Perhaps only in Fantasia, where its presented as absolute music, is the nine-minute piece stripped of any sinister context. By then, though, it was probably already too late. BWV 565 left an indelible impression in The Black Cat, when Boris Karloffs villainous architect soon revealed as the leader of a satanic cult performs it on the organ. Even in a film crowded with music by Liszt, Brahms, Schumann and Beethoven, something about Bach taps straight into his diabolical motivations. Black Angels By George Crumb Film: The Exorcist (1973) The opening chord of Jimi Hendrixs Purple Haze brought diabolus in musica to rock n roll. Three years later, American avant-garde composer George Crumb created this piece for electric string quartet a series of three threnodies, or lamentations to evoke the terrible suffering and inhumanity embodied in the Vietnam War. The opening subsection, Night of the Electric Insects, is rife with diabolus in musica, which Crumb uses liberally to create an atmosphere of pure evil and unmistakable dread. In The Exorcist, Electric Insects appears as the malevolent entity possessing Reagan McNeil (Linda Blair) first manifests itself to idealistic priest Father Karras (Jason Miller). The words Help Me appear on her abdomen as the shrill, skittering strings quickly threaten to bring on actual physical discomfort, a dead-on musical depiction of a young girl literally crawling out of her skin. Symphonie Fantastique By Hector Berlioz Film: The Shining (1980) A giant of the Romantic era, French-born Hector Berlioz was still a young man when he wrote Symphonie Fantastique. Completed in 1830, it remains, arguably, his best-known work, due in part to the frequent cinematic usage of three of its five movements: the fanciful A Ball; thrilling March to the Scaffold; and hair-raising finale Dream of a Witches Sabbath, which climaxes in the forceful, forbidding tones of the Dies Irae. For Stanley Kubricks film based on Stephen Kings novel about a remote Colorado hotel, electronic musicians and A Clockwork Orange composers Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind ran Berliozs Dies Irae through a unique instrument that combined a Moog synthesizer and Circon pitch-controlling device. Their viscous, baritone adaptation opens the film over spectacular helicopter-shot footage of the Rockies, perfectly foreshadowing the isolation and terror to come. Danse Macabre By Camille Saint-Saens Film: Tombstone (1993) Inspired and quickly championed by Liszt, Camille Saint-Saenss 1874 symphonic poem has long outlived its naysayers; one contemporary critic declared it hideous and disgusting. Structured as a grand waltz (with a little Dies Irae sprinkled in), the roughly seven-minute work stars a solo violin as the Grim Reaper, who begins this Dance of Death with none other than diabolus in musica. A clattering xylophone represents Deaths skeletal followers. Curiously, its usage onscreen has jumped sharply since this modern Western starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp. Danse Macabre accompanies a traveling thespian troupes re-enactment of the Faust legend before a trigger-happy crowd. When the Mephistopheles mask lifts to reveal auburn-haired actress Josephine Marcus (Dana Delany), Wyatts reaction Ill be damned lets Val Kilmers Doc Holliday squeeze off one of his choicest lines: You may indeed if you get lucky. A Night on Bald Mountain By Modest Mussorgsky Film: Natural Born Killers (1994) Mussorgsky was a talented but troubled peer of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, but Night on Bald Mountain did not catch on until five years after his premature death at age 42. Likely based on a Nikolai Gogol short story about the midsummer Slavic celebration of St. Johns Day (and its pagan counterpart, Kupala Night), his harrowing symphonic poem reportedly took Rimsky-Korsakov two years to arrange into a version suitable for performance, but those efforts paid off. An immediate success after its 1886 premiere, Bald Mountain gained even wider exposure thanks to the dancing demons in Walt Disneys Fantasia (1940). More recently, Oliver Stone used its shuddering strings and terrifying trombones to accent the bloody riot that enables Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelsons celebrity mass murderers to escape from prison, using Robert Downey Jr.s oily TV journalist as a human shield. The "Little Couple" stars have, at long last, reportedly sold their Houston homeafter nearly a year on the market and 10 (yep, 10!) price cutsfor a mere $899,000. The back story: In September 2017, Bill Klein and Jen Arnold, stars of the long-running TLC reality show, had put their five-bedroom, six-bath Houston mansion on the market, since they'd moved to St. Petersburg, FL, so that Dr. Arnold could start a new gig at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. At that point, they had high hopes on the price, set at $1,225,000. Now Playing: TLC's "The Little Couple" Returns With 2-Hour Premiere Tonight At 8PM ET Video: PeopleTime But as months passed and no buyer appeared, the house underwent a series of price cuts. According to Radar Online, the house finally landed a buyerfor $326,000 less than the original asking price. So why did the "Little Couple" home sale fall so short of expectations? 'Little Couple' house: What went wrong For starters, in case you're wondering if the home sat on the market because it was configured specifically for little people, rest assured, it had been renovated for people of standard height before hitting the market. This probably cost the couple a pretty pennyand may have tempted them to make the cardinal mistake of overpricing their home in an attempt to recoup those costs. "It was smart to redo the home for 'normal'-size people, but you can't expect a buyer to pay for all of your work," says Kathryn Bishop, a real estate agent at Keller Williams in Studio City, CA. "That's probably what the sellers wanted." Not only was this home priced too high, but things went from bad to worse once the area was hit by Hurricane Harvey. Even though the house wasn't damaged in the storm, many others nearby were, and this had ripple effects on the whole market. "This seemed like the bad combination of an overpriced home on the market and a major hurricane converging at the same time," says Florida real estate agent Cara Ameer. "Once a major storm hits an area, it can put the brakes on peoples interest and ability to buy. Some pending home sales likely stalled or fell apart, thus causing a domino effect in the real estate pipeline." Hurricane and pricing issues aside, the house itself had problems, too. For example, the swimming pool, while gorgeous, is an amenity many home buyers just don't want because of its safety and maintenance issues. Plus the placement may have given buyers pause. "I had a place where the owners had a pool in the center of the home, like this one," says Bruce Ailion, a real estate agent and attorney in Atlanta. "It took forever to sell and also had multiple price drops. The pool was surrounded by the home walls, so the sun only fell on the pool and patio for a short period of time. So water would stay on the patio longer and algae and mold would grow." The 'Little Couple' real estate take-home lesson? If the "Little Couple" stars have learned anything from their home-selling struggles in Houston, it's that you should never assume that star power alone can be enough to ratchet up a home's price. "For a home like this, with a celebrity factor that was totally move-in ready, pricing on the higher side probably seemed like the right thing to do at the time they put it on the market," concludes Ameer. "However, given the proximity to storms and such, you always have to think about pricing relative to the reality of that situation." In fact, as it happened, the "Little Couple" stars' new home in St. Petersburg was situated right in the path of Hurricane Irma, which forced them to evacuate their new home shortly after moving in. It prompted Arnold to joke, "Its getting a little weird about hurricanes following me. My family calls me a hurricane magnet. That may not be great for real estate, but maybe it could set the stage for a nail-biting new season of their TLC show. The post 'Little Couple' Stars Finally Sell Their Houston Home for a Tiny PriceHere's What Went Wrong appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Women are likely to play a decisive role in the coming midterm elections. Polls suggest a gender gap between the parties that could easily cost Republicans control of Congress. A recent CNN poll showed that just 33 percent of female respondents said they were planning to support Republican candidates next month, whereas two-thirds were inclined to favor Democrats. Republican leaders, most of whom are men, have taken note of this problem, and are disappointed in women for creating it. In their view, it would be incredibly selfish for Republican women to abandon the party, considering the circumstances. Think of your son. Think of your husband, President Donald Trump said last week at a Mississippi campaign rally at which he also mocked Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who had accused his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, of sexual assault decades earlier. In my experience, most women do think about their sons. My mother, who has four sons, also thinks about her daughter. The same is true of my father. And since Republican leaders are worried about men being unfairly maligned, its ironic that theyve given the impression that men, as a group, are incapable of caring about women and recognizing their humanity. Some men are capable of understanding why I find it objectionable that Republican leaders displayed so much contempt for women during the course of Kavanaughs confirmation process. Even before Ford came forward, it was clear that women voters would be a major factor in this years midterms, and yet Republican leaders seem to think that these women have absolutely no leverage, as a group. The explanation may be that as a practical matter, Republican women arent in a great negotiating position. American politics is extremely polarized, as we all know. And at the risk of sounding reductive a defining characteristic of most Republican voters is that they actually are Republicans, or conservatives, rather than Democrats. That being the case, the influence that Republican women might wield over their partys leaders is constrained by the fact that they would prefer not to defect. Beyond that, dissent isnt exactly encouraged in Republican circles. In fact, the only Republican senator who voted against Kavanaugh, Alaskas Lisa Murkowski, may be formally reprimanded by her state party for doing so. Objectively, that seems like an insane thing to do. Murkowski hasnt been accused of any kind of misconduct. She just came to a different conclusion than her Republican colleagues, several of whom had, by their own account, struggled with the question too. With that said, its actually not unprecedented for a Republican leader to be reprimanded on the basis of disagreement. In 2017, the Republican Party of Texas formally censured Joe Straus, the outgoing speaker of the Texas House, over his refusal to toe the party line on issues such as the bathroom bill that defines access to public restrooms. And many Republican voters, I think, are sympathetic to the arguments that conservatives who openly criticize the party, or its leaders, are ultimately letting down the cause, if not emboldening an increasingly aggressive left. And yet Kavanaughs confirmation process elicited a lot of grossly misogynistic commentary, some of which came from the president. And some Republican women were troubled by that, even if they were also troubled by the notion that their sons and husbands might, in theory, be falsely accused of sexual assault for no apparent reason. Those women may go on to vote for Republicans next month, and I wouldnt criticize them for that. In fact, I would advise Democrats against leveling such criticism, even if they feel very strongly that Republican women are voting against their own interests; such assumptions are condescending and obnoxious. But I would remind Republican women that they do have leverage over their party. Thats just a matter of electoral arithmetic. And the Republican leaders who sneeringly dismissed many of their concerns as selfish, or hysterical, arent always allergic to identity politics. In fact, when men make such claims, they often get results, rather than a shower of vitriol. Kavanaughs confirmation is arguably an example of that, but there are others. Last month, the Fort Bend County GOP apologized for its decision to use Ganesha, a Hindu deity, in a political ad; its fun to trigger the liberals, perhaps, but its risky to offend Hindu voters in Texass 22nd Congressional District. It would also be risky to offend Latino Republicans, at the moment, since several of the Democratic statewide candidates are within striking distance of the Republican incumbents. And Ive been mildly haunted by a question one such friend asked me, a few weeks ago, as we were discussing the polls. Do you think the GOP has learned its lesson? he asked. Realistically, I dont. But I was heartened by the question, at least; and have thought about it often over these past few weeks, as Republican leaders told women, once again, to turn the other cheek. erica.grieder@chron.com twitter.com/ericagrieder A cleaning crew member tried to escape a Verizon store last month when three men broke into the business, dragged the employee into a back room and punched the employee in the face, according to surveillance video released this week by the Houston Police Department. VIOLENT ROBBERY: Surveillance video shows Houston robbery suspect pistol-whip store clerk The suspects, whose faces were all concealed behind masks and pullover hoodies, broke into a locked Verizon store around 3:50 a.m. Sept. 21 in the 10900 block of the Gulf Freeway. Police said the cleaning crew had locked the doors when they heard a loud noise and saw someone breaking into the business. The two cleaning employee ran toward a back exit, but only one escaped, police said. The three suspects caught the other employee and dragged the person back into the store. At least one suspect was seen on video footage striking the employee in the face. SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE: Armed suspects in violent pizza store robbery caught on camera At least two suspects appeared to be carrying a duffel bag and a crowbar. However, they were unable to open the safe in the business and escaped empty handed, police said. Police are asking anyone with information about the suspect to call Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713-222-TIPS (8477) or submit information online at www.crime-stoppers.org. 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 The International Space Station gallery was dimly lit as gaggles of people laughed and camera flashes reflected off display cases chock-full of memorabilia spanning two decades. It's fitting that Victor Murray's party Thursday celebrating 50 years at NASA was held in this part of Space Center Houston, the museum side of Johnson Space Center. The number of space station astronauts he's kept safe over the years are seemingly countless. But frankly, it would have been just as fitting if his party stretched into every nook and cranny of the museum's 250,000 square-foot facility. Over the last five decades, Murray has worked on every major space exploration program since Apollo. He worked a 21-hour shift before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the moon in 1969. When Apollo 13's oxygen tank exploded in 1970 forcing a mission abort and putting the astronauts on board in grave danger Murray and his colleagues made sure the fix that brought them home would withstand the extreme conditions of space. He was there when the first space shuttle launched in 1981, and he watched as the last space shuttle returned to Earth in 2011. He was around for the 1986 assembly of the Soviet Union's Mir, the first space station in orbit, and had a front row seat to the construction of the space station, a magnificent engineering feat that began almost a decade later, in 1998. But the 74-year-old isn't done yet. "I want to see the first astronaut on Mars," he said. Humble Beginnings Murray was just a kid in Barbados when the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union began in 1957 with the launch of the Sputnik satellite. At the time, his Third World home had no televisions, he said, so he had no idea that the countdown to a human touching the moon had begun. But even without this knowledge, his lifelong and seemingly unattainable dream of flying already was fast-tracking him to a career in spaceflight operations. "Without knowing any better, I liked the fact that you could get on a plane and get somewhere quicker," he said. "It's just fantastic." Murray was 19 when he boarded his first flight, destined for New York and a career in the Air Force. He wanted his own set of wings. Luckily, he enjoyed every minute of it. "It was amazing," he said, the thought of that first flight lighting up his eyes and bringing a smile to his face almost six decades later. "I was in awe of everything that happened." Between 1963 and 1967, Murray flew on planes, jumped out of planes and even trained flying personnel for the physiological hazards mainly hypoxia, a deficiency of oxygen in the body associated with flying. But as his Air Force career came to a close, he wasn't sure what the next step would be. Then, someone he served with in the Air Force suggested Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the likes of Alan Shepard, Pete Conrad and John Glenn were putting their lives on the line in America's quest to get to the moon. It took some convincing, but Murray eventually decided to pack up his car and drive east from where he was stationed in California to the hot, humid and unknown land of southeast Texas. History was about to be made. And Murray was about to play an integral role in it. Safety first Before astronauts can rocket out of the Earth's atmosphere, they first must get comfortable working in the inhospitable environment of space. They need to get used to the weight and feel of the suits they'll use on their spacewalks: how long it takes to walk several feet, how to grip tools through bulky gloves, and how to respond to any potential emergencies on their jaunt outside the spacecraft. And starting in 1968, Murray helped astronauts do that by operating the center's Altitude Chambers, which are used for development, certification and testing of human life support systems in space. The chambers "simulate the pressure of space on the whole flight profile, including the suits," he said. "So we go through the whole activity as far as exertion and working with the tools or whatever they plan to do." When Murray first arrived at Johnson, the lunar lander was in a chamber as Armstrong and Aldrin practiced for their first steps on the moon, he said. It was his first brush with astronauts. But it wouldn't be his last. "You do get to know them quite well," he said. "You become a part of their family and if there's a problem on a flight, that becomes a part of you." That's why Murray and his team worked 21 hours straight before the 1969 lunar landing, making sure all the systems would work perfectly and everyone would come home safe. "We were running profiles over and over again in the chamber," he said. "The next morning, watching them step out of the lander brought tears to my eyes: to know we did all that work and that happened." It's also why, when an oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13 in 1970, he and his altitude chamber team worked so hard to bring the astronauts home. "We were praying," he said. "Since we were in the chambers, we were doing all the testing that the engineers came up with to fix it. We had to figure out how to get it done in the chamber." Murray's hard work doesn't go unnoticed by the astronauts. During his 50th anniversary party on Thursday, astronaut Reid Wiseman presented Murray with the Silver Snoopy Award, the astronauts' personal award presented to fewer than 1 percent of the aerospace workforce each year. "Dozens of astronauts and test subjects owe a debt of gratitude for our safety and well-being to you for your constant vigilence and dedication," Wiseman read from a commendation letter that accompanies the award. "This is our personal thanks for your outstanding support of the space program." Wiseman, who flew on the space station in 2014, continued: "Decades of safe operations at JSC's vacuum chambers are due, in large measure, to your leadership." The Silver Snoopy presented to Murray on Thursday flew on Wiseman's space station mission. 'A space cowboy' For as long as John Piwonka has known him, Murray has driven beat up Mercedes-Benzes, tooting his horn playfully at friends on the Houston center's campus. He's had a charismatic smile that never turns downward and a habit of dropping in on people, unannounced, for a quick chat. "He's neat," Piwonka said at the Thursday party. "He's just a special guy." Piwonka only worked with Murray at NASA's Houston center for about a year in the 1960s, but the two have remained friends for five decades, sharing a love for the Caribbean Islands and, admittedly, Caribbean rum. It's not surprising, he said, that Murray has kept working all these years: he loves the job. Piwonka retired in 2012. Neither Piwonka nor Dan Tran who currently works with Murray in the laboratory where personnel analyze everything electrical that goes to the space station to ensure it doesn't interfere with the avionics can pinpoint exactly what makes Murray so special. "He's just Vic," they said. But Tran said he wouldn't have missed Murray's party for the world. "He's very friendly, considerate and generous," said Tran, who has worked at Johnson for 38 years. "But he's also very careful. He makes sure that everything is safe." Tran isn't sure Murray will ever retire. Neither is Murray. "I'm asked at least once a week when I'm retiring," Murray said. "Fifty years in one place that I've enjoyed ... and my health is still good. Where else can I go?" He's excited about the Orion program the spacecraft that will send humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years and the way it has been reinvigorated by the current administration. But he's more excited about what comes after the moon: that Red Planet 48 million miles away from Earth. "Personally, I'm ready to go to Mars," he said. "But if the moon is a stairway to going to Mars, then I'm all for going back to the moon." Since taking office last year, President Donald Trump has pushed for the U.S. to return to the moon as a stepping toward for Mars. NASA currently anticipates that humans will step foot on the lunar surface again in the late 2020s, with a trip to Mars in the 2030s. Murray's fingers are constantly crossed that he'll still be at NASA then. "I'm still a space cowboy," he said. "I still like the program, I still like what I do. I hope I'm around to see it the first astronaut on Mars." Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. WASHINGTON The nation's partisan food fight is coming to Houston next week when Democratic lawyer Michael Avenatti, best known for suing President Donald Trump on behalf of porn star Stormy Daniels, headlines a fundraiser for the Harris County Democratic Party. Avenatti, most recently in the news for representing Julie Swetnick, one of three women who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, is scheduled to speak to local Democrats next Tuesday at Poitin, a high-end Houston restaurant. AUSTIN The top criminal justice official in Texas has a mug shot and is facing a trio of felony charges this fall, as he asks voters to re-elect him. Attorney General Ken Paxtons felony white collar crime case has stretched on for more three years as Paxton says he is innocent and calls his grand jury indictment a witch hunt initiated by his foes. While Paxton says he wants a quick trial, his legal maneuvering has caused some of the delays, as have his allies. For example, his attorneys appealed twice after his motion to dismiss the charges was denied by a judge, losing both appeals and delaying the trial for more than a year. Critics of Paxton, a conservative Republican known for suing the Obama administration, contend that he has taken great pains to avoid going to trial a claim that Paxtons campaign team denies. The idea that this is General Paxton stalling his own case, its just not, said Jordan Berry, Paxtons campaign spokesman. Theres multiple times along this way that they have asked to go to trial and they were not granted that, and it turns out it is not in his hands. It is in the prosecutors and the judges hands. Now the criminal charges are the centerpiece for Paxtons opponent, Democrat Justin Nelson, an Austin attorney who brings them up every chance he gets. For subscribers: 2018 voter guide If Mr. Paxton really believed in his innocence, he would have pushed for a resolution before voters went to the polls because voters dont want a crook as Texas attorney general, Nelson said. Paxton is still considered the favorite, though one summer poll showed a tight race. No Democrat has won statewide election in Texas since 1994. The criminal case has not diminished Paxtons support from the Republican Party of Texas and hes sharing the stage this fall with GOP heavyweights such as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott. The attorney general didnt even garner a primary opponent. Had there been any sense that he was dramatically affected by these claims, obviously there would have been, said James Dickey, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. Paxton stands accused of lying to his friends and colleagues including a fellow state lawmaker about earning a $100,000 commission by convincing them to invest in a North Texas startup tech company that purported to sell revolutionary computer servers. He faces two first-degree felony charges of securities fraud and one third-degree felony charge of failing to register as an investment adviser. A year before he was indicted, Paxton admitted to illegally soliciting potential clients without registering with the state when he signed a reprimand and paid a $1,000 fine to the Texas State Securities Board. Whether signing that reprimand amounts to an admission of guilt will be up to a jury to decide. A case like no other A grand jury in Collin County indicted Paxton just months after he took office in 2015. Since then, the case has bounced to three different counties, been handled by three judges and set for trial three different times, only to be canceled. The shuffle started with the recusal of Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis, who declined to prosecute the case because he is a friend of Paxtons. The district attorneys recusal set into motion the appointment of Houston-area lawyers to serve as special prosecutors charged with building a case against Paxton. But Paxtons allies on the Collin County Commissioners Court have choked off funding for the court-appointed prosecutors, saying the case is costing taxpayers too much. Four out of five members of the commissioners court sponsored a fundraiser for Paxton in 2013 during his first bid for attorney general. Members of the court say their past support of Paxton does not constitute an ethical problem in handling issues related to his criminal case. Nevertheless, the judge moved the case to Houston from Collin County after learning of the 2013 fundraiser. The states highest criminal court has also spent the better part of a year mulling issues related to Paxtons case. The Court of Criminal Appeals is considering how much the special prosecutors should be paid for their work. The first degree criminal securities fraud charges each carry a possible prison sentence of five to 99 years and a fine up to $10,000. Failing to register as an investment adviser, a third degree felony, is punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a fine of no more than $10,000. A federal judge threw out similar civil charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a win for Paxton. White collar crime cases such as Paxtons tend to get resolved within a year or two, said Laurie Levenson, a criminal law and white-collar crime professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. But delays of three years or more are not uncommon, she said. Its easy to do if thats your motivation, she said about delaying a case. If Paxton is re-elected, Levenson said its possible the case may still be unresolved when his next term ends in 2022. Anythings possible. The scenario might be that you actually get a trial and then you have an appeal that sends it right back, Levenson said. Democrat points to health care lawsuit Paxton has hardly acknowledged Nelson and has declined to debate him. On the campaign trail, Paxton has appeared at events teaming up with Republicans like Cruz and Abbott, urging voters to support all GOP candidates including his wife Angela Paxton, who is running for state Senate. While on the campaign trail, Paxton also stresses how his office is cracking down on human trafficking and sniffing out voter ID fraud, said Berry, his spokesman. This summer, Nelson has also been trying to publicize another court case involving Paxton a lawsuit to take down the Affordable Care Act. The lawsuit, backed by 19 other state attorneys general, would eliminate protections for people needing health care coverage for preexisting conditions. Those protections are the most popular provision of Obamas signature health care law. Nelson is encouraging people to record testimonials of how they or their families would be affected if Paxton and the attorney generals office succeed in striking the law down. But more than anything, Nelson is hammering Paxton for his fraud indictment, over and over. We are hiring a lawyer for the state of Texas and you wouldnt hire a doctor who has the flu. You wouldnt hire an accountant who cant add, said Nelson. We need someone who will enforce the law in the state of Texas, not someone who is going to break it. Leslie Plaza Johnson, Freelancer / Contributor Not all midterm elections are alike. Sometimes the issues are so arcane or the candidates so unattractive that its difficult to get excited, but not this year. Texans on Nov. 6 will choose a governor, a U.S. senator, 36 members of the U.S. House, and in Houston decide whether firefighters and police officers should be paid the same. You wont want to miss this election, so dont forget that this is the last day to register. Record voter registration suggests the public knows the stakes are high. Voter rolls since the states last midterm election in 2014 have grown to 15.6 million people, including 1.6 million new voters, according to Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos. A 400,000-person increase in voters since March far exceeds the rate of 100,000 new voters a year that the state added between 2002 and 2014. Few counties in the United States boast a longer general election ballot than Harris County. Voters here will be asked to select a candidate in 92 contested races, from the U.S. Senate at the top, to justice of the peace at the bottom. These races are all important and deserve voters attention and consideration, but most wont get it. If the last general election is instructive, nearly two-thirds of us will vote a straight ticket, according to the Center for Public Political Studies at Austin Community College. We may do it this time because were angry with President Donald Trump, or perhaps fed up with Democrats in the U.S. Senate. And straight-ticket voting is quick, easy, and simple. But what straight-ticket voters may not appreciate is that 78 of the 92 races on the ballot are judicial contests, where party affiliation should have little to do with qualifications, and in which straight-ticket voting has the potential to cause what one judicial candidate has called collateral damage. Consider, for example, the race for the 228th Criminal District Court, where a fine Republican judge, Marc Carter, is running against a little-known candidate, Democrat Frank Aguilar. While most of the candidates for these judgeships are qualified, whether Democrat or Republican, voters seeking to research the race for the 228th can discover little about Aguilar. The editorial board was unable to locate his website. A Google search brought up a 2010 ABC story that the candidate, at that time a magistrate judge, caused bodily injury to a person with whom he had a dating relationship. Aguilar was later acquitted, but a favorable result in a trial for assault doesnt mean that a candidate has what the voters want for a criminal district judge. Candidates who arent transparent enough to list their credentials on an easily discoverable social media platform have no business holding a position that involves public trust. In contrast, Carter whos been on the bench since 2003 has a very public record starting with a distinguished background in the military. The Thurgood Marshall School of Law graduate was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps, achieved the rank of captain and was responsible for theater-level intelligence-gathering operations in Europe before resigning his commission. He joined the Harris County District Attorneys office before opening a private practice. Most importantly though, Carter who manages a veterans court was among the first of the Harris County judges to embrace the diversionary court system, which keeps defendants out of jail and provides treatment for their underlying problems. Hes not a lock em up and throw away the key kind of judge. Hes the kind of judge youd want if your military son or daughter came back from serving our country with PTSD and committed a crime. Carter is the kind of judge who granted probation to a 42-year-old man, charged with possession of hydrocodone, facing a sentence of 25 years to life. Joseph Dowell had gone through a rehabilitation program during his 32 months in the Harris County Jail and claimed that he had turned his life around. A few months later, Dowell was still on track for recovery when he died trying to get to his job at the city of Houston Public Works Department during Hurricane Harvey. We can say with the authority that comes from hundreds of hours spent on this endorsement process that Democrats this year have, in most races, fielded a strong slate of judicial candidates. This isnt usually the case, because for the past several decades, Republicans usually win during midterm elections, and qualified Democrats dont bother tossing their hat in the ring. Unfortunately, not all judicial candidates are qualified. If Harris County Democrats choose to vote straight ticket, Carter will be part of collateral damage of that collective decision. Two decades of Carters institutional knowledge could be lost. So channel your anger productively. Volunteer to take a neighbor to vote. Sign up to work the voting booths in your precinct or man the phones at your local party office. Take a list of judicial candidates into the voting booth with you, whether its the Chronicles list or some other organization that vets candidates on a non-partisan basis. But whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, dont pull that straight-ticket lever unless you want to help elect some unqualified judges in Harris County. White is a member of the Houston Chronicle editorial board. Balagia is a practicing attorney and retired general counsel of ExxonMobil who volunteers as an adviser to the board in judicial races. Another wave of family separations is looming if the Trump administration has its way. This time, hundreds of thousands of marriages could be torn apart. The Department of Homeland Security recently announced a plan to radically reshape the legal immigration system by expanding its ability to deny permanent residence (commonly known as a green card) to anyone suspected of using taxpayer-funded safety net programs. Economically, this whole approach is nonsensical. Immigrants pay much more in taxes than they receive in public benefits. But one of the most egregious consequences of this public charge rule is deeply personal: Each year it will force nearly 200,000 married couples to either leave the United States or spend their lives apart. This isnt hypothetical, nor is it limited to people who actually use public welfare programs. The administration will begin denying green cards to anyone it judges likely to use public benefits at any point in the future, shutting the door on hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants who will never touch a safety net in their lives. Im president of a company, Boundless Immigration, which helps thousands of married couples obtain green cards each year. Our new analysis based on customer data shows the denial policy would effectively shut out more than half of the 400,000 people who receive marriage green cards each year as spouses of either U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Imagine a couple like Dave and Sarah (actual couple, names changed). Dave is a U.S. citizen, born in Massachusetts. Sarah was born in South Korea and came to the United States to study medicine. They met in college, fell in love and got married. At this early stage in their careers, they dont make much money. In fact, under the terms of Sarahs student visa, shes not allowed to work at all. Dave can sponsor Sarah for a spousal green card as long as he can demonstrate sufficient financial resources to support her defined by Congress as 125 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (currently $20,575 for most couples without children). Thats an objective standard most couples can meet. Under the new public charge rule, however, Daves income alone wont be enough to satisfy DHS. For the first time, green card applicants like Sarah will be subject to an entirely new and higher household-income test: as much as 250 percent of the poverty line (currently $41,150 for most couples without children). Remember, Sarah isnt allowed to work under her student visa. The only way she can achieve a middle-class income is by getting a green card, but the only way she can get a green card is by having a middle-class income. How many couples will be ensnared by this Catch-22? Boundless Immigration studied customer data and estimated the likely impact of the public-charge rule based on applicants current visa status, employment and household income. This analysis found that some 31 percent of foreign-born spouses are unemployed when they apply for a marriage-based green card. Again, because student visas, visitor visas and other common visas generally do not authorize employment in the United States, these spouses would be in an impossible situation prevented from legally working yet required by DHS to earn an income. In addition, some 22 percent of foreign-born spouses hold jobs that would likely not meet the new middle-class income threshold proposed by DHS. This includes everything from cooks and factory workers to tutors and teaching assistants and, of course, the aspiring doctors who earn little but upon whom our health care system relies. Therefore, more than half 53 percent of foreign-born spouses who are currently eligible for green cards could suddenly find themselves shut out if the DHS public charge rule is ultimately enacted and strictly enforced. Even if DHS ultimately decides to allow both spouses to pool their income to meet the new threshold, 36 percent of couples could still find themselves unable to qualify for a marriage green card. These results are in line with recent studies from the Migration Policy Institute, which analyzed census data to conclude that more than half of all family-based green card applicants would be denied under the public charge rules unprecedented income requirement. Moreover, this new hurdle would have disproportionate effects based on national origin and ethnicity, blocking 71 percent applicants from Mexico and Central America, 69 percent from Africa and 52 percent from Asia. Only 36 percent from Europe, Canada and Oceania would be blocked. Lets be clear: This is an end run around Congress, which more than 20 years ago chose to establish a bright-line income requirement for green card sponsors and last year overwhelmingly rejected a Trump administration plan to slash legal immigration. By issuing a new regulation that imposes a raft of new income requirements on would-be immigrants, DHS isnt simply following the law. Its attempting to create new law out of whole cloth, wrenching apart the marriages of some 200,000 Americans and would-be Americans each year. Make no mistake: This is family separation, plain and simple. Rand is co-founder and President of Boundless Immigration , a technology company that helps families navigate the immigration system. He is a former assistant director for entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Thousands of student voter registrations at Prairie View A&M could have the wrong address listed, causing confusion on campus as to whether the registrations are valid. The problem goes back to how students get their mail. The university does not have individual mailboxes for students on campus. There is a single post office box for all students in the five university dormitories. So, getting students to list a specific mailing address on registration applications was difficult. According to Waller County Elections Administrator Christy Eason, a group of officials at the university, the county and the local political parties agreed in 2016 to have students write down 700 or 100 University Drive as their residence when registering to vote. One is the address for the university, the other is the address for the campus bookstore. In the March primary election, however, Eason noticed a problem: the 700 University Drive address puts students in the City Hall precinct, not the one on campus. The compromise from 2016 was sending voters to the wrong polling places. "So, in this upcoming election, anyone who's registered at those addresses can vote on campus," Eason said. "But they'll have to fill out a change of address form so we can make sure they're sent to the right precinct in the future." Waller County Democratic Club President and County Judge candidate Denise Mattox said she worried the statement cards will cause too much confusion. "The change of address cards won't work. There's hundreds of students registered this way and that could mean long lines. It needs to be fixed," Mattox said. Rumors were flying on Tuesday's registration deadline. A Facebook post claimed thousands of registrations were destroyed or rejected because of the address issue. Lisa Seger, the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 3 took to Twitter. "Waller County - whose history of disenfranchising the student body at Prairie View A&M University is so legendary that its efforts were brought to the Supreme Court in 1979, is at it again," Seger tweeted. She said the statement of address forms are a barrier to discourage students from voting. Eason acknowledged Waller County's "horrible history" regarding voting rights, but wanted to assure the public that she is not trying to disenfranchise anyone. "We want to work together with the university on this," Eason said. She said she has reached out to student groups on campus and is planning "change-of-address" drives between now and the election. "This was done in good will, not to keep students from voting," Eason said. More than 8,700 students are enrolled at the historically black university. The university saw a record number of freshman enroll this fall. The address confusion did not discourage students from lining up to register to vote Tuesday afternoon. Tariah Shaw and Lauryn Williams are sophomores at Prairie View A&M. The two 19-year-olds were eager to cast their first ballots in November. "It's important as black women that we let our opinions be heard," Shaw said. The mail situation makes a lot of simple things difficult, Williams said, adding the first two weeks of the fall semester were chaotic as everyone's textbook orders arrived. "It's not going to be easy to know where our voter registration cards are if they're all sent to the same place," Williams said. The Houston Chronicle is participating in Electionland, a ProPublica project that will cover access to the ballot and problems that prevent people from exercising their right to vote during the 2018 election. This story is part of that project. You can help us by signing up now.Text VOTE to 81380. You can also WhatsApp at us at +1 850 909-8683 or reach us through Facebook Messenger here: http://m.me/electionland matt.dempsey@chron.com Twitter.com/mizzousundevil New Zealand has far outstripped US legislative progress to date, said Dr Namie. In addressing the PM, Dr Namie said: Your personal legislative and advocacy record features social justice campaigns and you speak of building a compassionate government. You certainly understand the needs of children. Child abuse in both our countries has long been taboo. Domestic violence, too, was criminalised after long fights by for protections against abuse, said Dr Namie. It is no longer ethical to support those who batter others. Yet, when abusers are on the payroll, use workplaces to verbally abuse, threaten, humiliate, intimidate or sabotage another person of any rank, abusers can count on employer and legal support. Dr Namie added that this is true in both the US and New Zealand. Why the tsunami in Indonesia struck without warning by Doug Bock Clark October 04,2018 | Source: The New Yorker Fourteen years ago, Indonesia suffered one of the deadliest disasters in modern history, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake that unleashed a sixty-foot wall of water that killed approximately a hundred and seventy thousand people, many of them in the northern province of Aceh. In the years following, the government invested in preparing for the next catastrophe. In 2008, a disaster-management board was created, which, with the help of foreign governments, including Germany and the United States, built an early-warning system for tsunamis, made up of twenty-two sensor-laden buoys, which cost half a million dollars each and went online the following year. Soon, schools of fish began gathering in the electric fields emitted by the buoys computers, which drew fishermen, some of whom scrapped the equipment for copper wiring. Other sensors fell into disrepair after funding cuts led to poor maintenance. In 2016, an earthquake in western Indonesia, near Aceh, revealed that none of the buoys worked anymore. I moved to Aceh seven years after the tsunami, and one of the first things my hosts did after I arrived was show me an escape route to the hills. Though an influx of international aid had mostly rebuilt the city, I soon learned that its peoplealmost all of whom had lost friends or family to the wavehad not recovered so easily. Even slight tremors could trigger weeping flashbacks. When one of my friends disappeareda university student who had seen his mother and sister swept awayit was eventually presumed that he had committed suicide. The Acehnese wisdom about the danger lying beneath their feet was hard-earned. Last Friday evening, about fifty miles north of the Indonesian city of Palu, the United States Geological Survey recorded a 7.5-magnitude earthquake along a fault six miles beneath the surface of the island of Sulawesi. Experts have suggested that the earthquake triggered a submarine landslide that forced colossal quantities of water into a long, narrow bay, which channelled it directly at Palu, where the citys three hundred and eighty thousand inhabitants were enjoying the end of the week, many of them preparing for a beach festival. A video posted to social media showed a man atop a multi-story parking deck yelling desperately to people on the street and beach below, Run up here! Theres a tsunami! Run! Run! All but a few ignored his pleas, as three enormous wavesthe tallest of which would later be estimated at twenty feetthundered across the nearby bay. The first wave swept a row of single-story buildings off their foundations and swamped moving cars. As a second wave reared, the man on the parking deck wept and screamed, Heaven forbid, Allah! Allah! Then he turned and fled. The earthquake and the tsunami reduced large portions of Palu to wastelands of pulverized concrete and twisted metal roofing. Because little heavy equipment was available, rescuers struggled to move concrete slabs by hand as people trapped beneath begged for help. In the days since, the death toll has leapt by hundreds daily, reaching more than fourteen hundred on Thursday morning. Jusuf Kalla, the Indonesian Vice-President, has warned that it could grow to thousands. International and domestic aid has struggled to reach the suddenly isolated city, as its airport runway and many of its inbound roads and bridges have been destroyed or rendered unusable. In some neighborhoods, authorities have set up rudimentary services, but elsewhere they have simply lost control: more than a thousand inmates have escaped from three jails, one of which was set on fire, and looters have attacked A.T.M.s with pickaxes. Reports have just begun to trickle in from nearby villages, some of which, it seems, have been nearly obliterated. Even as Indonesian authorities struggled to respond to the aftermath of the disaster, they endured withering criticism for failing to adequately prepare Palu beforehand. Indonesias tsunami-warning system employs more than a hundred tidal-gauge sensors, but none were close enough to Palu to pick up the localized wave. Authorities had issued a tsunami warning for the area, based off readings from seismographic sensors, but Gavin Sullivan, an associate professor at Coventry University who studies disaster preparation and recovery in Indonesia, told me, Many people at the beach and on the [bayside] road had no idea the wave was coming at all. The city is equipped with tsunami sirens, but the earthquake had knocked out their power, meaning that residents, such as the man on the parking deck, had to shout warnings themselves. A text-message alert also system failed to activate, because many cell-phone towers had already been destroyed. There was a chance for the Indonesian government to be better prepared for disasters like this, Louise Comfort, a disaster-management expert at the University of Pittsburgh who leads a project to help Indonesia prepare for tsunamis, said. That makes the current devastation all the more heartbreaking. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-the-tsunami-in-indonesia-struck-without-warning Theme(s): Communities and Organisations. Crunch time to end overfishing in the EU by GRIFFIN CARPENTER October 09,2018 | Source: euobserver Just because the most demanding issues that we face be that curbing climate change, achieving literacy for all, or ending poverty have long-term goals, that doesn't lessen their urgency. Policy deadlines are intended to spur action, not delay it. By signalling the direction of travel, these deadlines are a critical element to managing a 'just transition' towards a sustainable society. But that signal goes unnoticed if the policy deadline is not really believed. And what happens when a difficult deadline hits? This is precisely what is being played out in EU fisheries as we approach the landmark legal commitment under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) to end overfishing by 2020. Transport back in time to 2009. Looking ahead to the reform of the CFP, the European Commission reflected on the state of EU fisheries in its green paper. The assessment was bleak: "European fish stocks have been overfished for decades and the fishing fleets remain too large for the available resources." Seizing this urgent opportunity for change, a broad coalition formed to push for ambitious policy. They argued that while overfished stocks would take time to return to historical levels, we could stop overfishing immediately by setting appropriate catch limits and fishing less. The economic case was clear. Because fish stocks have been depleted through decades of overfishing, taking a conservationist approach would increase the size of fish stocks and perhaps counterintuitively mean greater catches within a decade. While NGOs were pushing for a deadline to end overfishing by 2015, the large fishing industry groups wanted a later date. In the end the 2013 reform of the CFP had a requirement to end overfishing for all commercial fish stocks "by 2015 where possible and, on a progressive, incremental basis at the latest by 2020". We are now approaching the end of 2018, but 'possible' apparently wasn't possible. According to the most recent assessment, 40 percent of fish populations in North Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic are still being overfished. In the Mediterranean and Black Sea that figure is closer to 90 percent. This is not to deny the CFP deadline was going to be hard work, but that was the entire point: transitions, particularly fairly managed ones, often are. If policy isn't challenging, it means it's just 'business as usual', which is some instances like overfishing a common resource to the detriment of future generations and the ecosystem is unacceptable. Clearly, what makes the politics of this difficult is that it's fishers themselves who bear the brunt of the challenge. Fishing is one of the most challenging occupations mentally, physically, financially and remains the most dangerous. The medium to long-term benefits of ending overfishing massively exceed the costs, but the short-term loss of income forces the fishing lobby to fight necessary change. The current record profits in the fishing industry, while distributed unevenly, is a buffer to making reductions in fishing. Unfortunately as we approach the 2020 deadline, member states are calling for a new process of assessment of the costs of complying with it at this short notice. This may not produce cheery numbers; as anyone who has tried to get an emergency locksmith knows, the less time you have to do something, the more it costs. This is why early action is preferable (as researchers have found), and it shows us that even if the economic analysis is done correctly (ie a consideration of both the costs and the benefits over an extended time period) the decision of when to do it is political. Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods. Blockchain in aquaculture and fisheries -- how blockchain could sustain the seafood industry October 09,2018 | Source: BITCOINIST A blockchain startup aims to establish a global decentralized database for a secure and sustainable future for the seafood industry. The Blockchain startup, Fishcoin, is bidding to keep the seafood industry sustainable through an incentivized and decentralized global database that could improve resource management. The total global fish production in 2016 hit 171 million tons, an all-time high, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, with 88 percent of that figure being utilized for human consumption. The FAO projects that by 2030, global fish consumption will be 20 percent higher than 2016 levels. Fishcoin and many other eminent scientific agencies believe this could lead to one of the most valuable industries on the planet that could collapse under the sheer weight of its own growth. This is why the UN World Food Programs SDG2 Advocacy Hub is one key partner lending their collaboration to Fishcoin in order to accelerate the move towards more sustainable seafood production. The Fishcoin project is proposing to bring this under control by improving data collection and sharing using decentralized ledger technology. Fishcoins whitepaper argues that a majority of agricultural industries are using data to increase efficiency and innovation, and that seafood is behind on this aspect of development. According to the company, through this novel blockchain system, the seafood industry is incentivized to collect and input data that occurs at every part of the chain; subsequently, the entire industry can benefit from a data pool that is conducive to a healthier ecosystem. Incentives are provided in the form of Fishcoin tokens. The first receiver in the supply chain purchases from a seafood producer, and the Key Data Elements (KDEs) such as name, location, fish type, weight and so on are accepted and agreed by two parties. Then a smart contract is made, the product data is referenced on the blockchain along with the identities of the parties, and the producer receives their tokens. The tokens are then able to be converted to mobile airtime topups with other incentive options possible in the future. As the amount of collected data increases on the transparent and traceable network, resources can be managed better and the production and efficiency of seafood goods could improve at all points along the supply chain. Fishcoin believes this will lead to a far more sustainable, responsible and profitable seafood industry. Fishcoin also plans to have a direct impact on the global seafood workforce. The FAOs findings approximate that almost 60 million people from around the world are in direct employment with fisheries or aquaculture. Additionally, Mukihisa Kituyi, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in an interview that there are some additional 200 million direct and indirect jobs that occur along the value chain. Fishcoin has already established several industry partnerships with prominent stakeholders. As published on Fishcoins Medium posts, some of these partnerships are with leading academic institutions, with the goals of researching and studying the opportunities offered by the blockchain to aquaculture; others are behemoth entities in the seafood industry, such as Thai Union who are working to introduce domestic aquaculture businesses to Fishcoin. Fishcoin is an initiative led by an eco-friendly tech company called Eachmile. This company works to improve supply chains across agriculture and aquaculture through data collection and monitoring, connecting fishers and farmers to sustainable supply chains and marketplaces. mFish is one of Eachmiles solutions, an application that provides traceability to the seafood supply chain; In 2014, US Secretary of State John Kerry launched mFish, which will soon have Fishcoin integrated into it. The US Department of State has since asked Eachmile to manage Fishackathon in 2019, an environmental hackathon which focuses on utilizing blockchain and other technologies to improve sustainability and environmental responsibility in our oceans. At the event, entrants will be tasked with developing data capture and data sharing solutions through sensors and internet of things (IoT) as well as blockchain technology. In agriculture, blockchain is already demonstrating its ability to upgrade the value and supply chain by reducing processing and transaction times and also increasing the trust and reliability between food producers, retailers, certification bodies and governmental organizations. The benefits of a blockchain in agriculture are reported to be quite extensive, which is something the aquaculture industry can now catch up on. 2018 Bitcoinist.com. Theme(s): Others. Nine countries, EU sign agreement to prevent unregulated fishing in Central Arctic Ocean by Catherine Benson Wahlen October 09,2018 | Source: IISD The Governments of Canada, China, Denmark, Iceland, Japan, Norway, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Korea and the US and the EU signed an agreement to prevent unregulated commercial fishing on the high seas in the central Arctic Ocean. This agreement is the first to use a legally binding, precautionary approach to protect an area from commercial fishing before fishing has begun in the area. Negotiations on an agreement took place over two years. In July 2015, the five coastal countries of the central Arctic Ocean, Canada, Denmark, Norway (on behalf of the Faroe Islands and Greenland), the Russian Federation and the US, agreed on a non-legally binding Oslo Declaration, which recognizes that other governments might have an interest in fisheries in the Arctic. In December 2015, those five countries as well as China, Iceland, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the EU, began negotiations towards a legally binding instrument. On 30 November 2017, the ten countries concluded the negotiations. They signed the agreement during a signing ceremony on 3 October in Ilulissat, Greenland. According to the US Department of State, the high seas of the central Arctic Ocean have traditionally been covered in ice year round. Recently, the Arctic sea ice has been melting, leaving large areas of the high seas uncovered for parts of the year. Polar scientists confirmed in October 2018 that sea ice in the Arctic had reached its annual minimum, with the joint sixth lowest extent on record. Levels of ice in 2018 match ice minimums from 2008 and 2010, illustrating a trend of record lows in the last decade and a trend of diminishing summer ice cover and thickness. As a result, summer navigation is possible across parts of the Arctic that were previously ice. Fishing does not currently take place in the area but the Arctic is expected to become more attractive to commercial fishing fleets in the future, especially as climate change causes fish stocks to move further north in response to warming lower latitudes. Under the agreement, the Parties commit to not initiate commercial fishing in the central Arctic Ocean until there is more knowledge about the fish stocks in the area. As part of the agreement, the Parties will establish a joint scientific research and monitoring program to improve understanding of the areas ecosystems and determine if fish stocks can be sustainably harvested. This program is expected to give Parties time to develop a better understanding of the areas marine ecosystems and species to inform conservation and management measures. The agreement is scheduled to last for 16 years and to be automatically renewed every five years until a science-based fisheries quota and rules are put in place or a country objects. The agreement will enter into force when all ten Parties ratify it. Denmarks Minister for Foreign Affairs, Anders Samuelsen, reflected that melting ice in the Arctic will bring new opportunities for fisheries and transport but also challenges. He recognized the need to manage both the opportunities and the challenges, noting that that is exactly what this new agreement does. The European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, said protection of the Arctic was a significant gap in international ocean governance. He called on all Parties to swiftly ratify the agreement to safeguard this fragile marine ecosystem for future generations. 1990-2018, IISD Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. Imperial Valley News Center Study of Diabetes Calls for Paradigm Shift to Patient-Centered Care for Type 2 Diabetes Arlington, Virginia - The American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) have jointly produced and presented today at the EASDs Annual Meeting in Berlin a new guidance document Management of Hyperglycemia in Type 2 Diabetes, 2018: A Consensus Report by the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (ADA-EASD Consensus Report). Produced by an international panel of diabetes care experts assembled by the ADA and the EASD, the ADA-EASD Consensus Report calls for a paradigm shift to patient-centered care and details the panels comprehensive review of the latest evidence. The ADA-EASD Consensus Report is simultaneously published today in Diabetes Care, the ADAs flagship clinical research journal, and Diabetologia, the journal of the EASD. The panel reviewed nearly 500 published manuscripts (n=479), with a particular focus on key cardiovascular outcomes trials (CVOTs) in the past four years, to provide guidance on optimizing blood glucose control, improving patient outcomes, and reducing the serious complications of type 2 diabetes including cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease. The ADA has endorsed the ADA-EASD Consensus Report and today incorporated the recommendations in the ADAs Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes2018 as a Living Standards Update. To make the guidance as helpful for clinicians and health care providers as possible, the ADA-EASD Consensus Report features seven new graphic Figures that provide detailed health care roadmaps (algorithms) and two new Tables enumerating the multiple therapy and medication options for the care of adults with type 2 diabetes. The ADA-EASD Consensus Report recommends patient-centered care that accounts for each individuals health history and status, weight, costs of care, and preferences. While the algorithms focus on the choice of diabetes medications, the report also highlights the critical importance of comprehensive lifestyle management and diabetes self-management education and support in the overall health of people with type 2 diabetes. The reports central theme is conveyed in Figure 1a Decision Cycle for Patient-Centered Glycemic Management in Type 2 Diabetesrepresenting a continuum of care for adults with type 2 diabetes throughout their lifetime. The Goals of Care are at the coreprevent complications and optimize quality of life. The steps are 1) assess key patient characteristics; 2) consider specific factors that impact choice of treatment; 3) shared decision-making to create a management plan; 4) agree on a management plan; 5) implement management plan; 6) ongoing monitoring and support including mental health, medication tolerance and adherence, monitoring of blood glucose, weight, nutrition, physical fitness and exercise, and smoking cessation counseling; 7) review and agree on management plan; returning to step 1 and going through the full cycle at least twice each year, and as needed throughout each patients life. As the continuum of care evolves throughout each patients life, as graphically displayed in Figure 1, the patient remains at the center, and the intensification, deintensification or shift in the diabetes care plan requires meaningful consideration of the patients life and circumstances, especially the burdens of treatment and cost For the first time, the ADA-EASD Consensus Report includes specific pharmacologic recommendations based on a patients profile and health history (Figure 2), providing instructions in the context of ASCVD, heart failure, kidney disease, weight, risk for hypoglycemia, or a need for low-cost options. One thing that hasnt changed is an emphasis on comprehensive lifestyle management and metformin, which remains the preferred first-line agent. There is a new guidance for glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, which are now recommended as the first injectable medication prior to insulin for most adults with type 2 diabetes who need the greater blood glucose-lowering of an injectable medication. For patients with chronic kidney disease, the panel recommends consideration of a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor with proven benefits. Individual medications in both the GLP-1 receptor agonist and SGLT2 inhibitor classes have been shown to have cardiovascular benefits. The panel recommends the target HbA1c to increase microvascular benefits is 7 percent or less (53 mmol/mol) for most nonpregnant adults with sufficient life expectancy, with individualization based on patient preferences and goals; risk of adverse effects including hypoglycemia and weight gain; and patient characteristics including frailty and comorbid conditions. The cost, adherence and tolerability burdens have been added as factors to be considered for all medication therapy. The report suggests that a patients medication-taking and self-management behavior (adherence) be specifically considered as part of the decision cycle, ensuring a good match between patient and care plan. Inconsistent medication-taking behavior affects almost half of people with diabetes, which leads to suboptimal blood glucose control and increased CVD risk. All patients should be offered access to ongoing Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) programs in order to help patients cope with the daily challenges of living with diabetes, which can increase adherence to the diabetes care plan. DSME/S programs provide essential information to increase patients ability to successfully and effectively manage their diabetes every day. The comprehensive care plan must also include intensive lifestyle interventions including nutrition and physical activity to ensure healthy weight. Medical nutrition therapy, including healthy eating advice and strategies, should be offered to all patients. Increased and regular physical exercise is recommended for all people with type 2 diabetes. The panel also recommends metabolic surgery for adults with type 2 diabetes and either 1) BMI 40 (BMI 37 for people of Asian ancestry) or 2) BMI 35 but While the ADA-EASD Consensus Report panel makes bold recommendations that can improve outcomes, the panel also urges more targeted research to help further define and improve patient outcomes As the cost implications for these various approaches is enormous, evidence is desperately needed. Defining optimal cost-effective approaches to care, particularly in the management of patientsincluding those with multi-morbidityis essential. Addressing these and other vital clinical questions will require additional investment in basic, translational, clinical and implementation research. Over the past two decades, numerous advances and innovations have drastically improved outcomes and provided nearly comparable life expectancy for people with diabetes. However, given the complexity of diabetes, without the proper care and support systems, the complications of poor blood glucose control are progressive and can be devastating. We are proud to call for this paradigm shift as the most logical and appropriate next steps in care through this joint consensus report with EASD. The needs of our patients require that we consider the many individual life factors in order to improve quality and length of life for as many people as possible, said the ADAs Chief Scientific, Medical and Mission Officer William T. Cefalu, MD. We must also recommit to further research that will help us to continuously refine these recommendations. With the right care plan and supports, our patients can experience full lives with diabetes as we continue to understand the many facets of this sophisticated disease. The ADA-EASD Consensus Report was produced by co-chairs John B. Buse, MD, PhD, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and Melanie J. Davies, MC ChB, MD, University of Leicester, UK; and additional authors David DAlessio, MD, Duke University, Durham, NC; Judith E. Fradkin, MD, The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health; Walter N. Kernan, MD, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT; Chantal Mathieu, MD, PhD, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Geltrude Mingrone, MD, PhD, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome; Peter Rossing, MD, Steno Diabetes Center, Copenhagen; Apostolos Tsapas, MD, PhD, MSc, Artistotle University Thessaloniki, Greece; and Deborah J. Wexler, MD, MSc, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston. Author disclosures are noted in the manuscript, and the manuscript details the 36 distinguished professionals who served as peer-reviewers. Imperial Valley News Center CBP at JFK Arrests Smuggler with Bottles of Cocaine Jamaica, New York - An arriving passenger at John F. Kennedy International Airport did not enjoy a Happy Hour as U. S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized his prohibited cocktail. On September 28, Mr. Akeem Rasheen Lewis, a Jamaican citizen, arrived on a flight from Kingston, Jamaica and during the examination CBP officers removed three bottles of Baileys liquor from a duty free bag, after discovering that the bottles appeared to be tampered with. Mr. Lewis was escorted to a private search room where CBP officers discovered white powder wrapped in clear plastic bags within the bottles. A total of three packages containing nine pounds of cocaine was discovered with an estimated street value of $115,000. This seizure demonstrates the dynamic border environment in which CBP officers operate at JFK. said Frank Russo, Acting Director of CBPs New York Field Operations. Our officers are determined to adapt and respond to these threats in an effort to protect the American people. CBP officers placed Mr. Akeem Rasheen Lewis under arrest and turned him over to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agents for further investigation. All defendants are considered innocent unless and until proven guilty. DACA Recipient Arrested by Border Patrol for Smuggling Meth Salton City, California - El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Highway 86 immigration checkpoint arrested a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient of Mexico suspected of smuggling methamphetamine hidden in the trunk of his vehicle Tuesday morning. The incident occurred at approximately 11:24 a.m., when a 22-year-old man approached the checkpoint in a grey Kia Optima. During an immigration inspection, agents referred the vehicle to secondary inspection for further investigation. In secondary, a Border Patrol canine detection team alerted to the vehicle and agents discovered 14 vacuum-sealed packages concealed inside of the vehicles trunk. The packages were examined and tested positive for the characteristics of methamphetamine. The combined weight of the packages totaled 17.14 pounds, with an estimated value of $34,284. Every drug seizure our agents make is an important step forward to secure our streets from dangerous narcotics and dangerous people, said Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez. I commend our agents for the hard work and dedication in keeping our communities safe. The man was turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration along with the vehicle and narcotics for further investigation. In the last fiscal year, El Centro Sector agents have seized more than 1646.91 pounds of methamphetamine, valued over $4.3 million. Border Patrol Arrests Convicted Sex Offender Calexico, California - El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a previously deported sex offender early this morning. Just after midnight, agents assigned to the Calexico Border Patrol Station observed a man illegally cross the International Border fence near the Calexico West Port of Entry. Agents approached the man and determined that he was illegally present in the United States. Agents placed the man under arrest and transported to the El Centro station for processing. Border Patrol agents conducted records checks, which revealed that Nicson Nictahel Valenzuela-Redondo, a 23-year-old Honduran national is a convicted Aggravated Felon with a felony conviction for Rape. Nicson was sentenced to prison for three years and is now a pre-registered sex offender. His final destination was Riverside. This man, who was convicted of rape, will be going back to prison, said Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez. The residents of Riverside are safer now thanks to our agents efforts. The man will be criminally prosecuted for Re-Entry After Removal as a convicted sex offender. In fiscal year 2018, El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a total of 38 convicted sex offenders. This is the first convicted sex offender agents have arrested in fiscal year 2019. Border Patrol Agents Rescue Drowning Man El Centro, California - U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Station rescued a drowning man from the All-American Canal Wednesday night. Around 11 p.m., agents observed three individuals illegally enter the United States near the All-American Canal. Agents responded to the area and saw three men in the canal, one of which was waving his arms and screaming for help. Border Patrol agents on scene quickly moved into action by positioning a rescue floatation device near the drowning man. Agents ensured that the man took hold of the rescue device and safely pulled him to shore. Border Patrol agents on scene assessed the man, a 29-year-old Mexican national, for any other potential issues. The man declined further medical attention. Our Border Patrol agents are highly skilled and trained to effect these types of rescues, said Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez. I am so proud of our El Centro Station agents for their decisive actions in saving a human life. The man was transported to El Centro station to be processed for illegal entry. The other two individuals absconded back to Mexico during the rescue. This incident marks the first rescue by El Centro Sector agents this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2018. CBP Agents Rescue 5 Distressed Aliens in Desert Pine Valley, California - U.S. Border Patrol Agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air Interdiction Agents rescued five individuals who were lost in the desert and suffering from heat related illnesses. Around 7:45 p.m., on September 27th, the California Highway Patrol Dispatch relayed to the Campo Border Patrol Station information about five individuals who had called 911 to report they were lost in the desert. The Boulevard Border Patrol Station deployed agents to the area, and at approximately 8:15 p.m., agents were able to make contact via phone with one of the individuals and determined their GPS coordinates. The coordinates indicated that they were about nine miles north of interstate 8 in an extremely remote area. The individual informed the agent they were in distress, had run out of water many hours before, and had resorted to drinking urine. One individual was also unable to walk due to a foot injury, and was vomiting and suffering from extreme heat distress. CBPs Air and Marine Operations (AMO) in Yuma, Ariz., dispatched a helicopter crew towards the station to pick up Border Patrol Agents from the USBPs San Diego Sector Border Search, Trauma, and Rescue Unit (BORSTAR). Enroute to the station, the helicopter crew spotted a signal fire the group had lit and landed to assess the situation. After making note of the number of people in the group, and providing the group with water, the helicopter crew continued to the station. Around 9:30 p.m., the crew returned to the group with two BORSTAR agents. The helicopter returned to the station with one BORSTAR agent and the most severely injured individual from the group. BORSTAR agents made their way back to the lone agent and rest of the group, to guide them out of the desert over land. During the trip back to the group the agents used ATVs, and even had to resort to a ride to the scene on a rail cart courtesy of a railroad employee in the area. The railroad employee and the BORSTAR agents also used the rail cart to bring the group back out of the desert, and back to the station for processing and further evaluation. All five individuals were identified as Mexican nationals, three adult males, one adult female, and one juvenile female. All five were processed for removal. The injured individual was turned over to Emergency Medical Services at the station and transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation and treatment. He was subsequently discharged and released back to the custody of the Border Patrol. If you have information about smuggling or suspicious activity please call 911 and you will be directed through the proper channels. Fiji National Day Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I congratulate the people of Fiji as you celebrate your 48th year of independence on October 10. "The United States and Fiji share a deep and longstanding friendship based on common values. I would like to commend Fiji on the 40th anniversary of its participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions. We appreciate your governments continued efforts to enforce UN sanctions pertaining to North Korea. Our partnership in maritime security contributes to our shared goal of a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Fifty years of Peace Corps service in Fiji and hundreds of participants undertaking various U.S.-sponsored exchange programs underscores the deep bonds between our two peoples. "The United States looks forward to many more years of friendship and cooperation between our two countries and celebrates with you on this special day." The adoption of Positive Psychology methods has been gaining popularity as a way to focus on building a good life. As University of Michigan professor and positive psychology guru Christopher Peterson puts it, it's the "scientific study of what makes life most worth living." Optimism, purpose, and connection are all part of the positive psychology movement and leveraging technology to emphasize them in the workplace can help us feel more productive, fulfilled, and happy. Apps for Optimism Positive Psychology studies show that participants that kept daily gratitude journals ranked higher in happiness and reported lower stress levels. Technology can help create this practice of optimism through popular apps like Grateful, which literally helps you count your blessings. One team I worked with would have weekly 30-minute meet-ups where we would follow a guided meditation through an app called Calm, a tool focused on helping others learn the life-changing skill of meditation. We would all join in a quiet conference room, close our eyes, and follow the guided meditation. Doing this mid-day as a group created accountability, and we each left refreshed and recharged. Not everyone is a natural born optimist. For those of us that could use a little more positivity in our day, finding time for gratitude and reflection can elevate our optimism. Insights into Passion and Purpose Connect with colleagues through social media channels as a way to go deeper in understanding who they are and what they are passionate about. So much of what we do on our "personal time" is kept secret from our colleagues. Like the three-day family camping trip you shared on Facebook. Or the amazing four-course meal you prepared and posted on Instagram. Choose the right platform and be responsible with the amount of sharing. This takes maturity and evaluating where you work. If you use your social media accounts to complain about work, another opportunity could be to start small by sharing a pic from your weekend with the team on an email or Slack channel. A team coordinator I once worked with had a personal Instagram account solely centered on vegan food. She baked, visited restaurants, and shared stories about all things vegan. It was evident from her posts that this was something she was passionate about and allowed the team to get to know her outside of the office walls. Her passion for well-crafted vegan food was a compliment to her role as a team coordinator. Both in and out of work, she was passionate about creating meaningful, beautiful experiences for the people around her. The platform doesn't matter as much as the content. The idea is to open up and build trust by sharing insights into who you are and what makes you tick. Connecting through Video Conferencing The advance of video conferencing has allowed remote teams to collaborate from around the world--in their pajamas. But it has also created barriers, where we have fewer interactions with our colleagues to connect at a deeper level. Leverage video conferencing to do something you miss when meeting in the office--get a brief glimpse into a team member's home and life. While we often situate our home-office so that others don't see the pile of laundry in the background, it's those "life moments" that actually connect us, tapping into an understanding of what drives others. I worked on a project where a team member once joined when he was working at his parent's house--the home he grew up in. Behind his chair, you could see a generation of family photos and award ribbons. While we were waiting for other team members to join, he shared the fascinating story of how he and his father used to raise and train pigeons. The technology of video conferencing allows us to join from wherever we are. An often missed opportunity is to use it as a looking glass into the life of a colleague, connecting us briefly beyond the workplace walls. Rather than trying to stage a perfect setting, allow team members to see you in the wild and get to know you in your natural environment. Dirty laundry and all. It's like clockwork. You, like people all over the world, go through a drawn-out interview process, vetting and getting vetted for weeks to determine the right fit, and then you finally agree to terms. After you're hired, things look promising, and there's a buzz of excitement in the air as you meet new co-workers and dive into a sexy project. Then, the honeymoon phase wears off, and something you almost expect to happen at every job (a self-fulfilling prophecy) happens: Your boss does something (or doesn't do something) that makes you question his or her integrity and whether they really give a damn about you. For the first time, you have doubts and wonder if this is truly the same company or manager you signed on with at the start. From there, things spiral downward as you finally realize that you work for a person (or a group of people) who has no idea how to lead you or others. I'll leave the rest of that story for you to finish, because it's a very personal one for many. The outcome could go on several different paths. One is to flat out quit. The latest research on employee turnover Nothing to this day has changed since Gallup CEO Jim Clifton named the real reason why people quit. He said this in the State of the American Workplace report: The single biggest decision you make in your job--bigger than all the rest--is who you name manager. When you name the wrong person manager, nothing fixes that bad decision. Not compensation, not benefits--nothing. Employees--whatever job, level, or industry--are willing to call it quits if their boss isn't holding up his or her end of the bargain. And, quite honestly, that's a noble thing to do in order to avoid the health risks involved with working for a toxic manager. At Randstad US, researchers conducted a survey to nail down the top reasons people quit. Here are some of the findings that caught my attention: More than half (59 percent) of the respondents felt their companies view profits or revenue as more important than how people are treated. Sixty percent of respondents had left jobs, or considered leaving, when they didn't like the direct supervisors. Fifty-three percent had left jobs, or considered leaving, because they believed their employers didn't recruit or retain high-performing individuals. Fifty-eight percent of workers said their companies didn't currently have enough growth opportunities for them to stay longer term. Sixty-nine percent said they would be more satisfied if their employers better utilized their skills and abilities. More than half (57 percent) said they needed to leave their current companies to take their careers to the next level. And, as you can see, managers have direct influence over every one of these causes for quitting. So, what gives? Why people quit really boils down to one word Disrespect. As you review the reasons above, it's clear what causes employees to walk out the door--disrespect on the part of management. Want further proof? Carefully examine Randstad's study on all the practical reasons employees quit. When employees are not respected or valued as workers and human beings, when they are not served well and developed as people and professionals, when obstacles aren't cleared from their paths so they can perform well, when their voices aren't heard or are ignored, they experience disengagement, as early as weeks into a new job. *Spoilers for Ozark season 2 ahead* Ozarks second season arrived during Netflixs most prolific year yet (its releasing around 700 original shows and films this year), but still managed to take over peoples evenings and weekends when it arrived all in one go on 31 August, 2018. Netflix doesnt release viewing figures though estimates from third parties suggest its first season was the services most-watched title during the summer of 2017 but Ozark seems to have hooked viewers once again this year. So what of a third season? Ozark season 2 - Official Trailer Renewal status Netflix has officially recommissioned the show, with Jason Bateman its star, executive producer and frequent episode director expected to return. The streaming giant has confirmed that another 10 episodes are on the way, but have not confirmed a release date. The renewal comes as no surprise as the second season was met with positive reviews from critics (you can read our spoiler-free review of season 2 here) and was nominated for five Emmys. Release date Season one arrived 21 July, 2017, with season 2 following on 31 August, 2018. At the current pace, season 3 would arrive in late September 2019. Its unlikely to be sooner than this, as shows tend to if anything take longer to produce as they go on, as they grow in scale and budget, and as the star casts become involved in other projects. Cast There is no news on new cast members as of yet, but season 2 saw the bloody departure of Jason Butler Harner (FBI agent Roy Petty) and Trevor Long (Cade Langmore), while Janet McTeers cartel lawyer character Helen Pierce claimed to be returning to Chicago. Recommended Julia Garner is the tough but tender heart of Ozark Plot Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney) had a bit of a Walter White moment at the close of season 2, when it became apparent that she not only tolerated a life of crime but enjoyed it. She ceased to be simply an accessory to husband Martys money laundering and instead took an active role in the family business, ordering the cartel hit on Cade behind Martys back. It was a dominant ending to the season for Ozarks women, with Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) also taking a larger role in Byrde Enterprises, becoming the manager of its new casino boat. With Cade Langmore, Roy Petty and Jacob Snell now all dead, the stage is more than set for a new antagonist to enter the frame. More as we have it. For those who have suffered from eczema, moisturiser is like oxygen and finding a good product that soothes, repairs and heals is essential. Eczema breaks down the skins natural barrier, making it less able to regulate its own moisture levels. Thats why it results in dry and flaky skin something that can not only make you feel self-conscious but also uncomfortable, itchy and irritated. Therefore, the skin needs to be continuously hydrated to help protect it. When looking for a moisturiser, ingredients to look out for vary depending on what your skin needs we found that oats, borage seed oil and rose water always work wonders. For this reason, wed also recommend testing out pure ingredients The Ordinary has a great range of pure pressed oils to see what your skin likes. However, if you have particularly sensitive skin that is prone to flare-ups, we always suggest patch testing any new product before going for broader application. How we tested We used each product twice a day for roughly three days to give it a good shot at working its magic. In the short term, we found that many of the products below reduced redness and increased skin elasticity, and some even healed sore skin to a point where it looked and felt pretty close to normal. Read more: Of course, the experience of putting on the lotion, cream or balm is important too if its not pleasant or feels like a chore, youre less likely to spend time slathering it on. The texture is extremely important here: too thick and itll sit on top of the skin like a waxy coating, but too thin and itll be absorbed and gone in a flash. We also considered scent, as many products designed for sensitive skin leave out unnecessary fragrance to avoid irritation. On the one hand, its a treat to find a deliciously scented lotion suitable for eczema, but on the other, you dont want anything too overpowering. While different remedies work for different skin types, we think weve found something to soothe the mildest to the most severe eczema. The best moisturisers for eczema for 2021 are: Best overall Bria Organics relief repair replenish skin cream: 14.95, Briaorganics.com Bria Organics relief repair replenish skin cream: 14.95, Briaorganics.com Best budget moisturiser Aveeno daily moisturising lotion: 4.65, Amazon.co.uk Aveeno daily moisturising lotion: 4.65, Amazon.co.uk Best scented moisturiser Pai Skincare polly plum calendula and jojoba comforting body cream: 24, Lookfantastic.com Pai Skincare polly plum calendula and jojoba comforting body cream: 24, Lookfantastic.com Best natural ingredients Balmonds skin salvation: 7.99, Hollandandbarrett.com Balmonds skin salvation: 7.99, Hollandandbarrett.com Best for quick absorption Kiehls Creme de corps body moisturiser: 28.50, Selfridges.com Kiehls Creme de corps body moisturiser: 28.50, Selfridges.com Best for exfoliating dry skin Medik8 smooth body exfoliating kit: 49, Feelunique.com Medik8 smooth body exfoliating kit: 49, Feelunique.com Best eco friendly moisturiser Lush dream cream body lotion: 16, Uk.lush.com Lush dream cream body lotion: 16, Uk.lush.com Best for making skin soft La Roche- Posay Lipikar Baume AP+M: 15, Boots.com La Roche- Posay Lipikar Baume AP+M: 15, Boots.com Best luxury moisturiser Dermalogica calm water gel: 40.22, Amazon.co.uk Dermalogica calm water gel: 40.22, Amazon.co.uk Best SPF moisturiser CeraVe Facial moisturising lotion AM , SPF 25: 12.99, Superdrug.com CeraVe Facial moisturising lotion AM , SPF 25: 12.99, Superdrug.com Best facial moisturiser Apothe.co intensive honey and oatmeal moisturiser: 20.45, Apothe.co Bria Organics relief repair replenish skin cream, 60ml Best: Overall Described as highly moisturising this intensely rich cream seriously delivers. With the texture of whipped butter, it is a supremely oily mousse that manages to pack in borage seed oil, jojoba seed oil, rosehip fruit oil, sunflower oil, chickweed extract, and of course, shea butter. Oh and some vitamin E, too. And thats literally the entire ingredients list. Nothing but intensely nourishing natural ingredients your skin is crying out for. This is no lotion and it does sit on the skin as any oil would for a period of time as it is absorbed. However, we found this comfortable and it felt like slow-release nourishment. We found it a perfect night treatment for the face and driest patches of skin to keep them supple. We also loved the Bria Organics relief repair replenish balm (14.95, Briaorganics.com) which is even richer though were baffled how this is achieved and is perfect for smoothing on to dry eyelids, lips or chapped elbows. Buy now 14.95 , Briaorganics.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Aveeno daily moisturising lotion, 300ml Best: Budget moisturiser Theres a good reason Aveenos daily moisturising lotion has been called a g amechanger. First and foremost: it truly works. While many creams and lotions we reviewed soothed, calmed and reduced the itchiness of eczema, few were able to actually reduce or even heal sore skin like this lotion. On top of that, its so purse-friendly that youll never have to ration yourself when it comes to application you could fill a bath with the stuff and it wouldnt break the bank. A creamy and shiny formula, Aveenos daily moisturising lotion becomes translucent when spread over the skin and absorbs quickly, leaving skin feeling slightly damp for around a minute, then supple and soft. Though its labelled unscented, our tester found it had a sweet almond smell. Buy now 4.65 , Amazon.co.uk {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Pai Skincare polly plum calendula and jojoba comforting body cream, 200ml Best: Scented moisturiser Of all the moisturisers we tested, this was our favourite when it came to scent. Soothing calendula a member of the daisy family and jojoba combine for a rich floral scent, which is perfectly complemented by Pais camellia and bergamot body wash (19, Lookfantastic.com). Moisturisers designed for dry skin can often be medicinal or sterile-smelling, so this was such a treat. This lotion went on particularly well after a shower; otherwise, it felt a little heavy, leaving the skin slightly waxy but highly moisturised for a substantial amount of time after use. We also loved the pretty, easy-to-squeeze tube, and beautiful packaging in tissue paper. If you want a lovely product that feels high end (rather than like a pharmaceutical treatment), polly plum is for you. Buy now 24 , Lookfantastic.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Balmonds skin salvation, 30ml Best: Natural ingredients Youll want to warm this waxy balm between your fingers before applying, as our tester was initially daunted by its hardness. That said, once melted between your fingertips, this balm quenches thirsty skin perfectly. Like other moisturisers for eczema we reviewed, this 100 per cent natural formula contains primary ingredients of olive fruit oil and beeswax. It also includes less mainstream ingredients including hemp and safflower oil, as well as nettle and chamomile extract all of which have a long history of being used to soothe eczema in herbal medicine. We found its smell not unpleasant exactly, but it reminded our tester of a greenhouse full of luscious green plants. Balmonds says that it is suitable for babies from six weeks, and can be used on all areas of the body. It is currently out of stock, but, were hoping its back soon. In the mean time, you can sign up to receive an email to be notified when its back. Buy now 7.99 , Hollandandbarrett.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Kiehls Creme de corps body moisturiser, 250ml Best: For quick absorption Despite this moisturiser not being marketed at specifically dry or eczema-prone skin, we had read rave reviews from people with the skin condition. The light, slightly sticky pale yellow lotion absorbed quickly into our testers skin with minimal manual labour, making it a good option before getting dressed or during the day. We loved the smell of shea butter and the wide array of oils sesame seed, olive fruit, apricot kernel, sweet almond and sunflower packed into this bottle. On its signature word-heavy packaging, Kiehls promises to deliver elegant skin texture and while were not too sure what this means exactly, we sure did like it. Our only gripe was the tiny opening to squeeze out the product, which led to a misshapen bottle sat on our testers dresser. Buy now 28.50 , Selfridges.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Medik8 smooth body exfoliating kit, 350ml Best: For exfoliating dry skin Gentle exfoliators for dry and sensitive skin are few and far between so we were thrilled to try this duo from Medik8. We found the exfoliator perfect for drier, slightly scaly bits of skin such as on arms or legs that needed gentle buffing in the shower, aided by the textured mitt, which worked wonders. Medik8 recommend putting its exfoliator onto dry skin then buffing it off in the shower, though our tester found this slightly harsh and preferred it on damp skin. The product has the texture of fine sand and, while gentle, should not be used on broken skin, so is best for mild eczema sufferers only. Therefore, we steered clear of more delicate patches of skin, such as the flexor surfaces (inside of elbows, back of knees) and face. The retexturing AHA exfoliating lotion had the longest list of ingredients of all the moisturisers we tested, but also some that werent found in any other products. Such ingredients are urea which breaks down the protein keratin in the outer layer of skin and mild AHAs (such as lactic and salicylic acid). While we were slightly nervous to use such potent ingredients, our testers skin loved them and, true to Medik8s sell, felt totally renewed and retextured, with an incredibly soft surface. Remember, after applying AHAs to the skin, it is essential to wear sunscreen for at least a week. Buy now 49 , Feelunique.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Lush dream cream body lotion, 240g Best: Eco friendly moisturiser Oat milk is the number one ingredient in this luscious lotion, designed to be slathered liberally across your whole body, so naturally, we were big fans. After a week of daily full-body application, our 240g tub was only a quarter reduced and we doubt youd use it up too far ahead of its two-month expiry date. With other primary ingredients including rose water, organic extra virgin olive oil, and cocoa butter, this lotion balances richness with a fast absorbency leaving skin supple for hours afterwards. We found that immediately after application, our dry skin felt deeply moisturised and remained soft for at least 12 hours. Cracked and sore skin started healing and didnt itch as much. We werent major fans of the scent its earthy and almost salty, and could overpower more subtle perfumes but it could appeal to those who prefer less traditionally feminine fragrances. Its also important to note Lushs ethical credentials here. Once you find your dream moisturiser (see what we did there), itll be a relationship for life, so the brands pot recycling scheme bags this cream extra points. Buy now 16 , Lush.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} La Roche- Posay Lipikar Baume AP+M, 400ml Best: For making skin soft Weve long had French skin-care brand La Roche-Posay on our radar, so we just had to try its newly formulated Lipikar Baume AP+M, updated with some new ingredients. Microresyl and aqua posae filiformis limit the growth and over-proliferation of staph (staphylococcus aureus), a usually harmless bacteria that lives on the skin. Those with eczema do not produce enough natural antibiotics to fight staph, resulting in an abundance, which can cause skin flare-ups. And thats where the staph-fighting Lipikar Baume AP+M comes in. This was one of the densest lotions we tried, with our tester really having to put some welly in to get it rubbed in. On application, this shifted some dead skin cells not a good choice before getting into clean sheets but a positive result in achieving softer, smoother skin. While it did feel a little tingly used on the face, it left our testers torso feeling well moisturised long after application. We were also impressed by value here, the sizeable 400ml pump lasts a long time, particularly given the density of the baume, meaning a little goes a long way. Buy now 15 , Boots.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Dermalogica calm water gel, 50ml Best: Luxury moisturiser Our most expensive moisturiser per ml, we had high expectations of this popular brand with a cult-like following. When first squeezed out of its little bottle, this partially translucent white gel feels so thin and watery we were perplexed at what good it could possibly achieve. Dont be fooled, though: it transforms into a soft, weightless barrier that secures moisture inside once rubbed into the skin. Refreshing and cooling, this is a unique formula that felt immensely calming to apply. A pea-sized amount was ample to cover our testers entire face and neck always remember the neck, folks. Its ideal for locking in moisture under a drying foundation or against pollution. Buy now 40.22 , Amazon.co.uk {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} CeraVe AM facial moisturising lotion SPF25, 52ml Best: SPF moisturiser TikTok users have raved about CeraVe products for their results and accessibility, and its somewhat sterile-looking formulas are shaking up the beauty world. After CeraVes SA smoothing cleanser with salicylic acid cleared up our editors acne in two weeks, we had to find out if there was a miracle product in the range for those of us with eczema. First of all, we loved the utility-focused packaging of this face cream its easy to pump out exactly the right amount, and the soft bottle means youll get out every last drop. SPF can sometimes feel prickly on raw, inflamed skin, yet this went on with absolutely no irritation, even around the eyes. SPF is essential for all skin types, but particularly for delicate skin and if youve been using AHAs, such as those found in the Medik8 smooth body exfoliator kit (49, Medik8.com). While our tester didnt find that this lotion made a huge difference in reducing redness or healing eczema, its a great option to ensure sensitive skin is protected from the sun without exacerbating irritation. Buy now 12.99 , Superdrug.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Apothe.co intensive honey and oatmeal moisturiser, 60ml Best: Facial moisturiser This delightful little pot of honey and oatmeal moisturiser is designed for the face, and wed hope so too because 60ml isnt going to get you too far anywhere else. With anti-bacterial and hydrating honey, anti-inflammatory pomegranate extract, and that golden ticket ingredient of oatmeal, this very gentle lotion felt delicious to apply. Possibly due to its packaging in an amber glass jar which looked lovely in our bathroom cabinet, might we add this delicate lotion always felt cool to the touch, and soothed redness and irritation around our testers dry eyes. If youre looking to treat an eczema-suffering loved one, look no further. Buy now 20.45 , Apothe.co {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} 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 government is seeking emergency workers to help the country cope with the "disruption" of Brexit. "Resilience advisers" paid up to 50,000 are being appointed to a Whitehall division responsible for dealing with "civil emergencies". They will be tasked with tackling any "disruption" caused by Brexit, whether the UK leaves the EU with or without a deal. The emergency staff will work in 15 locations across the country, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield. They will be paid 45,938, rising to 50,006 in London. The roles will be in the Resilience and Emergency Division (RED) of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). The unit works closely with emergency services to help local authorities "prepare for, respond to, and recover from civil emergencies of all types". It would normally deal with issues such as flooding, rioting or a major fire, but is now also focusing on Brexit amid fears of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal. The resilience advisers will be employed until June 2019, "with the possibility of extension or permanency". 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 MHCLG said the "exciting and challenging" jobs "would suit those who are keen to understand how government works". Successful applicants will be required to work to "short deadlines". The workers are being recruited as the government ramps up preparations for a no-deal Brexit, with just weeks left for Theresa May to secure an agreement with Brussels. The job advert said the advisers would help prepare for Britain's departure from the EU "both in the case of a no-deal or negotiated exit". A MHCLG spokesman said: "It is in everyone's interests to secure a good deal for both sides and we think that is by far and away the highest probability, but we have a duty to plan for the alternative. "We continue to work closely with local areas, and meet representatives regularly. Government is doing the sensible thing and taking precautions as we plan for all scenarios." When Carrie saw her colleague Robert running down a corridor towards her one lunchtime she knew it must be something serious. As teachers, they spend a lot of their time telling pupils not to run, all too aware of the health and safety implications of an accident. Minutes later, Carrie had followed her breathless colleague to the male toilets where a 16-year-old boy called Daniel had locked himself in a cubicle, threatening to take his own life. Another teacher, Kevin, was crouched down outside Daniels door, and a wave of relief flooded his face when he saw Carrie. Two months earlier Carrie was one of eight members of staff who had done a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training course, organised by the secondary school. I remember the adrenaline, says Carrie, 32. Just like anyone who is trained in physical first aid feels when they get called to someone who is injured, I felt a huge surge of responsibility to put what Id learned into practice as best I could. After making sure the situation was safe for herself and asking Robert to stop anyone else from entering the toilet, Carrie began speaking to Daniel. I honestly couldnt really tell you how I started or exactly what I said, but I knew I wanted to reassure him I wouldnt leave him, that he could tell me absolutely anything without judgement and that it would be in confidence. Daniel had already been in the cubicle for 20 minutes when Carrie arrived. He said he had a knife and made repeated threats about hurting himself. But after an hour of talking to Carrie, Daniel voluntarily opened the door and was then able to be taken to waiting professional help. There were 177 suicides among 15- to 19-year-olds in 2017, compared with 110 in 2010, and according to charity Young Minds, nearly 25% of young people report feeling suicidal at least once. Today to mark World mental Health Day, Prime Minister Theresa May has appointed the first minister for suicide prevention. Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price was appointed to the new role to help tackle the stigma surrounding suicide. Amid this deepening crisis in young peoples mental health, teachers are very often the frontline in both detection and protection. To better equip them with the skills they need to talk to young people about mental health issues, schools are increasingly funding staff to attend MHFA training courses. New research published this week has revealed the impact of MHFA training on secondary school staff in England. The study, conducted by a team of researchers from University College London involved over 1,000 school staff who had undergone a Youth MHFA training course and found they had a three-fold (190%) increase in confidence in knowledge, skills and awareness to support a young person struggling with their mental health. Recommended Child mental health referrals in England rise by more than quarter Prior to undertaking Youth MHFA training, 30% of staff reported feeling knowledgeable, skilled and aware to support a young person experiencing mental ill health, which rose to 59% after completing the course. This further increased to 87% up to three terms later, highlighting a sustained improvement as staff put their skills into practice and had time to reflect on their training. Caroline Hounsell, Director of Communities and Content Development, Mental Health First Aid England, said: Schools routinely provide physical first aid and reassurance - theres no reason why this shouldnt be the case when they are struggling with their mental health. Skilling schools staff in Mental Health First Aid is having a really positive impact on their confidence around interacting with students. Whilst this programme is the first step in addressing the mental health training gap in schools, we hope to build on its success by continuing to give access to these skills to school staff across England. This year's World Mental Health Day on 10 October was given the theme of youth mental health in a changing world. Upskilling teachers to both educate young people about mental illness and spot early signs is powerful piece of frontline armoury in the battle to tackle mental illness. However the education profession is overstretched and under increasingly intense pressure. More than half of Britain's teachers have a diagnosed mental health problem, according to a study by Leeds Beckett University. Pressures at work - coupled with mounting needs to care for students mental health - led three quarters of those surveyed earlier this year to say they believed their poor psychological and emotional conditions could have a detrimental effect on pupils progress, and the National Education Union (NEU) said the job was changing in ways which make it impossible for education staff to do well. Further research by The Teachers Union (NASUWT) last year revealed that although 98% of teachers have contact with pupils who they believe are experiencing mental health issues, 46% report never having received any training on pupil mental health. There is a clear need to address this lack of training. This week a petition with over 194,000 signatures has been taken to Downing Street to ask for the Health and Safety at Work Act to be amended so that workplaces and colleges make provision for mental health first aid, in the same way they do for physical first aid. Its part of the Wheres Your Head At campaign which advocates MHFA training to aid early intervention - before the point of crisis - in a bid to help people get on a path to recovery as early as possible. All names have been changed. For free, urgent 24/7 help contact the YoungMinds Crisis Messenger. Text YM to 85258 For more information about Mental Health First Aid England visit mhfaengland.org Skincare brand Deciem has temporarily shut down after its founder made the shock announcement on social media, citing major criminal activity. Brandon Truaxe, 39, the co-CEO of the company, which also includes The Ordinary brand, a cult-like brand favoured for its extremely-affordable prices, said in a video posted to the brands official Instagram page: This is the final post of Deciem, which we will shut down all operations until further notice, which will be about two months. The shaky video continued as the 39-year-old introduced two colleagues before explaining: Almost everyone at Deciem has been involved in a major criminal activity, which includes financial crimes and much other. You have no idea what a soldier Ive been for more than 13 years. Recommended Cult skincare brand Drunk Elephant is launching in the UK Ive been made fun of as a porn actor and as a f***ing drug dealer and everything for 13 years and its all ending now, he concluded. Truaxe, who has solely run the brands social media accounts since January, also tagged numerous brands and celebrities in the videos caption, including Tom Ford, IT Cosmetics, David Yurman and Estee Lauder, which acquired stake in Deciem in 2017, as well as Brad Pitt and George Clooney. A revolution is coming, Truaxe wrote. Everyone of you who has been laughing at me will certainty face criminal prosecution. The announcement was met with confusion on social media from fans of the brand, after the video was viewed more than 174,000 times. The video was taken in a moving car and uploaded to Instagram (Instagram) Can someone tell me what is going on? I have no idea. This is one of my favourite brands I cant believe this, one person wrote. Investors in the company also expressed concern following the events. The Estee Lauder Companies told The Independent: "The Estee Lauder Companies is a minority investor in Deciem, and, as such, we do not control Deciem's operations, social media or personnel decisions. We are deeply concerned by the material that has recently been posed on social media and will defend our rights as a minority investor." Spring Skincare Show all 8 1 /8 Spring Skincare Spring Skincare By Terry, Baume De Rose Face Cream, 70 net-a-porter.com Spring Skincare Elizabeth Arden, Eight Hour Cream Sun Defence SPF 50, 26 feelunique.com Spring Skincare Sunday Riley, Tidal Brightening Enzyme Water Cream, 60 cultbeauty.co.uk Spring Skincare Oskia, Renaissance Cleansing Gel, 29.50 spacenk.com Spring Skincare La Mer, Moisturising Soft Creme, 115 selfridges.com Spring Skincare Liz Earle, Gentle Face Exfoliator, 15.75 boots.com Spring Skincare Kiehls Ultra Facial Cream, 45 kiehls.co.uk Spring Skincare Emma Hardie, Moisutre Boos Vitamin C Cream, 45 spacenk.com Truaxe first started the Canadian company in 2013 and since then, it has become global brand - with stores in Canada, Australia, the US and the UK. Despite a steady business growth, with the BBC reporting that Deciem was projected to earn $300m (228m) in 2018, this isnt the first time the brand has been associated with questionable behaviour. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events In April, Truaxe reportedly fired his entire US staff, according to The Cut. After Truaxes announcement, all of the stores on Deciems website were listed as closed except those in Mexico City. A man in China has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after stealing electricity from a train network in order to mine bitcoin. Xu Xinghua from Shanxi province pleaded guilty to stealing 104,000 yuan (11,300), which was used to mine 3.2 bitcoins. At the current price of bitcoin, Mr Xinghua's bounty would be worth around 15,000, however at bitcoin's peak, it would have been worth close to 48,000. Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009 On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices Lazlo Hanyecz Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Silk Road opens for business Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin Screenshot Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The first bitcoin ATM appears On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The fall of MtGox The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's big split On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's price sky rockets Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures What goes up... Bitcoin price crashes spectacularly, losing half of its value in a matter of days Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin plunges The cryptocurrency eventually bottoms out below $4,000 in 2019 before slowly rebuilding momentum to outperform more traditional assets Getty Images Bitcoin mining the process of generating new units of the cryptocurrency by confirming transactions on an online ledger called the blockchain has become extremely popular in China in recent years, thanks to relatively cheap electricity prices in the country. As the bitcoin network grows, the processing power needed to mine them also grows. This has led to a government-led crackdown in China on illegal bitcoin mining operations. "Local utility agencies and companies will be held accountable if they failed to shut down illegal bitcoin mining operation," a government notice issued by the Economic and Information Commission (EIC) stated in July. On top of the prison sentence, Mr Xinghua also received a fine of 100,000 yuan (10,930), according to local media outlet The Paper. Newly appointed US Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh has learnt the hard way about the importance of owning the web domain of your own name. Following his controversial nomination to the highest court in the US, the website BrettKavanaugh.com was transformed into a resource for survivors of sexual assault in support of his alleged victims. The site was set up by an activist from Fix The Court, an organisation that aims to make the Supreme Court more accountable, who bought the domain three years ago. In a statement published to the Fix the Court website, the organisation's executive director Gabe Roth said he came up with the idea after witnessing the testimony of Mr Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford before Congress last week. The banner image of BrettKavanaugh.com website reads: 'We believe survivors' (BrettKavanaugh.com) Dr Ford accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexual assault while the pair were at high school, a claim that Mr Kavanaugh denies. "I believe Dr Ford. I believe Prof [Anita] Hill. I also believe that asking for forgiveness is a sign of maturity and strength, not weakness," Mr Roth wrote on Tuesday 9 October. "Watching last nights White House event and listening to the President again cast doubt on veracity of Dr Fords claims, while not hearing a word of contrition from the newest justice, was difficult for many Americans who have experienced sexual misconduct firsthand." The website has become a place to support sexual assault victims at a time when US President Donald Trump is dismissing allegations as a "hoax" brought about "by evil people." In response to such claims, the website states: "The start of Brett Kavanaugh's tenure on the Supreme Court may look like a victory for one interest group or another. But, more importantly, it is putting a national focus on the issue of sexual assault and how we as a country can and should do more to prevent it and to support those who have experienced it. "This past month, thousands of survivors came forward to tell their stories. We applaud your bravery. We believe you. And if you are seeking additional resources, these groups can offer assistance." Support groups listed on the website include the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), End Rape on Campus (EROC), and Rapes, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN). 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 Following the highly controversial appointment of Mr Kavanaugh, protestors have vowed to continue fighting ahead of the midterm elections. This confirmation is a deeply painful one, not just because of the radical impact it may have on Supreme Court jurisprudence, but because of the message it sends to survivors of sexual violence: that their stories carry little weight with our government, Anna Galland, executive director of the advocacy group MoveOn, said in a statement sent to The Independent. If we organise, mobilise, and vote, we will win. We must all commit to action in coming weeks to take back control of our government from right-wing extremists." Nissans advert for its Leaf electric car has been banned over misleading claims about the time needed to charge the vehicles battery. The Japanese carmakers website claimed that the Leaf could charge up to 80 per cent of full capacity in 40 to 60 minutes, with a footnote explaining that this was dependent on a number of conditions including the battery temperature and size, the ambient temperature and the type of charger used. Nissan said the ad did not specifically state that the battery would be charged to 80 per cent within an hour, clearly qualifying any claim by making clear that timings were dependent on other factors. Three people had complained that the advert was misleading, according to the Advertising Standards Authority. In response to feedback from customers, Nissan updated its website to state: Plug your New Leaf into a CHAdeMO rapid charger and get from 20% to 80% charge in around 60 minutes. It added that a Leaf could be charged at this speed once a day and that the time needed to complete further charges in quick succession may be longer because the battery would be hotter after long periods of driving. But the ASA said it was likely consumers would understand Nissans wording to mean they could usually increase the cars battery charge by 80 per cent, or close to 80 per cent, within 40 to 60 minutes when using a rapid charger. The ASA added: Therefore, because the ad did not clearly convey the degree of variability in the time that may be required to deliver a certain amount of charge, we concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and were likely to mislead. Nissan said: We were very disappointed with the ruling made by the ASA, although of course we will respect their decision. We constantly review and react to customer feedback to ensure that we are giving the very best possible service and information. The first artistic impulse has always been to document. When early humans first put pointy rock to cave wall in the Aurignacian era more than 30,000 years ago, it was to draw animals they had seen and volcanic eruptions they had witnessed. When writing systems developed in ancient Mesoamerica several millennia later, they were employed to keep record of who had existed and when. The same goes much more recently with the advent of cinema. Among the first films to consist of more than one shot and tell a continuous narrative in the 1890s were a depiction of the life of Jesus Christ and a reproduction of battles from the Greco-Turkish war. It makes sense that we would want to seize upon novel mediums of expression in order to create new accounts of the past and present. It is a way to make our little scratch in the universe; to say, Hey, I was here once and important things happened. What is less clear is why and this seems to be unique to film, applying much less to other visual arts or to writing we tend to herald acts of biography and historiography as crowning creative achievements. You hear them before you see them: a low, feral rumble rising to something shrill and uncomfortable. Lungs bellow for prominence, limbs kick and shove. Around the corner they emerge, tanned legs and bum-fluff moustaches, hormones not so much burgeoning as exploding into action. They are Naples I Bambini del Diavolo (IBDD), or The Devil Children, and they are 12 years old. These kids make a big problem for me, complains Giuila Orfanelli, a waitress at Gran Caffe Gambrinus in the citys well-heeled Chiaia district. They buy one coffee each and make it last all night, and [are] always asking for endless glasses of tap water. Signora Orfanelli is right to be aggrieved. Not only do they outstay their welcome, IBDD flick ash on the tables, blow smoke into the faces of hapless customers, and breathe new life into the antiquated term juvenile delinquent. The silky haired girls are all Lolitas in the making, their denim shorts more cauterised than cut off. Boys appear circumspect and somewhat less convincing. A few loiter in designer streetwear, laughingly swamped in oversized T-shirts boasting Dsquared2 or Off-White logos. The more adventurous don mafiosa-style suits, aiming for power, but coming off like extras from Bugsy Malone. Telescopes have picked up a huge number of mysterious signals coming from deep in space, Australian researchers have announced. The radio telescopes have nearly doubled the number of the known fast radio bursts bright flashes of radio waves that make their way to Earth from deep space. And the signals represent the closest and brightest of the bursts that have ever been found. Fast radio bursts are one of the most mysterious phenomena in the universe. They are blasts of incredible energy equivalent to the amount released by the Sun in 80 years that last for just a moment, and come from a mysterious source. SpaceX's journey through the Solar System Show all 6 1 /6 SpaceX's journey through the Solar System SpaceX's journey through the Solar System SpaceX's journey through the Solar System SpaceX's journey through the Solar System SpaceX's journey through the Solar System SpaceX's journey through the Solar System SpaceX's journey through the Solar System Some have suggested they are being emitted by an extraterrestrial intelligence. Harvard University scientists suggested last year that they could be leaks from vast transmitters that are usually shooting at light sail ships to push them across the universe. Others have suggested that less intelligent but equally spectacular causes, such as black holes or dense stars smashing into each other. Now scientists have far more examples to study as they attempt to find where the blasts are coming from. Weve found 20 fast radio bursts in a year, almost doubling the number detected worldwide since they were discovered in 2007, said lead author Dr Ryan Shannon, from Swinburne University of Technology and the OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence. Using the new technology of the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), weve also proved that fast radio bursts are coming from the other side of the Universe rather than from our own galactic neighbourhood. The new stars have helped scientists track the bursts as they make their way through the universe. They have travelled for billions of years, occasionally passing through clouds of gas as they go, and scientists can use that fact to work out that they are coming from roughly halfway across the universe. Each time this happens, the different wavelengths that make up a burst are slowed by different amounts, he said. Eventually, the burst reaches Earth with its spread of wavelengths arriving at the telescope at slightly different times, like swimmers at a finish line. Timing the arrival of the different wavelengths tells us how much material the burst has travelled through on its journey. And because weve shown that fast radio bursts come from far away, we can use them to detect all the missing matter located in the space between galaxies--which is a really exciting discovery. Dawn breaks over a radio telescope dish of the KAT-7 Array pointing skyward at the proposed South African site for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope near Carnavon in the country's remote Northern Cape province in this picture taken May 18, 2012 (Reuters) The vast number of new bursts discovered is a consequence of the fact that scientists were using new equipment on those telescopes, which allow them to have a vast field of view across the sky. Now they hope they can discover more and pinpoint their source in the sky even more precisely. If they do, they might be able to tie them to one particular galaxy, and in so doing understand more about where they come from. They also hope to be able to detect even more of them. If enough can be seen, they could become a useful way of understanding the early universe, since the blasts were sent when it was far younger than it is today. Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A federal judge on Wednesday ordered one of Robert Muellers cooperating witnesses to prison for his role in unwittingly selling bank account numbers to Russians, making him the third figure to serve time behind bars as part of the special counsels probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Mueller indicted Richard Pinedo, a 28-year-old California man who studied computer science, in February on charges of identity fraud charges to which Pinedo pleaded guilty. On Wednesday, Judge Dabney Friedrich of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., sentenced Pinedo to six months in prison and six months of home detention. Two other cooperating witnesses in Muellers probe Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan and former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos have already been sentenced to prison for lying to federal investigators. In a February indictment, special counsel prosecutors said Pinedo bought and sold bank account numbers over the internet with the intention of allowing his customers to circumvent security verification processes for digital payment companies such as PayPal. Some of those customers, the special counsel alleges, were Russians. In its indictment of the Internet Research Agency what was called a St. Petersburg-based troll factory -- the special counsels office wrote that Russians purchased the fraudulent bank account numbers in order to register accounts with PayPal. The Russians then used PayPal to pay for advertisements on Facebook and other expenses such as buttons, flags, and banners for rallies, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said last month that Pinedos crime called for a 12- to 18-month prison sentence, but his attorney, Jeremey Lessem, asked for no prison time citing how Pinedo has suffered, and will continue to suffer, in ways far beyond what anyone else convicted of a similar offense would expect. He cited the attention brought by his involvement in Muellers investigation and fear of retribution from the Russian government. In an effort to secure a lesser sentence for his client, Lessem argued that Pinedos testimony to a federal grand jury assisted in the indictment of 13 Russian nationals and 3 business entities. Pinedo volunteered information knowing full well that testifying against foreign agents, especially Russian foreign nationals potentially working directly for the Kremlin, meant putting his own safety at serious risk, the defense filing said. In its own filing, the special counsels office agreed that Pinedos prompt acceptance of responsibility saved the government significant time and resources in the investigation. Lessem wrote last month that Pinedo lives in a constant state of fear after providing testimony that led to the indictment of Russian nationals, court records show. Mueller has filed indictments against 25 Russians and three Russian entities to date with crimes related to meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. China's graft busters on Wednesday named a number of officials implicated in organized crime, as a national campaign against gangs swept across the country. The exposed Party cadres and those working in the public sector in five cases either organized, led or participated in gang crime, or sheltered gangs from punishment, according to a statement released by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission. Screenshot of the official website of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission. [Photo: China Plus] Some local authorities were found to have neglected their duties to supervise and punish organized crime, according to the statement. "The problems have severely damaged the political ecosystem, economic order and social stability of the localities, and undermined public trust in the Party and governments, and should be harshly investigated and punished," it said. In one case, Di Zhimin, former head of Dongsi Village in Henan Province, was expelled from the CPC and public office for organizing and leading gang crime. Di was found to have committed crimes, including assaulting, verbally abusing and blackmailing villagers, and violently undermining elections from 1997 to 2017. Di's case has been transferred to judicial organs, with all other officials involved punished. Europes biggest active volcano is slipping into the ocean, and its feared the recent discovery could trigger a tsunami. Scientists are concerned the slow movements that have been measured on Mount Etnas southeastern flank could escalate and result in part of it collapsing into the water. Such an event would put neighbouring communities in Sicily at risk as debris enters the surrounding ocean, possibly causing devastating waves. However, researchers monitoring the site say all they can do for now is keep an eye on the active volcano as there is no way of telling whether this acceleration will come within years or centuries. Previous work suggested Etnas movement was the result of magma swirling inside the volcano, meaning the movement would be confined to its summit. However, careful monitoring of the seafloor around the site has revealed that Etnas gradual sliding movements affected a far wider area a finding the scientists say increases the risk of catastrophic collapse. Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary Mount Etna is huge. Its over 3,000m high and it rises up from below sea level, said Dr Morelia Urlaub from Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research. Its really heavy, and it grows continuously. Past work has only focused on Etnas above-ground component, but gathering the new underwater measurements confirmed the movement is due to gravity acting on its growing, and unstable, flank. You can think of a slow landslide at the moment we had 4cm in 15 months, so it moves really slowly, but there is a danger that it could accelerate and form a landslide that moves really fast into the sea, Dr Urlaub told The Independent. There are historic accounts of such collapses happening on smaller volcanoes, but the geological record has evidence of it affecting large areas in Hawaii and the Canary Islands millions of years ago. To understand whether something similar was going on in real-time at Etna, the scientists collected data from pressure sensors over several months, publishing their results in the journal Science Advances. While this data gives them a better idea of the volcanos movements, Dr Urlaub said that it is difficult to calculate the risk of disaster from these measurements given its immense age. Indonesia volcano Mount Soputan erupts on same island as earthquake-stricken city of Palu We have been monitoring Etna on shore for around 30 years now, but 30 years is nothing compared to the age of Etna, which is 500,000 years old, she said. It could happen in 10 or 100 or 100,000 years we cant tell. With this in mind, she said for now it is very important to keep monitoring the volcano and try to get an idea of what level of movement could indicate an imminent collapse. There is much more research to be done, Dr Urlaub said, noting they would try to be aware there is a hazard, and keep an eye on Etnas flank. Government ministers have been accused of misleading parliament on why the UK dropped its opposition to the death penalty for two Isis Beatles militants who could be tried in the US. Diane Abbott said evidence that emerged in a legal challenge over the decision directly contradicts statements made by the home secretary and security minister as MPs voiced concerns. Written statements provided by the government to the High Court directly contradict statements and assurances made to parliament in July by Sajid Javid and Ben Wallace, added Labours shadow home secretary. The government must urgently clarify why it failed to seek assurances over the death penalty from the US government. Our policies should not be bent to the whims of the US president. Earlier this year a leaked letter showed that Mr Javid had agreed to hand evidence on two Isis fighters to American authorities for a federal prosecution, but without the normal assurances that the death penalty would not be used. The material relates to Shafee El Sheikh and Alexanda Kotey, who were allegedly members of a cell dubbed The Beatles that killed a series of hostages in Syria. They have been the subject of a legal dispute between the US and UK since being captured in January, with senior members of Donald Trumps administration pushing Britain to prosecute them. But the government has stripped both men of their British citizenship and said the Crown Prosecution Service concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute El Sheikh in Britain after reviewing 600 witness statements gathered by the Metropolitan Police. Responding to an urgent question in the House of Commons in July, Mr Wallace said: We do not think we have the evidence here to try them in the United Kingdom and we hope that a trial will be carried out in the United States. Security minister Ben Wallace: two Isis terrorists would 'roam around UK' if government did not share intelligence with US The security minister said government policy allows the UK to give legal assistance to other countries without assurances that the death penalty will be used in exceptional cases, and that the same decision had been made before. El Sheikh's mother, Maha Elgizouli, is attempting to launch a judicial review over the move and claims it is unlawful. Her lawyers told the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett, and Mr Justice Garnham that the unprecedented and unjustified decision was taken against advice from government departments and violated precedent. Edward Fitzgerald QC said it was influenced by the anticipated outrage of members of the Trump administration if the UK demanded assurances that the pair would not face the death penalty. This country should not facilitate the imposition in another country of a punishment which we ourselves recognise as inhuman and unlawful, he told the Administrative Court in London. [Mr Javid] took those steps in large part because of the anticipated outrage of certain political appointees in the Trump administration if the UK insisted on death penalty assurances. We submit that the anticipated outrage of those US officials was not a proper consideration as a matter of law. Mr Fitzgerald accused the home secretary of giving up on asking for assurances following a meeting with US attorney general Jeff Sessions in May, and performing an about-turn that was both unreasonable and unlawful. Alexanda Amon Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were allegedly among four British jihadis who made up a brutal Isis cell dubbed 'The Beatles' (AP) The court heard that Mr Sessions had expressed indignation at the prospect of having his hands tied by the UK while it refused to prosecute the pair, and suggested they could be detained at Guantanamo Bay instead. A briefing by the British ambassador in Washington warned that continued demands for a guarantee against execution prompted fears that senior members of Donald Trumps administration would wind the president up to complain to the prime minister and potentially, to hold a grudge that could damage bilateral relations. On Tuesday, lawyers representing the home secretary said it was not yet known whether Kotey and El Sheikh will be charged in the US, but that there is the most powerful interest in a proper investigation of their alleged crimes. Originally from London, the pair were declared specially designated global terrorists by the US State Department ahead of their capture in January, with official documents naming them as members of The Beatles and saying the cell had beheaded more than 27 hostages and tortured many more. Surviving captives have told of their brutality, which included waterboarding, electric shocks, mock executions and crucifixions. Executioner Mohammed Emwazi, who became known as Jihadi John, was killed in a drone strike, while the remaining Beatle, Aine Davis, is imprisoned in Turkey. James Eadie QC told the court that Kotey and El Sheikhs alleged crimes are at the apex of seriousness. There is, for that reason alone, the most powerful interest in the proper investigation of those crimes and the most powerful interest in ensuring that, whatever options might be on the table, the option of releasing this individual back onto the battlefield to resume these activities is one thoroughly not to be desired, he added. Mr Eadie said there was no "hard-edged obligation" on the UK government to refuse to provide assistance to a "friendly foreign state" which has the death penalty. Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces fighters celebrate victory in Raqqa atop of military vehicles REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces march past destroyed buildings as they celebrate victory REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces gesture the "V" sign in Raqqa REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces evacuate a civilian from the stadium REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures A civilian prays after she was rescued by fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces from the stadium REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces fighters ride atop of military vehicles as they celebrate victory in Raqqa REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces fighters celebrate victory in Raqqa REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures A fighter of Syrian Democratic Forces celebrates in Raqqa Reuters He added that Mr Javid had considered this case with conspicuous care and "made a lawful decision to seek to assist the US investigation". Judges will announce their decision on whether to grant permission for a judicial review on the decision at a later date. Kotey and El Sheikh remain in custody in Syria, where hundreds of foreign fighters are being held by the Syrian Democratic Forces following advances through former Isis territories. Kurdish leaders have called for the terrorists to be repatriated to their countries of origin, but the UK and other nations have been stripping Isis militants of citizenship and taking measures to prevent their return, and there are concerns that they could be freed if the stalemate continues. Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of the Foreign Relations Commission in North Syria, said there are currently around 900 Isis fighters, 500 women and more than 1,000 children from 44 countries in custody. Our region is unstable, any chaos may enable Isis fighters to flee, he wrote on Twitter. We will not prosecute Isis fighters in our region [Rojava], every country should repatriate their citizens and prosecute them on their soil. Dr Omar said Kurdish leaders were trying to use diplomatic channels to hand the extremists to their home countries, but if our efforts did not yield results, then we would take a new position, which would be announced in the appropriate time. Speaking at a security conference on Tuesday, Mr Wallace denied that the UK refuses to take back British Isis fighters and pointed at proposed laws that would make it illegal to travel to terror hotspots and other designated areas. But he acknowledged that the return of foreign fighters is a genuine challenge because of the difficulties of gathering evidence about their activities overseas The bodyguard who shot the Westminster attacker dead has told how he believed the terrorist was going to kill him. The close protection officer recounted the moment he opened fire on Khalid Masood during the inquest into his death. The 52-year-old extremist ran down and killed four victims on Westminster Bridge before stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death outside the Houses of Parliament on 22 March 2017. Footage played to the Old Bailey showed other unarmed officers trying to run from the attacker before the plain clothed bodyguard moved in with a handgun drawn and shot him dead. He and a colleague had been waiting for their principal a government minister when the horror unfolded. Giving evidence anonymously and behind a screen, the officer known by his call sign SA74 described hearing shouting from police officers, adding: I was aware of a number of uniformed police and members of the public running back in towards me [near the members' entrance to Parliament]. He said Masood was given clear commands of 'get back and continued: "The uniformed police had batons drawn. The batons were extended and they were frantically moving towards me, trying to get away from something or someone. In pictures: Westminster attack Show all 9 1 /9 In pictures: Westminster attack In pictures: Westminster attack An air ambulance lands after gunfire sounds were heard close to the Palace of Westminster in London PA wire In pictures: Westminster attack MPs wait until the situation is under control in Westminster. 'The alleged assailant was shot by armed police,' David Lidington, leader of the House of Commons, told the house. BBC News In pictures: Westminster attack Crowds gather in Westminster after shooting incident, which police are treating as terror attack BBC News In pictures: Westminster attack Police were also called to an incident on Westminster Bridge nearby AP In pictures: Westminster attack Early reports indicate the car, which mounted the pavement on Westminster Bridge and mowed into around a dozen people, was the same vehicle which then rammed into the railings of the Palace of Westminster, just around the corner Reuters In pictures: Westminster attack Security sources described the suspected assailant as a middle-aged Asian man, who is understood to have left the car before attacking a police officer with a seven-to-eight inch knife PA wire In pictures: Westminster attack Police have asked people to avoid the immediate area to allow emergency services to deal with the ongoing incident AP In pictures: Westminster attack One woman has died and a number of others, including the police officer, have been hurt, according to a junior doctor at St Thomas' Hospital Reuters In pictures: Westminster attack At least three gun shots were heard by those inside Westminster, and proceedings in the House of Commons have been suspended AP I simply didn't know what was happening but I was certain that something terrible was happening. Becoming emotional while describing the attack, SA74 said he then saw Masood running purposefully towards me. He was carrying two large knives and I could clearly see that they were covered in blood, he added. I shouted at him to drop the knife or drop the knives, I don't recollect the precise words I used. It had no effect. He continued to move towards me. He was going to kill me. Recommended The five victims who died in the Westminster terror attack The bodyguard said took a few steps backwards but Masood kept coming. I tried to create some distance ...,After shouting at him to drop the knives and seeming no change in his demeanour I fired my pistol, he added. "It was a quick succession of shots fired until that threat was no longer present." His colleague, who also gave evidence anonymously and was referred to only as SB73 said he heard Masoods car crash into the railings surrounding Parliament before shouting and screaming started. We started moving towards the gates, he told the Old Bailey. There was obviously something going on with the shouting and screaming and panic that was around in the air. SB73 added: There were lots of people running towards us at that stage. My colleague shouted 'knife'. He saw Masood with a large kitchen knife in each hand, four to five metres away and walking fast towards them. Masood was shot dead after fatally stabbing PC Keith Palmer and running down four victims on Westminster Bridge (Reuters) I thought he was either going to seriously injure or kill one or both of us if he could, he added My colleague fired a number of shots which stopped the male ... I heard the shots and the male slumped to the ground. Afterwards, the officer told how he moved forward to handcuff the man with a police constable. He noticed Masood had two gunshot wounds to the torso and went on to give him first aid. At that time he was still breathing. His chest was still rising and falling. He was going a grey colour, SB73 said. He basically stopped breathing so I started CPR . When asked whether he thought there was a risk the attacker could have a bomb, he agreed. The inquest had heard how the two close protection officers had started their working day at Lambeth headquarters before heading to the Palace of Westminster to meet the minister they were responsible for at the start of their shift. The jury was shown dramatic CCTV of the pair running through New Palace Yard towards the threat, moments after Masood had fatally stabbed PC Palmer. SA74 could be seen to step back while Masood came forward towards him. The attacker was pronounced dead in hospital after being shot twice in the chest. Masood's five victims were PC Palmer, 48, American tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, retired window cleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75, mother-of-two Aysha Frade, 44, and Romanian designer Andreea Cristea, 31. A separate inquest into their deaths found they were unlawfully killed, and that security shortcomings in the way Scotland Yard positioned its armed officers may have contributed to PC Palmers death. The wife of a jailed banker has been ordered to prove the source of her wealth is legitimate or risk losing her 11.5m Knightsbridge home under new anti-corruption laws. Zamira Hajiyeva was named as the first person subject to Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) by the National Crime Agency (NCA) after the High Court lifted an anonymity order preventing reporting of the case. The court heard Azerbaijani national Ms Hajiyeva spent more than 16m at department store Harrods over the course of a decade, as well as purchasing two properties worth a combined 22m. She unsuccessfully attempted to overturn a UWO made against her 11.5m west London home, which was purchased in 2009 by a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. 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 Her husband, Jahangir Hajiyev, was chairman of the state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan from 2001 until his resignation in 2015, but was subsequently jailed to 15 years for fraud and embezzlement. Ms Hajiyeva has denied any wrongdoing and is fighting to hold onto the properties covered by the order. Mr Justice Supperstone last week discharged an anonymity order, preventing identification of Ms Hajiyeva and her husband, their country of origin, the bank Mr Hajiyev worked for and the two properties under question. On Tuesday, Lord Justice Sales dismissed an application to extend the anonymity order, ruling that no good case had been made for its extension. In a statement, lawyers for Mrs Hajiyeva said: The decision of the High Court upholding the grant of an Unexplained Wealth Order against Zamira Hajiyeva does not and should not be taken to imply any wrong-doing, whether on her part or that of her husband. The NCA's case is that the UWO is part of an investigative process, not a criminal procedure, and it does not involve the finding of any criminal offence. On Mrs Hajiyeva's behalf, an application for permission to appeal against the order of Mr Justice Supperstone was filed on 8 October 2018. Mrs Hajiyeva has made clear her intention to engage fully in the judicial process and will present her case to the court as appropriate through her lawyers. She will, therefore, make no further comment at this time. The case marks the first use of UWOs, introduced this year in a bid to curb London's status as a haven for ill-gotten gains. Recommended Britain shows little enthusiasm for cracking down on financial crime The orders allow authorities to seize assets over 50,000 from people suspected of corruption or links to organised crime until the owners can account for how they were acquired. Donald Toon, director for economic crime at the NCA, said: Where we cannot determine a legitimate source for the funds used to purchase assets and prime property it is absolutely right that we ask probing questions to uncover their origin. Unexplained Wealth Orders have the potential to significantly reduce the appeal of the UK as a destination for illicit income. They enable the UK to more effectively target the problem of money-laundering through prime real estate in London and across the UK, and we will now seek to move further cases to the High Court. Additional reporting by agencies Existing checks on agricultural goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland would have to increase ten-fold after Brexit, the EUs chief negotiator has said an ultimatum that is likely to enrage Northern Irish unionists and eurosceptics. Speaking to business leaders in Brussels, Michel Barnier laid out new details about the EUs updated plan to find a solution to the Irish border issue which is threatening to sink talks and cause a no-deal. The intensification of the checks is highly unlikely to be accepted by the DUP, who have said they will use their crucial Commons votes against any deal that treats Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK. Recommended DUP ready to block budget if May compromises further on Brexit Mr Barnier said customs and VAT details could be filled out online by traders and that the only physical checks needed for them would be the scanning of a barcode on a ferry across the Irish sea or at a port. He said such checks already exist in many EU member states such as between mainland Spain and the Canary islands. The negotiator also said the EU believed regulatory compliance checks for industrial goods could be carried out at the premises of businesses. But Mr Barnier warned that so-called phytosanitary checks on live animals and other agricultural products had to be carried out at the border, and would have to apply to 100 per cent of all imports. Some of these checks already exist, but they are only conducted as spot-checks and applied to just 10 per cent of imports. EU rules are very clear: such checks must happen at the border because of food safety and animal health reasons, he told business leaders. EU rules are very clear: such checks must happen at the border because of food safety and animal health reasons Michel Barnier, EU chief Brexit negotiator Obviously in the future the island of Ireland will remain and must remain a simple epidemiologic area, obviously. Such checks already exist in the port of Larne and Belfast. However they would have to cover 100 per cent rather than 10 per cent of live animals and animal-derived products, which would involve a significant change in terms of scale. He added that there would have to be administrative procedures that do not exist today but that the EU proposes to carry out these checks in the least intrusive way possible. The UK wants to leave and will leave the single market and customs union. This means that there must be checks on goods travelling between the EU and the UK and checks that do not exist today, he warned. Mr Barnier said such checks could be reduced in scope in the future if the UK and EU signed a veterinary agreement down the line as part of a trade deal. Brussels is currently in an information lockdown for the final stages of talks, with officials tighter-lipped than usual about progress coming towards a solution. The British government has indicated that it would accept regulatory checks proposed by Mr Barnier and that it does not see them as a breach of the UKs sovereignty in the same way as it sees customs checks. But the DUP has made clear that it does not see things the same way, meaning a deal could be agreed between the government and EU and then voted down by Ms Mays allies in the Commons. Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Co Monaghan. The building was home to four families who left during the Troubles. The town was largely abandoned after the hard border was put in place during the conflict. Mullan has seen some regeneration in recent years, but faces an uncertain future with Brexit on the horizon Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A defaced Welcome to Northern Ireland sign stands on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Mervyn Johnson owns a garage in the border town of Pettigo, which straddles the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh. Ive been here since 1956, it was a bit of a problem for a few years. My premises has been blown up about six or seven times, we just kept building and starting again, Johnson said laughing. We just got used to it [the hard border] really but now that its gone, we wouldn't like it back again Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Farmer Gordon Crocketts Coshquin farm straddles both Derry/Londonderry in the North and Donegal in the Republic. At the minute there is no real problem, you can cross the border as free as you want. We could cross it six or eight times a day, said Crockett. If there was any sort of obstruction it would slow down our work every day Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures John Murphy flies the European flag outside his home near the border village of Forkhill, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Potter Brenda McGinn stands outside her Mullan, Co Monaghan, studio the former Jas Boylan shoe factory which was the main employer in the area until it shut down due to the Troubles. When I came back, this would have been somewhere you would have driven through and have been quite sad. It was a decrepit looking village, said McGinn, whose Busy Bee Ceramics is one of a handful of enterprises restoring life to the community. Now this is a revitalised, old hidden village Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Union Flag colours painted on kerbstones and bus-stops along the border village of Newbuildings, Co Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Grass reflected in Lattone Lough, which is split by the border between Cavan and Fermanagh, seen from near Ballinacor, Northern Ireland Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Donegalman David McClintock sits in the Border Cafe in the village of Muff, which straddles Donegal and Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An old Irish phone box stands alongside a bus stop in the border town of Glaslough, Co Monaghan Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Billboards are viewed from inside a disused customs hut in Carrickcarnon, Co Down, on the border with Co Louth in the Republic Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Seamus McQuaid takes packages that locals on the Irish side of the border have delivered to his business, McQuaid Auto-Parts, to save money on postal fees, near the Co Fermanagh village of Newtownbutler. I live in the south but the business is in the North, said McQaid. "I wholesale into the Republic of Ireland so if theres duty, Ill have to set up a company 200 yards up the road to sell to my customers. Ill have to bring the same product in through Dublin instead of Belfast Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A disused Great Northern Railway line and station that was for customs and excise on the border town of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Alice Mullen, from Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, does her shopping at a former customs post on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh. Id be very worried if it was a hard border, I remember when people were divided. I would be very afraid of the threat to the peace process, it was a dreadful time to live through. Even to go to mass on a Sunday, youd have to go through checkpoints. It is terribly stressful, said Mullen. All those barricades and boundaries were pulled down. I see it as a huge big exercise of trust and I do believe everyone breathed a sigh of relief Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A bus stop and red post box stand in the border town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh Reuters British officials are currently in Brussels for talks. DUP leader Arlene Foster has done a tour of EU figures today and yesterday to make her partys views on the Ireland issue known. Theresa May will come to Brussels next week for a summit, which the EU has described as the moment of truth. Brussels says the outlines of a deal must be ready in time for that meeting, and that if they are a special emergency summit could be called in November to finalise it. Briefing senior Commission officials on Wednesday Mr Barnier said "decisive progress" would be required for a November summit. The government dispensed with its normal practice of seeking assurances about the death penalty in two other incidents prior to the jihadi Beatles case, the Home Office has admitted. Security minister Ben Wallace said the two previously unknown cases had occurred between 2001 and the present, but declined to give further details. Hours later, in what one human rights activist called a truly shameless statement, the government marked Wednesdays World Day Against the Death Penalty by claiming it had a commitment to oppose the use of the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle. The existence of the two previous cases has also been revealed just days after a court heard that fear of upsetting Donald Trumps administration led home secretary Sajid Javid to give up on seeking US assurances about the fate of Isis militants El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey. The jihadi Beatles case had been considered an unprecedented departure from the British governments longstanding practice of insisting on assurances that a defendant will not face the death penalty before the UK helps foreign prosecutors with either extradition or evidence. The admission that these death penalty assurances were in fact waived on two earlier occasions has the potential to raise serious questions about the UK governments commitment to opposing capital punishment. Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP whose parliamentary question led to the government's admission, said: Ministers must urgently explain the reasons they failed on two more occasions to seek assurances that people would not be killed by foreign states, and allow those involved to seek justice. The UK abolished the barbaric practice of capital punishment more than 50 years ago. It's deeply disturbing to think successive governments have effectively outsourced the death penalty to other countries. Mr Wallace revealed the existence of the two previous cases on Tuesday evening, in a written answer to Ms Lucass question, asked in July, about whether there had been other instances of death penalty assurances being waived. Mr Wallace wrote: A review of available records (dating back to 2001) has been undertaken and I can confirm that this has occurred on two previous occasions that have been identified, under successive governments. Explaining that he would not be providing any detail about the two cases, Mr Wallace added: Due to the potential to harm on-going criminal investigations or future prosecutions, and the confidentiality attached to mutual legal assistance, it would not be appropriate to share further information. When The Independent asked a series of questions about the two cases, the Home Office refused even to say when they had occurred or whether they involved extradition or the sharing of evidence. It remains unclear whether the cases occurred when Theresa May was home secretary between 2010 and 2016, or whether they occurred when the department was led by other Conservatives or by Labour politicians during the premierships of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. A Home Office spokesman said: As the security minister said, we are not going to be providing any more information about the previous two cases because of the confidentiality and sensitivities around them. The Home Office position remains unchanged: we have a longstanding opposition to the death penalty, and our previous statements have made that quite clear. Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces fighters celebrate victory in Raqqa atop of military vehicles REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces march past destroyed buildings as they celebrate victory REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces gesture the "V" sign in Raqqa REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces evacuate a civilian from the stadium REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures A civilian prays after she was rescued by fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces from the stadium REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces fighters ride atop of military vehicles as they celebrate victory in Raqqa REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures Syrian Democratic Forces fighters celebrate victory in Raqqa REUTERS Syrian Democratic Forces take Raqqa from Isis in pictures A fighter of Syrian Democratic Forces celebrates in Raqqa Reuters Ms Lucas, however, told The Independent: "It is unjustifiable for the Government to reveal so little about these two further cases. Ministers have undermined the UK's international reputation for upholding human rights, and put people at serious risk. The public deserves to know why they were not told about these cases at the time." Ms Lucas was backed by Allan Hogarth, Amnesty International UKs head of policy, who told The Independent: Up until Sajid Javids jaw-dropping letter in the summer, the UKs opposition to the death penalty around the world was generally assumed to be a firm and consistent government policy. "If there are other cases besides that of El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotev where the UK has compromised its policy and principles, we should be properly told about them - including whether Theresa May was involved as home secretary. "The UK's longstanding opposition to capital punishment around the world is honourable and right, so it's deeply concerning to learn the UK may have been reneging on its policy in private while maintaining a public facade of staunch opposition to the cruelty of the death penalty." The government also faced criticism from the UK-based human and legal rights group Reprieve, which supports people facing execution. Dan Dolan, head of policy at Reprieve, said: Categorical opposition to the death penalty is central to Britains global reputation for defending human rights. The Governments published policy is to oppose capital punishment in all circumstances as a matter of principle. If this is to be worth the paper its printed on, there can be no caveats or get-out clauses. Each time the Government makes an exception, it dramatically weakens Britains claim to take a moral lead in the world. In a separate government statement to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty on Wednesday, Minister for Human Rights, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon said: We reaffirm the UKs long-standing policy to oppose the use of the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle. The death penalty undermines human dignity, there is no conclusive evidence of its deterrent value, and any miscarriage of justice leading to its imposition is irreparable. Ms Lucas said this statement amounted to "rank hypocrisy". Elshiekh and Kotey, who left west London to fight for Isis, are currently being held in Syria after being captured there in January. After they were caught, the Crown Prosecution Service reviewed 600 witness statements gathered by the Metropolitan Police but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them with any crime in Britain. This in turn meant the government had to consider whether to give US prosecutors the evidence gathered by the UK authorities, and whether to insist on assurances about the death penalty. In July, a leaked letter showed that Mr Javid had agreed to hand over the evidence without getting assurances that the two men would not be executed. Elsheikh's mother Maha Elgizouli is now attempting to launch a judicial review over this decision, claiming it was unlawful. In the High Court on Monday her lawyer Edward Fitzgerald QC said the decision to waive the death penalty assurances had been influenced by the anticipated outrage within Trumps administration if the UK insisted on promises the two militants would be spared execution. When the government was challenged over the decision in Parliament in July, Mr Wallace, responding for the government, said that Elshiekh and Kotey had been stripped of their UK citizenship under rules aimed at stopping militants from returning to Britain. Mr Wallace also told Parliament that UK overseas security and justice assistance guidance clearly stated that there could be exceptional cases where ministers can lawfully decide that assistance should be provided in the absence of adequate [death penalty] assurances. Mr Wallace insisted: That has been the policy for many, many years. Referring to beheadings associated with the four-strong group that came to be known as the Jihadi Beatles, Mr Wallace said: Who are we to deny [justice in the US courts] to those victims in the United States, if the United Kingdom holds some of the evidence that may make it possible? In the High Court on Monday, James Eadie QC, for the government, also argued that the two men were not covered by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because an individual, who is abroad, and in respect of whom legal assistance is provided to a foreign authority, is not within the jurisdiction of the UK for the purposes of the ECHR. New investigations into unsolved crimes committed during the Troubles should be dropped and the money spent on supporting victims, a group of former Northern Ireland secretaries has said. In a significant intervention, a cross-party group has urged Karen Bradley, the Northern Ireland secretary, to abandon plans for a 150m inquiry into the legacy of the conflict, which would included a probe into outstanding cases. Lord Hain, who held office between 2005 and 2007, wrote to the government on behalf of two other Labour secretary of states, Lords Murphy and Reid, and Conservative ex-Northern Ireland secretary Lord King, calling for an end to costly investigations that may not deliver justice to victims. Recommended Fifty years since the Troubles began Northern Ireland is still ignored Only three prosecutions have resulted from the 1,615 cases that the Historical Enquiries Team has investigated, the peers said. The letter said: "We understand why many victims and others attach great importance to the prosecution, conviction and sentencing of those responsible for the appalling loss they have suffered. Their views clearly deserve the utmost respect. "But experience suggests that it would be a mistake to expect that judicial outcome in any but a tiny percentage of the crimes that have not already been dealt with. "Most of the cases were not easy to investigate immediately after they were committed and the passage of time - up to 50 years - has only made the chances of a successful outcome much less likely." Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The past has been one of the sticking points between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein through several rounds of failed talks to agree the return of powersharing at Stormont. The other signatories to letter included former Church of Ireland primate Lord Eames, Lord Patten, who oversaw the creation of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and former Northern Ireland committee chairman Lord Cormack. Theresa May has appointed the first ever minister for suicide prevention as part of a 1.8 million push to reduce the number of people taking their own lives. In what is thought to be a world first, Ms May announced that the health minister, Jackie Doyle-Price, will lead efforts to end the stigma that prevents people from seeking help for their mental health. The prime minister also pledged 1.8 million to ensure the Samaritans' helpline remains free for the next four years, returning to her pledge to tackle "burning injustices" prevalent in society, which was set out in her first speech at Downing Street. Recommended Suicide rate among young women doubles in a decade It comes amid concerns over a "national scandal" in suicide rates among teenagers, which rose by 67 per cent between 2010 and 2017. There are more than 4,500 self-inflicted deaths every year in England, and suicide remains the leading cause of death among men under the age of 45. Speaking at a reception to mark World Mental Health Day, Ms May was due to say: "When I first became prime minister, I stood on the steps of Downing Street and pledged to fight the burning injustices in our society. "There are few greater examples than the injustices facing those with mental health conditions. But together we can change that. "We can end the stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence. We can prevent the tragedy of suicide taking too many lives. "And we can give the mental wellbeing of our children the priority it so profoundly deserves." The prime minister will call for "true parity" between physical and mental health, as she outlined plans for a ministerial taskforce to cut suicide rates and requirements for local areas to have a suicide prevention plan. Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures 10 show all Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures 1/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 30 per cent of people deal with anxiety by talking to a friend or relative, or by going for a walk. Getty 2/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Almost one in five people feel anxious all or a lot of the time. PA 3/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 22 per cent of women feel anxious a lot or all of the time, compared to 15 per cent of men. Roman Levin/Flickr Creative Commons 4/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 45 per cent of people who feel anxious in everyday life cite financial issues as their biggest cause of worry. Getty 5/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report And 26 per cent of people who feel anxious say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with worry. And 26 per cent of people say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with anxiety. 6/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 27 per cent of people who suffer from anxiety say work issues, such as long hours, are the source of the problem. Getty 7/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report But 16 per cent use alcohol to cope, while 10 per cent turn to cigarettes in the face of anxiety. Unemployed people are more likely to resort to these harmful strategies: 27 per cent use alcohol and 23 per cent use cigarettes. AFP/Getty 8/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Only seven per cent of people who say they suffer from anxiety seek help from their GP. Getty 9/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report People are thought to be more anxious than they were five years ago. Alessandra/Flickr Creative Commons 10/ 10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report The stresses of modern life are thought to have created "The Age of Anxiety". Getty Samaritans chief executive, Ruth Sutherland, said: We welcome the governments announcement of funding towards Samaritans helpline, which will meet around 10 per cent of the total helpline costs for the next four years and help us to continue to provide our service free of charge. Samaritans 20,000 volunteers are available at any time for anyone who is struggling to cope. We respond to more than five million requests for help a year. This is an acknowledgement of the importance of our vital service. For confidential support call Samaritans on 116 123. Business leaders are unable to plan properly for potentially huge disruption from Brexit because of excessive government secrecy, the chief auditor says. Companies have paid a heavy price for ministers refusal to consult them fully, an inquiry by MPs was told a stance motivated by a fear of provoking concern about the trouble ahead. The criticism came as the head of the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed that civil servants are relying on his reports to find out what is going on in their own departments. Sir Amyas Morse also agreed there was a real risk that flights to the EU would be grounded if there is no-deal Brexit, warning the UK was relying on goodwill to resolve the crucial issue. And he suggested Theresa Mays planned 21-month transition period, after departure day next March, would be too short to secure long-term arrangements which would require the transition to be extended. The NAOs auditor general also dismissed claims that crashing out of the EU onto World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules would be a comfortable outcome, warning of high friction for traders. And he criticised the department for transport for underestimating the risks of Brexit, saying they had convinced themselves it is less risky than it actually is. Giving evidence to the Commons Brexit committee, Sir Amyas said the secrecy surrounding preparations had been taken too far particularly for businesses. 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 said he understood the desire to not cause concern, but warned: It has carried a heavy price with it. The auditor added: I think they underestimate the capability and maturity of the business community. They are actually very good at running their businesses. If you dont give them a chance to plan ahead and solve the problem you put them in a very difficult position. On the effect of secrecy on Whitehall, Sir Amyas said: Members of the civil service have been using our reports to find out whats happening on Brexit. I dont think thats a good state of affairs. Im thrilled a have a wider readership but, if you ask people to be behind what you are doing, you need to make sure they do know what the overall enterprise is and feel really well informed. Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, has not challenged industry warnings that a no-deal Brexit would bring delays at Channel ports of 45 mins for just one truck. And he has appeared to confirm plans for lorries to be parked for many miles along one side of the key motorway link to Dover, once referring to contra-flow systems on the M20. Later, Sir Simon Fraser, former Foreign Office permanent secretary, reminded the committee that Mr Raab had claimed Brexit would but bureaucracy and regulations. He pointed out there were already 7,000 more civil servants, preparing for EU withdrawal, with a further 16,000 planned for 2020. We have all been on steep learning curve since then, Sir Simon said. I assume that includes Mr Raab. Close Jeremy Corbyn hits out at Theresa May over mental health austerity cuts Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have clashed at the first prime minister's questions session after the party conference season, with the Labour leader grilling the prime minister over her claims that austerity is over. Mr Corbyn asked the prime minister when more money will be invested in the NHS, education and the police. It comes as Ms May faces intense pressure to change course on her Brexit plans from her own backbenchers ahead of next week's EU council summit. Former Brexit secretary David Davis warned on Tuesday of "dire" consequences for Conservatives at the next general election if the government sticks to its current negotiating stance. This liveblog has now closed. Britain could face turmoil not seen since the poll tax riots if the government pushes ahead with a national roll-out of the universal credit scheme, Gordon Brown has warned. The former prime minister described the welfare reforms as a cruel and vindictive experiment that will exacerbate the convulsions of Brexit and risk public disorder. His intervention comes as charities warn extending the coverage of universal credit across the country would trigger a surge in food bank usage. Reports have suggested millions of families could be left more than 200 a month worse off when the new system begins its national roll-out in July. Writing in the Daily Mirror, Mr Brown said universal credit would remove 3bn from the social security budget on top of cuts to child tax credits and benefit, which he helped introduce. He warned that child poverty was rising inexorably and is expected to hit five million in 2022. It is now time to abandon the national roll-out of the disastrous benefit-cutting universal credit, he said. Call a halt to this experiment - cruel and vindictive far beyond austerity - that is pushing child poverty among millions of hard-working British families to record levels. From next July when three million more families begin to be herded on to universal credit, our country will face the kind of chaos we have not seen since the days of the hated poll tax. With the convulsions of Brexit in March and the universal credit four months later we face a summer of division and despair. Along with Mr Brown, shadow chancellor John McDonnell and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby are among a growing number of figures calling for the roll-out to be halted. Labour had planned on pausing the schemes expansion if it gets into government, but Mr McDonnell said the party would now scrap it. Touted as the most radical reform to welfare since the Second World War, universal credit combines six means-tested benefits and tax credits into one payment. It is also designed to encourage people to take up work by ensuring they will always be better off having a job. World 'sleepwalking' towards another financial crisis, Gordon Brown warns However, critics have warned that in areas where the system has already been introduced there has been an increase in food bank use. Food bank charity the Trussell Trust said it had received reports people had not been able to access the help they require. The poll tax riots in March 1990 erupted after a peaceful march by 70,000 protesters in London broke down into violent disorder, leading to 400 arrests and more than 100 injuries. Opposition to the Community Charge, dubbed the poll tax and later revised into council tax, contributed to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher, who resigned as prime minister later that year. Additional reporting by PA President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency for Florida as it prepares for Hurricane Michael, which he said could be more intense than Florence. He tweeted: Hurricane on its way to the Florida Pan Handle with major elements arriving tomorrow. Could also hit, in later stage, parts of Georgia, and unfortunately North Carolina, and South Carolina, again....Looks to be a [Category 3 storm] which is even more intense than Florence. Good news is, the folks in the Pan Handle can take care of anything. Florence, which was ultimately downgraded from a Category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm, pummelled the same region just weeks ago and many low-lying areas along the coast are still recovering. Recommended State of emergency declared as Hurricane Michael bears down on US Florida Governor Rick Scott urged residents in the path of the storm to evacuate to a safer location. "Let me be clear. Hurricane Michael is a monstrous storm, and we're just hours away from seeing impacts. This is the most destructive storm to hit the Panhandle in decades. This storm could kill you, he said. Mr Scott and his Democrat opponent Bill Nelson have temporarily suspended their campaigns for the US Senate in light of the storm preparations. The storm is expected to make landfall on Tuesday and the Florida panhandle, the northwestern section of the peninsular state, is expected to bear the brunt of it. Mr Trump also said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) will also be at the ready to assist those affected by Michael. Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen said her agency and the Defence Department were actively preparing for Michael. "In rapid succession last year, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria devastated the southern states and territories," Ms Nielsen said, adding that last year "one of the costliest and most damaging seasons for natural disasters in history." The administration has still not attributed the rise in deadly and costly hurricanes to climate change, as many scientists and meteorologists have done. The National Weather Service said earlier in the week the storm could develop into a potentially catastrophic event for the northeastern Gulf Coast. The National Hurricane Center reported wind speeds in the hurricane, as measured by its Hurricane Hunter Aircraft, were hovering around 110mph (177 km/h), but there were later reports estimating the speed picked up to 120mph, with wind gusts of 150mph. Florida Governor Rick Scott urges residents to prepare for tropical storm Michael It is expected to be the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the US this year. Irma took that designation last year as it also hit southern Florida. Currently the storm is moving north, headed straight for Panama City, Florida. Storm surge watch, or the threat of floods from the hurricane as a result of unrelenting rain, is in effect for areas along the Alabama-Florida border all the way to Tampa Bay. However, even those in inland Georgia up to the city of Savannah and Charleston, South Carolina have been placed under a tropical storm warning. It is a less severe designation than a hurricane, but Florence made landfall as a tropical storm and still caused flooding and some infrastructure damage. Charleston airport had actually closed for days due to the threat of Florence. Michael could be the strongest hurricane to landfall in the region in 13 years, weather.com reported. The last Category 3 storm to hit that part of the Gulf region was Hurricane Dennis in 2005. Twenty million people across Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina are under threat from Michael as emergency management authorities continue to tell residents on the coasts to leave the expected path of the storm. Hurricane Michael - one of the most powerful storms ever to strike the US mainland - has roared into the Florida coast bringing tree-snapping winds and towering waves. The Category 4 storm made landfall at Mexico Beach at approximately 1:30pm local time, with wind speeds of 155mph - just shy of an extremely rare Category 5 storm. The storm is the most powerful ever to hit north-west Florida. Earlier in the day, Florida Governor Rick Scott warned of "unimaginable devastation" calling it the worst storm to hit the area "in a century". Recommended Hurricane Michael becomes could become Category 5 major storm The first fatality caused by the hurricane was recorded near Greensboro, Florida, where Gadsden County sheriff's department said a male subject was killed by a tree toppling onto his house. A child killed in Seminole County, Georgia, was the storm's second victim. Causing major disruptions to oil and gas production in the Gulf even before its arrival, the storm was forecast to unleash waves as high as 14 feet (4.3 metres) above normal sea levels in some areas, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Mr Scott said that the thousands who had not evacuated - with more than 300,000 told to flee - should stay in their homes and that the worst thing they could do is "act foolishly". Thousands of National Guard members have been deployed or placed on alert to deal with the damage and anticipated rescues. As it approached the area where southern Alabama, Georgia, and Florida meet wind speeds had dropped to 125mph, a Category 3 storm, before falling again to around 90mph. But officials warned it was dangerous to head out onto the road with trees and power lines down. The storm was moved over the area and into Georgia on Wednesday night and is expected to hit parts of North and South Carolina on Thursday. More than 400,000 people were said to be without power in Florida, Georgia and Alabama by Wednesday evening. "We are catching some hell," Timothy Thomas, who rode out the storm with his wife in their second-floor apartment in Panama City Beach told Reuters. The area is close to where the storm made landfall. Much of the area affected by the hurricane is rural and dotted with small tourist towns, beaches and wildlife reserves, as well as the state capital, Tallahassee, home to about 190,000 people Footage from ISS shows Hurricane Michael from space Florida Senator Marco Rubio also said every storm's different, but this storm is a monstrosity." Even Georgia is at risk, Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) Administrator Brock Long said during a news conference. "The citizens in Georgia need to wake up and pay attention," he said after a meeting to brief Donald Trump on the disaster preparations. "A hurricane of the worst kind," is how Mr Long described storm Michael. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal said Michael is "unlike any storm that we have had in anybody's memory." The state's peanut, pecan, and cotton crops could be devastated by the hurricane, potentially costing hundreds of millions in damage. Mr Trump noted the storm started "innocently" and intensified into "a monster". Hurricane Michael heads towards Florida Michael grew from a tropical depression into a Category 4 hurricane in less than 72 hours. The president said about the Florida panhandle: "Some of the areas are very poor," which makes it "very difficult for people without the necessary resources to leave." He said he would likely travel to the affected region once the storm passes back out the ocean, which is expected to be later in the weekend. The region was hit in recent weeks by Florence, which was originally a Category 4 storm but downgraded to a tropical storm. Florence still caused flooding throughout the Carolinas and damage to several large farms, bridges, and roads. Mr Long noted "any rain through North and South Carolina is not welcomed" as river beds have still not receded from the previous storm. Mr Long also noted this morning is the final call for residents to get to a shelter or evacuate the area completely as roads in the panhandle are not safe to travel. Those who try to last through "storm surge...don't typically live to tell about it," he said. The surge is expected to produce waves and flooding in the range of nine to 18 feet (2.7 m to 5.5 m). "Our priority is saving lives right now," Mr Long said, adding getting power lines back up and running and infrastructure clear and safe will be a priority. "Power is going to be off for multiple weeks," he warned, adding Michael is "unprecedented. The wind speed puts Hurricane Michael just 7 mph short of being a Category 5 hurricane. Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US Show all 16 1 /16 Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A damaged store in Panama City, Florida Getty Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US Waves crash into houses on the shore at Alligator Point in Franklin County, Florida Reuters Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US Haley Nelson of Panama City stands by her father's destroyed trailer home Getty Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A damaged store in downtown Panama City, Florida Getty Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A woman and her children wait in Panama City, Florida AFP/Getty Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A stores windows are shattered by Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida Getty Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A damaged apartment building in Panama City, Florida Getty Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A damaged liquor store in Panama City Beach, Florida Reuters Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A helicopter hovers over a damaged neighbourhood EPA Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A man wades through a flooded street in Panama City, Florida EPA Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A boathouse is damaged in the storm EPA Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US Charles Swaney of Panama City sits in the office of a damaged motel in Panama City, Florida AFP/Getty Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A market is flooded in St. Marks, Florida Getty Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US A high-rise apartment building is damaged in Panama City Beach, Florida Reuters Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US Lenora Adams of Panacea, Florida evacuates a motel with her dog Reuters Hurricane Michael: record breaking storm hits the US Haley Nelson of Panama City stands by her father's destroyed trailer home Getty There has never even been a Category 4 storm to hit the panhandle of Florida and the only Category 5 storm to hit the state was Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Hurricane Camille hit Cuba, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in 1962 and a similar unnamed storm made landfall in 1935. However, meteorologists and scientists have explained part of the problem is the government not acknowledging the role of climate change in the increased frequency of deadly and costly storms. As environmental news outlet Grist reported: "six of the seven most damaging hurricanes in US history have hit in the past 10 years". Hurricanes can be deadly, but they can also cause severe economic damage to the region in its path. It is estimated Hurricane Irma, which primarily hit parts of southern Florida last year, cost the state $50bn in damage - the most expensive storm in state history. Hurricane Andrew caused approximately $25 billion in damage. It was the most expensive storm in US history until Hurricane Katrina which caused an astonishing $108 billion across Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi in 2004. It also ravaged parts of tourist hub New Orleans. Michael is expected to cause $30 billion in damage, according to a statement from forecaster Accuweather, adding: "The greatest impacts will be near and east of where the hurricane's eye makes landfall, and particularly along the coastline because of angry seas in a dangerous storm surge being driven inland by onshore winds." The clean-up will come later, for now residents are just trying to survive the onslaught. My God, it's scary. I didn't expect all this, said Bill Manning, 63, a grocery clerk who fled his camper van in Panama City for safer quarters in a hotel, only to see the electricity there go out. Panama City, I don't know if there will be much left, he added. Reuters contributed to this report Hurricane Michael is barrelling towards the Florida panhandle and parts of Alabama and Georgia and is due to make landfall in a few hours. Governor Rick Scott of Florida said Category 4 Hurricane Michael will cause unimaginable devastation and could affect areas as far away as North and South Carolina. Wind speeds are hovering around 145 mph (233 kmh) with some higher gusts of 150mph. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said the storm is travelling north as state and emergency management officials warned residents to get to safety. The agency warned in a tweet water levels are rising quickly all along the panhandles Gulf Coast. Mr Scott said it will be the most destructive storm the state has seen in a century. Florida Senator Marco Rubio also said every storm's different, but this storm is a monstrosity." The region was hit in recent weeks by Florence, which was originally a Category 4 storm but downgraded to a tropical storm. Footage from ISS shows Hurricane Michael from space Florence still caused flooding throughout the Carolinas and damage to several large farms, bridges, and roads. Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) Administrator Brock Long noted "any rain through North and South Carolina is not welcomed" as river beds have still not receded from the previous storm. Mr Long also noted this morning is the final call for residents to get to a shelter or evacuate the area completely as roads in the panhandle are not safe to travel. Those who try to last through "storm surge...don't typically live to tell about it," he said. The surge is expected to produce waves and flooding in the range of nine to 18 feet (2.7 m to 5.5 m). "Our priority is saving lives right now," Mr Long said, adding getting power lines back up and running and infrastructure clear and safe will be a priority. Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Show all 7 1 /7 Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Inez Gibbs During September of 2017, the Caribbean was hit by two powerful hurricanes, Irma and Maria. Almost a year after the rebuilding effort continue at a slow pace and with fear of what this year hurricane season could bring. who is diabetic, lost everything except her bed and her teddy bears. Cash assistance from the Red Cross helped her to support herself while she waited to return to work. These and my bed are the only things I saved. The teddy bears are my buddies, they are my friends. I bought them here from Jamaica 20 years ago. Everything else I had I lost. The cash I got was very helpful because I wasnt able to work after the hurricane so it helped me to pay my bills and buy my medication. Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Cleve Pennyfeather, Disaster Response Officer at BVI Red Cross Cleve has been working for the British Virgin Islands Red Cross since January this year, working with local communities to help them recover from Irma and prepare for future hurricanes. The house he grew up in was badly damaged by the hurricane. This house is very sentimental to me - it has been in my family well over 80 years and it means a lot to us. I grew up in this house as a little boy until I left for high school. It belonged to my grandparents, and now belongs to my uncle who is 91. Irma completely destroyed the roof, but thankfully the Red Cross provided him with some cash so that he could buy materials to get it rebuilt. Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Joan Chimney, 56 Joan runs the popular Sugar and Spice cafe on the island of Jost Van Dyke. She was on holiday in Grenada when the hurricane hit, but returned home to find her business badly damaged. Everybody always comes to my restaurant and says theyre here for my patties. I make them every morning, wake up and come down to my shop to make them from scratch. The hurricane did some damage to my restaurant though - all the windows and doors gone. Its a good thing that the Red Cross was there to give me some help buying them back so I could keep my business going. Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Lorie Rymer, 70 Lorie, a keen viola player, saw his most treasured possession damaged in Hurricane Irma, all he has now is the broken remains. My house I will build back, but theres no way that I could replace my instrument, my viola, I cannot replace it. It was just precious, I can still hear it in my mind how it used to sound. I would give anything if I might be able to purchase one again, a used one. It has to be very old and seasoned wood, maybe 30, 40, 50 years old. Im going to take this one with me to the UK and have it repaired. Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Lucia Harrigan, 81 81-year-old Lucia, who had lived in her home for 60 years before it was destroyed by Hurricane Irma, is looking forward to returning to her own home. When I see the destruction and I see what I had loved so dearly I sit down and I cry. The whole roof went, the shutters, and a brand new washer that I had just bought. I lost all my dining chairs, my living room set and a lot of my clothes, but Im not worried about that, as long as I could find something to wear. But I saved a few things, maybe some are salvageable or maybe not. My favourite thing that I lost is the deeds to my land. I hope that I will get back in the house soon, because when you get to my age you like to be by yourself. Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Darrel Turnball Hurricane Irma destroyed almost everything Darrel owned, including his much-loved photo-album, but he managed to recover one of his favourite childhood toys. This is my best friend I have carried him with me my whole life. When I got married he was with me, when I got divorced he was with me, he goes everywhere I go. I was so happy when I realised he hadnt been damaged in the hurricane. Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Rasheed Jennings, 20 When Irma hit, Rasheed sheltered in the bathroom with his mother, father and brother - from there all they could do was watch as Irma shattered their home. The first thing that Irma blew out was the windows and then once the wind started to circle through the house it lifted up the doors and the roof, and once that was gone there was no protection and everything just started to float through the doors. Even my computer and PlayStation and all my gaming stuff was blown away, I didnt even think to protect them. We could see the damage through the window in the bathroom but there wasnt anything we could do at that point. Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross "Power is going to be off for multiple weeks," he warned, adding Michael is "unprecedented. After Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico devastated last year, Fema and the administration of Donald Trump were widely criticised for leaving millions of people in the US territory without power for several months. Mr Long noted residents of the area know "living in the Gulf Coast can be dangerous...these things can happen. However, meteorologists and scientists have explained part of the problem is the government not acknowledging the role of climate change in the increased frequency of deadly and costly storms. As environmental news outlet Grist reported: "six of the seven most damaging hurricanes in US history have hit in the past 10 years". It is estimated Hurricane Irma, which primarily hit parts of southern Florida last year, cost the state $50bn in damage - the most expensive storm in state history. Just before Irma made landfall, The Independent spoke with Miami Beach City Engineer Bruce Mowry and others who said Mr Scott ignoring climate change and not adapting urban planning standards around the state only exacerbate the negative effects of hurricanes of that magnitude. Melania Trump has said she supports victims of sexual assault but they need to provide "really hard evidence" when going public with their accusations. The first lady discussed the #MeToo movement after Brett Kavanaugh's contentious Supreme Court confirmation battle, in which the 114th justice was accused of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez. The US Senate voted to confirm Donald Trump's second nominee to the nations highest court after numerous Republicans said a week-long FBI probe failed to yield conclusive evidence against him. Mr Kavanaugh has denied all the allegations against him. I support the women, she told ABC during an exclusive interview as the first lady travelled around Africa this week. They need to be heard. We need to support them. And also men, not just women. She added, We need to have really hard evidence that if youre accused of something, show the evidence. The first lady attempted to defend herself against critics who allege her position doesn't show genuine support for assault survivors, who often fail to report the crimes out of fear they wont be believed. "I do stand with women," Ms Trump said. "But we need to show the evidence." She continued, "You cannot just say to somebody you know I was sexually assaulted or You did that to me, because sometimes the media goes too far. And the way they portray some stories, its not correct. Its not right." 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 nation was left polarised after Dr Fords historic testimony in which she accused Mr Kavanaugh of an assault carried out nearly 36 years ago while the two were in high school. President Trump described her statements as compelling and very credible shortly after her testimony. Still, Republicans managed to push the nomination through with a narrow 50-48 vote after the GOP accused Democrats of a smear campaign that lacked substance or credible accusations against Mr Kavanaugh. The first lady appeared to echo a stance made by key Republican senators like Susan Collins, who ultimately supported Mr Kavanaughs nomination and later told CNN she did not believe the judge was Dr Fords assaulter though she believed an assault had taken place. Meanwhile, the president has moved to decry the allegations against Mr Kavanaugh, telling reporters at the White House, It is a very scary time for young men in America, when you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of. The first ladys full interview with ABC will air on Friday as a special on Ms Trump titled Being Melania: The First Lady. Michael Avenatti has offered to fight Donald Trump Jr for charity in the latest barbed exchange between the attorney and America's first family. Mr Avenatti, who is representing adult actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against president Donald Trump, revealed his plans to organise the bout during a meeting with a reporter. The lawyer offered Mr Trump Jr the opportunity to take part in a three-round mixed martial arts (MMA) fight, the proceeds of which would be donated to charity. This would be for two great causes. Im in, Mr Avenatti said on Twitter, adding he was waiting for Mr Trump Jr to confirm the event. He said his proceeds would be split between hurricane-hit Puerto Rico, where the president claimed the official death toll was being exaggerated by Democrats to make him look bad, and the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN). The attorneys proposal came following an earlier clash with Mr Trump Jr, a figure Mr Avenatti has often argued with on social media. Recommended Steve Bannon says Michael Avenatti could be a threat to Trump in 2020 The presidents son had tweeted news of disgraced Democratic congressman Anthony Weiners potential release from prison, where he is serving a 21-month sentence for sending obscene texts to a minor. Who else is excited about Avanetti [sic]/Weiner 2020?!? Mr Trump Jr wrote, indicating he could imagine the two Democrats running against each other for their party's nomination for the 2020 US presidential election. Its gonna be Carlos Dangerous, he added, referencing the Carlos Danger pseudonym Wiener used when sending explicit pictures of himself to a 22-year-old woman during a separate scandal in 2013. Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Show all 16 1 /16 Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions New York Post Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Washington Post Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Newsday Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions St Louis Post Dispatch Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Chicago Sun Times Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Star Ledger Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Daily News Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The New York Times Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions San Francisco Chronicle Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Boston Globe Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Houston Chronicle Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Miami Herald Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Detroit Free Press Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Wall Street Journal Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Dallas Morning News Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions USA Today But Mr Avenatti responded claiming Mr Trump Jr could himself face a spell behind bars. If I were you, the last thing I would be doing is referencing other people getting out of federal prison. Because after you are indicted, you will likely be passing them on your way in, he wrote. BTW, they dont have silver spoons or gold toilets in the joint. Buckle up Buttercup. Mr Avenatti, a vociferous critic of the Trump administration, has previously indicated his interest in a run to oppose the president in 2020, saying the Democratic candidate needs to be a fighter. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has also played up Mr Avenattis credentials, claiming he could be a serious contender for the nomination. [Avenatti]'s got a fearlessness, Mr Bannon told political talk show host Bill Maher last month. And he's a fighter. I think he'll go through a lot of that field, if he decides to stick with it, like a scythe through grass. Joe Biden has said he is not currently planning to run against Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, but appeared to leave the door open to seeking the Democratic nomination. Speaking in London, the former vice-president said he was not an aspiring candidate for his party at this point. During a passionate address at Chatham House on Wednesday afternoon, the former senator repeatedly underscored the importance of the US relations with Europe, in comments that amounted to a clear challenge to Mr Trumps policies. Recommended Joe Biden reveals deadline for 2020 presidential bid Looking inward, turning inward, has never, ever worked for us before, he said, adding the special relationship between the US and UK still formed the core of transatlantic alliances. Mr Biden sidestepped a question about his intentions for 2020, saying there were "many" potential contenders capable of beating Mr Trump. He added "Not single aspiring candidate that I can think of for the nomination - and I am not one at this point - does not have a better understanding and formulation of American foreign policy than President Trump." Barack Obamas former deputy has previously said he would decide by January whether to run in the presidential election. He has pointed to preliminary polling data which suggested he could defeat Mr Trump. In July, Mr Biden said he would hold what he called an altar call a chance for Democrats to voice their commitment to endorse his bid after the November 2018 midterms. Speaking at Chatham House, he predicted his party would win control both the House of Representatives and the Senate in next months elections, which he described as a battle for the soul of America. I predict to you that the Democrats will win 40 seats in the House. I also think there is a better than even chance we win the Senate, he said. Mr Biden revealed that he met prime minister Theresa May on Tuesday, and described Brexit as "an almost intractable problem" that threatened US influence on the world stage. "I do believe very strongly that the United States's ability to play a major role in the security of the west and the prosperity of the transatlantic partnership rests in part on Great Britain's influence in Europe," he said. Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Show all 15 1 /15 Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden watch Barack Obama's farewell speech on 11 January. Obama called Biden his 'brother' Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years US President Barack Obama speaks alongside US Vice President Joe Biden about the Affordable Care Act AFP/Getty Images Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama Getty Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years President Obama listens to Joe Biden speak of his work on defeating cancer on 18 October in the White House Reuters Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years U.S. President Barack Obama is applauded by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden while delivering his final State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in Washington Reuters Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years U.S. Vice President Joe Biden interjects as President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a reception for the 25th anniversary of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics at the White House in Washington REUTERS Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Obama and Vice President Joe Biden react after a heckler was removed for their extended interruption (Reuters) Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) as Vice President Joe Biden looks on Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Barack and Michelle Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden observing a moment of silence outside the White House to mark the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Getty Images Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Barack Obama and Joe Biden putt on the White House putting green Getty Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years President Barack Obama and Joe Biden in April 2013 AFP/Getty Images Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years January 1, 2013: U.S. President Barack Obama winks as he arrives with Vice President Joe Biden (L) in the briefing room Reuters Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and others receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House May 1, 2011 in Washington, DC Getty Images Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Vice-President Joe Biden, right, confirmed that the US was looking at ways of taking legal action against Julian Assange - back in December 2010 GETTY IMAGES Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Joe Biden, left, and retired military officers watch President Barack Obama sign orders to close down the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2009 GETTY IMAGES Mr Biden toyed with the idea of running for the White House in 2016, but he ruled it out as he was still mourning the death of his 46-year-old son Beau, who had a rare form of brain cancer. He previously vied to be the Democrats' nominee in 1988 and 2008. The former vice-president will be 77 on election day in 2020, something which is a concern among Democrats. However, he is one of partys leading figures on foreign policy and is seen as having greater national appeal than many younger potential candidates. Others said to be considering a run are New York governor Andrew Cuomo, and senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand. Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is also thought to be considering a bid after announcing he had rejoined the Democrats on Wednesday. A man has been arrested in Germany and charged with the rape and murder of a Bulgarian journalist who reported on alleged corruption. Severin Krasimirov, a Bulgarian national, was detained on suspicion of killing 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova, whose badly beaten body was found in a park in the Danube border city of Ruse on Saturday. The journalists murder shocked her country and prompted claims she may have been targeted as a warning because of her work. The European Commission has demanded a rapid investigation to bring her killers to justice. Recommended Journalist investigating alleged corruption found raped and murdered A Romanian man arrested over Ms Marinovas murder on Tuesday has been released without charge, police said. Mr Krasimirov was later detained in Germany at the request of Bulgarian authorities. DNA evidence found on her body implicated him in her killing, said Bulgarias interior minister, Mladen Marinov. He said the suspect, a 21-year-old resident of Ruse, had a previous criminal conviction for scrap metal theft. Investigators have found no apparent link to Ms Marinovas work, the minister added. He said evidence pointed to a spontaneous attack, not premeditated. The television journalist for local station TVN had presented a programme about alleged fraud involving EU funds days before the death. While Ms Marinova did not appear to have been closely involved in the fraud investigation, her show Detector touched on a sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. Following her killing, the owner of an investigative website that featured on the programme said he had received credible information that his journalists were in danger. Viktorias death, the brutal manner in which she was killed, is an execution, said Bivol.bg owner Asen Yordanov. It was meant to serve as an example, something like a warning. Bulgarian prosecutors have since launched an investigation GP Group, a large construction firm accused in the programme of embezzlement, and have frozen 14m (12m) of the companys assets. The countrys chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, said he could not yet say whether Ms Marinovas death was linked to her work. At a press conference also attended by prime minister Boyko Borissov on Wednesday morning, he added Bulgaria expected Mr Krasimirov to be extradited from Germany. We are currently following a European arrest procedure. The German prosecutor has arrested the suspect, they will then assess how to proceed, Mr Tsatsarov said. 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 Bulgarian authorities have come under international pressure to quickly bring the journalists killers to justice. A spokesman for European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said he expected a swift and thorough investigation that would bring those responsible to justice and clarify whether this attack was linked to her work. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was shocked by the barbaric murder, calling on Bulgaria to employ all efforts and resources to carry out an exhaustive inquiry. Ms Marinovas death has also angered many in Bulgaria, where there is public frustration with corruption and an inefficient justice system that has been criticised by the European Commission. A Turkish newspaper has published the names, faces, and travel movements of what it describes as the 15 Saudis allegedly involved in the disappearance of a prominent journalist who vanished in Istanbul last week. Then, online sleuths reportedly managed to use open-source material to identify at least eight of those allegedly involved in the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a 59-year-old Saudi journalist, as members of Saudi security forces. One photo purported to show a member of the 15-member team hobnobbing with Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful 33-year-old Saudi crown prince who has become the primary target of Mr Khashoggis criticisms. Another identified an alleged team member as Salah Mohammed al-Tubaigy, a name and face matching the head of forensic evidence at Saudis General Security department. A graphic from the Turkish daily newspaper Sabah purports to identify the 15-member Saudi team allegedly involved in the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi The details were published by Sabah, a mass-circulation daily newspaper close to the government of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Friends, family, and officials say Mr Khashoggi was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October before disappearing. Turkish media reported that security camera footage from inside the consulate was removed and that staff were ordered to go home the afternoon Mr Khashoggi arrived. On the same day, two private jets, owned by Riyadh based Sky Prime Aviation, reportedly arrived from Saudi Arabia to Istanbuls Ataturk airport, carrying the 15 personnel, landing just hours before Mr Khashoggis scheduled appointment at the consulate. Some of the 15 checked in to the five-star Movenpick hotel near the Saudi consulate in Istanbuls Levent district. Both private jets and the 15 men departed hours later, according to Turkish officials and local press. Turkish authorities investigating the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi with Turkish ethnic roots, have been leaking information about the probe to local and international media with what appears to be the tacit approval of government officials. Police in Istanbul have formed a special team to investigate Mr Khashoggis disappearance, the newspaper Milliyet reported, tasked specifically to use chemicals, dogs, and infrared light to look for DNA, blood and other traces of the journalist at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The latest revelations add to mounting allegations that Saudis crown prince ordered Mr Khashoggis abduction or murder. On Wednesday, The Washington Post, where Mr Khashoggi wrote a regular column, reported that US intelligence officials had picked up chatter suggesting Saudi officials were planning to kidnap the journalist. The Post and other media also circulated a photo, likely taken from security camera footage, showing a black Mercedes Vito van that was parked outside the consulate and left shortly after Mr Khashoggis arrival, parked in front of the residence of Saudi consul general Mohammad al-Otaibi. The 15-member team identified by Sabah are all Saudi men aged between 30 and 57 years old. Those purportedly tracked down via open source internet tools by Oslo-based researcher Iyad al-Baghdadi and others include: a Saudi special forces member; a lieutenant colonel in the Saudi civil defence force; a major and lieutenant in the Saudi air force; a lieutenant in the service guarding the crown princes palace; and an intelligence service colonel who had once been attached to the Saudi embassy in the UK. Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on the disappearance of a Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi Mr Khashoggi served for years as the right-hand man of Saudi prince Turki bin Faisal, a former intelligence chief as well as Riyadhs envoy to the US and UK. Increasingly frustrated with Saudi Arabias course, he began to bristle at the restrictions placed on media and civil society, eventually moving to the US last year amid fears for his own safety. In recent months he had grown increasingly critical of the crown prince, who has been criticised as authoritarian despite attempts to cast himself as a reformer. Saudi officials have denied that they had anything to do with Mr Khashoggis disappearance, insisting he left the consulate, but without providing proof, as demanded by Mr Erdogan. The disappearance of Mr Khashoggi, a permanent US resident, has put Washington in a tough spot. The crown prince has forged a strong alliance with the administration of Donald Trump and a personal bond with the US presidents son-in-law, Jared Kushner. US lawmakers have made tough statements about the Khashoggi affair, but the White House and State Department have been tepid. Saudi Arabia has vowed to buy $110bn in American weapons. Were not going to make any judgments about what had happened to him, Heather Nauert, State Department spokeswoman, told reporters on Tuesday. The United States is certainly concerned about his whereabouts. Senior officials at the State Department have spoken with Saudi officials through diplomatic channels about the matter. We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations for her uncompromising struggle for Israel, as Palestinians talked of their relief at her departure. Nikki Haley, 46, the former South Carolina governor, announced her unexpected resignation on Tuesday after less than two years in the UN post. The outspoken politician had sparked controversy in the Middle East for her fervent support for Israel and hawkish line on Iran, Israels chief foe. Several Israeli leaders including the premier expressed their sadness at her decision to leave. "I thank ambassador Nikki Haley for her uncompromising struggle against the hypocrisy of the UN," Mr Netanyahu wrote in Hebrew on his official Twitter account, wishing her success in her future endeavours. Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, in a statement wrote: "Thank you, Nikki Haley! Thank you for standing with the truth without fear." Meanwhile, the country's education minister Naftali Bennett, who is also head of the far-right Jewish Home party, echoed the sentiment. "On behalf of the Israeli people: Thank you for what you've done for Israel. We will not forget," he tweeted. Israeli commentators noted that it was unlikely that Ms Haleys successor would be able to match her zeal for Israel and bemoaned that the country had lost a major ally. However, the Palestinian leadership said that the US politician's pro-Israel agenda was "horrible" and that no one would cry for her departure. "We don't interfere in the appointment of American positions, however Haley isolated the US in speaking on behalf of Israel," Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told The Independent. "Vocally she was horrible but in the end she was representing White House policy which we are against. Haley was not for us or a peaceful resolution [to the crisis]. She was not a good representative she followed an Israeli agenda." "We hope for a better person and policy from the White House according to international law ... We would like to hear an American representative, not an Israeli one," he added. Palestinian commenters, meanwhile, welcomed her departure, saying her term in office had been a nightmare for the Palestinian cause. Nikki Haley says her stepping down is 'not for personal reasons' Today, as Ambassador Haley leaves office, she ends a two-year-long nightmare for the Palestinians and for those hopeful to reach a peaceful settlement in the Israeli Palestinians conflict, wrote Mohamed Shehada, a commentator and analyst based in Gaza. "She repeatedly pledged to shield Israel from any criticism, further empowering Netanyahus fanatical cabinet and leaving their dangerous ambitions unchecked, he added. Ms Haley spearheaded the US administrations efforts to combat what it alleged were unacceptable anti-American and anti-Israel actions by the UN. That included leading the US decision to leave the Human Rights Council and to stop funding UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Riyad Mansour, observer to the UN for the Palestinians, has in the past accused Ms Haley of "becoming more Israeli than the Israelis themselves". Evidence of a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran is presented by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty) (Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty Images) She had controversially dismissed as off the table the Palestinian claim to right of return to lands they fled or were forced from during the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel, as well as subsequent conflicts. The so-called "right of return" is one of the sticking points of the peace process. Last month Ms Haley also defended the US decision to cut its funding to UNRWA, saying the Palestinians had done nothing but beg and badmouth Washington. She also refused to listen to a Palestinian delegation speak during a UN Security council chamber meeting in May and blocked the appointment of Salam Fayyad as UN envoy to Libya because he is Palestinian. Meanwhile she was met with rapturous applause in 2017 when she first spoke before the American Israel Public Affairs Committees (AIPAC) annual conference and told the crowds theres a new sheriff in town and that the US had no greater friend than Israel. As she announced her resignation on Tuesday she said she had given everything she had to the job. I do think it's good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it," she added. Pope Francis has compared the abortion procedure to hiring a contract killer to commit murder on one's behalf. The Argentinian pontiff made the remarks in an address to worshippers in the Vatican on Wednesday, adding that it was wrong to take a human life, no matter how small. "Getting rid of a human being is like resorting to a contract killer to solve a problem," the sovereign told the congregation gathered on Saint Peter's Square, in one of his harshest criticisms of abortion. "Is it just to resort to a contract killer to solve a problem?" He added: How can an act that suppresses an innocent and helpless life as it blossoms be therapeutic, civil or, simply, humane? The Pope complained that abortion, wars and a culture of wastefulness were all contributing to "depreciation of human life" as he departed from the prepared text for his weekly sermon. In his speech he also urged parents not to reject their sick children when they received hasty advice" to terminate the pregnancy. He instead advised communities to offer real closeness, real solidarity, to face reality overcoming understandable fears. DUP's Jim Wells compares abortions to the Holocaust Even though the leader of the Catholic Church is considered more liberal than his predecessors, he refuses to stray from the churchs teachings on family planning and sex. The Popes claims come months after he opposed a bill that would have legalised abortion in Argentina, leading to thousands of Argentinian Catholics to renounce the church. Campaigners have been fighting to ensure safe access to abortion amid a growing campaign from far-right politicians and anti-abortion groups. After the collapse of Primera Air, the chief executive of easyJet has warned that other airlines are likely to fail. Speaking at the Abta Convention, Johan Lundgren said: A lot of weaker players are in a more difficult situation because of the high price of oil. We are going to see more failures. Mr Lundgren declined to name airlines that he thinks will go out of business. But he told The Independent: If you are exposed to fuel [price increases] because you havent hedged, and you dont have resilience, if you dont have a product and a service that people will pay a small premium for, then you should be worried. The easyJet boss also predicted that an agreement would be found for planes to keep flying after Brexit, even in the event of the UK leaving the European Union with no deal. Everybody wants connectivity, he said. There will be a bare-bones agreement with basic connectivity between the UK and Europe. It would be inconceivable for politicians to put people in the situation where people cant go on holiday or on business trips. Mr Lundgren also called for progress on expansion at Heathrow. Even though easyJet does not fly from the UKs biggest airport, the airline has lobbied for a third runway and set out plans to deploy 30 aircraft at Heathrow. We fly out of 49 of the 50 primary airports in Europe, he said. Heathrow is the one that is missing. We can provide better connectivity at much lower cost. The easyJet chief executive also made a jibe at the boss of his larger rival, Ryanair. When asked about Michael OLearys accusation that staff at competitor airlines had fomented strikes at Ryanair, Mr Lundgren said: We have pilots who fly our aeroplanes. If youre going to have some aeroplanes, get some pilots to fly them, he advised Mr O'Leary. The Independent has invited Ryanair to respond. Hell is other people: Jean-Paul Sartres view is being adopted by increasing numbers of holidaymakers, according to the travel association, Abta. A survey conducted in August 2018 indicates that in the past seven years, there has been a 150 per cent rise in solo travel by British holidaymakers. For travellers aged 35 to 44 year olds, the number has trebled in a year rising from 5 per cent to 16 per cent. For all ages from 25 to 75, around one-sixth of people now choose to travel alone. For older travellers, the proportion increases to one in four, because in this age group a lot of people have lost partners. Abta believes that enhanced communications technology has encouraged solo travel. The use of smartphones and travel apps makes navigating the world alone less daunting, says the organisation. As well as making the logistics of travelling easier, people are now able to keep in touch with friends and family back home, sharing holiday experiences via social media. Compared with couples and larger groups, single travellers make 50 per cent more trips to Asia and more than twice as many to Antarctica. Mark Tanzer, the chief executive of Abta, said: Going on holiday by yourself means you dont have to compromise on your choice of destination, your itinerary or the activities you take part in. Whether theyre single or just want some me time, people now have an incredible choice of holidays and destinations to choose from. But many solo travellers contact The Independent to complain about single supplements levied by the mainstream travel industry. Mary Anness said: Single supplements are so high and the companies that purport to include no single supplements usually only have dates out of season for the destination. And Pamela Ashby found a holiday in Madeira which cost 1,100 for one person, but only 96 more for two. Trust in review sites such as TripAdvisor has fallen by a quarter in the past year, according to the travel association, ABTA. In its Holiday Habits 2018 report, ABTAs research shows that only two in five (39 per cent) of prospective travellers trust in review sites for information and inspiration. That compares with just over half (53 per cent) in 2017, which represents a 26 per cent decline among those who previously trusted review sites. The limitations of relying on review websites has been highlighted by high profile stories of a shed being ranked one of the best restaurants in London and a plastic tunnel at a supermarket being listed as the most popular attraction in the Cornish town of Bude, says the ABTA report. Recommended Fraudulent TripAdvisor reviews could result in jail time for culprits A spokesperson for TripAdvisor said: As the worlds largest travel website with more than 660 million reviews and opinions and over 450 million monthly unique visitors we are committed to ensuring the reliability of the content on our site. The usefulness and accuracy of the reviews and rankings on TripAdvisor is what has made our site popular to hundreds of millions of consumers. If people didnt find the reviews helpful, if the site wasnt delivering great recommendations, then travellers wouldnt keep coming back. Weve never lost sight of that and the fact that millions of consumers continue to do so is testament to the reliability and usefulness of our site. The ABTA report also claims that millennials have the greatest faith in booking with a travel professional rather than arranging everything themselves, with one in five saying it means they will have a better holiday. But the proportion of people who have booked through a travel professional has slipped slightly in the past year, from 38 to 36 per cent. The report also found that 45 per cent of British holidaymakers plan to visit a new country next year. TripAdvisor challenges Zac Alsop to skip the queue at attractions in the UK In terms of Brexit, the proportion of travellers who believe visiting Europe will get tougher after the UK leaves the EU is 48 per cent the same as the percentage who voted to remain in the referendum. Despite concerns about flights possibly being grounded, bookings of package holidays for next summer are running 19 per cent ahead of this time last year. Q I love my holidays but I wonder in what way Brexit will alter travel by which I mean airport processes, customs, passports and costs? I spoke to a travel agent and they think there is nothing to worry about, and a frequent traveller acquaintance agrees. Yet I see occasional remarks within Facebook conversations saying wed best get a holiday in before Brexit. Im concerned. Is it unfounded? Joanna S A Almost 30 months after the referendum in which the UK voted to leave the European Union, anyone who says that there is no need to fret about post-Brexit travel is, frankly, deluded. I have closely followed everything that has been said on both sides the EU and the UK and can say that we have a few certainties, some very strong likelihoods and many unknowns. When we shook hands and bade farewell in front of the Ambassadors Hotel on Saturday 29 September, never in my wildest dreams did it occur to me that I would never see Jamal Khashoggi again. We had just finished dinner at a Turkish restaurant in Bloomsbury, London, with colleagues and guests who participated in our conference earlier that day. It is now one week since Khashoggi went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Although everyone following this tragedy has been hoping for the best outcome, it is becoming increasingly clear that something ghastly may well have occurred. Having hosted him at his last public appearance, I feel a special sense of duty to record my own thoughts and impressions of this remarkable individual. Upon close contact, the first impression one gets about Khashoggi is his intellectual energy and drive. His participation in our conference was not considered in our initial planning so when I called him in Istanbul to extend our invitation it was to attend as a guest, not as a commentator. With striking humility, he accepted the invitation. It was at that point I decided that we had to take full advantage of his presence by asking him to be a panellist. With his many years of experience covering all the major upheavals in the Middle East, Khashoggi was eminently qualified to make an invaluable contribution to our conference, which he did with aplomb and distinction. Speaking on his countrys involvement in Palestine, he was keen to emphasise the unwavering support of the Saudi people as distinct from that of its current political leadership. Indeed, he recalled nostalgically the early 1970s, when Saudi Arabia under King Faisal was in the vanguard of Arab and Islamic support for the Palestinian cause and defence of the holy sites threatened by Israels military occupation. In 1972, the late king founded the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the following year played a pivotal role in the OPEC oil embargo against countries which supported Israel during the 1973 October War. Two years later, Faisal was assassinated. Khashoggi was a realist. He knew that even with its enormous wealth and religious prestige, Saudi Arabia does not have the final say on the future of Palestine. This, he says, was demonstrated early in the summer of 2018 when the political leadership took a step back from Trumps deal of the century, which recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and proposes Abu Dis as the capital of the future state of Palestine. Such a formula will not be accepted by the Palestinian people; no political or religious authority will be able to impose it on them. As we sat for dinner after the conference, Khashoggi pointed out to me some of the negative tweets that were posted by his Saudi critics. Like so many of his compatriots, Khashoggi had spoken out against the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar; its support for Egypts military rulers; and its incarceration of hundreds of religious scholars, university lecturers, journalists and human rights activists. If it does turn out that Khashoggi has been murdered, this will also prove why this region, despite its vast natural resources, has failed to develop and remains pitifully dependent on western patronage. Instead of investing in free-thinking, homegrown media talent, they have chosen instead to invest in military hardware to destroy human lives. With his vast knowledge of the region and unquestioned influence on public opinion, the Saudi establishment could have harnessed Khashoggi's capabilities not only for their national good but for the peoples of the region who he loved unreservedly. Instead, the state silenced him by dismissing him from jobs in the professions he loved; and now, well, nobody knows. One week since his disappearance we cannot say beyond doubt that Jamal Khashoggi is dead, but we can say with certainty that in death as in life his thoughts, compassion and dynamism will inspire millions of disenfranchised people across this region. Dr Daud Abdullah is the director of Middle East Monitor George W Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump Nikki Haley? President Nikki Haley. Try that on for size. How does it feel? Could this forthright, articulate, talented politician be the one to break the glass ceiling? To succeed where Geraldine Ferraro, Elizabeth Dole, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton failed? The first American president of Indian descent? What will they call Michael Haley? First gent? She dismisses claims she wants to run for the White House in 2020 for the Republicans surely a suicidal notion among a party the Trumpites have captured but, later, who knows? She already has a typically trite campaign slogan ready Cant is not an option, the title of her autobiography (another clue to her ambition), and apparently a slogan bandied around by her Indian Sikh parents as they encouraged their children to better and better things. Haley, as the world knows from watching her tough no-nonsense berating of the Russians and Iranians at the UN, is certainly plausible, and her high-profile stint as US ambassador to the United Nations gave her valuable foreign policy experience to add to her long political career in South Carolina, where she served in the legislature and two terms as state governor. There is talk of her going to the Senate, if Lindsey Graham moves across to, say, the attorney generals office in a Trump shakedown in the autumn. That too would garnish her impressive CV. Plenty of presidents were once senators (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Obama) and many were ex-governors (Carter, Reagan, Clinton, George W Bush) but not many were both. But what kind of president would President Haley be? The answer is predictable: a classic Southern conservative Republican, with distinct Tea Party tendencies. Her views on womens rights, for example, would have to be more enlightened than Donald Trumps how could they not be? But she is pro-life and the only time she seems to have spent much time condemning sexism is when she writes in her book about having to rebut allegations about infidelity thrown at her by journalists. You get the impression that she might well have animated Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. President Haley wouldnt tweet, wouldnt call for political opponents to be jailed, and wouldnt get too pally with the Russians. But the average American might not notice much change from the Trump administration. What about race, and migration? There is a story and quite a shocking one given that she was born in 1972, that her parents wanted to enter the five-year-old Nimrata, or Nikki, Randhawa into a beauty contest in their little South Carolinian town of Bamberg. But because there always two Miss Bambergs, a white one and a black one, and she didnt fit into either category, she was disqualified. That must have affected her. She also spoke out against Trumps mad plan to ban Muslims from travelling to America absolutely un-American. It is said that she was a quiet advocate of dumping the old Confederate flag from the grounds of the state house in Columbia, South Carolina. Again, she has no whiff of the kind of racism that surrounds some senior Republicans and Trump backers, and is rumoured to be more compassionate towards refugees; but she has flipped her own recent heritage as the daughter of immigrants as the very reason why she supports a hard-line approach to migration to the US. Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Show all 16 1 /16 Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions New York Post Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Washington Post Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Newsday Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions St Louis Post Dispatch Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Chicago Sun Times Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Star Ledger Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Daily News Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The New York Times Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions San Francisco Chronicle Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Boston Globe Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Houston Chronicle Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Miami Herald Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Detroit Free Press Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Wall Street Journal Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Dallas Morning News Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions USA Today When she delivered the official Republican response to President Obamas state of the union speech in 2012 it was the usual Republican small-state, low-tax stuff. Conservative, but not Trumpian. In economics and trade, then, you might hope shed prove more collaborative and considered than Trump but if she needs the votes of deplorables to win the nomination and then the White House, anything could happen. Like Mike Pence, who with Senator Graham and even Ivanka Trump must be her closest rival for a bid for the big job in 2024, she would pull the Republican party back to a more traditional form of conservatism which may prove hazardous indeed. On foreign policy she was reputedly one of the few adults in the room, restraining Trump from some of his more destructive impulses, trying to be kinder to old allies, but also more confrontational towards Russia than her boss. She was up for the move of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and perfectly happy to deliver fire-and-fury rhetoric towards Iran, Venezuela and North Korea, as and when required. She was also prepared to attack the very institution, the UN, that was hosting her for its record on human rights. Balancing her bosss pugnacious America First policies and rhetoric while maintaining dignity on the world stage is probably her most important work internationally. Contrast the respectful silences she is heard in with the chuckles that welcomed Trumps bombast the last time he addressed the General Assembly. It is curious that, in America and Britain, and for all the leftist assumptions about the confluence of feminism and progressive values, it is the right who have tended to promote women for the highest office. Governor Palin, though disastrous, was a nominee for the vice-presidency in 2008, and many compare Haley to Margaret Thatcher (both technically the daughters of shopkeepers, Haleys mother ran a clothing shop, while her father taught at the university). Maybe Haley will settle for the vice-presidency in 2020, as a springboard for 2024, or in 2024 itself. One thing you may be sure of is that Haley will not make her gender an issue in the election of 2024, even if everyone else tries to. Other issues matter more to her, to America and to the rest of the world. Shes a woman, but that doesnt make her anyones liberal. It is now more than seven months since assassins from Russias military intelligence service tried to kill a former double agent and his daughter with a nerve agent in Salisbury. Or did they? The only incontrovertible fact in that assertion is the location, Salisbury. Pretty much everything else remains speculative. The Skripal case has troubled me since the first news broke in March. It is not the improbability of what was reported to have happened improbable things are the stuff of news. It is rather the mixture of utter certainty, unsubstantiated claims and glaring information gaps that is so disconcerting, from the immediate rush by UK officials to blame the Russian state, to the way the main figures in this drama have simply vanished, and now to the contradictions that have gained blithe, and almost universal, acceptance. When the Metropolitan Police showed the passports of two Russians they believed to be the assassins, they strongly hinted that the names on the documents were false. The invitation to establish their real names was taken up by investigative organisation Bellingcat, which has now amid a blizzard of documentation, seductive reference to open source techniques, and not a little help from Russian whistleblowers come up with what it says are their real identities. One of them is Colonel Anatoly Chepiga; the other is a medically qualified agent called Alexander Mishkin, and both have received state honours from President Putin. Whats so suspect about this, you may ask. Well, lets start with Bellingcat, which has presented itself in the past as a microcosm of well-meaning and very British amateurishness, based in a Leicestershire bedroom, producing results that put the professional sleuths to shame. In fact, Bellingcat has grown rather a lot beyond its shoestring origins. It has money where from? It has been hiring staff. It has transatlantic connections. It has never, so far as I am aware, reached any conclusion whether on the downing of the Malaysian plane over eastern Ukraine, or chemical weapons use in Syria, or now, with the Skripals that is in any way inconvenient to the UK or US authorities. That need not cast doubt on its findings. But should the authenticity of the documents it cites not be subject, at very least, to the same scrutiny as might be applied to other evidence? And when, as this week, UK officials say they do not dispute Bellingcats identification of Chepiga and Mishkin, does this not prompt a few questions about whether, say, our agencies reached the same conclusions long ago, but kept quiet, or why most of the UKs media apparently find Bellingcat a more trustworthy source than the UK intelligence services (possible answer: Iraq)? Might not the groups good name be being used to get information into the public domain that officials do not want to vouch for? And, if so, would this be to inform, or to mislead? What else do I find troubling? How about the UK and US focus on Russian military intelligence, still referred to as the GRU? I dont recall any specific Soviet or Russian agency being so clearly fingered in this way before. Accusations might have been levelled at the KGB or its Russian successor, the FSB but this was usually in a generic, not specific, sense. Why the change? It could be, of course, because the UK knows for certain that it was the GRU that targeted the Skripals. But it could equally be that officials simply assumed this because the GRU was Sergei Skripals agency, or because the GRU was already in the dock in the US for alleged involvement in hacking. Or it could be because it sounds much scarier than just saying intelligence, or even though I concede this is unlikely to make clear to Vladimir Putin that we are not blaming him, because the GRU was never his agency. But there is a big contradiction here. On the one hand, the GRU is being presented as a bunch of duffers, whose decorated and highly qualified agents were booked into an east London dive, behaved badly, were deterred by a bit of snow, abysmally failed in their mission, and now face the wrath of Putin. On the other hand, we are told that the GRU is the creme de la creme of state agencies, that Russia is mighty and malevolent and that we should be very, very afraid. Which is it? Lastly, lets consider the connections that the UK public is being encouraged to make. Between the two Bellingcat identifications of Chepiga and Mishkin, a clutch of western states, including the UK and the US, came out with a coordinated condemnation of specific cases of Russian cyber-espionage. One related to the chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW, back in April; another to the World Anti-Doping Agency in Switzerland. All this was presented to the UK public at least in the context of the Skripal case. But there is a broader and more obvious explanation for Russias behaviour here which is that, whether in sport or in matters of chemical weapons, the western allies have closed ranks to exclude Russia from information it is entitled to as a member of these international organisations. In such circumstances, wouldnt you try to find out what was going on? Might you not also wonder why an apparent attack in an English city was being treated not as a crime so a police matter but as the first use of a chemical weapon in Europe since the Second World War, which allowed it to be immediately shut behind the impenetrable wall that supposedly protects UK intelligence and state security? And the point that troubles me. For all the revelations of recent days, we are no further forward in knowing what happened to the Skripals or to Dawn Sturgess, who remains the only person to have died, or to her partner, Charlie Rowley, who has now, like the Skripals and Detective Constable Nick Bailey, disappeared from the media. The two men caught on CCTV in Salisbury may indeed be GRU agents though why the GRU would squander its brightest and best on such an apparently incompetently executed operation raises doubts. But no UK court would convict them of even attempted killing on the evidence that has so far been produced. The CCTV footage from Salisbury has huge lacunae though it is established that the cameras were working in Salisbury that day and does not include any of the pair less than 500m from the Skripals house, nor any of the Skripals themselves. Why not? We still do not know where they were for most of that Sunday morning, who they might have met, or for what purpose, or precisely when the presumed attack occurred. Those are huge gaps. Now, it is also true that Russias information machine has hardly covered itself in glory. Its response to at least some of the UK accusations have been weak or in dubious taste, to put it mildly. The RT interview (which was also broadcast on Russian domestic TV) seemed designed to make the Salisbury tourists a laughing stock. And Russia has not been as vocal as might perhaps have been expected in demanding consular access to Yulia Skripal, which might seem to cast doubt on its claims of innocence. But the flaws in the way Russia has presented its case are not my prime concern. I am in the UK, a British citizen and a UK journalist, and I find the evidence and the explanations so far offered by our own side in what is becoming an all-out information war both deficient and scandalously short on credibility and so, I suggest, should you. Its World Mental Health Day, and with it will no doubt come the usual remarks from critics around there being more need for services than conversations and how mental health has become a trend. But before any critics who happen to be reading this tune out, lets think about how we can use this incredible social media trend more effectively. Of course simply talking about mental health does not magically increase services but given that MPs rely on popularity, surely awareness days can be used to actually effect change. Considering the number of people involved in supporting World Mental Health Day, Id say that activists have got a pretty captive audience to engage with. I do believe in the national Time to Change campaign, which is run in collaboration with the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, and appreciate that there is some merit in simply talking. It is powerful, it does tackle stigma and it does support peoples recovery. Stigma around mental health can create discrimination, but if we out it as an issue and build public support, its much harder for those attempting to discriminate to get away with it. In fact, a report commissioned by Time to Change shows that average levels of reported discrimination fell from 41.6 per cent to 28.4 per cent between 2008 and 2014. Not insignificant, Im sure youll agree. But the fact remains that people still need access to services. Campaigns like Time to Change often fail to get to the root of immediately improving mental health provision. Not-for-profit organisations carry a lot of weight, but they are often unable to be as bold as theyd like to be politically as they need to be sure they will be keep being invited to the table to make their case. We as supporters are the people who can make a big difference. We can support these organisations objectives in a bolder way. As individuals, rather than professional organisations, we really have nothing to lose. Case in point: the TV presenter Sean Fletcher, after raising awareness (you know, the talking bit) about dangerous funding shortages for child and adolescent mental health services within his Panorama programme, "Kids in Crisis", has consistently pressed the health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, for a meeting. What with all the buzz around the programmes screening, a huge online conversation was sparked and Hancocks notifications must have been enough to drive him to reply, because reply he did, thanking Fletcher for sharing his story, and admitting that it is vital that we do more to ensure children have the mental health support they need in the process. Fletcher is still pressing for that meeting, but now hes got even more weight behind him since the programme caught the attention of the British public. Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Show all 10 1 /10 Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 30 per cent of people deal with anxiety by talking to a friend or relative, or by going for a walk. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Almost one in five people feel anxious all or a lot of the time. PA Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 22 per cent of women feel anxious a lot or all of the time, compared to 15 per cent of men. Roman Levin/Flickr Creative Commons Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 45 per cent of people who feel anxious in everyday life cite financial issues as their biggest cause of worry. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report And 26 per cent of people who feel anxious say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with worry. And 26 per cent of people say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with anxiety. Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 27 per cent of people who suffer from anxiety say work issues, such as long hours, are the source of the problem. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report But 16 per cent use alcohol to cope, while 10 per cent turn to cigarettes in the face of anxiety. Unemployed people are more likely to resort to these harmful strategies: 27 per cent use alcohol and 23 per cent use cigarettes. AFP/Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Only seven per cent of people who say they suffer from anxiety seek help from their GP. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report People are thought to be more anxious than they were five years ago. Alessandra/Flickr Creative Commons Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report The stresses of modern life are thought to have created "The Age of Anxiety". Getty Instead of dissing mental health awareness days, you too, can use the power of the conversation to make change happen. If you want enough evidence to make a case to your local MP, simply follow the awareness day hashtag (#WMHD2018) and youll find some pretty strong testimonies. Write to your MP, lobby MPs on social media, and garner the support of those we know are understanding of the cause: Luciana Berger, the shadow minister for mental health; Karl Turner, who tragically lost his nephew to suicide and spoke out in the House of Commons about the six month waiting list his nephew was told to face; Heidi Allen, who campaigned to protect benefits for those of us with mental health problems. Or you can use the day to tap into social medias mental health activists the ones standing up and making demands for all of us. See what theyre petitioning on and sign and share. This week, the campaigner Natasha Devon (along with Luciana Berger and Bauer Media) took the "Wheres Your Head At" petition to parliament, sparking a debate about parity between physical and mental health with regards to workplace first aid. Hope Virgo who is petitioning government to dump the scales when it comes to eating disorder criteria after being turned away for treatment when relapse came knocking loudly at her door. Weve also seen Bobby Temps (the guy behind Mental Podcast) and The Shaw Mind Foundation both campaigning for compulsory mental health education in schools. The activists will keep fighting and the personal testimonies will keep coming, and theres a captive audience all thinking about mental health. So, dont pour scorn on awareness days use them wisely. Theres a boatload of evidence landing in your lap about the lack of mental health services and the personal impact of that. So mobilise the conversation to make change. (It's @MattHancock on Twitter, by the way). PARENTS will be able to leave more to their children without the offspring having to pay tax. The tax-free threshold for a child receiving a gift from their parents will go to 320,000, up from 310,000. Known as Capital Acquisitions Tax, a rate of 33pc is applied on gifts and inheritances above the threshold. Minister Paschal Donohoe told the Dail: "I recognise that there are concerns about the potential tax burden, in particular on the inheritance of the family home. Therefore, I have decided to increase the lifetime Group A tax-free threshold which broadly applies to transfers between parents and their children from 310,000 to 320,000." Partner in KPMG Private Client Services Robert Dowley said that with property prices recovering, the threshold remains well below what a child might require to inherit property from a parent tax-free: "A child inheriting a property worth 380,000 will pay 20,000 more in 2019 compared to an inheritance of equivalent value in early 2009." There was no reduction in the exit tax on life assurance policies. Insurance Ireland said this was a missed opportunity. It said life insurance customers are mostly middle-income individuals. FAMILIES earning up to 102,000 a year will be able to avail of a targeted childcare subsidy under measures announced in Budget 2019 - but not until late next year. It is one of two key measures introduced by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe - the other is an extra two weeks' paid parental leave for new parents - not expected to come online until late 2019. Children's Minister Katherine Zappone will today flesh out proposals outlined by her Cabinet colleague in relation to the expansion of her flagship Affordable Childcare Scheme. The extra funding has been used to tweak the bands at which people can avail of the scheme; raising the maximum income threshold to 60,000 after tax. Payments are available on a sliding scale from 50 to 145 per child a week, reducing as income increases. A household earning up to 26,000 will be able to avail of the maximum subsidy rate under the new tweaks. Under the scheme, a family earning 60,000 after tax with three children - two in school and one under three years - would see a payment of 92 a week under the expanded scheme. The roll-out of the Affordable Childcare Scheme was delayed by an issue with the IT system, with a new system needed to administer the tailored payment. Families earning over the threshold may qualify for the universal childcare subsidy that sees payments of up to 20 a week, which hasn't been changed in this Budget. Another measure announced by the Government to help out what Mr Donohoe termed "hard-pressed" families is the introduction of two weeks' paid parental leave per parent in the first year of a child's life. The payment is expected to be made at the same rate as maternity pay. Meanwhile, the Back To School Allowance is to increase by 25, as well as increases to payments targeted at children in poverty. These include an increase in the Qualified Child Payment of children whose parents are in receipt of a social welfare payment. The increased rate will see an additional 2.20 per child for children under 12 and an additional 5.20 for a child over 12. Advocates for children and families extended a cautious welcome to the measures. Tanya Ward, of the Children's Rights Alliance, welcomed the "focus on children" and also welcomed the childcare measures. "Families are crippled with the cost of childcare," she said. "The increase to income thresholds for the Affordable Childcare Scheme will mean that four out of five eligible families with children will benefit financially from the scheme. "It also means that more families on the lowest incomes will benefit significantly as the threshold is increased to 26,000 net. "The Government must now ensure that it can meet the extra demand and invest in quality early years centres and supports for childminders so no child is turned away next September," she said. However, Seas Suas - a body which represents early education and childcare providers - said the investment falls far short of what is required to ease the burden on families in the squeezed middle. Chair of Seas Suas Regina Bushell said the changes announced were a positive move, but the "squeezed middle" continue to grapple with high taxes and rental or mortgage costs making accessing quality childcare an ongoing challenge for them. PRIVATE patients and older people with medical cards who have large drugs bills are among the winners in out-of-pocket savings announced in the Budget. The threshold for the Drug Payment Scheme will reduce by 10 a month to 124, cutting 120 a year from their medicine bills. Medical-card holders aged over 70 will see their prescription per item charge reduced to 1.50, costing a maximum of 15 a month. However, all other charges including A&E fees and hospital in-patient levies remain unchanged and will continue to generate income for the health service. Health Minister Simon Harris announced record funding of 17bn for the health budget next year, a rise of 1.05bn. Among the main features is a change in the income threshold for a GP visit card, which is improved by 10pc. The prediction is this will benefit around 100,000 patients. However, many of those who qualify are likely to find it difficult to get a GP because of closed lists. The minister said 200m was going towards the implementation of the Slaintecare strategy, the 10-year blueprint for reform of the health service. However, when broken down, just 20m of this is targeted specifically at transition measures such as integrating hospital and community services on a regional basis. The rest of the money includes the funding for the new GP cards. It also includes 75m for the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which will buy treatments for waiting list patients. The NTPF is getting an additional 20m to treat 70,000 patients from waiting lists, which are now at record levels. It also includes unspecified funding to start restoring cuts in fees for GPs providing treatment for medical card holders and other HSE services which were cut in the recession. Talks with GPs are to start today. Other funding under the Slaintecare banner includes some of the mental health allocation and measures to give more eye care to ophthalmologists in the community. Asked about funding to prevent another record winter of overcrowding, the minister said 10m would be targeted at more community supports. The first phase of the extra hospital beds are in the first quarter of next year. Some 78 beds are due in hospitals, such as Our Lady's Hospital in Drogheda. The health service must find more than 100m to pay consultants for the first phase of back-pay they are due and 14m for new entrant pay. Junior Minister Jim Daly said an additional 55m would be added to the mental health budget. Internet Most will go towards community mental health for adults and children. He is set to pilot tele-counselling of patients over the internet and introduce a dedicated phoneline to signpost people to services. Disability Minister Finian McGrath said disability services would get 150m, helping to fund 100 more specialist posts for needs assessments. More respite and residential places would also be funded along with an expansion of community disability services to meet the needs of school-leavers Minister of State Catherine Byrne said she would be prioritising funding for drug and alcohol projects. There would be funding for drug and alcohol midwives to work with vulnerable mothers-to-be, she added. Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, TD at the announcement of Budget 2019 in the Courtyard of the Department of the Taoiseach, Government Buildings, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney, Collins Ministers were last night speculating on a general election date after Budget 2019, which aimed to give something to everybody in the country. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe sought to target families with measures to reduce the cost of health and childcare. Within hours of the Budget, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin phoned Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to discuss the confidence and supply arrangement. Formal talks on a potential renewal of the deal will take place in the coming weeks. It is understood the Taoiseach wants the deal done by Halloween, but senior sources on both sides were speculating an election could take place as soon as December 7. The Budget included a 5 weekly boost for workers and social welfare recipients. This will be funded by a Vat hike for hoteliers and restaurateurs, who angrily called on Tourism Minister Shane Ross to resign. Mr Donohoe denied that his Budget was formulated with one eye on a general election. He said his primary concern was to raise people's standard of living. Asked by the Irish Independent whether he had spread 1.5bn too thinly, the minister replied: "For those who say I have done too little, I say back 'are they advocating I do nothing at all?' That's not tenable with the kind of growth in wages we've seen this year. "If they are not happy with that then are they saying they want the kind of tax policies we've seen in the past? I'm not going to do that either, because that played a big role in our economy blowing up." Aside from the tax and social welfare benefits announced, households were spared an increase in carbon tax. It was expected that home and motoring fuel bills would have gone up by about 200 a year, but Mr Donohoe backed away from the idea amid fears of a rural backlash. Environmentalists were livid that a chance to tackle our emissions was missed. Overall, families with one spouse caring in the home were the big winners. The home carer's credit will go up to 1,500, benefiting 80,000 families who can earn an extra 300 a year before they pay tax. A single worker will be able to earn 35,300 next year before paying income tax at 40pc, up from 34,550. The 4.75pc universal social charge (USC) rate falls to 4.5pc. When combined these measures will be worth 5 a week to somebody on a salary of 55,000. Some 1.47 million people will benefit from the 5 increase in social welfare payments, including pensions, that take effect from March. Two weeks of paid parental leave will be available from November 2019. The Affordable Childcare Scheme will see an increase in the maximum income threshold. It will go up from 47,000 to 60,000 after tax. Those in the Drugs Payment Scheme will have to spend 124 before the State picks up the rest of the tab, down from 134, while there is be a 50c drop in prescription charges to 1.50 for medical card holders over the age of 70. Parents will be able to leave 320,000 to children before having to pay inheritance tax, up from 310,000. Some 150,000 self-employed workers will also gain as the earned income credit will be increased by 200 to 1,350. Cigarettes went up 50c at midnight, taking the average pack of 20 to 12.70. Although it was pitched as having a major focus on the housing crisis, opposition TDs alleged Mr Donohoe's measures amounted to a "landlord's budget". Some 2.3bn has been set aside for housing, with a focus on ramping-up delivery of social and affordable homes. Aside from tax breaks for landlords, key measures include a 1.25bn package to deliver 10,000 local authority units; 60m to provide emergency homeless accommodation; and a 310m affordable housing scheme aimed at couples earning up to 75,000 a year. The Budget must now work its way through the Dail and Seanad, a process that should take until at least the end of November. Sources indicated this could be fast-tracked if a fresh deal between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail cannot be agreed. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested he would like a new arrangement in place within three weeks - but Fianna Fail sources told the Irish Independent they are in "no panic". A date closer to Christmas has been suggested. No major developments are expected before Mr Varadkar attends a crucial EU summit on Brexit next week. One theory circulating in Fine Gael is that once another Brexit summit in mid-November has concluded, Mr Varadkar could call an election for December 7. This would coincide with the Christmas bonus payment announced yesterday. When it comes to cash in pocket, the main demand of the Irish Farmers Association, a 200/cow payment for suckler farmers, was largely ignored in the Budget. Stock Image: PA 'More money for farmers" was shouted in the Dail chamber as Paschal Donohoe announced some of his measures for the agri sector. But yesterday's Budget was far from a hand-out to farmers. Much of the increased spend is a helping hand to the broader agri sector and will have left many farmers wondering if there is anything new in it for them. Taxation measures, including income averaging and an extension of stamp duty relief for young farmers, are to be welcomed, but none of it is new, nor will it necessarily generate better incomes. In fact, a key criticism of the taxation measures announced yesterday is farmers on low incomes, which many are, will still be paying 300 a year more in income tax than a PAYE employee next year. When it comes to cash in pocket, the main demand of the Irish Farmers' Association, a 200/cow payment for suckler farmers, was largely ignored in the Budget, with the Department of Agriculture instead announcing a new scheme focused on helping farmers produce a more efficient suckler herd. At most, the measure will yield 40/cow for those involved. But even that's hard to determine, with the Department of Agriculture holding off explaining the detail until today of what it described as its 1.6bn budget for 2019 - of which just 44m is fresh direct aid for farmers. Part of that spend will be on a Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot Scheme, which has a budget of 20m, but looks fundamentally to be an extension to the existing Beef Data Genomics Programme, a scheme that took a lot of work to persuade farmers to join. And the real test of this new scheme will be its uptake among farmers and whether the grants available will justify the work involved. The most tangible element for many farmers will be the 23m increase of Areas of Natural Constraint payments, but this only brings spending levels back in line with pre-downturn levels. But if we step up the food chain, out of the field, this is where it seems some of the most tangible benefits for the agri-food sector will be felt. A new Brexit loan scheme has been rolled out, which has 40pc earmarked for the agri-food sector - yet farmers are still waiting for the low-cost loan scheme announced in last year's budget to materialise, with Minister Michael Creed admitting yesterday it will be 2019 before that is on the market. Meanwhile, the National Food Innovation Hub receives 11m and Bord Bia another 5m to its already 40m-plus annual budget. After surviving what was one of the toughest years ever for agriculture, farmers will be disappointed that there are not more direct or obvious supports for a sector that's facing a possible battering from Brexit. Indeed, the Budget is a far cry from the sentiment of "more money for farmers", despite what some TDs might think. The Government's farming budget will do little to allay criticisms around the repackaging of previously announced programmes as new developments. Farmers aren't that easily fooled. The Government has been accused of failing to understand the challenges facing the farming sector, despite a significant increase in funding for the Department of Agriculture and new supports for suckler farmers. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe announced a range of measures in the face of threats such as Brexit. He allocated an additional 57m of current expenditure to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in 2019. The measures include 44m of direct aid for farmers, with a new suckler cow payment scheme worth 20m, and restoration of Areas of Natural Constraint payments to pre-crash levels, costing 22.7m. Mr Donohoe said he recognised 2018 has been a difficult year for farmers - and with that in mind he renewed the existing stock relief measures, extended income averaging to farms with off-farm trading income, and provided for a three-year extension of the Young Trained Farmer stamp duty relief, which was due to expire at the end of this year. Agriculture Minister Michael Creed said that against the background of the overarching requirement for a balanced Budget, his priority has been to deliver measures designed to help farmers, fishermen and food SMEs to navigate the challenges of Brexit. "I also wanted to support those in the most disadvantaged areas, while maintaining ambition for the development of the food industry," he said. Mr Creed said the Government provided 27m in Brexit-related supports for the food industry, including 13m in supports for food industry competitiveness and innovation and an additional 5m for Bord Bia, bringing the total Grant in Aid to 46.6m, while the forestry sector received 103m (including a capital carry-over) for 2019. Despite these measures, the president of Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, Pat McCormack, said: "It is quite clear now - if it wasn't before - that the current Government simply does not understand the scale of the challenges being faced by the farming sector. "Farm families can only conclude that the Government has decided that it doesn't want to support farm families and the agenda now seems to be about enhancing the position of corporate structures and big business over family farms," he said. Mr McCormack said the biggest single issue facing family farms is income volatility and, as sole traders, the taxation system absolutely hammers farmers trying to make a living in an extremely volatile global food market. "As a matter of fact, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed acknowledged this following the last two Budgets and it is extremely disappointing that he has failed yet again to deliver for farm families on this matter," he said. IFA president Joe Healy said yesterday's Budget was some acknowledgement of the income difficulties in agriculture, but the upcoming issues of Brexit and CAP will require more Government commitment and support for farming. Mr Healy said the increased ANC funding of 22.7m, to bring the allocation to 250m, was positive and reverses the cuts imposed on the lowest income farmers in previous budgets. He said the IFA would continue its campaign for increased funding of 300m as it is vital for low-income farmers on marginal land. Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association president Patrick Kent has welcomed the 40 for weighing calves under a new suckler cow scheme, but was more critical of other taxation measures. Farming at a glance Suckler Cow Payment The 20m Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot Scheme (BEEPS) will add to the existing 300m BDGP/ Genomics supports. Areas of Natural Constraints payments The ANC scheme will be restored to its pre-crash budget level of 250m.Payments targeted at the most marginal land. Income averaging Income average option has been extended to include farm families with off-farm trading. It allows eligible farmers to calculate taxable income as an average of the current and previous four years, smoothing their tax liability. Stamp Duty Relief Renters and buyers got nary a mention in the Budget's big housing package. Some 2.3bn has been set aside for housing, but it is largely focused on new-build and ramping-up delivery of social and affordable homes. Key measures include a 1.25bn package to deliver 10,000 new local authority units; an additional 121m for the Housing Assistance Payment to provide 16,760 new tenancies, and 60m to provide emergency homeless accommodation to be spent on family hubs and bed spaces before the end of the year. There is also a 310m affordable housing scheme aimed at couples earning up to 75,000 a year, with 6,000 homes to be provided at discounts of up to 40pc from the market price. Projects will be announced in the coming weeks. "This funding reflects our determination to do more to rise to the challenge of providing shelter and homes for our people," Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said. "I acknowledge that where we find ourselves today is not where we want to be. "There is much work to be done to reduce the level of homelessness, find permanent solutions for those in temporary and emergency accommodation, and to improve affordability for those on low and middle incomes. However, from a point where housebuilding was close to a virtual standstill a number of years ago, this Government has made, and is continuing to make, progress." But there has been criticism at the lack of an affordable rental scheme, with the Irish Council for Social Housing saying this could have helped many people struggling to meet their housing costs. Any affordable purchase scheme should be confined to the cities where housing costs were most acute, it said, adding average house prices were only above 200,000 in 11 local authority areas. Suggested tax relief for tenants paying more than 30pc of their income on rents was also ruled out, with smaller landlords instead benefiting from a tax break. However, the Government failed to introduce any measure to curb the growth of large institutional investors. This is despite a report published yesterday saying Ireland was the most attractive destination for buy-to-let investors for the third year in a row due to rising rents, and after tenants in one development were hit with demands for 25pc rental hikes in recent days. Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said further reforms of the rental market would be announced in the coming weeks. Consideration is being given to extending rent pressure zones beyond their expected expiry date of 2019. In addition, student accommodation may also fall under the rent cap legislation. Gone is the Independent Alliance proposal for a 'granny flat grant'. While Transport Minister Shane Ross insisted he had secured a commitment to provide grant-aid for older people hoping to convert their homes to provide rental accommodation, the Government has said it will support conversion of one house in a Dublin suburb to see if the concept works. Mr Murphy confirmed the "pilot project" is just one home in Clondalkin, adding that any future funding for the granny flat grant is dependent on the success of this one property. The minister said there would need to be a "proof of process" to see if the concept works, and then it will be expanded. This is being funded under a 57m housing adaptation grants package. There was nothing new for first-time buyers, with no announcement on the lucrative Help-to-Buy scheme, which will remain in place until at least the end of next year. The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan remains in place, with 1,134 loans approved to a value of 236m. Sinn Fein said the housing package over-stated the level of financial commitment being provided. "The figures indicate that only a paltry additional 120m has been allocated for capital investment in housing for 2019 above existing commitments," spokesman Eoin O Broin said. In all, the housing Budget has lots of money for projects, but little by way of help for tenants or those seeking to downsize. The affordable homes are welcome, but far more than 6,000 units for middle-income earners are needed. Illegal betting will take off again and independent shops will close as a result of the betting tax being doubled, the Finance Minister heard this morning. Paschal Donohoe was responding to listeners' questions on 'Today with Sean O'Rourke' on RTE Radio 1 following Tuesday's Budget 2019 announcement. Jimmy Finley, who stated that he had a background in the betting industry, said that the measure or raising the tax from 1pc was "patently unfair" and that Mr Donohoe had "shot himself in the foot". He questioned as to how the measure could have been rolled out "in the face of 500 shops having closed" in the last number of years. "Many familiar names has been wiped off the betting landscape...and this was during the 1pc tax regime. Now you've decided to get rid of the rest of us by putting the tax up to 2pc," he said, Mr Finley acknowledged a previous measure to introduce online betting tax which he welcomed but also siad it was "a great winner for the Government". Read More "I think you've shot yourself in the foot, you've damaged a whole sector, any population in Ireland with a population of 2,500 or less is going to be left without a betting shop, illegal betting is going to take off again, you're going to be the loser with all these businesses going out of business," he said. He added that there are other ways of "getting more or less the same amount of money" by bringing in a process of taxation based upon turnover threshold or adhering to a model similar to one adopted in the UK. Mr Donohoe said that he held a consultation in relation to all of the options outlined by Mr Finley prior to Budget 2019 and "couldn't get agreement from the industry in relation to it". "I have increased the tax because I do need to raise revenue to be able to pay for public services that we need overall. In the absence of agreement, I decided on something that needed to be done," he said. Mr Finely said that the larger betting companies are celebrating the move "after the Government decided to step on the pitch and take sides" but Mr Donohoe said that many of the larger companies said on Tuesday evening that the measure would negatively affect their earnings. Shares in Paddy Power Betfair fell almost 5pc on Tuesday after the Finance Minister announced the betting tax plans. Global threat: Extreme weather events, such as the Beast from the East and Storm Emma which hit Ireland last winter, are causing emergencies worldwide. Photo: Collins The inspirational deaf-blind activist Helen Keller said the only thing worse than being blind was having sight but no vision. Leadership requires something visionary - it is an impoverished facsimile of leadership which lacks that combination of forethought and imagination. So where does Budget 2019 stand on vision? Paschal Donohoe described it as responsible and sensible. But he was neither prudent nor perceptive in ignoring the urgent need for climate action. He paid it lip service, as though name-checking alone would tell us the Government had it in its sights. One large number after another went storming though the air as the Finance Minister delivered his speech. Those figures represented many things, mostly a steady-as-she-goes approach, but they fell down in a key policy area. There was no anti-pollution strategy for reducing carbon emissions - decarbonisation. This failure was particularly noticeable because it follows a number of reports branding Ireland as climate change chancers. Only last June, Ireland was named the second worst EU state at tackling climate change by the Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, an independent body. Already, we face multi-million euro fines, possibly hundreds of millions, for missing climate and renewable energy targets. Leo Varadkar has used the term "laggard" about our performance and promised we would improve. Nine months on, we're still slackers. Former President Mary Robinson, a climate change activist, has expressed herself "saddened" by this self-adopted label. No alteration on carbon taxes in this unimaginative budget - nothing to incentivise changes to behaviour that has potentially devastating consequences for future generations. Nothing in public policy formation to take account of global warming, although we saw the ruinous effects close to home last winter with storms and flooding. Instead, Mr Donohoe tells us he welcomes an ESRI report "as a first step in better understanding the environmental, social and economic impact of carbon tax". Frankly, minister, we're well past the first step stage. The ESRI, Citizens' Assembly and Climate Change Advisory Council have all recommended a hike to carbon tax. Just last month, the Taoiseach said Budget 2019 would raise it to help us meet our obligations in dealing with climate change. Why the change of heart? Higher carbon tax would impact primarily on petrol and diesel costs. Farmers, hauliers and other businesspeople wouldn't like that. Could climate action have fallen beneath the wheels of a general election bandwagon on the horizon? Mr Donohoe talked the talk about climate action. Reference was made to "new and innovative ways of embedding climate change in the budgetary process". But he didn't walk the walk - meaningful progress has been kicked into the long grass. What does this reveal about the Fine Gael-led Government's priorities? As clearly as if the minister was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan 'Yah Book Sucks to Climate Change Whiners' it conveys the following message: leave global warming for a future government to tackle. Generations yet to be born will hold us accountable for yesterday's inertia. The country is failing abysmally to meet our Paris Agreement commitments made in 2015. Emissions from the transport and agricultural sectors are rising, renewable energy targets are unmet. In short, we are falling far, far behind our EU counterparts, judging by a special report from the UN's International Panel on Climate Change this week. Such irresponsibility will not be consequence-free. Meanwhile, the Government has tweaked benefits for electric cars and increased vehicle registration tax on diesel cars because of their emissions, as a sop to voices calling for climate action. Those moves are crumbs. Did they think we wouldn't notice their lack of climate change policies? The absence of any genuine desire to improve our performance? Judging by Budget 2019, any half-hearted aim to slow global warming falls a poor second behind more immediate ambitions about retention of power and re-election. Not only are we set to miss our 2020 climate and renewable energy targets, we're off-course for 2030, too. CAN (Europe) says we need to radically revise the National Mitigation Plan. Apparently, that's "committed to reducing emissions and building a climate resilient low-carbon transport sector by 2050" - but 2050 is so far away, nobody in office appears to care. Clearly, Ireland is not among Europe's progressive states on climate action. Unambitious does not begin to describe our leaders on this crucial matter. CAN has urged peat burning to be taken out of electricity generation by next year and coal by 2025. Good luck with either of those targets. Look at how our near neighbour, Scotland, with a similar climate to ourselves, is a world leader in renewables - last year more than two-thirds of Scottish energy needs were met without fossil fuels. We're wedded to burning those bad boys. We know what's needed. Increase public transport, use electric or hybrid buses, discourage enormous SUVs, tax greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, offer higher grants to encourage wind and solar energy - wind, in particular is clean energy. The polar ice caps are melting before our eyes while extreme weather conditions, from floods to wildfires, are ravaging various points of the globe and causing emergencies. Meanwhile, the Government's master plan is to leave all that unpleasantness for future administrations to deal with. Did someone mention leadership? Employer: Karen Murtagh, owner of her hairdressing business in Balrothery, Co Dublin, is angry about the 4.5pc rise in Vat. Photo: PA Tourism Minister Shane Ross faced calls to resign as the Government announced plans to increase Vat on hotels, B&Bs and restaurants. Hospitality industry chiefs warned that some 5,000 jobs would be lost as a result of the tax being hiked from the emergency rate of 9pc, up to 13.5pc. "This Vat increase has just cost 5,000 jobs in our businesses - restaurants, cafes and bars serving food," said Restaurant Association of Ireland chief executive officer Adrian Cummins. "Minister Ross failed to defend us in the negotiations in the Budget. If Vat increased from 9.5pc to 11pc, then we might have given the minister a pass mark. But we give him zero per cent for complete failure and he should now resign." The new higher Vat rate is combined with the minimum wage going up from 9.55 to 9.80, so his 3,000 members will be hit on the double on the same days, he added. "This is a black day for us. In one fell swoop, we have these increases and the arrival of Brexit in March," he told the Irish Independent. The hike will also affect the hairdressing industry, as it falls into the hospitality category. Karen Murtagh, who owns K-Styles in Balrothery, Co Dublin, and employs three staff, said it would inevitably affect the price of a haircut. "It's a bit mad obviously, I wasn't expecting this high an increase as it is already high enough, and we pay an additional Vat on hairdressing products," she said. "Bigger salons won't be as affected, but smaller businesses will be forced to put people out of jobs or take a step back from hiring. "You can't compare Dublin city centre and a little village salon. Where I am, it's a little salon, a pub, a shop. That's it." Leading Dublin hairdresser David Marshall warned: "This is counter-productive in a business that is all about people and offering employment." Brian McDermott, who opened Moville's Foyle Hotel in Co Donegal just months ago and has already won Newcomer of the Year 2019, also said job losses were inevitable. "This is a roller coaster for jobs and positions, and it is unacceptable," he said. Pat McCann, the chief executive of Ireland's largest hotel group, Dalata, said the reduced Vat rate introduced in 2011 had a "positive effect on the entire economy". He said he was now "a bit peeved" the tourism sector had spent years growing employment but that the special rate would now be axed. Michael Lennon, president of the Irish Hotels Federation, also slammed the increase. "This increase will hurt tourism across the country but businesses outside of Dublin will be hit the hardest," he said. "Regional businesses will bear the brunt, as about 300m of the 466m in additional taxes will be taken from the rural economy, which has been slower to recover." He added: "This is a devastating blow for the many tourism businesses that struggle to break even or stay open outside the peak season." Independent TD for Kerry Michael Healy-Rae was quick to criticise the plans, saying he was "disgusted and angry", calling it a "slap in the face" to small and rural operators. Budget days past more usually brought a certain 'Grand National buzz' to Leinster House. An edge in the air amid speculation of who might go offside, abstain or even vote with the "other crowd", a certain anything-can-happen vibe. The fizz of uncertainty was more usually augmented by the finance minister pulling a rabbit out of his battered Budget bag now consigned to history. There was utterly none of that on this Budget day, where proceedings were for the most part flat and often bordering on the boring. In all honesty that is something of a back-handed compliment to our much maligned "new politics". The third of three planned budgets was delivered with no drama and few doubts - all of that despite the tight Dail numbers, and the increasing certainty that a general election is not far away now. Many have argued that this Budget 2019 is far too low-key and vastly too short on give-aways to be rated "an election Budget". But taking that view is to miss the low-key subtle messaging which runs right through this document, unveiled yesterday afternoon over 77 pain-staking minutes by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe. The real indicator of what was going on came when Fianna Fail's spokespeople were quickly on their feet to claim ownership of large chunks of Mr Donohoe's work. Even though Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty attacked Budget 2019 with passion and eloquence, he also stressed that it "bore all the hallmarks of Fianna Fail". In a very intelligent speech, devoid of histrionics, Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath deplored the Government failures on housing and the ongoing problems on health. But after an honest reflection on the awkwardness of his party's position, propping up this minority Coalition since May 6, 2016, the Cork TD went on to argue how much his party had contributed to this and other initiatives over the past 29 months. Change the odd turn of phrase, and delete the odd rhetorical flourish, and Michael McGrath could have swapped places with the Finance Minister across the aisle. For both men the winners were low and middle-income earners. The small-scale income tax changes increase the entry point to the higher rate of income tax for all earners by 750 to 35,300 for a single worker. There's a cut in the third rate of Universal Social Charge from 4.75pc to 4.5pc, and there will be a 25c-an-hour increase in the minimum wage, taking it to 9.80. Older people will get their third consecutive 5-a-week increase in State pension from March and a 50c reduction in prescription charges, taking them from 2 to 1.50. More parents will qualify for targeted childcare subsidies of between 50 and 145 a week, and a 25 increase in Back to School and Footwear Allowance rates, and there will be an extra two weeks of paid parental leave from November 2019. No big give-aways there. Just a series of small incremental measures which are hopefully affordable and even more hopefully might be perceived as helpful in a small way. A certain "sharing and caring" trend in all three of these budgets. That may be exactly what Fine Gael and Fianna Fail now hope the public will reciprocate at the ballot box after this election Budget. It was, we stress, the pitch by both parties yesterday. And we can already see two problems with it as a political sales pitch. Firstly, it may be too subtle for the noisy world of electioneering. Secondly, it poses a little puzzle to the voter since both parties seem to be saying the same thing and claiming authorship of things which are good. On a day where there were few visible losers, there was just one clear victim, the hoteliers and tourism generally. The switch back to the 13.5pc VAT rate was keenly argued by both big parties. It was pitched and pushed as "a good thing". Mr Donohoe devoted a half page of his speech in defence of the change. He recalled that the tourism sector was battered when the 9pc rate was granted as a kind of emergency aid in 2011. But it had since gone from strength to strength and generated tens of thousands of jobs. The change would deliver 466m, a very valuable chunk of revenue, which could plug a lot of holes. Again, when it came to Michael McGrath's turn, he fully endorsed the minister's message, adding an important grace note that back in 2011, it coincided with a government raid on pension funds which would leave retired people with permanent consequences. It may be too harsh to categorise the tourism sector, especially hoteliers, as "popular victims", especially given the large numbers who depend upon that industry for their livelihoods. But there was a sense of contentment among many within Fine Gael and Fianna Fail that much of any recriminations may be directed at Tourism Minister Shane Ross. Yes, the Budget did speak to the key issues of our time: the crisis in our housing system; the chronic difficulties in our health services; and the huge threat of Brexit fallout. For our two biggest crocks, Mr Donohoe opted for superlatives. His Budget would be the biggest housing spend in this country for a decade; and it would be the highest spending ever in our history, topping 17bn in 2018. All well and good, we hear you say - but will it deliver a serious number of new homes? And will it reduce the A&E queues, shorten waiting times and mean fewer people on hospital trolleys? History will not encourage the rest of us to opt for superlatives just yet. The Government tells us the blockage on housing supply is about to be freed up - others contest that view. Mr Donohoe dubbed Brexit the "political, economic and diplomatic challenge of our generation". He announced budgetary measures worth more than 710m which he insisted would protect against its effect on Ireland. Yet there was another overlooked loser in Budget 2019 - the environmental lobby who have long been advocating initiatives to tackle the ticking time bomb for the planet that is global warming. Plans to increase the carbon tax as part of the fight against climate change have been long-fingered until future budgets. We are reminded that there are no votes in being seen to do something for future generations. We are further reminded that diesel is the staple fuel of middle Ireland, a recurring and real budgetary item to be reckoned with. The furthest Mr Donohoe would go was a 1pc VRT levy on new diesel vehicles. The message? Mess with the diesel and lose votes. Budget 2019: What they said It is a responsible Budget for a modern, caring Ireland that aims to be at the centre of a changing world. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe Other parties have been content to sit on their hands. In Brendan Behans words theyre like eunuchs in a brothel; they know how its done, theyve seen it done every day, but theyre unable to do it themselves. Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen For me, this is a type of Krispy Kreme budget. It tastes delicious to the Fine Gael and their followers. It is sure to go down very easily, but it is very heavy on the sugar and there is little of real substance even after one has forked out for it... it leaves a very flat taste in the mouth. Joan Burton If this is all they have for an election budget, bring it on. Sinn Feins Mary Lou McDonald What happened to the granny? Independent TD Mattie McGrath If VAT increased from 9.5pc to 11pc then we might have given the minister [Shane Ross] a pass mark. But we give him zero percent and he should now resign. Restaurant Association of Ireland chief executive Adrian Cummins This lack of action on carbon tax signals that the Government is not ready to take the obligations of tackling climate change seriously. Professor John FitzGerald, chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council Study: Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe reviews the final figures for Budget 2019 in his office in the Department of Finance. Photo: Gerry Mooney Up to 67,000 pensioners who took time out of work to care for their families could see a cash boost worth more than 30 a week by the end of March. Pensioners, mainly women and those who retired over the past six years on less than the 243 a week State pension, are set to benefit most with a double-whammy in payments. This is because of an expected hike of up to a fiver in the contributory pension in today's Budget, as well as an increase due to a new way of calculating their payment. Most of them are set for an increase due to the new calculation method, according to Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty. A review of their social insurance records has kicked off and they are due the increase, backdated to March, early next year. This could coincide with payment of the 5 Budget hike, which is expected from March. Most of those who will benefit from the new method of calculating pensions - known as a 'total contributions' approach' - are women who took time out to mind children. They lost out because of a change in State rules on how their entitlements are assessed. Those who made the lowest average contributions during their working lives have been given a smaller portion of the full pension since 2012. The new assessment method gives credit for time spent in parenting or caring duties. Age Action Ireland estimates that the average loss was between 20 and 31 a week. "We will be pleased that people would see an increase in their pension entitlements," said senior policy officer Corona Joyce. "However, we continue to receive calls from thousands of people who remain affected by the cuts." She said they include those who worked in countries without bilateral agreements with the Republic allowing them to transfer their contributions record here and the self-employed, who were not required to make contributions before 1988. The Department of Social Protection will be sending letters to the 67,000 pensioners within weeks detailing the review. Education Minister Richard Bruton insisted that the Budget would 'help us make significant progress on our journey to becoming the best education and training service in Europe by 2026'. Photo: Damien Eagers/INM Increased funding that will bring the Department of Education budget to a record high of 10.7bn next year drew a mixed response, including criticism of the failure to do more to end austerity-era cuts. The 674m includes 147m to meet pension and lump sum costs, a higher than usual allocation at this time, which has been agreed to avoid the need for a supplementary estimate later in 2019. The allocation also includes 122m to cover public service pay rises, including the recently negotiated deal for new entrants. Education Minister Richard Bruton insisted that the Budget would "help us make significant progress on our journey to becoming the best education and training service in Europe by 2026". A much-anticipated rise in capitation grants to schools to meet daily running costs was delivered, but the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) described the 5pc increase as a "pittance". It restores 8.50 of the 30 a year cut to primary schools since 2010, which the INTO said amounted to 4.6 cents per pupil per day. At second level, the increase works out at 14.80, against a cut of 49. John Curtis, of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB) representing about two in three post-primary schools, said at a time when there has been restoration of most of the cuts implemented during the recession: "It is regrettable that students, parents and schools are disadvantaged in this manner." The Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) general secretary Seamus Mulconry welcomed the increase as the "first small but positive step to restoring financing". According to Fianna Fail education spokesperson Thomas Byrne, the increase, which is covered in the Confidence and Supply Agreement, "met a significant level of resistance at Cabinet that was difficult to comprehend". There will be 1,300 more teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs) in schools next year, and some extra supports for principals. But Mr Byrne said it was "somewhat disingenuous to announce 'additional' teachers and SNAs considering these additions will just about keep in line with our rapidly growing young population". While the Irish Universities Association (IUA) welcomed the allocation of 57m in extra funding for higher education, on top of existing commitments on national pay increases, director general Jim Miley said "it only allows the system to tread water". As well as the 57m for higher education, there is also 41.5m for further education and training programmes, And, from January 2020, there will be a ring-fenced, 300m for a five-year Human Capital Initiative, to boost skills across the economy, including on a regional basis, as part of the Government's response to Brexit. The money will come from the National Training Fund (NTF). Meanwhile, the Technological Higher Education Association (THEA), which represents the institutes of technology, was more welcoming of the funding announcements. THEA chief executive Dr Joseph Ryan acknowledged the overall lift in higher education spending was enabled by the increase in the employer contribution to the NTF. "It's not surprising to see that the focus of the use of this funding is on programmes that are close to enterprise and that can be seen to have tangible economic and societal benefits," he said Skillnet Ireland welcomed the 6m, or 29pc, increase in its budget. Education at a glance School funding 5pc increase in capitation grant; School staffing 950 more special needs assistants; 372 more teachers; School supports One additional release day for primary teaching principals; Four additional release days for principals in schools with special classes; 10 more psychologists; School infrastructure 23,000 school places to be built in 2019; ICT investment programme; Higher Education 57m, including funding for 3,500 more school-leavers places; Skills Austria will fight for farm spending post-2020, despite pushing for an overall EU budget cut. The country's agriculture minister, Elisabeth Kostinger, told the Farming Independent that she wants to "maintain" the same budget for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the EU's 2021-27 spending plan. "The heads of state will make the final decision on the EU budget," said Ms Kostinger, who currently chairs EU farm ministers' meetings. "However, as minister of agriculture, I will work to maintain the CAP budget." Austria, one of the bloc's budget hawks, wants an overall cut to the EU's trillion-euro seven-year budget. But with 87pc of Austrian farms in mountainous or difficult-to-reach areas, the government is also keen to keep farm subsidies and rural development money at current levels. The minister joins around 20 of her EU colleagues in pushing for CAP spending to be frozen at current levels (around 56bn a year for the EU as a whole). The European Commission has suggested cutting the budget by 5pc post-2020. With Brexit, migration and other priorities weighing on EU spending plans, agriculture chief Phil Hogan says governments will have to stump up any extra cash they want for the CAP. The European Commission is also overhauling how and why farm subsidies are paid, linking them to environmental, animal welfare and other EU goals. Ms Kostinger, whose full title is minister for sustainability and tourism, said that while European farmers face "major challenges", they also need to boost their climate credentials. "Beyond its primary function, agricultural activities shape the landscape, the sustainable management of natural resources, and the preservation of biological diversity," she said. "Climate protection and the adaptation to climate change become more and more important. No doubt that the CAP has to deliver in that sense as well." However, she said she prefers "a continuous evolution to radical changes" in the way the CAP works. "The CAP has constantly evolved since its introduction more than 50 years ago. Its initial objectives, however, still remain valid." Priority list Top of Ms Kostinger's priority list between now and December - while Austria holds the bloc's six-monthly rotating presidency - is to agree new rules on "unfair trading practices" such as late payments, giving farmers more power in their dealings with buyers. MEPs, however, want to go further than the draft rules, catching large producers, as well as supermarket giants, in the net. She said "a fair standard of living for farmers" is her priority. "We are aware that the Parliament would like to see larger producers covered by the directive. We are looking forward to working together with the European Parliament and all stakeholders involved in order to find an appropriate answer to this question." Million sign petition to end pig mutilation MORE than a million EU citizens have signed a petition to end pig mutilation and abuse, which activists say is still rampant across the continent. Footage released by the Eurogroup for Animals organisation shows piglets being castrated without pain relief, a sick sow being bludgeoned to death, and the overuse of electric prods. The group says more than 90pc of Europes pigs end up having their tails docked simply because they live in cramped quarters. Recent investigations in Italy have found severe mistreatment of pigs bred for Parma ham. The petition is calling on farm ministers and the European Commission to stop all pig mutilations and ensure animal welfare rules are properly implemented. Michael Ferris (blue shirt, no tie) who appeared at Tralee District Court in May 2017. Anthony O'Mahony (inset) Pic:Mark Condren A north Kerry farmer has pleaded not guilty to the murder of another farmer at the Central Criminal Court, sitting in Tralee, in a trial that is expected to last two weeks. A jury of seven men and five women were sworn in yesterday and the trial is expected to get underway today in Tralee. Michael Ferris, a 63-year-old farmer from Rattoo, Ballyduff pleaded not guilty to the murder of John Anthony O'Mahony of Ardoughter, Ballyduff April 4, 2017. The prosecution is alleging that Mr Ferris, a dairy farmer, murdered 74-year-old John Anthony O'Mahony on the public road leading to Rattoo round tower at around 8am on the date, the court heard. Presiding judge, Ms Justice Carmel Stewart, advised the jury to pay little or no attention to media coverage of the case. She warned the jury not to discuss the case with anyone or do any research on it for the duration of the trial. It is expected the case will last for two weeks and will hear from family members of both the accused and the deceased, neighbours, Gardai and medical experts, Tom Rice, prosecuting junior counsel outlined. Mr Rice told the jury panel that the late John Anthony O'Mahony, a farmer, had lived in Ardoughter up to his death where he had a 40-acre farm. In the late 1980s he bought a 100 acres of land with his brother in Rattoo. The court heard the accused, Mr Ferris is also a farmer and has a dairy farm in Rattoo, which he runs with his brother. The trial is set to get underway today. Farmer Clive Clarke from Barna, Co Offaly, whose farm and butchers business was robbed six times in 13 years. Photo: Selina OMeara Photography Rural crime victims fear cuts to garda overtime will lead to an increase in robberies and attacks, despite the Government announcing the recruitment of 800 gardai in Budget 2019. Farmer and butcher Clive Clarke, whose Offaly farm has been burgled six times in 13 years, believes "gangs will have a field day" with a reduction in the overtime allocation. "We're going to be hit with a spate of crime on top of a bad summer and a bad winter," Mr Clarke told Independent.ie. "They increased the number of checkpoints here after we experienced three years of non-stop robberies and the same gangs carrying them out, but now they're going to probably have less gardai patrolling so we're back to square one. Expand Close Clive Clarke at his farm in Barna, Co Offaly. Photo: Selina OMeara / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Clive Clarke at his farm in Barna, Co Offaly. Photo: Selina OMeara "We're coming into the winter, the long nights and it'll be open season. We might as well leave the gates open as it's a waste of time locking them. The guards on the ground do the best they can but if they don't have the time and equipment and means of doing their jobs, then there's nothing we can do to stop them [criminals]." Mr Clarke said the hiring of more gardai is welcome, but raised concerns about the safety of people in rural Ireland in the mean time as it will take time for them to be trained. In 2016, 13,000 worth of equipment - including quad bikes, trailers, money, a tractor, road diesel, meat and butcher's knives - were taken from his premises in Barna near Moneygall. "At what stage do they want us to go extinct? Things had improved recently but now people in rural Ireland will be living in fear again," Mr Clarke said. Figures from the Garda Analysis Service show that farm thefts fell by 8pc from September 2017 to August 2018. However, the Irish Farmers' Association said there is a perception that rural crime rates are starting to decrease, but it said many crimes go unreported out of fear criminals will return. "They certainly haven't got any better. It's more violent out there now, there is no doubt about that," IFA deputy director Richard Kennedy said. The farming chief called for greater garda presence in rural areas after it was revealed how father-of-three Patrick Walsh (47), from Lispopple, Swords, Co Dublin, was brutally set on when he challenged four men on his land on the evening of September 2. Mr Walsh suffered four cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder and needed stitches to his face after he was kicked repeatedly on the ground about 150 metres from his home. Expand Close Victim: Farmer Patrick Walsh, who was attacked and knocked unconscious at his farm at Lispopple last week. Photo: Frank McGrath / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Victim: Farmer Patrick Walsh, who was attacked and knocked unconscious at his farm at Lispopple last week. Photo: Frank McGrath He became the latest victim of criminals who pretend they are using the lurchers to hunt hares while "sussing out" properties before a theft. "The IFA has been proactive in the fight against rural crime and is calling for greater garda presence in the troubled areas of north county Dublin and across all rural communities," Mr Kennedy said. Overtime increased across all Garda divisions in 2017 but the most significant increase was in Dublin, which accounted for 44pc of overtime. A large proportion of the overtime bill went towards fighting organised crime. The force was allocated an overtime budget of 90m for 2018, a significant increase on previous years. But spending on additional hours is currently running at about 20m over budget and this will increase to 30m by the end of the year unless drastic corrective action is taken. It was revealed today that funds will be made available for the recruitment of 800 gardai and extra training during 2019. The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said the cut to overtime would affect the capacity of all gardai on the frontline to do their job, particularly those involved in the investigation of crime gangs in the capital. "The agreed overtime must now be reinstated if we are to keep our streets safe in the lead-up to Christmas," the GRA added. Dublin Airport is set to get another new route next summer, with Canadian airline WestJet launching a service between the capital and Calgary. The city in Alberta played host to the Winter Olympics in 1988. WestJet already operates a seasonal service between St Johns in Newfoundland and Dublin, using a Boeing 737. But the new non-stop service between Calgary and Dublin will use a brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner and operate three times a week. It will depart Dublin at 1.45pm and arrive in Calgary at 3.05pm local time. The return journey departs Calgary at 8.45pm and arrives in Dublin at 11.38am local time. WestJet's new service also offers potential onward connections to 24 destinations including Vancouver and Las Vegas. The service will commence on June 1 and will coincide with a new route from the carrier to Paris from the Canadian city. An existing service to London Gatwick from Calgary will now operate using a Dreamliner. It currently uses a Boeing 767. The 320-seater Dreamliners being will include 16 private pods with lie-flat seats, 24 premium economy seats and economy seats. The three Dreamerliners flying next years routes are among 10 of the aircraft that WestJet has ordered. WestJet chief executive Ed Sims said the decision to operate the routes from Calgary using the new Dreamliners is a huge vote of confidence in the local economy and the airport. Albertas connectivity to the rest of the world is vital to our economy, said Mr Sims. As the only airline flying non-stop between Dublin and Calgary, Canada we are extremely proud to make this connection so that family, friends and business travellers alike can benefit from WestJets enhanced presence in Ireland. We look forward to welcoming our Irish guests on board our new WestJet Dreamliner in 2019. He expects the three new routes to bring up to 150,000 visitors a year to Calgary. Dublin Airport will handle more than 30 million passengers this year and has boosted its activity as a major secondary hub airport for travel between Europe and North America. Dublin Airport Managing Director Vincent Harrison said: "Calgary, which has about the population as Dublin, is a youthful vibrant city, and is also a natural base for exploring the breath-taking Canadian Rockies." Turnover dropped almost 15pc at the company behind the Sisk Group last year. The company, Sicon, saw reduced revenues in Ireland, the UK and Europe in the year ending December 31 2017. Profit for the financial year rose however, from 9.3m to 20.6m. It's understood Sicon took a strategic decision to avoid low-margin projects, seeking to drive profitability rather than turnover. "The group's Irish and European businesses performed very strongly in the current year. With the ongoing strengthening of the Irish economy, the group is well-positioned to maintain and grow its profitability levels in 2018," the accounts state. Alongside the John Sisk & Son construction assets, Sicon also controls a retail distribution business called Origo Distribution. It distributes products including Bosch kitchen appliances. In construction, the company said its Irish business had seen growth in the data centre, life sciences, pharmaceutical and retail sectors among others. "The business has a strong order book for 2018 with a good line of sight into 2019", it said. In the UK, the company returned to profitability in 2017, after what it said were "several challenging years". "The business was restructured successfully and has delivered key projects during the year. The business is well-positioned to grow its profit levels in the coming year and also has a strong order book for 2019," according to the accounts. The company also said it was planning to exit the United Arab Emirates this year, having started winding down its activities there. Sicon is chaired by Aryzta and Paddy Power Betfair chairman Gary McGann, the former CEO of Smurfit Kappa and Aer Lingus. It also has a property portfolio management company called Korine. With the Irish construction sector growing strongly, the outlook for Sisk appears good, given that most of its business occurs here. However, data released by Ulster Bank earlier in the week said the pace of growth slowed in September. The pace of housebuilding slowed for the second month in a row in September, hitting an 11-month low. However, activity in the commercial sector rose sharply, while activity in the civil-engineering sector contracted in the month. Simon Barry, chief economist for the Republic of Ireland at Ulster Bank, said survey respondents noted improving customer demand and new business flows. The survey found that rising demand for inputs and shortages of materials contributed to longer delivery times from suppliers during the third quarter. Real deal: The head of the Irish Whiskey Association said sales of the spirit continue to sky-rocket. Stock image The Irish Whiskey Association (IWA) is to treble its legal budget next year in a bid to tackle 'fake' Irish whiskeys. As Irish whiskey is an internationally-recognised geographic indication, it can only be made on the island of Ireland. It must also be produced to an approved specification. Since 2014, the number of reported whiskey infringements has trebled, the body which represents the industry in Ireland said yesterday. IWA head William Lavelle said that as sales of Irish whiskey continue to "sky-rocket", it was unsurprising that "fraudsters" want to get in on the success. "Whether it's a Russian spirit with brown colouring or a US-made whiskey being labelled as 'Irish-style', it's not authentic Irish whiskey," Mr Lavelle said. Pressure on the UK's audit firms mounted as a competition watchdog started investigating the industry a day after another regulator said it was considering banning auditors from doing consulting work for the companies they assess. In a move that could herald a major shake-up, the Competition and Markets Authority said it would look at concerns about statutory audits that were raised in the wake of the collapse of Carillion in January. The probe increases the risk that regulators may threaten to break up the 'Big Four' accounting firms. That investigation will consider whether auditors have little incentive to produce "challenging performance reviews" of companies, which pick their own auditors. It will look at whether Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PwC may be "too big to fail". "If the many critics of the audit process are right, it is not just the companies which buy audits that lose out; it is the millions of people dependent on savings, pension funds and other investments in those companies whose audits may be defective," the CMA's chairman, Andrew Tyrie, said yesterday. Business Secretary Greg Clark encouraged the CMA to "be ambitious in its thinking and move swiftly". In a letter to Mr Tyrie on Monday, he said he has "concerns about the operation of the market and the recent events around the collapse of Carillion" and department store BHS Group "have brought this into sharp focus". Bloomberg Japan's SoftBank is in talks to take a majority stake in shared office space provider WeWork, in what would be one of the largest deals of the past decade's startup boom, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The investment could be between $15bn and $20bn (13bn-17bn) and would likely come from SoftBank's Vision Fund, WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the talks. WeWork and SoftBank declined to comment. SoftBank, with its $93bn Vision Fund, is known for its appetite for big technology investments. It already holds a stake in WeWork, is the largest shareholder in Uber and has stakes in China's ride-hailing app Didi and Southeast Asia's Grab. WeWork is an eight-year-old, venture-backed startup that leases commercial office space to companies in 77 cities on a month-to-month basis. In Dublin WeWork is to lease all the office space at the former Central Bank at Dublin's Dame Street. In April, WeWork announced that it would lease almost 10,000sqm of space at 2 Dublin Landings, beside the new Central Bank building. It also has space at Iveagh Court in the capital, and at 1 George's Quay. (Additional reporting by Reuters) Long-haul flights halfway across the globe are making a comeback, even with oil prices close to their highest in four years. About six months after Qantas Airways started a direct service from Perth to London, Singapore Airlines is bringing back its 10,400-mile jump to New York on October 11, pipping Qatar Airways' Doha-Auckland route to reclaim the title of the world's longest commercial flight. Advances in technology and the advent of aircraft that guzzle less and carry more fuel are helping make the Singapore route viable again, five years after $100-a-barrel oil contributed to the demise of the flight, which will take as long as 18 hours and 45 minutes. Last month, Singapore Airlines took delivery of the first of seven A350-900 Ultra Long Range aircraft that it will use on the route as well as for non-stop services to Los Angeles starting in November. Qantas has asked Boeing and Airbus to design planes that can fly even further - from Sydney to London or New York. For those wincing at the idea of being cooped up for almost 19 hours in a 220-foot tube at 35,000 feet, here's what to expect on the flight from Changi Airport to Newark Liberty International: Forget cattle class. The Airbus jet that will ply the route carries a maximum of 161 passengers, compared with 253 on the airline's existing A350-900s. That means more space, with 67 flat-bed seats in a 1-2-1 configuration for business class and 94 premium economy places in a mostly 2-4-2 arrangement at the rear. While the premium-economy seats offer an eight-inch recline, the pitch - the distance between yours and the one in front - is a standard 38 inches, four inches less than on some of Japan Airlines' long-haul flights. Singapore Airlines says it will serve dishes on super-long routes that try to offset the effect of being stuck in a seat for a day. When it scrapped the previous Singapore-New York flight in 2013, oil was trading around $100 a barrel. With crude prices above $80 again, the carrier is relying more on technology to mitigate the fuel bill. That means keeping the plane as light as possible. Lightweight composites including carbon fibre make up the bulk of the A350-900ULR, while new wingtips help reduce drag, Airbus says. The revamped model consumes 25pc less fuel than aircraft of a similar size and performance, according to Maria Luisa Lucas Ugena, Airbus's head of A350 product marketing. The plane has a higher ceiling, bigger windows and a wider body, with less noise in the cabin and LED lighting that is designed to reduce jet lag. Composite-based planes can also tolerate higher cabin pressure, which means more oxygen and moisture in the air, making for a more comfortable flight. Bloomberg The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority said it has not found any signs of wrongdoing at Swedish banks with operations in the Baltics in the wake of the Danske Bank money-laundering scandal in Estonia. "We have today no reason to say that we've seen anything strange," Erik Thedeen, the head of the financial watchdog, told reporters after a speech in Stockholm. But while the financial regulator has earlier made the assessment that the Swedish banks' business models in the Baltics imply that the risk "isn't as big as it has turned out to be in Danske", the FSA "must be humble" and investigate thoroughly "to see what we can learn from this crisis", he said. The regulator is in talks with authorities in both Denmark and the Baltics to assess the situation and is also having talks with the Swedish banks, he said. While Sweden's Swedbank and SEB have large operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, they focus on domestic retail clients and not on the non-resident customers that are at the centre of the Danske scandal. In response to a Bloomberg article on money-laundering related issues in Estonia last week, Swedbank CEO Birgitte Bonnesen issued a statement saying that "there are currently no ongoing investigations into our bank from any of our regulators concerning AML practices". SEB said last week that it "never had, and do not have the idea, to serve non-residential customers in the Baltic countries". It feels "confident" that its anti-money laundering processes are satisfactory, a spokesman said. Mr Thedeen of the Swedish FSA said that while he "feels safe" in that Swedish banks aren't in the same situation as Danske Bank's operations in Estonia due to their different business model, his agency has a duty to investigate when something on the scale of the Danske Bank scandal happens. Bloomberg The BFI London Film Festival will begin today with the premiere of a new film by director Steve McQueen. The London-born filmmaker, whose last movie 12 Years A Slave won the best picture Oscar, returns to the capital with Widows, based on the British TV series by Lynda La Plante which saw four women plan an art heist. He will be joined at the festivals opening gala premiere in Londons Leicester Square by stars Viola Davis, Daniel Kaluuya and Michelle Rodriguez. They want their money back. At. Any. Cost. #DanielKaluuya and #BrianTyreeHenry star in #Widows, in cinemas November 6 pic.twitter.com/5TSrbwo1Nk 20th Century Studios UK (@20thCenturyUK) September 28, 2018 McQueens film follows the widows of three criminals, who are forced to pull off a robbery after their late husbands leave them in debt to local gangsters. The festival will also see the world premiere of They Shall Not Grow Old, a documentary by Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson using digitally remastered archive footage from the Imperial War Museum and audio from the BBCs archive to show what life was like on the front during the First World War. The premiere, which will be attended by the Duke of Cambridge, will be followed by a Q&A with Jackson and will be simultaneously screened in 250 cinemas around the UK on October 16, one of four films in the festival to be have showings outside of London. The Duke of Cambridge will attend the World Premiere of Peter Jackson's 'They Shall Not Grow Old' at the #LFF on Tuesday 16th October. #TheyShallNotGrowOld pic.twitter.com/xlhb3LADWv The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 8, 2018 Receiving a world premiere during the festival is Stan And Ollie, which will be the closing night gala and which follows Laurel and Hardy on their swansong tour round post-war Britain. The film, which was shot on location in London, Worthing, Newcastle and Glasgow and stars Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly in the title roles, will be simulcast in cinemas around the UK to coincide with its London premiere on October 21. Video of the Day Ladies and gents, we declare a national two-minute holiday as we proudly unveil the official trailer for #Stan&Ollie. In Cinemas 11 Jan. pic.twitter.com/S8LzXbDSMU eOneUK (@eOneUK) September 18, 2018 The festival will also host its first premiere outside of the capital with the unveiling of Mike Leighs new film Peterloo at Manchesters arts centre HOME on October 17. The movie tells the story of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where British forces attacked a peaceful pro-democracy rally in Manchester, and stars Maxine Peake and Rory Kinnear, who are expected on the red carpet alongside Leigh. That film will also be simultaneously screened in cinemas around the UK, as will Dogman, a film about an expert dog groomer by Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone. There will also be premieres for Keira Knightleys new film Colette, Hugh Jackmans latest project The Front Runner and Michael Moores political documentary Fahrenheit 11/9. There will also be screenings of likely awards contenders The Favourite, starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz and Beautiful Boy, starring Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell, as well as A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike as war correspondent Marie Colvin and Can You Ever Forgive Me? starring Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant. The BFI London Film Festival will run until October 21. Emma Mhic Mhathuna was meeting people at her hospital bedside up to 10 days before she died and spoke about the drug treatment she was undergoing. However, she revealed just last week that the drugs were not working. She died, surrounded by her family, just days later having been transferred to University Hospital Kerry. RTE presenter Ryan Tubridy told how he visited her recently while she was undergoing treatment at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin. He had interviewed her on 'The Late Late Show' last May about the CervicalCheck scandal and they had kept in touch since then. Tubridy said he had planned to visit her at a coffee shop near the hospital 10 days ago. However, Ms Mhic Mhathuna was unable to leave the hospital, so the presenter visited her at her bedside, something he described as "difficult". "She was in her hospital bed, she was talking, she was compos mentis, but she was not well, and her drug treatment - she had two weeks or 10 days left on it - and if it didn't take she was in trouble, and we spoke about that. "We had a private conversation I won't go into," he added. He said he was hopeful that her health would rally, however he said he was deluding himself. "I got the impression she was going to get up out of that bed and walk to good health, actually. "I was completely deluding myself, probably out of hope rather than reality," he said. Ms Mhic Mhathuna sent him a text last week to say that the drug test had not worked, and he received another text about her death on Sunday. Sharing a picture of himself and Ms Mhic Mhathuna on Instagram, he wrote: "She was a remarkable woman and proud mother who fought and fought until the end. Only 37 years old, hers was a cruelly unfinished life." Ms Mhic Mhathuna's family asked him to say a few words at her funeral Mass at Dublin's Pro-Cathedral today. He is unable to attend the service as he will be in London ahead of Friday's 'Late Late Show' special. However, he has written a tribute at the request of her family, and he spoke to her uncle John, who he had previously met, yesterday morning. "He told me that his family, Emma's family, are bowled over and overwhelmed by the decency and the generosity and kindness of the Irish people," he said. "And that's very special. Irish people know when there's something wrong and they know when they have to stand up and be counted, and I think they're pretty furious, and rightly so." Pharmacist Christine Crowley was jailed last year as part of the probe. Picture: Provision The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) has seized 150,000 in cash during a search operation, prompted by a Garda investigation focusing on fraudulent claims worth more than 3.5m under the drug- refund scheme. The Garda probe led to a 72-year-old pharmacist being sentenced last year to two-and-a-half years in prison, with the final two years suspended. Christine Crowley (72), of Main Street, Drimoleague, Co Cork, pleaded guilty to 21 counts of theft and fraud involving around 70,000 from the HSE by falsifying drug-payment claims. Judge Sean O Donnabhain told Cork Circuit Court in April last year he was suspending the final two years of the sentence in light of Ms Crowley's age and her relatively poor health, as well as her previous good character and unlikelihood of re-offending. The judge said Ms Crowley was a qualified pharmacist, who used her expertise and familiarity with the HSE drug-payment scheme to set up an elaborate fraud solely for her own financial gain. He said there was no doubt that the criminality was "egregious". Backed up by local gardai yesterday, members of the Cab searched a house in west Cork and two business premises in Cork city. The Cab said its inquiries followed what it described as an extensive Garda fraud investigation into claims in excess of 3.5m under the drug-refund scheme. Officers seized 150,000 in cash, including euro, sterling, dollars and other currencies along with a quantity of gold and silver coins, including South African krugerrand. Further searches are being carried out in a number of safes and a quantity of documents, including title deeds for properties, and computers are also being examined. Cab said its inquiries were continuing, but no arrests had been made at this stage. At the end of the court case last year, Judge O Donnabhain said that among the aggravating factors were the level of criminality involved, the amount of money involved and the fact that it went on for several years. He said that Ms Crowley had failed to provide any co-operation to gardai, even when it was inevitable that she was going to be caught. But he said he accepted she was remorseful and her plea of guilty was significant. The HSE recouped the money from Ms Crowley by stopping drug-scheme payments to her for 12 months, during which time she continued to dispense medicines on the scheme but at her own expense. A mother whose five-month old baby girl suffered a catalogue of injuries in her care including a skull fracture, a broken arm and two broken legs has walked free from court. At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Gerald Keys told the 23-year-old Co Clare woman: "I see no benefit to society, to the child, to yourself or to the father of the child by imposing a custodial sentence." Judge Keys said the woman's continuing efforts to rehabilitate herself would not be possible if she was jailed. He imposed a suspended two-year sentence on condition that she continue to comply with the directions of a Probation Service report. The judge said the standard of care provided to the baby "fell well below of what one would one expect from a mother and was totally unacceptable". He added that the mother was unable to explain why she persisted "with this behaviour towards the baby knowing that it caused her harm". The mother had presented to her GP, Dr Conor Magee, on February 13, 2015, in a distressed state with the baby. The infant's left arm wasn't moving and she had bruising to her face. Dr Magee referred the case immediately to the paediatric unit at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), where a full skeletal survey of the baby was carried out which detected older injuries. They included a healing fracture of the left tibia - the larger bone on the lower left leg; a healing fracture of the right femur - the thigh bone extending from the hip to the knee; and an older right-sided skull fracture. Medics also detected a torn frenulum, the muscle under the tongue. The child's mother said this could have occurred as a result of forcing a bottle or a soother into the baby's mouth. The mother pleaded guilty to wilfully assaulting and neglecting the child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary injury to the child's health and seriously affect her well-being. She cannot be named in order to protect the identity of her little girl and the charge is contrary to Section 246 of the Children's Act. The offence took place on dates between the summer of 2014 and February 2015 when the mother was aged 19. In evidence, consultant paediatrician at UHL Dr Barry Linnane provided care to the baby and expressed doubt over the explanations given by the mother for the injuries. Judge Keys said a probation report on the mother found she accepted that a lack of care for the baby caused her to suffer the injuries, but she did not accept responsibility for all of the injuries caused to the child. He said the mother had been overwhelmed by the birth of her child and had been diagnosed with post-natal depression. The child's father currently has custody of the toddler. A COUPLE out walking by the Grand Canal found an unusual-looking suitcase floating in the water and opened it to discover a human torso, later identified as the remains of missing father-of-one Kenneth OBrien. The two told a murder trial they noticed that the case was zipped up, looked new and had red ribbons on it when they decided to pull it out of the water. When they opened it and looked inside, the man phoned the gardai and said: I think we found a body. The couple were giving evidence in the trial of Paul Wells (50) of Barnamore Park, Finglas, who denies murdering Mr OBrien (33) at that address at a time unknown between January 15 and 16, 2016. The Central Criminal Court has heard Mr Wells told gardai he shot Mr OBrien during a struggle, then panicked and dismembered the body, which was later found in the canal. Giving evidence this afternoon, Brian ODwyer said he was out walking with his girlfriend Mary Costigan along the canal in Ardclough in Co Kildare at around 3.05pm on January 16, 2016. They noticed a greyish or purplish suitcase that was zipped all around, floating in the canal, about two metres from the bank. Mr ODwyer said he got a stick from the hedgerow and reached out to try to drag the suitcase out to the edge. He manipulated it to the bank and tried to pull it out by the handle, but the handle snapped. He managed to grab another handle and used both hands to get the suitcase out, while Ms Costigan put her hands around his waist to stop him falling in. The suitcase was quite heavy, he said. Mr ODwyer noticed red ribbons on the suitcase and no water came out when he pulled it out. He agreed with Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, that he wanted to open it but decided to do so cautiously. I pulled back the zip there was some plastic material, clear plastic with red liquid in it, he said. At that point I called the gardai and said I think we found a body, Mr ODwyer told the court. He said the officer he spoke to was a bit reluctant and Ms Costigan proceeded to open the case the whole way and she looked in it and said it is a body. Gardai came very quickly. Ms Costigan told the court she opened the further while Ms ODwyer was on the phone to the emergency services, and saw what she thought were human remains. I just saw something flesh coloured, she said. She put the case down again and waited for the gardai. Det Gda Sgt Aidan Hannon said he opened the suitcase and the contents appeared to be human remains wrapped in clear plastic. Inside that was a black item wrapped in red webbing straps. The remains were identified after a DNA sample was taken from Mr OBriens mother, Susan. Gda Sgt Gavin Dunphy said he found a chainsaw chain at the bottom of gorse in the Curragh on February 6, 2016. Gda David Finn of the Garda Water Unit said he found a steel chainsaw bar in water in the Curragh on the same date. Niall McDermott said he was out walking his dog by the canal at Pikes Bridge, near Carton House on January 22 when he happened to look in the water and saw the body of a chainsaw. He thought it was a bit unusual and called the gardai. Gda Daniel Murphy of the Garda Water Unit said he located the motor and frame of a chainsaw in the water at Pikes Bridge on January 22. Earlier, Mr Gillane delivered his opening speech to the jury, who heard that Mr Wells told gardai he killed Mr OBrien when the two men struggled after Mr OBrien produced a gun in a dispute at the accuseds house. Mr Wells also maintained Mr OBrien had wanted his own wife murdered and had asked the accused to kill her, but Mr Wells refused. Mr Gillane said Mr OBrien had been in a long term relationship with his partner Eimear Dunne and they had a four year old son, to whom he was devoted. They were living at Leland Road in Clondalkin but Mr OBrien, who worked with machines and diggers went to Australia in January 2013 for employment. He did not succeed and returned to Ireland but went back to Australia and did find work, staying there for a period of time. He would travel back and forth to Ireland for family occasions such as his sons birthday and before Christmas 2015, he came back home apparently for good. The jury would hear about ordinary domestic things happening and plans to celebrate Ms Dunnes birthday in early January 2016. The question of work in Limerick arose on Friday, January 15 and Ms Dunne understood Mr OBrien was going there that day, although it had actually been cancelled. She last saw him at their home that morning when she left the house in the early hours. An arrangement was in place for someone from Virgin media to come to do some work in the house that morning and this man arrived at about 10am and spoke to Mr OBrien there. In the course of the day, there were text exchanges between Mr OBrien and Ms Dunne, which were banal or jokey, Mr Gillane continued. One said wear something warm as there was a cold snap at the time. Later, she was texting him but receiving no reply, which appeared to her to be odd. She went to bed and heard no more until 3.30am when she got a text from a number she did not recognise. It was clear that the sender was purporting to be Mr OBrien. Ive lost my phone, Im staying for a drink, Im going to stay in a hotel for the night, the text said. This was a little troubling for Ms Dunne and later, at 7.50am, she received another text from the same number, saying: Look, Ive had enough, Ive met someone else, Im leaving you and Im heading for the ferry. There was a reference to a family member but the name was spelled incorrectly. Ms Dunne was very suspicious that the texts had not come from her partner because of this and because of the tone and language of the text. Mr Gillane told the jury they could imagine her confusion, thinking: is this him? She rang around family members and acquaintances asking if they had heard from Mr OBrien. The jury would be satisfied on the evidence that the texts did not emanate from Mr OBrien, Mr Gillane said. Mr OBrien had known the accused relatively well and Ms Dunne also knew him. He was one of the people she contacted to find out if he knew anything about the whereabouts of Mr OBrien. She contacted Mr Wells through his wife and Mr Wells informed Ms Dunne on the phone that Mr OBrien was having an affair. Soon after, Mr Wells called over to Ms Dunnes house, repeated what he had said about Mr OBrien having an affair in Australia and showed her text messages and photos of a particular nature concerning a woman in Australia. They met in the car park at Liffey Valley the following day and he repeated this. Mr OBrien was reported missing on the Saturday evening. On the same day, at 3pm two people were walking in a picturesque area near the canal at Ardclough in Co Kildare when they saw what appeared to be a suitcase floating in the canal. It appeared unusual and pricked their interest because it did not appear to be old or rubbish, and there were what appeared to be red ribbons attached to it. The two people pulled the suitcase out of the water and one of them partially opened it, Mr Gillane said, seeing what they thought was plastic. The plastic was wrapped around what appeared to be flesh and a red-like substance. They immediately called the gardai and the scene was preserved for a preliminary examination. Gardai discovered what was contained in the suitcase was a human torso which was within plastic, secured by red straps. The torso was removed, unclothed, and a post mortem examination was carried out by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis. It was established that the head had been cut from the torso between the fifth and sixth vertebrae and it appeared to Dr Curtis that the spine and muscles were neatly sawed, neatly cut from the torso. The upper and lower limbs appeared to have been severed in like fashion, Mr Gillane said. DNA samples were taken from Mr OBriens mother and these were a match. The same week, on January 22, a chainsaw without the chain was found in the canal at Pikes Bridge, near Carton House, not a million miles from where the suitcase had been found. On January 24, people were fishing in the Sallins area when a bag was recovered which appeared to contain a human lower leg. Gardai carried out an intensive search and a further three Tesco shopping bags, weighed down with bricks, were found containing Mr OBriens other limbs and skull. The skull had an bullet entry wound at the back. Another bag contained two arms, one of which had a tattoo with the name Ken. Another bag contained a left thigh, lower left leg and foot, and right lower leg. The hands of the deceased were never recovered. The cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the left side of the back of the head and the amputation of the limbs occurred in a manner consistent with the use of a high-powered mechanical saw. During the investigation, it was established that Mr OBrien had sent money back from Australia through a currency exchange system into an account of Mr Wells. This sum was more than 40,000. The prosecutions case was that Mr OBrien was killed by Mr Wells at Mr Wells address - that he was shot there, his body dismembered there and his body parts dispersed. The accused was interviewed and told gardai Mr OBrien had wished to return to Australia that that he wished Eimear Dunne, his partner to be murdered and that he wished that murder to be carried out by Mr Wells. The accused told gardai that Mr OBrien canvassed the topic with him on a number of occasions and it was not something Mr Wells wanted or was anxious to do. Mr Wells told gardai there was an arrangement to meet Mr OBrien on January 15 for the transfer of a gun, but Mr Wells did not keep the arrangement and Mr OBrien surprisingly came to Mr Wells home at 5pm. Mr OBrien returned to the topic of Ms Dunne being killed and produced and showed Mr Wells a gun. They repaired to the back yard area where there was a dispute, a fight and the gun fell to the ground. Mr Wells told gardai Mr OBrien reached for the gun, Mr Wells reached for the gun and obtained it and fired it a number of times and that is how the death of Mr OBrien came about. He told gardai he was in fact responsible for the dismemberment of Mr OBriens remains and that he panicked and took steps to dispose of certain items. The accused, wearing a black suit and shirt with a red and blue tie sat in the court as Mr Gillane delivered his opening speech to the jury. He pleaded not guilty earlier this week. At that arraignment, Mr Wells stood with his hands by his side as the charges were read out and the court registrar asked how he was pleading. Not guilty, Mr Wells replied. The trial is taking place before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of six women and six men. A WOMAN charged with the murder of her former partner in Cork insisted she did not kill him but said she had stabbed him twice. Rita O'Driscoll (46) appeared before Macroom District Court today charged with the murder of Timothy 'Timmy' Foley (44). After being charged she told Gardai: "I did not kill my husband - I stabbed him twice, not 28 times." Mr Foley was pronounced dead at Dan Corkery Place in Macroom at 2am last Monday after he was discovered lying unresponsive in a pool of blood on a pavement outside a property in the estate. A post mortem examination by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster revealed he had been stabbed multiple times. Ms O'Driscoll, of Bridge Street, Bandon, Co Cork, appeared before Judge Mary Dorgan at Macroom District Court charged with murder. She indicated she will plead not guilty to the murder of Timmy Foley at 12 Dan Corkery Place, Macroom, Co Cork between October 7-8. Det Sgt Derek Mulcahy gave the court evidence of her arrest, caution and charge. He told the court that in response to the charge at Bandon Garda Station Ms O'Driscoll said she had not killed her husband but said she had stabbed him twice. Judge Dorgan noted that as the charge involved is murder, bail must be ruled on by the High Court. She remanded Ms O'Driscoll in custody until October 17 next. Ms O'Driscoll, who appeared in court wearing blue denim pants and a black top, remained silent throughout the brief hearing. However, her solicitor, Pat Horan, made a number of submissions to the court including a request that she receive psychiatric support in Limerick Prison. He also informed the court that while Ms O'Driscoll was being questioned by Gardai in custody earlier this week, her landlord had boarded up her rented property in Bandon, leaving her two adult children homeless. Their possessions are trapped within the property. Mr Horan said his client was now appealing to State agencies and Cork Co Council to take action over the matter. Timmy Foley was discovered injured along with two other people when they attended a Macroom property early last Monday morning. Timmy Foley was pronounced dead by paramedics before he could be transferred to hospital. Mr Foley's brother, Jason, was found injured at the scene and taken to Cork University Hospital (CUH) for treatment. Ms O'Driscoll was also found with minor injuries and she was taken to Mercy University Hospital (MUH) for treatment. Jason Foley was being cared for by his brother after he sustained a serious brain injury after he was assaulted in Cork city a number of years ago. Timmy Foley had been released from a prison sentence around 11 months ago. The deceased had received a two year sentence, with one year suspended, for assault causing harm on September 15 2017. The charge arose from an incident on a bus to Kerry when Timmy Foley, who was intoxicated, grabbed a student by the throat. He then mocked the young man as a homosexual. Timmy Foley then struck another man with a knife after he had intervened the help the young man. In that court hearing, defence counsel said Timmy Foley suffered from a serious alcohol addiction problem. However, the court was also told that he was also a very caring and kind person, agreeing to look after his younger brother after he had sustained the serious brain injury. Timmy Foley had been living in Macroom over recent times but was originally from Clonakilty in west Cork. A woman is expected to appear before Macroom District Court, Cork today. Stock picture A woman in her 40's is expected to appear before Macroom District Court, Co Cork today. She is expected to be charged in connection with an investigation into a fatal stabbing at a house on Dan Corkery Place, Macroom, Co. Cork on Monday. At approximately 1.50am Gardai were called to the house and discovered a 44-year-old man deceased with suspected stab wounds. The woman was arrested and detained at Bandon Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. Gardai are appealing for witnesses to contact the incident Room at Macroom Garda Station on 026 20590, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station. The doctor who carried out a preliminary report into the cervical cancer scandal will be quizzed by TDs and senators on his findings this morning. Dr Gabriel Scally's review found "serious gaps" in the governance and expertise at the CervicalCheck screening service and that some of the treatment of women by doctors "bordered on misogynism". It will be his first appearance at the Oireachtas Health Committee since the publication of the report. Committee chairman Dr Michael Harty offered his condolences to Emma Mhic Mhathuna's family saying her tragic death will overshadow today's meeting. Mothers who give birth using donor eggs do not have the same connection with their babies as women who use their own eggs, a new study suggests. Scientists at Cambridge University in the UK found that women who do not have a genetic connection with their offspring show "subtle, yet meaningful" differences in how they interact. Their observations showed that donor mothers made slightly less eye contact with their babies and responded less to their games. The researchers believe the differences may be explained by an awareness on the part of the mother that they are not genetically linked to their child, or because they arrive at parenthood later in life. However, they said that all parents in the study had a strong and loving bond with their children. Dr Susan Imrie, who co-authored the study, said: "A small number of mothers did talk about struggling with the idea of not having a genetic relationship with their baby." Tom McNamara owner of the Coffee Club in Tullamore denied he has upped his prices on the back of the Budget Photo: Google Maps Tom McNamara, more commonly known as Texas Tom, owner of The Coffee Club in Tullamore Picture: Jeff Harvey A CAFE owner says he has no regrets over telling a woman to drop dead live on air during a heated debate over the increase in VAT on the hospitality sector. Tom McNamara who owns the Coffee Club in Tullamore, Co. Offaly denied he has upped his prices on the back of the Budget increase in VAT from 9pc to 13.5pc. His denial came on the back of claims made by one of his customers, Anne, who phoned into RTE Liveline to say thats what he had told her yesterday. Anne who said she is a regular customer at the Coffee Club said the price of a stir fry had risen from 9.99 to 11.99. She said that when she enquired about the increase, she was told it was due to the VAT increase. However, Anne subsequently realised this increase had not come into effect yet, and wont until January 1, 2019. Expand Close Tom McNamara told a woman to 'drop dead' on RTE's Liveline today Picture: Jeff Harvey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tom McNamara told a woman to 'drop dead' on RTE's Liveline today Picture: Jeff Harvey Mr McNamara said that Anne had imagined what happened. I did not imagine what happened. I am not here to put anybody down, but the point here is you told me that the increases were introduced because the VAT rate was increased from 9pc to 13.5pc, she replied and insisted she was sure it was Mr McNamara that said it to her. When asked by Mr McNamara if this was all to do with 2, she said that it was a matter of principle. Well you know what you can do with your principle, he replied. He said the subject didnt deserve airtime. If this lady imagines that I said such a thing, then let her imagine it and if she wants her 2 back she can have her 2 back. If she doesnt she can go to hell, he said. As the argument continued, another woman called Judith came on the line to criticise Mr McNamaras behaviour, saying it was rude and a disgrace, to which Mr McNamara replied labelling the woman a pain in the arse and telling her to drop dead. When asked by presenter Joe Duffy about his behaviour, he said he's "sick and tired of all these permanently outraged people". Speaking to Independent.ie, Mr McNamara said he stood by all of this. He maintained that he did not tell the woman he told her the price increase which he said came into effect in May was to do with the VAT increase. He said he had not been sure at the time if there would be a VAT increase. Mr McNamara said that apart from a comment he made to an old age pensioner, he doesnt regret anything he said on air. Everything else I certainly have no regrets for, he said. You have to be true to yourself too and true to your feelings and thats how I felt. You have to say whats on your mind. To be honest with you, Im sick and tired of the political correctness in Ireland, he said. He said he didnt think the heated row would affect his business negatively, despite many criticising him on the cafe's Facebook page. Those that are unhappy to dine at my place, theyre welcome to stay away, but most of my customers are loyal customers and I am loyal to them, he said. However, he said he would offer Anne free lunch at his coffee shop for a week, but insisted that this was not an apology. Id love to meet her. If she comes back into me Ill give her lunch on the house for the next week free, he said. Certainly not as an apology, just as getting on with life, 2 isnt worth worrying about, he added. An Irish tourist said he felt a "strong urge" to try to steal an expensive diamond ring from a jewellers while on holiday in Turkey because of the memory of his dead wife. Ian Campbell, who was holidaying in the southwestern Turkish province of Muglas Marmaris district, was detained by police on October 4 after he allegedly swallowed a diamond ring worth almost 35,000 from a jewellery shop. The 54-year-old was taken to a hospital by the police, where it's said he has been trying to return the ring by natural means, otherwise he will undergo surgery to get it. Mr Campbell, who at first had denied swallowing the ring, despite video and x-ray evidence proving it, finally admitted he had attempted to steal the ring. In his testimony to police, he said he had developed an "obsession" for diamond rings after he lost his wife in a tragic drowning incident and their wedding ring was never retrieved from the lake where she drowned. Ive been coming to Marmaris for holiday for a week every year since 2004," said Mr Campbell. I lost my wife in a traffic accident in Ireland. Her body could not be removed from the car, which fell into a lake, for days after the accident. Her diamond ring, our wedding ring, could not be found despite a search operation in the lake. This incident caused my obsession for diamond rings,Mr Campbell reportedly said. Whenever I see a diamond ring on display at jewellery shops, my wife comes to my mind. I feel a strong urge to take those rings, especially the ones with higher carat diamonds." Reports in the Belfast Telegraph from 2014, stated a mother-of-four died after her car plunged into a canal in Newry. "Patricia Campbell from Newry was a full-time mother. Patricia (50) had two sons and two daughters aged in their late teens to early 20s. She also leaves behind her husband Ian." It reported that the PSNI said the black-coloured car she was driving entered the canal several miles along the Fathom Line outside the city, a "treacherous" stretch of road that had claimed the lives of many over the years. Mr Campbell, who was apparently exhausted by his attempts to return the ring, is still in hospital in Turkey. Turkish police are still investigating the incident. A family that feared deportation from Ireland has been granted permission to remain in Ireland following a social media appeal. Classmates of Tullamore College student Nonso Moujeke set up an appeal to help Nonso and his family stay in Ireland, after a deportation order was issued last June. The teenager moved to Ireland when he was two years old, alongside his mother and older brother Viktor, following the death of his father. The family have been living here for the past eleven years. The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of the Department of Justice and Equality has today confirmed that three members of a Tullamore based family have in recent days had their deportation orders revoked and they have been granted permission to remain in the State. Local TD Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy said she was "delighted" to hear the news as she had been working with the family since 2017. "Today is a great day for Nonso Muojeke, his brother Viktor and his mother Chidiebere Muojeke and for the school community at Tullamore College," she said. "I am delighted to secure confirmation from my colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, that Nonso and his family have been granted Leave to Remain. "As the local Government Deputy, I have been working closely with the family and Nonso's teachers since the beginning of 2017 and the decision to grant the Muojekes Leave to Remain is very welcome indeed." Ms Corcoran-Kennedy also praised the students and staff at Tullamore College for supporting Nonso and their "commitment shown to this case". "The level of support that Nonso and his family received from Tullamore College and the wider Tullamore community is testament to the huge contribution that they have made to the town since they moved here over 10 years ago. "I would like to extend my congratulations to the Principal of Tullamore College, Edward McEvoy and his teaching colleagues for the dedication and commitment shown to this case. "It is great that the Muojeke family can now move on with their lives which I very much hope will be fruitful and prosperous. The family's application for asylum was declined in 2009 after they left Nigeria, RTE News reports. It is understood that the INIS came to the decision last week following a detailed re-consideration of the familys immigration case in light of Court proceedings and the receipt of updated submissions from the family in September. In July, a number of Nonsos family and friends, classmates and local politicians gathered outside the Dail to protest against the deportation orders. Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan reassured protesters at the time that the Muojeke family were not at any immediate risk" of deportation. I want to state clearly that the Nonso Muojeke is not at any immediate risk of deportation. The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service has given that undertaking to the court, he said. The Taoiseach has defended Communications Minister Denis Naughtens meeting with a US businessman who was bidding to provide rural broadband potentially worth up half a billion euro. In tense Dail exchanges Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin, said incidents such as this had in the past led to tribunals of inquiry being set up. The Taoiseach hit back accusing Mr Martin of making false allegations in the Dail against himself and ministers which he later did not withdraw despite these claims being shown as false. Mr Martin had said that the meeting between Minister Naughten and businessman, David McCourt, in New York in July of this year had effectively contaminated the bidding process for the upgrade of rural broadband. He said the investment was potentially worth up to 500m in taxpayers money. The Fianna Fail leader said the meeting went ahead in a social situation when the Communications Minister was not accompanied by the officials dealing with the tender process. Mr Martin insisted that the Communications Minister should have been insulated from the tendering process as the bidder was clearly trying to gain advantage. He was canvassing, he was lobbying and canvassing disqualifies, Mr Martin said. He should not have met David McCourt do you accept that? the Fianna Fail leader added. The Taoiseach said the Government had set ambitious targets for providing rural broadband and the project was among the biggest ever investment in the countrys history. He insisted that the Communications Minister had no role in deciding the tender his job was to supervise timelines and other details and relay reports to Government. Mr Varadkar said Minister Naughten met the Irish-American businessman in New York at a dinner hosted by the McCourt family who have a history of investment in Ireland creating hundreds of jobs. There was a 10-minute administrative discussion during which the tender itself was not discussed. Mr Martin rejected arguments about an administrative discussion and he cited four points recorded as being covered in the encounter. This is the meat this is the god-damn meat of the bid, he insisted. The Fianna Fail leader again directly asked the Taoiseach if he believed it was alright to Minister Naughten to have met with Mr McCourt. I think its ok for Mr Naughten to have met Mr McCourt provided it conferred no advantage on him, the Taoiseach replied. He went on to argue that the Minister met the heads of many companies, including the heads of various semi-state firms, about whom he was later to make a decision on funding. Mr Varadkar countered that Mr Martin had a history of making allegations against himself and the Health Minister, Simon Harris, in relation to CervicalCheck. When these allegations were later shown to be wrong by the Scally Report, Mr Martin had not withdrawn them. This is a pattern of yours and unfortunately its not a good one, Mr Varadkar told the Fianna Fail leader. Existing motor insurance policies may no longer be consistent with EU law following a decision by the European Court of Justice on September 4. Some insurance companies in Ireland were offering a rebate of premium if the policyholder advised them the insured vehicle was 'laid up and out of use. It seems that option is now a thing of the past. This follows a case involving a vehicle owner in Portugal, Mrs Juliana, who could not drive due to ill health. She parked her car at her home and stopped insuring it. In 2006, her son took it without her permission and caused an accident in which he was killed. The compensation fund that deals with uninsured vehicles paid over 400,000 to two injured passengers and sought to recover the money from Mrs Juliana. The law in Portugal, as in Ireland, permitted the EU-mandated compensation fund to pursue the uninsured party after settling claims that fall under the compulsory provisions of EU directives on motor insurance. But when the case came before the Supreme Court in Portugal, it was argued on behalf of Mrs Juliana that she should not be liable because, apart from the fact she had not caused the accident, her vehicle was laid up and out of use. There was a bit of a conundrum at the heart of the case at that stage. If Mrs Juliana were correct that there was no obligation to insure a vehicle parked up on private land, then by definition it was not a compulsorily insurable risk. That would mean the compensation fund should not have paid the claims. The Portugal court sought guidance from the European Court. All member states of the EU can express their views to the European Court with such a referral. And the submissions highlight that there are still considerable procedural variances between countries. Ireland and the UK argued that there should not be an obligation to effect compulsory motor insurance on vehicles 'parked up' on private land, nor for owners who were not using their vehicles on public roads. Those arguments were rejected. One enlightening aspect of the European Court procedures is that well in advance of a decision, a detailed opinion is issued by the Advocate General explaining previous cases and legislation. In this instance, the AG opinion is twice as long as the court decision and provides more of the reasoning. Essentially, there is a requirement for compulsory insurance on a vehicle, as defined in the EU directives, regardless of use, until the owner has completed the steps required under national law to de-register it. Ireland argued this would have unnecessary and unwelcome consequences for vehicles not in use, such as those are parked up awaiting sale. The AG reaction was that this reduced risk could be reflected in a lower premium, but the owner had a compulsory insurance obligation. The second question was on Mrs Juliana's liability. It was held that the relevant directives did not prevent national law having a provision that the owner could be sued for the money which the compensation fund had paid for third-party claims. That recovery could be pursued even though the vehicle owner had no civil liability for the accident. When viewed from the perspective of ensuring compensation for the seriously injured, this outcome will strike many as sensible. However, other fairness considerations arise for a vehicle owner. If your insurance company says a premium rebate is available by suspending the third-party aspect of your cover while your vehicle is laying up, how were you to know you were required to de-register a vehicle capable of being driven but not in use? How does de-registering your old classic car parked up for half the year prevent the risk of someone stealing it and putting you in the same position as Mrs Juliana? The obligation to ensure all vehicles are insured in accordance with EU law rests on the member states. It seems that action by the Irish government will be required in response to this recent decision. A policeman has been praised for his compassion after he was pictured buying a hot dog for a homeless man. According to Jonathan Allen, who posted the image on Facebook, the man had been going through rubbish bins looking for food before the Salt Lake City officer spotted him. Today I saw this officer buy a hotdog for the man on the right. Prior to the man being at the officers side, he was... Posted by Jon Allen on Tuesday, October 9, 2018 Allen praised the cop, who he identified as Detective Overman, in his post, saying: The officer saw him in need and went outside: Hey dude! Let me get you a dog. He added: Thanks for extending this friendly act of kindness to less fortunate citizens of Salt Lake City. It was humbling. We need more compassionate people in law enforcement like yourself. In response, Salt Lake City Police Department thanks Detective Overman for his actions at a branch of Utah hot dog chain J Dawgs. We are proud of our officers and the compassionate service they offer our community everyday, the department said. And citizens seemed equally impressed. Now THAT is serving and protecting Xanthippe (@urfren_goat) October 9, 2018 Christine Cowan Burke wrote on Facebook: Thanks for making such a kind gesture in such a crazy world, Detective! Kristi Pence added: This is amazing what a big heart he has. Rescuers attend the scene of a bus crash near Kericho (Washington Sigu/AP) Dozens of passengers were killed when their bus left the road, rolled down a slope and crashed in Kenya. Police said the driver appeared to have lost control as the bus headed from the capital, Nairobi, to the western town of Kakamega. Nine children were among the 55 killed in the accident at around 4am local time. There were 15 survivors who are receiving treatment at a hospital in Kericho, Rift Valley regional police boss Francis Munyambu said. Expand Close Kenyan police investigate the scene of the bus crash(Washington Sigu/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kenyan police investigate the scene of the bus crash(Washington Sigu/AP) Kericho governor Paul Kiprono Chepkwony said the hospital was in dire need of blood for transfusions as most survivors needed surgery. The bus was not licensed to operate at night and its owners will face charges, regional traffic police boss Zero Arome said. It is very unfortunate what has happened and action will be taken, he said. Kenya has struggled to reduce the rising number of road accidents as more people in the growing middle class acquire vehicles. According to government statistics, around 3,000 Kenyans die every year in road accidents. In the 2015 Global Status Report On Road Safety, the World Health Organisation said Kenyan roads are among the most dangerous in the world, claiming around 29.1 lives per 100,000 people. In 2013 the government reintroduced breathalysers but had to remove them again after court orders barred police from charging drivers based on readings from the devices. There are "at least" 40 hardline Tory Eurosceptic MPs who are ready to torpedo Theresa May's divorce deal with Brussels, a former Brexit minister has claimed. Steve Baker had previously estimated there were 80 MPs who would oppose any deal based on the British prime minister's Chequers plan. He conceded some could ultimately be persuaded to back the government when it comes to the crunch, but that 40 MPs are prepared to resist any and all attempts made by Tory whips to twist their arms. Mrs May would face an almost impossible task to get her deal through the House of Commons if such a large number of Tories rebelled against her government. She is already reliant on the support of 10 DUP MPs to command a majority in the Commons, with Labour having said it will likely vote against any deal brought forward by the prime minister. Brexiteers believe the Chequers blueprint would leave the UK too closely linked to the European Union. They are also furious at plans being considered by Mrs May to break the impasse with Brussels which would keep the whole of the UK aligned with present customs rules beyond the end of the transition period, which will end in 2020, as part of a revised Irish Border backstop proposal. Mr Baker, vice-chairman of the European Research Group of Tory backbenchers, suggested it would be unwise for Downing Street to call his bluff as he insisted his numbers were accurate. Mr Baker told BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme: "I try never to have a bluff to be called. I have put on the record that almost 80 colleagues were prepared to protest vote against Chequers on some amendments and that is an accurate number. We are in a position where, as we roll forward, colleagues will not tolerate a half-in, half-out Brexit." ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] A British paedophile who set up an advice helpline for other child molesters is being sued for damages by five Filipinos who claim they were sexually assaulted by him in their home country. Douglas Slade (77) was jailed for 24 years in 2016 for his abuse of five boys while living in Britain. Now, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind, four men and one teenage boy are to give evidence from Manila about the "personal injuries arising out of sexual abuse" they say they suffered at the hands of Slade. The original conviction related to offences between 1965 and 1980, during which time he campaigned for the age of consent to be abolished, allowing adults to have sex with children legally. He was also actively involved in the pro-paedophile activist group Paedophile Information Exchange, and during his trial it was said he was running a helpline for child sex abusers from his parents' Bristol home in the 1960s and 1970s. The UK High Court will hear what is thought to be the first case involving foreign victims - who will appear via videolink from the Philippines - suing a British national for alleged sexual abuse abroad. Slade moved to the Philippines in 1985. He is said to have bought a house in a poor neighbourhood and locals complained he was preying on children, luring them into his home to abuse them. Despite a number of investigations, he was never prosecuted in the country, and it wasn't until he was extradited to Britain that he faced justice. The youngest of the five suing him through the High Court in London was 10 when he was allegedly abused and one told the BBC he was "repeatedly" attacked by the paedophile. "Many people avoid me and think that I have a disease because of what I did. I'm teased. I am too embarrassed to go out of the house." It is hoped the case will serve as a warning to paedophiles travelling abroad to sexually abuse children in countries where the judicial system is lax or flawed. (Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] European leaders have condemned the death of TV journalist Viktoria Marinova, whose body was found in Bulgaria on Saturday. A suspect has reportedly been arrested in connection with the rape and murder of the Bulgarian journalist, who had recently highlighted possible government corruption. The individual being held over the killing of Ms Marinova is a "Romanian citizen with a passport from Moldova", according to unconfirmed reports from Bulgaria's interior ministry broadcast on national radio. Ms Marinova (30) had hosted a show last month reporting on two investigative journalists who had been detained for their work surrounding a suspected fraud involving European Union funds. The presenter's body was found dumped in a park in the city of Ruse, close to the banks of the Danube River, on Saturday. Following the programme hosted by Ms Marinova, Bulgaria's interior ministry said prosecutors were investigating GP Group, a large construction company alleged to have misused the EU money, and froze 14m in assets. Expand Close Need for free press: EC President Jean-Claude Juncker. Photo: PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Need for free press: EC President Jean-Claude Juncker. Photo: PA While the reporter did not appear to have been intimately involved in uncovering the alleged fraud, her show touched on a sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. Early yesterday, volunteers combed bushes and ground in the park where Ms Marinova's body was found in an effort to find clues that could help police find her killer. Local people observed a vigil overnight on Monday, where flowers and lit candles were laid in front of her image. European leaders have expressed their shock at the killing. Margaritis Schinas, spokesman for European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, said the commission expected "a swift and thorough investigation" that would "bring those responsible to justice and clarify whether this attack was linked to her work". He quoted Mr Juncker as saying previously that "too many" journalists are being intimidated, attacked or murdered and that "there is no democracy without a free press". The German government has also sharply condemned the killing, with its foreign ministry saying that it was imperative there was a fast investigation into the "horrible event". Bulgarian interior minister Mladen Marinov had insisted on Monday that there was no evidence to suggest the killing was linked to Ms Marinova's work. Ms Marinova was a director of TVN, a small TV station, and a TV presenter for two investigative programmes. Journalists' groups and foreign officials, including Harlem Desir, the media freedom representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, have demanded a "full and thorough investigation" into Ms Marinova's death. ( Independent News Service) Heavy surf from Hurricane Michael pounds the fishing pier on Okaloosa Island in Florida (Devon Ravine/AP) The leading edge of Hurricane Michael has hit the Florida coast as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm. Michael sprang from a weekend tropical depression and grew swiftly into the worst hurricane in recorded history for the north-west coast of Florida, carrying destructive wind, up to a foot of rain and a life-threatening storm surge of up to 13ft. The sheriff in Panama Citys Bay County issued a shelter-in-place order before dawn on Wednesday, and Florida governor Rick Scott tweeted that for people in the hurricanes path, the time to evacuate has come and gone SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY. At 11am local time, Michael had top sustained winds of 145mph and was about 60 miles offshore, moving north-northeast toward Panama City at 14mph. Expand Close A satellite image shows Hurricane Michael in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday (NOAA via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A satellite image shows Hurricane Michael in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday (NOAA via AP) We are in new territory, National Hurricane Centre meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said. The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle. Only a skeleton staff remained at Tyndall Air Force Base, which is located on a peninsula just south of Panama City. The home to the 325th Fighter Wing and some 600 military families appeared squarely targeted for the worst of the storms fury, and leaders declared HURCON 1 status, ordering all but essential personnel to evacuate. The bases aircraft, which include F-22 Raptors, were flown hundreds of miles away as a precaution, a spokesman said. Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com said: I guess its the worst case scenario. I dont think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle. This is going to have structure-damaging winds along the coast and hurricane force winds inland. Expand Close Preparations continue ahead of the hurricane (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Preparations continue ahead of the hurricane (AP) The University of Georgias Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society, called it a life-altering event on Facebook and said he watched the storms growth on satellite images with growing alarm. Franklin County sheriff AJ Smith said his deputies had gone door-to-door in some places, urging people to evacuate. We have done everything we can as far as getting the word out, he said. Hopefully more people will leave. #HurricaneMichael is nearing the Florida Panhandle & will have potentially catastrophic impacts - (8 AM EDT) update. Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale: Category 4 Maximum Sustained Winds: 145 mph Minimum Central Pressure: 933 mb Movement: North at 13 mphhttps://t.co/meemB5uHAR https://t.co/017SUMmABb National Weather Service (@NWS) October 10, 2018 On the exposed coast of Floridas Big Bend, most of the waterfront homes in Keaton Beach stood vacant amid fears of a life-threatening storm surge in an area that had not seen a potentially catastrophic major hurricane in decades. Mr Scott warned it was a monstrous hurricane, while his Democratic opponent for the Senate, Bill Nelson, said a wall of water could cause destruction along the Panhandle. Dont think that you can ride this out if youre in a low-lying area, Mr Nelson said on CNN. Didn't evacuate? Take action now to survive #HurricaneMichael. Immediate threats are storm surge, flying projectiles, falling trees. Seek refuge in an interior room away from windows. pic.twitter.com/1IpMwEojJP National Weather Service (@NWS) October 10, 2018 Mandatory evacuation orders went into effect in Panama City Beach and other low-lying areas in the storms path. That included Pensacola Beach but not in Pensacola itself, a city of about 54,000. Michael could dump up to a foot of rain over some Panhandle communities before its remnants go back out to sea by way of the mid-Atlantic states over the next few days. Forecasters said it also could bring 3-6in of rain to Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, triggering flash flooding in a corner of the country still recovering from Florence. Isolated tornadoes are also possible. Those who joined the Free Syrian Army (FSA) or other rebel groups who fought against government forces, are blacklisted, however, and will therefore not be offered clemency. Photo: AFP/Getty Images President Bashar al-Assad has issued an unprecedented amnesty for military defectors and draft-dodgers in the hope of encouraging Syrians to return home. In a decree issued on official social media feeds, the government said that deserters will not receive any punishment but they will still have to serve the mandated two years of service. Those who joined the Free Syrian Army (FSA) or other rebel groups who fought against government forces, are blacklisted, however, and will therefore not be offered clemency. An official from the reconciliation ministry said that those living inside the country had four months to "turn themselves in", while those living outside the country had six months to do so. JAMAL Khashoggi believed he was safe in Turkey. Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist and newspaper editor, had lived in exile in Washington for more than a year, writing a column for the Washington Post in which he regularly criticised his country's crackdown on dissent, its war in Yemen and sanctions imposed on Qatar. Expand Close A man said to be Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate (CCTV/Hurriyet/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A man said to be Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate (CCTV/Hurriyet/AP) He said he could write freely in the United States in a way that was impossible at home, according to friends and colleagues, but he was increasingly worried that Riyadh could hurt him or his family. In Turkey, though, Khashoggi had friends in high places, including some of President Tayyip Erdogan's advisers. So when he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2, he hoped the appointment would be brief, a simple bureaucratic task that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee, whom he had met four months earlier. "He said the safest country in the world for Saudi Arabians was Turkey," said Yasin Aktay, an Erdogan aide and close friend of Khashoggi. Friends and family have not seen him since. Expand Close A human rights activist holds a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. REUTERS/Osman Orsal / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A human rights activist holds a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. REUTERS/Osman Orsal Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi, 59, was killed inside the consulate. Saudi Arabia has strongly rejected the accusation. The kingdom's ambassador to the United States, Prince Khalid bin Salman, said reports suggesting Khashoggi went missing in the Istanbul consulate or that Saudi Arabia had killed him "are absolutely false and baseless" and a product of "malicious leaks and grim rumors." "Jamal is a Saudi citizen who went missing after leaving the Consulate," the ambassador said in a statement. Saudi Arabia has sent a team of investigators to work with Turkish authorities and "chase every lead to uncover the truth behind his disappearance." In interviews, Turkish officials provided new details of their investigation into the missing journalist. Two senior Turkish officials revealed the existence of an object that may provide important clues to Khashoggi's fate: the black Apple watch he was wearing when he entered the consulate. The watch was connected to a mobile phone he left outside, they said. Investigators are also focusing on 15 Saudi men who entered the consulate around the same time as Khashoggi and left a short time later. These men had arrived hours earlier from Riyadh, most of them by private plane, the officials said. By the end of the day, they were on their way back to the kingdom. Turkish newspaper Sabah said on Wednesday it had identified the 15 as members of a Saudi intelligence team. They included a forensic expert. A Turkish official did not dispute the report. And investigators are trying to trace a vehicle that left the Saudi consulate at the same time as two cars destined for the airport, one of the officials said. This vehicle didn't turn towards the airport, but set off in the opposite direction. Expand Close Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Presidential Press Service/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Presidential Press Service/AP) This story is based on interviews with Turkish officials, Khashoggi's fiancee and more than a dozen of his friends, who gave insight into the columnist's state of mind in the days leading up to his disappearance, and explained why he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, not the embassy in his adopted home of Washington. The case threatens to drive wedges between Saudi Arabia and Turkey and between Riyadh and its western allies. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Oct. 9 he plans to speak with Saudi Arabian officials about Khashoggi's disappearance. The mystery also threatens to undermine Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's drive to attract foreign investors and new high-tech business to a country that is too dependent on oil revenues. A NEW LIFE Khashoggi met his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who is 23 years his junior, in May at a conference in Istanbul, according to Cengiz and a close friend of the Saudi journalist. Their relationship quickly evolved, and Khashoggi spoke about wanting to start a new life with her. By August, the couple had decided to marry in Turkey, where Cengiz lived, and spend much of their time there. "Jamal bought an apartment in Istanbul and we were furnishing our new home," Cengiz told Reuters on Oct. 9. "We were planning to marry this week before Jamal flew back to Washington." The decision to marry in Istanbul, whose mosques reminded Khashoggi of his hometown Medina, set off a paper chase that ultimately ended in Khashoggi's disappearance. Turkish law required that Khashoggi, who was divorced, provide proof that he did not have a wife. He asked if he could get the document from the Saudi embassy in Washington, according to a friend in Europe, but was told the consulate in Turkey was better placed to help. Cengiz said Khashoggi wouldnt have applied for the document in Istanbul if he could have avoided it. Asked to comment, a Saudi official said it was "not accurate" that Khashoggi was told to go to Istanbul. The friend recounted how he warned Khashoggi against getting the paper in Istanbul for fear the Saudis might arrest him if he set foot in the consulate. "He told me there is no solution except to arrange for this paper with the consulate in Turkey," said the friend, who was in frequent contact with Khashoggi in the days before he disappeared. Khashoggi reassured him, he said, that his good connections in Turkey meant "no one can do anything to harm me in Istanbul." Khashoggi visited the consulate without an appointment on Friday, Sept 28. Cengiz waited outside. That first meeting went smoothly. Khashoggi told Cengiz and several friends that officials in the consulate had treated him politely. They explained the paperwork would take time to prepare. Khashoggi exchanged phone numbers with a consulate official named Sultan so he could call and check on progress, according to three friends. Sultan said the document would be ready early the following week. Reuters has not been able to locate Sultan or confirm his role at the consulate. The consul declined to comment on who Khashoggi spoke to. "He came out smiling. He told me 'inshallah (God willing) I will receive this paper after I come back from London,'" Cengiz said. Confident he would soon have the paperwork he needed, Khashoggi flew to London later the same day to attend a conference. He was asked there by colleagues about the threat he faced from the Saudi authorities for his work, according to some of those present. "One of my colleagues at dinner asked if he saw a possibility that his citizenship would be withdrawn," said Daud Abdullah, director of Middle East Monitor which organized the conference. "He discounted that - he didn't think the authorities would go that far." An exiled Saudi dissident who spoke to Khashoggi in the days before his disappearance, said his friend was worried that he might face interrogation by the Saudis, but nothing more. Another friend, British-Palestinian activist Azzam Tamimi, who saw Khashoggi during that trip to London, said he "didn't seem scared at all. The opposite. He was relaxed and calm." Tamimi saw Khashoggi off at the airport in London. MYSTERY MEN Khashoggi flew back to Istanbul from London on Monday evening, Oct 1. The following morning, he spoke again with consul worker Sultan, who told him to collect the document at 1 p.m the same day. Outside the consulate, a low rise building at the edge of one of Istanbul's business districts, Khashoggi handed Cengiz his two mobile phones, the fiancee told Reuters. He left instructions that she should call Aktay, the Erdogan aide, if he didn't reappear. Khashoggi was wearing his black Apple Watch, connected to one of the phones, when he entered the building. A senior Turkish government official and a senior security official said the two inter-connected devices are at the heart of the investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance. "We have determined that it was on him when he walked into the consulate," the security official said. Investigators are trying to determine what information the watch transmitted. "Intelligence services, the prosecutor's office and a technology team are working on this. Turkey does not have the watch so we are trying to do it through connected devices," he said. Tech experts say an Apple Watch can provide data such as location and heart rate. But what investigators can find out depends on the model of watch, whether it was connected to the internet, and whether it is near enough an iPhone to synchronize. When Khashoggi did not emerge quickly, Cengiz said she at first hoped he had got the document and was talking with consul staff. "But when time passed and employees started leaving the building and he still wasn't out, I panicked," she said. She called Aktay, the Erdogan aide, around 4.30 p.m and told him her fiance was missing. As soon as he received the call, Aktay told Reuters, he contacted Turkish security forces and intelligence officials. "Of course I also called the office of the president, who was in a senior party committee meeting at that point," Aktay said. "After about half an hour, everybody was informed and ready to take the measures needed in this case. And of course then, a long period of tension and expectation started." Local and international media reported Khashoggi's disappearance the next day, Wednesday, Oct. 3. Turkish authorities said there was no evidence to suggest Khashoggi had left the building, and they believed he was still inside. Saudi authorities countered that their citizen had left the consulate and that they were investigating. Two Turkish security sources told Reuters that security camera recordings showed Khashoggi had not left the consulate by either of its two exits. They said that 15 Saudi men had entered the building at around the time Khashoggi went in, having flown into Istanbul earlier in the day, most of them on a private aircraft from Riyadh and some on commercial flights. The men left after "some time" in two cars and returned to the airport, the sources said. They said a third vehicle left at the same time but turned in the opposite direction. Investigators are trying to trace its route by analysing surveillance cameras. The Istanbul consulate referred questions about the 15 men and the vehicles to Saudi authorities, who did not respond to a request for comment. "It is a very mysterious situation. Diplomats that came in private jets, stay in Turkey for a few hours, and leave. It is also very easy for them to pass through security due to their diplomatic immunity," one of the security sources said. According to Flight Tracker, an online flight tracking system, a private plane that brought nine of the men in the early hours of Oct. 2 was registered to a company called Sky Prime Aviation Services. A company official confirmed that Sky Prime Aviation owned the plane and that it was in use on Oct. 2, but gave no further details. He said the firm was owned by a private company registered in Saudi Arabia. Two industry sources said the firm belongs to the Saudi government. The Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment. The other six men arrived on commercial flights, the security source said. The 15 men checked in, briefly, to two hotels, the Movenpick and Wyndham, which are close to the Saudi consulate. The hotels declined to comment. As pressure built on Saudi Arabia to locate their missing citizen, Saudi officials in Istanbul showed a Reuters reporter around the consulate on Saturday, Oct. 6, opening cupboards and inviting him to inspect the ladies' bathroom. A few hours later, Turkish authorities said they believed Khashoggi had been killed. A Saudi source told Reuters that British intelligence believed there had been an attempt to drug Khashoggi inside the consulate that culminated in an overdose. He said the information came from a British intelligence source. Contacted by Reuters, British intelligence did not comment. Asked about this account, a Saudi official said: "This death is not true." REFORM NOT REVOLUTION Khashoggi's message in his columns for the Washington Post was one of reform, not revolution. He often championed political change but did not question the Saudi monarchy as an institution. He criticized the royal family for misusing Saudi's oil wealth and questioned specific policies, such as the war in Yemen and the arrests of Saudi intellectuals and activists. His bumpy relations with the Saudi authorities and the clerical establishment predated the rise of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. In 2003 he was fired as editor-in-chief of reform newspaper Al Watan, less than two months into his tenure, after publishing columns critical of the growing influence of the religious establishment in Saudi Arabia. In 2007, he was named editor-in-chief of Al Watan for a second time but was forced to resign three years later after publishing an article that challenged some elements of Salafism, a branch of Sunni Islam. Khashoggi was also the consummate insider, as an adviser to former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal and a confidant of billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Yet by early 2017, he was feeling the heat again. The authorities ordered him to stop writing and tweeting, then he watched as other writers, including several friends, were detained in a crackdown on dissent in September, 2017. "He was outside (the country), so he didn't return," said his friend, Tamimi. In the United States, he felt he could speak freely. Karen Attiah, his editor at the Washington Post, said it was as if he had rediscovered journalism. "When he was in the newsroom, when I brought him the first time, he became energized. He took a selfie and said, 'I miss this. I miss being in a newsroom.' We spoke about editing and what it was like to talk to writers. He just lit up," she said. An acquaintance said Khashoggi was considering launching new projects from Washington. One idea focused on bringing attention to political prisoners in Saudi Arabia and promoting democracy in the Arab world, said the acquaintance. Attiah, the global opinions editor of the Washington Post, said Khashoggi rarely expressed fears for himself but he was "really torn up" about the pressures on his family. "I did worry about Jamal," she said. "I just thought, 'Who would be so brazen to go after him?'" Turkey said yesterday it will search the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of a missing Saudi contributor to the 'Washington Post', a week after he vanished during a visit there. The announcement came as the 'Post' published a surveillance image of Jamal Khashoggi walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, just before he disappeared. Turkish officials have said they fear the columnist was killed inside the premises. Saudi Arabia has called the allegations that it killed 59-year-old Mr Khashoggi "baseless" but has offered no evidence over the past seven days to show that he ever left the building. Yesterday's statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Hami Aksoy, said Saudi authorities have notified Ankara they were "open to co-operation" and would allow the consulate building to be searched. The ministry did not say when the premises would be searched. Officials in Saudi Arabia did not respond to a request for comment. The surveillance image released by the 'Post' bore a date and time stamp, as well as a Turkish caption bearing Mr Khashoggi's name and that he was arriving at the consulate. Nikki Haley, Donald Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, resigned last night, prompting speculation that she could be plotting a run on the White House to become America's first female president in 2024. Ms Haley (46) regarded as a star of the Trump administration for her unrelenting defence of the president's America First policy on the world stage, unexpectedly announced her departure, catching cabinet colleagues and US allies off guard. The former governor of South Carolina immediately ruled out suggestions she could try to unseat Mr Trump as the Republican presidential nominee in 2020. Appearing with Mr Trump in the Oval Office, she said: "For all of you that are going to ask about 2020 - no, I'm not running for 2020. "I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one [Mr Trump]." She said it had been the "honour of a lifetime" serving as ambassador to the UN, adding: "It was a blessing to go into the UN every day with body armour." Expand Close Seat of power: Nikky Haley could be plotting a move for White House. Photo: REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Seat of power: Nikky Haley could be plotting a move for White House. Photo: REUTERS Ms Haley explained her decision by saying she had "long believed that rotation in office benefits the public". There was "no personal reason", she added. She said: "I think you have to be selfless enough to know when it's time to step aside. "As a businessman I expect you [Mr Trump] will appreciate my sense that returning from government to the private sector is not a step down, but a step up." A lucrative job in the private sector could be a big draw. According to Ms Haley's 2018 financial disclosures, she has a mortgage of more than $1m (870,000), and credit card debts of tens of thousands of dollars. She also has one child in college, and another going there in a few years. However, Brett Bruen, former White house global engagement director in the Obama administration, suggested her decision was a "political calculation" aimed at positioning herself for the White House in six years' time. Campaign He said: "She doesn't want to be part of the administration after the midterms when Democrats could retake control of the House or the Senate. "She is preparing her presidential campaign, she's preparing to lay the ground, if not for 2020, then 2024." Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, added: "She has a very bright future and will be a key player in both the future of the Republican Party and our nation as a whole for years to come." There have also been reports that Ms Haley's foreign policy role had become more limited since the appointment of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, and John Bolton as national security adviser. Both men were reportedly surprised by her departure. In an extremely friendly half-hour appearance before television cameras Mr Trump called Ms Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, a "very special person" and that she might return to the administration, with her "pick" of roles. Mr Trump said Ms Haley had made the UN role "more glamorous" and done an "incredible job". He added: "She also is somebody that gets it." The president said she first told him six months ago that she was thinking of "taking a break" but the announcement was kept a closely guarded secret. In her resignation letter she said Mr Trump had agreed at the outset to let her "speak my mind on the issues of the day" and he had honoured that. Last month, in an op-ed for 'The Washington Post', she wrote: "I proudly serve in this administration... But I don't agree with the president on everything." ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Nikki Haley, a rising Republican star, said on Tuesday she was stepping down as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but knocked down speculation that she might challenge President Donald Trump at the next election. Sitting beside Trump in the Oval Office, Haley said her 18-month stint at the United Nations had been "an honor of a lifetime" and that she would stay on until the end of the year. A former governor of South Carolina and the daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley, 46, is the highest profile woman in Trump's Cabinet and has often been seen as a possible presidential candidate. Haley criticized Trump during the 2016 election campaign but has been the face of his "America First" policies at the United Nations, steering the U.S. withdrawal from several U.N. programs and ardently defending his hard-line policies against Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs. Haley said in her resignation letter to Trump that she would "surely not be a candidate for any office in 2020" and would instead support his re-election bid. She referred to returning to the private sector and some media reports said she had debts to pay off. But Haley also said she did not have any future plans set, and her decision surprised many at the White House and the United Nations. Speaking to reporters later on Tuesday aboard Air Force One, Trump said he had five people on his short list for U.N. envoy, including former White House adviser Dina Powell, a friend of Haley's. Trump said U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, was not on the short list but that he was willing to consider him. Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, who is a senior adviser to her father, ruled herself out of consideration in a Twitter post. He had said she would be "incredible" in the role and acknowledged he would be accused of nepotism if he nominated her. HIGH PRAISE Trump said Haley had told him six months ago that she was thinking of leaving by the end the year "to take a little time off." He was effusive in his praise of her. "She has done an incredible job. She is a fantastic person, very importantly, but she also is somebody that gets it," Trump said on Tuesday. "She's done a fantastic job and we've done a fantastic job together." Haley's name has come up as possible Republican running mate in the last two presidential elections and she could also become a U.S. senator if fellow South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham takes up a job in the Trump administration, as is often speculated. Trump suggested the two of them jointly announce Haley's departure in the Oval Office, an administration official said, noting that Haley was the only outgoing senior member of Trumps administration to be feted in this way. Returning the favor, Haley praised Trump and his family for their support. She described Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and aide, as "such a hidden genius that no one understands" for his work on renegotiating the NAFTA trade deal and preparing a long-awaited Middle East peace plan that has not yet been released. The feel-good nature of her resignation was markedly different from other high-profile departures from Trump's Cabinet. Trump unceremoniously announced his firing of former secretary of state Rex Tillerson in March in a tweet. Haley was seen by her counterparts at the United Nations as a voice of clarity in a U.S. administration that often gave off mixed signals on foreign policy, diplomats say. "Nikki Haley is one of the most talented, most authentic U.S. government officials that I have ever met," said U.N. ambassador for France, Francois Delattre. But she has been overshadowed in recent months by the appointments of Trump loyalist Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and hawk John Bolton as White House national security adviser. Pompeo has led policy on talks with North Korea, while Bolton has taken the lead on trying to implement Trump's hard line against Iran. DOMESTIC CREDENTIALS A convert to Christianity in her 20s after being raised a Sikh, Haley is popular with religious conservatives in the South. Her status as a potential candidate for national high office was boosted in 2015 when she ordered the Confederate battle flag to be pulled down at South Carolina's state capitol grounds after a white supremacist gunman shot dead nine black worshipers at a church in Charleston. Haley has also applauded women who come forward to denounce sexual abuse or misconduct by men and said they should be heard, even if they are accusing Trump. "Women who accuse anyone should be heard," Haley said last December after accusations against three members of Congress. "They should be heard, and they should be dealt with." Referring to women whose accusations brought down powerful men, like movie producer Harvey Weinstein, Haley said: "I'm proud of their strength. I'm proud of their courage." Haley has long taken a tougher public stance on Russia than Trump, who has sought better relations with President Vladimir Putin. Haley raised eyebrows within the administration when she announced in April that Washington was going to impose sanctions on Moscow over its support of Syria's government. Trump then decided not to go ahead with the move. Haley fought against what she called anti-Israel bias at the United Nations, and sometimes seemed to be channeling Trump's abrasive style of diplomacy. Last year, she upset U.S. allies and foes alike by warning that the United States would be "taking names" of countries that backed a U.N. resolution criticizing Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Echoing previous statements from Trump, Haley said on Tuesday that the United States under his presidency is now respected around the world. "Now the United States is respected. Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do. They know that if we say we're going to do something, we follow it through," she said. US president Donald Trump has hit back at Taylor Swift after the pop star broke her political silence and revealed she was backing two Democratic candidates. Ms Swift, who has been criticised in the past for refusing to disclose her political opinions, used Instagram to announce her support for Phil Bredesen for the Senate, and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives, as she prepares to vote in Tennessee in the mid-term elections in November. The 28-year-old said she had chosen to speak out now "due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years". Mr Trump defended the Republican candidate in Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, and said he now liked Swift's music "25pc less". Speaking outside the White House, Mr Trump told reporters: "Marsha Blackburn is doing a very good job in Tennessee. She's leading now, substantially, as she should. She's a tremendous woman, I am sure Taylor Swift does not know anything about her and let's say that I like Taylor's music 25pc less now." In her Instagram post, Ms Swift said she felt compelled to speak out because she believes in "the fight for LGBTQ rights" and that "any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG". She added: "I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of colour is terrifying, sickening and prevalent." Ms Swift went on to say that she will not vote for Ms Blackburn, despite her desire to see women in office. "I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for all Americans, no matter their skin colour, gender or who they love. "As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn." Loyga village has been named by investigative group Bellingcat as the home village of Alexander Mishkin (Courtesy of The Insider via AP) The second suspect in the Salisbury nerve agent attack is a celebrated local hero in his home village. Several residents in the remote village of Loyga easily recognised Alexander Mishkin in photos as one of two men accused by UK officials of poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia in Salisbury in March. But to them he is just a warm-hearted local boy, a Hero of Russia who has made a successful career as a military doctor thanks to his hard work and courage. Yuri Poroshin, an amateur painter who lives in Loyga, said: He studied at school here. His picture even hangs on the wall there because hes a Hero of Russia. Expand Close Alexander Petrov has been identified by British authorities as Alexander Mishkin (Metropolitan Police via AP, File) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Alexander Petrov has been identified by British authorities as Alexander Mishkin (Metropolitan Police via AP, File) Mr Poroshin said he heard that Mishkin received Russias highest medal for saving the life of his commanding officer during fighting with Islamist rebels in Chechnya. British police say two agents of Russias GRU military intelligence agency, travelling under the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, used the Soviet-made nerve agent Novichok to poison Mr Skripal. This week, the investigative group Bellingcat identified Petrov as Dr Alexander Mishkin, a GRU agent who had received Russias highest award. Previously the group had uncovered the real identity of Boshirov, determining that he is GRU Colonel Anatoly Chepiga. Bellingcat, which based its probe on passport information, residents databases, car registration documents and phone records, determined that the 39-year-old Mishkin grew up in Loyga before moving to St Petersburg, where he studied medicine at the elite Kirov Military Medical Academy. Some Loyga residents corroborated that account, confirming that Mishkin was trained as a military doctor. They said he continued to visit Loyga, where his 90-year-old grandmother, a respected local general practitioner, still lives. Mr Poroshins wife, Valentina Poroshina, fondly remembers Mishkin, whom she last spoke to on a train four years ago. He was a good boy, she said. He was very polite. Mr Poroshin also immediately recognised Mishkin when shown the photos released by British police. Yes, thats him. He looks like his dad and grandmother, he said. The Poroshins granddaughter, Yulia, said that Mishkin was lauded as a role model at her school. We even have a portfolio on him, she said. Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov reportedly followed Sergei Skripal in the Czech Republic (Met Police/PA) The two men suspected of poisoning Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury followed their victim when all three were in the Czech Republic in 2014, it has been reported. Citing unnamed domestic intelligence authorities, Czech public radio said that Mr Skripal visited the country in October 2014 to help the Czechs uncover Russian spies. Expand Close Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned at his home (Ben Mitchell/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned at his home (Ben Mitchell/PA) The authorities believe that the suspects, who were using their cover names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Borishov, were secretly following Mr Skripal at that time. British police say the two suspects were agents from Russian military intelligence unit GRU, and that they used a Soviet-made nerve agent Novichok to poison Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4. Russia denies wrongdoing and the Czech counter-intelligence agency declined to comment on the report. South Koreas foreign minister says Seoul is considering lifting some of its unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang to create more momentum for diplomacy aimed at improving relations and defusing the nuclear crisis. Kang Kyung-wha told MPs that the government is reviewing whether to lift sanctions South Korea imposed on the North in 2010 following a deadly attack on a warship that killed 45 South Korean sailors. Seoul then effectively shut down all cross-border economic cooperation except for a joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, where business activities and investment were also scaled back. Expand Close Ties have warmed with North Korea in recent months (North Korean government/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ties have warmed with North Korea in recent months (North Korean government/AP) Seoul shut down the Kaesong factory park in February 2016 in retaliation over a North Korean nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. The Souths potential removal of unilateral sanctions would be a largely symbolic move as it is virtually impossible for South Korea to resume joint economic projects with North Korea under US-led international sanctions, which have been strengthened considerably since 2016 as the North accelerated its nuclear and missile tests. Donald Trump says the US wants answers from Saudi Arabia (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) US President Donald Trump is demanding answers from Saudi Arabia about the disappearance of a well-known Saudi writer and government critic. Turkish authorities say Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside his countrys diplomatic mission in Istanbul. Mr Trump said he plans to invite the fiancee of Mr Khashoggi, a writer for The Washington Post who has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate on October 2 to get paperwork for his marriage, to the White House. Expand Close Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since October 2 (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since October 2 (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Members of Congress have grown increasingly insistent in recent days that the Trump administration get to the bottom of the disappearance. Mr Khashoggi had apparently drawn the wrath of the Saudi government, which has become an ever-closer US ally under Mr Trump, now leaving the US administration in a delicate position. Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he has a call in to Mr Khashoggis fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He said nobody knows exactly what happened and expressed hope that Mr Khashoggi is not dead. Mr Trump also said he had spoken with the Saudis about what he called a bad situation, but he did not disclose details of his conversations. Saudi Arabia denies involvement in Mr Khashoggis disappearance. Angry US congressmen and women are not likely to cause the administration to turn away from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But they could throw a wrench into arms sales that require their approval and demand the US scale back support for the Saudi military campaign against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen. Canada Legalizes Marijuana October 17: How Will it Affect Native People? By Doug George-Kanentiio On October 17th Canada will enter a new phase in its history when the personal possession of marijuana becomes legal. The enactment of Bill C-45 means an individual over 21 may have in their public possession up to 30 grams (1 ounce) of marijuana which can also be made into food such as cookies. There may be 4 marijuana plants grown in each household which must be kept away from minors. Driving under the influence of marijuana carries severe penalties ranging from a mandatory $1,000 fine for the first conviction to a month in jail for the second and 120 days for the third. Also as part of the penalties will be five years in prison for selling marijuana without a license although it may be given to another within the above amounts. For the police deciding how to determine if a person is driving under the influence of marijuana is mostly guess work since the technology has yet to be developed to accurately set a firm standard. Signs in Ontario, Canada, point to the United States and the Mohawk territory at Akwesasne. Photo: Michel Rathwell Crossing the border into the United States will be an issue. While states such as Colorado and Washington have decriminalized personal marijuana use the narcotic remains illegal under federal law. Therein is the problem for Canadians who use marijuana and enter the US. Border officers may ask a driver if they, or their passengers, have used marijuana. If one has used and denies it they may be subject to further inquiries and charged with a crime if it can determined there has been previous use. A border officer may detain the individual upon reasonable grounds of suspicion and examine not only the vehicle but any electronic device, such as a cell phone, which may indicate marijuana usage. It is a federal crime under code 18 USC 1001 to lie to a customs officer who may either arrest the individual or order them to leave American territory where a permanent ban against re-entry may go into effect. A person charged for marijuana use and/or possession will have their name entered into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data base which is permanent. They may, upon discretion of the border officers, be denied entry into the US. They may have their names placed of the "no fly" list which includes not only suspected terrorists but possible drug dealers, sex offenders and other "criminals." It is very difficult to have a person removed from the Terrorist Screening Database overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and shared with Canada under the "tuscan" compact. For Native people who have relied on open passage in accordance with the Jay Treaty and the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act and who may use marijuana this will also be an issue. As it stands a Canadian Native person with a blood quantum of 50% or more has all the rights of an American citizen with the exception of casting ballots in US elections. How Bill C-45 effects that right has yet to be determined. At Akwesasne there may be arrests and detentions. Since the St. Regis Tribal and Mohawk Council of Akwesasne police agencies are empowered under US and Canadian statutes they will have little choice but to abide by those laws. There are thousands of border crossings at Akwesasne across the international boundary during any given day. The Mohawk population is effectively divided in half by that border which is largely open. There are no customs stations on the Akwesasne territory but there are two large Port of Entry offices on the western edge of the reservation but a highly visible US Border Patrol presence in the area. To date, no discussions have been initiated as to the movement of marijuana from the southern (US section) of Akwesasne to the northern region (Canadian side). This will inevitably happen since it is anticipated that the demand for recreational and medical marijuana will skyrocket after October 17 and the domestic suppliers in Canada cannot meet the demand. In short, legalization in Canada presents a serious matter for Natives and particularly for the Mohawks of Akwesasne. Doug George-Kanentiio, Akwesasne Mohawk, is the vice-president of the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge. He has served as a Trustee for the National Museum of the American Indian, is a former land claims negotiator for the Mohawk Nation and is the author of numerous books and articles about the Mohawk people. He may be reached via e-mail at: Kanentiio@aol.com or by calling 315-415-7288. Join the Conversation What the Maps of Hate Groups Reveal New research offers clues to stop the spread of organized hate groups in the U.S.By Wyatt MasseyYES! Magazine Organized hate groups span all geographic areas of the United States, from White nationalists in Washington state to neo-Nazis in Alabama to radical traditionalist Catholics in New Hampshire. While persecution of classes of people happens everywhere, the drivers that push people to join hate groups are unique to specific places. In this way, hatred can be a study in geography as much as anything else. A new model tracking organized hate groups upends a long-held, simplistic view of the issue, one that placed a generalized blame on education or immigration, for example, positing that a persons education level could be a sole indicator of whether they would join a hate group. New research from the University of Utah provides a much more nuanced picture of what gives rise to organized hate groups that can better serve those working to dismantle them. In the Midwest, economics is a more influential factor than immigration. On the East Coast, more religious areas correlate with more per capita hate groups, while education has little influence. Richard Medina, University of Utah assistant professor of geography and lead author of the research, said public perceptions of hate and its motivating factors are often oversimplified. Drivers of hate are dependent on regions and cultures and all the things we see and study in geography, he said. It can be really complicated. People dont just hate for one reason. Medinas group had been working on the research before the White supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, where a woman was killed in the violence. Emily Nicolosi, University of Utah graduate student and co-author of the paper, said that what happened in Charlottesville started national conversations she believes the research can support. The motivators and drivers of hate look very different in different places, Nicolosi said. If you look at the maps, you can see that these sort of regions emerge where the [different] variables are playing the same role. Participants in an anti-White supremacist protest gather in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017. Photo: Michael Sessum The research used census data to track specific socioeconomic variables, such as population changes over a five-year period, poverty, and education levels. Researchers mapped population percentage of White non-Latinos because places changing from strong racial and ethnic similarity are more likely to experience a negative reaction to change. Poverty is a driver of hate because extremist groups promise the impoverished a way out of financial difficulty or provide a group to blame. The group also measured conservative religious and political ideology. The maps of these socioeconomic factors were then compared to a 2014 map of 784 organized hate groups across the country that the Southern Poverty Law Center created. The hate groups were mapped down to the county level in each state. The states with the most hate groups per million people in population were Montana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Vermont. Comparing the socioeconomic map with the hate group map showed which factors were the strongest indicators in different regions of the country. What drives hate? In general, the research reveals that less diversity, more poverty, less population change, and less education all correlate with more hate groups. But how influential those factors are depends on where you live. On the West Coast, high poverty and a large concentration of White people in an area are the most influential factors driving hate groups. While the region generally has racial diversity, non-White people moving in and changing a demographic quickly can become targets, Medina said. In the southern parts of California and Arizona, lower education levels and higher poverty levels are the most important indicators. In the central United States, economic factorssuch as poverty and employment levelsare most likely to push people into hate groups. Immigration is less of a factor because fewer people are moving into the region compared to the coasts. Population shift is the most telling factor on the East Coast. Areas with more people leaving than coming have more hate groups. This trend is also present throughout the country, Medina said, but is most prominent in the East. Rates of education, poverty, and diversity have less influence there. The measurements of ideologyby concentrations of religious people and Republicanscreated somewhat different regional maps. Counties with strong religious communities have fewer hate groups on the West Coast and parts of the Midwest and Southeast. Yet, most of the Midwest and East Coast see more hate groups as counties grow more religious. Similar geographic trends are seen when tracking hate groups and Republicanism. This mapping reveals what fuels different biases, Nicolosi said. Movement organizers working for social justice must recognize the most important factors in their own communities to create positive change. Politicians can better understand their constituents and the cultures influencing them, Medina said. How to change minds Citing research such as this, Medina said creating interactions with people from different races, religions, and places is one of the most effective strategies to combat organized hatred. And that is what Peace Catalyst International does, creating opportunities for interaction and relationships between Christians and Muslims in both the United States and Indonesia. City by city, the group brings together people from different religions, organizing meals and group discussions. The dynamics of each city or region play out differently, so local organizers must respond accordingly. Rebecca Brown, grants manager for Peace Catalyst International, said Christian communities often struggle to overcome misconceptions and fears about Muslims they have internalized from American culture. Islam is often portrayed as a violent religion in American media . According to the Pew Research Center, non-Muslim Americans are more likely to have positive feelings about Islam if they know a Muslim. But studies show non-Muslim Americans are more likely to know someone who is atheist, Jewish, or Mormon than someone who is Muslim. People can be transformed by one relationship, Brown said. The xenophobic, anti-Muslim threat is a very real threat and a growing threat in our community, she said. Her organization wants to provide viable theological and ideological ways for [people] to cling to peace rather than ... moving toward fear. Similar to the work Peace Catalyst International does, Life After Hate helps create relationships across ideological divides. The organization was co-founded by Christian Picciolini with a mission of researching extremism and helping radicalized people disengage from hate movements. In his 2017 TEDx Talk . Picciolini describes how feelings of abandonment and anger toward people he saw as different led him to join the neo-Nazis at 14. The birth of his son and interactions Picciolini had with customers in his record shop pushed him away from the hate movement. A gay couple came in with their son, and it was undeniable to me that they loved their son in the same profound ways that I loved mine, Picciolini said in his talk. Suddenly, I couldnt rationalize or justify the prejudice that I had in my head. Picciolini underscores the importance of the research findings. The most effective way to change a radicalized persons view is to understand what is driving their prejudice, Picciolini said in an interview with the Southern Poverty Law Center. Its about changing their perspective just a little bit, he said. Because often when you change their perspective just a little bit, it allows them to see the cracks in the foundation of the ideology that they believe in. Both extremism research and the rush to understand and combat organized hate groups are happening at a time when technology is helping to target potential recruits. Hate groups use similar strategies as ISIS or al Qaeda , focusing on individuals who feel victimized or isolated. Hate groups tap into beliefs that racial or religious groups are attacking Whites, as seen in a Ku Klux Klan recruitment flier distributed at a North Carolina high school in 2017. An appeal to religious conservatism is an effective tactic in North Carolina, Medina said, though playing off a fear of losing ones culture is used across the country. The research begins to offer a measurable picture of where in the country different types of messaging will attract members. And Medina would like to investigate further, for instance, the roles that specific religions play; the current study groups all religions together. He also plans to work with researchers who will do qualitative studies to learn about motivations directly from citizens. [Hate] is not uniform. But people treat it like its a uniform phenomenon across the country. It just doesnt work that way. Wyatt Massey wrote this article for The Mental Health Issue , the Fall 2018 issue of YES! Magazine . Wyatt is a journalist covering social justice and religion. Follow him on Twitter @News4Mass This article originally appeared on YES! Magazine . It is published under a Creative Commons license Join the Conversation Anurag Kashyap, is one amongst the men in the industry caught up in the storm of #MeToo movement. He was involved when a woman employee complained of sexual harassment against his partner Vikas Bahl of Phantom Films and he didn't take a stern action towards it then. After dissolving Phantom films, the filmmaker is now no longer a board member of Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI). BCCL The filmmaker, who has aplogised in the regard and has agreed to dissolve Phantom Films thereafter, wrote a letter over a series of tweets, where he apologised for being a man and said that he is answerable to the women who work with him. He also thanked all women in his life for shaping him. Heres what he wrote: In the light of the current events , I have decided to step back from my duties as a board member from MAMI until the shadow of doubt of our alleged complicitness in silence and not doing anything about it , is cleared. Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018 On the other hand I vehemently deny to have stayed silent on the issue & not doing anything about it for years. Cant explain further to people who dont understand due process, legalities. Have been resilient through all accusations , keep flinging them my way. Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018 The accused was named and shamed a long time back. For people who dont read the details & only the headlines, I have no response. A lot of women work with me and have been around , I am answerable to them & they stand witness to our actions &our struggle to do the right thing. Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018 Let the purging continue .. its as good a time as any for all of us to introspect , look into ourselves and see how we all have been complicit in so much,with our silence, forced by fear of consequence or by choice. Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018 In more than a year I have questioned myself a lot, reflected on every single date I went to, every interaction of mine with the opposite sex, every encounter all that I could recall. Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018 And my greatest and simplest learning is that the line of consent is not just defined by No , most times its before that No is uttered. And the line of consent depends on the person that owns the consent. It varies from person to person. Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018 Its our conditioning, even for the most woke people. Most of us are still learning , everyone who claims to know what it means , and I talk about us men , we really dont know . None of us know . It cant and should not be defined so simply. Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018 It begins with respecting the individuality and acknowledging the ownership the other has over herself, and continuing awareness of it. My mind has been restless over many day/nights &more I read everyones accounts , it keeps adding to it. Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018 I feel like just apologising for being a man. I use to feel I have come a long way from growing up in a smalltown &today I feel like somehow I am still there. There is so much I really dont see & also see others around me pretending to see & I feel ,inko bhi kahan dikhta hai Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) October 10, 2018 Around 450 million people are suffering from mental illnesses worldwide, while close to a 100 million people suffer from some form of mental disorder in India itself. While this surge in numbers has made it one of the leading causes for ill health and disability, according to World Health Organisation, sadly, often times the symptoms go unnoticed. Thats possibly because mental health is mostly recognised as a real issue only in certain metropolitan cities in the country. They either go unrecognised or a person might get categorised as either normal or mad in the smaller tier 2 and tier 3 cities. liveinternet.ru Awareness concerning mental health disorders, such as depression might be on the rise, but there are so many other mental health disorders that most people are not aware of. Did you know that there are 300 mental disorders that are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and Mental Disorders? Heres what you need to know and understand about the most common types of disorders: Anxiety disorder news.milli.az The next common mental illness after depression is anxiety disorder, so much so that one of every four Indians is affected by anxiety disorders. If a persons response is not appropriate for any situation or he cannot control his responses, such that it starts interfering with his normal functioning, there are fair chances that the person is suffering from an anxiety disorder. People who suffer from anxiety disorder respond to situations with fear and dread. Physical signs like panic, anxiety, rapid heartbeat and sweating are some common symptoms. Types of anxiety disorder include panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, specific phobias and social anxiety disorder. How do you deal with it: Many with anxiety disorders could progress to depression, which is the leading cause for self-harm and suicides. "The key message is that anxiety disorders cannot be ignored. Some of these people could be at the start of a depressive disorder and should be helped at the earliest," said Dr Maulik. The key is to stop anxieties from developing into depression. "Relaxation techniques, yoga and exercises are a big help. But substance abuse, cigarettes and over-the-counter pills should be avoided," said Dr Gangadhar. However, doctors said people with most anxiety disorders could be helped easily. While severe forms of anxiety disorder will need medication, they said that many eastern practices could help the affected persons. "Be it meditation or yoga, eastern practices help people check general anxiety or anxiety disorders," said Dr Shetty. If someone is dealing with these symptoms for more than six months, they should get it checked for generalised anxiety disorder. Mood disorder megaphoneadv.blogspot.com Mood disorder involves a persistent feeling of either extreme sadness or extreme happiness. This disorder is also called affective disorder. Other types include depression, cyclothymic disorder and bipolar disorder. Mood variations in accordance with the environment proportionally are normal but when behavioural patterns are disproportionate, they are called abnormal mood disorder. When a mood is too low, it is known as depression and when it is too high it is called mania. The fluctuation between too high and too low is called bipolar disorder. While the high levels of mood behaviour may lead to mania, a significant fluctuation in the level of serotonin may fluctuate the mood, depending on the chemical imbalance, says Dr H K Chopra, senior consultant, medicine and cardiology, Moolchand Heart Hospital, New Delhi. How do you deal with it: The balance in the behavioural pattern is possible by optimising of lifestyle with self-discipline, regulated daily routine such as exercise, daily walks, sports, meditation and practising of all eight limbs of yogayama, niyama, asanas, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhimeticulously may help in balancing the mood. Eating the right food at the right time and in right dosage and consumption of satvik food enhance mood balance. Tamsik food may distort the mood. Excessive smoking, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse may also be responsible for mood disorders. Therefore, perfection in the mindset is the key to have perfection in the mood. Following a meticulous lifestyle may reduce the requirement for mood stabilisation medication. Impulse control and addiction disorder iwingogo.com The most common symptom of impulse control disorder is the inability to control urges and impulses that can harm someone or oneself. Stealing and compulsive gambling are two common examples. Addiction to drugs and alcohol is also quite common. People suffering from this addiction get so involved, that they forget their responsibilities and relationships. Researchers have found multiple mental disorders that have been caused by the rise in humans use of internet and technology. The most common ones include modern day disorders, such as 'Selfitis' and the Google Effect. Psychotic disorders in.pinterest.com Hallucination is the most common symptom of psychotic disorder. People suffering from this, experience sounds and see images that are not real and believe them to be true. Schizophrenia is an example of a psychotic disorder. A study published recently in the peer-reviewed Indian Journal of Psychiatry found that public attitude towards the subject was correlated to religion, gender, education level and access to healthcare. Based on the response received, on a median scale of one to five, we arrived at a mean score of around threeone being positive perception and five, negative," said neuro-psychiatrist Dr A K Tandon of AKT Neuropsychiatric Centre, Allahabad. How do you deal with it: Psychotic symptoms can include detachment from reality, hallucinations, delusions, disorganised thinking, and lack of motivation or emotion. Until now, treatments for trauma in psychosis have focused on post-traumatic stress disorder rather than specific symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. "When young people come to youth mental health services, we should be assessing for trauma and for emerging psychotic symptoms, and treating them as soon as they emerge," says Sarah Bendall, head of trauma research at Orygen, a mental health service in Australia. Bendall said the new research would not only help refine treatments for patients with psychotic disorders but may also help to empower young patients. Eating disorder onmed.gr Approximately 20 million people, half women and half men will develop some or the other eating disorder at some point in their lives, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Eating disorder can be considered as a mental disorder in which the person suffering from it shows a persistent pattern of unhealthy eating, Extreme emotions and attitude towards food and weight are common symptoms of eating disorder. People suffering from eating disorder either eat a lot or do not eat at all. Some of the examples are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. How do you deal with it: For all the three eating disorders, the first thing to do is to change the behaviour of the person suffering from it. This is mostly done through methods like cognitive behavioural therapy paired with regular physician and nutritionists' care. When this doesnt work, the patients are monitored 24 hours and reintroduced to normal eating. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prosperecarreira.com.br A condition that is developed following a traumatic or terrifying event is called PTSD. The unexpected death of a loved one, natural disaster, sexual harassment are some examples of events that can lead to PTSD. People suffering from the condition can have frightening thoughts and memories of what happened, which can makes them emotionally numb at the moment. It was only in 1980 that PTSD was recognised as a health condition; a condition that occurs because of the prolonged exposure to a traumatic event. Interestingly, earlier, this health condition was called by different names such as, soldiers heart during the American Civil War, combat fatigue during World War I and gross stress reaction during World War II. How do you deal with it: In the initial phase, some medications may be required to reduce the arousal and panic. Trauma-focused cognitive-behavior therapy and EMDR are quite effective in dealing with specific symptoms of trauma such as avoidance, flashbacks and arousal. Psychodynamic therapy is helpful in understanding and working through the personality changes, which occur after a traumatic event. It is important to understand that recovery will take time. Encourage yourself to get back to normal life but do not push it. The unpleasant emotions and psychological symptoms take a long time to heal and settle down. Seeking support from family members, friends, survivor groups and psychologist speeds up recovery. Personality disorder pinterest.pt People suffering from personality disorder have extreme personality traits which are distressing to the other person and may cause a problem in a social setting. A persons behaviour is so rigid and different from what people expect that it interferes with their normal functioning. While the causes of borderline personality disorder are not fully understood, it has been linked to a combination of biological factors, childhood trauma and abuse. Borderline personality disorder (BDP) is a serious mental illness that is characterised by unstable moods and emotions, distorted self-image and pervasive patterns of instability in behaviour and interpersonal relationships. These patients are frequently misunderstood for their erratic behavioural patterns. It is their emotional instability that causes stressful mental and behavioural problems. How do you deal with it: Early diagnoses and effective treatment can help BDP patients control their mood swings better. Therefore, it is important that one must analyse the signs and symptoms of borderline personality disorder to begin early treatment. Living with borderline personality disorder can be a stressful experience and needs immediate medical attention. If you or someone you know tests positive for the above mentioned signs, consult a doctor for the right treatment. Other types of disorders boro.gr Stress response syndrome: Developing behavioural symptoms in response to a stressful event is called stress response syndrome. The problem starts within three months of the event and may last till six months. Dissociative disorders: As the name suggests, this disorder makes people suffer severe changes in memory, identity and their surroundings. This may happen due to too much stress. Sexual and gender disorders: The condition affects sexual desire, behaviour and performance. Sexual dysfunction and paraphilia are two common examples. Any gathering that consists mostly of our grandparents and parents is never complete without Jagjit Singh playing in the background. And when his ghazals play, everyone in the room slowly goes quiet as if theyre devouring each word. Each word of the ghazal is given emotion by Jagjit Singhs voice and when you come to think of it, the lyrics just dont sound the same unless you hear it from the man himself. prabhablog Born to a Sikh family in Rajasthans Ganganagar, Jagjit Singh was named Jagmohan by his parents. They say our parents are the first ones to notice our talent and the same happened with Jagjit. His father could recognise that he had a lovely voice and sent him for training to a visually impaired music teacher Pandit Chaganlal Sharma for his initial training in Indian classical music. Jagjit Singh, throughout his teenage years, performed at multiple places. While his family did encourage him to learn music, they expected him to obtain a government job by the end of his education just like his father who was a surveyor with the government. Wikipedia Jagjit, however, had a different future planned for himself. By the time he went to DAV College in Jalandhar to study further, he found himself at a point where he couldnt stay away from music. And thats when, in the studios of All India Radio in Jalandhar, he recorded himself for the very first time. The first time his melodious voice reached the masses was almost five decades ago and one can easily say that his deep voice is now immortal. However, for him to be immortal, Jagjit had a fair share of struggle. Wikipedia He decided to take a risk and shifted to Mumbai in 1965. However, his family knew nothing about this big shift. He was struggling and many say that at this point, he was sharing a small place with four other people. All the work that he was getting was singing jingles in advertisements. But even that turned out to be a blessing because thats how he met the love of his life-Chitra. It was in 1967 when he first met Chitra Dutta during a recording for an advertisement jingle. In fact, Chitra admitted during an interview with Filmfare that she heard his heavy voice and told the director she couldnt sing with him! However, love did blossom and the two of them got married. The couple welcomed their son into the world and named him Vivek. As for their fame, it also came to them when they worked together on the album The Unforgettable. youtube The album truly did live up to its name and is till date etched onto the memories of the listeners. The song Baat Niklegi was the one that was praised the most. Jagjit Singh had some playback songs to his name but after the release of this album, he cemented his position as a regular in the Bollywood music scene. Life seemed to finally become more stable but then tragedy struck when their son passed away at an extremely young age in a road accident. The couple was absolutely devastated. The death of their young son came as a huge shock and they just went silent. HC Publishers The man who was known for his music didnt want to get back into music. Chitra, his partner, just couldnt bring herself to go back to music again. While Jagjit did return to his career after a couple of months, Chitra took a retirement from her career. Many say that while Jagjit Singh was singing, the death of his son shook him and a light in his life went out. Even a couple of days before his death, Jagjit Singh was performing in the UK and was due to perform in Mumbai. But suffered from a brain hemorrhage. He passed away on 23rd September 2011. Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam delivered her policy address on Wednesday, highlighting housing, economy, people's livelihood and young people's development. Hong Kong chief executive, Carrie Lam, addresses a press conference following the delivery of her annual policy speech on October 10, 2018. [Photo: IC] It was Lam's second policy address since she was sworn in on July 1, 2017. Lam said the policy address, titled Striving Ahead Rekindling Hope, covers areas including good governance, housing and land, diversified economy, nurturing talent, improving people's livelihood, liveable city and connecting with young people. In the address, the chief executive said the HKSAR government would introduce steps to solve the housing problem facing Hong Kong. To deal with the issue as where to get land, Lam presented plans on land supply, including Lantau Tomorrow Vision, development of brownfield sites, land sharing and revitalization of industrial buildings. Being the largest outlying island in Hong Kong, Lantau is home to the Hong Kong International Airport and the gateway to the world. And the commissioning of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will improve Lantau to a "Double Gateway" to the world and other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Lantau Tomorrow Vision is to provide 260,000 to 400,000 residential units, with 70 percent being public housing, to accommodate 700,000 to 1.1 million people, and to create 340,000 jobs for the coming 20 to 30 years, according to Lam. Lam noted that in the first half of this year, the HKSAR economy grew strongly by 4 percent in real terms over the previous year, riding on the broadly positive global economic environment. The HKSAR government will act proactively, strengthen its roles in serving as "facilitator" and "promoter," and seize the opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, with a view to generating new impetus for HKSAR's economy. Lam said that the HKSAR government and herself will not tolerate any acts that advocate "Hong Kong independence" and threaten the country's sovereignty, security and development interests. Lam stressed that the policy address is built on the HKSAR's unique strengths under "one country, two systems" and combined with the current-term HKSAR government's unflagging efforts since assuming office on July 1, 2017. "This policy address carries my unswerving determination in leading Hong Kong to strive forward. While there are many words, they serve just one purpose: rekindling hope for Hong Kong," she said. Lam said the HKSAR government would enhance cooperation with the mainland in terms of trade, finance, innovation and technology, and some other areas. She would establish a high-level steering committee for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with herself as the chairperson. She said that the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area would bring Hong Kong new areas of economic growth and the opportunity to enlarge the living environment of Hong Kong residents. As a prime platform and key link for the Belt and Road Initiative, Hong Kong would strive to grasp the opportunities brought by the initiative, Lam added. Lam said the HKSAR government will step up efforts to promote innovation and technology. Further to the 50 billion HK dollars earmarked in this year's budget, an additional 28 billion HK dollars will be allocated for university research, re-industrialization, application of technology in public services and related areas, she said. (1 U.S. dollar = 7.83 HK dollars) Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, an 86-year-old seer who has been a crusader in the battle to save Ganga and ensure the undisrupted flow of water in it has taken his more than 100-days old fast to the next level. Since Tuesday, he has given up taking water and honey, which had sustained him for more than three months and said he will fast unto death. He had begun his fast on June 22 in the Matri Sadan ashram in Haridwar, demanding a law that will protect River Ganga, maintain its uninterrupted flow in its natural form between Gangotri to Uttarkashi and keep the holy river clean. The seer who sees River Ganga as his mother considers himself a descendant of Bhagiratha and considers this fast as a tapasya on his part for the mother. He accused both the state and Centre of not doing enough to protect the river, which has religious significance to Hindus. Neither the Centre nor the state government is serious about what happens to Ganga. They are behaving like dictators. We have sent several request letters to the Prime Minister and water resources ministry but nobody has bothered to reply," he said. Swami Gyan Swaroop, whose real name is GD Agrawal was once a professor at IIT Kanpur. The PhD holder in environmental engineering from the University of California at Berkeley has also served as a Member-Secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). An environmental activist for decades, he formally became a 'swami' in 2011 at the age 79. Even before that he had undertaken a number of fasts for environmental causes, the most notable being 2009 fast demanding to stop the construction of dams on the Bhagirathi River. According to environmentalists, currently there are already 98 hydropower projects operating in Uttarakhand itself, and the plans to construct 450 projects on the river will kill the sacred river. They have also questioned the commitment of the Modi government to one of the PM's pet projects - Clean Ganga. Despite an allocation Rs. 500 crores, which was spent as part of the Ganga Action Plan, the river is as polluted as it was. The present government has proposed a budget of Rs. 20,000 for the Namami Gange project, of which Rs. 7,000 have already been spent. Nishant Aggarwal, a scientist working with the missile research centre of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd (BAPL) in Nagpur who was arrested on charges of spying was reportedly honey trapped by the same ISI handlers who had earlier caught a BSF personnel. Aggarwal, who was active on Facebook is said to have been in touch with three IDs in the name of women, which were also used to trap BSF jawan Achyutanand Mishra, who was arrested from Noida last month. BCCL It was during the probe into Mishra's activities, the investigators first got wind of Aggarwal's involvement in leaking sensitive information to Pakistani handlers. Authorities believe Agrawal was spotted by the ISI on Facebook and was trapped by the women IDs. According to The Indian Express, the ISI handlers lured Aggarwal with a promise of a job in America with a hefty pay package. His interrogation has revealed that he was promised better job prospects by the handlers who posed as women and honey-trapped him. These accounts have been traced to Pakistan, said an official. Even though the extent of the leaks by Aggarwal is still unclear, the investigators believe the engineer has "shared some sensitive information in a coded form. Aggarwal who is a graduate from IIT Roorkee was working as a junior engineer with BrahMos in Nagpur. Just last month he was awarded Young Scientist Award for 2017-18 by the Defence Research and Development Organisation. Viktoria Marinova, a 30-year-old Bulgarian journalist was raped and killed on Saturday in a case that has sent repercussions across Europe. The journalist had become the anchor of a talk show focused on investigative reporting. The police found her body was found in a park. She was killed by blows on the head and suffocation. The prosecutors were probing all leads - both personal and linked to Marinova's job. Bulgarian journalist was raped and brutally murdered in city of Ruse. Viktoria Marinova was TV anchor and director in the local tv station TVN. Her last reportage was connected with misusing of public funds which @BivolBg investigates (& they were subject of pressure) pic.twitter.com/JZoOqJFsWP Ruslan Trad (@ruslantrad) October 7, 2018 In the last 15 days: Turkey accuses Saudi Arabia of murdering journalist #JamalKhashoggi. Bulgarian journalist #VictoriaMarinova is killed. Reporter #AbdirisakSaidOsman knifed to death in Somalia. Reporter #MarioLeonelGomezSanchez gunned down in Chiapas. Dear God. @pressfreedom Kathleen Carroll (@kathleencarrll) October 7, 2018 Bulgarian investigative journalist Victoria Marinova has been murdered in the Bulgarian city of Ruse, local media report. At the time of her murder, Marinova was reporting on an investigation into alleged corruption involving EU funds. pic.twitter.com/otzVJzfxD4 Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) October 7, 2018 Am awaiting with bateless breath a White House statement in defense of press freedom. Two journalists have been brutally murdered by US allies in past 48 hours - Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia. Will there be any diplomatic consequences at all? Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) October 8, 2018 Interior minister Mladen Marinov later confirmed to journalists that the victim had also been raped. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said that he is hopeful of a successful investigation, thanks to a large amount of DNA material collected it is just a matter of time before the perpetrator will be found. In yet another case of rash driving, a 20-year-old girl was killed and her 18-year-old sister injured when they were knocked down by a BMW owned by Aldona MLA Glen Ticlo and driven by his son Kyle on Monday evening. The accident occurred when the two sisters were crossing the NH-4 near Gandhi Nagar in Belagavi. Belagavi traffic police said the accident happened at 6.05pm. M Killedar, an eyewitness, said an angry mob gathered at the spot and broke the windshields of the car and tried to set it ablaze. They also blocked the NH4 for 15 minutes. The Police have detained 25-year-old Kyle Ticlo for questioning and he has been sent for a medical test. Kyle has been booked for rash and negligent driving. They claimed that Kyle was speeding and had lost control of the vehicle. Police said the accident occurred when Tamreen Khalid Bispi and her sister Tehaniyat, both residents of Azad Nagar in Belagavi, were crossing the national highway to go to the fruit market. Police said both the sisters were rushed to the district hospital, where Tamreen succumbed to her injuries. Ticlo confirmed to TOI that his car was involved in an accident and said they have filed a counter-complaint against unidentified persons for vandalizing the car and trying to set it ablaze. 180 passengers onboard an IndiGo Airlines flight from Hyderabad to Goa encountered a narrow escape, thanks to the presence of mind of the pilot who applied the brakes immediately he spotted a vehicle on the runway. The incident happened at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday, as the flight 6E743, bound for Goa was about to take off when the pilot noticed a vehicle on the runway. The pilot of the Airbus A320 applied the emergency brakes and averted a major disaster. BCCL/ REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE Following the incident, the DGCA has initiated a probe into the matter. The reported incident is being examined by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Findings of the investigation are awaited, based on which the reason for this incident can be ascertained, a GHIAL spokesperson said. BCCL/ REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE Tuesday's incident in Hyderabad is the latest in a series of mishaps involving air travel. Last month, Jet Airways was left red-faced after some 30 passengers onboard developed bleeding from ears and nose, because the crew forgot to maintain the cabin pressure. In September itself there was another mid-air security scare after a passenger entered the cockpit to charge his mobile phone. There was also a recent incident where a passenger tried to open the door of a flight mistaking it to be the washroom. Hundreds of people from Bihar left jobs and even remunerations in Gujarat out of fear for their lives and returned home on Tuesday. On reaching Patna Junction, they narrated the ordeal people from north India were going through in various parts of Ahmedabad and Gujarat. The situation turned for the worse after a Bihari migrant worker was arrested for allegedly raping a 14-month-old baby on September 28. Those who returned on Tuesday said they were threatened to leave Gujarat before October 12. Sonu Kumar (19), who was living in Thaltej area of Ahmedabad, said he complained to the local police about the assault on him and threats by the locals, but in vain. The police, instead, advised me to return home and expressed helplessness in stopping the violence, Sonu from Vaishali said. Reuters Suresh Sahni (40) from Khagaria said he usually visits his home during Holi and Chhath. I had booked train tickets for November 10 to celebrate Chhath, but I left my job and salary due to violence and boarded the first available train to Patna even without reservation, he said. I dont know when the situation will become normal. Now, I have decided to do farming in my village, said Mohammad Karim (37), who lived at Mehsana with his wife and eight-year-old daughter. I saw some miscreants barging into my neighbourhood and beating several people. On Saturday, when I was returning from the factory where I worked, a mob rounded me and asked about my native place and language. When I said Im from Bihar, they bashed me and asked me to leave Gujarat before October 12. The locals told me that they belonged to Thakor Sena, he said. Thakor Sena is an outfit led by Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor. Reuters Ramesh Yadav, who reached Ahmedabad last Friday to join his work at a private mobile company, was forced to leave Gujarat. I took the train Sunday night after some miscreants hurled stones at my flat. The mob also caned some people and threatened to leave saying the violence will turn worse, he said, adding several people from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam were also facing local mob fury. Around 1500 people of East Champaran returned home from Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Sabarkantha, Aravalli and several other districts in Guajarat. One Mukesh Sao of Patahi and Sheo Chandra Mahato of Fenehara said there were frequent attacks even at the dead of night in Sabarkantha where they were working in a small-scale industry. AP Lalmuni Devi of Tetarya said,Bada julum hot ba, sab saamaan loot lelak (Atrocities are being committed on Biharis. All our belongings have been looted). Farook Alam of Dhekha said, We were working there peacefully for the last 7 years. But now is an atmosphere of fear and mistrust in Gujarat. Hence we left. It was a double whammy for Ramesh Ram and Pramod Ram, who were stabbed and looted by two motorcycle-borne criminals at Chhatauni bus stand in Motihari on early Tuesday morning. They had returned from north Gujarat. Reuters Meanwhile, some people complained to Sheikhpura DM Yogendra Singh that their family members had been held hostage by the owner of an Ahmedabad-based packaging company. One Akhilesh Kumar said 14 of them managed to escape from the captivity and reached their village under Aryari block of Sheikhpura district on Sunday. The factory owner snatched even their mobile phones, he alleged. Shashi Tharoor's English is so good that he probably knows words in the language that even native speakers didn't know existed. The MP from Thiruvananthapuram has a habit of leaving people scratching their heads trying to decipher the meaning of his tweets. BCCL/FILE So, when the former Under Secretary General at UN tweeted about his new book, it was no different. "My new book, THE PARADOXICAL PRIME MINISTER, is more than just a 400-page exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification. Pre-order it to find out why!," he tweeted. My new book, THE PARADOXICAL PRIME MINISTER, is more than just a 400-page exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification. Pre-order it to find out why!https://t.co/yHuCh2GZDM Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 10, 2018 Yes, that word 'floccinaucinihilipilification' which looks like someone just ran their fingers on the keyboard actually do exist. And, Twitter's favourite English teacher has done it again, leaving people confused and looking for answers! According to the dictionary, it is a noun and it means - 'the action or habit of estimating something as worthless'. Here is what people had to say. I am wondering what Shashi Tharoor's Siri is like. Does she ask Shashi the meanings of words instead of it being the other way round? Alok Badri (@alok_TTID) October 10, 2018 I get a feeling of floccinaucinihilipilification when I don't know the meaning of floccinaucinihilipilification Chacha Vidhayak Hai (@YeLaundaSakhtHa) October 10, 2018 I'll have to order a dictionary first, sir ;-) Anuraag Saxena (@anuraag_saxena) October 10, 2018 What my English teachers taught was a lie. Won't order it as I cannot take out the dictionary everytime.#floccinaucinihlipilification #blahblahblah Umang Goswami (@Umangism) October 10, 2018 Social media is becoming a hotbed to hunt for potential underage victims, reveals a new study. Human traffickers are exploiting platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or SnapChat, as well as dating apps such as Tinder, Blendr and Yellow to look for young females. Traffickers educate themselves by studying what the victim posts on these sites to build trust, said the study by the Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute of the University of Toledo in Ohio, US. Traffickers quickly target and connect with vulnerable children on the Internet through social media. Grooming children for sex trafficking consists of convincing someone to send a risky picture and then using it to extort them. Representational Image The traffickers use fear of consequences to compel the youth to move from a monitored page to a less monitored page by saying, "You don't want your parents to find out what we're talking about", the study suggested. Technology offers traffickers ease in advertising multiple victims at one time. "It is vitally important to educate parents, professionals and youth - especially our middle school or teenage daughters who may be insecure - about the dangers of online predatory practices used by master manipulators," Celia Williamson, Professor of Social Work at the University of Toledo, said in a statement released by the university. "Through this outreach and education, we can help save children from becoming victims of modern-day slavery," Williamson added. For the study, the researchers conducted 16 in-depth interviews with knowledgeable members of Ohio law enforcement, judges, direct service providers, advocates and researchers who engaged with victims who were trafficked online. The study outlined how traffickers connect to vulnerable youth online, groom the children to form quicker relationships, avoid detection, and move the connections from online to in-person. "The transition from messaging to meeting a trafficker in person is becoming less prevalent," Williamson said. "As technology is playing a larger role in trafficking, this allows some traffickers to be able to exploit youth without meeting face-to-face. Social media helps to mask traditional cues that alert individuals to a potentially dangerous person," Williamson added. At the Made By Google event in New York City yesterday, Google launched a whole host of new devices, foremost among which were the new Pixel 3 lineup. Our very own Jayesh Shinde had a chance to get his hands on the new devices, so here are his first reactions. Images courtesy: Jayesh Shinde 1) The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL's new Not Pink and Definitely White colours are really pleasing to the eye. The devices feature lots of rounded edges and curved surfaces; all round a design that looks and feels premium. Google has maintained the All Black look from last year, but were so disappointed to see the Black-n-White Panda look discontinued. 2) Contrary to rumours, the Pixel 3 in fact has a notch-less design, which makes its display bezels appear much larger than phones weve grown accustomed to seeing. This isn't an issue on the Pixel 3XL, though, which has a notched at the top, albeit a little deeper than usual. 3) Both phones feel slimmer and lighter than last year's devices. The menu buttons have also been removed in favour of the gesture navigation brought to Android 9.0 Pie. Also Read: Pixel Stand, Google Home Hub, Pixel Slate: All The Devices Launched At The Made By Google Event 4) As far as imaging goes, photos on default setting, in broad daylight, from the Pixel 3XL look spectacular. Take a look. Of course, because of space constraints here, you can click this link for the full resolution images Jayesh Shinde 5) Google's still sticking with a single lens rear camera on the back, where every major flagship now has least at two camera lenses for superior photos. Product manager Brian Rakowski says Google's computational photography algorithms, aided by the new Google Visual Core image processing chip, compensate for the lack of a second lens -- well and beyond! Its clear in features Google talked about yesterday, from Top Shot, to Night Sight, and so much more. 6) Theres sadly still no dual-SIM on either the Pixel 3 or the Pixel 3XL. The company does indicate some markets will have e-SIM functionality, but theres no guarantee India will be one of them. Apparently Google believes for the price segment the Pixel 3 is targeted at, dual SIM isn't a big deal. That might become a problem as the Pixel 3 takes on the iPhone XS. 7) Dual down-firing speakers on both the devices are loud as heck, as we watched and listened to a couple of quick YouTube videos and songs. Itll take a little more testing to really get a feel of the range and clarity of the device, but good volume is always a plus. 8) In the limited time spent with the device, it appears that the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL seem to have overcome screen colour shift issue that plagued last years Pixel 2 & Pixel 2XL. Phew! Finger crossed they dont follow the premium device trend and have some other glitch on launch day. 9) Last year's Google Pixel 2 series didn't do great in the video capture department, despite being awesome in capturing stills. This issue seems to have been fully resolved on the Pixel 3 & Pixel 3 XL. Video seems smooth and crisp, at least on Full HD resolution, and a number of nifty features like Motion Autofocus should help nudge things along the scale too. 10) At Rs 71,000, the Pixel 3 definitely isn't cheap. And the Pixel 3XL is obviously more expensive, starting at Rs 83,000. Both phones are more expensive than last year, but then again so are the devices of its biggest competitors. The question then remains whether the Pixel has more bang for buck than other premium devices, and they might just have a shot at proving that. How all of this will sink or launch the Pixel 3s fortunes remains to be seen. Your fitness tracker is supposed to count your steps in a day, measure how many calories youve burned, and your cardiovascular health. So why on earth is it detecting a heartbeat from a toilet paper roll? Well, thats exactly what Chinese Internet users are discovering. Abacus/YouTube According to Chinese tech site Abacus, people in the country have taken the trend viral lately after someone discovered the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 displaying a heart rate when wrapped around a toilet roll. Local social media platform Weibo has since been flooded with others trying it out on various cylindrical objects like bottles, cans, stuffed animal limbs. And it worked every time!! Its not just a glitch on the Mi Band either; apparently, the phenomenon has been confirmed with others too, including the very expensive Apple Watch Series 4. Meanwhile, different objects seem to register different phantom hear rates. While toilet rolls show a heart rate of 81 BPM, a banana registers 77 BPM, and a coffee mug 72 BPM. So, what gives? Well, the explanation lies in how these heart monitoring smartwatches are designed. Smartwatches shine a green light on your wrist when worn. Blood absorbs green light, meaning that the absorption is faster when when your heart rate increases. Photoplethysmography (PPG), as its called, is the easiest way to measure how fast your heart is beating. The thing is, some objects can reflect light shone on them, thereby confusing the sensors on these smartwatches. Bananas, and coffee mugs for instance are more reflective than toilet paper. As such, they provide a phantom rate rate via PPG more consistently. However, in each case, some amount of the light is getting absorbed, which is what indicates a fake heart rate. Its not a flaw in the smartwatches themselves, after all they measure human heart beats just fine. That is what they were designed for, its just that they have an unintentionally comical side effect. It certainly doesnt mean your toilet paper is really alive and hates what you put it through. *shiver* Elon Musk has lost serious street cred on social media lately. There was some reprieve earlier this week, however, when SpaceX got some positive mentions online. Thats because their rocket launching from California created some of the best alternative fireworks ever. The launch took place at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, about 250 kilometres from Los Angeles. The rocket touched back down within eight minutes of the launch, having delivered the SAOCOM-1A Earth-observation radar satellite into orbit for Argentina. It may have been SpaceXs first launch from the west coast, but the reason people really sat up and took notice was thanks to the jaw-dropping spectacle the rocket caused in the sky above the city. As you can see, it sort of looks like a cross between the Aurora Borealis and an alien attack in a science fiction movie. It was breathtaking to say the least, and was seen by people hundreds of miles away. And it wasnt planned, its just how science works. The exhaust vapours from the rocket, when rapidly dispelled from the craft, quickly condensed in the cold temperatures in the upper atmosphere to form crystals. The colours though were caused by the last stray rays from the setting sun passing through these crystals and the light splitting. Its similar to how a rainbow occurs, except that crystals have a higher refractive index than water. Either way makes for quite an enthralling display. Animal activists in Greece complained that donkeys in the country are suffering from spinal injuries because of obese tourists in Santorini Greece. Reuters Lawmakers in the country have promised to help the animals with the Ministry of Rural Development and Food Publishing a new set of regulations regarding the same. The new law states that donkeys in Santorini should not carry any loads heavier than 100 kg. The owners of working equidae should ensure that the animals level of health is high. There should also be disinfection materials in their living quarters and workstations." "Under no circumstances should be used animals unfit for work i.e., ill animal, injured, animals in an advanced pregnancy as well as animals with poor maintenance of hooves, the new guidelines say. Santorini is known for its hilly terrain and donkeys have traditionally been used to transport people over the famously stepped areas that vehicles cannot access. The relationship between India and Pakistani has always been complicated - it's known to be one of the most notorious political rivalries. But when it comes to being human, imagined boundaries simply fade away. GulfNews/Twitter In a Gulf news report, an Indian man shared an incident when he left his phone in a Taxi in Dubai. He said, "I have two phones one with a Dubai number and the other with an Indian sim card. I had left the one with the Indian number in the taxi, and because I have international roaming, the phone was still on." "I called the number and the driver, Nawaz, immediately answered." According to the report, the driver named Nawaz was looking for the passenger ever since he was dropped off and even though he travelled a significant distance, he had no qualms about driving back and returning it. Impressed by his loyalty, the man offered some cash which Nawaz promptly refused saying it was a part of his job. In the post, the Indian man - who frequently visits Dubai for official work - explained how cordial Pakistanis really are, and how he enjoys discussing not just politics but life with Pakistani cabbies. At the end of the day, it's all about being kind to one another. When an accident takes place, it's common to see people gather around. But, it's rare to see someone actually help the victims and ferry them to the hospital. Humanity takes a backseat when people feel they will have to answer questions the police asks them. Picture for representation But when this cab driver and passengers saw a guy drenched in blood in the middle of the road with his little, school-going daughter sitting beside him, they did not think twice before helping them. According to a Facebook post put out by one of the passengers, the accident took place at the Mayapuri flyover. In the post, Gaurav Jain, who was one the passengers writes, "Our Uber Driver Mr. Kuljit notice the small girl n immediately stopped the car n started running near the spot, me n my copassenger followed him."We 4-5 ppl pick-up n carry that person from the divider , that guy (Mr. Saini) who was driving the scooty without helmet, was still unconscious. (sic)" You can read his complete post below. While all those gathered at the site kept screaming for help, no one really came forward to take them to the hospital. That's the cab driver and Gaurav Jain along with another passenger stepped in. They rushed the victim to Deen Dayal Hospital in Delhi, but Jain alleges out that the staff at the hospital didn't even give the man first aid - the reason for which is not mentioned. The relatives of the victim were forced to shift to a private hospital for treatment. It is in situations like these that our morals are put to test. These guys could have driven away and not much would have changed in their lives. But, they decided to do the right thing and might have just saved a life. The parents of an Indian student who was studying at the University of Arizona and was killed in a car crash, are suing the restaurant for serving alcohol to minors in the car prior to the accident. (representational image/pixabay) Prominent San Francisco Bay Area chef Dominic Sarkar was found dead in his Fremont, Calif., home early morning Oct. 8, in what police are terming a homicide. Sarkar was scheduled to take a flight to India that same day, Sushma Taneja, owner of Passage to India restaurant, told India-West. Im just shocked that this happened. Dominic was such an easy-going man; everybody loved him, said the Indian American restaurateur. (Orlando Magazine photo) Ammunition recovered from five Jaish-e-Mohammed militants killed in a joint operation between the Jammu and Kashmir Police, army and paramilitary forces near the Dulanja area in border town Uri in Jammu and Kashmir Jan. 15. Three Kashmiri students with links to Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind were arrested in Punjab Oct. 10. (IANS photo) 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. The finalists for icares 2018 Care and Service Excellence (CASE) Awards have been announced. Thirty-five finalists have been selected across 10 award categories, for having demonstrated innovative approaches to physical recovery and risk identification, holistic workplace rehabilitation services, and outstanding examples of human-centred leadership and cross-agency collaboration, said John Nagle, icare CEO and managing director. Lloyds Brussels is authorised to write all EEA business starting January 01 next year. In case of a hard Brexit, or one without a transition or implementation period, the global insurance and reinsurance market said Lloyds underwriters will continue to honour their contractual commitments. These include the payment of valid claims. Lloyds expects that this will have the support of all European regulators as it goes to the heart of treating customers fairly, it said in a statement. In the event that it does not, Lloyds will direct its underwriters, or take such other steps, to ensure that contractual commitments are met in full while the transfer is being completed. Lloyds added that the UKs Financial Conduct Authority fully supports its approach. The life insurer reported that the service has now supported more than 50 Australians with mental-health conditions more than 30 are its customers and nearly 20 are family members of its customers. We want to do more to help customers better manage and treat their condition, said Sean McCormack, chief customer officer of retail insurance at MLC Life Insurance. While were here to protect our customers financially, we also want to support their health and wellbeing and offer them a tangible solution to help them improve their mental health. McCormack said the World Mental Health Day should serve as a reminder for all Australians to take better care of their mental wellbeing. Whilst encouragingly, there is an improved awareness about mental-health conditions impacting Australians, it is worrying that 54% of people with a mental-health condition do not access any treatment, McCormack said. As a life insurer, we believe we can do more to support the mental health of our customers and their families. Insurance companies response to climate change should be to side with the victims, not support the perpetrators, said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. What if hospitals sold crack, doctors offered cigarettes in their waiting rooms, and firefighters gave out flamethrowers? Insurance companies are paying unprecedented claims because of global warming, and they need to be part of the solution if the UNs call to action is to be realised. The eight top US insurance companies that do not consider climate change in their investments are State Farm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, Berkshire Hathaway/Geico, Travelers, Nationwide, Progressive and USAA. Only one US insurance company, Lemonade, has pledged not to support fossil fuels, according to Consumer Watchdog. European insurers, on the other hand, are ditching fossil fuels. Seventeen insurers with assets of at least $10 billion have divested from coal, and six of the worlds largest insurers Allianz, AXA, Munich Re, SCOR, Swiss Re and Zurich have limited or ceased their insuring of coal projects. AXA and Swiss Re have also limited their underwriting of tar sands projects, Consumer Watchdog said. Its worth looking at the hypocrisy of Californias insurance industry one year after the Tubbs fire, one of the worst fires in history, Court said. Last years wildfires produced $12.7 billion insured losses for the industry alone due to unprecedented fires precipitated by global warming, yet the industry invests in and insures coal and other fossil-fuel projects that are exacerbating climate change. This is an exciting example of Travelers executing on our innovation agenda to be the undeniable choice for the customer and an indispensable partner for our agents and brokers, said Alan Schnitzer, chairman and chief executive officer at Travelers. It advances our priorities of extending our lead in risk expertise and providing great experiences for our customers, agents and brokers. Travelers has also developed new Alexa skills, including the Travelers skill, which helps policyholders with questions about billings and payments, and the Travelers Home Central skill, which enables all consumers to access property maintenance and home safety tips. The firm hopes to introduce more Alexa skills over time. Smart home technology is making it easier for all of us to monitor our homes and help protect us from some of the most common causes of damage, said Michael Klein, executive vice president and president of personal insurance at Travelers. Our Amazon digital storefront conveniently brings together smart home devices, installation services, discounts and insurance knowledge in one central location to help our customers and agents manage risk and take a more proactive approach to home safety. Under the new tie-up, Travelers is also providing a free Amazon Echo Dot to eligible home insurance customers even without the purchase of a kit subject to program terms. The deals are currently available to Travelers home insurance customers in California and Travelers Quantum Home 2.0 customers in Colorado, Missouri and Wisconsin, with more states expected to be added later this year. Travelers relationship with the digital commerce giant does not mean bad news for insurance agents and brokers, however. Any consumers looking for a home insurance quote from Travelers will be directed from the Travelers digital storefront on Amazon to the companys website or to an independent insurance agent. Travelers network of independent agents will be able to use Travelers and Amazon co-branded assets to market to current and prospective customers about smart home technology. We continually look for innovative ways to help our agents grow their business, and were thrilled that this collaboration with Amazon will give them another way to differentiate themselves and Travelers in the marketplace, Klein added. Insurance companies response to climate change should be to side with the victims, not support the perpetrators, said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. What if hospitals sold crack, doctors offered cigarettes in their waiting rooms, and firefighters gave out flamethrowers? Insurance companies are paying unprecedented claims because of global warming, and they need to be part of the solution if the UNs call to action is to be realized. The eight top US insurance companies that do not consider climate change in their investments are State Farm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, Berkshire Hathaway/Geico, Travelers, Nationwide, Progressive and USAA. Only one US insurance company, Lemonade, has pledged not to support fossil fuels, according to Consumer Watchdog. European insurers, on the other hand, are ditching fossil fuels. Seventeen insurers with assets of at least $10 billion have divested from coal, and six of the worlds largest insurers Allianz, AXA, Munich Re, SCOR, Swiss Re and Zurich have limited or ceased their insuring of coal projects. AXA and Swiss Re have also limited their underwriting of tar sands projects, Consumer Watchdog said. Its worth looking at the hypocrisy of Californias insurance industry one year after the Tubbs fire, one of the worst fires in history, Court said. Last years wildfires produced $12.7 billion insured losses for the industry alone due to unprecedented fires precipitated by global warming, yet the industry invests in and insures coal and other fossil-fuel projects that are exacerbating climate change. British insurer Aviva Plc has parted ways with CEO Mark Wilson, effective immediately, and given itself four months to find a successor. The manner of his sudden departure after almost six years may look harsh, but its not hard to see why: The shares have trailed peers at home and abroad in recent years. Wilsons successor might not need to change strategy substantively, just simply execute it better than he did. (Editors note: See graphic below for a comparison of UK insurers shareholder returns). Shares of Aviva which had fallen 8 percent this year rose as much as 2.3 percent on Tuesdays announcement, despite the company being left without an official CEO. Chairman Adrian Montague will temporarily take the reins, backed up by three executives. This looks like a board moving quickly to placate investors performance concerns. Wilsons tenure was mixed bag in terms of performance and stakeholder relations. There have been some obvious improvements since 2013: net profit doubled between then and 2017, and Aviva paid out dividends at a bumper rate. The 2016 purchase of Friends Life Group Ltd. for about 5.8 billion pounds ($7.6 billion), unpopular at the time, has been a great source of savings and market-share growth. Analysts rate Aviva highly. The downside is that dividends and buybacks havent been able to counteract growing competition and a slowdown in Avivas core insurance business. Avivas first-half operating profit fell 2 percent, and net income tumbled by 47 percent yet the insurer lifted dividends by 10 percent. With an inferior capital position to some of its competitors, Avivas confidence in its ability to do everything at the same time pay dividends, buy back shares, seal deals and repay debt seemed optimistic. Some of Wilsons moves outside of the executive suite also werent to everyones taste. In March, he joined the board of BlackRock Inc., the worlds biggest asset manager, stirring doubts about his commitment to the job at Aviva. And a ruckus over Avivas plan to buy back pricey hybrid debt led City firms to take a dimmer view of Wilson, even if he eventually backed down from the idea. Are there bold new strategic shifts to make? Perhaps some of the 3 billion pounds earmarked for spending should be more selective, and tilted towards growth and reinvestment. Aviva relies on the U.K. for almost two-thirds of operating profit, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, so expanding abroad might be a good bet. On the other hand, a radical turnaround seems unlikely given Avivas size and capital-preservation needs. In the end, this looks like a good move for Aviva. The big strategic question remains unanswered, but in the short term, no CEO looks better than an unloved one. Related: Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Chinese authorities said they will designate more financial institutions as systemically important, a sign that policy makers are stepping up crisis-prevention efforts as the nations debt burden and financial risks swell to unprecedented levels. Financial regulators led by Chinas central bank will evaluate candidates from sectors including banking, brokerage and insurance based on their assets, business complexity and how connected they are with others, according to a joint statement on Tuesday [Nov. 27]. [Editors note: Bloomberg News updated this article on Nov. 27]. One of two methods to determine the shortlist will be used: regulators will either select at least 30 banks, 10 brokerages and 10 insurers for the systemically important financial institution, or SIFI, label, or they will identify firms that make up at least three-fourths of each sectors total assets, according to the statement. Designated companies will be subject to extra capital requirements, and may also face rules on leverage, risk exposure and information disclosure. We urgently need to have policy guidance to identify, regulate and deal with SIFIs, the regulators said in the statement. Increasing the number of SIFIs a technical description for firms seen as too big to fail may help President Xi Jinpings government strengthen oversight of Chinas $40 trillion financial system. The countrys rapid expansion of lending over the past decade has provided a big jolt to economic growth, but it has also alarmed everyone from bond-rating companies to hedge fund managers and the International Monetary Fund. The PBOC is trying to close up the loopholes in the regulatory framework to ensure the oversight is up-to-date with financial activity, said Tommy Xie, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore. Read more on how Chinas too-big-to-fail financial firms keep getting bigger Other key points from the statement: SIFIs will be divided into groups based on their score and regulated accordingly They will be subject to regular stress tests and additional supervision The evaluation process will be reviewed and adjusted every three years Systemically important financial holding companies will fall under rules Identifying and regulating SIFIs became a focus for global authorities in the wake of the 2008 crisis, when governments were forced to bail out some of the worlds biggest financial firms. Chinas shadow banking crackdown reduced the riskiness of some of the countrys banks, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings. China Construction Bank Corp. dropped one level in the Financial Stability Boards most recent list of globally systemically important institutions, reflecting its lower level of interconnectedness and complexity, according to Fitch. The Peoples Bank of China, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission will draft details on how to evaluate firms and the extra requirements that will be placed on SIFIs, according to todays statement. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Legislation China Swiss Re Corporate Solutions has named Chris Sullivan head sales in the central region. Sullivan will be based in Chicago, Ill., and responsible generating new business, managing relationships with brokers and driving growth within the central region. He will oversee a team of business development managers in the region. Sullivan has more than 14 years of industry experience. He was previously a manager in risk and insurance at Essendant. He was a vice president with Marsh before that. Swiss Re Corporate Solutions is the commercial insurance arm of the Swiss Re Group. Topics Illinois Swiss Re A single law firm based in Royal Oak has won tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits against a growing list of metro Detroit communities including Detroit, Royal Oak, Ferndale, Birmingham, and the townships of Bloomfield, Waterford and Brighton. More cases are pending against St. Clair Shores, Taylor, and most recently Harper Woods. The firm did lose a notable case against Westland and appealed another loss to Dearborn. Mostly, though, these savvy lawyers win. Their claim? From town to township, usually the same. Namely, that some communities improperly charged residents for storm water. Thats the rainfall that spills off roofs, runs off lawns and pours down driveways into storm sewers, before it flows off to treatment plants. Even without any lawsuits, its a flow whose cost of treatment is shared by most every user of water. Yet, when the attorneys of Kickham Hanley win, theres a different torrent. Its cash, flowing from city and township coffers into the firms law offices on Woodward Avenue, the Detroit Free Press reports . Last year, when the lawyers settled with Birmingham, the judgment was for $2.85 million to cover years of storm-water billings, spread over the citys thousands of homes and businesses. Many homes and businesses received modest refunds, averaging $230 apiece. But a judge said the firms attorneys were hereby awarded a total of $999,974 roughly one nice lunch shy of a million bucks. Also last year, a judgment in Ferndale came to $4.25 million; one in Royal Oak, $2 million; and in Waterford, $1.4 million. This year, one in Brighton Township was $1.5 million; and in Detroit, a whopping $27.5 million. On Sept. 17, Bloomfield Township was ordered to pay $3.7 million. St. Clair Shores has been sued. Harper Woods lost its case and can expect an adverse multimillion-dollar judgment at any time. More than a dozen communities have been targets. The upshot? Most communities are forced to pay up, with the law firm typically taking about 33 percent. Kickham Hanley has won so much money, from so many communities, that two bills are pending in Lansing that aim to stop the firms judgment-winning juggernaut. The firms lawsuits are siphoning funds earmarked for badly needed infrastructure repair and maintenance of local sewer systems, said Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash. Yet, the law firm has done nothing devious or improper, according to court rulings. Instead, it merely pointed out, with the concurrence of judges, that many communities have violated Michigans Headlee Amendment. The local governments imposed storm-water charges that were more like a tax than a fee a violation of the late Richard Headlees famous limit on taxation, as enshrined in the Michigan Constitution. Now, for better or worse, each community that has lost in court must revise how it bills customers. Typically, after the law firm takes its share of a settlement, the rest gets divvied up to a given communitys water and sewer customers. But homeowners dont much of a payoff, said Waterford Township Supervisor Gary Wall. Last year in Waterford, I think the average person got, like, $22 back for a four-year period about $5.50 a year, Wall said. When you think about it, that money has to come from the same people getting the refunds. Really, it ends up the residents just paying themselves, besides of course paying the lawyers, he said. And one more person. The puppet usually gets $10,000, Wall said, referring derisively to what state law calls the Plaintiff certified as Class Representative. Thats usually one person who happens to own property in the community, and who lets the lawyers slap his or her name on top of the lawsuits, functioning on paper as the chief complainer about storm-water rates. The puppet stands in for all of the class, which in these lawsuits generally means everybody else in the community who pays storm water charges. Once a community settles and cuts a hefty check to Kickham Hanley, its still not over, said Birmingham City Manager Joe Valentine. Each community must invest considerably more to devise an all-new way of charging for storm water, Valentine said. The billing methodologies in all these towns were put in place decades ago. The way wed been doing it was in a lot of cities. We would charge a portion of your water usage to apply as your storm water charge, he said. Now, based on Kickham Hanleys victories, that old billing method doesnt pass muster with the Headlee Amendment, especially not when the lawyers add arguments from some key Headlee-spawned legal cases, including one that strikes mild terror into many a Michigan mayor, called Bolt versus Lansing. Who hasnt heard of taxation without representation? Thats what these storm water charges constitute, the lawyers argue. And judge after judge agrees, said Greg Hanley, a principal with the law firm. Were having a pretty good run of success Im fully aware that were not popular with a lot of people, he said. Many of their critics dont understand the reasons for high-dollar legal awards, which compensate lawyers for the high risks of taking on such cases, he said. Lawyers routinely are granted fees of 33 to 40 percent of a settlement if theyve handled the case for free. The storm-water lawsuits are in the category called class actions, in which lawyers accept the risk of earning literally nothing if they lose, even after expending years of effort and sometimes steep costs for research. Its been a unique practice that results from people coming to us and complaining about their utility bills. I dont know of any other law firm doing this in Michigan, Hanley said. The common thread in most of the cases is the argument that some communities used their water and sewer rates to pay for public expenses that should be covered by taxes. A key but subtle example? In Royal Oak and several other cities of Oakland County, the lawyers showed that the long-term bond payments for a giant, 2.2-mile underground sewer called the George Kuhn Retention Treatment Facility had been buried _ so to speak _ in the cities water and sewer charges. As Hanley put it, when it comes to big infrastructure costs, Our contention is, its inappropriate to charge that in your water and sewer rates. Headlee says, either pay for it out of current funds or go to the people and make your case for higher taxes; tell them, `We need a new fire station or whatever. And Bolt (versus Lansing) says, if this project benefits the public as a whole, not the individual utility rate payers, then it cant come out of the utility rates. As for basing storm-water charges on how much water a customer uses, What if you and I are neighbors and you live alone but I have four daughters, which I do, Hanley said. My house is using a lot more water, but our lawn and our driveway and roof are not necessarily contributing any more storm water to the system, he said. Instead, the storm-water volume depends on how much of a given property doesnt absorb rainfall, whats called the impervious surface area. Thus, owners of a tiny house and huge lawn shouldnt pay as much for storm water as folks with the opposite a large house and tiny yard. The idea is to tailor the fee to exactly how much storm water each property sloshes into the streets sewer grates. As costly as these lawsuits have been to community coffers, in virtually every case the local government was able to pay off the settlement from its general fund no borrowing necessary, Hanley said. And Kickham Hanleys legal victories have been the catalyst for getting communities to shift their billing practices. In the firms case against Detroit, it was businesses not residents who sued to stop tens of millions of dollars in unfair drainage charges, according to legal documents. The lawsuit not only won, it drew praise from the court that the law firm had exposed unfair billing practices and provided a substantial benefit to society, according to the Final Judgement and Order issued in February by Wayne County Circuit Judge John A. Murphy. Still, its an expensive way to right a wrong, said John LaMacchia of the Michigan Municipal League, a major association of city and village officials. Some of the cases amount to costly nit-picking, said LaMacchia, the groups assistant director of state and federal affairs. One nit picker was the recent judgment against Bloomfield Township, LaMacchia said. It requires the township from now on to explicitly document payment of the cost of water that passes through fire hoses, and to show that its cost is covered by the townships general fund, not by residents water and sewer charges, according to a judges order. Not so nit picky, however, was the rest of the judges order requiring Bloomfield Township to pay a $3.7-million settlement, of which the law firm can be expected to receive about one-third, after about two-thirds is distributed to the communitys water and sewer customers. Such lawsuits are taking advantage of a loophole that a new state law would close if Lansings lawmakers support it this fall, after more than a year of dickering, LaMacchia said. Unfortunately, too many lawmakers have blocked passage because they think the proposed law would give communities more taxing power thats not true, he said. Instead, the state House and Senate proposals would create a model that any community could copy for revising its storm water and other utility charges, making them lawsuit-proof, said state Sen. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy. Knollenberg, who sponsored the Senate version, Senate Bill 756, said the new law would create one statewide standard for everyone to follow. The sponsor on the House side, state Rep. Mike McCready, R-Birmingham, said his version is House Bill 4100. McCready, the former mayor of Bloomfield Hills, sounded less than generous but certainly amusing in how he described the situation, making a pun of the law firms name: I say kick em, hand em and steal have been at this for far too long. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Legislation Abuse Molestation Michigan Corporate boards across the U.S. are weighing whether bosses who lose their jobs for bad behavior should surrender part of their compensation. Several high-profile executives resigned or were ousted in the past year following allegations of misconduct, leaving the companies to deal with the fallout, which can include a damaged reputation, angry customers and a battered stock price. Giving boards more leeway to recoup pay from those guilty of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior could provide a deterrent, but clawing back money under such circumstances may be easier said than done. Boards are still in the contemplation phase and we havent yet seen a wholesale shift to broader clawback policies, but conversations are definitely occurring, said Jon Weinstein, a managing partner at Pay Governance, an executive-compensation advisory firm. Even a whiff of wrongdoing can have consequences. In July, CBS Corp. fell as much as 6.6 percent after rumors swirled about a forthcoming New Yorker article detailing accusations of sexual harassment against then-Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves, 69. He stepped down in September and has denied the allegations. Also this year, gambling regulators opened probes into Wynn Resorts Ltd. in the wake of claims that founder Steve Wynn sexually harassed female employees at his casinos. Such investigations can result in revoked gaming licenses or requirements that companies make certain changes, including forcing individuals to divest holdings. Wynn, 76, left the firm in February. Most public companies in the U.S. have clawback policies modeled on a provision of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires that CEOs and finance chiefs give back some incentive compensation if its later determined that their actions contributed to their firms having to restate financial results. But misconduct can be harmful in other ways and some boards have used clawbacks to punish people guilty of serious transgressions that didnt result in restatements. Many financial firms boosted clawback policies in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis to show regulators and the public what types of behavior would no longer be tolerated, according to Weinstein. JPMorgan Chase & Co., for example, recouped and canceled awards worth at least $100 million for employees involved in the 2012 London Whale trading fiasco, which caused losses of more than $6.2 billion. Wells Fargo & Co. clawed back, canceled and cut about $172 million in incentive compensation for several top employees, including ex-CEO John Stumpf, following a fake-accounts scandal that tainted the banks image and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and legal settlements. The thinking is, if youre doing something thats not fraudulent but is inappropriate and perhaps impacts the share price, why wouldnt it warrant a clawback? said Aalap Shah, a managing director at executive-compensation consultant Pearl Meyer. Broadening clawback policies to include a wider definition of misconduct would give boards more room to punish individuals without facing the risk of squaring off in court with disgruntled former executives. But it could also pose complications. It can be tricky to determine how to measure the severity of certain misbehavior, and then decide whether it warrants just a termination, or also cancellation of outstanding awards and a clawback of previously paid compensation. It can also be challenging to quantify how the behavior contributed to the potential loss of customers or hurt employee morale. Boards also must decide whether clawbacks should apply only to the bad actor, or also to superiors or colleagues who may have known about the misdeeds but turned a blind eye or failed to act, said Pearl Meyers Shah. It does prompt the question whether incentive plans should have some governing criteria about adherence to cultural objectives, he said. Related: Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. North Carolinas agriculture agency asked state legislators Monday for over $300 million to address cleanup and recovery after Hurricane Florence, with most going toward direct payments to farmers who lost crops and livestock to help them stay in business. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler made the impassioned pitch to a General Assembly committee a week before the legislature reconvenes to take its second step in addressing last months massive rains and historic flooding. This is an unprecedented crisis for North Carolina agriculture. Florence was an unprecedented storm that could not have come at a worse time for agriculture, Troxler told the agriculture oversight panel. Some key legislators, however, wanted more information before endorsing the payment program. Troxler said without substantial state assistance, some agriculture communities wont survive. Were at a crossroads and a crisis in agriculture and its going to be your leadership that determines whether we lose a whole generation of farmers or whether we help this foundational industry move forward and out of this crisis, Troxler told lawmakers. Lawmakers set aside $50 million to match federal disaster relief funds during a special session last week. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to have his own list of monetary and policy needs for next week. Troxler, who is also elected statewide, said $250 million of his $310 million request would go into a yet-developed Farmer Recovery Reinvestment Program. It would pay farmers with uninsured and underinsured crop, livestock and poultry losses to help them remain in agriculture. Preliminary crop and livestock damage is at least $1.1 billion, with the economic impact at $2.8 billion, Troxler said. He said farming took a deeper blow from Florence than what Hurricane Matthew gave it in October 2016 because the storm came while most if not all of row crops had yet to be harvested. Farmers also were dealing with recent low commodity prices, pressure from new tariffs on agriculture exports, and debt incurred when crops failed previously. We have to figure out a way to keep our farmers afloat. They dont need another loan. They cant pay back hardly what theyve got now, Chief Deputy Commissioner David Smith said. Troxler said direct similar payments were made to farmers after Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and following mountain floods in 2004. Legislators wanted more answers to how qualifying farmers would be chosen and what safeguards would be in place to minimize financial waste. Fundamentally Im not opposed to it. I just dont know if I have enough substance right now to just buy into it, said Rep. Chuck McGrady, a Henderson County Republican and one of the Houses chief budget-writers. He said the program could set a precedent for small businesses and tourism-related activities that may seek similar help. McGrady and fellow budget-writer Sen. Brent Jackson, a Sampson County Republican and farmer, asked Troxler to provide more information before next weeks session. McGrady suggested the program could wait until the next scheduled return of the General Assembly in late November. Duplin County farmer Morris Murphy told lawmakers he believed farmers would support the program in principle but approving it without details in place could prove a government fiasco. Lawmakers sounded largely on board with the $60 million in other requests made by Troxler. They include funds for state or federal matches to remove debris from streams, repair farm ponds and roads and provide hay deliveries to help livestock through the winter. The state has about $2 billion in its rainy day reserves, and this years state budget left $560 million unspent. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Agribusiness North Carolina Hurricane Michael, with winds strengthening to 145 miles an hour, is poised to be the strongest storm to hit the continental U.S. since 2004, with a life-threatening surge and the potential to cause $16 billion in damage. Michael is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Panama City, moving north at 13 miles per hour, according to the latest National Hurricane Center update. The swift-moving monster is racing to become the most intense storm ever to hit Floridas panhandle region, with landfall set for Wednesday. The storm has already cut Gulf of Mexico oil production by 40 percent and natural gas output by 28 percent. Warnings and watches have been issued for the Atlantic coast as far north as the Carolinas, regional ports are closed and more than 230 flights have been canceled. Duke Energy Corp. said it expects as many as 200,000 power outages. A storm like this could be a once-in-a-lifetime event, said Brett Rathbun, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. Winds of this intensity can really knock down any tree or structure in its path. As a Category 4 storm, Michael would be the most intense to make landfall on the panhandle in U.S. records back to 1851, with the last major hurricane, Dennis, arriving as a Category 3 in 2005. The storm is churning 28-foot waves in the Gulf, and could bring a 14-foot surge and 4 to 8 inches of rain, with some isolated areas getting as much as 12 inches. While Hurricane Florences winds peaked at 137 miles per hour off the U.S. coast, they dropped in intensity prior to the storms September landfall in the Carolinas, and its known more for its rains as for the strength of its winds. Florence caused devastating floods, killing at least 39 and causing about $45 billion in estimated damages. Michael will be a different monster than Florence, Accuweathers Rathbun said. Rather than lingering in one region as Florence did, inundating the Carolinas with rain, Michael is expected to race north to Georgia by Thursday, and reach the coast of Massachusetts by the weekend, he said. However, the storm is expected to weaken after landfall as it moves across the southeastern U.S. before reemerging over the Atlantic, the hurricane center said in its advisory. Damage Estimates Damages from the storm could reach $16 billion, depending on its intensity after landfall and how quickly it moves through the region, according to Chuck Watson, of Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia, with Panama City taking the hardest hit. Michael is definitely shaping up to be a classic hurricane, Watson said by email. So the estimates are a bit more stable since you dont have the stall and wander problem that made Hurricane Florence hard to calculate. Agriculture markets, meanwhile, were shrugging off the storm. Prices for cotton, soybean and corn crops fell on Tuesday, as did orange juice futures. Hurricanes are nearly always a buy the rumor, sell the fact scenarios, Louis Rose, the director of research and analysis a Rose Commodity Group, in Memphis, Tennessee, said by email. While the panhandle is more sparsely populated than many other areas of Florida, it includes the capital city of Tallahassee, Pensacola and Panama City. The Atlantic has produced 14 named storms this year. They include Florence and Tropical Storm Gordon, which made landfall on the Alabama-Mississippi border last month. Heres the latest on the storms effects: The Coast Guard Tuesday closed ports at Gulfport and Pascagoula in Mississippi, Mobile in Alabama, and Panama City and Pensacola in Florida, and restricted vessel traffic on the Intracoastal Waterway. Total insured losses for Hurricane Michael should be manageable and have minimal impact on property reinsurance pricing, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. analyst Meyer Shields wrote in a note. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters USA Florida Hurricane Alera Group has acquired Distinctive Insurance and GLB Insurance Group of Nevada. Terms of the deals werent disclosed. Distinctive Insurance is an employee benefits consulting and insurance firm located in Southern Nevada that creates tailored benefit solutions. GLB Insurance Group of Nevada is a full-service insurance agency located in Las Vegas, Nev. The group serves industries in the areas of commercial insurance, life and health insurance, workers compensation, personal insurance and surety bonds. Deerfield, Ill.-based Alera Group is an employee benefits, property/casualty, risk management and wealth management firm. Topics Mergers Nevada The exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry has seen explosive growth since the these funds were first introduced in the early 1990s. Investors have a wide selection of ETFs to choose from with thousands of them currently trading globally. There is no shortage of companies that offer these funds, which have similar characteristics to mutual funds, but trade on an exchange like ordinary stocks. However, the largest ETF companies dominate the ETF market. The 5 biggest ETF companies control the vast majority of total assets under management (AUM) in the ETF universe. We take a closer look at these companies below, which are rank by AUM. Data is courtesy of ETFdb.com. The revenue figures cited below are based on ETFdb.com's estimates of each issuer's revenue generated from its own ETF business. All figures are as of September 9. iShares Assets Under Management (AUM): $1.8 trillion Number of ETFs Offered: 372 Revenue: $3.5 billion 3-Month Fund Flow: $35.2 billion Average AUM-Weighted ETF Expense Ratio: 0.19% iShares is a subsidiary of BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the world's largest asset management firm that's primarily a mutual fund and ETF management company. BlackRock is a publicly-traded company and issues its family of ETFs under the iShares name. The largest iShares ETFs include: iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), which tracks the S&P 500 Index and has $209.6 billion in AUM; and iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG), which tracks the U.S. investment grade bond market and has $79.4 billion in AUM. Vanguard Assets Under Management (AUM): $1.3 trillion Number of ETFs Offered: 80 Revenue: $769.3 million 3-Month Fund Flow: $45.0 billion Average AUM-Weighted ETF Expense Ratio: 0.06% Vanguard, a provider of investment management and advisory services, is primarily a mutual fund and ETF management company. The company is uniquely structured: it is owned by its funds, which are owned by shareholders. Thus, Vanguard is owned by its shareholders and there are no outside investors. This structure allows the company to charge very low expenses on its funds. Its largest ETFs include: Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), which tracks thousands of U.S. stocks of various market caps and has $158.5 billion in AUM; and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which tracks the S&P 500 Index and has $158.1 billion in AUM. State Street SPDR Assets Under Management (AUM): $771.7 billion Number of ETFs Offered: 139 Revenue: $1.3 bilion 3-Month Fund Flow: -$567.1 million Average AUM-Weighted ETF Expense Ratio: 0.17% State Street SPDR ETFs are issued by State Street Global Advisors, which is the asset management division of State Street Corp. (STT), the publicly-traded financial services company. State Street's products and services include custody, accounting, administration, international exchange services, cash management, asset management, securities lending, investment advisory services, and more. The largest SPDR funds include: SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 Index and has $293.5 billion in AUM; and SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), which tracks the spot price of gold bullion and has $76.8 billion in AUM. Invesco Assets Under Management (AUM): $260.2 billion Number of ETFs Offered: 218 Revenue: $764.4 million 3-Month Fund Flow: $9.7 billion Average AUM-Weighted ETF Expense Ratio: 0.29% Invesco ETFs are issued by Invesco Ltd. (IVZ), a publicly-traded company involved in a broad range of investment management activities for individual and institutional customers. In addition to ETFs, the firm offers mutual funds, unit trusts, closed-end funds, and retirement plans. Its largest ETFs include: Invesco QQQ (QQQ), which tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq and has $128.2 billion in AUM; and Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP), which tracks an equal-weighted allocation of the 500 companies that make up the S&P 500 Index and has $12.8 billion in AUM. Charles Schwab Assets Under Management (AUM): $170.2 billion Number of ETFs Offered: 25 Revenue: $125.3 million 3-Month Fund Flow: $1.1 billion Average AUM-Weighted ETF Expense Ratio: 0.07% Charles Schwab ETFs are issued by The Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW), a publicly-traded savings and loan holding company. The firm provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services. The largest Schwab ETFs include: Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF (SCHX), which tracks large-cap U.S. stocks listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and has $22.1 billion in AUM; and Schwab International Equity ETF (SCHF), which tracks large- and mid-cap stocks from various developed markets outside the U.S. and has $19.5 billion in AUM. T. Rowe Price is a mutual fund company, and their funds and fund customers are its primary focus. While you can open a brokerage account to trade individual securities, the trading functionality such as order entry and tools like charting are limited compared to other online brokers. These limitations, combined with high trading costs and margin rates, place T. Rowe Price at a disadvantage compared to its competitors in the online brokerage space. That said, long term investors at T. Rowe Price may benefit from knowledgeable and capable investment professionals that can help them with their financial planning needs. Well take an in-depth look at T. Rowe Prices offering and whether it is a good fit for your portfolio. Key Takeaways T. Rowe Prices focus is their proprietary mutual funds. Overall, T. Rowe Price is best suited to long term growth investors that want a full service experience and good research amenities. T. Rowe Prices online and mobile platforms are weak when compared to what larger rivals offer. T. Rowe Prices doesnt offer to foreign exchange, crypto currencies, or futures, and active traders will further be put off by high trading costs. Who Is T. Rowe Price For T. Rowe Price is best for long-term investors that want support in making their portfolio management and investment decisions, including planning for key life-events such as retirement and college costs. Individual and tax-advantaged retirement mutual fund accounts are T. Rowe Prices primary business, but you can still open a more traditional brokerage account. Higher net-worth individuals preferring a focus on individual stocks or access to separately managed stock accounts may want to look elsewhere. Active traders will definitely look elsewhere as T. Rowe Price has comparatively high trading costs and a platform that will not meet their needs. Pros Professional advice Good research and analysis Automatic cash sweep account Ability to link outside accounts Cons Weak trading platforms and amenities such as charting Higher costs, margin rates, and minimums than competitors No foreign exchange, crypto currencies, or futures Cumbersome account opening process Pros Explained T. Rowe Price provides customers with professional advice and investment planning that helps to manage their finances for the long-term and adjust for key life events such as college expenses, buying a home, and retirement. Solid research and analysis is available to customers through a dedicated T. Rowe Price research department that also performs in-depth analysis for the broker's mutual fund managers. T. Rowe Price provides an automatic sweep of excess investor cash into multiple money market funds the customer can choose from. This feature helps to increase overall customer returns, but not all online brokers offer cash sweeps or pay interest on cash balances. T. Rowe Price provides that ability to link outside accounts and sync balance information so that customers have a full picture of their financial health at any given time. Cons Explained T. Rowe Price does not have strong trading features through their online or mobile platforms. Functionality for order entry, position management, and charting are all very basic offerings compared to other online brokers targeted at investors looking to trade. T. Rowe Price's trading costs, margin rates, and account minimums are all relatively higher when compared to competitors in the online brokerage space. T. Rowe Price does not have as wide a product offering as many competing online brokers. Futures, foreign exchange, and cryptocurrencies are not available for trading at T. Rowe Price. With a primary focus on long-term growth investing, T. Rowe Price does not appear interested in competing in these markets. The account opening process for an individual account was very cumbersome. It required multiple calls, an unnecessary fax, and took more time than expected. An options trading agreement had to be sent through the mail, as customer support indicated that there werent online, email, or fax options for submitting the form. Usability T. Rowe Price's brokerage account doesn't compare favorably with competitors when it comes to usability. The company has a two-tier platform for brokerage accounts, with the log on bringing you to the initial platform that shows mutual fund and brokerage account balances. You can select one of these to see the underlying account option. Choosing the brokerage account opens information for T. Rowe Price brokerage accounts through Pershing, their clearing firm. This dual system, along with differences between stock and mutual fund valuation and settlement, created some temporary differences in balances and asset allocation percentages. During our platform testing, the T. Rowe Price mutual fund balances page was playing catch up with the real-time account information on the brokerage page. Overall, the T. Rowe Price platform lacks the intuitive design that most online brokers are moving towards. The menus were not consistent between the log on screen and the brokerage platform. Customizable watch lists, for example, are located under the tools menu, meaning most investors will need to search around to find them rather than having them as a persistent widget across platforms. T. Rowe Price offers a web-based platform and a mobile platform. They do not offer a separate desktop workstation. The website functionality was acceptable, but the technology and web design feel dated. The website brings the brokerage account up in a separate browser window so you can easily navigate between the two platforms (initial log on and brokerage). The T. Rowe Price mutual fund side of the platform allows you to open functionality in separate browser tabs, but the brokerage account side sometimes requires you to navigate away from the base page rather than open a tab. This can be frustrating if your preference is to have more than one tab up at the same time, such as having your current orders page up while also researching stocks in a separate browser tab. With the mobile app, every action is performed within a single screen. This can result in inadvertently navigating back to the initial screen in a way that requires re-establishing the connection to the brokerage account. Trade Experience The T. Rowe Price trade experience was sufficient for basic orders, but the overall functionality is limited. Neither of the brokers platforms allow you to enter contingent orders for stop losses, take profits, or use trailing stops. You cant place a sell stop order in a cash account if you dont hold the security in the account, resulting in the trader needing to first be filled on a buy order before placing a stop loss order on the position. These functionalities are available on other platforms. T. Rowe Price doesnt allow you to create customized orders using criteria other than price (limit orders), such as volume, percentage moves, and so on. While you can open an order ticket from a chart page, it simply opens a ticket order with the symbol pre-populated, with nothing dynamic about the charting, such as showing current orders on the chart or even drawing tools. Trading in options is also limited, with no ability to enter options strategies that have more than two legs on either platform. Advanced tools for analyzing different options strategies are also absent from T. Rowe Prices platforms, making it a poor choice for anyone looking to trade options even though the base functionality is there. Mobile Trade Experience As with the website, the T. Rowe Price mobile app works fine for basic orders, but contingent orders and complex options strategies are unavailable. The same limitations of needing to wait for fill before entering a stop loss order exist on the mobile platform and the multiple platforms used in the app (mutual fund account and brokerage account) are a bit confusing. The menus are not consistent within the accounts on the app, making navigation harder than it needs to be. As with the web platform, multi-leg options strategies and advanced analytics for options are not available on the mobile app, there is no coordination between orders and charts, and your orders cant be routed. Range of Offerings T. Rowe Price has a wide range of product offerings including, of course, its own mutual funds and ETFs that are all no-load funds. That said, T. Rowe Price also offers mutual funds from many mutual fund families with thousands of no-load, no transaction fee choices, as well as individual stocks, ETFs, and related options. The broker also offers fixed income and certificates of deposit (CDs). T. Rowe Price does not offer futures, crypto currencies, foreign exchange trading, or online fractional share trading (more on that below). Customers at T. Rowe Price can only trade international securities listed on US-based exchanges. Investors using T. Rowe Price can, however, trade the following: Stocks long and short OTCBB ETFs Listed Options Mutual Funds (thousands of funds from T. Rowe Price and hundreds of other fund families) Fixed Income (U.S. Treasury, corporates debt, municipals, and U.S. agency debt) Fractional Shares (not available online, so this requires using tele-trader or representative-assisted trades requiring commission) Order Types The basic order types, market, limit, stop, and stop limit orders, including limit fill or kill and limit all or none, are available on the platform. As mentioned, however, the website and mobile app do not support combining order types to create contingent orders, such as adding stops and/or profit-taking levels when entering a limit order. Trailing stops are not currently available at T. Rowe Price without using telephone support to enter the order for an additional fee. Options orders are limited to just two leg options strategies on both trading platforms. When selling, there was a dropdown list available in the symbol field showing current holdings, but it did not pre-fill the share amount. Trading Technology Trading technology at T Rowe Price is weak relative to other online brokerage offerings. Order entry was very basic. There is no ability to enter conditional stop and/or profit taking orders at the same time and no integration of orders into rudimentary charts that lacked drawing tools. There was no automation, backtesting, order routing control, or support for more than two-legged options positions such as condor and butterfly strategies. Costs Trading costs for traditional brokerage services are high at T Rowe Price. The company also has high minimum balance requirements and margin rates relative to other online brokers. While stock and ETF trading is commission free, the company has other charges. This includes inactivity fees, which are not common in the competitive online brokerage space. Stocks and ETFs No commission online or by mobile app Trade by tele-trader or representative is $9.95 per trade for accounts with at least $250,000, and $25 per trade for other accounts; no commission for T. Rowe Price ETFs Options Accounts with at least $250,00 pay $9.95 plus $1 per contract, while accounts with smaller balances pay $19.95 plus $1 per contract. Teletrader rates are 10% less than regular telecharge rates, but with a minimum commission of $35 Mutual Funds (non-T. Rowe Price funds) No charge for no-transaction fee funds, and $35 charge for transaction fee funds Short Term Trading Fees: Non T. Rowe Price Funds: short term trading fees apply for no-load and certain load, no-transaction-fee fund shares held for less than six months. The fee is the greater of $50 or 1%, max $250. These fees are in addition to redemption fees the fund may charge T. Rowe Price does not charge short-term trading fees, but future purchases may be restricted for those violating the T. Rowe Price excessive trading policy. T. Rowe Price fund investment minimums Brokerage Account - $5,000 initial investment; $1,000 subsequent investment; $100 systematic investment and redemptions Brokerage IRA Account - $1,000 initial investment; $500 subsequent investment; $100 systematic investment and redemptions Bonds and CDs Treasury Auctions and Treasury Bills - $50 Agencies (FNMA, FHLMC), TIPS, Treasury and Coupon Notes and Bonds, and Treasury Zero coupon Bonds - $1 per $1,000 bond GNMAs and CMOs $1 per $1,000 bond (minimum of $25,000) Corporate Bonds - $5 per $1,000 bond Municipal Bonds - $5 per $1,000 bond CDs purchased at par ($1,000) minimums vary by issue Account Maintenance Fee - $30, waived for brokerage customers with $50,000 or more in T. Rowe Price mutual funds or ETFs, accounts with high balances, and those subject to their $40 cash management service fee Margin rates are based on account size, by breakpoint: Under $10K 1.75% over the Pershing Base Lending Rate (PBLR); $30K 1.25% over PBLR; $50K 0. 75% over PBLR; >50K 0.25% over PBLR. The PBLR was 6.125% on June 2, 2021 How this Broker Makes Money from and for You T. Rowe Price has also joined the trend of offering no commission stock and ETF trading and, like others, payment for order flow plays a part. Although T. Rowe Prices disclosure about order routing pushes responsibility for order routing to their clearing firm, Pershing, clearly there is value to the order flow Pershing receives from T. Rowe Price and Pershing receives payment for order flow for all the orders it routes. Price Improvement: T. Rowe Prices clearing firm, Pershing, is responsible for order execution. Pershings website had content discussing how they are obligated to provide the most favorable terms for their clients, but then state that this is very subjective. Pershing then provided an overview about how they route orders to find the best execution relative to trade size, speed of execution, and so on. T. Rowe Prices clearing firm, Pershing, is responsible for order execution. Pershings website had content discussing how they are obligated to provide the most favorable terms for their clients, but then state that this is very subjective. Pershing then provided an overview about how they route orders to find the best execution relative to trade size, speed of execution, and so on. Payment for Order Flow: T. Rowe Price and Pershing may provide adequate execution and price improvement, but there is an inherent conflict of interest because Pershing definitely obtains payment for their order flow. While T. Rowe Price may not receive direct compensation for this order flow, the order flow they do provide to Pershing has benefits that are likely negotiated in T. Rowe Prices agreement with Pershing as their clearing firm. T. Rowe Price and Pershing may provide adequate execution and price improvement, but there is an inherent conflict of interest because Pershing definitely obtains payment for their order flow. While T. Rowe Price may not receive direct compensation for this order flow, the order flow they do provide to Pershing has benefits that are likely negotiated in T. Rowe Prices agreement with Pershing as their clearing firm. Interest on Cash Balances: T. Rowe Price offsets some of the negative with its handling of customer cash balances. The company has an automatic sweep that invests excess cash in an account into a mutual fund. This results in customers receiving more interest than those with accounts at companies that dont pay interest on cash balances or only offer bank rates. Of course, T. Rowe Price benefits by having those assets in their funds, so it is a win-win even though short term interest rates are currently quite low. T. Rowe Price makes the process very convenient through the automatic sweep when compared to other brokerage accounts where the customer has to actively place excess cash into a fund or other short term liquid investment. Account and Research Amenities T. Rowe Price offers a number of amenities, but their suite of services and tools is not especially impressive. Investors do, however, get access to high-quality T. Rowe Price research when they open an account. Stock Screener T. Rowe Price offers a stock screener that is straight-forward to use. The stock screener has a variety of predefined screens and an advanced screener that can be used to create a customized search from scratch or via the predefined screen set. The predefined stock searches include value, small cap value, growth, growth at a reasonable price, large cap growth, and high dividend yield. The advanced screener has a variety of filters under multiple categories including market profile and ratings, earnings and dividends, and fundamentals and technicals. The screener is simple compared to the offerings from other online brokers, but it works well. ETF and Mutual Fund Screeners The functionality of T. Rowe Price screeners for ETFs and mutual funds is identical to the stock screener, with the pre-defined screens specific to each security type. Again, the functionality is simple but it works well. For ETFs, the pre-defined screens are no transaction fee ETFs, equity funds focusing on value, equity funds focusing on growth, top performing low cost stock funds, low cost bond funds highly rated by Lipper, and general muni bond funds rated highly by Morningstar and have low expenses as rated by Lipper. For ETFs, the advanced screener has various category filters, including profile (net expense ratio, fund classification, asset type, manager tenure, minimum initial investment, and no transaction fee ETFs), performance, risk, holdings, analyst ratings, and technicals. For mutual funds, the pre-defined screens are no transaction fee, taxable fixed income, global, large cap value, large cap growth, and specialty funds that include alternative asset classes and other strategies. The advanced search functionality and criteria are the same as the ETF screener. For more traditional T. Rowe Price mutual fund customers, there are more robust tools and functionality that can be used in conjunction with risk profile and portfolio building tools. T. Rowe Price funds can also be searched on the website without an account. Options Screener T. Rowe Price does not offer an options screener. Fixed Income Screeners The fixed income screener on the T. Rowe Price website is launched through a pop-up window that provides a basic search with an advanced search also available. The page shows the weekly economic release calendar, a daily market insight report from ICE Data Services, and a yield curve graph showing maturities from 1 to 15+ years for US Treasuries, corporate, municipal, and agency debt. The basic screener allows you to decide on bond type corresponding to the yield curves, as well as ranges for number of bonds, maturity, coupon, price, and rating. An individual cusip or ticker can also be chosen, as well as the state for municipal bond searches. The screener has a market information section that includes fixed income news, information about investing in bonds, a market strategist section, and information about tax brackets. Charting Charting features on T. Rowe Price are weak on both the website and the mobile app. While there is a button on charts to open an order ticket, orders do not appear on the chart, there are no drawing tools, and the studies are rudimentary. Tools and Calculators T. Rowe Price tools and calculators on the brokerage side were sparse. On the mutual fund side, however, T. Rowe Price offers a number of helpful tools, including a risk profile questionnaire that recommends a portfolio and calculators related to life planning such as retirement, paying for education, and other life events. Trading Idea Generator T. Rowe Price does not offer a trading idea generator. They do have robo Investing options for mutual funds, but nothing that suggests specific trade ideas based on a market outlook. News T. Rowe Price offers functional news and market information within its research area, with content from Argus, Dow Jones, FactSet, MTNewswires, Market Research Team, Thompson-Reuters, and Morningstar. On the website, the filter for the news waterfall is a simple toggle for "all headlines'' or "top headlines," and there is no ability to search news. The website also offers company specific news when looking at an individual security, but this feature was not present on the mobile app. You can also look for news from before or after market hours on the website, but not the mobile app. There are pages on both platforms for current market conditions, charting, and news. The events section shows upcoming economic releases, earnings releases, dividends, and splits. There is a market movers section on the primary page, and a tab to show how industries and sectors are performing. Third-Party Research T. Rowe Price offers its own proprietary research and investment insights for all its clients. This gives you access to daily fund prices, a global markets weekly update, a monthly and quarterly market review, and the T. Rowe Price Insights newsletter. Other options for purchasing premium research were not present, although account holders with assets of at least $250,000 get complimentary access to a Morningstar premium membership and Investor Magazine. Accounts with at least $1 million in assets receive complimentary access to The Wall Street Journal Online. Dividend Reinvestment Program (DRIP) T. Rowe Price offers its customers a dividend reinvestment program. Cash Management T. Rowe Price has an automated cash management program for brokerage accounts that sweeps into or out of a customer-selected money market mutual fund. Funds are taken out and put back in the sweep account as needed to fund other investment activity in the brokerage account. Providing income to account holders and making the sweep work automatically is a nice feature that does not exist with all brokerage companies; some brokers do not offer interest on cash balances as a way to offset the costs of zero commission trading. SRI/ESG Research Amenities T. Rowe Price doesn't offer the ability to screen for socially responsible investing (SRI) or environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) in the screening tool for stocks, ETFs, or mutual funds, although the company does sell funds based on that criteria. Portfolio Analysis T. Rowe Price does not offer too much portfolio analysis for individual accounts. You cant see a chart of your account compared to major indexes and there are no analytical reports. You can see account composition, both unrealized and realized gains and losses, and projected cash flows, but no analysis. That being said, there are tools to analyze and assist with taxes and the balances displayed are all in real time. Additional analysis can be carried out with a little effort using some of the tools and calculators provided by the broker. Education While there is information available on the brokerage platform related to investing basics, the importance of asset allocation, and a glossary of investment terms that is helpful, but there are no in-depth educational tools. Customer Service Customer service available by phone weekdays 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. eastern time. Wait times were not too bad during market hours. There are professionals available to place trades via telephone for those willing to pay the additional commission. An online help center that provides information ranging from account information, login help, account performance, fees and minimums, transactions, statements and other information. There is a general info email, but no live chat or chat bot. Security and Reliability T. Rowe Price systems are secure and reliable. Multi-factor authentication is available. There were no reported instances of outages. T. Rowe Price has no reported data breaches in the past five years. T. Rowe Price also provides excess Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) insurance through policies purchased through Lloyds of London with a per-client limit of $1.9 million on uninvested cash. Transparency T. Rowe Price lists its commissions, fees, and minimums clearly in a fee schedule on the website. Only the T. Rowe Price increase over the Pershing Base Lending Rate was provided on the website, and the base lending rate was not listed. T. Rowe Price offers commission free trading, but rather than disclose that this is provided in part through payment for order flow, they stated that execution was done by Pershing. Whether T. Rowe Price or Pershing, there is payment for order flow on brokerage accounts at T. Rowe Price, but the amount was not disclosed. The information reviewed lacked a detailed outline and illustration about the risks of margin trading, although there is a margin disclosure statement when you search the site as a whole. Our Verdict T. Rowe Price has an impressive platform for mutual fund investors that is paired with a generic online brokerage. The mutual fund platform provides many helpful financial planning tools for its customers, who also gain access to market research from T. Rowe Price. While this is nice research, it is likely not enough to entice pure brokerage customers to consider T. Rowe Price over other online brokers. The brokerage platform lacks many of the features other online brokers offer, and T. Rowe Price's fees and minimums are higher than many of these same competitors. Investors primarily utilizing T. Rowe Price for mutual funds may want to add a brokerage account to consolidate all their activity in one place, but those looking for a separate, full featured brokerage account with robust tools will do better elsewhere. Compare T. Rowe Price T. Rowe Price can be a great option for those interested in full-service wealth management. See how they compare against other online brokers we reviewed. It is not easy for investors to buy Greek government bonds. Lack of access and liquidity and the size of investment required puts Greek sovereign debt out of reach for many. The only way to buy a Greek government bond is through a bank or broker, or through a hedge fund that has built significant exposure. However, if you're willing to go though the trouble and possess the necessary capital and tolerance for risk, then acquiring Greek debt may be worth the effort. Greece has been the go-to market for yield hungry investors ever since the country underwent debt restructuring in 2012. The S&P Greece Sovereign Bond Index has put in a one-year return of 12.47% as of July 2020. Over the past five years, the index has returned 19.83% annually. The Risk Is Considerable Investing in Greek government bonds is appropriate only for financially sound investors with a high tolerance for risk. As of April 2020, Fitch Ratings had assigned Greek long-term debt a BB rating, which denotes an elevated risk for default relative to other issuers. There is a very real possibility of losing every dime of a minimum $100,000+ investment. Therefore, only investors who can afford to lose that kind of money should even consider looking at Greek debt as a possible investment. The Argument for Positive Returns The arguments for an investment in Greek debt paying off handsomely are essentially twofold. The first is a belief that the Greek economy and the Greek government won't simply totally collapse and default on every obligation imaginable across the board. While that's not a given, advocates for investing in Greek debt make the argument that such a catastrophic total collapse is not really among the likely possibilities and that the total doomsayers are being overly pessimistic. Greece is in a financial mess, but it's such a mess that at this point that about the only direction left may be one of upward improvement. This has led a handful of long-term investment analysts to recommend the purchase of Greek 30-year bonds. The second linchpin of the argument for investing in Greek debt is the fact that thanks to its 2012 debt restructuring, other than its current bond obligations, the Greek government has no other significant debt obligations until 2023. This was the argument put forward by JP Morgan Chase when, in 2014, it recommended the purchase of five-year Greek bonds, due to mature in 2019, long before that 2023 date. JP Morgan Chase was one of the managers of the sale. How to Acquire Greek Bonds There are really only a couple of avenues open for purchasing Greek bonds. There are no Greek bond ETFs currently available. There are a couple of hedge funds, such as Dan Loeb's Third Point, that have made significant investments in Greek debt, but those don't represent an investment purely in Greek bonds. Basically, the only options for purchasing Greek bonds are going through a bank or brokerage firm, and either option requires a minimum investment of over $100,000. Most of the major banks, such as JP Morgan or Citibank, can purchase Greek bonds for an investor. However, because of the very low liquidity in the market, the minimum purchase required is 100,000 euros, a bit more than $100,000. The other option is to go through a brokerage such as Fidelity or Charles Schwab. Greek bonds aren't listed as available investments on their websites, but you can contact a broker specializing in foreign bonds to make the purchase on your behalf. Again, a minimum $100,000+ investment is required, and because of the extremely low liquidity in the market, the broker cannot guarantee to manage a favorable purchase price. Ultimately, highly successful companies reach a position where they are generating more cash than they can reasonably reinvest in the business. The financial crisis has caused investors to pressure companies to distribute the accumulated wealth back to shareholders. Typically, companies can return wealth to shareholders through stock price appreciations, dividends, or stock buybacks. In the past, dividends were the most common form of wealth distribution. However, as Corporate America becomes more progressive and flexible, a fundamental shift has occurred in the way companies deploy capital. Instead of traditional dividend payments, buybacks have been viewed as a flexible practice of returning excess cash flow. Buybacks can be seen as an efficient way to put money back into its shareholders' pockets, as demonstrated by Apples (AAPL) capital return programs. Key Takeaways A stock repurchase, or buyback, occurs when a company uses cash on hand to buy and retire some of its own shares in the open market. Buybacks tend to boost share prices in the short-term, as the buying reduces the supply out outstanding shares and the buying itself bids the share higher in the market. Shareholders may view buybacks as a signal of corporate health and optimism from company managers that their shares are under-valued. There's been a large rise in buybacks over the last decade, with some companies looking to take advantage of undervalued stocks, while others do it to artificially boost the stock price. 2:00 How Does a "Buyback" Work? The Basics of Buybacks In recent history, leading companies have adopted a regular buyback strategy to return all excess cash to shareholders. By definition, stock repurchasing allows companies to reinvest in themselves by reducing the number of outstanding shares on the market. Typically, buybacks are carried out on the open market, similarly to how investors purchase stocks. While there has been a clear shift in wealth distribution of dividends to stock repurchasing, this doesnt mean a company cannot pursue both. Apple investors have grown to prefer buybacks since they have the choice of whether or not to partake in the repurchase program. By not participating in a share buyback, investors can defer taxes and turn their shares into future gains. Buybacks benefit investors by increasing share prices, effectively returning money to shareholders in a tax-efficient manner. 1. Improved Shareholder Value There are many ways profitable companies can measure the success of its stocks. However, the most common measurement is earnings per share (EPS). Earnings per share are typically viewed as the single most important variable in determining share prices. It is the portion of a companys profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock. When companies pursue share buyback, they will essentially reduce the assets on their balance sheets and increase their return on assets. Likewise, by reducing the number of outstanding shares and maintaining the same level of profitability, EPS will increase. For shareholders who do not sell their shares, they now have a higher percent of ownership of the companys shares and a higher price per share. Those who do choose to sell have done so at a price they were willing to sell at. 2. Boost in Share Prices When the economy is faltering, share prices can plummet as a result of weaker than expected earnings among other factors. In this event, a company will pursue a buyback program since it believes that company shares are undervalued. Companies will choose to repurchase shares and then resell them in the open market once the price increase to accurately reflect the value of the company. When earnings per share increases, the market will perceive this positively and share prices will increase after buybacks are announced. This often comes down to simple supply and demand. When there is a less available supply of shares, then an upward demand will boost share prices. 3. Tax Benefits When excess cash is used to repurchase company stock, instead of increasing dividend payments, shareholders have the opportunity to defer capital gains if share prices increase. Traditionally, buybacks are taxed at a capital gains tax rate, whereas dividends are subject to ordinary income tax. If the stock has been held for more than one year, the gains would be subject to a lower capital gains rate. 4. Utilize Excess Cash When companies pursue buyback programs, this demonstrates to investors that the company has additional cash on hand. If a company has excess cash, then at worst the investors do not need to worry about cash flow problems. More importantly, it signals to investors that the company feels cash is better used to reimburse shareholders than reinvest alternative assets. In essence, this supports the price of the stock and provides long-term security for investors. The Downside of Buybacks While investors tend to adore buybacks, there are several disadvantages investors should be aware of. Buybacks can be a signal of the marketing topping out; many companies will repurchase stocks to artificially boost share prices. Typically, executive compensations are tied to earnings metrics and if earnings cannot be increased, buybacks can superficially boost earnings. Also, when buybacks are announced, any share price increase will typically benefit short-term investors rather than investors seeking long-term value. This creates a false signal to the market that earnings are improving due to organic growth and ultimately ends up hurting value. The Bottom Line Generally speaking, redistributing wealth has been viewed positively by investors. This can come in the form of dividends, retained earnings and the popular buyback strategy. In terms of finance, buybacks can boost shareholder value and share prices while also creating a tax-advantageous opportunity for investors. While buybacks are important to financial stability, a companys fundamentals and historical track record are more important to long-term value creation. 10 reasons why Ivanka Trump should be US Ambassador to the United Nations Ivanka Trump is by far and away the best qualified daughter for the job of US ambassador to the United Nations. The incumbent Nikki Haley is leaving. Donald Trump says Ivanka getting the job has nothing to do with nepotism. She would be dynamite, an explosive presence in a diplomatic arsenal. She would be incredible: It has nothing to do with nepotism. But I want to tell you, the people know Ivanka would be dynamite, Trump replied when asked who could replace outgoing U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. The president added that his daughter would be an incredible choice pic.twitter.com/pZ56nFrVXE POLITICO (@politico) October 9, 2018 Here are 10 reasons why Ivanka Trump would be the best choice for US ambassador to the UN: QVC would edge closer to recognition as a independent state Shes blonde Its nothing to do with nepotism Her husband was appointed Senior Advisor to the President She has endured hardship her boarding-school life was a prison She is by far and way the best qualified daughter for the job She worked her way up in business, starting out as as Executive Vice-President at the Trump organisation She is a respected judge (see The Apprentice) a job at the UN is the Supreme Courts loss She advised Donald Trump for the first two months of his administration It has nothing to do with nepotism Ivanka Trump is endorsed by Kin Jong-UN. Anorak Posted: 10th, October 2018 | In: Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink Successful investors seek to learn as much as they can about a company and its financial position before adding it to their portfolios. Conducting fundamental analysis is the most effective way to project if good things are ahead in a company's financial future. Fundamental analysis includes examining a company's financial statements, 10-K and 10-Q reports, stock performance, and paying especially close attention to certain financial ratios, such as the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio and debt/equity (D/E) ratio. The savviest investors do not stop at analyzing the company itself. External factors influence a company's direction greatly. A particularly useful tool for studying how certain external factors influence a company is Porter's Five Forces model. Porter's Five Forces Model Michael Porter developed his Five Forces model in 1979. He felt the existing tools to examine market forces, such as the SWOT analysis that considers a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, were insufficient and lacking in scope. Porter's Five Forces model seeks to determine a company's threats from competition. It examines three potential horizontal threats, meaning threats from actual competitors, and two potential vertical threats, meaning supply chain threats that could put the company at a competitive disadvantage. The horizontal threats considered are industry competition, the threat of new entrants, and the threat of substitutes. The vertical threats considered involve the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers. An Overview of Verizon Verizon Communications, Inc. (VZ) is the largest wireless communications service provider in the United States. The firm's market share of 35% as of 2018 beats rivals such as AT&T (34%), T-Mobile (17%), and Sprint (12%). Despite a reputation as one of the more expensive companies in the industry, Verizon has dominated market share on the strength of its expansive coverage network and its reputation for outstanding customer service. The company tends to cater to higher-income consumers than its less-expensive competitors, such as Sprint. While Verizon costs more than competing providers, the company has successfully imbued its service with the perception of value. A Five Forces analysis of Verizon reveals its strongest horizontal threats are from industry competition and substitutes, while the strongest vertical threat comes from the bargaining power of buyers. The company faces less significant threats from new entrants to the market and the bargaining power of suppliers. Industry Competition The threat of competition in the wireless industry is fierce. Verizon's biggest and most longstanding rival is AT&T. The typical customer profile for the two companies is similar, and AT&T claims the highest market share in the industry behind Verizon. Additional competition comes from T-Mobile, which has a smaller market share but, as of 2016, is adding customers more quickly than any other carrier, and Sprint, which has launched aggressive price promotions to turn around its sagging market share. Verizon's coverage network has been the strongest in the industry since at least the early 2000s, but its competitors have invested much capital into catching up. The coverage difference between Verizon and its competitors is smaller than ever, and the gap could disappear completely within five to 10 years as other companies add towers and advance their technologies. If this happens, Verizon must find a new way to set itself apart from its competitors. Buyers' Bargaining Power Buyers have significant bargaining power in the wireless industry. Switching carriers is easy and inexpensive, and Verizon's competitors constantly run promotions offering perks specifically to customers who switch from Verizon. For example, Sprint ran a campaign in late 2015 and early 2016 to cut Verizon customers' bills by half. The promotion even covered the cost of terminating a Verizon contract early. Customers can switch to another carrier within an hour or less while keeping the same phone number and experiencing no service interruption. Verizon must continue to give its customers reasons to stay. Up to this point, the company has done so by touting its superior network and its lower rates of dropped calls and texts. As these advantages wane, the company must seek a new edge. The Threat of New Entrants New entrants to the marketplace pose a very low threat to Verizon. The cost of establishing a wireless company and building a network that can compete with a low-budget carrier, much less an industry behemoth such as Verizon, is substantial. Additionally, a wireless service company must navigate a labyrinth of government regulations before earning a dime. Even if a new player can bear the cost and get past the regulations, next comes the process of building a brand name that can compete. Verizon has been around since the early days of the industry and has spent years building its name. It is unlikely that a new company can arrive on the scene and clear the necessary hurdles to compete with Verizon. Suppliers' Bargaining Power Verizon's suppliers have little bargaining power and represent an insignificant threat to the company. Verizon calls on suppliers for products to help build and expand network infrastructure and for components to manufacture physical products. The number of suppliers Verizon has to choose from is huge. By contrast, the number of companies as big and deep-pocketed as Verizon that these suppliers have the opportunity to do business with is not large. This asymmetry places most of the leverage firmly in Verizon's hands. Verizon can negotiate from a position of power, and in most cases, it can switch from one supplier to another without much trouble if necessary. Threat of Substitutes The threat of substitutes is perhaps the biggest one Verizon faces. The company would argue that service from AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint is not a perfect substitute for Verizon service, as these companies offer less extensive coverage and, according to consumer surveys, inferior customer service. However, the chasm is narrowing between Verizon's network and those offered by competitors, and lower prices are a constant looming temptation for Verizon customers. If financial winds shift in an ugly direction and the economy goes through a repeat of 2008, many customers might be tempted to let Sprint cut their wireless bills in half or to take advantage of similar promotions that competitors undoubtedly will be running. Editorial Picks for The Best Credit Cards Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Best Overall The Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards card earns unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase without needing to remember categories or registering for rewards. It has no annual fee, offers a good welcome bonus, and has no foreign transaction fees. Read the full Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Review. Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Overall Runner-Up This card is our runner-up for the best credit card because it earns 3% on dining, entertainment, streaming services and groceries, and 1% on everything else without an annual fee. Plus, there's a welcome bonus of $200 after spending $500 within three months. Read the full Capital One SavorOne Review. Chase Sapphire Reserve Best for Travel The Chase Sapphire Reserve earns a high rewards rate on spending and offers a competitive welcome bonus. The points are worth 50% more when booking travel and can be transferred to many airline and hotel partners on a 1:1 basis. Also, earn 5X total points on air travel and 10X total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards(R) immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Read the full Chase Sapphire Reserve Review. Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Travel Runner Up This card earns 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, where you'll get our best prices on thousands of trip options. The miles can be used to book travel, transfer to 10+ loyalty programs, or "erase" travel purchases with no blackout dates. Read the full Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Review. Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card Best for Cash Back Your purchases will earn an unlimited 1.5% cash back every day. There is no annual fee and you'll receive a $200 bonus after spending $500 within three months. Read the full Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card Review. Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card Cash Back Runner Up Earn an unlimited 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, streaming services, and groceries. Plus, receive a $200 one-time cash bonus when you spend $500 in the first three months. Read the full Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card Review. United Explorer Card Best Airline The United Explorer offers the highest value per mile earned of any airline credit card and miles can be redeemed in multiple ways. Cardholders receive free checked bags, early boarding, and two one-time United Club passes each year. Read the full United Explorer Card Review. Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Airline Runner-Up Cardholders earn 2x miles per dollar on American Airlines, gas, and restaurant purchases and qualify for a 50,000-point welcome bonus. They receive early boarding, free checked bags, and a 25% savings on in-flight food and beverage purchases. Read the full Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Review. Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Best for Hotels Hotel travelers receive numerous benefits from the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, including automatic Silver Elite status and one free hotel night each year. New cardholders can earn five free nights when they use the card for at least $5,000 in purchases during the first three months. Read the full Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Review. Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card Best Hotels Runner Up For a limited time, earn 75,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after you use your new Card to make $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months. Plus, earn up to $200 in Statement Credits for eligible purchases at U.S. Restaurants within the first 6 months of Card Membership. Cardholders get annual hotel and property credits with access to over 1,200 lounges in more than 130 countries when traveling. Read the full Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card Review. Citi Simplicity Best for Balance Transfer The Citi Simplicity card offers one of the best balance transfers at 0% interest for 21 months, with 0% APR for new purchases for 12 months. It has no late fees, penalty rates, or annual fees, so cardholders can focus on paying off their balance before the promotion expires. Read the full Citi Simplicity Review. Citi Diamond Preferred Balance Transfer Runner-Up Customers will enjoy 21 months of 0% APR on balance transfers and 0% APR for new purchases with the Citi Diamond Preferred. There is no annual fee, but balance transfers are subject to a 3% fee. Read the full Citi Diamond Preferred Review. Bank of America Travel Rewards for Students Best Student Credit Card This card offers a high earning rate on all travel expenses that can be redeemed for travel expenses. It includes a long introductory APR on purchases, no annual fee, and no foreign transaction fees. Read the full Bank of America Travel Rewards for Students Review. Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards for Students Student Credit Card Runner-Up Students can earn up to 3% cash back on their purchases with the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards for Students. There is no annual fee, and they'll earn a $200 cash bonus after spending $1,000 within 90 days. Read the full Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards for Students Review. Ink Business Preferred Credit Card Best for Business Earn 3x points per dollar on the first $150,000 you spend each year on popular business expenses. Receive 100,000 points worth $1,000 in cash or $1,250 in travel after spending $15,000 within three months. Read the full Ink Business Preferred Credit Card Review. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Credit Card? The best credit card for you depends on your goals, budget, and spending habits. As your financial picture evolves, the best credit card for you may also change. While credit card rewards can be valuable, if youre focused on paying off debt, they may not be the best choice for you at this time. A card that offers a 0% APR promotion for balance transfers may be the better option until you can pay off your debt. However, the most appealing credit cards may not be the best one you can actually get right now. People with low credit scores may be able to qualify only for cards that carry higher interest rates and fewer rewards. Those consumers should focus on building their credit until they are eligible for the credit card they desire. People with excellent credit generally have their choice of travel and other rewards credit cards. Credit cards aimed at those with the best credit scores typically provide the most attractive benefits. These can include lucrative one-time bonuses, significant ongoing rewards on your spending, and additional benefits like elite status, free checked bags, yearly free hotel nights, and airport lounge access. What Credit Card Is Best for Me? Finding the best credit card entails both self-assessment and research. You must document your creditworthiness and spending habits, along with reflecting on how you may use the card, whether that's to build credit, temporarily borrow, or simply employ it as a purchasing convenience and a way to earn rewards. New to Credit: If you are new to credit or have impaired credit, a secured credit card can be a great option. This type of card requires a security deposit but has the advantage that activity with the card is reported to all three credit bureaus, which helps the cardholder build credit over time. Many secured cards offer an option to graduate to a non-secured card after a period of on-time payments. Carrying a Balance: Those who are carrying a card balance should consider shifting the debt to a balance transfer card with much lower interest, or even no interest rate at all for a period. These cards provide relief in the form of an extended period of a 0% APR on the transfer, which allows you to pay down the balance more easily. While some balance transfer cards offer rewards as well, its best not to add to your balance on the card (or, preferably, any other card) until you have paid off the amount youve transferred. If you frequently carry a credit card balance, avoid cards with high fees and interest regardless of attractive rewards and one-time bonuses. Your priority should be paying down your debt and avoiding accumulating more, not trying to earn rewards. No Balance: People who tend to pay off their card balance each month should consider getting a rewards card that offers cash back or points rewards. These cards allow you to leverage your everyday spending to earn hundreds of dollars worth of rewards, usually with no annual fee. Frequent travelers: For those who travel, a general travel card or one issued in partnership with airlines or hotels can make the most sense. These allow you to leverage spending on travel and in other categories to earn rewards that can be used to obtain further travel. Entrepreneurs and small-business owners: These users can choose among a host of business credit cards designed for their needs. These cards may reward business spending in certain categories, like shipping, or with specific business-related merchants, such as office supply stores. College students: People in school generally dont have a credit history, but they do represent a good long-term customer for card issuers. Cards designed for students can provide online resources to instruct new cardmembers on the responsible use of credit and other tips to guide personal finances. What Credit Scores Are Required? The higher your credit score, the more credit cards you potentially have available to you, and the better those cards will tend to be in terms of interest rates, credit lines, and rewards programs. To understand your card choices, its important to know the broad range into which your credit score fits. Card issuers classify scores as Excellent/Exceptional (800+), Very Good (740-799), Good (670-739), Fair (580-669), or Poor (below 580). Its best to only apply for cards that best match the credit recommended by the issuer to reduce the chances of being declined. If you dont know your current credit score, its available in a number of ways, and at no cost. There are two main credit score types, FICO and VantageScore, both of which have their own distinct scoring algorithms and score ranges that are used by various lenders. Credit issues also assess other factors beyond credit score in evaluating creditworthiness, including employment status, income, and other credit and deposit accounts you own. Is It Possible to Qualify for a Credit Card With Bad Credit? There are credit cards designed for those whose credit is fair, poor, and even very poor or bad. In particular, a secured credit card allows those with bad credit or no credit history to build or rebuild their score. Until theyve completed that process, they must retain the use of the card through a security deposit that usually serves as the maximum credit line for the account. What Types of Rewards Do Credit Cards Offer? Credit card rewards come in a variety of forms, allowing cardholders to earn cash back, points, or miles for each dollar of spending. The earnings rates for rewards often vary by purchase type, with higher rewards available for certain categories of purchases. Cash back rewards are the most straightforward type and usually rebate a percentage of spending in the form of a check or statement credit. Rewards based on points or miles offer greater flexibility in how they are redeemed, whether as travel, gift cards, merchandise, or more. Travel rewards credit cards may be general in type, earning points that can be redeemed for travel on any airline or hotel, or partner-specific and co-branded with a particular airline or hotel. Co-branded cards provide less flexibility in redeeming rewards but potentially more value, provided youre comfortable favoring a particular brand of airline or hotel chain. What Are Common Credit Card Benefits? While issuers may prominently tout certain features of their cards, other benefits tend to be buried in cards fine printincluding some you might not realize the card even offers. Heres a quick list of benefits that are commonly offered with a range of card types: Common Rewards Card Benefits $0 fraud liability Primary or secondary auto-rental collision damage waiver coverage Roadside assistance hotline Price match Purchase coverage if items are stolen or damaged Extended warranties Refunds in cases of merchant dispute Common Travel Rewards Card Benefits Trip cancellation/interruption/delay coverage Travel accident insurance Lost/delayed luggage coverage Premium Card Benefits Airport lounge access TSA precheck/Global Reentry Fee Reimbursement every four years Cell phone insurance coverage Concierge service Methodology We constantly monitor credit card offers from card-issuer websites and publicly available sources to find the best credit cards for our readers. Each credit card is evaluated based on its fees, rewards, welcome bonuses, introductory offers, features, and benefits so that we can determine a winner for each category. Card issuers update their cards on a regular basis, and when that happens, we update our card listings, reviews, and recommendations so our readers have the most reliable information and advice. Meet Our Credit Cards Expert Ben Woolsey is Investopedia's Senior Editor for Credit Cards. He has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, including marketing for banking and financial institutions such as Associates First Capital and Bank One. Prior to Investopedia, he managed credit card content for CreditCards.com and Bankrate.com. To see the rates and fees for the featured American Express cards, please see the following links: You walk into your office on a Monday morning, get settled in with a fresh cup of Joe and in comes your supervisor with a pink slip. What an unpleasant surprise, especially considering youve spent several years with your employer and your last evaluation was excellent. To make things worse, you wont be receiving a severance package: The only money coming in until you find a new job is what you hope you will get after you apply for unemployment benefits through the state, plus what you get from cashing out your vacation time, if thats possible. Now what? (How to Apply for Unemployment Insurance will help with the first step.) The only logical answer is to start searching for work immediately. However, if you had known about it and signed up in time you might have benefited from private supplemental unemployment insurance, a product developed by IncomeAssure. And you may want to consider it in the future, so you can protect yourself going forward. As you figure out how your finances might work out, ask yourself whether supplementary unemployment insurance would be worth it for you. How the Program Works When you enroll in an IncomeAssure plan and then lose your job, you become eligible to receive a monetary benefit that equals up to half of your weekly pretax income at your previous employer. This amount is derived from your weekly state unemployment benefit and your weekly IncomeAssure supplemental benefit. To demonstrate: If you live in Florida and your annual salary is $65,000, your weekly earnings before taxes are $1,250. If you receive $275 per week from the state the maximum unemployment benefit Florida offers your check from IncomeAssure will be for $350 if you choose a salary replacement rate of 50%. This amounts to $625, or half of what you were earning each week prior to termination. Benefits are taxable and can be received for up to 24 weeks. If your state program has a benefit term that lasts less than 26 weeks, you may be able to obtain extended unemployment benefits. A Few Important Considerations For starters, only salaries up to $250,000 are covered, and a six-month waiting period applies from the date of initial enrollment. (If your annual earnings exceed this amount, only $250,000 will be used in the calculation to determine the weekly benefit.) Also, the program works in conjunction with unemployment benefits, so you are automatically ineligible if you arent approved to receive state benefits. What's more, you cannot enroll in an IncomeAssure plan if you are self-employed, or if you resigned from your previous position and are currently pursuing a new career opportunity. In the event your employer severs employment before the waiting period lapses or issues a layoff that was common knowledge among employees you are only eligible for a refund of your premium payments rather than for benefit payments under the policy. How Much Does It Cost? The amount of your monthly premium will depend on the following factors: State where you are currently employed Desired salary-replacement rate (choices are 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 45% or 50%). Industry Number of extended benefit periods Gross annual salary and commission According to the website, most premiums are less than 1% of the members gross annual salary and commission in premiums, but you can use the online calculator to obtain a more accurate quote. For example, if you make $75,000 per year, your policy could cost less than $50 per month, the website adds. You should also know that premiums are waived during the period in which you are receiving benefits through IncomeAssure. The Bottom Line Private unemployment wage insurance may be worth the investment if you want peace of mind and can comfortably afford to make the monthly premium payments. However, if you already have a hefty sum of cash stowed away for an emergency or liquid assets on hand that you dont mind tapping it may make more financial sense to use those to support yourself after a layoff in lieu of paying monthly premiums. (For more, see Help! My Unemployment Benefits Are Running Out.) Although Canada isn't primarily known for entrepreneurship, it has produced its fair share of shining stars who have achieved success thanks to their drive, intelligence, and can-do attitudes. Here are five Canadian businessmen who made the world stand up and take notice of their accomplishments: Key Takeaways Some notable Canadian success stories include: Mike Lazaridis: Creator of the Blackberry John Molson: Founder of Molson Brewery Harrison and Wallace McCain: Brothers who co-founded frozen foods empire McCain Foods Limited Samuel Bronfman: Founder of Distillers Company Limited Joseph-Armand Bombardier: Founder of Bombardier Limited, maker of railway equipment, civil airplanes, business jets, and motorized snow machines 1. Mike Lazaridis Mike Lazaridis is the founder of Research in Motion Limited (R.I.M.) and has been credited for developing the Blackberry. Deemed one of Canada's most successful technologists, Lazaridis dropped out of the University of Waterloo to pursue R.I.M., which was his first entrepreneurial foray. He has since been named National Builder of the Year and was honored by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 most influential individuals in 2005. 2. John Molson Though John Molson died in 1836, he is posthumously regarded as one of Canada's most successful entrepreneurs. Born in England in 1763, Molson immigrated to Canada in 1782, where he showed an early Interest in brewing beer. He soon after founded Molson Brewery, by borrowing startup funds from his grandmother, since an 18-year-old could not legally fund his own alcohol company, which was Canada's second-oldest registered business. Molson quickly grew his company into the fifth-largest brewery in the world. He furthermore constructed Lower Canada's first distillery, and subsequently parlayed his entrepreneurial success toward social causes, such as funding Montreal's first theater, contributing to the construction of Canada's first railway, and funding Montreal's first public healthcare facility. 3. Harrison and Wallace McCain Brothers Harrison and Wallace McCain co-founded the frozen foods empire McCain Foods Limited. Launched in 1956, the company quickly became the world's largest supplier of frozen foods, satisfying more than a third of the international demand for French fries. The McCain brothers were inspired by their father, a seed potato farmer. But rather than directly follow in their dad's footsteps, the duo started a factory that cut up potatoes and froze them in the form of fries. The brothers since grew their business to more than 60 international factories, which are capable of processing roughly a million pounds of potatoes per hour. 4. Samuel Bronfman Samuel Bronfman is an entrepreneur and investor who achieved success by starting Montreal-based Distillers Company Limited, which was acquired by Joseph E. Seagram and Sons in 1928. While he earned a substantial payout through this acquisition, Bronfman stayed on with the company and helped it flourish in a post-prohibition environment. In 1963, Bronfman used his capital to foray into the oil business, where he turned a $50 million investment into $2 billion, by the time he sold the business to Sun Oil Co., 20 years after its inception. 5. Joseph-Armand Bombardier Joseph-Armand Bombardier launched Bombardier Limited, which became the world's largest railway equipment and civil airplanes producer, and the second-largest manufacturer of business jets. In his mid-30s Bombardier created and sold the B7 snow motor vehicle, thus achieving his lifelong dream of developing a hybrid car/snow machine capable of drifting on snow. Switzerland remains high atop the list of preferred tax havens due to its low taxation of foreign corporations and individuals. Although Switzerland is no longer a place to "hide" money due to pressure from the United States and the European Union (EU), it still offers the wealthy some benefits for living and keeping their money there. Key Takeaways The European nation of Switzerland is considered to be an international tax haven due to low tax levels and privacy laws. This image, however, may be overstated since only very wealthy individuals or corporations can afford to buy their way out of normal taxes. Furthermore, the country's once heralded privacy laws have been weakened through pressure by the EU and US. Taxation: The Big Draw Contrary to popular opinion, Switzerland does not allow foreign individuals to live and bank in its borders tax-free. However, wealthy individuals can pay a low, lump-sum option on the money they bank inside the country, and the government considers their taxes paid. To simplify matters, the government bases the amount of tax foreigners owe on seven times their monthly rent. The country also taxes households, rather than individuals, and this simplifies, and sometimes lowers, taxation for wealthy couples. For the wealthy, this level of low taxation is viewed as an unparalleled benefit of living in Switzerland. It is important to note that these tax benefits are not available to individuals who relocate to Switzerland for employment purposes. Foreign corporations have plenty of reasons to set up offices in Switzerland. The national government offers significant tax breaks to companies that hold 10% shares of other corporations. Specifically, the government reduces the amount of taxes a corporation owes on profit based on the number of shares it owns. As such, shell corporations often set up operations in Switzerland to take advantage of low or no taxation. Financial Privacy on Thin Ice Swiss financial institutions have a deeply rooted history in holding the secrets of the wealthy, dating back to the French kings in the early 18th century. Further, Swiss banks held up under pressure from activist groups and nation-states to reveal the secrets of accounts created by members of the Nazi regime during World War II. However, in response to the global financial crisis of 2008, Swiss banks have caved to pressure from the United States and the European Union to reveal financial secrets of wealthy account holders. Switzerland is a signatory to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, commonly known as FATCA, which obligates Swiss banks to reveal information about U.S. account holders or face penalties. The country signed a similar agreement with the European Union, effectively ending privacy for EU Swiss bank account holders. In spite of these radical changes, Switzerland maintains a top three position on the Financial Secrecy Index in 2020. SAN DIEGO, Calif. - October 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Vetology Innovations, LLC, an advanced veterinary technology and innovation company, announced [day] the addition of a new keyword search functionality for its artificial intelligence (AI) radiology software, enhancing the abilities of this first-of-its-kind software. Veterinary professionals already using Vetology AI will immediately be able to access the new keyword search functionality of the system, which scans over 5 million unique X-Ray images and 500,000 cases housed in Vetology's database. Using the new search function will allow veterinary professionals to comparatively evaluate new patient X-Rays in accordance with previously diagnosed cases from across the nation. "Our goal has always been to leverage technology and patient data to improve the medical evaluation process for veterinarians. Keyword search is a feature that we've received many requests for and we're excited to begin rolling it out to our customers," said Dr. Seth Wallack, DACVR, founder of Vetology Innovations. "Being able to quickly search our vast digital archive and compare radiologist evaluated images to those of a current patient will undoubtedly be a useful resource speeding up the patient evaluation process." Vetology has consistently rolled out new features for its first-of-its-kind AI-powered diagnostic software. Last month, Vetology made headlines by adding new 90 second automated heart evaluation tools, including heart size evaluation and Vertebral Heart Score calculation. Both automated heart evaluation tools work within the Vetology AI dashboard automatically when a clinic sends an X-Ray to the secure Vetology cloud. There, the software automatically evaluates an animal's heart size and the comparative size of the heart in relation to the vertebral body size, creating a vertebral heart score. This process results in a Vetology AI heart evaluation report being back into the veterinarian's hands as quickly as 90 seconds after the X-rays have fully uploaded. "We're constantly looking at new ways to improve patient diagnostics and faster response times without sacrificing quality. . With the automated heart evaluation, veterinarians no longer have to calculate heart size by hand and ultimately have more time to tend to their patients or their day-to-day responsibilities. This was a home run for our customers and we think the new search functionality will have a similar effect," said Wallack. "We're not just reverse-engineering diagnostic solutions being used in human medicine, we're innovating new technologies not found elsewhere specifically for the veterinary industry." Vetology AI includes image storage, unlimited automated heart size evaluations and automated Vertebral Heart Score calculations. Additionally, sign up is simple and can be completed online at https://ai.Vetology.net/. This technology cost-effectively answers a rising unmet demand in the veterinary industry as more owner's request, and progressive veterinary hospitals deliver, the advancing level of veterinary care. About Vetology Founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Diego, California, Vetology provides innovative and emerging technology solutions for the veterinary community. The company serves over 2,000 veterinary hospitals worldwide and offers SAAS products that facilitate the highest quality of patient care and services. For more information about Vetology AI and the company's products, visit https://ai.vetology.net or for other company products visit https://vetology.net Vetology is a registered trademark of the Veterinary Imaging Center of San Diego, Inc. TechSectorStocks.com - investing ideas in tech stocks- mobile payments, social media, AI and Robotics, Drone Stocks, GPS, Internet of Things (IoT) Like Tech Stocks? View our Tech Stocks Directory 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 TORONTO - October 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Cannvas MedTech Inc. ("Cannvas" or the "Company") (CSE: MTEC) (Frankfurt: 3CM), a leading business technology company in the cannabis space, and Loop Media Group (Loop Media), leaders in mobile marketing technology and the creator of Canada's largest offers platform, GetintheLoop, are pleased to announce the signing of a letter of intent (the "LOI"), to negotiate, in good faith, an agreement whereby the two companies will share data and insights to improve customer experiences on each respective platform and Cannvas will become the exclusive provider of cannabis information and education to Loop Media's Hi-Jane mobile marketing platform. "We are very pleased to be in discussions with Loop Media as we recognize the synergies between our cannabis education platform and their innovative localized marketing solution for the cannabis industry in Canada," said Steve Loutskou, Chief Operating Officer, Global Markets, Cannvas MedTech Inc. "Hi-Jane provides customers and dispensaries with access to valuable information and there is a natural need for high-quality cannabis education. We see Cannvas.Me playing an important role with the expansion of cannabis use in Canada and Hi-Jane will provide access to many customers, dispensaries and related businesses across the country. I look forward to working with the Loop Media team as we integrate our two platforms." Loop Media is an innovative business technology company and the creator of Canada's largest offers platform, GetintheLoop. Building off of the GetintheLoop platform, Loop Media has recently introduced Hi-Jane, a turn-key mobile app and local marketing solution in the ever-evolving cannabis landscape in Canada. Hi-Jane will allow dispensaries and cannabis-affiliated businesses to connect directly with opted-in consumers to build brand awareness, drive new sales, create loyalty, and put their business and products on the map. By leveraging Loop Media's existing technology platform, Hi-Jane is able to immediately provide dispensaries with best-in-class location-based marketing, a partner-service team, and data analytics to help cannabis partners better understand trends and best practices for customer attraction. Hi-Jane empowers companies to educate and promote their products and services to customers with a simple and effective user experience. It provides the consumer with an easy and discreet way to learn more about the cannabis industry, products, and locations of dispensaries. As the Hi-Jane platform evolves, the app aims to become a trusted resource for consumers looking to learn more about legal procurement of cannabis by working with leading brands such as Cannvas to ensure its educational integrity. In addition, the app will have exclusive offers, events, and experiences for Hi-Jane members, an important offering due to strict advertising regulations that make it challenging for cannabis businesses to market themselves through traditional public-facing advertising channels. About Loop Media Group Based out of Kelowna, B.C., Loop Media Group initially launched its flagship consumer product, GetintheLoop, in 2013. Today GetintheLoop is the largest offers platform in Canada and connects hundreds of national and local brands to consumer across 35 cities. Loop Media Group recently announced the creation of Loop Enterprise, a white-labeled solution that helps brands world wide use the power of offers to build and directly engage their mobile audience, while driving new revenue and obtaining detailed consumer data. For more information visit: https://loopmediagroup.com. About Cannvas MedTech Inc. Cannvas MedTech is a leading business technology company in the cannabis space. We design and build customer-centric solutions that enable our partners to harness the power of data to truly understand their customers, industry, and key business drivers. No stock exchange or securities regulatory authority has reviewed or accepted responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Some of the statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements, such as estimates and statements that describe the Issuer's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Issuer or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are posted on www.sedar.com. SOURCE: Cannvas MedTech Inc. For further information: www.cannvasmedtech.com; Media Inquiries: media@cannvasmedtech.com; Investor Relations: ir@cannvasmedtech.com, 1-800-489-0116 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 MONCTON - October 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Organigram Holdings Inc. (TSX VNTURE: OGI) (OTCQX: OGRMF), the parent company of Organigram Inc. (the "Company" or "Organigram"), a leading licensed producer of medical marijuana, is proud to announce its medicinal cannabis plants and growing process has been certified organic with Ecocert Canada. The process of re-certification coincided with Organigram's significant expansion of its facility to meet the growing and anticipated demand for both mineral and organic production. As part of the process, Organigram submitted a comprehensive action plan to Ecocert Canada, part of the Ecocert group, one of the largest organic certification organizations in the world, outlining the company's robust segregation design to manage and execute the complexities of producing and processing both streams of product within the same facility. "When we considered the need to expand and meet the needs of our existing and future customer base, it was apparent that we needed to take our time and create an environment of excellence related specifically to the production of organic cannabis for medicinal use," says Greg Engel, CEO Organigram. "We have built a robust and diligent organic strategy into our plans to help ensure we can confidently deliver medicinal products that meet the exacting standards of our clients." As a licensed producer of legal medicinal cannabis, Organigram is one of the most experienced organic producers in the industry and has developed a strong understanding of the organic cannabis client through the Canadian medicinal cannabis program, the ACMPR. "We know that there is a committed and loyal segment of the cannabis population that is looking for exceptional organic products for medicinal use," explains Ray Gracewood, Chief Commercial Officer, Organigram. "With that in mind, we have applied the best of what we know about organic cultivation to what we also know about product development and strain selection and are proud to offer clients a high-quality medicinal organic option." For more information, visit www.Organigram.ca About Organigram Holdings Inc. Organigram Holdings Inc. is a TSX Venture Exchange listed company whose wholly owned subsidiary, Organigram Inc., is a licensed producer of cannabis and cannabis-derived products in Canada. Organigram is focused on producing the highest-quality, indoor-grown cannabis for patients and adult recreational consumers in Canada, as well as developing international business partnerships to extend the Company's global footprint. In anticipation of the legal adult use recreational cannabis market in Canada, Organigram has developed a portfolio of brands including The Edison Cannabis Company, Ankr Organics, Trailblazer and Trailer Park Buds. Organigram's primary facility is located in Moncton, New Brunswick and the Company is regulated by the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations ("ACMPR"). Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.This news release contains forward-looking information which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Important factors - including the interpretation of the Cannabis Act and promotional activities, the availability of funds, the results of financing efforts, crop yields - that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time on SEDAR (see www.sedar.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE: OrganiGram For Investor Relations inquires, please contact: Dylan Rogers, Investor Relations Analyst, drogers@organigram.ca, (506) 232-0121; For Media inquires, please contact: Ray Gracewood Chief Commercial Officer, rgracewood@organigram.ca, (506) 645-1653 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 October 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) With gold prices moving sideways, the Golden Triangle of British Columbiaand several companies exploring therecontinue to provide a bright spot for gold exploration. Three different gold rushes and some of Canada's greatest mines have been found on the Golden Triangle, located just inland from the Alaska Panhandle. The mines include Premier, Snip and Eskay Creek. Other significant and well known deposits located within the Triangle include Brucejack, Galore Creek, Copper Canyon, Schaft Creek, KSM, Granduc and Red Chris. Rick Mills of Ahead of the Herd noted, "After decades of productive mining and some big discoveries, the Golden Triangle went dormant. Isolated from major infrastructure, the area was expensive to conduct sampling, surveys and drill programs in, and due to its harsh winter climate, was only accessible for half a year. Not much news came out of the Golden Triangle during the 1990s and 2000s. When gold prices weakened to about $400 an ounce, several mines shut down, unable to make a decent margin against fixed costs." Over 130 million ounces of gold, 800 million ounces of silver and 40 billion pounds of copper have been found in the area, but experts believe this is only the tip of the iceberg. "The BC Geological Survey database has identified over 900 mineral occurrences, 67 of which have documented mineral resources," said Mills. "Lately there has been a resurgence of interest in the Golden Triangle, with something of a staking rush going on there as juniors position themselves for the next discovery hole. So what changed? The excitement is being driven by five factors." These factors, according to Mills, are: New Deposits: Pretium Resources Inc. (PVG:TSX; PVG:NYSE), Seabridge Gold Inc. (SEA:TSX; SA:NYSE.MKT) and Imperial Metals Corp. (III:TSX) all made multimillion pound strikes. New Infrastructure: "New road and power infrastructure built by the British Columbia (BC) government includes the paving of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway north from Smithers; port facilities for export of concentrate opened at the town of Stewart; and most importantly, a $700 million high voltage transmission line to bring power to mining properties previously inaccessible to the grid and reliant on diesel-powered portable generators," according to Mills. Declining Snow Cover: The retreat of glaciers reveal rocks never before seen. New Geological Theory: A new twist is that most of the Golden Triangle's deposits are found within a few kilometers of a contact zone (Triassic-Jurassic unconformity). Higher Gold Prices: Low gold prices shut down several operating mines in the Golden Triangle during the 1990s and early 2000s, and also squelched exploration. "Since then a tripling of gold prices has injected gold fever back into the area, and combined with a new geological theory and the above factors, breathed new life into the possibility of discoverers hitting the next Valley of the Kings or KSM," Mills asserted. Against this backdrop, gold explorers including Golden Ridge Resources Ltd. (GLDN:TSX.V), Aben Resources Ltd. (ABN:TSX.V; ABNAF:OTCQB) and GT Gold Corp. (GTT:TSX.V) continue to report impressive results. Mike Blady, CEO of Golden Ridge Resources, said its recent discoveries in the heart of the Golden Triangle set the company apart from the crowd. "We are one of the few companies to make a new discovery this year, so that sets us apart from the rest of the companies in the area," Blady told Streetwise Reports. "We discovered a new gold-copper porphyry called the Williams Zone that was discovered by our team using geophysics and geochemistry, and we confirmed it with drilling." The company acquired the Williams Zone property in 2014 from Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX:TSX; ABX:NYSE) and performed an aerial survey of the area in 2015. "So it all started back in 2014, there was an airborne survey flown on the project in 2015, which found a single point anomaly on the north side of the project," Blady noted. "Single point anomalies generally turn out to be nothing," but subsequent exploration confirmed the company had struck pay dirt. "In 2016, we did some reconnaissance geochemistry on that part of the property and were pleasantly surprised with a strong copper-gold anomaly. The following we year we came back and used ground-based geophysics to further delineate the Williams zone. The anomaly was covered with overburden and dense forest, so our next move was to strip back the overburden by hand and sample the bedrock, which turned out to be the first rock samples ever taken from the Williams zone," Blady said. "The first Williams Zone hole was the culmination of the last three years of slow, methodical exploration work that led to the success we had: HNK-18-001, 327 meters grading 0.31% copper, 0.35 g/t gold, 1.94 g/t silver, which we released on August 14. An initial discovery hole of this magnitude is very exciting for our geologic team and company. Deposits in the Golden Triangle need to be large and high grade to be of economic value; this discovery is a huge step in the right direction. In September, Golden Ridge announced its drilling continues to intersect broad intervals of copper-gold mineralization at Williams, with holes HNK-18-005 and HNK-18-002 intersecting similar geology to HNK-18-001: 326 meters grading 0.36 g/t gold, 0.29% copper and 1.92 g/t silver for HNK-18-005 and 276.15 meters grading 0.31% copper, 0.24 g/t gold and 2.33 g/t silver on HNK-18-002. Chris Paul, vice president of exploration for Golden Ridge, noted, "The continuity of grade and thickness at the Williams Zone is very encouraging, as are the increasing grades toward the east. The abrupt change in grade across the fault to the east suggests a portion of the high grade has been displaced, possibly downwards, and the true thickness and grade of the Williams is yet to be seen." Golden Ridge is also conducting Induced Polarization (IP) surveys, and in late August reported successful results. "The IP survey successfully delineated a strong chargeability anomaly which is coincident with the porphyry mineralization drilled in the Williams Zone in 2018," stated the company. "Two 3-km-long IP lines were completed during the Phase I survey and the anomaly is open along strike to the north and south and at depth." The company noted that the data shows "high chargeability values at the Williams Zone which merge with high to very high chargeability values in the Lower Alteration Zone (LAZ), suggesting connectivity of the two zones." As for what is the next step in Golden Ridge's exploration plans, Chris Paul stated, "The results so far have been excellent and once all the IP data, assays and geology are compiled, we plan to design additional step-out drill holes and continue targeting the extensions of the system along strike and at depth in the next phase of drilling." Meanwhile, several other companies are reporting significant strikes in the Golden Triangle. Aben Resources reported it had discovered the South Boundary Zone of its Forrest Kerr Golden Triangle project, and in late August provided an update on its exploration drill program currently underway at the property. The company announced it had intersected mineralization 1.5 km south of the North Boundary Zone in the newly discovered South Boundary Zone area. The majority of drilling has taken place at the North Boundary area, the location of high-grade precious and base metal mineralization discovered in 2017 drill holes, as well as the site of the first reported drill hole of 2018. Hole FK18-10 "has four separate high-grade zones with the best zone returning an interval of 38.7 g/t Au over 10.0m including 62.4 g/t Au over 6.0m starting at 114 meters downhole." "This new discovery of mineralization 1.5km south of the North Boundary Zone is a major development for the Company and further highlights the robust discovery potential at the Forrest Kerr Project," said Jim Pettit, president and CEO of Aben Resources. "The mineralizing system at the property is apparently widespread and well-developed with high-grade mineralization being discovered at shallow depths over a large area. We believe we have only just scratched the surface at the newly discovered North and South Boundary Zones and an expanded drill program is currently underway with assays pending for most of the holes drilled to date." Aben has followed up with the announcement that an eight-hole stepout drill program at the North Boundary Zone intersected "shallow, high-grade gold mineralization" and included highlights of 5.08 g/t Au over 12.0m in hole FK18-12; 23.3 g/t Au over 2.0m in hole FK18-13; and 10.62 g/t Au over 3.0m in hole FK18-17. The company also noted that so far it has received assay results for about 3,000 meters out of a total of 10,000 meters of drilling conducted this season. GT Gold Corp. (GTT) has also been announcing summer drill results. On Sept. 10, GT Gold reported the discovery of a major new gold-copper-silver porphyry at the Saddle North target on the Tatogga property. "Commencing at just 79 metres down-hole, hole TTD085, the first Saddle North hole of the 2018 season, intersected a very broad interval of sheeted vein, vein stockwork and disseminated style Au-Cu-Ag mineralization, centered on a monzodiorite intrusion with common strong potassic alteration," the company stated. Charles Greig, vice-president of exploration for GT Gold, commented, "These terrific hole 85 results, and visual intercepts in holes 90, 93 and now hole 98, indicate possibly the most important new copper-gold-silver porphyry discovery in the northern part of the Golden Triangle since the discovery of the nearby Red Chris deposit, which is within sight of our property. The scale and grade of the Saddle North intrusion is outstanding, and we believe the best of it is intact, at surface beneath thin glacial sediments, and to depth." "We see tremendous upside for expansion, and again, as was the case with Red Chris, further grade increases at depth. The Company now has enviable options before it: near-surface bulk-tonnage and potential deep high-grade underground-style gold at Saddle South, coupled with a massive new copper-gold-silver porphyry system right next door," Greig added. According to the company, additional assays are pending, drilling is continuing, the system remains open along strike in both directions and at depth. Earlier announcements involved the Saddle South target. On Sept. 4, GT Gold announced the continued rapid expansion of the Saddle South discovery, with new high-grade gold intercepts east, west, south and to depth along 1,000 meters of east-west trend and to 350 meters of north-south width. Those intercepts included 9.55 g/t gold over 40.89 meters from 534.00 to 574.89 meters in hole TTD079. And on August 8, the company reported the intersection of high-grade gold in stepout drilling both to the east and west of its 2017 Saddle South gold discovery and, additionally, the discovery of a new and deeper high-grade trend to the south. "We are very pleased with the early success of the drill program at Saddle South this season," said Steve Burleton, GT's president and CEO. "All holes have hit mineralization as we step out to the east and west, and our deep drilling encountered high grades and strong widths along a new and well-mineralized trend not far south and east of the area drilled in 2017. . .We look forward to further demonstrating the true potential of the Saddle discovery areaboth North and South." Disclosure: 1) John McPhaul compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise reports as an employee. He or members of his household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. He or members of his household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. 2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Aben Resources, Pretium Resources and Seabridge Gold. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with Golden Ridge Resources. Please click here for more information. 3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. 4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports. 5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Golden Ridge Resources, Pretium Resources and Aben Resources, companies mentioned in this article. 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 Shenzhen, China - October 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) RoboSense http://www.robosense.ai, the world's leading autonomous driving LiDAR perception solution provider, today announced the completion of China's largest-ever single round of financing for a LiDAR company a combined investment of over $45 million (RMB 300 million). The strategic funding is provided by technology and industry leaders, including Cainiao Smart Logistics Network Ltd. ("Cainiao"), the logistics arm of the Alibaba Group; SAIC Motor Group (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), the largest publicly-traded auto manufacturer in China's A-Share; and BAIC Group (Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co.) electric vehicle company. With an over 50% market share of all LiDAR sold in Asia, RoboSense is the market leader in the region. From previous financing rounds, RoboSense already has secured backing from auto manufacturing, financial brokerage, and artificial intelligence (AI) companies, including Haitong Securities, Fosun Group, Oriental Fortune Capital, Kinzon Capital, and Guangdong Investment Pte Ltd. The funding will be used to increase RoboSense's market share and the R&D of autonomous vehicle technologies, including its solid-state LiDAR, AI sensing algorithms, and other advanced technologies, as well as accelerating product development, long-term manufacturing and market penetration. IHS Markit predicts that by 2035, global sales of self-driving cars will reach 21 million vehicles, up from nearly 600,000 vehicles in 2025. IHS believes that by 2035, nearly 76 million vehicles with some level of autonomy will be sold globally. "The rapid development of autonomous driving has ignited a huge demand for LiDAR," said Mark Qiu, co-founder of RoboSense. "RoboSense is embracing this market demand through partnerships with multiple industry leaders. It is our great pleasure to be endorsed and funded by industry giants from many different fields. This round of funding is not only for capital assistance, but also for strategic resources. We are looking forward to continuously working with our partners to lead the large-scale commercialization era of the autonomous driving industry." Self-Driving Logistics Vehicles to be First Key Market for Autonomous Vehicles Autonomous logistics vehicles will be one of the first markets for autonomous vehicle technology. Based on data from Deloitte's China Smart Logistics Development Report, the intelligent logistics market will reach $145 billion (RMB 1 trillion) by 2025. Cainiao and the world's leading automotive OEMs, SAIC and BAIC, will jointly promote the rapid development of autonomous vehicles with RoboSense. The strategic partners will not only financially invest in RoboSense, but will also collaborate to lead the autonomous driving industry into production and commercialization. RoboSense's Explosive Growth In the past two years, RoboSense has had explosive growth. In April 2017, the company completed mass production of its 16-beam automotive LiDAR. In September 2017, the company mass-produced its 32-beam LiDAR, released a LiDAR-based autonomous driving environmental sensing AI system, and provided a software and hardware combined LiDAR environment sensing solution. In October 2017, RoboSense launched its breakthrough product the MEMS solid-state LiDAR, publicly exhibited for the first time at CES 2018 in January 2018. Four months after CES 2018, RoboSense partnered with the Cainiao Network to launch the world's first MEMS LiDAR autonomous logistics vehicle the G Plus. RoboSense also works with autonomous driving companies from all over the world (see video at: https://youtu.be/4Ooc-rJODHU). In the autonomous driving LiDAR environment sensing industry, RoboSense provides leading LiDAR sensing technologies, with sensors, including RS-LiDAR-16, RS-LiDAR-32, and RS-LiDAR-M1pre, AI sensing algorithms (RS-Algorithms), LiDAR combination technology (P-series), LiDAR-Cam deep fusion technology (RS-LCDF) and more. About RoboSense Founded in 2014, based on 10 years of research, RoboSense is the world's leading provider of LiDAR environment aware solutions designed to provide a higher performance, safer, more reliable, and lower cost LiDAR system for autonomous vehicles. The first hardware and algorithm based solution provider for autonomous driving, RoboSense believes that robots have an environmental perception that transcends human eyes. Since its inception, RoboSense has adhered to underlying core technology innovations, from chips to LiDAR sensors, to intelligent sensor systems that incorporate AI aware algorithms. RoboSense maintains strong innovation capabilities and continues to innovate to lead the industry. The current RoboSense products include different types of hybrid solid-state LiDARs, as well as P-series hardware and software solutions for different scenarios of autonomous driving. At CES January 2018, RoboSense demonstrated its revolutionary LiDAR product with its own patents. Currently, RoboSense has entered into strategic partnerships with many top car companies, tier one manufacturers and technology companies with a global reach. For more information about RoboSense, visit http://www.robosense.ai. Photos: RoboSense RS-LiDAR-M1pre: http://www.thomas-pr.com/136/photos/robosenserslidarm1pre.html RoboSense Team: http://www.thomas-pr.com/136/photos/robosenseteam.html RoboSense - Alibaba's Cainiao G Plus: http://www.thomas-pr.com/136/photos/robosensegplus.html RoboSense Logo: http://www.thomas-pr.com/136/photos/robosenselogo.html Video: RoboSense Applications: https://youtu.be/4Ooc-rJODHU Press Contact: Karen Thomas/Eva Yutani Thomas PR Emails: kthomas@thomaspr.com / eyutani@thomaspr.com (631) 549-7575 website: http://www.thomaspr.com TechSectorStocks.com - investing ideas in tech stocks - mobile payments, social media, AI and Robotics, Drone Stocks, GPS, Internet of Things (IoT) Like Tech Stocks? View our Tech Stocks Directory Get News Alerts on Tech Stocks 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 Gay Cake bakers rejoice: Supreme Court say bakery was right to refuse to make gay wedding cake Gay cake haters are cock-a-hoop, moreover Gay Cakes R Us, which can now own the market in gay cakes. The UK supreme court has sided with the bakers in a row over their right to refuse to decorate a cake with a pro-gay marriage a political message for a customer who wanted them to. Things kicked off in 2014 when Ashers, a Belfast bakery run by evangelical Christians, declined gay man Gareth Lees request to produce a cake carrying the order Support Gay Marriage. Belfast county court and the Court of appeal had earlier ruled that Ashers discriminated against Lee on the grounds of sexual orientation. In 2016, Lee, a gay-rights activist, was supported in his case by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. Ashers was no longer a private business providing non-essential goods and services, a family-run store free to discriminate in its private choices, but a public cause. In the new hierarchy of ideas and morals, sexual orientation held more sway than religious conviction. Now the five judges on the Supreme Court have decided that Ashers were not bothered by Lees homosexuality. Thats not why they refused to fill his order. There was no discrimination on those grounds. It is deeply humiliating, and an affront to human dignity, to deny someone a service because of that persons race, gender, disability, sexual orientation or any of the other protected personal characteristics, Judge Hale said in the judgment. But that is not what happened in this case and it does the project of equal treatment no favours to seek to extend it beyond its proper scope. The court pointed to freedom of expression, as guaranteed by article 10 of the European convention on human rights, which says we have the right not to express an opinion which one does not hold. Hale says nobody should be forced to have or express a political opinion in which he does not believe. The bakers could not refuse to supply their goods to Mr Lee because he was a gay man or supported gay marriage but that is quite different from obliging them to supply a cake iced with a message with which they profoundly disagreed. Its a triumph for tolerance, then. We can reject ideas. But it might not end there because Lee is reportedly considering appealing to the European court of human rights in Strasbourg. And Im off to the kosher deli to order my Holohoax almond ring. Anorak Posted: 10th, October 2018 | In: Key Posts, News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink October 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The results were released in a new white paper entitled The Global Value of Water, published by GWI in partnership with Arup and The Global Water Leaders Group (GWLG), and featuring analysis and commentaries on The Global Water Tariff Survey 2018. The 2018 survey is the most extensive yet carried out by GWI, calculating changes to the price of urban water and wastewater in 512 cities across 191 countries, based on a benchmark of an urban household of four using 15 m3/month. The white paper documents how Cape Town's tariff hike aimed to penalise households using more than 6m3/month as water levels in the dams serving the city fell below 35%. This measure helped cut peak water usage in the city by 54% and Day Zero the day the city ran out of water never came. With dams refilling, tariffs are now adjusted downwards. The top ten tariff increases and top ten combined tariffs recorded in the 2018 survey are shown below: Christopher Gasson, Publisher of Global Water Intelligence, commented: "The global average price of water needs to at least double if everyone is going to get reliably potable water in the long term. These increases matter because they attract much needed investment into the sector and they encourage better use of resources." "We are also seeing utilities becoming more active in offering social tariffs to reduce the impact on low income households. Delhi for example, has been able to increase its overall revenues by introducing a jump tariff structure. Low volume users get water for free, but anyone using more than the basic threshold gets charged a full price for all of their water use." "Most tariffs are volumetric, but we are seeing a trend towards higher fixed elements of water and wastewater bills. It reflects the fact that for most utilities 80% of the costs are fixed, and in older cities with falling water demand, there are few alternatives." Average tariffs in major markets in 2018 are summarised in the table below: The Global Value of Water and The Global Water Tariff Survey are available as part of a subscription to GWI Magazine, visit www.globalwaterintel.com/gwi/tariffsurvey Notes to Editors: Journalists with valid press credentials wishing to access the full dataset should request press access from Alex Shuttleworth on ashuttleworth@globalwaterintel.com. The Global Water Tariff Survey is the leading repository of global water tariff data and analysis, featuring urban water & wastewater tariff profiles from 512 locations. It is updated annually by Global Water Intelligence (GWI). It calculates changes to the price of urban water and wastewater in 512 cities, based on a benchmark of an urban household of four using 15 m3/month. Tariff percentage changes were calculated based on price changes between July 2017 and July 2018. The Global Value of Water is a Global Water Leaders Group (GWLG) white paper, containing detailed analysis of the results of the Global Water Tariff Survey 2018 and insights from the following contributors: Justin Abbott, Director, Global Water Skills Leader, Arup Dr Rolfe Eberhard, Independent Public Policy Advisor Dr Mark Fletcher, Director, Global Water Leader Arup Siegfried Gendries, Independent Consultant Steve Lloyd, Director, UKIMEA Advisory Services Leader, Arup Adam Lovell, Executive Director of the Water Services Association of Australia Dr William T. Muhairwe, Executive Director of the Global Water Leaders Group and founder of 2ML Consulting Professor Howard M. Neukrug, Senior Advisor to the Global Water Leaders Group and former CEO of Philadelphia Water Wang Qiang, Senior Supervisor at Shanghai Chengtou Corporation The Global Value of Water and The Global Water Tariff Survey are available to all GWI Magazine subscribers who can download it from www.globalwaterintel.com. To purchase a subscription to GWI Magazine, contact nrumpaisum@globalwaterintel.com Global Water Intelligence (GWI) researches and publishes business data and information about the water markets worldwide. Based in Oxford, UK it also has offices in Singapore and USA (Austin, Texas) and has researchers and office staff in many other countries. It publishes three subscription titles and a free weekly GWI Briefing email (http://www.globalwaterintel.com/accounts/mailinglist/) and around four individual reports per year on particular water sectors/geographic regions. It also organises two major financial conferences for the water industry each year: the American Water Summit in Autumn and the Global Water Summit in Spring. GWI was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2011. Press contact: ashuttleworth@globalwaterintel.com, Media Analytics Ltd, Suite C, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford OX1 1XX, UK. Tel: +44 1865 204208 www.globalwaterintel.com Water-Stocks.com: investing ideas in water stocks Like Water Stocks? View our Water Stocks Directory 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. 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The minister announced late on Friday evening that he had unexpectedly found a tax revenue windfall to help plug yet another huge gap in the annual health budget after his own department failed again to police their health department colleagues and stop them overspending 700m to bring this small States annual health bill to 15.5bn. The outsized stroke deserves an outsized condemnation. Fridays announcement was the real budget, which poked fun at the weighty warnings from the fiscal watchdogs, think tanks, and independent economists against the Government pumping up spending. Relying on a 1bn windfall sourced from early payments of future tax liabilities not yet made by corporations is the very definition of an unsustainable tax source. Its the stuff of the many warnings made by the Economic and Social Research Institute, the budget watchdog the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, and the Central Bank. To add to the ridicule, three-quarters of the 1bn sofa money will be tapped from profits of a single company. In this State, voters will never be told the identity of the company, a clear illustration of how entangled the States finances have become with a handful of multinationals. On the revenue side, the windfall announced late Friday will bring overall receipts from taxing company profits to 9.5bn this year, up from the 8.5bn forecast in April, and a huge uplift of almost 16% from the 8.2bn raised from corporation tax receipts in 2017. On the spending side, the health service will gobble up an increasingly large share of the cake. Officials say health is a demand-led service but never explain adequately how year after year they fail to rein in spending. Pumping in 700m in to plug overspending in 2018 has a carry-over effect for the 2019 budget because it raises the level of overall spending. It would probably be more honest if the Government were not to set out a budget for health at all. Its not the first time an Irish finance minister has used the Friday evening before the ostensible official budget to torpedo the wise warnings. Famously, three years ago, then finance minister Michael Noonan doubled his budget package to 3bn by announcing an additional 1.5bn in spending across all sorts of departments, including transport and health on the Friday before his budget. Mr Noonan gamed the EU spending rules by pumping up spending in advance of the introduction of the new rules. There was no political cost to pay because, with an election pending, it would be a brave opposition politician to warn against additional spending, after the long years of austerity. However, the risks of the Friday evening budgets and finding 1bn down the sofa are greater now. The warnings of relying on buoyant corporation tax receipts by independent economists have been ignored. In its own summer economic statement in June, the Department of Finance struck a prudent tone: No fewer than 15 times, its document mentioned the role of the proposed rainy day fund in enhancing the resilience of the public finances. It went on: It is a prudent measure being taken at a time when our public finances are relatively strong. Four months later, Mr Donohoe announced his Friday spending splurge based on corporation tax receipts. WHAT THEY SAID AND WHEN Department of Finance, Summer Economic Statement, June 19 As the Department of Finance has set out, receipts are highly concentrated with, for instance, the top-10 taxpayers accounting for 40% of receipts. This creates a vulnerability for the Irish economy; by setting aside money in the Rainy Day the risk of permanently increasing expenditure on the basis of transient receipts is reduced. Central Bank of Ireland quarterly bulletin, July 30 Corporation tax, a key driver of revenue over-performance in recent years, was again ahead of profile. Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, September 6 The high volatility and strong concentration of corporation tax receipts in few companies pose significant risks of sharp revenue falls. Economic Social Research Institute, September 26 However, with the infrastructural deficits in areas such as housing, and the potential adverse implications of Brexit, there is a case that Budget 2019 should be a holding budget and should, therefore, look to neither inflate nor deflate the economy. By Padraig Hoare Swedish furniture giant Ikea has poured cold water on plans for a third Irish store in Cork, saying it has "no plans at present" for another and is concentrating on further developing its Ballymun facility. Despite intense recent speculation that it would open a store in Carrigtwohill in east Cork, Ikea's Irish arm said enhancing Ballymun and its online offering was its priority. The firm's first Irish store opened in east Belfast in 2007, followed by its store in Ballymun in 2009. In 2016, it opened an order-and-collection point in Carrickmines, and last year began online shopping for Irish customers. The firm is known to have been in negotiations with Cork County Council regarding an identified site near Carrigtwohill but had remained tightlipped over its plans. However, Ikea Ireland now has signalled the Cork store is currently off the agenda. "Ikea Ireland will focus future investment on developing its flagship store in Ballymun, the order and collection Point in Carrickmines, and its shop online service... Ikea has no plans to open any additional stores in Ireland at present," a spokeswoman for the firm said. Ikea Ireland reported annual sales of 167.1m for 2017, and its online site has had 17 million visitors since November last year. Inter Ikea, which owns the Ikea concept and is the worldwide franchisor, plans to expand to about a dozen new markets in the coming years, including branching into South America, as the Swedish furniture giant aims to reach a total of three billion potential customers by 2025. The company will in the coming years open stores in Chile, Colombia and Peru through a new Ikea franchisee called Falabella as part of its first foray into South America, Inter Ikea said. The company plans to start selling its products in Mexico, Estonia, Ukraine, Puerto Rico, Oman, Luxembourg, Macau and the Philippines. Its franchisees currently operate its more than 400 stores across the world. In its fiscal year 2019, which runs through August, a total of 15 retail locations are planned. "By 2025, we have the potential to reach and interact with three billion people," Inter Ikea chief executive Torbjorn Loof said. We will offer new and different ways to shop the Ikea product range -- online, in remote locations and in city centres. We will introduce smaller store formats and offer a wide range of flexible and affordable services. Total retail sales in the 12 months through August, which include sales of both products and services, rose to 38.8bn from 38.3bn a year earlier, it said. - Additional reporting Bloomberg The Justice Minister insists the increase in VAT in the hospitality sector will not "see the sky falling in". Just after midnight, the Dail approved the measure announced in the budget yesterday. The rate will increase from 9% to 13.5% on January 1st. A number of TDs argued strongly against the move ahead of the vote. Minister Charlie Flanagan told them, the impact of a rate increase had been independently assessed. "Last year, the Minister for Finance at this precise time committed towards an impact assessment of reversion to the original VAT rate," said Minister Flanagan. "We've seen that assessment. That assessment doesn't point to the sky falling in or the disaster for rural Ireland as has been mentioned by deputies." Meanwhile, the government has defended not introducing a carbon tax in yesterday's budget. The Finance Minister says he is open to increasing the carbon tax in future budgets. The government has come under heavy criticism for removing the measure after pressure from some in Fine Gael. It would have meant an increase in the cost of petrol, diesel and coal. Paschal Donohoe says it is not a measure he could get support for this time around. "I am open to, in 2019, trying to get agreement within the Dail regarding a long-term approach to carbon pricing and I think it's indispensable that we have that long-term approach before we begin a sequence of moves and my judgement is that that consensus is not there at the moment," said Minister Donohoe. Farmers have breathed a sigh of relief that the Government will not be increasing carbon taxes next year. Laois farmer Francie Gorman said carbon taxes negatively impacted rural Ireland in particular and it was the last thing that struggling farmers need when they were trying to make ends meet. I know it might not be popular to say, particularly outside farming circles, because of climate change but carbon taxes are a cruel form of taxation on rural Ireland, Mr Gorman said. Minister @Paschald "#Budget19 will deliver the largest increase in capital investment in a decade. We will invest an additional 1.5bn to provide more and better schools, hospitals, homes, primary healthcare and public transport for our people." @IRLDeptFinance @IRLDeptPER pic.twitter.com/HmVXsqzk67 MerrionStreet.ie (@merrionstreet) October 9, 2018 The minister announced the introduction of a pilot scheme for suckler farmers worth 20m which aims to encourage farmers to weigh their cows and calves. Mr Donohoe also outlined details of increased funding of 22.7m for the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) agricultural grant scheme, bringing the total to 250m. A suckler beef and sheep farmer from Ballinakill, Co Laois, Mr Gorman welcomed additional funding being made available to suckler farmers. He said the sector was the most vital part of the beef industry and it only survived with the Governments support. The 40 is a start, its a move in the right direction but as it stands there isnt a living in beef farming, Mr Gorman said. #Budget19 - 44m of direct aid for farmers set out below:https://t.co/UDztPh4Dem pic.twitter.com/t8KH7DGV36 Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (@agriculture_ie) October 9, 2018 He added that without further support in the next couple of years he will have to consider leaving the beef sector. Mr Gorman said the restoration of the ANC grant had to be welcomed but he said smaller farmers were disappointed that low cost finance had not been made available to help farmers finding it hard to get over the financial stress caused by the unexpected bad weather in the past year. The Irish Farmers Association said Budget 2019 had acknowledged some of the income difficulties in farming but more needed to be done. IFA President Joe Healy said the pilot scheme for suckler farmers was a recognition of the income crisis in the sector, but the level of funding was disappointing and more needed to be done to help sustain the suckler herd. Mr Healy said the ANC funding, which reversed cuts imposed on the lowest income farmers in previous budgets, was a positive measure. But he said that the 200 increase in the earned income tax credit to 1,350 does not go far enough. @joehealyfarmer speaks about #Budget19,"On the suckler cow, while its an acknowledgement by the government of the need to support the sector, it falls short of the level of support that's required to sustain it", @IFAmedia. pic.twitter.com/FsSzxhwY8F Irish Farmers Journal (@farmersjournal) October 9, 2018 The Government continues to discriminate between employees and the self-employed in the income tax system, Mr Healy said. It is simply not right that a farmer earning 16,500 will be paying 300 a year more in income tax than a PAYE employee next year. The Government has reneged on a clear commitment in the programme for Government that they would reach parity, of 1,650, by 2018. PA & Digital Desk By Cormac OKeeffe and Eoin English Raids by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) in Cork yesterday mark the latest stage of a massive Garda probe into fraudulent claims under the HSEs Drug Refund Scheme, which may have been going on for a decade and which will top 3.5m. About 150,000 in cash in various currencies, gold and silver coins, a raft of financial documents, and safes were seized. No arrests have been made but the investigation is ongoing, with the analysis of a number of financial records expected to form a key part of the overall investigation. In a series of co-ordinated raids and search operations yesterday morning, CAB officers assisted by local gardai, swooped on one residential premises in a town in West Cork, and on two business premises in Cork city one accountancy firm and one solicitors practice. The target at the centre of the CAB investigation owned, at least until recent times, a company that operated a number of businesses. The CAB searches follow an extensive investigation by local gardai into a business person dating back many years but were triggered yesterday following a lengthy forensic examination and background checks by CAB officers. The Irish Examiner understands that the 3.5m in suspected fraudulent claims covers a 10-year period and that the CAB investigation involved trying to establish the extent of assets gained through fraud. Sources said one of the points of the searches was to gather paperwork relating to properties. Officers seized about 150,000 in cash in various currencies, including euro, sterling, dollars and other foreign currencies, along with a quantity of gold and silver coins, including South African Kruggerrand coins. CAB officers will examine if the 150,000 cash in different currencies was a means to conceal and launder proceeds of crime. Sources also said gold and silver coins are easy to transfer into other assets abroad. At least four safes were identified and searched and a quantity of documents, including title deeds for properties, as well as computer devices, are also being examined by investigating officers. Speaking at a briefing before the Cork City Joint Policing Committee last month, CABs chief officer Patrick Clavin emphasised that CAB does not just focus on the godfathers of crime such as those linked to drug gangs, but also conducts lengthy investigations on white-collar targets. He said that while CAB has about 900 live investigations nationally, almost half of those are focused on targets living in the greater Dublin area. He said there is are 16 CAB investigations underway in the Cork City Garda Division, with 10 in Cork West and four in Cork North. There are almost 70 targets of CAB in the Limerick city and county area, with just over 40 in the Co Louth area. There was also a perception that CAB was only targeting the godfathers of crime, said Mr Clavin. But if somebody contacts us with a tip, we will never require them to give evidence in court. We can assure absolute protection. All we need is a clue. We will conduct our own enquiries into their wealth or their criminal activity. The naming of Clonakilty as the countrys first official Autism Friendly Town can act as a blueprint for other areas around the country, according to the autism advocacy group AsIAm. The West Cork towns status was recognised at a launch event yesterday, with organisers hailing a huge level of commitment from individuals, businesses, and community groups in securing the autism-friendly status. In all, 91 organisations are included, with the preparatory process seeing engagement and training in 25% of local businesses and voluntary organisations including the GAA, and in half of all local public services. Engagement and training were also conducted with 50% of school communities in the area and with half of all healthcare professionals. In all, a quarter, 25%, of the towns population worked with the process and it has resulted in a three-year town plan to ensure the sustainability of the accreditation. On a practical level, it will mean autism-friendly shopping options and sensory boxes in some stores and buildings, alongside quiet spaces and other initiatives. The role of assistance dogs is also recognised across the town and the towns website also has downloadable materials for families and groups visiting the area. The genesis for the project was the autism-friendly shopping idea at the local Scallys SuperValu, pioneered three years ago at the suggestion of local woman Patricia OLeary. She, alongside Scallys and the Musgrave retail group, were yesterday awarded AsIAm hero awards by Adam Harris, founder of AsIAm. Speaking at the launch yesterday, Mr Harris said: Todays designation pushes autism to a whole new plane of discussion. He said work in the area has been ongoing for the past four months and he paid tribute to the strong local community spirit in Clonakilty and the willingness of people to become engaged with the process. It has given us the opportunity to bring autism outside the autism community, he said, adding that it sends a powerful message of acceptance to people around Ireland and means others could follow Clonakiltys example. He said the question now being posed in other areas is not can we be autism-friendly?, but will we be autism-friendly?. Local woman Karen Crowley, whose 19-year-old son Ben is on the spectrum, said Clonakiltys new designation will make a real difference to people with autism and their families. She said one of the biggest fears of parents who have children with autism is of social isolation, particularly for adults who may no longer be engaged with services. I am hoping Clonakilty will be more inclusive, she said, adding that in many cases autism is an invisible disability and that the more people know about it, the more tolerant and accepting they will be. There is no reason why it cant be nationwide, she said, adding: Clonakilty always wants to be number one at something. The Department of Justice has granted an Offaly schoolboy leave to remain in Ireland along with his mother and his older brother. Nonso Muojeke moved to Ireland when he was just two-years-old after his family were forced to flee Nigeria. (ANSA) - Palermo, October 10 - Two Italian fishing boats were seized by the Libyan authorities late on Tuesday, Nicola Cristaldi, the mayor of the Sicilian town of Mazara del Vallo where the vessels are based, said on Wednesday. The boats are the Afrodite Pesca, which had six people aboard, and the Matteo Marrarino, which had a crew of seven. The vessels are said to have been seized around 29 miles from the Libyan coast at Derna. Libyan officials are said to have fired on the fishing boats without warning and then boarded them and ordered the captains to head to the port of Ras Al Hilal. None of the crew members were hurt and they are not under arrest, sources said. Cristaldi said the boats were boarded "in waters that Libya unilaterally and illegitimately considers its own". By Sally Wardle Internet companies should take responsibility and help scientists tackle problematic online behaviour, experts have said. Researchers have called for collaboration from the industry to investigate so-called digital biomarkers, or patterns of usage, linked to unhealthy habits. This may make it easier to identify and protect those most at risk of developing behaviours such as problem online gaming or gambling, they said. Biological mechanisms behind problematic internet usage also warrant further research, they suggest. The comments were made at a press conference to launch a manifesto by the European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet. The group will encourage research into the extent of problematic use and factors driving this behaviour. Naomi Fineberg, chairwoman of the European network and a consultant psychiatrist at Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, said the scientific community must step up to the plate and start addressing problems associated with internet use. We need to move towards identifying the most vulnerable groups, in terms of their personalities or their biological make-up, or perhaps the kinds of internet activities they are engaging in, said Prof Fineberg. We are very interested in the concept of biomarkers, including digital biomarkers. In other words, the pattern of your accessing the internet may allow us to detect whether or not you are going to turn out to be vulnerable or not, and move on to interventions. Prof Fineberg said one of the difficulties faced is the lack of information, including that held by internet companies, made available to researchers. The tide is turning. I think the view is that even though we dont have that much scientific data, if there are recognised harms associated with the products that the commercial providers need to take some responsibility for that, she said. Henrietta Bowden-Jones, director of Britains national problem gambling clinic, said there are examples of those in the gambling industry handing over large chunks of data to researchers. For the last decade people have felt that industry and treatment should be kept separate, as much as possible, said Dr Bowden-Jones. I do feel that now, overall, there is a shift and people feel that industry can do something financially and indeed in terms of preventing harm. The manifesto of the network, which involves 123 international experts, is published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology. The team has set out nine main areas of research as priorities, including what problematic internet use is, how it should be measured, how it affects health, and whether genetic or social factors influence it. A woman charged with the murder of Timothy Foley in Macroom told the arresting Garda: I did not kill my husband. I stabbed him twice, not 28 times. Rita ODriscoll, aged 46 and with an address at 16 Bridge St in Bandon, appeared before Macroom District Court in relation to Mr Foleys death at 12 Dan Corkery Place in the town earlier this week. Det Sgt Derek Mulcahy of Bantry Garda Station gave evidence before Judge Mary Dorgan that Ms ODriscoll was arrested on October 9 at 11.30pm at Weir St in Bandon and that on October 10 she was arrested for the offence of the murder of Timothy Foley between October 7 and 8. Det Sgt Mulcahy said at 12.19am on October 10 on the direction of the Director of Public Prosecutions Ms ODriscoll was charged. He said: I noted her reply. The court heard she said: I did not kill my husband. I stabbed him twice, not 28 times. Ms ODriscoll, wearing black clothing, stood while the evidence was being given. Her solicitor, Pat Horan, then addressed the court on her behalf and alleged that she had been subjected to extensive emotional, physical and sexual abuse in the family home over the years, claiming that weapons had been used against her and that her children had witnessed some of these incidents. Mr Horan said his client was a loving mother and her children come first. Timmy Foley. Pic: Paul Byrne/Virgin Media He also claimed that while she was in custody her property had been boarded up, leaving her two children, aged 20 and 21, and described in court as vulnerable, homeless. She asked Cork County Council to find them emergency accommodation and also asked for appropriate security measures for her children and for herself at Limerick Prison while she is in custody. Mr Horan said Ms ODriscoll was not making any application for bail, which is a matter for the High Court, but said she intended to enter a plea of not guilty at the appropriate time. Judge Mary Dorgan remanded Ms ODriscoll in custody until October 17 and said clearly this is a very serious and difficult matter for all concerned. She granted legal aid and directed that a psychiatric report be obtained. She urged for calm and caution in relation to the matter and Insp Brian Murphy urged all connected with the case to continue their cooperation with Gardai. Ms ODriscoll will appear before the court in Macroom on October 17 next. There are no plans to change the design of a controversial public realm and flood defence scheme in Cork city which has been delayed by an EU court ruling. Cork City Council CEO Ann Doherty made the remark in her first public commentary on the setback to the 6m Morrisons Island scheme arising out of a declaratory judgement by the European Court of Justice on an unrelated wind farm case. In a report to councillors, she said that while the Morrisons Island scheme may be subject to an oral hearing as it embarks on a new planning process through Bord Pleanala, no changes to the design or scope of the scheme are required or proposed at this stage. She said the council is fully committed to delivering the scheme and will prepare as quickly as possible the now required environmental screening reports. Cork City Council remains fully committed to the delivery of the full Morrisons Island project, said Ms Doherty. While the impact of this European court ruling will result in delay, it is anticipated that, by acting quickly, the council will minimise delays to the project delivery timeframe. The scheme includes the first flood defences proposed under the OPWs controversial overall 140m Cork city flood defence project the largest scheme of its kind in the history of the state. It was approved by the city council last May following a protracted Part 8 planning process which included public consultation. The Save Cork City group, which is opposed to the design of the entire city flood defence project, brought judicial review proceedings against the Morrisons Island schemes Part 8 process. It emerged last week that a European court ruling on specific screening reports linked to protected habitats means a Nature Impact Statement will be required on the Morrisons Island scheme. The project must also be progressed using a Part 10 process through Bord Pleanala. Ms Doherty defended the original Part 8 and insisted the scheme was in full compliance with all existing and established procedures at the time. This new screening is not being undertaken due to a flaw or error in either the Part 8 documentation of the processes undertaken which, at the time, followed the established processes of many years. "The decision in effect overturned established practice both in Ireland and across Europe, she said in a report to councillors. Fine Gael councillor John Buttimer said the council engaged in the Part 8 in good faith, and that it was subject to intense consultation before council voted on it. We are now losing control of the project to the Part 10 process and my fear is that we could go down to mob mentality, that whoever shouts and roars the loudest, he said. Fianna Fail councillor Tim Brosnan said the setback explains why he has been repeatedly calling for Dutch experts to conduct an independent review of the entire project. Various councillors questioned Ms Doherty on the cost implications to the Council arising out of the delay. Ms Doherty said it is not yet clear how much the delay will cost, but she said those costs will be shared between the city and the OPW. Family doctors and hospital consultants are warning that Budget 2019 does not address capacity deficits and will lead to longer waiting times to see GPs and more widespread cancellation of surgery in public acute hospitals. While the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) welcomes a 10% increase in the weekly income thresholds for GP visit cards potentially expanding access to a further 100,000 people it said the extension will put further pressures on GPs. Already we have up to half of all practices saying they cannot take on any new patients because of the shortage of GPs, said Dr John OBrien, ICGP president. We need to double the existing health spend of 2%-3% on general practice in the health budget to properly resource the development of community-based chronic illness management. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said the budget is unlikely to address serious capacity deficits that are delaying the provision of public hospital care to patients. Donal OHanlon, IHCA president, said there is now a dangerous situation in hospitals where patient surgical appointments are being cancelled at short notice, much earlier than previous years. Cancellations this week occurred at University Hospital Limerick, with less than a days notice; at Galway University Hospital, capacity constraints resulted in more than half of patients planned for surgery in certain specialties not being operated on. In the Mater, all elective admissions except cancer patients were cancelled yesterday, Dr OHanlon said. And 15 patients awaiting urgent neuro-surgical care could not be transferred to Beaumont Hospital due to the unavailability of beds, he said. The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) described the budget as a missed opportunity: that the funds allocated to Slaintecare (200m) are so small that no significant reform can take place. The IMO said it is not sustainable to continue to increase spending on private services through the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) up by 20m to 75m while starving public health services. The Private Hospitals Association argued the opposite, saying substantial elements of NTPF funding is simply going back into the public system in the form of in-sourcing activity, which in turn is shoring up the financial deficits that exist within our public hospital system. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) welcomed the extra investment in public health service but questioned inaction on the recruitment and retention crisis in nursing. INMO general secretary, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, said they will be seeking to meet with the HSE to ensure that their service plan provides for additional nurses and midwives. The Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) welcomed the decision to reduce the prescription levy to 1.50 per item for the over 70s, but said it needs to be removed in its entirety especially for those in vulnerable patient groups. IPU president, Daragh Connolly, said the 10 reduction in the Drugs Payment Scheme threshold, from 134 to 124, is clearly not enough to have a significant impact on hard-pressed families. Harris: Onus on all to get on with job of health reform The health minister said there is an onus on the HSE, the Department of Health, and politicians to pull together and get on with the job of implementing health reform in light of a record 17bn health budget, of which 200m is earmarked for Slaintecare. Marking a new spirit of co-operation between the department and the HSE following a deterioration in relations at the start of the year, Simon Harris said he wanted to work with the HSE to identify opportunities to progress Slaintecare as they frame their service plan for 2019. Slaintecare is the government blueprint for health reform, which has cross-party support. The HSE responded to the health budget saying it would greatly assist in dealing with the year-on-year rising demands on our healthcare system. The Government is to provide a further increase of 1.05bn in health funding for 2019, on top of an additional 700m, by way of a supplementary estimate, bringing the total additional 2018 investment to 1.2bn. Mr Harris said a number of specific Slaintecare measures will be funded including: 20m integration fund to move projects, identified as working well, from hospitals into the community, as well as supporting and growing local innovative approaches 55m extra for mental health, with a strong focus on improving services in the community Cutting prescription charges for over-70s from 2 to 1.50 10 cut in the monthly income threshold for the Drug Payment Scheme to 124 25 increase in GP visit card income threshold, potentially opening up access to 100,000 more people funding for 100 additional therapists to address, inter alia, backlogs in assessment of need applications 78 extra hospital beds at the start of 2019 Mr Harris said: We are now firmly in the era of Slaintecare. In framing the 2019 National Service Plan, we will be charging the HSE with using the significantly increased resources to deliver on Slaintecare. Among other funding allocations are 12m earmarked for the introduction of Termination of Pregnancy (ToP) services, but how much would go to GPs providing services in the community and how much to hospitals was not yet decided. Talks with GPs are due to take place about costs in the community, the minister said. However the National Association of General Practitioners described Budget 2019 as Death by 100,000 cuts and said extra GP visit cards were being issued without consultation, negotiation or discussion and would have a devastating impact on the delivery of patient care. In relation to implementing the recommendations of the Scally Report into CervicalCheck, Mr Harris said 9m had been set aside. This money would include supporting the introduction of the HPV test as the primary screening test for cervical cancer and the extension of the existing HPV schools vaccination programme to boys. Mr Harris said it was his intention to introduce HPV screening early in 2019. Mr Harris said he is meeting today with Gabriel Scally, the man who investigated failures in the CervicalCheck screening programme, and that Dr Scally has said he will remain in Ireland for another 12 months to help oversee implementation of his report recommendations. The minister has also committed to publishing an action plan for womens health by next summer. National Womens Council of Ireland director Orla OConnor said she hoped the funding represents a turning point for womens health in Ireland. Other funding commitments include 75m for the National Treatment Purchase Fund, up 20m on last year, and 6.7m in funding for the National Childrens Hospital project. The figures Charleville is braced for change but hopes for some breaks, writes Joe Leogue With a population just shy of 4,000 people, Charleville is the 14th largest town in Cork by population but the rural hinterland it serves accommodates a community that accounts for multiples of that figure. Over a month on from the All-Ireland hurling final, the green and while paraphernalia that still adorns cars and vans parked along the towns main street tells you that this community straddles the border between Cork and Limerick and Charlevilles location on the inter-city route is a hot topic among traders in the town. Charleville is known as a bottleneck by many motorists who travel between Cork and Limerick. Munster Rugby, for example, previously cited the unfavourable commute as having a negative impact on both attendances and its ability to hold corporate meetings in either of its provincial bases. But while a motorway remains on the cards, its benefits are disputed among those living and working in the town. Along with the Vat rate for the hospitality sector and rates the preserve of Cork County Council word on funding for the proposed motorway was the big issue locals were discussing ahead of yesterdays budget speech. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe made no reference to the project in the end. A nod towards the Dunkettle interchange was the only allusion to Cork infrastructure in his speech but traders will be scouring the subsequent details for indications that the motorway project will progress in 2019. Some look forward to reclaiming the towns wide main street for locals; others fear a motorway will see trade bypass Charleville. Outside of that item of specific interest, the concerns of businesses in Charleville will match those of counterparts across the country, particularly traders who want greater support measures for small and medium enterprises. One such businessperson is Mairead OKeeffe, who is approaching her fourth year of operating the New Leaf Health store in Charleville. She believes the Government can give more tax incentives to small and medium businesses. Big businesses seem to get an awful lot of breaks tax-wise, et cetera, I suppose just a little bit more of a level playing field to give us the breaks that they give to the big multinationals. Were a small business, but, like, were employing three to four people locally and it would be nice to get that reflected, she said. She also believes businesses could be aided if rates were reduced, and that theres a lack of appreciation among politicians for the contribution small businesses make to communities. They definitely dont seem to appreciate all the small little business around town, they keep the whole thing going, they keep the big businesses going as well. She also wants to see a more efficient use of taxpayers funds particularly in the health service. I suppose you need to look at the budget in a human way but you need to look at it in a business way as well. You do need to get external people in there into hospitals and health and theres no point throwing money into things, its a cesspit. You need to bring someone external in and it needs to be stripped apart and put back together again to be more efficient. If something isnt working why would I keep putting money into it? we need to look at a different way of doing it, she said. Michelle Moran Michelle Morans Ladies & Childrens Wear Michelle Morans Ladies & Childrens Wear has been trading on Charlevilles Main St for years. Michelle Moran Ms Moran admits that trade is tough in towns like Charleville and believes the Government could make a difference to businesses by reducing the Vat rate. I think dropping the Vat rate from 23% would be a big help, because trade has gone so bad. But then a lot of that is online, which is a problem, she said. Ms Moran said she cant see the budget announced yesterday making much of a difference to anyone, particularly those in business. She said she wasnt particularly surprised or disappointed to see the Vat rate stay at 23%, given the increases in the hospitality sector which were flagged well in advance of Finance Minister Paschal Donohoes speech yesterday. She believes that increase will be felt by other traders in Charleville. In small towns, that will make a big difference, it wont as much in the cities because theyll do business anyway, she said. As with many businesspeople, the proposed M20 motorway isnt far from her thoughts. Ms Moran said it is difficult to predict the impact it will have on Charleville when completed. Its very, very hard to know because in some towns its an advantage, in other towns its not. We would have a lot of passing trade, she said. This is the kind of shop that caters for bigger sizes and older women, so I would have people coming to me for stuff they cant get anywhere else. So from that point of view they will still come. Anne-Marie Egan Horizon Designs Horizon Designs is one of the first businesses you meet in Charleville as you come into the town from Cork. It designs and prints stationery and products for occasions such as weddings and parties, as well as selling personalised gifts and frames. Anne-Marie Egan Anne-Marie Egan said she would have liked to have seen Vat and rates reduced, as well as increased benefits for the self-employed and a simplification of access to these entitlements. Im a mother, so more things for parents who are trying to work, who have their own businesses and are trying to mind their kids at the same time would be welcome, she said. Im trying to juggle all that. I can claim sick benefit, but Ive to pay an accountant a lot of money to work out how to do things like that. She felt the budget was safe and offered lots of small incentives to everyone without delivering anything of significance that would make a notable difference. Ann-Marie said there was little to encourage SME growth, or employment. She said JobBridge was a scheme that helped her business; she availed of it and the intern who joined her business through the programme is now a full-time employee. She said she would query the hoops SMEs will have to jump through to avail of the Future Growth Loan Scheme announced yesterday. She also wants to see more infrastructure to bring people into the town. On the proposed Cork-Limerick motorway, she said: For me here being at the end of the town, I do think it would be beneficial, because more local people would come into town. When they did roadworks a couple months back the town was deserted because you had all the passing trade trying to come through, so local people werent coming into town. So if that flow of traffic was taken out of town then people might be more enticed to come into the town. Gerard Guinan James Pettit Pharmacy Gerard Guinan is the pharmacist at James Pettit Pharmacy in Main St, Charleville, Co Cork. He said he had hoped to see a reduction on the prescription charge that is levied on each item dispensed from a pharmacy. Gerard Guinan Yesterday, it was announced that there will be a 50c reduction in prescription charges from 2 to 1.50 for all medical card holders over the age of 70. There was also a 10 reduction in the monthly Drugs Payment Scheme threshold from 134 to 124. There was the time that there was no prescription charge and then they brought it up to 50c an item then to 1, then to 2, then 2.50, then 3, and up to this week it was at 2. We hoped that theres money in the coffers to knock that back. He said the charge may not seem like much to many, but that it is detrimental to low-income families. Mr Guinan also said there is a large settled Travelling community in the Charleville area that is impacted by the charge. We have a lot of psychiatric patients, very poor patients, and from the Travelling community for who, it might not sound like much, but they genuinely find it hard to pay this, so some people forgo their medicine rather than have to pay the prescription charge, and a lot of times people are just reluctant to pay it. Its a tax from the Government that really only hits the very poorest sectors of our community, he said. Mr Guinan said he would also like to see some remuneration from the State towards the cost of complying with standards when blister-packing medicines for patients, a time-consuming task that requires oversight from the pharmacist on duty. He said handing over boxes of medicines to customers is one thing, but it is another to individually pack them into individual doses, and to ensure those balances are right something that can only be checked by a qualified pharmacist. Tadhg OConnell OConnells Bar Tadhg OConnell is a publican on Charlevilles main street. He says the trade cant take any hit on VAT or excise. Im delighted they didnt increase the excise on drink, the industry just cant take it, he said in OConnells Bar. Tadhg OConnell I know the hospitality sector wont be happy with the VAT increase, but that aside I think it was a relatively good Budget, as could be expected anyway, he said. The VAT rates are a keen issue for Mr OConnell, who said they are of huge importance to traders in towns like Charleville. Businesses wont take much more, they just cant handle it. Maybe they can in the cities, but not in rural Ireland, he said. Were to the pin of our collars trying to keep our businesses open, and any increase like that is just going to drive customers further and further away and back to supermarkets and drinking at home. Thats our biggest problem. He also wants to see more funding for public transport in towns like Charleville that serve large rural areas. It is virtually impossible to get a taxi out of town on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday nights, he said. Youll get them at the weekend alright, but customers are not going to come to town if they cant get home. The Healy-Raes arent far wrong when they say people are being driven back into their houses. Its a very serious concern. If you come around Charleville any night during the week theres virtually nobody out because they cant get home and the price of drink is too much, they can go up to the supermarket, get a couple of bottles of wine and drink it at home with nobody having any idea what theyre doing, he said. Behind Mr OConnells bar is a sign that reads Out of one, out of all an initiative in the town that sees bars alert each other if someone has been barred from their premises. Anybody can walk into a supermarket, no matter what state theyre in, and get a bottle of vodka or anything and theres no check. At least in a pub theres a check. I personally think it will make a huge difference to our health system eventually in the next few years, he said. On the topic of health, Mr OConnell said he was happy to see additional funding go to health. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe announced that an additional 700m will go into this years spending by way of a supplementary estimate, and that there will be a further increase of 1.05bn in health funding for next year. It addressed what needed to be addressed in terms of housing and health, Mr OConnell said. It did what needed to be done. Monica Gilmore Charleville Park Hotel Many in Charleville would echo the sentiment of Irish Hotels Federation president Michael Lennon who criticised the increase in the Vat rate for the hospitality sector from 9% to 13.5%. Have no doubt, this increase will hurt tourism across the country but businesses outside of Dublin will be hit the hardest. Regional businesses will bear the brunt, as about 300m of the 466m in additional taxes will be taken from the rural economy, which has been slower to recover from the economic crisis. This is a devastating blow for the many tourism businesses that struggle to break even or stay open outside the peak season, Mr Lennon said. Monica Gilmore As someone on the industrys coalface, Monica Gilmore, business development manager at the Charleville Park Hotel, said their business would be hit by any rise. It will be bad for any hotel, particularly outside of Dublin and outside the main hubs, she said. The hotel is along the main Cork-Limerick N8 road, a route notorious for accidents and delays particularly in Charleville which can be a bottleneck at peak travel times. With that in mind, the people and businesses in Charleville will keep a keen eye on what the Budget means funding for the proposed M20 motorway that would by-pass the town. Ms Gilmore admits she has mixed feelings about the prospect of the motorway, given it would direct a large amount of passing trade from the hotels door. I know in Charleville theres zoning for housing, but housing cant be built because of the traffic volumes through the town, so I have mixed feelings about it, she said. Elaine McCarthy Broad Street Restaurant Broad Street Restaurant, off Main St, serves two purposes. While it caters for those popping in for a bite to eat or a hot beverage, it primarily serves as the catering centre for the Charleville and District Child & Family Education Centre, acommunity-based childcarefacility. Manager Elaine McCarthy has thoughtson the budget regarding hospitality and childcare. Noreen Keane, deputy manager, and Elaine McCarthy, manager, at Broad Street Restaurant and Charleville and District Family Education Centre. She said she is disappointed by the increase in the Vat rate for the hospitality sector from 9% to 13.5%. Ms McCarthy said restaurants and cafes can illafford to take the hit in the increased rate, and restaurants will have to review prices now the tax has been raised by the Government. On childcare, she praised Minister for Children Katherine Zappone for the subventions put in placeto help families accessservices in recent years. However, she said more could be done to help middle-income families to get childcare, and she says supports put in place have been mainly of assistance to parents on a lower income. One suggestion shebelieves may help is greater tax reliefs for working parents availing of childcare. Ms McCarthy said the costs in providing childcare are driven up by the overheads involved in meeting increasingly stringent regulations within the sector. She said she was delighted with the news that theincome thresholds for the Affordable Childcare Scheme will rise next year. She also welcomed the announcement that from November 2019 a new paid parental leave scheme will be introduced to provide two extra weeks leave to every parent of a child in their first year. Noel Campion In London Googles new phones will make it easier to take group selfies, comes with an automatic shush mode, and will be available for the first time in Ireland since 2016. The Pixel 3, with a 5.5-inch screen, will be 899 (64GB) and 959 (128GB). The Pixel 3 XL, with a 6.3in screen, will cost 999 (64GB) and 1,099 (128GB). Both sizes come in Just Black, Clearly White, and in Not Pink from the Google Store exclusively. The new phones are made from premium materials and both devices share the same hardware apart from the obvious size difference. The biggest features come in the camera software. Like the Pixel 2, theres a single rear 12MP camera, but at the launch in London, Google said all of the magic happens as a result of machine-learning and AI. Some of the biggest improvements over last years models comes in the HDR+ feature. This improves on last years model by combining multiple images with different exposures. The results in my hands-on time with the phone is impressive. Among the improvements is portrait mode, which uses machine-learning and AI to isolate the subject by blurring the background. You can now also change the amount of blur after you take the photo. Traditionally, this is one of the main things that separates more expensive cameras such as DSLRs from smartphone cameras. Almost all smartphones use this feature now, but the Pixel 2 is claimed to be the best, and now Google says the Pixel 3 is even better thanks to new hardware and machine learning algorithms. Night Sight mode is another new feature that works a lot like HDR it takes several photos at once with different exposures and then in real time it will merge the images together and produce a properly exposed photo in dark scenes. This is very much like Night Mode on the Huawei P20 Pro and if it works as well, Pixel 3 owners will be really happy. Group selfies are a thing nowadays and using the second wide-angle camera on the front of the Pixel 3, you can get more people and more of the scene into your selfies. This mode also applies in-camera distortion correction to fix fisheye distortion where people look like theyve been squashed or where straight lines look bent. Photo Booth mode works on the front-facing camera by automatically capturing photos of people goofing off or smiling. This feature is ideal for capturing selfies with kids. The new Top Shot feature is where the camera is continually taking photos while the app is open. When you press the shutter, it saves 1.5 seconds before and 1.5 after you pressed the shutter. This is a little like Live Photo on the iPhone and allows you to pick the best photo. Despite the fact that theres no zoom lens, Google has developed a software technique for improving details in Super Res Zoom. This combines multiple images and takes all of the information from each to produce a higher resolution image. Sounds great in theory, but Im looking forward to testing this more over the next few weeks. What Google is calling Digital Wellbeing is similar to Apples Screen Time. This allows you to take control of your technology by It shows how much time you are spending on your phone and on each app will break down to how much time you spend on each app, how many notifications you get, and how many times you unlock your phone. You can restrict the amount of time you feel you should spend on apps. Facing the phone down on a table puts it into Flip to Shush mode which is a do not disturb feature of sorts. Picking the phone up again will automatically take the phone out of shush mode again. Finally, the phone supports fast charging and fast wireless charging. You will also be able to buy the smart Google Pixel Stand for wireless charging for 79. Also, launched yesterday was the Google Pixel Slate and Google Home Hub, but wont be available in Ireland. Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL is available for pre-order now and go on sale from November 1 from the Google Store and Vodafone Ireland The Government has failed again to address housing needs, writes Colette Bennett. Budget 2019 was an opportunity to address the housing crisis that has blighted our society over the last number of years. Instead it has prioritised levies to private landlords over homes for ordinary families. By allocating an additional 121m for the housing assistance payment (HAP), raising the total estimated spend to almost 500m, over building the necessary number of social and affordable homes, Government has failed, once again to address this housing need. Budget 2019 allocated 1.25bn for the delivery of 10,000 new social homes in 2019, a mixture of construction, acquisitions and leasing. While this represents an increase of 20% from 2017 (and it is worth noting that just over 1,000 homes were attributed to local authority construction in 2017), it is still less than 10% of the actual need. According to the latest Summary of Social Housing Assessments, published in September, almost 72,000 households were assessed as being in need of social housing. This figure apparently represented a reduction of almost 14,000 on 2017 and was lauded as an indication that Rebuilding Ireland is working. But working for whom? When you add the almost 38,000 households in receipt of the Governments HAP, the number in need jumps to 110,000. The reason for this difference is that households on HAP, unlike those on rent supplement, are counted as having had their social housing needs met and are therefore not included in the official figures. However, there is very little difference in the security of accommodation between those households on HAP and those on rent supplement (and even less for the 7,000 households who were transferred from the former to the latter since HAP was introduced in 2014). It is estimated that, by the end of 2019, 49,700 tenancies will be provided through HAP. HAP does not provide social housing, it is a rebrand of rent supplement, not a housing solution, a subsidy paid by Local Authorities to landlords in part payment of rent. The tenant must find a suitable property, convince the landlord to accept HAP (irrespective of the fact that refusal to accept HAP is a discrimination ground under the Equality Acts), pay the deposit (which in some cases can be multiples of the monthly rent) and any shortfall between the HAP payment and the market rent (which can be far more than the differential rent intended). The tenancies are standard private tenancies, with no greater protections for social housing tenants than any other at a time when competition for accommodation is fierce. Budget 2019 provided further supports to landlords by reinstating the full rate of mortgage interest relief. This means that, from next year, landlords will be able to deduct 100% of the interest on any loans used to buy or upgrade their rental properties from the total rent received before calculating their income tax. An additional 60m was allocated to increase the provision by local authorities of emergency accommodation and family hubs. Much like with social housing, the numbers dont add up on homelessness either. In February this year, homelessness looked set to rise above 10,000 for the first time. The department discovered that some local authorities were categorising the temporary accommodation of people in local authority owned or leased stock as homeless and directed that this be stopped. At least one local authority resisted stating that these were temporary arrangements, in much the same way as hostels, hotels and B&Bs. In a circular issued last month, the department puts the number accommodated in this way at 741 consisting of 251 adults and 490 children accessing emergency temporary accommodation, but left out of the official figures. Reclassification is not a housing solution. It does nothing to change the situation for over 10,000 homeless people. It is therefore disappointing that the government has chosen to focus its resources on providing short-term solutions to what has become a long-term problem. Choosing family hubs and emergency accommodation over permanent housing goes against the recommendations of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission whose report on the provision of emergency accommodation expressed concern that family hubs could normalise family homelessness causing families to be institutionalised. This report recommended limiting the amount of time a family may spend in Family Hubs to counteract this. If Government persists with this policy of making homelessness an acceptable part of Irish society, Social Justice Ireland urges the introduction of a time limit by which long-term accommodation will be provided in line with recent calls for a right to housing. Adequate shelter is a basic human right. Budget 2019 has continued to subsidise a precarious private rented market over the provision of long-term housing for its inhabitants. Colette Bennett is research and policy officer with Social Justice Ireland Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) While it is encouraging to see that the Government are Brexit proofing certain sectors, Budget19 has failed to extend this to an industry that employs over 250,000 in the drinks and tourism sector and exports almost 300 million to the UK annually. DIGI will continue campaigning for a reduction in alcohol excise tax in 2019. Irish Heart Foundation head of advocacy, Chris Macey The tobacco industry needs an estimated 50 young people to take up smoking every day in Ireland to replace those its products kill or who manage to quit. So every annual tax increase brings the end of this vile trade in Ireland a little nearer. Niall Comer, Uachtaran Conradh na Gaeilge Conradh na Gaeilge are disappointed that Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, TD, has not done more, especially since we met him in June and discussed the devastating cuts made to Irish language and Gaeltacht funding since 2008, which have not been reversed by the Government in the past four years. The 9m requested for the Investment Plan was needed in this Budget, in order to demonstrate fairness and support for Irish language and Gaeltacht communities. Graham Deane, co-founder and COO of UrbanVolt, a company which helps firms to permanently reduce their energy consumption The Government is announcing that they will balance the budget next year, but there is little point if we are wilfully destroying our planet. National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) Having borne over 30% cuts in funding during the financial crisis, youth work is still to benefit from the recovery, with a risk that some young people will be left behind as under-resourced youth services struggle to cope with our growing youth population. Jamie OHanlon, ISME national council member and partner in Avid Partners Accountants and Business Advisers As a result of the entrepreneur relief of 1m not being widened, there is an increased risk of business flight from Ireland. The gap between the UK and Ireland was not addressed and in fact has now widened thus increasing the risk of business flight. Tadhg OConnell, a publican on Charlevilles Main St Tadhg OConnell Im delighted they didnt increase the excise on drink, the industry just cant take it. I know the hospitality sector wont be happy with the Vat increase, but that aside I think it was a relatively good Budget, as could be expected anyway. Retailers Against Smuggling spokesman, Benny Gilsenan Todays decision (to raise the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes by 50c) is another slap in the face to retailers that have been compliant with every decision made by this Government. We want more resources to be given to Revenue to protect businesses from illicit trade in tobacco, alcohol and solid fuel. The Environmental Pillar umbrella groups Oisin Coughlin The Governments U-turn on the carbon tax is a giant two fingers to younger generations who will face climate chaos unless we act to drastically cut pollution. A two fingers to everyone under 35, a two fingers to the Paris Agreement and a two fingers to the hundreds of millions of people already living with the devastating impacts of climate change in African, Asia and Latin America. Labour Party housing spokeswoman Jan OSullivan Despite insistences from Fianna Fail that this would be a housing budget, it is anything but. Three hundred million euro for a so-called affordable housing scheme is absolutely miserable in the context of what is actually needed. President of Union of Students in Ireland, Siona Cahill Our students continue to face the second highest fees in Europe, havent seen any grant increases since they were cut during austerity years, and now face an unprecedented crisis in the availability of accommodation and in the quality of living standards. Student numbers continue to increase while buildings continue to crumble. Stay-At-Home Parents Association Ireland, spokeswoman, Pauline OReilly Its difficult to look at, what seems like, a gift-horse in the mouth but after tax this amounts to very little and those who really need the support most are left out in the cold. Even as it stands it is below the increase in social welfare payments. (ANSA) - Rome, October 9 - Economy Minister Giovanni Tria on Tuesday underwent a lengthy grilling session before the budget committee of Italy's lower house of parliament. The hearing went on for several hours, leading to less time for hearings planned after it, including one with the Bank of Italy. Most of the many questions centered on growth estimates, pensions, the spread and a possible financial crisis that Italy would be at risk of if the latter were to rise further. If the spread were to rise to 400 or 500, the minister said that "the government will do what it needs to do, as (European Central Bank president) Draghi did". After being criticized by the opposition for this answer, Tria said it was "the only one possible". Whats most striking about the Q Clearance Patriot phenomenon is how many people are taking its paranoid online conspiracy theory crumbs seriously, says Mattathias Schwartz. GO hungry for too long, and a lot of strange things will start to look like food. The smallest morsels become precious, especially if you believe they form some kind of trail with a meal at the end. This is true not only of physical sustenance; it is true of knowledge as well. You always find scattered crumbs inscrutable analogies, esoteric equations, unverified allegations from anonymous sources gathered around those questions about which we know the least. For months now, one anonymous source an internet user called Q Clearance Patriot or Q, posting on anarchic, underbelly-of-the-internet message boards such as 4chan and 8chan has been spreading its crumbs across the web, offering a running commentary on the state of the US nation in a gnomic and paranoid style. To call the result a mere conspiracy theory doesnt quite do it justice, shortchanging both its utterly absurd wrongness and its vast pseudo-explanatory power. Qs prophecies are something closer to a grand unifying conspiracy theory, one that incorporates older absurd theories (stretching back to the Kennedy administration) and continuously spins off new tendrils, glomming itself onto news events as they unfold. Good and evil, it claims, have mustered two warring teams; the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. The heroes are the military (especially the Marines) and president Donald Trump, who is secretly co-operating with Robert Mueller to, some disciples imagine, uncover a global ring of sex-trafficking paedophiles. And even this risks making it sound more realistic than it is. Whats most striking about the Q phenomenon is how many people take it seriously. #QAnon billboards have started showing up beside highways in Georgia. Qs supporters have turned up en masse, with signs and T-shirts, at Trump rallies. Actor Roseanne Barr tweets about it. In June, an armed man was arrested after blocking traffic near the Hoover Dam; in jail, he reportedly wrote a letter to Trump including Qs motto: Where we go one, we go all. Trump shows no particular inclination to discourage the theory. In August, he posed for a picture with the former talk-radio host Michael Lebron, who promotes Q theories online, inside the Oval Office. Your president needs your help, writes Q in one Q drop thats what Qs followers, or bakers, call each bread crumb. Q engages the bakers as collaborators who research lines of inquiry and offer possible answers to Qs hypnotic flurries of leading questions (Las Vegas. What hotel did the reported gunfire occur from? What floors specifically? Who owns the top floors?) But Q balances fear-mongering with notes of reassurance: The bakers are, by poring over each nonsensical hint, supposedly aiding their fellow patriots on the inside. Bad news is merely a distraction. The presidents behaviour is merely a ruse. The good guys are secretly in control, and they are going to win. Donald Trump So the baker-followers assemble the crumbs into what they call dough or bread, to be circulated online feverishly complex diagrams and bulletin-board collages of words and images. Bright red lines highlight connections, an approach familiar to viewers of True Detective or Homeland or The Wire, and satirised by a popular GIF of a wild-eyed Charlie Day from the TV comedy Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, standing in front of a messy bulletin board. Days character, who is working in a corporate mailroom, has convinced himself that half of the companys employees dont exist, even as a friend assures him that not only are they real, but also that they have been asking for their mail on a daily basis. Rather than deal with the complex reality of his duties, he has retreated into fantasy. Whoever posts as Q postures as a government insider with a high-level Q security clearance and an enigmatic connection to Trumps inner circle. I can hint and point but cannot give too many highly classified data points, Q wrote, in one of the earliest posts. A bit later: These are crumbs and you cannot imagine the full and complete picture. To reveal too much, Q claims, would be dangerous. Repeated and prolonged exposure to the crumbs there are more than 2,000 of them, as of early September is, supposedly, the only path toward comprehension. These are like our generations fireside chats, a grateful baker on Reddit wrote. The crumbs, of course, tend not to lead anywhere. Q was wrong about the imminent arrests of prominent Democrats, wrong about John McCain using his health as cover to step down from the Senate, and wrong (so far) about the storm or great awakening a national redemption, under martial law, that is perpetually hours away from happening. Still, the bakers reassure themselves by validating their beloved source, assembling what they call proofs tangential connections between the bread crumbs and reality. Many of these have to do with the recurrence of certain numbers, like 17 (Q is the 17th letter) or 4, 10, and 20 (which correspond with Trumps initials). These are known as Qincidences, and as Q often tells us, there are no coincidences. Scattered among Qs crumbs are plenty of yeasty bits that could later be puffed up into Qincidences hazy aerial photos, co-ordinates for downtown Manila, a 90s rock video, alpha-numeric strings that could be codes or passwords. More likely, according to a review by one security researcher, they are the result of random typing. Sherman Kent, a post-war official considered a founding figure of the US intelligence community, liked to say that CIA analysts are driven by three wishes: To know everything, to be believed, and to have some positive impact. The bread crumb draws its power from that first wish our human discontent with how little can actually be known. Curiosity, in other words. The line between inquiring our way into the unknown and speculating our way into it is evident only in retrospect. We can see this most clearly at the edges of old maps, where the terrain loses all proportion before lapsing into dragon-filled waters and rings of fire. But these maps were at least informed by the actual journeys of actual explorers; just as Kents CIA analysts had, for better or worse, real raw intelligence. What makes conspiracy-theory bread crumbs different is that they do little more than rearrange the known in hope of sparking conversation about the unknown. They speculate, interpret wildly, ask baffling questions. They adjust their narratives to link new developments to old hints. These rhetorical moves serve to conceal the fact that they have nothing verifiable to add. Q is just one particularly absurd manifestation of this mode of thinking. A related tendency can be found in corners of the anti-Trump resistance, where Twitter gurus highlight whatever nuggets of the days news are favourable to their camp. Like the bakers, some flatter themselves by calling their work research, but their real formula is to aggregate and speculate (if the Russian ambassador, Paul Manafort, and Donald Trump were all present at the same Washington reception in April 2016, surely they must have hammered out the details of a criminal conspiracy then and there?). The president is forever on the verge of impeachment; the biggest bombshells are always just about to drop; the full perfidy of the Trump-Russia iceberg is always just below the waterline, visible only to those faithfully connecting the dots. These figures lack Qs mystique (and are far, far better connected with reality), but they share Qs vulnerability: Their influence depends on producing a non-stop stream of portentous titbits, little pellets of encouragement to keep followers hitting the retweet button. Qs bread crumbs are spiced with accessible citations from fairy tales and pop culture: Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, The Godfather. And yet Q has, thus far, refrained from mentioning the story that gave us the bread-crumb analogy in the first place the story of Hansel and Gretel, as set down by the Brothers Grimm. It is an unusually brutal story, containing accounts of child abandonment, cannibalism, and the unexplained death of the protagonists mother. It takes place during a famine, and its core theme is hunger. Lack of food causes Hansel and Gretels parents to abandon them, giving each a piece of bread before leading them deep into the woods. The trail of bread crumbs left by Hansel, though, is not intended as a series of clues for someone else. It is more like Theseus ball of thread, allowing the children to find their way home. And this plan does not work: The crumbs are eaten by birds, and the children wander deeper into the unknown, to the witchs house. By the time they arrive, they are starving. Qs bakers, likewise, are starving for information. Their willingness to chase bread crumbs is a symptom of ignorance and powerlessness. There may be something to their belief that the machinery of the state is inaccessible to the people. Its hard to blame them for resorting to fantasy and esotericism, after all, when accurate information about the governments current activities is so easily concealed and so woefully incomplete. Despite Qs insistence that we are in control and you have the power, the truth may be even more frightening. Mattathias Schwartz is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a former staff writer at The New Yorker, where he won the Livingston Award for international reporting. Brian Clites, Case Western Reserve University Widespread public shock followed the recent release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report that identified more than 1,000 child victims of clergy sexual abuse. In fact, as I know through my research, the Vatican and its American bishops have known about the problem of priestly pedophilia since at least the 1950s. And the Church has consistently silenced would-be whistleblowers from within its own ranks. In the memory of many Americans, the only comparable scandal was in Massachusetts, where, in 2002, the Boston Globe published more than 600 articles about abuses under the administration of Cardinal Bernard Law. That investigation was immortalized in the 2015 award-winning film, Spotlight. What many Americans dont remember, however, are other similar scandals, some even more dramatic and national in scope. Doubling down on secrecy The Vatican has known about priestly pedophilia for many decades. AP Photo/Andrew Medichini While the problem of priestly pedophilia might be centuries old, the modern paper trail began only after World War II, when treatment centers appeared for rehabilitating abusive priests. Instead of increased transparency, bishops, at the same time, developed methods for denying and hiding allegations of child sexual abuse. During the 1950s and 1960s, bishops from around the U.S. began referring abusive priests to church-run medical centers, so that they could receive evaluation and care without disclosing their crimes to independent clinicians. Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, who began his ministry in Boston and Quebec, was among those who advocated prayer over medicine. In 1947, Fitzgerald moved to New Mexico and founded the Servants of the Paraclete, a new order of Catholic priests devoted to healing deviant clergy. His belief in faith healing reflected a vocal minority of Catholic leaders who still viewed psychology as a threat to Christian faith. Fitzgerald based the Paracletes in New Mexico. From 1947 to 1995, the state became a dumping ground for pedophile priests. As Kathleen Holscher, chair of Roman Catholic studies at the University of New Mexico, has observed, this practice forced New Mexicos parishes to absorb, in effect, abusive priests from across the country. Other priests sent to the Paracletes were returned back into ministry in their home diocese, reassigned to new parishes that had no way of knowing about their abusive past. This system was sustained, in part, by the fact that few diocesan personnel files recorded past accusations by children and parents. As Richard Sipe, a psychologist who worked at a similar Catholic treatment center later revealed, bishops generally masked past accusations by instead recording code words like tickling, wrestling or entangled friendship in personnel files. By 1956, Fitzgerald became convinced that pedophilia could not be treated, even as he continued to believe that prayers could cure other illnesses, such as alcoholism. He petitioned U.S. bishops to stop sending him their child abusers, advocating instead for firing abusive priests and permanently removing them from ministry. Fitzgerald eventually appealed directly to the Vatican, and met with Pope Paul VI to discuss the problem in 1963. Hush money It is unclear when the Church began using hush settlements to silence victims. The practice, however, was so widespread by the 1980s that the Vatican assigned church lawyers to adjust their insurance policies in order to minimize additional liabilities. These included Fr. Thomas Doyle, a nonparish priest who specialized in Roman Catholicisms internal laws; Fr. Michael Petersen, a trained psychiatrist who believed that priests with abusive disorders should be treated medically; and Roy Mouton, a civil attorney who represented one of the churchs most notorious pedophile priests. Together, they authored a 92-page report and submitted it for presentation at the 1985 meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Churchs apparatus for controlling and governing American priests. The document estimated that American bishops should plan to be sued for at least US$1 billion, and up to $10 billion, over the following decades. Several of the nations most powerful cardinals buried the report. In response, Doyle mailed all 92 pages, along with an executive summary, to every diocese in the United States. Yet there is no evidence that any bishops headed the reports warnings. 1992: The nations first scandal During the 1980s, victims began to speak out against the churchs systemic attempts to mask the scope of the crisis. In 1984, survivors of Fr. Gilbert Gauthe refused to be silenced by hush money, instead choosing the painful path of initiating public lawsuits in Louisiana. Gauthe ultimately confessed to abusing 37 children. Representative of SNAP, Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests, talk to the media during a press conference in Rome, in 2010. AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito As these stories became public, more and more victims began to bring lawsuits against the Church. In Chicago, the nations first two clergy abuse survivor organizations, Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse Linkup (LINKUP) and the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), were created in 1987. In 1992, survivor Frank Fitzpatricks public allegations led to revelations that Fr. James Porter had abused more than 100 other children in Massachusetts. Widespread shock followed at the time as well as after Fitzpatricks appearance on ABCs Primetime Live, when news anchor Diane Sawyer interviewed Fitzpatrick and 30 other Porter victims. The national outcry forced dioceses across the country to create public standards for how they were handling abuse accusations, and American bishops launched new marketing campaigns to regain trust. In spite of internal pledges to reform their culture of covering up abuses, the Pennsylvania grand jury report demonstrates that the Churchs de facto policy remains unchanged since the 1950s: Instead of reporting rape and sexual abuse to secular authorities, bishops instead continue to transfer predatory priests from one unsuspecting parish to the next. Victims with no hope of justice The issue of clergy sex abuse has also unleashed broader questions about justice and faith: Can courtrooms repair souls? How do survivors continue to pray and attend Mass? As a scholar who studies communities of clergy abuse victims, I have asked Catholics to share their thoughts about the current crisis. Many of them tell me that at least Bostons Cardinal Law went to jail. That leads to an awkward moment when I have to refresh their memory. Cardinal Law was neither indicted nor arrested. Instead, Pope John Paul II transferred Law to run one of the Vaticans most cherished properties, the Basilica of Saint Mary, essentially rewarding Law for his deft cover-up of the abuses in Boston. In fact, no American bishops or cardinals have ever been jailed for their role in covering up and enabling child sexual abuse. Civil settlements have held the Church accountable only financially. A combination of political complacency and expired statutes of limitations has prevented most survivors from obtaining real justice. Outraged by this lack of justice, survivors urged the International Criminal Court at The Hague to investigate the Vatican for crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Court declined, citing the fact that many of the alleged crimes occurred before the court was formed, and were thus beyond the scope of the courts temporal jurisdiction. To date, the highest-ranking priest tried in an American court is Philadelphias Monsignor William Lynn, who was charged with conspiracy and two counts of endangering children. His 2012 conviction for one count of endangerment was vacated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2016. He now awaits an unscheduled retrial. Even as scholars and theologians have called for all of the American bishops to resign, there has been little talk of criminal prosecutions. If yesterdays survivors do not find justice, tomorrows children will not know safety. As the Pennsylvania grand jury emphasized: There have been other reports about child sexual abuse within the Catholic church For many of us, those earlier stories happened someplace else, someplace away. Now we know the truth: it happened everywhere. Brian Clites, Instructor and Associate Director, Case Western Reserve University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. It may hard to imagine Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a champion of human rights, yet in the case of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, that is what he has become. Khashoggi, a critic of his countrys rulers who fled his homeland in fear, went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul TIMES change but stock phrases in budget speeches dont. Years go by and they meld together. The scale of what happened yesterday was small. Culturally, its significance will ultimately be larger. There hasnt been a budget speech I can remember that didnt aspire to responsible budgetary policy, responsible but ambitious policies for the future of our country, or similar sentiments. These are just words and their value exists only as aspiration. Next year will see a balanced budget and we will run surpluses for the future. So far, so good. But this brings me back to words. Admittedly, they dont have the elasticity of numbers, but they do have transferable values. During the noughties the most unsustainable budgets in Irish economic history were balanced, in surplus, and prudent. They were full of ambition too, but it was hubris. There was a break in the use of engorged language after 2008. Restraint, in the appropriate use of words, largely continued until the evening of Sunday, December 15, 2013. That night, taoiseach Enda Kenny gave a state-of-the-nation address from his office in Government Buildings. Marking the exit of the troika, he claimed victory prematurely: Tomorrow morning Ireland will again stand as a full member of the eurozone with the same rules, obligations, supports, and opportunities as all other member states. The impact of more jobs, he promised, will also improve our public finances and help to bring the era of tough budgets to an end. To the credit of his government and this one, more jobs have been delivered at a phenomenal pace. As Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe repeated yesterday, we have 380,000 more at work than in 2011, and the lowest unemployment rate in a decade. It is an achievement to be proud of. Regrettably, it is not a licence for the insidiously increased pace of budgetary backsliding since. Kennys proverbial throwing of the reins onto the horses neck as the troika walked out the door contributed almost immediately to an electoral setback. He lost 105 seats in local elections the following June. His tanaiste, Eamon Gilmore, was politically decapitated. It presaged the debacle of Fine Gaels general elections campaign in 2016. In ratcheting up expectation, governing became more difficult, because the government couldnt keep up with expectations it fostered prematurely. In truth, the story since Christmas 2013 is more complicated, but raising expectation ahead of delivery, and way ahead of what should be delivered at all, is taking a toll. Talk of a rainy-day fund is fine. Our levels of debt are dangerous, however. Relative to what is possible and prudent, debt is being sidelined for politically pleasing spending. Next year, all going well, we will still be above 100% of gross national income. Thats a newish measure that irons out the leprechaun economics of our foreign direct investment sector. It doesnt take account of private debt at all. The real budget giveaways were not the passing back of our money to ourselves, it was the giveaway in the use of language. In a claim for prudence, we are assured that current spending will rise by less next year than the projected rate of economic growth. The Fiscal Advisory Council makes the point that, in recent years, the State has spent the economic return of the recovery. We are firing on all cylinders, and spending it as fast as it comes in. Just look at Health. Donohoe said yesterday that we are the fifth highest spenders per capita out of the EU28, but we lag far behind in a badly led, dysfunctional system. Instead of the flame of reform, and I acknowledge Slaintecare sitting in a corner, increases in Health over two years will be 15%, and thats just on the basis of what is projected now. Its a race to the top on health spending. Only by moving the goal posts can you score a verbal point. What matters most is not what is in the budget, it is small on the scale of things. It matters because of what it is for politically. Its purpose is a general election in early December if the Taoiseach wishes and circumstances allow. Clues were certainly in spending decisions. Bigger ones are in what is absent. Donohoe avoided change in the property tax and action on a carbon charge. They are for another day now. His job yesterday, and at a cost to his own eventual reputation he did it superbly, was to enable his leader call an election after the Brexit summit in mid-November. Next weeks summit, if successful, sets up some sort of agreement on the backstop in November. If that happens, and if the Taoiseach chooses, the runway is now clear for take-off. That is what yesterday was about. It was tactically intended to ensure that strategic options are kept open. Ducking the carbon charge is important. Refusing to countenance it is where rural Fine Gael meets Right2Water, and takes its revenge by imitating it exactly. An urban minority that organised superbly and was highly vocal saw off the water charge. When it comes to organisation, they are only apprentices compared to the highly honed ways of rural Ireland in wielding power, however. And the Fine Gael backbenchers have an inbuilt advantage. As poor as the 2016 election was for them, the party did well in Dublin. Potential seat gains for Fine Gael are in rural constituencies as disproportionately affected by a carbon charge as urban ones are by a water charge. The principle of widening the tax base is essential in both instances. The need for charges to influence behaviour is the same and as true. But the differential is political. It is politics, not economics, and less still cultural change that runs through this budget. It is as good an example of business as usual as I have seen in years. If there is an election, and its only a maybe, dont think there is a choice. I see no hope of either Fianna Fail or Sinn Fein leading the charge on carbon. In fact, I havent a clue where they are on it, which is a compliment to their political skill. Public servants now clearly have the lions share of public sources over the provision of public services. They get more than half the increase in public spending in our recovering economy. As the Government proudly boasts that unemployment tumbled by more than two thirds on its watch, the social protection budget is stable at peak levels. Of course, its not stable at all. It and long-delayed capital projects not yet begun will be the first things run down in a downturn. We know the script because we have all acted in the play. Yesterdays budget matters may matter politically over the coming weeks. In the longer term, its importance is cultural. Regrettably that is not a compliment. Food Blow Away Your Stress and Chill at Blow Young Yangonites enjoying the luxury shisha flavor Meduse Beach at the premium shisha lounge at Blow Rooftop Bar and Lounge. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy YANGONSmoking shisha is a growing fashion among young people in Yangon in recent years, and a fun and sociable activity to do while with a group of friends Shisha originally comes from the Middle East, though some say it has history in India and others say it comes from the ancient Persian empire. In Yangon, it started to become popular around 2014. More and more bars are offering shisha as a main menu option. To smoke shisha, flavored tobacco is put at the top of a tall glass water pipe or hookah and covered with metal heat retainer, roasting atop hot charcoal. The body of the hookah contains water flavored with shavings of fruits such as melon, lime or apple, herbs like mint or simply ice, depending on what you choose from the menu. When you inhale the smoke deeply and slowly, it passes through the water chamber, gathering a pleasingly smooth fruity flavor. The higher the quality of the hookah, the more it costs and the better it tastes. In January 2017, a local young entrepreneur, Ko Chan Nyein Soe, opened a bar dedicated to high-quality shisha on the fourth floor of Myanmar Plaza, and called it Blow Rooftop Bar and Lounge. This open-air bar is where you can find the highest quality and most expensive luxury shisha in the city. Yangon doesnt have shisha bars and my boss wanted to try opening something different so he brought this luxury shisha option to the city. This is the first ever bar in Yangon to specialize in shisha, said Ko Zayar Aung, general manager of Blow. The reason they call it luxury shisha is because of the bars efforts in ordering handmade, futuristic glass hookahs from the Czech Republic which costs over $4,000 each. The taste is obviously different when you change the hookah, he said. As well as high-quality hookahs, the tobacco is also a top brand ordered in from the UAE. When you enter the bar, the air is filled with pleasant-smelling shisha smoke. The trendy space has two different seating options: premium shisha lounges decorated with colorful neon lights and designed as separate square boxes and regular seats in the main seating area. In the premium lounge, you can only order from the luxury shisha menu. On our visit to Blow last week, we tried the Meduse Beach shisha which is a harmonious tobacco mix with melon, lime, coconut and pineapple flavors with an optional shot of Malibu on the side. Its costs 50,000 kyats with the shot and 45,000 kyats without. One order of shisha in enough for a small group for around one and a half hours. The handmade glass hookahs at Blow are uniquely beautiful and have two mouthpieces. The smell is so refreshing and pleasing and the taste is smooth. It may feel like youre floating in a cloud of relaxation. The shisha takes about 20 minutes to prepare and the staff members at Blow are willing to explain the culture of shisha and how to smoke it properly. One of the staff members told us, If the tobacco is over burning, it is not good for the smokers. Thats why we frequently check and balance the charcoal heat. They also have small shisha and hookah options and they cost between 25,000 and 35,000 kyats. The bar offers a choice of beers and wine on the drinks menu priced from 2,000 to 8,000 kyats per glass. From the food menu, what we enjoyed the most were the grilled king prawns with lemon butter sauce (11,000 kyats). The prawns were very fresh with a mouthwatering smell and went perfectly with the sauce. Another famous dish at Blow is the grilled pork chops (14,500 kyats). The pork is imported from Thailand and grilled to perfection. With this dish, the chef marinates the meat in a Japanese-style sauce and grilled until the taste is sweet. The meat was very soft and the whole dish was perfect. A cold cut platter (12,000 kyats) is another offering which includes cuts of imported beef and pork with cheese, candied fruit and garlic bread. This is the perfect bite for wine lovers. Another of our favorites was the Greek salad (6,000 kyats) which is not normally a top choice when eating at a bar-restaurant but Blows version has a great mayonnaise-based dressing and crispy fresh ingredients. Despite being a dedicated shisha bar, the food served at Blow is also top quality, tasty and worth the price. All of these factors add up to a great experience which keeps the bar at the top of the list of favorite places for Yangonites to hang out and why its packed with customers every weekend. An important fact to note here is that shisha contains nicotine and can be addictive. The World Health Organization has reported that one hour of smoking shisha could be the same as smoking one hundred cigarettes. PARIS - France's Elysee Palace, the seat of the French presidency, announced on Wednesday that no government reshuffle will take place until at least Friday evening, when President Emmanuel Macron returns from an official visit to Armenia. The government reshuffle comes on the heels of the unexpected resignation last week of Interior Minister Gerard Collomb. Macron leaves on Wednesday evening for Armenia, to participate in the La Francophonie summit and celebrate famed French songwriter Charles Aznavour, who died recently at age 94. Various theories regarding Collomb's replacement are circulating among political experts, some of whom say it will be difficult to find a candidate as qualified as Collomb to fill the role, while others say some possibile candidates have already refused the offer. In the interim, the position is being filled by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. A statement from the Elysee said Macron wants to "take all the time necessary". "The reshuffle will not take place prior to the president's departure for Armenia, nor while he is in Erevan," the statement said. Macron, whose approval rating has been dropping, has been searching for a replacement for Collomb since last week. The position is a particularly sensitive one, especially given France's elevated risk for terrorism. News Abe Vows Further Support for Govt on Democracy, Rakhine State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appear at a joint press conference on Tuesday at the State Guest House in Tokyo. / Myanmar Ministry of Foreign Affairs/ Facebook YANGONJapanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday pledged Japans continued support for Myanmars democratic transition and its efforts to resolve the Rakhine crisis. Abe made the comments at a joint news conference following a bilateral meeting with Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at the State Guest House in Tokyo. Although this is a complicated and serious issue, Japan will work together with Myanmar and support the Myanmar governments efforts to resolve it, Abe told reporters regarding the Rakhine issue. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she and Abe had discussed the conditions in Rakhine. Describing Japan as a good friend to Myanmar, she said she believed Tokyo wants to see a peaceful Rakhine that can enjoy long-term sustainable development. The State Counselor stressed that she appreciated Japans open, straightforward discussion of its concerns about Rakhine State. If we discuss the problem in a straightforward way, the problem will be resolved quickly, she said. In 2017, the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) launched a clearance operation in Rakhine following a series of attacks on security posts there. The operation drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh from western Rakhine State. The Myanmar government and U.N. agencies have since signed a repatriation agreement to facilitate the return of the Rohingya to Myanmar. The U.N. has described the militarys actions as ethnic cleansing, and human rights groups have pushed the U.N. to prosecute the militarys senior leadership at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. In July, the Myanmar government formed the Independent Commission of Enquiry for Rakhine to investigate allegations of human rights violations and related issues. The body includes two international expertsformer Japanese Ambassador to the U.N. Kenzo Oshima and Philippine diplomat Rosario Manalo. Abe stressed during the meeting that the commission needed to take a correct and precise approach, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said. She added that she believes It is vital that the independent panel conduct a correct and appropriate investigation. The commission has been given extensive powers to investigate the issue, she said. The State Counselor has been on a six-day visit to Japan to attend the Mekong-Japan Summit, which wrapped up on Wednesday. The Tokyo summit was also attended by the leaders of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. After the summit, all of the Mekong leaders held individual meetings with Abe. At his bilateral meeting with the State Counselor, Abe promised that the Japanese government and private sector would help Myanmar with its transition into a democratic nation. Abe said during the bilateral meeting, We highly value State Counselor [Daw] Aung San Suu Kyis effort over two-and-a-half years to carry out economic reforms, achieve peace in the country and improve the situation in Rakhine State. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi replied: As Prime Minister Abe just said, we put priority on the economy, peace and the Rakhine State issue. Our effort must be sustainable; we appreciate Japans cooperation in dealing with those issues. According to Kyodo News, Abe promised more than 70 billion yen (about USD618 million) in low-interest loans for development projects to improve sewage, drainage, traffic, roads and sidewalks in Yangon. The two leaders also discussed about 800 billion yen in assistance that Tokyo has been distributing since 2016. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi added that her meetings with Japanese investors during the trip promised to be of benefit to the Myanmar people. We discussed Japans development projects, which are showing progress. These projects are giving much support to our countrys development, she added. The two leaders did not take questions from reporters during the conference, according to Kyodo. Supportive role Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmars de facto leader, is struggling with international criticism from Western officials and human rights activists over what they see as her insufficient response to crimes committed against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. However, Japan is playing a mediator role in the repatriation processes and is closely working with the Myanmar government to solve the problems in Rakhine state. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono has visited Myanmar twice this year; his trips have focused on discussions of the resettlement of Rohingya and humanitarian aid to Rakhine state. In January, Tokyo extended Emergency Grant Aid of 330 million yen (USD3 million) to Myanmar to assist displaced persons returning from Bangladesh. I appreciate the stance of Japan Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said. She visited Fukushima Prefecture on Sunday to tour a farm and learn about possible solutions to the serious shortage of farm workers in Myanmar. On Monday, she attended the Myanmar Investment Conference in Tokyo, and invited Japanese investors to seek opportunities in Myanmar. She referred to Japans deep understanding of the countrys struggle to resolve the Rakhine crisis and advance the peace process. In an exclusive interview with Japanese national broadcaster NHK on Saturday, she offered appreciation for Japans understanding and help at a time when tensions have been mounting between Myanmar and the rest of world. Its the understanding thats more important than the actual help. Help that is meaningful comes from a true understanding of the situation, she said. She was hopeful that Japans support would help bridge the gap in understanding between Myanmar and the international community. Recently, the Canadian Parliament decided to strip Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary citizenship due to what a spokesman described as her persistent refusal to denounce the Rohingya genocide. During the interview with NHK, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said, I dont care about prizes and honors as such. Im sorry that friends are not as steadfast as they might be. Because I think friendship means understanding; basically, trying to understand rather than to just make your own judgment. But prizes come and prizes go. The State Counselor added that there is no quick fix for the Rakhine crisis, saying, There are many people who do not even realize what the situation in Rakhine State alone is like. Let alone in the whole of Myanmar. But these days, its always quick fixes and instant gratification. Everything has to be done immediately and quickly. But we cant afford to do that, because we have to cope with the consequences in the long run. Tokyo Strategy 2018 On Tuesday, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi participated in the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting in Tokyo. Led by the Japanese prime minister, the leaders of five Southeast Asian nationsMyanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laosattend the summit, which has convened annually since 2009. The discussion focused on Japans Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy, which aims to counterbalance Chinas growing influence in the region via its Belt and Road Initiative. The strategy is aimed at promoting quality infrastructure development in countries along the Mekong River. During the summit, the leaders adopted the Tokyo Strategy 2018, according to Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The strategys goal is to create a strategic development partnership between Japan and the Mekong River region that strengthens connectivity, boosts human resources and increases environmental protections. The main objective is to develop high-quality infrastructure in the Mekong Region by 2030. According to The Japan Times, the Mekong leaders agreed that Tokyos strategy was beneficial for both Japan and the Mekong countries. Myanmar itself . [has] benefited from over 16 bilateral projects and 100 multilateral projects as part of the Mekong-Japan cooperation, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said during the leaders joint press conference after the summit, according to the newspaper. According to a joint statement, Japan has invested more than 2 trillion yen in the region during the past three years. Japan will continue to support the development of quality infrastructure in the Mekong region through public funds, overseas loans, investment and official development assistance, it said. Burma Armed Groups Meet to Decide Peace Summit Attendance Members of the Peace Process Steering Team meet in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Wednesday. / Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy CHIANG MAI, Thailand Leaders of the ethnic armed groups signed up to Myanmars Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) are meeting in Thailand to decide whether to join an upcoming summit with Myanmars government and military aimed at reviving the countrys stalled peace process. The Peace Process Steering Team is meeting in Chiang Mai today and Thursday to review its talks with the Myanmar government earlier this month and weigh the pros and cons of joining a summit with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing tentatively set for Oct. 15 in Mandalay. If they do decide to join, they also want to arrive with a common position. There are huge gaps in our political positions, and we have to negotiate to try to bridge them through informal talks, said General Saw Mutu Say Poe, chairman of the Karen National Union (KNU) and head of the Steering Team. The KNU, which has signed the NCA, stressed that any steps it takes must align with the ceasefire deal. We stand on the NCA path and we have to evaluate whether all sides are following the NCA principles, Gen. Saw Mutu Say Poe said. The peace process has recently stalled over the militarys demands that armed groups promise not to secede from the union as a precondition to any deal and that Myanmar have only one army. The Oct. 15 summit was called for the government, military and armed groups to find a way to break the deadlock, review the current structures of the peace process and make it more inclusive. In a statement on Friday, the KNU said the armed groups needed more time to prepare for the summit and that the scope of discussion should be broadened. On Wednesday, KNU Secretary-General Padoh Saw Tadoh Moo told The Irrawaddy that the government and military should have consulted with the armed groups before setting the date and agenda. Negotiations cannot take place based on one sides decision; they have to be agreed by all sides, he said. But other members of the Steering Team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were anxious about asking for the summit to be delayed since they had asked for such a meeting in the first place and did not want to be labeled as inconsistent. A meeting with the state counselor and military chief has been a longstanding request of the NCA signatories. Burma Inspection Report to Recommend Canceling Controversial Hotel Project at Inle Lake Local fishermen at Inle Lake. / The Irrawaddy NAYPYITAWAuthorities have conducted a field inspection at the location of a proposed hotel project at Shan States Inle Lake by Myanmar Naing Group Co. Ltd. owned by U Tun Naing Shwe, son of former Snr-Gen Than Shwe, after locals voiced their opposition to it. A group of government officials, including representatives of the Shan State government and concerned ministries, launched the inspection on Oct. 3, and is now writing a report to be submitted to the Presidents Office, said U Thein Zaw Moe, lawmaker of Yawnghwe Township in the Shan State parliament. It is now unlikely that the hotel project will proceed. We have remarked that it should not be allowed and that the area should be kept as a natural area, U Thein Zaw Moe told The Irrawaddy. In September, the Presidents Office received a petition from locals opposing Myanmar Naing Groups plan to build a hotel on a 90-acre piece of land in Mai Thaut village at Inle Lake in Shan States Yawnghwe Township. The Presidents Office then instructed representatives of the state government and the concerned ministries to do an inspection on the ground in line with the law. They are doing the inspection but have not yet presented their report, spokesperson for the Presidents Office, U Zaw Htay, told reporters. The company acquired the 90 acres of land on the lakeshore, while former president Snr-Gen Than Shwe was in office, with the intention of building an international-standard hotel on it. However, they didnt move forward with the project until five years laterin 2016 the company submitted an application to build a hotel on the land, in line with official procedures, and was met with objections from local residents. In June this year, they reapplied for permission to use the land for hotel construction, and that was when locals submitted their official complaint. During that period, the company didnt apply for land ownership or permission to build a hotel. Only recently did it make the hotel project announcement in line with procedures. Thats when locals staged a protest, he said. Locals sent their petition to the Presidents Office, the State Counselors Office, the Upper House Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Committee and the concerned ministries. The natural resources and environmental conservation ministry, in its reply to the upper house committee, remarked that the land should be turned into a wildlife sanctuary as demanded by locals. According to locals, there are 14 hotels in and around Inle Lake and a number of land disputes in connection with those hotels. In June 2015, Inle Lake was included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves and became the first ever Biosphere Reserve in Myanmar. The lake became the fifth Wetland of International Importance as defined by the Ramsar Convention in Myanmar last month. Burma USDP Campaign Sign Vandalized in Mandalay A vandalized USDP election poster in Myingyan Township / Nandar Hla Myint / Facebook NAYPYITAWAn election campaign sign for the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in Mandalays Myingyan Township was vandalized on Sunday. Portraits of the partys chairman, U Than Htay, and Dr. Than Win, a USDP candidate for a seat in the Lower House of Myanmars Parliament in next months by-election, were ripped out of the sign. My picture was just torn, but U Than Htays picture was also blackened [with ink]. I think I know who did this. But I wont file a complaint, nor let the party file a complaint, Dr. Than Win said. The candidate said he was still confident of winning the by-election despite this very public show of dislike for him. The seat in the Lower House representing Myingyan Township was left vacant upon the death of National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker U Paw Khin in March. The USDP described the destruction of an election poster as a disgraceful act that undermines democracy. Democracy is about competing fairly with dignity. So, we strongly condemn those who did this, USDP spokesperson U Thein Tun Oo told The Irrawaddy. The USDP, NLD, Public of Labour Party and Democratic Party for a New Society will contest the Lower House seat representing Myingyan Township in the Nov. 3 by-election. Across the country, a total of 13 legislative seatsfour in the Lower House, one in the Upper House and eight regional parliament seatswill be up for grabs on Nov. 3, according to the Election Commission. The NLD will contest all 13 vacant seats, while the USDP will only field candidates in constituencies outside ethnic regions. The four vacant Lower House seats are in Chin States Kanpetlet Township, Shan States Laihka Township, Mandalays Myingyan Township and Yangons Tamwe Township. The vacant seat in the Upper House is in Kachin States Constituency 2. The vacant regional parliament seats are in Chin States Matupi Township, Sagaings Tamu Township, Bagos Oktwin Township, Rakhine States Rathedaung Township, Magwes Minbu Township, Yangons Seikkan Township, Mandalays Thabeikkyin Township and the ethnic Shan constituency for Mandalays Regional Parliament. Burma Yangon Govt Sues Eleven Media for Offenses Against the State Eleven Media Group's Chief Reporter Phyo Wai (pictured) and his co-workers leave Tamwe Township Court on Wednesday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy YANGON Three journalists from Eleven Media Group were arrested on Wednesday after the Yangon Regional Government filed a lawsuit against them for committing an offense against the State for publishing incorrect information about the government. Managing editors U Kyaw Zaw Lin, Nari Min and chief reporter U Phyo Wai Win were summoned to Tamwe Police Station for testimonials on Wednesday morning before being brought to the township court to be charged under Article 505 (b) of Myanmars Penal Code. Following the hearing, they were sent to Insein Prison. If found guilty, they could receive sentences of up to two years in prison. According to the court hearing on Wednesday, the Yangon government office director U Aung Kyaw Khaing filed the case against Eleven Media on Monday, complaining about an analysis in The Weekly Eleven published that day. The story, written by U Phyo Wai Win under the pseudonym Phyo Wai, criticizes the Yangon government for wasting public money due to mismanagement, citing examples including a government loan without Parliaments approval from two private banks to buy school buses and irregularities in the governments Yangon Metropolitan Public Company, where more than 60,000 shares are under the regional planning and finance ministers name. The Yangon government owns 51 percent of shares in the company and the 64-billion-kyat (US$41.6 million) investment was approved by Parliament. The companys board of directors includes the Yangon governments Electricity, Industry, Roads and Communications Minister Daw Nilar Kyaw, and Yangons Planning and Finance Minister U Myint Thaung. Currently, the Yangon government is facing criticism for abusing its power to use public money without Parliaments approval following the auditor generals report on the regional governments budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year. The Wednesday lawsuit between the Yangon government and Eleven Media is not the first. In 2016, its CEO U Than Htut Aung and Editor-in-Chief U Wai Phyo were sued by Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein for accusing him of corruption. But later Eleven Media Group issued an official apology and a retraction of the editorial that led to the libel case. News Mrauk-U Youths Released on Bail Two of the eight Arakanese youths exiting a prisoner transport vehicle for the trial at Mrauk-U Township Court on October 10. / Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy SITTWEEight Arakanese youths detained in connection with a protest in Rakhine States Mrauk-U in January were released on bail on Tuesday. On Sept. 24, the eight were pronounced guilty by Sittwe Township Court for breaching Article 6 (1) of the Penal Code for allegedly destroying government property and public assets, and were sentenced to eight months in prison. They were later released as their detention period was deducted from their prison term. However, later the same day they were re-arrested by police under Section 16 of the Union Flag Law which carries a maximum of three years imprisonment and/or a fine of no more than 300,000 kyats ($195). The eight were remanded in custody and at a trial on Oct. 9, the Mrauk-U Township Court ruled that they should not be tried under Section 16 of the Union Flag Law. However, they were only released on bail by the police who said that there are other charges filed against them, defense lawyer U Tun Aung Kyaw told The Irrawaddy. The police have also charged them under Sections 332 and 333 [of the Penal Code] so bail was granted according to police procedures and they were released, explained U Tun Aung Kyaw. Section 332 of the colonial-era Penal Code describes the offense of causing harm to a public servant on duty, while Section 333 describes causing grievous harm to a public servant on duty. Police have released them on bail so that they can detain them again anytime, U Aye Maung Thein, father of one of the detainees, told The Irrawaddy. A legal support team from the Arakan National Party is acting on behalf of the eight Arakanese youths, said U Tun Aung Kyaw. Lawyer U Tha Zan said that it is not in line with the law to arrest and charge the eight again after they were released. Thousands of Mrauk-U residents staged a protest on Jan. 16 after officials canceled a memorial event to mark the 233rd anniversary of the end of the Arakan Dynasty. Local police opened fire on the crowd, killing seven and wounding 12. The eight youths released on bail today sustained serious injuries during the police crackdown and were transferred to Sittwe Hospital before being charged under Article 6 (1) in February. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Wednesday called for efforts to improve the country's ability to safeguard against natural disasters, and fully launch the planning and construction of the Sichuan-Tibet railway. Construction workers work on a part of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway in Tibet autonomous region on September 16, 2018. [File Photo: VCG] Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the third meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs. He is also head of the committee. "As a stronger capability of safeguarding against natural disasters concerns the economy and people's livelihood, China will set up an efficient and scientific system and improve the capability of the whole society in a bid to protect people's lives and property and national security," Xi said when addressing the meeting. Xi also highlighted the Sichuan-Tibet railway, saying it was of profound significance for the country's long-term stability and the development of Tibet. Premier Li Keqiang, Wang Huning, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Vice Premier Han Zheng attended the meeting. As one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, China has attached great importance to the matter and made remarkable progress, the meeting said. But its overall capability to respond to such extreme conditions is still relatively weak, and more should be done. To fix the short link, China will work to build a coordinated disaster-responding system, adopt a people-centered approach, give priority to the environment, try its best to minimize the aftermath, propel reforms and innovation to modernize its capability, and continue international cooperation, according to the meeting. A raft of major projects will be advanced, including ecological restoration of forest, grassland and rivers, coastal protection such as building ecological seawalls, housing reinforcement projects in earthquake-prone areas, flood control and drought relief, relocation of residents in disaster-hit places, construction of emergency centers, natural disaster monitoring and early warning, and the modernization of rescue technology and equipment. The meeting also emphasized the planning and construction of the Sichuan-Tibet railway, as it will promote ethnic solidarity, safeguard national unity and consolidate the stability of the frontier, as well as bolster Tibet's economic and social development. China will push forward the project at a high starting point, and pursue high standards and quality, the meeting said, stressing scientific planning, technical support, ecological protection, safety and reliability. Qatar-donated fuel enters Gaza For power plant, to help local population (ANSAmed) - GAZA, OCTOBER 10 - An initial supply of fuel for Gaza's power plant entered from Israel on Tuesday through an initiative backed by the UN and Qatar, said Tawfiq Abu Naim, head of internal security in Gaza. Qatar vowed to buy fuel for 60 million dollars in order to keep the Gaza plant running for the next six months to aid Gaza's two million residents. Israel viewed the provision of fuel as a positive development that could at least partly reduce tensions created by Hamas along the border with Gaza. In Ramallah, however, disappointment was expressed over Qatar's lack of coordination with the Palestinian National Authority government.(ANSAmed). Wednesday, October 10th, 2018 (7:35 am) - Score 3,987 The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a second Vodafone TV advert featuring actor Martin Freeman, which occurred after 11 complainants said the promotion misleadingly implied that Mobile customers could leave their contract at any time. Instead they could only do so within the first 30 days of service. The move comes after another Vodafone TV advert featuring the same popular actor was banned last month over a misleading promotion for the operators fixed line broadband ISP Ultimate Speed Guarantee (here). By comparison this complaint centred on the advert where Freeman is sitting in a car during the pouring rain and then attempts to leave his current network. At this point Freeman says, Look, I havent got the strength to keep arguing with you, I just Im leaving. The representative then responds, Sorry sir, you cant leave, youre still within your contract, unless you wish to pay a penalty fee? A voice-over then stated, Breaking ups never easy, but unlike other networks, Vodafone has a 30-day Service Guarantee, so if you dont love us, you can leave us. The 30 claim is also supported by on-screen text and the original advert can be found below. In fairness we didnt find Vodafones advert to be particularly confusing and the 30 day aspect seems to have been quite clear, although the ASA took a stricter line and upheld the complaints. ASA Statement (Complaint Ref: A18-457519) We considered the ad left it ambiguous as to when it applied, and because of the scenario presented, suggested consumers were entitled to exercise the guarantee at any time. We understood that it in fact acted as a 30-day cooling-off period, whereby consumers were able to leave the service within the first 30 days of the contract. After that point, consumers would face those same difficulties in trying to leave their contract with Vodafone, and whilst we acknowledged Vodafones reference to the small print which referred to the terms and conditions on the website, we did not consider that this altered the impression presented by the ad. Therefore, because the ad implied that consumers were entitled to exercise the guarantee at any time and that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading. As usual the ASA told Vodafone not to run their advert again without first changing it to not misleadingly imply that their service guarantees applied at any point during a contract other than the cooling-off period. Wednesday, October 10th, 2018 (9:28 am) - Score 751 Swedish fibre optic (FTTP) broadband network builder VXFIBER has today proposed to expand their operations in the UK by appointing the former manager of the South Yorkshire Broadband Programme, Natalie Ward, to be their Regional Account Manager for the Midlands and North of England. At present the operator is already building a 1Gbps open access Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) ISP network across Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire (here), which will be used to cover both residents and businesses. On top of that they recently published a new Digital Masterplan to assist other UK Local Authorities in their plans for rolling out similar infrastructure. However the operator has today confirmed that they intend to go even further and will target greater connectivity to the Midlands and the North of England, with Natalie being tasked with developing new partnerships with local authorities in order build FTTP projects from the ground up. Richard Watts, VXFIBERs Sales and Marketing Director, said: The UK is in dire need of connectivity, specifically full-fibre connectivity, and as it stands its falling behind the rest of Europe. We believe that local authorities are in an ideal position to drive the country towards greater connectivity, and are delighted to welcome Natalie to support the development of our regional operations. With her first-hand experience, Natalie brings the necessary expertise and understanding to guide local authorities on their journey, and develop long lasting partnerships. Natalie Ward said: Having spent the last eight years working in councils I understand the difficulty and challenges they face in terms of connectivity. VXFIBER has developed a model that can really change things for the better. Now is the time for local authorities to start thinking of themselves as a commercial outfit that can take charge of their own digital destiny through an Open Access Model. Im thrilled to have joined a company that is genuinely disrupting the market. Very exciting times ahead. At this stage VXFIBRE still has a lot to prove in the UK but they appear to be making gradual progress and were keen to see whether they can grow that presence beyond its initial niche. As usual the proof will be in the construction, not press releases. At the third annual Huawei Connect event in Shanghai, the theme was AI, dubbed "Activate Intelligence", focusing on AI, its challenges, opportunities, innovations, and practices. Huawei might be facing some challenges with governments in the US, Australia and elsewhere, but the company remains a Chinese technology powerhouse, with premium flagship smartphones at the top end through to mid-range models at very affordable prices, and Windows and Android tablets and smartwatches in the consumer and business spaces, too. The company is also helping create the 5G revolution along with its competitors Ericsson, Nokia and others, while making a range of 4G and better networking technologies that telcos around the world have installed. Like Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm, Huawei also designs its own processors, with its Kirin 980 7nm processor also featuring second-generation neural processors, and battling it out with Apple for the crown of who was first with a 7nm processor, although while Huawei was first to announce it for its Mate 20 Pro smartphone due to be officially launched next week, Apple was first to ship it with its iPhone Xs and Xs Max models. So, now comes even more news on the AI front, as announced by Huawei's rotating chairman, Eric Xu, who unveiled the company's AI strategy, as well as its full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio, as you'll read about below. Huawei says its AI portfolio "includes its new Ascend series of AI chips the worlds first AI IP and chip series designed for a full range of scenarios, with all the details shared by Huawei below". We're told this portfolio "also includes new products and cloud services that are built on Ascend chip capabilities. With its full-stack AI portfolio, Huawei aims to provide pervasive intelligence to help drive industry development and build a fully connected, intelligent world". Ten future changes: Driving Huaweis AI strategy Huawei tells us of its prediction that by 2025, "the world will see upwards of 40 billion personal smart devices, and 90% of device users will have a smart digital assistant. "Data utilisation will reach 86% and AI services will be readily available, as prevalent as the air we breathe. According to Huawei, AI has become a new general purpose technology and will change all industries and organisations on earth. "Proactive change is the first step towards a better future in AI. Huawei has defined ten changes that will help pave the way." They include: Faster model training Abundant and affordable computing power AI deployment and user privacy New algorithms AI automation Practical application Real-time, closed-loop system Multi-tech synergy Platform support Talent availability Huawei explains that these "ten changes are not only its hope for the AI industry; they are the inspiration behind its AI strategy". Xu said during his keynote: "Huaweis AI strategy is to invest in basic research and talent development, build a full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio, and foster an open global ecosystem. Within Huawei, we will continue exploring ways to improve management and efficiency with AI. In the telecom sector, we will adopt SoftCOM AI to make network O&M more efficient. "In the consumer market, HiAI will bring true intelligence to our consumer devices, making them smarter than ever. Our Huawei EI public cloud services and FusionMind private cloud solutions will provide abundant and affordable computing power for all organisations especially businesses and governments and help them use AI with greater ease. "Our portfolio will also include an AI acceleration card, AI server, AI appliance, and many other products. Huawei says its AI strategy has five areas of focus: 1. Invest in AI research: Develop fundamental capabilities for machine learning in domains like computer vision, natural language processing, and decision/inference, etc. Huawei places special emphasis on machine learning that is: data and power-efficient (i.e., less data, computing, and power needed) secure and trusted automated/autonomous 2. Build a full-stack AI portfolio: Deliver abundant and affordable computing power Provide an efficient and easy-to-use AI platform with full-pipeline services Make the portfolio adaptive to all scenarios, both standalone and cooperative scenarios between cloud, edge, and device 3. Develop an open ecosystem and talent: Collaborate widely with global academia, industries, and partners. 4. Strengthen existing portfolio: Introduce an AI mindset and techniques into existing products and solutions to create greater value and enhance competitive strengths. 5. Drive operational efficiency at Huawei: Apply AI to massive volumes of routine business activities for better efficiency and quality. Xu envisions that "Huaweis full-stack AI portfolio will speed up AI adoption in all industries to provide pervasive intelligence for a fully connected, intelligent world". Huaweis full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio: Abundant and affordable computing power will enable inclusive AI As part of its full-stack AI portfolio, Huawei "unveiled the Ascend AI IP and chip series, the world's first AI IP and chip series that natively serves all scenarios, providing optimal TeraOPS per watt. "The Ascend series delivers excellent performance per watt in every scenario, whether it is minimum energy consumption or maximum computing power in data centres. "Their unified architecture also makes it easy to deploy, migrate, and interconnect AI applications across different scenarios. "The Ascend 910 and Ascend 310 chips, which were announced at todays event, mark Huaweis leading AI capabilities at the chip level the bottom layer of the stack. These chips will help greatly accelerate AI adoption in all industries." Apart from the Ascend series of chips, Huaweis full-stack AI portfolio also includes the following: CANN (Compute Architecture for Neural Networks): A chip operators library and highly automated operators development toolkit MindSpore: A unified training and inference framework for device, edge, and cloud (both standalone and cooperative) Application enablement: Full-pipeline services (ModelArts), hierarchical APIs, and pre-integrated solutions Why "full stack" and "all scenarios"? Huawei explains that Full stack refers to the functionality of Huaweis technology. Huaweis full-stack portfolio includes chips, chip enablement, a training and inference framework, and application enablement. By all scenarios, Huawei means different deployment scenarios for AI, including public clouds, private clouds, edge computing in all forms, industrial IoT devices, and consumer devices. Huawei says that providing inclusive AI is one of its "core goals in developing a comprehensive AI strategy and full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio", with the company stating it is "ready to work with all stakeholders to turn AI into a practical reality, making it inclusive and available for every person, every home, and every organiSation". "In September 2017, Huawei released Huawei Cloud EI, an AI service platform for enterprises and governments. In April 2018, Huawei announced HiAI, its AI engine for smart devices. The companys full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio is designed to provide powerful support for Huawei Cloud EI and HiAI. "Backed by its AI portfolio, Huawei Cloud EI will be able to deliver a full-stack portfolio for enterprise and government customers, and HiAI will provide a full-stack portfolio for smart devices. HiAI services are deployed on Huawei Cloud EI." More information on Huawei's Connect 2018 event is here. For those interested, below is the full text of Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xus keynote speech at the third annual HUAWEI CONNECT event in Shanghai, dubbed Providing pervasive intelligence for a fully connected, intelligent world. "AI is the overall outcome of 60 years of development in ICT. "In 1956, the concept of artificial intelligence was officially proposed at the Dartmouth Workshop organised by John McCarthy, an assistant professor of mathematics at Dartmouth College. That was more than 60 years ago. Since that time, we have seen two AI winters, when funding and interest in AI research reduced sharply. Despite these setbacks, AI has never stopped advancing. "In 1971, Intel introduced the first microprocessor. That was almost 50 years ago, and Moores law has continued to hold true throughout the robust development of the ICT industry. "If we overlay graphs of AI and ICT development cycles over the past 60 years, its clear that advances in AI and ICT are closely related. Academic research findings and engineering advances go hand in hand. "In the past, we went through two AI winters because expectations for AI were way beyond the engineering capacity of the ICT industry at the time. The good news is that each winter eventually gave way to spring, marking a new beginning for AI. "Today, we again find ourselves in a season of harvest, one made possible through six decades of commitment and collaboration between academic and industry stakeholders in ICT domains. "Moving forward, we need to make full use of AI technology. We need to start reaping the benefits sooner rather than later, and work hard to expand its value. We have to do what we can to extend this harvest season. Let's plant AI along the equator, so to speak, creating an environment where it can continue to blossom and thrive." AI is a new general purpose technology. "We cant fully unleash the value of a technology unless we properly define its positioning. This is essential for us to truly understand and adopt AI technology. "At Huawei we recognise AI as a combination of technologies that, together, form a new general purpose technology (GPT). We have seen the rise of many general purpose technologies before AI. The wheel and iron, which are both several thousand years old. Railways and electricity in the 19th century. And automobiles, computers, and the internet in the 20th century. "In his book Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies and Long-Term Economic Growth, Canadian academic Richard G. Lipsey noted that new GPTs are the driving forces behind sustainable socioeconomic growth. A GPT must have multiple uses across the economy, according to Lipsey, and have many technological complementarities (when two or more different technologies strengthen and reinforce each other) and spillovers. "Economists have observed that, throughout human history, there have been 26 technologies that can be classified as true GPTs. AI is one of them. "By emphasising AIs role as a general purpose technology, my goal is to call your attention to how influential and valuable AI is to our future. As a GPT, AI will help us find more efficient solutions to problems we already know how to fix. It will also help us address problems that, to date, have remained unsolved. "As companies, if we want to stay ahead we need to adopt an AI mindset use AI concepts and technologies to tackle both existing and future problems. "Inside Huawei, our experience shows that AI can replace humans in certain tasks, and also automate cost reduction throughout production cycles. This is the most valuable characteristic of AI, and what sets it apart from run-of-the-mill informatisation, which cant automatically reduce production costs." AI will trigger change in all industries. "AI will change all industries. Every one of us needs to ask ourselves, How will AI reshape or even disrupt the industry Im working in? Going forward, we need to think of new ways to prepare our businesses and industries for change. "There are clear signs that AI will change or disrupt a whole host of industries: Intelligent transportation will make traffic way more efficient. Personalised education will deliver efficiency gains for both teachers and students. In healthcare, early prevention and precision treatment have the potential to increase life expectancy. With real-time translation across multiple languages, communication will be easier than ever before. Precision drug trials will cut the cost and time of discovering new medicine. Telecom network O&M will become more efficient. Autonomous driving and electric cars will bring dramatic changes to the automotive industry. "The list goes on and on. "In just the past year since we launched Huawei Cloud EI and HiAI, we have already seen AI drive unprecedented momentum across all kinds of industries." AI will also change every organisation. "We have seen several technological revolutions since the 18th century. Each one of them has had a huge impact on organisational structures, processes, and workforce skills. But AI will change jobs and skills in a way that is quite different from the previous revolutions. "Previous revolutions led to huge demand for repetitive routine tasks, such as operating equipment in textile mills, and running car and phone assembly lines. AI will greatly boost automation in almost all aspects of an organisation. This means there will be much less demand for jobs that handle repetitive, routine tasks. "Demand for data science jobs will keep rising, including those for data scientists and data science engineers with basic know-how in data science. The total number of these jobs will be much smaller than the number of jobs that handle repetitive, routine tasks. "Its likely that organisations will become more diamond-shaped, with AI systems taking the place of the people at the bottom, where they handle huge volumes of repetitive and routine tasks." AI-triggered change has just begun. Finding the right problem is more important than devising a novel solution. "AI-triggered change has just begun. Change can mean good news for some and bad news for others, especially when changes first start to emerge. "Some people might get excited about the new, once-unimaginable functions that AI will make possible. These people will feel a strong urge to drive large-scale AI adoption. And there will also be those who feel anxious about underperforming AI projects, or who worry about the reliability and security of AI applications. These are the ones who will remain uncertain about how to best use AI in the future. "If we look at the history of all GPTs, these reactions to AI are all very natural. "There are four different phases along the AI productivity/adoption curve. We have just left the first phase, where exploration of AI technology and application takes place on a small scale. "Now we are in the second phase, where new technology and society are colliding. From a tech perspective, more and more issues are emerging as AI technology continues to advance. If we look at things from an application perspective, however, the value of AI is seeing greater recognition as it comes into wider use. "That said, existing policies, corporate processes, and workforces are built around older technologies, such as those in the information and internet eras. The broader social environment is not yet ready for the AI era. So in this phase we see a certain degree of collision even conflict between tech development and society. "AI will ultimately find itself in a social environment more conducive to its development and application. When that happens, we will step into the third phase, where we will see rapid, comprehensive advances in AI adoption and productivity. "The fourth phase will be the golden era of AI, where humanity will benefit from a constant stream of new advances in technology until a new GPT emerges. "Nevertheless, its important to keep in mind that AI is not a cure-all. No technology can solve every problem. We need to focus on areas where AI can create the most value, not on problems that AI isnt equipped to solve. Finding the right problem is more important than devising a novel solution." Inspiring gaps "To get started, we need to take a look at where we are today with AI. "The world has seen significant achievements:" In 2017, 20,000 papers on machine learning were published. More than 22 countries have announced a national AI plan. In 2017, there were more than 1,100 new AI startups. AI-related mergers and acquisitions totalled 24 billion US dollars in 2017. VC investments in AI reached 14 billion US dollars in the same year. "Despite these incredible achievements, we have also seen quite a few smaller figures that speak to lukewarm AI adoption in its early stages. "For example: Only 4% of enterprises have invested in or deployed AI. Only about 2% of retailers have invested in or deployed AI. About 5% of smart city implementations are using AI. In 2017, roughly 10% of smartphones on the market were equipped with AI capabilities. The supply and demand ratio of AI talent worldwide is just 1%. "The gaps between stellar achievements and lukewarm adoption are the driving forces that will push the industry forward. I find these gaps to be very inspiring." Ten changes that will shape the future "To close these gaps, we need the right technology, the right talent, and the right industry ecosystem. Next, Id like to discuss ten important changes that we have to work on together across all three of these elements. "First, we need to increase the speed of model training. "With existing technology, training more complex models often takes days, if not months. Successful innovation only happens after several rounds of iteration. Slow model training seriously impedes application innovation. We believe that training should be completed in minutes or even seconds." "The second change is related to the availability and cost of computing power. "Computing power is the foundation of AI. Right now, it is a costly, scarce resource. While growth in computing power has been a major driver behind progress in AI, lack of readily available and affordable computing power is becoming a constraint that holds back broad-scale AI adoption. "We need to provide more abundant and affordable computing power in the future. We should take action now to meet this demand." The third change involves AI deployment. "Hybrid clouds have become a major cloud service model for enterprise use. Right now, AI is deployed mostly in the cloud, with only a small portion at the edge. AI has not yet been closely integrated into business environments. "AI should be pervasive. Furthermore, it should be adaptable to all scenarios, and in all cases, user privacy must be respected and protected." The fourth change involves the efficiency and security of algorithms. "Algorithms are another driver behind AI development. The majority of basic algorithms we use today were invented before the 1980s. As AI comes into wider use, the weaknesses of existing algorithms are becoming more apparent. "Algorithms of the future should be data-efficient. That means they can deliver the same results with less data. Future algorithms should also be energy-efficient, producing the same results with less compute and less energy. Algorithms must be secure and explainable. Algorithms like these will set the stage for broad-scale AI development." The fifth change involves AI automation. "At present, AI projects are always labor-intensive, especially during the data labelling process. "This requires so much labor, in fact, that specialised "data labeller" jobs have begun to emerge. Theres even a running joke in the industry: no labor, no intelligence. "Moving forward, we must greatly increase AI automation to achieve automated or semi-automated operations, especially during processes like data labelling, data collection, feature extraction, model design, and training." The sixth change is about the practical application of AI. "In June 2018, Benjamin Recht, an associate professor at UC Berkeley, released a paper with a perplexing title: Do CIFAR-10 Classifiers Generalise to CIFAR-10? "According to the paper, models that perform with high accuracy in one test set of CIFAR-10 classifiers are 5% to 15% less accurate in another test set that closely resembles CIFAR-10, which Recht himself developed. This means a large drop in the practical application of a given model. "Its clear that many high-performing models and algorithms perform better in tests than in real-world execution. Industrial-grade AI models of the future must be able to meet the needs of real-world execution. Its not enough to perform well in test sets alone." The seventh change involves model updates. "The accuracy of any given model shouldnt be static: Accuracy changes with data distribution, application environments, and hardware environments. Keeping accuracy numbers within an acceptable scope is necessary for enterprise applications. Existing model updates, however, are not done in real time. They rely on human input at fixed intervals. Its a semi-open loop system. "We believe that models of the future need to be adaptive to changes and updated in real time. This represents a real-time, closed-loop system that helps enterprise AI applications continue to operate in an optimal state." The eighth change involves synergy between AI and other technologies. "Every GPT delivers maximum economic value only when it is combined with other technologies. AI is no exception. But current discussions on AI are more often than not focused entirely on AI, with no mention of other technologies. "In the future, we need to promote greater synergy between AI and other technologies, such as cloud, IoT, edge computing, blockchain, big data, and databases. This is the only way to fully unleash the value of AI." The ninth change is about platform support. "At present, AI is a job that can only be done by highly-skilled experts. There arent enough mature, stable, and extensive automation tools. Producing AI models is complex work that takes a lot of time and effort. "Moving forward, we need a one-stop platform that provides the necessary automation tools, making it easier and faster to develop AI applications. When this platform is in place, AI will become a basic skill of all application developers, even all ICT workers." The last change is about talent availability. "Lack of AI talent, especially data scientists, has long been seen as a major obstacle to AI progress. Data scientists are scarce and will remain so in the future. "Addressing this challenge requires an AI mindset. That means providing intelligent, automated, and easy-to-use AI platforms, tools, services, and training and education programs to foster a huge number of data science engineers. These people must be equipped with the ability to deal with massive volumes of basic data science tasks. "The AI workforce will be organised in a pyramid-like structure, with a large number of data science engineers working with data scientists and subject matter experts. This is how we can help resolve the scarcity of AI talent. "These ten changes dont represent the full picture of AI technology, talent, and industry development. But if we can drive these changes, they will lay a solid foundation for future AI growth." Huaweis AI strategy "These ten changes are what Huawei expects to see in the AI industry. They are also the inspiration behind Huaweis AI strategy. To drive these ten changes, our AI strategy includes the following five priorities: Invest in AI research: Develop fundamental capabilities for data and power-efficient (i.e., less data, computing, and power needed), secure & trusted, automated/autonomous machine learning in computer vision, natural language processing, decision/inference, etc. Build a full-stack AI portfolio: Deliver abundant and affordable computing power Provide an efficient and easy-to-use AI platform with full-pipeline services Make the portfolio adaptive to all scenarios, both standalone and cooperative scenarios between cloud, edge, and device Develop an open ecosystem and talent: Collaborate widely with global academia, industries, and partners. Strengthen existing portfolio: Bring an AI mindset and techniques into existing products and solutions to create greater value and enhance competitive strengths. Drive operational efficiency at Huawei: Apply AI to massive volumes of routine business activities for better efficiency and quality. Huaweis full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio By all scenarios, we mean different deployment scenarios for AI, including public clouds, private clouds, edge computing in all forms, industrial IoT devices, and consumer devices. Full stack is about the functionality of our technology. Our full-stack portfolio includes chips, chip enablement, a training and inference framework, and application enablement. Specifically, our full-stack portfolio includes the following: Ascend: An AI IP and chip series based on a unified, scalable architecture. In this series, we have Ascend Max, Mini, Lite, Tiny, and Nano. Ascend 910 has the worlds greatest computing density in a single chip. Ascend 310 is the most efficient AI SoC for low-power computing. CANN (Compute Architecture for Neural Networks): A chip operators library and highly automated operators development toolkit MindSpore: A unified training and inference framework for device, edge, and cloud (both standalone and cooperative) Application enablement: Full-pipeline services (ModelArts), hierarchical APIs, and pre-integrated solutions In September 2017, we released Huawei Cloud EI, an AI service platform for enterprises and governments. In April 2018, Huawei announced HiAI, our AI engine for smart devices. Our full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio is designed to provide powerful support for Huawei Cloud EI and HiAI. Backed "by our AI portfolio, Huawei Cloud EI will be able to deliver a full-stack portfolio for enterprise and government customers, and HiAI will provide a full-stack portfolio for smart devices. HiAI services are deployed on Huawei Cloud EI. "To sum up, our AI strategy is to invest in basic research and talent development, build a full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio, and foster an open global ecosystem." Within Huawei, we will continue to explore to improve management and efficiency with AI. In the telecom sector, we aim to adopt SoftCOM AI to make network O&M more efficient. In the consumer market, HiAI will infuse intelligence into consumer devices, making them smarter than ever. Huawei Cloud EI public cloud services and FusionMind private cloud solutions will provide abundant and affordable computing power for all organisations especially businesses and governments and help them use AI with greater ease. organisations especially businesses and governments and help them use AI with greater ease. Our portfolio will also include AI acceleration card, AI server, AI appliance, and many other products. All scenarios means that Huawei is able to deliver pervasive intelligence for a fully connected, intelligent world. Full stack means that Huawei is able to provide AI application developers with unparalleled computing power and a strong application development platform. "We are working towards making AI more inclusive making it affordable, effective, and reliable for all. And we have what it takes to make that happen. "Thats the basic ins and outs of Huaweis AI strategy and full-stack, all-scenario portfolio. Thank you for joining us at HUAWEI CONNECT. I hope we can all work together to turn AI into a practical reality, making it inclusive and available for all. Huawei is committed to working closely with our customers, partners, and academia to grow together, promote pervasive AI, and ultimately build a fully connected, intelligent world." Students from the University of Queensland can now access the SAS Academy for Data Science, gaining a tertiary credit for SAS professional certifications. Global analytics vendor SAS signed a memorandum of understanding with the University to significantly expand the relationship between the two parties. The agreement provides for students of the Information Technology and Electrical Engineering faculty to study SAS Academy courses "SAS Certified Big Data Professional" or "SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional" and gain a credit towards their degree as well as attaining the SAS certification. Additionally, by earning these SAS qualifications, students can opt to be listed in the global SAS Certified Professionals Directory. SAS has long played a part in tertiary curriculum decades, even, and with its own roots in academia but this is the first time SAS certifications have been offered as electives with credit towards a degree. ITEEs head of Data Science Professor Shazia Sadiq said, As the demand for qualified data scientists increases, UQs flagship postgraduate program in Data Science, which commenced in 2017, is attracting top students due to its technical and advanced focus. Through this newly established relationship with SAS, UQ students can gain credit equivalent to one university course (out of 16) towards their Master of Data Science. This collaboration with SAS represents an opportunity to add a new dimension to the students CV. SAS vice-president for Australia and New Zealand, David Bowie, said, The dearth of qualified data scientists is worldwide and as more and more organisations look to their data for insights to decision making, the problem is growing. SAS analytics technology is already widely entrenched in both the private and public sectors in Australia, so graduates benefitting from this initiative will be well received by a hungry job market. NEMO conference in Malta on challenges to European museums MUZA museum hosting, with 150 professionals in cultural heritage (ANSAmed) - NAPLES, OCTOBER 10 - About 150 professionals in the field of museums and cultural heritage throughout Europe are set to participate in the 26th annual Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO) conference in Valletta, Malta, from November 15 to 18. The conference brings together museum and cultural heritage directors from European museum institutions, and the Maltese city was chosen this year because it is one of the two European Capitals of Culture for 2018. The city will host three days of debates and meetings on the current challenges facing European museums, as well as sharing of best practices, experiences and building online collaborations. The conference will take place at MUZA, the new art museum in Malta's capital city, which during the conference will highlight its various initiatives in the field of cultural heritage. For the NEMO network, the conference is also a chance to promote involvement from museums across Europe in shared initiatives. European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Tibor Navracisics, will participate in a discussion at the conference's opening session. Work during the conference will focus on the responsibility of museums in responding to social questions such as the environment and migration, as well as topics such as research and innovation, to create added value through the network of cultural institutions.(ANSAmed). The Australian Labor Party's support for the government's encryption Bill will be an indicator of whether it supports big technology companies in the US or the Australian people, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claims. In a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday in connection with the Crime Stoppers National Conference which is being held in the nation's capital Dutton said the bill could only become law if it was supported in the Senate by Labor. "We want bipartisan support for key national security bills, but this is one where [Shadow Attorney-General] Mark Dreyfus is playing games and [Opposition leader Bill] Shorten needs to exert his authority and support the Bill," Dutton said in a long speech, which took a much more moderate tone than one in February, where he threatened companies which refused to decrypt communications when asked. "The decision for Mr Shorten is whether he supports the Silicon Valley multi-billion dollar companies or whether he's on the side of protecting Australians, and we have countless live investigations, right this very day, being hampered by the limitation in the current law and it is time to change this law," he said. Dutton introduced the bill into Parliament on 20 September, just 10 days after the period for public comment on the draft ended. One day was initially set aside for a hearing before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, but there are indications now that this will be increased. The Labor Party has not said yet whether it will support the bill, but Dreyfus told iTWire last month that the party would engage in a "constructive dialogue" with the government over the Bill. On Tuesday, Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told a Sydney conference that the Bill required much more measured debate than what the government seemed to want. Dutton's speech went over all the old arguments he has made in the past, with child pornography and terrorism prominent. "Terrorists and criminals are using encrypted communications to avoid detection and disruption and it makes the task of conducting an investigation, to say nothing of disrupting terror attacks or criminal activity, more difficult than it has ever been," Dutton said. "Society has long seen value in enabling our law enforcement agencies to access telephone communications and related data with the appropriate warrants and justifiable cause. Now, this is legitimate activity that helps to protect our community. So it defies common sense that this access should be denied simply because the mode of communication has changed." He slammed "multi-billion dollar Silicon Valley companies" whom he said were opposing the Bill. These were "the same companies that need to be hounded to pay tax in Australia and other jurisdictions, and the same companies who have misused personal data to commercial advantage", Dutton said. "And it should be noted, these yes, are the same companies who protest about having to help police with the encryption problem, whilst operating their businesses in less democratic countries and accepting at the same time a compromise on privacy to allow their presence in those growth markets." Dutton also went into detail on organised crime, both national and international, money laundering and drug trafficking in his speech. The draft of the proposed legislation, officially known as the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018, was released for public comment on 14 August. The period for comment ended on 10 September and as of Wednesday morning, the government had released 343 submissions online. Telstra tells us that its customers "will soon be able to get their hands on the new Google Pixel 3 and the Google Pixel 3 XL, Googles latest flagship smartphones". "Available for pre-order from today, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL will boast smarter AI powered features and an even more impressive camera for effortless and stunning photography, with unlimited online photo storage until 2022 in Google Photos. "The Google Pixel 3 will also work with Telstra Messaging, the next generation in messaging technology. Using Rich Communication Services (RCS), Telstra Pixel 3 customers will be able to access a number of new features including group chat, file transfer and location sharing." You can see my article featuring the full keynote and plenty more videos of the Google Pixel 3 smartphones, the new Home Hub with display and the as-yet unavailable Google Pixel Slate tablet with touch-capable Chrome OS here We're told that "Pixel 3 also comes with an 18 Watt fast charger in the box, which provides up to 7 hours of use in 15 minutes of charging. With its AI-powered Adaptive Battery technique, Pixel 3 prioritises battery power for the owners most important apps to help make their phone last longer". "Customers will also be able to search what they see. Using Google Lens they will be able to look up similar clothes, furniture, and home decor, copy and translate text, identify landmarks, plants and even dogs. Additionally, Pixel 3 comes with Google Assistant so owners can find traffic and weather information, search the web or control their Google Pixel 3 with voice commands." Steve Dance, Telstra Connected Devices and Accessories principal, said, Following the popularity of the previous Pixel smartphones with our customers, were really excited to be launching the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL on Australias best mobile network. "We think customers are going to love the impressive camera, long-lasting battery and AI powered features such as the Google Assistant and Google Lens. Telstra's customers who take up "the Google Pixel 3 64GB on the $99 Mobile Lease Plan with a $0 monthly handset lease payment (Min cost $2,376 over 24 months when handset returned in good working order) will receive 30GB of mobile data as well as Peace of Mind Data which is speed capped at 1.5Mps (which is not suitable for HD video or high speed applications, and means that some web pages, video/social media content and files may take longer to load) and slowed further during busy periods". "For personal use in a smartphone in Australia only, is not shareable and the FairPlay Policy applies. "Peace of Mind Data allows customers to stream SD videos and music, and stay in touch on social media while on the go, without worrying about extra data charges if they exceed the monthly data allowance. The speeds customers actually receive may vary depending on a range of factors including their device, location, user numbers and download sources. "Customers will also receive a bonus Google Home Mini (RRP $79) when they pre-order or purchase the Google Pixel 3 at Telstra before 25 December, for an integrated home and mobile Google experience. Subject to stock availability instore and online. "Customers will also receive all the great extras exclusively available to Telstra mobile customers like data-free streaming of AFL, NRL, Netball and A-League and access to Australias largest and fastest mobile network. Based on national average mobile speeds." For more plans and pre-order information visit Telstra here. Regarding the "free unlimited online original-quality storage for all photos and videos", this means photos and videos uploaded to Google Photos taken from Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL through 31/1/2022. Photos and videos taken from Pixel 3 and/or Pixel 3 XL and uploaded before 31/1/2022". More things Telstra says you need to know: Samsung is launching a mystery Galaxy smartphone at 5pm in Malaysia, which is 8pm in Sydney, 10am in London, 2am in San Francisco and 5am in New York. Is it a smartphone with four cameras? It is the mythical foldable smartphone? Some say the former, others say the latter will also be launched, which means two phone launches, or maybe more! Maybe it's a precursor to a phone with five cameras, but Nokia is rumoured to be doing that, and I predicted in an April Fool's joke earlier this year that this year's iPhone would have six cameras, but that, of course, hasn't happened or at least, not yet. Whatever is launched, for once, Americans will have to wake up in the early hours of the morning to watch a smartphone launch, with events like Apple's launching normally happening at 3am in Sydney. Obviously, the time of launch is different around the world, but with Samsung's mystery Galaxy 4x fun launch happening at a much friendlier 8pm in my time zone of Sydney Australia, it will be nice to not have to be up at crazy early morning hours just to see the latest and greatest. Of course, this is likely to be a once off next time, Samsung will presumably be launching in New York, Berlin, London or Barcelona once more, or some other location on the other side of the planet, but hey, every once in a while, it's nice for the time zones to work in the Southern Hemisphere's favour. Now, one thing's for sure it has been smartphone launching season, with Samsung having recently launched its best Android handset yet, the Note 9, followed by Apple launching its best iPhones yet with the iPhone Xs and Xs Max. Last week, LG launched its best-ever smartphone, the V40, while HTC's best with Edge Sense capability being the U12+ launched earlier this year. This morning as I type, Google launched its purest and most capable Android smartphones with its Pixel 3 and 3 XL models, and tomorrow night as I type, 11 October, Samsung's third flagship phone for the year will finally arrive. The company posted an article dubbed "How to Watch A Galaxy Event from Anywhere", with Samsung noting that "theres just a day to go before Samsung Electronics hosts A Galaxy Event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia". "At the event, the company will unveil the latest in the Galaxy series a device that offers even more ways to express yourself and capture the fun. "For those who are not able to attend, make sure you catch it all live by tuning in on October 11 at 5 p.m. MYT via any of the links detailed below." You can tune in via Samsungs "Official Websites", being the Samsung Newsroom, Samsung.com or Samsung Mobile Press when the event begins. You can also tune in on Facebook, via the Samsung Newsroom or Samsung Mobile Facebook pages when the event begins. Want to tune in on Twitter? You can do that, too just visit the Samsung Mobile Twitter page when the event begins. We're reminded that you can also "check back in to Samsung Newsrooms Galaxy page for all the latest updates on the lineups newest addition". Telecommunications services provider MNF Group will boost its customer base by 500 wholesale service providers with the proposed acquisition of Inabox, in a deal it says is synergistic to both companies. MNF has briefed investors on the planned acquisition of Inaboxs wholesale telecommunications and enablement business in the proposed deal, valued at between $30.5 million and $33.5 million. As reported by iTWire on Monday, MNF Group (ASX: MNF) has entered into an agreement to acquire the wholesale and enablement business from Inabox Group (ASX: IAB), and on Wednesday briefed investors, telling them there was a strong synergy with Inabox, both from a product perspective and also from a network, technical and software perspective. Described by MNF as strategically a very good fit, the company says the deal, with a combination of the initial consideration of $30.5 million before completion and an earn out based on Inabox commercialising certain deals and bringing them to market is a win win situation for both companies. MNF is bullish on the future post-acquisition, predicting net profits after tax to increase from $11.9 million in the current financial year to about $16.5 million by 2020. But the acquisition still needs shareholder approval before MNF brings Inabox into the fold to add new brands to its existing roster of brands including Mynetfone, Symbio Networks and PennyTel. If Inabox shareholders approve the deal, MNF Group will expand its portfolio with a raft of Inabox brands including iVox, Neural Networks, Telcoinabox, Symmetry Networks and Mobile Service Solutions. All 84 Inabox employees will join MNF, with the exception of chief executive Damian Kay and chief financial officer Deborah Zimmer. During Wednesdays investor briefing, MNF said integration of the two companies was complex and it didnt expect synergies from the deal to kick in until 2020. As part of the deal, MNF says it will move Melbourne and Sydney staff of Inabox to its own offices in both cities. In August, MNF Group reported a net profit after tax of $11.9 million for the financial year ending June, with revenue of $220.7 million, the latter figure being an increase of 15% on the previous financial year. The company also reported profit for FY2018 was down 1.7% attributing this to its one-off investment in the Pennytel brand launch of $2.3 million but reporting gross margin rose 18% to $69 million. Investment in emerging technologies by New Zealand electricity companies is still relatively small, with most companies to date just focusing on research and development, according to the countrys competition enforcement agency, the Commerce Commission. Commerce Commission deputy chair Sue Begg says Vector is the largest investor, devoting about 5% of its overall regulated expenditure to emerging technologies compared with the industry average of 1%. As this expenditure is still embryonic, we have not yet formed views on how these investments might be affecting competition in markets adjacent to electricity networks, Begg said. As you would expect, there is strong interest in electric vehicle chargers, with NZ$5 million invested to date in this technology. But there is uncertainty about the impact EVs will have on networks in the near future and the ability of lines companies to manage increased loads. This will depend on the pace of technological advancement in terms of battery range and charging speed, as well as the affordability of EVs for New Zealanders. From the information weve gathered, its also apparent that some lines companies are unsure about how to treat their investments under the current regulations. We believe some may be inappropriately recovering the cost through their existing regulated services and we will be seeking to better understand the reasoning for the approaches they have taken. Begg said the Commission wanted to learn more about the technologies lines companies were investing in, what impact the technologies were having on their respective networks, and how they were accounting for their investments within the current regulatory regime. According to Begg, the data on line companies gathered by the Commission may help inform the governments electricity pricing review. In May this year, the Commission published an open letter outlining its intention to gather information from lines companies to better understand how they are planning, investing and accounting for emerging technologies. The letter also reminded lines companies about: Apparently undeterred by strong criticism of a supply chain attack story it published last week, Bloomberg has put out another yarn, dealing with a similar theme, this time about a "major US telecommunications company" that allegedly encountered doctored hardware made by the US company Supermicro Computer. Tuesday's story, written by Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley the same reporters who filed a yarn last week claiming that chips are being implanted by a Chinese contractor on server motherboards sold by Supermicro and being used to spy on some companies alleges that a security expert working for the telco in question found evidence of tampering. Last week's story has been met with strong denials from Apple and Amazon, two companies named as being affected. It has also been contradicted by the US Department of Homeland Security and the British National Cyber Security Centre. Additionally, a senior Apple security official wrote to the US Congress directly saying there was no evidence to back Bloomberg's claims while a former general counsel of the company said he had asked the FBI about the charges and been told that the agency knew nothing about it. Yikes, the latest Bloomberg cyber story is even worse - doubles down on prior tale, then fronts a dude claiming hijacked Ethernet ports - which makes little to no sense and again has no evidence. Then tries to frame China as admitting everything. Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) October 9, 2018 In Tuesday's story, headlined "New evidence of hacked Supermicro hardware found in US telecom", Bloomberg cited Yossi Appleboum, whom it described as a security expert working for Sepio Systems and a former hacker with the Israeli Army Intelligence Corps, as saying "unusual communications from a Supermicro server and a subsequent physical inspection revealed an implant built into the servers Ethernet connector, a component that's used to attach network cables to the computer". The story did not name the US telco in question. The website Motherboard said it had contacted 10 major American providers and the four biggest companies AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile had denied they had been attacked. CenturyLink also issued a denial. Bloomberg included a statement from Supermicro in Tuesday's story, again denying that any of its hardware had been compromised. The company said: "We are dismayed that Bloomberg would give us only limited information, no documentation, and half a day to respond to these new allegations. To that, Bloomberg said Supermicro had been given 24 hours to respond. The story also mentioned that Supermicro shares had fallen 47% after the first story on Thursday last week. After the new story appeared, the company's stock fell by 27%. As iTWire has reported, citing a Business Insider story from 2013, Bloomberg has a practice of paying higher annual bonuses to those who write stories that move markets. The first story resulted in Lenovo shares falling by as much as 23% across Asia on Friday, while the stocks of ZTE Corporation, China's biggest telecommunications equipment maker, fell by about 14% in Hong Kong trading. And both Apple and Amazon lost a little less than 2% of their value following the report. For the record, I have real problems with the sourcing on both stories. But I recognize that hardware and/or firmware modification is possible and China is in a great position to do both. The only way to detect either is network monitoring, which you should be doing anyway. Jake Williams (@MalwareJake) October 9, 2018 According to Tuesday's story, the tampering was done on an Ethernet connector, which it said appeared to be similar to a method used by the NSA, the details of which were leaked in 2013. Further, it said that this made the server that had tampered equipment appear as two devices on the network. "The legitimate server was communicating one way, and the implant another, but all the traffic appeared to be coming from the same trusted server, which allowed it to pass through security filters," is how it was described. Meanwhile, in a development related to last Thursday's story, hardware security expert Joe Fitzpatrick, who was briefly quoted by Bloomberg in that story, gave an interview to the podcast Risky Business in which he said he was not comfortable with the story. Fitzpatrick also said that it appeared that various hypothetical situations he had outlined to Robertson had been adapted in the story to appear as if they had actually transpired. "It was surprising to me that in a scenario where I would describe these things and then he would go and confirm these and 100 percent of what I described was confirmed by sources," was how he put it. And he hinted that the report may have cited him as an anonymous source at a different point in the story from the place where he was quoted. Google has announced that it has mounted a challenge to a 4.3 billion (US$5 billion) fine levied on it by the European Union in July, for allegedly breaching anti-trust rules over its Android mobile operating system. Reuters reported that the company had told it in an email: We have now filed our appeal of the ECs Android decision at the General Court of the EU." Google had indicated at the time the fine was imposed that it would appeal to the second highest court in Europe. In its appeal, the company cited arguments advanced by chief executive Sundar Pichai in a blog post when the fine was levied. The outcome of this appeal can be again contested, but only on points of law, in Europe's top court, the Court of Justice of the European Union. At the time the fine was imposed, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: "Today, mobile Internet makes up more than half of global internet traffic. It has changed the lives of millions of Europeans. "Our case is about three types of restrictions that Google has imposed on Android device manufacturers and network operators to ensure that traffic on Android devices goes to the Google search engine. "In this way, Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine. These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits. "They have denied European consumers the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere. This is illegal under EU anti-trust rules." The July fine was the second levied by the EU on Google. In June last year, Google was fined 2.42 billion (US$2.7 billion) for allegedly abusing its search engine dominance to give illegal advantage to its own comparison shopping service. The company has appealed against this fine. A third fine is said to be in the EU pipeline, this for alleged anti-business practices involving Google's AdSense advertising system. The EU has also floated the idea of breaking up Google into a number of smaller units, with Vestager saying the political bloc harbours "grave suspicions" about the firm's dominance of the search market. Brussels is not the only one to fine Google for anti-business practices. In February, the Competition Commission of India fined the company 135.86 crore rupees (about US$21.1 million) for "abusing its dominant position in online general Web search and Web search advertising services in India". Google and other big multinational technology companies are also under pressure over alleged tax evasion, with the European Commission having unveiled a proposal to tax these companies at a rate of 3% as an interim measure. Graphic: courtesy the European Union Mobile service provider Lycamobile has paid a $12,600 penalty after failing to follow an ACMA direction to comply with the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code. As reported by iTWire in February this year, Lycamobile received a rap on the knuckles from the Australian Communications and Media Authority, following an investigation by the authority that found the company had failed to keep any records of due response dates for its complaints, and failing to lodge its annual documents in compliance with the Code. The required documents are assessed by the industrys independent compliance monitoring body, Communications Compliance. The Code is designed to ensure good service and fair outcomes for all Australian consumers of telecommunications products, said ACMA acting chair Creina Chapman. The lodgement of annual compliance documents is an important industry obligation as it provides information about a telcos processes and systems to ensure it adheres to the Code. In 2017, 358 suppliers submitted code compliance documents to the ACMA which investigated suppliers that failed to submit documents by the due date and then issued five directions to comply with the Code, seven formal warnings and one infringement notice. While it is encouraging that many suppliers complied with the code, this is a timely reminder that the ACMA will take action against any that dont meet their obligations, Chapman said. Chapman noted that all telecommunications providers supplying telecommunications services or products to residential or small business customers were required to comply with the Code. Where the ACMA finds a breach of the Code, it can issue a formal warning or a direction to comply with code provisions and if a telco does not follow a direction to comply, the ACMA can give an infringement notice or commence proceedings in the Federal Court to recover a pecuniary penalty. Wi-Fi experts from Cisco, Aruba, Ekahau, Extreme Networks and Mist Systems talked with Craig Mathias, principal with advisory firm Farpoint Group, about Wi-Fi performance optimization. Based on those interviews, a few best practices for establishing and maintaining optimal WLAN performance clearly jump out. For more details see our feature: Experts offer tips for boosting Wi-Fi performance Perform Wi-Fi needs analysis Start with an initial needs analysis, with a careful enumeration of requirements relating to throughput, applications and coverage. Experiment with potential equipment in the production freespace environment to establish a baseline for initial performance expectations and evaluation. Add in the impact of any planned or even anticipated infrastructure additions, new applications and growth in numbers of users and devices. Set reasonable Wi-Fi performance expectations Assume the availability of no more than 50% of peak specified product throughput given the baseline technology (such as 802.11ac Wave 2), channel bandwidth and assumed client density in any given location. Be judicious about Wi-Fi site surveys Avoid detailed site surveys except in settings where RF-related challenges are suspected hospitals, power plants and facilities with unusual building construction, for example. A sweep with a spectrum analyzer to understand interference and RF propagation behavior is always useful, and occasional exploration with an independent assurance tool is also often valuable as well. Explore enterprise Wi-Fi product features A massive range of useful functionality is integrated into the management console of enterprise-class Wi-Fi system. Plowing through hundreds of settings and features GAZA - Gaza's power plant has resumed activity at maximum capacity on Wednesday, following a delivery of fuel donated by Qatar that came to Gaza from Israel on Tuesday, with help from the UN. Additional fuel is expected to arrive Wednesday and in the coming weeks. Local sources said Gaza residents have already seen a slight improvement in electricity provided to their homes on Wednesday, from four hours of electricity to six hours. Meanwhile, Hamas has gone back to accusing the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) of trying to block the fuel supply. "The government of Rami Hamdallah spares no efforts in suffocating the people of Gaza," said Fawzi Barhum, a Hamas spokesman. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will support the efforts of UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov to reduce tensions between Gaza and Israel. The PNA fears that cooperation between Israel and Qatar is part of international plans aimed at widening the fracture between the West Bank and Gaza. Incendiary balloons have burned 1,200 hectares in Israel Jewish National Fund says 1,053 fires in last six months (ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, OCTOBER 10 - Incendiary kites and balloons launched from Gaza have burned 1,200 hectares (12,000 dunams) of farmland and forests in Jewish areas around the Gaza Strip, according to the Jewish National Fund (KKL). It spoke of a natural disaster due to 1,053 fires caused by the devices launched from Gaza. KKL said most of the fires (452) have been in the Be'eri forest, with 353 in the Kissufim forest and 75 in the Shokeda forest. In addition to woodlands hit by the fires, wild animals living there have also been affected. Experts estimate it will take years to recover from the current situation. Israeli news website Ynet said three fires were caused by incendiary kites launched from Gaza on Wednesday alone. It said an incendiary balloon was found on Wednesday morning at a Jerusalem construction site, and firefighters were called to the scene to extinguish it.(ANSAmed). BEIRUT - Jordan has once again postponed reopening its commercial border crossing with Syria, despite pressure from the Syrian government and its ally Russia, according to pan-Arab media sources. Sources said the Jordanian government said it needs "other meetings between the parties" in order to reopen the Nassib crossing, one of the main trade corridors in the entire Middle East, which closed due to the civil war in neighbouring Syria. In recent days, Syrian media reported the Syria government was ready for the reopening of the crossing connecting Damascus and Amman. Lebanese goods, for example, reach Saudi Arabia by land passing through Syria and Jordan, and other trade products from various countries in the region also pass through Nassib. Pan-Arab and Lebanese media recently reported Lebanese and Russian government pressure on Jordan to reopen the crossing. Media sources said Moscow is interested in strengthening the winning image of the Syrian government and Syrian President Bashar al Assad. The same sources said Jordan, allied with the United States, does not have the same interests as Russia and prefers to postpone the crossing's reopening for political, and not technical, reasons. The Nassib crossing was closed at the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, after anti-government militias in the country's south took control of broad areas along the border with Jordan. BRUSSELS - NGOs that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean are among the three finalists shortlisted for the 2018 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, which will be announced on October 25 at the EU Council of Presidents meeting. The other two finalists are Ukranian director Oleg Sentsov and Moroccan political activist Nasser Zefzafi. The awards ceremony will take place in Strasbourg on December 12. The three finalists were selected by European Parliament members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Development. Created in 1988 to honour people and associations that fight for human rights, the Sakharov Prize celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. In 2017, the prize was awarded to "Democratic Opposition in Venezuela" against President Maduro. Register with JOC.com and receive 5 free pieces of content for the first thirty days. After thirty days, you will receive 3 pieces of content and after sixty days you will receive 1 piece of content. To receive full access, Subscribe Today . You can also subscribe to our daily newsletter. Register Moroccan Navy fires at migrant boat, one wounded 16-year-old injured in second such incident (ANSAmed) - ROME, OCTOBER 10 - A Moroccan Navy ship has opened fire to block a vessel carrying 60 migrants off Gibraltar, wounding a 16-year-old boy, local broadcaster 2M reports. According to military sources, the Moroccan ship ''only fired in the air''. The incident occurred between Larache and Asilah, in front of the country's western Atlantic coast. On September 25, a Moroccan Navy vessel opened fire on a vessel, killing a young woman and wounding three migrants. (ANSAmed) NYT reports Saudi journalist killed and dismembered with saw Turkish security official compares it to film Pulp Fiction (ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 10 - Turkish security officials said Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared eight days ago after entering the Saudi consolate in Istanbul, was killed and dismembered with a bone saw by a team of Saudi agents at the consolate, the New York Times reported. It said a Turkish official compared the episode to the film Pulp Fiction. Sources reported Khashoggi's body was brought out of the consolate and hidden in a black minivan. Meanwhile, pro-Turkish government private broadcaster Kanal 24 showed the last images of the Saudi journalist as he entered the consolate, as well as images of a black van that left shortly thereafter, maintaining that Khashoggi's body was inside the van. It said the van traveled about two kilometres and then parked in a garage at the Saudi consul's residence. The Saudi government maintains that Turkey's accusations are "baseless".(ANSAmed). Today Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 29F. Winds light and variable. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 29F. Winds light and variable. Tomorrow Sunny. High 62F. Winds light and variable. Isolated in darkness, surrounded by ocean, and no guarantee of making it home alive. Such we TORONTO, Oct. 9, 2018 /CNW/ - Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. ("Cobalt 27" or the "Company") (TSXV: KBLT)(OTCQX: CBLLF)(FRA: 27O), is pleased to announce that its common shares are now trading on the OTCQX Best Market, a U.S. market operated by OTC Markets Group in New York, under the symbol CBLLF. Cobalt 27's common shares will continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol KBLT, and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 27O. "As the leading electric metals investment vehicle, Cobalt 27 offers direct exposure to metals integral to electric vehicles and grid energy storage systems. Trading on the OTCQX, will provide Cobalt 27 with a platform to expand our U.S. shareholder profile and allow a broader group of investors to participate in the global market for battery metals through Cobalt 27's targeted cobalt and nickel metal streams, royalties and physical cobalt position," commented Anthony Milewski, Chairman and CEO. The OTCQX Best Market provides added service, value and convenience to U.S. investors, brokers and institutions seeking to trade CBLLF. The OTCQX Best Market is OTC Markets Group's premier market for established, investor-focused U.S. and international companies. To be eligible, companies must meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance, demonstrate compliance with U.S. securities laws, be current in their disclosure, and have a professional third-party sponsor introduction. Cobalt 27 is in the process of securing Depository Trust Company ("DTC") eligibility for its common shares. DTC manages electronic clearing and settlement of publicly traded companies across the United States and in 131 other countries. Trading through DTC allows for cost-effective clearing and guaranteed settlement, simplifying and accelerating the settlement process of daily trades. U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com/stock/CBLLF/quote. The Company also announces the retirement of John Kanellitsas from the Board of Directors, in order to focus his efforts as Executive Vice Chairman of Lithium Americas Corp., including the development of its Cauchari-Olaroz project in Argentina, and his primary responsibility for managing the company's recently announced collaboration with Ganfeng Lithium. Mr. Kanellitsas has agreed to continue his contributions to Cobalt 27 in the capacity of a member of the Company's Advisory Board. About Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. is a leading electric metals investment vehicle offering exposure to metals integral to key technologies of the electric vehicle and battery energy storage markets. The Company has acquired a cobalt stream on Vale's world-class Voisey's Bay mine beginning in 2021, including the announced underground expansion, is acquiring the world's first producing cobalt nickel stream on the low-cost, long-life Ramu Nickel-Cobalt Mine, and holds one of the World's largest stockpiles of physical cobalt. The Company also manages a portfolio of nine royalties and intends to continue to invest in a cobalt-focused portfolio of streams, royalties and direct interests in mineral properties containing cobalt. For further information please visit the Company website at www.cobalt27.com or contact: Betty Joy LeBlanc, BA, MBA Director, Corporate Communications +1-604-828-0999 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 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. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release. Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains certain information which constitutes 'forward-looking statements' and 'forward-looking information' within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements pertaining to the Company's listing on The OTCQX Best Market. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, most of which are beyond the Company's control. For more details on these and other risk factors see the Company's most recent Annual Information Form on file with Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the heading "Risk Factors". Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties underlying these forward-looking statements materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this release and, other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise it to reflect new events or circumstances. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. MONTREAL, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Auxico Resources Canada Inc. (CSE: AUAG) is pleased to announce results from a recent sampling campaign carried out on Auxicos Mina Villa Kelly Property located in Colombia. Two channel samples were taken on the 22m level 25m apart along the drift with the last sample in the drift No. M-8428.10-2 cutting 60cm of 148 g/t Au (4.76 oz/t Au). Twenty-five metres before M-8428-10-2 which was at the end of the tunnel, sample M-8428-9-2 also cut a 60cm wide quartz vein retuning 66.6 g/t Au (2.14 oz/t Au); the vein averages 107.3 g/t Au (3.45 oz/t Au) along the 25m section in the drift at the 22m level. A total of seven veins have been identified on the Villa Kelly Property so far. Pursuant to an Amended Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on July 9th, 2018 between Aucito SAS represented by Ricardo Joya Mejia and Auxico (referred to as the Parties), the Parties have agreed to extend the due diligence period to December 31, 2018, at which point a joint venture will be formalized by executing a joint venture (JV) agreement. An exploration plan and production plan will form part of the JV agreement in accordance with the MOU previously signed between the Parties. The Companys Qualified Person, Mr. Joel Scodnick, had discussions with the local Colombian geologist Mr. Miguel Jaramillo who was hired by Auxico, the same person who conducted the sampling program at Mina Villa Kelly, and who indicated that along this 25m in the drift, the vein showed intense hydrothermal activity and was characterized by heavy sulphide concentrations of pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, and sphalerite, and that the mineralization was noted to be homogenous throughout the observed vein. These results are very encouraging. Geological observations on the 22m level are showing that the alteration and structural controls are increasing with depth, as well as the grade. The Villa Kelly vein has been observed to open up to 1.2m in width. Besides running the material through the mill from the underground workings, Auxico intends to process the ore currently being mined by about 40 artisanal miners on the property. Visible gold has been observed on the property. On the Mina Villa Kelly Property, according to the Optionor of the property and Miguel Jaramillo, there are a total of six small scale artisanal operations exploiting four veins, Villa Kelly, Falla el Cemeterio, La Gallera, and Cerro Pelea. Assays have just been received from a brief site visit conducted by Auxicos independent geologist from July 2nd to July 5th, 2018. The program was conducted in order to examine previous work, showings, vein systems, artisanal mines, as well as underground workings. Additional information on Auxico can be found on the Companys website (www.auxicoresources.com) or on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under Auxico Resources Canada Inc. The recent site visit report on the Mina Villa Kelly Property can be found in the Companys website. Qualified Person This news release was reviewed and approved by Joel Scodnick, P.Geo., an independent consultant to Auxico, in his capacity as a Qualified Person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS signed Mark Billings President, Auxico Resources Canada Inc. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Cell: +1 514 296 1641 About Auxico Resources Canada Inc. Auxico Resources Canada Inc. (Auxico) is a Canadian company that was founded in 2014 and based in Montreal. Auxico is engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Colombia and Mexico. The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the contents of this release. Torrential rains in Majorca cause five deaths Five missing, two victims British tourists (ANSAmed) - ROME, OCTOBER 10 - At least five people have died in Majorca as a result of torrential rainfall that has hit the island in recent hours, said Spanish daily El Pais. It said there are also five people missing. Four of the victims, two of whom were British tourists, were killed in Sant Llorenc, the hardest-hit town, which is located 60 km from the capital city of Palma, according to the town's mayor. The fifth victim died in the city of S'illot. Authorities on the island have deployed 80 soldiers and seven emergency-service army vehicles to the hardest-hit areas, and over 100 rescue workers were on the scene overnight. Schools are closed in at least three of the island's cities, and hundreds of people who have been evacuated from their homes are sheltering inside a race track and an indoor arena. According to the Spanish weather service, on Tuesday some parts of Majorca received 22 centimetres of rainfall in four hours. Rain is forecast on Wednesday for the entire eastern side of the Iberian peninsula. On Twitter, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the flooding "devastating" and is expected to survey the damage in the hardest-hit areas by helicopter on Wednesday.(ANSAmed). Investor Relations Manager Appointed VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Osino Resources Corp. (TSXV: OSI) ("Osino or the Company), is pleased to announce the appointment of David Hodgson and Lazarus Shigwedha as Independent Directors to the Board of Osino. David Hodgson was co-Director alongside with Osinos founders and officers, Heye Daun and Alan Friedman on the Board of Auryx Gold Corp., from inception of that company until the time of its sale to B2 Gold Corp. in 2012. He formerly held a series of senior and executive positions over three decades with the Anglo American and De Beers group of companies, including the post of Chief Operating Officer of AngloGold Ashanti from November 2001 through to his retirement in April 2005. In addition, he has held non-executive directorships at Moto Gold Mines, Uranium One, Goliath Gold Mining, Montero Mining and Exploration, and Acacia Mining. David is currently a non-executive Director on the Board of AngloGold-Ashanti. Lazarus Shigwedha is a Namibian-born emerging markets and frontier portfolio manager with Investec Asset Management in Cape Town. He has deployed capital into emerging markets over the last 12 years, particularly into cement, infrastructure and resources. He has broad investment experience across sectors such as Banking, FMCG, Telcos and REITSs in jurisdictions such as Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Namibia, South East Asia and South America. Lazarus is also an active personal and institutional investor in Namibia. These appointments follow the resignation of David Toyoda as Director of the Osino. The Company would like to thank Mr. Toyoda for his service. Heye Daun, Osinos CEO commented: We are very proud that David & Lazarus have agreed to join Osinos Board of Directors. We have a long and successful association with both of them. We believe that Osino will greatly benefit from Davids extensive mining and development experience across many jurisdictions and Lazaruss capital markets and finance knowledge, combined with his deep Namibian understanding and network, which will prove invaluable for Osinos evolution. The company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Julia Becker as Investor Relations Manager. Ms. Becker will oversee all investor relations and corporate communications functions for Osino. Ms. Becker brings 10 years business development and marketing communications experience to the Osino team. She has extensive experience developing and executing integrated investor and stakeholder communication strategies for publicly-traded companies across various sectors. Ms. Becker spent years leading Investor Relations for a Namibian oil and gas company and has knowledge and understanding of operating in the Country. The Company also announces the granting of stock options under its Stock Option Plan to purchase an aggregate of 1,294,101 common shares of the Company at an exercise price of $0.30 per share for a five year term. The stock options were granted to directors, officers, employees, and consultants, and are subject to any necessary regulatory approvals. The stock options are subject to vesting conditions as determined by the Board of Osino. About Osino Resources Osino Resources Corp. (TSXV: OSI) is a Canadian company, focused on the acquisition and development of gold projects in Namibia. Osinos Namibian interests comprise eighteen exclusive exploration licenses located within the central zone of Namibias prospective Damara belt, mostly in proximity to and along strike of the producing Navachab and Otjikoto Gold Mines. Osino is currently focusing its efforts on developing the Karibib Gold Project and defining new exploration targets in the Otjikoto East area and on our other licenses. The Karibib Gold Project is located approximately 130 km north-west of Namibias capital city Windhoek. By virtue of its location, the projects benefit significantly from Namibias well established infrastructure with paved highways, railway, power and water in close proximity. Namibia is mining-friendly and lauded as one of the continents most politically and socially stable jurisdictions. Osino continues to evaluate new ground with a view to expanding its Namibian portfolio. Further details are available on the Company's website at https://osinoresources.com/ CONTACT INFORMATION Osino Resources Corp. Heye Daun, CEO +27 (21) 418 2525 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Julia Becker: Manager, Investor Relations Tel: +1 (604) 785 0850 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the Policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Sky Uranium Corp. (TSX-V: BSK, FSE: MAL2; OTC: BKUCF), "Blue Sky" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that results from the recently completed reverse circulation (RC) drilling program have confirmed the southern expansion of the Ivana Uranium-Vanadium deposit on its wholly-owned Amarillo Grande Uranium-Vanadium project in Rio Negro, Argentina. Analytical results have been received to date from all 61 holes drilled (totaling 1,043 metres) in the recently completed RC drilling program. They demonstrate that the Ivana Uranium-Vanadium deposit extends more than 1,000 metres to the south of the current mineral resource (Thorson et al., April 18th 2018 filed on SEDAR). Highlight analytical results are compiled in Table 1 below. Table 2 (here) contains all significant intervals (>1m averaging >30ppm U 3 O 8 ) as well as drill hole location information. A map of drill holes is shown in Figure 1 (here). "We are pleased that drilling in the Ivana uranium-vanadium deposit area has demonstrated it is open to expansion outside of the current mineral resource, stated Nikolaos Cacos, Blue Sky President & CEO. Blue Sky continues to advance high-priority targets in the Ivana area while progressing the processing design and metallurgical test work to support a PEA. The Company continues to advance with its ongoing mineralogical, metallurgical, and process engineering studies at the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) under the guidance of the Companys Technical Advisor, Chuck Edwards P.Eng. The objectives of the work at SRC include confirming the balance of uranium and vanadium in the ore preparation, and optimizing the leach extraction rate and recovery, in support of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). The work will include QEMSCAN quantitative mineralogy testing and customized leach experiments. Preliminary QEMSCAN mineralogy was conducted in June and has aided in the design of the current metallurgical and process testing. Table 1. Amarillo Grande Highlight Drill Hole Intervals Hole # From (m) To (m) Interval (m)* U 3 O 8 (ppm) V 2 O 5 (ppm) AGI-0433 12 14 2 224 165 AGI-0434 10 13 3 131 103 including 10 11 1 258 143 AGI-0437 17 18 1 172 100 AGI-0444 18 21 3 103 60 AGI-0455 18 19 1 107 43 AGI-0459 18 21 3 104 123 including 19 20 1 183 137 AGI-0460 21 23 2 116 86 AGI-0464 14 15 1 380 98 *All holes were vertical and the intervals are believed to represent true thickness. Methodology and QA/QC The drilling program is being carried out using an FlexiROC D65 drill rig from Atlas Copco, an ore-control track-mounted rig adapted to reverse circulation with triple cyclone to reduce the dust loss during sampling and automatic sampling. Samples are being sent to Bureau Veritas Minerals of Mendoza, Argentina for preparation by drying, crushing to 80% passing 10 mesh and then pulverizing a 250g split to 95% passing 150 mesh. Pulps are being sent to Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd. for analysis of 45 elements by means of Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) following a four-acid digestion (MA-200). Samples over 4,000ppm uranium are re-assayed after phosphoric acid leach by Inductively Coupled Plasma Electron Spectrometry (ICP-ES). Approximately every 10th sample a blank, duplicate, or standard sample is inserted into the sample sequence for quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) purposes. No significant QA/QC issues were detected by the Company during review of the data. About the Amarillo Grande Project The Company's 100% owned Amarillo Grande Uranium-Vanadium Project in Rio Negro Province, Argentina is a new uranium district controlled by Blue Sky. The Project includes several major target areas over a regional trend, with uranium and vanadium mineralization in loosely consolidated sandstones and conglomerates, at or near surface. The area is flat-lying, semi-arid and accessible year-round, with nearby rail, power and port access. The Companys strategy includes delineating resources at multiple areas for which a central processing facility could consolidate production. The Ivana deposit is the cornerstone of the Project and the first area to have a NI 43-101 Inferred Resource estimate, which includes 23.9 million tonnes averaging 0.036% U 3 0 8 and 0.019% V 2 O 5 , containing 19.1 million pounds of U 3 O 8 and 10.2 million pounds of V 2 O 5 , at a 100 ppm uranium cut-off. Mineralization at Amarillo Grande has characteristics of sandstone-type and surficial-type uranium-vanadium deposits. The sandstone-type mineralization is related to a braided fluvial system and indicates the potential for a district-size system. In the surficial-type deposits, carnotite mineralization coats loosely consolidated pebbles, and is amenable to leaching and simple upgrading. The near-surface mineralization, ability to locally upgrade, amenability to leaching and central processing possibility suggest a potentially low-cost development scenario for a future deposit. For additional details on the project and properties, please see the Companys website: www.blueskyuranium.com. Qualified Person The results of the Company's drilling program have been reviewed, verified (including sampling, analytical and test data) and compiled by the Company's geological staff under the supervision of David Terry, Ph.D., P.Geo. Dr. Terry is a Director of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. The contents of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Dr. Terry. About Blue Sky Uranium Corp. Blue Sky Uranium Corp. is a leader in uranium discovery in Argentina. The Company's objective is to deliver exceptional returns to shareholders by rapidly advancing a portfolio of surficial uranium deposits into low-cost producers. Blue Sky has the exclusive right to over 434,000 hectares (equiv. to 1,072,437 acres) of property in two provinces in Argentina. The Companys flagship Amarillo Grande Project was an in-house discovery of a new district that has the potential to be both a leading domestic supplier of uranium to the growing Argentine market and a new international market supplier. The Company is a member of the Grosso Group, a resource management group that has pioneered exploration in Argentina since 1993. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Nikolaos Cacos ______________________________________ Nikolaos Cacos, President, CEO and Director For further information please contact: Corporate Communications Tel: 1-604-687-1828 Toll-Free: 1-800-901-0058 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Readers are encouraged to refer to the Company's public disclosure documents for a more detailed discussion of factors that may impact expected future results. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. We advise U.S. investors that the SEC's mining guidelines strictly prohibit information of this type in documents filed with the SEC. U.S. investors are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on our properties. Gold specimen stones recovered from Beta Hunt now on display at the Perth Mint TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2018 /CNW/ - RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX) ("RNC") is pleased to announce the first specimen slab from the top of the Father's Day Vein discovery area has been successfully recovered at the Beta Hunt Mine. The slab was cut in the field, revealing impressive visible gold and quartz structures. The slab, weighing approximately 90kg, is estimated to contain approximately 1,000 ounces of gold (see Figures 1, 2 and 3). The large slab will be cut into a series of smaller specimen slabs which will highlight the coarse gold and related mineral features (see Figure 3). Final weights and gold content will be determined for each specimen slab once all have been cut. Mining operations are continuing to remove a second large specimen slab from the face of the Father's Day Vein and will extract additional high grade coarse gold over the coming week. "We expect that these spectacular specimen slabs will be highly sought after by mineral specimen collectors. With a minimum of 30-35,000 ounces expected from the Father's Day Vein area, the company will be in a substantial net cash position to fully fund its upcoming activities. RNC will be able to accumulate smaller specimen stones as these are produced (based on the current faces, we expect that the next firings should generate a substantial number of specimen stones) and begin direct sales of these slabs and smaller specimens to the public, which we expect will allow us to capture the significant premiums above their gold content. Once the backlog of coarse gold at the Perth Mint has been processed, we expect to provide production results for the third quarter later next week. The technical team is continuing to advance their work on understanding the sediment structures in the mine, having already extended the known sediment structures by a total of 540 metres from the Father's Day Vein structure to the 1250 Level of the mine. I look forward to providing additional updates as this work continues." said Mark Selby, President and CEO of RNC. Beta Hunt Gold Specimens on Display at the Perth Mint RNC Minerals is pleased to report that the Perth Mint in Western Australia now has a number of the gold specimen stones recovered from the Father's Day Vein discovery on display to the public (see Figure 4). Six gold specimens, weighing almost 200 kg in total, are on display. We believe these are among the biggest of their kind ever unearthed in Australia. The specimens were put on display on October 6 and will remain on display for approximately three weeks. The display at the Perth Mint is testament to size, quality and uniqueness of the specimens recovered to date from Beta Hunt. The Perth Mint is Australia's largest fully integrated, innovative precious metals enterprise, providing premium gold, silver and platinum products and services to markets throughout the world. Figure 1: Estimated 90 kg gold specimen slab from the Father's Day Vein, recovered from the current air leg heading face, gold in quartz veining with pyritic sediments on upper right side. Figure 2: Gold specimen slab, cut with a diamond chain saw, exposing gold/quartz veining. Figure 3: Close up showing Father's Day Vein structure, gold in quartz, with porphyry, sediments and basalt. Figure 4: Gold specimen stones from the Beta Hunt Mine on display at the Perth Mint. The disclosure of scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Kevin Small, Vice-President, Project Development of RNC, a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. About RNC Minerals RNC has a 100% interest in the producing Beta Hunt gold mine located in Western Australia where a significant high grade gold discovery - "Father's Day Vein" - was recently made. RNC also has a 28% interest in a nickel joint venture that owns the Dumont Nickel-Cobalt Project located in the Abitibi region of Quebec which contains the second largest nickel reserve and eighth largest cobalt reserve in the world. RNC owns a 35% interest in Orford Mining Corporation, a mineral explorer focused on highly prospective and underexplored areas of Northern Quebec and the U.S. Carolina Gold Belt. RNC has a strong management team and Board with over 100 years of mining experience at Inco and Falconbridge. RNC's common shares trade on the TSX under the symbol RNX. RNC shares also trade on the OTCQX market under the symbol RNKLF. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking information" including without limitation statements relating to expected production and discovery results, related cash flows, the liquidity and capital resources of RNC, the potential of the Beta Hunt and Reed mines, as well as the and the potential of the Dumont development project and Orford Mining's Qiqavik, West Raglan, Jones-Keystone Loflin and Landrum-Faulkner exploration properties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of RNC to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals; the results of drilling; inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the properties; environmental liabilities (known and unknown); general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability, terrorism, insurrection or war; or delays in obtaining governmental approvals, projected cash operating costs, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to RNC's filings with Canadian securities regulators, including the most recent Annual Information Form, available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although RNC has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and RNC disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / Skeena Resources Limited (TSX-V: SKE, OTCQX: SKREF) (''Skeena'' or the ''Company'') is pleased to announce additional Au-Ag drill results for three drill holes from the ongoing Phase I surface drilling program at the Eskay Creek Project (''Eskay Creek'') located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. The multifaceted Phase I program is being performed in the historically drill defined 21A, 21C and 22 Zones. A cross section and tabled data are presented at the end of this release and on the Company's website. Eskay Creek Phase I Drilling Highlights 9.49 g/t Au, 111 g/t Ag, 10.97 g/t AuEq over 42.65 m (SK-18-009) Including: 17.35 g/t Au, 147 g/t Ag, 19.31 g/t AuEq over 19.65 m 5.93 g/t Au, 166 g/t Ag, 8.14 g/t AuEq over 36.25 m (SK-18-010) Including: 5.66 g/t Au, 296 g/t Ag, 9.61 g/t AuEq over 14.00 m 7.95 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag, 9.82 g/t AuEq over 33.60 m (SK-18-011) Gold Equivalent (AuEq) was calculated with the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 75]. Reported core lengths represent 80-100% of true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling. Length weighted AuEq composites were constrained by geological considerations as well as a calculated 1.0 g/t AuEq assay grade cutoff assuming reasonable prospects for economic extraction via open pit mining methods. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length weighted AuEq composites. Processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are disclosed at 100% due to a lack of supporting information. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero. Phase I Drilling Discussion The Phase I drilling program on the 21A, 21C and 22 Zones is designed to infill and improve definition in areas with low drill density to a drill spacing sufficient to allow for future economic analyses, and to collect fresh material for an upcoming metallurgical characterization and testing program. As no historical drill core remains for any zones at Eskay Creek, new material must be collected for this purpose. Overall, the metallurgical drilling program is designed to gather unbiased, representative material that is spatially distributed throughout the various zones that will ultimately be used to optimize future economic analyses. The 21A Zone represents a significant portion of the pit constrained resources hosted at Eskay Creek, containing Indicated Resources of 207,000 oz AuEq grading 5.9 g/t AuEq and Inferred Resources of 418,000 oz AuEq grading 4.6 g/t AuEq. Designed to infill an area of Inferred Resources, three drillholes were collared on section 10020N, all of which intersected continuous intervals of exhalative mudstone and footwall rhyolite hosted mineralization. Most notably, drillhole SK-18-009 intersected 9.49 g/t Au, 111 g/t Ag (10.97 g/t AuEq) over 42.65 metres including a subinterval within the mudstone averaging 17.35 g/t Au, 147 g/t Ag, (19.31 g/t AuEq) over 19.65 metres. Situated immediately downdip, Phase I drillholes SK-18-010 and SK-18-011 intersected 5.93 g/t Au, 166 g/t Ag (8.14 g/t AuEq) over 36.25 metres and 7.95 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag (9.82 g/t AuEq) over 33.60 metres respectively. The 21A Zone continues to demonstrate excellent geological and grade continuity and will be further infill drilled during the continuing Phase I program to 20 metre drill spacings to upgrade Inferred Resources to the Indicated category. The 21A Zone is currently drill defined over a large area measuring 420 m along strike and 180 m down dip with true widths ranging from 1 to 80 m in thickness. 21A and 21B Zones - Analogous Mineralization Styles The 21B Zone is geologically and geochemically equivalent to the 21A Zone and accounted for the bulk of mineralization historically mined at Eskay Creek. The 21B Zone occurs as a tabular, stratiform, fault bounded body characterized by well-bedded, reworked sulfides and sulfosalts interbedded with unmineralized, carbonaceous argillite (mudstone). In addition to the extremely high precious metal grades, Eskay Creek as a whole, particularly the 21A and 21B Zones, is distinguished from conventional VMS deposits by the association with elements of the epithermal suite (Sb-HgAs). Elevated concentrations of Sb-Hg-As in the 21A and 21B Zones are not evenly distributed throughout the zones but rather occur as isolated clusters due to later stage localized, hydrothermal overprinting. Although the bulk of the mined material was hosted in the contact mudstone, significant unmined mineralization exists in proximal feeder structures in the footwall rhyolites (21C and Pumphouse Zones). These zones differ geochemically from the 21A and 21B Zones in that they contain low levels of Sb-Hg-As as compared to those hosted in the contact mudstone. 21B Zone Historical Reconciliation Underground mining at Eskay Creek was performed using the drift and fill mining method with run of mine material either milled at site to generate a concentrate or as direct shipping ore (''DSO''), to smelters. Due to the elevated concentrations of Sb-Hg-As in the 21B Zone, smelter penalties were often prevented via blending with slightly less deleterious material hence diluting the penalty elements while maintaining a profitable head grade. Based upon historical internal technical reports from the Eskay Creek Mine, the parameters for determining reserves in 2006 were based upon a gold price of US$475.00 per ounce, a silver price of US$8.50 per ounce and a copper price of US$1.50 per pound. The determination of whether material was milled on site versus shipped directly to an offsite smelter was based on mercury concentrations less than 200 ppm and antimony concentrations less than 1% for onsite milling and greater than 200 ppm mercury and greater than 1% antimony for smelter DSO. The same 2006 mill performance report indicates metallurgical recoveries from onsite milling of the 21B Zone at 84% for gold and 96% for silver. Despite the substantial precious metal grades and base metal credits of the 21A Zone, in the opinion of the Company, the 21A Zone was historically uneconomic due to prevailing low commodity prices combined with smelter penalties and the necessary high cut-off grade used. As well, antimony was treated as a penalty element, but now has the potential to offer significant by-product credits. About Eskay Creek In December 2017, Skeena secured an option to acquire 100% interest in the Eskay Creek property. Discovered in the Golden Triangle in 1988, the former Eskay Creek mine produced approximately 3.3 million ounces of gold and 160 million ounces of silver at average grades of 45 g/t gold and 2,224 g/t silver and was once the world's highest-grade gold mine and fifth-largest silver mine by volume. A precious and base metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit, Eskay-style mineralization has been the focus of considerable exploration activity in the Golden Triangle dating back to 1932. Exploration programs in 1988 led to the discovery of the 21A and 21B zones, followed by underground development of the 21B zone starting in 1990 with the official opening of the Eskay Creek mine in 1994. Over the 14-year life of the mine, approximately 2.2 million tonnes of ore were mined with cut-off grades ranging from 12 to 15 g/t AuEq for mill ore and 30 g/t AuEq for direct shipping smelter ore. Eskay is endowed with excellent infrastructure including all-weather road access and proximity to the new 287-kilovolt Northwest Transmission Line. The Property consists of 8 mineral leases, 2 surface leases and several unpatented mining claims totaling 6,151 hectares. Eskay is in the traditional territory of the Tahltan Nation. Skeena has a positive working relationship with the Tahltan Central Government (''TCG'') and has signed Exploration and Communication Agreements with the TCG that cover the Company's other projects in Tahltan territory (see new releases dated September 25, 2017 and January 24, 2017). About Skeena Skeena Resources Limited is a junior Canadian mining exploration company focused on developing prospective precious and base metal properties in the Golden Triangle of northwest British Columbia, Canada. The Company's primary activities are the exploration and development of the past-producing Snip mine and the recently optioned Eskay Creek mine, both acquired from Barrick. In addition, the Company has completed a Preliminary Economic Assessment on the GJ copper-gold porphyry project. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Skeena Resources Limited, Walter Coles Jr. President & CEO Qualified Persons Exploration activities at the Eskay Creek Project are administered on site by the Company's Exploration Managers, Colin Russell, P.Geo. and Adrian Newton, P.Geo. In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Paul Geddes, P.Geo. Vice President Exploration and Resource Development, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting its exploration activities on its exploration projects. Quality Assurance - Quality Control Once received from the drill and processed, all drill core samples are sawn in half, labelled and bagged. The remaining drill core is subsequently securely stored on site. Numbered security tags are applied to lab shipments for chain of custody requirements. The Company inserts quality control (QC) samples at regular intervals in the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QAQC program was designed and approved by Lynda Bloom, P.Geo. of Analytical Solutions Ltd., and is overseen by the Company's Qualified Person, Paul Geddes, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and Resource Development. Drill core samples are submitted to ALS Geochemistry's analytical facility in North Vancouver, British Columbia for preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for gold assays and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is crushed and 1kg is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 50g fire assay fusion with atomic absorption (AAS) finish with a lower limit of 0.01 ppm and upper limit of 100 ppm. Samples with gold assays greater than 100ppm are re-analyzed using a 50g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish. Analysis for silver is by 50g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish with a lower limit of 5ppm and upper limit of 10,000ppm. Samples with silver assays greater than 10,000ppm are re-analyzed using a gravimetric silver concentrate method. A selected number of samples are also analyzed using a 48 multi-elemental geochemical package by a 4-acid digestion, followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and also for mercury using an aqua regia digest with Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish. Samples with sulfur reporting greater than 10% from the multi-element analysis are re-analyzed for total sulfur by Leco furnace and infrared spectroscopy. Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements Certain statements made and information contained herein may constitute ''forward looking information'' and ''forward looking statements'' within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. These statements and information are based on facts currently available to the Company and there is no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements and information may be identified by such terms as ''anticipates,'' ''believes,'' ''targets,'' ''estimates,'' ''plans,'' ''expects,'' ''may,'' ''will,'' ''could'' or ''would''. Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and other matters. While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or information except as may be required by applicable securities laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Table 1: Eskay Creek Project Phase I 21A Zone length weighted drill hole gold and silver composites: HOLE-ID FROM (M) TO (M) CORE LENGTH (M) AU (G/T) AG (G/T) AUEQ (G/T) SK-18-009 78.35 121.00 42.65 9.49 111 10.97 INCLUDING 78.35 98.00 19.65 17.35 147 19.31 INCLUDING 81.15 82.50 1.35 28.40 558 35.84 AND 82.50 83.00 0.50 10.40 55 11.13 AND 83.00 84.60 1.60 9.86 163 12.03 AND 86.00 87.50 1.50 14.85 81 15.93 AND 87.50 89.00 1.50 72.60 126 74.28 AND 89.00 90.32 1.32 48.80 166 51.01 AND 90.32 90.93 0.61 13.20 1,645 35.13 AND 96.50 98.00 1.50 23.60 23 23.91 SK-18-010 80.25 116.50 36.25 5.93 166 8.14 INCLUDING 87.00 101.00 14.00 5.66 296 9.61 INCLUDING 95.00 96.50 1.50 4.46 503 11.17 AND 97.50 98.45 0.95 24.80 310 28.93 AND 98.45 99.42 0.97 9.21 205 11.94 INCLUDING 105.50 113.50 8.00 12.82 115 14.35 INCLUDING 105.50 107.00 1.50 11.45 6 11.53 AND 107.00 108.50 1.50 12.05 30 12.45 AND 108.50 110.00 1.50 12.45 31 12.86 AND 110.00 110.92 0.92 12.00 457 18.09 AND 110.92 112.00 1.08 18.40 310 22.53 AND 112.00 113.50 1.50 11.80 42 12.36 SK-18-011 81.68 115.28 33.60 7.95 140 9.82 INCLUDING 82.59 84.00 1.41 9.86 98 11.17 AND 84.00 85.30 1.30 28.70 197 31.33 AND 85.30 86.15 0.85 92.70 83 93.81 AND 93.00 94.50 1.50 5.48 541 12.69 AND 94.50 96.00 1.50 10.40 404 15.79 AND 96.00 97.50 1.50 11.55 334 16.00 AND 99.00 100.50 1.50 6.94 304 10.99 Gold Equivalent (AuEq) was calculated with the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 75]. Reported core lengths represent 80-100% of true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling. Length weighted AuEq composites were constrained by geological considerations as well as a calculated 1.0 g/t AuEq assay grade cutoff assuming reasonable prospects for economic extraction via open pit mining methods. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length weighted AuEq composites. Processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are disclosed at 100% due to a lack of supporting information. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero. Table 2: Mine grid Phase I drill hole locations and orientations JUSTICEINFO.NET IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Celine Bardet Director of the NGO We Are Not Weapons of War The award of this years Nobel Peace Prize to Nadia Murad, a survivor of sexual slavery perpetrated on Yezidi women by Islamic State in Iraq, and Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege, who has treated dozens of women raped in the context of eastern Congos conflicts, highlights once again the problem of sexual violence in wartime and the use of rape as a weapon of war. Lawyer Celine Bardet, founder of the NGO We Are Not Weapons of War (WWoW), has been working on these issues for two decades. In this interview, conducted before and after the announcement of the Nobel prize, she talks about its importance, the recognition it represents for her friend Denis Mukwege and the potential risks it holds for the young Nadia Murad. She looks back at how courts have dealt with these crimes in the last 20 years. In the run-up to broadcast of the film Libya, anatomy of a crime on ARTE on October 23, she explains how the situation in Libya, where systematic rape is perpetrated by armed groups notably against men, could change public perception and understanding. JUSTICEINFO.NET: What does Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Denis Mukwege represent for you who know him well? CELINE BARDET: I admire him a lot. I find him to be an ordinary man in the sense that he is humble, uncomplicated and does not speak for others. I have known him for at least 10 years. He is deeply committed to what he does. Its as if he fell into that work and never questioned it. Today he has been raised up, he has become an icon, but for me he is an ordinary doctor, someone very normal. What role does he play in the fight against sexual violence in conflict? How is he useful, pertinent or different? Different is the first thing I think of, because he is a surgeon. In the beginning his approach to rape was purely medical, almost technical. Most people in our field are lawyers or survivors. Denis is neither. I also see him as closely linked to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I find it a bit difficult to see him as the personification of the fight against rape in conflict, not because he is not, but what Denis Mukwege represents above all is his country. That is how I see him. The two are inseparable. Does the fact that he is a man give him a special place? I have never thought about that. But yes, certainly. He is a man, and a man who talks a lot about women. With regard to sexual violence, Denis is very focused on how it affects women. He dedicated his prize to them. It is very pertinent in the DRC, but for me the issue of sexual violence in conflict is not at all limited to women. What do you think about the co-winner Nadia Murad? I dont know Nadia Murad. I have participated in two conferences with her, but I have not worked with her. I have enormous admiration for her, and also feel very concerned for her because she is very exposed. For me, she represents anger and despair and a call for justice. She has experienced absolutely terrible things and has transformed them into a struggle. And from what she and her people have suffered, she is building through that struggle a kind of healing or way of surviving. I imagine she is a very strong symbol for other victims. To see a girl who went through that become a UN ambassador, win the Sakharov prize and become an international icon, thats amazing. I hope that she has lots of support, because the prize could put her in psychological danger. As a person, she is unusual. You sense a strong personality. What do you do when you are a young Yezidi survivor, you represent your whole people, you are seeking justice for them beyond the issue of rape, you are carrying major trauma, and Amal Clooney approaches you? Nobody forced her to be a public voice, but now she is a Nobel prize-winner at 25. The burden she is carrying is complicated. I am very happy that it is a joint prize. Over and above the individuals, what is important is that the Nobel Peace Prize has put the spotlight on this issue [sexual violence in conflict]. What is the significance of a joint Nobel? It gives weight to the importance of this issue at global level, and to the fact that it is a peace issue. That is what I find extremely important. It is a global scourge that is also a danger to peace. Thats how I see it. And here I would make a bit of difference with the Sakharov prize, which they both won a few years apart. The issue [sexual violence in conflict] was not absent, but it didnt cause much to happen, or not to properly meet the needs. Will the Nobel Peace Prize spark more efficient action by States and international organizations, including the European Union? That remains to be seen. Both prize-winners focus a lot on the issue of justice. Denis Mukwege freely reiterates that the perpetrators must be put on trial, and that is also at the heart of Nadia Murads message. Do you, who are a lawyer, think it important to link the issue to justice? These are two people who have always made justice central. The fact that they have won the Nobel Peace Prize is a way to say that this scourge is a danger to peace and that there must be a process of justice. These are two people who have always made justice central. The fact that they have won the Nobel Peace Prize is a way to say that this scourge is a danger to peace and that there must be a process of justice. Lets go back to basics: rape in time of conflict is an international crime. Here the award is not going to a peace mechanism, like in Colombia. It has been given to two people who are fighting a scourge, two people who demand justice in a country where there is no justice, or almost no justice. So yes, that links the issue of justice to peace. Twenty years ago the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) handed down its verdict on former Rwandan mayor Jean-Paul Akayesu. That was the first judgment for genocide, and in it the judges considered rape as a constitutive act of genocide. How do you see judicial efforts on sexual violence in the last 20 years, and do you see the Akayesu judgment as a landmark? Yes, its a landmark, and I think about it a lot. It is even more symbolic today with the issue of the Rohingya. Its the only judicial decision we have today where rape is considered a constitutive act of genocide. That clearly raises the question of how you define rape as a strategy in war. But although that judgment is a landmark, we also need to look at what has happened since. That judgment was very decisive on the issue of sexual violence, but I dont have the impression that it had a lot of impact with regard to talking about rape in conflict. In fact, this issue has only become part of public debate more recently. People are always saying that there is no talk of rape as a weapon of war. It is not true. Especially in the last five years, thats all I hear. I read yesterday in the paper that rape should be recognized as a crime in international law. It already was, a long time ago! There is a dichotomy between the belief that we are only talking about it now, that we are discovering rape as a weapon of war and starting to fight it, and the fact that international criminal justice at the ICTR or the ICTY [International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia] started handing down judicial decisions on it a long time ago. So why do we have this impression that its all hidden or justice has not done anything about it? The fact is that this phenomenon has not diminished. And that leads me to the question that preoccupies me: people say that rape in war is on a massive scale. I dont think that is the case, or that its the right term. There are very few conflicts where it does not happen and it is not used, but we do not know the scale. People are talking about it, and I am glad, but much of the talk is uninformed. I think there is a lot of confusion on the issue of sexual violence in general and on the vulnerability of women and girls. What is the distinction between rape in time of war and rape as a weapon of war? There is sexual violence in wartime that is a consequence of whatever chaotic context there may be, and there is rape as a weapon of war, which is much less prevalent, where it is used as a tool in a deliberate or planned way for a certain goal. Thats an important question. There is sexual violence in wartime that is a consequence of whatever chaotic context there may be, and there is rape as a weapon of war, which is much less prevalent, where it is used as a tool in a deliberate or planned way for a certain goal. You are calling for a global study on this issue. What would be the aim? There is very little research. The aim would be to measure the scale of this sexual violence, where and how it happens, and then make a distinction, perhaps ask this question: is rape really a strategic weapon? Can this be studied and analysed in a precise way? I have not found an answer to that. I read a lot of NGO reports but the methodologies are questionable. There are many testimonies but not many context analyses, and so it leaves me asking questions. In which situations do you think rape has clearly been used as a weapon of war? In the case of the Yezidis I think there is a phenomenon where sexual slavery and rape became part of a system, with a goal. Also in former Yugoslavia, where there were even camps set up for rape. In my view that is unique in the world. People talk a lot about the DRC, where rape has happened on a wide scale. But is it a policy? I dont know. What does Denis Mukwege think about that? He works on that principle. But in my view he does not back it up. And thats the problem I have here: its a domain where there is little proof. For an intention to commit an international crime, you have to find it. And for the DRC I am not sure. I know the Kivu region quite well but I am not a specialist. I think it is indeed interesting to know more what we are talking about. Sexual violence is a difficult issue to deal with. And I find the debate very polarized. There are those fighting because it is not talked about enough, and on the other hand there are those who sow doubt on the forms of violence and say they are exaggerated. There is nothing between the two. I think this is linked to the very nature of sexual violence issues. All the talk is very emotional. Sexual violence is often linked to feminism or patriarchal society, but its much more subtle than that, especially rape as a weapon of war. Does the Libya situation represent a turning point in terms of how we understand and talk about sexual violence in conflict or as a weapon of war? Is its story exceptional? I think the turning point was in the 1990s. In Libya, what is notable is that rape is such a part of society. Under Gaddafi it was used as an instrument of political control. Then there was what we call the Libyan revolution, where rape was much used and here it is rape as a constitutive act of international crimes. Then there is the third phase, in 2014, where the situation is chaotic, ill-defined in law and there is a knock-on effect. It was something that was used as a tool and now as a tool of revenge Misrata committed rape, so we will commit rape there. I have not seen that elsewhere. I think its unique to Libya, but its a long story. For Libyans it has been part of their lives for two or three generations. We dont have the figures, but I think the proportion of men and women rape victims in Libya is almost equal. And men are also targeted elsewhere, such as in Uganda and Syria. But in Libya, people are living in a situation of total humiliation and destruction. We dont have the figures, but I think the proportion of men and women rape victims in Libya is almost equal. And men are also targeted elsewhere, such as in Uganda and Syria. But in Libya, people are living in a situation of total humiliation and destruction. Is the rape of migrants another decisive factor in the Libya situation? First there is the issue of migrants used as weapons and as victims. They are put in prison and told either you commit rape or you will be raped or killed. That raises the issue of migrants, who are called Blacks and who have always been regarded as inferior citizens in Libya. But I have never seen elsewhere people being used as both tools and victims. How do we judge that? What do we call it? A year ago, after a CNN report, news about systematic rape and exploitation of migrants in Libya went global. What has happened since? Nothing. And yet, unlike Syria, this is not a situation where the International Criminal Court (ICC) has no mandate to act. It has one, and yet nothing is happening. The issue of rape is not being handled in the way it should. I think that is a problem linked to the ICC. There is enormous political pressure on the ICC, it is clear, but I dont think it is just a question of politics. Its a problem of working methods. The ICC does not go to the field. Saying it cannot go to Libya is one thing, although there are plenty of UN people who do. But there are many Libyans in Tunis and Geneva, where we work, and the ICC does not want to meet them. Why not buy a plane ticket? I really dont understand. The position of the Prosecutors office is to say we are working on it. But it has been seven years. Or they say we have no budget. Its really serious because it makes no sense. If the ICC were making rapid progress on all the rest, then why not? But its not. I think its a problem of recruitment and working methods. I dont doubt the sincerity of Fatou Bensouda [ICC Prosecutor] when she says her office is submerged with information and requests. They have a massive amount to analyse. But they do not go to the field, where they could find much more pertinent information. Do you think the judges recent decision that the ICC has jurisdiction on the deportation of the Rohingyas from Myanmar can help make the Court more relevant? I dont know. But the decision is timely. Who among the States or even the general public takes the International Criminal Court seriously at the moment? Thats not to say it is not important. But what we should be asking is what is international justice, what does it represent and what does it say about the world? I think its very important symbolically, it has enormous weight in terms of values, so we need to keep it and keep fighting for it. But on the other hand there is the feasibility which has never really been questioned. Once again, I am not saying the United Nations and international criminal justice are worthless. Not at all. I think they are institutions that need to exist. But it is possible to make them work differently. At some point the never again becomes an insult. If you are Syrian, Libyan or Congolese, its an insult. You dont have to say never again. The first issue with international criminal justice is to try not to make it something it isnt. That comes mainly from the institution itself, the organizations that support it and NGOs. Its the never again rhetoric. At some point the never again becomes an insult. If you are Syrian, Libyan or Congolese, its an insult. You dont have to say never again. We still think we need to make strong statements all the time, but we could also explain to people what is possible and what isnt. I have the impression there is no space left in the NGO and human rights world. That makes me sad, and I think it is dangerous. Theres an obligatory way of talking, from which you shouldnt stray too far. Theres no debate, the answer is always just to say we must defend the ICC. And I think closing the debate like that is digging its grave. The film Libya, anatomy of a crime has just been premiered in Paris and will be broadcast on Arte on October 23. Why it this film important? It is important for two reasons. I think it is the first documentary film that looks at the issue of systematic, organized rape of men in Libya and rape as a weapon of war in Libya. Secondly, its a film that is a kind of investigation, but not conducted by the director. It shows how people work, how they live. It shows who Libyans are. The Libyans I know are not the ones selling slaves in the marketplace. It is very important to show those people, men and women like you and me, who find themselves in a context of total chaos, who love their country and want to have a normal life, and who want it known what is going on. People always associate Libya with slave auctions and migrants. But they dont talk much about the suffering of Libyans. This film rectifies that. I hope it will help us to see those people, the majority of Libyans. People always associate Libya with slave auctions and migrants. But they dont talk much about the suffering of Libyans. The person who has become a kind of reference on sexual violence in Libya is Imad. Everyone comes to see him. He started as an engineer, hes a Tawergha a minority more or less allied to Gaddafi, used and protected by Gaddafi and so much accused by others, even though the Tawergha were also a big victim of Gaddafi. He is a black Tawergha who sees his country falling apart, starts to document it and little by little finds out about the sexual violence, particularly against men. He was incapable of talking about that before. But now he has become the expert and has understood that to obtain justice it is necessary to document what has happened. Not just to deliver justice to Tawerghas. Thanks to this man there is now an underground debate, in the backs of cafes, on rape, including rape of men. There is a debate about those issues in Libya now. And it is only from there that the answers will come. The number of Afghans killed or wounded by air strikes rose 39 percent in the first nine months of 2018, the UN said Wednesday, as the overall number of civilian casualties remained at extreme levels. Air strikes killed or wounded 649 Afghans, more than any full-year period since the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) began keeping records in 2009, as US and Afghan forces stepped up aerial bombardments. That figure accounted for eight percent of overall civilian casualties for the January to September period, which slipped to 8,050 2,798 dead and 5,252 injured UNAMA said. Every civilian death leaves a family devastated, grieving and struggling to come to terms with the loss, and each civilian injured or maimed causes untold suffering, said Danielle Bell, UNAMAs human rights chief. International forces accounted for 51 percent of the civilian casualties caused by air strikes, the report said. Afghan forces made up 38 percent. The United States is the only foreign force known to carry out air strikes in Afghanistan. US and Afghan forces have dramatically increased air offensives against Taliban and Islamic State insurgents in the past year as they try to get the upper hand in the 17-year war. US forces employed 746 weapons in July, which was the highest monthly total since November 2010, the most recent US Air Forces Central Command data shows. That is more than double the 350 munitions used in July 2017, a month before US President Donald Trump announced his new strategy for Afghanistan that gave American forces greater leeway to go after militants. Afghanistans fledgling air force has also accelerated bombardments as the United States beefs up the countrys aerial capability with more aircraft and better weapons. The latest civilian casualties report follows two air strikes in recent weeks that UNAMAs initial findings show killed more than 20 people from two families. Improvised explosive devices, including suicide bombs, remained the leading cause of civilian casualties in the first nine months, rising 21 percent to 3,634, the report said. UNAMA warned earlier that the increasing number of deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians constituted serious violations of international humanitarian law that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The majority of civilian casualties were attributed to militants. The Taliban, Afghanistans largest militant group, were responsible for 35 percent and the Islamic State group 25 percent, UNAMA said. While the IS has fewer fighters than the Taliban, it has carried out most of the devastating suicide attacks in urban areas in recent months. The eastern province of Nangarhar recorded 1,494 casualties, more than double the same period last year and the highest number for any province. A record number of civilians were killed in the first half of 2018, underscoring the growing violence that has been a trend since NATO combat forces withdrew from the country in 2014. The latest figures come as Afghans brace for more violence ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20. Chinese authorities are undertaking unprecedented repression of ethnic minorities including Muslim Uighurs as authoritarian government tactics cause humanrights conditions to deteriorate across the country, a damning US congressional report released Wednesday concluded. The bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, in its annual report, said repression has actually worsened in recent years despite Beijings dramatic economic growth and broader engagement with the world. It highlights the dire human rights situation inside China and the continued downward trajectory, by virtually every measure, since Xi Jinping became the Communist Partys general secretary in 2012 and president the following year. Of particular concern is the mass, arbitrary internment of as many as one million or more Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in political reeducation camps in western China, committee chairman Senator Marco Rubio and co-chairman congressman Chris Smith said in the reports summary. They warned that such abuses may constitute crimes against humanity. And importantly, they stressed that the Communist Party unflinchingly continues to preserve its monopoly on domestic political power through state-sponsored repression, surveillance, indoctrination and brutality. Washington, and in particular Congress, has been a consistent critic of Beijing on the human rights front. But the government of the worlds most populous nation has come in for criticsm on multiple fronts, including the United Nations, which in August decried as deeply disturbing recent allegations of large-scale arbitrary detentions of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities. The United States this year took in the widow of Nobel Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests who died last year of liver cancer while serving an 11-year sentence for subversion. The commission said Chinese authorities detained at least 14 people who had tried to honor Liu Xiaobos life. The congressional report also assailed Beijing for its heavyhanded control of Hong Kong, citing the continued erosion of the citys autonomy as it faces an unprecedented challenge from Beijing. And it says the party implements repressive policies in Tibet, including extensive and intrusive surveillance, strict regulations and rules to restrict Tibetans religious and cultural rights. Police in Peru have arrested Keiko Fujimori, the opposition leader and daughter of disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori, for alleged money laundering involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, her lawyer said Wednesday. The 43-year-old was arrested on the orders of prosecutors investigating suspect contributions to her election campaign, her lawyer Giuliana Loza said. The leader of Popular Force, the biggest party in Congress, Fujimori was arrested after giving evidence at the public prosecutors office to a judge investigating alleged party funding from Odebrecht. She was placed in preventive detention for 10 days, said Loza, who described the arrest as an outrage and an abuse. A further 19 people have been arrested in the case linked to contributions to Popular Force during Keiko Fujimoris 2011 presidential campaign. She has placed herself at the disposal of the prosecutors office, said Loza. Her arrest comes a week after her 80-year-old fathers presidential pardon for crimes against humanity was revoked by a top court. Prosecutors have since June been investigating allegations that three former presidents took bribes disguised as campaign funds from Odebrecht, which is at the center of political scandals across Latin America. Former presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Alan Garcia and Alejandro Toledo all took undeclared campaign contributions in exchange for pledges to have the Brazilian construction giant win local tenders, prosecutors said. Kuczynski narrowly beat Keiko Fujimori to the presidency in 2016. The ex-wife of former Liberian president Charles Taylor denied a string of torture charges relating to the west African countrys civil war in the 1990s at a hearing in London on Wednesday. Agnes Taylor, a 52-year-old former university lecturer, is accused of being involved in the torture of a child and conspiring to use rape to torture women during the conflict. Prosecutors said all of the seven alleged crimes were committed while Agnes Taylor was a public official or person acting in an official capacity and were linked to her official duties. Taylor, who previously worked at Coventry University in central England, is currently in custody and faces trial in January next year. Charles Taylor is currently serving 50 years in a British jail for his role in fuelling civil conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Taylor was the first former head of state to be jailed by an international court since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg in Germany after World War II. He was convicted in 2012 on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity over acts committed by Sierra Leone rebels he aided and abetted during the war. He was transferred to Britain in 2013. BRUSSELS - U2 frontman Bono on Wednesday said that while people were in general nervous for the rise of nationalism, he was excited by the rise of internationalism, during a joint press conference with European Parliament President Antonio Tajani. At the conference, Bono said he understood concern for migration from the South but was excited about what was occurring in the Continent. He went on to say that, ''while we grow older and our hair becomes grayer, they become younger and more vibrant''. The US frontman, who was in Brussels as an activist and co-founder of 'One Campaign', an NGO working for Africa, said that he was there as a ''fan of Europe and Africa''. He said that ''as an artist, I think I probably have a role to play in romancing the idea of Europe and seeing it as something warm-blooded''. ''Europe is a thought that needs to become a feeling and I am, as an artist, in service of that''. He described migrations from Africa as an ''incredible opportunity''. ''The Continent - he continued - is asking for a new partnership and we should sit together as equals and conquer the world''. He added that as a European as well as Irish, he found the idea of a widened patriotism exciting. He went on to say that art can be the answer as Europe is going through a difficult moment. ''If you think about the mythology of America and you think about Hollywood and how Hollywood perpetuated the idea of the American dream... when you think about artists involved in the project that is Europe, it's not that many'', Bono also said. ''I think we need more as people are questioning Europe''. Europe is very complex, the artist said but, behind politics, lies a ''loudly beating heart'' and a ''brain that is strategically working to improve the lives of Europeans, so we do largely live better lives than anyone else in the world''. ''I'm not sure it is heard by enough people, and I want to be a part of that romantic idea that is Europe'', he concluded. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday called for joint efforts from China and Japan to improve bilateral relations. Li made the remarks when meeting Japanese representatives attending the fourth China-Japan Business Leader and Former High-Level Government Official Dialogue in Beijing. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets Japanese representatives attending the fourth China-Japan Business Leader and Former High-Level Government Official Dialogue in Beijing, October 10, 2018. [Photo: gov.cn] Noting this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Li said the momentum of improvement of China-Japan relations has been consolidated by the joint efforts of the two sides. He expressed hope that the two countries will abide by the principles agreed on in the four political documents between China and Japan, to ensure the steady and sustainable development of bilateral ties. With regard to bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Li said it is not only beneficial to the two countries but also conducive to the development of global economy and trade, as China and Japan are two major economies of the world. He expected the two countries to make use of complementary advantages to expand cooperation in such areas as trade and investment, financial and monetary, innovation and high-tech, as well as jointly tapping a third market, and jointly safeguard multilateralism and the free trade system. "China will continuously expand opening up. We welcome Japanese enterprises to increase investments in China and continue to play a positive role in promoting cooperation and exchanges between China and Japan," Li said. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets Japanese representatives attending the fourth China-Japan Business Leader and Former High-Level Government Official Dialogue in Beijing, October 10, 2018. [Photo: gov.cn] Japanese representatives, including former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chairman of Japan Business Federation Hiroaki Nakanishi, said the Japanese economic community is willing to promote cooperation with China in such areas as innovation, jointly tapping the third market, environmental protection and coping with the aging population. They said that Premier Li's official visit to Japan in May has brought Japan-China relations back to the normal track. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi also met with the representatives on Wednesday. Wang said China and Japan should consolidate political and legal basis of bilateral relations, ensure the major consensus that the two countries are cooperation partners and sketch out a new blueprint for the future development of bilateral ties. During the meeting with Wang, Yasuo Fukuda said that the two sides should work together to ensure Japan-China relations remain in the right direction. The Japanese side looks forward to deeply participate in the new-round of reform and opening up in China. SPOKANE, Wash. UPDATE: Gas utility company Avista says that residential, business and industrial customers in Southern Oregon can return to "normal usage" of natural gas immediately after the Canadian pipeline explosion and resulting shortage on Wednesday. "For those who purchase natural gas from third-party suppliers, interruptible transportation service curtailment is lifted immediately as well. All natural gas transportation service is under Stage III Overrun Entitlement until further notice," Avista said in a statement. The company says that customers in Roseburg, Grants Pass, Medford and Ashland were hit hardest by the incident. "Avista is grateful for the conservation efforts of our customers as the region worked through the natural gas supply disruption," Avista said. (Updated 10/11/18 at 1:14 p.m.) INITIAL REPORT: A gas pipeline rupture in Canada has caused Avista Utilities to ask their customers in western Washington and Oregon to reduce their usage, according to a statement from the company issued on Wednesday. Avista said that utilities throughout the Pacific Northwest are working together to reduce usage on the natural gas system until the issue is resolved. "Its important to know that our local gas system is safe and was not damaged by the pipeline failure in Canada," Avista said. Industrial natural gas customers have been asked to "curtail usage," while residential users have been asked to help conserve natural gas. "Customers can set their thermostats at a lower setting and limit the use of hot water until further notice," Avista said. The company has not yet made any indication that they will be forcing residential users to reduce their usage by some means. NewsWatch 12 is attempting to reach out to Avista today for further comment. The Enbridge pipeline near Prince George, British Columbia experienced an explosion around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the Financal Post. About 100 members of a First Nations tribe living nearby were forced to temporarily evacuate the area. Prior to the release of a statement to the press, Avista released the following statement to at least one commercial gas customer in Southern Oregon (please note, this was issued to a commercial customer, not a residence): Dear Avista Customer, This email is to provide you notice of immediate curtailment. Last night there was a failure on the interstate pipeline that feeds the Pacific Northwest including southern Oregon. We are experiencing significant pressure problems and are requiring all interruptible customers from Sutherlin to Ashland to discontinue gas usage immediately. SALEM, Ore. A coalition of Oregon lawmakers are firing a broadside at California wine company Copper Cane LLC, which the lawmakers have accused of misrepresenting California-based wines as uniquely Oregonian. Now those lawmakers are hoping to get regulators from the federal government involved. It has come to the attention of the Oregon Congressional delegation that Copper Cane LLC (Copper Cane), a California winery based in Rutherford advertises their 'The Willametter Journal' and Elouan brand names as having appellations of origin in Oregon, the delegation wrote to John Manfreda, administrator of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. However, it appears that Copper Cane purchases wine grapes and bulk wines produced in Oregon before vinifying and bottling them in California under these wine labels. If the name Copper Cane sounds familiar, it may because they recently rejected roughly 2,000 tons of wine grapes from Southern Oregon vineyards claiming that the grapes were tainted by wildfire smoke. That mass rejection came shortly after Oregon lawmakers first began making noise about Copper Cane's alleged mislabeling of their wines. The state of Oregon is known as a world-class wine region producing extraordinary wines from over 760 wineries and more than 1,140 vineyards growing 72 grape varieties, the delegation said in their letter to Manfreda. Oregon winemakers pride themselves on high quality grapes and wines and have earned a global reputation for exceptional quality. The Oregon lawmakers went on to ask the bureau to conduct a "field audit" of Copper Cane's wines in order to "ensure product integrity" launching an investigation into the company's labeling practices to make sure that they are in compliance with federal regulations. If the company were to be found out of compliance, the Oregon lawmakers asked that any offending products should be removed from the market immediately. Pints for Pups event features dogs, beers, conversation for a cause The 42 North Brewing Company in East Aurora is holding an event on Veterans Day that will involve dogs, beer and raising money for a good cause. On Thursday, the... YMCA, FeedMore teaming up to fight hunger through fall food drive For the 11th straight year, YMCA Buffalo Niagara is teaming up with FeedMore WNY to help fight hunger this holiday season through an annual food drive. The organizations are asking... Town man indicted on manslaughter, drug charges Town of Tonawanda resident Zaire Pittman, 25, was arraigned last week on an indictment charging him with felony vehicular manslaughter, in connection with a car accident that took place in... Cardinal OHara to present Little Women in person next weekend Drama club students at Cardinal OHara High School will be presenting their first in-person fall play next weekend, following a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The production will also... News Brief Following the FDAs emergency use authorization of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5 through 11, the Erie County Department of Health is asking parents to fill out this survey... 292 Shares Share A contract is an agreement stipulating the rights and obligations of the signatories. In most cases, a contract is consulted when a dispute arises. When all is proceeding swimmingly, the contract remains dormant in a file drawer or in a digital file. In general, decent people resolve differences in the old-fashioned way utilizing the twin arcane legal techniques of reasonableness and compromise. Remember them? Yes, it is possible to settle disputes without consulting an attorney. I learned recently about the existence of opioid contracts (OCs), an agreement between a patient and a physician regarding the use of opioids. I have read through various OC templates and, although I have no law degree, they seem extremely lopsided in that one party seems coerced to accept numerous stipulations while the other the doctor serves as the enforcer. Although many of these agreements require both the patient and the physician to sign and date the forms, there really are no requirements of the doctor, except to provide the prescription. The agreements basically catalog a very long list of required behaviors that patients must agree to and be prepared to document. Heres a sampling. I will agree to random drug testing. I will agree to cancel any office visit at least 24 hours in advance. Only 1 lost opioid prescription will be replaced annually. I will agree to psychiatric care and counseling, if necessary. I will treat the office staff respectfully. I will store my medicines safely. I agree to waive any right to privacy or confidentiality if any law enforcement agency is investigating alleged misuse of my opioid medicines. To begin, it is not clear to me why agreeing to cancel any office visit at least 24 hours in advance or treating the office staff with respect is so unique to opioid users that it is included in some OCs. Explain to me please the relevance with respect to the opioid issue. Why shouldnt these terms apply to all patients? Of course, I understand the rationale behind these contracts. But, this coercive effort seems like overkill. To me, it seems like a humiliating experience for patients and risks eroding trust and weakening the doctor-patient relationship. I would think that preserving and enhancing this relationship would be particularly important in caring for these patients. If these medical diktats are truly necessary for opioid users, then why shouldnt every patient sign an agreement promising to take all medicines as prescribed, never arrive to the office late, refrain from disparaging the practice, never request a refill on a night or a weekend and limit their phone calls to the office to one per month. How would patients react to this? One advantage of this approach is that it would clear out doctors crowded waiting rooms. I dont object to the content of the agreements; but I think forcing a signature on a written contract is unseemly and unnecessary. Medical care should not be rendered as a transactional business matter. Physicians often rightly complain that our work is treated as a business by insurance companies and others. With regard to opioid contracts, who deserves the blame? Michael Kirsch is a gastroenterologist who blogs at MD Whistleblower. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Doctors as the gatekeepers of marijuana is a race to the bottom 38 Shares Share This year Oklahoma voters made a clear choice to legalize medical marijuana, joining thirty other states that permit cannabis for medicinal use. Unsurprisingly, immediately in the votes aftermath, patients began asking me to prescribe medical marijuana licenses, as the new law stipulates users must have as a precondition for legal purchase. The new law does not, however, specify qualifying diagnoses for which medical marijuana might be clinically indicated. My answer thus far has been, Not now. Likely never. This has not been a popular response. One patient looked at me as if Id put a lump of coal in his Halloween bag. Im not a fan of medical marijuana for several reasons. The main issue is the lack of proven medical efficacy. I know there are thousands of anecdotes from people whose pain or anorexia has been diminished by marijuanaand Im genuinely glad for them. But Id like to see better powered controlled trials of cannabis products head-to-head with accepted therapeutic agents. Having the FDA weigh in on marijuanas safety and efficacy would also go a long way toward legitimizing pots medicinal use. Another major problem is smoking the stuff. If we had proven, standardized dosing of edibles, Id be more supportive of medicinal use. But smoking anything tobacco, marijuana, vapor juice is not a healthy practice, and one I counsel patients to avoid. I hear the arguments about the purity of pot and how its more natural than manufactured tobacco products. The bottom line is that inhaling burning plant matter into your lungs is a terrible idea regardless of the herb. If voters want to legalize marijuana for recreational use, I have no objection provided we put in place a legal framework to make sure that people dont get hurt. Standardized dosing and measures to assure product consistency would be integral. And wed need adequate enforcement to make sure that people arent impaired when at work or in other situations in which their marijuana use could jeopardize others. Putting doctors in the middle of what amounts to a political, legal, social, and economic debate steers the medical profession in a race to the bottom and lets face it our profession has enough problems already without being the gatekeepers of grass. Remember that marijuana is still scheduled by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Class I narcotic, defined as having no accepted medical use and high potential for abuse. So even though medical weed is now legal in my state, I have no interest in violating or abetting violations of federal law. In fact, as it turns out, since I work at a university, our legal counsel is of the opinion that no provider in our system shall recommend marijuana, since our institution has numerous federal grants and funding streams and must, therefore, comply with all federal rules and regulations. Some have suggested that given our national opioid epidemic, marijuana can serve as a safer alternative for pain control. Since most cannabis is homegrown, and where legalized a tax revenue sourcethis does make medical marijuana a more appealing alternative to propping up the seemingly ubiquitous heroin/fentanyl drug cartels. This argument makes pot part of a harm reduction strategy, which Id be more supportive of if the evidence were stronger. Right now I see the pot economy as a Wild West with hundreds of entrepreneurs and medical professionals looking to stake claims in this new quasi-legal economy. Get back to me when we have more state/federal legal congruence and clarity on the stuffs true medical benefits. John Schumann is an internal medicine physician who blogs at GlassHospital. This article originally appeared in Doximitys Op-(m)ed. Image credit: Shutterstock.com MOUNT HOOD, Ore. (AP) -- Authorities are searching on Mt. Hood for a 30-year-old injured hiker from Phoenix who was last seen on Monday. The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that David Yaghmourian was hiking the Timberline Trail with a companion when he injured his leg. The sheriff's office says on the last day of their hike on Monday Yaghmourian stopped to rest while his friend continued to Timberline Lodge. The sheriff's office says the friend waited but Yaghmourian never arrived. Yaghmourian was last seen wearing a black jacket and tan pants at the eastern junction of the Timberline Trail at the Pacific Crest Trail. He also had a large backpack with what appears to be a yellow towel attached to it. People who may have seen him are asked to call authorities. CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore. A baby is now recovering in the hospital after deputies jumped into action to save her at Clackamas Town Center. On Sunday, Sept. 30, deputies were called to the mall after a week-old infant stopped breathing in the portrait studio at JCPenney. They found Audrey Harmon pale and unresponsive alongside her distraught parents. They believed she chocked on some fluids. Her mother called 911 as her father and some Good Samaritans tried to perform infant CPR before deputies arrived. Deputies jumped into action, performing chest compressions while trying to keep the babys airway open. They also used a nose sucker to remove fluid from her nose. Two minutes later, paramedics got there and rushed her to the hospital at Oregon Health and Science University. Audrey is still in intensive care but her condition is improving. Last Sunday, a week after the incident, her parents invited the deputies who saved her life to the hospital to thank them and let them visit the baby. Her parents said they wanted to take a picture to one day show Audrey the men who saved her life. JUNCTION CITY, Ore. -- Students who think college may not be the answer for them should do their research to find the trade that might be best for them, one industry leader said. KEZI 9 News spoke to Jordan Adams, the president and owner of Paramount Ironworks, a company he started himself that focuses on custom welding and fabrication. Adams said growing up he wasnt the best student in school, but with other tradesmen and blue-collar workers in his family, he knew there were other routes he could pursue outside the classroom. With that mindset, Adams said he faced some pushback early in high school from one of his teachers. I remember one class in particular, about how the teacher was going on and on about how youre not going to be anything unless you go to college, Adams said. And I just couldnt keep my mouth shut anymore because I know a lot of families are supported by blue collar workers. He kind of laughed at me and goes, Mr. Adams, if you dont go to college, you might as well pick up garbage. Adams said at the time it was discouraging and frustrating, but he didnt want to let that dictate his future. He said he loves his job because its physically demanding, he gets to work with his hands and he gets to be creative. His job has taken him to work all over the country. In addition to his advice about doing research into different trades, Adams said whatever you choose to do, make sure you have a good work ethic and drive to achieve your goals. Employers throughout western Oregon are losing qualified employees to retirement and struggling to find skilled replacements, which is why KEZI is partnering with industry leaders in the Skilled to Work campaign. Four Kilkenny food companies are celebrating following their wins in the Blas na hEireann, the Irish Food Awards over the weekend at the Dingle Food Fair in Kerry. Callan Bacon, Mileeven, A Slice of Heaven and Taste of Goodness Sauces all caught the judges eye and A Slice of Heaven also won for best in the county as well. A Slice of Heaven is located on Friary Street, Kilkenny - this state-of-the-art Kilkenny Cookery School has been opened by husband and wife team, chefs Neil and Mary McEvoy. The school provides a range of exciting cookery, baking and cake decorating classes for budding junior chefs from six years old to home cooks refining their culinary skills. Perfect for parents, Kilkenny Cookery School is located beside Mary McEvoys newly relocated French themed A Slice of Heaven cafe and patisserie where mums and dads can see children cooking at the school through a special portal linking the two. The Blas na hEireann awards are the biggest blind tasting of produce in the country, and the criteria on which the product is judged as well as the judging system itself, which was developed by Blas na hEireann with the Food Science Dept of UCC, is now recognised as an international industry standard. An interesting read of the Court of Appeal decision dismissing the appeal by Mark Lundy over the murder of his wife and daughter. Lundy lost on every ground raised, bar one. They found the mRNA evidence should not have been admitted. But they concluded that even without that the evidence was overwhelming. Also of interest is that a journalist who covered the trial for North & South, Michael White, gave an affidavit in support of the appeal! On the DNA evidence, the expert witness said: So by that I mean that this DNA evidence is one million, million, million times more likely to occur if the DNA in these two samples from the polo shirt originated from Ms Christine Lundy, rather than from someone else unrelated to her and chosen at random from the general New Zealand population. And the fact there was central nervous system tissue on the shirt was undisputed. The court found: The conclusion that it was Mrs Lundys CNS tissue can then quite easily be reached in two small steps. First, on the night that the appellant was wearing the shirt, Mrs Lundy was murdered by having her head attacked with an axe with the consequence established in Dr Pangs evidence that a significant portion of her brain was exposed and indeed missing from the skull cavity. Second, the only human DNA found in association with the CNS tissue was that of Mrs Lundy. It was of good quality and found in substantial amounts. And the random burglar theory holds little weight: The notion that the deceased were the victims of a random burglar was unlikely, for a combination of reasons. First, the savagery of the attack on both Mrs Lundy and her daughter. There were in each case a high number of very hard blows to the head. In the case of Mrs Lundy they had the effect of destroying much of her face and head. Further, Amber Lundy could not have been regarded as any kind of threat to a random burglar, as opposed to somebody she recognised in the course of the attack on her mother. So Lundy remains in jail. His non-parole minimum was 20 years so he may get released after 2022. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More Reddit Pinterest Print Tumblr North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has recently invited Pope Francis to visit Pyongyang, the South Korean presidential office said Tuesday. "Chairman Kim said he will 'ardently welcome the pope if he visits Pyongyang'," Kim Eui-kyeom, spokesman for Cheong Wa Dae, said during a press briefing to announce President Moon Jae-in's plan to visit Europe next week, which would include a stop at the Vatican on Oct. 17 and 18. Moon will deliver this message from the Pyongyang leader when he meets with the pope, according to the spokesman. During the meeting, the president will seek the pope's blessing and support for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and discuss ways for future cooperation with the Vatican, Kim said. (Yonhap) Eric Xu, rotating chairman of Huawei Technologies, speaks during the Huawei Connect 2018 conference at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Huawei By Baek Byung-yeul SHANGHAI Huawei has been extending its reach into artificial intelligence (AI) technology as the Chinese tech giant unveils its new AI chips and related business strategies in the rapidly-growing industry. Eric Xu, rotating chairman of Huawei, introduced Huawei's new AI chipsets Ascend 910 and Ascend 310 during the Huawei Connect 2018 conference at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center. He said the Ascend 910 chip can help data centers to process more data in a faster amount of time than other AI chips. Also, the Ascend 310 chip, which will be used for internet of things (IoT) devices, has efficiency for low-power consumption. He added both chips will be available in the market in the second quarter of next year. Huawei already introduced an enterprise AI service platform Huawei Cloud EI last September and a mobile AI open platform Huawei HiAI in April. Along with the Ascend chips, Xu said Huawei will be able to deliver a "full-stack" AI business portfolio. "Full-stack is about the functionality of our technology. Our full-stack portfolio includes chips, chip enablement, a training and inference framework, and application enablement," Xu said. Xu said the full-stack portfolio includes Ascend chips, compute architecture for newral networks (CANN) and MindSpore, a unified and inference framework. With the new AI chips, Huawei is expected to be fierce competition in the AI chipset sector with the world's renowned tech firms including Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm and Nvidia. By tapping into the AI chipset market, Huawei, which currently has network, cloud and consumer device businesses, said it is aiming to create an ecosystem around AI applications. The AI chipset market can be divided into several categories such as central processing units (CPUs), graphic processing units (GPUs), neural network processors (NNPs) and application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). It has been dominated by U.S. firms including Nvidia, Intel, IBM and AMD. Under the theme of "Activate Intelligence," Huawei hosted the three-day conference in the rapidly expanding Chinese city. During the three-day event, about 25,000 attendees are expected to attend including journalist and officials from its partner companies throughout the world. Emphasizing the importance of talented individuals in the emerging technology, Xu said Huawei will invest big in nurturing more talent. "About 20,000 theses about AI technology were published and around 1,000 new businesses dealing with AI were registered in 2017. We already knew that AI technology would soon grow to become one of the essential technologies to lead the industry," Xu said. "For the development of the AI industry, nurturing talented individuals is the top most priority with us." To enhance AI talent availability of the firm, Xu said the firm needs to collaborate widely with global academia, industries and partners. Huawei's commitment to go deep into AI technology is in line with the Chinese government's "Made in China 2025" plan, which is to become more competitive in cutting edge technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To take leadership of the sector, the Chinese government announced a three-step road map last year. The first step is to keep pace with leading AI technologies by 2020 after making efforts to develop research and educational resources. The second step is to achieve major breakthroughs in the technology by 2025 and finally becoming the leader in the sector by 2030 will be the third step. China currently remains No. 2 in overall AI capacity following the U.S. According to an Oxford University study in March, China was given a score of 17 out of 100, showing its share of the world's total AI capabilities while the U.S. accounts for the largest portion with a score of 33. (St.Joseph,MO) People in Missouri are no stranger to the occasional deer sighting, and in the fall hunters take to the woods to bring a few home. David Carlisle is a Conservation Agent for the Missouri Department of Conservation and said that the deer population is typically measured by the harvest from deer hunting. "Statewide we will usually harvest about 300,000 deer and they estimate our population to be about a million, million and a half,"Carlisle said. To help manage the population and feed hungry families in the area, the Department of Conservation is asking area hunters to participate in the Share the Harvest program. "Hunters can donate a portion, or an entire animal to the program where the processed meat goes to local food pantries or gets distributed to those families in need,"Carlisle said. During the four months of deer season (September 15-January 15) , hunters can take their deer to a Share the Harvest approved processor to package the venison, typically at a reduced cost, as donation to area food banks. Hunters have the option to donate a portion of the meat or the entire deer, but all meats must meet USDA packaging regulations. "They have to be either USDA approved or they have to be Missouri Department of Ag[riculture] approved in order to be a Share the Harvest processor,"Carlisle said. Blake Haynes,Communications Coordinator for Second Harvest Food Bank, said fresh meat is a rare donation. "Fresh produce and lean proteins are more a expensive item, so they are kind of scarce when it comes to food insecure individuals," Haynes said. In previous seasons, Second Harvest has received an average of 400 to 500 pounds of deer meat from the program. "It started out with most people just doing a portion of their kill, but now some people are going to donating a whole deer,"Carlisle said. Ground meat might be an uncommon gift, but Haynes said it has numerous uses and even a small donation can make a big difference for families in need. "If it's something you can't utilize or are looking to do something with, this is a great opportunity to give back to your community and help your neighbors," Haynes said. Hunters can donate to Share the Harvest until the end of deer season on January 15. For a full list of USDA, Share the Harvest approved processors check out the Missouri Department of Conservation website. The September salaries was to be paid in two instalments -- on October 11 and October 26. On September 6, the airline had informed that its senior management, pilots and engineers would receive their monthly salaries in two instalments till November. Mumbai: Crisis-hit Jet Airways on Tuesday paid the balance amount of salaries for the month of August to its pilots, engineers and senior management, but told them that September payments would be delayed, sources said. As part of a staggered payment plan, the full service carrier was to clear the remaining 50 per cent of the August salary to these personnel on September 26. On the scheduled date, the airline could pay only half of that amount due to paucity of funds. The remaining money was to be paid on October 9, which the airline did. "We have received the remaining 25 per cent of our salary on Tuesday and with this payment, the airline has cleared our August salary dues. But it has still to disburse the September salary," a Jet Airways pilot associated with the National Aviators Guild (NAG) told PTI. Jet Airways Chief People Officer Rahul Taneja told pilots, Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AMEs) and senior management team that it has remitted the balance of the August 2018 payroll on Tuesday. "I sincerely regret that owing to unprecedented circumstances, including the continuing rise in the price of Brent fuel and the appreciation of the US dollar, there will be a delay in the payment of the September 2018 payroll," he said in a communication. Noting that these delays are unavoidable, Taneja also said every effort would be made to release the September salary at the earliest. "Once again I regret the change in remittance plan and the resulting inconvenience...," he said in the communication seen by PTI. The National Aviator's Guild (NAG) told its members the management has conveyed that it is not in a position to honour the October 11 commitment for part payment of salaries and no firm date has been given for making the payment. NAG represents around 1,000 pilots of Jet Airways. The September salaries was to be paid in two instalments -- on October 11 and October 26. In a statement, the airline said it remains committed to honour the obligations. "While the company has been diligent in running its payroll as per schedule for all employees, it is only in the last couple of months that the schedule has been impacted due to unavoidable reasons. "Despite these challenges, the company has ensured that 85 per cent of its employees are paid salaries on time while those of the leadership, pilots and engineers have been delayed," it said. On September 6, the airline had informed that its senior management, pilots and engineers would receive their monthly salaries in two instalments till November. The August salary was to be paid in two instalments - half by September 11 and the other half by September 26. The airline, which is struggling to raise capital for its various payment obligations, received a breather from its loyalty programme Jet Privilege Private Ltd. JPPL, a joint venture with Etihad, offered about Rs 258 crore for the advance purchase of discounted tickets. JPPL is 50.1 per cent owned by Etihad Airways, while the rest 49.9 per cent is with Jet Airways. At least nine people were killed and 14 others injured after a gas pipeline blast in Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday morning. Fire fighters look on as fire rises after a blast at the Bhilai Steel Plant of state-owned SAIL in Durg, Tuesday, October 9, 2018. (Photo: PTI) Bhilai: Vishnu Deo Sai, Minister of State for Steel, on Tuesday described the blast in Bhilai Steel Plant as 'unfortunate' and informed that an internal committee has been constituted to investigate the incident. After meeting the victims in the hospital, Sai said that a four-member internal committee has been formed while an external committee will be formed soon to look into the matter. "The incident is really unfortunate. A normal maintenance work was underway when a sudden fire led to the incident. An internal committee of four members has been constituted. External committee will also be formed soon," he said. At least nine people were killed and 14 others sustained injuries after a gas pipeline blast in Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh's Durg district on Tuesday morning. Following the incident, Durg's Inspector General GP Singh had informed that 14 people sustained burn injuries in the explosion and were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), in a statement, had confirmed that the fire broke out in the gas pipeline in the coke oven complex, with a few workers at the spot sustaining burn injuries. The statement had further said that the fire had been brought under control and all resources have been mobilised to provide adequate care. While the Anchorage School District is working to balance its budget, thousands of teachers and parents say students needs are falling short at the middle school level, and they say ASD's reshuffling of academic priorities for the sake of cost savings is at the heart of the issue. In August, members of the Anchorage Education Association started the online petition which has since been signed by more than 3,200 people. For many, the difference between middle school and junior high might seem semantic, but for educators, the shift away from the middle school model to the junior high school model at the beginning of the school year is anything but. Under the "middle school model," a core team of teachers worked together to help guide students focusing on team teaching, a seven-period day, two electives instead of one and block scheduling. Among the proponents of the middle school model is Gruening Middle School teacher Bryce Purcella, who says he wants to make sure students are getting the schooling and mentoring they need to be successful in high school. "The philosophy before was to group kids according to peer groups so they were working on team," Purcella said. "They had a science teacher, social studies teacher, and a math teacher that met collaboratively, that focused on the needs of their students." Under the junior high school model, teachers have an additional class every day six classes four days a week and seven classes one day a week time that used to be allocated for planning and collaboration with other teachers. Anchorage School District Superintendent Dr. Deena Bishop says the middle school model was changed over budget concerns. "It is really about opportunity costs," Bishop said. "If middle school is to be reconsidered, that's $4.4 million to go back to what we had." ASD said that to continue to fund every position and program at the same level as the previous year, the school district would incur a . Former students took to social media to recount harassment by some faculty members and seniors and said no action was taken by authorities. The SCMC authorities apologised to the women and said the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) had been instructed to hear their complaints. (Photo: File) Pune: The #MeToo movement rocked the Symbiosis Centre for Media and Communication, with several former students accusing their seniors and some faculty members of sexual harassment. The SCMC authorities apologised to the women and said the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) had been instructed to hear their complaints. The former students had taken to social media platforms and shared harrowing accounts of harassment by some faculty members and their seniors. They alleged the authorities did not do anything though the incidents were brought to their notice. Taking the cognisance, the SCMC authorities issued a statement and invited the women for a discussion in the institute through a Google form. "We can start a dialogue without even mentioning your identity. Your one step can go a long way in making someone's life easier," it said. It also apologised to the former students. "Dear alumni, we are indeed sorry, if you had to face something like this. But we promise you that if you reach out to the Internal Complaints Committee. We will take steps and actions, if need be," the statement said. Symboisis International University Pro-Chancellor Vidya Yeravdekar said there after several allegations were made by the former students against the faculty, the ICC was been instructed to hear the complaints. Beijing also said the US was interfering in the internal affairs of both China and India using issues like human rights and religious matters. New Delhi: Lashing out at the United States over its misguided comments and actions which harm Chinas core interests, Beijing in a statement issued by its New Delhi embassy sought to make common cause with India on Wednesday in fighting global trade protectionism, saying this practice would affect Chinas economic development (and) also undermine the external environment of India and hinder Indias booming economy. Beijing also said the US was interfering in the internal affairs of both China and India using issues like human rights and religious matters. Angered by what it termed attempts to use the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter China, Beijing blasted the US and said the so-called militarisation of the South China Sea by China is distortion of facts, adding the US should stop making trouble and creating tensions, and respect the efforts of relevant parties to resolve problems through negotiation and consultation. In a thinly-veiled reference to recent controversies over its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the economic impact on some South Asian nations like Pakistan, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, Beijing also said the allegation that China has put some developing countries into a debt trap is nothing but an attempt to sow discord. The timing of the statement is seen by observers as extremely significant, given that it comes in the wake of a growing trade showdown between the United States under President Donald Trump and China, which has concerned Beijing deeply. Recent reports about the new Pakistan government under Prime Minister Imran Khan being wary about mounting debts owed to China due to BRI and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) also seem to have worried Beijing. Finally, the statement is seen as an attempt to wean India away from American influence as China is extremely wary of US intentions in the Indo-Pacific region. Beijing is also keenly watching the emergence of the proposed Quadrilateral involving the US, India, Japan and Australia. Beijing also seems to be hoping that with US President Donald Trump making recent unpleasant references to trade tariffs in India, New Delhi and Beijing can find common cause to take on the economic might of the US. While the target of Chinas ire in this statement is the US, Beijings warnings on trade are also being seen as significant as Indian security agencies too have been closely monitoring the entry of Chinese companies in sectors that are important to Indias strategic security. In a statement on Wednesday, Chinese embassy spokesperson and counsellor Ji Rong said: The trade friction between China and the US has drawn widespread attention recently... Under the current circumstances, China and India need to deepen their cooperation to fight trade protectionism. As the two largest developing countries and major emerging markets, China and India are both in the vital stage of deepening reform and developing economy, and both need a stable external environment. Practicing unilateral trade protectionism in the name of national security and fair trade will not only affect Chinas economic development, but also undermine the external environment of India and hinder Indias booming economy. In a clear reference to the BRI after recent controversies, the Chinese embassy said: The allegation that China has put some developing countries in a debt trap is nothing but an attempt to sow discord. Chinas economic cooperation with developing countries is committed to win-win cooperation and common development. Speaking of Sino-Indian cooperation, the spokesperson said: China and India share common interests in defending the multilateral trading system and free trade. President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with one voice to safeguard the multilateral trading system and free trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos. This year, the two sides jointly participated in publishing the Qingdao Declaration and the 10th Brics summits Johannesburg Declaration, sending a clear message against protectionism. Facing unilateralism and bullying activities, China and India have more reasons to join efforts to build a more just and reasonable international order. Compared to the past few days, no long queues for north-bound trains were seen at major railway stations. Migrant workers board a train in Ahmedabad on Tuesday in view of protests and violence breaking out over the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district. (Photo: PTI) Ahmedabad: The number of Hindi-speaking migrant workers leaving Gujarat has come down after they were reassured about their safety in the state, officials and industry body representatives said on Wednesday. Compared to the past few days, no long queues for north-bound trains were seen at major railway stations. Police and district officials held meetings with migrant workers and factory owners at several places and told them that they need not worry about their safety. Since the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat on September 28 and the arrest of a labourer hailing from Bihar in the case, six districts, most of them in north Gujarat, have witnessed incidents of violence against Hindi-speaking migrant workers. Former president of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries Shailesh Patwari held a meeting with around 200 migrant workers at Naroda industrial area of Ahmedabad Wednesday. We told workers to join work without any fear and also ask their friends who have left to return, he said. Deputy Commissioner of Police Neeraj Badgujar said many migrant workers returned to factories in Naroda area Wednesday. We told them that we are always alert to protect them. We are conducting flag marches (in areas where migrant workers were attacked) and police have been deployed... We have conducted more than 250 mohalla meetings (meeting with residents of a respective locality), asking people not to heed to rumours, he said. Avdhesh Tiwari, a factory worker from Uttar Pradesh, said he has been living in Ahmedabad for 10 years, and never felt so scared as in the past few days. At one point I felt like leaving for home with my friends who have already gone back. But our factory owner and police officers asked us to stay back. The situation is normal and there is nothing to fear now, Tiwari told reporters. Shyam Singh Thakur, president of the Uttar Bhartiya Vikas Parishad, an organisation representing North Indian migrants, said it is holding meetings with workers and persuading those who have left to come back. More than 60,000 Hindi-speaking people left for their home states mainly because of the rumours on social media that they will be attacked if they did not leave Gujarat by October 8, he said. We are trying to persuade those who left to come back before Diwali as Diwali is the time when they get extra money and bonus, he said. Collectors of Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Anand districts visited railway stations and talked to people from North India who were leaving for home. The agency is also probing their alleged proximity with the prime accused Brajesh Thakur. New Delhi: The CBI, probing the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, is preparing to question three senior officials of the social welfare department of the state for their alleged role in releasing funds to the accused NGO. The agency is also probing their alleged proximity with the prime accused Brajesh Thakur. It is suspected that three senior public servants of the revenue department of the state government played crucial role in releasing funds to the NGO belonging to Thakur. They will soon be called for questioning in connection with the case, sources said. The agency sleuths have already collected certain files pertaining to the shelter home. We are scrutinising financial records of the NGO. The CBI is collecting all relevant documents from other concerned authorities as part of its investigation into the case, sources said. Besides, CBI is also planning to confront sanitation worker Gaurav with Brajesh Thakur during custodial interrogation. The agency recently arrested Thakurs sanitation worker Gaurav, a resident of Karja in Muzaffarpur district. The sexual abuse of 34 girls over a period of time in the state government-funded shelter home came to light after a social audit was conducted by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The CBI has already frozen 20 bank accounts of Thakur. The Supreme Court recently vacated a Patna high court order restraining the media from reporting on the probe into the Muzaffarpur shelter home case where several women were allegedly raped and sexually abused over a period of time. After the incident came to light, an FIR was subsequently registered by the Bihar social welfare department and 10 people, including Thakur, were arrested. Following a huge outcry, the Nitish Kumar government handed over the probe to the CBI. His social welfare minister Manju Verma had to resign in August after it was disclosed that her husband had spoken to Thakur several times between January and June. The CBI had carried out searches at her residence in Patna and Begusarai in August, they said. He said UNODC could help the state by identifying the big sharks who had a stake in the drug business. Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought the continued support and assistance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in fighting the drug problem, which he described as a strategic conspiracy unleashed from across the international border. Rivulets in Punjab were being used to smuggle drugs as part of a strategic agenda that went beyond commercial reasons, said the Chief Minister, while delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of a 3-day Regional Workshop on Combating Illicit Trafficking of Afghan Opiates: Developing a Comprehensive Approach, organised here by UNODC and steered by UNODC Regional Office South Asia (ROSA) Sergey Kapinos. Expressing the confidence that his government would succeed in destroying the drugs business, Captain Amarinder Singh called for team work to battle the menace, and said UNODC could play a pivotal role in this. He said UNODC could help the state by identifying the big sharks who had a stake in the drug business. While the STF and other agencies had been successfully in catching mid-level peddlers, the big suppliers need to be apprehended too, he said, adding that we owe this to our future generations. The chief minister referred to the initiative taken by him to write to the chief ministers of the neighbouring states, which had led to the Haryana CM convening a meeting that had decided to set up a joint control room in Panchkula. Pakur (Jharkhand), Oct 10 (PTI) A large quantity of explosives were recovered and two persons arrested in this connection at Kalidaspur-Dungritola village in Pakur district, police said on Wednesday. Acting on a tip-off, Muffasil police station SP Shailendra Prasad Burwal said his team recovered explosives following a raid in a cattle shed, where 30 sacks of ammonium nitrate and 4,500 pieces of gelatin were kept hidden. Police has arrested a man and his son following the seizure, Burnwal said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Puducherry, Oct 10 (PTI) Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy Wednesday paid a courtesy call to the President of Mauritius, Parasivum Pillay Vyapoory, who is on a visit to the Union territory. Chief Secretary to Puducherry government Ashwani Kumar accompanied the Chief Minister during the meeting at a hotel here. Sources in Chief Minister's office said it was a 'courtesy meeting.' (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, October 10: A decade after the historic Indo-US nuclear deal, experts said the pact did not lead to India setting up foreign-built reactors, but it helped fuel domestic power plants and give India access to critical technologies in strategic areas. They also felt that it gave India the recognition of being a responsible nuclear weapon state with strong non-proliferation credentials. The Indo-US nuclear cooperation agreement was signed on October 10, 2008, that gave a fillip to the ties between the two nations, which since then have been on an upswing. India conducted a nuclear test in 1974, following which a torrent of sanctions hit the country's defence, nuclear and space programmes hard. "We knew that we had limitations on nuclear trade, so there was a need for progress within," said Anil Kakodkar, the former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and former secretary, Department of Atomic Energy when the deal was signed. India developed Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs), which are currently the backbone of the Indian nuclear power generation. In 1998, after conducting nuclear tests, India declared itself a nuclear weapon state. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Calls Iranian Nuke Deal 'Horrible'. "The feeling in the West was that the rationale behind sanctions did not hurt India's nuclear military programme," Kakodkar, who is also the member of the AEC, said. On the other hand, as the number of nuclear reactors rose, the need for uranium hit the domestic reactors, adversely affecting their performance, said R K Sinha, the former chairman of AEC and former secretary, DAE. "At that time, the concept of global warming was also gaining ground," Kakodkar said, noting India required energy for its growing economy. Sinha said by 2006-2007, the performance of Indian reactors had reduced 50-55 per cent due to shortage of nuclear fuel. He also pointed out an instance of Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant (RAPS) unit 5 whose operations had to be delayed due to shortage of uranium. The plant later went on to create a record of a continuous run of 765 days on Saturday at its full capacity of 220 MWe. A major aspect of the Indo-US nuclear deal was the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) gave a special waiver to India that enabled it to sign cooperation agreements with a dozen countries, said former diplomat Rakesh Sood and India's special envoy of the Prime Minister for Disarmament and Non-proliferation Issues from 2013 to 2014. The pact also enabled India to separate its civilian and military programmes. The country currently has 15 of its reactors under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Post waiver, India signed nuclear cooperation agreements for peaceful means with the US, France, Russia, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Japan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, and Korea. Following the pacts, there have been specific agreements for import of uranium from France, Kazakhstan, Australia, Canada, and Russia. Sood said the long-term uranium arrangements enabled India to run the existing plants at 80 per cent efficiency. According to the responses by the government on questions in Parliament, India imported over 7841.51 metric tonnes of nuclear fuel from 2008-2009 to 2017-18. Work is also on to create a uranium reserve by importing the element to ensure the power reactors under IAEA safeguards do not face fuel shortage. Building of foreign nuclear reactors was a major aspect of the Indo-US deal. For this, two sites were earmarked---Mithi Virdi for General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Kovadda in Andhra Pradesh---for building 12 reactors. M V Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security Liu Institute for Global Issues School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia said in terms of building foreign reactors, despite the waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, there was "absolutely no construction" at any sites identified for imported reactors. "Even the government doesn't have much hope that they would be importing large numbers of light water reactors anytime soon," Ramana said. Requesting anonymity, a former senior DAE scientist claimed the GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is reluctant to take up the project citing the Civil Liability Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act, 2010. In case of Westinghouse, it is yet to submit a techno-commercial offer, including "reasonable" tariff and a working reference plant. "Unless these criteria are not fulfilled, we will not be going ahead with the deal," the scientist said. In terms of electricity generation, nuclear power's share of the total power production in the country in 2008 was 2.03 percent, which rose to 3.2 percent in 2017, Ramana said. Another aspect which Kakodkar pointed out that the deal helped "build confidence" of other countries in India and the cooperation has now been extended to other areas like defence technology. Kakodkar said after the deal India has joined three major control regimes like the export control regimes---the Missile Technical Control Regime, Wassenaar Arrangement, and Australia Group, while work is on for India's entry into the elite NSG. Jalandhar, October 10: In a major breakthrough for Punjab Police, four students including three Kashmiri were arrested on Wednesday with explosive weapons from Jalandhar. Sources told LatestLY that a fifth person was arrested from Chandigarh. In the late night raids conducted by the Punjab police, five AK -47s were recovered from the hostel of the CT Institute. Jammu and Kashmir police gave information to the Punjab police about seven suspects, out which five were arrested. The joint team of Amritsars Counter Intelligence Team and the Jammu and Kashmir Police conducted the raid on the hostel of the institute. RDX was also recovered from the students. According to sources, they were planning to conduct blast in crowded Jyoti Chowk area of the city on the occasion of Dussehra. However, the security agencies have not revealed the names of the students. Terror Group KLF Killed 2 Shiv Sena Leaders Satpal Sharma and Durga Prasad Gupta in Punjab, NIA Files Charge Sheets Against 15 In a joint operation, Punjab Police and Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested three students to bust a terror module of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), in Jalandhar.The students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology pic.twitter.com/aLe4r2rNwT ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 The police are conducting further investigation into the matter. According to reports, the arrested students work for the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) and Jaish- e- Mohammed terror groups. Incidentally, Rashtriya Sawayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat is also in the city for three days to attend an event. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 10, 2018 02:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). New Delhi, October 10: In his address to the booth-level BJP workers preparing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his party cadres need to combat the Congress' "divisive agenda" with the message of "unity, peace, harmony and development". Modi said the Opposition is attempting to pit one caste against another to reap electoral gains. "Now elections are due in 5 states. We all need to be careful. The Opposition wants to divide India...they will go to any extent for winning," the Prime Minister said. BJP Works for Few Rich, Congress Thinks of Poor: Rahul Gandhi Fires Salvo at PM Modi. Tagging the Congress as the "most divisive party" of the nation, Modi accused the party of pushing the Andhra region into an unprecedented violence in 2014. Hum sukh baantne wale hain, woh (Congress) samaj baantne waale hain. 5 states mein elections hain, choti-choti cheezon mein tanav paida kardenge, ek ko dusre se ladwadenge: PM Narendra Modi interacting with BJP workers via NaMo app pic.twitter.com/0UJ5cEm9LE ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 "(Former PM) Atal ji's tenure witnessed bifurcation of three states. But not a single incident of violence was reported. But under the Congress rule, people speaking the same language were turned into enemies," he said, referring to the riots which ensued in bordering regions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana when the latter was carved out into a new state. Modi said the Opposition cannot electorally outperform the BJP, but resort to "unholy alliances" to keep the party out of power. Calling the Mahagathbandhan a "failed idea", the Prime Minister added, "These parties constantly bicker with each other but come together when there's an opportunity to form govt like we saw in Karnataka. Similar efforts are underway in UP and MP. BJP workers need to make people aware of the background of these leaders." (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 10, 2018 05:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). A lot of couples would have their honeymoon escapades and one such couple has made it to the headlines. A British couple who were on their honeymoon to Sri Lanka, got so drunk that they ended up buying the hotel they were residing in. Gina Lyons, 33, and Mark Lee, 35, who got married in June 2017, went on a backpacking honeymoon trip to Sri Lanka at the end of the year. They were staying at a beautiful rustic hotel and got along so well with the staff members, that they decided to become their new bosses! British Couple Book Special Train to Nilgiris For Their Honeymoon in Rs 3 Lakh. While the couple was staying in the hotel, they decided to take the night by the beach. The got several bottles of rum and were accompanied by the hotel's bartenders. As their conversations hit off, they were told that the hotel was on a lease and it was almost getting over. A few more pegs down, the couple was convinced that they could take the new lease. It cost them 30,000 and they were ready for it. Bengaluru: Constable Rewarded With Honeymoon Package For Nabbing Robber in Midnight Chase. Gina and Mark officially own the hotel which was a drunken decision they took. They have now renamed it to 'Lucky Beach Tangalle'. Gina was quoted to the Mirror, "When we walked into the hotel we saw a group of old Sri Lankan men who were still drunk from the night before, so we started drinking with them. When we were on the beach drinking rum, we were told that the lease was almost up for the hotel. After finding out that it was 10,000 a year, myself and Mark thought that it would be a brilliant idea to buy it - because we were so drunk." Even while completing the formalities and knowing more details about the lease and renewal, the couple was in a hangover. They were drinking rum at the time they were talking to another couple about the lease. They did a barter in their tipsy state and agreed to pay 30,000. They will pay the other half by March 2019. It has been a year since then and the couple is making efforts to make developments at the hotel they stayed in. The deal wasn't cheap as they had to spend a lot of amount on refurbishing and legal fees. The couple was struggling to make their payments but somehow managed. Now they are expecting a child and they have much of amount left to pay. The couple regretted their decision as the business would not work that well. Plus they had a lot of debts to clear from their wedding. But thankfully they have managed their responsibilities and made it work for them. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 10, 2018 07:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Starbucks Indonesia has found a rather sweet strategy to welcome the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As part of their #PINKVOICE campaign, Starbucks Indonesia has released three limited-edition flavoured drinks, all pink and iced, to commemorate the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The three drinks that are soon going to take over Instagram feeds are called Iced Pink Macchiato, the Strawberry Cold Foam Iced Espresso and the Fantasia Yogurt Frappuccino. This is the second year for Starbucks' #PINKVOICE campaign that urges people to chat and talk more about breast cancer, causes and preventive methods.Sardarbuksh to Become Sardarji-Bakhsh After Starbucks Sues the Delhi Based Coffee Chain! Here's What Those Drinks Look Like: A post shared by Starbucks Indonesia (@starbucksindonesia) on Oct 2, 2018 at 5:20pm PDT The same has been announced on their website as well where they have divulged about the contents of all the newly added drinks. Starbucks Indonesia has found a rather sweet strategy to welcome the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Iced Pink macchiato has been described as a mix of "fresh milk with vanilla and strawberry flavoured syrup marked with espresso"; the Strawberry Cold Foam Iced Espresso is basically a delicious combination of "strawberry cold foam and espresso"; and the Fantasia Yoghurt Frappuccino is a "blend of ice, milk, strawberry and vanilla flavoured syrup topped with raspberry whipped cream." Sounds tasty? Well, in case you haven't cracked the catch yet, these drinks are only available in Indonesian Starbucks outlets. Can Men Get Breast Cancer? Risks, Symptoms and Treatment -What Every Man Should Know. The theme for this year's #PINKVOICE campaign is Chat That Matters: Talk About It, Share It and Save More. Basically, it is their way of promoting the necessity of talking about breast cancer, its causes, treatments and how it can be prevented. On their website, they further added, "We cheer and invite everyone to take a preventative approach on breast cancer by talking more about it in their daily lives." The money raked in by these three drinks will be going directly to Lovepink Indonesia, a non-profit for breast cancer survivors, as reported by Insider. How To Check Your Breasts For Lumps. Starbucks will also be holding various events in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Bali and Yogyakarta through the month as they want to raise awareness about breast cancer and address the facts and myths to a wider audience. Starbucks & Other Companies Must Have Caution Signs says California Judge. While we're on the subject of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, apart from Starbucks, there is a plethora of companies from the fashion, beauty and lifestyle arena, who are taking up initiatives to address the growing concerns of breast cancer. H&M has also released a collection of three type of bras for the cancer survivors. 100 per cent of the proceeds is dedicated to cancer research. Beauty brands like Beautyblender and La Mer are also donating a big percentage of their proceeds from their limited-edition pink products to cancer research foundations. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 10, 2018 03:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Madrid, October 10: The Spanish authorities have confirmed the death of two Britons, among the nine whose bodies have been retrieved in the flood-hit Majorca holiday island. Six other tourists, including foreign nationals, are missing, the authorities informed on Wednesday. The flash-floods were unleashed in Majorca after the island was struck with unprecedented rainfall. Scores of houses in the region have been inundated, with hundreds being shifted to the relief camps installed by the government in areas above sea-level. Kerala Tourism Resumes After Devastating Floods, Looks Forward to Host Art Event Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, one of the municipalities of the island much frequented by tourists, is the worst affected in the natural disaster. Antonia Bauza, deputy mayor of Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, said dozens of vacation homes in the council have been washed away. "The number of those missing could be way more than what has been confirmed," he told the local media. Spain's meteorological office has issued a red alert in the neighbouring holiday islands of Ibiza and Formentera, where massive rainfall has been reported over the past two days. The downpour are a result of the massive depression in the Mediterranean Sea. The regional government of Spain's Balearic Islands -- which houses the holiday archipelagos, has deployed 400 emergency workers to minimise casualties and rescue the stranded tourists. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 10, 2018 08:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Pressure is mounting on Riyadh to provide answers over journalist Jamal Khashoggis disappearance from its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Key allies have come out over the past 24 hours to state that they are not willing to ignore this incident that involves Saudi Arabia in such a crucial way. The issue could strain the close relationship Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has forged with the Trump administration, which until now has been willing to turn a blind eye to Saudi human rights violations and its bombing campaign against Yemen's Houthi rebels, which has killed thousands of civilians. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been a vocal backer of King Salman in the Middle East said, "I am concerned. I don't like hearing about it. Hopefully that will sort itself out," Trump told reporters at the White House. He added, "Right now, nobody knows anything about it. There are some pretty bad stories going around. I do not like it." U.S. Vice President Mike Pence also waded into the controversy over the disappeared Saudi, saying "the free world deserves answers". Deeply troubled to hear reports about Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. If true, this is a tragic day. Violence against journalists across the globe is a threat to freedom of the press & human rights. The free world deserves answers. Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) October 8, 2018 Similarly, two senior senators of Trump's Republican party warned on Monday that the relationship could be imperiled if the stories about Khashoggi are correct. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Riyadh must provide "honest answers" about the journalist. UK's foreign secretary too has told Saudi Arabia that the British government expects urgent answers over the mysterious disappearance of Khashoggi. In a phone call to Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, Jeremy Hunt warned that "friendships depend on shared values". Just met the Saudi ambassador to seek urgent answers over Jamal Khashoggi. Violence against journalists worldwide is going up & is a grave threat to freedom of expression. If media reports prove correct, we will treat the incident seriously - friendships depend on shared values. Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) October 9, 2018 Britains stronger line comes in the backdrop of the heavy criticism Theresa Mays government has faced for selling arms to Saudi Arabia as it continues its assault on Yemen. UN experts have demanded a "prompt independent and international investigation" into his disappearance. Khashoggi was last seen visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week, and Turkey says he may have been murdered there. Turkey says it will conduct a search of Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 10, 2018 04:31 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). He said Congress will not make false promises to the voters. Congress President Rahul Gandhi being welcomed by the party leaders on his arrival at the airport in Jaipur, Wednesday. (Photo: PTI) Jaipur: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said his party will not make false promises but deliver on whatever it tells voters, even as he continued to slam Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale fighter deal. At a public meeting in Bikaner, Gandhi targeted Modi over corruption in the deal signed with France for the fighter aircraft, repeating the charge that Anil Ambanis Reliance group benefited from a related offset contract. He had levelled similar charges - denied earlier by the government and the Reliance Group at the meetings he addressed Tuesday in the states Dholpur, Bharatpur and Dausa districts. At the Maha Sankalp Rally on the Medical College grounds in Bikaner, he said Modi brought benefits for 15-20 top industrialists instead of the farmers. He said Congress will not make false promises to the voters. The party and its leaders will not make promises like depositing `15 lakh in everyones bank account and providing two crore jobs every year. Our chief minister and leaders will not deliver hollow speeches and tell lies, he said. But we will deliver on whatever we say from the stage, the Congress chief said. Assembly polls in the state are on December 7. The Congress chief referred to the migrant workers in Gujarat, saying youths from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were being attacked in the state and forced to leave. His rally in Bikaner targeted voters in 24 assembly constituencies spread over the districts of Bikaner, Hanumangarh, Srigan-ganagar and Churu. Farmers and party workers in large number from the districts attended the meeting. Mr Gandhi claimed Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) was ignored in the Rafale deal while an industrialist friend of the PM benefitted. He reiterated the party's claim that the agreement with France for 36 aircraft was finalised at higher price compared to what was negotiated by the previous Congress-led government. Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. The party also demanded an inquiry into his conduct. New Delhi: The #MeToo campaign continued to singe minister of state for external affairs M.J. Akbar on Wednesday with more harrowing accounts of sexual assault being levelled against the former journalist and editor by women and the Congress demanding his resignation for failing to come up with any satisfactory explanation. A day after journalist Priya Ramani spoke out about the sexual harassment that Mr Akbar had subjected her to, other journalists also shared their stories. Ghazala Wahab, who worked with Mr Akbar in The Asian Age from 1994 to 1997, wrote of his persistence in trying to force himself on her in his office cabin, the emotional tactics he resorted to when he realised his physical advances would not work and how he even got the newspapers tarot card columnist to tell her that he really loved her. Reacting to this and other accounts which chronicle Mr Akbars predatory behaviour, the Congress said on Wednesday that either he should offer a satisfactory explanation on the allegations of sexual harassment against him or resign immediately. The party also demanded an inquiry into his conduct. A cornered Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, refused to answer any question on his Cabinet colleague. Today the issue is Cabinet decisions, please concentrate on that, he said. Congress spokesman S. Jaipal Reddy said at a press conference: I think Mr M.J. Akbar must either offer a satisfactory explanation or resign forthwith. How can he be in the ministry with serious allegations being levelled against him by responsible journalists who worked with him. Let there be an inquiry into it. Mr Reddy also questioned external affairs minister Sushma Swarajs silence on the issue, saying she was evading responsibility. Mr Akbar is currently abroad and has not commented on the controversy so far. On Tuesday, Ms Swaraj walked away when journalists confronted her on the issue. Only Maneka Gandhi, the minister for women and child development, has reacted to the allegations, and called for an investigation. There should be an investigation. Men in position of power often do this. This applies to the media, politics and seniors working in companies. Now that women have started speaking out, we should take it seriously, she said, and added that women are scared to speak out as they think people will make fun of them and doubt their character. But now that they are speaking out, we should take action against each and every allegation. As the #MeToo campaign continues to gather momentum in India, more and more accusations against men in powerful positions in the media and films are coming out into the open. The #MeToo movement of calling out men in positions of power for their sexual misconduct started last year in the United States. In the past one week, several instances of harassment in India have come to light with women naming perpetrators on the social media. Several organisations have already started internal probes and put the accused on notice. Oct 9, 2018, 3:40pm ET Al Gore, Alan Mulally under consideration for Tesla chairman? The company must find a new chairman during CEO Elon Musk's three-year ban. Tesla's board of directors has reportedly drafted a short list of potential candidates to step in as chairman. A settlement agreement between CEO Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission requires him to step down as chairman. The company must add two independent board members, ostensibly tasked with reining in Musk's Twitter activity. A Bloomberg report suggests the board is considering former Vice President Al Gore, former Ford CEO Alan Mulally or Boeing's Jim McNerney. Some investors view an independent chairman as a necessary change to help stabilize the company's stock price. Other experts doubt the SEC's settlement will have much of a change, as Musk is considered deeply integral to the company and consequently faces little pressure to fall in line. Musk has been barred from serving as Tesla's chairman for three years. Oct 10, 2018, 3:34am ET NHTSA won't stand by Tesla's "best car" claim [update] Is Musk over-interpreting the agency's crash data? While Tesla and CEO Elon Musk are boldly claiming the Model 3 is one of the safest cars ever made, the U.S. federal regulator whose data they cite is making its own, more cautious stance perfectly clear. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), such determinations are not made by the agency and shouldn't necessarily be made by others. California-based Tesla published a blog post on October 7 boasting the Model 3 "has the lowest probability of injury of all cars the [NHTSA] has ever tested." Tesla pointed out the Model 3 received a five-star rating in every category and further went on to allude to data relating to the likelihood of injuries in a collision. The agency published a brief statement on October 9, throwing some water on those claims: "A five-star rating is the highest safety rating a vehicle can achieve. NHTSA does not distinguish safety performance beyond that rating, thus there is no 'safest' vehicle among those vehicles achieving five-star ratings," it wrote. The Model 3 is a safe car, make no mistake, but America's national safety regulator is not willing to say it's safer than other five-star cars currently in showrooms. It's consequently considered to be on par with the 2016 Volvo S60, the 2018 Ford Mustang, and the 2018 Subaru Impreza, among other models. Tesla hasn't responded to the NHTSA's rebuttal. A 42-year-old man, who was serving work release time for one drug crime and awaiting a court appearance in another drug case, was charged Wednesday with bringing methamphetamine into the West Easton facility, records show. Jose David Maldonado Jr. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com) Jose David Maldonado Jr., who previously lived in the Bethlehem and Allentown areas, was serving a 30-day-to-12-month sentence for possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, records show. He was initially given 12 months of probation in the 2016 case, but he violated his supervision more than once and was ordered to serve his time in prison. He was paroled a few times and was most recently detained in May, records say. Maldonado also has a pending case from May 7. Bethlehem Township police charged him with possession with intent to deliver drugs and another paraphernalia count. That bail was initially 10 percent of $10,000, but was later changed to $10,000 unsecured, likely to allow him to continue work release. His formal arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 25, records show. An official conducting security rounds Oct. 2 at the West Easton facility saw locker 55 was open and determined it was Maldonado's, the Northampton County Department of Corrections says in court papers. The official searched the locker and found various items, including a backpack that contained nine cellphones, a digital scale with residue and an L&M cigarette pack, authorities said. Inside the cigarette container were plastic bags, including one that weighed 3 grams, court papers say. The white crystalline substance inside field-tested as meth, court papers say. Video surveillance was checked from 10:56 p.m. Oct. 1 when Maldonado put the backpack in the locker to just after midnight when the official began to investigate, court papers say. No one went into the locker during that stretch, court papers say. Maldonado was arraigned Wednesday morning before District Judge Richard Yetter III on charges of possession with intent to deliver drugs, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, records show. Bail was set at $100,000. Maldonado's preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. Oct. 18 in Yetter's court in Wilson Borough. Court papers don't show an attorney for Maldonado. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A 55-year-old Monmouth County, New Jersey, man was pronounced dead after a two-vehicle crash Wednesday morning in Upper Saucon Township, the Lehigh County Coroner's Office reports. James Ludden, of Tinton Falls, died at the scene from blunt force injuries, Coroner Scott Grim said in a news release. The death was ruled an accident, Grim added. Ludden was driving an SUV that collided with another vehicle at 7:06 a.m. at South Pike Avenue (Route 145) and Vera Cruz Road/Oakhurst Drive, Grim said. Several nearby roads were closed or access was limited for hours after the crash, Upper Saucon police said on Facebook. Drivers were told to avoid the area. Police have yet to release more information on the crash. The scene was cleared about 12:30 p.m., they said. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. From left: Lori Sywensky, executive director of Turning Point of Lehigh Valley; Suzanne Beck, executive director of the Crime Victims Council of the Lehigh Valley; Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Abe Kassis; and Northampton County Detective Dean Wilson. (Sarah Cassi | For lehighvalleylive.com) Northampton County's district attorney announced news tools for his office and law enforcement to battle domestic violence. John Morganelli at a news conference Wednesday described the changes, which range from staffing changes to new training for police officers. The move comes after Pennsylvania lawmakers approved a bill cutting the length of time defendants have to surrender their firearms, following either conviction in a domestic violence case or after a final protection-from abuse order is granted. The law previously gave defendants 60 days. Under the new law, the firearms must be surrendered within 24 hours. "This law now puts some teeth in it," Morganelli said, of orders for people to surrender their firearms. "This is critical." Prosecutors have seen "so many tragedies" of abusers who ignore court orders and keep their firearms, the district attorney said. "Statistically, the most lethal time to a survivor is when they get a PFA, when you report to the authorities," said Lori Sywensky, executive director of Turning Point of Lehigh Valley. The new law "helps not only keep safe the people who are fleeing the situation, but also those helpers -- the sheriffs, the police, the detectives who are going to be working with them in those cases," she added. Turning Point is an Allentown-based nonprofit that assists domestic violence survivors. It runs a 24-hour helpline at 877-438-4957. Twenty years after creating his office's domestic violence unit, Morganelli and his staff are developing a new community education program. Morganelli said he wants the domestic violence program to be similar to the "Every 15 Minutes" program used to show the consequences of drunk driving crashes. County Detective Dean Wilson developed "Every 15 Minutes" when he worked for the Bethlehem Township Police Department, and Morganelli tapped Wilson to create the new county domestic violence program. Plans are to unveil the program next spring or summer, and use it at area schools and social organizations. Suzanne Beck, executive director of the Crime Victims Council of the Lehigh Valley, said her office has seen abuse patterns that span generations. "This is a learned behavior that someone has learned from their family ... a pattern that has gone on for many, many years," she said. Crime Victims Council is a nonprofit that provides services and support to victims of violence, as well as victims' families and significant others. Domestic violence survivors behave differently than victims of other crimes, Beck said. That can include victims minimizing, recanting or altogether denying their abuse as a result of the power and control in their relationships. Domestic abuse can come in many forms, including physical, psychological, social and financial abuse, and victims "can distrust anyone who tries to help them," Beck said. The district attorney's office will also develop new training sessions for all patrol officers in the county, to better prepare officers when they respond to domestic violence calls. The training aims to help officers understand the dynamics of domestic violence cases, including family issues, particularly involving children, and economic issues. The office will also meet with Turning Point and the Crime Victims Council to review all of its policies and protocols when handling domestic abuse cases. Morganelli said domestic violence cases account for between 15 and 17 percent of his office's caseload. Morganelli is adding a second assistant district attorney to his office's domestic violence unit. Abe Kassis was recently named chief prosecutor of the unit, and Judy Chaverri, who is fluent in Spanish, will now assist him. Wilson recently took over as chief investigator of the domestic violence unit. It's imperative for abuse survivors to experience consistency and continuity as they learn to trust themselves and the criminal justice system, Beck said. The assigned prosecutors and detectives help build relationships with victims, helping the survivors feel "they are not along and there is someone here in the system that they can count on to help keep them safe. Which is indeed the ultimate goal," she continued. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. One of Kilkenny's best loved clerics has passed away at 87-years of age. Bishop Laurence Forristal, Bishop Emeritus of Ossory, died peacefully in St Lukes Hospital, Kilkenny, on Wednesday morning. Bishop Dermot Farrell, the current Bishop of Ossory said: It is with great sadness that I announce the death of Bishop Laurence Forristal, Bishop Emeritus of Ossory, who died peacefully in Saint Lukes Hospital, Kilkenny, this morning. "I offer my personal sympathies and prayers to his sisters, May, Kathleen and Nan, to his nieces and nephews, to all his extended family, to the priests, religious, friends, and to the many people whose lives he touched throughout his almost 63 years of priestly and episcopal ministry. I also express my gratitude and appreciation to all who cared for Bishop Forristal so well during his long illness. We ask the Lord to grant him eternal rest. "Bishop Forristal was very proud of his home parish of Thomastown, County Kilkenny, where he was born on 5 June 1931. He attended primary school in the Mercy Convent School and the Boys National School in Thomastown, and secondary school at Mount Saint Joseph College, Roscrea. He studied for the priesthood at Clonliffe College, Dublin, and studied philosophy at University College, Dublin. He pursued further studies at the Propaganda Fide College in Rome and was ordained there as a priest for the Archdiocese of Dublin on 21 December 1955. "He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin on 3 December 1979 and received Episcopal Ordination on 20 January 1980. The following year, he was appointed Bishop of Ossory and was installed on 13 September 1981 in Saint Marys Cathedral, Kilkenny. "Throughout his 63 years as priest and bishop, he worked tirelessly in the service of the people of God, in this diocese and further afield. On 21 December 2015, Bishop Forristal celebrated 60 years of dedicated service as a priest. Of those 60 years he served the faithful in our diocese for over 26 years as Bishop of Ossory. "I ask that the priests, religious and the faithful of the Diocese of Ossory and all those who knew Bishop Forristal to join with me in praying for the repose of the soul of this wise shepherd and faithful Son of the Church." Funeral arrangements will be announced later. Modi's remarks came in the backdrop of exodus of migrants from Gujarat for which the saffron party has blamed its opponents. New Delhi: Asking the BJP cadre not to waste time on allegations levelled by the opposition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused the Congress of dividing the society for the benefit of one family while asserting that the BJP follows the mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and uniting people. Mr Modi's remarks came in the backdrop of exodus of migrants from Gujarat for which the saffron party has blamed its opponents. Citing examples of bifurcation of states during the previous NDA rule and the birfurcation of Andhra Pradesh during the UPA rule, Mr Modi said while the Congress had been involved in pitting one against the other and dividing the society, AP's bifurcation saw how the opposition party mishandled the situation so much that two states, having a comman language, have become enemies. Interacting with the BJP booth level workers through NaMo app. at five parliamentary constituencies Karauli-Dholpur, Raipur, Mysore, Damoh and Agra Mr Modi, while replying to a query on the opposition's divisive politics, said, We dont spread hatred and divide the society. Our mantra is Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, but they (Congress) want to make themselves happy by dividing the society and spreading hatred. Wishing the saffron partys booth workers on the onset of Navratri, Mr Modi said the interaction should inspire every worker to work for the whole country with much zeal and greater commitment. Hitting back at the Congress for claiming that many schemes launched under the Modi government were a repacakged version of UPAs schemes, Mr Modi cited the examples of Aadhaar and Delhi Metro and said it was during the Atal Bihari Vajpayees government that the two were conceptualised and started the work. Mr Modi said announcing schemes does not help and said that nearly 1500 announcements were made during the UPA rule by their Railways ministers which were only on papers. The PM also highlighted various initiatives taken by his government, including for the senior citizens like the introduction of Life Certificate, the Jan Aushadhi Yojana and the increased tax benefits for senior citizens. Criminal gang member Brian Rattigan remains in jail after the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal against his conviction for directing the supply of drugs from Portlaoise Prison. Rattigan (37), formerly of Cooley Road, in Drimnagh, had pleaded not (not) guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to possession of heroin and two counts of possession of the drug for sale or supply on Hughes Road South, Walkinstown, Dublin 12 on May 21st, 2008. The three-judge Special Criminal Court agreed with the prosecution case that Rattigan was the director of a drugs gang conducting a 1 million heroin deal. He became the first drug dealer to be found guilty of charges connected to directing the supply of drugs while in prison. During the trial, he was cleared of two counts relating to the possession of two mobile phones at Cell 42, E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison while an inmate at the prison on May 22nd, 2008, which he had also denied. Sentencing Rattigan to 17 years in prison, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said the Special Criminal Court had regard to the very frightening evidence of drugs expert Detective Sergeant Brian Roberts, who detailed the effects heroin had on society as well as the alarming 3,972 drug-related deaths in Ireland between 2004 and 2010. The sentence, imposed on March 20, 2013 and backdated to June 2008, was directed to run in tandem with a life sentence he was then serving for the murder of 21-year-old Declan Gavin outside an Abrakebabra fast-food restaurant in Crumlin on August 25th, 2001. However, in December last year, the Supreme Court quashed Rattigan's conviction for the murder of Mr Gavin over closing remarks made by the trial judge to the jury which, a majority of the Supreme Court found, had gone further than was desirable. Rattigan moved to appeal his drugs conviction in July on eight grounds related to search warrants, the admission of certain evidence as well as rulings made by the Special Criminal Court in respect of the value and purity of drugs. Dismissing his appeal, Mr Justice John Edwards, who sat with Mr Justice John Hedigan and Mr Justice Brian McGovern, said the three-judge court was satisfied that Rattigans trial was satisfactory and his conviction safe. Rattigan acknowledged the courts decision with a nod to the judges and shook the hands of senior detectives in the case who were sitting at the back of the courtroom, after judgment was delivered. Rattigan and the senior gardai shared brief pleasantries before he was lead away through the custody area and returned to prison. His lawyers submitted that the trial court erred in upholding the lawfulness of various search warrants, erred in admitting evidence relating to a mobile phone, erred in accepting Garda expertise in respect of the value of the drugs seized, erred in convicting Rattigan where there was no evidence of the purity of the drugs and erred in convicting Rattigan in circumstances where, it was contended, there was insufficient evidence that he was in possession of the drugs seized. His barrister, Brendan Grehan SC, submitted that the prosecution had come to court without bothering to test any of the samples of the drugs for purity. In a case of such magnitude, the idea that that wasnt done was extraordinary, Mr Grehan said, as it was not possible to say how much heroin was present in the substance that was usually bulked up. In the UK, Mr Grehan said the authorities had moved from measuring market value to measuring purity. It is at least scientific. He referred to the historical case of a man caught with a tea spoons worth of drugs in two pounds worth of substance and added: he should have been convicted of fraud. In a 44-page judgment, Mr Justice Edwards said the evidence of Sergeant Roberts was properly admitted, as his expertise in the profiling of actors, activities and methods of the drugs trade was sufficient for the trial court to be satisfied that he had the necessary knowledge to testify as an expert. He said then Detective Superintendent Brian Sutton gave evidence in the trial that the market value of a gram of heroin, in May 2008, would have been 200. He stated that 4,973.6 grams of heroin, the quantity in question, would therefore have had a street value of 994,720. His evidence was that the purity of heroin in Ireland ranged from 30% to 50% but that the street value did not depend on the purity of heroin in the deal. He said it wasn't relevant from the gardai's perspective, because at street level "the buyer is blind" as to what purity the substance might be. Mr Justice Edwards said the street value was determined by the weight or volume involved in the deal regardless of its purity and the Special Criminal Court was entitled to draw the inferences that it did. He said the trial courts ruling with respect to deficiencies in the form of the warrant to search Hughes Road South was open to it and no error could be found in the trial courts approach. Furthermore, he said there was no basis to criticise the trial courts ruling on the warrant to search the cell in Portlaoise Prison. Mr Justice Edwards said it was fanciful to suggest that Rattigan was prejudiced because it was not possible to make out the name of the judge on a warrant to search premises on the Cooley Road. Rattigans lawyers argued that because he was tried before three judges of the Special Criminal Court, one of whom is a District Court judge, there was no way of knowing if the judge who signed the warrant was the same judge on the panel. Mr Justice Edwards said a simple enquiry to the District Court office would have solved the mystery for anyone concerned to verify ownership of the illegible signature. Met Eireann has officially declared that Storm Callum will strike Ireland at the weekend and issued three weather warnings for the country. The Irish weather forecaster has issued two Status Orange wind warnings for a number of counties, all around the coast of the country. The Status Orange wind warning has been issued for Dublin, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow, Meath, Cork and Waterford. Winds will be strongest overnight and early on Friday, gusting between 110 and 130 km/h at coasts. "Strong winds associated with Storm Callum, coinciding with high spring tides will affect Ireland on Thursday night and Friday morning." This Status Orange warning is valid from Thursday 11 October 2018 22:00 to Friday 12 October 2018 09:00. A second Status Orange wind warning that will last until 12:00 on Friday has been issued for Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Clare and Kerry. A Status Yellow wind warning has been issued for Laois, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Roscommon, Limerick and Tipperary. MORE BELOW PICTURE Winds in these counties will be the strongest overnight and early on Friday, gusting between 90 and 110 km/h at coasts. The inland warning is valid from Thursday 11 October 2018 23:00 to Friday 12 October 2018 09:00. Wind Warnings have been issued for Storm Callum for Thursday night and Friday morning. MORE BELOW PICTURE Orange level for coastal counties, Yellow level inland. Warning info: https://t.co/b24grJkqcb#StormCallum pic.twitter.com/amkehhcOYS Met Eireann (@MetEireann) October 10, 2018 A deportation decision by the Department overseen by Laois TD and Minister Charlie Flanagan involving a family living in Tullamore has been welcomed by Offaly Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen. Deputy Cowen said the decision of the Department of Justice to grant leave to remain for Nonso, Victor and Chidiebere Muojeke in Ireland is a victory for common sense and one which the community in Tullamore welcomes. A big campaign was mounted in the Offaly town this year to halt deportation. Nonso and Victor have both been issued with a Stamp Two: Leave to Remain permission while their mother, Chidiebere has been issued with a Stamp One: Leave to Remain permission. "I was thrilled to have been able to support the Save Nonso and the Muojeke family from deportation campaign in the Dail. The two boys and their mother have been part and parcel of the Tullamore community for many years, and it would have flown in the face of common sense to send them back to a country they didnt know. This is great news for all of them and the local campaign who stood behind the family over the past number of months, concluded Dep Cowen. No statement has been issued by the Department of Justice. More than 8,100 people were outpatient no-shows at Tullamore hospital while hundreds of others missed their surgical appointments, official HSE figures reveal. The high rate of no-shows for out-patient appointments and operations at the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore in 2017 is described as 'extraordinary' by a county councillor who is also a member of the Dublin-Mid Leinster Regional Health Forum. Figures obtained by the Offaly Express through a Freedom of Information Request to the HSE show that in 2017 alone, 8,138 people simply did not turn up for out-patient appointments at Tullamore hospital. That works out at more than 150 missed appointments per week or more than 32 per working day in the hospital which is the main orthopaedic surgery centre in the midlands. Recent HSE figures revealed that 15,325 people were waiting for outpatient procedures at the hospital which is part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. The Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise, Naas, St James and Tallaght hospitals are in the same HSE group. In 2017, 404 people did not turn up for Day Case Operations, Investigations and Procedures at the hospital. Offaly County Councillor and Dublin-Mid Leinster Regional Health Forum member, Tommy McKeigue commented on the figures. I'm very disappointed to hear that this many people are getting appointments and don't keep them. I don't know how you penalise people, but if they are not going to show up, they should at least be giving three days notice so someone else who needs the appointment can be scheduled in. "I know things could happen on the morning and they might not get there but that's an extraordinary figure. Once people are on a waiting list and get an appointment, just not turning up without contacting the hospital, that's scandalous, he said. The councillor was disturbed to learn that more than 400 people had missed operations. Maybe they have gone elsewhere and got the surgery done privately. It's very disturbing to hear that kind of figure. There should be a total review to find out why people haven't turned up. There should be checks to see why the surgeries, in particular, have been missed, he said. A Dublin man has admitted shooting dead a father-of-one and dismembering his body, parts of which were later found in a canal. Paul Wells Snr told gardai that the deceased, Kenneth O'Brien, had wanted him to murder Mr OBriens partner. Paul Wells Senior (50), of Barnamore Park, Finglas, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 33-year-old at the accused mans home on January 15 or 16, 2016. Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, opened his trial at the Central Criminal Court yesterday (Wednesday). He told the jury that Mr OBrien was living with his partner, Eimear Dunne, and their son in Clondalkin in Dublin. He had just returned from Australia, where he had been working. He was due to go to work in Limerick on Friday January 15th and he stopped replying to Ms Dunnes text messages that afternoon, something that she found odd. However, she received a text from an unknown number in the early hours of the following morning. The sender was purporting to be her partner, telling her that he had lost his phone and was going to stay overnight in a hotel. She became suspicious, though, when she received another message from this number a few hours later. Again purporting to the be the deceased, the sender wrote that hed had enough, had met someone else, was leaving her and was heading to the ferry. There was also a reference to her caring more about another family member than him. This persons name was misspelled and this, along with the tone and language, made her question if it had really come from her partner. Youll be satisfied on the evidence that those texts did not emanate from Kenneth OBrien, said Mr Gillane. Ms Dunne began contacting family, friends and acquaintances to see if they knew where her partner was. This included contacting the accused, who told her that her partner was having an affair in Australia. He showed her some texts and photos of a particular nature concerning this woman, said the barrister. Nonetheless, Mr OBrien was reported missing to gardai that evening. Earlier that Saturday, two walkers had noticed something of relevance floating in the canal at Ardclough, near Celbridge in Co Kildare. They were among the first civilian witnesses to give evidence in the trial. Brian ODwyer testified that he and his girlfriend had noticed a suitcase with red ribbons attached floating about two metres from the waters edge. He told Sean Gillane that he used a stick from a hedgerow to pull it towards him. It was very heavy and his girlfriend had to hold onto him while he retrieved it from the canal. However, no water came out and he pulled open the zip. There was clear plastic with red liquid in it, he recalled. He called the gardai. I said I think we found a body, but the garda was a bit reluctant and Mary pulled it further to check, he continued. I also saw what appeared to be skin with hair on it in the plastic. He said that he then confirmed to the garda that they had found a bag of human remains. His girlfriend, Mary Costigan, testified that the case had seemed relatively new and this had drawn their attention. I just saw something flesh-coloured, she recalled of looking inside. The trial heard that gardai conducted a preliminary examination and confirmed that the plastic contained a human torso. Mr Gillane said that, with Mr OBrien being reported missing that same day, an obvious line of inquiry was pursued, and a DNA sample confirmed that the torso was his. The jury also heard from witnesses who, over the following week, found Mr OBriens limbs and skull in three shopping bags elsewhere in the Grand Canal. A dog walker, Niall McDermott, testified that he found the body of a chainsaw in the Royal Canal at Pikes Bridge that week, while specialist gardai found a chainsaw blade and chain in different spots in the Curragh. The jury saw the three parts of the chainsaw in court and viewed photographs of the bags containing the remains. Mr Gillane said that the cause of death was found to be a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Amputation of the head and limbs occured in a manner consistent with the use of a high-speed, mechanical saw, said Mr Gillane. The accused was arrested a few days later and his home searched. The prosecution case is that Kenneth OBrien was killed at that address by Paul Wells Snr, shot, murdered there, his body dismembered there, said the prosecutor. Mr Gillane also said that Mr OBrien had been sending money back to Ireland through a currency exchange system into an account owned by the accused. Mr Wells Snr told gardai that the deceased had wanted to return to Australia and had wanted the accused to murder Ms Dunne. However, he said he had not wanted to do this. He said that he had not kept an arrangement to meet Mr O'Brien on 15th January. He said it had been to arrange the transfer of a gun. However, he said that the deceased arrived at his home at 5pm and returned to the topic of killing Ms Dunne. He said that Mr OBrien showed him a gun, that they went to the back of the house, had a fight, and that the gun fell to the ground. He said that the deceased was reaching for the gun, but that he, the accused, reached it and fired it a number of times, and that this was how Mr OBrien had died. He said that he panicked and dismembered the remains. The trial continues tomorrow morning before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of six women and six men. Ireland lost a tireless warrior last weekend, with the passing of a woman whose name we would never have even known if not for the injustice visited upon her. Emma Mhic Mhathuna, the 37-year-old mother of five who was a victim of the Cervical Check scandal, was laid to rest at Laraghbryan Cemetery in Maynooth today, Wednesday, October 10. Although living in County Kerry, the dogged campaigner had strong links with North Kildare. She had been diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016, after two incorrect smear tests missed the disease. She came to the wider attention of the public last June when she was awarded 7.5 million after suing the HSE and the American lab. It is in her beautiful, red, off-the-shoulder evening gown that we will remember Emma the striking dress chosen by her children in which she attended court on the day her settlement was agreed. She was no shrinking violet, hiding away while dealing with the manifestly unfair fate to which the actions of those meant to take care of her health had left her. She fought for her childrens future financial security, and fought for other women affected by this horrendous scandal. She railed publicly against the unfair death sentence which had been handed down to her, which robbed her of her life and her children of their mother. She fought long and hard to uncover the truth about the scandal. It is heartbreaking that, for Emma, drugs therapies and treatment did not work and she passed away in her beloved Kerry, surrounded by friends and family, last weekend. They have lost a mother, friend and family member, but Ireland, too, has lost an important campaigning voice in the quest for truth about this horrendous scandal which has been visited upon Irish women. Those who keep fighting to see that justice is done will safeguard her legacy. A Kildare company has been fined 2,500 for failing to engage with the Workplace Relations Commission over the non-payment of wages to a woman working for it. At the October 1 sitting of Naas District Court, Judge Desmond Zaidan fined the company, Cleanway Facilities Services Limited, Unit E, Block 1, Link Business Park, Kilcullen, for not complying with a Section 28 notice under the Workplace Relations Act. There was no appearance by the company, the court was told. Teresa Balfe, an officer with the WRC, said the company had failed to comply with the notice which the WRC had issued. It gave the company 42 days to pay wages owned to a Polish woman, amounting to 510. The woman had been working for the company for two months but had only been paid for one month. Ms Balfe said there had been no contact from the company and as far she was aware it was still a going concern. The woman told the court that she spoke to her immeditate superior about the non payment of wages but still did not receive the money. The maximum fine under the act for this offence is 5,000. The company had a previous conviction, from last September, also for not engaging with the WRC. Judge Zaidan fined Cleanway 2,500. The Irish Natura & Hill Farmers Association has expressed major concerns regarding some elements of the budget while welcoming others. National President Colm ODonnell outlined how the increased budget for the ANC Scheme is a clear positive stating how this was a major part of our pre-budget submission where we outlined the need for increased funding of 23m in order to help protect farmers operating on land with very high constraints. The increased budget he continued which will stand at 250m must ensure payment rates reflect the actual land constraint. With this in mind we are encouraging the continued targeting of payments along the same lines of the 2018 increase. This saw farmers receive up to 600 in additional payments. On the proposed 20m beef pilot scheme ODonnell stated that anything that puts money into the sector is clearly a positive, however the scheme does seem complicated and if it is designed to help address climate change then a scheme that targets extensive grazing can we believe deliver better outcomes. With this in mind we would ask the Minister to look again at our proposals on a sustainable suckler cow scheme with a payment model based on the old sheep grassland model and paying up to 4,000 per farmer. Of major concern to the organisation is the proposal to increase the spending on forestry by over 100m. The INHFA he stated has and will continue to express concerns around the current forestry proposals that continue to promote non-native conifers and Sitka Spruce (the hero tree) as the way forward. In recognising the right tree can provide a major benefit, especially in terms of carbon sequestration we believe that this additional funding should be targeted towards providing a life time payment for native broad-leaf trees in recognition of the public good that these trees provide. The Farm Leader concluded by saying said the organisation will do a full assessment on the implications for INHFA members on Budget 2019 in coming days and will issue more detailed response on those Budget changes then. With a 25% increase in the number of breast cancer cases over ten years, the Irish Cancer Society is urging women to be aware of the signs and symptoms of the disease. October is breast cancer awareness month and as part of its Cups Against Breast Cancer campaign the Society is raising awareness of the disease and fundraising for free patient support services. Over 3,100 women in Ireland are diagnosed with breast cancer annually, up from 2,495 in 2007. Most recent figures show that an average of 18 women in Leitrim are diagnosed with breast cancer annually. Despite growing incidence of breast cancer, over 86 per cent of women now survive their breast cancer diagnosis for five years. Early detection greatly increases the chances of successful treatment. The Society is urging all women to be aware of the following signs and symptoms of breast cancer: - A change in size or shape such as one breast becoming larger than the other - A change in the skin such as puckering or dimpling (like orange peel) or redness - A change in the direction or shape of your nipple, especially if it sinks into your breast or becomes irregular in shape - An unusual discharge (liquid) from one or both of your nipples - A change on or around the nipple such as a rash or flaky or crusted skin - Swelling in your armpit or around your collarbone - A lump or thickening in your breast -Constant pain in one part of your breast or armpit Joan Kelly, Cancer Support Manager, Irish Cancer Society said, It is important that every woman is breast aware. This means knowing what is normal for you so that if any unusual change occurs, you will recognise it. The sooner you notice a change the better, because if cancer is found early, treatment is more likely to be successful. Get into the habit of looking at and feeling your breasts regularly, a good time to do this is in the shower or bath. If you notice something abnormal for you talk to your doctor without delay. Remember most changes wont turn out to be breast cancer. But if they are, the sooner this is diagnosed the more effective treatment will be. There are also a number of ways to reduce your risk of breast cancer, including being a healthy weight, being active for 30 minutes a day at least five days a week, not drinking more alcohol than the recommended daily amount, breastfeeding your baby, not smoking and by attending Breastcheck when called. As part of its Cups Against Breast Cancer fundraising campaign, the Society is urging members of the public to host a fundraising coffee morning during the month of October. Money raised will help fund lifesaving research and free services including Daffodil Centres and the Freephone Cancer Nurseline. Members of the public can speak to a Cancer Nurse on any aspect of breast cancer by contacting the Cancer Nurseline on Freephone 1800 200 700 or by dropping into one of 13 Daffodil Centres in hospitals nationwide. For more information on Cups Against Breast Cancer see www.cancer.ie/cupsagainstcancer Skin specialists, the French academy of medicine, and some politicians have already spoken out in favour of a ban. Paris: The French health watchdog Wednesday urged the government to outlaw sunlamps and sunbeds because of the "proven" risk of skin cancer, in line with similar bans already in place in Australia and Brazil. "We recommend banning all activities linked to artificial tanning, along with ultraviolet sunlamps sold for esthetic purposes, especially those sold on the private market," Olivier Merckel, an expert at the Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), told agencies. Of 10,722 cases of malignant melanoma -- the deadliest form of skin cancer -- reported in French adults over age 30 in 2015, 382 could be directly linked to the use of sunbeds and sunlamps, ANSES estimated recently. Skin specialists, the French academy of medicine, and some politicians have already spoken out in favour of a ban, but the French government has so far opted to merely tighten regulations. In 2013, it banned people under age 18 from using commercial tanning parlours, and outlawed advertising for them. A total ban is now needed, according to Merckel. "Scientific data is growing, there isn't any doubt any more, we have solid proof, the risk of cancer is proven, we have figures on the risk to young people, to everyone, so now we're calling for action from the authorities," he said. There is a "proven" link between artificial sunlight and human cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a body of the World Health Organisation, warned as early as 2009. People under 35 who resort at least once to artificial tanning increase the likelihood of developing skin melanoma by 59 percent, according to ANSES. Brazil banned sunbeds in 2009 and Australia outlawed them in 2015. Commercial tanning activity in France has already been halved since 2009, according to the National union of tanning professionals which represents some 4,500 tanning parlours in the country. OVER 1,000 young people will take part in Irelands largest free computer coding event at Limerick Institute of Technology this Saturday. The fourth annual Megadojo.ie event will coincide with five other meet-ups in other third level colleges across the country, with 5,000 expected to attend overall. Eugene McDonough, the co-founder of Megadojo, said the event will provide all the equipment ensuring all children aged 7 to 17 from all walks of life will be able to participate. There are some kids who might not have any computers at all, so wed like to have kids from all backgrounds to see what technology is all about, he told The Leader. Gaming fans will also learn how to create their very own games by using software engines including Unity which was used to develop critically-acclaimed titles: Hearthstone, Cuphead, Inside and many more. You have kids that are into tech, but were learning it from their bedrooms on the web, and it wasnt social they were meeting people online, but not in real life. Kids get to meet people their own age while learning how to code; sometimes we even have the younger kids showing the older kids how to use the software, Mr McDonough added. Workshops will begin at 10am and will run until 5pm this Saturday at LIT, to attend any of the free classes, register online on Megadojo.ie THE Richard Harris International Film Festival returns later this month with a strong, vibrant and diverse offering for its sixth outing. Thats according to festival director Zeb Moore, who noted the event has drawn in over 250 movies from 27 countries throughout the world, of which we will screen over 130 over the five day period. We are welcoming people from all over the world - we have people returning from Australia, South Africa, North America and we now have Diaspora travelling from Canada and the Ukraine, which is very important as we are part of the Global Irish festival series, he added, noting that the festival this year has been funded as part of a joint initiative between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Failte Ireland, with support from Limerick City and County Council. The film festival has had a Diaspora focus since year one and it is, in Moores words, a great coup for us to be picked for the pilot programme along with the I.NY Festival, which is running in Limerick this week. The Harris festival will screen a wide variety of premieres, documentaries, hosting live script reads, acting masterclasses and welcoming stars such as Patrick Bergin and Cass Warner, granddaughter of Harry Warner of the Warner Bros empire. We have a really strong, vibrant and diverse festival offering and our awards night will be a big spectacle, Zeb added. The festival runs from October 25-29. See www.richardharrisfilmfestival.com for more. TROY Studios in Limerick has hailed the release of an epic new trailer for Nightflyers, the series shot on location at the facility. Most of Limerick are waiting for the release of the highly anticipated adaptation of George R.R. Martin's Nightflyers, said the studio in a Facebook post. Episodes 1-5 will have their broadcast debut Sunday, December 2 through Thursday, December 6 across all SYFY broadcast and digital platforms. Watch the new trailer just out it's epic, it added. In a follow-up post, the Castletroy facility which announced a major expansion recently said it would be a proud moment for Troy Studios and hundreds of people from Limerick and the Mid-West who played a role. The series, which is described as Psycho in space by Game of Thrones author Martin, follows eight maverick scientists and a powerful telepath who embark on an expedition to the edge of the solar system aboard The Nightflyer a ship with a small tightknit crew and a reclusive captain in the hope of making contact with alien life. It is based on the novella by George R. R. Martin, who also serves as an executive producer and is produced by Universal Cable Productions and co-produced by Netflix, who will broadcast the series in Ireland in early 2019. The 53m budget production had a 91% Irish crew with an average of 320 employees on site in Limerick each day. A number of well-known names feature in the series, including Irelands Eoin Mackin and Brian F OByrne. International stars include Gretchen Mol who has previously starred in Boardwalk Empire as Dr Agatha Matheson, plus David Ajala, Fast & Furious 6, and Angus Sampson, star of the award-winning Fargo, also feature. SHANNON Airport has unveiled a new making it easy marketing campaign to highlight its ease of passenger experience for travellers. It comes as Shannon completes a major 40 million five year investment programme that is intended to make the airport better and easier for customers to use, according to managing director Andrew Murphy. This follows Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) figures published for August which highlighted the importance of the airport to tourism in the region. The 213,000 tourists that flew into Shannon amounted to a 9% increase on the same month last year, according to the figures, with Shannon growing at a greater rate than any other Irish airport. The airport has this week unveiled its new campaign Shannon Airport - making it easy to highlight the ease of the passenger experience for travellers through Shannon. The branding campaign is now being rolled out which highlights how the airport will keep making it easy for passengers while creating awareness of the enhancements the airport has undergone in the past few years. Highlighting future ambitions, Mr. Murphy said: We are working to take Shannon Airport further in its journey towards becoming the airport of choice for business and leisure travellers alike. Customer experience is central to everything we do. The 10-minute experience from the drop-off at the airport to getting to the boarding gate is something which surprises people and for which we get considerable acknowledgement from our customers. We intend to build on this and other areas to keep making Shannon Airport easy, enjoyable and user-friendly for our passengers. To this end, working with our airport service partners, we have just launched a new Customer Charter, with a commitment to put our customer at the heart of all we do. Shannon Group CEO Matthew Thomas said we strongly believe that airports should be a pleasant part of your holiday experience, not an experience to be endured. Over the past few years, we have been working very hard to address this issue for our customers and we will continue to do so in the future, he explained. This new brand campaign is a taste of further improvements to come. Our goal is for customers to look at Shannon Airport with fresh eyes and create awareness of just how easy, enjoyable and time saving it is to use our airport. Its an exciting time for customers and the Shannon Airport team as we embark on this transformation journey together. DRAGONS Den star Sean Gallagher tried to inspire the next generation on a visit to a Limerick city school this week. The businessman was in the city on Monday to canvass for the upcoming presidential election and took time out to drop into St Augustines School in Sexton Street. There, he encouraged its 25 students to never be afraid of making mistakes, referring explicitly to the Tweet-gate incident seven years ago which arguably cost him victory in that Presidential campaign. One of the biggest fears we all have is making mistakes. I am running for the presidency of Ireland. The last time I made a mistake which cost me the election. I was asked a question on television, and I couldnt answer it properly. So a lot of people didnt vote for me. I had two choices: I could stay at home, or go again, he said. Mr Gallagher said the mistake hurt him, because people saw me in a way that I am not. Seven years later, I made a choice, that I will not let that mistake determine who I become, he said. Mr Gallagher who was in Newcastle West on Friday urged the students to be positive. My message for you is that I think you can do anything you want to do. Believe in yourself and support each other. Dont say nasty things, or say anything nasty to each other, he said. Speaking to The Leader after the visit, the candidate said he was inspired by the presidencies of Irelands first two female premiers Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese and would use their examples as a blueprint if he wins election to Aras an Uachtarain later this month. Up to her [Robinson], it was seen very much as a retirement home for ageing male politicians. She totally reimagined that, and didnt allow herself to be confined by tradition. Mary McAleese did the same. I now want to use my life experience across a life of youth work, community development, agriculture and business, to do the best for Ireland as protector of the constitution, he said. Mr Gallagher also pledged, if elected, to return to St Augustine's School to revisit the students and find out what they would like to see happen in Ireland. Limerick is a vibrant city and a vibrant county, yet we have communities who are struggling. We have still young people who are on the margins, who need opportunities, who need interventions to support them. Its about what we can do to ensure everyone is included, everyone is respected, and nobody is left behind. Mr Gallagher faces fellow Dragons Den stars Peter Casey and Gavin Duffy, alongside Senator Joan Freeman, Sinn Feins Liadh Ni Riada and the incumbent President Michael D Higgins. THERE is sadness in a County Limerick community at the death of a long serving national school teacher. Sr Helen OConnor, a long serving support teacher at St Marys National School in Croom, passed away peacefully in the wonderful care of all the staff at Caherass Nursing Home. Sr Helen, who finished up teaching at the end of the last academic year, only recently posed for a picture with the Liam MacCarthy cup on a visit to Caherass, along with hurler Barry Hennessy. Sr Helen, of St. Pauls Convent, Kilfinane, formerly of Knockfierna, Ballingarry and Croom, daughter of the late Tom and Nell, is very deeply regretted by her sorrowing brothers Tony and Willie, sisters-in-law Anne and Maureen, nephews, nieces, grandnephews, grandnieces, her congregation, Sisters of St. Paul, staff and pupils of St. Marys National School Croom, relatives, kind neighbours and large circle of friends. Holy rosary will be recited on Friday morning at St. Pauls Convent Chapel, Kilfinane at 11am. Remains reposing on Friday evening in Daffys Funeral Home, Croom from 5 o'clock with removal at 7 oclock to St. Marys Church, Croom. Funeral on Saturday after 12 noon concelebrated Requiem Mass to Relig Mhuire, Croom. Family flowers only please. Donations in lieu to Brain Tumour Ireland. The group started harassing her when she boarded from Esplanade. She was molested after getting down at Mahanayak Uttamkumar station. The victim, a resident of Hooghly district's Konnagar, complained to the RPF personnel on duty following which the ten were detained, a RPF officer said. (Representational image | PTI) Kolkata: A woman in her early 30s was allegedly molested by a group of 10 people at a metro station in the southern part of the city, police said. All of the accused were arrested on the basis of the woman's complaint, a senior official of the Kolkata Police said. The incident took place at around 4 pm on Tuesday when she boarded a metro from the Esplanade station. The group started harassing her and when she deboarded at the Mahanayak Uttamkumar station, the accused molested her, he said. The victim, a resident of Hooghly district's Konnagar, complained to the RPF personnel on duty following which the ten were detained, a RPF officer said. They were then handed over and arrested by police personnel at the Regent Park Police Station, he said. A case was registered against them under IPC sections 354 (use of criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty), 354B (assaulting a woman with the intention of disrobing or compelling her to be naked), the officer said. They were also booked under IPC section 509 (word or gesture intended to hurt the modesty of a woman) and section 34 (criminal act done by several persons), he added. Ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections next year, the issue of Dhangar reservation has become more sensitive. Mumbai: Hardik Patel, the young Patidar leader from Gujarat, will support the agitations of the Dhangar community for reservation. Mr Patel will address a rally in Sangli district on October 16. If the Dhangar community starts agitations like the Maratha community and Patel supports them, it will create a problem for the government, said a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. Ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections next year, the issue of Dhangar reservation has become more sensitive. As the Mar-atha community has been aggressive about their demand for reservation, the Dhangar community, too, has united to press for their demands. The Chief minister Devendra Fad-navis-led government had assured the Dha-ngar community that it would get the benefit of reservation in the scheduled tribe (ST) category. They are currently in the list of Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT). But the state government hasnt taken any decision yet as the study is still underway. After the decision of state government, it will be sent to the Union government for sanction. But the tribals are opposing the inclusion of the Dhangar community in STs. So, the state government is in a dilemma, as either way, the Dhangars or the Tribals will get annoyed with the state governments decision. Tanushree's lawyer said that producer Samee Siddiqui is pressurising police not to register the second FIR. Mumbai: Actor Tanushree Dutta is set to record her statement in regard to the harassment allegations against Bollywood veteran Nana Patekar. Her lawyer Nitin Satpute while speaking to the media said: "Her statement will be recorded by police. They'll appoint a lady police officer for that". He further said that 'Horn OK Pleassss' producer Samee Siddiqui who had submitted a reply to the Oshiwara police station in Mumbai claiming that Tanushree raked up the issue for publicity, is pressurising police not to file second FIR. "Samee Siddiqui is pressurising police not to register the second FIR. We have strong evidence and a lot of witnesses, we'll give a statement," Satpute added. Back in 2008, her father had filed an FIR when Tanushree had to undergo the alleged ordeal. Tanushree alleged that Patekar misbehaved with her on the sets of 'Horn Ok Pleasss' in 2008. She accused him of harassing her while shooting for a special dance number for the movie. As a retort, Nana Patekar has slapped her with a legal notice demanding a written apology. Tanushree, on the other hand, filed a police complaint in the matter. NEW YORK During the 1950s and 1960s, were extraterrestrials visiting the United States? At the time, a spate of panicky sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) thought to be "alien" in origin were reported across the country, prompting the U.S. Air Force to create a top-secret program dedicated to the investigation of unexplained phenomenon related to UFOs. Under the code name "Project Blue Book," the Air Force documented and scrutinized 12,000 UFO sightings from 1952 to 1969, led by J. Allen Hynek, a former astronomy professor at The Ohio State University. The project's efforts set against a suspenseful undercurrent of political intrigue come to life in a new dramatic television series, which shares some of the long-buried secrets of this mysterious initiative. At a New York Comic Con (NYCC) panel on Oct. 6, actors and creators of the History channel's "Project Blue Book" introduced the audience to the story of federal agents hunting UFOs and the manipulation of the truth happening behind the scenes. Based on declassified files in the federal archive including 700 cases of UFO-related incidents that remain unsolved the series confronts a question that still fascinates humans decades after the project's end: Are we alone in the universe? [9 Strange, Scientific Excuses for Why Humans Haven't Found Aliens Yet] Each of the perplexing and unsettling UFO sightings that appears in the series is based on an actual event described in the recently declassified government records, executive producer and writer Sean Jablonski told the panel audience. "Every case you see that really happened," Jablonski said. One standout incident took place in Washington, D.C., in July 1952. The repeated appearance of mysterious radar blips prompted the Air Force to launch a group of fighter jets to intercept what they thought were unidentified aircraft, according to Jablonski. But the blips vanished every time the jet fighters drew close, only to reappear when the jets pulled away from the blips' presumed location, one of the pilots reported in an oral history recorded in 1999. The founder of "ufology" "Project Blue Book" stars Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger in HBO's "Game of Thrones") as Hynek, the scientist recruited by the Air Force to investigate UFO sightings and related phenomena. Though Hynek was a UFO skeptic when he began working for the Air Force, much of what he saw and heard over his years with the project defied easy explanation. Eventually, the experience transformed him into a passionate believer in UFO encounters representing possible contact with alien life, Gillen told the panel audience. In fact, Hynek went on to become what is now known as a "ufologist" (UFO expert). He authored several books about UFOs, founded the Center for UFO Studies a private organization for scientific UFO investigation and served as a technical advisor for one of the most iconic films about UFOs, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977). The series also reveals that working on Project Blue Book brought unexpected conflicts for Hynek. Even when his investigations of baffling UFO-related incidents raised more questions than they answered, Air Force agents pushed for debunking and quick closure, frustrating his efforts to uncover the facts about what people saw, according to Gillen. "He just wanted to find the truth," Gillen said. But was the U.S. government after the truth? In the show, Hynek soon learns that his Air Force colleagues aren't really interested in getting to the bottom of events that seem impossible to understand. Instead, they seek tidy, reassuring explanations that tell the public there is nothing to be alarmed about. The government's deliberate deviation from witnesses' accounts and evidence essentially creating "the original 'fake news'" was an integral part of the "Project Blue Book" narrative, executive producer and writer David O'Leary told the panel audience. "On the subject of UFOs, part of the story is the cover-up, the lying, the misinformation campaign to control public perception," O'Leary said. "Project Blue Book" premieres on the History channel on Jan. 8, 2019, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, 9 p.m. CT. Originally publishedon Live Science. Hurricane Michael, seen here by the GOES East satellite at 2:45 p.m. ET on Oct. 9, 2018, strengthened as it moved north-northwest toward the Florida Panhandle. After gaining strength overnight, Hurricane Michael will be a storm of unprecedented intensity for the Florida Panhandle when it is expected to make landfall later today (Oct. 10). "This storm will bring deadly surge to the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend coast and is not comparable to anything we have seen before," the National Weather Service forecast office in Tallahassee said in a warning just after 1 a.m. ET. Hurricane Michael became a Category 4 storm overnight, packing 140 mph (220 km/h) winds with even stronger gusts. The storm would be the most powerful hurricane to hit the mainland United States this year. [Hurricane Season 2018: How Long It Lasts and What to Expect] Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 35 Florida counties ahead of the "monstrous" storm, and more than 100,000 people have been ordered to evacuate, according to the Tampa Bay Times. As of 5 a.m. ET, Michael was about 130 miles (215 kilometers) southwest of Apalachicola, Florida, and moving at about 13 mph (20 km/h), according to an advisory from the National Hurricane Center. (Image credit: NOAA) Unlike slow-moving Hurricane Florence, which made landfall in North Carolina last month and dumped record-breaking amounts of rain, Hurricane Michael is moving quickly. "The storm is fast-moving, so only 6-10+ inches (15-25+ centimeters) of precipitation are forecasted to fall over the Panhandle," Marangelly Fuentes, a NASA atmospheric scientist, told NASA's Earth Observatory. However, Hurricane Michael's strong winds and storm surge could be devastating. The worst storm surge is expected to occur between Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida, and Keaton Beach, Florida, and it could be up to 13 feet if it occurs at the same time as high tide. The strength of the hurricane is especially alarming because many people in the Panhandle "have little or no experience with storms this intense," Fuentes said. "Only eight major hurricanes on record have passed within or near the projected landfall of Michael, and only three of those (Eloise 1975, Opal 1995 and Dennis 2005) occurred in the past 100 years. Michael already proved deadly in Central America, where at least 13 deaths associated with the heavy rains and flooding were reported across Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, according to the Associated Press. After making landfall, Michael is expected to weaken as it swerves northeast over Georgia and South Carolina before reaching the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center. Original article on Live Science. Forecasters watching Hurricane Michael barrel toward the Gulf coast of Florida earlier this week saw the storm do something "most unusual." The hurricane intensified despite encountering wind shear a change in wind speed or direction at different levels in the atmospherethat might have normally weakened the storm. "Michael's steady intensification over the past 48 hours in the face of 20-knot [23 mph] westerly shear defies traditional logic," hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart wrote in a memo from the National Hurricane Center on Monday (Oct. 8). "Either the shear calculations are unrepresentative or Michael has become more inertially stable due to its large eye and large outer wind field, making it more shear-resistant." So how would forecasters typically expect wind shear to affect a storm? That's explained in part by the shape of a hurricane. [Hurricane Season 2018: How Long It Lasts and What to Expect] Other non-hurricane storm systems, such as Nor'easters that hit the mid-Atlantic, are driven by differences in temperature and take on a sloped shape in the atmosphere. The warmest parts of the storm closest to Earth's surface are usually out at the front of the system with the highest part trailing back usually to the west and northwest to where the cold air is. Hurricanes, meanwhile, stretch from Earth's surface to the upper reaches of the atmosphere and each level of the storm needs to be stacked and working in coordination to help the massive system gain energy and grow in intensity. "With a hurricane you can see the eye from outer space; it's more like a chimney," Joel Cline, Tropical Program Coordinator at NOAA's National Weather Service, told Live Science. "If the chimney's not perfectly straight, you can have the hottest fire in other words, the warmest water but the flame goes out."(Warm water fuels hurricanes.) Wind shear could disrupt the hurricane, essentially tilting or breaking up the chimney, which would weaken the storm. But that didn't happen in Hurricane Michael's case. "There was some available wind shear when it was near Cuba right before it went into the Gulf, and wind shear is one of the variables that will decrease the intensity of a storm," Marangelly Fuentes, a NASA atmospheric scientist, told Live Science. But the storm really intensified, going from a Category 1 to a Category 4 hurricane in a matter of 24 hours, once it went into the Gulf. "You have to remember that Michael actually intensified to a Category 4 almost 5 right now after it was in the Gulf of Mexico where there was not that much shear," Fuentes said. A lack of shear was just one of the factors that caused Michael to intensify, Fuentes explained. Sea-surface temperatures are warmer than average in the Gulf of Mexico right now, adding more fuel to the storm. A lack of friction from land also allowed Michael to keep gaining strength over the water. The huge storm strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane overnight, packing winds up to 145 mph (230 km/h) as it approached the Florida Panhandle this morning. "People get very fixated on the category numbersit doesn'tmatter at this point," Kline said. In addition to the potentially deadly storm surge expected to hit parts of the Florida coast, the wind damage will be extensive near the eye of the storm, Kline said, and rainfall is a big concern, especially in areas that were lashed by Florence last month. "Because of what's happened [with Florence] in the recent past, there's a greater chance of flash floods." And while a Category 4 storm might be unprecedented for the Florida Panhandle, Kline noted that major hurricanes are predicted to strike this part of the Florida coast about every 30 years, as a National Hurricane Center map shows. Original article on Live Science. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown that he can appropriate other personas, as he has done with Mahatma Gandhi now. That great Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, set in the village of Antevaka in imperial Russia (in todays Ukraine), starts with the song Tradition, which begins with the monologue: How do we keep our balance? Ill tell you in one word. Tradition. We have traditions for everything. How to sleep. How to eat. How to work. How to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered, and always wear a little prayer shawl. This shows our constant devotion to God. The verse goes on quite significantly to remind us: And because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do. Its true that our many societies and groups devise our identity with rules of conformity and tradition enshrines practices and them. Ask why is Sunday a day of rest and contemplation? Tradition. Why do we offer prayers on Friday? Tradition. Why dont many eat meat on Tuesday? Tradition. And so the list goes on. But often these traditions are practised quite unthinkingly, and more important, without any relevance to the times we live in and how they impact on our lives. Truly, as in the words of Jaroslav Pelikan, Professor of Religion at Yale: Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Some traditions are old, but many more are relatively new. The Ganesh statues in public spaces and the long winding processions to a water body for immersion is a relatively new one. Though Ganesh has been worshipped from times immemorial, the public celebrations of a festival began around 1893, during the nascent stages of Indian nationalism, that Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak began to organise the Ganesh Utsav as a social and religious function for Hindus to publicly celebrate. He was the first to put in large public images of Ganesha in pavilions and establish the tradition of their immersion on the tenth day. This recent tradition has become an environmental nightmare, with the indiscriminate use of plaster of paris and chemical paints poisoning our waters. The cost and efforts of clearing the organic and other debris is now monumental. The injunction against adult women entering the Ayyappan Temple at Sabarimalai is an even more recent one. Now we are soon going to observe other traditions. On Dussehra and Diwali. Dussehra in particular will be celebrated by Hindus with orgiastic frenzy, slaughtering hapless animals to propitiate the gods, as Muslims did on Bakr-Id on August 21. Even Indian Army units observe this with the ritual slaughter of buffaloes. In Nepal, its a literal bloodbath with thousands of buffaloes butchered in public as a display of faith and piety. When I commented on this elsewhere, I got many messages to suggest that my comment about banning animal sacrifices to observe rituals did not go down well with some people. Some said it amounted to interference with religion and tradition. Others said it was as much a cultural practice as it was a sacred ritual. Now we are getting the same comments over the Supreme Courts ruling opening up the Ayyappan temple at Sabarimalai to women, or on outlawing triple talaq. This reverence for the traditional practice argument reminds me of what Lord William Bentinck, then Viceroy of India, said in 1826 about sati. When some Hindu bhadralok protested to him that it was a traditional practice, he just said: In my country we have a tradition too. When a person kills or forces someone to die, we just say hang the blighter! My custom is better than yours. According to an 1829 report, statistics for the period 1815-1824 yields a total of 5,997 instances of sati for the Bengal presidency alone an average of 600 per year. When British rule extended to virtually all parts of the country by 1842, Sir Charles Napier, commander-in-chief, replied to protests saying: Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive, we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs. This is despite it being endorsed by a sacred text. In the Rig Veda it is written: Rise, come unto the world of life, O woman come, he is lifeless by whose side thou liest. Wifehood with this thy husband was thy portion, who took thy hand and wooed thee as a lover. (RV 10.18.8) The tradition of sacrifice for the Muslim festival, quite ironical now given the palpable animosity between the Muslim and Jewish communities, has a Jewish origin. According to the fable, God tells Abraham: Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about. Abraham took Isaac, two servants and a donkey and set off on the 50-mile journey. When they arrived, Abraham ordered the servants to wait with the donkey while he and Isaac went up the mountain. He told the men: We will worship, and then we will come back to you. (Genesis 22:5b, NIV) Isaac asked his father where the lamb was for the sacrifice, and Abraham answered that the Lord would provide the lamb. Saddened and confused, Abraham bound Isaac with ropes and placed him on the stone altar. Just as Abraham raised the knife to slay his son, the angel of the Lord called out to Abraham to stop and not harm the boy. The angel said he knew that Abraham feared the Lord because he had not withheld his only son. When Abraham looked up, he saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. In the derivative Islamic tradition, one of the main trials of Abrahams life was to face the command of God to sacrifice his dearest possession, his only son. Upon hearing this command, he prepared to submit to Gods will. During this preparation, Satan (Shaitan) tempted Abraham and his family by trying to dissuade them from carrying out Gods commandment, and Ibrahim drove Satan away by throwing pebbles at him. In commemoration of their rejection of Satan, stones are thrown at symbolic pillars signifying Satan during the Haj rites. Abraham presented the matter to his son and asked for his opinion about the dreams of slaughtering him. Ishmael did not show any hesitation or reservation even for a moment. He said: Father, do what you have been commanded. You will find me, InshaAllah (God willing), to be very patient. When Abraham attempted to cut Ishmaels throat, he was astonished to see that Ishmael was unharmed and instead, he found a dead ram that was slaughtered. Abraham had passed the test by his willingness to carry out Gods command. Poor rams are still slaughtered in tens of thousands never knowing the reason why? This has been going on for many thousand years now. One would think that by now God would be quite convinced of the faithfuls faith in him by their willingness to sacrifice animals. The gods of Hindus and Muslims have been propitiated enough now with blood offerings of animals who are slaughtered in vast numbers never knowing the reason why. Its time now that we gave religion back its humanity by stopping animal sacrifice as a religious ritual. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown that he can appropriate other personas, as he has done with Mahatma Gandhi now. That is good. Now is the time for him to become the Raja Rammohun Roy of our times, by beginning the full reform of the Hindu samaj, its laws and practices. But as Mark Twain wrote: The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it. Chevron said Wednesday it's interested in either buying or building an oil refinery in the Houston area to process its booming production from West Texas' Permian Basin. Chevron is the nation's second-largest energy company, but it doesn't have any Texas refineries. Outside of the West Coast, California-based Chevron only has its Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi. Spokesman Braden Reddall said a strong refining portfolio is a critical focus for the company. RELATED: Exxon Mobil finishes one phase of massive Beaumont expansion "An expansion of our Gulf Coast presence could be considered if the right opportunity presents itself at the right price," Reddall said. As first reported by Reuters, Chevron's head of downstream and chemicals, Pierre Breber, said at an energy conference in London that the company is highly interested in gaining a strong oil refining presence along the Houston Ship Channel to take advantage of the company's increasing presence in the Permian. "Something on the ship channel side could make a lot of sense for our company," Reuters reported Breber as saying. There's a slew of new pipelines under construction to carry Permian crude to refining and export hubs near Houston and Corpus Christi. The Houston area is the nation's largest refining hub. If Chevron decides to buy in Houston, both LyondellBasell's Houston refinery and Petrobras' Pasadena refinery have been considered for sale in recent years, although Chevron could consider other possibilities. Building new refineries from scratch if rare because domestic fuel demand is relatively flat. Instead companies have opted to acquire or expand. INVESTMENT: Covestro to invest $1.7b to expand Baytown chemical plant Chevron does already have a major petrochemical footprint in the Houston area through its joint venture with Phillips 66 called Chevron Phillips Chemical, especially in Baytown, Pasadena and Sweeny. Chevron's refineries are mostly configured to process heavier oils from countries like Canada and Venezuela. But more companies, including rival Exxon Mobil, are investing in processing more of the lighter crude from the Permian. Exxon Mobil is eyeing a major expansion to do just that at its Beaumont refinery. Both of Chevron's and Exxon Mobil's new chief executives have strong refining backgrounds and are keen to invest in Gulf Coast refining. So Far So Good Ursula K. Le Guin, loved by millions for her fantasy and science-fiction novels, ponders life, death and the vast beyond in "So Far So Good" (Copper Canyon), an astute, charming collection finished weeks before her death in January. Fans will recognize some of the motifs here - cats, wind, strong women - as well as her exploration of the intersection between soul and body, the knowable and the unknown. The writing is clear, artful and reverent as Le Guin looks back at key memories and concerns and looks forward to what is next: "Spirit, rehearse the journey of the body/ that are to come, the motions/ of the matter that held you." --- Wobble A finalist for the National Book Award in poetry, Rae Armantrout's "Wobble" (Wesleyan) is a collection of tight, chiseled poems that forces readers to consider how greed, excess and lack of critical thought have led to environmental destruction and a nation wobbling toward the edge of collapse. In the poem "Normal," the self-absorbed speaker explains: "I don't feel bad/ about crushing others/ to achieve my goals." If society allows such destructive attitudes to prevail, we will all be to blame, as these poems show. --- A Cruelty Special to Our Species "A Cruelty Special to Our Species" (Ecco), by Emily Jungmin Yoon, is a heart-wrenching debut that tells the story of Korean comfort women who were taken from their families to be sex slaves in Japanese-occupied territories during World War II. Yoon meticulously researched this topic to capture the humanity of these women who endured rape, disease and the horrors of war. She also shows their tenacity and desire to experience some sweetness in life. Yoon's work is compelling in part because it shows the importance of understanding history and its enduring impact. "70 years and no one knows," notes one speaker. "Girls at the comfort stations, we were all children then." --- Human Hours The poems in "Human Hours" (Graywolf), by Catherine Barnett, raise philosophical questions about life and how people spend the time they are allotted. In the opening piece, "Exclusive Member Privileges at Hotel Life on Earth," Barnett writes: "Time is an upgrade, says the front desk./ Reserved for our most valued guests./ Time is an anemone, says the new hire./ Enemy. Amenity. Profanity. Dire." Later, she examines both small moments and current events, recalling lessons learned from her father, experiences with her son and her own consternation about living in a democracy with a violent legacy. The pieces, which range in tone from darkly comic to deeply distressing, present some dour scenarios, nudging readers to consider how they spend their lives. --- He Held Radical Light In the essay collection "He Held Radical Light: The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Christian Wiman, acclaimed for both his poetry and prose, describes how his interactions with famous poets - including Mary Oliver, Donald Hall and Seamus Heaney - have shaped his perceptions about poetry and faith. These taut, absorbing pieces weave together memories and close readings of work that has haunted or challenged him. Wiman, a former editor of Poetry magazine, asks crucial questions, such as: Is artistic hunger a longing for God? Can writing be personally redemptive? What does it mean to be a believer? Wiman, who was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer several years ago, wrestles with his own mortality and ambitions as he searches for truth through literature. "(BEGIN ITAL)One either lives toward God or not(END ITAL)," he asserts. "The word God is of course an abyss, bright or dark depending on the day." --- Lund writes about poetry every month for The Washington Post. For the past 16 years, British filmmaker Paul Greengrass has become cinema's poet laureate of political violence, an artist who has shaped a cinematic language - jagged, naturalistic, neutral but engaged - around some of the most wrenching collective traumas of the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2002, Greengrass made "Bloody Sunday," about the 1972 massacre of Irish civil rights protesters by British troops; "United 93" (2006) was an unnervingly realistic dramatization of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In 2013's "Captain Phillips," Greengrass re-enacted the 2009 hijacking of a container ship by Somali pirates to address deeper issues of globalization and disenfranchisement. Now, with "22 July," about a right-wing assassin's attack on a youth camp in Norway in 2011, the filmmaker has returned to some of his cardinal themes - terrorism and the parameters of how best to respond to it. "I never thought I would do another one after 'United 93,' I must say," he admitted during a conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival, where "22 July" had its world premiere. (The film is currently available in theaters and on Netflix.) "It came as a surprise." Greengrass had traveled to Lampedusa, Italy, with the thought of making a film about the migration crisis, he said, when he woke up one day and realized he was "in the wrong part of Europe." He continues: "I went for a walk with the dogs and I came back and thought 'I wonder if I should look at how the migrant journey begins here, you cross the water, you get into Europe and you move to wherever, and then what do you find there?" It was at that point that Greengrass read the testimony of Anders Behring Breivik, who on July 22, 2011, bombed Oslo's civic center, killing eight people, then traveled to the island of Utoya, where at a Labour Party camp he gunned down the staff and their charges, ultimately murdering 69 people, most of them teenagers. "I felt an icy feeling reading it," Greengrass recalls of Breivik's statement, which included rambling critiques of Islam, immigration, multiculturalism and the "deconstruction" of Norway. "I remember reading that and thinking, 'That's unbelievable,' " Greengrass said. "When he said those words in 2011, that would have been considered outre and outrageous. That's mainstream now for politicians across the populist right. Not that they approve of Breivik's methods, but the rhetoric, the world view, the words, they're all the same." True to form, Greengrass stages the real-life events of his movie with methodical detail, up to and including initial scenes revisiting the bloody rampage at the camp. The rest of "22 July" is dedicated to how the citizenry and government of Norway responded to the attack, culminating in a stirring courtroom showdown between Breivik and a teenager named Viljar Hanssen, who sustained life-threatening injuries during the assault. Unlike Greengrass's previous films, "22 July" isn't filmed with his distinctively rigorous, hand-held immediacy. The legal procedural, which is juxtaposed with Viljar's healing process and his decision whether to testify, unfolds in the conventional, classical middle distance, with surprising moments of un-Greengrassian sentimentality. It's only during Breivik's incursion on the camp that the filmmaker's signature subjectivity comes into play, with the camera capturing the carnage largely from the gunman's point of view and bringing the audience into an uncomfortable gray area between empathy for the victims and sickening first-person-shooter spectacle. Greengrass insists that he showed restraint in those scenes. "The only graphic violence, really, is the shooting of Viljar Hanssen, which I did with his permission," he says (individual viewer's definition of "graphic" may vary). Perhaps more debatable was his decision to give Breivik pride of place throughout "22 July," allowing him ample room to spout deranged ideas about everything from "Marxist liberals" and the ills of immigration to the Knights Templar. "I definitely thought about it, and thought about it hard," Greengrass said about allowing Breivik to speak in "22 July." "It comes ultimately to a judgment that you make about whether this is out and about in the world in a real way, or whether he's an aberrant figure," he said. Citing recent victories for neo-Nazi and far-right parties in Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Italy, he calls Breivik an avatar for larger forces similar to the men who flew the planes in "United 93." Just as 9/11 opened Americans' eyes to the global threat of Islamist terrorism, Greengrass said, Breivik personified an ideological pattern that is "long-lasting and generational. The threat is real, and it's spreading fast. And if the fire is burning, then it requires a different response. It urgently requires our eyes to be opened and our cinema to be open to what's actually occurring in the world, what's actually happening, as opposed to going, 'I don't want to look at this, because it's too troubling.' " Still, even a scant seven years after the events depicted in "22 July," it's possible to wonder whether the movie is troubling enough: The story ends on a solemn but bracing note, with Viljar Hanssen, former prime minister Jens Stoltenberg and their fellow Norwegians having won the day by advocating for tolerance, pluralism, compassion and rational thinking, and with Breivik safely isolated in prison. But in many ways "22 July" feels as if it's already been outstripped by reality. While "22 July" might anticipate the rise of the far right in Europe, its time frame prevents the film from addressing Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and the role of such cyber-aggressors as Russia's Internet Research Agency in amplifying and aggravating racism and tribal division. For his part, Greengrass thinks that "22 July" illuminates a path forward "because it shows how democracy can be fought for in crisis. And what are the ways you do it? Through political leadership, through the rule of law, and ultimately through young people articulating the values that they want to live by." One more thing, he added, and this circles back to why he allowed Breivik to have a voice in his movie. "We're going to have to listen," Greengrass said. "Donald Trump doesn't get elected, Brexit doesn't happen unless we're not listening. That's the truth of it. We're going to have to listen to these voices and understand them, unwelcome though some of them may be, if we're going to get out of this problem. And we're going to have to contend with them too. We're going to have to beat them with better arguments." Texas troopers are investigating a fatal vehicle crash that occurred Tuesday night on Texas Highway 359 in Webb County. The Texas Department of Public Safety said a 2013 Hyundai Veloster was traveling eastbound on the highway when it drove into the wrong lane for unknown reasons and struck a tractor-trailer, which was traveling westbound. The driver of the Hyundai was pronounced dead at the scene. DPS has not released the person's identity. The driver of the tractor-trailer was taken to Laredo Medical Center for a possible injury. DPS said the crash occurred at about 6 p.m., roughly four miles east of Oilton. Texas 359 was closed east of the Border Patrol checkpoint due to crash, the Texas Department of Transportation said. A prostitution sting landed three women behind bars, according to Laredo police. Maricela Garcia, 32, Anna Herrera, 22, and Vanessa Lee Rodriguez, 27, were each charged with prostitution, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. RELATED: Man, woman arrested on prostitution charges in Laredo Late Thursday, members of the LPD narcotics and vice unit with the assistance of the patrol division conducted surveillance in area of San Bernardo Avenue and San Agustin Avenue. Police said they conducted the surveillance after receiving numerous complaints about prostitution in the area. "All three females were arrested after meeting with an undercover officer and agreeing to provide oral sex in return for money," LPD said in a statement. A man was arrested over the weekend after Laredo police said his 2-year-old son was found alone in the street. Luis Turrubiates, 20, was charged with child abandonment with intent to return. He was released on bond from the Webb County Jail on Sunday. Illinois College professor emeritus of history Steve Hochstadt will talk Thursday about Authoritarianism in American History: Past and Present. The presentation will begin at 7 p.m. at MacMurray Colleges Thoresen Recital Hall. Hochstadt will talk about differences between the American government and authoritarian governments throughout history. Yet during our history, there have been many instances of our government acting in authoritarian ways against minorities in our population, Hochstadt said. The Jim Crow system of legal, and government-supported, discrimination against African Americans involved lynchings, prevention of voting, separate schools and other actions which represented authoritarian repression of certain Americans. The talk will examine some instances of such authoritarian government actions against American minorities and discuss how that history influences current politics. The presentation is free and open to the public. SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgarian authorities identified on Wednesday a male suspect in his early 20s in the rape and murder of journalist Viktoria Marinova, a case that sent shock waves through Europe and triggered anxieties about press freedom around the world. Authorities are now saying, however, that the motive was likely sexual assault, not an attack on a journalist, although the investigation is ongoing. The suspect was detained in Germany and has since been charged him with rape and murder. Marinova, 30, was attacked on Saturday as she was jogging in a park in Ruse, a small city in northeastern Bulgaria. Her professional identity as a host on TVN, a local television program, focused on investigative journalism and immediately stoked fears about retributions against journalists exposing corruption schemes, especially in Eastern Europe. In the past year, two other investigative journalists were killed in EU member states. But early Wednesday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told reporters that investigators had interviewed her family, colleagues and friends that "there is no apparent link to her work." The suspect, named Severin Krasimirov, from Ruse, was born in 1997 and had a criminal record that dated back to 2007, including charges of theft. According to Bulgarian officials, Krasimirov fled the scene and headed to Germany, where he was ultimately apprehended. Initial lab results linked his DNA to samples found at the crime scene, authorities said. Bulgaria is the most corrupt member state in the EU, according to global corruption watchdog Transparency International. It also ranks 111 out of 180 in terms of press freedom, the lowest in the EU, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a French organization devoted to the protection of journalists. Marinova, a former lifestyle journalist, had only recently transitioned into her role as the host of a program called "Detector," focused on investigations. That program had only featured one episode before her death, and it had merely broadcast interviews with other reporters who discussed their own investigations, stories that had already broken weeks before. Authorities noted that Krasimirov lived near the crime scene. "We continue to work on all versions," said Marinov, the Interior Minister. Even if Marinova's murder proves unrelated to her work, many local commentators were quick to point out that crimes against women are endemic in Bulgaria. Earlier this year, the government refused to ratify the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe initiative aiming to battle and prevent violence against women, after Bulgaria's constitutional court ruled that the convention contradicted the country's constitution. So far, the Istanbul Convention has been ratified by 33 European states. "In this situation it's necessary to analyze in depth the problems in Bulgaria connected to violence against women," declared a statement from the Association of European Journalists - Bulgaria. - - - McAuley reported from Paris. In a rare feat, federal agents lured a Chinese government spy to Belgium, where authorities transferred him this week to the United States for prosecution on economic espionage charges, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Yanjun Xu, a senior officer with the Ministry of State Security, is accused of seeking to steal trade secrets from leading defense aviation firms, top Justice Department officials said. His capture helps vindicate U.S. law enforcement officials who have faced criticism in recent years that indictments of foreign operatives are not likely to result in the defendants setting foot in a courtroom. Officials and former officials said it is apparently the first time that a Chinese government spy has been brought to the United States to face charges. The announcement comes as the Trump administration has significantly ramped up its rhetoric against China amid a trade war and general worsening of relations between the world powers. Last week Vice President Mike Pence accused Chinese security agencies of "mastermind[ing] the wholesale theft of American technology - including cutting-edge" military blueprints. Justice Department officials said the indictment is but the latest example of China seeking to develop its economy at the expense of American firms and know-how. "No one begrudges a nation that generates the most innovative ideas and from them develops the best technology," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said. "But we cannot tolerate a nation stealing our firepower and the fruits of our brainpower. We will not tolerate a nation that reaps what it does not sow." Xu, also known as Qu Hui and Zhang Hui, was charged with conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and steal trade secrets from multiple U.S. aviation and aerospace companies. The indictment was unsealed Wednesday - the same day that Xu appeared in federal court in Cincinnati. "This case shows that federal law enforcement agencies cannot only detect and disrupt espionage, but can also catch its perpetrators," said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Benjamin Glassman. The MSS is a civilian spy agency responsible for counterintelligence, foreign intelligence and domestic political security. It has also been implicated in a major hack of a Navy contractor developing undersea warfare capabilities, including secret plans to build a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on U.S. submarines by 2020. Xu is a deputy division director with the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security [JSSD], a provincial arm of the MSS. "If not the first, this is an exceptionally rare achievement - that you're able to catch an espionage operative and have them extradited to the United States," said John Carlin, a former assistant attorney general for national security. "It significantly raises the stakes for China and is a part of the deterrence program that some people thought would never be possible." Beginning in December 2013 and continuing until his April 1 arrest in Belgium, Xu targeted experts working for aeronautics companies inside and outside the United States, including Cincinnati-based GE Aviation, officials said. GE Aviation has spent decades developing its unique jet engines and fan blades. Xu recruited the experts to travel to China, often under the guise of asking them to deliver a university presentation and passing himself off as an official with the Jiangsu Science and Technology Association. "I can't recall an economic espionage case where we first arrested the person they were running inside the United States and then got the person running him from overseas,'' said Carlin, author of the forthcoming book Dawn of the Code War, said. Xu often exchanged information with individuals at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronomics [NUAA], one of the top engineering schools in China and which has significant influence over China's aerospace industry, according to court documents. GE Aviation cooperated with the FBI early on in the investigation, which dates back more than a year, officials said. Xu's case is linked to the arrest last month of Ji Chaoqun, 27, a Chinese citizen living in Chicago, according to individuals familiar with the matter. Ji was accused of passing information on eight Americans to Chinese intelligence officers for possible recruitment. Ji targeted individuals in science and tech industries, seven of whom worked for or recently retired from U.S. defense contractors. All were naturalized U.S. citizens born in Taiwan or China. According to a criminal complaint, Ji began communicating with Chinese intelligence officers in late 2013. he traveled to and from China three times between 2013 and 2015. The MSS is a civilian spy agency responsible for counterintelligence, foreign intelligence and domestic political security. It has also been implicated in a major hack of a Navy contractor developing undersea warfare capabilities, including secret plans to build a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on U.S. submarines by 2020. Xu is a deputy division director with the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security [JSSD], a provincial arm of the MSS. "If not the first, this is an exceptionally rare achievement - that you're able to catch an espionage operative and have them extradited to the United States," said John Carlin, a former assistant attorney general for national security. "It significantly raises the stakes for China and is a part of the deterrence program that some people thought would never be possible." Beginning in December 2013 and continuing until his April 1 arrest in Belgium, Xu targeted experts working for aeronautics companies inside and outside the United States, including Cincinnati-based GE Aviation, officials said. GE Aviation has spent decades developing its unique jet engines and fan blades. Xu recruited the experts to travel to China, often under the guise of asking them to deliver a university presentation and passing himself off as an official with the Jiangsu Science and Technology Association. "I can't recall an economic espionage case where we first arrested the person they were running inside the United States and then got the person running him from overseas,'' said Carlin, author of the forthcoming book Dawn of the Code War, said. Xu often exchanged information with individuals at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronomics [NUAA], one of the top engineering schools in China and which has significant influence over China's aerospace industry, according to court documents. GE Aviation cooperated with the FBI early on in the investigation, which dates back more than a year, officials said. Xu's case is linked to the arrest last month of Ji Chaoqun, 27, a Chinese citizen living in Chicago, according to individuals familiar with the matter. Ji was accused of passing information on eight Americans to Chinese intelligence officers for possible recruitment. Ji targeted individuals in science and tech industries, seven of whom worked for or recently retired from U.S. defense contractors. All were naturalized U.S. citizens born in Taiwan or China. According to a criminal complaint, Ji began communicating with Chinese intelligence officers in late 2013. he traveled to and from China three times between 2013 and 2015. Ji allegedly masked the profiles of the eight individuals as "midterm test questions" in an email to one intelligence officer [A] in 2015. Ji arrived in the United States in 2013 to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and in 2016 enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves under a special program to recruit foreigners whose skills are seen as vital to the national interest. A top investment strategist for JPMorgan Asset Management sent a note to clients earlier this year with a dire forecast. Despite global efforts to stop climate change, sea levels are likely to rise dramatically, threatening the 40 percent of Americans who live along the coast. On the other hand, there will probably be some investment opportunities in seawalls. "A storm surge barrier system protecting New York City and parts of New Jersey could cost $2.7 million per meter," Michael Cembalest, the asset manager's chairman of market and investment strategy, wrote in his annual "Eye on the Market" energy newsletter in April. He added that governments would probably struggle to pay that cost, perhaps turning to either bonds or outright privatization. As the U.S. grapples with a second straight year of record hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, a small but growing number of hedge funds, pension plans, and other investors are testing strategies to take advantage of those signs of climate change. Where they're putting their money provides a glimpse into some of the likely tangible impacts from higher temperatures. The investments include storm and flood protection along the coast, desalination plants in drought-prone regions, new approaches to agriculture, and even land far from the ocean for when rising seas shift the real estate market. "In the early stages, people will be nervous," says Cembalest, who calls himself an advocate for better flood control. "And the returns will be higher." There's a fatalism to investors' calculations. Global greenhouse gas emissions reached an historic peak last year, along with the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The last three years were the hottest on record. That trend is expected to accelerate: Scientists expect temperatures to rise by 5F to 10F from now to the end of the century. Yet even an increase of as little as 1F will have potentially catastrophic consequences, according to a report issued Monday from scientists convened by the United Nations. The report found that preventing global warming from surpassing that level will require a gargantuan and near-immediate shift in energy use. "There is no way at this point to stop climate change," says James Everett, partner and co-founder at Ecosystem Integrity Fund, a venture capital investor in San Francisco. "Pretty much every system is going to have to change. We're going to have to adapt to this." Investors focused on climate change have traditionally bet on fixes, such as renewable power and electric vehicles. Mitigation and adaptation is a grimmer project. But Jay Koh, co-founder and managing director of the Lightsmith Group, a private equity firm focused on climate adaptation, says it's necessary to acknowledge that things could get worse. "There is a requirement for some kind of psychological journey that people have to go through," Koh says. "I'd rather have a strategy designed for the set of circumstances where we might not 100 percent win." Consider what might happen to food production. As precipitation patterns change and oceans become more acidic, outdoor environments will become less reliable and "more and more intolerant for crops or fish," according to Liqian Ma, managing director at Cambridge Associates in Boston. Demand will increase for technologies that allow indoor agriculture and even aquaculture. In other cases, making money off climate change can be as simple as thinking through the consequences of a hurricane. Last August, a week before Hurricane Harvey struck Texas, Rod Hinze had an idea. The principal and portfolio manager at Key Point Capital in Dallas, Hinze invests in real estate investment trusts, or REITs. As Harvey approached the coast, the cost of REITs that held hotels around Houston was falling, as investors assumed the hurricane would scare off tourists and business visitors, and maybe trash the hotels themselves. "People thought they'd be offline," Hinze says. "What they don't realize is the demand in short-term housing after a hurricane like that, it's astronomical." So Hinze bought low-first in Houston, and then, as Hurricane Irma followed a week later, in South Florida. "We saw occupancy go to 100 percent in a lot of those hotels," Hinze says. "We didn't crush it. But we made 25 percent, 30 percent, pretty quick." The effects of climate change have also increased demand for new and more exotic types of insurance against what Barney Schauble, managing principal at Nephila Advisors LLC, calls "weather risk." Businesses can buy coverage for extreme weather, and Nephila finds investors willing to bear the other side of that risk in various forms. Schauble says his company recently helped a water utility that was worried about increasingly unpredictable precipitation patterns. So it created a product that would protect the utility against swings. "We structured a hedge for them: In this band, your business is fine," Schauble says. "We can price that." That business is exploding. Since last year, the amount of money coming in for extreme-weather protection has doubled. David Vogel, founder and chief executive officer of the Florida-based quant fund Voloridge Investment Management LLC, says he believes rising seas and worsening storms and droughts will create opportunities in health care, insurance, and agriculture. He declined to discuss his firm's specific investments. But he was willing to disclose one personal purchase: tracts of land around Asheville, North Carolina, where he expects housing values to keep climbing as climate change gets worse. "It's 2,000 feet above sea level," he says. "Living in Florida, that's where I see a lot of people moving." Some investors who believe climate change will get worse are even applying that premise to municipal bonds. Jonathan Bailey, head of environmental, social, and governance investing at Neuberger Berman Group LLC, says his company analyzes the climate risk facing different cities, aiming to find out which ones are more or less exposed. Credit rating firms have been slow to incorporate those varying levels of risk into bond ratings. As a result, Neuberger can buy and hold bonds issued by cities with lower climate risk without paying a premium over bonds issued by cities facing greater threats from storms and other disasters. "If the market then changes its perception of those relative risks, then that can create an opportunity for us to then sell," Bailey says. The broader public's failure to appreciate the risks of climate change is part of what makes it such a good area for investing, according to Schauble. He says that's especially true in the U.S. "There is not a single other country where anybody smart isn't a believer in these things," Schauble says. "If you can see something that other people just refuse to see, and you can make decisions on that basis, I suspect over the longer term that is going to put you in good stead." The fund managers and advisers interviewed for this story expressed little worry that the science is wrong. For some, a bigger concern was looking as if they were taking advantage of a slow-motion calamity. "I would love to give up these investment opportunities in a second if people would listen and stop polluting the environment," Vogel says. In the meantime, he says, investors can be a societal warning system, alerting the public to a risk it has otherwise been reluctant to see. "If people are making money off it, that gets attention." - - - With assistance from Bloomberg's Emily Chasan. WASHINGTON - Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's interview with a joint House panel reviewing the Justice Department investigation of President Donald Trump's alleged Russia ties will not take place this week as expected, according to congressional aides involved with the planning. The House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee were expected to speak with Rosenstein behind closed doors Thursday as part of their probe into federal law enforcement's conduct during the investigations of Trump's campaign and Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. But a dispute over the terms of the interview prevented the committees and the Justice Department from agreeing on when a meeting would occur, according to people familiar with the discussions. The delay means Rosenstein may not appear on Capitol Hill for an interview until after next month's elections, potentially exposing him to a subpoena. The House Judiciary Committee has frequently used subpoenas in its investigation to compel witness testimony and the production of Justice Department documents. "We have many questions for Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and expect answers to those questions," a House Judiciary Committee aide said. "There is not at this time a confirmed date for a potential meeting. Nevertheless, we will continue to provide updates as we have them." Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, has been a target of Trump's Republican allies on the joint panel. They've accused the Justice Department of intentionally drawing out efforts to produce documents for the panels' investigation. That dispute exploded in a public faceoff over the summer, during which Republican lawmakers berated Rosenstein and urged him to wind down the special counsel probe, which is led by Robert Mueller. Lawmakers' interest in bringing Rosenstein back to Capitol Hill followed publication of a New York Times report indicating that the deputy attorney general had suggested secretly recording Trump and invoking a constitutional amendment to remove the president from office. Rosenstein has disputed the report, though he offered to submit his resignation in its wake. On Monday, Trump said he had no plans to remove Rosenstein, following a discussion the two had aboard Air Force One. The House Judiciary Committee has already subpoenaed memos drafted by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that say Rosenstein suggested recording the president. Last week, both the Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees interviewed former FBI general counsel James Baker, who told the panels that he understood Rosenstein's suggestion to be serious. At a Senate hearing Wednesday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, pressed FBI Director Chris Wray about turning over a copy of McCabe's memo detailing the May 16, 2017, meeting. "Will we get that memo?" Johnson asked. "We have to get back to you about that," Wray replied. That angered the lawmaker, who complained that the FBI too often blocks congressional requests for information. "It prevents the people's representatives from actually getting to the truth," Johnson said. "Every time there's a criminal investigation, Congress can't get information." House lawmakers - some of whom have expressed skepticism about McCabe's credibility while he is under investigation amid allegations that he lied to FBI officials - say they want to hear directly from Rosenstein. They are also expected to ask him about other outstanding materials that Trump's allies say will expose what Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has called the "rotten" foundations of Mueller's probe. Support from House Republican leaders for these efforts has ebbed and flowed. Last month, frustrated by what they saw as a lack of action by the committees, Trump's allies appealed directly to Trump to declassify documents they see as key to the congressional panels' investigation. Trump initially agreed - before reneging, under pressure from allies. The Judiciary Committee has since subpoenaed documents it believes will show that the FBI left critical information out of its application to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page - details, they say, that could have drawn suspicion away from Page and the Trump team. Prime Minister Abe promises aid for the repatriation and relocation of Myanmar refugees. During her official visit, the Myanmar leader held bilateral talks to encourage investment and trade between Japan and Myanmar. The Rohingya crisis has had a negative impact on Myanmars economy. Tokyo (AsiaNews) The Japanese government "will give its maximum assistance to help Myanmar build up a democratic country. Tokyo highly values Suu Kyis efforts to cope with a difficult agenda, including economic reforms and issues related to Rakhine state, said Japanese Prime Minister Shinto Abe at a joint press conference yesterday that wrapped a state visit to Japan by Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. Without directly citing the crisis affecting the Rohingya Islamic minority, Abe said that the refugee issue poses a "very complex and grave" problem. He promised aid for the repatriation and the relocation of refugees in Myanmar. For her part, Suu Kyi said, I appreciate the stance of Japan and also welcome it, noting that an independent commission, launched in July, has been given extensive and powerful authority to conduct an effective probe into human rights abuse allegations in Rakhine. Over the previous six days, Suu Kyi took part in the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit where she held talks to encourage investment and trade between Japan and Myanmar. Her visit to Japan began on 5 October. Two days later, she visited an agricultural plant in the village of Izumizaki (Fukushima Prefecture) to see how Tokyo deals with rural depopulation. Back in the capital, the next day she took part in the Myanmar Silk Promotion Event, organised by the ASEAN-Japan Center. In Tokyo, Suu Kyi spoke at the Myanmar Investment Conference "Strengthening the Bond Between Myanmar and Japan" organised by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). In her speech, she told representatives of 400 Japanese companies that they can invest in her country with confidence, despite the ongoing challenges such as the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State. She stressed the positive changes by her government in favour foreign investments and provide a better legal framework. For Myanmars civilian government, economic reforms are a key to complete the countrys democratic transition after sixty years of isolation under the military dictatorship. However, Myanmar's economic growth has slowed down due to a sharp drop in foreign investment (nearly US$ 900 million less over the past year), as the country's image suffered as a result of the violence against Muslim Rohingya. In order to revitalise the tourist sector, the authorities have launched a programme that allows citizens of Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Macao to enter the country without a visa. Yesterday morning, Aung San Suu Kyi led the Myanmar delegation to the international summit chaired by the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, in the presence of the leaders of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The subject of the discussion was Japans "Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy", which aims to offset Chinas growing influence in the region through the latters Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). According to Tokyo, this plan will promote the development of quality infrastructure in the countries crossed by the Mekong River. Early voting has gotten off to a slow start in many west-central Illinois counties, but county clerks remain optimistic that the numbers will pick up as Election Day approaches. Morgan County Clerk Jill Waggener said her office has seen about 120 people since early voting began Sept. 27. I think more and more people are becoming aware of early voting and taking advantage of it, Waggener said. Im optimistic those numbers will grow. Other counties are following similar slow trends. Scott County Clerk Sandy Hankins said she also expects things to pick up. In past years, things seem to pick up the closer we get to Election Day, Hankins said. Greene County Clerk Deborah Banghart isnt expecting large early voting numbers, she said, though she also is expecting an increase closer to Election Day. You never can tell how the numbers will turn out, Banghart said. We dont have any local races except for the county board, so that doesnt draw the crowds this early. We dont look for it to be much more than normal. While early voting has been slow, requests for mail-in ballots are at a high in many counties. Weve been overwhelmed with mail-in requests, Waggener said. We have 160 requests that need to get processed right now. Cass County Clerk Shelly Wessel said her office is averaging just five or six people voting in person each day but receiving substantially more applications for vote-by-mail ballots. Weve had a significant increase, Wessel said. We had 105 requests the first day. The increase in mail-in ballots could be attributed to the number of candidates who have funded reminders about the option during their campaigns, Waggener said. Itll make Election Day quieter out at the polling places, she said. In addition to early voting, grace-period voting will begin today for those who still need to register, Waggener said. Those who register now must do so at the Morgan County Courthouse and will be required to vote when they register. Election Day is Nov. 6. Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha. A free app that lets patients do quick health checkups on themselves is the centerpiece of a Gates Foundation-backed project to bring better care to poor regions of Africa, Asia and South America. The medical app, also receiving funding from the Swiss-based Fondation Botnar, will be the first of its kind available in Swahili, and will also be offered free in Romania, tech startup Ada Health GmbH said Wednesday in a statement. The project with Botnar will open up Ada's artificial-intelligence-enabled health advice to at least 2 million people in areas with little access to hospitals and providers. Poor countries around the globe are suffering from severe shortages of health-care workers, according to the World Health Organization, with the most severe challenges in Africa, where the unmet need is forecast to rise most sharply. Ada's software is designed to help patients determine whether they need care and put them in touch with nearby services when they're required, relieving pressure on health systems. "It helps you get a better idea of the medical condition that's causing symptoms, and then helps you make an informed decision about next steps," said Daniel Nathrath, Berlin-based Ada's co-founder and chief executive officer. "In Tanzania, often the best option will be to find out where the closest community health worker is." The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the world's richest charity, with $51 billion in endowment assets as of the end of 2017. While it didn't give the size of the foundations' support, Ada said it will use funding from Gates and Botnar to hire staff for the new projects. Ada will also research how self-checkups powered by AI can support health care in developing countries, with an emphasis on preventing potentially deadly epidemics. The software will be customized for certain countries by collecting data on the prevalence of diseases, like malaria, that are more common in the developing world than in the West, Nathrath said. Founded in 2011, Ada offers a mobile-phone app that walks people through symptoms, provides probable causes and advises them what to do -- whether that's to take an aspirin or call an ambulance. Currently available in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and French, it's been downloaded by about 5 million people in more than 130 countries. Ada has received almost $70 million in funding, including a 40 million-euro ($46 million) investment round in October 2017 that was led by Access Technology Ventures, a New York venture capital firm. Competitors include London-based Your.MD AS, Kry of Stockholm and WebMD Health Corp. in the U.S. Another British rival, Babylon Healthcare Services Ltd., has an initiative with the government of Rwanda in which its app has been used to treat more than 2 million people. Critics charge that the effectiveness of such apps remains uncertain by traditional scientific standards. Harvard Medical School researchers who conducted a head-to-head study in 2016 found that doctors were twice as good as symptom-checking apps at diagnosing patients based on their descriptions of symptoms and basic medical history. WASHINGTON - Nikki Haley's abrupt and unexpected resignation from President Donald Trump's administration secured her membership in a singular club - the rare former White House official who leaves Trump's orbit as a political force who could pose a potential threat to the president. In a sign of her rising profile, the ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday simultaneously announced her resignation at the end of this year while also reassuring Trump that she has no plans to challenge his reelection. "No, I'm not running for 2020," she said, seated next to the president in the Oval Office. "I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one. So, I look forward to supporting the president in the next election." The blunt statement underscores both the loyalty demanded by Trump and the political complications Haley could pose to the president. At 46, Haley has built her own political brand and has a long potential career ahead of her. The former South Carolina governor mixes homespun Southern charm with hard-boiled political savvy - a daughter of immigrants boasting both executive experience in her home state and foreign policy chops from two years as one of Trump's top diplomats. "She's a rising star and he's king, so there's always an inherent tension there," said Mike Murphy, a longtime Republican strategist and Trump critic. "Politically, any star in the party is a threat to Trump because in his Stalinesque way, there's only one sun god and it has to be Trump." For now, at least, Christine Matthews, a pollster who has worked with Republican candidates, said that Haley seems to be leaving the Trump administration on her own terms and with her personal and political bona fides still intact. "She has served very well and has only enhanced her reputation and I think she's probably the only person in the Trump administration who you can say that about," Matthews said. She likened Haley to Condoleezza Rice - the secretary of state and national security adviser under President George W. Bush - who was often mentioned as a possible GOP vice-presidential candidate. "She's one of these rare people in Republican circles who conservatives and moderates really like and women and men can both agree on," Matthews said. "She is somebody who is outside of stereotypical Republican central casting. She's Indian American, she's young, she's both pragmatic as well as conservative, and I feel that she very much has that image going for her." Yet for a rising star, it remains unclear where she will shine. In the hours after her surprise announcement, political operatives floated options ranging from a high-dollar private-sector gig to a television contributor deal and book contract. There was also chatter that Haley could seek the Senate seat occupied by Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. - an idea quickly dismissed by Haley confidants, Trump and Graham himself. "I have zero desire to be a Cabinet member," Graham quipped. Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist and former adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that while Haley's departure was highly choreographed - "Who gets to resign in the Oval Office? It's unbelievable" - the challenge for Haley will be how she bides her time, especially if Trump seeks reelection in 2020 as expected. "If she runs in 2024, she'll have to figure out how to keep her profile active for the next six years, and most politicians can't manage that," Tyler said. The timing of Haley's exit, less than a month before the 2018 midterms, struck many in the president's circle as either savvy or suspect. On the one hand, she leaves with foreign policy credentials, the credibility that comes from navigating an often chaotic White House and ahead of potential political fallout from the November elections or Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. "She's shrewd, which is good in politics, but you have to keep an eye open," said H. Boyd Brown, a former Democratic South Carolina legislator who has battled with Haley in the past. "She's coming for you if you are in her way." The suddenness and secrecy surrounding her announcement Tuesday also prompted speculation about her motives. The expansive portfolio she enjoyed during Rex Tillerson's tenure as secretary of state was diminished by the arrival of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, who controlled foreign policy out of the White House and made themselves more visible than their predecessors. Trump has also been leery of her ambitions at times, frustrated when she made announcements on television or when she garnered large amounts of glowing press coverage. Haley had been privately skeptical of some of the president's politics and tactics, yet was careful even in private situations not to criticize him while marveling at his crowds and poll numbers. "Resignations in national politics are highly calculated maneuvers - it's not just like, 'Uh, I think I'll have chili for lunch,' " Murphy said. "This was so abrupt and the timing so politically weird that it sure reads like it's preempting something . . . If it's the political masterstroke, where's the landing pad? Where's the ooh and ahh?" A polished campaigner, Haley already was a rising national star in the Republican Party when Trump began running for president in 2016. She did not hide her discomfort with his pugnacity and the racially insensitive aspects of his campaign, delivering criticisms of Trump's rhetoric and demeanor, and ultimately endorsing a competitor, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. But Trump won the primary in Haley's home state handily, so his move to make her U.N. ambassador was seen as an olive branch to the Republican establishment. Haley - one of the few women in the Cabinet and one of the few minorities to hold a senior administration position - quickly became the face of Trump's foreign policy, demonstrating political acumen and shrewdness in her dealings with the White House. When speculation mounted last month that Haley might have authored an anonymous New York Times column claiming a "resistance" within the Trump administration, Haley penned a Washington Post column under the headline: "When I challenge the president, I do it directly. My anonymous colleague should have, too." In April, Haley revealed in a television interview that the administration would be rolling out new economic sanctions against Russia. Trump was upset because he was not ready to impose the new penalties, and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said Haley had bungled the interview out of "confusion." The U.N. ambassador shot back the next day: "With all due respect," she said, "I don't get confused." Haley's positioning on racial issues also stood in contrast with that of Trump. In August 2017, after Trump suggested both sides were to blame for the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Haley made clear she disapproved of the president's response but stopped short of publicly breaking with him, saying that she had communicated her views to him in private. Notoriously fearful of media leaks, Haley has long micromanaged her own image and career and has kept extraordinarily close counsel, discussing major career moves only with her family and a clutch of key advisers. During her 2010 gubernatorial campaign, she kept her own schedule, pecked out emails late into the night and personally monitored comments on her Facebook page. Once based in New York City for her U.N. post, Haley sought to stand apart from the backbiting that has often defined the West Wing, balancing a desire to be seen as independent with not running afoul of Trump. Katon Dawson, former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, said Haley's whirlwind resignation was probably deliberate. "She's certainly not confused," Dawson said. "What you saw was vintage Nikki Haley." --- The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey and Anne Gearan contributed to this report. The U.S. Supreme Court and new Justice Brett Kavanaugh grappled with a Trump administration appeal in a deportation clash that touches on the debate over so-called sanctuary cities. Hearing arguments on Kavanaugh's second day on the bench Wednesday, the justices questioned a lower court ruling that made it harder for the federal government to detain some immigrants who are facing possible deportation because of crimes they committed. It wasn't clear how the high court, or Kavanaugh, would come out. Most of Kavanaugh's questions and comments seemed to favor the government, as when he said the 1996 statute at issue in the case reflected a policy of "harshness" toward immigrants who commit crimes. But at the end of the hour-long session, Kavanaugh hinted he might be open to a suggestion by Justice Stephen Breyer that could form the basis of a consensus opinion. The case centers on people who are released after serving a criminal sentence and are later arrested by federal immigration agents. A San Francisco-based federal appeals court said those people are entitled to a bond hearing, and the possibility of re-release, while the Department of Homeland Security presses its case for deportation. Federal agents often aren't on hand to take custody when an immigrant is released by state or local officials. President Donald Trump's administration says the problem is especially acute in jurisdictions that don't cooperate with requests to hold a prisoner until federal officials arrive. The Trump administration inherited the case from the Obama administration. In the case before the court, some of the affected people had been living in their communities for years before facing deportation proceedings. Breyer questioned whether such a person could be held indefinitely without any possibility of bail after being arrested for a minor crime. "In this country, a triple ax murderer is given bail, a hearing," Breyer said. He asked why people facing deportation should be treated more harshly. The key to the case could be another Trump appointee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, who said he too wondered whether the government should have such broad power to hold people without bail. "Justice Breyer's question is my question," he said. But later Gorsuch suggested he viewed the government's reading of the disputed statute as the better one. Under federal immigration law, people are subject to "mandatory detention," meaning they don't get a bond hearing, if they finish their criminal sentences and are immediately taken into custody by DHS agents. The law, however, is unclear whether mandatory detention applies if DHS doesn't take custody right away and the person has already been released. Breyer suggested the court could interpret the law to give the government a "reasonable" period of time to take someone into custody. Kavanaugh said Congress was concerned that people given bail would either flee or commit additional crimes. "Congress did not trust those hearings," he said. He also said Congress knew that federal officials wouldn't be able to take custody immediately in many cases. "And yet Congress did not put in a time limit, whether it's reasonable time, as Justice Breyer says, or a year or two years or six months or 48 hours," Kavanaugh said. "That raises a real question for me whether we should be superimposing a time limit into the statute when Congress, at least as I read it, did not itself do so." But minutes later Kavanaugh said that "maybe we should" adopt Breyer's approach. And Kavanaugh asked a government lawyer at the end of the session to say what he thought a "reasonable" amount of time would be for federal officials to take custody. The case focuses on people who are legal residents of the U.S., not people who entered the country illegally. The people involved include Mony Preap, a lawful permanent resident who came to the U.S. as an infant in 1981 when his family fled Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. Preap was convicted of two counts of marijuana possession in California and released from jail in 2006. Although that offense potentially made him vulnerable to deportation, federal officials didn't seize him until 2013, after he was convicted of the non-deportable offense of battery. Federal officials then held him for three months without a bond hearing while trying to deport him over the marijuana conviction. Preap eventually won the deportation case and was released to his family. JERSEYVILLE Only one thing could bring Jim Seago out of retirement and thats an adventure in radio, particularly in previously uncharted FM territory. Its really exciting to put an FM signal in Jersey County, said Seago of Alton, who retired four years ago and boasts a 35-year career in radio and television advertising and marketing. People around town have talked about it, he said. Its going to be real country and people will love the format. WJBM FM 104.7s format is primarily country music of the 1970s through 1990s, as well as artists of today who carry on the real country tradition, such as Toby Keith and Chris Stapleton. In addition to the music, the station will carry news and sports. NASCAR news will kick off with Daytona Speedweeks, covering all 25 races preceding the Daytona 500, which also will be covered along with the entire NASCAR season. Its the only sport thats valid, dead-panned DTE Technologies owner Rob Thomas of Jacksonville, who provides information technologies for the station. New FM radio station WJBM 104.7s frequency just became available and the team at WJBM AM 1480 jumped at the chance to relaunch the station on an FM frequency. Longtime station owner David Fuhler said community service is at the core of what the station does. I fondly remember as a child, in Calhoun County, my mother rarely fixing supper without WJBM on in the kitchen. It is very rewarding to afford that local opportunity to generations to come, he said. WJBMs core team concurred, made up of members Craig Baalman; Seago; Thomas; Alan Ringhausen; Scheper Communications John Scheper, principal; and its vice president, Melanie Hausmann. The station launched Oct. 1. The team did a preliminary launch, collectively pushing the button a week prior and powering up the new transmitter. The station is at 1010 Shipman Road in Jerseyville. WASHINGTON - Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. on Wednesday referred more than a dozen judicial misconduct complaints filed recently against Brett Kavanaugh to a federal appeals court in Colorado. The 15 complaints, related to statements Kavanaugh made during his Senate confirmation hearings, were initially filed with the federal appeals court in Washington, where Kavanaugh served for the last 12 years before his confirmation Saturday to the Supreme Court. The allegations center on whether Kavanaugh was dishonest and lacked judicial temperament during his Senate testimony, according to people familiar with the matter. Last month, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asked Roberts to refer the complaints to another appeals court for review after determining that they should not be handled by judges who served with Kavanaugh on the District appellate court. In a letter Wednesday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, Roberts said he selected the court in Colorado to "accept the transfer and to exercise the powers of a judicial council with respect to the identified complaints and any pending or new complaints relating to the same subject matter." The Denver-based appeals court is led by Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich, the former solicitor general of Colorado who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush. The 10th Circuit handled another recent judicial misconduct case from Washington involving the former chief judge of the District Court. It is unclear what will come of the review by the 10th Circuit. The judiciary's rules on misconduct do not apply to Supreme Court justices, and the 10th Circuit could decide to dismiss the complaints as moot now that Kavanaugh has joined the high court. "There is nothing that a judicial council could do at this point," said Arthur Hellman, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and expert on the operation of federal courts. He said it was unprecedented for a new justice to face such a situation. Hellman predicted that the 10th Circuit will likely close the case "because it is no longer within their jurisdiction," now that Kavanaugh has been elevated to the Supreme Court The letter from Roberts does not mention Kavanaugh by name. On Saturday, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson of the District Circuit, who originally requested the transfer, said in a statement that the court had received complaints about Kavanaugh since the start of his confirmation hearings. "The complaints do not pertain to any conduct in which Judge Kavanaugh engaged as a judge. The complaints seek investigations only of the public statements he has made as a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States," said Henderson, a Bush nominee. Complaints made against judges are usually handled by the chief judge. Henderson took over from Chief Judge Merrick Garland, who recused himself from the matter. When complaints were filed in late September and early October, Henderson dismissed some but concluded that others were substantive enough to refer to another judicial panel for investigation. Roberts received the first transfer request on Sept. 20, followed by four additional requests on Sept. 26, Sept. 28, Oct. 3 and Oct. 5, according to his letter. He did not immediately move to refer the filings to another appeals court. People familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity say the allegations had already been widely discussed in the Senate and in the public realm. Roberts did not see an urgent need for them to be resolved by the judicial branch while he continued to review the incoming complaints, they said. The complaints landed with Roberts because of his role as chief justice of the United States, not because Kavanaugh is now a member of the Supreme Court. Such complaints are usually confidential unless the judicial council investigating issues a public report about its findings. The existence of misconduct complaints and the procedure can be disclosed, according to the rules, "when necessary or appropriate to maintain public confidence in the judiciary's ability to redress misconduct or disability." The public nature of a case last year involving former 9th Circuit judge Alex Kozinski, who was accused of sexual misconduct, was unusual. The chief judge of the 9th Circuit asked Roberts to transfer the case for review after The Washington Post reported allegations against Kozinski. Roberts referred the case to the appeals court in New York City. The judicial council of that court publicly announced it was closing its investigation because Kozinski had retired, saying that because he "can no longer perform any judicial duties, he does not fall within the scope of persons who can be investigated." - - - The Washington Post's Robert Barnes and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report. Surprise in the diplomatic establishment for the sudden resignation of the head of US diplomacy to the United Nations. Netanyahu praises her "energy" to "clear the air" at the UN. For many she represented the war-mongering and one-sided spirit of the Trump administration. Goal of the presidential elections behind resignation. And, perhaps, an investigation for wrongdoing. Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The resignation of Nikky Haley, 46, of Indian origin and former governor of South Carolina, as United States ambassador to the United Nations took the diplomatic establishment and the public opinion in the USA by surprise. Generating opposite sentiments that go from the deep displeasure of Israel, which saw in her one of her most strenuous defenders of the cause at the UN New York, to the harsh criticism of those who emphasized her "lack of diplomacy" and little "international experience". Israel's consideration of Haley emerges from the words pronounced at the end of September by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during the last UN General Assembly. He praised her "energy, motivation, spirit" her ability "make the air breathable" inside the United Nations. The diplomat also received a real star reception at the last conference of the Israeli-American public affairs committee (AIPAC), the main pro-Israel lobby in the US. A greeting second only to that reserved for President Donald Trump. Analysts and experts say that Haley exemplifies the "indignation" of the Trump administration for the traditional multilateral frameworks and the passionate commitment to the defense of Israel, against the "harassment" and "persecution" it has long received at the UN. According to the supporters, the outgoing US ambassador to the UN is "skilled, charismatic and able to capture the attention of her audience" in the context of an "extremely ideological" vision of the world. A feature that has certainly not favored the use of diplomacy at the UN in important issues, from Syria to Iran, to Russia not to mention Palestine and the direct attack on institutions that work for the Palestinian population . Already from the first months at the UN, some highlighted her "pragmatism" in the face of "little or no" international experience. Others instead described her as "disconnected" from reality, with conservative and pro-Israeli sentiments functional only to American domestic politics. So much so that, for many, the UN position has served as a springboard to compete for the presidential elections (even if she denies any participation in the 2020 campaign) and to become the first woman tenant in the White House. . The malicious men described her as a sycophant of President Trump and a horrible war merchant who used her position to nurture a neoconservative and anti-globalization foreign policy. So much so as to consider her the "most warlike and imperialist" among the senior officials of the US administration and, at least for some time, "the most loved" by the tycoon. Faced with these positions, the attempt by a part of the government leadership to paint her as a moderate figure is ridiculous. The commentator and political analyst Amir Amini recalls that Haley "spent every minute of her time at the UN threatening innocent nations with the weapon of war, terror, bullying and blackmailing miserably (while failing) the whole world to get support to an agenda dictated by the military industrial complex". Finally, behind the resignation there is a shadow of an investigation that could overwhelm her. The repeated use of flights (together with her husband) on board private and luxury aircraft is at the heart of the Washington Ethics Committee (Crew) investigation. U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday called for a stronger response to the Chinese government's repression of Muslims in China's far west and asked the FBI to investigate claims of intimidation against certain immigrant communities in the United States. The remarks, coinciding with an annual rights report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, were the latest signal of more assertive U.S. statements on Chinese rights issues as the Trump administration presses its trade battles with Beijing. Last week, Vice President Mike Pence made a speech calling for a fundamental reset of U.S.-China ties. The congressional commission - a bipartisan group created by Congress to monitor developments in human rights and other issues in China - used this year's report to highlight the persecution of Chinese Uighurs, a Muslim minority in China's western Xinjiang region. As many as 1 million ethnic Uighur and other minorities have been interned for "political reeducation," according to U.N. findings released in August. China has largely dismissed or rebuffed foreign criticism of its crackdown, first denying that the network of internment camps existed and now arguing that they are a necessary and just response to what Beijing calls Islamist extremism. The commission's co-chairmen, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., unveiled a bill that seeks to condemn the Chinese crackdowns in Xinjiang and urged the U.S. government to consider sanctions against Chinese leaders. Rubio also said he would nominate a jailed Uighur scholar, Ilham Tohti, for the Nobel Peace Prize and urge the International Olympic Committee to review China's plans to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. In a letter addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Rubio and Smith called on the agency to look into allegations that the Chinese Communist Party is harassing and intimidating diaspora communities, including Uighurs with family in Xinjiang, on U.S. soil. "Members of the Uyghur diaspora community in the United States have indicated that they are unwilling to appear at public events, including congressional hearings, out of fear that they will be surveilled and their family members in China punished as a result. This is unacceptable," the letter reads, using a variation of the spelling of "Uighur." The letter also asks the FBI to set up an anonymous tip line to "counter brazen Chinese government threats and influence operations on U.S. soil." The moves on Capitol Hill come at a time when China is doubling down on its Xinjiang policies in the face of international pressure. The Xinjiang regional legislature on Wednesday unveiled a revision to its anti-extremism law that gives county-level officials the authority to set up "education and transformation organizations" to "transform people who have been influenced by extremism." The updated law represented the first time that China has attempted to provide some semblance of legal justification for the detention centers, which have been operating secretly for years outside China's judicial system. Until recently, China had simply denied the existence of the centers despite extensive documentary evidence, first-person accounts and satellite images showing their buildup across Xinjiang - a huge swath of land bordering Central Asia. In recent weeks, Chinese officials and state media have offered full-throated defenses of the government's actions in Xinjiang, often by warning about the danger of Islamic extremism. But the new law appeared to characterize behaviors such as not watching Chinese television and not smoking as evidence of radicalization. On Monday, Communist Party officials in the Xinjiang regional capital urged cadres via social media to fight an ideological battle against the trend of approving foods for halal certification. Allowing more foods to be labeled halal could promote the spread of Islamic practice and ultimately lead to the "mire of religious extremism," the state-run Global Times newspaper said in an article about the campaign. The next day, Tianshan - a news portal run by the Xinjiang government - published a fiery essay hailing the region's crackdown as an "emancipation of the mind." "Recently, some Western countries have gotten worked up like a shrill housewife threatening to impose 'sanctions' on China," the essay read. "Is the situation really as bad as they say?" - - - Shih reported from Hong Kong. --- Video Embed Code Video: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, outlines the themes of the group's newly released annual report.(Congressional-Executive Commission on China) Embed code: (CNN) The auction house says it didn't know anything about it. The artist famously doesn't like to show his face. The buyer is a mystery. So, for that matter, is the seller. In the case of the "self-destructing Banksy," nothing adds up. The startling stunt at Sotheby's in London on Friday has set the art world aflame. The image of a girl reaching out for a red, heart-shaped balloon had just sold for $1.4 million. Moments later, a shredder hidden inside the picture frame began to whirr, the canvas slid down, and at least part of it ended up in strips. Sotheby's claimed it had been "Banksy'd." The British street artist, famous for being faceless, is certainly well known for his stunts. In 2006 he secretly erected a life-size replica of a hooded Guantanamo Bay detainee inside a ride in the California Disneyland theme park. In 2013 he set up a stall selling his original artwork for $60 in a New York market and filmed people passing by, convinced that because of the price, the works were fake. On Saturday, Banksy published a video on Instagram that purported to show how he built a paper shredder into the frame of the 2006 painting "Girl with a Balloon." "The urge to destroy is also a creative urge," Banksy wrote, citing Picasso. But the video didn't answer everyone's questions -- not least about the involvement of the auction house. "I wouldn't put it past Banksy to have staged the whole thing, and I wouldn't put it past him to have pulled this off without anyone being on it," Brooklyn based street art curator RJ Rushmore told CNN. "But whatever the 'truth' is doesn't change the performance for me." Was Banksy in the room during the auction? There is speculation that Banksy, who has kept his identity hidden for more than 20 years, may have been in the room at the time of the sale, possibly overseeing the whole performance while filming on his phone. Footage circulating on the internet shows a middle-aged man, wearing thick-rimmed black glasses, filming the moment when the picture is shredded. Shortly after, the man is seen being escorted out of the room. Was that Banksy? In 2016, scientists at Queen Mary's University in London used geographic profiling, based on the artist's movements, to identify him as a man called Robin Gunningham. The authors conceded that their study fell short of definitive proof. The man spotted at Friday's auction bears similarities to Gunningham, leaving internet and art sleuths to suggest it was him. The angle from which the man was filming could also correspond to the angle used in Banksy's video version of events. Banksy is known for having tight-lipped collaborators who work with him, and it is also possible he had people placed in the room to record the event. Erika Rossi, a gallery owner from Italy, who was at the auction, said there was a young man who had been diligently filming throughout who sat in front of her. She also saw a man "arguing with security" after the auction had finished. Sotheby's says it wasn't in on the stunt According to the Sotheby's catalogue, the painting had been "acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 2006." It then said it had been given as a gift. Is it really credible that Banksy would give the painting away with an embedded, remote-controlled, battery-operated shredder, that would activate 12 years later? At the very least, wouldn't the battery have gone flat? Commentators also pointed out that Sotheby's staff casually remove the painting after it had acted so strangely. Weren't they afraid of sharp blades reactivating, or of it exploding? In addition, the frame was extremely thick and the shredder would have added weight. Weren't they curious as to why it was so heavy? In a statement, Sotheby's said, "It is increasingly common in the Contemporary art world for artists to deem their frames integral to the artwork, as was the case in this instance. The certificate from the artist's studio for the present work states that the frame is 'integral to the piece.' "When Sotheby's asked the studio about removing the work from its frame during the cataloguing process, we were expressly told not to remove the frame. This is not unusual -- consider Lucio Fontana's lacquer frames, or George Condo's frames that include labels on the back saying do not remove from frame. In many cases, if you remove the frame you violate the artist's wishes and destroy the artwork," the statement added. Experts also wondered why the marquee work was the final lot in the sale. Ordinarily, such a high-profile sale would have come higher up in the running order. "The big question is -- was Sotheby's complicit," asks Anny Shaw, correspondent for the Art Newspaper, who was in the room for the sale. "Are these signs that they knew? The lower estimate, putting the lot at the very end of the auction." "If they weren't in on it, this probably one of the best art pranks of the century," Shaw told CNN. "Banksy has really pulled off a corker. If they were in on it, it raises all sorts of questions about the manipulation of the market and it dilutes Banksy's brand. I'd be really disappointed if that's the case." Sotheby's insists it had no idea about the stunt. "We had no prior knowledge of this event and were not in any way involved," Sotheby's said in a statement. "We think our auctioneer and European Chairman Oliver Barker described it best from the rostrum this evening: 'A brilliant Banksy moment!' " Will the painting go up or down in value? One thing is for sure, the painting may be "damaged" but the art event will go down in art history, and the price may soar as a result. "I'm unsure if the painting is going to be more valuable or less valuable, but it is definitely going to be his most famous," Banksy's former gallery owner Steve Lazarides told CNN. "You could argue that the work is now more valuable," said Alex Branczik, Sotheby's head of contemporary art, Europe. "It's certainly the first work to be spontaneously shredded as an auction ends." Sotheby's said it was talking to the seller, "who was surprised about the story," about how to proceed. "Millionaire sells a painting for a million to other millionaires then destroys it," wrote fellow street artist and Banksy friend Ben Eine, known globally for his bold letters, in an Instagram post. "You are going to have to explain this one to me?!?" This story was first published on CNN.com, "Who was in on Banksy's 'self-destruct' art stunt?" by Wang Zhicheng People can now be ideologically re-educated against "religious extremism" through psychological pressure and torture. At least one million Uyghurs are held in "vocational training centres". Beijing (AsiaNews) The Xinjiang Autonomous Region has revised its legislation to allow local authorities to "educate and transform" people influenced by terrorism at "vocational training centres", a euphemism for forced re-education camps. The revised law, which took effect yesterday, comes amid a rising international outcry. China has long been accused of detaining at least a million ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims in secret camps where they are subjected to psychological pressure and torture. Under the regional law, such centres are tasked with the elimination of "religious extremism". The latter will teach how to read and write Chinese, offer civic education courses and impart "ideological" instruction. Methods included psychological treatments and behavioural correction "to help trainees to transform their thoughts and return to society and their families". In 2017 China launched a scorched earth policy to crush Uyghur demands for autonomy. In order to stop radical influences coming from Afghanistan and Pakistan, Beijing has imposed tight controls on mosques, young people and communal religious life. Marking the National Day of the Republic of China, the president rails against Beijing, "source of conflict" in the Strait and in the region. The vice president of the Republic of China, Chen Chien-jen, will attend the canonization ceremony of Paul VI and will have a private audience with Pope Francis. Taipei (AsiaNews) - President Tsai Ing-wen has promised to make Taiwan an "indispensable" member of the international community, accusing China of being "a source of conflict" in the Strait. In a message for the 107th anniversary of the birth of the Republic of China, the Taiwan national holiday which falls today, Tsai accused Beijing of causing tensions with the island and of conflicts in the region. For some time now, Chinas unilateral diplomatic offensive and military coercion have not only harmed cross-strait relations. They have also seriously challenged the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, she said. Tsai said Taiwan could cope with Beijings challenges by seeking further support from the US, Japan, Europe, and other like-minded countries and strengthen its strategic significance so that other countries could rally behind it. The Taiwanese government considers the continuation of the Republic of China, who fled to the island with Chiang Kaishek, following Mao Zedong's takeover in 1949. For Beijing, Taiwan is a "rebel province" that must be brought back to the homeland even by the use of force. Following Tsai's refusal to accept the "one China" principle [i]at the time of her election as president, Beijing has increased its diplomatic and military pressure on the island. Last April, it launched naval military exercises around Taiwan and in the last two years he has snatched five diplomatic allies from Taipei, reducing to 17 the number of nations that recognize the Republic of China, including the Vatican. After the announcement of an agreement on the episcopal appointments between Beijing and the Holy See, Taiwan had feared for a short time that this would herald a diplomatic revolution. But the agreement - as explained by the Holy See - is only "pastoral" and not "political". Meanwhile, as a sign of relations between Taiwan and the Vatican, on October 14th, the vice president of the Republic of China, Chen Chien-jen, will attend the canonization ceremony of Paul VI and will have a private audience with Pope Francis. On this occasion he will invite him to visit the island, never before visited by a pontiff. [i] The "One China" principle establishes that there is only one country-China, even if governed by two different governments, the Republic of China (Taipei) and the People's Republic of China (Beijing). However, each of the two governments interprets it from their own viewpoint. The United States also recognizes the One China and sees Taiwan as "part of China". The US promised Taiwanese military defense if the island was attacked and subdued by force. Political party sweeps at the polls have wreaked havoc with the Bexar County justice system. Many longtime, respected jurists valued for their knowledge of the law and judicial temperament have been replaced with less qualified candidates who often just barely meet the filing requirements. The culprit? Votes cast solely along party lines. These come with no guarantees about the abilities of those elected. We encourage voters to be discriminating with their votes and cast ballots for the best qualified judicial candidates regardless of party affiliation. This election cycle, voters have the benefit of three very qualified incumbents seeking re-election to their criminal and juvenile district court benches. The other two criminal court benches on the ballot are seats left open by retiring judges. The only contested juvenile court bench on the ballot is for the 289th District Court. We recommend Republican Daphne Previti Austin, who is board-certified in juvenile law, to a second term. She has taken a troubled court and made it flourish. Previti Austin worked to help secure grant funding for a boys mental health court similar to one that already existed for girls. She cares about the young people who appear in her court, and testified before the 85th Texas Legislature to raise the criminal age of a responsibility to 18 so 17-year-olds can go before a juvenile court judge. The opponent in this race is Democrat Carlos Quezada, a former prosecutor now in private practice. He is a member of the Harlandale school board and experienced in setting policy that affects thousands of schoolchildren, but has only had two juvenile clients in his career. We also recommend incumbent Republicans Lorina Rummel of the 144th District Court and Melisa Skinner of the 290th District Court for re-election. Rummel, a former prosecutor with 26 years of legal experience, was appointed to the 144th District Court bench after the sitting judge resigned when he became the target of a public corruption investigation. She won election to a four-year term that same year and quickly brought much-needed order to a court with a growing backlog of cases and high jail population. In addition to her regular court duties, Rummel supervises the Esperanza Court, a highly successful specialty criminal court that helps defendants with multiple prostitution convictions turn their lives around. The opponent in this race is Democrat Ray Olivarri, who lost a bid for re-election two years ago. Skinner has been judge of the 290th since 2010. She brings experience to the bench as a former prosecutor and defense attorney. While employed by the district attorneys office, she worked as the first-chair felony prosecutor in this court. During her tenure on the bench, she has gained a reputation as a hardworking judge who operates an efficient court and knows the law. She is being challenged by Democrat Jennifer Pena, who ran against her in 2014. For the 187th District Court bench, we recommend Democrat Stephanie Boyd, a defense lawyer who joined the district attorneys office in 2015. Boyd has 20 years legal experience and is employed as the first-chair prosecutor in the Special Crimes Unit. A former president of the San Antonio Black Lawyers Association, Boyd has been active in the community working to increase understanding of the legal system. Boyd made a bid for this bench in 2014 and lost to Steve Hilbig, who resigned the seat last year. The gubernatorial appointee to fill that vacancy, Joey Contreras, lost to Karl Alexander in his bid to gain his partys nomination in the Republican primary. In the 226th District Court race, we recommend Republican Todd McCray to the bench being vacated by retiring District Judge Sid Harle. McCray is board-certified in criminal law. While board certification is not necessary to serve on this court, it is a big plus. McCray, who lists being an Eagle Scout prominently on his list of accomplishments, brings 28 years of experience to the bench as both a prosecutor and defense lawyer. This court handles a wide range of cases, from state jail felonies to death penalty capital murders. A judge with expertise in criminal law would be an asset to the criminal justice system. His opponent in this race is Democrat Velia Meza, a criminal defense lawyer. Longford's financial dalliance with a government backed scheme aimed at reinvigorating rural Ireland is showing little sign of abating following a near 600,000 cash injection. Eight projects, located in various areas throughout the county, were approved just over 585,000 in state aid through Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring's department last Friday. ALSO READ: Almost 600k allocated to Longford towns and villages Applications from towns, which can range from 20,000 to a maximum of 100,000, saw prospective ventures in Ballinalee, Ballymahon and Edgeworthstown secure the full six figure sum. They provide for the development of an interpretative centre and cafe in the home parish of Longford Fine Gael general election candidate Cllr Micheal Carrigy alongside the upgrading of a historical monument. In Edgeworthstown, Longford County Council's ongoing efforts to install a business hub inside the remnants of the town's former Ulster Bank premises received a boost when it too was awarded a 100,000 investment. Minister for the Office of Public Works and Longford Westmeath Indepenent TD Kevin 'Boxer' Moran was the first to announce the news, adding that the dispersal of 100,000 for a for a car parking facility in Ballymahon was something he was especially pleased to see come to pass. I am also particularly pleased to see that the sum of 87,600 has been granted for the conversion of an empty building into a coffee shop in the Interpretative Centre, he said, as he switched his focus to the continuing development of the Knights & Conquests Heritage & Visitor Centre in Granard. His constituency counterpart and Fine Gael TD Peter Burke said the lateststream of funding was testimony to the Government's commitment towards putting an added spring in the step of rural Ireland. This investment will go a long way, he maintained. I lobbied on behalf of a number of these projects, including the business hub for Edgeworthstown, which has been given 100,000 from the Minister. The business car parking is badly needed in Ballymahon, and a 100,000 will go a long way to facilitate this. His party colleagues at local level were just as enthused by the announcement. Cllr Gerard Farrell said the 28,000 set aside for the development of a fountain in Newtowncashel, together with landscaping and seating enhancements had the promise of being a huge addition to the south Longford village. The Lanesboro publican, together with Independent Cllr Mae Sexton, also took time to pay particular emphasis to the 80,000 which would go towards a pathway in Stonepark in order to link the village with the local greenway. I had a notice of motion in earlier this year that the footpath from the town right out to the village of Stonepark be completed as part of the overall outlined plan, said Cllr Sexton. For his part, Cllr Carrigy said the scale of the overall amounts distributed to various community groups was indicative of the spotlight that was now being thrust on rural Ireland and its future revivification. The Governments commitment to supporting rural Ireland is further underscored through the new 1 billion Rural Regeneration and Development Fund which was launched this year as part of project Ireland 2040, he outlined. This new Fund will provide an opportunity to deliver more integrated and ambitious projects, which will further support the revitalisation of our rural towns and villages in the coming years. Emma Mhic Mhathuna, the 37-year-old mother of five who was the victim of a misread cervical smear test died on Sunday. She was one of over 200 women misdiagnosed and subsequently lead into a cancer battle that could have been avoided. ALSO READ: Longford councillor calls for cervical check payment hike Speaking to the Leader, Cllr Peggy Nolan said Ms Mhic Mhathuna had been failed by the State and asked that a public inquiry into the scandal be opened up. Id say there wasnt a woman in the country who did not feel a personal sense of loss when Emma Mhic Mhathuna died at the weekend, said Cllr Nolan, before pointing out that the deceased alongside the other women affected had been let down by a system that they had put their trust in. The State must do the right thing by these women and there must be a public inquiry into this scandal. The local area representative in Longford town also stated that she was opposed to any State indemnity deal with the labs involved. I am also opposed to the State indemnifying the labs, she fumed. Why are we still looking to the United States when we are part of Europe? Better still what about carrying out those tests here on the island of Ireland? Meanwhile, local People Before Profit member Barbara Smith said this recent scandal had been in the making for years. 10 years ago the Fianna Fail government of the day was warned that up to one thousand womens readings of smear tests could be misdiagnosed, including women from across Co Longford, she continued. Here we are exactly 10 years later and that warning has been proven to be true. People Before Profit is calling for a national cervical screening testing centre here in Ireland. Tests can be carried out by our own clinicians, results will be delivered by our own clinicians and the women of Ireland would know who exactly is carrying out those tests. A man who appeared before Longford Circuit Court this week pleading guilty to the cultivation of cannabis plants was sentenced to two years and six months in prison which the presiding judge subsequently suspended for five years during a hearing into the matter. Robert Pilszek with an address in Edgeworthstown appeared before Judge Keenan Johnson charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act this morning. During todays proceedings, Garda Fallon told the court how on foot of a search warrant, gardai entered the defendants property. The court heard how Mr Pilszek lived at the house with his wife and child. When we arrived at the property Mr Pilszek said there was drugs in the attic and when we went to inspect the area we discovered 20 young cannabis plants inside an insulation tent with heat lamps and ventilation, added Garda Fallon. There was a small grow house in operation and we also found cannabis herb on the floor of the property from when the defendant had made his first attempt at growing the plants. There was 111.5 grammes of cannabis found in total with the street value of the plants amounting to 2,230. The court went on to hear that the defendant had spent two days setting up the grow house and thought it would be a good way in which to make some money to set up his own tattoo business. The grow house was well set up, added Garda Fallon, before pointing out the defendant was working in a local pet food factory at the time. Meanwhile, in mitigation Counsel for the defendant Mr Gerard Groarke said his client was a 35-year-old Polish national who had been living in Ireland since 2004. He said he learned how to set up the grow house from the internet; he got the plastic in Woodies and purchased the seeds online, he also got other bits and pieces in a grow shop in Dublin, Counsel continued. This was his second attempt at growing the plants - the first attempt hadnt gone very well. Mr Groarke went on to say that his client knowingly engaged in the cultivation of cannabis with the intention of setting up his own tattoo business. He resigned from his employment and wants to set-up a tattoo salon, said Counsel. He has also indicated to me that he is all set to get his business up and running; he is registered for tax and will operate from his residence for the moment. Mr Pilszek knows this is a serious offence and is not something the court can deal with lightly. He has moved away from all this and is focusing on his new business now. Delivering his judgement on the matter, Judge Johnson said that when the defendant was arrested in connection with the incident he admitted his involvement in the operation. He admitted too that he got the seeds and other paraphernalia from other shops and he also admitted that he set up the growhouse to get money for his tattoo business, the Judge continued. Mr Pilszek also admitted that his intention was to sell the cannabis and supply his friends. The Judge went on the say that it was clear to him that the defendant was a family man who had a strong relationship with his child. He appears to be a very good worker and this offending seems to be out of character for him, he added. He had a brain stormer when he came up with this idea of making a quick buck and his thinking is not clear; Mr Pilszek cooperated with gardai, has shown remorse for his actions, holds a good work record and he also comes to this court with an unblemished record. The Judge subsequently imposed the prison sentence and suspended it for five years on the grounds the defendant keep the peace and be of good behavior. He was also ordered to remain drug free for the duration of the suspended sentence and engage with the Probation Service for nine months. Judge Johnson also asked Mr Pilszek to pay the sum of 3,000 the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Edgeworthstown as soon as possible. Nature & Weather, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: October 10 2018 75 Airmen, One HC-130 Search and Rescue Aircraft, One HH-60 Pave Hawk Rescue Helicopter to be Deployed. Albany, NY - October 10, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the New York Air National Guard is preparing to deploy 75 Airmen from the 106th Rescue Wing to assist in the response to Hurricane Michael which is expected to come ashore on the Florida panhandle today. The Airmen from the 106th Rescue Wing, which is based at Gabreski Air National Guard Base in Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the New York Air National Guard is preparing to deploy 75 Airmen from the 106th Rescue Wing to assist in the response to Hurricane Michael which is expected to come ashore on the Florida panhandle today. The Airmen from the 106th Rescue Wing, which is based at Gabreski Air National Guard Base in Westhampton Beach , will deploy to Gulfport, Mississippi with one HC-130 search and rescue aircraft, one HH-60 Pave Hawk Rescue helicopter and two Zodiac inflatable rescue boats. In addition, the New York Army National Guard is preparing to deploy two CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopters to Tallahassee, Florida from the Army Aviation Support Facility at Rochester International Airport with as many as 20 Soldiers in support. "New York understands the devastation that extreme weather can cause, and we stand ready, willing and able to help the states impacted by Hurricane Michael," Governor Cuomo said. "New Yorkers are always ready to help those in need, and we are committed to providing personnel, equipment and teams to help our southern neighbors recover as quickly as possible." The HC-130 can conduct search operations from the air and can refuel HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters in flight, which extends the range of the helicopters. Specially trained pararescue Airmen and Combat Rescue Officers will be part of the team from the 106th Rescue Wing. The CH-47 is a large double rotor helicopter which can carry up to 9.5 tons of cargo or up to 30 people. At 7 a.m., the eye of Hurricane Michael was located about 90 miles south west of Panama City, Florida. Michael is moving toward the north near 13 mph. A turn toward the north-northeast is expected later this morning, with a turn toward the northeast expected this afternoon or tonight. On the forecast track, the eye of Michael is expected to move ashore over the Florida Panhandle later today, move northeastward across the southeastern United States tonight and Thursday, and then move off the Mid-Atlantic coast away from the United States on Friday. The New York Army and Air National Guard deployed 132 Soldiers and Airmen to North Carolina and South Carolina in September when Hurricane Florence struck that region. That deployment included two HC-130 search and rescue aircraft, four boats and crews and an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter from the New York Air National Guard and two CH-47s and two UH-60s from the New York Army National Guard. The Airmen from the 106th Rescue Wing conducted aerial search missions as required. The Army UH-60s-which were configured as medical evacuation helicopters-conducted patient transfer missions and a few rescues during the September deployment in response to Hurricane Florence. The New York Army National Guard CH-47s were used to transport critical supplies in South Carolina. Yesterday, Governor Cuomo offered assistance to states currently forecasted to be impacted by Hurricane Michael and urged New Yorkers to make preparations to their homes and businesses before potentially heavy rains from the storm could impact the northeast. Florida Emergency Management has begun to assess their needs and enter requests through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. New York stands ready, and will offer through EMAC, to deploy personnel and equipment, should the state's assistance be required. The Philippines is a source country and, a destination and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor the U.S. State Department in its latest Trafficking in Persons Report. An estimated 10 million Filipinos reside or work abroad and the government processes approximately 2.3 million new or renewed contracts for Filipinos to work overseas each year. A significant number of these migrant workers are subjected to sex and labor traffickingpredominantly via debt bondagein the fishing, shipping, construction, education, home health care, and agricultural industries, as well as in domestic work, janitorial service, and other hospitality-related jobs, the Trafficking in Persons Report stated. Women and children from indigenous communities and remote areas of the Philippines are the most vulnerable to sex trafficking, and some are vulnerable to domestic servitude and other forms of forced labor. In addition to the surfers paradise of Surigao del Norte, the report said sex and human trafficking also occurs in tourist destinations, such as Boracay, Angeles City, Olongapo and Puerto Galera. To help combat this scourge in the Philippines, Canada has announced it will fund 9 projects for women and girls in the Philippines, as it sets gender equality and empowerment among its priorities in the Southeast Asian country. This years CFLI focus is on increasing the participation of women and girls in governance and promoting gender equality, Canadas Ambassador to the Philippines John Holmes said. When women and girls are empowered to reach their full potential, this directly benefits their families, their communities and their country. That is why our choices this year emphasize gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, which are strategic priorities for Canada in the Philippines. Ambassador Holmes added. The following projects will receive support from the Embassy of Canadas Canada Fund for Local Initiatives this year: Coalition against Trafficking in Women Asia-Pacific builds on our partnership to strengthen the implementation of existing anti-trafficking laws by training local government officials in tourist areas prone to incidents of trafficking, such as Siargao in Surigao del Norte. The project will also develop a national strategy for the coordination of local governments in better implementing the anti-trafficking law. Foundation for the Advancement of Clinical Epidemiology will develop an application on Facebook Messenger that provides practical information about sexual and reproductive health services and practices to Filipino youth. The projects goals are to reduce incidents of early and unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Bahay Tuluyan Foundation will train law enforcement officers, social workers, civil society representatives, and barangay officials in the City of Manila on childrens rights and rights-based approaches to protecting marginalized children in the city. The project will also train marginalized youth on their rights so that they can avoid abuse and exploitation. University of the Philippines Center for Womens Studies Foundation, Inc will advance feminist leadership in local government by establishing a network of aspiring women political leaders and empowering them through a mentoring program and by training rights-based and gender-responsive approaches to democratic governance. Pambansang Kongreso ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan Inc will improve security and resilience in disasters and conflict situations across the Philippines by giving voice to women in the community and advocating gender-sensitive preparedness and response mechanisms. Simbahan Lingkod ng Bayan will promote inclusive and participatory governance in the 2019 elections through a nationwide campaign to increase active political engagement. The project will organize candidates forums leading up to the elections and develop community leaders to conduct political and civic education at the grassroots. Institute of Politics and Governance will promote safe public spaces in Antipolo City by advocating for a culture that rejects sexual harassment in public areas. Through a public awareness campaign and through training, local government officials and community-based organizations will work together to prevent harassment and improve safety, particularly for women and girls. National Union of Peoples Lawyers will enhance the capabilities of lawyers, law students and human rights defenders to respond to human rights violations by highlighting existing legal mechanisms and providing a forum for practitioners to share best practices. G-Watch will work to enhance the Sangguniang Kabataan (local youth councils) as an accountability mechanism by monitoring local anti-poverty programs in selected barangays in three cities across the Philippines to ensure that programs are responsive to the needs of the community and free from corruption. The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives is a competitive grants program run by the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines, which provides direct financial support to local organizations for projects that promote inclusive governance, such as by empowering women and girls, strengthening democracy, advancing human rights and promoting the rule of law. By the numbers 600,000 Reports based on Philippines social welfare department say that there are at least 60,000 to 600,000 Filipino street children who are prostituted annually. According to UNICEF, the Philippines rank as the fourth nation with the most number of prostituted children. 1 every 62 minutes According to a study by the Philippines Center for Women Resources (CWR), one child or woman is raped every 62 minutes. The group also found out that 70 percent of the victims are children, with women from the lowest economic group more prone to violence, including rape. 1 out of 5 Another study by UNICEF claims that one out of five Filipino children suffer from sexual violence at home, in school or in the community. This is alarming, as a study from the Department of Health found that most recorded victims of sexual abuse are between 13 and 15 years old. Furthermore, although a 12-year-old can legally give consent to sex, they are prohibited to access the safeguards to protect them from teenage pregnancy and/or STDs. 8 out 10 According to UNICEF, Children are at risk of online sexual abuse and bullying. In the Philippines, it is estimated that thousands of children are exploited for sexual purposes online and offline. According to a study by Plan International, Internet accessibility, cheaper technological gadgets, and lack of parental supervision coupled with lack of education and negative peer influences make children vulnerable to online harassment. 750,000 USAs Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that there are 750,000 child predators online at any given time, with several reported cases of cybersex crime coming from our country. CSEC or commercial sexual exploitation of children which includes prostitution, pornography, and trafficking of children, has become an epidemic in the country. Plan International reports that cybersex dens have been operating in almost all parts of the Philippines since 2012. Even more alarming, family-run cybersex operations where parents of the child or entire communities are involved has become pervasive in the country. Google just announced its suite of new hardware for 2018, including the new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones, Pixel Slate tablet, and Home Hub smart display. They look like great products for those who are committed to the Google ecosystem. But theres nothing about them that should cause Apple to start sweating yet. As impressed as we may be by some of what Google showcased on Tuesday, nothing about these products leads us to believe that theyre going to cause a significant shift of users away from Apples. iPhones, iPads, and HomePods arent going to suffer any significant sales losses from Googles latest. Pixel 3s carrier problem Pixel 3 is all about the camera. It was introduced as the worlds best camera [put into] the worlds most helpful phone. No doubt about it, the camera on the Pixel 3 looks fantastic. Google partnered with Annie Leibowitz to work on a project using it. Conde Nast shot several magazine covers with it. These are neat marketing stunts, but not new. Kira Pollack shot a bunch of Time covers, Georges Antoni shot a cover and photo spread for Elle Australia, and Miller Mobley shot a Billboard cover on iPhones, just to name a few. The Pixel 3 has a bunch of great new photo features like Top Shot, Super Res Zoom, Night Sight, and a second wide-angle Group Selfie Cam. And of course, theres unlimited photo storage on Google Photos. Google Google took a direct shot at the iPhone XS in hyping its camera. There are plenty of non-photo features worth keeping an eye on, too. The call screening feature seems legitimately useful, and the Pixel Stand wireless charger and software features makes the whole AirPower debacle seem even more embarrassing. So why shouldnt Apple worry about potential Pixel 3 switchers? Put simply, because Google is foolishly selling the Pixel 3 through only a single retail carrier: Verizon. Sure, you can buy an unlocked phone directly from Google and run it on any network, but thats just not how people buy phones. Carriers sell more than half of all smartphones, with Apple Stores and Best Buy accounting for another 25 percent or so. When a customer wants a new phone, they usually go to their carrier store to get an upgrade, usually opting to pay a payment plan that locks them in to that carrier. The Pixel and Pixel 2 also had better cameras than the iPhones of their time. They had neat AI tricks throughout the operating system. And yet, they didnt even slow down iPhone sales, which continue to break records. The Pixel 3 cant compete if its just not sold where people buy phones. By sticking with Verizon as the sole carrier retail partner for the third year in a row, Google is trying the same thing again and hoping for a different result. Pixel Slate targets Microsoft Surface Google said the Pixel Slate isnt a laptop trying to be a tablet (because who wants a fan in their tablet?) or a tablet thats really a phone pretending to be a computer. Those are shots fired at the Microsoft Surface Pro and iPad, clearly. But the Pixel Slate runs Chrome OS instead of Android, and is powered by Intel processors. Yes, you can run many Android apps on Chrome OS now, but its not really a mobile experience blown up to tablet size, its a laptop experience with lots of touch features added. With a starting price of $599, plus $199 more for the keyboard and $99 more for the pen, youre looking at an all-in price of at least $900. Google Keyboards with trackpads say laptop replacement rather than tablet accessory. It is interesting that even Google doesnt seem to have enough faith in Android as a tablet OS to use it on its own premium tablet. Chrome OS was born on laptops, and it shows. Sure, you can run many Android apps, and Google has done a lot to improve touch-and-pen interactions, but it still feels fundamentally like a system made for keyboards and trackpads. Google even made a big deal about how the Pixel Slate will run developer tools and Linux applications, and how its got such great virus protection with automatic updates. The keyboard even has a trackpad. Theres an ever-present taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Thats not a device aimed at the $329 iPad. Even the iPad Pro, with its wealth of tablet-optimized apps, feels like its in a different category. Apple foolishly invites comparison with traditional computers via its silly whats a computer? ads, but Pixel Slate is clearly more of a Surface competitor than an iPad replacement. Theres nothing about it that will pull someone already invested in iOS apps away from Apples ecosystem, and its far too expensive to be a device you buy to entertain your kids. Apple has nothing like Google Home Hub Those Echo Show devices from Amazon are in for a world of hurt. Home Hub does most of what they do, but centered around Googles amazingly good Assistant, at a very affordable $150 price. But this isnt really an area that Apple competes in. As much as wed like HomePod to be a great smart assistant for the home, its just not. Apple promotes HomePod as primarily a music device for Apple Music users. Its good at that, but thats all its really good at. Siri just isnt adept at answering random questions, theres still no multi-user functionality (a critical fault for an in-home device), and you cant even use HomePod properly with other music services. Oh, and at $349, it costs more than twice as much as the Home Hub. Google Can you imagine Apple making a $150 smart home screen like this? Home Hub is not going to hurt HomePod sales because Google and Amazons smart speakers and screens are already dominating HomePod. If youre the type to spend a lot more money on a HomePod, youre doing it because you value sound quality and Apple Music integration above all else. Home Hub doesnt change any of that, it just cements the already existing trend of Googles Home products as broadly useful home assistants, and HomePod asnot. For Google ecosystem fans, the latest hardware products from Google look great, but theres no paradigm shift here. Since Googles homegrown hardware arrived on the scene, Apple has continued to grow its own hardware business, even as Google wins awards and plaudits from the press. In the grand scheme of things, almost no prospective iPhone or iPad buyers are going to grab a Pixel 3 or Pixel Slate instead, and HomePod is already in a distant third in the smart home race. WINDSOR LOCKS -- Conde Nast Traveler magazine Tuesday named Bradley International Airport the third best airport in the United States. Travelers surveyed by the magazine gave Bradley high marks for "convenient on-site parking, plentiful charging stations and free Wi-Fi, decent restaurant options, and an overall relaxed atmosphere" according to a news release. "We are very honored to be recognized among some of our nation's best airports," said Tony Sheridan, chairman of the Connecticut Airport Authority board of directors. "Recognition like this elevates our brand not only regionally, but also nationally and internationally, and I'd like to thank the entire CAA staff for everything they do to make Bradley International Airport one of the very best in the country." The 2018 Readers' Choice Awards are published onthe Conde Nast Traveler website and celebrated in the November issue on newsstands nationwide on Oct. 16. Conde Nast Traveler is a sister publication to The Republican. Bradley was named the fifth best airport in 2017. The Connecticut Airport Authority touted recent additions like the Two Roads Tap Room, Escape Lounge, a Phillips Seafood restaurant, a duty-free shop and a mother's nursing room. Chickpeas are the protein rich ingredient set to star A skyrocketing interest in chickpeas as a star ingredient in traditionally dairy, bean or wheat-based products is good news for health conscious consumers and for Australian agriculture. For the health-conscious consumer, chickpeas are a rich source of iron, magnesium, fibre and protein. Theyve been a staple of vegetarian meals for centuries and its no surprise that over 80 per cent of Australian chickpeas are exported to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh where vegetable curries and dhals are everyday meals. For farmers, chickpeas are the ideal crop: fixing nitrogen in the soil, controlling diseases, pests and weeds and boosting the health of surrounding cereal crops. Plant-based protein from pulses such as chickpeas are not only an economical way to provide the world with a source of protein for human consumption, but it is an environmentally sustainable solution as well, says Chris Blanchard, Director of Australian Research Councils Training Centre for Functional Grains. Growing pulses such as chickpeas in our farming systems reduces our reliance on nitrogen-based fertilisers. Also in Australian Food News AgriFutures Australia report that in 2016, Australian chickpea production reached 2,000,000 tonnes of primarily the Desi variety (commonly used in dhal). Kabuli chickpeas reap a much higher price and have more stringent requirements to go to market as these are primarily eaten whole. Chickpeas have proven adaptable and attractive as an alternative to wheat-based wraps, pastas and burger bases as well as being turned into tofu and protein powders. The rise in demand for vegan foods has driven the alternative market in plant-based proteins and gluten free foods. Statista measures the market for vegan packaged foods at a value of approximately $184 million in 2018, projected to reach $215 million by 2020. Victorian Eat Well Foods produce a variety of plant-based foods, many containing Australian chickpeas, including vegetable sausages with chickpea and spinach to vegetable burgers containing herbs, spices and chickpea. They also began making and retailing chickpea tofu in 2016. San Remo, best known for their pasta, are currently selling Pulse Chickpea Spirals claiming they are using chickpea flour to provide a protein-rich alternative to wheat. The protein content of chickpeas is twice that of wheat. McKenzies make chickpea flour, which can be used in everything from pastas to cakes, biscuits, muffins and in burger and falafel mix. Chickpeas are low in fat, low GI and have a nutty, distinctive flavour. Whether as a flour, whole, diced, canned, fresh or powdered, there will be few supermarket aisles bereft of this adaptable ingredient. Unionized gas workers locked out by National Grid Massachusetts protested in front of a Blue Cross Blue Shield office in Boston on Wednesday against company president Marcy Reed. Gas workers represented by unions Local 12003 and Local 12012 gathered near Copley Square to criticize the months-long lockout that began in July and ask for the resignation of President Reed, who also serves as Director on the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Board. Union leaders blamed Reed for the lockout and lack of healthcare for nearly 1,200 workers due to failed contract negotiations. Joe Kirylo, president of United Steelworkers Local 12003, made things personal. "Marcy Reed, she's in a position of power," Kirylo said Wednesday. "What kind of woman would take 1,250 people and then their families, about 5,000 people, and cut their benefits off?" Locked out workers claim the most recent incident by National Grid on Monday, when an over-pressurized line in Woburn prompted the company to cut off gas to nearly 300 homes, is proof of what they have said since the lockout began: that replacement employees for National Grid are conducting irresponsible work. National Grid spokespeople have denied this claim, and say the workers who were on-site in Woburn were trained technicians who would normally be supervising the unionized workers. "I think these recent events in our state have demonstrated how important it is to have experienced, qualified people servicing the gas system," Local 12012 President John Buonopane said at the rally Wednesday. "The tragedy in the Merrimack Valley, the event two days ago in Woburn, the over-pressurization...these are demonstrations of what we've been telling [Department of Public Utilities] for three-and-a-half months," Buonopane said to roaring cheers from protestors. The DPU, which oversees utility companies and work in Massachusetts, instituted a moratorium on National Grid following the incident in Woburn, ordering the company to stop all non-emergency work. Kirylo said he supported notions by Sen. Ed Markey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who have called for congressional hearings on the Columbia Gas disaster in the Merrimack Valley last month. Kirylo and Buonopane led workers down city streets in Copley Square Wednesday as they chanted in unison to say Reed "has got to go." The unionized gas workers met up with unionized hotel workers at the Sheraton who went on strike last week to demand stronger contracts with Marriott International. For those marching, the rally felt like a breaking point. Stephaun Gonsalves, a locked out National Grid worker who lives in Salem, New Hampshire and normally works in Malden, said he and others have made real sacrifices in the last few months. "It's frustrating. It's been a rough summer...a lost summer, I like to say," Gonsalves, 52, said Wednesday. "We have sick kids, kids going back to college." Gonsalves said one of his daughters is not returning to college, and another is taking out more loans for school to fill in financial gaps he could normally help cover. In his 15 years with National Grid and formerly KeySpan, Gonsalves said he had only seen two instances of over-pressurized gas lines. In response to the over-pressurized line in Woburn on Monday, a National Grid spokesperson said while the company wants to avoid any incidents, "these do happen." She said the incident was the result of gas technicians inadvertently introducing excess gas into a system. All of the estimated 300 homes impacted by the incident in Woburn are expected to have gas back by Thursday. Those in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover are not expected to have gas fully restored until Nov. 19. Cambridge Police are investigating after a 19-year-old man was shot in the area of Pine and Washington Streets late Tuesday night. Police say the 19-year-old man was shot in the leg multiple times just before 11 p.m. in The Port neighborhood in Cambridge. He suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital. Prior to the shooting, Cambridge Police received reports of an argument happening near the scene of the crime, and multiple males were reportedly seen running away from the area. Cambridge Police say there will be an "increased presence" in the area following the shooting, and urge anyone with information to contact them. A 26-year-old man was killed and another man was injured in a double shooting at a Weymouth apartment complex Tuesday night. Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey told The Boston Globe that officers responded to reports of shots fired near 81 Rockway Avenue at about 9:30 p.m. When police arrived they found two men suffering gunshot wounds. Both men were taken to South Shore Hospital, where the 26-year-old was pronounced dead, according to the Globe. The second victim, who police said is in his mid-to-late 20s, was being treated Tuesday night. His condition was unknown, Morrissey told The Globe. This marked the first homicide in Weymouth since Weymouth Sgt. Michael Chesna and Vera Adams were killed in July, Morrissey told the Globe. Video added at 10:28 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9 2018. Updated at 9:25 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 to add a photo and comments about the RISE Holdings Inc. proposed recreational marijuana business from RISE representatives and city councilors. Comments dealt with revitalization, jobs, security, lighting and a host community agreement. HOLYOKE -- The City Council Ordinance Committee Tuesday at City Hall voted 4-0 to recommend granting a special permit to RISE Holdings Inc. for a recreational marijuana business at 130 Race St. "We see this as an opportunity to bring safe, thoughtful and regulated cannabis to the city of Holyoke and we see the opportunity to take a vacant building and vacant land and revitalize it," said Adam Robbins, market manager for Chicago-based RISE. This would be the second marijuana facility here for RISE, which opened a medical pot production and packing facility at 28 Appleton St. in April. The RISE facility at 130 Race St. would have 10 to 15 full-time employees with benefits and require a $500,000 in construction and acquisition costs, officials said. The Ordinance Committee recommendation will go to the full City Council for a vote Oct. 16. The special permit would be granted subject to RISE agreeing to conditions such as giving preference to Holyokers for jobs, payment of taxes and a prohibition of on-site consumption of pot. The Council has attached such conditions to special permits for marijuana businesses. To open, RISE needs a special permit from the City Council and a license from the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission. RISE, formerly GTI Massachusetts NP Corp., has signed a letter of intent to 130 Race St. from School Transition and Employment Project Inc. for $250,000, according to documents filed with the city in August. The marijuana facility would take up about 3,000 square feet. The Police Department has approved RISE's security plan for 130 Race St. with the routine qualification that the plan is a living document subject to change. Measures include video surveillance cameras, lighting, fences and alarms. Chris Farley of Kuhn Riddle Architects of Amherst said security features include an 8-foot-tall black chain link fence that can be outfitted with black vinyl slats for privacy. Cameras would be aimed at the front, sides and back of the building, along with cameras equipped with 180-degree pivot mobility for broad views of the facade, sidewalk and street, he said. Ordinance Committee member David K. Bartley asked how long such camera footage is stored. Footage must be kept for 90 days, said political consultant Anthony Cignoli of Springfield. The new RISE facility has triggered the requirement that the company forge another host community agreement with the city. RISE has such an agreement for 28 Appleton ST. Under Massachusetts laws that legalized marijuana, the state permits cities and towns to make "host community agreements" with companies applying to operate such businesses. The money comes into play via an "impact fee" cities and towns can impose on marijuana companies, with limits. Such fees "shall be reasonably related to the costs imposed upon the municipality by the operation of the establishment and shall, in no event, amount to more than 3 percent of the gross sales of the establishment or be effective for longer than 5 years," according to the law. No one from the public spoke for or against the RISE proposal during the Ordinance Committee's public hearing part of its review. Voting to recommend that the Council grant the special permit were committee Chairwoman Linda L. Vacon and members Rebecca Lisi, Juan C. Anderson-Burgos and Bartley. Check back with The Republican and MassLive.com for more coverage of the RISE Holdings presentation of its recreational marijuana proposal. Benjamin DiCristina, the 25-year-old Acton man facing charges for allegedly stabbing his parents and a 28-year-old woman with scissors, is now charged with murder, officials said. The murder charge was announced Wednesday, three days after DiCristina's father, 57-year-old John DiCristina, died from injuries he suffered in the Oct. 4 stabbing, according to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan. DiCristina is expected to be arraigned on the murder charge in Concord District Court on Oct. 25, when he is scheduled to appear for a hearing on existing charges of two counts of armed assault with intent to murder, two counts of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, domestic assault and battery and strangulation, Ryan's office said in a statement. DiCristina was arraigned on Oct. 5 and ordered held without bail. He was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation. Authorities say DiCristina used scissors to stab the three victims around 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 4 at a residence on Haynes Court in Acton. His family apparently sought mental health treatment for DiCristina earlier that day, Ryan's office said. DiCristina was assessed and released. The incident allegedly began when DiCristina strangled and stabbed the 28-year-old in the chest, authorities said. Then, DiCristina cut his 56-year-old mother and attacked his father, stabbing him multiple times in the head and neck. DiCristina's mother and the 28-year-old were able to call 911 during the altercation, according to Ryan's office. When police got to the home, DiCristina was located in the shower and arrested. A Methuen man faces a mayhem charge after he allegedly participated in a bar fight captured on video Sunday night. Carey Hamilton, 49, was arrested and charged with mayhem and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon confirmed in a news release Tuesday. "We, as a city, and as a police department, will not allow this type of behavior to go unpunished," Solomon said. In a video posted to Facebook patrons of the Brickhouse Tavern screamed as men threw chairs and plates at one another in the restaurant. Police have not said what prompted the fight, which has been viewed on Facebook nearly 500,000 times. Hamilton was held at $20,000 bail the Methuen Police Department Tuesday, pending his arraignment in Lawrence District Court. Police said the investigation is ongoing and additional charges against other alleged participants are forthcoming. Watch the video below: CHICOPEE - Police, checking out a vehicle illegally parked in a handicapped parking spot at the CVS on Memorial Drive early Wednesday, arrested the driver after determining he was wanted for a homicide in Springfield. Arrested on a warrant for murder and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building was Felix Joel Reyes-Olivencia, 39, of 11 Penrose St., Springfield. Ryan Walsh, spokesman for Springfield police, said Reyes-Olivencia is wanted for the Aug. 25 shooting death of 46-year-old Springfield resident Larry Lewis in the Pine Point neighborhood. Police arrested the suspect after he began to drive away from the CVS, Michael Wilk, public information officer for the department, said. Officer Steven Sawyer spotted a gray Nissan parked in the handicapped spot shortly before 1 a.m. Sawyer performed an inquiry on the plate and learned the driver was wanted for murder. Wilk said Sawyer immediately called for backup officers. The suspect began to drive away. Police were able to stop the vehicle, however, and confirm he was the subject of the warrant. A female passenger, Jessica Diaz, 36, of 948 Dwight St., was also wanted on a warrant, Wilk said. Police, with assistance from a Palmer K-9 officer and his partner, found pills and clear plastic bags in the center console. The dog hit on the backseat, trunk and sub-woofer area, however no items were found. Diaz had a clear plastic baggie containing a white powder that is believed to be cocaine. Reyes-Olivencia was also charged with distribution of a Class E drug. Diaz was also charged with possession of cocaine. Lewis was fatally shot on Waldorf Street at about 2:40 a.m. and taken to Baystate Medical Center. His death was the city's 12th homicide of the year. This is a developing story. Additional information will be added as soon as it is available. PALMER - A female motorcyclist, involved in a crash with a vehicle on Park Street early Monday night, was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield where she died from her injuries. Police, in a post on the department's Facebook page, said the crash occurred near Pinney Street shortly after 5:10 p.m. Investigators have not released the victim's name. The crash is being investigated by the Palmer Police Department, Massachusetts State Police and the Hampden County District Attorney's Office. AMHERST -- On Oct. 19, Lucio Perez will have been in sanctuary at the First Congregational Church for one year. The church opened its doors to Perez, a Springfield resident, the day he faced deportation back to his native Guatemala. The church will recognize the anniversary and renew its commitment "to walking with the Perez family" in its worship service Sunday at 10:30 a.m. And on Oct. 20 at 4 p.m., the Pioneer Valley Workers Center will hold a "Day of Solidarity," hoping to attract 400 supporters to the church. Perez said he spends his days teaching Spanish, going to church services and spending time with family, students and others who come to be with him. "Classes are going well," he said in Spanish. Having visitors "helps me a lot." His wife and children visit three times a week, said Margaret Sanger, who served as his translator during a recent interview. "The community has shown the care and love for us and my family," Perez said. Perez said he is surprised the community has not forgotten him. "The community hasn't left us alone," he said. "People are with me in this time and this struggle." Despite a year away from his family and no end date in sight, he said he's not losing faith. "The most important thing is not losing one's faith. When the person thinks there's no solution, God has a plan. We need to trust in God," he said. Perez entered the U.S. illegally from Guatemala in 1999. Three of his four children were born here. He had been working as a landscaper. He was identified as an undocumented immigrant by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2009, but was allowed to remain in the country as long as he regularly checked in with authorities. An Obama-era prioritization system granted stays of deportation to many immigrants who had entered the U.S. illegally but did not have criminal records. That changed after Donald Trump was elected president. The new administration prioritized removal of undocumented immigrants. Perez was fitted with an ankle bracelet and ordered to board a plane back to Guatemala on Oct. 19, 2017, but he instead took sanctuary at the church in Amherst. He left the church for a short time in May for an appendectomy. Perez said he continues to challenge his deportation order. HOLYOKE - The Ordinance Committee heard Tuesday from frustrated residents around Ashley and Sunset roads petitioning to reconfigure traffic cutting through their neighborhood. The neighborhood, situated off Homestead Avenue near McMahon School, has become a popular cut-through for drivers trying to avoid backed up traffic on Route 202 or Interstate 91 one mile away. The Department of Public Works held a public meeting on the matter Aug. 27, which Superintendent Michael McManus chaired. The DPW recommended speed bumps, barriers and signs to reroute traffic away from Ashley and Sunset roads. McManus, who attended Tuesday's Ordinance Committee hearing, said barriers and flashing signs would be "temporary tests" until the DPW arrives at a permanent solution. He said studies showed most drivers observe the 30 mph posted limit in neighborhood, which produced some grumbling from the audience. Linda Vacon, the Ordinance Committee chairwoman, said a "perfect fix" does not exist, as one solution might create a problem for neighbors a street or two over. The committee approved the use of a Jersey barrier as a temporary stopgap. Two flashing signs will alert drivers of the changes. The DPW recently purchased a dozen Jersey and temporary barriers. Vacon explained the barriers are a "pilot program." She remains open to further suggestions. She added "Local Traffic Only" signs posted around the neighborhood are not legally enforceable. Paul Fanelli, who lives on Sunset Road, said the problem is "people speeding." He added the barriers will inconvenience neighbors. He spoke about long lines of traffic to get onto main roads. Fanelli asked for increased police patrols to ticket speeders. He worried about the upcoming holiday shopping traffic. Paul Gabala, who lives on Pynchon Road, suggested painting a traffic box -- a crisscross pattern meant to keep drivers out of the intersection if they cannot drive all the way through -- at Clayton and Kane Roads. He noted rush hour traffic blocks the intersection. McManus agreed and said the DPW will paint a traffic box at the problem intersection. Residents said traffic in both directions on Homestead Avenue and Westfield Road is busiest in the morning morning and late afternoon. Some residents recommended speed bumps or turning Sunset Road into a one-way street. James Foster, of Ashley Road, said limited turn signs might prove effective. He also wanted bolstered traffic patrols. Recently, the DPW installed concrete barriers at the entrance to nearby Ashley Reservoir as a way to curtail backed-up cars. Live cattle trade rosy, comfort on welfare, city slickers ignorant: report THE Cattle Council of Australia has returned from a tour of Indonesia declaring theres a prosperous future for live cattle trade between the two countries. In 2011 there was a ban for six months on live exports to Indonesia after Australians were shocked by animal cruelty outrages there. Council CEO Margo Andrae has reported after her week-long supply chain tour of Indonesia in September. She says strong supply chain partnerships and shared objectives regarding animal welfare, productivity and market access would drive the success. In 2016, Indonesias beef consumption was 1.84kg per capita (population 261 million), up from 1.45kg a decade earlier, according to business research firm Statista. By 2020, that figure is expected to rise to 1.96kg per capita, and by 2025, to 2.13kg per capita. Despite a trend away from red meat consumption in Australia and similarly advanced economies, consumption in populous developing countries with rapidly widening middle-classes is increasing, seen often as positive status symbol to social aspirants. India, whose population is expected to grow larger than Chinas, is outwardly seen as a vegetarian nation but red meat consumption there is growing and its forecast to soon be the worlds largest consumer of chicken meat. Australia is the third largest exporter of beef behind Brazil and India and eats three times the global average for beef and five time the same average for sheep meat. Ms Andrae said the tour covered all aspects of Australias cattle and beef trade with Indonesia, visiting Australian cattle in local feedlots, observing the slaughter of Australian cattle and seeing breeding programs which are helping Indonesia to build its own beef capacity using breeding cattle imported from Australia. The tour also included visits to wet market and retail outlets where Australian beef, either locally slaughtered or imported as boxed product, is sold alongside beef from other parts of the world. City-based commentary ignorant Ms Andrae sought to assure importers and other Indonesian stakeholders that Australia was committed to the long-term future of the live cattle trade. Reliable supply is integral in any trade relationship, so it is understandable that our partners in Indonesia are asking about the future of the live export industry, Ms Andrae said. They are keen observers of Australian politics and media and are still shaken by the 2011 trade suspension. Live export has been in the spotlight in Australia a lot this year (particularly sheep), but weve been keen to emphasise to Indonesian importers that the live cattle trade continues to enjoy bipartisan support in Australia and that we are working hard to outline the compelling case for the trade to continue long-term. Any city commentary calling for a live export ban is made a long, long way from the cattle properties of northern Australia and the feedlots of Indonesia. Suggestions that we could simply process northern cattle domestically is dangerously ignorant of the powerfully positive economic, social and animal welfare imperatives of why the live trade must continue. Also in Australian Food News Animal welfare, high standards Australias 2016-17 red meat and livestock exports were valued at $13.3 billion, with live cattle exports worth $1.2 billion. Cattle exports are performing strongly in 2018, with August cattle exports finishing just under 108,000 head, bringing the year-to-date total to 680,000 head, 24 per cent above year-ago volumes. For key markets such as Indonesia, year-to-August shipments are up 8 per cent at 360,000 head. Ms Andrae said the outlook for cattle exports to Indonesia looked even brighter as a result of the recent conclusion of IndonesiaAustralia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations. Ms Andrae said alignment on animal welfare would continue to be the cornerstone of the relationship. There is no finish line in livestock welfare, Ms Andrae said. Australian producers expect high standards of care for their cattle throughout the supply chain. An absolute highlight of our tour and something which bodes well for the future was the way the Indonesians we met share the very same values in terms of the welfare of the cattle in their care. Sixty percent of registered Massachusetts voters aren't satisfied with the response to the Columbia Gas explosions that rocked Lawrence, North Andover and Andover on Sept. 13. That's according to a new poll from UMass Lowell and the Boston Globe. Registered voters were surveyed between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7 on a variety of political issues. Just 27 percent said they're satisfied with the Columbia Gas response, and 13 percent said they "don't know." Asked about the Columbia Gas explosions and fires, 78 percent in Essex County, where the three northeastern Massachusetts communities are located, said they were dissatisfied. Overall, 26 percent across the state said they were very satisfied and 42 percent said they were somewhat satisfied with Gov. Charlie Baker's handling of the crisis. Seventeen percent said they were dissatisfied. "Columbia Gas is quickly becoming the Exxon or Deepwater Horizon of the Merrimack Valley," John Cluverius, associate director of UMass Lowell's Center for Public Opinion, said in a statement. "Voters are blaming corporate, not political, leadership for this disaster," he added. The survey carried a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent. A 54-year-old Methuen man has been cited for negligent driving in connection with a Cambridge pedestrian crash that killed 27-year-old Jie Zhao, officials said. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge Police Commissioner Branville G. Bard Jr. announced the citation on Tuesday for the Oct. 5 crash in the area of Magazine Street and Putnam Avenue. Officials did not name the Methuen man and a date for him to appear in court has not yet been scheduled. The Methuen man was driving a commercial dump truck on Putnam Avenue toward Newton Street just past the intersection of Magazine Street, Ryan's office said in a statement. Apparently trying to turn right onto Magazine Street, the driver began to back up the truck. The rear of the truck struck the victim, the statement said. Zhao was pronounced dead at the scene. The investigation of the crash is ongoing. Sally Livingston believed that women could do anything they sent their minds to, and she spent her life helping them achieve their dreams. Livingston, 71, a co-founder of the Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts, died in Washington on Oct. 4 after a long battle with brain cancer. "Sally was a multifaceted person, so to think of just one thing I will remember her for would be impossible," said David Woods, a longtime friend and colleague. The pair ran Woods and Livingston Financial Group together for 15 years before she started her own firm. "She had so many talents and so many interest and was so bright. Whatever she put her mind to she just made a success of." Livingston, who had a doctorate in comparative literature from Harvard University, had many jobs -- from assistant professor of history at Hampshire College in Amherst to director of development for the Seattle Opera and the American Farm School in Greece to executive director of the Sisters of Providence Foundation in Springfield, according to her obituary. She founded the Women's Fund along with Dianne Fuller Doherty and Martha Richards after a trip to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. In an interview with The Republican (then the Union-News) several years after the fund was created, Livingston said she hoped the fund would help women become business owners and philanthropists. Her goal was to fund projects "that help women and girls in terms of leadership, economics and education," Livingston said at the time. Since its founding, the Women's Fund has provided over $2.5 million in philanthropic grants, impacting more than 3 million women and their families. "We are saddened to learn of Sally's passing," said Donna Haghighat, the CEO of the Women's Fund. "I had been striving to meet with Sally and have her share her thoughts on the organization she founded over twenty years ago. She was looking forward to it, but her health took a turn for the worse. We are confident that Sally took pride in all that the Fund has accomplished for so many women and girls." Haghighat said she recently spoke with Fuller Doherty about her experience on the Beijing trip that started it all. "Dianne recounted to us what a wonderful and inspiring trip that was and how they channeled that energy to help the women and girls of Western Massachusetts by starting a foundation," she said. Wood and Livingston's longtime assistant Judi Dacruz remembered her kindness. "She always tried to do good and had a big heart," Dacruz said. Wood said one of Livingston's many lasting contributions was her work making sure that women understood the importance of financial planning and financial independence. "She linked the role that money played in controlling women throughout history, and she wanted women to break free of their dependence on men, which was a huge insight 25 or 30 years ago," he said. "She really just wanted to help people achieve their goals and succeed." Contributions in Livingston's memory may be made to the Sally Livingston Scholarship Fund at Ohio Wesleyan University, Mowry Alumni Center, 61 S. Sandusky St., Delaware, OH 43015, or to the Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts, 1350 Main St., Suite 1006, Springfield, MA 01103. A private burial will be held at a later date. Depression, anxiety, insomnia and hypertension: These are just some of the long-term physical and mental problems that women survivors of sexual assault can face, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The study, authored by researchers at the University of Pittsburg, University Hospital Zurich and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, assessed and questioned 304 non-smoking women between the ages of 40 and 60. Among the group, 19 percent reported experiencing sexual harassment, 22 percent reported experiencing sexual assault and 10 percent reported both. Women who reported experiencing sexual assault were three times more likely to experience depression and twice as likely to experience anxiety in comparison with women who did not report being sexually assaulted, according to the study. "In a sense the body is telling the story," Nancy Krieger, a Harvard TH. Chan School of Public Health professor who was not involved in the study told CNN. "Not everyone is able and willing to identify what happened to them, but that doesn't prevent the body from having opinions about it and expressing them." Sleep issues were twice as likely with women who experienced sexual assault or harassment, the study found. Additionally, higher blood pressure was found in women who reported workplace sexual harassment than women who did not experience workplace harassment. The higher blood pressure rates were enough to put women at risk for more serious problems, such as stroke, aneurysms, kidney disease and heart attacks. "Sexual assault and harassment may need to be screened as significant health risk factors by primary care physicians, the way physicians often screen patients for depression or smoking," co-author of the study Karestan Koenen, professor of psychiatric epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told HealthDay. A Massachusetts man is accused of attacking a woman with a metal pipe after she attempted to call 911 while in a car with him early Wednesday morning in Manchester, New Hampshire, according to Manchester Police. Twenty-three-year-old Somerville resident Muhannad Fadlalla is facing a charge of first degree assault and criminal restraint. The incident reportedly took place around 1:45 a.m. after Fadlalla picked up the 32-year-old victim and her acquaintance. The victim told police she wanted to get out of the car in the area of Woodlawn Avenue, but that Fadlalla refused and locked the door. When she attempted to call police, Fadlalla allegedly stopped the car and grabbed a handgun and pipe from the trunk. Police said Fadlalla got in the car and attempted to hit the woman with the gun but dropped it. He then allegedly hit her several times with the pipe before she was able to escape, running down the street. Fadlalla reportedly chased the woman down the road, but eventually got back in his car, driving off. A neighbor who woke up and saw the incident provided a description of the car to police. Officers later found Fadlalla in the area of 333 Valley St., where he was taken into custody. His vehicle was towed to police headquarters pending a search warrant. Fadlalla will be arraigned in a New Hampshire court Wednesday. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is widely respected, not only at home, but also by people across the globe. The man who tapped her for her position? Not so much. Anyone who is wondering why Haley, a onetime critic of Donald Trump who became his choice for the top diplomatic post at the U.N., has decided to hit the road at year's end need know nothing more than that. Haley understands that eventually -- perhaps sooner rather than later -- the stink of the Trump administration is going to rub off on her. It's not a question of if it will happen, but of when it will happen. As such, it's a wonder that she hung in as long as she did. Haley, a 46-year-old former governor of South Carolina, is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. Whatever her longterm plans -- she ruled out seeking the presidency in 2020, vowing instead to support Trump -- getting out while the getting is good isn't a bad idea at all. Though Haley couldn't rationally be described as anything besides a conservative, she's also a pragmatist. As such, she managed in her post at the United Nations to serve as something of a moderating voice in the administration. The biggest question surrounding the announcement of her departure, which came as a surprise to many, but was clearly planned and well-choreographed, concerns the timing. Though Haley is planning to leave her post at year's end, the announcement came four weeks before the midterm elections. Was she looking to get out in front of what could be a Republican drubbing, at least in races for House seats? Does she perhaps believe that the report from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will be landing soon after Election Day, and didn't want the news of her departure to be in any way linked to whatever is revealed therein? (Mueller, of course, is probing Russian interference in our nation's 2016 presidential election, possible links between the Trump campaign and those efforts, and other matters that may arise in the course of his investigation.) While this White House is the farthest thing from anyone's notion of a smooth operation, with chaos ruling the day at seemingly every turn, Haley managed to keep her distance, both literally and figuratively. Being based in New York City, some 225 miles from our federal city, didn't hurt. But even more than that, it was her personal style. She managed to retain her star power even as she kept the president's ear and sometimes pushed back against his more intemperate impulses. And she stood up, strongly, when necessary. One tale captures this perfectly. Back in April, Haley said during a television interview that the administration would be imposing additional economic sanctions against Russia. But Trump, who wasn't prepared to do that, was displeased by her statement. In response, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow chalked Haley's comments up to possible "momentary confusion." Haley's straightforward response the next day: "With all due respect, I don't get confused." Her unmistakable message, delivered with southern grace: Don't mess with me. According to reports, Kudlow phoned Haley that afternoon to apologize. It's easy to think of the power players in today's Republican Party as being a bunch of old white guys. Because that's mostly true. But not Haley, a youthful Indian-American who is the daughter of immigrants. She's another story entirely. It'll be interesting to see what she does for her next act, and to keep an eye on her going forward after that. With accusations of "fuzzy math" and "funny money," Democratic candidate for governor Jay Gonzalez repeatedly attacked Republican Gov. Charlie Baker's record in his first term in office while Baker hit back over Gonzalez's time in state government during their first debate Tuesday night. "I'm not becoming governor to manage the status quo," Gonzalez said, repeating a theme of his when asked about the state's transportation system. "The status quo is not working for the working family." Baker said if he were a "status quo governor," he would not have moved hundreds of homeless families out of hotels, improved care at Bridgewater State Hospital, procured more offshore wind and fixed the Health Connector. "I do not buy for a minute this notion we've been a status quo administration," Baker said. The debate was moderated by WBZ-TV's Jon Keller and aired on WBZ. In light of the recent gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley, Gonzalez said one difference between him and the governor is Gonzalez's opposition to expanding natural gas pipeline infrastructure and his desire to move toward a clean energy economy. Gonzalez said Baker is "not (moving) aggressively enough." Gonzalez said the state needs more inspectors for natural gas infrastructure. "The old Republican playbook of smaller government has shown us what the consequences are of that," Gonzalez said. Baker responded that under his administration, Massachusetts has been a national leader in procuring energy from hydropower and wind and investing in energy storage. Baker said the Department of Public Utilities conducted 1,100 investigations in 2017 - more than in any other recent year. As National Grid continues to lock out workers over a contract dispute, Gonzalez came down strongly on the side of the workers. "I'm running for governor to fight for the little guys," he said. "Workers like the National Grid workers are getting squeezed." Baker said he had gotten National Grid managers in a room with the workers to negotiate, and the state imposed restrictions on the amount of work National Grid can do without those workers. Gonzalez hit Baker repeatedly for not wanting to raise more revenue to do things like improve transportation and education. Gonzalez wants to reintroduce a constitutional amendment to raise taxes on income over $1 million and tax large private college endowments. "I'll ask the wealthy to pay their fair share," Gonzalez said. "We need to be honest about the fact we have to do something." "We have one of worst transportation systems in the country," Gonzalez said, reiterating his call to Baker to ride the MBTA and talk to commuters. Gonzalez said Baker's plans would get the MBTA to a state of good repair in 15 years "and you haven't said how you're going to pay for it." "That is totally unacceptable," Gonzalez said. Baker responded that Gonzalez could not implement the tax on millionaires until his second term, and his endowment tax is similar to a plan proposed by President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress. "I don't think we should be punishing colleges and universities. I think we should be investing in them," Baker said. Baker said his administration plans to spend $8 billion over five years improving the MBTA, focusing on fixing the basic infrastructure like switches and signals. "My plan is organized and funded. It's not made up of funny money, it's not made up of money that starts three years, four, five, six years from now." Baker said Gonzalez's plan to raise taxes is not nearly enough to cover the spending that Gonzalez is proposing. "What we're talking about here are empty promises from my opponent," Baker said. "The amount he wants to spend and the amount he's willing to raise are not even close." Baker said when Gonzalez was secretary of administration and finance under Gov. Deval Patrick, Gonzalez cut money from early education and from the Department of Children and Families at a time when state spending was growing. Baker said his administration increased spending in those areas. "There's rhetoric and there's reality," Baker said. "At the end of the day, voters need to measure us on what we've actually done." Gonzalez responded, "I'm telling people what I'd do as governor, not what I did when I worked for Gov. Patrick." Gonzalez said Baker's accomplishments were "small ball stuff," while Gonzalez would be more "bold." He called Baker's analysis of Gonzalez's record and proposals "fuzzy math." In a Democratic-leaning state with high levels of disapproval for Trump, Gonzalez tried to tie Baker to Trump. Gonzalez noted that Baker endorsed Republican Geoff Diehl, who co-chaired Trump's Massachusetts campaign, for Senate. "By backing Geoff Diehl, Gov. Baker's supporting an anti-choice agenda as well as an anti-LGBTQ, pro-NRA agenda," Gonzalez said. Baker said he is supporting the Republican ticket, but he did not vote for Trump and has spoken out against him on issues including health care and the travel ban. "I'm running for governor, not Geoff Diehl," Baker said. Gov. Charlie Baker will vote against the ballot question that would mandate nurse staffing ratios. "I'm going to vote no on Question 1," Baker told reporters after an unrelated event in Boston Wednesday. Baker had declined to take a position until the Health Policy Commission released its report on the ballot question, which it did last week. Baker said he was swayed by several factors. One is cost -- the commission estimated that implementing the nurse staffing ratios would cost $676 million to $949 million a year once it is fully implemented. Baker said he had also been unaware that Massachusetts already has a higher nurse-to-patient staffing ratio than California, which is the only other state to mandate nurse staffing ratios. Finally, Baker said he heard from community hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers that they "would have their operational future put in jeopardy if that law were to pass." Baker cited a recent visit to the Southbridge-based Harrington Healthcare, which offers mental health and substance abuse care, emergency services and primary care in central and Western Massachusetts. "They said to me they would have a heck of a time, they did not believe they ... could implement the law if it were to pass as written, which set off a bit of an alarm bell for me," Baker said. Proponents of the ballot question say mandated staffing ratios will improve patient safety by ensuring that there are enough nurses on staff at every hospital in the state to properly care for patients. The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance is suing the state to overturn some donor disclosure requirements. Paul Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said the donor disclosure laws amount to "intimidation." "It's nothing more than to shut up organizations like us," Craney said. The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance is a nonprofit, which means it generally does not have to disclose its donors, unless the group is involved in election-related communications. Under a law passed in 2016, all ads that name candidates within 90 days of an election must disclose the organization's top five donors. Ads must also include an on-camera statement from the organization's principal officer. Allen Dickerson, director of the Virginia-based Institute for Free Speech, who is filing the case for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said the eight seconds it takes to state the government disclosure in an ad costs organizations hundreds of dollars. "These requirements simply raise the cost of speaking about government by forcing speakers to waste their resources promoting the government's message," Dickerson said. The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance says it wants to run TV, radio and online ads in Sen. Marc Pacheco's district. Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat, is not facing a contested election. The ads call attention to legislative votes to raise taxes on income over $1 million and to raise lawmakers' pay. The Alliance says if the regulations are not repealed, it will not run the ads. The group objects to the need to disclose donors who only gave to the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance's general purpose, not to the particular ad; to the extra time and space needed in the ads, including the need to publish the address of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance's website; and to the requirement that the chairman appear on camera. They say the names of these donors are "irrelevant," and it is also irrelevant to require the chairman to appear on camera and reveal personal characteristics, such as race, gender and disability. The group says the disclosure laws infringe on its First Amendment rights. "The only way that the Alliance ... can avoid these burdens is to remain silent," attorneys for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance wrote in the lawsuit. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court. Jason Tait, a spokesman for the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, declined to comment. The attorney general's office is still reviewing the complaint. Both state offices are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly said they would not have confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and believe Christine Blasey Ford -- not the federal appellate judge -- was more likely to have been telling the truth about allegations of sexual misconduct, a new poll suggests. A University of Massachusetts Lowell-Boston Globe survey released Wednesday found that state voters by a 61 to 33 percent margin said they would not have voted in favor of Kavanaugh's confirmation. Confirmation opponents included 83 percent of Democrats, 57 percent of independents and 23 percent of Republicans, according to the poll's results. More than half of men and over two-thirds of women surveyed, meanwhile, said they would not have supported adding Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court's bench. Beyond opposing confirmation, Massachusetts voters by a two-to-one margin -- 60 to 30 percent -- said they believe Ford's allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when she was 15 and he was 17-years-old -- something the judge has denied as categorically false. Democrats were more likely to back Ford, with 85 percent saying they believed the California psychology professor who told a Senate panel that Kavanaugh sexually abused her a high school party in the 1980s. Seven in 10 women also said they believed Ford's testimony. A majority of Republicans -- 86 percent -- meanwhile, said they believed Kavanaugh's assertion that such an incident never occurred. Independent voters in Massachusetts were more split, with 54 percent saying they believed Ford, 35 percent saying they believed Kavanaugh and 10 percent offering that they were "unsure." Assistant Prof. John Cluverius, associate director of the Center for Public Opinion, said the results suggest that "voters, especially young women, haven't forgotten about this story and are energized by it." The poll surveyed nearly 800 Massachusetts registered voters, including 485 "likely voters" via telephone from Oct. 1 to 7. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent for registered voters and plus or minus 5.6 percent for likely voters. The margin or error was higher for questions regarding Kavanaugh's confirmation process -- plus or minus 6.2 percent and plus or minus 5.9 percent respectively -- as they were asked to a split sample of registered voters, the poll noted. The U.S. Senate voted largely along party lines Saturday to send Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. NZ ponders 20 per cent sugary drink tax THE conversation in New Zealand about a sugary drink tax, of perhaps 20 per cent, has reached the prime ministers office. Findings of a report requested by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in February of this year have been released to the NZ Herald under the Official Information Act. The report, prepared by Ministry of Health chief science advisor Dr John Potter, details a firm argument for the introduction of the controversial tax, in efforts to reduce the nations growing obesity issue. Australia and New Zealand have yet to follow the lead of 20 countries that have successfully implemented an SSB (sugar sweetened beverage) tax, which works in a similar way to the taxes applied to alcohol and tobacco whereby a price increase acts as a deterrent to consumers. The Finnish tax on confectionery, ice cream and SSBs showed a continuing decline in consumption of high-sugar products with the imposition of steadily increasing taxes over consecutive years, Dr Potter wrote in the brief. Most crucially, the recent Berkeley, USA study showed clearly that a tax of one per cent per 30gm decreased consumption of SSBs in low-income communities and increased consumption of water. Also in Australian Food News Dr Potter advised in the report that a tax of 20 per cent has been shown to be effective, with the tax applied to products based on volume or sugar content, not value. Over time a tax could save 50 lives a year and at least NZ$6 million in health costs, raising about NZ$40m in revenue, Dr Potters brief stated. The prime ministers office responded to the Herald saying while the report was requested following media interest in the matter, it was not actively considering a tax at this time. Meanwhile, lobby groups like the Australian Beverages Council (ABC) have been campaigning hard to prevent the tax gaining traction here in Australia, arguing education not taxation is a better approach to reducing obesity and that implementing the tax could lead to additional administration costs and a reduction in jobs. The Australian Medical Association has criticised the ABCs pledge to reduce sugar use by 20 per cent by 2025 as totally inadequate adding in a statement, By the time 2025 rolls around, more Australians will be affected by the health harms of obesity, including from the high sugar content in SSBs. President Donald Trump offered hints Tuesday as to whom he may select to takeover for United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley when she leaves her post at the end of the year. Trump, who announced Haley's resignation during a joint White House event with the ambassador, told reporters he would consider naming former Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell as his next U.N. envoy. "She is certainly a person I would consider. She is under consideration. We have actually many names that are great," he said, according to White House pool reports. "Nikki is going to working along with us and helping us with the choice ... going to help us with 2020 ... great friend of mine." The president added that he also believes his daughter, Ivanka Trump, would be a good successor to Haley. "Ivanka would be dynamite," he reportedly said. Trump added that while he thinks "Ivanka would be incredible," it doesn't mean he plans to name her as the next U.N. ambassador. "I would be accused of nepotism even though I'm not sure there's anyone more competent in the world, but that's OK. But we are looking at numerous people. It is interesting," he said. Haley, a former South Carolina governor, said she plans to step down from her post at the end of 2018, offering that she believes it's time for someone else to take over the role. "I'm a believer in term limits: I think you have to be selfless enough to know when to step aside and let someone else do the job," she said. Haley added that she doesn't have any set on where she will go next and is currently focused on having "everything in place" for the next U.N. ambassador. She noted that she has no plans to pursue a potential 2020 presidential run. Haley has served a U.N. ambassador since January 2017, despite several other high-profile foreign policy officials leaving the Trump administration. Powell, who played a key role in the White House's Middle East policy, is among those who have left the administration. She announced in December 2017 that she would return to her home in New York, but continue to advise the White House. This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Massachusetts State Police officials applied to a state board for permission to destroy three years of the department's payroll records. But a state police spokesman has since said the records will be retained. Officials from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security submitted a request in September seeking to destroy records relating to Troop F, which patrols Logan Airport. The 12 boxes of records are described in a public form as payroll administrative records, including detail and roster assignments, from 2009 to 2012. There are also fiscal audit records from 2000 to 2004. Under state law, the records are required to be retained for six years, so the police have the legal authority to destroy them. But the request could draw scrutiny, since the state police have recently been the subject of payroll-related scandals. The Boston Globe reported in March that Troop F had declined to provide its payroll records to the state comptroller since 2010. The comptroller publishes state payroll data online. Other State Police troops did have their payroll data made public. The payroll records have since been made public. State police spokesman David Procopio said the department follows the Secretary of State's guidelines for retaining paper documents. "The recent requests made to the Board are in compliance with the Secretary's retention schedule and the records, due to their age, are not currently the subject of any outside investigation or audit," Procopio said. However, Procopio said in an emailed statement Tuesday night, "None of the records in question have been destroyed and in light of current ongoing investigations pertaining to similar records, the State Police will retain past payroll records until further notice." Separately, several troopers are facing federal and state criminal charges for fraudulently billing for overtime shifts. But those troopers are not part of Troop F, and the overtime that is the subject of those charges happened in or after 2015. The state's Records Conservation Board has the authority to decide whether state records can be destroyed. The board, at its Oct. 3 meeting, tabled the State Police's application due to an ongoing audit. With North Shore communities still recovering from a series of September gas explosions, a Massachusetts congressman is calling on Columbia Gas, National Grid and state regulators to use local steelworkers, who have been locked out, as part of the rebuilding process. U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem, urged Columbia Gas of Massachusetts President and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Bryant, National Grid Massachusetts President and COO Marcy Reed and state Department of Public Utilities Chairwoman Angela O'Connor to "find a way to put the men and women of USW Local 12003 and USW Local 12012 to work in North Andover, Andover and Lawrence as quickly as possible." Noting that the unions, which are negotiating a new contract with National Grid, have "repeatedly offered" hundreds of their workers since the Sept. 13 explosions to assist Columbia Gas, the congressman urged the companies to "work collaboratively to deploy the steelworkers who have been locked out." Moulton argued that the Merrimack Valley recovery effort "is too important to keep so much manpower and technical expertise on the sidelines," particularly as winter approaches. "I am concerned that given the severity of the damage and the scope of the rebuilding project, many of our residents will not have functioning heat in their home as fall temperatures begin to drop," he wrote in an Oct. 4 letter. "Time is of the essence, and we should be pursuing an all-hands-on-deck-approach, utilizing all available resources and manpower to ensure the safe and timely restoration of gas service to impacted residents." Pointing to one death, multiple injuries and other damage cased by the explosions, Moulton stressed that "we cannot accept the possibility of further tragedy because we did not take full advantage of every resource available to fix this problem." Moulton released his letter Wednesday as union workers protested the National Grid lockout. The state DPU ordered National Grid earlier this week to stop all work except emergency operations following an over-pressurization of a gas line in Woburn. Peter Lorenz, communications director for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said the moratorium would continue pending the results of DPU's review of National Grid's safety practices. National Grid officials have said the Woburn incident is not related to the incident in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, in which the over-pressurization of a Columbia Gas line caused upwards of 80 explosions and fires. NEW YORK -- Red Sox first baseman Mitch Moreland is available off the bench for the second straight night in Game 4 of the ALDS Tuesday. Moreland wouldn't have started against CC Sabathia even if he was healthy, so his hamstring tightness didn't have any impact on the starting lineup. Moreland has been doing tee work over the last couple days in New York in anticipation of a potential pinch-hit opportunity against a righty. "Day by day," manager Alex Cora said. "He feels better today. Still available, but not ready to go out there and play nine." Infielder Tzu-Wei Lin has re-joined the Red Sox in case Boston needs to take Moreland off the roster in the coming days. Lin had been working out in Fort Myers since the end of the regular season. "Just keep him around here, and if something happened with Mitch and he can't go, at least he's close with us," Cora said of Lin. "He's not in Florida. He's working out with us, and if we make a decision to add him to the roster, either in this round or the next one, at least he's working out with us." Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said Hurricane Michael is "unlike any storm that we have had in anybody's memory." He says this one will inflict serious damage across central and southern Georgia, and he's calling on people to protect themselves, their families, and anyone who needs assistance. More than 1,200 evacuees are staying in Georgia state parks, which are waiving entrance fees for those seeking shelter. The storm also is expected to ravage the state's peanut, pecan and cotton crops. U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said Michael is "a hurricane of the worst kind." He said there are about 3,000 FEMA employees in the field, plus aircraft and search and rescue teams staged to move into Florida and Georgia as well. "The citizens in Georgia need to wake up and pay attention," Long said. He says this hurricane will likely be the worst storm that anyone in southwest and central Georgia will have seen in decades. Long applauded local officials who urged evacuations, and said: "people are going to die as a result of not heeding the warnings." President Donald Trump is being briefed on Hurricane Michael as it closes in on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic 150 mph winds. Trump is warning of the power of the storm as he meets with his Homeland Security Secretary and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long. Long is describing the storm as a "Gulf Coast hurricane of the worst kind," which he says will be similar in strength to "an EF3 tornado making landfall." Trump says he spoke with Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday and says the federal government is coordinating with all of the states that could be impacted. The Category 4 storm could be the most powerful storm on record ever to hit the region. More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast have been warned to evacuate. Thousands of people along Florida's northern Gulf Coast have heeded warnings to evacuate, and many are cramming into high schools put to use as shelters. Diane Farris and her son Waine Hall walked to the shelter nearest their home in Panama City, Rutherford High School, and found about 1,100 people crammed into a space meant for about half as many. She says the cafeteria and gym are full so they're putting people in the hallways and almost every room. And she says more people are coming every minute. Farris says she's terrified about predictions of "the big one" and desperate to know where her relatives are. Another shelter resident, Michigan native Pamela Cowley, says she's nervous because people are saying they could go weeks without electricity. Hurricane Michael will weaken once its core hits land and stops drawing strength from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But forecasters say it won't dissipate quickly. In fact, Michael is expected to whip parts of Alabama and Georgia with hurricane-force winds as it travels north. The National Hurricane Center expects Michael to hold tropical storm strength through Thursday as it crosses the Carolinas. Forecasters say Michael should re-emerge over the Atlantic Ocean on Friday and regain some strength as it moves away from the U.S. coast. Tropical storm warnings and a storm-surge watch were extended Wednesday morning to North Carolina's barrier islands. Global Ovulation Test Market has been segmented on the basis of type of test which includes Urine Based Test, Saliva Based Test and other tests. The end users are Hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers, fertility centers, home care, and others. Ovulation Test Market Scenario The Global Ovulation Test Market is growing with the steady pace. The Global Ovulation Test Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~4.5% during the forecast period 2017-2023. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global ovulation test market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period growing rapidly due to rising technology driven ovulation monitors. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017 2023). The market is expected grow with the same trends during the forecast period. The major drivers will be technological advancement for reliable and accurate results from ovulation test kits has spurred the growth the market. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in eight women has trouble conceiving or sustaining a pregnancy, due to age, health issues or other factors. For that, companies are introducing advanced kits which will help them to monitor their pregnancy and ovulations. For instance, apps like Glow and Apples own Reproductive Health kit in iOS make it easier to record, visualize and aggregate large amounts of data related to the reproductive health of the patients. Moreover, pregnancy management and women and child health gaining importance throughout the world favor the growth of this market. Increase in first pregnancy, complications during pregnancy and demand of reliable technology for pregnancy test kits. Get Sample PDF Illustration @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1341 Key Players for Global Ovulation Test Market Some of the key players in this market are: Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH (Switzerland), Church & Dwight Co. Inc. (U.S.), Prestige Brands Holdings Inc. (U.S.), HiLin Life Products Inc. (U.S.) and Fairhaven Health LLC (U.S.) Other players in this market are: Fertility Focus Limited (U.K.), Geratherm Medical AG (Germany), Accuquik (California), NecLife (India) and Piramal Healthcare (India) Global Ovulation Test Market Competitive Analysis The market for Ovulation Test is characterised by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global market of ovulation test appears to be getting competitive in this region due to increasing first time pregnancy age and gynaecological disorders. Global players are increasingly expanding their footprint in the emerging nations, especially in terms of features such as type, product portfolios, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to increase with time during the forecast period. Well established players are entering into new product launches in order to gain competitive edge in this market and to maintain their market position. Companies like in April 2016, Church & Dwight Co., Inc. has launched a First Response Pregnancy PRO Digital Pregnancy Test + App Access. It is the first and only Bluetooth enabled pregnancy test stick which will be available nationwide. This will help the company add-on a product to their portfolio and help to increase the customer base. Moreover, Prestige Brands Holdings Inc., in December 2016, has announced to acquire C.B Fleet Company which manufactures products for feminine care to reach in global market. Furthermore, Swiss Precision Diagnostics a market leader across the globe with wide range of women health brands out of which Accu clear provides a range of products for pregnancy and ovulation test. It has been granted three patents by the U.S. in advanced clear blue ovulation test helping it to maintain its leading position in the market. This particular market is focussing on product launches and acquisitions as a key strategy, thereby presenting a potential opportunities for the growth of the market. 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 TOC Continued Do You Have Specific Requirement? Ask To Our Experts@ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1341 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 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com The global clinical intelligence market is presumed to expand at 12.5 % CAGR during the forecast period (2017-2023) owing to the increasing adoption of healthcare IT, asserts Market Research Future (MRFR). Also known as clinical data analytics, clinical intelligence market is a blend of technologies which involves the use of data analytics in order to improve the healthcare delivery. Analysis of clinical data helps to know the loopholes in an organizations process that hampers its growth. Clinical intelligence comprises software for medical records management, Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), clinical decision support, and financial management and helps to improve the productivity of an organization, improve patients engagement, reduce cost and time. Get Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4478 Drivers and Constraints Impacting the Market The global market for clinical intelligence is likely to grow at a remarkable rate mainly due to the growing adoption of healthcare IT during the assessment period. With the growing importance of software solutions in fraud detection and insurance claim processing and increasing use of electronic health records, the global market for clinical intelligence is set to boom. Moreover, engagement of software companies in EHR and healthcare IT influences the market growth at a global pace. The presence of a large number of market players offering healthcare software solutions is anticipated to stimulate the market over the review period. On the flip side, high costs associated with clinical intelligence software solutions is one of the major factors likely to retard the market growth in the coming years. Global Clinical Intelligence Market: Segmental Analysis The global clinical intelligence market has been segmented on the basis of components, type, end-user, application, and region. By mode of type, the global clinical intelligence market has been segmented into population health management, retrospective performance measures & predictive analytics, clinical benchmarking, clinical decision support (CDSS) system, quality improvement, performance measurement systems, and others. The quality improvement segment is further sub-segmented into six sigma. The population health management segment is further sub-segmented into under-utilization of health services and over-utilization of health services. By mode of component, the global clinical intelligence market has been segmented into hardware, software, and services. By mode of application, the global clinical intelligence market has been segmented into revenue cycle management (RCM) claims, fraud, supply chain, financial management, clinical, and others. By mode of end-users, the global clinical intelligence market has been segmented into clinics, hospitals, TPAs, and others. Apply for Exclusive Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/4478 Regional Insights Geographically, the clinical intelligence market span across four major regions namely, America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. Among all the regions, America is considered to be the largest market for clinical intelligence due to extensive use of software solutions for healthcare administration. North America accounts for the largest market share in this region due to the presence of healthcare IT companies namely Allscripts, QSI Management, GE Electric Company, and IBM. Europe is considered to be the second largest market for clinical intelligence and is presumed to show a steady growth in the coming years owing to the technological developments in healthcare IT, growing number of healthcare providers using clinical management software, patient engagement platform. The market for clinical intelligence is anticipated to grow at a steady pace in the Asia Pacific region due to growing demand for healthcare IT, increasing number of healthcare software solution providers, and rising expenditure on healthcare. Moreover, with the rising demand for patient records management and growing burden of diseases is set to boost the market in this region during the forecast period. On the other hand, the Middle East and African region are also expected to showcase a steady growth due to low demand for healthcare IT in areas with low healthcare expenditure. Industry News September 27, 2018: A recent KLAS shows that provider organizations are witnessing financial improvements after implementation of clinical documentation improvement solutions. Around 53 % of the revenue has improved of the healthcare executives, managers, and medical records directors. Competitive Dashboard The major players operating the global market are LLC (U.S.), QSI Management, Greenway Health, Cerner Corporation (U.S.), McKesson Corporation (U.S.), Allscripts (U.S.), Epic Systems Corporation (U.S.), IBM (U.S.), eClinicalWorks (U.S.), General Electric Company (U.S.), and others. Send An Enquiry @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/4478 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 Global Anemia Drugs Market Segments Global anemia drugs market has been segmented on the basis of anemia type which comprises iron deficiency anemia, sickle cell anemia, aplastic anemia, hemolytic anemia pernicious anemia and others. On the basis of route of administration; market is segmented into oral and injectable. On the basis of gender; market is segmented into male and female. On the basis of product type; market is segmented into biologics and non-biologics. On the basis of end users; market is segmented into hospitals, self-administered and others. Request Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2499 Global Anemia Drugs Market Market Scenario Anemia is a set of conditions characterized by weakness, shortness of breath and a general tiredness due to a decrease in the total amount of red blood cells (RBCs) or hemoglobin in the blood. The lowered hemoglobin results in a lowered ability of the blood to carry oxygen. The market constraints are poor absorption of drugs especially intravenous iron and the side effects associated with the treatment. Better nutrition due to rising per capita income is also a market limiting factor for anemic drugs. The global market for Anemia Drugs is expected to be around US$21.4 billion and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% to reach US$34.7 billion by the end of forecast period. Global Anemia Drugs Market Key Players Some of the key players in this market are: Amgen Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Bluebird bio, Biocon, GlycoMimetics Inc., Regen biopharma Inc., Bayer AG, Acceleron Pharma, Eli Lilly and company and others. Global Anemia Drugs Market Competitive Analysis In April-2017, Amgen Inc. expanded their commercial collaboration with Novartis for erenumab, which is being investigated for the prevention of migraine. This expanded commercial collaboration was built on a global neuroscience collaboration in Alzheimers disease and migraine established in 2015 between Novartis and Amgen. This expanded collaboration leveraged Novartis strong and established presence in neuroscience to more effectively reach people with migraine. In December-2015, GlaxoSmithKline plc. Announced that its global HIV business, ViiV Healthcare, has reached two separate agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb, to acquire its late-stage HIV R&D assets; and to acquire Bristol-Myers Squibbs portfolio of preclinical and discovery stage HIV research assets. In October-2016, Elanco U.S., Inc., a subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company acquired Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc.s (BIVI) U.S. feline, canine and rabies vaccines portfolio as well as a fully integrated manufacturing and R&D site for USD 885 million, including the estimated cost of acquired inventory. Global Anemia Drugs Market Regional Analysis On the regional backgrounds the Americas leads the global market for anemia drugs owing to huge patient population, increasing healthcare expenditures and presence of the developed economies like U.S. and Canada within the region. Following, the same trends Europe is second in the market. The Asia Pacific region is the fastest growing region due to the developing economies like India and China. Middle East and Africa have the least market share, especially due to the presence of poor economies within the African region. Moreover, stringent government policies within the region are restraining the market growth within the region. On the hand, Middle East leads the regional market due to the presence of developed economies like Kuwait, Qatar, and others within the region and rising healthcare expenses. Table Of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Market Dynamics 4 Market Factor Analysis 5 Global Anemia Drugs Market, By Anemia Type 6 Global Anemia Drugs Market, By Route Of Administration 7 Global Anemia Drugs Market, By Product Type 8 Global Anemia Drugs Market, By End User 9 Global Anemia Drugs Market, By Regions 10 Company Landscape 11 Company Profile 12 Others 13 Appendix Major TOC Continued! Get Exclusive Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/2499 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 Healthcare Biometrics Market are used to identify and recognize the correct identity of the person. There are number of devices, systems, software used for the protection of the valuable data. Healthcare Biometrics is very useful and it has multiple use in healthcare industry such as data security, data management, patient identification etc. Hospitals and other healthcare institutions need to maintain the huge amount of data which they deal day to day. Different data such as medical record, patient details, medical history, staff management, inventory management, financial data etc. are very critical. Healthcare biometric provides safe and secure solution to maintain privacy and security of this data. According to a recent study published by the Market Research Future analysts, the global healthcare biometrics market is growing at a double digit growth rate; mainly due to the rise in the cybercrime and the increased cases of the healthcare frauds leading to the high demand for the healthcare security systems including the healthcare biometrics. Demand of security system is increasing with an increasing emphasis on patients security & wellness, improving quality of care provided in the hospital, growing patient pool, need for security of infants in hospitals, as well as availability of wide of security systems. Moreover, increase in consumer awareness is also driving the market growth which expected to continue its pace in near future. Avail Sample For this Report at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2450 However, there are some obstacles in the growth of this market. High cost of the security systems, system malfunctions, data corruption, and lack of infrastructure and affordability issues in some of the regions. All these factors may hinder the growth of the market to an extent in the near future. The global market consist of players such as 3M Cogent Inc. (U.S.), Bayometric (U.S.), BIO-key International Inc. (U.S.), Crossmatch Technologies Inc. (U.S.), Fujitsu Limited (Japan), Imprivata Inc. (U.S.), Integrated Biometrics (U.S.), Lumidigm (a subsidiary of ASSA ABLOY (Sweden)), Morpho (a subsidiary of Safran SA (France)), NEC Corporation (Japan), Suprema Inc. (South Korea), Tyco Integrated Security (U.S.), and ZKteco Inc. (China). These are the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global healthcare biometrics market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis report. Global Healthcare Biometrics Market Regional Analysis Considering the global scenario of the market, America comprise largest market share in global healthcare biometrics market. This major share is mainly attributed to the rise in the healthcare frauds that have been committed in last decade. The healthcare organisations, and hospitals have become more aware of the threads and are willing to spend handsome amount in building their security systems in order to secure their patient data, medical information, and other valuable assets, and to prevent the security breaches in their organisations. The healthcare frauds costs the industry billions of dollars. For example, a dentist form Valdosta, Georgia, U.S. was sentenced for two years and three months recently in 2017 for a healthcare fraud. The dentist collected Medicaid payments amounting to USD 789,000 using patients identity without their knowledge. California based St. Josephs Health, was asked to pay USD 6.1 million in October 2016 for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations. The server installed at the center was not secured, which enabled access to patients database through search engine. According to the Coalition against Insurance Fraudan anti-fraud watchdog groupnearly USD 80 billion is lost annually in Medicare fraud in the U.S. Such a big cost to the economy has alerted the healthcare industry and the government to ensure data security and access control. All these factors have helped the rapid growth of the healthcare biometrics market in American region. Further, the European market is also growing continuously and slowly catching up with the American market. On the other hand, Asia-Pacific market is lagging far behind at the moment. Many of the companies in the region are not completely adhering to the security laws. Cost of the security has a lot to do with this underuse of the technology in this region. However, the scenario is changing, and with increasing awareness about the cyber security and healthcare companies investing more on the security are likely to develop a great opportunities for the security firms and security device companies in this region. Middle East & Africa region are likely to have a limited but steady growth in the market. Browse Full Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/healthcare-biometrics-market-2450 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Healthcare BPO Market Summary The global healthcare BPO market growth is deemed to be impressive at 12.3% CAGR over the forecast period of 2017-2023, growing from USD 199,533.8 Million in 2017 to USD 449623.8 Million by the end of 2023, proclaims Market Research Future (MRFR) in a minutely analyzed research report. Request for Sample Report at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1335 The global healthcare BPO market derives much of its growth from the increasing incidences of errors in medical billing and errors in patient medical record which has led to the adoption of BPO services by healthcare organizations. A princely sum of dollars is lost each year due to poor billing practices which has a direct impact on healthcare organizations bottom line. Outsourcing in the healthcare sector has picked up in the past few years to minimize critical mistakes and ensure smooth operational performance. Additionally, healthcare institutions save a kings ransom by outsourcing tasks, which, otherwise would require hiring of in-house employees. Healthcare BPO professional are highly skilled and help in the reduction of errors. Segmentation: The global healthcare BPO market has been segmented on the basis of services which comprises of Pharmaceutical services, payer services, and provider services. The pharmaceutical segment has been further segmented into Research and Development, Manufacturing, and Non-clinical Services. Similarly, the payer services segment has been further segmented into Claim management, Member management, Provider management, Care management, and Product development & business acquisition. The provider services segment has been further segmented into Medical Billing, Medical Coding, Medical Transcription, and Finance & Accounts. Key Players: Accenture Catalent Charles River Laboratories International Cognizant Cyber Securities Covance IBM And more. Ask Any Question at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1335 Report Abstract: This MRFR report offers a six-year forecast (2017-2023) for the global healthcare BPO market. The market analysis has been conducted after considering all the important parameters. The primary objective of the report is to deliver an objective outlook on the prospects of healthcare BPO industry for the next couple years. It also covers several pharmaceutical services, payer services, and provider services under healthcare BPO that are gaining considerable momentum under, which include research and development, non-clinical services, manufacturing, claim management, member management, provider management, care management and product development & business acquisition, medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription and finance & accounts. Healthcare BPO Market Regional Analysis The Americas dominate the global healthcare BPO market owing to the presence of strong economic conditions and huge development in healthcare domain. Moreover, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in 2014, recovery auditors identified and corrected USD 2.39 billion as overpayment and USD 173.1 million as underpayment. They also suggests that collectively 1.1million claims were registered to recover USD 2.57 billion. Europe holds the second position in the market owing to healthcare spending has expanded slightly in UK and Germany. Western Europe continues to see a need to save money on healthcare because of a slight drop in financial growth and obstinate economic pressure. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the healthcare expenditure in Germany was EUR 321 billion in 2014, France recorded the second highest level of current healthcare expenditure of EUR 237 billion, followed by the United Kingdom of EUR 223 billion. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market owing to more number of developing nations present in this region, for instance, countries like India and China are encouraging the growth of the healthcare IT domain. Furthermore, increasing patient population from cancer in developing countries will directly increase the demand for various diagnosis & treatment methods and it will boost the growth of the market. Moreover, Healthcare spending in Asia expanded in 2016 due to an extension of state healthcare programs and the increasing affluence of the population. India, in specific, saw expansion in its healthcare expenditure due to a government resolution to enhance healthcare services, which is estimated to further will boost the market growth The Middle East & Africa is expected to hold the least market share due to less availability of medical facilities, and less development in the healthcare domain. However, countries such as Qatar and Kuwait are focusing more on healthcare domain and developing medical facilities, which will boost the market growth in this region. Check Discount at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1335 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Growing need to collate administrative patient data such as patient information, insurance details and other information with business and clinical data facilitates the growth of the RCM market. RCM automates various administrative processes such as informing patients about appointments, payment related reminders and issues regarding insurance claims. Management of complex and tedious healthcare tasks induces high demand for RCM solutions. Healthcare organizations are increasingly deploying RCM services in order to manage patient revenue cycle, and high adoption of RCM fosters the growth of the global healthcare revenue cycle management market. Additionally, intensifying pressure to curb healthcare costs and surging patient inflow necessitates the use of RCM in healthcare organizations. Other drivers of the market include high expenditure on healthcare infrastructure. However, the market growth might be hindered by lack of skilled workforce to operate RCM software and high costs associated with RCM software. Request Free Sample Report at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/878 List of Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management Market Key Players: Epic Systems Corporation (US), McKesson Corporation (US), Cerner Corporation (US), General Electric Company (US), Allscripts (US), Quest Diagnostic (US), Siemens Healthcare (Germany), AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions (US), CareCloud (US), Acelerartech (US), 3M (US) and others. Segmentation The Global Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management Market has been segmented based on deployment, component, product types, and end-users. By deployment, the market has been segmented into on-premises, and cloud-based. Deployment wise, on-premise is the leading segment whereas the cloud-based segment is expected to emerge as the fastest growing segment. By component, the market has been segmented into services and software. The software segment accounts for 59.3% share of the global market and is the largest segment based on component. By product types, the market has been segmented into integrated software and standalone software. By end users, the market has been segmented into hospitals, ambulatory services and others. Regional Analysis The Global Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management Market spans across the regions of the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. The Americas is at the forefront of the global healthcare revenue cycle management market owing to the presence of a robust healthcare sector, the concentration of key players in the region and high adoption of RCM solutions in the healthcare sector. The Americas market for RCM is expected to reach USD 67,996.0 Million by the end of 2027 and expand at a CAGR of 11.9% over the forecast period. Europe accounts for the second largest share of the market and is followed by Asia Pacific. The presence of a well-developed healthcare sector and high investment in healthcare facilities by the government support the growth of the market in Europe. Increasing awareness regarding RCM software and rising expenditure on healthcare in the Asia Pacific region will help it to exhibit substantial growth over the forecast period. The Middle East & Africa market will experience limited growth mainly because of the Africa market which has large unmet medical needs and less developed healthcare infrastructure which slows down the market growth. Speak to Our Analyst and Gain Crucial Industry Insights That Will Help Your Business Grow at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/878 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 The Analysis presents the study of Worldwide High Throughput Screening facilitating the regional and country wise analysis covering the strategic analysis of each market player and the market share they hold. Global High Throughput Screening Market Top Key Players: Agilent Technologies (U.S.), Danaher (U.S.), Merck KGaA (U.S.), Tecan Trading AG (Switzerland), Thermo Fisher Scientific (U.S.), PerkinElmer Inc. (U.S.), Hamilton Company (U.S.), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), Aurora Biomed Inc. (Canada), AXXAM S.p.A. (Italy), and others. Get Premium Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1280 . Global High Throughput Screening Market Overview: High-throughput screening is a method used in the drug discovery and relevant to the fields of biology and chemistry. It involves the use of robotics, data processing software, and sensitive detectors which helps to enhance the speed of the process with accuracy. This process can rapidly identify active compounds, antibodies, or genes that modulate a particular bimolecular pathway. According to a recent study published by the Market Research Future analysts, the global high throughput screening market is a dynamic market growing at a decent growth rate. The growth of this market is mainly due to rise in the prevalence of the chronic diseases. Increase in prevalence has led to the increasing need for the new drug molecules and therapies. Besides that, rising expenditure on research & development, and adoption of high through put screening techniques by pharmaceutical companies is pushing the growth of the market. Moreover, rapid development in the healthcare sector, developing technology, and increasing need for drug discovery have fuelled the market growth. On the other hand, there are some hurdles in this market such as high cost involved in the development of the required infrastructure, expensive automation techniques. These can hinder the growth of the high throughput screening market to an extent. Global High Throughput Screening Market Competitive Analysis: There are number of companies involved in the development of the products, including the devices, tools, software, and other services in the high throughput screening space. The global high throughput screening market is competitive due to the presence of many local and international players. Local players are focus on cost reduction and innovation to ensure sustainability. On the other hand, the international players implemented growth strategies through collaborations and partnerships to expand their global presence and overall market share. Product launches, software update launches, and mergers & acquisitions are some key strategies of the companies in this market. Some of the developments for players are as follows. Agilent Technologies, headquartered in the U.S., is an American public research, development and manufacturing company. RapidFire 365, RapidFire Cartridges, RapidFire Integrator Software are the high-throughput mass spectrometry system. These systems provide mass spectrometry-based high-throughput screening solutions to the targets that have proven challenging to screen using conventional approaches to the drug discovery researchers Danaher, headquarters in the U.S., operates in five segments: test & measurement, dental, industrial technologies, environmental, and life science & diagnostics. In 2016, the company acquired Cepheid and Phenomenex. Get Exclusive Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1280 Global High Throughput Screening Market Regional Analysis: The Americas region dominate the global high throughput screening market owing to the presence of huge patient population with chronic diseases, and increasing government support for research & development. Furthermore, presence of large number of market players in this region which are involved in continuous development of the quality products which cater to the global patient population giving an extra boost for the growth of this market in Americas region. Europe accounts for the second largest share of the global high throughput screening market as result of increasing focus of government agencies on the treatment of chronic diseases. Moreover, the growing public awareness about disease management and increasing need for the new drugs has led to the high demand for the drug development and screening tools which are likely to boost the European market. Asia Pacific region is not far behind & is growing at a commendable growth rate in the high throughput screening business space. Japan holds the major share of the regional market due to availability of advanced technology and huge healthcare spending. Moreover, rapidly developing economy, increasing healthcare expenditure, and the governments initiatives for research & development projected to drive the market in China and India over the forecast period. The Middle East and Africa contributes least in the global market due to limited availability of medical facilities, unavailability of the required infrastructure, affordability issues, and lack of awareness among masses. However, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait are somehow the saving grace for the high throughput screening market in this region. Table of Content: 1 Introduction 1.1 Definition 1.2 Scope of Study 1.2.1 Research Objective 1.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations 1.2.2.1 Assumptions 1.2.2.2 Limitations 1.3 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 Macroeconomic Indicators 4 Market Factor Analysis 4.1 Porters Five Forces Model 4.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers 4.4 Threat of New Entrants 4.5 Threat of Substitutes 4.6 Intensity of Rivalry Continued! Enquiry about Reports @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1280 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 The key factors enhancing the growth of Global Syringe And Needle Market include growing government funding to support clinical trials, growing prevalence of chronic ailments, increasing adoption & demand for safety syringes and needles over conventional reusable syringes and needles, increasing older population, increasing partnerships between biopharma companies and CROs, and investments in the research and development (R&D) that are resulting from these partnerships. However, the factors that can hamper the market growth include high risks of infections associated with the administration of drugs by syringes and needles. Global Syringe and Needle Market Competitive Analysis Again in 2017, Becton, Dickinson & Company, introduce new 6mm pen needle for injection pens which is named as BD Ultra-Fine. By adding this product in the portfolio company want to ensure the patient that BD has a comprehensive portfolio that provide options and reinforce BD commitment to providing the best solutions possible for people with specific preferences while managing their diabetes. Global Syringe and Needle Market Key Players The key players in the global syringe and needle market include Alcon Laboratories Incorporated (USA), Becton, Dickinson & Company (USA), B. Braun Melsungen AG (Germany), Light Medical Products Co., Ltd. (USA), Medtronic plc. (Ireland), Retractable Technologies Inc. (USA), Parker Dayton Technology Suzhou Co., Ltd. (China), Smiths Medical (USA), and Terumo Corporation (Japan). Global Syringe and Needle Market Segments The Global Syringe And Needle Market has been segmented on the basis of end-user, therapeutic application, type, usability, and lastly region. Based on end users, this market has been segmented into diagnostic centers, home care, hospitals & clinics, and others. On the basis of therapeutic application, the market has been segmented into cardiovascular, dental, diagnostic, general surgery, neurology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, respiratory, urology, and others. Get Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/723 By types, the market has been segmented into AV fistula needles, blood collection needles, biopsy needles, bone marrow needles, catheter needles, dental needles, epidural needles, fine aspirating needles, intravenous needles, ophthalmic needles, pen needles, spinal anesthesia needles, and suture needles. The usability-based segmentation of global syringe and needle market covers disposable and reusable. Disposable syringes and needles can be used just once and have to be disposed of after the use. Whereas, reusable syringes and needles can be used many times. Global Syringe and Needle Market Regional Analysis The regional segmentation of the global syringe and needle market segments the global market into regional markets namely The Americas (North America and South America), Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). In the Americas, North America is a bigger market than South America due to advanced technology and medical facilities. North America market growth is due to factors including increased prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing spending for syringe and needle R&D, the presence of key pharmaceutical companies in this region, rising older age, and technological advancements. The most important country-specific markets in this region are the United States of America (USA) and Canada. Europe is the second largest regional market. It holds a remarkable share in the global syringe and needle market due to various government legislative reforms whose purpose is to provide regulatory guidelines to manufacturing companies. During the forecast period, the European market is expected to grow due to the growing need for better healthcare infrastructure, growing R&D, and the need for advanced treatments. Due to reasons same as The Americas, Western Europe is a bigger market than Eastern Europe. Most of the strongest economies in this region are in Western Europe. The cream of market revenue in European market includes France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom (UK), followed by the rest of Western Europe. During the forecast period, Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as the fastest growing market. In this region, the market is growing due to the availability of new treatment methods, growing prevalence of chronic ailments, increasing awareness regarding health among the population, and rising standard of living along with the disposable income. China is the fastest growing region due to its large geriatric population. Other important country-specific markets in this region are Australia, India, Japan, and South Korea, followed by the rest of Asia Pacific. To Know More Enquire @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/723 The MEA region is expected to witness the least growth in the market during the forecast period. This is because of major factors such as lack of awareness, limited access and affordability of treatment facilities, and low government support due to healthcare not considered a priority. In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the largest market owing to the rising healthcare expenditure. The overall growth of the healthcare sector is also slowly driving this market. Other key country-specific markets in this region are Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, followed by the rest of the MEA region. 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 Tattoo Removal Market Overview Tattoos are permanent markings in the skin made by injecting ink using needles into the second layer of skin called dermis. The practice of tattooing is now an acceptable form of body art. Tattoo is sported to mark special events, to pay honour or respect, to celebrate life, choices, and to pay tribute and memorial to lifes purpose and companions. Globally The Market For Tattoo Removal Is Expected To Grow At The Rate Of About 15.6% From 2017 To 2023. Request for Sample Report at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1701 Over the past years, the tattoo has become an attractive, artistic and expression among the people. Having said that, most of the people getting their skin inked are between the ages 18 to 24. About 80% of these decisions are made from immaturity. There has been a tremendous growth in the number of people getting their skin inked and so do in the number of people getting it removed. Current employment policies do not expressively prohibit the tattoos but the presence of tattoo on an employ can leave a differentiating impression, mostly negative as a result, persons professional life is affected by it. The reality of todays employment market is fuelling the laser tattoo removal market significantly. Moreover, the poor art work, personal makeover has driven market for tattoo removal. Globally the market for tattoo removal is growing rapidly. Tattoo Removal Market Segments: Tattoo Removal Market has been segmented on the basis of treatment method which comprises of Laser Therapy, Surgical Method, Topical Creams and others. Laser therapy accounted for the largest market share of 66% of total market in 2016. On the basis of end user, market is segmented into Laser centers, dermatology clinics, and other. Laser centers dominated the global market with the largest market share of 60.9% of the total market in 2016. Furthermore, Asia-Pacific market is expected to be the fastest growing market for Tattoo removal due to continuous developments in developing countries like India and China. China and Japan are the countries having cultural connection with the tattoos that goes long back in the history. Top Players: Astanza Cutera CynoSure Dimyth Syneron Medical and Quanta System S.p.A. Ask Any Question at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1701 Rising number of people opting to go for Laser therapy in order to get rid of tattoos is boosting the tattoo removal market in this region. On the other hand, Middle East & Africa are the countries with less craze for the art of a tattoo making and also due to the affordability issues and hesitant approach of people towards body aesthetics is slowing the growth of the tattoo removal market in the region. Regional Analysis of Tattoo Removal Market: Globally North America is the largest market for Tattoo removal. This large share is majorly due to the large number of tattoo studios in the United States and the huge tattoo loving population. Number of people getting their skin inked is more in North American region which ultimately helps in growth of the tattoo removal market in the region. Europe is the second-largest market majorly due to recent advancements in the laser technology and the increasing adoption of the laser technology by the European countries for the purpose of body aesthetics. Major TOC of Tattoo Removal Market Research Report Global Forecast to 2023: 1 Report Prologue 2 Market Introduction 3 Research Methodology 4 Market Dynamics 5 Market Factor Analysis 6 Global Tattoo Removal Market, By Treatment Method 7 Global Tattoo Removal Market, By End User 8 Global Tattoo Removal Market, By Region 9 Competitive Landscape 10 Company Profile 11 List of Tables 12 List of Figures Check Discount at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1701 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, October 10, 2018 Truvia has printed a new set of inspirational messages on its packets, and is launching a Sweet Matters branding content partnership with Upworthy.com and Vanessa Hill, host of the PBS video series BrainCraft. The sponsored content on Upworthy includes a sweetness quiz developed by Hill. Based on scientific findings about human beings altruistic tendencies and types of altruism, the quiz lets users determine which of four sweetness types they fall into (purely, reciprocally, tactfully or graciously sweet). The content hub also offers original articles and videos about real people whose actions exemplify the various types of sweetness for instance, a Pakistani immigrant whose restaurant serves thousands of free meals to the homeless each year. More content will be posted on Oct. 11. advertisement advertisement The campaign is positioned as seeking to inspire people to do good each day, for their own well-being, as well as others. Being sweet to others not only spreads good in the world, but makes you feel better yourself, states Hill, noting that the human brain reinforces acts of altruism with the release of a hormone associated with pleasant feelings (oxytocine, sometimes dubbed the love hormone). Truvia is acting on its mission statement of making sweet moments better in this case by sharing the stories of people who are making the world better and the 66 different feel good messages on its packets, the brands global marketing leader, A.J. Aumock, tells Marketing Daily. One of the on-packet messages, Put something good out there, perfectly sums up what Truvia is trying to do for our consumers, he says. Other on-packet messages include Enthusiasm is contagious and Its a good day for a good day! Most (82%) of Upworthys audience members are the primary grocery shoppers in their households, 33% are women ages 25 to 34, and 69% are charitable givers, according to stats supplied by Truvia. The brands content hub will be promoted through the end of the month with a series of organic and paid social posts on Upworthys Facebook and Twitter channels and Truvias Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels, as well as through additional paid social media. Influencer marketing is in the mix. The quiz will also be featured in Upworthys email newsletter on Oct. 10. Hill -- a science educator whose PBS Digital Studios series explores psychology, neuroscience and human behavior, and has drawn more than 430,000 subscribers and 26 million views on YouTube since launching five years ago -- is helping to drive awareness of the quiz and the personality types through posts on her Twitter channel. RF | Binder developed the content partnership with Upworthy, which created the articles and videos in collaboration with Truvia. The effort is being supported by Carmichael Lynch (Truvias lead creative agency) and Reprise Digital, handling branded social content development and media buying, respectively. Earlier this year, Truvia launched an advertising campaign taglined Pick Natures Sweetness. Pick Truvia, which is running across digital, social and television. Sucralose-based Splenda is the best-selling sugar substitute in the U.S., but 10-year-old Truvia, developed jointly by The Coca-Cola Company and Cargill, is #2, and promotes itself as Americas #1 zero-calorie natural sweetener. The Food and Drug Administration has yet to release a formal definition of natural. Truvia contains rebiana, a high-purity version of a compound from the stevia plant, rebaudioside A; erythritol (sugar alcohol); and proprietary natural flavors. In 2014, Cargill, while denying any wrongdoing, including misleading labeling or advertising, opted for an out-of-court settlement that consolidated four class-action suits claiming that the companys natural claim was misleading. Specific terms regarding wording of claims and establishment of a $6.1 million settlement fund were part of the settlement, reported Food Business News. Consumer concerns about artificial ingredients continue to help drive sales for products making natural or clean claims. Truvia last month announced that stevia-based sweeteners, led by Truvias growth, now have combined sales that exceed the combined sales of artificial sugar substitutes. (Stevia sweetener sales rose 11.9%, while sales of sucralose, aspartame and saccharine sweeteners were down 6%, 8% and 5.9%, in the 52 weeks ended August 8, 2018, compared to the same period in 2017, according to data reported by Cargill based on Nielsen reporting parameters.) Sales of Truvias Sugar Blends were up 11.8% in the 12 weeks ending Aug. 8 as compared to same period last year, and its packets and spoonable jar sales were up 3.8%, according to the Cargill-reported data. by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, October 10, 2018 The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reached out to the ANA seeking its help and that of its membership with an investigation the Bureau and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York are conducting into potentially fraudulent media-buying practices. The FBI outreach to the ANA was made via contact with its outside counsel Reed Smith LLP. The ANA confirmed the FBI reach-out today in a letter to members from the organizations CEO Bob Liodice. The starting point of the investigation, per the ANA letter, is to identify advertisers they believe may have been defrauded. The Association is urging such advertisers to retain counsel, review their media-buying history and contracts, perform audits and then get advice on their options. Those options, wrote Liodice, include cooperating with the FBI or doing nothing. Each members decision to cooperate with the FBI and federal law enforcement, or take any other action or no action is entirely voluntary and up to the member company, Liodice wrote. advertisement advertisement On the advice of counsel, the ANA board of directors approved informing membership of the FBIs request for cooperation and sharing information about next steps. While we view the FBIs investigation as important, the ANA itself cannot provide help to the FBI other than to share communication and information with our members, Liodice said. The ANA will not play a coordinating role on decisions or information between or among member companies and will not be a conduit between the FBI and member companies regarding individual company information. The FBI is aware of our communication with members and has requested we do so in order to obtain assistance. Reed Smiths Douglas Wood, the ANAs General Counsel and his partner Steven Miller have had limited discussions with the FBI. Word of the FBI probe surfaced in previous reports. It follows the ANAs transparency report that was conducted two years ago by K2 Intelligence that found rebates paid to agencies by media companies and related practices, often not disclosed to clients, were widespread in the industry. Recent surveys have also found that trust between agencies and clients remains low. by Sara Guaglione , October 10, 2018 The Guardian is relaunching Guardian Weekly as an international magazine. It will introduce two new local editions one for North America and another for Australia in addition to its global edition for the UK and the rest of the world. We see the biggest growth opportunities in Australia and the U.S. where there is already a loyal Guardian audience, Will Dean, editor of Guardian Weekly, told Publishers Daily. The North American and Australian editions will each have four pages of local content; the global edition will have four additional pages of international coverage. The magazine is 64 pages in total. The new Guardian Weekly also has an updated look and more pages than the former newspaper, modeled after The Guardians print and digital redesign earlier this year, when the publication changed to a tabloid format. advertisement advertisement It is part of a three-year plan by London-based parent company Guardian Media Group, which publishes The Guardians U.K. and U.S. editions and The Observer, to cut costs and balance its books by April 2019. The weekly news/current affairs magazine market is currently strong and it makes business, as well as brand sense, to offer readers a high-quality, keepable format for Guardian Weekly and make it available on more newsstands, says Dean. Building on a current global circulation of 42,000, including over 32,000 subscribers, the Guardian Weekly will be more widely available on newsstands in Australia and the UK, where the magazine will be available to buy in 120 travel WHSmiths for the first time. The first copies will hit newsstands and arrive with subscribers starting tomorrow. Guardian Weekly, a nearly 100-year-old publication, combines news reporting, opinion, features and photography from The Guardian, Observer, theguardian.com and the U.S. and Australia editions. It also contains analysis and feature stories, a focus on the big stories of the week, sport, science and environment reporting, a dedicated culture section, crosswords and puzzles. Guardian Weekly will continue to be edited by Dean, who was appointed editor in December 2017. He will work closely with the Guardian Australia and Guardian U.S. teams. The Guardian does not have a paywall and it does not ask readers to commit to paying a certain amount every month for a year, like most digital subscriptions. Instead, it asks readers to make a one-time payment, or set up monthly payments, starting from $2. The publication says it now has over 500,000 readers globally who support the publisher monthly through either a contribution or subscription. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, October 10, 2018 Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) wants the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google over revelations that the company not only exposed private data of Google+ users to outside developers, but also failed to disclose the data leak for seven months. We learned last Monday of yet another breach of the public's trust by a big tech firm, Blumenthal said Wednesday at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing about online privacy. He said he plans on Wednesday to send the FTC a letter seeking a probe of the company. Blumenthal also asked European privacy official Andrea Jelinek whether she planned to investigate the violation of basic norms by Google in its failure to disclose the data leak sooner. Jelinek responded that officials in Ireland and Hamburg are already investigating the company. advertisement advertisement The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that a glitch in Google's system allowed up to 438 outside developers to access information about Google+ users' contacts. The company reportedly discovered the glitch and fixed it in March, but delayed disclosing it until this week, due to fears of regulatory scrutiny and bad publicity. On Monday, Google said it plans to shut down the consumer version of Google+. Blumenthal also renewed calls for new federal privacy laws. The fact is that consumers have no meaningful federal protection for consumer data, he said. Until there is an effective enforcer at the federal or state level, with federal standards backed by strong resources and authority, consumers will continue to be at risk. Earlier this year, he co-sponsored a bill that would require companies to obtain consumers' explicit consent to use or share their personal information. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 9) Withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC) may hurt the country's position in the disputed West Philippine Sea, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio warned Tuesday. Carpio said the Philippines will be giving up a "strong legal deterrent" if it leaves the international tribunal. "We cannot bring President Xi Jinping to the ICC if he invades Pagasa (Island) or builds a military base in Scarborough Shoal. We will lose that defense. We will have no deterrent legally," he said during the oral arguments on the petition questioning the legality of the withdrawal. Carpio explained, "There is no other tribunal that can decide on territorial disputes until both parties voluntarily submit to arbitration. But this one, it's a crime against the world, against mankind, a war or crime of aggression." Solicitor General Jose Calida maintained that President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to withdraw from the ICC is not against the constitution. Calida argued that Duterte simply exercised his constitutional prerogative as the chief architect of the country's foreign policy. Calida said the constitution only requires the concurrence of at least two-thirds of all members of the Senate in making a treaty or international agreement valid, but not in withdrawing from it. He pointed out the President's withdrawal from the Rome Statute is not subject to judicial review as it involves a political question. Duterte in March said the country would withdraw from the ICC "effective immediately," slamming efforts to use the organization "as a political tool against the Philippines." ICC is looking into the government's drug war after Jude Sabio filed a communication before it in April 2017. Sabio is the lawyer of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, who had testified in the Senate of killing people in Davao City on orders of then-Mayor Duterte. CNN Philippines' correspondent Anjo Alimario contributed to this report. Over the last 20 years, hospitals and imaging centers in the developed economies have adopted X-ray mammography systems for the screening and diagnosis of breast cancer. This has resulted in a significant reduction in mortality and encouraged emerging countries to make investments in population-base, organized screening. These significant investments in mammography technology have paved the way for radiation safety, patient comfort and 3D imaging that enables precise tumor detection.These are the latest findings of Frost & Sullivan, (Santa Clara, CA, USA), a global management consulting company.Traditionally, highly populated countries have been slow to adopt non-conventional business models, although government initiatives for promoting early tumor detection are anticipated to drive the use of X-ray mammography imaging solutions in these countries. China and Eastern European nations such as Hungary and Poland are likely to be growth hubs for mammography solutions with the governments in these countries rolling out organized, population-based screening. India and other countries in Eastern Europe, such as Romania, are still in the development phase. Vendors in these markets are strategically employing leasing, managed equipment services, and various rental and pay-per-use models to drive procedural volumes. Moreover, new business models that focus on workflow efficiency will be the most feasible on account of the high budget deficits in these markets. At the same time, the evolution of payment models toward outcome-based reimbursement underlines the need for precision diagnosis.According to Frost & Sullivan, vendors looking to expand their footprint and monetize growth opportunities in the X-ray mammography imaging solutions market need to: Offer value-adds through additional software services and improve the value proposition for clinical and financial stakeholders; Realign care models to focus on painless patient comfort systems that standardize compression pressure with minimum radiation dose; Deliver a fully integrated solution that provides access to medical imaging data as telemammography consultation gains currency; Introduce technologies focusing on microcalcifications and breast density assessment; and Collaborate with radiographers, medical physicists, and radiologists.Technology developments in dose reduction, optimization, specificity, and sensitivity for early tumor detection will ensure that mammography remains the preferred imaging tool for breast cancer detection."Although analog and computed radiography (CR) mammography will continue to generate revenues from developing economies over the next three to five years, their increasing obsolescence will present considerable opportunities for 2D digital radiography (DR) systems," said Poornima Srinivasan, an industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "Studies show that digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a game-changing technology for screening programs due to its ability to detect tumors in women with dense breast tissue. Similarly, 2D DR mammography with 3D DBT enhancement and synthesized 2D imaging also offer high price-performance value.""To further improve product uptake, vendors are positioning 3D with multi-modality views, setting up workstations with 2D and 3D comparisons, and creating advanced detectors and algorithms to detect cancer at an early stage," added Srinivasan. "Significantly, they are also launching technologies such as contrast-enhanced spectral mammography, which provides low-energy 2D mammographic imaging on par with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)." The 'MeToo' movement in our country is a wake-up call for all those eyes and ears which have been shut to a horrendous reality, that happens behind closed doors, on open roads and affects every victim in a different way. Tanushree Dutta shook the foundation of the hypocritical, diabolical world of Bollywood after she accused Nana Patekar of harassing her on a film set years ago. Her many interviews explain the trauma she had to endure, and how instead of helping her, everyone in the crew went against her and she was forced to stay silent. This bold move opened the gates of courage for many women, both in the industry and outside of it, to speak their story out loud and share their trauma with the world. Soon the social media was flooded with a plethora of #MeToo stories that shocked and baffled us in equal measure. Amongst the names of many perpetrators, AIB co-founders Tanmay Bhat, Gursimram Khamba and even Alok Nath were called out by various women. While every accused man is trying to either issue an apology or wash off these accusations, it is the deafening silence of the big Bollywood stars on this entire boiling issue of sexual misconduct, that is jarring the most. 'Queen' director Vikas Bahl was accused by several women, including Kangana Ranaut of misconduct and instead of offering her major support, most superstars have decided to stay shut. May we ask why? Is it because it might affect your double-faced relations in the industry, or is it costing you an entire movie? Offering support and calling out perpetrators is what these so-called 'influencers' have cleverly chosen to ignore. Instagram In a recent interview, Bollywood Imran Khan came up and spoke openly about the entire Vikas Bahl episode. His statements are an eye-opener and make you question the shallow nature of this industry, that is supposedly meant to give wings to one's dreams. Imran claims that the entire industry knew about Vikas Bahl but everyone chose to ignore it. I think it was long long long overdue. There have been times when I wanted to speak out. I was advised to stay quiet because they said people will assume I am trying to grab publicity. They (people) will say I am trying to become relevant and come in the news since my films have not worked well. Time and again, people around me will tell me to not speak up. There are a lot of things that have happened in front of me and bothered me for years. Even after being aware of so many things, I could not say it out because I somewhere felt no one will support me on it. Instagram Speaking of a first-hand account that he witnessed, he shared the details of how deep-rooted this problem is and just how 'normal' it is for everyone to accept this behaviour. Very early in my career, there was a director who was auditioning for the female lead in a film. He made girls do a photoshoot in bikinis, in sexy poses. These photographs went straight to the director's personal laptops. These were not costume tests. These were not even used for marketing. So, what was he doing with these photographs? Later, he was showing these photos to the three shortlisted actresses and other women on the sets. I found it appalling. It is sexism and definitely an emotional and mental harassment. It was a wrong usage of power. There is a story later that happened with the actress. I hope she speaks of it through the story I am telling, it is her choice," he said. About Vikas Bahl, Imran blatantly claims that Bollywood is not a stranger to this issue, everyone is talking about Vikas Bahl. I have heard his stories from three other actresses. Ranging from inappropriate touching to straight up saying that 'if you were cast in the film, what will I get in return?'. Again, I am telling you what I know directly through the actresses or from the industry. The story of this girl (in case of Vikas Bahl) came somewhere a year ago, if I am not wrong. Everyone in the film industry knew. I was at a social gathering 5-6 months ago, with a lot of people and the conversation came about MeToo movement in Hollywood. At a point, I said 'what about Bollywood?'. The Vikas Bahl matter was brushed under the carpet, a few weeks after the news first appeared, I saw him smiling, posing for pictures with every celebrity in the industry. At that point, he started making a film with Hrithik (Roshan). I was like how is it in Hollywood a culprit is shunned but here he was making a proper film. Everyone was socialising with him. So, I brought it up at the party and realised only I was the odd one there. Instagram While we are glad that a mainstream Bollywood figure has spoken, we still wonder how long will it be before others let the skeletons out of the closet. It is funny and obnoxious at the same time that our beloved stars go all out for campaigns and voice opinions about issues, when their movies are around the corner or they are associated with a certain brand. True, it took Imran years to open up about this and this doesn't mean that he is not guilty of hiding behind the garb of Bollywood's golden silence, but we do give credit to the man for at least asking women to speak up. These people might not come out in open, but I wanted to stand up and say I support them completely. I cannot be silent about it anymore. My conscience will not allow me to. As a man, I know what it is to say that. I do not want to deal with negative publicity, but how these women have come out is brave. I do not want them to feel that men in the industry are not standing by them. I have chosen my words and said what I intended to say. I have been silent for long enough and it makes me feel dirty. The people who were lauding Hollywood for its brave 'MeToo' movement are the same people who chose to wrap their silence in crafted hypocrisy. What they forget is the fact that people are evolving and no one is a fool here. You might wonder that an actor's job is to simply entertain and work towards making a wonderful movie for the fans, but allow me to explain how they also have a social responsibility to speak up for things when the issues demand their attention. Our influencers, our idols tweet and post about random things and portray an example of how certain people might want to be, so why on Earth, when this is happening in your fraternity and people you work and party with are involved, you simply choose to not speak up? After a consultation period, Fastmarkets has decided to cease assessing prices for this market. Rebar import volumes into Algeria have been decreasing rapidly since 2016, when the countrys government introduced import quotas That decision was made at a time when Algeria was developing its long steel rolling capacity , and the countrys government later expanded its protectionist policy in 2017.European rebar export volumes to Algeria totaled just 108,000 tonnes in January-June 2018, compared with 849,000 tonnes in the previous six months. This change in trade flows is expected to be permanent.If you have any comments on the discontinuation of this price, please contact Jethro Wookey by email at: pricing@metalbulletin.com . Please add the subject heading FAO: Jethro Wookey, re: Algeria rebar import price.All historical data relating to this price prior to its suspension will remain available in the pricing section of the Fastmarkets website.To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents, go to https://www.metalbulletin.com/prices/pricing-methodology.html JOURNALIST: The impending trilateral Summit Meeting between Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus, which will take place in a few days in Crete, is the 6th Summit Meeting between the three countries. Can you comment on this? N. KOTZIAS: In the context of Greeces multidimensional and proactive foreign policy in recent years, Greece and Cyprus have shaped six trilateral cooperation schemes in the Eastern Mediterranean: with Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Armenia, while we are discussing the shaping of a new one with Bahrain. The trilateral cooperation with Egypt is the most promoted one, and follows the one with Israel. You know that in our wider region, conditions of instability have developed for some years now. Greece, Cyprus and Egypt are countries whose work and cooperation with each other represent a "bulwark" against the growing volatility, while they are trying to generate the conditions for the creation and spread of conditions of stability in the region. In addition, we are systematically promoting the implementation of the required terms and conditions for the positive development of EU-Egypt relations, towards which Greece plays the role of constructive mediator and defender of the interests of all parties. JOURNALIST: What are the most important topics on this Summit's agenda? N. KOTZIAS: To put it in general terms, we can say that this Summit will mean a further stepping up of our cooperation. Beyond that, the emphasis should be on sectors of common interest, such as regional developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, energy, telecommunications issues, dealing with irregular migration, but also cooperation in the sectors of education and culture. JOURNALIST: Egypt and Greece have maintained a long-standing relationship since Antiquity. How do you envisage this relationship today, and in what areas do you see a potential for future cooperation between the two countries? N. KOTZIAS: Indeed, Greek-Egyptian interactions hark back to ancient times, when both civilizations thrived on the opposite shores of the Mediterranean. Ancient Greeks had a profound respect towards Egyptian culture. In Egypt, during its Hellenistic period, the Greek and Egyptian spirit were able to blend together in creative ways. Let us also remember the Arab contribution in preserving ancient Greek letters and the fact that Cavafy, the leading figure of Greek modern poetry, came from Egypt, the most prominent poet of Alexandria according to Durrell. With such historical background, it is only logical that culture should be one of the most favourable sectors of cooperation, as is also evident from Greek and Egyptian participation in the Ancient Civilizations Forum, since this forum offers a platform for dialogue and highlights the importance of our ancient civilizations for our contemporary world while promoting the values and principles of the great civilizations we have bequeathed. Because these cultures continue to resonate in the day-to-day lives of peoples and institutions, and in the way a state functions. We live in a period of instability. At this time, culture, and ancient civilizations in particular, provide continuity and stability. With the wisdom they bequeathed to us, they give us standards with which to solve contemporary problems. In addition, there is significant room for economic cooperation, first and foremost between Greek and Egyptian companies. JOURNALIST: The Egyptian people particularly appreciate Greeces attitude as well as its support against terrorism in Egypt. How can we cooperate in this area at the level of bilateral relations? N. KOTZIAS: Greece stands unflinchingly by Egypt in its efforts to combat terrorism, which, apart from Egypt, directly affects our larger "neighbourhood" and the European Union too. Terrorism is condemnable in all its manifestations, and we shall spare no effort to combat it, whatever its source. JOURNALIST: Some European countries still underestimate and misinterpret the political situation in Egypt. Greece could play an important role as a European gateway between Northern and Southern Europe and therefore help to correct these erroneous perceptions by purveying the real situation in Egypt, especially when it comes to the fight against terrorism? N. KOTZIAS: Greece is a loyal and close friend of Egypt, and it fully supports the latter's interests within the EU. It has proved this, in practical ways, through its successive pronouncements. We systematically explain to our European partners the gigantic work that the Egyptian Government has undertaken in order to create conditions of security and stability in a country of over 100 million people - to protect all those lives, give them access to food and education, and ultimately better prospects for the future. We also explain that, in our region Western European conditions dont prevail. On the contrary, three to four wars break out every five or ten years, hundreds of thousands of lives are lost, and we are faced with millions of refugees and economic migrants. Therefore, the two countries attach paramount importance to security and stability in the region as well as to the safeguarding of human life. These goals determine everything else. As we often stress, everyone must realize that Egypts stability is inextricably linked, also, with the stability of Europe itself. JOURNALIST: Geographically, Greece is the European country which is closest to Egypt. How can we take advantage of this geographical confluence, on the level of large national projects, particularly those relating to the Mediterranean sea ports, such as the new Suez Canal project and the East Port of Port Said? N. KOTZIAS: Greece and Egypt are very important energy and transportation hubs, from East to West. I think there is no need to emphasize the importance of the Suez Canal for international trade and international connectivity. Today, Greece and Egypt are upgrading their infrastructures, as both energy and transport hubs, and I am sure that the reciprocal possibilities that our two countries offer will further highlight the importance of the Eastern Mediterranean for world trade and global energy security. JOURNALIST: What is the cooperation between Greece and Egypt in exploring sources of oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean? What shape do you think this cooperation may take, especially given the challenges by Turkey, which prevents Cyprus from exploring for gas and oil in its territorial waters? N. KOTZIAS: The recent discovery of significant energy reserves in Egypt, Israel, and Cyprus underscores the importance of the Eastern Mediterranean for energy security in Europe. There is great interest on the part of the international giants in the field of energy. Despite the continuing challenges and obstacles set by third countries, I am sure that reserves will be exploited in such a way so as to guarantee the sovereign rights of the regions States over their natural resources, as well as international legitimacy. Nobody can behave as a State that is not bound by international law, undermining the interests of the peoples in the region. JOURNALIST: Greece has had a painful experience with the economic crisis, but it has overcome this crisis. How do you see the countrys economic future? N. KOTZIAS: Greece is emerging from its economic crisis. It has already achieved positive growth rates, while unemployment is on the decline. In our efforts to bolster the economy, we must not forget the sacrifices made by the Greek people, thanks to which we have arrived at the desired result. Emerging from the crisis, Greece wishes to influence the surrounding area in a trajectory for joint development, for the benefit of all. JOURNALIST: Let us continue with the unstable situation in the Southern Mediterranean. What do you think about the developments in the region, particularly in Syria? N. KOTZIAS: In Syria, we support a political solution which must be viable and will ensure the return of refugees to their homes. We will spare no effort to strengthen and actively support the political process; however, the situation there remains complicated because of the mingling of numerous third players. A solution to the crisis in Syria is imperative for stability and security in the region. For this reason, we urge all those involved to contribute constructively to this end. JOURNALIST: Greece's stance is always supportive of the national rights of the Palestinian people, and it supports peace in the Middle East in every case. How would you comment on that? What do you think is the appropriate solution to put an end to the problem in the Middle East? N. KOTZIAS: The best solution, in our view, as well as in the view of the overwhelming majority of the members of the international community, is a two-state solution, which will offer security guarantees to Israel and, on the other hand, viability guarantees of a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. We believe that all sides must work towards creating the conditions that will permit the resumption of negotiations to achieve this objective. A catalyst for resolving problems in the Middle East is development, with everything this implies for young peoples prospects in the region. We particularly appreciate all the initiatives undertaken by Egypt in this context, which contribute to raising awareness of and rationally approaching the issue of Palestine. These actions are always to the benefit of the Palestinian people and peace in the region. It is a resounding example of a positive agenda, such as the one towards which our country is steadily working through the Rhodes Conference. An initiative for which we appreciate the continuing presence of my Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, who has been actively involved in the work of the Conference. JOURNALIST: How are relations with Turkey, in view of the growing challenges and violations against Greece? N. KOTZIAS: Turkey continues its revisionist policy, which translates into continuous violations of Greek airspace and Greek territorial waters. However, as a responsible power, we insist on maintaining open channels of communication and continuing dialogue. It is only through peaceful means that these differences can be resolved. The continuous violations on the part of Turkey do not constitute a constructive attitude. The problem with Turkey is that it often ignores the fact that our friendly foreign policy, as well as our intention to work to reduce tensions, are not a sign of weakness. On the contrary, this is a sober and responsible stance dictated by the sense of responsibility and self-confidence that is characteristic of Greek foreign policy. It is an expression of power. JOURNALIST: With regard to the reunification of Cyprus, in your opinion, what is the best way to solve the problem? N. KOTZIAS: As we have emphasised with great success at the Crans-Montana conference, the Cyprus issue is, above all, a matter of illegal invasion and occupation. The continuing presence of the occupying troops and the anachronistic system of guarantees to the detriment of the Republic of Cyprus must finally be terminated. Any solution for the benefit of all Cypriots, without exception, must settle these two very critical parameters in order to be sustainable, Cyprus must become a normal state, like the rest of the members of the EU and the UN. These things go without saying, as the UN Secretary General acknowledged moreover, by adopting the condition of a 'normal' State as I outlined it in Crans-Montana. As far as the domestic aspects of the Cyprus issue, the best way to find a solution is through direct negotiations between the two communities, without any intervention on the part of third parties. JOURNALIST: How do you assess the role of both Greece and Egypt in the international political scene? N. KOTZIAS: Greece and Egypt continue to gain increasing importance in the international political landscape, due to their geographical position, the possibilities they possess, as well as the policy to which they adhere. A policy of responsibility which promotes cooperation and dialogue to resolve the regions problems. A policy which demonstrates leadership and is not complacent with fatalistic and idle thinking. These are states with developed institutions, where stability reigns. In addition, they are reliable allies and partners in the international community and are consistently in favour of international legitimacy. I think this has been recognized by the international community, which invests more and more in collaborating with our two countries for stability and security in the region. JOURNALIST: One of Greece's problems today is irregular migration and refugees, especially those from the Middle East. What measures is Greece taking in this regard? N. KOTZIAS: The migration and refugee issue is not a problem that concerns only Greece, but primarily all of Europe. Let me stress that Greece, as you know, along with other countries, is paying for the choices of third countries (bombing of Syria etc.) The states that made those choices are not the ones being called upon to pay for them. In cooperation with our partners in the EU and Egypt, which has undertaken many commendable initiatives, we are trying to manage these mass flows as best as possible. However, the only solution is to eliminate the underlying causes of these flows and, in particular, to end the wars, particularly in the Middle East, and especially in Syria. If peace and growth do not exist there, this region will never be at peace and will continue to send waves of refugees and migrants towards Europe. Beyond that, within the framework of the EU, everyone must show the necessary solidarity and not close their borders. Today, we cannot speak of a Fortress Europe, nor can the countries of first reception be asked to shoulder a disproportionate burden. HURON COUNTY Three North Huron students and one Ubly student were selected to attend the World Food Prize and participate in the Global Youth Institute in Iowa in mid-October. The World Food Prize is an international award that recognizes individuals who have increased the quality, quantity, and availability of food, water and basic necessities in the world. The Global Youth Institute is a program of the World Food Prize that welcomes youth from around the world to learn more about food insecurity around the globe. Students must qualify to attend the Global Youth Institute at the state event. The Michigan Youth Institute, hosted by Michigan State University, invites middle and high school students to be part of changing the world by researching an underdeveloped country and a major issue that country faces related to food insecurity. Students are asked to write a five-page research paper with information about their country and propose solutions to specific factors that affect food security and availability. Students then present their research at MSU and participate in round table discussions with experts and other students. Each student receives feedback from the experts. Select students are then asked to interview for a chance to attend the World Food Prize in Iowa in October 2018. The World Food Prize Michigan Youth Institute recently announced the seven outstanding high school students that have been invited to join Michigans delegation to the 2018 World Food Prize Global Youth Institute. The delegates were chosen from among the 53 youth who participated in the World Food Prize Michigan Youth Institute, held in May 2018. The youth from Huron County who have been selected to serve as Michigans delegation are: Casey Baranski, a junior at North Huron School. She will present her research on water and sanitation in Ghana. Haili Gusa, a senior from Ubly Community Schools. She will present her research on malnutrition in Fiji. Ashley Koglin, a senior from North Huron School. She will present her research on water and sanitation in Angola. Elizabeth Trudeau, a senior from North Huron School. She will present her research on education in Uganda. The World Food Prize Global Youth Institute will take place Oct. 17-20 in Des Moines, Iowa as part of the World Food Prize Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium and Laureate Awards Ceremony. Youth participating in the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute will watch the awards ceremony and hear speeches from the recipients of the 2018 World Food Prize, Lawrence Haddad and David Nabarro. Michigans delegates will also participate in the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium, known as the Borlaug Dialogue. The Borlaug Dialogue is a three-day symposium that brings together international experts, policy leaders, business executives and farmers to address cutting-edge issues in global food security and nutrition, according to the World Food Prize. Michigans youth delegates will also have an opportunity to present their research and proposed solutions to global challenges related to food security through roundtable discussions with peers and experts while attending the Global Youth Institute. UPPER THUMB -- Sen. Phil Pavlov recently hosted the winners of his "Be a Senator for a Day" summer reading contest at the Michigan Capitol. Eleven students from Huron, Sanilac and St. Clair counties, the communities of Richmond, Armada and New Baltimore in Macomb County, and the reading program at the Blue Water YMCA traveled to Lansing with their parents to participate in a mock swearing-in ceremony and committee hearing and a guided Capitol tour. Contributed Photo NEW HAVEN CT Folks Folk Fridays will open its fall season Friday with the highly regarded Bettman & Halpin, nationally touringfolk-Americana artists who were voted Most Wanted Emerging Artist at the 2017 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. in the First Presbyterian Church Hall, 704 Whitney Ave. Tickets are $25 at the door or $20 in advance (until 3 p.m. the day of the show) at www.ctfolk.com. Student admission is $10. MIDDLETOWN Eighth-grade students and families who are considering enrolling at Mercy High School are invited to become a Mercy Girl For a Day. Each visitor spends the day with a Mercy student with similar interests, follows her class schedule, meets her friends, has lunch in the cafeteria and gets a feel for what a day is like at the Catholic school. Transfer students are also encouraged to contact the admissions office, according to a press release. Four years at Mercy High School allowed our daughter Lindsey (a 2018 graduate attending Fordham University in New York City) to grow academically, socially, physically and spiritually. Mercy fostered her development both in the classroom as well as the community. The faculty and staff instilled values that she will carry with her throughout her life, parents Christine Hickey Fritz and Christopher Fritz said in a prepared statement. Mercy graduates are prepared for the challenges of college academics and the transition to campus living, according to the high school, which added $8.2 million in scholarships and grants were awarded to the class of 2018 to attend colleges of their choice. Mercy has six honor societies, over 30 clubs and dozens of leadership positions. Students who attend Mercy come from 51 towns in Connecticut and several international countries, the release said. New to Mercy for the 2018-19 school year is the AP Capstone program. Mercy is one of approximately 1,500 schools worldwide to implement the AP Capstone diploma program, a college board program that equips students with the independent research, collaborative teamwork and communication skills increasingly valued by colleges, according to the school. Mercy breaks the cliches of girls not liking math. I am very proud of the results of our math team, Sr. Mary McCarthy, Mercy president, said in a prepared statement. Mercys Varsity Math Team received the first place, Large School Division, and first place overall for the Middlesex County Mathematics League this year. The Junior Varsity Team was ranked first place, Large School Division, and second place overall. The TechTigers 3654, a FIRST Robotics Team, not only received the Gracious Professionalism award at the 2018 Fairfield competition, where teams nominate other teams who were the most helpful to others, they won the Engineering Inspiration award at the 2018 Hartford competition. They were recognized for work helping others receive an education and for inspiring young people in STEM. This summer, the TechTigers were named the 2018 Rookie of the Year club by Girl Up, a global leadership development initiative, at a conference in Washington, D.C. One of the TechTigers focuses for Girl Up was raising enough money to purchase 15 bicycles for girls in Malawi to travel to school and back, according to the release. Our robotics team is for everyone. Our members work covers a variety of areas that include engineering, programming, computer science, fundraising, marketing, graphic design, animation, and giving back the community on local and global scales, Caroline Killian, co-captain of the TechTigers, said in the release. The entrance exam for eighth-grade girls (class of 2023) is Nov. 10 and 17. Middle school and high school girls interested in Mercy are invited to attend an open house Nov. 4. The event begins at 1 p.m. For information, call 860-346-6659 or visit mercyhigh.com. WASHINGTON Not a slam-dunk by any means, but Democrats retaking the House this November could yield an important new post for Rep. Jim Himes chairman of the House intelligence committee. Himes currently is the No. 2 Democrat in the minority behind the omnipresent Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who has carved out a sideline on cable news as the critic-in-chief of the committees Trump-obeisant chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. But House Democrats by tradition limit their House Intel leaders (majority or minority) to two terms. So if Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., becomes House speaker, she may abide by tradition and name Himes to replace Schiff. Or she might not. (And dont get us started on whether Pelosi would be selected by House Dems as speaker, should they take control for the first time since early 2011.) Schiff has done yeomans service as the even-tempered spokesman for Democrats on the wide variety of big issues before the committee, from oversight of the nations vast intelligence community to its Trump-Russia investigation upon which Nunes brought the curtain down in March. But Himes also is a regular on MSNBC and CNN, using his customary turns of phrases to help Schiff poke holes in the Trump-Nunes script. Pelosi may opt to retain Schiff as the sure hand on the tiller. And Himes may or may not have endeared himself to Pelosi with his time for a new generation of leadership mantra. So chairman or not, Himes will continue as a major Dem voice on the committee. And whether special counsel Robert Mueller drops Russia-linked bombshells on the Trump White House or falls short, oversight of the U.S. spy network isnt destined to become any less important in the near future. Our intelligence community does surveillance, Himes said at a recent reporters roundtable, according to Hearst Connecticut colleague Emilie Munson. They sometimes undertake lethal activity, so its pretty high-stakes stuff. Getting an earful Last week, Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Commissioner David Wilkinson was in Washington to receive the Future of Feedback award from Feedback Labs, which describes itself as a global network of over 400 leading aid, philanthropy, and governance organizations around the world. Formed in 2014, OEC is responsible for the states role in child care, pre-kindergarten, help for kids with developmental problems, and support for at-risk families areas that five state agencies used to oversee. The secret of their success? Listening. We believe that by listening and responding, we will provide better, more effective services for Connecticut families with young children and in so doing help create a brighter future for the state, said Wilkinson, an earnest young Yale Law grad who used to run the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation during the Obama years. I have to say the lead sentence of the press release caught my eye: The award to OEC was for innovation in serving the states youngest children and their families and for doing so by listening to them. A state agency that actually listens to children? That would be a first. Of course, the listening is to families and community providers who too often dont have a seat at the table, as Wilkinson himself put it. But imagine the award he would receive if OEC ever managed to listen to 6-year-olds? Those of us who are parents (or grandparents) of children that age can only imagine. dan@hearstdc.com Google executive Dave Hogue deleted a Tweet telling GOP senators to go "to hell" after they voted to add Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court Saturday. After pulling the emotional message from his account, Hogue replaced it with a more measured one standing by his frustration against Republicans. He wrote: Yes, I deleted that tweet. Yes, those opinions are mine personally, and I am responsible for them. Yes, I should have been more eloquent and less condemning. Yes, I still believe the @GOP is wrong and not serving your best interests. Yes, I still believe we can do much better. This latest tweet now has more than 5,000 comments, the majority attacking Hogue for his "lefty" politics. Hogue, a user experience design lead at Google, posted the first message on Saturday at 2 p.m. writing, "'You are finished, GOP. You polished the final nail for your own coffins. "F---. YOU. ALL. TO. HELL. "I hope the last images burned into your slimy, evil, treasonous retinas are millions of women laughing and clapping and celebrating as your souls descend into the flames." This all comes as there's growing sentiment among Republicans that online companies such as Google are biased toward those on the political right and censor content. Republican lawmakers called a House Judiciary Committee meeting in June to explore the "filtering" practices of Facebook, Google and Twitter. Conservative media outlets latched onto Hogue's message, posting screen captures of Hogue's tweet and publishing articles directing readers to his Twitter account. Hogue in turn deleted his message before posting the new one. In response to Hogue's recent Twitter activity, Google's press office released a statement reading, "What employees say in their personal capacity has no bearing on the way we build or operate our products." The Army is targeting 22 cities and adding 700 recruiters to reverse the decline in enlistments this year, officials said Tuesday. The Army has identified 22 cities in the U.S. where the service has had difficulty attracting recruits that will now get more attention, said Gen. Stephen Townsend, head of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), who has taken on additional duty as senior official for accessions. Townsend did not name the cities but said they are outside the traditional areas in which Army recruiting has been strong, including the southeast and southwest. "We're going to have to succeed in those areas," he said. The service also will be "filling out its recruiting team" by bringing on 700 more recruiters, Townsend said in a panel discussion on "Building America's Army" at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting and exposition. Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Guden, Townsend's top enlisted aide at TRADOC, said the Army is looking at asking current recruiters who have been successful in the role to stay on for an additional year in that job, as well as considering "some kind of incentive pay" to attract more soldiers into recruiting. In addition, the service will ask former recruiters who are still on active duty in other fields "if they want to come back and continue recruiting." If necessary, the Army would also consider "forcing folks to stay on in recruiting or pull them from the operational force" to add recruiters, Guden said, adding that service officials do not want to pursue that option if they can avoid it. The focus on recruiting in areas the Army traditionally has ignored and the effort to add recruiters are a response to the shortfall in enlistments this year. Despite adding 70,000 troops to the force, the Army fell 6,500 short of its recruiting goal. In addition to targeting 22 cities and adding 700 recruiters, Townsend said the service's advertising and marketing campaigns will be overhauled in the coming weeks. "The marketing and advertising efforts have gone astray, just off the rails," he said. Marshall Williams, acting assistant secretary of the Army, said the booming economy and competition from civilian employers contributed to the enlistment shortfall. He referenced the vast exhibit hall, where defense contractors showed off their wares on the floors below as the panel discussion was held at the Washington Convention Center. "Therein lies the rub," Williams said. "We're in a battle for talent." In a question-and-answer session, he was asked whether the Army is considering scrapping the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test to ease the enlistment process. Williams said results from using ASVAB have been "really good." "Right now, we're keeping it because we haven't found anything better," he said. Army recruiters will also make more use of Twitter, Facebook and other social media, said Maj. Gen. John Evans, commander of Army Cadet Command and Fort Knox, Kentucky. "We have not been very good in using social space," he said. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. The Army's chief of staff says the service will reduce the number of non-deployable troops in the force by as many as 20,000 soldiers this year. In 2015, the Army had 153,000 non-deployable soldiers across the active duty, National Guard and Reserve, about 15 percent of the total force, Gen. Mark Milley said, describing how the service has reduced that number to between 60,000 and 70,000 soldiers. "That number is much lower, at 6 to 7 percent, and we are on track to achieve 5 percent this year. That's thousands of soldiers back in our formations ready to deploy," he told an audience Tuesday at the 2018 Association of the United States Army's Annual Meeting and Exposition. Milley did not clarify whether he meant calendar year 2018 or fiscal 2019, which began this month and ends next September. The Pentagon's new deploy-or-out policy went into effect Oct. 1, after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in February that service members who are non-deployable for more than 12 months do not belong in the U.S. military. Milley's push to meet the Defense Department's goal of a 5 percent non-deployable rate is part of a plan to bring Army units up to full strength by 2023. The Army plans to continue to grow over the next several years, bringing operational units up to "90 percent authorized strength this year, 100 percent strength by 2021 and 105 percent strength by 2023, in order to ensure that we have units fully manned and ready to respond when called," he said. "Why do we want 105 percent strength? Because, on average, the cost of doing business in the Army, Navy Air Force, Marines is about 5 percent non-deployables," Milley explained. "So if we can man the operational forces at 105 percent in units, then that will guarantee that we have 95 or 100 percent of the soldiers present for duty, attending major training events, or if they have to deploy on an operation, they go." Army Secretary Mark Esper said officials are still "fine-tuning the Army [non-deployable] policy consistent with the DoD policy but ... our expectation is that every soldier must be deployable." "You cannot have a service where some deploy and some don't," he said. "Every time a soldier doesn't deploy, somebody else takes his or her place." Milley said senior leaders understand "there are injuries, there are things that happen to people that put you into a temporary non-deployable status. Our obligation to the soldiers and to the American people is that we have a force, an Army that's combat-ready, and every single one of us wearing the cloth of our country has got to make sure that we are ready to deploy once the nation calls." He added, "There are exceptions to everything; there are individual waivers ... for individual cases." The Army's plan is not without challenges. The fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act authorizes the service's active force to grow to 490,000. Army leaders recently announced an effort to re-energize the service's recruiting program after it missed its 2018 recruiting goal by 6,500 soldiers. "We want to continue expanding Army end strength to relatively modest numbers. We think we can meet the mission that we are going to set for 2019, but we recognize and acknowledge that we did not meet it for 2018," Milley said. "We are increasing the numbers of recruiters, and we are looking at the locations of where we go and recruit, and many, many techniques of recruiting that we are going to modify over the coming year." -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. China's Sub Force Is Growing More Powerful. This Is What the US Navy Needs to Do to Stay Ahead U.S. Army aviation leaders offered details Wednesday about recent solicitations to industry designed to advance the attack-reconnaissance and advanced drone aircraft programs for the service's ambitious Future Vertical Lift effort. "We had a very good week last week in dropping two [requests for proposal]. ... The big one for us was the solicitation on the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft," Brig. Gen. Wally Rugen, director of the Future Vertical Lift, Cross Functional Team, told an audience at the 2018 Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition. Future Vertical Lift, or FVL, is the Army's third modernization priority, intended to field a new generation of helicopters such as the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk, as well as the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA), by 2028. The FARA will be designed to take targeting information from FVL's Advanced Unmanned Aerial System and coordinate "lethal effects" such as long-range precision fires to open gaps into a contested airspace, Rugen said. Released Oct. 3, the RFP for the FARA asks industry to submit proposals for competitive prototypes. "All the offerors will basically get us their designs by 18 December; we will down-select up to six in June and, in 2020, we will down-select to two," Rugen said. The Army plans to conduct a fly-off event in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 to select a winner, he added. "It's a tremendous capability ... that we think is going to be the cornerstone for our close combat control of contested airspace." The service also released a Sept. 28 Future Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems RFP for industry to present platforms to conduct demonstrations for Forces Command units. "Future Tactical UAS is really something that we have been asking for; it's a [Brigade Combat Team]-oriented UAS," said Brig. Gen. Thomas Todd III, commander of Program Executive Office Aviation. "It isn't necessarily a replacement for the [RQ-7] Shadow, but it could be, depending on how it goes with industry ... so we are ready to see what you've got." The Army plans to pick three vendors to provide "future tactical UAS platforms to FORCOM units, and they are going to go and basically demonstrate their capabilities," Rugen said, adding that the Army is looking for features such as lower noise signature and better transportability. The service plans to "do a fly-off in the next couple of months and down-select in February," he said. FORCOM units will then fly them for a year in 2020. The results of the demonstrations will inform future requirements for the FVL's Advanced UAS, Rugen said. "If it's something we really, really like, we may move forward with it." -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. The Army plans to start equipping its first close-combat unit with new binocular-style night-vision devices by late September 2019. Army equipment officials said recently that the service would begin fielding the first of an initial 10,000 Enhanced Night Vision Goggle B devices by the end of fiscal 2019. The Marine Corps has also decided to buy 3,100 ENVGBs off the Army contract, Brig. Gen. Anthony Potts, commander of Program Executive Office Soldier, said Tuesday at the 2018 Association of the United States Army's Annual Meeting and Exposition. The Army announced at the beginning of the year it would fund the effort to give soldiers a new dual-tubed night-vision goggle, offering greater depth perception than the current single-tubed Enhanced Night Vision Goggles and AN/PVS 14s. The service has not yet selected the first unit to receive the new devices, but officials said it will be a Forces Command infantry or other close-combat unit. Equipment officials are still working out fielding details, but have decided the ENVGB "will go to everybody in the squad," according to Col. Kurt Thompson, head of Training and Doctrine Command's Capability Manager-Soldier. It's still unclear what size unit will be equipped first, but the plan is to field the first order of 10,000 ENVGBs over the next three fiscal years, Army officials said. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Fact: "First Man" is one of the very best movies of the year and an awesome depiction of the dangers and accomplishments of the United States space program. The movie focuses on the life and career of Neil Armstrong, using his experiences in the space program to tell NASA's story. Universal Pictures and Regal Cinemas want U.S. veterans and active-duty servicemembers to see the movie, so they're making 14,000 tickets available for free at more than 500 Regal locations nationwide. Here's how it works: Each of the first 25 service members or veterans (per location) with valid, government-issued ID who request a ticket will be given free admission to the 7:00 p.m. preview screening (or first show) on Thursday, October 11. You can find the participating theaters at this link: www.firstmanforservicemembers.com. There are more USA flags in the movie than you could possibly count and director Damien Chazelle effectively portrays the pressures created by the Cold War and our space race with the USSR. Neil Armstrong's sons Mark and Rick were invovled in the production of the movie and they're very happy with the result and want the military community to see "First Man. '"During his career as a Naval aviator, our dad flew 78 combat missions in the Korean War. The friendships he forged during those critical years remained deeply important to him all of his days. Freedom -- much like landing on the moon -- is an achievement that is hard fought and hard won, and it cannot be accomplished without the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and their loved ones. Wed like to join Universal and Regal in thanking all our current and past veterans, as well as their families, for their brave service to this great nation." Ryan Gosling stars as Neil Armstrong and there are great performances from Corey Stoll (Buzz Aldrin), Jason Clarke (Ed White), Shea Whigham (Gus Grissom), Pablo Schreiber (Jim Lovell), Kyle Chandler (Deke Slayton), Ethan Embry (Pete Conrad), Lukas Haas (Mike Collins), Christopher Abbott (Dave Scott) and, especially, Patrick Fugit (Elliott See). Claire Foy gives an outstanding performance as Neil Armstrong's wife Janet, a part that couldn't be more different than her upcoming turn as Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl in the Spider's Web." See it. Decide for yourself. ANN ARBOR, MI - When the Ann Arbor Community Center opened at 625 N. Main St. in 1960, it represented the next chapter for the Dunbar Center, a place where the black community came together. The Dunbar Center, established in 1923 by the Rev. R.M. Gilbert of the Second Baptist Church and named for black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, had operated at 420 N. Fourth Ave. since 1937, and before that at two other locations in the area. By the late 1950s, it expanded its mission to serve the broader community and became the Ann Arbor Community Center, using donated funds to construct a new building on Main Street. Shirley Beckley, 76, who grew up near the center, said she considers it a part of her. "We started at the Dunbar, and then they built this because we outgrew the Dunbar, so we came here as teenagers and up," Beckley said during an emotional meeting at the center last Friday night, Oct. 5, dismayed that the board that runs the center, unbeknownst to many in the community, decided to sell the property last year. "This is not your center to sell or lease or do nothing with. It's ours. It belongs to the community," Beckley told the center's leaders, echoing other longtime black community members who learned only in recent months about the $1.6 million sale of the building. The center, a private nonprofit corporation run by a board of directors, sold the property in November 2017 to local tech entrepreneur Vik Kheterpal, who has spent months rehabbing the building, replacing windows, fixing a leaky roof and making other upgrades. In May, he moved his healthcare technology company, CareEvolution, into the center's former upper-level space, relocating from the McKinley Technology Centre a few blocks away. Under a longterm lease agreement, the community center now occupies a much smaller space in the building's lower level, where it continues to do its work without the cost of maintaining an aging building. Kheterpal said he's committed to preserving the building and the community center has a 10-year lease right now. The full terms of the lease arrangement are confidential. The center's leaders say it was a tough call to make, but the nonprofit organization has a limited budget and building expenses were eating away at it. They decided maintaining a large building when only 25 percent of it was being actively used no longer made sense. "The expenses for the building were escalating. Literally the building has been falling apart," said Board Chairman Mike Murphy. "The amount of the renovations just to get it up to snuff was going to exceed our annual budget, basically," he said, adding the center's leaders are now more excited than they've been in a long time in terms of the opportunity to continue providing services. "The center is an organization that provides programs and services to meet community needs for individuals and families who need it most, so in terms of the longterm viability for that and what we can deliver, we're in a better position than we've been in years," Murphy said. "And in terms of the ability to stay in this location, we're in a better position than we were last year." There still are more building repairs to make, including rebuilding an exterior stair wall that recently toppled, becoming a pile of bricks, but that's no longer the community center's financial problem. "That wall outside is a pretty good example," said board member Marvin Perry. "I mean, we had roof leaks all over the building upstairs." Perry said he looks forward to being able to put more funds toward programs to serve youths and help others in need now that maintaining the building isn't the center's concern. "We look at it as a partnership," Perry said of the arrangement with the new building owner. Many of the residents who packed into the center for Friday night's meeting to learn more about the situation still weren't satisfied with those answers, arguing the center's leaders should have consulted with them before making the decision to sell last year. "It feels all shady," Beckley said. "I'm very hurt." If they had known about the center's financial woes, they said, maybe the community could have stepped up to help. "I think it was really a breach of trust for this building to be sold," said Tom Miree, the center's former board chairman, arguing the black community should have held onto it as an asset. "You can't just sell something at your will," he told board members, suggesting they need to have a "come to Jesus" meeting. Miree was on the board when the center switched from a membership organization to a directorate several years ago. "In my wildest dream, I would have never imagined that the board would operate as they were the owners of the corporation, because this is a community-based building," he said. "It used to be the center of the African American community." The center's leaders argue it's a private nonprofit corporation and the board had the right to sell the property. They said they had their attorney check and there were no deed restrictions preventing a sale. "It was a membership organization at one time ... but it is not that now," Perry said, though he said he understands from a sentimental and historical perspective why some residents feel the way they do. Board members said the center still has a right-of-first-refusal option to repurchase the property if it's ever offered for sale again. City records online show a series of $1 transactions in 1957 to assemble the land for the community center. According to the center, that's consistent with what's on the title work. The old county jail on Main Street, which dated back to 1837, was demolished in 1958 to make way for the center, which was built on the sites formerly occupied by the jail and two other houses. Philanthropist Margaret Towsley provided most of the funds to build and furnish the center, and her architect brother Alden Dow designed it, along with a number of other Ann Arbor buildings around the time, including the downtown library and city hall. It's said that Frank Lloyd Wright once called Dow his "spiritual son." The new center, situated in the middle of Ann Arbor's historically black neighborhoods, provided a licensed daycare facility, drop-in teen center, study hall and spaces for activities, meetings and music. The center also reached out to youths in trouble in schools and courts. Many of the longtime black community members who attended Friday night's meeting, some of whom recalled going to the center decades ago, lamented that the historically black neighborhoods in the Kerrytown and Water Hill areas have been gentrified, displacing many black residents who used to live near the center. The center's leaders say that's one reason why the organization has had to move in a different direction and go out into the community more to serve people in need, as the building is no longer centered in a neighborhood needing it in quite the same way. "Things have changed a lot since decades ago when this was a hub of the community," Murphy said. "The need is all over the place right now, so we've got two buses. We're going out to the community to deliver services. But it's hard -- this community is extremely attached to this building and with good reason. It was an extremely important place to them, and we definitely want to respect and honor that." The Rev. Yolanda Whiten, the center's president and CEO since 2007, said the former Dunbar Center once provided black laborers who came to town for construction work a place to sleep when they had nowhere else to turn, and the center also provided black youths with an alternative to whites-only youth activities elsewhere. "The need continues to evolve," she told residents who remember coming to the center as children. "There are children now who have a different need than you had then, and aren't we obligated still to address that need as well? Because those kids are scattered all throughout the county now. They're not in one neighborhood anymore." The center still operates a food pantry out of the building and provides clothing, snacks, school supplies and other items to many poverty-level students through "caring closets" at nine Ann Arbor schools, among other programs to help people in need, including seniors. Through its partnership with Food Gatherers, the center reports it provided more than 10,000 pounds of food and nearly 9,000 meals to people in need last year. "When you all were kids and you had a need, this (building) provided the need," Whiten told residents. "These kids now today, they need a computer. They need the cable in their homes that they can't afford. They need -- I don't know how much we've spent buying clothes and shoes and all kinds of things that these kids need to go back to school this year." Some residents recalled the center fell on hard times a little over a decade ago and almost closed, but people rallied to save it. Some said they wished they had the same chance to stop the sale. Ann Hampton-Hawkins, the center's previous director, pleaded guilty in 2007 to embezzling more than $93,000 from the center, leaving the organization nearly bankrupt. Miree, chairman of the board in 2007, said he believed Hampton-Hawkins actually took about twice that. Whiten stepped in to lead the organization in 2007 and helped the new board bring the center back from the brink of closure. The center's mission statement now reads: "Influenced by a rich African American heritage, the Ann Arbor Community Center is a catalyst for transformation within the city and its greater community. With an emphasis on socio-economically disadvantaged youth and families, the Ann Arbor Community Center, Inc. (AACC) is a vital community resource that provides high-quality programs, information, and services to citizens in need." Murphy said he understands people's connection to the building and feels their pain, but the center's mission is to serve people, not maintain an underutilized building. "Historically this has been the neighborhood that it served, but the center and the mission and the services we provide are throughout the community, so the board as representatives of the community and the center had some difficult decisions to make," he said. Murphy said the board would reflect on how it has handled communicating with the community. "I certainly regret that we didn't do a better job communicating what was happening," he said. "We understand that and we would like to do better with that in the future, and ... have more community meetings." Three City Council members -- Anne Bannister, Sumi Kailasapathy and Jack Eaton -- attended Friday night's meeting, along with Kathy Griswold, who will start serving on council in November. They shared residents' concerns and pushed for greater transparency to keep the community informed. Bannister, who asked whether the community center had the legal right to sell the property, suggested more research into the 1957 land transaction documents may be needed. Kailasapathy raised concerns about the center's new confidential lease arrangement to stay in the building. She said without a deed restriction, leases can be broken. "Since you know how much this community cares, it's really important now to be open and transparent about this and be proactive," she told the center's leaders. "Because the way the real estate market is going in this town, the way gentrification is happening, I'm almost sure that this land is going to be flipped eventually." Murphy said the center's leaders started looking at different options a few years or so ago, recognizing they needed to do something to address the fact that the building was failing. He said they considered a fundraising campaign, but people typically want to support programs and services, not a building that's only 25 percent utilized. He said the board didn't want to put the property up for sale to the highest bidder because the building has history and people are connected to it. He said they wanted to find a partner to preserve the building and keep the center going, and they found that. "We did go through an RFP process to make sure we had market value," he said, adding they received proposals from some interested in demolishing the center and putting up condos. "The partner that we did end up finding has committed to maintaining the integrity of the building, keeping the Ann Arbor Community Center name on the building, and allowing us the space we need." Residents asked what's being done with the $1.6 million. Board members said for now it's being invested through PNC Bank. Kheterpal, who now owns the building, said he has been driving by the community center for years, going back to the 1980s when he attended the University of Michigan, and the last thing he wants to see is a building designed by Alden Dow demolished to make way for another large development. He said he's rehabbing the building in a way that preserves Dow's original vision, not making structural changes. "On this end of town, I think it would be nice to maintain sort of the old look and feel we have and the openness this area offers," he said, vowing to be a good steward of the property. Kheterpal said he and his company have a history of supporting the community center, so there already was an established relationship before he considered it as a potential new office space. Though it's a somewhat unorthodox relationship, he said, having his company and the community center share the building works. He said his company has more than 100 employees between offices in Ann Arbor and California, and about 20 to 25 employees are using the new office on any given day. "We're all part of this Ann Arbor community." ANN ARBOR, MI - The entrepreneurs who started Pincause are challenging the "I Voted" sticker, one of America's most popular voting traditions. They've created a new initiative ahead of the Nov. 6 election, "I'm Voting" stickers. Pincause founders Kate Lind and Nate Stevens created a million stickers with the new phrase to be distributed for free around the U.S., with a focus on college campuses. The duo said they started the initiative to encourage people to share their intent to vote so their friends and followers have time to make their own voting plan before election day. The "I Voted" sticker is too late of a reminder to encourage people to vote, Lind said. Pins and T-shirts with the "I'm Voting" phrase can be purchased online at imvoting.com. Each item sold supports free "I'm Voting" stickers being given away through retailers, ambassadors and partner organizations, she said. Lind and Stevens' goal is to give away a million stickers across the U.S. this month. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 10) The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is looking to buy old jeepney units to give owners more funds for new vehicles. DOTr Assistant Secretary Mark de Leon said Wednesday his office was eyeing a bigger subsidy for drivers of public utility vehicles (PUV), as the price of modern jeepneys has gone up. From an estimated P1.6 million pesos per unit over a year ago, each unit now cost 1.8 million. "Now the units, including all the accessories mandated by the DOTr, LTFRB (Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board), umaabot ng additional 200,000, so umaabot na sa 1.8 million ang unit," de Leon said. [Translation: Now the units, including all the accessories mandated by the DOTr, LTFRB cost an additional P200,000, so each unit costs P1.8 million.] The agency is currently offering an 80,000 subsidy for PUV drivers to buy modern jeeps. "Baka pwede nating dagdagan yung [Maybe we can increase the] subsidy if government budget will allow. More subsidy to further lower down the amortization cost of the units... What if the government will buy the units already, the old units. The government will buy that, scrap them, and give them an additional amount on top of the 80,000 unit subsidy," he added. The transportation department said it hopes to get more than 170,000 old jeepney units off the streets by 2020. In September, de Leon sent out a message to all public vehicle operators, saying it's high time for the country to have an efficient public transportation system. "Mahirap na sabihin mo na this is a source of livelihood, kasi nga number one binigyan ka ng estado ng prankisa to operate a public transport service," De Leon told reporters during an economic briefing in Malacanang. [Translation: It's hard to call this as a source of livelihood because number one, the state gave you a franchise to operate a public transport service.] This comes in the wake of the administration's PUV modernization program, which has been labeled by transport groups and netizens as "anti-poor." PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI - At first, Jessica Howard thought she was just itching occasionally. Then one February day she stepped out of the shower and saw it - her thighs and buttocks were black and blue from the scratching. Eight months later, the itching hasn't stopped. "I thought it was almost gone on the inside of my thighs, and then I woke up the other night and my thighs were on fire and itching really bad," she said. The 30-year-old is one of an estimated 115 inmates at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Pittsfield Township now believed to have a mysterious rash. It was first reported by the Detroit Free Press in March to be afflicting nearly 50 women at the prison, which has faced criticism and lawsuits related to alleged overcrowding and unhealthy conditions. It's the only women's prison in the state, and had a population of about 2,100 at the end of September. Jessica Howard, 30 But seven months after officials noticed the pattern, and even longer since the rashes first started, authorities at the Michigan Department of Corrections still aren't sure what's causing the outbreak. It's causing alarm among prisoners, who feel not enough is being done. The rash - described by prisoners as bright red pimple-like bumps with occasional pockets of pus on thighs, buttocks, backs, chests and arms - is not believed to be contagious, said MDOC spokesman Chris Gautz. Prisoners like Howard aren't convinced. Howard is currently serving 1.5 to five years for receiving or concealing more than $1,000 but less than $20,000 in stolen property in 2017 in Benzie County. Though she was living in the Dickinson unit of the prison when she got the rash, she said her cellmate had it first and previously lived in the Gladwin unit where it was first documented. Part of the reason officials suspect the rash is not contagious is because some prisoners do not have the rash, though their cellmates do. The prison initially treated the rashes as a suspected case of scabies but began looking for other explanations after tests ruled that out, Gautz said. The Washtenaw County Public Health department received a complaint in August from a parent of a woman at the facility alleging rashes and illnesses were caused by parasites in the water. However, a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said in an email that all laboratory tests available to them met Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act standards. Laboratory results dated Sept. 18 and provided to MLive by the Michigan Department of Corrections also did not appear to show unsafe drinking water. The latest theory is that the rash could be caused by inmate cleaning staff incorrectly mixing chemicals or by inmates washing clothing with self-made soap mixtures in their cell trash cans and pans. "Since we've done air testing and that's come back negative and we've done water testing and all that's come back negative, this seemed to bear the most fruit in terms of a potential ID-ing of the issue," Gautz said. Gautz said about 63 of the estimated 115 prisoners with the rash work in a cleaning role - known as a porter - and about 50 percent of the affected inmates admitted, when polled by the prison the week of Oct. 5, to improperly washing their clothing in their cells. It's unclear why inmates would wash clothing this way. Gautz said inmate "whites" are washed two days a week and "blues" outerwear are washed two other days a week. The prison worked the week of Oct. 5 to further inform inmates not to wash clothing in their cells, he added. Topical creams have been distributed. In addition, officials reissued instructions to porters, a role Howard previously filled, on how to use the cleaning products in March and changed the type of gloves being used -- a move documented in September, Gautz said. New cases of the rash have still appeared in recent months, however. Sabrina Berry, 32, who is serving five years to 7.5 years in prison for a 2015 armed robbery in Ingham County, said she hasn't served as a porter, but noticed her rash in September. "I'm actually one of the fortunate ones," Berry said, noting she was scheduled to see a doctor. Gautz said health care staff has been reminded of the policy on prisoner referrals, which requires a visit with a doctor after three visits with prison health care staff for the same issue, but also earlier if deemed necessary. He confirmed seven inmates housed in a 16-person cell - a converted day room - were briefly restricted from movement after a new health professional unaware of the rash history became concerned when three prisoners presented with the irritation. The department continues to communicate with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services as they investigate possible causes, he said. Currently, the department is reviewing whether the number of porters and the number of inmates incorrectly washing clothing covers the total number of rash-afflicted prisoners. They are also reviewing a potential control group to evaluate changes in the rash, if all protocols are properly followed. "So far everything we've been able to do, as well as all the outside experts that have looked at it, have not been able to determine what the rash is or the cause of it, but certainly we've been doing everything possible," he said. In a note sent through the prison messaging system, Howard said while she hopes to leave prison sooner than later, she's worried about her fellow inmates with longer sentences. She said she's "just hoping somthing (sic) happens to push the prison to do better so everyone else that has it here (can) get the help they need." ANN ARBOR, MI - A man prosecutors have called a 'sneaky pimp' has admitted to assaulting and collecting prostitution money from a woman he was dating at an Ann Arbor hotel earlier this year. Keith Perry, 29, of Romulus pleaded guilty to prostitution charges as part of a plea agreement when he appeared in front of Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge David S. Swartz on Wednesday, Oct. 10. In exchange for the plea on two counts of prostitution-accepting earnings, one count of prostitution-transporting and one count of aggravated domestic violence, an additional count of witness intimidation will be dropped, Assistant Washtenaw County Prosecutor John Vella said. Prosecutors will recommend Perry be ordered to serve two to 20 years behind bars. Vella told Swartz "there are a lot of other stipulations" in the three-page plea agreement, but he did not state the details out loud in court. After the attorney met privately with Swartz at his bench, Assistant Washtenaw Public Defender Laura Dudley asked Perry to confirm he understood the contents of the written agreement and that the prosecutor can withdraw the agreement, should Perry not "follow through" with his part. Vella declined to comment on the agreement following the court appearance and Chief Assistant Washtenaw County Prosecutor Steve Hiller declined to comment on the case. Perry was accused of bringing a 22-year-old woman from Georgia to work as a prostitute at Ann Arbor's Victory Inn Suites, 3750 Washtenaw Ave., and beating her with a cellphone charging cord when she expressed a desire to leave him. The two were arrested Jan. 17, after police received a tip about human trafficking and prostitution at the hotel, which has since been court-ordered to hire security in a nuisance lawsuit filed by the city. Vella described Perry as a devious, 'sneaky pimp' at a March hearing, despite testimony that Perry frequently bragged about his pimping activities on Facebook, calling himself a "hoe boss" and writing "The world belongs to a pimp and his bitch." Vella said Perry was manipulative and "clearly a controlling pimp." Perry, who was being held on $200,000 bond, is scheduled for a Nov. 5 sentencing. ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan has created a panel to examine the intersection between political thought and ideology and faculty members' responsibilities to students. The creation of the panel was announced by UM President Mark Schlissel and Provost Martin Philbert in the wake of two UM students who were recently denied promised letters of recommendation for academic programs based in Israel. The students were applying to study in Israel. The letter notes the primary objectives of the panel include examining relevant university policy, gathering and reviewing relevant policy statements of peer institutions and recommending how to clarify current policy or create new policy that clearly articulates institutional principles and expectations at the intersection of faculty members' responsibilities to students and their personal views. The panel will be chaired by James Duderstadt, president emeritus and university professor of science and engineering. The message also re-affirms that UM strongly opposes a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and no school, college, department or unit at the university endorses such a boycott. "Our view is that educators at a public university have an obligation to support students' academic growth, and we expect anyone with instructional responsibilities to honor this fundamental university value. Our students deserve to be afforded all of the opportunities they have earned through their academic merit," the message states. "We will work to make absolutely clear that faculty members' personal political beliefs cannot interfere with their obligations to our students with regard to letter-writing and all other modes of academic support." The announcement of the panel comes after news that UM has disciplined a professor who ignited controversy last month when he rescinded an offer of a recommendation letter for a student to study in Israel. John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor of American Culture at UM, is no longer eligible for a merit pay increase for the 2018-19 academic year. The university has also frozen his sabbatical eligibility for two years, until the fall of 2020. Cheney had scheduled a sabbatical for the winter 2019 and will now have to wait until fall of 2020 to take it. Cheney-Lippold told the student in an email in September that he was taking part in an academic boycott against Israel, and could no longer provide the recommendation. Cheney-Lippold said that after looking over the student's request, he needed to rescind his initial support, noting that "many university departments have pledged an academic boycott against Israel in support of Palestinians living in Palestine." "I should have let you know earlier and for that I apologize," Cheney-Lippold wrote to the student. "But for reasons of these politics, I must rescind my offer to write your letter." Cheney-Lippold told the student he would be available to write any other letters for the student in the email. He also later clarified in an email to The Ann Arbor News that he should have said "many university professors have pledged an academic boycott against Israel," rather than university departments. The Washington Post also reported Tuesday that a graduate student instructor declined to recommend a second student who was applying to a study-abroad program in Israel. The teaching assistant said her decision wasn't personal, but was born of a pledge to "boycott Israeli institutions as a way of showing solidarity with Palestine." The Post reported that UM student Jake Secker had requested a letter of recommendation from graduate student instructor Lucy Peterson in hopes of studying abroad at Tel Aviv University this winter. In the letter outlining Cheney-Lippold's punishment, UM College of Literature, Science & Arts Interim Dean Elizabeth Cole noted that faculty are not required to write letters for every student who requests them for legitimate reason like a lack of time or information about the student, but that discretion is not unfettered. Schlissel and Philbert echoed that sentiment, showing support for the Jewish community on campus. "We want everyone in our Jewish community and beyond to know that we are committed to upholding an equitable and inclusive environment where everyone is given a chance to succeed and pursue the academic opportunities they have earned," the letter states. "First and foremost, this applies to our students. These are core values of our university, and even in moments of turmoil and strong disagreement, they guide our work and give us a path forward." ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan has disciplined a professor who ignited controversy last month when he rescinded an offer of a recommendation letter for a student to study in Israel. John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor of American Culture at UM, is no longer eligible for a merit pay increase for the 2018-19 academic year. The university has also frozen his sabbatical eligibility for two years, until the fall of 2020. Cheney had scheduled a sabbatical for the winter 2019 and will now have to wait until fall of 2020 to take it. In an Oct. 3 letter from UM College of Literature, Sciences & Arts Interim Dean Elizabeth Cole said Cheney-Lippold's behavior "was inappropriate and will not be tolerated." The letter also mentions that "further conduct of this nature is subject to additional discipline, up to and including initiation of dismissal proceedings." "In the future, a student's merit should be your primary guide for determining how and whether to provide a letter of recommendation. You are not to use student requests for recommendations as a platform to discuss your personal political beliefs," Cole wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Ann Arbor News by the Freedom of Information Act. Cheney-Lippold told the student in an email in September that he was taking part in an academic boycott against Israel, and could no longer provide the recommendation. Cheney-Lippold said that after looking over the student's request, he needed to rescind his initial support, noting that "many university departments have pledged an academic boycott against Israel in support of Palestinians living in Palestine." "I should have let you know earlier and for that I apologize," Cheney-Lippold wrote to the student. "But for reasons of these politics, I must rescind my offer to write your letter." Cheney-Lippold told the student he would be available to write any other letters for the student in the email. He also later clarified in an email to The Ann Arbor News that he should have said "many university professors have pledged an academic boycott against Israel," rather than university departments. In the letter outlining Cheney-Lippold's punishment, Cole noted that faculty are not required to write letters for every student who requests them for legitimate reason like a lack of time or information about the student, but that discretion is not unfettered. "It does not extend to withholding a letter because of your personal views regarding the student's place of study and then using the student's request as a political platform to gain an audience for your own opinions, both in the media and in the classroom," Cole wrote. News of Cheney-Lippold's punishment comes during an academic year that has seen the university receive scrutiny for campus incidents related to Israel. The university was criticized by a senior Israeli cabinet minister, who sent a letter Monday to President Mark Schlissel over campus incidents that the politician described as showing a "vitriolic hatred against the Jewish state," according to the Associated Press. Naftali Bennett, the minister responsible for education and diaspora affairs, admonished Schlissel over a lecture last week on the UM campus. In it, artist Emory Douglas shared his work, including a collage of side-by-side images of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Adolf Hitler and the phrase "guilty of genocide" across their faces. "The time has come for you as head of the University to make a strong stand against what has clearly become a trend of vitriolic hatred against the Jewish state on your campus," Bennett wrote to Schlissel. Schlissel responded to the recent events surrounding the topic of personal beliefs, the responsibilities of educators and anti-Semitism in a message to the campus community on Tuesday co-authored by Provost Martin Philbert. He has called upon UM's provost to create a panel of distinguished faculty members to examine the intersection between political thought/ideology and faculty members' responsibilities to students. "As we have stated, UM strongly opposes a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and no school, college, department or unit at our university endorses such a boycott," the message states. "Our view is that educators at a public university have an obligation to support students' academic growth, and we expect anyone with instructional responsibilities to honor this fundamental university value. Our students deserve to be afforded all of the opportunities they have earned through their academic merit. "We will work to make absolutely clear that faculty members' personal political beliefs cannot interfere with their obligations to our students with regard to letter-writing and all other modes of academic support." Douglas was a longtime artist for the Black Panthers and much of the artwork highlighted during his lecture drew on themes of domestic racial and social injustice and oppression. Some of the works featured images and messages supportive of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, according to the AP. The university said the Israeli leader's image in question was on a single slide among nearly 200 other slides not related to Israel that were presented over the course of an hour, adding that Douglas' work is critical of a wide range of world leaders, including several U.S. presidents. "The Stamps program is intentionally provocative and the school is clear with students about this. The school does not control or censor what speakers present," the university noted in a statement regarding the lecture. It noted in an introduction to the class that the menu of speakers was diverse and dynamic and "we do not control or censor what they say." It also informed students that "discovering what you do not agree with will help you find your voice as much or more perhaps than the things you find resonance with." Michigan Hillel, which had also been critical of Cheney-Lippold's decision to rescind the letter of recommendation, also spoke out against the content of the lecture on a message on its website. "Several weeks ago, we wrote to inform you of an incident with a professor refusing to provide a letter of recommendation for a student interested in studying abroad at an Israeli institution. We know for many of you, your concern regarding this incident was compounded last week by the news that a guest lecturer to the STAMPS program presented an offensive comparison equating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler," the message reads. "We at Michigan Hillel share your concern that this image denigrated the memory of those killed in the Holocaust by suggesting a false equivalence to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today." The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a graduate student instructor declined to recommend a second student who was applying to a study-abroad program in Israel. The teaching assistant said her decision wasn't personal, but was born of a pledge to "boycott Israeli institutions as a way of showing solidarity with Palestine." The Post reported that UM student Jake Secker had requested a letter of recommendation from graduate student instructor Lucy Peterson in hopes of studying abroad at Tel Aviv University this winter. An email provided by Secker to the Post shows that Peterson initially agreed to write the recommendation before realizing she wouldn't be able to. "I'm so sorry that I didn't ask before agreeing to write your recommendation letter, but I regrettably will not be able to write on your behalf," the email reads. "Along with numerous other academics in the US and elsewhere, I have pledged myself to a boycott of Israeli institutions as a way of showing solidarity with Palestine. Please know that this decision is not about you as a student or a person, and I would be happy to write a recommendation for you if you end up applying to other programs." Since both Secker and Peterson are students at UM, the university said it is "precluded by federal law from discussing student matters." A Harrison Township man is facing murder and other charges after prosecutors say he shot two men attempting to secure his former business that had been foreclosed on. David Erwin Unger, 55, shot and killed 56-year-old Mark Siecinski of Clarkston, as second man, 63, of Farmington Hills, was also struck by gunfire but is expected to survive. "The two male victims went to Mr. Unger's business in the 11800 block of Freud in Detroit to appraise and secure the property since Unger's property was under the control of the courts for debts that were owed," the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said. The nature of the debt wasn't revealed. Unger is currently on probation for a domestic violence conviction originating from a 2016 incident that occurred with the mother of his children, according to Wayne County 36th District Court records. While he initially received a sentence of 12 months probation, the probation was extended through February of 2019 due to violations. He was also ordered to have no contact with the mother of his children. Unger is charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder and two counts of felony firearm. He is jailed without bond and is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 31 for a preliminary examination. HARRISON TOWNSHIP -- Several Florida-based military aircraft are expected to land at Selfridge Air National Guard base in Macomb County this week. Due to Hurricane Michael, military installations in Florida are evacuating until orders are lifted, according to a news release from the 127th Wing. The aircraft will remain at Selfridge until then. Nearby residents can expect increased air traffic in the area. Hurricane Michael was closing in Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with potential winds of up to 145 mph, according to the Associated Press. The Michigan-based 127th Wing operates two flying missions, the KC-135 Stratotanker and the A-10 Thunderbolt II. Selfridge air base is home to more than 40 tenant units, including from every branch of the military and the Department of Homeland Security. FLINT, MI -- Police are searching for the person responsible for the shooting death of a 7-year-old girl Tuesday night on Flint's north side. Officers with the Flint Police Department were called out around 8 p.m. to the 200 block of West Austin Avenue, between Chestnut Street and Martin Luther King Avenue, for a shooting incident. The girl, identified as Zaniyah Dashay Burns, was found shot in the head. She was later pronounced dead. Flint police Chief Tim Johnson said the girl's 16-year-old uncle was the intended target of the shooting. Michigan State Police troopers assisted at the scene. No suspect information was immediately available. The home where the shooting occurred is next to an open field and police believe several shots were fired at the home from across the field, Johnson noted, while expressing some dismay at the situation in the city. "When anybody loses their life it's tough. The harder we fight the more...comes down the pipe," he commented. "We need 50 to 100 more officers. Something has got to give. I've asked city council. I push those officers as hard as I can." The incident remains under investigation. Anyone with information may contact the Flint Police Department at 810-237-6800 or report a tip anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-422-JAIL (5245) or the P3 Tips app. If you have ANY information on the #Flint #homicide that took place last night, taking the life of a 7-year-old little... Posted by Crime Stoppers of Flint & Genesee County on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 MLive-The Flint Journal reporter Dominic Adams contributed to this report. The doctor facing involuntary manslaughter and other charges related to the Flint water crisis has been awarded the highest individual award given by local health departments in Michigan. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced that Dr. Eden Wells, chief medical executive for the state, received the Michigan Association for Local Public Health and Michigan Public Health Association's Roy R. Manty Distinguished Service Award. The award is described by the awarding organizations as the highest individual honor given by the local public health community. It was created to honor the late Roy R. Manty, who served the last 15 years of his life in the field of local health administration within the Michigan Department of Public Health. Wells, 55, is waiting for a Genesee District Court judge to decide whether she will be bound over for a jury trial in Genesee Circuit Court on the criminal charges against her. Judge William Crawford has yet to schedule a date to announce his decision on charges of involuntary manslaughter, willful neglect of duty, misconduct in office and lying to a peace officer. Prosecutors claim Wells showed gross negligence in her role as the state's top doctor, allowing the death of John Snyder, who prosecutors say is one of at least 12 individuals who died because of Legionnaires' disease outbreaks during the Flint water crisis. Wells has a responsibility to protect the health and welfare of state residents, but attempted to withhold funding for programs designed to help the victims of the water crisis, and lied to an investigator about material facts related to the investigation by the state Attorney General's Office, according to the charges. Her supporters say Wells is a hero of the water crisis and was wrongly charged by the attorney general. She and DHHS Director Nick Lyon have been left on the job -- despite the criminal charges each faces -- by Gov. Rick Snyder. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha has credited Wells for her support after the pediatrician's study revealed a rising percentage of Flint children with elevated blood lead levels while the Flint River was used for drinking water. In the DHHS news release announcing the Manty award, Dr. Annettee Mercatante, president of MALPH, says Wells has consistently provided "timely (usually immediate), intelligent, expert, reliable, and compassionate support for the entire array of expected and unexpected community health issues that arise daily in our state." GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- In the more than 10 weeks since Grand Rapids adopted its medical marijuana facilities ordinance, the city's planning department has been flooded with questions and concerns. Aware that the ordinance was fluid and still needed further discussion, the city commission held a three-hour work session Tuesday, Oct. 9, to address some of the concerns associated with the ordinance and application process. Suzanne Schultz, director of the planning department, presented to the commission a list of question topics and offered a variety of potential solutions for the commission to consider. Tuesday's ordinance revisions will go to the planning commission, where a public hearing will be held. The planing commission had previously recommended a less restrictive ordinance. From there, the amendments will come back to the city commission for a vote. The initial ordinance, approved by the city commission in July, would allow up to 53 dispensaries and up to 83 other medical marijuana facilities, including growers, processors, secure transports and safety compliance offices. Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's work session at City Hall: 1. Adjusting the waiver process for places of worship No medical marijuana facility would be able to open within 1,000 feet of a place of worship in Grand Rapids, unless the business gets a waiver from the church, according to language in the initial ordinance. That exception caused local churches to be bombarded with waiver requests just days after the ordinance was adopted. Some requests came with substantial financial offers, and Schulz said one individual even suggested they would establish a church so they could be paid by a potential marijuana business for a waiver. To protect church leaders from an abundance of requests, the commission agreed on an ordinance revision that would allow churches to be placed on an opt-out list, meaning they are not interested in signing a waiver. "Medical marijuana is a medical use and I don't see what the sensitivity, why a church should be treated differently from anything else," said First Ward Commission Jon O'Connor. "This isn't a bar, this is a pharmacy. We wouldn't say a CVS needs to have a 1,000-foot separation distance from a church." Churches that aren't on the opt-out list will be notified when an application is submitted to open a medical marijuana facility within 1,000 feet of their facility, and they'll be given a set number of days to object. If the church doesn't object, the request will be approved. The ordinance also requires a 1,000-foot separation distance from public parks, unless the applicant gets a waiver from the city commission. Officials decided not to make a change to that language and will consider those requests. 2. Removing the pre-qualification hurdle One of the biggest hurdles in the application process is getting pre-qualified by the state of Michigan in order for an application to be processed with the city planning department. Marijuana proponents have said the process, which is essentially an evaluation of a person's ability to conduct his or her proposed business, is slow and the state is dealing with a backlog of requests. On top of that, Schulz said 42 percent of applications to Michigan's Department Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) are denied in the pre-qualification process. The commission decided Tuesday to remove the pre-qualification requirement for applicants, while still requiring proof that the required paperwork has been received by LARA, including the application fee. Third Ward Commissioner Senita Lenear said she's heard requests from those who want the city to keep the pre-qualification requirement and others asking to get rid of that obstacle. Schulz said the change will allow more local individuals an opportunity to get into the industry, but will also likely increase the number of applications being processed by the city. 3. Reconsidering the separation distances for transports and compliance facilities During the initial adoption of its ordinance, Grand Rapids officials put the same separation distances in place for marijuana grows, processors, provisioning centers, secure transports and safety compliance facilities. Additionally, provisioning centers -- or dispensaries -- were given a 2,000-foot separation distance from other dispensaries. But on Tuesday, Schulz said city staff have heard from community members who have interest in getting into the business of secure transporters (armored vehicles) and safety compliance facilities (labs) but are being priced-out for other marijuana facilities. "They're pretty benign uses usually," Schulz said. "These two uses have minimal community inputs in staff's opinion and generally lower profit margins. They don't have the same access to capital to buy or lease as other ones do." In an effort to allow more local opportunity in the industry, the commission agreed to remove all separation distances for secure transporters and safety compliance facilities, which are zoned to industrial zone districts. These two marijuana facilities would require administrative approval from the city planning department. Lenear voiced concern that the applicants with more financial backing were going to snatch up these types of licenses as well, which would leave local business owners behind. But Schulz said the fact that these businesses have to be independently owned from the other marijuana operations would likely help keep them separate. "You can't be like a beer distributor and own a brewery," Schulz said. "This is the same philosophy as they apply to this rule making. These have to be separate businesses units owned separately from the other operations. That might make a distinction as far as profitability versus the risk-reward." The commission also decided to allow a 1,000-foot separation distance instead of 2,000 feet between dispensaries in industrial transportation zone districts when those centers are co-located with growers and/or processors. 4. Ensuring a commitment to Grand Rapids City commissioners want to use the attractiveness of the medical marijuana industry to find solutions to other community challenges, especially in the area of economic development. A large portion of Tuesday's work session was devoted to discussing the commission's priorities behind the creation of a voluntary equitable development agreement (VEDA) process to be intertwined with the application process. A similar policy was enacted for the city's affordable housing discussion through the Housing NOW! recommendations. The VEDA policy is essentially a community benefits agreement between a business and the city, in which the business shows its commitment to the community by committing to things like hiring locally, contracting with local construction companies, or setting energy-efficiency goals. "Historically, communities of color have been disparately impacted by enforcement practices related to marijuana," Schulz said. "Several communities across the country have attempted to use their own marijuana administration programs to remedy such impacts. Policies to ensure racial, ethnic and gender diversity in the cannabis industry can be implemented through city commission policy. "While there are potentially significant barriers into the industry for all people at the state level, local policy could lessen such barriers though incentivizing equitable development." The commission's priorities will be used by city planning staff to draft a VEDA policy specifically for marijuana facilities. The proposed plan will return to the commission at a later date for review. 5. The application process Grand Rapids wants to avoid having people line up for days to submit their applications when the city's six-month moratorium, adopted Sept. 18, expires or is lifted. The process recommended by the planning department is to have some type of lottery or random drawing. Commissioners talked Tuesday about a process in which there are multiple tiers to the lottery based on an applicant's commitment to entering into a community benefit agreement like the proposed VEDA. An applicant who is willing to contribute more to the Grand Rapids community would have his or her application prioritized before an applicant who met minimum requirements. Schulz said some communities have tried using point systems instead of a lottery-type drawing, but those are less legally defensible. A draw system is the more objective alternative, according to city staff. Multiple commissioners voiced interest in prioritizing local applicants and those who are dedicated to setting energy goals, hiring locally and hiring persons living in under-served communities. No decisions were made Tuesday on what the lottery would specifically look like. The planning department will return to the city commission with a process for prioritizing applications at a future meeting. GRAND HAVEN, MI - After years of bullying, abuse and harassment, Wendell Popejoy snapped last winter when he saw neighbor Sheila Bonge loading his driveway with snow while clearing hers, his attorney said. He sneaked up behind her and shot her in the back of the head. "Every time for the eight years Wendell lived in that home .. she would intentionally crank the snowblower to close (Popejoy's) driveway," attorney Jeff Kortes told an Ottawa County Circuit Court jury. "This is years and year of the same type of antagonistic behavior that he finally snapped. He finally had enough. That day was the breaking point." Kortes, in his opening statement Tuesday, Oct. 9, told jurors that his 64-year-old client had reached his wit's end when he shot Bonge, 59, in the head. "Then he realizes, 'My God, I shot her,'" Kortes said. He puked and panicked. He put her body on a camouflage sled used for carrying game animals, then pushed it down a hill behind his home on 104th Avenue in Ottawa County's Crockery Township. He removed her clothes and burned them in a barrel. Ottawa County Prosecutor Ronald Frantz said Popejoy was not justified in taking her life. He acknowledged that others considered the victim a "nuisance" to the neighborhood who could be "somewhat nasty" but said Popejoy plotted out the killing then tried to cover it up. After burning Bonge's clothes, Popejoy broke down the .22-caliber revolver he used in the shooting and threw it into the Grand River from the Eastmanville bridge. Sheila Bonge Frantz wants jurors to find Popejoy guilty of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison without hope for parole. Kortes said manslaughter, a 15-year felony, was appropriate under the circumstances. Bonge would holler and curse his client. She called him fat and stupid. No one wanted to go outside or incur her wrath, Kortes said. Popejoy and his girlfriend shared an easement to their driveways with Bonje and her boyfriend and another couple, Beth and Mark Meurer. The Meurers were suing Bonje over the easement, which she claimed as hers, he said. They filed the lawsuit seeking "relief from Sheila in any manner we could," he said. When asked when the hard feelings started, he said: "I don't know if there was ever an opportunity for good feelings." He said it was hard to deal with Bonge's "relentlessness" in abusing others. She would holler at him while he worked on his farm. "It went on and on and on," he said. His wife documented every encounter. They called police but it didn't help. He recalled that police showed up after Bonge was reported missing on Dec. 26, 2017. As rescuers set up spotlights, he told an officer he "was not going to help with any search, and he said, 'We've heard that a lot.' I really had no interest in helping." He described Popejoy as a decent man. He said he had never been afraid of him. Popejoy was the kind of neighbor who came over to help without being asked. Bonje's body was found two days after she was reported missing. Her family found her buried under snowfall on Popejoy's property. Frantz said he would show hours of Popejoy's interviews with police during the course of trial, which is set for four days. Initially, Popejoy denied involvement. Then, the prosecutor said, he asked for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote that he made a "spur-of-the-moment decision to shoot and kill Sheila." Popejoy allegedly told investigators that "I took care of the problem," "I guess it was a cold act," and "I'm not really sorry she's gone." Frantz said the killing "cold-blooded" and "cowardly." GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A group of residents wants the Kent County prosecutor to investigate whether security measures at a county board meeting last month violated state law. The group emailed a complaint Tuesday, Oct. 9, to Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker's office, alleging county officials committed multiple violations of the Michigan Open Meetings Act at the Kent County Board of Commissioners' Sept. 27 meeting. It was signed by Grand Rapids residents Marta Johnson-Ebels and Christian Bell. The complaint asks Becker to take civil action against the county, challenge the validity of the board's actions and ensure the county's compliance with the state law at future board meetings. Becker said he hasn't read the complaint yet, adding that he's not sure what to do with it because it was emailed to him. Typically, he said, these complaints are first handled by police, who gather facts and witness statements and then present the report to his office for a decision. Johnson-Ebels said she was unaware of these protocols and plans to file a complaint with the police, if Becker doesn't plan to forward it to them. At the Sept. 27 meeting, the public was barred from entering the chambers. They were instead told to go to a room next door to watch the proceedings on a video monitor until public comment. Attendees could give public comment if they wrote down their personal information and comment on a card and gave it to county staff. Only then were they corralled in and out of the meeting room, one-by-one, past more deputies and an ad-hoc camera recording the entrance to the Board of Commissioners chambers. "I hope this complaint is taken seriously and that we can enjoy a democratic process once again," Johnson-Ebels said in a statement. "We cannot expect effective policy to be made in 'smoke-filled' back rooms. Our problems demand an open, accessible and transparent democratic process." The measures were a response to ongoing meeting disruptions by people protesting the county's jail contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Neither Johnson-Ebels nor Bell were part of the disruptions. Johnson-Ebels said they brought the complaint because they were concerned about the loss of "open and transparent and accessible meetings." County officials have not given a clear answer on whether they'll continue the practice, only that they'll consider adaptations if they're "appropriate to encourage public participation and transparency," Kent County Administrator Wayman Britt previously said. Britt previously contended the measures are the "least restrictive arrangement" and in compliance with the Open Meetings Act. He said it's better than arresting people. Jennifer Dukarski, associate general counsel for the Michigan Press Association, previously told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press the measures, at the very least, prevent public access to their elected officials. "Even if it's not an outright violation, it definitely indicates that they are not interested in promoting transparency and allowing the public to interface with their representatives," she said. "Distancing yourself from your constituents just doesn't meet the spirit of what the Open Meetings Act was intended to create." The citizens complaint alleges the county violated the Open Meetings Act by requiring public comment information to enter the meeting, by not allowing the public to actually be present at the meeting and by preemptively removing all attendees for fear of disruption. The Act requires meetings to be "held in a place available to the general public" and that all decisions by a public body are made at a "meeting open to the public." The Sept. 27 measures comply with neither, according to the complaint. "By a plain text reading, these meetings were not available to the public, as they were not allowed in the physical room where they occurred," the complaint states. The Act also forbids making a person register or provide his or her name or other information a condition of entering a public meeting. The complaint alleges making a person write down their personal information and comment on a card to enter the meeting violates that. The Act does allow officials to exclude people who breach the peace at a meeting. The county has tried several tactics to restore order to its meetings since protesters began disrupting them in June. Mostly, the county board has just recessed the meetings until the disruptions ended. At their Sept. 13 meeting, the county commissioners relocated the meeting to another county building across the street after protesters formed a "people's commission" in the back of the public seating area. Protesters were barred wholesale from entering the relocated meeting, and at least one member of the media was asked to show identification before being allowed in. The same deputy that asked for ID said the public was not allowed in, though several were and gave public comment. Dukarski contended the county can't exclude a group wholesale from a meeting, as the Act forbids excluding only those who actually breach the peace at a meeting, and that it likely was a Open Meetings Act violation. The Kent County Board of Commissioners' next full board meeting is Thursday, Oct. 11, at 6 p.m. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Four of the remaining proposed zoning amendments aimed at incentivizing affordable housing development in Grand Rapids are getting another look. On Tuesday, Oct. 9, the city commission received a presentation from West Michigan Center for Technology's Public Agency on the results of four community feedback sessions held in August. Included in the feedback were survey results, which showed support for eight recommendation components and opposition of another six components by the majority of the 216 session participants. In response to the survey results, City Manager Mark Washington asked his staff to separate the recommendations' components into three categories: items to be approved immediately, items to be further vetted, and items that should be pushed to the next master planning process. The breakdown called for seven items to receive immediate approval, but Mayor Rosalynn Bliss recommended that the commission take time to review Public Agency's presentation and the community feedback before taking action at a future commission meeting. "This topic was meant to be a report out and all of us received this information this morning for the very first time," Bliss said. "Since today isn't about making decisions, I'd like to wrap up this discussion, give you time to read through this, look through the materials, and then have further conversation with the city manager about next steps." The proposed breakdown is as follows: Items recommended to move forward now: Amendment 3 (Missing middle housing): 14 feet unit width; Eliminate 20,000 sq. ft minimum lot size for multi-family unit with special land use approval. Amendment 8 (Accessory dwelling units): Minimum lot size from 5,000 sq. ft to all lots that meet the zoning requirements for that district; Increase maximum height limit to allow units on top of a garage; Permits two-story detached accessory buildings for ADUs. This makes it possible to built a unit on top of a garage. Increase the floor area ratio from 35 percent to 40 percent between primary structure and ADU. Amendment 9 (Row houses and minimum width): 14 feet unit width. Items recommended to move forward after some rework Amendment 6: Affordable Housing Density Bonus Amendment 8 (Accessory dwelling units): Eliminates the maximum occupancy and number of bedrooms limit from ADUs. Amendment 9 (Row houses and minimum width): Remove the requirement for minimum lot width to allow houses to occupy a more narrow lot. Items recommended to be left for the Master Plan process Amendment 3 (Missing middle housing): For any lot within 500 feet of a mixed-use commercial zone district, allow the construction of, or conversion to, a multi-family development with administrative approval. Amendment 9 (Row houses and minimum width): Reduce minimum lot area in low-density residential zones and mixed-density zones. The city contracted Public Agency after four of the Housing NOW! recommendations hit significant pushback at a March 27 public hearing. The organization engaged neighborhood associations, non-profit developers and other community stakeholders throughout the summer and held four August community listening sessions. Much of the community concern regarding these proposed changes involve a "by-right" process replacing the current special land use approval needed from the planning commission. Getting special land use approval is an extra hurdle for potential developers, but it requires a public hearing, which community members like because it gives them a voice regarding the future of their neighborhoods. Participants of the engagement sessions also voiced concerns regarding the implications on neighborhood character by allowing for more accessory dwelling units and row-housing developments. The sessions consisted of a 15-minute "Zoning 101" presentation, followed by 25-minute discussions each for recommendation 3, 6, 8, and 9. Of the 216 participants, 126 were property owners and 40 were renters. About 62 percent of participants were not developers, compared to about 16 percent who were developers or landlords, and 21 percent did not disclose their status. The full WMCAT presentation from Tuesday is available on the city's website. First Ward Commissioner Jon O'Connor said he's looking forward to having a deeper discussion soon to address affordable housing in Grand Rapids. "We need to do something because if we do nothing and continue to punt on this, no more housing is being created right now in the small-scale development form because of the process we have," O'Connor said. Second Ward Commissioner Joe Jones said it's important to address the city's housing needs with "real intentionality" in order to establish mixed-income communities instead of the "sinful" act of creating areas of concentrated poverty by pushing low-income housing to one area of the city. Jones said Tuesday's presentation "further clarifies the need for us to have some very uncomfortable conversations." "What I'm faced with on a regular basis, what I see, what I hear is there is a desire for people to call Grand Rapids home and the inability to actually make that a reality based on affordability and lack of housing stock," Jones said. Seven of the 11 Housing NOW! recommendations have been approved and adopted by the commission. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids has received a $1.5 million grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to expand residential lead hazard control services to eligible households. City officials expect to be able to do lead abatement work on at least 30 additional homes with the state funding boost, according to Doug Steck, the city's housing rehabilitation supervisor. "This significantly bolsters the funds available to address lead paint hazards in Grand Rapids," Steck said. "We think it's a great program and hope to go a long ways with it." The city's 49507 ZIP code, which includes much of southeast Grand Rapids, led the state in children with elevated lead levels in three of the last five years, according to a 2016 state report. The grant, which is funded through Michigan's Children's Health Insurance Program, is a renewal of a similar $1.5 million grant the city received last year. The funding only resulted in about half a dozen homes being abated, but Steck said this year should have better results with kinks in the program worked out. Eligible households have at least one Medicaid-enrolled resident under the age of 6 years old. Steck said the Kent County Health Department is tasked with identifying properties that are eligible for this program. Officials will contact families living in those households and encourage them to sign-up for the assistance. "Because of the various restrictions of this program, it's by invitation only, where as our other program is open to anyone who qualifies," Steck said. "We're using the money to address worst-case scenarios first ... This one is focused on more permanent solutions." A 2016 report from the MDHHS showed about 6 percent of Kent County children 6 years old and younger -- 611 of the 9,784 tested -- had blood tests registering 5 or more micrograms of lead per deciliter, a level above which health officials consider elevated. A year earlier, the 49507 ZIP code in southeast Grand Rapids saw 188 of 1,329 children tested with elevated blood levels -- the highest in the state and a 40-percent increase from 2014. When a house is chosen for the state grant-funded program, city workers will conduct a lead risk assessment and determine where the hazards are. Then they'll turn their report into a set of work orders and a bid will be put out to local contractors. Steck said the abatement process could take anywhere from a few hours to 10 days depending on the extent of work needing to be done. Work through this program is done at no cost to the residents or homeowners, aside from any relocation costs during the actual abatement process. Services available for funding under this initiative include, but are not limited to: Lead inspection, risk assessment and/or elevated blood lead investigation activities to determine the presence of lead hazards. Permanent removal, enclosure or encapsulation of lead-based paint and lead dust hazards from eligible residences. Removal or covering of soil lead hazards up to eligible residence property lines. Minimal rehabilitation to the extent the work will extend the life of the lead abatement work done. Removal of pre-2014 faucets and fixtures used for human consumption, plumbing and/or service lines deemed to be a lead hazard. Temporary relocation of residents during lead abatement activities. Building local capacity to safely and effectively abate lead hazards. Other recipients of MDHHS's grant funds for lead hazard services were Battle Creek, Detroit, Muskegon, and the counties of Huron, Tuscola, Sanilac, Lapeer and Lenawee. Last year, the city also received a $2.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in addition to the $1.5 million from DHHS. Since 2004, Grand Rapids has used about $19 million in HUD grants to fund lead abatement and interim-control work to remove or reduce the risk of lead poisoning in local homes. Steck estimated that the city has been able to provide services to about 1,400 residences in that time. Adam Nolin. WYOMING, MI -- The man accused of killing his girlfriend and shooting at police before he was hit by a patrol car last month has been charged with murder. Charges of open murder and felony firearm were authorized against Adam Nolin, 33, on Wednesday, Oct. 10, by the Kent County Prosecutor's Office. Nolin could be arraigned on the new charges Wednesday afternoon when he appears in Wyoming District Court for a probable cause conference for charges of assault with intent to murder, fleeing police, and carrying a concealed weapon. He's previously been arraigned on those charges. "Mr. Nolin is innocent of these charges until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," said Prosecutor Chris Becker in a statement about the murder charge. Police said Nolin shot and killed his girlfriend, Tia Randall, 27, at their home in Creekside Estates mobile home park, near Clyde Park Avenue SW and 52nd Street in Wyoming. On Sept. 27, Nolin led police on a chase through Wyoming and into Grand Rapids, where he crashed his truck on the S-Curve of U.S. 131 and then got into a shootout with police. The incident ended when Grand Rapids police ran Nolin down with a cruiser. He suffered multiple injuries and was transported to a local hospital for treatment before being booked in the Kent County Jail. No officers were injured during the shootout. Randall was a mother of two who worked the last seven years at Mr. Burger in Wyoming. The restaurant held a vigil there over the weekend. OTTAWA COUNTY, MI -- An 18-year-old man accused of pointing a cell phone camera under a Meijer bathroom stall has been arraigned on two felonies. Jarrid Percy-Lahaie of Holland Township is charged with two counts of surveilling an unclothed person. He is held in the Ottawa County Jail on a $75,000 bond. Ottawa County sheriff's deputies said a woman was using a bathroom at the Meijer store at 3320 West Shore Drive about 3 p.m. on Oct. 4 when she saw a cell phone camera pointed underneath the stall and at her. The woman told store staff and a suspect was located in or near the store. But he ran when store managers tried to speak with him. He was caught the following day. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The three-way race for Ottawa County's open 30th District Senate seat has a Republican, Democrat and Libertarian squaring off in the Tuesday, Nov. 6, general election. Republican state Rep. Roger Victory, R-Hudsonville, handily won his primary, defeating a fellow lawmaker, former lawmaker and member of the party's executive committee. His opponents are Democrat Jeanette Schipper, 41, an administrative assistant at the Western Theological Seminary, and Mary Buzuma, 61, who retired from the Navy after 26 years as an intelligence specialist. Challenging a popular, well-funded Republican in a staunchly conservative county makes for an uphill battle and very few give the Democratic and Libertarian candidates much of a chance. But both say they are focused on their message to voters. "I bring a new lens and holistic perspective to the legislation process," Schipper said. Buzuma said "politics is so polarizing right now." She said she is running to give people a choice. Victory, 54, who has represented the 88th District for six years and is term-limited, isn't taking anything for granted. He is still hot on the campaign trail. "I want to continue to connect with voters and let them know that I am a person grounded in this community and I'm committed to preserving our values," said the fourth-generation farmer, who owns Victory Farms. "One thing I like to bring across is that I am known as farmer rather than politician. People are tired of politicians." The seat is open because state Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, is term limited. Nearly 70 percent of the current 38 state senators will be out of office in 2019 due to term limits. The candidates were interviewed and answered questions for an online voter guide, including their top legislative priorities, educational and professional backgrounds. MLive partnered on the guide with the League of Women Voters of Michigan Education Fund. Information on all state and federal races and many of Michigan's county and local races will be available at Vote411.org. Victory said there are multiple things he'd like to tackle legislatively but one of his top priorities is addressing the talent and labor shortage. "Ottawa County has seen a strong economic resurgence with its manufacturing base," he said, noting that young people can have excellent careers in the skilled trades. "We need to get young people back into the skilled trades by increasing their early exposure to different career pathways and giving our local schools the ability to meet the economic demands of their region." If elected, he said no-fault auto insurance reform will also be a priority. He said lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully for years to rein in the costs unsuccessfully but must continue to try to give residents relief. Polls show roads is a top priority for voters, and Victory wants to see the state make smart investments, cut red tape and administrative services for a more streamlined process. He also said money should go directly into roads and bridges. Buzuma, of Grand Haven, said if the state wound end "corporate welfare" there would be enough money for roads and other items important to residents. "Corporate subsidies are not helping our economy," she said. However, she does think the state could be doing other things to help businesses thrive. "Eliminate unnecessary regulations and licensing laws that drive up costs, hurt small business, stifle entrepreneurship, violate private property rights and keep people out of the workforce," Buzuma said about one of her top legislative priorities, along with ending corporate welfare. Buzuma said she would be an advocate for K-12 school choice, supporting all measures that enhance the options parents have for their children. She won't call for more school funding because she wants to know where the money is going now. "More money does not always equate to better student outcomes," said Buzuma, who also was critical of high-stakes testing. But Schipper said a quality education is a critical contribution to the lives of children. She said she would support increased per-pupil funding for districts to be more aligned with recent studies. "For far too long, public schools have been underfunded," she said. "I will fight to keep our public tax dollars in our public schools." While schools is one of her top priorities, Schipper is in the race because of her concern about people being turned away and denied treatment for healthcare and mental health treatment. She said her family experienced this first-hand and she wants help. "We live in one of the wealthiest nations in the world and yet we fail to meet the basic needs like healthcare and mental health," said Schipper, of Holland. "No one should be denied treatment, turned away, or forced into debt and poverty due to healthcare cost. I support stabilizing the ACA (Affordable Care Act) and moving towards a universal play that everyone pays." Another priority for Schipper is people having a living wage and affordable housing, two things she says are necessary to sustain a strong economy. Candidates say they are knocking on doors and participating in forums in the final weeks before the election. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Michigan Democrats are criticizing Attorney General Bill Schuette for a sluggish response to PFAS contamination, saying the Republican candidate for governor is forcing state regulators to voluntarily request information from 3M rather than using the power of his office to compel disclosures. On Wednesday, Democrats pointed to a Sept. 25 letter sent to 3M by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality as evidence of that Schuette is foot-dragging on a lawsuit against the chemical manufacturer that Gov. Rick Snyder requested this summer. In the letter, DEQ asks for information related to PFAS chemical handling, use, distribution and disposal in Michigan, as well as internal studies on exposure-related health effects and the movement of PFAS contaminants in air, water and soil. "DEQ asked for this information voluntarily, while Bill Schuette as attorney general could compel 3M through discovery and subpoena," said Phil Skaggs, a Kent County commissioner. "We should be working as fast as possible," Skaggs said. "People's health is affected every day." "Our state would be in a much better position to deal with this crisis if Bill Schuette was moving in an expeditious manner," he said. Schuette's campaign referred comment to the attorney general's office. Schuette spokesperson Andrea Bitely said only that "we are continuing to work with our client agency, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on this issue" when asked about the criticism. The criticism was leveled by Michigan Democrats in conjunction with the Sierra Club, who appeared at Grand Rapids Community College alongside Belmont residents affected by PFAS contamination from waste dumping in the area by shoemaker Wolverine World Wide. Schuette's office did file a lawsuit against Wolverine in federal district court related to drinking water contamination in Kent County and is involved in negotiations with the company to pay for extending the Plainfield Township water system to areas with polluted wells. The Michigan DEQ is currently testing all in-state public water supplies for PFAS contamination. To date, data shows that nearly 1.9 million people have been drinking municipal water with at least traces of contamination from the so called "forever chemicals." Known health effects of exposure to certain types of PFAS include thyroid problems, increased cancer risk, developmental and immune system affects and pregnancy complications. In July, Gov. Rick Snyder requested Schuette file a lawsuit against 3M as the manufacturer of PFAS-laden products like Scotchgard fabric protector, AFFF and AR-FFF firefighting foams. Last month, Snyder's office told MLive the Sept. 25 DEQ letter was "part of the continuing efforts among the Governor's Office, state departments, and the Attorney General's Office on the work toward filing the lawsuit." "We don't have any concerns with the process at this point," said Ari Adler, Snyder's communications director, on Sept. 26. The letter was not copied to the attorney general's office. 3M declined to comment on the letter, calling it "premature." Bitely said previously only that "we are working with our client agency DEQ on this process," when asked about when a lawsuit might be filed against 3M. Schuette faces Democrat Gretchen Whitmer in the Nov. 6 election. Amidst a packed schedule of campaign events on a sunny September Saturday, Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James seemed most at home in a quiet museum full of veterans' memorabilia. While meeting with board members of the Michigan Heroes Museum in Frankenmuth, the former Army captain and West Point graduate cracked jokes with museum officials about other branches of the military and paid somber respects to Michigan residents who died in service. At one point, Greg Rummel, the board's president, asked James what one thing supporters could do to help bring him the win in November. After a moment of thought, James said: "I need you to pray for me." "Each of you has talent and resources and abilities that I couldn't even know what to ask for...just do what you feel led to do, and I will continue to do the same," he continued. James, of Farmington Hills, was new to the political scene when he announced his intent to take on incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow, who was first elected to represent Michigan in the Senate in 2000. Throughout his campaign, he has marketed himself as an antidote to same-old, same-old in Washington D.C., promising to bring a fresh perspective and a skill set buoyed by his combat experience in the Iraq War and his work at the business founded by his father, James Group International. James was one of two Michigan candidates to earn an endorsement from President Donald Trump this cycle, and Vice President Mike Pence has visited Michigan to campaign on his behalf. Donald Trump Jr. is expected to come to Michigan next week to accompany James at a rally in Pontiac. Among strongly Republican voters, James has built up a dedicated fan base. During one recent stop at Saginaw County Republican Party headquarters, several enthusiastic supporters asked James to sign their t-shirts emblazoned with the campaign's logo. But recent polls have shown James trailing Stabenow by double digits, with polling aggregation site Real Clear Politics showing Stabenow ahead by an average of 17.2 points. Several factors complicate James' path to victory, said Bernie Porn, president of the polling firm EPIC-MRA. Compared to Stabenow, his name recognition among voters is low among likely midterm voters, and the Trump endorsement that sealed his primary victory could hurt his standing among independents, he said. And in a year where the majority of Michigan voters will see at least one female candidate for every statewide and federal office, Stabenow has retained her popularity and is currently polling better than James among both male and female voters, Porn said. Since Stabenow's first foray into political office, "she had a great personality that attracted people to her candidacy, and I don't think that has changed in all of the races she has run ever since," Porn said. "I think it's going to be real tough for James to overcome the deficit." James remains optimistic, noting that in his primary race, he was down in the polls and outspent by millions of dollars before ultimately defeating opponent Sandy Pensler. "For all the talk about a blue wave, people are discounting the strong undercurrent of anti-establishment sentiment in this state," he said. "People want something different. People want someone who is not going to simply talk about change, but deliver it." Stabenow said she is unfazed by criticism of her political background and record on the campaign trail, chalking it up to politics as usual. She said she has a proven track record of getting results for Michigan voters. "That's what happens every time - if that's all someone has to say, it's OK," she said. "For me, this is about being in Michigan my whole life, it's about understanding how to get things done, having experience and getting results for people." James, 37, has an impressive resume - in addition to his West Point credentials and eight years of military service, he holds two masters degrees from Penn State University and the University of Michigan. He currently serves as president of James Group International, a logistics and supply chain management firm founded by his father in Detroit. James said he considers himself an "independent-thinking conservative" who ultimately decided to enter the political realm to offer change untainted by partisan politics. "People want someone who is not going to simply talk about change, but deliver it," he said. "I think people are ready for a change, they are ready for fresh blood, they're ready for a new perspective." If he's elected, James would be Michigan's first African American U.S. Senator. But he doesn't want to be defined by his race, as he sums up in a phrase he frequently uses on the campaign trail: "I don't have a black message or a white message. I have a message that appeals to everyone, because we're all Americans first. Folks like Sen. Stabenow have forgotten that." That message appeals to Ernest Dumas, a Detroit resident who said he's worked with James' father in the past and came to see James at a recent community forum in the city. "He's young, energetic, knowledgeable and he has some business acumen," he said. "Come November, I think Republicans will win." With roughly a month left to go before Election Day, James is hopeful he can pull off the upset despite the odds with the help of independent-minded voters. "In the military, we don't have any coalitions. In business, we all put aside our differences to accomplish the mission and get the job done," he said. "I think that the coalition that supports me, to use that term, is a coalition of independent thinkers who will put being American before anything else." More information about the Nov. 6 midterm elections: Polls will be open in Michigan from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6. Check Michigan's Secretary of State website to see whether you are registered and to preview your ballot. MLive has partnered with the League of Women Voters of Michigan Education Fund to provide candidate information and other voting resources to Michigan readers. The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government. For specific information about the U.S. Senate candidates and other Michigan races, visit Vote411.org. MACKINAC ISLAND, MI - People around the world continue to realize what Michiganders have known for a long time. Mackinac Island is a treasure. The popular vacation spot was among the winners in this year's Conde Nast Traveler readers choice awards list of Best Islands in the United States. Its a fabulous morning on Mackinac!! Were so very honoured to be voted one of the BEST ISLANDS IN THE WORLD by the readers of @CNTraveler!! Read more: https://t.co/qMRTX8YLXo pic.twitter.com/OBawiggw6f Mackinac Island (@mackinacisle) October 9, 2018 More than 429,000 readers submitted millions of ratings as part of the award, sharing their recent travel experiences of the world's cities, hotels, resorts, airports, islands, airlines, and cruise lines - both positive and negative. Mackinac Island was listed as No. 6 on the list, alongside tropical paradises like Maui and Oahu and picturesque getaways like Nantucket and Hilton Head. "Hold up your hand to represent the mitten shape of Michigan and imagine Mackinac Island as a speck just above the tip of your middle finger, where Lake Huron meets Lake Michigan," Conde Nast Traveler's team noted. "No motored transportation is allowed on the island, so tourists and locals alike travel by horse and carriage or bicycle. It's anchored by the stately columned porch of the historic Grand Hotel, which is looking great for 131 years old." The complete list of islands highlighted by readers around the United States includes: LANSING, MI - Attorneys for the state and a group of plaintiffs butted heads at the Michigan Supreme Court Wednesday, arguing over whether a case seeking damages for those falsely accused of fraud by an Unemployment Insurance Agency computer system should be allowed to go forward. Between Oct. 2013 and Aug. 2015, a state computer system known as MIDAS was flagging accounts within the Unemployment Insurance Agency system for fraudulent activity. People didn't always realize they had been accused of fraud before they were flagged as fraudsters, assessed 400 percent fines and saw things like wage garnishments or the seizure of tax returns if they didn't pay. The computer system was wrong more often than it was right. The agency made changes and moved to refund people over the mistake. But for some people, the consequences are far-reaching. The Court of Appeals in a ruling last year sided with the state and sidelined the suit. Plaintiffs appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, which is still deciding whether to grant the appeal and heard oral argument on the matter Wednesday. The Unemployment Insurance Agency, represented by Michigan Solicitor General Aaron Lindstrom, argued that an initial notice of the alleged fraud started a six-month clock ticking for when people could file a notice of intent to sue. Jennifer Lord, an attorney representing those affected by the computer snafu, argued the clock didn't start ticking until later, when people experienced actual loss through things like wage garnishments and the seizure of tax refunds. Some justices questioned the Unemployment Insurance Agency's interpretation of when the clock started. Justice Richard Bernstein asked if it was reasonable that somebody should get a letter about a mistake and immediately initiate a lawsuit while trying to resolve the issue with the agency. "Does that really make sense? Do you really think this is an appropriate bar that you're putting on the citizenry?" Bernstein asked. Lindstrom argued the letter people got did give them the required notice. "A person getting this would realize this is serious, and I now have a legal debt," Lindstrom said. David Reinke, of Novi, was sitting in the courtroom with other members of the public. He was unemployed for a stretch, reported getting a job, and the agency never changed his benefit, he said. Now the state is coming after him for more than $54,000, he said. He's raising three kids and doesn't make a lot of money, but his wages are being garnished. When he heard Bernstein's line of questioning, "I thought, 'Wow, somebody gets it, somebody actually gets it,'" he said. Lindstrom also fielded questions from Chief Justice Stephen Markman and Justice Bridget Mary McCormack on similar topics. Jennifer Lord, attorney for people affected, argued her clients had until six months after the state took tax refunds or otherwise took money from them to sue. "All of the claimants' deprivation is linked to the first time that the agency took action to seize their property," she said. On a conference call hosted by the AFL-CIO on Tuesday, Lord said people are facing consequences like bankruptcy, foreclosure, an inability to pass credit checks and damaged relationships with their families. "There are tens of thousands of people out there that have still suffered tremendous damages... that the state has still not refunded, refuses to refund," Lord said. Rebecca Williams, a former Michigan resident who moved for work, didn't know she was accused of fraud until her tax refund got seized. It's a black mark on her background checks that has made it hard to apply for jobs. "I'm hoping and praying that the Michigan Supreme Court takes heed that individuals' lives have changed immensely because of this mess up," she said ahead of the hearing. The court heard arguments Wednesday, but has not yet made a decision on whether to grant leave to appeal. LANSING, MI - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer at an interview with Michigan residents at a citizen roundtable convened by MLive last month spoke about supporting Michigan's teachers, who she said were feeling the effects of recent policy changes. The MLive citizen roundtable was part of MLive's Michigan Beyond project, which has focused reporting on three issues key to Michigan's future: the economy, education and infrastructure. Five Michigan residents sat down with gubernatorial candidates recently, interviewing them about their ideas to drive Michigan forward. Watch the full video of Whitmer's interview at the top of this story. Second-grade teacher Amber Keathley asked Whitmer how, as governor, she planned to attract and retain teachers. "The profession is teaching is one that has been demonized and demoralized," Whitmer said, citing recent changes in health care and retirement as well as low salaries. She said she had family members who had been educators, and one of the most important things officeholders can do is listen to everybody from educators to parents. One solution she proposed in answer to Keathley's question was starting early, when teachers were in college. "We have to make it easier to afford to go into education in the first place, so you don't leave with crippling debt that you never have a chance to pay back because you're not making enough money," Whitmer said. To that end she has proposed what she calls the MI Opportunity Scholarship. It's an open-ended program that would provide two years of debt-free community college but could also be used at four-year institutions and trade schools. People could use it as new college students or to re-tool their careers later in life. While it could help people pursuing four-year degrees, she also pointed to skilled trade careers like electricians. "Compared to the while state budget it's a relatively small investment that will have a massive return later, when we increase skills and fill these jobs that are currently in demand that pay well and we get more people into higher-wage jobs and we build our workforce," she said. Whitmer also answered questions about the state's economy and infrastructure. The citizens on the panel were Keathley; John Wu, president and CEO of Global Strategic Connections, LLC, a global supply chain business; Susan Lynn, a paramedic re-tooling her career by pursuing a nursing degree at Lansing Community College; Ken Oscarson, a retired civil engineer; and Nicole Chen, a certified public accountant and founder of Comprehensive CPA and Global Business Consulting. MLive's Citizen Roundtable also sat down with Republican Bill Schuette and Libertarian Bill Gelineau. Those interviews will debut later this week. The election takes place Nov. 6. JACKSON, MI - A man previously convicted of domestic violence is heading to prison for the second time in five years after being convicted on multiple domestic violence charges in August. Camryn Locash was sentenced by Jackson County Circuit Judge Susan Jordan on Wednesday, Oct. 10, to serve 15 to 30 years in prison. He will be 40 years old when he is eligible for parole. Locash, 25, was convicted by a jury, Aug. 30, of four counts of unlawful imprisonment, four counts assault by strangulation, three counts of third-degree domestic violence and one count of interfering with electronic communications. During his sentencing hearing, prosecutors said that, though Locash is only 25, he has a long history of abusing women with nine domestic abuse cases to his name starting when he was a teen. Prosecutors requested a long sentence, arguing the justice system has shown him leniency in the past and it has not seemed to affect his behavior. The charges in this case stem from an assault investigation by the Michigan State Police on July 7, 2017. Investigators discovered that in an eight-month period, Locash chocked, kicked, restrained and assaulted the victim on multiple occasions, prosecutors said. He also was sentenced to serve three to five years in prison in 2014 after he pleaded guilty to domestic violence and unlawful imprisonment. JACKSON, MI - Even if Michigan voters don't legalize recreational marijuana in the Nov. 6 election, the city of Jackson could be seeing marijuana businesses inside its borders. The prospect of prohibiting recreational marijuana facilities was on the council's Tuesday, Oct. 9 agenda, but the vote was postponed and the council instead directed the city attorney to put together an ordinance to regulate medical marijuana facilities in the city. To allow medical marijuana businesses, communities must opt into the state program. If recreational marijuana passes, communities must opt out to ban the new businesses. The only Jackson County communities currently opted into medical marijuana are Leoni, Parma and Pulaski townships. But the Jackson City Council made it clear Tuesday the city could join that list. "I'm glad to see that we're moving forward with it," Mayor Derek Dobies said. "I think it's been a long time coming." The city has been pondering medical marijuana since at least February, Dobies said. But now, a proposed ordinance must be prepared by the Nov. 13 City Council meeting, following a unanimous direction from council Tuesday. That's the same day council would reconsider the postponed recreational marijuana changes. If the ballot initiative doesn't pass Nov. 6, it becomes a moot point. If it does pass, city officials would like to regulate medical and recreational marijuana under the same umbrella, Dobies said. Dobies hopes to learn lessons from other communities who've passed medical marijuana ordinances. He described Leoni Township's handling of it "poorly executed." "There's the doors wide open of Leoni Township (and) there's Lansing, both are working to reduce the number of facilities that they have," Dobies said. "We want to certainly take a look at the communities surrounding us and avoid some of those pitfalls." One way of controlling the number of marijuana businesses is by placing a cap on the number of businesses that can come in. Business types include dispensaries, growers, processors, transporters and safety compliance facilities. Communities also set the limits for how far these businesses have to be from schools, day-care facilities and churches. At the start of Tuesday's meeting, multiple citizens commented on how passing on allowing marijuana businesses would leave money on the table. A portion of the tax on marijuana is set aside for municipalities. Dobies said that plays a part in his decision to support marijuana businesses in the city. "To the extend of how much money that is, I think that's anyone's best approximation," Dobies said. PARMA, MI - Less than a week before being shipped off to Hawaii to serve as a pilot in World War II, Second Lt. Elwood Bailey married his Parma High School sweetheart. Two months later, in August 1942, while battling in aerial combat in Guadalcanal in the Pacific, Bailey went missing in action. Efforts were made to locate him, but a year later he was determined killed in action, with details unknown. More than 70 years passed with no news. In 2012, an island villager spotted the wreckage, sold the wing of the plane to a museum and notified U.S. authorities. The investigation closed in September 2017, determining the teeth and bone fragments found at the site were Bailey's. "We really didn't get much detail about him from my mother or her parents or my dad. We knew that he had died heroically in aerial combat in Guadalcanal," said Wayne Tompkins, Bailey's nephew. "The unfortunate reality is, (they) all died not really knowing for sure what had happened to him." Tompkins and his brother are Bailey's closest living relative. They'll be back in Jackson County this weekend, as Bailey's remains are brought back and buried next to his parents. Bailey is being buried with full military honors at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, at Chapel Cemetery in Parma. The ceremony is open to the public at the E. Michigan Avenue cemetery between Chapel and Dearing roads. Tompkins' mother was Bailey's only sibling. She didn't talk much about her late brother, he said. The family first learned that Bailey's remains might have been discovered in 2014, when Tompkins' son - who's in the U.S. Navy - found the information on MissingMarines.com. Tompkins' brother was also asked for a DNA sample. While the DNA couldn't be matched definitively, Bailey's dog tags were identified at the site. The number on the aircraft was also Bailey's. Bailey died five years before Tompkins was born. "The fact that the circumstances of his death were unknown created a real sense of anguish for my family," Tompkins said. "It's nice to finally think maybe their souls will be a little more at peace, knowing that this whole thing has been brought to a conclusion." Tracking down ties The recent discovery also coincides with a Jackson College project. A group has been working on a documentary of Bailey, Bill Maher and Zenneth Pond - a trio of former students who joined the civilian pilot program together. "They're all from pioneer families here in Jackson County," said Diana Agy, Jackson College English professor. "This was a new kind of pioneering, this aviation." Like Bailey's family, Agy and students at the college have been seeking to piece together Bailey's story. Artifacts like the discovered dog tags and Boy Scout knife from the wreckage along with old family scrapbooks are helping tell the tale. Pond also died in World War II, while Maher died in recent years. But Bailey has always been the biggest mystery of the three, Agy said. "Elwood Bailey, from what we can see, he was an athlete, he loved his girlfriend, he was a steady hand," Agy said. "But other than that, we really don't know - yet. But we're planning on finding out." Digging through old family photos and watching his uncle's life story begin to unravel, Tompkins said he's learned more about Bailey in the last year or two than what he gathered the rest of his life. "He goes from being somebody whom I had no relationship with to somebody that I now feel very intimate (with)," Tompkins said. "It's going to be very moving." Tompkins never met his uncle's wife, Eunice Speet, who died in 2015. Although he's recently connected with two of Speet's daughters - who plan to attend Saturday's ceremony. After Bailey went missing, Speet waited for word on her husband. Years later, she eventually met another man and, as a courtesy, asked Bailey's parents for permission to remarry, Agy said. Having children with the second husband, Speet didn't let the memories of her high school sweetheart die. "They have this tremendous respect for my uncle and his memory," Tompkins said. "Their mother raised them giving them glowing stories about her first husband." While cemeteries rarely warrant smiles, Tompkins said Saturday's ceremony should be a joyful occasion. "It's just such an amazing story," Tompkins said. "Leave no man behind, is kind of what it boils down to." JACKSON, MI - After being re-sentenced as a juvenile lifer, Charles Finch should have been eligible to be released from prison last month for a murder he participated in when he was 16 years old. But due to a legal snafu relating to his charges, his re-sentence is being reviewed by Jackson County Circuit Judge Susan Jordan to determine if the new sentence abides by state law. Finch, now 58, was re-sentenced by Jordan in September to serve 40 to 60 years in prison on three counts of first-degree murder by conspiracy he was convicted of in 1976. He was given a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole, a penalty deemed unconstitutional in 2012 by the U.S. Supreme Court and clarified in 2016 to confirm the decision was retroactive, affecting current prisoners. The issue with his re-sentencing stems from the law for first-degree murder being a crime punishable with a mandatory life without parole sentence conflicting with case law from 1986 that argued conspiring in first-degree murder was not eligible for a life without parole punishment, prosecutors said. Prosecutors and Finch's attorney, Walter White, agreed Jordan's sentence was appropriate, but the issue with the case law needs to be clarified before Finch could be released, prosecutors said. Jordan will review the case law and issue an opinion in the next several weeks. In 1976, when he was 16, Finch participated in the stabbing of John Clemons, 37, a janitor at the Bill Knapp's restaurant. He; Roger Hinton, then 17; and a then 14-year-old went to Clemon's house on Dewey Street in Jackson. Knowing the teens, Clemons let them inside. Finch hit him on the head with a wrench. Hinton bound his hands and legs and guarded him while the other two teens ransacked his home, looking for money. It was Hinton who stabbed Clemons in the back. When the blade bent as it apparently struck a bone, he used a second knife to pierce Clemon's heart. Charlotte Richendollar, then 35, promised Finch and Hinton a $40,000 cut of a $75,000 insurance policy if they killed Clemons, her fiance. Both Hinton and Richendollar have since died as prisoners. Richendollar, 74, on May 5, 2015, at Henry Ford Allegiance Health and Hinton, 54, on March 27, 2014, also at a hospital, according to a Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman. Hinton would have qualified for re-sentencing had he not died in prison. SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN -- U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, and Democratic nominee for the 6th District House seat Matt Longjohn will debate at multiple live events next week. Southwest Michigan voters will elect a representative in the U.S. House of Representatives to a two-year term on Nov. 6. Upton, Longjohn and U.S. Taxpayers Party candidate Stephen Young will be featured on the ballot this year. The Republican and Democratic nominees will first meet in the radio studios of WKZO on Monday, Oct. 15. An hour-long debate will be broadcast live at 9 a.m. on channels 590 AM and 106.9 FM and online at wkzo.com. WWMT Newschannel 3 will hold an in-studio debate at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17, with Longjohn and Upton. The debate will be broadcast live on the CW7 and streamed live on wwmt.com. Upton, Longjohn and Young will attend a forum hosted by the American Association of University Women of Michigan at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18. The event, located at South Haven High School, 600 Elkenlburg St., is free and open to the public. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Candidates running for the 26th state Senate District, 66th state House District and 80th state House District will also attend the event. Longjohn and Young are scheduled to attend an Oct. 24 Kalamazoo event hosted by the League of Women Voters. The free forum will be held at 7 p.m. at The Fountains at Bronson Place. Longjohn, who is from Portage, is a former YMCA national health director. He is running to Upton "accountable" for his support of the House Republican-backed American Health Care Act, and criticism of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Upton has served 16 consecutive terms in Southwest Michigan he was first elected in 1986. He was originally elected to Michigan's 4th Congressional District, later becoming the 6th District's congressman after its boundary was redrawn in 1992. Michigan's 6th Congressional District includes Van Buren, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Cass, and Berrien counties and a part of Allegan County. Upton has represented the area KALAMAZOO, MI -- Jevin Weyenberg, owner of Lake Effect marijuana dispensary in Portage, sat in the upstairs boardroom of the business, where maps of Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and other places color-coded with zoning regulations were being hung on the wall. The medical marijuana company is planning to expand in Kalamazoo and considering some additional locations while facing uncertainty as the state threatens to shut its dispensary down. The city of Kalamazoo approved a Class B Grower/Processor license for Lake Effect at 2927 Millcork Street, near other industrial businesses, where he and his associates plan to grow up to 1,000 plants in a 35,000 square-foot facility. Weyenberg estimates the grow will employ at least 100 people once it is running at full capacity. Lake Effect has also been approved by the city of Kalamazoo for a processing center at 3635 E. Kilgore Road, in a building not far from the airport, near other industrial enterprises, and near the Kalamazoo County Road Commission building. The business plans to make marijuana edibles and extracts there, Weyenberg said, and it will employ about 10 people. The applications are now waiting for state approval before plans can move forward. Industrial areas make sense for the facilities because marijuana must be grown indoors because of Michigan's climate, and should be grown in large quantities because the demand is huge, he said. Lake Effect is one of several medical marijuana businesses working toward opening in Kalamazoo under Michigan's updated rules for marijuana businesses. Weyenberg first entered the industry after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2013. He tried marijuana to ease the symptoms brought on by heavy doses of chemotherapy, he said, calling a friend he had not spoken to in years to get some to smoke. "Hey man, I got cancer and I'm really sorry to bug you," he remembers saying. The difference was "day and night," Weyenberg said, wearing a blue Lake Effect with his last name and "420" on the back. "As soon as you smoke some cannabis with all that nausea, with all that chemo that you have inside you, your nausea goes away right away, your appetite comes back pretty quickly after that and your pain goes away," he said. "I could eat, I could conversate with my family." When he was finished with the treatments, he started to work on his business plan. He continues to fight to bring legitimacy to the industry that sometimes gets a bad rap. "It's a great medicine which is being realized across the country should have been realized a long time ago," he said. He holds classes to help educate people about marijuana and the industry and spends time telling politicians about the needs of patients and how they need a commercialized industry to meet the demand. He was appointed to the governor's Marihuana Advisory Panel in July, and part of his role on the board is to be a patient advocate, working to facilitate access to medical marijuana. Weyenberg says he prefers people call it "cannabis" instead of marijuana, noting the years of misunderstanding connected to the name and the substance. One of the biggest misconceptions that remains today, he said, is that cannabis is just about smoking. He showed a variety of products that Lake Effect offers including vaporizers, wax, lotions, tinctures, edibles and more. He showed how a lotion can be applied to treat pain in a specific spot on the body, while smoking, vaporizing or ingesting typically affects the whole body. Vaporizer pens are a convenient way to take a small dose of cannabis that can help many patients, he said. Some products are advertised as "non psychoactive" because they don't contain THC, the main active ingredient of marijuana, but instead contain CBD, which is also derived from marijuana, but does not produce the euphoric high. Jars of cannabis labeled with names like Sunset Sherbet, God's Gift, Alien Rock Candy and Booberry Crunch sat inside a glass case on the wall of Lake Effect as Weyenberg gave a tour of the products offered. The jars are also labeled with the ailments the cannabis inside each is intended to treat, from insomnia and PTSD to pain and nausea. The extracts and other products generally sell more than traditional marijuana and offer a variety of ways to use the medicine, he said. Weyenberg still believes more are needed to meet the demand of patients and encourages other dispensaries and marijuana businesses to open in the area. People in the industry are driving changes, he said. "We have to have help from the state governments and local governments and everything is being pushed from the bottom up as well. Nothing's coming from the top down, which makes it even harder," he said. The state continues to have the final say of who can or can't operate a medical marijuana business. Existing dispensaries are operating under emergency rules in Michigan and the industry is still not accepted despite being around for years, he said. Weyenberg said he sees progress, but he feels there are still attitudes hanging around from decades of attacking marijuana with a criminalization-first approach. "Every patient and even anybody in a business entity is treated like a second class citizen, and then that's not right. It's gotta change," he said. "And that's what I tell them, we shouldn't be treated like second class citizens. Our medicine shouldn't be treated inferior to other people's medicines that they choose to use." Despite being tapped by the governor, Weyenberg's business isn't immune from state regulators. Lake Effect's existing dispensary at 8314 Portage Road in Portage was given notice on Sept. 10 that its application was denied, according to LARA. The prequalification application was "denied under section 402(3)(a) of the Act. Consideration of the integrity, moral character, and reputation of the applicant." The Medical Marihuana Licensing Board discussed the case before voting to deny the application. A member of the board alleged the business participates in the recreational market, noting that Lake Effect won an award from High Times' Cannabis Cup in June 2018. A member of the licensing board also mentioned a lawsuit against Lake Effect, which had been dismissed in recent weeks before the denial was issued. "We are the furthest thing from a recreational store that there is," Weyenberg said, reacting to the board member's comments. Weyenberg said the business is appealing the board's decision would have a chance for a second appeal if it is denied again. The dispensary can stay open until Dec. 15, he said in September. However, a new rule filed by LARA on Oct. 1 that says some dispensaries will have to close by Oct. 31, could further impact the Portage business, Weyenberg said on the day it was filed, after speaking with the business attorney. KALAMAZOO, MI -- Six candidates are hoping to be chosen for three seats on the Kalamazoo Public Library Board. In questionnaire responses submitted via email to MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette, the six candidates explained why they are running and outlined top-priority issues they would address if elected. Vicki Buchanan DeVould Cohn is a small business owner who has worked in the education field for 12 years, she said in her questionnaire response. She holds a master's degree in educational leadership and is pursuing a doctorate degree in educational leadership and counseling. She said her budget, fiscal and systems analyst experience with improve the Kalamazoo Public Library. If elected, she will uphold the public trust in the library's operations with leadership and communication skills. Nadine Godin-Nassaney has worked in social work since 1993. She is currently employed with Parchment Public Schools as a school counselor, she said in her response. She holds a master's degree in social work, a bachelor's degree in psychology and an associate degree in dental hygiene. She has experience working with children in Kalamazoo Public Schools, the Board of Directors of ASK Family Services, formerly known as Advocacy Services for Kids and on her church's board of trustees, she said. Christine Kindy is a literacy consultant for the Otsego Public Schools, she said in her questionnaire response. She holds a master's degree in speech pathology and audiology and a master's degree in educational leadership. She has worked as a speech pathologist, teacher, district literacy coordinator, equity coordinator and literacy consultant in schools districts in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, she said. Jennifer Moore is a claims specialists at a government agency, she said in her questionnaire response. She earned a bachelor's degree from Western Michigan University in English/secondary education. She is a former educator with Kalamazoo Public Schools and is endorsed by the Michigan Education Association and the Kalamazoo County Education Association. Anna Moss is a supervising attorney at Legal Services representing low-income clients facing eviction, forfeiture and foreclosure, she said in her response. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois, a master's in creative writing from Western Michigan University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan. She identified herself as a lifelong library patron and champion, who in 2014 was chair of the campaign to continue library funding. James VanderRoest is currently a member of the library board, he said in his questionnaire. He is an attorney with a law degree from Brigham Young University Law School and a bachelor's degree in business administration from Michigan State University, he said. He has been on the board since 1991, serving five terms as board president and nearly 20 terms as board treasurer, he said. Please explain why you're running for this office. BUCHANAN DEVOULD COHN I'm a candidate with excellent customer service skills, aimed to be involved with administration of organizations, and to work hard at keeping the Library a positive place where people of all ages want to go explore, learn, and read. I have 20 years' experience in customer relation and overseeing the general management in organizations. I'm an official who know when to listen and when to lead. GODIN-NASSANEY I am running for Kalamazoo Public Library (KPL) Board of Trustees because I am a strong supporter of public libraries. Learning to read and reading books has inspired me to be a lifelong learner. I regularly used the local public library in my home town as I was growing up, was an avid reader in high school and used college and university libraries to obtain information as I pursued my formal post-secondary education. I have belonged to several book groups in the Kalamazoo community and continue to borrow books from the four public libraries where I hold cards. I have participated in many KPL children's events with my sons when they were younger and have attended adult events including community read book discussions and authors visits. I have always been impressed with the programming for all ages at KPL. Over the years, I have been transported to new lands and new roles while reading books and want to contribute to KPL continuing to be a place where people of all ages can learn and dream. KINDY My love of reading started early and continues to be a passion both in my personal life and throughout my forty-year career as a public school educator. I was honored to work for many years as a Literacy Leader/Coordinator in the Lakeview Public Schools, well as a Literacy Consultant across Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. In my work, I encouraged students, teachers, and administrators to create a community of readers throughout their schools and districts. Although I retired a few years ago, I continue to provide part-time consulting to the Otsego Public Schools. Through my literacy support to the schools, I learned that successful development of life-long readers and writers is grounded in the "best practices" of choice, diverse classroom library collections, and equity. I will bring my years of experience supporting the development of a culture of "life-long readers/writers" into my service on the community library board. Kalamazoo Public Library envisions itself as an institution that considers diversity and equity in all of its decision-making and actions. This includes a commitment to engage in the long-term work of aligning its policies, programs, and procedures with an equity lens. I believe that the work of becoming an effective, equitable organization requires a continuous process of learning and action. My own commitment to anti-oppression learning has been spurred on by my life experiences and enhanced by my participation in a variety of diversity and equity trainings. I have experience leading equity work in my home school district and in my church. I serve on the Core Team of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) of Southwest Michigan. Recently, I attended the 2.5-day training by ERACCE (Eliminating Racism & Creating/Celebrating Equity). I am encouraged by the library's commitment to equity and want to support this intention through service as a board member. MOORE My love of reading began as a child when I would spend afternoons at the library, and I want others to have the opportunity to access programs and services provided by the Kalamazoo Public Librar y. Libraries are an invaluable resource in our communities. I am running to secure the future of our libraries. I want to extend our services to engage those who may have never considered taking advantage of every tool our libraries offer. MOSS Our community is lucky to have such an incredible library - it gives all families access to books, it helps people teach themselves new skills, and it is a resource that brings our community together. As a long-time Kalamazoo resident, I understand the role of the library to our community. As a former English instructor at Western Michigan University and the mother to two KPS students, I understand the value of the library for education in our community. Finally, as a Legal Services attorney, providing legal assistance and representation to people living in poverty, I understand the difference equal access to information can make. When I chaired of the committee to renew library funding in 2014, that campaign strengthened my commitment to be a careful steward of library funds. While serving on this committee, I worked with current board members, librarians, and other community members. I loved being a part of the effort to support our library and want to continue that work. VANDERROEST Kalamazoo Public Library is among the very best in the country. KPL has been well-known for its consistent high-quality service to the public, is recognized throughout the country for its innovations and initiatives, and is considered by many to be a community treasure. I will continue to maintain KPL's high standards while responsibly using the resources we have been entrusted with by the public. I support the goals of management and staff to expand the availability of library service to all, including the disadvantaged, while upholding our high quality of service and welcoming environment to traditional users. Serving the community is important to me and I believe that by being a citizen steward of the Library I've found a great place to give such service. If elected, what would be your top 3 priorities? BUCHANAN DEVOULD COHN I would work diligently and collaboratively with my fellow board members to: Support the creation of helping families. Bridging the literacy gap. Providing effective community based programs and services equitable to the community. GODIN-NASSANEY My first priority in my role as a KPL Board member is to help KPL continue to reach and serve all library constituents. Kalamazoo is a diverse community and the library must provide services that reach people of all age groups, gender identities, neighborhoods, races, cultures, and physical and mental abilities. KPL should solicit feedback from all of its patrons to be sure that services provided are easily accessible for all. My second priority is for KPL to continue to provide interesting and inspiring library services, resources and events in various locations throughout the city and townships. KPL has many branches and needs to tailor the services and resources at each branch based on patron demographics, interests and needs. My last priority is to help KPL to continue to attract and retain diverse qualified employees who reflect the make-up of the Kalamazoo community. These employees should be given a voice about their workplaces and be compensated fairly for their work. KINDY If elected to the Kalamazoo Public Library Board, I will apply my extensive background in literacy and equity to support the Kalamazoo Library's continuous commitment to quality. I will support the Kalamazoo Public Library's mission and values, striving to ensure that the library is "a place to explore, discover and engage through collaborative connections to one another and the world." My priorities would be: -To support and help initiate revisions to external and internal policies and procedures that will address internal commitment; and will support and engage both staff and the community as they build a diverse, equitable identity and culture. -To support and guide structural and programmatic transformation that is inclusive of, but not limited to, the delivery of services to the public--such as collection development, programming, and employment practices--with an equity lens. -To support and guide an inclusive culture of collaboration embracing the board, library staff, and the community so that we might truly consider all voices in our decision-making processes. MOORE If elected, I will promote diversity in community programs and staffing. I will strive to secure adequate funding for the Kalamazoo Public Library district, which will allow proper staffing and benefits for employees. The safety of KPL employees and patrons is paramount. It is my goal to ensure our libraries are safe and welcoming to all. MOSS Our library is already exceptional and my first priority is to continue it on that path and not advocate for dramatic, sudden change. Second, it's important for the library to be a space everyone in our community feels comfortable. The library offers a vast amount of information - from books to The Hub - and all people should feel welcomed to access it. Third, it's important that the library continue to be an active participant and partner in our community by offering a variety of programs that appeal to a diverse audience: the community read and connected interactive programs, young adult events such as Pizza and Pages and the Three Book Battle, partnering with local schools,and offering access to local history and genealogy resources. As I carry out my duties as a library board member, I will listen to librarians and staff at the library, community members, and other board members to get a more complete understanding of what would be the most beneficial to the library, the library staff, and our community. VANDERROEST - Maintain KPL's tradition of the highest quality public service; - Use public funds responsibly and in the best interests of tax payers - Supporting traditional KPL priorities such as national recognition, early childhood literacy, community reading, local history, access to information and technology for all, and programming that meets the needs of the public as identified through effective strategic planning, and increasing such efforts as outreach to the less served and diligent implementation of our Social Justice policy. THREE RIVERS, MI -- Two men were arrested and two children were turned over to other family members after police found drugs at a Three Rivers home. The Southwest Enforcement Team and the St. Joseph County Special Response Team executed a search warrant at 9:30 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Riverside Townhouses on Hoffman Road in Three Rivers. There, police found two ounces of methamphetamine, marijuana, money and materials used to weigh and package illegal drugs. One man was arrested on an outstanding warrant and a second man was arrested on a probation violation. The children were removed and were turned over to family members. Police continue to investigate and plan to request additional charges from the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office. The Southwest Enforcement Team is comprised of sworn law enforcement personnel from the Berrien County Sheriff's Office, Allegan Police Department, Allegan County Sheriff's Office, Barry County Sheriff's Office, Calhoun County Sheriff's Office, Covert Township Police Department, Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office, Kalamazoo Township Police Department, Michigan State Police, South Haven Police Department, Saint Joseph County Sheriff's Office, and Sturgis Police Department. The team is funded in part by the Michigan High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and the U.S. Department of Justice Byrne JAG grant. PORTAGE, MI -- A rumored threat to Portage Central High School was found to be untrue and no charges will be filed, police said. Portage Public Safety Sgt. Micheal Collier said police investigated claims of a threat Sept. 23, but found them to be unsubstantiated. "It was really blown out of proportion on social media," Collier said. Police were called at 6:27 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23, about threats that a student would bring a gun to school to confront another student. Portage Central Resource Officer Daniel Houser said an Instagram post circulated among students that was based solely on "hearsay." The post claimed that a friend said a student was heard threatening to bring a gun to school to scare someone, but police found it to be untrue. The student who was rumored to have made the threat was interviewed and a search was conducted of the student's home to insure weapons were not accessible, Houser said. The incident was fully investigated and dealt with prior to school beginning Monday, Sept. 24, he said. Portage police did not submit charges to the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office. Portage Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Karpinski said in an email to the Kalamazoo Gazette that there was no follow up to the incident because police could not substantiate the threat. "There was no one to discipline because essentially there was no threat that the police could verify (substantiate)," she said. The district would not comment on individual student cases of discipline because of privacy concerns, Karpinski said. Another school threat in the county resulted in a Kalamazoo Central High School student suspended from school and multiple felony charges. Arvante Ford, 18, of Kalamazoo, was charged with one felony count of false report or threat of terrorism and one felony count of using a computer to commit a crime for a Sept. 19 social media threat of a shooting at Kalamazoo Central High School. Police determined Ford had no means to carry out the threat, but he admitted to posting the message on Facebook. He was arraigned on the charges Sept. 24 and posted a $5,000 personal recognizance bond. MUSKEGON, MI - A $4.2 million, 24-unit affordable housing community focused on homeless people, those with special needs and survivors of domestic violence is open in Hart. Half of the units at Woodland Place are reserved as supportive housing for people with special needs, survivors of domestic violence and people struggling with homelessness. Twenty-three of the 24 units are already occupied. Minnesota-based Fortune 500 company UnitedHealthcare is the largest investor, providing $3.7 million. It is one of four that it has invested in in Michigan for a total of $35 million. The others are in Oak Park, Ypsilanti and Holt. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) gave the Hart development a low-income housing tax credit allocation for construction. It was developed by Gryphon Group and the Oceana County Housing Commission. Oceana Home Partnership, West Michigan Community Mental Health, Disability Connections, the Michigan Department of Human Services, and Communities Overcoming Violent Encounters will provide on-site supportive services to improve the health, education and economic outcomes of Woodland Place residents. The development consists of four six-unit buildings and a community building on a 2.5-acre lot near downtown Hart and abutting the Montague-Hart Bicycle Trail. The community building, 609 S. Water St., was designated The Ron May Community Building at Woodland Place in honor of the late May who was a local affordable-housing advocate instrumental in the development of Woodland Place. Hart is an Eligible Distressed Area, as designated by MSHDA based on unemployment, population, property values and poverty rates. The city in Oceana County is also a Core Community, as designated by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The Core program targets critical needs of older communities through housing development and other tools. First lady Melania Trump says she supports she women who are part of the #MeToo movement, but also says women who want to accuse their attackers should have "hard evidence" if they're going to make those claims. "I support the women and they need to be heard. We need to support them and, you know, also men, not just women,"Trump said during an interview with ABC News. When asked if she thought men in the news that have been accused of sexual assault were being treated unfairly she said there needed to be evidence along with the claims. "We need to have hard evidence," Trump said. If you accuse (someone) of something, show the evidence." She again went on to say she supports women who have been assaulted, but there should be evidence to support those claims. "I do stand with women, but we need to show the evidence. You cannot just say to somebody, 'I was sexually assaulted,' or, 'You did that to me,' because sometimes the media goes too far, and the way they portray some stories it's, it's not correct, it's not right," said Trump. Her husband, President Donald Trump has been accused numerous times of sexual assault and has echoed his wife's thoughts saying there's never been any hard evidence presented that he's actually assaulted someone. Prior to the 2016 election, then candidate Donald Trump came under fire after a years old tape of him bragging about assaulting women surfaced. However, no actual evidence of a specific assault was ever brought forward. The interview with Melania Trump was conducted last week while she was visiting Kenya on her first solo trip abroad as first lady. Chase Winovich's long, golden locks have been a staple of his game the last couple of years at Michigan. He lets his hair flow out of his helmet, and says his transition to long hair followed his switch to defense. That journey, he says, is what prompted him to recently turn down a potentially lucrative bet involving his favorite mixed-martial artist fighter, Conor McGregor. "I was playing online with this guy named Nick Mercs (@NICKMERCS), he's a famous Twitch streamer from Fortnite," the Michigan defensive end told the "Jamie and Stoney Show" (WXYT 97.1-FM) this week. "He offered me -- if Conor McGregor wins, I'll give you $1,000. But if he loses, you've got to cut your hair." The bet was specific to McGregor's fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov last Saturday in Las Vegas, one in which McGregor lost via submission. Winovich is a self-professed fan of McGregor, often quoting him in media interviews and citing McGregor's career as inspiration for his own life. But there was too much risk in this bet, one he ultimately would have lost. "I was very confident in Conor winning, but I said there's no way I would cut my hair for $1,000," Winovich said. "It's just too a part of me. I couldn't do it." OSU/MSU: In an ongoing series with the "Jamie and Stoney" show, co-host Mike Stone has asked Michigan players this season which school they despise more, Michigan State or Ohio State. Devin Bush, Jr., of course, said MSU. Winovich agreed, but with an interesting, articulate response this week: "I feel like we might have a better relationship with (Ohio State) players in a sense, where it's almost strictly ideology," Winovich said. "It's like Ohio State versus Michigan, it's such a huge game. "Whereas Michigan State, I think there's almost actual animosity between players. But I hate both of them. I want to beat both of them." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 10) President Rodrigo Duterte will focus on the need for inclusive and sustainable growth during the gathering of Southeast Asian leaders in Indonesia this week. A statement from Malacanang Wednesday said Duterte would address the ASEAN Leaders' Gathering to discuss the issue and how it can be attained through "stronger regional and global cooperation and greater security and stability." The President left for Bali Wednesday evening. According to the Palace, Duterte will also meet with ASEAN leaders to "discuss bilateral issues of mutual importance." Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Junever Mahilum-West on Monday said Duterte will attend the informal roundtable in the afternoon of October 11. Duterte was invited by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Malacanang said the President would return to the country after the event and would report about the results of his participation. 10. Cognizant Technology Solutions | Offices: Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mangalore, Mumbai and Pune (Photo: Reuters) Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) has laid off 200 senior level employees, giving them a severance payout of three-four months, as per a report in The Times of India. The move is a part of the company's plan to align its talent pool to the newer digital requirements by bringing new skills on board. This may cost the firm about $35 million in severance during the rest of the year. "As a part of our ongoing workforce management strategy, we ensure we have the right employee skill sets necessary to meet client needs and achieve our business goals. This process has resulted in changes, including some employees transitioning out of the company. We continue to enhance our capabilities and hire for roles across all our practice areas in the company. Details of severance or any other conditions of employment are confidential," the company said. According to the report, the entire process was completed in August. The employees were asked to sign a mutual release agreement with the company which stated that they would not press a legal action against the company or its directors or its officers, some of the affected employees told the paper. The contract also stated that the employee has voluntarily entered into the agreement. They added that the layoffs have left employees worried about how the rapid shift in technology is making skills redundant. The company had slashed headcount by nearly 4,000 in 2017. It had also offered nearly 400 senior executives a voluntary retirement scheme, a move that the US-based company said will help it save about $60 million annually. The company is looking to increase its global cloud workforce to facilitate rapid delivery of services. "By year-end, we expect our global cloud workforce to exceed 20,000 associates. Today, about half of our current cloud-focused associates work in our digital systems and technology practice, which brings together applications, infrastructure, and security to help clients rapidly deliver new applications and services, support product development at scale, and shrink time to value from years to months," Cognizant CEO Francisco DSouza had said in the June quarter earnings call. Rank 3 | Amazon | E-commerce company (Image: Amazon) US-headquartered Amazon on Tuesday (October 9) said its sale during the first ten hours of early access given to prime members doubled the numbers reported during the 12 hours of prime day of the previous year. The company, which kick-started its six day flagship sale event The Great Indian Festival, expects sales for all days to be much "bigger and explosive". We opened up prime early access for 12 hours. In the last 10-10.5 hours prime early access was already two times of what it was last year so we have seen people shop 100 percent more than they shopped the last year, Amit Agarwal, Country Head, Amazon India said, adding that this sale will help the company break into the next 100 million customers in India. Agarwal was speaking to the media just a few minutes before the midnight sale started. While he did not comment on the growth in sale expected during the six day sale period, he said that typically the first ten hours of an open day is much explosive and bigger. Rival Flipkart, which got acquired by US-based retailer Walmart for USD 16 billion, has also rung up its flagship sale The Big Billion Days the same day. The stakes this year are high for Amazon as this time it fights Walmart in India much like the two behemoths compete in their home country. The stakes are high for us every single day. From our perspective trust is very easily lost, hard to earn. So it is not what we do in a five day or 30 days period that backs our future but what we do on a daily basis, said Agarwal. We will leave the debate of who is bigger aside. For us what matters is building the next cent of very loyal customers that fuel the next five years of growth, he added. While the two companies havent disclosed the amount of sale expected during festive period, according to research firm Redseer Consulting, online retail firms led by Amazon and Flipkart may generate about USD3 bllion of sales during the five day period this year. Amazon currently claims to have 150 million registered customers and India and is now looking to tap the next 100 million customers which will come from Tier 2-3 cities. Small cities are important for Amazon with over 50 percent of sellers and 65 percent of customers coming from Tier 2 and 3 cities. Last month it also launched a Hindi version of its mobile app to deepen its presence in the smaller towns. Agarwal said that the idea was to tap the customer base who would browse but would not shop. Now we are seeing a large part of that convert for the first time after the Hindi launch. This period would allow us to break into meaningfully to the next 100 million just because the efforts are very focused on making things more affordable, and (introduction of) vernacular language, he said adding the more languages will be launched soon. Some of the top selling items on the Prime only day were smart television and phones. The next 100 million customers indeed is a crucial number both for Flipkart and Amazon who lock horns for market leadership. Agarwal claims Amazon to be the market leader even as the Flipkart Group that houses Myntra and Jabong besides Flipkart claimed to have garnered 80 percent market share during the sale season last year. Flipkart is now focusing on low-priced items such as unbranded fashion and recharges, besides affordable payment options and Amazon is sticking to its tag line of being a platform for everything a customer needs. To be sure, Flipkart's majority of the business comes from categories such as mobile phones. The challenge out there is to make sure that you are offering a daily convenience so that it becomes a daily habit and we through our focus across the board across categories see that happening. Prime is a good indication for us. So our objective is how we convert these 100 million into prime and prime up the next 100 million to start shopping so that over time they become prime members, said Agarwal. Over the last few years the awareness for e-commerce festive sale has been growing with social media and the television being the biggest source of awareness. Mobile phones and fashion are the two most popular categories among the customers. The willingness to purchase during the Diwali season has increased from 79 percent in 2017 to 100 percent in 2018, owing to the increase in discounts and promotional events run by the e-tailing platforms says Redseer adding that around 29% of the people surveyed by them plan to buy a mobile phone this sale season followed by 27% who want to buy fashion. Interestingly, India which has conventionally been a cash economy with over 90 percent of e-commerce sale happening in cash, is witnessing a gradual shift by customers opting for digital modes of payment. Around 26 percent of the customers said they used debit cards for making payments while 23 percent said they used cash on delivery in the Redseer report. Multiple offers given to them in partnerships with banks have fuelled the usage. Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar The Bihar cabinet on October 9 paved the way for rolling out metro rail in Patna as it approved the "Detailed Project Report (DPR)" which would be sent to the central government for approval. In an another important decision, the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar gave its nod for completely banning the use of plastic carry bags in all the municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats of the state. The production, import, storage, transport, sale and use of all types- irrespective of their size and thickness- of plastic carry bags will be completely banned after 60 days from the date of gazette notification, Cabinet Secretariat Department's Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar told reporters. Notably, the Patna High Court- while hearing a PIL for banning the use of plastic or polythene bags- had on October 1, 2018 passed the order directing the state government to completely ban plastic bags in urban areas of Bihar from October 25 while in rural areas from November 25 this year. Kumar said "Metro rail project would be implemented through special purpose vehicle (SPV) 'Patna Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (PMRCL)' at an estimated cost of Rs 17,887.56 crore. The cabinet gave its in-principle approval to send the project's DPR, Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) and Alternative Analysis to the Central govenrment for its approval." On September 26, the state cabinet had given its nod for constituting "Patna Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (PMRCL)" as special purpose vehicle (SPV) for implementation of the metro rail project in the capital. A preliminary DPR for metro rail project was approved by the state cabinet in February 2017 but it was required to be revised after the centre came up with a new metro policy, Urban Development and Housing Department official sources said. The metro rail envisages two corridors in the first phase. The first corridor will be between Saguna Mor-Bailey Road-Patna Junction- Mithapur bus stand while the second corridor will be from Patna junction to proposed bus stand at Bairiya on Patna-Gaya road, sources said. In an another important decisions, the cabinet sanctioned Rs 249.85 crore for giving Rs 10,000 as incentive to all the 2,49,856 unmarried girls who passed the Intermediate examination in the year 2018 conducted by Bihar School Examination Board, Patna under Mukhya Mantri Kanya Uthan Yojana, Kumar said. It also approved education department's proposal as per which it increased the amount given under Mukhya Mantri Balak Cycle Yojana and Mukhya Mantri Balika Cycle Yojana from existing Rs 2500 to Rs 3000 for buying bi-cycle by the student enrolled in IXth standard of government schools, he said. Giving details of ban on plastic carry bags, the Principal Secretary said that plastic carry bags would be banned in the municipal areas in the first phase and later the ban would be enforced in rural areas in the second phase. All traders and manufacturers of plastic carry bags and shop-owners, vendors, vegetable sellers will dispose of their plastic carry bags within 60 days, failing which every violators- be it common users or businessmen- will be penalised for violation, he said. Urban Development and Housing department will impose fine if anyone is found violating the plastic ban i.e. use, manufacture, storage, transport and sale of plastic bags, Kumar said. Rs 100 will be charged as fine on domestic user for the first time, while he/she will be charged Rs 200 for his/her second violation and Rs 500 everytime thereafter, Kumar said. The commercial users will be fined Rs 1500 for the first violation, Rs 2500 for second violation and Rs 3500 for every violation committed thereafter, he added. If anyone is found indulged in manufacturing of plastic carry bags, then he/she will be fined Rs 2000 for first time violation, while Rs 3000 for second time violation and Rs 5000 for every violation thereafter, Kumar said adding that the move would help in making and keeping environment clean and free of plastics which are non-biodegradable items. A total of 45 decisions were taken on Tuesday's cabinet meeting. In what appears to be fall out of the TDP pulling out of the NDA, the Centre has not released Rs 700 crore funds to Andhra Pradesh for development of seven backward districts for 2017-18 and 2018-19, but a similar assistance due to Telangana has already been given. While the government think-tank Niti Aayog has recommended release of the funds to the bifurcated Andhra Pradesh, a file in this regard is pending with the Prime Minister Office (PMO) for last few months, Andhra Pradesh Planning Board vice-chairman C Kutumba Rao told PTI. Both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are entitled to a special development package from the Centre for a period of five years under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014. Andhra Pradesh is entitled to Rs 350 crore annual grant for the development of seven backward districts, while the neighbouring Telangana would get Rs 450 crore annually for nine backward districts. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) broke away from the NDA early this year over the Centre's refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh. "We should get in total Rs 700 crore funds pending for 2017-18 and the current fiscal and the Centre has not released this amount till date. But to Telangana, it has released Rs 900 crore for both 2017-18 and 2018-19 fiscals," Rao said. Alleging that the Centre is acting in a "biased manner" towards the bifurcated Andhra Pradesh, he said the state government has written several letters demanding early release of funds but the Centre has not responded positively. "In fact, the central government on February 9 released Rs 350 crore for the 2017-18 fiscal. However, a week later the funds were taken back without citing any reason," he noted. Usually when the Centre allocates funds, it is deposited in the RBI general account of the state. The RBI has control over the account and it can take back the amount, he added. Stating that nothing is pending from the state government's side, Rao said: "We have submitted necessary utility certificates. Union Finance Ministry has not given a single reason either written or oral to the state." In fact, the Niti Aayog has recommended releasing of funds to the state, but the file is pending with the PMO. "If the PMO cannot decide on a file in six months,imagine how the central government is functioning," he said. Out of 13 districts in Andhra Pradesh, seven backward districts are Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram. Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool and Chittoor. A revamp of Indias direct tax system may take more time to kick off as the task force is yet to submit its report on a new law . Besides, Arbind Modi, the convenor of the six member task force, as well as the member of the apex policy making body Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) retired on September 30. The draft direct tax law will be submitted after the government appoints a new convenor for the task force, a senior finance ministry official told Moneycontrol. The government is in the process of finding a new convenor of the committee that has been working on finalising a report on Indias new direct tax legislation, the official said. The discussion on reforms pertaining to taxation started in September, 2017, when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that more than half a century old Income-Tax Act needs to be re-drafted and a new Direct Tax Code (DTC) needs to be introduced in consonance with economic needs of the country. Acting upon it, the finance ministry on November 22 constituted a task force comprising six members, as well as the Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian, as a permanent special invitee in the task force. Subramanian is currently not a part of the committee as he resigned from his post of CEA last month to return to academic research in the US. Apart from Arbind Modi, who was heading the task force, Girish Ahuja, practicing chartered accountant and non-official director, State Bank of India, Rajiv Memani, chairman and regional managing partner of E&Y, Mukesh Patel, practicing tax advocate in Ahmedabad, Mansi Kedia, consultant, ICRIER, and G.C. Srivastava, retired bureaucrat are part of the team. The panel was supposed to submit the draft report on May 22, but sought an extension of three months that got over in August. The erstwhile UPA government had finalised DTC and had introduced the Bill in the Parliament in 2010. However, the Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha. It aimed at simplifying tax legislation, widening the tax base, while removing a number of exemptions. The task force is in the process of drafting a direct tax legislation keeping in mind, tax system prevalent in various countries, international best practices, economic needs of the country, among others. Some of the provisions of the DTC such as General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) and Place of Effective Management (PoEM) has already been implemented. IL&FS Transportation Networks | The company defaulted on the interest on non-convertible debentures due on August 25, 2020. (Image: Reuters) Chartered accountants' apex body ICAI has sought an explanation from audit firms that carried out statutory audit works of crisis-hit IL&FS group in the past few years. The crisis at diversified IL&FS, following loan defaults by some group entities, has raised concerns about liquidity crunch in the financial system. Against this backdrop, the government seized control of the IL&FS board earlier this month. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said it has issued notices to audit firms that conducted statutory audit works of IL&FS group in the past few years. However, specific details were not disclosed. In the recent past, there has been news reports regarding diversion of loan money in IL&FS and its subsidiary companies, the ICAI said in a statement. "The Disciplinary Directorate of the ICAI, upon coming across such news report has suo moto taken cognisance of the matter and pro-actively issued notices to the statutory auditors on October 4, 2018 for the relevant years of the concerned company seeking their explanation in the matter," it said. The institute has also written to the Reserve Bank of India and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office seeking details about IL&FS issue. Indias two largest beer makers Heineken-controlled United Breweries and Anheuser-Busch InBev will soon be in a battle over non-alcoholic drinks in the dry state of Gujarat, The Economic Times reported. The two brewers will soon enter Gujarat, where making, selling and drinking alcohol is banned since 1960, with non-alcoholic beer. UB will foray into the state with non-alcoholic beer Kingfisher Radler this week, and AB InBev is expected to join the race in a couple of months. "Gujarat is an opportunity market for this product as its a state with no access to alcoholic drinks," Ramesh Visvanathan, Chief New Business Officer at UB, told the paper. UB has already test-launched Kingfisher Radler in Gujarat and Karnataka. UBs Kingfisher Radler is alcohol-free and is made of fresh barley malts and natural lemon juice. Gujarat is one of the largest non-alcoholic beer markets in the country, dominated by drinks sold by traders and importers. "The current products in the market are imported, expensive, sparsely distributed and not supported. Above all, they have a beer taste which people dont want," Visvanathan said. Along with UB, London Pilsner and Heineken beer, also plan to launch a slew of zero-alcohol beer in Gujarat as well as elsewhere, the report said. The Belgium-headquartered brewer firm plans to launch beer in the non-alcoholic beer segment 'in the coming months', Ben Verhaert, President India at AB InBev, told the paper. "We see non-alcoholic beer as an opportunity for the beer category to offer choice in India, which is the second largest consumer base in the world, where the level of abstinence is high for various reasons," Verhaert told the paper, adding that firm intends to shape the category by making it a more inclusive place for consumers with diverse choices and preferences. AB InBev, which sells Budweiser, Hoegaarden and Becks eyes 20 percent of total global sales from such products by 2025 from 8 percent at present. According to the report, even beer pub chains are looking to enter Gujarat. Beer Cafe will open outlets in the state if the market gets more than a dozen non-alcoholic beer brands, Rahul Singh, founder of Beer Cafe, told the paper. "Gujarat is one of the largest markets for food and beverages, and beer is the second largest packaged beverage in India," Singh said. While beer contains 1.2-8 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), non-alcoholic beer mostly has 0.05 percent ABV or below. IL&FS Transportation Networks | The company defaulted on the interest on non-convertible debentures due on August 25, 2020. (Image: Reuters) live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has narrowed on five arms of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS)that may have been involved in fund diversion and mismanagement, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday. Indian government took control of the debt-laden IL&FS last week after defaults on a string of debt obligations triggered wider concerns about risks in the country's financial sector. The five companies under SFIO probe are IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd, IL&FS Financial Services Ltd, IL&FS Energy Development, IL&FS Tamil Nadu Power and IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company, the paper said. The five firms constitute for more than 50 per cent of the entire group's revenue and may have diverted funds in projects that were worth 300 billion rupees ($4.04 billion), ET reported, citing two government officials. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has also begun probing the matter and issued notices to statutory auditors seeking an explanation, it said. IL&FS Group, SFIO and ICAI did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan The Kerala government Wednesday decided to merge 14 district co-operative banks with the state co-operative bank as part of its proposal to set up the 'Kerala Bank.' The cabinet decision comes in the wake of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) according in principle approval to the start the 'Kerala bank,' a release Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's office said. With this, the three-tier co-operative system in the state would become a two-tier model, it said. Changes would be made in accordance with the conditions laid down by the RBI. This was a step forward to set up the Kerala Bank, the release added. Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala asked the government to withdraw its decision as it would only lead to the destruction of the co-operative system in the state. He also pointed out that the RBI has put forth 19 'tough' conditions which the government would find difficult to meet. Merging of district co-operative banks with the state co-operative bank would result in the destruction of the democratic process in the co-operative sector, Chennithala claimed. Kerala-based Malabar Gold and Diamonds is looking to invest Rs 7,000 crore to triple its retail footprint to reach 750 outlets and raise the group turnover to $7 billion by FY23, a senior company official said. "We have a global growth plan that will see the company triple its retail network from 250 showrooms this year to 750 outlets in the next five years with the Group turnover to $6.85 billion (Rs 50,000 crore) by 2023," Malabar Group chairman Ahammed MP told reporters, on the eve of its silver jubilee celebrations. The company also plans to invest $960 million (Rs 7,000 crore) to manage the growth and expansion mainly through franchisee model, he added. The Malabar Group currently operates retail outlets spread across ten countries in the India, Middle East, Southeast Asia and America. In India, it plans to expand its footprint across all Tier I and Tier II cities in north and central India. Internationally, it is looking to start operations in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Australia, Canada, Egypt and Turkey. As much as 40 percent of the group turnover will be generated from the company's operations outside India, he said. It has no immediate plans to raise funds through initial public offer (IPO) but funds will be raised through bank loans and from its investors, Malabar Group India operations managing director, Asher O said. Malabar Group's retail expansion plan in north and central Indian states like Punjab, Maharashtra, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh will be supported by a new set of investors from these regions. It plans to expand its investor base from 2,752 and include more investors. "We will also continue to strengthen our retail foot print in the states where we currently have strong presence," Asher said. This will also see Malabar Group nearly double its headcount from 13,000 to 25,000 professionals on direct payroll within the next five years to manage the growth and expansion, he added. Asher pointed out that in order to manage the expansion and to fix the skill shortage in jewellery manufacturing, they are in the process of setting up a skill development centre to groom the youth. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Share price of Bharat Dynamics rose nearly 5 percent intraday Wednesday after company bagged an order worth Rs 200 crore. The company has received order worth of Rs 200 crore approximately from DRDO for supply of medium range surface to Air Missile (MR SAM) rear section. MRSAM is a joint development project between DRDO and Israel Aerospace industries, Israel with Bharat Dynamics as the nominated production agency. At 14:42 hrs Bharat Dynamics Ltd. was quoting at Rs 279.40, up Rs 10.35, or 3.85 percent. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More With the Indian market falling like ninepins since September, over 90 percent of companies in the S&P BSE 100 index or India's top 100 companies have given negative returns since August 28, when Sensex hit a record high. Only eight companies out of top 100 companies managed to brave the fall, which includes Wipro, Aurobindo Pharma, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Hindalco, Vedanta and NMDC. Over 60 companies in the S&P BSE 100 index fell 10-40% since August 28 with most experts advising investors to allocate more towards large-cap stocks from medium-term perspective. As many as 63 stocks in the BSE 100 index fell 10-40 percent. The list includes Yes Bank, HPCL, Bank of Baroda, Eicher Motors, Maruti Suzuki, BPCL, Punjab National Bank, LIC Housing Finance, Bharti Airtel, Britannia Industries, etc. "We do believe that markets are likely to end 2018 higher, and our target for Sensex is 37,500. We believe that largecaps are a better bet for the moment. Firstly, they are less volatile and valuations favour large-caps. We would look at factors like valuations, earnings growth, business model, quality of management. Some large-cap stocks we like are Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero Motor, ICICI Bank," Vivek Ranjan Misra, Head of Fundamental Research at Karvy Stock Broking, told Moneycontrol. Indian markets are in the midst of a correction which is likely to extend further, according to experts and hence, there will be plenty of opportunities for investors to enter into quality stocks on declines. The fall in the market was largely on account of a decline in Rupee as well as higher oil prices, fears of liquidity crunch following IL&FS default, change in stance by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), persistent selling by foreign investors as well as trade war fears between the two biggest economies US and China. It will be prudent to stick with only superior fundamental as downside risk is persistent in current scenario, and deploy buy at dip strategy with longer investment horizon, feel experts. "With multiple challenges coming simultaneously in the market, the risk to the downside is likely to stay for a prolonged period. As few fundamental stocks also witnessed a substantial fall during recent correction, it offers a buying opportunity for the investors ahead of festive seasons," Dinesh Rohira, Founder & CEO, 5nance.com, told Moneycontrol. How to pick large-cap stocks? The upside in the market is likely to remain capped ahead of crucial state elections which will start from November. Data suggests that if investors invest in Nifty just six months ahead of general elections and hold it for 2 years then returns have usually been positive. "Across 7 elections in the last 27 years, whenever an investor entered the markets 6 months before the general elections and held on for 2 years, the investor made on average annualized returns of 23 percent, with most money made in the 2009 elections when the UPA government held the fort," said Sunil Sharma, Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management. "While the least return has been a positive 1.5 percent in 1999 (when the incumbent party i.e. BJP won), this strongly implies that the 27-year track record has never yielded principal erosion when entering pre-elections," he said. Also, investors should track the reason why a stock corrected. Any fall pertaining to fundamental or structural reasons should be avoided. Because not every stock which fell in the current correction are top buy. "The basic criterion to select companies irrespective of market-caps should be solely on the basis of fundamental backed by superior return-on-equity, consistent revenue and profit growth, and sustainable business module across market cycle," said Rohira. He further added that the most prudent way to approach a falling stock is to study a reason for fall and understand the details of all highlighted reasons because not every stock which has fallen will be a good buy, and should avoid generalizing stock on the basis of their fall. The stocks mentioned in the article are for reference and not buy or sell recommendation. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Moneycontrol News Shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) were buzzing in trade on Wednesday as investors cheered the news of big banks looking to buy some loans from such lenders. The likes of Dewan Housing, HDFC, Ujjivan Financial, MAS Financial Services, Edelweiss, IIFL, Satin Creditcare and L&T Finance Holdings, among others rose 1-16 percent on Wednesday. On Tuesday, State Bank of India (SBI) came out in support of non-bank lenders, stating there is still opportunity to buy up to Rs 30,000 crore more of their loans. "The bank had initially planned for a growth of Rs 15,000 crore through portfolio purchase during the current year which is now being enhanced," SBI said in a statement. "As per the bank's internal assessment, there may be an opportunity to buy additional portfolio in the range of Rs 20,000-30,000 crore," it said. NBFCs typically sell down a part of their loan portfolios after holding them for a particular amount of time. Banks buy these portfolios to show growth or to meet priority sector lending requirements. In most cases, it is the latter, which is to meet the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) rules to lend 40 percent of its loans to the priority sector. SBI's statement comes against the backdrop of a critical cash-crunch situation that is plaguing non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and making it difficult for them to raise funds from the market. Yields of debt securities issued by NBFCs have spike over the past few weeks because of fear that they may not have the cash to repay bond holders at the time of maturity. This restricted their business growth and has also limited funding from banks, which provide refinancing for their. Another large public sector lender -- Bank of Baroda -- has decided to continue lending to NBFCs and HFCs, hoping that normalcy gets restored in due course, according to CEO and Managing Director PS Jayakumar. On October 8, the National Housing Bank said it would increase the refinance limit for housing finance companies (HFCs) from Rs 24,000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore. This, too, was intended to reduce the refinancing risk for HFCs. A man looks at a screen displaying news of markets update inside the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India, February 11, 2016. Indian shares fell more than 3 percent on Thursday and headed for their biggest daily falls in nearly six months, hitting their lowest levels since May 2014, as fears of a slowdown in the global economy hit markets worldwide. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui - RTX26H49 live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Its an opportune time for the deep value investors who are looking for mispriced stocks or ones that are trading significantly below their intrinsic value. Stocks across the sectors are tumbling, oil PSUs such as Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and recent carnage in Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL), Yes Bank and many non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are just examples of numerous falling knives. While it is difficult to practice what Warren Buffett calls 'buy the fear', here are few points that can help in separating the wheat from the chaff. Many of the stocks collapse for a reason and few offer an illusion of margin of safety, an idea based on the principles of value investing as taught by Benjamin Graham. Last year, investors of Infosys were grappling with the important question of who would head the company after the Vishal Sikka and if the growth journey would get derailed as a result of intensifying strife between the management and the founders. Today, Yes Banks shares are struggling probably for the same reason as market fear the uncertainty over the exit of its founder CEO Rana Kapoor. Investors love falling stocks and try to make their quick guess about the bottom. But in most of these cases including the past few like PC Jeweller, Dilip Buildcon, Vakrangee, Manpasand Beverages and Infibeam, the sequence of events and news unfold in an abrupt manner. The first and foremost thing to do is to wait, take a note of the crisis and think before calling the shot. The investing legend, Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital coined this as ideas of second level thinking. A first-level thinker would always have an opinion about the future in terms of saying the company is good, outlook is favourable and stock will go up. He says, The second-level thinker takes many things into account: What is the range of likely future outcomes? Which outcome do I think will occur? What's the probability I am right? How does my expectation differ from the consensus? What will happen to the asset's price if the consensus turns out to be right, and what if I am right? Last year pharma stocks such as Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Lupin and many others were falling and investors were looking at them as perfect opportunities. But a section of the market knew about the pricing pressure in US generics that would impair growth and impact valuations. Often the market may be reading something more than what the headlines are saying. Management of crisis-hit companies like Manpasand Beverages, Infibeam Avenues and Kwality have issued several clarifications. But that also did not help as market continued to look for information elsewhere. It is better to ask that muted question before taking a plunge. At the time when the Nirav Modi-led scam hit Punjab National Bank , its reported net worth was about Rs 43,000 crore. This was in addition to the investments of about Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000 crore in companies such as PNB Gilt PNB Housing Finance , National Stock Exchange and others. Investors jumped into the stock hoping that even if the entire amount related to the scam is written off the bank should still be worth about Rs 45,000 crore. But the stock kept coming under pressure. By the end of Q4 FY18, the bank surprised the market with a quarterly loss of Rs 13,400 crore. It followed that up with a Rs 940 crore loss in Q1 FY19, with net non-performing assets (NPAs) at 10.58 percent, which is massive on advances of Rs 4.38 lakh crore. A lot of these risk were not factored during the initial bouts of volatility. As the famous proverb goes, 'buy the rumour and sell the fact', markets often behave mischievously. It is thus important to separate the rumour from the fact and see what is in the price. Some stocks would probably never recover or they continue to languish forever. The real test is to understand if its a structural or a cyclical issue. Infosys had a bad patch last year due to change in leadership and once that was fixed it is back in the business and investors radar. About few years back, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) was hit by a crisis, and the company is currently trading at a 14 year low as it face serious threats and challenges to grow it business and find direction as opportunities dry up in the power sector. Many of the IL&FS group stocks tumbled and the balance sheet of these companies are beyond repair. Few years back Nestle had a difficult time when its flagship product - Maggi - was in the eye of a storm. For investors who believed that this was a short term phenomena, probably an impact for one or two quarters and company can survive with a few changes, this crisis turned out to be an opportunity. If one plots a 10 year share price graph of Nestle, this incident looks like a minor blip, which today is really difficult to spot. A stock falling from its 52-week high or stocks that have corrected the most grab more eye balls and investors often end up buying low price stock without realising what they are buying. Lot of state-run banks look cheap on the basis of their price-to-book value. Even at half that ratio, market is not willing to buy them as they fear that the current book value may lose its relevance in the light of NPAs and the requirement for provisioning, which will ultimately erode book value. If you can find a mispriced opportunity there is nothing like it. Long term value investors have greater scope to produce superior risk-adjusted returns when the seas are rocky. The valid response when there's a crisis is to focus on the end destination, what value investors call intrinsic value, and not worry about whether the next wave is going to push the boat up or down. Marks focuses on intrinsic value. A cheap stock could remain cheap forever if the value is destroyed. Stocks like Gitanjali Gems never recovered from that cheap zone as the business was completely wiped out post the Nirav Modi crisis. Thus, price is important but only in relation with the value that one gets. Follow @jitendra1929 Answer: Nissan. Japanese auto-maker Nissan unveiled updated variants of Go and Go+ under the Datsun brand as part of their strategy to make inroads in tier II and III locations, a senior company official said. The company rolled out face lifted variants of Go and Go+ here last night, equipped with 28 new features and over 100 upgrades, Nissan Motor India, Vice-President, Marketing, Peter Clissold said. "We are making in roads, really month on month basis this fiscal year in Tier II and especially in Tier III locations.. That is pretty aggressive targets where we want to have representation..," he told PTI. Elaborating, he said, "before purchase of a car, a consumer goes to a local dealer and wants to see the product line up. Importantly, he wants the car to get it serviced there (in that outlet)." "That is where our focus is.. Because with that, comes confidence and trust on the brand," he said. The company formally introduced Datsun brand with the launch of small car 'Go' in 2014 and 'Go+' in 2015. Till date, Datsun has about five lakh customers. To a query, he said, Nissan motor has about 270 outlets and hopes to add more dealers during the current financial year. However, he declined to reveal how many dealers would be appointed. Asked whether the new variants would be shipped to overseas markets, he said, the company was already exporting some of the Datsun branded cars to South Africa, Nepal and some overseas markets. "We do feel that this is going to be a very significant upgrade to the existing model," he added. The 'Go' brand is offered at an introductory price of Rs 3.29 lakh and Go+ at Rs 3.83 lakh. "The new Datsun Go and Go+ is conceptualised for the new-age consumer.. Powered by Japanese engineering, Datsun Go and Go+ are equipped with fabulous new features and upgrades for a more comfortable, safe and stylish driving experience," Nissan India Operations, President, Thomas Kuehl said. Recently, the company roped in popular Bollywood actor Aamir Khan as its brand ambassador for Datsun brand. A new multimedia campaign across platforms including digital, print was also unveiled on the occasion. CRUDE-OIL China's top oil and gas producer PetroChina is preparing to open its first South Asia office in India to scout for business opportunities in oil and liquefied natural gas, three industry sources told Reuters. This is another sign of China expanding its role in overseas markets after years of building refining capacity and as a refined oil product glut builds in Asia. The company was registered as PetroChina International (India) on July 17 with a total paid-up capital of 33 million rupees ($444,000) in Mumbai, according to the information posted on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website. It has three directors listed including Rajesh Sampatkumar Modani, who had been working as a principal consultant with law firm Trilegal, according to his LinkedIn profile. The others are Hongwei Xia, who is currently at PetroChina's Singapore office, and Chi Zhang. PetroChina plans to trade in oil products and crude oil through the Indian office, one of the sources familiar with the matter said. "For products, India is nearer to Africa, so it makes sense to buy from India and export," the source added. PetroChina already buys refined products from Nayara Energy and Reliance Industries, said a second source familiar with the company's plan. He said the company is scouting for space to open its corporate office, and is using a temporary address for registration of the Indian entity. Chinese state-owned refiners have recently been boosting shipments of oil products such as diesel to Europe, South America and West Africa as they expand their foothold outside of China. CNPC, the parent company of PetroChina, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. PetroChina International currently has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States, Kazakhstan, Japan, London, Russia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Venezuela, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Dubai, according to the company website. The Delhi High Court has allowed the Centre to approach the appropriate authorities to seek necessary approvals for the revised proposals regarding re-development of six south Delhi colonies, including Sarojini Nagar and Netaji Nagar. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao said that since the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has reviewed the proposals to re-develop the six colonies, the ministry or the NBCC, which would carry out part of the work, can seek the necessary approvals and the authorities shall consider it in accordance with law. The court, in its interim order, said the ministry or the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) shall also be at liberty to approach the Tree Officer of the Delhi government, if required as per the revised proposal, for tree felling permissions. "Further action or steps shall be taken by respondent No.1 (ministry) or NBCC as per the decision of the statutory authorities," the bench said. The court had reserved its order after hearing arguments on behalf of all stakeholders, including the ministry, residents of the area and NBCC, regarding the redevelopment work in the six colonies -- Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Thyagaraja Nagar, Kasturba Nagar, Mohammadpur and Srinivaspuri. The ministry and NBCC had told the bench that they have made several changes to the project to ensure the number of trees to be felled and water consumption in the area are reduced. Apart from that, road infrastructure would be "augmented" to accommodate the increase in vehicular traffic, they had added. The ministry in its affidavit, filed through central government standing counsel Ripudaman Singh Bhardwaj, had said it has reduced the proposed number of dwelling units in the project area by 739 to reduce the felling of trees. Under the re-worked plan, there will be 24,928 dwelling units in the area, it had said, adding, that changes have been made in the layout plan, architectural designs and parking spaces to bring down the number of trees to be felled. The ministry and NBCC had also said that redevelopment of the area would lead to conservation of water as this resource was being wasted in huge quantities presently due to poor and inefficient plumbing systems there. The court was hearing PILs challenging the terms of reference (ToR) and the environmental clearances granted to the housing projects at seven colonies -- Sarojini Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Thyagaraja Nagar, Kasturba Nagar, Mohammadpur and Srinivaspuri -- claiming that it would result in the felling of around 16,500 trees. It also said that the interim order prohibiting construction work at Nauroji Nagar shall continue till the next date of hearing on November 28. Over 2,000 trees have already been felled in Nauroji Nagar where the NBCC plans to build a commercial hub which will include a World Trade Centre. The Delhi consumer commission has asked PepsiCo India to pay Rs 50 lakh to the winner of a competition organised by the company, and observed that there is a growing tendency among firms to attract customers by announcing big prizes but the winner is hardly given anything. The Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) has asked the company to pay the amount along with compensation of Rs 10,000 and litigation charges Rs 10,000 to Delhi resident Karishma within 30 days. "There is a growing tendency amongst the corporates to attract the customers by announcing big prizes and asking the public to participate in the competitions. It is done with a motive to promote business," member of the Commission N P Kaushik said. The Commission said in a recent order that it was a clear case of "unfair trade practice". Karishma had won an online game "Pepsi Youngistan Ka Wow" organised by the company in 2010 Indian Premier League. In the complaint, it is claimed that three representatives of the company had visited her house and informed her that the prize money would be given to her within three days. When she did not receive the amount, she called up one of the representatives who told her that she was a college student and not employed with the company, the complaint said. The complaint alleged that when Karishma's parents tried to reach PepsiCo directly, one of the employees threatened them with dire consequences for their daughter. The commission said that though consolation prizes were given to large number of participants in the form of downloading music and songs, the winning prize was hardly given. Tata Steel live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Usha Martin Ltd (UML) said it will seek shareholders' approval on November 10 with regard to the sale of its steel business to Tata Steel. The approval will be sought through special business in the extraordinary general meeting next month. "An extraordinary general meeting of the members of UML will be held... on November 10, 2018 to transact the...sale of the steel business undertaking of the company to Tata Steel as a going concern on a slump sale basis," UML said in a notice to the shareholders. Tata Steel earlier said it has executed definitive agreements for the acquisition of UML's steel business for Rs 4,300-4,700 crore through a slump sale on a going concern basis. As per UML, the sale of its steel business to Tata Steel will help the company to significantly reduce its debt. UML's steel business comprises the specialised 1 million tonne per annum (MTPA) alloy based manufacturing capacity in long products segment based in Jamshedpur, a producing iron-ore mine, a coal mine under development and captive power plants, Tata Steel said. It is amongst the largest wire rope manufacturers in the world and a leading speciality steel producer in India. Whirlpool of India Q4 | Profit at Rs 87.41 cr versus Rs 104.10 cr, revenue at Rs 1,353.62 cr versus Rs 1,355.15 cr YoY. (Image: Reuters) live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More A choppy market may cause pain, but also provides investors with good opportunities to go bargain hunting. To identify new investment avenues while staying defensive, most investors prefer to choose names with robust fundamentals and favourable prospects. One such stock to keep on the radar is Whirlpool, one of Indias leading brands in the consumer durables space. The path ahead Revenue drivers Distribution: In FY18, Whirlpools billing points across India grew 25 percent year-on-year (YoY). The company is working to expand its trade channel in semi-urban and rural India, where the pace of growth is likely to be faster vis-a-vis metros and tier 1 cities because of a low base, improved electrification coverage and growing necessity of white goods in households. Products: The manufacturing capacity of refrigerators and washing machines may be increased in due course, considering the positive demand levers. Reduction in GST rates in these 2 categories from 28 percent to 18 percent is also added advantage. Refrigerators: Whirlpool is focusing on direct cool single-door (DCSD) variants after a strong 23 percent year-to-date (YTD) growth. Capex of Rs 180 crore has been outlined to increase DCSD manufacturing volumes from 2.1 million units per annum (mupa) to 2.7 mupa. Mix: After carving out a niche in the mass premium domain, Whirlpool is focusing on mass and premium products. Since mass products are priced at lower levels, sales growth will be volume-driven. In contrast, premium products, by way of their higher realisations, will aid value-based top-line growth. Whirlpools recent product launches include semi-automatic and large-size washing machines, 4-door premium refrigerators, internet-of-things air conditioners and dishwashers. To refresh the portfolio, new models across the entire product range will be introduced at regular intervals. Cooking: Whirlpool acquired 49 percent stake in Elica PB India for Rs 160 crore in June 2018. This will enable the company to sell Elica brand of kitchen products (chimneys, built-in ovens and hobs, fryers) pan-India. Cooking product revenues of Elica are 6 times higher and distribution network is 4 times larger compared to Whirlpool. Besides leveraging Elicas manufacturing, design and sales capabilities, Whirlpools products will gain better visibility since the same will be promoted at Elica outlets too. Festivities: Onset of the festive season in the second half of a fiscal year is a major demand trigger for white goods. Easier and faster availability of financing options has been pivotal in driving consumer discretionary spends upward. Whirlpool hopes to capitalise on these trends. Exports: In FY18, Whirlpool registered 16 percent YoY sales volume growth. This was because of good offtake in existing geographies (south and south-east Asia, Australia) and inroads in the relatively under-penetrated African markets (laundry appliance sales in South Africa and Morocco, for instance). The outlook on this front appears promising. Online: The contribution of marketplaces (Flipkart, Amazon) to Whirlpools yearly turnover is expected to gradually go up from the current mark of 7-9 percent on the back of wider reach and faster adoption of digital platforms by shoppers. The company plans to increase its digital marketing expenses, in addition to managing its online W store. Margin drivers Healthy financials: Whirlpool, besides being a consistent cash flow generator, has also managed to improve its margin trajectory over the years. With zero debt, future capex is anticipated to take place from internal accruals. Cost savings: To rationalise overheads, Whirlpool has been laying emphasis on directly dispatching products from its manufacturing units to points of sale in all markets. No customs duty hike: The government, in a recent announcement, increased the basic customs duty on imports of some white goods. Whirlpools manufacturing processes for its core products (refrigerators and washing machines jointly constitute almost 80 percent of annual revenue) are almost entirely based out of domestic locations (Faridabad, Puducherry, Pune). Therefore, it will not have to bear any additional costs in this regard. Selective approach: Even though gaining a larger pie of the market is important in the context of consumer durables, Whirlpool believes in bottom-line maximisation rather than compromising margins to attain volume growth. The company makes periodic changes in its product offerings accordingly to ensure that to every extent possible, average selling prices of products increase more than the rise in costs. Risks Though Whirlpools products are competitively priced vis-a-vis other brands, consumers have not been shying away from paying a premium charged by foreign brands. This is more evident in larger cities, where price sensitivity is lower as compared to smaller regions. An uptick in commodity prices and the rupee depreciation has resulted in input costs going up, which is typically passed on to the customer. However, extended discount periods, coupled with aggressive pricing strategies followed by e-commerce portals, may result in margin compression. Valuation and outlook Benefits of brand appeal, adequate cash resources, high asset turns, efficient working capital practices and parental guidance on research/technical know-how (from Whirlpool Corporation) should help Whirlpool re-rate noticeably in the long-run. At 32 times its 2-year forward earnings, the stock, despite being optically expensive, offers value and can be a good and reliable bet to consider on dips. Follow @krishnakarwa152 Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on October 9 that around 200 talukas in the state are facing "scarcity-like" conditions. Fadnavis said that a decision to declare these talukas as scarcity-hit would be taken by October 31. According to a report in Hindustan Times, the drought situation could impact 20,000 out of the state's 40,559 villages. The report adds that 354 tankers have been deployed to the drough affected areas, of which 198 tankers were sent to the Marathwada region. Taking stock The chief minister also said that two senior ministers -- Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil and Transport Minister Diwakar Raote -- have been asked to submit a report on this issue. Patil and Raote have been entrusted with the task of reviewing the scarcity situation in these talukas, Fadnavis said. The Maharashtra chief minister said that ministers have been asked to take stock of water storage in the state's dams and reservoirs and prepare a report. "A decision of declaring the talukas as scarcity-hit will be taken by October 31. Later, a Central team will visit to review the situation and then a decision of declaring drought will be taken, since it (declaring drought) is in the Centre's domain," Fadnavis said. He informed that inputs about the prevailing scarcity situation is being compiled for submission to the Centre. Congress attacks Fadnavis government The Congress has questioned the "delay" in announcing scarcity in 200 talukas by the chief minister. "Is chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is waiting for an auspicious date to declare a scarcity in north Maharashtra and Marathwada?" state unit Congress chief Ashok Chavan said while speaking in Sangamner in Ahmednagar district. The second phase of the "Jan Sangharsh Yatra" launched by the Congress to "expose" the state government ended on October 9. He said the CM's announcement that a decision to declare these talukas as scarcity-hit would be taken by October 31 is another "delaying tactic". Chavan said the water levels in dams across the state have dipped drastically. "A severe water shortage is seen across the region. Every village is demanding that a drought be declared. Why is the government refusing to listen to the demands of distressed farmers?" he asked. Chavan said load-shedding had already begun in several parts of Maharashtra. "There is no water to irrigate fields. There is no electricity to draw water from bore wells. How is a farmer supposed to survive?" he questioned. The former chief minister said the farm loan waiver announced by the BJP-led government existed only on banners and in advertisements. In 2013, the state had witnessed a severe drought -- the worst in 40 years after the region received low rainfall during the monsoon season between June and September 2012. Ahmednagar, Beed, Nashik, Parbhani, Pune, Sangli, Satara, Solapur districts were the worst-affected areas in the state. (With inputs from PTI) Rafale fighter jets stand on tarmac during the close air support (CAS) exercise Serpentex 2016 hosted by France in the Mediterranean island of Corsica, at Solenzara air base, March 17, 2016. Serpentex is an annual exercise that involves joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs) from 12 countries from March 7 to March 25, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau - RTSAXBC The Congress accused the Modi government of "manipulating" the process of Rafale fighter jet agreement by "punishing" bureaucrats who raised objections to the deal and rewarding "obliging officials". The opposition party also reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe. Congress spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy said defence deals of this magnitude are first examined by departments, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security and then sealed. He alleged that in 2016, the then joint secretary was overruled by the Director-General acquisition for the go ahead to the deal, after a new officer was brought in the post, in place of person who had the reputation of being unbending. "To manage this process, bureaucrats were bulldozed, bullied, punished, promoted, the whole process of ratification was fabricated, stage-managed, and manipulated. Such a thing has not happened in the history of independent India," Reddy alleged, claiming that "obliging officers" were "rewarded" later. The opposition led by the Congress has been accusing the government of benefiting Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence Ltd. from the Rafale deal. The government and Reliance Defence have dismissed all the allegations as false. The Rafale controversy took a new turn last month after Francois Hollande, who was French president when the Rs 58,000-crore deal was announced, was quoted as saying by French publication Mediapart that France was given "no choice" on selection of the Indian partner for Dassault, the manufacturer of Rafale jets. The Indian government proposed the name of Reliance as offset partner for the French aerospace giant, he said. However, the government maintained its stand that it had no role in choosing the Indian offset partner for Dassault. Modi had announced the procurement of 36 Rafale fighters after holding talks with Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris. Indias official time keeper has come out with a scientific study suggesting that the country could have two time zones, which will help north-eastern states increase productivity, according to a report by the Hindustan Times. The Delhi-based CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL)s scientific paper examines the feasibility of having a second time zone for the north-eastern states which will be one hour ahead of the Indian Standard Time (IST), or 6.30 hours ahead the Universal Time Coordinated (UCT). Currently, all states and union territories follow IST which is 5.30 hours ahead of UCT. Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, besides the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, will run one hour ahead of IST, as per the suggestion. According to the scientific paper, titled 'Necessity of two time zones: IST-I (UTC +5:30 h) and IST-II (UTC +6:30 h), the shift in time zone could save daylight hours. Sunrise and sunset in the north-eastern states happens earlier that the rest of the country, which results in a loss of working hours. Hence, in winter, as the daylight shrinks, it leads to loss of productivity and higher consumption of electricity. The report, citing the study, suggests that by implementing a two time zone system around 20 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity can be saved annually. "This is a scientific paper where we have examined whether having two time zones is feasible for India and how it can be implemented. Just like previous research on the subject, we found that having a UTC plus six-and-a half-hour time zone will increase the productivity in Port Blair and the six eastern states, barring Assam," Dinesh K Aswal, Director, NPL, told the newspaper. In 2014, Assam had decided to unofficially follow the chaibagaan or baagaan time followed by tea estates. The tea estates is a daylight-adjusted time set one hour ahead of IST. The Gauhati High Court had in 2017 quashed a plea seeking a separate time zone for the northeast. The same year, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu reiterated the demand for a separate time zone to increase productivity. India was divided into the Bombay and Calcutta time zones during the British rule. The IST was established on September 1, 1947, and was set along the local time near Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. India and China need to deepen cooperation to fight trade protectionism in the wake of the unilateral approach being adopted by the US on trade-related disputes, the Chinese Embassy said on Wednesday. It said practising unilateral trade protectionism in the name of "national security" and "fair trade" will not only affect China's economic development, but also undermine the external environment of India and hinder India's booming economy. "As the two largest developing countries and major emerging markets, China and India are both in the vital stage of deepening reform and developing economy, and both need stable external environment," said Counselor Ji Rong, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India. He was replying to media queries relating to trade friction between China and the US. Last month, US President Donald Trump imposed USD 200 billion tariff on Chinese imports. China retaliated by imposing tariffs on about USD 60 billion of US imports. Washington threatened to impose additional tariffs of over USD 260 billion on Chinese imports if China retaliates again. "Under the current circumstances, China and India need to deepen their cooperation to fight trade protectionism," Ji said. He said China and India share common interests in defending the multilateral trading system and free trade and referred to comments by President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to safeguard the multilateral trading system and free trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Facing unilateralism and bullying activities, China and India have more reasons to join efforts to build a more just and reasonable international order," Ji said. The Chinese Embassy spokesperson also said the US should reflect on its own practice of interfering in the internal affairs of developing countries such as China and India under the pretext of human rights and religious matters. "The so-called 'militarisation' of South China Sea by China is distorting of facts. The US should stop making troubles and creating tensions, and respect the efforts of relevant parties to resolve problems through negotiation and consultation," Ji said. Referring to the Indo-Pacific region, the spokesperson said China was firmly against attempts to use the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter China. At the same time, Ji said, Beijing was open to all initiatives that will help regional development and cooperation. "The allegation that China has put some developing countries into 'debt trap' is nothing but an attempt to sow discord," Ji said. He said China's economic cooperation with other developing countries is to ensure win-win situation and common development. "China is open to all initiatives that will help regional development and cooperation. What we are firmly against is attempts to use the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter China He said China was looking forward to the US taking concrete steps to become a trusted partner of the developing countries. RN Bhaskar Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the International Solar Alliance (ISA) could take over as the dominant energy policy determining forum from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the future. ISA, a grouping of 121 nations mostly located in the solar resource rich area between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, was conceptualised by India and France in 2015. Speaking at ISAs first assembly, Modi said: "In the future, we must endeavor to ensure that there is one sun, one world and one grid. This will eliminate the energy poverty of the world as the sun is always shining somewhere." He may be right for three reasons. First, there is a disruption coming in the world of energy from solar capacity. As Stanford University futurist Tony Seba argues, electric vehicles, battery storage, and solar power are a perfect example of an exponential process which can wipe fossil fuels off the market in about a decade. Second, India and China are likely to remain the biggest players in the solar energy field in the decades to come. Third, India heads the ISA and therefore could have a strong voice in formulating its policies. But there are challenges that ISA and India will have to confront. First, the funds committed for the grand vision could be inadequate. ISA has often stated that the funds required would be close to $1 trillion by 2030 for the massive deployment of solar energy. The $1.4 billion line of credit that India has extended for solar projects in 27 countries might be woefully inadequate. After all, ISA has 68 countries who have signed the ISA framework agreement. Apart from these there are other members who have ratified this agreement and prospective members making a total of 121 members. Second, India has begun emulating Germany, which was the worlds biggest champion for solar power. India has some advantages over the European nation: Its solar footprint is higher with more sunlight, more land mass and more rooftops than Germany. It has also solar energy potential of nearly 750 GW. However, despite these advantages, India still lags Germanys installed capacity of 53 GW; currently solar capacity in India stands at 23 GW out of total installed capacity of 345 GW. True, India's solar targets may look impressive. It is targeting almost 100 GW of solar power by 2021-22. Of this, 60 GW is slated to come from large and medium scale solar projects and the rest from rooftop solar. But it is still small. China, the leader in this industry already has 131 GW of installed capacity. What is also embarrassing is that India will not be able to meet its target of 100 GW by 2021-22. The way ahead is clear. If India has to become a major force in the solar power space, it must first begin to deregulate the power generation and power distribution sectors even further. True, the government has already decentralised power generation. There are more private power generators than there were, say, 20 years ago. But power generators need markets, and so far the government is unwilling to allow generators to find their own customers. They must sell only to the grid, and it is the grid that then distributes the power through distribution companies or discoms. However, barring very few exceptions, almost all major power distributors are state-owned companies. These discoms, because they want to play handmaiden to state governments, allow power to be sold to the rural sectors and to needy people at highly discounted rates. The state does not reimburse the cost of these subsidies to discoms which then run into losses. Moreover, almost every discom runs into the problem of power theft which gets disguised through mis-declaration as electricity supply to agriculture. Thus, even though India has managed to bring down the tariffs for solar power, it has not been able to pass on this benefit to its consumers both common households and to industry. Householders pay Rs.6-8 per unit of electricity. Business and industry pay Rs.8-14 per unit for their power needs. As a result, power-intensive industries remain uncompetitive. Demand growth hasnt taken off as needed and private investment has been flagging. In fact, India could easily manage to both augment solar power installed capacity as well as reduce the cost of power supply in India if it allows the private sector into distributed cluster power generation and distribution with iron-clad guarantees that investments will be protected. Thus, power distribution to rural areas would come from local power generation units, both managed by private entrepreneurs, and not the government. This would result in hundreds of entrepreneurs entering the sector even from rural communities. It would create around 80 million jobs within a couple of years and make India a vibrant and true leader of the ISA. Today, it has the trappings of a leader, with tremendous potential, but without the performance. Congress President Rahul Gandhi Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday urged Youth Congress workers to take the issue of corruption in the Rafale aircraft deal to the village level as the party gears up for the Assembly elections in December. The Congress president's focus was on exposing the BJP government, which is involved in corruption, like in the Rafale deal, Rajasthan Youth Congress president Ashok Chandna told PTI. Gandhi attended a meeting of the national executive of the Youth Congress here before leaving for Bikaner for a 'Maha Sankalp' public meeting On Tuesday, he addressed public meetings in Dholpur, Bharatpur and Dausa districts. The prime minister is favouring top industrialists and not paying heed to farmers and the poor and this is what Rahul Gandhi wants the Youth Congress to tell people across the country, Chandna said after the Jaipur meeting. Gandhi asked the Youth Congress to follow the party's ideology and work with dedication to strengthen democracy, Chandna said. The national executive meeting was also attended by Youth Congress national president Keshav Chand Yadav, vice president Srinivas B V and general secretary and state in-charge Devender Kadyan. Gandhi interacted with young entrepreneurs at a separate meeting. Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot, All India Congress Committee general secretary and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and AICC general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Rajasthan Avinash Pande were also present at the meetings. BS Yeddyurappa BJP Karnataka 2018 The process of selecting candidates for the November 3 assembly and parliamentary by-polls has begun in Karnataka, with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finalising some names and ruling Janata Dal (Secular) and its coalition partner Congress in hectic discussions on contestants and seat sharing. By-polls for three Lok Sabha constituencies -- Shimoga, Bellary and Mandya, and two assembly constituencies -- Ramanagara and Jamkhandi, will be held on November 3. The counting of votes will be on November 6. With the Election Commission of India (EC) is facing questions over the need to hold bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats when Lok Sabha elections are due in first half of 2019, the poll panel said its decision was in accordance with the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Congress-JD(S) to contest together The ruling Congress-JDS coalition on October 9 announced its decision to put up a united fight against the BJP in the November 3 bypolls to three Lok Sabha and two assembly seats. After meeting JDS leaders here late tonight, AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal said both the parties would conduct a joint campaign and fight the polls to defeat the BJP. "....we will fight the election together and make sure that all the five seats will go in favour of the Congress-JDS alliance," Venugopal, who is in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, told reporters. "Secular parties should come together for defeating the BJP is the message," he said. Yeddyurappa's son to contest The BJP, at its state core committee meeting on October 9, finalized the names of candidates for two parliamentary and one assembly constituency. Among those whose candidatures were finalised were that of state BJP chief and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa's son BY Raghavendra. "The core committee discussed names of candidates for the three parliamentary and two assembly seats. As ours is a national party, we have recommended names to our central election committee," BJP General Secretary Arvind Limbavali told reporters here after the core committee meeting. He said the committee recommended the names of BY Raghavendra and former MP Shanta for Shivamogga and Ballari constituencies. For Jamkhandi assembly segment, former Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Shrikant Kulkarnis name was recommended, he said. "For Mandya Lok Sabha constituency and Ramanagara assembly constituency, the state President has been authorised to take a decision looking at political developments in the region. He will recommend the names for the two constituencies in couple of days, Limbavali added. The party has also nominated a team of leaders for each of these constituencies as election in-charges. Congress in huddle State Congress leaders on October 9 held a series of meetings under the leadership of party state in-charge Venugopal with leaders of the three parliamentary and two assembly elections that will go for by-polls. According to PTI, the name of Anand Nyamagouda, the son of MLA Siddu Nyamagouda, whose death necessitated the by-election, will be the candidate for Jamkhandi. Confirming his candidature, Nyamagouda said he would file his nomination on October 16 in the presence of several state party leaders. However, the party is yet to finalise the names for the other seats from where it will be contesting. As local Congress leaders from Ramanagara and Mandya have expressed strong reservation against any decision by the party to give up seats to JD(S) by not fielding candidates, Congress leadership reportedly told party workers that they would take a decision in a couple of days after due deliberations. Ramanagara assembly constituency and Mandya Lok Sabha constituency were earlier represented by the JD(S). As Congress too has considerable support base in these two segments, it is likely to be a sticky issue. Congress sources also said that party national President Rahul Gandhi was likely to visit Bengaluru on October 13. In a surprise move, a section of JDS leaders in Ramanagara announced the name of CM Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha as the party's candidate from the constituency and said that she would file her nominations on October 11. (With inputs from PTI) Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will meet the alliance partners of his government on October 12 at the AIIMS in Delhi where he is currently undergoing treatment, an official said on Wednesday. Parrikar, 62, is admitted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi since September 15 for a pancreatic ailment. "The alliance partners have been called for a meeting by the CM in Delhi on October 12 at AIIMS where he is admitted," a senior official in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) here told PTI. During the meeting, Parrikar would discuss "matters related to the state's governance," he said. Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Sudin Dhavalikar, Goa Forward Party (GFP) leader Vijai Sardesai and Independent MLAs Govind Gawade, Rohan Khaunte and Prasad Gaonkar, who are supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance in Goa, have been invited for the meeting, the official said. "I have been invited for the meeting with the chief minister in Delhi on October 12. I don't know who else is invited," Gawade said, adding that he has not been informed about the meeting's agenda. This would be the first formal meeting chaired by Parrikar since his admission to the AIIMS last month. Highly placed sources said Parrikar is likely to distribute additional portfolios to his Cabinet ministers during this week. "A discussion is likely in the meeting about portfolios to be distributed to the allies," a source said. BJP president Amit Shah had last month said Parrikar would continue as the chief minister and that there would be reshuffle of his Cabinet soon. Later, two ailing ministers Francis D'Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar were dropped from the Goa Cabinet and they were replaced with Milind Naik and Nilesh Cabral. Questions over the stability of the government have been raised by the Opposition Congress because of Parrikar's illness. Goa Deputy Speaker and BJP MLA Michael Lobo said last Friday that the state administration has "totally collapsed" because of the absence of Parrikar and people were praying for his early recovery. The MGP, a key ally in Goa's ruling BJP-led coalition, last Wednesday dismissed questions over the stability of Parrikar government but expressed readiness to face mid-term polls in case the Assembly is dissolved. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Union Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari has, yet again, been accused of letting the cat out of the bag. Recently, in an interview with a Marathi TV channel, he seems to have said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on the basis of unrealistic promises. Gadkari told the channel, We were very confident that we would never come to power, so we were advised to make tall promises. Now that we are in power, the public reminds us of those promises made by us. However, these days, we just laugh and move on. Gadkaris comments have been pilloried by the Congress with party president Rahul Gandhi saying the Union ministers comments reflect how the government has broken the trust and shattered the dreams of the people because of its greed. However, this is not the first time that the BJP leader has spoken freely and frankly, even though he might be deflecting from his partys narrative. Earlier this year, Gadkari was caught in the eye of the storm when he proposed that reservations in educational institutions and government jobs shouldnt be centered on the idea of backwardness, and that economic status should also be a parameter for granting quota. Not only that, he said even if reservation is given, where are the jobs? His remarks came in the wake of protests by the Maratha community demanding reservations in Maharashtra. Gadkari told the press, "Let's us assume the reservation is given. But there are no jobs. Because in banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?" "The problem with the quota is that backwardness is becoming a political interest. Everyone says I am backward. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Brahmins are strong. They dominate politics. (And) They say they are backward," the senior BJP leader added. Read Also: Opinion | The many layers to Nitin Gadkaris comment on reservation and jobs In suggesting an alternate school of thought vis-a-vis granting reservations, Gadkari didnt think of the political correctness or the repercussions that his statement would have had in political lobbies. He was ridiculed by the Congress for accepting that there are no jobs in the market. Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant thanked Gadkari for publicly echoing the statements issued by Congress president Rahul Gandhi about employment generation. Again, when other BJP leaders remained tight-lipped on Sushma Swaraj being trolled on Twitter, probably following the party line, Nitin Gadkari was the first one to deflect and support the External Affairs Minister. Known for wearing his heart on his sleeve, in 2012, the then BJP President Gadkari had inadvertently compared the IQ level of Swami Vivekananda with that of Dawood Ibrahim. And this, at a time when the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi had kicked off his election campaign with a month-long Vivekananda Yatra. He faced a lot of flak from the Congress for his statement. Many critics believe Gadkaris frankness comes from his proximity to the RSS and the resultant fearlessness about any possible reprimand. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, rumours are also rife that Gadkari could be a possible choice for prime ministers candidature. There were conjectures aplenty in political circles that Gadkari will be a more acceptable choice with other parties and potential allies, in the case BJP falls short of a majority in 2019. However, Gadkari plainly refuted any such claims saying, Neither I am the RSS choice, nor do I dream of becoming the Prime Minister." live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Moneycontrol News While Tata Motors is getting ready to launch its latest flagship -- the SUV Harrier -- in early 2019, the company has released a video showcasing the features of the car's engine. The concept was unveiled at the 2018 Auto Expo. Built under the code name H5X, the Harrier uses the same platform as the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Discovery Sport. But Tata Motors calls the platform Optimal Modular Efficient Global Advanced Architecture (Omega-Arc) and utilises a different mix of materials to keep costs down. The new video showcases the Harrier being tested in different conditions. The production spec design is still under wraps (quite literally with the featured car shrouded in camouflage) and the engine has been given quite a lot coverage. The Harrier will be powered by a new 2-litre Kryotec engine derived from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' (FCA) Multijet II seen on the Jeep Compass. The engine is expected to produce about 140 PS for the 5-seater and around 170 PS for the 7-seater. To allow for better response, the engine will get an electronically controlled variable geometry turbocharger (eVGT). We also know that the Harrier will receive different drive modes for use on different terrains. You will also have the option of a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic gearbox. The Tata Harrier, when it launches in the first quarter of 2019, will go up against the likes of the Hyundai Creta and the Jeep Compass. For now, watch the video here: Vietnam is preparing to strictly enforce a new cybersecurity law requiring global technology companies to set up local offices and store data locally despite pleas from Facebook, Google and other firms, a government document showed. Vietnamese lawmakers approved the new law in June overriding strong objections from the business community, rights groups and Western governments including the US, who said the measure would undermine economic development, digital innovation and further stifle political dissent. Alphabet Inc's Google, Facebook and other big technology companies had hoped a draft decree on how the law would be implemented would soften provisions they find most objectionable. But the document seen by Reuters indicates those hopes are unlikely to materialise, potentially setting up a showdown over whether the companies will ultimately comply with the law or pull out of the country. Vietnam's foreign ministry, which handles foreign media requests for comments from the government, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Facebook declined to comment. A Google spokesman had no immediate comment. Despite sweeping economic reforms and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate political dissent. The new draft decree requires companies providing a range of services, including email, social media, video, messaging, banking and e-commerce, to set up offices in Vietnam if they collect, analyse or process personal user data. The companies would also be required to store a wide range of user data, ranging from financial records and biometric data to information on peoples' ethnicity and political views, or strengths and interests inside Vietnam's border. Facebook and Google, both of which are widely used in the country, do not have local offices or local data storage facilities and have pushed back on the localisation requirements. The companies have been more muted on other parts of the law that bolster the government's online policing powers, though company officials have privately expressed concerns that the new law would make it easier for the authorities to seize customer data and expose local employees to arrest. CASE STUDY A number of other countries in Asia and elsewhere are also pursuing data localization laws as they seek greater control over the internet. Vietnam offers a case study in the conflicting pressures the likes of Facebook and Google confront when operating in countries with repressive governments. It also shows how authoritarian regimes try to walk a line in controlling online information and suppressing political activism without crippling the digital economy. Critics fear the new law will both dampen the burgeoning internet economy and intensify a crackdown on online dissent. Vietnam has been increasingly aggressive in prosecuting dissidents for anti-government Facebook posts, and activists have called on the company to do more to resist the government's censorship. The draft decree also gives the Vietnamese police's cybersecurity and high-tech crime unit authority to request data for investigation or to handle law violations on cyberspace or for national security protection. The head of the National Assembly's defence and security committee, Vo Trong Viet, said in June that storing data inside Vietnam was feasible, crucial to fighting cybercrime and in line with international rules. He has said placing data centres in Vietnam, which the companies say would increase costs and weaken security, is necessary to meet the cybersecurity needs of the country. The draft decree is expected to be published within days to seek public opinion. Once it is approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the law will go into effect on January 1 next year, though the provisions on local offices and data localisation would not go into effect for another year. Messaging service WhatsApp announcing on Monday that it will store payments data in India is likely to pave the way for other large technology payment companies to also comply with a data localisation directive issued by the Reserve Bank of India. In a notification in April, RBI had asked all "system providers" to ensure that the "entire data relating to payment systems operated by them are stored in a system only in India." The directive had caused consternation among large technology players, including Google, Amazon, and Facebook, which owns WhatsApp. All these companies have built digital payment apps that are gaining in popularity among Indians. However, WhatsApp said on Monday that it had built a local system to store payments-related data in order to comply with RBIs data localisation requirement. "This is the new global normal. Data privacy and data sovereignity are here to stay," said Vivek Belgavi, Partner, India FinTech Leader, at PwC India. "Eventually you will see global majors being open to doing this (data localisation)," he said. Most of these companies have leveraged the unified payments interface (UPI), developed by the National Payments Council of India. UPI is a system that allows account holders of all banks to send or receive money from their smartphones without entering their netbanking user ID or password. In February this year, WhatsApp launched its payment feature, allowing users to make UPI-based payments from the chat application itself. The feature is being tested and is available to around 10 lakh users now. "WhatsApp has 10 lakh users in trial mode while the total number of WhatsApp users in India is around 20 crore. WhatsApp is yet to launch its payments service to all users and they will have to retain all data in India. If WhatsApp fully complies with Indian laws then it will have an impact on other service providers like Google and Amazon who may be compelled to comply with the RBI directive and other Indian laws," said Virag Gupta, Advocate, Supreme Court. However, he pointed out that it was not clear yet whether WhatsApp has implemented RBI's guidelines. "As per media reports, there looks to be only statements and intentions but it does not reflect about the compliances. It can only be certified by the RBI if its circular is duly complied by WhatsApp," said Gupta. Google launched its UPI-based app called Tez last year and rechristened it Google Pay recently. The company claimed that as on August 28, 22 million individuals and businesses were using Pay every month, making around 750 million transactions that were worth over $30 billion or about Rs 2,00,000 crore. Google has maintained that it does not support localisation of data. "We maintain that cross-border data flows today are ubiquitous and an essential phenomenon for global economic activity and universal access to information. Soaring data flows generate more economic value and hence the socio-economic impact of restricting data flows must be thoroughly considered while framing any policy. There is a need to find practical and contemporary solutions to policy issues in line with global best practices. we have nothing to add at this point of time," a Google spokesperson said. Amazon also has a digital payments entity called Amazon Pay, which is also working on adding UPI-based payments to its existing capabilities. The company could not be contacted immediately for this story. BJP national president Amit Shah Pitching for a change of government in election-bound Telangana, BJP president Amit Shah said Wednesday neither the ruling TRS nor the main opposition Congress can give a push to development in the state. He also asserted that if voted to power after the Lok Sabha polls next year, the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi will ensure "not a single infiltrator" was left in the country. "Telangana's development is not possible either under KCR (caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao) family or (Congress chief) RahulBaba. They are into break in India while (Narendra) Modiji pursues the policy of make in India," Shah told a public rally here. The BJP is testing the electoral waters of Telangana alone for the first time after playing a second fiddle to the TDP, which broke away from the NDA recently, for several years. The BJP president said the Congress, with is support base shrinking drastically, was incapable of becoming an alternative to the TRS. "Is Congress an alternative to the TRS? The Congress under Rahul Gandhi's leadership has not been able to win state elections. Today, ifyou want to see the Congress, you will have to use magnifying glasses," Shah said, ridiculing Gandhi over a string of electoral reverses since the BJP assumed power at the Centre. The TRS, Shah said, had failed to keep promises it made to the people of Telangana. "KCR made 150 promises before the 2014 assembly polls but fulfilled not one. He promised he will make a dalit the chief minister but did not honour it. Dalit of Telangana is not on his list. His son (minister K T Ramarao) or daughter (MP K Kavitha) will be made the chief minister," he said. The BJP chief also raked up the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, and said if voted to power again, the Modi government will push every infiltrator out of the country. "Bring the Modi government (back) again in 2019...Let there be no infiltrator in the country. The Bharatiya Janata Party government will make sure that not a single infiltrator is left," he said. Targeting BJP's bitter critic and Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi of the AIMIM, Shah said it was the saffron party alone that could fight people like him and not the TRS, TDP or the Congress. Shah also criticised TRS chief Rao for not celebrating September 17, the day the erstwhile Nizam's state merged with the Indian Union, as "Hyderabad Liberation Day". "Due to fear of Owaisi andfor Muslim vote bank Chandrasekhar Rao stopped celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day," he said. Shah flayed Rao for advancing the assembly polls which, he claimed, put a burden of hundred of crores of rupees on the common man. "Early elections are being held in Telangana out of the fear of (Narendra) Modi," he asserted. He claimed the KCR government did not join the Modi government's affordable health insurance scheme 'Ayushman Bharat' as it feared the prime minister's popularity will soar even further. Repeatedly referring to the Rao government's failure to keep its pre-poll promises, Shah said none of them, including three acres of land for poor Dalit families, creation of one lakh government jobs and 2-bedroom houses for the poor was fulfilled. He asked the electorate to vote BJP to power in Telangana so the state could prosper like those ruled by the saffron party. Shah also addressed a meeting of booth-level BJP functionaries in Hyderabad where the strategy for the assembly polls was discussed. The meeting was out of bounds for the media. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will begin a three-day visit to France on Thursday during which both sides are expected to deliberate on further boosting their already close defence and security ties. Sitharaman's visit comes in the backdrop of a huge controversy over the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation. Officials sources said Sitharaman will hold wide-ranging talks with her French counterpart Florence Parly on ways to deepen strategic cooperation between the two countries and also deliberate on major regional and global issues of mutual interests. They said Sitharaman will also take stock of progress in the supply of 36 Rafale jets by Dassault to the Indian Air Force under a Rs 58,000 crore deal. There was indication that she may even visit the facility where the jets are being manufactured. In their talks, Sitharaman and Parly are expected to deliberate on joint production of military platforms and weapons by the two countries. Earlier this year, France was pitching for starting negotiations for procurement of another batch of 36 Rafale jets by India. However, New Delhi was not keen on pursuing it. In April, the Indian Air Force started the process to acquire a fleet of 114 fighter jets and Dassault Aviation has emerged as one of the key contenders for the contract. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after talks with the then French President Francois Hollande on April 10, 2015 in Paris. The final deal was sealed on September 23, 2016. The Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, saying the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government when it was negotiating the deal. The Congress has also been targeting the government over selection of Reliance Defence as an offset partner for Dassault. Last month, Hollande was quoted by French publication 'Mediapart' as saying that France was given "no choice" on selection of the Indian partner for Dassault and the Indian government proposed the name of Reliance to partner with the French aerospace giant. The former French president's comments triggered a massive political row. The government has vehemently rejected the allegations and asserted that it did not have any role in the selection of Reliance Defence. Sources said Sitharaman will discuss with Parly ways to expand Indo-French maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. French President Emmanuel Macron had visited India in March during which the two countries decided to expand strategic ties and deepen counter-terror cooperation. The two sides also inked a strategic pact providing for the use of each other's military facilities including opening naval bases to warships. Western Europe and the EU is the highest scoring region with an average of 66/100, while Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest scoring region with 32 points. (Image: Reuters) European Union nations, voicing concern over a UN report on global warming, agreed on Tuesday to seek a 35 percent cut in car emissions by 2030, as Germany warned that overly challenging targets risked harming industry and jobs. Torn between reducing pollution and preserving industry competitiveness, EU environment ministers meeting in Luxembourg talked for more than 13 hours until nearly midnight to reach a compromise over what 2030 carbon dioxide limits to impose on Europe's powerful carmakers. "We saw a really complicated discussion," Europe's Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said of the compromise that gained the support of 20 nations, with 4 voting against and 4 abstaining. "I never believed in the beginning that such a strong support would be obtained." The final rules will now be hashed out in talks beginning on Wednesday with the EU's two other lawmaking bodies: the European Parliament, which is seeking a more ambitious climate target, and the European Commission, which proposed a lower one. In a joint statement earlier, the EU ministers expressed deep concern over a UN report calling for rapid and unprecedented action to contain global warming and renewed commitment to the 2015 Paris climate accord. Several countries had sought a higher, 40 percent reduction in car emissions, in line with targets backed by EU lawmakers last week, but softened their position in talks. However, Ireland and the Netherlands were among those who voiced disappointment with the compromise deal, which also set a 30 percent target for cutting emissions from vans by 2030. Germany, with its big auto sector, had backed an EU executive proposal for a 30 percent cut for fleets of new cars and vans by 2030, compared with 2021 levels. DOWN TO THE WIRE Climate campaigners say Germany has still not learned to be tougher on the auto industry, despite the scandal that engulfed Volkswagen in 2015 when it admitted to using illegal software to mask emissions on up to 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide. Germany had the backing of several eastern European nations early in the talks against more ambitious targets, EU sources said. But a last-minute amendment helped ease concerns over the new rules, which also create a crediting system encouraging carmakers to raise sales of electric cars. It would allow for a different accounting in countries where the current market penetration of zero- and low-emissions vehicles is less than 60 percent below the average in the bloc. CLIMATE AMBITION Curbs on the transport sector, the only industry in which emissions are still rising, aim to help the bloc meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gases by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Extreme temperatures across the northern hemisphere this summer have fuelled concerns climate change is gathering pace, leading some countries to call for emissions to be cut at a faster rate than planned. But a call by the EU's climate commissioner and 15 EU nations for the bloc to increase its pledge to cut emissions by 45 percent under the Paris accord has met with resistance. Ahead of UN climate talks in Poland in December, the bloc's 28 environment ministers reiterated their commitment to leading the fight to limit global warming. They said the EU was ready to "communicate or update" its Nationally Determined Contribution, the efforts by each country to reduce emissions, by 2020. Raising it would require the approval of all 28 nations. China and Pakistan are negotiating the terms of the second phase of their free trade agreement to increase trade and provide free trade opportunity for their businesses, a senior Chinese diplomat has said. Beijing and Islamabad have held around 10 rounds of talks to iron out differences over the terms of the phase-II of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement. Both the country had signed a major free trade agreement in 2006, which came into effect in July 2007. "Pakistan has huge potential market for international investors and its strategic location gives more comparative advantages to other trading partners. Pakistan and China are negotiating on phase-II of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to increase trade and provide free trade opportunity in their markets," Economic and Commercial Counselor of Chinese Embassy, Wang Zhihua said. Meawhile, Pakistan and China have signed eight memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth USD 100 million for mutual investment in steel, seafood, agriculture and pharmaceutical sectors, media reports said on Wednesday. The MoUs, for mutual investment and joint ventures to expedite the trade and business between both the nations, were signed by 14 private companies from both the countries at the Pakistan-China Trade Cooperation Projects event, organised by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and the Ministry of Commerce China, the state-run Radio Pakistan reported. Wang said Pakistan is a friendly country and China believes in peaceful co-existence and cooperation for shared property. "Since the diplomatic relations started between Pakistan and China, the cooperation between both the sides has increased in defence, technology, agriculture, leather and chemicals sectors," Wang was quoted as saying by The Nation newspaper. The diplomat said in the recent years, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), under the 'One Belt One Road (OBOR)' initiative, has given a new height to the mutual relation and cooperation between two friendly nations. Pakistan's Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Textile, Syed Tariq Huda, said that Chinese investment in Pakistan has given positive impact to the country's local market. "We have USD 60 billion Chinese investment in CPEC which includes development projects in Gwadar," he added. Huda said that the OBOR initiatives also give vision for inclusions and welfare of all region. There is a lot of pressure on people from the government, banks and various service-providers to go cashless. In a cashless world, the government prints fewer currency notes and saves on the cost of printing and high security distribution logistics. There is an expectation that the underground or black economy will vanish and we will move to an all-white economy. Meanwhile, banks will charge customers for all transactions. It means, the banks as service-providers, get immediate payment at negligible cost, the retailers are freed of the hassles of counting notes and coins if cashless is free for them; the one and only loser is the customer. A switch to a cashless society and online transactions is set to cause a paradigm change in the social, cultural and economic environment of India, entirely driven by technology and the growing computing power. However, the flip side of this much touted cashless society and economic transformation is not so well known. Newtons third law of motion says: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The same is true of the cashless drive. Apart from known risks such as high cost, digital security, slow Internet connectivity and low tech-literacy, there exists another dimension of risk. It is the Risk of Denial of Service (DoS) or Risk of Exclusion (RoE). And this can affect the life and liberty of citizens. If there is large-scale power or Internet disruption (or connectivity disruption/ malware infection) in a very large service providers operationssay, a bank or a telecom companywhat will happen in a cashless environment? If there is large-scale power or Internet disruption (or connectivity disruption/ malware infection) in a very large service providers operationssay, a bank or a telecom companywhat will happen in a cashless environment? These risks are no longer hypothetical or theoretical but are registering their presence on a small or local scale, around the world, especially during natural calamities. And large-scale disasters do not come with a prior announcement. Let me give you a few examples from the past three or four weeks alone: 1. PNB operations at a standstill for almost half a day: I have my personal and business accounts at the Punjab National Bank (PNB), and another one at another bank, as a disaster precaution. I went to PNBs Sion branch in Mumbai at 10am on 5 October 2018 to withdraw money for some statuary payments and tender document payments as they ask for cash or a demand draft, and the deadline for the payment was 3pm on the same day. The branch manager told me that the network was down and that I should come back after some time. Accordingly, I returned at 11.15am. The network was still down. The branch manager now said there was an India network outage since morning and that people were working on it in Delhi. I asked him why the Disaster Recovery (DR) site was not immediately operationalised when the DC (data centre) was down and what the RTO (recovery time objective) was. He looked blank. I asked him, what do I do when I have to make payments and you will not allow me to withdraw my own money? He had no answer. Ideally, if the main DC is down, the DR site at an alternate location should start operating within a specified, pre-defined time, which is called RTO. For a bank like PNB, the DR site must be a hot site with real-time replication and RTO should be a few micro or milli-seconds. But, PNBs operations were down until 12 noon (as I was told next day), which means for at least for 3-4 hours. I had money in my bank accounts but it was not available to me. Customers of the Bank all over India suffered. In the US, this may have led to a class action suit. Ironically, the branch manager was not even aware of terms like DR site, disaster recovery plan (DRP) and RTO. He made shocking excuses like even human beings fall ill. It shows the lack of training at PNB even at the branch manager level. I had to borrow money to make my immediate payments. In a cashless environment, I would have missed both payments in case of a disaster. This is not the first time that this has happened with PNB. There was an operations outage of 50 hours on 24 May 2012 and then for a whole day in 2014. It must be happening with other banks too, I have heard of a few banks making their customers suffer due to their technology problems. 2. Indigo Airlines server crashed for two hours A friend travelled from Kochi to Mumbai on Indigo 6E215 on 7 October 2018. There was a long queue at the check-in counters at Kochi because Indigos servers had crashed. The airline started issuing manual boarding passes, for which they were neither accustomed nor trained. There was commotion, fights, and delayed flights. Things were sorted out after an hour or two. Since Kochi is a small airport, the disruption was limited, but my question is the same as in the case of PNB. Are we prepared for disasters or outages in connected or cashless/paperless world? Why is there no DR site, and defined RTO? How can we allow things to remain disrupted for long periods? an earthquake at Hokkaido island in Japan started ringing alarm bells. ( 3. This blog by a Singapore citizen aboutstarted ringing alarm bells. ( https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/problem-cashless-society-5913994.html Among other things, it said, Japan's Hokkaido strong earthquake (06 Sept 2018) triggered a large-scale power outage, and Sapporo City instantly became the dark capital of Hokkaido. Power restoration took minimum 24 hours to one week. During this period, 1.95 million residents flocked to supermarkets and convenience stores to buy life supplies. However, some of the victims who usually only use mobile phones have lost their ability to pay and can't buy what they need. (Image Courtesy: The Nation) The blogpost goes on to mention an anonymous discussion on a Japanese forum on 6 September 2018. It was about an app that allows only electronic payment, which suffered a large outage after the earthquake. A user decided to stock up on supplies, checked the refrigerator and finding only milk and mayonnaise, rushed to the supermarket to stock up. (Image Courtesy: WTOP) When he arrived at the supermarket, he found that he had no cash at all. He nervously saw that his phone was also 62% charged. When he reached the payment counter, he was told that he could not use electronic payment. In fact, he could not pay electronically anywhere. At seven o'clock that night, he sat alone at home, hungry. (Image Courtesy: The Nation) The blog quotes a warning by the Swedish central bank governor Stefan Ingves who said, A cashless society is unrestrained in the face of war or natural disasters, and the huge social and financial system will collapse in an instant. It goes on to say that cashless payment is just a supplement to the payment function because it requires some basic conditionselectricity, network, base station, etc. My Internet search indicates that this blog is fairly accurate. 4. Estonia: A countrywide outage in Estonia on 27 April 2007, caused all websites of Estonian organizations, including the Estonian parliament, banks, ministries, newspapers and broadcasters to shut down for about 2 days. In 2007, Estonia was about 95% digital and paperless. The near-shut down led to riots. In the past decade, Estonia has become a centre of excellence in cyber security and resilience. 5. OCBC Bank of Singapore: On 1 September 2018 operations were down from 8:45pm to 11:30pm. The shut-down caused untold embarrassment to customers who were out at restaurants or shopping/ travelling and had only OCBC Banks credit card. Many took their outrage to twitter. That the management issued a detailed apology was cold comfort. (Image Courtesy: Straitstimes.com) What will happen, if we have a large-scale disruption in India? Are we ready for the chaos that will ensue as we push for a cash-less and technology-dependent existence? The PNB and Indigo incidents suggest that we, as a society, are not even prepared for small disasters. DRP and business continuity plan (BCP) do not seem to exist, or, like fire-fighting equipment in many Indian buildings, do not work when required. After demonetisation, there was a big surge in digital transactions. PayTM became a highly popular choice. Of late, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) are being actively promoted. But data shows that India has gone back to using more cash than we did before demonetisation. Cash in the hands of the public (M1) and demand deposits with bank has reached more than Rs19.43 lakh crore, as per the statistics released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 21 September 2018, a level about 10% higher than what existed before demonetisation. I like to inquire from retailers about the level of acceptance of e-payment systems like Paytm, BHIM, and UPI. The usual answer is that people are not comfortable with electronic payments because they have no control over transaction failure; are worried about hacking; are hobbled by poor connectivity issues and are irritated about transaction costs none of these are a problem while using good old cash. Denial of service (DoS) or Risk of Exclusion (RoE) due to wholesale outage is a new risk added to these concerns. The purpose of this article is not to discourage cashless economy but to highlight the many dimensions to going cashless or even less cash. It cannot be done in a causal manner. If a cashless economy has to succeed, government and service-providers need to do a lot more to provide uninterrupted, quality and secure services to the customers. Education took us from the thumb impression to signature. Technology must not take us back from signature to thumb impression. Bozic offered his services to the broker who fixed his mortgage, however, he wanted no part of the enthusiastic, but inexperienced, youngster. Undeterred, Bozic wore him down and immersed himself in the world of mortgages. He tried passing me onto other brokers, and the fact that he didnt want me strengthened my resolve. I badgered and beat him down until he said, Yes, come work with me. Thats how I got into this business. In 1993, Bozic needed a change of scenery and moved from Toronto to Vancouveran experience he describes as both profound and he first significant domino to fall. He would work for TMG for a number of years, and then return to Toronto in 2000 to become the National Sales Manager of the Broker Channel for TD Bank, where he says he learned the demands of the corporate worldthat is, everything from structure and discipline to internal politics, and what he calls empire building. Bozic founded MERIX Financial in 2005, and thus fell another major domino. Establishing a business is heuristic and Bozic learned early that, rather than replicate what A lenders do, he could establish MERIX as a niche lender. We thought there would be this natural pull because [established brokers] get it from a business perspective, but we changed on the fly and went after that 20-something broker who isnt a high producer and has only been in the industry for two to four years with potential ahead of them, said Bozic. Theyll get this more. What that message did is resonate with those individuals. We missed the mark when we first launched with a certain segment of the broker space and that led us to rethink our position. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 10) Over a month since Senator Antonio Trillanes IV's amnesty battle began, the Department of Defense is still in search of proof he filed the proper documents. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday said they are still looking for the amnesty application of Trillanes and hundreds of other members of Magdalo who were granted amnesty in 2011 during the term of former President Benigno Aquino III. President Rodrigo Duterte voided Trillanes' amnesty on August 31 on the grounds that he did not formally apply for it. Trillanes is one of Duterte's most outspoken critics, and the opposition has denounced the voiding of his amnesty as the President's move to silence his detractors. Lorenzana said former Defense Undersecretary Honorio Azcueta, who chaired the Adhoc committee on amnesty application that time, must know where the documents were stored. The amnesty was for the former navy officer Trillanes' involvement in coup attempts against Aquino's predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. "Sabi ng mga adhoc committee nagfile daw sya pero we cannot find the application forms so we're still looking kung wala tayong makita... Today we do not throw away records anymore we just scan them, digital form but the scanned copy is still there," he said in a media interview. Armed Forces Chief General Carlito Galvez Jr. on October 2 said military records show Trillanes applied for amnesty, but the documents cannot be found because of "lapses" in the organization. Malacanang, however, dismissed Galvez's claims and maintained that Trillanes did not file any application. Lorenzana also denied he gave the copies of the application forms to Solicitor General Jose Calida after Trillanes alleged the government's top lawyer purposely kept the documents. CNN Philippines correspondent Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report. "On behalf of the board of directors, we are excited to have an executive with such broad experience and impressive track record as our new interim CEO," Fannie Mae Chairman Egbert Perry said. "Hugh has a deep understanding of the housing and the financial services industries, and his experience on our board makes him an ideal choice to lead Fannie Mae as the interim CEO." Frater has been on the Fannie Mae board since 2016. From 2010 to April 2014, he served as CEO of Berkadia, later serving as chairman of the company from April 2014 to December 2015. Earlier in his career, Frater was an executive vice president at PNC Financial Services, where he led the real estate division and was a founding partner and managing director of BlackRock. He currently serves as non-executive chairman of the board of VEREIT and as a director of ABR Reinsurance Capital Holdings. "I have great respect for Fannie Mae and the significant role it plays in our housing system," Frater said. "I am humbled and excited to serve at an institution that has made tremendous strides in supporting its customers and making housing more affordable for millions of Americans while reducing risk to taxpayers. I look forward to working alongside the leadership team as we continue to look for new ways to serve our customers, implement our strategy, and strengthen the company. Lime Rolls Out Electric Scooter Rentals in Mexico City Mexico City - Micro-mobility company, Lime, has launched its dockless electric scooter rental service in Mexico City. The first Lime-S e-scooters will be available in the neighbourhoods of Polanco, Anzures, Juarez, La Condesa, and La Roma. "Lime is committed to providing Mexico City with easy, quick and sustainable travel solutions," said Alexander Wieland, general manager, Lime Mexico. "E-scooters are relatively new in Mexico, and we believe our partnership with Mexico City will help them achieve their clean air goals while creating a positive economic impact through job creation and the Lime Juicer programme." Live GPS map locates scooters The Lime app allows consumers to find available Lime-S e-scooters on its live GPS map. To access the service, Lime users will pay $10.00 MXN to unlock the scooter, through the app, available for iOS and android devices, and $3.00 MXN per minute. Lime said it is also working with Mexican leaders and community partners, such as the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), to ensure the safe introduction of Lime-S e-scooters to Mexico City. "Lime, like other mobility solutions for last mile connection is great news for Mexico City. said Bernardo Baranda, director of ITDP Mexico. "We should have more options other than cars in particular which is why we welcome new services that of course should operate with order, security and be part of a public policy of sustainable mobility." The company claims its entry into Mexico follows a milestone: 13 million scooter and bike rides in a little over 12 months. Since its launch in 2017, the company has served more than 100 markets across the US and Europe. By the end of 2018, Lime plans to launch in 50 new cities, internationally. Funded by Silicon Valley based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Lime is based in San Francisco, California. This week is Fire Prevention Week across the state, which commemorates the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Firefighters statewide will visit schools this week to teach students the importance of fire safety and emergency preparedness. The theme, Look. Listen. Learn. Be aware fire can happen anywhere will correlate with fire safety practices recommended by the National Fire Prevention Association: The Morgan County Commission Board will not accept permit applications for any proposed wind farm projects until after the board has reviewed and potentially updated the countys wind ordinance. Two companies E.ON and Apex Clean Energy are proposing wind farm projects in the eastern portion of the county near Waverly, Franklin and Alexander. While the companies continue to work with land owners, project applications will not be accepted while the board addresses the ordinance, board Chairman Brad Zeller said. The board has been asked several time to approve a moratorium stalling the projects pending evaluation of the ordinance, but Zeller said he did not want to put a deadline on the ordinance review. A moratorium places a deadline of six months or a year, he said. Weve stated that our major concern is to get the ordinance amended. We assured them that we are not accepting applications. In addition to addressing possible changes to the current requirements, the board also will clarify some language regarding the group that oversees the projects, Zeller said. The planning commission and the regional planning commission are two separate groups, he said. One of the issues we need to address is clarifying that language. There is no timeline for the ordinances review and revision, Zeller said. The Regional Planning Commission, which reconvened last month, is addressing the qualifications of board members before moving on to address the ordinance or the wind farm projects. Both E.ON and Apex are proposing building turbines in the eastern portion of the county to supply energy to Amerens lines. E.ON is proposing a 200-megawatt project, which could mean between 44 and 91 wind turbines in the project area, depending on the size of the turbines. Apex is proposing adding 300 megawatts to the lines, which would include between 83 and 120 turbines. Both companies are working with land owners and performing environmental impact and other studies before moving forward with permit applications. If the projects are approved, both companies have said they plan to have the turbines installed and operational by 2020. Right now, we dont want to put a deadline on having this completed, Zeller said. Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha. New TUD GM Edwin R. Pattison View Photos Update on Wednesday at 8:40am: TUD reports that the contract with new General Manager Edwin Pattison will span five years and take effect on November 26. Pattisons starting salary will be $190,000, and the board will annually decide if a merit based pay increases are warranted. He will also have a $500 per month vehicle allowance, health and retirement benefits, start with 10 days of vacation time, and then accrue 15 additional vacation days per year. Original story posted Tuesday at 6:30pm: Sonora, CA Tuolumne Utilities District (TUD) Board has selected a new leader and touts his 30 years experience in public utilities while working extensively in foothill regions. Edwin R. Pattison of Modesto will take over as the new TUD General Manager, which was vacated by Tom Haglund who retired in June, as reported here. An executive recruitment service was hired by the board to help find a replacement and after several candidates were interviewed, Pattison stood out. Mr. Pattison has the experience, creativity, talent and leadership qualities that the TUD Board, staff and our local partners were looking for to fill the General Manager position, stated Board President, Barbara Balen. The District is in a challenging time and we believe that Mr. Pattison is the best choice to lead the District in a positive direction. We are enthused and looking forward to working with Mr. Pattison on the difficult issues facing the District. He has extensive experience working in the foothills and is highly in tune with the issues that face the mountain counties. Pattison has been General Manager for Mountain House Community Services District since 2014 where he oversees the Public Safety/Public Works, which entails the water and wastewater, parks and recreation, finance and administration departments. His experience also includes serving as City Manager for the City of Ione and Water Resources Manager for Calaveras County Water District. I am looking forward to joining the TUD team and collaborating with the Board of Directors and stakeholders to define and implement a positive vision for the future. I am eager to begin working with the Board, staff and community in meeting the challenges facing the District, comments Pattison who holds a Master of Public Administration degree from California State University, Stanislaus and Bachelor of Science degree from University of California, Davis. Pattisons first day on the job will be November 26. Current Interim General Manager, Dave Andres, will remain on staff throughout Pattisons transition into the position. Jamestown, CA Gianelli Vineyards reports that its founder, Ron Gianelli, has died. He and wife Lori acquired the family property in Jamestown in 1980 that would eventually house the couples estate vineyard. They constructed a beautiful 30-acre vineyard and winemaking facility on Algerine Road, featuring 14 award winning estate varietals. They also later opened the current tasting room in downtown Jamestown. Ron stepped away from the vineyard operations a couple of years ago due to health issues. We reported last July that the business was sold to Amy Veldstra and Brendt Noon. The company has put out a statement reading, Ron was the man behind making the dream of Gianelli Vineyards a reality, not only is the beautiful bar in our tasting room hand crafted by Mr. Gianelli himself, the vineyards and wines you have come to love today are only here due to his vision. You can read more details about Rons life, including stories about trips taken to Italy ahead of the winerys development, in the companys full statement posted here. Wife Lorie asks that in lieu of flowers a donation be considered towards the Alzheimers Association. Click here for more details. ODESSA A federal prisoner in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service died Monday night after a shooting at Medical Center Hospital, according to press releases from the hospital and the marshals. "The name of the prisoner will not be released until next of kin have been notified," the marshals said in a statement. "Texas Rangers will investigate the incident." AUSTIN Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is sponsoring a proposed Texas license plate that glorifies Confederate soldiers to help raise money for the Sons of Confederate Veterans reigniting a decade-old debate over whether there should be a novelty plate to benefit the group. The new design includes a rebel soldier clad in a gray Confederate uniform carrying a Texas regiments flag. The license plate design does not include the Confederate battle flag. As first reported by the Dallas Morning News, Miller wrote a letter in support of the license plate design and, as Agriculture Commissioner, offered to sponsor it. He told the paper, I couldnt see anything offensive about it. Kim Olson, a retired lieutenant colonel running against Miller in the November general election, said the agency should be focused on agricultural resources instead of sponsoring Confederate license plates. This is not something I want to go to the mat for. I want to represent folks in agriculture, said Olson. We have bigger fish to fry. The Sons of Confederate Veterans has sought to establish a license plate since 2007. Its first design featured the Confederate battle flag and sparked criticism from people who said the plate was offensive and loaded with racial undertones. The state rejected that design in 2011, a decision the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2015. The court ruled that government agencies do not have to approve messages with which they do not wish to be associated. The Sons of Confederate Veterans claims about 3,200 members in Texas in its March application for the specialty license plate. The group estimates about 1,000 such plates would be sold in the first year. Of the $30 fee collected for the specialty plates, $22 would go to the Department of Agriculture as the sponsoring agency. The department would give that money back to the Sons of Confederate Veterans in the form of grants for supporting charitable causes and related activities, Miller told the DMV in a letter. The purpose of the special license plate is to remember and honor our Confederate ancestors and to make the commemorative plate available to people interested in Texas participation in the war, according to the application. The group asked Miller to sponsor the effort, said agency spokesman Mark Loeffler. He agreed, provided the new design would be substantially different than the prior attempt. The Confederate battle flag is now gone and the only flag in the design is a representation of a Texas regimental flag that was carried by Texas Confederates during the war, Loeffler said in a statement. Commissioner Miller strongly believes that Texans benefit from learning about all our history and not hiding or ignoring parts that might now be considered offensive. Paul Gramling Jr., Commander in Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said hes hopeful this plate will be approved, and blasted the Supreme Courts 2015 decision, which he said was based on prejudices. Manny Garcia, Texas Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director, called the proposal tone-deaf. Not only is Sid Miller an embarrassment to Texans, but he is also incapable of talking about critical issues in his own department; hungry kids, struggling farmers, and rural communities left behind, Garcia said. The Texas Department of Agriculture has sponsored several other plates, including for the American Quarter Horse Association , Order of the Eastern Star and the Grand Lodge of Texas, according to Loeffler. The Sons of Confederate Veterans has specialty license plates in a handful of other states, including Louisiana, Tennessee and Alabama, Gramling said. Staff writer Allie Morris contributed to this report. When Mike McAndrew opened up his Lil Reds Boiled Peanuts business two years ago, his goal was to introduce the popular Southern snack he grew up with to a San Antonio-area audience unfamiliar with it. Boiled peanuts are a delicacy in many Southern states and are available in gas stations and roadside outposts for as little as 99 cents per pound. McAndrew, a Pensacola, Florida native, operates his business out of a small kitchen space inside the LocalSprout Food Hub. But in the process of churning out his traditional boiled peanuts in original and Cajun spice blends, he stumbled upon something that he believes is a unique spin. He took those same peanuts, whipped them with a mixture of spices and lemon juice, and created a line of dipping spreads with smoked red pepper and cilantro jalapeno that can be served warmed or cold. What he developed is a peanut-based spread that has more in common with traditional hummus than any peanut butter. And its delicious as a savory dip for crackers and veggies, or even in a sandwich instead of mayonnaise or mustard. The key thing with peanuts is the flavor of a traditional roasted peanut, which you would use for a peanut butter, is completely different from that of a boiled peanut, McAndrew said. Peanuts are legumes, so when boiled, they act more like a bean dip. McAndrews recipe blend strays far from the traditional hummus ingredients as theres no tahini or sesame oil is in his spreads. Theres a definite calorie bump when replacing chickpeas with peanuts (25 calories to 90 calories per serving), but thats countered with the benefit of three times the protein. McAndrew whips up about 60 units of each flavor per week and sells them in 8-ounce tubs for $7 at the New Braunfels Farmers Market on Saturdays, the Four Seasons Market at Huebner and Interstate 10 on Saturdays and at the Pearl Farmers Market on Sundays. McAndrew also said that if he can figure out a proper shipping and refrigeration process, he plans to launch the dips across the South. Im OK with that, as long as I can keep renewing my supply here in San Antonio. Lil Reds Boiled Peanuts, 210-570-2324. Online: lilredsboiledpeanuts.com. Facebook: lilredsboiledpeanuts. Chuck Blount is a food writer and columnist covering all things grilled and smoked in the San Antonio area. Find his Chuck's Food Shack columns on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com, or read his other coverage on our free site, mySA.com. | cblount@express-news.net | Twitter: @chuck_blount | Instagram: @bbqdiver RIDGEFIELD The town moratorium on applications through a state affordable housing statute may have ended a few days ago, but there was no shortage of disdain for the law as officials considered the first new proposal to come in. The proposals second and final hearing in front of the Planning and Zoning Commission went over final details for the plans, which would build 30 units on Danbury Road restricted to those 55 and older. But most of the two-hour meeting Tuesday was spent in an often heated conversation about 8-30g, the law it was submitted under, which allows developers to bypass local zoning laws if they set aside a certain portion of units as affordable. Nearly a dozen residents offered concerns about traffic, septic or the size of the proposal, but lamented that they might not make a difference in the commissions decision. I had a bunch of comments prepared, but you kind of made it clear that it doesnt really matter, said Robin Caruso, who lives near the proposed lot. How this will destroy area homes doesnt seem to matter...This isnt about affordable housing or 55-plus, this is about developers taking advantage of the law. The 8-30g statute is meant to help towns meet the state goal of having 10 percent of housing qualify as affordable. Ridgefield, at nearly 3 percent, is one of 138 towns in Connecticut that dont meet this target. Residents and commission members alike argued Tuesday that although encouraging affordable housing is important, 8-30g is not the best way to do so. Ridgefield does not have the land to reach the 10 percent target, members said, and therefore will likely always be subject to the burden of dealing with noncompliant developments because of 8-30g. Commission members added, though, that in the Danbury Road application, the fact that it was submitted under 8-30g does not mean it was reviewed any less diligently or that the commission is taking the publics comments less seriously. The applicant couldve come in with a drawing with no professionals, Mucchetti said. This applicant came in with engineering, landscaping, lighting, environmental and traffic (experts) and on top of that hes paying for the towns peer review consultants. The commission began the hearing with an overview of the state law, explaining to the public it does not allow local boards to deny 8-30g applications, except for specific reasons of health and safety. But some residents urged the commission to deny the proposal even if it meant going to court, where the town would need to prove health or safety concerns outweigh the need for affordable housing. Others argued that concerns about emergency vehicle access to the development or its impact on traffic should qualify as these health and safety reasons. Getting any kind of vehicle like fire and ambulance into that propertyis going to be challenging, another neighbor said, noting that it includes a single driveway for exit and entrance. Members said that when the commission has gone to court with past applications that had much more dramatic concerns, at least with traffic, they were shut down by the state. Mucchetti told the public that the commission does what it can to negotiate with developers about both the look of the buildings and complying with local rules. The Danbury Road proposal does not meet the towns density limits, but complies with its height and setback restrictions, she said. Even those involved with proposing the development seemed to disagree with the general restrictions of 8-30g. Martin Handshy, president of Charter Group Partners, said it was not his first choice for the development, but the only option for this location. The applicants attorney, Bob Jewell, maintained the Danbury Road proposal was not an example of a developer taking advantage of the law. In both hearings on the proposal, Jewell, Handshy and a team of experts contended the development would fit with the residential character, not significantly increase traffic and fill a need for senior living options in town. Two supporters of the project also spoke at the meeting, including a resident of Charters existing age-restricted development on Sunset Lane. The applicants agreed Tuesday to the commissions request for a sidewalk in front of the building and additional oversight for its septic system and affordability rules. The commission will offer a ruling on the proposal Oct. 23. aquinn@newstimes.com U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, visited the flu shot clinic at the New Haven Health Department Wednesday to raise awareness of the upcoming flu season, encourage people to get their shots, and draw attention to the need for a universal flu vaccine, according to a press release from her office. DeLauro has introduced the Flu Vaccine Act, which would invest $1 billion over five years for research to find a universal flu vaccine, according to a press release from her office. Until that bill is passed, the congresswoman has secured a total of $140 million for universal flu research in 2019, the release said. DeLauro believes the funding is vitally important because of the unreliable guesswork now involved in flu vaccine production each year. Under the current system, health officials are forced to try to predict what strains of flu the annual vaccine should combat in any given season. As last years deadly strain and less effective vaccine demonstrated, DeLauro said, we need to take guesswork out of the equation. A universal flu vaccine would target every strain and provide more blanket protection, the release said. The guesswork system last year failed to stop some 80,000 Americans from dying of the flu, the release said, citing new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is more than from traffic accidents, gun violence or opioid overdoses, the release said. Connecticut suffered 154 influenza-associated deaths and nearly 3,500 hospitalizations last year. Children and senior citizens are particularly vulnerable. Last year, the CDC reported 180 children tragically died of flu-related illness in the U.S. Seniors like DeLauros grandfather, who died of the Spanish flu in 1918, are still dying of the flu a century later a statistic DeLauro finds completely unacceptable. Besides the heavy emotional toll, hospitalization for the flu costs more than $2,000 a day. Multiply that by the 3,500 hospitalizations just in Connecticut last year, and a small fraction of the monetary cost begins to emerge. That is in addition to the costs of battling the flu at home and lost productivity. That is why DeLauro has asked Congress to provide funds to research a universal flu vaccine, the release said, and why she believes the public should support it. Andrea Huspeni We often hear about the mentality some American entrepreneurs feel they must possess to survive. It can be cutthroat, with many feeling they need to compete with one another in what is often a zero-sum game -- where there can only be one winner. But that approach isnt always practical for growing industries and communities in the U.S. and beyond. Consider Peru, for example. The country as a whole is considered one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but in rural areas, the same can't be said. Many people don't have the resources, money or time to stay current on the latest technologies, trends and business models. Their focus is more on survival than getting rich. Which is why these local entrepreneurs must work together for the greater good rather than compete with each other. BETHALTO A birthday wish for one means gifts for many as far as nine-year-old Gracie is concerned. Gracie, of Bethalto, has raised about $700 to buy stuffed animals for children at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Childrens Hospital, and is still seeking donations as her way of celebrating turning one year older. Im excited about helping the kids because theyre in the hospital, said Gracie as she clutched on to her beloved Herbie, a pleasantly plump toy hedgehog. Funds raised over the past few months will go toward buying children their own Herbie the Hedgehog, providing the kids what Gracie calls a cuddle buddy. As of Tuesday, the fundraiser received about 16 GoFundMe online donations, 23 individual donations and support from three business, all from the Riverbend area, and has generated enough $20 donations to buy more than 30 Herbies. But with 195 beds at the St. Louis hospital, which serves both Missouri and Illinois children of all ages, people can still support the cause, according to Gracies mom, Lauren Funk. Honestly I feel like $20 is a drop in the hat compared to what we spend on a daily basis. If you can help, you will be giving a buddy to a child in the hospital, Funk said. This year marks the fifth time Gracie has held a fundraiser in celebration of her birthday, donating to organizations such as Metro-East Humane Society and Partners 4 Pets, but this years Double Down Fundraiser has been a bigger endeavor. Its a lot of work for the both of us, but its a great idea for the holiday season, said Funk. Though Gracie did have a more traditional celebration for her July 9 birthday, the family, including husband Jacob, held off this years fundraiser because Gracie had big plans. More Information MORE To support children across the region by donating to Gracie's fundraiser, email Lauren Funk, at beautyonabudgetwithlauren@gmail.com, or visit the fundraiser's GoFundMe page, by searching "Double Donation Fundraiser" on the website. See More Collapse It didnt surprise me, because she is so kind-hearted and is always looking to give to others, Funk said. She said Gracie knew what she wanted to do for her birthday after seeing the stuffed animal in an Avon magazine, a shopping catalog hosting the fundraiser. Funk, as a sales representative, has since reached out to the community seeking donations for the cause, including organizing a Facebook contest where area teachers could compete to win some of the proceeds for their school, ultimately naming Bethalto East Primary Schools first-grade teacher Molly Elliott as the winner. This is an opportunity to enrich our instruction with additional materials, supplies, and possibly experiences, so we want to make sure we make the best use of the funds, said Elliott. The compassion and generosity of this little girl is an inspiration to all of us. Donations can be made until Oct. 15, and Herbies will be ordered and most likely be received in November. Each Herbie will have a card attached listing each donors name so kids can see their supporters, and will be hand-delivered to children by hospital staff. We are grateful to the Funk family for their donations to support the children in the hospital, said Sandy Koller, vice president of philanthropy for SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Childrens Foundation. These stuffed animals will provide comfort to our patients in their time of need. Reach reporter Brittany Johnson at 618-208-6460. NEW CANAAN The New Canaan High School cafeteria has been a point of interest in the past months. Two months ago, a lunch lady working at the cafeteria was charged with larceny for allegedly stealing over $300,000. Now, in the last week of September, the cafeteria failed a health inspection. According to an inspection report carried out by the towns Health Department on Sept. 28 at 1 p.m., New Canaan High School merited a single four-point violation which results in an automatic failed inspection in the food protection category. Milk at 54 degrees Fahrenheit reach-in refrigerator by cook line, the report reads. The milk was subsequently thrown out by the high schools food services director and thus corrected during inspection. According to Chris Wegrzyn, a sanitarian in the towns health department, the milk must be kept at 41 degrees Fahrenheit per state code. Even just a single four-point violation results in an automatic failure of the inspection, Wegrzyn explained. The points add up to a total of 100; a single four-point violation or a score lower than 80 points results in a failed inspection. Inspections are done every six months, Wegrzyn said. Following the (Sept. 28) inspection, there is a mandatory re-inspection to be made in the next two weeks. The Sept. 28 inspection of the high school cafeteria details a total 11-point deduction that includes rusted and moldy shelving in walk-in refrigerators, an unclean interior of ice machine and raw meats above ready-to-eat food in a walk-in freezer. Superintendent of Schools Bryan Luizzi said the four-point violation that caused the cafeteria to fail the health inspection was related to a technical glitch. Over the past few weeks each of our five kitchens were evaluated by the health department and four of our five schools scored quite well. Unfortunately, at NCHS a small refrigerator used to temporarily hold food during preparation unexpectedly tripped off on the day of the inspection, Luizzi wrote. Luizzi said that the district was addressing the issue with the health department. Nonetheless, as a result of the refrigerator tripping of, the high school kitchen score was reduced and mandatorily rated down. We have spoken with the health department directly and we look forward to having the NCHS kitchen reevaluated the next few days, Luizzi added. humberto.juarez@hearstmediact.com Jacksonville Police ARRESTS, CITATIONS Daniel Zapot-Xolio, 27, of 356 Pine St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 12:34 a.m. Tuesday on a disorderly conduct charge. Greene County Sheriff ARRESTS, CITATIONS Coty T. Camerer, 34, of Carrollton was lodged in the Greene County Jail at 3:21 a.m. Sunday on charges of driving under the influence, driving while license is suspended and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. Sarah M. Scott, 38, of Jerseyville was lodged in the Greene County Jail at 10:15 p.m. Saturday on a possession of methamphetamine charge. Corey L. McEvers, 30, of Roodhouse was lodged in the Greene County Jail at 8:10 p.m. Saturday on charges of having no valid drivers license, illegal transportation of alcohol by a driver, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, failure to display registration, possession of cannabis and possession of drug paraphernalia. Christopher E. Sparks, 24, of Patterson was lodged in the Greene County Jail at 11:45 a.m. Friday on charges of driving while license is suspended, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and having no valid registration. Jennifer R. Hall, 45, of Jacksonville was lodged in the Greene County Jail at 11 a.m. Friday on a Greene County arrest warrant accused her of delivery of a controlled substance. Pike County State Police ACCIDENTS A Michigan truck driver was cited after a crash Tuesday left one person with minor injuries. Lawrence Rosen, 63 of Taylor, Michigan, was driving a semi-trailer truck on Interstate 72 about 2:15 a.m. when he ran into the rear of a tanker truck being driven by Chad Ativie, 34, of St. Louis, according to Illinois State Police. The impact of the crash caused both trucks to go off the road, according to police. Ativie was treated at Illini Community Hospital for minor injuries. Rosen was cited on a charge of failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. Schuyler County Sheriff ARRESTS, CITATIONS Marlyn Huffman, age unavailable, of Camden was cited Sunday on a possession of a firearm by a felon charge. Lyle Huffman, age unavailable, of Rushville was cited Sunday on a possession of a firearm by a felon charge. Richard Cook, age unavailable, of Plymouth was arrested Sunday on two counts of driving under the influence. According to a sheriffs department report, a pickup truck he was driving when off the road on Birmingham Road, through a fence and about 200 feet into a bean field. Compiled by Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree and David C.L. Bauer ISTANBUL - As Jamal Khashoggi prepared to enter the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, a squad of men from Saudi Arabia who investigators suspect played a role in his disappearance was ready and in place. They had arrived from Riyadh, the Saudi capital, early that morning and checked in at two international hotels in Istanbul before driving to the consulate in the leafy Levent neighborhood, said two people with knowledge of the investigation. One of them, the Movenpick Hotel Istanbul, is a few minutes from the consulate by car. By the end of the day, a 15-member Saudi team had conducted its business and left the country, departing on planes bound for Cairo and Dubai, according to flight records and the people familiar with the probe. Turkish officials have previously said they believe that Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and critic of the Saudi government, was killed inside the consulate. Turkish officials, who are examining the squad's movements, have now expanded their investigation to explore what happened at the residence of the Saudi consul general, Mohammed al-Otaibi, located 500 yards from the consulate. A photograph taken from a Turkish police closed-circuit television camera outside the residence and obtained by The Washington Post shows a Mercedes Vito van with tinted windows that security officials say transported some of those men from the consulate to the residence about two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate. In the week since the disappearance of Khashoggi, a contributor to The Post's Global Opinions section, the Saudi government has maintained that he left the consulate soon after he arrived. Not only do they not know what happened to him, they say, but they are also worried for his safety. "It goes without saying that his family in the Kingdom remain gravely concerned about him, and so are we," the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Khalid bin Salman, wrote in a message that was shared with the news media on Monday. Before Khashoggi's disappearance, U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him, according to a person familiar with the information. The Saudis wanted to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and lay hands on him there, this person said. It was not clear whether the Saudis intended to arrest and interrogate Khashoggi or to kill him, or if the United States warned Khashoggi that he was a target, this person said. Saudi officials, however, have denied reports that they sent a 15-man team to Istanbul on the day Khashoggi disappeared, saying that the only team they sent to Turkey consisted of investigators who arrived Saturday to help find the journalist. According to flight records, two privately owned planes flying from Riyadh arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 2, one before sunrise and the other in the late afternoon. A Turkish official linked the call signals of the two twin-engine Gulfstream IV planes to those that investigators believe carried the 15 Saudis. The planes are owned by Riyadh-based Sky Prime Aviation Services, according to public records. Flight data collected by AirNavRadarBox, a firm that tracks private and commercial planes all over the world, showed that the first of the two planes left Riyadh late Oct. 1 and touched down in Istanbul the following day at 3:15 a.m. They checked into the Movenpick, one of the people with knowledge of the investigation said. Management at the five-star hotel said they were not allowed to confirm or deny that the group had checked in or that their hotel was part of the investigation. A hotel worker confirmed that the group checked in Tuesday. "The police came two or three days ago," he said. The first plane was carrying the part of the Saudi team that was awaiting Khashoggi at the consulate, investigators believe, when he arrived at 1:14 p.m. to collect a document he needed for his upcoming marriage. Turkey's government says it has seen no evidence supporting the Saudi claim that Khashoggi ever left the consulate alive. Turkish police operate at least one camera at the front of the building. Investigators have also examined footage that covers the rear of the mission. Closed-circuit TV camera feeds from the preschool opposite the rear entrance have been retrieved by Turkish intelligence, and images from outside the hotels are also being reviewed, according to people familiar with the probe. A camera recorded Khashoggi entering the consulate at 1:14 p.m., but he was never seen leaving. "It's clear he did not exit," said one Turkish official with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. Behind a gate next to the front entrance is a covered car port, out of the view of cameras. From that garage, two vehicles exited about two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate, according to one of the people briefed on the investigation. One of the cars was the Mercedes that pulled up in front of the residence of Otaibi, the Saudi consul general, at 3:09 p.m., according to the time stamp on the video still of the Mercedes obtained by The Post. The drive to the consulate takes only a few minutes. The building is topped with the Saudi emblem of golden crossed swords and a palm tree. A Saudi flag flies outside. Two private security guards in a booth outside confirmed that the video still appeared to be shot from a camera that belonged to the police. The cars stayed at Otaibi's residence for four hours, according to an account published Tuesday in Sabah, a pro-government Turkish newspaper connected to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The report added that Turkish employees at the residence were "hastily" told to leave that day. The veracity of the report could not be confirmed. Flight data shows that a second private jet, believed by investigators to be transporting the rest of the team, touched down in Istanbul at 5:15 p.m. It is unclear whether those on board traveled to either the consulate or the residence. It departed an hour and 15 minutes after it arrived, heading for Cairo. Twenty-five hours after its arrival in Cairo, the plane left for Riyadh. The initial plane left Istanbul at 10:45 p.m. and made a stop about 280 miles to the east in Nallihan, Turkey. Then it skirted the border between Iraq and Iran, favoring the Iraqi side, and crossed over the Persian Gulf. It landed in Dubai at 2:30 a.m. The following morning, Oct. 3, it took off for Riyadh. - - - The Washington Post's Julie Tate, Ashley Halsey III and Shane Harris in Washington contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis responded to questions from reporters Oct. 9 about U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia and missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.(The Washington Post) Embed code: Video: The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung explains why the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi could change the U.S. and Saudi Arabia relationship.(Joyce Lee/The Washington Post) Embed code: EDWARDSVILLE The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy (SOP) is partnering with the SIU School of Medicine (SOM) and SIUE School of Nursings (SON) regional program in Carbondale to advance the national Student Hotspotting learning collaborative. Hotspotting focuses on care coordination and follow up for super-users, or individuals who are admitted to the hospital multiple times a year/use the emergency department frequently, in order to reduce their need for frequent hospital/emergency visits by providing improved coordination and cost-effective medical care. The learning collaborative is beneficial for not only patients, but also students leadership development, and it provides an authentic experience with interprofessional practice, says Janice Frueh, PharmD, SOP clinical associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and SOM adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Student Hotspottings main goals are to develop students abilities in working with medically and socially complex patients by gaining experience in addressing patients barriers to care, identifying the importance of patient-centered coordinated care, working with interprofessional teams in a community learning lab versus a healthcare system environment, and developing skills utilizing data that can be applied to healthcare delivery and design, Frueh explained. Navigating the healthcare system can be challenging, and the patients our students are working with have complex healthcare needs, said Melodie Rowbotham, PhD, RN, CNE, and director of the SIUE regional nursing program. By developing trusting relationships with patients, nursing students can then advocate to ensure these patients receive the care they need to improve their healthcare outcomes. The six-month learning collaborative hosted a September kickoff event in Springfield, where interprofessional team members gained an overview of the Student Hotspotting curriculum, and explored challenges and opportunities with regard to patient engagement that the team may encounter. Student Hotspotting was developed from the work of the Camden Coalition in Camden, New Jersey, said Frueh. Its educational design follows an emerging area of medical education called Value-Added Education, that focuses on developing experiential, interprofessional education in which students provide value to the healthcare system. Most importantly, students are to serve roles in which they interact with patients on a firsthand basis. The SOM has been a Student Hotspotting hub since September 2017. It is one of four institutions in the country serving as a regional learning center for other schools/teams. Through Camdens partnership and guidance, hotspotting has allowed us to improve access to care for those who are struggling to achieve health in our current healthcare system, said Tracey Smith, DNP, Student Hotspotting program lead, and research associate professor and director of population health integration at the SOM. Using hotspotting techniques, we are helping individuals and families gain independence from the emergency room and achieve a better quality of life. The greatest reward comes when individuals and families trust us enough to allow us to assist them when they are sick, Smith said. I hope that this program allows healthcare learners to experience that feeling of reward that so often is missing from healthcare practice. Faculty have found the learning collaborative to be an effective way to connect and build relationships with other educators, practitioners and researchers. Faculty from these institutions are building deeper relationships and collaborative work opportunities with each other, Frueh said. We havent even scratched the surface on all the possibilities related to these institutions curriculum, community outreach and/or strategic plans. At first look, the story of entrepreneurs David Friedberg and Siraj Khaliq seems like the typical Silicon Valley success story. The friends and former "Googlers" set out to leverage big data and the internet of things to develop a novel software solution for an industry specific application. Launching their new venture in 2006 in San Francisco, Calif., they soon attracted the attention of a number of the top venture capitalists in the Valley, and a few years later had a $1 billion-plus exit when their business was bought by a leading incumbent in the industry. Related: 5 Ways to Fatten Your Bottom Line by Drastically Cutting Energy Costs But, there is more to this story. Their venture, originally named WeatherBill and later changed to the Climate Corporation, leveraged weather and geographic data to help farmers customize their operations to use less water and fertilizers, increase yields and minimize topsoil loss. Motivated by a desire to help address climate change and other environmental challenges, Friedberg and Khaliq set out to disrupt agriculture by helping it become more sustainable. They are part of a new breed of "environmental" entrepreneurs looking to create vibrant ventures while addressing critical environmental challenges. Our research suggests that these environmental entrepreneurs may differ in important ways from your run of the mill entrepreneurs. First, the "environmental" part of the equation is a fundamental and primary driver of their desire to start businesses. They are change agents who are passionate about the environment and see venture creation as a way to address pressing challenges. Perhaps not surprisingly, we find higher rates of environmental startups in regions with more pro-social and environmental attitudes. More interestingly, we find that existing firms often ignore these local signals, suggesting environmental entrepreneurs can garner a first-mover advantage. Second, environmental entrepreneurs' desire to "save the earth" influences the risks they are willing to take and the choices that they make. The rise of the green building industry in the wake of the establishment of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) voluntary building standard, drove the need for a whole new set of suppliers from those who can install organic insulation to the makers of low-water flush toilets. Who filled this void? More often than not, passionate environmental entrepreneurs who are solely focused on green products. While many established building supply companies eventually followed suit, the environmental entrepreneurs were critical to building the nascent industry. They were willing to recognize opportunities and accept risk in an unproven market when existing companies were not. Related: Protect the Environment, Protect Your Business Third, these environmental entrepreneurs can be an important catalyst for greater sustainability -- potentially even greater than policy makers in encouraging the adoption of new practices like green building. While political action can often by paralyzed in these partisan times, environmental entrepreneurs are more nimble, able to seek out opportunities and effect change. In our research, we find that environmental entrepreneurs can even help bridge partisan divides effective in both liberal and conservative regions. For example, NexGen Energy Partners, a renewable energy startup founded in the "people's republic" of Boulder, Colo., has multiple clients in much more conservative regions across Ohio. By making renewable energy an economic, rather than ecological, choice, entrepreneurs can bypass the political divide on climate change. So, what's not to love? How can one become one of these effective environmental entrepreneurs? First, look for social clues that incumbent firms ignore. Rather than bemoan unsustainable farming practices, the Climate Corporation devised solutions that solved the information asymmetry and negative externalities driving those practices. Instead of trying to compete with large, state-based electrical utilities, NexGen Energy targeted more specialized projects in private companies and small towns. Second, look for ways to complement the offerings of large firms while simultaneously thinking of how to supplant them. Partnerships with established companies can be a good way to establish a toe hold in an industry and existing firms interested in burnishing their own environmental image may be eager to partner. For example, many green building suppliers have started with their own local distribution, only to become the "green" offering of larger, existing firms. Related: 3 Ways to Make a Commitment to Sustainability Your Customers Want to See Third, customize your message to the various stakeholders you are appealing to. One of Tesla's critical insights was that not only are electric vehicles potentially good for the earth, but they also have fast acceleration and tight handling that make them a blast to drive. While some people are willing to pay a price premium for a "green" car, far more were willing to buy a luxury vehicle with a unique driving experience. Similarly, know how to cater your company's message to offer something for the environmentally and economically driven potential customers. Environmental entrepreneurs are a unique breed that hold great promise to help us flourish economically, socially and environmentally. Environmental challenges may very well offer the biggest economic opportunity of our lifetime. We look forward to seeing more entrepreneurs rise to the challenge! Related: The Surprising Advantages Environmental Entrepreneurs Have Over Established Companies How Brands Are Going All Out to Embrace Sustainable Fashion Video: This Week in Weed (August 13-17) Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 10) Government officials assured China there would be no joint exercises between the Philippines and the United States during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Manila in November. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, all joint drills with the U.S. for this year have been completed. The last one, Kamandag, which also includes Japan, ended Wednesday. "As far as we know, yun na yata po (that's it)," Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ernesto Abella said. This should be comforting for China, whose ambassador, Zhao Jianhua, warned that the U.S. military drills in the disputed South China Sea could mar Xi's visit here. President Rodrigo Duterte himself assured Zhao in a Monday meeting that the Philippines would not participate in such activity, Malacanang said Tuesday. "China, of course, expressed concern over a naval military exercise that the United States will be conducting in the area at about the same time that their president will be in the Philippines," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said. "The President said that we will not take part in that military exercise," he added. CNN earlier reported that the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet is eyeing operations in the widely disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan strait, amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. American defense officials said this is a show of force against China. The Philippines and China have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, along with Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. Although the U.S. is not a claimant country, it conducts freedom-of-navigation operations in the Asian waters and calls out China's alleged militarization. A local family is considering a lawsuit against a San Antonio nursing home after a photo went viral on Facebook showing their grandmother sitting in her wheelchair covered in vomit, allegedly having been neglected for several hours by Legend Oaks Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center staff. The photo was posted Saturday by a visitor to the nursing home and it quickly gained attention, racking up more than 13,750 shares. The family eventually caught wind of it, and on Monday they retained a lawyer for a potential lawsuit. Glenn W. Cunningham said he is still investigating the case and will need to speak more with the man who posted the photo and the family before filing a lawsuit, but initial facts seem to suggest an "egregious situation." "This was the embodiment of abuse and neglect," Cunningham said. "When families entrust their loved one to a nursing home, they're trusting that nursing home to care for their loved one with dignity and respect. In this situation, as is apparent by the picture, it does not appear that (the woman) was treated with dignity and respect." The 126-bed nursing home, located at 2003 West Hutchins Place, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. RELATED: S.A. Persian group planning event to support Pasha after largest food poisoning outbreak in 20 years The picture was taken by Jacob Longoria, who was at the nursing home Thursday to visit his uncle. He arrived around 7:30 p.m. and noticed the woman in the picture sitting in her wheelchair asking for help. The staff nearby ignored her, he said. He spent about an hour with his uncle then left to get something to eat. When he came back around 9:30, the woman was still sitting in the hallway, this time covered in her own vomit, he said. The floor around her was covered as well, he added. Thinking maybe she had just become sick a moment ago, Longoria passed by her and returned to spend more time with his uncle. About 30 or 45 minutes later when he was leaving, the woman was still in the same spot. Towels had been tossed on the floor and on the woman, but the staff was still ignoring her, Longoria claimed. "They were just sitting there," Longoria told mySA.com. "I asked at the desk if somebody would assist her and they said when they had time." RELATED: FDA approves drug tested in San Antonio for aggressive skin cancer He snapped a photo for evidence and later mentioned it to a number of friends. They urged him to block out the face of the woman and share the photo on Facebook, and within days the photo had gone viral. A person who identified himself as an administrator at the facility reached out to Longoria on Facebook shortly after the picture was posted. He told Longoria he had spoken with the family and requested that the pictures be removed to respect the family's privacy of the family, according to Longoria. Later, the family reached out to Longoria and thanked him for sharing the photos, acknowledging they never would have known about the treatment had he not. They told him to leave the photos up, he said. Since his post, several others have reached out to share similar stories of instances at Legend Oaks, Longoria said. RELATED: San Antonio wins national 'culture of health' prize The family could not be reached for comment. It wasn't clear whether the woman was still at the nursing home. "Legend Oaks is a skilled nursing facility that provides custodial care to residents," Cunningham said. "And so they are obligated, by both law and contract, to meet the care of their residents. It's not like this woman required some sort of extra or out-of-the-ordinary care. This was basic custodial care. The provision of basic dignity. To clean her after she had vomited on herself and when she was unable, because of her condition, to clean herself." If the family does decide to pursue legal action, it will be at least 60 days before a lawsuit is filed due to Texas law, Cunningham said. In a private Facebook message sent to Longoria, the Legend Oaks administrator told him the facility was investigating the accusations. "The facility is unwaveringly committed to the health and well-being of each resident it has the privilege to serve, and it is our expectation that all residents receive quality care during the course of their admission here," he said. "If we learn that this did not occur, as you have suggested, appropriate action will be immediately taken to correct the situation." RELATED: Xenex CEO talks Rackspace, health care and San Antonio's growing tech scene The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is currently investigating the situation, a spokesperson confirmed. In a July 2018 inspection, the facility was cited for 13 violations (one more than the Texas average of 12), and over the past three years, the state has received five complaints about the facility, state records say. Inspection violations included failure to provide quality services, failure to provide "care and services to get or keep the highest quality of life possible" to residents, and failure to properly care for residents special needs, state records show. S. M. Chavey is a staff writer for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here. | sarah.chavey@express-news.net | 210-250-3122 | Twitter: @smchavey A Houston exterminator is recovering from stings he received on Monday while taking on two enormous "killer" bee hives in a Braeburn home of southwest Houston. Claude Griffin, the owner of Gotcha Pest Control, said the bee infestation was one of the worst he's faced in more than 20 years on the job. "This was worse than hell, there was only one job that got me worse than this," Griffin said, estimating that he had been stung well over 40 times. 80,000 BEES: River Oaks mother describes Africanized bee attack "They were 9 to 12 feet fall," Griffin said of the honeycombs that had taken over the home of an elderly woman. In some areas, they were three-feet thick. He estimated one-million bees occupied both hives. Africanized or "killer" honey bees have heightened defensive behavior, making them dangerous to humans. Griffin said cutting and removing the honeycombs from different areas of the home took eight hours of work, sometimes while being painfully stung in the dark. Additionally, he said the already tough job was made even more difficult thanks to an unlucky downpour. "Right in the middle of going to the job, it rained," Griffin said. "The [bee] suit got wet and I knew it was over for me." When some bee suits get wet, they get clingy, offering little to no protection from angry bees seeking to defend their home. LATEST: Moody Gardens accused of over-collecting fish at popular Florida diving spot Despite the particularly troublesome bee removal, Griffin seemed most distraught about the living conditions of the elderly woman living in the home. "When I [first] walked in the door, I was overwhelmed," Griffin said. "There were two lights in the whole house... there were canned goods all over the floor, and she had a hole in the roof that you could see from the living room." Griffin said the disrepair of the home, allowing rain and pests to enter the home, had made conditions just right for the two enormous hives, which he said the elderly woman told him had been there for 10-20 years. "They were so loud, she didn't know what to do," Griffin said. "No one would come over there, no one would fix her house. City Council are the only ones that came to her rescue." According to Griffin, Houston City Council organized the job. "It would bring you to tears, man," Griffin said. Fernando Ramirez covers Texas news and politics. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93 Rep. Beto O'Rourke is distancing himself from a viral political attack ad directed by Richard Linklater. In an interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Tuesday, O'Rourke clarified that the ad was not approved by his campaign. "Yeah, that's not our stuff," O'Rourke told Hayes. "I'm not down with super PACs." "We're running this one with people, no PACs no special interests, no outside interests, going to every one of the 254 counties of Texas," he said. Judging from the interview, there was no indication that O'Rourke welcomed the ad, which lambasted Sen. Ted Cruz for working with President Donald Trump despite being insulted by him on the campaign trail. ANALYSIS: Beto O'Rourke's uphill battle "I mean, come on, if somebody called my wife a dog and said my daddy was in on the Kennedy assassination, I wouldn't be kissing their ass," an actor in the ad said. The ad was directed by Richard Linklater, the filmmaker behind "Boyhood" and "Dazed and Confused." It was circulated through social media and funded by the Fire Ted Cruz PAC. The Dallas-based PAC has so far raised $277,898 in contributions, per the most recent Federal Election Commission filings. With less than a month until election day, Cruz leads O'Rourke by 6 percentage points according to several polls averaged by RealClearPolitics. Fernando Ramirez covers Texas news and politics. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93 A San Antonio man accused of sexually assaulting two toddlers he knew who contracted gonorrhea withheld crucial information from investigators, which gave them reason to believe he was the source, a CPS caseworker testified at his trial Wednesday. The retrial of Adrian Vigil began Tuesday. He was 23 when he was arrested and charged with two counts of super aggravated sexual assault of a child. The charges stemmed from medical examinations that determined the two girls, ages 1 and 3, tested positive for gonorrhea. The children were believed to have been assaulted sometime in October 2015, their mother testified Tuesday. Vigil, now 26, pleaded not guilty. Related: Retrial begins for man charged with super aggravated sex assault of kids Under direct questioning by prosecutor Steven Speir, Child Protective Services investigator Desirea Ramirez told the jury she investigated the case after the children tested positive for the disease. She said both Vigil and the childs mother had tested positive for the disease, but interviews with the childs mother ruled her out as a source because she had undergone a Pap test two months before the agencys involvement and had tested negative for sexually transmitted diseases. Ramirez said Vigil was interviewed and she challenged his inconsistent responses because he was nervous and at first denied he had gonorrhea, then admitted he was positive. We felt he wasnt being honest with us, she told the court. She said when Vigil was asked if he had been sexually abused as a child, he initially said no. Some time later, he told Ramirez that he had been sexually abused when he was 7 by an older brother, she testified. On cross-examination, defense attorney David Woodard asked Ramirez if she ever inquired whether Vigil sexually abused the girls. Yes. He said no, she told the court. Woodard asked her if she agreed that just because Vigil tested positive doesnt mean he was the source, and Ramirez that an outside, unknown source was possible. But she said Vigil sidestepping a crucial question regarding his own alleged abuse was a red flag. With every CPS case, (prior abuse) is a very important question we ask, She said. He denied. Vigil is being retried in Felony Impact Court after his first one ended in a mistrial because the defense wasnt told beforehand, as required, about evidence the prosecution presented in court. Related: Mistrial declared in case of man accused of sexually assaulting two toddlers If convicted, Vigil faces up to life in prison. Elizabeth Zavala is a courts and crime reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 In Texas, nothing can be certain except death, taxes and long wait times at driver license offices. The Texas Department of Public Safety is actively working to fix those wait times. As part of the department's exceptional item request to the Legislature during the upcoming session, DPS asked for 62 additional staffers for the current San Antonio-area offices as well as an additional mega center in north San Antonio, according to the department. Earlier this year, the department also began sending officers to the states busiest driver license locations, including five in the San Antonio area, to identify customers who could complete their transactions remotely and encourage them to do so. Over the past few years, many locations have launched a "Get In Line, Online" initiative, allowing visitors to reserve their spot remotely and spend less time waiting in the office. RELATED: Texas rejects 2,400 online voter registrations as Oct. 9 deadline looms But there are inevitably even more ways to save time, including finding the office with the shortest wait time. The San Antonio Express-News obtained that information from DPS for six of the 10 offices in the San Antonio area. Wait times for the other four locations were not available. Average wait times varied by more than 25 minutes from the fastest location (San Antonio Southeast) to the slowest (Boerne). They were based on queuing technology that shows the amount of time that passes from customer check-in to transaction completion. The estimate does not take into account time spent waiting prior to check-in. Though the Leon Valley Mega Center had a 36-minute wait time -- the fifth highest -- the department continues to recommend it because it has more workstations and staff member than any other office in the region. Mega centers also typically have the largest lobbies, according to the department. RELATED: You don't have to own a car to drive for Lyft in San Antonio now The wait times were approximate averages and will vary by day and season. Included below are additional tips from the department to save time at driver license offices: Don't go unless you need to. Millions of Texas driver license office customers could complete their transactions remotely either online or by phone or mail, saving themselves time as well as other customers. Utilize the online queuing system to reserve a spot in line before going into the office. When available, schedule a drive test online as many as three months in advance. Renew your driver license or identification card early. Texans are eligible to renew up to two years in advance, and early renewal does not impact the expiration date. Avoid visiting on Mondays and Fridays, after holidays, or during the summer. Those are typically the busiest days. Before a visit, check to make sure you have the proper documentation so you don't have to go again. If taking a commercial driver license skills tests, check which locations administer the tests before going. Castroville, Leon Valley (Class B only), New Braunfels and San Antonio Southeast are the only locations that do. Click through to see average wait times for all San Antonio-area driver license offices. S. M. Chavey is a staff writer for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here. | sarah.chavey@express-news.net | 210-250-3122 | Twitter: @smchavey A Mexican national was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in federal prison, the maximum he could get for his role in an immigrant smuggling venture that ended with the deaths of 10 people in 2017. Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra said he would have given Pedro Silva Segura 47, a sentence of 30 to 40 years in prison if he had been found guilty at trial. But since he entered a plea bargain, the judges hands were tied. Basically, what this defendant did is he traded in the lives of these individuals for cash, the judge said at the sentencing. Silva, who operated a stash house in Laredo, dropped off five immigrants in Laredo who were later loaded into a tractor-trailer containing dozens of other people who were transported north by trucker James Matthew Bradley Jr, 62. In late July 2017, Bradley pulled the tractor-trailer over at a South Side Walmart, where San Antonio police found 39 immigrants inside or near the unairconditioned trailer suffering from dehydration or worse. Of the 39, eight were dead on scene, and two more were pronounced dead at area hospitals. The remaining 19 remained hospitalized for several days, including two that Silva had dropped off to be loaded into the trailer. They helped Homeland Security Investigations agents identify Silva, according to Silvas lawyer, Adriana Arce-Flores. At Wednesdays sentencing, Ezra said the victims were locked in the sweltering trailer without water to the point where they literally cooked alive. Ezra said he believed the feds could have charged Silva with something else that could have brought a higher sentence, but Assisant U.S. Attorney Christina Playton said Silva pleaded guilty to the highest count in his indictment. Well, it isnt high enough, Ezra said. People died a horrible death. Arce-Flores said her client did not know the cooling unit on the trailer was not working because he dropped off his five immigrants where someone else picked them up and delivered them to the trailer. Im very regretful for what happened, Silva told Ezra. If it had been within my (control), I would not have let those people suffer like they did. Silva pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants resulting in death, the same charge as Bradley. But unlike Bradley, Silvas recommended sentencing guideline range was far lower because of legalities in federal law and Silvas role was different from Bradleys. Bradley scored a recommended sentence of life in prison, and Ezra sentenced him to that in April. Silvas guideline range was seven years, three months to nine years in prison. Silva will serve his sentence and then be deported. Silva also forfeited $2,000 that investigators seized from him. Guillermo Contreras covers federal court and immigration news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | gcontreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland Search and rescue efforts are expanding Wednesday for the four people who were swept away Monday when heavy rains caused the South Llano River to overflow, wiping out a Junction RV park. Twenty people are searching along the river with at least three rescue dogs, while Texas Parks and Wildlife personnel also deployed a drone. Weather conditions were more favorable Wednesday after rain hampered search efforts Monday and Tuesday. A helicopter was deployed and there is a temporary flight restriction over the area until further notice. READ MORE: Rescue efforts underway for 4 still missing in Hill Country after storms Three of those missing were identified as residents of Flomaton, Alabama, according to Steve Turner. Turner said his sister, Charlotte Moye, went missing along with his two best friends, Joey Huss and Mike McGee. The three were in Texas working on a pipeline project, he said. The fourth person missing is believed to be Darin Hartman, a San Angelo man. Hartman was identified by his church, the First United Methodist Church of San Angelo, in a Facebook post asking people to pray for him and his family. The church scheduled a prayer rally for him Wednesday night. Officials haven't confirmed the names of those missing as of Wednesday. Earlier in the week 45 people were evacuated and 19 rescued from flood waters. Incident Commander Randy McMullen asked residents along the river to report any information that might be useful in the search. "If land owners along the South Llano River find anything that may facilitate rescue efforts please call the Kimble County Sheriff's Department. Search efforts are taking all tips seriously," McMullen said in a news release. Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA An arrest affidavit for the man accused in the triple shooting on San Antonio's gay strip on Monday lays out how investigators were able to identify him as the gunman. The suspect, 44-year-old Jose Rincon Hernandez, is believed to have opened fire on a group of people outside a taco truck in the 1400 block of North St. Mary's Street at about 12:30 a.m. after he had been kicked out of the nearby Pegasus night club. He is charged with three counts of aggravated assault and was booked into the Bexar County Jail on Tuesday on a $225,000 bond. RELATED: Suspect who turned self in for gay strip shooting: 'I didn't do this' Three people suffered non-life threatening injuries in the shooting and were treated at San Antonio Military Medical Center. One of the victims has been identified as Ileana Neira, 32. Shortly after the shooting, a witness identified the shooter as a patron who had gotten into an altercation at Pegasus and was kicked out of the club. He told investigators the shooter had given him his phone number before he was ejected, the affidavit says. According to the arrest affidavit, police tracked that phone number to Hernandez and then visited his last known address on the West Side. At the home, police spoke with another witness who identified Hernandez as the shooter but said Hernandez had used the witness' Smith and Wesson .40 caliber handgun to carry out the attack. Police note in the affidavit that .40 caliber shells were found at the crime scene after the shooting. RELATED: Search underway for driver swept away by Sabinal River flood waters in Uvalde County Based on that information, police secured a warrant for Hernandez's arrest. Before the warrant could be executed, however, Hernandez turned himself in to police. As he was escorted into a police squad car before the media, Hernandez proclaimed his innocence and blamed his brother-in-law for the shooting. "I didn't do this. They have the wrong person," Hernandez said. "My brother-in-law did it." "They're just making it look like I did it when I didn't do it," he said. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said investigators are confident Hernandez was the shooter, citing multiple interviews with witnesses. 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 Police are asking for the public's help in locating and identifying the suspect who fatally shot a 17-year-old boy last month in Leon Valley. Zachariah Bostic was found with a gunshot wound in his chest on Sept. 13 in the 5600 block of Prentiss Drive after authorities responded to the area for calls of shots fired. 3 1 of 3 Staff file photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Carlos Javier Sanchez /Contributor Show More Show Less 3 of 3 The campaigns for and against the three controversial charter amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot have collectively raised more than $1.5 million and spent nearly $1 million as they try to persuade local voters to take their sides. But the campaign-finance reports filed by the pro-amendment San Antonio First campaign and anti-amendment Go Vote No campaign show significantly lopsided fundraising and spending efforts. The opposition campaigns fundraising accounts account for more than 87 percent of the collective total. That campaign, backed by the Secure San Antonios Future political action committee, also accounted for roughly 80 percent of the collective spending in the charter-amendment election. Oregon Coast's Famed Glass Float Drops Starts Its Last Season - In a Way Published 10/09/2018 at 7:34 AM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff (Lincoln City, Oregon) The central Oregon coasts famed Finders Keepers glass floats event has some good news for the world: its going year-round. As the 20th season of the Lincoln City glass floats attraction starts off, its going to be the last season. Thats because this season will never end. Explore Lincoln City is pleased as punch to announce that glass treasure hunters can now find them on the beaches not just in the fall, winter and spring but now summer as well. Every month of the year will henceforth boast a signature hand-made glass float on the sands. It all starts on October 13 as Finders Keepers gets underway and goes eternal. Originally conceived twenty years ago as a way to entice visitors to Lincoln City during the winter months, the Float Fairies will now be hiding glass floats 365 days a year, marking the biggest change in the programs history. The daily drops remain, but something special has been added. This 20th year is a big change in another way: the famed Float Fairies will hide 20 limited-edition glass floats on the 20th of each month, from October 2018 to September 2019. This is in addition to the daily drops. All the floats are extraordinary in another way as well: each one is blown with extra care by the officially-commissioned glass artists. The Explore Lincoln City folks say this will be a Finders Keepers season to remember. Its been 20 years since the first locally-blown glass floats touched the sand, cleverly hidden for our guests to find as they walk our beautiful seven miles of beach, said Ed Dreistadt, Director of Explore Lincoln City. Finders Keepers has grown to be a phenomenon, with people flocking to Lincoln City in hopes of going home with the pinnacle of beach finds: a hand-blown glass float. Over 3,000 officially numbered glass floats will be carefully hidden along the seven miles of pristine beach in Lincoln City, from Roads End on the north side of town to Siletz Bay on the south end. Floats can be found above the high tide line and below the beach embankment and are always hidden during daylight hours. As always, if you you find a glass float you get to keep it. Yet one big tradition remains with this new approach: the special glass drops will still be done throughout the year to commemorate holidays and special occasions. For instance, to commemorate the opening weekend of Finders Keepers, October 13th and 14th, the Float Fairies will hide an extra 100 glass floats on the beach. To learn more about the Special Glass Drop schedule, visit ExploreLincolnCity.com/Glass-Floats. If you find a glass float, be sure to share your discovery on Explore Lincoln City's social media channels. Post a photo on Facebook at Facebook.com/LincolnCityOregon, and on Instagram or Twitter @LincolnCityOR. Finders Keepers began in 1999, when a local artist first thought of glass floats as an intriguing way to launch the new millennium. Lincoln City sponsored the project, hosting the inaugural season in 1999-2000. Each year, tourists continue to come from around the country to search for their own brightly colored, signed and numbered glass float. One of the major historic traditions on the Oregon coast was the finding of glass floats actually from Japan: those now extremely coveted blown glass floats in intriguing shades of green and blue. These were used by Japanese fishermen to float their nets, with spheres as small as two inches or as large as two feet. They were collected, polished, and admired; the ultimate find for any dedicated beachcomber. Today fishing vessels around the world use buoyant plastic, making glass floats a rare find. However, Lincoln City keeps the tradition of treasures alive throughout each Finders Keepers season. For more information about Finders Keepers, please visit ExploreLincolnCity.com or call 541-996-1274. Meanwhile, the Lincoln Citys Shearwater Inn is helping you find even more in November. Those who stay at the famed central Oregon coast hotel in November can enter to win a glass float from the Lincoln City Glass Center, formerly known as Jennifer Sears Glass Art Studio. So many people come to Lincoln City to look for the floats on the beach, but never find one so we thought wed help them out a little, said spokesman Heather Zink. They will draw the winner on December 1. See the Shearwater Inn website. Lodgings in Lincoln City - Where to eat - Lincoln City Maps and Virtual Tours More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted Letter writer Raymond Franck made a point of telling readers not to rationalize, all while he was doing so (Beto vs. Brett, Your Turn, Sunday). Mr. Franck chose to include some unproven things such as Beto ORourke attempting to leave the scene of an accident. He was never charged with doing so. Other witnesses did not make any claims to that effect. ORourke admitted his fault, paid the fines, did the public service and cleaned up his act. Now he uses that story to teach the lesson that you can make something more of yourself, you dont have to be defined by your mistakes. Own up to those mistakes, and take responsibility for creating a better future for yourself and your loved ones. He has gone on to build a business in his community, creating jobs, and dedicating himself to public service. He hasnt lied about his past mistakes, and no one can show a pattern of behavior otherwise. Brett Kavanaugh, the candidate for the Supreme Court, a lifetime appointment, said in one interview that he never went out partying and drinking while underage, and he couldnt have been the one who attacked a girl at any party. However, his own yearbook says otherwise, that he was a big party boy. He was questioned about a number of references from his own notes written in high school and college that everyone recognizes as alluding to binge drinking and sex. Yet, right there on TV in front of the Senate committee, he lied about their meanings. A number of individuals, a roommate and associates of his, tried to testify that he was a binge drinker and a very ugly drunk. The Senate didnt allow that testimony. The Senate committee didnt allow testimony during the hearing on Christine Blasey Fords allegation about unethical, current behavior. It also didnt allow information or questioning about his involvement with the torture of war prisoners during his job in the Bush administration. Many other documents that might have cast a light on his character were edited out of the material allowed for consideration. There is a long list of questions about behaviors and actions associated with Kavanaugh, but it all got swept under the rug without anyone, especially Kavanaugh, taking any responsibility for anything. He had the opportunity to say that he had a problem with alcohol in high school and college, became aware that he was having blackout episodes and decided to take steps to clean up his act. Initially, he did not say that. Later, he defended his taste for beer. He blamed as many other people as he could for his misfortunes making it very clear that he puts political party way ahead of the country and admitting absolutely no faults of his own while repeating falsehoods. Apparently, taking responsibility is not his game. Coverups and lies are and thats the behavior condoned by our Senate last weekend. The two men cannot be compared. Mr. Franck has have only proven his final statement The only way to rationalize voting for Beto while opposing Kavanaugh is to assert that standards of conduct apply only to people you dont like in reverse. Judy Luckenbach is a Fredericksburg resident. In the recent Supreme Court nomination showdown, American institutions underwent a stress test. And we saw the political equivalent of the collapse of Lehman Bros. The Senate Judiciary Committee which must work properly for the legal system to work properly quickly became a writhing heap of serpentine partisanship. The Supreme Court whose judgments are only imposed through the deference of other institutions was dragged into the realm of low politics. And the media the essential lens through which we view all else was too often perceived as a participant in the drama. Consider two recent stories in the New York Times. The first was a 13,000-word dissection of Donald Trumps financial history that revealed long-standing habits of deception and corruption. It was newspaper journalism at its best a serious investment of talent and resources to expand the sum of public knowledge. Compare this with the Times expose on a bar fight 33 years ago in which Brett Kavanaugh allegedly threw ice at another patron. Apparently there was no editor willing to say, What you have turned up is trivial. Try harder. And there was no editor who was sufficiently bothered that one name on the byline, Emily Bazelon, was a partisan who had argued on Twitter that Kavanaugh would harm the democratic process & prevent a more equal society. Let me state this as clearly as I can. It is Donald Trumps fondest goal to make his supporters conflate the first sort of story with the second sort of story. And he hopes this for a specific reason: to discredit special counsel Robert Muellers report when it is eventually covered in the media. Trump does not only want to argue for his version of the truth; he wants to undermine alternative sources of truth. And this requires him to maintain that the press is the enemy of the people. Trumps claim of a partisan press was strengthened when the New Yorker published an accusation of first-degree penis exposure that no one else cited in the article could directly confirm. The New York Times, to its credit, initially held off on publishing this unsupported allegation. Meanwhile, the New Yorkers Ronan Farrow concluded of the accuser, This is not the behavior of someone who is fabricating something. This judgment substituted for journalistic principles such as the need for multiple sources and corroborating evidence. The reputation of journalism was weakened when news outlets covered a hostile tweet disputing the details of Kavanaughs lost virginity as though it contributed to some broader case. The reputation of journalism was weakened when MSNBC interviewed one woman about her unsupported claims of routine gang rapes in high school attended by Kavanaugh, only to have the accuser walk back many of her accusations. Speaking of the Kavanaugh nomination, Brian Stelter of CNN observed: Some individual journalists were, and there were many, many commentators that were lining up against him. And I think the weight of that commentary made it seem like there was a big chunk of the media out to get him, out to take down his nomination. I dont think editors and bosses in newsrooms were trying to tank his nomination, but I do think there were a lot of individual journalists who were really disturbed by the allegations. I was disturbed by the allegations, and said so as a commentator. But I think some editors and bosses in newsrooms did not do enough to prevent the lowering of journalistic standards in service to what many journalists clearly regarded as a good cause. And I dont think that even commentators should be exempt from standards of basic fairness and civility. It was offensive for CNN political contributor Joan Walsh to tweet of Kavanaugh that he is a pig and he has to go, just as it was offensive for Fox News contributor Kevin Jackson to call Kavanaughs accusers lying skanks. Opinion journalism is not a license for calumny. It is easy to say that Twitter is poison (which it can be). But the deeper problem lies in the answer to a deeper question: Is journalism a profession that serves the public by maintaining high standards, or is it a social construct that should be redesigned to directly serve certain social goods? Some argue that all journalism involves bias, either hidden or revealed. But it is one thing to say that objectivity and fairness are ultimately unreachable. It is another to cease grasping for them. That would be a world of purely private truths, in which the boldest liars and demagogues would thrive. michaelgerson@washpost.com The Party of Trump has proved itself keen to propagate any conspiracy theory, no matter how ridiculous or racist. Well, almost any conspiracy theory. There were those fake jobs numbers, crafted to make President Barack Obama look good (though today, oddly, those same jobs numbers somehow make Obama look bad, according to Republicans). There were 3 million illegal votes, alleged murders, a pizza-parlor child-sex-slavery ring, the convoluted nonsense of QAnon. Then Friday, Trumpkins revived a conspiracy theory that long predates our current president and has remained popular with far-right political regimes around the world: that of the International Jew. Thousands of protesters had shown up to voice their anger over Brett Kavanaughs imminent ascension to the countrys highest court. They were, understandably, mad about Kavanaughs record on reproductive rights, campaign finance, executive power and other key policy concerns. They were also mad about Kavanaughs personal conduct not only high-profile allegations of sexual misconduct but also his nasty, partisan attacks on Democratic senators, his claims of a vast Clintonian left-wing conspiracy and his statements under oath whose veracity has been disputed even by his friends. But perhaps most of all, they were mad at the Republican Party. After all, the GOP had stolen a Supreme Court seat from Obama, taken away the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees so they could push through a pick without 60 votes, and arranged for a sham FBI investigation when their pick was credibly accused of sexual assault. Despite all this, Republican leadership somehow couldnt fathom why legions of Americans might be genuinely, grievously upset. Instead, several Republicans suggested, all those Kavanaugh protesters just like those phony Womens Marchers last year must be pretending to be mad, because they were being paid to be mad. Not merely paid: paid by an evil, rich, foreign-born Jew. The protesters who confronted a senator in an elevator were Paid for by Soros and others, President Donald Trump tweeted, in a reference to Hungarian-born American Jewish billionaire and liberal philanthropist George Soros. Trumps tweet echoed a comment from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who told a Fox Business Network host that he thought the protesters were probably paid by Soros. Trumps personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani amplified the conspiracy theory, retweeting a comment calling Soros the anti-Christ and urging that his assets be frozen. This was not merely an attempt to scapegoat someone, anyone, for Republicans deeply unpopular actions. It was a call for tinfoil-hatters to revive the blood libel. Soros has inherited the archetype of the International Jew who haunted the fevered dreams of Henry Ford, one of the original America Firsters. In fairness, why should such bigotry shock anyone at this point? Despite the Jewish faith of his daughter and son-in-law, Trump has suggested that a horde of torch-toting neo-Nazis included some very fine people. He tweeted an anti-Semitic meme during the 2016 campaign and closed it with a TV ad pairing images of famous Jews (including Soros) with a pledge to destroy the global power structure. Moreover, Trump launched his political career with a bigoted conspiracy theory: that our first black president was secretly born in Kenya and was therefore illegitimate. His paranoid crackpottery has been almost parody-defying. Carefully reported debunking, including by the Washington Posts fact-checking team, seems unable to shake some sense into conspiracy theorists. One puzzle remains, however. Why the one conspiracy theory Republicans dismiss outright is the one we actually do have mounting evidence for: the conspiracy against the United States led by the Russia government, possibly with the Trump campaigns consent? And no number of previously undisclosed contacts between Trump officials and Russian operatives, emails from Donald Trump Jr. or special-counsel indictments can convince the party faithful otherwise. For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin says Republicans are right to be skeptical. Whom has he blamed instead for U.S. election meddling? Why, the Jews, of course. crampell@washpost.com To city leaders: If you think allowing this scooter blight on our beautiful city is the right thing to do, then I encourage you to visit First Friday in Southtown, as we did recently, or any other event downtown that is attended by thousands of people. It was a nightmare and a tragedy waiting to happen. People on scooters were weaving in and out of traffic, moving from the sidewalk to the street and back again on a random basis. Many of the scooter riders were moving at top speed, and on more than one occasion, I observed an adult driving the scooter with a small child in front, hanging on to the handlebars with neither of them wearing helmets. Upon completion of their ride, people left the scooters on the street, in the middle of the sidewalks or wherever they decided was OK. At some point, people will be injured or killed. I can only imagine what Fiesta 2019 will look like. Today, the City Council will meet to decide the fate of the scooter business in San Antonio. I encourage you to end this scourge on our beautiful city and politely ask them to take their scooter business elsewhere. If that is not possible, then I implore you to heavily regulate and tax these companies that seemed to have come out of nowhere and without, it seems, invitation. Limit their numbers. Limit them to daylight hours. Require helmets, user age of at least 16 and one rider per vehicle. Keep them off the sidewalks and off streets that have speed limits greater than 35 mph. Fine them heavily when they dont follow the rules. I, for one, dont see where we have the surplus tax dollars to monitor these scooters. The city police, as well as the park police, have enough to do without having to monitor scooters. Please dont add this to their plate. Gretchen Mayes Same reason It seems that all of a sudden President Donald Trump is concerned about young men being falsely accused of crimes. Isnt that the same thing that Colin Kaepernick takes a knee for? Richard Harris One is for life Re: Beto vs. Brett, Your Turn, Sunday: This letter comparing Beto ORourke and Brett Kavanaugh misses the most important point: If Beto wins his election he must run again to retain his seat. Judge Brett has a lifetime appointment. John H. Lindquist Prince Harry and Meghan Markles incredible love story has captivated millions around the world. And as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex settle into their first year of married life, we dont think weve ever seen a more in-love, tactile couple. But now Princess Dianas former friend and personal psychic Simone Simmons has made a shocking string of predictions, claiming Harry and Meghan will break up after just three years of marriage, Zambia News 24 has reported. I give their marriage two-and-a-half to three years, Simone, who claims she still communicates to Princess Diana from the grave, alleged to UK publication The Daily Star. I dont want to see him badly hurt, and Harry wont know whats hit him when it does happen, the healer continued. He is head over heels in love. Harry is like the embodiment of Diana, he is so sensitive. Simone also believes the royal couple will have two children before they divorce. As for the reason of their split, the psychic believes Meghans scandal-prone family will be the couples ultimate undoing. Even people with dysfunctional families are not as dissociated as hers, Simone said. Look at her last two relationships. They didnt last much longer than two years. This will probably be no different. She also believes Prince Harrys uncle Prince Andrew will re-marry ex-wife Sarah Ferguson but theres a catch. I think that Sarah and Andrew will remarry but not until Prince Philip dies. Sarah and Andrew are still totally in love, Simone told the outlet. While we refuse to accept her hurtful theory about Harry and Meghan, Simone does have one positive prediction worth listening to. She believes Duchess Meghan is already pregnant with her first child. I think Meghan may be pregnant. Its something about the look on her face, she revealed. Hmm, so thats how a psychic makes their conclusions? Not based on anything other than facial expressions? Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News MDC Alliance has slapped six top leaders in the partys Chiwundura district structures with five-year suspensions over their alleged support for independent parliamentary and council candidates in the July 30 harmonised elections. The opposition party suspended district youth organising secretary Simbarashe Zimwara, ward 5 organising secretary for youths, Partson Banda, and Tichaona Jumai, the ward 5 defence and security secretary. Also suspended were elections secretary Moses Marecha, main wing district organiser Aaron Mumvana and his wife Tendai Bungure. The suspensions were announced at a party meeting held in Senga, Gweru, on Saturday. The members were accused of supporting losing parliamentary candidate for Chiwundura, Blessing Murondiwa, who stood as an independent after losing to Livingstone Chimina in the partys primary elections. Chimina won the parliamentary seat. Mumvana stood as an independent candidate for councils ward 5 seat in Chiwundura and was supported by his wife Bungure. The Nelson Chamisa-led coalition fielded double candidates in some wards and constituencies, with some disgruntled members also contesting as independent candidates. MDC Alliance Midlands South acting chairperson Cleopas Shiri confirmed the development and said it was in line with a resolution made by the partys national council in August to deal with members, who either participated as independents or supported an independent candidate in this years polls. Yes, I can confirm the development and add that there was overwhelming evidence that those suspended had lost the vision of the party ahead of the July 30 elections by supporting independent candidates. Some of them were actually agents of independent candidate Murondiwa, Shiri said. He also highlighted that suspended party members were free to contest the suspensions. MDC Alliance is a very fair party. Those that have been suspended are free to appeal and seek recourse in their situations if they think the decisions were misguided. However, a thorough look into their cases was done before arrival at the decisions to discipline them, Shiri said. Cosmas Chipope, the ward 5 MDC Alliance chairperson, however, challenged suspensions of members from his structure, saying they were not done above board. The meeting to announce suspension of the guys was done in my ward, but I was not aware of it. I feel the process was done unconstitutionally because, as a ward with our leadership, we should have been involved in the decision. But from what I gather, the suspensions were motivated by factional agendas, in which some leaders at the top and in the provincial structures, in particular, are purging potential threats to their positions. We will challenge the suspensions, he said. Chipope said he had chaired a ward assembly meeting last Wednesday, but no such issue was discussed. Our organising secretary Amos Chibaya and chairperson Thabitha Khumalo had assured us that no one will be suspended because a lot of disturbances had happened ahead of the polls, even at national level, but I am shocked with what has happened here, he said. NewsDay Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News The European Union (EU) election observer mission has said the 2018 elections fell short of international standards due to numerous discrepancies. In its final report published today, the European Observer Mission said Zimbabwes 2018 elections failed to meet international standards and the results as announced contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceabiity, transparency and verifiability. The misuse of state resources, instances of coercion and intimidation, partisan behaviour by traditional leaders and overt bias in state media, all in favour of the ruling party, meant that a truly level playing field was not achieved, reads part of the report. The damning document will likely be seized on by opposition leader Advocate Nelson Chamisa who has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of rigging the election by changing the results at the National Command Centre. Download European Union (EU) election observer mission final report here Kukurigo Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Are you about to graduate high school and don't know what university to choose? There are many higher education institutions in Nigeria, and there are many criteria used when choosing a university. Location, fees, courses, academic staff, prestige value of the university, etc are some of the criteria. Some universities are rather cheap, some have really fair fees, while some are pretty expensive. We have created a list of federal universities in Nigeria and their school fees in 2021-2022. Cheerful black woman in glasses sitting at table in university. Photo: pexels.com, @Kampus Production Source: UGC There are many higher educational institutions in Nigeria. There are federal universities, State universities, and even Private ones. Today, our focus will be on Federal universities. Learn more about the fees charged by each federal university in Nigeria below. List of federal universities in Nigeria and their school fees How many federal universities are in Nigeria? Nigeria currently has 44 recognized Federal universities. Here is a list of universities in Nigeria and the fees they charge: Freshers: 44,250 Returning: 39,500 Foreign students: 99,600 (Freshers), 86,100 (Returning) Accommodation(hostel maintenance fee) for Freshers/Returning: 12,590 For Bachelors programs: 10,000 per course Examination Fee: 10,000 Per semester Miscellaneous: 8,500 Per session Acceptance: 10,000 Masters programs: 20,000 per course Acceptance: 10,000 Examination Fee: 10,000 Per semester Miscellaneous: 8,500 Per session Postgraduate Diploma: 20,000 per course Acceptance: 10,000 Examination Fee: 10,000 Per semester Miscellaneous: 8,500 Per session BNSc.: 10,000 Per Course RN Verification: 5,000 Acceptance: 10,000 Examination Fee: 10,000 Per semester Miscellaneous: 8,500 Per session New/returning: 26000-40000 Non-Nigerian students: 100,000 - 300,000 4. Federal University Gashua, Yobe 100 Level and DE (FAMSS): 32,700 100 Level and DE (SCIE,/AGRIC): 34,200 Returning (FAMSS): 25,200 Returning (SCIE,/AGRIC): 26,700 New: 80,000 Returning: 37,050 Basic Studies (Pre-Degree) programme: 95,000 Foundation programme: 250,000 International Project Management Professionals: 40,000 Acceptance fee: 45,000 Field trip: 15,000 Photo of woman reading books. Photo: pexels.com, @RF._.studio Source: UGC Freshers (100 Level): 52,100 Returning (200 and 500 Levels): 14,400 Returning (300 Level): 18,900 Returning (400 Level): 16,100 Freshers: N61,200 Freshers (Foreign): N61,200+$750 Returning: N28,200 Returning (Foreign): N28,200+$750 For the Geology Department: 100 Level: School fee - 50,800; Acceptance fee- 40,000; Total - 90,800 200 Level: 35,800 300 Level: 35,800 400 Level: 35,800 500 Level: 30,800 For other departments: 100 Level: School fee - 48,300; Acceptance fee- 40,000; Total - 88,300 200 Level: 33,300 300 Level: 33,300 400 Level: 28,300 500 Level: 28,300 9. Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State Compulsory charges: 66,800.00 Non-compulsory charges: 10,090.00 Total school fees: N76,890.00 10. Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina Compulsory charges: 37,500 Non-compulsory charges: 10,090 11. Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State Newly admitted students: 41,000 (DE), 36,000 (UTME) Returning: 27,000 Hostel maintenance (optional): 20,000 Alumni (final year only): 5000 Year 1: 50,000 Year 2: 45,000 Year 3: 45,000 Year 4: 45,000 Woman with copybooks. Photo: pexels.com, @Zen Chung Source: UGC Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: Freshers: 54,500 Returning: 46,500 Faculty of Sciences: Freshers: 55,500 Returning: 47,000 14. Alex Ekwueme University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State For international undergraduate students: Freshmen: School fees for all faculties excluding Engineering and the College of Medicine: 174,000 Engineering students fee: 246,000 Medical students fee: 630,000 Engineering students levy (Additional): 72,000 Naira Medical students levy: 200,000 Naira Caution fee: N20, 000 Returning students: School Fees for all faculties excluding Engineering and the College of Medicine: 110,100 Engineering students fee: 182,100 Medical students see: 380,000 Engineering students levy (Additional): 72,000 Naira Medical students levy: 200,000 Naira Caution fee: N20, 000 For international postgraduate students: School fees for all other faculties excluding Engineering and the College of Medicine: 80,000(PGD), 104,000 (MSC), 104,000 (PHD) Engineering students fee: 130,000(PGD), 154,000 (MSC), 154,000 (PHD) Engineering students levy: 50,000 Medical students levy: 200,000 For freshers: FAHSS: 71,500 Science: 81,500 Education: 71,500 Engineering: 81,500 Management Science: 71,500 For returning students: Level 400: 47,500 (FAHSS), 57,500 (Science) Level 200 and 300: 47,500 (FAHSS), 57,500 (Science) Faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences, Education & of MGT Science: 99, 000 (freshers), 40,000 (returning) Faculties of Science, Agriculture and of Engineering: 107,000 (freshers), 48,000 (returning) 17. Federal University, Wukari, Taraba State Sciences: 43,500 (new students), 34,000-37,000 (returning) Non-sciences: 41,000 (new students), 31,500-34,500 (returning) 18. Federal University, Birnin Kebbi Freshers (UTME & Direct Entry candidates): N51,000 to N63,500 depending on your choice of course. Returning students (200 Level, 300 Level, 400 Level & 500 Level students): N32,500 to N40,000 depending on your level and course of study Faculty of Science and Science Education: 39,500(new), 28,500(returning) Faculty of Humanities, Education Arts, Management, and Social Science: 36,500(new), 25,000(returning) Freshers: 50,000 (Acceptance fees), 61,000 (Other registration charges) Returning students: 48,000-58,500 21. Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola 100 Level, 200 Level: 27,300-42,300 (Depending on your faculty) All foreign students are to pay additional 20,000 Focused chemist working on formula in scientific center. Photo: pexels.com, @RF._.Studio Source: UGC For undergraduates: New students - 36,000; Returning students - 18,000 For postgraduates: New students - 35,000; Returning students: 18,000 Project Fees: Undergraduates - 15,000; Post-Graduate Diploma - 25,000; Masters - 40,000 Exam Fees: Undergraduates - 1,000 per course; Postgraduates (PGD and Masters) - 2,000 per course No fees Undergraduate fee: 45,000 Masters: 107,500 Postgraduate Diploma: 67,500 26. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife For freshers: Law/Arts/Social Sciences/Admin/Edu. Arts: N43,700 per session Science/Edm/Educ. Science/Tech/Agric: N54,700 per session Medicine/Pharmacy/Health Sciences: N57,700 per session Development Levy: 18,000 TISHIP (Tertiary Institutions Students Health Insurance Program): 2,000 Students Welfare Insurance Scheme: 1,000 Accommodation: 3,090 For returning undergraduates: Law/Arts/Social Sciences/Admin/Edu. Arts: 20,100 per session Science/Edm/Educ. Science/Tech/Agric : 28,100 per session Basic Medical Science, Clinical Science, Dentistry/Pharmacy: 31,100 per session Accommodation: 2,590 Late registration for courses: 2,000 For freshers: Biology/Geography: 42,300 Other sciences: 40,300 Non sciences: 39,300 Civil Engineering, Electrical / Electronic Engineering, Food Science and Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering Microbiology: 72,750 Every other course: 62,750 For freshers: PGDM: 129,900 PGDA: 109,900 MPA: 129,900 MBA: 159,900 For returning students (Weekend Executive Programme): PGDM: 82,700 PGDA: 59,700 MPA: 79,700 MBA: 109,700 For newly admitted students (Full-Time Regular Programme): PGD: 73,900 M. Sc: 83,900 PhD: 93,900 For returning students (Full-Time): PGD: 52,700 M. Sc: 56, 200 PhD: 74,700 Science: 73,400 (Fresh), 45,400 (Returning) Non-science: 69,900 (Fresh), 41,400 (Returning) Science: 35,250 (Fresh), 31,500 (Returning), 34,750 (Final year) Non-Science: 34,250 (Fresh), 30,500 (Returning), 33,750 (Final year) MBBS: 42,750 (Fresh) MB Bch: 39,000 (Returning), 42,250 (Final year) Nursing: 42,750 (Fresh), 39,000 (Returning), 42,250 (Final year) Faculty of Agriculture And Forestry: 36,800 Faculty of Art: 34,300-36,800 Faculty of Law: 35,300 College of Medicine: 36,800 Faculty of Social Science: 34,300 Faculty of Science: 36,800-46,800 Faculty of Technology: 36,800 Faculty of Pharmacy: 36,800 Faculty of Education: 34,300 - 36,800 Fees per candidate for three months, six months and a year: 83,000 Fees per candidate for a month: 75,000 New students: 20,000 Acceptance fees: 25,000 Returning students: 45,000 New Science students: 63,500 New Non-Science students: 53,500 Happy Black female students holding copybooks on head in studio. Photo: pexels.com, @Zen Chung Source: UGC New students: 33,000 Returning students: 18,000 First year: 57,950-64,450 Second year: 39,250-45,750 Other years: 34,150-40,650 Final year: 33,700-43,000 Freshers: 92,150 - 127,150 Acceptance fee: 30,000 Returning students: 45,000 Freshers: Around 70,000 New students: 60,000 Total fee: 24,300 - 56,300 41. Nigerian Maritime University Okerenkoko, Delta State New students: 51,500 Returning students: 40,500 42. Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna Aerospace Engineering: 84,000 Other Engineering programs: 69,000 Non Engineering programs: 61,000 43. Nigerian Army University Biu Sciences: 42,500 (New), 35,000 (Returning) Arts, Mgt & Social Science: 37,500 (New), 30,000 (Returning) Accommodation: 8,000 We hope our list of federal universities in Nigeria and their fees was useful and provided you with the information you searching for. As you may notice, everybody can find a higher educational institution that suits their wallet. READ ALSO: Top 10 universities in Nigeria ranked Legit.ng highlighted the top 10 best universities in Nigeria. These top universities in Nigeria are the most popular and acknowledged because they provide the best quality of education. You can learn more about the institution that caught your eye by visiting its website. Go ahead and make the right choice now so the next years of your life will not go in vain. Source: Legit We all love reading the success stories of entrepreneurs in Nigeria because usually, they inspire us and show us that nothing is impossible. This is yet another article where the top 10 most successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria will demonstrate to you how to be successful. Embark on the journey to the world of success and read about the most successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria! Image: instagram.com, @memes_football_rwanda, @fameinhistory, @aaapafrica, @tonyoelumelu, @blackboxnigeria360, @authenticng, @alakijaofficial, @jimoviafoundation, @tohxtile_fabrics Source: Original Nigeria is a naturally endowed country. The country has all kinds of natural, mineral, and human resources, and human resources include the hardworking and decisive individuals who have rightfully made themselves a name in the world of entrepreneurship. Rather than the wealth of these business people, we will discuss their influence on society and their great entrepreneurial skills. Read further about these successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria and their business, and get inspired by their willpower and leadership skills. List of successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria Here are the top 10 most successful business persons in the country and the influence they have on entrepreneurship in Nigeria. 10. Femi Otedola - $550 million Image: instagram.com, @femiotedola Source: Instagram This entrepreneur, who is also a well-known philanthropist and oil magnate, was born in 1962 in Ibadan, Oyo State. He has established companies in Nigeria and abroad. Some of his most prominent businesses are Forte Oil PLC, the fuel production importer which he is a chairman of, and Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, which specializes in distribution and marketing. He has made huge investments in other business spheres, such as finance, real estate, and shipping. Besides that, he invested in power generation, which is supposed to become a part of sector liberalization in Nigeria. A huge part of his wealth comes from the energy sector. Femi's net worth is estimated to be about 550 million US dollars. Femi Otedola is also a happy family man, and all of his four children are successful in their own different ways. For instance, his oldest daughter, Florence Otedola, is a famous musician, known under the name DJ Cuppy, and she is also a tourism ambassador of Nigeria. Temi Otedola, her younger sister, is a popular fashion blogger and an aspiring designer. The billionaire Femi Otedola has not just made a name for himself but has also inspired his family to be just as successful as him. 9. Oba Otudeko - $650 million Image: instagram.com, @philanthropy_circuit Source: Instagram This business entrepreneur is known for being chairman of such huge companies as Honeywell Group and FBN Holdings PLC, which specialize in oil and gas, real estate, marine transportation, and flour milling. He was born in 1943, and his native city is Ibadan, Oyo State. Oba Otudeko came from the royal family. He is an Accountancy graduate of Leeds College of Commerce, United Kingdom. He has worked as a banker, accountant, and corporate secretary. Oba Otudeko is a respectable man who is involved in dozens of various businesses and who has received a lot of awards. Of course, he is most famous for Honeywell Group, but he has also helped a lot of other businesses grow. He also founded the Oba Otudeko Foundation, which specializes in charity and philanthropy. He is happily married to his wife Adebisi Aderonke Otudeko. Oba Otudeko net worth is about 650 million US dollars. 8. Jim Ovia - $1 billion Image: instagram.com, @jimoviafoundation Source: Getty Images Famous for being a founder of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, who was born in 1951, is an educated and powerful man. He has a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from the Southern University in Louisiana, as well as a Masters degree from the University of Louisiana in the same discipline. He is also a graduate of Harvard Business School. In 1980, Jim Ovia founded Zenith Bank, which is now one of the most influential banking institutions in Nigeria. Currently, Jim Ovia is worth is 1 billion US dollars. Jim Ovia is not just a businessman he is also involved in philanthropic work. He founded the Youth Empowerment ICT Foundation, an organization which is focused on improving Nigerian youth welfare and helping them embrace new communication and information technologies. 8. Folorunsho Alakija - $1billion Image: instagram.com, @alakijaofficial Source: Instagram Born in 1951, Folorunsho Alakija is now the most successful and rich Nigerian businesswoman, who is also one of the wealthiest women in Africa, as well as one of the wealthiest black women in the world. According to Forbes, Folorunsho is worth 1 billion US dollars. Her career started in the mid-70s when she worked as a secretary. She is mostly known as the group managing director of the company Rose of Sharon Group. She is the executive vice-chairman of Famfa Oil Limited, from which she makes huge profits. She is also the founder of the fashion label Supreme Stitches, which produces clothing for rich clients. Folorunsho Alakija does a lot of charity for instance, she donates to widows through the Rose of Sharon foundation. She is the most prominent example of success for Nigerian young women, and she shows how powerful they can be if they work hard enough and believe in themselves. 7. Orji Uzor Kalu - $1.1 billion Image: instagram.com, @oukgram Source: Instagram Orji is a graduate of three universities: University of Maiduguri, Abia State University, and the prestigious Harvard University. Currently the chairman of SLOK Holding and the owner of Daily Sun Newspaper, the rich and famous Orji Uzor Kalu always knew that he wanted to be the best. From a very young age, he attempted to start his own businesses. Once, he started a profitable business with only $35 dollars in his hands, borrowed from his mother. Young Orji Uzor Kalu started his entrepreneurship by palm oil trade, as he bought the commodities from the eastern regions of Nigeria and then sold it to the northern ones. Sometime later, Orji Uzor Kalu switched from selling palm oil to furniture trade, which became a huge success. In the end, the business skills of Orji Uzor Kalu grew so quickly that he established his own company called SLOK Holding. This business conglomerate blew up and now it has branches not only in Nigeria but also in South Africa, Guinea, Ghana, Liberia, Benin Republic, Botswana, and even Korea. Orji Uzor Kalu firmly believes that people who want to be successful should have their heart in it and see new opportunities everywhere. The businessman's net worth is approximately 1.1 billion US dollars. 6. Jimoh Ibrahim - $1.1 billlion The politician, businessman, lawyer, and philanthropist Jimoh Ibrahim always knew that success would come his way one day and that he needed to work hard for it. He was born in 1967 in Ondo State. Jimoh Ibrahim was a Law student at the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University in Osun State, where he obtained both Bachelor's and Masters degrees. Afterwards, he went to the United States to study at Harvard University. After completing his education, he began investing in a lot of profitable sectors. Some of his investment sectors are hotels, airlines, resorts, real estate, banking, publishing, insurance, and oil and gas distribution. These days, Jimoh Ibrahim is the chairman of the Global Fleet Group, which is a large diverse Nigeria-based conglomerate company. It has a huge amount of subsidiaries in different cities of Nigeria, mainly Lagos, as well as in other African countries Ghana and Sao Tome and Principe, just to name a few. Jimoh Ibrahim is a published writer he has been credited as an author of three books. He is also the publisher of the Nigerian National Mirror Newspaper. Jimoh Ibrahim is married to Modupe Jimoh Ibrahim and they have four children. His current net worth is approximately 1.1 billion US dollars. 4. Tony Elumelu - $1.4 billion Tony Elumelu was born in 1963 in Plateau State Nigeria. He attended university in Nigeria and has 2 degrees in economics. He also has a Master's Degree from the University of Lagos. Elumelu founded Heirs Holdings, a company that invests in power, real estate, healthcare, hospitality, and oil & gas, in 2010. Tony is also the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation. This organization empowers and supports African entrepreneurs. Tony is married to Awele Vivien Elumel, with whom he has 7 children. He is also the brother to Ndudi Elumelu, who is the minority leader in the Federal House of Representatives. Tony Elumelu's net worth is about 1.4 billion US dollars. 3. Abdul Samad Rabiu - $3.2 billion Image: instagram.com, @paacati Source: Instagram Abdul Samad Rabiu is one of the most successful Nigerian entrepreneurs. He was born in 1960 in Kano to Khalifah Isyaku Rabiu, who was also a businessman. He studied at Capital University in Ohio, United States. When he was 24, he returned to Nigeria to run the family business. In 1988, Abdul established BUA International Limited with the purpose of commodity trading, importing rice, flour, oil, and iron. Eventually, the company grew and expanded into steel, production of billets, and constructing rolling mills. Currently, there are 5 subsidiaries of BUA Group including BUA Ports & Terminals, BUA Estates, BUA Oil Mills Ltd, BUA Sugar Refinery Ltd, and BUA Cement. Forbes estimates Abdul Samad's net worth to be 3.2 billion US dollars. 2. Mike Adenuga - $5.8 billion Image: twitter.com, @AyolaTv Source: Twitter Born in 1953, Mike Adenuga is the second richest Nigerian person and a multi-billionaire entrepreneur. He received his higher education in Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Pace University. The company founded by Mike Adenuga, called Globacom, is the second-largest telecommunication operator in Nigeria. It also has offices in Benin, Ghana, and Cote dIvoire. Apart from this, the businessman is the owner of Conoil Producing Limited, which is one of the biggest oil companies in the country. According to Forbes Magazine, Mike is worth 5.8 billion US dollars and ranks 3rd in the list of Africa's billionaires in 2020. Who is the richest entrepreneur in Nigeria? The richest entrepreneur in the country is Aliko Dangote. Currently, he is both the richest man in Africa and the richest Black man in the world. According to Forbes, the Tycoon is worth $8.3 billion US dollars. He is the president and founder of Dangote Group, whose headquarters are in Lagos, Nigeria. 1. Aliko Dangote - $8.3 billion Image: twitter.com, @DOTTanzania Source: Twitter He was born in 1957, and his birthplace is Kano State. In 1977, when he was only 20 years old, the young man started the business group called Dangote Group. He got a generous loan of N500,000 from his grandfather, Alhaji Sanusi Dantata, to start him off. Aliko Dangotes firm started as a very small company that specialized in trading. Now, it is a huge multi-billion corporation with branches not only in Nigeria but also in the other African countries like Ghana, Benin Republic, and Togo. The Dangote Group is famous for being the biggest industrial group in the Western Africa region. It has about 30,000 employees. Successful female entrepreneurs in Nigeria Women all over the world continue to make a name for themselves in politics, education, science and technology, and entrepreneurship. The most successful female entrepreneur in Nigeria is currently Folorunsho Alakija. Other successful female entrepreneurs in Nigeria include: Nnenna Kalu Makanjuola, founder of Radiant Health Magazine Dr. Ola Orekunrin, founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria Tara Fela-Durotoye, founder of House of Tara Kofo Akinkugbe, Chief Executive Officer of SecureID Nigeria Ltd Adenike Ogunlesi, founder of Ruff n Tumble The most successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria have worked very hard to become who they are now, and their efforts are fully paying off. Source: Legit Shortly after his emergence as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former vice president Atiku Abubakar began the search for an appropriate running mate for the all-important 2019 presidential election. The choice of an appropriate running mate is very important as it can make or mar Atikus hope of unseating the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2019. Who will eventually emerge as Atikus running mate, Legit.ng highlights 10 people, considering the current political calculations and permutations in the country, who could be Atikus choice as running mate. The PDP has till October 18 to submit the names of its presidential candidate and his running mate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in line with the commissions timetable. READ ALSO: Again, Buhari Campaign Organisation come for Atiku, reveals how he made his money The choice of the running mate, Legit.ng learns, will come from either the southeast or the southwest. A source quoted by ThisDay newspaper said Atiku and the PDP hierarchy are still undecided on the zone the position should be allotted, adding that the scope had been narrowed down to the southwest and the southeast. We would have to weigh the electoral value of both zones and decide where we would allot it. There was the need to maintain a balance between the existing political configuration, which requires the party to challenge the dominance of the APC in the high voting southwest by picking a running mate that would challenge the electoral advantage of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; and the need to retain the loyalty of the southeast that had remained a PDP stronghold. "Both zones were believed to have helped Atiku to neutralise the northern zones delegates votes that went to Sokoto state governor, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, during the presidential primary on Saturday," the source said. Atiku speaking after his emergence as the PDP's presidential candidate at the party's national convention Port Harcourt. Source: UGC Southeast The southeast is a very important geopolitical zone Atiku will want to woo with a choice of running mate. The zone voted massively for the PDP in the 2015 presidential election. But recent political unfolding indicates that President Buhari is gaining some influence in the zone. Thus, if Atiku wants to get maximum votes from the zone, choosing a running mate from there wont be a bad idea. Meanwhile, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a pan-Igbo group, has reportedly insisted that only a running mate from the southeast will be a suitable pair for PDP to win the 2019 presidential election in the zone. Reacting to Atikus victory, Ohaneze Youth Council Worldwide led by Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro said Atiku is the right man for the job. However, the youth wing of the socio-cultural group warned that Ndigbo would work against the PDP if Atiku fails to pick his running mate from the Igbo extraction. If the search for a running mate is limited to the southeast, Atiku may pick his running mate from these seven people: 1. Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former minister of finance, has helped the country's economy, the largest in Africa, grow significantly. She is credited with developing reform programmes that helped improve governmental transparency and stabilizing the economy. Okonjo-Iweala is the first woman to be the finance minister and the foreign minister of the West African country with a GDP of $502 billion. The Harvard- and M.I.T.-trained Okonjo-Iweala spent 21 years as a development economist at the World Bank. 2. Deputy Senate president Ike Ekweremadu Ike Ekweremadu is a Nigerian politician and lawyer from Enugu state who has served in the Nigerian Senate since May 2003 on the platform of the PDP. He is currently Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate for the third consecutive time. 3. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe is a Nigerian politician who was elected to the Abia-South senatorial district of Abia state in the Senate in April 2007. He was Abia states deputy governor from 1999 to 2003. 4. Peter Obi Peter Obi is a Nigerian politician who was governor of Anambra state in Nigeria from 17 March 2006 to 2 November 2006, when he was impeached and from 9 February 2007 to 29 May 2007 after his impeachment was overturned. The former governors reaction to Atikus emergence as the candidate of the PDP shows that the relationship between the duo has improved in recent times. Having personally followed him in the past six months, listened and interacted with him on a number of issues negatively affecting our society, I observe in him a person who has the burning desire to leave a footprint in the sands of time, the former governor said. 5. Nyesom Wike Governor Wike is the sixth and current governor of Rivers state. He is an Ikwerre from Rumuepirikom in Obio-Akpor, Rivers state. Though Governor Wike initially said he was not interested in serving as a presidential running mate at the moment, Atiku may consider compensating him with the position since his preferred candidate, Aminu Tambuwwal, lost the PDP presidential ticket. 6. Charles Soludo Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR is a former governor and chairman of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria. He was named CBN governor on 29 May 2004. He is also a member of the British Department for International Development's International Advisory Group. 7. Chike Obi Mustafa Chike-Obi served as the CEO of AMCON until 2015 when he was fired for alleged misconduct in asset sales. He subsequently joined an investment management firm as Vice-Chairman. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Southwest Legit.ng also gathers that the southwest has launched a lobby for the position on grounds that it would serve as compensation for the way the region was sidelined during the national chairmanship contest last year, which went to the south-south. Similarly, some political analysts are of the views that Atiku should pick a running mate from southwest to divide the votes in the region with Osinbajo. The analysts believe that Atiku already has the southeast as his stronghold and should pick his running mate from the southwest to also win the zone. Below are the people Atiku may consider picking if he is getting his running mate from the southwest. 8. Akinwumi Adesina Akinwumi Adesina, formerly Nigerias Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was elected as the 8th President of the African Development Bank on Thursday, May 28, 2015. He succeeded Donald Kaberuka of Rwanda and assumed duty on September 1, 2015, in Abidjan. In 2013, Adesina was named Forbes African of the Year for his reforms in Nigerias agricultural sector. 9. Gbenga Daniel Gbenga Daniel governed Ogun from 29 May 2003 to 29 May 2011, making him the longest-serving governor of the state. He is the director-general of the Atiku Campaign Organisation and played a key role in selling the former vice president to delegates of the party prior to his emergence as the partys candidate. 10. Jimi Agbaje Olujimi Kolawole Agbaje was the 2015 PDP's Lagos state governorship candidate, but he lost to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of the APC. Although Agbaje has emerged the PDPs candidate for the Lagos state 2019 governorship election, there are strong indications that he is interested in the VP position if it is zoned to the southwest. 2019 Presidency: Nigerians reveal why they prefer Atiku to President Buhari - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Nigeria Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is currenly meeting with a Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere. The Sun reports that the Afenifere team, led by Ayo Adebanjo, included Senator Femi Okurounmu, Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu, among others met with the former president on Tuesday, October 9. They arrived at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library and were reportedly ushered into the inner chamber of the former president. Although details of the meeting are not known yet, there is speculation it is related to the 2019 general elections. Meanwhile, few minutes after his emergence as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former vice president Atiku Abubakar praised former president Olusegun Obasanjo. Atiku, while delivering his acceptance speech after he was officially declared winner of the primary with 1,532 votes to Aminu Tambuwal's 693, Atiku thanked former President Olusegun Obasanjo for picking him as his vice president in 1999. He noted that without Obasanjo picking him then, he could never have become the PDP presidential candidate today. Recall that some months ago, Obasanjo had said: How can I be on the same side with Atiku? To do what? If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support. I do not have personal grudges with anyone. If you do not do well for Nigeria, you do not do well for all of us. It is not a question of working with or not working with an individual, he said. If you are working for the good of Nigeria, I am working with you. If you are not working for the good of Nigeria it does not matter who you are I am not working with you. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! However, Atiku said on Sunday while accepting to be PDP candidate said: "Finally, on a personal note, I wouldn't have been standing where I am today if my former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, had not made me his vice president. "Under his tutelage, I learnt quite a lot, and I believe the experience I have got is going to impact on how I eventually govern this country. I wish to pay my personal tribute to him." Nigeria Latest News: 2019 Presidency - 'Why Nigerians Must Vote For Atiku' | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Information minister, Lai Mohammed, has reacted to the emergence for former VP Atiku Abubakar as PDPs presidential candidate - He said voting for Atiku in 2019 will return Nigeria to corruption era - The minister, however, expressed confidence that President Buhari will win in 2019 The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, says a vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2019 election is a return to a sordid corruption lading past. The minister stated this on Monday, October 8, in Abuja when he paid advocacy visit to the headquarters of Daar Communication Plc, owner of African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower radio stations. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister was at the media house to drum support for the National Campaign Against Fake News launched by the federal government on July 11. Fielding questions from members of board and management of Daar Communication and some journalists at the event, the minister expressed the confidence that Nigerians would make the right choice in President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. READ ALSO: Just In: Governor Fayose speaks on joining APC The stark choice for Nigerians in the 2019 election is either to go back to the past a sordid corruption lading past or a brighter future, which beckons as represented by President Muhammadu Buhari. I am, however, very confident that Nigerians will make the right choice, he said. On the fake news phenomenon, the minister said it was assuming a dangerous dimension, especially as the nation approached the 2019 general elections. He disclosed how fake news was used to almost scuttle the recent Osun governorship election won by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Mohammed also said the recent fake news on the release of Sharibu Leah from Boko Haram captivity had serious security implications. There is no better time to intensify the campaign against fake news, especially as we approach the 2019 general elections. The enemies of democracy will explore the phenomenon of fake news even more than before. As you witnessed in the last Osun governorship election, especially the rerun, about 16 PDP members were arrested by the police for impersonating international observers to perpetrate violence. But, within minutes, the whole story was turned as if it was APC stalwarts that were arrested. This is the power of fake news. The minister continued: A few days ago also, news circulated in the social media that Sharibu Leah has been released. You can imagine how much trauma this would have caused the parents of Leah, the embarrassment it has caused the country, as well as its security implications. This is why we believe that fake news, if not checked or stopped, it has the potential to destroy than a civil war, he said. The minister also reiterated that the farmers/herdsmen clashes were being given ethnic and religious colouration by the fake news purveyors to cause crises in the country. He stressed that the clashes were as a result of demography, climate change which necessitated struggle for scarce resources and in some cases, sheer criminality. Mohammed, however, noted that the campaign against fake news being championed by his ministry had yielded results. This campaign has succeeded in creating national awareness against fake news and brought the issue to the front burner. Since we launched the campaign there have been national discourse and lectures against fake news. Only recently, Facebook has indicated interest to, along with other policymakers, come and have discussions with us on how to combat the menace of fake news, he said. Mohammed also said that fake news is a global issue, various countries had devised various means including legislation and punitive measures to combat the menace. He reiterated that the federal government would not censor, coerce or make legislation against fake news. We intend to leverage on the sense of responsibility of all our media organisations, who also recognise the fact that if they do not self-regulate it will lead to self-destruction, he said. The minister appealed to Daar communication to support the government in the campaign. Tony Akiotu, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Daar Communication, gave the assurances of his organisation to support the government in the campaign. He corroborated the minister that fake news phenomenon had attained a dangerous dimension and all hands must be on deck to tame it. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Earlier, Legit.ng previously reported that Atiku won the PDP primary election to emerge as its presidential candidate for the 2019 presidential election. In the election conducted on Saturday, October 6 at the partys convention which took place in Port Harcourt, the former vice president defeated 11 other political bigwigs in the party. He is expected to provide stiff competition to President Muhammadu Buhari who emerged as the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate. Election 2019: President Buhari Proves He is Fit to Run in 2019 | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Afenifere met with former President Obasanjo - The Pan Yoruba socio-cultural group said the meeting was about the choice of leadership for the country in 2019 - The group said it will soon reveal its anointed presidential candidate Members of the Pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, on Tuesday, October 9, held a closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, over the 2019 general elections. At the end of the meeting, which started late in the afternoon and lasted more than two hours, Yinka Odumakin, spokesman of the group, told journalists that the meeting was about the choice of leadership for the country in 2019, Sahara Reporters states. He also reportedly disclosed the group will soon disclose the presidential candidate it will support in the forthcoming general elections. Olusegun Obasanjo (6th from right), Afenifere leader, Ayo Adebanjo (7th right) and other members during the meeting with Obasanjo. Credit: OBJ media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi via Premium Times Source: UGC READ ALSO: Just In: Governor Fayose speaks on joining APC He said though the 2019 election is going to be interesting, what is paramount to the Yoruba race is restructuring. The 2019 election is going to be interesting. The most important thing for us is restructuring and clearly, you should know that Afenifere will always support a candidate that is ready to restructure the country because without restructuring we are going nowhere. We have heard someone saying that 2014 report was kept in the archive and we have also heard another person saying that Nigeria can be restructured clearly, so we know where to go. We are going to make a pronouncement very soon. The pendulum is swinging and we will know where it will swing, he said. The group also explained that some months ago, Obasanjo came to Lagos to visit one of its leaders, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, and we discussed some issues and today we are here to as well to visit him (Obasanjo) and appreciate his visit to Lagos the other time. We are trying to further the friendship so that there can be harmony in Yoruba land so that our people can know that leaders across divides are coming together to discuss the way forward, Odumakin said. Members of the group who attended the meeting include Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, former governor of Osun state; former minister of state for defence, Dupe Adelaja; former Nigerian ambassador to the Netherlands, Dr Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, Senator Femi Okurounmu, Professor Banjo Akintoye, Yinka Odumakin, Supo Sonibare, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Hon. Oladipo Olaitan. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! Meanwhile, few minutes after his emergence as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former vice president Atiku Abubakar praised Obasanjo. Atiku, while delivering his acceptance speech after he was officially declared winner of the primary with 1,532 votes to Aminu Tambuwal's 693, Atiku thanked former President Olusegun Obasanjo for picking him as his vice president in 1999. He noted that without Obasanjo picking him then, he could never have become the PDP presidential candidate today. Recall, however, that some months ago, Obasanjo had said that he can never support Atiku's presidential ambition. How can I be on the same side with Atiku? To do what? If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support. I do not have personal grudges with anyone. If you do not do well for Nigeria, you do not do well for all of us. It is not a question of working with or not working with an individual, he said. Consider rest - Obasanjo to Buhari - On Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - A Nigerian woman has taken her own life in Ghana - The woman killed herself over the closure of shops by authorities in the country - Some Nigerians in Ghana alleged that traders were being unnecessarily stressed by Ghanaian authorities Following the closure of her shops by Ghanaian authorities, a Nigerian woman and mother of three children has killed herself, the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTs), Ghana Chapter, reported in Abuja on Tuesday, October 9. The association made the development known when the leadership visited the senior special assistant to the president on foreign affairs and diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, to seek the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari on the matter. The president of NANTS, Ghana, Chief Chukwuemeka Nnaji, said Stella Ogonna Okpaleke, a Nigerian whose shops were locked for her failure to meet strict trading conditions put by the Ghana government took her life on September 22. Nnaji, armed with a petition to Buhari, called for the intervention of the federal government over the alleged maltreatment of Nigerian businessmen in Ghana. READ ALSO: EFCC sets up special team to grill Fayose over corruption charges Regrettably on Saturday, September 22, one of our female members, Stella Ogonna Okpaleke, whose shop has been under lock and key by the Ghana authority killed herself. She committed suicide based on her shop and that of her husband that were locked; the information we gathered was that when they locked the shop she lost hope of reopening it. She is from Nnewi local government area in Anambra; we actually dont know how much she owed, but we learnt that she took loan for her business, he said. According to him, the harassment on the Nigerian community and traders in Kumasi, Ghana, is so severe. It is unfortunate that that very woman decided to take her own life, Nnaji said and called on Buhari to urgently intervene to avert similar incidents in the future. He said Nigerian traders were being unnecessarily stressed by Ghanaian authorities. READ ALSO: Buhari vs Atiku: Obasanjo speaks on the kind of president Nigeria needs In her remark, Dabiri-Erewa expressed the federal governments condolences to the union and the family of the deceased. She appealed to members of the union to remain calm and assured them that the president would intervene in their case to ensure a lasting solution to the problem. I am just going to start by appealing to you, I know it is painful, it is emotional, it is deep but I just urge you to remain calm. I appeal to you to remain calm and may the soul of Stella rest in perfect peace. When she is about to be buried, let us know so that we may send our condolence message to the family," she said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Nigerian traders were shut out of their business premises in line with an eviction order of July 27. The Ghanaian authority is demanding that traders must have one million dollars as minimum foreign investment capital to do business in Ghana as stipulated in its Ministry of Trade and Industry Act, 2013. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that out of the 30 suspected armed robbers arrested in three separate operations carried out by the Pokuase district police in Ghana, five of them are females while the other 25 are Nigerians with age range between 18 and 34. The police in the country confirmed that those arrested were found with illegal and some stolen items. BUSTED: Professional Hacker Nabbed Over Fraudulent Purchase of N28 million Porshe | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - President Muhammadu Buhari says no part of Nigeria will be left unattended to during his watch - Buhari says his experience in the military afforded him an opportunity to work with Nigerians - The king of Ugep laments the way Nigeria is losing its young ones to conflicts President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday, October 9, met with some traditional rulers in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria and promised them that no part of the country would be ignored under his watch. A statement by Femi Adesina, his media aide, said President Buhari gave the assurance when he received a delegation of Ugep Kingdom, Cross River state, led by Obol Ofem Ubana, Obol Lopon of Ugep, a retired Army officer. READ ALSO: After meeting with Obasanjo, Afenifere speaks on endorsing presidential candidate The statement said the president was responding to a request by the royal father for the federal government to intervene and resolve inter-ethnic conflicts, affecting several communities namely Nko, Nyima, Oyadama, Edibe, Usumtong, Adadama and Ekureku. Responding, President Buhari told the delegation: I assure you that under my watch, no part of Nigeria will be ignored. I am very pleased that you (the traditional rulers) has shared some professional background as a former military officer. My experience of being in the military afforded me the opportunity to work with all Nigerians and this is a lifetime experience. The traditional ruler has earlier thanked the president for appointing Yakuur sons into exalted positions in government, including as the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), the minister of Niger Delta and the special assistant on prosecution. He pledged the support of his community to the presidents quest to rescue Nigeria. On restiveness in the region, the Obol Lopon said: We are increasingly losing our youths to inter-tribal wars which if nothing is done will leave our communities without youths in the near future. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app As Obolo Lopon of Ugep, I am ready to partner with relevant government agencies saddled with the responsibility and management of communal conflict resolutions. Legit.ng earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari requested a National Assembly resolution to raise $2.78 billion from the International Capital Market for part-funding of the 2018 budget. Buharis request came in a letter dated July 23, and read by President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, at plenary on Tuesday, October 9. Top Beautiful Daughters of African Presidents - Mnangagwa, Buhari and Dos Santos | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Yekini Nabena wants senators to complete the unfinished business of impeaching Bukola Saraki as their president - Nabena says the delegates of the PDP have shown the example by their refusal to make him win the party's primary election - He lists some of the alleged 'sins' committed by Saraki The national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Yekini Nabena, has urged senators on the platform of the party, to commence the impeachment of Bukola Saraki, the president of the upper chamber of the National Assembly. Nabena asked the senators to conclude the unfinished business they embarked on before going on recess by removing Bukola Saraki as Senate president. According to him, the senators should reject Saraki the same way delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) refused to make him win the presidential primaries of the political organisation recently. In a message reported by Daily Independent, Nabena said: When a leader cannot be trusted, cannot be relied upon, cannot keep agreements and perform his legislative duties without confronting the executive arm, the person should be removed. READ ALSO: After meeting with Obasanjo, Afenifere speaks on endorsing presidential candidate The disappointing performance of Senator Bukola Saraki at the presidential election convention of the Peoples Democratic Party is a befitting end to the ambition of a greedy, untrustworthy and double-dealing politician. With a miserly 317 votes, behind Aminu Tambuwals 693 votes and Atiku Abubakars 1532 votes, the PDP delegates have given clear indication that they are fed up with Sarakis political style. When a leader cannot be trusted, cannot be relied upon, and cannot keep agreements, the people take due cognizance and records of these actions and respond with their votes at the appropriate time. How will someone who emerged Senate president through conspiracy with members of the opposition party and against the wishes and interests of his own party be trusted to be elected as the presidential candidate of a party? Even on his being elected to the position, did Saraki acquit himself creditably? Throughout Sarakis tenure as Senate president, it has been one confrontation between the National Assembly leadership with the executive or another. "Confirmation of executive nominees sent to the Senate for confirmation has been delayed unnecessarily, annual national budgets delayed. For instance, the supplementary budget of the INEC for the 2019 general elections is continually delayed due to Sarakis selfish political machinations. A selfish Saraki will rather than perform his constitutional legislative functions by ensuring timely consideration and passage of executive bills, will rather sabotage the efforts of the executive in furtherance of his treacherous politics. Having sabotaged the President Muhammadu Buhari government while in the APC, he later showed his true colours by formally joining the opposition PDP. The APC bade him goodbye as he returned to the looters club where he belongs. However, in doing so, Saraki must do the needful by giving up the Senate president position. He should be a distinguished senator in name and indeed. In his response, Bukola Saraki, through his spokesperson, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman of APC, and Nabena should leave him and the PDP alone and focus on how to resolve the civil war in the ruling party. We have noted the irresponsible statement issued by the APC Spokesman, Yekini Nabena. We know that he and the leadership of the APC are always incensed and disturbed at the mere hearing of the name, Saraki. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app It is also notable that Nabena and the APC are always concerned about the developments in the opposition party, the PDP. However, we believe that with the civil war that Adams Oshiomhole and Yekini Nabena have ignited in the APC and the very low level that they have dragged the party, in such manner that the ruling party is wallowing in confusion and disorganisation, they have too much to pre-occupy them than to be poking their noses in what happens to Saraki or the PDP. Legit.ng earlier reported that former vice president, Atiku Abubakar won the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election to emerge as its presidential candidate for the 2019 presidential election. Nigeria Latest News: PDP Convention - Atiku Elected as Presidential Candidate | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Faith Leaders Share Their Views on God and Suffering Compiled by Omar Sacirbey Of the many traits that our planets diverse peoples share is our vulnerability physical, mental, spiritual to tragedy. The natural disasters come out of nowhere and in seconds take hundreds of thousands of lives, good lives, the lives of the poor, weak and innocent, those least deserving of tragedy. Same with the senseless violence that cuts down the best and brightest citizens and the diseases that snatch little children: They force difficult questions and test faith. Why did God let this happen? Could God have stopped it? Is there a God? Then why do so many bad things happen to so many good people? Whats also shared across the globe is the way faith can shape how we understand and respond to tragedy. At the same time, there is great diversity in what people see in tragedy: wrath, rebirth, mystery, and more. Here, 14 religious figures and relief experts from five religions offer their reflections on tragedy, and how faith helps them understand and respond to it. Omar Sacirbey writes for Religion News Service and other outlets. - Alhassan Doguwa, the chief whip of the House of Representatives, has dismissed rumours of possible removal of the speaker, Yakubu Dogara - The impeachment threats that Dogara is reportedly facing in the House is attributed to his recent defection from APC to the PDP - Doguwa said the defection did not in any way violate or breach any section of the House rules or the Nigerian constitution The chief whip of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa, who expressed a contrary view to rumours of possible removal of the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, said he has the right to belong to any political party of his choice. It was learnt that Dogara, who recently defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party is facing impeachment threats in the House. Premium Times reports that the speculations about looming crisis in the House over the speakers defection to the opposition PDP were not true. READ ALSO: You made money illegally - Buhari campaign team replies Atiku Doguwa said: Speculations about looming crisis in the House of reps over the speakers defection to the opposition PDP were not true. Like every other member of the house, the speaker has the right to associate or belong to any political party of his choice. Of course, all of us in the APC Caucus were not happy with this development. But we must know that the speaker did not commit any crime under the law. The chief whip went further to say the defection did not in any way violate or breach any section of the House rules or the Nigerian constitution. According to him, As far as we are concerned, as an institution, we have no legal or moral cause to contemplate the removal of the honourable speaker from office. Any member from whichever political party can be elected speaker or deputy speaker, whether he or she is a member of the majority party or not. We as proud members of the ruling APC have nothing to lose from the speakers defection to the PDP. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app We will therefore, continue to allow him preside for as long as he does not take any partisan steps to undermine the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari. And for the avoidance of doubt, the APC still remains the majority party on the floor of the House. We will rather continue to patriotically give priority to issues of national development and popular concern as against partisan issues. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the APC reacted to the alleged defection of Speaker Yakubu Dogara to the PDP, saying the lawmaker has no political value to be considered a loss. The partys spokesperson, Yakubu Nabena, said: It is not a surprise to us, we already know that he has been working with the PDP. The publication had reported that the speaker had quietly purchased the forms to run on the platform of the major opposition party. Senators, lawmakers defect from APC - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - Kidnappers in Bayelsa state have reportedly abducted four oil workers - The oil workers were abducted along the waterways of Southern Ijaw local government area of the state - A source says the kidnappers have contacted Agip, where two of the victims work, to negotiate their release Four oil workers have reportedly been abducted along the waterways of Southern Ijaw local government area by kidnappers operating in the creeks of Bayelsa state. The Sun reports that among those kidnapped were two staff of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company. According to sources, the oil workers were part of team sent on a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to Azuzuama when they were stopped and kidnapped in the coastal area. READ ALSO: Nigeria needs a president with sound knowledge of the economy - Obasanjo Legit.ng gathers that a source who craved anonymity said the abducted persons include a staff of Bayelsa state Ministry of Environment, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and two from Agip (HSE Department). According to the source, the abducted persons were taken to an unknown destination. He said the kidnappers had contacted Agip to negotiate their release. Report has it that armed soldiers have been deployed in the area in search of the kidnapped victims. Spokesman for the joint task force in the Niger Delta, Major Ibrahim Abdullahi, said he was not aware of the abduction. He said: There is no information like that at my disposal. However, Ill check further and let you know if theres anything like that. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the police in Bayelsa said they had rescued two female teenagers, abducted by a gunman in Agbura, near Azikoro village in Yenagoa local government area of the state. According to a statement on Saturday, May 26, in Yenagoa by police public relations officer in the state Asinim Butswat, the girls were rescued by the police in the area. Butswat said that the gunman specialised in stalking his victims to church during vigil or to their houses with a dummy AK47 Riffle to perpetrate the act. The statement read in part: On 21st May, 2018, based on actionable intelligence, the police and youths of Agbura community raided a bush surrounded by swamp and fishing ponds, where the lone gunman held his victim captive." Legit.ng visits the kidnappers den discovered in Lagos - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Nigeria's former Ambassador to Greece and Australia, Professor Oludare Agbi, is dead. He was 73 years old. In a report by Sahara Reporters, Agbi, who is also the Asiwaju of Akure Kingdom, died in the early hours of Wednesday, October 10, following a battle with an undisclosed illness. The death of the chairman, Elders Council of the People Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo state was confirmed by a family source who refused to give details. READ ALSO: FG set to announce new minimum wage - NLC president "Yes, Baba (Prof. Olu Agbi) is dead, but the family will issue a statement concerning his death soon," he said. Legit.ng, previously reported that the ambassador of Nigeria in Doha, Qatar, Amb. Abdullahi Wase is dead. It was reported that a statement in Abuja on Saturday, September 15, by the spokesman, ministry of foreign affairs, Tope Elias-Fatile, said Wase, a non-career ambassador from Plateau state, had been sick for a while until his death on Friday night, September 14. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app The late envoy would be buried in Doha at 7pm (local time). Election 2019: President Buhari Proves He is Fit to Run in 2019 | - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - IMF has again warned Nigeria against her debt profile - The financial body said diversification of economies is imperative in the African region - The economic counsellor of the IMF, Maurice Obstfeld, also said boosting non-oil revenues and continuing fiscal consolidation plans remain key goals for oil exporters The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday, October 9, said the growing debt profile of Nigerian and Sub-Saharan African economies could face crisis and needs to be carefully managed. Guardian reports that Nigerias debt profile was N22.3 trillion as at June 30, 2018. About two-thirds of the governments revenues go into servicing interest payments, with the principal still waiting for redemption at maturity. The IMF also urged the country to guard against the temptation to let higher oil prices delay reforms, warning that despite the recent recovery, oil prices are projected to remain below the 2013 peak. READ ALSO: You made money illegally - Buhari campaign team replies Atiku It also reaffirmed the World Bank Groups growth reversal at 1.9 per cent from 2.1 per cent for 2018 and 2.3 per cent in 2019, with 0.4 per cent up compared to April 2018 forecast. Unveiling the World Economic Outlook titled, Challenges to Steady Growth, at the ongoing yearly meeting of the IMF/World Bank Group, in Bali, Indonesia. The economic counsellor of IMF Maurice Obstfeld admitted growth rebound in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African nations, saying the trend would be buoyed by the impact of recovering oil production and prices. Nigerias growth is projected to increase from 0.8 per cent in 2017 to 1.9 per cent in 2018 and 2.3 per cent in 2019, 0.4 percentage point higher than the April 2018 forecast. Obstfeld said: Boosting non-oil revenues and continuing fiscal consolidation plans remain key goals for oil exporters. The focus should be on growth-friendly fiscal adjustment, with a shift in spending toward productive and social outlays accompanied by effective domestic revenue mobilisation, broadening of tax base and strengthening of revenue administration. PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV Moreover, enhancing financial resilience through proactive banking supervision, ensuring adequate provisioning for losses by banks and improving resolution frameworks to keep expensive public bailouts at bay can help foster a financial system supportive of growth. The IMF report also warned that most countries must build fiscal buffers to make room for policy responses to the next recession and reduce the long-term costs of servicing high public debts. The executive director, Jubilee USA, Eric LeCompte, said there was heightened anxiety about the downturn in economic growth. According to him, the IMF report reminds the world that inequality remains a serious problem, with economies not safe from financial crisis. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the International Monetary Fund warned Nigeria against her debt profile. IMF noted that the debt could rise to as high 60% in countries that had hitherto depended on oil, especially in Nigeria, Gabon and Angola. IMF said in its 2017 Economic Outlook released that public debt rose above 50% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 22 sub-Saharan African countries at the end of 2016 and could rise to as high 60% in countries that had hitherto depended on oil, especially in Nigeria, Gabon and Angola. Will N30million free money change your lifestyle? on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - The Nigerian government is said to have decimated the Boko Haram insurgency that has ravaged the northeastern part of the country - This was stated by the permanent representative of Nigeria to the UN, Ambassador Tijjani Bande - He says the government has put in place bold and robust strategies to continue to address the heinous atrocities of the terrorist group The permanent representative of Nigeria to the UN, Ambassador Tijjani Bande, has said that Nigeria has taken measures that contributed to the confrontation and decimation of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group. Bande stated this while addressing a UN committee on the topic: Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism at the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, NAN reports. Legit.ng notes that the envoy said: Nigeria is no stranger to the activities of terrorists, and in particular, Boko Haram. But, the Nigerian government has since confronted and decimated their activities and has put in place bold and robust strategies to continue to address the heinous atrocities of the Boko Haram insurgency. READ ALSO: Gunmen reportedly abduct oil workers in Bayelsa state The collaboration of neighbours and many partners aided us in large measure to achieve the current outcome. We continue to enjoy closer cooperation with our neighbours, especially Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic who have come together within the framework of the Lake Chad Basin Commission to form a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), headquartered in NDjamena, Chad." The Nigerian envoy regretted that terrorism had continued to be a serious menace to international peace and security. According to him, terrorist acts are insidious in character and usually destabilise the structures of governance with adverse effects on development in the affected countries. Given this sad reality, Bande said the international community needed to develop an inclusive and collaborative approach to jointly deter and annihilate terrorism. He reaffirmed Nigerias continued support and readiness to cooperate with UN on efforts to end terrorism in all its manifestations. He said: I am glad to also emphasise that Nigerias counter-terrorism strategy is fully anchored on the respect for human rights and international humanitarian laws. It is against this background that the residents in the northeastern states of Nigeria now move about their daily businesses in relative safety. Since the commencement of the revised National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) by the current administration in 2016, Nigerians have equipped themselves psychologically to win the war against terrorism. According to him, the strategy succeeded in uniting Nigerians from all works of life towards defeating Boko Haram. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app It also encourages religious leaders to use their various places of worship to enlighten their followers against any extremism or intolerance. Bande said Nigerias adoption of the National Counter Terrorism Strategy and Plan of Action to prevent violent extremism is a clear indication of its readiness to root out terrorism and end the destructive activities of Boko Haram. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a group on Monday, September 10, commended the troops of Nigerian over repelling an attack by Boko Haram terrorists on Gudumbali in Borno state. The Coalition for Truth and Justice on Monday, September 10, said the promptness with which troops of the Nigerian army responded and repelled the Boko Haram attack inspired hope and confidence in the Nigerian Army and its leadership to protect the country. Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Senator Biodun Olujimi has become the new minority leader in the Senate - Olujimi was the deputy minority whip before Akpabio's defection Senator Biodun Olujimi representing Ekiti South senatorial constituency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken over the seat of the minority leader in the Senate, formally occupied by Godswill Akpabio. Akpabio resigned as the minority leader after defecting from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress. READ ALSO: You made money illegally - Buhari campaign team replies Atiku Daily Trust reports that at the resumption of plenary, Olujimi was seen occupying Akpabios seat, a development that gave credence to speculations that she was nominated to take over as minority leader. Legit.ng earlier reported that most lawmakers were absent as the National Assembly resumed on Tuesday, October 9, after its long break which it embarked upon on July 24, 2018. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app It was observed to be quite scanty of lawmakers. There is also rejig of the security at the National Assembly as more police officers and police trucks were sighted. There were more security men in unidentified uniform also on the ground with strict instructions not to allow unauthorised persons into the National Assembly. Meanwhile, some senators loyal to the APC allegedly vowed to remove Senate president, Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, as the lawmakers resume from annual recess on Tuesday, October 9. But senators belonging to the PDP are reportedly fighting back and have resolved to resist any illegal move by APC lawmakers to force the Senate president and his deputy out of office. The PDP lawmakers have insisted that leadership of the Senate is not by party affiliation but through an election by all the senators. Nigeria Latest News: Is the NASS Leadership Still Capable of Leading Nigeria? | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Nigeria, for the second time, has been ranked the worst country globally on inequality index - The report was released by an international civil society group that fights against injustice known as OXFAM - According to OXFAM's recent report, one in 10 children in Nigeria does not reach their fifth birthday, and more than 10 million children do not go to school Nigeria has again been rated the nation with the highest inequality among its citizens by an international civil society group that fights against injustice known as OXFAM. According to OXFAM's latest reports, Nigerias social spending on health, education and social protection is regrettably low, and this is indicated in very poor social outcomes for its nationals, Daily Trust reports. READ ALSO: PREDICTION: 10 people Atiku may consider as running mate in 2019 One in 10 children in Nigeria does not reach their fifth birthday, and more than 10 million children do not go to school. Sixty percent of these are girls, OXFAM said. The ranking was published on Tuesday, October 9, at the annual international monetary fund and World Bank meetings in Bali, Indonesia, titled Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRI Index). The index revealed that in 2017, Nigeria witnessed increase in the number of labour rights violations. Its minimum wage has not increased since 2011 and social spending has remained stagnant. The CRI Index further showed that there is still a strong tendency for Nigeria to raise and collect more tax, an area in which it is also scoring very badly. OXFAM's report said: The IMF has given clear advice on the importance of tackling inequality, referring to Nigerias score in the CRI Index. The president of the country has also said that tackling inequality is important, as inequality leads to political instability. Yet little has been done. The report also said that Denmark is topping CRI Index with the highest score. It has some of the most progressive taxation policies in the world; the best labour market policies, and its protection of women in the workplace is the best globally. The index scored 157 nations on their policies on social spending, tax, and labour right three areas that the group believes are critical to reducing inequality. Other countries with high inequality ranking include;Uzbekistan-156, Haiti-155, Chad-154 and Sierra Leone -153. Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday, October 9, said the growing debt profile of Nigerian and Sub-Saharan African economies could face crisis and needs to be carefully managed. Legit.ng gathered that Nigerias debt profile was N22.3 trillion as at June 30, 2018. About two-thirds of the governments revenues go into servicing interest payments, with the principal still waiting for redemption at maturity. The IMF also urged the country to guard against the temptation to let higher oil prices delay reforms, warning that despite the recent recovery, oil prices are projected to remain below the 2013 peak. EXCLUSIVE: Be patient with President Buhari, Femi Adesina tells Nigerians - On Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - The Ekiti police command advises residents of the state to refrain from acts that could lead to violence during the October 16 inauguration of the governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi - Bello Ahmed, the Ekiti state commissioner of police, asks the people to exhibit hospitality by accommodating visitors who will be coming into the state for the inauguration - Ahmed appreciates the people of Ekiti state for their peaceful conduct throughout the transition period Residents of Ekiti state have been urged by the Nigeria police to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity for swift action, ahead of the inauguration of the governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi, scheduled for Tuesday, October 16. Bello Ahmed, the Ekiti state commissioner of police, in a statement on Tuesday, October 9, signed by the police public relations officer, Caleb Ikechukwu, in Ado Ekiti, advised residents in the state to be security conscious and desist from conducts that could result in violence during the ceremony, The Punch reports. The police pleaded with residents to cooperate with security personnel deployed for the special ceremony and report security threats in their localities to the nearest police station. READ ALSO: Nigeria needs a president with sound knowledge of the economy - Obasanjo The police force is hereby imploring members of the public to cooperate with security personnel deployed for the special ceremony and we enjoin all Ekiti citizens to be security conscious, vigilant and report untoward happenings in their localities to the nearest police station, the state commissioner of police stated. We urge Ekiti citizens to be law abiding and also exhibit hospitality by accommodating the visitors, who will be coming into the state for the inauguration. We use this opportunity to appreciate the good people of Ekiti state for their peaceful conduct throughout the transition period." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, the governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose, has ruled out his chances of joining the ruling All Progressives Congress (PDP). Recall that Fayose recently threatened to leave his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after his preferred aspirant, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state, lost the partys presidential ticket to former vice president Atiku Abubakar. Governor Fayose, however, said that he wont leave the PDP for the APC, advising the ruling party to bury the notion. Were Ekiti Residents Paid to Vote? | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - His Eminence John Cardinal Onaiyekan, the catholic archbishop of Abuja, has been honoured by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Worldwide - The renowned catholic priest won the prestigious award among other nominees in Africa - He has also received many awards including Pax Christi Internationals in 2012 Peace Laureate The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Worldwide, has honoured His Eminence John Cardinal Onaiyekan, the catholic archbishop of Abuja, with an International Peace Award through its Muslim Television Ahmadiyya, MTA Africa in Ghana. Mr Ahmed Konadu, Country Manager Nigeria & Ghana Muslim Television Ahmadiyya, MTA Africa Studios, said this in a statement on Wednesday, october 10. READ ALSO: Osun PDP chieftain, Diekola, collapses in court The MTA Africa Peace Committee said that Onaiyekan has been on national televisions severally condemning the killings of innocent Nigerians by the Boko Haram group, describing their activities as barbaric and inhuman. His style of intervention in religious and communal crisis resolution covers, religious persuasions, and town hall peace meetings between the warring leaders engaged in brutal killings in some parts of the country. Cardinal Onaiyekan used media advocacy to underscore the need for the Nigerian Government to show more commitment in addressing issues of social justice in order to achieve lasting peace in the country. In 2015 National election, he played a pivotal role with some elders in dousing the political tension by ensuring that Presidential candidates signed a memorandum of understanding on peace during and after the election. This led to the peaceful handover of power by the then ruling party- Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to an opposition party All Progressives Congress, APC for the first time in the history of Nigeria. Lately, Onaiyekan instituted a Fellowship Programme on Inter religious Dialogue and Mediation, where 36 fellows, including 16 Muslim leaders and youths were trained in the art of conflict resolutions and peace building initiatives among ethnic groups, he said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the renowned Catholic Priest won the prestigious award among other nominees in Africa, as a result of his commitment to peace efforts and initiatives in Nigeria and across the African continent. The cleric was presented with a cash prize of One thousand Pounds Sterling, a certificate and a plaque. He has also received many awards including Pax Christi Internationals in 2012 Peace Laureate, Peace Award from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Nigeria in 2017. NAN also reports that the award is in line with its motto of Love for All Hatred for None in the countries where it is established. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng had reported that the archbishop of Catholic Church in Abuja, His Eminence, John Cardinal Onaiyekan called for an end to hate speech in various political corners of Nigeria. Onaiyekan also condemned the incessant violence and bloodshed across various states in Nigeria. 2019: Ahmed Buhari tells Nigerians he is the best option for president on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Nigerian actress Mercy Johnson shows support for her husband - The actress joined her husband during his campaign to support his political ambition - Johnson's husband shared photos from the campaign on his Instagram page There is a popular saying that goes like this, 'behind every successful man there is a strong woman'. Power couple, Mercy Johnson and Prince Odi Okojie, are the perfect examples for this quote. The Okojies are campaigning ahead of the coming election. The talented actress Mercy Johnson was spotted supporting her husband's political ambition as he campaigned. Prince Odi Okojie took to social media to share photos from the campaign. The actress could be seen rocking a campaign t-shirt and face cap as she held her husband's hand smiling. READ ALSO: Twitter reacts to rumours that a governor allegedly bought actress Mercy Aigbe a house On the Instagram post, the politician talked about leadership and preserving culture. He noted that he decided to stand for the people because he has children and he considers every child his child. He wrote: "When a Leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost and it makes work harder for all of us....(wole soyinka)... Because of my children and because every child is my child, I have decided to stand with the truth, even if lies cover it all.... But posterity will judge .... I have witnessed the highest level of abuse of power and impunity. We will not be silent, we will speak, we will vote and our votes will count....." PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on Legit.ng News PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group Mercy and Prince had met in 2008, on a flight to France, and after knowing each other for a year they decided to live together and later got married in 2011. The beautiful power couple have three beautiful children, Purity, Henry and Angel. Their love is an inspiration to many. Top 5 the Richest People of Nigeria: The Luxury of Corruption - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - APC members in Kano state protested the outcome of the primary election in the state - The aggrieved members said the primaries were not done according to party rules and regulations Some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano state, on Tuesday, October 9, protested the outcome of the Senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly primary election conducted in the state. The aggrieved members have called unto the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to wade in and proffer solutions to the elections they described as illegal. READ ALSO: Breaking: Saraki swears in 2 new senators The aggrieved APC members said the primaries were not done according to party rules and regulations, TVC reports. Legit.ng earlier reported that trouble looms for the All Progressives Congress over the party's controversial primaries as four senatorial aspirants of Delta South accused the party leadership of illegally excluding them from the primary election. The aspirants, Temisan Omatseye, Chief Michael Johnny, Evans Omatsoguwa, and AVM Omatsola Okorodudu (retd), in a statement, on Monday, October 8, described the Delta South senatorial primaries as a sham, noting that they paid the sum of N7 million for nomination forms. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, the first lady, Aisha Buhari, expressed disappointment over some of the conducts that occoured during the primary election in some states by the All Progressives Congress (APC). In a statement on Sunday, October 7, the first lady noted that some aspirants who had purchased forms on the platform of the party found out that their names were omitted on the day of election. Aisha said it was more saddening that is happening under the watch of Adams Oshiomhole. PDP convention: Atiku elected as presidential candidate | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - CAN has fired back at President Buhari's media assistant, Lauretta Onochie - It said the media assistant to the president is a pathological liar - It also advised the president to give Nigerians a sense of belonging President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to give Nigerians a sense of belonging in his government irrespective of race and religious belief, Guardian reports The piece of advice was contained in a statement made by the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Tuesday, October 9. Legit.ng gathers that the christian body in the country also used the means to express its dissatisfaction over the open letter written to its president by President Buhari's assistant media aide, Lauretta Onochie. READ ALSO: Breaking: Saraki swears in 2 new senators Onochie was reported to have written an open letter to the CAN president, Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, accusing him of corruption and running down CAN and its affiliates. But in his rejoinder, the public relations officer, Northern CAN, John Hayab lashed out at the president's aide. He said it was insulting of her to drag the body down the level of shameless. Hayab also expressed shock over presidency's claim that all its political appointments were based on merit. He said: "That is not true and everyone knows it. Onochie is not only a liar, but also a misguided person. Her letter to Ayokunle associating him with Satan only confirms who she is. Unknowingly to the likes of Onochie and her pay masters, Ayokunle is raising a high standard of integrity in CAN to the shame of his detractors. That is why those false accusations against him cant stand. Fortunately and coincidentally, her so-called open letter came out on the same day a well-respected newspaper in the country, The Guardian in its editorial, added a voice to the national concern over President Buharis nepotism. It indicated that Nigerians are no more fools and could no longer be misguided by despicable characters who have strayed into the corridors of power. We would have ignored the attention-seeking Onochie in her attempt to denigrate religious leaders who are doing everything to ensure peace among our people across religious divide, but we need to set the record straight." PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news updates Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on social media, Lauretta Onochie, accused CAN of being a parasite bent on fueling crisis in the nation. Onochie, in a long post on her Facebook page, titled 'Christian Association of Nigeria not in talking terms with God' called CAN the Cankerworm Association of Nigeria, She also accused the body and its leaders of misleading their followers. Nigeria News: President Buhari's Return Will Teach Nigerians Sense | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit President Muhammadu Buhari and vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, are holding an important meeting with five governors. The governors are Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo, Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno and Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi. READ ALSO: Breaking: Saraki swears in 2 new senators The meeting took place on Wednesday, October 10 at the State House in Abuja. Details of the meeting are however not known yet. Meanwhile, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, on Wednesday, October 10, disclosed President Muhammadu Buhari's 1042-pages achievement compendium of his administration. The Nation reports that Mustapha who made this known at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting noted that the compendium was a summary of policies and programmes implemented between 2015 and 2017. He explained further that the document will serve as first hand information to the president on projects and programmes implemented. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app According to him, the document will also serve as reference point and lends credence to the fact that the administration has fulfilled its campaign promises. The SGF maintained that the document can be used to evaluate the administration saying It is a valid and vivid proof of the giant strides by this administration. Nigeria Latest News: Is the NASS Leadership Still Capable of Leading Nigeria? - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit Newspaper - The House of Reps has threatened to shun plenary from Thursday, October 11, if Hon Abdullahi Lado is not released by the police - Hon Toby Okechukwu who tabled the motion, said presiding officers of the House were not notified by the police before the lawmaker was detained - Hon Nnenna Ukeje said the conversation about Nigerias democracy and justice system will be seriously questioned if lawmakers failed to act on Lados detention - According to Hon Yusuf Lasun, the fact that a sitting lawmaker had been arrested and detained without trial shows that Nigerian legislators are the most endangered The House of Representatives on Wednesday, October 10, threatened to shun plenary from Thursday, October 11, if Abdullahi Lado (APC-Niger), currently held at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Abuja, is not immediately released. The resolution was read by the speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, who disclosed that a delegation led by Hon Femi Gbajabiamila will meet with IGP Ibrahim Idris to facilitate Lados release. Legit.ng gathers that the speaker stated that if the meeting fails to yield the desired result, the House will resort to legal redress. The motion to secure the lawmakers release was tabled before the House by Hon Toby Okechukwu (PDP-Enugu), who prayed the House to wade into the politically motivated detention of Abdullahi Lado for 72 hours without trial by the SARS headquarters in Abuja. READ ALSO: 11 burnt as gas explosion rocks Abuja restaurant In a debate, Okechukwu lamented that all efforts by members of the House to effect Lados release from SARSs detention had yielded no result. He said presiding officers of the House were not notified by the police before the lawmaker was detained; claiming that it was done without due process. He said: It is unfortunate that a member of the Parliament could be arrested as a common criminal without notifying the presiding officers of the House. Worse still, the police insisted that he cannot be released without the permission of the governor of Niger state, Abubakar Bello. Mr Speaker, I wonder if we are under the rule of law or rule of men. Okechukwu urged the House to secure Lados release within 24 hours. Hon Nnenna Ukeje (PDP -Abia), while contributing to the motion, insisted that the right thing must be done via the constitution. According to the lawmaker, the conversation about Nigerias democracy and justice system will be seriously questioned, if lawmakers failed to act on Lados detention. On his part, Nicholas Ossai (PDP-Delta), recalled that SARS, as its name implies, was established to tackle cases of armed robbery and kidnapping. He opined that the recent foray of the security outfit into political squabbles was highly regrettable. Fred Agbedi (PDP-Bayelsa) said it was obvious that Lado was arrested so as to abort his political ambitions in the recently concluded primary elections. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC-Lagos), urged the House to consider Lados disenfranchisement. He said the disclosure that Lados release could only be secured by the Niger state governor, Abubakar Bello, was disheartening. According to Hon Yusuf Lasun (APC-Osun), the fact that a sitting lawmaker had been arrested and detained without trial shows that Nigerian legislators are the most endangered. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that Ado Abubakar, an All Progressive Congress aspirant for House of Representatives seat, was on Monday, October 1, attacked by political thugs in Suleja, Niger state. The attack that occurred around Kaduna road junction, was blamed on supporters of Abubakar Lado, the current representative of Suleja/Tafa federal constituency. Naija lawmakers overreact - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng - A young lady was earlier molested by five men who she met on Facebook - One concerned Nigerian man deemed it fit to give her a new life after the traumatic incident Ho Lar Sugar is a Nigerian young lady who was assaulted a while ago by five men who invited her to a hotel. The guys who perpetrated this evil act and also abused yet another lady were arrested by the police. But they were later released. After being released from police custody, these young boys took to Facebook to brag about their evil crime and how they drugged the ladies before sexually assaulting them. Without doubt, this event was extremely traumatising for Ho Lar Sugar. A concerned Nigerian man who had been following the incident right from when the molestation occurred later took to his page to promise Ho Lar Sugar that he would ensure she traveled to Dubai so she could be relieved of the trauma of the event. Young lady who was assaulted receives surprising gift from Nigerian man Photo: Bright Sylvanus Source: Facebook Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Nigerian mom buys sanitary pads as birthday gift for her daughter (photos) However, the lady rejected the offer of an all expense paid trip to the Abu Dhabi based city, rather, she opted that she be put through a vocational course. The concerned Nigerian man named Bright Sylvanus fulfilled this promise and informed as many as knew about the vow he made that he had redeemed it. Young lady who was abused receives surprising gift from Nigerian man Photo: Bright Sylvanus Source: Facebook Source: Facebook PAY ATTENTION: The latest Nigerian News available on Legit.ng News App See the full post here: "(HO LAR SUGAR IS NOW A FASHION DESIGNER) Who else remember the young lady... you guys remember I promised her Dubai trip or another choice but she said she dont want to go to Dubia now so she made this choice which I have fulfilled my promise am not supposed to make this post but I made the promise openly thats why am posting this openly. I told you all that she must change and I believe with God I serve she must change. Our sister is not a fashion designer. We got her everything she needs for the work we paid her learning fee and we still blessed other two widows which I cant post about them here. Young lady who was molested receives surprising gift from Nigerian man Photo: Bright Sylvanus Source: Facebook Source: Facebook PAY ATTENTION: Daily relationship gist and gossips on Africa Love Aid At what point should a person walk out of an abusive relationship? / Legit.ng TV Source: Legit If you can make sense of the Brexit press you are a better man (metaphorically speaking) than I am. The rumors over the last week were hopeful but bizarrely non-convergent, with verbal mini-bouquets from Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Junkcer matched by cheery rumors from unnamed sources who supposedly knew what was up on the UK side. The EU was supposedly making concessions. Wellie, those concessions might simply mean the EU would let the UK have a pretty-close-to-content-free future relationship section. Theresa May was very secretly working on Chequers II. And the DUPs Arlene Foster was wobbling just a little bit. That was two days ago. Bloomberg reported, with no specifics, that the UK indicated a breakthrough was not nigh. Then the Sun said May was digging in her heels and demanding the EU make major concessions and give a precise Brexit framework. And she insisted the EU accept a UK wide customs solution as a backstop to keep the Irish border open and said she wont propose anything else. Today, the Financial Times, consistent with earlier reports, said that as many as 30 Labour MPs might join the Tories to back Mays Brexit agreement.assuming she gets one. This story is silent on whether the Tories are whipping Labour members or wether the Labour MPs have concluded on their own that they dont want to vote for a no deal outcome. If they are being solicited by No. 10, that would suggest that May is not on to Chequers II, since it would be exceptionally bad form to give Labour members an information lead over Tories, and youd expect to see some leaks about what Chequers II might be if May were trying to get backing for it. Consistent with the talks gridlocking again, Barnier put off releasing a report scheduled for October 10. According to RTE (hat tip PlutoniumKun): Senior officials have played down the prospects of the EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, bringing forward a text to be approved by the European Commission at its weekly meeting It had been widely expected that the commission would adopt its version of that blueprint, known as the Joint Political Declaration, on Wednesday. However, officials have stressed that Mr Barnier would be more likely to produce an annotated document, containing little more than headings, and even then that may not be formally adopted by the College of Commissioners on Wednesday A number of high-ranking sources in Brussels have, however, played down the optimism that was expressed over the weekend that a deal was imminent. Oh and Arlene Foster had a thing or two more to say about the Irish border matter, and the DUPs old red lines are very much in place. So where does this leave things? If nothing else, this is the second time Theresa May has won on process. Recall that the EU tried to set the order and timing of negotiations with an April 2017 EU directive. The UK did not attempt to negotiate that in advance, and it squealed at some of its requirements, most important, on settling the so-called exit bill as one of the first orders of business. But the EU designated the Irish border question as one of the first three items to resolve, and let that slip to December 2017, only to let it slip again with the Joint Agreement. Admittedly, May lost with her ploy to try to win EU leaders over to her point of view with a personal appeal in Salzburg last month. But even though the EU told her firmly, No Chequers and come back with a new plan by October 18 or no November talks, May has successfully stared down the EU on changing the order of battle. That might not be entirely her doing. Im not clear on EU protocol, but Tusk (and Juncker) may not have had authority to make this change on their own, and some countries that are nervous about a crash-out Brexit might have pressed them to relent. But winning a power struggle over process isnt at all the same as winning one on substance, and the fabulously stubborn May may well have misinterpreted the first as a sign that if she persisted with her submarine routine, shed get the EU to agree to Chequers too, when that is simply never going to happen, and if she understood at all how the EU or even a real regulatory framework operated, shed understand why. Politico has an oddly chipper article listing five major areas where they are schisms among key parties: 1. Backstop bridge UK-wide Opposed: The EU The big idea at the heart of the U.K.s backstop proposal for avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (the key to a Brexit deal) is the bridge. This is the term senior officials use for the Temporary Customs Arrangement (or TCA) proposed by the U.K. in June. Its essentially a temporary customs union with the EU the U.K. will apply the EUs Common External Tariff, will abide by the Union Customs Code and such other parts of the Common Commercial Policy that are required. It will apply after the transition period if, by then, there is not a signed and sealed U.K.-EU free-trade agreement to bring into force. (Spoiler: There wont be, these things take years.) The EU opposes the idea because, under its definition, the backstop can only apply to Northern Ireland, not to the whole U.K. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has spoken out against a U.K.-wide backstop since June, and EU officials insist the position has not changed Let me stop here and scream because even if the EU werent opposed, this scheme wouldnt accomplish the UKs aims. A customs union does not confer frictionless trade. All it does is stop tariffs from needing to be collected. It does nothing to assure consistent regulatory standards and enforcement, as so would not prevent all sorts of non-tariff trade barriers from coming into play. Back to Politico: 2. The backstop bridge time-limited Opposed: The EU, Brexiteer MPs. 3. The backstop regulatory checks Opposed: The DUP 4. Future relationship Theresa Mays Chequers plan Opposed: The EU, Brexiteer MPs, the Labour Party 5. Future relationship Blind Brexit Opposed: Brexiteers, Tory Remainers, the Labour Party, Theresa May Quite a pretty picture, no? And the UK tried increasing pressure on the EU on a different front. From the Financial Times: The Bank of England and the financial services industry on Tuesday pressed the EU to urgently tackle legal uncertainty surrounding vast amounts of derivatives because of Brexit. Calling for timely action by EU authorities, the BoEs Financial Policy Committee said if the UK crashed out of the bloc without a withdrawal agreement it risked rendering void 41tn of derivatives. For EU banks to transfer derivatives business from the City to clearing houses in the bloc would involve closing out of thousands of contracts and opening new ones elsewhere. That would result in the banks having to lodge millions of dollars in extra margin payments with EU clearing houses to cover their derivatives positions, as well as setting aside more risk capital. There are also significant practical impediments to EU banks moving derivatives business because their vast portfolios of contracts are complex. For some kinds of swaps, there are few alternative clearing houses in the EU to those in London. For other derivatives, there are no other options. This appears to be the sticking point: In an effort to prod the commission into action, the BoE suggested the EU has got more to lose than the UK over this issue. It flagged how the European Central Bank estimates 90 per cent of interest-rate swaps coming from the EU are cleared through London. But for LCH, derivatives business secured from EU banks is just 14 per cent of the global total. So is this a very high cost, high risk way to force more business to the Continent? Or is there a big piece we are missing, like most of the derivatives are short term, and so conceivably could be rolled over at maturity (still risky due to basis risk, but perhaps not as bad as trying to book new position that replicate current ones (as in having not just extra margin needs but potentially double exposures due to not being able to match close-out/new booking times very precisely?) Or are overwhelming majority of derivatives placed by trading desks and hedge funds, as opposed to commercial customers, and the EU isnt charitably disposed towards them? In any event, the looming Brexit car crash continues to be interesting, and not necessarily in a good way. And the fattest bear in Alaska is 409 Beadnose Reuters Nameless no more! Toronto Zoos baby hippo dubbed Penelope CBC The bird voice box is one of a kind in the animal kingdom Science Florida Panhandle Bracing for Category 4 Hit from Michael Weather Underground Fortresses of mud: how to protect the San Francisco Bay Area from rising seas Nature Response to the IPCC 1.5C Special Report Kevin Anderson, Manchester Policy Blogs Building A Global Democratic Movement to Counter Authoritarianism Bernie Sanders, Medium How to avoid the next financial crisis Martin Wolf, FT State says Tesla owes more than $650,000 in unemployment taxes; company blames clerical error Nevada Indepedent. Totally on-brand for Tesla. Some advertisers are moving half of their search budget from Google to Amazon, say ad industry sources CNBC Is Manhattan on the edge of a prime housing precipice? FT Brexit U.S. Threatens to Block U.K. From Global Procurement Pact Bloomberg Revealed: The Run on Banks in Catalonia after the Independence Vote was Fomented by Madrid Wolf Street Future of Western Democracy Being Played Out in Brazil Pepe Escobar, Consortium News Hidden History: The US War On Corruption In Brasil Brasil WIre. From January, still germane. How Brazils presidential election could eff up the planet for everyone Grist China? Leaked Transcript of Private Meeting Contradicts Googles Official Story on China The Intercept The Cybersecurity World Is Debating WTF Is Going on With Bloombergs Chinese Microchip Stories Bloomberg. Show us the chips does seem like a reasonable request, given anonymous intelligence community sourcing. New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom Bloomberg I lived in a Tokyo coworking space Curbed Trump Transition Democrats in Disarray Sanders set for multistate midterm campaign trip with notable stops in Iowa, Nevada The Hill Big Brother Is Watching You Watch Wikileaks Julian Assange Is Stepping Down. Heres Its New Editor Fortune. From September, still germane. See also on Assanges status (Google translation). Health Care Gunz Lawmakers buy industry fix to protect schools from guns AP. A domestic self-licking ice cream cone. Imperial Collapse Watch Class Warfare Key Facilitation Skills: Managing the Obstreperous Grassroots Economic Organizing Multiple uses for empty plastic bottles during disaster relief and beyond Science Daily (EM). Antidote du jour (via): Bonus antidote. Dont try this at home! This guy rescued these lions when they were cubs and abandoned by the mother. Years later he meets them again. pic.twitter.com/oUlBvG4W0q Daniel Holland (@DannyDutch) October 6, 2018 See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. New York Magazine has asked me to become a regular contributor, which will hopefully be twice a month, starting in October. Theyve asked me to write about the sort of things we discuss here at NC, but for a somewhat more generalist audience (New York Magazine readers are savvy but not necessarily tracking our topics with the intensity that we do). Needless to say, this should help the visibility of Naked Capitalism and offset some of the damage done by Google downgrading sites like ours in searches. Well let you know when our pieces run and hope you enjoy them too. The new LaGuardia Airport will be one of the biggest American infrastructure projects of recent times. The catch? They must keep the existing airport 100% operational without descending into chaos and delays? Thursdays from 8:30pm AEDT. Tipperary farmers Kylie and Billy Magner have returned from the National Irish Food Awards, Blas na hEIreann with a Chefs Choice Award for their Magners Farm Chicken Bone Broth. Less than twelve months in business, Kylie and Billy, who farm near Moyglass outside Fethard, were delighted to be awarded with this accolade which saw over 2,500 entries from all over Ireland. We were very excited to have made it through to the finals at Blas as the competition is extremely tough. Then to hear our product called out at the Awards Ceremony was almost surreal, explained Kylie. The chickens we use in our broth are all grown out on pasture here on the farm in Moyglass and many of our ingredients come from other producers at our local Farmers Market in Cahir which makes our win even more rewarding. We started out producing eggs and then on to chickens at the suggestion of our customers. The broth just followed after that. Broth making is one of those rituals which have been around for centuries and we are continuing that tradition by using a chicken which has had a very organic and truly free range life. The Blas na hEireann Awards are the biggest competition for quality Irish produce and the biggest blind tasting in Ireland. The Awards were developed by Blas na hEireann with the Food Science Department of the UCC and are widely recognised as an international industry standard. Blind tasting means that all packaging and identifying features are removed from products before being presented for judging. This creates a level playing field for products from both large and small producers. Magners Farm is home to Kylie and Billy Magner and their four children Matilda, Tadhg, Imogen and Finn. Magners Farm was established by Kylie and Billy in 2017 after they returned from a 7 year stay in Australia. Kylie is a full time farmer who grew up on a mixed farming enterprise in the Central West of New South Wales. After studying for a Bachelor of Business in Agricultural Commerce at Sydney University, Kylie undertook work in various marketing and equestrian roles from Sydney to Japan before landing in Fethard where she met her future husband Billy. The Magners are now pursuing a life long dream of returning to farming to grow ethical and innovative produce. On Thursday, 11 October 2018, the NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, will meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Mr. Sven Mikser. There are no media opportunities. Still images of the meeting with the Secretary General will be available on the NATO website after the event. On 9 October 2018, NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller met with Avi Dicter, Chairman of the Israeli Parliaments (Knesset) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, to discuss NATO-Israel cooperation. Mr. Dicter was accompanied by three members of the Knesset Dr. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Anat Berko, Head of the Foreign Affairs and Defenses Subcommittee on Cyber Affairs; Omer Bar Lev, Head of the Foreign Affairs and Defenses Subcommittee for Military Readiness and Routine Security; and Michal Rozin, Member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Member of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and Member of the Implementation of Government Information and Transparency Committee. The Knesset delegation also met with NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, Ambassador Alejandro Alvargonzalez, and with the Head of the NATO Middle East and North Africa Section of the Political Affairs and Security Policy Division, Nicola de Santis. The delegation also met with the Permanent Representative of Italy to NATO, Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero; the Permanent Representative of Greece, Ambassador Spiros Lampridis (Greece is the current Contact Point Embassy of NATO in Israel); the Permanent Representative of the United States, Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison; and with the charge daffaires of the Permanent Representation of Germany, Heiko Thoms. The parliamentary delegation also paid a visit to NATOs Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC), which is NATOs principal civil emergency response mechanism in the Euro-Atlantic area. Israel is a member of NATOs Mediterranean Dialogue, established by NATO Foreign Ministers in December 1994. (Natural News) Not that anyone ever really used it anyway, but social networking site Google Plus is officially going the way of the dodo bird after it was revealed that private data on hundreds of thousands of users was leaked due to a bug. According to reports, a vulnerability was discovered during one of Googles Project Strobe assessments, which uncovered that as many as 500,000 Google Plus users had their names, email addresses, occupations, genders, and ages made public without their consent. Ben Smith, Googles vice president for engineering, explained in a recent blog post that the leaked information was limited in scope, which is why Google decided not to even bother informing the users who had their data leaked as part of the breach. However, because Congress has been nudging ever so gradually towards actually addressing the problem of internet privacy infractions, Google is now quietly making it known that, oops!, they didnt do a very good job of keeping Google Plus users protected. According to Smith, the bug was patched back in March, and since nothing at the time suggested that anyone malicious had access the data or misused it in any way, Google should apparently be praised for doing such a great service for its users. Whenever user data may have been affected, we go beyond our legal requirements and apply several criteria focused on our users in determining whether to provide notice, Smith wrote in his blog post. Google privacy unit allegedly reviewed this issue, looking at the type of data involved, whether we could accurately identify the users to inform, whether there was any evidence of misuse, and whether there were any actions a developer or user could take in response. None of these thresholds were met, claims Smith. Former Obama official says all these data breaches raise the profile of possible legislation Google certainly isnt alone in hiding these egregious data breaches from its users. Credit bureau Equifax had to face the ire of Congress last year after it was disclosed that the company sat on a major data breach for many months before finally revealing that personal identification data on 145 million people, nearly half of the U.S. population, had been stolen by hackers. Facebook was similarly reluctant in disclosing a more recent security breach that exposed data on more than 50 million users to advanced hackers. Keep in mind that these are just the data breaches we know about. There could be many more taking place that the public isnt even being told about as the tech cabal aims to thwart justice and save face. Its a dire situation that, according to Justin Antonipellai, founder of the data protection firm WireWheel and acting undersecretary for economic affairs in the Obama administrations Commerce Department, raises the profile of possible legislation. In other words, more needs to be done at the governmental level to hold the tech cabal accountable for failing to protect the private data of its users. Big Tech similarly needs to be held accountable for its active censorship of user content, which is technically illegal since these multinational corporations operate as public utilities rather than content publishers and theyre not allowed, under the law, to operate as both. Adam Levin, founder of the identity protection firm CyberScout and former director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, recently told The Washington Examiner that data breaches have become so commonplace that the only inevitable outcome is that they will be held more and more to account for their repeated failures to keep private user information safe. For more news about the dangers of living online in the age of Big Tech monopoly control, check out CyberWar.news. Sources for this article include: WashingtonExaminer.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Its no secret that low vitamin D levels can put your health at risk, but new research has underscored the importance of vitamin D in disease prevention for the long haul. Scientists from the University of California at San Diego report that adequate vitamin D levels could help prevent up to 80 percent of all cases of Type 2 diabetes a jaw-dropping find, to say the least. Type 2 diabetes is quickly reaching epidemic proportions, affecting an estimated 10 percent of the United States population. More than 30 million adults in the U.S. have diabetes, while another 84 million are said to have prediabetes. And according to Dr. Cedric Garland, many of these cases could be prevented with proper vitamin D levels. Vitamin D to prevent type 2 diabetes Dr. Garland and his team at UC San Diego conducted a study featuring 900 participants, which was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE. The goal was to examine the influence of vitamin D levels on Type 2 diabetes risk. The 12-year cohort study ultimately showed that vitamin D could help prevent nearly 80 percent of Type 2 diabetes cases. Past research has also indicated that the sunshine vitamin can reduce the risk of diabetes. None of the participants were said to have diabetes at the beginning of study. As sources report, vitamin D levels were measured (in the form of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the blood) across the studys duration, and the volunteers were followed to see if they developed Type 2 diabetes. Participants with levels of vitamin D over 30 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter) had just one-third the incidence of diabetes, when compared to subjects with vitamin D levels under 30 ng/mL. Those with the highest vitamin D concentrations (50 ng/ml) boasted even better results: They were five times less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who had the lowest vitamin D levels (20 ng/mL or less). The difference in diabetes risk is shocking, but its important to note that vitamin D alone is not the only risk factor when it comes to Type 2 diabetes. As the researchers note, Body mass index, waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, triglyceride concentrations and systolic blood pressure were higher in individuals who became cases of diabetes during the follow-up period than in those who did not. These are some of the most commonly known risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. More about vitamin D Natural Health 365 reports further that he National Academy of Medicine has a recommended daily allowance of vitamin D of 600 IU for adults but that Dr. Garland deems this amount dreadfully low for chronic disease prevention. Natural health experts may recommend daily vitamin D3 dosages in the amount of 4,000 IU to 10,000 IU. And, if youre really low, you may need more for a short period of time until the deficiency is resolved, Natural Health 365 contends. However, it is imperative that you speak with a holistic care provider or other trusted professional before beginning any new supplements. While too little vitamin D is no good, too much can also be detrimental and not everyone needs a vitamin D supplement. As the researchers note, people who live in sunny areas near the equator are far less susceptible to vitamin D deficiency than people who live in more northern or less sunny areas. Diabetes isnt the only condition that vitamin D can help prevent. Along with promoting healthy bones, research has shown that getting enough of the sunshine vitamin can help prevent cancer. For people of color, the benefits of vitamin D are especially noteworthy. As Mike Adams, founder of Natural News and creator of Brighteon.com, contends, Every black person in Chicago, in Detroit, New York and the U.K. could prevent cancer about four out of five cancers, by the way with nothing but vitamin D. Learn more about keeping illness and disease at bay at Prevention.news. Sources for this article include: NaturalHealth365.com Journals.PLOS.org PART ONE: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR AMERICANS (Natural News) (Article by Towne Criour republished from ArbalestQuarrel.com) Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late. ~ from A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, by Thomas Sowell, Economist and Social Theorist; Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Make no mistake about it: The United States is on the cusp of a civil war. It is a war fought not with swords, firearms, and artilleryat least not yetbut through throngs of people chanting and screaming in the streets; in buildings; on university campuses; and in the public square; even outside private residences. These throngs are threatening, ridiculing, harassing, and assaulting Americans who do not share their views, their sensibilities. And physical altercations and clashes have occurred. More of those are on the horizon; that is certain. No one should doubt it. The outcome of this modern conflict will have as deep and lasting effect on this Nation and on its citizenry as did the American Civil War. In the present conflict, there can be no negotiation with or compromise between the two factions, for the gulf dividing them is too vast, the chasm too deep. The outcome of the present civil war will be profound. This conflicts outcome will determine the Nations social, political, economic, and legal contours for generations to come. Americans see the clash between the two factions playing out most aggressively, of late, through the Senate confirmation process of the Presidents second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Judge Brett Kavanaugh presently sits as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He is, by any estimate, a brilliant jurist with many years of judicial experience. No one should doubt that. No one can reasonably refute or rebut that. No matter. One faction intends to strike his nomination down. Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, sitting on the Judiciary Committee, pose, essentially, as proxies for the two factions in conflict. One faction supports confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh to the high Court and is working to see it happen. The other intends to prevent it. Few Americans remain on the sidelines. Both factions in this modern civil conflict know that the Judiciarymore so than Congress, or the Chief Executivehas power, predicated on the jurisprudential and philosophical predispositions of the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, either to strengthen or weaken the bedrock of the Nation: its Constitution. In their individual approaches to case analysis, through the methodologies employed, one vision of the Country sees actualization. Democratic Party proxies, frantic and frenetic, fearing imminent confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh to the high Court, have lost all sense of decorum, all reason, all self-restraint. They have been unable to shoot holes in Brett Kavanaughs legal methodology; in his understanding of the law. That much is clear. Democrats, and the public at large that tuned to the Confirmation Hearing, know that Bret Kavanaugh has a keen analytical mind; that he is legally astute; that his years of experience as a lawyer and as a jurist make him eminently qualified to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Democrats and the public at large know that Judge Kavanaugh has a deep, abiding respect for the Nations system of laws; for its Constitution; and for the Nations massive body of jurisprudence, accumulated over two centuries. Democrats, and the lay public also know that Kavanaughs methodology for analyzing cases reflects respect for case law precedent; and for the plain meaning of statutes; and for adherence to original intent, when applying the U.S. Constitution to the facts of a case. And, as for the latter two points, theres the rub. For, one faction seeks a jurist to sit on the high Court who has no qualms about legislating from the Bench: someone like Judge Merrick Garland,* a Judge, whose jurisprudential methodology and jurisprudential philosophy just happen to coincide with the political and social agenda championed by the previous U.S. President, Barack Obama, who nominated him to sit on the high Courta jurist who would also be championed by the 2016 Democratic Party Presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton who failed to get elected. Judge Brett Kavanaughs jurisprudential approach to case analysis and jurisprudential and ethical philosophies are antithetical to those of Judge Merrick Garland. Knowing what is at stake, Democrats have become frantic, desperate. At the last minute, in a last ditch effort to delay, with the aim of ultimately derailing the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats have sought the last refuge of the hopeless: character assassination. As they could not successfully attack the mans principles, his ability, his experience, they launched a vicious, audacious, reprehensible, despicable attack on the man himself. Read more at: ArbalestQuarrel.com (Natural News) Every major science website found in a Google search yields front page results featuring corporations and companies that refuse to do any research whatsoever regarding natural medicine and organic food curing diseases and disorders. Thats because in America, if you dont mix toxic chemicals in beakers and alter or mutate plant and animal DNA in a laboratory, its just not considered science. Ever since the advent of vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and GMOs, if youre not all in for using carcinogenic chemicals to fight diseases that are caused by those same chemicals, then your reputation is tarnished and branded as anti-science and anti-vaxxer. Heres how fake news in the science world works: Step one: You declare that all research and news of those studies that expose your own fake news is fake news. Step two: You get funding from evil corporations, like Monsanto, who exist to make American consumers sick. Step three: You run fake studies and skew the research to reach conclusions that are pre-determined to say all chemicals are very healthy for humans, sustainable for the environment, and are helping in the search for the cure for all the most popular diseases and disorders. Step four: You become a fact checker for the Big Tech social media thugs who ban, shadow ban, and de-fund any real news that exposes fake news or shares natural cures. Plus, fake news science websites rely on peer review shams and censorship of the truth in order to spread their propaganda. In fact, most of the current peer reviewed pieces in medical journals and science journals are now complete and utter paid-for fabrications. Anyone who chooses to contradict these fake reviews is immediately banned from the conversations, publications, and is declared to be anti-science. Watch the following video and you will understand, and then well share the top 4 FAKE NEWS science websites. #1. Science-Based Medicine (SBM) is FAKE news First, ask yourself a few important questions: Why are there zero prescription medications without horrific side effects? Why does chemotherapy fail to stop cancer from spreading 97 percent of the time on average? Why are prescription drugs, taken as directed, mind you, the 4th leading cause of death in America? Maybe those answers are all the same toxic chemicals cant stop diseases and disorders that are caused by consuming and injecting those very same chemicals. SBM is purporting a fake science consensus. In their latest attack on Traditional Medicine thats scientifically proven to work, SBM declares the World Health Organization to be complete quacks because they are supporting acupuncture and other traditional medicine techniques. Maybe SBM is also peeved because the WHO called out glyphosate as a probable carcinogen a couple years back. Now, the WHO says Traditional Medicine Strategies provide guidance to Member States and other stakeholders for regulation and integration, of safe and quality assured traditional and complementary medicine products, practices, and practitioners. No wonder SBM is freaking out. The WHO is not demanding that every patient be treated with chemicals, operated on, and given useless chemotherapy. Now it all makes perfect sense. #2. Genetic Literacy Project (GLP) is FAKE news According to GLP, anything that contains toxic chemical pesticides is great for human health and is totally sustainable for the environment. GLP claims genetic engineering is exactly the same as traditional crossbreeding too. This Monsanto front group is run by a violent psychopath with financial ties to Bill Gates. Yes, Jon Entine runs GLP, and hes a corporate media shill and pseudo-journalist who uses the GLP website to post Monsanto opinions and twisted research so Americans will continue to eat bug-killer and weed-killer infested foods, while a couple of Monsanto farmers claim they get more yield from GMO crops. More lies. As TruthWiki informs us: Jon Entine has no science background to speak of, but enlists the help of public scientists, academics and sell out journalists, like himself, who will say and write anything Monsanto suggests, as revealed in thousands of emails recently dredged up by the U.S. Right to Know group via their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). #3. Bill Nye (.com) is FAKE news Heres the clown who fell in love with GMOs after he visited the main Monsanto plant and took a tour of the laboratories where devilish little biotech science freaks insert pesticide genes into plants that humans and farm animals eat regularly. Nye the science fraud guy also fervently believes in global warming and anything else corporate America is selling as a Ponzi scheme for the sheeple of America. Nye doesnt even have a science degree, hes just an actor who pretends to have credentials. He even has a fake lab called the Design Lab at Disney World where he films his fake science research. Parents, please, keep your children as far away from this fake science ass-hat as humanly possible. #4. Novartis (.com) is FAKE news Just this past June, 2018, Novartis pretends to find a cure for blood cancer as announced for CHMP (Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use). Guess who their partner in crime is on this one none other than Johnson & Johnson (who own Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies). Theyre working so hard to create a world without disease. Except for one major problem: For this revolutionary cancer treatment CHMP may result in remission, unfortunately, patients will most likely relapse as there is currently no cure. Wait, what? Yes, of course, like all corporate-run cancer treatments, the side effects are horrendous, decreasing the quality of life for the patient whos already suffering from malignancies. As stated on the Novartis website, the infusion of Kymriah (CHMP) allows for this individualized treatment approach on a global scale. Side effects can be severe or life threatening, including difficulty breathing, fever (100.4F/38C or higher), chills/shaking chills, severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, severe muscle or joint pain, very low blood pressure, or dizziness/light-headedness. Also, Patients with neurological toxicities may experience symptoms such as altered or decreased consciousness, headaches, delirium, confusion, agitation, anxiety, seizures, difficulty speaking and understanding, or loss of balance. Serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, may occur after Kymriah infusion. Kymriah can increase the risk of life-threatening infections that may lead to death. Folks, you cant make this stuff up. Bottom line: Avoid fake science news like the plague and dont let these goons call you anti-science for avoiding chemicals that cause cancer and dementia, whether by food or medicine. Sources for this article include: NaturalNews.com ScienceBasedMedicine.org USRTK.org NaturalNews.com TruthWiki.org TruthWiki.org NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com Janssen.com Novartis.com (Natural News) The golden valerian (Patrinia scabiosaefolia) hails from East Asia. It is a pretty flowering plant that can be consumed as food and is used as a traditional medicinal herb. Recent research showed that the essential oil of this plant can potentially stop the growth of cancerous tumors, protect brain cells from damaging inflammation, and scavenge toxic free radicals in the body. The plant is reportedly capable of detoxification, reducing body temperature, and expelling pus from the body. Traditional Chinese medicine uses it as a remedy for intestinal disorders such as acute appendicitis, dysentery, enteritis, and deep-rooted ulcer. Earlier studies showed that natural components found in the golden valerian possess anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities. These bioactive compounds can be isolated from plants and used as new pharmacological agents to treat diseases that are resistant to current drugs. Essential oils are complicated liquid mixtures of volatile aromatic compounds found in aromatic plants. Some of these oils have drawn scientific interest in recent years due to their cytotoxicity towards cancer cells, which can lead to apoptosis or cell death. While golden valerian contains essential oils, only a few studies have taken a look at the chemical substances that made up those oils. Nor have there been many studies about the bioactivity of those natural compounds. (Related: The best essential oils for healthier hair.) Testing the essential oil of golden valerian for protective activities Researchers from the Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (FUTCM) examined the essential oil of golden valerian for its antioxidant, cytotoxic, and anti-neuroinflammatory activities. They obtained samples of the entire plant and ran the raw material through drying and distillation processes. The resulting essential oil was run through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify its different components. Meanwhile, the researchers prepared cultures of eight human carcinoma cell lines for cytotoxic testing. They used the MTT assay to determine if the essential oil could inhibit the growth of cancer cells. For the anti-neuroinflammatory test, they cultured BV-2 cells, which are microglia taken from mice. They induced inflammation in these brain cells by adding lipopolysaccharide. They added the essential oil to see if it could prevent the production of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 beta and interleukin-6. In the antioxidant testing, they put the essential oil of the golden valerian through the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging assay. DPPH is a free radical that is commonly used to test the scavenging ability of potential antioxidants. A potential anti-cancer, anti-neuroinflammatory, and antioxidant treatment The FUTCM researchers reported identifying 44 different components in the essential oil of golden valerian. These compounds made up 83.919 percent of the total oil. The most numerous components were caryophyllenes, which consisted of caryophyllene oxide, caryophyllene, and alpha-caryophyllene. Also present were beta-damascenone, calarene, and phenol. The results of the MTT assay showed that the essential oil possessed cytotoxic effects that can inhibit the growth of human carcinoma cells. The effectiveness depended on the administered dose, while the dilution range covered 50 to 200 micrograms per milliliter (mg/mL). In the anti-neuroinflammatory test, the extract from the golden valerian is able to reduce the production of IL-1 beta and and IL-6, thereby demonstrating its ability to protect mice microglia cells from lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation. The protective effect increased alongside the amount of oil applied to the cells. Finally, the DPPH test demonstrated that the essential oil could scavenge the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical. The antioxidant activity was dependent on the dosage. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration was determined to be 1.455 mg/mL. Their findings lead the FUTCM researchers to conclude that the essential oil of golden valerian should be further studied as a source of bioactive substances that can help inhibit cancer cell growth, prevent inflammation in the brain, and provide beneficial antioxidants. For more articles about natural treatments for carcinoma and tumors, visit AntiCancer.news. Sources include: Science.news NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov ScienceDirect.com Link.Springer.com The renewable materials company Stora Enso has been awarded as the most start-up-friendly company in Finland in 2018. The prize was awarded by Tribe Tampere at the AlihankintaHEAT event in Tampere. Stora Enso runs two startup programmes which have produced good results in business development. We are very pleased that our systematic and active work with start-ups is being acknowledged. Through our start-up programmes, we are seeking real solutions to promote our business and simultaneously developing the entrepreneurial mindset and work of our own employees, says Samuli Savo, Chief Digital Officer at Stora Enso. Co-operation with Aalto University and Vertical Stora Ensos Accelerator programme involves collaborating with Aalto University Developing Entrepreneurship (Aalto ENT), business accelerator Vertical and the start-ups that apply for the programme to develop renewable products and innovations. The programme combines partnership with the start-ups and Stora Enso employees business management training. Among the companies that participated in the 2017 programme, Stora Enso has signed co-operation agreements on product development with Finnish start-ups Sulapac and TRA Group. The second round of Stora Ensos second Accelerator programme will begin in January 2019. The programme will focus on resolving problems related to the circular economy. Stora Enso is also involved in the Combient Foundry Venture Client programme, which looks for new approaches to utilising emerging technologies in business, such as artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, big data, the Internet of Things, robotics and sensor technology. Among the companies that participated in the Combient programme, Stora Enso has signed a project agreement with the start-up 20tree.ai, which worked on the digital inventory of forests. Currently, Stora Enso is seeking digital solutions to promote healthy, safe and affordable living. The next start-up challenge will be launched in early 2019. The award The award for the most start-up-friendly company in Finland is distributed by Tribe Tampere, an open entrepreneurship and start-up community located in Tampere. The award acknowledges exceptional actions that large industrial companies in particular undertake to promote startup collaboration and to improve their innovation capacity and their competitiveness. The most start-up-friendly company in Finland was awarded for the first time this year. A San Francisco judge said in a tentative ruling Wednesday that she would order a new trial in a $289 million judgment against agribusiness giant Monsanto brought by a school groundskeeper who says Roundup weed-killer caused his cancer. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos issued the ruling ahead of scheduled oral arguments Wednesday. A jury in August awarded DeWayne Johnson $39 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages. Bolanos' tentative order applied to the $250 million award; attorneys were arguing in court over whether the $39 million in compensatory damages should stand. Bolanos wrote plaintiff Johnson failed to produce "clear and convincing evidence of malice or oppression'' by Monsanto. She wrote that he did not provide any evidence that Monsanto employees believed that exposure to the product caused his lymphoma. Monsanto had argued ahead of the hearing that Johnson failed to prove that Roundup or similar herbicides caused his lymphoma, and presented no evidence that Monsanto executives were malicious in marketing it. Regulators around the world have concluded on "multiple occasions'' that the active ingredient in Roundup glyphosate is not a human carcinogen, the attorneys said in court documents. They called the jury verdict "extraordinary'' and said it requires "exceptional scrutiny.'' Johnson's attorneys responded in court documents that the jury was well-educated and attentive. The evidence at trial was "more than sufficient to support an inference'' that Johnson's cancer was caused by his exposure to Monsanto's herbicides, the attorneys said. "Mr. Johnson's story is tragic and could have been prevented if Monsanto actually showed a modicum of care about human safety,'' they said. Johnson's lawsuit is among hundreds alleging Roundup caused cancer, but it was the first one to go to trial. The jury in August determined that Roundup contributed to Johnson's cancer, and Monsanto should have provided a label warning of a potential health hazard. Johnson sprayed Roundup and a similar product, Ranger Pro, at his job as a pest control manager at a San Francisco Bay Area school district, according to his attorneys. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2014 at age 42. Many government regulators have rejected a link between glyphosate and cancer. Monsanto has vehemently denied such a connection, saying hundreds of studies have established that glyphosate is safe. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office and four current and former deputies were sued Monday by a former jail inmate who alleges that the deputies allowed another inmate to spray him with urine and feces multiple times and then broke his arm. "These particular officers were sadists," the inmate, Fernando Miguel Soria, said during a news conference Tuesday in Oakland. "They're not playing with a full deck." Soria says the deputies repeatedly facilitated another inmate spraying him with urine and feces, a practice commonly known in jails and prisons as "gassing," but more frequently is directed at guards. In this case, Soria said the deputies would open his cell door and allow the other inmate to gas him while he was helpless. They wouldn't allow him to bathe or put on clean clothes for days afterwards, he said. The four deputies -- Justin Linn, Erik McDermott, Stephen Sarcos and Sarah Krause -- were all charged in criminal court last year for their alleged involvement in a series of similar assaults on jail inmates. Their cases are still pending in Alameda County Superior Court; Krause and Sarcos are scheduled for a preliminary hearing next week. Only Linn is charged with assaulting Soria, though all four are named in the lawsuit. An Alameda County sheriff's spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment or to confirm the employment status of the deputies. When they pleaded not guilty to the charges a year ago, three were still employed by the sheriff's office while Sarcos had resigned. "Of all the cases I've had, this is the most despicable and most outrageous in its nature," attorney John Burris, who is representing Soria, said Tuesday. Burris has represented clients in numerous law enforcement misconduct cases throughout California, including the Riders case in Oakland that led to longstanding court-ordered reforms for the Oakland Police Department. The deputies' actions were coordinated and deliberate efforts to dehumanize Soria, he said. "This is worse than spitting on someone," Burris said. "Imagine the horribleness of throwing urine and feces on them for the exact purpose of humiliating them." While the criminal charges are still pending, attorneys with Burris' office filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Monday. DeWitt Lacy, an attorney in Burris's office, expressed frustration today with the pace of the criminal case. "Justice delayed is justice denied," Lacy said. He said they don't consider a criminal conviction a prerequisite for seeking civil damages. The lawsuit alleges that Soria was arrested in August 2016 after he visited John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro. Employees there tried to sedate him with a shot, but he refused and a struggle ensued, according to the lawsuit. He was booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, at first housed in an isolation cell and then taken to another cell, according to the lawsuit. Court records show that Soria was charged with four counts of misdemeanor battery on an officer, but the charges were dismissed earlier this year. Burris said it was questionable that Soria ever should have been arrested in the first place as he was clearly having a mental health episode and the deputies should have attempted to de-escalate the situation instead of jailing him. While he was jailed, the four deputies allegedly allowed another inmate known as "Preacher" to spray him with urine and feces from a plastic shampoo bottle. After the attacks, the only way Soria could clean himself was with the water from his toilet, according to the suit. He said he once tried to block the door with his mattress, but then had nowhere to sleep except the concrete floor. At one point, the deputies allegedly kicked Soria's cell door closed while his arm was extended through the handcuffing port, breaking Soria's arm. After that, he didn't receive medical attention for a week, despite repeatedly complaining about being injured, according to the suit. Soria showed reporters a long scar on his left arm Tuesday that he said was left by that injury. Another time, McDermott allegedly entered Soria's cell while he was lying down and sprayed mace on his chest and didn't allow him to wash it off. Preacher sprayed the wrong inmate while attempting to target Soria at least once, according to the suit. Another victim identified in criminal court filings told investigators that after he was assaulted under similar circumstances, his attacker apologized and said that he'd intended to spray a different victim with a broken arm. Soria said Tuesday that he doesn't know Preacher and he doesn't know why the deputies targeted him. Charging documents indicate at least six other inmates were assaulted by the same deputies. Linn, 25, faces the most serious charges, including four counts of felony assault by a public officer, one count of dissuading a witness by force or threat and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. McDermott, 28, is charged with two counts of assault and one count each of dissuading a witness and conspiracy. Krause, 27, and Sarcos, 31, are each charged with a single count of assault. Voting for the Nov. 6 election began Tuesday in Santa Clara County, with early-bird voting open and about 640,000 mail-in ballots sent out to county residents. The county is offering several physical locations to submit early ballots: the Registrar of Voters office at 1555 Berger Drive, Building 2 in San Jose; early voter centers at libraries in San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Morgan Hill and Palo Alto; ballot drop-off sites at every City Hall; and dozens of libraries and colleges in the county. Residents can also send their ballots in the mail with prepaid postage included with each ballot. Ballots submitted by mail must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by Nov. 9. Physically submitted ballots are due by 8 p.m. on Election Day. The last day to register to vote in California is Oct. 22. Registration can be completed or verified online at https://registertovote.ca.gov/. Both candidates for California governor on Monday addressed the state's recently approved law that will make it the first to eliminate bail for suspects awaiting trial and replace it with a risk-assessment system. Starting in October 2019, most suspects charged with nonviolent felonies will be quickly released, while those charged with serious, violent felonies will stay in jail before trial. Judges will have wide discretion to decide what to do with other suspects based on an assessment of their likelihood of returning to court and the danger they pose to the public. Supporting lawmakers said it would end a system that discriminates against low-income people and racial minorities, while opponents predicted the law will make communities less safe. The measure passed mostly along party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. The law is the latest development in a nationwide debate over bail that has seen every state make some change in its pre-trial release law since 2012, according to National Conference of State Legislatures criminal justice policy specialist Amber Widgery. But California is the only one to formally eliminate cash bail, she said. Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom favors the change while Republican businessman John Cox opposes it. A look at statements made by both candidates during their debate: NEWSOM: "Only (Rodrigo) Duterte's Philippines and Trump's United States of America have money bail." THE FACTS: Newsom likes to criticize Trump at every turn, but in this case he's off the mark. Proponents including the American Civil Liberties Union and the bill's authors agree that the Philippines is likely the only other nation with cash bail bond system, though some other nations also require various sureties, supervision or set other conditions for release. But the cash bail system has been the practice in the United States since colonial days, long predating the presidency of Donald Trump. There even is a mention in the U.S. Constitution, alongside the better-known prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments. The Eighth Amendment allows for bail but says it can't be excessive. COX: "What you're doing is replacing a private business with a lot more state workers." THE FACTS: While Cox is right that the new law will do away with an entire private industry, most new workers will be in the county courts, not state government. The jobs would be performed by employees of the court or a local public agency, according to proponents, independent legislative analysts and California Bail Agents Association president Gloria Mitchell. There is no estimate for how many new workers would be needed. Currently, there are about 3,200 bail agents and organizations licensed by the California Department of Insurance. Some additional state Judicial Council employees may be needed to set rules for using risk assessments, train judges and collect and report data, according to legislative analysts and other experts who could not provide estimates because the system is still being developed. Google will begin offering its pay-to-carpool service throughout the U.S., an effort to reduce the commute-time congestion that its popular Waze navigation app is designed to avoid. The expansion announced Wednesday builds upon a carpooling system that Waze began testing two years ago in northern California and Israel before gradually extending it into Brazil and parts of 12 other states. Now it will be available to anyone in the U.S. Drivers willing to give someone a ride need only Waze's app on their phone. Anyone wanting a ride will need to install a different Waze app focused on carpooling. Riders pay a small fee to chip in for gas and other expenses. It's supposed to be similar to what it would cost to take public transportation to work, according to the company. For instance, Waze typically sets a price of about $8 for a carpooling ride from San Francisco to Mountain View, California the home of Google and other tech companies. About 1.3 million drivers and passengers have signed up for Waze's carpooling service, the company says. About 30 million people in the U.S. currently rely on the Waze app for directions; it has 110 million users worldwide. Waze's carpooling effort has been viewed as a potential first step for Google to mount a challenge to the two top ride-hailing services, Uber and Lyft. But Waze founder and CEO Noam Bardin rejected that notion in an interview with The Associated Press, insisting that the carpooling service is purely an attempt to ease traffic congestion. "We don't want to be a professional driving network," Bardin said. "We see ride sharing as something that needs to become part of the daily commute. If we can't get people out of their cars, it won't be solving anything." Gartner analyst Mike Ramsey also sees Waze's service as a bigger threat to other carpooling apps such as Scoop and Carpool Buddy than to Uber and Lyft. "Carpooling is a much different animal," he said. It's a form of transportation that Bardin said Waze had difficulty figuring out. Early on, Waze tried to get more drivers to sign up by emphasizing the economic benefits of having someone help cover gas costs for a trip that they were going to make anyway. But earlier this year, Waze realized it needed a better formula for connecting strangers willing to ride together in a car. Many women, for instance, only want to ride with other women, Bardin said, while other people enjoy commuting with others who work for the same employer or live in the same neighborhood. "Carpooling is a more social experience," Bardin said. "A lot of time those of us working in the digital world forget that social connections are often the most important thing in the real world." As part of the human interaction that occurs after Waze's technology makes a match, the driver and passenger can work out some logistics, such as pick-up points and departure times, between themselves. Ideally, once people find a group they like, they keep carpooling together through the app. Drivers and riders can agree to adjust the price from what Waze suggests up to the maximum the Internal Revenue Service allows for business-related mileage, currently 54.5 cents per mile. It's not meant as a job for the driver, but a way to cover expenses. Waze handles payment transfers without charging a commission, something it can afford to do because Google makes so much money from selling digital ads on Waze and its many other services. Even though Waze's carpooling service doesn't appear to be driven by profit motive, Ramsey isn't convinced that will always be the case. "I do think Google is realizing that it can't just keep making all its money from selling ads," he said. Nhlanhla Nene's recent testimony at the Zondo Commission on State Capture, which has ended in his resignation as finance minister, once again highlights the importance of ethics in leadership and reputational management. Former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene providing testimony at the Zondo Commission on State Capture Revelations by former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene on his meetings with the controversial Gupta family sparked outrage among South Africans and was met with calls for his axing. In his testimony to the Zondo Commission on State Capture, the former Minister was faced with the stark outcome of his ethical decisions. His resignation and replacement as finance minister by former South African Reserve Bank Governor, Tito Mboweni was unavoidable for a country grappling with rebuilding its reputation.For managing director of Reputation Matters, Regine le Roux, the question of ethics in leadership in any organisation boils down to the practice of instilling ethical behaviour into the DNA of an organisation. The leadership of an organisation (or country) sets the example of how things need to be done. When measuring corporate reputations among South Africas private and public organisations, we look at 10 core building blocks; corporate management is one of the first elements interrogated when it comes to assessing an organisations reputation.To rebuild the reputation of our country we need to laude President Ramaphosa for taking quick action in this matter; continuing to fight against corruption needs to remain top of his priority list as he indicated during his state of the nation address, walking his talk on this issue is crucial, adds le Roux.The other key element that played a crucial part in this saga is strategic alliances; your reputation is impacted by the company you keep. Even though there is no evidence of any wrongdoing from the meetings conducted at the compound between Nene and the Guptas, but purely by association and lessons that we have learnt from other similar meetings, the worst case scenario is automatically assumed.Why are reputations so important to treasure? As a leader your organisation and in this case, countrys positive reputation has a direct impact on the bottom line and a countrys foreign investment opportunities.Taking a look purely at a corporate level, if your business has a positive reputation, people will want to work for you and buy your service or product. You will attract top talent, which in turn will impact the level of service or products that people will be willing to pay a premium for, so that they can be associated with your brand.At Ethics Monitor, managing director Cynthia Schoeman believes we all have a built-in radar of right and wrong and has coined the term Ethics Activism when referring to the role organisations should play in managing ethics within a company.Schoeman adds, Ethics are non-negotiable. It warrants that ethics is included as an important goal that is actively managed, supported and recognised. Expecting on-going ethical conduct without such meaningful engagement with employees is frankly wishful thinking. Given the range of challenges and improper personal agendas that can arise, regular engagement is necessary to ensure employees understanding and to maintain their commitment to ethical practices.Le Roux maintains that an organisation needs to be ruthless about looking after their reputation especially because of the impact it has on the health and bottom line of an organisation (or country). Simply put, leaders set the example and values need to be non-negotiable. Chants of "Lock her up!" rang once again throughout an Iowa arena as President Donald Trump rallied supporters Tuesday night. But this time, the staple of Trump's 2016 campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton had a new target: California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Trump, who was in the state boosting Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, claimed that Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had leaked a letter written by California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleging Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. Feinstein has denied her office was the source of the leak. The letter was first reported by The Intercept, whose bureau chief and author of the story about it, Ryan Grimm, has also said Feinstein's staff was not the source of the leak. "Can you believe that?" Trump said, as his supporters turned the chant once deployed against the former secretary of state on another Democratic woman. "Did she leak that? 100 percent," Trump said, adding, "I don't want to get sued, so 99 percent." In a statement, Feinstein called Trump's remarks "ridiculous and an embarrassment." Ford had sought to remain anonymous when she brought the allegation against Kavanaugh to Feinstein's attention. She later went public after reporters started trying to contact her. Kavanaugh staunchly denied Ford's accusation. "Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence, she and her lawyers said so repeatedly," Feinstein said. "Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasn't me or my staff." The rally in Council Bluffs, across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska, was Trump's latest stop on a busy tour campaigning for Republican candidates in the lead-up to midterms that will determine control of Congress. And it comes as the president is on a high wave following a series of wins, including Kavanaugh's confirmation. It's the second appointment Trump has made to the Supreme Court. Indeed, Trump's loudest applause came as he continued his victory lap, which has included bashing Democrats for attempting to sink the nomination. Trump and other GOP leaders say the effort energized Republican voters, who had long been considered less energized than Democrats. "This is truly an historic week for America," said Trump, praising Republican senators for standing up to what he called "the Democrats' shameful campaign of political and personal destruction" against his nominee. "They wanted to destroy that man," Trump said. "What the Democrats did to Brett and his family is a national embarrassment, a national disgrace." Trump also rolled out new fuel standards that will be a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater ethanol sales. The long-expected change will lift the federal ban on summer sales of gasoline with high-ethanol blends and allow them year-round. The EPA currently bans the high-ethanol blend, called E15, during the summer because of concerns that it contributes to smog on hot days. Ethanol industry advocates say that fear is unfounded. Speaking to a crowd of thousands, Trump said he was delivering a promise he'd made to Iowa voters years ago when he campaigned ahead of the state's caucuses. "Promises made, promises kept," he said. He charged without offering evidence that if Democrats take control of Congress next month, they will seek to roll back his efforts. The move was also seen as a reward for Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who led Kavanaugh's contentious but successful confirmation fight. Trump praised Grassley on Tuesday night as a "tough cookie" as he applauded local leaders including Iowa's Republican Rep. David Young and Gov. Kim Reynolds, who face tough re-election fights. Trump also boosted Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who face voters next month. The pair received loud applause from the heavily Nebraskan crowd. Early voting in Iowa began on Monday, and Trump urged those gathered to cast their ballots now. "Go! Just vote. Get it over with," he urged. Early voting accounted for 41 percent of the Iowa vote in 2016, according to the White House. ___ Miller reported from Washington. A San Francisco man has been arrested in connection with a burglary at a storage facility in the city's South of Market neighborhood last month, according to police. The suspect, 46-year-old Lamont Jackson, is suspected of breaking into the storage facility in the 1400 block of Folsom Street early on the morning of Sept. 21. According to police, a passerby told police that the front doors of the storage facility appeared to be damaged. Police said officers who entered the building interrupted Jackson as he was carrying out items from one of 20 storage units he had allegedly broken into. Jackson was booked into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of 20 counts of burglary and violating his probation. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call police at (415) 575-4444 or to text TIP411 and to start the message with "SFPD." Police are seeking a group of up to six female suspects who allegedly assaulted a 20-year-old man in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood early Sunday morning, leaving him with life-threatening injuries. Around 2:20 a.m., the victim got into an argument with the group in the 3300 block of Mission Street, police said. The argument somehow escalated and resulted in a fight between the man and the six suspects. Responding officers helped transport the victim to a hospital for his life-threatening injuries. Police did not say if a weapon was used in the attack. The officers were unable to locate the female suspects, and no arrests have been made, according to police. Anyone with information about the assault is encouraged to call the department's 24-hour tip line at (415) 575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and start the message with "SFPD." Anyone providing a tip can remain anonymous. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said his decision to not seek re-election is 100 percent about family and taking care of his 90-year-old mother. In eight years in office, he has trail-blazed, butted heads with officials and changed policy. Whatever you think of Gascon, you cannot argue he has left an imprint of San Francisco. "It becomes a part of you, right? Your identity and the sense that I care so much for the work -- I care deeply for what happens in our city," Gascon said in an interview with NBC Bay Area. Gascon described "agonizing" over the decision not to run for San Francisco DA beyond 2019. On a long crusade for justice, Gascon kicked off his law enforcement career in the 1980s on a Los Angeles street beat. "One of the most frustrating things for me was when I got into the cycle where I had begun to arrest the kids of some of the people who I had arrested years earlier," he said. Convinced the criminal justice unfairly affects communities of color, Gascon backed Proposition 47, reducing drug possession and petty theft from felony to misdemeanor. "They come in because they are doing the same things as the rest of the population, but they happen to be poor, they happen to be black, they happen to be brown," Gascon said. The law led to thousands of people released from state prison, but cricis say created fertile conditions for an eruption in property crime. "What often people forget is that the work of the DA, but for some really small universe of white-collar crime and corruption, really begins when the police brings somebody through your door," Gascon said. Gascon credits San Francisco Police Department with cracking down on property crime in recent months. But Gascon has clashed with the police union and victims families after recently opting not to charge the officers involved in the shootings of Mario Woods and Luis Gongora Pat. "From a legal point of view, there was not struggle as to the decision," Gascon said. "As a human being, and as someone who has been in policing for years -- and knows what good and bad policing looks like -- it was very difficult and it was very conflicting for me." Gascon lobbied to rewrite state law on use of force. Paired with a "kill switch" movement to cut down on cell phone thefts and a single-handed effort to wipe out pot convictions, Gascon has carved out quite the legacy. The Santa Clara Police Department has made an arrest in an incident following a San Francisco 49ers game that left one man hospitalized on Sunday. Police arrested 34-year-old David Aguilera Gonzales, who assaulted the victim at the corner of Great America Parkway and Tasman Drive after the San Francisco 49ers versus Arizona Cardinals game. The 33-year-old victim who was walking kicked a bottle near Aguilera Gonzales, who approached the victim and punched him twice in the face, leaving him on the ground, according to police. The victim has now been listed in critical condition. Aguilera Gonzales was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on felony charges of assault causing great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury. Santa Clara Police ask that anyone who might have witnessed the incident or with more information regarding the crime are asked to contact Detective Sergeant Nick Richards at (408) 615-4814. The Huasao wetland in the heart of the bygone Incan Empire languished for years as a wasteland that locals used as their dump. Cleaned up and given a second life, it's now attracting droves of tourists lured by magical figures plucked straight from Hollywood movies. Towering statues of Ents trees that walk and talk in the "Lord of the Rings" movies and a smaller reproduction of Groot from the "Guardians of the Galaxy" series are set amid the woodsy landscape and glassy lagoons. They're drawing crowds eager to pose for selfies. Although it's a small area, environmentalists cite its recovery as part of a global battle to reverse the trend of filling or draining wetlands to make way for new farmland, industry and neighborhoods. Experts say such developments have already devoured a third of the world's wetlands. Those behind the restoration say they included the eye-catching statues to target young people, while hoping to spark their appreciation of nature. "I thought it made sense to focus on children, to stir their enthusiasm for the environment," said Jeancarlo Pacheco, a Peruvian agronomist who led the recovery effort. The wetland covering 5.5 hectares (14 acres) sits a short drive from Cuzco, the historic capital of the Inca empire high in the Andes mountains. For decades, locals used the wetland to dispose of animal carcasses, construction waste and any kind of trash, including non-biodegradable plastic. A group of environmentalists recently set out to reclaim it. They won $1.3 million in backing from Peru's government and the Development Bank of Latin America. That covered the cleanup and construction of walkways, channels and an island surrounded by small lagoons that capture water streaming down the mountains. Next came the statues five of them. Some of the tree-like figures tower 5 meters (16 feet) tall, with branch-like hands dramatically reaching out. A less menacing Groot, a pop culture icon from the Marvel movie, wears an inviting smile. It opened on May 1, and the next day got a surprise boost from afar when "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn tweeted photographs of the statues. Roughly a thousand people now visit each week, mostly locals under age 30, officials say. Jose Luis Venero, a Peruvian biologist and wetlands expert, said snapping selfies with the statues is fine, but he really wants visitors to walk away having learned the vital role wetlands play as habitat for birds and bees as well as cleaning water and preventing floods. Some 58 bird species build their nests at this wetland, including the yellow-crowned night heron, one of many that migrate from the southeastern United States. These herons have been spotted four times recently at the rejuvenated wetland. "Wetlands are the airports of migratory birds, where no one shows a passport upon landing," Venero said. "If we don't care for these wetlands, many of these migratory birds could go extinct." The suspect accused of shooting a 24-year-old Haverhill man in Lowell, Massachusetts was arrested and is expected to face a judge on Wednesday. Haverhill resident Dwayne Johnson, 26, was arrested without incident at 11:50 p.m. Tuesday at a Lawrence residence, according to the Lowell Police Department. He was considered "armed and dangerous" when officials began their search for the suspect on Sunday. Officials said the unidentified victim was with friends at the Village Smokehouse on Sunday when he encountered Johnson as he was leaving to go home. Lowell police said the victim and Johnson, who authorities say have a history, were going to have some sort of altercation when the suspect allegedly pulled out a gun. The victim suffered a single shot to the abdomen and was rushed to a Boston hospital in serious condition. His current condition is not clear. Johnson is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Lowell District Court. It is unclear if he has an attorney. What to Know Muhannad Fadlalla, 23 of Somerville, Massachusetts was charged with first-degree assault on Wednesday. He allegedly struck a woman with a metal pipe multiple times while she was in his car. Fadlalla is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday at the Hillsborough County Superior Court-North. A Somerville, Massachusetts man accused of striking a woman with a metal pipe multiple times while in a car with her is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday. Muhannad Fadlalla, 23, was arrested early Wednesday in Nashua, New Hampshire for the alleged assault, according to police. At 1:45 a.m., the suspect allegedly picked up the 32-year-old unidentified victim and tried to engage in conversation with her while in the vehicle. After becoming uncomfortable, the victim asked to exit the car, at which point Fadlalla allegedly refused and instead locked the vehicle's doors. Once Fadlalla realized the female passenger, a woman who was known to him, was calling 911, he allegedly stopped the vehicle in the middle of the street and retrieved a handgun and metal pipe from the trunk of his car. Police said he returned to the vehicle and tried to hit the victim with the gun but missed and dropped it in the process. Fadlalla allegedly struck the woman with the metal pipe numerous times before she was able to escape. He allegedly chased her for a brief time before he returned to his vehicle and fled. A resident in the area was awakened by the noise from the alleged assault and called police. He was able to provide a detailed description of Fadlalla and his car, officials said. Shortly after the alleged assault, an officer made a motor vehicle stop near 333 Valley St. in Manchester and arrested the suspect. The victim suffered minor injuries and was treated at Elliot Hospital, according to Manchester police. Fadlalla was charged with first-degree assault and criminal restraint. He is scheduled to appear in Hillsborough County Superior Court. It is unclear if he has an attorney. Relatives of a Chicago-area Marine killed during World War II are welcoming his body back after 75 years being buried in Hawaii as an unknown serviceman. Military officials say DNA tests helped confirm the identity of Marine Corps Tech. Sgt. Harry Carlsen of Brookfield, who was 31 when he was killed while storming a Japanese stronghold in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands. Ed Spellman of St. Charles tells the Daily Herald that a phone call came of the blue in July that his great-uncle's body had been identified. He says his mother donated DNA in 2008 for the identification, but she died in 2012. Carlsen's relatives plan on meeting his casket Wednesday at O'Hare International Airport. He'll be buried Saturday at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery near Joliet. A former employee of a suburban Chicago township has been accused of embezzling government funds to pay personal expenses including credit card and utility bills. Michelle Patras of Tinley Park is charged with theft of government property in excess of $10,000 and continuing a financial crimes enterprise. The Daily Southtown reports the 48-year-old Patras is accused of stealing about $59,000 in Orland Township funds during the more than two years she worked there. Orland Park police say Patras surrendered to authorities last month. The money was allegedly taken from the food pantry fund as well as the township's general assistance fund, used to help township residents suffering financial hardship. Attorney Pat Walsh said Monday the case against Patras "has a lot of layers, and people should reserve judgment." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 10) The Philippine National Police (PNP) has filed cases against 10 suspects in the killing of five drug enforcement agents in Lanao del Sur. In a press release Wednesday, the police said the suspects are facing multiple murder and double frustrated murder charges for the October 5 ambush in Kapai town, which left five personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) dead and two others injured. Police said the suspects were all relatives of a certain Comayug Macapagal, a drug suspect who was killed in a buy-bust operation in Marawi City on August 8. The police said the ambush could be a retaliation for the anti-drug operation. Malacanang has expressed its condolences to the families of the slain PDEA agents, and promised to serve justice. "Nagsimula nang gumulong ang imbestigasyon, at ang kasong ito ay personal na tututukan mismo ng Pangulo (The investigation has started, and this case is personally being focused on by the President)," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace press briefing on Tuesday. President Rodrigo Duterte is scheduled to visit the victims' wake on Wednesday. Incubeta is an international team of experts in marketing, technology, data, and creative. Some of the brightest minds in technology and research are gathering at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, California, to try to solve the world-wide problem of wildlife trafficking. Programmers, designers and more are participating in the Zoohackathon, a three-day event through the zoo, in partnership with the State Department. An opening reception kicked off the weekend on Friday. During the hackathon on Saturday and Sunday, the hackers work to "create applications, systems, and tools to help reduce demand for trafficked wildlife products," according to the Zoohackathon site. The hackers work around the clock for the 48 hours to try to implement the thoughts and ideas laid out by designers and researchers. "You have animal and plant parts being traded illegally throughout the world. They have to be shipped somehow," said Stacey Johnson, corporate director of conservation and research for the San Diego Zoo. "Most of the shipping companies are using tracking systems of their own. So figuring out how we can examine them." Johnson said the hackers will also look into illegally posted animal and plant products online. Rhinos are of particular interest at the event, Johnson said. The wild animals are often poached for their horns. In Africa, the black rhino is critically threatened and the northern white rhino went extinct in the wild, with the only remaining ones living at a conservancy in Kenya. The State Department said it believes technology can help end the cycle of buying and selling illegal wildlife products. When the event is over, the hacking teams pitch their ideas to judges and winners receive prizes. Those winners then have the opportunity to compete for prizes around the world. Hacking events are also taking place over the weekend in Madrid, Mumbai and Uganda. New Delhi will host an event next weekend. In the latest shake-up for President Donald Trump's turbulent administration, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley abruptly announced Tuesday she is resigning at the end of the year, raising fresh questions about the Trump team and about the outspoken diplomat's own political ambitions. The news blindsided some key U.S. allies and many congressional Republicans involved in foreign policy matters. And it came less than a month before congressional elections, thwarting White House efforts to project an image of stability, with the loss of one of the highest-profile women in the administration at a time when women's votes are being vigorously pursued. But Haley, the former South Carolina governor, has often been an unpredictable and independent force in the Trump administration. At times she has offered strikingly different perspectives on world events from her more isolationist-minded boss. A smiling Haley announced her decision at an Oval Office meeting alongside the president, bringing up her own political prospects even as she underscored her continued support for Trump. Without prompting from reporters, she said she had no plans to run for president "in 2020" and would campaign for Trump. Haley, who is 46 and not personally wealthy, hinted in her resignation letter to Trump that she is headed to the private sector. "I have given everything I've got these last eight years," she said, referring to her six years as governor as well as her time at the U.N. "And I do think it's good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it." Trump was asked why the announcement was made now since Haley is staying until the end of the year. Instead of answering directly, he recounted how she has had to work on tough issues, such as Iran and North Korea. White House officials had sought to put a hold on Trump's record-setting turnover in the run-up to the Nov. 6 elections, with aides being asked months ago to step down or commit to stay through Election Day to avoid adding to a sense of turmoil. Still, the prospect of post-midterm changes continues to hang over the West Wing, and Haley's exit was one that has been discussed, according to a senior administration official not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. A number of officials speculated that the timing was meant to preserve the ambassador's own political future. A post in the Trump administration has proven to be a rickety stepping-stone to either lucrative private sector work or hopes for higher office, and the risk to those ambitions might only increase after the elections if Democrats make significant gains in Congress. Trump said Haley first discussed leaving with him six months ago. The senior official noted that their conversation coincided with the appointments of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and John Bolton as national security adviser in an earlier upending of top foreign policy officials. Haley had expressed some frustration that her voice had been diminished as the two men became the aggressive new faces of Trump's international policy, the official said. More recently, there was the awkward moment at the U.N., when Trump's boasting of American economic strength under his leadership brought laughter at a General Assembly session. He insisted later that the delegates were laughing with him, not at him. The six-month timeline also coincides with a high-profile spat between Haley and the White House in April, when she drew the president's ire for previewing in a television appearance the administration's planned imposition of a new round of sanctions on Russia. When the sanctions never materialized, White House officials said the plans had changed without Haley being briefed, and economic adviser Larry Kudlow suggested she was confused. "I don't get confused," Haley said in a sharply worded response to the West Wing. Haley was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trump's second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the Security Council. A rookie to international politics, the former South Carolina governor was an unusual pick for to be U.N. envoy. "It was a blessing to go into the U.N. every day with body armor," Haley said, saying her job was to defend America on the world stage. At the U.N., she helped spearhead the administration's efforts to combat what it alleged to be anti-American and anti-Israel actions by the international body, including the U.S. decision to leave the Human Rights Council and to stop funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian Refugees. Haley also secured three successively tougher Security Council sanction resolutions against North Korea which the administration has credited with bringing Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table and an arms embargo against South Sudan. But under Haley's tenure at the U.N., the U.S. has faced strong opposition from Russia when it comes to addressing the seven-year-old war in Syria, and frustration from European allies over reimposing nuclear sanctions against Iran. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One he was considering five candidates for Haley's job and that a successor would be named in two to three weeks or maybe sooner. Among those under consideration, Trump said, is former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. Trump told reporters that he has heard his daughter Ivanka Trump's name discussed for the post, but said if he selected her he'd be accused of nepotism. In a tweet, the presidential senior adviser and eldest daughter praised Haley, saying Trump will "nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador." She added: "That replacement will not be me." U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell's name has also been floated for the post, but Trump suggested he'd rather keep him in his current post "because he's doing such a good job." The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley clashed with then-candidate Trump during the 2016 campaign, denouncing "the siren call of the angriest voices" that disrespected America's immigrants. Trump tweeted that "The people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley." Haley has one child in college and another approaching college age, and she has the potential to make much more money in the business world. She reported owing between $500,000 and $1 million on financial disclosures filed as part of her nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The debts included a personal mortgage of between $250,001 and $500,000, according to the report with the Office of Government Ethics. Before she was named by Trump to her U.N. post, Haley was elected the first female governor of South Carolina. She was re-elected in 2014. As governor, she developed a national reputation as a racial conciliator who helped lead the effort to bring down the Confederate flag at the Statehouse and helped guide the state through one of its darkest moments, the massacre at a black church. The last flu season was more severe than usualthe worst in almost a decade. With this years flu season just beginning, it is important to get your flu shot now. NBC Connecticut is connecting you to a flu shot clinic of a different kind. Join ProHealth Physicians at a free drive-thru flu shot clinic on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, located at 3 Farm Glen Blvd in Farmington, Conn. from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. In this innovative approach, you can receive a flu shot without ever leaving your vehicle. Appointments and registration is mandatory. Only 300 flu shots are available and you must be 18 years or older to participate. No insurance is necessary. Call 1-855-CTMD-411 to reserve your free flu shot. RSVPs are open, call now! You have until Friday, Oct. 19, 2018 to make your registration, or until appointments are full. Police are investigating after a stabbing led to a deadly shooting in New Haven on Tuesday night. One of the victims said the man with the knife said, "Happy Halloween," then stabbed him. Officers were dispatched to Sperry Street at Goffe Street around 10 p.m. after getting a report of an assault with gunfire. One victim, a 27-year-old New Haven man, told officers that he was walking on Sperry Street from Whalley Avenue toward Goffe Street when he was confronted by a man holding a knife. He said the man with the knife said "Happy Halloween" and then stabbed him in the elbow. Police have identified the suspect as 31-year-old Sirvon Strickland, of New Haven. The victim's cousin, a 24-year-old Hamden man, was waiting in his car. When he heard the commotion, he told police he got out of his car and Strickland stabbed him in the bicep. The man from Hamden had a gun on him and Strickland in the chest. Officers said he has a valid pistol permit and his gun was lawfully registered to him. The shooter has not been charged. Strickland has died, police said. Neither of the stabbing victims' wounds are considered life-threatening, according to officials. The incident is under investigation. Anyone with information is urged to call police at (203) 946-6304 or the anonymous tip line at (203) 946-6296. You can also text a tip by texting "NHPD" plus your message to 274637 or you can email officers at ecic@newhavenct.gov. Social media is a great way to communicate. However, when it comes to Connecticut towns, are Facebook pages becoming a virtual neighborhood watch? If you do a quick search online, you can find various town Facebook groups run by everyday people in Connecticut. It just is a nice way to connect everybody, said Patti Albee. Albee is a full time mom of four in West Hartford and has been using social media to connect people in her town for years. It started very small and quiet for a while and then has kind of blossomed, said Albee. Albee started the Facebook page Neighbors and Friends of West Hartford in 2012. Now there are around 14,000 members contributing local information, such as business recommendations, missing animals, kids achievements, community events and even breaking news. We get a lot of posts a day. For the most part, 90% of them are valid. They are good posts. They are people looking for things, information and things like that. We do get the ones that you know are misinformation, are looking to just kind of stir the pot and see what trouble they can cause, but for the most part, people are honestly looking just to help, said Albee. Good or bad, the posts are catching on. In Ledyard, Corey Watford manages a Facebook page called HomeBrewTVNews, in his spare time. I like to inform people, like right when the situation is happening, not hours after, said Watford. He, along with people in the area post regional events, missing animals and even unconfirmed emergency scanner traffic. These page administrators dont make any money doing this, they simply view it as a way to keep their communities informed. I have had multiple comments over the past week saying, every morning before I go to work, I check HomeBrewTVNews, said Watford. I appreciate that. It feels good to me that people are getting informed. Local police keep an eye on the pages, too, and said these pages are a good tool for the communities. However, police warn people to take the instant information with a grain of salt. It's a wonderful tool for them to be able to use that. As a police department, some of the challenges we have had with it have been when we get phone calls from people saying I read this on this particular website, is this true? Is it not true? said Cpt. Mike Perruccio with the West Hartford Police Department. Police said the information is not always accurate. If people do know about a crime, they should always call police first, before posting online. Police urge people to keep safety in mind when having conversations with strangers online. There is nothing that important that you need to go after somebody in real life and threaten them, said Albee. Albee said, rarely, threats on her page have happened in the past. On most of the town pages, you have to ask to become a member and the administrators monitor any negative comments or communications. Albee said her page has a policy that if any unwanted communication occurs, then those people will be removed from the page. Facebook is doing its part to help combat keyboard warriors, too. Facebook recently formed an admin group, giving advice to page administrators on how to manage their groups safely. Police say the more communication, the better. Whatever the medium is, I think it's important we have more communication because, I think we really do find, at the end of the day, most of us are more alike than different, said Perruccio. In the end, communication is key even in a virtual neighborhood watch. It's a way to gather information. It's one more way. Maybe it is the way, you know, you take all those little pieces and it becomes the whole puzzle, said Albee. There is a heavy police presence on Curtis Street in Meriden Wednesday after a domestic issue led to shots fired. Meriden police said they were called to the area of Curtis Street near Markham Place for a report of numerous shots fired. They found a male victim outside a home, suffering non-life threatening injuries. This is a domestic issue, according to police. Officials said the male suspect is not in custody at this time. The victim and suspect are both known to police, and police say there is no threat to public safety at this time. Multiple agencies, including Connecticut State Police, are on scene and the area around two homes is taped off. Curtis Street is closed in the area. An NBC Connecticut crew on scene reported multiple police officers with long guns on scene, and K9 units. More details were not immediately available. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. A former prominent neurological researcher at Yale University and New York University avoided prison time for stealing research funds but a judge says he must play piano for indigent elderly people in Connecticut to make amends. The unusual sentence for Dr. Alexander Neumeister was handed out Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres. The Manhattan jurist says Neumeister must play piano for an hour at least twice weekly at group facilities in Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and Waterbury. In June, Neumeister pleaded guilty to theft of government funds. He admitted stealing $87,000 from New York University and various grant programs from 2012 to 2014. A tearful Neumeister apologized for "unbelievable short-sidedness and poor judgment" and said his November 2017 arrest led him to confront his own psychological demons. Hurricane Michael strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane as it moved into the Florida Panhandle Wednesday. In preparation for the storm, Tallahassee International Airport, in Floridas capital, suspended all flight activity at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning. Passengers were still able to fly from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Wednesday morning, but many were anxious about it. Im a little uneasy getting on the plane and then once I get there I hope I can get the transportation to where Im going. So Im kind of uncertain right now, said Cheryl Miller of East Hartford. Its threatening to say the least. You got to worry whether all our flights will make it in time, whether or not well be diverted, said JP Richard of St. Petersburg, Florida. Both Miller and Richard had trips planned before Hurricane Michael became a concern. Richards main concern was getting home to Florida and securing everything to minimize damage to his house. He is also worried about family in Tallahassee. Theyre concerned about their house more than anything else because theyre saying flood waters are a big issue. So they only have I think an eight inch reservoir so if anything goes over that then its going to go into the house, Richard said. Several airlines including Delta, JetBlue, American, United and Southwest are waiving fees if you change or cancel your flight in the affected areas. Strong winds, devastating flooding and storm surge are concerns along the Florida Panhandle. That is why the American Red Cross sent volunteers from Connecticut and Rhode Island to help with the relief efforts. The New Haven Fire Department has launched an internal investigation after a firefighter was found unresponsive while on duty. Any time one of our units does not respond, it is a great concern of all of us, Chief John Alston told NBC Connecticut. Whether that be a firefighter in distress or even a mechanical issue, we take all of it seriously." Around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, an emergency at the firehouse on Woodward Avenue prevented New Haven firefighters from responding to a medical call. Just before they were able to get on to the apparatus they found one of the firefighters unresponsive, Alston said. The members then went into quick action, began to treat him. After the firefighter regained consciousness, his colleagues transported him to Yale-New Haven Hospital. He has since been released, the chief said. I cannot comment on any of his treatment even when he was in the firehouse on duty, Alston said. An AMR ambulance continued to the initial medical call, Alston said, adding, the patient actually refused care there. The firefighter found unresponsive is on paid administrative leave, pending an internal investigation involving police, the citys attorney and labor management. New Haven Police were part of Saturdays response at the firehouse, Alston said. We reached out to them over the weekend, Alston said. I have another meeting scheduled with them later on today to get their initial impressions as well, and they are part of a joint investigation. Pressed several times for more details during an interview at City Hall, the chief was tight-lipped about what happened citing the firefighters medical privacy rights and the open investigation. Theres always a balance between the publics right to know, and they have every right to know whos caring for them, Alston said, but we are also bound by contractual obligations and also HIPAA in terms of the type of treatment this person who fell ill received. Alston said he plans to release findings of the investigation to the public to the degree that it does not violate his HIPAA rights. The question Alston said he wants answered the most is why did this happen. The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved the governors request for disaster assistance connected to the May 15 tornadoes and severe storms that impacted parts of Connecticut. A statement from Gov. Dannel Malloys office said the declaration means that homeowners, businesses and nonprofits in New Haven, Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield, and Middlesex counties will be eligible to receive loans from the SBA to help with the costs of physical and economic damages. Loans up to $200,000 will be available to homeowners to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, which the governors office said might include debris removal. PHOTOS: Look Back at Damage at Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden Homeowners and renters are eligible for loans up to $40,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed personal property. The SBA will offer Economic Injury Disaster Loans for small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private nonprofit organizations to help meet working capital needs caused by the disaster. The governors office said the assistance is available regardless of whether the business suffered any physical property damage. Applications can be filled out and submitted online through the SBA website at disasterloan.sba.gov. Or you could download it here www.sba.gov and mail it to the SBA at U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, Texas, 76155. If you have questions about the assistance, call the SBA Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955 or send an email to disastercustomerservice@sba.gov. Those who are deaf or hard of hearing can call 1-800-877-8339. The SBA will also open a Disaster Loan Outreach Center at the Southbury Training School, at 1461 South Britain Road in Southbury, to help people process applications and answer questions in person. The office will be open from Oct. 11 through Oct. 18 during the following hours of operation: Thursday, Oct. 11: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday: Oct. 14: Closed Monday, Oct. 15: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The deadline to return applications for physical property damage is Dec. 10, 2018. The deadline to return economic injury applications is July 9, 2019. All 15 Catholic dioceses in Texas will release early next year the names of clergy who have been "credibly accused" of sexual abuse of a minor, Bishop Edward J. Burns of the Diocese of Dallas announced Wednesday. Texas bishops decided last month to release the lists of names by Jan. 31, 2019, as part of their effort "to protect children from sexual abuse" while promoting "healing and a restoration of trust" in the church, the statement said. Burns said the investigation constitutes a "major project" because it will include all 1,320 Catholic parishes in Texas. A group of retired law enforcement officers will investigate clergy files dating back to 1950. Wednesday's announcement came a day after Burns told parishioners that his diocese has hired a team of former state and federal law enforcement officers to review the personnel files of 220 priests now serving in the diocese. An investigation will review any accusation against a priest, not just ones relating to the sexual abuse of minors. The investigation could be expanded to include those who previously served. "Opening our files to outside investigators and releasing the names is something I have been considering for some time," Burns said in Wednesday's statement. "Since I believe it is the right thing to do, the Diocese of Dallas has had outside investigators, a team made up of former FBI, state troopers and other experts in law enforcement, examining our files since February, and they still have work to do." Bishop Burns said Wednesday that releasing the names of clergy "credibly accused" of abuse would be a step toward rebuilding trust. "The church is definitely in crisis there is no doubt about it," Burns said. "I owe it to the faithful of this diocese that the bishop is indeed going to be the shepard that protects them." It's a step the Fort Worth Diocese took eleven years ago, after a group of victims came forward to sue over past abuse. "We listened to victims and one of the things that they articulated was an experience and a frustration of not having been heard and not having been believed," said Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth. Bishop Olson believes publicly listing those names has made a difference in Fort Worth and he welcomes dioceses across the rest of the state following suit. "Let people know that we are serious about this in caring for victims and also in preventing future abuse," said Olson. But Dallas attorney Tahira Merritt questions the timing and motivation. Her hallways are lined with newspaper clippings from dozens of priest abuse cases she's handled, mostly in Texas. "It's window dressing, it's words and it's really just a ploy to prevent the attorney general or other truly independent bodies from investigating," Merritt said. As for "credibly accused", Bishop Burns explained in a news conference Wednesday that each allegation is turned over to a law enforcement agency. A review board that consists of doctors, educators, psychologists and parents assist in looking into the credibillity of an allegation. The review board is hired by the diocese, and that's where Merritt sees a problem. "It's kind of like the fox guarding the hen house," she said. Merritt believes not just clergy names but their files should be released to get to the full story. "The files themselves are evidence of the cover-up and that's what they're not producing," said Merritt. Bishop Olson said he always encourages victims to go to police before they ever report to the church, and that his diocese cooperates with any criminal investigation before handling their own. Bishop Burns, meanwhile said Wednesday, I can assure you that there are no priests in any parish in this Diocese who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor. But there may be some known names when the investigation ends and the names are released. I think there will be some familiar names, and this Diocese has gone through some very difficult days, and so we are going to see some of those names repeated. I think that there may be some names that will be a surprise to people, but through it all we do have to do our work and get a comprehensive list, said Bishop Edward Burns. The investigation comes after Burns in August revealed a former pastor, Edmundo Paredes, was accused of abusing three boys more than a decade ago. Paredes, who is also accused of stealing church funds, has not been heard from since about March and The Dallas Morning News reported that he may have fled to the Philippines, his native country. This week's developments also follow accusations made last week by a third person alleging a Houston-area Catholic priest, Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, sexually touched him when he was a teenager. That probe has involved Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, who's leading the American church's response to sexual abuse. DiNardo is already accused by two other people of disregarding their reports against La Rosa-Lopez, the pastor at St. John Fisher Catholic Church in the Houston suburb of Richmond. La Rosa-Lopez was arrested in September and charged with four counts of indecency with a child. The move this week by the 15 Texas dioceses is consistent with efforts in other states, such as California and Ohio. But the actions of the Dallas Diocese to employ a team of former law officers to investigate its priests appear to differ from elsewhere. For instance, a Roman Catholic diocese in Connecticut announced last week it's chosen a retired state judge to lead an investigation into sexual abuse of children by priests. The recent developments follow Pope Francis' removal in July of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for allegedly groping a teenage altar boy in the 1970s, and also the release in August of a lengthy Pennsylvania grand jury report that listed the names of more than 300 priests and outlined the details of sexual abuse allegations. The investigation launched in Texas also differs from other states such as Maryland where that state's attorney general is delving into records of the Baltimore archdiocese . Michael Norris, who leads the Houston chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, credited Texas church leaders with taking action but called for the Texas Attorney General's Office to become involved. "What I lack is trust," Norris said. "When I hear they're hiring a team of investigators, I prefer that it be totally independent." The Fort Worth Diocese released a letter Wednesday explaining they were first to release names of credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Seventeen names are on the list. Click here to see the full list. There are 8.5 million Catholics in Texas. Anyone who has been sexually abused by clergy is encouraged to contact local law enforcement or call the Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-5400 or click here or contact the Diocese of Dallas Victim Assistance Coordinator, Barbara Landregan, at 214-379-2812. NBC5's Alice Barr contributed to this report. As every country across the Mideast does with its leaders, it's hard to escape posters and laudatory fawning over Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the kingdom. For activists, opponents and others willing to speak out against the 33-year-old heir apparent in the world's largest oil exporter, it looks increasingly like it's hard to escape his reach either at home or abroad. The kingdom long has been known to grab rambunctious princes or opponents abroad and spirit them back to Riyadh on private planes. But the disappearance of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials fear has been killed, potentially has taken the practice to a new, macabre level by grabbing a writer who could both navigate Saudi Arabia's byzantine royal court and explain it to the West. The disappearance also peels away a carefully cultivated reformist veneer promoted about Prince Mohammed amid the kingdom allowing women to drive, instead exposing its autocratic tendencies. "I'm not Gandhi or Mandela," the prince told CBS in March when describing his personal wealth. Saudi Arabia insists the allegations it faces over Khashoggi's disappearance are "baseless," but has not offered any evidence over the last week to support their claim he simply walked away and vanished into Istanbul though his fiancee waited just outside. Nor has Turkey fully explained why officials fear Khashoggi has been killed. Prince Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., sought to convey sympathy with carefully moderate criticism in a note to friends in English the embassy shared with reporters. "I would normally prefer not to address such outrageous claims, especially when it concerns the wellbeing of a missing citizen who dedicated a great portion of his life to serve his country," Prince Khalid wrote. "It goes without saying that his family in the kingdom remain gravely concerned about him, and so are we." That sharply contrasts with the tone taken by Saudi local media, as well as Saudi-owned satellite channels and other broadcasters. There, newspapers have called Khashoggi's disappearance a plot ginned up by Qatar, who the kingdom has been boycotting with three other nations since last year. Al-Jazeera, Qatar's state-funded broadcaster, has focused extensively on the case in recent days. Online, the smears have been worse, describing Khashoggi as an al-Qaida supporter for the interviews he did with Osama bin Laden in the years before he turned firmly against the West and plotted the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Khashoggi, apparently with royal court support, once even sought to have bin Laden return to the kingdom and renounce terrorism. That harshness corresponds with the growing concerns internationally about the direction Saudi Arabia is taking under Prince Mohammed and his father. The kingdom won international praise for allowing women to be able to drive in June. But just ahead of that, the kingdom rounded up and imprisoned women's rights activists, including reportedly grabbing one who was in the neighboring United Arab Emirates. Similarly, Prince Mohammed wowed the business world with promises of having an initial public offering of the state oil behemoth Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Saudi Aramco as it's known, suggesting it would have a $2 trillion valuation. He hosted a major business summit at Riyadh's Ritz Carlton, complete with a humanoid robot named Sophia getting Saudi citizenship. Only weeks later, the Ritz Carlton would turn into a luxury prison as part of a mass arrest of businessmen, royals and others orchestrated by Prince Mohammed in what was described as targeting corruption. Those released agreed to sign over some of their assets, giving the crackdown the feel of a shakedown. Meanwhile, the Saudi-led war in Yemen grinds on with its years-long stalemate, its toll on civilians in the Arab world's poorest country unending. The freeze on journalism and free expression isn't limited to Saudi Arabia in the greater Persian Gulf. In the United Arab Emirates on Monday, an influential Emirati official named Ali Rashid al-Nuaimi reportedly told youth gathered for a summit in Abu Dhabi that "our enemies have partnered with media organizations who have reported that the UAE has a prison camp and is committing human rights abuses in Yemen." The Associated Press has reported on secret prisons in Yemen run by UAE-backed forces where detainees faced physical and sexual abuse, as well as how Emirati forces cut secret deals with al-Qaida militants to get them to abandon territory. "If the worst-case scenario is realized, Saudi Arabia will have links to the murder of a vocal critic in a fashion engineered to create just enough doubt for the veneer of implausible-but-sufficient deniability," the New York-based Soufan Center said Tuesday. "It also sends and unequivocal signal to other journalists who dare to criticize the regime." But even before now, some like Khashoggi had put themselves in self-exile abroad. If the worst is confirmed about the journalist's fate, that may push even more critics underground and leave fewer still willing to speak frankly about the kingdom. As Khashoggi wrote in his first column in the Post: "That is how breathtakingly fast you can fall out of favor with Saudi Arabia." EDITOR'S NOTE Jon Gambrell, acting Gulf news director for The Associated Press, has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. Hundreds of people convicted of felony murder in California could soon have another day in court and eventually walk free as a result of a change to the states felony murder law. In San Diego, at least 150 cases could be impacted. This new law goes too far. And I am concerned about public safety, said San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan. SB 1437 was signed into law last month by Governor Jerry Brown and will go into effect on January 1, 2019. Under the change, if a defendant in a crime did not kill, intend to kill, or did not act with reckless indifference to human life in the death in question, that person cannot be found liable for murder. There could be a significant number of prisoners that are released instantly, said Stephan. The District Attorney cited the 2016 stabbing death of Hugh Pettigrew, 33, of Fallbrook. Three alleged gang members were convicted, even though prosecutors could not prove who actually committed the murder. The new law will allow the three to petition for a new hearing. As many as 800 cases could be impacted throughout California. All three were held responsible, rightfully so, because all three cooperated to murdering this innocent man for their benefit to their gang, said Stephan. But under the new law, defendants who did not play a role in the actual killing would not necessarily be found guilty of murder. It will be the burden of the district attorneys office to show every person had the intent to kill. If were able, for example, to prove that all three knew, agreed ahead of time that someone is going to die, theyre not going to leave a witness alive, then theyre going to get to remain in custody as murderers. But that level of proof is very hard to come by, said Stephan. Meanwhile, advocates for criminal justice reform are praising the new law. Its a much-needed change. It gives many who are hopeless, hope, finally. It tries to reform a very unjust law, said Laila Aziz with the group Pillars of the Community. Aziz says she knows of at least seven people in prison for a murder they did not commit. She cites the case of then 18-year-old Brian Mason who was sentenced to life in prison in 2000. Mason was with several other people in a National City motel when a man was shot and killed. He did not pull the trigger. A young man who never killed anyone or planned to. It's a sad situation, said Aziz. While District Attorney Stephan says she's also concerned about the heartache facing families who "thought" they had received justice, Aziz is hopeful the new law will help achieve justice for those she says are wrongfully imprisoned. Never ever have I wished that person who did not kill my loved one rot in prison to make me feel better. And the victims I know feel the same way, said Aziz. SB 1437 was co-written by Republican State Senator Joel Anderson of Alpine. A Mexican couple caught carrying dismembered human remains in a baby carriage may have killed as many as 20 women, a top prosecutor said Monday. The man confessed to 20 killings, but gave details including the names of only 10 victims, said Alejandro Gomez, the chief prosecutor of Mexico State, which is located north and west of Mexico City. The couple was caught last week in Ecatepec, on the northern outskirts of the capital. Gomez told Radio Formula the man appeared proud of the killings; there were signs he suffered a personality disorder and resented his mother and a previous girlfriend. "What seemed macabre to me is that this person mentioned 10 cases in which he gives details, the names of the victims; he gave us the clothing they had on at the time," Gomez said. "He seemed happy about what he had done." His companion apparently helped him lure the women but may have played a submissive role. Police placed the couple under surveillance after phone records showed they had contacts with three missing women. On Thursday, police caught them coming out of a house with a baby carriage carrying plastic bags with dismembered human body parts which the pair intended to dispose of in a nearby vacant lot. Police said they went to the lot and found more body parts, but they were in such bad condition that forensic tests will be needed to identify them. Police said the couple acknowledged disposing of other bodies in a similar fashion; Gomez said Monday investigators have found more dismembered remains in two houses. Gomez said the man confessed to sexually abusing some of the victims before killing them. Most were single mothers, and the couple apparently lured their victims with offers of cheap baby clothing. The couple, who were identified only be their first names in a police statement, also reportedly confessed that they had sold one of the dead women's 2-month-old baby to another couple. The baby was recovered and the other couple was detained. Mexico State, which borders Mexico City to the east, north and west, has suffered from waves of women's killings in recent years. After slamming into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods before continuing its destructive charge inland across the Southeast, Hurricane Michael weakened to a tropical storm overnight. It was the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years and at least two deaths have been reported. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Category 4 storm crashed ashore in the early afternoon near Mexico Beach, a tourist town about midway along the Panhandle, a 200-mile stretch of white-sand beach resorts, fishing towns and military bases. After it ravaged the Panhandle, Michael barreled into south Georgia as a Category 3 hurricane the most powerful ever recorded for that part of the neighboring state. It later weakened to a Category 1 hurricane, and there were reports it spawned possible tornadoes in central Georgia. In north Florida, Michael battered the shoreline with sideways rain, powerful gusts and crashing waves, swamping streets and docks, flattening trees, shredding awnings and peeling away shingles. It set off transformer explosions and knocked out power to more than 388,000 homes and businesses. A Panhandle man was killed by a tree that toppled on a home, Gadsden County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Anglie Hightower said. But she added emergency crews trying to reach the home were hampered by downed trees and debris blocking roadways. The man wasn't immediately identified. As the storm hit Georgia, the Seminole County EMA Director Travis Brooks confirmed to NBC that an 11-year-old child was killed in Seminole County in a weather-related death. Exact circumstances were not immediately available. Damage in Panama City was extensive, with broken and uprooted trees and power lines down nearly everywhere. Roofs were peeled off and homes split open by fallen trees. Twisted street signs lay on the ground. Residents emerged in the early evening to assess damage when rains stopped, though skies were still overcast and windy. Vance Beu, 29, was staying with his mother at her apartment, Spring Gate Apartments, a small complex of single-story wood frame apartment buildings. A pine tree punched a hole in their roof and he said the roar of the storm sounded like a jet engine as the winds accelerated. Their ears even popped as the barometric pressure dropped. "It was terrifying, honestly. There was a lot of noise. We thought the windows were going to break at any time. We had the inside windows kind of barricaded in with mattresses," Beu said. Hurricane Michael Probable Path More maps: Probabilistic storm surge, potential rainfall Kaylee O'Brien was crying as she sorted through the remains of the apartment she shared with three roommates at Whispering Pines apartments, where the smell of broken pine trees was thick in the air. Four pine trees had crashed through the roof of her apartment, nearly hitting two people. Her 1-year-old Siamese cat, Molly, was missing. "We haven't seen her since the tree hit the den. She's my baby," O'Brien said, her face wet with tears. In Apalachicola, Sally Crown rode out the storm in her house. The worst damage she thought was in her yard. Multiple trees were down. But after the storm passed, she drove to check on the cafe she manages and saw breathtaking destruction. "It's absolutely horrendous. Catastrophic," Crown said. "There's flooding. Boats on the highway. A house on the highway. Houses that have been there forever are just shattered." Gov. Rick Scott announced soon after the powerful eye had swept inland that "aggressive" search and rescue efforts would get underway as conditions allowed. He urged people to stay off debris-littered roads. "If you and your family made it through the storm safely, the worst thing you could do now is act foolishly," he said. Potential Hurricane Michael Storm Surge This map shows how high the storm surge from Hurricane Michael has a 1 in 10 chance of reaching, measured in feet above ground and with the tide. Click a location to see the possible storm surge height there. Michael was a meteorological brute that sprang quickly from a weekend tropical depression, going from a Category 2 on Tuesday to a Category 4 by the time it came ashore. It was the most powerful hurricane on record to hit the Panhandle. More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast were urged to evacuate as Michael closed in. But the fast-moving, fast-strengthening storm didn't give people much time to prepare, and emergency authorities lamented that many ignored the warnings and seemed to think they could ride it out. Diane Farris, 57, and her son walked to a high school-turned-shelter near their Panama City home, where about 1,100 people crammed into a space meant for about half as many. Neither she nor her son had any way to communicate because their lone cellphone got wet and quit working. "I'm worried about my daughter and grandbaby. I don't know where they are. You know, that's hard," she said, choking back tears. In Panama City, plywood and metal flew off the front of a Holiday Inn Express. Part of the awning fell and shattered the glass front door of the hotel, and the rest of the awning wound up on vehicles parked below it. "Oh my God, what are we seeing?" said evacuee Rachel Franklin, her mouth hanging open. The hotel swimming pool had whitecaps. While reporting on-air from a Panama City hotel, NBC's Lester Holt and his broadcast crew were seen moving the room's mattress in front of the sliding door as winds raged outside. "We want to be on the air, but we've got to take care of each other," Holt said. And footage showed NBC News reporter Kerry Sanders nearly being blown away by Michael's strong winds. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 45 miles from Michael's center at the height of the storm. Forecasters said rainfall could reach up to a foot in spots. And then there was the life-threatening storm surge. A water-level station in Apalachicola, close to where Michael came ashore, reported a surge of nearly 8 feet. Based on its internal barometric pressure, Michael was the third most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland, behind the unnamed Labor Day storm of 1935 and Camille in 1969. Based on wind speed, it was the fourth-strongest, behind the Labor Day storm, Camille and Andrew in 1992. Forecasters said it would unleash damaging wind and rain all the way into the Carolinas, which are still recovering from Hurricane Florence's epic flooding. At the White House, President Donald Trump said, "God bless everyone because it's going to be a rough one," he said. "A very dangerous one." His office said he would tour the devastated areas next week. In Mexico Beach, population 1,000, the storm shattered homes, leaving floating piles of lumber. The lead-gray water was so high that roofs were about all that could be seen of many homes. Hours earlier, meteorologists watched satellite imagery in complete awe as the storm intensified. "We are in new territory," National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. "The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle." Associated Press writers Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Brendan Farrington in St. Marks, Fla.; Russ Bynum in Keaton Beach, Fla.; Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Md., contributed to this story. An American Airlines flight headed to Montreal had to return to New York after the pilot reported a landing gear issue, sources say. American Airlines flight no. AA3940 appeared to have an issue with its landing gear not being locked after the plane took off, according to the FAA. The plane with 47 people on board, including both passengers and crew, returned to JFK to attempt an emergency landing with emergency responders standing by. The Embraer circled around to try to make the landing, and finally, just before 5 p.m., landed safely at JFK and without issue, Chopper 4 at the scene showed. The FAA says the plane will likely be towed back to the gate. No injuries were reported. An American Airlines flight with a landing gear issue returns to JFK to make an emergency landing. What to Know Hurricane Michael intensified into an extremely dangerous major Category 4 storm over warm Gulf of Mexico waters A puzzling condition that causes partial paralysis in children is back on the uptick in parts of the U.S., health officials said Taylor Swift kicked off her week with a rare political post on social media, and the AMAs encouraging fans to vote in the midterm elections 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. Florida Braces for Michael, A Classic October Storm A classic October storm, Hurricane Michael is quite the contrast to September's Florence. Michael is likely to be stronger, windier and fast-moving when it reaches the Florida Panhandle sometime Wednesday. And the water problem along the coast is more likely to be from storm surge, not rainfall. Michael intensified into a major Category 4 storm over warm Gulf of Mexico waters as Mandatory evacuations were issued as beach dwellers rushed to board up homes just ahead of what could be a devastating hit. A hurricane hunter plane that bounced into the swirling eye off the western tip of Cuba found wind speeds rising. By 5 a.m., top winds had reached 140 mph, making Michael a "major" hurricane before it makes landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Nikki Haley Became a Popular UN Diplomat Despite Trump Policies Nikki Haley came to her job as the top U.S. diplomat at the United Nations with no foreign policy experience, but in less than two years she made many friends even among ambassadors from countries at odds with the Trump administration's policies The sudden announcement that she was leaving by the end of the year ricocheted through U.N. headquarters like a lightning bolt, with many expressing shock, and some sadness and dismay. The ambassadors on the powerful U.N. Security Council who worked closely with Haley praised her a testament to her skills and success as a diplomat though many of their countries, including America's traditional allies, have serious issues with her government's foreign policy. When Haley arrived at the U.N. on Jan. 27, 2017, she was the former governor of South Carolina and a novice at international affairs but she wasted no time in announcing a new way the U.S. was going to do business. Rare, Polio-Like Condition Appears in US Again A puzzling condition that causes partial paralysis in children is back on the uptick in parts of the U.S., with six cases under investigation in Minnesota and 14 reported in Colorado, health officials said. The children have acute flaccid myelitis or AFM, a weakening of the nerves that resembles polio. It was first widely recognized in 2014, when 120 children were diagnosed, NBC News reported. So far this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been 38 confirmed cases of the polio-like condition across 16 states. Taylor Swift Wins Big at AMAs, Encourages Fans to Vote Taylor Swift kicked off her week with a rare political post on social media, and at the American Music Awards she continued the conversation by encouraging fans to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. Swift won four honors including artist of the year at the fan-voted show on Tuesday in Los Angeles, beating out Drake, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons and Post Malone for the top prize. "This award and every single award given out tonight were voted on by the people, and you know what else is voted on by the people," she said, "the midterm elections on November 6." Swift announced she was voting for Tennessee's Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen, breaking her long-standing refusal to discuss anything politics. In the days since Swift broke her silence on politics, endorsing two Democrats from her home state, thousands of Americans have registered to vote. Kanye West to Have Lunch With Trump at White House Rapper Kanye West is headed to the White House. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said West is scheduled to have lunch with President Trump and meet with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. Sanders says they'll talk about manufacturing, prison reform, preventing gang violence and reducing violence in Chicago, where West grew up. Trump recently tweeted praise for West, who closed a "Saturday Night Live" show wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat and delivering an unscripted pro-Trump message after the credits rolled. West is married to reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who successfully pushed Trump to grant a pardon for a drug offender this year and has met with senior aides regarding criminal justice reform. What to Know New Jersey's troubled transit system suffers from a lack of funding, low morale, a top-heavy management structure, Gov Murphy says In the spirit of Halloween, a home security website looked into the top-searched phobia for each state There are two adorable New York City dogs who travel the world in style Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 Happy Wednesday! It's going to be mostly cloudy today, but we stay dry until at least late at night with a high of 80 degrees. The heavy stuff moves in Thursday. As always, get the latest forecast at nbcnewyork.com/weather. 1. Audit Finds NJ Transit Plagued by Low Morale, No Planning New Jersey's troubled transit system suffers from a lack of funding, low morale, a top-heavy management structure and little or no strategic planning, according to a lengthy audit released by Gov. Murphy. The 179-page report describes a litany of systemic problems plaguing New Jersey Transit, one of the nation's largest transit systems that the Democratic governor has characterized as a once-revered organization that is now considered "a national disgrace." Murphy has made reforming NJ Transit one of the top goals of his first term, though he has often said the process will take years longer. Read more here. 2. Aahhh! Study Reveals Tri-States Most-Searched Phobias What scares you the most? Spiders? Heights? Death? In the spirit of Halloween, a home security website looked into the top-searched phobia for each state. Turns out New York and New Jersey are most afraid of driving. This could explain why the Empire State has the least licensed drivers per capita. Read more here. 3. These Insta-Famous NYC Dogs Travel the World in Designer Clothing There are two adorable New York City dogs who travel the world in style. Meet Dior and Obi Wan. They are two four-legged fashionistas that have their own Insta page where they showcase their designer duds all while being hip jetsetters. The fur-babies mom Gauri Sikka started the account when on bedrest in December 2015. Read more here. For the latest entertainment news and things to do, tune in to New York Live, Monday through Friday at 11:30 a.m. on NBC 4 New York. What to Know A New Jersey high school teacher allegedly sent nude photos to a student and had sexually explicit conversations with him Montgomery High School teacher Michelina Aichele was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said A 17-year-old student told investigators Aichele had sent him nude photos over the course of several months, according to prosecutors A New Jersey high school teacher allegedly sent nude photos to a student and had sexually explicit conversations with him via email and social media, prosecutors said. Montgomery High School contacted police on Oct. 4 to report that teacher Michelina Aichele, 29, of Hillsborough Township, had been having sexually explicit conversations with a 17-year-old male student, the Somerset County Prosecutors Office said Tuesday. The student told police Aichele had sent him nude photos over the course of several months, prosecutors said. He also shared sexually explicit conversations hed had with Aichele through social media sites and over email, according to prosecutors. Aichele was arrested and charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said. Her attorney information wasnt immediately available Tuesday. What to Know A man with health issues was brutally punched and tased in his home by police responding to a 911 call, his family and attorney say Police responded to the Staten Island home of William Colon, 24, after a neighbor called 911 after hearing Colon and his girlfriend arguing Police arrested Colon for assaulting his girlfriend, but both he and his girlfriend say he never assaulted her, according to their lawyers A Staten Island man with health issues was brutally punched and tased in his familys home by police responding to a 911 call, his family and attorney say. Police responded to the Staten Island home of William Colon, 24, on Sept. 28 after a neighbor who heard Colon and his girlfriend arguing called 911. Video taken by Colons brother shows officers punching and tasing Colon who suffers from several diabetic-related health conditions, stands at around 4-foot-8 and weighs approximately 85 pounds as he lies face down on a bed. Colon was only told later that hed been arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, his attorney Christopher Pisciotta, of the Legal Aid Society, said. Pisciotta and Colons family members, however, claim Colon never attacked his girlfriend. What was clear from the video was the brutality and the excessive force that was used in this case, Pisciotta said. Colons girlfriends lawyer Lou Gelormino, meanwhile, told NBC 4 New York the girlfriend denies that Colon hit her. She stated to me that Mr. Colon did not hit her, and she did not call the police, Gelormino said in a statement. She further stated that she was taken to the police station under the false pretense that they were going to drive her home. When she got to the station the police threatened to charge her with various crimes unless she made a statement attesting to the fact that Mr. Colon hit her and then said the police officers told her exactly what to write, Gelormino added. NYPD Commissioner James ONeill declined to comment on the video, but said the department would take a look at it and see if the force that was used was necessary. Police and the Staten Island DAs office are both investigating the incident. Colons mother told News 4 she hopes the officers who arrested her son will be held accountable. The arrest nearly put her son in the hospital, she said. No one should ever have to go through that at the hands of police, she said. There was no one there to protect and serve that day. No one. Lawyers for a man charged with killing eight people when he drove his truck onto a New York City bike path said Tuesday that the death penalty should be ruled out because President Donald Trump was "uninformed and full or rage" when he called for it. The lawyers said in papers filed in Manhattan federal court on behalf of Sayfullo Saipov that Trump irrevocably tainted the legal process when he tweeted in all capital letters a day after the attack that Saipov "SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!" Saipov was arrested immediately after the Oct. 31, 2017, destruction. He's pleaded not guilty. Authorities say he told them after his arrest that he was inspired by Islamic State videos and had used a truck in the attack to inflict maximum damage against civilians. Lawyers wrote that prosecutors were out of line when they notified the court last month that the Justice Department had authorized them to seek death. They said Trump spoiled options for death with his tweets. "His impetuous decision was uninformed and full of rage; he actually reveled in the prospect of condemning Mr. Saipov to die in the 'home of the horrible crime he committed.' But the Constitution does not tolerate a death-penalty scheme driven by bloodthirst or revenge," the lawyers said. They said Trump's words prevented Attorney General Jeff Sessions from acting independently and following due process. "President Trump's emotionally-charged directives were designed to constrain Sessions's decision-making and discourage him from genuinely considering the pursuit of a sentence less than death," they said. The 30-year-old Saipov moved to the United States legally in 2010 from Uzbekistan. He lived in Ohio and Florida and worked as a commercial truck driver before living more recently with his family in Paterson, New Jersey. A trial is scheduled for October 2019. A jury, if it finds Saipov guilty, will be asked to decide in a second phase of the trial if he should be executed. In 2001 just weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, a jury in Manhattan federal court declined to impose death on two men convicted in the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. Its pretty common for parents to meddle in their adult childrens love lives, but after one Florida woman used her single son to make a political statement about the #MeToo movement, her son felt he had to respond. Marla Reynolds Carr wrote Oct. 6 that her son Pieter Hanson, a 32-year-old Navy veteran from Orlando, wont go on solo dates because of false sexual accusations by feminists with an axe to grind. This is MY brother. And people ask if mom has ever done this before. She has. Here is the evidence. Enjoy. #HimToo pic.twitter.com/rAgcY2wORT Jon Hanson (@DancinJonHanson) October 10, 2018 The tweet seems to refer to the sexual misconduct and assault allegations made against recently confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the accusations at a hearing where Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, one of his accusers, recounted her experience. Supporters of #HimToo, which gained popularity during Kavanaughs hearing, argue that the judge is an innocent man falsely accused in a #MeToo climate that supports sexual assault survivors and vilifies all men. That tweet has since been deleted, and Hanson felt it misrepresented him. He created a Twitter account @Thatwasmymom to clarify how he feels. The account has now evolved into a platform for his outpourings of support for people fighting cancer and photos of cute cats. Dubbing himself a proud Navy vet, Cat Dad and Ally, Hanson said he supports women who have shared their experiences of sexual assault. That was my Mom, Hanson wrote in the accounts first tweet. Sometimes the people we love do things that hurt us without realizing it. Lets turn this around. I respect and #BelieveWomen. I never have and never will support #HimToo. Since its creation on Tuesday, the account has gained more than 39,500 followers. Hansons clarification didnt stop the wave of This is my son memes that erupted on Twitter in response to Carrs original tweet. Twitter users have accompanied pictures of theirs pets, famous movie characters and TV personalities with This is my son descriptions parodying Carrs original tweet. This is MY son. He graduated #1 from the University of Flavortown. He was awarded three banging fajita poppers. He was #1 in flamin' hot crunch. He won't go on solo dates due to the current climate of false accusations of taking the last slice of pizza. I VOTE. #HimToo pic.twitter.com/4DY151a2W7 Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) October 9, 2018 [[496603291 , C]] Also, Twitter, your meme game is on point, Pieter Hanson complimented. Hansons older brother, Jon Hanson, 35, told "Today" the situation is the ultimate gift for teasing his younger brother, who he said is overwhelmed and tired because of the massive social media response. But hes being a really good sport, and trying to make it a positive thing, Jon Hanson said. Its still so funny to me. I told the story so many times. Jon Hanson also said this isn't the first time their mom has tried to score them a date using social media. Shes done it to us, but nothing political before, Jon Hanson, who is currently engaged, said. But shell write things like, Gosh, my sons are good guys. Why are they still single? FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday said the FBI went through the "usual process" in its supplemental probe of Brett Kavanaugh. Wray made his first public comments on the case before a Senate committee. Jon Hanson also tweeted a screenshot of a 2015 Facebook post in which their mom said she was so proud of Pieter Hanson, one of the handsomest guys in the world. Despite deleting her Twitter account, their mother has also been able to laugh at the situation, according to her older son. I think were all getting a laugh out of it right now, Jon Hanson said in an interview this morning. I talked to her an hour ago. She is upset but we got her to laugh. Pieter Hanson, a University of Central Florida business student with plans to open a brewery, is using his new handle to correct the misrepresentation shared in his moms tweet. [NATL] 'Believe Survivors': Protests Mount as Kavanaugh Confirmed to Supreme Court A scroll down the @Thatwasmymom page will reveal photos of his cats Monkey and Chalupa and retweets of other peoples stories about battling and surviving cancer. Pieter Hansons younger brother Cooper is a non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivor. In one of his more recent tweets, Peter Hanson called on his followers to help him maintain the good vibes and said he was overwhelmed and humbled by the outpouring of love, positivity and cat photos. If you have positive things you want me to share let me know! Oh and more cats! Hanson wrote. Nikki Haley came to her job as the top U.S. diplomat at the United Nations with no foreign policy experience, but in less than two years she made many friends even among ambassadors from countries at odds with the Trump administration's policies. Tuesday's sudden announcement that she was leaving by the end of the year ricocheted through U.N. headquarters like a lightning bolt, with many expressing shock, and some sadness and dismay. "It was a surprise, not a very pleasant one for me personally," said Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, whose country has clashed with U.S. positions including on Syria, Iran and Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ambassadors on the powerful U.N. Security Council who worked closely with Haley praised her a testament to her skills and success as a diplomat though many of their countries, including America's traditional allies, have serious issues with her government's foreign policy. When Haley arrived at the U.N. on Jan. 27, 2017, she was the former governor of South Carolina and a novice at international affairs but she wasted no time in announcing a new way the U.S. was going to do business. The Trump administration's goal was to show U.S. strength, speak out, and defend its allies and as for countries opposing America, "we're taking names" and will respond accordingly, she said. Haley has kept to that goal, but she has also honed her diplomatic skills, which were recognized by half a dozen members on the 15-nation Security Council as they headed into a closed meeting Tuesday afternoon on chemical weapons in Syria. Nebenzia said he and Haley have "good working and personal relations despite all the differences that we were and are having." "She's a charismatic personality," he said. "She was a friend to all of us, and ... beyond the doors of the Security Council we as a group were very friendly." Bolivia's U.N. Ambassador Sasha Llorentty Soliz said the Security Council "is like a family sometimes a dysfunctional family but nevertheless we care about each other and I really like Nikki very much." The good personal relations, however, could never mask the sharp differences over a host of issues ranging from U.S. policy toward Syria to Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate agreement and the U.N. Human Rights Council. Washington's decisions to halt to funding for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem also upset some council members. Llorentty Soliz stressed the separation, echoing Bolivian President Evo Morales, who launched a blistering critique of U.S. policy toward Iran, the Mideast and Trump's immigration policies at a Security Council meeting the American president presided over on Sept. 26 during the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders. Sweden's U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog said "there are issues that relate to the U.N. where we don't always see eye to eye, but with Nikki there has always been a very close relationship, respectful and very frank." While Haley's speeches in the council can sometimes "be very strong," he said, council members were often invited to her apartment afterward. France's U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre, who met Haley when she was governor of South Carolina and he was ambassador to Washington, said "even though we didn't agree on everything, we had established a particularly close and constructive working relationship based on trust." "Nikki Haley is one of the most talented, most authentic U.S. government officials that I have ever met," he said. At a White House event, seated near Trump in the Oval Office, Haley told reporters that her six years as governor followed by nearly two years at the U.N. has been an "intense time, and I'm a believer in term limits." "I have given everything I've got these last eight years," she said. "I think you have to be selfless enough to know when to step aside and allow someone else to do the job." Trump told her: "Hopefully, you'll be coming back at some point." The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley, who is 46 and not personally wealthy, hinted in her resignation letter to Trump that she is headed to the private sector. She said that as a businessman Trump would appreciate "my sense that returning from government to the private sector is not a step down but a step up." As for a replacement, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One he was considering five candidates and a successor would be named in two to three weeks or maybe sooner. Among those under consideration, Trump said, is former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. Trump told reporters he heard his daughter Ivanka Trump's name discussed for the post, but said if he selected her he'd be accused of nepotism, and she later ruled herself out in a tweet. U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell's name has also been floated for the post, but Trump suggested he'd rather keep him in his current post "because he's doing such a good job." Privately, many diplomats believe Haley will run for president, though she ruled out 2020 on Tuesday without being asked, and pointed to Trump saying she will campaign for him. "She's young, she's energetic, she's ambitious," Russia's Nebenzia said. "I think we will see her after she has this well-deserved respite that she was referring to" in her remarks at the White House. What to Know Byron Dickerson is serving 35 years in Delaware prison for a murder committed when he was only 17 years old. Dickerson was initially sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 1990 contract killing of Kevin Brown. Dickerson was resentenced after the Supreme Court declared mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile killers unconstitutional. Delaware's Board of Pardons will hear a commutation request from a man serving 35 years in prison for a murder committed when he was 17 years old. After reviewing the request from Byron Dickerson behind closed doors last month, the board has agreed to hear from Dickerson in person on Oct. 23. Dickerson was initially sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 1990 contract killing of Kevin Brown, who was his girlfriend's brother. Dickerson, also known as Bar Salaam Saadiq, was resentenced in 2014 after the U.S. Supreme Court declared mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile killers to be unconstitutional. Prosecutors say Dickerson offered one of his drug customer's money and cocaine to kill Brown. What to Know A former community leader and his girlfriend are accused of getting a woman drunk and taking naked photos of her while she was unconscious. Lawrence Weinstein and Kelly Drucker surrendered to Bucks County detectives Tuesday afternoon. Police say they spike the woman's drink and used spy glasses to take the pictures of her while she was passed out. A former Northampton Township, Pennsylvania, supervisor and his girlfriend are accused of getting a woman drunk and then using spy glasses and a webcam to take photographs of her while she was unconscious. Lawrence Jay Weinstein, 44, and Kelly Drucker, both of Northampton Township, are charged with false imprisonment, invasion of privacy, recklessly endangering another person, criminal conspiracy and violations of the Pennsylvania Wiretap Act. Investigators say Weinstein and Drucker plotted last fall to spike a woman's drink with high-proof alcohol so that she'd be unable to drive and be forced to go to Druckers house where a webcam was placed in the bathroom. Dont let her go to the bathroom until she gets back to your place, Weinstein allegedly texted Drucker. The couple first planned for what they referred to as their mission in late October 2017, investigators said. Drucker then had dinner with the woman at a restaurant on the night of Nov. 10, 2017, according to the criminal complaint. During the dinner, Weinstein allegedly texted Drucker, instructing her on how to convince the victim to come back to her home. Keep sober so you can make it happen and arent too drunk to win, Weinstein allegedly texted Drucker. After the victim arrived at Druckers house, Weinstein sent her more text messages advising her on how to keep the victim there, police said. Weinstein also allegedly told Drucker to ask the victim sexually-charged questions and give her more alcohol. At some point, the woman became sick and passed out in Druckers bathroom, police said. Weinstein then allegedly sent Drucker several messages telling her to use spy glasses to take photos of the unconscious victim. Dont worry about her. Get glasses on now, Weinstein allegedly texted the woman. Get her naked and get [sic] door open. A few days later, Weinstein and Drucker had a text message conversation discussing more plans for their mission, indicating that they wanted to find more victims, according to investigators. In August, a man discovered illicit messages on a phone that once belonged to Drucker, leading to an investigation, officials said. Weinstein and Drucker both surrendered to Bucks County detectives Tuesday afternoon. The victim told police she remembered saying her wine didnt taste right on the night of Nov. 10, 2017 and was sick the following morning. She said she didnt remember anything that happened in between, according to investigators. Officials said they recovered photos of the victim while she was in Druckers bathroom. While being questioned, Weinstein told police he was concerned for the victim and wasnt sure if he should call an ambulance, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Investigators also say they found photos on an iPad of Weinstein sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in late 2012. That woman told police she wasnt aware of the incident and didnt consent to Weinstein touching her or taking the photos. Weinstein was charged with indecent assault in connection to that incident. Bail is set for both Weinstein and Drucker at $300,000 unsecured. They are both scheduled for preliminary hearings on Oct. 18. Surrounded by dozens of stone-faced FBI agents on a frigid winter's day, Dennis and Kem Parada stared down at the empty hole and knew something wasn't right. The father-son duo spent years combing this bit of Pennsylvania wilderness with high-end metal detectors, drills and other tools to prospect for a fabled cache of Civil War gold. They felt certain they'd discovered the hiding place of the long-lost booty, leading the FBI to the mountainous, heavily wooded area last March. Now, at the end of the court-sanctioned excavation, the FBI escorted the treasure hunters to the snow-covered site and asked them what they saw. They gazed at the pit. Not so much as a glimmer of gold dust, let alone the tons of precious metal they said an FBI contractor's instruments had detected. "We were embarrassed," Dennis Parada told The Associated Press in his first interview since the well-publicized dig last winter. "They walk us in, and they make us look like dummies. Like we messed up." Since that day, however, neighbors' accounts of late-night excavation and FBI convoys have fueled suspicions that the agency isn't telling the whole truth. The Paradas are challenging the FBI's account of the dig, insisting that something had to have been buried in the woods near Dents Run, about 135 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh. That something, they believe, was gold. "After my years of experience here using equipment, there was something here, something here of value, some kind of precious metal. And whatever it is, it's gone now. And that's what I want to get to the bottom of, is what was in that hole," Kem Parada said. Federal investigators insisted a few days after leaving the site that the search came up empty, adding cryptically that its work there was related to an "ongoing investigation." The FBI declined further comment, and a bureau spokeswoman told the AP last week that court documents related to the dig are sealed. The dispute between the Paradas and the FBI is the latest chapter in a mystery that has persisted for more than a century and a half. As the story goes, around the time of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, the Union Army sent a shipment of gold from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Philadelphia. The wagon train took a circuitous route through the wilds of northern Pennsylvania so as to avoid Confederate troops. Along the way, the gold was either lost or stolen. The legend has inspired generations of treasure hunters to take to the thick woods of northwestern Pennsylvania including Dennis and Kem Parada, who spent five years digging in a cave on state land, and two more years drilling atop the cave, before going to the FBI in January with their evidence. The Paradas showed agents how their sophisticated metal detector lit up like crazy when aimed at the spot where they believed the gold was hidden. Within a month, they said, the FBI had hired an outside firm to conduct an underground scan using a device called a gravimeter. The scan identified a large metallic mass with the density of gold, according to the Paradas and Warren Getler, an author and journalist who's been working with them. So it was with great anticipation that father, son and Getler arrived at the dig site March 13. But nothing went as planned. The treasure hunters and Getler said they had an agreement with the FBI to watch the excavation. Officers instead confined them to their car out of sight of the wooded hillside where a backhoe was digging for six hours that first day before they were finally allowed up the hill. The digging proceeded for another hour before an agent called an abrupt halt at 3 p.m., saying the team was cold, tired and hungry and it would be getting dark soon. They were just 3 feet from the target. "I said, 'You've got three hours of daylight and we're only 3 feet away,'" Dennis Parada recalled. He said the agent replied, "Denny, we're going, we're going." Whether the FBI actually left the woods that afternoon is itself an open question. Cheryl Elder, who lives nearby, told AP she heard what sounded like a backhoe and jackhammer at least until 2 a.m. the noisy machinery keeping her awake and annoying her because she had to rise early for work and she saw that the hillside was brightly lit. "It was just real loud all night," the former constable recalled. "It was driving me nuts." The second day of the excavation was similar to the first, according to the Paradas and Getler. They said they were confined to their car for several hours, then escorted up the hill to the dig site by then a large, empty hole. The FBI had finished the excavation out of their presence, they said. The Paradas said they were cheated of a moment they had spent years working for. "You can only dig the gold up once, and that's a historical moment. And here we were robbed of all that," Dennis Parada said. "I don't understand why they played that game on us." After the Paradas and Getler had left, Elder said, she saw a half-dozen black SUVs at the site. One by one, she said, they backed up to the bottom of the hill and rendezvoused with one of several all-terrain utility vehicles. Elder tried using her binoculars, but couldn't make out what investigators were transferring from the ATVs to the SUVs. Even so, "I know they found gold," she declared. "I know they found it, and they're being sneaky." Heather Selle, who lives in nearby Weedville, said she was getting her kids ready for school on the morning of the second day when she spied a convoy of FBI vehicles driving past including two large armored trucks. "There was too many people involved, there was too much hush-hush, and there's been too much seen," said still another resident, Garrett Osche, whose garage was used as a staging ground for the FBI's initial foray to the Dents Run area weeks before the dig. "Why do you close the road down if you're not loading something out? If you're not sneaking something, why do you need to do what they did?" If Union gold was indeed recovered from the woods, the discovery of a historic and extremely valuable trove of federal property on state-owned land would almost certainly touch off a court battle over who owns it, and whether the Paradas are entitled to a cut. Bill Cluck, their lawyer, said it would be a novel case for the courts, "a law professor's dream final exam." According to the legend, the lost shipment had either 26 gold bars or 52 bars, each weighing 50 pounds (23 kilograms), meaning it would be worth about $25 million or about $50 million today. The Paradas and Getler say the government contractor's scan detected a much larger quantity of precious metal 7 to 9 tons an eye-popping haul that could be worth more than $250 million if every ounce of it was gold. In May, Cluck filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on the FBI's investigation into the legendary gold. The agency demurred, claiming it had no files it could share. Cluck appealed to Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey for help, and, a few weeks ago, the Justice Department ordered the FBI to do a more thorough review. If the bureau determines there are documents it can turn over after all, it could still take months or years to reach that point. "There was definitely some kind of precious metal based on the readings of the instruments at the site," Cluck said. "The fact they wouldn't let them be there for the dig, it's suspicious as hell and it doesn't have to be." A U.S. Border Patrol supervisor was jailed Sunday on $2.5 million bond in Texas, accused of killing at least four women and injuring a fifth who managed to escape. Juan David Ortiz, 35, was in custody in Laredo on four counts of murder along with charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful restraint, Webb County jail records showed. Ortiz was arrested a day earlier, after being found hiding in a truck in a hotel parking lot in Laredo, at about 2 a.m. Saturday, capping what investigators portrayed as a 10-day string of violence. Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said Saturday that investigators "consider this to be a serial killer" whose victims were believed to be prostitutes. Alaniz described how the Customs and Border Patrol intel supervisor continued going to work as usual throughout that time. "As law enforcement was looking for the killer ... he would be reporting to work every day like normal," he said. It all began with the discovery Sept. 4 of the body of 29-year-old Melissa Ramirez. According to a police affidavit, Ortiz said he killed Ramirez a day earlier. Like the other victims, Ramirez was shot in the head and left in a road in rural northwest Webb County. She was a mother of two. A second victim, 42-year-old Claudine Anne Luera, was found shot and left in the road Thursday morning, badly injured but still alive, according to the affidavit. The mother of five died at a hospital later that day. On Friday, according to the affidavit, Ortiz picked up a woman named Erika Pena. She told police she struggled with Ortiz inside his truck, where he pointed a pistol at her, but that she was able to flee. She made it to a gas station where she found a state trooper whom she asked for help. According to the affidavit, Ortiz told investigators that after Pena ran off, he picked up his last two victims, whose identities have not yet been released by authorities. Jail records don't list an attorney to speak for Ortiz, who had worked for Border Patrol for 10 years. Alaniz said the dead are believed to have been prostitutes and that one of them was a transgender woman. At least two were U.S. citizens; the nationalities of the others were not known, he said. He said investigators are still working to determine a motive. Ortiz was believed to have acted alone. The federal agency issued a statement offering its "sincerest condolences" to the victims' families and saying criminal activity by its employees is not tolerated. The Texas Department of Public Safety, whose Texas Rangers are investigating, referred questions on the case to the Webb County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Martin Cuellar did not return several messages seeking comment. Associated Press reporters Diana Heidgerd and Matt Sedensky contributed to this report. The death toll has grown to more than 1,200 following the catastrophic 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Indonesia's central island of Sulawesi on Sept. 28. About 62,000 people have been displaced with fuel and food running out in the aftermath of the natural disasters, which come less than two months since another earthquake struck Lombok Island. [NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More Here's how you can contribute to organizations working to address the disaster: Red Cross Society: Indonesia's Red Cross currently has over 175 volunteers and staff working in the region, conducting search and rescue efforts, offering medical support, and dispersing goods. They will continue doing so for months. Jan Gefland, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the Red Cross' "biggest challenge at the moment is getting access to all communities, and then bringing large quantities of vital relief supplies into the disaster zone." You can donate by mailing a check to your local Red Cross chapter, by writing "Indonesia" in the memo field. Also, here's the IFRC's Sulawesi Tsunami specific donation page. CARE: The humanitarian non governmental relief agency, which partners with USAID, is collecting donations to provide clean drinking water, emergency family shelter, and resources including hygiene kits. UNICEF: The United Nations Children's Fund has taken their humanitarian efforts to Indonesia. They are now collecting donations on their website for issues specific to children, including reuniting children with their families and providing clean water. International Medical Corps: On Friday, the relief agency announced its emergency response team was being dispatched to Indonesia, providing victims with care and supplies. The ask for donations here. Project HOPE: On the ground in Palu, the humanitarian organization is collecting general donations. Donations specific to Indonesia's recovery can be made here. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee: The relief organization is assessing the region's specific needs. A donation, the organization writes, would contribute towards the organization providing emergency medical care, supplies and psychological support. Food for the Hungry: The international relief and development organization, founded in 1971, has a page for direct donations, for "faithfully answering God's call to respond to suffering." The organization is a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Indonesia Earthquake and Tsunami The Indonesian neighborhoods of Petobo, top, and Balaroa, bottom, in Palu as shown before and after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the area. Click here for a larger image. Click here for a larger image. An ominous tweet appeared on a historic North Carolina community's Twitter feed about 2 a.m. Friday. It came as rivers swelled, tides crested and the rain wouldn't stop in New Bern, North Carolina. And that's when people found themselves trapped in their homes as the water rose. "WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU," the tweet said. "You may need to move up to the second story, or to your attic, but WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU." More than 360 people had been rescued by midafternoon Friday, but another 140 were still waiting for help, city spokeswoman Colleen Roberts told The Associated Press. Crews from the city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were working with citizen volunteers to get people to dry ground, Roberts said. There had been no reports of injuries or fatalities, though most of the city was without power and thousands of buildings had been damaged, she said. Sixty-seven-year-old Sadie Marie Holt was among those rescued Friday. Holt, who has diabetes and clogged arteries, said she stayed for doctor's appointments that were canceled at the last minute. She tried to row out of her neighborhood Thursday night with a boat that was in her yard after her home began to flood, but had to retreat because of the poor conditions. "The wind was so hard, the waters were so hard that, trying to get out, we got thrown into trailers. We got thrown into mailboxes. Houses. Trees," Holt said. The city of about 29,000, which was founded in the early 1700s and was briefly the state capital, is near the North Carolina coast and is bordered on the east and south, respectively, by two rivers. When Hurricane Florence started battering eastern North Carolina with record rainfall, the Neuse and Trent rivers began to swell and combined with high tide, made for dangerous flooding. Residents reached out for help through the night by phone and on social media. Dawn Baldwin Gibson, 47, a minister and private school founder who lives on a farm closer to the coast in nearby Pamlico County and runs a Facebook page about weather in eastern North Carolina, had evacuated to New Bern to stay with family, thinking it would be a safer spot. Gibson said Friday that while she and her family were safe, she and her husband had gotten around 75 calls and texts from others asking for help. "And from that point, we started hearing where people were saying on phone calls, 'I love you,' to their family members because they were not sure they were going to get out of it alive," she said Friday. Gibson said she thinks some people couldn't afford to evacuate New Bern and others didn't heed evacuation warnings after Florence dropped from a Category 4 to a Category 1. But once New Bern TV news station WCTI evacuated its newsroom Thursday night because of flooding and people began to lose power, the seriousness of the situation began dawning on folks, she said. Tom Ballance said his wife went to Atlanta and he stayed behind in their New Bern home with their three dogs and a cat. Around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, the electricity went out. By midnight, his rain gauge showed that he'd gotten 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain since midafternoon. He drifted off to sleep. About 40 minutes later, he woke and went to a sun room, where he'd boarded up all the windows except for a small hole. He shone a flashlight through the glass. "I about jumped out of my skin," he said in a phone interview Friday morning. "These were waves crashing down." Those waves were coming from the Neuse River, which is about 25 feet (8 meters) away, and downhill, from his house. He made a plan B: If the water reached the house, he'd take the pets upstairs to the second floor. "The water kept rising and kept rising," he said. But the water never quite made it to his home. Ballance called the rainfall "biblical," saying he's gotten reports from friends that his downtown seafood restaurant was flooded, just like the rest of the downtown. The National Weather Service said flash flooding was expected to continue through the rest of Friday in New Bern and surrounding areas. A 24-hour curfew was in effect. Roberts, the city spokeswoman, said early estimates show about 4,300 residences and 300 commercial buildings had been damaged. She said that count is expected to increase significantly. Police in southern Japan said Tuesday that they are investigating the death of a zookeeper in an apparent attack by a white tiger. Police said Akira Furusho was found bleeding from his neck and lying on the floor Monday evening inside a tiger cage at Hirakawa Zoological Park in Kagoshima. Zoo officials said they believe Furusho was attacked while trying to move a male tiger from its exhibition cage to its night-time cage. The 170-kilogram (375-pound) animal is one of four rare white tigers at the city-operated zoo. Furusho was rushed to a hospital but was later pronounced dead. His autopsy results are pending. Police said they are investigating whether proper safety measures were in place at the zoo. No one saw the moment of the apparent attack. The tiger was sedated with a tranquilizer gun. Zoo director Akinori Ishido told a televised news conference that he was saddened by the loss of his staff. He said safety procedures at the zoo are designed in a way that keepers do not enter a cage for feeding or cleaning while animals are inside. The keeper somehow had entered the same space with the animal, Ishido said. Furusho's family has asked that the zoo keep the tiger alive, according to NHK public television. The white tiger area was closed to the public while police investigate. The city of San Diego is ramping up its battle against the flu virus this season after hundreds of residents died in what was considered the most severe flu seasons in recent memory. The citys efforts will be announced Wednesday as officials prepare for the 2018-2019 flu season. Last fall and winter, the U.S. went through one of the most severe flu seasons in recent memory, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. government estimates that 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last winter the disease's highest death toll in at least four decades. In San Diego County, the 342 residents who died of flu-related causes during the 2017 to 2018 flu season represent a nearly 300 percent increase over the city's 87 deaths during the 2016 to 2017 flu season. Along with promoting vaccination against the flu virus, the city of San Diego will work with Waxie Sanitary Supply and hygiene product manufacturer Gojo Industries to install hand sanitizer stations at all San Diego libraries and recreation centers. County health officials advise that getting a flu vaccine is the best prevention. They said in September that this seasons flu vaccine offers protection against several strains of the flu, including influenza A H3N2, pandemic H1N1-like and influenza B strains. People with pre-existing medical conditions are more likely to experience serious complications from influenza, but healthy persons could unexpectedly have severe illness that leads to disability and death, according to Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer. The vaccine is especially recommended for people with chronic medical conditions like asthma, diabetes and lung disease, pregnant women, those 65 years and older and those who live with or care for others who are at higher risk. There are a number of clinic locations throughout San Diego County offering the influenza vaccine. Click here for the most updated list from the county. For more information, call (866) 358-2966. The length of the upcoming flu season could depend on where you live. Scientists from Oregon State University tracked flu cases in more than 600 areas around the U.S. and found that in larger, crowded cities, flu season lasted longer, regardless of climate. Smaller cities tend to have a shorter, but more intense, flu season. CDC officials do not have exact counts of how many people die from flu each year. Flu is so common that not all flu cases are reported, and flu is not always listed on death certificates. So the CDC uses statistical models, which are periodically revised, to make estimates. Last winter was not the worst flu season on record, however. The 1918 flu pandemic, which lasted nearly two years, killed more than 500,000 Americans, historians estimate. In the days following the murder of three members of a D.C. family and their housekeeper, the man accused of committing the crime searched for countries with no extradition treaties and hideout cities for fugitives on his cellphone, an expert witness testified Tuesday. Daron Wint is charged with murder in the deaths of Savvas Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy, 47; their 10-year-old son, Philip, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57. He is accused of holding the victims captive, extorting $40,000 and setting their Northwest Washington mansion on fire. An expert witness testified Tuesday that when analyzing the cellphone believed to be Wint's, they found the following topics were searched in the four days that followed the murders: 10 hideout cities for fugitives, five countries with no extradition treaty and how to factory reset iPhone6 without Apple password. A forensic pathologist from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore detailed how the victims were killed while prosecutors displayed graphic images on a screen. Many jurors were visibly disturbed. A forensic anthropologist with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in D.C. told the court the burn injuries of Philip were so extensive she had to use X-rays to positively identify his body. She went on to discuss the extent of the boys injuries, which was too emotional for Philips maternal grandmother, who quickly walked out of the courtroom. A verdict could come as soon as the end of the month. Last week, jurors heard from several of Wints family members, including his brother-in-law Derrick Ayling, who testified that Wint showed him a wad of $100 bills and asked him to help burn his blue minivan one day after three members of the Savopoulos family and their housekeeper were murdered and their Northwest Washington home was set on fire. Wints former fiancee, Vanessa Hayles, took an immunity deal to testify and told jurors that Wint stayed with her in New York after the murders. She said he told her he won the lottery and was paying for dinner and shopping sprees in cash. Hayles testified she saw Wints mug shot on TV the night of May 20, 2015. She and Wint fled to a nearby hotel before he would take a cab ride back to D.C. the next day, she said. Wints cousin George Elias also was called to the witness stand and told jurors Wints brother Darrell Wint asked for help to turn him in on May 21. Elias agreed and said he and Darrell Wint were in a box truck with Daron Wint behind them in a car with Darrell Wints friends when U.S. marshals moved in to make the arrest. The prosecution is trying to show Darrell Wint wasn't involved with the murders and went out of his way to help turn his brother in to police. The defense will argue Wints brothers committed the crime. Wint faces life in prison without possibility for release on each murder charge. The minimum sentence is 30 years on each murder charge. The horrible limousine crash in upstate New York raises concerns about the safety of the vehicles. When you're looking for a limo company, check for two incredibly important things: Are they licensed, and have there been any violations against them? In Maryland, limos are regulated by the Public Service Commission. You can check both active and suspended limo company licenses. In Virginia you can find the information you need about a limo company on the DMV's website. Limo companies must be licensed, and the DMV has a database of approved carriers, including limousines, and will provide you with a list of approved limo companies. In DC, limousine companies must be certified by the Department of For-Hire Vehicles, and those that are registered you can search for them on their website. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has a website called Safety and Fitness Electronic Records System (SAFER) that includes information like inspection summaries and crash information for limousines that have interstate operating authority. Never do business with any unlicensed company and ask for proof of the limo company's insurance, then contact the company to make sure they paid their policy. You should also go in person to the limo company and visually inspect the limousines. Often times your gut is a good indication whether you're dealing with a reputable company. After slamming into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods before continuing its destructive charge inland across the Southeast, Hurricane Michael weakened to a tropical storm overnight. It was the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years and at least two deaths have been reported. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Category 4 storm crashed ashore in the early afternoon near Mexico Beach, a tourist town about midway along the Panhandle, a 200-mile stretch of white-sand beach resorts, fishing towns and military bases. After it ravaged the Panhandle, Michael barreled into south Georgia as a Category 3 hurricane the most powerful ever recorded for that part of the neighboring state. It later weakened to a Category 1 hurricane, and there were reports it spawned possible tornadoes in central Georgia. In north Florida, Michael battered the shoreline with sideways rain, powerful gusts and crashing waves, swamping streets and docks, flattening trees, shredding awnings and peeling away shingles. It set off transformer explosions and knocked out power to more than 388,000 homes and businesses. A Panhandle man was killed by a tree that toppled on a home, Gadsden County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Anglie Hightower said. But she added emergency crews trying to reach the home were hampered by downed trees and debris blocking roadways. The man wasn't immediately identified. As the storm hit Georgia, the Seminole County EMA Director Travis Brooks confirmed to NBC that an 11-year-old child was killed in Seminole County in a weather-related death. Exact circumstances were not immediately available. Damage in Panama City was extensive, with broken and uprooted trees and power lines down nearly everywhere. Roofs were peeled off and homes split open by fallen trees. Twisted street signs lay on the ground. Residents emerged in the early evening to assess damage when rains stopped, though skies were still overcast and windy. Vance Beu, 29, was staying with his mother at her apartment, Spring Gate Apartments, a small complex of single-story wood frame apartment buildings. A pine tree punched a hole in their roof and he said the roar of the storm sounded like a jet engine as the winds accelerated. Their ears even popped as the barometric pressure dropped. "It was terrifying, honestly. There was a lot of noise. We thought the windows were going to break at any time. We had the inside windows kind of barricaded in with mattresses," Beu said. Kaylee O'Brien was crying as she sorted through the remains of the apartment she shared with three roommates at Whispering Pines apartments, where the smell of broken pine trees was thick in the air. Four pine trees had crashed through the roof of her apartment, nearly hitting two people. Her 1-year-old Siamese cat, Molly, was missing. "We haven't seen her since the tree hit the den. She's my baby," O'Brien said, her face wet with tears. In Apalachicola, Sally Crown rode out the storm in her house. The worst damage she thought was in her yard. Multiple trees were down. But after the storm passed, she drove to check on the cafe she manages and saw breathtaking destruction. "It's absolutely horrendous. Catastrophic," Crown said. "There's flooding. Boats on the highway. A house on the highway. Houses that have been there forever are just shattered." Gov. Rick Scott announced soon after the powerful eye had swept inland that "aggressive" search and rescue efforts would get underway as conditions allowed. He urged people to stay off debris-littered roads. "If you and your family made it through the storm safely, the worst thing you could do now is act foolishly," he said. Michael was a meteorological brute that sprang quickly from a weekend tropical depression, going from a Category 2 on Tuesday to a Category 4 by the time it came ashore. It was the most powerful hurricane on record to hit the Panhandle. More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast were urged to evacuate as Michael closed in. But the fast-moving, fast-strengthening storm didn't give people much time to prepare, and emergency authorities lamented that many ignored the warnings and seemed to think they could ride it out. Diane Farris, 57, and her son walked to a high school-turned-shelter near their Panama City home, where about 1,100 people crammed into a space meant for about half as many. Neither she nor her son had any way to communicate because their lone cellphone got wet and quit working. "I'm worried about my daughter and grandbaby. I don't know where they are. You know, that's hard," she said, choking back tears. In Panama City, plywood and metal flew off the front of a Holiday Inn Express. Part of the awning fell and shattered the glass front door of the hotel, and the rest of the awning wound up on vehicles parked below it. "Oh my God, what are we seeing?" said evacuee Rachel Franklin, her mouth hanging open. The hotel swimming pool had whitecaps. While reporting on-air from a Panama City hotel, NBC's Lester Holt and his broadcast crew were seen moving the room's mattress in front of the sliding door as winds raged outside. "We want to be on the air, but we've got to take care of each other," Holt said. And footage showed NBC News reporter Kerry Sanders nearly being blown away by Michael's strong winds. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 45 miles from Michael's center at the height of the storm. Forecasters said rainfall could reach up to a foot in spots. And then there was the life-threatening storm surge. A water-level station in Apalachicola, close to where Michael came ashore, reported a surge of nearly 8 feet. Based on its internal barometric pressure, Michael was the third most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland, behind the unnamed Labor Day storm of 1935 and Camille in 1969. Based on wind speed, it was the fourth-strongest, behind the Labor Day storm, Camille and Andrew in 1992. Forecasters said it would unleash damaging wind and rain all the way into the Carolinas, which are still recovering from Hurricane Florence's epic flooding. At the White House, President Donald Trump said, "God bless everyone because it's going to be a rough one," he said. "A very dangerous one." His office said he would tour the devastated areas next week. In Mexico Beach, population 1,000, the storm shattered homes, leaving floating piles of lumber. The lead-gray water was so high that roofs were about all that could be seen of many homes. Hours earlier, meteorologists watched satellite imagery in complete awe as the storm intensified. "We are in new territory," National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. "The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle." Associated Press writers Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Brendan Farrington in St. Marks, Fla.; Russ Bynum in Keaton Beach, Fla.; Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Md., contributed to this story. A registered sex offender from New Hampshire has been arrested on charges he allegedly sexually assaulted a young child whose parent he had befriended. John Lessor, 64, of Concord, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of aggravated felonious sexual assault. Police said detectives began an investigation last week after being contacted by officials at the Merrimack Valley School District. Officials there told police that members of the community said Lessor had been spending a lot of time with a particular child to whom he was not related. Authorities said some of that time was unsupervised. After learning Lessor was a registered sex offender, school officials were notified and they contacted police. Through an investigation, authorities said Lessor had sexually assaulted the victim over a period of time and that the assaults were ongoing. An arrest warrant was issued and Lessor was taken into custody without incident. Jetta Bernier of the Boston-based child advocacy organization MassKids says two thirds of situations involve people similar to this, people who befriend children, who are known and in the parents circle of acquaintances. She urges parents to look at peoples behaviors. Concord police are also crediting citizens with coming forward with the information, and say because of that, a dangerous person is now in custody. This investigation is ongoing and police say additional charges could be forthcoming. Lessor is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Merrimack County Superior Court at 1 p.m. It's unclear if he has an attorney. The Massachusetts State Police say they're backing off efforts to destroy years of audit and payroll records. State police last month sent the secretary of state's office a request to allow for the destruction of 12 boxes of records including detail assignment and roster assignment payroll records covering the years 2009-2012 for Troop F based at Logan Airport. It was the most recent of several requests to destroy years of older payroll records. A state police spokesman said the records fell within state guidelines for destruction and weren't part of any current outside investigation or audit. Police officials say they now plan to retain the records citing ongoing probes into overtime abuse within the department. State and federal investigators have charged multiple troopers as part of the investigations. Democratic Candidate for Governor Jay Gonzalez says its outrageous that the state police sent all these payroll and personnel records to be destroyed while a criminal investigation and audit is underway. And he says the lack of leadership starts at the top: When is Governor Baker going to get a handle on his state police? Gonzalez slammed Republican Gov. Charlie Baker for management failure following a report that state police tried to destroy more than 160 boxes filled with decades worth of documents including payroll and attendance records. Gonzalez said, The Colonel should be fired, the Secretary of Public Safety should be fired, the Governor should appoint someone to lead his state police whos going to root out corruption. State police spokesman Dave Procopio said there was nothing nefarious about the requests due to the age of the documents, but said the agency has decided to back off. "None of the records in question have been destroyed and in light of current ongoing investigations pertaining to similar records, the state police will retain past payroll records until further notice," Procopio said in a statement. But Gonzalez said Wednesday that the agency was "attempting to cover-up widespread corruption and fraud relating to payroll and overtime payment." Greg Sullivan is Research Director at the Pioneer Institute and a former Inspector General under Governors Mitt Romney and Deval Patrick. He describes the event as scandalous and agrees that the timing is suspect but disagrees with who is at fault: I dont blame Baker. I blame the people at the state police who apparently thought that they would pull a fast one and get rid of the records before the investigation could begin. Governor Baker, who ordered the investigation, says there is nothing illegal about destroying those kinds of documents, but given the timing feels what the state police did was a mistake: Im glad they didnt get destroyed. Im glad theres a process in place that determines whether or not they are appropriate for that type of thing. Thats a good fail safe. Gonzalez again called on Baker to fire his State Police Colonel Kerry Gilpin - but Baker says he knows exactly what side of the issue Gilpin is on adding that she has helped the Attorney General and the US Attorney in their investigation of the 46 troopers accused of violating overtime. While Gonzalez maintains Baker has yet to hold anyone accountable for overtime abuses at the state police, at a debate with Gonzalez on Tuesday, Baker said the administration has responded, including disbanding Troop E, which had been linked to the alleged fraud. "We discovered it. We pursue it. And we ended it," Baker said. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington is planning to make information public about priests accused long ago of sexually abusing their parishioners. Bishop Christopher Coyne said Wednesday it is part of an effort to restore trust and transparency in the church. We were responsible for these heinous and sinful acts, Coyne acknowledged. We have nobody to blame but ourselves in finding ourselves in the place we are today. Coyne announced a new committee to review what he expects will be 25 or 30 old files on sexual abuse by priests. The bishop said that group will help guide the diocese in making public the names and certain details about the accused. Before any documents release, Coyne said his office would notify survivors and relatives of any deceased clergy on the list, to give them a heads up to minimize potential pain or re-traumatization. Coynes goal, he said, is to restore trust, and to let survivors know their experiences were heard and respectedto help them find healing. The only way, I guess, we can get people to trust us is to stop this stuff and make sure it doesnt happen again, Coyne told reporters. The move comes at a time of renewed scrutiny on Catholic institutions worldwide. A high-profile article for BuzzFeed News this summer thrust into the spotlight allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the defunct St. Josephs Orphanage in Burlington more than 40 years ago, including claims of murder. "I saw somebody push a boy out a window," former St. Joseph's resident Sally Dale said in unearthed deposition video accompanying the BuzzFeed News story. "I knew it was a nun, because she had the habit." The attention prompted the formation of a new city and state task force that is now probing what really went on in that orphanage, looking for evidence of possible cover-ups. Theres a lot of pain that needs to be reconciled and healed, Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan said September 10 at the announcement of the formation of the task force. And this is not going to be easy. Donovan noted at the time that the investigation will surely be difficult, given how old the claims are and the fact many people involvedincluding the religious order that ran the orphanagehave moved out of Vermont. The task force is also looking to hear from former residents like Katelin Hoffman, who told her story to necn affiliate NBC 5 News. I really struggled all my life, Hoffman said in an NBC 5 report last month. I was sexually abused there once by a caseworker and a priest as soon as I got there. Any cruel thing that they could do, they did. The Burlington Police Department is maintaining an online portal to take information from people who want to report abuse. A city spokeswoman said last month that police dispatchers have also been trained to take calls, with access to a screening form and intake information for older folks who may not have computer access. The phone number for the Burlington Police Department is 802-658-2704. Bishop Coyne has promised full cooperation with the task force and called the church a safe place todaythanks to current child protection protocols. As for the clergy files thatll be reviewed before theyre publicized, Coyne pointed out they are from settled cases. Any fresh allegations would be handled by police and prosecutors, not this new community panel, he noted. Coyne said in the past 16 years, only one substantiated allegation has been made against a priest, in a case involving a vulnerable adult. The diocese said no priest currently in its ranks has had a credible and substantiated claim made against him. The bishop added that he hopes the new review committee will include some non-Catholics, as well as, possibly, retired members of law enforcement and representatives of area non-profits, to ensure greater impartiality and transparency. There was no timeline placed on the review panels work, but Coyne said he will express a sense of urgency to the group when it startsthough he added that he wants it to be a thorough process. The Diocese of Norwich has appointed four Anna Chaplains to provide pastoral support to older people in Norfolk. The Diocese of Norwich has appointed four Anna Chaplains to provide pastoral support to older people in Norfolk. Mulbarton mum offers a guided approach to Advent Sarah Miller, a vicars wife from Mulbarton in south Norfolk, will be hosting a gentle evening to help you settle into Advent. Read more Church and Tenant Empowerment Worker Hope Into Action are looking for someone to join the Norwich team for 18 hours a week as an Empowerment Worker. The primary work location is Great Yarmouth but you will also need to work in Norwich. Read more Discover the benefits of giving Andrew Frere Smith describes how a generous spirit can benefit the giver as well as those who receive the gifts. Read more YMCA Norfolk celebrates double awards success Two teams from YMCA Norfolk were presented with national awards at the annual Youth Matters Awards in London on Friday evening, held at the Grand Sheraton Hotel hosted by YMCA England and Wales. Read more Ocean, climate change and Christianity talk Professor Meric Srokosz recently came to Norwich to give a talk about the oceans, climate change and Christianity. The lecture was delivered in St Peter Mancroft Church underneath, Gaia, the large rotating globe depicting planet Earth. Read more Matthew Project opens its recovery hub doors Drug and alcohol misuse charity The Matthew Project this week opened the doors of its Norwich recovery hub to its supporters and the wider community. Read more Make friends and re-fuel at Fakenham church centre Salvation Army leaders in Fakenham are inviting people in the town to come and attend two new community groups which started this autumn. Read more YMCA Norfolk needs an On-Track Coach YMCA Norfolk is looking for an On Track, giving the advice and help young people need to make the most of the things they are good at. Read more Chance to see epic tale of man who changed China The epic tale of a Norwich man who gave up all to change the Chinese nation is being told in the feature documentary, Children of Shanghai at Cinema City Norwich on Tuesday November 23 at 6pm. Read more Broadland Christian offers free tech support A Christian living in Wroxham is offering free technology support to anyone who is retired or disabled through an organisation called AbilityNet. Read more Lady Dannatt praises Community Chaplaincy Norfolk Lady Dannatt, the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk, applauded the work of Community Chaplaincy Norfolk (CCN) when she spoke at its annual meeting. Read more Running the race with Jesus Regular columnist Ruth Lilley has been running a half marathon, but she did have some help Read more Christian care home celebrates Fran's service Tenants at Brakendon Close independent living community enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea in celebration of nearly ten years dedicated service by Fran Veale. Read more Convert Nissar to tell his story at Norwich dinner Nissar Hussain, a high profile convert from Islam to Christianity, who has suffered persecution for his decision, is the speaker at the Christmas dinner of the Norwich FGB on December 13 in Norwich. Read more Norfolk charity provides some soul space for young people As we move into a new season North Breckland Youth for Christ is finding innovative ways to engage with young people. Read more Eaton quilt of kindness displays bright things from darks times A Quilt of Kindness produced by a crafters group in Eaton will be on display in Christ Church later this month. Read more Engagement, property and youth worker needed YMCA Norfolk is looking for a Housing Engagement Worker, a Property Co-ordinator and a Youth Project Lead. Read more With wireless now the preferred, default, and increasingly only access in the majority of in-building, campus, metro-scale hotspot and wide-area settings, achieving optimal performance is a key objective for IT departments. Since radio-frequency (RF) propagation always involves a high degree of variability, its often difficult to predict the precise behavior of a given installation. Variables include operating conditions, user and application traffic demands, and the capabilities and settings of individual vendor products. When mobility, Wi-Fi testing and verification are also taken into consideration, performance evaluation can become very complex indeed. Performance variables include throughput, coverage, time-bounded traffic (primarily telephony and streaming video), reliability, security, rate-vs.-range behavior and traffic varying with motion, range, time of day and location. Perhaps the most important is capacity the ability to successfully address the requirements of all traffic demands in any given location and at any given moment. With Wi-Fi equipment price/performance ratios continually improving with advances in standards, technologies and implementations, many IT shops have taken a brute-force approach: Just upgrade and/or add access points (AP) and Wi-Fi controllers, Ethernet switches and related hardware as indicated. Unfortunately, this approach often doesnt optimize performance and is costly in terms of both equipment and the time required of network operations professionals. In the interest of finding a better way, we interviewed a number of experts to derive a set of best practices for Wi-Fi performance optimization. We focused on the three major phases of any large-scale Wi-Fi installation: planning and pre-installation; post-installation functional and performance testing and verification; and dealing with ad-hoc performance issues (troubleshooting). We also sought suggestions for a requisite operations toolset, and, we asked about future directions for Wi-Fi performance optimization. Our interviewees include Dr. Eldad Perahia, distinguished technologist in Arubas CTO Office; Matthew MacPherson, senior director, WLAN, Jim Florwick, senior technical market engineer, and Nilesh Doshi, software test manager, all from Cisco; Ekahau CEO Mika Hakala and product manager Jerry Olla; Mike Leibovitz, senior director of product management at Extreme Networks; Ali Youssef, principal mobility architect at Henry Ford Health System; Bob Friday, co-founder and CTO of Mist Systems; and Dr. Leigh Chinitz, CTO at octoScope. Wi-Fi performance optimization: planning stage Our experts agree that much can be done to optimize solution performance and to prevent operational issues, even before deciding upon specific equipment and its subsequent installation. Hakala recommends designing for end-user quality experience (QoE), capacity and latency, rather than coverage alone. Olla adds that understanding user location, density and application demands are key to assuring capacity. Olla also notes that surveying physical space to understand RF behavior can avoid numerous opportunities for headaches later. Chinitz suggests that testing individual access points under realistic operating conditions and loads can assist in both understanding the limitations of individual APs as well as in the calculation of capacity. Adding a second AP enables the testing of roaming, load balancing and bandsteering, and can in most cases reveal location-specific path loss and dead zones. Youssef says a walk-around AP-on-a-stick test can be useful in potentially difficult environments, like hospitals. Hes even seen interior paint negatively impact RF performance. Mist Systems is a major proponent of bringing indoor Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-based location on par with outdoor GPS. Friday argues that the higher-density AP spacing ideal for indoor use cases is also beneficial in optimizing Wi-Fi deployments. Florwick recommends an initial RF sweep for potential interferers in the unlicensed bands, Wi-Fi or otherwise, and to pick initial Wi-Fi channels accordingly. Optimal channel bandwidth is often a function of both interference and channel utilization. Perahia suggests that building analytical models of the anticipated load, even using just a spreadsheet, can be useful in analyzing capacity assumptions. Leibovitz says that a careful examination of the remainder of the network (beyond Wi-Fi alone) for capacity, management, and local services like DHCP, can avoid problems down the road, as wire-side issues often reveal themselves on the wireless elements of the network. Its also important to consider emerging, potential and anticipated not just current traffic demands, such as those from IoT. Wi-Fi performance verification All of our participants agree that post-installation functional testing and performance verification are essential and should include at least a minimal sample of users with production applications under realistic operating conditions. Youssef says that he usually sees more issues related to products, particularly client devices, than RF. Wide variability in client behavior and compatibility is common, along with issues such as driver settings inappropriately changed by otherwise well-meaning end-users. He suggests a cursory re-survey of deployed space annually, noting that facilities organizations also sometimes move or deactivate APs for other-than-nefarious purposes. Perahia cautions that inappropriate (out of spec) or defective AP wiring can result in unexpectedly poor performance. Doshi recommends alpha testing a new deployment before allowing users on, measuring such elements as voice quality and roaming behavior. MacPherson suggests using analytics tools and making use of facilities commonly available in management consoles. Leibovitz suggests occasional spot checks in multiple locations with a specific end-user device, even in installations that appear to be functioning normally. Olla points out that documentation is critical at all stages of deployment even observational notes can provide solid clues when verifying functional performance. Wi-Fi troubleshooting and toolsets Our participants note that the software and/or hardware toolset used to verify performance is also appropriate when troubleshooting, so its important to have both data-gathering and analysis/analytics capabilities that cover RF, wireless network behavior, the wired network, and in some cases the client and WAN as well. Leibovitz recommends that installations should gather as much operating data as possible, since its easier to spot patterns when a lot of data is available. Analytics capabilities are increasingly important here. Olla suggests checking the remainder of the network value chain for problems despite user protestations that the issue is by definition wireless. Chinitz adds that talking with end-users can yield valuable insights. Youssef recommends the use of a third-party, standalone Wi-Fi analysis and assurance tool, independent of the selected management console, so as to get a second opinion beyond the management console and gain access to a different set of troubleshooting strategies. Friday says having a real-time cloud-based management stack with API access enables superior automation and troubleshooting for end-user organizations and third-party toolset providers alike, enabling new use cases to be quickly developed and deployed. He also notes the availability of natural-language query systems that can answer questions on par with a network domain expert, and expects additional speed and accuracy in these over the next couple of years. Perahia recommends testing particularly vexing situations with a second AP from a different vendor. If the results are uniformly poor with both, the chances are that the client is at fault. He also recommends the use of packet-sniffing software, and even simple benchmarking tools like Iperf can be useful in quickly isolating troublesome clients, APs and traffic types. Even after almost three decades of the widespread use of WLANs in organizations everywhere, theres clearly still much that can be done to augment performance optimization and related operational elements. Future trends in Wi-Fi performance optimization The Wi-Fi experts we interviewed say they expect to see more sophisticated analytics tools, including advanced capabilities based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These capabilities are already enabling the automated remediation of issues in advance of operations-staff awareness. Friday refers to these as self-driving networks. Chinitz talks about virtual benchmarking, which involves testing an access point (and potentially even client devices) in a specially designed RF-isolated chamber under a very large set of conditions, with the results then quantified into a profile than can be used to predict real-world results. According to Perahia, future operational-performance analysis and optimization will depend upon information gathered directly from client devices and not just infrastructure. The reason for this is the increasing utilization of beamforming, multi-user MIMO, and other techniques that can result in traditional sensors and assurance tools being in an RF null during a particular transmission. WLAN chipset vendors will likely be required to augment client functionality here, so as to gather the required performance data. MacPherson says that SDN will likely play an increasing role in both data gathering and in optimization within the wireless segments of the organizational network. He also notes that management console interfaces will need to be simpler and more precise, and leverage the rise of AI and ML. At the very least, it would be helpful to have a basic benchmarking server, perhaps something like speedtest.net, and as simple as iperf, implemented within APs, so that the actual performance of a given airlink can be analyzed easily. This is a big step up from knowing only the reported signaling rate, which can vary widely and rapidly in operation, and, regardless, is of little use in performance optimization. New primary school included in first wave of development DETAILED plans to build 401 homes near to Vodafones world headquarters in Donnington are being drawn up. Developer Commercial Estates Group (CEG) won permission to build the homes to the north and west of Vodafone HQ on appeal in March last year. West Berkshire Council withdrew all its objections to the scheme during a planning inquiry, despite residents saying it would destroy the beautiful Donnington valley, cause traffic mayhem and increase the risk of flooding. A year-and-a-half later and detailed plans are being lodged for the first wave of the development, which includes a new primary school off Love Lane. Jon Allen from CEG said: Barratt and David Wilson Homes is preparing a Reserved Matters (detailed) planning application for the first phase of the development. This will include the land for the school being made available to the county council. A reserved matters application covers the appearance, height and density of buildings on a site, as well as road layouts. North Newbury was mooted as an alternative to the 2,000-home development at Sandleford, but was rejected by the council. Mr Allen continued: The development includes funds to improve the bus service and Robin Hood roundabout. "It will bring forward homes for families, first-time buyers and the elderly, alongside education and transport improvements, extensive green space, parks, orchards and allotments. BRIDGEWATER Bud and Maureen Wright moved to Bridgewater in 1972, looking for some open land for their horses. Shortly after, Bud Wright became one of the original members of the Bridgewater Land Trust so they could work to preserve these open spaces. He made another step in his conservation goal with the recent sale of the development rights of Comanche Hill Farm to the state Department of Agriculture ensuring the 34 acres can never be developed. It was always a dream of both of us to protect farming because we hated the idea of developers coming in and plopping houses in the middle of beautiful land, Wright said. In our own small way, we were able to protect 85 acres in Bridgewater. Were pretty proud of that. The 34 acres, the vast majority of which is considered prime or important farmland, are protected through the Farmland Preservation Program, which keeps the land for agricultural uses. Though the state has the development rights, the owner still owns the land and continues to pay local property taxes. More than 45,000 acres at hundreds of farms have been protected under the state program. The long-term goal is to protect 130,000 acres. The Bridgewater sale, which gave Wright $13,000 per acre, is the first application the Weantinoge Heritage Land Trust has filed with the Farmland Preservation Program. The Wrights came to Weantinoge in 2015, when they learned the trust was beginning to get northwestern farmers in the program. The deal closed this summer. Seven other farms have been enrolled in the program in the past two years in several Litchfield County towns, including New Milford. Protecting farmland has become an increasing important part of what we do, said Catherine Rawson, Weantinoges executive director. Aside from this program, the trust has preserved 29 working farms and 3,000 acres of agriculture soil in its 52-year history. The trust began partnering with the DOA a few years ago to protect land after requests from young farmers for suggestions of places to start farming and lifetime farmers who wanted more access to farmland, Rawson said. About 15 percent of the states farmland was lost between 1985 and 2010, with development as the biggest threat. Paul Elconin, Weantinoges director of land conservation, said Litchfield County is underrepresented in the Farmland Preservation Program, accounting for about 25 to 30 percent of the acreage. He said a lot of the protections are in the eastern part of the state, where there are more active farms and cheaper land. This farm is part of Bud and Maureens outstanding legacy of land protection and looking out for Bridgewater, Elconin said. Wright bought the property from Emma Randall in 1990 for $400,000. Hes been growing hay on it ever since. We promised her we would never develop it, Wright said. DOA Commissioner Steven Reviczky said the program is important for the states future and quality of life. He said the department only has three employees who work on the program statewide and these partnerships with municipalities and land trusts are needed. We cant do the work alone, he said. Being able to partner with Weantinoge is important to protect these irreplaceable farms across Connecticut. He said the farmers deciding to protect their land are essential because, though they are compensated, they could make more money from some of the developers offers. Wright said he encourages other farmers and landowners to protect their properties. He said Weantinoge made enrolling in the program easy and the state paid him a lot of money to protect it, while still leaving the land in his ownership. He said he knows others interested in protecting their land but who are hesitant to sell the development rights to the state because of the taxes on that amount. He urged state legislators to create a law that would prevent that money from being taxed and encourage more people to preserve their land. I think that would be the next step forward to preserve land, Wright said. Theyre running out of farmland in Connecticut. You cant move fast enough. kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345 BRIDGEWATER Demolition of the historic Grange is stalled as the state looks into whether its feasible to restore the 1850s-era building instead of replacing it with a new structure. In 2016, the Board of Selectmen presented a plan to demolish the building, which was condemned a few years ago, and build a new structure. A group of residents discovered, however, that it was in a historic district and on the National Register of Historic Places. The finding prompted the state to examine whether the Grange could be replaced. Were hopeful that we can find a solution that saves a building, said Todd Levine, a historian with the state Historic Preservation Office. Last month, the Attorney Generals Office filed an injunction against the demolition while more information can be collected at the request of the Historic Preservation Council a group of history experts under the State Historic Preservation Office. A structural engineer will assess the property in the coming weeks to determi ne the condition of the building and costs associated with restoring it. If the costs are too high, the state will most likely OK the removal, but if the state thinks renovation is possible, the demolition wont get the green light. If the state doesnt approve the demolition, the town will have to decide if it wants to renovate or build a new community space somewhere else, most likely by the senior center, where there is room, parking and a septic connection. Bridgewater First Selectman Curtis Reed said he would prefer to demolish the building and replace it with a new structure that has historical elements. Id like to build a building that can be there for 150 years, Reed said. In disrepair The building was erected as a one-room schoolhouse in 1854. A second floor was added in 1900. Reed said that addition is causing a bulk of the problems because the supports werent designed to hold another floor. There is also asbestos and termite damage. The building is in terrible condition, whichever way you slice it, Reed said. The buildings condition has prompted the towns insurance provider to reduce its coverage and require the town to put up a chain link fence and warning signs around the building to keep people out. Jean Bandler, a member of the Grange who supports the restoration, acknowledged the organization needed help with the maintenance, which is one of the reasons the building was sold to the town for $1 back in 1999. She said they thought the town would take over the upkeep, but not much has been done. I dont think anyone wants a luxurious building that wouldnt be in keeping with the nature of the Grange but we want a renovated, functioning building, she said. Granges were started as farmers unions to fight against monopolies that were increasing the costs of shipping and storing their crops. They were also social gathering places for the local farmers, a tradition that survives today, Bandler said. The Bridgewater Grange formed in 1900 and has about 50 members. It certainly has a lasting and long tradition in Bridgewater, Brandler said. Historic downtown David Sposato, a resident who supports the renovation, said the historic buildings in Bridgewater are an important characteristic of the town and need to be preserved. Bridgewater is a community that puts value on the historic nature of the buildings around the town green, he said. Every building you see on the green is very much a period building, and I love to see that. Bandler said the Planning and Zoning Commission worked to protect that historic character when she served on it years ago. She described the Grange as a simple New England building. Its not anything fancy at all, but its very emblematic of that style, she said. To me, it really fits in beautifully with the Main Street area in Bridgewater. Reed said this is one of 61 historical buildings in the district, and not as historically significant as the other structures. Greek revival doorways on either end is not, in my mind, historically significant, but Im not the judge on that, Reed said. Im trying to keep the towns financial interests. Renovation or new The town received three bids to renovate the building, with the average bid at $1.6 million. The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and the state Office of Historic Preservation said they have grants available to help offset the costs, though Levine said the amount hasnt been determined. Bandler said residents will be more open to renovation with the help of the grants. Reed said they would not be eligible for grants if they build a new building, which is expected to cost $900,000, but said the town is fiscally strong and able to afford it. He said the grants should be used for other historic preservation projects. A renovation will also have a higher labor cost, based on a law that requires a municipality to pay premium on labor when the project costs more than $100,000. For a new construction project that threshold increases to $1 million. Reed questions how much of the original building will remain, even with the renovation. The windows, supports and roof will all have to be replaced, as well as new electrical, heating and plumbing systems installed. The exterior is painted with lead-based paint and the siding will have to be removed, encapsulated and put back on. By the time youre done, 90 percent of the building is brand-new, Reedsaid. The new building would be one story with a basement and a kitchen out back. If the building is renovated as is, the kitchen, storage and bathrooms would have to go on the first floor, with the meeting space upstairs. This would require an elevator, which would increase the price, Reed said. Another factor is the oil contamination under the corner of the building, which Reed said is harder to remediate if the building is still there because the structure has to be jacked up. Theres also a risk of the work weakening the soil the Grange sits on. Reed has suggested the residents form a nonprofit to collect the grants and raise the remaining costs to preserve the building. Bandler and Sposato said theyve considered doing that but want to do it with the town. We want to work with the town as best as possible, they said. Longtime Republican incumbent Arthur ONeill and Democratic challenger Greg Cava offer voters of the state Houses 69th District sharp differences on tolls and other plans to get the state out of its financial crisis. ONeill argues the state needs to cut spending and cut taxes, while Cava said the state needs to be more efficient and find new revenue streams. Among Cavas suggestions is highway tolls a plan ONeill vehemently opposes. Its just another tax to be imposed on the people of Connecticut, said ONeill, a 15-term representative from Southbury who is the Houses longest-serving GOP member. But Cava argues taxes are higher here because Connecticut residents alone bear the cost of maintaining roads and bridges, unlike in New York or Massachusetts, where drivers passing through the state share the burden through tolls. Its not a tax, said Cava, a Roxbury resident and member of the Region 12 Board of Education. Its a user fee. Still, the candidates agree on supporting measures to help seniors stay in the state. The 69th District covers Bridgewater, Roxbury, Washington and Southbury, where a large number of seniors live because of Heritage Village, a community for adults 55 and older. Both candidates back freezing property taxes for retirees, a move they said would help seniors afford to stay in their homes. I want to make Connecticut a place that people want to retire to, Cava said. For ONeill, improving Connecticuts economy comes down to reducing taxes to encourage businesses that left the state to return, and to attract new business. To do that, the state must cut spending and address the problems with pensions for state employees and teachers, ONeill said. He criticized state employees options to drive up their pension benefits by working overtime in their last few years before retirement. He said he was against outgoing Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloys plan for towns to cover part of the cost of teacher pensions. That is a terrible thing to shift this cost to the municipalities, ONeill said. Its been a responsibility of the state. He proposed reducing spending by extending the wage freeze for state employees and keeping positions open when staff retire. He said the state should cut the budgets of some departments and agencies, such as the Commission on Equity and Opportunity and the Board of Regents for state colleges. ONeill said the Regents is a waste of money, providing bloated salaries to former members of the governors administration. (The Board of Regents) is not really necessary, he said. They dont do anything functionally. They dont educate people. They dont take care of people. They dont provide housing for people, but they drive tuition up. Meanwhile, Cava said the state House needs new representatives to develop fresh ideas to improve the economy, especially in western Connecticut. Every year, we send the same people to Hartford and we do the same things and come up with new and improved gimmicks to balance our budget, said Cava who twice ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the state Senate. What were not doing is anything about the structural problems that are leading to these things. In the short term, the state government needs to become more efficient and deliver the same services for less money, Cava said. Then the state needs to focus on its strengths its educational systems and its workforce to help boost the economy. We have really smart people, Cava said. We have great educational institutions. We have the best industrial workforce in the world. What we need to do is leverage those (strengths) in partnerships with corporate efforts. Cava said he would focus on creating a program to encourage students to pursue trades, such as mechanics or carpentry. These fields are becoming less popular in part because school guidance counselors stress attending traditional colleges, rather than trade schools. We need to make sure people understand the value of those trades, Cava said. ONeill suggested turning the Southbury Training School into an indoor farming center, which would provide jobs for students at nearby vocational and agricultural schools. The state plans to eventually close the training school, which is a facility for adults with developmental disabilities. He got the idea from his wife, Ruby Corby ONeill, who ran in the Republican primary for the U.S. House 5th District. He said he could start planning for the proposal this legislative session. This is a new area of economic activity for the state of Connecticut, ONeill said. That would be something if we could catch a wave like that for the future, rather than trying to hang onto the past. jperkins@newstimes.com 203-731-3337 To the Editor: There are thousands of jobs open in Connecticut, but our students are not always qualified to get them. A garage in northwest Connecticut was not able to get a young automobile mechanic who would be able to work the computer. Without enough computer competence these days, it is impossible to work on cars. Some large companies in southern Connecticut have been importing computer technicians from India. Now UConn has enlarged its campus in Hartford to offer training in science, math and technology to help students prepare for these jobs. That is why David Lawson feels so strongly, if elected as our state senator for the 30th District, he would push for more support for community colleges and technical and vocational schools to train our students for the jobs now available. David was a teacher, and when he was on the New Milford Board of Education, they approved full-day kindergarten for all children. That gives a chance to strengthen all childrens basic learning skills before starting the school experience. As a father of two children, David also feels he wants to strengthen the security in our schools to be sure the children are safe. David Lawsons strong support for education is why I feel he would be a wonderful state senator in the 30th District. Liz Piel Sharon WASHINGTON Shepaug Valley Schools new agSTEM academy may be designed around agriculturally focused classes, but administrators want the public to know it will teach students more than farming. With state approvals finalized and construction set to begin in November, Superintendent Megan Bennett said the focus has shifted to writing curriculum for the program, which will open next year. Students in the agriscience academy will explore four pathways with a focus on the STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and math. These are: plant systems animal systems food products and processing systems power, structural and technical systems During a presentation last week, Bennett said the goal is to prepare students not only for college and high-paying jobs, but for the way the world is changing exponentially due to technology. The first thing we say is, How is this elevated? Bennett said. We are producing the workers of tomorrow and we are producing the college students of tomorrow ... we are creating students for problems we dont even know yet. Bennett included a video showing how technology has changed the way students learn and the problems they will be asked to solve, such as environmental issues, sustainability challenges and consumer responsibility. The academys students from Region 12 and surrounding towns can try each of the four areas of study in their freshman and sophomore years, Bennett said. They will then choose one pathway to commit to their junior year that will be the focus of a required internship. A new agriscience teacher, Lori Trovato, has been building relationships with local businesses for this part of the program, as well as preparing the curriculum for next year, Principal Kimberly Gallo said. The time to start actually writing the specific curriculum for courses is with the teachers who are going to teach it and with their expertise and that is happening now, Gallo said. Bennett and Gallo said the agriscience piece will enhance and update curriculum Shepaug is already teaching. The new program will add to this by bringing the agriscience angle into regular courses and offering electives in agriscience to students not in the program, they said. About 80 percent of agriscience students time will be spent in regular Shepaug classes and 20 percent of their time in agriscience-focused classes. The academy is expected to include 35,750 square feet of new construction at Shepaug Valley School while using previously unused space within the school. Bennett will hold similar talks in Region 12s other two towns, Bridgewater and Roxbury, in the coming weeks, she said. A new section has been added to Region 12s website about the project and will be updated as it moves along, Bennet said, including a FAQ section based on questions submitted by residents. We can start talking about some of the numbers coming in instead of talking about (whats) anticipated, Bennett said. This is a good opportunity to talk about what is, was and what will be. aquinn@newstimes.com Antiepileptic drug use is associated with an increased risk of stroke among persons with Alzheimers disease, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. The risk did not differ between old and new antiepileptic drugs. The results were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The risk of stroke was particularly elevated for the first three months of antiepileptic drug use, and remained elevated after accounting for several chronic disorders, socioeconomic position and use of concomitant medications. According to another recent study from the same research group, persons with Alzheimers disease use antiepileptic drugs more often than persons without Alzheimers disease. The difference was not explained by epilepsy, and there was a considerable increase in antiepileptic drug use around the time when Alzheimers disease was diagnosed. Up to 1% of population needs chronic antiepileptic treatment to control epilepsy. Other indications for antiepileptic drug use include neuropathic pain and dementia-related behavioral symptoms in persons with Alzheimers disease. The present findings indicate that as persons with Alzheimers disease are particularly susceptible to adverse events, the use of antiepileptic drugs for other indications than epilepsy or neuropathic pain should be carefully considered in this vulnerable population. The studies were based on the nationwide register-based MEDALZ cohort that includes all community-dwelling persons with clinically verified diagnosis of Alzheimers disease in Finland during 20052011 (70,718 people). Data on antiepileptic drug use was extracted from the Finnish Prescription Register. To assess the risk of stroke associated with antiepileptic drug use, each antiepileptic drug user was matched to a non-user. The study was conducted at the University of Eastern Finland and funded by the Academy of Finland. Researchers with the Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health & Sciences University found that a history of binge drinking made male and female mice react differently to traumatic stress. The research may help scientists understand why men and women seem to handle both alcohol and stress differently. The results were published in the September 2018 issue of the journal Alcohol. A history of binge drinking is a strong predictor of alcohol dependence, and alcohol use disorder is often characterized by repeated episodes of binge drinking. Excessive drinking is the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States, and accounts for nearly 6 percent of deaths globally. Stress may shift alcohol use from recreational to excessive, according to the researchers. Posttraumatic stress disorder in particular has been linked with the development of alcohol use disorders. Of people with PTSD, 28 percent of women and 52 percent of men also have an alcohol use disorder. The rate of PTSD and alcohol use disorder together is even higher in the VA system, with reports of almost 70 percent in hospitalized veterans. The relationship between the two conditions goes both ways: PTSD symptoms appear to promote excessive drinking, and alcohol abuse worsens PTSD symptoms. Past research has shown that abnormalities in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis--interconnected biological systems that control how the body reacts to stress--are present in both PTSD and alcohol use disorder. Differences between the sexes have also been seen in how the HPA axis responds to stress. So how do these biological differences between the sexes affect the complex relationship between alcohol use and PTSD? To answer this question, the researchers looked to a mouse study. They simulated binge drinking in mice by providing alcohol as the only source of hydration for the rodents. A group of male and female mice had seven intermittent binge drinking sessions, followed by a month of abstinence from access to alcohol. Another group of male and female mice drank water as a control. The researchers then intermittently exposed the mice to dirty rat bedding to cause stress. Previous research has shown that the odor of predators can produce behavioral and physiological responses in rodents similar to those seen following traumatic stress in humans. An earlier phase of the study showed that the dirty rat bedding increased anxiety-related behavior and increased the levels of corticosterone--a stress hormone--in both male and female mice. Lead author Dr. Deborah Finn, a research pharmacologist at the VA Portland Health Care System and professor in the department of behavioral neuroscience at OHSU, explains that her team used a device called the "elevated plus maze" to measure anxiety-related behavior in the mice. "We measure the amount of time the mouse spends in the open and closed arms in the apparatus, and some other behaviors, during a five-minute test. A mouse that exhibits more anxiety-related behavior will spend more time in the closed, protected arms, whereas a mouse that exhibits less anxiety-related behavior will spend more time in the open arms." Before and after the mice were exposed to the dirty rat bedding, they were offered two bottles to drink from, one with alcohol and one with water. Each bottle was equipped with a "lickometer," a device that recorded both the amount and frequency of drinking. Male mice that previously had drunk water increased their alcohol licks by 24 percent after four stress periods over 22 days, compared with their baseline drinking prior to the beginning of the stress period. For male mice in the binge drinking group, ethanol licks increased by 65 percent. Drinking behavior after stress--how often the mice drank and how much they drank each time they went to the bottle--increased across time for the male binge group but not the control group. In the female mice, no difference appeared between the binge-drinking group and the water group. Stress caused female mice to drink more alcohol, but the binge group did not increase their intake more than the control group, as was seen in the males. The female binge mice increased their alcohol licks by 5 percent, while the control group increased by 6 percent. However, there were two clear subgroups in the females. One group of female mice increased their drinking much more than the group average, suggesting they were more sensitive to stress. For female mice in the stress-sensitive subgroup, binge females increased their drinking by 87 percent and control females increased their drinking by 214 percent, compared to the pre-stress baseline drinking levels. This result suggested to the researchers that this group had a more dramatic response to stress, when compared to the responses in males, but prior binge drinking did not exacerbate the response to stress as in the males. The researchers found neurochemical and physiological differences between males and females, in addition to the changes in alcohol drinking behavior. When testing blood plasma, they found that predator stress exposure significantly increased corticosterone levels in mice that were consuming alcohol, with higher levels in females than in males. This finding is consistent with evidence for sex differences in HPA axis responsivity to stress. However, the stress-induced increase in corticosterone levels was lower than that observed in the mice that had never consumed alcohol, especially in the male mice. This result suggested to the researchers that a history of alcohol drinking might dampen the stress response to predator odor, particularly in male mice. The researchers also used a test called a Western blot to measure protein levels in the brain tissue of the mice. They focused on the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, two brain regions that are important in the stress response. Two proteins involved in regulating the stress response, corticotropin releasing factor receptor 1 (CRF-R1) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR), were significantly increased by traumatic stress exposure and a history of alcohol drinking in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of female mice. Similar increases were not observed in the male mice. The clear sex difference in CRF-R1 and GR levels suggested that the HPA axis may respond differently in males and females to repeated traumatic stress and the long-term alcohol drinking. While the research was conducted using mice, it could have implications for how humans react to both excessive drinking and traumatic stress. Ample evidence from past research shows that men and women are affected differently both by stress and by alcohol. Lifetime prevalence of PTSD is reported to be twice as high in women as in men, whereas prevalence of alcohol use disorder with PTSD is higher in males than in females. Men and women also tolerate alcohol differently, past studies show. In general, men seem to have a higher tolerance for alcohol than women. Past research suggests that there may be more complex chemistry involved than just body weight. For example, men may metabolize alcohol faster than women because their bodies produce more of an enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the liver. Women also develop alcohol-related problems such heart disease, liver damage, and brain damage after fewer years of heavy drinking, compared with men. The researchers plan to use their model to look for biological and molecular mechanisms that could confer sensitivity or resilience to binge drinking and traumatic stress exposure. They emphasize that traumatic stress and binge drinking together have a greater effect than either on its own, and that men and women may need to be treated differently for these conditions. The lab research could eventually help lay the groundwork for new treatment strategies for veterans and others with both PTSD and alcohol use disorders. Source: https://www.research.va.gov/currents/1018-Study-shows-how-binge-drinking-and-stress-affects-male-female-mice-differently.cfm In a new report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warn that the aim of limiting global warming to 1.5C rather than 2C above pre-industrial levels could have a dramatic effect on society. Image Credit: Soloviova Liudmyla / Shutterstock Despite 1.5C being declared a safe limit for natural ecosystems, the IPCC say that an increase in temperature of this magnitude would require the adoption of far-reaching and unprecedented changes across all aspects of society. The report has been compiled by 91 authors and editors from 40 countries in response to an invite from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). With more than 6,000 scientific references cited and the dedicated contribution of thousands of expert and government reviewers worldwide, this important report testifies to the breadth and policy relevance of the IPCC. Hoesung Lee, IPCC Co-chair Panmao Zhai says one of the key points to emerge from the report is that we are already seeing the effects of 1C of global warming in the form of more extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, among other changes. According to the report, limiting the warming to 1.5C, would mean that by 2100, the rise in sea level would be 10cm lower than if the warming was limited to 2C. The likelihood of an Arctic sea with no ice in the summer would be once per century rather than once per decade and there would be a 70% to 90% decline in coral reefs rather than a decline of more than 99%. However, achieving the 1.5C limit would require rapid and far-reaching changes in land, industry, transport and buildings, says the report. By 2030, global carbon dioxide emissions would need to be 45% lower than 2010 levels and reach a net zero by 2050. Limiting warming to 1.5C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics but doing so would require unprecedented changes." Jim Skea, IPCC Co-chair Debra Roberts, also from the IPCC, says the decisions we make today are critical in ensuring a safe and sustainable world for everyone and that this report provides policy makers and practitioners with the data they need to make decisions to tackle climate change whilst taking into consideration local context and peoples needs. The next few years are probably the most important in our history." Jim Skea, IPCC Co-chair Customers at chain restaurants throughout the United States will start to see more menus that list calorie counts for different food options on the list, but will this motivate people to order healthier items? The new information on menus is the result of an Affordable Care Act rule that was formally implemented on May 7, 2018 in an effort to tackle the country's obesity epidemic. Researchers have been studying the answer to this question in early-adopter states that rolled out the policy prior to 2018, but the results suggested that the calorie counts had little effect on consumer behavior. Rather than concluding that Americans are unwilling to opt for lower calorie items, behavioral scientists hypothesized that the location of the calorie information--to the right of the food item's name--could explain the ineffectiveness of the calorie labeling legislation. "There is a lot of research showing that the first piece of information people see seems to be given greater weight as they process details, and we wondered if this could have implications for the calorie counts on menus," says Steven Dallas, PhD, who conducted the studies at New York University. The results were published online in June in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. To test the hypothesis, the researchers initiated an experiment at a casual chain restaurant in which they asked customers waiting in line to order from a paper copy of the restaurant's menu. The paper menus had calorie information to the left of the items, to the right, or no calorie information, and they circled the items they planned to order. The results showed that participants with menus showing calories to the left of the food items ordered food with an average of 24 percent fewer calories than participants who ordered from the other two menus. "We were surprised to find such a significant difference between the groups," Dallas says. One explanation for this finding may be a cognitive pattern called predecisional distortion in which people draw initial conclusions and then view subsequent information through that lens, Dallas says. If consumers initially read calorie information that leads them to believe an item is unhealthy, then they may process the following information about that option with the same negative bias. In another experiment, the researchers gave the three types of menus to a group of Hebrew-speaking Israelis who read from right to left rather than the left to right. As expected, they found the effect was reversed: Participants who received menus with calorie information to the right were more likely to order lower-calorie foods. "What this paper shows is that a trivially simple intervention could increase the power of the calorie information on menus," Dallas says. "The calorie labeling policy should not necessarily be deemed a failure and could in fact become a powerful tool in combating the obesity epidemic." Medidata today announced that Medidata Cloud, the Intelligent Platform for Life Sciences, is streamlining the management of medical images for the World Alliance of Societies of Echocardiography (WASE) Normal Values Study. WASE is the first study of its kind to measure heart dimension and function across countries, geographical regions, cultures, gender, and age to benchmark differences based on diversity. The WASE study shares a high number of echocardiogram (echo) files across continents and countries. Echo files are large and require specialized and secure technology. The study leverages Medidata Rave Imaging to: De-identify, acquire, transmit and store all echo images from sites globally Simplify the management and sharing of images among doctors participating in the study "We know the importance of diversity in clinical trials, and this study is a key factor in forwarding that goal and benchmarking differences in heart size and function," said Federico M. Asch, MD, FASE, MedStar Health Research Institute in Washington, DC. "We look forward to presenting the WASE data next year, and strongly believe it will inform approaches based on diversity factors." Launched in June 2016, the WASE study is funded by the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) Foundation and supported by Medidata, the MedStar Health Research Institute, University of Chicago and TOMTEC Imaging Systems. Its purpose is to create a global database of normal heart values to inform and potentially change the standard of care for a broad range of cardiovascular paradigms based on diversity criteria. To date, the study enrolled more than 2,000 subjects in six continents and 18 countries. "We're proud our platform is powering this important study, enabling global collaboration, and helping to achieve diversity in clinical research," said Glen de Vries, co-founder and president, Medidata. After we posted about Southeastern Minnesota's latest viral thing--driven by notice of Rochester nurse Alisha Eiken's social media--in How chivalrous: state representative Duane Quam shares the new civility with Ms. Mahlberg, the story has gone national. Not that Bluestem had much to do with this. Credit goes to Eiken's compelling material, grabbed from a local public access channel online, and widely shared on Twitter and Facebook. Minnesota Public Radio's Catherine Richert reports in Mic grab in debate goes viral: A tense moment in a debate between two candidates running for a Byron-area Minnesota House seat has gone viral. In Rochester Monday, Republican Rep. Duane Quam grabbed the microphone from his female DFL opponent Jamie Mahlberg and then tossed it back to her when he was done talking. . . . Mahlberg, a teacher at Rochester Community and Technical College and first-time candidate, said that so far, gender equality hasnt been a big issue in her campaign. Instead, many of the discussions have been around access to education and health care. Weve been running this campaign with this notion that opportunity is for everyone, Mahlberg said. I was in shock. It was unexpected for that to happen. I was disappointed to be on the receiving end of this behavior by my elected representative. Mahlberg said Quam hasnt apologized directly to her. In a statement to MPR News, Quam offered his sincere apologies to Jamie. I want to apologize to Jamie Mahlberg. I respect Jamie and my actions at Mondays forum did not reflect that, wrote Quam, an engineer who has represented the area since 2010. Unfortunately, my nerves got the best of me with our timed responses and I was not as graceful as I should have been while we shared the microphone. The clip has been picked up by Huffington Post, Bustle and Yahoo News among others, which Mahlberg said has prompted a wave of unexpected donations in the final weeks of the election. She wont say exactly how much money, but she said its been in the thousands with contributions coming from outside the district and outside the state. Since MPR posted Rickert's report, the Washington Post chimed in with A Minnesota Republican snatched his opponents mic, then dropped it in front of her. The post, which went live at 12:44, presumably Eastern time, has received over 400 comments. The WaPo readers are not kind to representative Quam. The Post report follows Hannah Jones' reporting at City Pages in Jamie Mahlberg has mic wrenched from her hand by Rep. Duane Quam during debate. The New York Post shared the video in 'Nervous' candidate violently rips mic from opponent's hands. At The Hill? Minnesota GOP lawmaker yanks mic from female challenger during debate, which has been shared over 3600 times. Within the last hour, KSTP has reported Minnesota Lawmaker Apologizes for Yanking Mic from Opponent. We're still curious whether Quam has directly apologized to Mahlberg, or would that be too hard on his nerves? Locally, the Post Bulletin reported Quam's mic grab creates a commotion. Indeed. Here's a video of the moment, in case somehow, some way, you missed it. Tony Webster's YouTube has enjoyed 320,000 plus views since he posted it last night. Photo: Duane Quam at rest in the Minnesota House. If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button. Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient. Children with an aggressive form of cancer are being given new hope in a world-first trans-Atlantic clinical trial that will test a new three-part treatment. The study, involving doctors and cancer scientists in Southampton, America and Germany, will boost the body's immune system to kill off neuroblastoma, one of the most common childhood cancers. The Phase 1 trial is funded by UK charities Solving Kids' Cancer (Europe), JACK and US charities Solving Kids' Cancer and Band of Parents. It will be one of many to be conducted at the University of Southampton's Centre for Cancer Immunology, which is the UK's first and only centre dedicated to cancer immunology research. The centre recently opened at University Hospital Southampton, thanks to the University's 25m fundraising campaign. Neuroblastoma affects around 100 children - mostly under the age of five - in the UK every year and develops from immature nerve cells. It usually starts as a tumour in the abdomen or chest, however, in many children, it spreads to other places in the body such as the bones and bone marrow. In those cases, less than half of patients are cured despite intensive treatment which includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and stem cell transplants. More recently, a form of immunotherapy known as anti-GD2, which uses antibodies to lock onto cancer cells so the immune system can find, fight and destroy them, has shown the potential to improve survival rates. This new study, led by Dr Juliet Gray, Associate Professor of Paediatric Oncology at the University of Southampton, involves combining mIBG, a special form of targeted radiotherapy which delivers radioactive iodine directly to neuroblastoma cells, with two different antibody therapies for the first time. One of these therapies, Nivolumab, has shown exciting results in adult cancers. It blocks a harmful protein called PD-1 and gives patients' own immune cells a boost so that they can be set free to kill tumour cells. The researchers will give Nivolumab alongside the currently-used anti-GD2 to target specific cancer cells while protecting normal healthy cells. The trial will be run from four centres - the University of Southampton's Centre for Cancer Immunology, UCH, Madison Children's Hospital, Wisconsin, and the University of Greifswald, Germany. It is also the first trial to be sponsored by University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust. "Immunotherapy with anti-GD2 has been shown to increase the number of children with neuroblastoma who stay in remission and has become a standard component of treatment - but sadly a large number of children still relapse and die from their disease," explained University of Southampton's Dr Gray who is also a consultant paediatric oncologist at Southampton Children's Hospital. "Work in the laboratory has shown that combining these types of antibodies with radiotherapy is potentially a very powerful way of eradicating neuroblastoma tumours and these three different therapies appear to work together to generate strong, protective immunity to the tumour." She added: "This trans-Atlantic trial will be the first time they have been tested together and we are hopeful the combination of treatments will substantially improve the cure rate of children with this form of cancer." Stephen Richards, CEO of Solving Kids' Cancer (Europe), said: "Cutting-edge clinical trials offer real hope for children with high-risk neuroblastoma and their families. The numbers of children affected are small, so funding collaborative international research is the only way we will improve survival rates and find a cure for this devastating disease." The researchers plan to give an initial course of mIBG-targeted radiotherapy followed by Nivolumab and anti-GD2 over a period of six months. Although the initial stages of the treatment process will require children to be in hospital, it is hoped that the therapy will be well tolerated and will eventually be delivered largely on an outpatient basis. The trial's objective is to ensure the combination is safe to deliver to children with neuroblastoma in order to develop further studies to compare it with current treatments. African swine fever virus threatens to devastate the swine industry and is positioned to spread throughout Asia. The virus has spread throughout the Caucuses region of Eastern Europe and was reported in China in August. It recently was detected in wild boar in Belgium. Kansas State University researchers and the Biosecurity Research Institute have several projects focused on African swine fever. Their research topics vary, but they share the same goal of stopping the spread of African swine fever and preventing it from reaching the U.S. If African swine fever enters the U.S., it could cause billions in economic losses to swine and other industries, animal disease experts say. It would devastate trade and international markets. There is no vaccine or cure for the disease, which causes hemorrhagic fever and high mortality in pigs. It does not infect humans. "African swine fever's introduction into China poses an increased threat to the U.S.," said Stephen Higgs, director of the Biosecurity Research Institute. "Introduction of African swine fever virus into the U.S. would have an enormous impact on our agricultural industry. Research, education and training at the Biosecurity Research Institute help to improve our understanding and preparedness for this threat." In 2013, the Biosecurity Research Institute became the first non-federal facility to be approved for work with African swine fever virus, Higgs said. The university projects at the Biosecurity Research Institute are part of research that can transition to the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility, or NBAF, once it is fully functional. African swine fever is one of the diseases slated to be researched at NBAF, which is under construction adjacent to Kansas State University's Manhattan campus. The African swine fever projects at Kansas State University are funded in part by the $35 million State of Kansas National Bio and Agro-defense Facility Fund and also have received support from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the pork industry. Here are some of the Kansas State University faces behind the fight against African swine fever. Ying Fang Name: Ying Fang, professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine Photo: k-state.edu/media/images/oct18/fang.jpg Areas of study related to African swine fever: Vaccine and diagnostic reagent/assay development. Description of the research: Fang's lab has generated African swine fever virus-specific monoclonal antibodies for diagnostic assay development. In a collaborative project with Raymond "Bob" Rowland, professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, and Biao He at the University of Georgia, her lab also is developing vector vaccines against African swine fever infection. Why the research is important: "Recent African swine fever outbreaks in China and now Europe pose the potential pandemic threat to global swine industry," Yang said. "Specific diagnostic assays and effective vaccines are urgently needed for disease control and prevention." More information: vet.k-state.edu/education/dmp/faculty-staff/faculty/fang/index.html Waithaka Mwangi Name: Waithaka Mwangi, associate professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Photo: k-state.edu/media/images/oct18/mwangi.jpg Areas of study related to African swine fever: Vaccine development and diagnostic tools. Recent African swine fever-related research: Publication in PLOS ONE; publication in Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology; publication in Clinical and Vaccine Immunology; publication in the Journal of General Virology Description of the research: Mwangi has been studying African swine fever for several years and has filed patents related to development of vaccines and diagnostic tools. In his latest research, Mwangi and Raymond "Bob" Rowland, professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, as well as Shehnaz Lokhandwala, postdoctoral fellow in diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, have tested vaccine prototypes at the Biosecurity Research Institute. Some of their vaccines have shown 56 percent protection against African swine fever and they have several studies pending to evaluate additional vaccine prototypes. Mwangi's lab also is developing diagnostic tools, including a highly-sensitive lateral flow diagnostic device for African swine fever. He is partnering with several companies and has received funding from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Pork Board and the Department of Agriculture as well as the State of Kansas National Bio and Agro-defense Facility Fund. Why the research is important: "African swine fever is a high-consequence transboundary animal disease for which there is no vaccine or treatment available," Mwangi said. "Thus, development of vaccines and a diagnostic test capable of differentiating infected from vaccinated animals is critically important to safeguard the swine industry and preserve future competitiveness of the U.S. pork industry. In addition, these vaccines will help in controlling virus spread in endemic regions and thereby minimize the transmission threat to the U.S." More information: vet.k-state.edu/education/dmp/faculty-staff/faculty/mwangi/mwangi.html Megan Niederwerder Name: Megan Niederwerder, assistant professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Photo: k-state.edu/media/images/oct18/niederwerder.jpg Areas of study related to African swine fever: Risk of virus introduction and transmission through feed or feed ingredients and potential mitigation tools. Recent African swine fever-related research: Publication in PLOS ONE Description of the research: Niederwerder's latest research has found that African swine fever virus could survive in a simulated feed shipment across the ocean, which suggests that feed may be a potential route that pathogens such as African swine fever virus spread. Her recent publication in the journal PLOS ONE is the first publication demonstrating the survival of African swine fever virus in feed ingredients. Niederwerder is collaborating with the Biosecurity Research Institute to continue studying the risk of African swine fever virus in feed and feed ingredients. She is studying the whole swine feed transport cycle -- from the shipment of feed ingredients as they are imported into the U.S. to when swine consume feed on the farm. Niederwerder also is investigating potential mitigation strategies, such as storage time and chemical mitigants, to reduce the risk of African swine fever virus in feed. Why the research is important: "Although feed is a less recognized transmission route for African swine fever, the global distribution of feed and feed ingredients makes this route important to consider as a possible factor in transboundary spread," Niederwerder said. "Our research is focused on understanding the role that feed plays in viral transmission, through defining the oral infectious dose and stability in feed ingredients, and learning what mitigation tools may be utilized to reduce the risk of African swine fever virus introduction into the U.S." More information: k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/2018-03/asf32718.html Jurgen Richt Name: Jurgen Richt, Regents distinguished professor and director of the university's Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases, or CEEZAD. Photo: k-state.edu/media/images/oct18/richt.jpg Areas of study related to African swine fever: Novel vaccines and diagnostic approaches. Recent African swine fever-related research: Publications from the Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases Description of the research: Richt was principal investigator of a CEEZAD-based research project that developed an approach based on prime-boost vaccination, combining African swine fever virus antigens encoded by DNA plasmids and recombinant African swine fever virus proteins with the aim to activate both humoral and cellular immunity. Richt also has developed gene-deleted African swine fever viruses to be used as modified live virus vaccines using CRISPR-Cas9 knock-out approaches in collaboration with Yolanda Revilla at Centro de Biologia Molecular Severo Ochoa in Madrid. In diagnostics, Richt leads CEEZAD efforts to develop tests for the detection of markers of African swine fever virus and anti-African swine fever virus antibodies in different samples such as oral fluids and meat juice. Work is also being done on African swine fever virus detection using a portable detection device. Why the research is important: "African swine fever presents a serious and ongoing threat to the swine industry both in the United States and around the world, particularly with its recent spread through Eastern Europe and into China," Richt said. "It is imperative to the safety of our food supply and to our economic health that we pursue research into a solution to this important threat." More information:k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/2018-08/asf82118.html and ceezad.org Raymond "Bob" Rowland Name: Raymond "Bob" Rowland, professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine Photo: k-state.edu/media/images/oct18/rowland.jpg Areas of study related to African swine fever: Novel approaches for detection and control, capacity building and training, outreach to stakeholder communities. Recent African swine fever-related research: Publication in PLOS ONE; publication in Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation; publication in Nature's Scientific Reports; publication in Virology Description of the research: Rowland's lab has received support from the State of Kansas National Bio and Agro-defense Facility Fund and was the first to work with African swine fever at the Biosecurity Research Institute. His research focuses on developing tools to prevent the entry of the virus into the U.S. He has developed an assay that rapidly and accurately detects African swine fever infection in blood, feces and oral fluid samples. These assays will be important for routine surveillance of commercial pig herds and feral pigs. Rowland is collaborating with Ying Fang, professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, and the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory to characterize antibodies that can improve the accuracy of existing African swine fever assays. The Rowland lab is working with Fang and Waithaka Mwangi,associate professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, to explore vaccine development by preparing vector libraries to find a combination of antigens and antigen-delivery platforms that can deliver protective immunity. Rowland also is collaborating with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Australian Animal Health Laboratory to identify gene pathways associated with disease and the recovery of pigs from infection. Why the research is important: "There is no single 'magic bullet' solution for the prevention of African swine fever," Rowland said. "As a global problem, preventing and controlling African swine fever virus require new technologies and new knowledge along with the continuous fine-tuning of the existing tools. The greatest gap in knowledge addressed by this research is to better understand African swine fever virus immunity in pigs. Filling this gap opens the door to improved disease surveillance methods, pigs with improved response to vaccination, and vaccines that are safe, cost-effective and protective." More information: vet.k-state.edu/education/dmp/faculty-staff/faculty/rowland/ Adrian Self Name: Adrian Self, prospect director with the university's National Agricultural Biosecurity Center. Photo: k-state.edu/media/images/oct18/self.jpg Areas of study related to African swine fever: Risk analysis. Recent African swine fever-related research: Publication in PLOS ONE; publication in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases; publication in BioResearch Open Access Description of the research: The university's National Agricultural Biosecurity Center is studying African swine fever through its NBAF Transition Transboundary Animal Disease risk analysis project. The project is developing timely and accurate qualitative and quantitative risk analysis for diseases, such as African swine fever, that will be studied at NBAF. The project involves a university team of epidemiologists and student researchers as well as collaborators in engineering, veterinary medicine, social science and agricultural communications. The team is using rural communities in Kansas as models to develop contacts and communication methods that helps distribute accurate information in a timely manner. Why the research is important: "It is critical to be able to quickly and accurately identify African swine fever to prevent its further spread," Self said. "We want to stop this virus from reaching the U.S. and it is crucial to understand the risks and develop a communication infrastructure now, especially with the communities and with the stakeholders who could be most affected by the spread of this devastating virus." More information: k-state.edu/nabc Jishu Shi Name: Jishu Shi, professor of vaccine immunology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Photo:k-state.edu/media/images/oct18/shi.jpg Areas of study related to African swine fever: Virus detection, vaccine development and transmission. Recent African swine fever-related research: Publication in the Journal of Virological Methods Description of the research: Shi's lab studies African swine fever virus detection, vaccine development and transmission between feral and domestic pigs. Shi has worked with Jianfa Bai, director of molecular research and development at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and other collaborators to develop and validate a multiplex polymerase chain reaction that can simultaneously detect African swine fever virus, classical swine fever virus, and foot-and-mouth disease virus in one sample. Shi's lab currently is developing novel technologies that can be used to develop African swine fever vaccines. After the recent outbreak in China, Shi is establishing new collaborations to study the transmission of the virus between wild and domestic pigs. Why the research is important: "The most effective defense against foreign animal diseases such as African swine fever, classical swine fever, and foot-and-mouth disease is to keep them outside the U.S.," Shi said. "That is why we have developed fast and sensitive virus detection methods such as the multiplex polymerase chain reaction panel for African swine fever virus, classical swine fever virus and foot-and-mouth disease virus. We are developing new technologies that can be used to create an efficacious African swine fever vaccine. Before an efficacious vaccine is available, we have to understand and develop novel strategies to control the disease spillover between wild and domestic pig populations." More information: vet.k-state.edu/education/anatomy-physiology/faculty-staff/faculty/shi/ PAREXEL International Corporation, a leading innovator of global biopharmaceutical services, today announced that it has developed several new solutions that take a patient-centric approach to addressing drug development. Built on the Perceptive Cloud platform and leveraging PAREXELs relationship with Microsoft, the solutions incorporate mobile and wearable technology to increase access to data and improve the patient experience in clinical research. The first solution is designed to enable health care staff and first line clinicians to communicate time-sensitive events to study staff. Leveraging Microsoft Azure App Services, the technology will generate health alerts through data transmission from mobile devices, gathered at the patient home or in the field and forwarded automatically whenever there is connectivity. Staff and investigators will then be automatically informed and could pro-actively address any threat to patient safety, potentially decreasing risk of patient mortality and morbidity. PAREXEL has also initiated several projects that expand innovation in the application of mobile medical devices in clinical trials. Specifically, PAREXELs Patient Sensor Solution capabilities now include an expanded list of connected medical devices, and integrations with DataLabs, PAREXELs electronic data capture technology and ClinPhone RTSM, PAREXELs interactive response solution for randomization and trial supplies management. The Sensor Solution utilizes advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to support predictive monitoring of patient compliance and has been expanded to manage larger volumes of data transfer. Technology has made it possible to access more meaningful data than ever before, while improving the patient experience. The challenge is in collecting that data in a way that is efficient for the patient, site, and investigator. PAREXEL has always been committed to helping our clients solve their most difficult challenges and applying both our innovative technology development and strategic alliance capabilities to provide seamless, patient-centric solutions to benefit our customers and their patients. Douglas Barta, Chief Information Officer, PAREXEL The solutions are all built on Perceptive Cloud, a cloud solution offered by PAREXEL and designed to deliver cost-effective innovation while safeguarding sensitive information. The solutions were developed in collaboration with Microsoft and integrate cloud services including Microsoft Azure IoT Hub and Azure Stream Analytics. Clinical development is an area ripe for digital transformation, and industry leaders like PAREXEL are integrating Microsoft Azure into their solutions to help do just that. Through this collaboration, we can reduce costs, make services more efficient, and in turn, provide better care to patients. Chris Sakalosky, Microsoft Microsoft will join PAREXEL at its HORIZONS conference to discuss how these and other innovations are driving digital transformation and patient centricity. HORIZONS is an annual conference hosted by PAREXEL taking place October 15-18, 2018 in Washington, DC. In the human brain, nerve cells - so-called neurons - care for the transmission of electrical signals. They form the functional component responsible for sensations, stimuli and memories. In the presence of dementia, there is an adsorption of proteins outside the neurons, which then leads to the death of the neuronal cells. How to prevent the death of neurons is still the subject of scientific research today. In a recent transnational research project funded by the EU Joint Program on Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND), which is funded in Germany by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), researchers are now trying to address this question. While project partners in Italy, Great Britain, Belgium and the USA investigate the exact processes in the brain, the MPI-P explores methods to transport drugs. The overcoming of a natural barrier in the body - the so-called blood-brain barrier - represents the main challenge. Drugs to be used in the brain must be able to pass this barrier first before acting in the brain. For this purpose, the Mainz scientists are working on nanocapsules that are supposed to overcome the barrier. On the one hand, it has to be taken care on a long circulation time of the nanocapsules in the blood in order to increase the probability of interaction with the target cells in the affected brain areas. For this, it is important to design the nanocapsules so that they are not directly excreted by kidney or liver. On the other hand, special "address labels" - consisting of proteins - must be placed on the capsule surface in order to be recognized and absorbed by the target cells, much like a key with a lock. "We are still filling our nanoscale capsules with dye," says Dr. Svenja Morsbach, group leader in the department of Prof. Katharina Landfester at the MPI-P. "If the transport through the blood-brain barrier with the nanocarriers works, we hope we can simply exchange the dye for a suitable drug." The partners involved in the project in Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the USA are examining the exact processes in the brain in parallel with the development of the transport system in Mainz. Here, so-called "exosomes" and "neurotrophic factors" are of major interest. Exosomes are small "miniature cells" that can be released by real cells to communicate with each other. These have a dimension of only about 100 nanometers - that is 100 billionths of a meter in size. At the same time, "neurotrophic factors" are biochemical messengers responsible for the growth and survival of nerve cells. The interaction of exosomes and neuron-stimulating factors is seen as the main focus for the understanding of dementia by researchers. The project is designed for a period of three years and is funded with over one million euro, of which a share of more than 400,000 euros is attributed to the subproject of the Mainz scientists. The researchers hope that understanding the disease itself and developing a functioning transport system will be an important step in the treatment of dementia. The Most Extensive and Reliable Source of Information Related to the Mexican Drugs Cartels. You will not find this level of coverage anywhere else, join us! Send information, pictures or videos, you remain 100% anonymous. Envia fotos, videos, notas, enlaces o informacion todo 100% Anonimo. Want to be a contributor or citizen reporter for Borderland Beat? We love to have you in our team, send Sol Prendido or HEARST an email! WARNING: Posts may contain strong violent material, discretion is advised. COMMENTS: We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. Spider-Man - No Way Home's rumored Spidey team-up may be distracting us from the real surprises What if the return of Maguire and Garfield was hiding a comic book Spider-fest? Taipei : Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday accused China of destabilizing the region and said Beijing was a source of concern for the entire world. During her speech on Taiwan's National Day, Tsai urged China to adopt a responsible and cooperative stance and stop promoting conflict, accusing Beijing of damaging cross-strait relations and creating serious problems for peace and stability in the region. She said Taipei would respond by strengthening its security and economic power, Efe news reported. The President vowed to not "cave-in" to pressure from China but insisted that Taiwan would not seek a clash and promised to maintain peace without giving up sovereignty and the free and democratic lifestyle the country enjoys. Tsai said that Taipei should strengthen its capacity for resilience to respond better to new challenges and act as a responsible as well as reliable actor in the international community, adding that becoming an indispensable member of the international community was key to its survival. Taiwanese fighter jets performed acrobatic manoeuvers in the sky during the National Day ceremony, held in the square in front of the Presidential Office Building, where this year's special attraction was the projection of maps designed by local artist Agi Chen on the facade of the palace. Taiwan has lately been facing increasing pressure from China, which does not recognize the island's sovereignty and independence, blocks its participation in international forums, prevents its allies from maintaining official ties with Taipei and has threatened to use force if Taiwan moves towards formal independence. Sorry! This content is not available in your region Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 10) Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday dismissed a proposed constitutional amendment as a "desperate" attempt to remove her from office. Robredo slammed the latest draft of the proposed federal constitution which puts the Senate President, not the Vice President, as successor in case President Rodrigo Duterte steps down during the transition to a federal form of government. It was authored by House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. "Parang masyado naman yatang desperado. Lahat na lang iniisip kung paano ako matanggal (I think it's too desperate. Everyone is thinking of how to oust me)," Robredo told reporters in Bacolod City. Robredo said it was ridiculous for House Committee on Constitutional Amendments Chairman Vicente Veloso to say that she could not be President because of the poll protest filed against her at the Supreme Court. "Alam naman natin na dito sa atin, kapag may eleksyon, maraming mga nananalo na talagang kinakasuhan -- kinakasuhan ng mga hindi matanggap iyong resulta noong eleksyon. Pero hindi natin iyon hahayaan na makagambala sa mandatong binibigay sa atin," she said. [Translation: "We all know that in our country, whenever there's an election, many winners really face cases filed by those who can't accept their loss. But we do not let that hinder the mandate given to us."] Former Senator Bongbong Marcos filed the electoral protest against Robredo in June 2016, after he lost to Robredo by over 260,000 votes in the 2016 elections among the narrowest margins in the history of the country's vice presidential elections. Duterte, a known ally of the Marcoses, has repeatedly cast doubts on Robredo's competence to lead the country, saying he wants someone like Marcos as successor. Meanwhile, Veloso said the panel is open to amending or deleting the controversial provision on succession depending on what the majority wants. The draft has been endorsed to the plenary for it to discuss and vote on. No cha-cha in Duterte's term? Senators, however, remain reluctant to charter change. Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson on Wednesday said he does not expect the constitution to be amended within Duterte's term which ends 2022. "We are unanimous on this position. At the same time, nag-cross na ng party lines yan (that has crosses party lines)," he said. He stressed that the perfect time to discuss a change in the constitution would be during the first year of the President's term, to avoid suspicions of self-interest on the side of officials pushing for it. Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto said the upper chamber simply has no more time to discuss charter change, as it is busy on tackling the 2019 budget. Duterte allies earlier hoped to hold a plebiscite to finally pass federalism by 2019. "We wouldn't even know if I'm still the Senate President by then," Sotto said when asked about the provision on succession on Tuesday. Federalism was a campaign promise of Duterte, with whom Arroyo is allied. After he called on the swift passage of charter change in his State of the Nation Address, the House of Representatives filed a resolution that supported a separate vote from the Senate on matter. This was among the contentious issues raised by the Senate. But even with such compromise, Lacson has said charter change is "good as dead" as many senators suspect Arroyo would use it to stay in power, a claim the former President denied. New Delhi: No-frills airline AirAsia India has appointed Tata group veteran Sunil Bhaskaran as chief executive officer and managing director, according to a release. The airline is a joint venture between Tata Sons and Malaysias AirAsia Berhad. Also Read | Nepal: Five Indian workers injured in Jagadamba steel plant explosion Bhaskarans appointment would be effective from November 15, AirAsia India said in a release Wednesday. Currently, he is vice president of corporate services at Tata Steel and has over three decades of experience in the fields of manufacturing, export and commercial operations with the Tata group. The airline has a fleet of 19 aircraft. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Datsun India on Wednesday rolled out the highly-anticipated new Datsun Go and Datsun Go+ for the evolving car lovers at introductory prices of Rs 3.29 lakh and Rs 3.83 lakh respectively, an official said. The New #Datsun GO+ cruises through the traffic as the auto journalists continue the drive after a delicious lunch. pic.twitter.com/34PnX9GgMl DatsunIndia (@DatsunIndia) October 10, 2018 Speaking at the launch event, Thomas Kuehl, president of Nissan India operations, said, The new Datsun GO and Datsun GO+ is conceptualised for the new-age Indian consumer, the millennials who are mature, smart goers, family oriented with a progressive and evolved mindset. Powered by Japanese engineering, Datsun GO and GO+ are equipped with fabulous new features and upgrades for a more comfortable, safe and stylish driving experience. Also Read | Rishi Kapoor reveals the reason for his sudden grey hair The deliveries of these stylish and bold Datsun Go and Datsun Go+, which come with an array of 28 features, including dual-front airbags, anti-lock braking system etc and over 100 unique upgrades, commenced from Wednesday from all Nissan and Datsun dealerships across the country, the official said. The new Datsun GO and Datsun GO+ are equipped with new features and upgrades for a more comfortable and safe driving experience, said Kuehl. Read More | ASG Tushar Mehta appointed Solicitor General of India The Japanese auto maker, Nissan had last week announced Bollywood star Aamir Khan as the brand ambassador for its Datsun brand in India for its new brand campaign #ExperienceChange. According to reports, the new Datsun GO & GO+, which comes into 5 grades have been launched in two additional colours - Amber Orange and Sun stone brown respectively. Though the powertrains of Datsun car remain the same, packaging has been kicked up a notch, it said. Both the models will come with a standard warranty of two years Datsun Care comprehensive all-inclusive car service package that offers total peace of mind to car owners, the company said. (With inputs from agencies) For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: In a further setback to the Amrapali group, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered sealing of nine premises of the real estate company in Noida, Greater Noida, Rajgir and Buxar in Bihar after the three directors informed the Court that all documents relating to 46 group companies are kept there. A bench of Justices UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud also said after sealing of these properties, its keys be handed over to the registrar of the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the had sent three directors of the group to police custody, directing them to hand over all the documents of the 46 group companies to forensic auditors. The directors of the real estate group -- Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar -- failed to provide the documents relating to the company's accounts to forensic auditors. The apex court's order came on a batch of petitions filed by home buyers who are seeking possession of around 42,000 flats. The court said the conduct of the directors was in "gross violation" of its order. "You are playing hide and seek. You are trying to mislead the court," the bench had said. It directed the Delhi police to seize all the documents of the Amrapali group and hand them over to forensic auditors, emphasising that not a single document of these companies should remain in custody of the group. The top court had earlier allowed National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC) to float tenders for selecting the builder to complete the stalled projects of Amrapali Group and asked it to prepare a detailed project report for pending projects within 60 days. On September 12, the apex court had appointed NBCC to develop stalled projects of the realty firm and directed the Debts Recovery Tribunal to sell the unencumbered commercial properties of the group. It had also directed the opening of an escrow account in the apex court in which the amount received after the sale of properties would be deposited and later disbursed to the NBCC to start construction of the pending projects in Group A and B Categories. Besides, it directed that bank accounts, balance sheets and other documents of all the 46 Amrapali companies and Jotindra Steel, since 2008 be given to the forensic auditors. The apex court had on September 6 identified 16 properties of Amrapali for auctioning, preferably by the NBCC, to give the PSU an initial corpus to start work on the stalled projects. It had also ordered a forensic audit of the firm and its promoters to gauge the extent of financial wrongdoings. The group CMD had come under the top court's scanner for declaring his assets worth at Rs 67 crore as against Rs 847 crore in his affidavit filed during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when he had unsuccessfully contested as a JD(U) candidate from Bihar's Jehanabad constituency. The NBCC had earlier given a proposal for completion of 15 residential projects of Amrapali having 46,575 flats at an estimated cost of Rs 8,500 crore in six to 36 months. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Three members of a family were found stabbed to death in Vasant Kunj's Kishangarh area on Wednesday morning, according to news agency ANI. One member was found in an injured state. Delhi Police personnel are present at the scene of the crime. The attackers stabbed 40-year-old Mithilesh, his wife Siya and children (Neha and Suraj) in their three-bedroom apartment in Kishangarh. While Mithilesh, Siya and Neha succumbed to their injuries, Suraj is battling for his life in the hospital, the police said. The police were informed about the triple murder at 5 am on Wednesday morning by neighbours who went inside the house seeing the door ajar. Mithilesh, Siya and Neha were found lying in a pool of blood in the living room of their house and Suraj was lying injured at the doorstep of a bedroom. The police are taking into account all possible angles, including personal enmity, to ascertain the motive behind the murders. New Delhi: The Odisha government on Wednesday evacuated more than three lakh people living in low-lying areas in five coastal districts as Cyclone Titli intensified into a "very severe cyclonic storm" over the Bay of Bengal and inched towards the coast with speeds going up to 165 kmph. The cyclone is expected to make a landfall between Gopalpur in Odisha and Kalingapatanam in Andhra Pradesh at 5:30 am on Thursday.The Odisha government geared up its machinery to face the calamity which is likely to make a landfall close to Gopalpur early on Thursday, according news agency PTI. "We have already evacuated three lakh people and more may be shifted to safer places in view of the very severe cyclone," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters after reviewing the situation twice during the day. Evacuation was carried out from five coastal districts of Ganjam, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara. Also Read | #MeToo: Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao issue statement, decide to 'step away' from film over sexual harassment allegations In a video conference with Union Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, Chief Secretary AP Padhi informed that the state has taken precautions to deal with the situation. Of the 15 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 13 have been deployed along with the Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) at vulnerable places. "We are fully prepared to face the calamity," Padhi told reporters after the video conference in which chief secretaries of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh also took part. In its latest bulletin, the India Meterological Department (IMD) said the very severe cyclonic storm, over west-central Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards with a speed of about 11 kmph during the past 6 hours and lay centered at about 180 kms south-southeast of Gopalpur and 130 km southeast of Kalingapatnam of Andhra Pradesh. "It is very likely to intensify slightly further in the next 6 hours. It is very likely to move north-northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coasts close to Gopalpur around morning," said HR Biswas, director of the Meterological Centre, Bhubaneswar. Thereafter, it is very likely to re-curve northeastwards, move towards Gangetic West Bengal across Odisha and weaken gradually, Biswas said. Also Read | J-K Municipal Polls: Kashmir registers 3.4 per cent voter turnout, 78.6 per cent in Jammu in second phase After landfall, Titli is likely to maintain the intensity of cyclone till the evening of Thursday, while moving northeastwards across Odisha, Biswas said. The chief minister also ordered closure of all schools, colleges and anganwadi centres on Thursday and Friday in view of the IMD's forecast of heavy to very heavy rainfall across the state. The chief secretary said NDRF and ODRAF personnel have been positioned in vulnerable districts."We have not yet sought help of Army. If required, we may go for it," Padhi said. An East Coast Railway (ECoR) official said train services will remain suspended between Khurda Road and Vizianagram from both directions after 10 pm Wednesday till further notice. In view of the very severe cyclonic storm, IndiGo Airline has cancelled five flights to and from Bhubaneswar. While several areas in coastal Odisha were lashed by rain Wednesday, the IMD has forecast "heavy to very heavy rainfall" at several places and "extremely heavy rainfall" at isolated areas till Thursday under the impact of the 'very severe' cyclonic storm which has been gaining strength. Districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore are likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Thursday, the IMD said. It also forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall for Kandhamal, Boudh and Dhenkanal districts from Thursday. The sea condition is very high over west-central Bay of Bengal. It is very likely to be phenomenal over the west-central and the adjoining north Bay of Bengal and along and off the south Odisha coast till Thursday, it said. Storm surge of height of about 1 metre above astronomical tide is very likely to inundate the low-lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts, it said. The IMD advised total suspension of fishing operations and shifting of coastal hutment dwellers to safe places. Fishermen along the Odisha coast, and central and north Bay of Bengal were advised not to venture into sea till Friday. In view of rough sea conditions, the IMD has also advised hoisting of great danger signal GD-10 at Gopalpur and Puri and GD-9 at Paradip and Chandbali ports in OdishaThe Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) exam that was scheduled on October 11 and 12 in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Khurda and Berhamapur has been cancelled. Revised dates and place will be forwarded to the candidates on their mobile numbers and email, said Chairman of RRB, Bhubaneswar. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: As the #MeToo campaign gathered momentum in India, as many as seven women journalists have come out and accused former editor and now the Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar of sexually harassing them during his stint as a journalist. The Congress said on Wednesday Akbar must either offer a satisfactory explanation on the allegations or resign immediately. The party also demanded an inquiry into his conduct. The latest in the list of women journalists who accused Akbar of sexual misconduct is Ghazala Wahab, the executive editor of Force magazine. Wahab on Wednesday shared her experience with Akbar in an article for The Wire. In the article, Wahab wrote that during her initial years at the newspaper, she "accepted everything as part of the office culture Akbar's flirtation with young sub-editors, his blatant favouritism and his bawdy jokes". "His eyes fell on me. And my nightmare began" in her third year at The Asian Age. She also wrote that Akbars persistence in trying to force himself on her in his cabin at The Asian Age office, the emotional tactics he resorted to when he realised his physical advances would not work and also how he got the newspaper's tarot card columnist to tell her he really loved her. "I wonder when the floodgates will open about @mjakbar," Wahab had tweeted on October 6. Wahab said she decided to write her "Akbar story" after much persuasion by her former colleagues at The Asian Age, where she worked with him. Senior journalist Seema Mustafa, who worked with Wahab, said she had heard such rumours around the newsroom. But now I read the story of Ghazala Wahab, a case of total harassment and nastiness by MJ Akbar. Out of the MeToo movement, but a strong indictment of the editor and his behaviour. A confirmation of what we thought he did, and had little by way of evidence. She says she spoke to me, and I am sure she is right. If she spoke to me she did not share the details as she has written them now, said Mustafa, while writing for The Citizen. While External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has refused to answer a question on the allegations against her junior minister, a journalist-turned-politician, Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi was the only BJP leader to call for an investigation. Priya Ramani, formerly worked with India Today, The Indian Express and Mint, had first shared her account a year ago when the #MeToo campaign exploded in the US with the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Ramani, however, had not named Akbar when she wrote in the Vogue India article in October last year. On October 8, Ramani shared the article tweeting: I began this piece with my MJ Akbar story. Never named him because he didnt do anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predatormaybe theyll share. Expressing concern over the instances of alleged sexual harassment, the Editors Guild of India has called upon the news media organisations to conduct unbiased probes into all such cases. The Guild said it unequivocally condemns all "predatory conduct" by such men.On Wednesday, Congress spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy, in a press conference, said: "I think MJ Akbar must either offer a satisfactory explanation or resign forthwith. How can he be in the ministry with serious allegations being levelled against him by responsible journalists who worked with him. Let there be an inquiry into it. We demand an inquiry into MJ Akbar's conduct." Reddy also questioned Swaraj's silence on the issue, saying she is evading responsibility and is not prepared to comment on her subordinate. News Nation has sent an email to Akbars official id, asking for his reaction on the allegations against him. The story will be updated with his response. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Surat: A court in Surat on Wednesday declared fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi as an absconder in a case filed against him by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence case (DRI) for allegedly evading customs duty on import of diamonds. Chief Judicial Magistrate B H Kapadia declared Modi an absconder in a case filed against him in December 2014 by the Mumbai zonal unit of the DRI. As per the DRI, Modis companies, located in the Surat Special Economic Zone (SEZ), were allegedly involved in customs duty evasion. Public Prosecutor Nayan Sukhadwala told PTI the judge asked Modi to present himself before the court by November 15, or else the DRI would be permitted to take further action against him. Also Read | Nepal: Five Indian workers injured in Jagadamba steel plant explosion The DRI had moved an application under the Criminal Procedure Court seeking that the diamond merchant be declared an absconder as an arrest warrant against him could not be executed. Modi fled the country this January before an alleged multi-billion dollars fraud at Punjab National Bank came to light and the CBI registered a case against him. The case in Surat pertains to diversion of duty-free imported diamonds and pearls by Firestar International Pvt. Limited, Firestar Diamond International Pvt Ltd, and Radashir Jewellery Company, all situated in Surat SEZ and owned by Modi. Read More | Youth Olympics: Weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga creates history, bags India's first gold medal In the Surat SEZ, goods can be imported duty-free on the condition that they will be exported after value-addition (such as polishing and cutting of raw imported diamonds). The DRI alleged that duty-free diamonds and pearls imported by these companies were secretly sold in local markets, and in their place locally produced products were exported. An export consignment seized by the DRI from Sahar Air Cargo in Mumbai was found to be highly overvalued. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday cancelled a molestation case filed against businessman Ness Wadia in 2014 by actor Preity Zinta. Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia had appeared in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday. In the last hearing of the case, the court had suggested that both the parties resolve the issue in their personal capacity. The actress had filed the police complaint alleging that she was molested by Wadia inside the Wankhede Stadium on May 30, 2014, when an IPL match between KingsXI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings was played. Zinta gave a written complaint following which an FIR was registered against Wadia under IPC sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), police sources added. Earlier, Zinta's advocate told the Bombay High Court that the actor was willing to settle the matter if Wadia was ready to apologise. The lawyer said they were not insisting on a written apology. Wadia's counsel Abad Ponda, however, said the industrialist was not ready to apologise. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Five Indian workers were injured in an industrial blast in the town of Pipara Simara in Nepals Bara district on Wednesday morning, police said. Five Indian workers were injured in an explosion that occurred while they were melting metal inside the Jagadamba Steels Factory here in Simara, Police Inspector Subash Hamal said. According to an official, all the injured persons were working as daily wage labourers at the iron plant, adding, the incident occurred likely due to excessive heat in the run-down furnace. Also Read | RRB exams on October 11-12 cancelled as Cyclone 'Titli' intensifies into severe cyclonic storm The injured workers, hailing from Bihar, have been identified as Kamalesh Raya, Naresh Sahani, Sandeep Kumar, Pankaj Kumar and Binayak Singh. All the critically injured workers are undergoing treatment at the Birgunj-based Health care Hospital, police said. Binayak Singh, who suffered minor injuries from the blast, is getting treatment at Tara Hospital, they said. According to reports, most of the equipment being used in the plant were never repair and in sorry state. Moreover, due to lack of regular maintenance and repairing system, similar incidents had been occurred frequently. Read More | MS Dhoni has made Indian selectors really angry; Know the reason HERE Nine persons were killed and more than a dozen injured when a tank used to store molasses exploded in Bidyanagar of Bara four months ago, sources said. Factories show the maintenance of equipment only in paper, a worker said, adding, But they never repair the equipment. Over the years, industries have started to flourish in Pathliya-Birgunj Industrial Corridor and more than 500 factories are being operated in Parsa and Bara districts. (With inputs from agencies) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. BETHEL The building committee on Tuesday night approved the final plans and cost estimates for the renovations to Rockwell and Johnson elementary schools. The estimates keep the project on the $65.8 million budget voters approved last fall. Upgrades to Rockwell are projected to cost $24.7 million, while Johnson is estimated at $41.1 million. A state grant is covering 45 percent of eligible costs. Rockwell was initially $90,000 over budget, but Public Site and Building Committee members eliminated panels on the second floor, bricks on a loading dock and other features to keep costs down. School administrators will meet with state officials Wednesday for approval of the construction documents. With the states approval, the Rizzo Construction Company will seek bids for the project in November. Committee members asked engineers to explore using a baseboard heating system instead of radiant heating panels, but this could change after the state approves. Crews had planned to conduct abatement and install portable classrooms at Rockwell in the winter, but this work will now be done over the summer. This means Rockwell students will not need to go into portable classrooms this spring, as initially proposed, Superintendent Christine Carver told Rockwell parents at a meeting Tuesday. A similar meeting to update Johnson parents is planned for Nov. 13. Portable classrooms will not be at Johnson. Carver said nearly all removal of asbestos and small amounts of PCBs and lead at Rockwell can be completed over the summer, but some of that work could be done during the school year. Jim Twitchell, an environmental consultant from Hygenix Inc, said students and staff would not be in the part of the school that is being cleaned up. Barriers, fences and signs would prevent children or teachers from wandering into the area, he said. Per the latest plans, work on the second floor of Rockwell will begin in June and end in December, with the renovations of the first floor starting in January 2020 and finishing at the end of August. The Rockwell main office will be worked on this summer, while the nurses office, custodial area, bus loop and parking lot will be done from April 2020 until the end of August. Rockwells cafeteria, kitchen and gym will also be completed during the summer of 2020. To provide more construction time without the students in school, this summer is scheduled to be about 12 weeks, with the last day of school set for June 7, with students returning Sept. 3. Carver has already warned parents and staff that school could be held on Feb. 18 and Feb. 19 if too many snow days accumulate. We need that construction time in the summer, she said. Carver assured parents that construction workers would undergo background checks and park at the old police station, not on the school campus. Construction workers will never be with children, she said. Parents said at Tuesdays meeting said they are looking forward to the upgrades and had few concerns with the plan. Im thrilled, said Nancy Goldstein, who has children in second and fifth grades. The schools really are in need of it. Even though the process might be challenging at times, I think that its really important that the schools are upgraded and optimal for learning. BETHEL The two candidates for District 2 in the state House of Representatives differ on gun laws, how to fix Connecticuts economy and pay for transportation projects. The race is a rematch of the 2016 election, when Republican Will Duff narrowly beat Democrat Allie-Brennan. Both live in Bethel and are active in the community. They are divided on the states ban on bump stocks, devices that allow guns to fire like an automatic weapon. Duff said he voted against the bill, which passed in the spring, because of concerns from hunters. He said the law was too general, noting a carpenter could be prevented from using a device to speed up his nail gun. All its going to do is take legal gun owners and make them felons, he said. Allie-Brennan said Duff is out-of-touch with his constituents forever affected by the Sandy Hook tragedy. People want someone who is going to defend families and make sure that theyre being protected, that their kids can go to school and they feel comfortable knowing that what happened in a town in the district is not going to happen again, Allie-Brennan said. Both agreed providing better mental health care to students and the public could help prevent gun violence. But, the two had different plans for closing the states budget gap. Duff argued the state needed to renegotiate the contract with its union employees and bring businesses and people back to the state. Growing the economy is what we should focus on, he said. He said the state could save money by eliminating rules requiring judicial marshals to obtain a commercial drivers license on the states dime to transport prisoners. Meanwhile, Allie-Brennan said the state could cut spending by reducing the budget for prisons because crime and the prison population are decreasing. Measures like off-track betting could generate new revenue, he said. Allie-Brennan, who processes grants and loans for small businesses at Pastore & Dailey, a financial services law firm in Stamford, said these companies need tax relief. Ive seen working with small businesses how burdensome Connecticut is to small businesses, he said. Having some tax cuts for small businesses opening up and allowing them to access capital is a great way to start the economy. The candidates agreed investing in transportation is critical, especially in Fairfield County, where the state has threatened to cut services on the Danbury rail line. Duff described northern Fairfield County as the economic bright spot in the state, arguing reducing these services would be an affront to local residents. Youre really putting a huge roadblock and obstacle to growth in Fairfield County, he said. If you want to see Fairfield County grow, you have to invest in Fairfield County. Allie-Brennan said making the rail service more convenient for local residents would reduce traffic and help towns like Bethel, which is trying to attract more people to the community by revitalizing the area near the train station. If Bethel wants to invest in transit-oriented development, what is the purpose if the train isnt there? he said, adding the Danbury rail line should be electrified. Allie-Brennan supports creating a lock box of revenue that can only be used for transportation. Duff said the Legislature would ignore the lock. He said the state shouldnt have a problem paying for transportation, noting the state Bond Commission approved millions for Aer Lingus and other projects. We have so much money going up to Hartford, theres no reason we cant pay for it, he said. Duff opposed tolls, but Allie-Brennan said he would be fine with tolls on trucks, depending on the result of the industrys suit against Rhode Island for its policy. They do the most damage to our roads, why not put a toll for them? Allie-Brennan said. Duff sits on the Bethel Board of Assessment Appeals and has served on the boards of selectmen and education, among other town positions. He is in his first term as state representative of the district that covers Bethel, Danbury, Newtown and Redding. Allie-Brennan is the vice chairman of the Bethel Democratic Town Committee and vice president of the HERO Project, a local organization that raises awareness about the opioid epidemic. He is a board member on the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters and the Triangle Community Center, which supports LGBTQ people. Cobleskill Until Wednesday morning, Nauman Hussain was known as the man whose father owned Prestige Limo, whose limousine crashed in Schoharie on Saturday, killing 20 people. Within hours, Hussain, 28, was arrested and gained a new identity: The person charged with criminally negligent homicide in the country's deadliest transportation incident in more than nine years. Hussain was released Wednesday night after being arraigned in Cobleskill Town Court and making bail, which had been set at $50,000 cash and $150,000 bond. He pleaded not guilty. Hussain knowingly allowed the limo to be driven when it "should not have been on the road," State Police Superintendent George Beach told reporters earlier in the day. "The sole responsibility for that motor vehicle being on the road on Saturday belongs to Nauman Hussain," Beach said. He said the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine failed an inspection in September and, as a result, had no business being used when it crashed at the intersection of Routes 30 and 30A. Beach said Hussain was also aware that the man he hired to drive the limousine 53-year-old Scott T. Lisinicchia of Lake George was not properly licensed for the assignment. Just weeks before the crash, Lisinicchia received a notice of violation for driving without a proper license to pilot the same limo. The notice was issued by a trooper who pulled Lisinicchia over in Saratoga Springs after he had dropped off 11 passengers. The trooper's notice directed that the Excursion be taken out of service immediately. It was served on Nauman Hussain as the operator of the Wilton company. At that time, according to the notice, Hussain would have been made aware that Lisinicchia lacked the credentials needed to drive the limousine. On Saturday, Lisinicchia was driving the SUV-style stretch limo with 17 passengers bound for a party at Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown. Everyone in the limo and two people standing outside the Apple Barrel County Store died when the vehicle ran through the stop sign at the intersection, hit a parked car and slammed into an embankment just before 2 p.m. Hussain, of Cohoes, was charged with one count of criminally negligent homicide, a felony that carries 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison. He was arraigned in Cobleskill shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday evening wearing a black t-shirt, gray shorts and black sneakers. Before the arraignment began, he looked back several times and nodded at his brother and girlfriend seated behind him. Three state troopers and three Cobleskill police officers stood on either side of the courtroom. Hussain's attorney, Lee Kindlon, said the higher than normal number of officers were there because he and Hussain had received repeated threats. The arraignment was moved from Schoharie because the Schoharie town justice was unavailable. Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery asked Justice Dawn Fiorillo to set bail at the higher-than-normal amounts for a non-violent felony. Mallery said there were concerns that Hussain might flee and asked the judge to require him to surrender any U.S. or Pakistani passports. Mallery said Hussain was arrested Wednesday morning after he left his home with a car full of belongings. Kindlon told reporters that Hussain was not fleeing the area but had left after receiving the threats. Kindlon said in court that Hussain does not have dual citizenship in Pakistan or a Pakistani passport. Hussain did not say anything to reporters as he left court. Hussain paid bail through a bail bondsman and is scheduled to appear again in the court on Tuesday, Oct. 23. Kindlon, speaking to reporters earlier in the day at State Police Troop G barracks in Latham, said because of the death toll, Hussain faces the possibility of being charged with 20 counts of the crime that could run consecutively in sentencing. On Wednesday morning, Hussain was in a GMC Sierra pick-up truck with his brother, Shahyer Hussain, known as "Harris," and Shahyer's girlfriend, when State Police stopped the vehicle on Interstate 787 in Watervliet. They arrested Hussain at the barracks in Latham, where the defendant was joined by Kindlon. Nauman Hussain is the son of Prestige Limo owner Shahed Hussain, known as "Malik," a longtime informant for the FBI. The elder Hussain is in Pakistan but would return if asked by law enforcement, Kindlon said. The attorney said the elder Hussain controls the daily operations and "runs the company." Kindlon, who spoke for more than 22 minutes outside Troop G headquarters Wednesday afternoon, has represented the Hussain family in the aftermath of the crash. Kindlon said he, as well as his client and family, have received the death threats in recent days. Kindlon said his client had to change his phone number three times. He criticized what he said was a mob mentality against his client being presumed innocent. "This is something that I've fought for," Kindlon said, highlighting his 18 years of service in the Marine Corps. "So all these people who want to lob death threats from afar just because my clients may be Muslim-American or just because 20 people are dead today, I want to look at you directly and say, 'That's disgusting! How dare you!' That is not the way that we are supposed to act in a civilized society." He said he knew charges would be brought "because somebody needs to point a finger." Asked how his client is faring, Kindlon said: "He is terrified. He hasn't eaten in three days. He hasn't slept in three days. He's got 20 souls who were here a week ago, aren't here today and he's got the eyes of the world looking at him because they want someone to blame." Kindlon alleged police were "jumping the gun" with the arrest, saying District Attorney Mallery indicated to him Tuesday that an arrest could be months away. Kindlon shifted blame to the state Department of Transportation, saying the road where the crash took place was problematic. "I think the state is doing a wonderful job of making sure that all of you are sitting here pointing cameras at the Hussain family and Nauman and the dad," he said. "Could there be some fault with Prestige? Could there be some fault there? Yes. Is it criminal? Absolutely not. What about the state of New York?" Kindlon said there were a number of inspections and "minor safety infractions" such as not having the proper sticker and windshield wiper. He said the Department of Transportation and the company were dealing with these issues all the time. He said he obtained maintenance records showing the limo's brakes were fixed in June. "I know they have that information in their hands and yet here they are charging him with these crimes today," he said. He said he understood that after the September inspection there was a chance for his client to fix the vehicle's problems, such as a latch on a back window and brake line hanging loose. "They were told to fix these things and the car was fine," he said. Asked why state DOT officials would not have a record of the limo being fixed, he said, "That's a great question for DOT." The State Police are conducting a criminal investigation of the crash and the National Transportation Safety Board is conducting its own probe of the wreck, which is the nation's deadliest transportation crash since a 2009 plane crash in Buffalo killed 49 in the plane and one person on the ground. Peruvian police arrested opposition leader Keiko Fujimori amid a campaign financing probe just days after a judge ordered her father jailed in a separate case. A court approved her detention for 10 days, said a spokesman for Peru's judiciary, adding that a request for preventive prison may follow. She was ordered detained along with 17 other people including her former campaign chief Jaime Yoshiyama, newspaper El Comercio reported. The decision stems from an investigation into Fujimori's 2011 presidential bid. The decision marks the second high-profile judicial move against Peru's influential Fujimori family in a week. Last Wednesday, a court ordered the imprisonment of autocrat Alberto Fujimori, Keiko's father, after overturning a political pardon. Prosecutors are now probing allegations Keiko, who was a runner-up in Peru's last two presidential elections, received illicit donations from Brazilian builder Odebrecht SA for her 2011 campaign. Fujimori denied the allegations when prosecutors began the probe last year and said at the time they were part of a campaign against her and her party, Popular Force. Fujimori was detained as she went to testify before prosecutors in downtown Lima, her lawyer Giuliana Loza told the Canal N network. Her detention is "arbitrary and abusive," she said. Prosecutors are investigating Peru's last four heads of state as part of the so-called Carwash bribery investigation. Former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned in March on the eve an impeachment vote after facing allegations that a firm he owned also took money from Odebrecht, which has doled out millions of dollars in bribes across Latin America. This was filed to The Washington Post on Sept. 18. Jamal Khashoggi disappeared in Istanbul on Oct. 2. --- When I speak of the fear, intimidation, arrests and public shaming of intellectuals and religious leaders who dare to speak their minds, and then I tell you that I'm from Saudi Arabia, are you surprised? With young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's rise to power, he promised an embrace of social and economic reform. He spoke of making our country more open and tolerant and promised that he would address the things that hold back our progress, such as the ban on women driving. But all I see now is the recent wave of arrests. Last week, about 30 people were reportedly rounded up by authorities, ahead of the crown prince's ascension to the throne. Some of the arrested are good friends of mine, and the effort represents the public shaming of intellectuals and religious leaders who dare to express opinions contrary to those of my country's leadership. The scene was quite dramatic as masked security men stormed houses with cameras, filming everything and confiscating papers, books and computers. The arrested are accused of being recipients of Qatari money and part of a grand Qatari-backed conspiracy. Several others, myself included, are in self-exile and could face arrest upon returning home. It anguishes me to speak with other Saudi friends in Istanbul and London who are also in self-exile. There are at least seven of us - are we going to be the core of a Saudi diaspora? We spend endless hours on the phone trying to understand this wave of arrests that have included my friend, businessman and thoughtful Twitter personality Essam Al-Zamil. It was just last Tuesday that he returned home from the United States, having been part of an official Saudi delegation. That is how breathtakingly fast you can fall out of favor with Saudi Arabia. It is all quite shocking. But this has not been business as usual in my country. In 2003 and again in 2010, I was fired from my job as editor in chief of a "progressive" paper, Al-Watan. During the years in between, I served as media adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to Britain and then the United States. Perhaps it seems odd to be fired by the government and then serve it abroad. Yet that is truly the Saudi paradox. In the starkest terms, Saudi Arabia is trying to moderate the extreme viewpoints of both liberal reformers and conservative clerics. And the arrests span that spectrum. Why would this climate of fear and intimidation be so prevalent when a young, charismatic leader is promising long-awaited reforms to spur economic growth and diversify our economy? The crown prince is popular, and his reform plan was supported by most of the 30 clerics, writers and social media superstars who were rounded up in the middle of the night. In recent months, Saudi Arabia has instituted several new and extreme policies, from full-throated opposition of Islamists to encouraging citizens to name others to a government blacklist. Those arrested were on that list. Columnists close to the Saudi leadership repeatedly demanded that Islamists be "eradicated." It's no secret that the crown prince despises the Muslim Brotherhood, yet it is actually a strange contradiction to identify a person as a Muslim Brotherhood activist. I always found it ironic when a Saudi official bashes Islamists, given that Saudi Arabia is the mother of all political Islam - and even describes itself as an Islamic state in its " Higher Law." (We avoid the term "constitution" because of its secular interpretation and often say that the Koran is our constitution.) Regardless of who is being targeted, this is not what Saudi Arabia needs right now. We are going through a major economic transformation that is supported by the people, a transformation that will free us from total dependence on oil and restore a culture of work and production. This is a very painful process. Mohammed bin Salman is best served by encouraging constructive, diverse opinions from public figures such as Essam and other economists, clerics, intellectuals and business people who have instead been swept up in these arrests. My friends and I living abroad feel helpless. We want our country to thrive and to see the 2030 vision realized. We are not opposed to our government and care deeply about Saudi Arabia. It is the only home we know or want. Yet we are the enemy. Under pressure from my government, the publisher of one of the most widely read Arabic dailies, Al-Hayat, canceled my column. The government banned me from Twitter when I cautioned against an overly enthusiastic embrace of then-President-elect Donald Trump. So I spent six months silent, reflecting on the state of my country and the stark choices before me. It was painful for me several years ago when several friends were arrested. I said nothing. I didn't want to lose my job or my freedom. I worried about my family. I have made a different choice now. I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice. To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot. I want you to know that Saudi Arabia has not always been as it is now. We Saudis deserve better. --- Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist and author. The disappearance and reported killing of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi will have many victims, starting with his family and his fiancee. But unless the Saudi government speaks and acts quickly and honestly about this terrible event, its own reputation will incur irreparable damage. Since the emergence of the current government under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, critics (including Khashoggi) have argued that its central characteristic and greatest flaw was despotism: one-man rule by the young crown prince. To this critique were added descriptions of his impulsiveness, inexperience and repression of any criticism of his approach to modernization. Defenders of the new regime (including this author) have argued in essence that MBS, as the crown prince is known, is in the traditional and positive sense of the term an "enlightened despot." Even though he was an absolute ruler, in this reading, he used his power rationally to bring economic and social reforms, modernize his country and address the many developmental problems that hamper Saudi Arabia despite its wealth. He appears, for example, to have reined in the ultraconservative clergy. He has begun to improve the status and role of women. And he has adopted plans aimed at creating a productive economy not dependent solely on oil production. There has been no political reform. Internal critics have been harshly repressed, including women who urged a faster pace of change. Even this could be explained within the enlightened-despot model. The defense was that the modernization steps MBS is undertaking are radical and face many internal enemies, so gauging the right pace of change is a delicate and fateful decision. He must keep it in his hands and cannot permit public pressure either to go faster or to slow down. His detention of many very rich Saudis in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton hotel until they paid ransoms was apparently fairly popular in the kingdom, because it was widely believed that few of those men had gained their fortunes legitimately. Those ransoms were equivalent to the taxes they had never paid. That has been the defense, and the accusation of impulsiveness had for a while little evidence to back it. Last year most of the discussions about Saudi Arabia in which I participated questioned only whether the crown prince's terrific reform program could really succeed. His highly successful two-week visit to the United States this year deepened the enthusiasm. The alleged killing of Khashoggi is a death blow to all those hopes and expectations - unless the Saudis can somehow explain what happened and accept full responsibility. First, this is not the only recent event that raises questions about decision-making in Riyadh. This year, the planned initial public offering of shares in the state oil company Aramco appeared and disappeared like a desert mirage, suggesting that the crown prince's economic plans may not have been realistic. Second, the reported Khashoggi killing came just a few weeks after the bizarre Saudi overreaction to criticism from Canada, which took the form of a single tweet on human rights issues. Recalling their ambassador from Ottawa for a while would have been fitting if they wished to show anger. Instead, they brought him home permanently, expelled the Canadian ambassador in Riyadh, banned flights between the two countries, ordered Saudi students to leave Canada and took several steps to diminish economic and financial relations with Canada. All that over a tweet. And now comes the apparent murder, abroad, of a critic who had long been part of the Saudi establishment and was no revolutionary, no radical Islamist, no advocate of violence. I did not know Jamal Khashoggi well, but we had met and talked about the kingdom on several occasions. Any government that thinks it cannot survive his thoughtful criticism telegraphs to the world that it deems itself shaky indeed. When the revolutionary regime in France in 1804 executed the Duke d'Enghien, one commentator observed: "It's worse than a crime, it's a mistake." Killing Khashoggi would be both: a great crime and a great mistake. It suggests either a regime without internal procedures and controls, or one in which an impulsive decision to kill a critic living in Washington cannot be contradicted or even questioned. The Saudis may not realize what a wide impact that conclusion will have on governments and on investors, but it will be profound. All Saudi decision-making will come into question, and the government's reliability as a partner will be rendered uncertain. MBS can repair some of the damage (though obviously not to Khashoggi's loved ones) if he can bring himself to realize the error that has been committed. Saudi Arabia is and will remain for a very long time an absolute monarchy. What the crown prince must grasp is that his entire modernization program - indeed, every defense of his own personal power - is undermined by what all the evidence suggests was a carefully planned murder. Jamal Khashoggi lost control of his fate when he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Mohammed bin Salman must act quickly to regain control of his own. - - - Abrams is senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House. For the second time in little more than a year, former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman is said to be in line for a job offer from the White House. Lieberman, who publicly supported moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, is on the short list to replace U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, according to a report from CBS. No other evidence emerged Wednesday to support the speculation, and one source close to Lieberman said Lieberman has not been asked about accepting the job. If it were offered, however, the source said Lieberman would probably accept the ambassadorship. A spokesman for the White House declined to confirm the report, and noted that President Donald Trump told White House pool reporters that his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell were possibilities. Dina Certainly, Trump said. Ive heard a lot of names. Ive heard, How good would Ivanka be? The people that know it has nothing to do with nepotism the people that know, know that Ivanka would be dynamite. But then Id be accused of nepotism. Ivanka Trump said on Twitter she will not replace Haley. Lieberman did not return a message seeking comment. Lieberman, 76, who was Al Gores running mate in 2000, has long been an outspoken supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and also praised Trumps decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. In May 2017, Lieberman was on the presidents short list to replace James Comey as FBI director but formally withdrew his name in a letter to the president, stating he believed it would be a conflict of interest given his role in a law firm where the presidents lawyer served as a senior partner. Just being thought of for this position was a great honor because of my enormous respect for the men and women of the FBI and the critical and courageous work they do in protecting the American people from criminals and terrorists, and upholding our finest values,' Lieberman wrote to Trump at the time. John Dorney, a former state Democratic Chairman who campaigned on Liebermans behalf in 2006, said he wouldnt be surprised if Lieberman was on the short list. Hes a respected former United States senator and someone who is very aware of whats happening in the world and hes an America first patriot, Dorney said. I think hed do a great job. First elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1989, Lieberman has become more conservative through the years and now identifies as an independent. In 2006 he was challenged for his Senate seat by Ned Lamont, the current Democratic nominee for governor, who questioned Liebermans support for the Iraq war. Lieberman retired from the Senate in 2013, and now practices law as a senior lawyer at Kasowitz Benson Torres in New York. Ties to McCain Meghan McCain, the daughter of late U.S. Sen. John McCain, returned to The View on Tuessday morning and thanked Lieberman, among others, for their support since McCain died of brain cancer in August. McCain said Lieberman went really gone above and beyond, in supporting the family after McCains death. In his eulogy for McCain, who considered asking Lieberman to be his running mate in 2008, Lieberman called their friendship, one of the great blessings of my life, and recalled his many international trips with McCain, particularly their trips to Jerusalem. Trump said he plans to name a successor for Haley in the next two or three weeks. Haley will continue in her position through the end of the year. Associated Editor Dan Haar contributed to this report. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt HAGUE, N.Y. - The state Department of Environmental Conservation today released a statement concerning a reported black bear attack in the southeast Adirondacks that resulted in a man being hospitalized Monday night. The DEC said the man's injuries were the result of an ATV accident and there was no evidence he was attacked by a bear. Linda Mury, president of the Hague Fire Department, told the The Post-Star newspaper Tuesday that "the man reported that he was riding a four-wheeler in woods when he saw a bear, and when he turned around to go back toward where he saw it, the animal charged and attacked him." The man's name was not released. Mury told the newspaper that the man "suffered cuts that required 16 stitches and numerous staples, but he had been released from the hospital as of early Tuesday." The DEC's statement released the following statement this afternoon: "Just after 9 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 8, DEC's Ray Brook Dispatch was notified by Warren County 911 of a reported attack on a person by a bear in the town of Hague. "Hague EMS, Ticonderoga EMlS, Warren County Sheriffs' Department and DEC Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs) responded to the scene, where the 52-year-old male had been involved in an ATV accident. "The subject was transported by EMS to Moses Luddington Hospital in Ticonderoga. "ECOs investigated the scene on Monday night and Tuesday. At the scene ECOs, located the overturned ATV that the subject was operating at the time of the incident. There was no indication that a bear had been in the area. "The incident remains under investigation." How dangerous are bears? To date, one has never fatally attacked a hiker or camper in this state. "We have records of five incidents in the last 10 years that ranged from an illegally held cub that bit someone to a man who was seriously injured when he attempted to save his small dog that was being attacked by a bear," DEC said earlier this year. The only fatal in recent history attributed to a bear in this state was a 2002 incident in Fallsburg in Sullivan County where a young male bear snatched a sleeping 5-month old girl from her stroller at the family's summer bungalow at a Catskill resort. According to the New York Times, the 150-pound bear ran into the woods with the child in its mouth and dropped it as others at the resort chased it. The child later died at a local hospital. The bear was killed by a local police officer who followed it into the woods and shot it. Recent advancements in commercial drones and their use by the military bring vehicle and drone manufacturers closer offering integrating drones with manned or unmanned combat vehicles. AeroVironment is working with General Dynamics Land Systems to tighten the integration of its unmanned aerial systems (UAS) with GDLS combat vehicles. Above Aerovironments Shrike 2 hybrid tricopter was displayed at AUSA 2018 mounted on a launch pad installed on top of the Striker A1 30mm turret. This turret also accommodates a 9-pack battery of Switchblade loitering weapons. Shrike 2 takes off and lands vertically, on the halt or on the move. Illustration: GDLS The U.S. Army Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) program will dramatically benefit from automated drone scout and precision loitering missile engagement technology tightly coupled into the GD armored vehicle electronic architecture to rapidly geolocate and, if necessary, finish targets. The U.S. Marines Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) project has evolved well beyond a straightforward replacement for the Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) into a networked family of manned vehicles, ground robots, and drones, collectively capable of not only reconnaissance but also electronic warfare and long-range precision strikes. HAMDEN U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro announced plans Tuesday to introduce legislation to change the Stafford Act, the law that governs federal response to disasters, which may provide financial relief to local homeowners affected by the May tornado. The legislative change would make individual homeowners eligible to be reimbursed for the cost of removing storm debris from their properties and require FEMA to factor in such damage when weighing whether to provide aid to people in an area after disasters, said Blumenthal, D-Conn. We are leaving people in the lurch, with thousands and thousands of dollars in bills that they cannot pay. Sometimes, the cost is an annual salary. That is not right; that is not fair, said DeLauro, D-3. So, FEMA, Stafford Act? We are coming down the pike; we want to make the change. DeLauro said the hope is to attach a measure to change the law to the appropriation for the Department of Homeland Security, which is overdue. If that fails, she said the Connecticut delegation would take up the idea again in the next legislative session. The measure would be enacted retroactively, covering Hamden homeowners and others affected by the tornado, Blumenthal and DeLauro said. Blumenthal said he believed the idea would receive bipartisan support. He noted the impact Hurricane Florence had in the Carolinas, as well as the likely impending damage from Hurricane Michael, which was moving towards Florida Tuesday, during the press conference. Tornadoes, hurricanes, dont hit just red states or blue states. They hit the United States, said Blumenthal. Its a gap its a loophole that needs to be filled in the interest of homeownership, which is the American dream. This kind of legislation really ought to unite us. The conference was held on the Still Hill Road property of homeowner Mark Baselice, who said he dealt with $40,000-odd worth of damage after the May tornado. While, through assistance from co-workers, insurance on his septic system, and aid from the Samaritans Purse, Baselice did not incur the total cost, Blumenthal and DeLauro noted such disasters can have a significant impact on lives, noting their experience meeting people who were struggling after the May tornado. I want to thank you for coming out and hearing our voices out here, said Baselice. Theres a lot of people that are worse off than we are were very fortunate. Weve got to stick together, do what weve got to do, and push for it. Mayor Curt B. Leng, who attended the conference along with members of the Legislative Council, applauded DeLauro and Blumenthal for continuing to provide support for the town after the natural disaster. FEMA decided to provide reimbursement for communities, but not homeowners, in August. Im very thankful to both of them for being here for fighting for us, fighting for our community, fighting for our neighbors, said Leng. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com ORANGE The Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Commission Tuesday night again postponed a vote on a developers application to build a 40,000-square-foot service/wholesale distribution center and additional structures on a Marsh Hill Road property owned by Stew Leonard Jr. Chairman Rick Mangione said they needed to keep the public hearing open until they receive various calculations and make sure other questions by the town engineer have been addressed. The public hearing began Sept. 11 and will continue next month. Other commission members were in agreement with Mangione. Nearby Indian River Road resident George Finley, an engineer, said components of the plan would be toxic to fish, birds and other wildlife, and that because the property is on a hill, there would be extensive runoff from truck repairing and washing. Who and what are going to protect the wetlands and the watercourses? Finley asked. Attorney John W. Knuff, of Hurwitz Sagarin Slossberg & Knuff, who represents the developer, Scannell Properties LLC., as well as the developers engineer, clarified that any truck repair and washing would be done inside and would not drain into wetlands or watercourses. The hearing was continued last month because of a bevy of questions raised by town engineer Robert H. Brinton Jr. in a memo and by commission members. The Inland Wetlands department is the first stop in the permitting process. The next stop would be the Town Plan and Zoning Commission. The proposed complex would include a fueling facility, maintenance shop and offices at 161 Marsh Hill Road. The development would total 63,000 square feet. Both Knuff and his client have declined to comment. They looked shocked when the hearing was continued again. The plan created a stir among residents because a component calls for fueling facility and maintenance shop aspects, leading some to speculate the project is a truck stop. The site near Interstate 95s Exit 41 is where Stew Leonard Jr. had wanted to build a supermarket and petting zoo for 14 years before giving up in 2010. The 41-acre property, used for agriculture today and since 1934, remains under Leonards ownership. Hes been trying to sell it since 2012. The company the developer is working for has not been revealed, but in an application narrative at Town Hall, it is stated: Applicant has a strong desire to be part of the town of Orange community. Brintons memo to the commission contained 16 suggestions for the developer and Knuff and the team appeared to address them Tuesday. Included in Brintons memo was to consider installing hydrodynamic separators upstream from the underground infiltration systems and the surface infiltration basin, to capture oil, trash and sediment from paved areas; he asked for additional information regarding construction of the retaining wall in the vicinity of wetlands three and four; he noted the top of pond elevation for the infiltration basin is on plans as 110 feet on two drawings, but the contours show the top of the embankment as elevation 100 feet. He also wrote in the memo that a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection dam permit is expected to be required for the infiltration basin; a DEEP construction stormwater general permit registration is expected for the project; and more. The property contains five wetlands totaling 6,780 square feet, two of which are manmade and would be eliminated under the plan. Also living on the property are Eastern box turtles and smooth green snakes, both of which are listed as being of special concern in the state and offered protection by the Connecticut Endangered Species Act, according to a narrative of the plan filed at Town Hall. They are located in an isolated area of the property. At the requirement of DEEP, the developers have a plan for those species a species protection during construction, according to the plans narrative. That will include avoiding the area where they are located and educating contractors and subcontractors and monitoring of construction activity by an expert. Experts representing the developer at the public hearing that started Sept. 11 told the commission they have a robust storm water treatment plan. A soil scientist on the team told the commission the plan would not significantly affect the wetlands on the other end of the property. The property is in a Light Industrial 2 zone. The property price is not listed for the public to see, but at one point Leonard was seeking $14.5 million. He paid $2.2 million for the land in 1996. HARTFORD Bradley International Airport has been ranked the third-best airport in the U.S. by the Conde Nast Traveler 2018 Readers Choice Awards, according to a press release from Gov. Dannel P. Malloys office. The worlds leading travel magazine cited Bradleys growing availability of flight choices and improved accommodations, the release said. A modern, efficient transportation system is critical to growing our economy, attracting business, and increasing job growth for Connecticut residents, the governor said in the release. Several years ago, we created the Connecticut Airport Authority to free Bradley International Airport from the bureaucracy that has hamstrung the airport in the past and bring a renewed focus that will help make it more attractive to new routes, new airlines, and new ways to increase our states economic viability - and those efforts are being internationally recognized. They are in very large part due to the leadership of the Airport Authority, and I want to thank and recognize each of them for their efforts and the success theyve achieved to date. For the foreseeable future, our state must continue to utilize Bradley as a magnet for economic activity. With the many improvements that we have seen at the airport over these last few years, there have never been more convenient travel options in the New England region, and Bradley is being recognized by many as being faster and far less stressful than other nearby options. Chairman of the CAA Board of Directors Tony Sheridan said in a release from his group, "We are very honored to be recognized among some of our nation's best airports. ... Recognition like this elevates our brand not only regionally, but also nationally and internationally, and Id like to thank the entire CAA staff for everything they do to make Bradley International Airport one of the very best in the country." Sheridan cited convenient on-site parking, plentiful charging stations and free Wi-Fi, decent restaurant options, and an overall relaxed atmosphere as reasons for Bradleys success. We are thankful that the support of Bradleys loyal, growing passenger base has again earned us a spot in the list of top ten US airports, and were especially pleased with the improved ranking this year, said Kevin A. Dillon, A.A.E., executive director of the CAA, said in the groups release. This prestigious recognition is a testament to our continuous commitment to enhancing the travel experience at Bradley International Airport. Were very proud of our efforts to make Bradley Airport the best it can be for our passengers, and we thank them for their vote of confidence. Over the last couple of years, CAA said, improvements and additions have been made, aimed at elevating the travel experience, including the addition of Two Roads Tap Room, Escape Lounge, a Phillips Seafood restaurant, a duty-free shop, and a mothers nursing room - and more improvements are underway. Expansion of the airports route network continues to be a priority, and the airport most recently celebrated the launch of its latest nonstop flight to St. Louis. The Conde Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards are the longest-running and most prestigious recognitions of excellence in the travel industry and are commonly known as the best of the best of travel. They will be published in the November issue on newsstands nationwide, on sale Oct. 16. 5 1 of 5 Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media / Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media file Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 New Haven Register file photo Show More Show Less 5 of 5 HAMDEN A man observed pacing back and forth with a knife in his hands in the area of Newhall and Augur streets was arrested early Tuesday morning, according to a police press release. Officers got a call at about 6:30 a.m., the release said, and arrived to find Jason Murphy, 670 Newhall St., with a knife. A search of Murphy led to the discovery of a box cutter in his pocket, according to the release. Murphy was subsequently arrested and transported to police headquarters. NEW HAVEN Looking at the most recent statewide testing results Tuesday, Board of Education members wondered how they can isolate grade- and school-level successes and replicate them districtwide. Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks and other administrators presented Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium scores from the previous school year showing that, while New Haven scores below the statewide average, it is ahead of similar urban districts. Additionally, while its students score lower than the rest of the state on average, many are demonstrating admirable growth. What are we doing intentionally to improve student outcomes, wondered board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur. According to the district, both the general population of students and high-needs students at John S. Martinez School, Mauro Sheridan School, Quinnipiac School, Strong School and Worthington Hooker School exceeded the average growth in the state for English and math on the test. Were focusing on building student stamina, realizing our students are reading but theyre having challenges understanding the types of questions that are asked, said Ilene Tracey, assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and academics. Tracey said the district is working to increase the amount of word problems in curriculum, so as to ensure the district is focusing on literacy and issue comprehension. Math, on the other hand, were also focusing on building teachers capacity on understanding mathematical concepts so they can convey those at the teacher level before we get to student level, she said. Tracey said the district has been working to increase incentives so students will be motivated to learn. Board member Ed Joyner, a career educator, said he appreciates hearing about the testing successes, because urban education often is derided. He pointed to a study done in Detroit and its surrounding suburbs that reflected how high-needs students in Detroit performed better on tests than high-needs students in the suburbs, although suburban test scores were higher. Our high-needs students are doing exceptionally well, and we have to keep at that, Joyner said. Mayor Toni Harp, who sits on the school board, asked Birks how the school board can help facilitate academic achievement. Birks said she wants help creating more urgency around education in the city. I think we have to heighten the importance of education through showcasing students even beyond what we do here at board meetings, she said. On Tuesday, Tracey Davis Massey, an adult education student who decided to return to school for her diploma at age 45, was named the student of the month, something Harp noted as a point of pride. We will educate you from the time you are 3 years old all the way up to adulthood, and it is never too late to become someone who can contribute and someone who can be educated, Harp said. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN One of the buildings on the English Station power plant site on Grand Avenue will be demolished in early 2019 as city officials anticipate continuing deterioration there. The structure in question is the northern portion of a former power plant built around 1890. The then-New Haven Electric Co.s two-story, coal fired generating facility closed in 1903, while its boiler portion was taken down in the late 1930s, according to the United Illuminating website. Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson Tuesday, at a Development Commission meeting, referred to the demolition as the commission members took a tour around the city to familiarize themselves with development changes over the past few years. Building Official Jim Turcio confirmed demolition is scheduled for the first quarter of 2019. In December 2017, the owner of the structure at 510 Grand Ave., Evergreen Power, was ordered by the Building Department to demolish the facade after the city determined it was in danger of imminent collapse and separating from the substrate of the building. The sidewalk adjacent to the building had been closed to pedestrian traffic earlier in December and eventually officials put concrete barriers in the street to block one lane of traffic. TRC Solutions has been hired to remediate the entire 8.9 acres of a man-made island in the Mill River where the building in question and the larger English Station plant behind it is located. Personnel from TRC Solutions found bricks had fallen from the facade and notified the city in December. Engineer David Carlson of Spiegel Zamecnik & Shah, told the city that heavy corrosion had degraded elements of the facade particularly the parapet and masonry spanning above the windows at the upper level and the pilasters at the west end of the north wall. He also found that at least three bays of the timber roof inside the parapet had collapsed. In February Carlson reported to Turcio that the low parapets had been removed which addresses the primary risk of falling brick previously discovered. The top of the wall to the roof was covered with a membrane material to protect the substrate from weather. The engineer said this work, along with the removal of two loose brick pilasters on the west end of the north side, had satisfactorily addressed the most immediate risks of falling brick. At that time, it was Carlsons understanding that the plan was to demolish the building after it was abated. He recommended that the building be removed in the near future as there are other areas of deterioration that will lead to further loose brick as time passes and the decay continues. Turcio on Tuesday said about 50 percent of the buildings roof is missing. There will be more brick falling, sooner or later, he said. Edward Crowder, spokesman for UI, said remediation of the older station that is immediately adjacent to the sidewalk along Grand Avenue and covers 3.58 acres is continuing in order to make it safe for demolition. Remediation of the larger shuttered English Station power plant behind it, which covers 5.32 acres and has an approximate footprint of 100,000 square feet, is still being assessed, Crowder said. This plant began operation in 1929 and ceased operation in 1992. There has been a complicated ownership history of the site. Currently, Evergreen Power LLC owns the older portion that has a demolition date, while the larger plant is owned by ASNAT Realty LLC. The site was purchased by UI in 1914 and sold in 2000. UI agreed in 2015 to pay up to $30 million to clean up the heavily contaminated site in exchange for state approval of its $3 billion merger with Iberdrola, the Spanish energy giant.This resulted in the end of the long fight between UI, the city of New Haven and environmentalists. The crucial cleanup deal was worked out by state Senate Democratic President Martin Looney of New Haven, Attorney General George Jepson and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection in September 2015. mary.oleary@ hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577 The tornado that spawned Tuesday evening in New Canaan and tore a path into Norwalk was the first twister here in almost a half-century. A National Weather Service survey team confirmed late Wednesday that it was indeed a tornado after surveying the damage. It spawned at 5:29 p.m. and lasted to 5:41 p.m., the weather service said, with estimated wind speeds reaching 100 mph. It had a path 3.9 miles long and about 300 feet wide. It frightened many in their homes or traveling in cars, but there were no reported injuries. The tornado began near the intersection of Weed Street and Marshall Ridge Road in New Canaan, and continued southeast for almost 4 miles, lifting at the intersection of Scribner Avenue and Gillies Lane in Norwalk, the National Weather Service reported. Damage was primarily to trees and cars. The weather service said the tornado had 100 mph winds, categorizing as an EF1 event. The Enhanced F-Scale ranges from to 0 to 5, 5 being the most violent. Tornadoes were also confirmed in Rockland and Westchester counties in New York, and in Ronkonkoma on Long Island. The tornadoes in Rockland, Westchester and Fairfield counties were all from the same storm system, according to Faye Morrone, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Upton, N.Y. The tornado in Ronkonkoma was from another system about five hours later. It has been decades since a tornado was seen in Norwalk. A Wikipedia listing cites the most recent (according to a New York Times report) on July 19, 1971. Before that was September 1899 and August 1820, according to books on tornadoes in the region. Tornadoes are not as rare as one might think in the Northeast. Its much more common as you get into the Midwest, Morrone said, but were definitely not immune to them here. A couple every year is not out of the question. The weather service sent a team to inspect damage and the patterns of how trees were uprooted and fell to make the determinations of whether a tornado was responsible. That is typically looking at the type of damage, the pattern of the damage, and how it all connects to each other as you go from town to town, Morrone said. When a tornado is possible, people are advised to get inside and find an interior room or basement. Outside is certainly not the place you want to be, Marrone said. You want to put as many walls as possible between you and the outside. The weather service issued a tornado and severe thunderstorm warning for Fairfield County late Tuesday afternoon. The tornado Tuesday knocked down trees, branches and utility lines. Six utility poles were downed along with trees on Scribner Avenue in Norwalk. Trees also were downed on West Norwalk Road, Little Fox Lane and elsewhere. The storm also brought heavy rain. The National Weather Service reported that 3.57 inches fell in Norwalk, 3.54 in New Canaan, and 3.30 in Westport. Staff writers Tara ONeill and Jim Shay contributed to this report. A West Haven man was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison Wednesday for his role in trying to destroy the body of a murder victim with a pipe bomb, federal authorities said in a release. Maurice Wearing, 29, grandson of former New Haven Police Chief Melvin Wearing, also was convicted of drug dealing. In addition to a total of 140 months in prison, he must serve five years of supervised release, according to the statement from the office of Connecticut U.S. Attorney John H. Durham. The body of the victim, Edward Brooks, 39, also of West Haven, was found the morning of July 4, 2015, after an explosion took place on Wintergreen Avenue in Hamden, the release said. Brooks, who had been shot three times, was found wrapped in plastic and bound by rope material, in a wooded area close to where the explosion had occurred. An explosive-type device and debris were also located in close proximity to the body, the release noted. West Haven police informed investigators that Brooks had been living with Christopher Miller, at 59 Front Ave., West Haven, and that Miller and other residents of the home were subjects of an ongoing narcotics investigation, the release said. Investigators who executed a search and seizure warrant at the home seized numerous items, including pipe bomb making materials that were consistent with the materials found at the Wintergreen Avenue explosion scene, approximately 16 grams of cocaine base (crack cocaine), approximately 10.6 grams of methamphetamine and narcotics packaging material. Investigators also seized a surveillance DVR, which captured video surveillance from eight cameras placed around the residence. The investigation revealed that, while at the house, Miller shot Brooks three times with a gun that was equipped with a silencer, the release said. Miller and Wearing then wrapped Brooks body in plastic, drove the body to the wooded area in Hamden, placed a homemade pipe bomb underneath Brooks body, and detonated the pipe bomb in an attempt to destroy evidence, the release said. Miller pleaded guilty to murder, use of a firearm by a felon and evidence tampering in 2017 in state Superior Court, online records show. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in August. He previously pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm and explosive device in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in federal court, according to the release Wearing pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base (crack), and one count of possession of an explosive by a convicted felon on Aug. 18, 2017, the release said. The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Connecticut State Police and West Haven Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Richards in coordination with the States Attorneys Office for the Judicial District of Ansonia-Milford. WEST HAVEN One hundred years ago when the West Shore Fire Department was formed by 20 men who wanted to protect their neighborhoods, there wasnt even a city or town of West Haven. West Haven was a borough of Orange back then and the West Shore was what current Fire Chief (and honorary anniversary chairman) Stephen Scafariello describes as a remote section of West Haven. A charter was signed on Feb. 18, 1918, and the West Shore Fire Department was born relying at first on an old, hand-drawn hose wagon borrowed from the West Haven Center Fire Departments North End Hose Company No. 3. The new fire department needed money to grow. So the residents formed the West Shore Fire District, which had its own taxation powers. Fast forward 100 years and its time to celebrate and thats just what dozens of present and former firefighters, fire officers, fire commissioners and residents will do this weekend. For 100 years, its a significant anniversary, said retired West Shore firefighter Lt. Kevin McKeon, who was active from 1979-2008 and has been the point person to plan the anniversary events. The celebration will run from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday with a huge community day on the grounds of Seth G. Haley School, organizers said. The free event will include a fire apparatus show, photo shoot and photo display (including fire apparatus from surrounding towns), food trucks, a smoke trailer demonstration, a state police dog, firefighter motorcycles, souvenirs and other fun. For the fire apparatus show, We have about 30 trucks coming from around the state, including from all three West Haven districts, McKeon said. For more information, go to www.westshorefd.com or the West Shore Fire Departments Facebook page or the WSFD 100th Anniversary Facebook page. Then, at 6:30 p.m., doors will open at the Cielo Banquet Ballroom (West Haven Italian-American Club) at 85 Chase Lane for the West Shore Fire Department 100th Anniversary Dinner Dance, which is now sold out. The department Sunday will hold its annual memorial service, with a special dedication of a new monument in front of the firehouse, which this year will be combined with the 100th anniversary commemoration including dedication of a new memorial bell, followed by a luncheon. The bell is from 1948 American Lafrance West Shore pumper (Engine 31) and was refurbished by Promoco Manufacturing Co. of West Haven. It will be mounted on a pedestal built by Ivy League Landscaping. Every year, we have this memorial to remember the deceased members, but this year will be a lot more special, said Scafariello. All events take place rain or shine. While there has been recurring talk of consolidation, including since West Haven began working under the guidance of the state Municipal Accountability Review Board, the West Shore department, like the Center Districts West Haven Fire Department, remains independent of the city. The formerly independent Allingtown Fire Department is now part of the city. Planning for the anniversary celebration has been underway since 2015, said McKeon. He was joined at the Dawson Avenue Firehouse recently by Scafariello and retired Fire Chief William Kelly, who began as a firefigther in 1964 and served as chief from 1996 to 2002. Kelly is chairman of the anniversary celebrations Historical Committee and lead judge for the apparatus show. Its a celebration of the 100 years, and the fact that the West Shore Fire Department is still in existence, said Kelly. The department currently has 32 active paid firefighters. It also has about 10 active volunteer firefighters and 50 living retired firefighters who collect pensions from the West Shore Fire District, said Scafariello. mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com A Brigantine resident was the masked man who robbed three banks in New Jersey and Pennsylvania last year, he admitted to a federal judge Tuesday. Matthew Burney, 44, had threatened to shoot the occupants of one of the banks, a PNC branch in Evesham Township, if they activated the bank's alarm to alert police, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Federal prosecutors, in a statement, said Burney pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph Rodriguez in Camden to a single count of bank robbery in the Dec. 8, 2017, Marlton heist. He also admitted to robbing two other banks in North Brunswick and Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, prosecutors said. He previously was convicted in 2007 of committing at least two other armed bank robberies in Toms River and Brick, according to court documents. Suspect Sought in Evesham Bank Robbery Suspect Sought in Evesham Bank Robbery On December 8th, 2017, at 5:54pm, Evesham Officers responded to the PNC Bank at 300 Greentree Road, for a report of an armed bank robbery in progress. Investigation determined that a male, dressed in all black, wearing a facemask and armed with a handgun entered the bank and demanded money from a teller. After filling a sack with an undetermined amount of money the male fled on foot towards Greentree Road. If anyone knows the identity of this suspect you are asked to contact the Evesham Police Department at 856-983-1116, the Confidential Tip Line at 856-983-4699 or email at Facebook@Eveshampd.org. Anonymous tips text ETPDTIP to 847411 Posted by Evesham Township Police (NJ) on Tuesday, December 12, 2017 Burney, investigators said, made off with approximately $3,500 from the PNC bank in Evesham, and almost $30,000 from the Bank of America branch he robbed in Pennsylvania. It is unclear how much was taken during the Feb. 28, 2017, robbery of a Chase Bank in New Brunswick. Local law enforcement agencies linked Burney to the robberies from witness descriptions, according to a federal criminal complaint. They arrested him six days after the Evesham robbery, once they discovered surveillance footage had captured his SUV's license plate on camera at one of the scenes. Investigators found clothing matching the suspect's in Burney's home, an FBI agent wrote, and he admitted he had modified an imitation handgun from a sporting goods store for use in the robberies. Prosecutors filed federal charges against Burney in April. The bank robbery charge to which he pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison, but it was unclear Tuesday how much time Burney, who is represented by the Federal Public Defender's Office, would actually face at sentencing. Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Three long-time staff members in the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office have come forward to accuse their boss, Prosecutor Damon Tyner, of possibly hiding evidence in a high-profile murder case. The employees -- one current and two former staffers -- claim in an explosive letter that Tyner failed to disclose information that potentially could have helped the suspect's defense "so as not to damage the prosecution of the case." Ferdinand "Freddy" Augello, the Cape May County chapter president of the Pagans, was found guilty last week of conspiring to murder well-known radio host April Kauffman in 2012. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5. Augello's attorney, Mary Linehan, has already filed a motion for a new trial. Linehan said she believes the allegations made by the staffers give her a better chance of getting a new trial. "I am disappointed and discouraged by the allegations made against the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office," she said in a statement to NJ Advance Media. "Their authority is undermined by their failure to deal plainly and squarely with issues in the Augello prosecution and in their house." The staffers - two assistant prosecutors and a detective lieutenant - said information was given to prosecutors on Nov. 17, 2017 that an officer in the Egg Harbor Township Police Department was leaking information about a confidential informant in the case. Tyner and First Assistant Prosecutor Cary Shill, the letter says, did not order an internal affairs investigation to confirm the veracity of the claims, which is required by law. The prosecutor also declined to have internal affairs look into matters of a detective losing evidence and not filing complete reports in the case, and failing to disclose the existence of a prior IA investigation into the lead detective on the case. The letter did not give any specifics about the prior IA investigation. "Prosecutor Tyner may have committed illegalities to avoid disclosing to the court and/or defense counsel information that had the potential to jeopardize his prosecution of the high profile Kauffman case when he directed that there be no internal affairs investigation regarding possible police misconduct," the letter states. The letter was written by Diane Ruberton, a former first assistant prosecutor; Heather McManus, a former lieutenant; and Donna Fetzer, a chief assistant prosecutor. They claimed that Tyner didn't have the internal affairs investigations done because he would be required to turn over the results to the defense. That could have jeopardized the case, the letter states, and also Tyner's self-promotion and publicity. The staffers also pointed to Tyner's participation in an ABC "20/20" episode about the James Kauffman case while the case was pending as "unethical media contact." "(The) appearance by Tyner to further his other political career-oriented aspirations at the risk of damaging the ongoing criminal investigation and prosecution of criminal defendants in the Kaufman (sic) murder trial," the letter said. Prior to the "20/20" appearance, Tyner released, through a spokeswoman, a press statement promoting his appearance on the show. The announcement was unusual, given none of the defendants in the case had gone to trial yet. Kauffman was charged in January with orchestrating the 2012 slaying of his wife April Kauffman, a well-known radio personality in the area. Authorities alleged Kauffman, a prominent doctor in the Atlantic City area, had hired members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club to carry out the hit in order to conceal an elaborate prescription drug-dealing ring his wife was threatening to expose. The letter also details allegations that Tyner conducted criminal mortgage fraud, misused government property for personal gain and refused to prosecute friends and political allies for alleged criminal wrongdoing. A spokeswoman for Tyner did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tyner told the news site Breaking AC that the accusations were based on "personnel issues with disgruntled former employees and a current employee." "The great work of the women and men of the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office will continue unimpaired under my leadership," he said in a statement to the news site. NJ Advance Media staff writer Rebecca Everett contributed to this report. Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips A Burlington City man has been charged with killing a fellow city resident this past Saturday. Authorities allege Thomas A. Thompson Jr. was the gunman who opened fire on Hubert Moore Jr. at the intersection of Barclay and York streets Saturday at about 1:30 a.m. Moore was sitting in the passenger seat of a car as it drove on Barclay Street, and Thompson shot through the passenger window, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday. Thomas A. Thompson Jr. Moore, of York Street, died about a half hour later at a local hospital. The driver of the vehicle was not injured. The office did not say when they charged Thompson, 39, but Burlington County sheriff's officers working with a U.S. Marshals task force apprehended him Monday at a Best Western motel in Bordentown Township. Thompson is charged with murder and related firearm possession crimes. The prosecutor's office did not say what motive Thompson had to allegedly fire at Moore. Moore was 37 and lived for many years in Trenton, where he was well known to authorities. He was shot in 1998 during a police pursuit in the city - which killed his 14-year-old passenger - that made headlines for several years. Moore spent several years in prison for crimes connected to the incident. Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina lauded investigators' work on the case. "I commend the skillful investigative effort that led to the immediate identification of the suspect, and the tenacity of the fugitive officers from the Burlington County Sheriff's Department Warrant Unit and the U.S. Marshal's Service task force that resulted in a quick and safe apprehension," he said in a statement. "This was solid police work all around," Coffina said. Assistant Prosecutor Jamie Hutchison is handling the case. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook. German discount grocer Lidl is set for a big expansion in New Jersey in the coming weeks with three new stores opening after the company's first location in the state opened last year . The series of openings include: 136 Route 35 in Eatontown on Oct. 31 2375 Route 22 in Union on Nov. 14 297 Route 25 in Hazlet on Nov. 28 All stores will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and will feature six wide aisles and natural light, the company said in a statement. The bakery will be located in the front of each store. At each store opening, the first 100 customers will be presented with a wooden coin redeemable for a gift card ranging from $5 to $100 each. All have a full slate of opening weekend festivities. Lidl is considered a prime competitor to Aldi in the smaller format, discount grocery store business. Lidl has 10,500 stores in 28 countries. There are stores in seven U.S. states (New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia). The only New Jersey location is in Vineland. There were plans to build stores in other South Jersey locations, but none have come to fruition. "We are looking forward to taking our next steps in New Jersey with these three new stores, " a Lidl spokeswoman said in an emailed statement when asked about plans that stalled. "Over the near term, these communities, along with Vineland, will be our focus in the state. As new projects progress in New Jersey, we will be in close contact. " Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A man was arrested for allegedly firing flares at the windows of two homes Monday in Middle Township, police said. One flare broke a window and started a fire in the living room of one home. Police responded to a home on West Anna Street in the Whitesboro section of the township and another on Goshen Road in the Cape May Court House section of the township at 6 a.m. after they were reportedly shot with flares, according to a news release from the Middle Township Police. One of the flares crashed through a window of the Goshen Road home, set a carpet on fire and filled the living room with smoke, police said. Burn marks were also found on the outside of the house. The front of the Whitesboro home was damaged and one of its windows was broken. James Dehainaut, 19, of Middle Township, was arrested and charged with aggravated arson, employing a juvenile in a crime, aggravated assault and various weapons offenses, according to the release. Dehainaut was taken to Cape May County Jail. Police said there were two juveniles involved in the incidents and that their arrests were still pending Tuesday night. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook. A federal judge has ruled that convicted "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Joe Giudice is to be deported from the United States after he finishes serving a federal prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion, according to a report. Giuseppe "Joe" Giudice has until Nov. 9 to appeal the ruling made by Judge John Ellington on Wednesday in a York County, Pennsylvania immigration court, RadarOnline.com said. Giudice has been serving a 41-month prison sentence since March 2016 after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud and failure to file tax returns. Giudice, who came to the United States from Italy when he was 1, is due to be released from Allenwood Federal Correctional Institute in Pennsylvania on March 14, federal records show. He appeared in court via teleconference from the prison. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has had a detainer on Guiseppe since he was first locked up in 2016. His wife, Teresa Giudice, is the last remaining full-time original cast member of "RHONJ," which debuted in 2009 after Orange County (the "OG" 'wives series), New York and "The Real Housewives of Atlanta." She served just shy of a year in prison at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, from January to December of 2015, for mortgage and bankruptcy fraud. Teresa Guidice lives in the Towaco section of Montville with the couple's four children. In a 2015 special episode of "RHONJ" filmed while Teresa was in prison, Joe Giudice addressed the possibility of deportation, saying that Teresa and his daughters would move to Italy to be with him. Teresa has also said she would move with her family to Italy if Joe was deported. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. School children narrowly avoided tragedy Tuesday when an SUV plowed into a house near an elementary school in Nutley, police said. When officers arrived at the crash scene shortly after 4 p.m., they found the SUV lodged halfway inside a brick structure on the corner of Passaic Avenue and Lakeside Drive, authorities said. The driver, a 46-year-old Nutley man, was pulled from the wreckage and taken to a local hospital in stable condition, according to Nutley Police Sgt. Anthony Montanari. His name was not released. "We are very fortunate that no children were present at the time, the home is in close proximity to an elementary school, and children had just left for the day," said Nutley Police Chief Thomas J. Strumolo. The chief added that the area of the home where the SUV crashed is "where the homeowner spends much of her time." Police and first-responders from several North Jersey towns arrived Tuesday to a Nutley home after an SUV plowed into the structure. (Photo by Kevin Knight | TAPinto Nutley) The residents were not home at the time of the crash, and utilities were "disconnected until determined safe to turn on," Strumolo said. In addition to Nutley police and fire, EMS workers from University Hospital assisted along with fire departments from Newark, Hackensack and Paterson, Montanari. No charges were filed against the driver, but the accident remains under investigation, Montanari said. Police say a driver is in stable condition after crashing his SUV deep into a Nutley home Tuesday. (Photo by Kevin Knight | TAPinto Nutley) Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A health executive placed on leave last week after making comments about police needing training to "not shoot black children first" will keep her $1 million-a-year position, RWJBarnabas's leadership announced Wednesday. The company's president and chief executive officer Barry Ostrowsky said in a statement that RWJBarnabas had taken close to a week to review its social media policy, studying the line between the expression of personal views on unrelated pages, and the messages and tone sent from the company's own social channels. Michellene Davis. (Margaret Schmidt | The Jersey Journal) "I am confident that Ms. [Michellene] Davis remains the proper executive to lead the Social Impact and Community Investment practice for RWJBarnabas Health," he said. Davis came under fire last week after she commented on a NorthJersey.com article her friend shared on Facebook. It detailed plans to install armed police officers at schools in Fair Lawn. "Who is going to train them not to shoot black children first?!?" she said in the comment, which did not appear on a public post, but was circulated via screenshots. She posted an apology to her Facebook page Thursday morning, before removing the page later that afternoon. "I want to publicly apologize for an extremely insensitive and offensive comment posted on Facebook," she wrote. "My concern for the safety of schoolchildren and gun violence led me to react to a headline without thinking. Having a late sister and other family in law enforcement I deeply respect the law enforcement community and appreciate their service and admire their sacrifice." Davis has a history of serving in leadership positions in the state, and was the first African-American chief policy counsel under former Gov. Jon Corzine, as well as acting state treasurer. She was also the the first woman and person of color "to be named to the senior-most level of the State of New Jersey's largest healthcare system," according to her website. According to IRS records, Davis received a $1,061,866 salary in 2017. RWJ Barnabas employees, local community leaders, members of law enforcement, physicians, educators, elected officials and other citizens from around the state all reached out to the company in the wake of the comments, Ostrowsky said in his statement. The statement mostly addressed issues of leadership on social issues, rather than Davis's statement directly, but Ostrowsky did say he believed her apology for the statement was sincere, and that her statement touched on valid concerns. "The issue of violence in our community is real and the toll that has been taken - particularly in our urban communities - is reflective of a true public health crisis," he said. "I believe this, Ms. Davis believes this, and members of law enforcement with whom I have spoken believe this. It is from this position of commonality that we should and must start, if we are to move forward as a state and health system." Davis could not be reached for immediate comment Wednesday afternoon. Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Two men charged in the May 2016 killing of New Jersey Institute of Technology student Joseph Micalizzi took plea deals Wednesday on the eve of their murder trial in Newark. Taquan Harris, who admitted having fired the fatal shots, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Ronald D. Wigler to a first-degree charge of aggravated manslaughter and a second-degree charge of unlawfully possessing a firearm. Micalizzi, a 23-year-old Freehold native, was killed May 2, 2016, during an early morning robbery at the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Answering questions from his defense attorney intended to establish his guilt, Harris admitted he had pointed a revolver at Micalizzi when he encountered him in a third-floor bedroom. That sparked a struggle which ended with Harris firing three shots. "You understand that at least one of the shots that hit him was the cause of his death, right," attorney Michelle Treiber asked, as Micalizzi's family and friends could be heard sniffling in the courtroom gallery. "Yes," Harris responded, looking down at his feet. Essex County homicide investigators arrested Harris and his co-defendant, Nafee Cotman, later that same week on charges of murder, robbery, burglary and other offenses in connection with Micalizzi's slaying. Cotman on Wednesday pleaded guilty to a single count of first-degree robbery, admitting he had tried to take the engineering student's belongings while Harris threatened Micalizzi with the gun. Opening statements in their trial had been scheduled to begin this week. Assistant Prosecutor Eric Plant said the state was asking Wigler to sentence Harris to 26 years in prison and Cotman to 12. Wigler said Cotman's attorney, Jonathan Gordon, had indicated he would seek a lesser sentence of 10 years in state prison. The state has agreed to dismiss the remaining charges against the two men as part of the plea agreements. Wigler scheduled both Harris and Cotman for sentencing on Nov. 27. Note: The headline has been corrected to reflect that while Harris pleaded guilty to manslaughter, Cotman only pleaded guilty to robbery. Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Glassboro police have made public body-camera footage of the Oct. 1 incident in which they detained two Rowan University students at gunpoint for nearly an hour on campus after a bystander apparently erroneously reported that one of them had a gun. Police pulled over the car the bystander described and pointed guns at the students, Altaif Hassan, 21, and Giavanna Roberson, 18, before cuffing them and putting them in separate police cars. "Y'all not going to tell me what's going on? Y'all just going to sit there and detain me like this? I ain't got no rights?" Hassan asks as he's taken to a cruiser. "Close your mouth, alright?" an officer responds. "I swear to God you better have a valid reason for this sh--," Hassan says. "Or what?" the officer said. After officers didn't find any weapons in the car, they questioned the pair about whether Hassan pointed something the bystander could have mistaken for a gun, but both said he hadn't. Cell phone video of the incident, in the middle of the crowded campus, was shared widely on social media and sparked a discussion on campus about race and policing, according to Rowan officials and students. The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office also announced it would review the incident because of concerns raised by the community and because Glassboro police requested it. Rowan really on some shit pic.twitter.com/oRblQC87WE stefan (@_StefanHenry) October 1, 2018 On Tuesday, the department posted on its Facebook page two hours and 26 minutes of body camera video from 13 officers, including one who was talking with the man who reported seeing the gun at the Collegetown Shopping Center. "The videos are being offered in the spirit of complete transparency and to demonstrate the Police Department's compliance with appropriate protocols and training for dealing with this type of incident," Police Chief Franklin S. Brown Jr. said in the Facebook post. "In addition, Borough and Rowan Officials will form a committee that will meet on a regular basis to communicate and dialog to form a bridge to move forward. This committee will include Rowan, Borough and SGA officials," the chief said. Glassboro police have said they were simply following protocol when they detained the students. Last week, they released video of the initial report about the gun being made. It showed a man approaching officers in the shopping center and telling them he saw a heavy-set black man with "poofy" hair come out of a store, point a handgun at a black Dodge Charger, and then get into the car and drive away. Officers said they followed the car and stopped it in the Mimosa Hall parking lot on campus. The videos show multiple officers arriving and pointing handguns and what appears to be an assault rifle at the vehicle as they order Hassan and Roberson out one at a time and order them to walk backwards with their hands up. As they were handcuffed, both asked officers repeatedly what was going on and were simply told they were being detained. The video shows officers checking the car briefly for a gun, and then returning to the cruiser to read Hassan his Miranda rights so they can ask him to consent for them to search his car. He yells and swears at the officer, upset about what is happening, and saying there is no gun and they're welcome to search the car. "Did y'all find the gun? Go search my f---ing vehicle," he says. "Y'all about to find out you stopped me for no reason," Hassan says later in the video. Hassan also tells an officer what he told a reporter in an interview: that he has been pulled over or stopped frequently by police during his whole time on campus. He told NJ Advance Media that when the guns were pointed at him, he thought the slightest twitch would make the police shoot him dead in front of all his peers and on video. "If I had of sneezed the wrong way you would have shot the sh-- out of me," Hassan says to the officer while he is being detained. "Nobody got hurt, right?" the officer replies. The video shows a man who described himself as Hassan's brother trying to tell Hassan to calm down and saying that some of the officers behavior was "ridiculous." An officer explains to him that they were following protocol given the report of a gun. "It's not ridiculous because we have families to go home to," the officer said. "We don't want to shoot anyone." Hassan and Roberson later tell the officers that Hassan picked up glasses at Accent on Eyes in the shopping center and then drove back to campus, and both say he didn't point anything that may have been mistaken for a gun. In body camera video showing the bystander at the shopping center, he seems certain that what he saw was either a real or fake handgun, and he mimed the man holding it up with both hands and pointing it at the car, which was parked against the curb in the fire lane. He said he was shocked by how brazen the man with the gun was. "What did he think was going to happen? Even if it is a fake gun?" the man says to the officer in the video. "With all due respect, I'm not prejudice but a black guy in a racing car parked in front of -- not even parked there but parked here so he could take off." He also tells the officer that he is "that guy" who feels obligated to report things to authorities, and mentions that he recognized one of the 9/11 terrorists on TV as a man he had once talked to about an car repair job, and so he reported it to the FBI. Rowan University held a town hall meeting Friday where students could discuss the incident and policing in general. Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips The last independent hospital in Middlesex County announced Tuesday it wants to explore a partnership to preserve its "Catholic mission and identity" while competing in an aggressive market that has spawned a flurry of mergers in the last decade. The announcement by Leslie D. Hirsch, interim CEO and president of Saint Peter's Healthcare System, comes as no surprise. Saint Peter's is surrounded by two hospitals owned RWJBarnabas Health in New Brunswick and Somerville, and three operated by Hackensack Meridian Health in Edison, Old Bridge and Perth Amboy. These mergers have allowed the hospital chains to amass power in negotiations with insurance carriers and self-insured employers. Saint Peter's is suing Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey for requiring OMNIA plan policy holders to pay more to use the hospital. "We have an obligation to be good stewards in planning for Saint Peter's future," Hirsch said in a statement released late Tuesday. "Through the Request-for-Proposals process, we will evaluate possible options, with a focus on finding a strategic partner or affiliate that would allow Saint Peter's to retain its Catholic mission and identity, remain competitive in the changing healthcare environment, and yield the best possible outcome for its patients, employees, medical staff and communities we serve." The hospital's board of governors and senior leadership and the Diocese of Metuchen Bishop James F. Checchio, support the search for a "partnership" or "affiliation," Hirsch said. The health care system consists of a 478-bed acute-care teaching hospital, a children's hospital and regional perinatal center, the Saint Peter's Foundation, the Saint Peter's Health and Management Services Corp. which oversees outpatient facilities, and Saint Peter's Physician Associates, a network of primary and specialty care physician practices. Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. JERSEY CITY The City Council is scheduled to take a final vote Wednesday on a $170 million plan to turn a 100-acre Hackensack River waterfront property into a massive residential community called Bayfront. The measure up for final approval would authorize the city to borrow $170 million to buy the formerly contaminated site from Honeywell and then sell off the massive parcel bit-by-bit to developers. The measure would let the city enter into an agreement with the autonomous Jersey City Redevelopment Agency to represent the city in the site's redevelopment. Mayor Steve Fulop has deemed the plan a risky one that, if completed as envisioned, would expand the number of affordable housing units at Bayfront. The site is located on the west side of Route 440, just north of Society Hill. "As we continue to transform the city's West Side, this is an important step forward in the development of the largest mixed-income community in our region," city spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said. "Our priority is to create more affordable housing options throughout the city for our residents, and through this purchase, we will be able to do just that." Honeywell and Jersey City each own portions of the site. A 2008 plan called for 5 percent on-site affordable housing at Bayfront, which could have up to 8,000 units. Under that plan, Honeywell would sell the site to a developer when the site is remediated. The clean-up has been completed and the sale is expected by the end of 2018. Fulop's proposal would have the city buy Bayfront from Honeywell, create infrastructure on the site then mete out portions to multiple developers over time. That would allow the city to increase affordable housing at the site by giving it more control over development there, he has said. Jersey City Together, an activist group with members who were instrumental in forcing Honeywell to clean up the site, has been a vocal champion of Fulop's plan. The measure appears certain to win approval from the nine-member council, which has six members who are close Fulop allies. The ordinance was given initial approval on Sept. 26 by an 8-1 vote. Councilman Michael Yun, a Fulop critic, was the sole no vote. Yun said he is not opposed to the city's plans for Bayfront in theory, but does not believe the city has done enough planning. He called the Bayfront proposal up for a vote Wednesday "smoke and mirrors." "The math just doesn't add up," Yun said in an email. "If the land is worth $200 million and we are going to require 35 percent affordable housing, there is no way a builder is going pay the city $200 million for the land, so we will sell it at below cost and when that happens who will shoulder the burden of the difference? Jersey City taxpayers, those who haven't been afforded tax-abated homes." Wallace-Scalcione said the city has no worry that it will end up selling Bayfront parcels for less than it will pay for them. "We don't have that concern as we have modeled this out in many different scenarios and we feel comfortable that this will be a tremendous benefit to Jersey City," she said. The council meets Wednesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 280 Grove St. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. JERSEY CITY Hudson County's freeholders are expected to vote Thursday on a measure that would require freeholder approval if the county asks to extend its controversial contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement beyond 2020. The measure is the county's effort to quiet the furor among immigrant advocates and local activists who have slammed county officials for continuing its financial relationship with ICE amid ICE's increase in immigration-related arrests. The contract, which dates to the 1990s and was reauthorized in July, allows ICE to house immigrant detainees at the county's Kearny jail. The population at the jail has dropped in the last year and is now largely immigrants picked up by ICE. The freeholders are expecting a big crowd Thursday. All items not related to the ICE contract will be discussed at a regular meeting at 4 p.m. while two ICE measures will be heard at a special meeting at 6 p.m. The ICE meeting will take place not in the freeholder chambers but across the street at the county administration building, in a room that can accommodate about 400 people. County Executive Tom DeGise, a Democrat who is seeking re-election next year, has said the 2020 deadline represents the county's "path to exit" the ICE contract. The current contract has no end date. DeGise announced the 2020 plan last month after weeks of criticism from activists, some of whom are not satisfied with the new potential end date. Immigrant advocate the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, told The Jersey Journal during a Sept. 6 ICE protest that if DeGise thinks the county should not be housing immigrant detainees, he should sever the contract now, not in two years. "You shouldn't take another new body through this immoral system," Kaper-Dale said. Chia-Chia Wang, who works for American Friends Service Committee's immigrant rights program, disagrees. Wang said a phase-out would give time for detainees' family members, friends and lawyers to plan for potential relocation. "We do want to be cautious and sensitive to people who are detained there," she said. ICE pays the county $120 daily per detainee. The county expects to take in $19 million from ICE this year. Asked to comment, ICE spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow said, "It is at the discretion of the localities/counties as to how they choose to conduct business in their respective areas." Besides the contract vote, the freeholders will also consider a measure offering support for a recent executive order by DeGise that creates an advisory board for the jail that will review the quality of medical care for inmates and immigrant detainees, review actions taken by the county to comply with ICE's 2011 standards for detainee care and more. That board will include county officials and immigrant advocates like the Rev. Eugene Squeo. The order also creates a grievance appeal board that will review inmates' and detainees' complaints about medical care. The board will include an attorney, two doctors, someone from the county's office of legal services and a detainee advocate. In November, DeGise issued an executive order creating a medical review committee focused on ICE detainees. The boards created by the newest order will replace that one. The special meeting begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the county administration building, 595 Newark Ave. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. Two former governors will be honored when Integrity House, the nationally recognized non-profit substance use disorder treatment center, hosts its 50th anniversary Golden Gala Nov. 17 at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. The annual gala recognizes leaders who continuously make a difference in the community and in the lives of those who suffer from substance use disorder. This year's honorees are James McGreevey and Chris Christie. The Integrity House cited McGreevey's stalwart, persistent and passionate advocacy for prisoner re-entry services, addiction counseling and evidence-based programs that reduce recidivism and lead to long-term jobs. McGreevey is the executive director of the Jersey City Employment and Training Program and is chairman of the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, a non-profit that works to remove all barriers to employment for citizens returning from jail or prison. In the second half of his second term, Christie earmarked hundreds of millions from annual state budgets to fight the opioid epidemic. The state spent $43 million on a series of opioid addiction commercials that featured Christie in his last term as governor -- and had to be shelved when Murphy was elected. Christie, who ran for president and later supported Donald Trump's candidacy, served for a time as chairman of the President's Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission. "Our annual gala helps us to continue to expand our services and provide highly effective treatment programs to the increasing number of individuals battling daily for their recovery," said Robert J. Budsock, president and CEO of Integrity House. Integrity House, which has locations in Newark, Secaucus, Jersey City, Paramus, Toms River, Morris Plains and Kearny, provides evidence-based integrated addictions treatment for men, women, and families. "Integrity House has been rebuilding lives since 1968 and will not rest on history alone," Budsock said. "In recognizing our 50th anniversary we are also redoubling our commitment to pioneering evidence-based protocols and treatment regimens that help to promote long-term sobriety and an improved quality of life for people in recovery." High-visibility sponsorship packages are available for purchase as are full tables and individual tickets. Additional support opportunities are available for leadership gifts, journal ads, and raffle donations. For more information, please visit: www.integrityhouse.org/events. The news Tuesday that United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley would resign from her post at the end of the year caught Washington, D.C. and the diplomatic community by surprise. Haley was one of the foreign-policy and Washington establishments' favorite Trump administration leaders. Some had even speculated that she would run for president in 2020. That speculation has only grown since the news. But in announcing her resignation alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Haley knocked down any speculation that she would run for president in 2020, saying she would campaign for Trump. Her resignation comes a day after an ethics watchdog group requested a State Department investigation into her acceptance of seven free flights aboard private jets. Her resignation is the latest shake-up in the turbulent Trump administration just weeks before the November midterm elections. Haley's resignation was a closely guarded secret, unlike previous Trump officials' departures. Haley, 46, the former governor of South Carolina, was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trump's second trip to the United Nations. At the U.N., Haley helped spearhead the Trump administration's efforts to combat what it alleged to be anti-American and anti-Israel actions by the international body. Haley was one of few women in Trump's administration. She is also of Native-American descent. There are only five women left in the 23 Cabinet-level positions. Though Haley seemed to be one of the few Cabinet members with staying power, she did often clash with Trump, carving her own path at the U.N. But many viewed her as a practitioner of a more conventional and globalist Republican foreign policy. She acted as a bridge between the United Nations and the "Trump world." Though we don't quite know why she's leaving, do you think her exit will be bad for the Trump administration? Vote in our informal and unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments section. It's always a treat when the Feelies come back to the area for a show, but their appearance at Jersey City's White Eagle Hall on Saturday, Oct. 13, will be extra special: The venerable strum-rock legends will be performing an entire set of Velvet Underground songs along with a set of their own material. For the uninitiated, the Velvet Underground (which featured guitarist Lou Reed and multi-instrumentalist John Cale) were virtually unknown in their own era but are revered today as one of the most influential rock bands of all time. That influence has always been keenly apparent in the Feelies' music. Formed in the late '70s by a group of high-school chums in the post-industrial Jersey suburb Haledon, the Feelies blended minimalist lyrics, feverish polyrhythms, hypnotizing drones, and insinuating melodies that made them an underground institution, an influence on bands as disparate as Hoboken's Bongos and Athens, Georgia's R.E.M. After an initial success with 1980s groundbreaking debut, "Crazy Rhythms," the Feelies retrenched and re-emerged in 1986 for their second album, "The Good Earth," with the lineup they still boast: guitarist/lead vocalist Glenn Mercer, guitarist Bill Million, drummer Stanley Demeski, bassist Brenda Sauter, and percussionist Dave Weckerman. These days, the Feelies find themselves spread out over several states -- from New Jersey to rural Pennsylvania to Florida -- with families and careers and side projects to keep them busy. But the band reconvenes on a regular basis to play weekend gigs in different parts of the country, and has released two excellent albums in the 2010's on Hoboken's Bar/None Records. Still, there have only been six albums in a 38 year career. Feelies fans don't mind; they acknowledge that this band exists outside the normal rock 'n' roll space/time continuum. "Being in the Feelies is like living in a pyramid," Weckerman once said. "Nothing ever changes and nobody ever grows older." The show at White Eagle Hall was set up to complement "The Velvet Underground Experience," a multi-media exhibit in Manhattan that runs through Dec. 30. Mercer, who still lives in Haledon with his wife and children, explained how it all came about. "The exhibit, which was launched in France, decided to come to New York, and the original schedule was for it to be here last spring, and the original venue would have been able to incorporate live performances," he said. "The curators had the idea of inviting bands who were influenced by the Velvet Underground to perform at the exhibit. But something happened that postponed the whole event." Had the exhibit taken place when originally scheduled, the Feelies appearance would have occurred only a week after the band had played three consecutive nights at Rough Trade in Williamsburg. "We weren't sure if people would want to see us after we had just played three shows in the area, so we thought we should do something different," Mercer said. "And that's how we came up with doing the Velvet Underground songs." Due to unforeseen circumstances, the exhibit was moved to the fall and the new space didn't accommodate live music. "It wasn't a prerequisite that we do Velvet Underground material. We could have done our own songs, but we decided to do the Velvets set and we started rehearsing," Mercer said. The postponement and change of venue looked like it would quash the Feelies' participation. But with former Maxwell's owner and booker Todd Abramson now curating shows at White Eagle Hall, the band decided to follow through and do its Velvets set there. "I've heard a lot of really good things about the hall," Mercer said. "Originally, when we were going to play at the exhibit space, it would have been a small room, so we thought, 'Oh good, we can play some of the more intimate Velvets songs.' One of the aspects that we so love about the band is that they're so diverse so we wanted to make sure that was one of the elements we were able to inject into the night. "When people compare the Feelies to the Velvet Underground, I always think, 'Well, what period are you talking about?'" Mercer continued. "Because we can sound like the first album, but that's totally different from the third. So we were excited to have the chance to do some of those quieter songs, but now that we're doing it in the bigger hall, we thought that might not work. But we'll figure it out." The Feelies always throw a few covers into their set, paying tribute to rock icons like Neil Young and the Rolling Stones as well as contemporaries like R.E.M.; the Velvets have always been a part of that mix. But for this performance, the band had to learn quite a few Velvets tunes that they had never assayed before. "It's always fun learning new songs," Mercer said. "And it's been interesting because Brenda and Dave weren't familiar with some of the stuff we wanted to do so we had to put in a little extra work to figure out keys and arrangements and stuff. It was a challenge for all of us, but we had a good time." Mercer didn't want to discuss the set list but promised a few surprises. "We're not even sure at this point what we're going to do," he said. "But we rehearsed 20 songs. I don't know if we'll do all of them or some of them. We probably won't know until the last minute." There are Velvets songs like "What Goes On" that have graced Feelies sets for decades and were even recorded for albums. And no one who witnessed the Feelies' final set at Maxwell's, back in July 2013, will ever forget how they closed the night with the Velvets' "After Hours." "If you close the door," Sauter sang in a soft, whispery voice, "the night can last forever." Nothing, of course, lasts forever. Except, maybe, the Feelies. If you go ... The Feelies show at Eagle Hall, 337 Newark Ave., Jersey City, on Saturday, Oct. 13, is sold out. The Velvet Underground Experience runs through Dec. 30 at 718 Broadway, New York City. NEWARK -- A federal judge sentenced a former Jersey City cop yesterday to one year and one day behind bars over the ex-officer's role in a scheme to accept cash for off-duty jobs he never worked. Jimmy Cardinali, 38, who will also spend three years on probation following his prison sentence, called his actions "100 percent" wrong during a roughly 40-minute hearing in U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez's third-floor courtroom in Newark. "I stand here before you a man filled with shame and regret," Cardinali said. "I've embarrassed myself, the Jersey City Police Department and of course my family." Cardinali is the fourth ex-cop to receive a prison sentence in the federal probe of Jersey City's police department. Six others have received probation, including former Chief Phil Zacche, who admitted taking over $20,000 in a separate but related scheme. The final officer who has pleaded guilty has yet to be sentenced. Cardinali was facing a maximum of five years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. His lawyer, Matthew Beck, requested probation or, at most, house arrest. He was spared the toughest sentence because he cooperated immediately and extensively with prosecutors, giving them information that led to at least four other guilty pleas, including Anthony Iannicco, another ex-cop whose cooperation led to charges against three additional officers. Cardinali and his wife and parents received anonymous, threatening letters because of his cooperation, Vazquez said yesterday. About two dozen family members and friends sat behind Cardinali as he was sentenced. His wife sobbed when Vazquez announced the prison sentence. The Cardinalis have a 14-month-old daughter. The judge noted that Cardinali had no criminal history and appeared to live "a charitable life" before he embarked on the scheme. But, in issuing his sentence, Vazquez also noted that Cardinali's position -- he was a pick coordinator, meaning he approved off-duty jobs -- made him an integral part of the criminal enterprise. Cardinali has admitted signing phony pay vouchers that allowed other cops to get paid for off-duty jobs they didn't work. "Your signature was critical in making the scheme go," the judge said. Still, Vazquez said he would recommend Cardinali be placed in a minimum-security "camp" because that would be more "appropriate" for him than a maximum-security prison. Cardinali was also ordered to forfeit $39,587, which represents the money he pocketed, and pay $166,255 in restitution to Jersey City. That amount represents what the city lost from the scheme Cardinali oversaw. A one-time driver for Mayor Steve Fulop, Cardinali joined the police force in 2004 and became a pick coordinator in 2013. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. EDITOR'S NOTE: Interested in the marijuana business industry? NJ Cannabis Insider is a new premium intelligence briefing that features exclusive weekly content geared toward entrepreneurs, lawyers and realtors. View a sample issue. One of the key issues holding up New Jersey leaders from legalizing recreational marijuana is how much the tax rate on weed would be -- and it's still unclear if the state's top two elected officials are close to agreeing. On Tuesday, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said he won't go any higher than 12 percent to make sure people aren't lured by illegal dealers with cheaper prices. As for Gov. Phil Murphy? He wouldn't say Wednesday whether he's OK with Sweeney's stance or what tax rate he'd prefer instead. "I've never hung my name on any tax rate," Murphy said during an unrelated public event in Newark. "To be determined." Murphy also wouldn't say whether he believes it's plausible to meet Sweeney's goal of having lawmakers vote on legalizing pot on Oct. 29. "It's more important to get it right than get it fast," Murphy said. Murphy and Sweeney, both Democrats, are in favor of legalizing marijuana, as is New Jersey's third-highest-ranking elected official, state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex. Murphy wants the Democrat-controlled state Legislature to pass a bill by the end of the year. But lawmakers have yet to formally introduce one and continue to tangle over details, including the tax rate. A recent version of the legislation had the proposed rate at 10 percent -- which would be the lowest in the U.S. Published reporters citing anonymous sources have said Murphy prefers a 25 percent rate, though he has yet to say any number in public. It's also unclear whether there will be enough votes in either the Senate or Assembly to pass the measure. Numerous lawmakers from both political parties remain undecided. Both houses must pass the bill before Murphy can sign it. Murphy said he was planning to meet with both Sweeney and Coughlin on Wednesday night and that pot would be a topic. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Correction: Tyrone Harrison was a vice principal at New Brunswick High School from 2006 to 2017, recently transferring to become vice principal of McKinley Community School, a pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school in the district. It was originally reported that he was still at the high school. A New Brunswick Public Schools vice principal was killed by drag racers Saturday night as he was walking from the train station to a relative's house. Tyrone Harrison, 49, of Somerset, was killed shortly after 9 p.m. on Stelton Road near Ethel Avenue in Piscataway, according to a statement from the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office released Wednesday afternoon. Authorities believe Harrison was killed during a race by members of "78 Imports," a car club that is known to drag race on public roads. Harrison was walking from the Edison train station to a relative's house when he was hit by the driver of a 2003 Honda Accord, authorities said. The train station is a mile away from the intersection where Harrison was struck. The driver fled the scene. Harrison was pronounced dead at the scene. "This tragic death was entirely preventable and unnecessary," Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Cary said in a statement, adding that the county has the highest rate of fatal car crashes in the state. "Drag racing on public roads is dangerous and irresponsible. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Harrison's family and the school community." Aubrey Johnson, the school district's superintendent, released the following statement: "As a school district, our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Harrison's family. This obviously is a difficult time throughout New Brunswick Public Schools, and we've arranged for grief counselors to be available to students, faculty, and staff." Harrison was a vice principal at New Brunswick High School from 2006 to 2017 before recently transferring to become vice principal of McKinley Community School, a pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school. No arrests have been made and authorities did not identify any suspects. Anyone with information is urged to call Officer Meredith Robbins at 732-562-7652 or Detective Jonathan Berman at 732-745-4328. Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips As Hurricane Michael bears down on Florida as a monster Category 4 storm, members of New Jersey Task Force One deployed south Tuesday night to assist with search-and-rescue operations. The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management said 47 task force members, 14 vehicles and six boats were deployed to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. The office posted video of the task force leaving its headquarters in Wall, Monmouth County on Tuesday night. The team, which had recently returned from assisting with Hurricane Florence recovery, is made up of police, fire and emergency medical personnel. The task force members are skilled in a variety of search and rescue operations including swift-water rescue, which will allow them to conduct rescue operations in flooded areas. All costs associated with the deployment will be fully reimbursed by FEMA, according to the state office of emergency management. Hurricane Michael is expected to make landfall along Florida's northeastern Gulf Coas as a Category 4 storm on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. A Category 4 or stronger hurricane has never made landfall in the Florida Panhandle, the weather service said. Catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds are expected at or near the landfall site in the Florida Panhandle. More than 1 million power outages are expected and significant rainfall flooding is also a significant threat inland into the Carolinas, according to the National Weather Service. Proud to welcome home the men and women of New Jersey Task Force 1, who spent over two weeks in the Carolinas assisting in the recovery efforts for Hurricane Florence. #ReadyNJ #NJTF1 Posted by Governor Phil Murphy on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A former computer programmer at a New Jersey university admitted Wednesday he possessed about 100 videos containing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Samuel LaSala, 47, of Cedar Grove, pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography in federal court in Newark, the office said. LaSala was employed as a computer programmer at a university when, between May 2017 and January 2018, he stored videos of child sex acts on his laptop computer and offered them to others on a peer-to-peer file sharing network, the office said. The office did not publicize the university where LaSala worked. But federal court documents and online listings show LaSala worked at Montclair State University. He took a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that calls for him to forfeit the computer he used to commit the offense, and register as a sex offender, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He's scheduled to be sentenced in January. In a statement late Wednesday, Montclair State said LaSala, an information technology employee, informed the university in May he was being investigated for distribution of child pornography and the university promptly suspended him. The university cooperated with federal authorities and launched its own parallel forensic investigation of university equipment to which LaSala had access, te statement said. "During the period of his employment at the University, no complaints had been raised in regard to Mr. LaSala, his responsibilities did not involve any interaction with minors, and the University's on-going forensic investigation has not revealed any criminal activity by him on University equipment or systems or related to his employment," the statement said. On Aug. 24, LaSala told Montclair he was pleading guilty and resigned the next day. The U.S. Homeland Security Investigations' Child Exploitation Group investigated LaSala. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A Jackson woman who suffers seizures says her trained service dog was kicked out of an Ocean County hospital, even threatened by staff with a trip to the pound, in an incident that it appears may have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Nicole Sorchinski was transported to Ocean Medical Center on Saturday after suffering a seizure that her 3-year-old service dog, Nala, detected. Roughly 20 minutes after arriving, a nurse told Sorchinski that Nala had to leave. "[The nurse] said that Nala wasn't welcome here. She pointed at her watch and said, 'you have 15 minutes or I'm calling animal control and she's going to the pound for the night,'" Sorchinski said. The 27-year-old said her service dog detects seizures, which are triggered by a traumatic brain injury she suffered in a 2015 car accident. Nala, a pitbull, circles Sorchinski three times and nudges her before an episode. Sorchinski said Nala's breed contributed to why nurses evicted the dog, which a friend came to pick up. Sorchinski said that she was so emotionally distraught, she left shortly after without receiving medical attention. Nicole Sorchinski and Nala. (Photo provided) "They weren't even concerned about my seizure, they were concerned about the dog. I felt unsafe, like if this is how they're going to treat my service dog, how will they treat me in my care?" she said. She said she was even more shocked the dog was asked to leave because the pair had been welcomed at Centrastate hospital in Freehold for six days after Sorchinski's last seizure. She shared the story on Facebook, where it was shared more than 3,000 times and caught the attention of Hackensack Meridian Health officials, which runs Ocean Medical Center. "We are deeply sorry for the experience expressed by our patient while visiting our emergency department. We are currently reviewing the situation to make certain protocols properly protect our patients and their service animals," a statement provided to NJ Advance Media said. "While our goal is to keep patients and their service animals together whenever possible, there are situations where our team members must focus on providing the highest quality care for our patients," the statement continues. "During this time, we believe it's important to ensure there is someone that can care for the service animal while we provide care to our patients." Sorchinski said this is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. There is, however, a grey area when it comes to service animals in hospitals, experts say. Service dogs should be allowed wherever the public goes, but can be asked to leave if they are in an area with immunocompromised patients, or if the owner is unable to care for the dog. "Service animals must be allowed in patient rooms and anywhere else in the hospital the public and patients are allowed to go. They cannot be excluded on the grounds that staff can provide the same services," the ADA website states. Sorchinski said she's not interested in hearing further from hospital officials who have called her. She hasn't returned their call. "I have nothing to say," she said. "It's not even like they're apologizing. They're just doing damage control. They don't care and that's what bothers me." She said the response from the hospital has her considering legal action, but she first hopes employees at Ocean Medical Center improve their bedside manner and educate themselves on service animals and pitbulls. "Just because a dog is a certain breed, that doesn't discredit them," she noted. "Just because Nala is a pitbull, she shouldn't be discriminated as a service dog." Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips By David Sciarra New Jersey's public schools are a powerhouse. Student academic performance ranks at the top among states and the world's leading nations. Our graduation rate is the second-highest in the country. Outcomes for at-risk students outpace the national average for all students. We've built a solid foundation for continued progress. One ingredient in our success is the concerted effort over the past 15 years to modernize New Jersey's school building infrastructure. Our state is unique in providing state financing to rebuild dilapidated and outmoded schools in the poorest districts. We also make grant funds available to supplement local resources to improve school facilities in every district across the state. Photo of Trenton Central High School taken in January 2018. (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) School buildings that are safe, not overcrowded and educationally adequate improve student learning, provide security and increase teacher satisfaction and retention. Ensuring that classrooms and other school spaces are conducive to learning and well-being is the least we can do for our students. New Jersey has made great strides in providing a 21st-century school building for all. But that progress has now stalled because the Legislature has allowed the school construction program to run out of funding. The state agency charged with school construction, called the Schools Development Authority, has exhausted the nearly $3 billion in funding approved by lawmakers for urban school construction a decade ago. In these districts, 381 additional construction projects are needed, including 200 school renovations and 102 new school buildings. In addition, the $1 billion authorized in 2008 for school construction grants for other districts, known as Regular Operating Districts, is also depleted. These grants augmented local funds, enabling districts to pay for needed facilities projects while minimizing the impact on property taxpayers. Despite the urgent need, lawmakers have refused to develop a comprehensive statewide long-term capital plan to finance priority school construction needs and projects. Instead, in late June, they rushed through a $1 billion bond referendum for the November ballot, but only for vocational schools and school security. Gov. Phil Murphy cut the referendum in half and added water projects to the list. Of course, vocational schools have construction needs. But financing projects for a small subset of New Jersey schools misses the mark. Urban, suburban and rural districts alike have critical facility needs, including projects to repair leaky roofs and broken boilers and to add classrooms for full-day kindergarten and expanded preschool. A "no" vote on the November referendum will send legislators a strong message that New Jersey needs a comprehensive plan, not a piecemeal approach to school construction. By law, the state Education Department and the Schools Development Authority are required to prepare a statewide capital plan to identify the most-needed projects in urban districts and establish priorities and a timeframe for construction. State education officials must also evaluate the facility needs of other districts entitled to partial grant funding. Based on this comprehensive plan, the Legislature can then decide how much to allocate to school construction over the next five to 10 years and the best way to pay for it. There is one last point to make. While school construction may increase New Jersey's debt load, this infrastructure-rebuilding program generates jobs and taxes and bolsters the economy. A study conducted by the Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research and the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development showed that $1 billion spent on school construction results in thousands of full-time jobs and many millions of dollars in state and local taxes. School construction is a proverbial "win-win" situation for New Jersey. But it has to be done right, according to the law, and considering the needs of not just some, but all of the state's public school children. David Sciarra is executive director of Education Law Center. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Twelve years. That's the time we have to make drastic reductions in our fossil fuel consumption or we will reach a tipping point in the fight against climate change, and if humanity blows this deadline, the results will be biblical. A UN report released Monday said that without sweeping global intervention, we can expect more floods and rising sea levels. More food shortages and more poverty. More extreme weather, wildfires, and droughts. The endangerment of hundreds of millions of lives, and a global refugee crisis. The only way it can be addressed, the climate scientists say, is with an unprecedented political will, which is why environmental stewardship should be a precondition for anyone seeking elected office in 27 days. The problem is you cannot find a GOP House candidate from New Jersey who has shown much of that will lately: Their environmental records - on cap and trade, carbon tax, and President Trump's demolition of regulations on coal or auto emissions - are generally disqualifying with the livability of our planet at stake. They have two choices: They can acknowledge the scope of this massive challenge, and admit that this UN report means changes to how we live, how we eat, how we develop cities and agricultural systems, and "unprecedented transitions in all aspects of society." Or they can be part of the Vichy Republicans who tolerate the environmental nihilism of a president whose morbid affection for coal is the head-scratcher of our time. Most signs point to the latter. We have no idea how Assemblyman Jay Webber, a candidate in the 11th District, feels about Trump repealing the Clean Power Plan and withdrawing from the Paris Accord? We don't know how Rep. Chris Smith feels about creating a resilient coastline to deal with sea level rise in his 4th District, which could drown Fair Haven to Bay Head on any given day? As for Tom MacArthur, tethered to Trump in so many ways, nothing on his website shows an awareness of the sea level rise that threatens to wash out the entire Eastern part of his 3rd District, either. None have shown the backbone to defy a president who has destroyed virtually every environmental regulation that has the term "Obama era" attached. The logical way to cut emissions is to enact a carbon tax, which would make the cost of fuels for power plants and vehicles reflect the damage they do to the atmosphere. But in June, New Jersey's five GOP representatives all voted for a resolution that opposed putting a price on carbon. The resolution passed, probably because a no-vote means that the Americans For Prosperity will carpet-bomb their TV market with campaign ads that equate a carbon tax with the apocalypse. The only GOP candidate to respond to questions was Leonard Lance (R-7th), who had supported cap-and-trade before the rise of the Tea Party, which is especially galling. Now he opposes a carbon tax and cap-and-trade, he believes the Obama auto emissions standards were "too lofty," and he voted to repeal the Clean Power Plan, which is a tacit cheer for coal's revival. That's not political will. That's not someone who recognizes the need for a Marshall Plan for Planet Earth. And that's not someone who, as the UN report said, understands the "rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society" required to keep the planet from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. So until they prove otherwise, the majority party is indifferent to the fate of our children and grandchildren, because its current policy is that climate change doesn't exist. This won't change if we elect the same mediocrities who ignore this impending disaster for political gain, year after year. And when it's too late, we'll get exactly what we deserve. Are your interests served in Congress? Use this tool to keep track. .@realDonaldTrump is asleep at the wheel as the scientific and international community continue to provide overwhelming evidence of the damage that inaction on #ClimateChange will have on our planet and future generations.https://t.co/EVkRNZAKIH Rep. Frank Pallone (@FrankPallone) October 9, 2018 Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Federal investigators wiretapped the phones of south Jersey Democratic power-broker George Norcross III, arguably New Jersey's most formidable non-elected official, in 2016, his attorney confirmed. Politico New Jersey first reported Tuesday that authorities monitored Norcross, based on documents from authorities. Other media outlets confirmed the records, which do not reveal why Norcross's phones were tapped. An unidentified source told Politico that authorities had been looking into tax-break legislation signed by then-Gov. Chris Christie in 2013 to promote development in Camden, Norcross's hometown. Norcross's insurance company, Conner Strong & Buckelew, benefited from millions in tax incentives thanks to the legislation. But Michael Critchley, an attorney for Norcross, insists his client is not under investigation. No charges have been filed. Critchley said in a statement obtained by NJ Advance Media that he learned last month some of Norcross's calls were monitored "for a brief period of time over two years ago." "The reviews ended quickly after it became clear that neither he nor the people with whom he works or associates did anything wrong or untoward," Critchley added. Critchley also provided a letter sent in September by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig of the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey in which she said an investigation has been closed. "You have inquired about your client George Norcross's status in connection with an investigation conducted in the District of New Jersey pertaining to the procurement of tax credits," Honig wrote in the letter. "Based on a review of the applicable law and evidence obtained during the investigation, we have concluded that no further action is warranted. Accordingly, this matter has been closed." Critchley said Norcross did not meet with investigators because it was "neither needed nor requested." "It is an unfortunate fact of life that people can draw scrutiny based on unknown allegations," Norcross' attorney added. "Mr. Norcross thanks the government for letting him know that neither he nor anyone with whom he works did anything wrong and that its' work ended quickly and without any finding of impropriety. As he has for years, Mr. Norcross will remain focused on the renaissance of Camden and helping the city build a brighter future." Norcross, a wealthy health insurance executive, has considerable influence in New Jersey politics. He's a deep-pocketed fundraiser for the Democratic Party, he has sway over a large voting bloc of south Jersey lawmakers in the state Legislature, and his insurance company has millions of dollars is contracts throughout the state. Norcross, 62, is also lifelong friends with state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and the brother of U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, D-1st Dist. And he forged a political mutually beneficial alliance with Christie when the Republican was governor from 2010 until January of this year. The wiretaps were pursued not in New Jersey but in Pennsylvania. A court filing shows a federal judge in Philadelphia approved wiretapping for Norcross's cell phone and landline at his insurance company from July 28 to Nov. 16 of 2016, according to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News that confirmed Politico's story. Michele Mucellin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, told NJ Advance Media she cannot confirm or deny any investigation. Mucellin declined further comment. This isn't the first time Norcross has faced scrutiny from authorities. He was investigated by New Jersey's attorney general in the early 2000s on allegations of corruption. The case was referred to Christie, then New Jersey's U.S. attorney. But in a rare move, Christie accused the state of mishandling the case and said he could not bring charges. NJ Advance Media staff writer Matt Arco contributed to this report. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. WASHINGTON -- Two long-sought provisions designed to help Hurricane Sandy victims were added to an unrelated bill that was signed into law by President Donald Trump. One would protect Sandy victims from having to pay back federal assistance if the government decides more than three years later that they received too much aid. The other would allow them to receive both Small Business Administration disaster loans and Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster assistance grants. "The federal government has made it difficult for some in our community to recover from Sandy because of the actions of a few bad actors," said Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-3rd Dist. "Without this change in the law, FEMA could continue to change their mind on grants and make disaster victims pay back previously awarded disaster assistance, sometimes years after the award." Both provisions were championed by MacArthur and were added to legislation that continued Federal Aviation Administration operations for five years. The FAA bill also included a House-passed provision sponsored by Rep. Donald Payne Jr. to have the Department of Homeland Security help develop plans for stronger security at passenger railroad stations and the non-secure areas of airports. "Heightened security has made attacks against aircraft more difficult to carry out, so terrorists have turned their attention to soft targets such as the crowded public areas of airports and other facilities," said Payne, D-10th Dist. And the FAA measure includes several programs for the technical center in Egg Harbor Township, which employs 3,500 people. There are millions of dollars in the bill to expand the facility and its research programs. "It will allow critical research programs to continue uninterrupted while ensuring our FAA Technical Center has a leading role in developing, testing and deploying advanced aviation technologies in the 21st Century," said Rep Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., the House aviation subcommittee chairman. As for the Sandy measures, the first bill MacArthur introduced as a member of Congress would limit to three years the time FEMA could recoup overpayments to victims, except in cases of fraud or abuse. The House passed that bill last December. The second provision would allow the president to permit disaster victims to receive both aid and loans from the federal government. "The federal government should make it easier, not harder for those who have just gone through a natural disaster," MacArthur said. "When homes and businesses are destroyed, the last thing families should have to worry about is whether taking an SBA loan will disqualify them for FEMA grants that become available later on." Congressional Republicans have been reticent to help those who suffered losses from Hurricane Sandy but not those from more recent storms in GOP-led states. The current House speaker, Paul Ryan, R-Wis., even voted against Sandy after the storm hit. Congress last year voted to give special tax breaks to victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria while rebuffing efforts to do the same for those who suffered property damage under Sandy. Most House Democrats opposed the measure because it excluded Sandy victims from its benefits. In addition, a majority of House Republicans voted to strip $900 million out of a spending bill to build a new Hudson River train tunnel to the existing tube could be taken out of service to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. The effort failed. Trump later threatened to shut down the government if any funds for the Gateway Tunnel project was included in the final bill, but lawmakers got around his veto threat. He also dropped plans to eliminate $107 million in Sandy aid, removing the proposed cut from a list of budget reductions sent to Congress for approval. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. That famous American writer of horror stories H. P. Lovecraft once quipped, "My favorite outdoor activity is going back inside," and for the people in "Detroit '67," the play by Dominique Morisseau now running at the Matthews Theatre of Princeton's McCarter Theatre Center through October 28, it may or may not be safer inside than outside. Detroit in 1967 was the scene of chaos from which, according to Jade King Carroll, the production's director, the city, known to some as Motor City, is still healing. Tensions between city police and black youths exploded in July of 1967, and riots led to 43 deaths, hundreds of injuries, over seven thousand arrests, and the destruction of over two thousand buildings. Michigan's Governor Romney ordered the Michigan National Guard into the city, and President Johnson sent in U.S. Army troops. It is there, inside the basement of a private home, that Morisseau set her play. Chelle (played by Myxolydia Tyler) and her younger brother Lank (Johnny Ramey) have turned the basement of the house they inherited, the home where they grew up, into an unlicensed after-hours club. Chelle wants to use the money they make to help support her son who's attending college, but Lank sees this venture as the first step to bigger things, and he has made plans with his friend Sly (Will Cobbs). Into their lives comes Caroline (Ginna Le Vine), a mysterious battered white woman Lank has rescued and with whom he begins to fall in love. Chelle and her outspoken friend Bunny (Nyahale Allie) disapprove not only of her presence but also any inter-racial relationship, but Caroline stays on in recovery because she helps out at the club. "This play," said director Jade King Carroll who has twice directed at McCarter before, "is about a family in crisis, and the crisis is both from within and from without. There's trouble in the streets, but they lift each other up and try to make their world unlike what's happening around them," and Carroll has also been quoted elsewhere as saying, "No matter what is happening outside, you always have your family." Carroll revealed that this play is the first part of a series Morisseau calls her "Detroit Project" and that, years ago, she had been part of a group of friends who read a rough draft of what ended up becoming "Detroit '67." "Such discussions are not so much about what you like or don't like," said Carroll, "but about what you do or don't understand. Likes are a matter of personal taste, but understanding is more important, and every playwright works differently. What most impressed me was the author's gift of lyricism, an almost musical pattern to her characters' speech. Her words are often so beautiful to listen to, and, as the play has developed, the characters have become clearer, more understandable to me. My hope is that people leave the theater with a new or possibly different understanding of what they've seen. It becomes personal as you watch this specific group of people and be involved with their story which is one part of a much larger story," All of the members of the cast are making their McCarter debuts with this production, and the production team is composed of some very respected talents like Riccardo Hernandez who is providing set design which is lighted by Nicole Pearce. Sound design, which incorporates much of the "Motown sound" so prevalent in 1967, is by Karin Graybash. The "period" costumes are by Dede M. Ayite who also did the costumes from one of Carroll's previous McCarter productions, "Intimate Apparel," and wig, hair and makeup design is by Leah J. Loukas. Johnny Ramey, who heard nothing but glowing reports about McCarter while he was a student at Julliard, said he feels both thrilled and honored to be appearing as Lank. "I've done many productions, but everything here is top notch. Here," said Ramey, "audiences need to keep in mind that this play is history; history is different from today. To be 33 years-old and black in Detroit in 1967, Lank does not see a lot of opportunities. "For Lank to be running his own business, doing something for himself and his family and his friends is a big, big deal. Lank is a loving guy, and he's loveable. He saves Caroline. He's black, and she's white, but he sees that as less important than that they are two people who enjoy talking with and being with each other. He has an open heart and an open mind. They start loving each other in spite of the outside constraints the world might put on that relationship. It's one of two relationships that he cherishes. The other is his bond with Chelle, his sister, and that relationship might run deeper than a romance. Blood is deeper than anything else," said Ramey. "There's something fascinating to me about the music we're using. Music is an up-lifter from all the pain and unrest going on in the world around them. Even though we might be crying on the inside, music on the outside from Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, Martha and the Vandellas, and The Four Tops helps that pain. There's no scene that doesn't use music to try to pull us away from darkness. We're always listening to it, talking about it or singing along with it," said Ramey. Myxolydia Tyler plays Chelle, and Tyler says she understands her character well. "Chelle's older, and, as she reminds Lank frequently," said Tyler, "she's a widow who has been through more and seen much more than her little brother. Chelle is practical and a thinker. She's kind and understanding and very protective of Lank and her son. She recognizes that Lank is more caught up in what could be than what is. I think of her as being very much like my own mother. She's gotten through things as a woman alone and has made her own way financially. "She understands that what's happening in Detroit is because of a system that flawed, but I don't think she as an individual would make those same choices as many of those around her do. She has made a world for herself and her family, but she has to come to terms with why people are hurting, why people are dying. Her journey is coming to terms with things that she wouldn't choose herself or become involved with. "She sees her son," said Tyler, "as her future. Her focus is to be sure that her son has more opportunities than her generation or Lank's generation had coming up. All that they do is as an investment in his future." IF YOU GO "Detroit '67" When: through October 28, Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Where: Matthews Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center, 91 University Place, Princeton How much: Tickets $25 - $90 Contact: (609) 258-2787 or online at mccarter.org. Follow NJ.com on Twitter @njdotcom. Find NJ.com on Facebook A man who killed his wife in their home and dumped her body in an abandoned house was sentenced to 32 years in state prison, officials announced Tuesday. Abayuba Rivas, 43, of Elizabeth was sentenced Friday to 25 years for aggravated manslaughter, and seven years for endangering the welfare of a child, because the couple's 2-year-old child was home at the time, according to a release from the Union County Prosecutor's Office. Rivas killed his wife, Karla Jose Villagra Garzon, 32, on Feb. 23, 2014, and took her body, which he put in a suitcase, to a vacant house in Chatham, where he left it on a mattress in the basement, Union County Assistant Prosecutor Caroline Lawlor said in the release. He reported her missing the next morning and told police that she went out the night before to buy medicine for their daughter. This started a citywide search for Garzon, which included Rivas conducting media interviews to "plead for assistance from the public before ultimately confessing to police that he killed her," the release stated. Her body was found in the abandoned home with duct tape binding her hands and covering her mouth and eyes nearly three weeks after Rivas reported her missing. An autopsy showed that Garzon died from asphyxiation, and blunt-force trauma. An investigation by the New Jersey State Police, Union County and the Elizabeth Police eventually led to Rivas being identified as a suspect and his ultimate confession and arrest. Following a trial that lasted over a month, a jury convicted Rivas on charges of aggravated manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child and desecration of human remains, as well as two weapons offenses and three counts of hindering apprehension. He was not found guilty of murder. Rivas had his bail revoked following the verdict. His sentences on the remaining charges will run concurrently to his 32-year-term, prosecutors said. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook. NEW YORK -- Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia wants umpire Angel Hernandez ejected. The tall lefty never wants to see Hernandez in a postseason game ever again. "I don't understand why he's doing playoff games," Sabathia said. "He's terrible behind the plate. He was terrible at first base. It's amazing how he's getting a job to umpire in these playoff games." Sabathia ripped Hernandez following the Yankees' season-ending 4-3 loss to the Red Sox in Game 4 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. Who else shares Sabathia's sentiment? "Everybody," he said. "I think if you go ask (the Red Sox) on the other side, too." Sabathia wasn't good Tuesday, giving up three runs in three innings in the loss, but he said Hernandez was "absolutely" not why the Yankees lost. The 38-year-old just doesn't like Hernandez on the same field as him. "He's always bad. He's a bad umpire," Sabathia said. He added, "It's just sad that he's doing these (playoff) games. It's crazy." Hernandez was a lightning rod all season. His calls were challenged five times. Four of them were reversed. Hernandez was particularly brutal at first base in Game 3, where replay challenges overturned three of his calls. At one point, he said to Voit, "I'll get the next one right." YES analyst John Flaherty, a former Yankees catcher, ripped Hernandez, too, after Game 3. "I think back to the replay of the Luke Voit play at first base, that Angel Hernandez actually got right," Flaherty said, via an email from the YES Network. "And when he came back, next to Voit, he (Hernandez) made a little comment to him (Voit), and smiled a little bit, almost like, you know, 'I got one right.' "It's not that funny, Angel. These are playoff games. These are big deals. And replay bails him out; the play eventually is going to be right. But you gotta be thinking at first base, maybe take a little more pride in what you're doing." Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook. NEW YORK -- Months ago, reliever Zach Britton figured he'd enter free agency this offseason with the goal of signing with a team and becoming their closer. His Yankees experience may change that plan. Britton said that he might be fine not closing if that means signing with a team that gives him a better chance than the awful Orioles did before he was traded to New York. "Maybe not as important as I originally thought," Britton said, referring to his previous goal of being a closer, following a season-ending Game 4 ALDS loss to the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. Sabathia: This umpire is "terrible" Now that he's gotten a taste of winning -- and what the Yankees could be -- he'd be open to continue pitching elsewhere than the ninth inning, in deference to Yankees' closer Aroldis Chapman. "I just want to win," Britton said. "Being in Baltimore this year was tough. Experiencing losing and then going onto a team that's going to win, I think, for a lot of years, this would be obviously one of those destinations that I would want to be at, with the young core. These guys are going to be really talented for a long time." Britton had previously told NJ Advance Media that he would "love" to re-sign with the Yankees and that the team would be among his "top choices." A lot will go into whether Britton returns to the Yankees. They will want to keep their strong bullpen, but David Robertson will also be a free agent. Then there's the matter of, what if another team blows the 30-year-old Britton away with closer money (or at least significantly more than the Yankees decide he's worth)? Britton made a good impression in the Bronx, where he pitched to a 2.88 ERA in 25 games. The Yankees acquired him just before the trade deadline in a deal with Baltimore that sent the Orioles a package of prospects. 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: businesswoman and civic activist Carol Wise. The icon: Carol Wise. The legacy: A child of the Depression whose mother was a social worker, Carol Wise said she always assumed she would work because her parents stressed she should be employable, according to an interview with www.NCJWneworleans.org. Armed with that self-sufficient mindset, she would go on to forge a career in real estate and marketing. Wise wanted to be active in the Jewish community, too, but she said she felt left out because the opportunities there were tailored for women who didn't work outside the home. That prompted her to form a division of the local Jewish Federation for working women and to build a national network for those who, like Wise, wanted an outlet for their activism. Since then, she has surged ahead, holding leadership positions in a long list of community-service organizations -- and leading the way for other, like-minded women determined to make a difference. The artist: Alexandra Kilburn. The quote: "In anything you do, there are roadblocks. The challenge is always to not let them stop you. If you are positive in your approach, that approach will affect everyone around, and the bump in the road will be gone." -- Carol Wise, in a 2009 interview on www.NCJWneworleans.org Explore more of Kilburn's work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal St. According to the Jewish Women's Archive, Wise was galvanized to become active in the Jewish community by a speech she heard by Ike Aronowicz, the captain of the Exodus, which transported about 4,500 Jewish refugees, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, from Europe to present-day Israel in 1947. By John Pope, contributing writer Source: The Times-Picayune archives; NCJWneworleans.org; the Jewish Women's Archive; staff research More on 300 for 300: After her uncle died in 2014, Darnisha DeSilva became the glue for her family, knowing that her uncle would want the family to stay close. "She was always putting family first," Ashley DeSilva said of her 22-year-old cousin, Darnisha DeSilva who was fatally shot Tuesday (Oct. 9) inside her Little Woods house along with her 23-year-old fiance. "It's a hard pill to swallow," Ashley DeSilva said of the double homicide that left her cousin's three young children without parents. Darnisha DeSilva was inside her home in the 14000 block of Wales Street about 1:10 p.m. when Kenneth Augustine, 28, shot her children's father, Greg Heisser III, in the chest near the doorway of the home, the New Orleans Police Department said. Darnisha DeSilva ran toward the back of the house but was followed and also mortally wounded by Augustine, police said. Police found Heisser dead at the scene. Darnisha DeSilva was taken to a hospital where she was also pronounced dead, according to New Orleans police. Augustine was booked overnight with two counts of second-degree murder after he turned himself in hours after the shooting, police reported. Police have not said what caused the argument, but Ashley DeSilva said Augustine is the ex-boyfriend of Darnisha DeSilva's sister and had come to the house looking for keys to a car that belonged to the sister. After Heisser refused to hand the keys over, as Darnisha DeSilva's sister wasn't home at the time, Augustine became angry and killed the couple, Ashley DeSilva said. Heisser was holding one of his children when Augustine shot him, according to Ashley DeSilva and a relative of Heisser. Another one of his children was nearby, she said, adding that a relative later had to clean the blood off the children. Heisser's mother Lurine Duncan said her son had children early, at age 17, and was a devoted father. She shared a photo of Heisser with "G4" tattooed on his hand, explaining the tattoo was a tribute to his first-born son, Gregory Peter Heisser IV. "His kids were his everything," she said. Heisser is Duncan's first-born, she said, and also cared deeply for his younger siblings. 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 Ashley DeSilva remembered her cousin, who was also her godsister, as someone who "loved to party" and "always with a smile on her face." She was a mother, raising two young boys and a girl, who was "overprotective of her family," often devoting time for "family days" when she wasn't working. Darnisha DeSilva was working full time at Walmart, her cousin said, and planned to go to college in January. Ashley and Darnisha DeSilva grew up together, their families living next door to each other in Uptown, Ashley DeSilva said. She remembered going to school together, taking walks in the park and "sharing boy problems." "She always gave me the best advice," Ashley DeSilva said. Ashley DeSilva was in Baton Rouge for school when Darnisha DeSilva's sister initially told her that Darnisha had been shot. Being apart from her cousin and her family was tough, she said, especially after spending so much time with her growing up. As word spread at the scene Tuesday that Darnisha DeSilva had died, sobs broke out from people inside and outside of the crime tape. "They shot my daughter," yelled a woman at the scene who sat inside the yellow crime tape in a chair on the home's lawn. "My baby gone," she yelled, sobbing. "I just want to hold my nanny," Ashley DeSilva said about her aunt, Darnisha's mother. "But I can't because I'm so far away." New Orleans coroners confirmed the victims as Heisser and Darnisha DeSilva. Staff writer Emily Lane contributed to this report. Note: This story was updated Thursday with additional information from Heisser's relative. Nearly $16 million in BP oil spill natural resource restoration money should be used to restore habitat for common loons in Minnesota and black terns in North and South Dakota and to study the threatened Gulf sturgeon in the Pearl and Pascagoula river systems, say federal trustees reviewing how to repair damage to Gulf waters caused by the spill. All three of those species spend time in the open ocean portion of the Gulf of Mexico, and the projects are designed to assist their recovery, officials say. For the common loon, lakeshore loon nesting habitat in Minnesota would be bought or easements on land would be acquired, and artificial nesting platforms would be built in targeted lakes, in coordination with local lake associations. Efforts also would be made to reduce loon exposure to lead-based fishing tackle. The project is estimated to cost $7.52 million. The black terns project would including protecting wetland habitat and adjacent upland grassland habitat to improve breeding sites and foraging conditions in more than 30 counties in North and South Dakota in the "prairie pothole" region. The project would include voluntary conservation easements with landowners as part of existing conservation programs sponsored by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The project is estimated to cost $6.25 million. The Gulf sturgeon research would include describing the accessibility of habitat and patterns of habitat use by the fish during spawning periods. Researchers also would determine the river of origin for juvenile sturgeon and collect data needed to evaluate and prioritize future Gulf sturgeon spawning habitat restoration projects. Such projects could include removing in-stream barriers, creating spawning reefs, or restoration within the river or stream beds. The project is expected to cost $2.15 million. The funding proposal was welcomed by Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group that has been pushing for early release of BP money for restoration projects. "Eight and a half years since the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster began, marine restoration is finally getting underway," said Alexis Baldera, director of the group's Gulf restoration program. "At least 100,000 birds were killed, which is why these projects are so important for the species that depend on the Gulf of Mexico. Restoration dollars should go where they can have the biggest impact on a population." Two public webinars will be presented to explain the draft restoration plan. To participate, register at the links below: Oct. 16, from noon to 12:45 p.m., Central time. You can register here. (GoToWebinar ID: 113-950-795) Oct. 17, from 6 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., Central time. You can register here. (GoToWebinar ID: 944-986-443) Those unable to join the webinars will be able to view the presentations at www.gulfspillrestoration by Oct. 19. Those with hearing or visual impairments can contact Nanciann Regalado, Nanciann_regalado@fws.gov, by October 12, 2018, for assistance. Comments won't be taken during the webinars. Instead, comments can be submitted through an online portal, https://parkplanning.nps.gov/restoreOOP1, or by sending a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, P.O. Box 49567, Atlanta, GA 30345. Comments must be received on or before Nov. 9. 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 The plan documents are available online: The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group, made up of representatives of four federal agencies, is tasked with determining how to spend $1.24 billion of the $8.8 billion that BP agreed to pay in 2016 to restore natural resources under the terms of the 1990 Oil Pollution Act. The open ocean trustees include only the federal trustees: the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Interior and Agriculture departments and the Environmental Protection Agency. The open oceans segment is one of several included in the settlement. There are five segments set aside for land and nearshore water natural resource issues for each of the five Gulf Coast states, each with separate state implementation groups that include trustees representing state natural resource agencies and the federal trustees. And there's also is a region-wide implementation group, which includes all trustees, and also is focusing on regional natural resource damage to land or coastal waters. The open ocean category was included in the damage assessment because of the significant amount of BP oil that remained within the waters of the Gulf, despite efforts to remove it or treat it with dispersants. However, as can be seen by these projects, the trustees are allowed to develop land-based projects if they will help restore natural resources that use the open ocean. Indeed, the initial overall damage assessment prepared by all trustees set aside $15 million for sturgeon and $70 million for birds. The remaining money will be used for later projects. For birds, the overall damage assessment set a goal of restoring and conserving bird nesting and foraging habitat; establishing or re-establishing breeding colonies, and preventing bird mortality. The assessment also set goals for sturgeon that include restoring its spawning habitat, reducing nutrient loads to coast watersheds, and protecting and conserving marine, coastal, estuarine and riparian habitats. The three projects were among six being considered during this first funding round. A second restoration plan is being developed for other wildlife categories that are eligible for funding in the open ocean category. Not funded in this round were: A proposal to spend $6 million on restoration projects for American white pelicans along the upper Mississippi River; a $1.4 million restoration plan for black terns in the upper Midwest; and $7 million for riparian (river) and coastal conservation projects to restore spawning and juvenile habitat for Gulf sturgeon. The Baton Rouge-based company Louisiana Fish Fry Products was sold to an Austin private equity firm, reports the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report. Peak Rock Capital bought the company for an undisclosed sum. Its other food-related holdings include Gold Coast Bakeries, Sweet Harvest Foods and Berner Food & Beverage. Louisiana Fish Fry Products, founded in 1982, sells its seasoned breading in all 50 states and seven foreign countries. See the full story at the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report. First responders from New Orleans and across Louisiana are deploying to Florida Wednesday morning (Oct. 10) as authorities prepare to assist communities in the path of Hurricane Michael. Louisiana's State Fire Marshal Office reported late Tuesday that 20 personnel with vehicles and equipment to aid in rescues will work with 75 Louisiana firefighters and medics to aid the response in Florida. Five ambulance teams coordinated by the Louisiana Department of Health will also head to Florida. The firefighter and medic deployments were made in response to an assistance request from Florida's State Fire Marshal, Louisiana Fire Marshal Chief H. "Butch" Browning said. The response also includes 18 boats, a K-9 team, and four medical specialists with two ambulances. "They will move as close to Florida as they can, maybe just inside of Florida, and await the approach of Hurricane Michael," Browning said. "Once the hurricane has passed, they'll immediately work under the command and the control of the Florida officials." The 75 firefighters and medics come from the state's Urban Search and Rescue task forces. They include: 25 personnel from Louisiana Taskforce 1 in New Orleans 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 Five New Orleans Emergency Medical Services medics will be among the group responding to Hurricane Michael. The personnel being deployed are trained and equipped to handle search and rescue efforts related to structural collapses, swift waters and floodwaters, according to a news release. Five New Orleans EMS medics returned home last month after spending 16 days in South Carolina aiding in the Hurricane Florence response. In a statement, New Orleans EMS Chief Carl Flores said the agency is sending "some of our most talented and skilled medics" to Florida. "They have trained countless hours preparing for an event like this," Flores said. "After our remarkable response to the flooding in South Carolina, I am confident our first responders will be a great asset to our bothers and sisters in Florida." "I encourage those who are in the path of Hurricane Michael to heed the warning of local officials and look forward to the return of our local responders," Flores added. The U.S. Coast Guard's 8th District headquarters in New Orleans is also preparing for Michael's arrival. The Coat Guard said Tuesday night it had moved response boats, Coast Guard cutters, and other assets to secure positions where they will be able to respond to Michael after the storm passes. The Coast Guard urged all mariners to monitor local and national weather sources and to avoid coastal areas that may be impacted by the storm. Forecasters early Wednesday described Michael as an "extremely dangerous" and "potentially catastrophic" storm in their morning advisory. Michael strengthened to a Category 4 storm overnight on its journey toward the Florida Panhandle. While all eyes were on Hurricane Michael Tuesday night (Oct. 9), Tropical Storm Nadine was strengthening in the eastern Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center. At 10 p.m., Nadine, with 45 mph winds, was 495 miles west-southwest of the southernmost Cabo Verde Islands. The storm was moving northwest at 8 mph, and this general direction was expected for the next couple of days, with a turn to the west-northwest possible on Friday. "Some strengthening is possible over the next day or so, with weakening anticipated on Thursday," the Hurricane Center said. Hurricane Leslie, also in the eastern Atlantic with 75 mph winds, was 1,070 miles west-southwest of the Azores, headed south-southeast at 9 mph for the next day or so. A slower motion and a turn toward the east-northeast or northeast was expected by Thursday. "Some strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours before weakening is anticipated by the weekend," the Hurricane Center said. Finally, an area of low pressure was expected to develop over the west-central Caribbean Sea in a few days. Conditions were expected to support some development over the weekend while the system moves slowly westward. The chance of tropical development over the next five days was 30 percent. Abstract artwork usually elicits a range of responses. There are naysayers who don't understand it or proclaim a child could do it. Proponents study it and consider the time and effort the artist took in creating a particular piece. Such varied responses make the quote I recently read resonant. Patricia Cole-Ferullo, an abstract artist working in North Carolina, said: "You can't look at abstract art without thinking." The latest exhibition in St. Tammany Art Association gives viewers a chance to consider abstract artwork created by artists who either were born and raised in Louisiana or made the state their home. "REPRESENT: Louisiana Abstraction from the New Orleans Museum of Art" features 14 pieces from the museum's permanent collection. Featured are some of the best-known Louisiana artists who worked in abstraction: Luis Cruz Azaceta, Fritz Bultman, John Clemmer, George Dunbar, Lin Emery, Robert Gordy, Clementine Hunter, Valerie Jaudon, Ida Kohlmeyer, Paul Ninas, John T. Scott, Regina Scully, Pat Trivigno and Mildred Wohl, Kohlmeyer's sister. Dunbar - the only St. Tammany Parish artist represented - as well as Azaceta, Emery and Scully are the show's only living artists. The exhibition will open to the public during Fall for Art Oct. 13 from 6 to 9 p.m. The one-night, free festival throughout downtown Covington will feature artist demonstrations and live music in the streets, as well as local businesses showcasing the talents of local artists. Ceramic artist Vanessa Hock will demonstrate pottery wheel throwing and New Orleans Glassworks artist Zach LeBlanc will demonstrate glass blowing among other arts demonstrations. There will be special children's activities with artist Ruth Ostarly. The night also will include dance performances by Ballet Apertrei, Dancescape Studio and Pandorium Belly Dance Company. Crispin Schroeder Band and John Perkins are among the featured musical acts. For complete list of arts demonstrations, music and open businesses, visit www.sttammanyartassociation.org. Inside STAA's Miriam Barranger Gallery, Fall for Art crowds will be able to think about the paintings, prints and wall-hung sculpture they see. "REPRESENT" explores "the different styles, techniques and approaches to abstraction that have been prevalent through the 20th century and into the 21st century," said Anne C. B. Roberts, NOMA's curatorial assistant, adding that the exhibited pieces span from the 1940s to 2010. "The idea of abstraction is using color, form, line and gesture to create something that does not depict visual reality," Roberts said. "That's the play on the title. We're expanding upon existing ideas of abstraction. "The term non-representational is often used interchangeably with abstract. That's kind of a false term because there are some many things represented in non-representational works," she added. For example, Bultman's 1947 oil-on-canvas painting, entitled "The Doorkeeper," represents a figure from Roman mythology. Gordy often had figures in his pieces "but he had these very abstracted backgrounds that were coming out of geometric abstraction but using much more organic forms," Roberts said. Dunbar's "Untitled" also is a form of geometric abstraction. His work often references Louisiana landscapes, while Kohlmeyer's color choices were often tied to the region. Trivigno worked with Kohlmeyer and was a key figure in the Louisiana art scene as both a painter and a teacher in the Newcomb Art Department at Tulane University for 43 years. His large-scale, oil-on-canvas painting, "Green Rite," commands the center of the gallery as the exhibition's title work. 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 According to Roberts, Trivigno discussed in an interview during his 1994 retrospective at NOMA how painting was not just about putting paint to canvas. It's about the human condition and the notion that "all art is predicated on the fact that there's something there beyond what you see," he said in the interview, adding "to show the obvious, that is of no interest. Let your imagination speak, and hopefully other imaginations will join the dream." "REPRESENT" continues until Nov. 24 at STAA's Art House, 32o N. Columbia St., Covington. For more information, visit www.sttammanyartassociation.org or call 985.892.8650. New director In the coming the weeks, Jennifer Dewey will join the STAA staff as its new Executive Director. "I feel very honored to be chosen as STAA's next Executive Director," Dewey said. "St. Tammany has such a strong creative arts community, and STAA has been a supportive yet driving staple organization behind unifying and promoting that community. STAA really cares about serving artists, and I'm excited to see how I can be a part of that. I can't wait to see what we can accomplish together." Dewey currently serves as Development Director for the Baton Rouge Gallery center for contemporary art, a 50+ year-old artist cooperative. She oversaw BRG's membership program, major gifts, grant proposals, annual giving, an internship program, fundraising, volunteers, web development and program execution. A University of Louisiana at Lafayette alumni, Dewey joined the BRG staff in 2013 after a nine-year career as an in-home Applied Behavioral Therapist for children on the Autism Spectrum and small business owner. A Baton Rouge native, she recently relocated to Mandeville. Dewey's community involvement includes serving as board president of Culture Candy, a non-profit created by a team of Baton Rouge creatives to unify and promote community creativity. She also was a grant writer and advisor for the Louisiana International Film Festival and a Red Cross emergency volunteer coordinator during the 2016 flood. She is member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Forum 35, the 705 and Club Blue, a young professionals group supporting the Boys and Girls Club. "We are so excited to have someone of Jennifer's experience, capability, energy, and charm," said Roswell Pogue, president of STAA's board of directors. Applications for STAA's 2019 board of directors are being accepted until Oct. 24. More information and an application form may be found at http://sttammanyartassociation.org/board-of-directors-position/. Applications may be submitted via e-mail to info@sttammanyartassociation.org; via mail to STAA, 320 N. Columbia St., Covington; or in person during office hours Tuesdays to Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each term is 3 years, with members limited to 2 consecutive terms. Terms for officers are 1 year, with officers limited to 2 consecutive terms in the same office. Nominees must be STAA members. On the Horizon ARTWorks Tile Wall painting sessions, Children's Museum of St. Tammany, 21404 Koop Drive, Mandeville. Available sessions are: Oct. 10, 10 to 11 a.m. or 11 a.m. to noon. Fundraiser participants can select from and paint one of the nine custom tiles by artist Steve Hasslock of Hasslock Studios. Cost is $50 for a 6-inch tile depicting a boat, butterfly, girl, globe, tree, boy, crab or lighthouse, or $200 for a 12-inch tile depicting the CMST entrance. All ages, organizations, businesses or private groups are welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Each session is limited to 12 participants. Sarah Bonnette is the vice president of the St. Tammany Art Association's board of directors and a freelance writer on Louisiana arts and culture. She may be contacted at sgbonnette@gmail.com. Two events in the coming weeks, including one on Saturday, will provide an opportunity to hear some of the candidates running for offices in St. Tammany Parish on the Nov. 6 ballot. On Saturday (Oct. 13), three groups -- Slidell alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; Tau Iota Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority; and Tau Kappa Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority -- will host a forum for candidates running for Secretary of State, 1st District U.S. Congress, state House of Representatives 90th District, and St. Tammany Parish School Board districts 7, 11, 13 and 15 (all in the Slidell area). The event starts at 1 p.m. at 100 Mission Drive, Slidell. On Oct. 25, the Slidell Republican Women's Club will host a forum/dinner to hear from the Republican candidates in the races for the School Board's 5th, 8th, 11th, 13th and 15th districts (Slidell, Pearl River districts). The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at Pinewood Country Club in Slidell. The event is open to the public, but the dinner costs $23. Anyone interested in attending the event must RSVP no later than Oct. 23 at bettysuew@bellsouth.net. After innocent bystanders were shot and killed outside a New Orleans daiquiri shop in July, it seemed obvious to me that we had just seen another ghastly example of New Orleans gunmen ignoring the standard rules of street-level warfare and opening fire with no regard for the people who weren't their targets. Almost as scary as the violence itself, I argued in this space, was the mounting evidence that New Orleanians out hunting for their enemies don't follow any rules. While that seemed like a safe argument to make in a city that's seen gunmen kill babies and pregnant women and a girl at a child's birthday party, it's still scary to hear that a survey of some of city's gang members validates that conclusion. According to a professor of criminology who has interviewed more than two dozen New Orleans gang members from young to old, the only rule they've got is to shoot first. An assistant district attorney who prosecutes gang violence cases said he's heard gang members who are in their 30s and 40s complain that "the streets have lost all rules." I'd always believed that getting something wrong was the worst thing I could feel as a journalist. But there's really no comparison to the sickening feeling that developed in my stomach when I read my NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune colleague Emily Lane's report about the nihilistic behavior of the members of this city's street gangs. The violence here is scarier because there is no street code, and if there is no street code, then that increases the chances that people with no involvement in street life will get hurt. My point here isn't to valorize other city's gangs but to point out that those gangs generally operate with a code of the streets that forbids the intentional slaughter of innocent people. Some local observers believe that gunmen in New Orleans have made it a point to kill innocent people to give their enemies a display of their ruthlessness. Maybe killing innocent people isn't the point -- some experts think it's impossible to know -- but it's obviously not such a horrible thought that gang members here make sure to isolate their targets before they fire at them. Christian Bolden, an associate professor in Loyola University New Orleans' department of criminology and justice, said that in other American cities, gang members have an "unwritten code." For example, he said, "you do not shoot at people while family members are around or while they're going to church. You don't shoot when children could be in the way." But Bolden says that his interviews with local gang members reveal that their most ironclad rule is to shoot as soon as one sights his enemy -- damn everybody else. "This whole situation is 'kill or be killed' once somebody is a target," Bolden said. "The people that I've interviewed have talked about it as being 'on sight.' When you see someone, you're going to kill them no matter who is around." "A lot of (gang members) have reservations about it," Bolden said. "But unfortunately, there's enough people who don't." Too many who don't. In August 2014, after a drive-by shooting in the Lower 9th Ward killed a 33-year-old man, a 16-year-old girl, blinded a 4-year-old child and left a 2-year-old with brain damage, I asked Al Mims -- perhaps the city's most indefatigable anti-crime activist -- if the rules had been tossed, if those with loaded guns had decided to no longer hold their fire in the presence of children playing. Mims wondered why it had taken me so long to reach that conclusion. He suggested that killing children had become the point, that it sent the message to one's enemies that they would find no safety in crowds. New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said he can't say if killing innocent people is strategy. "We would have to be inside the mind of the shooter," he said, "and so it would be pure speculation on our part. What we can say is it's extremely reckless, extremely dangerous, extremely careless with lack of concern for human life." People used to insist that New Orleans didn't have gang violence. What they meant was that New Orleans didn't have and doesn't have the well-organized and hierarchical criminal organizations such as the Crips, Bloods, Vice Lords and MS-13. And while it's good that we don't have those highly organized crime syndicates, it seems just as likely that the absence of organization -- specifically older folks in charge -- makes it impossible to establish rules of conflict. Perhaps arguing that New Orleans' gangs ought to have rules of conflict doesn't sound ambitious enough. I'll admit that. We should all hope for the day when gunmen aren't roaming the streets shooting at anybody, not even their enemies. But in the meantime, wouldn't we all appreciate it if they stopped firing in the presence of innocents? Jarvis DeBerry is a columnist on the Latitude team at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Latitude is a place to share opinions about the challenges facing Louisiana. Follow @LatitudeNOLA on Facebook and Twitter. Write Jarvis at jdeberry@nola.com or @jarvisdeberry. This months bills for Louisianas two million or so electricity customers are $11.67 higher, on average, than they were in October 2020, according to the reports compiled by the Public Service Commission, which regulates the privately owned for-p All Catholic dioceses in Texas will release the names of clergy who have been "credibly accused" of sexually abusing minors dating back to at least 1950, the Texas Tribune reported. Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops made the announcement Wednesday (Oct. 10), saying it will release the list of names in January 2019 in an effort to restore public trust as dioceses across the country grapple with sexual abuse in churches, the newspaper reported. Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, from the archdiocese of San Antonio, said the decision to name the clergy members is an important measure of "accountability and transparency." The three months between now and the release date is designed to give survivors time to report abuse and give the church time to evaluate additional accusations, the Tribune reported. Church officials could not say yet how many names the list is expected to include. Bishops in Louisiana are in discussions over whether to release the names of clergy members in their dioceses against whom credible accusations of abuse have been made, New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond said recently. Many buyers choose newly built homes only to discover built-in damage later. Before you moved into your new home, your local town, city, or municipality most likely inspected it and issued a certificate of occupancy. That indicated that the home was, at a minimum, livable. However, many new homeowners are unhappy to discover that the certificate doesn't guarantee that everything is in working order or even complete. At least a year's worth of seasonal changes are often needed to put a newly constructed house to the test. For example, only in winter might you discover that water seeps into the basement or around window frames, that the landscaping was badly graded and leads to mudslides, or that your home has a mold problem. And guess what: Your homeowners' insurance policy probably doesn't cover construction defects. You might therefore need to assert your rights against the builder, most likely based on the builder's warranty. This might be as simple a process as communicating with the builder; or it might involve making a formal claim and eventually going to court. Are My New-Home Defects Covered by a Builder's Warranty? Most home builders issue new owners a warranty (often called a "limited warranty") on their work, either within the sales contract or as a separate document. Interestingly, such warranties aren't necessarily required by state law, though you'll certainly want to check on the law in your state, and perhaps hire a lawyer for a consultation. The builder's warranty's maximum term is typically actually a combination of time periods, based on the type of needed work. It might be broken up, for example, into one-, two-, and ten-year terms. Homeowners commonly receive: a one-year warranty for labor and materials two years' protection for mechanical defects (plumbing, electrical, heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems), and ten years' warranty for structural defects in the home. The result is that some of the best parts of the builder's warranty expire quickly, such as for carpeting, tiles, paint, and roofing. If you received a warranty from your home's builder, read it over to determine its length, who is supposed to handle problems (the builder might have bought third-party insurance), and what's covered and excluded. Pay special attention to your own responsibilities under the builder's warranty: you might have been given a detailed list of maintenance obligations. Ignoring these gives the builder a perfect excuse to deny you protections under the warranty. What Exclusions Are Normal to See in a Home Builder's Warranty? Typical exclusions from a builder's warranty include: damage owing to your own abuse, misuse, neglect, failure by you or your homeowners' association to provide maintenance (such as cleaning the gutters, draining your water heater, touching up caulk or grout, or dealing with pests), or failure to maintain adequate ventilation and humidity levels in the home deterioration of construction materials within expected levels, including warpage or shrinkage within industry standards, or changes due to weather conditions, natural disasters, or soil movement or settling damage caused by outsiders (such as rioters, vandals, animals, or airplanes) or "acts of God" damage caused by people you hired to work on the property your housing costs and expenses if you have to move out while repairs are being made, and all home appliances or equipment that are consumer products, such as your refrigerator and dishwasher, some of which come with their own warranties (which the builder should have transferred to you). How Do I Protect Myself From Future Builder Warranties Expiring? Some home defects are hard to detect, so it's worth keeping track of upcoming expiration dates, then worth paying a professional to point out what the builder needs to fix. In fact, many builder's warranties or contracts say they'll send a quality-control inspector within the first year to check on your house. Keep track of that date yourself, and make sure the builder's inspectors truly seems to be scouting for trouble. If not, hire your own. In preparation for any inspection, make a list of every problem you've observed. Something as apparently minor as a cracked tile could indicate a major problem, like a shifting foundation. Can I File a Builder's Warranty Claim? If the defective or damaged item is covered by the builder's warranty, read what it says about procedures for filing a claim. Many warranties require you to send written notification to the builder, while others give you a hotline to call. In fact, sending a letter to the builder is a good idea regardless of what the warranty says. This shows that you're serious about asserting your rights, and creates evidence that you might later want to use in court. Send the letter by certified mail with a return receipt, so the builder can't later claim not to have received it. Also keep notes on your every conversation with the builder, including the dates. You can use this information to confirm, in your letters to the builder, what you agreed to. And they might also be good to show to a judge someday. Be prepared to act quickly. Sometimes you can protect your rights just by notifying the builder of problems within the warranty period. However, some warranties are cleverly written to let the builder string you along without making the repairs until the warranty period has run out and you've lost your rights. (Don't bring in any outside contractors to do repairs yet, as this could allow the builder to cancel the benefits of the warranty.) If your builder isn't accepting responsibility, figure out whether a manufacturer's warranty might apply; for example, to an appliance, windows, roof shingles, or other product. You might be able to argue that the product itself failed, in which case a manufacturer that stands behind its product will provide replacements and repairs. The catch, however, is that the product needs to have been installed properly, and improper installation in new construction is often the very core of the problem. John Kolmar, left, and other members of a tour group walk through the press room during an open house at the Aiken Standard last year. Roger Rollins is the executive director of The Family and Marriage Coalition of Aiken, Inc. Contact him at 803-640-4689, rogerrollins@aikenfamco.com or www.aikenfamco.com. Oct 10, 2018 NR Naga Chaitanya's next with Ninnu Kori fame Shiva Nirvana began its regular shoot the other day. The movie will have Samantha as the heroine in that film. It will mark the first onscreen romance of Chai Sam after their marriage. Earlier, Naga Chaitanya and Samantha have paired up in Yem Maaya Chesave, Autonagar Surya, and Manam. Except for Autonagar Surya, all their films have ended up as big hits. Buzz is that the makers are considering 'Majili' as the title of the film. The movie is being bankrolled under the banner of Shine Screens, the film will be produced by Sahu Garapati and Harish Peddi. Click the Movie button below for more info: Majili Samantha Ruth Prabhu 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. Supporting One Another Oct. 9, 2018 Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff, Recent events in Washington have underscored deep divisions in our nation. As a university, we should not take a stand on partisan issues, but we can and will do everything possible to provide a supportive environment that protects all members of our community and educates us all about the profound and important issues we struggle with as a society. So I am asking everyone in our community to use this moment as a time for reflection and learning. I want to remind students, faculty, and staff of the resources available to them here on campus. And I want to encourage all of us to make our voices heard beyond our campus. For those who have faced sexual violence or who are feeling especially vulnerable, please remember this: Brandeis cares. Professional resources here on campus can provide you with compassionate and timely assistance. They include the universitys Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as well as these confidential services: For a comprehensive list of resources available to students, faculty, and staff, please visit the Support at Brandeis website. As the universitys Title IX website underscores, Brandeis is committed to providing students, faculty, and staff with an environment conducive to learning and working, one where people are treated with respect and dignity. If you have experienced, witnessed, or become aware of discrimination or sexual misconduct, you have rights and options. Brandeis offices can help you seek support and report the incident to university officials and/or local law enforcement. The university is committed to responding promptly and effectively once notified of any form of discrimination based on sex and forbids retaliation against an individual who has filed a complaint. All of us also have a role to play in the political process. Justice Louis Brandeis, our namesake, observed that the most important political office is that of the private citizen. These words call on us to exercise our civic responsibility to be engaged citizens to participate in our democratic institutions in order to keep them strong and functioning. If you have not registered to vote or have not yet applied for an absentee ballot, there is still time to have your voice heard by having your vote counted. University students can register to vote either in their home state or in the state in which they are enrolled. Please see these sites for relevant information: To register to vote To obtain an absentee ballot On Thursday, October 11, at noon, a voter registration drive will be held in the Shapiro Campus Center, offering additional assistance and information. Provost Lisa Lynch has written to deans and womens, gender, and sexuality studies faculty, encouraging faculty members with relevant coursework to build in time for discussions about sexual assault, the recent U.S. Senate confirmation hearings, and, more broadly, the state of civil rights in the United States. The university is engaged in the exploration of these and other issues. Last week, we hosted Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, the former president of Spelman College, who delivered an inspiring Gittler Prize lecture, Closing the Empathy Gap: Community Building Through Dialogue. University Professor Anita Hill recently spoke to a gathering of students enrolled in womens, gender, and sexuality studies. And on Sunday, October 14, University of Michigan professor Catharine MacKinnon will deliver her Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture on Gender and Human Rights, titled Sexual Harassment: The Law, the Politics, and the Movement, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center; the event is free and open to the public. There will be many other opportunities for us to learn from and listen to one another as a caring community. For now, I want you to know that, while the university must and will remain politically nonpartisan, we stand compassionately by any members of our community who feel anguish. We will use this opportunity and others like it to listen more attentively and intentionally to one another, and to strengthen our resolve as Brandeisians to do all we can to advance both truth and justice. Sincerely, Ron Liebowitz The last time an aspiring young violinist took a shine to this 1734 Stradivari violin, he simply stole it snatching it in 1980 from the office of its owner, the violin virtuoso and teacher Roman Totenberg, at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass. It remained lost for 35 years. Now the violin, which is worth millions, has been passed on to another aspiring violinist to play legally, this time. The stolen Strad resurfaced in 2015, several years after the death of the apparent thief, a violinist with a checkered career, when his ex-wife turned it over to the F.B.I. The bureau returned it to Mr. Totenbergs three daughters, Amy, Jill and Nina Totenberg, who decided to have it restored and sold but who wanted to make sure it wound up with a musician, not locked away in a collection. He was such a wonderful teacher, Nina Totenberg, NPRs legal affairs correspondent, recalled of her father, as she took a break after covering Brett Kavanaughs confirmation to the Supreme Court. He loved, loved, loved, loved teaching young people so much. A former personal assistant to a top executive at Goldman Sachs jumped to his death from a Manhattan hotel on Tuesday, the same day he was scheduled to appear in federal court on a criminal charge related to a lucrative theft from his former boss, the authorities said. The former assistant, Nicolas De-Meyer, was accused of stealing more than $1.2 million in high-end wine from the collection of his former boss, David M. Solomon, who is now the chief executive of Goldman Sachs. Mr. De-Meyer was scheduled to appear in federal court at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, court records show. The police responded to a call about a person who jumped from a hotel at 2:38 p.m. Mr. De-Meyer, 41, jumped from the 33rd floor of the Carlyle, a luxury hotel on the Upper East Side where he had been staying, the police said. The authorities said he was pronounced dead at the scene. David Wise, one of the first journalists to expose the clandestine operations of the Central Intelligence Agency and a standard-setter for investigative reporting into government espionage, died on Monday in Washington. He was 88. The death, at Georgetown University Medical Center, was confirmed by his wife, Joan Wise, who said the cause was pancreatic cancer. Mr. Wise was the author, with Thomas B. Ross, of The Invisible Government, an explosive 1964 expose of the C.I.A. and its covert operations. To keep its contents from the public, the C.I.A. considered buying up all copies of the book but backed off when the publisher, Random House, made clear that it would simply print more. Mr. Wise began his journalism career in the late 1940s as a campus stringer for The New York Herald Tribune while studying at Columbia College. In his senior year he was editor of the campus newspaper, The Spectator, alongside another aspiring journalist, Max Frankel, who in 1986 became executive editor of The New York Times. With all due respect, I dont get confused, Nikki Haley, the United Nations ambassador , memorably once snapped to a reporter , after a senior and, unsurprisingly, male White House official attributed a tough position shed announced on sanctioning Russia to momentary confusion. While Ms. Haley might not have gotten confused herself, she could at times present a confusing picture. She could talk as bluntly as the president himself about the failings of the United Nations system, and yet, more quietly, she proved a practitioner of multilateral diplomacy. In an administration that prizes lock-step loyalty, Ms. Haley managed to hold to at least some of her own priorities, and as a result she appears to be that rarest of Trump appointees: one who can exit the administration with her dignity largely intact. She announced on Tuesday that she would step down at the end of the year. Hong Kongs expulsion of a British journalist after he led a foreign correspondents meeting with a pro-independence activist is, first and foremost, an attempt by Beijing to tamp down any dissent in the former British colony. Hong Kong officials have not given a reason for rejecting a journalist visa for Victor Mallet, the Asia news editor for The Financial Times. Chinas only comment has been that Hong Kong authorities are within their right to do so. But thats the typical legalistic evasiveness of authoritarian regimes when they do something they know is hard and embarrassing to defend. The authorities have never criticized Mr. Mallets reporting. But he was the main spokesman for the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club in August when it hosted a talk by Andy Chan, head of a political party that called for Hong Kongs independence from China. Hong Kong and Beijing officials blasted the event in advance and subsequently banned the party. Beijing took back control of Hong Kong from the British in 1997 after nearly a century of colonial rule, and agitation toward independence has never pleased Chinas leadership. Hong Kong as an inalienable part of China is written into the territorys Basic Law. INTERNATIONAL An article on Tuesday about threats facing Australias coral reefs misidentified the location of Edith Cowan University. It is in Western Australia, not Queensland. BUSINESS DAY An article on Monday about venture capital financing for electronic cigarette companies referred incorrectly to the Food and Drug Administrations description of an event in which officials seized documents from Juuls office. It was a surprise inspection, not a surprise raid. An article on Monday about technology workers raising concerns about the use of their work misstated the timing of the real estate company Redfins addition of context to the school test score information it publishes online. It plans to add that context early next year; it has not already added it. SPORTS An article on Monday about the Red Sox decisive win over the Yankees referred incorrectly to Andrew Benintendis hit that cleared the bases on the fourth inning. It was a double, not a triple, and it made the score 7-0, not 8-0. The storied Chelsea Hotel was filled with artists and beat poets when Michael Rips and his wife, Sheila Berger, an artist, moved in 24 years ago. This had been Charles Jamess apartment and atelier, Mr. Rips, executive director of the Art Students League, said, referring to the eccentric designer said to be one of the models for the couturier in the film Phantom Thread. My mother was a big Charles James fan, Mr. Rips said. He grew up in Omaha, where his parents collected modern American ceramics and helped found the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, which started his lifelong obsession with art. In a tribute to the apartments pedigree, the bathroom features a Cecil Beaton photograph of a young James fitting a dress on a model. Hung inside a lavishly ornate gold-leaf frame, the photograph swings forward from the right to reveal a cleverly constructed medicine cabinet. In the hallway is a striking frame-within-a-frame installation surrounding a small, 19th-century Julio Romero de Torres painting of an aristocratic woman baring a breast. My affection for frames is not just aesthetic but as totems of a community of people Ive been involved with since I was a kid, in junk stores, antique shops and flea markets, Mr. Rips said. And Mr. Hearne depicts that democracy in an explosive, restless, fragment-laden score. Theres R&B, chant, gospel, string chamber music and rock sometimes all within a few seconds. Dizzying drums meet electronically processed voices, the sepulchral contrabass clarinet and shards of pop samples, a confident yet jittery mix of styles similar to The Source. The success of that piece made it clear that Mr. Hearne could see a risky project through and could successfully weave the political and personal. When the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the producer Beth Morrison Projects commissioned a new, larger-scale theatrical work from him in 2016, Mr. Hearne had been thinking about social tensions in New York, which he had recently left for a teaching job at the University of Southern California. Id been brainstorming this idea for a long time, about living in Brooklyn, he said. At first it was about living in the shadow of stop and frisk and, like, Im not being frisked, but seeing it outside your door. That initial idea expanded. And expanded: The finished final section zooms way out to contemplate space and time, with poetic imagery of distant planets. Its heady stuff perhaps even more ambitious than the daunting subject of The Source and the collaborators struggled to give it shape. Its so hard to find something meaningful to say, said Ms. McGregor, because its so large and complex that you dont just want to say something general. 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. Weve Lost Our Minds! After hearing about the dire report that United Nations climate scientists released on Monday, Jimmy Kimmel said that the world looked like it was almost ready to close up shop. Ever the absurdist, he cued up a wacky going-out-of-business ad for all of Earth. One planets calamity is another planets shop-portunity, Kimmel said. LOS ANGELES The outdoors, even the fake outdoors, may not seem like the place youd expect to find Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, otherwise known as the duo behind the Brooklyn-chic millennial comedy Girls. Yet one morning in June here they were, offering a tour of the Hollywood soundstage where the cast and crew of Camping, their new HBO limited series that begins airing on Sunday, had retreated after a stint filming in the heat and dust of a nearby movie ranch. They stepped past a white canvas tent and into a recreated barn, where Ms. Konner pulled out her phone to show off a cache of photos of the on-location snake wranglers daily haul of would-be invaders. We called it Snake of the Day, she said. We would try to get him to send them to the other show shooting nearby. After he published his surreal epic, The Underground Railroad, in the summer of 2016, Colson Whitehead was set to write a crime novel set in Harlem. But he couldnt stop thinking about a story that haunted him, about the abuses beatings, torture, neglect, suspicious deaths that took place at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a reform school in the Florida panhandle that operated for more than a century. So instead, Mr. Whitehead decided to explore the schools dark history in his new novel, The Nickel Boys, which Doubleday will publish next summer. Mr. Whitehead first learned about the Dozier school in 2014, three years after it was shut down, when he read news reports about the school that left him reeling. Investigators uncovered more than 50 unmarked graves, and have estimated that more than 100 people died there. Many victims have never been identified. It was a story I hadnt heard before, and it was emblematic of so many injustices that go on every day that you never hear about, Mr. Whitehead said in a recent interview. The survivors are never heard from and the guilty are never punished, they live to a ripe old age while their victims are damaged for life. It seemed like a story worth taking up. Good morning. Heres what you need to know: A monstrous storm approaches Hurricane Michael strengthened into a Category 4 storm overnight and is expected to make landfall in Florida today as the fiercest tropical cyclone to hit the mainland U.S. this year. We have live updates here. Emergency declarations have been issued for parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and the authorities ordered tens of thousands to evacuate. This is the worst storm that our Florida Panhandle has seen in a century, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida warned. After striking Florida, Michael is expected to veer northeast through Georgia and the Carolinas before heading into the Atlantic on Thursday night. Were tracking the storms projected path here. Political winds: The hurricane arrives less than four weeks before statewide elections in Florida, and the candidates response could make or break their standing. Good Wednesday. Want this by email? Sign up here. It may be the beginning of the end for Sears The long-struggling retailer could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, the WSJ reported, citing unidentified sources. Earlier yesterday, Sears announced that Alan Carr, an expert in financial restructuring, had joined its board. But the WSJ reports that the company could file for bankruptcy before Monday, when $134 million in debt comes due. This isnt surprising. Sears has lost $11 billion since 2011; sales have dropped 60 percent over the same period; and it has closed hundreds of stores. Its C.E.O., Eddie Lampert, has sold off businesses to raise cash, but critics argue that he has strip-mined the company. Until now, only takeovers and controlling stakes in American companies could be reviewed. Under the pilot program, Cfius will be able to review a much wider array of deals, including joint ventures and smaller investments by foreigners in American businesses that make technology deemed critical for national security reasons. Beginning on Nov. 10, the panel can review and block a deal if a foreign investor takes a stake in a business that makes sensitive technology and if that investor gains potential access to nonpublic technical information or can engage in substantial decision-making over the company, such as getting a board seat. In a briefing with reporters on Tuesday evening, senior Treasury Department officials emphasized that the program would not be focused on China and would apply to any foreign investors. The new law, which passed with bipartisan support, gave the Treasury Department 18 months to develop rules to put the panels new powers into effect, but the program announced on Wednesday will allow it to be put in place more quickly. These temporary regulations address specific risks to U.S. critical technology while informing the development of final regulations that will fully implement Firrma, Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said, referring to the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act. China has increasingly been looking to invest in high-tech industries in the United States. According to data from Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group and think tank, 56 percent of Chinese investments in the United States last year were in industries that Beijing defines as strategic, such as aviation, biotechnology and new-energy vehicles up from 25 percent in 2016. But the administrations trade measures have already chilled Chinese investment in the United States, which fell more than 90 percent from the first half of 2017 to the first half of 2018, to its lowest level in seven years, according to tracking by Rhodium Group. The theory, largely the work of Kerry Emanuel, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, holds that the temperature difference between ocean and upper atmosphere determines how much a storm intensifies. A bigger temperature difference leads to the release of more energy into the storm. The warmer you have the ocean, the bigger the difference, Dr. Camargo said. The theory has been reinforced by computer simulations that produce more intense storms with rising ocean temperatures. We understand the theory behind it, and we have seen it in the models, Dr. Camargo said. As for storms producing more precipitation, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that human-caused warming has affected the amount of water vapor in the air, and that extreme precipitation events have already increased in many parts of the world. The groups latest report, issued this week, found that such extreme precipitation will likely further increase if the world cannot limit overall warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Dr. Knutson cautioned that while this increase in rain and snow amounts has been seen in extreme events in general, of which hurricanes are a subset, we havent actually seen this in the data for hurricanes yet. But if a given amount of air flowing into a hurricane carries more water vapor, he said, that enhances the water supply to the storm so it can create higher rain rates. As Hurricane Michael approached land on Wednesday, forecasters warned that the worst damage could come from a storm surge of as much as 13 feet. Florida, both along the Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean, is exceptionally vulnerable to storm surge, with strings of low-lying communities on the coasts and along waterways that are connected to the sea. Storm surge occurs when winds pile water up as it approaches land, and many factors including the contours of the seafloor, topography of bays and inlets and the stage of the tide when the surge hits can affect it. But rising sea levels can have an impact, too. Plan a meeting spot for your family. Deanna Frazier, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that forgetting to do so was one of the most common mistakes when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas last year. Cellphones may not work or you may not have your cellphone with you, she said. There were a lot of people who were looking for loved ones and disconnected from them. Those are the kinds of things that you need to think about. Listen to local news media for the most up-to-date information on how to prepare and when to evacuate the area. The biggest issue I see people running into is that they just wait too long, said Alberto Moscoso, communications director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management. When it comes to hurricane and storm preparation, now is always the right time. Take documents and protect valuables. Photograph or scan important documents like drivers licenses, social security cards, passports, prescriptions, tax statements and other legal papers. Upload the images online for safekeeping. Store documents in a fireproof, watertight container, or take them with you. FEMAs Emergency Financial First Aid Kit has a checklist of documents youre likely to need to claim insurance and other benefits. Take irreplaceable keepsakes with you, if possible. Otherwise, move belongings with sentimental or monetary value upstairs or to high shelves to protect them from floodwaters. We put a lot of stuff on the bed, said Donald Avery, a Houston resident who was evacuated from his home during Harvey. The floodwaters wouldnt be that high, he remembers thinking. Everything we moved to the bed was destroyed. But his wifes photograph collection, which they moved upstairs, was undamaged. If he had known how much it was going to rain, Mr. Avery said, he and his family would have left earlier and would have elevated more of their belongings. Bottle water and freeze food. The Food and Drug Administration recommends switching your refrigerator and freezer to the coldest possible settings and moving fridge items to the freezer so they stay cold longer if the power goes out. Even in a power failure, a tightly packed freezer can stay cold for 48 hours. If you cant fit everything into the freezer, add containers of ice to the fridge. The Justice Departments approval of the $69 billion merger between CVS Health and Aetna on Wednesday caps a wave of consolidation among giant health care players that could leave American consumers with less control over their medical care and prescription drugs. The approval marks the close of an era, during which powerful pharmacy benefit managers brokered drug prices among pharmaceutical companies, insurers and employers. But a combined CVS-Aetna may be even more formidable. As the last major free-standing pharmacy manager, CVS Health had revenues of about $185 billion last year, and provided prescription plans to roughly 94 million customers. Aetna, one of the nations largest insurers with about $60 billion in revenue last year, covers 22 million people in its health plans. The two companies say that they will be better able to coordinate care for consumers as the mergers help tighten cost controls. Larry J. Merlo, the chief executive of CVS Health, said in a statement that the approval is an important step toward bringing together the strengths and capabilities of our two companies to improve the consumer health care experience. Health authorities in the United States said this week that they were investigating an unusual spike in cases of a rare condition that causes limb paralysis and severe muscle weakness in children. At least five states Illinois, Washington, Colorado, Minnesota and Pennsylvania reported that they were investigating the cause or trying to confirm new cases of the illness, known as acute flaccid myelitis. Some health authorities in those states have said the condition coincides with seasonal respiratory illnesses. A.F.M. affects the nervous system and causes, mostly in children, paralysis similar to polio. The signs include sudden weakness in the arms or legs; neck weakness or stiffness; a drooping face or eyelids; difficulty swallowing; and slurred speech, health officials say. Recent Cases Since mid-September, six cases of A.F.M. in children under 10 years old have been reported to the Minnesota Department of Health, the agency said. Another two possible cases are pending confirmation, officials said. Mariusz Smiejeks first long-term photo story wasnt exactly a simple one. Rather than play it safe, he dived into the lives of Protestant Loyalists in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where signs of the past Troubles lingered. They did so even after the Good Friday peace accords ushered in a new era 20 years ago between those who favored being part of the United Kingdom and those who were allied with the Republican cause for one Ireland. Mr. Smiejek, 40, could relate to life in post-conflict Belfast. He was born and raised in Poland while it was still part of the Soviet bloc, and his experiences before and after the Soviet collapse gave him an affinity for how onetime enemies and neighbors can heal from past wounds. I am from working-class family and I grow up in difficult conditions with lots of problems in my home and at the streets, not that bad as conflict, but I know how hard it is to grow up in that kind of life, he said. So when I discovered post-conflict Belfast working-class areas, I saw a familiar situation, and I could understand what kind of life the new generation has in Northern Ireland. In 1981, the psychologist Christina Maslach, working with several colleagues, set out to create a test to measure occupational burnout. Eventually termed the Maslach Inventory, the scale assessed the risk of burnout by testing subjects along three basic dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. The first set of questions, nine in total, measured the feeling of being chronically overextended or emotionally fatigued in the workplace. The second, with five items, tried to capture the feeling of becoming detached or disconnected from the recipient of your services: toddlers in the case of kindergarten teachers, or patients in the case of doctors (I havent even touched a patient, as the resident put it). The final dimension that Maslach identified, through eight questions, was a loss of personal accomplishment, a feeling that nothing was being achieved. Perhaps Maslach was inspired by Viktor Frankls book Mans Search for Meaning. An Austrian neurologist and psychologist, Frankl had been sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp and then held at Kaufering, a camp affiliated with Dachau. He became preoccupied with the experience of survivorship: What allows some humans to acquire resilience in the face of the most brutal and dehumanizing experiences? Frankl traced the roots of resilience not to success or power but to a sense of purpose and the acquisition of meaning. Later writers, including Daniel Pink, expanded Frankls concept of meaning along three dimensions: purpose, mastery and autonomy. We acquire resilience when we find purpose in our work. We seek mastery expertise, skills, commitment and recognition in our domains. And we need autonomy independence in what we do. What happened to our anatomy group? B. finished his residency swiftly and dove headlong into translational research (translating insights from basic sciences into human therapeutics). He now ranks among the worlds authorities on a group of strange, recently defined diseases in which a single cell can take over the whole blood system, hovering on the verge of cancer but never quite tipping into frank malignancy. S. is largely a laboratory-scientist-cum-doctor who tries to understand how tumors become metastatic. G., whom I am least in touch with, is a psychiatrist who specializes in a particular area of childrens and adults anxiety disorders. My own path meandered and trifurcated: I run a laboratory with a focus on leukemias and stem cells; I write books; I run trials and see patients, but in a capacity that doesnt involve typing endless notes into computers. Other doctors, who didnt have research-oriented practices, enhanced their professional lives by concentrating on specific realms of interest. A family doctor I know carved out a niche in his clinic to focus on middle-aged H.I.V.-infected patients. All of us escaped burnout, but narrowly only, perhaps, by finding personal, often deeply specialized purpose in our work. Others were not as fortunate. By the end of internship and residency, a slow trickle of my classmates began to leave medicine (some joined tech firms in Silicon Valley; some became entrepreneurs). My closest friend from those years joined a neuroscience lab but then left to become a full-time parent. By 2018, there was a barrage of discontent. In one study, 42 percent of doctors reported feeling burned out. The worst affected were obstetricians, internists and intensivists doctors in subspecialties that require work in emergency-oriented conditions, and those who confront frequent lawsuits, and those who require constant documentation, surveillance and billing. The least affected were plastic surgeons and ophthalmologists doctors who inhabit procedure- or skill-oriented domains. The most common reasons listed for burning out were the overwhelming strains of bureaucracy and paperwork, the vast quantity of time spent at work and a lack of respect from administrators and employers. Lack of adequate compensation was fifth on the list. Among doctors, too, it seemed, resilience and survivorship tracked along the same essential dimensions: meaning, mastery and autonomy. With control of Congress at stake in next months midterm elections, Democrats have a rare opportunity to gain a foothold against President Trumps Republican Party. But if they come up short, it may be in part because of a failure to pursue a key group of voters. Its a constituency that makes up 13 percent of the voting population, enjoys high voter turnout and is especially concentrated in some decisive swing states. That group is military veterans and in the battle for their votes, the Democratic Party lags far behind the Republicans. According to organizers on both sides of the contest, the Democratic National Committee seems to be pursuing a strategy that focuses on running veterans as candidates instead of organizing to reach veteran voters the D.N.C. tried that approach more than a decade ago, and it didnt work. In the 2006 midterm elections, Democrats positioned their party as a check against an increasingly unpopular Republican president whose decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan had worn thin with much of the United States electorate. The D.N.C. established the Veterans and Military Families Council, hoping to drum up support from military members who had seen enough of these wars. No longer, Democrats argued, would their party be pigeonholed as indifferent to the plight of service members. The council coordinated voter outreach in military communities and advanced dozens of veterans as candidates in contentious midterm battles and nicknamed them the Fighting Dems. Democratic opposition to the Bush administrations wars resonated with voters, who put them in control of Congress for the first time in more than a decade. It was the most sweeping Democratic wave since Watergate, but one of the Democrats key missions remained unaccomplished: Only six of the 49 Fighting Dems won their elections. Even though voters had favored Democratic candidates by an average margin of nearly 12 points in opinion polls, the military veterans running as Republican candidates, both challengers and incumbents, collectively saw higher vote shares than the Democrats heavily promoted veterans. Twelve years after the first corps of Fighting Dems was routed, Democrats appear poised for another blue wave. The party is investing millions in organizing what the D.N.C. chairman, Tom Perez, calls base communities a diverse mix of rural whites, ethnic minorities and young people of the sort that vaulted Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008. The D.N.C. is partnering with some new grass-roots organizing groups, and Perez has pledged that the party would build up state-party infrastructures, hire full-time organizers and hold events in churches, on college campuses and in other public spaces in base communities year-round. But this investment does not include any focus on reaching veterans. D.N.C. staffers instead contend that the partys broader messages will filter into military and veteran voting blocs. Swinton added, A psychoanalyst, or a psychiatrist with a sense of the unconscious, is someone who knows that in every delusion is an attempt to tell a truth. Noting Klemperers preoccupation with a spouse he had lost in the war, she said, Klemperer is inhabited by the phantasm of his lost wife: He is, in this crucial respect, played by a woman. She dictates the rhythm of his life in the everyday texture of his bereaved loneliness. And while to say much more would be a spoiler, there is also a third, more monstrous character that Swinton plays in the final act, and Guadagnino intentionally conceived these three figures for her. This is a movie that is very connected to psychoanalysis, he said, and I like to think that only Tilda could play ego, superego and id. To aid Swinton in her transformation into Klemperer, Guadagnino hired the Oscar-winning makeup artist Mark Coulier. Though Coulier had previously put Swinton in old-age prosthetics for The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Swinton has played male characters before on film (most notably, in the 1992 Orlando) to do both at the same time would be a new challenge. In fact, the striking features that have served Swinton well in other transformations were of no use as Klemperer. Although she has a slightly androgynous look from sort of a fashion-model point of view, Tildas got a very feminine bone structure, said Coulier, who thickened Swintons neck with prosthetics and built her jaw out to look heavier and more masculine. The makeup process took up to four hours each day, and Swinton spent more days in heavy makeup for Suspiria than she had for any other project. Still, the actress kept her spirits up by requesting that Coulier fashion her a different set of prosthetics. She did have us make a penis and balls, Coulier said. She had this nice, weighty set of genitalia so that she could feel it dangling between her legs, and she managed to get it out on set on a couple of occasions. And where is Swintons superfluous genitalia now? Probably in a box somewhere! Coulier said brightly. I should try and find it, and put it on a plaque on the wall of my workshop. Owners arrived with camels and cows, with vipers and rodents and all sorts of house pets. One man brought the frozen body of a dog that had died during the year. A tortoise cruised the aisle on a cart because it would have taken too long to let it walk. Spectators or congregants brought cameras and cellphones. Animals brought their best behavior. Ms. Litovsky, who is not religious and who calls herself an occasiotarian, meaning that she eats meat occasionally focused her camera on the animals as spectacles, treating their owners and the clerics as support figures. When five Orthodox Jewish men were accused of beating and partially blinding a young black fashion student four years ago in Brooklyn, it briefly reignited one of New York Citys most incendiary racial divides: the one between the boroughs Hasidic and African-American communities. The case became even more contentious when the prosecutors suddenly dropped their charges against two of the defendants and let the other two plead guilty to lesser crimes, avoiding time in prison. Only one man, Mayer Herskovic, was ultimately convicted at trial and sentenced to state prison. But in a sweeping decision issued Wednesday, a state appeals court overturned Mr. Herskovics guilty verdict and threw out his indictment, saying there was simply not enough evidence to convict him, or to charge him in the first place. In their decision, the appellate judges noted that the victim of the beating, Taj Patterson, had failed to identify his assailants and that the DNA evidence that prosecutors used to convict Mr. Herskovic was less than convincing. (CNN) A doctor was found guilty of stealing a newborn baby from her mother in Spain decades ago but was acquitted by a Madrid court on Monday because too much time had elapsed. Gynecologist Eduardo Vela, 85, was found to have abducted Ines Madrigal at birth in 1969. But the doctor was acquitted because the court ruled that the statute of limitations had expired. Madrigal is one of hundreds of babies Vela is suspected of having stolen from their parents and supplied to infertile couples during and after the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco. In recent years, more stories have emerged of babies being removed from families viewed as Republicans, and given to others loyal to Franco's fascist regime. Some are believed to have been sold. The sinister political practice that began after the Spanish Civil War is believed to have continued as recently as the 1990s. Case could open door to thousands of 'stolen babies' Madrigal plans to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, and if upheld could open the door to thousands more cases of stolen babies going to court. "I have a sweet and sour feeling. Obviously I am happy because they recognize that Vela did all he did," Madrigal told reporters outside the court on Monday. "But I didn't think the judges were going to accept the argument of the statute of limitations. Because I was not aware until 2010 that in Spain there was a network that stole and sold babies at a national level," she said. The court considers Ines' 18th birthday in 1987 as the date to start counting the 10 years in which the crime of illegal detention could be prosecuted. However, Madrigal didn't pursue charges against Vela until 2012, by which time the court says, the staute of limitations had run out. Indeed, many of the allegations related to the stolen babies have failed to reach the courts because some of the alleged crimes have took place too long ago. Madrigal's mom: Vela 'gifted' baby Vela has for years denied any wrongdoing in Madrigal's case. He has claimed in the past that he only helped women who wanted to put their children up for adoption and never pressured any mother to do so. However, the woman who adopted Madrigal Ines Perez, who died two years ago told CNN in 2012 that Vela gifted her the baby for having looked after a boy. Perez told CNN in 2012 that on the day Madrigal was born, Vela called her to the maternity clinic where he worked for a "surprise." When she arrived, he placed a newborn baby in her arms and handed her a falsified birth certificate, Perez claimed. Perez told her daughter of her origins when she turned 18, and always supported her in her mission to find her birth mother. Remembering her mother on Monday, Madrigal said, "Wherever she is, I know there is a bit of her here. I am sure she is happy because she hated the idea that Dr. Vela made her look like a liar." Vela is not the only person who has been named in connection with Spain's stolen babies. A nun, Sister Maria Gomez, appeared in a Spanish court in 2012, accused of snatching an infant from her birth mother and putting the child up for an illegal adoption in 1982. She appeared in court as a suspect but died just days before her trial officially opened. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Doctor found guilty but acquitted in Spain's decades-old 'stolen babies' case." Mr. Bloomberg has done more than just give. Last week, he traveled to Florida to campaign for the Democratic nominee for governor there, Andrew Gillum, at a Jewish center in Pembroke Pines. He donated to Mr. Gillum; his anti-gun group, Everytown for Gun Safety, also donated; and he hosted a fund-raiser, too. This Tuesday, back in New York, Mr. Bloomberg hosted a fund-raiser for Phil Bredesen, the former Democratic governor of Tennessee and current candidate for United States Senate. Mr. Bloomberg is not solely backing Democrats this year; in June, he held a fund-raiser for Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, with whom he worked closely following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Still, his re-registration as a Democrat is not a shock. Mr. Bloomberg spoke at the 2016 Democratic convention in favor of Hillary Clinton (The richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy, Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire, said then.). And he has begun flirting with the presidency himself in recent months, he told The New York Times in September. Thats not to say Im with the Democratic Party on everything, but I dont see how you could possibly run as a Republican. So if you ran, yeah, youd have to run as a Democrat. In that interview, Mr. Bloomberg hinted that he might formally register as a Democrat, saying he would look at it but had no imminent plans. I think at the moment, theres no reason to do anything, Mr. Bloomberg said then, of changing his registration. But if I think if I wanted to change parties and I thought it sent the right message, I would do it. Mr. Bloombergs registration announcement comes ahead of New Yorks deadline later this week and after the deadline has passed in more than a dozen states in recent days. There was a time when the governor didnt want me in this race. But the State Democrats have now given us a staffer and are running a poll for us. The first television ad that Mr. Collins aired highlighted your fluency in Korean and suggested that you would move jobs overseas. What do you think he was trying to achieve? Well, there were fake subtitles and scary music. He was trying to inflame some of the worst sentiments in our country today about foreigners. He was using xenophobia to make people think that I am not of here and not like them, when the reality is that I am a son of this region and so are my kids, who are of Korean heritage. But I think the ad backfired. There are so many people who have come up to me and apologized for that ad, people from all walks of life. Would you have preferred to run against a replacement candidate who was perhaps more obscure? It doesnt hurt to have your guy out on bail and declared a flight risk. Running against an opponent who is out on bail is definitely a positive. The negative is that he is one of the richest members of Congress. I dont think its all bad for him because no matter what, he is an incumbent with a major infrastructure and political machine behind him. How are you honing your message to win over unaffiliated voters and moderate Republicans? We have to get on television, and thankfully we raised enough money to do that. And we are going to be on television for the next five weeks. We are strong believers in our ground game and all the contacts we have made. We believe that will pay off. Mr. Kindlon said Mr. Hussain had met on Monday with investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, the State Police and the states transportation department and was asked to turn over certain documents about the company and the vehicle. The process of collecting that material was underway, Mr. Kindlon said, when he received a panicked call from his clients family at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday, telling him that Mr. Hussain was being arrested. Mr. Kindlon said there had been no request by the authorities to speak with his clients father. The crash has also raised questions about the regulation and oversight of stretch limousines, specially made vehicles that are built from former cars or sport utility vehicles and often do not have to meet strict federal safety requirements. And while drivers of such elongated vehicles are required to wear seatbelts, passengers in the back are not. The limousine that crashed had failed two inspections by state officials in the last seven months, inspection reports show. Both failures resulted in the limousine being ordered off the road until the defects inspectors found were fixed. In the latest inspection, conducted in early September in Saratoga Springs and lasting 43 minutes, the limousine was found to have 18 seats but to be certified to carry no more than 10 passengers, including the driver. It also was cited for a dangling brake line that could make contact with one of its tires. The limousines warning light for its hydraulic-braking system was staying on, the report showed. The owner was also faulted for not addressing problems noted in an earlier inspection. Fixing delays are a top priority On-time performance is one of the largest complaints from customers. No surprise there. New Jersey Transit has blamed a lack of engineers and engineers calling in sick, in part, for delays and cancellations. The audit called for hiring more engineers and improving the physical infrastructure. Another suggestion from the audit: position staff members on train platforms to provide guidance to riders and ensure on-time departures. No increase in fares. Yet. The report detailed many of the systems budget woes, but Mr. Murphy said Tuesday that there would not be a fare increase until at least next June. Expect more helpful tweets and Facebook posts But not during the commuting rush, when customers are more likely to lash out, the report stated. The report criticized the systems current social media presence: unengaging and bordering on negative. It recommended using more helpful messages on Twitter and fewer defensive responses on Facebook. An updated mobile app? The report recommended making trip planning and ticket purchasing easier on the app, along with real-time alerts and updates. More options for customers with disabilities The suggestions included voice-service assistants for phones, audio files for trip planning, more Braille signs and captioned videos. Dark circles formed like warning signs beneath Yu Fen Wangs eyes as she worked 12-hour graveyard shifts in a Queens maternity center that operated on the margins of legality. Her family said she had grown gaunt, could not sleep and told her husband she no longer wanted to live. Her employers, however, said they needed her to work. And her family needed the money. She earned less than $100 a day, they said, working in a private house that had been converted into a combined nursery and hotel for newborn babies and their mothers. An open secret in the Flushing community, the center was part of an underground industry catering to a demanding clientele: local mothers resting after childbirth and Chinese visitors coming to have their babies in the United States, a practice known as birth tourism. On Sept. 21, at 3:40 a.m., these dangers collided to near-fatal effect when, the police say, Mrs. Wang stabbed three babies sleeping in bassinets on the first floor all girls and two adults. She then turned the knife on her own neck and wrists. A 42-year-old woman went to a Brooklyn apartment in August 2016 to meet a self-described spiritual leader for what she thought was a church ceremony. She had met him at a religious goods store. During the ceremony, the man, Nigel Kennedy, started chanting and poured a drink that tasted like alcohol into the womans mouth, prosecutors said. She passed out briefly, then regained consciousness and felt someone on top of her. The next morning she awoke naked on an unfamiliar bed, feeling nauseous and dizzy, and realized she had been raped, prosecutors said. Mr. Kennedy, 51, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn to charges of rape and sexual abuse. He is accused of drugging and raping two women in Brooklyn during separate religious ceremonies two years apart, and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the top charge. Justice William Miller set Mr. Kennedys bail at $35,000, which he posted. This defendant is a sexual predator who used his religious stature to lure women, then drugged and raped them, the Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, said in a statement. Phyllis Kind, a combative, visionary art dealer whose championing of a group of young artists called the Chicago Imagists as well as major outsider artists helped expand the narrative of 20th-century art, died on Sept. 28 in San Francisco. She was 85. The cause was respiratory failure, her family said. Her last gallery, in New York, closed in 2009. Fierce, intelligent and loquacious, Ms. Kind would just as soon argue with you as look at you. She had namesake galleries in both Chicago and New York during the 1980s and 90s, a period when the neatly defined mainstream, dominated by Pop Art and abstraction, was becoming much broader and less orderly. And she did her bit to shake things up. As the first American dealer to show outsider art alongside that of contemporary artists, Ms. Kind was in many ways as important as Leo Castelli, the dean of New York dealers, who introduced the work of Jasper Johns and at one point represented nearly every Pop and Minimalist artist of note. Phyllis was a pioneer, said Elsa Longhauser, the director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. She was bold, outrageous and incredibly generous with her knowledge and contacts. She really introduced the art world to a whole new field. Imagine this scenario: An admissions officer sits down to read a stack of applications, but theyre heavily redacted because the college must censor all references to an applicants race. The admissions officer can consider an applicants gender, where she grew up, whether she preferred the Yankees to the Red Sox and every other conceivable part of her background or identity. But not her race, even if it had a formative impact on her life. That could become the reality for every college if a group of Asian-American students denied admission to Harvard wins a lawsuit. They want to outlaw the modest use of race in admissions that the Supreme Court has twice upheld as vital to college students education. They claim that Harvard sets a cap on the number of Asian-Americans it will admit, an assertion the college will continue to vigorously deny when the trial begins Monday in Federal District Court in Boston. The lawsuit asks the court to bar colleges from being able to consider, learn about or even become aware of an applicants race. Eventually, applicants might stop discussing their race altogether, omitting things like leadership roles in their high schools Latino Student Alliance or choosing not to write about icons like Dolores Huerta all because they might be worried about indicating their racial identity. Housing assistance via the federal Housing Choice Voucher, formerly known as Section 8 , makes rent affordable and helps families avoid homelessness, putting parents in a better position to secure permanent employment. Low-income subsidies for Medicare Part D make medication more affordable, and studies have demonstrated that reduced medication costs are associated with better adherence to treatment and improved health outcomes. It should come as no surprise, then, that people who take their prescribed medicines also have fewer missed days of work and less reliance on short-term disability. Medicaid itself has been associated with a reduction in mortality, with a recent estimate predicting one life saved annually for every 239 to 316 adults gaining insurance. While the benefits of these public assistance programs seem clear, even if one rejected this research we have a moral obligation to provide basic human services to legal immigrants. We shouldnt shroud the truth: The regulation will physically harm immigrants. It will also inflict pain on their children, who may have the most to lose as their parents are pushed to partly forfeit health care, nutrition and shelter assistance. One in four children (19 million in all) in this country has immigrant parents, and nearly nine in 10 of these children are citizens. Even without the rule going into effect, the fear surrounding it has magnified the calamity. In 18 states, nearly two-thirds of licensed providers for the federal Women, Infants and Children nutrition program have reported already seeing a decline in caseloads, some by as much as 20 percent. If this rule is put into effect, one million immigrants are expected to drop Medicaid. To be clear, no immigrant should remove himself from public assistance programs, at least until the rule is made final, and we still have several steps before that would become a reality. And immigrants, even with the rule, would still be allowed a paltry 12 months of Medicaid in a three-year period before being labeled public charges. But this fear, stoked by our president and carried out by brutal regulations, may cause immigrants like my patients to shy away from the governments helping hand for decades to come. During the health care debates in 2010, opponents of expanding coverage frequently spoke about reform getting in the way of the doctor-patient relationship. What they dont seem to understand is that my relationship with my patients is predicated on their ability to get insurance coverage like Medicaid. My ability to prescribe medications to treat diseases for the elderly is dependent on Medicare Part D. And my counsel about healthy food will fall on deaf ears if nutritional assistance is forgone. Our government should not torture our nations must vulnerable immigrants by forcing them to choose between their citizenship status and their health. Immigrants should not have to give up food, shelter and health care to pursue the American dream. Douglas Jacobs is an internal medicine resident at the Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Its not just left-wingers who are being detained. In July, Meyer Koplow, the chairman of Brandeis Universitys board and a pro-Israel philanthropist, said he was aggressively interrogated at the airport after security officials discovered a brochure in his luggage called This Week in Palestine. (He had gone on an educational tour of the West Bank during his trip.) Israelis have good reason to see the B.D.S. campaign as a thinly veiled form of bigotry. Boycotts of Jewish businesses have a particularly foul pedigree in Nazi Germany. And the same activists who obsessively seek to punish and isolate Israel for its occupation of the West Bank rarely if ever display the same passion for protesting against China for its occupation of Tibet, or Russia for its occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Its also true that Students for Justice in Palestine has received funding and other assistance from a group called American Muslims for Palestine, some of whose leaders have links to groups flagged by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for their ties to the terrorist group Hamas. The group seeks to end Israels occupation and colonization of all Arab lands along with promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes language that has long been code for dismantling the Jewish state. Israel, like all countries, has a right to protect its borders and to determine who is allowed in and out. But Israel is also a state that prides itself on being a liberal democracy a fact that goes far to explain the longstanding support for Israel among American Jews and non-Jews alike. If liberalism is about anything, its about deep tolerance for opinions we find foolish, dangerous and antithetical to our own. The case for such liberalism today is both pragmatic and principled. In practice, expelling visitors who favor the B.D.S. movement does little if anything to make Israel more secure. But it powerfully reinforces the prejudice of those visitors (along with their supporters) that Israel is a discriminatory police state. If the Israeli government takes umbrage and rightly so when Israeli academics or institutions are boycotted by foreign universities, the least it could do is not replicate their illiberal behavior. Detaining people like Ms. Alqasem also does little to stem a worrying trend among young American Jews, who are increasingly alienated from Israel because of its hard-line policies. But the principled case against this paranoid policy is even more important. Theodor Herzls vision for a Jewish state was not the ethnostate of Bannonite fantasy but an open, pluralistic society. Liberal societies thrive not by expelling critics but by tolerating and even assimilating them and therefore defanging them. To the Editor: Re Nikki Haley Will Be Missed (editorial, Oct. 10): As your editorial notes, Ms. Haley, the United Nations ambassador, has been the face of misguided and cruel Trump initiatives that have seriously eroded Americas standing in the world. So because shes simply a right-winger who has been complicit with President Trump most of the time and not an intolerant, inept ideologue like most of the appointees who follow Mr. Trumps orders all of the time, she will be missed? Its really disappointing how low the standards have gotten for evaluating the performance of cabinet members in this administration. Lloyd Trufelman Katonah, N.Y. To the Editor: Ambassador Nikki Haley has so much to recommend her: intelligence, competence, a strong personality. Whether she will escape the moral taint of having enabled a dishonest and immoral president is another question. I know that I have a long memory and am not likely to forgive. George M. Lewis Los Osos, Calif. This case is yet another reminder that democracy protection needs to be the No. 1 item on the Democrats long-term political agenda. (Really, it should the top item on both parties agenda, but I realize thats a naive wish.) The next time Democrats control the federal government, they should pass a sweeping voter-rights bill, similar to the kind Paul Glastris has described in Washington Monthly. History wont look kindly on the political party that is trying to keep Americans usually dark-skinned Americans from voting. Get your flu shot. Later this morning, I plan to walk over to a health clinic near my office and get a flu shot. You should get one too, advises Margot Sanger-Katz, a Times health care writer. The flu is the worst, and it kills tens of thousands of Americans a year. The flu shot can protect you and it helps protect people who cant get one. As Time magazines Jamie Ducharme writes, If fewer people get sick, theres fewer flu virus to be spread, and the ripple effect continues. Plus, vaccinated people who end up getting sick tend to have less severe illnesses. Getting the shot doesnt take long. You can look up flu clinics near you including many drugstores through a search engine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. STOCKHOLM I was nursing my daughter in our home here when I learned that the nationalist Sweden Democrats captured 17.5 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections last month. Since neither the traditional left or right blocs won a majority , the Sweden Democrats, with roots in the neo-Nazi movement, hold the balance of power. In the days leading up to the election I received racist propaganda in my mailbox from a more extreme right party that said of immigrants, Time to go home. It made me reflect on the women in my family and our own history of migration. In the early 1900s, Sweden was a country you migrated from, not to. My great-grandmother on my fathers side, Agnes Ester, was among the million Swedes who set sail for the United States in that era. She left the family farm for Ellis Island to meet up with her older brothers. But she didnt stay for long. Her lungs couldnt take New Yorks heat waves and she longed to marry a redheaded boy she had met back home. Nearly 50 years later, my maternal grandmother, Isabella, was 18 years old and preparing to leave her hometown in Sardinia with her two young children. They were to join my grandfather, who was working in the coal mines in Alsace-Lorraine in northeastern France. It was a dangerous job, but better than the alternative many Sardinians were facing. After World War II, Isabella and her family were so poor that some days, while nursing her youngest child, she had only bread and fried onions to eat. The 2016 election is almost two years behind us, but arguments over why Donald Trump won havent stopped. Because Mr. Trump drew support from white voters with less formal education the white working class many attributed his victory to Americans economic anxiety. But this narrative has obscured the true nature of Mr. Trumps coalition. On the whole, Trump voters were never extraordinarily economically distressed. And now the economically distressed are actually less likely to approve of Mr. Trumps performance as president. Traditional ways of measuring peoples views of the economy often suffer from partisan bias: People are more likely to say that the economy is doing better when their party controls the White House. For example, immediately after Mr. Trumps election, and well before he could do anything to affect the economy, the percentage of Republicans who said the economy was getting better increased from 15 percent in October 2016 to 80 percent in February 2017, according to Gallup polls. Over the same time period, Democrats became less favorable about the economy. To avoid this issue, we asked a set of different questions in the May 2018 Views of the Electorate Research Survey, a project of the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group. A sample of 6,000 Americans told us whether they had experienced a variety of negative financial events over the last year including a drop in income, a job loss, or difficulty paying monthly bills. They also reported whether they had savings and felt financially prepared for the unexpected, as well as their overall feelings about their finances, job, income, savings and debt. Answers to these questions were only weakly associated with peoples identity as Democrats or Republicans and therefore better captured their true economic situation. Through all platforms available, they hammer away the message that no matter whether workers show up or dont show up to vote, nothing will ever change. Futility is a strategy. An indispensable aspect of this is to make people associate the unionization election itself with the pain and discomfort of the polarized, harsh language coming at them from all sides: The sooner the election goes away, the better they will feel. Things will return to normal, since they will stop fighting with friends and family, and the once-bad normal the reason for the struggle in the first place suddenly feels better, until their employer cuts benefits weeks after the election. Futility makes the act of voting, discussing and even thinking about the election feel bad. A persistent refrain in the fall of 2016 was I cant wait till this thing is over already. Making Americans want to make the election (democracy) just go away is a main tactic of the futility strategy. Second, you must build supermajority participation, because, as the election approaches, the opposition will succeed at stripping support from a key percentage of previous yes voters. All effort must be focused on what successful union organizers call going to the biggest-worst: spending all our time with workers who are undecided or leaning anti-union. The biggest mistake inexperienced union organizers make is spending precious time preaching to the choir, i.e., talking to pro-union activists. The activists, about a third of any work force, dont need attention. Its the workers who get misled by the consultants lies who need focus and energy. These conversations are hard, so people avoid the urgent and instead do the easy (and lose). In hotly contested districts, building a supermajority means identifying the neighbor, congregant or family member who can help hold or move undecided or shaky voters (strangers simply cant do this) and making sure the conversations are happening. To win, forget wishful thinking and build to the number needed to win assuming you lose 10 points the days before the election. Third, to counteract the litany of outrageous lies from the employers hired guns, it takes discipline to constantly connect the undecided and anti-union voters to the issues they themselves think matters most, like reasonable workload limits, on-the-job safety, putting sexually harassing managers in their place and the right to retire (to know this, you have to have asked them first). Union organizers help the voter realize that the union buster offers zero solutions. The most important aspect of defeating the avoidance specialists is to inoculate people against the opponents lies before they start and throughout the campaign. That means saying all the nasty things about unions that the employer will use to bombard workers as the campaign heats up. When we reveal the limitations of the bad unions first and discuss, in concrete terms, the many real examples of how workers themselves can build good unions, it helps people understand the message war. Likewise, in todays highly polarized election debates, its important to get out front by saying, In the final weeks of this election, you will hear the opponent say, Raising wages kills jobs. Why do you think they say that? and You will hear that immigrants stole your jobs. And its important to ask not tell Do you think C.E.O.s are making the decision to send your job to countries where they can pay people $1 a day, or did immigrants make that decision? You have to let the person actually think, then redirect back to why their low wages or underemployment make life impossible. These are conversations in a sustained ground game, not one-way media. Referring to himself occasionally in the third person, he told the Deciem staff that my love and respect for you is immense and asked that they pay close attention to the communication that DECIEM will share with our world during the few weeks and months ahead of us. Stephen Kaplan, formerly Deciems chief financial officer, left the company in February. He said in an email Wednesday that he had resigned because Brandons demeanor had changed following a December vacation in Mongolia. Mr. Kaplan said that he had no interest in all the current drama. I feel sorry for all the staff that must deal with Brandon on a day-to-day basis, he said. Until he changes his ways, he is destroying what could have been a very successful company. An investor in the company indicated that it was also troubled by Mr. Truaxes behavior. The Estee Lauder Companies is a minority investor in Deciem, and, as such, we do not control the companys operations, social media or personnel decisions, said a spokeswoman for Estee Lauder Companies. We are deeply concerned by the material that has recently been posted on social media and will defend our rights as a minority investor. Mr. Truaxe answered his phone on Wednesday but hung up when a reporter asked permission to record the call; following calls went to voice mail. The Instagram video this week apparently signaling the end of Deciem sent many of the companys customers into a frenzy as they sought to understand whether their preferred products would remain available. Many of the companys New York stores were closed on Tuesday afternoon and its website indicated that almost all its stores around the world had been shuttered, including ten locations in Canada and four locations in the U.K. (Only its three stores in Mexico City were not marked as closed.) IT IS THREADS, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years, the French actress Simone Signoret once said of marriage, and for Sophia and Masafumi Watanabe, this is especially true. Masafumi is the founder of the popular Japanese street wear brand Bedwin and the Heartbreakers; his wife is the creator of Sophia 203, a Jaipur-based line of embroidered accessories. The couple has been together for eight years and married for nearly four. They live with their 1- and 4-year-old children in a modest, sparsely furnished three-bedroom apartment in central Tokyos expat-heavy Moto-Azabu district, traveling every other weekend to their beach house in Hayama, a quiet seaside getaway an hour outside of Tokyo where the Japanese imperial family has long maintained a home. My husband makes street wear, and I do something handcrafted, Sophia says. Hes got a big clothing line and I have a small business, but despite that, we really do influence each other. The pair met at a Tokyo nightclub in 2007, then ran into each other again by chance at the same spot a year later (Masafumi lost Sophias business card the first time around) and began dating. Shes from Sweden and lived in India and Im from Tokyo, Masafumi explains. English isnt my mother tongue, and she speaks it well. Nobody believed we were going to make it. Sophia, 34, was raised in a bourgeois family in Stockholm. She had plans to go to law school, but at 18, she was hired in Paris as an au pair by the French jewelry designer Marie-Helene de Taillac, who is known for her colorful gemstone pieces handmade by craftsmen in India using 17th-century methods. Three years later, she moved to Jaipur to become de Taillacs creative assistant. My job was basically to choose the stones and, most importantly, the color combinations in each piece, she says. Masafumi, 47, grew up on the streets of Tokyo as, he says, a downtown boy, hustling, hanging out and consuming the 80s and 90s British and American music, magazines and movies that would form the DNA of his label. If geography is destiny, its hardly surprising that their aesthetics are wildly divergent: Sophia describes hers as very, very, very feminine and dressy, whereas Masafumis is more casual and urban. Bedwin and the Heartbreakers riffs on American pop culture with street-savvy staples (jeans, varsity jackets, duffle coats) made almost exclusively in Japan. The line can be found in roughly 50 stores there, including at his new shop in Tokyos fashionable Sendagaya district, as well as in boutiques everywhere from Amsterdam to Brooklyn to Boston. Back in the 1920s, Nebraskas capital had a marketing slogan: Lincoln A City Worthy of a Noble Name. Today, that motto seems to hold up perhaps more than ever, especially in the creative-meets-collegiate downtown in this tidy metropolis of 280,364 residents, which is home to the University of Nebraska and a growing immigrant population (now nearly nine percent of city dwellers ). The increasingly buzzy downtown is luring visitors with recently-opened shops and watering holes. And, be sure not to miss the 1932 Art Deco capitol building, with its mosaics by muralist Hildreth Meiere and 14th-floor views of the Great Plains. Sheldon Museum of Art This Philip Johnson-designed jewel box of a building was built of travertine marble with gold leaf ceiling details in Italy, then meticulously reconstructed at the University of Nebraska in 1963. Among the museums more than 12,000 art holdings: Edward Hoppers Room in New York and Georgia OKeeffes effervescent New York, Night which captured her view of Lexington Avenue from her residence in the Shelton Hotel in 1929. 12th and R Streets, University of Nebraska; sheldonartmuseum.org As Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday, travel in the Florida panhandle had come to a halt. A shutdown of all commercial air travel in the area was in effect. Tallahassee International Airport, Northwest Florida Beaches Airport in Panama City, and Destin Fort Walton Beach Airport, home of Eglin Air Force Base, and Pensacola International Airport are all closed. Most airports said that they expect to reopen Thursday morning. In a tweet posted on Tuesday, Northwest Florida Beaches Airport reported that the anticipated start-up of the airport would be Thursday. But the unpredictability of the storm could mean that an air travel shutdown may last even longer. For many , traveling during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season is a necessary evil. Its the most wonderful time of the year (if you believe the song), but getting home for the holidays can easily be an expensive and stressful journey. And trying to game the system can be a challenge all its own. The average Thanksgiving flight will change price over 100 times between now and the holiday, Patrick Surry, chief data scientist for the travel booking platform Hopper, said in a recent interview . But here are some tips from travel experts that can help minimize the pain both financial and logistical of your next holiday trip. Timing is (mostly) everything As in years past, the general rule is the earlier you book, the better. But there are exceptions. According to Hipmunk, another travel booking site, the best time to book airfare for the Thanksgiving holiday would have been the week of Oct. 1 and for the winter holidays, Oct. 15. Of course, one of these deadlines has passed, and the other is so close it may not be possible to finalize your plans by then. For the latest hurricane coverage, read Thursdays live updates. PANAMA CITY, Fla. Hurricane Michael charged through Florida and into Georgia on Wednesday, lashing the Panhandle with rains and heavy winds. Water raced in from the sea, flooding the streets and leaving at least one person dead. The storm whipsawed trees, blew away large chunks of fencing and bent stop signs almost parallel to the ground. Videos posted to social media showed a tapestry of damage near a marina in Mexico Beach: waterlogged homes, flying debris, splintered wood. But it was impossible to gauge the full extent of the carnage because the waters, already topping some buildings whose roofs just peeked through, were still rising. This is the worst storm that our Florida Panhandle has seen in a century, Gov. Rick Scott warned. Just about every update seemed to bring greater grimness: closed bridges, more towering waves, suspended emergency services, admonitions that the time to evacuate had passed. The hurricane center reported a 130-mile-per-hour wind gust near the evacuated Tyndall Air Force Base and said that the measuring instrument had then failed. Heres the latest: The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane near Mexico Beach, Fla., around midday on Wednesday, with 155 mile-per-hour winds. By 2 a.m. Thursday, the storm was 25 miles east of Macon, Ga., and had lost strength, with maximum winds of 60 m.p.h. At midnight, it was downgraded to a tropical storm. The letter, which was provided to The New York Times, published on the movements website Wednesday morning. It is only the latest step in an effort that began when Ms. Burke founded the movement over a decade ago. After #MeToo went viral, there should have been a massive step back to say, How did we get here? Ms. Burke said in an interview on Tuesday. How did we get to the place where you have millions of people who identify as survivors of sexual violence in this country and around the world? What allowed this to happen, and what do these people need? Dr. Blasey, a psychology professor from California who also goes by her married name, Ford, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last month and accused Judge Kavanaugh, at the time still just President Trumps nominee to the court, of pinning her on a bed, groping her and covering her mouth to keep her from screaming when they were teenagers. Dr. Blasey has received unending threats since she spoke up and has not been able to live at home, her lawyers told MSNBC. Judge Kavanaugh denied her allegation. The Senate voted on Saturday to confirm his nomination to the Supreme Court, and he was sworn in hours later. At a White House ceremony, Mr. Trump apologized to him for the terrible pain and suffering he had endured ahead of the confirmation vote. Night mayor, night manager, night czar: The job has many names, but the idea is similar. Last week, the District of Columbia joined a small but growing number of cities worldwide when it posted a hiring notice for someone to run its new Office of Night Life and Culture. Washington hopes to find someone to coordinate and manage issues including noise complaints, reports of harassment and vomiting on the sidewalk that affect many bars, restaurants, music venues and other businesses. A night mayor is a citys point person for issues that crop up at night, which municipalities traditionally have not separately planned for, said Jim Peters, president of the Responsible Hospitality Institute, which has helped cities like Toronto, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando create similar positions. Cities might, for example, plan roads and traffic restrictions for a daytime commute, Mr. Peters said, but not consider that a neighborhood along that route has a congested bar scene after it gets dark. WASHINGTON A Chinese intelligence official was arrested in Belgium and extradited to the United States to face espionage charges, Justice Department officials said on Wednesday, a major escalation of the Trump administrations effort to crack down on Chinese spying. The extradition on Tuesday of the officer, Yanjun Xu, a deputy division director in Chinas main spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, is the first time that a Chinese intelligence official has been brought to the United States to be prosecuted and tried in open court. Law enforcement officials said that Mr. Xu tried to steal trade secrets from companies including GE Aviation outside Cincinnati, in Evendale, Ohio, one of the worlds top jet engine suppliers for commercial and military aircraft. A 16-page indictment details what appears to be a dramatic international sting operation to lure Mr. Xu to what he believed was a meeting in Belgium to obtain proprietary information about jet fan blade designs from a GE Aviation employee, only to be met by Belgian authorities and put on a plane to the United States. China has for years used spycraft and cyberattacks to steal American corporate, academic and military information to bolster its growing economic power and political influence. But apprehending an accused Chinese spy all others charged by the United States government are still at large is an extraordinary development and a sign of the Trump administrations continued crackdown on the Chinese theft of trade secrets. WASHINGTON The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, defended the bureaus handling of an abbreviated background check into Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, telling lawmakers on Wednesday that agents acted properly amid criticism that they should have more thoroughly investigated sexual assault allegations against him. As part of a dramatic deal to move Justice Kavanaughs nomination forward in the Senate two weeks ago, the White House directed the F.B.I. to conduct a narrow investigation that was specific in scope, Mr. Wray told members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee during a hearing. That is consistent with the standard process for such investigations going back quite a long ways, he said. Mr. Wrays remarks were his first public comments about the F.B.I.s role in the background investigation, and he treaded carefully. Confirmed 14 months ago to replace the fired James B. Comey, Mr. Wray has tried to keep the F.B.I. out of the cross hairs of President Trump, who has relentlessly attacked the Justice Departments investigation into Russias election interference and whether any Trump associates conspired. WASHINGTON A Supreme Court argument on Wednesday over the detention of immigrants during deportation proceedings seemed to expose a divide between President Trumps two appointees, Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh. The question in the case was whether the federal authorities must detain immigrants who had committed crimes, often minor ones, no matter how long ago they were released from criminal custody. Justice Kavanaugh said a 1996 federal law required detention even years later, without an opportunity for a bail hearing. What was really going through Congresss mind in 1996 was harshness on this topic, he said. But Justice Gorsuch suggested that mandatory detentions of immigrants long after they completed their sentences could be problematic. Is there any limit on the governments power? he asked. Justice Stephen G. Breyer pressed the point, asking a lawyer for the federal government whether it could detain a person 50 years later, who is on his death bed, after stealing some bus transfers without a bail hearing even though in this country a triple ax murderer is given a bail hearing. Good Wednesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. Nikki R. Haley, ambassador to the United Nations, said she would resign at the end of the year, representing a high-profile departure by one of the few women in the presidents cabinet. Read the story. American national security agencies gave Greece evidence of an attempt by Russia to undermine a Greek agreement with Macedonia that would pave for way for Macedonian membership in NATO. The evidence prompted Greece to expel two Russian diplomats. Hurricane Michael arrives at the height of campaign season in Florida, and Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for the Senate, is in heavy public service mode. The hurricane could be an opportunity to show his leadership skills, or it could give opponents a new avenue of attack. We wish you a long and happy career in our common calling, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said in welcoming Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to his first day of Supreme Court arguments on Tuesday. The light tone was a stark contrast to the fierce battle over his confirmation. [Read about the five battlefields that will decide control of the House this fall.] But here in eastern Pennsylvania, there is a twist: Both candidates are trying to claim the gun-control mantle. Mr. Wallace has called for measures like universal background checks and bans on high-capacity magazines, bump stocks and certain semiautomatic weapons. But two major advocacy groups Everytown for Gun Safety and former Representative Gabby Giffordss namesake organization have endorsed the Republican incumbent, Brian Fitzpatrick. Among other things, they cited Mr. Fitzpatricks vote last year against a bill that would have forced states to honor concealed carry permits granted by other states, a policy known as reciprocity. These endorsements angered many of Mr. Wallaces supporters, and that anger was on full display at Tuesdays event, which was hosted by Bucks Students Demand Action and Orange Wave on behalf of Mr. Wallace and Steve Santarsiero, a Democratic candidate for the State Senate. Several Bucks County leaders of Moms Demand Action, an arm of Everytown, left the organization this week in protest, saying they could not meaningfully volunteer our time under the umbrella of an organization that makes decisions which impede the progress of our gun violence prevention goals. Mr. Santarsiero suggested that a vote for Mr. Fitzpatrick would be a vote for someone whos with you maybe 10 percent of the time, when it seems politically expedient to be there. And Mr. Guttenberg said that Everytown and the Giffords organization were rightly looking for Republican allies but had erred in identifying Mr. Fitzpatrick, a first-term congressman, as one of them. Two prosecutors who worked on the investigation and prosecution of Paul Manafort are returning to their former divisions at the Justice Department, although at least one will remain engaged in matters under Mr. Muellers purview. A third relatively junior prosecutor left in July. Mr. Manafort, Mr. Trumps former campaign chairman who was convicted of multiple counts of fraud in August and then pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, is cooperating with special counsels office. Mr. Mueller has referred several investigations and prosecutions to local offices of United States attorneys, either because they were outside his mandate or because the cases could drag on for years. The most recent court filings indicate the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, for instance, is now taking the lead in prosecuting the Russian individuals and companies charged in the scheme in which Mr. Pinedo became ensnared. Mr. Atkinson hinted to Judge Friedrich that the special counsels office might have turned over some leads provided by Mr. Pinedo to federal prosecutors with a wider bandwidth to investigate them. Though Mr. Pinedo understood he was acting as a middleman for foreigners, Mr. Lessem argued in court papers that never in his wildest dreams could he have foreseen that providing bank account information to set up PayPal accounts could be used to interfere with a presidential election. He told the judge that because of the investigations high profile, his client was a target of threats and harassment, a punishment in itself. Mr. Pinedo said some people have accused him of being a Russian agent while others have delivered veiled threats of retaliation for his testimony against Russian operatives. Just leaving my home to run errands is extremely stressful, he told the judge. Judge Friedrich said that while Mr. Pinedo deserved credit for his cooperation and sympathy for the harassment he and his family had endured, he had engaged in identify fraud on a large scale for a period of three years. You committed a serious crime, she said, with real consequences. According to court papers, Mr. Pinedo earned $40,000 to $95,000 enabling the Russians and others to bypass safeguards and gain access to online financial networks. WASHINGTON President Trump signed bipartisan legislation on Wednesday that would free pharmacists to tell consumers when they could actually save money by paying the full cash price for prescription drugs rather than using health insurance with large co-payments, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. The legislation on gag clauses has been praised by lawmakers in both parties, but the signing was nearly eclipsed on Wednesday by a separate health care furor: Mr. Trump asserted in an essay in USA Today that Democrats supporting Medicare for All would wreck the program for older Americans, infuriating Democrats who said he was lying to millions of Americans. Democrats would gut Medicare with their planned government takeover of American health care, Mr. Trump said, and he assailed Democrats as radical socialists. The back-and-forth over health care showed how prominent the issue has become in the midterm election campaigns. As the parties were coming together on prescription drug costs and fighting over Medicare, the Senate deadlocked on Wednesday over a Democratic proposal to block the expansion of cheap short term health insurance policies that do not have to cover maternity care or pre-existing conditions, a top priority of Mr. Trumps. Mr. Bryan has not been charged with any wrongdoing. In an interview, he said that he never made a dime off any of the people I knew from the Ukraine, deliberately, because I didnt want to violate any of the ethics rules. Mr. Bryan, 59, has spent most of his adult life in public service, including 17 years in the Army, followed by five years in civilian roles at the Defense Department before joining the Energy Department about a decade ago. He was eventually named a senior adviser in the departments international affairs division, which oversaw the Ukraine work. During some of the period being scrutinized, Mr. Bryan was designated a special government employee. The job category is intended to permit the government to place experts on the federal payroll for a limited period while allowing them to continue earning money in the private sector. But it has regularly generated controversy over real or perceived conflicts of interest under both Mr. Trump and his predecessors, most notably the case of Huma Abedin when she served as a special government employee at the State Department under Hillary Clinton. While operating under that designation at the Energy Department, Mr. Bryan was affiliated with a Virginia consulting firm, ValueBridge International, and he remained with the firm after he left the Energy Department in mid-2016. The overlap between his Energy Department work and ValueBridges efforts, revealed in documents and interviews, underscores the lure of big money that is often dangled in front of Washington officials and consultants by powerful foreign interests looking to shape American politics and policy. It also highlights the difficulty in discerning the motivations of those interests. The whistle-blower complaint against Mr. Bryan was filed by Robert Ivy, who worked with Mr. Bryan on the Ukraine project when both men were officials at the Energy Department. Grief is often unacknowledged in western culture, no matter what the cause, Ms. Devine said. In fact, the societal norms around grieving cyber relationships is still relatively new, and to this day, remains largely unexplored. When you add in the non-corporeal relationship, the pain can be even more invisible. This can often lead people to experience what psychologists call disenfranchised grief, a term coined in 1985 by Dr. Kenneth J. Doka to describe a loss that isnt acknowledged by others. As he explained in his book Disenfranchised Grief: Recognizing Hidden Sorrow, these losses can often deprive a person of the catharsis found in shared bereavement. You dont really have a socially sanctioned right to grieve, said Dr. Doka, who teaches gerontology at the College of New Rochelle in New York. But these relationships can be very profound. Understanding the unique challenges of cybergrief can validate how a person may be feeling. Here are five ways of coping with the loss of an online friend. Dont Dismiss It In many ways, the grief is twofold, said Dr. Kathleen R. Gilbert, author of Dying, Death, and Grief in an Online Universe, because a person isnt only grieving their loss, theyre also grieving for the loss of support they had hoped they would receive from other people. Often times, Ms. Devine explained, its our in-person friends or family who can be confused or dismissive of our grief. But, she emphasizes, the first step forward is to acknowledge that all relationships are important, whether we see someone physically or not. Claim Your Grief One of the things the internet does is expand our awareness of the world beyond the corporeal one we know. Social media allows us to develop a construct of another person, their hopes and dreams and similarly, share our own. Many of us have spent years cultivating relationships based on words and images. This has been true for Ms. Pahr: Friendships and what it means to be friends has changed so much in the last 20 years, she said. The fact that you can be BFFs with someone without ever hearing their voice or touching their skin is mind-blowing to some people. Cyberloss isnt any less genuine or deeply significant simply because the interactions took place online. As Ms. Devine explains, every grief is valid, and just because you arent in the same room, or connecting over tea in your home city, doesnt mean you dont rely on the person, or count them among your inner circle. The only person who gets to decide what grief looks like is the person experiencing it. The number of accidents in Kenya is on the rise, with the World Health Organization describing the roads in the country as among the most dangerous in the world, claiming around 29.1 lives per 100,000 people, according to a 2015 report. Government statistics in Kenya show that around 3,000 people die each year in road accidents, and the country has struggled to reduce the number of fatalities. Roads are increasingly crowded as more members of the growing middle class acquire cars, and a government effort to reintroduce breathalyzers was rejected after court orders prohibited the police from charging drivers based on readings from the devices. Ms. Fujimori has become one of Perus most powerful politicians, commanding the Popular Force party, which controls the largest share of seats in the countrys Congress. Many analysts feared that her rise which included an attempt to impeach Perus previous president, who eventually resigned would do lasting damage to the countrys democratic institutions. The recent detentions of Ms. Fujimori and her father have now led some to believe that the opposite may be true. I think its a major point of weakening for Fujimorismo, said Eduardo Dargent, a political scientist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, referring to the political movement that bears the family name. Ms. Fujimori has been the subject of a number of corruption investigations in recent years, including inquiries into her campaign financing, accusations of money laundering and questions regarding her ties to the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which has admitted paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes for construction projects in Latin America. Public anger turned against both Ms. Fujimori and investigators this July, when tapes in which judicial officials could be heard planning unofficial meetings with a Senora K were leaked to the press. Critics said that the nickname referred to Ms. Fujimori and that the officials were looking to cut an illicit deal with her. The ensuing scandal resulted in the firing and resignation of many top judiciary officials. Mr. Dargent, the political scientist, said prosecutors were now under increased pressure to show that they are clean of political influence a possible motivation for Wednesdays arrest. There have been other signs of weakness within Ms. Fujimoris party, and within the family, in recent months. In local elections on Sunday, voters shut the party out of most mayoral offices. While speaking to the United Nations General Assembly last month, North Koreas foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, said that there was no way his country would unilaterally disarm unless Washington took steps to show that it is no longer a threat. Mr. Ri cited Washingtons campaign to escalate sanctions against the North as a prime example of American hostility. South Korea imposed its toughest sanctions against North Korea in 2010, after 46 of its sailors were killed when a South Korean Navy ship sank in an explosion in waters near the border with the North. Investigators from South Korea and several other nations, including the United States, concluded that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sank the ship. The sanctions banned all trade, investment, travel and exchanges with North Korea. They also banned North Korean merchant ships from using South Korean waters, forcing them to take costly detours that use more fuel. South Korea also all but terminated humanitarian aid for the North. Officials in Pyongyang have denied any involvement in the ships sinking. But conservative South Koreans insist on maintaining the penalties until North Korea apologizes. Some South Korean sanctions have already begun easing under Mr. Moon, including a ban on travel to North Korea. When he met last month with Mr. Kim in Pyongyang, the capital, the South agreed to discuss letting North Korean commercial ships use the Souths shipping lanes again. Before the 2010 embargo was imposed, South Korea rivaled China as among North Koreas biggest trading partners. Now, North Korea depends on China for almost all of its external trade. Liberal politicians in South Korea fear that by cutting trade ties with North Korea, South Korea has lost leverage, pushing the North closer to China. In recent months, some lawmakers affiliated with Mr. Moons governing Democratic Party have begun calling for easing the trade embargo. Mr. Moons government has indicated that it is willing to allow trade and exchanges with the North only to the extent that they do not violate United Nations sanctions. They are not generally violent toward humans, but they sometimes wander from Hong Kongs countryside into nearby shopping malls, playgrounds and public barbecue sites in search of food, raising the potential for conflicts. Some have even been spotted galloping down Hong Kong highways and swimming in the citys main harbor. In March alone, police officers carrying riot shields subdued a boar on the tarmac at Hong Kong International Airport, and footage of an enormous emperor boar sniffing around a Hong Kong dumpster made international headlines. The government has tried to quietly control the population of wild boars and other wildlife in recent years with various strategies, to mixed reviews. Notably, a program in which local officials allowed locals to hunt wild boars produced hundreds of kills 281 from 2009 to 2013, according to government data. Hong Kongs environment secretary, Wong Kam-sing, once called the hunts, which began in the 1970s, an effective measure for controlling the boar population. Though the animals are not protected under Hong Kong law, the hunts were suspended last year after lawmakers and animal rights activists called them inhumane and impractical. The activists say the government should focus instead on managing the disposal of solid waste so that the boars do not eat it. We think hunting and killing even eating in some cases wild pigs is an outdated custom, Leung Mei-po, an animal-rights activist, told Hong Kong Free Press, a local news site. This practice should have no place in todays Hong Kong. Wild boars are widespread in Hong Kong and normally live there in a natural environment, the agriculture department said in an email, adding that the animals can become accustomed to searching for food in residential areas if they are fed there or can easily find food in trash bins. COTTBUS, Germany On a Sunday in September, at the moment when part of the nearby coal-fired power station went dark for good, 600 people lifted white miners helmets from their heads and placed them on folding chairs in the main square in Cottbus, an industrial town in eastern Germany. It was a silent protest to mark the number of jobs lost. You have to think that every one of those places represents a job, an income that an entire family depends on, said Mathias Felsch, a 26-year-old whose father and grandfather both worked in the coal mines. When you see it like that, it really is a whole lot. Even so, for Germany, it is not nearly enough. If the country is to meet its commitment to the Paris Climate Accord to reduce carbon emissions by 80 to 95 percent by 2050 it must also address the economic and social impact on the roughly 22,500 people whose jobs depend on coal. Increasingly, for Chancellor Angela Merkel it is a question of wavering political will in the face of mounting challenges, including from the far right, in eastern regions where a bulk of those jobs would be lost. DUBLIN Britains Supreme Court supported on Wednesday the right of a Belfast bakery to refuse to bake a cake with a message supporting same-sex marriage, finding that its Christian owners could not be compelled to reproduce a message contrary to their beliefs. Although the person who requested the cake was gay, a five-judge panel found that the bakery owners refusal was based not on his sexual orientation, but on their Protestant faiths opposition to gay marriage. There was no discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, said the judgment, which overturned the rulings of two lower courts. It cited the United States Supreme Courts decision in June in favor of a Colorado baker who had refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple, a narrow decision that left open the larger question of whether a business can discriminate against gay men and lesbians based on First Amendment rights. OSLO William Nygaard, publisher of the Norwegian edition of Salman Rushdies novel The Satanic Verses, was shot three times and left for dead outside his home in a quiet suburb of Oslo on the morning of Oct. 11, 1993. Twenty-five years later, just two days before a deadline that would have foreclosed prosecution, the Norwegian police have at last filed charges in the shooting of Mr. Nygaard, who recovered from his wounds. And the authorities stated what many people had always taken for granted: that the attack had to do with Mr. Rushdies book, which infuriated Muslims around the world a theory that the police played down a generation ago. We have no reason to believe there is any other motive for the attempted killing than the publication of The Satanic Verses, said Ida Dahl Nilssen, a spokeswoman for Norways National Criminal Investigation Service. The shooting was about more than an attack on one man, she said, it was a violent attempt to shut down free speech. But the charges, announced on Tuesday, remain steeped in uncertainty, leaving it unclear how close the authorities really are to holding anyone responsible for one of Norways most notorious unsolved crimes. Officials have refused to say publicly what evidence they have or how many people have been charged, or to disclose the suspects names, nationalities or current locations. LONDON Months after appointing its first minister for loneliness, Britain named a minister for suicide prevention as part of a new push to tackle mental health issues. Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday announced the appointment of the health minister Jackie Doyle-Price to the new role. She will lead government efforts to cut the number of suicides and overcome the stigma that prevents people with mental health problems from seeking help. While suicide rates have dropped in recent years, about 4,500 people take their own lives each year in England. It remains the leading cause of death for men under age 45, according to government research. We can end the stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence, Mrs. May said on Wednesday at a Downing Street reception to commemorate World Mental Health Day. We can prevent the tragedy of suicide taking too many lives. And we can give the mental well-being of our children the priority it so profoundly deserves. A model of a Wing Loong II drone is displayed at the Chengdu International Exhibition and Convention Center on Sept. 20. Photo: VCG The Chinese military will help Pakistan build 48 of its advanced attack and reconnaissance drone models in a move that could signal greater military cooperation between the countries. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, a military contractor, will jointly develop 48 Wing Loong II drones with Chinas state-owned Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Company, an announcement on a Pakistan military Facebook page revealed on Sunday. It did not indicate the size of the deal or the projects timespan, but it is likely the drones will be built in Pakistan. The Wing Loong II, which made its maiden flight in February 2017, is capable of launching missile strikes and undertaking reconnaissance missions. It is believed to be Chinas answer to the U.S.s mainstay MQ-9 Reaper drone. China, which is aiming to capitalize on U.S. government restrictions on its own defense industry, is planning to sell the Wing Loong II to buyers such as Saudi Arabia and Myanmar, according to a recent report by the RAND Corporation, a U.S. think tank. The countries are also cooperating on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a 15-year project valued at over $62 billion to develop power, rail and port facilities across Pakistan. Pakistans move last week to cut a planned Chinese loan for a railway project from $8.2 billion to $6.2 billion caused some analysts to suggest a rift was growing in the relationship. The new military deal, however, indicates this is not the case, said Harish Natarajan, head economist at risk consultancy AKE International. China and Pakistan have been deepening their military relations over the last few years. Arguably, defense cooperation is as important to the bilateral relationship as increased Chinese commercial investment. Natarajan said. The importance of the relationship to China is that it gives Beijing better access to the Arabian Sea and is a counterbalance to Indian influence, given that China and India are in a low-intensity Cold War, especially in the Indian Ocean. India and China had a two-month standoff last year when the Chinese military attempted to construct a road in the disputed Doklam region, a territory claimed by both China and Bhutan, an Indian military ally. Tensions also flared over the Maldives earlier this year when both sides threatened to become involved if the other intervened in a political crisis on the tiny archipelago nation. Indias media was quick to respond to the drone deal announcement, pointing out it was made just days after India said it would acquire missile defense systems from Russia an announcement that came during President Vladimir Putins visit to the country. While the timing is likely coincidental, it is also highly plausible the drone deal will lead to further military developments between the countries, Natarajan said. Its useful for Pakistan as military cooperation with the U.S. has decreased, especially under the Trump administration, he said. And Indias defense capabilities are growing, due both to a rise in high quality defense imports, and the development of its domestic defense manufacturing sector, he said. Contact reporter Ke Dawei (daweike@caixin.com) KAFAR NAHA, Syria Syrian rebel fighters have pulled the last of their heavy weapons from front-line positions in Idlib Province, meeting the deadline for a truce negotiated by Russia and Turkey and possibly sparing the civilian population from a bloody government offensive. It was a rare act of unity for the ordinarily fractious rebel forces, who on Monday drove trucks carrying a tank, artillery and missile batteries out of their base in this small town, as a small group of international journalists looked on. We are now standing in the demilitarized zone, said Saif al-Raad, a spokesman for the National Liberation Front, a grouping of roughly 20 rebel factions operating in Idlib, the last bastion of rebel-held territory in northwest Syria. Under the agreement brokered personally last month by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, the rebels are unilaterally withdrawing heavy weaponry to create a demilitarized zone 15 kilometers, or nine miles, wide. The deadline for the withdrawal is Wednesday, and a cease-fire is to commence five days later. ANKARA, Turkey A Turkish newspaper close to the government has published a list of 15 men it says formed a hit squad of Saudi government agents the Turks suspect of killing and dismembering a prominent critic inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. While Turkey has not leveled the charges publicly, two Turkish officials speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the government considers the men to be Saudi operatives who flew last week to Istanbul in pursuit of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident. Mr. Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the consulate on Oct. 2. One of the men on the list published by the newspaper, Sabah, is an autopsy expert at Saudi Arabias internal security agency, according to the two Turkish officials. Another appears to be a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force. The officials, citing confidential intelligence, said all worked for the Saudi government. Turkish officials have said that Mr. Khashoggi was killed at the consulate and that his dismembered body was taken away an allegation the Saudi government has vehemently denied. Mr. Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi commentator, United States resident and Washington Post columnist, had become a prominent critic of the kingdoms rulers. | BY Ricki Green | Popular TV personality and English actor Ricky Gervais has joined Ian Somerhalder, Nikki Reed, Gillian Anderson and Australian comedian Meshell Laurie, plus a raft of other international celebrities to support Animals Asias latest campaign, let a bear sh!t in the woods via Enigma, Newcastle. The campaign highlights the plight of around 10,000 moon bears currently confined to horrific cages on bear bile farms throughout Asia and not able to run wild as nature intended. The campaign has been endorsed by Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder plus Twilight stars Nikki Reed and Kellan Lutz. They are also joined by actors Kristin Bauer van Straten, Gillian Anderson and Alicia Silverstone, musicians Matt Sorum and Peter Northcote, entrepreneur Russell Simmons, chef Simon Bryant and comedians Meshel Laurie and Ben Elton. Enigmas group creative director Brian Daly said the let a bear sh!t in the woods campaign asks people around the world to stop bear bile farming. Says Daly: The behavior we identify as fundamental to being a bear has been taken away from these animals in a most cruel act. Let a bear sh!t in the woods is the ultimate goal of Animals Asia, to allow these bears to live in their natural habitat and express their natural behaviours. The campaign launched on the 16th anniversary of the founding of Animals Asia and encourages people to take the pledge and raise awareness of the suffering of moon bears. True Bloods Kristen Bauer van Straten is dedicated to the campaign and helping eradicate bear bile farming within Asia. Says Bauer: Bear Bile farming should be something out of a horror novel, but its unfortunately not fiction, as hard as that is to believe. Bears are held in metal cages their entire lives with tubes stuck in to their bodies to drain the bile from their gallbladders. Please sign to help us stop this painful existence for living creatures. We cannot allow this to exist on Earth any longer. There are four ways supporters can take the pledge, online at bearinthewoods.org, via social media using the hashtags #ShitInTheWoods and #AnimalsAsia, by buying and wearing the campaign t-shirt and by creating a video. Other celebrity endorsements can be found here. Group Creative Director Brian Daly Art Director: Paul Hampson Copywriter: Matt Dawe Senior designer: Sophie Tyler Digital Director: Stephen Walsh Digital Producer: Ana Zrnic Account Director: Mel Linde Contrary to the perception that Auckland has been at a supply standstill for many years now, a huge amount of development has actually taken place, Davidson stated. The scale is huge compared with any other part of New Zealand and without it, the housing affordability problem in Auckland would be even worse. Infill development the practice of developing underused pockets of land within existing urban areas has been cited as a growing trend, with infill townhouses and apartments increasingly replacing smaller standalone houses. Davidson says the inefficient use of state housing land is most evident around Mount Albert and Mount Roskill, so KiwiBuild would be well-placed to target those areas. But even though there are some positive factors on the supply side in Auckland, housing affordability is still poor, he continued. Thats despite no obvious physical shortage of land, thus the question naturally arises why isnt supply moving even faster? Davidson says there are three key hurdles to developing new housing lack of suitably priced land, lack of infrastructure to support new housing and the capacity constraints to the construction industry. Nonetheless, he says Aucklands worst critics are overstating the citys supply shortfall. The land exists, infill housing is underway and KiwiBuild will help to speed this up, he stated. However, there is still a long way to go in terms of boosting the raw numbers of homes in Auckland, not to mention fixing a quality issue (e.g. poor general state of repair, lack of insulation) that clearly exists in many parts of the city. | BY Ricki Green | AdFest is now accepting short film submissions from up-and-coming Directors and Assistant Directors based in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions as part of its Fabulous Five program one of the worlds most respected platforms for kick-starting the careers of commercial directors. Fabulous Five is an incredible opportunity many of the directors who have screened their films at AdFest have gone on to achieve great things. As a result, we have expanded the program from Fabulous Four to Fabulous Five, giving more directors the chance to make their first big break, explains Vinit Suraphongchai, Chairman of AdFest. AdFest is inviting directors to write 5-minute film scripts inspired by the theme of AdFest 2019, TMRRW.TDAY. To be eligible, directors must have less than two years experience, which means their directing career began in March 2017 or later. The deadline for script submissions is Friday 4th January. The Film Craft & New Director jury will then vote for their favourite scripts, and the directors with the most votes will be declared AdFests Fabulous Five by 1st February. They will have five weeks to produce their films in time to premiere at AdFest 2019, which runs from 20th March to 23rd March in Pattaya, Thailand. Ali Brown, Partner and Executive Producer at Prettybird in Los Angeles, is leading the Fabulous Five judging process as Jury President of Film Craft and New Director at AdFest 2019. I love the idea of Fabulous Five as a platform to make sure emerging talent is being seen by the people who can make a difference in their careers. I also think the theme, TMRRW.TDAY, will inspire some incredible ideas. Its the perfect theme for filmmakers to show their inventiveness and perspectives, she says. AdFest will provide return economy airfare, ground transportation, accommodation, and a full delegate registration for each selected director to attend AdFest 2019. To find out more about eligibility and script submissions click here or contact Nat@ADFEST.com for more details. Move over, humans, it seems animals need makeovers too. Its all the rage in South Korea right now as pet owners are actually paying for cosmetic surgery for their furry companions! Some of the popular procedures include tail shortening and ear trimming for dogs, to make them cute with pointy ears. Fat reduction is another popular surgery, along with stretch marks removal, wrinkle smoothing, double eyelid removal and even botox injections. These procedures start from $60 and ostensibly run into the thousands. Its not entirely surprising, given that South Korea is the plastic surgery capital of the world. This is the place where tourists become unrecognisable to the extent that they need special doctor certificates to return to their native lands after having work done on their faces. So it was only a matter of time before people started thinking of botoxing their pets as well. Photo: Chosun Daily The dog in the before and after photos above apparently had plastic surgery done because his inner eyelids were pointing towards the eyes. After the procedure, his eyes look bigger, a feature that many pet owners love. According to one anonymous veterinarian, Plastic surgery for pets in the past were for medical reasons but the result also brought better looking dogs, so there is a growing customer base getting a plastic surgery for cosmetic reasons on their dogs. Apparently, a few doctors believe that these surgeries are medically safe and ethical. They say its the owners right to make their pets look beautiful. In fact, a few vets are actually pitching cosmetic surgery to pet owners. According to an article in Chosun Daily, a woman visited a vet to get vaccinations for her five-month-old puppy. The doctor, however, asked if she wanted to close the gap in the canines mouth which he considered unappealing from a cosmetic perspective. Photo: Pixable Animal lovers in South Korea are horrified by the trend, which many consider animal abuse. Lots of them feel people have no right to inflict their distorted sense of aesthetics on helpless animals. Korean veterinarian magazine Daily Vet conducted a survey in which 63 percent of pet owners wanted plastic surgery for dogs to be banned. Many of them have taken to social media to express their disgust. Did the dogs say they want plastic surgery, one person asked. I dont care about people who want and get plastic surgery, but this is too much, another wrote. Are you saying because they look up to the owners, the owners can do anything to them? Photo: Wikimedia Commons What is the difference between this and forcing your own children to get plastic surgery, another pointed out. | BY Ricki Green | AFFINITY was awarded the prestigious Presidents Prize for Best Use of Tech-Led Data at the 2018 IPA Effectiveness Awards for its ground-breaking cough predictor which took place in London last night (9th October). Developed for natural cough remedy Prospan, its revolutionary algorithm allowed them to target consumers at the moment their child was at most risk of developing a cough, and increased sales by 27% despite having a budget of less than 1% of the overall market spend in Australia. After identifying that most Australian mums were inclined to ignore the early signs of a cough as they tend to sort themselves out, AFFINITY used social, Medicare, temperature and pollution data to pinpoint the conditions most likely to cause a cough. This allowed AFFINITY to target the mums most likely to take action, and caused Prospans market share against its larger competitors to increase by 18.5% in just six months. This impressive growth came despite a significant drop in the overall market during one of Australias warmest winters on record. The Presidents Prize was created by IPA President Sarah Golding to celebrate the demonstration of technology-led data in the generation of strategy, delivery, execution, optimization or measurement of effect. Says Sarah Golding, IPA president and CEO and partner of The&Partnership: Technology and data are enabling us to develop highly creative and effective brand-building tools that can truly transform our industry. This case study is a fantastic example of how to use AI, data and insight to dynamically target the consumer, and Im delighted that it has won this years Presidents Prize. Says Neil Godber, convenor of judges and head of planning, J. Walter Thompson, London: AFFINITY used insight, creativity and big data to fascinating effect in very challenging conditions. Not only were they up against big budget competitors and apathetic attitudes towards coughs, but also the weather as well. With everything considered it is remarkable that they have caused such a dramatic shift in Propsans market share in such a short space of time. The 2018 IPA Effectiveness Awards are the worlds most rigorous and prestigious Awards scheme with entrants having to prove the payback of their communications activity. In total nine gold, 18 silver and 11 bronze prizes, along with 10 special prizes, were awarded to companies from six countries. Australian agencies also won three other prizes at the Awards, with whiteGREY picking up a silver for its work with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and Ogilvy Australia claiming two bronzes for its Soothers and U by Kotex campaigns. Full list of 2018 IPA Effectiveness Awards Winners: Special Prizes: Grand Prix sponsored by Thinkbox: Audi UK by BBH Beauty and brains: How we supercharged the Audi premium 2015-2018 Effectiveness Network of the Year: McCann Effectiveness Company of the Year: BBH The Simon Broadbent Prize for Best Dedication to Effectiveness sponsored by Newsworks: Diageo The Presidents Prize for Best Use of Tech-Led Data sponsored by Google: Prospan (Flordis Australia) by AFFINITY The worlds first cough predictor The Channon Prize for Best New Learning sponsored by Radiocentre: Direct Line Group by Direct Line Group and Ebiquity They went short. We went long. The Tim Broadbent Prize for Best International sponsored by WARC: Heineken by Publicis Italy A Game Changer: How Heineken reinvented its champions league communications Best Multi-Market sponsored by System 1: Heineken by Publicis Italy A Game Changer: How Heineken reinvented its champions league communications Best Small Budget sponsored by DBS Data: Ellas Kitchen by Havas London Selling up doesnt mean selling out The #IPASocialWorks Prize for Best Use of Social Media sponsored by Facebook: True Match (LOreal Paris) by McCann London How LOreal Paris UK True Match climbed to No.1 by making everyone feel Worth It Gold winners: Audi UK by BBH Beauty and brains: How we supercharged the Audi premium 2015-2018 British Army, (Capita for the British Army) by Karmarama and MediaCom Helping a new generation find where they belong in the British Army DFS by krow communications and MediaCom Turning DFS from a value brand into a brand that people value DLG by Direct Line Group and Ebiquity They went short. We went long. Guinness (Diageo) by AMV BBDO Guinness: Made Of More, 2012 2018 Lidl by TBWA\London and Starcom How Lidl grew a lot Suzuki by the7stars Suzuki Saturdays The AA by adam&eveDDB and Carat The AA: From spark-plugs to singalongs True Match (LOreal Paris) by McCann London How LOreal Paris UK True Match climbed to No.1 by making everyone feel Worth It Silver winners: Aldi by McCann Manchester Kevin the Carrot 2016 and 2017: How Aldi UK won Christmas with the help of a humble carrot Art Institute of Chicago by Leo Burnett Chicago and Art Institute of Chicago Van Goghs Bedrooms: The power of an immersive idea Baileys (Diageo) by Mother and Carat Baileys: A radical brand turnaround story with extra sprinkles Barclays by BBH Purpose pays David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust by whiteGREY Hello in Elephant: Translating an endangered language to help save an endangered species Ellas Kitchen by Havas London Selling up doesnt mean selling out Heineken by Publicis Italy A Game Changer: How Heineken reinvented its champions league communications IKEA by Mother and Vizeum The Wonderful Everyday Nationwide Building Society by VCCP and Wavemaker London How Nationwide found its voice and the difference that made Prospan (Flordis Australia) by AFFINITY The worlds first cough predictor Purplebricks by SNAP London How Purplebricks brought Commisery to the UKs estate agents SK-II (P&G) by Forsman & Bodenfors SK-II: The Marriage Market Takeover: How giving leftover women in China a voice transformed a luxury skin care brand Skittles (Mars) by adam&eveDDB Breaking conventions with Pride Sport England by FCB Inferno This Girl Can: Giving judgement the finger (& inspiring millions of women to get active) Starbucks by Manning Gottlieb OMD Starbucks and social: How Starbucks created the fourth place in coffee culture Virgin Media by BBH Finding our Virginity: How fighting fact with feeling helped Virgin Media take on the might of Sky Weetabix by BBH and Ebiquity A Rembrandt in the attic: Rediscovering the value of Have you had your Weetabix? Yorkshire Tea (Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate) by Lucky Generals and Goodstuff Communications Waking the sleep shoppers: A proper effective campaign for Yorkshire Tea Bronze winners: Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Lindsay Pattison, chief transformation officer, WPP WPP has formed a collaboration with UN Women, which works to develop and uphold standards and create an environment in which women and girls can exercise their human rights and live up to their full potential. WPPs commitment includes global, pro-bono media support brokered by GroupM and creative services from WPP agencies to help positively impact the lives of girls and women. WPP has already secured over $1 million in pro-bono media placements and more than $6 million in earned media secured for UN Women through multiple campaigns. Our work with WPP comes at the perfect time, as unprecedented numbers of women are mobilizing worldwide on equality issues, ranging from ending violence and sexual harassment to calling for equal pay. This collaboration brings us both powerful imagination and industry muscle, said UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Cecelia Prewett SKDKnickerbocker has launched a litigation, regulation and investigation practice. The practice is intended to deliver communications strategies that present legal and policy positions in a digestible manner to key audiences, as well as shape the narrative around those issues. Cecelia Prewett, managing director in SKDKs D.C. public affairs practice, spearheaded the formation of the practice area. Prewett has led SKDKs work for such clients as LOreal USA, LifeLock and Herbalife. Our unique perspective comes from having been on the inside of the regulatory agencies and federal departments, combined with our experience on the outside, crafting the narrative and strategy needed to educate and persuade the public, Prewett said. SKDK is a member of The Stagwell Group. Cathy Hackl Atlanta-based Media Frenzy Global is working with Cathy Hackl, an expert in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality on what is being termed the worlds first holographic press release. The technology made its premiere at the Public Relations Society of Americas 2018 International Conference. It allows brands to showcase speakers and products as interactive, three-dimensional holograms, distributed through augmented reality on Facebook and Instagram (through Facebooks Spark AR camera effects platform) and Snapchat. Consumers can travel around the 3-D hologram, connecting through linked access points, and hearing accompanying audio. Hackl says that by using volumetric video on Facebook and Snapchat, users wont need to download an app or visit a separate website to experience holographic video. The technology will be piloted in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York City, with further rollouts to be announced. Stephen Mackey W2 Communications has acquired Mesh Omnimedia, a creative agency based in Northern Virginia. As part of the acquisition, Mesh Omnimedia founder and creative director Stephen Mackey joins W2 as chief creative officer. The acquisition allows W2 to add creative design and digital marketing servicesincluding video production, search engine optimization and website developmentto its offerings. While W2 will remain focused on technology clients, it will now expand into new industries including consumer, government, finance, retail, associations and other verticals. Manzer Communications is changing its name to Swyft. The name change reflects the firms expansion to include such services as media relations and lead management, as well as public relations. Three years ago the firm began building a global network of partner agencies that share its focus on the B2B technology sector. The network, now called First PR Alliance, has affiliates in North America, South America and Europe. Swyft is also a founding member of the Global Fintech PR Network, an international network of agencies that specialize in Fintech PR. Broadcom today said a memo signed by Defense Dept. officials that is circulating among members of Congress, calling for a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US of Broadcom's $19B deal to acquire CA Technologies, is a fraudulent document. Broadcom and CA Technologies are both American companies and there is no basis in fact or law for CFIUS review of our pending transaction, the San Diego-based company said in a statement. The company said DOD officials told it the memo was a forged document. Reuters reports that the Pentagon is investigating the origin of the phony document. Despite the Pentagons clarification, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul continues his call for a review of the Broadcom/CA hook-up, claiming the deal raises obvious national security implications. Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katchers Joele Frank, Steve Frankel and Andi Rose handle Broadcoms media. An Offaly TD has said that 14-year-old Offaly boy Nonso Muojeke and his family have been granted permission to remain in Ireland depsite months of deportation dears. The case of the Muojeke family has received much media attention in recent months as friends, classmates and politicians continue to call on Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to intervene to prevent their deportation to Nigeria. Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen said on Wednesday, "Further to on-going representations I am delighted to be advised that Nonso & the Muojeke Family have been given permission under leave to remain in the State. I very much welcome the Department's decision to allow this family remain living in their local community of Tullamore." Carol Nolan TD said: "I'm delighted that a positive decision to grant the Muojeke family the right to remain in Tullamore where they have become a central part of community life has been made today by the department." "It was a pleasure to work with the Muojeke family, the staff of Tullamore College and many people from the community of Tullamore who worked tirelessly to ensure that justice was done. I want to take this opportunity to wish the Muojeke family all the best and hope that they will spend many happy years in Tullamore," she added. A petition calling on the Minister to save the family from deportation earlier this year garnered well over 20,000 signatures from across the world. Nonso (14) is a student in Tullamore College and has been in Ireland since he was two years old. His brother Victor is also a past pupil of the Offaly school and is now studying at the University of Limerick. The boys' mother moved from Nigeria to Ireland after their father died in 2006 and she, as a widow, became the property of her husbands brother, as is the custom. She suffered mistreatment in that relationship and was forced to flee. The family spent time in Direct Provision before moving to Laois and later to Tullamore with they became a part of the community. Earlier this year, the boys' friends had also released an emotional plea to the Minister to prevent the deportation, describing them as friendly, bright, intelligent boys who identify totally as Irish, while Nonso himself protested outside the Dail. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you have a story for us, sports news, an event happening in your area, or if you want to submit pictures or videos, contact the Offaly Express team via email to justin.kelly@iconicnews.ie, or through our Facebook. The number of people who simply did not turn up for Out Patient Appointments and Operations at the Midlands Regional Hospital, Tullamore in 2017 has been described as 'extraordinary' by an Offaly County Councillor who is also a member of the Dublin-Mid Leinster Regional Health Forum. Figures obtained by the Offaly Express through a Freedom of Information Request to the HSE show that in 2017 alone, 8,138 people simply did not turn up for Out Patient Appointments at Tullamore Hospital. That works out at more than 150 missed appointments per week or more than 32 per working day in the hospital. Recent HSE figures revealed that 15,325 people were waiting for outpatient procedures at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore. In 2017, 404 people did not turn up for Day Case Operations, Investigations and Procedures at the hospital. Commenting on the figures for missed Out Patient Appointments, Offaly County Councillor and Dublin-Mid Leinster Regional Health Forum member, Tommy McKeigue, stated, I'm very disappointed to hear that this many people are getting appointments and don't keep them. I don't know how you penalise people, but if they are not going to show up, they should at least be giving three days notice so someone else who needs the appointment can be scheduled in. I know things could happen on the morning and they might not get there but that's an extraordinary figure. Once people are on a waiting list and get an appointment, just not turning up without contacting the hospital, that's scandalous. He said he was disturbed to hear that more than 400 people had missed operations. Maybe they have gone elsewhere and got the surgery done privately. It's very disturbing to hear that kind of figure. There should be a total review to find out why people haven't turned up. There should be checks to see why the surgeries, in particular, have been missed. He continued, it's very disappointing to hear this news. I've been trying to make the case at the Health Forum Meetings to get the waiting lists down. It's very hard to get anything over the line in terms of progress. Even the amount of money that is going into the HSE now, over 16 billion, the waiting lists are getting bigger and bigger. It's not down to me but there needs to be a whole shake-up in the system or it's going to keep getting worse. Money is after being thrown at it and it's not solving it. It hasn't worked up to now and it's not going to work. When asked what he would do to shake up the system, Cllr McKeigue commented, I don't think there is buy-in from everyone. From the consultants and administrators down, I don't think there is a buy-in to the whole system. The consultants are working for the private and public sides and I don't think you can do both. And the money in the health budget, unless that is targeted, it's not going to help our health service. He also hit out at the decision to block a Primary Care Centre for Birr and to remove the Midoc Service from both Birr and Edenderry. The Primary Care Centre in Birr was voted down by councillors and that was wrong. That should have got the go ahead. The Midoc was pulled in Birr and Edenderry so the only place people can come to now is Tullamore Hospital. | BY Ricki Green | Zenith Australia has today announced the appointment of Joshua Lee to head of digital for Zenith Melbourne. Lee was previously group investment director with Amplifi, the media investment arm of Dentsu Aegis. He has more than nine years experience in media communications, working in Australia and Canada in digital media, business development, client relationship management and account management. Lee joined the Dentsu Aegis network in 2013 as digital director of the Huckleberry Agency in Melbourne, before moving to Toronto as AMNET director of client services and senior director of digital investments and programmatic. He has also worked in digital roles at Neo@Ogilvy and Havas Media. Lees appointment follows the recent promotion of Mark Johnson to be head of digital for Zenith in Sydney. Says Nickie Scriven, CEO, Zenith Australia: Josh has built an impressive career and brings not only excellent digital skills to Zenith, but also broader client relationship experience which will be valuable as we help deliver ROI and marketing-led growth for our clients. In Melbourne, Lee will lead our digital team, product and processes to help further refine our digital proposition. Says Lee: Zenith presents an exciting opportunity for me to further build its digital offering for clients as they navigate an increasingly complex media landscape and customer journey. I look forward to working with the Zenith team to deliver results for our clients. | BY Ricki Green | The Walt Disney Company is the global firm thats best positioned for future success, according to the 2018 FutureBrand Index, which is published today. The Index re-orders PwCs Global Top 100 the largest companies in the world by market capitalisation. It uses responses from an informed global public of 3,000 respondents to measure each firms futureproof factor how strongly theyre positioned for future success. It produces a ranking, where at the top stand the brands judged to have the right qualities in balance to make people want to work for, buy from and invest in them. The dominant theme emerging from the 2018 Index is that the companies seen as best positioned for future success are those that that blend purpose with experience. Several other striking themes emerge: Chinas rise is entering a new phase, the tech sector is faltering, and many of the worlds oldest firms in unfashionable sectors are proving more durable than expected. US dominant but China moving up With 54 of the PwC Top 100 and 13 of the 25 most futureproofed brands including The Walt Disney Company as the number one most futureproofed brand US firms dominate both the list of todays successful global companies and the list of those companies best positioned to succeed in the future. The top futureproofed brand in 2016 was Apple, which drops to fourth in this years Index. Gilead Sciences, Nike, AbbVie and Nvidia are the other US companies in the top ten. Last years second- placed company, Microsoft, drops 10 places to 12. But although there are far more US firms in both the PwC Top 100 and the FutureBrand Index than from any other country, both also feature more Chinese firms than ever before, with six of the most futureproofed companies in the FutureBrand Index and 12 in the PwC Top 100. And the company that came second in this years list of the most futureproofed brands is Chinese spirits giant Kweichow Moutai. Increasingly, the story of China is not one of a rising middle class aspiring to Western brands; it is Chinese brands offering new competition to established players in the North American and European markets. The evolution of tech The Index suggests that consumers perception of technology companies is evolving, with the purpose behind their ground-breaking technology coming into sharper focus. To be successful in the 2018 Index, tech sector firms must do more than come up with the latest technology they must use it to create better products, services and experiences that improve the lives of their customers. This year, almost every tech company in the Index has fallen in the rankings and have seen dramatic drops in perceptions of having a clear sense of the future (from 39% in 2014 to 34% in 2018), inspiring change for the better (from 34% in 2014 to 29% in 2018) and having strong ideas and principles (from 36% in 2014 to 31% in 2018). Despite their financial success, the tech sector has also seen falls in individual trust levels (from 35% in 2014 to 30% in 2018). No room for complacency Since the first Index was published in 2014, nine companies have consistently been classed as futureproofed brands: Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Inditex, Walt Disney, AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung, and Toyota. Balance is best Says Nick Sykes, president international: The FutureBrand Index is unique because it reveals the future potential of the worlds most prominent companies. It is not based on assumptions or our opinions but rather its a robust view of how these companies are perceived and, as ever, its yielded some fascinating results. The Index shows that the brands performing the best, irrespective of which sector theyre in or how well-established they may be, are those that consistently align the totality of the experiences they create with their wider corporate purpose. Comparing this years results to previous versions of the Index shows theres no room for complacency. If brands lose their focus on the balance of attributes they need for future success, they quickly fall down the rankings. WAMPSVILLE >> The Madison County Board of Supervisors is taking up the cause against non-dairy milk. The board passed a resolution at its meeting Tuesday supporting truth in labeling for milk products and calls for a change in the way the term milk can be used to label products. Under current food industry regulations, liquid extracted from grains, seeds, beans or leaves of various plants are being processed and marketed as milk, the resolution says. The labeling and placement of these products in the marketplace serve to confuse consumers regarding the relative benefits of these products. The resolution calls for the term milk to be reserved for products that come from mammals and for non-dairy products to be labeled with information so that consumers understand they do not contain the same nutrient value as milk. Brookfield Supervisor John Salka said there needs to be clarification and truthful presentation on what is in milk products and their nutritional values. If something comes from a nut, its not really milk, he said. Hopefully this will give a small boost to local dairy farmers, who need all the help they can get right now. Salka said the resolution passed by the board will be forwarded to the state and federal governments for further action. Cornell Cooperative Extension is also taking up the cause and intends to provide education and consumer outreach on the issue. Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, R-22, commended the county on the move. Dairy farmers are the backbone of our rural communities and economy, she said. Mislabeled imitation dairy including soy and almond milk greatly hurt our dairy farmers, and I am glad Madison County has worked to address this issue. Elephant Death: Karnataka mulls shifting jumbo camps from forests Bengaluru oi-Deepika S Bengaluru, Oct 10: Following the tragic death of Ranga, a 46-year-old elephant who was hit by a speeding bus in the Nagarhole forest area, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has stated that night traffic ban should be enforced in wildlife areas across the state. Kumaraswamy expressed grief over the death, and said he would not favour movement of vehicles inside wildlife reserves. "I am saddened by the unfortunate death of elephant Ranga which was hit by a bus at Mathigodu Elephant Camp in the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve. In view of such an incident, I feel there should be no plying of vehicles during night time in wildlife areas," he said. The need to restore elephant corridors in India Also, the state government has directed forest department officials to identify road stretches where wildlife movement is more and put speed-breakers in place. 'Rowdy Ranga', an elephant of the Matthigodu Elephant Camp in Nagarhole, died after being hit by a private bus in the early hours of Monday. Centre moots elevated road through Bandipur, activists threaten to protest Ranga was returning to the Mathigodu elephant camp after grazing in the forest, was hit by a private bus coming from Kannur in Kerala. Karnataka has 130 elephants in captivity spread across different camps. Out of eight camps, six of them are located in the critical wildlife habitats in Bandipur, Nagarhole, Dandeli and BRT Reserves. Kerala has been pressing for lifting of night ban on vehicle movement in Bandipur reserve area as the forest provides two key access points from Karnataka to Kerala, and had sought the Centre's intervention too. Karnataka too had initially shown some interest to explore the proposal, but the CM clarified in August that the State was neither in favour of lifting the ban nor would take up an elevated road inside the forest area. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 11:54 [IST] Report The report was then submitted to the state cabinet, following which it was approved. The committee was formed after the BJP formed the government in the state. Deb said that the expert committee recommended the best possible package for employees, workers and pensioners of Tripura. After careful consideration of the position of state finances, the government has very promptly examined the recommendations and in a special meeting held today, the council of ministers approved the implementing of recommendations made by the committee. Revised pay The revised pay or Tripura State Pay Matrix 2018' announced was prepared by raising the level of multiplication factor or booster factor to 2.57. However, wherever the revised pay works out higher than the corresponding pay as per 7th Pay Commission recommendations as a result of application of the new booster factor, "suitable adjustments" would be made to keep parity with the pay panel's recommendations. The multiplication factor would, thus, be "slightly lower" than 2.57 at some levels of the new salary and pay matrix. Minimum Pay The minimum pay at the entry level of the pay matrix would be Rs. 18,000 per month for Group-C employees, which is at par with pay panel's recommenations and Rs. 16,000 per month for Group-D employees. Fixed pay employees would get benefits at par with regular employees under the revised salary structure, Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Devvarma, said. Their pay would be fixed at 75 percent of the initial pay in the concerned level of the revised salary and pay matrix. DRW Daily Rated Workers (DRW), Monthly Rated Workers (MRW), contingent and part time workers including people working in public places of worship would enjoy a similar revision in their pay structure. Pensioners would enjoy a minimum pension of Rs. 8,000 per month and a maximum of Rs. 1,07,450 per month. Chief Minister Biplab Deb expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, BJP national president Amit Shah for their "unwavering support" in implementing 7th Pay Commission in Tripura. Human Rights Commission The reports have to be submitted within 20 days, GSHRC chairperson Justice (retired) Abhilasha Kumari told reporters in Gandhinagar. The notices have been issued to Chief Secretary J N Singh and DGP Shivanand Jha, seeking reports from them on steps taken to ensure the safety of migrant labourers under attack in the state, she said. "They have been asked to clarify what steps are being taken to maintain peace (following attacks on migrants) in the state and for the safety of people who are being attacked," she added. Since the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district, around 100 km from here, on September 28, and the arrest of a labourer hailing from Bihar for the crime, six districts, most of them in north Gujarat, have seen sporadic incidents of violence against Hindi-speaking people. Ravindra Sahu, a labourer hailing from Bihar and working in a local ceramic factory, was arrested the same day for the toddler's rape. The migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh fled in thousands after attacks. Rape backlash: Gujarat assures safety of migrant workers from UP, Nitish wants fair probe Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said Tuesday that 533 people were so far arrested in this connection across the affected districts after 61 cases were filed. Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja Congress president Rahul Gandhi had earlier brought up the exodus of the Hindi-speaking migrants, saying youths from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are being attacked and forced to leave. However, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Tuesday asked whether Gandhi will take action against his party's "own members who incited violence against the migrants in Gujarat". Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani The BJP has been blaming Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor and his outfit Gujarat Kshatriya-Thakor Sena for the outbreak of violence. After the alleged rape of the 14-month-old girl, who belonged to his community, Thakor had blamed in public a "non-Gujarati" for the crime. Attack on migrants in Gujarat: BJP demands expulsion of Alpesh Thakor from Congress Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor The exodus of Hindi-speaking migrants from Gujarat after attacks on them in several parts of the state showed no signs of abating on Tuesday. Police had intensified patrolling in areas near industrial estates and places where migrant workers stay in a bid to instill confidence among people. Shyam Singh Thakur, president of the Uttar Bhartiya Vikas Parishad, an outfit of north Indians in Gujarat, said Tuesday that more than 60,000 Hindi-speaking migrant labourers have fled the state so far. He claimed that people who had decided earlier to leave the state continue to board buses and trains. PTI Brahmos spy case: Lured with a job, how Agrawal set a trap for himself India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Oct 10: As investigations continue into the BrahMos spy case, it has been learnt that the trap was set through two Facebook accounts being run from Islamabad. Two accounts in the name of Pooja Ranjan and Neha Sharma were used to get in touch with Brahmos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agrawal, who was arrested earlier this week by the Anti Terrorism Squads of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. BrahMos breach: How gaming codes were used to send seeker technology of the missile Agrawal was an easy target for the ISI, a UP ATS official tells OneIndia. It was quite surprising the amount of data he had put out about himself on the social media. He was working on a very sensitive project, but his social media accounts had a lot of details about him. He had put up the nature of the job he was doing, his rank and his professional details. Further his attitude on the social media was very casual, as a result of which he fell trap easily, the officer also said. The officer also said that he was trapped with the lure of a job. The two girls who chatted with him offered him a high paying job in the United States. The transcripts also revealed that the Pooja had told him that she was from London, while Neha said she hailed from Chicago. They have been chatting for quite sometime now, the officer said. Very sensitive information found from suspected ISI agent's computer, says UP ATS It was his casual attitude and the amount of information he put out that made him a potential target. The big module working in India to identify those working in the defence sector did not find it hard to spot such a potential candidate. ATS IG Aseem Arun informed that very sensitive information has been found on Agrawal. He also said that they have in their possession chat transcripts which show that he was chatting with some Pakistan based operators on Facebook. The trail is expected to get longer, with two more persons coming under the scanner in connection with the same probe. The source said that there is nothing concrete found on these two persons as yet and hence we are not revealing their identity. We are probing the matter to find out if something more comes up. However we are sure that this is a huge ring and many more names would crop up during the future course of our probe. ATS sources further added that on Agrawal's laptop, they had found confidential information pertaining to defence and security. The extent of the information that was shared is still under investigation. However we can confirm that what ever had been shared was very sensitive in nature. Big breach at BrahMos missile unit: Agent passing on information to Pak-US arrested Agrawal during the questioning was unable to give any satisfactory answer as to why such confidential information was on his laptop. We are studying the history of the conversations and this will tell us the nature and extent of the information that he had shared since the past two years, the officer also said. Agrawal was privy to a lot of information. He was supervising new projects at the BrahMos facilities at Nagpur and Pilani. Among the information that was sought by the handlers was the new technology that was being developed jointly by India and Russia. Officials said that they suspect that the information was not being shared only with the ISI, but another foreign agency as well. When the news of his arrest broke out on Monday, it was said that he was also in touch with an American agency. The information that was sought was related to the seekers. It is the seeker technology that determines the accuracy of a missile. It may be recalled that the BrahMos was successfully flight tested with an indigenous seeker. The agencies are also probing if Agrawal had leaked sensitive data pertaining to the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos to his handlers in Pakistan. ATS sources say that he had used a coded game to send across vital information to his handlers. The ATS would have more information once they are able to decode the gaming codes and decrypt the information. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 14:43 [IST] Durga Puja funds: Win for Mamata as HC refuses to accept PIL against govt decision India oi-Deepika S Kolkata, Oct 10: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday refused to accept the PIL filed against state government's decision to offer grants to puja committees for Durga Puja in West Bengal. The court on Wednesday refused to intervene in the matter at the current stage of the process and found legislature appropriate forum for adjudication of the matter. The HC had earlier stayed the decision and directed the state government to file a response with an explanation for the grants. Appearing for the state, Advocate General Kishore Dutta said the funds would be used by the committees to promote its 'Safe Drive, Save Life' campaign and ensure public safety. The disbursal of funds is expected to cost the state government Rs 28 crore. Navaratri 2018: Puja vidhi, Timing, Muhurat and importance of this festival On September 10, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared that Rs 10,000 would be given to each of the 28,000 puja committees across the state - 3,000 in the city and 25,000 in the districts, costing the government an amount of Rs. 28 crore. Appearing for the petitioner, Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya had stated that such distribution of money among puja committees is 'unconstitutional', since it is not admissible on religious ground. Opposing the prayer, state Advocate General Kishore Dutta had submitted that the fund was for the purpose of the state government's 'Safe Drive Save Life' campaign and claimed that the PIL is as such, not maintainable. 'Mamata has not done anything for Durga Puja in last 7 years: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury The advocate general had also prayed for the time from the court for taking instruction from the state government and to produce documents with regard to the decision to disburse funds for the purpose of traffic safety or 'safe drive save life' campaign. The state BJP leadership had welcomed the high court order and said the state government is indulging in "dole politics" to win Hindu votes ahead of Lok Sabha elections. The chief minister had accused the RSS, the BJP and the Bajrang Dal of trying to foment trouble in Islampur area of North Dinajpur district, where two students were shot dead during a clash with police last month. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 13:30 [IST] I am not a harasser. Never was, never will be: Chetan Bhagat responds to #MeToo allegations India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Oct 10: Days after apologising for messages he had sent a woman, author Chetan Bhagat on Wednesday said that he and his family are being harassed after his name surfaced in the ongoing #MeToo campaign. "I am not a harasser, never was, never will be". Alleging that the #MeToo movement unfolding in India is being "corrupted", he said: "I would like to officially put a stop to this nonsense targeting me," he wrote in a Facebook post that was shared publicly. MeToo in India: Chetan Bhagat accused of sexual harassment, says sorry 'was going through a phase' Bhagat said that the leaked conversation between him and a woman had a background, which has been completely omitted. He said that he had already apologised both to his wife, and the woman, soon after the post surfaced. "Beyond that, this was a personal matter. Legally too, there was nothing more to it, as anyone who has seen those chats would agree," the writer said. "Despite this, my name was added to a growing list of people accused of the most heinous crimes, and flashed all over as a part of rape, sexual assault and all kinds of major criminal activity stories," he said. Metoo movement: MoS MJ Akbar, accused of sexual harassment, must resign, says Congress "It was now time for everyone who had a grudge against me (and, you know, plenty do on Twitter) to have a go at me. Kick a man when he is low, classy right?" he said. Chetan Bhagat said, "A 'responsible' newspaper put my name on its front page as lead story - because you know, you need a famous guy to make a headline. All this because I had a flirtatious conversation with a girl who was conversing back with me." He further said, "I must say many people did understand the difference in the cases and conveyed it to me. However, it was not easy for my family - bearing up stoically and supporting me unconditionally -to answer inane queries from all and sundry. Please bear in mind that baseless allegations like these affect my wife, my 70-year-old mother, my elderly in-laws and my teenage twin sons. Each of them suffer in their own way." Read the full text of his Facebook post here: For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 16:30 [IST] Ahead of Xi-Biden summit, China asks the US to stop supporting 'Taiwan independence' As new envoy to China, Pradeep Rawat has his hands full India, China must work together to offset impact of US' approach on trade, says Chinese Embassy India oi-PTI New Delhi, Oct 10: India and China need to deepen cooperation to fight trade protectionism in the wake of the unilateral approach being adopted by the US on trade-related disputes, the Chinese Embassy said on Wednesday. It said practising unilateral trade protectionism in the name of "national security" and "fair trade" will not only affect China's economic development, but also undermine the external environment of India and hinder India's booming economy. "As the two largest developing countries and major emerging markets, China and India are both in the vital stage of deepening reform and developing economy, and both need stable external environment," said Counselor Ji Rong, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India. How S-400 Triumph will help India repulse air attacks by China, Pakistan He was replying to media queries relating to trade friction between China and the US. Last month, US President Donald Trump imposed USD 200 billion tariff on Chinese imports. China retaliated by imposing tariffs on about USD 60 billion of US imports. Washington threatened to impose additional tariffs of over USD 260 billion on Chinese imports if China retaliates again. "Under the current circumstances, China and India need to deepen their cooperation to fight trade protectionism," Ji said. Oil from Iran and these defense procurements a necessity for India He said China and India share common interests in defending the multilateral trading system and free trade and referred to comments by President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to safeguard the multilateral trading system and free trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Facing unilateralism and bullying activities, China and India have more reasons to join efforts to build a more just and reasonable international order," Ji said. The Chinese Embassy spokesperson also said the US should reflect on its own practice of interfering in the internal affairs of developing countries such as China and India under the pretext of human rights and religious matters. "The so-called 'militarisation' of South China Sea by China is distorting of facts. The US should stop making troubles and creating tensions, and respect the efforts of relevant parties to resolve problems through negotiation and consultation," Ji said. Referring to the Indo-Pacific region, the spokesperson said China was firmly against attempts to use the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter China. At the same time, Ji said, Beijing was open to all initiatives that will help regional development and cooperation. "The allegation that China has put some developing countries into 'debt trap' is nothing but an attempt to sow discord," Ji said. He said China's economic cooperation with other developing countries is to ensure win-win situation and common development. "China is open to all initiatives that will help regional development and cooperation. What we are firmly against is attempts to use the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter China. He said China was looking forward to the US taking concrete steps to become a trusted partner of the developing countries. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 15:57 [IST] India-Russia may work together on resource rich Northern Sea Route India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Oct 10: India and Russia signing a deal on S-400 Triumf air defence system has been a significant move in the direction of beefing up security measures by India looking at the threat perception that the country faces but Russian President's offer of welcoming India in the resource rich Northern Sea Route in the Arctic Ocean could prove to be a game changer of the short for Russia and a big leap in terms of growth for India. The joint statement issued by both the country says, both the sides expressed their interest in the development of mutually beneficial cooperation in the Arctic inter alia in the sphere of joint scientific research. They noted with satisfaction the longstanding cooperation of Indian and Russian scientists in the Antarctic. Russian President Vladimir Putin said, "We welcome our Indian partners to join the work in the Arctic. This is a very promising, long-term and very serious project that appears decades ahead, one with good investment and good return. Since climate continues to change... the Northern Sea Route offers growing opportunities." Indrani Talukdar, an expert on strategic issues told Oneindia, "The offer made by Russian President is not only significant in terms of energy security and enhancing trade volume for a country like India that is taking big strides in the development path but it is also important to note that it shows Russian confidence in its long standing strategic partner India. It is notable that all this is happening despite the fact that China and many other players are vying their role in the region." "There is a need to understand that the Arctic policy of Russia enhances the global role of India. It is just not only energy security but new scientific research as well. Russia is offering India to use Northern Sea Route for additional supplies of natural gas and joint development of gas fields to meet India's growing energy requirements as Russia holds significant part of resource-rich Arctic region," said Talukdar. [Why China is not worried with India-Russia S-400 deal] This region remains completely unexploited and at the moment it generates just one tenth of the world's oil and one fourth of its natural gas while the Arctic region under Russian sphere is source for about 80 per cent of oil and natural gas. The region also holds abundant deposits of nickel, copper, coal, gold, uranium, tungsten, and diamonds. Russia is a reliable energy supplier for India and joint projects in the field of supplies of LNG are of strategic importance. Russia is already supplying LNG to India. India is making its footprints in Russian oil field through acquisition and the Northern Sea Route is the main sea route in the Russian Arctic. Indrani Talukdar further said, "The Northern Sea Rout, which is more that 14000-kilometre long, is not importance in terms of providing energy security, business but also strategy and enhancing militarily strength. So Russia is offering India to join the country there." Both the countries also expressed support to companies for development of cooperation and exploring opportunities for joint development of oil NSE 2.21 per cent fields in Russian territory, including on the Arctic shelf, and projects on the shelf of the Pechora and Okhotsk Seas. Former foreign secretary Shashank too was of the view that these are the area where both the countries might get mutually benefited. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 20:17 [IST] AP EAPCET Round 1 seat allotment delayed again: New date to be announced soon Inquiry ordered over segregation of Hindu and Muslim students in Delhi school India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Oct 10: After it emerged that a municipality school in Delhi's Wazirabad segregated Hindu and Muslim students in different sections, an inquiry has been ordered and the MCD School in charge was suspended. Delhi Government has ordered an inquiry into the matter and sought a report by October 12, reported news agency ANI. "Have sought a report on this issue, anyone found guilty will be punished. This is an unfortunate incident, MCD does not discriminate on basis of religion, all are equal," North MCD Mayor Adesh Gupta told ANI. A group of teachers employed by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has alleged that a primary school in Wazirabad is deliberately segregating Hindu and Muslim students in different sections, reported The Indian Express. The disturbing development, say some teachers, has come about after CB Singh Sehrawat was put in charge soon after the principal was transferred on July 2. Sehrawat though has denied any deliberate attempt at segregating the students on the basis of religion, said the report. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 21:19 [IST] J&K local by poll: BJP candidate dies of heart attack before casting vote India oi-PTI Banihal/Jammu, Oct 10: A BJP candidate died of heart attack Wednesday when he was about to cast his vote in the second phase of the municipal elections in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. Azad Singh Raju, 62, a former employee of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department, died at a local polling station before casting his vote, they said. He was rushed to a hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Raju was among 24 candidates in the fray for the seven municipal bodies of Ramban district. The second phase of the polling is in progress at 263 municipal wards spread across Jammu and Kashmir, including 214 wards, in six districts of Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua in Jammu region. The polling started at 6 am and will end at 4 pm. During the first two hours of the polling, the officials said Kathua district is leading the voter turnout chart with 17.2 per cent of 54,622 electorates exercising their democratic right. J&K Civic Polls: Voting begins for phase 2, Kathua records 39.4 per cent voting It is followed by Reasi district which recorded a voter turnout of 16.6 per cent (10204 voters) followed by Kishtwar (15.3 per cent of 8830 voters), Doda (12.6 per cent of 13396 voters), Ramban (12.4 per cent of 5533 voters) and Udhampur (10.3 per cent of 35519 voters) till 8 am, the officials said. Authorities have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure peaceful polling which will seal the fate of 1,029 candidates. A total of 544 polling stations, including 274 in Jammu and 270 in Kashmir, have been set up and are being guarded by police and paramilitary forces. Naxal funding: NIA raids lead to seizure of Singapore dollars and Indian currency worth Re 1 crore "The polling in Jammu region is going on smoothly and there was no untoward poll-related violence reported from anywhere," the officials said. The first phase of the polling was held on October 8 after a gap of 13 years and registered a voter turnout of 56.6 per cent. The third phase of the polling is scheduled for October 13 followed by fourth and final phase on October 16. The counting of votes will be held on October 20. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 14:18 [IST] Me too movement: MoS MJ Akbar, accused of sexual harassment, must resign, says Congress India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Oct 10: The Congress has demanded the resignation of junior foreign minister MJ Akbar, who has been accused of sexual harassment, when he was an editor. Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Jaipal Reddy said Akbar must either offer a satisfactory explanation or resign forthwith. "Union minister MJ Akbar should either give a satisfactory answer to the allegations or he should resign. We demand an inquiry into the matter," Congress lawmaker, Jaipal Reddy said. Minister MJ Akbar named in #MeToo, Sushma Swaraj ducks questions In 2017, Priya Ramani, a journalist, had written a piece in Vogue, recalling the horrific incident that took place in 1997. Narrating her ordeal in the article titled "To the Harvey Weinstein of the world", Ramani wrote about the sexual misconduct she faced during a job interview with a famed journalist who had "transformed Indian journalism." Further, she claimed "lots of women have worse stories about this predator - maybe they'll share." More women journalists subsequently came forward, claiming that Akbar "drank Vodka" during their "job interviews" and also asked them to "sit close" to him. Government not to respond in MJ Akbar's case; will wait for him to clarify in individual capacity A senior journalist, said on Twitter, "The whole experience of an interview sitting on a bed in a hotel room followed by an invitation to come over for a drink that evening, was rattling and deeply uncomfortable." Another journalist claimed Akbar called her to his hotel room to 'discuss work' after she had finished with sending off her edition to press at midnight. She alleged that he "made life at work hell" for her when she refused. MHA orders compilation of fresh information on Rohingya in a set format India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Oct 10: India deported seven Rohingya infiltrators to Myanmar around a week ago, however, identifying them has been a big issue as they are allegedly getting Indian identity documents made with the help of local touts. So Union ministry for home affairs (MHA) has issued a fresh order to every state of the country to prepare a comprehensive information about Rohignya Muslims living in different states of the country. To avoid any confusion on the issue, the MHA has issued a proper format in this regard for verification of Rohingyas in each state. The ministry sources informed that this format seeks detailed information about Rohingyas so there should not remain any confusion about them. As per the format their name, surname, father's name, occupation, mother's name and occupation, education detail, name of school, college, university, occupation before leaving Myanmar is sought. The format also seeks name and address of the employer with whom the Rohingya worked in Myanmar. [Deporting Rohingyas and the impact of Supreme Court's latest verdict] The Union ministry has also sought information through the format that details about Rohinya's physical features, height, colour of eyes, colour of hair, distinguishing marks, any visible distinct feature, name, address and telephone number of agent who had helped him reach India and also whether he arrived India through authorized route or unauthorized route. The ministry also seeks details information of their native town or village and two important personalities at his native place. So all the states are expected to comply with the MHA's order as soon as possible. [Rohingyas living near Army installations: IB, MI say concern level is extreme] As per various agencies, there are around 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in India after fleeing from Myanmar due to the ethnic violence in their country. Most of them are living in India illegally without having any proper document. India has termed them as illegal immigrants, who are a burden on country's already hard-pressed resources and top of that a security threat for India. The government has categorically sought to deport all Rohingyas. Legally speaking, an illegal immigrant can be (i) a foreign national who enters India on valid travel documents and stays beyond their validity, or (ii) a foreign national who enters without valid travel documents. India is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention and 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, and it does not currently have a national law on refugees. The government had circulated a Standard Operating Procedure in 2011 to all states and Union Territories to deal with foreign nationals who claimed to be refugees. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 22:25 [IST] National Postal Day 2018: Significance, How India's PIN code system works? India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Oct 10: National Postal Day is celebrated on October 10 every year to commemorate the role played by the Indian postal department in over 150 years. Indian postal celebration is an extension of World Post Day. In this world of e-mails and online messaging, writing letters has become something which we rarely do. But, some 2 decades back, writing letters was an important form of communication. Since phones were also not as common as they are now, writing letters to each other used to be the main way to keep in touch. World Post Day is celebrated each year on 9 October, the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 in the Swiss Capital, Bern. It was declared World Post Day by the UPU Congress held in Tokyo, Japan in 1969. Since then, countries across the world participate annually in the celebrations. The Posts in many countries use the event to introduce or promote new postal products and services. The purpose of World Post Day is to bring awareness to the Post's role in the everyday lives of people and businesses, as well as its contribution to global social and economic development. Understanding India's PIN Code system: The word PIN in pincode stands for Postal Index Number. The pincode system was introduced on August 15, 1972, by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar, an additional secretary in the Union Ministry of Communications. It is also known as area postal code or zip code and is six digits long. The aim of the system was to make manual sorting and delivery of letters easy by avoiding confusion over an incorrect address and similar names of areas. The first digit of the PIN code is for the region. For example, 1-2 stand for North, 3-4 are for West, 5-6 are for South India, 7-8 are for East India while 9 is for Army Postal service. Second digit is for sub-region. Like 11 is for Delhi, 12-13 are for Haryana, 14-16 are Punjab so on and so forth. The third digit is for the district. Last three digits donate the post office under which a particular address falls. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 5:05 [IST] Naxal funding: NIA raids lead to seizure of Singapore dollars and Indian currency worth Re 1 crore India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Ranchi, Oct 10: In a bid to crackdown on funding for the naxalites, the National Investigation Agency conducted raids at 15 different locations. Raids were conducted at Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and Durgapur in West Bengal. The case on hand relates to a naxal funding case and during the raids cash to the tune of Rs 1 crore was recovered. Cash was recovered both in Indian and Singapore currency, NIA officials said. NIA to probe into the recovery of 20 AK-47 from a well in Bihar's Munger An NIA statement read, "on 09.10.2018, NIA conducted searches at 15 locations in Jharkhand and West Bengal in connection with LWE Terror funding case. Fifteen teams of NIA assisted by Jharkhand police carried out searches at the residences and offices of managers of different companies associated with purchase and transport of coal in Amrapali and Magadh coalfields for their alleged role in providing funds to (banned) LWE organisation TPC (Tritiya Prastuti Committee)." The material seized related to the payments made to the Amrapali and Magadh Area Committee of TPC. The NIA during the raids seized incriminating material, which included documents related to payments made to Amrapali and Magadh Area Committee of TPC, bank account details and fixed deposits, deduction of levy amount, computers, hard discs, mobiles containing accounts of companies, diaries containing entries of money paid to TPC and PLFI (Peoples Liberation Front of India), cash worth Rs 68 lacs besides 10,000 Singapore dollars and $1300 along with Rs 86,000 demonetised currency notes. NIA files first chargesheet in Manipur missing arms case The case was first registered by the Jharkhand police on January 11 2016. The police accused the naxalites of indulging in extortion, collection of levy and money laundering in the states of Jharkhand and Bihar. After the NIA took over the probe, it found that the naxalites were collecting money from small business houses, contractors and traders who would undertake government related work such as laying of roads, railway tracks etc. Further it was also found that money had been sought from coal and steel producers as well. The naxalites would also threaten villagers into parting with ration and other daily needs. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 9:54 [IST] Nepal likely to go to the path of protest and blockade once again! India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Oct 10: After a long lull, political crisis in Nepal, the neighbouring country of India, has once again the chances of getting erupted with the main Madhesh political party in the country Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) - Nepal giving ultimatum to Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to withdraw its support if amendment in the constitutions as per its demands are not met with. The RJP-N has given the government time till Vijaydashmi by saying that support from the government will be withdrawn if amendment in the constitution are not made. There are long pending demands of Madheshis with the government who accused that Madheshis have not been given equal rights in the new constitution of Nepal. They have been demanding amendment in the constitution like change in provision in citizenship certificate, more power to provincial governments, withdrawal of cases against workers of the party and release of RJP-N Member of Parliament Resham Choudhary. Lucknow: Abducted 65-year-old jeweller found in Nepal under police custody Sanjeev Rai, Adjunct Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), who is also an expert on international conflict zones, told Oneindia, "Actually the situation in Nepal is not very leisurely. There is a catch 22 kind of situation in Nepal for the political leadership as a whole and Madheshi leadership in particular because they cannot take the blame of not being forthcoming in the development process of Nepal along with the rest of the leadership of the country and also in the best interest of the country but at the same time they want to keep their Madheshi support base intact. So sometime they would be by the side of the government and sometimes they will keep raising the issue of Madhesies." Meanwhile, the RJP-N handed over a memorandum to the Prime Minister of Nepal to fulfill the demands made by the party. Besides that all district convenors of the party have handed over memorandum to chief district officer which has demands like constitutional amendment, release of Resham Choudhary, release of other party workers and withdrawal of cases against them. The RJP-N is saying that this is the last warning to the government and the government has the time till Vijaydashmi. Once the deadline is over, the Madheshi organisations will start their movement once again. But people involved with the policy matters look at it differently. "There is a policy dilemma on part of the government of India as India has very close relations with the Madhes community but power lies with people belonging to hill areas. So there is a perpetual confusion on part of the Indian government what to do and how to handle the issue. Moreover the Indian government cannot handle the issue with toughness. It needs soft approach else they will go to China which would really be a big concern fort the government," Durga Nand Jha, Executive Chairman, Centre for Policy Analysis, told Oneindia. Modi in Nepal again in December: Hindutva, strategic reasons on agenda Madheshi political parties that claim to represent the interest of people belonging to Tarai region are mostly of India origin. They say that after the new constitution of Nepal was adopted and state was divided into seven provinces, people belonging to Madhesi community were at the receiving end and the situation remains more or less the same for the community. This has angered the RJP-N and they have threatened the government to withdraw the support. Rai further said, "Such contradiction are likely to continue as aspirations of people are high and the country is underdeveloped with limited resources. Some people have not yet come out of the mindset of the Monarchy. Such contradictions will continue for some more time till the growth of the country is streamlined but for that leaders will have to act wisely." For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 13:00 [IST] NIA takes over probe into Hizbuls Assam module India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Oct 10: The National Investigation Agency has taken over the probe relating the Assam Hizbul Mujahideen module. It may be recalled that an Assam based operative of the outfit was arrested in Uttar Pradesh recently. It may be recalled that the UP police had arrested Qamar-uz-Zaman alias Kamruddin in Kanpur and seven of his associates in Assam. Kashmiri student who went missing joins Hizbul Looking at the ramifications and magnitude of the case, the probe was handed over to the NIA. On October 2, the Union Home Ministry had written to the UP police that the case had been transferred to the NIA. The NIA then collected documents related with the case from the police. Hizbul's overground module in Kashmir busted A native of Nagaon district in Assam, Kamruddin was arrested from Kanpur district on September 13. Later, Assam Police arrested seven of his associates. Investigations showed that he was planning an attack on a temple. He was also accused of trying set up a module of the Hizbul Mujahideen in Assam. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 14:32 [IST] Rafale: Govt upset with CBI director meeting Arun Shourie, Prashant Bhushan India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Oct 10: The government is understood to be unhappy with CBI Director Alok Verma meeting former Union minister Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan who demanded a probe into the alleged corruption in the Rafale aircraft deal, with a senior government functionary saying it is "rare" for the agency chief to meet politicians. Last week, Shourie and Bhushan had met the CBI Director, submitted documents and demanded a probe into alleged corruption in the Rafale aircraft deal and offset contract. "This was perhaps for the first time that politicians have met the CBI Director in his office. SC to hear petition against Rafale deal on October 10 Such a meeting is rare," the functionary said, indicating that the government has not taken the meeting kindly. Buttressing his point, the functionary quoted by PTI, claimed, in normal circumstances, when a politician seeks appointment with the CBI chief, he or she is advised to submit complaints or any other documents at the reception of the agency headquarters. The functionary, without elaborating, also said some government officials have gone "rogue" and they have engaged in bitter fight among themselves and if such quarrel continues, the organisations concerned will suffer. The CBI Director, who is scheduled to remain in office till January next year, is engaged in a bitter fight with Special Director of the agency Rakesh Asthana and both sides have been levelling allegation against each other in public, a trend which is unheard-of in the history of 77 years of the organisation. Rahul Gandhi calls Anil Ambani PM's 'BFF' in new dig over Rafale deal In their meeting, Shourie, a vocal critic of the Modi government, and Bhushan, a former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, had asked the CBI Director to take the government's permission to initiate a probe in accordance with the law, alleging that the offset contract for Rafale aircraft was actually a commission to an Anil Ambani-led Reliance group subsidiary. French company Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale, had chosen Reliance Defence as its partner to fulfil offset obligations of the deal. Rejecting allegations of corruption, the government has been maintaining it did not have any role in selection of the offset partner by Dassault. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 6:06 [IST] Stubble burning contribute only 4-10%, not the main cause of Delhi pollution, Centre tells SC Rafale: SC wants details on decision making, wont go into suitability of aircraft India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Oct 10: The Supreme Court has sought details on the decision making process that resulted in the award of the Rafale Deal. A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi said they are not on the suitability of the Rafale jets, but only on the decision making process. It further said that the information in this regard would be submitted in a sealed cover. However the court has not issued notice to the Union Government. Rahul Gandhi calls Anil Ambani PM's 'BFF' in new dig over Rafale deal The Bench said that it has not taken into account the allegations in the petitions. The court also said that the issue of pricing and suitability of the aircraft will not be covered in detail by it. The court is hearing a fresh PIL against the Rafale deal between India and France . The petition sought information about the contract given to Reliance by Dassault. Advocate M L Sharma's plea, filed earlier, alleging discrepancies in the fighter jet deal with France and seeking a stay on it will also come up for hearing on October 10. Maharashtra BJP MLA quits, cites 'corruption' in Rafale deal as reason Sharma claimed in his plea that the inter-government agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an "outcome of corruption" and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 (Parliament has power to make any law for implementing any inter-government agreement) of the Constitution. A similar plea was filed in the Supreme Court in March this year seeking an independent probe into the Rafale deal and disclosure of the cost involved in the deal before Parliament. The plea, filed by Congress leader Tehseen S Poonawalla, had sought a direction against the Centre on why the Union Cabinet's approval was not sought as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) before signing the procurement deal with France on September 23, 2016. However the plea was withdrawn today. Rafale and S-400, a booster dose for IAF, says Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa Rafale deal is a defence agreement signed between the governments of India and France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts in a fly-away condition as a part of the upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment. The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. Indian Air Force had advanced a proposal to buy 126 fighter aircraft in August 2007 and floated a tender. Following this, an invitation was sent to various aviation companies to participate in the bidding process. Rahul Gandhi to meet HAL staff in Bengaluru on Oct 13 India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Bengaluru, Oct 10: Congress President Rahul Gandhi to meet Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) staff in Bengaluru on Saturday (October 13) . His visit to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited comes in the wake of bitter war of words over politically contentious Rafale jet deal . It may be recalled that Rahul Gandhi said he understands the pain of jawans, Air Force officers, the families of martyred pilots as well as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited workers and will work to bring to justice all those who dishonoured and stole from them. Rafale: SC wants details on decision making, won't go into suitability of aircraft Also, he termed the Government's flagship Skill India campaign "S-Kill India" and alleged Rs 30,000 crore was "stolen" from HAL in the Rafale deal and given to a man with "no skills" to make an aircraft. "PM'S-KILL India Program," Gandhi tweeted, taking a dig at the Government's flagship Skill India campaign. "Rs 30,000 crore stolen from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and given to a man with no SKILLS in making aircraft. Rafale: Govt upset with CBI director meeting Arun Shourie, Prashant Bhushan Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It is governed under the management of the Indian Ministry of Defence. The government-owned corporation is primarily involved in the operations of the aerospace and is currently involved in the design, fabrication and assembly of aircraft, jet engines, helicopters and their spare parts. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 14:23 [IST] Rahul steps up attack on govt over Rafale India pti-PTI Jaipur, Oct 10: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his party will not make false promises but deliver on whatever it tells voters, even as he continued to slam Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale fighter deal. At a public meeting in Bikaner, Gandhi targeted Modi over corruption in the deal signed with France for the fighter aircraft, repeating the charge that Anil Ambani's Reliance group benefited from a related offset contract. He had levelled similar charges - denied earlier by the government and the Reliance Group - at the meetings he addressed Tuesday in the states Dholpur, Bharatpur and Dausa districts. At the 'Maha Sankalp Rally' on the Medical College grounds in Bikaner, he said Modi brought benefits for 15-20 top industrialists instead of the farmers. He said Congress will not make false promises to the voters. [Rafale: SC wants details on decision making, won't go into suitability of aircraft] The party and its leaders will not make promises like depositing Rs 15 lakh in everyones bank account and providing two crore jobs every year. Our chief minister and leaders will not deliver hollow speeches and tell lies, he said. But we will deliver on whatever we say from the stage," the Congress chief said. Assembly polls in the state are on December 7. The Congress chief referred to the migrant workers in Gujarat, saying youths from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were being attacked in the state and forced to leave. His rally in Bikaner targeted voters in 24 assembly constituencies spread over the districts of Bikaner, Hanumangarh, Sriganganagar and Churu. Farmers and party workers in large number from the districts attended the meeting. Gandhi claimed Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) was ignored in the Rafale deal while an "industrialist friend" of the prime minister benefitted. He reiterated the partys claim that the agreement with France for 36 aircraft was finalised at higher price compared to what was negotiated by the previous Congress-led government. ['Rafale' vs 'Bofors': Can the two defence deals be compared?] Gandhi accused to the BJP government at the Centre of failing to provide relief to debt-ridden farmers while wreaking havoc on the economy with demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He accused the prime minister of insulting people by belittling what the country had achieved in the last 70 years, with the efforts of your parents and grandparents. He says everything happened only after he came to power. How arrogant is this person," Gandhi said. He slammed the Centre's economic and agricultural policies, claiming not a single rupee of farmers loans was waived by the Modi government while bad loans were being written off. PTI S-400 deal a setback for US efforts to isolate Russia: Stephen Tankel India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Oct 10: India and Russia recently inked the 5 billion US dollar deal to procure Moscow's most advance air defence system, the S-400 Triumf. The meeting between Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Russian President, Vladimir Putin was a closely watched one in the backdrop of the United States threatening to impose sanctions against those nations buying Russian equipment. 'Acquisition of 36 Rafale aircraft, S-400 missiles will enhance the power of Air Force' The visit by Putin has reinforced Indo-Russia ties says Stephen Tankel, an assistant professor at American University and was a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment in the South Asia Program. Tankel tells OneIndia that the visit and especially the agreement on the S-400 missile deal, reinforced India-Russia ties amid New Delhi's growing strategic relationship with the United States. The deal is real, but expected, setback for US efforts to isolate Russia. It also comes amid heightened US-India tensions over trade, which, like the threatened sanctions, are another self-inflicted wound by the Trump administration, Tankel also said. He further added that the sanctions only come into place once India pays for Russian arms, which means there is time for Washington and New Delhi to find some sort of face-saving way forward. Deputy Director of the Asia Programme and South Asia senior associate, The Wilson Centre, Michael Kugelman tells OneIndia that the visit by Putin is not a game changer, but marks an important milestone. The deals that emerged from the summit will cement and amplify the continued strength of the India-Russia relations even as the US-India relations continues to grow as the US-Russia relationship continues to plummet. Washington understands that New Delhi is a longstanding friend of Moscow's and that there will naturally be plenty of high-level exchanges between the two. However, the headliner deal from the visit, the S400 package, will pose a big test for US-India relations. If Washington shrugs off the deal and just lets it go, and doesn't punish New Delhi, then that will be an indication that the US is willing to make exceptions for its best friends, he says. How S-400 Triumph will help India repulse air attacks by China, Pakistan But if Washington vows to sanction New Delhi, then the US commitment to US-India partnership and its genuine willingness to take this partnership to a new level could understandably come into question in New Delhi, Kugelam adds. Given the importance that the US places in US-India ties, I can't imagine that the White House, despite its unpredictability and volatility, would take the drastic step of punishing India. A waiver could be in the offing, Kugelam says. He further adds that the S400 deal won't go down well at all in Islamabad or Beijing. For India's two main rivals, this is an indication of New Delhi's ability to substantively strength its defense capacities. That said, at the end of the day, Beijing won't be overly bothered, given that its military capacities are considerably superior to India's. However, for Islamabad, which knows full well that it can't come close to matching India's defense capacities, the concern will be deeper. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 6:16 [IST] Soft Hindutva plank continues, Rahul to visit Pitambara temple on October 15 in Datia India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Oct 10: With Assembly elections announced in five states, the Congress is going to continue with its soft Hindutva plank to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In one such move, Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Goddess Pitambara temple at Datia district in Madhya Pradesh during Navratra celebrations. Rahul will visit the temple on October 15. The temple belongs to Goddess Bagalamukhi which is also known as Pitambara Peeth. This temple is one of the most auspicious temples of the country and is known for tantric practices. Rites and rituals conducted here are for the success and achievement of people. Rahul Gandhi will offers not only prayers in the temple but also participate in an Yajna however the party sources refused to divulge any detail if any special ritual is planned for the Congress president. Rahul Gandhi blames GST and mass unemployment for violent attacks on migrant workers in Gujarat Just to offer his prayers in this temple, this will be the second visit of Rahul Gandhi in the Gwalior region in past eight day's time. Gandhi was in Gwalior that is close Datia on last Saturday. Now he is going there for two days as after performing puja at the Dalia temple, he will join road shows organised in Gwalior and Chambal regions of Madhya Pradesh. Sources said that there are certain set rules and traditions that everyone is suppose to follow at Datia temple while entering at specific places of the temple so that has been very specifically and emphatically told to people looking after the programme of Rahul Gandhi. This included visiting the area where people meditate. This is the place where devotees sit to meditate (sadhana) if Rahul has to go there he will have to wear dhoti instead of kurta and payjama or his signature style jeans with kurta. This has been reminded to the Congress people because it was brought to the notice by some of the devotees and practitioners of meditation at this tantric temple that Rahul Gandhi did not follow the set tradition while visiting many other temples. Questions were raised on the timing of the Narmada Arti performed by Rahul Gandhi on October 6 in Madhya Pradesh because it was performed before the evening. 2019 LS polls may see a grand alliance minus the Congress Pitambara Temple in which Rahul Gandhi is going to perform puja has the long association of the Scindia family. Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje is still chief of the temple trust. Interestingly wherever Rahul Gandhi is going there is a plan to visit at least one religious place. State unit of the Congress has been asked that they must provide detailed information about Rahul Gandhi's visit to famous religious places. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 9:48 [IST] AP EAPCET Round 1 seat allotment delayed again: New date to be announced soon Tushar Mehta appointed Solicitor General of India India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P New Delhi, Oct 10: Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has been appointed Solicitor General of India by Central Government. The post was vacant since October 20, 2017 after the resignation of Ranjit Kumar. Ranjit Kumar had resigned citing personal reasons. After Ranjit Kumar's resignation, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta came to the centre stage of the government's legal battles in the SC. Tushar Mehta was earlier Gujarat Advocate General. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Senior Advocate Tushar Mehta as Solicitor General of India with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the office for a period till June 30, 2020, or until further orders. 'Titli' turns into very severe cyclonic storm, to make landfall tomorrow India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Bhubaneswar, Oct 10:Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held a high-level meeting over Cyclone 'Titli' in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. CM has asked collectors of Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Kendrapara and Jagtsinghpur districts to go for an immediate evacuation. District administration of Ganjam has begun the process of evacuation in Gopalpur area where the cyclone is likely to make a landfall at 5.30 am tomorrow (Oct 11). So far, 1,000 people have been shifted to a safer place. Meteorological Center Bhubaneswar has issued heavy rainfall warning for next three days in the state of Odisha in the light of cyclonic storm Titli. India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that severe Cyclonic Storm Titli has formed over west-central Bay of Bengal. Cyclone Warning for districts of north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coasts: Red Message. Very Severe Cyclonic Storm, 'LUBAN' over westcentral Arabian Sea. The Cyclonic Storm 'TITLI' over west-central Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards with a speed of about 10 kmph during past 06 hours, intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and lay cantered at 0530 hrs IST of today, the 10th October 2018 over West-central Bay of Bengal near latitude 16.0N and longitude 85.8E, about 370 km south-southeast of Gopalpur (Odisha) and 310 km southeast of Kalingapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). Cyclone Titli intensifies, moves towards Odisha coast It is very likely to intensify further into a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm during next 18 hours. It is very likely to move north-northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coasts between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam around the morning of 11th October. Thereafter, it is very likely to re-curve northeastwards, move towards Gangetic West Bengal across Odisha and weaken gradually. Zika outbreak in Rajasthan: All you need to know about this deadly virus India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Oct 10: Rajasthan is witnessing the worst outbreak of Zika virus in India with 29 people already been tested positive for it. The Health Ministry has swung into action and taking steps to contain the outbreak. Health Minister JP Nadda on Tuesday appealed to people not to panic. The first Zika virus outbreak occurred in Ahmedabad in January and February 2017 and second outbreak in July 2017 from Krishnagiri District in Tamil Nadu. So, this is the third outbreak of Zika in India. Bihar is also on high alert because one of the persons found to be infected with Zika virus hailed from Bihar and he had visited his home recently. What is Zika Virus? Zika virus is similar to dengue fever, yellow fever and West Nile virus. Carried by infected Aedes aegypti mosquitos, Zika is largely transmitted through bites, but can also occur through intrauterine infection. If a woman is bitten by an infected mosquito and becomes infected, Zika can cross into the placenta and affect the fetus. While anyone can contract Zika, pregnant women are the most at risk due to the potential for fetal microcephaly and other neurologic abnormalities. Sexual transmission of this virus can occur. The transmission has been reported from infected men and women to their sexual partners. The virus can be transmitted through anal, oral or vaginal sex. Zika can lead to birth defects: Although Zika was first identified in 1947, the virus wasn't considered a major health threat until a major outbreak in Brazil a few years back revealed that Zika can lead to severe birth defects when pregnant women are infected. It has been associated with a birth defect called microcephaly that causes brain damage and an abnormally small head in babies born to mothers infected during pregnancy. [29 test positive for Zika in Jaipur, Central team to visit Rajasthan today; Bihar on alert] Currently, there is no cure or treatment for the virus, which has been linked to serious neurological problems in infants whose mothers were exposed in early pregnancy. For much of 2016, Zika was considered a public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Symptoms: Fever: Just like malaria and dengue, which are caused by aedes mosquitoes, zika also results in fever. In most cases, it is manifested as high fever (102 degree F) that could last for two to seven days. Headache: As the zika virus is transmitted through blood, it can lead to severe headache which usually lasts for more than three days. Red eyes: In some cases, the disease can manifest as conjunctivitis or red eyes. So if you experience this symptom that fails to subside within a day or two, consult your doctor. Skin rash: One of the classic symptoms of dengue, skin rash is also a sign of zika viral disease. It usually develops after two-three days of infection and also leads to pale skin. Fatigue: If you are feeling fatigued, coupled with high fever and see no improvement even after three days, it could indicate zika fever. Rather than ignoring, it's wise to consult a doctor immediately. Muscle/joint pain: Also known as arthalgia, muscle and joint pain might signify zika infection. It mainly affects the muscles and joints of the legs and arms, especially the thigh and elbow region. Former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia sentenced to 7 years in jail in corruption case 2004 grenade attack case: Former PM Khaleda Zias son gets life sentence International oi-Deepika S Dhaka, Oct 10: A special court in Dhaka sentenced a former minister to death on Wednesday in connection with a grenade attack in 2004. The court also handed a life sentence to Tarique Rahman, the son of Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. The attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 targeted Hasina, who was the opposition leader at that time . Hasina survived the attack with a partial hearing loss. Security was tightened in the capital as the accused were brought to the court. Rahman, 50, was tried in absentia with the court declaring him a "fugitive". He now lives in London where he is believed to have sought asylum though the British authorities have declined to reveal his immigration status. Police nabs 16 illegal Bangladesh immigrants in Mathura Judge Shahed Nuruddin of Dhaka's fast track Tribunal pronounced the judgment ordering Rahman to be sent to prison for life along with 18 others. Former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar is among 19 people who were sentenced to death. Rahman, two former ministers including Babar and former top police and intelligence officials of the then BNP-led four-party alliance government were among 49 accused in the cases. The judge made 12-point observations on the background, motive and consequences of the attack. Investigations found an influential quarter of the then BNP-led government, including Rahman, masterminded and sponsored the attackers -- the operatives of militant Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI). Bangladesh-India-Nepal: Fake currency route busted, four convicted Investigators said Hasina was the main target of the attack. Hasina was injured in the attack while party's women front chief and former president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman were among the dead. Zia, who is now serving a five-year imprisonment in a graft case, was not made an accused in the case. Asim Munir is new ISI chief and why India expects nothing from him International oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Oct 10: Lt. General Asim Munir has been appointed as the new Director General of chief of the Pakistan's spy agency, ISI. He took over from Lt. Gen Naveed Mukthar, who retired on October 1. He was among the six major generals who were promoted to the rank of lieutenant general on September 28. For the top job, he was handpicked by the Pakistan Army. Munir was previously the DG, military intelligence and is known to share a very good rapport with the army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Big breach at BrahMos missile unit: Agent passing on information to Pak-US arrested The fact that the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan did not play any role in the appointment goes on to show Munir's proximity to the army. In the past, the army hands over three names to the PM and it is he who makes a choice. However this time around, Khan was given just one name and all he had to do was formally approve it. Munir takes over at a crucial time, when tensions with India are at an all time high. Indian officials say that they do not expect any change in strategy by Pakistan, with the new ISI chief in place. He is expected to continue from where Mukhtar left off. Among the key issues on his plate would be the Kashmir issue, where Pakistan has taken an aggressive stance. He also takes over at a time when India has made it clear that it wants peace, but not at the cost of self-respect. India is also planning several measures to take down terrorists both within and across the border. Subramanian Swamy calls Imran Khan a 'chaprasi' and says Islamabad is run by terrorists Indian officials tell OneIndia that they do not expect any change in policy by the new chief. It is clear that he has been handpicked by the army chief of Pakistan, with whom he shares a good rapport. The fact that the army chief did not give a choice of three names to the PM shows that the military had made up its mind and decided to place its blue-eyed boy at the helm of affairs, the official said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 12:16 [IST] Nothing much was surprising about the hardware of the new Pixel phones. But as we touched on here , the more surprising elements are what is happening inside these smartphones. One of the features we like is Call Screen, which as its name suggests will screen calls for you before you decide if you want to answer. When you get a call, you'll be given the option to screen it. If this is activated, the phone will let the caller know it's talking to a machine and asks who's on the line and why they are calling. This will be transcribed in real time so you get to see who's calling and whether you will answer the call, end it, or report it as spam. Call Screen is first coming with the Pixel 3 but will later ship to older Pixel phones. Nikki Haley resigned but only after preparing her base for a 2024 launch International oi-Shubham Ghosh Washington, Oct 10: US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley resigned on Tuesday, October 9, and it was a sudden development which apparently left many stunned. The 46-year-old diplomat, who was born to an Indian-American Sikh family in the US, addressed a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump where both praised each other and Haley categorically mentioned that she is not going to run for the top office in 2020 and be a private citizen at the moment. Haley is perhaps the only member of the Trump Administration who is leaving it without any sour taste in mouth. Most or all officials who have 'perished' in the less-than-two-years of the current administration did not have a smooth exit but Haley is one who is departing with having a good relation with the president. Nikki Haley resigns as US Ambassador to the UN, Trump accepts resignation The script has gone to Haley's favour Her sudden exit though suggests that not everything was fine and because of which she quit but Haley certainly is the winner in the political game she was part of in the last two years. Whether or not the US has made a progress in its foreign affairs conduct, Nikki Haley has certainly made a launching pad for herself for the top job. Haley made use of the foreign affairs platform Even though she was often criticised for her role in the UN - especially when it came to condemning Iran and giving a free hand to Israel - two policies that the Trump Administration closely pursued - Haley ensured that she used the foreign affairs domain a good platform for her to launch herself as the future presidential candidate. In the past, Hillary Clinton had also made a ground for herself as the secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration although she was quite a polarising figure in America's domestic politics. Will never trust Russia or Putin: US envoy to UN Nikki Haley For Haley, running for the 2020 election makes little sense because Trump still has a support which even his critics in the Republican Party will find tough to beat. It is a better plan to wait for the 2024 contest when the Trump phenomenon will be all but over and the neo-con branch of the Republican Party can aspire to return to prominence. Haley, who kind of built her world image in the last two years, will be better placed than many others to lead the GOP then. Haley made a smooth departure which is also an exception in Trump administration Again, for Haley, to be able to make a retreat without igniting a single controversy is in itself a big feat. It is said that her clout had diminished over the last few months with the arrival of Mike Pompeo and John Bolton as the secretary of state and national security adviser. In April, Haley had found herself in an embarrassing position after she announced that the US would impose fresh sanctions on Russia in the coming months only to be betrayed by the White House. It was also said that she could have been "momentarily confused" to which Haley had strongly objected. Why did Reuters remove photo of Nikki Haley with the swastika? Haley had a good relation with Trump despite anti-Russian rhetorics But Haley survived these irritants and what is even more fantastic is that she managed to end up in Trump's good books despite taking a stand against Russia consistently which is not in alignment with the president's stand on the Kremlin. But Haley balanced it remarkably well by blasting Russia and at the same time, defending Trump's leadership vis-a-vis Moscow. Though some of Trump's far right supporters did not appreciate Haley's Russia remarks but what meant more was Haley's maintaining a rapport with the president and pitching the rhetoric in the right way. Nikki Haley has prepared her base perfectly over the last two years and will now work on a perfect launch. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 10:01 [IST] Russian envoy to UN saddened by Nikki Haleys resignation International oi-Shubham Ghosh United Nations, Oct 10: She might have been one of the most vociferous critics of Russia, sometimes even going to such an extreme with her attacks on Moscow that she found herself getting 'betrayed' by her own administration. Nikki Haley, the 29th US ambassador to the UN, suddenly resigned from her post on Tuesday, October 9, and her Russian counterpart expressed regret over the same. According to Russian news agency TASS, Russia's Permanent Representative to the world body Vasily Nebenzya on Tuesday said: "What we have heard today is her own decision. We must respect this decision. I am sorry she is stepping down because we have had working relations, despite all the gaps." Nikki Haley resigned but only after preparing her base for a 2024 launch Haley, who was picked for the plum post in November 2016, took oath in January last year, and will continue in office till the end of the current year. 'Haley's decision US's internal thing' Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that Haley's decision to quit as the US ambassador to the UN was something related to America's domestic affair. "We took notice of the US statement. It is their domestic affair," TASS quoted her as saying. Nikki Haley resigns as US Ambassador to the UN, Trump accepts resignation "After these resignations and appointments are executive, figuratively speaking, we will establish contacts with the United States' new representatives. And now we will continue to work with the existing ones," the 42-year-old leader said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 17:38 [IST] Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Pompeo, who met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently in Pyongyang to discuss a future summit, told reporters that the two countries are back on a path toward denuclearisation. Kim, Pompeo agree to 2nd US-North Korea summit 'at earliest date' North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path to where we'll achieve the ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearisation of North Korea," Pompeo told reporters at the White House after a lunch with President Donald Trump. US President Donald Trump Pompeo returned from an Asia trip Monday night, during which travelled to Japan, South Korea, North Korea and China. Pompeo's trip was intended to set the table for a second summit between Trump and Kim, who held an historic summit in Singapore on June 12. On Indian-American Nikki Haley resigning as the US Ambassador to the UN, Pompeo said she was his "great partner". Meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un in 'not-too-distant future' UN Ambassador Nikki Haley "I want to thank Amb Haley for the good work that she has done. She has been a great partner of mine for the five months that she and I have been working together," Pompeo said. "I want to wish her very well whatever comes next for her," Pompeo said. In a surprise move, Haley on Tuesday resigned as the US Ambassador to the United Nations, becoming the latest casualty in the dysfunctional Trump administration just weeks before the crucial mid-term elections. PTI AP EAPCET Round 1 seat allotment delayed again: New date to be announced soon Couple and daughter stabbed to death, son grievously injured by unidentified people New Delhi oi-Pushyarag Shetty Delhi, Oct 10: In a goresome incident, three members of a family were stabbed to death in Delhi's Vasant Kunj's Kishangarh. One member was injured in the incident, the Police reported on Wednesday (Oct 10) morning. The attackers stabbed 40-year-old Mithilesh, his wife Siya and children (Neha and Suraj) in their three-bedroom apartment in Kishangarh. While Mithilesh, Siya and Neha succumbed to their injuries, Suraj is battling for his life in the hospital, the police said. Fire engulfs garment factory in Mandawali, no injuries The Police are present at the spot as more details are awaited. Wednesday, October 10, 2018 at 8:06AM Getting medical prescriptions filled is now going to be easier than ever. Canadian patients across the country will soon be able to have their prescriptions filled securely via their mobile browser. Pillz, the brainchild of medical professional, Mohammad Taher, plans to eliminate the arduous wait times related to prescription pick-up and bills itself as the Ritual for pharmacies. After working in healthcare for six years, Taher saw an opportunity to address the challenges that come with filling and refilling prescriptions. He was particularly concerned about senior citizens and cancer patients with weak immune systems and could potentially be exposed to seasonal viruses while at the pharmacy. Seeing these patients struggle, inspired me to set out to find a solution that brings comfort and convenience to this process. said Taher, My team is proud to be able to provide the means to change for those who need it most. Users must register online at Pillz.ca with their OHIP and Benefits Plan. When order-ready, they quickly launch their favourite browser, snap a secure shot of their prescription and upload it directly to the Pillz database. They are then prompted to choose from the closest geographic pharmacies for pick-up. The order is accepted, filled and the patient is alerted to pick-up at their convenience. The web app is currently available for use in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. The Pillz web app is free to use at www.pillz.ca Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Could a shot of espresso get Pershing Square going again? Bill Ackman has taken a stake in Starbucks. Ackman is betting that Starbucks will eventually rebound following a few recent missteps and the departure of CEO Howard Schultz. Ackman announced the position during the Grant's Fall 2018 Conference in New York. Ackman is encouraged by Kevin Johnson, who took over from Howard Schultz as Starbucks CEO last year and says that he has the potential to fix Starbucks. In his presentation, Ackman highlighted Starbucks share buyback program as well as recent efforts to cut costs and get rid of extraneous business lines. Starbucks recent effort to cut stores in areas where they are already tightly clustered has also been positive. The presentation highlighted opportunities for the company to build up its presence in the midwest and south. Starbucks said in a statement that it looks forward to "maintaining a productive dialogue with Mr. Ackman as we do with all of our shareholders." Pershing Square has had a rough few years after a series of bad and often quixotic calls from Ackman. Recent positive bets have included companies like Nike where he took a passive stake. The firm's public fund and flagship private strategy are both up approximately 15% so far this year....................... To view our full article Click here Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index ended the month of September 2018 down -0.05%, trailing behind the MSCI AC World Index (Local) which gained 0.07% over the course of the month. According to the Eurekahedge October Index Flash Update, North American hedge fund managers broke their winning streak and slumped 0.16%, contrary to the positive performance exhibited by the S&P 500, which ended the third quarter with its best performance since Q4 2013. On a year-to-date basis, North American fund managers maintained their lead over other regional mandates with a 3.16% return. Eurekahedge also said that roughly 48.7% of the underlying constituents of the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index ended the month on a positive note, with 10.4% of these managers posting double-digit gains year-to-date. Over in Asia, concerns over the escalation of the tariff spat between China and the US has continuously put pressure on the region's equity markets throughout the quarter with the PBOC recently reducing the reserve requirements for its banking system for the 4th time this year to cushion the impact of US tariffs on the country's economy. Asia ex-Japan hedge fund managers lost 1.80% in September, barely ahead of the benchmark MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index (Local) which declined 1.87% over the month. Escalating trade tension, weak currencies, and slowing growth in China might continue to pose as challenges for hedge fund managers focusing in t...................... To view our full article Click here Opalesque Industry Update, for New Managers - CreativeCap Advisors has announced that it has selected five companies to join its inaugural Fall 2018 Class for the Global Emerging Manager Incubator. "We are thrilled to welcome and unveil our inaugural Fall 2018 Class. Each company we are welcoming offers something special and unique to the mix and many have even gained recognition in their own right," said Tyra S. Jeffries, Founder and CEO of CreativeCap Advisors. "Our global incubator is focused on aiding high-potential start-up funds to gain access to the right tools and resources to grow, scale and further develop their businesses. We are pleased to highlight that while we selected a small number of companies to join this class, the diversity statistics are off the charts, which is really a testament to our admissions process. We are headed in the right direction of our ambitious plan in being the first and largest global incubator of high-potential emerging managers from around the world." CreativeCap Advisors is proud to welcome the following five companies to the Global Emerging Manager Incubator's Inaugural Fall 2018 Class: Mayar Capital is a London-based investment firm focused on long-only value investing across the global equity market and adhering to a disciplined investment-checklist based process. For more information visit: https://mayarcapital.com Social Impact Capital is a New York City-based venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage companies where the driver of the business is a social good. For more information visit: https://social-impact-capital.com Science Fiction Ventures is a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in deep technology companies. The fund is currently launching for more information on it's founding team visit: www.chainfundcapital.com Enhanced Investment Partners is a Chicago-based domestic equity investment firm focused on providing a proprietary dynamic domestic equity investment overlay methodology. For more information visit: www.enhancedinvesting.com TruEdge Alternatives is a San Francisco-based quantitative investment firm that offers a scientifically-driven liquid alternative strategy that implements cross-asset views leveraged from micro linked macro data. The fund is currently launching for more information contact the CreativeCap Advisors' team. As participants in the Global Emerging Manager Incubator, all members are offered access to a substantial amount of resources such as: an international mentor network; exclusive premium educational resources and training; a unique Scorecard, CreativeCap Advisors' proprietary performance assessment tool; multiple opportunities to connect with investors; business services discounts in addition to access to several other resources to help further the growth and development of each participants' business. The Global Emerging Manager Incubator Program was created with the goal to help accelerate the growth of emerging managers worldwide by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on four critical areas: marketing, investor relations, business development and business management. The funds do not graduate out of the program until they have reached USD$250 Million in assets under management. The selective program seeks to become the single largest and most intensive program for emerging managers from around the world ever created. Growth of Biosensors Market Forecast to 2024 in a Newly Released Report Profiling Biosensors International, DuPont Biosensors Materials, Ercon, Gwent Group, Innovative Biosensors https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/467795/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/467795/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog Market Study Report adds a new Biosensors Market Research Report for the period of 2018-2024 that shows the growth of the market is rising at a Steady CAGR to 2024. Biosensors Market will exceed USD 29 billion by 2024; as per a new research report.Increasing prevalence of diabetes has been a major growth factor driving the biosensors industry. Increasing sedentary lifestyle and changing food habits around the world have resulted in obesity and hormonal disorders that lead to high prevalence of diabetes. Increasing demand for glucose biosensors that enable accurate detection of blood sugar levels has stimulated industry growth.Integration of advanced technology in the newly developed biosensors will propel business growth. Growing adoption of biosensors in medical diagnostics due to accuracy and efficiency provided by newly developed biosensors will further boost biosensors market growth over the forecast timeframe.Wearable biosensors attributed to more than 55% of the industry revenue in 2017 and is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period, owing to growing awareness amongst the adult population in developed as well as developing countries for sustaining healthy lifestyles along with rising incidences of diabetes. Industry players are focused on developing devices that will help individuals to monitor their health on various parameters.Request a sample of this premium Research Report at:U.S. biosensors Market was over USD 5.5 billion in 2017. The market growth will be driven by rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer that require continuous critical monitoring. Rising usage of portable biosensors will increase the demand and stimulate the business growth. Furthermore, extended applications of biosensors in various other fields will also enhance overall industry growth significantly.Germany biosensors market will witness 8.2% growth over the forecast period due to development of new biosensor devices that have advanced technology integrated within them delivering improved surgical performance along with assisting in critical decisions about patient?s health. Increasing use of biosensors in medical as well as research laboratories will fuel biosensors market growth significantly.Major industry players operating in biosensors market are Abbott Laboratories, Bio-Rad International, Biosensors International, DuPont Biosensors Materials, Ercon, Gwent Group, Innovative Biosensors, Johnson & Johnson, Molecular Devices Corp, Pinnacle Technology, QTL Biosystems, Roche Diagnostics, SDIX, LLC, Siemens Healthcare, TE Connectivity Corporation, Thermo-Fisher Scientific. Stiff competition among manufacturers have encouraged industry players to undertake some strategic initiatives to improvise their product offerings coupled with consolidating their market position.Strategic merger and acquisition as well as new product development are some of the strategic initiatives that render companies with competitive advantage to survive in stiff competitive market. In June 2014, Johnson & Johnson developed new technology that is integrated within the biosensors that helps in monitoring critical and chronic conditions such as Alzheimer?s disease. Development of such new technologies will strengthen company?s product portfolio thereby generating profits for the company.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Table of Content:Chapter 1. MethodologyChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Biosensors Industry InsightsChapter 4. Biosensors Market, By TypeChapter 5. Biosensors Market, By TechnologyChapter 6. Biosensors Market, By Medical ApplicationChapter 7. Biosensors Market, By End-useChapter 8. Biosensors Market, By RegionChapter 9. Company ProfilesAbout 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: Mammography Systems Market Research Analysis on Top Key Players like Canon, Carestream healthcare, Fujifilm Medical System, GE healthcare, Hologic https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/1156473/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/1156473/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog Market Study Report adds a new Mammography Systems Market Research Report for the period of 2018-2024 that shows the growth of the market is rising at a Steady CAGR to 2024. Mammography systems Market will exceed USD 3.2 billion by 2024; as per a new research report.Increase in incidence rate of breast cancer throughout the world due to hormone replacement therapies, increased alcoholism, decreased child bearing and genetic factors will majorly assist in the growth of mammography systems market. High obesity prevalence rate coupled with rising geriatric population leading to age-related risks will also result to increase in breast cancer incidence.Increasing government funding activities to various organizations and foundations to offer breast diagnosis at affordable rates or free of cost for eligible women will augment the market growth.Technological advancements resulting into improved screening and diagnosis of invasive breast cancer, reduced radiation exposure as well as better outcomes will assist the market growth.Additionally, large percentage of population is becoming aware about the various breast screening systems available along with the benefits of early cancer diagnosis. This will act as a high impacting factor in adoption of mammography systems.High capital cost is involved in acquisition of mammography systems along with expensive screening charges for the patient population. Additionally, false-negative and false-positive results that can result in increased mortality rate due to undiagnosed breast cancer may impair the growth of mammography systems market.Request a sample of this premium Research Report at:U.S. mammography systems market will be impelled by a rising patient pool of breast cancer coupled with high awareness in the U.S. population about breast cancer. Greater adoption rates of newer technologies in U.S. will favor industry growth.Indian mammography systems market growth will show robust growth rate over the forecast timeline as a result of high percentage of female population suffering from breast cancer followed by rising awareness among the Indian population.Some of the key market players competing in global mammography systems market are Amico JSC, Canon, Carestream healthcare, Fujifilm Medical System, GE healthcare, Hologic, I.M.S., Konica Minolta, Korean C, Medical technologies, Planmed Oy, Philips, Siemens Healthineers. The competitors are using launch of novel products with technological advancements, acquisitions and mergers as the key strategies to foresee a lucrative growth in mammography systems market. For instance, in January 2017, Fujifilm Medical System launched digital breast tomosynthesis system, offering superior breast imaging that will expand the company?s product portfolio and thereby help in growth of company.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Table of Content:Chapter 1. MethodologyChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Mammography Systems Industry InsightsChapter 4. Mammography Systems Market, By Product TypeChapter 5. Mammography Systems Market, By TechnologyChapter 6. Mammography systems Market, By End-useChapter 7. Mammography Systems Market, By RegionChapter 8. Company ProfilesMarketstudyreport.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: Flip Chip Technology Market is expected to exceed US$ 32.178 Billion by 2023 | Global Key Players - Amkor Technology, IBM, Intel, Samsung Electronics, Texas Instruments, Global Foundries U.S. Flip Chip Technology Market https://marketprognosis.com/sample-request/17316 https://marketprognosis.com/buyReport/17316 https://marketprognosis.com/enquiry/17316 https://www.marketprognosis.com Marketprognosis.com Publish a New Market Research Report On Global Flip Chip Technology Market 2018 - 2023 which contains global key players survey information and forecast to 2023.Overview of the Global Flip Chip Technology Market:The Global Flip Chip Technology Market was valued at USD 22.683 Billion in 2017, and is expected to reach a value of USD 32.178 Billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 5.64%, over the forecast period (2018 - 2023).The regions considered in the scope of the report include North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa.Get a Sample Copy of this Report @Introduced by IBM 30 years ago, flip chip is keeping up with the times and developing new bumping solutions to serve advanced technologies, such as 2.5D and 3D. Flip chip is used for traditional applications, such as laptops, desktops, CPU, GPU, chipsets, etc. The demand for flip chips is expected to rise in mobile and wireless consumer applications, and other high performance applications, such as networks, servers, and data centers. Flip chip market is mainly driven by the emerging internet of things: a network of physical devices, vehicles, buildings, and other items that include embedded electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity along with its technological superiority over the traditional wire bond electrical connection makes it the exceptional alternative. The flip-chip market is highly technology-driven and manufacturers are mainly focusing on discovering new technologies for the bumping process, which, in turn, is increasing the demand for raw materials required for manufacturing. However, some of the major restraints associated with the flip chip industry include the huge initial investment required for setting up new manufacturing facility and less available options for customization.Nevertheless, growth in demand for sensors in smartphone industry and increase in application in personal electronic devices, such as personal computers and mobiles, opens new opportunities in the flip chip market. The demand of flip chip is also expected to increase in the coming years due to heavy investments in the research and development by key players, such as TSMC, Ltd, Amkor Technology, Inc., and IBM, which has led to constant improvements in chip quality.Purchase this report online with 109 Pages, Top Key Players Analysis and List of Tables & Figure @Growing economies in this region, such as India and China impact every industry, including semiconductors. The Asia-Pacific flip chip market is expected to grow at a rapid pace, due to rising proliferation of consumer electronics in this region. With the improving economic conditions, increasing disposable income, increasing number of youth population, and rising employment rate, the consumer electronic market is flourishing in this region. Chinas plans to focus on semiconductor sector as a part of 12th five-year plan and strong growth of Taiwans semiconductor and electronics industry will augment the market for Flip chip in this region. With rising internet penetration and various government initiatives, such as smart cities, smart grids and smart transportation, the IoT market is set to explode in this region over the next decade. This will create sufficient demand for the flip chip market.Major Key Players:1 Amkor Technology Inc.2 IBM Corporation3 Intel Corporation4 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited5 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd6 Texas Instruments Inc.7 Global Foundries U.S. Inc.8 Stats ChipPAC Ltd and MoreAny Query? Ask to our Expert @What Information does this report contain?1 A detailed analysis of regulatory trends, drivers, industry pitfalls, challenges and growth opportunities for participants2 Which are the leading market products, applications & regions and how will they perform by 2023?3 What are the technologies & innovation trends, how will they evolve by 2023?4 Which companies lead the industry, how are they positioned in the market in terms of sustainability, competency, production capacity and strategic outlook?In the end, this report covers data and information on capacity and production overview, production, market share analysis, sales overview, supply, sales, and shortage, import, export and consumption as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin of Flip Chip Technology Market.Table of Contents:1 Introduction2 Research Methodology3 Executive Summary4 Key Inferences5 Market Overview6 Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Challenges Analysis (Droc)7 Market Segmentation8 Competitive Landscape9 Key Players10 Future Outlook of the MarketAbout us:We at Market Prognosis believe in giving a crystal clear view of market dynamics for achieving success in todays complex and competitive marketplace through our quantitative & qualitative research methods.We help our clients identify the best market insights and analysis required for their business thus enabling them to take strategic and intelligent decision.We believe in delivering actionable insights for your business growth and success.Contact us:ProgMark Pvt. Ltd.Thane 421501India.sales@marketprognosis.com+1 973 241 5193 Smoking Tobacco Market Witness Huge growth | Imperial, BAT, PMI, Richland Express Smoking Tobacco Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/947584-smoking-tobacco-in-australia-2018 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/947584-smoking-tobacco-in-australia-2018 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/947584-smoking-tobacco-in-australia-2018 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=947584 https://www.linkedin.com/company/13388569/ https://www.facebook.com/htfmarketintelligence/ https://twitter.com/htfmarketreport https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NidhiBhawsar-SEO_Expert?rel=autho HTF Market Report released a new research document of 74 pages on industry titled as 'Smoking Tobacco in Australia, 2018 with detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes and important players/vendors such as Imperial, BAT, PMI, Richland Express, Stuart Alexander, Sara Lee/DE The report will help you gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2016-21Request a sample report @""Smoking Tobacco in Australia, 2018"", is an analytical report by HTF that provides extensive and highly detailed current and future market trends in the Australian tobacco market. It covers market size and structure along with per capita and overall consumption. Additionally, it focuses on brand data, retail pricing, prospects, and forecasts for sales and consumption until 2026.The Australian market for tobacco products is in long-term decline. In 2017, smoking tobacco accounted for 12.7% of all tobacco consumption, up from 6.8% in 2007. FCT (fine cut tobacco) dominates sales of the wider smoking tobacco market, accounting for 99.6% of sector sales in 2017. Demand for pipe tobacco has more than halved since 1990 to only 9 tons in 2017.Scope- Since 2014, the popularity of smoking tobacco has been growing with legal intake at 90.8g in 2017.- In addition to the 2,100 tons of smoking tobacco consumed in 2017, there is a considerable amount of chop-chop or illegal loose tobacco available to consumers.- Production of smoking tobacco in Australia is in the hands of the two main worldwide manufacturers: BAT and Imperial Tobacco.- The Australian Government has been using tax policies to reduce tobacco use, although the effect has been to move cigarette smokers towards FCT and the non-duty paid sector.View Detailed Table of Content @Reasons to buy- Get a detailed understanding of consumption to align your sales and marketing efforts with the latest trends in the market. Identify the areas of growth and opportunities, which will aid effective marketing planning.- The differing growth rates in regional product sales drive fundamental shifts in the market.- This report provides detailed, authoritative data on these changes - prime intelligence for marketers.- Understand the market dynamics and essential data to benchmark your position and to identify where to compete in the future.Companies Mentioned in the ReportImperialBATPMIRichland ExpressStuart AlexanderSara Lee/DEGet Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @Table of ContentsIntroductionMarket context....ContinuedIt's vital you keep your market knowledge up to date. If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization accordingly.Buy this report @HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact US :Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.comConnect with us at Outdoor Free Space Optics In Non-Military/Aerospace Applications Global Market Forecast 2017-2027 Outdoor Free Space Optics In Non-Military/Aerospace Applications Global Market Forecast 2017-2027Study Release: October 5, 2018PDF File: 69 pages PDFFee: USD 1800 (Single User License)Delivery: PDF File sent by E-mail10-Year Market ForecastFree Space Optics (FSO) is a line-of-sight (LOS) technology that uses directed LEDs or Laser emitters, which provide optical bandwidth Transmitters and Receivers to link voice, video, and data intelligent transfer. A single FSO link product often may incorporate multiple transmitters along with receiver/s to ensure adequate performance, in case of interference.As the cost and other obstacles of deploying fiber optic cables or copper-based cables continue to increase, the product and deployment opportunities for FSO as well as other wireless communication link solutions improve. Communication managers face the timely delays and cost comparison of utilizing a telecommunication leased-line versus the implementation of an FSO system, the flexibility of the FSO product-area may present an attractive communication link alternative.Data throughput (transfer) rates are continuing to push up into the multi-gigabit region and optical communication use is increasing; therefore, the emphasis on low-cost, quickly deployed system solutions is encouraging to the FSO prospects.This report provides the ElectroniCast market consumption forecast of outdoor transmitter/receiver pairs used in non-military/aerospace outdoor fixed-location (stationary) FSO communication links; therefore, government-based Defense/Homeland Security or aircraft/spacecraft use, as well as Inside-the-building links, are not included.FSO devices, which are placed at a window inside of a building, but directed outside, for outdoor links, are included in the forecast. Only the FSO Function of FSO/RF Hybrid Products is included in market data.The market data in this report does not include all of the other parts that compose of the entire FSO system equipment, such as the mounting brackets, external mux/demux, drivers, switches, amplifiers, wire/connectors, installation/service, etc.FSO communication links require at least two separate transmitter/receiver pair units; for example one T/R pair unit at point A and another T/R pair unit at point B.The analysis and forecast are presented for FSO Transmitter/Receiver (pair) link devices, segmented by distance and data-rate throughput. The forecast for each selected FSO link device, in turn, is segmented by geographic region: America (North America, Central and South America) EMEA (Europe, Middle Eastern countries, plus Africa) APAC (Asia Pacific)The market forecast data are segmented by the following functions: Consumption Value (US$, million) Quantity (number/units) Average Selling Prices (ASP $, T/R Pair)Market Data Category List by Distance/Meters and by Throughput/Mbps 500 Meters or Lesso 156 Mbps or Lowero Higher Than 156 Mbps More Than 500 Meterso 156 Mbps or Lowero Higher Than 156 MbpsTable of ContentsIntroductionMarket Acceptance of Free Space OpticsMobile BackhaulAlternative Technical RedundancyHybrid FSO/RF LinkFree Space Optics: Market Forecast by RegionFree Space Optics: Market Forecast by Link LengthLine of Sight ChallengesCommon Use of Free Space Optic LinksFSO Architectures (Point-to-Point, Mesh, Point-to-Multi-Point)Pros/Cons of FSO ImplementationFree Space Optics: Market Forecast by Data-Rate and DistanceProfiles of Selected FSO Companies/Brands - IntroductionAnova Technologies (Celeras LTS)Communication by Light (CBL)EC System InternationalFog OpticsfSONA Networks CorporationHarris CorporationIBSENtelecomJV-Labs.EU s.r.o. (RedStar)Koruza (Fabrikor)Laser Light Communications, LLCLightPointe CommunicationsMostcom (Artolink)Mostcom (Northern Storm)OWB NetworksPlaintree Systems Inc.Polewall ASRONJATrimble Inc. (GeoDesy)Wireless Excellence (CableFree)Competitive Market Share Estimates of Leading Companies/BrandsLAN/MAN/WAN - OverviewFree Space optics Link ExamplesTechnology Life CycleResearch Methodology ExplanationGlobal Summary and Regional Market Forecast (Excel Spreadsheets)Global Market ForecastAmerica Market ForecastEMEA Market ForecastAPAC Market ForecastList of TablesMarket Data Category List by Distance/Meters and by Throughput/MbpsFSO Links in Non-Military/Aerospace Global Market Forecast, By Region ($ Million)FSO Links in Non-Military/Aerospace Global Market Forecast, By Distance ($ Million)FSO Links in Non-Military/Aerospace Global Market Forecast, By Distance (Quantity)Free Space Optic Solutions: Pros and ConsFSO 500 Meters or Less (Non-Military/Aerospace) Forecast, By Data-RateFSO More Than 500 Meters (Non-Military/Aerospace) Forecast, By Data-RateFree Space Optics Products2017 Competitive Market Share (%) EstimatesMigration or Upgrade Scenarios to Gigabit EthernetGlobal Market Forecast: Detailed DatabaseAmerica Market Forecast: Detailed DatabaseEMEA Market Forecast: Detailed DatabaseAPAC Market Forecast: Detailed DatabaseList of FiguresHybrid FSO/RF LinkFSO ArchitecturesMillimeter Wave and Free Space Optics Frequency SystemFree Space Optics (FSO)Free Space Optics 10 GigabitsFSO Installed on RooftopLast Mile FSO ApplicationFSO at 100Mbps for 30-400 MetersFSO UnitAll Optical Space-to-Earth Data DistributionCarrier-Grade Gigabit Capacity/4-Beam Auto-Tracking FSO LinkFSO UnitFSO UnitFSO ComponentsFSO UnitFSO Application ExamplesSmall Foot Print FSO UnitFSO - Homes ConnectedFSO SystemFree Space Optics UnitFSO Deployment ExampleEvolution of Research Emphasis During Technology Life CycleElectroniCast Market Research & Forecasting MethodologyFounded in 1981, ElectroniCast specializes in forecasting trends in technology forecasting, markets and applications forecasting, strategic planning and consulting. ElectroniCast Consultants, as a technology-based independent forecasting firm, serves industrial companies, trade associations, government agencies, communication and data network companies and the financial community. Reduction of the risk of major investment decisions is the main benefit provided. ElectroniCast Consultants goal is to understand the challenges and opportunities facing clients and to provide timely, accurate information for strategic planning.Hans van der TangDirector Asia PacificElectroniCast Consultantshans@electronicastconsultants.comTel.: (+81) 070-6510-6929Tokyo - Japan Oil-Free Air Compressor Market For Oil & Gas Sector 2024 Top Players are Atlas Copco, Ingersoll Rand, Hitachi, GE Energy Connections, Atlas Copco USA, Gardner Denver. Oil-Free Air Compressor Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2562 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2562 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/oil-filled-air-compressor-market www.gminsights.com/ Oil Filled Air Compressor Market size will surpass USD 25 billion by 2024. Industrial manufacturing is the major growth sector for global economy with diverse companies across general manufacturing, furniture manufacturing, plastic, silicone and rubber manufacturing, and metal fabrication, to name some. The use of oil filled air compressor in these industries to generate a continuous source of durable, dependable, and efficient pressurized air will boost the product market. Asia Pacific is one of the most significant regions with industrial development driven by the increase in several government as well as private initiatives.The installation of new thermal power plants in the Asia Pacific region will drive the Oil Filled Air Compressor Market. For instance, China will install more than 160 and India install more than 50 new power plants during forecast timeframe. Based on application, oil filled air compressor industry is segmented into energy, mining & quarrying, building & construction, oil & gas, manufacturing, home appliances, electrical & electronics and others. Energy sector is likely to generate revenue over 370 million, growing at a substantial rate during the forecast time period.Sample copy of this Report @Oil filled air compressor are classified on basis of product, technology, application and region. Based on product, the same market is categorized into stationary and portable. Based on revenue, stationary oil filled air compressors will account for over USD 15 billion in 2024 growing at a substantial rate throughout the forecast spell.For instance, the Prime Minister of India launched Make in India and Foreign Direct Investment initiatives to make the country a global manufacturing hub. The manufacturing sector of India grew at a growth rate of 7.7% in 2017 and will continue to grow at a significant rate, thus promoting the product market demand by 2024.Oil-free Air Compressor Market, By Lubrication Portable StationaryOil-free Air Compressor Industry, By Technology Rotary Screw Scroll Others Reciprocating CentrifugalOil-free Air Compressor Market, By Application Home appliances Food & beverage Semiconductor & electronics Manufacturing HealthcareMake an Inquiry for Purchasing this Report @The increasing use of oil free air compressor in various sectors such as food & beverage, medical, healthcare, semiconductor will hinder the oil lubricated air compressor market. The oil free air compressor is lighter in weight which allow the machine itself to be carried easily. According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the air used in food & beverage industry should be completely free of oil, water and other contaminants. This will increase the demand of oil free types and providing restraints to the oil lubricated air compressor market.Based on technology, oil lubricated air compressor is segmented as centrifugal, rotary and reciprocating. On revenue basis, centrifugal oil lubricated air compressor will account for more than 35% of the entire market size in 2024. These are majorly used in industrial application requiring high capacity, large discharge rates and continuous operations.Brazil oil lubricated air compressor market is likely to generate revenue over USD 300 million at the end of the forecast spell due to positive growth in mining industry. The mining sector accompanies almost 7% of its GDP due to increasing investments by the government and other mining groups.Browse Report Summery @Major participants in the oil lubricated air compressor market which holds the key chunk include Sullair LLC, Ingersoll-Rand plc, Atlas Copco, Gardner Denver, Inc., Doosan Portable Power, Kaeser Kompressoren SE, Hubei Teweite Power Technology Company Limited, and Sullivan-Palatek, Inc.About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb: Medical Device Outsourcing Global Market Top Key Players Celestica, Creganna, Flextronics International, Medical Product Outsourcing, Integer, Kinetics Climax and Forecast to 2023 Medical Device Outsourcing Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3402734-global-medical-device-outsourcing-market-2018-by-manufacturers https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3402734-global-medical-device-outsourcing-market-2018-by-manufacturers www.wiseguyreports.com Global Medical Device Outsourcing MarketWiseGuyRerports.com Presents Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market 2018 by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 New Document to its Studies Database. The Report Contain 138 Pages With Detailed Analysis.DescriptionThe medical device industry is outsourcing not only the manufacturing of medical devices, but also associated services, such as regulatory consulting and contract manufacturing, to medical device service providers.Scope of the Report:This report studies the Medical Device Outsourcing market status and outlook of Global and major regions, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the Medical Device Outsourcing market by product type and applications/end industries.Get sample Report @The market for outsourcing witnesses a huge increase owing to the benefits, which include reduction in overall cost and decrease in the time required for the product to enter into the market.Rising geriatric population is predicted to increase demand for medical devices and supplies forming a large customer base with limited health resources, thereby pushing manufacturers towards subcontracting of activities such as assembling, packaging, and others. For instance, new entrants of the industry are anticipated to outsource device designing in order to be technologically updated and meet the demands of the patients over the forecast period.Asia-Pacific is projected to register the highest CAGR of 10.5% during the forecast period, owing to low labor costs, low overhead expenses, and improving technical abilities to produce class III medical devices. In addition, tax breaks and incentives such as lowered tariffs and duties to foreign companies in these nations offer a lucrative opportunity for the market growth.The global Medical Device Outsourcing market is valued at xx million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach xx million USD by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of xx% between 2017 and 2023.The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Medical Device Outsourcing.Europe also play important roles in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2017 and will be xx million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of xx%.Market Segment by Companies, this report coversCelesticaCregannaFlextronics InternationalMedical Product OutsourcingIntegerKinetics ClimaxShandong WeigaoSanminaDaiichi JitsugyoCFI MedicalNSF InternationalInfinity Plastics GroupProMed Molded ProductsSterigenics InternationalGE HealthcareAccellentMitutoyOmnicaCirtec MedicalMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversFinished goodsElectronicsRaw MaterialsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoOrthopedics and SpineCardiovascularRadiologyGeneral Medical DevicesComplete Report Details @Table of Contents -Major Key Points1 Medical Device Outsourcing Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Medical Device Outsourcing1.2 Classification of Medical Device Outsourcing by Types1.2.1 Global Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue Comparison by Types (2017-2023)1.2.2 Global Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue Market Share by Types in 20171.2.3 Finished goods1.2.4 Electronics1.2.5 Raw Materials1.3 Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market by Application1.3.1 Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market Size and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2013-2023)1.3.2 Orthopedics and Spine1.3.3 Cardiovascular1.3.4 Radiology1.3.5 General Medical Devices1.4 Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market by Regions1.4.1 Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market Size (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2023)1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Medical Device Outsourcing Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Medical Device Outsourcing Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) Medical Device Outsourcing Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Medical Device Outsourcing Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.5 Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Medical Device Outsourcing Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.5 Global Market Size of Medical Device Outsourcing (2013-2023)2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Celestica2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Medical Device Outsourcing Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Product A2.1.2.2 Product B2.1.3 Celestica Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Creganna2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Medical Device Outsourcing Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Product A2.2.2.2 Product B2.2.3 Creganna Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Flextronics International2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Medical Device Outsourcing Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Product A2.3.2.2 Product B2.3.3 Flextronics International Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Medical Product Outsourcing2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Medical Device Outsourcing Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Product A2.4.2.2 Product B2.4.3 Medical Product Outsourcing Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Integer2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Medical Device Outsourcing Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Product A2.5.2.2 Product B2.5.3 Integer Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Kinetics Climax2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Medical Device Outsourcing Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Product A2.6.2.2 Product B2.6.3 Kinetics Climax Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Shandong Weigao2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Medical Device Outsourcing Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Product A2.7.2.2 Product B2.7.3 Shandong Weigao Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Sanmina2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Medical Device Outsourcing Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Product A2.8.2.2 Product B2.8.3 Sanmina Medical Device Outsourcing Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)..CONTINUEDAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, Industry research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK) Regenerative Medicine Market is Set to Experience Revolutionary Growth by Stryker, Medtronic, Organogenesis Inc., Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., MiMedx Regenerative Medicine Market http://bit.ly/2yBwurV http://bit.ly/2ywkqrA Regenerative medicine is an interdisciplinary field of medicine that is used for developing methods to grow, repair or replace diseased or damaged cells, tissues, and organs. Regenerative medicine involves the generation and use of therapeutic stem cells, tissue engineering and the production of artificial organs. Major focus in the regenerative medicine fields are cellular therapies, tissue engineering & biomaterials, and medical devices and artificial organs. Along with replacement of damaged organs, regenerative medicine also helps with the regeneration of the organs.Increase in the global healthcare expenditure coupled with rising prevalence of genetic and chronic diseases is expected to fuel the market growth in the coming years. Considerable rise in the number of individuals opting for organ transplant is expected to provide substantial growth opportunity in the regenerative medicine market during the forecast period.Request for a sample copy of this report @The "Global Regenerative Medicine Market Analysis to 2025" is a specialized and in-depth study of the regenerative medicine industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global regenerative medicine market with detailed market segmentation by, product, therapy and application. The global regenerative medicine market is expected to witness substantial growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Key Market Players:1. Stryker2. Medtronic3. Organogenesis Inc.4. Osiris Therapeutics, Inc.5. MiMedx6. uniQure N.V.7. Vericel Corporation8. COOK BIOTECH, INC.9. Integra LifeSciences Corporation10. NuVasive, Inc.Based on product, the market is segmented as, cell based and acellular. The cell based segment is further categorized as, allogeneic and autologous. On the basis of therapy, the market is classified as, gene therapy, cell therapy, tissue engineering, and other therapies. The regenerative medicine market is segmented based on application such as, oncology, orthopedic & musculoskeletal disorders, cardiology, dermatology, and other applications.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global regenerative medicine market based on product, therapy and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Regenerative Medicine market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA) and South and Central America. The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 13 countries globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.North America is expected to hold significant share in the regenerative medicine market, owing to favorable reimbursement and regulatory policies in the United States. The demand for regenerative medicine in Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow at a steady rate during the forecast period, due to increased healthcare expenditure in China and India.The report analyzes factors affecting market from both demand and supply side and further evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend. The report also provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions namely; North America, Europe, APAC, MEA and South & Central America after evaluating political, economic, social and technological factors effecting the market in these regions.The report also includes the profiles of key regenerative medicine manufacturing companies along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. In addition, the report focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last three years, key development in past three years. Some of the key players influencing the market are Stryker, Medtronic, Organogenesis Inc., Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., MiMedx, uniQure N.V., Vericel Corporation, COOK BIOTECH, INC., Integra LifeSciences Corporation, and NuVasive, Inc. among others.Buy this Report @Reason to Buy:Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the Regenerative Medicine market.-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 global Regenerative Medicine market, thereby allowing players across the value chain 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 security interest with respect to client products, segmentation, pricing and distribution.About Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.com Online Backup Services Market: Industry Share, Technology Innovation, Development Trends, Growth Opportunity and Top Players Analysis (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, BaiDu, Alibaba, Tencent, Dropbox, HP, Kingsoft etc.) Online Backup Services market https://www.orianresearch.com/request-sample/595982 https://www.orianresearch.com/enquiry-before-buying/595982 https://www.orianresearch.com/checkout/595982 www.orianresearch.com/ www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13281002/ Global Online Backup Services Market Research Report 2018 provides the detailed analysis of industry share, growth factors, development trends, size, majors manufacturers and 2025 forecast. The report also analyze innovative business strategies, value added factors and business opportunities. The Online Backup Services report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, revenue, product & services, latest developments and business strategies.Get Sample Copy atDevelopment policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (North America, EU, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India) and other regions can be added. The report focuses on current and upcoming premium trends such as Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, and Challenges, technological advancements, Industry Competitor analysis to assess the intensity of competition in the market.Inquire more or share questions if any before the purchase on this report @No. of Pages: 91The report focuses on Global Online Backup Services Market major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. What's more, the Online Backup Services industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered. In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Key Companies Analyzed in this Report are: Amazon Microsoft Google BaiDu Alibaba Tencent Dropbox HP Kingsoft Huawei Cisco Crashplan IDrive Backblaze Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Type I Type IIOrder a copy of Global Online Backup Services Market Report 2018 @Major Points Covered in Table of Contents:1 Report Overview2 Global Growth Trends3 Market Share by Key Players4 Breakdown Data by Type and Application5 United States Online Backup Services Market Size (2013-2018)6 Europe Online Backup Services Market Size (2013-2018)7 China Online Backup Services Market Size (2013-2018)8 Japan Online Backup Services Market Size (2013-2018)9 Southeast Asia Online Backup Services Market Size (2013-2018)10 India Online Backup Services Market Size (2013-2018)11 Central & South America Online Backup Services Market Size (2013-2018)12 International Players Profiles13 Market Forecast 2018-202514 Analyst's Viewpoints/Conclusions15 AppendixAbout UsOrian 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 syndicate research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our esteemed clients.Contact Us:Ruwin MendezVice President Global Sales & Partner RelationsOrian Research ConsultantsUS +1 (415) 830-3727 | UK +44 020 8144-71-27Email: info@orianresearch.comWebsite:Follow Us on LinkedIn: Lane Keep Assist System Market For Automotive - Global Industry Analysis & Outlook 2016 2025 : Robert Bosch GmBH, Denso, Delphi Automotive., Continental AG, Valeo, Hitachi Ltd. Global Lane Keep Assist System Market For Automotive https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1735473 https://www.researchmoz.us/lane-keep-assist-system-market-for-automotive-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2016-2025-report.html/toc https://www.researchmoz.us/ http://marketresearchlatestreports.blogspot.com/ ResearchMoz presents detailed study of "Lane Keep Assist System Market For Automotive - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, And Forecast 2016 - 2025". The report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the Track and Trace Solutions Market.This report analyzes and forecasts the market for lane keep assist system at the global and regional level. The market has been forecast, based on revenue (US$ Mn) and volume (million units) from 2017 to 2025. The study includes drivers and restraints of the global lane keep assist system market for automotive. It also covers the impact of these drivers and restraints on the demand for lane keep assist systems during the forecast period. The report also highlights opportunities in the lane keep assist system for automotive market at the global and regional level.Get a Sample PDF at:The report comprises a detailed value chain analysis, which provides a comprehensive view of the global lane keep assist system market for automotive. The Porters Five forces model for the lane keep assist system market for automotive has also been included to help understand the competitive landscape in the market. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, wherein end-users are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness.Lane Keep Assist System Market - SegmentationThe study provides a decisive view of the global lane keep assist system markeat for automotive, by segmenting it in terms of component, sales channel, vehicle type, and region. These segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends. Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for lane keep assist system in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The report also covers demand for individual application segments in all the regions.The study includes profiles of major companies operating in the global lane keep assist system market for automotive. Key players operating in the lane keep assist system market for automotive include Robert Bosch GmBH, Denso Corporation, Delphi Automotive PLC., Continental AG, Valeo, ZF Friedrichshafen Ag, Hitachi Ltd., Preco Electronics, Mobileye, Velodyne LiDAR, Inc., Ficosa International SA and Gentex Corporation. Market players have been profiled in terms of attributes such as company overview, financial overview, business strategies, recent developments, and SWOT analysis. The market for lane keep assist system is primarily driven by the rising demand for non-polluting alternative.The report provides the estimated market size of lane keep assist system for 2016, and forecast for the next nine years. The global market size of lane keep assist system has been provided in terms of revenue and volume. Market numbers have been estimated based on key component, sales channel, vehicle type, and regional segments of lane keep assist system for automotive market. Market size and forecast for each major component, sales channel, and vehicle type have been provided in terms of global and regional/country markets.In order to compile the research report, we conducted in-depth interviews and discussions with a number of key industry participants and opinion leaders. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research also includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunities.Secondary research sources that are typically referred to include, but are not limited to company websites, annual reports, financial reports, broker reports, investor presentations, and SEC filings, internal and external proprietary databases, and relevant patent and regulatory databases, national government documents, statistical databases, and market reports, news articles, press releases, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market, National government documents, statistical databases, and market reports, American Automobile Association, European Automobile Manufacturers Association, Automotive Research Association of India, Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobile (OICA), Factiva, etc.Primary research involves e-mail interactions, telephonic interviews, and face-to-face interviews for each market, category, segment, and sub-segment across geographies. We conduct primary interviews on an ongoing basis with industry participants and commentators in order to validate the data and analysis. Primary interviews provide firsthand information on market size, market trends, growth trends, competitive landscape, and outlook, etc. These help validate and strengthen secondary research findings. These also help develop the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.The Lane Keep Assist System for Automotive Market for automotive has been segmented as follows:Global Lane Keep Assist System for Automotive Market for Automotive: By Component- Vision Sensor/Camera- EPAS Actuator- Electronic Control Unit- OthersGlobal Lane Keep Assist System for Automotive Market for Automotive: By Sales Channel- OEMs- AftermarketGlobal Lane Keep Assist System for Automotive Market for Automotive: By Vehicle Type- Passenger Vehicle- Commercial VehicleGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Global Lane Keep Assist System for Automotive Market for Automotive: By RegionNorth America- U.S.- CanadaEurope- Germany- U.K.- France- Italy- Spain- Rest of EuropeAsia Pacific- China- India- Japan- ASEAN- Rest of EuropeMiddle East & Africa- GCC- South Africa- Rest of Middle East and AfricaLatin America- Brazil- Mexico- Rest of Latin AmericaAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074For More Reports Visit @ Gum Grafting Market 2023 Vendor Landscape by BioHorizons IPH, Inc, Floss Location, Dr. Fresh LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Company, etc Industry Players Gum Grafting Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/709 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/709 The Global Gum Grafting Market provides market segment level data on the Global industry market The Gum Grafting Market report consists the growth pattern by company,applications,types and regions from 2018-2023.The Global Gum Grafting Market is segmented on the basis of applications, types, end users and regions. On the basis of applications, the market subsegments into root coverage, ridge augmentation, augmentation around implants, reduced sensitivity, improved appearance, gum health, and others. On the basis of types, the market is classified into connective-tissue, subepithelial connective tissue graft, free gingival grafts, pedicle grafts, and Alloderm. On the basis of end users, the market is categorized into dentists, hospitals, and others.Get Sample PDF Illustration @Gum Grafting Market - ScenarioThe Global Gum Graft Market is expecting a sound growth at a CAGR of 8.9% during the forecasted period i.e. till 2023. Gum grafting is a surgical periodontal procedure, which aims to cover an exposed tooth roots surface with a grafted oral tissue. Exposed tooth roots are usually result of gingival recession, due to periodontal disease. The other common causes for this includes overly aggressive brushing and physical trauma. The major driving factors for this market include, an increasing demand of different gum grafting products and rising number of people suffering from different dental problems. Moreover, increasing geriatric population and continuous development in products, also contributes to the growth of this market. However, high cost of the treatment may slower this markets growth.Gum Grafting Market - Regional Analysis:The Global Gum Grafting Market is dominated by America, owing to the presence of a huge number of patients here, who are suffering from dental problems and the huge geriatric population. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every two American adults aged 30 years and over, has periodontal disease. In addition to this, high healthcare spending and presence of some of the major players in this region, has also contributed to the growth of this market. Europe accounts for the second largest market, as people here are being encouraged for dental surgeries and the well-established healthcare sector. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market, due to the presence of a number of growth opportunities here and continuously increasing demand. On the other hand, Middle East & Africa has the least market share.Gum Grafting Market - Key players:Some of the major players of this market are BioHorizons IPH, Inc (UK), Floss Locations (Germany), Dr. Fresh LLC (US), Colgate-Palmolive Company (US), GlaxoSmithKline plc (UK), 3M Company (US), Ultradent Products Inc. (US), Sunstar Suisse S.A. (UK) and PatientPop.Inc (US).The global gum grafting market is highly fragmented with the presence of many local and international players. Local players are focused on cost reduction and innovation to ensure sustainability. In addition, international players implemented growth strategies through collaborations and partnerships, to expand their overall market share.BioHorizons IPH, Inc., headquartered in Birmingham, UK, is a manufacturer and supplier of introduced dental implant products covering, virtually every surgical and prosthetic indication or clinician preference. This company has launched Tapered Internal Implant, which was designed with a beveled-collar for increased bone and soft tissue attachment and to provide benefits of platform switching. AlloDerm, Regenerative Tissue Matrix (RTM), is the most widely accepted and researched acellular dermal matrix for dental soft tissue applications.Do You Have Specific Requirement? Ask To Our Experts@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 FutureHadapsar, Pune 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Pharmaceutical Packaging Market: Amcor Ltd. (Australia), Schott AG (Germany), AptarGroup, Inc. (U.S.), Gerresheimer AG (Germany), Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), and Capsugel Inc. (U.S.) http://bit.ly/2A1DnnW The report "Pharmaceutical Packaging Market by Type (Plastic Bottles, Blister Packs, Vials), Veterinary Vaccine Packaging (Livestock, Aquaculture, Porcine), Drug Delivery (Oral, Pulmonary, Topical), Raw Material (HDPE, LDPE), and Region - Global Forecast to 2021", The pharmaceutical packaging market was valued at USD 65.55 Billion in 2015 and is projected to reach USD 94.93 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2016 to 2021.Download FREE PDF Sample Report atBrowse 94 market data tables and 44 figures spread through 189 pages and in-depth TOC on "Pharmaceutical Packaging Market"Growing urbanization across the globe, increasing affluence in the Asia-Pacific region, and rising demand for improved and efficient healthcare services, globally are the major drivers for the growth of the pharmaceutical packaging market. In addition to this, stringent government regulations related to manufacturing of counterfeit medicines in several countries of the world are also expected to fuel the growth of the pharmaceutical packaging market during the forecast period, 2016 to 2021.Among types, the plastic bottles segment is projected to lead the pharmaceutical packaging market during the forecast period, 2016 to 2021.Among types, the plastic bottles segment is projected to lead the pharmaceutical packaging market during the forecast period. Plastic bottles are the most preferred packaging used, globally. Factors, such as their easy availability and increased demand for administering oral drugs, prescription dose medicines, and over the counter (OTC) medicines are expected to drive the growth of the plastic bottles segment of pharmaceutical packaging market, globally between 2016 and 2021.The injectables drug delivery segment of the pharmaceutical packaging market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, 2016 to 2021.The injectables drug delivery segment of the pharmaceutical packaging market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2021. Injectable drug delivery mode is receiving considerable attention due to efficiency offered by it in drug administration and high suitability of it for drug delivery in hospitals and other institutions. The R&D departments of different companies manufacturing pharmaceutical packaging are carrying out research & development activities to widen application areas of different types of pharmaceutical packaging, such as plastic bottles, blister packs, vials, and others through continuous innovations.The Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical packaging market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2021.The Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical packaging market possesses immense growth potential. Increasing demand for improved healthcare services, growing urbanization, and increasing affluence in the Asia-Pacific region are the factors expected to fuel the demand for pharmaceutical packaging during the forecast period. China, India, Japan, Australia, and South Korea are some of the key countries in the region that are significantly contributing towards the growth of the Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical packaging market.Some of the key players in the pharmaceutical packaging market are Amcor Ltd. (Australia), Schott AG (Germany), AptarGroup, Inc. (U.S.), Gerresheimer AG (Germany), Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), and Capsugel Inc. (U.S.), among others. Investments, expansions, and new product launches were the major growth strategies adopted by the market players between 2012 and 2016 to enhance their regional footprint and meet growing demand for pharmaceutical packaging in the emerging economies.MarketsandMarketss flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.630 Dundee RoadSuite 430Northbrook, IL 60062 cDNA Clone Vector Global Industry Report - History, Present and Future 2018 https://www.research2reports.com/sample-report-pharmaceuticals/cdna-clone-vector-market/70566 https://www.research2reports.com/report-pharmaceuticals/cdna-clone-vector-market/70566 https://www.research2reports.com/enquiry-before-buy-pharmaceuticals/cdna-clone-vector-market/70566 https://www.research2reports.com GET SAMPLE REPORT @The global market size of cDNA Clone Vector is $XX million in 2017 with XX CAGR from 2013 to 2017, and it is expected to reach $XX million by the end of 2023 with a CAGR of XX% from 2018 to 2023.There are 3 key segments covered in this report: geography segment, end use/application segment and competitor segment.For geography segment, regional supply, application-wise and type-wise demand, major players, price is presented from 2013 to 2023. This report coverss following regions:*North America*South America*Asia & Pacific*Europe*MEA (Middle East and Africa)The key countries in each region are taken into consideration as well, such as United States, China, Japan, India, Korea, ASEAN, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, CIS, and Brazil etc.For end use/application segment, this report focuses on the status and outlook for key applications. End users also can be listed.For competitor segment, the report includes global key players of cDNA Clone Vector as well as some small players. The compnaies include:R&D Systems, OriGene, Biocompare, Genecopoeia, SinoBiological, Youbio, ebioEasy, Vigene Bioscience, View-Solid Biotech, TransOMIC, Labome, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Addgene, Sigmaaldrich et al.The information for each competitor includes:*Company Profile*Main Business Information*SWOT Analysis*Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin*Market ShareACCESS REPORTTable of ContentsChapter 1 Executive SummaryChapter 2 Abbreviation and AcronymsChapter 3 Preface3.1 Research Scope3.2 Research Methodology3.2.1 Data Collection3.2.2 Data Analysis3.2.3 Data Validation3.3 Research Sources3.3.1 Primary Sources3.3.2 Secondary Sources3.3.3 AssumptionsChapter 4 Market Landscape4.1 Market Overview4.2 Classification/Types4.3 Application/End UsersChapter 5 Market Trend Analysis5.1 Introduction5.2 Drivers5.3 Restraints5.4 Opportunities5.5 ThreatsChapter 6 Industry Chain Analysis6.1 Upstream/Suppliers Analysis6.2 cDNA Clone Vector Analysis6.2.1 Technology Analysis6.2.2 Cost Analysis6.2.3 Market Channel Analysis6.3 Downstream Buyers/End Users. CONTINUEDList of Tables and FiguresTable Abbreviation and Acronyms ListTable Research Scope of cDNA Clone Vector ReportTable Primary Sources of cDNA Clone Vector ReportTable Secondary Sources of cDNA Clone Vector ReportTable Major Assumptions of cDNA Clone Vector ReportFigure cDNA Clone Vector PictureTable cDNA Clone Vector ClassificationTable cDNA Clone Vector Applications ListTable Drivers of cDNA Clone Vector MarketTable Restraints of cDNA Clone Vector MarketTable Opportunities of cDNA Clone Vector MarketTable Threats of cDNA Clone Vector MarketTable Key Raw Material of cDNA Clone Vector and Its SuppliersTable Key Technologies of cDNA Clone VectorTable Cost Structure of cDNA Clone VectorTable Market Channel of cDNA Clone VectorTable cDNA Clone Vector Application and Key End Users ListTable Latest News of cDNA Clone Vector IndustryTable Recently Merger and Acquisition List of cDNA Clone Vector IndustryTable Recently Planned/Future Project List of cDNA Clone Vector IndustryTable Policy Dynamics Update of cDNA Clone Vector Industry. CONTINUEDFOR ANY QUERY, REACHContact Us:Office No. 212/213, B Block 2nd Floor,Parmar Chambers,Sadhu Vaswani Road, Pune 411001Phone Number: 020 - 2612 6969Email: info@research2reports.comWebsite -Research 2 Reports offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Office No. 212/213, B Block 2nd Floor,Parmar Chambers,Sadhu Vaswani Road, Pune 411001 Laser Diode Market Trends to 2025 Leading by Newport Corp., ASML Holding NV, Axcel Photonics, IPG Photonic Corp., Coherent, Inc. Laser Diode Market http://bit.ly/2yoq13g http://bit.ly/2ytligR According to a new market research study titled 'Laser Diode Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Doping Materials, Wavelength and Applications', the global laser diode market was valued at US$ 6.13 Bn in 2015 and is estimated to reach US$ 17.70 Bn by 2025. The report highlights the global market trend and the factors driving the market, as well as the deterrents to its growth, prevalent in the market.Laser diodes owing to a number of advantageous features offered by them, are rapidly becoming a vital part of modern technology and are being utilized in various applications. Laser marking tool is a reliable technology offering easy assistance and better efficiency. There are several laser marking options available in the market with different specifications and uses.Get sample copy of this report:Leading Players:- ASML Holding NV- Axcel Photonics, Inc.- Coherent Inc.- IPG Photonics Corp.- Newport Corp.- Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc.Before the laser technology was introduced, there were several other printing methods in vogue such as acid etching chemicals and ink. However, these technologies do not suit the ever-increasing array of designs and materials nowadays. These traditional marking and engraving methods are now considered to be useless or are prohibited by the government due to their harmful after effects. Thus, new government policies and regulations to dispose traditional markings and replacing them with environment friendly and cleaner laser technology are expected to boost the global laser diode market.China led the laser diode market in Asia Pacific (APAC) in 2015 and is expected to continue its dominance by rising at a CAGR of 11.8% during the forecast period from 2015 to 2025. Increasing demand for advanced technology in the healthcare and industrial markets is driving the growth in the laser industry. Moreover, there is a sharp rise in demand for laser diodes within the defense & security verticals for applications such as neutralization of the opponent's weapon systems, airborne laser mine detection system (ALMDS), range finding, anti-missile systems, and target designation.Buy this report:The U.S. led the laser diode market in North America in 2015 at a revenue share of 59.89%. Even though there is huge demand for laser diodes in the upgrading of wireless technology, the sale of fiber lasers continues to gain momentum in North America due to their demand in FTTH applications. It is anticipated that the fiber laser technology would evolve during the forecast period and 100 Gb/s would become the norm with the focus shifting to the metro/regional landscapes. Furthermore, North America is witnessing an increased demand for laser cutting machines and industrial laser applications due to the significant use of these machines across several end-use verticals such as automotive, defense & aerospace, and consumer electronics.The global laser diode market has been bifurcated on the basis of wavelength into red laser diode, blue-violet laser diode, blue laser diode, infrared laser diode, and others (ultraviolet and green) laser diodes. The visible range for human eye is 400 nm - 700 nm, while the highest possible wavelength seen by the human eye is 555 nm. Green laser diode being the nearest to the peak of the eye's sensitivity is a standout when compared to the other laser diodes such as blue, violet, and red.Brazil led the South America (SAM) laser diode market in 2015 and is likely to continue its dominance by expanding at a CAGR of 12.2% during the forecast period from 2015 to 2025. Brazil boasts of the largest manufacturing sector in SAM, which accounts for nearly one-third of SAM's GDP. Brazil has an array of industries ranging from automobile, steel, and petrochemicals to computers, aircrafts, and consumer durables that deploy laser diodes in their applications.Laser diodes are also used in surgeries due to their features which include a diverse range of operating wavelengths. Furthermore, laser diodes can also be modulated directly by using frequencies up to GHz range in high-speed communications. Thus, there is no delay in the input of operating surgeon and output of laser radiation. In addition, laser diodes are easily adjustable in terms of power output from 0% to 100%, thereby providing flexibility in the dosage of laser output. On the other hand, solid state lasers have restrictive adjustable power output ranging from 60% to 100%. This feature makes laser diodes the perfect tool for medical and healthcare applications. Thus, the expansion of electronics and healthcare industries complements the growth of the laser diode market owing to the substantial utilization of laser diodes across various applications in these industries.About Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Automotive and Defense.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.com North America Microgrid Market By Grid Type 2018-2024 ABB Ltd, Eaton Corporation, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Caterpillar Inc, Honeywell International, Homer Energy LLC, Tesla, EnSync Inc North America Microgrid Market, North America Microgrid Market trends, North America Microgrid Market forecast, North America Micr https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/1230587/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/1230587/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/north-america-microgrid-market https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-microgrid-as-a-service-maas-market-2018-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2023?utm_source=RR-AN https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog North America Microgrid market report added by MarketstudyReport.com is one of the most comprehensive research studies on North America Microgrid offering 222 data tables, 28 figures, covering 17 companies and regional outlook for 3 countries on segments covered in this report.North America Microgrid Market is predicted to reach over USD 7 billion by 2024.Meticulously analyzed in terms of pivotal industry segments, North America Microgrid market report effectively covers the scope of this space in terms By Application, By Source, By Storage, By Application and the prominent contributors. Additionally, the report also outlines intricate details regarding the lucrative opportunities that industry contenders can expect in conjunction with the potential threats that have been envisioned for this business sphere in the forthcoming years.The report extensively bifurcates the various contenders of North America Microgrid market. Prominent contributors such as ABB Ltd, Eaton Corporation, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Caterpillar Inc, Honeywell International, Homer Energy LLC, Tesla, EnSync Inc, Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Viridity Energy Solutions, Inc, Toshiba Corporation, Exelon Corporation, Power Analytics Corporation, Hitachi, Lockheed Martin Corporation have been scrutinized in terms of their financials, strengths, weaknesses, potential threats in the market, and future opportunities.Request a sample of this premium report at:North America Microgrid Market is predicted to reach over USD 7 billion by 2024. Aging grid infrastructure coupled with stringent government policies toward adoption of sustainable power technologies will stimulate North America microgrid market. Economic competitiveness, low power cost & transmission losses and reliability are key the parameters that will encourage the product penetration. In addition, ongoing funding toward the development of distributed generation technology will enhance the industry landscape.Increasing high-end power consumption across the industries on account of development of new HVAC systems and heavy load machineries will foster the microgrid market. Growing electricity demands across hospitals, retail outlets, automotive, manufacturing operations, offices and industries will encourage product penetration across commercial and industrial application. For instance, as per EIA, the commercial and industrial sector in 2017 accounted about 4.5% and 22.4 % of the primary energy consumption respectively.Flow batteries accounted for over 5% of North America microgrid market in 2017. Ongoing investment pertaining to the integration of sustainable grid coupled with innovations toward the development of cost-effective and efficient storage technologies will propel the industry growth. key features including long life cycle and higher efficiency will further encourage the product adoption over available substitutes.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Canada microgrid market is predicted to reach deployment of over 400 MW capacity by 2024. Growing electricity demand across remote and off grid areas along with upsurge in investments toward the adoption of clean energy technology will complement the business growth. Furthermore, ongoing development of distributed energy sources to minimize the dependency on conventional grid will enhance the industry outlook. In 2016 Canada government made an investment of USD 2.4 billion for developing wind and solar energy sources.Ongoing adoption of captive power plants across the manufacturing and industrial sector for ensuring regulated power production will foster North America microgrid market. Increasing investment toward the expansion of decentralized grid coupled with rising investments for the expansion of infrastructure and power sector will accelerate the business growth. For instance, in 2016, the government of Canada, announced an investment of about USD 900 million were financed toward installation of numerous energy sources and R & D across the country.Table of Content:Chapter 1. Methodology and ScopeChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. North America microgrid market Industry InsightsChapter 4. North America Microgrid Market, By ConnectivityChapter 5. North America Microgrid Market, By Grid TypeChapter 6. North America Microgrid Market, By Power SourceChapter 7. North America Microgrid Market, By Storage DevicesChapter 8. North America Microgrid Market, By ApplicationChapter 9. North America Microgrid Market, By CountryChapter 10. Company ProfilesFor More Details on this Report At:Related Report:Global Microgrid as a Service (MaaS) Market 2018 by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023The market growth can be attributed to the reduction in operational costs and negligible upfront investments by MaaS end users, rising demand for MaaS from hospitals, universities, and remote regions and high investments by governments in microgrid infrastructure for improved resilience.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: Engine Flush Market will expand at an estimated 3.5% CAGR in terms of volume over the forecast period, 2017-2026 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-6153 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-6153 Advancements in fuel consumption technologies has necessitated the need for using oils or lubricants to flush out the dirt collected in combustion engines. Diesel and gasoline continues to be adulterated across the globe, and the demand for such lubricants known as engine flush continues to gain traction. Vehicle owners are servicing their automobiles with proper use of engine flush products. The role of these oils in improving the performance of the engine, extending vehicle life, and lowering the overall carbon footprint of combustion engines continues to extend their use in the automotive sector. Future Market Insights recent study on the global engine flush market projects that the demand for engine flush will gain moderate traction in the foreseeable years.Key findings from the report reveal that the global engine flush market will expand at an estimated 3.5% CAGR in terms of volume over the forecast period, 2017-2026. The report also projects that by the end of 2026, engine flush worth nearly US$ 1.87 Bn will be sold across the globe. Fluctuating oil prices and transformations in the designs of combustion engines for the future automotive industry are observed as the key deterrents for growth of the global engine flush market.A sample of this report is available upon request@Semi-synthetic Oils to Register Highest Value CAGR during 2017-2026Flushing out the sludge from combustion chambers and other key components of engines requires the use of advanced engine oils. Fully-synthetic oils have been widely used as engine flush by vehicle owners, however, high cost of production has curbed their penetration in the global engine flush manufacturing landscape. Improved viscosity indexes offered by semi-synthetic oils are supplanting the adoption of fully-synthetic oils. In addition, the extended lubricant life of semi-synthetic oils is also expected to drive their use as engine flush in the foreseeable future. The report estimates that by the end of 2026, around 47.6% of engine flush sold in the global market will be made of semi-synthetic oils. The report further estimates that sales of fully-synthetic oils will bring in nearly US$ 750 Mn in the global engine flush market by the end of 2026.Majority of engine flush produced across the globe will be used in the automotive industry. Petrol and diesel engines, that account 100% consumption of the overall engine flush produced in the world, will showcase a 40:60 split respectively, in terms of global market value share percentage throughout the forecast period. While engine flush will be predominantly used in the automotive industry, the report projects a growing end-use of engine flush in servicing of industrial equipment. Over the forecast period, the end-use of engine flush in industrial equipment servicing will register a global value CAGR of 4.3%.Request report Toc@North America to Represent Largest Market for Engine Flush through 2026Highest share of engine flush produced in the world will be used by consumers in the US and Canada. In 2017, North Americas engine flush market surpassed a valuation of US$ 360 Mn, representing the largest market ahead of Europe and the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region. Several players in the global engine flush market are focusing on increasing their exports to North America. Companies namely, BULLSONE Co. Ltd., 3M Company, BARDAHL Manufacturing Corporation, Penrite Oil Company, International Lubricants, Inc., Valvoline Inc., LIQUI MOLY GmbH, Tec4 Lubricants, Berner Group, LUBRITA EUROPE B.V., Petra Oil, and AMSOIL INC. are observed as the leading producers of engine flush in the global landscape. The report further estimates that the APEJ engine flush market will remain attractive for global players in terms of production through 2026.Future 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 centres 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 customised 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. Office,16 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531 Pharmaceutical Isolator Market Worldwide Segmentation 2018 to 2023 | Growing CAGR 8.1% with Topmost Players | Impressive Size, Shares, Revenue Asserts MRFR Pharmaceutical Isolator Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4683 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/pharmaceutical-isolator-market-4683 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/4683 MarketResearchFuture.com Present Trending Research Report Pharmaceutical Isolator Market This Report Introduce of all Types Pharmaceutical Isolator, Analysis the Market Future Growth and also Market Trend.Global Pharmaceutical Isolator Market SegmentsThe global pharmaceutical isolator market has been segmented on the basis of type, system, pressure differential, and end user.Based on the type, the market has been segmented into aseptic isolators, containment isolators, bio isolators, sampling, weighing and distribution isolators, active pharmaceutical ingredient & manufacturing isolators, and other.Based on the system, the market has been segmented into closed systems and open systems.Request Sample Report @Based on the pressure differential, the market has been segmented into positive pressure and negative pressure.Based on the end user, the market has been segmented as hospitals and diagnostics labs, pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries, research and academics, and others.Global Pharmaceutical Isolator Market ScenarioAn isolator is an equipment designed to avoid contamination. Isolators are either open or closed. Open isolators allow for ingress or egress of materials while affording a level of protection from the external environment and thus protect products while allowing materials to enter and exit the workspace.Closed isolators, enable complete separation between the internal and external environment except for filtered air and they offer full protection to the substance being handled. Aseptic isolators differ from containment isolators on account of air pressure. Aseptic isolators use positive pressure to keep contamination out, while containment isolator applies negative pressure to keep contamination out of the workspace.Isolators are commonly found in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and are widely used for pharmacy aseptic compounding applications.The market drivers for global pharmaceutical isolator market are rising demand due to the growing pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry, increasing regulations and cost of noncompliance, expanding the use of aseptic methods, rising bio labs, growing used of toxic and hazardous materials, advancements in isolator efficiency, and technology.The global pharmaceutical isolator market is expected to reach USD 39.0 billion by 2023, and the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of ~ 8.1 % during the forecast period 2017-2023.Global Pharmaceutical Isolator Market - Key PlayersSome of the key players profiled in the report are Gelman Singapore, COMECER S.p.A. cf. p.Iva, IsoTech Design, LAF Technologies Pty Ltd, Fedegari Autoclavi S.p.A, Hosokawa Micron Ltd., Bosch GmbH, MBRAUN, Chamunda Pharma Machinery Pvt. Ltd., Schematic Engineering Industries, NuAire, Inc., and others.More Details @Global Pharmaceutical Isolator Market - Regional AnalysisThe Americas account for a significant market share owing to high expenditure on the health care. Additionally, the fastest uptake of advanced healthcare products in the U.S. drives the pharmaceutical isolator market. The high concentration of the major healthcare companies, biotech labs and hospitals in the developed countries of this region coupled with stringent regulatory and inspection is adding fuel to the market growth. Moreover, high inspection rate and the growing stringency of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspections has fueled the U.S. market.Europe is the second largest market in the world due to growing the pharmaceutical and industrial base. Countries such as Germany and France lead the European market growth. Germany is expected to be the fastest growing market over the assessment period. The active pharmaceutical industry in Germany is a strong driver behind the dominance of this country in Europe. The ever increasing research and development expenditures of the developed regions have stimulated the market for isolators in these regions.Asia Pacific region is expected to grow rapidly; China and India are likely to lead this market due to the fast-growing pharmaceutical sector and large unmet needs over the forecast period. South East Asian countries such as China, India, and Malaysia are projected to contribute highly to the market growth. The growing penetration of medical devices industry in the Asia Pacific region is expected to drive the future pharmaceutical isolator market in the region.Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are estimated to drive the Middle East & African market. Other Middle East nations to watch out for are Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and Iran. The African region is expected to witness a moderate growth owing to poor economic and political conditions, and poor healthcare development. The poor research and development in the Middle East and African region have restricted the growth of the pharmaceutical isolators market.Major Table of Content:1. Report Prologue2. Market Introduction3. Research Methodology4. Market Dynamics5. Market Factor Analysis6. Global Pharmaceutical Isolator Market, By Type7. Global Pharmaceutical Isolator Market, By System8. Global Pharmaceutical Isolator Market, By Pressure Differential9. Global Pharmaceutical Isolator Market, By End User10. Global Pharmaceutical Isolator Market, By Region11 Company Landscape11 Company Profiles12 MRFR Conclusion13 AppendixCheck Discount @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com CCTV Camera Market Overview, Share, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 | Axis Communications AB, Bosch Security Systems, Inc., Geovision Inc, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co Ltd, Hanwha Techwin Co. Ltd https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1339676 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1339676/cctv-camera-global-industry-market-research-reports/toc https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1339676/cctv-camera-global-industry-market-research-reports The report analyzes and presents an overview on "CCTV Camera Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" worldwide.Global CCTV Camera Market: OverviewCCTV cameras offer a secure medium to monitor and record images and video. The demand for CCTV cameras for the purpose of surveillance has soared globally. This demand is attributed to the rising threat to public security due to criminal and terrorist attacks. Apart from public security surveillance CCTV cameras are used to monitor areas such as shopping malls, hotels, streets, banks, and government buildings.CCTV cameras vary on the basis of technology and model type. The CCTV camera market consists of a large number of software and hardware providers. The CCTV camera market value chain is characterized by system integrators and service providers. The CCTV camera market is highly competitive since it has a large number of hardware, software, and technology providers. Intense competition in the market affects the pricing strategy adopted by the players in the CCTV market. Investments in research and development initiatives is largely prevalent in the CCTV camera market.Request for Sample Copy of This Report @Global CCTV Camera Market: Regional SegmentationBased on geographical regions, the report segments the global CCTV camera market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America, which are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. The report provides country level revenue for CCTV camera market. The U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, India, China, Japan, GCC, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina are the countries covered in the report. The report also provides the country level data of each of the market segments for all the countries mentioned above.North America is expected to lead the CCTV camera market during the forecast period. The region houses a large number of CCTV camera system and solution providers. The Asia Pacific region is expected to witness the highest growth rate of 14.6 percent during the forecast period.The Middle East and Africa and South America are in the early phases of large scale installation of CCTV cameras. The anticipated growth of tourism sector of the Middle East and Brazil is expected to support the market growth of the CCTV camera market of these regions during the forecast period. The CCTV camera market comprises large number of medium and large players. Product innovation, mergers and acquisition, and research & development investments are the key growth strategies adopted by the players in the CCTV camera market. The market is expected to be hit by a huge wave of mergers and acquisitions in the coming years.Get Complete Report TOC @Global CCTV Camera Market: SegmentationThis research report provides an in-depth analysis of the global CCTV camera market based on model type, technology, end-use application, and geography. The global CCTV camera market is categorized based on model type into PTZ camera, box camera, dome camera, bullet camera, and others (hybrid, etc.). The technology segment for the global CCTV camera market consists of analog CCTV systems, wireless CCTV systems, IP-based CCTV systems, and hybrid CCTV systems. The end-use segment is classified into retail, hospitality, BFSI, home security, government, and others (transportation, healthcare, etc.). The report analyzes each of these segments for the various geographies considered under the scope of the study.Global CCTV Camera Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report includes analysis of the factors that drive and restrain the growth of the CCTV camera market. It discusses the prevailing market trends and prospective growth opportunities in the global CCTV camera market. It provides market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue. Also provided in the report is the market positioning of the companies in the CCTV camera market.Major business strategies adopted by key players, their SWOT analysis, and competition matrix has also been identified in the research report. Axis Communications AB, Bosch Security Systems, Inc., Geovision Inc, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co Ltd, Hanwha Techwin Co. Ltd, Honeywell International Inc., Panosonic System Network Co. Limited, Pelco Inc, Toshiba Corporation, and Zhejiang Dahau Technology Co. Ltd. are major players profiled in the global CCTV camera market report.Get More Details @Global CCTV Camera MarketBy Model TypePTZ cameraBox cameraDome cameraBullet cameraOthers (Hybrid, etc)By TechnologyAnalog CCTV SystemsWireless CCTV SystemsIP-based CCTV SystemsHybrid CCTV SystemsBy ApplicationRetailHospitalityBFSICommercial InfrastructureHome SecurityGovernmentOthers (Transportation, Healthcare, etc.)By GeographyNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaRest of North AmericaEuropeGermanyThe U.K.FranceRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaSouth AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaMarketResearchReports.biz is a seller of syndicated market studies, featuring an exhaustive collection of research reports from leading international publishers. Our repositoryis diverse, spanningvirtually every industrial sector and even more every category and sub-category within the industry. We also provide consulting services to enable our clients have adynamicbusiness perspective.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Air Cargo Containers 2018 Global Market Key Players Cargo Composites, Horizon International Cargo, VRR Aviation, Delta Cargo, Granger Aerospace Products, Satco Inc -Analysis And Forecast To 2023 Air Cargo Containers Market 2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3353167-global-air-cargo-containers-industry-market-research-report https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3353167-global-air-cargo-containers-industry-market-research-report Air Cargo Containers Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Air Cargo Containers Global Market Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 To Its Research Database.Description:The Air Cargo Containers market revenue was xx.xx Million USD in 2013, grew to xx.xx Million USD in 2017, and will reach xx.xx Million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of x.x% during 2018-2023. Based on the Air Cargo Containers industrial chain, this report mainly elaborate the definition, types, applications and major players of Air Cargo Containers market in details. Deep analysis about market status (2013-2018), enterprise competition pattern, advantages and disadvantages of enterprise Products, industry development trends (2018-2023), regional industrial layout characteristics and macroeconomic policies, industrial policy has also be included. From raw materials to downstream buyers of this industry will be analyzed scientifically, the feature of product circulation and sales channel will be presented as well. In a word, this report will help you to establish a panorama of industrial development and characteristics of the Air Cargo Containers market.The Air Cargo Containers market can be split based on product types, major applications, and important regions.Major Players in Air Cargo Containers market are:Cargo CompositesHorizon International CargoVRR AviationDelta CargoGranger Aerospace ProductsSatco IncZodiac AerospaceSatco IncNordisk AviationRequest for Sample Report @Major Regions play vital role in Air Cargo Containers market are:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanMiddle East & AfricaIndiaSouth AmericaOthersMost important types of Air Cargo Containers products covered in this report are:CompositesMetalOthersMost widely used downstream fields of Air Cargo Containers market covered in this report are:Domestic CargoInternational CargoEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Content:Global Air Cargo Containers Industry Market Research Report1 Air Cargo Containers Introduction and Market Overview1.1 Objectives of the Study1.2 Definition of Air Cargo Containers1.3 Air Cargo Containers Market Scope and Market Size Estimation1.3.1 Market Concentration Ratio and Market Maturity Analysis1.3.2 Global Air Cargo Containers Value ($) and Growth Rate from 2013-20231.4 Market Segmentation1.4.1 Types of Air Cargo Containers1.4.2 Applications of Air Cargo Containers1.4.3 Research Regions1.4.3.1 North America Air Cargo Containers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.2 Europe Air Cargo Containers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.3 China Air Cargo Containers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.4 Japan Air Cargo Containers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.5 Middle East & Africa Air Cargo Containers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.6 India Air Cargo Containers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.7 South America Air Cargo Containers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Drivers1.5.1.1 Emerging Countries of Air Cargo Containers1.5.1.2 Growing Market of Air Cargo Containers1.5.2 Limitations1.5.3 Opportunities1.6 Industry News and Policies by Regions1.6.1 Industry News1.6.2 Industry Policies..8 Competitive Landscape8.1 Competitive Profile8.2 Cargo Composites8.2.1 Company Profiles8.2.2 Air Cargo Containers Product Introduction8.2.3 Cargo Composites Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.2.4 Cargo Composites Market Share of Air Cargo Containers Segmented by Region in 20178.3 Horizon International Cargo8.3.1 Company Profiles8.3.2 Air Cargo Containers Product Introduction8.3.3 Horizon International Cargo Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.3.4 Horizon International Cargo Market Share of Air Cargo Containers Segmented by Region in 20178.4 VRR Aviation8.4.1 Company Profiles8.4.2 Air Cargo Containers Product Introduction8.4.3 VRR Aviation Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.4.4 VRR Aviation Market Share of Air Cargo Containers Segmented by Region in 20178.5 Delta Cargo8.5.1 Company Profiles8.5.2 Air Cargo Containers Product Introduction8.5.3 Delta Cargo Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.5.4 Delta Cargo Market Share of Air Cargo Containers Segmented by Region in 20178.6 Granger Aerospace Products8.6.1 Company Profiles8.6.2 Air Cargo Containers Product Introduction8.6.3 Granger Aerospace Products Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.6.4 Granger Aerospace Products Market Share of Air Cargo Containers Segmented by Region in 20178.7 Satco Inc8.7.1 Company Profiles8.7.2 Air Cargo Containers Product Introduction8.7.3 Satco Inc Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.7.4 Satco Inc Market Share of Air Cargo Containers Segmented by Region in 20178.8 Zodiac Aerospace8.8.1 Company Profiles8.8.2 Air Cargo Containers Product Introduction8.8.3 Zodiac Aerospace Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.8.4 Zodiac Aerospace Market Share of Air Cargo Containers Segmented by Region in 20178.9 Satco Inc8.9.1 Company Profiles8.9.2 Air Cargo Containers Product Introduction8.9.3 Satco Inc Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.9.4 Satco Inc Market Share of Air Cargo Containers Segmented by Region in 20178.10 Nordisk Aviation8.10.1 Company Profiles8.10.2 Air Cargo Containers Product Introduction8.10.3 Nordisk Aviation Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.10.4 Nordisk Aviation Market Share of Air Cargo Containers Segmented by Region in 2017Continued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Recruitment and Staffingnning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune 411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042 Hospitals Market 2018: Global Key Players, Trends, Share, Industry Size, Segmentation, Opportunities, Forecast To 2025 Hospitals Market 2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3356285-global-hospitals-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3356285-global-hospitals-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025 Hospitals Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Hospitals Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2025 To Its Research Database.Description:This report focuses on the global Hospitals status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Hospitals development in United States, Europe and China.A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized medical and nursing staff and medical equipment.In 2017, the global Hospitals market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.The key players covered in this studyAustraliaDubaiGermanyMalaysiaSinaporeUKUSChinaFranceJapanKoreaIndiaAfricaMiddle EastRequest for Sample Report @Market segment by Type, the product can be split intoGeneral/Acute-careDistrictTeachingSpecialisedClincsMarket segment by Application, split intoPublicPersonalMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Content:1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global Hospitals Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2013-2025)1.4.2 General/Acute-care1.4.3 District1.4.4 Teaching1.4.5 Specialised1.4.6 Clincs1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Hospitals Market Share by Application (2013-2025)1.5.2 Public1.5.3 Personal1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Hospitals Market Size2.2 Hospitals Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 Hospitals Market Size by Regions (2013-2025)2.2.2 Hospitals Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers2.3.3 Market Opportunities12 International Players Profiles12.1 Australia12.1.1 Australia Company Details12.1.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.1.3 Hospitals Introduction12.1.4 Australia Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.1.5 Australia Recent Development12.2 Dubai12.2.1 Dubai Company Details12.2.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.2.3 Hospitals Introduction12.2.4 Dubai Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.2.5 Dubai Recent Development12.3 Germany12.3.1 Germany Company Details12.3.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.3.3 Hospitals Introduction12.3.4 Germany Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.3.5 Germany Recent Development12.4 Malaysia12.4.1 Malaysia Company Details12.4.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.4.3 Hospitals Introduction12.4.4 Malaysia Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.4.5 Malaysia Recent Development12.5 Sinapore12.5.1 Sinapore Company Details12.5.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.5.3 Hospitals Introduction12.5.4 Sinapore Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.5.5 Sinapore Recent Development12.6 UK12.6.1 UK Company Details12.6.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.6.3 Hospitals Introduction12.6.4 UK Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.6.5 UK Recent Development12.7 US12.7.1 US Company Details12.7.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.7.3 Hospitals Introduction12.7.4 US Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.7.5 US Recent Development12.8 China12.8.1 China Company Details12.8.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.8.3 Hospitals Introduction12.8.4 China Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.8.5 China Recent Development12.9 France12.9.1 France Company Details12.9.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.9.3 Hospitals Introduction12.9.4 France Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.9.5 France Recent Development12.10 Japan12.10.1 Japan Company Details12.10.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.10.3 Hospitals Introduction12.10.4 Japan Revenue in Hospitals Business (2013-2018)12.10.5 Japan Recent Development12.11 Korea12.12 India12.13 Africa12.14 Middle EastContinued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Recruitment and Staffingnning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune 411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042 Heavy Duty Industrial Robot Market Business Growth Statistics and Key Players Insights: ABB, FANUC, KUKA, NACHI Robotic Systems, Yaskawa Electric Heavy Duty Industrial Robot Market https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/1061307 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/check-discount/1061307 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/checkout/1061307 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com Heavy duty industrial robots have a high payload capacity, usually more than 0.5 ton, and multiple arm-joints, which provides them more flexibility. As heavy duty industrial robots are used for exhaustive applications, these robots require preventive maintenance, which keeps them viable and increases their lifespan. The preventive maintenance of heavy duty industrial robots will also allow end-users to prevent sudden breakdowns and reduce the operational barriers.The regional and local vendors in the APAC region offers the cost-effective robotic technology. The presence of many system integrators and raw material suppliers and a reasonable number of distributors and suppliers are supporting the penetration of this technology to various end-users. The growing demand for sophisticated and quality products and the revolutionizing of capabilities by integrating new technologies are encouraging the introduction of heavy-duty industrial robots.The Global Heavy Duty Industrial Robot Market 2018 to 2025 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Heavy Duty Industrial Robot 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 major manufacturers covered in this report ABB FANUC KUKA NACHI Robotic Systems Yaskawa Electric Kawasaki Heavy IndustriesGet Sample Copy of This Report @On the basis of product, primarily split into Payload Capacity 0.50 to 1 Ton Payload Capacity 1 to 2 Ton Payload Capacity more than 2By Application, the market can be split into Material Handling Assembly Line LogisticsThe report on Global Heavy Duty Industrial Robot Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Heavy Duty Industrial Robot industry a propos classifications, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.The 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 Heavy Duty Industrial Robot 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 analyze and study the global Heavy Duty Industrial Robot capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);Focuses on the key Heavy Duty Industrial Robot manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.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- Data Center Rack 2018 Global Market SWOT Analysis and Opportunities To 2021 | Key Players : Black Box Corporation, Eaton, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Rittal, Schneider Electric, Tripp Lite Data Center Rack Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1120011-global-data-center-rack-market-2017-2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1120011-global-data-center-rack-market-2017-2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1120011 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Data Center Rack 2018 Global Market SWOT Analysis and Opportunities To 2021 | Key Players : Black Box Corporation, Eaton, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Rittal, Schneider Electric, Tripp Lite .Description:-The analysts forecast the global data center rack market to grow at a CAGR of 5.01% during the period 2017-2021.A data center rack is designed to house IT infrastructure and provide rack-level support to systems like uninterruptable power supply (UPS) and rack power distribution unit (PDUs). Vendors are engaged in product innovations to cater to the present and future requirements of enterprise data center operations. Advances in technology allow the incorporation of features such as remote monitoring systems into racks.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global data center rack market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of data center rack.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global Data Center Rack Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Black Box Corporation Eaton Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Rittal Schneider Electric Tripp Lite VertivOther prominent vendors AFCO Systems AMCO Enclosures (IMS Companies) Belden Chatsworth Products Conteg Crenlo (Emcor) Dataracks Delta Power Solutions (Delta Group) FUJITSU Legrand Martin International Enclosures Oracle Panduit Pentair Performed Line Products (Rack Technologies) SiemonMarket driver Increase in construction of data centers by CSPs For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Growing virtualization of IT infrastructure For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Decline in data center rack prices For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Enquiry About Report @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: Introduction Key market highlightsPART 05: Market landscape Market overview Market size and forecast Five forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by rack units 36U-41U 42U 43U-45U 48U-50U 46U-47U 51U-55U OthersPART 07: Market segmentation by geography Americas APAC EMEAPART 08: Decision frameworkPART 09: Drivers and challenges Market drivers Impact of drivers on key customer segments Market challenges Impact of challenges on key customer segmentsPART 10: Market trends Decline in data center rack prices Advanced rack-level security Containerized and mini data center facilitiesPART 11: Vendor landscape Competitive scenario Key vendors Other prominent vendorsContinuedBuy 1-user PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Medical Imaging Process Market - With Future Growth By Top Players like GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Hitachi Medical Corporation, Hologic, Inc., Siemens Healthcare, Samsung Medison, Shimadzu Corporation Medical Imaging Process Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-toc-and-sample/621 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/621 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/medical-image-processing-market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Global Medical Imaging Process Market has witnessed a high growth due to increasing use of these techniques in the medical diagnosis, disease monitoring and treatment of disease. The growth would be driven by the increasing government investment in the healthcare infrastructure development. Moreover, the growing awareness about the early diagnosis of disease with the help of medical imaging process are fuelling the growth of global medical imaging processing market.Medical imaging is a technique used for the creating the visual representation of the internal body parts for the purpose of clinical analysis and medical intervention. The use of this technique revels internal structure that is hidden by the skin and bones for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The medical imaging technique includes the use of several modern equipment such as CT scan, ultrasound, X-ray, MRI, and others.The key players of the market includes GE Healthcare Philips Healthcare Hitachi Medical Corporation Hologic, Inc. Siemens Healthcare Samsung Medison Shimadzu Corporation Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Global medical imaging process market is segment based on the techniques into CT scan, X-ray, MRI, Ultrasound, nuclear imaging, and others. CT scan and X-ray technique segment hold the dominant share in the market. The availability of handheld X-ray devices and MRI scanners are fuelling the growth of global medical image processing market. Based on the image type, the market is segmented into 2D image, 3D image and 4D image. The introduction of 4D imaging have injected new momentum in the radiation therapy and it has also minimized the small tissue complications. The 4D imaging technology aims to track and compensate the target motion during radiation treatment and minimization of normal tissue injuries.The market is further segmented based on the application such as cardiology, gynaecology, breast mammography, neurology, oncology, autoimmune disease and others. Based on the geography, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and LAMEA. North America holds the dominant share in the market owing to the early acceptance of the technology. Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing segment due to the increasing government initiatives in the healthcare industry. Moreover, the rising awareness of these techniques has been playing a key role in the growth of Asia-Pacific medical image processing market.Make Purchase Enquiry:KEY BENEFITS Market analysis based on current market scenario and expected future trends to enable stakeholders take strategic decisions Analysis of the factors impacting the market to understand business opportunities Analysis of the market based on devices and geography as well as forecast from 2014 2021 Identification of key investment pockets for various applications, services and geographies Identification of the key players and their strategic moves Implications of the regulations and reimbursement scenario in diabetes care Evaluation of market trends to provide deep-dive intelligence into every market segment Competitive analysis to effectively plan and execute business plan Micro level analysis based on application, service and geographyAccess the latest trends and insights:About Us:Allied Market Research, a market research and advisory company of Allied Analytics LLP, provides business insights and market research reports to large as well as small & medium enterprises. The company assists its clients to strategize business policies and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.Contact:David Correa5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free (USA/Canada):+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Biopsy Devices Market - With Future Growth By Top Players like C.R. Bard, Inc., Leica Biosystems, Hologic, Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Ethicon EndoSurgery Inc., Fujifilm Medical Systems Biopsy Devices Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/1424 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/1424 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/Biopsy-Devices-market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Biopsy Devices Market is projected to gather $2,399 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 5.5% during the period .Biopsy devices market is owing to increase in several types of cancer such, as breast, prostate, & lung, and rapid technological advancements in the field of diagnostics.Get Sample Copy of this Report:The key companies profiled in the report are C.R. Bard, Inc., Leica Biosystems, Hologic, Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Ethicon EndoSurgery Inc., Fujifilm Medical Systems, Veran Medical Technologies, Boston Scientific Corporation, MDxHealth, Mauna Kea Technologies, Cook Medical, Inc., Medtronic, Argon Medical Devices, Inc, Intact Medical Corp.The emerging economies have witnessed an upsurge in the prevalence of chronic diseases due to increase in the aged population and change in lifestyles. The Emergence of novel biopsy techniques and advanced integrated imaging technology, such as MRI, CT, ultrasound scan, and others, are expected to supplement the diagnosis of chronic diseases namely, cancer using biopsy procedures. However, high cost associated with advanced biopsy technologies may restrict the market growth.The report segments the world biopsy devices market by device type, application, biopsy procedures, imaging technologies, end users, and geography.The types of devices profiled in this report include breast biopsy devices, gastrointestinal (GI) biopsy devices, soft tissue biopsy devices, bronchial biopsy devices, gynaecological biopsy devices, robotic biopsy devices, and other devices.Based on application, the report is segmented into breast biopsy, gastrointestinal (GI) biopsy, prostate, liver, lung, kidney, gynaecological, and others.End users for the biopsy devices market comprise hospitals and diagnostic centers.Geographically, the world biopsy devices market is segmented across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.Make Purchase Enquiry:Key Findings of Biopsy Devices Market: CT-guided biopsy segment is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR of 6.3% during the forecast period. The diagnostic centers would continue to lead the revenue generating end use segment by garnering around half of the share in the overall market. Lung biopsy is projected to be the fastest growing application segment, registering a CAGR of 7.0%. The robotic guidance system segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 7.0%. The Asia-Pacific region is projected to be the fastest growing market, with a CAGR of 7.2%. Hospitals are projected be the fastest growing end use segment, owing to increase in integration of diagnostic facilities within the premises.North America was the highest revenue generating region due to rise in incidences of chronic diseases in 2015.North America and Europe, collectively, accounted for more than three-fourths of the overall market in 2015; this trend is likely to continue over the forecast period. Factors that drive the growth of biopsy devices in the developed regions are awareness about cancer diagnosis, high purchasing power, and availability of skilled personnel to perform biopsy procedures.Access the latest trends and insights:About UsAllied Market Research, a market research and advisory company of Allied Analytics LLP, provides business insights and market research reports to large as well as small & medium enterprises. The company assists its clients to strategize business policies and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.Contact:David Correa5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free (USA/Canada):+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Vehicle to Grid Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players AC Propulsion, CORITECH, DENSO, Hitachi, AutoPort, Daimler Vehicle to Grid Industry https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1120178-global-vehicle-to-grid-market-2017-2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1120178-global-vehicle-to-grid-market-2017-2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1120178 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Vehicle to Grid Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players AC Propulsion, CORITECH, DENSO, Hitachi, AutoPort, Daimler.Description:-The analysts forecast the global vehicle to grid market to grow at a CAGR of 18.08% during the period 2017-2021.Widespread electrification of the transportation sector has allowed the production and sales of millions of EVs. EVs have high potential to reduce GHG emissions and other air pollutants from the transportation sector. Alternatively, they serve as an energy resource for sending power back to the grid when required and providing ancillary services. This process is called as V2G. A V2G system facilitates the flow of power between a power grid and electric drive vehicles, such as BEVs, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEVs), or fuel cell EVs. In addition, these V2G systems provide a network that helps owners communicate with the power grid. The V2G technology provides demand response services to the power grid, enhancing the efficiency of the system while operating with heavy loads.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global vehicle to grid market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global Vehicle to Grid Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors AC Propulsion CORITECH DENSO HitachiOther prominent vendors AutoPort Boulder Electric Vehicle Daimler Ford Motor Company Honda Kisensum Mitsubishi Motors Nissan Tesla MotorsMarket driver Change in grid structure allowing decentralized power generation. For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Competition from alternative technologies. For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Increasing popularity of EVs through government initiatives. For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Enquiry About Report @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: Introduction Key market highlights Technology overviewPART 05: Market landscape Market overview Market size and forecast Five forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by technology Global V2G market by technology Global V2G market by power electronics Global V2G market by softwarePART 07: Geographical segmentation Global V2G market by geography V2G market in Americas V2G market in APAC V2G market in EMEAPART 08: Key leading countries US China JapanPART 09: Decision frameworkPART 10: Drivers and challenges Market drivers Impact of drivers on key customer segments Market challenges Impact of challenges on key customer segmentsPART 11: Market trends Increasing popularity of EVs through government initiatives Rapid deployment of smart grids Rise in number of EV charging stationsPART 12: Vendor landscape Competitive scenario Other prominent vendorsContinuedBuy 1-user PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Global Automotive Door Handles Market Insights, Industry Player (ITW Automotive, Aisin, Huf Group, U-Shin, VAST), Key County Analysis (North America, Europe, China, Japan, India), Segmentation, Analysis and Forecast till 2018-2025 Market Research Hub https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1916195 https://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-automotive-door-handles-market-insights-forecast-to-2025-report.html This research report titled Global Automotive Door Handles Market Insights, Forecast to 2025 has been added to the wide online database managed by Market Research Hub (MRH). The study discusses the prime market growth factors along with future projections expected to impact the Automotive Door Handles Market during the period between 2018 and 2025. The concerned sector is analyzed based on different market factors including drivers, restraints and opportunities in order to enlighten the readers about the actual scenario prevailing in the Automotive Door Handles Market.Get Sample Copy of This Report Now @This industry study presents the global Automotive Door Handles market size, historical breakdown data (2013-2018) and forecast (2018-2025). The Automotive Door Handles production, revenue and market share by manufacturers, key regions and type;The consumption of Automotive Door Handles in volume terms are also provided for major countries (or regions), and for each application and product at the global level. Market share, growth rate, and competitive factors are also evaluated for market leaders ITW Automotive, Aisin, etc.This report studies the Automotive Door Handles market, a door handle is used to open and close car doors. It is found on both the exterior and interior sides of automobile doors, although they are used differently on each panel. The one on the outside is pulled to open the car door, while the inside door handle is used to release the door latch before you can push the door to let yourself out.Of the various regional markets, Asia-Pacific, South America and Middle East and Africa offer promising potential in the global Automotive Door Handles market. Asia-Pacific is witnessing significant economic growth due to the boom in automotive industry in various countries such as India and China.Geographically in the consumption side, China is the largest region accounting for 30.44% of the global Automotive Door Handle market in 2017 and is estimated to reach 34.75% of the global market by the end of 2025. Europe is expected to hold about 20.41% of the global Automotive Door Handle market share in 2017 and is expected to decline to 20.78% by the end of 2025. North America is expected to hold about 19.54% of the global Automotive Door Handle market share in 2017 and is expected to be stable in terms of market share until 2025.Global Automotive Door Handles market size will reach 3970 million US$ by 2025, from 2560 million US$ in 2017, at a CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period. In this study, 2017 has been considered as the base year and 2018-2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Automotive Door Handles.The following manufacturers are covered in this report:ITW AutomotiveAisinHuf GroupU-ShinVASTMagnaALPHA CorporationGrupo AntolinValeoXin Point CorporationGuizhou GuihangSakae Riken KogyoSMR AutomotiveTriMark CorporationSandhar TechnologiesHU SHANAutomotive Door Handles Breakdown Data by TypeExterior Door HandlesInterior Door HandlesAutomotive Door Handles Breakdown Data by ApplicationPassenger CarsCommercial VehicleAutomotive Door Handles Production by RegionUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSouth KoreaIndiaOther RegionsAutomotive Door Handles Consumption by RegionNorth AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaMalaysiaPhilippinesThailandVietnamEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalyRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesTurkeyEgyptSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaBROWSE Full Report NOW @Table of Contents1 Study Coverage1.1 Automotive Door Handles Product1.2 Key Market Segments in This Study1.3 Key Manufacturers Covered1.4 Market by Type1.4.1 Global Automotive Door Handles Market Size Growth Rate by Type1.4.2 Exterior Door Handles1.4.3 Interior Door Handles1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Automotive Door Handles Market Size Growth Rate by Application1.5.2 Passenger Cars1.5.3 Commercial Vehicle1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Executive Summary2.1 Global Automotive Door Handles Market Size2.1.1 Global Automotive Door Handles Revenue 2013-20252.1.2 Global Automotive Door Handles Production 2013-20252.2 Automotive Door Handles Growth Rate (CAGR) 2018-20252.3 Analysis of Competitive Landscape2.3.1 Manufacturers Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)2.3.2 Key Automotive Door Handles Manufacturers2.3.2.1 Automotive Door Handles Manufacturing Base Distribution, Headquarters2.3.2.2 Manufacturers Automotive Door Handles Product Offered2.3.2.3 Date of Manufacturers Enter into Automotive Door Handles Market2.4 Key Trends for Automotive Door Handles Markets & ProductsMore Information@@@About Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports of different sector like transport & logistics market research and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of industry reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email: press@marketresearchhub.com Agar Agar Gum Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players Meron Group, Myeong Shin Agar, Marine Science Co, Agarmex, Orient Resources Company Agar Agar Gum Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3453556-global-agar-agar-gum-market-2018-by-manufacturers https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3453556-global-agar-agar-gum-market-2018-by-manufacturers https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=3453556 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Agar Agar Gum Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players Meron Group, Myeong Shin Agar, Marine Science Co, Agarmex, Orient Resources Company.Description:-Agar-agar is a unique natural hydrocolloid obtained from the red seaweeds of Gelidium and Gracilaria. These gels are considered more compact and resistant as compared to other gelatin or carrageenan gels. The products gel strength is also considerably higher as compared to gelatin. The product also eliminates the need for the addition of any foreign substance such as acids, sugar, proteins and cations for optimizing food texture or flavor.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Agar Agar Gum in global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Europe emerged as the dominant regional market owing to high demand from consumers & food processors alike. Companies are actively attempting to invest in the European market by participating in food ingredient shows to introduce greater product variety and lower cost alternatives to gelatin and conventional products.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe worldwide market for Agar Agar Gum is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly xx% over the next five years, will reach xx million US$ in 2023, from xx million US$ in 2017, according to a new GIR (Global Info Research) study.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversMeron GroupMyeong Shin AgarMarine Science Co., LtdAgarmexOrient Resources CompanyB&VTic GumsTitan Biotech Ltd.AgarGelCentral Drug House (P) Ltd.Agar ShallowAgar Corporation, Ltd.AsionsChemIndoalgasAble Sales CompanyMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversPowderStripSquareMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoConfectioneriesBakery & PastryRetailMeatMicrobiological & MolecularOther ApplicationsThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Agar Agar Gum market.Chapter 1, to describe Agar Agar Gum Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Agar Agar Gum, with sales, revenue, and price of Agar Agar Gum, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Agar Agar Gum, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;ContinuedEnquiry About Report @Table Of Contents Major Key Points1 Market Overview1.1 Agar Agar Gum Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Powder1.2.2 Strip1.2.3 Square1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Confectioneries1.3.2 Bakery & Pastry1.3.3 Retail1.3.4 Meat1.3.5 Microbiological & Molecular1.3.6 Other Applications1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Meron Group2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Agar Agar Gum Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Product A2.1.2.2 Product B2.1.3 Meron Group Agar Agar Gum Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Myeong Shin Agar2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Agar Agar Gum Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Product A2.2.2.2 Product B2.2.3 Myeong Shin Agar Agar Agar Gum Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Marine Science Co., Ltd2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Agar Agar Gum Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Product A2.3.2.2 Product B2.3.3 Marine Science Co., Ltd Agar Agar Gum Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Agarmex2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Agar Agar Gum Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Product A2.4.2.2 Product B2.4.3 Agarmex Agar Agar Gum Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Orient Resources Company2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Agar Agar Gum Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Product A2.5.2.2 Product B2.5.3 Orient Resources Company Agar Agar Gum Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 B&V2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Agar Agar Gum Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Product A2.6.2.2 Product B2.6.3 B&V Agar Agar Gum Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Tic Gums2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Agar Agar Gum Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Product A2.7.2.2 Product B2.7.3 Tic Gums Agar Agar Gum Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)ContinuedBuy 1-user PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Global Automotive Fuse Market Insights, Industry Player (MTA, ESKA, Aurora, Conquer, Hansor, Zhenhui), Key County Analysis (North America, Europe, China, Japan, India), Segmentation, Analysis and Forecast till 2018-2025 Market Research Hub https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1916134 https://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-automotive-fuse-market-insights-forecast-to-2025-report.html This research report titled Global Automotive Fuse Market Insights, Forecast to 2025 has been added to the wide online database managed by Market Research Hub (MRH). The study discusses the prime market growth factors along with future projections expected to impact the Automotive Fuse Market during the period between 2018 and 2025. The concerned sector is analyzed based on different market factors including drivers, restraints and opportunities in order to enlighten the readers about the actual scenario prevailing in the Automotive Fuse Market.Get Sample Copy of This Report Now @This industry study presents the global Automotive Fuse market size, historical breakdown data (2013-2018) and forecast (2018-2025). The Automotive Fuse production, revenue and market share by manufacturers, key regions and type;The consumption of Automotive Fuse in volume terms are also provided for major countries (or regions), and for each application and product at the global level. Market share, growth rate, and competitive factors are also evaluated for market leaders Littlefuse, Eaton (Bussmann), etc.This report studies the Automotive Fuse market, the Automotive Fuse market is primarily split into Blade Fuses, Cartridge Fuses, High Current & Voltage Fuses and Other Type fuse, it is mainly used in Passenger Vehicle and Commercial Vehicle.The global average price of Automotive Fuse is down streaming from 2012 to 2016. With the situation of global economy, prices will be in slowly decreasing trend in the following five years.The classification of Automotive Fuse includes Blade Fuses, Cartridge Fuses, High Current & Voltage Fuses and others, and the proportion of Blade Fuses in 2016 is about 66%.Automotive Fuse is widely used in Passenger Vehicle and Commercial Vehicle.Global Automotive Fuse market size will reach 1380 million US$ by 2025, from 890 million US$ in 2017, at a CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period. In this study, 2017 has been considered as the base year and 2018-2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Automotive Fuse.The following manufacturers are covered in this report:LittlefuseEaton (Bussmann)PECMTAESKAAuroraConquerHansorZhenhuiTianruiAudio OHMReomaxFbeleSelittelBetterAnduWorldseaVicfuseUchiAutomotive Fuse Breakdown Data by TypeBlade FusesCartridge FusesHigh Current & Voltage FusesOtherAutomotive Fuse Breakdown Data by ApplicationPassenger VehicleCommercial VehicleAutomotive Fuse Production by RegionUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSouth KoreaIndiaOther RegionsAutomotive Fuse Consumption by RegionNorth AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaMalaysiaPhilippinesThailandVietnamEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalyRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesTurkeyEgyptSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaBROWSE Full Report NOW @Table of Contents1 Study Coverage1.1 Automotive Fuse Product1.2 Key Market Segments in This Study1.3 Key Manufacturers Covered1.4 Market by Type1.4.1 Global Automotive Fuse Market Size Growth Rate by Type1.4.2 Blade Fuses1.4.3 Cartridge Fuses1.4.4 High Current & Voltage Fuses1.4.5 Other1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Automotive Fuse Market Size Growth Rate by Application1.5.2 Passenger Vehicle1.5.3 Commercial Vehicle1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Executive Summary2.1 Global Automotive Fuse Market Size2.1.1 Global Automotive Fuse Revenue 2013-20252.1.2 Global Automotive Fuse Production 2013-20252.2 Automotive Fuse Growth Rate (CAGR) 2018-20252.3 Analysis of Competitive Landscape2.3.1 Manufacturers Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)2.3.2 Key Automotive Fuse Manufacturers2.3.2.1 Automotive Fuse Manufacturing Base Distribution, Headquarters2.3.2.2 Manufacturers Automotive Fuse Product Offered2.3.2.3 Date of Manufacturers Enter into Automotive Fuse Market2.4 Key Trends for Automotive Fuse Markets & Products3 Market Size by Manufacturers3.1 Automotive Fuse Production by Manufacturers3.1.1 Automotive Fuse Production by Manufacturers3.1.2 Automotive Fuse Production Market Share by Manufacturers3.2 Automotive Fuse Revenue by Manufacturers3.2.1 Automotive Fuse Revenue by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.2.2 Automotive Fuse Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.3 Automotive Fuse Price by Manufacturers3.4 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion PlansMore Information@@@About Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports of different sector like transport & logistics market research and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of industry reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email: press@marketresearchhub.com Email Applications Market will Register a CAGR of 4.1% By 2020 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1083 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1083 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ According to a new market report published by Future Market Insights titled Email Applications Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2015 2020, the global Email applications market was valued at US$ 4,197.4 Mn in 2014 and is expected to register a CAGR of 4.1% from 2015 to 2020. Growth of the Email applications market is primarily driven by the potential longevity of digital messages due to their speed and sheer convenience. Also, with growing smartphone subscriber base internationally, provisions of Email applications on mobile platforms such as iOS and Android have gained global traction. Further, integration of significant features with Email applications such as money transfer and payment options via wallet services, the Email applications market has put further impetus to this market across various segments globally.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Email applications are mainly used for exchanging mails, but also include features such as calendar, task manager, contact manager, note taking, journal, and web browsing. In addition, these applications are also used as standalone applications and can function with some exchange servers for multiple users in an organization. This can facilitate shared mailboxes and calendars, SharePoint lists, meeting schedules and exchange public folders.On the basis of deployment type, the Email applications market is segmented into public cloud and on-premises. The public cloud sub segment was valued 14% of the overall market in 2014 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 16.6% during forecast period 20152020. This growth is primarily driven by the innovative features offered by the cloud-based email applications such as threaded messaging, creation of rules for automated handling of mails, customizing the design according to user such as configuring fonts, signature, and privacy settings. Some popular cloud-based Email applications are Gmail, Unibox and eM Client, which provides virtually unlimited storage along with additional features including labels, keyboard shortcuts, built-in IM (instant messenger) and video calling.The on-premises sub-segment share is anticipated to decrease due to growing popularity of Email applications on cloud-based platforms. Growth of cloud-based platforms is primarily driven by low cost of service and subscriptions models, which provides an end-user with the option of using the service and paying for it as per requirement.This report also covers trends driving each segment and offers analysis and insights regarding the potential of the Email applications market in some key regions including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), Japan and Middle East & Africa. Among these regions, North America accounted for the largest market share in 2014, owing to the fact that majority of the population in North America is tech-savvy and engaged in online Email activities.Asia Pacific (along with Japan) market was valued at US$ 850 Mn in 2014. The region is expected to experience significant growth throughout the forecast period, owing to the increasing adoption of Email applications in countries such as India, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the Philippines. Market growth across these countries is primarily driven by various leading players gradually setting up local sales offices to further penetrate the developing market.Request Report for Table of Contents @Example of key players covered in the global email applications market include Microsoft Corporation, Google Inc., IBM Corporation, Micro Focus International PLC., NEC Corporation, Hitachi Ltd. Myriad Group, Proofpoint, Inc., Oracle Corporation, Unisys Global Technologies and Dell Inc.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.Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: Image Sensors Market Research, Technical Study, Business Guidelines till 2025 with Key Manufacturers Profiles & Strategies - Sony Semiconductors, Samsung Semiconductor, OmniVision, ON Semiconductor, Canon http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2287116 http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/2287116 http://www.orbisresearch.com/reports/index/global-image-sensors-market-analysis-2012-2017-and-forecast-2018-2023 Global Image Sensors Market Analysis 2012-2017 and Forecast 2018-2023 provides an extensive research on the fast-evolving Image Sensors Market. It also gives competitive landscape of the leading companies with regional and Global analysis of the market till 2023.The global Image Sensors market will reach xxx Million USD in 2018 and CAGR xx% 2018-2023. The report begins from overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of Image Sensors by product, region and application, in addition, this report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report.Get Sample PDF of the Report at:The report further delivers a detailed understanding of the Image Sensors market through a SWOT analysis, which helps the reader to understand Image Sensors market demand situation, expected trends, its strengths and weaknesses and various opportunities the market can offer.The global Image Sensors market report includes the company profile of major key players in the market which provide the customer with the best view of the competition. The global Image Sensors market report includes market valuation and performance of the key players along with new product launches.Some of the major companies discussed in the report include: Sony Semiconductors Samsung Semiconductor OmniVision ON Semiconductor Canon Panasonic SK Hynix STMicroelectronics Teledyne Technologies Hamamatsu Infineon Technologies CMOSISRequest to Enquire before Buying the Report at:Following regions are covered in Global Image Sensors Industry report: North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico) Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Russia, Spain etc.) Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Southeast Asia etc.) South America (Brazil, Argentina etc.) Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, South Africa etc.)All products mentioned in the global Image Sensors Industry report are examined in depth across all parameters which include drifts in the market based on market size and market shareThe following product types are included in the report: CMOS Image Sensor CCD Image Sensor Other (Diode Array, Silicon)Application of the product is the main deciding factor in the performance of it. End-user applications play a crucial role in every market including the Image Sensors market and hence the need to cover it is of great importance. The global Image Sensors industry report mainly targets the outlook of major end users their status and consumption, market share, and growth rate.The end user applications covered in this report include: Consumer Electronics Medical Electronics Avionics Industry OthersBrowse Complete Report at:Table of Content:1 Industry Overview1.1 Image Sensors Industry1.1.1 Overview1.1.2 Development of Image Sensors1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 Upstream1.2.2 Downstream1.3 Cost Analysis2 Industry Environment2.1 Policy2.2 Economics2.3 Sociology2.4 Technology3 Image Sensors Market by Type3.1 By Type3.2 Market Size3.3 Market Forecast4 Major Companies List5 Market Competition5.1 Company Competition5.2 Regional Market by Company6 Market Demand6.1 Demand Situation6.2 Regional Demand Comparison6.3 Demand Forecast7 Region Operation7.1 Regional Production7.2 Regional Market7.3 by Region7.3.1 North America7.3.1.1 Overview7.3.1.2 by Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico)7.3.2 Europe7.3.2.1 Overview7.3.2.2 by Country (Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Russia, Spain etc.)7.3.3 Asia-Pacific7.3.3.1 Overview7.3.3.2 by Country (China, India, Japan, Southeast Asia etc.)7.3.4 South America7.3.4.1 Overview7.3.4.2 by Country (Brazil, Argentina etc.)7.3.5 Middle East & Africa7.3.5.1 Overview7.3.5.2 by Country (Saudi Arabia, South Africa etc.)7.4 Regional Import & Export7.5 Regional Forecast8 Marketing & Price8.1 Price and Margin8.1.1 Price Trends8.1.2 Factors of Price Change8.1.3 Manufacturers Gross Margin Analysis8.2 Marketing Channel9 Research ConclusionAbout Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Information:Hector CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 8846817; +9164101019Email: sales@orbisresearch.com Depth Sensing Market By 2025 With Intel Corporation, Infineon Technologies, TowerJazz, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Sony Depthsensing Solutions, MELEXIS, Crunchbase, VRmagic, Stereolabs, Aquifi, Inc Depth Sensing https://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-depth-sensing-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-depth-sensing-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-depth-sensing-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com The depth sensing market report is a complete overview of the market, covering various aspects product definition, segmentation based on various parameters, and the prevailing vendor landscape. The report is a comprehensive statistical analysis of the markets continuous positive developments, capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and import/export. The global depth sensing market report also contains the drivers and restrains for the market that are derived from SOWT analysis, and also shows what all the recent developments, product launches, joint ventures, merges and accusations by the several key players and brands that are driving the market are by systemic company profiles.The Global market is expected to reach USD 8.07 billion by 2025 from USD 1.32 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.94 % in the forecast period of 2018 to 2025.Get Sample Analysis of This Market Information for Free:Forecasting Analysis On Global Depth Sensing Market By Market Type (Passive, Active), Component (Camera/Lens Module, Sensor, Illuminator), Technology(Time-of-Flight, Structured Light, Stereo Vision), End user industry(Automotive, Driver Monitoring, Building Automation, Consumer Electronics, Robotics, Medical Imaging, Drones, Breathing Analysis), Geographical Segments.The global depth sensing market is highly propelling due to lens and cameras module which raise the better market penetration. A large quantity of power is consumed while capturing the data, processing all the captured data and filtering the data to get the required information. All this process takes place by Sensor. The advent of depth sensors has made it possible to track monocular signs and the real depth values of the environment. Depth sensors are able to extract specification from images with added scope because they have the capacity to measure actual distance data. The renowned players in global depth sensing market are Texas Instruments Incorporated Infineon Technologies AG Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Stereolabs Sony Depthsensing Solutions Intel Corporation Melexis. TowerJazz VRmagic Holding AG AQUIFI ESPROS Photonics Crunchbase Inc.Other Players Are ASUSTeK Computer Inc. , LIPS Corporation ,Primesense, Espros, Sunny Optical Technolog, Erian Vision Technologies , Melexis, Tower semiconductor, Creative, PMD technologies and many more. The global depth sensing market is 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 in order to sustain in long run.Report includes Depth Sensing market shares of market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America. The new market report contains data for historic years 2016, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025. In 2017, Stereo Labs introduced SDK for new samples for SVO recording, playback and export. In 2017, Qualcomm announced depth sensing camera technology for the first time in Android system, which made it useful in computational technology, motion tracking and efficient image signal processing. In 2017, Stereo labs improved its major depth sensing equipment into ZED SDK 2.1 from ZED SDK which brings the positional tracking by adding retrieve camera rotations in degrees or radians.Get TOC For Full Analysis Of Report:Market Drivers and Restraints: Increasing demand in the field of capture video data in 3D under any ambient light conditions. Scanning is raising the demand of depth sensing market. Rising demand for gesture control, face recognition, virtual reality and augmented reality. Difficulty in managing all the captured facts and figures and filtering the data. Distortion due to high cost of establishment.Market Segmentation: Global Depth Sensing Market The market is based on Market type Component Technology End user industry Geographical segments Based on market type, the market is segmented into Passive Active Based on component type, the market is segmented into Camera/lens module Sensor Illuminator Based on technology type, the market is segmented into Time-of-flight Structured light Stereo vision Based on end user industry, the market is segmented into Automotive Driver monitoring Building automation Consumer electronics Robotics Medical imaging Drones Breathing analysis Based on geography, the market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. Some of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Brazil among others.Want Full Report? Enquire Here:About UsData Bridge set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with an 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.Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. Get Customization and Discount on Report by emailing sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com . We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.Contact UsData Bridge Market ResearchToll Free: +1-888-387-2818Mail: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com Advanced Analytics Market Forecast To 2025 With Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, IBM, SAP, Intel Corporation, SAS, Welltok, Inc. , General Vision, Inc. Advanced Analytics Market Analysis 2018 http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-advanced-analytics-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-advanced-analytics-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-advanced-analytics-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-business-intelligence-market/ http://databridgemarketresearch.com The advanced analytics market report is a window to the industry which identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the market. The report provides with CAGR value fluctuation during the forecast period of 2018-2025 for the market. The base year for calculation in the report is taken as 2017 the historic year is 2016 which will tell you how the advanced analytics market is going to perform in the forecast years by informing you what the market definition, classifications, applications, and engagements are.The global market accounted for USD 7.56 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 33.8% the forecast period of 2018 to 2025.Get Sample Analysis of This Market Information for Free:Forecasting Analysis on Global Advanced Analytics Market By Banking & Financial Services (Regulatory Reforms, others), By Telecom & IT Services (Cell Site Optimization, others), By Healthcare (Financial Performance & Monitoring, others), By Government and Defense (Scenario Planning ,others), By Transportation and Logistics (Supply Chain Planning, others), Consumer Goods and Retail ( Customer Insight, others) and By Geographical Segments.Advanced analytics is the analysis of wide range of information by using sophisticated quantitative techniques. For instance, statistics, descriptive and predictive data mining, simulation and optimization to deliver bits of knowledge to deal with business intelligence (BI) Advanced analytics offers to a wide scope of analytics that are expected to give organizations more prominent understanding into their information. A part of these methods are incorporated in machine learning, data mining, predictive analytics, location analytics, big data analytics and location intelligence. Various organizations offer software packages that perform advanced analytics. In simpler words, advanced analytics is used to forecast the future outcomes of any business industry. The renowned players market are Welltok, Inc. Intel Corporation Google Inc. IBM Corporation Microsoft Corporation General Vision Enlitic, Inc. Next IT Corporation iCarbonX Amazon Web Services Apple Facebook Inc. SAS SAP OracleOthers: Knime, Statsoft, Angoss, RapidMiner, Dell, FICO, HP, Information Builders, Pitney Bowes, Prognoz, Revolution Analytics, Teradata, Accretive Technologies among others. The global advanced analytics market is 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 in order to sustain in long run. The report includes market shares of advanced analytics market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.Advanced analytics totally depends upon any computer-based analytical technique that relies both on current software technology and expertise of the analyst. PCs are equipped for playing a solid role, however they are constrained. Despite the fact that they can analyze far more profound than humans, they should be guided by a learned client to expand their execution. A similar idea applies to examination. A special analyst can take the application capacities found in analytics software like SAS or IBMs SPSS modeler and do profitable investigation that couldnt be performed by the product alone or even with a run of the mill end client. According to Kirk Borne, Principal Data Scientist and Executive Advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton, IoT (internet of things) along with artificial intelligence will dominate the world in the next five years.Get TOC For Full Analysis Of Report:Market Drivers and Restraints: Increasing demand to counter big data challenges. Increasing need to address vertical specific challenges. Deployment of solutions over cloud. Due to extensive data generation, enterprises need advanced analytics solutions to automate the process. High implementation cost. Technical faults can happen during upgradation.Market Segmentation: Global Advanced Analytics Market The global advanced analytics market is based on Banking and financial services Telecom and it services Healthcare Government and defense Transportation and logistics Consumer goods and retail Geographical segments By banking and financial services, the market is segmented into Regulatory reforms, Customer profitability, Operational efficiency, Risk management, Credit risk analysis, Fraud detection and management, Budgeting and planning and process optimization. By telecom and IT services, the market is segmented into Targeting offer and campaign management Cell site optimization Revenue assurance Customer profitability analysis Network dynamics and congestion control Social network analysis By healthcare, the market is segmented into predictive modeling, financial performance and monitoring and fraud detection and management. By government and defense, the market is segmented into fraud detection and management, defense health and scenario planning. By transportation and logistics, the market is segmented into inventory optimization, supply chain planning, sales and operational planning and quality lifecycle management. By consumer goods and retail, the market is segmented into price optimization, customer insight, planning and organization, merchandize planning and size optimization. Based on geography the market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. Some of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Brazil among others.Want Full Report? Enquire Here:Reasons to Purchase this Report Current and future of the global advanced analytics market outlook in the developed and emerging markets The segment that is expected to dominate the advanced analytics market as well as the segment which holds highest CAGR in the forecast period. Regions/countries that are expected to witness the fastest growth rates during the forecast period The advanced analytics latest developments, market shares, and strategies that are employed by the major market playersCustomization of the Report The advanced analytics report includes the complete segmentation displayed above across all above mentioned countries All products covered in the market, product volume and average selling prices will be included as customizable options which may incur no or minimal additional cost (depends on customization)Related Report:The Global Business Intelligence Market accounted for USD 18.2 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 10.3% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The market report contains data for historic year 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Visit:About UsData Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. Get Customization and Discount on Report by emailing sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com . We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.Contact UsData Bridge Market ResearchToll Free: +1-888-387-2818Mail: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com Dynamic Application Security Testing Market Growing Swiftly during 2018-2024 - Veracode, Pradeo, Rapid7, Micro Focus, Synopsys, Tieto, White Hat Security, and Trustwave https://www.marketstudyreport.com/enquiry-before-buying/1247170/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/table-of-content/1247170/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/dynamic-application-security-testing-dast-market https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog Market Study Report adds global Dynamic Application Security Testing market report that gives meticulous investigation of current scenario of the market size, share, demand, growth, trends, companies active in the industry and forecasts for the coming years.Web-based application security testing is the dominant segment across the application landscape of DAST market, owing to a growing number of organizations embracing DAST solutions to protect their digital assets from likely vulnerabilities and malicious activities. DAST market share from mobile application security testing however, is expected to garner massive demand in 2018-2024 due to escalating penetration of mobile phones and cloud services.Enquiry Before Buying @Dynamic Application Security Testing Market Report Quick Rundown:Vendors discussed with company profiles, details on their offerings, contact information and more include:The most renowned players in the global DAST market include Accenture, IBM, Veracode, Pradeo, Rapid7, Micro Focus, Synopsys, Tieto, White Hat Security, and Trustwave. Indeed, these market leaders undertake strategic partnerships to expand their product range and enhance their customer base. For instance, HCL and IBM joined forces to spark growth and facilitate advancement in the application security domain. Likewise, recently White Hat Security joined hands with Risk Sense for application security risk administration in a bid to automate business impact evaluation of web vulnerabilities, management, and scoring.It is prudent to mention that industries like IT & telecom, BFSI, retail, and healthcare are leveraging the power of DAST technology to guard their business against cyber-attacks. Apparently, BFSI is the prime end-user of the DAST market attributed to digitization and surge in demand for online banking and mobile banking. With a growing number of business applications, application security becomes inevitable. DAST market from the healthcare space is also anticipated to grow at a commendable pace owing to the robust deployment of DAST for security and safety in healthcare applications.Speaking about the geographical outlook, North America is projected to lead the global market owing to rising instances of breaches in private organizations & government networks. To mitigate these risks, private and public organizations are joining forces with security companies. A classic example worth mentioning is that of IBM and Cisco where they both collaborated to manage cyber threats. As a part of this venture, Cisco incorporated its security solutions with QRadar of IBM, an enterprise safety solution to safeguard organizations across endpoints, cloud, and networks.Get Full Table of Content @Asia Pacific DAST market is expected to exhibit unparalleled growth in future, which will be fueled by the rapid advancement in IT infrastructure and digitization drives in the region. In the face of growing application related problems, the security solution vendors in the region strive to encounter the challenges and ascending data vulnerabilities. Last year, Promon and SecureMetric collaborated to support organizations in Southeast Asia to escalate data protection and lessen data breaches by shielding the mobile phone applications. Furthermore, with the budding software application milieu, the necessity of competent processes for quality assurance and security has augmented in the app development lifecycle.Know More 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: Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market Impact of Existing and Emerging Flexible Trends and Top Key Players (Cisco, Lockheed Martin, The Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, BAE Systems, Thales, Elbit Systems) | Global Forecasts 2018 2022 Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market https://www.businessindustryreports.com/sample-request/111960 https://www.businessindustryreports.com/buy-now/111960/single https://www.businessindustryreports.com/check-discount/111960 Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market Report 2018 report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving Revenue growth and profitability. The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry Analysis of the key factors influencing the market.Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market Overview:The report spread across 99 pages is an overview of the Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market Report 2018. The Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market is projected to grow at a healthy growth rate from 2018 to 2022 according to new research. The study focuses on market trends, leading players, supply chain trends, technological innovations, key developments, and future strategies.Available Exclusive Sample Copy of this Report @This report studies the Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market over the forecast period of 2018 to 2022. The Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market is expected to grow at an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2018 to 2022. This growth can be attributed to the increasing number of wars and transnational disputes, growing need for timely and accurate information in the battlefield, and huge investments by countries for technological advancements of defense equipment to improve the communication systems of defense forces.The Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market is segmented on the basis of Application, Platform, Mission Type, Communication Network, Architecture and Region. On the basis of Application segment, the ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) sub-segment of Application is estimated to dominate the Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market in 2016. Procurement of radar in high quantities by defense and military of different countries, and partnership programs for defense satellite communications among European countries are the major factors that are expected to contribute to the growth of the ISR market.On the basis of regional analysis, the North America region is estimated to dominate the Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market in 2016. The APAC region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Procurement of defense electronics and communication systems by defense forces of APAC countries for military equipment upgradation is expected to fuel the growth of this market.Purchase this report online with 99 Pages, List of Tables & Figures and in-depth Table of Contents on Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market Report 2018 @Major Key Players:1 Cisco Systems Inc2 Lockheed Martin Corporation3 The Raytheon Company4 Rockwell Collins, Inc5 BAE Systems PLC6 Northrop Grumann Corporation7 Thales Group8 General Dynamics Corporation9 Elbit Systems Ltd and More...............Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers1 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 @This study answers to the below key questions:1 What will the market size be in 2022 and what will the growth rate be?2 What are the key market trends?3 What are the challenges to market growth?4 Who are the key players in this market?5 What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key players?In the end, this report covers data and information on capacity and production overview, production, market share analysis, sales overview, supply, sales, and shortage, import, export and consumption as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market.Major Points in Table of Contents:Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market Report 20181 Industry Overview of Network Centric Warfare (NCW)2 Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles4 Global Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)5 United States Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Development Status and Outlook6 EU Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Development Status and Outlook8 China Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Development Status and Outlook9 India Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2018-2022)12 Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixAbout usBusinessindustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for Europe 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 Catheters Market Forecast to Grow at 7.37% CAGR to 2025 https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-catheters-market/request-for-free-sample https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-catheters-market/inquire-before-buying https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-catheters-market/ www.polarismarketresearch.com The global catheters market is anticipated to reach USD 56.5 billion by 2025. In 2017, by product type, cardiovascular catheter segment captures the largest market shares in terms of revenue and hold major share in the market. Regionally, North America accounted for the major share in the catheter market.The global catheters market is valued at USD 32.01 billion in 2017 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 7.37% during the forecast period.Request For Table Of Content @Major key Player:-Johnson & Johnson Inc.Abbott LaboratoriesBectonDickson and CompanyB. Braun Melsungen AG.Medtronic plc.Boston Scientific CorporationCook Group IncorporatedTeleflex IncorporatedCardinal Health Inc.Smiths MedicalArrow International Inc.Edward Life Science CorporationColoplast.Catheters are thin tubes made up of plastic, nylon, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and silicon rubber. Catheters are majorly used in catheterization while surgical procedures like angioplasty, and neurosurgery. The catheters market is primarily driven by continuous growth in the population suffering from cardiovascular disorders and diabetes. Presently, various countries showed the growth in number of patients suffering from hypertension and diabetes which is braced by factors such as smoking, drinking and sedentary lifestyle of the population. In addition, favorable reimbursement policies, increasing demand for minimal invasive surgeries, and technological advanced catheter with high effectiveness by its use would spur the global catheter market during the forecast period. on other hand, the wide application of catheter in various surgeries such as angioplasty would also push this market. The reimbursements by the Medicaid program that provide approximately 100 catheters per month to add the growth of catheter market in the future.Make an Inquiry for purchasing this Report @Cardiovascular Catheters, holds a major share in the global catheter market. The cardiovascular catheter market is further segmented as PTCA balloon catheters, IVUS catheters, PTA balloon catheters, electrophysiological catheters, and others. The growth of cardiovascular catheters is majorly driven by the increasing incidences of cardiovascular diseases supporting the growth of cardiovascular interventional procedures. While, urological catheter holds the second largest segment with largest revenue. The factors contributing for the growth of urological market are continuous technological advancements, and increasing prevalence of urological diseases in the coming year.Geographically, North America holds a dominating position in the global catheter market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. The growth in the North America catheter market is driven by the presence of refined health infrastructure, high volume of catheterization in medical procedures, high healthcare expenditure by the individuals, and high level of patient awareness about the use catheters. Whereas, Asia Pacific is expected to reach remarkable growth owning to the increased penetration rate of these devices in the developing countries, growing technological advancements pertaining the development of new-catheter devices, and improving healthcare expenditure would influence the catheter market in Asia Pacific during the forecast period.Browse Report Summery @Key Findings from the study suggest products available in the market are continuously concentrating on the technological advancements that will reduce the side effects caused by the use of catheters. The leading companies while developing new products considers the factors such as increasing disposable income, and untapped market potential. North America is presumed to dominate the global catheter market over the forecast years and Asia Pacific region shows signs of high growth owing to the booming economies of India, and China.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.comWeb: Global Mortar Market 2018 by Top Manufacturers Baumit, Bostik, Knauf, CBP , Caparol , Cemex, HB Fuller, Quick-mix, Dryvit Systems Mortar https://www.researchreportsinc.com/sample-request?id=175520 https://www.researchreportsinc.com/check-discount?id=175520 https://researchreportsinc.com/enquiry?id=175520 https://researchreportsinc.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=175520&&attribute_pa_choose-license=single-user&&quantity=1 The Mortar Market is a functional glue used to tie building squares, for example, stones, blocks, and solid brick work units together, fill and seal the sporadic holes among them, and once in a while include embellishing hues or examples in workmanship dividers. In its broadest sense mortar incorporates Wet Mixed Mortar and Dry Mortar.Leaders Of The Industry :- Saint-Gobain Weber (FR), Materis (FR), Sika (CH), Henkel (FR), Mapei (IT), Sto (DE), Ardex (DE), BASF (DE), Baumit (AT), Bostik (FR), Knauf (DE), CBP (US), Caparol (DE), Cemex (US), HB Fuller (US), Quick-mix (DE), Dryvit Systems (US), Hanil Cement (KR), AdePlast (IT), Forbo (CH), CPI Mortars (UK), Grupo Puma (ES) and so on.The Complete Report Spreads across 179 Pages.Fill The Form To Book A PDF:Furthermore, years considered for the study are as follows:Historical year 2013, 2016Base year 2017Forecast period 2018 to 2023In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the national environmental protection requirements, it has become an urgent task of the local building authorities to promote the use of Mortar. One key factor that has been driving the demand is the ability of these products to save labor costs. With the use of specialized application equipment, substantial improvement in workmen efficiency and output has been reported due to the use of these products.From the historical experience of developed countries in Europe and America, the Dry Mortar is mainstream and trend of ready-mixed mortar market. In Europe, Dry Mortar occupies more than 90% of all the mortar products.Currently, the global Mortar market is gradually shifting to Asia, especially China market is a top priority. Demand for building mortar should be 350-600 million tons and the production of Mortar is only 6% of the demand. But the most challenge for China Mortar market is the high production capacity and low utilization. With the investment growth of real estate slow down, the growth of Mortar will keep a decreasing trend in future.Grab Discount at :-Segmentation by product type:Wet Mixed MortarDry MortarSegmentation by application:Construction IndustryHome Decoration IndustryOthersHave Any Query? Ask Our Experts at :-Table of Contents2018-2023 Global Mortar Consumption Market Report1 Scope of the Report1.1 Market Introduction1.2 Research Objectives1.3 Years Considered1.4 Market Research Methodology1.5 Economic Indicators1.6 Currency Considered2 Executive Summary2.1 World Market Overview2.1.1 Global Mortar Consumption 2013-20232.1.2 Mortar Consumption CAGR by Region2.2 Mortar Segment by Type2.2.1 Electrical Polisher2.2.2 Pneumatic Polisher2.3 Mortar Consumption by Type2.3.1 Global Mortar Consumption Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3.2 Global Mortar Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3.3 Global Mortar Sale Price by Type (2013-2018)2.4 Mortar Segment by Application2.4.1 Automotive Repair Shop2.4.2 Automotive Care Shop2.4.3 Others2.5 Mortar Consumption by Application2.5.1 Global Mortar Consumption Market Share by Application (2013-2018)2.5.2 Global Mortar Value and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)2.5.3 Global Mortar Sale Price by Application (2013-2018)We Also Can Offer Customized Report To Fulfill Special Requirements Of Our Clients.Purchase this Premium Report at :-3 Global Mortar by Players3.1 Global Mortar Sales Market Share by Players3.1.1 Global Mortar Sales by Players (2016-2018)3.1.2 Global Mortar Sales Market Share by Players (2016-2018)3.2 Global Mortar Revenue Market Share by Players3.2.1 Global Mortar Revenue by Players (2016-2018)3.2.2 Global Mortar Revenue Market Share by Players (2016-2018)3.3 Global Mortar Sale Price by Players3.4 Global Mortar Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types by Players3.4.1 Global Mortar Manufacturing Base Distribution and Sales Area by Players3.4.2 Players Mortar Products Offered3.5 Market Concentration Rate Analysis3.5.1 Competition Landscape Analysis3.5.2 Concentration Ratio (CR3, CR5 and CR10) (2016-2018)3.6 New Products and Potential Entrants3.7 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion4 Mortar by Regions4.1 Mortar by Regions4.1.1 Global Mortar Consumption by Regions4.1.2 Global Mortar Value by Regions4.2 Americas Mortar Consumption Growth4.3 APAC Mortar Consumption Growth4.4 Europe Mortar Consumption Growth4.5 Middle East & Africa Mortar Consumption Growth5 Americas5.1 Americas Mortar Consumption by Countries5.1.1 Americas Mortar Consumption by Countries (2013-2018)5.1.2 Americas Mortar Value by Countries (2013-2018)5.2 Americas Mortar Consumption by Type5.3 Americas Mortar Consumption by Application5.4 United States5.5 Canada5.6 Mexico5.7 Key Economic Indicators of Few Americas CountriesAbout Us:Research Reports Inc. is one of the leading destinations for market research reports across all industries, companies, and technologies. Our repository features an exhaustive list of market research reports from thousands of publishers worldwideWith our expertise and research offerings, we ensure we deliver on all your requirements, whether youre looking for industry analysis or market trends or anything else, first time and every time!Email us sales@researchreportsinc.comCall: US / Canada Toll Free: +18554192424, UK : +4403308087757 Cord Blood Banking Services Market Expected to Reach $2,772 Million by 2023 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/cord-blood-banking-services-market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/get-discount/111 www.alliedmarketresearch.com According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, Cord Blood Banking Services Market by Storage Services: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023," the global cord blood banking services market accounted for $1,126 million in 2016, and is estimated to reach at $2,772 million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 13.8% from 2017 to 2023. North America was the highest revenue contributor in the global market in 2016; however, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period.Access Full Summary at:Umbilical cord blood is collected from the nursing homes and hospitals post the delivery of a baby. This blood contains a large amount of stem cells, which can be used to treat various diseases. The public cord blood banks are operated by the non-profit organizations with the help of government funding, which are donated by families after the delivery of baby. This donated cord blood is available for multiple applications such as for research purposes and treatment of genetic diseases.The private cord blood banks are privately owned banks where the parents can store the cord blood of newborn for future use such as for treatment of certain chronic disease. In private banks, charges are incurred for the collection, processing, and storage of cord blood. Thus, the public cord blood banks possess competitive advantages in developed regions such as North America and Europe.The cord blood banking services market is expected to witness a moderate growth during the forecast period. The key drivers for the market growth are adoption of novel marketing strategies by key players, increase in R&D activities for application of cord blood, and rise in funding for establishment of public cord blood storage banks. However, high cost associated with the processing, difficulty in finding a match in the donor list of public cord blood banks, and legal & ethical issues related to collection of cord blood are expected to hamper this growth. Conversely, advancement in the stem cell therapeutics and presence of untapped potential in the developing and developed regions are expected to provide various opportunities to the cord blood banking services.The private cord blood banks segment occupied a dominant part of the market in 2016, and is expected to grow at the highest rate. This is attributable to the better service provided by the private banks to their customers, guarantee of storing the cord blood for a specified period, and immediate retrieval of the cord blood when required for treatment of any genetic disease.In 2016, North America accounted for maximum contribution to the total revenue generated, owing to the market maturity, high awareness among the expectant parents, presence of high disposable income, and high adoption rate of cord blood storage services. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth during the analysis period, attributable to rise in awareness related to the benefits of storing cord blood, increase in focus of key players to expand their services, and rise in disposable income.Key Findings of the Cord Blood Banking Services Market: The private cord blood bank segment is anticipated to grow at the highest rate during the analysis period. Germany was the highest revenue-generating country in the European market in 2016, and is expected to continue its dominance during the forecast period. In 2016, North America dominated global cord blood banking services market, and is estimated to continue this trend in the near future. China is expected to grow at the highest rate in the Asia-Pacific region. Latin America was the largest contributor in the LAMEA region.The key companies profiled in the report include China Cord Blood Corporation, Cord Blood America, Inc., CBR Systems, Inc., Cordlife Group Limited, Cryo-Cell International, Inc., Cryo-Save AG, Lifeforce Cryobanks, National Cord Blood Program, ViaCord, Inc., Virgin Health Bank, CordVida, Americord, CryoHoldco, and Vita34.Check offers and discount on this report @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:David Correa5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free (USA/Canada):+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1?855?550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Male Infertility Market is Expected to Reach $301.5 Million, Globally, by 2020 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/241 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/get-discount/241 www.alliedmarketresearch.com Male Infertility Market Report, published by Allied Market Research, forecasts that the global market is expected to garner $301.5 million by 2020, registering a CAGR of 5% during the period 2014-2020."Geographically, male infertility is segmented in to North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and RoW. The geographic market would be dominated by the North American region by 2020. This is due to the increased adoption of newer techniques such as DNA fragmentation in the routine analysis test for male infertility. The Asia Pacific and RoW region are expected to have the highest CAGR during the analysis period. This is due to the increase in male infertility awareness and rising awareness about the treatments that are available."Request sample copy of this report @Infertility in male is characterized by various infertility related problems such as low sperm count, presence of low motile sperm or azoospermia. The various causes of male infertility include stress, consumption of alcohol or drugs, smoking, obesity, environmental toxins, etc. These factors also act as driving factors of the male infertility market. When an individual is diagnosed with infertility, the person undergoes immense stress, embarrassment and guilt, which would further intensify the infertility problem. This is a major limitation of this market. The opportunity for the growth of this market is the increase in awareness levels among men and rising trend in medical tourism.The male infertility market is segmented based on techniques, namely DNA fragmentation, oxidative stress analysis, sperm agglutination test, sperm penetration test, microscopic examination, computer assisted semen analysis and others. The DNA fragmentation would be the highest revenue generating market by 2020 and is also expected to have the highest CAGR during the analysis period, when compared to the other segments in the techniques market. This is due to the accuracy level the test provides in identifying the level of infertility by measuring the level of DNA damage.The key companies profiled in the report are ASKA Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, ZydusCadila Healthcare Limited, Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Pantarhei Bioscience B, Cordex Pharma, Inc., Merck Serono, Halotech DNA SL, SCSA diagnostics, Andrology Solutions.Male Infertility Market Segments covered in the report:By Techniques DNA Fragmentation Technique Oxidative Stress Analysis Microscopic Examination Sperm Penetration Assay Sperm Agglutination Computer Assisted Semen Analysis OthersBy Geography North America Europe Asia Pacific RoWCheck offers and discount on this report @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:David Correa5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free (USA/Canada):+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1?855?550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Pancreatic Stents Market Global Analysis By Key Players- Olympus Corporation, ConMed Corporation, ENDO-FLEX GmbH, Diagmed Healthcare Ltd. Pancreatic Stents Market Global Analysis By Key Players- Olympus Corporation, ConMed Corporation, ENDO-FLEX GmbH, Diagmed Healthca https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/8837 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/8837 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/request_for_discount/8837 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/buy/pancreatic-stents-market www.upmarketresearch.com UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Pancreatic Stents Market Industry 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 exhibits on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Pancreatic Stents global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2018 - 2023.Get FREE Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of This Report @Pancreatic Stents 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 Pancreatic Stents 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.For more information @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 Pancreatic Stents market industry analysis & forecast 2018-2025 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region-wise Analysis Global Pancreatic Stents Market covers: North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The key players covered in this study Boston Scientific Corporation C. R. Bard Merit Medical Systems, Inc. Cook Group Incorporated Becton Dickinson and Company Cantel Medical Corporation Olympus Corporation ConMed Corporation ENDO-FLEX GmbH Diagmed Healthcare Ltd.Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Straight Pancreatic Stents Wedge Pancreatic Stents Curved Pancreatic StentsGuaranteed Discount On This Report@Market segment by Application, split into Hospitals Ambulatory Surgical Centers Long Term Palliative Care CentersThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Study Coverage Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Market Size by Manufacturers Chapter 4 Welding Transformer Production by Regions Chapter 5 Welding Transformer 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 Value Chain and Sales Channels Analysis Chapter 12 Market Opportunities & Challenges, Risks and Influences Factors Analysis Chapter 13 Key Findings in the Global Welding Transformer Study Chapter 14 AppendixTo buy this report directly and get it in PDF format within 24 hours, please visit@Global Pancreatic Stents 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 Pancreatic Stents 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 Pancreatic Stents 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 Digital storage device Market: Leading Players Lenovo, SanDisk Corporation, Transcend Information, Sony Corporation, Seagate Technology and Forecast 2025 Digital storage device Market Size http://www.supplydemandmarketresearch.com/home/contact/53676?ref=Sample-and-Brouchure&toccode=SDMREL53676 http://www.supplydemandmarketresearch.com/home/toc_publisher/53676?code=SDMREL53676#Report_Highlights http://www.supplydemandmarketresearch.com/ Data storage device is a computing hardware that is used to store, port and extract data files and objects. Data storage devices are one of the core components of a computing device. It works as a storage medium which can be attached to a computer or a server, internally or externally.Global Digital storage device Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors. The report also covers import/export data across all major regions covered in this reportRequest For The Sample Copy:Nearly half of the total device vendors are concentrated in North America providing digital storage devices for laptops, desktops, and portable storage. These vendors comprise a large market of storage device manufacturers. One of the major factors contributing to the growth of digital storage devices is the higher adoption of flash storage and rising penetration of smartphones with higher capacity storage. North America, due to early adoption of this technology, has experienced a high market share in digital storage devices market.The Digital storage device market was valued at Million US$ in 2017 and is projected to reach Million US$ by 2025, at a CAGR of during the forecast period. In this study, 2017 has been considered as the base year and 2018 to 2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Digital storage device.The following manufacturers are covered in this report: Lenovo SanDisk Corporation Transcend Information Sony Corporation Seagate Technology Toshiba Corporation Western Digital Kingston Technology Intel Corporation Samsung ElectronicsDigital storage device Breakdown Data by Type Hard Disk Drives (HDD) Solid State Drives (SSD) Memory Cards Floppy Disks Optical Disk Drives USB Flash DrivesDigital storage device Breakdown Data by Application PC Mobile OthersBrowse Complete Report:Digital storage device Production by RegionUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanOther RegionsThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze global Digital storage device status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.To present the Digital storage device development in United States, Europe and China.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.Table of Contents1 Study Coverage1.1 Digital storage device Product1.2 Key Market Segments in This Study1.3 Key Manufacturers Covered1.4 Market by Type1.4.1 Global Digital storage device Market Size Growth Rate by Type1.4.2 Hard Disk Drives (HDD)1.4.3 Solid State Drives (SSD)1.4.4 Memory Cards1.4.5 Floppy Disks1.4.6 Optical Disk Drives1.4.7 USB Flash Drives1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Digital storage device Market Size Growth Rate by Application1.5.2 PC1.5.3 Mobile1.5.4 Others1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Executive Summary2.1 Global Digital storage device Market Size2.1.1 Global Digital storage device Revenue 2013-20252.1.2 Global Digital storage device Production 2013-20252.2 Digital storage device Growth Rate (CAGR) 2018-20252.3 Analysis of Competitive Landscape2.3.1 Manufacturers Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)2.3.2 Key Digital storage device Manufacturers2.3.2.1 Digital storage device Manufacturing Base Distribution, Headquarters2.3.2.2 Manufacturers Digital storage device Product Offered2.3.2.3 Date of Manufacturers Enter into Digital storage device Market2.4 Key Trends for Digital storage device Markets & ProductsToc Continued!List of Tables and Figures Figure Digital storage device Product Picture Table Digital storage device Key Market Segments in This Study Table Key Manufacturers Digital storage device Covered in This Study Table Global Digital storage device Market Size Growth Rate by Type 2018-2025 (K Units) & (Million US$) Figure Global Digital storage device Production Market Share 2013-2025And MoreAbout Us:We have a strong network of high powered and experienced global consultants who have about 10+ years of experience in the specific industry to deliver quality research and analysis.Having such an experienced network, our services not only cater to the client who wants the basic reference of market numbers and related high growth areas in the demand side, but also we provide detailed and granular information using which the client can definitely plan the strategies with respect to both supply and demand side.302-20 Misssisauga Valley, Missisauga,L5A 3S1, TorontoContact UsEmail- sales@supplydemandmarketresearch.comWebsite-Phone Number: +1-778-686-7521 Global Orthopedic Prosthetics Market Revenue & Growth Analysis Report 2018-2025 with Top Branded Key Players Stryker, Ossur, Ottobock, MatOrtho Orthopedic Prosthetics https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/8937 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/request_for_discount/8937 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/8937 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/buy/orthopedic-prosthetics-market https://www.upmarketresearch.com The latest report published on Up Market Research, on Orthopedic Prosthetics Market Analysis offers comprehensive analysis, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. The report covers detailed Orthopedic Prosthetics Market analysis by Product, Application, Region, Major Player, Market Size, Share, Trends, Growth and Forecast 2018-2025.Get FREE Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of This Report @The Orthopedic Prosthetics Market report published on Up Market Research is spread across 106 pages and provides an overview of the 20182025 of Orthopedic Prosthetics Market Research Report by Product Type, End-User / Application and Regions / Countries. The Global Orthopedic Prosthetics Market is projected to grow at a healthy growth rate from 2018 to 2025 according to new research. The study focuses on market trends, leading players, supply chain trends, technological innovations, key developments, and future strategies.Orthopedic Prosthetics Market Analysis Report provides an overview of the various factors enabling growth in the market. It also presents insights into various restraints that pose threat and highlights opportunities that will help the market pick pace in the forthcoming years. The report compiles exhaustive information obtained via proven research methodologies and from trusted sources from within the industries. It also includes expert opinions to provide readers a clearer perspective regarding the global market. The report also discusses the strategies implemented by the key companies to maintain their hold on the industry. The business overview and financial overview of each of the companies have been analyzed.Get Best Discount Offers @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaKey Companies profiled in this report includes,OttobockJohnson & JohnsonArthrexTouch BionicsEndoliteOhio Willow WoodMatOrthoStrykerOssurMarket Size Split by TypeUpper ProsthesisLower ProsthesisMarket Size Split by ApplicationDisabled ChildrenDisabled AdultFor More Information Click @The micro and macroeconomic factors influencing the growth of the market are covered in the detailed study of the Orthopedic Prosthetics Market Analysis Report published on Up Market Research. Furthermore, the prime strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors dominant in the market have been analyzed on the basis of SWOT analysis. The technological advancements taking place in this market have been presented by detailing their impact on the growth of the market.The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the Orthopedic Prosthetics Market capacity, production, value, consumption, status and forecast (2018-2025).Focuses on the key Orthopedic Prosthetics Market manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, mergers and acquisitions in the market.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.To Buy This Report Click @In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Orthopedic Prosthetics are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025Customization 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:Up Market Research () 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 Greek Yogurt Market: Key Growth Factor, Industry Analysis 2016 - 2026 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1308 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1308 Currently, greek yogurt is one of the most popular dairy products across the globe. Since greek yogurt is prepared through the straining process in order to separate the yogurt from the excess watery whey, it is also known as strained yogurt. The straining process makes the yogurt much thicker and creamier as compared to the regular or traditional yogurt. Greek yogurt contributes significantly to the growth of the global yogurt market. This is mainly attributed to its benefits such as higher protein and lower carbohydrates value as compare to traditional yogurt. Presently, greek yogurt is the highest growing product category among others including regular yogurt and yogurt drinks and second holds largest market share in terms of revenue, after traditional yogurt in the overall yogurt market. Demand for greek yogurt market is expected to increase in the next five to six forecast years owing to increasing lunch of new product with variety of flavours such as blueberry, vanilla, honey, chocolate and others.Global Greek Yogurt Market Segmentation:On the basis of product type, the global greek yogurt market is segmented into regular greek yogurt and non-fat greek yogurt, which is made from skim milk. Owing to increase the consumption of fat free and healthy products, non-fat greek yogurt products are gaining increasing popularity among the consumers.Request sample:On the basis of distribution channel, the global greek yogurt market is segmented into supermarket/ hypermarket, grocery stores, convenience stores, and online retailing. In terms of revenue contribution, supermarket / hypermarket is expected to hold the highest share among all the other segments. However, online retail for global greek yogurt market witnesses steady growth in the forecasted years. This is attributed to increasing visibility of greek yogurt especially through online retailing.Geographically, global greek yogurt market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, and Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America and Western Europe are the two most lucrative market for greek yogurt in the world. In North America around half of the yogurt sold is greek yogurt.Global Greek Yogurt Market Dynamics:Increase in health consciousness among consumer has led to shift in eating preference towards healthy and nutrition food products. Availability of high nutritional value, which includes high protein, probiotics, vitamin such as vitamin D, B12, minerals such as potassium, iodine and calcium in greek yogurt is key factor that has led to increased adoption of greek yogurt among consumers and thus, fuelling the global greek yogurt market growth.Increasing application of greek yogurt is another growth driver for greek yogurt market since it is used for various medium in different countries. For instance, in Mediterranean region greek yogurt is mainly used as savoury but in the US, Mexico and Canada it is used as sweet snack with added fruits and flavours. Greek yogurt is also used in making many sauces for instance beef and lamb sauces. Greek yogurt is also used as a substitute products, for instance it is used as a substitute product for sour cream, cream cheese and butter. Thus, increasing its application among food products.Among dairy products, greek yogurt is a good option for the consumers who have slight lactose intolerance, since in the production process much of the lactose is removed from the greek yogurt. This leads to drive the scope of greek yogurt among such consumers globally. However, high lactose intolerance is restrain for adoption of greek yogurt, thus restricting the market growth. There is a high opportunity to expand and increase the revenue for greek yogurt in the Asia Pacific excluding japan and Middle East countries.Global Greek Yogurt Market Key Players:Some of the key players operating in the global greek yogurt market are Chobani LLC, Stonyfield Farm, Inc, FAGE International S.A., GROUPE DANONE, and General Mills, Inc. Owing to have strong distribution and marketing strategies companies are able to meet the increasing demand for global greek yogurt.Request TOC:ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705 Amazon said it expects to hire 2,000 people in the Portland area this fall as it opens new warehouses and delivery centers and gears up for the busy holiday shopping season. The company will hold a job fair Thursday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. at its new distribution warehouse in Troutdale, 1250 N.W. Swigert Way. Applicants must be at least 18 years old, have a high school degree or the equivalent, and documents showing they are eligible to work in the United States. Amid mounting criticism of its wage and labor practices, Amazon announced last week it will pay hourly workers at all its U.S. facilities at least $15 an hour. -- Mike Rogoway It took Portland Police four years to complete a child pornography case against a Roosevelt High teacher after a student reported that the teacher had filmed him in the bathroom. A grand jury indicted Phillip Taylor Lancaster, 35, last week on 13 felony counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree. The indictment accuses Lancaster of making and attempting to sell eight pornographic videos and five pornographic photos of a child. None of the images involve a Roosevelt High student, Brent Weisberg, a spokesman for the Multnomah County District Attorney's office told The Oregonian/OregonLive. The 13 videos and still photographs referenced in the charges do not reflect all of the images found during the investigation, he said. Because the search warrants remain sealed, the district attorney's office cannot comment on the total number found, Weisberg said. Phillip Taylor Lancaster In 2014, a Roosevelt High student told school officials that Lancaster, then a language teacher, filmed him in the school bathroom, school district spokesman Harry Esteve said. A school resource officer immediately responded, interviewed the teacher and the student and confiscated the phone, he said. The phone contained pornographic images of what appeared to be minors, Esteve said. Weisberg said Tuesday that prosecutors determined they could not file charges against Lancaster for filming the Roosevelt student because too much time had passed before police brought the case to the district attorney's office. The statute of limitations on those charges, he said, had run out. It's unclear why it took so long to make a case. Sgt. Chris Burley, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, told The Oregonian/OregonLive he had reached out to the detective but was unable to get a response before the end of his work day Tuesday. The district attorney's office acted on the case as soon as it hit their desks, which was last month, Weisberg said. Lancaster's attorney, Joshua Pond, also expressed confusion at the delay. "There was quite an active investigation in the beginning for the first couple of years," Pond said. "But then nothing came of it and then suddenly there was an indictment." Lancaster, who lives in Beaverton, was put on leave as soon as the images were discovered, Esteve said. He never taught again in Portland Public Schools and resigned effective January 2015. But his teaching license remained in good standing until it expired in October 2015, state records show. Pond said he had little information on the case. He accompanied his client to self-surrender at the Multnomah County Jail as soon as they found out about the indictment this week, he said. Lancaster entered a not guilty plea at a Tuesday arraignment and has since been released on $26,000 bail. Pond did not know Lancaster's current employment, but said it was not in education. District officials notified the agency that licenses Oregon teachers about Lancaster in 2014, as was required, said district public records officer Ryan Vandehey. The licensing agency did not immediately respond for a request to comment. State investigators for that agency often wait for criminal cases to wrap up before performing their own teacher discipline investigation. Bethany Barnes Got a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com Portland Public Schools' failed legal battle to keep secret who it puts on paid leave will cost more than $200,000, according to school district estimates. In 2016, journalist Beth Slovic and parent Kim Sordyl made public records requests for the school district's list of employees who are on paid administrative leave. Oregon law requires that anyone be allowed to see government documents unless the law specifically deems those records private. The school district had released its list of employees on paid leave in the past, but this time it refused. At the time, Slovic was writing hard-hitting articles that exposed how the district kept employees on paid leave, sometimes for years. Slovic and Sordyl appealed the school district's denial to Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill. In a detailed decision, his office agreed the records were public under the law and ordered Portland Public Schools to promptly release the information. Instead, Portland Public Schools chose to sue the requesters. School district officials said at the time they sued because they needed to have definitive court guidance on the matter, not to be vindictive. The decision to sue the women was made before Guadalupe Guerrero became superintendent and three new members of the school board took office. The school district lawyer who denied the initial public records requests has since left Portland Public Schools. Portland Public Schools lost the case in May when a judge ruled the records are public and must be released. Now, a judge has ruled that the school district must foot the bill for the case it brought. The costs were first reported by The Portland Tribune, which had funded legal representation for Slovic, who has written for the newspaper. The financial hit breaks down as follows, according to estimates provided by district spokesman Harry Esteve: $73,135 to cover the costs of Slovic's attorney, $83,652 to cover the costs of Sordyl's counsel, plus the $46,254 the district spent on its own legal fees. The district is not insured for this type of expense, Esteve said, so the money will have to come out of the general fund. Portland Public Schools made an unusual choice when it opted to sue the requesters to keep secret information the district attorney told them by law was public. "We filed this case because we needed clarity," Esteve said. "We now have that clarity and that is good for the district and for the public." Asked why an order from the district attorney that plainly stated the records were public was not clarifying enough for the district, Esteve said the order left the school district in a bind because it did not analyze one of the three exemptions in the records law that Portland Public Schools raised. That exemption relates to information in a teacher's personnel file. According to the district attorney's office, however, the school district did not make a big deal about that particular exemption. Instead, it emphasized two other exemptions, Deputy District Attorney Adam Gibbs told The Oregonian/OregonLive. Before issuing its order, the district attorney's office considered a written argument from Portland Public Schools. In it, the personnel file exemption comes up only once in a single sentence with no substantive discussion, Gibbs said. In contrast, the district spent considerable time in the written argument on what it dubbed "applicable exemptions" other than the personnel file exemption, Gibbs said. Esteve also said district officials needed clarity on a "contractual basis," but he would not expand on what he meant by that. At the time, district officials were in the middle of tense, drawn-out negotiations with Portland's powerful teachers union. Sordyl said hiding the records is a way to hide problems and she took great issue with the district's position that it was necessary to sue her to get clarity on the public records law. "You get your legal advice from your lawyers, not by filing a lawsuit in court," she said. "For (Esteve) to blame the DA for what they have done shows they continue along the same path of denying responsibility for misconduct." Under Oregon law, the designated pathway for agencies to contest a district attorney's or attorney general's order to release public records is to take the requesters to court. But that practice has been seen as in poor taste by some, including Gov. Kate Brown. Around the same time that Portland Public Schools sued Sordyl and Slovic, Brown successfully pressured the state's Psychiatric Security Review Board to drop a case against The Malheur Enterprise. "No one requesting public records should be at risk of being sued by a state agency," Brown said in a statement at the time. "I believe the public is best served by bringing this matter to an end now, rather than after a lengthy and costly litigation." Slovic, now a journalism instructor at Clark College, said it's hard to be happy about winning a case she felt should never have happened in the first place. Slovic said she warned district officials the law was clear,and if they sued her,the district would lose and that would cost a lot of money. "I'm sorry that I was right in this case, though I am happy that the law is preserved to allow us to see these records," Slovic said. "(Portland Public Schools) won even though they lost, because it is in their interest to have people looking at these records. They clearly need help addressing some of these issues, and shrouding these documents in secrecy was not going to get them the help they needed. We all want a well-functioning school district." Bethany Barnes Got a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com People who have worked in Oregon memory care centers say the key to success with dementia patients boils down to one core principle: Take time to understand their needs. The work calls for a certain kind of personality. "You have to have a lot of patience and a kind heart," said Ashton Borders, who used to work in the memory care wing of Conifer House in Corvallis. "You have to love what you do." Selling Senior Care: False Comfort Oregon's booming memory care industry charges desperate families premium prices while too often failing to keep people with dementia safe. Without enough staffing, one person's commitment to good care is rarely enough. As part of The Oregonian/OregonLive's yearlong investigation of memory care, 150 current and former workers said they personally witnessed abuse or neglect. But caregivers and facility operators also said dementia patients can thrive under the right conditions. With the proper approach, memory care can be "the easiest job in the world," said Karyn Baker, the owner of Sherwood Pines memory care in Veneta. She said she finds it profoundly satisfying. "The interesting thing about this population is that that social screen is lifted, so you just kind of see a pure human being," Baker said. "It's just very raw. And there's something beautiful about that." Getting hit or hurt by residents is part of the job, said Baker, whose mother lives in the facility Baker runs. But, she said, aggressive behavior usually happens for a reason. Residents may be scared, or a caregiver might be moving too fast when doing something like changing someone's briefs. "You just have to find another way to go about that task," Baker said. Rodica Malos, former owner of two Portland memory care homes, said "learning their language" is essential to working with dementia patients. It's not enough for caregivers to read about dementia from a book, she said. You must enter their world. One of Malos's residents thought a starving child was in her closet. Malos said she checked the closet for the resident's sake, and within minutes, the woman forgot the delusion. A resident being helped in the bathroom might say, "My mom told me how to use the toilet when I was five months old, and you want to teach me how to use the toilet?" Malos said she would respond that she sometimes needs help, too. A resident with a domineering personality might walk in to say he is the director of the facility and ask why Malos is occupying his office. Malos said she responds, "Let's work together," and then gives the person a book or a magazine to read. "You don't confront them," Malos said. "You just go with them." Coming Sunday "Understaffed and Overwhelmed." The next installment of our investigative series "Selling Senior Care" looks at Oregon memory care centers from the employees' perspective. More online Read previous coverage and find our database of abuse complaints against Oregon senior care centers at oregonlive.com/senior-care. -- Fedor Zarkhin desk: 503-294-7674|cell: 971-373-2905|@fedorzarkhin -- Lynne Terry email: lynneterry@gmail.com By Paul Steege, Villanova University (THE CONVERSATION) What does resistance really look like? In the United States, at least since November 2016, the idea of resistance seems to reflect a broadly imagined popular opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump. At best that sentiment shows up in thousands of grassroots organizations that have taken to the streets or organized on behalf of local political candidates. At worst it functions as little more than the latest lifestyle brand. Since The New York Times published an op-ed by an anonymous author declaring "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," many commentators have weighed in about the extent to which the actions described in the piece rise to the level of "resistance." The anonymous op-ed writer, who claims membership in the resistance, projects an expectation, or perhaps a hope, that he will be able to claim, after the political "wars" over Trump have ended, a position of admirable rectitude. Once the Trump administration comes to an end, this "quiet resistance" will no longer be necessary, since, as the op-ed writer asserts, these actions will have "preserved America's democratic institutions." Politics will be back to normal. Resistance, in this formulation, rights what is wrong. As a historian of everyday life in 20th-century Germany, I approach the question of resistance with a rather different perspective, one that sees collaboration and resistance as two sides of the same coin. Even ardent anti-Nazis could act in ways that abetted the exercise of Nazi power. Resistance or complicity - or both? The writer Sebastian Haffner, who fled Germany for England in 1938, described how Nazi stormtroopers confronted him in a Berlin library in March 1933. When they asked him if he was an Aryan, Haffner answered, "Yes." In retrospect, he believed his reply indirectly validated their question and thus facilitated Nazi efforts to eject Jews from the library. Even if Haffner's complicity was unintentional, his failure to speak out publicly on behalf of those whose humanity the Nazis denied helped that argument carry the day. Nazi Germany was hardly a hotbed of resistance. Unlike Haffner, most Germans accommodated themselves to the Nazi regime and fought on its behalf until the bitter end of World War II. Ordinary people may have pushed back against the regime in small ways, whether by telling political jokes or surreptitiously listening to foreign radio broadcasts. But they only rarely challenged the legal and political structures on which the regime's genocidal violence depended. It is hard to distill people's actions down to their moral or political essence, because those actions take place within a social, economic and political context of which these individual actors are also an integral part. Was the decision by a socialist politician in Berlin to purchase a shop owned by a Jewish acquaintance an act of humanity that helped that person escape Nazi tyranny or an act of complicity that facilitated Nazi efforts to "Aryanize" the German economy? The fact that it was probably both helps to explain why it proved politically contentious in Berlin's city assembly after World War II. Resistance as alibi Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, German politicians could point to examples of German resistance torepudiate international assertions of German "collective guilt." It took the combined forces of the Soviet Red Army and the Western Allies to bring down the Nazi regime. But the existence of a few heroic resisters gave credence to the idea of another Germany, one that could safely play a role in postwar socioeconomic and political reconstruction. Although the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler has become the iconic example of heroic German resistance against the Nazi regime, it was not always a comfortable reference point. Well into the 1950s, many citizens of the new West German democracy still found these officers' wartime repudiation of their oath to Hitler to have been an act of treason. Now, the German Resistance Memorial Center is housed in the former offices of the Army High Command. In the building's courtyard, a memorial statue and plaque mark the spot where Claus von Stauffenberg, the officer who placed the bomb that failed to kill Hitler, was summarily executed. Yet this resistance story is complicated, too. Many of the plotters were German nationalists, skeptical of democracy and initially enthusiastic about Germany's military successes. Musical echoes While in Berlin in the mid-1990s, I attended one of the annual commemorations of the failed 1944 assassination attempt. When a German military band played the German national anthem in the courtyard where von Stauffenberg was shot, I couldn't help but hear the text of the original (and now banned) first stanza: "Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles," a 19th-century fantasy of national expansion that subsequently provided a soundtrack for Nazi imperial visions. In my mind's ear, "Germany, Germany over everything" overwhelmed the replacement text celebrating unity, justice and freedom. And that's really the point. The modern German army, the Bundeswehr, may now celebrate the July 20 plotters who turned on Hitler. But that celebration nonetheless sounds the strains of military complicity that made that sort of resistance necessary in the first place. Ultimately, the Nazi regime depended on Germans' willingness to deny the humanity of those it deemed outside the German "national community." To the extent that people inside and outside of Germany openly acknowledged and defended that humanity - often at fatal cost to themselves - they resisted the Nazi state's fundamental aims. Those resisters nonetheless failed to bring down Hitler or halt his genocidal project. So those who long for a heroic resistance should remain cautious about the possibility that such a project will produce short term political transformation. But they did save individual lives, and the ongoing effort to master the German past has provided vital means to interrogate the present. From my perspective as a historian, I believe a contemporary call to resist the long-running practices of dehumanization in American politics and society should strive to hold the Trump administration and its enablers accountable. But, as the example of Nazi Germany suggests, it is also important to recognize that resistance is not about declaring victory following a return to political normalcy. Germany's effort to wrestle with the sources and aftermath of the Nazi regime, including Germans' role in abetting or resisting its crimes has lasted more than 70 years. In the United States, too, resistance can define itself as an ongoing project, not something that comes to an end with the Trump presidency. Before the hashtag #Resist, the campaigns for "Black Lives Matter" and "Me Too" bore public witness to what those movements recognized as the systematic inhumanity in American society. That's a historical legacy that goes far beyond the Trump administration. If would-be resisters confront the historical sources and contemporary legacies of American inequality and exploitation, they can create an enduring legacy. -- Paul Steege, Villanova University The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Alaska Airlines announced a major policy change starting Oct. 1. Dogs, cats and miniature horses would be allowed to travel free of charge as service animals on future flights. I smiled at the thought of ponies on airplanes. I had never considered this before. The rest of the story, however, is not so pleasant. This same policy decided emotional support animals are now restricted to dogs and cats only. This policy change affects me, others with disabilities and those who rely on Alaska Airlines to leave their hometowns to fly elsewhere with emotional support animals. For the last eight years, I have achieved MVP status on Alaska Airlines flights because I routinely fly to Portland for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs care. Appropriate VA medical care is unavailable for me at Anchorage's VA Clinic. During my many flights to Portland, I have always traveled with my two trained emotional support parrots in the airplane's cabin beneath the seat in front of me. Three months ago, I made reservations to fly to Portland, now scheduled for next week, but I will be unable to travel as I planned unless I pay an additional $400 to Alaska Air for my trained emotional support parrots to accompany me. It looks to me like just one more example of Alaska Airlines' unending quest for increased revenue. Alaska Airlines should have been more cognizant of the effect this unilateral policy change would have on those with disabilities who need additional supports during airline travel. Barbara Bachmeier, Anchorage Sherwood High School violated a student's First Amendment rights when it expelled him for one year after learning he had written a "hit list'' at home naming 23 students and one teacher, the teen's lawyer argued Tuesday before a panel of federal appeals judges in Portland. The school didn't have the authority to regulate the junior's "off-campus speech,'' attorney Adam S. Heder said. The student never intended to share the list with anyone, so it wasn't a "true threat," Heder said. A lawyer for the Sherwood School District countered that this particular "off-campus speech" raised a legitimate public safety concern, disrupted the high school and made students feel unsafe. Preventing a school from taking necessary precautions against a "would-be" school shooter plotting from home presents "an untenable outcome," said the district's lawyer Blake H. Fry. The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared to agree that the school initially took reasonable action against the student, but two of the judges questioned the length of the expulsion and asked why the discipline would remain on his permanent record long after the concern about the 2014 threat subsided. "The school's response to threats of violence is not necessarily unconstitutional once it came to their attention,'' said Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo. "Can it become unconstitutional by becoming punitive instead of protective ... keeping him off campus for a year when there's no evidence he ever intended to carry out any of these threats?" Sherwood police learned of the list in early September 2014 after the 16-year-old's mother found it in a notebook while cleaning her son's room. She told her therapist the next day, and the therapist told police. One page was titled "My Hit-List,'' accompanied by notations, "I am God'' and "All These People Must Die'' with the word 'must' underlined. It named nearly two dozen Sherwood High students and a teacher. The notebook also contained the teen's suicidal thoughts with drawings of him executing his father while his mother and sister lay dead on the floor with head wounds. Written beside the drawings were the words: "I want to mutilate my family.'' "I thought a lot about killing people," wrote the student, only identified as "CLM'' in court. "Just to feel all the stress melt away for a moment. I don't know why I think killing will do this, but it just feels right." Once police were alerted, the mother ended up taking her son to the department's headquarters as officers responded to the family's home and found guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a bow and arrows and grenades in the teen's bedroom. The junior admitted to police he wrote the list about four months earlier and those on it were people he didn't like or who had treated him poorly. The teen was taken into custody for a mental health evaluation, held overnight and released the next day. Police called the Sherwood school superintendent, who notified the high school principal. That night, the principal had the student's locker searched. No weapons were found. The next morning, school officials divided up the names on the hit list and notified the students' parents. The police and the district sent out press releases on Sept. 10, 2014. News crews came to the school, some students stayed home. The school initially suspended the student, then recommended a one-year expulsion for making "threats of violence that have caused a distinct and substantial disruption to the school environment.'' An expulsion hearing was held Sept. 22, 2014. A forensic psychologist evaluated the teen in November 2014 and declared there was no evidence that the teen posed harm to others, but the district didn't alter its expulsion. The student and his parents filed a lawsuit against the school in June 2015, alleging violations of his free speech, due process and equal protection. On May 16, 2017, a federal district judge in Portland adopted a magistrate's recommendations to dismiss the case. Heder asked the appellate judges in a brief filed in the case not to be distracted by the "hysteria and political debate" around mass shootings "but to firmly and unequivocally render an opinion which preserves, protects, and reaffirms the most basic of our civil rights: freedom of speech." "This was truly private speech never intended to be disclosed,'' Heder argued. Judge Consuelo M. Callahan asked, "Is it your position the school should have done nothing?'' Heder replied that the school should have administered a thorough threat assessment of the student. When the school found out about the list, the student was already in the custody of the police and guns were removed from the home, he said. "This was not about preventing a safety concern at that point. This was punitive,'' said. The school district said the length of the discipline doesn't fall under the court's authority. "Once you concede some sort of discipline is constitutional, it doesn't matter where the degree of discipline is at that point,'' Fry said. "It's not the court's business to access the propriety of the discipline.'' Judge Raymond C. Fisher noted that the 9th Circuit previously ruled in Lavine v. Blaine School District that school officials didn't violate a student's First Amendment right when they temporarily expelled him for submitting a violent-themed poem to his English teacher, but barred the district from including the discipline in the student's file, which could "permanently blemish'' his record and harm his efforts to gain future jobs. Considering the Lavine ruling, Fisher asked, why wouldn't Sherwood's documentation of the student's expulsion on his record be unconstitutional? Discipline is going to end up in a student's record, whether it's a suspension or an expulsion, Fry said. The student did not return to Sherwood High School. His family moved and the teen graduated from another high school in Oregon, according to his lawyer. The federal appeals court, based in San Francisco, holds hearings about seven times a year in Portland. The three-judge panel will now consider the written briefs and court arguments and issue a ruling some time in the future. -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian The U.S. Senate passed a bill Wednesday that mandates a resistant Trump administration to resume the development of a tribal village at The Dalles Dam. The U.S. Army Corps agreed at the end of 2016 to set aside money to create a plan for housing members of the Warm Springs, Yakama, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes. The village would begin to fulfill an 80-year-old promise by the federal government to tribal members who fished and lived along the Columbia River for millenia before dams displaced them. The Corps completed about half of the work before momentum stalled as the federal Office of Management and Budget blocked a second infusion of cash to the Army Corps. The bill passed by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday sets budget priorities for the Army Corps. It now compels the federal agency to restart its work. The U.S. House passed a similar version on Sept. 13. Both version replace vague language that allows the Army Corps to plan and build the village with language that tells the agency to do so by simply adding in the word "shall." Wednedsay's bill also requires the Corps to provide a timeframe and cost estimates for construction of the village once the development is planned. Tribal members were displaced by construction of three dams: Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day. Since then, many Native Americans have lived at least six months out of the year on 30 fishing sites not made for full-time human habitation. The sites are unsafe, unsanitary and decrepit, a 2016 report by The Oregonian/OregonLive showed. Following the investigation, a bipartisan coalition of Oregon and Washington lawmakers put together a plan with the Army Corps to replace houses at The Dalles Dam, which in 1957 flooded historic Celilo Falls and one of the largest hubs of tribal social and economic life in the Northwest. The planning effort was half-finished when the Trump administration pulled funding for the second half. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney refused to allow a transfer of $1.6 million from an unused pot of money. The Army Corps budget bill also calls for houses at the Bonneville and John Day dams. President Trump would likely have to veto the entire bill, which sets budget priorities for a vast amount of infrastructure projects, to quash the mandate. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, has spearheaded the effort in the Senate. He blamed the Trump administration on Wednesday for derailing progress on the project. "I have seen firsthand the unacceptable housing conditions in the area, and the tribal communities in the Northwest deserve better. It is way past time for America to right a historic wrong," Merkley said. He and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, visited a fishing site and made a commitment to tribal leaders they would fight to rectify the situation. Shortly after, lawmakers in Washington also joined. Sen. Maria Cantwell spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday in support of the inclusion of tribal housing in the bill. "The federal government has a moral responsibility to right this longstanding wrong against Native American communities and their families," U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, said after the vote. "No more delays, no more inaction. This legislation brings us one step closer, but this fight is far from over. I will continue to press this issue until the federal government fully meets its obligations." Charles Hudson, intergovernmental affairs director for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said the bill leaves little doubt about congressional expectations for the village. He said the tribes have started to form an inter-tribal housing authority in anticipation of the resumption of work. "We're grateful for the sustained bipartisan work of the Oregon and Washington congressional delegations in providing force and clarity to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to resume work on Columbia River Tribal Housing through new enhanced authorization," Hudson said. -- Molly Harbarger mharbarger@oregonian.com 503-294-5923 @MollyHarbarger Three caregivers indicted on felony charges last month after a baby died at their unlicensed Hood River day care are all now in jail. Rochelle Jones, 51, and her wife, Debra Jones, 61, were booked into the regional jail Sunday. Debra Jones' sister Donna Pilcher, 63, has been in the jail for a week. The trio faces charges of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and first-degree criminal mistreatment of 4-month-old Cyrus Macioroski. They were also charged with five counts of running an illegal day care. Cyrus died May 15 in their care. He was placed to sleep surrounded by pillows on a bed in Debra Jones' bedroom and left unmonitored, according to court records previously reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive. He was discovered unresponsive sometime later by Rochelle Jones' adult son. The court records say Cyrus attended Mama Bear's day care with his older brother and several other young children. Oregon law requires day cares to obtain licenses if they care for that many children. Mama Bear's did not have one. In fact, in April 2017, the state Office of Child Care revoked the license of a different day care, Mama Shell's, run by the same women. The action came after an investigation by the Department of Human Services. A child welfare case worker concluded she had reason to believe claims that children were fed melatonin pills to make them sleep and were threatened with physical harm by Rochelle Jones. After the state pulled the license from Mama Shell's, the women opened back up as Mama Bear's, prosecutors allege. The state's designated child care regulator for Hood River County, Julie Smith, is accused of helping Rochelle Jones reopen to children and parents. Smith faces misdemeanor charges of official misconduct and operating a day care without a license. She remains free. As of last week, she had been placed on leave, but not fired, by the state. When the indictments of all four women came to light last week, police said they were working to find and arrest the Joneses. The couple had listed their Hood River house for sale shortly after Cyrus died. Rochelle Jones discussed moving in her most recent posts on social media. Neither the Hood River police nor the county sheriff's office have yet returned messages regarding the circumstances of the women's arrests. Each of them must post at least $52,000 to be released on bail, jail records show. At least two other children have died in 2018 at Oregon day cares. All three deaths occurred in a two-month span this spring. The first child died in March from a "health-related issue" while in the care of Nova's Nest in Eugene, Office of Child Care records show. Agency officials learned of the child's death March 20, but have not disclosed the child's name. The Register-Guard reported that same week that 11-month-old Declan Paulsen of Eugene died March 19. Declan is listed in an online memorial for babies whose unexplained deaths were deemed to be caused by Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Kirsten Bjorn, 4, died April 30 after she drowned in a pond near her Colton day care, according to local news coverage. Her death is not listed in Office of Child Care records. Because those records only cover deaths and injuries at licensed day cares, that indicates the day care she attended was not licensed. State law does not require providers to be licensed in certain circumstances, such as if they care for three or fewer children. No criminal charges have been filed in Kirsten's death. The Hood River case appears to be the second in Oregon history to involve day care providers charged with second-degree manslaughter of children in their care. Rochelle Jones, Debra Jones and Pilcher are all scheduled to enter pleas within the next month. On Monday, a judge ordered Smith to report to jail by Oct. 19 to be booked and released. -- Molly Young myoung@oregonian.com A southern Oregon man was rescued after spending four days lost in the wilderness while wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and sleeping inside a hollowed-out log and under brush to shield himself from rain, authorities say. Marty Holloway, 56, was first reported missing Thursday by relatives when they hadn't heard from him after he'd gone picking mushrooms earlier that day near the base of Mount Scott near Crater Lake, according to the Klamath County Sheriff's Office. A hiker happened upon Holloway on Sunday afternoon near the Pinnacles Trail in the Crater Lake National Park south of the mountain and called 911 after he asked for help. Holloway was cold, tired and had several blisters on his feet but was otherwise OK, the sheriff's office said. Search and rescue crews, who'd been unable to find Holloway in the days prior, located the missing man by tracking the hiker's phone, the sheriff's office said. Holloway was led to safety with the help of park rangers and the hiker. Holloway got lost while mushroom picking and couldn't find his way back to his car, where he'd left his cellphone and jacket, the sheriff's office said. A working phone number could not be found for Holloway on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service in Medford, temperature highs in the Crater Lake area were in the 70s on Thursday, mid-50s the next day, and mid-60s Saturday and Sunday. Lows were in the 40s during the same period. About one-third of an inch of rain fell Friday. It's not the first time Holloway's been in the news. He was found guilty of racketeering in Klamath County Circuit Court in May 2014 for his role with four other people in what prosecutors described as stealing $100,000 worth of metal from over 20 farms in the area in 2010 and 2011, court records show. He was sentenced to nine years and three months in prison. Holloway and a co-defendant appealed their convictions, claiming there wasn't enough information in the indictments of the alleged crimes to support the racketeering charge. The Oregon Court of Appeals and later the Oregon Supreme Court sided with Holloway and the co-defendant this year, overturning their convictions with the Appeals Court ordering the indictments be dismissed. The cases were dismissed in June for Holloway and the co-defendant, court records show. Two other co-defendants were acquitted during trial, and another pleaded guilty to racketeering in 2012 and was sentenced to two years in prison. -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com 503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey After beefing up its parental leave policy this year, Starbucks will now offer subsidized child care for all of its U.S. employees, too. The new benefit, a partnership with child care provider Care.com Inc., will provide 10 subsidized backup day care days for parents for instances when regular care falls through. In-home backup child care will cost $1 an hour or $2 an hour after the 4th child. Care at a day care center will cost $5 per day. "We felt like it was important to make this accessible," said Ron Crawford, vice president of benefits at Starbucks. "We wanted to have as low a possible cost." Unlike some of Starbucks's other benefits, which require employees to work 20 hours before they can access them, Care@Work is available to more than 180,000 U.S. employees, regardless of how much they work. Americans pay almost as much for child care as they do for rent, and when it falls through or there's an unexpected day off from school or day care, a parent either has to stay home or scramble to find a solution. Subsidized childcare is a rare benefit. Only 2 percent of more than 3,000 employers surveyed by the Society of Human Resource Management in 2018 say they help employees pay for child care fees. Only 4 percent offer backup child care services. Retailers and restaurants have been trying to improve their perks to retain employees amid a very tight labor market. Amazon.com Inc. just announced it's boosting wages to $15 an hour in November for its current and seasonal workers. In January, Starbucks committed to spend $250 million on new employee benefits, including a pay boost for domestic workers after the federal tax overhaul. In addition to reworking its paid parental leave program, Starbucks updated its sick leave policy this summer. Care@Work also provides backup services for workers who care for elderly family members. Over the last few years, employers have also started offering more benefits for employees to care for their sick and aging relatives, as millennials, the largest share of the work force, begin caring for their aging boomer parents. Benefits that make it easier to juggle work and parenting can help employers keep working parents from jumping ship. Patagonia has claimed that it has 25 percent lower turnover with employees who put their kids in an on-site day care program. As the labor market has tightened, more companies have started offering paid parental leave. For Starbucks, child care is the next frontier. The company may be open to broader based child care benefits in the future, too, Crawford said. "This is a need we see in America today," Crawford said. "Working parents need support for those days when stuff happens." -- The Washington Post Oregon's top two gubernatorial candidates, Kate Brown and Knute Buehler, squared off in their final debate Tuesday night, their last, best chance to make their case to a broad audience. The debate, hosted by The Oregonian/OregonLive and KGW, coincided with a new poll from the news organizations showing the race remains close with incumbent Democrat Brown holding a 4 percentage point lead over her Republican challenger, within the poll's 5-point margin of error. Tuesday's debate was sharp at times, but the candidates were civil and substantive. Here are five takeaways: 1. Agreement: Both candidates denounced President Donald Trump's vitriolic rhetoric. That's a safe position given the Republican president's unpopularity nationally and his awful showing in Oregon during the 2016 election, where he lost to Hillary Clinton by 10 percentage points. Both also accept the scientific consensus around climate change another break with Trump though Brown wants more aggressive curbs on climate emissions than Buehler. And Brown and Buehler each said the region needs a replacement for the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Columbia River. Though Brown sought repeatedly to question Buehler's description of himself as pro-choice, he said there's no daylight between the candidates' positions on abortion: "As governor I will not be changing any reproductive rights laws that currently exist in Oregon." 2. Pensions: The candidates had clearly defined differences on addressing Oregon's $22 billion public pension deficit. Buehler said he won't sign any new spending bills without major PERS reform and favored moving Oregon to a private-sector style 401(k) retirement program. He said Oregon's pension crisis is siphoning money from the state's classrooms. "It is the single biggest failure of Gov. Brown, is her indifference to fix our public schools," he said. "I will do it." Brown wouldn't answer direct questions about how much of their own pensions public employees should pick up and accused Buehler, an affluent physician, of ignoring the implications of his proposed pension reforms. "I think it's easy for a millionaire to say he's going to cut the retirements of hard-working Oregonians," she said. "I'm not willing to do that." 3. Housing and homelessness: Buehler maintains the growing, highly visible homeless population in Portland and Oregon's other big cities represents a failure of Brown's administration. He favors changes in zoning laws and rental assistance but opposes the $653 million affordable housing bond on the November ballot in the Portland area. Brown supports the Metro bond, plus "wraparound services" to offer substance abuse treatment, housing and other assistance to homeless Oregonians. 4. Death penalty: Brown said she will extend the moratorium on executions in Oregon, begun under former Gov. John Kitzhaber. Buehler said he will allow capital punishment to resume, noting that Oregon voters approved a constitutional amendment authorizing capital punishment in 1984. 5. Vaccines: In a prerecorded question, an Oregon voter asked how much leeway parents should have in exempting their children from medically recommended vaccines. It's an issue the candidates don't appear to have addressed before. "We probably give some parents a little too much leeway," Brown said, in allowing them to decline vaccines for their children. Though Buehler is a physician, he departed from established medical recommendations on the topic: "I certainly believe that parents should have the right to opt out." -- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 Patrick Starnes, the Independent Party's nominee for Oregon governor, filed a complaint Tuesday after being shut out of a debate between the two leading candidates for the job. The Oregonian/OregonLive and KGW opted not to include him in Tuesday night's debate, which will air on KGW (Channel 8) at 7 p.m. In his complaint to the Oregon Secretary of State, Starnes said debates hosted by TV news stations constitute a campaign contribution and must be reported under Oregon law. He cites a past opinion from the state legislative council supporting his position and said televised debates don't constitute a "news event" under Oregon law. "A production of a debate, where a producer negotiates with the candidates on time, place, and moderator, and is largely in charge of the entire production process is not a news event to be reported," Starnes wrote. "It is simply a debate arranged by the media." The Oregonian/OregonLive does plan to cover Tuesday night's debate and has frequently covered debates in prior elections. "We have looked carefully at Mr. Starnes's new claims and we remain confident that we are on firm ground, fully supported by Oregon law," said Duane Bosworth, an attorney representing The Oregonian/OregonLive and KGW. "The format we are using best serves Oregon voters." In the May primary election, Starnes received just over 6,000 votes. That compares to more than 144,000 votes for Republican nominee Knute Buehler and more than 324,000 votes for incumbent Democratic Gov. Kate Brown. In Oregon, only members of a political party can vote in that party's primary election. Tuesday's debate is the third of three planned between Buehler and Brown. Starnes participated in a debate last week in North Portland but was not invited to a debate two nights later in Medford. A survey commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive and KGW (8), released Monday, shows that 49 percent of the respondents would vote to re-elect Brown, 45 percent would choose Buehler and 4 percent supported Starnes. -- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 WASHINGTON -- U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is stepping down at the end of the year, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday as Haley sat by his side in the Oval Office. Trump praised the work of the former governor of South Carolina, who was confirmed as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations shortly after Trump's inauguration last year. "She's done a fantastic job, and we've done a fantastic job together," Trump said, adding that Haley has been "very special to me." Trump said Haley first told him about six months ago that she would like to "take a little time off" at the end of this year. Nevertheless, the announcement surprised many in the Trump administration. In her resignation letter, Haley praised the president for keeping a commitment to her that she would be "free to speak my mind on the issues of the day." Haley listed what she called a series of successes at the United Nations, including that "we spoke out resolutely against dictatorships in Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and yes, Russia." Haley told the president that her resignation would be effective in January 2019 to "give you time to select a replacement and to give the Senate time to consider your selection." "I expect to continue to speak out from time to time on important public policy matters, but I will surely not be a candidate for any office in 2020." Haley, seen in South Carolina and Washington circles as sharp-elbowed and ambitious, had taken particular pride in keeping distance from the daily drama of the White House. Some of Trump's political advisers have viewed her warily as a potential threat in 2020 and a skeptic of the Trump agenda, spurring her to say in her resignation announcement that she would not be running for office. She was frustrated to be left out of some key debates earlier this year, administration officials said, and was not seen as part of Trump's inner circle. Trump told reporters that he is hopeful that Haley will return to the administration at some point, perhaps in a different capacity. Speaking after him, Haley said serving as U.N. ambassador has been "an honor of a lifetime." "I'm such a lucky girl to have been able to lead the state that raised me and to serve a country I love so very much has really been a blessing, and I want to thank you for that," she told Trump. Trump said he hopes to name a successor to Haley in the next two to three weeks. "We have a number of people who would like to do it," Trump said, adding that the position has become "more glamorous" in the time it was held by Haley. Tuesday's announcement prompted widespread praise of Haley's tenure from fellow Republicans, but some lawmakers expressed concerns about the timing. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the White House to immediately name a successor. "Today's announcement that Ambassador Haley is resigning is yet another sign of the Trump Administration's chaotic foreign policy," he said in a statement. " I am deeply concerned about the leadership vacuum she leaves and the national security impact of her departure at this time of continued disarray for this Administration." From the beginning of her tenure, Haley stood out as a fierce advocate of Trump administration policies, announcing the United States would be "taking names" of countries that did not support U.S. votes. She spoke often of the need for change within the U.N. and its peacekeeping forces, and frequently chastised U.N. agencies for taking anti-Israel stances. She pushed for Security Council resolutions imposing greater sanctions on North Korea, and chastised members who the administration suspected had been cheating. "She was critical in ushering in U.N. reforms in partnership with the secretary general, and she took a thoughtful approach to peacekeeping and national security issues," said Peter Yeo, an official with the U.N. Foundation. "There certainly were great areas of contention between the United States and the U.N. But she played a very important and constructive role." Though Haley advanced Trump's policies, she occasionally made public statements at odds with the White House and the president she served. In December, she said that women who had accused Trump of sexual misconduct "should be heard." When a White House adviser said Haley had been confused in prematurely announcing more sanctions against Russia, she said simply, "With all due respect, I don't get confused." Haley's ability to speak eloquently and forcefully on contentious issues fueled much speculation that she has political ambitions beyond the U.N., possibly including a White House run. But Haley constantly denied it, saying she hadn't given any thought to a presidential run. On her very first day as ambassador, Haley promised a "new day" under Trump's America First policy. Initially seen as inexperienced in foreign policy, she soon was taken seriously by her fellow U.N. diplomats as she pushed through three sets of sanctions against North Korea and persuaded China and Russia, both allies of Pyongyang, to agree to abide by them. She became known for being a hawk on Iran and its regional aggression, a strong advocate of Israel and, working together with Secretary General Antonio Guterres, a force for cost-cutting. On policy issues, Haley's influence at U.N. was blunted by a slew of recent Trump policy decisions that many other nations opposed, including recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, cutting aid to Palestinians and announcing a U.S. withdrawal from the U.N. Human Rights Council. Haley had an increasingly diminished role in the Trump Cabinet as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo filled the vacuum left by his predecessor, Rex Tillerson, whose camera-shy demeanor had allowed Haley to be the voice of U.S. foreign policy in the first year of the Trump administration. The hiring of national security adviser John Bolton in March, a former U.N. ambassador with hardened views on its limited value, further limited her latitude in New York. At the same time, Haley lost on key policy debates, including a further reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the United States. On Monday, a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked the State Department's inspector general to investigate the ethics of Haley accepting seven flights for herself and her husband on private planes owned by three South Carolina businessmen. The group said the flights were between New York, Washington and three cities in South Carolina. Haley reported the flights on her 2017 public financial disclosure statement, saying the donors all were personal friends, and therefore exempt from federal rules on accepting such flights. A Quinnipiac poll in April found that Haley had the highest approval ratings of five Trump Cabinet members tested and was the only Cabinet member to hold majority approval among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Overall, 63 percent approved and 17 percent disapproved of her performance as U.N. ambassador. - - - The Washington Post's Philip Rucker, John Hudson, Josh Dawsey and Scott Clement contributed to this report. The imam of Portland's largest mosque and four others argued Tuesday that the government's no-fly list has stigmatized them as terrorists for more than seven years. Mohamed Sheikh Abdirahman Kariye, the spiritual leader at the Islamic Center of Portland, and the other plaintiffs have sought to clear their names and regain the right to fly. They've been denied due process based on a faulty "prediction that they might someday commit violent acts of terrorism,'' their lawyer said. None of them have faced criminal charges. The restriction has separated the men from relatives, caused them to lose jobs and prevented them from fulfilling religious obligations, such as traveling on a pilgrimage to Mecca, they said. They asked the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals, meeting in Portland, to reverse a lower court's ruling that found the government process placing them on the list was constitutional based on a need to protect national security. The government defended the no-fly list, which bars travel to and from the United States as well as within the country. U.S. Justice Department lawyer Joshua Waldman noted that the government since 2015 has followed new procedures that provide reasonable notice to people on the list and an opportunity to respond or challenge the placement. Someone who is prevented from boarding a plane can ask if they are on the list and why, Waldman said. People also can submit material to challenge the government's decision. Government lawyers said each of these plaintiffs contested their inclusion on the list and the government considered their challenges but didn't change their status. Hina Shamsi, who represents Kariye and the other plaintiffs as a lawyer from the New York-based American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, said it's impossible for her clients to challenge what they don't know. "Our clients are left asking how can you prove yourself innocent of something you have never done and will never do?'' Shamsi said. "The government hasn't defined what's considered a threat.'' The criteria for the list are imprecise, can't predict future violence, penalize First Amendment speech and have a low standard of proof, that of "reasonable suspicion," she said. Kariye said he was barred from flying to visit his daughter in Amsterdam on March 8, 2010, when she was attending high school in the United Arab Emirates. Five federal agents surrounded him in front of other travelers, publicly humiliating him, his lawyer wrote in the appeal. He's also been prevented from accompanying his mother to Mecca, a religious obligation for Muslims. The government also has pursued a civil case against Kariye to remove his naturalized citizenship, which is pending, but Kariye said he has no way to know whether that matter was used to justify being placed on the no-fly list. Government lawyers repeated in court that Kariye was placed on the list based on his history as a "mujahedeen fighter in Afghanistan against the Russians,'' as well as his expressed support for "violent jihad'' in conversations recorded between a cooperating informant and two members of the so-called "Portland Seven.'' They were a group of American Muslims from the Portland area who were prosecuted, convicted of attempting to join Al Qaeda forces in their fight against the United States military and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He also provided financial support to defendants who traveled to Afghanistan to fight against U.S. troops and told his followers they should "fight'' against Americans, the government alleges. He was identified as a member of the board of directors of the Global Relief Foundation, designated by the U.S. Department of Treasury as a global terrorist group. Kariye's lawyer disputed the characterization, saying the government relied on "hearsay upon hearsay'' in his case, including statements from an informant with a clear bias. "None of the purported allegations against our clients reflect unlawful behavior because they've never been charged with a crime,'' Shamsi said. Kariye and the other plaintiffs contend they need but haven't obtained all the information the government used to "blacklist" them to rebut the allegations. They also suggested authorities could tighten security through other measures, including having them provide travel information to the government ahead of time, having them arrive early to an airport for extra screening or ensuring U.S. marshals escort them on a flight. Waldman, the Justice Department attorney, said people wind up on the no-fly list not because of mere "hunches" but because of intelligence and substantive information that creates a reasonable suspicion they pose a threat of committing domestic or international terrorism. The 9th Circuit judges asked if they examined the government's confidential information on an individual such as Kariye and determined if it was sound, would that be a sufficient check on "the government's carte blanche ability to claim national security?'' Shamsi responded: "We don't think it's enough of a check." The judges didn't give an indication when they will rule on the appeal. The five filed their lawsuit in 2010, when several remained overseas trying to return to the United States. The government eventually allowed them to fly home under special conditions. The other plaintiffs are: -- Faisal Kashem, who grew up in New York and Connecticut. He was studying Arabic and Islam at a university in Saudi Arabia when he barred from flying back to the United States for a summer vacation in June 2010. Government officials have cited Kashem's online statements and political views as the basis for his travel ban. -- Raymond Knaeble, a military veteran who was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 2003 and moved to Kuwait in 2006 to take a job with an energy and industrial products multinational manufacturer. He was barred from flying to the United States when he was offered a job in Qatar and had to return to the United States to take a medical exam for the job. He had to go through Mexico and embarked on a 12-day journey to California. Knaeble converted to Islam in 2008 and with others created a website about the religion's teachings. He's been unable to fly for eight years. He was told he was on the list due to travels from one unidentified location to another. -- Amir Meschal, born in New Jersey but now living in Minnesota. He was prevented from boarding a flight to California in June 2009 to visit friends. The government's public reason for barring Meschal's travel stems from alleged statements he made in 2017 to FBI agents who detained him for months in East Africa. -- Stephen Persaud, a nurse in Los Angeles. He has been barred from flying for at least 7 years. -- Maxine Bernstein 503-221-8212 A Southeast Portland woman who says debt collectors keep showing up at her door looking for Steven -- someone she swears she doesnt know -- has filed a $400,000 lawsuit to make them stop. Caitlin Kelly is suing Aarons, a Southeast Portland appliance, furniture and electronics store with ties to the national chain, saying a demand letter and slips of paper left at her home indicate the store is trying to collect on a debt owed by Steven. The lawsuit says representatives from the store have shown up at her home nearly a dozen times so far this year. Kelly says she has twice called management at the store at 16140 S.E. Division St. to plead with them to stop. Basically, they dont believe that he still doesnt live here, Kelly said. They just keep coming and coming and coming. Aarons, the national chain, has more than 1,700 stores nationwide. About a third of them, including the Southeast Division Street store, are independently operated franchises. Kelly is suing only the local franchise, NW Freedom Corp. A representative for the franchise declined to comment. According to Kellys lawsuit, men looking for Steven have repeatedly banged on her door -- sometimes in the early morning, waking her two children, ages 10 months and 3 years. Theyve pounded 15 to 20 minutes, Kelly told The Oregonian/OregonLive. Like crazy pounding. Like theyre police. She said shes invited the men into her home and garage to prove that Steven doesnt live there and so they can see that merchandise Steven allegedly bought on credit from the store isnt there either. Shes also offered the men her landlords phone number to aid their effort to track Steven down, she said. When they wouldnt stop coming and threatened to get a search warrant to once again enter her home, she said, she called police asking for help. Kelly said police told her to call them if the men show up again. Kelly also sought the help of Portland attorney Michael Fuller, who filed the lawsuit last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court. It seeks $400,000 in damages for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional harm. The suit also reserves the right to seek up to $3.6 million in punitive damages. It has just been horrible getting harassed, Kelly said. Were thinking about moving because of it. Read the lawsuit here. -- Aimee Green ALBANY, N.Y. -- The operator of a limousine company involved in a crash that killed 20 people was arrested Wednesday, state police said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the charges were related to the deadly wreck. Nauman Hussain was taken into custody following a traffic stop on a highway near Albany, the New York State Police said in a brief news release. No further details were released on the charges. A phone call to Hussain's lawyer was not immediately returned. Hussain was the day-to-day operator of Prestige Limousine, and the son of the company's owner. State police and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash, the nation's deadliest transportation accident since an air crash outside Buffalo in February 2009 killed 50 people. The limousine ran off the road Saturday at the bottom of a long hill in Schoharie, 25 miles west of Albany. The crash killed two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limo celebrating a woman's birthday. The limo driver was among the dead. Prestige Limousine has been criticized for maintaining vehicles rife with violations and for employing a driver lacking a commercial license. Prestige's lawyer, Lee Kindlon, has said that safety issues were corrected. He said the driver might have misjudged his ability to stop at the bottom of a hill. The driver's widow said her husband had expressed concerns about the company's vehicles. Kim Lisinicchia told CBS in an interview broadcast on Wednesday that there were several times she heard her husband, Scott Lisinicchia, state: "I'm not going to drive this, like this. You need to get me another car." But then "he trusted in what the limo company said, that the cars were all right." "He was in excellent health. He was an excellent driver. For over 20-plus years he drove a tractor-trailer," Kim Lisinicchia said. "I feel for these victims," she said. "I am in no way trying to make it seem like it's about me or my husband. I just want my husband to be vindicated. I have to stand for him, 'cause nobody else will." The limousine that ran the stop sign was cited for code violations on Sept. 4, including a problem with the antilock brakes' malfunction indicator system. Four of the Gansevoort, New York-based company's limos were cited for 22 maintenance violations this year, though none was deemed critical. "Those safety issues had been addressed and corrected," Kindlon told CBS News in a segment on Tuesday. "Not all infractions are major. A lot of these things are minor and were fixed." State Department of Transportation spokesman Joseph Morrissey said a sticker was placed on the vehicle after the September inspection declaring it "unserviceable." He said Kindlon's assertion that the code violations had been corrected and the vehicle cleared for service was "categorically false." Even if the repairs were made, the limo would have needed to be re-inspected and the owner would need approval again to transport passengers, a state transportation department spokesman said. Kindlon said he doesn't think those infractions contributed to the crash. A vigil for the victims will be held on Wednesday evening in a Schoharie school gymnasium. Services have been set for some of the victims, including 24-year-old Savannah Devonne Bursese, of Johnstown, the accident's youngest victim. Her family is holding a private service Friday. In nearby Amsterdam, a funeral Mass is scheduled Saturday for the four King sisters, three of their husbands and the brother of one of the husbands. --The Associated Press And now for something completely different. In 1969, five overeducated British comics and an American illustrator ambushed the BBC with the strangest show in British history. How they got on the air is anyone's guess but their irreverent writing, ludicrous gags, and mix of high culture and slapstick lunacy transformed the sketch comedy show into a stream-of-consciousness loony bin interspersed with outrageous animations. Though it lasted a mere four seasons and 45 episodes (John Cleese left the show after the third season), "Monty Python's Flying Circus" developed a cult following throughout the world (it was a rerun staple for decades on PBS) and spawned several movies and live tours. It inspired the anything-goes zaniness of Robin Williams and Steve Martin, the absurdist skits of "Saturday Night Live" and "The Kids in the Hall," and the mix of satire and whimsy of "South Park," "30 Rock" and "The Good Place." Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin all carved out individual careers since but they never lived down the mix of sophisticated satire and music hall pratfalls that they unleashed on an unsuspecting public. Netflix is now home to the complete run of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" as well as best-of collections, tributes, concert movies and documentaries. If you don't know where to start, join host Steve Martin in "Parrot Sketch Not Included: Twenty Years of Monty Python" (1989, TV-MA), which spotlights an hour of the most famous sketches. Or dive directly into the series. The genius is there from the very first episode. Here's a decidedly subjective guide to the essential Pythons on Netflix, organized chronologically. "The Killer Joke" (Season 1, episode 1) Joke warfare is a laughing matter in the troupe's first small-screen masterpiece, a spoof of World War II thrillers and documentaries. Don't try translating the German spoken onscreen; it's pure gibberish. "The Dead Parrot Sketch" (Season 1, episode 8) A primer in pet shop customer service, courtesy of John Cleese and Michael Palin. "He's not pinin'! He's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker! This is an ex-parrot!" Arguably the troupe's definitive skit, it's a favorite of live performances. "The Lumberjack Song" (Season 1, episode 9) Sing it with me, everyone: "Oh, I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK/I sleep all night and work all day/I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wildflowers/ I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars." "The Ministry of Silly Walks" (Season 2, episode 1) John Cleese delivers the single greatest physical performance in a Monty Python sketch with his stiff-legged locomotion transformed into an absurdist ballet. "The Spanish Inquisition" (Season 2, episode 2) "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise. And fear. Our two weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency! Our three weapons..." "Spam" (Season 2, episode 12) Python's paean to British cafe food and the show's classic Viking chant. "The Fish-Slapping Dance" (Season 3, episode 2) Twenty seconds of pure Python absurdity. "Argument Clinic" (Season 3, episode 3) Logic and reason disintegrate in the face of pure, reflexive contradiction. Not only hilarious, this skit is a handy teaching tool in the mechanics of debate and verbal engagement. "The Cheese Shop" (Season 3, episode 7) Michael Palin and John Cleese are at it again as erudite customer Cleese attempts to purchase some cheesy comestibles from proprietor Palin. Another classic revived in live shows and recordings. "Dennis Moore" (Season 3, episode 11) A treatise in economics by way of a Robin Hood parody. "This redistribution of the wealth is trickier than I thought." But wait, there's more. "Four Yorkshiremen" ("Monty Python: Live at the Hollywood Bowl," 1982, R) Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin are old codgers one-upping each other with stories of youthful hardship. Never performed in the series but a staple of their live shows. "Monty Python's Life of Brian" (1979, R) This is a feature film, arguably their finest and easily their most notorious. The historical lampoon about a nice Jewish boy (Graham Chapman) mistaken for the messiah mercilessly satirizes religious fanaticism and was banned in some countries for blasphemy. It also introduced the instant classic song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Honorable mentions With so many classic bits it's hard to narrow it down and I hate to leave out these fan favorites: "Nudge Nudge" (Season 1, episode 3), "Hell's Grannies" (S1, ep8), "The Upper Class Twit of the Year" (S1, ep12), "The Piranha Brothers" (S2, ep1), "The Bishop" (S2, ep4), "How Not to Be Seen" (S2, ep11), "Olympic Hide and Seek Final" (S3, ep9), "The Money Programme" (Season 3, episode 3). Say no more, guv. Extra credit "Monty Python's Almost the Truth" (2009, not rated) This six-hour series charts the history of the troupe from series to movies and concludes a touching tribute to Chapman, who died in 1989, marked by (in their own words) "very little reverence and a lot of laughs." It's filled with great clips and some very frank interviews with the five surviving members but is really for die-hard fans only. Extras are needed for another new TV series that's scheduled to film in the Portland area this fall. The series, from Netflix and AwesomenessTV, is called "Trinkets," and focuses on three teenage girls who all wind up in the same mandated Shoplifters Anonymous meeting, and become friends. Extras are needed to fill out the high school setting, which means the casting company is looking for, as the press release says, "All types, shapes, sizes, ethnicities, and abilities to reflect a real Oregon high-school look," including students, parents, faculty and more. In addition to extras, the company is also looking for stand-ins and people who have vehicles that could be featured. Here's the link to fill out to be considered: https://tinyurl.com/trinketsextras Interested applicants can also email photos of themselves, along with contact information (phone and email address) to trinkets.extras@gmail.com According to earlier reports, "Trinkets" is adapted from a YA novel by Kirsten Smith, and was at one point being developed as a series for MTV. The main characters are described in the casting company press release as "Elodie: the grieving misfit, Moe: the mysterious outsider, and Tabitha: the imperfect picture of perfection," who all "find strength in each other as they negotiate family issues, high school drama and the complicated dilemma of trying to fit in, while longing to break out." "Trinkets" is another example of filming activity going on in and around Portland. The Netflix high school-set series, "Everything Sucks!" and "American Vandal" Season 2 also shot in the area. The college-set Freeform series, "Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists," is also filming in the Portland area this fall and winter, and is looking for extras. -- Kristi Turnquist The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter John Kennett. 1:41 a.m. -- A 26-year-old Jerome Township man who locked himself out of his vehicle was drinking alcohol in the parking lot of a Sanford gas station. He was not creating any issues and was given a ride home. 11:39 a.m. -- Deputies arrested a 38-year-old woman in Jerome Township on a Bay County child support warrant. The woman was transferred to a Bay County deputy. 12:25 p.m. -- A 32-year-old Saginaw woman requested assistance getting her 7-week-old child from her husband in Homer Township. The couple are married. The woman cannot be around the husband due to a court order. The woman obtained a court order from Saginaw ordering the man to turn the child over to the grandmother. The child was turned over to the grandmother without issues. 1:11 p.m. -- A 70-year-old woman reported she was a victim of fraud in June of 2018 and lost $260. The scam suspect attempted to gain an additional $1,008 from her recently but she was able to notify her financial institution to halt the payment. 1:22 p.m. -- Deputies were dispatched to a Larkin Township residence at the request of the Mount Pleasant Police Department. It was believed that a 14-year-old male juvenile was at the residence. There was a valid juvenile pick up order in place for the boy. The boy was located and transported to Oil City, where he was turned over to the Mount Pleasant Police Department. 2:10 p.m. -- Midland County Animal Control received a complaint about a dog running loose in Lee Township. The deputy spoke with the owner, and a citation was issued. 2:47 p.m. -- A 24-year-old woman called 911 because her 29-year-old husband would not provide her the keys to his pick-up. The deputy drove the woman to her appointment and informed her of local assistance agencies. 4:12 p.m. -- A salvage inspection was conducted in Lee Township. 4:18 p.m. A 26-year-old Edenville Township woman called 911 because her 28-year-old ex-boyfriend was at the residence. The man was supposed to be there at 6 p.m. when she was home to get his property, but she saw him on her CCTV and called. The man was gone upon deputy arrival. The deputy spoke with the woman and then called the man and expressed her desires for him not to return again. 8:42 p.m. -- A 41-year-old Lee Township man reported his 65-year-old uncle drove through his lawn causing damage and pointed a rifle at him. The 41-year-old ran away and the 65-year-old never fired the rifle. The 65-year-old left the scene and was later located and placed under arrest. The 65-year-old man was lodged in the Midland County Jail. A report was turned over to the Midland County Prosecutor. 9:26 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to the area of North 5 Mile and East Adams roads for a report of explosions. The deputy was in the area and observed lightning and heard thunder. The noise was believed to be the thunder. 10:10 p.m. -- A deputy investigated a report of a student that had made threatening statements to other students at a Jerome Township School. The school was aware of the incident and the suspect had been suspended. Photo: Contributed - CTV Vancouver - Friday morning in Slocan. 11:00 A.M. UPDATE Photo: Contributed - CTV Vancouver An RCMP officer patrols Slocan Thursday night. RCMP are continuing their search for the armed suspect while the community of Slocan remains in lock down. Chief Superintendent Frank Smart, District Commander for the RCMP Southeast District spoke to the media in Kelowna Friday morning, sharing the latest on their efforts to find the man. Smart identifies the suspect as 45-year-old Peter Degroot of Slocan, a man, his says, is well-known to police. Smart explains that the city remains in lockdown for the second day, keeping schools closed, as residents are asked again to avoid the cordoned off area and remain indoors. I thank the residents of Slocan for their patience and cooperation during this tense situation. Your safety is our primary concern, shares Smart. The situation is being continually assessed and I remain committed to providing information when I can. Over the last 12-hours, Smart says the Southeast District Emergency Response Team has been successful in evacuating homes in the cordoned off area. As well, they have safely extricated a police member and some residents using the Tactical Armoured Vehicle within the containment zone overnight. In response to the tense situation, police were also able to search the suspect's residence which resulted in the seizure of a number of firearms. Smart would not comment on how many or what type of firearms were seized. Additional resources including air support, the Southeast District Emergency Response Team, a crisis negotiator, police dogs and Tactical Armoured Vehicle have been deployed to the scene. Adequate resources have responded and will continue to do so until the situation is resolved. With the return of sufficient light to the area we hope to bring this fluid and unfolding event to a quick and safe resolution, adds Smart. We respect that there has been a lot of police activity over the past 24 hours and that will continue today. Smart adds that the police require the public and media's support in not discussing or releasing police movements on social media. Smart says Degroot is still considered armed and dangerous. If anyone sees Degroot, stay away and call 9-1-1. Photo: CTV Police have shut down the community of Slocan, just northwest of Nelson, after a gunman fired upon police on Thursday. 10:20 A.M. UPDATE The suspect has been identified as a 45-year-old man named Peter Degroot. He has not yet been arrested. Kids are not in school today and the community lock down remains in place. Update -- 7:30 a.m. RCMP investigators searched through the night near a small BC village where a suspect allegedly fired on police. A lone RCMP cruiser with its lights flashing ensured that nobody was allowed into Slocan, a southeastern BC community of about 300 near Nelson, where an undisclosed number of people have been evacuated. Those remaining were told to stay inside their homes and anyone leaving was informed they would not be allowed back in until the gunman was found. A total of 40 officers have been brought in from a number of BC detachments. A number using infrared goggles and wearing flak jackets were combing through the thick brush and trees surrounded by low lying mountains. To make matters worse, patches of fog were limiting visibility in certain areas. RCMP Const. Kris Clark said in a news release late Thursday that the suspect remains at large. "Due to the sensitive nature of our police operations, no further details can be provided," he said. Police say the incident began over a dispute between two people just after noon Thursday. "While on the scene, a male suspect allegedly fired upon police with a long rifle before retreating into the surrounding forest," said Clark. Additional police resources, including a helicopter and the Southeastern District Emergency Response Team have been deployed to the area. "As this is an unfolding event with an alleged armed suspect, we are asking that the movements and locations of responding officers not be divulged through social media," Clark said. "To do so may jeopardize police and public safety." No members of the public or RCMP officers have been injured, Clark said. Immediately after the shooting, officers began warning area residents of the potential danger. Jeff Jones, superintendent of School District 8, said all students and staff were evacuated from the school in Slocan City. "The RCMP provided escort," said Jones. "Parents are picking their children up at a safe spot south of the village." He said all students that were on buses are now with family members or caregivers. Village fire Chief John Gates said police stopped him at about 2:30 p.m. Pacific time while he was on his way to pick up his car from the mechanic's. "A constable came out and stopped us and told us to turn around and go back home," he said. Gates said police cars are blocking local streets to the south, north and east. Ben Mittellsteadt, a spokesman for the B.C. Ambulance Service in Victoria, said crews have been put on standby. The incident is believed to have stemmed from a dispute between two people on Slocan West Road near Gravel Pit Road. When officers with the Slocan/New Denver RCMP arrived on scene shortly after 12 p.m. Thursday afternoon, a male suspect allegedly fired upon police with a rifle before retreating into the surrounding forest. RCMP from Nelson, Castlegar, Nakusp and New Denver have been called to the scene. -- With files from the Canadian Press -- Send pictures, video to [email protected] Good Wednesday Morning, Fellow Seekers. We're going to start this third day of the working week with a bedtime story. Specifically, a bedtime story that Aryanna Berringer told to her two-and-a-half year old daughter, Atlee, last spring. Aryanna Berringer (contributed photo) If you have kids, and they've ever petitioned you for one more yarn before lights out, you can guess how this one turned out. Firmly refusing to turn the lights back on for a new book, Berringer delved into her imagination, spinning out the tale of a little girl, coincidentally named Atlee, who went on a journey to find her place in the world. Starting in her kitchen, Atlee ventures out into the wild. Along the way, she meets up with all manner of animals, including a mama brown bear and a mama snowy owl. In each meeting, Atlee proclaims their home to be her place in the world. And each time, the animals gently correct her, and send her on her way. After much marching, Atlee winds up on the front steps of a familiar-looking house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. There, she meets up with the equally familiar-looking current occupant. Once again, Atlee proclaims the house to be "her place in the world." When the leader of the free world tries to argue the point, Atlee shoots him down. And the president, for once, actually backs down without a fight - or a Twitter storm. "I have found my place in the world, and it's right here," a smiling Atlee says on the final page. We'll leave it to the reader to figure out the symbolic importance of this closing scene. It shouldn't be overly difficult. That bedtime story, the one that the real Atlee Berringer asked for on a sleepless spring night, is now a lavishly illustrated children's book, "My Place in the World." And it's set to be released on Oct. 15. You can pre-order it on Berringer's website. "I told her the story one night, the next night she asked for the story again. I told my husband. He said it was a good story and that I should write it down," Berringer, of Westmoreland County, said during a phone interview on Monday. "I wrote the story out. I did a little editing. I found an illustrator [Liz Beatty] -- and she loved it and wanted to take part. That's how it began. It was very natural." For Berringer, a veteran, a one-time Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, and now a community activist, the book's release, and the message in its pages, couldn't have come at a better time. We're chatting just two days after the U.S. Senate voted to confirm new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, capping a 20-day national argument about our dialogue on sexual assault, questions of guilt and innocence, and the role of the #MeToo movement in our politics. "We're in a place where girls are being told that they don't matter," Berringer said of the furor surrounding Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the California woman who accused the jurist of raping her at a high school party three decades ago. "I never could have guessed that, as I put the words on paper, that this is where we'd be now." When it comes to those concerns, Berringer is putting her money where her mouth is. A portion of the book's proceeds will be donated to The Women & Girls Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, a nonprofit that lobbies for paid parental leave and introduces young women to the political process. "I don't care if I make money on this book -- I just want kids to have it in their hands. I want kids to be successful," she said. "If I could make it a series -- and take on issues like immigration, and put it in a clear way, that would be great." Berringer, and her husband, Daren Berringer, a former staffer for state House Democrats and now a Democratic consultant, aren't strangers to the kind of dialogue they had with Atlee. The Berringers' 10-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son regularly hash out political issues around the dinner table. During Aryanna Berringer's brief primary campaign, they began grilling her on the issues. Young Atlee would ask questions of her own. "They are tough conversations to have," she said. So, "I told them stories that they could understand." And how did Atlee react when she found out she was the star of her own book? "It was the biggest 'wow' I've ever heard out of a little person," Berringer said with a laugh. PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) -- Gaining fury with every passing hour, Hurricane Michael began pounding the Florida Panhandle with sideways-blown rain and crashing waves Wednesday as it hit the coastline with potentially catastrophic winds. It was the most powerful storm on record to menace the roughly 200-mile stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches. A Category 4, Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach with 155 mph winds. Forecasters mark landfall as the place and time when the center of the eye strikes land. Minutes earlier, Michael's eyewall came ashore between Panama City and St. Vincent. Winds were tearing some buildings apart in Panama City Beach. One beachfront structure under construction could be seen collapsing, and metal roofing material flew sideways across parking lots amid sheets of rain. "I've had to take antacids I'm so sick to my stomach today because of this impending catastrophe," National Hurricane Center scientist Eric Blake tweeted as the storm -- supercharged by the Gulf of Mexico's abnormally warm, 84-degree water -- grew more scary. Here is the 12 PM CDT position update for #Michael: Eyewall of Michael coming ashore along the coast of the Florida Panhandle between St. Vincent Island and Panama City. Do not venture out into the eye when it passes! pic.twitter.com/KsePFlnTIt National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 10, 2018 The brute quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression, becoming a furious Category 4 by early Wednesday. Less than a day earlier, Michael was a Category 2. "The time to evacuate has come and gone ... SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY," Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted, while the sheriff in Panama City's Bay County issued a shelter-in-place order before dawn. This is roughly equivalent to a 3-hr long tornado warning. Immediately get to shelter or interior room! https://t.co/syFLd3Njas NWS (@NWS) October 10, 2018 More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast were urged to evacuate. But emergency authorities lamented that many people ignored the warnings and seemed to think they could ride it out. Diane Farris, 57, and her son walked to a high school-turned-shelter near their home in Panama City to find about 1,100 people crammed into a space meant for about half as many. Neither she nor her son had any way to communicate because their lone cellphone got wet and quit working. "I'm worried about my daughter and grandbaby. I don't know where they are. You know, that's hard," she said, choking back tears. Landfall of #HurricaneMichael is imminent. THIS IS A WORST CASE SCENARIO for the Florida Panhandle!! Listen to your local emergency officials. Stay Inside & Survive!" --NWS Director Dr. Louis Uccellini @NWSDirector pic.twitter.com/EMSZbMaHwW NWS (@NWS) October 10, 2018 As of 11:30 a.m., Michael was centered about 50 miles south of Panama City, its winds at 150 mph. It was moving at 14 mph. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 45 miles from its center. Rainfall could reach up to a foot, and the life-threatening storm surge could swell to 14 feet. More: The storm appeared to be so powerful that it is expected to remain a hurricane as it moves over Georgia early Thursday. Forecasters said it will unleash damaging wind and rain all the way into the Carolinas, which are still recovering from Hurricane Florence's epic flooding. The northern eyewall of Cat. 4 #HurricaneMichael is coming ashore between St. Vincent Island and Panama City, as seen here by #GOESEast. According to the @NHC_Atlantic, Michael's landfall is imminent: https://t.co/gcFrOMm2RR pic.twitter.com/RkyHkQZCAk NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) October 10, 2018 Meteorologists watched satellite imagery in complete awe as the storm intensified. "We are in new territory," National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. "The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle." Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach said in an email: "I really fear for what things are going to look like there tomorrow at this time." Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Panhandle into north-central Florida. "We've told those who stayed to have their life jackets on when the storm comes," Tress Dameron, Franklin County emergency management coordinator, told The News Herald in Panama City. By JAY REEVES and BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press An anti-hazing bill is one step closer to Gov. Tom Wolf's desk. In the wake of 19-year-old Timothy Piazza's hazing death, the Pennsylvania Senate in April passed its anti-hazing legislation, and the state House voted unanimously yesterday to adopt the wide-ranging measure. The driving force behind this rewrite of the state's anti-hazing law was the advocacy efforts of Jim and Evelyn Piazza of Lebanon, New Jersey, whose son, Timothy, died on Feb. 4, 2017, a little more than 24 hours after he suffered fatal internal injuries in a series of drunken falls following his acceptance of a bid to join the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Penn State University. "We are embarking on the final steps in a long journey for Tim's family who have turned their personal tragedy in to a mission to save others," Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman said in a press release yesterday. "It has been my honor to walk with them as we work toward comprehensively rewriting the state's hazing laws in order to prevent death or serious injury due to hazing. I am grateful for the House's support." Cormon, who first introduced the Timothy J. Piazza Anti-hazing Law in March, said it focuses on prevention, enforcement and transparency in order to end hazing. He noted the House amended the bill, meaning it will have to come back to the Senate for another vote. Corman intends to bring it before the full Senate next week. "In making these changes, we are establishing a model for strengthening anti-hazing laws nationwide," Corman said. "This law will provide prosecutors with the tools they need to fully prosecute those who engage in hazing-related activities. Students will have information they need to make informed choices about the groups they consider joining and safe harbor provisions so they can call for help for someone in distress without fear of prosecution." The proposed bill increases penalties for those involved in hazing, requires schools to have policies and reporting procedures in place to stop hazing and ensures parents and students are provided with information related to the issue. It also establishes clear-cut parameters on hazing for organizations such as fraternities and sororities. "No family should ever have to experience the preventable loss of a child because of the reckless and despicable act of hazing," state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff of Centre and Mifflin counties said in praising the passage of the legislation. "I pray this law will serve as a strong deterrent for those who might attempt to haze and intimidate their peers, and also provide law enforcement with the tools they need to pursue justice for victims." HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has twice claimed recently that a state Senate report released this summer recommended continuing his moratorium on the death penalty. The Democratic governor, who has called Pennsylvania's death penalty system "ineffective, unjust and expensive," instituted the moratorium shortly after taking office in 2015, fulfilling a campaign promise. He said it would remain in place until he could review the Senate report, which was already years in the making when he took office. Although Pennsylvania has 144 people on death row, the most recent execution was nearly two decades ago. Capital punishment is a politically divisive issue in the state, and Wolf has a month left in a re-election campaign against a Republican opponent, Scott Wagner, who is an ardent death penalty supporter. During a debate with Wagner on Oct. 1, and again in a meeting with the Pennlive.com editorial board in Harrisburg on Monday, Wolf contended a Senate report recommended continuing the moratorium. Here's a look at the claim: WOLF: "I want our system of justice to be fair, and I put the moratorium on, waiting for the bipartisan Senate commission to make their report. They did make their report and they suggested -- they recommended -- the moratorium. So I will continue that." THE FACTS: Wolf is wrong when he claims the Senate-ordered report released in June recommended he continue the moratorium. The set of recommendations in the report, "Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania: The Report of the Task Force and Advisory Committee," included having the state set up a publicly funded agency to provide legal representation for those facing the possibility of a death sentence. It also recommended making public the state's lethal injection protocol and using "an appropriate and effective drug." It made no mention of Wolf's moratorium, and took no position about whether the death penalty should remain in place. Challenged on the claim, the Wolf campaign on Monday cited three references in a separate report by the state court system, issued in 2003, that had been attached to the Senate report as an appendix. A campaign spokeswoman then said that earlier report was cited in error and said Wolf "always believed" that the Senate report "implied that the moratorium should continue until these problems are properly addressed." As governor, Wolf has been granting reprieves -- not commutations -- when inmates are scheduled for execution. The inmates who receive reprieves remain on death row. When Wolf imposed the moratorium, he said he had concerns about a "flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and expensive." Although the death penalty has been legal in Pennsylvania since the 1970s, the state has executed only three people in the intervening years, and all three had voluntarily given up their appeals. State and federal courts have prevented any other convicted murderers from being subject to capital punishment, so it's not likely executions would begin if Wolf were to stop issuing reprieves. Hazing allegations have prompted officials at Bloomsburg University to halt recruitment for sororities and fraternities. Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Dione Somerville told WNEP college officials are conducting an external investigation. Somerville would not say which of the school's 25 fraternities and sororities are under investigation. As a result of the investigation, pledging and recruitment activity has been put on hold. "The gravity of the allegations of which we were aware really led us to believe we needed to conduct an external investigation," Somerville said. University officials told WNEP the investigation into the allegations hasn't started yet, and it is not known how long it will last. Photo: ridiculouslyefficient.com By Lauren Parsons Toastmaster magazine Scientific research suggests that success does not lead to happiness, but that the opposite is true. Happiness has a profound effect on brain function and significantly increases individual performance, leading to greater success. If you focus on boosting your personal well-being, you will be a better leader and communicator to the benefit of your company, your Toastmasters club and your family and friends. Martin Seligman, director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, was the first to promote positive psychology as a field of scientific study while serving as president of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1998. This approach to psychology challenged what Seligman refers to as the disease model and focuses not on whats wrong with people but instead on whats right with them. Psychology should be just as concerned with human strength as it is with weakness, Seligman says in a 2004 TED Talk, adding that researchers are developing measures of what makes life worth living and different forms of happiness. Shawn Achor, a leader in the field of positive psychology and founder of GoodThink Inc. and the Institute for Applied Positive Research, has found that increased happiness leads to a 23 per cent reduction in stress, 39 per cent improvement in health and 31 per cent improvement in productivity. Specifically, Achor found that happiness leads to increased cognitive function, improved problem-solving ability, increased memory and retention, higher accuracy and greater creativity. All of these things give happy people a significant advantage, allowing them to perform at their peak. Imagine how keeping your brain in positive mode could affect your next speech or conversation with your friend, boss or spouse. Through his work in 50 countries, including with Fortune 100 companies, Achor discovered that happy people work smarter and produce significantly better results. They stay in an organization longer and are more engaged in achieving its vision. How to Be Happy Below are four practical strategies to use in and out of Toastmasters to keep your brain in positive mode and create the happiness advantage. Practice gratitude Gratitude and thankfulness are cornerstones of every Toastmasters meeting. Skilled evaluators congratulate and encourage speakers, offering practical suggestions and support by highlighting speakers strengths, just as positive psychology focuses on strengths versus weaknesses. The human brain is designed to scan the world for danger, which often means focusing first on the negatives. People are inclined to notice when things go wrong more often than when they go right. A disgruntled customer or broken equipment tends to get the attention, whereas people doing daily tasks well are often overlooked. Leaders can shift this paradigm by catching people doing things right and thanking them on the spot. Immediate and specific feedback creates a nurturing environment in which people thrive, because prompt, affirmative reinforcement increases positive behaviour and motivation people do more of what they are thanked for. This is why genuine praise is one of the best parenting, relationship and management techniques available. Actively encourage kindness You can rarely give a gift without getting something back yourself. As we give out random acts of kindness, we feel a deep level of contentment that keeps our brains in positive mode. Kind acts also deepen social connection, a key indicator of happiness. The New Zealand College of Fitness fosters kindness by ending team meetings with each staff member awarding a gold star to a colleague, publicly explaining why that person was chosen. The gold stars go up on a large wall chart to track progress toward rewards. This one small practice creates immense positivity; staff members are more inclined to help one another and feel valued hearing direct compliments from co-workers. Be intentional and set yourself a goal. See how many acts of kindness you can do each week and share your stories with others. It will encourage a culture where people continue to pay it forward, not only making someone elses day brighter but also boosting their own happiness. Dont forget to move Our physiology directly affects our psychology. Frequent movement is beneficial for both bodies and brains, improving creativity, focus and efficiency. Exercise augments neurotransmitters in the brain, increasing both short- and long-term happiness. The good news for busy people is that studies show that even short intervals of exercise can be more effective than longer periods at a lower output. Try to integrate movement throughout your day by taking regular deskercise breaks, even for just 60 seconds. This will not only put your brain in positive mode and leave you feeling more alert, it will also increase your productivity. Recharge in rhythm Learn how to tune in to internal body-clock rhythms and pay attention when its time to take a break when you become distracted, tired, thirsty, hungry, fidgety or frustrated. It is possible to ignore these signals, say if you have a report deadline looming and just dont want to stop; your body will go into fight or flight mode, pushing through with a burst of adrenaline. This is acceptable from time to time, but if you continue this practice day in and day out, you will reach a chronic state of stress, which has serious health consequences. To refocus, create a change of state by spending a few minutes outside, standing, walking around or stretching. Your brain will be sharper, allowing you to complete your work faster and with greater accuracy, all saving time and making you happier and more productive than when you simply push on through. By fostering a thankful attitude, intentionally spreading kindness, integrating uplifting movement into your day and taking time out in rhythm with your body, you will not only increase your personal, physical and emotional well-being but also fundamentally improve your performance and experience greater success in all areas of life. Lauren Parsons is an award-winning Wellbeing Specialist who equips and inspires people to boost their health and happiness, for life. Get a free copy of Lauren's e-book and register for updates at www.laurenparsons.co.nz. A possibly life-threatening storm is on its way to the Florida coast, but projections show the bulk of the hurricane missing Pennsylvania. Hurricane Michael was upgraded to a category 3 storm Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm is expected to move inland over the Florida Panhandle and the Florida Big Bend regions on Wednesday, then moth northeast Wednesday night and Thursday. The storm could cause storm surges along the coastline, which the NHC said could be life-threatening. Maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph currently, with higher gusts, according to the NHC. The storm is expected to strengthen overnight and be close to a category 4 storm when it makes landfall. Many areas of the south eastern coast are facing warnings of severe weather, including up to 12 inches of rain in Alabama and central Georgia. The Carolinas and Virginia are expected to see 3 to 6 inches of rain, with a maximum amount of 8 inches in some areas. The NHC states that the Florida peninsula, eastern mid-Atlantic and southern New England Coast may see 1-3 inches of rain. Hurricane Michael rainfall projections as of 9 p.m. Tuesday. Current storm projections show the bulk of the storm swinging back out along the Atlantic coast near the Virginia, Maryland and Delaware coasts. The storm is not shown crossing into Pennsylvania. AccuWeather previously reported that how much rain hits the region depends on the track of the storm and the speed of the cooler and drier air. Several areas in Pennsylvania are still recovering from heavy flooding that plagued the region throughout the summer. In Hurricane Michael's path, the Carolinas faced another major threat in Hurricane Florence just under a month ago. The most recent reports show 39 people died in Florence, the News&Observer reported. You can see live weather updates via the National Weather Service and other Twitter sources below. Tweet us at @pennlive with photos of inclement weather at your place, incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com. Police took a Steelton man into custody Tuesday that they charged as responsible for several burglaries in Swatara Township and possibly more in other jurisdictions. Joseph Sullivan, 45, was charged by Swatara Police but taken into custody by East Pennsboro Township Police Tuesday without incident, police said. Police said Sullivan was involved in four commercial burglaries in Swatara Township between Sept. 26 and October 4. Sullivan is also being investigated for multiple burglaries in other jurisdictions, police said. Swatara Township Police credited Sullivan's arrest as a result of a joint effort between them, Harrisburg City Police, Susquehanna Township Police, East Pennsboro Township Police, Hampden Township Police and Pennsylvania State Parole. STPD thanked the other agencies for their dedication and service. Upper Allen Township police are investigating a report of a sexual assault that took place on the Messiah College campus, they said Tuesday. Police said there is an active investigation and the college was made aware of the incident. No details of the reported incident were provided by police. A suspect in a Carlisle sexual assault was apprehended Wednesday by the U.S. Marshals Service task force in Florida. Ramon Luis Hernandez, 39, formerly of Carlisle, Cumberland County, was apprehended in Altamonte Springs, Seminole County, Florida, the U.S. Marshals Service said Wednesday. Hernandez was the subject of a Pennsylvania State Police sexual assault investigation involving a juvenile, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. The investigation began in September 2018. Hernandez was charged with indecent assault of a person younger than 13 and lesser offenses on Oct. 4, 2018, the Marshals Service said. State Police learned he fled to Florida, so the U.S. Marshals Service was asked to assist. Around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, deputy marshals and U.S. Marshals Task Force officers arrested Hernandez without incident, the Marshals Service said. He was turned over to Seminole County authorities pending extradition. United States Marshal Martin J. Pane stated, "It is important to bring those charged with serious sex crimes to justice. It is my hope that the victim will find comfort knowing the alleged attacker is now in custody." Police in Rochester, New York, say a gunman was "on a mission" to target family members Wednesday when he shot three people. That preceded a high-speed pursuit that ended with a fatal shootout, according to the Democrat & Chronicle. Here's dramatic footage from that pursuit. Max Schulte, a Democrat and Chronicle photojournalist who captured some of the most dramatic footage of the incident, called it a harrowing experience "I've been in situations where officers have had their guns drawn, I've seen them surround a house," he said in this story that was posted online. "But I've never, ever, ever seen anything like that in my entire life. I've never been that close to gunfire. By Edward McGinnis As principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, I recently had the opportunity to speak with the Pennsylvania state Legislature about nuclear energy and its importance to national energy goals. Edward McGinnis (U.S. Dept. of Energy photo) I want to bring to light the threat to our grid resiliency and national security if we lose the asset that is our civil nuclear fleet. Pennsylvania's nine reactors generated 94 percent of the state's emissions-free electricity while providing 42 percent of the total electricity. Nuclear also provides an economic boost. There are nearly 500 nuclear energy industry companies in the state, supporting about 4,900 highly-skilled workers. I told legislators about the risk of nuclear plants closing early due to overregulation, a lack of market value for the resilient attributes of nuclear energy, and low, yet variable natural gas prices. Since 2013, seven units have prematurely closed and 12 have announced retirement, representing more than 10 percent of the nation's nuclear capacity. The Trump administration is committed to reviving and revitalizing the civil nuclear industry. We are working with national laboratories, universities, and industry to develop advanced fuels and materials that could significantly increase plant performance. We are working to bring advanced reactors online, such as small modular reactors (SMRs), which have the promise of being absolute game-changers. SMRs are scalable, versatile, distributable, and more financeable to complement the larger advanced U.S. nuclear reactors. We need every reactor in Pennsylvania and our nation to keep our grid reliable and resilient. Edward McGinnis is the principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. He writes from Washington D.C. Health department reports first pediatric COVID-19 death The Health Department of Northwest Michigan reported the first pediatric death due to COVID-19 within its four-county jurisdiction on Friday, Nov. 12. Photo: Contributed Castanet is giving some insight into what the four candidates for the Kelowna mayor's chair think about several pertinent issues. We posed the same seven questions to each of the candidates, and will publish the answers, one at a time through next Thursday. The order in which the answers are published will change each day for fairness. Question 6 - Everything costs money, and ultimately, those costs fall to the taxpayer. Over the past four years, the average tax increase in Kelowna has come in at 3.5 per cent. How do you propose to keep taxes low, while still providing the best possible service? Tom Dyas - I would like to take a broader view, rather than committing to a random ratio of commercial versus residential taxes. The overall health and prosperity of a city is partially based on high employment rates and good wages to support a good standard of living. Jobs come from business, and in Kelowna, most of our employment comes from small to medium sized businesses. One of the key factors in having good business in our city is to have a very competitive business tax base to allow business to flourish, create more jobs, and invest more in equipment and assets, etc. As a result of business prosperity, the city benefits overall from better employment, more tax revenue and more dollars to re-invest into community services. As mayor, I will ensure whichever tax model we use is attractive to businesses, is competitive, and provides good value for all citizens. Entrepreneurship, small business, and innovation are at the core of our economic and social well-being. My vision and goal is to create a more vibrant community with economic and lifestyle prosperity. That starts with having the best employment environment in Canada. Several years ago, our city was focused on this goal and we achieved it! Recently, we have lost our way somewhat, lost our vision, focus, and cohesiveness. My extensive experience with chamber policies and business have provided me with an incredible passion and determination to create a healthy and prosperous Kelowna, which starts with a healthy job market and a supportive business environment. Keeping commercial taxes fair and equitable will provide that supportive business environment required by all to grow and prosper. Bobby Kennedy - In this world nothing can be said to be certain, but death and taxes." Benjamin Franklin. If Benjamin Franklin was talking about Kelowna, then the word "increasing" would be on the end of that sentence. It is unacceptable to continually charge our citizens more and more each year especially when the majority feeling is that we are not getting more and more for our money. Our downtown core was barely plowed in the last two winters seeming as if the attitude was " it will melt " well when it did melt it created huge puddles that took up parking spots and forced patrons to either get wet and still forced to pay to park or to just not park at all. As a downtown business owner I was shocked. I have mentioned the CCT or City Cannabis Tax prior in this questionnaire. This is the best way to lower our residential taxes because it capitalizes on the city sale of recreational cannabis, which will have a huge portion of sales attributed by our tourist visitors. This is a great way to capitalize on the thousands of visitors we receive each year that currently do not contribute any yearly tax revenue to our budget. You, as a resident of Kelowna, pay to maintain our parks, lakes and beaches yet the tourists enjoys them at the same rate you get to. I urge you to visit bobbykennedy.ca to further educate yourself on how we can capitalize on cannabis and the CCT. I am the ONLY candidate with the expertise, experience and network to properly capitalize on this once in a lifetime economic opportunity and I also believe to be the ONLY candidate to have an actual plan to generate revenue from multiple sources other than straight from YOUR pocket. Bob Schewe - I propose we try to freeze all business and property taxes for two years. We all pay enough taxes. As being in the middle of the city burocracy for the last 12 years, I am well aware of some inefficiencies in several departments. I would be directly involved in the scrutiny of all the departmental and project budgets. We have to be smarter with proposed developments and projects. As an example, the moving of the tourist bureau to Queensway was not smart and quite possibly could have just been a facelift renovation at the previous location on the highway. Colin Basran - Keeping tax increases to a minimum and making tax dollars go further has always been my governing philosophy. In fact, we were recently ranked No. 1 by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business for keeping our operational spending low for taxpayers and third best for overall spending. When you compare Kelowna to the 20 largest communities in B.C., our tax rates are one of the lowest and well below the average. A collaborative approach, innovation and strong leadership have enabled us to keep taxes low while ensuring Kelowna residents have the services they need in our community. Today, nearly three-quarters of spending for city projects, services and infrastructure comes from sources other than taxation. For instance, we received $148.8-million in external grant funding for city projects to grow our infrastructure and to support residents needs. We also secured a $43.9-million senior government grant, to implement Phase 1 of the Kelowna Integrated Water Project for clean water. An additional $12-million provincial grant has been secured for Phase 2. The reality is that our community is being challenged by continued growth and ageing infrastructure. These challenges need to be addressed in a timely and fiscally responsible manner. Not addressing these issues in order to keep taxes artificially low will only push this problem onto future generations and increase our infrastructure deficit. LOWER POTTSGROVE Everyone wants school children to demonstrate and practice good behavior. Like many things, it has to be taught, ideally, both at home and at school. Pottsgrove's three elementary schools were recently recognized for doing just that. Ringing Rocks, West Pottsgrove and Lower Pottsgrove elementary schools have been singled out for the continued implementation of Positive Behavior Interventions... The year was 1775,. The Second Continental Congress of the United States passed a resolution creating the Continental Navy. At this time the Continental Navy consisted of converted merchantmen because of the lack of funding, manpower, and resources, with exclusively designed warships being built later. The Continental Navy was a success and stemmed from the efforts of the Continental Congress and patron John Adams. It's main goal was to interrupt British maritime commercial operations. As the American Revolutionary War ended, the Continental Navy which contributed to the war effort, and gave needed experience for a generations of offices who went on to command other war conflicts in the American Navy and to today's United States Navy. With the federal government in need of all funds at the time, the last "naval ship" was autioned off to the highest bidder in 1785. Under first President George Washington threats to American merchant shipping by Barbary pirates from four North African Muslim States, in the Mediterranean, led to the Naval Act of 1794, which created a permanent standing U.S. Navy. The original six frigates were authorized as part of the Act. Over the next 20 years, the Navy fought the French Republic Navy in the Quasi-War (179899), Barbary states in the First and Second Barbary Wars, and the British in the War of 1812(1) In 1882, the U.S. Navy consisted of many outdated ship designs. Over the next decade, Congress approved building multiple modern steel-hulled armored cruisers and battleships, and by around the start of the 20th century had moved from twelfth place in 1870 to fifth place in terms of numbers of ships. After winning two major battles during the 1898 SpanishAmerican War, the American Navy continued to build more ships, and by the end of World War I had more men and women in uniform than the British Royal Navy. The Washington Naval Conference of 1921 recognized the Navy as equal in capital ship size to the Royal Navy, and during the 1920s and 1930s, the Navy built several aircraft carriers and battleships. The Navy was drawn into World War II after the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and over the next four years fought many historic battles including the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, multiple naval battles during the Guadalcanal Campaign, and the largest naval battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Much of the Navy's activity concerned the support of landings, not only with the "island-hopping" campaign in the Pacific, but also with the European landings. When the Japanese surrendered, a large flotilla entered Tokyo Bay to witness the formal ceremony conducted on the battleship Missouri, on which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. By the end of the war, the Navy had over 1,600 warships. After World War II ended, the U.S. Navy entered the 45 year long Cold War and participated in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the First Persian Gulf War, and the Second Persian Gulf War / Iraq War. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990-91, the Soviet Red Navy fell apart, which made the United States the world's undisputed naval superpower. Nuclear power and ballistic missile technology led to new ship propulsion and weapon systems, which were used in the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and Ohio-class submarines. By 1978, the number of ships had dwindled to less than 400, many of which were from World War II, which prompted Ronald Reagan to institute a program for a modern, 600-ship Navy. Today, the United States is the world's undisputed naval superpower, with the ability to engage and project power in two simultaneous limited wars along separate fronts. In March 2007, the U.S. Navy reached its smallest fleet size, with 274 ships, since World War I. Former U.S. Navy admirals who head the U.S. Naval Institute have raised concerns about what they see as the ability to respond to 'aggressive moves by Iran and China.(2) Today, the United States Navy has 286 deployable battle ships, which includes 96 submarines, aircraft carriers, and Amphibious Assault Ships. Also over 3700 Navy aircraft. There are 328,267 active duty personnel in the Navy as of August 2018 consisting of: Officers: 55,406; Enlisted: 268,358; Midshipmen: 4,503. Courtesy of Nina Radcliffe Nina Radcliffe aboard the USS Midway. In the reserves are Ready Reserve: 98,748 consisting of: Selected Reserves: 57,983; Individual Ready Reserve: 40,765; Reserves Currently Mobilized: 3,071. The United States Navy also employs 210,031 Navy Department Civilian Employees..(3) On October 13, 2018 it will be the United States Navy's 243rd birthday. We salute the men and women who serve in the Navy past and present. Navy active duty Nina Radcliffe - "Once I graduate from nursing school, I will change my rank from an enlisted person to an officer. "I am in my 18th year in the Navy, and I fully intend on going for 30 years!" she said. "I will still be young enough to travel and enjoy life! I love this Navy!" she added. Sources: 1-2 Wikipedia; 3- United State Navy How to Tango with a Smogust How to Get Beginners Luck Fishing How to Skip the Perfect Stone Part II: The Return of Colour Goal: Seven summits, 7 days, circumnavigating the Southern Canadian Rockies Reality: Dodge smoke, ride when possibleDawn breaks as we step foot into the skeleton of an old fire lookout building. Looking in each direction from the hollow windows, there's a curtain of smoke between us and each horizon. Miraculously, we're standing in the center of a smoke-doughnut, breathing freely and peering down at 1000 meters of earned vert (for American readers, 1000 meters is Canadian for 'really big').A fine Canadian trucker's joke goes: In Canada, there are two seasons; winter, and highway construction. I'll offer my revision, based on the recent years: In Western Canada we've got three seasons; winter, hockey playoffs, and Smogust; our summer month of smoke.Stu, who wields chainsaws for a living, and races bikes faster than most will ever dream, has a remarkable phobia of heights and is nearly incapable of jumping off bridges.In Golden B.C., we set up camp at a trailhead, but upon waking up, we find our headlamps illuminating smoke so thick it feels like walking through coastal fog. There were no stars in the cloudless skies At sunrise, we find mother nature forgot her colour palette. The day could only fade into a dull greyscale.Lines in the sand are difficult to define when is the smoke going to be too smokey to care? How many cigarettes are we willing to smoke to keep adventuring? How many smokes are too many smokes? 1. Create a diverse plan of trails to ride as the smoke is going to lead this dance. Plan to be responsive and flexible if you want to keep up with its rhythms. 2. Show up to bat you can't capitalize if you aren't already trying: pack the bag, set the alarm, and see if you're getting lucky or getting skunked. 3. Don't force it when your headlamp looks foggy, or the summits are obscured, go back to bed, or make a third coffee. 4. Lean into the novelties go skip stones, fish, read books, sketch, swim, breweries, museums, galleries, and all of that Pinteresty stuff. Leave the plans on the back burner and turn the peripheral into your priority. 5. Know when to fold 'em Kenny Roger's manifesto isn't just a catchy track, know when you're beatAs the old adage goes, you can't wrestle a shark unless you get into the ocean. So, we drive toward the blade runner skies to try again. There's a backcountry cabin with our name on it, and unless the cabin itself is on fire, we're going to get to it.There's enough smoke for this to smell like the inside of an Idaho bar full of Patty and Selma Bouvier impersonators. But, as we gain altitude, we move into cleaner air and eventually into the subalpine cirque where the cabin is located. Held by a perimeter of tall Rockies peaks, we're once again in the center of an impossibly fortunate doughnut hole.Did you know: doughnut holes are the national food of Canada, and we call them Tim Bits. 1. Find a rod, any rod, reel or line. 2. Crack a beer 3. This is where you wish you paid attention in scouts when you were twelve years old. Get a lure for whatever you are fishing. If you dont know what youre fishing for, something shiny should do the trick. Tie it to the end of your line. If you didnt pay attention in boy scouts: Google It. 4. Remember that you dont need to catch any fish to have fun. 5. How to know if there is fish in the lake? You dont. 6. If you see fish jumping, this is your bull's eye.How were the views in the Rockies, Marty? 'Well, the fishing was good' 1. Find a smooth, roundish rock the size of a deck of cards, or smaller to fit your hand. 2. Assume a wide stance at the shoreline. 3. Skip when there's minimal wind. 4. Hold the edge of the rock with the pointer finger and palm. 5. Using a sidearm throw, throw the rock spinning like a record. Aim for 25 feet ahead of you for the first skip and try to have the leading edge of the rock slightly higher than the trailing edge. 6. Profit.Then, Kenny Rogers came to Stu in a dream and said, You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em."Each of us had worked our way through a couple packs of Marlboros, and one of us so under the weather the regional toilet paper supply was on red alert. Beijingian greyscale skies had sucked the optimism out of the world. When the music stops, you look like a fool when you keep dancing. This tango was over.This is when you fold.- - -Rain fell, bringing British Columbia back out of the seventh circle of hell, antibiotics carpet bombed the offending stomach cultures, and a freak chainsaw fight accident reduced our tribe from the three stooges to the two coastal amigos.When the music resumes, what dance do you choose? If smoke still threatens the Rockies, should we persist, or take a hint and change our aim? What would Kenny Rogers do? WWKRD?After channeling Kenny Rogers on the Ouija board, he gave us a new Summit(ish) Quest that will include three Coast Range rides. Only the second ride has a definite summit. We've long since past the point of failure, that our once dearly held goals are easily given up like the idea of floating disk brakes or water bottles below downtubes.Our home mountain range on the coast doesn't really make itself available to biking summits, but on our Google Earth maps pinned like an acupuncture patient, there are zones we've thought to try, but have never prioritized. We point towards Where Trailforks Ends, and move into the thrill of the semi-unknown. We find a flock of granola crunching hippies, fantastic rock slabs, and a cabin that houses infrequent bike traffic.Objects in the Fraser Canyon may be bigger than they appear.Though our first language is Canadian, we misinterpret 1400 meters as 'really big' when it actually means 'really, really big', and try to blame a long drive, and a late start, for why we might miss the summit. Finally, we're chased off the summit ridge by a rainstorm giving us a valid excuse for yet more failure, but still manage to find a couple high five worthy moments during the headlamp descent.The Fraser Canyon disappears in the rear mirror without a summit under our belts. On our Rockies-Coastal Summit Quest, we still have only a single peak in the bag. The good times abound, but the lack of winning is palpable, and our last remaining summit route is nearly blank on the map.The last ride strings us along like a Stephen King thriller a bushwack, then supreme forest singletrack with so much needle loam you could call it a biohazard, then a kilometer of derailleur biter trench, then a lost trail, a found trail. The sun begins to dive to the horizon, like a newly mortgaged med school graduate diving into middle age.We race it up the mountain, following the intermittent trail. Time wanes, but our hopes grow. Singletrack reappears and pulls us towards the summit. Finally, 21 days after our first summit, we reach the second and final summit of the trip.Shoot for the stars, if you miss, you'll find yourself swatting alpine mosquitos. -Norman Vincent Peale Photo: The Canadian Press Debris scatters area at the site of fatal limo crash in Schoharie, N.Y. A deadly crash involving a stretched limousine-style SUV in New York state over the weekend has put a spotlight on safety concerns around the modified vehicles, but industry players maintain they're safe. On Saturday the limousine, built from a 2001 Ford Excursion, ran a stop sign, crossed three lanes of traffic and hit a parked SUV before stopping in a wooded ditch. Two pedestrians and all 18 people in the limo celebrating a woman's birthday died. The cause of the crash is being investigated but New York officials have raised concerns about a failed inspection for the vehicle last month. Potential riders should realize these stretched vehicles aren't made by the major automotive companies, said Russ Rader, senior vice-president at the Virginia-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "These vehicles are engineered to carry a lot of people, but in cutting them up and stretching them, some of the crash worthiness and safety aspects of the vehicle are taken out." Side-impact protection, full side airbags, some rollover protection could be lost, while seating modifications could make seatbelts hard to access, said Rader. "Once a vehicle is modified and stretched like this, it would not meet the same crash-worthiness standards as the stock vehicle." Manufacturers of the vehicles, however, say they stick with detailed specifications set out by the main automotive brands used in modifications including Ford Motor Co. and Cadillac. "We just do it one way, the way Ford or GM tells us how to build the car," said Leo Bodenstein, vice-president of the professional vehicles division at Inkas Armored & Professional Vehicle Manufacturing. "When you convert a vehicle, you're converting it to the equivalent of those specs. You can't exceed them, you can't go over those specs, you can't go under those specs. You have to build it as set by the manufacturer." Auto rebuilders can apply to be certified as meeting quality standards and specifications that outline requirements such as brake strength, wheelbase length limits, use of fireproof materials, and emergency exits including pop-out windows and an escape hatch in the ceiling. British Columbia introduced more stringent regulations for the industry in the province in 2015 and now requires each vehicle to be approved by the Passenger Transportation Board for a special licence and has imposed a more extensive application process and operator review. "Above all it's important for people to recognize that just because you're in a limousine out celebrating and having a good time, the laws of physics are always at work, and you're not getting some magic force field protection. You have to wear your safety belt," said Rader. Aiguille d'Argentiere Mont Blanc: Ondrej Huserka and Jan Smolen making the first ascent of In memory of Cervienka on Plateau du Jardin (02/2018) Photo by Huserka, Smolen Aiguille d'Argentiere: new climbs in the Mont Blanc massif Slovak mountaineers Ondrej Huserka and Jan Smolen have established two new rock climbs on Aiguille dArgentiere in the Mont Blanc massif: Crystal route up Contreforts Charlet-Straton and In memory of Cervienka up Plateau du Jardin. In the past, whenever we went climbing in the Mont Blanc massif wed focus on the most popular areas, such as Aiguilles de Chamonix, Grand Capucin or Aiguille du Midi. Last August however we decided to climb above the Argentiere glacier which is far less frequented. Maybe that's why we met only three other teams during our stay. Our aim was clear - make some first ascents. In 2016 Francois Damilano published his new guidebook called Mont Blanc Granite, a Rock Climbing Guide Argentiere basin and this highlighted the valleys potential for new rock climbs. After a great warm-up along the route Reve de singe (7a, 200 m) to the summit of La Vierge we picked two beautiful and logical lines. The first route we climbed was a the completely new Crystal route, 280 meters high with 6c difficulties on the Contreforts Charlet-Straton. We chose a fast and light style due to the weather conditions, as the storms were quite close to us. We only took pegs and Friends and while we left a peg in-situ on the first pitch, all belay stations were rigged with Friends. We abseiled down to our starting point via the Patagonique route established by Jean-Luc Amstutz and Romain Vogler as thunder rolled in. We were lucky however, because it started to rain right after we zipped up our tent door. The next day we climbed on Plateau du Jardin. The first two pitches were shared with the old classic route, after which we continued up an obvious crack line to the left. We took a drill with us too, and this proved the right thing to do because this climbing was quite challenging, with difficulties up to 7b in its 260 meters. On the 4th pitch we placed two bolts, another three on pitch 5 and equipped each belay station with two bolts. We named the route In memory of Cervienka and we would like to dedicate the climb to our dear friend Maros Cervienka, who went missing on July 1, 2018 during his free solo ascent of the Major route on the east face of Mont Blanc. We are looking forward to the next adventure like this one. Be careful, stay safe. Ondrej Huserka, Jan Smolen Share Tweet I have very hyperextended legs, and when I do sauts de chat my teachers say my back leg looks bent, even if I try my hardest and think its straight. Why is this happening, and do you have any tips? Eden I have hyperextended knees too, so I understand how they can be both a blessing (those gorgeous lines!) and a curse (poor alignment and instability). According to research presented by the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, hypermobile dancers have decreased proprioception, or awareness of their limbs in space. Because of this, you may feel like your leg is straight even if its slightly bent. Its possible that you are micro-bending your knees to compensate for your hyperextension. I find doing so causes a lot of tension in the calves and thighs. Whenever someone has pointed out that my back leg is bent in arabesque, its usually because Im muscling my quad (which releases the knee slightly) instead of turning out and lengthening all the way through the tips of my toes. Perhaps youre gripping your thighs during saut de chat instead of feeling length underneath the leg. You may also be losing your placement and coordination due to fatigue at the end of class and consequently releasing the back knee. Sitting into your hyperextension can wreak havoc on your alignmentyour back sways and your pelvis tips forward, which releases key core muscles and prevents you from accessing your turnout. I often see hypermobile students dance in disconnected pieces during grand allegro instead of with their whole body. Whether you tombe pas de bourree or chasse into saut de chat, remember to take your hips with you, to be forward on the balls of your feet and to maintain your turnout as you take off for the leap. Otherwise you wont be able to use the inner thigh to grand battement with a straight back leg. In addition to working on your technique, I strongly recommend that you take Pilates classes, which can help fine-tune your proprioception, improve your alignment, and strengthen the stabilizing muscles and internal rotators needed to dance with straight, strong legs. 1.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Sharon Bernstein and Chris Kahn (Reuters) Older, white, educated voters helped Donald Trump win the White House in 2016. Now, they are trending toward Democrats in such numbers that their ballots could tip the scales in tight congressional races from New Jersey to California, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll and a data analysis of competitive districts shows. Nationwide, whites over the age of 60 with college degrees now favor Democrats over Republicans for Congress by a 2-point margin, according to Reuters/Ipsos opinion polling during the first three months of the year. During the same period in 2016, that same group favored Republicans for Congress by 10 percentage points. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2H39Tur) The 12-point swing is one of the largest shifts in support toward Democrats that the Reuters/Ipsos poll has measured over the past two years. If that trend continues, Republicans will struggle to keep control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate, in the November elections, potentially dooming President Donald Trump's legislative agenda. The real core for the Republicans is white, older white, and if theyre losing ground there, theyre going to have a tsunami, said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist who closely tracks political races. If that continues to November, theyre toast. Asked about the swing, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel cited robust fund-raising and said the party would field strong campaigns in battleground states. "We are not taking a single vote for granted, she said in a statement. John Camm has been a Republican since the Nixon Administration, but the 63-year-old Tucson accountant says he will likely support a Democrat for Congress in November. He is splitting with his party over access to health insurance as well as its recent overhaul of the nation's income tax system. He also supports gun control measures that the party has rejected. "I'm a moderate Republican, and yet my party has run away from that," Camm said. "So give me a moderate Democrat." Camm is not alone in his worries about healthcare. The number of educated older adults choosing "healthcare" in the Reuters/Ipsos poll as their top issue nearly tripled over the past two years, from 8 percent to 21 percent. The poll did not ask respondents precisely what their concerns about healthcare were. Typically though, voters' concerns are varied. Some fear the repealing of the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama's signature effort to offer subsidized health insurance to millions of Americans and expand healthcare to the poor. Others cite high prescription drug costs and the high cost of healthcare in general. GRAY VOTE MAGNIFIED The potential impact of any swing to Democrats is magnified given that older, educated adults are reliable voters. They also make up a sizeable portion of the voting population in many districts where elections are close. How they vote could decide elections in as many as 26 competitive congressional districts where Democrats have a shot at winning a seat. A Reuters analysis of U.S. Census data shows highly educated older voters make up about 5-10 percent of the population in those areas. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to win control of the House of Representatives. More broadly, older white Americans, regardless of their level of education, are still more likely to vote for Republicans than Democrats, but the Republican advantage with this group has been trimmed by about 5 percentage points when comparing the first quarter of 2018 with the first quarter of 2016. DISPROPORTIONATE POWER Older, educated voters have even more clout in the Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, where John Camm lives. They make up about 10 percent of the population there, the analysis shows. Adjacent to the University of Arizona Tucson campus and including some of Arizona's few liberal pockets, it is Arizona's most competitive district, said Paul Bentz, an Arizona strategist and pollster who has worked on numerous Republican campaigns. Older voters in the 2nd district - both with and without college degrees - were 40 percent of voters in the 2016 election that kept Congress in Republican hands and brought Trump to power, Arizona voter data reviewed by Reuters shows. Bentz said the shift toward Democrats in the Tucson area could be enough to determine the outcome, but he cautioned against reading too much into the increased concern about healthcare. He said Republicans could still win voters with arguments focusing on immigration and support for the military. Older, educated voters are also nearly 10 percent of the adult population in northern New Jersey's hotly contested 11th Congressional District, three hotly contested Southern California districts, and highly competitive seats in Illinois, Texas and Virginia's 10th. RAISING ANXIETY Nationally, Democrats plan to campaign strongly for older voters, focusing on issues such as taxes, healthcare and the economy as campaigns heat up later this year, party strategists said. Republicans, meanwhile, are touting the benefits of their tax cuts and the improved economy. In an ad that began rolling out last week in Indiana, Priorities USA Action, the largest Democratic Party fundraising group, highlights increases to the federal deficit caused by Republican tax cuts. "Now there's a plan to cut Medicare to pay for it," the ad says, a line designed to raise older Americans' anxiety about the government healthcare program for over 65s. Priorities spokesman Josh Schwerin said it plans to spend $50 million on such ads in several states, including Arizona, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Voters between the ages of 60 and 65 are particularly worried about healthcare, said Brigid Harrison, a political scientist at Montclair State University in New Jersey, because they are paying ever higher private health insurance premiums and are not yet eligible for Medicare. Kenneth Johnston, 82 and a registered Republican who was shopping with his wife on a recent day at a Sprouts Farmers Market store in Green Valley, south of Tucson, said he is unhappy with his party and has mixed feelings about Trump. But he hasn't yet decided how he's going to vote. "I'm worried about healthcare, but sometimes I just worry about everything," he said. "I'm old." --The Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll provides a snapshot of public opinion by surveying more than 65,000 adults during the first three months of 2016 and 2018, including more than 15,000 people over the age of 60. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein and Chris Kahn. Additional reporting by Grant Smith in New York, Howard Schneider in Washington, and Paul Ingram and Joe Ferguson in Tucson, Arizona.; Editing by Damon Darlin and Ross Colvin) 380 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) The U.S. Department of Agricultures $12 billion package to offset farmers losses from the imposition of tariffs American exports could end up shrinking after an agreement to update NAFTA was struck, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Tuesday. We will be recalculating along as we go, Perdue said in a phone interview with Reuters, regarding the second tranche of the planned compensation, estimated at about $6 billion, which was first announced in July after U.S. and China imposed trade tariffs on each others imports. China has traditionally been the biggest buyer of U.S. agriculture exports but it has been largely out of the market for several products, such as soybeans, since implementing levies on U.S. imports in retaliation for the Trump administrations tariffs on Chinese goods. The aid package includes cash payments for farmers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and hogs. The USDA had already outlined the allocations for the first $6 billion at the end of August. Perdue said the picture has changed after the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was reached, a revamp of the NAFTA trade agreement between the three nations. If the tariffs do come off and the tariff impact lessens it will have some impact over the mitigation efforts because mitigation efforts were based on the fact that they would be tariff damage related, he said. American farmers have yet to see the full benefit of the new accord as an ongoing dispute over steel and aluminum tariffs mean they still face retaliatory measures when trading with Canada and Mexico. That agreement also does not address the harm as a result of the trade war with China. In late May, the Trump administration announced tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports, prompting retaliation from top trading partners including Canada and Mexico. Perdue said talks to remove the steel and aluminum tariffs were just beginning. The President feels tariffs have been very instrumental in getting Canada to the negotiation table. Now that we have an agreement, I believe their usefulness regarding those two countries have diminished and I think we should go back to our prior relationship of no tariffs on steel and aluminum, he said. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Peter Cooney) 358 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) Brett Kavanaugh spent a collegial first day on the bench as a U.S. Supreme Court justice on Tuesday that contrasted sharply with the venom of his confirmation process, taking an active role in arguments alongside his eight new colleagues. Kavanaugh, a veteran of such proceedings after 12 years on an influential U.S. appeals court, looked at ease as he asked several questions during two hours of lively oral arguments involving a federal sentencing law for repeat offenders. It seemed like business as usual in the ornate courtroom, three days after Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Republican-led Senate despite being accused of sexual assault by a university professor named Christine Blasey Ford. Appointed by President Donald Trump, Kavanaughs confirmation cemented a conservative majority on the court that could last for years. Kavanaugh took his seat at the right end of the courtrooms mahogany bench the location assigned to the courts junior-most member and wore traditional black robes like the other justices. Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, the 82-year-old jurist who Kavanaugh replaced, was in the courtroom, as were members of the new justices family. With police standing by, a small group of protesters demonstrated outside the courthouse, holding signs saying Shame and He sits on a throne of lies, while chanting, This isnt over, were still here. With courtroom security tight, there were no disruptions by protesters during the arguments, as there had been during Kavanaughs confirmation hearings. Chief Justice John Roberts formally welcomed Kavanaugh, 53, to a court that now has five conservative members and four liberals. We wish you a long and happy career in our common calling, Roberts told Kavanaugh, who could serve for decades in the lifetime job. The bitterly divided Senate voted 50-48 on Saturday to confirm Kavanaugh, with just one Democrat supporting him. Kavanaughs confirmation gave the Republican president a political victory ahead of crucial Nov. 6 congressional elections. Kavanaugh was Trumps second selection for the nations highest judicial body, following conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch last year. Kavanaugh posed questions to lawyers in both cases before the court, his first one coming about 20 minutes into the arguments. At one point, Kavanaugh could be seen having a lighthearted exchange with liberal Justice Elena Kagan, seated next to him. At another point, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared to pinch Gorsuch, sitting next to her, to playfully illustrate her point about what constitutes a violent act. Gorsuch responded with a faux grimace of pain. Tuesdays cases involved the 1984 Armed Career Criminal Act, a three-strikes-and-youre-out criminal sentencing law that boosts prison sentences for people who are convicted of crimes involving guns if they previously have been convicted of certain other crimes. The cases, involving a Florida robbery and burglaries in Tennessee and Arkansas, challenged the types of crimes that qualify as violent felonies under that law and can lead to 15-year mandatory minimum sentences. Roberts prompted laughter when he described asking his law clerks to try to grab a dollar bill from his hand to determine if that constituted a violent act. Im not saying nobody could do it but it requires a lot of force, more than you might think, Roberts said. Based on Tuesdays arguments, defendants could win in both cases, with liberal justices likely to be joined by some conservatives in the majority. Kavanaugh appeared less sympathetic to the defendants than Gorsuch. ENVIRONMENTAL CASE Kavanaugh had served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington since 2006. Before Tuesdays arguments, the justices turned aside appeals of a 2017 ruling authored by Kavanaugh while on the lower court striking down a 2015 environmental rule imposed under Democratic former President Barack Obama regulating a potent greenhouse gas linked to climate change. The justices privately made the decision to reject the appeals by an environmental group and companies that supported the regulation before Kavanaughs confirmation, and announced the action on Tuesday. Kavanaugh is expected to push the court further to the right as he is replacing Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes voted with the liberal justices on key social issues such as abortion and gay rights. His nomination had appeared safe until Ford last month went public with allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 when they were high school students in Maryland. Two other women accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct dating to the 1980s. Kavanaugh denied the allegations and during a Senate hearing accused Democrats of an orchestrated political hit. He later expressed regret over some of his comments. But critics said Kavanaughs demeanor raised questions about his temperament and potential political bias in deciding cases. At a White House ceremony on Monday night, Kavanaugh said he was starting his new job with no bitterness, seeking to be a force for stability and unity. Trump on Twitter on Tuesday said he was very proud of Kavanaugh and his family, and disparaged the anti-Kavanaugh protesters. (Reporting by Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Susan Heavey; Editing by Will Dunham) 890 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Rachel Maddow said that Democrats are ready with subpoenas and set to investigation the line of secret communication that existed between Trump Tower and Russia largest private bank. Video: Rachel Maddow said that Democrats are ready with subpoenas and set to investigation the line of secret communication that existed between Trump Tower and Russia largest private bank. https://t.co/7Z5WvhwiXR pic.twitter.com/xA6d3VUMfB Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) October 10, 2018 Maddow said: In other words, if there really was this story thats been so intriguing for two years now, if there really was secret line of communications set up between Trump Tower and Moscow during the election, one they tried to cover up, that could be sort of the missing link involving how involved the Trump campaign was in Russias efforts to interfere on the election on Trumps behalf. If anybody really wants to figure out whether that secret line of communication was there, its doable. You could probably figure it they could probably do it with just a couple of subpoenas. And in fact, if Democrats win the House four weeks from tonight, it look likes Democrats are ready to go with subpoenas to get that information. Which means wed finally have an answer. Now, one does, of course, wonder if Robert Mueller and his prosecutors have already beaten the Democrats there either before Dexter Filkins published this piece or since it has been out. If Democrats take back the House, Trumps world will come crashing down There are all sorts of zig and zags, dark corners, and sharp curves that Democrats are going to be ready to investigate. Maddow was right. If Trump and the Russians were communicating with Trump Tower, which was the headquarters of the Trump presidential campaign, it would fill in a lot of the missing pieces. It would also provide the smoking gun direct connection between the Trump campaign and Russia. The nation is four weeks away from a real Russia investigation. All that is required is that voters go to the polls and give Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives. Rachel Maddow has been asking all of the right questions on the Russia scandal for years, and with a Democratic House, she and the rest of the American people will finally get some answers. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. By James Oliphant WASHINGTON (Reuters) A leading Republican political action committee that has spent heavily to influence next months congressional elections told donors on Tuesday that fewer than two dozen races will determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC closely linked to retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan, has already spent $90 million on key House races, but warned its donors in a memo dated Tuesday and seen by Reuters that more cash is needed to avert a Democratic takeover of the House. The memo, from CLF executive director Corry Bliss, said internal polling had shown that voter approval of Republican President Donald Trump had risen by 5 percentage points in 20 critical House districts since the bitter Senate fight over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault while a teenager, was confirmed by the Senate on Saturday and sat with the court for the first time on Tuesday. There are 20 races within 4 points that will determine the House majority, and CLF will keep working to win them, Bliss wrote in the memo. Democrats need to gain a net total of 23 seats in the Nov. 6 elections to assume control of the 435-seat House, which would allow them to would derail much of Trumps agenda and open his administration up to greater oversight. Independent analysts have said widespread discontent with Trump and the Republican Party could lead to Democrats winning as many as 40 seats. Republicans argue that the controversy over Kavanaugh has engaged conservative voters who otherwise have been apathetic to the midterm elections. Democrats contend the fracas has added to their edge in voter enthusiasm, particularly among women voters. The memo warns that Democrats have outspent their rivals by $50 million in key races. On Tuesday, the CLFs Democratic counterpart, House Majority PAC, said it would spend $20 million in new television advertising in 13 competitive House districts, including six in California that Democrats hope to flip. (Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis) 354 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Chris Kahn NEW YORK (Reuters) Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskills vote against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs confirmation appears not to have cost her greatly in conservative-leaning Missouri, where she is in a tight re-election race, a Reuters opinion poll showed. The Reuters/Ipsos/UVA Center for Politics poll released on Wednesday found that 44 percent of likely Missouri voters said they would support McCaskill in the Nov. 6 congressional elections, while 45 percent backed Republican challenger and state Attorney General Josh Hawley. The poll had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 3 percentage points. Other recent polls also showed the Missouri race as a toss-up. Democrats need to gain two seats to win control of the U.S. Senate, where they could act as a check on Republican President Donald Trump. Achieving that will require successfully defending Democratic seats in states that Trump won in 2016, which include Missouri, West Virginia and Indiana. McCaskill joined all but one of her Democratic colleagues in voting against Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by a 50-48 vote after being accused of sexual assault while he was a teenager. The confirmation process became a political brawl that deepened the countrys divisions. Hawley hammered her for months before the vote, pressuring her to support Kavanaugh and criticizing McCaskill in campaign ads as a radical. The poll showed that McCaskill, who is seeking her third Senate term, may not be penalized much for her no vote on Kavanaugh. Among likely voters, 44 percent said they were more likely to support her candidacy because of her opposition to Kavanaugh, while 46 percent said they were less likely. To see poll results: https://tmsnrt.rs/2piev5l Kavanaugh may not have changed any minds in the state, said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the Center for Politics. People who said they were more likely to vote for her because of him were probably going to do so anyway. COURT NOT HIGH ON VOTER PRIORITIES The Supreme Court did not rank highly among likely voters priorities in the state. Respondents were much more likely to cite healthcare, the economy or immigration as top issues for them when deciding which candidate to support. Almost no one listed the Supreme Court as the most important issue. Sixty-nine percent of likely voters in the state told the poll said they were very motivated to support a candidate who would defend laws that protect healthcare for people with pre-existing conditions. That could spell trouble for Hawley. He has said he wants to protect people with pre-existing conditions, even though he joined a multi-state effort to repeal the federal law that does so, the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. A separate Reuters/Ipsos/UVA Center for Politics poll found Illinois Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker holding a 20-percentage-point lead over Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner. The race is on track to be the most expensive governors election in U.S. history, with nearly $249.7 million raised so far and most of the money coming from millionaire Rauner and billionaire Pritzker, according to data from the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. That is just shy of Californias record-setting $251.9 million 2010 contest between Democrat Jerry Brown and former tech executive Meg Whitman. Illinois looks like its going to take the lead thanks to two independently wealthy candidates, said Denise Roth Barber, managing director of the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The Missouri and Illinois Reuters polls were conducted online, in English, from Sept. 27 to Oct. 7. They surveyed between 968 and 1,111 likely voters and weighted the responses according to the latest government population estimates. The results measured how voters felt at the time of the survey. Those feelings may change, In 2016, one in eight Americans decided on the presidential pick in the week before Election Day, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. (Reporting by Chris Kahn; Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney) Photo: Josh Winquist Cindy Masters from Kindale, Conan Ackert from Total Restoration and Leah Riley from Castanet check out a stunning diamond necklace. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, and the Kindale Developmental Association has a shiny friend just waiting for someone to take home. A diamond necklace will be raffled off at the VIP Diamond Premier event Saturday, Oct. 13 at Bannister Honda, 6425 Highway 97, starting at 7 p.m. The event will launch a year-long celebration for the group that works with people with diverse abilities. Kindale is thrilled to be celebrating this significant milestone and is grateful to the organizers, sponsors and guests who are supporting the Diamond Premier Together We DO make a difference, said Cindy Masters, Development Officer at Kindale. Among those supporting is Castanet and Total Restoration. We are very happy to help Kindale get ready to celebrate their 60th anniversary and be able to continue making a difference in the lives of people with diverse abilities, said Conan Ackert with Total Restoration. Added Leah Riley Castanet Vernon general manager: Castanet is excited to be co-sponsoring this exciting piece of jewelry which will in turn assist in the ongoing efforts of Kindale to provide opportunities for people in our community. Masters said there are a limited number of VIP registrations available and the event is close to sold out. Go to the Kindale website or contact Ruth Blencoe at 250-546-3005 for more information. (Reuters) A Missouri state judge ordered on Tuesday that state election authorities could no longer tell voters that they are required to show a photo identification card in order to cast a ballot, blocking parts of Missouris voter identification law. The ruling came less than a month before Nov. 6 elections when control of Congress is at stake. No compelling state interest is served by misleading local election authorities and voters into believing a photo ID card is a requirement for voting, Cole County Senior Circuit Judge Richard Callahan wrote in his ruling. According to the ruling, state officials can no longer spread materials that say a photo identification card is required to vote or that voters will be asked to show a photo ID card, without specifying other forms of identification that voters may also show. In addition, the ruling says state authorities can no longer require people otherwise qualified to vote to sign a sworn statement. The decision followed a lawsuit filed in June by Priorities USA, which argued the law was unconstitutional. Priorities USA Chairman Guy Cecil called the ruling a victory for voting rights. With this injunction in place, hundreds of thousands of eligible voters in Missouri who do not possess photo IDand who could have otherwise been disenfranchised due to the laws highly confusing and burdensome requirementswill once again be able to cast their ballots free from unnecessary obstacles, Cecil said in an emailed statement. A representative from the office of John Ashcroft, Missouri secretary of state, which administers elections in the state, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. Ashcroft has promoted the law as a way of preventing vote fraud. But he has only been able to confirm one instance of voter impersonation in Missouri, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In June 2017, civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and League of Women Voters of Missouri sued Missouri to prevent its new voter identification law from interfering with a special election for an alderman in St. Louis, saying the measure could disenfranchise voters. (Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Editing by Peter Cooney) 1.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The sell-out vote of Susan Collins to confirm deranged Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is already causing hardship for her constituents in Maine. Activists who are angry with Collinss vote to confirm Kavanaugh say they will inflict economic damage on the Republican senators home state. They plan to boycott Maine products and cancel plans to vacation in the state. Susan Collinss Kavanaugh vote sparks calls to boycott Maine products, tourism Susan Collinss Kavanaugh vote sparks calls to boycott Maine products, tourism https://t.co/NmqUMiSrs5 pic.twitter.com/faSOAlTJPk The Hill (@thehill) October 9, 2018 According to the Portland Press Herald actor and comedian John Fugelsang wrote on Twitter Friday: Dear Susan Collins I really struggled with this but my tourist $ just voted against ever visiting Maine while you remain in office. Fugelsangs tweet received several hundred comments from users saying they would join Fugelsang in boycotting Maine. One person had already cancelled a $2,200 reservation at Maines Point Sebago resort. John Tesar, who owns a chain of seafood restaurants around the country, has announced he will take hundreds of thousands of dollars in seafood business away from Maine fishermen. Tesar told the Press Herald: Ill go to other states for all of the seafood that I have been buying from Maine. I am so disappointed and angry at Collins, Tesar said. My intent is not to hurt the fishermen, its to have them vote her out of office. The only way to make a difference in this day and age is economically, and on November 6th. A lobster dealer in Maine told the Press Herald that he has already lost a few customers since the boycott started last week. It began after Collins announced in a Senate floor speech that she would be voting to confirm Kavanaughs lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Collins, whos considered a moderate and has been a swing vote in the Senate, was lobbied by both sides before her announcement. She has been confronted with anti-Kavanaugh protesters on Capitol Hill, and at her offices in Maine. While her political support has crumbled many people believe that Senator Collins plunged a fresh knife into the backs of American women. On her MSNBC show, Joy Reid said that Collins was the biggest fraud of the MeToo era. President Barack Obamas national security adviser, Susan Rice, already has said she is considering running for the U.S. Senate in Maine in 2020. She said she would decide what to do after next months midterm elections. There will probably be many other Democrats lining up to run against Collins in 2020 also. The online fundraising site CrowdPac has raised over $3.5 million that will be given to Collins Democratic opponent in the 2020 race. We can only hope that Senator Susan Collins is listening to all of these messages that are being sent to her. They are saying that she really messed up by voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, and millions of people will never let her forget it. 878 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard At a campaign rally in Iowa Tuesday night President Donald Trump became the leader of an angry mob. Stoking up the fury of the crowd, the president blamed California Senator Dianne Feinstein for the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. As he did so, his unhinged audience began chanting lock her up, referring to the senior senator from California. Robert Reich was quick to point out Trumps hypocrisy: So let me get this straight: Protestors demanding a thorough investigation into sexual assault allegations against a lifetime nominee to the Supreme Court are an angry mob, but leading chants about jailing your political opponents is okay? So let me get this straight: Protestors demanding a thorough investigation into sexual assault allegations against a lifetime nominee to the Supreme Court are an "angry mob," but leading chants about jailing your political opponents is okay? https://t.co/Ha4E1oiYyq Robert Reich (@RBReich) October 10, 2018 California Democratic Representative Maxine Waters a fierce Trump critic also pointed out how ridiculous it was for Trump and other Republicans to say that anti-Kavanaugh protesters were violent and mob-like. This country was built on peaceful protest, Waters told MSNBCs Chris Hayes Tuesday night. And those of us who were part of the civil rights movement, who understood the power of protest taught by Dr. Martin Luther King and others know that we cannot allow Donald Trump and anybody else to take protests away from us and to deem it to be violent and to try and make us look like a mob. When the president accuses Democrats of normalizing violence and promoting mob rule, he is trying to change the definition of constitutionally-protected rights to assembly. This president is the poster boy for what a mob protester looks like, Waters said. Hes the one who has been violent in his speech. Hes the one in his rallies have said things like this, Id like to punch him in the face. Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough this morning also pointed out Trumps hypocrisy at the rally last night. He said that instead of criticizing Democrats Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should criticize the angry mob at Trumps rally lustily demanding a violation of due process rights for Senator Feinstein. Scarborough said: This weekend you had Republicans such as Mitch McConnell calling Democratic protesters angry mobs, and they were so concerned about due process, just a couple days ago. Now the president of the United States is holding rallies where angry mobs of people are demanding to lock up a United States senator because they disagree with her politics. I guess due process and keeping your head, that was in vogue for Republicans last week. Mitch McConnell must be shocked at the angry mobs. I mean, the poor guy, he was a snowflake just a couple days ago, just melting on national television because of all the angry mobs. I wonder what Mitch thinks, again, about people talking about locking up one of his colleagues, sending one of his colleagues to jail because they disagree with her politically. Thats an angry mob, right? The midterm elections are now less than four weeks away and it has become more clear than ever how much is at stake on November 6th. Democrats must take back control of at least the House of Representatives if we are to prevent the country from being run by Donald Trump and his unhinged, angry mob of supporters. After the results from Latvias parliamentary elections were announced on October 6, headlines declared a big victory for the pro-Russian Social Democratic Party, better known as Harmony. Pro-Russian Harmony tipped to be Latvia's largest party following election, a Guardian headline read. Populist Wave Hits Latvia, Lifting Pro-Russia Party in Election, was the New York Times take. One of the most alarmist headlines came from the The Daily Express: "Latvia election result sparks EU crisis warning as pro-Russia party sweeps to success. The British tabloid claimed that the results set alarm bells ringing throughout the European Union and NATO. However, apart from a few quotes from officials like European Council President Donald Tusk, the article contained little evidence of the EU crisis cited in its headline. In fact, some Latvians and Latvia-watchers cringed at such headlines, noting that the black-and-white narrative of a pro-Russia party versus pro-EU establishment did not conform to reality. Dr. Una Bergmane, a teaching fellow at the London School of Economics, criticized international media reaction to the Latvian election results in an October 7 Facebook post. Technically Harmony (a party that is the main political force of Latvian Russians) got the highest number of votes 19.80% and is followed by a Trump-style populist party KPVLV (14.25%), Bergmane wrote. This victory is however purely technical, as Latvia has proportional representation. Harmony will obtain not more than 23 seats out of 100 and KPVLV will get 16. To form a governing coalition one needs 51 votes in the parliament (the Saeima). Polygraph.info contacted Dr. Bergmane to learn how the press coverage got it wrong. She said the claim by some foreign media that the Harmony party is pro-Russia is an oversimplification. The basic idea is that on one hand, Harmony has tried to rebrand itself as a pro-EU social democratic party; it has tried to attract votes of ethnic Latvians, she said. Officially they would not brand themselves a pro-Russian party. The problem is we have their behavior of failing to rally behind the Latvian position on Russian aggression against Ukraine. They are against sanctions on Russia. Bergmane noted that Harmony once had a cooperation agreement with Russias ruling United Russia party, but that prior to the most recent elections, the party broke the agreement and denounced it. Context: Ethnic Tensions in Latvia There is internal tension among the ethnic Russian population in Latvia that occasionally rises to the surface, most recently over a reform that would require high school students be taught mostly in Latvian and not in the Russian language. Russia appealed to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), accusing Latvia of violating the rights of minorities. About one quarter of Latvia's population in ethnic Russian, harkening back to the Soviet era and Moscow's "aggressive Russification policy." Latvia's education minister defended the reforms as continuing Latvia "our path toward long-term development of a self-confident and independent nation." Officially Harmony is trying to distance itself from Russia, she said. I would say this image does not correspond to reality but thats the image theyre trying project. She also noted that Harmony is no longer outspoken in opposing EU sanctions against Russia. Harmony Party in the Saeima Bergmane also noted in her Facebook post that the Harmony party has far fewer seats in the Saeima than it needs to form a ruling coalition. If we look at the results, Harmony got the most votes and the highest percentage, but the results are not as good as before, she said. Harmony in these elections actually lost one seat and 43,000 votes. The publication BNE Intellinews, Business News Europe, came to a similar conclusion, pointing out that Harmony won the most votes in the previous three elections yet it was invariably pushed aside by a coalition government of other parties, a scenario that appears likely following last weekends vote. Bergmane also had a recommendation for international journalists covering elections in Latvia and other small countries: If people write about elections in other countries, just Google and read the most basic Wikipedia article. They could also go to the governments website and read about the electoral system and how it works. It will make the analysis much better and it will be better for the readers. In this case, if you dont understand how the electoral system works its very easy to get the wrong picture. Pink Bellies Drizzy Dumplings will be on the menu during its November residency at Tapio on Coming Street. 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. Kalyn Oyer is a Charleston native who covers arts & entertainment and food & bev for The Post and Courier. She's a music festival & concert photographer and used to write about music for the Charleston City Paper, among other publications. Photo: The Canadian Press Two sagging Pacific Gas & Electric power lines made contact, sparked and ignited a Northern California wildfire last year that killed four people and injured a firefighter, officials said Tuesday. The finding adds to the growing financial liability of PG&E over wildfires in the state. Its equipment has been blamed for starting 13 wildfires last year and the utility has told shareholders it expects to pay more than $2.5 billion in damages. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Tuesday that strong winds in Yuba County, near Sacramento, caused the lines to touch, creating an electrical arc that sent molten material onto dry vegetation last October. The wildfire swept through Northern California during the state's deadliest and costliest wildfire season, when blazes killed 44 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes. The fire scorched 15 square miles (39 square kilometres) and destroyed 264 structures. Cal Fire investigators found no negligence on the part of PG&E. Nonetheless, California law compels utilities to pay for damages from wildfires if their equipment caused the blazes even if the utilities weren't negligent. PG&E spent millions of dollars in an 11th hour lobbying effort at the end of the California legislative session in a failed attempt to change the law to reduce its financial liability. State officials say insured damages alone topped $9 billion and PG&E could be liable for much of it. Insurance companies have filed dozens of lawsuits calling for PG&E to reimburse them for settling claims from policyholders. PG&E spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo said Tuesday that "extreme weather, years of drought, and millions of dead trees are feeding an unprecedented risk of wildfires." Paulo said, "we recognize we all need to do even more to help reduce the risk of wildfires and are committed to working together with our state and community partners to develop comprehensive safety solutions." Paulo said the utility is working on improving fire prevention by strengthening poles and lines, upgrading weather modeling and clearing vegetation around equipment. Fire investigators have blamed PG&E equipment for 12 wildfires last year in wine country, including two that killed a total of 15 people. A man accused of being intoxicated when his SUV struck and killed an 11-year-old Danish girl in downtown Charleston in July had fentanyl in his system, according to a report released Wednesday. Toxicology tests of 31-year-old Jeffrey William Wakefield's blood found 2.7 nanograms per milliliter of the synthetic opioid in his system following the July 9 wreck, according to a State Law Enforcement Division laboratory report. His blood also tested positive for Benadryl and the substance Kratom, which is described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a plant that's consumed for "its stimulant effects and as an opioid substitute." Wakefield had no alcohol in his system, according to the toxicology report. Police had previously confirmed that Wakefield's breath test indicated a 0 percent blood alcohol level but avoided specifying his type of alleged intoxication when they charged him with one count each of felony DUI and reckless homicide. Incident reports said alcohol and/or drug impairment were possible. He remained jailed Wednesday on the pending charges. After the crash, Wakefield, of Dogwood Road in West Ashley, insisted he had consumed only nonalcoholic beers while out with a friend downtown that night. He initially blamed a faulty accelerator or a jammed flip-flop for the wreck. Police alleged he later remarked in a phone conversation to his father that he had gotten "high," according to a police report. Police said Wakefields Nissan Pathfinder first struck a parked car on Rutledge Avenue and then traveled south through the Calhoun Street intersection. The SUV careened onto the sidewalk at Cannon Park and hit Selma Olivia Akguel as she walked with her family during their visit from Middelfart, Denmark. The Pathfinder stopped after hitting a tree. After making landfall on Wednesday, Hurricane Michael began to to weaken with winds dropping to 75 mph as of 11 p.m. Despite dropping in strength, officials still are urging the public to take precautions. Impacts were already being felt in South Carolina late Wednesday night. The National Weather Service's Charleston office issued a tornado warning effective until 11:15 p.m. for parts of Beaufort and Jasper counties, as well as parts of Chatham County in Georgia. Tornado Warning including Hilton Head Island SC, Bluffton SC, Tybee Island GA until 11:15 PM EDT pic.twitter.com/IHezliGckI NWS Charleston, SC (@NWSCharlestonSC) October 11, 2018 Tropical storm force winds of at least 39 mph were expected to start in South Carolina within the next few hours. Forecasters warned the state faces flooding rains and winds or gusts up to hurricane force of 74 mph in some spots strong enough to snap trees, damage houses and make driving perilous. Winds closer to Charleston were expected as strong as 35 mph with gusts as strong as 50 mph. The storm was expect to cross South Carolina on Thursday along a line from Aiken just west of Columbia toward Raleigh, North Carolina. "Tropical storm conditions are expected to spread northward within the warning area along the southeast U.S. coast beginning tonight through Friday," said National Hurricane Center specialist Daniel Brown. The swipe of the storm will be felt from about 8 p.m. Wednesday to 8 a.m. Friday, said Mark Malsick, S.C. Climate Office severe weather liaison. It will reach as far as 60 miles to the west of where the eye passes, or the Upstate, and 100 miles to the east of where it passes, or the coast. Nearer to Charleston, the worst will be felt overnight Wednesday through Thursday morning, said Charleston-based meteorologist Shea Gibson, with the private company WeatherFlow. What to expect in the Charleston area Winds Tropical storm force wind and gusts becoming more frequent into Thursday. Sustained winds of 20 to 40 mph and gusts 40 to 50 mph are possible, with the strongest winds expected near the coast. Strong winds could persist into Thursday evening, especially across southeast South Carolina. Power Scattered to numerous downed trees and power lines are likely which could produce power outages. Tornadoes Tornadoes are possible Wednesday afternoon into Thursday afternoon. A tornado watches may be issued. Rainfall 1-2 inches inland and less than 1 inch near the coast likely through Thursday. Localized flooding is possible, particularly near the coast, including downtown Charleston around times of high tide through Thursday. Coastal flooding Minor to moderate impacts during each high tide cycle through Wednesday. Major impacts are possible along the South Carolina coast around the time of the Thursday morning high tide. Coastal hazards Life-threatening rip currents through Thursday and high surf and elevated tides will produce some beach erosion around times of high tide What to expect in central South Carolina Wind 30 to 40 mph with gusts of 73 mph, near hurricane strength. Tree damage and power outages are possible. Rain 2-4 inches of rain is likely with locally higher amounts possible. Minor to Moderate flooding also is possible. Tornado Increasing threat of isolated tornadoes. The highest threat remains in the eastern Midlands. What to expect in the Upstate Wind Gusts near tropical storm strength of 39 mph. Rain 2 to 4 inches. Flash flooding along and to the south of Interstate 85. Tornado Isolated tornadoes possible toward central South Carolina. Our entire forecast area is now under a Tropical Storm Warning and a Flash Flood Watch. All storm preparations should be completed by the end of the day. #HurricaneMichael pic.twitter.com/DvvATxyvom NWS Columbia (@NWSColumbia) October 10, 2018 The eye of the storm came ashore near Mexico Beach on the Florida Panhandle at 1 p.m. Wednesday as a catastrophic category 4 hurricane with winds of 155 mph. It was the first Category 4 storm on record to make landfall on the Panhandle and the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States in October. It was just 2 mph shy of the Category 5 strength of the deadliest storms. "Heavy rainfall from Michael could produce life-threatening flash flooding from the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend region into portions of Georgia, the Carolinas, and southeast Virginia," said National Hurricane Center specialist Jack Beven. Isolated tornadoes are possible, particularly along the coast. Dangerous surf and coastal flooding is expected. Weather Underground meteorologist Bob Henson on Tuesday night called the satellite signature of the storm jaw dropping. Weather Underground is a private forecasting company. "Landfall will be only the start of Michaels expected multi-state rampage. As it accelerates to the northeast, Michael will bring tropical-storm-force winds much further inland than usual for a typical landfalling hurricane," said Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters. "These will be capable of downing trees and power lines in deadly fashion across a vast swath of southern Georgia into South Carolina and even North Carolina. Power outages will affect hundreds of thousands of people," he said. The storm could "trigger flash floods, especially where soil is saturated in the wake of Hurricane Florence and other rains of recent weeks," Henson said. Gov. Henry McMaster handed down an executive order in July, cutting off some Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. As a result, the state has spent $17,510 on an outside law firm that is representing a state in a federal lawsuit with Planned Parenthood. Andrew Whitaker/Staff A tropical storm warning remains in place for Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties as Hurricane Michael is forecast to have some impact on the region. The main threat to the Charleston area is tropical storm force winds, isolated tornadoes, rainfall resulting in isolated flooding, dangerous surf conditions and coastal flooding, according to the National Weather Service. The timing for the effects on the Charleston region are primarily Wednesday night through Thursday evening. With the most recent forecast, Charleston is expecting an 8-foot high tide at 10:19 a.m. Thursday, which could result in significant flooding in low lying areas. To prepare, city crews were positioning pumps and clearing ditches and drains to prepare. Also, water levels in Colonial Lake and Lake Dotterer were being lowered. In addition, Charleston staged barricades in low-lying areas in anticipation of possible road closures due to tidal flooding. Watches and warnings A tropical Storm warning is in place for all locations in southeast South Carolina. A coastal flood advisory is in effect until until 2 p.m. Thursday. There is a high risk of rip currents and a high surf advisory for all beaches into Thursday night. Based on the most recent forecast, the city of Charleston is expecting an 8-foot high tide at 10:19 a.m. tomorrow morning, October 11, 2018, which will likely result in significant flooding in low lying areas. City of Charleston (@CityCharleston) October 10, 2018 The storm's impact Winds Tropical storm force wind and gusts becoming more frequent into Thursday. Sustained winds of 20 to 40 mph and gusts 40 to 50 mph are possible, with the strongest winds expected near the coast. Power Scattered to numerous downed trees and power lines could produce power outages. Tornadoes Tornadoes are possible Wednesday afternoon into Thursday afternoon. A tornado watches may be issued. Rainfall 1-2 inches inland and less than 1 inch near the coast likely through Thursday. Localized flooding is possible, particularly near the coast, including downtown Charleston around times of high tide through Thursday. Coastal flooding Minor to moderate impacts during each high tide cycle through Wednesday. Major impacts are possible along the South Carolina coast around the time of the Thursday morning high tide. Coastal hazards Life-threatening rip currents through Thursday and high surf and elevated tides will produce some beach erosion around times of high tide. Right now, thinking on impacts hasnt changed much for the Lowcountry, even incorporating the new data. Still thinking gusts to 50-60 MPH, scattered power outages, 2-4 of rain and a few tornadoes will be possible for tomorrow. https://t.co/IdOw40igSb Charleston Weather (@chswx) October 10, 2018 Tide prediction The weather service forecasts at least minor to moderate flooding will occur with the next three high tide cycles in Charleston as levels have been running as much as 1 to 1.5 feet above predictions. There is an increased chance, according to the weather service, that a coastal flood watch or warning could be issued for the South Carolina coast with the late morning high tide on Thursday. Charleston Harbor Dangerous marine conditions will impact coastal waters as tropical storm conditions to develop, according to the weather service in Charleston. The strongest winds and largest seas will occur Wednesday night across the entire Atlantic waters and in Charleston Harbor. The main threats are isolated thunderstorms, some of which will could produce wind gusts of 40 or 45 knots. There also is an increased chance of isolated waterspouts. Parking Downtown parking garages at Cumberland and at King and Queen streets will be available for free beginning at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Standards rates will apply after 4 p.m. on Thursday. Cars parked illegally in the garages will be towed at the owner expense. Beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday, the South Carolina Aquarium parking garage at 24 Calhoun St., and the Charleston Visitor Center parking garage at 63 Mary St., will be open for free during the storm. Cars must be removed by 8 a.m. Friday. The parking garage at 34 Saint Philip Street will also be open between 7 p.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Friday morning. Charleston County opens shelter Charleston County opened a shelter facility at noon on Wednesday at 3765 Leeds Ave., and has a plan for transportation ahead of potential impacts from Hurricane Michael. The facility will be open to both pets and residents. People needing transportation to the shelter should go to the nearest CARTA bus stop and call (843) 202-7904. Service will be from noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday if weather and wind conditions allow it. Information line The Charleston County Citizens Information line will be active from noon to 8 p.m. Call (843) 7463900. Category 4 and 5 hurricane strikes in the U.S. 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. The Post and Courier provides a forum for our readers to share their opinions, and to hold up a mirror to our community. Publication does not imply endorsement by the newspaper; the editorial staff attempts to select a representative sample of letters because we believe its important to let our readers see the range of opinions their neighbors submit for publication. 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. As an average person, Nikki Haley's $179,600 a year U.N. ambassador salary put her in the top 3 percent of American wage earners. But as an important figure on the world stage, where travel, image and presentation are everything, her paycheck didn't carry nearly as far, even in her $58,000-a-month, taxpayer-provided residence in New York. Toss in a reported 2017 debt range of between $525,000 and $1.1 million, a daughter at Clemson University, a son who's college-bound and a husband who earned as little as $50,000 last year from a Lexington shopping center he bought on top of his National Guard captain's pay, and a good portion of the Haley family income potentially got eaten up fast. Haley, who announced her resignation Tuesday, may join a long list of political figures who left public service with financial shortcomings only to find greener and more lucrative pastures. Prior examples include President Bill Clinton, who said he ended his presidential term in 2001 some $16 million in debt, largely due to legal fees, and Sarah Palin, who left as Alaska governor owing more than $500,000 for legal bills from multiple ethics complaints against her. Both recovered financially once out of office. Haley, 46, has spent 14 years in public service, including six years as governor. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's cash issues were widely documented when he sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. They included bills for his four children in private school, $150,000 in personal student debt he says wasn't paid off until 2011, and other financial decisions. The cost of public service is well known among South Carolina political figures. Former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis of Greenville who served from 1993-99 and again from 2005-11, said living in Washington was made easier for him even with five children by sleeping in his office. But he saw the difficulties that other members faced in maintaining homes both at home and in Washington, especially for those who lived further away from the capital or represented districts with pricey zip codes. "If you've a $1 million mortgage in California, you wouldn't qualify for it on a $174,000 income," he said. "For people who don't choose to live in their offices, I don't know how they do it." Those who did live comfortably had built or acquired their wealth before their time in Congress, he said. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-Spartanburg, who announced his retirement in March, had been identified as the member of Congress who had amassed the most student debt not mortgage debt which is most couples' biggest liability. Gowdy owed $150,000 for student loans as of 2016, a media tabulation showed, with the debt belonging to his son, daughter and wife. I have a child who finished three years of college and soon to be three years of law school, another child with three years of college and a spouse who went back to get her Masters in teaching, Gowdy said earlier this year. Education is the pathway to prosperity, and I could not be happier to have made the investment. Gowdy is returning home to practice law after eight years in D.C. He was not available for comment earlier this week, his office said. Former Lowcountry congressman Henry Brown of Hanahan, a retired Piggly Wiggly executive, went to Washington after serving in the Statehouse, including a stint as chair of the House's Ways and Means Committee. He said the congressional pay wasn't a factor in his service, but he did end up buying an apartment in Washington rather than paying rent during the 10 years he served there. He sold it at a profit. While Haley publicly ruled out a presidential run in 2020 Tuesday, those who have tracked her career say she will become desirable on the world stage and be able to draw compensation commensurate with someone of her experience and status. U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford said Haley, as a woman, an Indian-American minority and possessing a resume of a state and international executive will be recruited by any number of boards or groups looking to feature her and her expertise. "She'll be able to write her own ticket," Sanford said. One South Carolina politician who did boost his income significantly post-public service is former Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint. When he quit the office in 2012 to lead the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, it came on reports he was one of the poorest members of the Senate, with The Washington Post estimating his wealth in 2010 at $40,501. At Heritage, his compensation package was believed to be moving toward the $1 million range if he approached that of his predecessor. 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. Photo: Colin Dacre The B.C. Prosecution Service is still considering charges in the Downtown Penticton Association "financial irregularities" investigation, months after the RCMP handed off the file. Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin confirmed to Castanet Tuesday that they are still processing the Report to Crown Counsel for Charge Assessment forwarded to them by RCMP in June, which recommended criminal charges. The assessment is ongoing. We do not have a timeline for completion, he said in an email. The BCPS makes every effort to conclude the charge assessment process in a timely fashion but there are a number of factors that determine how long the process takes, McLaughlin continued. These include the complexity of the investigation and the resulting evidence, the number of accused and further investigation undertaken by the enforcement agency. The BC Prosecution Service only presses charges if it believes a conviction is likely and it is in the public interest. The DPA announced back in May 2017 that it had contacted the RCMP about financial irregularities discovered in their books ending July 2016 around the same month previous executive director Kerri Milton left the organization. At the time, Milton called the investigation very disappointing and said she kept herself at arms length from the DPAs books, going as far as hiring an outside bookkeeper. "Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground." Sound familiar? Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president in office, a vice president, New York representative and a U.S. Navy secretary. Born on Oct. 27, 1858, he did so many things to help our country succeed. So much so that he is one of the five presidents on Mount Rushmore and remembered as "Teddy" because he refused to shoot an old black bear, and from that day forward, we all started calling stuffed, toy bears, teddy bears. Recently, I got the amazing opportunity to visit his house in New York, Sagamore Hill. Sagamore Hill was built in Long Island, N.Y., in 1886. The 155 acres and 22-room house property were estimated at $465,349 before Teddy spent $52,155 to add the famous North Room. Teddy lived on-and-off in this house from 1886-1919. He and his family lived comfortably on Sagamore Hill, and they often called it their "Summer White House." Sagamore Hill was a very welcoming home to many people. Teddy Roosevelts wife, Eliza, would throw weekly parties, and everyone looked forward to them. Overall, it was a very happy place filled with happy faces. Upon entering the threshold, we were greeted by the front hall. Many of Teddys guests often came through the front hall before the North Room was added in 1905. The North Room was furnished with hunting trophies and family gifts. It was used as a gathering space and Elizas drawing room. The library was another room where Roosevelts family gathered. The library often was described as the heart of the home. Teddys children would spend the evenings writing and reading letters, poem and singing songs. Everyone in the Roosevelt household loved spending time in the library. The library soon became the summer meeting place where Roosevelt met with his cabinet members. During this time, Teddy hung portraits of Abraham Lincoln, John Marshall, his father and George Washington to remind himself to question every decision he was making. Cabinet members often would stay at Sagamore Hill for lunch. The kitchen was a very hectic place. Teddy truly appreciated his servants and cooks since he never knew how many people were coming and when. Most of the food eaten in the house was from farms. The Roosevelts had apple orchards and cherry trees in their yard. There were whole flocks of chickens and herds of cattle raised just for them. Anything that couldnt be found in farms would be bought at the nearest grocery store. Teddy Roosevelt was buried in a cemetery close to Sagamore Hill, and his house is a lasting memorial of his legacy. He still is looked up to hundreds of years later and was a pivotal part in our countrys success. It was very eye-opening to see his home life, and I was very grateful to be there. Teddy once said, "Believe you can and youre halfway there." He believed in the future of America and in you and me. Thousands of acetaminophen-laced mice were airdropped over 136 acres at Andersen Air Force Base on Oct. 1 and 4, as Joint Region Marianas and local and federal partners continue efforts to eradicate the invasive brown tree snake population. Albert Borja, environmental director for the Marine Corps on Guam, said the latest project aims to significantly suppress snakes from the 136-acre habitat management unit at Andersen. The area is surrounded by a snake exclusion fence and is an interagency test site established for biological resource studies, including invasive species control and forest restoration, Joint Region Marianas stated in a press release. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. In 2016 the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services program launched new technology that uses acetaminophen-treated dead mouse bait attached to biodegradable streamer-like cartridges that are designed to open upon launch and snag in tree branches where snakes live. Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in painkillers such as Tylenol. When snakes ingest the drug-laced mice, they die within 24 hours. The system previously was deployed on large areas at the base in 2016, according to Post files. I will vote for keeping most of them in elected office I will vote to replace most of them I will vote to replace some of them I will vote for just a few, if any I will not vote Vote View Results Photo: Contributed The Canadian Mental Health Association is looking for participants to appear in a video production taking place this Friday in Vernon. The call is open to anyone in the North Okanagan interested in being in a group shot of many Vernonites smiling and interacting to show support for mental health throughout communities. Its important for the community to know the scope of the help we provide and the opportunities for community members to become involved, said Julia Payson, CMHA Vernon and District, executive director. The group scene is part of a video that will reveal some of the programs and services offered by CMHA. There will be no compensation for participating, but refreshments will be provided after the shoot. Participants should arrive 15 minutes early and the shoot is expected to take about 30 minutes. The project, taking place at 3 p.m. at CMHA downtown office, is part of the Downtown Vernon Associations Video Co-op program. Photo: Contributed The Vaults is not your ordinary storage facility, and its quite clear Okanagan residents are intrigued by the one that will soon be under construction in Kelowna. We were really blown away by the success of the launch event and the interest in the Kelowna project, The Vaults vice-president James Murray said. So we ended up reserving way more units than what we had targeted. The Vaults, which describes itself as Canadas premier secured storage condominiums, is scheduled to break ground in November and open next September in the Airport Business Park. Murray said they were expecting 80 to 100 people at its launch event last month but got more than 130 prospective patrons. As a result, 70 per cent of its units are already reserved. Its a very unique development as opposed to a standard residential condominium or a utility storage space, Murray said. Having that lifestyle element, tied in with the security aspect of what we offer, really appealed to people. If youre wondering what a storage unit at The Vaults is like, do not picture your average storage unit. The Vaults features units between 1,678 and 4,600 square feet, and each one has a three-piece bathroom. They have 27-foot ceilings, and mezzanines that are 13 1/2 feet off the floor and are the size of 40 per cent of the floor space down below. For more on this story, visit Okanagan Edge. LAFAYETTE HILL I can see how life can be awful and awesome in the exact same moment and look with undying hope because as difficult as life may be now, it is better than any day I spent with my abuser. Those were just a few of the words spoken by domestic abuse survivor Jill Myhre to a crowd of over 100 people Wednesday at Laurel Houses Breaking the Silence event. The luncheon, which was held at Green Valley Country Club, served as a somber reminder of the prevalence of domestic violence and the community it takes to rebuild the lives affected by it. Laurel House, which works with victims of domestic violence in a variety of aspects, holds their Breaking the Silence luncheon annually to give updates on legislative and law enforcement changes that are taking place to help victims of domestic violence. The group opened its doors in 1980 to provide a hotline and emergency shelter for victims. Since then it has grown into a comprehensive network that assists victims with support and preventative services throughout the county. At the luncheon Wednesday, guest speakers Dr. Colleen Lelli, Cabrini Colleges Jordan Center; State Rep. Brendon Boyle; Sen. Bob Mensch; Stradley Ronan Stevens & Young Attorney Kristin Feden and Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele addressed attendees about the sobering statistics and current legislation regarding the issue of domestic abuse in Montgomery County and beyond. We have a piece of legislation that has been working through the process for some time and this past Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee passed it unanimously. So we expect it will get final consideration in the House of Representatives Tuesday and will go right to the governor and be signed law, said Mensch. It has to do with abuse in front of a child. We know there is a number of statistics today that when children witness physical, verbal or emotional abuse, they are affected. There often creates a trauma that lasts a lifetime, said Mensch. Mensch explained that the bill would increase the possibility of prosecution for a parent who commits abuse in front of a child. District Attorney Kevin Steele added that legislation related to gun ownership by a person convicted of domestic abuse or with a protection from abuse order is also on the table. Steele said the legislation would require anyone with a PFA or domestic abuse conviction to surrender any firearms to law enforcement within 24 hours. Steele noted the importance of such legislation and others like it before bringing up what he called sobering statistics about the problem of domestic abuse in the county. I took a hard look at what we face so far this year in Montgomery County and its not good, said Steele. Sadly weve seen a significant jump in domestic violence or relationship violence homicides. Weve had 18 homicides occur in Montgomery County so far this year. Eight of those murders, or 45 percent, were at the hands of a family member, intimate partner or former intimate partner. Steele went on to recite the names and circumstances of individuals killed as a result of domestic violence in Montgomery County. Among them were victims from Norristown, Pottstown, Cheltenham, Ambler, Upper Gwynedd, Lansdale and Whitemarsh. Those in attendance also had the chance to hear from domestic violence survivor Jill Myhre, who recounted some of the traumatizing circumstances she and her children endured at the hands of her abuser. My daily life by 2016 had become working full time, managing everything in the house from cooking and cleaning to bills and taxes, helping the children, who were now home schooled, all while being beaten daily. Putting on makeup while driving to work so I could wipe away tears and blood that had become part of the breakfast routine when something wasnt quite up to par by exactly 6:45. Her abuser was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison last year. Myhre also spoke to attendees about the role Laurel House played in helping her leave. She thanked the organization for their help and ended with a hopeful message: Please help yet one more person be a light arising out of darkness, that the darkness may not overcome them. The light of hope will have a payback that you cannot yet wrap your minds around. A powerful woman with resiliency and hope will change the world, so I ask please dont just break the silence. Bring about shouts of joy from kids who can laugh again and contagious smiles from countless domestic violence warriors, said Myhre. Help, support and information are available to anyone through Laurel Houses confidential, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-642-3150. To learn more about Laurel House visit laurel-house.org. POTTSTOWN A police chase through borough streets Tuesday evening ended when a Philadelphia man wanted in connection with a shooting crashed his Jaguar into a utility pole and had to be flown by helicopter to a trauma center. Before Malik Davis, 25, crashed his car, he struck a Pottstown Police car in his attempt to evade capture, police said. According to information provided by Pottstown Police, their counterparts in Philadelphia had previously issued information about Davis as a wanted person in connection with an aggravated assault and shooting charge for an incident in Philadelphia. Davis and his black Jaguar were described by Philadelphia police and Pottstown officers located the vehicle, with Davis inside it, at about 5:15 p.m., near the intersection of Chestnut and Franklin streets. When they attempted to stop the vehicle he drove off at a high rate of speed, according to a statement released by police. At one point, Davis attempted to cut through the Trinity Church Parking lot between King and Chestnut streets. His Jaguar struck and disabled the police car that cut him off at the back entrance onto Chestnut Street, said Pottstown Capt. Robert R. Thomas. The officer driving the police car that was struck was not injured, but Davis was able to drive off. However, a few minutes later at the T intersection of King and Berks streets, the Jaguar crashed into a utility pole, disabling the vehicle. Davis was injured as the result of the crash. He was treated on the scene and taken by helicopter to a trauma center where, police said, he is listed in stable condition. No officers or bystanders were injured in the pursuit and capture of Davis, police said. Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain? That deliberately misleading, no-win question is being asked to young students across the country. Those choosing villain are shortchanged, as Columbus myriad accomplishments are overshadowed by his bad deeds. And anyone in the hero camp becomes hopelessly ensnared in the trap of political correctness. With their viewpoint often derided as condoning racism, students become pariahs among classmates and teachers, and are shamed for their independent thought. When the free flow of ideas can no longer take place, and where retribution for speaking ones mind is a real possibility, is it any wonder that we are graduating functional illiterates? But indoctrinating an entire generation of children isnt enough. For some, destruction and physical violence are preferred. And on Columbus Day in Philadelphia Americas cradle of liberty the radicals did not disappoint. A statue of Columbus already fenced in for protection from vandals was desecrated, along with the History of Italian American Immigration Museum, as extremists graffitied them with Genocide; Rape; Stolen Land; Slavery; and, best of all, Columbus = Mussolini = Trump = Fascism. Lets get this straight. The same people who demonize Christopher Columbus for his intolerances think that the way to correct history is through you guessed it intolerance. Their hypocrisy is staggering, their actions counterproductive, and their message appalling. An increasing number of cities throughout America are abolishing Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day, which ostensibly celebrates the history and contributions of indigenous cultures, while ruthlessly criticizing European settlers for colonialism and land grabs. In Los Angeles, city officials went so far as to cover up their statue of Columbus, with Councilman Mitch OFarrell vowing to give the explorer the boot. OFarrell stated that renaming the holiday would give restorative justice to indigenous people and right a historical wrong. Really? So righting a historical wrong is best accomplished by committing more wrongs namely, the whitewashing of history? Without question, the Europeans and, subsequently, Americans, did not always do the right thing, especially to Native Americans. Atrocities were committed (on both sides), and nothing can ever fully right those wrongs. But America, despite the errors of its past, has shown a most remarkable resilience more than any nation in history to not just learn from its mistakes, but make things right and yes, better, for future generations. Rather than needlessly reopening old wounds, those pushing radical agendas should take a hard look at the everlasting contributions of both Native Americans and Europeans including Columbus. But they wont. In their revisionist Utopia, the white-Christian-Euro-male would not exist, since he is responsible for the worlds ills. That mindset is, obviously, ignorant of history. But even more dangerous is how such intolerance evolves. It starts with calls for censorship and bans, morphs into protests where anyone who dares stand opposed is labeled a bigot, and culminates with attempts not just to rewrite history, but whitewash it altogether. Statues and monuments are removed by overzealous government officials, and those that arent become targets for destruction. Most incomprehensible is when self-righteous protesters commit such crimes with impunity, as it emboldens radicals to up the ante. The lack of condemnation to such acts legitimizes intolerance and further drives a dagger through civil discourse and the rule of law. As our monuments disappear, so too does our understanding of history. And as we ought to know, those who dont know the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. That concept is lost on the radical element which is, admittedly, gaining a stronger foothold in America each year. Where does it end? If we take their litmus tests to their logical conclusions that everyone from the Confederates to Columbus to anyone who ever owned slaves must be vilified and discarded we must destroy most of our history. The Jefferson Memorial should be repurposed; Andrew Jackson must be removed from the $20 bill; the Washington Monument, and indeed the nations capital itself, should be renamed; and the Ivy Leagues Brown University should close because it operated via slave-trade money. And yes, the World War II monument would have to come down because of our treatment of Japanese-American citizens in internment camps. But a purge would not stop there, because they never do. Every group that the elite finds offensive, from the Klan to the Black Panthers to the Communist Party, could be outlawed. For example, the company that made the iconic Dukes of Hazzard General Lee toy car, emblazoned with the Stars and Bars, ceased production in the name of political correctness. Instead of bans, we should be striving to win the day with ideas, but too many are scared to do so. Should there be an Indigenous Peoples Day? Absolutely. We would all be better served by learning about Native American history and culture. And yes, their unfortunate struggles with Europeans and Americans should be prominent in those teachings. But Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day should not come down to a choice that pits one side against the other. We are mature enough to celebrate both the European and Native American cultures; to be fair, each should have its own celebration. The radicals would have us think that all unsavory acts were committed solely by the Europeans. Not true. Native Americans warred with each other and usurped other tribes lands, as was the case with virtually every civilization in history. Conversely, the Americans and Europeans at the heart of the radicals scorn just happened to be the ones who saved the world and billions of lives from people named Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito and Stalin. The answer is not reparations. It isnt to give back lands that were seized. And it certainly isnt disingenuously portraying historical figures in a one-sided way, eviscerating those of a certain ethnicity (and via guilt-by-association, their present day progeny), while making others appear innocent and angelic. Human beings, by their nature, are flawed, but they also possess the unique desire to better themselves. Rather than devolve into the basest of human behavior, lets demonstrate the ultimate in tolerance by civilly discussing the good, and not-so-good, of historys most famous figures. We could start by putting their accomplishments and errors in proper context, free of absolutes and platitudes, so that our children can learn the most important lesson of all: truth. As Americans, we owe that to both the Native peoples, and Christopher Columbus. The editors of the Wall Street Journal urge Senate Republicans to keep Democrats in Washington, D.C. until every pending Trump administration nominee is confirmed. They have a point. Democrats have succeeded to a shocking (and unprecedented) degree in preventing the president from staffing his administration with the well-qualified personnel of his choice. Eric Dreiband and Jeff Clark are perhaps the two best examples of this pattern of obstruction but, at the same time, are the tip of the iceberg. As the WSJ editors state: Democrats file cloture on every nominee, which kicks off 30 hours of debate even if no Senator is opposed. They figure if they cant defeat nominees they can delay and consume valuable time. Democrats have forced 117 cloture votesversus 12 in Barack Obamas first two years and four in George W. Bushs. Mitch McConnell is in a position now to break the logjam. Vulnerable Democratic Senators are eager to get home and campaign. McConnell has the ability to keep them in Washington so they can do the work voting on presidential nominees they should have been doing the past year and a half. Thus: The question this month is whether Senate Democrats will accept a deal to confirm more judges and nominees. . .Lets hope Republicans extract a high price for that privilege: Some 198 nominations are backed up awaiting confirmation, according to the Partnership for Public Service tracking. The nominations range from State Department under secretaries to Labor Department spots. Charles Stimson was nominated in June 2017 to be general counsel of the Navy, which needs urgent legal direction to deal with the fallout from recent ship accidents, as well as lawsuits against bases in Guam and Maine. Democrats have also blocked Justin Muzinich for the No. 2 post at Treasury since his nomination in April. Treasury could use the former banker who has taught at Columbia Business School to shore up its financial-crisis management. Three appellate court and some 36 district court nominations are also awaiting a Senate floor vote. McConnell should drive a hard bargain, and I believe he will. The Kavanaugh fight surely left a bitter taste in his mouth and those of his caucus members. Confirming a large number of Trump nominees would be condign punishment. Its also the right thing to do. Theres also this: Last week, John Solomon of The Hill broke a major story: in October 2016, the FBIs general counsel, James Baker, met with a senior lawyer from Perkins Coie, the law firm that acted as bagman for the Clinton campaign and the DNC in hiring Fusion BPS to fabricate smears against candidate Donald Trump. (The Clinton campaign and the DNC funneled their payments to Fusion GPS through Perkins Coie so they would look like payment of legal expenses in campaign reporting, thereby concealing the fact that the Clinton campaign was behind the Fusion GPS smears. Is such an elementary circumvention of campaign reporting laws a crime? I dont know.) In that meeting, the lawyer passed on allegations about Russia, Trump and possible hacking. That is what Baker told a congressional committee in an unclassified setting. Now, Solomon expands on that story by pointing out that the intelligence agencies tried to hide information about that meeting from Congress and the American people: [C]onsider Footnote 43 on Page 57 of Chapter 3 of the House Intelligence Committees report earlier this year on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Until this past week, the footnote really had garnered no public intrigue, in part because the U.S. intelligence community blacked out the vast majority of its verbiage in the name of national security before the report was made public. From the heavy redactions, all one could tell is that FBI general counsel James Baker met with an unnamed person who provided some information in September 2016 about Russia, email hacking and a possible link to the Trump campaign. Not a reporter or policymaker would have batted an eyelash over such a revelation. Then, last Wednesday, I broke the story that Baker admitted to Congress in an unclassified setting repeat, in an unclassified setting that he had met with a top lawyer at the firm representing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and received allegations from that lawyer about Russia, Trump and possible hacking. *** it was, in turns out, the same meeting that was so heavily censored by the intel agencies from Footnote 43 in the House report treated, in other words, as some big national security secret. What makes this so extraordinary is that the FBI and the DOJ would have Americans believe that a contact with a lawyer for a political party during the middle of the election is somehow a matter of national security that should be hidden from the public. Well, that argument was proven to be a lie by the very way the interview with Baker played out last Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Baker was not interviewed in a SCIF a sensitive compartmented information facility routinely used to discuss super-secret, highly sensitive information. There was no claim of classification over any information he provided Congress that day. So we can now say with some authority that the earlier redaction in Footnote 43 was done in the name of a national security concern that did not exist. Which raises the question of what the real reason was that it was hidden from public view. I think the answer can be found in an earlier set of documents that DOJ and FBI fought hard to keep secret the text messages of those FBI love-birds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. What we learned from their messages was that the investigation was a whole lot more about politics and and a whole lot less about verified intelligence. There is now a concrete storyline backed by irrefutable evidence: The FBI allowed itself to take political opposition research created by one party to defeat another in an election, treated it like actionable intelligence, presented it to the court as substantiated, and then used it to justify spying on an adviser for the campaign of that partys duly chosen nominee for president in the final days of a presidential election. The FBI and the CIA cannot be trusted. They have been hopelessly compromised by their effort to swing the 2016 presidential election in Hillary Clintons favor, and to bring down the Trump presidency after he won the election. Dishonest redactions tell us they have something important to hide, and it isnt hard to see what that is. The veil of secrecy is slipping, and what we are seeing is the worst political scandal in American history. President Trump should declassify all documents having to do with the the FBIs Russia investigation, the surveillance conducted on the Trump campaign, and related matters at the earliest possible moment. Photo: Facebook: Granny's Summerland The locally-loved Granny's Fruit Stand in Summerland is up for sale. The well-known produce market and bakery on Highway 97 also includes a cherry orchard and family home that has a pool and private yard on the property. It's listed for $1.5 million. Granny's was founded in 1992 by Don Cameron who was Summerland's mayor from 1993 to 2002, and his late wife. The couple sold the property in 2013 to Trevor Brown, who lives in the home with his wife, Meghan, and two children. Brown and his wife also own Whitetail Construction, which they started in 2017, and they work in commercial property management as well. Before the couple moved to Summerland, Brown operated a Lower Mainland construction company but broke his back in 2010 and was unable to continue working in the industry. He had a surgery to put prosthetic implants in his back last year, however, which enabled him to get back into it. "We'd love to be able to keep (Granny's), but we just can't put the time and effort that it deserves to have. So we're hoping that someone who buys it will be able to love it like we have and take over it," Brown said. "It's a completely turnkey business. It has everything it needs, we're selling it with everything. Including the Granny's secret pie recipes," he added. "Hopefully someone comes in and keeps running it." Derek Lutz, a lifelong Summerland resident whose family has farmed there for more than 50 years, has leased Granny's since June of 2013. According to the sales listing, he hopes to continue to manage the fruit stand if the property changes hands. Granny's is open daily between early June and late October, offering fresh produce as well as jams and ice cream, among other selections. The sales listing calls it a "long-standing fixture" that is "a popular hub for both locals and tourists." The four-bedroom, three-bathroom family home on the property is said to be one of the oldest homes in Summerland. It was built in 1910, according to BC Assessment. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid a visit to the market when he visited the area in August. Rep. Martha McSallys run for retiring incumbent Jeff Flakes Senate seat against Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is one of the races holding the key to the Republicans continued majority. Given the qualitative disparity between the candidates, the race has remained annoyingly difficult. Sinema has clung to a small lead. I put the race number 1 in Save the Senate: On defense (contribute to the McSally campaign here). Tom Bevan is the co-founder of RealClearPolitics. Via Twitter, Tom alerts us to the most recent poll of the race. This one shows that Rep. McSally has jumped out to a small lead. Tom wonders wonders what might have happened recently to account for this. I should like to think it is the dawning realization that McSally is an outstanding candidate while Sinema is a shifty left-wing flake, but Tom has other thoughts. Some days the absurd news just piles up so fast that there almost isnt room for any fake news. Though tuning in to CNN for 10 minutes will cure you of this thought. Anyway, I wish some of the stories I spotted today were fake news, but alas, they are all read: Flight delayed after woman brings emotional support squirrel on plane Police escorted a woman off a plane Tuesday after she brought an unexpected furry friend on a Frontier Airlines flight from Orlando to Cleveland a squirrel. The woman informed Frontier Airlines she was taking an emotional support animal on the flight from Florida when she made her reservation, according to the Associated Press. However, she did not say the animal was a squirrel. The airline said they called Orlando police after they asked the woman to leave the plane with the animal and she refused. Rodents, including squirrels, are not allowed on Frontier flights. How come? Is it because Frontier pilots all have ADD and will be distracted? Next: Nuking Hurricanes: The Surprising History of a Really Bad Idea . . . there was a time when scientists and government agencies were themselves seriously considering the nuclear option. In a speech delivered at the National Press Club on October 11, 1961, Francis W. Riechelderfer, the head of the U.S. Weather Bureau, said he could imagine the possibility someday of exploding a nuclear bomb on a hurricane far at sea. (Although, comfortingly, Riechelderfer added that the Weather Bureau would not begin acquiring its own nuclear arsenal until we know what were doing.) I dont know. I think the weather service having nukes handy in case of a sharknado (surely the next thing caused by climate change) might be a good idea. The BBC asks: No. Next question. Finally: Authorities find incomplete, solar-power tunnel leading to Mexico U.S. and Mexican authorities uncovered an incomplete, solar-powered tunnel connecting the two countries in a remote area east of San Diego. Border Patrol says the 600 foot long passage led into the small California town of Jacumba. The tunnel had solar-powered lighting and a ventilation system. It was also lined with a rail system than ran the entire length of the tunnel and had two sump pumps. Yes, the solar power is a nice touch, but was it high-speed rail? Thats the only kind California will allow now. PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-10 07:01:01 New Report from Anomali Labs Analyses State of Cybersecurity Across Largest German Enterprises NUREMBERG, Germany, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Anomali today announced at the IT-SA Security Expo and Congress the release of the 2018 DAX 100 cybersecurity profile report. This report represents the third consecutive year in which Anomali Labs has analyzed the state of cybersecurity for the DAX 100 companies, and details ongoing suspected cyber threat activity across German enterprises. The report, available for download , provides insights into five critical threat categories that could provide attackers with an exploitable opportunity to compromise DAX 100 enterprises and its customers: Domain Squatting: DAX 100 companies have, on average, 27 suspicious domains registered against their legitimate business domain. These domains are often used in phishing campaigns. This represents a 280% increase since the 2016 report. DAX 100 companies have, on average, 27 suspicious domains registered against their legitimate business domain. These domains are often used in phishing campaigns. This represents a 280% increase since the 2016 report. Credential Exposure: Amongst all the DAX 100 companies Anomali found a total of 604,255 breached accounts consisting of 560,941 unique email addresses and password pairs. This represents more than 600% increase in lost credentials over the 2016 report. Amongst all the DAX 100 companies Anomali found a total of 604,255 breached accounts consisting of 560,941 unique email addresses and password pairs. This represents more than 600% increase in lost credentials over the 2016 report. Email Security: Anomali analyzed the use of email authentication standards, including SPF, DKIM and DMARC across the DAX 100. These technologies help prevent attackers from spoofing or impersonating legitimate sites to deliver fraudulent email to unsuspecting recipients. Anomali found 84% adoption of SPF, 43% of DKIM and only 21% of DKIM security standards across the DAX 100. Anomali analyzed the use of email authentication standards, including SPF, DKIM and DMARC across the DAX 100. These technologies help prevent attackers from spoofing or impersonating legitimate sites to deliver fraudulent email to unsuspecting recipients. Anomali found 84% adoption of SPF, 43% of DKIM and only 21% of DKIM security standards across the DAX 100. Website Security: Anomali Labs analyzed the ongoing use of unencrypted HTTP protocol versus more secure HTTPS-only and HSTS protocols. Approximately 10% of sites evaluated still use HTTP, without redirecting to more secure HTTPS. At least 14% continue to use vulnerable encryption algorithms (Triple DES or RC4). Only 8% employ a Content Security Policy (CSP) header and 31% use HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS). Anomali Labs analyzed the ongoing use of unencrypted HTTP protocol versus more secure HTTPS-only and HSTS protocols. Approximately 10% of sites evaluated still use HTTP, without redirecting to more secure HTTPS. At least 14% continue to use vulnerable encryption algorithms (Triple DES or RC4). Only 8% employ a Content Security Policy (CSP) header and 31% use HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS). Dark Web Reconnaissance: Research of Deep and Dark Web communications shed light on various discussions ranging from PII disclosures, payment card fraud, and malicious insider recruitment activities. Anomali found over 50% of DAX 100 enterprises are mentioned in Deep and Dark Web communications. Anomali is committed to providing resources, tools and solutions to help the German market stay ahead of cybersecurity threats, said Colby DeRodeff, founder and chief strategy officer at Anomali. The DAX 100 report, relationship with Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, and the recent opening of our office in Berlin reflect our investment in this important region. The DAX 100 report, Peering Over the DAX 100 Threat Horizon, is available for download at https://www.anomali.com/resources/whitepapers/peering-over-the-dax-100-threat-horizon-anomali-labs-threat-landscape . About Anomali Anomali detects adversaries and tells you who they are. Organisations rely on the Anomali Threat Platform to detect threats, understand the adversary, and respond effectively. Anomali arms security teams with machine learning optimised threat intelligence and identifies hidden threats targeting their environments. Anomali enables organizations to collaborate and share threat information among trusted communities and is the most widely adopted platform for ISACs worldwide. To learn more, visit www.anomali.com and follow it on Twitter: @anomali . Contact: Haylee Hewlett, Sr. Marketing Manager Phone Number: (408) 800-4050 PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-10 10:01:01 Register Now Through December 2 to Save 200 on Briefings Pass SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Black Hat, the worlds leading producer of information security events, announces its return to London with the release of its initial Briefings lineup. The worlds brightest information security professionals and researchers will gather for the events 17th installment to reveal new vulnerabilities (and defenses) spanning everything from popular social media platforms, mobile devices, widely used operating systems and more. Black Hat Europe 2018 will take place December 3-6 at the ExCeL London, in London, England. For more information and to save 200 on your Briefings Pass by December 2 please visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/ Black Hat Europe will host a week of immersive programming that will unveil the latest InfoSec research, development, and trends. The event will kick-off with its technical Trainings followed by Black Hats Briefings, and a Business Hall housing the industrys leading innovators. Highlights of Black Hat Europes Briefings so far: Be sure to check back for the latest schedule as more Briefings are added, here: blackhat.com/eu-18/briefings/schedule/index.html ANNOUNCED: Black Hat Arsenal Tools Arsenal will return to Black Hat Europe and welcome researchers, both local and from afar, from the open source community to display their latest tools and products and offer live demonstrations. Arsenal gives researchers the opportunity to showcase their latest code and offers attendees the chance to interact with presenters and gain hands-on experience. Arsenal will host nearly 50 tools this year covering Android, iOS and mobile hacking, Internet of Things, cryptography and more. For more information and to view all recently selected tools, please visit: blackhat.com/us-18/arsenal/schedule/index.html Black Hat Trainings: Register by Dec. 2 and Save 200 In addition to the world-class Briefings schedule, Black Hat Europe 2018 will offer deeply technical, hands-on Training sessions led by some of the information security industrys top trainers and professionals. Running December 3-6, the Trainings offer a separate set of courses for attendees spanning everything from advanced infrastructure hacking to assessing and exploiting control systems, web hacking, and more. For more information and to save 200 on your selected course(s) with regular registration prices by December 2, visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/training/schedule/index.html Black Hat Student Scholarships: Submission Deadline: October 26 The Black Hat Student Scholarship Program is back for its fifth year in Europe. As a way to introduce the next generation of security professionals to the Black Hat community, a limited number of complimentary Academic Passes will be awarded to student applicants for Black Hat Europe 2018. Qualified students may submit applications by Friday, October 26, 2018. For more information and requirements, visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/student-scholarship.html Top Sponsors of Black Hat Europe 2018 include : Diamond Sponsors: Agari, NCC Group, SecurityScorecard, Spirent Communications, Tenable; Platinum Sponsors: Cybereason, Facebook, Illumio, Neustar, Nominet, Qualys, Recorded Future, Splunk For more information on sponsorship opportunities as well as the full list of exhibiting companies, visit: blackhat.com/eu-18/business-hall.html Future Black Hat Dates and Events Black Hat Trainings 2018 , Chicago, Illinois, October 22-23, 2018 , Chicago, Illinois, October 22-23, 2018 Black Hat Europe 2018 , London, England, December 3-6, 2018 , London, England, December 3-6, 2018 Black Hat Asia 2019 , Singapore, March 26-29, 2019 , Singapore, March 26-29, 2019 Black Hat USA 2019, Las Vegas, Nevada, August 3-8, 2019 About Black Hat For more than 20 years, Black Hat has provided attendees with the very latest in information security research, development, and trends. These high-profile global events and trainings are driven by the needs of the security community, striving to bring together the best minds in the industry. Black Hat inspires professionals at all career levels, encouraging growth and collaboration among academia, world-class researchers, and leaders in the public and private sectors. Black Hat Briefings and Trainings are held annually in the United States, Europe and Asia. More information is available at: blackhat.com. Black Hat 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 news and information, visit www.ubm.com and www.informa.com. Contact Kimberly Samra Black Hat Public Relations BlackHatPR@ubm.com 415-947-6362 PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-10 19:00:04 Encinitas, CA, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DMV.ORG, the nation's largest independent resource for DMV-related information and services, today announced that for the third year in a row, it has been recognized by the San Diego Business Journal as one of the regions top 100 best places to work. Additionally, Entrepreneur Magazine named DMV.ORG in its 2018 round-up of high-performing company cultures in the United States. DMV.ORG placed in the top third amongst the small businesses finalists nationwide. Raj Lahoti, Co-Founder and CEO at DMV.ORG, stated, It has long been my dream to inspire a company with purpose, a company where team members would be motivated to truly bring their best to make a difference in the world. Bringing joy to the DMV experience is no small task and thankfully, we recognize that a positive user experience starts with our team. Each year the San Diego Business Journal partners with Best Companies Group to recognize public and private businesses in San Diego whose workplace policies, benefits, practices, philosophy, systems, and overall employee experiences are best in class. Best Companies Group managed the registration process, conducted the employee survey, analyzed the data, and determined the final rankings. Company employees rated their businesses in the areas of leadership, corporate culture, and communications as a key and anonymous element of the process. Similarly,utilized Energages proprietary CultureTech platform to survey companies throughout the U.S., evaluating them across seven different categories, including leadership, alignment, and engagement. Within these categories, 24 factors were measured to choose and rank the finalists based on company size. Bob Kurilko, President & Chief Operating Officer at DMV.ORG, stated, I am proud and honored that we have been recognized as a top workplace for three years in a row. A thriving team aligned around a purpose-driven culture is what drives our company forward and it all starts with putting our team members first. By continually upleveling the way we show up and create together, we foster an environment of deep care and success that will carry us far into the future. DMV.ORG has remained committed to building a world-class, high emotionally intelligent company culture, placing emphasis not only on how the team works and plays together, but also implementing the leading perks, programs, and benefits that support its team members in bringing their best selves to the workplace everyday. These include: Class-leading health benefits Company-paid wellness expense accounts Daily mindfulness practice Catered lunches Free onsite yoga and fitness classes Onsite massages Flexible work schedules Quarterly success bonuses and celebrations Catherine Linamen, DMV.ORGs HR Talent Director, said, Here at DMV.ORG, we have taken a very conscious approach to develop and care for our company culture. We place special attention on ensuring we bring on the right team members who are aligned with our culture and values and express high emotional intelligence and a positive attitude. She added, Our focus is to create the conditions where the team can thrive in a safe, healthy, self-governed culture, which we all equally take pride in caring for. Companies that made the 2018 list of Best Places to Work in San Diego were honored at an awards ceremony on September 20, 2018 at the Westin San Diego and will be featured in an upcoming special issue of the San Diego Business Journal. Learn more about DMV.ORG at https://www.dmv.org/our-company/. You can also visit www.BestPlacestoWorkSD.com for more information on the Best Places to Work in San Diego program, and www.entrepreneur.com/top-company-culture for the list of recognized organizations. ABOUT DMV.ORG With over 185 million annual visitors, DMV.ORG is the nation's largest independent resource for DMV-related information, products, and services. Since 1999, DMV.ORG has organized, simplified, and worked to redefine vehicle drivers' relationship with the complex world of the DMV and motor vehicle compliance. With driver's tests, form libraries, insurance, registration, DMV office finders, and industry-leading partner services, the company's digital publishing house empowers drivers with what they need to reduce their time in line at their state agency and free up more time in their lives. DMV.ORG is a privately-owned digital publishing house located in Encinitas, California. Learn more: www.dmv.org. PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-10 10:03:01 Murgitroyd Kicks Off Third Innovator Launchpad Competition Murgitroyd Fiona McKenzie European Marketing Manager T. +44 141 307 8400 E. fiona.mckenzie@murgitroyd.com Murgitroyd, the global intellectual property attorney firm, is delighted to launch its third Innovator Launchpad competition today at 1200 BST. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005 The innovation competition, which is open to all UK-based pre-profit and non-profit organisations, offers a cash investment to the winning entrepreneur of 6,500 plus a PR and advice package. A limited edition space jacket will also be provided to the winner for an extra dose of intergalactic style! Previous winners have been Brian Miller and Monika Tomecka of UFraction8, who invented a unique water treatment solution, and Michael Harkins of Turtle Pack, who created an innovative swim aid for children. Both companies have gone on to further success since their competition wins, with UFraction8 recently being awarded a 50,000 grant from the EU Horizon2020 fund and Turtle Packs product being endorsed by Sir Richard Branson. Other corporate sponsors of the 2018 competition are Leyton UK, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group, Dog Digital and Betabrand, with each donating its own expertise and support to the competition. The competition aims to stand out from the crowd by offering busy entrepreneurs a simple online entry process and a collaborative Facebook space (@InnovatorLaunchpad) on which they can seek advice and support from other entrepreneurs as well as follow the latest happenings on the competition. As Keith Jones, Director - Patents with Murgitroyd, points out: "The competition is designed to be as simple and hassle-free as possible, and it should take under 30 mins to fill in the application form". "Wed like to hear from up-and-coming businesses who excel in four areas: innovation, impact, sustainability and presentation of their idea". Following the first-stage entry process, the 10 top entries will be selected to produce a 90-second video on their business, which will then be voted on by the public to decide a final three. The final three entrants will then be interviewed by a cross-industry panel to decide on 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The Innovator Launchpad team are looking forward to reviewing this years entries, says Jones: "Were excited at the prospect of once again working with some of the UKs top entrepreneurial talent, and hopefully giving them a boost to their businesses". Entrepreneurs have until Wed. 7th Nov. at 1200 GMT to submit their entries and can apply at murgitroyd.com/innovatorlaunchpad. About Murgitroyd is a global firm of intellectual property attorneys with UK offices in Aberdeen, Belfast, Glasgow, London, Newcastle and York. The firm specialises in helping businesses protect and maximise return on their intellectual property assets. Leyton UK is Europe's leading R&D tax credit specialist. The firm has 21 offices in 10 countries and UK teams based in London, Manchester and Glasgow. Its expert teams are dedicated to maximising its clients' innovation potential by harnessing the benefits of R&D tax credits, patent box and grant funding and providing employment law services. Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group offers a full range of financial products to help people and businesses grow. It has a strong personal customer base and a robust business banking capability through a UK-wide network which supports British SMEs. Dog Digital is a global digital marketing agency which aims to further its clients marketing advantage through expertise in data, planning, technology and creative craft. It has UK bases in Glasgow and London. Betabrand is an innovative online clothing community, based in San Francisco. It designs, manufactures and releases new products continuously, assisted by design and crowdfunding input from its supporters. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005 Innovator Launchpad 2018 competition launches today at 1200 BST with 6,500 cash prize to be won. Open to UK pre-profit and non-profit start-ups. Visit murgitroyd.com/innovatorlaunchpad to enter! PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-10 09:06:01 Safe power battery delivers 10X more cycles at one third cost of existing technologies; Breakthrough technology enables grid stabilization, EV charging markets and brings electricity to energy poor countries New Battery Company Innolith Launches to Redefine Power Storage Market Julian Tanner Chief Marketing Officer Innolith Julian.tanner@innolith.com +447733717995 Innolith AG (Innolith), a Swiss battery technology company is launched to commercialise an innovative battery technology platform to solve the worlds electrical power challenges. The low cost-per-cycle batteries will stabilise electricity grids against blackouts, support integration of renewables, recharge the rapidly growing fleets of electric vehicles and enable reliable electrical power in energy-poor countries. Based in Basel, Switzerland, Innolith has its principal Research & Development Centre in Bruchsal, Germany, where 60 chemists, engineers and technicians have perfected the new battery platform. The Innolith batteries use an unconventional inorganic electrolyte that delivers far greater durability, but also ensures a safer battery that is fundamentally non-flammable. This is in contrast to organic lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that have limited usable lives and have caused multiple fires in consumer devices and grid applications. The Innolith technology is already proven through the deployment of a prototype on the US grid, where the Innolith batteries deliver high power and offer a very long lifetime of over 50,000 cycles. This means that the batteries provide a fraction of the cost-per-cycle compared to conventional Li-ion grid batteries while delivering the high power, high cycle grid-regulation services. The world has adapted lithium-ion battery technology, which was originally developed for consumer electronic devices, for large grid-scale battery applications. But todays Li-ion batteries are limited in how many recharge cycles they can achieve and have an inherent risk of fire or explosion, explains Alan Greenshields, Board Chairman of Innolith AG. What the world needs is a safe battery that can operate over tens of thousands of cycles and still deliver the power needed. Innolith has created such a battery, which has been tested by third party labs and proven commercially in a demanding application. Production of Innolith batteries is expected to commence with production line tests in 2019 and volume production in 2020. Manufacturing and production line automation will be undertaken by specialist partners selected by Innolith. Greenshields noted, Battery manufacture is a mature industry and so cell assembly should be carried out by manufacturing experts who can bring their skills and experience to bear to deliver high quality and low costs. Innolith will work with industry leaders to achieve this while focusing its core R&D, product design and specialty chemical skills. The demand for a high power, high durability and safe battery is not in doubt, states Sergey Buchin, CEO of Innolith AG. Our task is to take the technology into large-scale production and we are at an advanced stage in achieving this. We are on track to procure mass production of Innolith's high power battery by 2020. Beyond this, our team of scientists is working on new generations of inorganic batteries that promise to deliver substantial gains in performance. Innolith will market its batteries through special system integrators and distribution partners. The company will also work with governments and non-governmental organisations for the installation of Innolith batteries as a safe and long-term means of improving fuel efficiency of conventional generation and integrating renewable energy in developing economies. About Innolith Innolith AG is an energy technology company, headquartered in Basel Switzerland, that is pioneering an inorganic battery technology platform which provides high power, long cycle-life and safe batteries. Innolith conducts primary research at its labs in Bruchsal, Germany and its technology is already deployed on the PJM network in the US for frequency regulation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005 PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-10 14:03:05 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 1073 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / Skeena Resources Limited (TSX-V: SKE, OTCQX: SKREF) (''Skeena'' or the ''Company'') is pleased to announce additional Au-Ag drill results for three drill holes from the ongoing Phase I surface drilling program at the Eskay Creek Project (''Eskay Creek'') located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. The multifaceted Phase I program is being performed in the historically drill defined 21A, 21C and 22 Zones. A cross section and tabled data are presented at the end of this release and on the Company's website.Eskay Creek Phase I Drilling Highlights - 9.49 g/t Au, 111 g/t Ag, 10.97 g/t AuEq over 42.65 m (SK-18-009) - Including: 17.35 g/t Au, 147 g/t Ag, 19.31 g/t AuEq over 19.65 m - 5.93 g/t Au, 166 g/t Ag, 8.14 g/t AuEq over 36.25 m (SK-18-010) - Including: 5.66 g/t Au, 296 g/t Ag, 9.61 g/t AuEq over 14.00 m - 7.95 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag, 9.82 g/t AuEq over 33.60 m (SK-18-011)Gold Equivalent (AuEq) was calculated with the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 75]. Reported core lengths represent 80-100% of true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling. Length weighted AuEq composites were constrained by geological considerations as well as a calculated 1.0 g/t AuEq assay grade cutoff assuming reasonable prospects for economic extraction via open pit mining methods. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length weighted AuEq composites. Processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are disclosed at 100% due to a lack of supporting information. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero.Phase I Drilling Discussion The Phase I drilling program on the 21A, 21C and 22 Zones is designed to infill and improve definition in areas with low drill density to a drill spacing sufficient to allow for future economic analyses, and to collect fresh material for an upcoming metallurgical characterization and testing program. As no historical drill core remains for any zones at Eskay Creek, new material must be collected for this purpose. Overall, the metallurgical drilling program is designed to gather unbiased, representative material that is spatially distributed throughout the various zones that will ultimately be used to optimize future economic analyses.The 21A Zone represents a significant portion of the pit constrained resources hosted at Eskay Creek, containing Indicated Resources of 207,000 oz AuEq grading 5.9 g/t AuEq and Inferred Resources of 418,000 oz AuEq grading 4.6 g/t AuEq. Designed to infill an area of Inferred Resources, three drillholes were collared on section 10020N, all of which intersected continuous intervals of exhalative mudstone and footwall rhyolite hosted mineralization. Most notably, drillhole SK-18-009 intersected 9.49 g/t Au, 111 g/t Ag (10.97 g/t AuEq) over 42.65 metres including a subinterval within the mudstone averaging 17.35 g/t Au, 147 g/t Ag, (19.31 g/t AuEq) over 19.65 metres. Situated immediately downdip, Phase I drillholes SK-18-010 and SK-18-011 intersected 5.93 g/t Au, 166 g/t Ag (8.14 g/t AuEq) over 36.25 metres and 7.95 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag (9.82 g/t AuEq) over 33.60 metres respectively.The 21A Zone continues to demonstrate excellent geological and grade continuity and will be further infill drilled during the continuing Phase I program to 20 metre drill spacings to upgrade Inferred Resources to the Indicated category. The 21A Zone is currently drill defined over a large area measuring 420 m along strike and 180 m down dip with true widths ranging from 1 to 80 m in thickness. 21A and 21B Zones - Analogous Mineralization Styles The 21B Zone is geologically and geochemically equivalent to the 21A Zone and accounted for the bulk of mineralization historically mined at Eskay Creek. The 21B Zone occurs as a tabular, stratiform, fault bounded body characterized by well-bedded, reworked sulfides and sulfosalts interbedded with unmineralized, carbonaceous argillite (mudstone). In addition to the extremely high precious metal grades, Eskay Creek as a whole, particularly the 21A and 21B Zones, is distinguished from conventional VMS deposits by the association with elements of the epithermal suite (Sb-HgAs). Elevated concentrations of Sb-Hg-As in the 21A and 21B Zones are not evenly distributed throughout the zones but rather occur as isolated clusters due to later stage localized, hydrothermal overprinting.Although the bulk of the mined material was hosted in the contact mudstone, significant unmined mineralization exists in proximal feeder structures in the footwall rhyolites (21C and Pumphouse Zones). These zones differ geochemically from the 21A and 21B Zones in that they contain low levels of Sb-Hg-As as compared to those hosted in the contact mudstone.21B Zone Historical Reconciliation Underground mining at Eskay Creek was performed using the drift and fill mining method with run of mine material either milled at site to generate a concentrate or as direct shipping ore (''DSO''), to smelters. Due to the elevated concentrations of Sb-Hg-As in the 21B Zone, smelter penalties were often prevented via blending with slightly less deleterious material hence diluting the penalty elements while maintaining a profitable head grade.Based upon historical internal technical reports from the Eskay Creek Mine, the parameters for determining reserves in 2006 were based upon a gold price of US$475.00 per ounce, a silver price of US$8.50 per ounce and a copper price of US$1.50 per pound. The determination of whether material was milled on site versus shipped directly to an offsite smelter was based on mercury concentrations less than 200 ppm and antimony concentrations less than 1% for onsite milling and greater than 200 ppm mercury and greater than 1% antimony for smelter DSO. The same 2006 mill performance report indicates metallurgical recoveries from onsite milling of the 21B Zone at 84% for gold and 96% for silver.Despite the substantial precious metal grades and base metal credits of the 21A Zone, in the opinion of the Company, the 21A Zone was historically uneconomic due to prevailing low commodity prices combined with smelter penalties and the necessary high cut-off grade used. As well, antimony was treated as a penalty element, but now has the potential to offer significant by-product credits.About Eskay Creek In December 2017, Skeena secured an option to acquire 100% interest in the Eskay Creek property. Discovered in the Golden Triangle in 1988, the former Eskay Creek mine produced approximately 3.3 million ounces of gold and 160 million ounces of silver at average grades of 45 g/t gold and 2,224 g/t silver and was once the world's highest-grade gold mine and fifth-largest silver mine by volume.A precious and base metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit, The governing All Progressives Congress (APC) has been declared ineligible to field candidates for all elective positions in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections, PREMIUM TIMES can exclusively report today. This is because the party failed to meet the October 7 deadline for conducting primaries to elect candidates for the elections. The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), has already notified the partys national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, in a letter sighted by PREMIUM TIMES reporters Tuesday evening. The Zamfara State chapter of the APC had descended into serious crisis as political camps fought bitter and violent battles as they jostled to produce candidates for positions. The major tussle was between the camps of the state Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, and a senator, Kabiru Marafa. Mr Yari worked to ensure his preferred aspirant, Mukhtar Idris, the state commissioner of finance, succeeds him. However, Mr Marafa, one of the leading governorship aspirants, challenged what he described as Mr Yaris high handedness and attempt to foist Mr Idris on the party. The APC national headquarters dissolved all party structures in the state while also directing My Yari, himself a senatorial aspirant, to hands off all matters relating to party primaries in the state. The NWC decision on the removals of the party officials led to a fresh battle between Mr Oshiomhole and his deputy, Lawal Shuaibu. Both feuding camps eventually organised parallel primaries, producing different sets of candidates. APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomole Photo: Oriental Times However, the electoral panel sent to the state by the partys national leadership announced that it was unable to organise primaries in the state. INEC has now told Mr Oshiomhole, in a letter titled Failure To Conduct Party Primaries in Zamfara State Within The Stipulated Time Frame, that it is not expecting any list of candidates from the party for Zamfara State. The commission referred Mr Oshiomhole to the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 general elections released by the commission on January 9 2018. You would note from the timetable that the conduct of party primaries is scheduled to take place between 18th August and 7th October 2018. Kindly also refer to the last schedule communicated by your party to the commission on the dates of party primaries nationwide, including Zamfara vide your letter Ref. APC/NHDQ/ INEC/19/18/51 dated 3rd Oct. 2018. However, report received from our office in Zamfara State shows that no primaries were conducted by your party in the state, Notwithstanding that our officials were fully mobilized and deployed. INEC said based on the provisions of Section 87 and 31 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), the commission does not expect that your party will submit names of any candidates from Zamfara State. For clarity, our position is that the All Progressives Congress (APC), will not be fielding candidates for the governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly Elections in Zamfara state for the 2019 for the general elections. The letter was signed by the acting secretary of the commission, Okechukwu Ndeche. INECs decision appears to have given the strongest opposition party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the chance to govern Zamfara for the first time since the countrys return to democratic rule in 1999. Former Gov. Abdulazizi-Yari of Zamfara State. The first governor, Sani Yerima, his successor, Mahmuda Shinkafi and the incumbent, Mr. Yari, were all elected on the platform of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), one of the legacy parties that merged to form the APC on February 6, 2013. Mr Shinkafi, who at a point defected to the PDP, returned to the APC last November and is one of the aspirants seeking to pick the partys governorship ticket. The PDP has already picked a former member of the House of Representatives, Bello Matawalle, as its governorship candidate for the 2019 elections. The Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa, has dismissed rumours of possible removal of the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara. Mr Dogara, who recently defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) like the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is expected to face impeachment threats in the House. Shortly after his defection, the APC again insisted that Mr Dogara, like Mr Saraki, must resign or be prepared to be removed. Mr Doguwa expressed his contrary view in a text message he sent to PREMIUM TIMES, saying the speaker reserves the right to belong to any political party he so wishes. Speculations about looming crisis in the House of reps over the Speakers defection to the opposition PDP were NOT true. Like every other member of the house, the Speaker has the right to associate or belong to any political party of his choice. Of course, all of us in the APC Caucus were not happy with this development. But we must know that the speaker did not commit any crime under the law, he said. The chief whip went further to say the defection did not in any way violate or breach any section of the House rules or the Nigerian constitution. As far as we are concerned, as an institution, we have no legal or moral cause to contemplate the removal of the honourable Speaker from office. He described the offices of the speaker and his deputy as nonpartisan and as such, can be occupied by a member of any political party. Any member from whichever political party can be elected Speaker or Deputy Speaker, whether HE or SHE is a member of the majority party or not. We as proud members of the ruling APC have nothing to lose from the Speakers defection to the PDP. We will therefore, continue to allow him preside for as long as he does not take any partisan steps to undermine the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari. And for the avoidance of doubt, the APC still remains the majority party on the floor of the House. We will rather continue to patriotically give priority to issues of national development and popular concern as against partisan issues. The Cable had reported that Adams Oshiomhole, the APC chairman, had been meeting with party members, particularly members of the House of Representatives, in a bid to remove Mr Dogara. Quoting a source, the news outfit said the APC chairman had intensified efforts to oust the speaker after it became public that Mr Dogara was seeking for re-election on the platform of the opposition, PDP. Photo: Marcus Schmaling Maisie Schmaling was born weighing just two pounds, 11 ounces. To put it lightly, it has been a stressful couple of months for the Schmaling family. Kelowna's Marcus and Beth Schmaling, parents of three boys, were expecting their first daughter in mid-November. That timeline was moved up significantly in August. After finding a blood clot in the baby's umbilical cord, doctors told Marcus and Beth they needed to perform an emergency C-section within the next two hours. That was on Aug. 23, when baby Maisie was at 27 weeks gestation. She was just two pounds, 11 ounces when she was born. It's been an emotional rollercoaster for the Schmalings over the last seven weeks. Maisie required surgery after a piece of her intestine died. The surgery has been successful. A week after that she had what looked like seizures, Marcus said. That was hard, because there are chances that a premature baby will have brain damage ... so that was always a fear. Just that fear in the gut of is my daughter going to actually make it and is my daughter going to have permanent brain damage of some kind. Maisie has undergone several tests since the seizures which have come back negative for any brain damage and after taking anti-seizure medication, those have stopped. It has kind of been two weeks of what feels like a new normal, Marcus said. She's just over five pounds, which is amazing and as of a few days ago, she moved into a crib, so she doesn't need to be in an incubator anymore. Since the delivery, Beth has been staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver, while Maisie has been cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit at BC Women's Hospital in Vancouver. Meanwhile, Marcus and their three sons, aged four, six and eight, remain in Kelowna. Marcus has been making weekend trips to visit Beth, and he's recently taken a leave of absence from his job as a youth pastor. That's just been huge for my psychological health, Marcus said. Being a pastor is a very emotionally engaging job and so I found I didn't have anything left to give to my boys when I'd come home. Through Employment Insurance, Marcus is making less than half the income he had been, and the cost of the weekly trips to the coast, along with caring for their three sons, is adding up. While they initially had reservations about reaching out for financial help, friends convinced them to set up a GoFundMe account, to give others a way to help. In its first 24 hours, the GoFundMe page almost reached the family's goal of $6,000. We didn't know it would go this fast, Marcus said. Our faith community, KGF Church, is a very generous church with very generous people and they've been very kind to us. Marcus says they're hoping Beth and Maisie can come home sometime in December, but that timeline is by no means a guarantee. Until then, Marcus will continue to make his weekly trips to the coast. President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the Senate to explain why he declined assent to 14 bills. His explanation was contained in letters read by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday. The president also introduced Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences Bill, 2018 to the upper chamber; he requested that the bill be considered and passed into law. He explained that the bill is intended to curtail illegal activities of pirates at sea as well as to reduce the incidences of theft in domestic and international waters. He also said the bill, (if passed) will domesticate the relevant provisions of international treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory, such as Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS II) relating to piracy; as well as the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA) against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, 1988 and its protocols. The president gave reasons for his refusal to sign the other bills. Here are his reasons for rejecting some of the bills: National Research and Innovation Council (Est.) Bill, 2017: For this bill, the president said the requirement for 5 per cent of the annual allocation of 14 entities listed in section 17 of the Bill to be paid into the Research and Innovation Fund is unwieldy and may be practically difficult to implement in some instances. For example, he said, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund does not receive any federal allocation. He said the requirement that 1 per cent of the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP) be sourced from the federal government be paid into the Research and Innovation Fund is also practically unworkable as the GDP is an economic measure at the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a period of time; it is not cash or revenue accruable to the federal government. Mr Buhari also noted incorrect references to some of the entities specified in Section 17 of the Bill. For instance, the Information Technology and Development Fund should be the National Information Technology Development Fund. National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism (Est.) Bill, 2018: Mr Buhari said his decision to decline assent to this bill was because there was no compelling reason for the requirement in Section 5(3)(k) that 25 per cent of the revenue generated for the federal government should be used directly by the institute. The retention of such a high amount is to the determinant of the revenue, available for funding the budget of the Federal Government and is for in excess of what the Federal Inland Revenue and the Nigeria Customs Service are able to retain which is 4 per cent and 7 per cent respectively; and A number of provisions in the First Schedule to the Bill in respect of the Supplementary Provisions relating to the Board are not in accordance with good practice in corporate governance, he said. National Agricultural Seeds Council Bill, 2018: The president declined assent to this bill because there already exists a National Crop Varieties and Livestock Breed (Registration, Etc) Act which covers some of the proposed functions of the National Agriculture Seed Council Bill. He said the passage of this bill into law would create confusion as to the proper authority to regulate crop varieties in Nigeria. Subsidiary Legislation (Legislative Scrutiny) Bill, 2018: Mr Buhari declined this bill because he is concerned that the bill will slow down the administrative processes for implementing agencies. He also said the bill does not leave room for administrative discretion borne out from administrative experiences that would enable sectors work faster in handling or addressing urgent matters. The president added that the bill may also impede the federal governments drive for increased revenue collection since an implementing agency that drives revenue from licenses will now have to go through a legislative process every time it intends to update its administrative process of increased license fees. Stamp Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2018: For this bill, Mr Buhari said revenues from stamp duties are currently shared among all three tiers of government. Accordingly, transferring collection responsibilities from the Federal and States Inland Revenue Services to Nigerian Postal Services may deprive the States and Local Governments of their share of stamp duties revenues. He also said the bills proposals for the imposition of stamp duties on savings accounts and electronic transactions may impair the implementation of the federal governments Financial Inclusion Strategy, e-payment programmes and cashless banking policies. Chartered Institute of Entrepreneurship (Est.) Bill, 2018: The president said this bill is unnecessary in view of the fact that potential entrepreneurs have various existing options to hone their skills such as universities which currently offer entrepreneurship as a course of study. He also said the creation of the institute by legislation is not coextensive or coterminous with capacity development and the proposed bill may contain citizens right freedom of action. Industrial Development (Income Tax Relief) (Amendment) Bill, 2018: For this bill, Mr Buhari declined to enable ongoing consultations by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment with relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on the tax holidays incentive, resume Expansion Project Investments in rural areas as well as for agriculture agro-processing to be concluded. It is my expectations that these consultations would result in fiscal measures that would greatly enrich the quality of the tax holidays incentive regimes for these types of projects and investments. We also expect that these fiscal measures, once finalised, would be subsequently submitted to the National Assembly by way of Presidential Executive Orders of executive bills for consideration and passage into law by the federal legislature, he said. Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2017: I am declining assent to this bill which would reduce the minimum punishment for the offences under the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act due to the prevalence of the offences, the need to detect the offences and the need to adequately punish offenders. I am also concerned that the amendment to the Principal Act have watered down the sentences by giving the courts too much discretion in respect of the minimum sentences, the president explained. Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2017: The president refused to sign this bill because the amendment will create distortions to the operationalisation of the NIMASA Act. Mr Buhari urged the Senate to focus on passing the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences Bill, 2018 in order to achieve a more comprehensive review of the operations in the maritime sector. During the break, the president had rejected the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and five constitutional amendment bills. A judge of the Ikeja Division of the Lagos State High Court on Wednesday struck out the fraud case instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Innocent Chukwuma, the founder of Innoson Motors Limited due to the inability of the prosecution to produce him in court for arraignment. Olusola Williams, the judge, while striking out the matter, said a criminal matter can always be instituted whenever the prosecution is prepared. The prosecution is well aware that it is its duty to produce a defendant in court, the judge said. This court is not inclined to continue to waste the tax of Lagos taxpayers. This court cannot continue to waste precious time calling a case that is going nowhere. It is a criminal matter that can be instituted anytime. I advise that the prosecution gets its acts together before coming to court. I am inclined to strike out this case and I so do. Mr Chukwuma and his company, Innoson Motors, were first brought before Mojisola Dada of an Ikeja Special Offences Court on January 17 but they failed to appear before the court in all the adjourned dates. The case was transferred to Mr Williams after Mr Chukwumas lawyers wrote a petition against Mrs Dada asking her to recuse herself from the trial. Mr Chukwuma and his company, Innoson Motors Nigeria Ltd., were to be arraigned on a four-count charge of conspiracy to obtain property by false pretence, stealing and forgery in a transaction with Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB). According to the charge, the defendants committed the offences between 2009 and July 2011 in Lagos. The EFCC alleged that the defendants had intent to defraud, conspired to obtain by false pretence containers of motorcycles spare parts and raw materials, properties of GTB from Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd, Apapa, Lagos. They were alleged to have fraudulently induced staff of Mitsui OSK and Maersk Line to deliver to them via their clearing agents the goods which were imported from China in the name of GTB by falsely pretending that they were authorised by the bank to clear the goods. The prosecution claimed that the defendants in order to facilitate the fraud forged a Bill of lLaden numbered 598286020 of Maersk Line Limited and 11007950841 of Mutsui O.S.K Lines by knowingly putting a false GTB stamp and signature of the bank staff. The alleged forgery was in order that the forged documents be used or acted upon as genuine to the prejudice of any person within Lagos or elsewhere. The offences contravened Sections 1(1)(b), 1(3), and 8(a) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2016 and Sections 309(9), 388, 465 and 467(1)(j) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State 2003. Earlier, during Wednesdays proceedings, Zainab Ettu, the prosecuting counsel, informed the court that they had been unable to effect the arrest of Mr Chukwuma in order to physically serve him, saying he has been hiding from operatives to carry out the arrest on him. I think at this stage while we still pursue the arrest of the defendant, I think it behooves on the defence counsel being ministers at the temple of justice to carry out their duty to the court to ensure that they produce their client in court because they took brief from him and they can tell when who briefed them can be in court. They filed multiple applications but they cannot produce their client in court. We ask for n adjournment to produce the 2nd defendant in court, no matter what he cannot be above the law. We already have his warrant of arrest when the case was before Justice Moji Dada. GTBank building used to illustrate the story In response to the prosecution and at the same time moving his motion, J. N Mbaduga said, all the defendants in this matter are being charged at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi in charge number FHC/L/565C/2015 in respect of the same subject matter and transactions in this particular charge and it is being prosecuted by the AGF. The charge is still pending and some facts in the case have been forwarded to the Supreme Court, while it is pending, the EFCC commenced this charge and never served any of the parties but we saw a media publication that the EFCC had filed a charge in respect of the matter at a Lagos High court. Going by this, we are raising a preliminary objection dated 15th of January and filed on the same date as being an abuse of court processes and that the charge has not been served. And going by the norm as laid by the appellate court that it is the duty of the prosecution to produce the defendant in court and until then the court cannot exercise any jurisdiction over the defendant and the court cannot compel counsels to produce the defendants. The prosecution, however, held that for any application to be treated on behalf of a defendant, he should be present in court, they can then decide if they want to raise an objection before he takes his plea or after. A fugitive cannot be asking for reliefs from a court he has not submitted to. He is very much aware of the court proceedings but refuses to submit himself to court and instead engages counsels to represent him. Although it is not the duty of the defence counsel to produce the defendant in court, it is highly unethical and unprofessional for them not to advise their clients properly to appear in court for justice to be done properly. The Federal Government of Nigeria has said after consultations it proposed N24,000 as the new minimum wage for civil servants. The Minister of Labour and employment, Chris Ngige, stated this Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Mr. Ngige was responding to media reports quoting the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, saying that the tri-partite committee discussing the demand for new minimum wage has agreed to increase it from the current N19,200 to N30,000. Such information is not true, Mr Ngige said. The minister said when the committee reconvened on October 5, after the NLC had called off its nationwide strike, the organised labour came down to N30,000, the organised private sector came down to N25,000. He also said the federal government had to consult with the 36 state governors. After the consultations, he said, the federal government proposed N24,000 while governors proposed N20,000. Mr Ngige said the government is therefore still consulting and negotiations is ongoing. He said in accordance with Convention 131 of International Labour Organisation, the most important thing to consider in fixing the new minimum wage is the ability to pay. The NLC had initially proposed a N50,000 minimum wage for workers, a move opposed by many state governors, many of whom are unable to regularly pay the current N18,000 minimum wage. The National chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has said the party will present its candidates for all elective positions in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections despite contrary directive by the electoral commission, INEC. Be informed that in spirit of due compliance with the law, we affirm we shall indeed be presenting candidates for governorship, National Assembly and state house of assembly in Zamfara state of the general elections before the deadline of such names which has been fixed by your commission on October 18 and in line with section 87 (6) of the electoral act 2010 as amended, Mr Oshiomhole said in a letter to INEC dated October 10. If you raise further objection after you receive our lists of candidates we shall be glad to clarify them, he noted. Mr Oshiomhole was responding to a letter by the commission sighted by PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday evening that it is not expecting any list of candidates from the party for Zamfara State in the forthcoming general election. This is because the party failed to meet the October 7 deadline for conducting primaries to elect candidates for the elections, the electoral body explained. Mr Oshiomhole in his Wednesday response argued that INEC in the letter signed by the acting secretary of the commission, Okechukwu Ndeche, was not only preemptive, but your position seem to negate the spirit of any fair hearing and is devoid of legal basis. The party chairman disputed INECs position in the letter that no primaries were held by the party, insisting that voting is not the only mode to produce a candidate in a primary according to electoral laws. Therefore, the claim in your letter under reference that no primaries were conducted by your party in the state, not with standing that our officials were fully mobilised and deployed. could only be referring to their observation that actual voting did not take place, which is not the only mode prescribed for producing candidates in the electoral act, 2010 as amended. We affirm that indeed primaries took place in Zamfara state. Similarly, Mr Oshiomhole also referred the commission to the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 general elections released by the INEC on January 9 2018. Please also refer to the INECs timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 general election released by the commission on the 9th January 2018. by that timetable all political parties are expected to submit a list of their candidates on or before 18th of October 2018. After exhausting all internal procedures for appeals arising out of the congress. As a party, we are in the process of exhausting those internal procedures before forwarding the names of our candidates to you. We are perplexed that you did not wait for us to submit the names of our candidates in Zamfara before raising your observation in your letter under reference. This is more so when we received no correspondence from the commission at least to inquire from our party the true state of affairs in Zamfara state in the spirit of fair hearing, before making haste in your letter. The former Edo State governor also argued that his partys strongest opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not hold primaries in Kano in a similar manner but no such letter was written to them. He further explained why the party was not able to produce candidates in the state before INECs deadline. Kindly find attached the comprehensive report from the Zamfara Electoral Committee of the APC and signed by all the members on the conduct of the primary elections for the Zamfara State held between 6th and 7th October 2018. The summary of the report, as you will find is that following the high level of friction, disagreements and threatened violence by various political camps before the primaries, all the aspirants met at City King Hotel, Gusau to find truce. After hours of intense horse-trading a consensus was reached within the spirit and context of the electoral act and the constitution of our party on the basis of which a list was produced which was confirmed/affirmed by all delegates present. This was done in strict compliance with section 87 (6) of the electoral act 2010 (as amended). The Zamfara State chapter of the APC had descended into serious crisis as political camps fought bitter and violent battles as they jostled to produce candidates for positions. The major tussle was between the camps of the state governor, Abdulaziz Yari, and a senator, Kabiru Marafa. Should INECs decision stand, the PDP will have the biggest chance to govern Zamfara for the first time since the countrys return to democratic rule in 1999. Read Mr Oshiomholes full letter to INEC below. PREMIUM TIMES There is no doubt that many are rooting for him to succeed, and he will enjoy the support of many... The Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, Tijjani Bande, has said that Nigeria has taken measures that contributed to the confrontation and decimation of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group. Mr Bande stated this while addressing a UN Committee on the topic: Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism at the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York. The envoy said: Nigeria is no stranger to the activities of terrorists, and in particular, Boko Haram. But, the Nigerian Government has since confronted and decimated their activities and has put in place bold and robust strategies to continue to address the heinous atrocities of the Boko Haram insurgency. The collaboration of neighbours and many partners aided us in large measure to achieve the current outcome. We continue to enjoy closer cooperation with our neighbours, especially Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic who have come together within the framework of the Lake Chad Basin Commission to form a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), headquartered in NDjamena, Chad. The Nigerian envoy regretted that terrorism had continued to be a serious menace to international peace and security. According to him, terrorist acts are insidious in character and usually destabilise the structures of governance with adverse effects on development in the affected countries. Given this sad reality, Mr Bande said, the international community needed to develop an inclusive and collaborative approach to jointly deter and annihilate terrorism. He reaffirmed Nigerias continued support and readiness to cooperate with UN on efforts to end terrorism in all its manifestations. He said: I am glad to also emphasise that Nigerias counter-terrorism strategy is fully anchored on the respect for human rights and international humanitarian laws. It is against this background that the residents in the North-Eastern states of Nigeria now move about their daily businesses in relative safety. Since the commencement of the revised National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) by the current administration in 2016, Nigerians have equipped themselves psychologically to win the war against terrorism. According to him, the strategy succeeded in uniting Nigerians from all works of life towards defeating Boko Haram. It also encourages religious leaders to use their various places of worship to enlighten their followers against any extremism or intolerance, he added. Mr Bande said the programme for de-radicalisation, rehabilitation, reorientation and re-integration for repentant Boko Haram members, Victims Support Fund and the Presidential Initiative for the North East as well as the Safe School Initiative are still ongoing. These initiatives, he said, had facilitated the provision of humanitarian relief, socio-economic stabilization and resettlement of persons displaced by Boko Haram. Certainly, the war against terrorism on all frontiers can only be achieved through the determined resolve of all Member States of the United Nations to work together. States Parties must ensure full compliance with all United Nations Resolutions and Conventions against terrorism and its financing as well as other instruments adopted at regional levels. This will constitute not only a valid point of departure, but also a contextual framework for cooperation among member states, he stressed. Mr Bande said Nigerias adoption of the National Counter Terrorism Strategy and Plan of Action to prevent violent extremism is a clear indication of its readiness to root out terrorism and end the destructive activities of Boko Haram. Consistent with our faith in the need for a collective fight against terrorism, I like to re-affirm Nigerias commitment to work closely with all UN Counter Terrorism entities, he pledged. (NAN) A former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Tuesday said Nigeria needs a president with a sound knowledge of the economy to make progress and develop the country. Mr Obasanjo reiterated what a former German Chancellor, the late Helmut Schmidt, who was one of his friends, told him during a discussion about African countries. Late Mr Schmidt argued there was no way that a president with poor knowledge of the economy could meet the needs of the citizens, adding that even Jesus Christ understood economy. According to a the report on Punch, Mr Obasanjo spoke in Lagos at this years edition of the Foursquare Gospel Church annual public lecture, which held at the churchs national headquarters in Lagos. The theme of the lecture is titled, The trying triangle of economy, faith and politics Looking through the eye of the needle and was delivered by the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah. The former president said Mr Kukah was right in his description of politics as a game, as politics must be the most serious game created by man. One of my international friends, the late Helmut Schmidt, who was a former Chancellor of Germany he died at the age of 96 about three years ago, I was at the burial and he said if we, in Africa have to make it, all our political leaders must have good grounding in economy, he said. He said he agreed with Mr Kukah that even Jesus Christ had a good knowledge of economy. There is no doubt at all that if we have to get it right, the three (economy, faith and politics) must go together, he said. As a fact from Bishop Kukah, even Jesus Christ understands economy and if you have a leader who does not understand economics, then you cannot have a leader that will satisfy the need of the people the physical and the material needs of the people, he said. Mr Obasanjo said for Nigeria to get it right, the country must strike a balance between economy, faith and politics. This is Obasanjos first public comment since the emergence of former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, as the presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP). Mr Obasanjo argued that politics remained the decider of the fate of a nation and must be taken seriously. The point is this, politics is the master- master to the economy, master to other human activities, except that religion is over politics. If we must succeed, we must all accept that politics is master and that politics is so important and so serious that it must not be left in the hands of politicians alone. We must all be part of it, he said. Mr Kukah said it was redundant to ask whether Christians should participate in politics, noting that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, is a pastor. The cleric said Christians needed to be patient with, rather than put pressure on fellow Christians who have gone into politics. Lets become less arrogant that politics is dirty, let(s) go in there and clean it; we cant clean it up because there is no way to clean it up; and second, we must also become a bit more patient with our people who are in politics. If we make the General Overseer of First Square Church the President, his first critics will come from this church. Also, the general overseer of Foursquare Gospel Church, Felix Meduoye, said the lecture was the churchs contribution to nation building. Meanwhile, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, says it will soon make a pronouncement on its most preferred presidential candidate among the different political parties in the country, jostling to wrest power from the ruling APC. The group spoke on Tuesday through its national publicity secretary, Yinka Odumakin, after a two-hour closed door meeting with Mr Obasanjo in Abeokuta. Mr Odumakin said the Afenifere chieftain had come to reciprocate Mr Obasanjos visit to Mr Adebanjo and to discuss the way forward for Nigeria. He reiterated the groups position that Nigeria might not move forward without restructuring, noting that the group would soon declare its support for the presidential candidate who favoured restructuring. Ahead of next years general elections, different political parties at the weekend elected their presidential candidates, with Muhammadu Buhari emerging as the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, while Mr Abubakar emerged the standard bearer of the PDP. Mr Obasanjo had on a number of occasions criticised Mr Buharis handling of the economy. In January this year, he wrote to Mr Buhari, scoring the presidents performance low and advising him not to seek re-election. The senate on Wednesday called on security agencies to intensify efforts to find the army general, Muhammed Alkali, and other Nigerians who have been missing. It also urged the federal government to set up an investigative panel of enquiry to examine and determine the remote and immediate circumstances surrounding the dumping of cars in the ponds in Dura-Du district of Plateau State. Mr Alkali, a retired major-general, was declared missing September 3, while driving to Bauchi from Abuja. After a few weeks, the army said it received intelligence that the generals body or car was in the pond. The draining of water from the pond was earlier protested by the women of the community who appeared in black, claiming that the pond has ancestral inclination. Their protest was unsuccessful. PREMIUM TIMES had on October 3, reported how the community was cordoned off and people were arrested in the early hours of the day, following the discovery of the car in which the general was travelling in. A blood-stained T-Shirt and a boxer short, believed to belong to the general, were also found in the car on a Saturday evening by a combined security team. Two days later, more vehicles were recovered from the death pool. The army on Friday dismissed the rumour that two corpses were discovered in the pond. The senates call followed a motion moved by Mohammed Hassan (PDP, Yobe South) who stressed that the disappearance of numerous commuters along the Dura-Du axis for the past few years, especially Bauchi on-ward bound travellers, needs to be addressed urgently. He explained that the most recent incident raises some pertinent questions. Why did the people from Du Community refuse to assist the security agencies during the search? Why did the people (women) try to prevent the army from draining the water? Why didnt the community raise a formal complaint from the local government to the state government about the draining of the water? And who were those spreading false information about the circumstances of the disappearance of Maj. Gen IM Alkali and what (was) their motives? While acknowledging the thoroughness of the investigation of the Nigerian army and other security agencies who narrowed their search to the pond, he admonished members of the senate to call on the federal government to intervene. The senate also resolved to set up an investigative panel to identify and interrogate possible suspects in this dastardly act and ensure that the perpetrators face the full wrath of the law, to serve as deterrence to other criminally minded persons in the strongest possible terms. It also condemned the act and urged all the surrounding communities (Du axis) to cooperate with security agencies to uncover this crime and criminality. The disappearance of Mr Alkali, the immediate past director of administration in the Nigerian army, comes barely two months after he retired. A human right activist, Femi Falana, has reproached the 36 states in Nigeria for failing to access access the N86.5 billion lying fallow in the in the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Account in the Central Bank as at April 30. Mr Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria, said the unaccessed matching grant was the reason why about 13.2 million children were out of school. The lawyer stated this in a statement sent to Premium Times titled: UBE fund: N86 billion not accessed by state governments on Tuesday. A Demographic Health survey that was conducted by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the Nigerian government had shown that the population of out of school children in Nigeria has risen from 10.5million to 13.2 million. Presently, Nigeria is ranked as having the highest number of out of school children in the world. The UBEC fund is an annual grant by the federal government to help states upgrade their primary education facilities in order to provide a good education for children across the nation. To access this fund, state governments are required to match the federal governments grant. But many states have ignored this facility even as children studied under very deplorable conditions, including having lessons under trees and dilapidated classrooms while the quality of teachers remain suspicious in many cases across the country. In 2017, UBEC said while many of the northern states were paying the counterpart fund and accessing the facility, the southeast and southwest states have basically indulged in the act of self-harm. Particularly notorious, going by UBEC data, are Ondo State which has failed to access matching funds worth N4.6 billion and Enugu State which has N4.2 billion idling away. Oyo, Ogun and Ebonyi States have N3.6 billion each while Abia and Bayelsa States have N2.67 and N2.65 billion lying waste respectively. Hamid Bobboyi, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, in 2017 appealed to state governments that had not accessed the N76 billion due to them for 2017 projects which represents 20 per cent of the total matching grants of N380 billion released to the commission as at October 31. Meanwhile some of the challenges facing basic education include huge number of out-of-school children including the Almajiris and children with special needs, low budgetary allocation to basic education at state and local government levels, and inadequate spaces in schools at basic education level. In his statement, Mr Falana said only Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Lagos, Rivers and Federal Capital Territory had accessed the fund up to 2017 out of the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Quoting statistics from UNICEF, Mr Falana, who is also the National President of Peoples Alternative Front (PAF), said 60 per cent of the children are in the North. According to him, majority are girls due to early marriage. He said it was disturbing that education was not made a priority of any government and hence no state government had accessed the UBE fund up till date. Having failed to fund public education, the children of the poor are roaming the streets, hawking goods while the rich are educating their children in private schools at home and abroad, he said. But to the detriment of the society, the abandoned children of the poor are being recruited to criminality by terrorists, kidnappers and other criminal gangs.The irony of the crisis is that a government, which claims that it lacks money to fund education is spending several billions of Naira to fight insurgency, kidnapping, armed robbery and banditry. He said pressure should be mounted on the authorities of the FCT and the 36 state governments to access the N86.5 billion lying fallow in the UBE Account in the Central Bank. To arrest the dangerous trend, it is high time the Nigeria Police Force embarked on the arrest and prosecution of parents and guardians, who refuse to allow their children and wards to acquire basic education, he said. The activist lawyer said the National Assembly enacted the Childs Right in 2003 sequel to the ratification of the United Nations Childs Rights Convention by the Federal Government in 2001, only 25 out of the 36 states have adopted the Childs Rights Act Mr Falana said while 17 states in the South have adopted the Childs Rights Act, only eight out of the 19 states in the North adopted it. He said most government officials who opposed the Childs Rights Law in the North on alleged religious ground are educating their children in private schools at home and abroad. In order to fund the basic education programme in the country, the National Assembly enacted the Compulsory, Universal, Free Education Act in 2004. To ensure adequate funding of the basic education programme, the Federal Government is required to allocate two per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund to the UBE Fund while the state governments and the FCT shall contribute counterpart fund to access the UBE Fund. It is further provided that parents and guardians, who refuse to allow their children and wards to acquire compulsory basic education are liable to be arrested by the Police and prosecuted, he said. Africa needs to urgently adopt climate resilient development pathways if it is to survive the adverse impacts of climate change, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has warned. The ECA also warned that Africa will not successfully implement the sustainable development agenda and its 50-year development plan, Agenda 2063 if urgent climate actions are not taken now. The precautionary measures were issued by James Murombedzi, Officer in Charge of the ECAs African Climate Policy Center (ACPC), ahead of the 7th Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA7) which opened in Nairobi on Wednesday. Mr. Murombedzis warning followed a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on a global warming of 1.5 degrees centigrade published on Monday. The report had called for urgent action to phase out fossil fuels and warned that there is only 12 years to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C and avoid catastrophic environmental breakdown. Africa is already suffering from the adverse impacts of climate change even though it contributes far less to greenhouse emissions, Mr. Murombedzi said. We need a global approach towards climate resilient development pathways to ensure that warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius and hence not derail Africas development renaissance and aspirations. Mr. Murombedzi said the IPCC report means that climate actions are not only urgent for Africa but also for those responsible for the warming. This report is particularly important because a global 1.5C warmer world (compared to pre-industrial) will see several regions worldwide experiencing temperature higher warming 3 degrees in the case of Africa, he said. He added that concerted efforts are needed globally, especially to ensure the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. That is why at CCDA-VII we believe that that countries have to start planning for a warmer climate than previously expected so this means we need to review all the different climate actions and proposals to ensure that we can in fact not only survive in a 3C warmer environment but still be able to meet our sustainable development objectives and our Agenda 2063, said Mr. Murombedzi. We also need urgent action to ensure theres an enabling environment for the participation of key actors, that is non-state actors, like civil society, private sector and sub-national entities in the climate change discourse. The CCDA-VII is being organized in partnership with the Kenyan government and the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). This year, it is focusing on the theme, Policies and actions for effective implementation of the Paris Agreement for resilient economies in Africa. Alanna Kelly A small family business is left without power for its food truck after thieves made off with a generator while they were sleeping. Jessica Sato says they left the generator in a locked vehicle that tows their small food truck. They believe the generator was stolen on Oct. 5, about 3:30 a.m. Sato, co-owner of the Little Tokyo Ramen Trailer, says the theft is a blow to the business. We had two gentlemen that came down Water Street, we have them on surveillance, she said. According to her, the men were able to get into the vehicle, place the generator onto a trailer attached to a bike and take off with it. We use that generator to power our little Boler food trailer several times a month, she said. The colder months will now pose a challenge for the business. We have to think about other ways now that we can power our trailer at big events that will be coming up, she said. Sato said the Honda 3000i generator's serial number is: EZGF-1547509 and it has a distinguishable sticker on it. Having a generator in the winter time, while you are trying to run a very small trailer is very important, and now we dont have that to fall back on. Anyone with information is asked to contact RCMP. The members of the House of Representatives have called on the inspector general of the Nigerian police to grant the unconditional release of their colleague, Abubakar Lado (Niger, APC) who has been in Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) detention for the past three days. The members, on Wednesday, gave the inspector general an ultimatum of 12 hours to release their detained colleague. Mr Lado, who sought a second term ticket under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was allegedly arrested on the instruction of Niger State governor, Abubakar Sani-Bello. PREMIUM TIMES also gathered that Mr Lados detention arose out of issues related to the APC primaries. He was accused of causing crises that led to destruction of properties in Suleja, Niger State. Raising a point of order under matters of urgent national importance, Toby Okechukwu (Enugu, PDP) condemned the actions of the police. He said their actions did not follow due process. The house is aware that the invitation of Honourable Lado was not done through due process and therefore breaches the legislative powers and privileges act which requires notification of (the) presiding officer before any member is invited or arrested Mr Okechukwu said. He added that efforts by the house leadership to get the lawmaker out of detention were unsuccessful as it was reliably gathered that only the governor could give such instructions. The house is embarrassed that the intervention of the House leadership was rebutted by the Nigerian police because it is only the governor of Niger State that can give instruction for his release. Efforts to reach the police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, to confirm the development was unsuccessful as he did not pick several calls put across to his line. However, a source in the Police Special Tactical Squad (STS) confirmed the arrest to PREMIUM TIMES. Yes, he is in the custody of the STS the source said. Niger State is amongst several APC governed states that are enmeshed in crises arising from the just concluded primaries. A source, who is a member of the House of Representatives, told PREMIUM TIMES that the governor has hijacked the primaries in the state. He said members of the party, as at Wednesday, do not know their flag bearers. The governor has turned the tickets of our party to political appointments. We still do not know who the winners are of the primaries that were conducted a week ago. The Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan (APC, Yobe) on Wednesday congratulated the new Minority Leader, Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti). Mrs Olujimi assumed her new position as the Senate resumed on Tuesday. She became the new Minority Leader of the upper chamber as soon as Godswill Akpabio, who formerly occupied the position, resigned. Mr Apkabio had resigned his position in August. His resignation was contained in a letter addressed to the Deputy Senate Minority Leader, Emmanuel Bwacha. He, thereafter, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Party (APC). While congratulating the newly sworn-in senators, Mr Lawan congratulated Mrs Olujimi. Mr President, let me join you in congratulating our new senators who took their oath this morning. We wish them a very fruitful and productive senate life. Mr president, even though not formally announced, I also want to use this opportunity to congratulate the new Minority Leader of the Senate, Biodun Olujimi. He also congratulated Emmanuel Paulker, who now assumed the position of Deputy Minority Whip. Equally let me congratulate the new Deputy Minority Whip, Emmanuel Paulker. Mr president, I can see that the representation and the contribution of the house pf representatives to this senate is significant. Today, out of the ten principal officers of this Senate, six are originally of the House of Representatives. The two new senators as well, he said. Over the weekend of March 19, 2016, a number of major Swedish newspapers were targeted by hackers and knocked down for several hours. The websites of Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen, Aftonbladet, Dagens Industri, Sydsvenskan and Helsingborgs Dagblad were either partly or completely brought down for over three hours, in the attack. No recognisable person or organisation claimed responsibility for the attack (a Twitter account @_notJ said the attack was as a result of the newspaper spread of propaganda). Some online experts claimed it may have emanated from Russia. The head of the Swedish Media Publishers Association, Jeanette Gustafsdotter, described the attack as extremely dangerous and serious adding that To threaten access to news coverage is a threat to democracy. Several internet security experts who analysed the attack said the sites might have been subjected to distributed denial-of-services (DDoS) attacks, a type of attack that involves sending flood of data to certain sites with the aim of destabilising their computer systems. Apart from the attack of the Swedish newspapers, several news organisations across the world have come under similar attacks. Jigsaw, an incubator within Alphabet, the parent company of Google, said it has come up with a number of tools to help news websites around the world deflect DDoS and other similar malicious attacks. Speaking to a team of international journalists on a Department of State -sponsored tour on combating fake news and misinformation/disinformation, the head of product management at Jigsaw, Justin Kosslyn, said the incubator developed a tool called Project Shield, to protect news websites, especially against the type of attacks that took down the websites of the Swedish newspapers two years ago. Project Shield protects a news website from a DDoS attack. This is a very cheap way of taking a website offline, he said. If you dont like what someone is publishing you can buy one of these attacks on the deep product web for some cases as low as $10 or $15 and it basically floods the website with bogus traffic that are not real users. Its a bot nest, fake, compromising devisers all loading the site at the same time and then the server melts under the load and it cant carry the traffic and it gets knocked offline and as the real users tries to legitimately access the content, they cant do so. So what Project Shield does, is, it basically sits between your server and the internet. It is sort of a bouncer. It runs on Google Data Centres. Google has big data centres so Google can basically absorb a lot of bogus traffic that might take a small site offline, but it doesnt faze us because of the number of machines we have globally. As a company, we provide this service for free. We are not trying to generate revenue off it, we are trying to protect free expression. It is good for the internet if people are able to access content, he explained. Mr Kosslyn also said Jigsaw has created a Virtual Private Network (VPN) called Outline, which protects online users from compromised internet sources in places like airports. He said repressive governments have been known to also use compromised internet sources to spy on dissidents and critical news organisations. Many of you live in countries where free expression is routinely and oppressively censored. What a VPN does is that it basically builds a tunnel out from where your devices (are) through a point on the free web. All your internet traffic go through that tunnel instead of where you are physically located. That is a way for you to be more secure because it is not as if you are at the airport anymore, but you are at the data centre in Canada and you can have more free expression because the filtering is in place in your geography is not going to be in place where you VPN is located, he said. He, however, said that the VPN also comes with its own challenges. Mr Kosslyn said the centralised nature of VPN servers makes them susceptible to attacks. One of the challenges with the VPN has is that they tend to be centralised. You are using a VPN server that runs in some big data centre that has ten thousand, hundred thousand and millions of users. That makes it very easy and an obvious target for someone who wants to block the VPN because (there are) million connections all going to the data centre which makes it suspicious because there is a pattern to that connection that, in many places, are detectible and can be blocked. In many places it stops working. Another issue with VPNs is that you have to trust the VPN provider. In lots of places, we have heard of the VPN actually provided by the government itself and they are essentially spying on their own VPN service whenever they want. In many cases, they can switch it off. He said in order to bypass these weaknesses, Outline is made free and open-source. All of the code for it is published on the internet. We hired third party to audit the code, we publish the audit and all the changes the third party recommended, we made, to make it look pretty. What Outline does is that you run a VPN server anywhere you want, and you can actually control the VPN server and run it on any server you like. Or you can run it on your own server. You dont need any other server, he said. Finally, Mr Kosslyn said the third way Jigsaw protects news organisations from attack is through the encryption of Domain Name Servers (DNS). Mr Kosslyn explains how this works: One of the most common forms of internet censorship and surveillance is using a part a part of the internet, an infrastructure called the DNS. DNS is basically the address book of the internet. That system is not secure. When I am consulting with the DNS system, there is no encryption, generally speaking. It is basically like I am sending a postcard to the DNS system, saying I want to visit the New York Times, and the DNS system send a post card back to me and says got to this address, so anyone on that type of journey on the internet service provider, the telco, the government can see every post card that I am sending to the DNS provided and see every post card getting back and they can tamper with it. So, DNS monitoring and surveillance and DNS censorship is very easy and very cheap and in many places. It is actually the dominant form of internet surveillance and censorship because there is nothing to it. You dont have to be a secret service operative to read it, you just have to read the post cards. And we have done work on our team to try to improve that. He said the latest version of android, known as Android P has an inbuilt DNS encryption, which he said is similar to sealing a postcard in an envelope. We have been working with many of the big DNS providers, so they can support this DNS encryption lookup as well. Because you need both the device and the DNS provider to be able to speak in this encrypted language, he said. Apart from cyber security that also protect news organisations from malicious attacks, Mr Kosslyn said Jigsaw is working with the global community of fact-checkers in consortium with other tech companies such as Facebook, Google News to create a data schemer that makes fact-checks readable by machines in other to fend off Russian trolls and other perpetrators of disinformation in real time. The management of the University of Lagos, Akoka, has kept mum on the investigation of one of its lecturer, Olusegun Awonusi, a professor of English, over allegations of sexual harassment. PREMIUM TIMES reported in May that Joy Nwana, a student of the university, accused Mr Awonusi, who was also a former vice chancellor of Tai Solarin University of Education, of demanding sex for mark. In July, the university released a panel interim report on the matter, having called for memoranda from students and staff. The institution also appealed to Linda Ikeji Blog, who first reported the story, to assist in convincing Ms Nwana, the lady in question to defend her sexual harassment claim. Other universities who suffered such embarrassing fate this year, specifically Obafemi Awolowo University and Lagos State University have taken proactive measures by dismissing the randy lecturers. OAUs Council, at its meeting on June 20, announced the dismissal of its lecturer found guilty of misconduct. On Tuesday, LASU confirmed the dismissal of three of its academic staff for sexual harassment. The universitys spokesman, Ademola Adekoya said the institutions Governing Council took the decision at its 11th statutory meeting on October 4 as recommended by Disciplinary Committee. However, three months after UNILAGs VC addressed a conference on Ms Nwanas allegations, the university has refused to make known if it has taken further steps. The institutions principal assistant registrar, communications unit, Taiwo Oloyede, in a telephone interview on Wednesday had no new information on the scandal. After the press conference the VC held, I have not heard anything about the matter, she said. The four abducted members of a joint investigation team probing the cause of an oil spill at Agips facility in Azuzuama, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa, have regained their freedom. Ibrahim Abdullah, spokesman of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, said on Wednesday in Yenagoa that they were freed following pressure from the troops in search of the kidnappers. Suspected kidnappers abducted the four persons, including two employees of Nigerian Agip Oil Company in Azuzuama, along the waterways on October 4. Also, Peter Idabor, Director-General, National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), whose employee was a victim, confirmed the release to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). The incident happened last week and the four people held hostage were freed yesterday. Our staff member who was among the victims has reunited with his family. He was abducted along with a staff member of Bayelsa Ministry of Environment and two Agip staff members. They were all released together, Idabor said. (NAN) The revised amendment to the Electoral Amendment Bill on Wednesday passed a second reading at the Senate. While deliberating on the bill, the lawmakers put into consideration reasons President Muhammdu Buhari gave for rejecting the Bill. Mr Buhari rejected the bill for the third time on September 3 due to some drafting issues that remain unaddressed by prior revisions. Mr President invites the Senate and House of Representatives to address these issues as quickly as possible so that he may grant assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill, Ita Enang, a presidential aide said in a statement. A few of the outstanding issues are; There is a cross referencing error in the proposed amendment to section 18 of the bill. The appropriate amendment is to substitute the existing sub-section (2) with the proposed subsection (1A), while the proposed sub-section (1B) is the new sub-section (2A) The proposed amendment to include a new Section 87 (14) which stipulates a specific period within which political party primaries are required to be held has the unintended consequence of leaving INEC with only 9 days to collate and compile lists of candidates and political parties as well manage the primaries of 91 political parties for the various elections. This is because the electoral amendment bill does not amend sections 31, 34 and 85 which stipulates times for the submission of lists of candidates, publication of lists of candidates and notice of convention, congresses for nominating candidates for elections. His refusal to assent the bill compelled the National Assembly Joint Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reconvene and deliberate on the bill for the fourth time. The Senate on Wednesday passed it after Suleiman Nazif, chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, presented a report. Denying allegations that the lawmakers took out the section backing the use of card reader during the election, Mr Nazif, stated that the issue of card reader has always been part of the amendment process. Failure of card reader section 49(3): where a smart card reader fails to function in any unit, and a fresh card reader is not deployed, election in that unit shall be cancelled and another election shall be scheduled within 24 hours, he explained. While stating that all the concerns of the president had been addressed, the lawmaker further explained that spending limits of candidates for various offices were addressed as well as when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would conduct a fresh poll if a card reader fails, among others. He announced that the spending limits for a presidential candidate is N5 billion while that of the governor is N1 billion. Section 87(12): Where a primary election is conducted and duly attended and certified by the commission in compliance with this Act, and the result is subsequently altered by a political party, the commission shall have powers to overrule the alteration made by the political parties and oppose such primaries. Section 87(14): The days of primaries shall not be earlier than 150 days and not later than 120 days before the day of the election into office. Election expenses Section 91 (1): election expenses shall not exceed the sum stipulated in sub-section 2-7. Section 91(2) N5 billion for presidential election. Section 91(3) N1 billion for governorship election Section 91(4) N100 million for senatorial election/house of representatives Section 91(5) N30 million for state house of assembly/ Section 91(6) N30 million for chairmanship/area council Section 92(7) N 5 million for councillorship Section 91(9) No individual of other entity shall donate to a candidate, more than 10 million. Section 91(10) A candidate who knowingly act in contravention of this section, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of 1 % of the amount permitted at the limit of campaign expenditure under this Act or imprisonment of a term not exceeding 12 months, he said. He further explained that the proposed amendment includes a new section 87(14) which stipulates a specific period within which political party primaries are required to be held has the unintended prospect of leaving INEC with only nine days to collate and compile lists of candidates and political parties as well as manage the primaries of 91 political parties for various elections. This is because the electoral amendment bill does not amend section 31, 34 and 85 which stipulates time for submission time for submission of names of candidates, publication of names of candidates and notice of convention, congress for nominating candidates for election. Qualifying language should also be considered to the provision of section 36(3) since an unintending effect of the current drafting may be to unduly increase the cost of administrative burden of conducting election in the event that any candidate no matter how inconsequential to the overall electoral process, passes away during the election. In his contribution, Kabir Marafa (APC, Zamfara Central) said putting a spending limit to candidates was not realistic. We can pass a law that cant pass the litmus test. The law says no individual can donate more than N10 million to a candidate, as long as someone makes his money legitimately why will he have a limit to his donation? he said. Victor Umeh (APGA, Anambra Central) suggested that instead of having a law restricting spending limits, there should be legislation to tackle vote-buying. I suggest it should be expunged. We should strengthen the law against vote-buying, it will be better, he said. On his part, Dino Melaye (PDP, Kogi West) described the provision which gives INEC power to upturn the choice of partys candidate as a recipe for disaster. The Senate passed the bill after it was put to a voice vote by Senate President Bukola Saraki. Mr Saraki asked the committee to take note of the observations raised by the lawmakers and directed it to report back on Tuesday. A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and governorship aspirant in Borno State, Kashim Imam, has called for the cancellation of the just concluded gubernatorial primaries of the party in the state. Last week, the ruling APC in Borno State held its gubernatorial primaries which led to the emergence of Babagana Zulum, a professor, as the winner. Mr Zulum was declared by the APC electoral panel to have beaten seven of the 21 contenders that did not step down for him before the primaries, to emerge the flag-bearer of the party ahead the 2019 elections. Hours to the primaries, one of the aspirants, Idris Mamman-Durkwa, issued a press statement, lamenting that the party officials shielded them away from meeting the delegates, to campaign. Into the primaries proper, five major contenders, including Mr Imam boycotted the exercise to hold a meeting. They thereafter, signed a petition calling for the outright stoppage or cancellation of the primaries or its result. Three others, who also did not step down, remained at the venue of the primaries, to partake in the voting process. At the end of the voting process, Mr Zulum emerged winner after polling a total of 4, 432 votes, which represented 88.4 per cent of the entire 5,012 delegates votes. The following Monday, the minister of state for power, works and housing, Mustapha Baba-Shehuri, who was also one of the aspirants, granted a press conference, on behalf of the ten other aspirants, including Mr Imam, during which he called for the outright cancellation of the results of the primaries. The minister cited lack of level playing ground, shielding of delegates from other aspirants, and vote buying as improprieties allegedly perpetrated during the exercise. Two of the ten aspirants the minister cited to be part of the protest and signatories to the petition sent to the APC national secretariat, however, publicly conceded defeat and congratulated Mr Zulum, when he was declared winner. Shortly after the ministers briefing, 13 of the 20 aspirants who contested in the primaries issued a press statement signed by a former deputy governor of the state, Adamu Dibal, endorsing the outcome of the primaries. Mr Dibal said 14 of them, including Mr Zulum, the winner of the primaries, have endorsed the outcome, either by way of stepping down for the declared flag-bearer, or by publicly conceding defeat after the results were announced by the electoral panel. Even one of the aspirants who partook in the primaries went a step further to collapse his campaign structure into that of Professor Zulums 2019 campaign, said Mr Dibal. Kashim Imam (Photo Credit: Daily Correspondent) A week after the event, when the national secretariat of the APC inaugurated an appeal panel to address grievances emanating from the primaries, one of the aspirants, Kashim Imam, granted another press conference in Maiduguri to reiterate a call for the cancellation of the Borno APC governorship primaries. Mr Imam said the cancellation of the primaries became imperative on the heels of the irregularities that were allegedly perpetrated by the state government and party officials. According to him the the primaries was hijacked by the state governor who did not only endorse but anointed his candidate ahead of the election. Already our protest has been communicated via a letter to the National Working Committee of the APC to that effect, he said. We are aware that an appeal panel has been constituted to look into all petitions and appeals arising from the gubernatorial primaries across the country. We await the decision of the NWC and the appeal panel to take the appropriate steps to salvage this aberration so that it does not lead to break down of the fragile law and order we are currently enjoy in the state. The National Working Committee has resolved that the primaries in Taraba State is at best, fraudulent. I also believe that that of Borno would similarly be declared fraudulent by the grace of God, and the party will take the right decision in fielding the right candidate. Here in Borno State, there was no primaries; what happened was indeed a travesty of justice. I will also like to refresh our minds about the irregularities that occurred during the governorship primary election; they include unlawful use of state resources to induce delegates. The state governor approved the release and cashing of one month local government statutory allocation for each of the 27 local government councils without the statutory deductions. The sum of two hundred thousand naira (N200,000) was given to each delegate under oath as inducement to influence them to vote for the governors preferred candidate. We have also appealed to the anti corruption agencies to investigate the massive withdrawal on the eve of the election, Mr Imam said. He argued that the entire primary election process was compromised. He said the state governor announced his anointed candidate by making a pronouncement in the government house and issuing a media release on September 30, where he announced Babagana Zulum as his preferred candidate. I call on all our supporters to be patient and law abiding and await the decision of the National Working Committee and the Appeal Panel to take the appropriate step to salvage this aberration, so that it does not lead to the breakdown of the fragile law and order we are currently enjoying in the state. Hoping to be part of a fresh primaries, should the APC appeal panel eventually annul the result of the Borno State gubernatorial primaries, Mr Imam said he would be committed to the economic development of the state with a view to creating sustainable employment for all citizens if elected the candidate of the APC. I would like to restate my commitment to the people of Borno State in the course of the campaign. Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima I am committed to their welfare, progress and the development of the state which is what in the first instance necessitated my quest for the office of Governor of Borno State, Mr Imam said. The businessman cum politician pledged N1 billion towards the reconstruction of Borno State as well as the rehabilitation of communities destroyed by Boko Haram. Mr Imam has been a recurring decimal in the Borno State governorship election since 2003. He was a two time candidate of the PDP and has also been an aspirant. Aisha Alhassan, former Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development and the governorship candidate of the United Democratic Party (UDP) in Taraba State, says she is confident of victory in 2019 general elections with her new platform. Mrs Alhassan, a former senator, expressed the optimism on Wednesday in Abuja when she visited the UDP national secretariat with UDP Taraba State Executive to submit the states report to the partys National Chairman, Godson Okoye. She said it was not the name of political party that mattered in winning elections but the structure and followership in any election. Mrs Alhassan, a.k.a. Mama Taraba, as well as her counterpart, the former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, were disqualified by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship election Screening Committee before the just concluded primaries of the party. She said she now had more followers in UDP than she had before because of the injustice that was done to her by APC, saying what APC did had turned out to be a blessing. APC is just like a platform like any other political party, you can win election on any platform as long as you have people from the grassroots and you have the structure. It is just the name of our platform that is changed. As far as we are concerned, the followership is still intact. In fact we have more followership now. Because of the injustice done to me by the APC, we have a lot of sympathies now. The request for the UDP membership card now is overwhelming. I have told them to get a big hardcover note book and just be writing the names. So far we have printed 120, 000 membership cards within two weeks. People are still asking for more. She assured the party leadership that there was nothing to be afraid of about the coming elections in Taraba, saying UDP is well rooted. Mrs Alhassan said all her followers, supporters and key stakeholders left the APC to join her in UDP. All of us that nurtured the APC to where it was two weeks ago when we moved, completely left the party to the UDP. The executives and all that matter moved. The party has no structure any longer in Taraba. The former minister said that if elected governor, she would promote peaceful co-existence among the people, just leadership and adequate security, saying without peace and security there would be no development. Mrs Alhassan was accompanied by the partys state officials and the 2019 general elections candidates in the state as well as a serving member of the Taraba State House of Assembly, Nura Danyoho. Mr Okoye described Mrs Alhassan as a seasoned politician loved by people of her state and Nigerians. He pledged that the party would work for the victory of Mrs Alhassan and its entire candidates across the country in 2019. Mr Okoye said Mrs Alhassan could have been the governors of Taraba in 2015, adding maybe it was not her time then. We believe that this time God will grant her victory because we believe in the superiority of God that it is her time. Donatus Ozoemena, UPD governorship candidate, Enugu State, also said he did not believe that diversity was the major problem of Nigeria. Mr Ozoemena, a clergyman, said the U.S. was made up of people from different cultures and beliefs, yet they were still united. I came back home from U.S. with the belief that even though they say America is the greatest country on earth, Nigeria has more resources and more intellectuals that can beat U.S. I dont believe that division is the major cause of the problem we are going through. Mr Ozoemena also said UDP had strong structure to win Enugu governorship election. (NAN) The Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) has picked Sanusi Gumel as its governorship candidate for Jigawa State. The candidate, in his acceptance speech on Wednesday in Dutse, vowed to unseat Governor Muhammad Badaru of the All Progressives Congress (APC) whom he accused of poor performance and unfulfilled campaign promises. Mr. Gumel said he was confident of flooring Mr. Badaru at the poll next year because the power of incumbent is no longer relevant, stressing that political office holders can only woo the support of the electorate with their record of performance. If elected governor, I will focus more on critical areas like youth unemployment, health, agriculture and the education sector, he said at the state capital, he said. The present administrations both at federal and state levels have disappointed Nigerians for not performing up to expectations. Mr. Gumel also said the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state lacks administrative capacity to lead Jigawa, saying only PDM can bring real change to the state. He urged Nigerians and Jigawa people to come out en-mass and vote for candidates of his party, which he said alone can provide solution to Nigerias problems. At the event, PDM also announced its three senatorial candidates for the state. They are Auwalu Bayero for Jigawa North-west, Sule Hadejia for Jigawa North-east and Jamilu Ubale for Jigawa central districts. Justice Fatima Aminu of the Federal High Court sitting in Gusau Wednesday threatened to revoke the bail she earlier granted a former governor of Zamfara State, Mahmud Shinkafi, for his failure to appear in court. Mr Shinkafi, the second defendant in the charge, was arraigned alongside three others; Bashir Yuguda, Ibrahim Mallaha and Aminu Nahuche, for allegedly conniving to collect N450 million from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deizani Alison- Madueke, for the purpose of influencing the 2015 general election. Upon arraignment, all the defendants pleaded not guilty when the charge was read to them and the matter was subsequently adjourned to June 27, 2018 for hearing. When the matter came up on June 27, counsel to the second defendant, Ahmed Raji, filed a motion, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to try the matter. The matter was then adjourned to October 10, for hearing. But when the case was called, one of the sureties to the second defendant informed the court that the second defendant was summoned to Abuja over the security situation in Gusau. The judge expressed strong reservation over the action, warning that the judicial discretion of the court should not be taken for granted. I am sounding a word of caution or warning that such shall not be repeated or the bail of the second defendant will be revoked, the trial judge declared. Subsequently prosecution counsel, Musa Isah applied for the court to strike out the motion filed on behalf of the second defendant for lack of diligent prosecution. Counsel representing Mr Shinkafi, M.R.D Labaran, urged the court to discountenance the prayer of the prosecution counsel, arguing that the motion was not slated for hearing. Mahmuda Shinkafi [Photo: Daily Post Nigeria] Justice Aminu adjourned the matter to November 21, 2018 for hearing. FIRE near Salmon Valley Prince George pic.twitter.com/bUnxWcyWlK Rockybeach (@rockybeach67) October 10, 2018 UPDATE 5:37 a.m. Most residents of a northern B.C. community are being allowed back into their homes after a gas pipeline ruptured, sparking a massive blaze. RCMP say the explosion happened at about 5:30 p.m. PT Tuesday and forced about 100 members of the nearby Lheidli T'enneh First Nation from their homes. Officials say it was from an Enbridge natural gas pipeline in Shelley, B.C., about 15 kilometres northeast of Prince George. Police say residences within several kilometres were evacuated as a precaution, but the evacuation zone has now been reduced to residences within a one kilometre radius of the explosion site. They say there are no injuries and no reported damage other than to the pipeline itself. The gas supply has been shut down and police say there is no indication of a cause at this point in time. National Energy Board spokesman Tom Neufeld said the fire was along Enbridge's Westcoast main line, which falls under the board's jurisdiction. The Westcoast Transmission System transports natural gas produced in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin to consumers in B.C. and, through interconnecting pipelines, other Canadian provinces and the United States. "NEB inspectors have been deployed to this area. They're going to monitor and oversee the company's response to the incident, and they're going to determine the impact and extent of the fire and release," Neufeld said. The agency will work closely with the Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for investigating the incident, he said. UPDATE: 10:10 p.m. Prince George RCMP say homes within several kilometres of Tuesday night's pipeline explosion were evacuated. Later in the night, the evacuation zone was reduced to one kilometre and residents were able to return home, CTV reports. The gas line has been successfully shut down. Enbridge says company crews are working to assess the situation. UPDATE: 10 p.m. About 100 members of a First Nation community were evacuated from their homes Tuesday evening after a gas pipeline ruptured near prince George, sparking a massive blaze. The evacuees largely belonged to the nearby Lheidli T'enneh First Nation and were asked to leave their homes as a precaution. Prince George resident Dhruv Desai said he was driving up a hill toward the nearby University of Northern British Columbia when he noticed several drivers had pulled off the road, taking photos of something. "I was able to see it very clearly from the hill," he said. "It was huge even from this distance." The Canadian Press UPDATE: 9:02 p.m. The rupture occurred on a natural gas transmission pipeline owned and operated by Enbridge about 13.5 kilometres from Prince George on Tuesday evening, Enbridge spokesman Michael Barnes said in an emailed statement. It ignited at the site, which is in a rural area. There are no reports of injuries, he said. "Enbridge emergency crews have responded, have isolated and are currently depressurizing two natural gas transmission lines in the vicinity to contain the incident," he said. "The incident area has been cordoned off to maintain public safety." About 100 people have been evacuated from the nearby Lheidli T'enneh First Nation as a precaution. "Enbridge is working with area communities to ensure public safety," he said. The Canadian Press UPDATE: 8:43 p.m. "It sounded like a jet engine. We thought it might have been a train crash because there are two train tracks on each side of the river, but then we looked out back and it was this massive ball of fire," Regional Chief Terry Teegee of the nearby Takla Lake First Nation told CTV News. "We were a bit worried when it first happened. We were all outside and wondering what to do." UPDATE: 7:58 p.m. Enbridge spokesman Michael Barnes says the company is working to assess the situation at a pipeline explosion near Prince George and will have more information shortly. RCMP say homes in the immediate area, which is largely rural, have been evacuated. They say the cause is still under investigation. The Canadian Press UPDATE: 7:40 p.m. A pipeline has ruptured and sparked a massive fire north of Prince George. The provincial Ministry of Environment says it has been notified of the incident and that the 900 PSI gas line is operated by Enbridge. It says the incident is ongoing in the community of Shelley, northeast of Prince George. The Canadian Press UPDATE: 7:25 p.m. A pipeline explosion near Prince George happened near the rural community of Shelley, northeast of the city and near the Leidlhi Tenneh Indian Reserve. An emergency operations centre has reportedly been activated. There is still no word on what caused the explosion or if any injuries are involved. UPDATE: 7:10 p.m. RCMP confirm evacuations are underway following a pipeline explosion near Prince George, CTV reports. ORIGINAL: 6:45 p.m. There are reports of a massive fire in Prince George. Few details are available, but posts on Twitter say the flames and smoke are billowing thousands of feet into the air. Unconfirmed reports state there was a possible pipeline explosion. Castanet will have more information as soon as it become available. A group in Enugu North Senatorial District of Enugu State Nsukka Zonal Strategic Group (NZSG) has unanimously endorsed Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for second term in office. It has therefore resolved to join hands with other people of the state to ensure the governors success in the forthcoming 2019 elections. The group, which membership cut across every strata of society leaders of thought, captains of industry, the academia, entrepreneurs, businessmen and women, and youths, with notable personalities, such as Okechukwu Itanyi, Vita Abba, Osita Ogbu and Godwin Ugwuoke, among others, gave the endorsement after assessing the achievements of the governor in the past three and half years. They commended Governor Ugwuanyi for the remarkable and exemplary way he has piloted the affairs of Enugu State and expressed gratitude to him for the monumental infrastructural development in the state evidenced in numerous road constructions across the three senatorial districts. The groups members also expressed full satisfaction with the prudent manner the governor has managed the resources of the state culminating in the prompt payment of salaries of civil servants including the 13th month of every year, as well, that of pensioners in the state. They equally lauded the governor for improving the internally generated revenue portfolio of the state, adding that Enugu State was rated the third in the country after Lagos and Rivers States and first state in the whole country in Fiscal Sustainability Index by world reputed economic analyst, Ernest and Young. The group observed the peace and security of lives and prosperity being enjoyed in Enugu State as well as the governors inclusive leadership style, describing them as unprecedented in the history of the state, and urged him to continue to sustain the good works. In view of the foregoing reasons, and several others too numerous to mention, the Nsukka Zonal Strategic Group (NZSG) unanimously endorse His Excellency Rt. Hon. Dr, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for a Second-Term in Office as Governor of Enugu State come 2019 elections. Nsukka Zonal Strategic Group further resolved to join hands with our brothers and sisters across Enugu State to ensure the success of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Dr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in the forthcoming 2019 elections. Visibly excited non-Igbo residents in Enugu State, representing different ethnic communities of diverse socio-cultural, political and religious background across the country, under the auspices of United Inter-Community Forum, on Wednesday, converged on the Government House, Enugu, in their large numbers and unanimously endorsed Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for a second term in office. The jubilant non-indigenes, who disclosed that the forums prime objective was to foster unity in diversity to promote good governance through leadership integrity and commitment to excellence, stated that the decision was because of the governors selfless, resounding, impeccable, excellent and outstanding leadership qualities, which they said have engendered peace and good governance in the state. They added that Mr Ugwuanyi has maintained a high degree of disciplined leadership integrity that promotes peaceful co-existence and national unity. Noting that this is the first time in history, United Inter-Community Forum was coming out publicly to support a serving governor, the forum, which announced Mr Ugwuanyi as its grand patron, disclosed that his administration has made frantic efforts in securing lives and property of the people of the state as well as the various communities resident in Enugu State. Presenting their heartfelt stance, the President General of the forum, Andrew Tyonongo, said they were highly impressed that Enugu is being rated as one of the most peaceful and secure states in the country, adding that the governors introduction and equipping of Enugu State Security/Neighbourhood Watch groups, in collaboration with the security agencies, have gone a long way to ameliorate extreme security challenges in the state. On education, the group expressed delight at the governors excellent commitment, dedication and efforts in the area through his pragmatic policy of massive mobilization, renovation and rehabilitation of public primary, secondary and tertiary schools across the state, making them convenient, safe and friendly for learning. They told the governor that his innovations in this sector particularly, have brought life into public educational system in Enugu State, consequently redeeming and regaining its pride of place in the educational system. The forum also commended Mr Ugwuanyi for his administrations special attention in the provision of basic infrastructure, especially in the rural areas, pointing out that the policy framework of the one community, one project programme with multi-million naira mobilisation has made all the communities in the state chief drivers of infrastructural developments based on their priorities. The non-igbo residents maintained that their endorsement of the governors re-election was also based on his commitment to the welfare of the states workers, particularly the regular payment of their salaries and retirees pensions. They further stated that Mr Ugwuanyi is the only governor who pays workers the 13th month salary, disclosing that Enugu State workers are happy and proud of you because salaries and pensions are paid when due. The body equally applauded Mr Ugwuanyi for the various empowerment schemes of his administration aimed at alleviating the sufferings of the masses, especially the traders, youths and underprivileged, revealing that through his human resource development and capacity building initiatives, 2000 youths were gainfully employed to clean up the state. Your Excellency, conscious of your broad-minded stewardship and leadership capacities as clearly acknowledged above and many too numerous to mention because of constraint of time, the entire body of United Inter-Community Forum, Enugu State Chapter, is here to give her support to you and also to advocate, mobilize, consult and intensify campaigns for your continuity as the best option in the forthcoming gubernatorial election come 2019. This forum is very much aware of your esteemed love and respect for traditional and religious institutions, as well as your constant intervention and advocacy for peaceful co-existence among communities in the state, they further stated. Responding, Governor Ugwuanyi, who welcomed members of the forum to the Government House, thanked them for their solidarity, goodwill, support, and the endorsement, noting that the honour shows that the efforts of his administration to improve the living standard of the people are being appreciated. He therefore, reassured them of his administrations commitment to the well-being of every resident of the state, irrespective of state of origin, religion or ethnicity. Photo: The Canadian Press In this photo provided by Chris Lee, Juilliard student Nathan Meltzer, center, poses with the "Ames, Totenberg" Stradivari of 1734 violin loaned to him by the daughters of the late violinist Roman Totenberg, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 in New York. From left are Bruno Price, of Rare Violins of New York, Nina Totenberg, Meltzer, Amy Totenberg, Jill Totenberg and Ziv Arazi or Rare Violins of New York. The Stradivarius stolen from the late violinist Roman Totenberg and miraculously found more than three decades later has a new life under the chin of a budding 18-year-old virtuoso. On Tuesday in New York, his three daughters presented the multimillion-dollar instrument on long-term loan to Juilliard student Nathan Meltzer. Jill Totenberg says she and her sisters, Nina and Amy, "can now go to listen to our father" as if the Polish-born American violinist were playing again. "And once again, the beautiful, brilliant and throaty voice of that long-stilled violin will thrill audiences in concert halls around the world," says Nina Totenberg, who with her sisters joined Meltzer at Rare Violins in New York, a world-class dealer that restored Totenberg's violin after years of neglect. The 18th century instrument was snatched in 1980 from Totenberg's dressing room after a concert in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was recovered in 2015, after his death, among a former student's belongings. The man's ex-wife discovered it and tried to sell it, not knowing it had been stolen until an expert contacted the FBI. The decadeslong theft saga ended when then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan returned the instrument to the Totenberg family familiar with it since they were children. "It was there when I was born," said Nina Totenberg, the legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio. An anonymous benefactor then purchased it and made sure the public would again hear its sound. The so-called "Ames" Stradivarius named after a previous owner "is one of the most fantastic examples of the late work of Antonio Stradivari; it's a large instrument, so it needs somebody who is strong yet gentle to play it," said Bruno Price, the co-founder of Rare Violins. "You need to have the strength to pull out the full sound, but you can't crush it." A strapping, six-foot teenager, Meltzer meets those criteria, said Price, adding, "He says the violin is waking up as he plays it." Meltzer has performed around the United States and abroad, from London and Paris to Israel and Brazil. The loan to Meltzer, a student of violinist Itzhak Perlman, is part of a program created by Rare Violins of New York to match wealthy benefactors with promising young musicians. Photo: File photo A petition asking the Province to honour the RCMP is making the rounds in Vernon. The petition is asking the government to declare Feb. 1 RCMP Appreciation Day in BC. We the people of British Columbia wish to express our appreciation to the men and women of the RCMP. Their dedication and service make Canada one of the finest countries to live in, the petition reads. Petitions can be found in several locations around the city. The closing date for the petition is Nov. 10. 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. Photo: The Canadian Press Pope Francis compared abortion to a mafia-style killing Wednesday, saying it's the equivalent of hiring a hit man to "take out a human life to solve a problem." Francis made the comments, among his strongest yet against abortion, during his weekly Wednesday audience dedicated to the commandment exhorting the faithful not to kill. Francis said some people justify abortion as respecting other rights. But, he asked, "How can an act that suppresses innocent and defenceless life as it blossoms be therapeutic, civil or simply human?" He asked if it was fair "to take out a human life" to solve a problem: "Is it fair to hire a hit man to solve a problem? It is not fair. We cannot take out a human being, even if it is small." It was the second time within recent months that Francis has expressed the church's longstanding opposition to abortion in violent, stark terms. In June, Francis denounced how some couples resort to pre-natal testing to see if their unborn babies have malformations and then choose to have an abortion, which he said was the "white glove" equivalent of the Nazi-era eugenics program. Francis has framed both abortion and euthanasia as part of what he calls today's "throwaway culture," where the sick, the poor, the elderly and the unborn are considered unworthy of protection and dignity by a society that prizes instead individual prowess and success. CALGARY, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - The Canadian Pacific (CP) Holiday Train will soon set out once again to entertain hundreds of thousands of people, celebrating 20 years of collecting food and raising funds for food banks across North America. The CP Holiday Train program launched in 1999 and has since raised more than C$14.5 million and gathered 4.3 million pounds of food for communities along CP's routes in Canada and the United States. Beginning in Montreal on Nov. 25 and 27 respectively, two trains will make the festive journey, travelling through both the U.S. and Canada to bring holiday cheer to 164 communities along CP's network. Each event is free, with CP encouraging attendees to open their cupboards and wallets to help address hunger needs in their communities. Local food banks will be accepting donations at each stop to ensure those less fortunate have enough healthy food this holiday season. "On behalf of the 13,000-strong family here at CP, it is my great pleasure to kick-off the 20th tour of the CP Holiday Train," said Keith Creel, CP's President and Chief Executive Officer. "It is a privilege for CP to be able to run a program like this and connect with so many communities across our network. I want to personally thank each individual who has made a donation over the past 20 years your collective efforts have made the Holiday Train a huge success for two decades." CP is also encouraging fans of the train to donate heart-healthy food, as everyone should have access to healthy, nutritious food, regardless of circumstances. This supports the mission of CP Has Heart, a program dedicated to improving the heart health of men, women and children in North America. To date, this program has raised over C$15 million for cardiac care and research. "We are delighted to see the CP Holiday Train travelling across the country again supporting food banks for the twentieth year in a row," said Chris Hatch, Food Banks Canada's Chief Executive Officer. "The role that CP plays goes beyond collecting food and raising funds, as they also help Food Banks Canada transport food across the country through our National Food Sharing System. For that we are truly grateful." The Itinerary The U.S.-bound train will depart from Montreal on Nov. 25 and head south. Sam Roberts Band and JoJo Mason entertain crowds at stops in Quebec, New York and Ontario. The Trews will then hop on board with Willy Porter in Chicago to complete the trip through Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota before arriving at their final destination in Weyburn, Sask. on Dec. 16. The Canadian Train will depart Montreal two days later on Nov. 27. Kelly Prescott will join three time Juno award-winner Terri Clark and Sierra Noble to spread holiday cheer through Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan to Calgary and Edmonton, Alta. Sam Roberts Band will then carry on through Alberta and British Columbia, joined by Kelly Prescott and Tracey Brown, to the final show of the 2018 CP Holiday Train tour in Port Coquitlam on Dec. 18. First-time CP Holiday Train stops this year include: Carberry, Man.; Gleichen, Alta.; Bensenville, Ill.; Ottumwa, Iowa; and Chillicothe and Kansas City, Mo. A full schedule is available at www.cpr.ca/holiday-train. The Music To coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Holiday Train, CP will release 20 festive songs by artists that have toured on the train over the past 20 years. For 20 days beginning Nov. 25, fans can visit the CP Holiday Train playlist on Spotify for a free song to stream. Users with premium Spotify accounts can download songs onto their smartphone. Make sure to tune in daily for an advent calendar of holiday hits by past artists such as Alan Doyle, Wide Mouth Mason, Terri Clark, Jim Cuddy, Odds and more. Photo Contest People visiting the Holiday Train are encouraged to take photos and enter CP's Capture the Spirit photo contest. Participants could win a trip aboard the 2019 CP Holiday Train and a $1,000 donation to their local food bank. Further details about the contest will be available closer to the start of the program on the CP Holiday Train Facebook page at facebook.com/HolidayTrain. Follow the CP Holiday Train on Social Media To help make this year the best yet for local food banks and food shelves, the Holiday Train asks fans to follow the train on social media, invite their friends and family and spread the message about the importance of heart-healthy donations by using #HealthyDonations. Supporters can follow the CP Holiday Train on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @CPHolidayTrain. Use #CPHolidayTrain as you track the progress of the train across North America. About Canadian Pacific Canadian Pacific is a transcontinental railway in Canada and the United States with direct links to major ports on the west and east coasts. CP provides North American customers a competitive rail service with access to key markets in every corner of the globe. CP is growing with its customers, offering a suite of freight transportation services, logistics solutions and supply chain expertise. Visit cpr.ca to see the rail advantages of CP. SOURCE Canadian Pacific Related Links http://www.cpr.ca DALLAS, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 360 Towing Solutions, a reputable towing solutions provider with an operational base in Northern Dallas, recently added car lockout assistance to their list of services to gain the competitive edge in the Dallas area. The all-Dallas towing solutions provider will continue to offer towing services and emergency roadside assistance, like they have been doing since the company's inception, but the add-on service has been introduced to gain more traction in the competitive towing Dallas market. As a part of the newly introduced solutions, the company now assures 24/7 lockout assistance and also provides replacement keys for various types of car lock systems, including replacement transponder keys. One of the executives of 360 Towing Solutions Dallas said that their motto is to offer comprehensive roadside assistance to car owners in Dallas. "We always try to offer all-inclusive solutions to our clients in and around the Dallas area. While our forte has always been towing, we also offer add-on services so that our clients do not have to look for other options," said Asher Oren. "As a leading Dallas towing solutions provider, our aim is to make driving hassle-free for our clients. Whether they are locked out of their car or their transponder key has stopped working, we are now capable of offering bespoke solutions, no matter what the car model or make is," added the executive. 360 Towing Solutions Dallas has been offering towing service Dallas TX since its inception, but over the years, the service provider has diversified its solutions so as to gain trust of their clients, both old and new. The company has its own fleet of tow truck Dallas and a team of technicians always on the move to reach out to the drivers in trouble within the shortest turnaround. Asher Oren, from 360 Towing Solutions said that they will add more services in the near future. "By next year, we are likely to start our car repair service center somewhere in Northern Dallas. As of now, our focus is on offering comprehensive roadside assistance to car owners," he told the press. About the Company 360 Towing Solutions is a top towing solutions provider in Dallas. To know more, visit https://360towingsolutions.com/dallas/. Email: [email protected] Phone number: (214) 221-0350 Company address: 10935 Estate Ln, Suite #s-120, Dallas, TX. 75238 SOURCE 360 Towing Solutions Related Links https://360towingsolutions.com/dallas NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Academy of Family Physicians held elections for its board of directors this week at its annual Congress of Delegates, the organization's governing body. Members of the board of directors advocate on behalf of family physicians and patients nationwide to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system. The AAFP represents 131,400 physicians and medical students. John S. Cullen , MD, FAAFP, is president. Cullen is a family physician in Valdez, Alaska . He has practiced the full scope of family medicine in a rural community of 4,000 people for the past 25 years. Cullen works in a small group practice and is director of emergency medical services at Providence Valdez Medical Center. He has been actively involved in residency and medical student teaching for more than 20 years, providing comprehensive training in rural health care. He is an associate clinical professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire . From 2007 to 2013, Cullen served on the Alaska State Medical Board. During this time, he also served on the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. , MD, FAAFP, is president. Cullen is a family physician in . He has practiced the full scope of family medicine in a rural community of 4,000 people for the past 25 years. Cullen works in a small group practice and is director of emergency medical services at Providence Valdez Medical Center. He has been actively involved in residency and medical student teaching for more than 20 years, providing comprehensive training in rural health care. He is an associate clinical professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at in . From 2007 to 2013, Cullen served on the Alaska State Medical Board. During this time, he also served on the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Michael L. Munger , MD, FAAFP, is board chair. Munger has been a practicing family physician in the Kansas City metropolitan area for 32 years. He is currently in practice at Saint Luke's Physicians Group in Overland Park, Kansas , where he also serves as vice president of medical affairs for primary care. The group has 115 physician members at 16 different sites, 11 of which are participants in the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Initiative. Through such initiatives, Munger and his team continue to be leaders in strengthening primary care to promote better health and reduce overall health care costs. He formerly served as medical director for The Sweet Life at Grand Court assisted living facility, also in Overland Park . , MD, FAAFP, is board chair. Munger has been a practicing family physician in the metropolitan area for 32 years. He is currently in practice at Saint Luke's Physicians Group in , where he also serves as vice president of medical affairs for primary care. The group has 115 physician members at 16 different sites, 11 of which are participants in the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Initiative. Through such initiatives, Munger and his team continue to be leaders in strengthening primary care to promote better health and reduce overall health care costs. He formerly served as medical director for The Sweet Life at Grand Court assisted living facility, also in . Gary L. LeRoy , MD, FAAFP, is president-elect. LeRoy is a family physician in Dayton, Ohio . He is the associate dean for student affairs and admissions at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, where he is also an associate professor of family medicine. A lifelong Daytonian and public servant, LeRoy cares for the underserved as a staff physician at the East Dayton Health Clinic. He was the clinic's medical director from 1994 to 2008, and helped secure funding to remodel and expand the center and its services. LeRoy serves the Dayton community through Reach Out of Montgomery County , Dayton Public Schools, the American Red Cross and Saint Vincent's Homeless Shelter. , MD, FAAFP, is president-elect. LeRoy is a family physician in . He is the associate dean for student affairs and admissions at Boonshoft School of Medicine, where he is also an associate professor of family medicine. A lifelong Daytonian and public servant, LeRoy cares for the underserved as a staff physician at the East Dayton Health Clinic. He was the clinic's medical director from 1994 to 2008, and helped secure funding to remodel and expand the center and its services. LeRoy serves the community through Reach Out of , Public Schools, the American Red Cross and Homeless Shelter. Alan I. Schwartzstein , MD, FAAFP, is speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates. Schwartzstein is a family physician at SSM/Health Dean Medical Group in South Central Wisconsin, where he has practiced for the past 30 years. He has more than 35 years of clinical experience and background in leadership, community service, public health, advocacy and education. He also serves as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison , where he teaches both students and residents. , MD, FAAFP, is speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates. Schwartzstein is a family physician at SSM/Health Dean Medical Group in South Central Wisconsin, where he has practiced for the past 30 years. He has more than 35 years of clinical experience and background in leadership, community service, public health, advocacy and education. He also serves as a clinical assistant professor at the and Public Health in , where he teaches both students and residents. Russell W. Kohl , MD, FAAFP, is vice speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates. Kohl is a family physician living in Stilwell, Kansas , and serves as chief medical officer with TMF Health Quality Institute, a Medicare quality improvement organization serving Oklahoma , Arkansas , Missouri , Texas and Puerto Rico . He also cares for patients and supervises residents part-time as a clinical associate professor of family medicine with the University of Oklahoma Rural Residency program in Bartlesville . He previously served as chief medical officer of TransforMED, ran a full-scope solo practice in rural Oklahoma , and served in the United States Air Force as a senior flight surgeon. , MD, FAAFP, is vice speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates. Kohl is a family physician living in , and serves as chief medical officer with TMF Health Quality Institute, a Medicare quality improvement organization serving , , , and . He also cares for patients and supervises residents part-time as a clinical associate professor of family medicine with the Rural Residency program in . He previously served as chief medical officer of TransforMED, ran a full-scope solo practice in rural , and served in Air Force as a senior flight surgeon. Douglas E. Henley , MD, FAAFP, is executive vice president and chief executive officer of the AAFP. Henley works with the AAFP Board of Directors on the mission, strategy and vision for the AAFP, and provides representation to other organizations, including those in the medical, public and private sectors. He also serves on the board of directors of the AAFP Foundation, the charitable arm of the AAFP. , MD, FAAFP, is executive vice president and chief executive officer of the AAFP. Henley works with the AAFP Board of Directors on the mission, strategy and vision for the AAFP, and provides representation to other organizations, including those in the medical, public and private sectors. He also serves on the board of directors of the AAFP Foundation, the charitable arm of the AAFP. Robert F. Raspa , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Raspa is a retired captain in the U.S. Navy and has been a practicing family physician and faculty member with St. Vincent's Family Medicine Center since 2003. He is also a clinical associate professor at Nova Southeastern School of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale , and clinical assistant professor at both the Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee and University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville . Raspa continues to provide inpatient, maternity, pediatric and outpatient care to a full panel of patients. , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Raspa is a retired captain in the U.S. and has been a practicing family physician and faculty member with Family Medicine Center since 2003. He is also a clinical associate professor at Nova Southeastern School of Osteopathic Medicine in , and clinical assistant professor at both the College of Medicine in and College of Medicine in . Raspa continues to provide inpatient, maternity, pediatric and outpatient care to a full panel of patients. Leondard D. Reeves , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Reeves is a family physician and associate dean of the Northwest Clinical Campus of the Medical College of Georgia in Rome . Reeves is also a family physician at the Free Clinic of Rome , where he serves as board president. Previously, Reeves served as assistant director of the Floyd Family Medicine Residency and clinic director of the residency offices at Floyd Medical Center in Rome . , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Reeves is a family physician and associate dean of the Northwest Clinical Campus of the in . Reeves is also a family physician at the Free Clinic of , where he serves as board president. Previously, Reeves served as assistant director of the Floyd Family Medicine Residency and clinic director of the residency offices at Floyd Medical Center in . Ada D. Stewart , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve her term on the board of directors. Stewart is a family physician with the Eau Claire Cooperative Health Centers in Columbia, South Carolina , where she has practiced since 2012. She currently serves as lead provider and HIV specialist. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 , Stewart enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves and was recently promoted to the rank of Colonel. She is a preceptor for medical residents, medical students and nurse practitioners. , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve her term on the board of directors. Stewart is a family physician with the Eau Claire Cooperative Health Centers in , where she has practiced since 2012. She currently serves as lead provider and HIV specialist. In the aftermath of , Stewart enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves and was recently promoted to the rank of Colonel. She is a preceptor for medical residents, medical students and nurse practitioners. Sterling N. Ransone, Jr. , MD, FAAFP continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Ransone is a third-generation family physician in Deltaville, Virginia , and has practiced medicine for more than 25 years. He currently serves as physician practice director at Riverside Fishing Bay Family Practice. He also serves as an assistant clinical professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond . , MD, FAAFP continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Ransone is a third-generation family physician in , and has practiced medicine for more than 25 years. He currently serves as physician practice director at Riverside Fishing Bay Family Practice. He also serves as an assistant clinical professor of family medicine and population health at in . Windel A. Stracener , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Stracener is a family physician in Richmond, Indiana , where he cares for patients of all ages at the Wayne County Community Health Center, a federally qualified health center affiliated with the Wayne County Health Department. He also serves as the student health physician at Earlham College and medical director of the Acute Rehabilitation Unit for Reid Health Center, both in Richmond . , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Stracener is a family physician in , where he cares for patients of all ages at the Wayne County Community Health Center, a federally qualified health center affiliated with the Wayne County Health Department. He also serves as the student health physician at and medical director of the Acute Rehabilitation Unit for Reid Health Center, both in . Erica W. Swegler , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve her term on the board of directors. Swegler is the family physician owner of Beacon Family Health Care in Austin, Texas . She also serves as a preceptor for medical students through the Texas Family Medicine Preceptorship Program. Swegler served on the Physician Advisory Committee for the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health. , MD, FAAFP, continues to serve her term on the board of directors. Swegler is the family physician owner of Beacon Family Health Care in . She also serves as a preceptor for medical students through the Texas Family Medicine Preceptorship Program. Swegler served on the Physician Advisory Committee for the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health. James A. Ellzy , MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. Ellzy is a family physician in Washington, D.C. , where he also serves as the deputy program executive officer at Defense Healthcare Management Systems. In addition, Ellzy serves as associate faculty at the Fort Belvoir Family Medicine Residency, where he teaches and maintains a full-scope clinical practice including outpatient care, inpatient care and obstetrics. , MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. Ellzy is a family physician in , where he also serves as the deputy program executive officer at Defense Healthcare Management Systems. In addition, Ellzy serves as associate faculty at the Fort Belvoir Family Medicine Residency, where he teaches and maintains a full-scope clinical practice including outpatient care, inpatient care and obstetrics. Dennis L. Gingrich , MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. Gingrich is a family physician in Hershey, Pennsylvania . He currently practices family medicine and teaches residents and students as a professor in both the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Department of Humanities at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey . He has served more than 20 years on the medical school admissions committee, and has spent more than 25 years organizing premedical programming and serving as an advisor to the college's Family Medicine Interest Group. , MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. Gingrich is a family physician in . He currently practices family medicine and teaches residents and students as a professor in both the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Department of Humanities at in . He has served more than 20 years on the medical school admissions committee, and has spent more than 25 years organizing premedical programming and serving as an advisor to the college's Family Medicine Interest Group. Tochi Iroku-Malize , MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, is a family physician in Long Island , New York . Iroku-Malize serves as founding chair and professor of family medicine for the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra /Northwell in Hempstead, New York , and chair of family medicine for Northwell Health. She was previously the director of the family medicine residency program at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, New York . She was active in the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors, which presented the Silver Program Director Recognition Award to her in 2015. , MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, is a family physician in , . Iroku-Malize serves as founding chair and professor of family medicine for the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at /Northwell in , and chair of family medicine for Northwell Health. She was previously the director of the family medicine residency program at Southside Hospital in . She was active in the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors, which presented the Silver Program Director Recognition Award to her in 2015. LaTasha Seliby Perkins , MD, is the new physician member of the board of directors. Perkins is a family physician in Washington, D.C. She was elected to a one-year term by the new physician constituency during the AAFP National Conference of Constituency Leaders and was confirmed by the AAFP's governing body, the Congress of Delegates. , MD, is the new physician member of the board of directors. Perkins is a family physician in She was elected to a one-year term by the new physician constituency during the AAFP National Conference of Constituency Leaders and was confirmed by the AAFP's governing body, the Congress of Delegates. Michelle Byrne , MD, MPH, is the resident member of the board of directors. Byrne was elected to a one-year term by the National Congress of Family Medicine Residents and was confirmed by the governing body of the AAFP, the Congress of Delegates. A member of the AAFP since 2016, Byrne currently serves on the AAFP Commission on Membership and Member Services. , MD, MPH, is the resident member of the board of directors. Byrne was elected to a one-year term by the National Congress of Family Medicine Residents and was confirmed by the governing body of the AAFP, the Congress of Delegates. A member of the AAFP since 2016, Byrne currently serves on the AAFP Commission on Membership and Member Services. Chandler Stisher is the student member of the board of directors. Stisher is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Alabama School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. He was elected to a one-year term by the National Conference of Medical Students and was confirmed by the governing body of the AAFP, the Congress of Delegates. Stisher is currently the student member to the AAFP Commission on Education, and serves as national coordinator for the AAFP Family Medicine Interest Group Network. About the American Academy of Family Physicians Founded in 1947, the American Academy of Family Physicians represents 131,400 physicians and medical students nationwide, and it is the only medical society devoted solely to primary care. Family physicians conduct approximately one in five of the total medical office visits in the United States per year more than any other specialty. Family physicians provide comprehensive, evidence-based, and cost-effective care dedicated to improving the health of patients, families and communities. Family medicine's cornerstone is an ongoing and personal patient-physician relationship where the family physician serves as the hub of each patient's integrated care team. More Americans depend on family physicians than on any other medical specialty. To learn more about the AAFP and family medicine, visit www.aafp.org/media. Follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. For information about health care, health conditions and wellness, visit the AAFP's award-winning consumer website, www.familydoctor.org. SOURCE American Academy of Family Physicians Related Links https://www.aafp.org NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rowley Law PLLC is investigating potential claims against Esterline Technologies Corporation (NYSE: ESL) and its board of directors for breach of fiduciary duty concerning the proposed acquisition of the company by TransDigm Group Inc. (NYSE: TDG). Stockholders will receive $122.50 for each share of Esterline Technologies Corporation stock that they hold. The transaction is valued at approximately $4 billion (including debt) and is expected to close in the second half of 2019. If you are a stockholder of Esterline Technologies Corporation and are interested in obtaining additional information regarding this investigation, please visit us at: http://www.rowleylawpllc.com/investigation/esterline. You may also contact Shane Rowley, Esq. at Rowley Law PLLC, 50 Main Street Suite 1000, White Plains, NY 10606, by email at [email protected] , or by telephone at 914-400-1920 or 844-400-4643 (toll-free). Rowley Law PLLC represents shareholders nationwide in class actions and derivative lawsuits in complex corporate litigation. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.rowleylawpllc.com . Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. SOURCE Rowley Law PLLC Related Links http://rowleylawpllc.com ROHNERT PARK, Calif., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Going to college is a dream a lot of people have growing up, but it gets harder to hold onto as they get older and they learn what it takes to attend. Rising tuition costs are making it difficult for more people to afford, despite society still saying that it's one of the better ways to secure a good future. For first-generation college attendees, there are higher chances of difficulties in dealing with student loans and college completion. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation service company, has worked with a variety of student loan borrowers and has seen the struggles that student loan borrowers face. "With many factors stacked up against them during and after college, it's not hard to see why those with no previous family history of attending college might struggle with completing higher education or may avoid it entirely," said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial. First generation college attendees often have more challenges when it comes to school completion, such as a higher likelihood of having dependents and on average lower median income to fund their education. First generation college goers tend to be older, which may lend itself to a better appreciation of college, but they're less prepared for the hurdles college can have than their second or third generation peers. 20% of first-generationals don't speak English as a first language, often resulting in them needing to take additional classes before they can complete a degree to be on par with their classmates. Taking out student loans is almost a requirement for attending college now, and many borrowers struggle with repayment. Ameritech Financial can help qualified borrowers apply for federal income-driven repayment plans that may lower their monthly payments and get them on track for student loan forgiveness in 20-25 years of being in the program. "We believe student loan repayment shouldn't have to be a struggle. That's why we strive to be a student loan advocate that is willing to go above and beyond expectations to help our clients," 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 image2.jpg Related Links Ameritech Financial Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRza8MbLvuM SOURCE Ameritech Financial Related Links https://ameritechfinancial.com HOUSTON, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The BBVA Compass Mobile Banking App was named a leader in both the ease of use and the customer service categories in Javelin Strategy & Research's 2018 Mobile Banking Scorecard, marking the fifth consecutive year the app has been recognized as a leader in mobile banking by the independent research firm. Javelin Strategy & Research's Mobile Banking Scorecard looks at more than 200 features of the mobile banking apps from the nation's top 28 financial institutions to understand how they are managing customers' changing expectations for mobile banking experiences in six key areas: money movement, ease of use, security empowerment, financial fitness, customer service, and account opening. In the two areas where BBVA Compass was recognized as a leader - ease of use and customer service - Javelin indicated it was looking to assess customers' overall satisfaction with the bank's creation of an intuitive, mobile-first experience and that it provided immediate in-app support and connection to key resources. Together, the two categories make up more than a third of the weighting of the study, with "ease of use" being the most critical component given its higher impact on overall satisfaction. Only three banks are dubbed leaders in each category. "We keep preaching about the advanced functionality of the bank's mobile app, but it's one thing for us to crow about it, and quite another to have an independent third party agree," said BBVA Compass CEO Onur Genc. "Having their endorsement that the time and effort we spend understanding consumer expectations for their digital experience and how we can meet and exceed each of them is proof that the work we are doing in digital matters." In considering the apps' ease of use, banks were evaluated on: Range of login options Pre-login access to balance and transactions Intuitive top-level navigation Robust sorting/searching of transaction data In-app search function Interface options/personalization For customer service, Javelin reviewed: Statement access & delivery management Rewards & offers view and redemption Real-time service options (chat, click-to-call, bot) Profile management & updates Contextual help content Authentication pass-through to call center Javelin Strategy & Research recognized BBVA Compass' mobile app most recently in 2017 as a leader for Ease of Use. It was also named a leader in Functionality by Javelin for three consecutive years previous to that and awarded for Most Comprehensive Alerts in 2016. In addition, Javelin recognized BBVA Compass as a leader in Financial Fitness in its 2017 Online Banking Scorecard, praising the bank for providing a notable online banking experience that guides customers on a financial journey. "We take a lot of pride in the honors received from Javelin over the years, particularly since so many of them are related to how easy and convenient it is for customers to use our mobile app," said BBVA Compass Head of Mobile and Online Banking Alex Carriles. "It's important to us that our customers see us as an essential piece of their banking experience, and that the experience they receive in every channel in which they interact is seamless. This tells us we are succeeding and that our customers consider our mobile app to be both the bank in their pocket and their partner in financial success." To learn more about BBVA Compass, visit: www.bbvacompass.com For more news visit: www.bbva.com and newsroom.bbvacompass.com About BBVA Group BBVA (NYSE: BBVA) is a customer-centric global financial services group founded in 1857. The Group has a strong leadership position in the Spanish market, is the largest financial institution in Mexico, it has leading franchises in South America and the Sunbelt Region of the United States; and it is also the leading shareholder in Garanti, Turkey's biggest bank for market capitalization. Its diversified business is focused on high-growth markets and it relies on technology as a key sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility is at the core of its business model. BBVA fosters financial education and inclusion, and supports scientific research and culture. It operates with the highest integrity, a long-term vision and applies the best practices. More information about BBVA Group can be found at bbva.com. About BBVA Compass BBVA Compass is a Sunbelt-based financial institution that operates 645 branches, including 332 in Texas, 89 in Alabama, 63 in Arizona, 61 in California, 45 in Florida, 37 in Colorado and 18 in New Mexico. BBVA Compass ranks among the top 25 largest U.S. commercial banks based on deposit market share and ranks among the largest banks in Alabama (2nd), Texas (4th) and Arizona (6th). BBVA Compass has been recognized as one of the leading small business lenders by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and ranked 6th nationally in the total number of SBA loans originated in fiscal year 2017. Additional information about BBVA Compass can be found at www.bbvacompass.com. For more BBVA Compass news, follow @BBVACompassNews on Twitter, visit newsroom.bbvacompass.com, or visit bbva.com. SOURCE BBVA Compass Related Links http://www.bbvacompass.com SECAUCUS, N.J., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Asset Custody Company ("DACC"), a leading custody solution purpose-built for institutional investors holding digital assets, today announced a custody solution for the stablecoin USD Coin ("USDC"). The U.S. dollar-backed cryptocurrency, available via the Boston-based finance firm Circle as of September 26, is traded on Poloniex, Circle's cryptocurrency exchange. "With stablecoins quickly gaining popularity and meeting investors' needs for financial and operational transparency in cryptocurrencies, we are proud to offer a custody solution to those who hold Circle's USDC," said Matthew Johnson, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at DACC. DACC offers custody solutions for more than 90 cryptocurrencies and 12 blockchains to a range of institutions including hedge funds, private equity firms, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and token issuers. As the industry expands and adjusts to market demand, DACC continues to create custody solutions for the tokens with large market capitalizations and high investor interest. "We appreciate the hard work DACC has put in to develop a custody solution for USDC, and managing to do so within days of our release," said Joao Reginatto, Head of Product for USDC. "USDC has already received impressive interest and investment in its first week on the market, and we're happy that investors have a trusted custody solution to safeguard their USDC assets." Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of a "stable" financial asset, such as a fiat currency or commodity like gold. In addition to USDC, DACC expects to begin offering coverage for additional stablecoins in the near future, and now also offers a custody solution for Tether ("USDT"), a widely held stablecoin. DACC provides wide-ranging blockchain and token support, rapid and secure egress from cold storage, and beyond enterprise-grade cyber and physical security designed by a senior management team comprised of investment manager executives, skilled hedge fund operations personnel and government agency information security officers. "Our main mission is to serve the institutional investment market with support for any digital asset or token," added Doug Schwenk, Co-Founder and Chairman of DACC. "By introducing a custody solution for USDC, we are able to support the development of stablecoins while bringing greater confidence to investors." About Digital Asset Custody Company Digital Asset Custody Company, or DACC, is a custody solution purpose-built for institutional and alternative managers invested in the cryptocurrency and token space. Our SOC 1 certified custody service was built from the ground-up to secure digital assets on behalf of institutional clients. With its proprietary technology, DACC is able to custody over 90 cryptocurrencies and 12 blockchains, rapidly and securely egress digital assets from air-gapped cold storage, and provide clients with superior, 24/7 physical and digital security to safeguard their assets. Our team of former investment executives, skilled hedge fund operations personnel and government agency information security officers provides extensive technology, investing and security experience, and has built compliance systems used every day by major asset managers. For additional information, please visit https://digitalassetcustody.com/ Contact Ryan Dicovitsky/Zoe PiSierra Dukas Linden Public Relations 212-704-7385 [email protected] Michael Fitzgerald Chief Executive Officer Digital Asset Custody Company [email protected] 201-479-3227 SOURCE Digital Asset Custody Company Related Links https://digitalassetcustody.com IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Entrepreneur Media is excited to announce the launch of the Entrepreneur Index, which collects the top 60 publicly traded companies founded and run by entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial spirit is a valuable asset for any business, and this index recognizes its importance. These inspirational businesses can be tracked in real time on Entrepreneur.com. "Success relies on the time and effort invested by founders, and the companies comprising the Entrepreneur Index are a testament to that fact," says Entrepreneur Media President Bill Shaw. All the companies in the index, which are among the most highly-valued businesses in America, are still led by their entrepreneurial founders, or by members of the founding family of the business. Some of these companies began as the brainchild of young university students, like GOOG" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google (now Alphabet) and FB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook. Others emerged from humble brick and mortar beginnings, as did WMT" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Walmart when Sam Walton bought a store in Bentonville, Arkansas. All of the companies, however, evolved to become leaders in their industries largely because of the energy and vision of the entrepreneurs that started them. The Entrepreneur Index is not an exhaustive list of every large company still managed by its founder. It is rather a diverse selection of businesses from a wide range of industries. The companies, either via the Chief Executive or Chairman of the Board position, continue to tap the energy and motivation of the entrepreneurs who started the business. We have chosen to construct the index using an equal weighting model for each component stock as opposed to a market capitalization model. Thus, the stock price movement of AMZN" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon the largest component in the index by market cap will have the same impact on the overall index as that of BBBY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bed Bath and Beyond, currently the smallest component by market value. This will enable the index to reflect a broader range of entrepreneurial businesses as opposed to a handful of extremely valuable companies. Every day as the markets close, Entrepreneur will break down the index's biggest gainers and decliners and why they're moving and examine the movement of the index of the whole. ABOUT ENTREPRENEUR MEDIA INC. For 41 years, Entrepreneur Media Inc. has been serving the entrepreneurial community providing comprehensive coverage of business and personal success through original content and events. Entrepreneur magazine, Entrepreneur.com, and publishing imprint Entrepreneur Press provide solutions, information, inspiration and education read by millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners worldwide. To learn more, visit entrepreneur.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Entrepreneur and like us on Facebook at facebook.com/entmagazine. SOURCE Entrepreneur Media Related Links http://www.entrepreneur.com Programming in all languages will also stream live on EWTN's website (please go to the drop down menu under the "Television" tab at www.ewtn.com ), and on EWTN-related Facebook pages across the web (see below for links). Special programming before and after the Canonization Mass will be hosted from Rome by TV and Radio Anchor Brian Patrick, EWTN News Senior Contributor Matthew Bunson, and National Catholic Register Writer Father Raymond D'Souza. This team will also host "Raised to the Altars," a preview show with information about the seven blesseds being canonized, which will air at 6 p.m. ET and 10 p.m. ET, Saturday, Oct. 13, and at 1 a.m. ET (10 p.m. PT), Sunday, Oct. 14. And, of course, the trio will be on hand throughout the month to provide full coverage of the 2018 Synod of Bishops on the topic of young people, the faith and vocational discernment. Other blesseds to be canonized Oct. 14 are: Bl. Francesco Spinelli, founder of the Institute of the Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament; Bl. Vincenzo Roman, a diocesan priest from Torre de Greco in Italy; Bl. Maria Caterina Kasper, founder of the Institute of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ; Bl. Nazaria Ignazia of Saint Teresa of Jesus, founder of the Congregation of the Misioneras Cruzadas de la Iglesia Sisters, and Bl. Nunzio Sulprizio, an Italian teen who suffered the pain of a gangrenous leg with great patience and heroic virtue. To view the Canonization Mass streamed live on Facebook, and to interact with other viewers, please visit any of the following Facebook pages: Airing English Commentary: EWTN, EWTN Radio, EWTN Vaticano, EWTN Vatican, EWTN Ireland, EWTN Great Britain, EWTN Poland, EWTN News Nightly, Catholic News Agency, Catholic News Agency Video, Church POP English, and National Catholic Register. Airing Spanish Commentary: EWTN Espanol, ACI Prensa, and Church POP Spanish. EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 38th year, is the largest religious media network in the world. EWTN's 11 TV channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 287 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; the largest Catholic website in the U.S.; electronic and print news services, including Catholic News Agency, "The National Catholic Register" newspaper, and several global news wire services; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book publishing division. SOURCE EWTN Global Catholic Network Related Links http://www.ewtn.com Photo: CTV Transit police are investigating yet another assault in Vancouver in which a woman was spat on and sworn at. The victim says a man hurled a racial slur at her as she watched a video on her phone. "Then he got up. He came up to me and he spat on my face," she said. "The spit went into my mouth, and I could taste his breath." The woman swung her keys at him, then got up and backed away as the man yelled and swore. "I backed off all the way to the back," says the woman before bus driver pulled over and the man got off. "We do know that this bus was equipped with video, so that would be the next step in the investigation," transit police spokesman Sgt. Clint Hampton told CTV. The victim says she doesn't feel safe on the bus anymore and believes there should be manned security on busy routes. with files from CTV Vancouver "We are thrilled that our new Auntie Anne's opened in Liverpool One Shopping Centre. It's the largest outdoor shopping mall in the United Kingdom, and the perfect place to enjoy everyone's favorite soft pretzel brand," said Robert Burton, Auntie Anne's Licensee . "Since we opened with our sub-franchisee Pretzel Perfect Ltd in August, we have seen strong initial sales and heard great customer feedback. We look forward to continuing our development journey with our sub-franchise partners in the United Kingdom and Ireland." "We are really excited to celebrate the opening of our 1,500th international location, an important milestone as we continue to expand our global presence," said Kagan Sanli, VP, Managing Director EUMEA at FOCUS Brands International. "The unique and delicious product range of our well-known brands and strong partnership with our exceptional franchise network have been key to our rapid international growth and success. We are delighted to see Auntie Anne`s being very well received in the United Kingdom, and we look forward to bringing our other popular brands, such as Cinnabon, to this market." Auntie Anne's first international location opened in Indonesia in 1995 and its largest international presence is in South Korea. Cinnabon's first international store opened in 1988 in Canada and looks forward to building its presence in the United Kingdom. FOCUS Brands currently enjoys an international presence in more than 55 countries and regions, including locations in the Caribbean, Central & South America, Middle East & South Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company has already opened more than 100 new international locations this year. For more information, visit www.focusbrands.com . About FOCUS Brands Inc. Atlanta-based FOCUS Brands Inc., through its affiliate brands, is the franchisor and operator of more than 6,000 ice cream shoppes, bakeries, restaurants and cafes in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and over 50 foreign countries under the brand names Carvel, Cinnabon, Auntie Anne's, Jamba Juice, Schlotzsky's, Moe's Southwest Grill, McAlister's Deli, as well as Seattle's Best Coffee on certain military bases and in certain international markets. Please visit www.focusbrands.com to learn more. Media Contact: Ashley Kraynak Allison+Partners 646-619-0619 [email protected] SOURCE FOCUS Brands Related Links http://focusbrands.com The Forbes World's Best Employers list is based on Forbes' 2018 Global 2000 rankings, which included publicly traded companies from 60 countries that together accounted for $39.1 trillion in sales, $3.2 trillion in profit, $189 trillion in assets and $56.8 trillion in market value. Forbes partnered with Statista to analyze more than 430,000 global recommendations to create the World's Best Employers list. Employees were asked to rate their own employer and the likelihood they would recommend the company to a friend or family member. They were also asked to recommend other employers they admired. To view the complete Forbes World's Best Employers list, visit https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinstoller/2018/10/10/the-worlds-best-employers-2018-alphabet-leads-as-u-s-companies-dominate-list/#69351ac23382. About Hormel Foods Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Austin, Minn., is a global branded food company with over $9 billion in annual revenues across more than 80 countries worldwide. Its brands include SKIPPY, SPAM, Hormel Natural Choice, Applegate, Justin's, Wholly Guacamole, Hormel Black Label, Columbus and more than 30 other beloved brands. The company is a member of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, was named one of "The 100 Best Corporate Citizens" by Corporate Responsibility Magazine for the 10th year in a row and has received numerous other awards and accolades for its corporate responsibility and community service efforts. In 2016, the company celebrated its 125th anniversary and announced its new vision for the future Inspired People. Inspired Food. focusing on its legacy of innovation. For more information, visit www.hormelfoods.com and http://csr.hormelfoods.com/. Media Contact: 507-434-6352 [email protected] SOURCE Hormel Foods Corporation Related Links http://www.hormelfoods.com "We noticed a surge in IMVU app downloads in South Korea earlier this year, but since the app was in English, we found that the full IMVU experience was limited to users creating their 3D avatar," says Lomit Patel, Vice President of Growth. "We saw an essential capability to encourage these users to chat and connect with their friends by introducing a localized app in their native language." Under the leadership of CEO Daren Tsui, IMVU is focused on spreading the power of friendship through a highly personalized and interactive technology that is intended to create a meaningful experience for its users. On IMVU, a customizable avatar, which represents you, can interact with other avatars in 3D chat rooms designed to provide shared experiences that go beyond the traditional social media loop of posting a picture, liking, commenting, and sharing. IMVU creates an opportunity for users to do more together, to interact, create memorable moments, and develop stronger bonds. Providing Korean-speaking users with a version of the app in their own language is key to ensure optimal user experience and more meaningful connections. About IMVU IMVU is a global community of millions of users who come together to celebrate the joy of a shared social experience. Far beyond traditional social media, IMVU users create a whole new experience at the intersection of digital connection and face to face relationships. IMVU is where the real world comes to play. Today IMVU users enjoy the freedom to live the life they create through customizing highly-stylized avatars, connecting with friends in immersive 3D chat rooms, shopping & stylizing new looks, sharing their experiences, and starring in their own animated emoji. IMVU is a powerful and collaborative world, which also offers an opportunity to make real money using proprietary design tools to create looks and rooms to sell in the IMVU Shop. The IMVU experience is available on the web, a desktop app, and as an iOS and Android app. In the real world, IMVU is located in Redwood City, California. Contact: Lindsay Anne Aamodt 650-231-4688 [email protected] SOURCE IMVU DALLAS, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Say YES to Hope co-founder Suzanne Lindley and international designer, fashion mogul and Dallas resident Samina Mughal, owner of SMGlobal Catwalk partnered to share that stage 4 cancer, a disease that cuts too many lives short and carries a stigma of fear and uncertainty can be lived with courage and beauty. This special event allowed stage 4 cancer patients to, for a night, exchange chemo and cancer for the glitz and glamour of fashion. Samina lends her international platform for survivors to model and Suzanne brings stage 4 patients to share their stories, creating an empowering night where fashion and philanthropy collide. Six stage 4 cancer patients fulfilled a dream of modeling in SMGlobal Catwalk Dallas Revolution Friday, Oct. 5 at The History of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas with the help of international fashion models Can Muhammed Karagoz and Gio Delavicci, who flew in from New York. Can and Gio accompany survivor Kathy Baker. 8 years after diagnosis of 2 different breast cancers requiring surgery, chemo & radiation, genetic testing identified a faulty BRCA1 gene. Because of the gene, her doctors recommended a "preventative" hysterectomy, and were shocked to find early ovarian cancer. Genetic testing saved Kathy's life and her advocacy has saved countless others. Gio and Can gave runway tips before the show and helped with the walkthrough so that everyone felt ready. As many of the survivor models are in active treatment, and have even undergone recent surgeries, the assistance up the stairs and a steady shoulder from Gio and Can as needed was reassuring. The duo has had an active role in each of the survivor showcases and is as much a part of the excitement and anticipation as the catwalk itself. Darla Rodgers shares, "My feet never touch the ground with them on my arm, what light they bring in all the darkness." Along with quiet charm, they have impressive backgrounds. Can is a well-known Turkish-American performer and instructor of many Ballroom and Latin dance styles who is teaching in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut areas. He earned his Bachelors' degree in Physical Education & Sports; he is a certified Personal Trainer & Nutritionist as well as a certified group fitness instructor. Can is also an actor and a professional runway and print model who was 2016 Best Fashion Model of the Year Finalist. He has been featured in New York Fashion Week as a runway model for well-known designers and nominated as 2016 Best Male Model of the Year. Gio was Male Model of the year 2016, 2017, 2018, Best Cover Model 2018, received Appreciation of Inspiration Motivation Award from the Angelic Halo Foundation, awarded Certificate of Merit from the New York State Assembly Proclamation from the Senator of NY Kevin S Parker for great accomplishments in modeling, acting, community service and has appeared in movies and television including The Post, You Were Never Really Here, Creed ll (coming out on Nov. 21), Quantico, Law & Order SVU, Orange is the New Black, Power, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, Luke Cage, Shades of Blue, and Blindspot. Everyone is looking forward to the next show. The "Surviving in Fashion" showcase with Say YES to Hope and SMGlobal Catwalk will take place in New York City during New York Fashion Week. Information on upcoming SMGlobal Catwalk shows can be found at SMGlobalCatwalk.com. If you have stage 4 cancer and need a FRIEND for the Journey or support, please contact Suzanne Lindley at 877-937-7478. Media Contact: Suzanne Lindley Phone: 903.275.4321 Email: [email protected] Related Images carolyn-murrah-and-can-muhammed.jpg Carolyn Murrah and Can Muhammed Karagoz International model Can Muhammed Karagoz accompanies Stage 4 Colon Cancer Survivor,' Carolyn Murrah, who has undergone surgery, chemotherapy, SIR-Spheres, CyberKnife, Proton Therapy and Clinical Trials vicki-miller-medlin-and-can.jpg Vicki Miller Medlin and Can Muhammed Karagoz International model Can Muhammed Karagoz accompanies Stage 4 Breast Cancer Survivor,' Vicki Miller Medlin, who has undergone surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, SIR-Spheres, and targeted therapy. jan-boyd-and-gio-delavicci.jpg Jan Boyd and Gio Delavicci International model Gio Delavicci accompanies Stage 4 Colon Cancer Survivor,' Jan Boyd, who has undergone surgery and chemotherapy. kathy-baker-with-international.jpg Kathy Baker with International Models Can Muhammed Karagoz and Gio Delavicci Can and Gio accompany survivor Kathy Baker. 8 years after diagnosis of 2 different breast cancers requiring surgery, chemo & radiation, genetic testing identified a faulty BRCA1 gene. Because of the gene, her doctors recommended a "preventative" hysterectomy, and were shocked to find early ovarian cancer. Genetic testing saved Kathy's life and her advocacy has saved countless others. Related Links Say YES to Hope SMGlobal Catwalk Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph8ay_NcSTM SOURCE Say YES to Hope At any given time, jails in the United States incarcerate approximately 700,000 people. More than half of these individuals are misdemeanor level or lower (non-violent) offenders who simply cannot afford to post bail. This is problematic from both an economic and human rights perspective. The national cost to keep these non-violent people behind bars is somewhere around 38 million dollars per day. Bail in American courts perpetuates a broken mechanism that preys on the poor and keeps people needlessly trapped in a judicial system that would be better utilized on serious crime. Add to this the opioid epidemic many communities now battle and bail reform becomes crucial. Before we talk about bail reform, lets define the origins of bail and its fundamental purpose. Bail is essentially referred to as the financial conditions imposed on a person after being arrested and awaiting trial. The fundamental purpose of bail is to tie a defendant to a specific jurisdiction. Until the 20th century bail was often set in an unsecured form. Bail was imposed, and the defendant would be released without requiring any deposit of money unless the person did not appear in court. Today the most frequent form of bail imposed is secured. Secured bail requires money deposited before a person is released, meaning individuals can be incarcerated indefinitely without a conviction while awaiting trial. This shift has led to the money bail industry as we know it today where many are too poor to pay. With a wave of reform sweeping the nation, bail reform is evolving in Massachusetts. Massachusetts own Gov. Charlie Baker, with bi-partisan support, signed a landmark criminal justice overhaul bill along with a number of important reforms in April of this year. This includes taking into account someone's ability to pay in regards to bail, fines and fees. In late August California became the first state to completely abolish cash bail, a move that supporters believe will create a more unbiased criminal justice system that is less dependent on a person's financial situation. The motivating factor of the California law is that a suspect will now be evaluated on the basis of individual risk to public safety and their likelihood of not appearing in court, rather than on the ability to post bail. Those evaluations would then determine if the suspect would be held while awaiting trial or released. Without reform in the cash bail system many non-violent misdemeanor defendants are forced to plead guilty without trial due to a lack of funds for secured bail, whereas more affluent defendants can fight their charge while at liberty. This in turn leaves many of those unable to post bail with a criminal record, propelling them further into the criminal justice system without opportunity for reform. Many of these individuals suffer from addiction and mental illness where treatment and reform would benefit not only the individual, but the community as a whole. The Burns Institute for justice fairness and equity published an article in 2016 on the evolution of bail through history. In the essay Kelly Allen states, "The American Bar Association (ABA) and thought leaders in the field have condemned the use of money bail as it is not shown to improve public safety or prevent failures to appear. It has been shown to contribute to the increasing proportion of jail inmates who are not convicted of any crime." This is why I won't ask for bail on non-violent drug cases. The problem with cash bail is that it isn't an effective or objective system which can decipher who should and who shouldn't be detained while awaiting trial. Money does not guarantee people won't engage in any new criminal activity and it does not guarantee people will actually return for court. The facts are clear; bail reform is not only an issue of human rights but one of unjust financial burden on individuals and our criminal justice system. Currently we are seeing a disproportionate number of poor minorities locked up for non-violent misdemeanors while awaiting trial. This has in turn lead to a burden on our legal system and a backlog of trials that can leave individuals in jail for months, sometimes even years without a conviction. With less ability to pay, poor individuals are targeted by the money bail industry that does not take into account their likelihood to show up for trial, or their threat to society while awaiting trial. It's simply a "pay to play" system. If courts are using bail as a means to incarcerate impoverished people or those caught up in the addiction cycle, they're spending money the wrong way. Communities cannot simply incarcerate their way out of the current opioid epidemic. By better understanding the devastating impact the money bail mechanism has had on our criminal justice system it becomes possible to enact revolutionary changes that advance community safety and the values of equity, fairness and due process for all. Contact: Linda Arian Email: [email protected] Phone: 617-419-6719 Volunteer Locations: Boston and Dorchester SOURCE Michael Maloney for Suffolk County District Attorney Related Links http://www.michaelmaloneyforda.com BATON ROUGE, La., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Louisiana Business Group on Health (LBGH) awarded Louisiana Healthcare Connections with the Working Well in Louisiana Worksite Wellness Recognition of Excellence at its annual luncheon on September 27, 2018, in Baton Rouge. The award is presented to Louisiana employers that demonstrate a commitment to programs that support health and wellness in the workplace. As a Well-Ahead Louisiana Level 2 Worksite Wellspot, Louisiana Healthcare Connections was recognized by the LBGH for its efforts to promote workplace wellness through unique programs that incentivize employees for healthy behaviors. In addition to their wellness program, which offers access to a wide variety of health and wellness tools and encourages employees to live healthier, employees at Louisiana Healthcare Connections enjoy a workplace culture that promotes work/life balance with programs that assist employees and their families with finding resources for child care, elder care, and behavioral health needs. Jan Rivers, Human Resources Director, accepted the award on behalf of Louisiana Healthcare Connections, noting, "One of the most important factors in maintaining our well-rounded, healthy environment comes straight from our employees who work together to make Louisiana Healthcare Connections a fulfilling place to work." "We are dedicated to empowering our employees with the tools and resources they need to live healthy, balanced lives," says CEO & Plan President Jamie Schlottman. "Our mission is to transform health in our state, and the success of our mission comes from the workplace culture we've built and the importance we place on living a healthy life. We appreciate the Louisiana Business Group on Health for supporting local companies that share our commitment to improving health and wellness in our state." About Louisiana Healthcare Connections Established to deliver quality healthcare through local, regional and community-based partners, Louisiana Healthcare Connections is a Healthy Louisiana Plan headquartered in Baton Rouge, La. Louisiana Healthcare Connections exists to improve the health of its members through focused, compassionate and coordinated care. Because Louisiana Healthcare Connections believes healthy is a way of life, its members benefit from programs and services designed for their personal well-being. For more information, www.LouisianaHealthConnect.com. SOURCE Louisiana Healthcare Connections Related Links http://www.LouisianaHealthConnect.com WESTMINSTER, CO, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - DigitalGlobe, a Maxar Technologies company (NYSE: MAXR) (TSX: MAXR), today announced that they produced the first precision, GIS-ready building footprints dataset of the entire United States in partnership with Ecopia Tech Corporation ("Ecopia.ai"). Ecopia U.S. Building Footprints powered by DigitalGlobe, available for order today, includes more than 169 million building footprints created by proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms in combination with DigitalGlobe's high-resolution, high-accuracy satellite imagery. The detailed dataset helps customers save time and money by knowing exactly what the built environment looks like in their area of interest, allowing them to make decisions with confidence. Ecopia U.S. Building Footprints powered by DigitalGlobe is a semi-automated solution produced with a speed, consistency and scale that no other commercial or open data product on the market can match. The 2D vector polygon dataset has a greater than 95% accuracy rating, a uniquely high percentage in the industry, and will be refreshed every six months based on new DigitalGlobe imagery received through the company's Geospatial Big Data platform (GBDX), ensuring the most current foundational information is available to inform customer decisions on projects like mapping, insurance risk assessment, disaster management and land administration. Ecopia U.S. Building Footprints powered by DigitalGlobe have already enabled a number of projects: Natural gas pipeline operators are federally required to annually locate, count and classify every building within a specific distance of their pipeline. One of the largest pipeline operators in the U.S. streamlined a traditionally manual and time-consuming workflow for locating and digitizing building footprints by using more than 700,000 building footprints, which were produced in a matter of days instead of the traditional months-long timeframe. One of the largest global development organizations commissioned DigitalGlobe and Ecopia.ai to use their innovative process to create building footprints for the entire country of Tanzania for use in settlement mapping analysis because a current map did not exist for much of this country . The partnership created 18 million building footprints in three weeks, supporting public health campaigns, sustainability initiatives, and risk reduction. "The combination of Ecopia.ai's algorithms and DigitalGlobe's high-resolution satellite imagery accessed through GBDX creates reliable, game-changing solutions for many industries. Ecopia U.S. Building Footprints powered by DigitalGlobe puts readily available data in customers' hands to make timely business decisions and eliminates the need for manual, slow and expensive on-the-ground surveys," said Bill Singleton, Ecopia Tech Corporation Vice President. "We are proud to bring a product to market that has the potential to transform many applications, such as reducing the time between census data collection from once per decade to once per year for civil governments." "DigitalGlobe is proud to offer a product of unmatched quality, accuracy and completeness that is quickly produced and easy to access," said Amy Minnick, DigitalGlobe Senior Vice President and General Manager of Commercial. "We see great potential for Ecopia Building Footprints powered by DigitalGlobe to be used as a foundational data source in a wide variety of commercial and global development applications. Creating high-quality building footprints with Ecopia.ai will help Build A Better World." DigitalGlobe and Ecopia.ai will extract building footprints for major international locations by the beginning of 2019. Additionally, the partnership is ready to produce building footprints anywhere in the world based on customer request. To learn more, please visit our website. About DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe is the global leader in commercial high-resolution satellite imagery used by decision makersto better understand our changing planet in order to save lives, resources and time. Sourced from the world's leading constellation, our imagery solutions deliver unmatched coverage and capacity to meet our customers' most demanding mission requirements. Each day customers in defense and intelligence, public safety, civil agencies, map making and analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration, infrastructure management, navigation technology, and providers of location-based services depend on DigitalGlobe data, information, technology and expertise to gain actionable insight. DigitalGlobe is a Maxar Technologies company (NYSE: MAXR; TSX: MAXR). For more information visit www.DigitalGlobe.com. About Maxar Technologies As a global leader of advanced space technology solutions, Maxar Technologies is at the nexus of the new space economy, developing and sustaining the infrastructure and delivering the information, services, systems that unlock the promise of space for commercial and government markets. As a trusted partner, Maxar Technologies provides vertically integrated capabilities and expertise including satellites, Earth imagery, robotics, geospatial data and analytics to help customers anticipate and address their most complex mission-critical challenges with confidence. With more than 6,500 employees in over 30 global locations, the Maxar Technologies portfolio of commercial space brands includes MDA, SSL, DigitalGlobe and Radiant Solutions. Every day, billions of people rely on Maxar to communicate, share information and data, and deliver insights that Build a Better World. Maxar trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange as MAXR. For more information, visit www.maxar.com. About Ecopia Tech Corporation Ecopia Tech Corporation ("Ecopia.ai") is an international supplier of high definition (HD) mapping products that enable high-fidelity global scale insights. Ecopia.ai uses proprietary intelligent systems that leverage groundbreaking advancements in machine learning to convert high-resolution imagery of our Earth into HD maps. The technology can utilize multiple sources of imagery ensuring accurate, up-to-date and reliable specifications that you can trust. For information visit www.ecopia.ai. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements and other information included in this release constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") under applicable securities laws. Statements including words such as "may", "will", "could", "should", "would", "plan", "potential", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate" or "expect" and other words, terms and phrases of similar meaning are often intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, expectations, projections, goals, forecasts, assumptions, risks and uncertainties, as well as other statements referring to or including forward-looking information included in this release. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in this release. As a result, although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. The risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, the risk factors and other disclosures about the Company and its business included in the Company's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with Canadian and U.S. securities regulatory authorities, which are available online under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com , under the Company's EDGAR profile at www.sec.gov or on the Company's website at www.maxar.com . The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. All such forward-looking statements are based upon data available as of the date of this release or other specified date and speak only as of such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this release as a result of new information or future events, except as may be required under applicable securities legislation. Investor Relations Contact Jason Gursky Maxar Technologies 1-303-684-2207 [email protected] DigitalGlobe Media Contact Kristin Carringer 1-303-684-4352 [email protected] Ecopia.ai Media Contact Emily Jackson 1-647-271-4284 [email protected] SOURCE Maxar Technologies Ltd. Related Links www.maxar.com BANGKOK, Oct. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Minor Hotels, a hotel owner, operator and investor, currently with a portfolio of 162 hotels and resorts in 25 countries across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe, South America, Africa and the Indian Ocean, has signed two new management contracts in China under the company's established M Collection brand of hotels and bespoke travel experiences. M Collection Resort, Hangzhou, China (PRNewsfoto/Minor Hotels) Partnering with Zhuhai Da Heng Qin Company Limited, Hengqin Zhuhai will be the first M Collection branded hotel in China. Scheduled to open in 2020 M Collection Hengqin Zhuhai is located at the heart of Pearl River Delta along a mountain top reservoir with peaceful surroundings, and mountain views in the southern corner of Zhuhai. Hengqin Zhuhai's 100 keys will be a collection of suites and pool villas. The hotel will also offer an all-day dining restaurant, two specialty restaurants, a tea house and a lobby lounge. Other facilities include state of the art fitness and gym facilities, swimming pool, kids club and spa. The coastal island of Hengqin is located only 200 metres away from Macao and the island has been selected as a new area to enhance economic ties with both Hong Kong and Macao. A bridge connecting Hengqin with Macao and Hong Kong is scheduled to open in late 2018. When it is completed, it will take 5 minutes to drive to Macao and 40 minutes to drive to Hong Kong. The second resort to be signed under the M Collection brand in China is a 54 key all villa resort in Hangzhou Yuhang, in the Zhejiang Province scheduled to be completed in 2022. The new hotel will be part of the 433 hectare Lvjingtang Eco-Park which is located approximately 55 kilometres northwest of Hangzhou city centre in Yuhang district near the Alibaba headquarters and new private jet aviation centre. The 54 keys will consist of 18 suites and 36 villas. Facilities include and all-day dining restaurant, Pan Asian themed restaurant, continental restaurant, wine cellar, VIP Club, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a wellness centre, luxury forest mountaintop spa, an organic farm and agricultural activities for guests. The area has rich natural resources and agriculture (farm to table) including tea plantations surrounded by mountains. The resort's partners, Hangzhou Lichuan Environmental Agricultural Development Co. Ltd.'s core business includes ecological conservation and plantation of eco-agriculture products. Minor Hotels currently operates 3 properties in China under the Anantara brand in Xishuangbanna, Sanya and Guiyang and has a further strong pipeline in the region across all brands. About Minor Hotels Minor Hotels is an international hotel owner, operator and investor currently with 163 hotels in operation. Minor Hotels passionately explores new possibilities in hospitality with a diverse portfolio of properties designed intelligently to appeal to different kinds of travellers, serving new passions as well as personal needs. Through our Anantara, AVANI, Oaks, Elewana, Tivoli, Four Seasons, St. Regis, Marriott and Minor International properties, Minor Hotels operates in 24 countries across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Europe and South America. With dynamic plans to expand existing brands and explore strategic acquisitions throughout opportunistic markets, Minor Hotels pursues a vision of a more passionate and interconnected world. For more information, please visit www.minorhotels.com. For media enquiries, please contact: Mark Thomson Director of PR & Communications E: [email protected] SOURCE Minor Hotels Related Links http://www.minorhotels.com BASEL, Switzerland, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Myovant Sciences (NYSE: MYOV) today announced the presentation of data from a Phase 1 trial of MVT-602, a novel kisspeptin-1 receptor agonist in development as a potential treatment for female infertility in women as part of assisted reproduction, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). Results of the study showed that administration of MVT-602 in healthy premenopausal women in the follicular phase produced a dose-related increase in luteinizing hormone concentrations and expected effects on follicle-stimulating hormone and estradiol. The findings were presented during an oral session at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Annual Congress in Denver. "We are encouraged by these data, which confirm the potential of MVT-602 to be further studied as an agent that triggers the final maturation of eggs prior to retrieval during controlled ovarian stimulation to treat female infertility," said Lynn Seely, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Myovant Sciences. "Assisted reproduction represents an area of significant need and an exciting new area of focus for Myovant, and we hope to help women with infertility achieve their reproductive goals." Phase 1 Study Design and Results The randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group, dose-ranging study was designed to characterize the pharmacokinetics of MVT-602; explore the dose-related changes in luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, estradiol and progesterone; and assess the overall safety and tolerability of MVT-602 in healthy female volunteers. A total of 24 women were randomized to one of three MVT-602 dose groups (0.3 g, 1 g or 3 g) and then subsequently randomized to receive a single subcutaneous dose of MVT-602 or placebo in a 3:1 ratio. Results showed that administration of single subcutaneous doses of MVT-602 demonstrated dose-related increases in luteinizing hormone concentrations and expected post-dose increases in follicle-stimulating hormone and estradiol concentrations, with little effect observed on progesterone as expected. MVT-602 was absorbed within minutes after subcutaneous administration, with dose-dependent increases in plasma drug exposures and a half-life of less than 3 hours. Further assessment of the exposure-response profile of MVT-602 administered during the pre-ovulatory phase in fertile women undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation is ongoing in a Phase 2a study. No serious adverse events were reported, and no subject discontinued from the study due to an adverse event. Adverse events were similar between the placebo and MVT-602 groups with no apparent dose-related effects. The observed adverse events were generally mild in severity and included headache, dizziness and abdominal distention. About MVT-602 MVT-602 is an oligopeptide kisspeptin-1 receptor agonist. Kisspeptin is a naturally-occurring peptide that stimulates GnRH release and is required for puberty and maintenance of normal reproductive function, including production of sperm, follicular maturation and ovulation, and production of estrogen and progesterone in women and testosterone in men. A Phase 2a clinical trial in healthy female volunteers is under way to characterize the dose-response curve in the controlled ovarian stimulation setting prior to studying MVT-602 in infertile women seeking pregnancy. About Female Infertility and Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Infertility is defined as the inability of a couple to become pregnant after one year of unprotected intercourse in women under age 35 and after six months in women age 35 or older. Infertility affects approximately one in seven couples in western countries and one in four couples in developing countries. About 8 percent of cases of infertility are due to male problems, 37 percent due to female problems, and 35 percent due to problems from both the male and female partners. In about 5 percent of couples, the cause of the infertility cannot be traced to specific problems in either partner. Approximately 1.6 million ART treatments (including IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection) are performed worldwide each year for infertility. The IVF procedure consists of several steps that take place over a period of weeks. Hormonal stimulation of the ovaries is used to produce several eggs, final egg maturation is induced using a trigger agent, and the eggs are subsequently retrieved and fertilized with sperm to allow an embryo to form. One or more of the embryos is transferred into the uterus with the goal of successful implantation and pregnancy. Approximately 27 percent of IVF cycles will end in a live birth, with the cumulative chances of success higher when more than one cycle of IVF is performed. A woman's chance of success depends on her age, cause of infertility, treatment approach and other factors. About Myovant Sciences Myovant Sciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapies for the treatment of women's health and endocrine diseases. Myovant's goal is to be the leading global biopharmaceutical company focused on treating women's health and endocrine diseases in areas of high unmet medical need. Myovant's lead product candidate is relugolix, an oral, once-daily, small molecule that acts as a GnRH receptor antagonist. Myovant has initiated three clinical programs for relugolix consisting of five international Phase 3 clinical trials, two in women with heavy menstrual bleeding associated with uterine fibroids (LIBERTY 1 and 2), two in women with endometriosis-associated pain (SPIRIT 1 and 2), and one in men with advanced prostate cancer (HERO). Myovant is also developing MVT-602, a kisspeptin-1 receptor agonist, for the treatment of female infertility as part of assisted reproduction. Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG has granted Myovant an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize relugolix (excluding Japan and certain other Asian countries where Takeda retains exclusive rights) and an exclusive license to develop and commercialize MVT-602 in all countries worldwide. Over time, Myovant intends to expand its development pipeline to include other potential treatments for women's health and endocrine diseases. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.myovant.com . Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, including without limitation, statements related to: the potential for MVT-602 to be used as a trigger agent during controlled ovarian stimulation; and the statements and Dr. Seely's quote regarding Myovant's expectations with respect to the data on MVT-602. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the words "anticipate," "believe," "can," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "likely," "may," "might," "objective," "ongoing," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "to be," "will," "would," or the negative or plural of these words or other similar expressions or variations, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Myovant cannot assure you that the events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur and actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors known and unknown that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified herein, and those discussed in the section titled "Risk Factors" set forth in Myovant's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 7, 2018, and other filings that Myovant makes with the SEC from time to time. These risks are not exhaustive. New risk factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible for its management to predict all risk factors, nor can Myovant assess the impact of all factors on its business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. In addition, statements that "we believe," "Myovant believes," and similar statements reflect its beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to Myovant as of the date of this press release, and while Myovant believes such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and its statements should not be read to indicate that it has conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements. Except as required by law, Myovant undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements. Investor Contact: Frank Karbe Chief Financial Officer Myovant Sciences, Inc. [email protected] Media Contact: Julie Normart W2O pure [email protected] 415.946.1087 SOURCE Myovant Sciences Related Links http://www.myovant.com NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Navillus today announced that it has received approval to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from presiding Bankruptcy Court Judge Sean H. Lane who confirmed Navillus' Plan of Reorganization. Navillus will exit bankruptcy with an agreed upon settlement with the union parties. "Throughout this process our work has continued uninterrupted and we've remained focused on executing New York City's biggest projects for our clients," said Donal O'Sullivan, Founder and CEO of Navillus Contracting. "Navillus today remains strong as ever with an eye on continued growth in our future." Throughout the Chapter 11 process, Navillus, which maintains a $750M project workload, has not lost a single contract, retained its executive management team and project managers as well as all relationships with vendors, subcontractors and clients. Today's approval comes as a result of an August settlement Navillus brokered to end its dispute with the unions, which vacated the court's original judgement in its entirety. "Ultimately, Donal and the Navillus team are highly-regarded by the building industry, unions members, project owners, construction managers and surety providers which paved their way for this successful result," said Christopher Wu, a senior managing director of Teneo Capital who serves as financial advisor to the Company. "Navillus can now better focus on growing its core business of building super structures, general contracting work and expanding into more infrastructure related projects." Founded in 1987, Navillus is a New York City-based construction company specializing in commercial concrete, masonry, tile, stone, and general contracting. With more than 30 years of experience and outstanding capabilities in cost estimation, value engineering, and project management, Navillus has played a leadership role in many of the region's most highly recognized and iconic infrastructure and private-sector projects. They have also consistently donated time and resources to communities in need, including assistance with emergency response efforts after recent hurricane Florence, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Sandy and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Navillus is currently working on several major projects in NYC including: One Vanderbilt Superstructure concrete work for One Vanderbilt Avenue, a 1401-ft.-high, 58-story tower that will stand as the tallest office building in Midtown Manhattan Superstructure concrete work for One Vanderbilt Avenue, a 1401-ft.-high, 58-story tower that will stand as the tallest office building in Midtown Manhattan One Manhattan West 2,100,000 square feet, 67-floor, 1000-ft.-high commercial property Five major New York City Housing Authority restoration projects Ongoing public jobs with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, NYC School Construction Authority, and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Navillus' CEO also reaffirmed his appreciation and respect for the tens of thousands of union workers Navillus has employed throughout its 30-year history. C. Nathan Dee and Elizabeth Aboulafia of Cullen and Dykman LLP served as lead debtor's counsel. SOURCE Navillus Photo: David Leeming Greenpeace protesters who dangled from the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge in August won't face charges. Seven protesters were arrested after hanging from the Vancouver bridge for 36 hours, preventing an oil tanker from leaving Burred Inlet. Five more were arrested for helping organize the stunt. North Vancouver RCMP recommended mischief charges against all 12, but the B.C. Prosecution Service said Tuesday it won't be approving the charges. "After a thorough review of the available evidence, the BCPS has concluded that the charge assessment standard has not been met for any of the individuals arrested at the bridge," said spokesman Dan McLaughlin. Stewart Muir, executive director of Resource Works, told CTV hes concerned the decision could be perceived as a licence to others to stage similar demonstrations. Mike Hudema of Greenpeace called it a bittersweet victory because many other pipeline opponents are facing charges for peaceful protests. Were hoping to use this moment to put pressure to really get the charges for other people dropped as well, he said. with files from CTV Vancouver NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The New York State Academy of Family Physicians helped persuade the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) late Tuesday to adopt a new position of "engaged neutrality" on the issue of medical aid in dying, reports Compassion & Choices. Dr. David Grube, National Medical Director, Compassion & Choices Since the new position by AAFP, the second largest component society of the AMA with more than 131,400 members, is at odds with the 1993 AMA Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 5.7 opposing "assisted suicide," the resolution required a two-thirds supermajority vote to approve it. AAFP delegates approved the resolution, which combined resolutions introduced by the New York State, California, New Mexico, and Washington AAFP chapters, by voice vote with no objections. "As family physicians, we care for our patients in all stages of their lives, including the end of their lives, so we are sympathetic to the pain and suffering they endure," said Dr. Marc Price, an AAFP delegate and president of the New York State Academy of Family Physicians, which formerly opposed medical aid in dying, then adopted a neutral position and now supports it . "In our opinion, we should have the ability to utilize all palliative care resources that are available to comfort them, including medical aid in dying." Since 2017, medical aid-in-dying bills have been introduced in 27 states, including New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act (S.3151/A.2383). This medical practice has been authorized in Washington, D.C., and seven states: California, Colorado, Hawai'i, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and California. Collectively, these jurisdictions represent nearly one out of five Americans (19%) and have 40 years of combined experience safely using this end-of-life care option. According to a 2016 Medscape online survey , more than 7,500 doctors from over 25 specialties agreed by nearly a 2-1 margin (57% vs. 29%) that "physician-assisted dying [should] be allowed for terminally ill patients." "The action taken today allows the AAFP to advocate for engaged neutrality on this subject at future AMA House of Delegates meetings," said Michael Munger, MD, president of the AAFP. "Our bylaws state any resolution that differs from the AMA Code of Ethics requires a two-thirds vote of the AAFP Congress of Delegates. This resolution passed by that majority. Through our ongoing and continuous relationship with our patients, family physicians are well-positioned to counsel patients on end-of-life care, and we are engaged in creating change in the best interest of our patients." "As a former delegate for the American Academy of Family Physicians, I am proud that the organization has adopted a position of engaged neutrality to ensure its members can advise terminally ill patients about all end-of-life care options and provide them," said Compassion & Choices National Medical Director Dr. David Grube, who was honored as Family Physician of the Year by the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians in 1986 and Oregon Medical Association Doctor Citizen of the Year in 2009. "I believe many AMA constituent societies will follow suit, so it is only a matter of time before the AMA does as well." "By supporting the AMA's opposition to medical aid in dying, some members feel the AAFP is telling them that they are unethical," concludes the resolution. "Overall, the testimony provided in the hearing supported development of an AAFP position of engaged neutrality toward medical aid in dying as a personal decision made by the patient in the context of the physician-patient relationship ... the American Academy of Family Physicians [sic] reject the use of the phrase 'assisted suicide' or 'physician-assisted suicide' in formal statements or documents and [sic] direct the AAFP's American Medical Association (AMA) delegation to promote the same in the AMA House of Delegates." Last June, the AMA House of Delegates voted 56 to 44 percent to reject a report by its Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) that recommended the AMA maintain its Code of Medical Ethics' opposition to medical aid in dying. Instead, the House of Delegates referred the report back to CEJA for further work. In fact, the CEJA report implicitly acknowledged that medical aid-in-dying laws improve end-of-life care by spurring conversations between physicians and terminally ill patients about all end-of-life care options, such as hospice and palliative care: "Patient requests for [medical aid in dying] invite physicians to have the kind of difficult conversations that are too often avoided. They open opportunities to explore the patient's goals and concerns, to learn what about the situation the individual finds intolerable and to respond creatively to the patient's needs ..." the report concluded. ABOUT COMPASSION & CHOICES: Compassion & Choices is the nation's largest nonprofit organization working to improve and expand healthcare options for the end of life. For more information, visit CompassionAndChoices.org National Media Contact : Steven Greenberg, (518) 469- 9858, [email protected] Sean Crowley, (202) 495-8520, [email protected] SOURCE Compassion & Choices Related Links http://CompassionAndChoices.org "We look forward to sharing Chris' incredible story with the bleeding disorders community," said Octapharma USA President Flemming Nielsen. "Chris' achievements have already inspired thousands of people in the bleeding disorders community to dream about their own Everest. It has been a privilege for Octapharma to support his truly unique journey." Just over 400 people can claim to have climbed the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each continent, but Bombardier is the first with Hemophilia. "I might be more nervous about this screening than I was to climb Everest!" said Bombardier, a Denver, Colorado resident. "Holding the first community screening at the largest community meeting of the year is such a perfect way to start sharing our documentary. I hope people who see the film find it inspiring and entertaining, but I also hope they learn a bit about Hemophilia in developing countries. As the film clearly shows, Hemophilia looks dramatically different in places like Nepal, where people with severe Hemophilia are lucky to live past 10 years old. It's important that our community here in the U.S. appreciates their access to care and treatment, that they continue to advocate to protect it, and that they do what they can do to help blood brothers and sisters abroad living without the predictable, sustainable care we enjoy here in the U.S." Bombardier Blood Director Patrick James Lynch, a filmmaker with severe Hemophilia, said he expects the documentary will be released to the general public in 2019. "I've been looking forward to this moment for two years," said Lynch, who is CEO of Los Angeles-based Believe Limited. "To finally be at the stage where we're sharing Bombardier Blood and Chris' historic journey with the community is just unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It's overwhelming, in a good way. This screening at NHF kicks off a series of community screenings that Chris and I will be leading." NHF attendees are encouraged to visit with the Octapharma team at booth #8 to learn more about the company's advanced therapies and patient support services. Booth visitors will also have the opportunity to take part in "The Climb," a virtual reality mountain climbing game. Octapharma USA has created the Facebook page Supporting Bleeding Disorders to share inspiring patient stories and educational information. Please visit the page at www.facebook.com/SupportingBleedingDisorders/. To learn more about Bombardier Blood, please visit www.bombardierblood.com. About the Octapharma Group Headquartered in Lachen, Switzerland, Octapharma is one of the largest human protein products manufacturers in the world and has been committed to patient care and medical innovation since 1983. Its core business is the development and production of human proteins from human plasma and human cell lines. Octapharma employs approximately 7,100 people worldwide to support the treatment of patients in over 113 countries with products across the following therapeutic areas: Hematology (coagulation disorders), Immunotherapy (immune disorders) and Critical Care. The company's American subsidiary, Octapharma USA, is located in Hoboken, N.J. Octapharma operates two state-of-the-art production sites licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), providing a high level of production flexibility. For more information, please visit www.octapharmausa.com. OCTA-0224 SOURCE Octapharma Group Related Links https://www.octapharmausa.com In "THEM," Sasse argues that the deepening divide within our nation is not the product of any one political party, person or event, but rather the gradual erosion of our sense of community and belonging, and our subsequent efforts to fill that void with what Sasse calls "Anti-tribes" on social media and cable news people whose views, values and enemies mirror our own. To fix what is broken, Sasse says we need to rebuild the institutions that hold our local communities up and start talking to one another again. Lunch will be served in the Club's Holeman Lounge at 12:30 p.m., with remarks beginning at 1:00 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session ending at 2:00 p.m. Sasse will sign copies of his book after the program concludes. Tickets are $25 for Press Club members (Club members may purchase two tickets at this price) and $39 for the general public. When purchasing tickets for this event online, buyers will also have the option of purchasing copies of the book at check-out. To purchase tickets and copies of the book, please click here. Books will also be available for purchase at the event. Proceeds from book sales will benefit the non-profit affiliate of the Club, the National Press Club Journalism Institute, so we kindly ask that you leave all outside books and memorabilia at home. For all ticketing-related questions, please email [email protected]. Tickets must be paid for at the time of purchase. About the Author: Ben Sasse, the junior United States Senator for Nebraska is a fifth-generation Nebraskan and native of Fremont, Neb. He was recruited to wrestle at Harvard before attending Oxford, and later earned a Ph.D. in American history from Yale. Sasse held various positions within the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services before being nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services in 2007. Sasse held this position through the end of the Bush administration in January 2009. Later that same year Sasse returned to his hometown to become president of Midland University. He served as the University's president for five years until he was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 4, 2014. Contact: Lindsay Underwood, [email protected], (202) 662-7561 SOURCE National Press Club MILWAUKEE, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ademi & O'Reilly, LLP is investigating the Board of Esterline Technologies Corporation (NYSE:ESL) for possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of the law in connection with the sale of Esterline to TransDigm. Click here to learn how to join the action: http://ademilaw.com/case/esterline or call Guri Ademi toll-free at 866-264-3995. There is no cost or obligation to you. Ademi & O'Reilly, LLP alleges Esterline's long-term financial outlook is improving and yet Esterline shareholders will receive the equivalent of only $122.50 for each share of Esterline common stock. TransDigm is well aware of Esterline's improving financial metrics and is purchasing Esterline at a substantial discount. The merger agreement unreasonably limits competing bids for Esterline by (i) prohibiting solicitation of any further bids, and (ii) imposing a termination penalty should Esterline receive and accept a superior bid. Esterline insiders, their affiliates and other major shareholders own significant voting stock, and will receive millions of dollars as part of change of control arrangements, and therefore can unduly influence a sale of Esterline. Our investigation centers on the conduct of Esterline's Board of Directors, who have unanimously approved the transaction, and whether they are (i) fulfilling their fiduciary duties to all shareholders, and (ii) obtaining a fair and reasonable price for Esterline given its current financial condition and prospects. If you own common stock in Esterline and wish to obtain additional information, please contact Guri Ademi either at [email protected] or toll-free: 866-264-3995, or http://ademilaw.com/case/esterline. We specialize in shareholder litigation involving buyouts, mergers, and individual shareholder rights throughout the country. For more information, please feel free to call us. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Contacts Ademi & O'Reilly, LLP Guri Ademi Toll Free: (866) 264-3995 Fax: (414) 482-8001 SOURCE Ademi & O'Reilly, LLP Related Links http://www.ademilaw.com ATLANTA, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc., the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia, Inc. and the American Red Cross announce a new five-year partnership and the launch of national blood drive and educational campaign that will enhance awareness about sickle cell disease while addressing critical blood supply needs. The initiative will also target African-American blood donors and highlight the need for a stable supply of blood donors of African descent. Through collaboration with community-based organizations, advocacy groups, colleges and universities, hospitals, and others, this partnership will help to ensure patients have access to lifesaving blood products. The annual goal of the campaign is to mobilize 100 blood drives (with a minimum of 30 units collected per drive) targeting African-American donors across the nation. Over the five-year partnership, it is anticipated that upwards of 15,000 blood donations will be made, helping to save thousands of lives. "Sickle Cell Disease Association of America is excited about this new partnership and the impact it can have on saving lives," said SCDAA President/CEO Beverley Francis-Gibson. "Every two seconds someone in America needs blood. Individuals living with sickle cell disease are especially in need of blood transfusions and donated blood. This partnership will provide new opportunities to not only inform and educate the public about sickle cell conditions, but also to activate and engage the African-American community about the immense importance of donating blood." "African-American people who require blood transfusions from being injured or ill including those with sickle cell disease - all depend on a stable blood supply and ideally, blood that closely matches their own," explained Deb McGhee McCrary, SCFG President & CEO. "This is why it is important for African-Americans to donate and receive blood from other African-Americans." "The Red Cross is proud to partner with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America and Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia," said Vincent Edwards, National Director, Red Cross Biomedical Services. "A diverse blood supply is critical to being able to help all patients in need. Blood from people of a similar race and ethnicity as the patient can provide the best health outcomes and least transfusion complications." 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. About SCDAA The Sickle Cell Disease Association of America's mission is: To advocate for people affected by sickle cell conditions and empower community-based organizations to maximize quality of life and raise public consciousness while advancing the search for a universal cure. Visit sicklecelldisease.org for more information. About SCFG The Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia is one of the oldest sickle cell-focused institutions in the nation. Our mission is to reduce the incidence of sickle cell disease, to monitor the prevalence of sickle cell and to help improve the quality of life for persons afflicted with the disease. To achieve our directives, the Foundation sponsors educational programs, conducts sickle cell trait testing, counsels families, supports healthcare providers and coordinates activities that benefit patients throughout the year. Visit sicklecellga.org for more information. American Red Cross Contact: Jessa Merrill Telephone: (202) 303-5987 SCFG Contact: Leslie Fontenot Telephone: (404) 755-1641(o) (404) 754-7090( c) SOURCE Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia Related Links http://sicklecellga.org PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pocketalk, the portable, AI-powered instant voice translation device unveiled at IFA last month, is now available for purchase in-store and online in the U.S. Developed by Sourcenext (Tokyo Stock Exchange, 4344:JP), the largest distributor and creator of software, hardware, and IoT products in Japan, Pocketalk can translate 74 different languages, making it easy to understand others and be understood. Because this is a dedicated two-way translation device with global coverage, there's no need for language apps that drain battery and require you to hand over your phone to strangers. Pocketalk is available for purchase today on the newly launched e-commerce site, www.pocketalk.net and available for purchase in select b8ta retail stores. Designed with simplicity in mind, Pocketalk combines the best speech-to-text engine, translation engine, and text-to-speech engines from around the world - resulting in the most accurate translation with a push of a button. Pocketalk is equipped with high quality noise-cancelling microphones and two powerful speakers for easy use in noisy environments. Two models are available: $249 "Add Your Own Mobile Data" version features a WiFi enabled device and ability for a SIM card to be added. "Add Your Own Mobile Data" version features a WiFi enabled device and ability for a SIM card to be added. $299 "Built-in Mobile Data" version works on WiFi and includes an embedded SIM which works in 105 countries and provides two years of mobile data "Launching Pocketalk in the United States was the natural next step toward our goal of bringing happiness and excitement to people across the globe," said Noriyuki Matsuda, CEO and Founder of Sourcenext. "The need to connect cultures and make the world feel a little smaller is stronger than ever, and that's exactly our goal with this device, especially with the 2020 games on the horizon. We've already seen a great response - the Pocketalk device won the Innovation Award in Mobile Computing during last month's ShowStoppers IFA press event." Whether you're exploring a new culture while extending a business trip, backpacking through Europe or communicating with world-class athletes at international sporting events, Pocketalk opens doors for global travelers. The device allows you to talk the way you normally do, not just in statements or phrases. Pocketalk eliminates the need to look up words and phrases in a dictionary or on your phone. The compact design allows it to fit in your pocket, and with its long battery life, you can take it anywhere, never having to hand over your phone. "b8ta is always looking for exciting and innovative companies to partner with, and Sourcenext embodies that with their latest product, Pocketalk. In today's connected world, we can still feel disconnected through language barriers, but this game-changing device brings us all together," said Kayvon Banisalam, Partnerships Manager at b8ta stores. "We even use it in our retail stores now to connect with customers and there's always a 'wow' moment." For more information, visit www.pocketalk.net . About Sourcenext: Sourcenext (Tokyo Stock Exchange, 4344:JP) is the largest distributor and creator of software, hardware, and IoT products in Japan. Founded in 1996, Sourcenext specializes in helping companies like Rosetta Stone and Evernote sell their software products and apps to a market of millions. And now with the launch of Pocketalk, Sourcenext is bringing its own products to the world. Through its expertise in user experience, marketing, and customer support, Sourcenext has earned the trust and respect of partners, retailers, and consumers around the world. SOURCE Sourcenext Related Links http://www.sourcenext.com/us/ "While pulmonary fibrosis is a very serious disease, many patients have never heard of it until they get the diagnosis," said William Schmidt, president and CEO of the PFF. "With 50,000 new cases of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis diagnosed annually, and even more diagnoses of other types of PF, the importance of raising awareness is now greater than ever." Currently, there is no known cure for PF. The Pulmonary Fibrosis Risk List downloadable worksheet provides insight to those who should talk to their doctors about this deadly disease. The worksheet allows patients to check off potential risk factors and symptoms to facilitate discussion with their physicians. If further action needs to be taken, AboutPF.org also offers a way to find a local pulmonologist through the PFF Care Center Network with experience in the diagnosis and treatment of PF. Pulmonary fibrosis causes scarring of the air sacs in the lung. Over time, the scar tissue can destroy the normal lung tissue and make it hard for oxygen to get into the blood stream. Awareness of the main symptoms shortness of breath, a dry, hacking cough and fatigue are important to talk to a physician about. A thorough physical exam and further testing such as a pulmonary function and/or high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) test may be necessary to help facilitate a clear diagnosis. In addition to these symptoms, PF is more likely to occur in those that are 60 years and older with a history of smoking, and is more common in men. Additional factors put thousands of Americans at higher risk for pulmonary fibrosis. These include: Family history of interstitial lung disease Family history of interstitial lung disease Prior or current use of drugs that are associated with pulmonary fibrosis, such as amiodarone, nitrofurantoin, chemotherapy and methotrexate. Prior or current use of drugs that are associated with pulmonary fibrosis, such as amiodarone, nitrofurantoin, chemotherapy and methotrexate. Prior or current radiation treatment to the chest Prior or current radiation treatment to the chest Significant environmental, occupational or avocational exposure to dusts, aerosols, microbes or chemicals such as: Indoor mold or water damage in the home or workplace Long-term exposure to indoor or caged birds Prior or current exposure to asbestos, coal or silica Significant environmental, occupational or avocational exposure to dusts, aerosols, microbes or chemicals such as: Diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, dermatomyositis or another autoimmune condition Many people with symptoms but no risk factors are diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which means the cause is unknown. This is the most common type of PF. "Individuals who are at risk or have symptoms need to be aware of this life-threatening disease," said Schmidt. "Taking the next steps with your doctor and advocating for testing to determine if you have pulmonary fibrosis is crucial so treatment can begin as early as possible." Patient stories on AboutPF.org demonstrate the daily struggle for those living with this disease. To learn more, visit www.AboutPF.org today and download the Pulmonary Fibrosis Risk List or find a local pulmonologist. About the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) mobilizes people and resources to provide access to high quality care and leads research for a cure so people with pulmonary fibrosis will live longer, healthier lives. The PFF collaborates with physicians, organizations, patients, and caregivers worldwide. The PFF has a three-star rating from Charity Navigator and is a Better Business Bureau accredited charity. For more information, visit pulmonaryfibrosis.org or call 844.TalkPFF (844.825.5733) or 312.587.9272 from outside the U.S. Contact: Rebecca Raudabaugh L.C. Williams & Associates 312-565-4604 [email protected] SOURCE The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Related Links http://aboutpf.org CAPE TOWN, Africa, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Timbuktu , a travel planning startup based in Cape Town, South Africa, is officially launching in the US today, an interactive experience where travelers can fully customize their once-in-a-lifetime safari trips. Users have access to a selection of curated routes across Africa, allowing them to choose from multiple themes that fit their travel preferences, whether for a honeymoon, wine tasting excursion, a relaxing beach break and more. In addition, the traveler has access to hundreds of handpicked lodges from rustic luxury "glamping under the stars" to 4- and 5-star boutique hotels. Timbuktu Safaris Once complete, the individually designed trip is sent to Timbuktu's on-the-ground concierge team who have expert knowledge of African tours and safaris to guide the traveler throughout the planning process making a safari dream trip into a reality. "United States travelers are extremely tech savvy and very engaged in the 'DIY' planning process of booking a safari trip," says Johnny Prince, CEO and Co-Founder of Timbuktu . "Almost 50 percent of our current bookings are from the US so launching here was imminent and we're excited to be able to finally provide this service." Additionally, Timbuktu is launching a new technology called " Routes, " giving travelers access to a selection of handpicked routes by a travel concierge, showcasing favorite ways to explore Africa based on the company's on-the-ground safari experiences. Timbuktu has redesigned their "trip-builder" feature by adding innovative filters, making it easier to find lodge availability in real time, as well as varying locations based on personal style and budget. "Our new live availability technology instantly shows the traveler how busy the accommodations will be on preferred travel dates and if a deposit should be put down to secure their favourite choices," says Prince. "Saving travelers time, money, and giving them a wide array of choices along with having 24/7 assistance is a big priority for us." The company is seeing safari bookings from guests across the US, especially in California, New York and Texas. According to Timbuktu, the most traveled safari destinations from the US are Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Botswana. Ultimately, Timbuktu aims to expand from an interactive planning tool to a highly regarded resource of Africa travel information through their curated travel guides with restaurant recommendations, packing tips, and their favorite African experiences. About Timbuktu Timbuktu is a travel startup based in Cape Town that is revolutionizing the safari industry by empowering travelers to design their own trips in Africa, giving complete control to the customer in the planning process and saving them money along the way. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and Pinterest . For Timbuktu's press kit: CLICK HERE . Media Contact: Chris Powell 415-310-2357 [email protected] SOURCE Timbuktu Access Novel Antibody Technology Enhance Drug Research and Development SHANGHAI and HOUSTON, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TopAlliance Biosciences Inc. (TopAlliance), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co., LTD. (Junshi), signed a patent and technology license agreement with The Board of Regents of the University of Texas System on behalf of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The agreement provides for TopAlliance to use, develop, produce, sell and commercialize product and services based on the patent and technology rights developed in a collaboration between UTHealth and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson). The technology covered by the agreement relates to antibodies as therapeutics, which further enhances TopAlliance's technical advantages and core competitiveness in the development of a pipeline of antibody drugs. "We are very pleased to have signed this license agreement with UTHealth," Dr. Ning Li, Chief Executive Officer of Junshi, commented. "We look forward to building a long-term collaboration with them in the advancement of monoclonal antibody therapeutics." About Junshi Founded in 2012, Junshi is an innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative drugs and their clinical research and commercialization on a global scale. The company is the first PRC company to file IND application and NDA with the NMPA for anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody and the first PRC company to receive IND approvals from the NMPA for anti-PCSK9 monoclonal antibody and anti-BLyS monoclonal antibody. It is one of the first Chinese companies to obtain the IND approval from NMPA for TNF-alpha monoclonal antibody. Its PD-L1 monoclonal antibody also obtained IND approval from NMPA recently. About UTHealth Established in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is Houston's Health University and Texas' resource for health care education, innovation, scientific discovery and excellence in patient care. The most comprehensive academic health center in the UT System and the U.S. Gulf Coast region, UTHealth is home to Jane and Robert Cizik School of Nursing, John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Medical School, and schools of biomedical informatics, biomedical sciences, dentistry and public health. UTHealth includes The University of Texas Harris County Psychiatric Center, as well as the growing clinical practices UT Physicians, UT Dentists and UT Health Services. The university's primary teaching hospitals are Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital and Harris Health Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital. For more information, visit www.uth.edu. SOURCE TopAlliance Biosciences Inc. and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Related Links http://www.uth.edu "Digital workplaces and intranets are evolving faster than ever before, with emerging experiences that engage employees and make them more productive, while delivering remarkable business value for organizations," said James Robertson, founder and managing director at Step Two. "We chose Vodafone Ukraine as a Gold winner this year for its compelling Jive community, which supports organizational change and employee engagement. We were most impressed by its high adoption and stand-out features like online chats with executives, peer recognition, gamification and collaboration." Leading Telecommunications Company Drives Business Transformation with Jive Adopted to support Vodafone Ukraine's digital transformation four years ago, the Jive community, called "PROSTOR," helped the business increase agility and customer-centricity. It also played an integral communications role during times of massive change keeping employees engaged and optimistic throughout a difficult political and economic period for Ukraine, and later keeping them informed and aligned as the company transitioned to the Vodafone family and embarked on a full rebranding. With support from top executives, PROSTOR has successfully achieved over 88 percent adoption, improved employee satisfaction and delivered millions of dollars in cost savings since its launch. These savings are a result of spending less time in meetings and gaining searchable organizational knowledge across over 45,000 helpful blogs, documents and videos. "PROSTOR brings us unlimited possibilities for connections, communication and crowd-sourced ideas. It is a radiant, engaging, thriving community that is open for each and every one of our employees," said Nadezhda Sirenko, human resources director at Vodafone Ukraine. "Jive helps us band together more than 3,000 people throughout all of Ukraine in one digital workplace, where we can not only collaborate and recognize each other's great work, but also identify, engage and develop our next generation of thought leaders and brand ambassadors for the future of the company." Enterprise Community Improves the Customer Experience and Boosts Revenues In addition to greater alignment and productivity, Vodafone Ukraine has realized important benefits from improving project management and coordination with Jive. For instance, one month of ideation mobilized 1,700 employees on a major project, resulting in over 70 creative solutions. In addition, the company's contact centers implemented new on-boarding, enablement, career development, motivation and shift coverage programs in PROSTOR to ensure more efficient and effective customer service. As a result, they've reduced uncovered calls by 24 percent, sped average call processing time by 12 percent, increased upsell revenue by 67 percent and even decreased staff turnover. "Vodafone Ukraine is constantly achieving amazing business impact through Jive, and we look forward to sharing their digital workplace expertise with the rest of our customers at Aurea Experience 18 in Munich next month," said Christian Stadlmann, senior vice president and general manager of Europe at Aurea Software. "Their success at navigating corporate transitions, economic uncertainty and a highly competitive industry all while fostering employee loyalty is a true testament to how vibrant enterprise communities can encourage action, creativity and innovation that ultimately improves the customer experience." About Aurea Experience 18 Aurea Experience 18 spans two free events in Europe and North America, where Aurea's customers and partners will enjoy three informative tracks with breakout sessions on employee engagement, the new digital workplace and customer intelligence. Speakers include more than a dozen experts from organizations such as American Airlines, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Citi, Commvault, International Committee of the Red Cross, Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley, Pearson, Schaeffler, Vodafone Ukraine and more. In addition, the conference will offer a "boot camp" track, where Jive community managers can learn key skills, strategies and best practices for building strategic plans, increasing adoption and driving advanced community use cases. For more information, follow @AureaSoftware and #AureaExperience on Twitter. About Aurea Aurea Software, Inc. is the technology behind some of the world's greatest customer and employee experiences, for the largest and most successful brands. Aurea's platform, engagement and vertical solutions help companies create exceptional, end-to-end experiences for their customers driving both retention and growth. Aurea's family of companies deliver process management, messaging, customer relationship management, email marketing, project and portfolio management, and collaboration software, as well as industry solutions for retail, insurance, energy and life sciences. Aurea is an affiliate of ESW Capital. For more information, visit www.aurea.com or follow @AureaSoftware on Twitter . Aurea and the Aurea logo are trademarks of Aurea Software, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE Jive Software Related Links http://www.jivesoftware.com Alanna Kelly UPDATE 7:48 a.m. The company that shut down its main natural gas pipeline through British Columbia following an explosion and fire Tuesday night says it has restarted a smaller line running beside the damaged pipe. Enbridge says it has received National Energy Board approval Wednesday night to restart its 76-centimetre line, which was shut down as a precaution because it is in the same path as the 91-centimetre line that ruptured and exploded near Prince George. The Calgary-based energy supplier says the line was carefully checked before permission was received to restart it at about 80 per cent of normal capacity. Fortis BC, the company that depends on the Enbridge line for about 85 per cent of the gas it delivers to its one million customers, says in an online notice that gas is now flowing, but customers are still asked to cut back. It says restoring flow in the smaller line is a positive step, but until the damaged larger line is repaired, a shortage of natural gas continues. In response to the call for conservation, the B.C. Institute of Technology has tweeted that heat is off on the north side of its Burnaby campus until further notice, while the University of B.C. has told researchers and other non-essential users to immediately stop using natural gas. The UBC bulletin says although gas use should still be restricted, "UBC buildings that use natural gas for heating, hot water and cooking are no longer expected to be impacted." In an earlier news release, Enbridge said it is working with other companies to find alternate supplies of gas to meet demand. Investigators are still searching for a cause of the blast just outside Prince George. It damaged the company's primary natural gas pipeline linking the Fort Nelson area to Vancouver and south to another 750,000 customers in the northwest United States. UPDATE: 9:55 p.m. Many people are doing their part to help reduce their natural gas use today, but more needs to be done. FortisBC said they are thankful to the customers who have been helping, which resulted in a reduction of about 20 per cent across the province on Wednesday. This means we have more time to keep gas flowing through the system for essential services, said spokesperson Alex Munro. A gas pipeline blast on Tuesday, northeast of Prince George, shut down the Enbridge natural gas pipeline about 600 miles northeast of Vancouver and could cut off flow to Washington State. We still need more customers to reduce their natural gas usage as much as possible for now, as we continue to work with Enbridge to confirm the impact on the system, said Munro. People are asked to avoid non-essential gas use until the supply issue has been resolved. This includes turning off thermostats and limiting other uses of natural gas as much as possible. Everyone is doing their part, and we are aware that our neighbours south of the border have also been mindful of their gas use too, said Munro. Castanet News will keep updating this evolving story as information becomes available. - with files from Alanna Kelly UPDATE: 4:15 p.m. A gas pipeline that ruptured northeast of Prince George on Tuesday is causing FortisBC to urge customers conserve their use of natural gas. The Enbridge natural gas pipeline explosion occurred at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and forced many people from their homes. Doug Stout of FortisBC said that 85 per cent of the gas his company feeds to homes and businesses is carried by the twinned Enbridge pipeline that runs from northern B.C. to the Seattle area. Although FortisBCs system is not damaged, we are working hard to continue to provide natural gas to homes and businesses, said spokesperson Diana Sorace. The impacted Enbridge lines are the two main lines used to move gas into FortisBC gas system to people in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. We are looking to add to our supply by bringing in gas through the TransCanada line from Alberta and activating our Tilbury and Mt Hayes liquefied natural gas plants, and have also talked to our industrial customers about switching to alternative fuel sources, said Sorace. The damaged pipeline connects to the Northwest Pipeline system, which feeds puget Sound Energy, and risks cutting off the flow of Canadian natural gas to Washington State. Pugest Sound Engery is urging its 750,000 customers to lower their thermostats and limit hot water use. Here in B.C., residents are being asked to turn down their thermostat, turn off furnaces and minimize use of hot water. As many as 700,000 customers in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island could be affected. Fortis BC tells Castanet News that as of 4 p.m. they do not have any further updates but will keep us informed if things change. UPDATE 1:23 p.m. A massive pipeline explosion in British Columbia risks cutting off the flow of Canadian natural gas to Washington State, and companies are urging customers to conserve. The blast Tuesday shut down the Enbridge natural gas pipeline about 600 miles northeast of Vancouver. Doug Stout of Fortis BC said Wednesday that 85 per cent of the gas his company feeds to homes and businesses is carried by the twinned pipeline that runs from northern British Columbia to the United States border south of Vancouver. The damaged Enbridge pipeline connects to the Northwest Pipeline system, which feeds Puget Sound Energy in Washington State and Northwest Natural Gas in Portland. Puget Sound Energy is urging its 750,000 customers to lower their thermostats and limit hot water use at least through Wednesday. UPDATE: 11:45 a.m. FortisBC is urging its customers to conserve after an explosion and fire on the pipeline that supplies most of the natural gas to the province. The blast Tuesday shut down the Enbridge natural gas pipeline about 15 kilometres northeast of Prince George. Doug Stout, FortisBC vice-president of external relations, said Wednesday that 85 per cent of the gas his company feeds to homes and businesses is carried by the twinned pipeline that runs from northern B.C. to the United States border south of Vancouver. One of the two lines ruptured and exploded but the second line is also shut while it's being checked for damage, said Stout, prompting Fortis to warn of "decreased energy flow and potential loss of service." "Turn down your thermostat if you are in a cold spot. Turn off your furnace if you can, if you are in Vancouver or a situation where you can do that. Minimize the use of hot water if you have a natural gas hot water tank ... so we preserve the gas we have for as long as possible," said Stout. As many as 700,000 customers in northern B.C., the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island could be directly affected by a shortage, he said. Stout urged another 300,000 customers in the Okanagan and southeastern B.C., to conserve even though their natural gas comes from Alberta. "We are asking them to cut back, too, because we can flow some of that gas past them and down here to the Lower Mainland. So we are asking everybody to chip in," said Stout. The problems have the potential to flow south of the border. The damaged Enbridge pipeline connects to the Northwest Pipeline system which feeds Puget Sound Energy in Washington State and Northwest Natural Gas in Portland. Puget Sound Energy had already issued a notice on social media urging its 750,000 natural gas customers to lower their thermostats and limit hot water use at least through Wednesday, a warning Stout seconded. "There is a potential impact on Seattle and north of Seattle," he said. Currently Fortis has reserves still in the pipeline south of Prince George, in its liquefied natural gas storage tanks in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island, and there is some gas flowing from Alberta through a pipeline in southern B.C., Stout said. Fortis expected to receive updates on the situation as Transportation Safety Board investigators and National Energy Board inspectors arrived to assess the damage and attempt to determine a cause. The company will update its customers as soon as it is in a position to offer something new, said Stout. ORIGINAL: 8:40 a.m. As many as 70 per cent of FortisBC's natural gas customers could be without service following an explosion of a pipeline north of Prince George. Doug Stout, vice-president of external relations for the utility, is urging customers to use natural gas sparingly for the time being. Fortis says none of their infrastructure was damaged when the Enbridge pipeline ruptured and ignited, but the utility relies on the pipeline to supply natural gas to its customers across the province, including in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Fortis has now shut off the pipeline and as many as 700,000 customers could lose gas supply before repairs can be affected. - with files from CTV 2018 Holiday Shipping Deadlines The Postal Service recommends the following mailing and shipping deadlines for expected delivery by Dec. 25 to Air/Army Post Office/Fleet Post Office/Diplomatic Post Office and domestic addresses*: Nov. 6 APO/FPO/DPO (all ZIP Codes) USPS Retail Ground APO/FPO/DPO (all ZIP Codes) USPS Retail Ground Dec. 4 APO/FPO/DPO ( ZIP Code 093 only ) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail ) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail Dec. 11 APO/FPO/DPO (all other ZIP Codes) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail Dec. 14 USPS Retail Ground USPS Retail Ground Dec. 18 APO/FPO/DPO ( except ZIP Code 093 ) USPS Priority Mail Express ) USPS Priority Mail Express Dec. 20 First-Class Mail (including greeting cards) First-Class Mail (including greeting cards) Dec. 20 First-class packages (up to 15.99 ounces) First-class packages (up to 15.99 ounces) Dec. 20 Hawaii to mainland Priority Mail and First-Class Mail Dec. 20 Priority Mail Priority Mail Dec. 20 Alaska to mainland Priority Mail and First-Class Mail to mainland Priority Mail and First-Class Mail Dec. 22 Alaska to mainland Priority Mail Express to mainland Priority Mail Express Dec. 22 Hawaii to mainland Priority Mail Express to mainland Priority Mail Express Dec. 22 Priority Mail Express *Not a guarantee, unless otherwise noted. Dates are for estimated delivery before December 25. Actual delivery date may vary depending on origin, destination, Post Office acceptance date and time and other conditions. Some restrictions apply. For Priority Mail Express shipments mailed December 22 through December 25, the money-back guarantee applies only if the shipment was not delivered, or delivery was not attempted, within two (2) business days. Busiest Mailing and Delivery Days Thanks to more people shopping earlier and shopping online, the Postal Service's "busiest day" notion is now a thing of the past. Instead, the Postal Service now has a busiest time, and it starts two weeks before Christmas. Beginning the week of Dec. 10, customer traffic is expected to increase and the Postal Service expects to deliver nearly 200 million packages per week during these two weeks. The week of Dec. 17-23 is predicted to be the busiest mailing, shipping and delivery week. During this week alone, the Postal Service expects to process and deliver nearly 3 billion pieces of First-Class Mail, including greeting cards. Skip the Trip and Ship Online Consumers don't even have to leave home to ship their packages, simply visit usps.com. The Postal Service anticipates Dec. 17 will be the Postal Service's busiest day online with more than 8 million consumers predicted to visit usps.com for help shipping that special holiday gift. It's predicted that nearly 105 million consumers will visit the USPS website between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. And usps.com is always open. It's estimated nearly 400,000 consumers will use the Click-N-Ship feature and other online services on Dec. 17 to order free Priority Mail boxes, print shipping labels, purchase postage and even request free next-day Package Pickup. New for this Year Packages and cards have been sent on time, now what? USPS Informed Delivery is the Postal Service's free daily digital preview of what's coming to your mailbox. This holiday season, not only can you manage your packages and sneak a peek at cards headed your way, you can also see some exterior images of magazines and catalogs all from your mobile app, dashboard, tablet or computer. Informed Delivery is one more way the Postal Service is helping you anticipate, communicate and celebrate this holiday season. Additional news and information, including all domestic, international and military mailing and shipping deadlines, can be found at the Postal Service Holiday Newsroom: usps.com/holidaynews. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. Please Note: For U.S. Postal Service media resources, including broadcast quality video and audio and photo stills, visit the USPS Newsroom. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the USPS YouTube Channel, like us on Facebook and enjoy our Postal Posts blog. For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and facts.usps.com. More USPS holiday news, including shipping deadlines and Santa mail, can be found at usps.com/holidaynews. For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional, please go to about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf. Contact: Kim Frum [email protected] usps.com/news SOURCE U.S. Postal Service Related Links http://www.usps.com United Nations, Oct 10 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed his "deep appreciation for the excellent cooperation and support" of US Ambassador Nikki Haley, who earlier handed in her resignation at the White House. The Secretary-General's spokesman, Stephan Dujarric, also said Haley and Guterres "had a very productive and strong working relationship during her tenure as US' permanent representative to the UN. "They worked hard to promote constructive ties between the United Nations and the United States to show the value of the United Nations," Dujarric said on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported. "The Secretary-General looks forward to continuing to work with Ambassador Haley until the end of her tenure and of course with her replacement." The spokesman said the Secretary-General, en route to Indonesia, had not received notice of her resignation and didn't expect to receive it until closer to when she plans to step down, at the end of the year, probably about the time her successor is announced. Guterres plans to meet in Bali, Indonesia with leaders of the Association of South-East Asian Nations at their Leaders Gathering, then with officials of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group at their annual meeting. On Friday he is expected to visit Palu, Sulawesi, the spokesman said. The death toll from the recent earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi has topped 2,000 with more than 10,000 injured and hundreds missing, officials said. Los Angeles, Oct 10 : English television personality Lauren Goodger does not want to date gangsters as she considers it as a complete "waste of time". The 31-year-old has been single since splitting from jailbird Joey Morrison last summer and now feels sick of dating goons anymore, reports dailymail.co.uk. In her column, the "Only Way is Essex" star said: "I need a complete opposite to the guys I've dated in the past. They all love me but they become obsessive and want to live this wannabe gangster life. "I broke up with Joey months ago and he's out of jail now, and I just think 'what a waste of time it was'." Morrison was jailed for 16 years for a string of violent drugs-related charges. He was 24 at the time and was convicted of possession of a firearm, kidnapping, blackmail and actual bodily harm. Jerusalem, Oct 10 : Israeli military system Trophy will be sold to the US army in a $500 million deal, a media report has said. The Trophy system that protects armoured vehicles from missiles and mortar shells, was developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, headquartered in Israel. The US Army has already ordered Rafael's system units in June 2017 for $193 million to protect its Abrams tanks and was now expected to increase that order while extending the number of tanks to be protected. Rafael also plans to provide the US army with a light version of Trophy, for the armoured personnel carriers Bradley and Stryker, Xinhua news agency quoted business website Calcalist's Tuesday's report as saying. A light version of Trophy can intercept more than 300 anti-tank missiles and RPGs (Rocket-propelled grenades) of various types. Rafael said the intercept rate for the carriers was 95 per cent. Jammu/Srinagar, Oct 10 : Jammu voters started queuing up outside poll booths in six districts while they came in only ones and twos in seven districts of the Kashmir Valley for the municipal polls on Wednesday. Voting for the second phase began at 6 a.m. and will end at 7 p.m. in the 544 polling stations set up in Kathua, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Reasi, Doda and Ramban districts of Jammu region, and Anantnag, Kupwara, Srinagar, Baramulla, Bandipora, Badgam and Kulgam districts in the valley, a poll official said. A total of 1,029 candidates are in the fray in 263 wards of 270 polling stations in the valley and 274 in the Jammu division. Of these 881 candidates are in the Jammu districts while 148 are in the valley. Mainstream political parties -- the National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, CPI-M, Democratic Party Nationalist (DPN) and Peoples Democratic Front (PDF) -- have boycotted the elections. Separatists have called for a protest shutdown in areas where voting is scheduled in the valley. Militants have issued threats to contesting candidates and asked voters to keep away from the poll process. Total electorate for Wednesday's poll is 3,46,980 of whom 1,28,104 are in Jammu division and 2,18,876 in the valley. "Photo Voter Slips were distributed among the voters to inform them of their polling station. Senior government officers have been appointed as General Observers to oversee that the polls are smooth, fair and in order. "Expenditure Observers are also keeping a watch on the expenditure by the candidates. In addition, Micro Observers have been deployed in polling stations, particularly those considered sensitive or hypersensitive," the poll official said. The third phase of the municipal polls would be held on October 13 while the last phase on October 16. Counting of votes would take place on October 20. Chicago, Oct 10 : Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the UN and the highest-ranking woman official in the Trump administration, is leaving with her reputation not only intact but even significantly enhanced. As she prepares to leave at the end of 2018 after two years at the UN, the 46-year-old daughter of Indian American Sikh parents named Namrata, Haley is being widely seen as greatly skillful in negotiating the often incendiary and capricious administration under President Donald Trump. With six years as the governor of South Carolina before her UN assignment, Haley is the first administration official who successfully carved out a reputation for independence even while not stepping on Trump's toes. If anything, she exits with Trump expressing sanguine fondness for her, calling her "very special to me". Even though Haley charted her own course as a UN diplomat in an administration run on presidential whims, she managed rather well in not attracting unvarnished attention of her boss. The clearest expression of her independence came in April over the question of whether the administration would impose new sanctions on Russia in response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, which is effectively a client state of Moscow. In an interview with CBS News on April 15, Haley had said: "Russia sanctions will be coming down. (Treasury) Secretary (Steven) Mnuchin will be announcing those on Monday if he has not already, and they will be going directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to (Syrian leader Bashar al-) Assad and chemical weapons use." "So I think everyone is going to be feeling it at this point. I think everyone knows that we sent a strong message, and our hope is that they listen to us," she had said. The comments apparently put the White House and openly Russia-friendly Trump in a bind, prompting top White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow to say that Haley had "got ahead of the curve", adding, "There might have been some momentary confusion about that." Stung by the "momentary confusion" comment, Haley swatted right back in a memorable counter -- "With all due respect, I don't get confused" -- in an interview with Fox News. That strong but succinct rejoinder from Haley was her way of saying that while she may broadly support the President's agenda she was not going to be a pushover. Throughout her two years as the top US diplomat at the UN, Haley managed to strike a delicate balance between executing the Trump doctrine, such as it is, and maintaining her personal credibility with world diplomats. She may not have intended it that way originally, but once in the job, she assiduously built up her foreign policy credentials for a future presidential run. Of course, during a West Wing announcement of her departure in the presence of Trump on Tuesday, she pre-emptively said: "I don't have anything set where I am going to goA And I will say this to all of you that are going to ask about 2020: No, I am not running for 2020. "I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one." While saying "this one" she pointed to Trump sitting to her left. That was as definitive as it can get in politics and, as of now, there are no expectations that she might still run for president in 2020. Even if she chooses to run in 2024, Haley would be only 52. It is unlikely that she would fade out for the next five years. She was expected to take a break after an intensive eight years of public service during which she has emerged as a star of the Republican Party at a time when Trump snuffs all the oxygen out. She made it a point to praise Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner during the brief West Wing media interaction for their various engagements behind-the-scenes, perhaps making sure that she can ride some of the president's base if she does indeed run in 2024. (Mayank Chhaya can be contacted at mcsix@outlook.com) New Delhi : Dr Neelesh Tiwari India is standing on the threshold of a mental health epidemic with a greater number of people affected by mental health issues in the country than the entire population of Japan. According to 2015-16 National Mental Health Survey (NMHS) survey, every sixth person in India needs mental-health help. To compound the problem, India has just about 5,000 psychiatrists and less than 2,000 clinical psychologists. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! According to the NMHS survey, people in the lower income group suffer more from mental health problems and these are the people with least access to mental health treatment. Have you ever thought that the maid who works in your home, the sweeper who keeps your lane clean, and the rickshaw-puller who takes you places needs mental health treatment support? Poverty, domestic violence, alcohol and drug addiction and the very stigma of being underprivileged takes a toll on these people. Another point is that mental health problems can affect all age-groups. What is really worrying is that, today, India's children and youth are more stressed and suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and performance issues more than ever before. If our children and youth are not mentally strong, how can we build a strong nation? Also, the common man is over-stressed with family responsibilities and work pressure, and has less time to socialise and de-stress. Road rage is becoming common. Couples in unhappy marriages are growing but never go to a marriage counsellor. Children are growing up with both parents working, sometimes in different cities, and the close knit joint family system is dying out. Family counselling is an unheard of concept in India. While social media keeps people connected, it builds additional pressure to project only the best. Despite this alarming scenario, mental health continues to be a taboo topic with immense stigma attached to it. While people brag about their medical conditions like heart disease, surgeries, ICU stays and the like, they treat a mental health problem like a guilty secret to be pushed under the carpet. People do not know the difference between a mental health issue and madness. Also, our films and comedy shows have stereotyped mental health as something that is either dangerous or something to be ridiculed. Also, despite the Mental Health Care Bill 2016 mandating state governments make mental healthcare affordable for all, the cost of treatment continues to be high and beyond the reach of the common man. No wonder mental health schemes and mental healthcare are not so advanced in India, as in the Western world. India needs web-based online portals such as the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) to reach out to its vast population. More affordable treatment options are required, along with affordable rehabilitation centers like the National Institute of Mental Health Rehabilitation (NIMHR) which received cabinet approval earlier. Mental health awareness campaigns are the need of the hour. Today, we need to open up and talk about mental health problems. We need to teach our young that having a mental health issue is as normal as having a cold. They need to talk freely and support their peers. The country needs to advance not just in technology but in the way it approaches and accepts mental health issues as part of everyday life. The time to begin is now. ( is Chairman and Neuropsychiatrist, World Brain Centre, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at drneeleshtiwari@gmail.com) Washington, Oct 10 : US President Donald Trump has said his upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be held after the mid-term congressional elections in November. On a flight to Iowa, while campaigning for the mid-term polls to be held on November 6, Trump told reporters: "I just can't leave now." Earlier on Tuesday in a media interaction at the Oval Office, he said the venue of his second meeting with Kim has been narrowed down to "three or four" locations...timing won't be too far away". Asked if his Mar-a-Lago estate is an option, Trump smiled and said that Kim would "probably like that. I'd like that, too. I think it would be good. But we'll see." However, Trump might be joking because convincing Kim to take a trip to Florida could be complicated, given that the White House couldn't convince him to come to Washington for their first summit. The President though did not specify whether any of the places under consideration are in the US. He said that as the process would go on, "eventually we're going to have lots of meetings on US soil and on their (North Korea's) soil by the way. That's a two-way street". US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Kim this Sunday in Pyongyang to prepare the second summit between Trump and the North Korean leader, and let it be known that this meeting will take place "as soon as possible." Pompeo said that significant progress has been made toward moving forward with denuclearization talks, but didn't wish to give any details at the time. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had "good talks" with Kim during his Sunday trip to Pyongyang, Trump said, adding that progress had been made on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. "While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path to where we'll achieve the ultimate goal," Pompeo had said. The first-ever Pyongyang-Washington summit was held in Singapore on June 12. According to a joint statement signed by Trump and Kim, the US would provide a security guarantee to North Korea in return for Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. United Nations, Oct 10 : Nikki Haley is leaving President Donald Trump's cabinet at the height of her career as the US Permanent Representative to the UN having put a firm mark on the office. A strong personality known for independence and strength to stand up to Trump, she left on her own terms and the president put on a spectacle of respect and friendship while they jointly announced her resignation on Tuesday -- a marked contrast to some of the other departures from the administration like that of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was fired while abroad, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Before the media at the White House, Trump praised her for "a fantastic job" in a "very dangerous" world and said: "Hopefully, you'll be coming back at some point ... in maybe a different capacity. You can have your pick." She was not a Trumpist, having supported his rival Marco Rubio in the Republican Party primaries. But a party loyalist, she backed Trump once he got the nomination. Her independent streak shone through when she said that women accusing Trump should be heard and in her strong stand on Russia that is unlike the president's. Not one to be bullied, she publicly chastised White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow who had said she may have had "momentary confusion" on Russia sanctions. She wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, "I don't agree with the president on everything. When there is disagreement ... I pick up the phone and call him or meet with him in person." The child of Sikh immigrants from Amritsar in India, she has recalled that as a five-year-old she was rejected by the Miss Bamberg contest in her native town in the deep south because she did not fit into the category of Black or White. That and other experiences like that inoculated her against adversities and toughened her spirit of independence that led her to become the first woman and first non-white to become the governor of South Carolina. She brought the political skills honed in the hardscrabble arena of South Carolina to the UN, where she cajoled and coerced nations to back the US policies , such as that on tightening sanctions on North Korea, but was not afraid to stand alone, deserted by allies, when she faced opposition to the US moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. She roared into the UN threatening to "name names" while identifying foes and friends. Her harsh rhetoric could match Trump's: She said after a Syrian gas attack that Russia's hands "are all covered in the blood of Syrian children" and called Venezuela "a criminal narco-state" born of its "perverse vision of a socialist paradise". Among her achievements were paving the way for Trump's emerging detente with North Korea's Kim Jong-un by getting Russia and China to enforce the UN sanctions, and getting the UN to tighten its budget by $1.3 billion (with more than 75 per cent of the savings going to other countries). She could not make any headway in Syria, although she may have deterred harsher action by Damascus and Moscow against rebel-held territories with her warning of "dire consequences". Haley mixed her tough talk at the UN with showing diplomats America's "Southern hospitality" of which she was proud. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his "deep appreciation" for her cooperation with the world body. Question marks hang over her surprise resignation and her future. At her news conference with Trump she said "I don't have anything set", but declared she wasn't going to run for president in 2020 and would campaign for him. There was only a vague indication from her about why she was quitting now. After "eight years of intense time" as governor and as UN ambassador Haley said: "I think you have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and allow someone else to do the job." While the reticent Tillerson was the Secretary of State and a serving lieutenant general, H.R. McMaster was the National Security Adviser, she had a high profile and, at times, even appeared to be holding the foreign policy establishment together with her public image. But Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton both have strong public persona and her image dimmed. She also had to deal with their often clashing foreign policy agendas. As for her future, she has nearly three months to chart her short-term plans. For the long-term, she is very popular among the Republican rank-and-file -- countering the stereotype of racism thrust on them; after all it was they who elected her governor. She has now added international experience to her domestic portfolio of actually running a state. Leaving the Trump administration with her head held high and without antagonising him or his base gives her a strong measure of political viability with an appeal to the more moderate Republicans. With the Republican base, she may even benefit from the virulent opposition that she evokes from many of the liberals and Democrats. For them a non-white -- and a woman at that -- could have no independent ideology and should only bow to the Democratic Party; she not only mocked the idea, but went on to a stellar Republican career. Some Indians also joined in and put her on the "Desi Wall of Shame" -- and trolled her with it. (They also falsely said on their website that she was among "caste-privileged Hindus.") (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) New Delhi, Oct 10 : A man, his wife and their daughter were found dead with stab wounds in their house here on Wednesday, police said. Their son was severely injured. Deputy Commissioner of Police Benita Mary Jaiker said the victims' neighbour called around 5 a.m. to report the incident which took place in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj area. "The man, Mithilesh, his wife Siya and their daughter Neha were declared brought dead at the hospital while the son is being treated," she said. Photo: Contributed An active member of Penticton's mountain biking circle had a horrific accident over Thanksgiving weekend, leaving his family reeling and asking for the support of the community. On Sunday, Oct. 7, Aart Van Kooy, who has been a biker for most of his life, was riding the Sam I Am trail in the Skaha Bluffs area with a few friends and his dog, Enzo. According to a GoFundMe page set up by Penticton's Bike Barn to help his recovery, Van Kooy clipped his handlebar on a tree while heading downhill, which sent him over the bars and face-first into the ground. Most of the bones in his face from his eye sockets down were broken. Van Kooy walked the rest of the way down with the help of his friends, and was then transported to hospital in Penticton and finally to Kelowna. According to Van Kooy's sister, Kim Van Kooy, he is now in a medically-induced coma in Kelowna awaiting a six- to eight-hour surgery to repair his face. The fundraising page was set up by Van Kooy's coworker, Tara Scott, at the Bike Barn, after the shop began receiving multiple phone calls from people in the biking community who knew Van Kooy and wanted to help. "I spoke to a couple people who are out of town, people were trying to figure out how they could give," Scott said. Van Kooy has worked at the shop for almost 20 years, and the outpouring of support doesn't surprise Scott. "He's an amazing guy," she said. "If something needs to be done, he does it. He's like that at the shop, and in his life as well." "Aart has touched the lives of so, so many people, not only here in British Columbia, but truly worldwide. Aart is always the guy with a smile on his face who is willing to go that extra step to help you out," she wrote on the GoFundMe page. The page has set a goal of $25,000 to help Van Kooy on the long road to recovery post-surgery. So far, almost $8,000 have been raised. Scott emphasized that GoFundMe does take a cut of donations, so she encourages any local donors to instead come by the shop with cheques or cash to ensure the most money possible goes directly to Van Kooy. "And it doesn't need to be money, people can just bring a card, get well soon wishes," Scott said. Van Kooy's GoFundMe page can be found here. Lucknow, Oct 10 : The Uttar Pradesh government is set to chop about 55,000 trees in critical tiger habitats to build a road of strategic importance. According to a document accessed by IANS, the over 500-km-long Indo-Nepal Border Road project has been undertaken by the Public Works Department (PWD) of Uttar Pradesh. The road cuts through two tiger reserves and three wildlife sanctuaries spread across six districts along the Nepal border. The official document states that of the 55,000 trees marked to be axed, many are over 200 years old. The project area, in the Terai region, is home to several endangered species of animals, including the tiger, leopard, bear, Swamp deer, Spotted deer, Hog deer, Barking deer and many other species of reptiles and birds. The road project demands a land of 287 hectares in the protected forest areas. It passes through key areas of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, Suhelva Wildlife Sanctuary, Sohagi Barwa Sanctuary -- all home to tigers. The region has mixed species of trees, with a maximum cover of Sal, Jamun and Teak forest system. According to officials, the road is of strategic importance as it will connect the border outposts being guarded by paramilitary force Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) along the India-Nepal border. "The project is situated in the protected area," the document states and asks the forest, PWD, SSB and tiger reserve officials in Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur and Maharajganj districts to survey the area. "Following the survey, the teams shall do required revision of project to reduce the impact that includes fragmentation of wildlife habitat and to deforestation as 55,000 trees had been marked, coming in way of the project, and of which many are over 200 years old," said the minutes of the meeting held by the State Wildlife Board. According to the officials involved in the project, the construction work shall begin in November 2018 and the road is to be constructed along the Nepal border and passes through the core area of the forest. "Yes, about 55,000 trees are to be chopped for the project. It will affect the wildlife for sure," said an official who requested anonymity. He, however, added that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered officials to work out a strategy to minimise the impact. According to Noida-based environment and RTI activist Vikrant Tongad, there are alternatives to cutting down the trees. "The government can opt for elevated roads and protect the forest, wildlife and important green corridors. Fifty-five thousand trees is a very big number and the Uttar Pradesh government must understand its importance," Tongad told IANS. The forest officials told IANS that the road cuts through green corridors between the protected areas of Nepal and India. "The forest headquarters in Lucknow has asked us to take mitigation measures through realignment of the road project area, by bringing diversions in the routes," said a forest official, requesting anonymity. (Kushagra Dixit can be reached at kushagra.d@ians.in) Mumbai, Oct 10 : Key equity indices jumped on Wednesday, as investors piled into beaten-down stocks amid expectations of robust corporate earnings for the second quarter ended September. The S&P BSE Sensex vaulted over 400 points, while the NSE's Nifty surged 135 points after last week's hammering. The gains were led by banking, auto and finance stocks. "Markets have corrected, hence we are seeing value buying. The positivity may also be attributed to expectations of robust Q2 results," Astha Jain, Senior Analyst Hem Securities, told IANS. At 1.11 p.m., the broader Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange was trading at 10,437.30, up 136.25 points or 1.32 per cent from its Tuesday's close. The Sensex, which had opened at 34,493.21, was trading at 34,715.87, up 416.40 points or 1.21 per cent. So far, the Sensex has touched an intra-day high of 34,771.10 points and a low of 34,346.50. San Francisco, Oct 10 : Photo-messaging app Snapchat's parent company Snap shares fell to an all-time low after an analyst commented that the company may run out of cash by 2020. Snap shares tumbled more than six per cent on Tuesday after a Wall Street analyst said the Snapchat parent was "in danger of running out of cash by 2020", NYpost.com reported. Last week, Snap CEO and Co-Founder Evan Spiegel told employees in a 15-page memo that the company is gunning for "full-year profitability" in 2019. Instead, Snap is poised to fall "woefully short" of that goal, losing a projected $1.5 billion next year, according to Michael Nathanson of research firm MoffettNathanson. Snap is not only "running out of money" but also lacks "options to rectify its cash burn problem," Nathanson was quoted as saying. After dropping as much as 8.6 per cent to bottom out at an all-time low of $6.84 per share, the social media company's stock recovered to close at $7 -- 59 per cent below Snap's IPO price of $17 per share in March 2017. Nathanson called Facebook the cause of Snap's woes -- the result of its having "unashamedly copied promising product features, such as Stories, and deployed them across its platform." New Delhi, Oct 10 : Britain's exit from the European Union (EU), popularly called Brexit, will turn the former imperial power into a second-class power, according to former Indian diplomat Bhaswati Mukherjee. Speaking here on Tuesday at the launch of her book "India and EU: An Insider's View", published by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Mukherjee said that once Britain exits the EU in March 2019, it will find itself in a post-Second World War, post-colonial situation and "become a second class power in the world order". Having spent much of her career dealing with Europe, Mukherjee, who has served as Indian Ambassador to the Netherlands, averred that Britain was the cause for much of the impediments in the development of ties between India and Europe. She said that even as the EU and India were negotiating a Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), Britain kept putting impediments under pressure from the US in a balance of power game. Negotiations for the BTIA started in 2007 but were put on hold in 2015. In all, 16 rounds of negotiations have been held. Those in the know say that after India renounced its bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with all countries, investments from European nations are now not protected. India has terminated all BITs following a new BIT model New Delhi released in December 2015. The 28 EU member states have now passed on the responsibility of investment protection negotiations to the EU. EU Ambassador to India Tomasz Kozlowski, who was at the book launch ceremony, said the EU was ready to resume negotiations with India for the BTIA. "We perceive India as a major growing economy," he said. "For us, India is an emerging global partner with a major role in a multipolar world." Stating that the EU was India's largest trading partner and investor, Kozlowski said that Brussels and New Delhi were continuing to work for the conclusion of the BTIA. French Ambassador Alexendre Ziegler, who was also present, said that if India and the EU have lost a battle, it was the battle of perception. He said that the image of India was deteriorating in the European Commission as New Delhi was perceived as a difficult partner. "But the reality of the EU and India relationship is that there are very big opportunities," Ziegler said. Launching the book, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri, a former diplomat himself, said the book was a must read for all those in the government engaging with Europe. He felt that the potential - and interest - in the India-EU collaboration would be much more when India becomes a $5-trillion economy. He said India's development challenges were of a magnitude which somebody sitting at the EU headquarters "probably finds it difficult to comprehend". New Delhi, Oct 10 : A couple and their 16-year-old daughter were found murdered with stab wounds in their house here early on Wednesday, police said. Their son was found injured. Mithilesh and Siya, a couple in their 40s, and their daughter Neha were found dead in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj area. The neighbours entered their house to check on them after finding the main door ajar at around 4.30 a.m. and informed the police, Joint Commissioner of Police Ajay Choudhary said. The neighbours told the police that they heard the son, Suraj, 19, crying for help from the balcony of their apartment on the first floor. "He was heard shouting that his mother had saved him," the officer said, adding that his statement was being recorded. Choudhary said a kitchen knife was used to cut the fingers of the deceased. Police have formed eight teams to probe the case. "We are investigating from all possible angles," he added. Pinki, a relative of the family, told IANS that Suraj was kidnapped and later rescued about three years ago. She suspected the murders to be the handiwork of "outsiders". Dhaka, Oct 10 : A Bangladesh court on Wednesday sentenced 19 people, including two former ministers, to death and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman to life imprisonment for their role in the 2004 grenade blasts that killed 24 people and injured 500. The verdict was delivered amid tight security in the capital and can be appealed within two months. The 2004 attack targeted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's rally, who was the opposition leader at the time. A series of grenades exploded as she was stepping off a truck, which was used as a dais for the rally on Bangabandhu Avenue. She survived with a partial hearing loss. Former State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar and former Deputy Minister for Education Abdus Salam Pintu were among 19 people sentenced to death on Wednesday, bdnews24.com reported. Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and her former political secretary Harris Chowdhury were among 19 sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence also included jail terms for 11 other people. Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government will seek scaled-up punishments for Rahman and Chowdhury. He said that Khaleda's son masterminded the attack and that he deserved the death penalty. Mumbai, Oct 10 : Actress Sandhya Mridul on Wednesday came out in support of writer-producer Vinta Nanda's sexual harassment allegation against actor Alok Nath, sharing her own ordeal with him during the shoot of a telefilm in Kodaikanal. Nanda, a veteran writer-producer of the avant-garde 1990s' show "Tara" fame, accused actor Alok -- known for his "sanskaari" on-screen image -- of sexually violating her almost two decades ago. Sandhya took to Twitter to share her own experience, which left her "disillusioned and unsure" in the industry. She wrote: "At the very start of my career, I was shooting a telefilm in Kodaikanal. I was the lead. And very excited. Alok Nath was my on-screen father and Reema Lagoo my mother. "Alok Nath was very impressed with me and called me 'God's own child' and openly praised me every day. I was over the moon. I was a huge fan of this wonderful Babuji. I felt so fortunate happy and confident." However, she recalled that one night, Alok got "progressively drunk". "And started insisting I sit with him and that I belonged to him and other stuff that I don't clearly remember but it made me very nervous and uncomfortable. My co-star realised what was happening and got me out of there," she added. "We went back to the hotel without dinner. It was late and I was back in my room and the costume dada came to my room to give me my clothes for the next day as I had a very early call time. Few minutes after he left there was a knock on my door I opened the door thinking it was him again. "It was an inebriated Alok Nath. I instinctively tried to shut the door but he pushed it and lunged at me. I stepped aside, he went flying past me into the room. I fell back toward the bathroom door, he lunged at me again screaming 'I want you, you're mine'." The actress claims she ultimately had to latch the bathroom door and then ran out of her room down the corridor into the lobby. After she sought help from the show's director of photography, Sandhya says "what ensued was traumatic because a belligerent Alok Nath refused to leave. He kept screaming, shouting, threatening, abusing, trying to grab me... but at some point we managed to make him leave". This, when in a few hours that she had scenes with 'Bauji'. "In one, I had to sit on his lap and cry. I still feel nauseous when I think of it," said Sandhya, adding that Alok continued drinking every evening and would "traumatise" her with calls to her room every night. One day, she recounted, he said to her that he was an alcoholic and that he had destroyed everything -- his family and his marriage. "I finally broke my silence. I screamed, shouted, cried and it was done. I believed him. I had to." Sandhya says she is grateful to her co-actors, the DOP and the late Reema lagoo for taking him on and protecting her. "But it was too late. The damage was done. A very disillusioned, disgraced and unsure me returned home." According to Sandhya, Alok then told people that she "difficult and arrogant." "Alok Nath. You know this to be true. As do few others. I had to forgive you for myself then and for my sanity, but I will never forgive you for what you did with Vinta. Whom I have always respected and loved. I stand by you Vinta. What I went through is nothing compared to you." Hyderabad, Oct 10 : A revival package for debt-ridden national carrier Air India has been nearly finalised and will be announced this month, said Civil Aviation Secretary R.N. Choubey on Wednesday. He said there was no issue with regard to the package. Choubey was talking to reporters after inaugurating an interim international departures terminal at the Hyderabad International Airport. He said the government was keeping a watch on the airline sector in general as airlines were not doing well for the last two quarters due to increase in oil prices and rupee depreciation. The official said the government would extend all help to airlines. "We are working on various measures to support the airline sector in general. "The intention is to bring down the cost of operations because leased rentals have gone up on account of depreciation of rupee and the fuel prices have also increased," Choubey said. To a query, he said Jet Airways had not asked for specific help from the government. On Air India, he said the disinvestment move did not receive the required interest from prospective bidders. "While we remain committed to disinvestment of Air India, that will be possible once macro economic conditions become favourable. The oil prices have to go down and rupee exchange rate has to improve." The official said the government by providing all support to Air India would ensure that it remains a viable entity. "At the same time we expect Air India to improve its efficiency and operational capability," he added. New Delhi, Oct 10 : Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor announced his new book "The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi And His India" on Wednesday. Divided in five sections comprising 50 chapters, the book will arrive at the stands on October 26. "Narendra Modi is a paradoxical man. He says one thing and does another. He gives voice to a number of liberal ideas while at the same time pandering to some of the most illiberal elements in Indian society, on whom he depends for political support. Another paradox is how a Prime Minister who prides himself on effective governance has, through his silence, appeared to condone the worst aspects of misgovernance-communal riots, lynchings, the violence of gau-rakshaks and so on. A third paradox is his talk of soaring ambitions for the country when his government's performance is underwhelming," the publisher Aleph Book Company said in a statement. "The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi And His India" is currently available for pre-orders on Amazon. In the 400-page exhaustive work, Tharoor, who has authored 17 previous books, sets out to enquire "who is the real Narendra Modi". "A noble, selfless leader who acts effectively in the interests of all his countrymen or an autocratic, right-wing bigot who is interested only in power and converting plural India into a Hindu Rashtra? Or something in between?" The publisher has billed "The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi And His India" as a "brilliant study of Modi and the effect he has had on our country". Aleph said that the book answers questions about a leader who is "reviled and worshipped in equal measure". "Using years of close observation, personal encounters with Modi, considerable scholarship, a deep understanding of Indian politics, and an insider's view of the way in which government functions. Shashi Tharoor has stitched together a compelling portrait of this paradoxical figure. Never before has there been such a superbly written and devastatingly accurate account of the most controversial prime minister India has ever had," the publisher added. The first section takes a close look at Modi's life and times. The other four sections look at key aspects of the way in which Modi's government functions and the lasting and often "deleterious impact" it has had on Indian society, major institutions, the economy, foreign policy and our fundamental values, the publisher said. Sydney, Oct 10 : Australia has a 70 per cent chance of being affected by the El Nino phenomenon by the end of the year, which would aggravate the severe drought suffered by several parts of its territory, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has said. "The chance of an El Nino developing in the coming season has increased. When these criteria have been met in the past, an El Nino event has developed around 70 per cent of the time," the BOM announced on their website on Tuesday night. "The tropical Pacific Ocean has warmed and is approaching El Nino thresholds. Latest observations and model outlooks suggest further warming is likely. Similarly, in the Indian Ocean, a positive Indian Ocean Dipole may have started," the Bureau was cited as saying by Efe news. The experts warned of the effects of a positive Indian Ocean dipole, in which the warmer waters near Africa will drag moisture away from Australia. The combination of these phenomena usually produces a reduction in spring rains and a drier onset of the rainy season in northern Australia, as well as heat waves, more severe wildfires and higher temperatures. "The development of either would favour continued dry weather and increase the likelihood that widespread drought relief will be delayed until 2019," experts say. The alert coincides with one of the worst droughts in recent decades that the states of New South Wales and Queensland, in eastern Australia, have suffered since the beginning of the austral winter. "Outlooks show a very high chance of warmer than average days and nights through to the end of 2018. Considering the year so far has already been very warm, this means 2018 has the potential to rank as another significant warm year," said the report. The climatologists recalled that seven of the hottest 10 years recorded in Australia have occurred since 2005. Photo: The Canadian Press At least 10 people died on the Spanish island of Mallorca after a torrential rainstorm caused flash flooding that left a trail of piled vehicles and damaged infrastructure from surges of water and mud. Two British citizens and a Dutch woman were among the victims found Wednesday, one day after the rainfall, a spokeswoman with the regional emergency service said. The only missing person as of Wednesday afternoon was a five-year-old boy who disappeared with his mother. The Civil Guard found the mother's body.. Before floodwaters dragged her and the boy away, the woman reportedly managed to bring her 7 year-old daughter out of their vehicle, according to unidentified Civil Guard sources quoted by Spanish private news agency Europa Press. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said during a visit to the eastern coast of the island that the impacted area would be declared a "zone of catastrophe," which unlocks funds for recovery, reconstruction and compensation of victims. "We won't give people our backs," Sanchez told reporters. "Given the magnitude of what happened we are going to unleash all resources necessary to return their lives to their everydayness, but the most urgent thing right now is to find those people disappeared." Authorities said the rainstorm was unlike any people could remember. They described it as both intense and localized in a narrow stretch of land, which led to the overflowing of a creek that cuts through the town of Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, about 60 kilometres east of Palma de Mallorca. Videos shot on mobile phones by local residents showed a strong current of water and mud that buried cars and tore trees on its way down the streets of the town of 8,000. Swamped streets and piles of overturned cars, some of them along the guardrails of a major road, were a common sight in Sant Llorenc and other nearby towns on Wednesday. Two Britons and two local residents died in Sant Llorenc, the town's deputy mayor, Antonia Bauza, told Cadena SER radio. In an emailed statement, the British government's Foreign Office said: "We are supporting the family of two British people following their deaths in Spain, and will do all we can to assist them at this deeply difficult time." A Balearic Islands' emergency services spokeswoman, who wasn't authorized to be named in media reports, told The Associated Press that the body of a Dutch woman was also recovered from the garage of a house in Arta, another nearby town. Other victims were found in Arta and the coastal village of S'illot, where the creek that overflowed reaches the sea. Rescuers with inflatable boats and divers were looking for vehicles that were believed to be dragged by the current into the sea. "It all happened in less than 10 minutes," an unidentified witness with wet clothes told the public broadcaster TVE. "We had to swim to try to survive." Sydney, Oct 10 : Thousands of people gathered at the iconic Sydney Opera House to protest against the use of building for a controversial horse racing advertisement, the media reported on Wednesday. The protesters used mobile phones and strong flashlights onto the emblematic Unesco World Heritage building on Tuesday night to disrupt a six-minute light show promoting the country's richest horse race. They chanted "sails are not for sale", referring to the shape of the building which is similar to the sails of a ship, the Australian media reported. The controversial advertising for the race, which boasts 13 million Australian dollars ($9.25 million) in prize money, has seen groups ranging from politicians to media personalities debating whether a sport centering on gambling should be promoted on the heritage-listed venue. Up to 3,000 people crowded the city's area, while an online petition to the New South Wales (NSW) state government against using the structure as a "promotional billboard" garnered more than 200,000 signatures, reported the Nine News channel. State Premier Gladys Berejiklian did not rule out using the venue to promote other events and told the media that she did not want the state to "fall behind" in tourism. "I encourage the input and say people protest for governments to listen -- and we do that -- but I also say people on all sides of the argument should be respectful," Berejiklian told national broadcaster ABC. The original plan of Racing NSW, the horse-racing agency of New South Wales, was to hold a live barrier draw and project the results onto the facade of the famous Opera House, as well as illuminate the building with the jockeys' colours alongside The Everest logo, but the agency had to cancel the plan due to security reasons. One of the protesters, Joshua Richardson, 19, told ABC that "it's completely wrong to have one of our national landmarks used as a billboard. It's nationally embarrassing". Berejiklian gave the green light to the promotion despite the opposition from Louise Herron, Executive Director of the Sydney Opera House and the online petition opposing the decision. The New South Wales Heritage Board also expressed its "extreme disappointment" over Berejiklian's decision, which was backed by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday sanctioned Rs 2,044.31 crore for 78 days productivity linked bonus to about 11.91 lakh non-gazetted railway officials. The announcement was made by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad while addressing a press conference here after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Each employee under this head would get about Rs 17,951 for 78 days," Prasad said. Chennai, Oct 10 : Actor-filmmaker Dhanush, who awaits the release of Tamil gangster drama "Vada Chennai", said the film's journey began in 2003 and that he is blessed to have been part of this project even though it took long to materialise. "Vada Chennai", directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran and produced by Dhanush, is gearing up for release on October 17. The film chronicles 30 years in the life of a gangster from North Chennai. "The journey of 'Vada Chennai' began in 2003 even before Vetri and I did 'Pollathavan'. We wanted to work again after 'Pollathavan' and I suggested we do 'Vada Chennai'. Vetri understood neither did we have a market nor the budget to make such a film. Instead, we worked on 'Aadukalam'," Dhanush told reporters here on Wednesday. Recalling how the project eventually fell into place, he said: "After 'Aadukalam', we thought of working on 'Vada Chennai', but Vetri suggested we take a break from each other and join hands later. A few months later, Vetri called and told me that he wants to make 'Vada Chennai' with Simbu and I was happy for them." The project never took off with Simbu for reasons unknown. It came back to Dhanush. "When Vetri came back to me with the project, I told him I can't do it immediately. But I suggested we could work on some other script and we even discussed a film called 'Soodhadi', but it never materialised. Meanwhile, Vetri suggested he wanted to work on another film and that was 'Visaaranai'," Dhanush said. Finally, "Vada Chennai" went on the floors in 2016. "Vetri went through a lot of struggle to get the film made. Both of us believed in the project and we didn't mind the long wait. But we're really thankful to other artistes for believing in the film. I feel I was destined to do this project. Otherwise, it won't come back to me after so many years," he said. Dhanush sees "Vada Chennai" as a "career-defining project". "I consider myself blessed to have done this film. The scale of the project demanded it to be made into three parts. We already have around 20 per cent footage for the second part. We resume shoot from next year. Meanwhile, Vetri and I will work on another film which will start rolling next week," Dhanush said. Speaking on the occasion, Vetrimaaran thanked Dhanush for his immense faith in the project. "I worked on this film with a lot of freedom. I didn't have to worry about anything. Dhanush paid my salary in 2015 when I needed it to make 'Visaaranai'. He plays a character that goes through three different timelines and you all will see him perform in each phase with so much ease," Vetrimaaran said. "Vada Chennai" also stars Andrea Jeremiah, Aishwarya Rajesh, Ameer and Daniel Balaji in crucial roles. New Delhi, Oct 10 : US-based audio equipment major Skullcandy Inc on Wednesday expanded its wireless headphone line-up with the launch of "Venue". The new wireless headphone comes with active noise canceling (ANC) technology to deliver powerful sound and is available in black-black and white-crimson colour combinations at Skullcandy.in, Brandeyes.in and select retailers for Rs 18,999. "For 15 years, Skullcandy has thrived at the intersection of music, technology and boardsports by unleashing the visceral power of music for all. With Venue, we're continuing our vision of delivering immersive audio experience," Jason Hodell, CEO, Skullcandy, said in a statement. When users do need to tap into the outside world, "Monitor Mode" easily lets them hear their surroundings with just a push of a button, the company added. The device comes equipped with "Tile" -- a feature that allows users to track or find their headphones through the "Tile" application on a smartphone. "Venue" comes with up to 24-hour battery life, Bluetooth capability and rapid-charge technology that provides five hours of battery life with just 10-minutes of charging, the company added. Jammu/Srinagar, Oct 10 : People in Jammu division voted with enthusiasm on Wednesday in municipal elections but there was poor voter turnout in the troubled Kashmir Valley -- in a repeat of a trend also seen in the first round of the four-phase battle. Till noon, Bandipora topped the voter turnout at 22.2 per cent in the Valley while in Srinagar, Baramulla, Kupwara and Anantnag districts the voter participation was a feeble 1.4, 3.7, 3.3 and 0.8 per cent respectively. An overwhelming deployment of security forces ensured that the voting remained peaceful despite militant threats to disrupt the polls being boycotted by the two main parties in the Valley -- National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Ramban district at 62.9 per cent topped the voting percentage in the Jammu division. The turnout was 59.4 per cent in Kathua, 50.8 in Udhampur, 60.8 in Reasi, 57.8 in Doda and 55.9 in Kishtwar districts of Jammu division in the first six hours. There was visible reluctance among people to join the democratic process in the Valley. Two lone candidates were declared elected unopposed in Kulgam and Badgam districts. The municipal polls are now effective only in 11 districts of the state in the second phase -- six in Jammu division and five in the Valley, where a separatist campaign raging since 1989 has left thousands dead. Jammu and Kashmir is holding municipal polls after 13 years. A Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, Azad Singh, died of cardiac arrest in Ramban district after casting his vote, officials said. A total of 1,029 candidates are in the fray in 263 wards in Kathua, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Reasi, Doda and Ramban districts of Jammu region and in Anantnag, Kupwara, Srinagar, Baramulla, Bandipora, Badgam and Kulgam districts of the Valley. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is also boycotting the elections. Separatists have called for a protest shutdown in areas where voting is scheduled in the Valley. Militants have issued threats to the candidates and asked voters to keep away from the balloting that would end at 7 p.m. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah raised questions over the rescheduling of election timings. "Why are polling booths opening at 6 a.m.? If I believed conspiracy theories, I would believe it's because journalists would not be around to verify the genuineness of voters at that very early hour," he tweeted. The total electorate on Wednesday is 346,980: 128,104 in Jammu division and 218,876 in the Valley. The third and the fourth phases of the municipal polls would be held on October 13 and 16. The vote count will take place on October 20. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Union Cabinet on Wednesdaty approved the merger of two regulatory institutions into the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) in order to improve skilling standards and the market relevance of skill development programmes. The National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) and the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) will be merged into the NCVET, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media. "The NCVET's main objective will be to improve standards of skilling in the country," he said. The NCVET will regulate the functioning of entities engaged in vocational education and training, both long- and short-term, and establish minimum standards for the functioning of such entities. The primary functions of the NCVET will include recognition and regulation of awarding bodies, assessment bodies and skill-related information providers, and approval of qualifications developed by awarding bodies and Sector Skill Councils. The Minister said there was a great demand globally for skilled workforce from India. He said there was a need for digital skilling as well. Prasad said that 14,000 accredited industrial training institutes and 13,000 other (non-accredited) centres in the country needed "regulatory oversight". The new council will lend credibility to vocational education and training, encouraging greater private investment and employer participation in the skills space. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved closure of Kolkata-based Biecco Lawrie Limited (BLL), after several attempts to revive the loss-making company failed, an official statement said. The CCEA also approved the proposal to give voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and voluntary separation scheme (VSS) to the employees of the state-run company. The company, set up in 1919 as British India Electric Construction Co Ltd, ran four business operations - switchgear manufacturing, electrical repair, projects division, and lube blending and filling facility. The company has consistently been under financial stress and making losses for the last several years. The accumulated loss at Rs 153.95 crore on March 31, 2018 was higher than its equity, resulting in a negative net worth of Rs 78.88 crore, the government said. "The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas took various steps for the revival of the company from time to time. However, the company could not be revived. Further, there appeared no possibility of revival of the company considering the competitive business environment as well as huge capital requirement," statement added. Continued loss has made further operations of the company unviable and also resulted in substantial distress to officials and staff due to uncertain future, the government said. The idling assets of the company will be put into productive use after meeting all the liabilities in accordance with the extant guidelines of the government, it said. BLL is a Central Public Sector Enterprise, with 67.33 per cent and 32.33 per cent equity shares held by Oil Industry Development Board and Government of India, respectively. The remainder 0.34 per cent shares are held by others. New Delhi, Oct 10 : China and India need to deepen their cooperation to fight trade protectionism, the Chinese Embassy here said on Wednesday, as it accused the US of provoking trade disputes by adopting a unilateral approach. "As the two largest developing countries and major emerging markets, China and India are both in the vital stage of deepening reform and developing economy and both need stable external environment," said Counsellor Ji Rong, the Embassy spokesperson. Ji was replying to media queries relating to the trade row between the US and China. "Practicing unilateral trade protectionism in the name of 'national security' and 'fair trade' will not only affect China's economic development but also undermine the external environment of India and hinder India's booming economy," he said. "China and India share common interests in defending the multilateral trading system and free trade." The trade war between Washington and Beijing escalated in September, with US President Donald Trump imposing $200 billion tariff on Chinese imports. Beijing responded with tariffs on $60 billion of American imports. Neither of the world's two largest economies are showing signs of backing down and there are no further trade talks scheduled to resolve the dispute. The US had threatened to impose additional tariffs of $260 billion on Chinese imports in case of Beijing's retaliation. "Under the current circumstances, China and India need to deepen their cooperation to fight trade protectionism," Ji said, adding that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi "spoke with one voice" to safeguard the multilateral trading system and free trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Facing unilateralism and bullying activities, China and India have more reasons to join efforts to build a more just and reasonable international order," he added. Slamming Washington, the Embassy spokesperson said the US "should reflect on its own practice of interfering in the internal affairs of developing countries such as China and India under the pretext of human rights and religious matters". He asked Trump to become a "trusted partner" of the developing countries. "What we are firmly against is attempts to use the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter China. We are looking forward to the US taking concrete steps to become a trusted partner of the developing countries." Ghaziabad, Oct 10 : The wife and the elder daughter of an officer with the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) committed suicide in their house here following a domestic row, police said on Wednesday. Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna said Prema Bist, 46, hanged herself from the ceiling fan of a room while her daughter, 28, was found dead with injury marks on her throat. Prema was married to Balwant Singh Bist and the incident took place in Nyay Khand in Indirapuram. The dead daughter worked with a company in Greater Noida. Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said the police found a suicide note written by the mother, addressed to her younger daughter Monika, who works in Gurugram: "Please excuse me for this harsh step. I love you too much. Take care of yourself and settle (down) after finding a good boy. I didn't want to leave you alone but I am forced by circumstances to do so. I will protect you from all miseries. I will be present whenever you remember me." Kumar said the suicide note indicated that the two committed suicide under severe stress. Balwant Singh and Monika left home at 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday. In the evening, at 5, when Balwant Singh telephoned his home and didn't get any reply, he alerted a friend who found the house gate locked. It was broken when Balwant Singh reached home. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the closure of National Jute Manufactures Corporation Ltd (NJMC) and its arm Birds Jute and Exports Ltd (BJEL). The government made a lot of effort in the past 25 years to keep these two companies up and running. The private operators that came also fled. Hence, "the Cabinet has decided to shut down these two companies," Union Law Minister Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here after a Cabinet meeting. NJMC has been incurring losses for several years and was under reference to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) since 1993, said a statement from the nodal Ministry of Textiles. The company's primary product was hessian jute bags, used for packaging of food grain. Over the years, the demand for hessian bags has shrunk. Therefore, it is no longer commercially viable to run NJMC. "Looking at its past performance, market conditions and the competition from plastics and the capacity of private jute mills, it was noted that NJMC would not be in a position to recoup its negative net worth through operational profits. Also, NJMC has no staff or workers on its rolls. Hence, the closure," the statement added. BJEL, too, has no staff and as the factory is not in operation, closure does not have any adverse implications, the Ministry said. "The proposal will help in closing loss-making companies and ensuring release of valuable assets for productive use, or for generating financial resources for developmental progress," it added. The land available with both the companies will be put to public use or other government use for an overall development of the society, it said. Photo: The Canadian Press Tuesday's pipeline explosion near Prince George risks cutting off the flow of Canadian natural gas to Washington State. Doug Stout of FortisBC said Wednesday that 85 per cent of the gas his company feeds to homes and businesses is carried by the twinned Enbridge pipeline that runs from northern B.C. to the Seattle area. The damaged pipeline connects to the Northwest Pipeline system, which feeds Puget Sound Energy in Washington State and Northwest Natural Gas in Portland. Puget Sound Energy is urging its 750,000 customers to lower their thermostats and limit hot water use at least through Wednesday. No one was hurt when the fireball lit up the sky near the community of Shelley, northeast of Prince George, about 5:30 p.m. As many as 700,000 customers in B.C. could be directly affected by the shortage, Stout said. Stout urged another 300,000 customers in the Okanagan and southeastern British Columbia, to conserve even though their natural gas comes from Alberta. Mumbai, Oct 10 : Indian film trade expert Santosh Singh Jain died here on Wednesday at the age of 97, his family said. "Our family and film trade's patriarch Santosh Singh Jain left for his heavenly abode about at 4 a.m. today morning at his Bombay residence. He was 97. Jain saheb lived a legendary professional as well as personal life. We will always miss you Daddy," Harsh Jain, his great grandson, tweeted on Wednesday. Members of the film fraternity's trade network condoled the demise of Santosh Singh Jain, a former Central Circuit Cine Association (CCCA) President, and former President of the Film Federation of India. He had turned a year older on October 5. Writer-filmmaker Amit Khanna said he was the senior-most leader of the Indian film industry, where he worked as a producer, distributor, exhibitor and also a financier. "Jain saab your contribution to Indian film industry will never be forgotten. My respects. Rest in peace," Khanna said. Trade analyst Komal Nahta tweeted: "Very sorry to learn about demise of the extremely affable Shri Santosh Singh Jain... Film trade people remember him as the 'Bhishma Pitamah' of the industry. Survived by an entire trade which will grieve the death of a Superman. Santosh Singh Jain was also addressed as 'The Iron Man', said trade expert Atul Mohan. "Longest serving president of CCCA (34 years). May his soul rest in peace and guide us ahead," Mohan added. Agartala, Oct 10 : The Reang migrants from Mizoram, who have been sheltered in six relief camps in Tripura for over two decades and who were on the verge of repatriation, have urged the Centre to resume relief that has been stopped for the past 10 days, an official said on Wednesday. With the repatriation of 32,876 refugees from Tripura to Mizoram still hanging in the balance, the government had stopped providing them relief from October 1. It was aimed at compelling them to return to their villages in the neighbouring state from where they had fled 21 years back. The Reang refugees, comprising 5,407 families, have been staying in Tripura's Kanchanpur and Panisagar since October 1997 following ethnic tension after a Mizo forest official was killed. "The refugee leaders under the banner of Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh have urged the Centre to restart the supply of relief," the North Tripura District Administration official said. The five-page letter signed by 14 refugee leaders, was sent to Modi and Singh through North Tripura District Magistrate Raval Hamendra Kumar. Refugee leader and MBDPF General Secretary Bruno Msha said the refugees were willing to return to their villages in Mizoram but nine most vital basic and vital issues must be resolved before the repatriations. These include opening of bank accounts (only 44 bank accounts have been opened out of the required 5,500), issuing of Aadhaar cards (only 40 per cent refugees have the UIDAI cards), distribution of ration cards, enrolment of the refugees' names in Mizoram's electoral lists, and identification of villages where these refugees would be settled post-repatriations. "The refugees are now on the verge of starvation as their food and other essentials that were provided by the North Tripura district administration on September 29 and 30, are going to finish off in a day or two," the letter said. "Hunger-stricken people might hold protest rallies, block roads, loot nearby food go-downs to save their children and family members. The situation could deteriorate fast if the supplies are not immediately replenished," it added. According to an agreement signed on the repatriation on July 3 in New Delhi, where Rajnath Singh, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and his Mizoram counterpart Lal Thanhawla were present, a six-point benefit package for each refugee family was promised. It also included financial aid of Rs 4 lakh, a monthly allowance of Rs 5,000, Rs 1.5 lakh for building a house and free rations for two years. Given these benefits, the refugees had agreed to return to three Mizoram districts from August 16 or 17. But they later refused demanding security in Mizoram by central paramilitary forces and allotment of five hectares of land to each refugee family, besides the formation of an Area Development Council for the Reang tribals, locally called "Bru". Only around 180 refugees have returned to the Mizoram villages since September 19. New Delhi, Oct 10 : Bestselling author Chetan Bhagat, who has been facing a lot of flack after screenshots of his WhatsApp conversations were leaked on social media, asserted on Wednesday that he is being "attacked and vilified". "I want you to know that I am suffering because my name is being dragged into needless controversies, and my family and I are being harassed. In the garb of the #MeToo movement, which definitely has genuine cases, I am being attacked and vilified. Let me tell you upfront -- I am not a harasser. Never was, never will be," Bhagat said in an elaborate four-page statement. The bestselling author, whose latest book "The Girl in Room 105" released on Tuesday, said that the screenshots in question were of "a flirtatious, but friendly and polite conversation". He maintained that such "baseless allegations" affect his wife, 70-year-old mother, his elderly in-laws and his twin teenaged sons. "Each of them suffer in their own way," he added, before mentioning that #MeToo movement "is leading to some positive change". "Fine, suffer a bit if it is helping overall. I stopped promoting my new book, which I have worked on every day, for years. For the first time ever, I didn't even thank my readers on the launch day, even though I am flooded with literally hundreds of messages daily across my social media congratulating me. As if I am some convict, I am supposed to shut the hell up lest the mob unleash its fury," he added. The celebrity writer with a Twitter following of over 12.3 million further released three brief excerpts from a story by an "erotica writer", the woman who released his screenshots. The three samples, Bhagat maintained, were meant "to turn you on" and were "extremely explicit, it is porn, not erotica". He said that he asked her the questions he could have asked a writer like her anywhere --at a panel at a lit fest, for instance. "Cut to many years later - guess what? Chetan's name is being dragged through mud, let me join the party -- and she puts out those screenshots. Her buddies high-five her, without knowing any context, and she becomes a victim too," he added. In an apparent reference to the screenshots released, he said that "WhatsApp allows you to delete your own chats, making it seem the other side was doing all the talking". Bhagat said that the #MeToo movement has its "good parts" and has some "good people with genuine grievances". "I am with them. However, the movement is already getting corrupted and genuine survivors will suffer if people don't take it seriously," he said. Bhagat further said that he is "also going to stop feeling ashamed" and is now going to start talking about his new book, which he described as "a labor of love". "Please don't try to ride on my fame, spoil my moment and definitely, definitely do not hurt or harass my family," he said. Naypyidaw, Oct 10 : Three journalists from a local media group in Myanmar were arrested on Wednesday and charged with violating a law against publishing a report deemed to intentionally alarm the public. Editors from the Yangon-based Eleven Media Group -- Ko Nayi Min, Ko Kyaw Zaw Linn and Ko Phyo Wai Win -- were charged with violating section 505 (B) of the penal code, which prohibits the publication or circulation of any statement, rumour or report, with intent to cause "fear or alarm to the public", Efe news reported. The trio face up to two years in prison if found guilty. The Assistance Association of Political Prisoners said vague terms like "offence against the state" and "public tranquility" leave this section of the law open to abuse by authorities. The Eleven Media Group editors were charged over an article published on Monday which accused the regional authorities of misusing public funds in relation to the purchase of school buses. The group was sent to the same jail where Reuters journalists Ko Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were imprisoned following their trial that ended in September. The agency journalists' were convicted of breaching the Official Secrets Act while working on an investigative article on the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in Rakhine last year. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a MoU with Romania to promote tourism in India and Romania. The MoU was signed last month during Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu's visit. The objectives of the MoU include expanding bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector, exchange of information and data related to tourism as well as investments in the tourism and hospitality sectors, the government said in a statement. The MoU is also aimed at fostering film tourism. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Congress on Wednesday asked former Editor and Union Minister M.J. Akbar to either come clean following sexual harassment charges against him or resign. It also sought an independent probe into the charges against Akbar. "Akbar has a stature as a journalist, apart from being a Minister. He should offer a satisfactory explanation either through a statement or personally, or resign forthwith," Congress spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy told the media here. "How can he be in the Ministry with such serious allegations levelled by responsible journalists who have worked with him. Let there be an inquiry. We demand an inquiry against Akbar," said Reddy. At least six women journalists have accused Akbar, now the Minister of State for External Affairs, of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour when he was an Editor. The Congress also targeted the Modi government, including External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, for keeping mum on the issue. "We had hoped that women cutting across political lines will come out in support of these brave women who have now come out and revealed their ordeal and tragic stories. Unfortunately, Sushma Swaraj, to whom many look up to for inspiration, has chosen to stay quiet," said Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi. "It also raises a finger at the government that talks of women empowerment and safety but maintains a dubious silence on the matter," she said. While Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday ducked media queries on the allegations against Akbar, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday refused to answer any question other than those pertaining to Cabinet decisions including on Akbar and the #MeToo campaign. Chaturvedi also demanded an apology from BJP MP Udit Raj, who on Tuesday sought to question why women were coming out with their stories 10 years after the alleged incidents and dubbed it as the "beginning of wrong practice". "We strongly condemn Udit Raj's shameless comments. But considering the fact that his party (BJP) has refused to take cognisance of the remarks, it can be taken as an endorsement... Udit Raj should be made to apologise," added Chaturvedi. Jammu/Srinagar, Oct 10 : An overwhelming majority of 79.8 per cent of voters exercised their franchise in the second phase of staggered municipal elections in Jammu division on Wednesday while a mere 3.4 per cent voted in the troubled Kashmir Valley. The overall voter percentage in Jammu and Kashmir was 31.3 per cent, officials said. At nearly 80 per cent, Ramban district in Jammu division witnessed the maximum polling while only 1.1 per cent voters took part in the exercise in militancy-hit Anantnag district in the Kashmir Valley. The massive voting in Jammu region and poor voter turnout in the Valley was a repeat of the trend also seen in the first round of the four-phase battle. An overwhelming deployment of security forces ensured that the voting remained peaceful despite militant threats to disrupt the polls being boycotted by the two main parties in the Valley -- National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). There was visible reluctance among people to join the democratic process in the Valley. Two lone candidates were declared elected unopposed in Kulgam and Badgam districts. The second phase thus saw municipal polls only in 11 districts -- six in Jammu division and five in the Valley, where a separatist campaign raging since 1989 has left thousands dead. Jammu and Kashmir is holding municipal polls after 13 years. A Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, Azad Singh, died of cardiac arrest in Ramban immediately after casting his vote, officials said. A total of 1,029 candidates were in the fray in 263 wards in Kathua, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Reasi, Doda and Ramban districts of Jammu region and in Anantnag, Kupwara, Srinagar, Baramulla, Bandipora, Badgam and Kulgam districts of the Valley. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) also boycotted the elections. The main contestants are the Congress, the BJP and independents. Separatists called for a protest shutdown in areas where voting took place in the Valley on Wednesday. Militants had threatened candidates and asked voters to keep away from the balloting that would end at 7 p.m. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah raised questions over the rescheduling of election timings. "Why are polling booths opening at 6 a.m.? If I believed conspiracy theories, I would believe it's because journalists would not be around to verify the genuineness of voters at that very early hour," he tweeted. The third and the fourth phases of the municipal polls would be held on October 13 and 16. The vote count will take place on October 20. Mumbai, Oct 10 : Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, who enjoys huge popularity in China, has urged his "friends" in the country to watch his friend Rani Mukerji's "Hichki", which is releasing there on Friday. Aamir and Rani, who have starred together in "Ghulam" and "Talaash", have been friends for long. Now that her "Hichki" is set to release in China, Aamir has come forward to promote the film. "A very warm hello to all my friends in China. My friend Rani Mukerji an actress from India has done a film called 'Hichki', which I believe is releasing in China on October 12. Well, I want you to know that I have seen the film when it released here in India and it is a beautiful story and it's a great film, with wonderful performances by Rani and all the kids in it," Aamir said in a video uploaded on a Chinese social media platform. He added: "It's really heart-warming and uplifting film with a beautiful story... I hope that all of you will go and see the film and I hope that you enjoy it." Rani is currently in China to promote the movie, which has a progressive message of beating stereotypes. The promotions are happening across 5 cities in China -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu. In the movie, Rani essays Naina Mathur, a school teacher dealing with an involuntary nervous system disorder, Tourette Syndrome. Mysuru (Karnataka), Oct 10 : Software major's philanthropic arm Infosys Foundation would build houses in Karnataka's flood-hit Kodagu district at a cost of Rs 25 crore, Chairperson Sudha Murty said on Wednesday. "The Foundation will build houses in Kodagu, which was devasted by heavy rains, flash floods and landslides last month. We will spend Rs 25 crore to provide shelter to the flood victims whose houses collapsed or were washed away in the disaster," Murty said inaugurating the 10-day Dussehra festival here. The state government had invited Sudha, wife of Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, to flag off the world-famous Dussehra festival in this city of palaces, about 150km from Bengaluru. Asserting that it was the duty of the citizens to help the state government in restoring normalcy in the hill district, 68-year-old Sudha urged the authorities to ensure timely water and power supply, so that the affected people staying in the relief camps could shift when the new houses were ready for occupation. Torrential rains wreaked havoc in the district, causing floods and landslides, forcing thousands to leave their homes and reside in temporary shelters. The hill district in the rich bio-diverse Western Ghats is about 270km southwest of the state capital (Bengaluru). To help the flood victims, the Foundation on August 24 rushed 25,000 water bottles, steel utensils, mats, buckets and mugs for 250 families -- together worth over Rs 25 lakh. "I am grateful to Sudha Murty for announcing Rs 25 crore for the victims of Kodagu flood. A noble gesture indeed," tweeted state Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on the occasion. The Chief Minister, who was present at the fest inauguration, lauded Sudha for her simplicity, compassion and selfless work. Set up in 1996 by the company's co-founders and management executives with a seed capital for corpus, the Foundation supports programmes in healthcare, education and rural development, arts and culture and destitute care. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered sealing of Amrapali group's nine offices spread across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where account-documents relating to the group's 46 companies are kept. Seven of the nine offices are located in Noida and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, while two are in Bihar's Buxar and Rajgir districts. On Tuesday, the apex court had sent three directors, including the Chairman, of the real estate company to police custody for not making available accounts of the 46 companies to forensic auditors. If the entire exercise of sealing the aforesaid seven premises situated at Noida and Greater Noida is completed today, the presence of the three directors would not be insisted upon by the police, the court said. However, "If the exercise is not complete, the present status will continue, except that the three directors, instead of being put up in the lock-up, shall be kept at the police station itself." The court order came on a plea by the three directors - Anil Kumar Sharma (Chairman and Managing Director), Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar - that they not be put in a lock-up and be allowed to interact with their officials and lawyers so that the process of handing over of the documents was expedited. The court directed the respective district administrations to hand over the keys of the sealed office premises to the Registrar of the Supreme Court. The court posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday, asking the three directors to be present. Photo: BC Gov't Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee has a message of reassurance for Canadians who may fear that legalization of recreational marijuana next week will come with a wave of negative consequences: It's not as bad as you think. Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states to broadly legalize recreational marijuana in 2012 and Inslee says few of the concerns expressed at the time became a reality. Speaking to reporters at the Cascadia Innovation Conference in Vancouver, Inslee said the state has not seen an increase in crime, adverse health impacts or significant usage by young people as a result of decriminalization. However he said there's a need for more research on traffic related issues, as the state has struggled with impaired driving. Inslee says they have seen rise in chemicals in drivers' blood streams including alcohol, amphetamines and barbiturates, however there's no evidence that pot is the problem. Recreational marijuana will be legalized across Canada on Oct. 17. Ghaziabad, Oct 10 : A police officer in Ghaziabad shot himself dead with his service revolver early on Wednesday, police said. The incident occurred at Sub-Inspector Vijay Kumar Thenua's residence in Kavi Nagar police station compound. The police said that as Thenua, posted at the Kavi Nagar police station, shot himself, the gunfire was heard in the police station. The staffers rushed to his quarter where he was found lying unconscious with a gunshot injury in his head. The police rushed him to the Sarvodaya Hospital from where he was referred to Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital where doctors declared him dead. "The officer was under stress as he was facing a criminal case registered against him under section 307 of IPC," said Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna. Chandigarh/Jalandhar, Oct 10 : In a joint operation, the Punjab Police and Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday busted a terror module in Punjab's Jalandhar city with the arrest of three Kashmiri students linked to Kashmiri terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH). The police recovered an AK-47 assault rifle and explosives from them. The module also had links with the Pakistan-based international terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the police said. Senior Punjab Police officials, who were privy to the interrogation of the arrested Kashmiri students, said the module was planning terrorist activities in Punjab or Delhi during the forthcoming festive season (Dusshera-Diwali), Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora said in Chandigarh that the students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar city. The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early on Wednesday morning, also recovered two weapons, including an assault rifle as well as explosives from the hostel room of B. Tech (Civil) Student of second semester Zahid Gulzar of Rajpora. Zahid was detained along with Mohd Idriss Shah and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, both of Pulwama, a statement from the DGP said. Briefing the media in Jalandhar on Wednesday, Jalandhar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that the terror module was busted following sharing of intelligence by the Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir Police. He said that the arrested members of the module were being questioned and further details could not be shared at this stage. The Punjab Police had recently picked up a student, Gazi Ahmad Malik of Shopian (in Jammu and Kashmir), from Banur in Patiala district where he was studying in Aryans Group Polytechnic College. Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a J&K Special Police Officer (SPO) who had fled with seven rifles from the residence of a PDP MLA in Srinagar and was suspected to have joined the militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. Gazi was later handed over to J&K Police. The DGP said the arrests followed the development and corroboration of various leads and inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organisations and individuals operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. A case under sections 121, 121-A and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act and the Explosive Act has been registered, the statement said. "Further investigations are in progress and the Punjab Police is working closely with J&K Police to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and J&K," the DGP said. Arora said the busting of the terror module and the recovery of weapons in Jalandhar was indicative of efforts by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to expand the arc of militancy on India's western border. Chennai, Oct 10 : Stainless steel major Jindal Stainless Steel (Hisar) Ltd will soon commission its 50,000 tonne per annum (tpa) long products plant, said a senior official in the group on Wednesday. He said Jindal Stainless was planning to triple its share in the kitchenware/hollowware segment. "The stainless steel long and flat products go hand-in-hand. The entry into long products is part of our diversification. Further, the distribution channel for both stainless steel long and flat products are the same," Vijay Sharma, Senior Vice President, Head-Sales and Distribution (Domestic and Exports), told the media. The plant for stainless steel long products is being set up at Hisar where the company has its stainless steel flat products production facility, he said. "The long products plant will be ready for operation by the end of this fiscal. The investment for the new plant is about Rs 40 crore," Sharma said. On plans for kitchenware industry, Sharma said the group led the industry with the introduction of 200 series and will transform the industry by introducing high quality chrome-manganese product through the coil route. He said usage of stainless steel coil by the kitchenware makers would involve increased automation and increased share of the organised segment in the market. "We intend to triple our share in the next two years," Sharma said. The market size of Indian stainless steel flat products is estimated to be 25 lakh tonnes per annum which is growing at a steady rate of 9-10 per cent per annum. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the government to disclose details of the decision making process for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets in a fly-away condition from France's Dassault Aviation. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice K.M. Joseph clarified that the information sought was not related to pricing or suitability of the jets. The information should be furnished in a sealed cover and reach the court by October 29 -- the next date of hearing, the bench said. The court also made it clear that it was not issuing notice to the respondents. The court sought information from the government as Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said the purchase of the French fighter aircraft concerned the national security and described the petition as a "political interest litigation" which had been filed when the government and opposition were locked in severe political fight. Urging the court not to entertain the plea as the purchase of Rafale aircraft was not judicially reviewable, Attorney General said: "It is not a PIL but a 'political Interest Litigation' coming on the eve of elections to state assemblies of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram." The AG told the court that answers to the questions in Parliament were being selectively quoted to file the PIL which were politically coloured. In response to a query from Chief Justice Gogoi, "if we ask you to give details minus technical details", the AG said that this could not be shown to anyone given the national security and other issues of defence involved in it. Addressing the court, PIL petitioner advocate M.L. Sharma referred to the pricing of the aircraft that had been quoted at different points of time before different forums to drive the point that price being paid by India was high. He also took the court through the history of deal initially starting in 2008, involvement of a corporate house before finally the deal for purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft in a fit-to-fly condition was signed. However, the court asked another petitioner to limit his submission to the issues raised in his petition and not to "digress" from it. "Don't digress from the issue, we will not hear you", CJI Gogoi told the lawyer appearing for the other petitioner. Jaipur, Oct 10 : The Bharatiya Janata Party's Usha Punia, a former minister in the Rajasthan government, on Wednesday quit the party ahead of Assembly elections later this year. Punia was the Tourism Minister in the state government from 2003 to 2008, under the Chief Ministership of present incumbent Vasundhara Raje. In a letter to state BJP President Madanlal Saini, she said that the party office had been reduced to a "meet and greet" venue while the entire show was run from the Chief Minister's Office. "Even Jat leaders are being ignored," said Punia, who belongs to the Jat community. "The Jat community is feeling left out and hence it is difficult to continue as a member of this party," she said in the letter. Ranchi, Oct 10 : A tribal minor girl, who was tortured brutally by her employer in Delhi, died in a hospital here on Wednesday. The girl, who worked as a domestic help, was one of the 16 girls rescued from New Delhi and brought to Ranchi on September 25. The deceased, who hailed from Jharkhand's Godda district, had a pin inserted in her tongue so that she could not relate the brutality inflicted on her. "The girl, admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science, died on Wednesday. She had multiple injuries," said Arti Kujur, Chairperson of Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. According to doctors, she was also suffering from tuberculosis. Prabha Minj Muni, who was running a human trafficking racket, was arrested by Delhi Police last month and handed over to Jharkhand Police. The 16 girls rescued narrated horror stories of rape and physical violence. During investigation, it was revealed that Prabha ran an NGO that lured girls with promises of employment but "sold" them off. New Delhi, Oct 10 : In a mark of homage to his late wife, an Air Force veteran on Wednesday donated Rs 17 lakh to the school where she taught for 21 years. Wing Commander (retired) J.P. Baduni handed over the cheque to the Principal of the Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute at Subroto Park. He hoped the donation would help the deserving students to excel. Baduni's wife Vidhu Baduni worked as a primary teacher since 1986. She expired on February 6 due to a cardiac arrest. School Principal Poonam S. Rampal said that a part of the donation, Rs 10 lakh, would be used to award scholarships and prizes to meritorious students of classes 5 to 11 every academic year. The remaining amount would go towards infrastructure development of the school's primary wing. The money was exclusively from his wife's savings which she had accumulated over the years from the service rendered at the school. Ankara, Oct 10 : The Turkish media on Wednesday revealed the identities of 15 Saudi Arabian nationals who were allegedly involved in the disappearance of a Saudi journalist at his country's consulate in Istanbul a week ago. Jamal Khashoggi went to the Saudi consulate on October 2 for routine paperwork and never emerged, with Turkish press claiming the journalist was either kidnapped or murdered inside the consulate. Saudi Arabia has denied the charges. Turkish newspaper Sabah published the names of 15 Saudi citizens and images allegedly taken from security cameras at the two Istanbul hotels where they stayed as well as the times the group entered and left the country on the day of Khashoggi's disappearance. Another newspaper, Hurriyet, claimed that a forensic military doctor was among the group while NTV television network reported that the consulate's Turkish employees left the premises at lunchtime, just before Khashoggi entered, on the pretext that a meeting was to be held. The media claims remain speculation but the 59-year-old journalist's friend Turan KislakAi, a Turkish journalist, said he believed Khashoggi was killed for writing against the Saudi monarchy. Saudi Arabia has called the claims baseless but has not provided any security camera footage of Khashoggi leaving the consulate. On Tuesday, Turkey's Foreign Ministry announced that Turkish authorities were to search the Saudi consulate in Istanbul but did not specify when. Panaji, Oct 10 : Goa Governor Mridula Sinha did not respond to questions about Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's failing health, Congress MLA Chandrakant Kavlekar said on Wednesday, after a meeting at Raj Bhavan here. "We have been repeatedly seeking an update on the Chief Minister's health but nothing has come from anyone. Today, again we asked the Governor but there was no response to our query from her side," Kavlekar told reporters outside the Governor's House. The Leader of Opposition also said there was "so much confusion" about the health status of the former Defence Minister, who is currently being treated for advanced pancreatic cancer at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Science, where he was admitted last month. "From the government side some are saying that the Chief Minister's health is fine, but if that were the case, why is there practically no government in Goa? Why is law and order going bad, why is corruption on the rise?" Kavlekar said. On Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Rajesh Patnekar after a meeting with Parrikar in Delhi, said that the Chief Minister had assured him that he would be celebrating Diwali in Goa. A day earlier, another BJP MLA Michael Lobo had maintained that there was "no positivity" about Parrikar's health. The health of Parrikar has been a matter of public concern in Goa for the last eight months, ever since he was diagnosed for advanced pancreatic cancer in February. The former Defence Minister has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and Delhi over the last several months, even as the opposition has demanded his resignation for not being able to effectively head the BJP-led coalition government in the coastal state. There has been no medical advisory about the Chief Minister's health either by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) or the state unit of the BJP. The CMO in informal messages has maintained that Parrikar was recovering from a minor pancreatic ailment. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Centre has told the Assam government that members of the Gorkha community should not be treated as "illegal migrants" and only individuals who have come from specified territories included in Bangladesh before commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1985 can be referred to the Foreigners Tribunals if they are not Indian citizens. According to an official release on Wednesday, the Home Ministry sent a letter to Assam government on September 24 after a delegation from the All Assam Gorkha Students's Union recently met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and represented that some Gorkha community members living in Assam were referred to the Foreigners' Tribunals. The Home Ministry communication stated that the members of the Gorkha community, who were Indian citizens at the time of commencement of the Constitution or those who are Indian citizens by birth or those who have acquired Indian citizenship by registration or naturalization in accordance with the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955, are not "foreigners" in terms of section 2 (a) of The Foreigners Act,1946 as well as the Registration of Foreigners Act,1939. "Therefore, such cases will not be referred to the Foreigners Tribunals," said the communication. It further emphasized that any member of the Gorkha community holding Nepalese nationality and who has arrived in India by land or air over the Nepal border even without a passport or visa and staying in India for any length of time shall not be treated as an illegal migrant if he or she has any documents showing their Nepalese nationality. The individual should have identity documents like Nepalese passport, Nepalese citizenship certificate, voter identification card issued by the Election Commission of Nepal, limited validity photo-identity certificate issued by Nepalese Mission in India when deemed necessary. For the Nepalese children between age group of 10-18 years, the Home Ministry letter said, they should have photo ID issued by the principal of the school, or valid travel documents if accompanied by parents. No such document is required for children below the age group of 10 years, the communication added citing provisions of India-Nepal Treaty signed in 1950. It said the cases of members of Gorkha community falling within the parameters mentioned earlier should not be referred to the Foreigner Tribunals for opinion as to whether the person is a "foreigner" within the meaning of The Foreigners Act, 1946. The communication clarified that only those individuals, who have come from specified territories, including Bangladesh immediately before commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1985, to the State of Assam, and are not Indian citizens, can be referred to the Foreigners tribunals. A Home Ministry official said that there was no problem in Gorkhas coming and residing here, the problem is that they put their name for getting voter identity cards which is not correct. "They are citizens but cannot vote." He said that the names of Gorkhas or the individuals who are residing in Assam post 1950-51 were referred to the Foreigners Tribunals. The BrahMos engineer Nishant aggarwal who was arrested on Monday for spying for Pakistans intelligence agency ISI, was lured by Pak handlers with a hefty pay package, said a source who is the part of the probe his case. An official was quoted by The Indian Express as saying His interrogation has revealed that he was promised better job prospects by the handlers who posed as women and honey-trapped him. These accounts have been traced to Pakistan. The agencies are investigating that whether Aggarwal passed on sensitive data related to the supersonic cruise missile, Brahmos, to his handlers, who is from Pakistan. The official said that Aggarwal seem to have passed on information. Aggarwal seem to have shared some sensitive information in a coded form and we are trying to decode the same, the official was further quoted. The investigators are also ascertaining that whether there was any exchange of money between them. The official said While the money wouldnt have followed an official channel, but still his bank accounts will be probed to ascertain if there are unexplained funds deposits or transfers. Talking about the accuseds role, the official said Though he was working on a sensitive project that involved national security, he had put out his professional details, including his rank, profile, the nature of the job he handled on social media and professional networking website. This could have been picked up by those trying to look for potential contacts in the Indian defence establishment to get data on country technology. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights on Wednesday directed the head of a municipal school to produce by October 25 the procedure followed in assigning sections to students, after a news report said that the school seated Hindus and Muslims in separate sections. "The HoS (head of school) is directed to cause the production of the following information: the composition of classes before and after the reshuffling of classes in July, along with the attendance record of the last six months as evidence; the procedure followed by the school to assign sections to students; reasons for occurrence of this situation where shuffling happened in a manner that students of different religions were assigned different sections," the DCPCR notice said. It also recommended the NDMC Education Director to "constitute a committee to investigate the matter further and furnish before the Commission the details and sequence of events that took place which led to the said situation". The DCPCR also ordered that steps be taken to prevent a repeat of such a situation. The Indian Express on Wednesday reported that some teachers employed by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation have alleged that a primary school in Wazirabad was segregating Hindu and Muslim students into different sections. According to the attendance records of the school, the report claimed that as of October 9, the section-wise break up of students were: Class IA: 36 Hindus, IB: 36 Muslims; IIA: 47 Hindus, IIB: 26 Muslims and 15 Hindus, IIC: 40 Muslims; IIIA: 40 Hindus, IIIB: 23 Hindus and 11 Muslims, IIIC: 40 Muslims, IIID: 14 Hindus and 23 Muslims; IVA: 40 Hindus, IVB: 19 Hindus and 13 Muslims, IVC: 35 Muslims, IVD: 11 Hindus and 24 Muslims; VA: 45 Hindus, VB: 49 Hindus, VC: 39 Muslims and 2 Hindus, VD: 47 Muslims. Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia has also sought a report by Friday. "The act of dividing students on the basis of religion is the biggest conspiracy against the Constitution of the country by the BJP-governed MCD. I have ordered the Education Department to submit a report on the same by Friday," Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The revelations made by Lt. General Zameer Uddin Shah (retd) about the deployment of Army during the 2002 Gujarat riots "corroborates what we have been saying", Teesta Setalvad, the co-petitioner seeking a criminal trial of then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 other politicians and government officials for alleged "complicity" in the riots, said on Wednesday. "The account by Lt General Zameer Uddin Shah (retired) corroborates what we have been saying in the Zakia Jafri Case (still pending in the courts) since 2006," the 56-year-old civil rights activist told IANS in an email. She said that at the time of filing the complaint, on August 8, 2006, they had detailed "ground reports from the Gujarat state police", which included affidavits of police officers and home department records. She further said that all the investigation papers, 24,000 pages of records, were quoted in the Protest Petition filed before a Magistrate on April 15, 2013. "Now we have his (Shah's) account," she said. "SIT (Special Investigative Team) headed by R K Raghavan (today Ambassador to Cyprus) was a travesty of an investigation. It disregarded hard, contemporary documentary evidence. "Despite statements of Zakia Ahsan Jafri and myself (as co-petitioners) recorded in 2009, they did not record Zameer Uddin Shah's statement. Why not? Now it is left to the Courts of India to decide," she said. The SIT Enquiry Report was submitted in the case of Zakia Jafri and Anr. VS State of Gujarat and Ors. Of the 30 allegations made by Zakia Jafri, widow of late Congress legislator Ehsan Jafri -- who was killed in a mob attack in Gulbarg Housing Society -- No. XIV was that "there was an undue delay in requisition and deployment of Army". The SIT report, that had cleared Modi's name, had concluded that there was no delay "in requisition and deployment of the Army", based on testimony of Ashok Narayan, Additional Chief Secretary (Home). The SIT never called the Lt General for questioning. It looks apparent from its report that the SIT did not look at Shah's After Action Report submitted to the then army chief, Gen. S. Padmanabhan, which was later submitted to the central government. Raghavan, when contacted by IANS on the phone, said that he is "not prepared to talk". Questions sent to him and his attache at the Indian High Commission in Nicosia seeking his views on whether the Army or it's After Action Report was considered before reaching to the conclusion that there was "no delay in requisition and deployment of the Army" have not been answered so far. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in) New Delhi, Oct 10 : Guided missile destroyer INS Rana has reached Jeju in South Korea to participate in the International Fleet Review (IFR) being held from October 8 to 15, the Indian Navy said on Wednesday. The warship is currently on operational deployment to the northwest Pacific region in pursuance of India's 'Act East Policy'. During the seven-day visit, INS Rana, commanded by Captain Atul Deswal, will have a series of confidence-building engagements with Korean Navy and other foreign navies participating in the IFR. The ship will actively participate in the engagements related to IFR. A naval contingent will be part of the opening ceremony. The ship will also be a part of various other sports, cultural events and will host reception on board as per the IFR schedule, the Navy said in a release. Kolkata, Oct 10 : Struggling ATK will host last year's runners-up Bengaluru FC at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan on October 31 instead of December 13, the Indian Super League (ISL) announced on Wednesday. "Bengaluru FC's next home game scheduled this month end against ATK has now been swapped as the home game for two-time champions. The change was necessitated due to Karnataka State Government's requirement of Sree Kanteerava Stadium ground in preparation for Kannada Day," the organisers said in a statement. ATK will now travel to Bengaluru on December 13 to play their away game at the Kanteerava Stadium. After losing their opening two games at home, ATK are at the foot of the table while Bengaluru are at fourth place after two matches, having won one and drawn the other. New Delhi, Oct 10 : Minister of State (MoS) for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel on Wednesday inaugurated the Online Assurances Monitoring System (OAMS), developed by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry (MoPA). This system has made the information regarding assurances given on the floor of the Houses of Parliament paperless and available in digital format. Ministers, while giving replies to questions or making statements in Parliament, give assurances on the floor of the House. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs culls out such assurances from the House proceedings and sends the extract of those assurances to the concerned ministries for their fulfilment. "With the inauguration of OAMS, all assurances being culled out by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs through e-Office would be reflected on this system and various ministries/ departments, and Lok Sabha Secretariat and Rajya Sabha Secretariat would communicate for all purposes through this system," Goel said. This would encompass various actions related to Parliamentary Assurances including sending implementation reports, request for dropping, request for extension and decision etc. Any physical communication would not be accepted from now on, he said. "A number of problems arise in the process of fulfilment of assurances due to human factors and non-compliance of guidelines. Three different modules in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs were running, leading to mismatch of data. "Hence, the need arose for an online assurances monitoring system to track the exact status of pending assurances and expedite their fulfilment," the Minister said. Since 2007, a total of 26,830 assurances given by the ministers on the floor of the Houses were culled out by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, out of which 21,439 assurances have been fulfilled and 1,903 dropped, leaving a total of 3,488 assurances still pending for compliance. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Delhi government on Wednesday requested the High Court to allow it to purchase 500 standard-floor buses that can ply in the city's outskirts where the roads are poor. The court reserved its order on the plea. The government told a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao that the standard-floor buses, proposed to be procured, were disabled-friendly. These buses have hydraulic lifts, which will help the differently-abled people easily board and deboard. The proposed purchase has been opposed by one Nipun Malhotra, a differently-abled person, who has contended that standard-floor buses were not disabled-friendly, as they were mounted on a truck chassis, and their height made it difficult for such people to board the vehicle. In his plea, he has sought directions to the Delhi government to make the city's roads, government offices, and public transport friendly to the differently-abled people. Canberra, Oct 10 : Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended leaked proposals to let religious schools discriminate against gay students, saying that the proposals were already "existing law" in some states. Schools in some Australian states can already reject staff if they are gay. The new proposals would apply nationwide, the BBC reported. Morrison was commenting on the contents of the leaked report on religious freedom, reigniting debate about what constituted unlawful discrimination against gay people just months after Australia's Parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage. Fairfax Media reported on Wednesday that it had seen contents of the report, which recommended amendments to a federal law that allows religious schools to discriminate against students "on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status". Asked if he thought religious schools should be able to turn away students on the basis of sexual orientation, Morrison replied, "that is the existing law". Schools would have to make their policies on gay staff and students public, the proposals reportedly said. Morrison said the proposals, which were not yet debated by Cabinet, would be considered "carefully and respectfully". Shadow Education Minister Tanya Plibersek told ABC it was a "disturbing proposition". "What kind of adult wants to turn away a child, wants to reject a kid because they are gay?" she said. Critics, including civil liberty groups, members of the opposition Labour Party and gay rights advocates, said the government should not be proposing avenues for discrimination. "The fact of the matter is that every child is entitled to human dignity. We shouldn't even be having this debate," said opposition leader Bill Shorten. According to Fairfax, the panel rejected the idea put forward by Australian conservatives that religious freedom was in "imminent peril". It also found that businesses should not be allowed to refuse service to customers on religious grounds because it would "unnecessarily encroach on other human rights" and "may cause significant harm to vulnerable groups," Fairfax reported. Morrison said the report would be released "in due course". San Francisco, Oct 10 : WhatsApp has understood to have fixed a bug in its Android and iOS mobile app that allowed the hackers to let the app crash during incoming video calls. According to a report in ZDNet on Wednesday, Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which has over 1.5 billion users, fixed the vulnerability this week. It is yet to be known how many users were affected. The company is yet to issue a statement on this. Natalie Silvanovich, a security researcher with Google's Project Zero security research team, discovered the bug in WhatsApp video call. "Heap corruption can occur when the WhatsApp mobile application receives a malformed RTP packet," Silvanovich said in a bug report. "This issue can occur when a WhatsApp user accepts a call from a malicious peer," she added. Memory corruption bug was found in WhatsApp's "non-WebRTC" video conferencing implementation. "Last week, Israel's cyber-intelligence agency sent out an alert about a new hacking technique that relied on poorly secured voicemail inboxes to hijack WhatsApp accounts from their legitimate owners," said the report. In the biggest-ever security breach after Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook last month admitted that hackers broke into nearly 50 million users' accounts by stealing their "access tokens" or digital keys. Facebook security team discovered the security issue on September 25 which was later fixed. In the Cambridge Analytica scandal, data of nearly 87 million people was breached upon. New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Income Tax Department on Wednesday raided 16 residence and business premises linked to Delhi Minister Kailash Gahlot and his family members in the capital and Gurugram, prompting Aam Aadmi Party to call it a "political vendetta". Gahlot holds the charge of transport, law, revenue, information technology, and administrative reforms. "The raids relate to two companies -- Brisk Infrastructure and Developer Pvt Ltd, and Corporate International Financial Services Pvt Ltd - run by Gahlot and his family members," Income Tax Department spokesperson Subhi Ahluwalia told IANS. The raids were conducted at various locations, including Vasant Kunj, Paschim Vihar, Najafgarh and Gurugram. "There are two reasons that Gahlot is being targeted: First, Gahlot is leading AAP's legal defence in the case of disqualification of 20 MLAs. The Centre tried its level best to dismiss the membership of the AAP MLAs and conduct by-elections in Delhi," AAP's senior leader and East Delhi in-charge Atishi told media. "Second, Gahlot is responsible for the effective implementation of Delhi's revolutionary doorstep delivery scheme. He has been working on this project for a long time. Despite a lot of barriers created by the LG and other officials, the Delhi government was able to implement the programme in Delhi only because of his efforts," she said. She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah "are employing their signature dirty tricks, but Aam Aadmi Party will not succumb to these tactics". "It is not the first time that AAP has been targeted by the CBI. The Chief Minister's office was raided in December 2015, then Minister Satyendra Jain and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia's houses were raided," she said. The AAP, she added, will not be intimidated by such measures and will continue to work for Delhi and its people. Reacting on the raids, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi: "Friendship with Nirav Modi, (Vijay) Mallya, and raid on us? Modiji, you conducted raids on me, Satyendar (Jain) and Manish (Sisodia) as well. What happened to that? Did you get anything? Apologise to Delhi before conducting another raid on its elected government." New Delhi, Oct 10 : The Congress on Wednesday asked former Editor and Union Minister M.J. Akbar to either come clean following sexual harassment charges against him or resign. It also sought an independent probe into the charges against Akbar. "Akbar has a stature as a journalist, apart from being a Minister. He should offer a satisfactory explanation either through a statement or personally, or resign forthwith," Congress spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy told the media here. "How can he be in the Ministry with such serious allegations levelled by responsible journalists who have worked with him. Let there be an inquiry. We demand an inquiry against Akbar," said Reddy. At least six women journalists have accused Akbar, now the Minister of State for External Affairs, of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour when he was an Editor. The Congress also targeted the Modi government, including External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, for keeping mum on the issue. "We had hoped that women cutting across political lines will come out in support of these brave women who have now come out and revealed their ordeal and tragic stories. Unfortunately, Sushma Swaraj, to whom many look up to for inspiration, has chosen to stay quiet," said Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi. "It also raises a finger at the government that talks of women empowerment and safety but maintains a dubious silence on the matter," she said. While Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday ducked media queries on the allegations against Akbar, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday refused to answer any question other than those pertaining to Cabinet decisions including on Akbar and the #MeToo campaign. Chaturvedi also demanded an apology from BJP MP Udit Raj, who on Tuesday sought to question why women were coming out with their stories 10 years after the alleged incidents and had dubbed it as the "beginning of wrong practice". Meanwhile, three more women journalists came out with allegations of sexual harassment against Akbar. Journalists Ghazala Wahab, Saba Naqvi and Shutapa Paul narrated their ordeal of working under Akbar. Gazala Wahab wrote a piece in the news website `The Wire' narrating what she called was her "nightmare." "In my third year at the Asian Age, the office culture hit home. His eyes fell on me. And my nightmare began. My desk was shifted to just outside his cabin, perpendicularly opposite his desk, so that if the door to his room was left slightly open, I was face to face with him. He would sit at his desk and watch me all the time, often sending me lewd messages on the Asian Age intranet network. Thereafter, emboldened by my obvious helplessness, he started calling me into his cabin (the door to which he would always shut) for conversation, most of which was personal in nature. Things like my family background and how I was working and living alone in Delhi against the wishes of my parents," Wahab wrote in the article. Wahab wrote several instances when Akbar groped and held her in his office after closing the door. "I would enter his room, with the door slightly open and with my hand on the door knob. This amused him. Sometimes, he would walk over to the door and put his hand over mine; sometimes he would rub his body against mine; sometimes he would push his tongue against my pursed lips; and every time I would push him away and escape from his room," she wrote. She also had told the Asian Age Chief of Bureau, Seema Mustafa, about the editor's behaviour with her, who told her, according to Wahab, that it was "her call". Saba Naqvi, who wrote a piece in DailyO, talked about what she experienced in her first job. "I was dealing with a predator, who would have had a high success rate in pinning down his prey. His genius and talent was made an excuse for his behaviour but when the moral centre is hollow, even cleverness wears thin, as it has done with the Badshah." Naqvi said that she was writing the account to ensure that more male bosses are deterred from acting as sexual bullies. Shutapa Paul, then Kolkat correspondent for India Today narrated her account in a series of tweets. "MJAkbar told me how journalists working together often 'grew close' and things could happen between them. He told me I should accompany him on his foreign visits. I told him about my mother, my recently deceased father & the committed relationship I was in at that time." Seema Mustafa, who headed the reporting section in the Asian Age for ten years, and to whom Wahab complained against Akbar, expressed her personal opinion in a piece in the online magazine 'The`Citizen'. Mustafa is the editor-in-chief of the magazine. She said it was at the Asian Age that "one became aware of his growing interest in younger girls, and while many joined and stayed the course there were no complaint from the Bureau." She said it seemed to be a different story on the desk, as all his favourites -- male colleagues included -- were there and he would party with them, drink with them, mix with them while keeping a long distance from the Bureau. Referring to Wahab's account, she said it was "a case of total harassment and nastiness" by Akbar. "She says she spoke to me, and I am sure she is right. If she spoke to me she did not share the details as she has written them now. My full support and solidarity for Ghazala Wahab who had obviously gone through hell and has come out of it," Mustafa said. She said Wahab's article had given the proof of Akbar's behaviour for which he needs to lose his job. A Bangladeshi court on Wednesday sentenced, Bangladesh's former-PM Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman and 18 others a life term imprisonment in 2004 grenade attack case. In the grenade attack the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina was bombed, that killed 24 other people and injured 500 others. #UPDATE A Bangladesh court sentenced 19 people to death and sentenced Bangladesh former prime minister Khaleda Zia's son Tarique to life imprisonment in 2004 grenade attack case: Bangladesh media https://t.co/J1qywqEXtV ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 Hasina, now the prime minister of Bangladesh survived in the attack with a partial hearing loss. The attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 was targeted on Sheikh Hasina. Rahman was among 49 people tried over the 2004 grenade attack. The court has ordered 19 sentenced to death in 2004 Grenade Attack Case. "We thank God for the verdict," prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain told reporters after announcing that Tarique Rahman, was sentenced to life behind bars. "We hoped that Tarique Rahman would get the death sentence," he said, adding the court observed that Rahman played a key role in the attack. Former state minister for home (Bangladesh) Lutfozzaman Babar is among 19 people who were sentenced to death by the court on Wednesday, reported Economic Times. Security was tight with police and the elite Rapid Action Battalion outside the court during the hearing and other key places in the capital. Also read: Pakistan: Lt General Asim Munir appointed the new Director General of Pakistan's ISI Chennai, Oct 10 : Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said that Mahatma Gandhi's thoughts have eternal value and are relevant for all times. He was addressing the 34th Convocation of the Gandhigram Rural Institute in Dindigul in Tamil Nadu. Dindigul is about 430 km from here. Urging teachers, doctors, engineers and other professionals to take pride in service in rural areas, Naidu said such service would help them to understand the hardships faced by poor people. The Vice President argued in favour of providing basic amenities in rural areas on par with urban areas. He insisted that one cannot be denied basic amenities just because he or she was living in a remote area. According to him, the governance and administration should be such that the last person living in the remotest part of the country should have access to services. "It is our duty to see that the gap between rural and urban areas is bridged at the earliest." The Vice President presented degrees to students on the occasion. He also conferred Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa) on Krishnammal Jagannathan for her lifelong contribution to social justice and sustainable human development and Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) on Dr. R. Kausalya Devi for her work in the field of medicine and social service in rural India. More than 500 students, faculty members and parents of graduating students were present. Kolkata, Oct 10 : Instakart Services, a part of the online e-commerce major Flipkart, is set to invest Rs 991 crore for setting up a logistics hub in West Bengal, a Minister said on Wednesday. "The company proposes to invest Rs 991 crore for setting up a logistic park at our Haringhata Industrial park which has road network advantage and is near the airport. According to the detailed project report, it will provide 18,310 jobs," Finance, Commerce and Industries Minister Amit Mitra said. West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), in its board meet on Wednesday approved in principle the company's proposal, which will now go to the Cabinet standing committee for its nod, he said. The state government has about 358 acres of land at an industrial park, of which the company will be provided around 100 acres at Rs 63.49 lakh per acre, Mitra said adding that it will act an as anchor investor in the park. New Delhi, Oct 10 : Following up on the Supreme Court verdict regarding the criminal antecedents of candidates, the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday amended rules for declaration of criminal cases/ liabilities by the candidates and came out with a format for publishing media advertisement by them ahead of elections. The candidates as well as the political parties will now have to publicise the details of criminal cases pending against them or cases in which they have been convicted, in newspapers and on television on "at least on three different occasions". "The candidates at elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council, who have criminal cases against them, shall publish a declaration about their criminal cases for wide publicity in newspapers with wide circulation in the constituency area," the EC said in an order sent to the Chief Electoral Officers of all states and UTs as well as to all political parties separately. The declaration is to be published in a given format "at least on three different dates" from the day following the last date for withdrawal of candidatures and up to two days before the date of poll. However, in the case of the declaration in TV channels, the same should be completed "before the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for conclusion of poll", the EC said. The declaration in newspapers should be published in font size of at least 12 and should be placed suitably in the newspapers so that the directions for wide publicity are "complied with in letter and spirit". "In the case of candidates with criminal cases set up by political parties, whether recognized parties or registered un-recognized parties, such candidates are required to declare before the Returning Officer (RO) concerned that they have informed their political party about the criminal cases against them. Provision for such declaration has been made in Form-26 in the newly inserted Item (6A)," the EC said. The candidates will have to submit the copies of the newspapers to the District Election Officer (DEO) concerned, along with the "account of election expenses to be filed by them under Section 78 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951", the EC said. "It may also be noted that the provisions for the additional affidavit in respect of dues against government accommodation, if any, that may have been allotted to the candidates, have now been incorporated in Form-26 itself under Item (8) relating to liabilities to public financial institutions and government," the Commission said. Rome, Oct 10 : Europe must save migrants and uphold their human rights and international law, Italy's Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi and his Norwegian counterpart Ine Eriksen Soreide said. "People must be rescued," Moavero told reporters at a joint press conference with Eriksen Soreide after talks with her at the Foreign Ministry in Rome on Tuesday. "Those who have the right to asylum should be given shelter as a refugee while the others must be saved and possibly repatriated," he said. Eriksen Soreide agreed with Moavero that European Union states should respect migrants' human rights under international law and take part in a European solution to migration. "The challenge is too big for one country to take on alone," she said. Norway took part in past European responses to the migration crisis and will continue to do so in future, Eriksen Soreide underlined. "Our position is clear: international obligations and human rights must be respected," Eriksen SAreide underlined. Hyderabad, Oct 10 : BJP President Amit Shah on Wednesday alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao advanced the Telangana Assembly polls as he was afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity. Addressing an election meeting in Karimnagar, he said the Assembly elections should have been held in April-May next year along with the Lok Sabha polls but the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief imposed a burden of hundreds of crores on people by going for early polls. Urging people to give a chance to the BJP in the state, Shah promised that they would make Telangana a developed state like other BJP-ruled states and liberate it from what he called the "clutches of (MIM leader Asaduddin) Owaisi". He also targeted KCR for not implementing Ayushman Bharat scheme launched by the Centre to provide health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh each to the poor families. He alleged that KCR was afraid that if this scheme implemented, Modi would become more popular. Shah also slammed the TRS chief for not honouring the promises made in 2014 Assembly elections. "I have a list of 150 promises made by KCR. None of them were fulfilled," he said. He recalled that KCR went back on his promise to make a Dalit the Chief Minister. "He will not do it even now because Dalits are not on his agenda. His agenda is to make his son or daughter the Chief Minister." The BJP chief alleged that KCR stopped celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day due to fear of Owaisi. He promised that if voted to power, the BJP will celebrate the day on a grand scale. Criticising TRS government's move to provide 12 per cent reservation to minorities, Shah said this would cut into the quotas of OBCs, SCs and STs. The BJP leader said that the Congress and Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party can't be alternatives to the TRS. He said even if they come to power they will not be able to fight Owaisi. "Neither KCR nor Rahul Gandhi or Chandrababu Naidu fight Owaisi. Only te BJP can fight against Owaisi," Shah said while repeatedly mentioning the name of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) chief and Hyderabad MP. The BJP chief said neither KCR family nor Rahul Gandhi and his party can ensure Telangana's development. "They are all busy in 'break in India' while the Prime Minister is busy in 'Make in India'," he said. He claimed that while the BJP was for driving out infiltrators from the country, the Congress, TRS, TDP, Communists and others want them to stay. Appealing to the people to bring back Modi government to power at the Centre, Shah promised that it would throw out every infiltrator. Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, BJP's state chief K. Laxman, former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and other leaders also addressed the public meeting. New Delhi, Oct 10 : In the backdrop of controversies surrounding significant government decisions, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said constitutional authorities like the CAG should not fail in holding the government accountable for decisions such as demonetisation, GST and defence purchases. His remarks came amid Congress twice petitioning the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for auditing the Rafale deal which it claims is a scam that caused huge loss to the public exchequer. Kharge, who is also Public Accounts Committee chairman, also made a veiled attack on former CAG Vinod Rai who had computed that the alleged 2G scam led to a presumptive revenue loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer. Addressing the 29th Conference of Accountants General, Kharge pointed to the crisis-hit Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) and supported the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) auditing public private partnership (PPP) projects. "The public should not be left wondering why constitutional authorities are failing to hold the government accountable to decisions that cause severe economic distress such as demonetization or GST or decisions that involve huge amounts of public money like defence purchases," he said. "Unless the government is forced to spell out the outcomes when it launches its schemes, no one would be able to hold it accountable. We have seen how governments shift the goalposts, once failures become apparent. For example, during demonetisation, the government kept changing what the objective of the scheme was," said the Congress leader. "It is time that the government is made accountable for the outcomes of its schemes," he said welcoming the CAG introducing "Outcome Based Audit" under which the auditor will assess the results of government's various policies and scheme. "There are a few in the government who look upon the CAG as someone who does "post-mortem analysis" and acts as a hindrance to decision making. This should not deter the CAG from holding the government accountable," said Kharge. "As a constitutional body, the CAG's reports should not be based on presumptions or assumptions that cast aspersions on other public servants. A populist report that seeks to build reputation of one institution by undermining public's faith in another would serve neither," said Kharge whose party had demanded Rai to apologise after a court acquitted all the accused in the 2G case. He also expressed his reservation over the CAG coming out with hundred reports annually saying most of them suffer from little publicity, unless there is a political interest in a report. Kharge said new challenges were emerging for the CAG in cases of PPP projects where public money is used to "privatise profits but socialise losses". "The PAC has always been keen that PPP projects come under the CAG. Recent events with respect to IL&FS or LIC show how PPP models without oversight can put the country's financial system at risk," he added. New Delhi, Oct 10 : As a part of on going Australia Fest 2018, five Australian designers' collections were showcased at Lotus Make-Up India Fashion Week on Wednesday. The Australian designers collaborated with the highly skilled textile artisans across India and promoted cultural exchange at the gala through their collection. The Indo-Australian Project have been created with stunning handloomed textiles and artisan embellishments through Artisans of Fashion's artisan partners. The main aim of the project was to promote cultural sustainability, authenticity and social change for village artisans in India; with a specific focus on empowering women and marginalised communities who have little access to alternative sources of income. "We are kindred", "Cassandra Harper", "Romance was born", "Brothers Earth" and "Roopa" were five Australian fashion labels which displayed their collection at the gala. The collection was the amalgamation of Indian and Australian fashion, imparting cross-culture vibes through the outfits. Australia's High Commissioner to India Harinder Sidhu attended the event. Models walked down the ramp in a gamut of fabulous Indo-western ensembles ranging from Banarasi skirts, western tops, denim shirts with Indian stone work and gowns with heavy use of embellishments, glitter and sparkle. New Delhi, Oct 10 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will attend the 17th Council of Heads of Government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to be held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on October 11-12, it was announced on Wednesday. According to a statement issued by the External Affairs Ministry, Sushma Swaraj will participate in the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, both in the restricted as well as extended formats. "The leaders will be discussing prospects for further development of SCO and will exchange in-depth views on current international and regional issues," the statement said. The SCO is a Eurasian inter-governmental organisation, the creation of which was announced in 2001 in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism. India, along with Pakistan, was granted full membership of the bloc in June last year. Mumbai, Oct 10 : The Producers Guild of India has appointed Sneha Rajani, Head, Sony Pictures Networks Productions, to lead a committee to address the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace within the film industry. "The Producers Guild of India is committed to work towards making workplaces in the industry safe spaces for everyone. In this regard, a special committee has been instituted within the Guild to address the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace within our industry," read a statement issued on Wednesday. The committee also includes industry experts Apoorva Mehta, Ekta Kapoor, Fazila Allana, Jyoti Deshpande, Kiran Rao, Kulmeet Makkar, Madhu Bhojwani, Priti Shahani, Rohan Sippy, Siddharth Roy Kapur and Vijay Singh. The first meeting of the committee was held on Wednesday. It was resolved to immediately ensure the members of the Guild were sent a copy of the Gazette of India with notifications issued on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace, so that they may implement these practices in their establishments at the earliest, if they have not done so already.A They decided to organize specialised workshops with the support of professional agencies, to guide members in how to implement robust processes and best practices to deal with sexual harassment at their workplaces - whether in their offices or on the sets of their productions.A The Guild will also organize multiple sessions of these workshops over the coming weeks and months, to enable all members and their teams to participate.A The special committee that has been set in place will meet frequently in the coming days to ensure that this is an ongoing and sustained effort, that will lead to a safer environment for all members of our industry, the statement read further. This move comes in the wake of the #MeToo movement, triggered in Bollywood two weeks by the resurgence of Tanushree Dutta's allegation that Nana Patekar sexually harassed her on the set of a film 10 years ago. A slew of actors and comedians have been named and shamed. Chandigarh, Oct 10 : The hazardous stubble burning and the ensuing environmental and health concerns linked to it were highlighted at a one-day workshop held here on Wednesday. Bharatiya Kisan Union's (BKU) president Balbir Singh Rajewal said farmers are becoming soft targets and are being bullied to shift from their traditional ways of crop management. "The subsidies being offered -- 50 per cent for individual farmers and 80 per cent for cooperative societies for the machinery -- are no longer supporting the farmer as the prices of the machines have gone up. Intervention for a forceful shift to introduce crop diversity and stubble management have failed so far," Rajewal pointed out. Addressing the gathering, Punjab's chief principal secretary Suresh Kumar said: "Punjab's farmers are the worst hit despite, and due to the policies and schemes of the Green Revolution. Penalising and arresting farmers without addressing their concerns is not something a democratically elected government should be encouraging." Experts opined that stubble burning is one of the key sources responsible for the severe air pollution levels in Delhi and its neighbouring states during winters. In the last few days, since the onset of the crop residue burning, the air quality in Delhi and regions across the Indo-Gangetic plain, has moved to the poor and very poor category, it was pointed out. Gulshan Rai, chief engineer, Punjab Pollution Control Board, appealed to farmers and the citizens not to burn the paddy straw. New Delhi, Oct 10 : Budget passenger carrier IndiGo on Wednesday said it has withdrawn an A320 aircraft from service after it suffered an engine snag in route from Bangalore to Ahmedabad on October 8. According to the airline, the incident occurred on October 8, when flight 6E 452 from Bangalore to Ahmedabad returned to Bangalore. "During the flight the Captain observed loss of indication of engine no. 1 oil pressure. The pilot followed his procedures and landed back to Bangalore VT-IVB was withdrawn from service for further checks at Bangalore," the airline said in a statement. "Another aircraft was routed to operate this sector." New Delhi, Oct 10 : A new notification being issued by University Grants Commission (UGC) will help students in getting admission in higher institutions without submitting original academic and personal certificate at the time of submission of admission forms, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday. The Minister said the students would also be able to get the fees paid as refund if they opt out of the programme. "From the next academic session, it will become mandatory for students to submit self-attested academic credentials along with admission form," Javadekar said while briefing media about the new notification. At the time of admission, the college will verify the original marksheet but will return the original document to the student. As per the new notification, 100 per cent fees would be returned in case a student decides to withdraw within 15 days of the notified last date of admission. "Not more than 5 per cent of the fees paid by the student, subject to a maximum of Rs 5,000 would be deducted as processing fee," Javadekar said. Within 15 days before the last date, the refund would 90 per cent, within 15 days after the last date of admission, it would be 80 per cent and between 16 and 30 days after the due date, the refund would be 50 per cent. However, no fees would be returned if a student withdraws after 30 days of the notified last date of admission. The refund has to be made within 15 days of receipt of written application from the student, Javadekar said. If the institute fails to refund the fee, strict punitive action will be taken by the UGC against defaulting higher education institutions. The notification shall be applicable to undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes run by universities and deemed universities. New Delhi, Oct 11 : A first-year polytechnic student was arrested on Wednesday by Delhi Police for murdering his parents and sister in a south Delhi locality early on Wednesday. The police said the youth was angry with his family members for repeatedly taunting him for being "useless." "The accused has been identified as Suraj, 19. He was arrested after confessing to his crime. He repeatedly changed his statements none of which matched with the evidence found from the spot," Deputy Commissioner of Police Devender Arya said. Mithilesh and Siya, a couple in their 40s, and their daughter Neha, 16, were found dead in a Vasant Kunj area in early morning hours. The police said during investigation, Suraj cooked up a story. He showed himself as a victim and informed his neighbours that some robbers had barged from an adjacent building into his house. They reportedly attacked him with a heavy object making him unconscious, Arya said. "When he came to --as per a version put out by Suraj -- he found his sister and parents dead with multiple stab injuries. He raised alarm and informed his neighbors --Pinto and Atul," the officer said. The neighbours entered their house around 4.30 a.m. and informed the local police after finding Mithilesh, Siya and Neha lying in a pool of blood. The neighbours told the police that they heard Suraj, 19, shouting for help from the balcony of their apartment on the first floor. "He was heard shouting that masked robbers had attacked his family members and ransacked the house," the officer said. "A first-year polytechnic student from a Gurugram private college, Suraj was found changing his statements. On sustained interrogation, he broke down and confessed to his crime. He said his parents and younger sister teased him for being poor in studies. His father often beat him up for his bad habits," he added. "Infuriated at being regular rebuked by his family members, Suraj hatched a plan to kill his family members and bought a knife and a pair of scissors," said the police officer. "From footage of a CCTV installed near the residences and a shop, the police team found a girl and youth walking around the street. The youth appeared to be waiting for someone for an hour around 1 a.m. They could be involved in helping the accused. Efforts are on to identify them," he said. The police are also checking Suraj's phone and laptop. Woolworths Group Limited has sold its Woolworths Aveley shopping centre located in Western Australia for $26,925,000 to a private investor. The sale of Woolworths Aveley represents the sharpest initial yield ever recorded for a neighbourhood shopping centre in Western Australia over $20 million, at 5.81%, claimed selling agents Cushman & Wakefield. Completed in 2016, Woolworths Aveley is a 4,919-square-metre centre with a near 100% occupancy rate, anchored by a full-line Woolworths supermarket with a 12 year lease term, BWS on a long-term lease, plus eight specialty stores, two kiosks, one ATM and a pad site medical centre. The asset attracted strong levels of interest due to its location within an award-winning masterplanned residential community known as Vale Aveley, developed by Stockland. The campaign attracted over 100 enquiries from local and off-shore investors with several offers received at the close of campaign. The terms of sale included an unconditional exchange with seven days due diligence period. Neighbourhood shopping centres remain one of the most liquid asset classes, with 16 transactions completed during Q2 and Q3 2018 totalling more than $505 million. EXPERT OBSERVER The Story Bridge is 78 years old, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is hitting 95. Australian bridges are designed for a life span of 100 years. The designers of these bridges allowed for the growth of traffic and load consideration, so safety factors for material strength were built into bridges like the Story and Sydney Harbour bridges. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is being fitted with 2400 sensors to monitor its structural health. While this bridge has had regular maintenance, strengthening and tests to ensure it is safe, the use of sensors to detect damage caused by traffic, wind, temperature, vibration and extreme events add an extra level of safety by alerting asset owners to timely maintenance. Some defects or damage may not be detected using visual inspection only and a sensor system can let us know whether the structure is performing as expected. The latest Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) technologies provided 24/7 monitoring of large structures and alerted asset owners when some part of the structure needed attention. SHM technologies add extra safety measures beyond the traditional method of routine scheduled, visual checks. Using SHM we can determine when structures need a retrofit, rehabilitation and strengthening. This is why the Australian Network of Structural Health Monitoring (ANSHM) is promoting SHM systems to be implemented to existing structures and built into new structures. Millau bridge which spans the Tarn River Valley in France. I drafted the SHM section in the latest version of AS5100 (Australian Bridge Design Standard). SHM uses various sensing devices and ancillary systems to monitor the in-situ behaviour of a structure to assess and evaluate its condition. We have developed extra SHM technologies to detect, locate, and assess the severity of damage and deterioration in not only bridges and but also buildings, dams and towers. Spending 1 to 5 per cent of the construction cost of a structure on installing SHM during the build, can provide minimum to comprehensive levels to monitor structures for timely maintenance. The Morandi Motworway Bridge which collapsed in Italy earlier this year. It is an effective way to detect structural problems and also predict the remaining life of structures. Vibration-based damage detection uses accelerometers to identify the dynamic characteristics of bridges, such as frequencies and mode shapes. On suspension bridges we use anemometers to monitor wind speed and direction because there is a lot of aerodynamic interaction between wind, structure and traffic. We measure the traffic load and the bridges responses to know whether it is performing according to the design assumptions - the system gives an alert if it is not performing properly. With a concrete bridge, for example, we need to know the temperature inside the concrete as well as the outside in order to estimate any developing thermal stresses because if a structure needs to expand and it is stopped from expanding it adds stresses to the structure. Bridges deteriorated at different rates depending upon bridge design and materials used. Professor Tommy Chan This means different SHM systems for different levels of monitoring need to be considered and implemented. The latest SHM technologies could help to determine what needs to be replaced, retrofitted, or rehabilitated. My ARC-funded research project on the development of prestressed concrete bridges using moving force identification would have been applicable in testing the Morandi Bridge in Genoa that recently collapsed. This bridge was the first modern prestressed, concrete cable-stayed bridge. The project developed three different methods to identify prestress force of existing bridges which will be useful to evaluate the loading capacity of existing prestressed concrete bridges. Professor Chan and Professor David Thambiratnam, together with other SHM experts in Australia established the Australian Network of Structural Health Monitoring (ANSHM) in 2009 at QUT to promote SHM technologies and raise general community awareness on its need and its value. Professor Chan remains ANSHM founding president. This industry is full of strong leaders in the eating disorder community, and Alsana is proud to be part of a growing field that supports and helps those in need. Today there are many treatment facilities that have expert staff who specialize in helping those suffering from eating disorders. At Alsana, our mission is to help those with eating disorders find healing and hope. We adhere to a neurodevelopmental approach (Connan, Campbell, Katzman, Lightman & Treasure, 2003) to treatment, which takes into account the importance of biology in the development of eating disorders. Our approach focuses on educating both the client and families on the biology of eating disorders and to help promote healing and recovery. This industry is full of strong leaders in the eating disorder community, and Alsana is proud to be part of a growing field that supports and helps those in need. Alsanas expert team is developing an innovative care model, called the Adaptive Care Model. Alsana integrates evidence-based practice utilizing research from leaders in the field of eating disorders and related conditions, including Walter Kaye, Cynthia Bulik, Kate Tchanturia, Christopher Fairburn, Peter Levine, Marsha Linehan, Stephen Hayes, and Francine Shapiro. Alsana is also a member of the Residential Eating Disorder Consortium (REDC), which is committed to providing the highest standards of care in residential eating disorder treatment, and includes other top notch treatment facilities, such as Eating Recovery Center, Center for Discovery, and Monte Nido and Affiliates. Eating disorders can result in significant pain, for not only the person suffering from the eating disorder, but also for family members and loved ones supporting them. Alsana offers families treatment and care, along with their loved one, through family therapy sessions and inclusion in the clients treatment plan. The entire family travels the healing journey. For all the healing and hope that clients have experienced at Castlewood in the past and Alsana in the present, we understand that there has been confusion and even misinformation about our treatment, our clinicians, and our model. Alsana is dedicated to providing excellent treatment, measuring outcomes, and working with patients with integrity, sincerity, and compassion. Alsana commits to working with the family as a team to help clients achieve a full recovery. When it comes to eating disorder treatment, Alsana is truly at the forefront of the industry. The Alsana Adaptive Care Mode is a collaboratively-built and evidence based approach to treatment that offers clients treatment in many different modalities that best match their needs. Each staff member is trained in all modalities used, and then specializes in a chosen modality. This allows all staff to have an understanding of the treatment plans available, and allows us to tailor each treatment plan to the client so that they get the plan that will work best for them. We require our clinicians to have an understanding of several stabilization interventions like Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Then, each staff member will receive deeper training in at least one of the stabilization therapies. Our staff are also trained in a variety of processing therapies. These therapies address the underlying issues related to the eating disorder. Some examples include: Cognitive Processing Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR), Schema Therapy, Expressive Therapy, or Internal Family Systems (IFS). Here are a few words from Alsana alumni and past patients: The thing that I remember the most is that the staff, both in St. Louis and Birmingham, never gave up on me. After numerous treatment stays, I was ready to give up. However, Dr. Siegfried and the staff in Birmingham encouraged me to give residential in St. Louis a try and reassured me that I could return to Birmingham for step-down care. It was during this time in treatment that I found true recovery, and it wouldn't be possible without the staff believing in me. - SG ...the treatment I received changed my life. As I took what I learned during treatment and brought it back into my outpatient work after discharge, my outpatient team was blown away by how I'd grown and what I'd learned - Anonymous Alumni I would for sure recommend Alsana. All the staff is amazing, the clients are all so supportive, the atmosphere understands that there is so much more to ED than just the disorder and I felt so at home there. I also made some amazing friends through the program and found one of the best therapists I've ever had. - CR About Alsana: Offering six eating recovery communities in California, located in Westlake Village, Santa Barbara and Monterey, as well as three locations in St. Louis, Mo., and one location in Birmingham, Ala. To learn more visit http://www.alsana.com. Major automotive turbocharger market vendors include Linamar Corporation, Honeywell, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, FEDERAL MOGUL, BorgWarner Inc., UCAL Fuel Systems Ltd, Montupet, Cummins Inc., IHI Corporation, Turbonetics, Inc., and Bosch Mahle Turbo Systems GmbH & Co. KG. Automotive turbochargers market from diesel will acquire highest volume share of more than 60% over the forecast timeframe. The diesel vehicles result in high carbon emissions and possess low fuel efficiency. This has resulted in high product demand, positively impacting the segments growth. Gasoline will witness over 8% CAGR till 2024 owing to shifting focus towards the fuel. PCVs are anticipated to dominate automotive turbochargers market with more than 60% revenue share over the forecast timeframe. Rising production of the vehicle segment across the globe, particularly in emerging economies of Asia Pacific will primarily drive the industry growth. Rising demand from consumers for high power output and minimal loss in fuel efficiency will further support the industry dominance. Increasing domestic and international trading activities in various countries across the globe will fuel the automotive turbocharger market from HCVs. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2463 VGT turbochargers are likely to witness significant growth, exhibiting over 8% CAGR from 2017 to 2024. Provision of benefits such as precise monitoring of particulate & NOx emissions, cost effectiveness as compared to the counterparts, lag time reduction, and enhanced engine efficiency will primarily drive the industry growth. Automotive turbochargers market from twin turbo will account for approximately USD 7 billion by 2024 owing to benefits including high power and acceleration. OEMs dominated the automotive turbochargers market with over 90% share in 2016 and is likely to continue the same over the next eight years. Rising vehicle production across the globe along with mandatory norms regarding engine emissions will further support the industry dominance. Aftermarket will grow rapidly owing to high replacement needs in the engines of ageing vehicles to meet the regulatory norms. Automotive turbochargers market is expected to witness significant trends impacting its revenue generation to reach USD 24 billion by 2024. Engine downsizing is one such trend that has gained prominence among the manufacturers. It allows easy replacement of conventional engines with turbocharged engines with minimal impact on vehicles power and fuel efficiency. Electric turbocharger is another advancement that is featured with exhaust gas driven turbine and electric motor. It has gained traction owing to its advantages such as high boost pressure and faster response. These innovations will also induce immense potential to the industry. Make an Inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2463 Europe is likely to dominate the global automotive turbochargers market over the forecast timeframe. Substantial revenue generation can be attributed to presence of established industry participants coupled with stringent emission regulations across the region. Asia Pacific will exhibit more than 8% CAGR from 2017 to 2024 owing to rising demand from the countries such as China, South Korea, India, and Japan. Linamar, Federal-Mogul, Weifang Fuyuan, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, IHI Corporation, Cummins Turbo Technologies, Borgwarner, and Montupet are among the noticeable participants in the automotive turbocharger market. Bosch Mahle Turbo Systems, Precision Turbo and Engine, Banks Power, Magnum Performance Turbos, and TEL are other prominent players included in the study. New product development is among the major strategies adopted by the competitors to strengthen their foothold. Browse key industry insights spread across 300 pages with 647 market data tables & 10 figures & charts from the 2018 report Automotive Turbocharger Market in detail along with the table of contents: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/automotive-turbocharger-market Browse Related Reports: Automotive Electronics Control Unit (ECU) Market Trends 2018 Global Forecast 2024 Automotive ECU Market shipments are expected to exceed 9.5 billion units by 2024, growing at 6% CAGR. The North America automotive ECU market has experienced a high demand due to innovations in the autonomous vehicle technology. Increasing automated and self-driving vehicle testing projects in the U.S. are driving the industry growth. Additionally, favorable government permits for carrying out the test procedures are accelerating the development of automated technologies. More information @ https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/automotive-ECU-market-report Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) Market 2017-2024 Global Analysis Report Advanced Driver Assistance System Market is predicted to witness 13% CAGR to be valued USD 65 billion by 2024. Europe ADAS market will witness CAGR over 14% up to 2024. Government regulations mandating installation of safety systems in vehicles will support the industry growth. More information @ https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/adas-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. Contact Us: Arun Hegde Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights, Inc. Phone: 1-302-846-7766 Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688 Email: sales@gminsights.com Web: https://www.gminsights.com Avitus Group President Don Reile congratulates Employee of the Quarter & Payroll Specialist Amber Noy Working at Avitus Group has been a wonderful experience, and like no job I have had before. I love what I do. International professional services provider Avitus Group has chosen Payroll Specialist Amber Noy as the companys Employee of the Quarter (EOQ) for the third quarter of 2018. Amber works hard to provide great customer service and quality work, says Avitus Group Public Relations Manager Dianne Parker. Many members of the EOQ Committee have had the pleasure of working with Amber and have witnessed firsthand her dedication to clients and Avitus Group. Noy joined Avitus Group in October 2016 as a Payroll Specialist and is based out of the company's Billings Montana Operations Center. Amber is always willing to help out with whatever needs to be done and always has a positive attitude, says Avitus Group Recruiting Specialist and member of the EOQ Committee Teal Francis. She puts in a lot of work to ensure everything is correct and things are finished. She is well deserving of this award. "Working at Avitus Group has been a wonderful experience, and like no job I have had before. I actually don't dread coming to work every day, and I love what I do. I am honored to have been chosen as Employee of the quarter, and I do what I do to make sure all of my clients are happy and have the best service I can provide," says Avitus Group Payroll Specialist and Employee of the Quarter Amber Noy. Avitus Group President Don Reile believes keeping the company mission in mind at all times is crucial to providing consistent, high-quality customer service. Amber follows our service motto every day when she deals with customers, even in difficult situations, Reile says. Avitus Groups Employee of the Quarter program recognizes employees who make significant contributions to Avitus Group and its customers. Employees of the Quarter receive a paid day off, a $150 gift card and $50 in Avitus Group branded apparel. About Avitus Group Avitus Group is a worldwide company that simplifies, strengthens and grows businesses by providing 'back office' support (payroll, accounting, taxes, recruiting, information technology, human resources and much more). When a business uses Avitus Group, all of the necessary yet burdensome functions of the business become Avitus Group's responsibility, so the business can focus on what it does best. Avitus Group serves clients nationwide through regional office locations from coast to coast. The company also serves international clients through partner locations. W. Barefoot Bankhead, a recognized expert in financial service industry-related disputes, has affiliated with Echelon Analytics to provide expert witness and other litigation support services, primarily related to the financial services industry. Mr. Bankhead will be based out of Echelons Dallas office. Barefoot has built a strong resume as a go-to banking and financial services expert on national-profile litigation. His regulatory, operational, and consulting background in financial institutions adds significant depth to our banking and financial services practice, said Barry Bell, Managing Member of Echelon. We are excited to be able to offer our clients another seasoned expert and testifierespecially one of Barefoots statureand one who complements the subject matter expertise of our other senior testifiers. Barefoot has been a Texas licensed CPA* for 40 years. He has served in the banking industry for more than 35 years as an auditor, regulator, senior executive, board member and consultant. He also taught accounting at Richland College and has been a guest lecturer at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. Prior to his retirement from Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP (Deloitte FAS) in June 2017, Barefoot was a partner in Deloitte FAS and served as the National Banking & Securities Industry Leader for Deloitte FAS from 2008 to 2010. He also served as the fraud audit specialist for some of Deloitte & Touches largest financial industry audit clients. Barefoot has assisted clients that have been involved in investigations or litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Trade Commission, Department of Labor, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, National Credit Union Association, Farm Credit System and multiple state banking agencies and attorneys general. Also, Barefoot has been retained on multiple occasions by the SEC and FDIC to serve as an expert in litigation matters. Barefoot earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas in Austin. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is also a former member of the board of trustees of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. About Echelon Echelon Analytics is a recognized leader in expert witness services, economic and financial analysis, business consulting, and financial investigation. From its offices in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City, the firm works with law firms, corporations, government entities, and private individuals across the United States and internationally in matters involving commercial damages, intellectual property disputes and valuation, and banking and finance litigation. Learn more about Echelon Analytics at ea-us.com. *Although Echelon Analytics employs CPAs, it is not a CPA firm. Secure Your ID Day On October 13, 2018 BBB will hold the bi-annual Secure Your ID Day at their Moorefield Park Drive office parking lot. We encourage all residents and local businesses to come out Saturday morning and take this important step to protecting their identity by properly disposing of sensitive paper documents. BBB serving Central Virginia will be partnering again with International Paper to provide off site shredding services for this event. Identity theft is a growing concern in the United States today and BBB wants to make sure were providing our communities with the best methods to dispose of this information safely and effectively, Residents and local businesses can cut down on the chances a scammer has to steal their personal information by keeping track of and disposing of it in a proper timeframe. If you dont need it destroy it responsibly. BBB Event Details Who: Better Business Bureau Serving Central Virginia What: Free off-site document shredding provided by our community partner International Paper When: Saturday, October 13th, 2018 from 9am to 12pm Where: 720 Moorefield Park Drive Richmond VA 23236 Documents to be shredded should be removed from binders, but staples, paper clips are okay to be shredded. According to the Federal Trade Commissions 2017 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2.68 million consumers submitted reports about fraud, identity theft and other types of consumer concerns. The Report also states consumers reported losing a total of $905 million to fraud in 2017 -- $63 million more than in 2016. BBB is committed to educating our local communities about the dangers of identity theft and providing ways to protect against this ever-growing concern. If you have any questions about this free community event, please reach out to us at 804-648-0030 or info(at)centralvirginia.bbb.org. About BBB serving Central Virginia: Provides service to Richmond, the Tri-Cities, Charlottesville and Fredericksburg, as well as 42 surrounding counties from Fauquier to Mecklenburg and Northumberland to Amherst. The nonprofit organization was established in 1954 to advance responsible, honest, and ethical business practices and to promote customer confidence through self-regulation of business. Core services of BBB include business profiles, dispute resolution, truth-in advertising, consumer and business education, and charity review The U3M open source format will serve as a bridge between software applications in the apparel industry. U3M is the first digital material format in the industry to combine digital components together in a consistent manner, thus allowing industry standardization of digital material libraries. Browzwear, a pioneer of 3D solutions for apparel design, development and merchandising, together with Vizoo, developers of advanced material digitization technology, announce today the release of Unified 3D Material (u3m). This new open source format will help to standardize digital materials and serve as a bridge between software applications in the apparel industry. The goal for u3m is to create real alignment of visual appearance between applications. u3m leverages a physically-based rendering (PBR) shading model, explains Martin Semsch, Managing Director at Vizoo. Therefore applications supporting PBR achieve a very similar look. Until now, each vendor output digital materials in a proprietary format or embedded it directly in their styles. u3m will streamline this process, allowing digital asset suppliers to rely on one fabric format serving their customers, regardless of which 3D applications are used. Eventually, it will be more efficient to move fabric information between vendors and suppliers. We are pleased with the unique method weve created to easily store visual and custom physical data in one file, said Sharon Lim, CEO at Browzwear. U3M is the first digital material format in the industry to combine digital components together in a consistent manner, thus allowing industry standardization of digital material libraries. Vizoos upcoming release, xTex 181, will support reading and writing of the u3m format and 2019 will see the first integrations in 3D CAD and 3D rendering applications. For more information, visit http://www.u3m.info. Browzwear 51 Middle Road #05-01 Singapore 188959 Phone: +65 6338 4005 Email: sales@browzwear-global.com Vizoo GmbH Johann-Karg-Str. 30 85540 Haar (Munich) Germany Phone: +49 (0) 89 37917647 Email: info@vizoo3d.com Copalli Rum Copalli is crafted with passion and sustainability at its core, made from just three ingredients including heirloom sugar cane, yeast, and filtered canopy water sourced directly from the distillerys farm. Co-founders Anya Fernald and Todd Robinson are proud to announce the launch of Copalli Rum, an organic single-estate rum made in the heart of the Southern Belize rainforest. Copalli is crafted with passion and sustainability at its core, made from just three ingredients, including heirloom sugar cane, yeast, and filtered canopy water sourced directly from the distillerys farm. Copalli is an incredibly unique spirit, says Copal Tree Distillery co-founder Anya Fernald. She adds, Its a 100% authentic rum with all aspects of the product hand-crafted and grown in the most ecological way possible. Putting a rum with this kind of sustainable integrity into the market is going to raise the bar, in the best way. Reflecting the terroir of the tropical Belizean farm where its produced, Copalli redefines the craft rum category with two grades of product that can be sipped on their own or as an ideal base for classic and modern rum cocktails; current expressions include: White Rum (84 Proof/42% ABV) A double distillation of fresh sugarcane juicecrushed within two hours of being cutthe white rum is made with a blend of pot and column distillation with a long resting of the finished product on stainless steel. The smooth end product displays vanilla, coffee bean, and grass on the nose with fresh berries, citrus zest, and cactus notes to finish. Barrel Rested Rum (88 Proof/44% ABV) The Barrel Rested Rum is made using double distillation of sugarcane juice, use of exclusively full-bodied copper pot still distillation with French technique. It is aged in American Oak bourbon barrels to create a rich sweet rum displaying cola and leather on the nose with tasting notes including cinnamon, nutmeg, and tobacco. The distillery is zero-impact and powered by sustainable, regenerative biomass and the process supports full-circle conversion of waste from production into agricultural inputs. The sugarcane used to produce the rum is grown on Copal Tree Farms, so all levels of products can be overseen from start to finish. The founders have spearheaded the philanthropic support of the local community in Southern Belize for over 20 years, through a legacy of rainforest preservation, marine conservation, and support of local education. Copal Tree Distillery supports the local community as the largest employer in Southern Belize, providing over 100 jobs to local residents in a clean and safe working environment. Additionally, the group provides education grants for local girls and boys to continue their education into high school. Copalli Rum retails for $28.99 (White Rum) and $34.99 (Barrel Rested Rum). About Anya Fernald Anya Fernald is the co-founder of Copal Tree Distillery and Belcampo Inc. Belcampo operates 27,000 acres of organic farmland in California and processes its own livestock for sale in its own butcher shops and restaurants. Anya has two decades of entrepreneurship experience in high-quality premium foods. After graduating from Wesleyan University, Anya worked implementing business and marketing plans for small-scale cheesemakers in Sicily for a European Union rural development initiative. She then directed a micro-investment program for the Slow Food Foundation in Northern Italy. After returning to her home state of California in 2006, she built two mission-driven food businesses and founded a small advisory firm that developed over two dozen profitable, values-driven food businesses in its three years of activity. Anya has been recognized as one of the 40 under 40 by Food & Wine, named a Nifty Fifty by The New York Times, appeared in a lengthy profile in The New Yorkers Food Issue in 2014, and served as a regular judge on Iron Chef America on the Food Network for the 2009, 2010, and 2011 seasons. She also appeared as a guest judge on the finale episode of Iron Chef Gauntlet, which premiered in April 2017 and was name as one of Inc. Magazine's "Female Founders 100" in 2018. Anya also co-authored two books for Slow Foods international publishing house as well as her debut cookbook, Home Cooked, that was released in spring 2016 with Ten Speed Press. Anya is an avid consumer and producer of almost everything fermented, and spends her spare time with her young children - daughter, Viola, and son, Theo. About Todd Robinson Todd Robinson has trailblazed conservation efforts in Belize with widespread and socially impactful investments since 2005. His charitable foundations have profoundly improved the marine and terrestrial environment as well as the standard of living of the people in Southern Belize through educational grants and philanthropic business developments. Robinson is especially committed to preserving Belizes pristine marine environment with strategic investments in the countrys fishing industry including the institution of a catch and release program, the construction and donation of a research station to the University of Belize, and an initiative to benefit The Port of Honduras Marine Reserve that helps local communities harvest its sustainable resources and protect it from exploitation by poachers. Since 2006, Robinson has been the key stakeholder in Copal Tree Lodge in Punta Gorda that is now the largest employer in the Toledo District of Belize outside of the government providing jobs in hospitality and organic farming. The award-winning lodge has helped ignite tourism to Southern Belize among a diverse and robust audience of travelers. In 2016, he built Copal Tree Distillery on the lodges property and donated it in trust for the benefit of the people in the Toledo District. Profits from the distillery will be delivered as grants for various educational and environmental activities; if the distillery is sold, the proceeds from the sale of the distillery will stay in the trust to provide income in perpetuity. Robinson has extended his investments to fund individual Belizean tourism operators in addition to a young artist coalition that documents environmental and social injustices through documentary filmmaking. For more information, please visit http://copallirum.com and follow on social media @copallirum CONTACT: For additional information please contact: Vanessa Vega at Baltz & Co. / vvega(at)baltzco.com Annie Black at Baltz & Co. / ablack(at)baltzco.com BIXOLON at PACK EXPO 2018 BIXOLON will be looking to inspire visitors to the show with its latest innovative AIDC label printing technologies. PACK EXPO (14th 17th October 2018, Chicago, USA) BIXOLON Co., Ltd a global leading mobile, label and POS printer manufacturer will be encouraging its visitors to explore the latest in Auto ID label printing solutions for the American market on BIXOLONs booth #8424, Upper Lakeside Hall at PACK EXPO 2018. Showcasing the recently launched SLP-TX400R, a 4-inch desktop thermal transfer label printer with RFID technology and 7 IPS (178 mm/s) speed. Supporting USB, Ethernet and Serial as standard with optional Bluetooth or WLAN interface. Alongside an optional auto-cutter and external label holder for higher-volume label rolls. The label printer can also simultaneously print and embedded UHF RFID code into inventory labelling, price tags and more. BIXOLON will also be demonstrating its range of compact, robust and intelligent Bluetooth Direct Thermal desktop labelling solutions on the stand. Including its 2-inch SLP-DX220, 4-inch SLP-DX420, and specialised 4-inch SLP-DL410 Direct Thermal Bluetooth fan-fold label printer. BIXOLONs desktop labelling solutions are compatible with label design software including BIXOLONs free-of-charge Label Artist, Label Artist Mobile for iOS and Android, alongside the industry leading BarTender and BarTender UltraLite for BIXOLON. Also ahead of its launch later this year, BIXOLON is showcasing 3-inch mobile label printer SPP-L3000 with 5 IPS (127 mm/s) speed. This mobile printer features an easy-to-open peeler, IP54 dust protected splash proof design and 2.1m (7 ft.) drop test reliability. Supporting WLAN Dual band (5 GHz and 2.4 GHz), Bluetooth V 4.1 Classic and LE and NFC. The SPP-L3000 is the perfect printing solution for traditional supply chain, omni-channel retailing and field service operations. BIXOLON will also be encouraging visitors to meet its recently launched B-linerless linerless label consumables. Available in two types of adhesive strengths, B-linerless Permanent which features a permanent adhesive across the whole media sharing similarities with traditional liner labels. Alongside B-linerless Restick, supporting a removable and repositionable adhesive across the media eliminating adhesive residue left when removed. PACK EXPO provides us with the platform to connect directly with the key players within the American Packaging industry, states Alberto Hwang, Managing Director of BIXOLON America. BIXOLON will be looking to inspire visitors to the show with its latest innovative AIDC label printing technologies. For more information visit http://www.bixolon.com, http://blog.bixolon.com or alternatively speak to your local BIXOLON sales representative. About BIXOLON BIXOLON is a leading global manufacturer of innovative, advanced printing technologies including point-of-sale receipt, label, Auto ID and mobile printers for a wide range of environments. Millions of BIXOLON printers are used today in retail, hospitality, healthcare, banking, ticketing, post/parcel, warehousing and other transaction-intensive industries. In 2018, for the fifth consecutive year BIXOLON was named global mobile receipt printer market leader by Japanese research company Chunichisha. French Oil Mill Machinery Co. participates in Manufacturing Day to educate their Piqua, Ohio community about the manufacturing industry. "The average annual earnings of Ohio machinery manufacturing workers in 2016 were $61,157. This equates to just under $30 per hour based on a 40 hour work week. This salary provides a quality lifestyle for manufacturing workers and their families." In their steadfast commitment to partner with their community, custom process equipment manufacturer, French Oil Mill Machinery Company, works to educate their Piqua, Ohio community about the manufacturing industry, what they do at their company, the types of careers available in their organization and the skills needed for those positions. As part of this ongoing effort French participated in Manufacturing Day this year, as they have since 2014. In the span of three weeks French will host three different adult and student groups for facility tours and engineering presentations. French first hosted 30 members of the Society for Industrial Archaeology as part of their annual fall tour. French then hosted 85 students from the Piqua High Schools new Success Bound program that gives students early career education. In mid October French will host 25 students from the Upper Valley Career Centers Manufacturing and Machining programs, as well as the Manufacturing Growth Specialist from FastLane, West Central Ohios Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). Why is Manufacturing Education So Important in Their Region? According to the Ohio Manufacturers Association (OMA) Manufacturing Counts document, the number of manufacturing jobs in Miami County, the county in which French is located, is almost twice that of the national average. Twenty percent of the jobs in the county are manufacturing jobs, compared to twelve percent throughout the state. In Shelby County, the county just north of Miami County, this figure is almost thirty-eight percent. There are 204 manufacturing establishments in Miami County, and almost 1,500 in the surrounding counties, employing close to 70,000 workers. The average annual earnings of Ohio machinery manufacturing workers in 2016 were $61,157. This equates to just under $30 per hour based on a 40 hour work week. This salary provides a quality lifestyle for manufacturing workers and their families. Fortunately, the manufacturing industry in Ohio is growing. Ohio had 9,200 more manufacturing employees in 2017 than in 2016. A majority of manufacturing companies are small in size. Sixty-four percent of Ohio manufacturing businesses have less than twenty employees. Those entering the workforce may be inclined to seek employment with a business they are familiar with, however a majority of the manufacturing establishments may not be on their radar. French recommends to not overlook or underestimate smaller businesses as potential employers. Machine shops are the largest category of Ohio manufacturing establishments. Piqua, Ohio and the surrounding area are fortunate to have resources like the Upper Valley Career Center (UVCC) that offers a Manufacturing Technologies program and other programs and apprenticeships that prepare students with the skills needed to fill manufacturing jobs. UVCC also has adult education programs for those looking to change careers and enter the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing is a major factor in Ohios economic status, as it is the largest of the twenty sectors of the states economy. In addition, Ohio manufacturing is responsible for almost seventeen percent of their states Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Ohio ranks third in the nation for manufacturing output, behind California and Texas. Additional Resources for Manufacturing Education As MFG Day and its mission continue to gain traction and awareness, there are continually more resources available for manufacturing education. PTC, an industrial innovation platform, recently debuted a Smart Manufacturing comic book and app that shows how various technology advancements are transforming the manufacturing industry. App users can follow the story of superheroes manufacturing a drone while making decisions on manufacturing production, like product design and service. The MFG Day website also has a number of additional resources like the Dream It. Do It. programs An Introduction to Manufacturing guide for students in grades 6-12. Links to virtual MFG Day events like the Arconic Foundation and Discovery Educations virtual field trips can be accessed at any time, allowing educators, students and parents to continue manufacturing education throughout the year. French encourages its community to use these tools to inspire the next generation of the manufacturing workforce. About French Oil Mill Machinery Company French is an ISO-certified, 4th generation family-owned U. S. company that custom designs, manufactures and supports hydraulic press systems for molding rubber and composite materials, industrial rubber mixers, screw presses for synthetic rubber processing and for the separation of liquids from solids, and oilseed equipment used to extract vegetable oil from seeds and nuts, and to produce biofuels. For over 118 years they have partnered with their stakeholders, in over 80 countries worldwide, to provide products with superior value and superior service that improve their customers productivity and reduce their overall production costs. Their 225,000 square foot corporate office and manufacturing facility are located in Piqua, Ohio. Sources: Ohio Manufacturing Counts Front Desk Supply held their first annual beach cleanup last month on Mission Bay in San Diego, CA on September 20, 2018. The cleanup team was joined by volunteer staff from The Dana Hotel and the Paradise Beach Resort. Several miles of public beach adjoining the two resorts were scoured for waste items by upwards of 20 people over the four-hour time period. Items ranging from broken glass, cigarette butts, beer caps and abandoned barbecue grills were gathered and disposed of properly by the group. An estimated 100+ pounds of waste was collected, and removed from the beautiful Mission Bay habitat. This is something Ive wanted us to do for some time, said Mark Zisek, Front Desk Supplys Director of Commercial Operations. We live and work in such a beautiful part of the country and as a staunch supporter of Surfrider cleanup initiatives, I wanted to do it with our team and with some of our local customers. I thought it would be a positive thing to do for the environment and a good team building opportunity, as well, Zisek added. Headquartered in San Diego, Front Desk team members from all over the Western United States met up for this cause. Employees came from Northern California, Orange county and Temecula and a strategic partner even flew in from China to meet the group and lend a hand in the cleanup effort. The event also provided an opportunity for new team members to meet and for some fun team building conversation over lunch after the cleanup. Even though we were technically closed for the day," said Dave Motley of Front Desk Supply. We actually got a lot of work covered. Sometimes its nice to have a face-to-face conversation with a co-worker rather than exchanging a string of emails. Front Desk Supply has gone green in other ways, too. They currently offer a line of recycled key cards made from old key cards as well as key folders made from recycled paper stock. This Month Only: $50 Discount on New Product Orders This October, Front Desk Supply is offering their customers discounts on new product orders! Whether you are an existing customer, or a new customer, you can receive a $50 discount on any new product that you order. Whether it is pens, front desk stationery, or even on popular key cards and key card sleeves, customers can simply place their order and if this is their first time ordering that product, they will receive a $50 discount! Why New Products Only? Experience shows that customers are often surprised at how many items Front Desk Supply has available for their hotel. Whether it is key card folders, marketing materials, signage or even notepads, Front Desk Supply is pleased to offer a wide array of consumable products that hotels require. Their goal is to encourage existing and new clients to consider them as their first choice for hotel supplies. Have a question about a new product? Front Desk Supplys experienced sales team is available to review options and provide a price quote. Simply, call: (888) 859-2061. Or visit our website: FrontDeskSupply.com Why Front Desk Supply? Whichever products customers choose, Front Desk Supply successfully competes with all other providers. Why? Because Front Desk Supply doesnt charge the large industry standard markups like many other competitors do and is keenly focused on efficiencies. Unlike other suppliers, Front Desk Supply is invested in becoming a preferred partner with hotels for many years to come. About Front Desk Supply Front Desk Supply has over 50 years of Sales, Marketing and Advertising, and Operations experience, along with the wealth of experience that comes from producing millions of products for thousands of hotels in the hospitality industry. Their experience includes a wealth of customer relationship experience, including large and small companies in diverse industries. This experience gets ingrained in all employees to put the customer first and do their best to understand each unique situation. Front Desk Supply excels when being able to provide multiple products it makes for a one stop shopping experience for customers and ensures messaging flows consistently across products. They do our best to make recommendations that make good business sense. Front Desk Supply: Making hotels more profitable and their guests stays more memorable. The Rosedale kitchen at Heritage at Pennington. Were excited to offer this beautiful home for a quick move-in, said Paul Csik, Senior Vice President of American Properties Realty, Inc. The Rosedale is part of a small town, intimate community that you will really enjoy living in. On the hunt for a quick move? Then look no further than Heritage at Pennington. The successful new community of townhomes for sale in NJ and two-story villas introduced by American Properties Realty, Inc. has announced that its Rosedale model is now available for a quick move-in at a special purchase price of $448,728 after all upgrades and incentives. See Sales Manager for details. The stunning Rosedale home design is located at 5 Cannon Drive (Unit 503) in picturesque Pennington. The thoughtfully designed home features three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, a one-car garage and 2,300 sq. ft. of living space. Other highlights include nine-foot ceiling height on the first and second floors; a gas fireplace with white mantle and black slate surround and upgraded recessed lighting and ceiling fan pre-wires throughout the home. Perfect for entertaining, the expansive kitchen features granite countertops, a huge kitchen island, upgraded recessed lighting, an upgraded faucet, backsplash and single undermount sink. For added style and sophistication, 5-inch hardwood plank flooring flows through the flex room, kitchen, family room and second floor hall, along with an oak and pine staircase. All bathrooms have granite countertops, upgraded cabinets and upgraded floor and wall tile. The second bedroom includes a four-foot extension making it the ideal space for a play area or office. The base price of the home is $434,990 with $26,232 is upgrades and a $12,500 incentive, making the total purchase price $448,728. This includes a discount with use of Sellers Preferred Lender, Caliber Home Loans. Were excited to offer this beautiful home for a quick move-in, said Paul Csik, Senior Vice President of American Properties Realty, Inc. The Rosedale is part of a small town, intimate community that you will really enjoy living in. The community offers easy access to I-95, the NJ Turnpike, I-295, I-78, I-287 and Route 1. Heritage at Pennington is also part of the highly-rated Hopewell Valley Regional School District. Heritage at Pennington is centrally located near everything Mercer County has to offer, said Csik. Were so happy to offer homebuyers a luxury option so close to trendy shops, exciting recreation, great schools and so much more. To learn more about Heritage at Pennington, visit HeritageAt Pennington.com. About American Properties Realty, Inc. American Properties Realty, Inc., A Licensed Real Estate Broker, continues its proud 40-year tradition of introducing award winning communities that provide excellent quality, convenient locations and affordable pricing for New Jersey homebuyers. The Principals of American Properties Realty, Inc., have been involved in the creation of residences ranging from luxurious estate homes to master planned communities of apartments, condominiums, townhomes and single-family homes. new homes for sale in Pennington NJ Mercer County homes for sale Heritage at Pennington offers Rosedale townhome for quick move-in Photo (left to right): Dan Clark, Nadav Zafrir, Amnon Shiboleth, Ana Arino, Alon Harnoy and Noa Oron. On October 4, 2018, The New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Government of Israel Economic Mission to North America, Team8, LeumiTech, Israel Discount Bank, Jefferies Group, Shiboleth LLP, Playground, SOSA, Mazars, and Bizzabo, presented an exclusive NYC event, Cyber Innovators 2018, which featured presentations from the global thought leaders in the cyber industry to an invite-only audience comprised of venture capital, family office and angel investors, as well as leaders from the New York City cyber technology ecosystem. The timing of the event coincided with the New York City Economic Development Corporations (NYC EDC) unveiling of its plans to transform New York City into a global leader of cybersecurity innovation and talent to combat one of the worlds greatest threats. Cyber NYC, the Citys initiative to grow the cybersecurity sector, leverages a roster of world-renowned partners to launch a Global Cyber Center, an innovation hub for startups, initiatives to fuel commercialization and research, and new talent pipelines to train the cyber workforce of the future. SOSA, one of the organizers of Cyber Innovators 2018, was selected to establish a center of gravity for the industry with a state-of-the-art center in Chelsea which will bring together an international community of corporations, investors, startups, and talent to foster collaboration and innovation in New York Citys growing cybersecurity ecosystem. Guy Franklin, General Manager of SOSA NYC said NYC is the financial capital of the world and as such, requires to be the cyber capital of the world to meet daily threats. Thats the goal of Cyber NYC. Ana Arino, the Chief Strategy Officer of the NYC EDC, kicked off the presentations for the evening and described the EDCs role in developing NYC tech and job creation. From an industry perspective, we (NYC EDC) have been committed for a very long time to tech in particular said Ms. Arino. One reason for our success and growth is that we have committed ourselves to making New York City a home for international companies that want to grow here. Cybersecurity is becoming a growing challenge for any company that maintains customer data, especially businesses in the financial services sector. New York City is home to one of the highest concentrations of financial services companies as well as to one of the largest workforces in the country. Global demand for cybersecurity services is surging. In the first 10 months of 2017, venture capitalists invested $1.2 billion in cybersecurity firms based in the New York metro area, four times the total investment in 2016. The City of New York is investing $30 million to grow its cybersecurity ecosystem. Nadav Zafrir, Co-Founder and CEO of Team8, delivered the Keynote presentation for Cyber Innovators, and spoke on the impact of hyperconnectivity on the evolving cyber threat, sharing his perspective on how organizations can rethink their approach to building resilience in the face of increasingly sophisticated and effective attackers. Team8 is honored to participate in the Cyber Innovators 2018 Event with the broader New York City community. said Zafrir. In the age of hyperconnectivity and the increasing role of collaboration in standard business practice, a proactive and collaborative approach between enterprise, government, innovators and academia will help secure our collective future. We look forward to being a part of this important cooperation. Dave Smithers, Chief Information Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Israel Discount Bank spoke from the point of view of a major financial institution and discussed how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will help prevent future cyber-attacks on financial institutions. Inon Elroy, Economic Minister to the Government of Israels Mission to North America, also delivered a presentation on the role of Israeli companies as global leaders in the cyber security economy. In addition to the keynotes, three young companies in the cyber industry, (i) L7 Defense, (ii) IDRRA, and (iii) Team8s Blockchain Concept Company (name yet to be announced) made presentations highlighting their business concepts and respective commercial solutions to cyber security threats, including the use of Artificial Information (AI). The presenting companies fielded questions from a panel comprised of Wilson Lin, Vice President, Lead for Cyber NYC and FinTech at the NYC EDC, and Lluis Pedragosa, Chief Financial Officer for Team8. Cyber Innovators 2018 distinguishes itself from other NYC cyber events through its exclusive investor-focused audience and its world class presenters. Cyber Innovators 2018 is making meaningful connections between capital and thought leadership by exposing active technology investors to the leading cyber company thinkers on the globe, said Alon Harnoy, Managing Partner of Shiboleth NYC. Playground founder Guy Poreh added, The startups presenting are in very exciting and innovative spaces, surrounded by great founders. The investor-oriented portion of the event provides the opportunity for these companies to get excellent exposure with our amazing audience. Industry Innovators has provided sophisticated investors early access to rock star companies that have gone on to become huge successes. oXygen WebHelp for IXIASOFT CCMS is an innovative and dynamic addition to the IXIASOFT one-stop-shop. At IXIASOFT, we see the CCMS as a complete solution, from authoring to dynamic delivery.- Thibault de la Grange, VP Product and Marketing IXIASOFT, an international software company based in Montreal, is proud to release oXygen WebHelp for IXIASOFT CCMS. This new add-on acts as a natural extension of IXIASOFT CCMS, transforming technical content into clean and informative HTML pages. The IXIASOFT add-ons concept was developed as a one-stop-shop to help leading organizations tailor their IXIASOFT CCMS. Replete with an expert customer service team, add-ons are designed in-house or with partners to help enterprise-class clients build an end-to-end content management solution. IXIASOFT add-ons alleviate the headache of dealing with multiple suppliers by offering the benefit of one dedicated, centralized support team. In addition, add-ons are designed as a natural extension of IXIASOFT CCMS with a seamless update and upgrade experience. Available for lease on an annual basis, oXygen WebHelp for IXIASOFT CCMS is an out-of-the-box product with a highly customizable table of contents, index navigation, and text search capabilities. Users can choose from a wide variety of layouts and dashboards, and manipulate the position of various functional components to suit their particular requirements. Within the add-on, users can choose from a number of systems, including WebHelp Responsive with Feedback, which allows users to add comments and administrators to monitor discussions, and the WebHelp Classic for Desktop, which offers a tri-pane layout and includes predefined transformation scenarios to provide a single-source publishing solution. oXygen WebHelp for IXIASOFT CCMS is also available for mobile. Whether users operate Android, iOS, BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile, the add-on can support the transformation of DITA documents into organized, mobile WebHelp systems. IXIASOFT doesnt just sell oXygen WebHelp for IXIASOFT CCMSit uses it within its own platform to generate user and administration guides. To see the add-on in action, open any one of the guides on IXIASOFTS documentation page. oXygen WebHelp for IXIASOFT CCMS is available within a variety of pricing packs, including starter, business, enterprise, and enterprise+. To learn more about pricing options, visit IXIASOFTs pricing page. -- About IXIASOFT: Founded in 1998, IXIASOFT is a trusted global leader in the XML content management software industry. Its signature product IXIASOFT CCMS is an award-winning, end-to-end component content management solution (CCMS) that has been deployed by industry leaders such as AMR, Ericsson, Komatsu, Omron, Qualcomm and SAP. Jewish Family Service Houston (JFSH) has contributed hundreds of provider resources, both national and in the greater Houston area, for inclusion on the Jasons Connection national, organic searchable provider resource directory. The tireless work and commitment of Jewish Family Service Houston in compiling and contributing these additional resources to the Jasons Connection directory serves to benefit individuals in the greater Houston area who come to the Jasons Connection site seeking services and options to find the help they need finding support and to advocate for themselves and their loved ones. Jewish Family Service is a non-profit human service agency for people of all ages and all walks of life. Their goal is to provide light, hope and help to individuals struggling with life challenges. To learn more about Jewish Family Service in Houston and their services and programs, visit their site http://www.jfshouston.org. The resource directory is an integral part of the Jasons Connection website (https://www.jasonsconnection.org) , an online community promoting inclusion, independence, and equality of opportunity for individuals with disabilities, mental health, aging, and diverse abilities and needs. The site maintains one of the largest national, organic searchable directors for medical, housing, employment, education, and other resources. Founded in 2013 by Jason Harris, Jasons Connection explores the cultural and social aspects of disability and shares ideas to change cultural perceptions of differences by featuring expressions of art and personal-experience blogs contributed by its online community. The site operates concurrently with an active Facebook page which currently has over a quarter of a million followers. Since its inception, Jasons Connection has grown to be one of the largest, comprehensive, and diverse online presences that is run by a person with a disability. Jasons Connection is a 501(c)(3) non-profit Ohio limited liability company that does business under the trade name Jason's Connection. It is dedicated to connecting people to resources that serve diverse needs, enrich lives and help meet goals. Visit their website at https://www.jasonsconnection.org. Contact: Paulette Terry (513) 373-9533 info(at)jasonsconnection(dot)org Logistyx Technologies We're extremely pleased with the companys growth, which we attribute to our mission to provide best-in-class shipping software to help companies optimize their supply chain delivery network and reduce shipping costs. Logistyx Technologies (http://www.logistyx.com), a leading developer of Transportation Management Execution shipping software, today announced it has recently completed the move-in and expansion of its new North American corporate headquarters in Rolling Meadows, Ill. to accommodate the companys rapid growth. Logistyx has doubled in employee headcount since its inception in May 2017, as a result of growing organic sales and merger and acquisition initiatives. Were extremely pleased with the companys growth, which we attribute to our mission to provide best-in-class shipping software to help companies optimize their supply chain delivery network and reduce shipping costs, said Ken Fleming, COO of Logistyx. Equally important, were committed to attracting and retaining the best people in a modern, inviting workspace that fosters flexible and innovative solutions to serve our customers needs. Logistyxs new office space, opened in April of 2018, has already more than doubled in size to accommodate growing staff, which include members of the global product and services team, operations, sales and marketing, finance and accounting. The office is equipped with fully-featured, open workspaces, a high-tech conference room, high-speed fiber optic internet and a data center connecting to the companys cloud infrastructure. The larger facility also offers an expanded training center for up to 300 people, an on-site warehouse demonstration center featuring Logistyx software solutions, and expansive customer meeting space, a cafe, fitness center and more. Chicagos established and prospering logistics and technology communities attracted Logistyx to the area; the active OHare industrial market in particular offers easy accessibility for customers and global staff. The Midwest also serves as a critical location for supply chain and logistics operations and a central hub of multi-national organizations, along with leading area universities that provide ongoing sources of logistics and technological talent. Additionally, Logistyx is continuing to expand its team with an aggressive recruiting program to add more than 50 positions in product development, professional services, sales, marketing and operations across North America and Europe. Logistyx is also experiencing a strong market response in Europe, which has led us to seek larger European headquarters in the Netherlands to house our growing operations and customer service teams there, Fleming added. Logistyx optimizes businesses transportation management execution with industry-leading multi-carrier shipping software, logistics expertise, data analytics and a global carrier network to reduce shipping costs while boosting efficiency and choice. Logistyxs multi-carrier shipping software solutions are used around the globe every day by manufacturers, distributors, e-commerce and retail companies and third-party logistics providers. About Logistyx Technologies: The leader in Transportation Management Execution and multi-carrier parcel shipping software, Logistyx Technologies builds unrivaled customer solutions for reducing shipping costs while boosting efficiency and choice. Headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, Logistyx Technologies also has U.S. offices in New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, St. Louis and Tulsa, and international offices in Canada, the Netherlands, the UK and Singapore. Logistyx is a portfolio company of its sponsor, Kidd & Company, and its co-sponsor, The Firmament Group. For more information, visit http://www.logistyx.com. Her profusion of knowledge in new business, as well as her extensive global brands experience, will guide the development of JWTs strategic priorities across the organization J. Walter Thompson today announced the appointment of Lulu Laudon as Chief Strategy Officer of the New York Office. Lulu will be working closely with Simon Pearce, Chief Executive Officer of North America, and Ben James, Chief Creative Officer of JWT New York, to identify and develop key opportunities and partnerships in line with the agencys Futures Reimagined strategy. I am thrilled to welcome Lulu to the JWT family as our new strategic lead, said Simon Pearce, Chief Executive Officer, J. Walter Thompson North America. Her profusion of knowledge in new business, as well as her extensive global brands experience, will guide the development of JWTs strategic priorities across the organization. Lulu joins J. Walter Thompson after having provided strategic insight and leadership for over a decade to companies such as General Mills International, JPMorgan Chase, ExxonMobil and GE. In her previous role, Lulu was Group Strategy Director at Anomaly, overseeing the global expansion of Budweiser and the successful new business pitches for William Hill and Ally Bank. Complementing her agency background is career experience with investment partnerships and operations strategy. She is a graduate of Princeton University. Its an honor to come to J. Walter Thompson," said Lulu. "I am delighted to work with Simon and Ben under any circumstancesbut to do it at a legendary agency that values planning so highly makes this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." ABOUT J. WALTER THOMPSON COMPANY J. Walter Thompson (JWT) the worlds best-known marketing communications brandhas been reimagining the future for businesses for over 154 years. Headquartered in New York City, JWT is a true global network, with more than 200 offices in over 90 countries, employing nearly 10,000 innovators and change agents. Known for our award-winning work and leading initiatives, JWT was the very first agency to air a TV commercial, the first to establish a global advertising presence, the first to rocket a candy bar into space, the first in the industry to hire a female copywriter, the first to create an amphibious prosthetic limb and the very first to teach a computer to paint like Rembrandt. While we reimagine the future for our clients, we will continue to break new ground and revolutionize the power of our legacy through the campaigns that we create. Marketplace Home Mortgage, L.L.C., an established leader in the mortgage industry, announced today the opening of its newest office in Clarkston, Michigan. Clarkston, a northern suburb of the Detroit Metro Area is considered by experts as a community with a large upside in terms of quality of life and growth. Entering this market in Oakland County is an incredible opportunity for our company to use our decades of experience and customer-centric approach to serve the people of Greater Detroit, said Mike Wesson, Marketplaces Eastern Division Manager. This market is one that has been overlooked in the past, but in reality, it is a vibrant housing market filled with opportunity. The Clarkston office is the third Marketplace Home Mortgage branch in Michigan, joining offices in Ann Arbor and Novi. Clarkston is a small community with great access to Detroit and citizens who support local businesses, said Josh Mick, Director of Business Development for Marketplaces Eastern Division. Over the last several years there has been a resurgence in the real estate market and we are eager to bring our expertise to this thriving area. Named by Forbes as one of Top Suburbs to Live Well In, Clarkston has gained a reputation as a safe, friendly community with some of the top-ranked schools in the state. Clarkston Branch Manager Lauren Zetye said Clarkston is a good fit for Marketplaces overall vision for becoming a leader in Michigans mortgage industry. I have been involved in this market for 15 years now and Clarkston is an adorable and historic village that we are very proud to be a part of, said Zetye. We are eager to be a part of this community and we are excited to promote this area as a great place to visit and live in. The new Marketplace Home Mortgage Office in Clarkston is conveniently located at 21 South Main Street, Suite #3, in downtown Clarkston. About Marketplace Home Mortgage: Marketplace Home Mortgage L.L.C., based in Edina, Minnesota and doing business in fourteen other states, provides start-to-finish mortgage services to real estate professionals, builders and residential and commercial buyers. Marketplace has offices in Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 2017, Marketplace Home Mortgage was recognized Best of Business Mortgage Company Winner from Twin Cities Business. To learn more, visit http://www.marketplacehome.com. Reporters and Editors: to schedule an interview with a mortgage expert in your market, contact Robb Leer 612.701.0608 or robbl@leercommunication.com. ### Recent data indicates a steep rise in the number and frequency of cyberattacks on small and medium-sized businesses. MiniCo has developed our cyber insurance program with this need in mind, and we are excited to offer this product to agents. MiniCo Insurance Agency has introduced a cyber insurance program to provide monoline coverage for small and medium-sized businesses for costs resulting from a data breach by the insured and any subsequent expenses that may be incurred from the loss of data. The program is underwritten by Barbican Insurance Group, which has been rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best, through MiniCo's status as a Lloyd's of London coverholder. The company is now offering coverage nationwide. Agents may obtain a premium quotation by visiting http://www.minico.com/cyber. No appointment or supporting MiniCo accounts are required to get a quote. MiniCo's cyber insurance program provides coverage for a wide range of eligible small and medium-sized commercial risks. Coverages include security and privacy liability, data recovery and loss of business income, privacy regulatory defense and penalties, crisis management costs, and data extortion. MiniCo President and CEO Mike Schofield commented, Small and medium-sized businesses are squarely in the crosshairs of cybercriminals. Recent data indicates a steep rise in the number and frequency of cyberattacks on these companies, which increases the need for an insurance solution. MiniCo has developed our cyber insurance program with this need in mind, and we are excited to offer this product to agents to help their clients protect their valuable business investments." About MiniCo Insurance Agency, LLC MiniCo Insurance Agency, LLC, was founded in 1974 as a provider of specialty insurance products and publications for the self-storage industry. Today the company is a managing general agency offering multiple specialty property and casualty insurance products for a variety of unique industries and exposures. MiniCo Insurance Agency, LLC, the parent company of MiniCo Insurance Agency of Canada, Inc., is a member of the Aran Insurance Services Group. For more information, please visit http://www.minico.com. Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce that John T. Owen has joined the firm in the New York office as a partner in its Corporate Finance | Capital Markets Group. Mr. Owen, who brings more than 17 years of experience representing issuers and underwriters in complex capital markets transactions, further expands the firms capital markets capabilities both in New York and globally. He comes to Morrison & Foerster from Jones Day. Mr. Owen is an accomplished capital markets partner with a wide range of experience, including offerings of equity and equity-linked securities, as well as investment-grade and high-yield debt securities. In the last five years alone, he has represented companies on transactions that have raised in excess of $50 billion in gross proceeds. Mr. Owen has worked extensively on cross-border deals, having completed transactions involving issuers and offerings in a number of jurisdictions around the world, particularly in Asia, including Hong Kong and Singapore. With a thriving global corporate practice, its essential for Morrison & Foerster to continue offering our clients exceptional guidance and support on every aspect of their most important business transactions, including in capital markets, said Eric McCrath, co-chair of Morrison & Foersters Corporate Department. Maintaining our strength in capital markets, especially in New York, is a strategic priority for us, and were pleased to welcome someone of Johns caliber and experience to the group. David Slotkin, a partner in the Corporate Finance | Capital Markets practice, added: I had the opportunity to work with John as co-counsel on a prior matter and was immediately impressed by his exceptional capabilities, strategic approach and the collegial nature that he brings to working with others. The experience and abilities John brings to Morrison & Foerster will be impactful for our clients, including our largest and most acquisitive clients. Im delighted to welcome John to the firm. Mr. Owen works with a variety of companies across industries, including life sciences, technology, telecommunications, professional services, financial services and consumer products, on a wide range of capital markets and M&A transactions. Examples of his most recent noteworthy matters include representing a leading global business advisory firm in its $316.25 million Rule 144A convertible note offering, the agents in connection with a $500 million senior bank note offering by an Ohio-based super regional bank, and a major European aerospace supplier in connection with a strategic acquisition through an 8.7 billion tender offer. In addition, Mr. Owen has advised on a number of precedent-setting transactions, including advising a leading United States aerospace manufacturing company on an offering of $500 million of high-yield notes in a tax driven structure through a United Kingdom subsidiary and advising a leading Indian real estate development company and an Indian wireless communications company in multiple offerings of high-yield notes. Mr. Owen received his J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and his B.A., with honors, from the University of Oklahoma. The Legal 500 United States has consistently recognized Mr. Owen for capital markets, and, in 2014, he received the National LGBT Bar Associations Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 award. Morrison & Foersters prominence in the tech space, together with its preeminent Asia practice and the firms collaborative environment, are what attracted me to the firm, said Mr. Owen. Just as important, too, is the firms distinguished progressive culture. I look forward to being part of the MoFo team and counseling our clients on their capital markets needs. Mr. Owen is just the latest new partner to join Morrison & Foerster in New York. Over recent months, the firm has added tax partners Jay Blaivas and Anthony (Tony) Carbone, who is serving as co-chair of the Global Tax Department and Federal Tax Group, and senior SEC trial lawyer Michael Birnbaum. ABOUT MOFO We are Morrison & Foerster a global firm of exceptional credentials. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, investment banks, Fortune 100, and technology and life sciences companies. The Financial Times has named the firm to its lists of most innovative law firms in Northern America and Asia every year that it has published its Innovative Lawyers Reports in those regions. In the past few years, Chambers USA has honored MoFos Privacy and Data Security, Bankruptcy, and IP teams with Firm of the Year awards, the Corporate/M&A team with a client service award, and the firm as a whole as Global USA Firm of the Year. Our lawyers are committed to achieving innovative and business-minded results for our clients, while preserving the differences that make us stronger. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education for poor children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, winning asylum for the persecuted, and safeguarding the environment. My experience establishing mental health clinics across the country, coupled with this study, shows that more needs to be done to give Americans much needed access to mental health services, said Cohen Veterans Network President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Anthony Hassan. Today, Cohen Veterans Network (CVN), a national not-for-profit philanthropic organization, and National Council for Behavioral Health, the unifying voice of Americas health care organizations that delivers mental health and addiction treatment and services, issued the inaugural Americas Mental Health 2018, a comprehensive study of access to mental health care, at the 2018 Cohen Veterans Care Summit in Washington D.C. The study, which assesses Americans current access to and attitudes towards mental health services, revealed American mental health services are insufficient, and despite high demand, the root of the problem is lack of access or the ability to find care. The study offers a comprehensive analysis of the state of mental health care in the U.S. It is comprised of a two-pronged research project that includes an online survey of 5,000 American adults, and a robust analysis of third-party data measuring patients access to mental health services in terms of four pillars providers, facilities, funding and perceived satisfaction among patients. There is a mental health crisis in America. My experience establishing mental health clinics across the country, coupled with this study, shows that more needs to be done to give Americans much needed access to mental health services, said Cohen Veterans Network President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Anthony Hassan. If we want to save lives, save families and save futures we must reimagine our behavioral health system and take concrete steps to improving consumers ability to find the care they need, when they need it, and on their terms. Despite Strong Demand for Mental Health Services, Common Barriers Remain The demand for mental health services is stronger than ever, with nearly six in 10 (56%) Americans seeking or wanting to seek mental health services either for themselves or for a loved one. These individuals are skewing younger and are more likely to be of lower income and have a military background. The large majority of Americans (76%) also believe mental health is just as important as physical health. This study confirmed what we hear from our members every day, that individuals and families continue to struggle to find the help they desperately need, said Linda Rosenberg, President and CEO of National Council for Behavioral Health. Mental health and addiction providers need adequate funding to hire skilled staff, employ evidence-based practices and adopt innovative technologies all of which will help us meet demand. Despite this strong demand and growing societal awareness of the importance of mental health in the U.S., the study revealed that the overwhelming majority of Americans (74%) do not believe such services are accessible for everyone, and about half (47%) believe options are limited. These beliefs are driven by several perceived barriers in Americans ability to seek mental health treatment, including: High Cost and Insufficient Insurance Coverage: Forty-two percent of the population saw cost and poor insurance coverage as the top barriers for accessing mental health care. One in four (25%) Americans reported having to choose between getting mental health treatment and paying for daily necessities. Several individuals blamed the U.S. government and insurers for not providing enough funding and support for access. Nearly one in five of Americans, or 17%, noted they have had to choose between getting treatment for a physical health condition and a mental health condition due to their insurance policy. The majority (64%) of Americans who have sought treatment believe the U.S. government needs to do more to improve mental health services. Limited Options and Long Waits: Access to face-to-face services is a higher priority for Americans seeking mental health treatment than access to medication. Ninety-six million Americans, or 38%, have had to wait longer than one week for mental health treatments. And nearly half of Americans, or 46%, have had to or know someone who has had to drive more than an hour roundtrip to seek treatment. While most Americans have heard of telehealth as an option for treating mental health issues, only 7% have reported using it. When asked if they would be open to using it, almost half, or 45%, of Americans who have not already tried telehealth services said they would be open to the idea of trying a service to address a current or future mental health need. Lack of Awareness: While most Americans do try to seek out treatment, there also is a large portion of the population who have wanted to but did not seek treatment for themselves or loved ones (29%) in part due to not knowing where to go if they needed this service. Whats more, fifty-three million American adults (21%) have wanted to see a professional but were unable to for reasons outside of their control. Furthermore, younger Americans (i.e., Gen Z and Millennials) are less sure about resources for mental health services, compared to older generations. This younger generation was also more likely to find it too hard to figure out legitimate resources online. Instead, many turned to unreliable resources for information, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Social Stigma: Nearly one-third of Americans, or 31%, have worried about others judging them when they told them they have sought mental health services, and over a fifth of the population, or 21%, have even lied to avoid telling people they were seeking mental health services. This stigma is particularly true for younger Americans, who are more likely to have worried about others judging them when they say they have sought mental health services (i.e. 49% Gen Z vs. 40% Millennials vs. 30% Gen X vs. 20% Boomers). Stark Disparities in Accessibility at State and Income Levels Based on the analysis of third-party data, states are struggling to keep up with demand due to lack of funding and facilities, and, to a lesser extent, providers. Texas, Wisconsin and Georgia ranked among the lowest in terms of lacking adequate number of providers, facilities and funding to support the states populations. Pennsylvania, New York and Minnesota ranked among the top. There is also a large disparity in access to mental health care based on level of income and location. Individuals located in rural areas and of lower-income are less likely to say that mental health services are extremely accessible to them. Compared to middle- and high-income households, low-income Americans are less likely to know where to go for treatment and more likely to use a community center verses a qualified mental health center. Of the Americans that have not sought mental health treatment, more than half, or 53%, were in low-income households. In addition, compared to Americans living in urban and suburban areas, individuals living in rural areas are less likely to proactively seek mental health specialists they need, and instead go to their primary care doctor or community center for treatment. Rural Americans are also less accepting of mental health services and care. The Path Forward The Cohen Veterans Network and National Council for Behavioral Health believe that more must be done to improve access to care for everyday Americans. Specifically, younger Americans need more information on how and where to access care and need to understand that treatments are effective. We also need to improve the understanding of the real cost of delivering mental health care and move reimbursement levels to parity with physical health care. Finally, new models should be explored, including philanthropy, such as Cohen Veterans Network, and Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) as well as community programs like Mental Health First Aid. For more information on the study results and how CVN and National Council are working to address mental wellness and accessibly across the country, please visit http://www.cohenveteransnetwork.org or http://www.TheNationalCouncil.org. About Americas Mental Health 2018 Cohen Veterans Network and National Council for Behavioral Health partnered with Ketchum Analytics who conducted an online survey among 5,000 Americans, representative of the U.S. population based on age, gender, region, household income and race/ethnicity. The survey was conducted between July 31 August 12, 2018, with a margin of error of +/- 1.38 at the 95% confidence level. Through the survey, the following groups were identified: veterans, active duty military and those with a secondary relationship with a veteran as well as those who have sought mental health treatment (Mental Health Treatment Seekers). A custom index was developed, ranking each state according to its mental health service access. Third-party data was gathered to determine access based on four pillars: providers, facilities, funding and satisfaction. Data was aggregated and averaged to each state, resulting in a score between 0 and 100, where 100 indicates the greatest access. About Cohen Veterans Network The Cohen Veterans Network (CVN) is a 501(c)(3) national not-for-profit philanthropic organization for post-9/11 veterans and their families. CVN focuses on improving mental health outcomes, with a goal to build a network of outpatient mental health clinics for veterans and their families in high-need communities, in which trained clinicians deliver holistic evidence-based care to treat mental health conditions. There are currently 10 Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinics nationwide. About National Council for Behavioral Health The National Council for Behavioral Health is the unifying voice of Americas health care organizations that deliver mental health and addictions treatment and services. Together with our 2,900-member organizations serving over 10 million adults, children and families living with mental illnesses and addictions, the National Council is committed to all Americans having access to comprehensive, high-quality care that affords every opportunity for recovery. The National Council introduced Mental Health First Aid USA and more than one million Americans have been trained. For more information, please visit http://www.TheNationalCouncil.org. For More Information: Paul Wood, Cohen Veterans Network, (203) 569-0289 Joy Burwell, National Council for Behavioral Health, (202) 748-8789 Kaitlyn Rawlett, Weber Shandwick, (212) 445-8082 A partnership of five colleges and universities in North Carolina, announced today, will launch a new initiative focused on helping students transition successfully to college life -- and cope with the most common stressors on campus. Led by researchers at Duke University Medical Center and Ready Education, the project will examine the role of mobile technology in connecting students to support services, on-campus networks, and information that can help proactively address issues of physical and mental health. A body of research suggests that the transition to college can be among the most challenging periods in students lives, as incoming students struggle to adapt to the social and academic pressures of arriving on campus and navigating a maze of activities and requirements. This challenge can be particularly acute for low-income, minority, and first-generation students, who report greater difficulty managing time and developing effective study skills compared to their peers. Institutions participating in the 3-year study, which is supported by a grant from the North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation, will give students access to a custom campus mobile app produced by the education technology company Ready Education. As non-traditional students become the norm at campuses around the country, its increasingly challenging for schools to develop strategies that support all students physical and emotional well-being, said Scott Compton, Ph.D., a Child and Family Clinical Psychologist at Duke University who is leading the initiative. Technology can help bridge this gap by providing on-demand access to resources and advisors who can help students stay on track. In addition to providing information about coursework and extracurricular activities, the Ready Education app will include specific resources and personalized notifications designed to help students grappling with substance abuse, anxiety, depression, or other threats to mental health and college success. In our work with colleges and universities across the country, weve seen firsthand the impact of mobile technology on helping provide students with the support they need, when they need it, said Danial Jameel, Co-Founder and CEO of Ready Education. Were excited to team up with the Duke research team and schools across North Carolina to learn more about new strategies that help students succeed on campus. In addition to Duke University, other institutions participating in the study include Greensboro College, Warren Wilson College, Louisburg College, and St. Augustines University. As part of the agreement, Ready Education will be continuing management of the research project from GenieUs Inc., whose founder Diyi Zhu will be joining the Ready Education team as a sales development & edtech consultant. ### About Ready Education Trusted by over 350+ institutions, Ready Education helps deliver the right information to the right student at the right time. Learn more at readyeducation.com. Its this commitment to solutions as part of a seamless shopping experience, this constant innovation, this vision for what a grocery retailer has to be in order to thrive in a disruptive retail market, that made The Kroger Co. our clear choice for 2018 Retailer of the Year. Grocery retailing trade publication Progressive Grocer has selected The Kroger Co. as its 2018 Retailer of the Year. PG bestowed its highest annual honor on the Cincinnati-based retailer for its aggressive investment in transforming the arena of grocery retailing while focusing all its efforts on maximizing customer service. Its this commitment to solutions as part of a seamless shopping experience, this constant innovation in order to better serve consumers on their terms, this vision for what a grocery retailer has to be in order to thrive in a constantly disruptive retail market, that made The Kroger Co. our clear choice for Progressive Grocers 2018 Retailer of the Year, Editorial Director Jim Dudlicek writes in PGs October 2018 issue. Kroger has unleashed a constant stream of innovations in the past year, among them: Kroger Ship direct-to-consumer grocery delivery; a partnership with e-seller Alibaba to sell Krogers Simple Truth products in China; a partnership with UK-based online grocer Ocado to introduce its delivery platform in the United States; an expanded partnership with Instacart to increase its customer delivery coverage area; piloting autonomous delivery in Scottsdale, Ariz., with driverless vehicles by Silicon Valley startup Nuro; OptUp, a data-driven app that helps customers make more informed, healthier purchase decisions; a new digital headquarters in downtown Cincinnati, with plans to grow its digital team to more than 1,000 over the next three years; partnership with the University of Cincinnati to operate an innovation lab within the school's 1819 Innovation Hub; purchased meal kit service Home Chef; opened a culinary innovation center; announced a plan to phase out single-use plastic bags across all Kroger banners by 2025; and launched the Feed Your Future financial support program for employee continuing education benefit. The industry continues to be under constant disruption as it transforms from a historically brick-and-mortar enterprise to one that connects with consumers on every level, physical and digital, day and night, Dudlicek said. Krogers been a leader in that industry transformation, making significant investments and forging strategic partnerships here and abroad. The transformative investments that Kroger is making are bound to deliver healthy dividends over the long haul. A feature story in PGs October 2018 issue includes extensive interviews with Kroger senior executives and comment from industry analysts who agree Kroger is on the right track. Progressive Grocer is a publication the industry counts on for insightful editorial about the state of retail, said Rodney McMullen, Krogers chairman and CEO. Being recognized as its 2018 Retailer of the Year is a phenomenal honor for Kroger and our nearly 460,000 associates. Its an exciting time for the company. Everything we are doing is intended to create a truly seamless shopping experience, so we can serve customers anything, anytime and anywhere. You can see this vision coming into focus through several of the key announcements weve made over the past year. And were not done. Additional puzzle pieces will emerge in the months and years ahead, creating a very clear picture of our vision. The Kroger Co. serves consumers through 2,800 stores under a variety of regional banners in 35 states as well as a growing click-and-collect and home delivery program. With $122.7 billion in annual sales, Kroger is No. 2 on Progressive Grocers Super 50 ranking of top grocers. About EnsembleIQ: EnsembleIQ is the leading business intelligence platform serving the retail, consumer goods, healthcare, food service, pharmacy and hospitality industries focused on helping customers solve big problems and inspiring bold ideas. EnsembleIQ operates an integrated network of media brands across all retail sectors and leverages its scale to inform, connect and provide actionable marketplace intelligence to help clients achieve growth. Today, UNCF will convene the 6th Annual HBCU Innovation Summit in Silicon Valley connecting HBCU leadership, faculty and students to the Silicon Valley tech community. This year will be a banner year, with 150 fellows and more than 20 faculty members representing more than 40 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) participating in the summit. During the summit, students will visit 14 Silicon Valley/Bay Area tech companies; HBCU computer science/engineering faculty will participate in the HBCU Computer Science (CS) Workshop to share best practices in computer science pedagogy, and HBCU leadership will share ideas on how HBCUs can pivot to support innovation, commercialization and startup/tech entrepreneurship on their respective campuses. The Summit serves as a forum, where the persistent challenges of diversity, inclusion and equity in Silicon Valleys tech industry can be addressed. Despite the projected increase in tech jobs over the next few years, African Americans and women continue to be underrepresented and underestimated. As reported by The New York Times, the percentage of minorities working at major Silicon Valley companies does not reflect U.S. demographics. Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported an overall increase in STEM jobs. The Summit also focuses on the challenges that women have faced entering the tech workforce by empowering African American women through career development. Self-reported data from 11 of the major tech giants, according to CNET.com, reveals that less than 30 percent of their workforce is composed of women. Of the participating HBCU Innovation Summit students, nearly 40 percent are women. Similar to previous years, HBCU CS majors had to compete to be selected to attend the Summit. This year, UNCF increased the capacity of the summit to 150 talented HBCU students, and the length of the Summit has also expanded to four days to accommodate a deeper engagement. The expanded Summit schedule will continue to engage HBCU students majoring in computer science, information technology and computer engineering to accelerate and empower them to chart their career paths into the tech industry. In addition to the student track at the Summit, HBCU computer science faculty members will convene for professional development workshops and chart innovative approaches to computer science curriculum and pedagogy. Further, UNCF is also hosting an HBCU Leadership Pre-Summit Conference, composed of HBCU presidents, provosts, deans and innovative HBCU STEM advocates, who will build on the previous five years of engagement with key stakeholders in the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem. On Oct. 10, students will begin their Silicon Valley Tech Trek by traveling around Silicon Valley and the Bay Area to visit Summit sponsors, including: Google, EA Interactive, Pixar, VISA, eBay, Symantec, Twitter, Workday, Walmart, NetApp, Adobe, PureStorage, Stubhub and Salesforce. Students will have a chance to meet chief technology executives and engage engineers during various panels and workshops. Through UNCF, I was able to connect with different tech professionals and students as I visited many tech campuses said ZamZam Munin, a rising junior at Benedict College. I was offered an internship through eBay. Thanks to the UNCF HBCU Innovation Summit, I got to see their campus and finalize my decision to accept eBays offer. Summit Fellows were competitively selected based on multiple components, including: GPAs, personal statements, internships, computer science skills and demonstrated leadership. The average GPA for this cohort is 3.6 out of 4.0. HBCU faculty were chosen based on their background in computer science education, leadership, and willingness to serve as change agents on their respective campuses to align computer science curriculum with industry workforce needs and demands. We launched the HBCU Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Initiative -- or HBCU I.C.E. -- back in 2012 as a program commitment to support the White House Office of Science and Technology Policys Tech Inclusion initiative. Our strong belief in the value of HBCUs and the HBCU experience for students pursuing careers in STEM fields led us to the Valley. We believe that HBCUs, the students they serve, and faculty they employ, have the ability to drive innovation and meet the high standards and succeed in the Silicon Valley tech workforce. We appreciate the support of our sponsors and partners in the Valley as their support is indicative of their belief in the value of the HBCU experience, said UNCFs National STEM Director, Dr. Chad Womack, a graduate of UNCF-member institution Morehouse College and Morehouse School of Medicine. Our nations HBCUs are a fountainhead of top-tier talent that contribute to the emerging tech and innovation economy. UNCF is committed to establishing a consistent HBCU and African American presence in Silicon Valley in a manner that adds value to the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem. UNCFs investments in our campuses, faculty and students are an expression of our belief in the enduring value of the HBCUs. As a Summit alumnus, it was an eye-opening experience that motivated me to excel in the tech industry Josh Fitchett, a senior at Morgan State University said. Not only was I able to obtain a tech role with Lockheed Martin in the Orion EM2 Space Program, I was also able to network with other tech professionals in Silicon Valley that are now my mentors. I couldnt have asked for a better opportunity. At the conclusion of the Summit, students will participate in tech empowerment workshops and a technical career fair. Summit scholars will have the opportunity to network with recruiters, engage in technical and professional development workshops, and interview on-site for jobs and internships. UNCFs impact with the HBCU Innovation Summit has proved successful, as nearly a third of 2015 and 2016 participants are now interning or working full time at technology companies. Summit sponsors include: Fund II Foundation, Walmart, Adobe, Anheuser Busch, Blackbaud, Chevron, eBay, Electronic Arts Inc., Goldman Sachs, Google, Indeed, Kaiser Permanente, NetApp, Pixar, Pure Storage, Quicken Loans, Salesforce, StubHub, Symantec, Twitter, Uber, Visa, Wells Fargo, Workday, National Science Foundation (NSF), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and Alaska Airlines. Follow the HBCU ICE Innovation Summit on Twitter by following @UNCF and #HBCUInnovation. View 2017 HBCU ICE Innovation Summit highlights here and visit UNCF.org/InnovationSummit. . About UNCF UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students' education and development through scholarships and other programs, strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding nearly 20 percent of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF awards more than $100 million in scholarships annually and administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 1,100 colleges and universities. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized trademark, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but a wonderful thing to invest in." Learn more at http://www.uncf.org, or for continuous news and updates, follow UNCF on Twitter, @UNCF. Braidio, a social workplace intelligence platform, today announced the launch of its brand new Braidio WorkStreams software. Braidios award winning platform creates successful customer outcomes by streamlining workflows, removing friction, connecting information and knowledge silos, and empowering a more collaborative and knowledgeable team to optimize productivity. Braidio Workstreams was built for the growing need for speed in work execution, as well as the role of automation and purposeful collaboration in delivering winning outcomes. Braidio has a bold vision to transform learning and knowledge sharing through a data-driven and employee-centered approach. The Braidio WorkStreams platform integrates with the popular third-party tools and services already used by most organizations such as SharePoint, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Google Drive, QuickBooks, and others to provide a unified experience. The future of work will look very differently than it does now. Employees need to combine all of their training, information, software tools, and resources used daily in one place to make problem solving easier, reduce workload and optimize productivity, said Iain Scholnick, Founder and CEO of Braidio. Braidio WorkStreams does just that, with a single user experience to connect knowledge and information silos, and third-party tools for a smarter workforce, and allowing for knowledge assembly that aggregates content and information with a single goal in mind improving job productivity. Braidio pulls together all siloed information into workstreams in order to optimize productivity. The workstreams interaction occurs below those layers to present answers and solutions, not just content, to deliver successful outcomes. Braidio also captures informal knowledge, which accounts for 80% of knowledge and learning in the workplace, and makes it easily discoverable. At 451 Research weve been covering Workforce Intelligence Platforms as a result of seeing a shift towards the need of more liquid productivity platforms, which allow employees to keep projects on schedule and drive communication between departments, said Raul Castanon Martinez, Senior Analyst at 451 Research. Workstreams are a natural progression in Braidios product roadmap, working towards a more collaborative environment for users, enabling workplace training within the daily workflow of an organization. Braidio is our onboarding partner of choice for both customers and reseller partners because the platform empowers teams with the freedom to design and create new workstreams at the local level that will unlock collaboration and optimize productivity across the entire organization, said Sacha Gera, SVP, Cloud Products at Kandy.io. This encompasses much more than access and training; Braidio provides agility in a workstream to create winning business outcomes. Braidio is moving quickly ahead to integrate with other third-party services and tools, to break down knowledge silos and provide a unified experience. This is critical in providing a cohesive optimized employee experience, where they will no longer need to juggle multiple screens throughout the day to do their work. To learn more about incorporating Braidio Workstreams into your business, please visit braidio.com. About Braidio Braidios award winning platform threads all necessary information, knowledge, people, and business tools into a single point of productivity, your WorkStreams. The future of work will look very different than it does now. Braidio WorkStreams helps accelerate sales, improve customer satisfaction, and simplify employee on-boarding by efficiently spreading knowledge and insights across any workflow and business unit in real-time. Based in San Francisco, Braidio is surrounded by some of the most innovative and disruptive companies in the world. Braidio WorkStreams simplifies success. For more information, please visit braidio.com or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Simon Hodgkins, founder of the Think Global Forum, shares the news of the launch of the Think Global Awards 2018 after a growing interest and membership in the global community since the initial launch of events and activities in the United States. Since 2017, The Think Global Forum has been expanding into Europe and many new Think Global Forum events have been held across the continent. We continue to see progress and expansion in both the USA and European forums in many sectors including, Technology, Travel, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Retail and eCommerce. The latest USA forum brought together our Life Sciences executives in San Diego and we recently concluded another successful European Retail and eCommerce event in London. After a successful launch in 2017, the Think Global Awards 2018 are back for the second year. In the initial awards year, we were delighted with how well the Think Global Awards were received around the world. Individuals and companies entered the awards categories from across the globe; we saw many new innovative companies taking part, as well as a numerous large-scale global brands and organizations being nominated for awards. We saw a vast amount of people nominating others for their achievement and people nominating themselves or their teams for the various awards categories. The Think Global Awards in its very first year saw some of the biggest and best-known brands in the world taking part. This year, the Think Global Awards 2018 will be larger again in scale and will see new awards categories and additional judges added to the panel. The Awards are open for entries from October 3, 2018, through to December 2018. The shortlisted entries will be announced in December, and the overall winners will once again be awarded in January at the awards ceremonies planned for Europe and the US. The Think Global Forum Awards recognize the achievements of people, projects, brands and companies around the world. The importance of reaching a global audience effectively and efficiently is so critical in todays marketplace, and the messaging and essence of the communication is so important as you grow and expand your products and services into new markets and geographies. Global content available in local languages plays such an important factor in your organization global success, along with a thorough understanding of the locale and its cultural, ethnic, educational, social and political realities. With many new awards categories, the Think Global Awards 2018 aim to recognize the achievements in these areas and help promote the awareness of thinking globally. We are pleased to announce that the 2018 Awards are officially open and available for entries at https://www.thinkglobalforum.org/awards/#about-the-awards Enter the awards today! With this new packaged service, transcosmos will enhance customer service channels with the aim to maximize customer satisfaction by relieving customers stress from call inquiry. transcosmos inc. will launch Non-voice Contact Center Package, a customer service package targeting the so-called smartphone generation that prefers self-help (FAQ) and chat-based inquiry services that let them make inquiries at any time. The service is due to launch in late October 2018. Non-voice Contact Center Package is a chat-based customer support service including FAQ creation/operations, bot building/operations, agent-based chat, and contact center services. With customer inquiries that require call-based support, one-time phone number will be issued for temporaly connecting a contact center after the FAQ and bot/agent-based chat supports. Although call center operators try to streamline their operations by using non-voice support services, cost optimization remains a challenge due to the difficulty in controlling incoming call volumes as traditional contact center. Now, the Non-voice Contact Center Package enables the call center operators to actively control incoming calls and ultimately reduce costs whilst retaining customer satisfaction. transcosmos believes the service will be highly valuable for companies that offer services targeting the smartphone generation and for supporting inquiries during marketing campaigns and promotions. Non-voice Contact Center Package Key Features Feature (1): Create a maximum of 200 essential FAQs based on call log analysis. Feature (2): Build bots that auto-reply to complex inquiries requiring to be categorized and confirmed by conditions. Feature (3): Issue a one-time phone number that customers can connect the call center in a period of time. A call to the one-time phone number can be transferred to the agent who previously supported the customer in the chat support. Also, businesses can set a valid period to the issued one-time phone number in order to prevent the risks such as repeat calls from the same customer and phone number spreading in SNS. Businesses need non-voice channel services not to reduce incoming calls but to support customers who prefer not to talk on the phone The non-voice contact center package does not consider call as the top service channel for contact centers. Along with the population of smartphone and LINE users growth, the population of customers who prefer not to communicate with an agent on the phone has been increasing. Recognizing this trend, transcosmos will develop a new contact center service based on a hypothesis that non-voice customer support besides call center support, will help businesses achieve higher user satisfaction whilst making the service operations more efficient. With this new packaged service, transcosmos will enhance customer service channels other than call with the aim to relieve stress from users who prefer not to talk with an agent over the phone and ultimately maximize customer satisfaction. transcosmos continues to help clients across a broad range of industries optimize communication with their customers building on its proven implementation record in customer support services. transcosmos is a trademark or registered trademark of transcosmos inc. in Japan and other countries. Other company names and product or service names used here are trademarks or registered trademarks of respective companies. About transcosmos inc. transcosmos launched its operations in 1966. Since then, we have combined superior people with up-to-date technology to enhance the competitive strength of our clients by providing them with superior and valuable services. transcosmos currently offers services that support clients business processes focusing on both sales expansion and cost optimization through our 172 locations across 32 countries with a focus on Asia, while continuously pursuing Operational Excellence. Furthermore, following the expansion of e-commerce market on the global scale, transcosmos provides a comprehensive One-Stop Global E-Commerce Services to deliver our clients' excellent products and services to consumers in 49 countries around the globe. transcosmos aims to be the Global Digital Transformation Partner of our clients, supporting the clients transformation by leveraging digital technology, responding to the ever-changing business environment. Visit us here https://www.trans-cosmos.co.jp/english/ Uberall, a global leader in location marketing solutions for businesses competing to attract and win local bricks-and-mortar customers, today announced the appointment of Jonathan Best to the newly created position of chief revenue officer. Best, who has been leading high-performing global sales teams for more than 20 years, will be responsible for forging new strategic partnerships for Uberall, as well as capitalizing on the growing demand for the companys location marketing services across the globe, particularly in the US and across Asia. Founded in 2013, Uberall has grown rapidly to become one of the largest location marketing platforms in the world. Following its September 2018 acquisition of Navads, it now supports more than 700,000 locations for 1,500 customers globally. Jonathan has an outstanding track record of achieving high sales and revenue growth by building strong, highly-engaged sales teams with a very customer-focused approach; this experience will be invaluable as we continue to expand our global operations, said Josha Benner, Co-Founder, Uberall. By focusing on growing our enterprise business, breaking into new markets, and forming closer bonds with partners and customers alike, Jonathan will play a pivotal role in our future growth plans. We are delighted to welcome him to the Uberall team. Best was most recently chief revenue officer at honeybee, a UK based retail startup. Before that he grew the European business for Kony Inc., and also held a range of sales leadership positions in Europe, Asia and the US with companies including SAP, Oracle, and Cordys (sold to OpenText). In its short history, Uberall has already seen tremendous growth with thousands of businesses across the world already relying on its platform to connect with more local customers, said Best. Im looking forward to keeping this momentum going, by both expanding Uberalls already extensive partner business, and by growing its sales operations in key international markets. Best will split his time between Uberalls newly opened London Office, as well as the companys headquarters in Berlin and offices in Amsterdam, San Francisco, Paris and Cape Town. Uberalls new London operations form part of Uberalls ongoing strategy to boost its market presence in key global markets. The new London office will provide more personalized support to the companys existing UK customers and grow its market footprint. Located in Londons historic St. Katharine Docks, the office will be home to an experienced team of technology professionals, headed up by Daniel Mathew, Uberalls recently appointed UK Vice President, who joins the company with more than 20 years of commercial experience in the digital sector. In September 2018, Uberall increased its series B funding to $50 million and announced its acquisition of Navads, making Uberall one of the largest location marketing platforms in the world. For more information about Uberall, visit: http://uberall.com/. About Uberall, Inc. Uberall is a global leader in location marketing technology. Its flagship Location Marketing Cloud platform empowers the world's biggest brands to connect with their customers and turn online interactions into offline sales. Uberall gives businesses central control of their digital presence and online reputation, enabling them to easily manage brand interactions in real-time on all digital platformsmobile, voice and desktopacross websites, mobile apps, store locators, search engines, maps, social platforms, and advertising networks. The Location Marketing Cloud provides a consistent, accurate digital brand footprint that helps businesses capture new customers and maximize revenue for every location. Uberall is headquartered in Berlin, with additional offices in San Francisco, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Cape Town. Its clients include Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders from all over the world. Learn more at https://www.uberall.com. Malaga & Picasso is one of many tours and activities available to book so guests can completely customize their cruise vacation in advance to maximize precious time in dozens of ports of call. We are excited to give our guests another great way to personalize their vacation. The user-friendly platform shares a robust amount of information on activities and places to inspire our well-traveled cruisers so they can discover the absolute perfect shore excursion in every port. For some, trip planning is a chore. They just want to be there, experiencing the destination in all of its glory. For others, the trip begins once their cruise is booked, and the research (plus anticipation) is half the fun. Now, both of these types of travelers will be pleased with a new offering from Windstar Cruises and Utrip, a travel personalization platform that supports Windstars strength of bringing guests into small ports of call to discover authentic experiences that celebrate the communities and cultures of each destination. The new trip-planning software enhances Windstars already highly-customized shore-side experience. Interactive filters let guests dial up or down their preferences in seven key areas including: arts and culture, outdoors, adventure, shopping, history, relaxation, and food and wine. The online tool then provides tailored activities in each cruise port, serving up suggestions that best match the interests of cruisers. The software acts as a local resource, also serving up restaurants, parks, museums, attractions and more to help plan ones dream vacation. We are excited to give our guests another great way to personalize their vacation and further enrich their destination experience. The user-friendly platform shares a robust amount of information on activities and places to inspire our well-traveled cruisers so they can discover the absolute perfect shore excursion in every port, explained Windstar President John Delaney. Six itineraries are available on the new platform during a six-month pilot program, with plans to expand based on guest feedback and functionality. The advanced system automatically sorts through thousands of activity options at the click of a button, enabling guests to effortlessly plan trips and make the most of their time on shore. Currently available on select sailings in Europe, the Caribbean and Asia, the trip planning platform includes ports such as Malaga, Spain; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Bangkok, Thailand. For example, for the active adventurer visiting Halong Bay, Vietnam on Windstars Icons of Southeast Asia cruise, the Utrip platform may recommend Windstars Halong Bay by Seaplane excursion paired with lesser known options such as lunch on the go at the exotic Bai Chay Market, or a visit to Tuan Chau where "Vietnam: The Island of Mr. Sang" episode of "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" was filmed. The platform serves up descriptions, photos, maps, menus and more and lets cruisers create a wish list of activities to refer back to without having to keep detailed notes. In addition, those favorites can be shared with fellow cruisers, family and friends via email, links and social media. Port information is currently available on the following Windstar itineraries highlighting excursions and activities in 30 ports of call: We're thrilled to partner with Windstar and give their cruisers a destination-centric port discovery tool thats as innovative as it is engaging, said Utrip CEO Gilad Berenstein. "With the platform, cruisers can dream about destinations and future sailings, be inspired by the on-the-ground experiences that await them, and plan and book shore excursions in a way that is easy, enjoyable and personal." To learn more about authentic small ship cruising with Windstar, contact a travel professional or Windstar Cruises by phone at 877-958-7718 or visit http://www.windstarcruises.com. In a number of moves to broaden its Spanish-language publishing program, HarperCollins has acquired world Spanish rights to seven books by Swedish international bestselling author Fredrik Backman, and has also formed an International Spanish Acquisitions Board which will work to expand the reach of HCs Spanish-language titles. The Backman books were acquired by Judith Curr, who joined HC as president and publisher of HarperOne in April after resigning as president and publisher of the Atria Publishing Group where she published a number of Backman titles. Curr acquired the rights, which includes audio, from Tor Jonasson of the Salomonsson Agency in Stockholm. The titles that are part of the deal are: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You Shes Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, and essay collection Things My Son Needs to Know about the World, as well as two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime. According to HC, the deal marks the first time these titles will be published in Spanish. Curr also picked up a nonfiction title for HCs Spanish program, acquiring world Spanish rights for Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. (The book was released in September in the U.S. by HCs Dey Street imprint.) The titles will be published by HC throughout the Spanish-speaking world through its Global Publishing Program. In territories where HC doesnt have a publishing division, it will distribute the Spanish-language books, Curr said. No timetable for releasing the books has been set yet. Spanish-language publishing represents one of the largest growth opportunities for HarperCollins, and is a core strategic focus for our company as we continue to invest in our global publishing program and capabilities. said Brian Murray, HCs CEO. HCs global investment includes the creation of the International Spanish Acquisitions Boar. The new unit has representatives from HarperCollins Espanol, HarperCollins Mexico, and HarperCollins Iberica, and HC said, will seek to publish books that have broad appeal around the globe, and will work to coordinate publishing and share best practices across divisions. Spanish is one language in many countries, and our global platform will allow us to create a center of excellence, acquiring works that have broad appeal, both in the U.S. and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, said Curr. Two years after expanding the staff in its childrens and YA department, Tyndale House Publishers is adding Wander, an imprint for young adult titles, to the Tyndale Kids division. Linda Howard, associate publisher for Tyndale Kids, is heading up the new imprint, which she said has been in the works for over a year. YA is one of the top selling genres in publishing today, but there is not a lot of Christian YA in the marketplace, she told PW. We want to publish books that tell great stories and have engaging, top quality writing paired with strong positive messages that address current issues. Additional staff at the imprint includes lead editor Sarah Rubio, who also works in other genres at Tyndale. The first two books under the imprint, The Delusion by Laura Gallier (2017) and The Crescent Stone by Matt Mikalatos (2018), were released before the Wander logo was finished. The titles have been nominated for a Christy Award and a Christianity Today award, respectively. Frontlist titles for Wander include The Prophecy (tentative title), a follow-up to The Delusion expected in fall 2019, and The Heartwood Crown, a follow-up to The Crescent Stone, slated for publication in summer 2019. The publisher plans to release three to four titles a year under the Wander imprint in years to come. [Output] is contingent on the quality of proposals we receive and if they fit into our mission for the line, Howard said. If we are going to stand alongside the million-seller books and series that are out there, our content must be top notch. Tyndale is planning to launch a website for Wander that will feature its YA titles as well as a space for readers to engage with the themes and topics addressed in the books. It is part of a special focus on the Wander brand and consumers' experience with it, according to Kristi Gravemann, marketing manager, children and youth at Tyndale. "This experience starts with giving readers high-quality, relevant books they will enjoy," she said. "As the logo begins to appear on more and more of our books, readers can connect this positive experience with the Wander brand." Author Carey Scott and HarperCollins Christian Publishing (HCCP)/Zondervan have reached a settlement in Scotts copyright infringement lawsuit against the publisher and Christine Caine, a Christian author and founder of anti-human trafficking organization The A21 Campaign. Scott has declined to share details of the settlement, and HCCP did not respond to requests for comment. Scott, the author of Untangled: Let God Loosen the Knots of Insecurity in Your Life (Revell, 2015), filed the suit in early May 2018 in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, Mich., where Zondervan is based, citing copyright infringement issues between her book and Caines book, Unashamed: Drop the Baggage, Pick up Your Freedom, Fulfill Your Destiny (Zondervan, May 2016), which has sold over 150,000 copies to date, according to the publisher. Court documents show that Scott became aware of the alleged copyright infringement issues in April 2016, and in 2017, Zondervan published Caines devotional, Unshakeable: 365 Devotions for Finding Unwavering Strength in Gods Word, which had the same copyright infringement issues from content re-purposed from Unashamed. The lawsuit addresses direct copying of Untangled that exists within Unashamed and Unshakeable as well as the substantial similarity between Ms. Scotts work and Ms. Caines two works, according to court documents. About two weeks before Caines book Unashamed was set to launch, I received a promotional email that contained a two-minute book trailer video. Some of the wording at the beginning of the video sounded very familiar, and after some digging I discovered that the first 30 seconds of her personal narration on the promo video came directly from a paragraph on page 55 of my book, Scott told PW. There are several examples of direct copying and substantial similarities. Though Scott did not specify how much of her work was used by Caine, there were enough examples of direct copying and substantial similarity that I eventually sought to remedy this situation, she said. Ahead of filing the lawsuit, Carey extensively communicated with Zondervan over the infringement issues, according to the lawsuit. The publisher had initially searched both of Caines books for infringing passages, and directly copied sections were either reworded for future print editions or cited Scott. The e-book of Unashamed was to be corrected before it was made available, as would be the audio book. The changes in print books were to be made after the initial 30,000 books were distributed. However, it was unclear how many changes were made, and Scott sought injunctive relief and monetary damages" through the lawsuit. Untangled was a very hard book to write. In its pages, I detailed the sexual abuse I suffered as a child. I shared emotional stories and revealed very personal strugglesones I never thought Id talk about publicly. Even more, I deeply admired Caine, said Scott. When I saw my words in her work, it felt like a huge betrayal by someone I trusted. Pinning down how Jews in the United States practice their religion can be tricky, since there are so many ways they define themselves. So, is there a way to corral the disparate pieces into a full picture of American Jews? Professor of American Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary Jack Wertheimer says there is, and it's precisely this diversity and constant state of innovation that gives him some hope in a future for U.S. Jewry. Wertheimer lays out a generally optimistic view in The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today (Princeton, Aug.). His overriding feeling is that it's the ability of U.S. Jewry to innovate at the margins, then adapt the innovations into the mainstream, that is keeping Jewish practice fresh and vibrant. "I'm less skeptical about the long-term future of denominational synagogues as some others are, Wertheimer told PW. They seem to be rising to the occasion and adapting." What that means is the big three denominations of JudaismOrthodox, Conservative, and Reformare not likely to disappear anytime soon, despite changes in the way U.S. Jews prefer to practice their religion. While Wertheimer focuses primarily on Jews who display a religious commitment, he acknowledges that there are many Jews in the United States who no longer practice Judaism or attend a synagogue, but still consider themselves to be "cultural Jews." Yet, in the long run, a cultural identity is probably not enough, he said. "When it comes to the sustainability of Jewish life, I have serious doubts whether Jewish identity and commitments will be transmitted to the coming generations absent religious involvement. Wertheimer also looked at the large subset of American Jews who identify with Judaism as an historical and religious justification for social action, in what is known as Tikkun Olam. What he set out to do, however, was to get out of "elite" leadership circles and document "the actual experiences of people who are either attending synagogues or are attending the growing number of other places where Jewish religious congregating is taking place," he said. He found that experimental practices are being adopted by the mainstream, keeping Jewish practice alive and relevant. Practices like meditation and healing services, and small fellowships known as havurah, are catching on. Once considered a rebellion against conventional synagogues, "lo and behold within a short number of years hundreds of synagogues created small fellowships within their larger congregation and adapted the havurah model to the conventional synagogue, he said. Wertheimer is not impressed with statistics that say millennials are less religious than previous generations. Many have yet to practice what Wertheimer calls in his book "Judaism for peak moments," or family friendly holidays such as Purim or rites of passage like bar and bat mitzvahs. "We know from previous generations that one of the major circumstances that bring people to join synagogues is that they seek a Jewish education for their children," Wertheimer said. "So if millennials are only beginning to have children in the latter part of their 30s, the likelihood is that they will not be involved with synagogues until they are somewhat older." There is no doubt that synagogues are changing, adapting everything from new kinds of music and choreography of the service to offering transliterated prayer books. "I think that that there still is an image of synagogues that's based upon the post-World War II congregation, which was a far colder and more formal place. But it's just not an accurate portrayal of what synagogues are like today, said Wertheimer. Younger Jews, he said, need to educate themselves about Judaism. Otherwise, "The best we can hope for is a very thin Jewish culture and a very limited impact that Judaism will have in the lives of individuals." Researching The New American Judaism has renewed Wertheimer's own sense of hope for the future. "I've been involved in such writing about some of the problematic aspects of Jewish religious life and my book strives to re-balance that picture by also attending to those Jews who are involved," he said. "What's the nature of their involvement? What is attractive to them? What's meaningful to them? What's available to them? Jewish religious leaders are working very hard to help Jews find the synagogue to be a meaningful place." Tim Wu, author of acclaimed books including The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, and The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads has pulled off an incredible feathes written a short, compelling book on antitrust. PW recently caught up with the author to talk about The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the Gilded Age (Columbia Global Reports), and why a return to trust busting is essential for American democracy. Before I get to the book, I have to start with the most obvious question for publishersthe 2013 price-fixing case involving Apple and a group of major publishers. Covering this as a reporter, I got the sense that this was just too blatant a case for the government to ignore. Is that about right? Basically, yes. Im an antitrust enforcement guy. And I dont think you can tolerate price fixing, even for a good reason, because every industry believes it has its own good reasons for price fixing. I get that the Apple case was about authors, and e-books, and a certain problem. But the most straightforward thing about antitrust is that you cannot allow companies to get together and fix prices. If you dont do that kind of case, I dont know what you do. In The Curse of Bigness you write that the tech sector is ripe for antitrust actionsomething publisher and author groups would certainly agree with. Can you briefly explain why? This gets a little bit complicated, because Americas economic vibrancy for the last hundred years has a lot to do with its tech industries. But to keep that going requires that you control the power of the monopolists every few decades. Because what happens in tech is that one big company grows to control a lot of stuff, and if its allowed to stay there for too long, it slows down the sector. So, were kind of duethe last time we did something like that was Microsoft in the 90s. But I also think that companies like Google and Facebook have come to hold too much power. Theres a growing sense that they have too much control over information, news, advertising, even who we are and whats going on. Im actually most concerned that well cut some kind of deal that effectively nationalizes or weakly regulates Facebook. and that that deal will endure for a long time. Thats the trajectory were on, and I would resist that. How did we go from antitrust enforcement once being so vital in America to all but disappearing in the 2000s? After the experience of World War II, with Nazi Germany, and Japan, and Spain, there was a widely held belief that a reasonable functioning democracy had to control corporate power. We have strong antitrust laws to control concentration, and we used them. But in the 1960s, there began this effort to portray antitrust law as out of control and government intrusion as illegitimate. And it was successful. By the George W. Bush administration, antitrust action was basically down to zero. It was almost if Section II [of the Sherman Act], the antimonopoly law, was repealed in favor of this sort of hard right ideology which viewed the market as constitutionally superior to Congress, to the people, even to the president. You write about Robert Bork, and his role in making that shift happen. How did Bork help that philosophy take root? Borks a fascinating figure. What he did in the 60s was to tie the backlash against the establishmentyou had the Civil Rights movement, race riots, hippiesto antitrust. So you had this strange coalition of right wing economists and right wing social conservatives, who thought that judges were out of control and needed to be shut down, and not just in terms of Affirmative Action or equal rights, but even in terms of antitrust. Over the next 40 years, government actions became almost taboo, when this was how the law had been enforced for more than fifty years. On the other side of the debate, you write about the great Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis. Talk a little about the Brandeisian view of antitrust? This is actually why I wrote this bookbecause I feel like Brandeis and his vision have in some Orwellian way been rubbed out. A huge goal of this book is to try to bring his ideas back into focus. Brandeis was Woodrow Wilsons number one guy for economic policy, and he spent a lot of time thinking about what the economy was for. He was less limited than we are today by ideas about government or business, and was really focused on what makes for a good lifethat people needed jobs, for example. And by that I mean, steady work, not come-and-go jobs, but secure work where you have some kind of control over your destiny. He thought the happiest people were those with stable, small businesses. He believed that if people became serfs, or passive actors in large corporations who had to work all the time, thats not what makes for a good, Republican form of government. Roosevelt realized that when people are economically unhappy or mistreated they turn to more radical solutions. The book makes clear the historic link between monopoly and fascisma timely message given whats going on in the world today. Explain that correlation? I think it starts with Theodore Roosevelt, who had very acute democratic instincts. Roosevelt realized that when people are economically unhappy or mistreated they turn to more radical solutions. And he recognized that this enormous gap between the giant monopolists of his day and their workers was bound to lead somewhere bad unless government did something to prove it was in control. Other countries didnt do this, especially Germany. Ahead of World War II, German corporations had felt disadvantaged against British and American competitors, and the darkest part of German history comes when the German monopolists start to think this Hitler guy might be good them. But the rise of a figure like that doesnt happen unless youve allowed corporations to centralize. It doesnt happen in a nation of small businesses thats even moderately decentralized. I think this is actually something to watch out for in our times. A country like China is a good example. China looks to have some of the features of 20th century authoritarian governments. And the scary question is whether we get caught up in this. Mark Zuckerberg recently said that if we break up or weaken Facebook, some Chinese company will just step in take over. So, now we have to support our monopolies? Once youve engaged in this sort of conversation, youre heading in a very dangerous direction. You write about Teddy Roosevelt calling J.P. Morgan to the Oval Office and taking him on. Do you think there is any chance that Donald Trump does the same to Mark Zuckerberg? Trump is complicated. Trump scares me. I think his administration might actually try to break up Facebook, but only because he believes it is a sort of rival power. And I think its possible he could try to bring companies like Facebook to heel. And if they are willing to make a deal, if they are willing to come to heel, that could lead in some terrifying directions. You argue compellingly in this book that monopolists fundamentally subvert democracy, and that antitrust action is a powerful, necessary check. Do you think thats a message that might resonate with Americans today? Yeah, I think people have become aware of the fact that the political process in the United States does not reflect what the majority wants. Just look at the issues: the majority wants gun control, campaign finance control, the majority supports immigration. The majority probably wants a tax cut for the middle class, not for large corporations. But the outcomes are almost never what the majority wants. So you have to ask, whats going on here? And one of the most obvious things is that the more concentrated industry is, the easier it is for them to have political influence. Look at mobile phone carriers, or the pharmaceutical industry. They are very organized. The middle class is not organized. And these big companies see that throwing millions of dollars to candidates is a great investment. I think it is an existential threat to American democracy. In her outstanding new book, Leadership: In Turbulent Times (Simon & Schuster), Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin revisits four great American presidentsAbraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. Ahead of this years fair, PW spoke with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian about American leadership, the current state of American politics, and why the world should look beyond the current occupant of the Oval Office. We live in interesting times, and to get started, I wanted to ask you about the recent anonymous editorial in The New York Times, which suggested there is resistance within the Trump administration. As a presidential historian, was that editorial as extraordinary to you as it seems to me? Yes, I think so. To write an anonymous op-ed, and the idea that the The New York Times had enough confidence in the source to print it, it just shows the anxiety that people around Trump are feeling. It is extraordinaryactually, I can't think of another example like it, but then I can't think of another time like this in general. What I really feel, though, is it this highlights the importance of not losing hopewe will get through this. As my book shows, weve been in worse trouble before, and we got through it, but it depended on citizens not just our leaders. Right now we have to depend on citizens. And here is one citizen who is taking a risk to do something he or she thinks is really important. Thats an interesting take, because the general take after the letter was published been that this person is a coward and should resign. You see it as a courageous act, though, and cause for hope? Oh, absolutely. It feels authentic to me that this person is staying on because thats the best they can do at this moment to help things from getting worse. And, yes, that's an act of courage. Always in history, people have stood up. And we have to trust that more people will stand up. It's not just a matter that history offers some wispy hope, I think history provides evidence of who we are as a nation, and how citizens have responded to even more difficult situations in the past. Every day it seems like something worse happens. But on the other hand, we are also seeing more and more people stand up, like the writer of this letter has. I think that's a sign. President Trump's reaction to the op-ed was to demand that the writer be handed over and to call it an act of treason, a word he throws around a lot. Having written at length about Abraham Lincoln, who guided us through a civil war, do you shudder when you hear Trump throw around words like treason so trivially? Yes. I mean, words matter. That's one of the things that is so concerning to me about the situation today, and these words around being thrown aroundfascism, treasonthese words have huge, real meaning to people. It used to be that words had consequences. Youve already written epic, prize-winning books about each of these four presidents. What made you go back and revisit them through the lens of leadership? You know, we have had this long period where there just couldn't be bipartisan leadership in Washington, and people felt like the political system was failing themeven five years ago, when I started this, there was a sense that Washington was broken, which seems trivial compared to now. So I thought it would be important. I figured this is a democracy, and these four leaders got us through really tough times. For me the book worked as a source of hope, it did give me a little confidence and perspective. Was that your intention? What I think is really important is that, no, I don't think there's an easy answer to today's situation, but unless we can imagine that we will find an answer, then we won't even have the confidence to try. Put yourself in Lincoln's shoes when he started in officehe once said he didn't think he could have lived through it had he known what going to come. Or in FDR's shoeshe comes in and the banks have collapsed and people are in the streets, and it feels like the end of capitalism, and democracy. Both Lincoln and FDR were able to imagine something different. And that's what we have to do now. That's why I think history can really be our guide. But, I also think that we cannot allow ourselves to think that what we're going through now is normal. It's not. In writing this book, youve said you found no master key of leadership, but that you did find a "familial resemblance." Did these four leaders share many common leadership traits? Yes, it's a terrible thing for the president to say the press is the enemy of the people. But I think the important thing for people in the world to know is that we haven't folded as a result. Oh, absolutely. I think the most important thing is that they were each able to keep growing as leaders. They were self-reflective. They could acknowledge errors. They had humility, and an understanding of their limitations. Teddy Roosevelt for example understood that he'd gotten a swelled head in the state legislature, so he stopped his blistering language. FDR battled through polio, so he knew what it was like to take a sense of triumph from crawling up the stairs, one by one. FDR said he could get through all the pressures of being president because he spent two years just trying to move his big toe. And all of them had the confidence to surround themselves with people who were willing to argue with them, to create a culture that shares credit and shoulders blame, and with an emotionally intelligent part as well, so that all these different people would want to work together. Plus, the big thing: that their personal ambitions transformed into ambition for a larger goal. Politics has been center stage in recent years at the Frankfurt Book Fair, especially in terms of defending values like free speech. With Trump embracing authoritarian leaders, how should the world view American leadership on the world stage todayshould the world accept the current occupant of the Oval representative of American leadership? I think that's a really important question, even just as it regards the press. I mean, despite Trump's argument that journalists are enemies of the people, just look at the vibrancy of the American press today. They've not been cowed in the least. Yes, it's a terrible thing for the president to say the press is the enemy of the people. But I think the important thing for people in the world to know is that we haven't folded as a result. And I think the other thing the world must see is that our citizens are beginning to activate. Just look at the kinds of candidates winning primaries. They are bringing a fresh perspective and energy and excitement again about public life. That's whats essential in a democracy, and the world must see that we have that active citizenry that's not only fighting against what they see happening, but also bringing a sense of idealism back into politics. Historically, presidents have always had contentious relationships with the press. Is turning the press into the opposition party as dangerous as it seems, or is it just a twist in that relationship? Oh, no, no, no, it's never been as bad as this. Way back in the 1850s when you had the partisan newspapers and all you read was your partisan newspaper, you'd see things very differently, and, yes, every president gets angry at the Press for particular things. But theyd never embrace the idea that the press is, not just the opposition party, but the enemy of the peoplethose are words thrown around by dictators and authoritarian regimes. But as I say, I think people in the other parts of world have to see where America still is. They have to have faith that the basic core of America is still strong. More than 200 friends of former Penguin CEO and Overlook Press co-founder Peter Mayer gathered in a ballroom at the Grandhotel Hessischer Hof in Frankfurt on Tuesday to remember the late publisher. Mayer, whose legendary publishing career spanned both sides of the Atlantic, passed away in May, at the age of 82. Born in London and raised in New York, Mayer began his publishing career as an editorial assistant at Orion Press in 1961, then quickly moved to Avon Books, where, over the course of 14 years, he rose to the position of publisher. After serving as publisher of Pocket Books from 1976 to 1978, Pearson chose Mayer to run its troubled Penguin Books division. When he left in 1996, the company had become one of the worlds largest, and most profitable, publishers. In an interview with PW discussing his departure from Penguin, Mayer said Pearson had wanted him to take a seat on the company board and to oversee some of the conglomerates other businesses. I didnt want to retire as a corporate executive, but as a book publisher, said Mayer, who was 60 at the time, to PWs John Baker. Upon Mayers exit, Lord Blakenham, Pearson chairman, said the company owed Mayer an enormous debt of gratitude for turning what had been largely a money-losing British publisher into a worldwide publishing powerhouse. He was a mensch. At the Hessischer Hof on Tuesday, there were some tearsbut mostly smiles and laughs as Mayers friends offered tributes and remembrances, recalling his many adventures throughout the world, his publishing acumen, his abiding love of family and friends, his legendary penchant for smoking, and the many careers he helped along in his remarkable life. It doesnt seem like a Frankfurt Book Fair without him many remarked, recalling Mayers surprisingly good German, and his love for the fair. Kicking off the toasts, Grove Atlantic executive editor George Gibson spoke movingly of Mayer. It is I feel a luxury when a mentor also becomes ones great friend, Gibson said. You were larger than life, and you loved life to the fullest. You were courageous and opportunisticSalman Rushdie to Sudoku. Your tastes were wide-rangingmass-market to art. You were as at home in a corporate corner office as in a fierce independent. And you were indomitable. In his toast, Richard Charkin summed up Mayer in a single word: mensch. He was to me a sort of godfather, I confess, Charkin said. I worshiped him, to be honest. And Ive heard lots of things about him, lots of stories, we all love him, but one word hasnt come out that I think should be appliedhe was a mensch. One the biggest trends in publishing in the U.S. is the surging digital audio market, where the format has been posting hefty double-digit growth for years, and making up an increasing share of publishers digital sales. At the Frankfurt Book Fairs inaugural Audiobook Conference on Wednesday, experts told attendees that the audio boom is indeed a global trend, with more growth to come. Henrik Lindvall, head of rights team management for Swedish-based Storytel, a major new player in the audio market, said the format is hugely popular in Scandinavia, growing fast in many European countries and the U.K., and is now poised for major growth in emerging markets, like India, where Storytel is planning a major push. The opportunity is India is huge, Lindvall said, noting a massive smartphone market, and a large middle class that is used to the subscription model, thanks to Netflix and Amazon Prime, which have large customer bases there. John Ruhrmann, managing director & co-founder of Bookwire, also offered his view not only on the audiobooks current growth, and more importantly, its still untapped potential. Ruhrmann urged publishers to address all relevant business models without always thinking of turnover. Turnover is not a strategy, Ruhrmann said. No fear, try more, learn by testing and doing. A former music industry employee, Ruhrmann suggested that trends in music are worth watching for audio publishers, especially when it comes to streaming services. Streaming is now making up a real big portion of the revenues of the music industry," he said. "I know it is difficult to say that the music industry might be same as the book industry, but it is a trend, and we should watch this trend and know how to deal with it. In fact, in his opening keynote at the Markets, HarperCollins UK CEO Charlie Redmayne acknowledged that audio consumption for publishers does in fact look more like music listening than book reading. And he pointed to audio in the U.K. growing double digits year-on-year with no sign of slowing down. Better still, he added, audio shows no signs of eating into print or e-book share. Michelle Obama spent six and a half long days in the studio, recording morning until evening. After years of massive digital change being predicted for publishers, Rurhmann acknowledged that some publishers may be skeptical of such claims these days. But when it comes to audio, with new platforms, models, and ever powerful technology, a digital revolution for publishers has in fact materialized. I can tell you," Ruhrmann said, "its here. Amanda DAcierno president and publisher, of Penguin Random House Audio in the U.S., offered insight into the publishers strong growth in audio, telling publishers that since 2014, the first year of Penguin Random House, post-merger, its audio output has more than doubled, from 652 to more than 1,300 titles. Whats really changed is that agents and authors want their audiobooks produced. So when they are selling rights to publishers, they expect the audiobook will be produced simultaneously with the book, DAcierno said. The growth in digital audio has also allowed the publisher to expand into new categories, she said, such as short stories, which previously did not really work in audio. Finally, DAcierno also spoke of how the popularity of audio has changed the way authors approach their workand she cited a book that is certain to be huge bestseller not only in print, but in audio: Michelle Obamas forthcoming memoir Becoming. In the past, major celebrity authors and politicians would only go in the studio to do abridged audio editions of their books. Not any more. Michelle Obama spent six and a half long days in the studio, recording morning until evening, DAcierno said. There is no other person that could read this story, and consumers want that experience. John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, gave this years Frankfurt CEO Talk in the new Frankfurt Pavilion on Wednesday. The conversation ranged across a number of topics, from the future of print books to his battle with the White House over the publication of Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff. Austrian publishing consultant Ruediger Wischenbart led the conversation, which included questions from the editors of several international trade magazines, including PublishNews, Publishers Weekly, Buchreport, Bookdao, and Livres Hebdo. Fabrice Piault of Livres Hebdo, opened the questions by asking Sargent how the company defined itself as a publisher in the age of the internet. There are things that can be done better on the internet, said Sargent. Travel books really struggle because the internet can give you better answers. Those parts of the business have fallen away and fallen away globally. The focus is to do what we are good at and what the internet does not do effectively: fiction, self-helpA lot of things that work best in the bookstore are things for which books are the best possible way to deliver the technology. Piault went on to ask if book reading was be threatened by the growing popularity of streaming television series. I think there are things that we do better, he replied. There is a thing about storytelling that is done better than on the television. I grew up on a reservation near to the location of Custers Last Stand. Every year they have a reenactment of that battle. Every year the National Parks Service does this. The Native American population also do their own reenactment, one in which they form a circle and the great, great, grandchildren tell the story that their forefathers told them, the story as it happened, no visuals, no costumes. Book reading is like this. Book reading in long-form narrative is a different experience. Sargent added that 250 to 400 page books still sell the most. It is just hard to develop a character in 25 pages, he quipped. Questioned further about the future of reading and engagement with books, he noted, Millions and millions of people are self-publishing their own books. But every day people come up to me and say they want me to publish their book. He went on to say that he is not worried about the future and has no fear people will not be engaged with books. Asked about the President Trumps efforts to stop the publication of Fire and Fury, Sargent acknowledged that the first result was that they were going to, sell a sh*tload of books. But he said he quickly rethought his position. I thought initially it was a commercial decision [to continue with the publication], but then realized it was an extremely important decision. Freedom of speech is the very foundation of democracy. There is less and less concern about freedom of speech. Instead, people are more concerned that their point of view be announced as loud as possible." Publishing Fury "was not a literary function, or a commercial function, but as function to protect the democracy, Sargent said. Trumps efforts to block the book, were not acceptable to us, to any employee and it should not be acceptable to any citizen of America no matter how they vote, said Sargent. Carlo Carrenho of Publish News cited the rapid global growth of companies like Swedens Storytel and Canadas Wattpad, and asked whether Macmillan and publishers were going global fast enough. Most people are interested in books in their home language written about their home countries, Sargent said. Music and movies have been more global in nature. The question is: is the content we produce global in its nature or isnt it? There are many countries in the world where it is difficult for us to compete at scale. We are not Random House. Thomas Wilking of Buchreport asked about Germany, where a survey earlier this year revealed the book market had lost six to seven million readers in the last year. "[Macmillan's] German sales are only down 1% or 2%, said Sargent. I am not worried." Sargent went on to debunk the validity of surveys. "Every couple of years there are studies that say people do not read any more, and yet people continue to read. If you look at e-books, studies said it was young men who like new technology, but it was middle-aged women who adopted e-books the most. Continuing on the track of discussing e-books, Sargent said that he continues to see e-books as a viable format, but was also heartened to see that younger readers are showing a preference for print books. Still, Sargent had no illusion about the appeal of books and reading versus electronic enticements. "It is up to us to produce extraordinary works," he said. "ones that will [get the next generation] to read books." The minority, led by its spokesperson on Road and Transport, Kwame Agbodza said the move by government also counts as an insult to Ghanaian engineers. According to the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, the remodeling of Accra has become necessary as a result of the changes in population, economic activities and the impact of globalisation. To this end, the government is engaging the services of Dr. Liu Thai-Ker to oversee the remodeling and redevelopment of Accra, Mr. Maafo indicated. ece-auto-gen He, therefore, called on the Ghana Institute of Planners, members of the Ghana Institute of Engineers, and the Ghana Institute of Architects to kick against the decision since government is acting in an illegal way. They are Mr. Emmanuel Ray Ankrah (Dep. Chief Executive, F&A); Dr. Emmanuel Agyemang Dwomoh (Dep. Chief Executive, A&QC); and Mr. Emmanuel Adem Opoku (Dep. Chief Executive, OPS).Nana Akufo-Addo made the appointments pursuant to Section 12 (2) of the Ghana Cocoa Board Act, 1984 (PNDCL 81) (as amended).This was announced by the CEO of Ghana Cocoa Board, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, in a circular to the staff of COCOBOD, dated 8 October 2018.The appointments of the deputy CEOs comes a few days after the president, with immediate effect, reassigned the Deputy Chief Executive Officer-In-Charge of Agronomy and Quality Control at COCOBOD, Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah, to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.A letter titled: Reassignment to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, dated 1 October 2018 and addressed to Dr. Adu-Ampomah by Nana Asante Bediatuo, Secretary to the President, said: The president has, with immediate effect, reassigned you to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture as a Special Adviser on Cocoa Affairs to the Minister.READ ALSO: Nana Addo is a cultured President - Rawlings praises According to reports by the Guardian, Adoboli has been detained at Harmondsworth immigration centre for the past 36 days. Adoboli was convicted by the UK authorities in 2012 and he is currently being held by Scotland Yard authorities. He served four years of a seven-year sentence for a $2.3bn (1.8bn) fraud at Swiss bank UBS and released in 2015. During his trial at Southwark Crown Court in 2012, he had denied the charges, which related to the period between October 2008 and September 2011. He had told the jury his senior managers were aware of his actions and encouraged him to take risks. But the jury was told he lost the money in "unprotected, unhedged, incautious and reckless" trades. ece-auto-gen Speaking to the Guardian after the bail ruling, Adoboli said he was overjoyed, adding that he would take a train with his partner, Alice Gray, home to Scotland after she had collected him from the detention centre. Adoboli thanked his loved ones and legal team for their support. "Im very tired and Im really looking forward to going home," he said. "But I cant feel elated because I know there are so many other men and women locked up in detention who should not be there. Being locked up for 36 days has really started to destroy my mental health," he added. As a foreign national given a jail sentence of more than four years, Adoboli is subject to automatic deportation under UK immigration laws. Last month a judge granted him an injunction against deportation in an attempt to prevent his "banishment" from family and friends in the UK. At a hearing on Tuesday, the judge Stephen Pedro noted that Adoboli had previously been on immigration bail for three years "without fault" and said he could not see, based on the evidence before him, that there were any substantial grounds for risk of reoffending or absconding. Adobolis friends provided surety for him of 120,000. Matthew Williams, acting for the Home Office, said the home secretary wanted to keep Adoboli detained because his appeal rights were exhausted. In an earlier bail hearing, Adobolis legal team argued that he should be freed from the immigration removal centre until the outcome of the review. But at that hearing the judge, Claire OGarro, refused bail. Speaking after Tuesdays hearing, Adobolis solicitor, Jacqueline McKenzie, said: "Were very pleased with the outcome. Now Kweku can return to his partner Alice Gray, his friends and his loved ones in Scotland and get on with the important job of fighting the legal battle against deportation. "Todays decision is a clear vindication of Kwekus claim that hes not at risk of absconding. Its a shame that an earlier hearing found against him as it meant he has remained in detention for 15 days longer than necessary." Ghana which is a member of the United Nations organs, bodies and programmes sent twenty one members including Bawumia to the meeting whilst other countries represented brought one member. In a leaked document sighted by Pulse.com.gh, Bawumia was accompanied by Tijani Habibu Mohammad, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and Kingsley Ahenkorah, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and other government appointees. Many Ghanaians continue to criticize the government for the appointments of 110 ministers, deputy ministers and Presidential Staffers, which they say is putting unnecessary strain on the economy. The list shows that there are a total of 998 people currently working in various positions at the Presidency, which is for the period January 7, 2017 to December 31, 2017 is in line with the constitution and the Presidential Office Act 1993 which enjoins the Presidency to annually brief Parliament on the list of persons. Here are the staff Bawumia took along with him to Geneva. 1. Tijani Habibu Mohammad, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration 2. Kingsley Ahenkorah, Deputy Minister (Member of Parliament), Ministry of Trade and Industry 3. Augustine Blay, Secretary to the Vice-President, Office of the Vice-President 4. Joe Amoako-Tuffour, Adviser, Office of the Vice-President 5. Evron Rothschild Hughes, Economic Adviser, Office of the Vice-President 6. Anyars Imoro Ibrahim, Economic Adviser, Office of the Vice-President 7. Gideon Boako, Economic Adviser, Office of the Vice-President 8. Kadijah Nana Adjoa Amoah, Head, Investment and Business Development, Office of the Vice-President 9. Elizabeth Abra Utuka, Executive Assistant, Office of the Vice-President 10. Ishaq Ibrahim, Aide-de-Camp, Office of the Vice-President 11. Frank Agyei-Twum, Director of Communication, Office of the Vice-President 12. Yakubu Alhassan, Director, Foreign Policy, Office of the Vice-President 13. Benjamin Kwaku Asiam, Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission 14. Yakubu Bawumia, Valet, Office of the Vice-President 15. Edward Kwasi Boateng, Official Photographer, Office of the Vice-President 16. Isaac Botchway, Chief Security Officer, Office of the Vice-President 17. Kelvin William Adofo Danso, Official Cameraman, Office of the Vice-President 18. Kwame Ntim Donkoh, Minister, Commercial, Permanent Mission 19. Alexander Grant Ntrakwa, Charge dAffaires, Permanent Mission 20. Enoch Osei-Mensah, Deputy Director, Protocol, Office of the Vice-President Read the full document here: I have someone working on a project for me at the port. I have imported some air conditioners. I was showed an invoice of USD 22,000 for all the air conditioners but I was shocked I have to pay an amount of USD 25,000 in port duties", he said. Agyapong said he doesn't see the sense in paying such a huge amount just for air conditioners. I was like really? What is going on [in Ghana]? You charge so much on common air-condition. I am very upset and still cant understand why I have to pay that much. The government should immediately do something about this, he cried out loud. ece-auto-gen According to him, if the issue is not resolved, it could send the New Patriotic Party back into opposition.People can no longer take this exorbitant import duty anymore. This import duty system is a mess." In June, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo banned all Ministers, Deputy ministers, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and Heads of government agencies from travelling outside the country. The memo, which was signed by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Opare said the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor-Botchwey is exempted from the directive. However, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu in an open letter to the presidency asked if the ban is still in force asking for an update on the temporary foreign travel ban. Below is a copy Okudzeto Ablakwa's open letter OPEN LETTER TO THE HONOURABLE CHIEF OF STAFF, AKOSUA FREMA OSEI-OPARE REQUEST FOR UPDATE ON TRAVEL BAN IMPOSED ON MINISTERS AND OTHER GOVERNMENT APPOINTEES ON 21ST JUNE, 2018. Dear Madam, I convey to you warm compliments from the Minority in Parliament. Respectfully, on the 21st of June, 2018, you communicated under your name and signature to all Sector Ministers and Deputies, Regional Ministers and Deputies, MMDCEs and Heads of Government Agencies informing them of a Presidential directive to temporarily suspend all foreign travels. ece-auto-gen In the referenced communication, only the Honourable Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration was exempted. As you will recall, the document in issue was made public and it is fair to admit that it did attract considerable media attention and enormous national interest. Speaking on the matter to the press; both your Deputy, Mr. Samuel Abu Jinapor and former Information Minister, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid vouched for the authenticity of the document which was at the time in wide circulation. They both attempted to offer some clarity and assured the nation that "soon" new guidelines covering future foreign travels willbe developed as Government strives to cut expenditure and keep Ministers and other appointees focused on domestic duties. This open letter is addressed to your high office in utmost good faith and in the spirit of Good Governance requesting that you provide an update to Ghanaians on this ban, four months on. This update, if provided, apart from helping build confidence in our governance processes so that matters of this nature are not thought of as propaganda stunts, it will also enable those of us in the Legislature adequately discharge our Constitutionally mandated oversight obligations. It is worth the reminder about how a similar ban on the purchase of new vehicles by Ministries, Departments and Agencies dated March 21st, 2017 which was also signed by your good self and made public has seen no public reversal 19 months on and yet evidence abounds on the purchase of fleets of new vehicles right from the Presidency to Ministries, Departments and Agencies. Respectfully, this tendency to go public with bans of all sorts and remain silent thereafter hoping all Ghanaians will forget and move on does not promote trust in public officers neither does it create a good image for Government. It also destroys our quest for accountable governance. In the index case of the ban on travels; it's been four long months since this matter became the subject of national interest. Ghanaians deserve to know: 1) Is the ban still in force? 2) If not, when was it lifted? 3) If still in force, when will it be lifted? 4) Are the promised new guidelines ready? 5) What is contained in the new guidelines? 6) Considering that Government officials including your Deputy, assured of considerable savings to the State, in all humility, can the tax payer be kindly informed how much Government has saved in specific terms? 7) What has been the general impact assessment of the ban? With all due respect, it is imperative to point out that we seek to continue in the spirit of public engagement on this matter as initiated by your Government when your signed memorandum was made public and formed the basis for extensive commentary by numerous Government officials. It is within this context that we have elected to utilize an open letter approach which we believe will enhance the quality of transparency and accountability we all yearn for. With the raison d'etre of building public trust in our public officers and democratic institutions, I humbly look forward to your response in good time. Kindly accept my very best wishes. Reuters quoting Angolas state newspaper Jornal de Angola reported that President Joao Lourenco has secured $2 billion in Chinese financing from the China Development Bank for infrastructure projects. President Lourenco ended his first visit to Beijing, China, on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Like Nigeria, Angola is trying to diversify its economy away from oil since the global drop in the price of crude oil in 2014. The fall in oil price plunged nations relying on crude oil into recession including Angola. The new loan is coming at a time international communities are expressing concern over China's debt trap. Angola owes China more than $21 billion Angola's debt profile is estimated to rise to $77.3 billion by the end of 2018. Of that amount, $21.5 billion was already owed to China before the latest loan. IMF says Angola economy will contract by 0.1% in 2018 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also predicted that the Angolan economy will contract by 0.1% this year due to poor economic performance. Nigeria is planning to take a fresh $2.86 billion external loan to fund fiscal deficit and finance key infrastructure projects in the 2018 budget. This is the fifth external borrowing in the last two years. The government last dollar debt was raised in February 2018 at $2.5 billion. Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, in a letter, addressed to the National Assembly on Tuesday, October 9, 2018, requested for the approval of a fresh $2,868,540,000 external loan. The letter reads in part, Pursuant to Sections 21 (1) and 27 (1) of the Debt Management Office (Establishment Etc) Act, 2003, I hereby request for distinct and specific resolutions of the National Assembly to: Issue USD2.786 billion in Eurobonds and other securities in the international capital market for the implementation of New External Borrowing approved in the Federal Government of Nigerias 2018 Appropriation Act, for the part-financing of the 2018 budgets fiscal deficit as well as to finance key infrastructure projects in 2018 budget. And issue Eurobonds and other securities in the international capital market for the refinancing of USD82.54 million, being the balance of the five-year, USD 500 million mature Eurobonds. Nigeria is taking loans to cushion the effect of the huge deficit in the 2018 budget Africa's largest economy is looking for means to raise capital to fund a record 2018 budget at N9.120 trillion ($29.8 billion). The countrys privatisation agency had said it will also sell 10 state-owned assets to meet up with key projects in the budget. The government is expecting to rake N289 billion ($797 million) from the sale. In spite of the warning by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over debt levels in African economies, Nigeria said it had to borrow to exit economic hardship on its citizens. The debt office also assured that Nigerias public debt was being managed under statutory provisions and international best practices, adding that there was no risk of default on any loan. 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! Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's Minister of Information and Culture, stated this when he visited Daar Communications, owners of AIT and Raypower, in Abuja on Tuesday, October 9, 2018. The visitation was in furtherance of the National Campaign Against Fake News in the country and coming less than 5 months to the general elections. Launched on July 11, 2018, the minister said the campaign has succeeded in bringing the phenomenon to the front burner of national discourse. We are not under any illusion that our campaign will immediately end the menace of fake news. But we know that by creating national awareness, we are putting the issue of fake news on the front burner. ALSO READ: Nigeria approves framework that will see a new price for data Fake news is now a subject of national discourse, workshops and conferences. In the coming days, the social networking web platform, Facebook, will be meeting with us and other top policy-makers across the country in the days ahead to see how to assist us in fighting fake news. That, to us, is a major step forward, and we thank all our partners, and indeed all Nigerians, for this achievement, the minister said. National Campaign Against Fake News In July 2018, the Nigerian government launched the National Campaign Against Fake News to combat the global menace in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country. The government had described the menace as a time bomb. Also, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) had expressed concern over the proliferation of fake news platforms on the internet, saying that the information purveyed on such platforms are fueling killings across the country. The Centre described the phenomenon as a potential threat to social co-existence of the country and urged the government to take decisive action to tame the menace. In a recent Instagram post, the Cool FM OAP and convenor of the Free the Sheeple Movement blasts the female cleric for asking her driver to "honor a car.' Reacting to the clip, Freeze asked, "How materialistic can a preacher be? Honor a car that was made by Atheists?" He continued, "Range Rover is owned by Indian Tata while Bentley is owned by German Volks Wagen. Indians are predominantly Hindus while Germans are predominantly atheists. The Bible tells us who to honor and car is not among them o. Let us honor the car o! The kind of messages that come from pulpits these days." Between Daddy Freeze and Rev Adejumo This is not the first time the well known religious critic has blasted Rev Adejumo. Earlier this month, the preacher encouraged Christians to keep sowing seeds in order to get miraculous money, adding that seeds are important for the giver's destiny. She said, "Sow seeds on behalf of your destiny, on behalf of your children. We are not showing off." Reacting, Freeze wrote, "Strange money? That fuckery is witchcraft! Sowing seeds on behalf of your destiny is idolatry! Where in the Bible did Jesus ask anyone to sow seeds? God clearly told us that we can NOT be redeemed by money, so whata all this? Anyone who thinks he can alter his destiny with money is a dingbat!" Sermons like these have made Rev Adejumo a target for critics who went as far as to launch petitions to ban her from going abroad. Counter-petitions were later launched in her favor by supporters. Speaking to the crowd gathered at St. Peter's Square on Sunday, October 7, 2018, Huffington Post reports that the Holy Father has called for daily prayers to save the church from the devil. The pontiff encouraged Catholics to pray every day throughout the month to Michael the Archangel in order to "counter the attacks from the devil who wants to divide the Church." The Holy Father initially asked for prayers towards the end of September. On September 29, 2018, the Vatican released a statement disclosing that the Pope has also called for Catholics to say three different specific prayers for the church to be "saved from the attacks of the malign one, the great accuser." ece-auto-gen Catholics worldwide have been asked to pray the Rosary every day during the "Marian month of October," in order "to protect the church from the devil, who is always looking to divide us from God and from one another." This appeal comes as more accusations of sexual misconduct and cover-ups by clergy and church officials keep coming out. Recently, there have been allegations of sexual abuse by priests in , the U.S. and Chile. ALSO READ: Catholic women call on Pope Francis to do something about sex abuse scandal Cardinal defends Pope Francis amid sex abuse scandal A top Vatican official named Marc Ouellet has shown his support for the pontiff after Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican's former ambassador to Washington, accused Pope Francis and other church officials of a cover-up. In an 11-page document shared in August, he asked the pope to resign for knowing about the sexual misconduct by now-former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and doing nothing about it. Reacting to this claim, Cardinal Ouellet penned an open letter which was issued on this Sunday. In the three-page letter, he accused Archbishop Vigano of starting a "political frame job devoid of real foundation" adding that the claims against the pontiff were "calumny and defamation." ece-auto-gen He also asked the archbishop, who is in hiding, to come out, writing, "Come out of hiding, repent for your revolt and return to better feelings towards the Holy Father instead of worsening hostility against him." The latest member of Postive Force Band (Femi's band) recently granted an interview to NAIJ where he spoke about returning to Nigeria, religion and the shocking rumours he has heard about the shrine. "Growing up in the shrine, I can't tell you different because I didn't know different, it was normal. My first shock of the shrine was the stigma it had when I started going to high school. I have heard some crazy stuff People think we sacrifice people at the shrine. I have heard that we kill people in broad daylight and worship them with gods or something, I think it's a stupid rumour I have heard some really bad things. "To me its home, i know everyone that works here and coming back i met new faces, i trying to meet everybody again. People think if the shrine as a place of worship but that not what this is, its a sacred place, that's why my dad termed it this, I'm Fela, there is no god, I don't believe in any god, not traditional, not Christian not Muslim or Scientologist, I have grown up very free minded," he said. ece-auto-gen He went on to talk about what the Afrika shrine represents and how it is a place of equality where nobody is isolated or treated differently. "That's how I feel that what I feel that what I feel the shrine represents, it doesn't matter where you are coming from, it doesn't matter your belief, it doesn't matter your race. It doesn't matter your class, if you walk in here you are going to dance in the same dance fall like everyone else. The VIPs are the worse seats at the back, its a place of equality that's how I believe and that's how I felt," he concluded. Made Kuti is the first son of Femi Kuti and he was recently introduced to the world by his father as the latest member of the Positive Force Band. ALSO READ:Yeni Kuti lays curse on band member who absconded in the US Made Anikulapo-Kuti becomes official member of Femi Kuti's Positive Force band Femi Kuti's son, Made Anikulapo Kuti is now a member of his father's 'Positive Force' band. This was made known through a post shared on his Instagram page over the weekend, where he posted a picture of himself performing alongside his father at the Afrikan Shrine on Thursday night, September 6th. The post had the caption, ''Another night of maximum energy at the shrine last Thursday! A great debut as an official positive force member! Dont miss the show tomorrow - Sunday 08/09/18!'' In case you don't know, Small Doctor made the news a few days ago when he told President Buhari during the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential primary to not sleep. Well, the video of that performance has since gone viral with a lot of people applauding his courage. Though these actors and actresses met on the job in different circumstances, these couples are legally married and have been married for many years - with the least being eight years. Interestingly many of the colleagues of these couples know that they are married but for some reasons unknown, fans don't know. ALSO READ: 5 Yoruba actresses to watch out for in 2017 Here's a list of five couples in Yoruba movies who you never knew were married 1. Toyin Adewale and Sunday Adewale Toyin Adewale is one of the older actresses that knows her onion. Aside being an established actress and producer, Toyin had combined event planning and catering with her career as an actress. Toyin is married to Sunday Adewale, a rarely seen actor that combines movie directing with scriptwriting. Toyin and Sunday, who are currently based in the United States of America, are the parents of DMW star, Mayorkun. 2. Ojopagogo and Moji Afolayan Razak Olayiwola is widely referred to as Ojopagogo by fans of Yoruba movies. He got the name after playing the role of an aged man in a movie a decade ago. Ojopagogo is married to Moji Afolayan, one of the daughters of late Ade Afolayan, Ade Love. Moji Afolayan is an actress and producer with several movies to her credit. The couple, like the Baloguns met on the job over a decade ago and have since been married. Ojopagogo, however, had a daughter with another woman before marrying Moji. 3. Madam Saje and Rafiu Balogun One of the popular faces in Yoruba movies is Fausat Balogun a.k.a Madam Saje. Unknown to many fans, she is married to an actor, scriptwriter and movie producer, Rafiu Balogun. Rafiu and Fausat Balogun met in the industry over three decades back and had gotten married. The couple are prominent figures in the scope of things in Odunfa caucus. 4. Princess Lanko and No Network Adeola Shoremi, who is widely referred to as Princess Lanko omoba Dubai is another popular face who is married to his colleague, Kudirat Shoremi aka No Network. Though these two are said to have met outside Nollywood, they have become one hilarious pair in several Yoruba movies. 5. Afeez Eniola and Omo Jo Ibo As such, when the popular blogger, Bhadmus Hakeem who influences trends through his Twitter account, @Bhadoosky put them on blast to criticize their extortion, they got him arrested. In a country that prides herself on free speech as a Fundamental Human Right, guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is then befuddling that a Nigerian Citizen will be used for this brazen violation, and backed up by a core law enforcement arm of the country; the problematic Nigerian Police Force and its many state-based commands. It is a shame. At 11:57 am on July 27, 2018, Bhadoosky fired of a Twitter thread; What would you do if you find out your childs name was printed on his/her schools send forth magazine as Debtor because he/she didnt pay N5000 to buy the school a parting gift? A school you were paying N104,000 per term for six years? Thread Yesterday (20/7/2018), a school named Great Cornerstone International Science College, Arigidi Akoko, Ondo state, decided to throw over 24 parents & their children into sorrow on a day they should be the most joyous because they didnt pay N5000 to buy the school 32 inches TV. On a graduation day, the worst thing you can ever do to a parent and child makes them sad and also document their sadness forever. How do you explain unprofessionalism of this magnitude to people? What was the school management trying to achieve with this stupidity? And as you know, fingers are not equal, a student that could pay 104,000 naira as tuition for a term is now being ridiculed in a magazine that can reach the end of the planet because of 5k parting gift Imagine putting this out for the whole world to see. Meanwhile, those that paid part of the money, there names and amount paid were equally written out. How petty can a school owned by learned people be? What history are they trying to make? Meanwhile, each student paid N15,000 for bespoke suits from the school. A low standard suits produced to make money off parents. Are schools supposed to melt out punishment on parents who work round the clock to pay this humongous amount of money? And when Mr. Austin Duyi (+2347066621124), the school administrator was called to ask why this was done, all he could say was that the students didn't meet up with school request, hence they printed their names out. No apologies. No remorse. No human feelings. No sense whatsoever At a point during the graduation, the graduating students were given bowls to go get money from the audience. How can you be so mad about making money that you turned kids to Bambiala Children and still shamed them by announcing the amounts each student got from begging? These Private school owners need to be called to order. Parents cant be paying a huge amount and all you will be doing is insult them with damaging actions. The government needs to start checking the excesses. Imagine a school in Ondo state, not Lagos state paying N104,000 per term. Without prejudice, some things are wrong and should never be heard. This is beyond me. Maybe Im overreacting on behalf of the parents or the innocent children. I dont know. I just believe this is a total nonsense. Parents & children were crying when they should be rejoicing I found their social media info. Will be useful moving forward. Facebook address: & website )) Mr Austin Duyi, the school administrator (facebook name: ). Thank you all for lending your voices. God bless. After releasing this information, he notes that his friend through whom he got the information was arrested by members of the Nigerian Police Force and was not released until the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Federal University of Technology in Akure intervened. Earlier today, October 10, 2018, an Ibadan resident, Bhadoosky tweeted that he got a call to rush to the University of Ibadan gate from his wife without a reason. There, he was met by people, posing as police officers from Agodi State Command. They asked him to follow them without stating a reason for his arrest. ALSO READ: Lawyer stabs her husband, cuts off his manhood and attempts suicide They didnt go to Agodi, but to Mokola Station where they told accused him of threatening & harassing the school admin on phone before heading to the Anti-Kidnapping office, Governors office, Akure, Ondo State. Babajide Fadoju, Special Adviser to the Governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, mentioned by Bhadoosky in his July thread meanwhile said that he didnt meet Hakeem at the station despite pleas from Divisional Crime Office (DCO) in Oyo State to settle the case in Oyo. However, at 7:10 am on October 10, 2018, Nigerian Lawyer, Oluyemi Fasipe @YemieFash tweeted the release of Hakeem, My guy, @Bhadoosky is fine, the DC Anti-Kidnapping released him for me without any condition, we will have a meeting with the complainant and their lawyer tomorrow, @Stalyf is here too, Kosi wahala, kosi Pressure, e calm down. #FreeBhadoosky His offense; he was running in and out of traffic of 1300 block of El Camino Real in Millbrae at about 1 pm. After one of the officers couldnt handle him, he reportedly required four more San Mateo County Sheriffs deputies to be subdued and arrested. Upon his death, San Mateo County Sheriffs office said the deceased, immediately assaulted a police officer, leading to his arrest. Upon being subdued, however, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe says one of the deputies fired a stun gun into his body and he was pronounced dead at the hospital hours later. He says further, They were attempting to get control of him as he resisted, and during the course of that a Taser was discharged, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. At this point, were still investigating how many times. We have no information, no belief in anything of there being any weapon on his part. The deceased was not armed, but he stood 6-foot-3 and weighed 330 pounds. ALSO READ: Did Humans of New York portray Nigeria is deep in poverty? It took till the next day on October 4, 2018, before the media like KTVU even knew who he was. The deputy Okobi attacked was reportedly treated at the hospital for unknown injuries. Chinedu was very interested in spoken word, poetry, and music. He also had one child and has released his first album, Peace, Love, and Poetry. His Facebook bio reads, Bay Area native, born to Nigerian parents who became naturalized American citizens. All the officers involved have been put on leave, as investigations continue over the next 10 weeks. With an autopsy, they could determine whether the deputies fired into his body and build a homicide case if found that they were unjustified in firing on him. The incident occurred in Ikorodu where the boss Shukurat Opeoluwa is resided. The Nation News gathered that the suspect who has been married for three years took the infant because she loves kids around her. She became desperate after getting the revelation by the medicine man and resorted to kidnapping the baby when her boss was not looking. The latter was reportedly distracted with a friend when she took it. ALSO READ: How parents can protect children from kidnappers Commissioner Imohimi Edgal paraded Badmus on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, according to reports. The man behind the famous Humans of New York (HONY) Instagram account also visited our neighbours in Accra and the capital city of Cairo. Stantons documentation of everyday life in Nigeria has garnered quite some vocal response from Nigerias online community. There are those of the opinion that Stantons curation of the Nigerian experience is nothing short of poverty porn as a white man from a capitalist nation that paints an African country as a 3rd world nation riddled with poverty. On the other hand, there are those that believe that Stantons work is an accurate and blunt portrayal of life in Nigeria. According to these set of people, HONY just placed a mirror on what it means to live in Nigeria. The truth is that Stanton is not the architect of deep poverty that is embedded in the most populous black nation on earth. He is just an observer. People who are offended by his narrative are not aware of what is going on in the country or simply refuse to deal with stark reality. They are escapists, which has become the favourite past time of Nigerians not wanting to deal with reality. ALSO READ: Nigeria can't afford to get it wrong in 2019 This is why humour, comedy movies and fast-food Afrobeats music are popular in Nigeria. They help a lot of Nigerians hide from the reality of the situation at hand. Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world and the reality of this hasn't dawned on the thin middle class in Nigeria. There are more poor people in our country than anywhere in the world. This means it is more likely for an inquisitive foreigner to speak with a poor person than a billionaire who lives in the insanely expensive Banana Island. Apart from this extremely slim chance of bumping into a member of Nigeria's less than 1% elite, documenting the lives of Nigerias rich and powerful as the singular Nigerian experience would be inaccurate and a gross distortion of facts. The facts are these, apart from being the poverty capital of the world, 13.2 million children are out of school, the highest in the world. Nigeria also ranks the lowest in reducing the inequality gap between its rich and poor. These are cold, hard facts that we close our eyes to. And there is an explanation for this. Our cultural DNA is ambitious, grand, sometimes excessive and opulent. There is no strain reserved for the reality of daily hardship. Thats why some Pentecostal Christians in Nigeria would rather say Im rich rather than Im broke. The confession of not having resources is a shock to our DNA of abundance. HONY woke us up from the matrix of unnecessarily expensive wedding ceremonies and poor financial habits to show us the poverty capital we live in. And trust me the last things Nigerians want to see is poverty at least from a foreigner. A lot of Nigerians know things are hard but when this statement of fact comes from an individual who is not a citizen our odd patriotic defence mechanism kicks in. We know we are poor but we dont want the world to see us that way. ALSO READ: It's time to halt worsening poverty in Nigeria This episode reminds me of when Rick Ross shot the alternate video for his single Hold Me Back in 2012. The Maybach Music don was slaughtered on Twitter by Nigerians for branding Nigeria as a country rife in poverty. He was criticized for exploiting the reality of poverty in Nigeria. To me, it was and will always be a senseless accusation. Rick Ross and Brandon Stanton did not place poverty props and curated them. They only showcased the reality of the average man and woman in Nigeria. Its not poverty porn but poverty reality. Nigeria is a poor country and we cant hide this fact with Christian-speak. There are millions of people in this country that cant afford a plate of rice daily. The thin middle class who have cocooned themselves in the fallacy of social media and don't want to deal with the reality of things. It is an ongoing struggle that has gained credence as years roll by, but apparently, thats not the Nigerian reality and it is not far-fetched. Though the woke demographic on social media know better, they still struggle with latent poverty and a worrying lack of social amenities or privileges. Old money keeps getting stronger because money usually creates more money, directly or indirectly. The effects of inequality are however far-reaching that we care to admit. A combination of these factors is why Nigeria has placed 157th in the inequality list, that ranked 157 countries in essence, Nigeria ranked last. ALSO READ: Why do we keep bullying DJ Cuppy? What is this inequality ranking? Also called Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index, it is a list compiled by UK charity Oxfam International, a global body focused on poverty alleviation and it releases the list yearly. The Index was released on October 9, 2018, and according to This Day, it measures the budget commitments in two-thirds of counties and actual spending in the remaining one-third. As in 2018, Nigeria also ranked last in 2017 behind Islamic nations and war-torn countries like Uzbekistan at 156, Haiti at 155, Sierra Leone at 153 and Bhutan at 152. India also ranks in the at 143. Oxfam noted that Nigerias social spending on health, education and social protection has remained shamefully low, which is reflected in very poor social outcomes for its citizens. The index noted, One in 10 children in Nigeria does not reach their 50th birthday while 25 and more than 10 million children do not go to school. Sixty percent of these are girls. The CRI Index shows that in the past years, Nigeria has seen an increase in the number of labour rights violations. The minimum wage has not increased since 2011. Social spending has stagnated. ALSO READ: Dear Millennial, you can be broke and still be happy The CRI Index also shows that there is still significant potential for Nigeria to raise and collect more tax, so it scores very badly on this aspect too. There have however been very recent improvements in this area in 2018, which will show up in next years CRI. For this reason, this International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Nigeria on the importance of tackling inequality considering the consistently low rankings. It says, The president of the country has also said that tackling inequality is important as inequality leads to political instability, yet little has been done, Amongst other things, the list also states that spending on certain social amenities helps eradicate inequality. Whenever people travel, shopping is most times in their itinerary. However, dealing with fussy Customs officials isn't something anyone looks forward to. If you want to have a smooth arrival into Nigeria, you need to look out for these things. 1. Pharmaceutical products ___8959014___2018___10___10___6___Nigerian+Customs+contraband ece-auto-gen Carrying your medication in your suitcase may be overlooked, or in carry-on if you have the prescription for it. However, carrying drugs in large quantities are not allowed. 2. Souvenirs over NGN 50,000 Gifts, souvenirs and luxury goods, except phones and other gadgets, that exceed N50,000 in worth are prohibited. Be careful what you buy. 3. Hard currency ___8959020___2018___10___10___6___Nigerian+Customs+contraband+BBC ece-auto-gen Carrying currency that exceeds $5,000 will make you a suspect of money laundering in Nigeria. You may be prosecuted. 4. Live animals If you are carrying pets such as dogs and cats, you must carry their rabies and health certificate issued by a certified veterinary. However, other types of live or dead animals are contraband. 5. Fresh foods ___8959024___2018___10___10___7___fresh+foods+US+News ece-auto-gen Carrying fresh vegetables or preserved foods from another country to Nigeria is completely prohibited. 6. Hard drugs If you have any form of hard drugs on you such as marijuana, cocaine, heroine, etc, you'll much likely be arrested and thrown in jail. 7. Sharp objects ___8959025___2018___10___10___7___Nigerian+Customs+contraband+Nigerian+Flight+Deck ece-auto-gen Sharp objects or anything that can cause injuries are prohibited in carry-on luggage. Better to avoid it or remove it and pack in your suitcase before you check in. 8. Firearms/weapons This goes without saying. Gun, explosives or any type of firearms are complete contrabands. If you are carrying a gun, you have to declare it or have permits for it. 9. Some jewellery/precious metals Many Nigerians like to import jewellery when they travel to exotic destinations such as Dubai. However, one has to be careful what kind of jewellery they bring in. It is better to declare the jewellery to customs upon arrival else, they might be seized. 10. Alcohol The meeting which started around 3.30 p.m lasted about two hours. Mr Yinka Odumakin, who addressed newsmen on behalf of the group after the meeting, said the group was in Abeokuta to pay a return visit to Obasanjo. The former president had recently visited Chief Ayo Adebanjo, one of the leaders of the group, in Lagos. He said the meeting, which centred around the 2019 polls, was meant to harmonise the position of the Yorubas in Nigeria concerning the 2019 general elections. Few weeks back, Obasanjo came to Lagos to visit Pa Ayo Adebanjo and we are here again today to return the visit in order to further strengthen the friendship with the group. The meeting also aims at creating an harmonious position in Yorubaland over the leadership of the country in respect of the 2019 general elections. The general elections are around the corner and leaders across Nigeria are coming together to discuss the event, which is so crucial to the life of the nation. All hands must be on deck to get the country re-established and all grey areas must be ironed out, he said. Odumakin described the 2019 presidential race as exciting in the light of the candidates, who have emerged from the two major political parties. He, however, said the most important thing to the Afenifere group is the issue of restructuring. According to him, the group will support any candidate, who prioritises restructuring, because Nigeria cannot realise its dream without restructuring. He said the group would soon adopt its preferred presidential candidate, saying an official pronouncement would be made on the decision. The pendulum is swinging and we will let you know where it finally settles, he said. Members of the group, who attended the meeting are a former governor of Osun state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a former Minister of State for Defence, Mrs. Dupe Adelaja, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Hon. Oladipo Olaitan. Major Ibrahim Abdullah, Spokesman of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, said on Wednesday in Yenagoa that they were freed following pressure from the troops in search of the kidnappers. Suspected kidnappers abducted the four persons, including two employees of Nigerian Agip Oil Company in Azuzuama, along the waterways on Oct. 4. Also, Mr Peter Idabor, Director-General, National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), whose employee was a victim, confirmed the release to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). The incident happened last week and the four people held hostage were freed yesterday. Our staff member who was among the victims has reunited with his family. The fraud charge which was originally before Justice Mojisola Dadas court, was later recalled and transferred to Justice Williams as a result of a petition by Innoson to the National Judicial Council to investigate the circumstance leading to Honorable Justice Mojisola Dada of Lagos State High Court issuing a bench warrant against him and ordering his arrest. Subsequently, the National Judicial Council in response to the petition, requested the Chief Judge of Lagos State to recall the case file from Justice Dadas Court for reassignment to another judge. The case was later reassigned to Justice Williams. During todays proceedings, Counsel to EFCC, Zainab Ettu informed the court that they had been unable to effect the arrest of Mr. Chukwuma. In her words, she stated that I think at this stage while we still pursue the arrest of the defendant, I think it behoves on the defense counsel being ministers at the temple of justice to carry out their duty to the court to ensure that they produce their client in court because they took brief from him and they can tell when who briefed them can be in court. They filed multiple applications but they cannot produce their client in court. We ask for an adjournment to produce the 2nd defendant in court. No matter what, he cannot be above the law. We already have his warrant of arrest when the case was before Justice Moji Dada. In response, the counsel to Innoson, Prof J.N Mbadugha Esq, submitted that prior to this charge all the defendants in this matter are being charged at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi in charge number FHC/L/565C/2015 in respect of the same subject matter and transactions as in this particular charge and that charge is being prosecuted by the Attorney General of Federation. The charge is still pending and some of the issues arising thereof are on appeal at the Supreme Court. While the charge is pending, the EFCC commenced this charge and never served any of the parties but we saw a media publication that the EFCC had filed a charge in respect of the matter at Lagos High Court. Going by this, we have raised a preliminary objection dated 15th of January 2018 and filed on the same date that this charge is an abuse of court process. Again, none of the defendants have been served with the charge. There is no proof of service before the court. We are bound by the courts record. We heard of this charge through media publications and as a result decided to check and upon discovery that it is true we filed the preliminary objection. Also, going by the law as laid by the appellate courts it is the duty of the prosecution to produce the defendant in court and until then the court cannot exercise any jurisdiction over the defendant nor have the jurisdiction to curtail the Defendants liberty," he added. Mbadugha also urged the court to discountenance prosecution counsels prayer for counsel be ordered to produce the 2nd Defendant as the court cannot compel counsels to produce the defendants. EFCC not ready Justice Olusola Williams, while striking out the matter, said that EFCC was not ready to take the preliminary objection; and that a criminal matter can always be instituted whenever the prosecution is prepared. The prosecution is well aware that it is its duty to produce a defendant in court, the judge said This Court is not inclined to continue to waste the time of Lagos taxpayers. This court cannot continue to waste precious time calling a case that is going nowhere. It is a criminal matter that can be instituted anytime. I advise that the prosecution gets its acts together before coming to court. I am inclined to strike this case and I so do. ALSO READ: Innoson insists that court ordered GTB to pay N14b Innoson, through his lawyers, had constantly challenged the jurisdiction of the Lagos High Court to hear the EFCC fraud charge on the grounds that the charge is an abuse of court process. According to Daily Trust, the members of the group, which also includes governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives, state Houses of Assembly aspirants, accused Oshiomhole of working for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). This was made known in a statement jointly signed by Alhaji Mumakai-Unagha and Dr SKC Ogbonnia, two presidential aspirants on Wednesday, October 10, 2018. Oshiomhole lacks capacity In the statement, the group said Oshiomhole lacks what it takes to solve the issues that have come up in various chapters of the party across the country. Thr group also said that the APC national chairman has purposely frustrated the ambition of young politicians in the ruling party. The statement reads: The National Chairman does not have the capacity to lead the party to victory come 2019 following the crisis he has created all over the country as soon as he assumed office, therefore he has lost the confidence of All Progressive Progress members. He has not only succeeded in creating factions within the party in almost the whole thirty six states of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory, he has introduced development unknown to democracy. He deliberately hiked the prizes of nomination forms to scare genuine Nigerians with burning desire to salvage the nation economy, hes gradually destroying the party to pave way for the Peoples Democratic Party. It is obvious that he cannot manage crisis and he will not be able to manage the crisis he created with impurity during the recent primary elections conducted by the party as it was all sham. He imposed party executives as well as candidates in the various constituents against the wishes of the people. Adams Oshiomhole conspired to deny Nigerian Youths as well as party members that are desirous of contesting the 2019 general election through the prohibitive hike of the nomination form. Today, APC as a party is sharply divided as the recent primary elections were held on factional bases. We are not sure of the party victory come 2019 due to what we may regard or call man made crisis created by the chairman. We, the Coalition of APC Presidential aspirants including Governorship, Senatorial, House of Representative and Houses of Assembly aspirants are hereby calling on the National Chairman to resign. Should the National chairman fails to resign, we shall mobilize APC faithful across the country to besiege the party secretariat. Atiku, a former vice president, was elected the PDP's candidate at the party's national convention in Port Harcourt on Sunday, October 7, 2018, beating Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, to the ticket. In the wake of his emergence, the APC and the Buhari Campaign Organisation have publicly described Atiku as an opponent with questionable wealth and track record in governance. Atiku's campaign organisation has now fired back at the jibes, touting the former vice president as a job creator who would boost Nigeria's economy if elected president. In a statement signed by the organisation on Tuesday, October 9, it listed Atiku's track record to include superintending over the GSM revolution that saw Nigeria go from 50,000 to 100 million GSM lines, adding over 500,000 direct jobs to the Nigerian economy, and attracting $27 billion to the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). He's also credited with initiating, starting and completing several road projects all over Nigeria including roads in Katsina, President Buhari's home state. Unlike Buhari, the statement stated, Atiku is an expert job creator who has founded many successful and thriving businesses. The statement read, "We wish to remind APC's National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, that Atiku Abubakar is not like President Buhari who has never run a successful private business throughout his life. "Unlike Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar is an expert job creator who has founded many successful and thriving businesses including the American University of Nigeria, Yola, a Microfinance Bank that has moved 45,000 families out of poverty and Rica Gado, a livestock feed company that has significantly reduced instances of herdsmen/farmers clashes by providing a business-friendly solution instead of asking Nigerians to give up their lands for cattle ranching or face death, as the Buhari government did. "Unlike President Buhari, Atiku Abubakar does not believe Nigerian youths are lazy. How could, when 25,000 out of his 50,000 employees are youths? "Nigerians should note that we have just listed only a few of the many booming commercial enterprises founded by Atiku Abubakar. "Now we urge the Buhari Presidency and the APC to mention even one successful private endeavour that the President has successfully run. And by private enterprises, we are not referring to 150 cows that never increase in number, year in year out." The organisation further challenged President Buhari and the APC to mention three projects initiated, started and completed by the current administration in the last three years. The organisation concluded that no other candidate is as motivated as Atiku to make the country work for everyone. According to SaharaReporters, Justice Chiwendu Nwogu made the pronouncement on Wednesday, October 10, 2018. Justice Nwogu described the nomination of Mr. Coleas an act of illegality. The Judges ruling was as a result of a suit filed by Ibrahim Imah and 22 others against the APC. Also, Justice Nwogu annulled the elections of Rivers state APC local, ward and state executives. In addition, the Judge also nullified the Rivers State APC Senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly primaries. According to SaharaReporters, he said that the elections were illegal because they were not carried out in line with the requirements of the APC. Speaking further, he said "The rule by might must be checked by the rule of law. We must restore the hope of the common man in the justice system." Justice Nwogu also said that those who purchased nomination forms were excluded by the party. The Judge also dismissed the motion filed by APCs legal counsel, Prince OSM Azunda seeking to halt the delivery of the judgment. Justice Nwogu said Azundas motion is a ploy to arrest the judgement. As it is, the APC in Rivers state might not field any candidate for the governorship, Senate, House of Representatives, and state House of Assembly elections in the 2019 general election. INEC deadline The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fixed October 7, 2018, for the conclusion of primary elections by all political parties. You will recall that INEC barred the APC in Zamfara state from fielding candidates in the upcoming 2019 general elections following the partys failure to conduct primary elections. The Zamfara state chapter of the APC failed to present the names of elected candidates due to an internal crisis that rocked the party. According to Daily Post, the spokesman of the group, Sylvester Nsa said Oshiomhole's actions might end up destroying the APC. The members of the APC faction, also accused the national chairman of refusing to recognize the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, as the bona fide governorship candidate of the party in the state. Speaking further, Nsa said The people of APC in Cross River have gone out to protest against impunity, injustice and total and blatant refusal to respect court ruling by the national chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomole. His attitude in recent times has made us to understand that Oyegun, the former chairman, was a saint and angel. Therefore, the people of Cross River State are angry that Oshiomhole has brought impunity in Cross River State and not only in the state, but the action of Adams Oshiomhole will also destroy APC in Nigeria. The people of APC across the country, rise up and tell Oshiomhole that he cannot destroy APC, therefore in Cross River State, Usani is right. Usani is the answer. No Usani no election. We want the whole country to know that Usani built the party. He nurtured the party. He is the leader of the party. He stands to protect the interest of the common men and that is why, the people of APC in Cross River have stood their grounds that without Usani, there is no APC in the state. I stand here as one of the leaders in the party in the state to declare that Adams Oshiomole should be called to order. This is a man that is a beneficiary of court order. He became a governor because of court order and today Oshiomhole does not want to honour court order. Therefore he must be called to order. I call on the judiciary to stand up otherwise; the action of Oshiomhole is a total play down on the integrity of the judiciary. It is an insult to the judiciary; it is an insult to democracy, so we call on Oshiomhole to leave Cross River State alone. He must leave us alone, otherwise, he would come to Cross River and walk alone because the people are angry and they have spoken that they want Usani. If it was court that made Oshiomhole a governor, he must respect court order. He is a man of impunity. He should resign otherwise if he continues, he will destroy this party. INEC barred the APCin Zamfara state from fielding candidates in the upcoming 2019 general elections following the partys failure to conduct primary elections. The electoral body had set October 7, 2018, as the deadline for the conclusion of primaries by political parties. Zamfara crisis The Zamfara state chapter of the APC failed to present the names of elected candidates due to internal crisis that arose following the choice of an anointed candidate. The state Governor, Abdulaziz Yari handpicked his commissioner for finance, Mukhtar Idris to replace him, a decision that did not go down well with some party members. According to reports, separate primary elections were held by the two factions, making it impossible for the National Working Committee (NWC) members sent by the APC leadership to supervise. This led to the cancellation and rescheduling of the primaries by the ACP leadership. Governor Yari however dismissed the decision of the party, and warned members of the NWC not to come to Zamfara state again. He also called out his supporters to protest the decision of the national leadership. Oshiomholes reaction According to Daily Trust, the APC National chairman said that INECs decision negates the spirit of fair hearing and lacks legal basis. Oshiomhole said that INECs chairman should have consulted the APC before taking its decision. According to him, As a party, we are in the process of exhausting those internal procedures before forwarding the names of our candidates to you. We are perplexed that you did not wait for us to submit the names of our candidates in Zamfara State (considering that the time within which such submission should take place has not elapsed) before raising your observation in your letter under reference. This is more so when we received no correspondence from the Commission at least to inquire from our party the true state of affairs in Zamfara State, in the spirit of fair hearing, before making haste to write your letter. We, however note that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not also hold primaries in Kano, but no such similar letter was written to the PDP in relation to Kano State. It is our contention, in the circumstance, that your letter is not only pre-emptive, but your position seems to negate the spirit of any fair hearing and is devoid of legal basis. ALSO READ: Marafa accuses Yari of frustrating gov primary in Zamfara Be informed, (emphasis by the party) that in the spirit of due compliance with the law, we affirm that we shall indeed be presenting candidates for Governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly Elections in Zamfara State for the 2019 General elections before the deadline for submission of such names which has been fixed by your Commission on the 18th of October, 2018 and in line with section 87 (6) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended). If you raise further observations after you receive our list of candidates, we shall be glad to clarify them." Governor Simon Lalong had hinged the decision to leave out the four local governments on prevailing security situation. Correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who went round some polling units in Pankshin, Mangu, Bassa, Langtang North, Langtang South and Shendam local governments, observed that the voter turnout was very low. At Youth Centre polling unit in Pankshin central, NAN found less than 10 prospective voters on the queue as at 11.10 a.m. The situation was the same in the two polling units of Nerr in Pankshin, where NAN met less than a combined total of 12 voters milling around and waiting for the electoral officers. NAN also found that there was tension in six wards in Pankshin following claims that the electoral officers brought duplicate copies of results sheets. The wards included Dopkai, Kangmun, Jibilik, Jibam, Kagu ang Jing. Mr Godwin Nanchin, PDP Organising Secretary in Pankshin Local Government, told NAN that the ploy was to enter results in the duplicate sheets to deceive the electorate at the polling units. The results they want will then be entered in the original sheets and announced as authentic, he said, and vowed that his party would resist such move. But Mr Jerry Audu, PLASIECs Assistant Electoral Officer in Pankshin, told NAN that the distribution of the duplicate copies of the results sheets was not deliberate. The duplicate results sheets did not come along with other results materials, but we have sent for the origin results sheets and shall distribute them to the affected wards as soon as they are received, he told NAN. At Central Primary School, Langtang South, NAN found a few voters waiting for electoral voters as at 11.20 a.m. One of the prospective voters, an elderly man, who gave his name as Nimfa Jan, told NAN that he had been waiting since 7.30 a.m. I have been waiting and will continue to wait. We are told that the electoral officers are on the way. We hope they will come soon, he said. Some people, who spoke with NAN, however said that they were not aware that elections into local government councils were being held. Mrs. Asabe Timkat, who runs a hair salon, told NAN that she was not aware of the election. It was just this morning that someone told me that elections will today. We normally get to know of these things when candidates campaign and disrupt traffic. I did not see anyone campaigning, she said. At Mangu, however, NAN found an appreciable turnout of voters, especially in the polling units located in the centre of the town. NAN, however, learnt that there was confusion over allegations that the electoral officers had brought fake results sheets, with voters hurling accusations against electoral officers. Our correspondent also found a sharp division among the voters with some of them insisting that the electoral officers be allowed to perform their duties while others insisted on sighting and snapping the results sheets. Mr Ben Shignugul, PDP Vice Chairman in Plateau Central, told NAN that he was very impressed with the turnout of voters. As you can see, many people are anxious to vote because the local government councils are very important to their lives. The councillors are seen as the commissioners while the local government chairman is seen as the governor, so the election and those elected mean a lot for them, he said. Shignugul, however, expressed fear that the right results might not be determined because of allegations that the electoral officers had brought fake results sheets. He also alleged that the electoral officers had hinted that the results would not be announced at the polling units, ward or local government collation centres. What we are told is that the results will be collated and sent to Jos to be announced there. We think this is not right and shall not accept any foul play, he said. Shignugul said that many voters had abandoned their farms to cast their votes, and advised the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), to do the right thing. We have resolved to resist anything suspicious here. We shall insist and persist until the right thing is done, he said. At Langtang North, NAN learnt that a commissioner in the Plateau government was allegedly arrested for being in possession of a ballot box stuffed with ballot papers already thumb-printed in favour of one political party. Some youths, on learning that the commissioner was thump-printing ballot papers, rushed to his house and forced him to bring out the box, a source, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN. Mr Domle Simon, PDP Vice Chairman in Plateau South Senatorial Zone, who confirmed the said arrest of the commissioner, claimed that the suspect, along with several others, had been taken to the Police Station. NAN, however, could not obtain Police confirmation of the arrest as the spokesman of the Plateau Police Command, Mr Tyopev Terna, said he was still waiting to be briefed. Because almost everyone is kind of impatient these days, Ill summarize the story in a few words in the next couple of paragraphs. After spending all of July, August and September threatening Senate President Bukola Saraki with impeachment, senators elected on the platform of the APC couldnt find their voices when they arrived the red chamber for the day's deliberations. In fact, one commentator said they looked emasculated. Rather than ruffle Saraki's feathers like everyone was expecting on day one, Adaoyiche says it appears as though a deal has now been struck between pro Saraki and APC senators to keep the man on his seat till the life of the 8th assembly winds to a close in 2019. APC senators have suddenly sheathed their swords, according to the story, because most of them werent so pleased with the APC as a political party during the just concluded primary elections across the country. For instance, some of these APC senators werent handed automatic tickets and wont be part of the 9th senate. Why do the partys bidding (which in this case means impeaching Saraki) when the party couldnt even make their return to the senate next year a done deal? Let me tell you something you already know: knowing politicians, I dont doubt Adaoyiches story one bit. Little wonder that the senator who moved the adjournment motion on Tuesday was a card carrying member of the APC. The senate has now sat for two consecutive days after months of politicking and no one in that chamber has whispered impeachment. For context, Saraki incurred the wrath of the APC after he defected from the governing party to the opposition PDP. The APC says it can't stand someone from the 'minority party' calling the shots in the senate. APC Chairman Adams Oshiomhole spent all of August telling everyone that Saraki will be impeached."He will not only be impeached, we will work hard to have him defeated as a senator in his own senatorial zone come 2019, Oshiomhole told journalists. Saraki will not be the first to be impeached and I doubt if he is going to be the last. But definitely he will be impeached according to law and according to the democratic norms. The only way Senator Saraki can avoid impeachment is for him to do what is honourable, which again leads to the issue of character, Oshiomhole added. In statement after statement at the time, the APC kept making the point that Sarakis impeachment was only a matter of time.The party made it sound as though Saraki will be impeached as soon as the senate doors are flung open on the resumption of plenary after a prolonged recess. The real issue remains our clear position that the senate president honourably steps down or be impeached, APC spokesperson Yekini Nabena said. The APC senator who represents Delta Central, Ovie Omo-Agegealso warned that Saraki was only postponing the evil day. "We as a caucus are very resolute to remove him and at the slightest opportunity he gives to us, he is gone. We have said that he ought to do the honourable thing, the right thing by stepping down, otherwise he would be humiliated. We have the numbers and we are going to remove him, Omo-Agege blared. At the time, Saraki had typically laughed everyone off: "The position of Oshiomhole and his cohorts in the APC that the senate president must resign is a mere wishful thinking. They will continue to dream about their planned removal of the senate president. They will need 73 Senators to lawfully remove Dr. Saraki and they will never get that in the present eight senate". It is important to state here that both major parties in the senate are yet to conduct a headcount like they promised--a necessary process that will determine which of them actually controls majority seats in the upper legislative chamber. Maybe APC senators are still plotting (look, they had three months!) or maybe a deal has been struck not to disturb Saraki until next year. Well probably never know at this rate. However, Adaoyiche tells me over the phone: "the last thing on the minds of these senators at the moment is impeachment. Everyone in that chamber is now focused on the 2019 elections". Among the nine convicted with Baldetti was her brother Mario, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his involvement in steering the contract to a company owned by an Argentine-Israeli businessman, Hugo Roitman, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The others involved were former government officials. The project came to light in 2016 after environmentalists charged that the chemical formula sold was a mixture of salt and water. "It's with a great sense of duty and determination that we filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court on October 2 for crimes against humanity," Oscar Temaru, who is also the French archipelago's former president, said at the United Nations. "This case aims to hold all the living French presidents accountable for the nuclear tests against our country." Speaking during a meeting about French Polynesia as part of a UN committee focused on decolonization, he said: "We owe it to all the people who died from the consequences of nuclear colonialism." AFP But its Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls saw 193 nuclear tests over three decades until then-president Jacques Chirac ended the program in the 1990s. The French Polynesia tests were among a total of 210 carried out -- also in Africa's Sahara desert -- with about 150,000 civilian and military personnel between 1960 and 1996. Thousands of them later developed serious health problems. Only around 20 of approximately 1,000 people who filed complaints against France have received compensation. "We see French nuclear tests as no less than the direct result of colonization," Temaru said, adding the testing was imposed upon the islanders "with the direct threat of imposing military rule if we refused." Temaru, who favors independence, said France has "ignored and shown contempt" for repeated offers since 2013 to come to the table under UN supervision. France long denied its responsibility for the health and environmental impacts of its testing, out of fear the admission would weaken its nuclear program during the Cold War. Just last week, six civilians were killed during a night attack in the city of Beni by the ADF, which has no known leader and whose ideology and motives remain unclear. AFP photojournalist John Wessels travelled for three days with 30 soldiers from the UN mission MONUSCO and the Congolese army to the troubled North Kivu province, where the ADF has killed hundreds of civilians since 2014. On Friday, after reports of heavy mortar and machine gun fire, the troops headed to the town of Oicha, north of Beni and near the border with Uganda. The town's residents greeted them by throwing stones. "The civilians get frustrated with us and MONUSCO, sometimes we arrive late, we have to fight harder to help the community change its mind about us," one of the Congolese soldiers said on the condition of anonymity. Several homes in Oicha had been looted by ADF members, who melt back into the jungle after raids and attacks. While the troops inspected the looted homes, deafening machine gunfire rang out from the jungle. It seemed to be coming from near the town of Mbau, where 20 civilians were shot dead by the ADF in May. The troops are based outside Oicha, where the blue helmets sleep uneasily -- the ADF killed 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers in December in the deadliest attack on UN forces in 24 years. And the ADF, which is thought to have killed a total of more than 700 civilians over the last four years, regularly attacks Congolese army bases for weapons, ammunition and medical supplies. 'Heartbreaking' "This is my fourth deployment in the DRC, my first was in 2006," said UN peacekeeper Maijeke. "This is the most intense deployment for me, I am always anticipating an attack," he added.. "The biggest difference this time is the escalation in the killings of civilians, this is heartbreaking for me, a serious concern." When the ADF killed 20 civilians in Beni in September, the locals condemned the failures of the Congolese army and the UN mission. However MONUSCO maintains its intervention has prevented even greater carnage. In the area known as the "triangle of death" between Beni, Mbau and Kamango, the troops face an enemy that knows every secret of the dense jungle and likely has informants in many communities. On Saturday, the troops headed to the scene of a particularly violent ADF onslaught a few days earlier. Members of the militia were said to have used two women as human shields during a shootout with Congolese troops that lasted four hours. Both women were killed. Everything seemed quiet when the troops arrived, except for the sporadic sound of gunfire. The next day, Sunday, gunshots rang out again -- this time close to their base. The soldiers scrambled to put on their gear, but the jungle quietened down once their attention was turned to it. What do they want? Over three days hunting the ADF, some of the mystery surrounding them dissipated. It was clear they are well-equipped with heavy weapons and well organised. Their guerrilla tactics of sudden, brutal assaults are usually to gain strategic positions, or needed supplies. But much remains unknown. How many are they? Who is in charge? Who is arming them? And most of all, what is their goal? Both Uganda and the DRC insist they have a jihadist motive, but many observers say this is too simplistic and there has been no proven link with the global jihadist underground. The ADF started out in 1989 with the aim of overthrowing Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, who was seen as hostile to Muslims. But it went on to absorb other rebel factions into its ranks and started carrying out attacks in 1995. Forced westwards by the Ugandan army, the group relocated most of its activities to DRC, finding a lucrative niche in the vast central African country's lawless, resource-rich east. For Maijeke, the most important thing is ending the violence. "There has to be a dialogue between the FARDC (Congolese army) and the ADF," he says. But lawyers for Yameen's Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) told reporters that they are alleging the poll was rigged by the independent election commission in a challenge filed with the Supreme Court. "We reviewed the numerous complaints filed by President Yameen's supporters before deciding to file this challenge," Yameen's lead lawyer Mohamed Saleem said. "So in light of that, President Yameen decided that the challenge must be filed for the rights of his supporters," he added. It was however unclear whether the Indian Ocean archipelago nation's Supreme Court would agree to consider the challenge and the opposition expressed hope that it would be thrown out. The election in the honeymoon paradise, which has seen a tussle for influence between India and China, was won by Ibrahim Mohamed Solih with 58.4 percent of the vote. Solih was little known before the election but was backed, in a remarkable turn of events given the Maldives' turbulent recent political history, by all opposition parties. The United States and the European Union had threatened sanctions if the vote was not free and fair and if Yameen, 59, who has borrowed heavily from China for infrastructure projects, did not accept the result. Yameen had reluctantly said he would leave office in November but he has been publicly urging his supporters to challenge the results. Constitutionally, he can remain in office till November 17 when he has to hand over to Solih, barring any last minute court intervention. Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, spokesman for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), said the challenge was "an attempt by Yameen to create unrest" but that the Supreme Court would likely throw it out. "Since the elections results were released, he has tried to get people to protest outside the Election Commission and was unable to get more than 25 to 30 people," said Ghafoor, who like much of the opposition is based in nearby Sri Lanka. "By going to court, he is trying to create an issue and get people to join his protests," he said. ?Given the fact that the transition is going on smoothly and the international community has accepted the verdict of the people, we don't think the courts will entertain this petition to overturn the results." Going home Last week, former Maldives leader Mohamed Nasheed announced he would return home two years after going into exile. He was barred from contesting the election won by his party's nominee Solih, who defeated Yameen despite what critics said was a biased media and a rigged system. Nasheed was the country's first democratically elected president but was sentenced to 13 years in prison for terrorism in 2015, in a trial the UN said was politically motivated. He went into exile a year later, after being granted prison leave for medical treatment in Britain. Another former president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was last week released from jail just days after Yameen, his estranged half-brother, lost the election. Gayoom, 80, and his legislator son Faris Maumoon, were released on bail by the High Court in Male, raising hopes that other political prisoners will be freed soon. Former foes Nasheed and Gayoom both backed Solih to challenge Yameen. Gayoom had ruled the nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims for 30 years until he was defeated by Nasheed in the Maldives' first multi-party elections in 2008. Gayoom, along with several top judges, was arrested in February and charged with trying to overthrow Yameen. The president responded by declaring a 45-day state of emergency to block his impeachment, prompting an international outcry. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. While Neil Armstrong may be the most famous Purdue alum for his lunar giant leap for mankind, he and other astronauts have been joined by thousands of other Purdue alums in fact, too many to count working in numerous segments of the space industry. Its difficult to track the specific number of Purdue alumni in the space industry, but they are everywhere, says Tom Shih, the J. William Uhrig and Anastasia Vournas Head and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Of course people think of our astronauts, but Purdue alums are responsible for the most minute details of the spacecraft and spacesuits to measuring the trajectories to launch things. Not to mention fuel, food, and health and safety. And the list doesnt end there. Purdue, best known as the Cradle of Astronauts, has graduated 24 NASA astronauts, including the first and most recent people to walk on the moon. Armstrongs moon landing is the inspiration for Purdues 150 Years of Giant Leaps, and Space: Earth, Exploration and Economics is one of the celebrations themes. More than one-third of all U.S. spaceflights with humans aboard have included at least one Boilermaker. By the end of 2018, Purdue astronauts will have spent the equivalent of more than 1,100 days in space. And on the ground, hundreds, if not thousands, of Purdue alumni work in the space industry today. In the past 5 years alone, 167 employers in the airline, aviation and aerospace industry have hired Purdue graduates, according to Purdues Center for Career Opportunities. An overwhelming number of Purdue graduates have found places in the space industry, says Tim Luzader, director of the Center for Career Opportunities. Its exciting to see graduates work on so many different pieces to ensure success and safety. Thats what being a Boilermaker is all about. Positions held by graduates vary widely. Some examples include: * Runs NASAs largest Space Center: In May, Purdue graduate Mark Geyer was named director of NASAs Johnson Space Center. Geyer, who earned his bachelors and masters degrees in 1982 and 1983 respectively, has been with NASA for 28 years and previously worked on the International Space Station program, negotiated with Russia for space station plans and requirements, provided direction for NASAs human spaceflight exploration mission, and served as the deputy center director at Johnson. Now, NASA officials hope to launch an uncrewed Orion flight by 2021. * Makes space travel safe, possible with garment design: Amy Ross graduated from Purdue with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1994 and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1996. Now, as the head of Advanced Spaceflight Pressure Garment Development at NASA, Ross has designed the gloves used by every spacewalking astronaut since 1998, including her father. Spacesuit gloves must allow for comfort, mobility and dexterity while insulating and protecting. Gloves designed by Ross for a shuttle mission in which her father Purdue alum and astronaut Jerry Ross performed three spacewalks have been featured on every spacesuit since 1998. Her latest project has been redesigning spacesuits to better accommodate the environments of other planets, allowing for walking, running, bending and crawling. * Tests human life support systems: Mark Baldwin, a 1997 graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, is a biomechanical engineer for Lockheed Martin. He tests human life support systems in the next generation Orion capsule. Upon re-entry, the Orion capsule descends from parachutes before splashing down in the ocean. Baldwin studies how the structure reacts to water impact in tests, and also examines how splashdown loads are transmitted to seats and crew. During drop tests, the Orion capsule contains two crash-test dummies with sensors to help engineers quantify the potential for injury, allowing for safer re-entry. * Engineers complex systems: Anna-Maria Rivas McGowan received her bachelors degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue, and is now NASAs senior engineer for complex systems design. She is the agencys senior advisor on interdisciplinary aerospace challenges, and strategizes to research, design and develop methodologies that address those complexities. In her 23 years in the aerospace industry, she has served in many roles, including as a flight test leader, NATO consultant, NASA spokesperson and wind-tunnel test engineer. * Teaches spacewalking: Allissa Battocletti, a 2011 graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, works at Johnson Space Center in Extravehicular Activity Operations. She leads classes for astronauts and conducts lessons at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, where astronauts train in near-weightless conditions. Battocletti ensures astronauts know what to do and can complete maintenance outside the International Space Station. * Builds airplane to launch rockets from: Ben Diachun got his pilots license on his 17th birthday, and graduated from Purdue in 1999 with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. Now, Diachun is the president of Scaled Composites, where he works on a team building an airplane that can launch rockets. The plane, called Stratolaunch, has a 385-foot wingspan, two fuselages and will launch satellite-carrying rockets from under its wing. * Develops deep space exploration vehicles: Julie Kramer White received her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue in 1990, and began working full-time at NASA after graduation. Now, shes the Deputy Director of Engineering at NASA. Previously, she worked as Chief Engineer for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, guiding a team to develop the first human rated deep space exploration vehicle since Apollo. In 2014, Kramer White was personally recognized by President Barack Obama for her contributions to the nations space program. Writer: Kelsey Schnieders Lefever, kschnied@purdue.edu Sources: Tim Luzader, director of the Center for Career Opportunities, tluzader@purdue.edu Tom Shih, J. William Uhrig and Anastasia Vournas Head and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, tomshih@purdue.edu Susan Bush, Director of Employer Engagement, sbush@purdue.edu Media contact: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu Migrants who illegally work in New Zealands sex industry are doing it to help fund studies or further travel, according to a new study. University of Otago researchers set out to investigate whether sex workers were desperate or exploited but found rather opposite results. They just see it as something theyre doing on their travels. Associate professor Gillian Abel, who co-authored the report, told RadioLIVE that many migrant sex workers hail from Europe or the United States, and are simply looking for some extra cash. They just see as something theyre doing on their travels. Nobody back home will ever know about it, said Dr Abel. With migrants often limited to minimum wage jobs in food or hospitality, Dr Abel suggested they see sex work as a more profitable opportunity. And for many, its the first time theyve engaged in sex work before, she said. Otago researchers conducted interviews with 11 female migrant sex workers and nine stakeholders for the report, which included brothel operators, sex health specialists and stakeholders from the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective. All of the migrant sex workers surveyed, including the most vulnerable, told the researchers they engaged in the work by choice rather than being trafficked. The survey found that the migrant sex workers who couldnt speak English tended to have more vulnerable situations, often working in less reputable brothels. That tends to be the minority from what I understand, Dr Abel emphasised. Listen to the full interview with Gillian Abel above. The Long Lunch with Wendyl Nissen, 12pm - 3pm on RadioLIVE and streaming live to the rova app on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. You break it, you buy it: that's the message from Wellington's mayor to the man who broke a sculpture on the city's waterfront. Hunter MacDonald sustained moderate injuries after climbing and swinging off Len Lye's 'Water Whirler' on Monday. "I was bored out of my mind," he told Stuff. But his reckless actions didn't win him many fans, including Wellington Mayor Justin Lester. "We've referred this to the police and to be honest, I don't have a lot of sympathy. 'Water Whirler' cost $1 million to install back in 2006, and this latest round of damage is expected to cost tens of thousands of dollars. "You break it, you buy it," Mayor Lester says. If you climbed on a piece of art and damaged it, then you're going to be liable for that. Mr MacDonald says he's remorseful, and willing to do whatever's required to make amends. Wellington lawyer Alan Knowsley from law firm Rainey Collins, says Mr MacDonald may well be liable for the costs of repair. It doesnt matter whether he knows its valuable or not, if you crash into a Rolls Royce youre liable for that just as much as if you crash into some other car, he told RadioLIVE. Mr Knowsley says knowledge of the value of something you destroy makes no difference, it comes down to negligence. If you went up and climbed on a piece of art and damaged it, then youre going to be liable for that. Listen to the full interview with Alan Knowsley above. Morning Talk with Mark Sainsbury, 9am - 12pm Weekdays and streaming live on 'rova' channel 9 - available on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. Comcast has closed on its purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox's holdings in Sky, a move prompting the departure of James Murdoch from the pay-TV firm's board. The closing moves its acquisition of the UK broadcaster a step closer to completion; Sky's listing on the London Stock Exchange will be cancelled on 7 November.Fox's overlapping offer to acquire Sky had lapsed, Sky noted yesterday, recommending anyone who hadn't yet accepted Comcast's offer do so immediately.21CF sold its shares to Sky at the 17.28 per-share price that Comcast has bid for the rest of the company. That bid values 21CF's Sky holding at 11.63 billion.Meanwhile, earlier this week, Comcast clinched the fourth largest corporate bond sale on record, successfully borrowing $27 billion to fund its $39.7 billion acquisition of the pan-European satcaster. It raised the funds across 12 tranches of floating- and fixed-rate bonds, ranging from two- to 40-year maturities.The sale has the follow-on effect of reducing Disney's debt in acquiring 21CF's media assets.Commenting on closing the deal, Comcast chairman and chief executive Brian Roberts said: "We are pleased today to be the majority owner of Sky. Led by Jeremy Darroch and his superb team - now together with Comcast - our combined global leadership in technology and content paves the way for us to accelerate investment and growth in Sky's brand and premier platforms."James Murdoch had been chairman of Sky since April 2016, having previously served as chief executive from 2003 to 2007 and in a previous spell as chairman from 2007 to 2012. A New York University School of Law program funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg is placing lawyers in the offices of Democratic state attorneys general and paying them to prosecute energy companies and challenge Trump administration policies on energy and the environment. Nine states and Washington, D.C., including New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania, are participating in the multimillion-dollar program funded by the media magnate and ex-New York City mayor, who re-registered as a Democrat this week amid expectations of a run for president in 2020. The 14 current fellows in the program report to the attorneys general, but they are paid by NYUs Bloomberg-funded State Energy & Environmental Impact Center. State AG offices hire these trained lawyers not students but seasoned professionals with years of experience as special assistant attorneys general. Under terms of the arrangement, the fellows work solely to advance progressive environmental policy at a time when Democratic state attorneys general have investigated and sued ExxonMobil and other energy companies over alleged damages due to climate change. Although many government agencies have employees funded by outside sources, critics say using special interest money for targeted government action is inappropriate. Christopher Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who wrote a report on the NYU center, said the fellowships come with specific strings attached. [AG] offices must agree to use prosecutors to advance progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal positions, Horner said. David J. Hayes, the centers executive director, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Amy Spitalnick, communications director and policy adviser to acting New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, vigorously defended the program. The NYU center, she said, has no role in supervising the fellows. Spitalnick also seemed to indicate the partisanship in play when she cited a 2011 report that found former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt may have relied heavily on the advice of the oil and gas industry when he was Oklahomas attorney general. Climate deniers continue to find new and creative ways to distract from reality, she said. The center was launched in mid-August 2017 with a reported grant of nearly $6 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable entity controlled by the billionaire. It is billed as a non-partisan project to help state attorneys general fight against regulatory rollbacks and advance clean energy, climate change [responses], and environmental values and protections. Personally and through his political groups, Bloomberg has also donated millions of dollars to Democratic attorneys general campaigns in this midterm election cycle. For Democratic campaigns in general, he has announced plans to spend $80 million this year. Some of the fellows from the NYU program developed their legal acumen at progressive advocacy organizations such as the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council. Others served under Bloomberg during his mayoral tenure in New York for example, Sarah Kogel-Smucker, now an NYU fellow in the District of Columbia government. The fellows have played a role in filing at least 130 regulatory, legal and other challenges to federal environmental policies since 2017, according to a review of filings. David J. Hayes The full extent of the attorneys participation in many cases is veiled by attorney-client confidentiality. In an email last year to Democratic-held offices, Hayes wrote that we are engaged with ethics experts and individuals in some of your offices to ensure confidentiality of the programs work. The email was provided to RealClearInvestigations by the office of Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat. The centers staff has made virtually no effort to engage Republican offices. Hayes, a former deputy secretary of the interior in the Obama and Clinton administrations, has coordinated campaign fundraisers and advised top officials for Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign on energy and environmental policy. Last year he emailed an initial invitation to apply for the program to chiefs of staff of Democratic attorneys general. (There are 22 Democratic state attorneys general, 27 Republican and one independent.) Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for Miller, declined to comment on why he decided against applying to NYU program. Hicks said the office accepts some third-party funding but not from groups seeking to advance a particular policy agenda. We have some third-party funding already, he said. For example, some of our internships are funded through a fellowship underwritten by the American Bar Association. To be clear, a minority of our offices total funding is directly appropriated by the legislature. Other funding comes from grants, settlements and civil penalties and various funds, such as the Consumer Education and Litigation Fund, but those arent really third parties. The fate of the program in Virginia is uncertain. Hayes announced in a December 2017 press release that the office of Attorney General Mark Herring was awarded a grant and will soon hire a Bloomberg-funded fellow. But that hasnt happened yet. Howard Wolfson, a close Bloomberg adviser and Bloomberg Philanthropies executive, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the question of whether the organization has donated any more than the initial pledge of nearly $6 million to the NYU center. He also declined to address Bloombergs campaign donations to Democratic attorneys general. Bloomberg donated more than $2 million to Herrings 2017 re-election campaign via two political groups Bloomberg controls and through a personal contribution. Through the philanthropists advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, Bloomberg has donated $150,000 to the Democratic Attorneys General Association this cycle$50,000 in July 2017 and another $100,000 in January 2018. Any additional donations to DAGA this cycle after June 30, the end of the second quarter, wont be publicly disclosed by the IRS until Oct. 15. Everytown has also announced plans to spend $3.5 million this year to support Democratic attorney general candidate Aaron Ford in Nevada and the partys nominee for governor, Steve Sisolak. Bloomberg, 76, has a net worth estimated at around $50 billion, rooted in his founding the financial information service Bloomberg LP. Races for attorney general represent a key battleground as Democrats and Republicans vie for control of offices that have the authority to challenge federal laws and regulations as well as pursue policy priorities through investigation of and litigation against disfavored industries. Political analysts consider 10 AG races competitiveDemocrats facing incumbent Republicans in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin; open seats held by Republicans in Colorado, Nevada, Michigan, Ohio and Florida; and open seats held by Democrats in Minnesota and Illinois. Depending on which party controls Congress and the White House, attorneys general have become increasingly aggressive in forming coalitions to challenge federal laws and regulations. Multistate lawsuits filed by attorneys general against the federal government doubled after 2014, as Republicans resisted implementation of the Affordable Care Act and other Democratic policies. During President Trumps first year in office, the number of multistate lawsuits against the federal government jumped to 36 from 13 the year before, according to Paul Nolette, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University. In September, four special assistant attorneys general from the NYU program signed on to a lawsuit from eight AGs against the Interior Department, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Interiors acting solicitor, Daniel Jorjani, over Trump administration regulatory changes regarding the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Anti-fracking protest, Albany, N.Y. In May, two special assistant attorneys general from the program joined 18 AGs filing a lawsuit against the EPA for beginning the process of modifying vehicle emissions standards. The primary focus of the fellowship program has been pushing back against the Trump administration, specifically its moves to replace Obama-era rules as well as its efforts to expand natural resources extraction (drilling, fracking, etc.). For instance, program attorney Megan Herzog signed comments with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey "strongly opposing President Trump and Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkes ill-advised proposal to allow offshore oil and gas drilling along the Massachusetts coast as part of a national program. Aside from New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Virginia, the other states participating in the NYU program are Oregon, Maryland, Washington state and New Mexico. Some Republican offices challenged the authority of attorneys general to accept the funding and the attached obligation to report activities back to the Bloomberg center. Rebecca Ballweg, a spokeswoman for Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, said her office determined that the program would not be legal. This scenario would be a conflict of interest under the Code of Ethics for state employees, which prohibits a state employee from using his or her position for financial gain or for the private benefit of an organization with which the employee is associated, she said, citing the Wisconsin ethics law for state employees. The publics expectation is that a states chief law enforcement official acts in an unbiased and objective manner, said Harold Kim, the executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. Regardless of the underlying issue, when political interest groups participate in embedding paid staff in a state attorney generals office, that credibility is called into question. Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute suggested the NYU center is less likely to spur reform than an ideological arms race. It seems the only way to wake our usual constitutional watchdogs to the abuse is for conservative AGs to accept Federalist Society, National Rifle Association and National Right-to-Life chaired prosecutor positions to investigate those groups political opponents and advance their agendas, he said. U.S. equities took a bit of a hit at the end of last week. And while its always a fools errand to presume to know what brought on a reversal in the worlds deepest markets, its worth considering the possibility that investors did not like one bit the content of Vice President Mike Pences speech on China. Pence delivered it last Thursday at the Hudson Institute, and its a reminder of just how malleable are the members of the political class. Though Pence had long billed himself a supporter of free markets and freedom, the possibility of being vice president was apparently too enticing for the former congressman and Indiana governor. In a bid to placate then presidential candidate Trump, Pence rather quickly revealed a sycophantic side as he became a protectionist overnight. Pences lurch toward economic illiteracy was particularly bothersome precisely because he deep down knows better. Thats of course what made last weeks speech so nauseating in the political sense, and perhaps unsettling to investors in the economic growth sense. To be clear, Pence was talking up the policies of decline as evidenced by his confident assertion that higher tariffs on Chinese goods are on the way. Shame on Pence for promoting what would be harmful to every American worker and company. Indeed, purposely ignored by the vice president is that limits on Chinese exports to the United States plainly amount to limits on the ability of U.S. producers to sell their goods and services in China. This matters simply because U.S. equities are logically priced to reflect growing sales by American companies in a country that hasnt yet scratched the surface of its economic potential. Seemingly forgotten by American protectionists is that the Chinese are still very poor relative to the American people. That they are speaks to why attempts by the Trump administration to slow down exchange between the individuals (sorry Pence, Trump et al, countries dont trade) in China and the U.S. are perhaps spooking investors. As of right now Apple sells one 1/5th of its iPhones in China, Boeing a quarter of its airplanes, and in the first quarter of 2018, GM sold more cars in China than it did in North America. Crucial about all of the above is that China already represents a huge market for U.S. producers. Imagine then, what kind of market China will be once its people are rich. Investors constantly looking into the future have already contemplated the latter, and thats why they dont like the idea of politicians inserting themselves into what is a very enriching situation in China for U.S. companies. To be clear about trade, its always enriching. That it relentlessly elevates its participants helps explain why investors are routinely spooked by authoritarian lurches toward protectionism. Its not just that trade barriers shrink foreign markets for the businesses in countries that mindlessly impose tariffs on foreign goods, nor is it that those tariffs shrink the paychecks of the workers theyre falsely billed to protect. What makes tariffs most suffocating is that they slow the individual path toward specialization. Stating the obvious, when we can divide up work with as many "hands" as possible, the odds of our doing the work most commensurate with our unique talents soar. When we can specialize we can be much more productive, which further explains why tariffs scare investors so much: they sap our productivity. None of this seemingly matters to a man who plainly values being vice president more than he does something as quaint as principle. Having sold his ideology down the river in return for a better bio, Pence accused China of (in the words of the Wall Street Journals Gerald Seib) abusing its economic power, stealing American technology, bullying the very American companies that have helped its rise. Oh dear. On the subject of economic power, China has nothing of the sort. Businesses establish economic power, not countries, which raises the question why Pence would assume China could assert power of the economic kind in the U.S. Really? How? Does central planning work when the Chinese practice it? Back to reality, economic power is achieved most often in ephemeral fashion through painstaking work in the private sector. Starbucks doesnt have 3,400 stores in China thanks to the actions of people like Pence as much as the global coffee chain built a remarkable brand that Chinas U.S.-fascinated citizens cant get enough of. The same goes for McDonalds: China is now its 2nd largest market. That Nikes #2 market is China speaks yet again to how much the Chinese people love all things American. Crucial here is that America didnt create market share for U.S. companies, but the capitalist profit motive did. Applied to China, that its businesses increasingly have economic power in the United States is the surest sign that China the state doesnt much factor in the doings of the businesses that populate it. Taking all of this further, Nike manufactures more shoes and apparel in China than it does any other country. Apple manufactures a great deal there too. This rates prominent mention in consideration of Pences belief that China as a country regularly bullies U.S. corporations while stealing their technology. Funny about all this is that the most dynamic and valuable companies in the world arent troubled by what troubles the vice president. This matters given the implicit message of Pences speech: in decrying what he deems too much economic power, too much bullying and too much stealing, Pence is saying that politicians should manage exchange between American and Chinese producers, not the producers. Such a view is scary when we remember how poorly state power performed in the 20th century, plus its insulting to intensely brilliant U.S. corporations for a politician like Pence to think technology stolen from them could ever be effectively utilized in the marketplace by thieves. Wanting to flex his already uncoordinated America First muscles, Pence succeeded only insofar as he showed how obtuse politicians can sometimes be. And paranoid. Indeed, arguably the most embarrassing aspect of Pences presentation was his mimic of the lefts wildly overdone paranoia about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In the vice presidents case, he laughably claimed that his bosss toughness at the negotiating table has China working to interfere in the 2018 mid-terms and beyond. Apparently Chinas leaders want Trump out. About this, one can only hope that the Chinese people dont think Americans as conspiratorial and paranoid as some of their leaders. In a speech meant to showcase the Trump administrations tough bona fides, Pence only succeeded insofar as he reminded listeners that the 45th president isnt nearly as free market-oriented as his supporters wish him to be. Investors were seemingly listening. Arguably worse for Pence is that people who remember the old Pence were listening too. 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 By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 11/03/2021 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! Which couples are still together and which MAFS couples have split up and divorced? And where are they now? has featured 44 different couples getting married at first sight during it's first twelve seasons -- so which couples are still together, who has split up and divorced, and where are they all now?Each season of -- which premiered in the United States seven years ago and is based on a Danish series -- features couples (previously three couples, but four couples on Seasons 8 and 9, and five couples beginning with Season 10) being matched together by relationship experts and agree to marry when they first meet.Complete strangers become husband and wife in a matter of minutes, and the couples' lives are then documented by TV cameras over the course of the next four to eight weeks (eight weeks, in the case of 's most recent seasons).The couples typically enjoy their first night together in a hotel after exchanging vows -- with some couples deciding to consummate their marriage immediately -- and then embark on a honeymoon, move in together, and simply attempt to deal with the struggles of daily life as man and wife.At the end of the extreme marriage experiment, each couple must decide whether they'd like to stay married or get a divorce on "Decision Day."has experienced very mixed results over the years. While a significant number of couples decide to stay together and continue their new marriage at the end of their season, the real world seems to hit them hard after the cameras leave, resulting in the couple splitting up only months later.Do cast members see a different side of their spouses once cameras are gone, or do the romances naturally fizzle over time?Some couples are still together to this day and are extremely happy. Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner from Season 1, for example, have had two children.Several other couples have also had children -- including Ashley Petta and Anthony D'Amico Shawniece Jackson and Jephte Pierre Danielle Bergman and Bobby Dodd , and Deonna McNeill and Greg Okotie However, there are also relationships that ended badly. Jessica Castro from Season 2, for instance, accused Ryan De Nino of alleged death threats, and she went on to file a restraining order and lawsuit against him.Some couples have also never even made it to "Decision Day" and ended their marriage prematurely, including Season 4 couple Heather Seidel and Derek Schwartz as well as Season 6 couple Molly Duff and Jonathan Francetic Are the remaining couples now lovers, friends or enemies?! What about early season couples like Cortney Hendrix and Jason Carrion, Jaclyn Methuen and Ryan Ranellone, Vanessa Nelson and Tres Russell, Sonia Granados and Nick Pendergrast, and Lillian Vilchez and Tom Wilson?And how about more recent season couples like Danielle DeGroot and Cody Knapek Sheila Downs and Nate Duhon Jaclyn Schwartzberg and Ryan Buckley Dave Flaherty and Amber Martorana , and Tristan Thompson and Mia Bally Keith Dewar and Kristine Killingsworth , and AJ Vollmoeller and Stephanie Sersen Click thelink below to see photos of each couple and find out! BEGIN GALLERY >> Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. After an amendment went into effect earlier this month, Athenians may have a few more options for late-night snacking after a night of bar hop Every year as Halloween rolls around, costumes are some of the most recognizable parts of the holiday. Many people who celebrate go all out, e A top executive of the Danish energy giant Orsted said his companys acquisition of a smaller Providence, R.I.-based wind farm will allow Connecticut homes and businesses greater access to renewable power. Thomas Brostrom, chief executive officer of Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and president of the companys North America operations, said the company has the financial resources and technical know-how to bring multiple wind farms to operation off of the coast of southern New England. The proposed acquisition of Providence-based Deepwater Wind, which was announced Monday from the D.E. Shaw Group, is part of the natural evolution of an industry that is still in its infancy in North America. Officials with both companies said there will be no layoffs as part of the deal. This type of consolidation within the industry has gone on for some time in Europe and around the world, Brostrom said. There are number of companies out there that are in the business of developing these projects to a certain point. But there arent that many out there that can bring a project that is highly complicated and involves doing installations under difficult conditions to completion. Thats important because in June, Connecticuts Department of Energy and Environment Protection selected Deepwater Wind as one of the winners of its renewable energy-procurement efforts. The 200-megawatt project, which could be operational by 2023, will be built in federal waters about halfway between Montauk, N.Y., and Marthas Vineyard. Jeffrey Grybowski, chief executive officer of Deepwater Wind, said his companys acquisition by Orsted is a sign that we are ready to grow. If the proposed deal is approved by regulators, it likely will close by the end of this year. The proposed acquisition of Deepwater will create a new company known as Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind, which will have Brostrm and Grybowski as co-chief executive officers. Grybowski said officials with Deepwater Wind have always known that we were going to do some kind of deal. The company currently has the only operating offshore wind farm in the United States, off the coast of Block Island. For several years now, we have been weighing a number of options, he said. But it wasnt until relatively recently that the deal with Orsted came together. State Rep. Lonnie Reed, D-Branford, said Connecticut lawmakers had been hearing rumors that Deepwater Wind was about to be sold. Reed, chairwoman of the legislatures Energy and Technology Committee, said the deal combining the two companies only further supports her belief that DEEP officials made the right choice. Orsted is highly respected in Europe and around the world, she said. Before now, Deepwater Wind was owned by a hedge fund. If were looking to make the transition (in energy supply) from whats now to whats next, this deal is good for us. DEEP is in the midst of evaluating a second round of request for proposals that could add even more wind power to Connecticuts energy portfolio. Chris Collibee, a spokesman for the agency, said DEEP received more than 100 proposals for adding wind power and other forms of renewable energy to the states current energy mix. A decision on which projects DEEP officials will select should come by the end of the year, Collibee said. Grybowski said Deepwater Wind had already submitted a pair of proposals into the latest selection process. Connecticut wind power supporters will be watching with interest another proposal in play in the latest round of RFPs. The Vineard Wind project is joint venture between Orange-based Avangrid and another Danish company, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. Very little is known about the companys proposal at this point and Vineyard Wind officials have not returned several calls seeking information. But in a news release put out by the joint venture company in mid-September, Vineyard Wind officials committed to invest $30 million in upgrading the port of Bridgeport in a partnership with McAllister Towing and the recently opened Bridgeport Boatworks shipyard. McAllister Towing operates the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson ferry. Reed said the need for dredging Bridgeports harbor and the difficulty of finding a place to dump the silt once the work is done could make it difficult for the project to move forward if it is selected in latest round of RFPs. Joel Gordes, a West Hartford-based energy consultant, said DEEP officials need to be careful not to commit too much of the states energy portfolio to wind power. Im not saying that wind power is bad, but youre going to need a lot of (undersea) transmission cable to bring that power ashore, Gordes said. That creates potential vulnerabilities for terrorism. My feeling is that some of the money that would otherwise go toward wind power should go toward fuels cells, so that the power generation could be distributed over many sites rather than the centralized power production model that wind power represents. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com Growing up, many often hear urban legends that caution them of creatures such as the Boogeyman or Bloody Mary. Each state even has their own urban legends, whether it be the Dover Demon of Massachusetts or The Jersey Devil in New Jersey. For the Nutmeg state, that is no exception. Connecticut plays host to a wide variety of urban myths and legends that have long since brought curiosity and fear into the hearts of locals. Though often remarked for its plethora of paranormal hauntings, popularized by former paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren of Monroe, the state has much to offer in terms of the creatures lurking just beyond the surface. One of the most infamous cryptozoological legends of Connecticut are the melon heads, which are said to be found in the woods of the Trumbull/Shelton area. Ray Bendici of Damned Connecticut, a website that explores the supernatural in Connecticut, believes that this urban myth is at the central core of the state, explaining that is sheds light on some of the most mysterious places in our neighborhood. "Since people tend to fear what they don't know about or understand, the stories of boogie-man horror were attributed to them," states Bendici on the site. "That ignorance was passed down through the years, and the rest, as they say, is legendary." While all of Connecticut is subject to the paranormal, Southwestern Connecticut has become a hotbed for unexplained activity, especially in Fairfield County. In the area alone, three of the most prominent urban legends in Connecticut exist: sea serpents, the Melon Heads, and The Leatherman. Click through the slideshow to what urban legends exist in Southwestern Connecticut... DANBURY A firefighter who helped save his neighbors life has been named the Danbury Exchange Clubs Firefighter of the Year. Patrick Heron performed CPR in June on his neighbor who had collapsed across the street. Heron had been off duty at the time and talking to the neighbors wife when they realized the man was lying on the grass unresponsive. Sgt. Robert Conrad, a Danbury police officer who was also off duty, had been driving by and also stopped to help. The two administered CPR until an ambulance arrived and took the neighbor to the hospital, where he soon became conscious. FF Heron and Sgt. Conrad's willingness to provide patient care, with no available tools or personal protective equipment, was a definitive factor in the successful resuscitation of this patient, Capt. Jaime Schiller said in a release. Heron was recognized at the Exchange Clubs 19th annual Firefighter of the Year dinner at Anthonys Lake Club on Thursday evening. The patient also spoke about Herons efforts to save his life. Heron joined the citys fire department in February 2007 and has earned many additional certifications and letters of commendation throughout the years. Pat prides himself on knowing his job and leading by example, Chief T.J. Wiedl said in a release. The Danbury Fire Department is fortunate to have Pat as a firefighter. Heron will also be recognized at the Connecticut Exchange Club Firefighter of the Year dinner on Oct. 18 at the Aqua Turf. In the last days of October 2012, Superstorm Sandys remnants pushed seawater over roads and through the first floors of Fairfields idyllic beach neighborhoods. The tide found nowhere to recede because the storm kept pushing more water against the closed tide gates. Some people left and some people, the tough old Yankees whod seen storms before, stayed in their houses, recalled Assistant Fire Chief Scott Bisson, who was the unified commander, overseeing evacuations and the aftermath from a building that almost had to be evacuated. Within hours, the mold came and so did its musty odor. People were removing all of the wet, porous materials, Bisson remembered, rugs, toys, wood, furniture, couches, chairs, beds, mattressesputting it outside for bulk pickup. There was a smell in the air. It does not take long for that. Six years later, the rebuilt beach houses of Fairfield reach four stories high above ground-level, open garage spaces, through which the tides can rush unimpeded, fulfilling federal flood regulations. Some homeowners sold their houses rather than go through rebuilding. The new construction resembles a boom town. In a century, climate change and a rising sea level on Connecticuts coast have brought more frequent and devastating flooding during storms. The flooding destroys property, which people hear about immediately. But it also harms peoples health. After flooding, mold quickly multiplies into fuzzy blobs on walls and furniture. When people try to clean up, they breathe in airborne microbes that can trigger breathing problems, skin rashes and infections, mucous membrane illnesses, and problems in internal organs, according to fungal scientist Eckardt Johanning and his colleagues, writing in an article in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine. Health researchers said residents should view floods as hazardous to their health and doctors need to beef up their training to recognize flood-related illnesses. Getting worse Mold itself can make people sick, but mold also signals the presence of other bacteria and disease, said Paula Schenck, director of the Center for Indoor Environments and Health at UConn Health. She said doctors can advise their patients to have the appropriate protective gear on hand before the flood, and then avoid exposures that would cause illness, so Im sort of on a disease-prevention soapbox here. This little-discussed public health threat exposure to mold is rising slowly into the public consciousness. Nuisance flooding has increased on the United States coasts, and it will increase dramatically after 2050. Sands Cleary, the Fairfield health director, said that after Hurricane Sandy the town decided not to enforce its blight ordinance, under which the town could fine residents $100 a day for flood-soaked objects or debris. For several months, we had large numbers of houses that were putting debris out on the streets, and we werent enforcing that because people had just gone through a terrible experience, he said. Around New England, most coastal areas have been inundated several inches over the past century. Bridgeports sea level has risen nearly 1 foot and New Londons slightly less, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administrations calculations. The yearly increase is almost 3 millimeters. In March, the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation at the University of Connecticut released a report predicting increases of another 20 inches by 2050. Major areas of the coast will flood regularly in the future. Adam Whelchel, director of science for the Connecticut Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, has worked on coastal resilience planning with dozens of municipalities. Theres a whole lot of emotional stress that goes along with living along the coast, he said. Fungi mysteries High-tide flooding along the U.S. coastline has increased 300 to 900 percent in the last half century. NOAAs map of projected high-tide flooding can be zoomed to street-level detail for any town in Connecticut. A perusal around the state shows that inundation by floods will cover large swaths of Guilford south of Interstate 95, and large areas of Madison, Bridgeport, Middletown, Old Saybrook, Haddam, Hartford and Stamford in the future. Buildings in the floodwaters path will be prone to mold and all that mold signifies. All molds are part of the kingdom of fungi. Scientists havent yet identified 90 percent or so of all the fungi that exists, said De-Wei Li, a research mycologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Stations Valley Laboratory in Windsor. Scientists who study fungi spend much of their time simply identifying species. The hundreds of molds scientists have identified in this part of the world can trigger allergies like asthma and skin reactions, and some of them contain mycotoxins or volatile organic compounds in their spores. Mycotoxins and VOCs can cause serious diseases or reactions when ingested, when they come in contact with skin, or when someone breathes them in. The microscopic spores penetrate deep into the lungs. A month after Sandy hit in the Northeast, scientists collected samples of mold from houses in Brielle and Manasquan, New Jersey. They found 36 types of mold, including six that killed flies in the lab. Molds found included Aspergillus niger, which the CDC reports can cause lung infections and allergic reactions; Aspergilloma (fungus ball); and the most common found in damp or water-damaged structures, Penicillium chrysogenum; among others. The presence of mold also indicates a whole soup of biological materials, including bacteria. If someone sees mold growing inside, they are witnessing a risk to respiratory health, Schenck said. She added that flood waters can be dangerously contaminated. Certain medical conditions make one vulnerable to airborne mold. Many materials wallboard, fabrics themselves (clothes, curtains) and those that trap dust (carpet) are a grand meal for mold, Schenck has written. Even some well-constructed buildings that havent had moisture concerns in the past become wet from wind-driven rain and flood waters in severe storms. Schenck wants people to know that any time they see mold, they should consider it an indicator that moisture is available for biological growth. The wetter it is, the greater the chances of severe respiratory illnesses. An increase in floods will cause wood and drywall and other building materials to become saturated more often, causing an increase in peoples exposure to airborne mold spores, since that is how they reproduce. This means that people whose immune systems have been weakened by disease are more vulnerable to health effects from mold. The most urgent advice about a flooded living space is to get out until the standing water has subsided. Once its flooded, dont go wading unprotected in that environment, Schenck said. This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team (www.c-hit.org) MIDDLETOWN The statue of Christopher Columbus that was disfigured in 2017 has yet to be repaired, even as the city commemorated the day set aside for the 15th-century explorer. The nose of the granite statue, which stands in Harbor Park, is chipped away. Cristoforo Colombo, as the engraving reads, stood under clouded skies Monday, looking north toward the Arrigoni Bridge over the Connecticut River, clutching closed his floor-length cape with a scroll in hand. In 2016, a vandal (or vandals) crossed out the description of Columbus as discoverer of America on the base of the statue. The words looter, murderer, rapist and genocidal were written on the base, one word for each of the monuments four sides. It was act that angered and disgusted many Italian-American residents of the city. Its not uncommon for Middletowns statue to be damaged in such a way. Years ago, the bronze plaque on the statue was scratched by vandals and soon repaired. The Columbus Quincentennial Committee of Middletown, whose members were either Italian immigrants or children of immigrants, established the monument on Columbus Day 1996. The monument inscription reads in celebration of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. Efforts involving the Middletown Commission on the Arts are under way to identify a sculptor to repair the statue. The panel will meet at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the arts office at City Hall, 245 deKoven Drive, Room B-11. The panel will eventually make suggestions to the Public Works Department. Presently, the statue is under 24 hour surveillance to deter any further vandalism. The vandalism underscores the complications that arise when America is asked to confront the complexities of its history. A number of cities, including most dramatically Columbus, Ohio, and states, no longer celebrate Columbus Day. Instead, many places now recognize Indigenous Peoples Day , in memory of the many and varied native cultures that disappeared in the wake of the arrival of Columbus and other European explorers. While Italian Americans see the Genoa-born explorer as a national hero, others, especially descendants of indigenous people , see Columbus as an agent of exploitation and oppression. Even the suggestion Columbus discovered America has come under fire. An article in The New York Times Friday, for instance, noted Vikings arrived in North America 500 years before Columbuss voyage of discovery. Reporter Jeff Mill covers East Hampton, Cromwell and Portland for the Middletown Press. Contact him at jeff.mill@hearstmediact.com. TORRINGTON While the city is poised to celebrate one of the regions largest Columbus Day celebrations on Friday, other organizations have adopted a different perspective on the October holiday. A trend to include Indigenous Peoples Day observances in addition to Columbus Day has spread both nationally and regionally. Vermont now celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day as does Durham, N.H., Lancaster, Pa., and five other states, according to the National Museum of the American Indian. In a timely date for the presentation, the Torrington Historical Society at 192 Main St. will host American Indian expert Lucianne Lavin from the Institute for American Indian Studies at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17. She is the organizations director of research and collections. Lavin thinks residents can celebrate ethnic roots on the same day as Columbus Day. She also broached what some may consider a controversial opinion by suggesting Italian-Americans should consider honoring a different ancestor: Giovanni da Verrazzano. Columbus never set foot in North America. The closest he got was Haiti and the tip of South America, Lavin said. Verrazzano, on the other hand, explored much of the North American east coast in 1554, Lavin said. He traveled from North Carolina up to Maine, records show, and was the first European to reach New York. Representatives of the Torrington chapter of UNICO, sponsor of the Columbus Day celebration, could not be reached for comment about suggestions that two holidays, one for Native Americans and another for Italian-Americans, could be held side by side. However, the president of a New York City organization told The Associated Press in 2017 why he objected to the idea. We had a very difficult time in this country for well over a hundred years, said Basil Russo, president of the Order Italian Sons and Daughters of America. Columbus Day is a day that weve chosen to celebrate who we are. And were entitled to do that just as they are entitled to celebrate who they are. Conversely, the national American Indian museum, part of the Smithsonian, explains why the Columbus Day celebration is difficult for indigenous people to consider as a national holiday. In the forefront of the minds of many Native people throughout the Western Hemisphere ... is the fact the colonial takeovers of the Americas, starting with Columbus, led to the deaths of millions of Native people and the forced assimilation of survivors, the museum notes on its website. The recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day may continue to spread to other states and municipalities. But while Lavin doesnt think Connecticut will adopt it as a parallel holiday to Columbus Day, she hopes Italian-Americans understand that its not an ethnic thing to consider a day to recognize the original inhabitants of the land later known as North America. TORRINGTON Lucianne Lavin Ph.D., Director of Research and Collections at the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, will give a PowerPoint presentation, Our Hidden Landscapes: Stone Cultural Features & Native American Ceremonial Sites Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 6:30 p.m. The event will be held in the Carriage House Gallery of the Torrington Historical Society, 192 Main Street. The presentation is sponsored by the Torrington Chapter of UNICO National. All are welcome free of charge; donations are welcome. This program will explore the topic of stone features, many of which can often be seen during hikes through the woods. Although some of these are the remains of abandoned farmsteads and industrial mill sites, many others represent Native American ceremonial sites. Lavins PowerPoint presentation will illustrate the various kinds of European-American and indigenous stone structures found on our Connecticut landscapes. Although state regulations support the preservation of sacred Native American sites, they are often not recognized for what they are and, subsequently, have been destroyed by development and suburban sprawl. Even on protected lands, destruction is possible through logging, landscaping, or building placement. The program is intended to help individuals and organizations learn more about these Native American stone features so that we can identify them and help aid in the preservation of these significant indigenous stone features. Lavin is Director of Research and Collections at the Institute for American Indian Studies, a museum and research and educational center in Washington. Lavin is an anthropologist and archaeologist who has over 40 years of research and field experience in Northeastern archaeology and anthropology, including teaching, museum exhibits and curatorial work, cultural resource management, editorial work, and public relations. She has owned and operated an archaeological firm for more than 25 years. In addition, she is the author of over 150 professional publications and technical reports on the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Northeast. Her award-winning book, Connecticuts Indigenous Peoples: What Archaeology, History and Oral Traditions Teach Us About Their Communities and Cultures, was published by Yale University Press in 2013. She is a founding member of the states Native American Heritage Advisory Council and editor of the journal of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut. For more information about the Torrington Historical Society, go to www.torringtonhistoricalsociety.org. Sen. Marco Rubio (R), and Rep. Chris Smith discuss the Congressional-Executive Commission on China's annual report on human rights conditions and the rule of law in China in Washington, Oct. 10, 2018. UPDATED at 4.05 P.M. EDT on 2018-10-10 Chinas human rights situation is on a continued downward trajectory, by virtually every measure under President Xi Jinping and Beijing is using its growing power to spread authoritarian practices outside its borders, a U.S. congressional advisory panel said on Wednesday. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) annual report catalogs perennial human rights concerns, including political prisoners, jailing of journalists, repression of religion, and internet censorship. The 2018 edition places special focus on the incarceration of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang, growing Communist Party control over society and business, and the use of technology as a tool of repression. Chinas authoritarianism at home directly threatens our freedoms as well as our most deeply held values and national interests, said a statement by Senator Marco Rubio, CECC chairman, and Representative Chris Smith, cochairman of the CECC, opening the 244-page report. Additionally, the long arm of the Chinese Communist Party extends beyond Chinas borders and is increasingly pervasive and multifaceted, the lawmakers wrote, warning that under Xis assertive rule Chinese practices are being exported around the world. "We see an ascendant and increasingly aggressive China, seeking to take center stage in the world, and in so doing, determined to shape new global norms on development, trade, the internet, and even human rights. All the while, the fundamental authoritarian character of Chinas political system remains the same," they wrote. 'Dire" and going downward At a news conference for the reports release, Rubio was firm that this manifestation of Chinas long arm cannot, must not and will not go unanswered. The Florida Senator was critical of previous trade-focused U.S. approaches to solving human rights issues, saying policymakers are now reexamining the flawed assumptions that drove US-China relations for decades. This launch of this fact-based indictment of the PRC must and I believe will be taken seriously by our government. Smith said of the report. People need to read this. Its a must read, and when they do, today is the pivot point. Human rights conditions inside China have been dire and on a continued downward trajectory, by virtually every measure, since Xi Jinping became Communist Party General Secretary in 2012 and President in 2013, the report said. Of particular concern is the mass, arbitrary, internment of as many as 1 million or more Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in political reeducation camps in western China, it said. Beginning in April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring strong religious views and politically incorrect ideas have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule. Beijing says it is fighting extremism and giving Uyghurs vocational training. The CECC cited reports that indicate that the round-up of Uyghurs is the largest mass incarceration since World War II, and said authorities used alarming political rhetoric that conjures up images of formalized racism on the order of South African apartheid. Detentions appear to be indefinite in most cases. Regional government authorities reportedly ordered officials in some XUAR jurisdictions to meet detention quotas, and local orphanages were reportedly overcrowded due to the number of children requiring care while both parents are held in the camps, said the report, which cited human rights groups and media reports, including from RFA. On Tuesday, possibly in response to international condemnation, the Xinjiang government added to its anti-extremism regulations put into effect in March 2017 new clauses that refer to vocational training centers. "Governments above the county level can set up education and transformation organizations and supervising departments such as vocational training centers, to educate and transform people who have been influenced by extremism," Reuters news agency quoted one of the clauses as saying. The CECC also cited reports of Chinese authorities attempting to influence, intimidate, and otherwise harass other Uyghurs living abroad, including in the United States, to get them to return to China, or monitor and silence them while abroad. Party control expands The mass repression in Xinjiang comes amid a dramatic expansion of Communist Party control under Xi, the report said. The purview of the Party continued to expand into many sectors of public life, eliminating the tenuous separation that previously existed between the Party and government agencies, it said, noting that the party had in the past allowed experimentation and varying degrees of autonomy in implementing policies. Under Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, that modicum of autonomy continues to shrink with the Party apparatus reasserting itself over the government, said the report. Party control was also extended into the business world, including in foreign joint ventures, it said. Under Xi, the Communist Party was using multiple methods to export its authoritarianism, the lawmakers said. The Chinese practices included interference in multilateral institutions; threatening and intimidating rights defenders and their families; imposing censorship mechanisms on foreign publishers and social media companies, it said. Other measures by the party included influencing academic institutions and critical analysis of Chinas past history and present policies; and threatening American companies who do not conform with Chinas narrative on sensitive topics like Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, they wrote. Rubio during the press conference gave an example of how Chinas influence over the media affects people in the United States, citing how American films can be banned from the worlds largest market over content unfavorable to the Communist Party. He also voiced concern that the Communist Party manipulates journalists by selectively granting visas or access to the country and its officials. There are journalists today in the world, including in the United States who have pulled punches and I believe tailored their message in a way so as not to lose access. Skynet and Sharp Eyes The partys push for control and mass surveillance of the nation of 1.3 billion people has also deployed the latest technological developments, including the Skynet system that includes more than 27 million surveillance cameras nationwide, and a Sharp Eyes program designed to extend surveillance to rural areas. Consistent with the trend regarding the Partys expanding reach, the Commission observed the Party and government re-inserting itself into the private lives of Chinese citizens through expanded collection of biometric data, growing surveillance networks, and continued development of the social credit system, said the report. The social credit system aims to reward or punish a range of economic, social, and political conduct. Reports show that social and political management of the Chinese people was aided by smart technology and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) in new ways this past year, it added. At the press conference, Smith condemned American companies that profit from these policies, saying There needs to be actions taken when our companies are complicit in enabling a police state in surveillance and incarceration. Meanwhile, the former British colony of Hong Kong, which in 2017 marked 20 years since it came under Beijings rule, is losing the autonomy promised under the Sino-British agreement governing the 1997 handover, the report said. The CECC cited the banning of political parties and politicians in Hong Kong, the vetting of candidates and the narrowing of space for debate in the southern Chinese city, now governed as a Special Autonomous Region. The long-term viability of Hong Kongs one country, two systems framework remained tenuous given the continued erosion of Hong Kongs autonomy, as guaranteed under the one country, two systems policy enshrined in Hong Kongs Basic Law, the report said. Magnitsky sanctions Tough Chinese policies in Tibet remained unchanged, it said. The Party and government continued implementing repressive policies in Tibetan autonomous areas, including extensive and intrusive surveillance, strict regulations and rules to restrict Tibetans religious and cultural rights, and pervasive displays of police and military force, said the report. The CECCs recommendations to Congress stressed the need for a readjustment of U.S. policy toward China, in which human rights and the rule of law are no longer tangential issues in bilateral relations, and instead are in the forefront. The U.S. government must advocate for and support political prisoners, prioritize religious freedom in diplomacy and hold officials accountable for abuses, it said. Specifically, the U.S. must call on the Chinese government to end the mass, arbitrary detention of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui, and others in political reeducation centers, and release those currently detained, it said. Washington must also press Chinese officials to allow U.S. officials, diplomats from other countries, UN officials, humanitarian organizations, and international journalists to visit the XUAR and investigate reports of arbitrary detention, it said. The CECC also called for governments and international non-governmental organizations to compile information on specific XUAR officials responsible for the arbitrary mass detention and abuse in the camps for possible sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. In August, Rubio, Smith and 15 other lawmakers wrote Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging the application of Magnitsky sanctions on XUAR Communist Party secretary Chen Quanguo, who has spearheaded the harsh policies against Uyghurs. Rubio highlighted specific legislation he and Smith plan to introduce following the report, including the Xinjiang Uygur Human Rights Act, which would direct U.S. resources to address gross violations of universally recognized human rights, including the mass internment of over a million Uyghurs and other predominately Muslim ethnic minorities in China and the intimidation and threats faced by U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. Vaccine campaigners in China say they are increasingly worried about the safety of Shanghai activist Tan Hua, who has been incommunicado since her detention in Beijing more than five weeks ago. Tan, 38, who has suffered from epilepsy, deafness, and other health problems after receiving a rabies vaccine in 2014, was last seen at the Dongzhimen subway station in Beijing on Sept. 3, according to fellow activists He Fangmei and Wang Fen, both parents of children sickened by substandard vaccines. "She suffers from epilepsy, skin problems, and mental health issues," He told RFA. "Her hand was also broken from a beating." "I am very worried about her, partly that she will have stopped taking her medications," she said. Wang said the three hadn't planned any campaigning activities that day, but police swooped on Tan and started asking her questions, before taking her away. "I don't know why they did this; we didn't do anything wrong," Wang told RFA on Wednesday. "They didn't surround me or He Fangmei, just Tan Hua." Tan's mother Hua Xiuzhen said she had received verbal notification from "stability maintenance" officials on Monday that her daughter is being held under surveillance. However, her location remains unknown, and no official notification has been made of any criminal investigation or charges, nor has she had access to a lawyer. Home watched by police There was nothing accidental about what happened to Tan Hua, Hua told RFA, adding that her daughter's home in Shanghai's Yangpu district was searched by police a few days after her "disappearance." The authorities also sent people to watch outside her door, she said. Tan, who holds an MBA from Shanghai's prestigious Fudan University, was diagnosed with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and epilepsy following a rabies vaccine administered after a dog bite, after having no health problems of the kind beforehand. But her fight for compensation has been hampered by official denials that there is any link to a substandard vaccine. Tan has also helped organize campaigns with other vaccine victims, or the parents of children who have suffered severe health problems after being vaccinated. Campaigners detained, beaten President Xi Jinping has demanded a thorough investigation into the latest in a line of faulty vaccine scandals to hit China in recent years, and promised severe punishment for those responsible. But the authorities repeatedly detain, beat, and even "disappear" campaigners, who want the government to face up to its responsibilities and give the families hit by faulty vaccines compensation to help with mounting medical bills. Last month, the ruling Chinese Communist Party fired the head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the eastern province of Shandong "because of a case of substandard vaccines," the party's disciplinary arm announced. Seven other Shandong officials have also been held accountable in the case, with five of them dismissed, including the deputy head of the Shandong Health and Family Planning Commission and the deputy head of the Food and Drug Administration, the China Daily newspaper reported. The faulty vaccines were produced by Changchun Changsheng Biotech, where an unfolding scandal has seen the sacking of dozens of top officials and company executives. Campaigners are also calling for a vaccine law, and more timely public information about vaccine safety, as well as help with mounting medical bills for their children, some of whom are severely disabled after receiving substandard vaccines. Reported by Gao Feng for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Raymond Chan (center L) holds up a placard that reads "Safeguard press freedom. Stop repressing journalists," while being escorted out by security as Chief Executive Carrie Lam (not pictured) arrives to deliver a policy address at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Oct. 10, 2018. Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam on Wednesday warned that the government would act "fearlessly" against anyone advocating independence for the city under Chinese rule, as pro-democracy politicians protested ever-diminishing freedoms in the former British colony. As Lam began her policy address speech to the city's Legislative Council (LegCo), four opposition lawmakers were removed from the chamber by security guards, while a further eight walked out. Civic Party LegCo members held up placards in the chamber that read "Safeguard press freedom! Stop suppressing journalists!" in a reference to Hong Kong's refusal of an employment visa to Financial Times Asia editor Victor Mallet, who hosted a public event featuring Andy Chan, head of the banned pro-independence Hong Kong National Party (HKNP). Shouts were also heard for press freedom, a universal pension scheme, and against a massive land reclamation project announced by Lam on Wednesday. "We are trying to express our strongest anger and dissatisfaction against Carrie Lam's way of responding to the Victor Mallet controversy," Civic Party lawmaker Claudia Mo, who was forced to leave the chamber by security, told reporters. "The way she's been talking about it ... is that [the government] don't need to give any explanation. This is just not right," Mo said in comments broadcast by government broadcaster RTHK. Lam on Tuesday refused to give the reason for the decision on Mallet's visa, saying that the immigration department would "not disclose the individual circumstances of the case or the considerations of the decision," the FT reported. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Tuesday that in the absence of any explanation by Hong Kong for its refusal to renew Mallet's visa, he could only conclude it was politically motivated. "I urge the Hong Kong authorities to reconsider this decision confidence in Hong Kongs rights and freedoms is an essential component of its future success," he said in a statement. In August, Mallet hosted a lunch event as acting chairman of Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) featuring HKNP founder Andy Chan in the face of sharp criticism from Chinese and Hong Kong officials. Mallet, who was traveling away from Hong Kong when his work visa renewal was refused, has now been given just seven days to leave the city, Reuters reported. Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai said the refusal to renew Mallet's visa had damaged Hong Kong's international reputation for press freedom. "The international community is now starting to seriously doubt whether we can hold onto press freedom [here in Hong Kong]," Wu told reporters. Nip the problem in the bud On Wednesday, Lam warned once again that her administration "will not tolerate any acts that advocate Hong Kongs independence and threatens the countrys sovereignty, security and development interests." "We will fearlessly take actions against such acts according to the law in order to safeguard the interests of the country and Hong Kong," she said, adding that the government plans to "nip the problem in the bud." She also pledged that the government will continue to work on creating a "favorable social environment" for deeply unpopular "Article 23" legislation criminalizing subversion and sedition, and will continue to use existing law to deal with separatists in the meantime. Last month, Hong Kong's secretary for security banned the HKNP using colonial-era legislation aimed at prevent civil groups from planning armed resistance to the government. Alvin Yeung, who leads the pro-democracy Civic Party, said Lam's warning was a stark one. "This actually sends out a very strong message," Yeung told RFA. "It means that ... the government will take a hard line, using [existing legislation], even without enacting Article 23 legislation for the time being." "I don't think she'll have any qualms about doing that, because she's already done it once, so there'll be a second and a third time too," he said. Executive Councillor Ronny Tong said the government has put plans for Article 23 legislation on the back burner. "There won't be a law passed right now, but that doesn't mean it won't ever be passed," Tong said. And Executive Council convenor Bernard Charnwut Chan said the legislation "would definitely happen" at some point. Reported by Jing Yuan and Hwang Chun-mei for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Former Xinjiang University President Tashpolat Teyip (L) at the University of Paris in an undated photo. Two senior Uyghur education officials in Xinjiang and a well-known writer who had disappeared from public view in early 2017 without explanation have turned out to be serving life sentences on separatism charges, RFAs Uyghur Service has learned. The three menformer director of the Xinjiang Education Supervision Bureau Satar Sawut, writer and critic Yalqun Rozi, and former Xinjiang University President Tashpolat Teyipvanished last year amid rumors they had run afoul of Chinas increasingly hard-line policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). In Sawuts case, a message posted on a Chinese website in February 2017 said he was undergoing investigation for a serious breach of the party discipline. The post did not say what Sawut was accused of doing. Rozis arrest had been the subject of rumors for the past two years, but no witnesses or documents were ever produced to determine his fate. RFAs Uyghur Service received a letter last month from an anonymous former official in Xinjiang. The author of the letter said he was undergoing mandatory political education, and he and fellow cadres were shown a political study film made by the police. The anonymous official wrote that the part of the propaganda film that covered the alleged crimes of Uyghur intellectuals and officials showed Sawut and Rozi among five men wearing prison uniforms and described as separatists. The film said Sawut received the death penalty, suspended for two years, while Rozi was sentenced to life in prison, said the letter, which was titled A Cry from the Homeland. According to the letter, Rozis writing were used as evidence that he was promoting Turkisma reference to Uyghurs historic cultural and linguistic connections to Turkic-language speaking people in Central Asia and Turkey. A second letter received by RFA on Sept. 20 echoed the first, saying that in one middle school in the XUAR, all the students and teachers were called for a political study meeting, and were shown a police documentary film on six members of the Xinjiang Education Supervision Bureau having been sentenced to life in prison for attempting to split the country. The six included Sawut, Rozi and Teyip, the former Xinjiang University president, as well as the former president of Xinjiang Medical University, Halmurat Ghopur. Contacted by RFA, the director of the political department of the Xinjiang Association of Literature and Art confirmed the contents of the film described in the letters. Sawut, Rozi, Teyip and the others were all one group who shared the same opinion, said the official. Their approach was against our partytheir thoughts showed separatist tendencies. They took advantage of their leading position in pursuing their goal, the official said. Our party and government spent many years investing in them and trusting themplacing them in important positions but they took a path against the party's ideology, he added. The film, he said, was mainly about what the person has done, and how he has breached the law and regulations. Speaking of Teyip, the official said he must have taken every opportunity in pursuing his goal with the people who shared his ideology within the country and abroad. Police confirm sentences Responding to an RFA telephone call to a local police station in Bulaqsu township near the city of Kashgar in far western Xinjiang, a police officer from the Bulaqsu police station confirmed that he had watched the one-hour documentary at political meetings. The film spelled out the sentences handed down to the Uyghur intellectuals, the officer confirmed. For Sawat, a two-year suspended death penalty, he said. For Rozi, he added, a life sentence. RFA found a Chinese-language document on the internet that carried a notice that from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional Education Supervision Bureau that said Rozi retired from his position in February 2015 for medical reasons. It also said he was arrested on Dec. 12, 2016 by security authorities in the XUAR capital Urumqi for attempting to incite separatism and lost his pension and other benefits because of the arrest. Teyips brother, Nury Teyip, an activist living in the U.S., told RFA he had waited more than two years for information on his missing brother. He quoted his brother as saying in their last conversation that he wanted reorganize and restructure the teachers. We are falling behind because of ignorance, and it is my goal to correct this problem, Nury Teyip quoted his brother as saying. I believe that my brother managed to achieve what he set out to do. As a result, the Chinese government wasnt pleased, as they want to eliminate people like my brother who has the ability to lead others, he said. During the process of achieving his goals he became well known, at the same time he also became one of the hated figures of the Chinese government. I am very proud of my brother, added Nury Teyip. Qutluq Almas, a former lecturer at Xinjiang University now living in exile in the U.S., said China appears to be working methodically to undermine Uyghur identity. There are mainly two elements for them being the target, one is their profession, two is their love for their own people, he told RFA. The Chinese government first eradicates the best brains before continuing to eliminate the rest of the population in stages, said Almas. 'Two-faced' cadres Chinese authorities have in recent years campaigned against and punished what they call two-faced Uyghur cadres, accusing local ethnic officials of paying lip service to Communist Party rule in the XUAR, while secretly chafing against state policies repressing members of their ethnic group. While the three Uyghur educators were sentenced in a court, Uyghurs accused of harboring strong religious views and politically incorrect ideas have since April 2017 been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout the XUAR, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule. On Tuesday, possibly in response to international condemnation over the camp incarcerations without legal due process, the Xinjiang government added to its anti-extremism regulations put into effect in March 2017 new clauses that refer to vocational training centersin effect, legalizing a program authorities had until recently denied the existence of. "Governments above the county level can set up education and transformation organizations and supervising departments such as vocational training centers, to educate and transform people who have been influenced by extremism," Reuters news agency quoted one of the clauses as saying. China regularly conducts strike hard campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture, food customs and language of the Uyghur people. While China blames some Uyghurs for terror attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009. Reported by Shohret Hoshur and translated by RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. After decades as a professional driver, Galina Yakoleva now delivers much more than food and clothes to lonely pensioners in St. Petersburg. She brings kindness. Magas, the capital of the southern Russian region of Ingushetia, has been at the center of fresh controversy in the volatile North Caucasus region of late. For nearly a week, people have been gathering in the city center to voice their anger over a land-swap deal signed by Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and his Chechen counterpart Ramzan Kadyrov on September 26. Many Ingushetians object, considering it a bad idea to cede prime real estate for remote mountainous terrain. Protesters are demanding that Yevkurov step down, blaming him for inking the deal and failing to seek public input first. There is no sign of the protests abating. On October 10, crowds gathered for the seventh straight day, joining demonstrators who two days earlier had moved their tents and benches from the central square to a site in front of the state radio and television company. They have permission from the city authorities to continue their sit-in there until October 15. The protesters have organized hot food delivery at their camp and have been giving speeches nearby close to the central Idris Zyazikov Avenue. RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service reports that women, not always active in public life in the Muslim world, are turning out in large numbers as well. What's The Deal? The agreement aims to finally settle a border dispute that has been brewing since the two Muslim majority republics were carved out of the former joint Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1992, a year after the Soviet Union collapsed. The current territory-exchange agreement is part of a larger deal to demarcate the border between the two republics. There have been attempts in the past to clear up the border mess. In 1993, the then-leaders of the two republics, Ruslan Aushev (of Ingushetia) and Dzhokhar Dudaev (Chechnya) signed an accord to demarcate the border, but tensions persisted. Another deal was reached in the early 2000s but failed to hold. The latest deal was approved by the Ingush parliament on October 4, despite claims by several lawmakers that the vote was falsified. Besides the protesters, the region's Constitutional Court ruled that the land-swap agreement was unconstitutional. Why Is It Controversial? For the Ingush, any deal to cede lands is a "painful issue," explains Aleksandre Kvakhadze, an expert on the region at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. Ingushetia lost control of the disputed Prigorodny district to North Ossetia in 1992 following a conflict that left some 600 dead, predominantly Ingush. "Since this conflict, any suggestions of a change to the borders is a very sensitive and painful issue for the Ingush," says Kvakhadze. Kvakhadze says Chechnya appears to be getting more choice ground in the agreed deal, including a contested area of Ingushetia's Sunzhensky district. However, few if any firm details on what in fact is part of the swap have been publicized. The Caucasian Knot news website suggests that the land swap is more of a land grab by Chechnya. In an October 9 report, the website said Chechnya was getting more than 26 times more territory than Ingushetia. Citing an unnamed cartography expert, Caucasian Knot said Chechnya would acquire 26,800 hectares of Ingush territory -- all uninhabited -- while Ingushetia would get about 1,000 hectares of land. Why Did Ingush Leaders Agree? In August, construction workers guarded by Chechen security forces built a stretch of road in Ingushetia's Sunzhensky district, according to Support for Ingushetia, which was cited by Caucasian Knot on August 30. In the process, according to the NGO, a rare type of tree was cut down and valuable topsoil destroyed in a nature reserve. It also said there was an attempt to establish a Chechen border post in the settlement of Arshty, nearly two kilometers inside Ingushetia. Arshty has apparently been in Kadyrov's crosshairs for a while now. In 2013, some 300 Chechen Interior Ministry special forces informally known as Kadyrovtsy entered the Ingush village without permission from Ingush authorities, sparking clashes with police forces there. The latest Chechen actions may have stirred Ingush fears, suggests Kvakhadze, convincing leaders there to settle for the disadvantageous land deal, hoping it might be the best way to avoid a further escalation and even possible bloodshed. "The Ingush believed that Kadyrov would violently take over these territories because this agreement was preceded by incidents when Kadyrov's armed groups -- so-called Kadyrovtsy -- were entering Ingushetia, including Arshty," Kvakhadze told RFE/RL. The Georgian parliament has postponed debate on a bill that would legalize the production of marijuana, putting it on a back burner until after a presidential election that is less than three weeks away. A parliament resolution issued on October 9 said discussion of the proposed legislation, part of a push to relax laws governing marijuana in the South Caucasus country, will resume in two months. Citing lawmakers and politicians, media report that the delay is intended to separate the controversial issue from the campaign for the October 28 presidential election. The influential Georgian Orthodox Church has long voiced opposition to the bill, calling on lawmakers to scrap it entirely. In July, the Constitutional Court abolished administrative punishment for the consumption of marijuana, making Georgia the first former Soviet republic to legalize its use. But growing and selling marijuana are still crimes. The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed by activists from the opposition Girchi party after the Constitutional Court, in November 2017, decriminalized the use of marijuana or other forms of cannabis-based drugs. That ruling preserved administrative punishment, such as a fine, for marijuana use. Before that, Georgia's Criminal Code defined repetitive use of marijuana and possession of more than 70 grams of dried cannabis as a crime for which individuals could face punishment but not imprisonment. Girchi has led a drive to legalize marijuana since November 2016, saying at the time that it would fight for complete decriminalization of marijuana. Based on reporting by Civil.ge and Apsny.ge An Iranian diplomat who is the suspected mastermind of an attack that allegedly was planned on Iranians living in exile in France has been extradited from Germany to Belgium, security officials said. Previously identified as Assadollah Assadi by AFP, the 46-year-old diplomat based in Austria was arrested in the southern German state of Bavaria on July 1. He was extradited to Belgium on October 9 after a court in Bamberg approved an extradition request last week, police and prosecutorial officials said. Assadi will appear before a Belgian judge in charge of the case on October 10, the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Brussels told AFP. France announced last week it had frozen Assadi's assets for six months. Assadi is suspected of passing a device containing 500 grams of explosives to a couple living in Belgium who allegedly planned to use the explosives to carry out the terrorist attack. The planned attack allegedly targeted a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in the Paris suburb of Villepinte on June 30, which was attended by some 25,000 Iranians opposed to the government in Tehran. The rally was also attended by leading U.S. figures, including President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and other close allies of Trump. A Belgian special unit stopped the couple in their car in Brussels allegedly before they could carry out the attack. German police arrested the diplomat the next day at a highway service station near the town of Aschaffenburg. Iran last week strongly denied French accusations that one of its diplomats was involved in the alleged plot that took place just ahead of a visit to Europe by Iranian President Hassan Rohani. Iran has accused one of the opposition groups participating in the rally, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO or MEK), of being a "terrorist" group and orchestrating a plot to discredit Rohani. "We deny the accusations and forcefully condemn the Iranian diplomat's arrest and call for his immediate release," the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on October 2. European police say Assadi had been accredited since 2014 to the Iranian Embassy in Vienna, working for Iran's intelligence agency, which monitors opposition groups in the country and abroad. Since his diplomatic-immunity status applied only in Austria, he was arrested in Germany on a European arrest warrant issued by Belgium. Belgian authorities have also requested the extradition of a man identified as Merhad A., who was detained in Paris when the alleged plot was uncovered. Belgian police believe Merhad A. is an accomplice of the husband-and-wife team caught in Brussels in possession of 500 grams of the powerful explosive TATP and a detonator. All three are Belgian nationals of Iranian origin, police said. The U.S. State Department welcomed the extradition. "We support our European allies in exposing and countering the threat that Iranian-backed terrorism poses around the world," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on October 10. "The United States will continue working with our partners and allies to confront the threat posed by the Iranian regime." With reporting by AFP and Reuters Richard Pinedo, a man accused by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office of operating an online auction service for stolen identities, was sentenced to six months in prison on October 10.* Pinedo pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud in February, when the criminal charge against him was announced by Mueller's office. At the same time, Mueller's office announced an indictment against 13 Russians and three Russian firms on charges they used fake Internet personas to push divisive messages, traveled to the United States to collect intelligence, and staged political rallies. The indictment against the Russians made no mention of Pinedo by name. However, according to a source familiar with the case, he is referred in the charging documents as the person who helped the Russian conspirators launder money, purchase Facebook ads, and pay for rally supplies. U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich sentenced Richard Pinedo to six months imprisonment followed by six months of home detention. The probe led by Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has issued several indictments and accepted guilty pleas as it investigates Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Pinedo's attorney, Jeremy Lessem, has said his client had no knowledge of the identities or the motivations of those who purchased the information he sold. According to the indictment against the 13 Russians, the defendants in 2016 used Social Security numbers and birth dates of real U.S. people to open PayPal accounts and to create fake drivers licenses and open social-media accounts. *This story has been amended to correct the sentence from one year of prison to six months of prison and six months of home confinement. With reporting by Reuters Police in Germany have detained a man in connection with the rape and killing of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova, German authorities have confirmed. German prosecutors said on October 10 the suspect was detained in the city of Stade in the northern state of Lower Saxony late the previous day, and that they were verifying the conditions required for extradition to Bulgaria. The Interior Ministry of Lower Saxony said the man was detained at the home of relatives and was due to be brought before a magistrate later in the day. Marinova's body was found on October 6 in a park in the northern Bulgarian city of Ruse, and police said the 30-year-old journalist was brutally beaten, raped, and strangled. The killing has stunned Bulgaria and sparked an international outcry, with European governments calling for a thorough investigation into her death. Bulgarian officials earlier announced that German police had detained the suspect, whom they identified as Severin Krasimirov, at the request of Bulgarias authorities. German officials did not release the suspect's name. It was not clear whether the man, a resident of Ruse, was 20 or 21. Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said Krasimirov was a DNA match for evidence recovered at the crime scene. Marinov also said investigators had spoken to Marinova's family and friends and that there was "no apparent link" to Marinova's work as a journalist. However, Bulgaria's chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, insisted that all possibilities were still being considered. Marinova, who served as a member of the management team of the private television station TVN, hosted a program last month featuring two journalists who had investigated suspected fraud involving EU funds linked to businessmen and politicians in Bulgaria. Tsatsarov said the suspect crossed the border with Romania on October 7, one day after the killing took place. Marinov said Krasimirov lived near the crime scene and had a criminal record for scrap-metal theft. Bulgaria charged the man in his absence and requested a European arrest warrant. Bulgarian Broadcaster bTV earlier reported that police had found the journalist's phone in the suspect's apartment in Ruse. A Romanian man detained on October 9 in connection with the killing was released for lack of evidence. Marinova is the third journalist to have suffered a violent death in the European Union over the past 12 months, after Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February and Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October last year. Both Kuciak and Caruana Galizia were also known for their work exposing corruption. Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 together with Romania, but both have been kept under EU monitoring for corruption and the need for further judicial reforms. Hundreds of people have protested against corruption in front of the Palace of Justice in the capital, Sofia, and called for the resignation of the government and chief prosecutor Tsatsarov. Led by the anticorruption group BOETS, the demonstrators have pledged to continue protesting daily until the journalist's killer is found. With reporting by dpa, Dagbladet.no, NRK.no, and DW.com Pakistan has appointed a new head for its main intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) service. The military said in a statement on October 10 that Asim Munir will replace Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar, who is retiring. Munir was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in September and was awarded the Hilal-e Imtiaz, a top medal, in March. He has previously served as head of Military Intelligence and as commander of the forces deployed in northern Pakistan. The ISI plays a key role in coordinating Pakistan's foreign policy, including with regard to the war in neighboring Afghanistan, and is said to have kept close ties to the Afghan Taliban and other Islamic militant groups. Washington and Kabul have both repeatedly accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for Taliban militants, a claim Islamabad has denied. Based on reporting by AP, Dawn, and The Express Tribune PRISTINA -- Activists and supporters of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Kosovo have gathered in the center of Pristina to participate in what organizers described as their second-ever pride parade. Kosovar Minister of European Integration Dhurata Hoxha and Pristina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti joined several hundred other people at the October 10 event, dubbed In the Name of Freedom. The head of the European Union office in Kosovo, Natalia Apostolova, was also among the participants, many of whom were waiving rainbow flags. The parade kicked off at Pristina's Skanderbeg Square amid increased police presence and ended some 500 meters away, at Zahir Pajaziti Square. Ahead of the event capping Pristina 2018 Pride Week, organizers called on politicians and civil society activists to take part in support of the LGBT community's rights to freedom of expression, to have different sexual orientations, and to feel safe. Kosovo passed an antidiscrimination law in 2004 that guarantees the rights of sexual minorities. But observers say members of the LGBT community continue to face widespread discrimination in the predominantly Muslim country of 1.9 million, where much of society is socially conservative. Blert Morina, a transgender man from Kosovo, told RFE/RL that the threats his community was facing have forced many of its members to flee to other countries. He added that Kosovo police do not answer properly to the reported cases of physical violence against transgender people. "We don't have specific figures but as a small community we can see the ones who are missing", Morina said. The first such LGBT parade announced in advance, unlike small previous marches held over the previous years, was held in October last year without major incident. President Hashim Thaci addressed the participants at the start of the gathering, and U.S. Ambassador Greg Delawie joined the crowd at the end of the march. Russia's Gazprom next year will resume imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan that it stopped three years ago, the energy giant's chief executive has said. In an interview with Turkmenistan's state television channel during a visit to Ashgabat on October 9, Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller said he expected purchases that had been suspended due to price disputes to resume at the beginning of next year. "We are talking about the resumption of purchases of Turkmen gas by Gazprom in the very near future -- from January 1, 2019," Miller said, adding that details of the new deal still must be finalized. Russia was once the leading importer of Turkmen gas until it was displaced by China around the beginning of the decade. Relatively cheap imports of gas from Turkmenistan and other Central Asian countries enabled Russia to boost its exports to Europe. In 2015, Gazprom announced its intention to cut imports of Turkmen gas to 4 billion cubic meters per year, down from the 10 billion level that it had been importing since 2010. The move was followed by a complete cessation of purchases announced at the beginning of 2016, putting significant pressure on Turkmenistan's economy, which is highly dependent on hydrocarbons as a source of hard currency. Gas deliveries to China from Turkmenistan along the Central Asia-China pipeline are currently between 30 billion and 40 billion cubic meters a year. A large part of the revenues from Turkmenistan's sales to China are believed to be used to pay off debt on the pipeline link, which also traverses neighbors Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and was financed by Beijing. Turkmenistan, which sits atop the world's fourth-largest reserves of gas, exported similar volumes of gas to Russia before exports dropped dramatically following a mysterious pipeline explosion that occurred amid a price dispute in 2009. Based on reporting by AP and AFP The two Russian men suspected by British intelligence of poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England in March shadowed the former double agent in Prague in 2014, Czech Radio (CR) has cited sources as saying. In an October 10 report, CR cited unnamed Czech intelligence sources as saying that the Russians -- whom cybersleuthing group Bellingcat says it has unmasked as military intelligence officers Anatoly Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin -- visited Prague in 2014 and that Skripal was there at the same time. "It looks like the Russians had a group of people that followed Skripal long before the attempt to assassinate him," the publicly funded Czech radio station quoted one source as saying. According to the report, the two Russians used the same names as those on the passports British authorities said they used when they traveled to Britain shortly before Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned: Ruslan Boshirov and Aleksandr Petrov. British authorities allege that the two Russians smeared a Soviet-designed nerve agent called Novichok on the front door of Skripal's home in the English city of Salisbury on March 4, the day the former Russian intelligence officer spy and his daughter were found incapacitated on a bench and rushed to the hospital. Both survived after weeks in critical condition, but Dawn Sturgess, a woman who authorities said came in contact with the poison after her boyfriend found a fake perfume bottle containing it, died in July. Czech Foreign Minister Martin Stropnicky said before leaving his post in June that Skripal, who settled in Britain after he was released from Russian prison and sent West in a 2010 spy swap, has visited the Czech Republic and several other European Union countries to consult with their intelligence services. Media outlets have reported that Skripal was in the Czech Republic in 2012. The New York Times has reported that he "met with Czech intelligence officials on several occasions and visited Estonia in 2016 to meet with local spies." The Russian Embassy in Prague declined to comment on whether the two men had traveled to Prague, saying in an e-mail response that the "matter of border-crossing by foreign nationals is within the competence of the Czech Republic's corresponding state structures," CR reported. The poisoning has added tension to already severely strained ties between Russia and the West, leading to additional U.S. and European Union sanctions on Moscow and to diplomatic expulsions of Russian and Western officials. Russia denies involvement, but Bellingcat's findings have added to the evidence against Moscow. The British-based independent investigative group also says that Chepiga and Mishkin have made multiple trips to various parts of Europe and elsewhere in the past few years. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 12 that the two men accused by Britain were civilians. In comments on October 3 in which he called Skripal a traitor and a "scumbag," longtime Soviet-era KGB officer Putin said that the former Russian spy "continued cooperating with some secret services" after he went West in the swap. Skripal, a former colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU, was convicted of treason in 2006 by a Russian court and had been serving a 10-year prison sentence when the swap, in which 10 sleeper agents including Anna Chapman were sent home to Russia from the United States, took place. With reporting by Czech Radio and Current Time TV Russian website fontanka.ru says a GRU military intelligence operative whose name is Sergei Fedotov is allegedly the third Russian agent involved in trying to kill former spy Sergei Skripal in Britain earlier this year. Cybersleuthing group Bellingcat has named two men who Britain suspects poisoned Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March as being GRU officers Aleksandr Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga, who were awarded Hero of the Russian Federation medals by President Vladimir Putin for actions in Ukraine. In a post on October 10, fontanka.ru said it has learned that Britain is ready to declare the 45-year-old Fedotov as an accomplice to Mishkin and Chepiga, who traveled to Britain under the names Aleksandr Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. The website said records show Fedotov visited Britain in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and left the country on March 4 of this year, when Mishkin and Chepiga also flew out of Britain and the same day Skripal and his daughter were found slumped on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury. Furthermore, fontanka.ru said, Fedotov in January and February 2014 traveled to the Czech Republic at the same time as Mishkin and Chepiga. The fontana.ru posting came the same day as a report by Czech Radio (CR), which said the two Russians shadowed Skripal in Prague in 2014 while he was in the Czech capital. Britain said the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union, and mentioned the two men who traveled with passports under the names of Petrov and Boshirov as officers from the GRU who carried out the attack. Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the poisoning, as have the two men identified by Britain. The Skripals survived after weeks in critical condition, but Dawn Sturgess, a woman who authorities said came in contact with the poison after her boyfriend found a fake perfume bottle containing it, died in July. Last month, The Telegraph newspaper said British police had identified a third Russian intelligence officer they believe carried out a reconnaissance mission before the attempted murder of Skripal. The paper did not name him. With reporting by Reuters Kyiv says it has sent in specialized tanks and aircraft to fight a massive fire as explosions continued at an arms depot in northern Ukraine on October 10. More than 12,000 people were evacuated after ammunition stored at the depot near the town of Ichnya began exploding early on October 9, sparking a huge blaze. Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said earlier that it was looking into all possible leads, including sabotage, at the depot about 135 kilometers northeast of Kyiv. The Armed Forces General Staff announced on October 10 that the guarding of all military depots across the country had been beefed up. Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said at a cabinet meeting on October 10 that he has "no doubt" that the explosions near Ichnya "were attacks on our depots." According to Poltorak, the depot contained about 70,000 tons of ammunition over 680 hectares, an estimated 43,000 tons of which were "ready to use." Ukraines State Emergency Service said on October 10 that two engineering vehicles, four firefighting military tanks, and two planes are involved in extinguishing the fire. There have been several explosions and fires at Ukrainian arms depots in recent years, amid fighting between government forces and the Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, a few hundred kilometers southeast of the depot site. The war has killed more than 10,300 people since it began after Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and fomented separatism following the ouster of Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled in the face of months of pro-European protests in Kyiv. Cease-fire deals signed in Belaruss capital, Minsk, in September 2014 and February 2015 have failed to end the conflict. In March 2017, a massive deflagration at a munitions depot near the eastern city of Kharkiv prompted the evacuation of about 20,000 residents living within a 20-kilometer radius of the site. And in September 2017, more than 30,000 people were evacuated after artillery warehouses on a military installation exploded in the Vinnytsya region, southwest of Kyiv. Authorities have frequently blamed the blasts on sabotage, and the government has allocated 100 million hryvnyas ($3.6 million) for the protection of the country's ammunition storage facilities. With reporting by UNIAN, obozrevatel.ua, and AFP U.S. President Donald Trump said he spoke with a senior Saudi leader about Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident journalist and Washington Post contributor who disappeared from a Saudi consulate in Turkey last week. "It's a very sad situation. It's a very bad situation," Trump said, speaking in the Oval Office. "We cannot let this happen, to reporters, to anybody." "I think we'll get to the bottom of it," he added. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi monarchy, went missing on October 2 after visiting the Istanbul Consulate to complete paperwork needed to marry his Turkish fiancee. Saudi Arabia said Khashoggi left the consulate shortly after going in and has denied an allegation by some Turkish authorities that the journalist was killed inside. Trump did not say whether he personally spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The White House later said that national security adviser John Bolton, senior adviser Jared Kushner, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had spoken with the crown prince on October 9, seeking more information. "In both calls, they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Earlier on October 10, Turkish state broadcaster TRT published video showing Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Other footage purportedly shows Saudi aircraft and agents arriving in Istanbul. Pro-government newspaper Sabah said the Saudi "assassination squad" arrived in the Turkish city on board two private jets the day Khashoggi went missing. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders called for an independent international investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance. Based on reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters The Ukrainian military has released video of its vessels being constantly shadowed by Russian forces in waters near Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Kyiv in 2014. The United States has now given Ukraine two patrol boats to boost their forces against what Washington calls Russian "harassment" of international shipping in the area. The United Nations says that civilian deaths in Afghanistan remain at "extreme levels," with the highest number recorded in the first nine months of 2018 since the same period in 2014. A new report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) issued on October 10 has found that 2,798 civilians were killed and 5,252 were wounded between January 1 and September 30. It's a 21 percent spike compared to the same period last year, with a 46 percent increase in casualties from suicide attacks alone. Improvised explosive devices caused nearly half of all deaths and injuries, the report says, while fighting between insurgents and Afghan security forces comes next with 605 civilian deaths. Air strikes by Afghan and U.S. forces caused 313 deaths and 336 injuries. Women and children made up more than 60 percent of casualties from air strikes. During all of 2017, the UN said 3,438 people were killed and 7,015 wounded. The UN count is considered a conservative estimate as it needs at least three independent sources to officially register a case. "As there can be no military solution to the fighting in Afghanistan, the United Nations renews its call for an immediate and peaceful settlement to the conflict," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UNAMA chief in Kabul. With reporting by AP and dpa Thousands participate in the official inauguration of the Cancun military city Cancun, Q.R. Thousands took part in the official inauguration of the new military brigade that has been built outside the city of Cancun. Municipal President Mara Lezama Espinosa was on hand along with state governor, Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez and president Enrique Pena Nieto for the inauguration of the 10th Military Police Brigade. Other dignitaries included the secretaries of national defense and the national security commissioner. Photo: Ayuntamiento de Benito Juarez Lezama Espinosa said that the facilities represent the close security relationship between the three levels of government, with the presence of the brigade strengthening abilities to fight criminal groups together. The inauguration of the Ciudad Militar (military city) culminates a process that began last July when the state government donated the land to build the military city. Thousands lined the streets as the parade made its way through central Cancun. More than 3,100 military personnel participated. Commander of the Tenth Military Region, Francisco Aguilar Hernandez, took the opportunity to welcome the military families ensuring that they will soon love this generous land. Cancun is everyones land, especially when it comes to the brothers who risk their lives for our safety, he said. The capital of Santorini, Fira (Thira) is made up of whitewashed cubic houses and terraces, winding lanes, little squares, and blue-domed churches perched on the cliffs 300 meters above the caldera. Donkey tours are provided to access many attractions on the island, all year round. The team of Santorini Donkey is families and owners of Donkeys for over 100 years. We are the ones that keep the traditional ways of transportation alive and offer a unique experience cultural sight-seeing tours on the beautiful paths of Santorini for everyone who wants a taste of the real Santorini! a dedicated website says. But something happened regarding this business now. Greece has banned overweight tourists from riding the animals on the popular island of Santorini, after activists complained that they were suffering spinal injuries. People wishing to ride the donkeys will now have to weigh less than 100 kilograms (220 pounds), or one-fifth of the donkeys body weight. The animals should not be loaded with a weight excessive in size, age or physical condition, the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food instructed. Footage of overweight tourists riding the animals prompted a backlash on social media in July, and a petition calling for an end to their use as transportation received more than 100,000 signatures. Its not known if other official decisions will follow. I-T raids on premises linked to Delhi minister Kailash Gahlot New Delhi (PTI), 10th Oct'18: Hours after the Income Tax Department raids on premises linked to his minister Kailash Gahlot, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday sought an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to people for "constantly troubling" the AAP government. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party accused the Modi government of trying to "intimidate" the AAP dispensation by getting its leaders and ministers raided by central agencies. The party party also termed the raid as "political vendetta". The Income Tax Department (ITD) Wednesday conducted searches on multiple premises linked to Gahlot, the Delhi Transport minister, in connection with an alleged tax evasion case, officials said. "Friendship with Nirav Modi and Mallya and raid on us? Modiji you conducted raids on me Satyendar and Manish what happened to those (raids). Nothing was found. "So before you go with another raid at least apologise to Delhi people for troubling their elected government," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi. Advertisement Kejriwal asks PM to apologise The Najafgarh MLA holds charge of several departments in the Kejriwal government. They include Law and Administrative Reforms department that are handling the matter of disqualification of 20 AAP legislators for holding posts of parliamentary secretary, and the doorstep delivery of services scheme, respectively. "It's clear why Kailash Gahlot is facing Income Tax raids. Modi and (Amit) Shah want illegal and unconstitutional disqualification of 20 MLAs whose legal battle was being led by Gahlot. "He also oversaw successful implementation of doorstep delivery scheme despite efforts to derail it by the BJP," said AAP leader Atishi. AAP supports investigation of allegations, but why single out only party's leaders and ministers, she questioned. "No matter which agency Modi and Shah send after us, we will not be intimidated and continue to serve people in Delhi," she said in a press briefing. Advertisement Saurabh Bhardwaj Another AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said the central agencies including the CBI, the ED and the ITD should disclose if it found anything related to "corruption" during their raids on AAP leaders and ministers. "Many such raids happened in the past but nothing substantial came out and nor any charge sheet was filed," he said. The searches were conducted as part of a tax evasion probe against two construction firms linked to the minister and others, the officials said. 3 Jalandhar students with links to Kashmir terror groups arrested Chandigarh (Spokesman News Service), 10th Oct'18: In a joint operation, the Punjab Police and Special Operations Group (SoG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday arrested three students to bust a terror module of Kashmiri terror outfit, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), in Jalandhar. The students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, located in Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar, DGP Suresh Arora said in a statement issued here. Advertisement The joint team, which conducted a raid at the hostel early this morning, also recovered two weapons, including an Assault Rifle, as well as explosives from the hostel room of B. Tech (Civil) Student of second semester, Zahid Gulzar s/o Gulzar Ahmad Rather r/o Rajpora, PS Awantipora, Srinagar (J&K). Zahid was detained along with Mohd. Idriss Shah @ Nadeem r/o Pulwama J&K, and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, r/o Noorpura, Pulwama J&K. The DGP said the arrests followed the development and corroboration of various leads/inputs about the presence and activities of certain militant organizations/individuals operating in J&K and Punjab. A case (FIR no. 166 dated 10.10.18, u/s 121, 121-A, 120-B IPC and 25/54/59 Arms Act, 3/4/5 Explosive Act, 10/13/17/18/ 18-B/20/38/39/40 Unlawful Prevention Act) has been registered in PS Sadar Jalandhar in this regard. Advertisement Further investigations are in progress and the Punjab Police is working closely with J&K Police to unravel the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and J&K, said the DGP. The DGP said the busting of the terror module belonging to AGH, and the recovery of weapons in Jalandhar, was indicative of efforts by Pakistans ISI to expand the arc of militancy on Indias western border. It may be mentioned that Gazi Ahmad Malik, r/o Shopian, J&K, was recently picked-up by Punjab Police from Banur, Patiala, (where he was studying in Aryans Group Polytechnic College). It was learnt that Gazi was closely related to Adil Bashir Sheikh, a J&K Police SPO who had fled with 7 Rifles from the residence of PDP MLA house in Srinagar and was suspected to have joined Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a militant group. He was later handed over to the J&K Police for further investigations. Captain Amarinder Singh called for team work to battle the menace Spokesman News Service, Chandigarh (10th Oct'18): Underlining the need for collaborative efforts to fight the menace, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought the continued support and assistance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in fighting the drug problem, which he described as a strategic conspiracy unleashed from across the international border. Rivulets in Punjab were being used to smuggle drugs as part of a strategic agenda that went beyond commercial reasons, said the Chief Minister, while delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of a 3-day Regional Workshop on Combating Illicit Trafficking of Afghan Opiates: Developing a Comprehensive Approach, organized here by UNODC and steered by UNODC Regional Office South Asia (ROSA) Sergey Kapinos. Advertisement Expressing the confidence that his government would succeed in destroying the drugs business, Captain Amarinder Singh called for team work to battle the menace, and said UNODC could play a pivotal role in this. He said UNODC could help the state by identifying the big sharks who had a stake in the drug business. While the STF and other agencies had been successfully in catching mid-level peddlers, the big suppliers need to be apprehended too, he said, adding that we owe this to our future generations. The Chief Minister referred to the initiative taken by him to write to the chief ministers of the neighbouring states, which had led to the Haryana CM convening a meeting that had decided to set up a joint control room in Panchkula. Such collective efforts would help in destroying the drug racket, he asserted. Terming the drug problem as a very critical issue, that had been going for a long time in Punjab, the Chief Minister said the state had seen a shift from traditional use of marijuana (and to some extent opium) to synthetic stuff, which was posing a major threat. Advertisement The seizure of a consignment that had come from Mandavi in Gujarat into Punjab clearly suggested that the aim of the drug smugglers was to starve the Indian Army of precious manpower, thus weakening the countrys defence apparatus, said the Chief Minister. Referring to Facebook posts of young girls sniffing drugs, he expressed concern at the dangerous trend and said his government was going all out to deal with the problem. The STF set up to tackle the menace had shown remarkable results, he said that since 01.04.2017, 18216 cases have been registered under the NDPS Act, 21489 persons have been arrested, 461 Kgs of Heroin. In short strong efforts have been made to break the supply chain of drugs. Additionally, 14 Kgs of Smack, 134 Kgs of Charas, 1040 Kgs of Opium, 63421 Kgs of Poppy Husk, 676 Kgs of Bhang, 9 Kgs of Ice, 3369 Kgs of Ganja, 225 Kgs of Intoxicant Powder, 8950421 Pills/Capsules and 76114 Injections have been recovered. Advertisement Large sums of money were involved in the business, as was evident from these seizures, said Captain Amarinder Singh, pointing out that even a BSF constable had been caught for complicity. Earlier, Kapinos said while UNODC had been working in several countries around India for crime prevention and in combating illicit drug trafficking and organized crime, this was the first such workshop in the region. Citing figures from `Aghanistan Opium Survey 2017, he said the area under opium poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan reached a record high in 2017. The area under cultivation went up to 328,000 hectares from an estimated 201,000 hectares in 2016. Each year, thousands of tons of opium are produced in Afghanistan and then converted into heroin to reach end-consumer markets around the globe, as per the report. Prominent amongst others present on the occasion included Media Advisor to CM Raveen Thukral, Financial Advisor to CM V.K. Garg, Additional Chief Secretary Home N. S. Kalsi, DGP Suresh Arora, STF Chief Mohammad Mustafa, Special Principal Secretary to CM Harpreet Singh Sidhu, ADGP Community Policing Ishwar Singh, IG STF R.K. Jaiswal and IG STF Pramod Ban. SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. The Saratoga Springs City School District Board of Education on Tuesday voted against allowing ground monitors with law enforcement backgrounds to carry guns. Certified ground monitors had been carrying guns on-campus for decades until last spring when school administrators found out the Board of Education needed to authorize the practice. The 5-4 vote against arming the 10 certified ground monitors came on the heels of discussions raised by parents, board members and students. Board member Patricia Morrison reached out to four school districts in the area, two of which used retired police officers as security. Neither school allowed retired officers to carry guns while on-campus. Morrison talked about an encounter with an active police officer. Morrison said the conversation turned to allowing retired police officers to carry guns at schools. She noted the active police officer said retired officers are civilians; not active officers. Its not about allowing an officer to carry a gun, said Morrison. It is to allow a civilian to carry a gun. Student representative Will Carswell said that students and faculty he spoke to felt safer with qualified ground monitors being armed before the Board of Education voted. All but one of the parents who spoke during the public comment period asked for the board to vote against the proposal, citing lack of information, uncertainty if guns on-campus makes schools safer, and fear. Board member Heather Reynolds voted against the proposal. There is no data that suggests the presence of armed security makes kids any safer in school, said Reynolds. Being armed is not a part of the job description for ground monitors and was never part of a formal risk assessment. Reynolds added that the district shouldnt continue a practice just because its what the district has done in the past. Superintendent of Schools Michael Patton stressed safety before the vote. The school district takes this matter very seriously. The safety and security of its students is the districts No. 1 priority, said Patton. This discussion has included a significant amount of research to what security options are available that will best meet the needs of both our schools and community. Patton explained the topic of arming retire police officers was one part of the districts overall comprehensive safety plan. We are all committed to continuously striving to make sure all of our schools are safe for all of our students, said Patton. Carbon losses caused by El Nino forest fires of 2015 and 2016 could be up to four times greater than thought, according to a study of 6.5 million hectares of forest in Brazilian Amazonia. New research, published in a special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, has revealed that the aftermath of 2015 and 2016 forest fires in the Amazon resulted in CO2 emissions three to four times greater than comparable estimates from existing global fire emissions databases. The finding is part of a series of results published this week by Lancaster University researchers who were working in the heart of the site of one of the worst forest fires the Amazon has seen in a generation. Researchers say uncontrolled wildfires in the understorey -- or ground level -- of humid tropical forests during extreme droughts are a large and poorly quantified source of CO2 emissions. The study 'Quantifying immediate carbon emissions from El Nino-mediated wildfires in humid tropical forests' looked at a 6.5 million hectare region, of which almost 1 million hectares of primary and secondary forests burned during the 2015-2016 El Nino (an area approximately the size of half of Wales). Although the area analyzed covers less than 0.2% of Brazilian Amazonia, these wildfires resulted in expected immediate CO2 emissions of over 30 Million tonnes, three to four times greater than comparable estimates from global fire emissions databases. advertisement Lead author Kieran Withey of Lancaster University said : "Uncontrolled understorey wildfires in humid tropical forests during extreme droughts are a large and poorly quantified source of CO2 emissions . These understory fires completely consumed leaf litter and fine woody debris, while partially burning coarse woody debris; resulting in high immediate CO2 emissions. This analysis covers an area of just 0.7% of Brazil, but the amount of carbon lost corresponds to 6% of the annual emissions of the whole of Brazil in 2014." At the end of 2015, Santarem in the Brazilian state of Para, was one of the epicenters of that year's El Nino. The region experienced a severe drought and extensive forest fires and the researchers were working right in the middle of it. Scientists from 'ECOFOR', the international research project led by Professor Jos Barlow from Lancaster University, had installed 20 study plots in Santarem, eight of which burned. The research team quickly realized they had the opportunity to document in detail how a forest responds to fire on this scale. Dr Erika Berenguer of Oxford and Lancaster University, and colleagues found that following the fires, the surviving trees grew significantly more than those located in unburned forests, regardless of their history of previous human disturbance. On average trees in burned areas of forest grew 249% more than trees in forests hit by drought but not fire. Although the growth rate is good news, this large increase in growth appears to be a relatively short-term response. Professor Jos Barlow of Lancaster University said: "Only a few trees can survive these wildfires, as Amazonian forests did not co-evolve with this threat. So even though surviving trees grow faster in burned forests, this does not compensate the large carbon loss that results from tree mortality." Meanwhile, Camila V. J. Silva of Lancaster University led research including 31 other burned plots across the Brazilian Amazon, which showed that even 30 years after a fire, seemingly 'recovered' forests still hold 25% less carbon than nearby undisturbed primary forests. She said: "Wildfires in humid tropical forests can significantly reduce forest biomass for decades by enhancing mortality rates of large and high wood density trees (such as Brazil Nut or Mahogany) , which store the largest amount of biomass in old growth forests. Our work has demonstrated that wildfires significantly slow down or stall the post-fire recovery of Amazonian forests. Dr Berenguer said: "Overall, our combined results highlight the importance of considering wildfires in Brazilian forest conservation and climate change policies. With climate models projecting a hotter and drier future for the Amazon basin, wildfires are likely to become more widespread. The continued failure to consider wildfires in public policies will lead to shorter fire-return intervals, with forests being unable to recover their carbon stocks." The drug allopurinol used to manage gout may offer protection against the development of kidney disease, according to a new study. Traditionally there has been concern from physicians that this medication may increase risk of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), despite a lack of clear data supporting this relationship. As such, many patients find themselves undertreated, leading to poorer gout outcomes. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) utilized The Health Improvement Network (a general practitioner medical records database representative of the United Kingdom's general population) to evaluate kidney function in gout patients after starting allopurinol. They found that of the more than 4,000 patients started on full-dose allopurinol for prevention of gout flares, 12.2 percent had developed Stage 3 CKD after an average of five years of treatment, as compared to 13.1 percent of non-users over a similar period. The researchers conclude that the use of allopurinol in the management of gout is not only safe, but also potentially beneficial in reducing risk of kidney disease. Tuhina Neogi, MD, PhD, corresponding author of the study and professor of medicine and epidemiology at BUSM and BU School of Public Health, sees these results as an important step forward in the long-term treatment of gout. "Ultimately, we hope these results will be disseminated to PCPs and internists taking care of patients with gout (since the bulk of patients with gout are managed in primary care) so that allopurinol is not held or stopped when a patient experiences a creatinine bump," said Neogi, a rheumatologist at Boston Medical Center. Gout is the most common inflammatory arthritis in the United States (affecting 3.9 percent of Americans, more than eight million adults. Gout flares are caused by the formation of urate crystals within the joints, leading to significant pain and swelling. Allopurinol is the most frequently used medication to manage gout, including the long-term prevention of gout flares by reducing the amount of urate circulating through the blood. These finding appear in JAMA Internal Medicine. Funding for this study was provided to Dr. Vargas-Santos by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Brazil. Dr. Neogi's work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants P60AR47785 and K24AR070892. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five US school-age children and young people ages 6 to 19 years suffers from obesity, a tripling of such numbers since the 1970s. For individual children, genetics, eating and exercise all play a role in weight status -- but the influence of a community's design, programs and policies on childhood obesity hasn't been comprehensively understood. Now, groundbreaking research appearing in the current issue of Pediatric Obesity represents the most wide-ranging investigation to date of how broadly and successfully communities across the U.S. implement programs and policies to prevent obesity in kids. The work also includes analysis of individual and community factors associated with positive change in childhood obesity. Researchers Stephen Fawcett, Vicki Collie-Akers and Jerry Schultz at the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas' Life Span Institute spearheaded the community measurement aspect of the work, dubbed the Healthy Communities Study. "This is the largest study of its kind examining whether community investment in programs and policies to promote physical activity and healthy nutrition is associated with healthy weight -- lower BMI, or Body Mass Index -- among children," said Fawcett, research professor at LSI. "No one had attempted to map the dose of community programs and policies actually being implemented in a large and diverse sample of U.S. communities." Conducted between 2010 and 2016, the Healthy Communities Study looked at community policies and programs (CPPs) in each of 130 US communities, linking them to the weight status, eating habits and physical activity of 5,138 elementary and middle-school students in those locales. The sample included many children from low-income, Hispanic and African-American families. To estimate the dose of CPPs being delivered, the study's researchers devised an intensity score that reflected the number of CPPs in place and their estimated strength, duration and reach. "Analyses were conducted to see whether the intensity of CPPs was associated with lower BMI, or Body Mass Index, for children in the communities," said Fawcett. Among the study's key findings: The intensity of community programs and policies is significantly associated with lower BMI in children. More comprehensive CPPs -- those targeting a greater number of distinct behaviors related to physical activity and nutrition -- were associated with lower child BMI. Community initiatives are more successful when CPPs are in place longer. Across the nation, there's a broad range in the number and intensity of programs and policies aimed at promoting physical activity, healthy nutrition and healthy weight in kids. Some communities invest more in CPPs, others very little. These communities showed variation in the number and types of behavior-change objectives. Over time, investments in CPPs are increasing -- and this matters for child health. For a community that goes from the minimum observed intensity score to the maximum, its children would see a reduction of -1.4 BMI units Communities that were predominately white benefited more from CPPs than those that were predominately African-American, with the least improvement in BMI seen for Hispanic children. "This study has important implications for communities trying to assure a healthy environment for its children," Fawcett said. "It suggests: Invest in programs and policies to promote physical activity and nutrition -- lots of them, of strong form and reach, and targeted to the many different kinds of behaviors that promote healthier weight. To ensure that children are exposed to them, make sure that you've created changes in multiple sectors and settings through which children pass; like schools, parks, Boys & Girls Clubs and community organizations. Make sure they are in place long enough to make a difference. Six years or more was most effective. The exposure needs to be prolonged." Examples of community programs and policies to combat childhood obesity seen in U.S. communities include boosting availability of healthy foods in schools, encouraging kids to drink water instead of sugary beverages, increasing the amount of time that students are physically active, and building walking trails, parks, playgrounds and more pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. The KU research team emphasized the need to approach community programs with an emphasis on equity for populations of kids from different economic and cultural backgrounds. "You need to bring an equity lens to designing community programs and policies intended to promote healthier weight among children," Fawcett said. "You should not assume that all children will benefit equally from community investments that are not targeted and adapted to address children and families, such as African-Americans and Hispanics, that experience health inequities. What works in one community -- predominantly white and affluent -- may not work as well in a community where more supports for those experiencing health disparities are needed to assure healthy conditions for all our children." The study was made possible by a funding consortium that includes multiple Institutes of National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and other private foundations. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute was the lead sponsor, with additional support from NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. By blocking a protein, VDAC1, in the insulin-producing beta cells, it is possible to restore their normal function in case of type 2 diabetes. In preclinical experiments, the researchers behind a new study have also shown that it is possible to prevent the development of the disease. The findings are published in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism. The researchers at Lund University in Sweden believe that the active substance, which inhibits the protein VDAC1, could play a part in future drug development for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. "The goal is to be able to administer the substance to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics to allow the insulin-producing beta cells to retain their function. Or, even better, to give it to pre-diabetics to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes," says Associate Professor and research team leader Albert Salehi, who conducted the study together with Professor Claes Wollheim. "It is a small study based on cell donations from six deceased people with type 2 diabetes, as well as a limited number of experiments in animal models. Further studies are needed to demonstrate how blocking VDAC1 affects kidney, heart, muscle and fat tissue, for example. However, the results thus far have been so promising that we have patented the use of the active substance within the diabetes field. We are very happy about that, and this initial study would not have been possible without the financial support from the Forget Foundation," says Albert Salehi. On the cell surface instead of inside the cell Pre-diabetics may experience elevated blood glucose levels for many years before developing type 2 diabetes. High glucose levels initiate a series of negative processes. Among other things, they increase the production of VDAC1, a so-called channel protein within the cells that, with the help of a substance, ATP, releases energy from the cell's power plants, the mitochondria, to other parts of the cell, to be used for insulin secretion. advertisement At constant high levels of glucose, however, the levels of the VDAC1 protein increase, causing VDAC1 to attach also to the cell surface. The energy (ATP) then leaks out of the cell and causes cell death due to a lack of energy. This, in turn, leads to impaired blood glucose control that eventually causes organ complications, such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, blindness and stroke. Normalised insulin secretion When the researchers blocked VDAC1 in beta cells from organ donors with type 2 diabetes, the energy supply was restored and the insulin secretion was normalised. The experiments were subsequently repeated on mice, which are known to develop genetically conditioned diabetes. As a result, the disease did not develop and the insulin production was maintained for five weeks, at which point the treatment was discontinued and the glucose levels increased. "It is a small study performed on cells from six deceased donors with type 2 diabetes as well as a limited number of experiments on animal models. Further studies are needed to demonstrate how blocking of VDAC1 affects tissues such as kidneys, heart muscles and fat. But pursuing the findings and performing the studies on humans requires more funding," says Albert Salehi. New discoveries about metformin In addition to specific VDAC1 antibodies and VDAC1 inhibitors obtained in collaboration with Israeli researchers, the researchers in Lund also used the diabetes drug, metformin, and achieved the same effect. advertisement "We have shown a whole new mechanism for how metformin works on beta cells. The fact that metformin not only works outside the pancreas but also protects the beta cells and improves insulin secretion in people with type 2 diabetes was recently demonstrated by a Canadian research team. The effect is probably achieved through an impact on VDAC1," says Albert Salehi. Connection to Alzheimer's disease There are connections between type 2 diabetes, dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The authors of the study point out that there is also a link between VDAC1 and Alzheimer's disease, as high levels of VDAC1 can be found in brain cells in the parts of the brain that are affected at an early stage of the disease. "We believe that the substance may have a good effect also on these patients by preventing the brain cells from dying and thereby improving the patients' cognitive abilities," says Albert Salehi. Scorpions can be found at every corner of the globe and on six of the seven continents, from the southern tip of South America to the arid expanse of the Sahara Desert. That makes any rigorous accounting of the world's venomous scorpions -- and their various effects on human beings -- an extremely tall task. But in a new study published in the journal Toxicon, a team of Florida State University researchers proved they were up to the challenge. In their report, the team documented 104 species spanning dozens of countries, providing a vital update to the global record of medically significant scorpions, or scorpions whose venom could be alternately gravely harmful or medically beneficial to human beings. Their work helps modernize the study of scorpion epidemiology and reveals important gaps in the processes by which scorpions are collected, identified and characterized. "There's a lot of hype about scorpions, about how they can kill you or send you to the emergency room," said FSU doctoral candidate Micaiah Ward, who led the study. "In some cases, that's absolutely true. But there are over 2,200 species of scorpion. Only about 30 of them might put you in the hospital, and of those, symptoms vary based on age and health." Scorpions, like scores of other species, evolved venom as a tool for defense and predation. Often, scorpions' venom will develop in response to specific adaptations in their predators or prey, triggering a spiraling co-evolutionary process that produces more lethal venom in the scorpions and more robust resistances in their adversaries. advertisement For this study, Ward and her colleagues conducted an exhaustive review of existing research in an effort to compile a comprehensive catalog of medically significant scorpions, their native locations and the severity of their symptoms. Their review shows that, while scorpions have propagated successfully throughout the globe, the most dangerous species appear in clustered hotspots. "Most of the really harmful scorpions, the types that induce symptoms that could be fatal if not properly treated, are distributed throughout Asia, the Middle East, some in Africa, very few in the United States and quite a few in South America, particularly Brazil," Ward said. A dangerous cocktail of tiny neurotoxic peptides gives some scorpion venom a decidedly unfriendly edge, but other scorpions produce venom that humans have learned to use to their advantage. One Iranian species produces a toxin that scientists suggest could be used to treat brain tumors, despite a name that sounds more malevolent than medicinal. "It's common name is the deathstalker scorpion," Ward said "It produces a toxin that targets certain brain tumors to stop their growth. It's also called 'tumor paint' because they can use it to highlight a tumor before surgery so that they cut out all the parts of the tumor without leaving anything behind." In addition to cataloging and mapping medically significant scorpions, the researchers' review also functioned as an investigation into the mechanisms of scorpion research itself. Their report revealed a number of disconnects between the many disciplines studying these species. Clinicians treating scorpion stings, Ward said, rarely communicate with scientists studying the properties of scorpions' venom or the nature of their habitats. The result was frequent discrepancies in the data. "That was the biggest challenge," Ward said. "We were finding a bunch of reports for scorpions that were blown way out of proportion or that had the wrong species name. We tried to do our best with the updated phylogenies of different families of scorpions and where they are. It's not perfect, and it will change as we get more data." How to go about collecting more reliable data? Ward said all citizen scientists can have a part to play. "The first thing to do if you get stung by a scorpion is to stay calm," she said. "If you can, try to take a picture of the scorpion or put it in a cup and bring it to the emergency room with you. They can send it to a museum or somewhere where they can properly identify that species and associate it with the specific symptoms that you have. That's what we need." This study was supported by the National Science Foundation. Even long before medieval inhabitants reclaimed land and raised dykes at a large scale, humans have had a strong impact on river behavior in the Dutch delta plain. Physical geographers at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, have demonstrated that two present Rhine branches developed stepwise in the first centuries CE, because of two combined man-induced effects. These river branches formed due to land subsidence in the Dutch peatlands and by increased sediment supply from the German hinterland, both of which were human-induced. "What began as minor changes in the delta landscape can have unexpected large-scale outcomes. We should be aware that unintentional natural effects of human interventions are to be taken into account in the management of modern deltas," researcher Harm Jan Pierik explains. "Our research shows that human interventions can trigger the formation of new rivers along courses that natural branches would not have taken." This occurred in the downstream peatland areas of the Rhine delta. It had been an inaccessible swamp forest for thousands of years, forming an obstacle for the formation of new river courses. "However, from the beginning of the Common Era growing numbers of people settled along the edges of the swamp, and expanded their land use from the banks of rivers and creeks into the peatland." As an unintentional consequence, this caused the formation of the Hollandse IJssel (from 100 CE) and Lek (from 300 CE). Archaeological data show that on the southwestern side of the peatland, along the Meuse estuary that later became the Rotterdam harbor, settlements were present on the banks of tidal creeks. Here, agricultural land use expansion into peatland started in the last centuries BCE, testified by ditches and culverts that drained the topsoil. This caused land surface lowering, which in turn enabled flood water and sediments to penetrate deeper inland. Pierik says, "This made the tidal creeks bigger and longer, reaching ever further into the peat swamp." This situation was mirrored along the northeastern side of the swamp where creeks from the Rhine River ran into the swamp as well. In addition to that, the Rhine hinterland had become widely deforested. This increased hillslope erosion, which led to more sediment transport by the Rhine. This sediment was deposited on top of the peatland that further subsided under the additional weight, further helping the formation of creeks in the peat. The creeks from both sides ultimately connected in the middle of Holland's peatland and grew into the new rivers Lek and Hollandse IJssel. "As these new routes became the most favorable courses for the water flow, the Old Rhine course carried less water and silted up. In this way, the lower delta river network was completely transformed unintentionally, within a few centuries following the reclamation activities." Research into landscape impacts of past human activity in deltas enables us to learn about the effects this may have on the long term, says Pierik. "With the notion that reclamation activity can start a chain reaction, one can develop different perspectives towards recent increased human pressures in deltas worldwide, for example the Mekong and Ganges," explains Pierik. "In addition to anticipating sea level rise, these areas also have to deal with land subsidence, for example caused by increased groundwater use. And just as in the Dutch situation, this may not only cause major changes locally, but also on the scale of the entire delta." Females of a socially monogamous passerine, the Japanese great tit (Parus minor), become more promiscuous after hatchings fail in the first breeding attempt -- apparently attempting to ensure successful reproduction. Many organisms, including human beings, form monogamous relationships. Birds do particularly so, with 90 percent of species exhibiting monogamous relationships. Indeed, a pair of birds conjures up the image of a "happily married couple." Yet after paternity tests based on DNA analyses were introduced in the 1990s, it was discovered that, in more than 75 percent of monogamous bird species, females had mated with other male birds, producing offspring whose genetic father is not the mother's partner -- the phenomenon called extra-pair paternity. "Universality of extra-pair paternity in monogamous birds was shocking and much research has been performed on extra-pair paternity among various species in the last 30 years. However, how flexibly individual females behave to changing circumstances when selecting mates has been largely unexamined due to the difficulty of controlling conditions in wild populations," explains Itsuro Koizumi, an Associate Professor of Hokkaido University. In the present study published in Behavioral Ecology, Koizumi and his students manipulated hatching success of a wild population of Japanese great tits, which are known to reproduce more than one time in a mating season. This experiment was conducted in Hokkaido University's Tomakomai Experimental Forest in northern Japan. All eggs laid in the first breeding by 11 pairs were replaced with artificial eggs to simulate hatching failure. These pairs were compared to 18 control pairs whose eggs were not manipulated. The researchers then examined how the degree of extra-pair paternity changes in their subsequent breeding attempt, speculating that females of experimental pairs would be more promiscuous to improve reproductive success in their second breeding attempt. Paternity tests on 457 chicks from 58 broods using microsatellite DNA showed that 62 chicks, or 13.6 percent of the total, were born "out of wedlock." While the rate of chicks born from extra-pair paternity in the control group was roughly the same in the first and second breeding attempt, the rate in the experimental group jumped significantly in the second attempt. The extra-pair paternity rate in the second brood of the experimental group was 40 percent higher than that of the control group. There were only a few days between when the females learned of the hatching failure and the beginning of the second breeding attempt. This means that female birds in the experimental group swiftly decided to mate with other males while still in relationships with their original partners. "Switching partners between the breeding attempts carries the risk of being unable to find a replacement partner in a timely manner. That seems to be why they stay with original partners but become more promiscuous to ensure successful reproduction," says Dr. Teru Yuta of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, a former PhD student of Hokkaido University. "The reason females engage in extra-pair paternity has been a challenging puzzle for behavioral ecologists. This study not only suggests that individual females flexibly alter their mating behavior in an adaptive way, but also is the first experimental evidence for the 'direct fertility benefit hypothesis' which has been long-debated as the cause of the evolution of extra-pair paternity," he added. In an era of fact-checking and "alternative facts," many people simply choose not to believe research findings and other established facts, according to a new paper co-authored by a professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. "A growing body of evidence suggests that even when individuals are aware of research findings supported by a vast majority of studies, they often choose not to believe them," wrote Ernest O'Boyle, associate professor of management and entrepreneurship, and two co-authors in the Journal of Management. "There are reasons for growing alarm about the disbelief of scientific findings across a wide range of professional domains because it seems to reflect a much broader drop in the credibility of academics and scientists." In an editorial commentary, O'Boyle and two professors at the University of Iowa -- Sara Rynes and Amy Colbert -- explain why people often don't believe research findings. Some public distrust comes from a rapid rise in studies suggesting that current research findings aren't as robust as previously thought. Reasons range from innocent causes, such as undetected analytical errors, to occasional questionable research practices. But the authors also point to "well-funded, concerted efforts to discredit solid scientific research for self-interested political, ideological or economic ends." This trend affects American business and the workplace because managers are less likely to look to academic research for advice or apply empirically validated best practices. For example, they may fail to embrace the view that intelligence is the single best predictor of job performance, which has been widely proven through research. advertisement "Research suggesting the benefits of diversifying the labor force or promoting women or minorities into leadership positions is likely to threaten the vested interests of members of currently overrepresented groups while raising the hopes and aspirations of others," they said. "Many people are also likely to use motivated reasoning when evaluating research-based claims about the causes and consequences of pay inequity." To address these challenges, O'Boyle and his colleagues said business researchers should broaden the range of research to focus on bigger, more important problems and consider more emphasis on needs of customers, employees, local communities, the environment and society as a whole. They need to find opportunities to co-create research with practitioners, beyond their simply providing data and other information. They also need to improve how they report and communicate about their research. "To outsiders, the current publishing model of academic research is likely to appear strange, counterintuitive and wasteful," they said. "Experts have long recommended publishing findings in outlets that are more accessible. "Many practitioners, students and members of the general population now get much of their information from sources that were barely in use little more than a decade ago, such as blogs, online videos and various forms of social media. The best opportunities to ... get research evidence to the public may lie in these alternative forums." These forums may include TED talks, online forums and massive open online courses, known as MOOCs. O'Boyle and his co-authors also suggest that scholars need to better anticipate and address resistance to specific findings in their research. "A lot of what we're doing to bridge the academic-practice gap, like publishing in more accessible outlets and doing more executive training, doesn't work unless we are able to overcome some of these natural barriers to persuasion," O'Boyle said. Resistance to therapy is a major problem in cancer patients as the cells that resist to therapy is at the root of tumour relapse and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. A better understanding of the mechanisms associated with resistance to therapy is essential for the development of better strategies to definitively eradicate cancer and prevent tumour relapse. In a study published in Nature, researchers lead by Pr. Cedric Blanpain, MD/PhD, WELBIO investigator and Professor at the Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium identified a population of tumour cells that persist following drug treatment, leading to cancer relapse following treatment discontinuation in basal cell carcinoma, the most frequent skin cancer. The study also identifies a combination of drugs that can eliminate this the tumor population that resists to the therapy and prevents tumour relapse after treatment discontinuation. Basal cell carcinoma is the most common human cancer, affecting several millions of new patients each year across the world. Vismodegib, a FDA approved drug is used for the treatment of locally advanced and metastatic basal cell carcinoma in humans. Many patients treated with vismodegib experience tumour regression during treatment, but very often their tumours relapse following treatment discontinuation. The precise mechanisms involved in tumour regression upon vismodegib administration and how the tumour cells resist to the therapy leading to cancer relapse are poorly understood. In this new study, Adriana Sanchez-Danes -- Universite libre de Bruxelles, ULB, Laboratory of Stem Cells and Cancer -- and colleagues identified the mechanism by which vismodegib leads to tumor regression and uncovered the origin of the relapse observed upon treatment discontinuation. They found that vismodegib promotes the differentiation of the bulk of tumour cells, leading to their elimination. Vismodegib treatment led to the emergence of population of dormant tumour cells characterized by active Wnt signaling that persists despite continuous drug administration. In collaboration with the groups of Pr. Tabernero (Barcelona, Spain) and Pr. del Marmol (Brussels, Belgium), the researchers demonstrated that this population of tumor cell population active for Wnt signaling was also found in patients with basal cell carcinoma treated with vismodegib. Adriana Sanchez-Danes and colleagues found that inhibition of Wnt signaling together with Vismodegib eliminates the persisting tumor lesions leading to tumor eradication in the vast majority of the cases. "It was really exciting to identify a combination of drugs already available in clinics that lead to the eradication of resisting tumor cells and avoiding tumor relapse in the most frequent cancer in humans," comments Adriana Sanchez-Danes, the first author of the study. Altogether, this study illustrates that vismodegib promotes tumour regression by promoting the differentiation of tumour cells. This demonstrates for the first time that inducing tumour differentiation is a safe and efficient strategy to treat solid tumours such as basal cell carcinoma. " This is the first example of a FDA approved drug used to treat solid tumor that induces tumor regression through differentiation. Tumor differentiation is an exciting route to treat cancer as it is non toxic for normal cells and was proved to be a revolutionary treatment in certain Leukemia" said Cedric Blanpain, the senior author of study. " Our study also identifies a new mechanism of resistance to therapy in basal cell carcinoma and demonstrates that the administration of two existing drugs is sufficient to prevent tumor relapse in the vast majority of the cases. The next step would be to conduct clinical trials using the combination of these two drugs in patients with relapsing basal cell carcinomas and possibly other cancers characterized by the activation of the two signaling pathways identified here," explains Cedric Blanpain, the corresponding author of the Nature paper. Malaria is the most prevalent blood-borne infectious disease caused by parasites of the species Plasmodium. In 2016, more than 216 million malaria infections were reported resulting in 445,000 deaths across the developing world. During the blood stage development, Plasmodium (P.) falciparum, the most common causative agent of malaria-associated pathology in humans, exports a number of parasitic proteins to the surface of infected red blood cells facilitating its cyto-adhesion to endothelial receptors. This adhesive behavior prevents splenic clearance and induces microvasculature obstruction, forming critical contributors towards the disease outcome. In a recent study, a research team from Singapore demonstrated how the adhesion of plasmodium-infected blood cells is elevated at febrile temperatures. Through dual-micropipette step-pressure technique between P. falciparum-infected RBCs (iRBCs) and Chinese Hamster Ovary cells expressing Chondroitin sulfate A (CHO-CSA), they determined that adhesion is elevated at febrile temperatures. The team also noticed that exposures to febrile temperature significantly increased both the adhesion force and adhesion percentage between iRBCs and CSA-CHO cells. Using flow cytometry analysis, the team documented an increase in phosphatidylserine expression on the iRBC surface following exposure to febrile temperature. They demonstrate that elevated levels of phosphatidylserine is linked to increased cyto-adhesion, since the trend was reversed by introducing soluble Annexin V. "These results suggest that elevated PS recruitment on iRBC under thermally stressed conditions contributes to the increased adhesive behavior of iRBCs, which might be relevant to clinical manifestations associated with malaria fever," said Dr Rajesh Chandramohanadas from the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD). First author of this study, published in the science journal Scientific Reports, is Dr Rou Zhang from the Infectious Disease IRG, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre. Other investigators involved in this project are Professor Ming Dao (SMART and Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Professor Chwee Teck Lim (SMART & National University of Singapore) and Dr Rajesh Chandramohanadas (SMART and Singapore University of Technology & Design). New York City (NYC), located within the Hudson River Estuary, inputs over 100 billion liters of combined sewage overflow (CSO) into surrounding surface waters annually. Little is known, however, about the impact of CSOs on wetlands that act as carbon sinks and provide buffers against climate change. Now a new study in the Soil Science Society of America Journal from researchers at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (GC/CUNY) and Queens College suggests that local wetlands are capable of using CSO inputs in a manner that actually increases greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane. "Combined sewage overflows are frequent occurrences in New York City and the surrounding area," said Brian Brigham, the paper's first author and a recent Ph.D. recipient from GC/CUNY's earth and environmental sciences program. "The city's system is nearly at capacity during dry weather, so after even small amounts of precipitation, the subsequent surface runoff results in untreated sewage flowing into surface waters. These overflows deliver large amounts of carbon and nitrogen to wetland soils, so we wanted to test how saturation of these elements impacted greenhouse gas production." Methodology and Findings Researchers collected soils from three wetland sites -- Iona Island, Piermont, and Saw Mill Creek -- of varied salinity and proximity to New York City for use in laboratory incubation experiments. To simulate what happens when CSO saturates Hudson River estuary wetland soils, the researchers added acetate -- the simplest forms of organic carbon typically available in anaerobic soils -- to one group of samples. To other groups they added inorganic nitrogen (nitrate and ammonium), which is typically found in human sources of pollution. The samples were incubated, and daily carbon dioxide and methane production measurements were taken and compared to production rates from a control group of soil samples. The experiments demonstrated that the readily decomposable carbon additions enhanced methane production more than 100 times and carbon dioxide production by more than twice the rate of the control group. The addition of inorganic nitrogen had no such effect. Significance "New York City has to identify and quantify its various sources of greenhouse gas emissions in order to reduce its contribution to climate change," said Jeffrey Bird, a professor of biology and earth and environmental sciences at GC/CUNY and Queens College, a co-author of the study, and Brigham's research co-adviser. "Some of these potential sources -- like local wetlands that receive significant carbon and nitrogen loading from New York City's sewage overflow -- are indirect. We know about effects of this overflow on human health, but little work has been done to determine how they may contribute to the city's greenhouse gas footprint." Overall, said the researchers, the findings suggest that NYC's environmental impact extends into nearby undeveloped aquatic ecosystems such as the Hudson River Estuary, and that the impact on the environment can be significant. Brigham and his colleagues have already taken their research into the field to measure actual greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions from New York City surface waters (which includes the Hudson River, its tributaries, and several sites in and around the city) and the Hudson River estuary. An important next step will be gathering additional data on CSO's impact on nitrous oxide emissions. Sharing meat after hunting and exchanging other valued food items is considered key in the evolution of cooperation in human societies. One prominent idea is that humans share valuable foods to gain future favors, such that those we chose to share with are more likely to cooperate with us in the future. Despite regularly occurring in humans, sharing food outside of kinship or mating relationships is rare in non-human animals. Our two closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, are two of the rare exceptions, and because of the important role of food sharing in human evolution, examining the sharing patterns of chimpanzees can help to answer questions on how sharing food amongst adults evolved and how it may have shaped human cooperation. Researchers from the MPI-EVA observed natural food sharing behavior of the chimpanzees of the Tai National Park, Ivory Coast, and found that chimpanzees are very selective in who they share desirable food items, like meat, honey or large fruits, with. They show that chimpanzees were more likely to share food with their friends, and that neither high dominance status nor harassment by beggars influenced their decision. This complements results from another study by the same team published last month that examined meat sharing after group hunting of monkeys. There they found that chimpanzees in possession of meat after successful hunts were likely to reward other hunters by sharing with them. "Collectively our research shows that the chimpanzees decide when to share food based on the likelihood that this favor will be returned in the future," says Liran Samuni, first author of both studies. "Or, in case of sharing after group hunts, sharing of meat is returning the favor for helping out." Previous studies in another subspecies of chimpanzees have suggested that food sharing in chimpanzees mainly occurs because of harassment pressure from beggars. "This was not the case for the Tai chimpanzees," Catherine Crockford, senior author on the studies, points out, "emphasizing the high variation in cooperation across chimpanzee populations." Human populations also vary in how cooperative they are and research is ongoing in both humans and non-human animals assessing what might make some populations more cooperative than others. "The need to stay in a cohesive unit, because of high predation pressure, or the capability to exhibit strong cohesion, because of rich food sources, are two possible scenarios to promote the expression of cooperative acts," suggests Roman Wittig, the second senior author of the studies. Additionally, the researchers collected urine samples from chimpanzees after hunting and food sharing events and measured the hormone oxytocin. "We know that oxytocin plays a strong role in lactation, which you could look at as an example of food sharing between mother and infant, and is generally involved in social behavior and bonding," Liran Samuni explains. The researchers found high levels of oxytocin after chimpanzees shared meat and other valued foods, and after chimpanzee participated in hunting with others. "That we found higher oxytocin levels after both hunting and sharing adds to the idea that oxytocin is a key hormone involved in cooperation in general," Liran Samuni points out. The researchers conclude that like humans, Tai chimpanzee sharing is selective, and that friends and others that helped acquiring the food benefit more. Emotional connection, as is obvious amongst friends, likely played a crucial role in the evolution of human cooperation. A new study by researchers from the University of California, Riverside, and the Rotterdam School of Management finds that fear of missing out motivates investors to give money early to startups with a disruptive vision. However, those backers are reluctant to invest too much in unproven ideas that might not take off. In other words, disruptive startups are more likely to raise money, but they receive smaller amounts than less-threatening ventures. Entrepreneurs set themselves apart using two primary strategies. The first involves emphasizing the track records and past accomplishments of the entrepreneurs, the startup's initial market success, or its unique resources. The other tack sees them touting what the venture will become and what the entrepreneurs will achieve. Disruptive visions fall in the second category. Disruptive innovations are those that introduce a fundamental change, disturbance, or re-ordering of the ways in which organizations, markets, and business ecosystems operate. Netflix transformed the video-rental industry, for example, and TiVo changed the way we watch TV. The startup world has a love affair with the concept of disruption, as evidenced by entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, who wins investors by communicating disruptive visions: one where humanity explores Mars, such as SpaceX, and another where the world transitions quickly to sustainable energy, such as Tesla. In spite of this trend, whether investors applaud or dismiss self-claimed disruptors has never been studied. Ashish Sood, an associate professor of marketing at the UC Riverside School of Business, decided to put that to the test. To find out how successful disruptive visions were at attracting investors, Sood and his colleagues at Rotterdam School of Management, Timo van Balen and Murat Tarakci, studied 918 startups in Israel seeking a first round of funding. Israel has more high-tech startups per capita than any other country and has produced a number of highly lucrative ventures. The researchers collaborated with Startup Nation Central -- a nonprofit that offers an exhaustive platform for the Israeli startup ecosystem -- to gather detailed data. advertisement They found that a small increase in the disruptiveness articulated by the startup's communications improved the odds of receiving a first round of funding by 22 percent. Surprisingly, disruptive visions gathered 24 percent fewer funds in the first round. A disruptive vision caused the typical Israeli venture to lose $87,000 in the first round and $361,000 in the second round. "Why might investors be so positively biased toward disruptive visions, yet opt for investing for so little?" Sood said. "Our research reveals that talking about disruption can be a double-edged sword." The researchers recruited 203 people with previous investment experience in exchange-traded commodities or funds, government bonds, stocks, unit trusts, angel investing, private equity funds, venture capital funds, options, or crowdfunding to answer questions about two fictitious vision statements, identical except for the degree of disruptiveness they expressed. Each respondent was given only one of the statements, along with other company information, and asked questions about the kinds of investment decisions they would make. The results of the experiment matched what the researchers had found in the Israeli database. Investors funded disruptive startups eagerly but less generously. What lured the investors? "Expectations of making extraordinary returns is what entices investors to fund the self-claimed disruptors," Tarakci explained. A small increase in the amount of extraordinary returns investors expected made them four times more likely to fund the venture. Nonetheless, investors do not follow the enchanting promises of those disruptors blindly. They are aware that young companies with daring, untried ideas or products stand a high chance of failure. Investing a small amount at an early stage is like buying an option to invest more at a later stage when doing so might be less risky. The study concludes that a disruptive vision can attract investors who wish to obtain extraordinary returns and join a celebrated group of early investors in unicorns. But it can also deter investors from making large, speculative investments into the venture because they prefer to hedge risk against wait. "For entrepreneurs seeking early stage investments, we have the following simple but important advice: carefully craft your message," Sood said. "If you are looking to acquire large sums of money, perhaps you should keep your disruptive plans quiet." Researchers have revealed the structure of an essential immune protein, creating future possibilities to develop more effective medicines for a range of illnesses from cancer to neurological diseases. University of Tokyo researchers made this discovery with computerized image analysis and modern electron microscope imaging. Researchers verified the structure of natural immunoglobulin M (IgM) protein, an important part of the immune system, using mouse and human versions of the protein. IgM is now understood to be shaped like an incomplete hexagon, or a pentagon with a wedge-shaped gap. "We'll have to revise the textbooks," said Professor Toru Miyazaki, the leader of the laboratory where the IgM structure was identified at the Graduate School of Medicine. IgM is the first immune system protein that develops in the human fetus and remains the first responder to pathogens throughout life. The structure of IgM was first identified in 1969 as a "five-pointed, star-shaped table" and updated in 2009 to be a five-sided dome or "mushroom cap." "The original IgM model was made by looking at a few individual molecules by hand with what today we think is a low-resolution microscope. Now we have clearer pictures and the computer can examine thousands of individual IgM molecules," said Miyazaki. The 2018 discovery of the incomplete hexagon was actually a secondary interest for Miyazaki, originally a medical doctor who has built his research career studying a different protein called apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage (AIM). Since identifying the correct shape of IgM, researchers now understand that inactive AIM is nestled inside the gap of the IgM incomplete hexagon. The structural connection between IgM and AIM means that drugs with the ability to regulate the release of AIM could be used to create AIM-based disease therapies. "We can think of AIM as a fighter jet and IgM as the aircraft carrier ship. When other molecules activate the immune system, IgM releases AIM. The much smaller AIM protein goes around the body to clear away damaged cells and prevent disease," said Miyazaki. Miyazaki identified AIM in 1999 while working at the Basel Institute for Immunology Institute in Switzerland. Its small size means AIM is easily eliminated from the body by the kidneys and excreted in urine, so staying bound within the larger IgM protects AIM from being removed before it is needed. AIM is a common molecule in the bloodstream, but it is only active when the body develops a disease. AIM is known to be important for preventing obesity, fatty liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), multiple sclerosis (MS), fungus-induced peritonitis (inflammation of the abdominal wall membrane), and acute kidney injury. The incomplete hexagon structure is still only a 2D understanding of IgM structure. Miyazaki and his team continue to do additional analysis and hope to report the 3D structure of IgM soon. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today the entry of a final judgment against Dennis Hamilton, a former executive at Stamford, Conn.-based electronics company Harman International Industries, Inc. who had been charged with insider trading in Harman's stock. On February 5, 2016, the Commission filed a complaint charging Dennis Wayne Hamilton with one instance of insider trading in the company's stock. On August 30, 2016, the Commission filed an amended complaint alleging four additional instances of insider trading. The Commission alleged that Hamilton earned illegal profits by trading in Harman securities based on nonpublic information he obtained in the course of his employment, in advance of Harman's earnings releases and other corporate disclosures. The Court has now entered a final judgment based upon Hamilton's consent to resolve all claims. Hamilton agreed to disgorge $730,279 in ill-gotten gains and pay prejudgment interest of $102,145, and to pay a civil penalty of $584,047. In addition to ordering this monetary relief, the final judgment enjoins Hamilton from violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and imposes an officer and director bar. The monetary judgment will be offset by $131,958 that Hamilton was ordered to pay in a parallel criminal action brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut in which he pled guilty to one count of securities fraud and was also sentenced to eight months imprisonment. The SEC has also entered an order suspending Hamilton, a CPA, from appearing or practicing before the SEC pursuant to Rule 102(e)(2) of the SEC's Rules of Practice. For additional information, see Press Release No. 2016-24 (February 5, 2016), and Litigation Release No. 23631 (August 30, 2016). Mayor London Breed wants to speed housing production, so shes going hire someone to steer projects through San Franciscos famously cumbersome permitting process. On Wednesday, Breed is expected to announce that a search is under way to find a director of housing delivery. That person will be responsible for tracking housing developments and guiding them around bureaucratic logjams as they bounce among city departments. The new position, which officials hope to fill before the end of the year, will report directly to the mayor. Some development hangups can add months or years onto a projects timeline, and they tend to arise after developers get the Planning Commissions blessing to move ahead. Thats when projects thread through as many as eight departments that have to review specific details like fire safety, disability access and compliance with building codes. Those departments can offer conflicting interpretations of the same codes, resulting in delays of housing stock, Breed said. When we have families struggling to find an affordable place to live and people living on our streets, it is unacceptable that badly needed housing takes months or years to get final permits from city departments after being approved by the Planning Commission, Breed said in a statement sent by a spokesman. I need someone who can focus on the simple and urgent task of getting more homes built faster, either by resolving conflicts between city departments to move projects forward or coming up with creative solutions to streamline the process. I want this permitting time cut in half so we can get more housing, particularly affordable housing, built now. The move is the latest step Breed has announced since taking office in July to build more housing faster. In August, she mandated that departments accelerate their review of applications for accessory dwelling units. She also tried to bring a modular housing factory to San Francisco by pledging to place a $100 million order as soon as its up and running. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. It will be the responsibility of the future director of housing delivery to track projects after they receive approval from the Planning Commission and shepherd them through the permitting process. When departments offer developers conflicting mandates, the director will have the authority to make decisions about how the project should proceed. At the end of the day, its really hard when you have two department heads who cant figure out how to reconcile their goals and someone has to try to be that arbiter for the city and move things forward, said Douglas Shoemaker, president of affordable housing developer Mercy Housing California and former director of the mayors office of housing when Gavin Newsom held the office. The director will also have to oversee the eventual digitization of the entire housing permitting process. Currently, city departments review a projects plans on paper, one department at a time. City officials say that making the process digital will accelerate reviews and allow multiple departments to examine proposals simultaneously. The Planning Department is already testing out a pilot program for reviewing plans digitally. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa` Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks filed a complaint against her own city and the city attorney Tuesday, alleging they failed to adequately defend her in a legal battle with ex-Black Panther leader Elaine Brown that cost Oakland more than $2 million. The claim contends that City Attorney Barbara Parker and her staff neglected to present evidence at trial that would have been favorable to Brooks and detrimental to Brown. The case stemmed from a fight in 2015 between the two women in a Jack London Square restaurant over an affordable housing project that Brown wanted the city to fund. Jurors ordered the city to pay Brown $3.75 million for elder abuse and injuries she suffered, saying that Brooks was acting in her capacity as a city official during the altercation. The jury wanted Brooks herself to pay $550,000. But a judge, who found that Brooks repeatedly lied under oath, later ruled that those amounts were excessive and lowered them to $1.2 million and $75,000, respectively. The city had to pay an additional $1 million for Browns legal fees. Dan Siegel, an attorney for Brooks, said the city attorneys office was ill prepared, negligent and incompetent in its handling of the suit. The claim accuses Oaklands attorneys of failing to use evidence about Browns intoxication that night as well as threats she allegedly made against Brooks. Alex Katz, a spokesman for the city attorney, said the office handled Brooks defense professionally and diligently. It is not surprising that she is unhappy with the judges ruling that she committed perjury, with the judges and the jurys findings of fact, and with their $75,000 punitive damages award against her personally, Katz said in an email. It is unfortunate that her claims are full of inaccuracies and falsehoods. Of course, we will treat her claim like any other and respond at the appropriate time. Browns lawsuit alleged that Brooks knocked her backward over a stack of folding chairs in the restaurant, Everett and Jones BBQ. Brown underwent surgery for a torn rotator cuff and reported the incident to police, but prosecutors declined to file charges. Brooks has said she acted in self-defense, pushing Brown away after she poked the councilwoman, though the judge and jury concluded Brooks gave false testimony. 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. Overall, the quality of the representation provided by respondents was far inferior to what should be expected in a high-profile, high-stakes case, Brooks said in the claim. If the city throws out her claim, Brooks will file a lawsuit against the city, Siegel said. The complaint doesnt specify the amount of damages Brooks is seeking from the city. It alleges she suffered an unjustified award of monetary damages, grave harm to her reputation, and extreme emotional distress because of Parker and her deputies. Brooks, who represents part of East Oakland and was first elected to the City Council in 2002, is facing a slate of four challengers who are trying to unseat her in the November election. Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov A San Francisco woman who tested her tap water with a store-bought kit and got a positive reading for pesticides, then posted the results to social media, has prompted the city to step up water testing not just near her home in the Sunset District but across the city. Officials at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission insisted Tuesday, for the second day in a row, that municipal supplies are safe to drink. However, they said they would take the precaution of performing additional inspections of 23 locations, many where groundwater is added to the water system. City officials also acknowledged that their own lapse in communication might have contributed to the minor panic in the Sunset District after the Monday post on the networking site Nextdoor. Before residents warnings to neighbors to avoid the water started blasting across the internet, an operator at the Public Utilities Commission apparently confirmed or at least suggested to one resident, and likely others, that pesticides were found in the water, officials said. I think there was some misinformation-slash-miscommunication presented to the customer, said Tyler Gamble, spokesman for the Public Utilities Commission. Theres no evidence that we have that the water isnt safe. Still, Gamble said that city water officials were meeting with the Sunset woman whose test kit detected pesticides in their effort to restore confidence in municipal supplies. The resident, Mel Scardina, who tested the tap water into her home on 25th Avenue, said she became concerned because of an odd taste, like it had come out of a hose. The home kit she purchased through Amazon showed the water contained Atrazine and Simazine, she said. She said she called the city Monday, and a representative confirmed the presence of pesticides. At least one other Sunset resident used a home kit over the weekend, this one purchased at Home Depot, and also detected pesticides, Scardina said. That finding was at a home in the Parkside area of the Sunset. Several neighbors also posted on Nextdoor to say that they, too, called the city to find out what was going on and were similarly warned of problems. Scardina said even after receiving a visit from city water officials Tuesday afternoon, shes concerned about safety at her tap. The officials took water samples from her home, which will be tested, and assured her that her supplies were fine. Id love to say Im convinced, but Im not at this point, Scardina said. Whether or not (the first person I talked to) spoke out of turn, I dont know. But he was very detailed (about the pesticides). I have a hard time imagining that he was wrong to that level. Gamble, with the Public Utilities Commission, suggested that the problem could be an error with internal plumbing or the test kits themselves. The relatively inexpensive kits are prone to false readings. He said the results of his agencys more reliable testing wont be known until next week. Water samples are being collected across the city and sent to an independent lab, he said. The Public Utilities Commission regularly monitors the water it delivers to households in the Bay Area. Last year, the agency did 101,900 drinking water tests on its delivery systems, according to city records. More than 80 percent of the citys water comes from reservoirs in the Sierra Nevada, with smaller portions coming from local reservoirs and groundwater supplies. 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. Water to the Sunset District is mostly a blend of surface water and groundwater, though some is purely surface water, according to city records. The blended water typically contains less than 1 percent groundwater. The Public Utilities Commission began adding groundwater to its Sierra supplies in April of last year in an effort to diversify its water portfolio. City officials say routine tests of the groundwater supply are done every two weeks and that results from Sept. 17 to Sept. 30 showed no problems. Tests specific to pesticides are performed quarterly. The latest, done in July, also showed no issues. Sunset resident Rob Schaezlein, who has been following the back-and-forth on Nextdoor, said he and his wife remain concerned about their water because theyve also noticed its smelled weird. Weve always bragged about how good our water is and look whats happened now theyve messed with it, he said, suspecting the recent addition of groundwater may be the problem. Maybe theres nothing here, and maybe there is something here and the city is trying to cover it up, he said. I dont know how to make sense of it, to be honest. I guess we wont know until the city comes back with a more accurate test. Kurtis Alexander and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander @EvanSernoffsky California voters on Nov. 6 will decide whether to pass a bond measure, Proposition 4, that would authorize the state to borrow $1.5 billion for infrastructure improvements at 13 childrens hospitals across the state. Under the Childrens Hospital Bond Act of 2018, eight private, nonprofit, childrens hospitals including UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital Oakland and Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford in the Bay Area would receive $135 million each. The five University of California hospitals, which locally means UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital San Francisco, would get $54 million each. Childrens Hospital Oakland, while owned by UCSF, is licensed separately as a private, nonprofit hospital and is therefore eligible for $135 million. UCSF would use the money for seismic upgrades at the Oakland hospital, and for technology and medical equipment at the Oakland and San Francisco hospitals, according to Dr. Michael Anderson, president of UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospitals. That would include defibrillators, scanners to detect tumors and an electronic health records system. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle Lucile Packard would use the bond money to upgrade the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, according to the hospitals interim CEO and chief medical officer, Dr. Dennis Lund. The hospitals current NICU is configured as multiple large rooms housing several patients each, a design that was popular when the hospital first opened in the 1980s, but is now outdated and does not allow for the technology needed to support the babies, Lund said. Prop. 4 also would enable the space to be updated to include more private spaces. More Information For more election coverage, see The Chronicle's 2018 Voter Guide. See More Collapse The nonprofit hospitals are slated to receive a greater share of the money, 72 percent, compared to the UC hospitals 18 percent because the former serve more uninsured and low-income kids. The remaining 10 percent would go to other California hospitals that do not specialize in treating children but participate in California Childrens Service Program, which provides specialized treatments for mostly low-income kids with complex chronic conditions. Prop. 4, drafted and sponsored by the California Childrens Hospital Association, is the third bond measure voters have faced for childrens hospitals since 2004. Proposition 61, approved in 2004, authorized $750 million for infrastructure needs. Proposition 3, approved in 2008, raised $980 million for the construction and remodeling of childrens hospitals. The hospital association was the main backer of all three. Proponents of Prop. 4 including the association and the hospitals that stand to gain millions of dollars have raised nearly $11 million to push for its passage. No money has been raised in opposition, according to the California secretary of state. If approved, Prop. 4 would be limited to infrastructure spending, including getting hospitals up to code for new seismic standards by 2030. It would cost taxpayers $2.9 billion, according to the Legislative Analysts Office. It would take an estimated 35 years, averaging $80 million annually, to pay off the bond. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Each childrens hospital spends between $30 and $50 million of its own money each year to improve infrastructure and equipment, according to Ann-Louise Kuhns, president of the California Childrens Hospital Association. But because the hospitals receive most of their funding from Medi-Cal, the joint federal-state insurance program for the poor that pays hospitals at lower rates than commercial health insurance companies do, its very hard for them to make those ends meet, Kuhns said. If Prop. 4 does not pass, the eight nonprofit hospitals might have to reduce capacity unless they find another funding source. UCSF and Lucile Packard are among hospitals donating money for the initiative. There is no organized opposition. The official opposition, written by Mountain View resident Gary Wesley, raises concerns over taxpayer costs. Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If youre open to it, please access our subscription interface. Sorry, were closed Wed all but forgotten about Google Plus when the search company announced Monday that its foray into social networking was kaput. The cause of death? A Wall Street Journal expose of Googles efforts to keep secret a flaw that may have exposed tens of dozens sorry, thats a bad hipster joke about Google Plus devastating unpopularity rather, tens of millions of users profile information. That follows on the exploitation of a vulnerability in Facebook profiles that could have allowed strangers to impersonate users. That one you probably noticed, since Facebook forced millions of users to log in as part of its response. The closure of Google Plus is embarrassing mostly in its tardiness. Google should have given up on it years ago. Designed to slow Facebooks runaway growth and provide an alternative in social networking, Google Plus introduction in 2011 mostly showed how out of touch Google had become. In his memoir of his time working at Facebook, Chaos Monkeys, Antonio Garcia Martinez recounted how he drove from Facebook headquarters, then in Palo Alto, to the Googleplex in Mountain View one weekend. The Facebook parking lot he left was full of engineers and designers rallying to fight off the Google threat. Googles parking lot was empty. So, he concluded, was the threat that Google Plus might beat Facebook. Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle 2013 One thing that distinguished Google Plus from Facebook at the time was its lack of a way for third-party developers to access information and build apps on top of it. By 2011, programmers had been building apps on Facebook for years, and the Facebook Platform the companys name for the collection of services that let developers tap into Facebook features and user data was seen as a key reason the then-private social network was worth billions. Google Plus was different, declared Vic Gundotra, the executive behind Googles social push. There wouldnt be social spam, like those sheep-throwing notifications that drove Facebook users crazy. If Google introduced tools for developers like Facebooks whats known in the software trade as an application programming interface, or API it would do so slowly, and thoughtfully. Gundotra, who left Google in 2014, was half right. Google was slow about rolling out an API. Thoughtful? Well, look at the hole that Google left open from 2015 to 2018, exposing users profile information to any app developer that requested it. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook tightened access to its application programming interfaces, to prevent similar heists of user data. We will probably see further restrictions in response to the log-in vulnerability the company revealed in September. Security and trust are paramount for companies that ask us to entrust us with our secrets. The trade-off that we have to make may be less openness. Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2017 Thats fine for Facebook and Google, which are worth hundreds of billions of dollars and are secure in their social and search kingdoms. But they both benefited hugely from open systems. If every website required permission for Google to crawl and index it, a search engine would be impossible to build. Facebook grew like a weed in part because email and contacts were easy to scrape, once it tricked fine, persuaded a user into handing over a log-in. Startups today are far more hesitant about opening up. Snapchat, for example, introduced a very limited API only this year; that doesnt seem to have hurt its popularity. Airbnbs API is invitation-only. Ubers API lets developers just tinker around the edges, by adding a request-a-ride button or creating a discount code. On the surface, their caution seems smart, given the downsides of openness. Twitter, which embraced developers early in its life, soon found itself in near constant conflict with them, limiting data and features to the point of rendering third-party apps useless. What we gain from the crackdown on APIs is clear: more security for our data. What we lose is harder to say, but I feel like it lies somewhere in the concept that Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian dubbed permissionless innovation. In a world of limited, invitation-only APIs, the thing that might one day replace Facebook or Google will be that much harder to build. While Facebook and Google are locking away our data, theyre also locking us in with it. Owen Thomas (othomas@sfchronicle.com) Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Quote of the week Twitter can get you into trouble. And that can be said of Elon Musk, too. Japanese online retail mogul Yusaku Maezawa, who plans to travel to the moon on Musks SpaceX rocket Coming up Wired, the magazine born in San Francisco 25 years ago, is celebrating its quarter-century with the Wired25 Festival starting Friday. Theres a robot petting zoo and open houses at companies including Accentures new digs in Salesforce Tower. Tickets are $50-$140. What Im reading San Franciscos Proposition C could cost Salesforce $10 million a year in additional taxes, but Marc Benioff tells Kevin Fagan that the additional spending to alleviate homelessness is well worth it. (San Francisco Chronicle) Bloomberg Businessweek published a bombshell report that Chinese spies were tampering with servers used by Apple and Amazon. The companies and the Chinese government strenuously denied it. Its a confusing mess. Zack Whittaker explains why cybersecurity stories like this are so tough to make sense of. (TechCrunch) Tech Chronicle is a thrice-weekly newsletter from Owen Thomas, The Chronicles business editor, and the rest of the tech team. Follow along on Twitter: @techchronicle and Instagram: @techchronicle Jack Poulson, a Google research scientist, recently became alarmed by reports that the company was developing a search engine for China that would censor content on behalf of the government. While Poulson works on search technologies, he had no knowledge of the product, code-named Dragonfly. So in a meeting last month with Jeff Dean, the companys head of artificial intelligence, Poulson asked whether Google planned to move ahead with the product and if his work would contribute to censorship and surveillance in China. According to Poulson, Dean said Google complied with surveillance requests from the federal government and asked rhetorically if the company should leave the U.S. market in protest. Dean also shared a draft of a company email that read, We wont and shouldnt provide 100 percent transparency to every Googler, to respect our commitments to customer confidentiality and giving our product teams the freedom to innovate. The next day, Poulson quit. Dean did not respond to a request for comment, and Google declined to comment. Across the technology industry, rank-and-file employees are demanding greater insight into how their companies are using the technology that they build. At Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce, as well as at startups, engineers and technologists are increasingly asking whether the products they are working on are being used for surveillance in places like China or for military projects in the United States or elsewhere. That is a change from the past, when Silicon Valley workers typically developed products with little questioning about the social costs. It is also a sign of how some tech companies, which grew by serving consumers and businesses, are expanding more into government work. And the shift coincides with concerns in Silicon Valley about the Trump administrations policies and the larger role of technology in government. You can think youre building technology for one purpose, and then you find out its really twisted, said Laura Nolan, a senior software engineer who resigned from Google in June over the companys involvement in Project Maven, an effort to build artificial intelligence for the Defense Department that could be used for drone strikes. All of this has led to growing tensions between tech employees and managers. Workers at Google, Microsoft and Amazon have signed petitions and protested to executives over how some of the technology they helped create is being used. At smaller companies, engineers have begun asking more questions about ethics. And the change is likely to last: Some engineering students have said they are demanding more answers and are asking similar questions, even before they move into the workforce. What people are looking for not just employees they are looking for some clarity, said Frank Shaw, a Microsoft spokesman. Are there principles that get applied? Even if you dont agree with the decision that gets made, if you understand the thinking behind it, it helps a lot. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. Poulson, whose work involved incorporating a variety of languages into Google search, said he did not initially think his research could be involved in Dragonfly until he noticed Chinese had been added to a list of languages for his project. Most people dont know the holistic scope of what theyre building, said Poulson, who worked at Google for over two years. You dont have knowledge of where its going unless youre sufficiently senior. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes The difficulties of knowing what companies are doing with technologies is compounded because engineers at large tech companies often build infrastructure like algorithms, databases and even hardware that underpins almost every product a company offers. At Google, for example, a storage system called Colossus is used in search, Google Maps and Gmail. It would be very difficult for most engineers in Google to be sure that their work wouldnt contribute to these projects in some way, said Nolan, who helped to keep Googles systems running online smoothly. Yet executives at tech companies have claimed that complete transparency is not possible. Weve always had confidential projects as a company. I think what happened when the company was smaller, you had a higher chance of knowing about it, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at a staff meeting in August, according to a transcript provided to the New York Times. I think there are a lot of times when people are in exploratory stages where teams are debating and doing things, so sometimes being fully transparent at that stage can cause issues. Such policies have rippled beyond tech companies. In June, more than 100 students at Stanford, MIT and other top colleges signed a pledge saying they would turn down job interviews with Google unless the company dropped its Project Maven contract. (Google said that month that it would not renew the contract once it expired.) Kate Conger and Cade Metz are New York Times writers. A former Santa Rita Jail inmate is suing Alameda County and four former sheriffs deputies for despicable attacks that included a plot to repeatedly douse him with feces and urine, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday. Fernando Miguel Soria accused the deputies of excessive force during his time in lockup, denial of medical attention and a conspiracy to violate his civil rights. Soria, flanked by his mother and attorneys Tuesday outside the Alameda County courthouse in downtown Oakland, trembled at times as he spoke to reporters. He said he was sprayed with human waste about seven to eight times over the course of several months in 2016, but its unclear why he was singled out. I cant figure that out, Soria said. Thats something Ill have to work out with a psychologist or something. The deputies named in the lawsuit Justin Linn, Erik McDermott, Stephen Sarcos and Sarah Krause were all arrested last year by their own agency. Officials said the four deputies allowed one inmate to participate in gassing, which means filling a bottle with body fluids and spraying its contents onto someone else. Prosecutors with the Alameda County district attorneys office charged them with six counts of assault by a public officer for the alleged attacks on Soria and other inmates. The deputies no longer work for the Sheriffs Office, said Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the agency. Civil rights attorney John Burris, whose firm is representing Soria, commended the Sheriffs Office and district attorney for holding the deputies criminally accountable. But, he noted, Soria should also be compensated for the mistreatment. Its important that we vindicate the civil rights of Mr. Soria, Burris said, adding that he did not deserve for this to happen to him. Soria was not only subject to gassing, his attorney said, but he also suffered a broken arm while in jail but received no medical treatment in a timely fashion. Soria was booked into jail in August 2016 for allegedly resisting arrest after an incident in San Leandro where he was trying to get a prescription refilled. The lawsuit claims that between September and November 2016 deputies created a plan to gas Soria with waste kept in a shampoo bottle. The deputies encouraged another inmate known as Preacher to gas Soria while he was in his cell, the lawsuit alleges, and they even opened Sorias cell to assist Preacher. The suit claims Soria was not allowed to shower after the attacks and could only clean himself with the toilet water in his cell. Soria contracted hepatitis C due to the assaults, his attorneys said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The suit asks for compensatory and punitive damages, but does not specify a dollar figure. Two of the former deputies, Krause and Sarcos, have already admitted to the conspiracy, the lawsuit states. The Sheriffs Office and an attorney for the county declined to comment on the case, both citing the pending felony charges. Alameda County prosecutors last week filed criminal charges against another Sheriffs Office employee, in a separate case also involving the treatment of detainees. Sgt. James Russell faces four felony counts of eavesdropping after allegedly recording privileged conversations between juvenile suspects and their attorneys. Russell is due in court Oct. 17. The four former deputies accused in the gassing case are scheduled for preliminary hearings in January. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy A San Francisco man known for his work in the African American LGBTQ community and mentoring recovering addicts was identified Tuesday as the victim of a tragic hit-and-run in the Panhandle. Norman Tanner, 60, was deeply involved with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and worked extensively with people recovering from addiction. Earlier this year, family spokesperson Tony Bradford said Tanner celebrated 22 years of sobriety. Tanner was diagnosed with HIV in 1990 and given six months to live. Instead, he outran doctors prognoses to co-found Black Brothers Esteem at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, a program that promotes sexual health awareness and HIV/AIDS prevention for LGBTQ men who are African American. At around 9:10 p.m. Oct. 3, Tanner was crossing the intersection at Baker and Oak streets to get to his home just a block away when a woman driving a dark-colored Toyota Prius ran a red light and struck him in the marked crosswalk, police said. Authorities said the suspect stopped and got out of her car to check on the man before driving eastbound on Oak Street toward southbound Broderick Street. San Francisco police are still investigating the hit-and-run, and detectives believe that the Prius might have sustained damage to the front end. Tanner suffered severe head trauma and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he died Friday, Bradford said. Friends remembered Tanner, who was born in New Jersey and moved to the city in 1976, as a devoted community servant. He was a super kind person that was always ready, willing, whenever he was able to help someone who needed help or answers, said Stefon Williams, a friend who met Tanner 20 years ago when the two lived in San Francisco. 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. He was selfless, and I will always have fond memories of him, Williams added. Tanner coordinated outreach for the Black Brothers Esteem program and regularly attended the citys annual Pride parades with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. He also mentored city jail inmates struggling with addiction and was a member of Glide church. Everybody knew him, Bradford said. He was always front and foremost with HIV rights, especially in the African American community. Hes gonna be missed. Bradford said the family hopes that the driver is brought to justice so the community can heal and forgive. Memorial services are still being planned. Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu A national network of disease detectives has cracked the complicated medical mysteries of more than 130 patients with rare, previously unidentified diseases, though the bulk of the cases that come to them remain unsolved, according to an analysis of the network released Wednesday. The Undiagnosed Diseases Network which now has 12 clinics nationwide, including one at Stanford has a solve rate of about 35 percent, according to the analysis, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Considering that all of the cases the network investigates involve patients with extremely complex conditions for which theyve gone years sometimes decades without a diagnosis, thats an impressive outcome, said the authors of the report. Most patients were diagnosed after a thorough analysis of their genome revealed a rare genetic mutation. Some were diagnosed only after the network was able to find just one or two other patients in the world with similar symptoms who had gotten a diagnosis. For 31 patients, the investigators diagnosed them with never-seen-before diseases. These are people with mysterious syndromes who havent gotten answers from the regular health care system. Theyre referred to one doctor and another, they go from expert to expert. Theyre on medical odysseys. And what these patients go through, they have a terrible time, said Dr. Euan Ashley, a professor of medicine at Stanford who was co-chair of the national network for two years and who was an author of the new analysis. For many patients, just knowing what the enemy is giving it a name is something very important, Ashley said. The Undiagnosed Diseases Network was created in 2014 by the National Institutes of Health, which had started a similar, much smaller program at its Bethesda, Md., clinic in 2008. The network, funded by the NIH, is expected to cost about $100 million over the next four years. Patients do not pay for any of the services involved in diagnosing them. The network was developed in large part to help individual patients with rare diseases. But its also intended to improve large-scale research into rare diseases and especially genetic conditions that can be identified through genome sequencing. Every new diagnosis potentially adds to the overall understanding of human biology and where systems can go wrong. With genome sequencing in particular, the more information that can be gathered, the easier future diagnoses will become. The human genome is enormous, and with some rare diseases, doctors are looking for a mutation in a single gene its like looking for a needle in a stack of needles, Ashley said. But if doctors can access previous research that has connected certain symptoms with specific parts of the genome, that can at least give them a clue of where to look for a diagnosis. The Undiagnosed Diseases Network, which often relies on genome sequencing to diagnose patients, could be a major contributor to that greater understanding, Ashley said. The same holds true for patients with conditions not caused by a misfiring gene. The more people who can be identified with similar symptoms, the closer doctors can get to a diagnosis. We basically are looking for somewhere to shine a light, Ashley said. For the paper published Wednesday, Ashleys group looked at the first 1,519 patients to apply to the national network, from September 2015 to May 2017. Of those patients, 601 were accepted for study by the network. Doctors completed an evaluation of 382 of them during the period that Ashleys group analyzed. Of the 132 people who eventually were diagnosed, 21 percent were advised to change their treatment plan take a new medicine, for example based on the diagnosis. Another 37 percent were advised to get new, more disease-focused testing to improve monitoring of their symptoms. And in 36 percent of the cases, the diagnosis led to genetic counseling among family members who could be harboring the same disease-causing mutation. In a handful of cases, the diagnosis was life-changing. One man who had suffered from severe recurring fevers for years started taking a new drug after he was diagnosed with a rare immune condition. The drug dramatically reduced the frequency and intensity of his symptoms. But even among patients who got a diagnosis, unraveling the mystery for the most part did very little to change their treatment or improve their symptoms. Identifying the disease, though, can at least satisfy patients and their families and doctors that theyre getting the best care possible, said Dr. Jon Bernstein, pediatric medical director of the Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases. For a lot of families, it feels like theyre fighting an enemy and theyre not even sure what it is. When you have a diagnosis, you know, Bernstein said. A key step to taking the best care of someone you can is knowing whats going on. One of Bernsteins most memorable cases involved Anahi Villanueva, a 10-year-old Pittsburg girl who started showing symptoms of a severe metabolic disorder when she was just a few days old. Her body wasnt good at energy production and her organ systems would slow down or stop working under the slightest stress a simple viral infection, a long day at school. A few times she ended up in a coma-like state. 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. She bounced around from one expert to another, but none could diagnose her. She even underwent genome sequencing, but no one could find the gene to blame. When the Undiagnosed Diseases Network opened, her family immediately applied for an evaluation. Among the first steps investigators took was to reanalyze the genome sequencing shed already had done, Bernstein said. Just about every month, some new discovery is made in analyzing the genome that can help experts read the results they hoped for just such a breakthrough for Anahi. Indeed, the investigators found a mutation in a single gene that had been associated with energy production in the body. There were no known cases of someone being made ill by a variation in that gene, but it was a clue for Anahis doctors. The investigators started reaching out to other doctors around the world, wondering if any other patients existed. After a few months, they found a boy in the United Kingdom. It turned out he had the same gene mutation as Anahi. After that discovery, the U.S. investigators conducted an experiment in fruit flies they inserted the gene mutation into the flies and found that they too had problems with energy production. That was good enough for a diagnosis: mitochondrial complex V deficiency due to ATP5F1D mutation. Yes, its a mouthful, Bernstein said. At the moment, Anahi is doing OK, said her mom, Maria Villanueva. She goes to school. She is a little small for her age, and she gets tired easily. Though she ends up in the emergency room about once a year when her condition flares, thats an improvement from when she was very young and would be hospitalized every few months. Not knowing what was wrong with her daughter was frustrating, Villanueva said. She had so many questions for Anahis doctors, and they never had answers. At least the doctors know exactly what she has, and maybe they can treat her better now, she said. I still have questions. They still cant answer them. But its not like before. Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Oops, sorry, wont happen again. Thats the well-worn message from the Department of Motor Vehicles for a string of miscues including hours-long lines, fumbled signups, and now a fresh foul-up: enrolling noncitizens to vote. The state agency the public loves to hate isnt getting better. In the latest mistake, its acknowledging that 1,500 people were incorrectly registered, including noncitizens. Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who oversees elections, wants an outside inquiry, a demand that follows Gov. Jerry Browns requested audit for earlier bungles. Why did President Trump and the Senate barrel ahead with elevating Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court instead of one of the many other conservative judges who could have served the same purpose with less resistance? Justice Neil Gorsuch, for instance, fairly sailed to confirmation with a few Democratic votes. Kavanaughs extraordinary and particular appeal for Trump and company could come down to his readiness to endorse expansive presidential power. The president has constantly tested the boundaries of his authority, and with Special Counsel Robert Mueller rounding up his top associates, the future of his administration may well depend on where those limits lie a question that often falls to the Supreme Court. The new justices first chance to back broad executive authority could come this week as the court considers a request to block depositions of top administration officials in a lawsuit over the plan to add a citizenship question to the next census. The ruling could foreshadow the courts position on high-stakes disputes between Mueller and Trump, who has rebuffed the special counsels attempts to interrogate him. Before Kavanaughs nomination was roiled by sexual assault charges, his views on presidential power featured prominently among the reservations about him. Kavanaugh has written that sitting presidents should be protected from lawsuits and investigations and suggested that United States vs. Nixon, in which the high court ordered the president to cough up the Watergate tapes, was a mistake. These views were more striking given that Kavanaugh once worked for Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Bill Clinton, and advocated aggressive questioning of the Democratic president. Kavanaughs unmoored response to the assault accusation, during which he suggested it was a left-wing plot to avenge the Clintons, did nothing to diminish the impression that the judges opinions could be influenced by partisan considerations. And many of the cases expected to come before the court reflect partisan tensions between the Trump administration and Democratic-governed states such as California, which is at loggerheads with the federal government over immigration, air pollution, online regulation and more. The justice will weigh such cases at a precarious moment for the courts credibility. A new CNN poll found majorities of those surveyed believed the accusations against Kavanaugh, opposed his confirmation and expect his politics to affect his decisions. The controversy has inspired calls to impeach Kavanaugh and weaken the court by packing in more justices or limiting their terms. Kavanaugh said during his ceremonial swearing-in Monday that every American can be assured that I will be an independent and impartial justice. It will take much more than his saying so to assure those Americans who regarded his ascent with dismay. 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. Upcoming political events in the Bay Area. WEDNESDAY Mark DeSaulnier: Town hall meeting hosted by Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord. 6-8 p.m., Plumbers & Steamfitters Local Union 342, 935 Detroit Ave, Concord. Pussy Riot: Nadya Tolokonnikova, founder of the Russian art collective Pussy Riot, discusses her new book Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism. $12.50. 7 p.m., Kanbar Hall, Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St., San Francisco. More information is here. Left, Right and Center: A rollicking examination of national issues, with panelists Ana Marie Cox, host of With Friends Like These; Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle; and Business Insider senior editor Josh Barro. Sponsored by Inforum and NPR member station KCRW. $35, $10 for students. 7-8 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here. Postcarding: A postcarding event encourage voters to turn out for progressive legislative candidates. 6-8 p.m., Richmond Republic Draught House, 642 Clement St., San Francisco. More information is here. Swing left: Donnie Fowler, co-founder of Democracy Labs and a former Clinton administration official, is the guest speaker at a Swing Left San Francisco forum focusing on midterms strategy. Sponsored by Direct Action. 6:30-8 p.m., Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St., San Francisco. More information is here. THURSDAY Danica Roem: Virginia House of Delegates member Danica Roem, the first openly transgender member of a state legislature, discusses her career and life story. Sponsored by Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. $10. 7 p.m., 3200 California St., San Francisco. More information is here. Cage-free chickens: Berkeley Animal Rights Center hosts a discussion on state Proposition 12, which would set square-footage minimums for egg-laying hens, calves grown for veal and pigs. 7:15-8:45 p.m., 2425 Channing Way, Berkeley. More information is here. Progressives in Latin America: Giorgio Jackson, member of Chiles Congress and founder of the Democratic Revolution Party, discusses the challenge for progressives in Latin America. Free. 6-7:30 p.m., Goldman School of Public Policy, Room 250, UC Berkeley. More information is here. Postcarding: Postcard party for progressive California candidates in the midterm elections. Sponsored by Sister District San Francisco. 6-8 p.m., Richmond Republic Draught House, 642 Clement St., San Francisco. More information is here. FRIDAY East Bay candidates forum: Candidates for Oakland City Council District Two, BART Board of Directors District Four and Alameda County assessor take part in a forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters. 6-8 p.m., Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza. More information is here. Kavanaugh and women: A socialist analysis of the role of the Supreme Court under capitalism and the legacy of womens oppression. Sponsored by San Francisco Party for Socialism and Liberation. 7 p.m., 2969 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here. SUNDAY D4 supervisor forum: Candidates for supervisor in San Francisco District Four take part in a forum sponsored by the Outer Sunset/Parkside Residents Association. 6-8:30 p.m., Lawton Alternative School, Lawton Street between 30th and 31st avenues, San Francisco. More information is here. Getting out the vote: Discussion and networking session on getting out the midterm vote. Speakers include Kimberly Ellis, former executive director of Emerge CA; Amy Everitt, state director for NARAL Pro-Choice America; and Scott Forman, founder of Vote Forward.$10. 11 a.m.-2 p.m., AnswerLab, 575 Market St., Suite 2600, San Francisco. More information is here. Postcarding and text-banking: A postcarding, text-banking and letter-writing event for progressive candidates, sponsored by Indivisible SF. 4-7 p.m., Standard Deviant Brewing, 280 14th St., San Francisco. More information is here. MONDAY Constitutional democracy: Aziz Huq, law professor at the University of Chicago, discusses his book How to Save a Constitutional Democracy at the Commonwealth Club. $15 for nonmembers, $10 for students. Noon-1 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here. Kevin Powell: Activist and writer discusses his new collection of essays, My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man. $15. 7-9 p.m., California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here. TUESDAY D4 supervisor forum: Candidates for San Francisco supervisorial District Four participate in a forum sponsored by the Outer Sunset/Parkside Residents Association. 6-8:30 p.m., Ortega Branch Library, 3223 Ortega St., San Francisco. More information is here. New radical majority: D.D. Guttenplan, editor at large for the Nation, and Rabbi Michael Lerner lead a discussion on the rise of a radical new majority in the U.S. $12 in advance, $15 at the door. 7:30 p.m., St. Johns Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave., Berkeley. More information is here. Winning Richmond: Former Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin discusses her new memoir, Winning Richmond: How a Progressive Alliance Won City Hall. Free. 7-8:30 p.m., the Green Arcade, 1680 Market St., San Francisco. More information is here. OCT. 17 Youth vote: New voters and organizers discuss the Nov. 6 election, in an event sponsored by Youth Radio. 5:30-7:30 p.m., Youth Radio arts venue, 1719 Broadway, Oakland. Free. More information is here. Nicaragua: James Quesada, anthropology professor at San Francisco State University, discusses the violence in Nicaragua in response to the April 19 uprising. Free. 1-2 p.m., Room 525, Fine Arts Building, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. More information is here. New citizens: Volunteer to help new citizens to register to vote after morning and afternoon ceremonies. 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. More information is here. OCT. 18 Hacking politics: Keynote address for weekend conference on how the political system is being hacked. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Center for New Media, SFMOMAs Public Knowledge Initiative, the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and Boalt School of Law. Free. 6 p.m., Phyllis Wattis Theater, SFMOMA, 151 Third St., San Francisco. More information is here. Symposium runs from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 19 at 310 Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall, UC Berkeley. More information is here. Berkeley voter information: UC Berkeleys Science Policy Group hosts a voter information night, focuses on state ballot initiatives. 5:30-8:30 p.m., Anthony Hall, UC Berkeley. More information is here. OCT. 19 Socialists and the midterms: A socialist analysis and discussion of the midterm elections, including a report on organizing for state Proposition 10 for rent control. 7 p.m., 2969 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here. OCT. 20 Race and politics: Panel discussion on the impact of race in politics. Sponsored by the African American Community Health Advisory Committee and the African American Library Advisory Committee. 2-4 p.m., San Mateo Public Library, 55 West Third Ave. More information is here. OCT. 23 Women in leadership: Former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and University of California President Janet Napolitano discuss opportunities and challenges for women in leadership. Moderated by Politico California Playbook senior writer Carla Marinucci. Free. 4-5:30 p.m., Banatao Auditorium, UC Berkeley. Registration and more information are here. Rick Wilson: Republican strategist and Daily Beast columnist discusses dark politics in the age of Trump. Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club. $30 for nonmembers, $10 for students. Noon-1 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here. Mark DeSaulnier: Town hall meeting hosted by Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord. 6:30-8 p.m., Lovonya DeJean Middle School multipurpose room, 3400 Macdonald Ave., Richmond. More information is here. OCT. 25 Max Boot: Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow and Washington Post columnist discusses his book The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right at the Commonwealth Club. $25 for nonmembers, $10 for students. Noon-1 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here. OCT. 26 Julian Castro: Former Housing and Urban Development secretary and former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, speaks at the Commonwealth Club. $30 for nonmembers, $10 for students. Noon-1 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here. OCT. 30 Chronicle on the midterms: The propositions, the battles, the blue wave? Chronicle columnists Heather Knight and Phil Matier and senior political writer Joe Garofoli discuss the midterm elections. Moderated by Editor-in-Chief Audrey Cooper. $15, $5 for students. 6:30-8 p.m., Grand Theater, 2665 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here. OCT. 31 Effective progressive politics: Tom Temprano, a City College of San Francisco trustee and legislative aide to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, on how to become an effective progressive politician. Free. 2-3:15 p.m., Room 304, Humanities Building, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. More information is here. NOV. 1 Teaching about homelessness and gentrification: Poverty scholars Leroy Moore and Lisa Tiny Gray-Garcia of Poor Magazine present strategies for how to educate children, youth and adults about poverty, homelessness, racism, disability and displacement. Free. 7 p.m., Humanities Building Poetry Center, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. More information is here. NOV. 7 Jeffrey Rosen: Scholar and author examines constitutional questions and the post-Anthony Kennedy Supreme Court. Sponsored by Commonwealth Club. $25 for nonmembers, $10 for students. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here. NOV. 8 Susan Rice: Former President Barack Obamas national security adviser and U.N. ambassador discusses U.S. foreign policy priorities and national security interests. Sponsored by the World Affairs Council. $40 for nonmembers, $10 for students. 6:30-7:30 p.m., Marines Memorial Theater, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco. More information is here. To list an event, email Politics Editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com Both candidates for governor agree that the cost of housing in California, to rent and own, is too dang high. They concur that the skyrocketing homeless population is a travesty. And they want to help the 1 in 5 Californians who lives in poverty. But thats pretty much all they agree on when it comes to how to make California more affordable. Gavin Newsom, as has been his wont during two decades in public office, is a man with a plan. Fifteen of them, the Democrat says, that will address Californias housing and homelessness problems. John Cox, as has been his wont during his two decades of trying to be elected to office, is a man with a critique. The GOP candidate says all of these plans dont mean a thing if we cant change a lot of these laws that that are driving housing costs through the roof. As for specifics on how hed do that, Cox said, Well talk about that after Im elected governor. Until then, here are some areas where the candidates are trying to address Californias affordability problems: Housing: Both candidates propose building their way out of the housing shortage. Its easier said than done. Newsom aims to build 500,000 new homes a year until 2025, a goal he concedes is audacious probably because California has built more than 300,000 homes in a year only twice in the past six decades, according to the Construction Industry Research Board. Newsom offers several carrot-and-stick ideas on how to get there. One carrot: California now offers $85 million annually in tax credits for developers to spur the construction of affordable housing. Newsom proposes increasing the states share to $500 million, which he estimates would generate an additional investment of $1.5 billion to $2 billion in new affordable housing production. The stick: Hed work with regional agencies to withhold transportation funding to cities that dont build the number of units they commit to in their state-required housing plans. Cox wants to build 3 million units over the next decade. The focal point of his housing program revolves around reforming the California Environmental Quality Act, colloquially known as CEQA. He said eliminating many of the laws provisions and government red tape would speed production of housing. Homelessness: Cox said that as mayor of San Francisco, Newsom didnt solve the homeless problem here at all. And its gotten worse a statement that the nonpartisan PolitiFact found to be half right. The homeless population on the street dropped 31 percent during Newsoms tenure, but the overall number of people without full-time shelter increased by a little more than 1,000, according to PolitiFact. Cox proposes quadrupling the renters tax credit to help people preserve their housing. But he offers few ideas on how hed get people off the streets beyond broad statements about how California should enter into more public-private partnerships with nonprofit organizations. He would fund these programs by ending construction on what he calls boondoggles like the train to nowhere Californias $77 billion high-speed rail project. Newsom offers several ideas on how to reduce homelessness, most of which involve offering incentives, instead of a direct handout, to developers and cities to build housing. He proposes offering block grants to counties for homeless programs, so they can tailor help to whats best for their population. He would offer tax credits to landlords who rent space to homeless people, to developers who build permanent supportive housing, and to employers who hire homeless people. Rent control and other state ballot measures: Both candidates oppose Proposition 10, which would repeal a state law that restricts cities ability to impose rent control, which critics say would discourage housing construction. Both support Proposition 1, a $4 billion bond measure that includes $3 billion for construction and preservation of affordable rental housing and $1 billion for loans for veterans to buy homes and farms. Both support Proposition 2, which would enable the state to spend $2 billion from a 2004 mental health bond measure on housing for homeless people. Cox supports Proposition 5, which would let homeowners 55 and older and all disabled homeowners move anywhere in California and keep their Proposition 13-level property taxes. Proponents say it would free up housing in high-demand areas. Critics say it would hurt local budgets and benefit mainly wealthy people. Newsom opposes the initiative. What about taxes? Both Newsom and Cox say theyre dissatisfied with Californias tax structure, which relies heavily on revenue from income taxes that keep the state flush during good times, but dry up when the economy turns south. But they differ on whether one solution is to change Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot measure that capped property taxes, so that more of the burden falls on businesses and less on homeowners. Cox, who wants to cut income taxes, would leave Prop. 13 alone. Cox does say he would create a commission to come up with a revenue-neutral plan to reform the states tax structure. Newsom said that everything would be on the table, including Prop. 13. He would like to broaden the tax burden, saying 85 percent of Californias economy is not taxed. He points out that many states include taxes on services that California doesnt. Like Cox, he would convene a group to recommend changes to the system. Gas tax: Cox has been a leading supporter of Proposition 6, which would repeal the $52 billion increase in gas taxes and vehicle license fees that is earmarked for road and transportation upgrades. He says the tax disproportionately hits working-class Californians who have to drive long distances to work because they cant afford to live near their jobs. Newsom supports the tax, saying its the best way to fix worst-in-the-nation roads, and points out that Cox hasnt identified how hed pay for upgrades other than promising audits to root out waste and abuse in state government. Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli President Trump supporters lock her up chant has a new her: Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The crowd at Trumps campaign rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, broke into the chant Tuesday night during Trumps riff on Democrats, Feinstein and the attempted-rape allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The chants of lock her up broke out spontaneously as Trump was accusing the California Democrat of leaking the letter that Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford wrote to Feinstein and Rep. Anna Eshoo, detailing the assault that she says Kavanaugh committed at a party when they were both in high school. Feinstein has adamantly denied that her office was the source of media accounts of the letter, in which Ford asked that her name and charges be kept confidential. After reporters began showing up at her home and classes, Ford went public with her story to the Washington Post. On Tuesday night, Trump mocked Feinsteins denial during the Kavanaugh hearings that she or her staff leaked the letter. How about Sen. Feinstein, thats another beauty, Trump said, mispronouncing her name as Fein-steen as the crowd booed. Did you leak the documents? he said, then mimicked Feinsteins denial and her brief consultation with a staffer behind her at the hearings. What? What? No, I didnt, he said. She goes, No. He just said no, we didnt leak. The crowd then broke out into the lock her up chant, which became popular with Trumps supporters during the 2016 campaign in reference to his election opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump chuckled and shook his head, and let the chant continue for a few seconds. And I think theyre talking about Feinstein, can you believe it? he asked before returning to his riff. Now was that the worst body language? Honestly. In other words, did she leak it? 100 percent. No, I dont want to get sued, 99 percent. In a statement, Feinstein said Trumps comments were ridiculous. Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence she and her lawyers said so repeatedly, Feinstein said. Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasnt me or my staff. The presidents remarks are ridiculous and an embarrassment. The attacks on Feinstein were part of a longer riff Trump has been working on the campaign trail that Democrats are an angry left-wing mob and akin to an arsonist. Besides Feinstein, Trump attacked several other Democrats by name Tuesday, including potential 2020 presidential candidates Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. The president fired up his base by saying Democrats would turn the U.S. into Venezuela, a theme that dovetailed with an op-ed Trump penned Wednesday in USA Today. Tal Kopan is the San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com. Twitter @talkopan The image, indelible now in my own hippocampus, is that of a hand over her mouth. Christine Blasey Ford painfully and painstakingly testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee how the man who assaulted her held her down and covered her mouth. In the moment she feared he might accidentally kill her. What the hand actually did do, of course, was shut her up. At least, until 36 long years later. One year ago on Oct. 15, the #MeToo hashtag blew up in the wake of accusations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein. With the New York Times coverage a dam was breached, and pent-up accounts of sexual harassment and assault poured from hundreds, thousands of women. First shared across social media, then in hundreds of articles and news segments and countless plain conversations, these stories unburied deeply personal but too-universal pain. Now Playing: A year of #MeToo has amplified women's voices. But how do we change the minds of those who hear, but will not listen? Join us for a #MeTooBayArea discussion. Video: Brandpoint In this past year, it seemed that every few weeks a high-profile man was called out for sexual harassment. CEOs, news anchors, performers and restaurateurs resigned in the accusations wake; one, Bill Cosby, is going to jail. Many women, including myself, heard what seemed to be the loud, inexorable voice of change. But it was not inexorable. In Year One, hundreds of women found the courage to tell their stories, and the stories had consequences. But only to a point. Many women chose not to share, for multiple reasons, and for those who did, there was, and always was, the threat of the hand over the mouth. The sobering lesson in Year One is that telling ones story is not enough. Blasey Ford was heard. But many women feel that those in power did not listen. Post Kavanaugh appointment, thats the real spark to the wildfire of fury: The raw fact that no matter what you say, or how eloquently or clearly or loudly you say it, you can still be ignored, if the power you speak to does not want or need to listen. The final marker in a year of #MeToo is a hand over a womans mouth. For many women, being told Sh, not so loud, be quiet is a familiar experience, and that familiarity explains why #MeToo touched so many. Ive never been assaulted. The harassment Ive experienced is so mild compared to that of many other women. But over 40 years of school, then professional life, I can vividly recall indelible in the hippocampus those critical times when what I had to say, and by extension who I was, was belittled, laughed at or simply passed over. In my current workplace and in my marriage Ive been able to find and hold my voice. But its something that took me years of practice, and it is not something I will ever take for granted. Whats next for #MeToo? Join the discussion live at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 10, at www.facebook.com/SFChronicle. And let us know what you think about the past year and what the coming year may hold via metoo@sfchronicle.com or #MeTooBayArea. See More Collapse A few weeks ago I was at the Whitney Museum in New York to see the retrospective of David Wojnarowicz, an artist and activist who was radicalized by the emergence of AIDS and the particular homophobia of America. The exhibition was rich with his photography and paintings, and it pulled me back to the 1980s and 90s, recalling not only the devastation of the disease but the fierce shout that arose from gay men who would not be ignored. The most memorable moment wasnt one work of art. It was a white cube of a room with seating along the walls. No paintings, no images at all. Visitors simply sat and listened to recordings of Wojnarowicz speaking or reading from his own writings. He was funny and passionate and, not the least, he was unrelenting. He wasnt asking to be heard but demanding it. He was a member of the protest organization ACT UP, whose slogans included Silence = Death. He would not be silenced. Wojnarowicz died in 1992, but in that white room, through his words and his writing, he was entirely alive. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. I thought of the artist, and the phrase Silence = Death, in these days following the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. Ford chose, 36 years later, to publicly remove the hand over her mouth. Every struggle for change requires such an end to silence. But then, the next stage to change the minds of those who might hear but will not listen begins. Kitty Morgan is the San Francisco Chronicles features editor. Twitter: @Kitty_Morgan On Oct. 15, 2017, after weeks of news reports about sexual assault allegations by dozens of women being leveled at Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men, survivors took to social media to say #MeToo. It was a rallying cry, one of empathy, for those who had experienced sexual assault and harassment to share their stories and encourage others to do so as well. While the hashtag gained life after actress Alyssa Milano used it to share her own story, those words of solidarity had been used to comfort survivors for years. Activist Tarana Burke has been using them since 2006 to empower women who had experienced sexual abuse particularly women of color in underprivileged communities. The hashtag brought with it a year full of allegations that would see men in multiple fields politics, arts, education, comedy finally held accountable for their actions. The emotion that made #MeToo such a powerful tool had been building locally for months, as well if not years. During the summer, the tech industry had a number of high-profile departures. Travis Kalanick of Uber, Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital and Dave McClure of 500 Startups were all forced to resign from their perspective positions after facing allegations of misconduct. Years earlier, the Brock Turner case became a flashpoint for sexual assault survivors and would eventually see a judge removed from office. Below is a timeline of other #MeToo moments that rocked the Bay Area in the year since the hashtag went viral. Oct. 17, 2017 Two days after #MeToo goes viral, more than 240 women working around Californias Capitol lawmakers, lobbyists and legislative staffers signed an open letter to declare that sexual harassment, and a culture that encourages it, exists in Sacramento. The letter said many women in the Capitol had kept their stories quiet, worried it could detail their careers. Read the story here. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Oct. 27, 2017 Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) releases a YouTube video in which she details her own sexual assault many years earlier while working as a congressional aide. She encourages other members of Congress and the people working for them to go public with their own stories and add their voices to the growing chorus of the #MeToo movement. Read the story here. Courtesy ICA Dec. 4, 2017 Jens Hoffmann, a onetime director of San Franciscos CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, was suspended and then fired from his position at New York Citys Jewish Museum after staff members came forward with allegations of sexual harassment. Read the story here. Catherine Bigelow / Special to The Chronicle Dec. 12, 2017 In a bombshell New York Times report, 10 women came forward to accuse New York restaurateur Ken Friedman of sexual misconduct and assault. They said Friedmans actions had included unwanted kissing, groping and other sexual advances. Friedman had taken over North Beachs historic Tosca Cafe in 2013 with chef April Bloomfield. In June 2018, Bloomfield announced Friedman no longer had any ownership stake or other involvement in the cafe. Read the story here. Getty Images / Getty Images Dec. 22, 2017 The San Francisco Symphony severed ties with conductor Charles Dutoit. The two-time Grammy winner faced allegations that he had assaulted four women between 1985 and 2010. As The Chronicles Joshua Kosman reported, he was accused of grabbing their breasts, pushing himself against them and forcibly kissing them. Five other orchestras throughout the country also distanced themselves from Dutoit. Read the story here. Sam Wolson / Special to the Chronicle Dec. 27, 2017 Oakland chef Charlie Hallowell faced numerous allegations of sexual assault and verbal abuse from 17 former employees. He announced he would be stepping away from day-to-day operations of his businesses, which included Pizzaiolo, Boot & Shoe Service and Penrose, after the employees detailed their experiences in interviews with The Chronicles Tara Duggan. He has since expressed interest in returning to the industry, and made tentative steps to do so. Read the story here. Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle Jan. 5, 2018 Eight women accused Jeremy Tooker, the founder of Four Barrel Coffee, of sexual misconduct in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court. The suit included alleged incidents where Tooker assaulted a female employee in a hotel room; grabbed another female employees neck with enough force to cause soreness; and threatened to fire a staff member for speaking to a former Four Barrel employee. Tooker left Four Barrel and sold his shares in the company. Read the story here. Michael Macor / The Chronicle Jan. 22, 2018 Ten women spoke with The Chronicles Jill Tucker and detailed sexual harassment by a popular driving instructor, Nelson Graves. The women said Graves, the owner of Native Nellie's Driving School, had harassed and groped underage San Francisco schoolgirls for a number of years. They spoke about him making sexual comments, forcing kisses on many, and in some cases taking them to secluded places before touching them inappropriately. Graves denied the allegations. Read the story here. Tony Avelar / Special to The Chronicle Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. June 3, 2018 Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky the man who oversaw the Brock Turner case became the first California judge to be recalled in more than 80 years. A campaign to remove the judge from his post got under way after Persky sentenced Turner to six months in jail. Turner had been found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman three years earlier. Read the story here. Sarah Rice / Special to The Chronicle June 8, 2018 Disney announced that John Lasseter, the longtime artistic leader of its Pixar division, would be leaving the company at the end of the year. Lasseter had already been on a six-month sabbatical after acknowledging missteps with fellow employees in a Nov. 2017 memo. I especially want to apologize to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape or form, he wrote in the memo. Read the story here. Bob Riha Jr. / Getty Images Sept. 7, 2018 KQED reported on widespread sexual harassment and assault in Bay Area yoga studios. Seven women came forward with allegations about five instructors, ranging from inappropriate massage to a violating touch in class, from drugging to unlawful sex with a minor. Read the story here. Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Sept. 20, 2018 #MeToo activists came for state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) after he criticized how U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., handled Christine Blasey Fords attempted-rape allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. De Leon said Feinstein had shown a failure of leadership for staying quiet about the allegations initially, though Ford had requested anonymity. Activists said de Leon had himself dragged his feet on taking action in the state Senate while allegations in the Capitol were coming to a boil. Read the story here. Read the story here. Ryan Kost is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkost@sfchronicle.com. While Hawaii has long been known for its coffee and macadamia nut industries, the islands are now cultivating a reputation for hemp with the help of a former Bay Area resident. Under the Industrial Hemp Pilot Program started in June, the state can issue hemp growers licenses and provide seeds to farmers for a fiber and grain varietal of the plant. Steve Sakala, who worked as a hemp activist in San Francisco and Oakland in the 2000s before becoming CEO and co-founder of Mana Artisan Botanics, is optimistic that approval for a hemp varietal with cannabidiol, or CBD a non-intoxicating, therapeutic compound also found in marijuana will come soon. Headquartered on Hawaii Island, Sakalas company creates infusions, mostly oils, that rely on local organic ingredients combined with CBD that currently comes from Colorado. About five years ago I traveled to Colorado in search of a CBD hemp variety that would grow well in Hawaii, Sakala recalls. I wanted to get a start on genetic testing and development; a Hawaii-based CBD product line was already a vision at that time. Mana describes its offerings as infused with aloha, which to Sakala means they are crafted with respect for the land and well-being of the people. Its best-seller is the Hawaiian Turmeric Hemp Oil 3X, made with macadamia nut oil, turmeric, vanilla bean and hemp extract. A massage oil and pet products will be introduced this month. Some of Manas ingredients are grown on Sakalas own land, Honaunau Farm, including the turmeric used in the hemp oils; comfrey and plantain in the Hawaiian Herbal Hemp Salve; and passionflower in the Hawaiian Sleep Hemp Tincture. The farm a macadamia nut orchard that he purchased in 2007 and to which he has added fruit trees and medicinal plants, along with milking sheep and goats engages in sustainable practices such as soil regeneration, rainwater catchment and solar power. It also offers wellness retreats, lodgings and educational tours (www.honaunaufarm.com). According to Sakala, since opening last year, Manas business has grown 1,500 percent. In 2015, the hemp market was approximately $90 million, which Hemp Business Journal estimates will balloon to $450 million by 2020. But Sakala is no bandwagoner. Reading Jack Herers The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy 27 years ago was eye-opening for him, he says. I realized that prohibition of cannabis was for corporate gain, and hemp had been an essential part of American and world history, Sakala says. In the mid-90s, the Southern California native enrolled at Humboldt State University, where he earned a degree in natural resources and city planning. He then spent four years in the Peace Corps, including building sustainable agricultural demonstrations in the Gambia. Upon his return to the States, Sakala lived in the Bay Area, devoting his days to hemp activism and nonprofit work. While vacationing on the Big Island in 2005, Sakala says, he encountered like-minded folks interested in sustainable agriculture design and subsequently relocated there and founded Mana. Where to shop Mana Artisan Botanics: www.manabotanics.com See More Collapse I was able to connect my passion for the wellness benefits of cannabis with sustainable agriculture and community focus, Sakala says. I believe this is one of the primary reasons our products stand out: Not only are they good for the body, they are good for the soil and our community. Anh-Minh Le is a freelance writer. Email: travel@sfchronicle.com The last king of Hawaii, David Kalakaua, has strong associations with San Francisco: It was his first stop on a world tour in 1881, as well as where he died a decade later, while staying at the Palace Hotel. Passionate about the arts, innovation and travel, the monarch would likely have been at home in todays San Francisco, too, as a new exhibition at the Honolulu Museum of Art reveals. The king was incredibly forward-thinking, says Healoha Johnston, curator of Hooulu Hawaii: The King Kalakaua Era, which runs through Jan. 27. His initiatives were much bigger than people often consider. Case in point: After meeting Thomas Edison in New York, Kalakaua introduced electricity to Iolani Palace several years before it was added to the White House. Although celebrated for his revival of the ancient tradition of hula, the Merrie Monarch also supported the integration of Native Hawaiian and global concepts into a national identity that was cosmopolitan and diverse. The roughly 130 objects in the show explore facets of Hawaiian art and culture that flourished during his reign, which began in 1874. Some are on view for the first time, including original photographs that had previously been reproduced or circulated but never publicly displayed, and, says Johnston, they showcase an under-researched area of Hawaiian art history. On exhibit "Hooulu Hawaii: The King Kalakaua Era," through Jan. 27. Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu. www.honolulumuseum.org See More Collapse Among significant items are a cape, painstakingly hand-constructed of pheasant and fowl feathers, that belonged to Kalakauas wife, Queen Kapiolani; a diptych of the Honolulu Harbor in 1836 and 1886, painted by Joseph Strong, an artist who spent time living in the Bay Area; and a uniform designed for the government officials who accompanied the king on his 1881 world tour. With fewer than 15 percent of the items on view coming from the Honolulu Museum of Art, Johnstons curating also reflects a spirit of innovation. Since the collections that are very rich during this time period live with the Iolani Palace, Bishop Museum, Hawaii State Archives and Mission Houses, I wanted to develop a collaborative relationship so that we could all take part in this exhibition, she says. This exhibition brings together a lot of highlights from museums and repositories that have not seen the light of day, Johnston continues. It recasts Hawaiian art history in a new way. The show includes interactive elements as well: DJ Mermaid devised a playlist to correspond with various pieces and an iPad station allows visitors to create their own royal order. Along with a mini-guide for younger museumgoers and an audio tour, these features add another dimension to the experience, says Johnston. Were engaging different audiences and, hopefully, the exhibition offers something for everyone. Kualoa Ranch, a 3,800-acre emerald swath of Oahus Windward Side, has appeared on screens large and small many times. Its impossibly lush valleys and steep green mountains play supporting roles in the Jurassic Park series, 50 First Dates and Windtalkers, as well as the TV series Lost, Magnum, P.I. and Hawaii Five-0, among others. But it took a former chef from Santa Cruz to shine a unique spotlight on Kualoas agricultural bounty. Jim Denevan, creator of the Outstanding in the Field cross-country outdoor dinner series, will kick off its 20th anniversary by returning to Kualoa Ranch in early 2019, for the fourth consecutive year. While organizers have yet to finalize details, in previous years Denevan tapped locally renowned chef Andrew Le of the Pig and the Lady to incorporate the coastal ranchs beef, seafood and produce into his Vietnamese-influenced cuisine, paired with one of Kualoa Ranchs most spectacular venues. We were right in the mouth of Kaaawa Valley, one of the most beautiful valleys on the island, if not the state, looking straight back into this gorgeous valley with a 250-person-long table in the middle of the pasture, recalls Taylor Kellerman, the ranchs director of diversified agriculture and land stewardship, who has participated in each of the dinners. Youve got these very high-end food crafters, youve got this beautiful setting, and the food tends to be simple but incredibly good. Its like when you try something when youre camping and its just incredible but never tastes that way at home. Outstanding in the Field events ($225 and up) always begin with a cocktail hour and half-hour guided tours before a four-course feast at one long table. At Kualoa Ranch, tours showcase fields of papaya, banana and cacao and crops such as turmeric, dragonfruit and vanilla that are grown inside a shade house. The ranch also cultivates taro, pineapple, mango, breadfruit and leafy greens, and raises Pacific white shrimp, oysters and tilapia, along with more than 600 head of cattle. Last year, we set up three stations within the farm, so that at each station we were able to talk about our aquaculture, our grass-fed beef production and our produce, Kellerman says. We could be in this beautiful setting and talk about all the things that we produce, and people really seemed to get into it. Its that kind of enthusiasm for sustainable farming that Denevan was hoping to create when he started the table-to-farm series, now nearing its 1,000th dinner. Planting seeds, tending them and harvesting them is hard work, he says. Rather than being an environmental gathering that talks about all the negative things in the world, we do it instead in a celebratory way, celebrating the harvest. In 1999, pop-up dining wasnt something people did, he notes, but the early adopters of Outstanding in the Field soon became a long list of regulars. The communal dinners make people feel connected, and that theyd like to connect, he adds. For more information Outstanding in the Field: www.outstandinginthefield.com Kualoa Ranch: www.kualoa.com. See More Collapse Many events sell out quickly, especially in California, where Outstanding in the Field stages dinners in spring, early summer and fall at sites such as McEvoy Ranch near Petaluma, Adelaida Vineyards & Winery in Paso Robles and Thorne Family Farm in Malibu. Summer also sees visits to the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, Northeast and Canada; since 2012, winter has brought Denevan and his seven-person crew to Hawaii initially to Mao Organic Farms on Oahus Leeward Side, where they worked with celebrated chef and restaurateur Ed Kenney. At Kualoa, the return patrons are definitely quite a few, says Kellerman. The last two years, by the time it hit the local newspaper, it had sold out. Beauty brand Deciem has closed a number of its stores suddenly, following a rambling video posted Monday to social media by its founder and CEO claiming "major criminal activity" within the company. Brandon Truaxe announced that the Toronto-based brand's stores will be closed "until further notice, which will be about two months" in an Instagram video posted to Deciem's official account. By Tuesday, several media outlets were reporting that various Deciem stores, both internationally and in the United States, were closed to the public. Calls to the San Francisco location on Grant Avenue went unanswered, and the business was listed as permanently closed via Google. In the video, Truaxe told viewers, "Almost everyone at Deciem has been involved in a major criminal activity, which includes financial crimes and much other. You have no idea what a soldier I've been for more than 13 years." The caption to the video invoked a number of names associated with the brand, including makeup company Estee Lauder who bought a minority 28 percent stake in the company in June 2017 and a number of hotel and clothing brands, even naming Hollywood actors Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the unintelligible diatribe. An employee email leaked to Cosmopolitan UK instructed employees to shutter the United Kingdom stores immediately, leaving only one branch open, with plans to open again in 2019. Monday's video is just the latest in a string of incidents involving Truaxe, however, this is perhaps the first time all of its stores have been completely shuttered since the brand's inception. Previously, Truaxe has come under fire after taking over the brand's social media accounts, posting personal content, arguing with people in the comments, sparring with other beauty lines, and even breaking off business partnerships via Instagram. In addition, an investigation into the company by fashion site Racked had former employees typifying the business as "disorganized," and stating they've heard management yelling at employees, as well as witnessing "inappropriate behavior" from managers, according to the February 2018 article. (The company, in turn, denied these allegations and invited the publication to observe its headquarters in Toronto.) The cult-favorite brand earned much of its following thanks to one of its affordable beauty product lines, The Ordinary. Kim Kardashian West counts herself as a fan of the company, which was founded in 2013 and owns about 30 store locations globally. The brand was projected to take in $300 million in sales in 2018, according to Elle. Request for comment on the store closures were not immediately returned by Deciem. 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. Jack London is probably best remembered for The Call of the Wild, his epic dog story thats far more than just a story about a dog. Like all of Londons work, it is a parable about the power of the environment. While the novel is set in the ice and snow of the Yukon, the canine protagonist Buck is as much a Californian as his creator, who was born on Third Street in San Francisco to an unwed mother, on Jan. 12, 1876, was raised in Oakland and died at Beauty Ranch, his estate in Glen Ellen, on Nov. 22, 1916. On the 100th anniversary of his death, fans here and around the world might begin to honor his legacy by reading his 1902 lyrical essay, The Golden Poppy, a love song to the state flower and to the spectacular landscape in which it thrived. From a poppy field in the hills of Oakland the starting place for the essay London describes San Francisco across the bay, Mount Tamalpais in Marin, the Golden Gate, as yet un-bridged, and the Pacific Ocean that he would sail on his sloop, the Snark. Beneath lies all the world, London wrote, and meant readers to take him both literally and figuratively. In San Francisco Bay and in the cities, towns, mountains and valleys that surround it, London saw a reflection of the universe itself, much as he saw the vastness of life in a single poppy. Recently, filmmakers like Ben Goldstein and biographers like Earle Labor have portrayed London as An American Original and as a walking, talking advertisement for the American Life. In the rush to turn him into a writer with national appeal, they have neglected him as a native son of the golden West and the Bay Area in particular. In 1900, when Houghton Mifflin, his stuffy Boston publisher, asked him for a biography, he dispatched a letter in which he described himself as a bay-faring adventurer and hastened to add, San Francisco is no mill pond by the way. Bostonians, he assumed, might not have known. Moreover, in his letter, London listed the jobs hed taken in and around the bay: salmon fisher, oyster pirate, schooner sailor, fish patrolman and longshoreman. Before he turned to the typewriter, he worked at hard physical labor in an era when the Bay Area boasted factories, shipyards and working-class neighborhoods with lively cultures, radical politics and trade union movements. The Bay Area gave birth to London and nurtured him until his death at 40. He returned the favor by writing about it lovingly in essays like The Golden Poppy, and in novels like Martin Eden, The Valley of the Moon, The Star Rover and The Iron Heel. The Call of the Wild and White Fang both take place in the Yukon, though Call begins in California and White Fang ends there. The Star Rover begins and ends in San Quentin. Martin Eden unfolds in Oakland and San Francisco. From her secret hideout in Sonoma, the narrator in The Iron Heel tells a riveting tale about the coming of a dictatorship to the United States. The Valley of the Moon follows the journey of an Oakland wife and husband as they travel from the East Bay to Carmel and then to Glen Ellen, where they buy land and settle down. Beginning in his teens, and then all through his adult years, London traveled widely and wrote profoundly about Mexico, England and Hawaii, and about Japan and Korea, where he served as a war correspondent for the San Francisco Examiner. His wanderlust took him far from home, but there was no way that travel could ever remove home from his heart. London loved California and thought of himself as a Californian, while East Coast publishers and editors labeled him a California outdoorsman who played as hard as he worked: rode horseback, boxed and often composed his books in the open air. To describe London as a Bay Area writer isnt meant as a slap in the face. Readers usually depict William Faulkner as a Southerner. They call Emily Dickinson a New Englander. In their own localities, both Faulkner and Dickinson tapped into the universal and the cosmic. So did London. Now, on the 100th anniversary of his death, we might remember that he ran unsuccessfully twice for mayor of Oakland, and that as a cub reporter he worked for William Randolph Hearst. Moreover, he attended UC Berkeley, cheered Cal against Stanford in the Big Game, and also photographed and described the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. We might think of London as one of the great-grandfathers of 20th century California literature who set the stage for Jack Kerouac, who went to California to experience the kinds of adventures that took London to the edge of the map and back home. Then, too, writers like Cheryl Strayed, the author of Wild, look like the literary great-granddaughters of the mythmaker who reinvented the wild in his breakthrough novel, The Call of the Wild, that still calls to Californians and to the soul of California that lives in readers everywhere. Jonah Raskin is the editor of The Radical Jack London: Writings on War and Revolution. Email: books@sfchronicle.com Googles new Pixel phones mirror an industry trend toward lusher, bigger screens and add twists on the camera for better pictures. The third generation of Pixel phones, unveiled Tuesday at an event in New York, features screens that span from one edge to another. Its the first time Google has embraced the format, which Samsung has had for a few years and Apple adopted last year. But Google is undercutting Apple on price. The Pixel 3 will be available Oct. 18 starting at $799 $200 below the least expensive iPhone XS. A larger version, the Pixel 3 XL, costs $100 more. Google is also hiring photographer Annie Leibovitz to take pictures with the new Pixel in an effort to persuade consumers that its camera is superior. The camera promises better low-light and close-up shots by using artificial-intelligence software to combine shots taken in succession. It will also warn you if someone blinked or if the shot is otherwise poor. The camera automatically takes about three seconds of shots, at lower resolution, and will recommend an alternative. The Pixel joins LGs V40 in sporting a second front lens to fit more people into selfies. But it lacks a zoom lens on either side, something available on some iPhones and Samsung phones. Instead, Google uses software to mimic that effect. Beyond the camera, Google is using artificial intelligence to help screen calls. Just tap on a button for Googles voice assistant to ask the caller about the purpose of the call. You see a transcript of the response on the screen. You can choose to pick up or ignore the call. Callers are warned that they are talking to a robot and that a transcript would be made. Although the Pixels have barely made a dent in the market since their release two years ago, Google uses them to highlight what it considers to be the best features of its Android operating system. A previously announced feature in which software will call businesses to make appointments and restaurant reservations for you will debut on the Pixel first, for instance initially in the Bay Area, New York, Atlanta and Phoenix. IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said the Pixel 3 doesnt break new ground on hardware, but software is a different story. Its mostly about convenience here. As usual, the Pixel phones focus heavily on Googles search engine, maps, digital assistant and YouTube video service. Google has sold an estimated 7 million Pixels over the past two years, almost imperceptible next to the 3.6 billion phones shipped during that time, according to IDC. Apple alone sold 388 million iPhones during the same period. Tuesdays announcements come a day after Google disclosed a flaw that could have exposed personal information of up to 500,000 users of its Plus social network. Google declined to address that further Tuesday, though executives emphasized privacy and security throughout the event in New York. For instance, the cameras features for better shots will take advantage of software on the device itself, so that nothing gets sent to Googles servers unless you enable a backup feature with Google Photos. The Pixel 3 will have a new chip, called Titan, to store keys to the most sensitive information, including those needed to unlock the phone and unscramble stored data. Many other phones already have similar hardware for security. Google also showed off its Home Hub, which couples a small display screen with an internet-connected speaker. Thats similar to Amazons Echo Show and a new Facebook device called Portal. In another apparent nod to privacy concerns, Google didnt put a camera on its Home Hub like Amazon and Facebook did with their respective devices to enable video calls. Again, Google is attacking its rivals on price. The Home Hub will sell for $149 when it comes to stores Oct. 22. The new version of the Echo Show starts at $229, while the least expensive Facebook Portal sells for $199. Theres also an upcoming tablet featuring Googles home-grown Chrome OS system. It will run Android apps, but offer functions more like a desktop. The Pixel Slate starts at $599; a keyboard costs $199 more and a stylus lists at $99. Anick Jesdanun and Michael Liedtke are Associated Press writers. WASHINGTON The Trump administration will begin cracking down on foreign investment in sensitive U.S. industries like technology and telecommunications, saying Wednesday that it will start using new powers that give the United States greater authority to review and block Chinese and other international transactions that pose a threat to national security. The expanded review system, which Congress passed into law this summer, will apply to a wide array of foreign transactions but is aimed primarily at China, which the administration has accused of trying to gain an unfair edge by acquiring valuable technology through investments or partnerships with U.S. companies. These temporary regulations address specific risks to U.S. critical technology, while working toward implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. The toughened investment policy is the latest attempt by President Trump to punish Beijing over its trade practices, including cyberespionage and a pattern of pressuring U.S. technology companies doing business in China to hand over valuable trade secrets. It comes on top of tariffs that the United States has placed on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports, and it is expected to exacerbate tensions between the worlds two largest economic powers, which have engaged in increasingly harsh exchanges. Chinese officials canceled a trip to Washington late last month to resume trade talks after Trump moved ahead with a round of tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. On Monday, Chinas foreign minister, Wang Yi, chided the Trump administration for ceaselessly elevating trade tensions and casting a shadow over relations between the two countries. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was visiting Beijing for talks, said the United States has a fundamental disagreement with China on the issues that it raised. The administrations trade measures have already chilled Chinese investment in the United States, which fell more than 90 percent from the first half of 2017 to the first half of 2018, to its lowest level in seven years, according to Rhodium Group. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that it will begin a pilot program using new powers under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act. The law expands the purview of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency panel led by the Treasury Department that can block acquisitions on national security grounds, and the department is moving swiftly to take advantage of its new tools. Until now, only takeovers and controlling stakes in U.S. companies could be reviewed. Under the pilot program, the committee will be able to review a much wider array of deals, including joint ventures and smaller investments by foreigners in U.S. businesses that make technology deemed critical for national security reasons. Beginning Nov. 10, the panel can review and block a deal if a foreign investor takes a stake in a business that makes sensitive technology and if that investor gains potential access to nonpublic technical information or can engage in substantial decision-making over the company, such as getting a board seat. The expanded review system will apply to businesses that design or produce technology related to 27 industries, including telecommunications, semiconductors and computers. Foreign investors will be required to submit declarations notifying the panel of their intentions when making a bid. If they fail to do so, they could be assessed a fine up to the value of the transaction. In a briefing with reporters Tuesday, senior Treasury Department officials emphasized that the program would not be focused on China and would apply to any foreign investors. But the White House has been looking for ways to prevent China from harnessing U.S. technology in critical sectors, such as the next generation of wireless technology known as 5G, and it has taken aim at Chinas plan to dominate cutting-edge industries, known as Made in China 2025. According to Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group and think tank, 56 percent of Chinese investments in the United States last year were in industries that Beijing defines as strategic, such as aviation, biotechnology and new-energy vehicles up from 25 percent in 2016. The law, which passed with bipartisan support, gave the Treasury Department 18 months to develop rules to implement the panels new powers, but the program announced Wednesday will allow the laws provisions to be put in place more quickly. Alan Rappeport is a New York Times writer. If you're confused or disheartened about the availability, cost and performance of wi-fi on airlines, wait 'til you go on a cruise: A new study zeroes in on the significant variations in the data speed and expense of Internet service on many leading cruise lines, but it leaves many gaps as well. All of which should sound familiar to frequent flyers. Frontier Bundles, part of a company that packages and sells communications services, took an in-depth look at wi-fi services available to cruise passengers, and found out that some major lines are anything but transparent. Frontier Bundles "Figuring out the numbers for cruise ship internet cost and speed was not easy," a company spokesperson told us. "We emailed, called, and tweeted for weekseven went into a cruise office to ask questions in personuntil 11 cruise lines from our original list of 20 got back to us with the information we needed. "We were surprised at the lack of transparency regarding something as simple as Internet speeds. Several of the cruise lines refused to provide any information on speedsome stated that speeds were too variable depending on location and weather and others outright stated that they didn't share this information publicly." For instance, the study provides information on Carnival Corporation's flagship line, Carnival Cruises, but it drew a blank on some of the holding company's other major brands like Princess Cruises, Holland America and Cunard. And at least one of the 11 lines included in the study Germany's Hapag-Lloyd Cruises isn't really relevant to the U.S. market. And while Viking Ocean Cruises' new fleet ranked at the top, wi-fi on its sister Viking River Cruises leaves a lot to be desired, as Chris found on a recent voyage up the Danube. (Read his review of that trip here.) In any case, here's what they found: It's hard to generalize about anything. Average Wi-Fi speeds vary from less than 5 Mbps to 25 Mbps, and the study had to rely on speed data provided by the cruise lines. And even then, it comes with a caveat: "Actual Wi-Fi speeds will vary by many factors, including but not limited to weather conditions and cruise ship locations," Frontier Bundles said. As for pricing, a few high-end luxury lines like Silversea and Crystal Cruises provide Internet access as part of the fare. click through slideshow at the top for a look at rankings But in most cases, passengers will have to decide how much they want to be online, since the lines tend to offer packages based on usage. For instance, Royal Caribbean one of the largest lines, with more than two dozen ships offers a basic web surfing plan priced at $12.99 to $15.99 per device per day, or an upgraded "surf and stream" package at $16.99 to $19.99 per device per day. The study said Royal Caribbean's Internet speed averages about 5Mbps for both downloads and uploads. So using a single device every day on a week-long cruise could add $91 to $140 to your tab. Rather than pricing by the hour or the day, you might run into prices based on data levels. Family-oriented Disney Cruise Line, for instance (with a high average download speed of 25 Mbps), has an email plan that costs $60 for up to 200MB of data; a $120 surfing plan for up to 500MB; and unlimited usage plans that vary by cruise length and itinerary but usually start at $250 for a seven-day cruise. The variations in data speed and in pricing by time vs. data levels can make comparisons difficult. Azamara Club Cruises, a top-end luxury line, claims an average data speed of 25Mbps, with passenger fees of $19.95 for an hour, $29.95 for a full day, and $19.95 a day for unlimited access over the course of a voyage. Another luxury brand, Windstar Cruises, charges $60 for up to 200MB of emails; if you expect to web surf and/or send attachments, you can get a 500MB package for $120. An unlimited plan will set you back $250 to $525 depending on cruise length and itinerary. But Windstar's data speed averaged just 1Mbps. Best advice: You're going on a cruise. Why not totally unplug for a week and sit by the pool with an umbrella drink? Have you taken a cruise before? Overpaid for your wi-fi? Please leave your experiences 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. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) released college enrollment data for the fall 2018 semester, indicating that 221,775 students across the state enrolled in community colleges and public universities for the 2018-2019 academic year. This marks the third consecutive year that postsecondary enrollment has grown across the state, and an increase of 1,656 additional students compared to fall 2017. Tennessees overall public college enrollment growth defies the national trend of declining enrollment, said THEC Executive Director Mike Krause. Innovative state policy, including the Tennessee Reconnect grant and Tennessee Promise, has continued to expand opportunity for Tennesseans to enroll in higher education. The largest gains in enrollment occurred at Tennessees thirteen community colleges, with 88,352 students enrolled for the fall semester; a 2.1 percent increase over fall 2017. Cleveland State Community College and Columbia State Community College saw the largest enrollment increases of 8.9 and 5 percent, respectively, over fall 2017. This increase includes the first cohort of adult learners using the Tennessee Reconnect scholarship at community and technical colleges. As reported by the Tennessee Board of Regents, adult student enrollment increased by 17.4 percent this fall. At public universities, UT-Knoxville and UT-Martin saw the largest increases in enrollment, increasing 3.1 and 4.5 percent, respectively, over fall 2017. Enrollment data for the six locally-governed public universities declined by 1.5 percent. For more information about THECs research, data, and statewide higher education reports, visit www.tn.gov/thec/research. As the deportees were led off the plane onto the steamy San Salvador tarmac, an anguished Araceli Ramos burst into tears, her face contorted with pain: They want to steal my daughter! It had been 10 weeks since Ramos last held her 2-year-old, Alexa. Ten weeks since she was arrested crossing the border into Texas and U.S. immigration authorities seized her daughter and told her she would never see the girl again. What followed one foster familys initially successful attempt to win full custody of Alexa reveals what could happen to some of the infants, children and teens taken from their families at the border under a Trump administration policy earlier this year. The zero-tolerance crackdown ended in June, but hundreds of children remain in detention, shelters or foster care and U.S. officials say more than 200 are not eligible for reunification or release. Federal officials insist they are reuniting families and will continue to do so. But an Associated Press investigation drawing on hundreds of court documents, immigration records and interviews in the U.S. and Central America identified holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families without notifying their parents. And today, with hundreds of those mothers and fathers deported thousands of miles away, the risk has grown exponentially. States usually seal child custody cases, and the federal agencies overseeing the migrant children dont track how often state court judges allow these kids to be given up for adoption. But by providing a childs name and birth date to the specific district, probate or circuit court involved, the AP found that its sometimes possible to track these children. Alexas case began in November 2015 under the Obama administration, after Ramos fled El Salvador to escape what she said was an abusive partner. Her 15-month separation from her mother exposes the fragile legal standing of children under the care of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and a flawed, piecemeal system that can change the course of a childs life. It took 28 minutes for a judge in a rural courthouse near Lake Michigan to grant Alexas American foster parents, Sherri and Kory Barr, temporary guardianship. In Alexas case, pressure from the Salvadoran government, child advocates and a series of viral videos Ramos posted on Facebook expressing her love for Alexa ultimately helped mother and daughter reunite. Now back with her mother in El Salvador for more than a year, Alexa has relearned the Spanish she forgot, and has bonded again with her mother and brothers. Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza are Associated Press writers. Physicists at the University of California in Santa Barbara are gearing up to search for aliens who've constructed the mother of all laser pointers. They're hoping to find souped-up light sources bright enough to be seen from millions of light-years away. It's an interesting way to learn if someone is out there. The idea of signaling from one world to another with light beams isn't entirely new even the Victorians considered it. In 1874, the Finnish mathematician Edvard Engelbert Novius proposed wiring up 22 thousand light bulbs and using curved mirrors to focus their glow on Mars, thereby alerting Red Planet residents that they had neighbors on the third rock from the Sun. He didn't get the funding. The Santa Barbara plan is to reverse Novius' scheme and look for aliens who might be signaling us. Or more accurately, inadvertently signaling more or less in our direction with a light source more intense than a welding torch. They plan to search for any such hi-tech luminaries camped out in the Andromeda galaxy, 2.5 million light-years distant. This proposed effort is an offshoot of another project at U.C. Santa Barbara. Years ago, faculty physicist Phil Lubin suggested syncing up a phalanx of high-powered lasers to produce a truly blinding light source. The motivation was to use this super-laser to kick space probes the size of matchbooks to nearby stars at roughly twenty percent the speed of light. This is difficult, but not impossible, and Lubin's plan is getting financial support from both NASA and the private Breakthrough Starshot initiative. It's interesting and exciting to think we could send probes to the nearest stars fast enough that the project scientists will still be around when the probes reach their target. But Lubin and his students also cooked up an ancillary experiment: a search for sophisticated societies that have already built powerful lasers for their own interstellar launches. These light sources would be easy to see even at astronomical distances. Indeed, by some reckonings, if you were looking down the beam of such a laser from far away, it would outshine stars, quasars, supernovae and well anything in the universe. You would notice. So the Santa Barbara team is planning to use several relatively small telescopes to repeatedly make photos of the Andromeda galaxy. They will then compare these pix with older photos to see if any new and very bright "star" has appeared. The whole process will be automated, and the survey can go on as long as there's interest and support. But why Andromeda? The reason is simple: choosing a nearby galaxy allows the project to quickly reconnoiter a huge amount of extraterrestrial territory. Andromeda (like our own galaxy) is estimated to house approximately a trillion planets, a fact that caused the Santa Barbara physicists to inventively dub their effort the Trillion Planet Survey. Most conventional searches for E.T. look for signals from nearby star systems one at a time. By examining an entire galaxy at once, the Santa Barbara experiment hopes to greatly increase the chance of finding something. There are some worries. Even if Andromeda contains societies whose super-bright lasers routinely stab the sky, the rotation of their home planet might cause this beam to sweep over Earth very quickly. It could easily be missed. It's also worth noting that Andromeda which you can check out yourself with binoculars on a winter night has been studied nearly as much as the Bible. No one seems to have ever found any puzzling bright lights. In addition, astronomers using automated telescopes have surveyed millions of other galaxies in a hunt for supernovae. They've found many exploding stars, but no obvious super-lasers. Of course, failure to find these things doesn't prove they're not there. The search for aliens has always assumed that advanced beings will either transmit an unnatural-looking signal or construct some artifact large enough to be seen with a telescope. But few searches have looked at as much cosmic real estate as the Trillion Planet Survey plans to do. And who knows? It just might turn up some truly enlightened society. Seth Shostak is an American astronomer, currently Senior Astronomer and Director, Center for Seti Research, in Mountain View, California, which searches for extraterrestrial intelligence. He is also host of the "Big Picture Science" podcast. Where you'd want to go in The Castro depends largely on who you are and whom you like to look at. Strangely, there are no bars specifically for women in the Castro, so lesbians should know that they might find more female company at Harvey's or The Cafe; than at Detour. Gentlemen over the age of 40 might want to head straight to Twin Peaks. Regardless of who you are, you'll see plenty of lesbians, gay men and their friends and fans at the following places. Harvey's: Previously the Elephant Walk bar, Harvey's was the site of a brutal anti-gay beating by S.F. police officers in 1979. The now glitzy and popular Harvey's (500 Castro St.) is a perfect place for people watching and has a great beer selection. Twin Peaks Tavern: (401 Castro St.) Our village elders gather at Twin Peaks, and for this it is known by an appalling epithet: the Glass Coffin. Be that as it may, men of all ages may enter and be welcomed. The Edge (4149 18th St.) is neighborhood bar par excellence, with zero attitude, manly men and stiff drinks; small wonder so many community groups choose it as a spot to convene. Midnight Sun: (4067 18th St.) A line of clean-cut young bucks extends down the block outside this longtime Castro bar. Inside, enormous TV screens are everywhere the eye darts. Most of the guys here are only slight variations on a single (in this case, a buttoned-down and buttoned-up) theme, but it's a comfortable place to watch TV with other men. The Mix (4086 18th St.) and Moby Dick (4049 18th St.) scarcely a block apart, both quintessential Castro haunts can be largely interchangeable, yet each is endearing and accessible, no-fuss joints where you can go have a beer and shoot pool and rub elbows with the local hoi polloi. Cafe du Nord (2174 Market St.) carries its history as a former speakeasy like a torch. Located literally underneath the historic Swedish American Building, it'd be a sublime place for a secret rendezvous if it weren't so dang popular. Nightly live music ranges from the best in swing to an adventurously booked experimental lounge night. If you're looking for a place that's on the calmer side of things in the Castro, then try The Mint (1942 Market St.) offers this city's best and, not coincidentally, queerest karaoke experience. With more than 3,000 (free) song selections, a refreshingly diverse crowd and an almost family-like atmosphere, this popular nightspot inevitably provides feel-good fun for those who like their fave tunes de/reconstructed by amateurs, wanna-be's, occasional real-life rockers and the far, far too drunk. This neighborhood bar, The Lookout (3600 16th St.) features great views and a welcoming atmosphere. Anchored in the heart of the Castro, The Lookout has everything you need for a good time from nightly DJs, to trivia nights, plus a weekly drag queen show. One of the most excellent rocker bars in the city, Lucky 13 (2140 Market St.) plays up its name to the hilt, with evil "black cat" and "luck-of-the-draw" iconography on the logo T-shirts they sell. The jukebox is heavy and diverse, the pool table's always busy and the pinball machines upstairs provide an excellent retreat. The Pilsner Inn (225 Church St.) is airy, and the ceiling is covered in a blue pressed tin you just don't find too often nowadays. The patio is sunny during the day and has a fountain where little fishies swim around. There are lots of old faves on the jukebox, and an eclectic, good-looking crowd. NEW YORK Dark circles formed like warning signs beneath Yu Fen Wangs eyes as she worked 12-hour graveyard shifts in a Queens, New York, maternity center that operated on the margins of legality. Her family said she had grown gaunt, could not sleep and told her husband she no longer wanted to live. Her employers, however, said they needed her to work. And her family needed the money. She earned less than $100 a day, they said, working in a private house that had been converted into a combined nursery and hotel for newborn babies and their mothers. More for you Six female suspects nearly beat 20-year-old man to death in SF, police say An open secret in the Flushing community, the center was part of an underground industry catering to a demanding clientele: local mothers resting after childbirth and Chinese visitors coming to have their babies in the United States, a practice known as birth tourism. On Sept. 21, at 3:40 a.m., these dangers collided to near-fatal effect when, the police say, Wang stabbed three babies sleeping in bassinets on the first floor all girls and two adults. She then turned the knife on her own neck and wrists. The victims all survived. But the horrific act turned a spotlight on a pocket of immigrant New York, where a loose network of businesses tend to mothers and infants in the crucial, fragile month after childbirth but operate without any government oversight. The center, Mei Xin Care, is one of dozens in the area that vary widely in amenities and quality, leaving workers with few avenues for complaint, and families with little to guide them other than word-of-mouth, internet advertisements and blind trust. There are victims at all sides of the spectrum, said Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Democrat who represents Queens. Centers like this one which was alternately known as Mei Bao, or beautiful baby in Chinese provide two services. The first is for newly-arrived immigrant mothers practicing a Chinese tradition some 1,000 years old in which they recuperate for a month after childbirth while other women, often called aunties, care for their infants. Authorities said the centers also provide assistance to women from China who wish to give birth in the United States in order to obtain instant citizenship for their children, which is legal under immigration law. There are some 40 such maternity centers in private homes and apartments advertising their services online in the New York and New Jersey area, and nearly 20 in the Flushing neighborhood. At Mei Xin Care, employees were paid off the books, Wangs family said. One of its nannies, Darong Wang, 63, got the job despite being arrested in May for promoting prostitution at a massage parlor in downtown Flushing. She was slashed in the attack, requiring 20 stitches on her face; a father of one of the children was stabbed in the leg and wrist. Stuffy and cramped The crime took place in a three-floor brick apartment house with white metal lattice balconies on the outskirts of Flushing. Its only advertisement existed on the internet, on a Craigslist of sorts for the local Chinese immigrant community. Mei Xin Care appears to be a combination of the names of two owners: Meiying Gao and Xuexin Lin. Local employment agencies said the owners had been in the business for about a decade but opened their latest location in 2016, when city records show they bought the building for $1.5 million. Reached by phone, the owners declined to comment. One neighbor said in an interview that she saw a steady stream of clients arriving, sometimes in fancy cars. Some of them would have been following the custom of a monthlong rest after childbirth. The period culminates in a red egg celebration to mark the babys survival of its fragile first weeks, said Margaret M. Chin, a professor of sociology in the Asian American Studies program at Hunter College. The centers are an alternative to obtaining visas so family members can fly to the United States, or returning to China, where health care is often less sophisticated. For several thousand dollars, new mothers have access to 24-hour nannies and cooks. Michael Cheng and his Shanghai-born wife, who live in Flushing, considered using the center for her recuperation period. They toured the facility twice in the spring and were quoted a fee of $4,800 in cash. Cheng said babies were sleeping on the first floor, while their mothers slept in small bedrooms on the second and third floors. He remembered seeing five to six workers, whom he estimated to be in their 40s and 50s. They were working 24 hours in shifts, he said. I can imagine that it was a very high-stress job. Cheng said his wife, who did not want to give her name, spoke with some of the residents on the upper floors, one from China and another who was a New Yorker. Before we walked out, I was like, Are you sure you like this place? to my wife, Cheng said in an interview. To me, it felt stuffy in there. He was skeptical and asked to see a license. The owners sent a copy of a generic business operation certificate and another for maternity nutrition. In hindsight, he said, if there was more talk about these places, and people knew if you go to one of these centers that they had to hang their licenses right out in front, some kind of regulations around that, maybe it would help. Ultimately, the couple felt uneasy about Mei Xin Care and opted to spend the month at Chengs parents home on Long Island after their daughter was born. They got their $800 deposit back when another mother quickly filled the spot. A shortcut to U.S. citizenship After the stabbings occurred, Flushing was in an uproar. At temples, in food courts and on the streets beneath bright signs in Chinese, residents worried that the incident would stir up anti-immigrant attitudes toward their community. Others decried the centers second purpose, easing the path for birth tourism. They should not come through loopholes, said Catherine Chan, 50, a bar owner in Queens who used to work on Wall Street. She came to the United States from China when she was 6, after a long process involving family sponsorship, she said. There is no shortcut. Birth tourism is a well-known phenomenon. In recent years, it has drawn mostly well-off mothers from China, Korea, Russia, Turkey, Egypt and Nigeria to the United States for birthright citizenship, which President Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate. It can be legal, as long as pregnant foreigners applying for visas state their intention to give birth when they are in the United States and prove that they can cover the cost. If they conceal their real purpose for traveling they could be subject to visa fraud. Once U.S. citizens turn 21, they are eligible to sponsor a parent for a green card, giving their parents the option of eventually settling there. Parents do not always use that opportunity, and immigration officials could deny a green card, claiming the parents had willingly defrauded the American government. Many are more concerned about securing the future of their children who, as American citizens, have the option of schooling in the United States or in competitive private Chinese schools that have lower entry standards for foreign students. They can travel to other countries without having to apply for a visa. It is seen as a status symbol in China. For Chinese birth tourists, Los Angeles is the marquee destination. Centers compete with each other by advertising stays at plush hotels, shopping extravaganzas in nearby malls, and state-of-the-art hospitals. Fees can range from $50,000 to $80,000. In 2015, immigration enforcement authorities raided the Los Angeles centers, saying owners had avoided paying taxes. Still, the raids did not deter business owners who saw an opportunity. As Chinese internet services like Weibo and WeChat expanded, so did advertisements for birth tourism services in New York. In the New York metropolitan area, more upscale maternity centers tend to exist in New Jersey and Long Island suburbs. The ones in Flushing appear to be smaller, and less expensive, options, where mothers stay in rooms that often have been subdivided. Annie Gao, the owner of one upscale birth center in Center Moriches, on Long Island, expressed disdain for the cramped and somewhat secretive operations of the Flushing centers. Gao, who opened her center in Flushing in 2004, said that several years ago she tried to convince other owners to join an association that could self-regulate and keep out cut-rate, potentially unsafe, centers. Gao thought that some centers skimped on food quality and cleaning services, noting that ones she had seen looked dirty. But those owners disagreed, she said. These centers elude city and state licensing categories and zoning codes. They do not qualify as day care centers because mothers are on-site; they do not need a medical license because owners offer Chinese nutritional practices. There isnt a real category for these type of activities, and they were able to leverage it and apply for a general business license and pretend that was OK for their clients, Kim, the assemblyman, said. Although neighbors of Mei Xin Care filed complaints that it was operating as a hotel, city buildings inspectors were denied access three times, which automatically closes the complaint. Neighbors can file an affidavit to warrant a full inspection, but city records show that did not happen. The state Office of Child and Family Services, the citys administration for Childrens Services, the state Department of Health and the city Department of Health all said such centers did not fall under their purview. The police shut down Mei Xin Care after the stabbing, but less than three weeks later, the center seemed to have reopened. Women could be seen through the windows, and a pile of diapers sat outside. She wanted to die After spending most of her life in poor, southeastern Fujian province in China, Yu Fen Wang, 52, sought a better future. When her husband, Peter, secured an employment visa, he brought his two adult sons and wife to New York in 2010. There, the Wangs became immersed in a bustling community of Fujianese immigrants. Peter worked in restaurants, as did his two sons. Yu Fen Wang began cleaning homes and taking care of children privately for families. About two years later, she began working at Mei Xin Cares first location near downtown Flushing. Her husband suffered leg pain that made it too difficult to work, he said, so the burden of providing for their family fell on Wang. When she came home after tending newborns, she also took care of her three small grandchildren. Their son Danny said that about six months ago, the family noticed a change in Wang. She kept forgetting her keys and her phone at home. She became unfocused and unable to sleep. She lost a lot of weight. At a different maternity center where Wang briefly worked in June so she could do a day shift, one mother saw her napping on couches when the babies were sleeping, telling infants to drink faster when nursing, and complaining about changing diapers. She looked tired, and her impatience also suggested she was very tired, that mother, Jane, 36, said in an interview. She declined to give her last name because she feared repercussions from the owners. That center fired Wang after just two days, and she returned to the graveyard shift at Mei Xin Care. By then, her mental state had visibly declined, according to her family. About two or three months ago, Wang told her husband that her life had no meaning and she wanted to die, her son said. Peter Wang insisted she take two weeks off. They all knew that her older sister back in China had tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide. Danny Wang said his mother saw a doctor who prescribed her sleeping medication and a tranquilizer. That is when the owners of Mei Xin called her to come back to work on the 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. shift, her family said. She felt obligated, despite the protestations of her husband and sons. Fair or not fair, we cant do anything about it, Danny said. Its just reality. Wang appeared to live in her own darker reality. Her lawyer, Jean Wang, who is not related to her client, said she intended to pursue an insanity defense. It was left untreated, and finally it just blew, the lawyer said. Charged with five counts of attempted murder, Wang pleaded not guilty and is under suicide watch at Rikers Island. In jail, her family and lawyer said, Wang has become even more isolated and distraught. She tried to kill herself by smashing her head against the cell. A spokeswoman for the citys correctional health services said she could not comment on Wangs mental state because of privacy laws. When that first attempt failed, Wangs lawyer said, she tried to bite her tongue off, a distinctively Chinese form of suicide. She did not succeed. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. An East Bay limousine company whose namesake was at the center of a deadly car crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York says its business has severely declined over the past few days and they want to set the record straight. Cameron Satti, a spokesperson for Prestige Limousine in Concord, said the company typically receives about 25 calls a day. Since news of the devastating limo crash in Schoharie, N.Y., on Oct 6., calls to the Bay Area company have dropped to a mere four or five. They've also received several cancellations, all from customers who now associate the company with the one responsible for New York's crash. After years of regulatory roadblocks and lower-than-expected demand in Illinois medical cannabis pilot program, growers around the state are expanding to accommodate an expected increase in customers. A state report out earlier this month found that use of medical pot has risen 83 percent this year in Illinois, which has more than 46,000 qualified patients. Additionally, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law in late August that allows people prescribed opioids to use medical marijuana. In recent years, the biggest reason people dont show up when we give them an offer is because they stayed at their job, said Stacey Kole, deputy dean for MBA programs at the University of Chicagos Booth School of Business. Its not like we lost them to another school. There are so many ways to experience San Francisco as a visitor. You may wish to just hit the top tourist sites, spend time wandering through the many parks or just be a culture vulture and catch the latest shows at the many museums and galleries. And then there is the time travel approach to exploring the city. RELATED: Why the 1960s were the best decade ever to live in San Francisco You never know when this urge may strike -- perhaps after watching an episode of Dr. Who -- but fortunately San Francisco is a city where much of its rich past can be explored decade by decade, even if you don't have a Tardis or some other time machine at your disposal. Say you want to experience the early 1900s, you may want to drop into some of landmarks of the 1906 earthquake or grab a drink in a saloon born in this time or just head out to the city's western edge to walk among the ruins of the Sutro Baths. Or if the 1970s more your cup of tea, well then you may need to hit a drum circle, nibble some fondue or hit a record store (remember those?) that's been going strong since 1971. IN THE ABOVE GALLERY, we have found a few spots from every decade in the 20th century to get you started on a time travel tour of San Francisco. Or maybe you'd rather proceed through the century and just pick one spot from every decade. Up to you. There are many ways to go back in time. Hopefully this can get you started. MILLBRAE (BCN) Following the death of a man who allegedly assaulted a deputy in Millbrae last week, sheriff's officials today released the names of the deputies involved in the conflict with the man. Deputy John DeMartini, Deputy Alyssa Lorenzatti, Deputy Joshua Wang, Deputy Bryan Watt and Sgt. David Weidner were involved in responding to a man allegedly running in and out of traffic at about 1 p.m. Wednesday in the 1300 block of El Camino Real. Sheriff's officials said Chinedu Valentine Okobi, 36, of Redwood City, was the person running in and out of traffic and allegedly assaulted the first deputy who came into contact with him. When the deputy was assaulted, the deputy called for help. Of the four other deputies who assisted the first, one used a Taser on Okobi, who was taken to a hospital and died. Coroner's officials said the cause of death may not be made public for another seven weeks. An autopsy was done last week, but other tests are now being done. The deputy Okobi allegedly assaulted was taken to a hospital and was released on the same day as the assault. San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Okobi was unarmed during the conflict. The five deputies were placed on paid leave following the altercation. Prosecutors will release a report with more details of the conflict in eight to 10 weeks, Wagstaffe said. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) The reopening date for the closed portion of Fremont Street in downtown San Francisco, located underneath the Salesforce Transit Center bus deck where two cracked steel beams were discovered last month, has been pushed back. The Transbay Joint Power Authority announced today that Fremont Street between Howard and Mission streets will reopen to traffic and pedestrians next week, on Oct. 17, instead of Friday, the original planned reopening date. Although shoring on the ground level of Fremont Street is done, the installation of a four-story shoring system won't be finished until next week. "It is important that we have an extremely robust shoring system to ensure that all levels of the transit center are safe and secure. Unfortunately, this requires us to keep the street closed until this work is complete. We will reopen Fremont Street as soon as safely possible and apologize for the ongoing impact to the public," Mark Zabaneh, the TJPA's executive director, said in a statement. According to the TJPA, the shoring system will help beef up support for the bus deck. Once that's in place, engineers can safely go into the bus deck to inspect the cracked beams, which run parallel, and determine a cause. TJPA officials said last week that they were hoping to find a cause for the cracks by early November. Once that's determined, engineers can then begin working on permanent repairs. Last week, the TJPA employed nighttime closures on First Street between Howard and Mission streets, where a similarly configured bus deck runs above the street, for further shoring work. TJPA officials said today the shoring work on First Street is mostly complete, but at least one more nighttime closure will be needed, set for an undetermined day next week between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Although no cracks were located in the bus deck above First Street, TJPA officials said it will nonetheless also be permanently reinforced. The $2.2 billion transit center, which opened in August as a regional bus depot with future plans to connect it to Caltrain and the state's high-speed rail line, closed abruptly after workers discovered the cracks on Sept. 25. Buses are now operating from the Temporary Transbay Terminal at Howard and Main streets in San Francisco, where they operated from before the new transit center opened. 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 federal judge in San Francisco has cleared the way for an April 1 trial on a civil rights lawsuit filed by the mother of a man who was fatally shot by five police officers in the city's Bayview District in 2015. U.S. District Judge William Orrick, in a ruling filed Tuesday, said Gwendolyn Woods, the mother of Mario Woods, could proceed to a jury trial on her claims that the officers violated a California law by allegedly using excessive force in the shooting. At the time of the shooting on the afternoon of Dec. 2, 2015, police were seeking to arrest Woods, 26, as a suspect in an earlier stabbing and Woods had a knife with a 4.5-inch blade, according to the ruling. Orrick wrote that Woods' lawyer had shown enough preliminary evidence "to allow a jury to conclude that by escalating to deadly force in such a situation, officers acted with reckless disregard for Woods's rights." "Videos show that officers significantly outnumbered Woods, who had neither brandished the knife nor made verbal threats, but rather made statements a fact finder could infer were suicidal. A jury could infer that Woods was injured and moving slowly at the moment officers shot him," the judge wrote. The officers contend they acted reasonably because of fear for their safety and that of bystanders, Orrick noted. He said the question "is properly resolved by a jury." Orrick also allowed a state law claim of negligence to proceed to trial. He dismissed the mother's federal constitutional claims, saying he was required to do so under the terms of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this year in the case of an Arizona woman who shot by an officer as she wielded a knife. The judge also dismissed the city as a plaintiff. John Burris, a lawyer for Gwendolyn Woods, said, "I'm pleased we have a trial date. Mr. Woods' possession of a knife should not have been a death warrant. Mr. Woods never moved toward the officers." Burris said the videos Orrick referred to include one made by a bus driver at the scene and others made by bystanders. John Cote, a spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, said, "When handling a motion to dismiss the case, the judge is required under the law to construe everything in the light that is most favorable to the plaintiff. "In that light, the judge still dismissed all of the federal civil rights claims but said that two narrow claims remain as questions for a jury to decide," Cote said. City lawyers had asked for dismissal of all claims in the case. 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 San Francisco man has been arrested in connection with a burglary at a storage facility in the city's South of Market neighborhood last month, according to police. The suspect, 46-year-old Lamont Jackson, is suspected of breaking into the storage facility in the 1400 block of Folsom Street early on the morning of Sept. 21. According to police, a passerby told police that the front doors of the storage facility appeared to be damaged. Police said officers who entered the building interrupted Jackson as he was carrying out items from one of 20 storage units he had allegedly broken into. Jackson was booked into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of 20 counts of burglary and violating his probation. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call police at (415) 575-4444 or to text TIP411 and to start the message with "SFPD." 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) Five men allegedly stormed a home in San Francisco's Silver Terrace neighborhood early Saturday morning, assaulting the home's residents and holding them at gunpoint, police said today. Around 3:45 a.m., the armed suspects entered the home, located in the first block of Topeka Avenue. After assaulting five adult residents, the suspects made off with cash, according to police. The victims, three women and two men, all suffered injuries not considered life-threatening and declined hospitalization. The suspects were described as five men between 25 and 30 years old. Officers were unable to locate them and no arrests had been made as of this morning, police said. Anyone with information about the armed home invasion is asked to contact police's 24-hour tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to text a tip to TIP411 and start the message with "SFPD." Anyone providing a tip can remain anonymous. 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. SANTA CRUZ (BCN) Santa Cruz police are searching for a suspect who damaged property and started a fire at Tannery Arts Center in late August, police said today. The vandalism happened in a landscaped area at about 4 a.m. on Aug. 22. Police responded to the 1100 block of River Street to find two small fires. The arts center hosts events and offers affordable live-work spaces for artists. The fires were extinguished and only caused minor damage to the ground cover, according to police. Officers said they obtained video footage of the suspect during a follow-up investigation that showed he was responsible for the fires and additional felony vandalism in the arts complex. Police and fire investigators haven't been able to identify the suspect and are asking for the public's help. Anyone with information about the suspect or the vandalism is asked to call Detective Steve Pendleton at 831-420-5832 or to email spendleton@cityofsantacruz.com. 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. MARTINEZ (BCN) A Richmond man accused of a fatal 2016 shooting was found not guilty by a Contra Costa County Superior Court jury today, according to prosecutors. Kendrick Cortez Barfield, 42, was accused of the murder of 32-year-old Paul King in the 200 block of Gertrude Avenue in Richmond on July 19, 2016. Police found King lying in the roadway with multiple gunshot wounds when they responded around 9:45 p.m. that night. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators identified Barfield as a suspect and arrested him a few days later in a Richmond apartment. Defense attorney Sarah Eisenhart, with Contra Costa County's alternate defender program, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her client's behalf. 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. The mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose joined today in urging the California Public Utilities Commission to delay voting on a proposal that they say could "disrupt the state's clean energy programs and increase energy fees for utility customers." The proposal concerns the so-called exit fees charged to customers who switch from buying electricity from investor-owned utilities to buying it from local governments. The local programs are intended to provide cleaner energy or lower costs or both. The five-member commission is scheduled to vote on two versions of the exit fee proposal at a meeting at its San Francisco headquarters on Thursday. But the commissioners could delay the vote to a future meeting. Under its normal procedure, the CPUC is expected to post a list Wednesday afternoon of which agenda items will be postponed, according to CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon. Mayors London Breed, Libby Schaaf and Sam Liccardo urged a delay in a joint statement today, saying that Commissioner Carla Peterman's version of the proposal could "drastically change" the exit fees. "Our cities are working to fight climate change by developing clean power programs that are affordable to customers. "Significantly raising exit fees will create price volatility and uncertainty and could threaten the future of our clean power programs," the mayors said. "We strongly believe the CPUC should delay this process to allow for a more transparent public review of these critical issues," they said. The two options, a proposal by Administrative Law Judge Stephen Roscow and an alternate version by Peterman, were both made public in August. But Peterman made some changes in her proposal on Oct. 5, and the three mayors believe the public should have more time to review the revised proposal, according to Lori Mitchell, director of San Jose's Clean Energy Department. The exit fee is known as the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment. Its purpose is to ensure that departing customers pay their share of long-term financial obligations the utility incurred on their behalf, while also making sure they don't pay more than their share. The CPUC said in a background statement that there are many similarities but some differences between the two proposals. One difference is that Peterman's version would allow the costs of legacy facilities, such as the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and large hydro facilities, to remain in the calculation of the fees. Peterman's proposal would also allow the fees to continue beyond the current 10-year limit. In September, the three mayors sent the commissioners a comment letter asking them to adopt Roscow's plan and turn down Peterman's. The CPUC said in its background statement that the exit fee accounts for about 15 percent of a departing customer's bill. The word "indifference" in the fee name refers to neutrality or fairness in the fee's effects on departing and remaining consumers, the CPUC indicated in its statement. "Both proposals balance the need for customer indifference on costs with rate predictability, transparency, and customer interest in choice," the CPUC said. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. BERKELEY (BCN) A student at University of California at Berkeley was sexually assaulted in university housing early Friday morning, according to campus police. The sexual assault happened around 4 a.m., UC police said. Authorities didn't release any other information, including where the assault happened. Nobody has been arrested and no suspect information was released. Sgt. Sabrina Reich wouldn't say if police believe the victim knew his or her assaulter, or if it was a random attack. "I don't think we are going to be releasing further details," Reich said. "At this time we are still actively investigating." Authorities did encourage anyone with information about the crime or similar assaults to call police at (510) 642-0472 during business hours or (510) 642-6760 after hours. 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. SANTA ROSA (BCN) The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors this morning approved a master plan for what will be the county's largest park when it opens later this month. The 3,400-acre Tolay Lake Regional Park southeast of Petaluma has been in the planning phase for the past decade. Public access was available only on weekends by special permit, but the park's northwest corner has been the setting of the annual Tolay Lake Festival on a ranch formerly owned by the Cardoza family. The festival concludes this weekend. "This has been a long time coming, and we appreciate the public's patience," Supervisor David Rabbitt said. "Tolay Lake has been a complex park to design. Now we're days away from opening the gates and welcoming everyone to this truly unique setting." Tolay Lake Regional Park is named after a 200-acre seasonal lake in the valley between its ridges. The lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in the county, and was a spiritual center for the local Coast Miwok and Native Americans throughout the state. The park plan was a collaboration among Sonoma County Regional Parks, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, which donated $500,000 for planning costs, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District and Sonoma Land Trust. "The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria are proud to have worked with Sonoma County to create a model program whereby the Tribe can co-manage the park in order to both remember and understand the history and cultural significance of the land and to restore the land and its natural resources," the tribe's Chairman Greg Sarris said. There currently are 11 miles of trails, many of them former ranch roads, in rolling grasslands and open ridges with views of San Pablo Bay, the San Francisco skyline and Bay Area peaks. Habitat in the park includes birds, especially raptors, and the park is a piece of a larger protected wildlife corridor in southern Sonoma County. Many of the concepts in the park plan currently lack funding and will be implemented when money is available, likely over several decades, county officials said. The plan calls for 30 miles of trails, hike-in camp sites, a visitor center and bunkhouse, outdoor classrooms, equestrian amenities, new parking areas and restrooms. Tolay Lake Regional Park is located at 5869 Cannon Lane off of Lakeville Highway. Hours will be 7 a.m. to sunset daily beginning Oct. 27 when the park opens. Intermittent closures may be necessary when roadwork is being done on Cannon Lane later this year. 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. 2013 Lewis Reserve Chardonnay, Napa Valley, Calif.: This chardonnay is ripe and lush, with a rich texture, and aromas of golden apple, pineapple, lemon curd, marzipan and white spice. Though this is more of a red wine dish, this chardonnay has the fleshiness to stand up to the meat and beans while also working well with the dish's spice element. Also, remarkable acidity on the finish will cut through the soup's richness extremely well. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission announced today it's testing the quality of the drinking water in the city's Sunset District after residents there complained over the weekend about the taste of their tap water. In addition to testing the drinking water in the neighborhood, the commission's water quality team will also test the water in surrounding neighborhoods as a precaution, commission officials said. The test's results will be expedited and SFPUC officials are hoping to have them by early next week. "We will do everything we can to get to the bottom of these concerns," SFPUC officials said in a statement. "Once we have the results, we will schedule a community meeting to talk through the results and answer any questions related to water quality and the groundwater project." In addition to testing the water, the commission's water quality team will meet with a Sunset resident who used a home testing kit on her tap water recently, after believing the water tasted different than normal. The team will try to determine what kind of test the resident used and what source of water was used for the test. They'll also look at the home testing kit's results and perform official water quality tests on the water source. The commission maintains that the city's water is safe to drink, as no evidence of any quality issues has been confirmed. Since April 2017, the commission began blending local groundwater into the city's drinking water, delivering it to the Sunset and surrounding reservoirs, with these reservoirs serving 60 percent of the city. On average, about 85 percent of the city's drinking water comes from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, located near Yosemite National Park, while the remaining 15 percent comes from local reservoirs. The commission regularly monitors and analyzes water from both individual production wells and the blended water supply. Recent data from Sept. 17 to Sept. 30 showed that up to 8 percent of water served to customers contained groundwater, according to the commission. The utility's workers regularly test groundwater, looking for synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, including pesticides, every three months. Testing from the first two quarters of this year did not show any harmful chemicals in the water. 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. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office and four current and former deputies were sued Monday by a former jail inmate who alleges that the deputies allowed another inmate to spray him with urine and feces multiple times and then broke his arm. "These particular officers were sadists," the inmate, Fernando Miguel Soria, said during a news conference in Oakland Tuesday. "They're not playing with a full deck." Soria says the deputies repeatedly facilitated another inmate spraying him with urine and feces, a practice commonly known in jails and prisons as "gassing," but more frequently is directed at guards. In this case, Soria said the deputies would open his cell door and allow the other inmate to gas him while he was helpless. They wouldn't allow him to bathe or put on clean clothes for days afterwards, he said. The four deputies -- Justin Linn, Erik McDermott, Stephen Sarcos and Sarah Krause -- were all charged in criminal court last year for their alleged involvement in a series of similar assaults on jail inmates. San Jose police have arrested a man in Hayward who is believed to have stolen a semi-truck, then escaped arrest by stealing a police car. The arrest was made Tuesday afternoon. Andrew Trujillo, 40, was arrested in a second stolen semi-truck shortly before 4:30 p.m., according to police spokesman Sgt. Enrique Garcia. Police said they were initially searching for Trujillo in connection with a semi-truck that was reported stolen at 5:23 a.m. in the first block of Holger Way in San Jose. The reporting party said the GPS system in the truck showed it was stationary at that address, according to police. Officers allegedly found Trujillo in the truck's cab and arrested him. He was placed in handcuffs in the caged-off backseat of a police car, but he somehow escaped the back of the car and drove away in the vehicle, according to police. The mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose joined in urging the California Public Utilities Commission to delay voting on a proposal that they say could "disrupt the state's clean energy programs and increase energy fees for utility customers." The mayors joined together to make their plea Tuesday. The proposal concerns the so-called exit fees charged to customers who switch from buying electricity from investor-owned utilities to buying it from local governments. The local programs are intended to provide cleaner energy or lower costs or both. The five-member commission is scheduled to vote on two versions of the exit fee proposal at a meeting at its San Francisco headquarters on Thursday. But the commissioners could delay the vote to a future meeting. Under its normal procedure, the CPUC is expected to post a list this afternoon of which agenda items will be postponed, according to CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon. Mayors London Breed, Libby Schaaf and Sam Liccardo urged a delay in a joint statement Tuesday, saying that Commissioner Carla Peterman's version of the proposal could "drastically change" the exit fees. The 135-acre Steele Fire near Lake Berryessa in July was caused by equipment use, Cal Fire officials announced. The announcement was made Tuesday. The fire started around 4:30 p.m. on July 28 in dry brush off of Arroyo Grande Drive and Steele Canyon Road in the Berryessa Highlands community in Napa County. It destroyed eight homes and damaged four others. Cal Fire Capt. Justin Hartman said the equipment use category includes small engine equipment a homeowner, contractor or laborer may use. It includes a chainsaw, weed eater, tiller or similar equipment. The specific equipment that started the fire was not included in Tuesday's report, Hartman said. A more complete report will be issued by Cal Fire's legal department in Sacramento, he said. The San Francisco Sheriff's Department will soon give inmates being released from jail the option of staying overnight if their release occurs during the evening hours, department officials said. Sheriff's officials made the announcement Tuesday. According to sheriff's spokesperson Terry Rather, the department is working on updating its policy to allow inmates being released between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. to voluntarily stay in custody for up to 16 additional hours, or until normal business hours. The policy update is "still a work in progress," Rather said, but it could be finalized within the next two weeks. The policy changes comes more than two months after the Alameda County Sheriff's Office faced criticism for releasing 26-year-old Berkeley resident Jessica St. Louis from Dublin's Santa Rita Jail around 1:10 a.m. on July 28. St. Louis was found dead four hours later near the Dublin-Pleasanton BART station and is believed to have died from a drug overdose. Contra Costa County officials are sounding the alarm for immigrants who may have accepted certain kinds of government assistance, warning that the federal government may soon take that into consideration when determining an immigrant's green card status. The proposed changes have not yet been finalized, and the process of issuing a new policy will stretch out into 2019 after a 60-day public comment period, according to county staff. Employment & Human Services Department Director Kathy Gallagher called the proposal unnecessary and cruel. "EHSD is committed to supporting the needs of all community members who are eligible for our services, regardless of immigration status, and there are no changes to our processes, rules, or eligibility standards pertaining to immigration," Gallagher said Tuesday in a statement. "We encourage families to continue to seek the services they need." County officials worry that the policy changes could cause many working but under-resourced immigrant families who are eligible for assistance to avoid seeking that assistance out of fear that it could affect their efforts to seek lawful status as a permanent resident of the U.S. The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved a master plan for what will be the county's largest park when it opens later this month. The plan was approved Tuesday morning. The 3,400-acre Tolay Lake Regional Park southeast of Petaluma has been in the planning phase for the past decade. Public access was available only on weekends by special permit, but the park's northwest corner has been the setting of the annual Tolay Lake Festival on a ranch formerly owned by the Cardoza family. The festival concludes this weekend. "This has been a long time coming, and we appreciate the public's patience," Supervisor David Rabbitt said. "Tolay Lake has been a complex park to design. Now we're days away from opening the gates and welcoming everyone to this truly unique setting." Tolay Lake Regional Park is named after a 200-acre seasonal lake in the valley between its ridges. The lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in the county, and was a spiritual center for the local Coast Miwok and Native Americans throughout the state. 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. If Im mad, Im not about to go off on people who approach me, since Im not that type of person, she said. But then again, I dont think I completely know myself 100 percent, and I dont think anybody does, no matter how old you are. I feel like you know more of yourself the older you get. Laci believes she has more emotional awareness than most of her peers that shes able to roll with the curveballs life throws. Along with stress, other factors that may explain the findings include changes in how high-risk patients are being treated, and problems with how past studies have measured time of death caused by cardiac arrest, such as using time of death on a death certificate rather than the actual time of death due to cardiac arrest, the researchers added. And other wild accusations, that Kavanaugh was a facilitator of gang rape, were so incredible that Americans saw through them. Yet these, too, were parroted by media, and perhaps because of the venom of it all, the tide of popular opinion, at least among political independents, began to turn. UICs growth comes even though its tuition remains higher than the states regional schools. An Illinois student seeking a liberal arts degree, for example, can expect about $30,000 for tuition, room and board at UIC compared with about $21,000 at Eastern. These prices do not reflect any financial aid, which can considerably lower the actual price paid, and several students said they chose UIC because it was cheaper than other schools they considered. There is strong interest in addressing the structural reasons for and the pervasiveness of wrongdoing to women, she said. Will it succeed? I dont think we know yet. Its too early to say. I think this is a time when people are agitating for change to law, to culture and to institutions. Sometimes movements like that succeed and sometimes they fail. "It's been hard to wake up every day and put clothes on to go outside, appear to be like you've got everything in control," Cowley said. "... It looks like, you know, you're havin' a good time, but you carry with you the loss of your child everywhere you go, in everything that you do. The owner tried to stop him and was dragged a short distance. The Mercedes kept going and struck several parked cars, then a pedestrian and a person on a bicycle. Police said one person was taken into custody after a chase on foot. A new political attack ad from an independent campaign committee supporting Republican John Cox for California governor uses a popular colloquialism to question the sanity of Cox's opponent, Democrat Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. "Are you on crack?" the 15-second video spot circulating on social media this week asks. The ad from the "Restore Our Values" committee associates Newsom with the policies of San Francisco, where he served as mayor for two terms between 2003 and 2010. It presents two of the city's most recent policies as absurd, especially when considered together. The ad states: "In Gavin Newsom's San Francisco, kids can't drink juice through plastic straws. But drug users can shoot poison through free plastic syringes." The ad has been called deceptive by the Sacramento Bee's California politics report Angela Hart for tying Newsom to "policies he was not involved in implementing," though Hart points out that Newsom is in support of those policies. Hart also points out the obvious: Newsom is not on crack. ALSO, Governor candidates spar on vision for California Cox, a businessman from San Diego, and Newsom took part in a one-hour long radio debate at KQED Public Radio Station in San Francisco on Oct. 8. Newsom, the lieutenant governor and a former San Francisco mayor, tied his rival to President Donald Trump, whose endorsement was crucial to Cox surviving the primary. Since then, Cox has not talked much about Trump, who is popular among Republicans but viewed negatively by Democrats and unaffiliated voters in California. "We represent the vast majority of Californians that reject John Cox's absolute allegiance to Trump and Trumpism," Newsom said during what's likely to be the only one-on-one contest between the two men before the Nov. 6 election. Cox stuck with Trump on issues such as ending California's sanctuary state policy and building a wall along the Mexico border. He declined to weigh in on the bitter fight over Kavanaugh's nomination, even as Republicans nationwide are celebrating his confirmation. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Former first lady of San Francisco and current vice chairwoman of America First Policies Kimberly Guilfoyle injured her hand while playing dodgeball, and the injury was severe enough to where she required surgery. Guilfoyle announced on Instagram she had surgery on her injured hand, and shared several pictures of herself wearing a hand brace while campaigning in Montana with her boyfriend, Donald Trump Jr. Farther north in Beverly, the public on Oct. 13 will be able to walk through another building that has been transformed a century-old firehouse that now serves as an assembly line for hat-making company Optimo. Think fedoras, homburgs and porkpies. The company moved in to the location at 1700 W. 95th St. six months ago, and Graham Thompson, the companys founder, said he chose the location because it allowed him to expand the business while providing the workspace with plenty of natural light. The transformation was led by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the powerhouse architecture firm behind the formerly named John Hancock Center and the Chinatown branch of the Chicago Public Library. This story originally appeared on Hoodline. The final architectural renderings for a planned redesign of the Castro's Harvey Milk Plaza have been released, ahead of a city review process that begins next week. New York-based architectural firm Perkins Eastman was selected in an international competition to redesign the public open space above the Castro Muni station, as it undergoes a required renovation to add an elevator in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Perkins Eastman's initial design was the subject of some community opposition, so the renderings were further evolved, with a set of semifinal designs released in May. Over the course of the summer and fall, Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza (FHMP) hosted four community meetings seeking feedback and input. These latest designs are the result. Having concluded the community-led design process, the FHMP will now take its renderings to various city departments for approval. On Thursday, FHMP hosted a viewing party to showcase the new designs, including a fly-by animation of the concept created by Perkins Eastman. "It was the beginning of a movement to honor Harvey, to lift him up as an example of the very best qualities of San Francisco, the Castro neighborhood, and the LGBT community," said FHMP's Brian Springfield of the event. The designs show placeholder artwork meant to honor Milk, but Springfield said the final art and artist will ultimately be chosen by the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), which will review the plans at its Civic Design Review Committee Meeting on October 15. "Whatever the form becomes, the response will continue to be guided by the priorities expressed by the community over the last year and a half," he added. The SFAC review process has three steps: after being reviewed by the Civic Arts Committee, the design will then go in front of the Public Arts Committee. Once the designs are approved by both committees, they will be recommended for review to the full Arts Commission. While the Arts Commission can ask for changes and give feedback, Springfield described the process as more of a conversation between FHMP and the commission. "One of our challenges was how to show these things that haven't been put out to a call for artists," he noted. However, the portions of the design featuring quotes from Milk are considered architectural designs, and not up for review. In creating its vision for the plaza, Springfield said the FHMP adhered to four key tenets: addressing deficiencies present in the existing design, honoring Harvey Milk with a significant memorial, providing a public space for the Castro community and ensuring the plaza is accessible to all. Many community members have criticized a key aspect of the project: the addition of an elevated terrace overlooking Castro Street (pictured at top). The terrace is meant to serve as a gathering place, but opponents have argued that it would attract unwanted behavior and crime. "It's not an issue of 'If we build this, there's going to be unwanted urban behavior in the plaza,'" Springfield said in response. "That is already going on today ... This is our chance to address the known deficiencies in the existing site that are actually making the problem worse, like the underground subterranean forest." He also noted that the revamp will come with security improvements, like a security gate on the canopy that will allow the Muni station to be closed at night. Once the designs are approved by the Arts Commission, they will move on to review by SFMTA, BART and several other city agencies. The best-case scenario, Springfield said, "is to have construction documents complete by summer of 2019." He was unsure how long it would take to accept contractor bids, award the project and finish construction. We'll keep you updated as the project continues to move through the approval process and beyond. It's a happy day for beasts of burden on the Greek island of Santorini: The government has banned "obese" tourists weighing over 220 pounds from riding the island's famous donkeys. Santorini, known for its picturesque white-washed buildings and blue roofs, is one of the Aegean Sea's most Instagrammable destinations and a popular cruise ship stop. But its steep hills often intimidate out-of-shape tourists, who'd rather ride than trudge up the narrow, stepped streets where cars cannot go. LAGOS, Nigeria The woman who led the global campaign to free Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram extremists is now running for president, saying she is fighting for the soul of Africas most populous nation. Oby Ezekwesili is the most prominent woman to seek the presidency in Nigeria, where politics, as in many African nations, have long been dominated by men. A former World Bank vice president, Ezekwesili also co-founded Transparency International, one of the worlds leading organizations against corruption a widespread problem in oil-rich Nigeria. But she is perhaps most well-known for her vocal work in turning the worlds attention to Boko Harams Islamic extremist insurgency and its abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from the community of Chibok in 2014. The #BringBackOurGirls movement, supported by former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and others, put relentless pressure on Nigerias government to free the students. Police broke up some of the campaigns protests with violence. Finally, after a breakthrough in negotiations and, reportedly, millions of dollars paid to Boko Haram scores of the girls were freed last year. President Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to fight both Boko Haram and corruption when he took office in 2015, met with the freed schoolgirls while his government claimed a victory. More than 100 of the Chibok schoolgirls have never returned, however, and a similar mass abduction occurred earlier this year in the community of Dapchi. Almost all of those schoolgirls have been released, but the kidnapping exposed Nigerias failure to defeat the extremists despite claims that they have been crushed. Now Ezekwesili is challenging the 75-year-old Buhari on his campaign vows ahead of the February 2019 election. A major challenge is the attitude toward female candidates in Nigeria, where many say women are fit only for the kitchen. Buhari himself once asserted he had superior knowledge over his wife and that she belonged to his kitchen, his living room and the other room. The president, however, continues to face questions about his health after extended stays abroad for medical treatment. Sam Olukoya is an Associated Press writer. DHAKA, Bangladesh A Bangladeshi court sentenced 19 people to death and the son of the opposition leader to life imprisonment on Wednesday over a deadly 2004 attack at a political rally held by current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed. The grenade attack killed two dozen people and wounded about 300 others. Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped, having been whisked away by party members to a waiting car from a dais in front of the headquarters of her Awami League party near where several grenades exploded. Judge Shahed Nuruddin delivered the verdicts interrupted twice by power cuts at the court in Dhaka for 49 defendants facing multiple charges stemming from the attack. Nuruddin said the attack was intended to eliminate the Awami Leagues leadership, including Sheikh Hasina. Lutfuzzaman Babar, one of two former Cabinet ministers among the 19 condemned to death, told reporters after the verdict that he was innocent. God knows everything. I was not behind it, he said. Tarique Rahman, the oldest son of opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia, received a life sentence for each of two conspiracy charges stemming from the attack. He lives in London and was tried in absentia. Eighteen others were also sentenced to life imprisonment, and 11 received six months to two years in prison. Rahmans conviction could help Sheikh Hasina retain power in elections due in December. Khaleda, 73, a former prime minister, has been serving a prison sentence on a corruption conviction since February but was transferred to a state-run hospital on Saturday for what her party says are multiple medical problems. Armed guards stood outside the courtroom in the old part of the capital on Wednesday to quell any protests, but the streets were calm. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of Khaledas party, termed the verdict politically motivated and said it was a naked manifestation of political vengeance by the ruling party. Khaledas party also announced a week of protests, including nationwide rallies starting Thursday. Julhas Alam is an Associated Press writer. Page Content Around 250,000 foreign nationalsincluding significant portions of the labor force in construction and hospitalitywere given temporary reprieve from approaching deportation deadlines. U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco ordered the Trump administration to halt its plans to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for individuals from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. Employees with TPS from the affected four countries will temporarily maintain their right to work in the United States while a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California challenging the government's decision to end TPS is resolved. Congress created the status in 1990 to offer foreign nationals temporary permission to live and work in the U.S., instead of being returned to countries that are deemed unsafe after natural disasters, armed conflict or other emergency situations. Salvadorans, for examplethe largest group of TPS holders at approximately 200,000were provided the provisional status and protected from deportation after earthquakes hit the country in 2001, and their protected status has been routinely renewed ever since. Similarly, 50,000 Haitians, the second largest group holding TPS, were granted protection after Haiti's 2010 earthquake. About 2,500 Nicaraguans have lived and worked in the U.S. with TPS since 1998. The protection is granted for six to 18 months at a time, if conditions in a given country have been determined not to have improved enough. The Trump administration has taken a harder line on TPS than previous administrations, which tended to keep renewing it; the program is supposed to be temporary and was never intended to bestow long-term residency. Critics of the program argue that it has been incorrectly extended for years, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has determined that conditions in the four countries named in the lawsuit have improved to the point that TPS for those countries' nationals is no longer necessary. TPS and the employment authorization documents that accompany it are scheduled to expire as follows: Nov. 2, 2018, for Sudan. Jan. 5, 2019, for Nicaragua. July 22, 2019, for Haiti. Sept. 9, 2019, for El Salvador. In addition, TPS for Nepal is set to be terminated on June 24, 2019, and for Honduras on Jan. 5, 2020. These two countries were not included in the court order because their terminations had not been announced at the time the lawsuit was filed. The Trump administration has renewed TPS for nationals from Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen. [How well do you understand I-9 compliance? Take this quiz to find out.] Workforce Impact Chen held that the immediate harm to the TPS beneficiaries far outweighed any immediate harm to the U.S., said Forrest G. Read IV, an attorney in the Raleigh, N.C., office of Jackson Lewis. "Indeed, the judge found that the U.S., rather than suffering harm from the continuation of TPS, actually might suffer economic harm due to the TPS terminations." Neil Bradley, a senior vice president and chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argued that industries such as construction, food processing, hospitality and home health care services will be greatly affected if nationals from El Salvador, Haiti and Honduras lose work authorization. "Terminating these designations would end the work authorization of many key employees [and] adversely impact several key industries where TPS recipients make up a significant amount of the workforce," Bradley said. According to the Center for Migration Studies, a New York City-based think tank, the labor force participation rate of the TPS population from El Salvador, Haiti and Honduras ranges from 81 to 88 percent, well above the rate for the total U.S. population (63 percent) and the foreign-born population (66 percent). The five leading industries in which TPS beneficiaries from these countries work are construction (51,700 workers), restaurants and food services (32,400), landscaping (15,800), child daycare (10,000), and grocery stores (9,200). Employer Takeaways If TPS expires for various countries, key employees that have been with an organization for years could be without work authorization and employers could have to fill unanticipated vacancies, said Lynn Shotwell, head of global outreach and operations for the Society for Human Resource Management. "If your organization has known TPS recipients, it is reasonable to do workforce planning around how those positions will be filled if those employees lose work authorization." Justin Storch, SHRM's director of regulatory affairs and judicial counsel, cautioned HR to be mindful of discriminating against TPS holders. He said HR should not: Page Content Two new California laws are meant to combat human trafficking by requiring training and notice postings. The new laws apply to businesses in various industries that may be particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. Here's what employers should know. Training for Hotel Staff On Sept. 27, Gov. Jerry Brown approved SB 970, which adds Section 12950.3 to the Government Code. The new law requires hotels and motels subject to the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to provide at least 20 minutes of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding human-trafficking awareness to each employee who is likely to interact or come into contact with victims of human trafficking. This training must be completed by Jan. 1, 2020, for workers employed as of July 1, 2019, and within six months of hire for workers employed after July 1, 2019. After Jan. 1, 2020, an employer must provide human-trafficking awareness training and education once every two years to each employee likely to interact or come into contact with victims of human trafficking. These employees include, but are not limited to, employees who have reoccurring interactions with the public, such as employees who work in a reception area, perform housekeeping duties, help customers in moving their possessions or drive customers. The mandatory training and education shall include: The definition of human trafficking and commercial exploitation of children. Guidance on how to identify individuals most at risk for human trafficking. The difference between labor and sex trafficking specific to the hotel sector. Guidance on the role of hospitality employees in reporting and responding to this issue. The contact information of appropriate agencies. The mandatory training and education may also include materials and information provided by the Department of Justice, the Blue Campaign of the federal Department of Homeland Security and private nonprofit organizations that represent the interests of victims of human trafficking. If an employer violates this section, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) may seek an order requiring the employer to comply. Posting Requirements The governor also signed AB 2034, which amends Section 52.6 of the Civil Code of California. The amendment requires a variety of businesses and other establishments to post a compliant notice regarding human trafficking in a conspicuous place near the public entrance of the establishment or in another conspicuous location in clear view of the public and employees where similar notices are customarily posted. Like SB 970, AB 2034 also requires certain businesses to conduct employee training. The businesses and establishments affected by the new posting mandate include: On-sale general public premises licensees under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act. Adult or sexually oriented businesses. Primary airports. Intercity passenger rail or light rail stations. Bus stations. Truck stops. Emergency rooms within general acute care hospitals. Urgent care centers. Farm labor contractors. Privately operated job recruitment centers. Roadside rest areas. Businesses or establishments that offer massage or bodywork services for compensation. Hotels, motels, and bed and breakfast inns. The notice must be at least 8.5 inches by 11 inches in size, written in a 16-point font, provided in English, Spanish and in one other language that is the most widely spoken language in the county where the establishment is located, as required by the federal Voting Rights Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1973 et seq.), unless English or Spanish is the most widely spoken language, and shall state the following: If you or someone you know is being forced to engage in any activity and cannot leavewhether it is commercial sex, housework, farm work, construction, factory, retail, or restaurant work, or any other activitytext 233-733 (Be Free) or call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or the California Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) at 1-888-KEY-2-FRE(EDOM) or 1-888-539-2373 to access help and services. The notice must also state that "victims of slavery and human trafficking are protected under United States and California law" and note that the hotlines are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, toll-free, operated by a nonprofit nongovernmental organization, anonymous and confidential, accessible in more than 160 languages, and able to provide help, referral to services, training, and general information. Businesses subject to this posting requirement must comply starting Jan. 1, 2019. The California Department of Justice shall develop and provide the model notice for download on the department's web site by Jan. 1, 2019. AB 2034 also mandates that by Jan. 1, 2021, a business or other establishment that operates an intercity passenger-rail or light-rail or bus station shall provide at least 20 minutes of training to its new and existing employees who may interact with or come into contact with a victim of human trafficking or who are likely to receive, in the course of their employment, a report from another employee about suspected human trafficking. The required training will provide information on recognizing the signs of human trafficking and how to report those signs to the appropriate law enforcement agency. This mandatory training shall include: The definition of human trafficking, including sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Myths and misconceptions about human trafficking. Physical and mental signs to be aware of that may indicate that human trafficking is occurring. Guidance on how to identify individuals most at risk for human trafficking. Guidance on how to report human trafficking including, but not limited to, national hotlines (1-888-373-7888 and text line 233733) and contact information for local law enforcement agencies that an employee may use to make a confidential report. Protocols for reporting human trafficking when on the job. Failure to comply with the new law will subject business to a civil penalty of $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for each later offense. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, California had the most human trafficking cases reported in 2017. All California employers should know that while these new laws establish minimum requirements that employers in certain industries must adhere to, the laws likely suggest that California agencies will increase scrutiny for indications of forced or exploitative labor practices within their operations. Michael Manoukian is an attorney with Littler in San Jose, Calif. Michael G. Congiu is an attorney with Littler in Minneapolis. Stefan J. Marculewicz is an attorney with Littler in Washington, D.C. Lavanga V. Wijekoon is an attorney with Littler in Chicago. 2018 Littler. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A New Brighton mans fight to use a gun buyback defense to overturn a conviction two years ago ended after the Court of Appeals -- the highest court in the state -- recently declined to hear his case. Kevin Watson was sentenced Wednesday to five years for weapons charges, and three years' post-release supervision, said a spokesman for the district attorneys office. Hes obviously not happy," said Watsons lawyer, Timothy Parlatore. "He wouldve liked a different result. After a week-long trial in 2016, a jury found Watson guilty of one count of felony criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and one count of misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. State Supreme Court Justice William E. Garnett sentenced him to five years in prison in connection with the 2013 incident. A state appellate court this year upheld Watsons weapons conviction. After hearing oral arguments a year-and-a-half ago, the four appellate justices voted 3-1 against the appeal. Parlatore said the Court of Appeals did not provide an explanation for not hearing Watsons case. Were disappointed they declined to hear the case, said Parlatore. The intermediate appellate court found several errors and was split over a new trial. Its been a long process which couldve been resoled earlier, he added. Watson had been out on $100,000 bail during the appeals process. In October 2013, Watson was riding in the front seat of a livery cab on Victory Boulevard, near Tompkinsville Park, when undercover cops in an unmarked vehicle pulled over the cab and found him with a loaded Taurus 9 mm gun in a holster, prosecutors said. Watson contends he got in a cab and was taking the gun to the 120th Precinct stationhouse to hand it in as part of the NYPDs buyback program. Under the program, civilians can hand in guns under a no-questions-asked policy. Police found Watson with the gun and an attached magazine clip with 10 bullets, officials said. Watson hailed the cab from in front of 516 Jersey St., which is not his home, and told the driver to take him to Victory Boulevard and Bay Street and not the precinct stationhouse, prosecutors said. In its appeal, the defense argued several issues with the case, including that it was not allowed to question Watsons mother-in-law, Crystal Armstrong, about a conversation they had about the program the morning before his arrest. Armstrong works at the 120th Precinct. Parlatore previously said that during deliberations the jury had passed a note asking if Armstrong had a conversation with Watson about the program, but the mom was prevented from testifying to that. STATEN ISLAND -- Mayor Bill de Blasio alongside Speaker Corey Johnson signed legislation into law Tuesday, which will allow those who do not identify exclusively as male or female to identify as gender X on New York City birth certificates. The legislation will make it easier for transgender and gender non-binary individuals born in New York City to amend their birth certificates to more accurately reflect who they are by removing medical and administrative barriers. The law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2019. The push to create a third gender category was spearheaded by Johnson. Island Councilmen Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) and Minority Leader Steve Matteo (R-Mid Island) were among a handful of City Council members who voted against the bill when it passed in September. New Yorkers should be free to tell their government who they are, not the other way around, de Blasio said. "This new legislation will empower all New Yorkers especially our transgender and gender non-binary residents to have birth certificates that better reflect their identity, and it furthers the citys commitment to defending the rights of our LGBTQ community. Before de Blasio signed the legislation into law Tuesday, Island native Tanya Asapansa-Johnson Walker, the co-founder of the New York Transgender Advocacy Group (NYTAG), talked about the difficulty she had as a transgender student at the College of Staten Island. She said that at CSI she would write her name and gender pronouns down on a piece of paper and give it to her professor at the beginning of each semester. During class, she said she would sit at the back of the room by the door because she was afraid he was going to call my birth name and gender. We will no longer need to go to the doctor to get a piece of paper that validates our own identity," Walker said. There are many fine doctors, but many may not understand or want to understand your gender identity. The bill comes as the city has taken major steps in recent years to protect transgender and gender non-conforming individuals from discrimination. In 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order requiring city agencies to ensure transgender and gender non-conforming individuals were given access to single-sex bathrooms without being required to show a form of identification. New York City is not the only jurisdiction which has opted to add a third "X" gender option to official government documents. With the new legislation, New York City now joins jurisdictions like Oregon, Washington, and New Jersey. FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. Now the citys leaders are seeking to enter into another agreement. It is imperative that the city not repeat the mistakes of the past the safety of Chicago depends on it. Accordingly, at the end of this week, the Justice Department will file a statement of interest opposing the proposed consent decree. It is critical that Chicago get this right. While D.C. was consumed by the drama surrounding Brett Kavanaugh, Melania Trump embarked on her first solo trip as first lady. On the weeklong trip, Trump visited Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt. Yet, even though this was a goodwill trip, she courted controversy with a series of colonial-inspired outfits. Trump says the press needs to stop worrying about her clothes. Critics say her outfits are carefully chosen to send a message, which should be acknowledged. What do you think? PERSPECTIVES On the trip, Melania favored cream and white linens, with cuts that called to mind 1940's fashions. Comedians were quick to point out that one outfit in particular, which she chose to wear to visit the pyramids, bore a striking resemblance to the outfit worn by the malevolent "Raiders of the Lost Ark" antagonist, Rene Belloq. During an impromptu press conference at the base of the pyramids, the first lady implored members of the media to pay less attention to her clothes and more attention to the work she is doing. Critics though, explained that many of the first lady's fashion choices were fraught with significance, specifically calling to mind a bygone era of European colonialism in Africa. Her decision to wear a pith helmet was of most concern to critics and historians. Per NPR: Academics stated that the first lady's choices played into narratives of the colonial past and were well worth analyzing. Melania Trump has gotten into hot water due to her outfit choices on numerous occasions during her short tenure as the first lady. The most egregious example was her choice to wear a coat reading "I Don't Really Care. Do U?" on a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border at the height of the family separation crisis. Per The New York Times: The first lady's spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, put out a statement soon after the controversy, stating that it was entirely overblown. Grisham put out a similar statement after the first lady was criticized for her decision to wear rather glamorous stilettos on a visit to hurricane-ravaged Texas. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. EDITORS NOTE: This story initially ran in October 2017. We are re-posting it because we think it shares an important message, and Tracey Porpora is now three years cancer-free. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Im one of the lucky ones. I realized that during six weeks of radiation treatment at Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center in Basking Ridge, N.J. One day early in the process, I was sitting in the radiation waiting room filled with braless women of various ages clad in red and white linen gowns, all waiting to be called for their treatment. "What are you doing here? You look too young to have cancer -- and you have hair," said a cheerful 60-something-year-old woman with very short gray hair, dangling gold earrings and red lipstick. I looked around, and she was right. A lot of the women had scarves wrapped around their heads, having lost their locks from chemotherapy. "I was lucky," I said to the room of women all sharing one painfully common bond. "I took my routine mammography, and they caught it early -- it was less than two centimeters, and it didn't spread." Stages of cancer, I quickly learned, are just another way of saying how big the cancer is. Mine was small -- Stage 1. The woman said her cancer had already reached Stage 3 when it showed up on her yearly mammogram. Another woman I met, who came from Arizona for her treatment, was just 32 and had Stage 4 cancer in both breasts. When I was diagnosed, I hadn't immediately realized just how lucky I was. I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG It was Aug. 18, 2015, when I went for my yearly mammography at Regional Radiology in West Brighton. I was in a rush; I needed to get to work. But the radiologist took extra time reading the mammogram. The X-ray technician told me not to get dressed. I had to wait; I started to get impatient. Never before had I been called in to take more photos. I was left in a waiting room yet again -- still in a robe, texting my editor that I'd be late. I knew something was wrong. Once inside the radiologist's office, she pointed out tiny white dots on the X-ray. She said I had very small calcifications that most likely were "nothing," but I'd need a biopsy. For the next two weeks, everyone I told said it was likely just a precaution, or a false alarm. Calcifications, as it turns out, are common. One woman told me how she'd had eight biopsies for calcifications and they were always negative. 'YOU HAVE CANCER' A week later, I went to Regional Radiology -- this time, in Charleston -- to have the biopsy done. It was painful, and I still have a mark on my left breast where the doctor shot a metal marker into my skin. However, waiting for the results was far more painful. The doctor called sooner than expected, on Sept. 1. I'll never forget how the words sounded. "You have cancer." Those words echoed in my head for a few minutes before I realized what she had said. I had a common form of breast cancer -- hormone receptor-positive, which means it was fueled by estrogen. It was also HER2 negative, which means it wasn't invasive. Still, I had to be dreaming, right? Why me? Was it because I smoked for 15 years? Was it because I grew up near the former Fresh Kills Landfill? I eat healthy and exercise; how could this have happened? There was hardly any cancer in my family. But after sobbing to my closest friends for a few hours, I realized it didn't matter how I got breast cancer; I just had to beat it. And not just for myself. My daughter was 11 at the time, and her friend's mother had died of breast cancer only a few years before. I sat her down and told her I had it. And I told her I'd beat it. ONGOING TREATMENT My lumpectomy -- the surgery in which doctors remove the cancer, some surrounding tissue and one lymph node in my case -- was Sept. 15 at Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center in Manhattan. I had to go on disability for three weeks for the surgery and recovery period. I went back to work for a month, and then I was out again for six weeks of radiation. I'm happy to say that I've been cancer-free ever since, something I'm slightly embarrassed to write because so many millions of women have had it so much worse than I did. But now, as a breast cancer survivor, my life isn't quite the same. I've been traveling to Uptown Manhattan every four months to see a medical oncologist and every six months to see my breast surgeon. I have to take a drug called Tamoxifen for 10 years. My medical oncologist described to me how the medication works by telling me, "It's like putting those child-proof plugs into electrical sockets; that's how it blocks the estrogen in your body." Breast cancer cells taken out during a biopsy are tested to see if they have proteins that are estrogen or progesterone receptors. "When the hormones estrogen and progesterone attach to these receptors, they fuel the cancer growth," the American Cancer Society says on its website. NEW PERSPECTIVE These days, I look at life a lot differently. Im less vain and more relaxed -- especially when those little annoying things happen like losing your car keys when youre already late for work, or getting a flat tire. Since my surgery, Ive also put on weight. Ive gone from a size 2 to size 6 -- a side effect of the medication, along with unpleasant hot flashes. So I eat even healthier than I did before, and I work out more than ever -- attending pilates and hot yoga classes and riding a treadmill three to five nights per week. My daughter hears me complain when I look in the mirror and yet another piece from my closet doesn't fit. "But you're alive," she says. And I smile, and say, "Yes, I am." EARLY DETECTION SAVES LIVES If there's one thing I can share with my story, it is this: You should get a yearly mammogram if you're 40 or older. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women after lung cancer, and less than 15 percent of women have a family history of the disease. Don't make the mistake of thinking it can't happen to you. Early detection saves lives. It saved mine. I didn't have a lump on my breast. I had something only a mammography could pick up. My cancer was so small it didn't even show up on the ultrasound scan. While the American Cancer Society now recommends mammograms every two years for women 55 and older, from what I've learned, that is far too long to wait. In another year, my cancer could have been Stage 3 or 4. I might have needed a mastectomy, chemotherapy or more radiation, and, yes, I could have lost my life. MAKING STRIDES For the last three years, Ive raised money by participating in the Staten Island Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk with friends and family. Last year, I had a big team, Traceys Team, made up of supporters ranging from co-workers to friends and family members. This year, I am again rounding up people for my team. This year the walk is on Oct. 21 in Midland Beach, where there will be a sea of pink and thousands of people -- along with hundreds of survivors -- walking to raise money to find a cure for this disease that claims the lives of some 40,000 women each year. Join us. In the meantime, dont wait to go for that mammography. At best, youll be clear. If not, your life may depend on early detection. FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTER STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- How many of us over the years have spent our spare change to purchase a candy bar or even a bottle of soda, not knowing if one of those coins could have been worth a great deal of money? There is no question, we are all guilty of spending our loose change without even giving these metal discs a second glance. But American coinage like pennies, quarters, dimes or even nickels have sometimes passed out of the mint bearing mistakes of some sort. For whatever reason, these mistakes have passed through the cracks of the minting process and resulted in that which collectors call error coins. Quite a few can still be in our pockets. Many of our relatives, especially our grandparents, managed to save a great deal of spare change during their long lives, and most of these coins have never been examined. Quite a few of these earlier coins unlike todays clad coins (a coin with layers of metal such as copper and silver-colored nickel) were made of silver alloy and today they are worth more. A friend of mine contacted me not too long ago, informing me he had come upon a 1943 Lincoln penny that was made of solid silver. I felt terrible having to be the one to burst his bubble, and let him know that it was made of steel and not silver. I tried to let him down easy by telling him that these 1943 Lincoln pennies were made in the thousands, because the copper was desperately needed for the making of ammunition and electric wiring during World War II. These were the only American coins that were made of steel at this time. We must remember when it comes to coin collecting that the number of coins made during any given year determines their value, as well as condition. In terms of pocket change, one should be on the lookout for certain coins. COINS THAT ARE WORTH MORE First, keep an eye out for the 1966 Jefferson nickel. One should look for a 90 degrees rotated reverse of the Jefferson Memorial. The range in value differs from $25 to $125, depending. The finer the condition, the greater the value. Another coin to keep in mind is the 1965 Washington quarter that could be worth up to $300. The particular coin you want shows the reverse design rotated at 170 degrees. These rotated reverse errors are in great demand and the errors can be easily detected with the naked eye. If you plan on winning the coin lottery, so to speak, try to locate the 1993 D Lincoln penny, which actually displays the image of a dime on the reverse side of the coin. I doubt, however, if these days there are any left to be found. Only one has been discovered so far (which was first thought to be fake) and had now been authenticated as a genuine coin by the United States Treasury Department. WATCH OUT FOR FAKES Coins for centuries have also been faked, and unless you become an expert in the field of numismatics, you just might be taken. Its important to remember that some coins look too good to be true. Recently, I met a young married couple that approached me, asking me if I would have a look at some old silver dollars they recently inherited from their deceased uncle. Silver dollars have always been of great interest to collectors, even though silver has not gone up in value when compared to gold. I decided to have a look and to render my opinion the best I could. The first coin I examined was a 1797 Liberty dollar (draped bust and small eagle), which looked quite promising, but the weight of this so-called dollar did not sit right with me and I thought it might not be genuine. The second dollar was a 1903 Morgan bearing the mint mark S on the reverse, letting me know it was minted in San Francisco. If this example turns out to be genuine, it could be worth up to $80, not a bad return on a dollar. Another example in the lot was an Ellis Island Commemorative dated 1906. I had a funny feeling that this particular coin was a fake, since it should have displayed the luster of an authentic silver piece. There was a total of 20 dollar coins in the bunch and I decided to show them to a coin expert, who knew more about them than I did. I told the owners that I had an inclination that these were not genuine and I would take them to the city to resolve the mystery. The minute I retrieved them from my bag, the dealer said not to bother taking them all out, that they were fake. The coin dealer told me these coins, as well as others, were manufactured in China for many years because they were highly collectible not just for their beauty but for their age, as well. These dollars are still convincing enough to pass off as genuine silver dollars. If one was willing to scratch the surface on one of them, they will notice that beneath the silver-looking alloy, one will find copper. American silver dollars were made solely of silver and always held their weight. A word of advice to all my readers, which I seem to repeat on occasion: Whatever one feels like collecting, make sure you read up on the subject. If coins are your thing, get to know some coin dealers in New York City who will help and guide you through the minefield of beautiful and one-of-a-kind coins. If silver dollars excite you, like it does for many coin collectors, learn the many types that were issued and familiarize yourself with dates for each type as well. Also, try to learn the mint marks for example, S or D that designate where these dollars are made each year by the United States Mint. Happy hunting! 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! She likened Haley to Condoleezza Rice - the secretary of state and national security adviser under President George W. Bush - who was often mentioned as a possible GOP vice-presidential candidate. "She's one of these rare people in Republican circles who conservatives and moderates really like and women and men can both agree on," Matthews said. "She is somebody who is outside of stereotypical Republican central casting. She's Indian American, she's young, she's both pragmatic as well as conservative, and I feel that she very much has that image going for her." Bonus payments for the Commonwealth Bank's top 500 managers will partly depend on whether the bank delivers a plan aimed at cleaning up its cultural and governance problems. After a scathing report from the banking regulator earlier this year, sparked by a string of scandals at CBA, the bank on Wednesday released its first progress report on a "remedial action plan." Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn said there was still "a lot to do" in implementing its action plan. Credit:AAP CBA was forced to establish the "action plan" after an April report from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), which slammed the culture of the bank, pointing to overconfidence, a failure to see the bigger picture, and inadequate attention to non-financial risks. CBA on Wednesday said all senior leaders would have 20 to 30 per cent of their performance metrics for this financial year tied to delivering the action plan's milestones. US President Donald Trump will host one of his most famous fans at the White House, musician Kanye West, to talk about prisons, jobs and what to do about violence in Chicago, the White House said on Tuesday. West will have lunch with the Republican president and also meet with Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner on Thursday, according to the White House. "Topics of discussions will include manufacturing resurgence in America, prison reform, how to prevent gang violence, and what can be done to reduce violence in Chicago," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, Trump said West was a "terrific guy". Chris Hemsworth as Billy Lee in Bad Times at the El Royale. Credit:Twentieth Century Fox Jeff Bridges was also quickly convinced to be part of this film. Every once in a while, I read a script and say, This is like nothing Ive ever seen before, so when I found out the writer was also the director, I was impressed at our first meeting, says the 68-year-old. Bridges character may or may not really be a priest, but the actor still needed to brush up on Catholic rituals in the film. I am not Catholic, but Drew was raised Catholic so I went to him for all that stuff, he says. I did have a wonderful relationship with a priest by the name of Don Harris in 1968 when I was in boot camp, he adds, referring to his seven years in the US Coast Guard Reserve. The first thing he said to all of us was, When youre here, youre not in the military, youre in the house of the Lord! He was such a cool guy. Bridges fondly recalls that after 10 weeks of training, Father Harris took him to a popular local venue in San Francisco to see Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane. Can you imagine? he marvels before adding, and 20 years later, I invited him to marry my wife and myself, so I thought about him a lot while I was playing this part. Goddard, 43, says so many scenes in the film required such intricate choreography and long takes, he had the 10,000-square-foot hotel set built on a 60,000-square-foot stage at Mammoth Studios near Vancouver, British Columbia. Jon Hamm, no stranger to the `60s as Don Draper in Mad Men, recalls one seven-minute-long uninterrupted scene in which his character walks a secret hallway on the other side of the mirrors that provide a clear view into each guest's room. There were about 40 people working on the scene in some capacity and I was part of a bizarre 12-person dance with so many levels on each side of the mirror, Hamm says. The camera hits a bump, the dolly has a flat tyre, and Ill tell you that a real cheer went up when we knew wed finally got it on the 27th take! Johnson, meanwhile, says she jumped at the chance to play Emily Summerspring. Dressed in tight jeans, a sleeveless vest and leather jacket, the 29-year-old embraced her role. "I havent played a character with such swagger, so it was really fun, she says It was also really fun to be angry and to play a woman thats not sorry for being angry. Bad Times at the El Royale is now screening. Nick "Honey Badger" Cummins had a tense stand-off with an A Current Affair crew after they tracked him down in Papua New Guinea and questioned him about last week's dramatic finale of The Bachelor. After surprising many fans by refusing to pick a winner last Thursday, the former rugby player has managed to avoid all media - save for a pre-recorded interview with The Project - by skipping the country to take on the Kokoda Track. His peace and quiet was short-lived though, with A Current Affair reporter Reid Butler pinpointing Cummins' accommodation and then ambushing him as he wandered around his resort. And while Channel Nine may have pegged the "gotcha" interview as a major coup, it turns out A Current Affair didn't manage to get much more out of Cummins than what has already been heard. In NSW, private educational authorities, including religious schools, are exempt from anti-discrimination laws and are allowed to make employment decisions on the grounds of sex, transgender status, marital or domestic status, disability and homosexuality. The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, said: "Catholic schools welcome staff and students from all backgrounds who are willing to accept the declared mission and values of the school community. "How are [schools] going to know a child is gay?" Ms Brown asked. Archbishop Mark Coleridge. "Are they going to have a gaydar at the gate? If a child comes out after they enrol, is the school then going to expel them? It's certainly an infringement of human rights as far as I'm concerned, and for staff as well." The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, said: "Catholic schools welcome staff and students from all backgrounds who are willing to accept the declared mission and values of the school community. "We have not sought concessions to discriminate against students or teachers based on their sexuality, gender identity or relationship status. Once employed or enrolled, people within a Catholic school community are expected to adhere to the schools mission and values. Catholic Education executive director Stephen Elder said he had been a director of Catholic education for 14 years and knew of no circumstances where a child had been denied a place in a Catholic school because of their sexuality. The LGBTIQ network in the Uniting Church of Australia, the Uniting Network, said any policy resulting from the recommendation would "add to the already unacceptably high rates of depression, self-harm and suicide of young LGBTIQ people". "If religious schools are permitted to exclude LGBTIQ children from their schools, around one third of Australians will continue not to have any natural connection with LGBTIQ people, potentially ingraining homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in Australian society indefinitely," it said in a statement. The group also called on state governments to act on "discrimination measures already in place at the state level impacting LGBTIQ staff and students". In NSW, private educational authorities, including religious schools, are exempt from anti-discrimination laws and are allowed to make employment decisions on the grounds of sex, transgender status, marital or domestic status, disability and homosexuality. Private schools across Sydney have a range of different policies on gay students and teachers. While remaining true to the Anglican ethos on which our School was founded, Cranbrook School...works to ensure it does not discriminate on the grounds of disability, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, age, religion, or political or other opinion," a spokesman for the school said in a statement. Cranbrook School recognises that our School environment is greatly enriched by welcoming staff and students from a diverse range of backgrounds into classrooms and employment. Phillip Heath, the head of Barker College, said the school "does not seek to know specifically whether a student or staff member is 'gay'". "We seek to employ people who in addition to being demonstrably outstanding educators or practitioners can contribute actively to the Christian life of the school." A private school teacher and the mother of a year 10 student at a Sydney Catholic school, who did not want to be named, said the recommendation is "really going to stir things up for a lot of kids". "It was quite alarming when I heard about [the recommendation] on the radio this morning, I sat upright and turned the volume up and wondered if my son was listening," she said. Well done, those who protested. They were accused of being an "unwashed" and "latte-sipping" crowd, but are far from being that. They showed that values such as caring for others are alive and well. They demonstrate what it means to be a community. And they give us all hope. - Rosemary Johnston, Newport As a former NSW arts minister I feel it's a total disgrace that the Opera House is being commercialised through the advertising of a horse race. Unlike the current Prime Minister, I don't view the Opera House sails as the biggest billboard in town to be sold off to any commercial interest. It's a heritage-listed cultural site of immense importance to all Australians and indeed to people around the world. It would be a disaster if this intervention by the Premier led to issues with the Opera House's world heritage listing. - Virginia Judge, Newtown At least Oprah got bums on seats inside the Opera House and hopefully inspired people to return to attend another event - not horse races (Letters, October 10). - Jennifer Carter, Oyster Bay What could be more iconically and unabashedly Australian than advertising a horse race on the side of the iconic Opera House? This is a fair dinkum Aussie trait, so stop this public nagging! - Pasquale Vartuli, Wahroonga Now that it looks like open season on the usage of the Opera House sails, perhaps they could put the drawings of the daily lottery numbers there. - Ron Field, Bermagui Who do we ring to get Alan Jones sacked? - David Hart, Junction Hill When is an apology not an apology? When the fault is attributed to the sensitivity of the person insulted and not to the crass behaviour of the offender. - Norman Young, Cooranbong How to take away Jones' power? Change the radio station. You can do it. - Susan Lynch, Bateau Bay How about a projection onto the sails of a countdown of days until the next state election. - Llieda Wild, Eastwood Jorn Utzon's brief was to design an opera house not a billboard. - Ron Harmer, Surry Hills Welcome to Las Sydney - John Moran, Woollahra Christian compassion lost in bigoted school policy plan It seems strange that religious schools would even contemplate excluding people based on the way they were created by God ("Secret plan for laws to reject gay students", October 10). - John Truman, St Leonards Among our openly gay high achievers in Sydney right now we have a director of our major international airline, a High Court judge and an Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer. Imagine if they were denied their chosen source of education because of their sexuality? In many ways our society has advanced but, in so many others, we still have a foot in the dark past. - Greg M Vale, Kiama Religious institutions, which for years covered up or were simply unaware of the sexual abuse of children in their care, now want the right to discriminate against kids on the basis of their sexuality? - Nick Franklin, Katoomba Will people who have a sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status unpalatable to religious schools have the right to insist that their taxes not contribute to these schools that have the right to reject them? - Debra Miniutti, Ashbury Shame on them all. What happened to loving all God's children? - Elizabeth Kroon, Randwick Why would you spend a fortune, sending your children to private religious schools in order to narrow their minds and eschew anyone who is different? - Wendy Crew, Lane Cove Any school that wants to exempt itself from the community and legal standards of non-discrimination against gay people should also be exempted from government funding. - Bill Irvine, Goulburn Let's talk about compassion and kindness. I thought I was a lesbian at 13. Should the Church of England girls' school that I loved have expelled me? Will you, the community, speak up for children like me now? Nobody did when I was a student in the '60s. My school has changed. Over decades I've been welcomed back. It's time to speak up at your children's Catholic or independent school against discrimination. - Julie McCrossin, Annandale The community spoke on acceptance of sexual orientation at the same-sex plebiscite. The matter is closed. - Gary Bigelow, Oatlands What irony. Religious schools tout their values-driven ethos of compassion yet some may be given the right to simultaneously abide by amendments to the federal Sex Discrimination Act and refuse both gay teachers and students. Why are private institutions funded by the public purse being allowed to actively promote exclusion and judgment? - Deborah Rees, Bexley All fine by me, as long as they also stop holding their hands out for government funding. What's that? Not so keen now? This is not religious freedom, this is religious bigotry. - Les Tomlinson, Berowra Heights Nature unleashed A cat on a beach on a leash ("Bureau warns El Nino set to scorch the south", October 10). Dr Seuss would be pleased. - Matt Petersen, Randwick Give it a rest Kyrgios Not fatigue, but an inability to learn from life experiences is the core reason ("Woodbridge sees fatigue as key to Kyrgios' meltdowns", October 10) - Mustafa Erem, Terrigal When will Australians be able to proudly stand behind Nick Kyrgios? It is high time he was suspended indefinitely for his utter disrespect to the sport and its loyal followers. - Trish Lee, Castle Hill Johnson's justice Congratulations Boris Johnson on your opinion piece ("It's time to end global injustice towards women", October 10). It's one for the pool room. You tell it like it is and how you hope it will be. Injustice is everywhere. I cringe when I think of what I put up with and accepted as part of the status quo as a young working woman. - Jill Power, Manly Vale Boris Johnson has spoken in support of women in a way many politicians would mock. - Diana Dixon, Blackheath Collectively speaking A skulk of politicians, with apologies to foxes, and a murder of ex-PMs (Letters, October 10). - Barbara Chapman, Hawthorn (Vic) Finkel's ray of sunshine for the future Chief scientist Alan Finkel's plan to invest in hydrogen production is a ray of hope for all concerned with both our future energy supply and addressing the pollution produced by fossil fuels ("Shipping sunshine to Japan a bright spark in our future", October 10). A clean-burning, non-polluting alternative that could also provide Australia with a multi-billion dollar export market. Brilliant. Just as I was thinking that we could once again be "the clever country", there was Environment Minister Melissa Price rejecting the key findings of the UN's climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Despite the report distilling more than 6000 scientific references and being authored by 91 scientists from over 40 countries, Price is so arrogant that she has dismissed the report "despite not having read it". It seems that "clever" will not be an adjective used to describe us while we have such a lack of political will. - Alan Marel, North Curl Curl Pay attention PM: Alan Finkel has thrown you a lifeline. Take his advice, set up hydrogen energy production in Australia and you might have a chance of keeping your job come the next election. - Anne Kirman, Kellyville The completely inane response from our government to the IPCC report is the clearest statement there is by a government that believes more in the power of prayer than renewable power (Letters, October 10). Prime Minister, I care more about the future of our planet than the price of power and I wish I could vote in Wentworth so I could send you that message now. - Stephen Buzacott, Browns Mountain Workers are expected to be innovative and agile in this new ever-changing global economy. Pity our politicians can't be the same. Even without the science argument there is no doubt that the world is heading towards decarbonisation. We can either join or be left behind. The IPCC report should be viewed as a blueprint for opportunity for Australia. It's a new rich seam of unlimited potential carbon neutral of course. - Elizabeth Darton, Lane Cove West The responses of our Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister to the IPCC report is enough reason in itself for these people to be voted out of office at the earliest opportunity. The ignorance, stupidity and lack of leadership displayed by these individuals is breathtaking. Do they really think that in a world that is facing catastrophic and irreparable harm environmentally and economically from inaction on climate change that the priority for Australians should be to reduce their electricity bill by a few hundred dollars. Climate change still remains the great moral challenge of our time but the Coalition government is not even acknowledging the challenge, let alone facing up to it. - Phil Peak, Dubbo Given the seriousness of the IPCC warning one must ask why there have not been restrictions placed on the installation of new air-conditioning systems given that air-conditioning load absorbs more than 30 per cent of the energy consumed by the average home. Other means of home cooling are available through use of "night cooling" technologies which use a fraction of the energy consumed by air-conditioners. One is left to wonder, do we really have a crisis with global warming? If we do, then governments need to act on one of the major reasons why our electricity usage has increased. - Allan Ramsay, Hornsby The fossil fuel industry carefully framed carbon reduction and climate change as a left wing conspiracy many years ago. ("States climate risks rising, led by health", October 10). By politicising the science, they have demonised those who advocate for carbon abatement policy. It is more pronounced in Australia as we are one of the world's largest coal exporters. Even if you won't accept the science, then surely risk management would compel the sceptics that the economic costs of doing nothing far outweighs the short-term costs. The day will come when the rest of the world will not buy our coal, what then - Danielle Ecuyer, Bondi Junction For all those who wrote to complain about Scott Morrison's response to the latest report on human-induced climate change, don't worry, he has a solution (Letters, October 10). He thinks God will fix it. - Tom Orren, Wamberal Heights No secrets please If other organisations that are given public money have to prove that they need it, religious entities should be treated no differently ("Call for churches to report on finances", October 10). - Patrick Hennessy, North Narrabeen Parallel universe How is charging people for services not rendered, or charging for life insurance where there is no life, "potentially illegal" ("Banks vow to end fees for no service", October 10)? Why do bankers exist in a parallel universe where no-one is punished for fraud and they expect to be congratulated for promising not to commit fraud in the future? - Jennifer Katauskas, Wahroonga Country comforts "Forcing" new migrants to settle in the regions sounds like a punishment ("Regional visa approvals fall by half under the Coalition", October 10). Having lived in big cities and a regional city, I can assure any would-be migrants there is a rich lifestyle beyond the sandstone curtain. Walking to work or a very short commute; tree-lined streets with not a high rise in sight; cultural and sporting activities to suit every taste. Just some of the many advantages of escaping the capital city sprawl and congestion. Yes, being able to get work is essential, but beyond that, you'll relax and breathe easily. - Joan Brown, Orange As the child of proud immigrants, just like Premier Berejiklian, immigration has immeasurably enriched this country but it is out of control (Letters, October 10). And the winner is Tumut Tumut celebrated as the results of the ballot for a Federal Capital site were declared. An impromptu public meeting was held at Nestors Hotel with free champagne to toast the success of the Western League supplied by the landlady. A crier paraded through the streets spreading the good news and extraordinaries were issued from the newspaper offices. Madigans Oriental Hotel kept an open bar, and flags flew in every part of the town. Mrs Turner maintains her high position Mrs Ethel Turner has deservedly won her way to a high position as an Australian writer. In her latest publication, Betty and Co. nobody touches more deftly and skilfully than she on the mannerisms of Australian children, explaining their characteristics, their apparent roughnesses and rudenesses, their real grit, and their sterling worth. The previous generation of children would be shocked by the exploits of Miss Turners heroes and heroines. Foreign briefs A 50-year-old woman has been charged with murder after a man was allegedly stabbed to death in Sydney's west on Wednesday afternoon. Emergency services were called to a home on Meroo Street in Blacktown at about 5.20pm to reports a man had been stabbed. Police officers first on the scene performed CPR on the 47-year-old man until paramedics arrived. However, he couldn't be saved and died at the scene. Lisa Srsa, believed to be known to the man, was arrested at another home on the same street and taken to Blacktown Police Station, where she was charged with murder. On the eve of a byelection in Wentworth, the seat which returned the third highest "yes" vote of 80.8 per cent in the same sex marriage vote, the Coalition may not like voters to know that it has the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Australians under consideration. The Herald revealed on Tuesday that the Federal government has received a report by Liberal Party elder Philip Ruddock on "religious freedom" which recommends changes to the law protecting LGBTI people from sex discrimination in religious schools. The same sex marriage vote last year showed strong support for LGBT rights. Credit:AP Attorney-General Christian Porter has disingenuously criticised the Herald's report. He said Section 38 of the Federal Sex Discrimination Act already allows same sex schools to discriminate and this "regime" will not change. Until the report is formally released the detail won't be clear but there are many ways to undermine LGBTI rights in religious schools and elsewhere without touching Section 38. A 500-metre exclusion zone and a school lockdown have been lifted following concerns of a possible gas explosion at a building fire in the Darling Downs. Six Queensland Fire and Emergency Services crews were fighting the large fire at a removal company in Dalby for more than one hour on Wedneday. Emergency services were called just before 1pm and police were urging members of the public to avoid the area around Bunya and Napier Streets. A QFES spokeswoman said the exclusion zone had been put in place as a precautionary measure following reports of gas in one of the buildings on site. The limo's driver, Scott Lisinicchia, had been told he didn't have the proper license to drive it during an Aug. 25 traffic stop, state police said Wednesday. They said a trooper issued violations, advised that Lisinicchia couldn't drive the limo and "took steps to ensure that the vehicle was taken off the road." An experienced Dreamworld ride operator who was sacked after he allowed two rafts to collide in a 2014 incident on the Thunder River Rapids Ride says he was told there was damage to the ride, which prompted him to accept his sacking. Stephen Buss, who had worked at Dreamworld for about eight years, told a coronial inquest into the October 2016 tragedy that killed four people he was not offered training after the 2014 incident that resulted in his firing. Police cars outside Dreamworld in October 2016, after the tragedy. Credit:Glenn Hunt/Fairfax Media The inquest is investigating the causes of the fatal 2016 accident that killed Sydney mother Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild and her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi after a raft they were riding in collided with an empty raft at the end of the ride and flipped. No one was injured in the 2014 incident, which was strikingly similar to the later tragedy, although there were guests on both rafts when they collided. Thunderstorms expected to hit south-east Queensland have fallen short of some predictions, following warnings of a "supercell" storm. Forecasters warned the storms could have been the worst of the week on Wednesday, after a man suffered an electric shock when lightning hit his home north-west of Brisbane on Tuesday. Severe storms have lashed south-east Queensland this week, with 25,000 lightning flashes recorded on Monday. Credit:Chris McKennariey - Facebook The Bureau of Meteorology warned a "supercell" storm could lash the region on Wednesday after heavy rain, strong winds and lightning hit the Moreton Bay, Somerset, Toowoomba, South Burnett, Gympie and Sunshine Coast areas in the previous 24 hours. Thunderstorms had been detected on the weather radar near Yarraman, about 180 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, which was moving towards the east, according to a BOM warning at 4.45pm. A house has been gutted in an out-of-control blaze that almost destroyed another home and left a third with minor damage in Melbourne's south-east. The fire, which broke out at a Flinders Street house in Mentone about 11am on Wednesday, spread to two neighbouring properties fanned by strong winds. The fire at Flinders Street, Mentone. More than 30 firefighters battled the blaze as large plumes of smoke drifted over the area. It took firefighters nearly an hour to gain control of the fire. Victorian independent and Catholic schools will receive a $400 million funding boost for new buildings and upgrades, regardless of who wins the state election. The Coalition announced on Wednesday it would match Labor's pledge for the non-government sector by injecting $100 million every year for four years into upgrades and new schools. The Coalition has matched Labor's $400 million pledge for non-government schools. Credit:Michele Mossop The move avoids a pre-election stoush with the powerful Catholic school lobby and neutralises any differences between the two major parties when it comes to private school funding. Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, who made the announcement in the schoolyard of St Louis de Montfort School in Aspendale, said the capital works fund gave parents options. "Jacqueline was visiting the home site out of our Rockingham facility's normal hours," the company told 9 News Perth. "We don't know why Jacqueline was visiting the home site, and that is certainly one of the questions we are working to have answered. "Like most other service providers, solo outreach visits are permitted by Neami, but only after a thorough and rigorous assessment has been conducted. "If a heightened risk is identified, solo outreach visits would not be permitted." WA Health Minister Roger Cook was quick to dissuade fears the industry was underfunded, and it was not recommended protocol workers attend home visits solo. "Can I make it very clear, budget cuts have nothing to do with this set of circumstances," he said. "We are funding community mental health services at a higher rate of any previous state government. "It's not normal practice [to visit the home alone] ... we have very clear protocols when it comes to home visits in these situations ... so we're trying to understand what's gone on here." WA Health Minister Roger Cook. Credit:AAP Images/Sophie Moore Mr Cook said he'd spoken with Neami National chief executive officer Anthony Papakotsias about why Ms Francis was by herself during a home visit, but said overall he didn't believe her death came down to a lack of funding for community support workers. However, anonymous whistleblowers have since written to WAtoday to contradict those claims, and to offer an insight into what happens in WA's community support industry. Read the responses below. Some have been cut for length. "My girlfriend has been attacked, locked herself in a panic room" "I'm not a social worker, but my girlfriend is a disability and mental health support worker, and the comment that 'it's not normal practice [to visit the home alone]' ... seems to defy pretty much all the stories that I have heard. "It is extremely common for alone visits to occur. Most agencies will try and reduce staff numbers as much as possible [even beyond what is legally required] and even when a doctor's report designates someone with a disability, needing 24-hour care, as requiring two people to assist for any basic function for example, going to the toilet, hoisting into bed, so forth the agency will only provide a single person a lot of the time. Some workers spoke out about the violence they experienced while on shift. "My girlfriend has been attacked, locked herself in a panic room, called management, and then been told to wait for the client to calm down and try and continue the shift. "They don't send a second person even when told an assault has occurred. "It is common practice for the agency to beef up staff numbers when they are being assessed and then drop half the shifts as soon as assessments end." - Don "One peaceful night before she'd try to die again" "I recently worked with a 15-year-old with severe complex childhood trauma, and a history of sleeping rough from the time she was in primary school, because she felt safer sleeping outside than in her own home. "When I worked with her she was very suicidal and making serious attempts on her own life at virtually every opportunity while she was with us three or four packets of whatever supermarket pills she could knock off at a time. "She also burned and cut herself and attempted to throw herself into traffic. She would take the medication in secret. "Later we would see her breathing change and call the ambulance. Police would usually attend. Then she would go to the childrens hospital, they would keep her for two to three nights. "If there was space she would get transferred to the adolescent mental health unit for two or three nights. "As far as I can gather, her time there was spent sedated and resting with no other intervention. "Shed get sent back to us and shed have one peaceful night while she was still affected by the sedatives and then shed try to die again. The ambos would lecture her that she was ruining her liver and it would kill her and shed say well, death is the aim! "One night the childrens hospital psychiatrist rang to ask if we were happy to have her transferred back to our program. I asked why no one was putting our young person on any type of long term treatment, such as antidepressants. "From what I could gather from the psychiatrists response, the young person was known to use alcohol and recreational drugs and no one wanted to be responsible for a potential drug interaction. I can understand this, its a risk, a drug interaction could be deadly. "But I wonder which is the greatest risk - a kid taking hundreds of aspirin, paracetamol and Ibuprofen tablets each week, or taking antidepressants while using other substances? "Ideally, a couple of months supervised in hospital to get her medication right and her mental health stabilised would have been the best option, and would probably have removed much of the desire to take excessive risks and black out on drugs. But those services simply dont exist." - Anonymous "It's not feasible to have two clinicians on every visit together" "I worked as a community mental health nurse for many years in WA and Victoria. it was often the case in the community teams and crisis teams to have two staff, at times a social worker, being a multi-disciplinary team on an initial assessment, visit. Demand for home care is also rising, according to new government data. Credit:Jessica Shapiro "Some clients, however not all, were deemed risk to self or others and a two person visit. "However mostly we had our own case load and visited alone if it were a community team there were systems in place RE location and time of visit, call back etc. "In my opinion it is not feasible to have two clinicians go on every visit together. "In my experience, I went to an assessment once and the client was elderly and no risk, however there was no alert, red flag for me regarding the grandson who was living there and put his fist through a glass coffee table next to me ... this had not been made known to other health teams aside from the adult mental health team, who would only visit in pairs. "A risk assessment is not always done well in community teams, whether it be a mental health team or another community home visiting team." - Anonymous Quick comments "Under the NDIS, funding is very tightly controlled. Simply put there just isn't cash flow available for two people to attend a visit very often. My partner works in this field and I've heard some horror stories. There are disability service providers actively rorting the system at the same time due to the lack of oversight. The government simply cannot manage the magnitude of the needs of disabled people and its rapidly becoming a farce." - Anonymous "It is common practice to enter a mental health client's home alone. In all my 12 years I have never had a buddy nor been paired with another worker. We don't know the history of the client, only their present position." - Anonymous "Perhaps government-employed workers have those protocols but after 25 years of working in the human services sector I can tell you for community-based non-government organisations it is completely normal to work by yourself in unusual hours; even with high-risk clients. That's why government funds these NGOs it's cheaper and government has less duty of care." - Anonymous "The media and public have been victim-blaming... [asking] why was she out so late or why was she alone. I am a mental health social worker for the government and regular independent home visits are a requirement of the job. There is an increased expectation that the clinicians will intervene in dangerous situations especially with the influx of methamphetamine use. The police delay there support or attendance at jobs often taking days to responsd to a request for assistance to assess. Mental health needs more funding and trained staff and tougher penalties for substance use and crimes committed while acutely intoxicated." Senior traffic police say they are concerned at the rate of drivers who continue to speed through WA school zones, as thousands of school kids returned to school this week for a new term. Just one team from the Traffic Enforcement Group (TEG) caught more than 50 speeding drivers at six schools on Tuesday morning. Officers from TEG team two caught 55 drivers on Tuesday speeding over the 40km/h limit. WAtoday was invited to tag along with the TEG officers this week as part of the operation. Eighteen speeding drivers, including one woman who was clocked at 63km/h, were caught near Helena Valley Primary School on Tuesday. School principals in Canberra have rejected recommended changes to federal anti-discrimination laws that would give religious schools the right to turn away gay students and teachers, as politicians label the proposal an attack on human rights. It was revealed on Wednesday Phillip Ruddock's review of religious freedoms recommended amending the federal Sex Discrimination Act to discriminate against students on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status - something some but not all states already allow. Former Attorney-General Philip Ruddock oversaw the religious freedom review. Credit:Nick Moir The review - which has been tied up in cabinet deliberations since it was handed to government four months ago - was commissioned in the wake of last years postal vote results, with conservative MPs afraid legalising same-sex marriage would restrict peoples ability to practise their religion freely. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said schools already had the right to discriminate against students and he was not proposing to change the law to "take away that existing arrangement". Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed the right of religious schools to discriminate against gay students in a political row over a confidential government report into religious freedom. Mr Morrison played down the storm over the report by pointing to existing law that allows religious schools to discriminate against some staff and students. The Prime Minister stood by this power in the face of a fierce debate over whether church groups and religious schools should continue to hold exemptions from discrimination law on the grounds of personal conscience. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said there should be no extension of discriminatory rights in any response to the review, adding that the report should be released so voters could see the advice to the government. Fairfax Media revealed the key findings of the religious freedom review, chaired by former Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, in an exclusive report on Wednesday. Hong Kong: Hong Kong's rare rejection of a UK journalist's visa was about far more than the fringe political ideology he was accused of promoting. The move has been viewed as the latest escalation in a methodical campaign to tame dissent in the former British colony. The Financial Times Asia news editor, Victor Mallet, right, speaks with Andy Chan, founder of the Hong Kong National Party, during a luncheon at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong in August. Credit:AP The push, which took shape after the Occupy Central movement locked down swaths of the city four years ago, has seen the Beijing-backed government expand the zone of national security threats to include pro-independence activists and journalists who give them a platform. The ultimate goal, say China's supporters and critics, is passage of long-dormant legislation giving Hong Kong expansive powers to limit speech, protest and the activities of foreign groups. Calls to enact the legislation -- known as Article 23, for the section of local law requiring its passage -- have reached their loudest level since 2003, when half a million protesters persuaded the government to abandon its last attempt. The day after the Foreign Correspondents' Club hosted a pro-independence activist's speech in August, China's top minister overseeing the city, Zhang Xiaoming, blamed "Hong Kong's inadequacies in protecting national security." After that, the government approved an unprecedented ban against activist Andy Chan's Hong Kong National Party. The city also took the unusual step of denying a work visa renewal to Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet, who presided over Chan's talk as the FCC's acting president. On Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam dismissed as "pure speculation" efforts to link the visa decision to Chan's address. Melania Trump was interviewed on her Kenya trip by ABC, which aired portions Wednesday on "Good Morning America." Asked whether she supports the MeToo movement. Trump said, "I support the women, and they need to be heard. We need to support them. And, you know, also men, not just women." Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron pushed back a planned reshuffle of his government on Wednesday, with an Elysee official saying it would not happen before the President returns from a scheduled three-day trip to Armenia. French president Emmanuel Macron, left, with his wife Brigitte Macron on Monday. Credit:AP Macron and his Prime Minister have been weighing the reshuffle following the departure of three ministers in five weeks, resignations that have challenged Macron's authority and stalled his efforts to reform the nation. "The President wishes to take all the time necessary to draw up a team, in a calm and professional way," the Elysee official said, adding that Macron's aim was to build a "skilled and coherent team" to serve the French people. Ministers had said the rejig, or 'phase two' reboot was expected before Wednesday morning's cabinet meeting. Macron leaves for Armenia later on Wednesday, Paris time, and is due to return on Friday evening. The State Police have made clear that they would like to interview Hussain, 62. Lee Kindlon, a lawyer for Hussain and Prestige, said he spoke on Tuesday with Hussain, who he said has been in Pakistan for some time dealing with health issues. "He has indicated he is willing to come back if the investigation requires," Kindlon said. Citing the pending investigations, Kindlon declined to comment further, saying, "I think it's best right now to let the process take place." Erin and Shane McGowan attend their wedding reception in Amsterdam, NY. The couple were among the 20 people who died in Saturday's limousine crash . Credit:Valerie Abeling/AP Prestige issued a statement on Monday expressing condolences to the relatives of those killed. "We are performing a detailed internal investigation to determine the cause of the accident," the statement said, adding that the company had voluntarily taken its vehicles off the road. An examination of Hussain's history, based on court records and interviews with those who dealt with him, shows a man who has spent the better part of two decades crossing back and forth from one side of the law to the other. His work helped convict two leaders of an Albany mosque in a 2004 plot to import a missile and assassinate a Pakistani diplomat, and four other men in a 2009 conspiracy to bomb synagogues in the Bronx. In both cases, the attacks never took place because they were part of a sting operation. Amanda Rivenburg was killed in the crash. In one of those terrorism trials, Hussain described five years of solid work for the FBI. "We did about 21 cases, including money laundering, human trafficking, drug trafficking, credit card fraud, stolen identity and DMV officials corrupt DMV officials," he said. But a federal defender who represented one of the men whom Hussain helped lure into the terror plot in 2009 offered a darker assessment of Hussain's character. "If Wikipedia did a definition of fraudster, they could put his picture in," the lawyer, Susanne Brody, said Tuesday. "He lies about everything." Still, federal prosecutors during the two trials portrayed him as a trustworthy witness. In the bomb plot case, for example, the prosecutors said his testimony was corroborated by other evidence. "Despite trying to turn over every single rock in this man's life in a desperate attempt to find a worm, they were never able to call into question his basic account of what happened in this case," a prosecutor, Jason Halperin, told the jury. Hussain arrived in the United States in about 1995 with considerable legal and extralegal adventures already behind him. He testified in the 2009 terrorism trial that in Pakistan, he had been active in an opposition political party; arrested and tortured and charged with murder in the 1990s, and freed after his father bribed the police; had fled to Moscow, Mexico and finally Texas on a fake passport; and was granted asylum in Albany. While working in and later owning petrol stations, he developed a sideline helping people get driver's licences. He worked for a company that provided interpreters for people taking driver's tests at the DMV and would give his customers the correct answers while ostensibly translating the questions to them. In 2003, he used his illegal expertise in driver's licences in his first terrorism sting. Under the alias "Malik", he met with the Bangladeshi owner of an Albany pizzeria who said his brother needed a learner's permit. For $US100 ($140), no problem, Hussain said. The men discussed religion, politics and jihad. Over time, Hussain, acting on orders from the FBI, convinced the pizzeria owner and another man that he was helping plan an attack on a Pakistani diplomat in New York and would be importing a surface-to-air missile from China for the purpose. They joined the plot, were arrested and, ultimately, convicted, despite their lawyers' complaints of entrapment. The Crest Inn Suites & Cottages outside Saratoga Springs, NY, is also the business address for Prestige Limousine. Credit:AP Also in 2003, Hussain filed for bankruptcy, claiming debts of $US177,000. He continued his various ventures, sometimes in partnership with family members. They bought a hotel, now called the Crest Inn Suites & Cottages, in Gansevoort, north of Albany. In 2008, his family started Prestige Limousine. That same year, according to court documents, some hotel guests sued him for taking reservations for cabins that had not even been built yet. Family members and friends of the victims gather for a candlelight vigil on Monday. Credit:AP It was in 2008 that Hussain, posing as a wealthy jihadi named Maqsood and driving a series of luxury cars provided to him by the FBI, recruited four men for what he said was a plot to bomb synagogues in the Bronx. Hussain drove with the men to a synagogue in Riverdale, where one of them put what he believed were bombs outside. They were fake. The four men were arrested and convicted. But after the trial, the judge, Colleen McMahon, took the extraordinary step of writing to federal prosecutors in Albany, saying that Hussain's trial testimony suggested he may have "perpetrated a fraud" during his earlier bankruptcy proceedings. Washington: US President Donald Trump is floating a shortlist of candidates to replace United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley who resigned abruptly on Tuesday, but the first person he appeared to be floating was his daughter, Ivanka Trump. "How good would Ivanka be?" the President told reporters before leaving for a campaign rally in Iowa, adding she would be "dynamite". Ivanka Trump, assistant to US President Donald Trump, listens during a meeting between Trump and Nikki Haley on Tuesday. Credit:Bloomberg "I think Ivanka would be incredible. That doesn't mean I'd, you know, I'd pick her, because you'd be accused of nepotism, even though I'm not sure there's anybody more competent in the world," the president added. "But we are looking at numerous people." Before the option of Ambassador Ivanka Trump got too far, she put the rumours to rest in a tweet. PHILIPSBURG:--- The United St Maarten Party (USP) was very proud to learn that the efforts of former Minister of TEATT Doncher has paid off in the first ever weekday-scheduled service for the island to Fort Lauderdale. This service was recently announced by Jet Blue, and is expected to drastically improve the airlift and pricing of flights to and from the South Florida Area, St. Maartens most popular connecting area to the US. USP as a party has always taken its work with the TEATT Ministry very seriously, and we know that everyday fruits of our labor help the people of St. Maarten; it is what we as a party have always been committed to stated MP Frans Richardson, Leader of the United St. Maarten Party, Today we have just one example. Soon after being appointed Minister of TEATT by the USP, Doncher, together with MP Brison who was director of tourism at the time, set out to identify the key route development goals for the Ministry. Fort Lauderdale was seen as a huge priority for many reasons: It is the fastest growing US international airport for several consecutive years, it would create a new alternative to the increasingly saturated Miami route, and would create competition on that route to reduce prices for travelers, explained Brison. Being that airlines typically plan schedules 9 to 16 months in advance, it takes a long time before route development negotiations pan out into actual flights. In this case, we are happy to see that our efforts that started over a year ago have resulted in such an important route opening for St. Maarten, stated MP Brison. In June of 2017, the Minister had received the commitment of Jet Blue to launch the service. Even after hurricane Irma, in November of 2017, the Minister and her team had met with Jet Blue once again. The airline, voted the best airline in North American by Trip Advisor for 2017, at the time commended the hard work the Ministry of TEATT was doing to help in the islands recovery and committed to not only being among the first airlines to relaunch flights to St. Maarten but stayed committed to the Fort Lauderdale Route. Fort Lauderdale represents about 15% of JetBlues capacity, its the largest airline at that airport. The airline recently said that even though competition may be rising, JetBlue sees South Florida as a large underserved market with more expansion capabilities. JetBlue plans to continue to grow thoughtfully in the market, the airline said. JetBlue also plans to roll out its Mint service (similar to first class) at Fort Lauderdale later this year. In other markets, the introduction of Mint service has led to improved profitability. Mint service was also discussed with the Minister in New York. The Minister was joined in New York by members of her Cabinet, Head of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau Rolando Brison and St. Maartens marketing firm for the US, MMGY Global/Spring OBrien, whose representatives attended the meeting to familiarize themselves with the initiatives/wishes of St. Maarten and JetBlue. USP fully expects that soon, other route development efforts will pan out, such as the other Fort Lauderdale route negotiated with Southwest, as well as first time routes including the Moscow-SXM route of S7 Airlines and the Belgium-SXM route of TUI, among many others. PHILIPSBURG:--- In the recovery process of country Sint Maarten KPSM have written and presented several Quick Win projects with the urgency to get KPSM up and running as soon as possible. The entire recovery process has been a very challenging one; however one of the main projects that were presented was the purchasing of new police vehicles. These vehicles are necessary to provide service and assistance to the community. This project has finally been accomplished. The vehicles have been purchased and this was possible through direct financing from the Netherlands. On Wednesday, October 10th, 2018 during a short ceremony the Minister of Justice, the Honorable Cornelius De Weever received 10 keys for the newly purchased vehicles to be used by the KPSM. These vehicles will be distributed among the various departments that are in desperate need of them to carry out their duty. The keys for these vehicles were handed over by representatives of Real Motors namely Janice Balborda and Austin Helliger to Minister De Weever. Immediately after receiving the keys the minister handed them over to the Police Chief Carl John and congratulating him on the achievements. The Dutch representative on Sint Maarten mister Robert-Jan de Wilde was also present to personally witness and capture the moments of this symbolic event. These vehicles will immediately be stripped and outfitted with all the necessary equipment and put into service as soon as possible. The police chief expressed his gratitude to all instances and persons who have been very instrumental in one way or the other in making this project a reality and look forward to having other projects such as new uniforms for police personnel, the installation of the new Emergency Central Dispatch and the repairing of the police stations dealt with as quickly as possible. KPSM Press Release. UK customers now contact brands nearly half a billion times every month, costing organisations GBP1.227 billion Reading, UK, 10 October 2018 New research highlights the growing volume of consumer queries that UK brands now need to handle, and the increasing cost this imposes on companies. The average UK consumer now contacts organisations nine times per month, according to research undertaken as part of the 2018 Eptica Customer Experience Automation Study. Across the adult population this means brands need to respond to 463.5 million contacts every month, and the figure is rising. 88% of those surveyed said they now contact companies more or the same number of times as five years ago with 16% getting in touch more than twice as often. Increasingly, consumers are happy to embrace self-service channels where they can find their own answers, without needing to contact brands through email, the telephone, chat or social media. 83% already use or are willing to use web self-service systems, which analyse queries and deliver automatic instant answers on a company website, while over half (54%) would use intelligent voice assistants, such as Amazon\-\-s Alexa, Google Home and Siri from Apple to gain information. 64% also want to use automated, artificial intelligence-powered chatbots. Using industry average figures from analysts Contact Babel[1], answering these queries costs the UK economy GBP1.227 billion across the telephone, web, email, social media and chat channels. This is made up of GBP440.44m (email), GBP236.98m (social media), GBP211.99m (chat) and GBP338.31m (telephone). In contrast automated channels such as self-service, chatbots and voice assistants have a negligible cost per interaction once they are in place. \Delivering an excellent customer experience is crucial to every organisation today. However, our research shows the scale of the challenge brands face, with consumers getting in contact nearly half a billion times every month in the UK,\ said Olivier Njamfa, CEO and Co-Founder, Eptica. \Clearly many of these conversations are complex and require the human touch, but others could be automated, speeding up the process for consumers and increasing efficiency for brands.\ Demonstrating the multichannel nature of today\-\-s customer experience, on average each UK consumer used email for 27% of their interactions by brands, followed by web self-service, telephone and social media (17%) each, with 11% of contacts through chat and chatbots respectively. \Reducing the number of contacts by 10% would save over GBP122 million enabling companies to focus resources where they are needed most. Our research shows that consumers are open to embracing new AI-powered technologies such as voice assistants and chatbots, providing an opportunity to improve the experience and reduce costs at the same time,\ added Olivier Njamfa. With customers looking to interact more with brands, with a wider range of queries, it is vital for brands to balance AI and the use of human agents. AI-based automation is key to delivering faster, more consistent and efficient responses, particularly for routine queries. This frees up agents to focus on more complex, detailed queries where human skills such as empathy are best deployed, boosting engagement and brand reputation. For the research 1,000 UK consumers were surveyed online in Q3 2018. The full report, including the study results, graphics and best practice recommendations for brands to transform how they use knowledge within customer experience is available here https://www.eptica.com/austpr. An infographic on the results is available here https://www.eptica.com/prau-img. [1] Source Contact Babel 2017 UK Contact Centre Decision Maker\-\-s Guide (p.241) mean average costs GBP3.37 (email), GBP3.07 (social media), GBP3.82 (chat) and GBP4.00 (telephone) We want to become better known for access control - Q&A with Bosch Building Technologies Gregor Schlechtriem Gregor Schlechtriem has worked in the access control market for over 20 years and is now responsible for the Access & Intrusion Business Unit at Bosch Building Technologies. In this interview, the expert talks about key industry trends, the impact of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, technical innovations and his companys strategy. Mr. Schlechtriem, you have many years of experience in the security technology market. What is your background and what are your responsibilities as Senior Vice President at Bosch Building Technologies? Gregor Schlechtriem: I am a trained engineer and electrical technician, and have been involved with access control in the broadest sense, since I started my career in the late 1980s. I started in the field of parking garage technology and then switched to security technology in 2001, as Managing Director of micos GmbH, which specialised in traditional access control. micos GmbH was known for its highly available and highly secure access control systems, for critical infrastructure and government applications. Many systems from that time are still in use today and continue to be supported and upgraded. Bosch is continuing micos business here? Gregor Schlechtriem: Exactly, micos was taken over in 2004 by Bosch Security Systems, now known as Bosch Building Technologies. Since then, we have continuously been developing the access control business. Being part of the Bosch Building Technologies division, we benefit a lot from international cooperation with colleagues Being part of the Bosch Building Technologies division, we benefit a lot from international cooperation with colleagues and from overlap with other product lines, such as intrusion detection technology and video security. This gives us the opportunity to implement outstanding project solutions for demanding customers in an international environment. In developing this business, I rely on my experience from other interesting roles at Bosch that I took on, after micos was bought in 2004. For a time, I worked in the European System Integrator Business, which I also had the privilege of managing for several years, as well as being directly responsible for business units. In Fairport, USA, I had the overall responsibility for intrusion detection technology for many years, as I later did in Eindhoven for video systems. Since 2018, the global access control and intrusion detection business has once again been my direct responsibility. At Bosch Building Technologies, we have in the meantime assigned sales to the respective business units, so that we can develop our product and solution portfolio, in close cooperation with sales and our regular customers. Our main task now is to make our access control portfolio accessible to a broader market. We want to make Bosch much better known, as an access control provider, in the international market. After all, with our own access product portfolio, the power of the Bosch Group and over 40 years of experience in this sector, we have a lot to offer. As an expert in access control, how do you see the industry developing? In which direction is it currently evolving? Gregor Schlechtriem: First of all, I see that security requirements are constantly increasing. Whereas there are currently still simple key replacement systems that merely record card numbers, such an approach, to a large extent, no longer meets todays security and user experience requirements.The core task of access control has not changed over the years In the beginning, access control was more or less a kind of key replacement. Later, there was the possibility of increasing security via a pin code, i.e., via verification through simple data inputs. The next step in this direction was biometrics, which is another key step up, because it allows verification by means of unmistakable characteristics. However, the core task of access control has not changed over all the years and has basically always remained the same: access control means determining who has an access request and checking whether this request can be fulfilled. Whats next on this path to greater security? Gregor Schlechtriem: Biometrics-based access control is becoming increasingly powerful and user-friendly through the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Here, data protection plays a major role, as wherever identities are established and movement data is recorded, it is necessary to reconcile the evolving technology with data protection.Biometrics-based access control is becoming increasingly powerful and user-friendly through the use of artificial intelligence The question of data protection is becoming even more significant, as systems increasingly migrate to the Cloud. Bosch puts particular emphasis on ensuring that, even in the cloud, the data generated in access control is always in line with data protection rules, regardless of where it is located. In my opinion, this trend towards the Cloud will continue, because companies are increasingly looking for complete service offerings, so that they can focus on their core business. Also, a system in the Cloud is easier to maintain and always up-to-date with the latest software, which makes cloud solutions even more attractive for providers and users. How can higher security be reconciled with a good user experience? Gregor Schlechtriem: Today, the card still plays a central role in the user experience, as the essential credential. Another current trend is one card for everything: with the increasing availability of secure multi-function smart cards, the possibility arises to use cards beyond the pure access function, for example, for payment in the canteen, at the catering and coffee machines, and in the parking garage, as well as simple access to other properties and so on.The security of cards has evolved significantly and kept pace with requirements The security of the cards, the reading and encryption processes, has evolved significantly and kept pace with requirements, although we are also facing an installed base that no longer meets these requirements, due to outdated systems. Today, it is standard for communications between reader and card to be encrypted. In some cases, the keys are also only held centrally to further increase security. The security systems industry was also affected by the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. How do you think the industry has changed? What technical solutions have emerged during this time? Gregor Schlechtriem: First of all, there is a certain need for retrofitting in the industry due to changes in how buildings are used. For example, American retailers used to be open around the clock and always had staff on site. Now, due to COVID-19, stores are also closed, and this results in a whole new need for intrusion detection and access control systems to protect the buildings. For access control, an obvious task has arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, namely to track contacts, as far as this is compatible with data protection. We actually expected more to happen here, but in our observation, many companies did quite little, despite clear and simple steps that could have been implemented relatively quickly. The installed access control systems clearly lag behind the technical possibilities. Another topic that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus is hygiene Another topic that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus is hygiene. Companies should actually have invested in contactless systems here and retrofitted speed gates or motorised doors. But in many cases this was not put into practice. The door opener is still often used, which has to be operated manually and therefore, is touched multiple times. But, if everyone presses the same button, that doesn't help hygiene. Surprisingly, this is different in North America. Here, request-to-exit proximity detectors are used almost everywhere, which avoids this problem completely and releases the door, when an authorised person approaches it. Mobile access and smartphone-based access control are also growing markets. What kind of developments do you see in these areas? Gregor Schlechtriem: I already mentioned that users increasingly want to be able to use one card for several applications. But, what we are seeing here is that even with the most modern cards, which have a lot of applications loaded on them, we are reaching performance limits and the user experience suffers. If you compare the card with the smartphone as a credential, you have a much more attractive integration platform there, which is significantly faster and delivers much better performance. For us, the mobile credential or the smartphone is the future, because it simply offers more possibilities that the card will not be able to provide in the long term. What is the specific direction Bosch is taking here? Gregor Schlechtriem: We are currently working on a broad implementation. A whole team is working on the user experience around the smartphone, because its understood that smartphone-based access has to work just as easily, as it currently does with a card.A whole team is working on the user experience around the smartphone In theory it does, but if you look at some of the actual implementations, this topic is still relatively complex. In terms of user experience and automation, we still have quite a way to go, and we are working hard on that at the moment. The user experience is one side of the coin, the other side concerns establishing security in the smartphone as a whole. In other words: How do I make the smartphone secure enough as a mobile credential, to meet my access control requirements? We are also working intensively on this. That's actually an IT task. Do you do this yourself at Bosch or do you work with external experts here? Gregor Schlechtriem: We have our own powerful Bosch IT, which also manages our company smartphones. If our company smartphones are lost, the data on them is automatically deleted. The devices use biometrics to identify users, before they can access the data. It is a sound security concept that a card cannot offer. Moreover, we are working with other partners in the IDunion project, to create the additional infrastructure around mobile credentials as well. What exactly is the IDunion and what role does Bosch play? Gregor Schlechtriem: Digital identities must be openly accessible, widely usable, interoperable, and secure. This applies not only to access control, but to the digitised economy in general. The IDunion project has set itself the task of creating the infrastructure for this, in the form of an independent wallet, i.e., secure identity storage on smart devices. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWI), because digitisation is also a critical social issue. We are intensively involved in the Physical access to the building work package in this consortium. Through this involvement, we want to ensure that our access control systems benefit from this infrastructure and are open to future digital business models. Does digital identity management, which includes biometrics and mobile access, also play a role for Bosch? Yes, it plays an important role for us, and I wouldnt consider these topics separate Gregor Schlechtriem: Yes, it plays an important role for us, and I wouldnt consider these topics separate. For me, a mobile device has the advantage that it has already ensured and verified my identity from the moment of interaction. Thats the fascinating thing about it. If I only allow the device to communicate with the access control system, if I have identified myself first, I have implemented biometrics and access control together in a widely accepted process. From my point of view, this is a very interesting perspective, in terms of security and user experience, because the biometrics procedures in smartphones are, I think, the best currently available. In my view, the smartphone has the potential to take over central functions in access control in the future. What are your goals for the access control business of Bosch Building Technologies in the near future? Gregor Schlechtriem: We will continue to focus on specific solutions for large customers. That is the continuation of our current strategy. In these projects, we will introduce new topics as I have just described, i.e., primarily new technology elements. I believe that, precisely because of the longevity of access control, a long-term migration capability is also of particular importance. We want to reach out to the broader market and make more widely available, what we have developed in terms of technology and innovation. We are currently in the process of setting up and optimising our sales organisation, so that it becomes much more widely known that we at Bosch have our own powerful access control portfolio, which can be used for all kinds of applications. In addition, we want to differentiate ourselves in the market with our systems, in line with the motto of our founder, Robert Bosch: Technology for life. The user experience with Mobile Access should be simple, straightforward, and secure: You hold your smartphone in front of the reader and the door opens. The official said there were indications that the body may have been dismembered. Turkish authorities have gathered personal effects and clothes of Khashoggi to obtain his DNA as they request access to the diplomatic buildings. They are also in possession of two cellphones that his fiancee said he left outside with her before entering the consulate. He was also wearing an Apple Watch the day he disappeared, said one person familiar with the investigation. Apple Watches can track data such as the wearer's heart rate. A newly discovered long and craggy rift is splintering across West Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, satellite images show. The nearly 19-mile-long (30 kilometers) rift started in the middle of the ice shelf, where the ice shelf touches warmer ocean waters that are melting it from underneath, said Stef Lhermitte, an assistant professor in the Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The rift only has about another 6 miles (10 km) to go before one or more icebergs calf, breaking off from the glacier, Lhermitte said. Another such event happened a mere year ago in 2017, when an iceberg 4.5 times the size of Manhattan broke off Pine Island Glacier. [Photo Gallery: Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier Cracks] The area of the upcoming Pine Island Glacier is about 115 square miles (300 square kilometers). (Image credit: Landsat OLI imagery processed by Stef Lhermitte/Delft University of Technology) Lhermitte found the new crack by analyzing satellite images of the glacier, which he receives every day in his email inbox. "It was Wednesday evening [Oct. 3] and all of a sudden I saw something I didn't see the day before," he told Live Science. If the iceberg breaks off in one piece, it will be a whopping 115 square miles (300 square kilometers), which is even larger than the one that broke off last year. (The 2017 iceberg was 103 square miles, or 267 square km.) See more If the resulting iceberg is large enough, it will receive a name, Lhermitte noted. But, regardless of whether the crack leads to one or many icebergs, this will be the sixth large-calving event that Pine Island Glacier has experienced since 2001, he said. Granted, it's natural for a glacier to calf icebergs. But what's concerning about Pine Island Glacier is that it's calving icebergs more frequently than it used to, Lhermitte said. Pine Island Glacier birthed icebergs in January 2001, November 2007, December 2011, August 2015 and September 2017. The red line shows where the 2017 Pine Island Glacier iceberg broke off. The blue line shows the newfound rift. (Image credit: Landsat OLI imagery processed by Stef Lhermitte/Delft University of Technology) The upcoming iceberg isn't loose yet, "but the fact that the rift is almost across the entire glacier, it might happen relatively soon," Lhermitte said. It's challenging, however, to say what "soon" means. According to Lhermitte, the calving event will likely happen in a matter of weeks or months, "but it probably won't take years," he said. "I expect this to happen from now to sometime this Antarctic summer." Once the breakage happens, the iceberg will likely stay frozen if it hangs out with the sea ice in the Antarctic. But if ocean currents carry it farther north, the iceberg will melt in the warmer waters, Lhermitte said. Pine Island Glacier is one of the fastest flowing glaciers in Antarctica. Every year, it loses 45 billion tons (40.8 billion metric tons) of ice, which in turn causes sea levels to rise 0.03 inches (1 millimeter) every eight years, The Washington Post reported last year. Sea levels would rise 1.7 feet (0.5 m) if the entire glacier melted. This video, which runs from 2002 to 2016, depicts just how much ice Pine Island Glacier is losing. (In the video, the colors yellow, orange, red and black represent ice loss, while blue indicates ice gain.) Ice shelves are important because like dirt clogging a sink that slows the drain of water they impede the glacier from flowing full force out into the ocean, Lhermitte said. Once the upcoming calving event happens, Pine Island Glacier will have retreated nearly 4 miles (6 km), Lhermitte wrote on Twitter. As for why Pine Island Glacier is losing more of its ice shelf (the icy portion that doesn't touch the bedrock, but extends over the ocean), it's hard to say. The warm water that is melting the ice shelf from underneath was pushed up from the deep ocean, Lhermitte said. "The reason why we get this upwelling of warm water is certainly climate related, but it's very difficult to say if this is climate change related," he said. "Antarctica is a very sensitive continent for climate change. But for this individual iceberg, this is impossible to infer." Originally published on Live Science. What can you do in 15 minutes? Maybe read a few articles or watch a few videos online. But as astrophysicist and Space.com columnist Paul Sutter explains, 15 minutes is enough time for a particular kind of ordinary star to transform into an ultra-dense neutron star. In Episode 9 of his Facebook Watch series made in partnership with Space.com, "Ask a Spaceman," Sutter explains how this process works. "I hate to break it to you, but it's not just the most massive stars in the universe that die. It's all stars. Every single star in our universe only has a finite life, including our own sun," he says. Earth's sun fuses hydrogen into helium in its core. This process not only generates heat and energy for nearby planets such as Earth, but also stops the sun from collapsing into itself. Most stars spend the majority of their life spans converting hydrogen to helium. But when stars run out of hydrogen in their cores, interesting things happen. [Inside a Neutron Star (Infographic)] Sutter took the example of a star that is about 20 to 25 times more massive than the sun. This kind of star spends about 10 million years fusing hydrogen into helium. (That sounds like a long time, but the sun has been doing this very thing for about 4.5 billion years and will continue to do so for roughly 2.5 billion years more. So, big stars burn through their fuel much more quickly.) As the larger star runs out of hydrogen in its core, it builds up a core of helium. The helium eventually ignites due to nuclear processes, and the core starts fusing again. However, helium fuses at a higher temperature, and the gas must burn at a faster rate to keep the star from collapsing onto itself. Or, as Sutter puts it, "there is less explosive energy per reaction to resist gravity." (He explained this process is more detail in a 2017 Space.com column.) Helium, therefore, takes much less time to run out in the core only 1 million years. What's left behind now are carbon and oxygen, and (upon ignition) it takes an even shorter amount of time to burn through these elements: about 600 years. That's because they are even more inert than helium and so require even more energy for fusion, Sutter says. Each succeeding element requires even more fusion energy to overcome how inert it is. Next comes neon, which takes a year to burn through, while oxygen takes about six months and silicon, just one day. So, how about that 15 minutes we were talking about at the beginning of the article? That refers to the very last reaction this massive star will attempt to produce, which is fusing iron. But iron cannot be fused. Some weird physics take place. Little particles called electrons (which normally orbit the core of atoms, the building blocks of all matter) crash into protons (which normally reside in the core of atoms). Electrons carry a negative charge and protons a positive charge. As these two particle types crash into each other, they create particles known as neutrons, which have a neutral charge. It takes only 15 minutes to convert this dying star the one with iron in its center into a huge ball of neutrons. Scientists refer to this kind of star as a neutron star. These stars are stable, but only because, as Sutter explains, "you can only fit so many neutrons in a box." Through a process called degeneracy pressure, the individual neutrons stop the star from collapsing. (Degeneracy pressure can be overridden, as Sutter explains in this 2015 column, but a star of the size Sutter is discussing is too small to do it.) To be sure, this is the life cycle for only one particular kind of star. More-massive stars will eventually explode into supernovas, spreading gas throughout their neighborhoods. Our own sun, a less-massive type of star, will one day lose its outer layers of gas and fade into a white dwarf. "Ask a Spaceman" episodes are released weekly on Wednesdays at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), so "like" the show's Facebook page or check back later to see more. Sutter also responds to reader questions in every episode. On that page, you can learn more about past topics the show has covered, such as the Big Bang, Pluto and galaxy collisions. Sutter is a cosmologist at The Ohio State University and chief scientist at Columbus Ohio's Center of Science and Industry. He has a long-running podcast, also called "Ask a Spaceman." You can catch all past episodes of that podcast here. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com. An artist's depiction of the many Earth-like planets that might exist over the course of the universe's history. A few decades ago, finding life beyond Earth was an idle dream but today, astrobiology is a thriving field, fed by incredible discoveries across different realms of science and the possibility of still more to come. And to shape where astrobiology goes next, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine gathered a panel of expert scientists to reflect on what has happened in the field since 2015 and what consensus suggests should be priorities going forward. The result is a paper published today (Oct. 10) highlighting a suite of recommendations for NASA. "If we're really going to achieve a goal as lofty as this, then outside-the-box thinking is really required," committee chair Barbara Sherwood Lollar, an astrobiologist at the University of Toronto, told Space.com, calling astrobiology the "quintessential example" of a field that needs creative thinking. "It is an endless journey to continue to broaden our horizons," she said. [Alien Life, Landscapes and the Art of Space (Gallery)] The report, along with last month's similar survey of exoplanet research, will feed into two even more sweeping National Academies committee processes: two decadal surveys covering first astronomy and astrophysics, then planetary sciences. Once complete, those decadal surveys will govern NASA's decision-making about which projects and missions to pursue and how to prioritize them. In part, the report summarizes technological needs of the field over the next decades: To be successful, scientists will need incredibly powerful telescopes and starlight-blocking instruments that have yet to be built. But the report also touches on mindsets and research practices. Sherwood Lollar said that's what sets astrobiology apart from many other fields: an emphasis interdisciplinary thinking that pulls together a wide range of scientific specialties. The new recommendations reflect this, promoting systems-level thinking, the treatment of planets as a whole and looking at habitability as a spectrum, rather than as a simple yes-or-no question. "I think that it's heading in a really good direction," Sara Walker, an astrobiologist at Arizona State University not involved in the report, told Space.com. "You can't think about a planet as habitable or not." That change of thinking has come, in part, from discoveries about our own planet and how tenacious life here is. From deep-sea vents where microbes feast on chemicals to high in the harsh Atacama Desert to far below the ice of Antarctica, life keeps popping up where scientists had thought conditions were too forbidding. These finds prove that what's uninhabitable for one type of life is perfectly cozy for others. All those discoveries also led the report writers to emphasize thinking more creatively about where to look for life in our own solar system. In particular, they highlighted the possibility of subsurface life. The report also emphasizes a key challenge to identifying life: accurately finding and interpreting what scientists call biosignatures, the chemical changes characteristic of life. That's not as straightforward as it sounds, astrobiologists know. Particularly in foreign solar systems, it's difficult even to spot potential biosignatures, and the universe doesn't come equipped with giant flashing arrows pointing to life. "Life doesn't really do anything that chemistry can't do, unless you talk about really complex molecules like drugs and things," Walker said. Take oxygen, for example, which early single-celled life pumped into Earth's atmosphere in large amounts, but which can also be produced by non-living processes. "Life is a system-level property, so you can't really take apart the components and say that the components are indicative of life," Walker added. Instead, the report emphasizes that scientists will have to figure out how to vet potential biosignature identifications, learning to spot misleading signals. [Photos: Ancient Mars Lake Could Have Supported Life] But there are also recommendations that focus on a very familiar type of life: humans themselves. In order to succeed, the report finds, NASA needs to build collaborations, by working with private organizations and other countries and by connecting astrobiology into all stages of planning for all different types of missions. The report also marks the reintroduction of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, into mainstream research. Cut off from NASA funding since the 1990s, the field seeks signals of technologically advanced civilizations searching for life like us, rather than single-celled organisms. "It was just really frustrating and scientifically unsupportable to say that a particular piece of research was not part of the astrobiology picture," Jill Tarter, a retired astrobiologist at the independent nonprofit SETI Institute who wasn't on the committee, told Space.com. "At least it's now legitimate and discussed as part of the whole astrobiology umbrella suite of investigations." Most of all, the report emphasizes the tantalizing promise of astrobiology itself and its potential impact on our lives and worldviews. "Taking a look at what we find out from these other planetary systems can shine a light back on Earth," Sherwood Lollar said. "It really is a comparative approach where by taking a look at all of these complex systems, we can learn more about each and every one of them." All told, Walker said that she was pleased to see the report reflect how dynamically the field is maturing. "It's actually moving to being a real science and not just an idea, and this document, I think, really reflects that," Walker said. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com. The United States Space Force is a newly proposed military branch that President Donald Trump announced during a meeting of the National Space Council on June 18, 2018. If the proposal is enacted, it will become the sixth armed forces branch, joining the Navy, Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. Trump's announcement took many by surprise, especially in the Pentagon. Some saw the sudden proposal as a strategy to compel Congress and the Department of Defense into supporting a military branch focused solely on space. Others saw it as answering the need to address the growing rivalry and presence of China and Russia in space. "It is not merely enough that we have American presence in space," Trump said during his public proposal. "We must have American dominance in space." Vice President Mike Pence officially unveiled the plans for the U.S. Space Force a short two months later on Aug. 9, 2018. So, what is the Space Force? As much as it sounds like the Space Force will be astronaut soldiers wielding blaster rifles, the reality is much more mundane. Rather than deploying soldiers in space, the Space Force will focus on national security and preserving the satellites and vehicles that are dedicated to international communications and observation. Immediately following Pence's announcement in August, the Pentagon released a report that detailed some of the Department of Defense's immediate actions for creating the Space Force: Establish a Space Development Agency This is an agency tasked with developing and testing new and improved national-security capabilities and technology in space. Establish a Space Operations Force This force will be a collection of space experts from throughout the military who will provide needed expertise to combat commanders and anyone else throughout the Space Force. Create a United States Space Command Led by a four-star general or flag officer, the new space command would direct and improve operations for space war fighting. These three components would later be united to become the final Space Force. Why is a Space Force needed? Russia and China are the U.S.'s two greatest space competitors and also potential military threats. And both have demonstrated formidable space capabilities. In 2007, for example, China launched a missile that climbed skyward for 500 miles until it impacted one of the country's own defunct weather satellites, which rained down in thousands of pieces. In a similar unnerving event in 2014, a piece of supposed Russian space junk called Object 2014-E28 turned out to be an autonomous robot of sorts that was capable of docking onto satellites. During his August 2018 address, Pence said that China was investing in hypersonic missiles capable of evading U.S. detection. And both Russia and China had integrated anti-satellite attacks as part of their wartime protocols. Given that the U.S. government and military rely heavily on satellites for forecasting weather, collecting high-resolution images for intelligence and directing missiles with GPS satellites, the threat became obvious. Does something like this already exist? China, Russia and the United States have military sectors already dedicated to space. Russia revived the Russian Space Forces in 2015 as a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces. In the same year, China established the People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force as the space and cyberwarfare branch of the People's Liberation Army. The U.S. has the Air Force Space Command, which is integrated into the U.S. Air Force. But many have argued that an independent branch should be established to focus exclusively on space. "Whether it's a Space Force or something else, it is absolutely critical to have someone who thinks about this day and night," Terry Virts, a retired NASA astronaut and former Air Force fighter pilot, told SpaceNews. Representative Mike Rogers, R-Ala., first made such a proposal. He called it the U.S. Space Corps during the 2016 Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The proposal was eventually included as an amendment to the House of Representatives 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which spelled out the Department of Defense's budget and policies for the 2018 fiscal year. The House passed the bill with the amendment, but members of the Senate viewed the amendment with skepticism and ultimately vetoed it. Trump then commandeered the debate in June 2018 and announced the administration would form the U.S. Space Force. What's next? Many details remain uncertain, such as how much a new military branch would cost and whether Congress would ever fund it. "It's hard to see a scenario where the Space Force doesn't need a bunch of additional money to not only fund the reorganization but also all the new programs and capabilities," Brian Weeden, a space policy expert at Secure World Foundation in Washington, D.C., told Politico. The White House pushed for Congress to invest an initial $8 billion in national security space systems over the next five years. But creating an entirely new branch of the military is expected to cost much more. A leaked memo from the Air Force in mid-September shows estimates of it requiring as much as $13 billion in its first five years. Because the program would also draw resources and a necessary 13,000 personnel away from other military branches, some fear it would weaken the U.S. military overall. The Pentagon, nevertheless, immediately got to work on laying out the proposal. Less than two months later, in early August 2018, Pence announced that the new branch would be established as soon as 2020. Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague pose in front of the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft during prelaunch training Sept. 26, 2018. The duo will launch to the International Space Station on Thursday (Oct. 11). Two new crewmembers will blast off on a fast-track flight to the International Space Station on Thursday (Oct. 11), and you can watch their liftoff and docking live online. Riding atop a Russian Soyuz rocket, the rookie NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:40 a.m. EDT (0840 GMT; 2:40 p.m. Kazakhstan time). Their Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft will arrive at the space station after a quick, 6-hour or "fast track" rendezvous rather than the traditional, two-day route. You can watch the liftoff and the arrival live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. A live broadcast of the launch will begin at 3:30 a.m. EDT (0730 GMT). Following the launch, live coverage will resume near the end of their 6-hour voyage at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), as the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft prepares to dock at the station's Poisk module. [Infographic: Russia's Manned Soyuz Space Capsule Explained] Hague and Ovchinin will open the hatch to their spacecraft at 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT), when they will be greeted by their three Expedition 57 crewmates: NASA astronaut Serena M. Aunon-Chancellor, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev. That trio of space travelers arrived at the station in June and will return to Earth in December. Hague and Ovchinin will spend about six months living and working aboard the orbiting lab. "The crewmembers of Expedition 57 will continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the International Space Station, humanity's only permanently occupied microgravity laboratory," NASA officials said in a statement. This will be Hague's first spaceflight. He was selected to join NASA's astronaut corps in 2013 as a member of a group called the "8 Balls." Ovchinin will be returning to space for his second mission, following his six-month stay at the space station during Expedition 47/48 in 2016. Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com. It'll cost several billion dollars more than originally planned to get NASA's huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket off the ground, and that already-delayed first flight will probably end up being pushed back yet again, a new report by the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds. NASA is counting on the two-stage SLS to launch astronauts toward deep-space destinations such as the moon and Mars. The giant rocket will also aid planetary exploration, helping robotic spacecraft reach distant targets in much less time than has hitherto been possible, agency officials have said. Aerospace titan Boeing is responsible for the SLS' first, or core, stage. In 2012, NASA contracted with Boeing to build two SLS first stages, as well as one Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), an advanced second stage that will boost the rocket's payload-lofting capability. [Photos: NASA's Space Launch System for Deep Space Flights] The space agency originally aimed to launch the first SLS flight an uncrewed test called Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), which will send NASA's also-in-development Orion crew capsule around the moon in December 2017. The first crewed SLS-Orion flight, EM-2, was targeted for mid-2021. Those schedules have slipped, however: NASA now aims to launch EM-1 in mid-2020 and EM-2 in the middle of 2022. And there will be cost overruns as well. The "Boeing Stages" contract runs through 2021, but NASA forecasts that the company will spend all of the allocated money by early next year, without the final delivery of a core stage or the EUS. Which brings us to the new OIG report, which was released today (Oct. 10). It crystallizes the findings of a four-month-long audit (from April through August 2018) of Boeing's performance under the Stages contract, as well as NASA's "compliance with acquisition regulations, policies, and procedures supporting the SLS Program." Those findings suggest that there will be additional bumps in the road for SLS development. "At its current rate, we project that Boeing will expend at least $8.9 billion through 2021 double the amount initially planned while delivery of the first Core Stage has slipped 2.5 years from June 2017 to December 2019 and may slip further," the OIG report states. As a result of such issues, NASA will not be able to launch EM-1 in the currently targeted window, which runs from December 2019 through June 2020, the report's authors predict. These cost increases and schedule slips "can be traced largely to management, technical and infrastructure issues driven by Boeing's poor performance," the OIG report adds. "For example, Boeing officials have consistently underestimated the scope of the work to be performed and thus the size and skills of the workforce required." In addition, the hardware and software required for core-stage testing is two years behind schedule. Equipment-related problems and "an extreme weather event" presumably 2017's Hurricane Harvey have contributed to the delays and cost overruns, according to the report. The OIG report makes seven recommendations to improve the "sustainability, accountability, and transparency" of core-stage and EUS development. NASA concurs with six of the seven recommendations, the report states; the only exception is Recommendation 6, which involves setting up a system whereby "technical monitors" rate the contractor's performance. "To its credit, the SLS Program has taken positive steps to address management and procurement issues related to the Boeing Stages contract, including making key leadership changes; requesting reviews of Boeing's management, financial, and estimating systems; adding routine, in-depth performance reviews; and changing the procurement process to improve internal controls," the OIG report says. "However, the impact of these actions on improving Boeing's future contract performance is uncertain." In a statement emailed to Space.com, NASA officials said that the SLS is the most complex launch system the agency has ever developed, and they acknowledged the challenges related to its design and manufacture. But the officials also stressed the importance of the SLS to the agency's human-spaceflight plans. And they added that NASA fully supports Boeing, saying that the company has "already overcome many challenges" and continues "to show major improvements in efficiency and management." "The recent report from NASA's Office of the Inspector General, along with other reviews, helps the agency improve performance," the NASA statement adds. "NASA and Boeing are well underway in implementing the report's recommendations, several of which are already yielding steady and significant improvements. NASA continues to carefully monitor SLS performance as the teams make significant progress on final assembly, outfitting and joining of the five major structural pieces of the SLS core stage at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans for the first flight." You can read the full OIG report here: https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-19-001.pdf Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There,"will be published on Nov. 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally published on Space.com. SpaceX, ULA, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems were among the contenders for U.S. Air Force Launch Service Agreement contracts. WASHINGTON The U.S. Air Force announced on Wednesday it is awarding three contracts collectively worth about $2 billion to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and United Launch Alliance to develop launch system prototypes. The funding is for the development of competing launch system prototypes geared toward launching national security payloads. Each company will receive an initial award of $181 million. The Launch Service Agreements are for the development of Blue Origin's New Glenn, Northrop Grumman's Omega and ULA's Vulcan Centaur rockets. The awards are part of cost-sharing arrangements known as Other Transaction Agreements that the Air Force is signing with the three companies to ensure it has multiple competitors. The Air Force has committed a total of $500 million in OTA funds for Blue Origin, $792 million for Northrop Grumman and $967 million for ULA. SpaceX previously received an LSA award but did not make the cut this time. The Launch Service Agreements will "facilitate the development of three domestic launch system prototypes and enable the future competitive selection of two national security space launch service providers for future procurements," the Air Force said in a news release. "Our launch program is a great example of how we are fielding tomorrow's Air Force faster and smarter," said Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson. "We're making the most of the authorities Congress gave us and we will no longer be reliant on the Russian-built RD-180 rocket engine." This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. He said at another point that there had been communication between the FBI's Security Division, which includes background investigation specialists, and the White House Office of Security. Wray said he had spoken with FBI specialists "and they have assured me that this was handled in the way that is consistent with their experience and the standard process." STAMFORD The latest housing development near the site of the former Vidal Court complex on the West Side is almost full of tenants, which comes as no surprise to Vin Tufo. "Theres tremendous demand," said Tufo, CEO of Charter Oak Communities, the city's public housing authority. He said market rate and affordable housing units at the new development, Park 215, have filled up quickly. Only about five units remain, he said. Most of the apartments 60 percent are deemed affordable, which means they are offered to those who make less than 60 percent of the area median income. In Stamford, the AMI is $135,000 for a family of four. Evonne Klein, commissioner of the state Department of Housing, said affordable housing is in high demand across Connecticut. "What we know is that every city and town have a demonstrated need for more affordable and multifamily housing," she said Wednesday at a formal dedication ceremony at Park 215 . The new structure, at 215 Stillwater Ave., sits on the former site of Vidal Court, a 1950s public housing complex comprised of three L-shaped eight-story buildings of 216 units. The Park 215 development received $7.3 million from the federal government and $1.3 million from the citys capital funds. Another $2.35 million came from the citys fee-in-lieu program that allows developers to pay into a fund instead of creating affordable units with new developments. Allana Kabel, community planning and development director of the Hartford field office for HUD, said about 24 units in the complex have Section 8 voucher subsidies in the amount of $4.8 million for 15 years that can be renewed at the end of the contract. U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn, said the development, as well as Stamfords creation of affordable housing, is a model for other communities. "When cities revitalize, you often hear the word gentrification. Our seniors get squeezed out, people who have lived in the community for generations who maybe dont have great means feel the pressure of increased property values and rents and taxes," he said. "Though it is a struggle each and every day, Stamford is doing it right. Stamford is figuring out ways to make surethat people who arent wealthy can take advantage of the revitalization that is transforming the city." The complex has a layered affordable housing model, which means that certain units are meant for residents who make less than 25 percent of the AMI, some are for those who make less than 50 percent, and others are for people who make less than 60 percent. There are one-bedroom apartments offered at 25 percent of median income, at a rental rate of $645. A two-bedroom unit at the 50-percent threshold is offered at $1,400, while a unit at 60 percent is $1,700. The market rate for one-bedroom apartments at the complex is between $1,685 and $1,975, while the two-bedroom units are between $2,100 and $2,500. "Its a very full spectrum that allows the property to have almost a kind of natural diversity," said Tufo, speaking of the range of salary requirements. Park 215 is a five-story, combined residential and commercial building totaling 136,500 square feet. The ground floor of 21,000 square feet is occupied by the medical facility The Heart Center. The residential portion contains 78 one- and two-bedroom mixed-income apartments. The building was designed by New Haven-based Kenneth Boroson Architects. It is the fourth structure of the Vidal Court Revitalization effort. The Westwood complex was completed in July 2011, while Palmer Square opened in July 2012. Greenfield, which was opened in 2014, was the first to be located on the former Vidal Court site and is now adjacent to the new Park 215 complex. Tufo said there is another building planned as part of the revitalization effort, but a site has yet to be identified. ignacio.laguarda @stamfordadvocate.com STAMFORD Representatives gave the mayor their signatures; now he is giving them his fee increases. Its the agreement reached last week, when 26 of the 40 members of the Board of Representatives signed a letter saying they will, in good faith, consider Mayor David Martins proposals to raise revenue through fees in exchange for Martins dropping his plan to require that residents bag their leaves this fall, instead of piling them loosely at the curb as theyve done for decades. Martin brought nine fee and fine increases to the boards Steering Committee Tuesday night, saying he would not have details for a few more days. Representatives nevertheless included the fees on several committee agendas. Stamford charges less than surrounding municipalities for some fees, Martin said. Others have not been raised in many years, he said. He will propose more increases next month. He has targeted downtown parking, where on-street meters and city garages charge $1 an hour. We need to charge (more) in order to break even on some operations, Martin said. We are going to end up short the capital money necessary to repair the garages. Beyond that, he needs revenue to pay for the more costly loose-leaf pickup and other expenses this fiscal year, Martin has said. He instituted bagged pickup after representatives in May cut $1.4 million from his requested budget increase for 2018-19. His request for signatures on a letter didnt sit well with all representatives. Board President Matthew Quinones wrote the letter, which says that signers agree to review and enact reasonable proposals to raise revenue provided that the loose-leaf program is reinstated this year. Quinones has said he signed it because he wants to ensure that his constituents dont bear the cost and labor of switching to bagged-leaf pickup at the last minute, and its his job to fairly consider fee increases anyway. The general philosophy on fees is that sometimes we are hesitant even if an increase is reasonable compared to other municipalities, Quinones said Wednesday. But if our costs are continuing to rise, then the taxpayers are subsidizing them with their property taxes. So its a balancing act for the board. Rep. Nina Sherwood, D-8, was among six board members who did not sign the letter. Eight other members didnt respond on way or another, according to Quinones tally. Sherwood said Wednesday its her job to weigh the merits of fee increases, but linking them to leaf-pickup seems wrong. I cant help but feel like the mayor is using leaf pickup as a wedge, she said. I voted for a $1.4 million budget cut to protect my constituents from an expanding tax burden, and because of that I have to look at increasing fees? It feels like Im defeating the purpose of my original vote. This month the board committees will review the increases and vote whether to recommend that the full board approve them when it meets Nov. 7. Martins proposals include an additional fee for police extra-duty services. Under the program, utility companies and contractors pay off-duty officers $67 an hour - supervisors get $78 and hour -- plus a 16 percent administration fee to provide traffic control at work sites. They also are hired to provide security for events. Martin said he thinks the city should charge more when an officer brings a police car to a work site or event. The mayor also wants to increase fees for building permits. According to the citys website, the fees now are $12 for every $1,000 in construction costs for one- and two-family homes, and $16 per $1,000 for multifamily homes and commercial buildings. Martin wants to raise more revenue from the transfer station, where commercial vehicles are charged $88 per ton to dump. Though surrounding municipalities charge $95 per ton, Martin said that, rather than increase the tipping fee he would like to add a charge of $10 per dump. He hopes that will not only raise revenue but reduce trips to the dump, where long lines of vehicles sometimes wait to be weighed. Martin is looking at fees and fines for burglar and fire alarms called in to the 911 dispatch center. Residents now must register alarm systems with the city at no charge, but the fine for failing to register is $90. Residents are allowed one false alarm each year. After that, they are fined $90 for each false alarm to which police or firefighters respond. Martin is proposing an increase in fines for motorists who refuse to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, and for pedestrians who cross against traffic signals or outside of intersections. The fine for those offenses now is $100, according to the Code of Ordinances. He also wants to increase fines and hours of enforcement for parking meters, and in city garages and lots. The fine for a meter violation now is $25. The fine for a Class II violation, such as obstructing a driveway, parking in a no-parking zone, or taking up two spaces, is $50. The Class III violation fine, such as parking on a sidewalk, crosswalk or bus stop, is $80. And the fine for a Class IV violation, such as parking within 10 feet of a fire hydrant, is $120. The list of proposed increases includes fees for childrens summer camps, use of ballfields, and beach parking for travel teams. acarella@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2296. STAMFORD A city woman who was charged with bringing LSD and a pot pipe into the Connecticut Passport Agency three years ago was arrested again this week after police say she was caught shoplifting and in possession of narcotics at Lord & Taylor. Sgt. Kenneth Jarrett said police were called Tuesday afternoon for a report of a woman trying to steal $1,200 worth of clothes from the store. Connecticut has two crucial economic advantages: its geography and its people. Our location is ideal, with proximity to New York City and Boston. And Connecticut boasts one of the best-trained and most well-educated workforces in the country. These features should make Connecticut a very popular destination for people and businesses. To access and utilize Connecticuts talent, businesses need to move those world-class Connecticut workers easily both within the state, and to the major metropolitan areas that connect Connecticut to the capitals of finance, technology, and medicine. They also need to move talented workers from outside Connecticut, especially from New York, into our state. Thats why accessible, affordable, and reliable transportation systems are absolutely essential to building a successful next-generation Connecticut economy. For decades, however, maintenance and upgrades to our transportation infrastructure especially our mass-transit infrastructure have been sacrificed for other priorities. Our transportation infrastructure has degraded to the point where we have the fifth-worst roads in the country. We have more than 300 failing bridges. And Metro-Norths New Haven line has become progressively slower and less reliable. It has also become less safe, as evidenced by a distressing recent series of crashes and derailments. These trends must be reversed. We must prioritize infrastructure investment in the state legislature. Functioning transportation infrastructure especially mass transit is vital to attracting businesses, jobs, and people. Businesses cite our failing transit infrastructure as the No. 1 impediment to moving or expanding into Connecticut. Improving our transit systems would remove that roadblock, allowing the many businesses finding New York City too expensive and overburdened to come to Fairfield County rather than northern New Jersey or Westchester County. Improved transit would also increase quality of life, reducing traffic. Functioning and affordable mass transit allows for more livable cities with less congestion and more pedestrian-friendly downtowns. These are the kind of urban areas that attract the next generation of high-quality talent exactly the talent GE claimed to be chasing when it flew to Boston. Studies show that investments in the Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit (NJT), and the Harlem and Hudson lines increased ridership and decreased travel times, accelerating economic growth. In fact, when travel times to Manhattan on NJT were reduced by 14 minutes, property values adjacent to stations increased by 42 percent. These developments would reverse Connecticuts net outflow of people and jobs and help grow our economy and tax base. Here are some practical steps to get our states transportation systems back on track. First, we need a bipartisan transportation caucus of state representatives and senators ready to tackle Fairfield Countys unique challenges. Fairfield County is an economic engine for the state. I pledge to work with legislators on both sides of the aisle to help solve its transportation problems. One of our first steps should be to help create a lockbox to prevent future legislatures from raiding transportation funding for other obligations. Second, we need to make major upgrades to our rail systems. Track deterioration and failure to adopt state-of-the-art technology have reduced Metro-Norths speed and reliability. Metro-Norths new rail cars can safely travel at 72 mph. On our tracks, they average 45. With tracks that allow them to fulfill their potential, a sub-40-minute express to New York City could be a reality. Improved switching and dispatching technology would allow more frequent and reliable service. And we should be increasing service on branch lines not reducing it. Third, we must immediately and properly redevelop the Stamford Transportation Center and its garage. As managed so far by the state Department of Transportation, the process has failed. A new redevelopment plan is necessary one with more local control and transparency, and that prioritizes the needs of commuters. These ideas are only some of the steps necessary to repair and upgrade our crumbling infrastructure. And I dont claim to have a monopoly on good ideas. I will work with anyone willing to roll up their sleeves, regardless of party. As I continue to knock on doors and make calls throughout the 147th district, I look forward your ideas and feedback, as well. You havent been shy about giving me them so far. Together, with hard work and good ideas, well get Connecticut back on track. Matt Blumenthal is an attorney and the Democratic candidate for state representative in Connecticuts 147th District, covering parts of Stamford and Darien. Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media As a resident of Stamford since 1995, and as a hyper-active member of the business community in Connecticut I have closely followed the issues the state faces, the leaders who set our direction, and the candidates who over the years have asked for the right to represent us. This year I have already had the opportunity to meet the major candidates, review their proposed plans, and even ask questions of each. My unconventional choice for the next governor of Connecticut is Oz Griebel. While Bob Stefanowski may in fact be positioning as the agent of change the state desperately needs, his unwillingness and/or inability to provide any details as to how he will implement his proposed plans is a major red flag. His plans are far too radical to take seriously or to support when the details are undefinable. With Ned Lamont you get what feels like a fresher voice and perspective layered onto the same general direction the Malloy administration has been heading; a direction that has led the state to nowhere over the past eight years. The state has far too many problems and challenges to support someone who will continue to generally take us down the same path. Further, Stefanowski and Lamont will be learning on the job that they are not the only decision maker; that being governor is by no means the same as being CEO. Trump attacked Casey for opposing Kavanaugh's nomination, saying he had "joined the left-wing mob." He also accused Casey, named for his politician father, for "banking on the name of his father." Trump's own father, Fred, was a successful real estate developer who set his son up in business. The New York Times recently reported that Donald Trump received at least $413 million from his father over the decades, much of that through dubious tax dodges, including outright fraud. S kincare brand Deciems London staff appeared to be left in limbo after the Canadian firms founder announced all stores would shut in a shocking Instagram video. London-born Brandon Truaxe, 40, posted a video saying: This is the final post of Deciem. We will shut down all operations until further notice, which will be about two months. He appeared emotional and added in the rambling post yesterday: Almost everyone at Deciem has been involved in a major criminal activity which includes financial crimes and much other. Truaxe did not give any details. He added: Ive been made fun of, as a porn actor, and as a f**king drug dealer and everything, for 13 years and its all ending now. Deciem has four stores in London and posted UK sales of 12.3 million last year. The company, which is behind beauty label The Ordinary, did not comment, and its website homepage was down. L uke Johnson, one of Britains best-known entrepreneurs, was dealt a humiliating blow on Wednesday after his cakes chain was engulfed by an accounting scandal. Shares in Patisserie Valeries parent company, in which Johnson is a major shareholder and chairman, were suspended after the chain discovered on Tuesday significant, potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities. Its finance boss of 12 years, Chris Marsh, was also suspended while an investigation takes place. In May it reported a 28.8 million net cash position and Johnson said it had a strong balance sheet. The cakes seller, which has more than 200 cafes in Britain, said this could lead to a potentially material mis-statement of the companys accounts. Johnson, who made his name after building Pizza Express in the Nineties, said: We are all deeply concerned about this news and the potential impact on the business. We are determined to understand the full details of what has happened and will communicate these to investors and stakeholders as soon as possible. Johnson was shaken by the discovery, sources close to the company said, but was determined to get to the bottom of it. He owns a 37% stake, worth about 200 million based on yesterdays closing share price of 429.5p. However, the value of his shares will plunge as investors dump the stock when trading resumes. Patisserie Holdings, which also includes brands Druckers, Philpotts, Baker & Spice and the Flour Power City Bakery, was worth 450 million yesterday. Mark Brumby, an analyst at Langton Capital, said: Theres been some sort of fairy dust sprinkled on this companys valuation for some time. Having a share price at 23 times earnings for a cake shop is just crazy. But nobody could have seen this coming. Clearly you have to be asking questions of the auditors. The revelation thrusts auditor Grant Thornton into the spotlight after a string of audit blunders which have recently made headlines including outsourcer Carillions collapse, with KPMG and Deloitte being criticised for missing red flags. The black hole echoes the unexpected implosion of Conviviality this year. O ne of Unilevers biggest shareholders on Wednesday said the rebellion over moving to Holland is a watershed moment for UK investors and will prevent other global giants from following suit. Columbia Threadneedle, a top 20 shareholder, said the Ben & Jerrys maker risked acting as a catalyst for dual listed firms to quit the UK index. Chief investment officer Mark Burgess said: You could have had a domino effect. There are a number of large global companies that have dual listings with the UK who may well have made a similar decision. "This is a watershed moment because no company considering such a move will want to go through the Unilever experience. We are defending our clients interests. Burgess said the shareholder activism over the Unilever move was the best co-ordinated since the market shot down a rights issue from Rio Tinto in the depths of the financial crisis. Unilever on Friday scrapped plans to move its headquarters to Rotterdam after a bout of shareholder activism against the move. Such a move would have forced the company out of the FTSE index, which is owned by the London Stock Exchange, under the FTSE nationality rules. The consumer goods giant comprises 2% of the total value of the FTSE All Share Index. H istory is written by the victors: this aphorism is usually attributed to Winston Churchill, and is a salutary warning to all those who seek to understand the past. Looking back, we must always make a conscious effort to seek contrary accounts, to rescue the forgotten, the defeated and the eclipsed from what the Marxist historian E P Thompson called the enormous condescensions of posterity. Now, however, we face the opposite peril: of a history framed solely by the losers or, more accurately, by their self-appointed tribunes. In this account of the past the victors identified by Churchill are axiomatically oppressors, in the wrong and to be deplored. Witness the unhappy case of Scott Kelly , the retired American astronaut, who last week quoted the Lion of Chartwell in a tweet prompted by Brett Kavanaughs successful nomination as a Supreme Court justice . One of the greatest leaders of modern times, Sir Winston Churchill said, in victory, magnanimity, Kelly wrote. I guess those days are over. Citing Churchill en passant to make a general point about civic decency in US politics, Kelly who is UN Ambassador for Space can scarcely have guessed what would happen next. Like a meteor storm bombarding a capsule in orbit, furious trolls attacked him on social media for citing a leader who was, allegedly, just as good as Hitler, responsible for the Bengal Famine of 1943, a bigot, and a mass murderer and a racist. Regrettably, Kelly capitulated, responding to this digital bile with abject contrition: Did not mean to offend by quoting Churchill. My apologies. I will go and educate myself further on his atrocities, racist views which I do not support. These sad phrases might have come from the pen of a purged party member in the Soviet era, or the mouth of Winston Smith in the final pages of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Matthew d'Ancona A veteran of four space flights, Kelly is a retired US Navy captain whose record of courage and service is awe-inspiring. His nerve held during for instance a servicing mission to the Hubble space telescope: a challenge beyond the imagination of most people. Yet, when it came to it, he could not resist the relentless fury of Twitter. Many of the charges levelled against Churchill are plain wrong. As Andrew Roberts shows in his magnificent new single-volume biography, Churchill: Walking With Destiny, his subject was not responsible, as is so often and so sloppily alleged, for the Bengal Famine which was caused, in fact, by cyclones and regional mismanagement. Indeed, on October 7, 1943, Churchill declared in Cabinet that one of Sir Archibald Wavells priorities as Viceroy of India must be to ensure that famine and food difficulties were dealt with a demand he continued to make in his personal contacts with Wavell. Yet the detail of Churchills achievements and alleged flaws is not what really interests his modern detractors. What they seek, absurdly and reprehensibly, is arbitrary, retrospective censorship of one of the towering figures of the 20th century: not perennial reassessment, which is the essence of history, but obliteration. They want it to be culturally impossible for a public figure such as Kelly to quote Churchill without facing a digitally turbocharged wave of Maoist denunciation. "What they seek is arbitrary censorship, not perennial reassessment, which is the essence of history" It is essential to identify what is new about this, and what is not. There is nothing new, for instance, in Churchill revisionism: in 1993, John Charmley ignited controversy with his highly critical biography, Churchill: The End of Glory. There have been many other such books, before and since. There is nothing new in history from below, either: the scholarly approach to the past, pioneered by Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, George Rude and other historians of the Left, that looked at the experience of the masses rather than the deeds of great men. Nor, for that matter, is there anything new in anti-imperialist history, which explores the role of empire from the perspective of the colonised and their heirs. In this context, two of the most thoughtful books of the past year have been Afua Hirschs Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging , and Akalas Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire. The challenge that these and other writers present to the sentimental notion of empire still baked into national culture is entirely welcome. What is new, and dangerous, is the attempt to drown out, usually via social media, anything that does not conform precisely to modern, woke ideology and its intolerant parameters. When Nigel Biggar, Oxfords regius professor of moral and pastoral theology, launched an ethical audit of the British Empires record last year, he was subjected to online vilification and personal abuse. As Trevor Phillips, former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said at the weekend, in connection with Biggars predicament: What I worry about is the Stalinist imposition of one reading of history leads to one outcome and that is suppression of free speech. This is precisely right. It is a philosophical nonsense to apply 21st-century standards to the past, and to exile from public discourse all those historical figures that do not match the exacting standards of student unions and Twitter mobs. R esearch released today suggests that the average person can distinguish between 5,000 faces. Is that really possible? If so, I am evidently in need of a few new tricks: my powers of recognition leave a lot to be desired. In five years of working on this papers diary, I must have attended close to a thousand parties. At each of these events I conversed with probably at least five people the person checking names on the door, the cloakroom attendant, the publicist, the celebrities I am there to interview but, despite my best efforts to properly engage with everyone I speak with, often their faces disappear from my temporal lobe within hours. So, at the next party, I find myself asking a pleasant agent how her husband is Im not married asking a minor music executive how an acts tour is going I dont represent her and, in one horrible incident where I got a little confused while drinking champagne at the Royal Academy, I congratulated Silent Witness star Emilia Fox on her recent Bafta win. I didnt win a Bafta, she assured me. Are you sure? I asked. Quite sure, she politely insisted. I had mixed her up with someone else. Was it the booze? Or have I merely become so overcome with new faces, all with new names and biographical details attached to them, that I have reached saturation point? There must be a way to rectify the problem. One former prime minister swears by his trick: when meeting a new person, he imagines their name being written across their forehead. A character in the 2008 comedy The House Bunny speaks the name out loud in a menacing, Exorcist-esque voice, to aid retention. Whatever the key to bolstering my capabilities of recollection, I fear the latter option may terrify any new acquaintances to the point they may not wish to see me again. Which would, of course, be a solution in itself. Melanias skimpy African adventure Melania Trump has just wrapped up a short trip during which she visited Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt without her husband. Naturally, it was billed by the administration and press as the First Ladys Africa tour, despite the fact that she visited only four of Africas 54 countries. Using the continent as an umbrella term for everything within it has become all too common Boris Johnson called it that country in 2016 but it is reductive, patronising and in no way reflective of these countries vast differences. I blame institutional racism, and the song by Toto. As a great big baby, I respect mothers Keira Knightley is one of 52 contributors to a new anthology about feminism, brought together by journalist Scarlett Curtis. The Oscar-nominated actors frank discussion of childbirth prompted some to claim that she was criticising the Duchess of Cambridge for being too preened and polished soon after having a baby, but she does not shame anyone in her missive: instead, she provides a necessary depiction of the reality of childbirth. Keira Knightley / Kevork Djansezian She describes the s***, the vomit, the blood, the stitches, her shoes crusted and sticky with the amniotic fluid of yesterday. Some may balk at the portrait, but why? Is there anyone left in the world who thinks the process is anything but painful? Why do some judge those who choose an epidural? Why arent prospective fathers kissing the feet of the women primed for delivery? Ive always been made aware of the fact that childbirth is a Herculean effort. Perhaps its because, at birth, I weighed in at 10lb 4oz. Its a wonder my mother ever forgave me. West End needs a musical reverend I did not greet this weeks announcement of an Only Fools and Horses musical with a standing ovation. Despite a few exceptions the fall through the bar, the crashing chandelier I never really warmed to Del Boy and Rodney for some reason. T heres a scene at the end of Quentin Tarantinos Kill Bill where Uma Thurman is trying to kill her rival Lucy Liu. She thinks she has finished her off but up pops Liu, who smiles and says: You didnt think it was gonna be that easy did you? Thats how I feel after the Brett Kavanaugh affair. I stupidly let myself believe this was going to have a feel-good ending when those brave, tenacious women confronted Jeff Flake in that lift and that the good guys or girls would win. Its the hope that kills you. Like many women, I felt spectacularly depressed and drained on Saturday evening when the news came through that Kavanaugh had been confirmed as a Supreme Court justice . I was performing my stand-up show about feminism, Girl on Girl, in Bath, and it was hard to muster the jazz hands. To make matters worse, there was a technical glitch with the sound, so I had no microphones and essentially had to yell which was actually quite cathartic. Luckily, I had a lovely audience. Women and men across the world felt moved by the bravery of Dr Christine Blasey Ford , but we were terrified by how exposed she was and how raw the experience seemed. And we were right. Kavanaugh won and he has now bagged one of the most important jobs in the US for life. Dr Ford lost, and is in hiding because she has received so many death threats. I wont go over the case again, but its important to note he was accused of harassment by only a couple of women, so by President Trumps standards hes just a rookie. However, theres a much bigger lesson here. Many feminists, and I include myself in this, have been naive about the #MeToo campaign. We thought because women had started to talk about their experiences, because celebrities were involved, because there was a vibrant social media campaign and because we were having a lot of fun on marches that things were magically going to get better. And we were so wrong. #Me Too was important, but it has been misleading because it has been marketed to make us think feminism is easy. Gender equality is just a click, a like, a love, a retweet or a selfie away. And you cant move for fun, glitzy feminism events. However, nothing has really changed. Because #MeToo and the basics of gender equality are about power. Power always wins. And when power is still ruthlessly protected by men of privilege, then we can have all the frothy feminism we like, but the needle isnt going to move to where it matters. "We feminists need to dry our eyes and steel ourselves for the long haul which isnt going to be pretty" This is the dark heart of the Trump project. Its not really about politics. Its about a culture war on minorities, on wimmins lib, on liberal values but above all, its about preserving the status quo and resisting change. This fight for the future is only getting started not just in the US, but all over Europe and on these shores too. We feminists need to dry our eyes and steel ourselves for the long haul which isnt going to be pretty. The fun bit is over. Girl on Girl The Fight for Feminism, Soho Theatre, October 22-27 Leave race out of Bailey criticism Shaun Bailey is the Tory mayoral candidate to fight Sadiq Khan in 2020, and his campaign has not got off to a flying start. After less than a month on the campaign trail, the press has unearthed a list of statements which would put Nigel Farage to shame. Some of his political stinkers include that single women deliberately get pregnant to get benefits, society needs to stop thinking its acceptable to be a single parent and that good-looking girls tend to have been around... He also said that celebrating Hindu and Muslim festivals have turned Britain into a crime-riddled cesspool which will go down a treat in London. There is plenty to criticise Bailey for at this early stage of what I predict will be an unsuccessful campaign thats the rough and tumble of politics. But what that doesnt mean is that people on the Left should attack him because of the colour of his skin . Racist language such as Uncle Tom and calling him a coconut is totally unacceptable and as bad as the Islamophobia Khan faced during the last mayoral contest in 2016. If youre anti-racism you call this out regardless of your party politics. Im a supporter and friend of Khan, and Im glad he has personally condemned these attacks. This contest must be about ideas, not race hate. *Strictly Come Dancing has once again ruined a relationship after contestant Sean(n) Walsh was caught smooching with his dancing partner Katya Jones . But out of the drama emerges a heroine, Rebecca Humphries, the now ex-girlfriend of Walsh. Rebecca Humphries / Rex Features C ity editor Jim Armitages column misrepresents the case for workers representation on boards [Putting workers in the boardroom still wont work, October 4]. Mr Armitage says having workers representatives is incompatible with laws that state directors primary duty is to their shareholders. However, shareholder primacy has been widely discredited, even among its initial advocates. There is considerable support for reform of these laws, making companies more accountable to a broader range of stakeholders, including workers and the wider community. Worker-directors and partnerships between companies and trade unions are a key feature of economies such as Sweden and Germany, which outperform the UK by many measures. Their introduction in this country would hardly represent business bashing or a Marxist agenda as Mr Armitage suggests. The UK has endured a decade-long pay squeeze, 21 per cent of workers earn less than the living wage, while the richest one per cent take a bigger share of income than almost anywhere else in western Europe. In this context it looks a bit eccentric to view trade unions and workers on boards as a potential economic problem, rather than a solution. Luke Hildyard Director, High Pay Centre EDITOR'S REPLY Dear Luke I AGREE that company managers should listen to their workers. Thats why I applauded Legal & General for giving a non-executive director the role of representing the views of employees in the boardroom. But forcing companies to appoint a worker as a director is a different matter, fraught with practical difficulties. Who selects them, for starters? You cite Germany and Sweden, but both countries have had major corporate scandals despite workers on boards: remember VW lying over diesel emissions? As for pay differentials, the bosses of Germanys SAP, Daimler, BASF and VW were all paid 10 million or more last year. Hardly restrained. Some British companies have successfully put employees on board, and it works for them, but forcing others to do so is wrong. Particularly when such laws have failed elsewhere. Jim Armitage, City Editor Lets all help beat climate change THE latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change should alert governments to the urgent need to act now. But dont hold your breath. The report should trigger an alteration in the mindset of everyone towards climate change. To date the focus has been on acting more sustainably. While laudable, there now needs to be a step change in the whole way in which we live. This must involve stopping using certain items so they dont have to be recycled dont create the waste. Stop driving and flying. Plant more trees and support programmes for more forestation. Only use locally produced food and drink products. While pressure needs to be put on politicians to act, these individual acts can shape the context that helps ensure politicians do the right thing as well as working toward the wider goal of planet survival. Paul Donovan Another attack on an NHS principle I WRITE in response to Ross Lydalls article Same-day GP appointments for 1,200 a year [October 8]. The Concierge Choice UK private scheme will make it even harder for those of us living in Hertfordshire to get a timely GP appointment and is a move to privatise NHS services. I live with a chronic health condition (osteoarthritis) and, as identified by the scheme, would benefit from longer GP appointments. But being retired I dont have the finances to support this. More focus needs to be put on equal access to healthcare for all rather than private patients being given priority. Debbie Lane-Stott I f you weren't already aware, our beloved hedgehog is dying out in London town and we're probably not helping by destroying their lands and pastures. In an attempt to help save the little critters, Hackney pub The Sebright Arms will be hosting what could possibly be London's first ever Hedgefest, a Hedgehog Festival. Adorable. So what can you expect? Bands, legendary tales of hedgehogs, poetry sessions and an 87-year-old East London lass who will be playing a 'flaming flute' (don't ask) and if you're lucky, a chance to meet a few of the nocturnal beasts yourself. Whilst it sounds like the ultimate social media fad, there is a very serious point to the event. Over the last decade, London's population of urban hedgehogs has rapidly declined by 50 per cent, so the hope is that after attending, guests will do their bit to help to spread awareness and educate their neighbours on how to help our spiny little friends. To tempt you even more, there will be a load of lol-worthy hedgehog-themed cocktails, too. Now how can you say no to that? Entry is free, alcohol is not. Frontier says the passenger had noted in her reservation that she was bringing an emotional support animal with her on Flight 1612 Tuesday night. But she did not indicate it was a squirrel. I f you missed the igloo train for Coppa Club, we've got some rather stupendous news for you: Jimmy Garcia's cheese fondue igloos are at the Southbank once again. Popping up on November 9, the MADE-designed igloos can hold up to 10 Instagram-crazy fiends and come complete with stunning views overlooking the Thames and Central London. The only other thing you need to know is that they're really pretty. Like, really, really pretty. Food wise, expect the gooiest and cheesiest European fondue vegan options included alongside steaks served with homemade sauces, wild Scottish venison and even a charcuterie straight from Jimmy Garcias father in Spain. And yes, you can eat, 'gram and boomerang it all in one of the little ice huts. That said, it's not just all about those glorious winter PVC demi-palaces. This year's lodge boasts an uber cosy winter warmer bar and lodge which bangs out everything from raclette burgers to schnitzel and a foodgasm-worthy portion of cheesy chips. You'll also have the chance to tuck into hot toddies, hot chocolates and mulled wine, too. In other words, you're gonna get merry and maybe put on a few pounds on after visiting the place. Excellent. Tickets for the igloos are on sale now and are likely to get snapped up pretty quickly the offering from the Coppa Club proved so popular it caused their booking system to temporarily go down. Enjoy, and if you do make it, tag your pretty shots on @esgolondon so we can share them. Calling all creators, look at your new design. Is it groundbreaking? Does it push boundaries? Does it challenge current perceptions of that product and its position in the marketplace? Maybe it is an entirely new concept? Something bearing no resemblance to anything ever seen before? Most importantly, does it foster desire is it dynamic, captivating, sophisticated? If the answer is 'yes' to these questions, you need to enter the Land Rover BORN Awards. Founded by Jean-Christophe Chopin, the Land Rover BORN Awards is the culmination of a year-long programme of events for BORN. A space for designers to present their ideas, launch their designs and connect to industry peers and in so doing, elevate their brands to the very highest level BORN hosts these global awards each year: a prestigious ceremony to celebrate design perfection in the fields of tech, fashion, interiors, sport, architecture, mobility and, as of next year, food. Nominees for these distinguished awards are made up of regional winners designers who outclassed in BORNs regional awards hosted in six areas across the globe (in the UK, the US, Spain, France, Italy and the Rest of the World) earlier on in the year. This year, global winners included Spains Javier Goyeneche founder of ECOALF, the sustainable fashion brand which makes clothes from recycled waste retrieved from the ocean and the UKs Will Butler Adams, managing director of Brompton Bicycles, which recently launched its electric fold-up bike. The Brompton Electric Bike, one of this year's winners / BORN Awards 2018 More than just a ceremony, the Land Rover BORN Awards presents unprecedented opportunity: the chance for participating designers to take part in panel discussions BORN Conversations where they can exchange ideas, connect to other industry greats, and project their brand vision to a global audience. This year, such conversations addressed topics including the Power of Design, and, as above the video illustrates, the importance of networking and collaborating. Through the discussion Network Intelligence: The Power of Networking, hosted by the Evening Standards executive editor Amira Hashish, two of this years regional winners Nolii co-founders Benjamin Hubert and Asad Hamir and two global winners the aforementioned Goyeneche and Butler Adams together with Open Influence founder Felix LaHaye, discussed the benefits and how tos of networking and collaborating, in front of a packed auditorium at Londons renowned Design Museum. Next year, one such panellist could be you So enter the Land Rover BORN Awards 2019 today. Based on the theme of Desire, as long as your product is pioneering, compelling and elegant and fits into one of the previously listed fields you qualify. Register at born.com and who knows, come autumn 2019, the list below could include your name Land Rover BORN Awards Global Winners 2018 Interiors: Michael Anastassiades for Flos (UK) Mobility: Will Butler-Adams for Brompton Electric bike (UK) Architecture: Cino Zucchi for the Lavazza headquarters (Italy) Sport: Alexandre Fauvet for Fusalp (France) Technology: Javier Goyeneche for Ecoalf (Spain) Fashion: Ryan and Adam Goldston for APL (USA) A n armed bodyguard broke down in court today as he described the moment he shot dead Westminster terror attacker Khalid Masood, telling the inquest: "He was going to kill me." The trained firearms officer struggled to contain his emotions as he described hearing screaming and seeing Masood, armed with two bloody kitchen knives, rushing towards him. Referred to as SA74 to protect his identity, the officer said he and a fellow bodyguard heard a crash at the perimeter wall of Parliament, they heard members of the public shouting, and saw unarmed police officers running in terror. "I simply didn't know what was happening, but I was now certain that something terrible was happening", he said. Police arrest Khalid Masood outside the Palace of Westminster. The inquest into the five deaths on March 22, 2017, concluded today. (PA Archive/PA Images) / Stefan Rousseau/PA "I saw a large black male running purposefully towards me, he was carrying two large knives, I would say, and I could clearly see that they were covered in blood." Masood, 52, stabbed unarmed PC Keith Palmer to death after bursting through the Parliamentary gates, and had already run over pedestrians at random on Westminster Bridge. The scene outside the Palace of Westminster, London, where Pc Keith Palmer was fatally stabbed by Khalid Masood after he ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge. / PA SA74 said he shouted a warning to Masood to drop his weapons, but it "had no effect" on the extremist. "He was going to kill me", he told the inquest. Khalid Masood / Met Police "As soon as I saw that threat, my pistol was drawn and I was pointing it at him. "After shouting at him to drop the knives, and receiving no change in his demeanour, I fired my pistol." Stabbed to death: PC Keith Palmer was helping to guard Parliament when he was attacked by extremist Khalid Masood / pckeithpalmer1409 The officer, who was giving evidence in semi-secrecy to protect his identity, was offered a break in his evidence as he struggled with his emotions, but opted to continue with his account to the jury. The officer's colleague, referred to as SB73, earlier told the hearing: "I thought he was going to try and seriously injure or kill one or both of us. "I was ready to take action by shooting him. "I believe I took an aim, ready to take a shot. My finger was near the trigger. "My colleague fired a number of shots which stopped the male." Masood had already run over and fatally wounded mother-of-two Aysha Frade, 43, US tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, retired window cleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75, and Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31, on Westminster Bridge on March 22 last year. The extremist then crashed his rented Hyundai into the perimeter wall of Parliament, before rushing on foot through the Carriage Gates entrance and attacking PC Palmer. Both bodyguards were on duty on March 22 last year protecting their "principal", and happened to be in the area of Carriage Gates when the attack happened. SB73 added that unarmed police officers were running away from the gates as he also shouted a warning to Masood, telling him to stop and drop his weapons. Both bodyguards went to secure Masood once he had been shot and collapsed to the ground, while also making efforts to save his life. Craig Mackey / Getty Images Acting Met Commissioner Sir Craig Mackey was in a chauffeur driven car as the attack unfolded in front of him, and told the inquest on Monday that he locked the doors to protect himself and two colleagues. He told the hearing he was unarmed and not wearing protective clothing, but he has since come under fire from former colleagues who have accused the senior officer of being a coward. The inquest in front of chief coroner Mark Lucraft QC is due to conclude next week when a jury will deliver its verdict. T he trial of a science teacher accused of having drunken sex with a pupil in a plane toilet has collapsed after the jury failed to reach verdicts. Jurors at Bristol Crown Court had been deliberating for ten and a half hours following the trial but could not decide whether or not Eleanor Wilson, 29, was guilty. After the jurors were discharged, the Crown Prosecution Service asked for seven days to consider whether to seek a retrial. Wilson, of Dursley, Gloucestershire, was accused of having drink-fuelled sexual intercourse with the teenager on a British Airways flight home from an overseas camping trip in August 2015. She also allegedly kissed and cuddled the boy on three other occasions. Wilson denied four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust. Within weeks of the pair returning from the trip, rumours had spread around the school that Wilson was in a relationship with a student but when confronted by the head teacher she denied it, saying she was "horrified" at the accusation. At the same time, Wilson discovered she was pregnant and went on to have an abortion, with prosecutors claiming the boy was the father. The court heard their "clandestine" relationship was exposed months later when another pupil at the school tried to blackmail Wilson into having sex with him. The Royal Navy Reservist said she formed a friendship with the boy because she had no friends of her own age she could confide in. Wilson told the court the boy had imagined the incident in the toilet and also denied holding his hand and kissing him during time alone, insisting there was "no truth whatsoever" in the allegations. She also accused her then partner Andrew Hall of being violent and controlling and not being ready to start a family with her. The teenager, who bought Wilson flowers and chocolates, told the jury a bond developed between them and insisted his account was not fantasy and that he was telling the truth. Mr Hall described their relationship as "dysfunctional" but denied he was "controlling", "jealous", "aggressive" and "physical" towards her. K atie Price's ex-boyfriend Kris Boyson has been pictured outside Plumstead police station hours after she was arrested on suspicion of drink driving. The former glamour model was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday after police came across her car in Woolwich, south-east London. The 40-year-old allegedly crashed her bright pink Range Rover into a bush, according to reports. The Met Police confirmed an arrest was made. Katie's boyfriend Kris Boyson was pictured out celebrating his birthday in Bexleyheath hours before the crash. Katie was not pictured Price is believed to have been at Boyson's birthday party at Meze restaurant Bexleyheath earlier that night. A Met Police spokeswoman told the Standard: At approximately 2am on Wednesday, British Transport Police officers came across a car showing signs of damage stationary at the roadside in Shooters Hill Road, Woolwich. Katie Price's pink Range Rover was found crashed at the side of a road in Woolwich / Deano / Splash News A 40-year-old woman who was inside the car was arrested on suspicion of drink drive. She was taken to a south London police station where she remains. Katie Price pictured with Kris Boyson while the pair were an item / Instagram/ Katie Price Price has endured a turbulent year. In February she was banned from driving for six months after doing 60mph on the 50mph A24. In July she claimed to have turned herself into the police after breaking her driving ban, which has now ended, to take her son Harvey to hospital. The star told followers on Instagram: Been on such an emotional rollercoaster the last 6 months and my head has been all over the place, so much so, that I thought my driving ban was up. Price with ex-husband Kieran Hayler (Ian West/PA Archive/PA Images) / PA She went on to say she had felt so guilty about the misdemeanor that she had called the police to report herself. Earlier this year Price also split from her husband, Kieran Hayler. W omen have been urged not to wear headphones or use mobile phones while walking alone near a north-west London Tube station after a string of sex attacks. In the last eight months, 10 lone women have been sexually assaulted in the Cricklewood area in late night or early morning attacks which police believe are linked. Most of the attacks have taken place as the women were walking from Willesden Green Tube station before being approached by a man, Scotland Yard said. The suspect tried to speak to the victims, asking for a kiss or a huge, before touching them. During the most recent attack at around 3.20am on Sunday, the victim was approached on Walm Lane after catching a train to Willesden Green Tube station. The Met Police said: [The suspect] tried to engage in conversation before sexually assaulting her. Women walking in the area have now been urged to be alert in your surroundings and have been warned not to use earphones or mobile phones while alone. Detective Constable Laura Avery, of Brent CID, said: I would appeal to women in the local area to take care when they are walking, especially if they are alone. Always stick to well-lit streets. "If possible, let someone know when you are coming home and the route you are taking and always be alert in your surroundings, so don't use earphones or handheld devices. This is a series of shocking sexual assaults on lone women and I am appealing for anyone who has information that could help identify and apprehend this suspect to contact police immediately. Police believe that the assault on Sunday is linked to nine separate incidents between February and September 2018, taking place mainly over the weekend. The suspect has been described as a black man of medium build, aged in his 20s or 30s and wearing dark clothing. A 37-year-old man was arrested on July 19 on suspicion of sexual assault but was later released under investigation. Investigations into the assaults continue, police say. L ondoners are to be scanned in supermarket car parks in a pioneering bid to prevent deaths from lung cancer. A 1 million pilot scheme the first in the capital is being set up in west London and aims to target more than 7,000 smokers or former smokers and detect tumours early. The results from the year-long trial will be used to determine whether the NHS should introduce a national screening programme for lung cancer. A mobile CT scanning unit will be parked at a Tesco car park in Yiewsley for three months and then at a Sainsburys in Hayes. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK, often because it is diagnosed too late. Screening has been rejected in the past due to concerns over false positives where patients end up receiving invasive treatment for non-life-threatening conditions. But doctors say screening is more accurate than a decade ago and it enables cancer to be caught earlier, when there is still chance of cure. Dr Anand Devaraj, a consultant thoracic radiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital, who is leading the work, told the Standard: What we are looking for is a complete change in the landscape, something called a stage shift. At the moment, large numbers of patients only present at stages three and four of the disease because the earlier stages can be asymptomatic. We are trying to increase the number that present at stages one and two, and screening can help achieve that. The NHS England-funded pilots follow the launch of supermarket lung screening in Manchester last year. The London scheme, which is being run by RM Partners, the areas cancer alliance led by the Royal Marsden Hospital, will target current or ex-smokers aged 60 to 75. Patients at 20 GP surgeries in Hammersmith and Fulham and Hillingdon will be invited to have lung checks, either at a supermarket or at the Royal Brompton in Chelsea. If a nurse suspects the possibility of cancer, the person will receive a CT scan on the same day. Scan results can be beamed in seconds from the supermarket truck to the Bromptons radiologists for analysis. There are national screening programmes for breast, cervical and bowel cancer but not lung cancer. Dr Devaraj said: One of the essential elements of these pilots is to investigate how many patients have a CT scan. Are we identifying the ones at the highest risk? Are there reasons why some patients dont turn up? It will help inform us how screening can be implemented on a national basis. We know that early detection from screening does save lives. We need to translate that into the real world. He added: In the past, the harms from screening have been rightly highlighted. We now have ways to minimise those harms to such a low level that the benefit of screening, in terms of reducing deaths from lung cancer, we think far outweighs the harms. Hammersmith and Fulham has the highest lung cancer incidence and mortality across west London, while Hillingdon has the lowest one-year lung cancer survival rate. K ate Middleton has used her first visit to Londons Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) since becoming a patron to officially open its new photography centre and exhibition. The Duchess of Cambridge, who studied art history, was given a tour of the exhibition at the design museum after meeting the curators on Wednesday evening. Kate, who became the museums first royal patron in March, showed her expertise in the field during the visit, the senior curator of the exhibition Martin Barnes said. He said: "She is a really knowledgeable student in art history, so she understood about the technology behind the photos. I really got a sense of her knowledge and interest in how it is relevant today but how its history informs its present." The Duchess of Cambridge leaving after opening the new photography centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum / PA Displays in the new centre, the first phase of which more than doubles the amount of space in the museum dedicated to photography, will be drawn from the London museum's collection of more than 800,000 photographs. More gallery space is set to be given over to photography in the museum by 2022. The first exhibition to be held in the centre - called Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital - showcases photos taken from the 19th century, when the medium was first invented, up to the present day. Kate opened the photography centre on Wednesday night / Getty Images Tristram Hunt, the former Labour MP who is now the director of the V&A, said: "Our new photography centre provides a world-class facility to re-establish photography as one of our defining collections. "In an era when everyone's iPhone makes them a photographer, the V&A's photography centre explores and explains the medium in a compelling new way." He also thanked the gallery's "Kensington neighbour" the Duchess of Cambridge for unveiling the official plaque. Visitors entering the new photography centre will pass a display of more than 150 cameras spanning 160 years. S mall firms have said that preparing for Brexit is like preparing to "move your business to Narnia." Industry representatives told the parliament's Brexit committee how small business, and consumers will be effected if they goods are delayed at the UK's borders. Business leaders warned supermarkets shelves could be emptied of the most perishable goods and small businesses said they have effectively "tuned out" from Brexit talks as they simply don't know what to do. One business leader said preparing for Brexit was like "trying to move your business to Narnia" as they have no idea of the regulatory system they will find themselves in. Representatives of British business gave evidence to the Brexit Committee on October 10. (L-R) Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, Martin McTague, Policy and Advocacy Chair of the Federation for Small Business, Richard Burnett, Chief executive of the Road Haulage Association and Mike Thompson of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry / Parliamentlive Martin McTague, Policy and Advocacy chair of the Federation for Small Business said 86 per cent of small businesses have made absolutely no preparations at all in the event of "no deal". "What we're most worried about is the lack of transition arrangement. When we've looked at groups of small businesses there has been progressively a tendency to tune out of the whole debate," he told the Exiting the European Union Committee. "They don't know what to do. One guy put it to me quite well. He said it's like preparing a move of your business to Narnia. I don't know what this place is like, how do I make preparations for it?'." Loading.... Britain's trucking industry also voiced major concern as the vast majority of logistics companies don't have the necessary paperwork to survive a shock changeover. Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association said: "As soon as we come out of the EU we forfeit our British licence which grants British hauliers access." Hauliers' only contingency is the ECMT permit (from the European Conference of Ministers of Transport) - but these are "capped and quota-ed," he said. There are only 1,224 lorries carrying them, leaving almost 37,000 unlicensed to travel to the EU. Firms have a tight margin of 60 per lorry per week in profit, Mr Burnett added - so there is "no margin for error" if the industry was hit by the costs of more red tape. Meanwhile supermarket shelves would feel the brunt of a "no-deal" - with the most perishable items being hit hardest, said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium. Cut flowers from Holland have the shortest shelf life in a supermarket, he said, followed by strawberries from Spain, which is only nine days - or three to four days by the time they get to the store. Loading.... "Supermarkets may reconsider whether to put products on the shelf if they are delayed by a single day," he said, adding that Irish beef and some specialised cheese products would be hit to a lesser degree. "If you had to focus on one thing in a "no deal supermarket" it would be the fruit and veg aisle," he said. Meanwhile, hospitals and pharmacies could see stocks rapidly deplete if the guidance on how much they should stockpile is wrong, warned Mike Thompson of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Some 37 million packs of medicines is imported each month, he said, and our exports are even more substantial, at 45 million per month. "Clearly there are very serious consequences if we are not able to deliver a medicine to a patient," Mr Thompson said. The left largely sees the situation this way too. In the wake of their failure to destroy Kavanaugh, Democrats and liberal activists insist they must fight dirty, as political scientist David Farris argues in his book, Its Time to Fight Dirty. Liberals have convinced themselves Democrats lose because they are too nice. This, not ironically, was exactly the view conservatives such as Anton held about the GOP in 2016; many voters rallied to Trump on the grounds that at least he fights. Stormy Daniels grandstanding lawyer, Michael Avenatti, is auditioning to be the lefts counterpuncher. In response to the GOPs Kavanaugh win, he tweeted, When they go low, we hit harder. There is far too much at stake for any other approach. Never mind that it was Avenattis harder-hitting allegations that steeled the GOPs resolve to keep Democrats from railroading Kavanaugh. As well as politicians meeting in Brussels today, U2 lead singer Bono is also in the city visiting the European Parliament. The star did not directly mention Brexit but said he thought artists need to do their bit in "romancing the idea of Europe" in a time where people are questioning it. He said: "As an artist, I think I probably have a role to play in romancing the idea of Europe and seeing it as something warm-blooded. "Europe is a thought that needs to become a feeling and I am, as an artist, in service of that. "If you think about the mythology of America and you think about Hollywood and how Hollywood perpetuated the idea of the American dream... when you think about artists involved in the project that is Europe, it's not that many." T he first Minister for Suicide Prevention in the UK has been appointed and announced to coincide with World Mental Health day. Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price will undertake the position and lead Government work on reducing the number of people taking their own lives. It is thought to be a world first role and is one of a number of announcements by Theresa May concerning the Governments handling of mental health. At a reception for World Mental Health Day on Wednesday, the Prime Minister is set to say: When I first became Prime Minister, I stood on the steps of Downing Street and pledged to fight the burning injustices in our society. There are few greater examples than the injustices facing those with mental health conditions. But together we can change that. We can end the stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence. We can prevent the tragedy of suicide taking too many lives. According to the Government's statement, around 4,500 people take their own lives each year in England and suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 45. Matthew Smith, who led a charge to have a minister appointed to suicide prevention after his brother took his life, welcomed the appointment. In a video message shared by CALM, the campaign against living miserably, he said: This announcement can be a huge, huge stepping stone towards preventing suicide. The charity also welcomed the move. The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, also backed the new position to be a success. It is one of multiple announcements regarding the Government's plans on mental health / PA In a statement, he said: I am delighted we are appointing Jackie Doyle-Price as our dedicated Minister for Suicide Prevention, and I know she will make a real difference. Every suicide is a preventable death and we are determined to do everything we can to tackle the tragedy of suicide. Other Government moves announced include new support teams and resources in schools, as well as a new annual report on young peoples mental well-being." The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are greeted by Health Secretary Matt Hancock at the Mental Health Summit / PA There is also set to be up to 1.8million in Government funding made available to the helpline Samaritans. Mr Hancock is hosting the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit in London this week. T heresa May will face the Commons amid intense Tory pressure to drop her Brexit plans as officials in Brussels gather to discuss their latest move in the talks. Top EU officials will be briefed behind closed doors by chief negotiator Michel Barnier following intensified talks in the run-up to a crunch summit next week. Mrs May will appear for the first session of Prime Minister's questions on Wednesday after a party conference season dominated by Brexit divisions. Former Brexit secretary David Davis warned of "dire" consequences for Conservatives at the next general election if the Government sticks to its negotiating stance on EU withdrawal. David Davis warned of 'dire' consequences for the Tories if the Prime Minister sticks to her negotiation stance / EPA In a letter to fellow Tory MPs, he said a deal based on Mrs May's Chequers plan would deliver "none of the benefits of Brexit" and reduce the UK to being "a rule-taker from Brussels". Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, meanwhile, said differences remained between the UK and EU on the withdrawal agreement but insisted "we are closing in on workable solutions". Prime Minister Theresa May is under intense pressure to ditch her Brexit plans / PA He told Tory Brexiteers their calls for a Canada-style trade deal would be a "shortcut to no deal". Speaking at the House of Commons, Mr Raab said the final few weeks of talks are "always going to be tough" but that was all the more reason for the UK to "hold our nerve". Mr Raab addressed MPs on Tuesday evening / EPA He added: "I remain confident we will reach a deal this autumn, saying it is "time for the EU to match the pragmatism we have shown". Labours shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer responded by saying Mr Raabs statement would have been much better coming from the Prime Minister. He said: Its no good hiding behind the badge of the Salzburg summit as informal. It was the PM who pushed for Brexit to be on the agenda at Salzburg. And it was the PM who failed to secure a breakthrough. Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney warned of "carnage" if Britain crashed out of the EU but said he believed it was "unlikely" that would happen. Mrs May told her Cabinet that Britain will not accept an EU withdrawal deal without a "precise" political declaration setting out how its requirements on trade and security will be delivered. The EU has prepared a contingency plan to ensure customs, transport, data and banking continue to run smoothly in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The plan, due to be published today by the European Commission, contains a list of new laws that will be rolled out in case a deal is not agreed by March next year. The measures include an option to declare UK banking legislation equivalent to the EUs for a number of months after Brexit. Equivalence is not the same as the passporting rights UK-based banks currently enjoy, which allows them to operate throughout the EU once they set up in a single country. It is granted in a more piecemeal way, and can be revoked by the bloc at any time. Last year the EU placed a 12-month limit on Swiss stock exchanges right to trade in EU shares, linking permanent access to talks on Switzerlands broader relations with the EU. The contingency plan also includes legislation to ensure UK-based airlines can still fly over European airspace, that goods can clear customs without severe delays and that data transfers will be covered by strict EU data protection laws. The proposals show the bloc is prepared for any eventuality, an EU source said. They come a week before a crunch EU summit on the UKs exit treaty. Mark Carney Bank of England Governor The Canadian recently extended his time at the Threadneedle Street tiller until January 2020, soothing nerves in the City over a change of leadership at the Bank a matter of weeks after the UK leaves the EU. In a climate of unprecedented political cat-fighting since the referendum, the ex-Goldman Sachs man has been one of the few grown-ups in the room soothing financial markets, albeit drawing fire from Brexiteers who labelled him the high priest of Remain. Andrew Bailey Chief executive, Financial Conduct Authority The Leicester grammar school boy and veteran of more than 30 years at the Bank of England was drafted in to bring stability to the Financial Conduct Authority after a period of turmoil that saw the previous boss ousted. An affable, widely-respected City heavyweight who could be set for greater things in 2019. Sacha Romanovitch CEO, Grant Thornton She made waves since becoming boss of accountancy giant Grant Thornton in 2015 and - not afraid to make difficult decisions - got so fed up with failing to beat the Big Four to win top 350 FTSE firm audits that she withdrew from bidding for them. She is also co-chair of the Governments new Inclusive Economy Partnership. Minouche Shafik Director of the LSE The Egyptian-born director of the London School of Economics had a stint as a deputy governor of the Bank of England, and is tipped to be its next leader. Anne Richards Chief executive, Fidelity The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 The City money manager has cemented her position as one of the most powerful figures in the Square Mile by taking the reins as chief executive of 250 billion behemoth Fidelity International. She started out as a nuclear scientist, working at the Cern centre in Geneva. She is also a member of the 2020 Women on Boards campaign group. David Schwimmer Chief executive of London Stock Exchange The former Goldman Sachs man has taken on the stock market operator at a crucial time as it recovers from a collapsed merger and deals with Brexit. Shriti Vadera Chairman, Santander UK Theres chatter in the City that she could well become the first female Bank of England Governor, after a career at investment bank UBS Warburg and a spell in government under Gordon Brown, who made her a life peer.Her nickname among civil servants (Shriti the Shriek) attests to an abrasive style which might not go down too well if she does succeeds Mark Carney. Franck Petitgas International boss of Morgan Stanley A long-term contender to lead the US bank, he was promoted from co-head of investment banking this summer. Jes Staley Chief executive of Barclays Despite a whistleblowing scandal and an unwanted activist investor, the American chief is nursing the bank back to health. Ross McEwan Chief executive of RBS The Kiwi has one of the toughest jobs in the City as RBS recovers from its devastating bailout but has even reinstated the dividend. Parekh Goss-Custard Serial City director One of the most prolific board members in the City, the former Amazon.com retail guru sits on the boards of Schroders, Rightmove, Intu and B&Q owner Kingfisher. Howard Davies Chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland The outspoken City grandee is handling the repercussions from Brexit and managing the state-owned banks gradual sell-off into private hands. Richard Gnodde Chief executive of Goldman Sachs International Goldmans top man in London is arguably the most powerful individual in the City and faces a crucial period with David Solomon taking over as group chief executive. John McFarlane Chairman of Barclays Despite swirling rumours of his departure, Mack the Knife the guitar-playing banker remains one of the most influential figures in the Square Mile. Carolyn Fairbairn Director-general of the CBI One of the foremost voices in the Brexit debate as she fights big businesss corner while Britain attempts to thrash out a dea. Antonio Horta Osorio Chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group The suave Portuguese has put the revived Black Horse back in private hands and theres even whispers of a knighthood to recognise his work. Keith Skeoch Co-chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen With Martin Gilbert, hes half of the Scottish angling duo at the top of the funds giant after their newly-inked merger. Martin Gilbert Co-chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen The public face of his merged funds group, he is juggling various roles and plans to quit his position at Sky after the broadcasters takeover. Adebayo Bayo Ogunlesi Chairman of Global Infrastructure Partners The Nigerian-born former Credit Suisse banker has been a significant figure in London infrastructure and has now sold a stake in City Airport and put its Gatwick slice on the block. Simon Robey Managing partner of Robey Warshaw The deals keep rolling in for Londons upstart boutique advisor, where top staff shared 63 million last year and even outmuscled the mighty Goldman Sachs. Richard Woolnough Fund manager, M&G The star fund manager from Chesterfield is among the best paid in the City and is known for his punchy calls on the state of the market Mark Wilson Chief executive of Aviva The calm Kiwi netted a cool 4.3 million last year after reviving the insurers fortunes despite an embarrassing bust-up over preference shares. Claire Musgrave Partner at Marshall Wace One of just 22 partners at one of Londons best-known hedge funds, she looks after the numbers for hedgie kingpins Paul Marshall and Ian Wace. Bill Winters Chief executive of Standard Chartered The American silver fox is attempting to revive a bank with a chequered recent history and has overseen a jump in profits. Alan Howard Founder of Brevan Howard The legendary investor made a startling return this year as his new fund surged after making a lucrative bet on the Italian elections. Hanneke Smits Chief executive of Newton Investment She switched out of private equity to run the 50 billion fund manager and has filled City star Helena Morrisseys shoes in style with strong results. Vis Raghavan European chief at JPMorgan The likeable banker and Arsenal fan has 18 years under his belt at Americas biggest lender by assets, which has just notched up record profits. James Bardrick Head of UK at Citigroup The Citi lifer has his banking group going from strength to strength and is also responsible for helping women progress in the company. Mike Wells Chief executive at Prudential The Canadian-born chiefs 23 million pay packet may have raised eyebrows but has proved decisive this year, spinning out the UK business to focus on Asia. Luke Ellis Chief executive of Man Group The hedge fund high-flyer was tempted out of retirement on his Sussex farm to return to the City with Man Group, now on top form. Tina Fordham Managing director and political analyst at Citi Fordham has a tough gig analysing global political machinations for the banking giant and has even contributed to UN debates on gender initiatives. George Iacobescu Chief executive of Canary Wharf Group The Romanian marked 30 years since the start of construction at Canary Wharf this year and the Docklands hub is still thriving. Bob Annibale Global Director Citi Community Development and Inclusive Finance Bob leads Citis partnerships with global, national and local organisations to support inclusive finance and community development through economic empowerment. In London, he serves on Big Society Capitals Advisory Board and is chairing a Community Investment Steering Group. He also is co-lead on Citis LGBT Global Pride network. Michele Dix Managing director of Crossrail 2 The civil engineer is responsible for one of Britains biggest-ever infrastructure projects linking Euston, Victoria and Clapham Junction Marc Nachmann Goldman Sach investment banking co-head One of the banking giants biggest cheeses in London, he made the management committee in 2015 and was promoted last year. Jeremy Darroch CEO, Sky plc Darroch worked at Procter & Gamble for over a decade before joining Sky in 2004 as Chief Financial Officer. He was appointed as chief executive of Sky in December 2007. Eileen Burbidge Partner at Passion Capital Will Shu Founder, Deliveroo Shu still pulls on a helmet and delivers one order each week to see what lifes like as one of his 30,000 riders. But the act hasnt won everyone over: Deliveroos made a six-figure pay-out to couriers who said they were denied basic employment rights by the gig economy company. Expansion saw Deliveroo post a 129 million loss last year, but its valued at more than 1.5 billion. Having just set out plans to reward staff, including those at headquarters in Bank, with share options, it looks like Deliveroo could serve up an IPO next. That is, if Uber Eats doesnt gobble it up first. Rachel Whetstone Incoming Netflix global communications chief Outgoing from Facebook, where she has been Vice Presidents of Communications for its Instagram, Whats App and Messenger products, Whetstone is heading to Netflix this autumn. Kathryn Parsons Founder, Decoded The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 Her tech company teaches business leaders how to code, and in 2014 she received an MBE for services to education. She also sits on Theresa Mays and Mayor Sadiq Khans business councils Cindy Rose UK chief executive of Microsoft The American has taken a bullish stance in the face of Brexit: investing in the UK and tackling Britains digital skills gap. Matt Brittin European head of Google The towering oarsman has stoically rowed the tech giant in the face of adversity while its global growth continues apace. Jonathan Ive Chief design officer at Apple The tech giants innovation king created the iPhone and has taken personal control of the design team after a couple of hands-off year. Adam Neumann Chief executive of landlord WeWork Adam Neumann (Reuters ) / Reuters The Israeli-American is bucking the subdued London property market trend with his shared office spaces. Hes opening scores of new sites across 81 cities in 20 countries and his company is now valued at 15 billion and expanding rapidly, helped along by a recent investment from Softbank. Brent Hoberman Chairman of Founders Factory The founder of Lastminute.com now spends his days investing in Londons hottest talent and giving tech start-ups a leg up with his incubator. Alice Bentinck Co-founder of Entrepreneur First The ex-McKinsey consultant is making waves with her start-up tech accelerator and has been honoured with the prestigious Veuve Clicquot women in business gong. Tom Blomfield Chief executive of Monzo The Oxford graduate has made carrying the ubiquitous orange payment card a mark of cool as its cult status continues to grow. Bruce Daisley Vice-president of Europe for Twitter The colourful former publishing executive is in charge of President Donald Trumps favourite medium across Europe. Samir Desai Chief executive and co-founder of Funding Circle The former management consultant has been at the helm for eight years of the leading peer-to-peer lender to small businesses. Jan Hammer Partner at Index Ventures The slick former Morgan Stanley man is one of the most influential voices in London tech, making a series of smart investments. Nicola Mendelsohn Europe, Middle East and Africa vice president at Facebook Facebooks most senior executive outside the US entered the advertising industry in the early Nineties and remains a big hitter despite a battle with cancer. Gerard Grech Chief executive of Tech Nation His four years as chief executive have been busy as he deals with the earthquake impact of Britains Brexit vote on its migrant-heavy tech sector. Zeeshan Feroz UK chief executive of Coinbase Amid the cryptocurrency boom, Ferozs exchanges and wallet gained mainstream credibility, signing a partnership with Barclays. Marta Krupinska Co-Founder of Azimo The Polish expat formed one of the fastest growing fintech companies in the world and was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in finance. Tim Berners-Lee Director of World Wide Web Consortium The inventor of the web now works to develop international standards to ensure its long-term growth. Michael Acton Smith Co-Founder of Calm.com and Mind Candy The San Franciscan behind meditation firm Calm and Moshi Monsters maker Mind Candy is influencing Londoners every day. Jaidev Janardana Chief executive of Zopa The former Capital One man is boss of the worlds first peer-to-peer lending company which is launching a bank. Emma Sinclair Co-Founder of Enterprise Alumni The serial entrepreneur was the youngest person to float a company and now runs a tech start-up with her brother James. Enterprises software powers the corporate Alumni networks of some of the worlds largest companies. Ronan Harris Google managing director for the UK and Ireland Ronan has been managing director for the UK and Ireland since 2016 and his arrival in the UK coincided with Googles 1b investment in Britain and the creation of 3,000 new jobs by 2020. Jimmy Wales Founder, Wikipedia The co-founder of the online encyclopaedia has been busy launching online publication Wikitribune to fight fake news Jamie Heywood Europe director for Uber Sheku Kanneh-Mason Cellist His 2016 win as BBC Musician of the Year began it all, since when the charismatic virtuosos reputation has soared with his chart-topping album Inspiration and appearance at this years royal wedding. Also performing together with other members of his gifted family, including sister Isata and brother Braimah, he has become a notable ambassador of music-making across cultural and generic divides. Simon Rattle Music Director, LSO Has set alight music-making in London since returning from Berlin last year. Sarah Connolly Mezzo-soprano The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 Has glided regally through a stellar career of several decades to establish herself at the apex of the profession. Her Handelian heroines remain unsurpassed, but she has continued to expand her lieder and operatic repertoire from Wagner to Mark-Anthony Turnage with exciting results. She recently tweeted that she was working on a new opera by Led Zeppelins John Paul Jones. Karen Gibson With her Kingdom Choir at the royal wedding Choir conductor, workshop Leader and founder of Londons Kingdom Choir, Gibson has been crowned Britains godmother of gospel after leading the Kingdom choirs gospel performance of Stand by Me at Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding ceremony. Nadine Benjamin Soprano The rising star takes to the Coliseum stage this October in the ENOs first ever production of Porgy and Bess Antonio Pappano Music Director, Royal Opera Respected by musicians and public alike, also a TV natural, he is a galvanic force at Londons leading opera house. Roderick Williams Baritone Handsome profile and genial manner have helped make him a popular figure on the operatic and concert circuits Mike Volpe General Manager, Opera Holland Park Positively pugnacious in his desire to democratise opera, he brings the spirit of the Notting Hill Carnival to Holland Park. David Pickard Director, BBC Proms Broadening the definition of classical music in the search for new audiences. Martyn Brabbins Music Director, English National Opera Continues to steer the ENO ship skilfully through choppy waters. Keith Warner Opera director His impressive production of Wagners epic Ring cycle returned this year alongside a new one of Barbers Vanessa at Glyndebourne. John Wilson Conductor Wows Proms audiences with an annual feast of Broadway favourites, delivered with slick sophistication. Nicholas Collon Principal Conductor, Aurora Orchestra Has made indelible mark with his virtuoso Aurora players. Benjamin Grosvenor Pianist Former BBC Musician of the Year, is fast developing into one of the leading interpreters of the day. James Newby Baritone Much in demand since winning the Kathleen Ferrier Award two years ago. James Way Tenor Andria Zafirakou Winner of the Global Teacher Prize Full of boundless energy, Andria is determined to use her new platform to improve arts education in schools. She has launched Artists in Residence, a scheme to bring artists into schools to act as mentors, and continues to work as a teacher in Brent. Despite being in demand as an international speaker and education expert, she wants to spend as much time as possible in the classroom teaching art and inspiring pupils. Amanda Spielman Ofsted Chief Inspector Has the power to determine the future of schools by branding them failing or outstanding. Sara Williams Chair of Pan London Admissions Board The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 She has the unenviable task of ensuring all London children get a school place by the start of each school year. Cheryl Giovannoni Chief executive of Girls Day School Trust Left a high-flying job in marketing to run the private girls school organisation, determined to defend single-sex education. Peter Lampl Chair of Sutton Trust Made his money in private equity, now dedicated to closing the education gap between rich and poor children. Alan Smithers Head of the Centre for Education and Employment Research, University of Buckingham. A walking encyclopedia of facts about education, his analysis of trends and exam results is invaluable. Mike Sheridan Ofsteds London director A former headmaster, he has spoken out about extremism in schools and knife crime. Daniel Moynihan Chief executive, Harris Federation Ultimately in charge of 37 academies across the capital in challenging areas, which were previously struggling or failing. Nathalie Richards Founder of Edukit Elizabeth Farrell Environmental activist Activism isnt easy, but a sense of style softens the punch. Elizabeth Farrell, a 22-year- old Londoner, is anointed heir to Vivienne Westwoods eco-punk throne, having collaborated with the fashion maven on her #savethearctic campaign. Farrell, who goes by the moniker Glacier Girl, focuses on using social media savvy to adapt an eco-friendly appeal to the iGeneration. Inducted into the V&As Records and Rebels exhibition last year. Suzanne Dhaliwal Environmental activist Director and co-founder of the UK Tar Sands Network, a pressure group working on indigenous rights, oil and mining issues in the Arctic, Canada, and Nigeria. David Attenborough Presenter, Blue Planet II Prolific nonagenarian who presented BBCs seminal oceans documentary Blue Planet II and The Queens Green Planet this year. James Honeyborne Producer, Blue Planet II Executive producer behind the most-watched programme of 2017 which galvanised unprecedented political action on plastics after four years filming. Ellen MacArthur Founder, Ellen MacArthur Foundation Retired round-the-world yachtswoman who successfully advocated for a circular economy at the World Economic Forum and European Commission. Mark Cocker Naturalist and environmental activist Prizewinning nature writer whose 2018 book Our Place delivers a timely polemic about our inadequate care for the countryside. Simon Birkett Founder of Clean Air in London The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 A force of nature who has worked tirelessly to make Londons officials responsible for illegal air pollution levels, founding campaign group Clean Air London, and making a significant donation to legal pressure group ClientEarth in 2009. Prince of Wales Campaigner/ writer/ Royal A veteran both as first in line to the throne and as a campaigner on environmental issues, this year he has launched 12 Global Sustainability Fellowships at Cambridge University to focus on major global problems, linked to UN sustainable development goals. Mark Campanale CEO of Carbon Tracker Initiative Founder of think-tank that presses for investors to consider the financial implications of climate change and has heavily influenced Bank of Englands low-carbon push. Kate Raworth Economist Oxford academic whose business-friendly 2017 book Doughnut Economics advocated meeting the needs of all within the means of the planet. Lisbet Rausing Philanthropist Science historian and co-founder of Arcadia, one of the UKs largest philanthropic nature foundations, which donated $10 million to Cambridge Conservation Initiative in September. Charlie Paton Entrepreneur Founder of London-based company Seawater Greenhouse whose technology transforms sunshine and seawater into fresh water, for growing crops in the worlds arid regions Alannah Weston Deputy chairman of Selfridges Rid the iconic Oxford Street department store of microbeads in beauty products, plastic straws and single-use carbonated drinks last year. Launched sustainable oceans campaign Project Ocean in 2011. Carrie Symonds Bloomberg Oceans lead Sarah Mullally Bishop of London The most senior woman Anglican cleric, her route to one of the most prominent sees of the CofE was anything but obvious: she's a former Chief Nursing Officer. She's about as different from her predecessor, Richard Chartres, as it's possible to get... she was educated in a comprehensive, came to Christianity at the age of 16, her theology is simple and evangelical and she appears not to have any time for liturgical niceties. On the hoary questions about homosexuality and the church and the place of women, she's anxious to be inclusive and to take all points of view into account. She may lack bite but she's nice. The Queen Defender of the Faith The Queen takes her low church Anglicanism very seriously: her Christmas message always includes Christ. She wears the title Defender of the Faith deservingly. Mudassar Ahmed Unitas Communications The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 Managing partner of this strategic communications consultancy leading on projects on the UN, US State Department, NATO and the NHS among others. President of the Concordia Forum, an annual retreat for senior Muslim leaders in the West. Benjamin Lindsay Lead Pastor at Emmanuel Church, New Cross A significant voice on the streets against gang violence and knife crime, working with high- risk young people, communities and councils. Hes a Chelsea FC fan and disk jockey. Martin Bashir BBC's religious affairs correspondent Formerly best known for the famous "there were three in that marriage " interview with Princess Diana, he now negotiates General Synod squabbles and revelations about clerical sex abuse with aplomb. Charles Moore Columnist The former editor of the Telegraph, as a columnist and pundit he is one of the most conspicuous and thoughtful defenders of Christianity in British public life, as a Catholic convert from Anglicanism. Lord Ahmad Special Envoy The Prime Minister's newly appointed Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion and Belief - also has a brief helping prevent sexual violence in conflict. Asim Hafiz Imam and religious adviser to the Chief of the Defence Staff First ever imam to the British armed services. Im proud to be part of it, he says. Justin Welby Archbishop of Canterbury Attracted controversy with his observations about Brexit (against) but his moment came with the marriage of Meghan and Harry. He allowed them a church wedding although she is a divorcee, and baptised her into the CofE. Ephraim Mirvis Chief Rabbi At a time when anti-Semitism is a real concern for the Jewish community, he has led orthodox Jewry with dignity and intellectual assurance. Alison Joyce Rector of St Brides Church, Fleet Street St Brides is the church for Londons journalists and she says the post is probably the most interesting job in the Church of England. Laura Janner-Klausner Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism What the Chief Rabbi is for Orthodox British Jews, Rabbi Laura is sort of for liberal Reformed Jews. Daughter of Greville Janner, shes tiny and fizzes with energy. Mustafa Field Director of Faiths, Forum for London The timing, however, is curious but less so than one might imagine. She is giving the administration ample notice and not leaving until the end of the year. Perhaps her announcement was triggered over the administration's tepid response to the disappearance and possible murder of Post Global Opinions contributor Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist and critic of the Saudi government. She might have had enough after the GOP's nasty, misogynistic rhetoric expressed throughout the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Or this just might have been the most convenient moment after Kavanaugh was sworn in and far enough in advance of the midterms to not be too much of a distraction. Karim Brohi London Trauma Director Professor Karim Brohi,a trauma surgeon at the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel, is also director of the capitals major trauma network, set up in 2010 in response to the July 7 terror attacks in 2005. It has led to a 20 per cent reduction in the capitals mortality rate from major trauma.Last year the network - which established four key hospitals as major trauma centres - was vital in saving many victims of the Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire. Prof Asma Khalil Professor of Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine at St Georges University Hospital Expert obstetrician who delivered the first set of quadruplets at St Georges in 13 years, and creator of app that allows pregnant women with hypertension to avoid hospital stays. Holly Gettings and Chrissy Alcock Doctor and nurse team treating diphtheria in Bangladesh The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 The emergency medicine consultant and the A&E sister at Guys and St Thomas hospitals gave up their Christmas to join a Department for International Development and UK Med expedition to help Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh. Dr Gayle Hann Consultant paediatrician, North Middlesex University Hospital Paediatrician who goes beyond the call of duty in helping gang victims and abandoned children who arrive in hospital with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. Martin Griffiths Clinical lead for trauma, Royal London hospital Surgeon who saves the lives of knife and gun crime victims - then visits schools urging teenagers to put down their weapons. Prasanna Sooriakumaran Consultant prostate cancer surgeon Pioneering robotic surgeon investigating new techniques to spare men with prostate cancer the potentially debilitating effects of surgery. Zahid Mukhtar Paediatric surgeon, St Georges Hospital Performs hugely complex life-saving surgery on the tiniest of babies, and spends his holidays taking NHS teams to Nepal to operate on the worlds poorest with no access to Western medicines. Dr Shivani Misra Consultant in metabolic medicine Research into the causes of diabetes found that thousands of patients may have been misdiagnosed because of misconceptions about the role of ethnicity. Dr Ruchi Kabra Consultant interventional radiologist, St George's Hospital Leading light in the St Georges 24/7 thrombectomy team that is saving patients from the potentially devastating impacts of stroke. Dr Vin Diwakar Medical director, NHS England (London region) Paediatrician charged with championing new ideas and sharing best practice across the London NHS. Dr Helgi Johannsson Clinical director of anaesthesia and theatres, Imperial College Healthcare Skilled clinician who has found his forte on social media - uses Twitter to entertain and inform his audience about the complex (and often unsung) worlds of anaesthesia and trauma. Jess Mills Daughter of Tessa Jowell and brain cancer awareness campaigner Case managed her mother Tessa Jowells battle with brain cancer while campaigning for - and securing - a step change in public awareness and Government funding for an hitherto underfunded disease. Alwen Williams Chief executive, Barts Health NHS Trust Succeeding in turning round the oil tanker in getting Londons biggest NHS hospital trust back on an even keel after years of financial meltdown and (at times) poor clinical care. Dr Veeru Kasivisvanathan UCL Surgery & Interventional Science Pioneering research will revolutionise the standard of care for prostate cancer, with use of MRI scans allowing many men to avoid painful biopsies. Dr Tony Joy Founder of Physician Response Unit, London's Air Ambulance Devised Londons Air Ambulance/London Ambulance Service/Barts Health project that puts physicians on the front line, treating patients at home or work and preventing hundreds of admissions to A&E. Kade Mondeh NHS midwife, training midwives in Uganda Consultant midwife at Barts Health who trains and mentors midwives in Uganda. Ali Parsa Founder and chief executive officer, Babylon The former refugee from Iran and Goldman Sachs executive is CEO and founder of the app that provides virtual consultation with doctors and health professionals via video Mark Sims Junior doctor Sara Khan Lead Commissioner, Commission for Countering Extremism The Governments counter-extremism commissioner: Born in Bradford, she became a leading Muslim voice speaking out against Islamist extremism while running the campaign group Inspire. Her role now is to lead the Governments search for effective ways to counter extremism of all types. Imran Khan QC Solicitor He is representing some of the victims and survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster at the official inquiry into the fire. Lisa Osofsky Director of the Serious Fraud Office The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 An American and former FBI lawyer who has just taken over one of the most challenging jobs in British law enforcement. Praised for her iron fist and fresh thinking, her US experience in chasing the mafia and criminal financiers will stand her in good stead. Max Hill QC Incoming DPP He will become the new Director of Public Prosecutions in November after stepping down from his current role as Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation. Alan Moses Chairman of IPSO This former judge is now responsible for upholding press standards. Martha Spurrier Director of Liberty A barrister who now leads the countrys most prominent human rights campaigning organisation. Claire Waxman London Victims Commissioner She has been striving to improve the treatment of victims who have suffered sexual assaults and other crimes. Geoffrey Cox QC Attorney General A barrister who has participated in some of the countrys biggest fraud trials, he took over earlier this summer as the Governments most senior law officer. Peter Clarke Chief inspector of prisons A former head of counter-terrorism policing, he has been outspoken about poor conditions in prisons and the need for better rehabilitation. Baroness Hale President of the Supreme Court The first woman to become a Supreme Court justice and the most senior female lawyer in British legal history. Alexis Jay Leading the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse A former social worker, she led the inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, which found at least 1,400 children had been abused over a 16-year period, before being appointed to her current role investigating the problem nationwide. Martin Moore-Bick Judge presiding over the Grenfell Tower inquiry Retired from the Court of Appeal, he was appointed by the Prime Minister last year to head the Grenfell inquiry, and has promised a vigorous investigation to get to the truth. Harriet Wistrich Human rights solicitor She represented the two women whose legal challenge led to the reversal of the decision to free black cab rapist John Worboys Philippa Kaufmann QC Barrister A leading barrister who represented victims of Worboys at the High Court. She is also representing campaigners in the undercover policing inquiry. Vidisha Joshi Managing partner, Hodge, Jones & Allen Dynamic leader of campaigning law firm that punches above its weight in taking on the Government, NHS and other public bodies in vital public interest cases, from the Stephen Lawrence murder to the Grenfell Tower fire. Jolyon Maugham QC Barrister and founder of the Good Law Project A London barrister and founder of the Good Law Project, which has brought a number of legal challenges to the Brexit process as part of its mission to deliver a progressive society. Cressida Dick Metropolitan Police Commissioner The first woman to run Scotland Yard, she took over the countrys top policing job last year more than 30 years after joining the Met. Educated at Oxford University, she also had a brief spell working in a senior Foreign Office role. Andrew Parker Director-General, MI5 Ryan Gander Artist That Gander has never been shortlisted for the Turner Prize is one of the great mysteries of the London contemporary art world; his witty conceptual riddles and artist role-plays, often spectacular visually, have gained much international acclaim. Hes also an influential curator, long ago creating the Associates gallery and kick-starting several artists careers, and now co-curating the South London Gallerys humour-themed exhibition in their new fire station space. Still one of Londons brightest art stars. John Akomfrah Artist The creator of the seminal documentary Handsworth Songs with the Dalston-based Black Audio Film Collective in 1982, Akomfrah has since been embraced by the international art world. His multi-screen installations deal with the big issues of our age, including migration and climate change, and they have prompted a flood of commissions and exhibition, not least this summers exhibition at the New Museum in New York and his film for the 14-18 Now project, at the Imperial War Museum. Akomfrah is also a Tate trustee. Ralph Rugoff Director, Hayward Gallery; artistic director, Venice Biennale The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 Rugoffs exhibition programme at the Hayward was so dynamic that its absence during the gallerys 18-month restoration was sorely felt. Now that the Hayward is open again, and looking better than ever, Rugoff, a New Yorker, turns his attentions to the art worlds biggest gig: the Venice Biennale. He has proved adept at creating themed shows with the perfect balance of intellectual rigour and visual spectacle, so expectations are high. Eyal Weizman Founder, Forensic Architecture Forensic Architectures nomination for the Turner Prize demonstrates just how widely their influence is being felt. Weizman is the visionary that founded this collective of international architects, artists, scholars and lawyers, who use data and modelling to investigate human rights abuses across the world, which are then used as legal evidence. Theyve now turned their attentions to Grenfell, creating a 3D model of the fire from thousands of smartphone users harrowing footage. Elvira Dyangani Ose Director, The Showroom Former Tate curator now heading up the influential Showroom gallery in North London after a spell with the influential Creative Time in New York. Lubaina Himid Artist Lubaina Himid / PA Himid grew up in London and was a crucial figure in the British Black Arts movement here in the 1980s. That moments significance is only now being properly appreciated, as Himids Turner Prize win last year proves. Her paintings and installations continue to explore the subjects that have long preoccupied her, including black identity in modern Britain and Europe. And given the Windrush scandal and the nationalist rhetoric around Brexit, her generous, thoughtful art is needed now more than ever. Heather Phillipson Artist Creator of the egg-stravagant Gloucester Road installation, and next up on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, with a similarly surreal work involving cream, a cherry, a fly and a drone. Michael Rakowitz Artist An honorary Londoner while his magnificent lamassu occupies the Fourth Plinth, Rakowitz has a big Whitechapel Gallery show in 2019. Yinka Shonibare Artist Artist and curator whose batik-laden ponderings on identity and colonialism seem more relevant than ever in Brexit Britain. Jamila Johnson-Small Artist Artist-choreographer known as Last Yearz Interesting Negro, whose performances are gripping dance and art audiences alike in Britain and beyond. Zoe Whitley Senior curator, international art, Tate Modern US-born co-curator of The Soul of a Nation, the landmark show about African-American art at Tate Modern last year. Sarah McCrory Director, Goldsmiths Gallery Hotshot curator, fresh from the Glasgow International, now the inaugural head of this exciting new gallery, designed by the Turner Prize-winning collective Assemble. Anthea Hamilton Artist Former Turner Prize nominee whose beautiful and bonkers gourd-themed performance installation has graced Tate Britains Duveen Galleries this year. Gabrielle de la Puente, Zarina Muhammad Art critics Known as The White Pube, this irreverent duo speak truth to power in their biting reviews of art shows criticism as a form of art. Lydia Ourahmane Artist Young Algerian-British artist whose mature explorations of her own life amid themes of migration and identity have captured the art worlds imagination. Chantal Joffe Artist A painter at the top of her game, making frank, piercing insights into selfhood and motherhood. Frances Morris Director, Tate Modern A top curator turned brilliant director: Morriss Tate Modern is the vibrant, experimental museum artists want it to be, and the public keeps on coming, too. Gabriele Finaldi Director, National Gallery The quietly-assured Finaldi has delivered a strong programme and huge visitor numbers, but the Nationals dispute with its educational staff is a worry. Grayson Perry Artist and broadcaster Perry gave Brexit Britain the chaotic, divisive Royal Academy Summer Exhibition it deserved this year, proving once again that hes much more than just a transvestite potter. Hartwig Fischer Director, British Museum Fischer is a less dazzling performer than his predecessor Neil MacGregor, but hes quietly transforming the displays at the BM. Iwan and Manuela Wirth Directors, Hauser & Wirth The couple at the helm of the biggest global art gallery, as essential a place for art as many of Londons museums. Iwona Blazwick Director, Whitechapel Gallery An icon for a generation of curators, Blazwick continues to oversee a radical programme at the Whitechapel; Fourth Plinth artist Michael Rakowitz is the big 2019 show. Jay Jopling Owner, White Cube Thirty years since opening, White Cube remains an essential London gallery, with markedly more major international artists than young British ones these days. Jeremy Deller Artist Perennially provocative and playful, Deller charmed London audiences with his steel-band project for Art Night and his must-have F**k Brexit t-shirts. Jussi Pylkkanen President, Christies Another extraordinary year for the auctioneer - the multi-million Rockefeller auction, with all its Picassos, Gauguins and Matisses, was the highlight. Margot Heller Director, South London Gallery Quietly one of the most effective gallery directors in the city, who oversaw its second expansion, into a disused fire station, last month. Maria Balshaw Director, Tate Other than some ill-advised but swiftly corrected #metoo comments, Balshaw has brought a distinctive energy to filling Nick Serotas shoes. Nicholas Cullinan Director, National Portrait Gallery Visitor numbers dropped last year, but Cullinan has added a chicness to the NPG, and this summer's Michael Jackson show has brought the crowds back. Nicholas Serota Chair, Arts Council England Were yet to fully see the Serota imprint on ACEs activities, but if anyone can bring about change in its baroque bureaucracies, he can. Polly Staple Director, Chisenhale Gallery Staple has consolidated the Chisenhale as the must-visit venue for the newest art in London; every show is a must-see for contemporary culture fiends. Sarah Lucas Artist The most influential of the YBA crowd, Lucas will contribute to Tate Moderns Franz West exhibition in 2019. Victoria Siddall Director, Frieze Art Fairs The seemingly unflappable Siddall will guide the Frieze empire into new territory with Frieze LA in February, alongside the two London fairs and one in New York. Yana Peel and Hans Ulrich Obrist Serpentine Gallery The Serpentines new dynamic duo have ensured that Julia Peyton-Jones has not been missed; Obrist is the whirlwind creative maestro. Gregor Muir Director, Tate Collection Following stints at Hauser & Wirth and the ICA, YBA-chronicler Muir brings his considerable energies to the plum collecting role at the Tate. Alex Farquharson Director, Tate Britain Farquharson has proved a steadying presence at the old Tate, which had its most successful year ever in 2017, thanks especially to Hockney. Stefan Kalmar Director, ICA A radical spirit on the Mall, just as it should be: Kalmar gave Forensic Architecture the show which saw them get a Turner Prize nomination. Helena Newman Chairman, Europe, Sothebys In 2016, she was the first woman to take an evening auction at Sothebys since 1990, and she hasnt looked back she hammered down a Modigliani for $139 million in New York in May. Fatos Ustek Director, David Roberts Art Foundation Last years Art Night director, now head of a key London private collection and a member of the Arts Councils acquisitions committee. Vanessa Carlos Director, Carlos/Ishikawa Director of this small but punchy East London gallery, with an eye for emerging artists; she also founded the Condo gallery-swap, an idea thats gone global. Angela Choon Senior partner, David Zwirner The former New Yorker steers one of Londons best and most beautiful galleries with admirable calm. Julia Peyton-Jones Senior global director, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac As expected, Peyton-Jones has adjusted from the Serpentine to the commercial world with her customary grace. Tim Marlow Artistic director, Royal Academy The ideas man at the heart of the newly-expanded RA; even more important now that Charles Saumarez-Smith has left as CEO. Tristram Hunt Director, Victoria and Albert Museum Has taken to museum directorship like a duck to water, and is probably mightily relieved to be avoiding the Labour party squabbles. Anish Kapoor Artist The sculptor remains ubiquitous his sculpture loomed over the RA this summer and hes becoming increasingly outspoken politically, whether on refugees, Brexit or the NRA. Anita Zabludowicz Collector An indefatigable champion of new art, and particularly video and digital work, which she shows in her Chalk Farm gallery. Mark Leckey Artist Clare Waight Keller Creative director Following months of speculation over who would design Meghan Markles wedding gown (aka the only dress anyone cared about this year) Clare Waight Keller was finally crowned the chosen one. Since her appointment as artistic director of Givenchy last year, the British designer has put her stamp on the luxury French fashion house with her modern and empowered brand of femininity. The mother of three divides her time between Paris and her home in London. Charles Jeffrey Designer and club kid Club kid turned DJ turned fashion designer Charles Jeffrey is a poster boy for the LGBTQI community. He creates clothes for those who wish to express their truest identity for his label Loverboy a brand named after the club night he launched while studying at Saint Martins. With three ready-to-wear shows under its belt, a British Fashion Award and stockists worldwide, Loverboy has emerged as more than just a fashion brand but a collective which hopes to be as inclusive as it is entertaining. Martine Rose Designer The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standards celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #Progress1000 A decade on from her labels inception, Martine Rose is enjoying the recognition it deserves with surging sales and backing from department stores across the globe. Revered for her dedication to street culture, Rose made London fashion history this summer when she transformed a sleepy Kentish Town street into the backdrop for her latest catwalk show. Wilson Oryema Model Wilson Oryema / Getty Images Former charity finance administrator turned model-of-the-moment Wilson Oryema is more than just a pretty face. Alongside appearances on the Paris Fashion Week catwalk, Calvin Klein ad campaigns and 2018s agenda-setting Pirelli calendar, the south west London-born artist and poet is a passionate anti-consumerism activist and a spokesperson on race issues. He is also a muse for British menswear designer Grace Wales Bonner. Stephanie Phair BFC chair At 39, this retail tech powerhouse is the youngest British Fashion Council chair in the organisations history. Phair is also chief strategy officer at FarFetch.com Kim Jones Creative director, Dior Homme Dior Hommes newly appointed artistic director and the man responsible for putting Louis Vuitton menswear on the map honed his craft at Central Saint Martins. David Beckham Entrepreneur With the launch of his first grooming brand and a major catwalk show for his resuscitated menswear label Kent and Curwen; its been a huge year for Beckham. Riccardo Tisci Chief creative officer, Burberry Burberrys newly-appointed chief creative officer transformed Givenchy before arriving in London town. The Italian, known for his high profile Insta-pals, is the first non-British designer to take a leading role at the UK super brand and is already making waves: his catwalk debut was stellar. Han Chong Founder and creative director, Self-Portrait The mastermind behind Self-Portrait - the mid-market occasionwear brand which sells a dress every six seconds at Selfridges. Lev Tanju Founder, Palace The skater turned sweatshirt designer is behind Palace, the most coveted streetwear label on the planet. Bethany Williams Designer This London Fashion Week designer put combating social and environmental issues at the heart of her business model. Alasdhair Willis Creative director, Hunter An expert on branding, Willis launched Wallpaper magazine before turning the fortunes of outdoors brand Hunter. Alexa Chung Model turned creative director A year after its inception, the eponymous fashion brand from this pace- setter continues to grow from strength to strength. In September she staged her debut catwalk show. Alison Loehnis President, Net-a-Porter Net-a-Porters sharply dressed president is a champion for emerging new fashion brands and is a prolific figure on the front row. Jonathan Anderson Designer The Northern Irish designer who splits his time between his own label and Spanish luxury brand Loewe. Anderson is renowned for his cutting edge take on gender. Johnny Coca Creative director, Mulberry Mulberrys Spanish creative director is transforming the Somerset leather brand into a luxury fashion force with relevance on a global scale. Jourdan Dunn Model and influencer Dunn is a poster girl for a generation of London women. Recent accolades include a campaign for Beyonces favourite designer Brandon Maxwell. Katie Grand Editor in chief, Love Love Magazines top woman continues to set the agenda with cutting edge editorial and styling for Miuccia Prada. Nick Knight Photographer and director, SHOWstudio This photographer turned digital artist runs SHOWstudio a London- based arts platform which has launched the careers of stylists and directors from across the globe. Pat McGrath Make-up artist The worlds most successful make-up artist is now a globally renowned businesswoman generating $60 million of investment for the cosmetics label she launched in 2017. Penny Martin Editor in chief, Gentlewoman Gentlewomans boss has made it her mission to celebrate the intellect of her subjects as well as their aesthetic appeal. Richard Quinn Designer Richard Quinn with models Adwoa Aboah and Jean Campbell / Rex Features South London- born London Fashion Week designer whose career went stratospheric when the Queen attended his show. Roksanda Ilincic Designer The Serbian-born London Fashion Week designer has dressed everyone including the Duchess of Cambridge. Russell Marsh Casting director Widely recognised to be the most influential casting director in the industry, Marsh launched the careers of models such as Lara Stone. Stella McCartney Designer and eco campaigner This socially-conscious designer ensured her fashion label was the first to publish its own sustainability report. Simone Rocha Designer Known for her ethereal silhouettes and regal ruffles, this London Fashion Week designer has a unique aesthetic appreciated by department stores across the globe. Anya Hindmarch Accessory designer and BFC board member With stores across the globe and a net worth of 13.2 million, Hindmarch is well placed in her position as the British Fashion Councils non-executive director. Caroline Rush CEO of BFC As chief executive officer of the British Fashion Council, Rush oversees the British fashion industrys activities both at home and abroad. Charlie Clark Model agent Founder of Supa Model Management, the agency which prides itself on a diverse remit of British modelling talent. Christopher (and Tammy) Kane Designer The brother and sister duo are the brains behind one of the most- emulated fashion brands in recent British history. Erdem Moralioglu Designer This Turkish-Canadian designer deals in reverence and romanticism and is the go-to dress designer for socialites and red-carpet celebrities alike. Frances Corner Head of London College of Fashion , UAL Pro vice-chancellor of University of the Arts London, she has launched the careers of countless young designers and ensured British fashion education is unrivalled. George Northwood Hair stylist The man behind Meghans wedding night hairdo, nice guy Northwood has added the Duchess of Sussex to a star-studded list of clients. Grace Wales Bonner Designer By toying with gender and race stereotypes to create spellbinding and unique collections, this inspiring south Londoner has won the praise of fashion critics across the globe. Victoria Beckham Designer September 2018 saw British fashions most unlikely success story bring her catwalk show from New York to London. Adwoa Aboah Model and influencer A supermodel for a generation of girls who want to be heard, Aboah splits her time between the catwalk and online community Gurls Talk. Edward Enninful Editor in chief, British Vogue Its first black male editor in chief has overhauled the title with a dedication to improving diversity in fashion. Charles Casely-Hayford Designer T he father of missing airman Corrie McKeague has accepted his son is "gone" after police concluded he was buried in a landfill site. Martin McKeague has laid flowers at the spot his son was last seen in Bury St Edmunds and said the family are planning to hold a private memorial. His father shared a statement from Suffolk Police which said that a Biffa bin picked up on the day Corrie went missing, in the area where he was last seen, weighed 116kg - much heavier than usual. Police carried out a five-week search for Corrie McKeague at a landfill site in Cambridgeshire / PA Archive/PA Images Police sent Mr McKeague a statement which said they believe that Corrie "came to be in the bin" in the early hours, which was later collected by a lorry and taken away. "The police have confirmed the Biffa bin weight that suggests my son ended up in the Suffolk waste disposal system," wrote Mr McKeague. "They also confirmed that there is no new evidence whatsoever. CCTV image showing the last place Mr McKeague was seen / EPA "My son is gone and the McKeague family in Scotland will be holding a private memorial for him in the near future. "Thank you all again for standing up and standing by us." Corrie McKeague was an airman stationed at RAF Honington / PA It comes after a two year search for the missing airman, which involved combing a landfill site in Cambridgeshire for more than five weeks. Martin McKeague held a vigil by the landfill site in Milton while officers searched for his son's body to no avail. Police searching a landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire, for RAF gunner Corrie McKeague / Chris Radburn/PA In March this year, Suffolk Police announced the case had been moved to the major investigation cold case team after deciding there were no realistic lines of enquiry left to pursue. B BC news presenters including Fiona Bruce were forced to make a mad dash across London in taxis in order to make it in time for the six oclock news. The BBC's news programme had been hit with a technical glitch that put a halt to their live news coverage. Mark Easton, Home editor of BBC news, shared an image of Fiona Bruce and the editor of BBC News at six in a taxi. After getting stuck in traffic due to a women's pensions demonstration in Westminster, police officers escorted the team to ensure they made it to Millbank tower on time. At least a thousand women were protesting outside parliament over the change in state pension age. The BBC has confirmed that they have had technical problems at their headquarters and will be broadcasting the programme from their studio in Millbank. Their studio in Millbank is unaffected by the technical glitch which has affected OpenMedia, a new computer system which has been rolled out across BBC News outlets over the past six months. Earlier in the day, at around 3pm, the broadcaster was forced to run recorded programming on its live news channels. A spokesperson for the BBC told the Standard: "Weve had technical problems at our HQ this afternoon and will be broadcasting the BBC News At Six from our Millbank studio. Engineers are working hard to resolve the issue fully." The BBC website remains unaffected by the glitch. Other BBC staff waded in to Mark Easton's twitter updates by telliing him that perhaps the tube might have been quicker. Daniel Sandford said: "The tube or 88 bus would have been better." D emocratic Unionist MPs are reportedly preparing to vote against the budget should their red lines for an EU deal be ignored next week. The party has made it clear that it would intervene should any Brexit deal with Brussels involve leaving Northern Ireland being treated differently to the rest of the UK. The DUP have only ten members in the Commons but are relied upon to prop up Theresa May's Government, which does not have a majority, under a confidence and supply deal. The budget takes place on October 29 and should it be defeated, could lead to a no-confidence vote in the Prime Minister. On Wednesday night, DUP MPs failed to back the Government in voting against a Labour amendment to an Agriculture Bill. Some have seen it as a warning shot to the Government. DUP MPs are relied upon to prop up the Conservative government which does not have a majority / Getty Images DUP leader Arlene Foster has insisted that her party would not accept customs or regulatory checks on goods travelling in either direction between Northern Ireland and Great Britain after meeting EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels. Michel Barnier says as the UK has decided to leave the customs union and single market, there would have to be checks on goods travelling between the EU and UK. He has proposed that companies sending goods from the UK to Northern Ireland would be required to fill out an additional customs declaration online in advance. After talks on Wednesday with European Parliament Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt, she said: "The EU wants a one-way turnstile from GB and one-way rules from Brussels. "We will not burden future generations with a deal which diminishes Northern Ireland's position in the United Kingdom." During her visit to the European Parliament, Ms Foster refused to comment on whether the DUP MPs would vote against the budget. It comes as Boris Johnson warned that the Government's "backstop" proposals for Northern Ireland would make the UK "a permanent EU colony." Downing Street insisted that defeat on the budget would not amount to a vote of no confidence in the Government under the terms of the legislation which provides for fixed-term, five-year parliaments. A man is in a serious condition in hospital after a dog bit off his genitals. Emergency services were called to the scene after reports of the attack at a flat in East Lothian on Sunday. According to reports, emergency services found a 22-year-old man unconscious in the property lying in a pool of his own blood. The dog, an Olde English Bulldog, was also found covered in blood at the same address. The victim is believed to have lost both of his testicles and his penis in the horrific attack. He was rushed to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for treatment. The dog is being held in kennels while officers carry out their investigation. A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Police in East Lothian are investigating after a man suffered serious injuries, believed to have been caused by a dog, in Haddington on Sunday. "Emergency services were called to a property in the High Street area at around 2.30pm. "A 22-year-old man was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary by the Scottish Ambulance Service, and later transferred to the Western General Hospital where he remains receiving treatment. T he majority of people across the UK want to see abortion decriminalised in Northern Island, according to a new opinion poll released today. The findings showed that 65% of adults in Northern Ireland, where abortions are illegal in all but exceptional circumstances, agree that abortion should not be a crime. Amnesty International, who commissioned the polls, also found that 78% of British people are in favour of the decriminalisation of abortions in Northern Ireland. More than two-thirds of people in Northern Ireland and three-quarters of people in Britain think the UK Government should act to change the law, Amnesty said. The poll of British adults was conducted by YouGov, while the poll of Northern Irish adults was conducted through a Cognisense Omnibus Survey. Amnesty said these are the first major surveys of public opinion on abortion reform in Northern Ireland since the Republic of Ireland voted to repeal the eighth amendment in their referendum on abortion in May. The UK government has resisted calls to step in to legislate for reform following a Supreme Court judgment in June that found the current legal framework incompatible with human rights laws. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the legal challenge by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission by a narrow majority, and said it had no jurisdiction to consider the case because there was no actual or potential victim of an unlawful act involved in it. In February 2016, members of the Northern Ireland Assembly voted against legalising abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality by 59 votes to 40 with DUP MLAs among MLAs voting against. The poll carried out in Northern Ireland found that 67% of DUP voters questioned agreed that having an abortion should not be a crime and 65% think that Westminster should reform the law in the absence of a devolved government. In Britain, 74% of Conservative voters think the UK Government should act to change the law, as do 78% of Labour voters. Ireland abortion referendum - In pictures 1 /21 Ireland abortion referendum - In pictures Yes voters cheer at a counting centre in Dublin PA Votes are tallied in Ireland's historic referendum PA Two women wait for the results to come in PA Members of the public hold yes placards on Fairview road as the country heads to polling stations Getty Images A woman takes a picture of a mural in Dublin's city centre by art group Subset calling for 'Repeal The 8th' ahead of the referendum on the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution on May 25th PA Sandra Caulfield, whose daughter Hope Rose died at nine days old after she was diagnosed with Edwards syndrome when Ms Caulfield was 14 weeks pregnant, following a Save the 8th press conference ahead of the referendum on the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution on May 25th PA A woman walks past a pro-life poster in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland Reuters A woman sits in front of a pro-life poster in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland Reuters Martin McBreen and his daughter Grace, aged 3, and Monica Hadarean and son Cris, whose children both have Downs Syndrome, and were encouraged to have an abortion as they were told their children wouldn't survive attend a Pro-Life press event ahead of a 25th May referendum on abortion law, in Dublin, Ireland Reuters A man (name not given) arrives at the polling station in Knock National school, Mayo, as the country goes to the polls to vote in the referendum on the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution PA Garda Alan Gallagher and Presiding Officer Carmel McBride carry the polling box for the referendum on liberalising abortion law a day early for the few people that live off the coast of Donegal on the island of Inishbofin, Ireland Getty Images Election warehouse manager Michael Leonard checks the seals on ballot boxes that are ready for delivery to polling stations ahead of the referendum on the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution, in Dublin PA An abortion debate that's inflamed passions in Ireland for decades comes down to a single question: yes or no? AP Pro-life campaigners argue voting 'no' is about safeguarding human rights AFP/Getty Images Activists have been urging people to vote 'no' in Friday's referendum AFP/Getty Images 'Vote yes': Pro-repeal campaigners in Dublin make their message heard with a sign bearing the face of Savita Halappanavar, who died after being denied a termination PA Campaign: a pro-choice mural in Dublin featuring Savita Halappanavar, who died after being refused an abortion PA Pro-Choice activists dress up as characters from the Handmaid's Tale in a City centre demonstration ahead Friday's vote Reuters Protesters hold up placards during the London March for Choice, calling for the legalising of abortion in Ireland after the referendum announcement, outside the Embassy of Ireland in central London AFP/Getty Images Protesters hold up placards as they take part in the March for Choice, calling for the legalising of abortion in Ireland after the referendum announcement, in Dublin AFP/Getty Images Vote: A man and child walk past a sign for a polling station ahead of a 25th May referendum on abortion law, in Dublin Reuters Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International's Northern Ireland campaign manager, said the research reveals landslide support for reform. "Every part of the UK agrees that abortion should be decriminalised and that Westminster should legislate for change," she said. "This confirms what we've long known, that most people in Northern Ireland and across the UK agree that it's completely wrong for Northern Irish women to be governed by an archaic law that denies them their rights, health and autonomy. "The results show that this is not a political or contentious issue, it's fundamentally an issue of health, human rights, equality and dignity. "Voters of all political backgrounds, including Labour, Conservative, Sinn Fein and DUP voters, are backing decriminalisation of abortion. "The UK Government cannot ignore the overwhelming support for abortion law reform. "It must listen to the people and put an end to the criminalisation of women and girls." The opinion polls were released on Wednesday as Labour MP Diana Johnson launched a Private Member's Bill to decriminalise consensual abortion in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It aims 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. It will be introduced in the House of Commons on October 23. Ms Johnson said women who have abortions should not be treated like criminals. "Abortion is fundamentally a women's healthcare and human rights issue. "The law should reflect this," she said. "If we don't act now, women will continue to suffer under an outdated and ineffective regime regulating abortion." A n auctioneer selling multiple Banksy pieces has said not to expect the art to shred or explode after the anonymous painters recent stunt. On Friday, October 5, an iconic painting of Girl With Balloon self-destructed the moment it sold at Sothebys in London for around 1million. This was due to a shredder which Banksy later revealed he himself had built into the frame. Just days later, a new auction of his work on November 19 in Los Angeles has been announced by Juliens Auctions. Banksy - In pictures 1 /64 Banksy - In pictures PA AFP via Getty Images A new artwork painted by Banksy during lockdown, which has gone on display in a hospital corridor PA Banksys Girl With A Pearl Earring modified during Coronavirus @Anth0ny_Ward Stormzy performs on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival 2019 wearing a vest designed by Banksy EPA Sotheby's employees pose with 'Love is in the Bin' by British artist Banksy during a media preview at Sotheby's auction house Jack Taylor/Getty Images Two men are sitting in front of a famous graffiti of British street artist Banksy, painted on a wall of a gas station in the West Bank city of Bethlehem Getty Images Banksy's homage to Pulp Fiction in East London Rex Features A new Banksy artwork in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter appears to have been vandalised days after it first appeared. The mural depicts two reindeer painted onto a brick wall appearing to pull along a bench PA Sotheby's host the first unauthorized retrospective exhibition of works by Banksy Curated by Steve Lazarides-Banksy's agent in the early years Alex Lentati Graffitti art by the 'guerilla' artist Banksy is seen on May 16, 2006 in Chalk Farm, London. The striking large scale spray-painted image entitled 'Sweeping It Under The Carpet' depicts a maid who cleaned the artist's room in a motel in Los Angeles. The piece commissioned by 'The Independent' newspaper edited on Tuesday by U2's frontman Bono, is intended to represent a metaphor for the west's reluctance to tackle issues such as Aids in Africa Getty Images Mural: the artwork before it was covered (Photo: PA) PA Banky's Les Mis artwork in Knightsbridge Jeremy Selwyn A piece of urban art by Banksy discovered on the wall of the Poundland store in Wood Green Nigel Howard A woman attacked by seagulls piece by Banksy, during the press view for the artistis biggest show to date, entitled 'Dismaland', at Tropicana in Western-super-Mare, Somerset PA Builders remove a sheet of wood covering a Banksy artwork moments after being told to take it down from the building opposite the French embassy Getty Images Banksy's Barcode Leopard Rex Features A migrant looks at the work by Banksy in the Calais migrant 'jungle' Banksy A blanket covers a mural by elusive street artist Banksy of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in a migrant camp on the outskirts of Calais. The piece has gained such popularity that people are being charged for the blanket to be lifted to that they can view it PA An employee holds Banksy's 'Girl and Balloon' which was painted on an Ikea frame at Bonhams auctioneers on March 23, 2012 in London Getty Images Dismal, and not how he meant it: Banksy's Dismaland PA Banksy, Brick Lane Rex Features Banksy - Love is in the Air street art, Soho, London Rex Features A graffiti titled "Art Attack" made by the British, guerrilla, graffiti artist Banksy is seen on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier in Ramallah Getty Images Sold: This Banksy on the Gaza Strip was bought for just 118 Banksy Banksy's provocative take on an iconic image from the Vietnam war Alex Lentati A stencil image of a Banksy rat in Haringey, London Jeremy Selwyn Children pose for their photo with an installation of British graffiti artist Banksy's art in New York in 2013 Reuters Art installation by British artist Banksy, a robot and a barcode, is seen on a wall in the Coney Island area of New York City Reuters Mobile Lovers by Banksy on Clement Street, Bristol PA Art Buff created by street artist Banksy in Folkestone, KenT PA Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in the Israeli occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem Getty Images Self-portrait by Banksy PA Grafitti by the illusive artist Banksy adorns a building August 28, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisian Getty Images Vulture Petrol Head Mural by Banksy at Dungeness Susan Pilcher British graffiti artist Banksy's artwork 'No Ball Games' EPA Banksy's Bronx Zoo at Yankee Stadium Reuters Banksy's Eton Posse PA Cardinal Sin by artist Banksy at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool PA A worker holding Banksy's portrait of Kate Moss (2005) at a press preview for the exhibition Banksy: The Unauthorised Retrospective, curated by Steve Lazarides, at S|2 Gallery in London PA A Banksy mural which was painted on the side of one of the classrooms at Bridge Farm Primary in Bristol during half-term PA A stencil image of a rat in Haringey, London Jeremy Selwym A dancer poses with a new installation of art by British graffiti artist Banksy painted on the front door of the Hustler Club in New York Reuters "Flower Girl," a delicate stencil on a massive brick wall by popular street artist Banksy, is displayed in a warehouse in the greater Los Angeles, California AP Brexit mural: The artwork on the side of an abandoned arcade in Dover Reuters Detail from an installation by artist Banksy, entitled Civilian Drone Strike, on display at the Art the Arms Fair art exhibition 2017 PA A man takes a photo of one of two new murals painted by the artist Banksy near the Barbican Centre in London PA Banksy's lost 'Snorting Copper' at it's original home on Curtain Road in Shoreditch Gareth Richman A woman passes one of two new murals painted by the artist Banksy near the Barbican Centre in London PA The painting 'Devolved Parliament' by the graffiti artist Banksy, which is on show at Bristol Museum PA A Banksy artwork on a bridge in Hull Banksy A man walks past an artwork by street artist Banksy in Paris AFP/Getty Images People gather around fences that have been erected to protect the latest piece of artwork by the underground guerrilla artist Banksy Getty Images A street stall with oil paintings creating an image of a yacht in the Venice canal with a sign reading "Venice in oil", set up by a person purporting to be British artist Banksy, in Venice Reuters A motorboat passes in front of an alleged work of British street artist Banksy 'The shipwrecked child', that appeared on the outer wall of a house overlooking the canal Rio de Ca Foscari in Venice, Italy EPA Banksy created Stormzy's Union Jack stab proof vest worn at Glastonbury in July 2019 @banksy Banksy hits Notting Hill Bronwen Weatherby A shopfront displays a mini exhibition by secretive British artist, Banksy with the sign 'Gross Domestic Product', in Croydon AFP/Getty Images Displays in a homeware store, Gross Domestic Product, that is being launched in South London by the graffiti artist Banksy PA Banksy turned a rough sleeper's bench into Santa's sleigh in a social commentary on homelessness at Christmas Banksy A new work of art on the side of a house on Marsh Lane, Barton Hill, Bristol PA A section of the new work he has created during lockdown, in his bathroom. The artist captioned the post "My wife hates it when I work from home Banksy via PA Banksys Girl With A Pearl Earring modified during Coronavirus @Anth0ny_Ward The business president, Darren Julien, said: We can't guarantee that our four Banksy's will automatically shred or explode but they will sell to the highest bidder." Works to go on sale include the mural Slave Labour, which depicts a young boy creating bunting at a sewing machine, valued at around 600,000. It first appeared outside a Poundland in Londons Wood Green. While other pieces include Crazy Horse, TV Girl and Applause. Following the destruction of the Girl With Balloon canvas on Friday, Alex Branczik, head of contemporary European art at the auction house Sothebys, said: It appears we just got Banksy-ed. He said that it is a situation that the auctioneers have never experienced before and discussions are ongoing with the bidder, who had agreed to pay a price of 1,042,000. A post on Banksy's Instagram account showed the moment the art was shredded and left hanging in strips from the bottom of its frame. The artist captioned a picture of shocked onlookers looking at the destroyed piece with the words: Going, going, gone..." Banksy artwork was shredded in front of stunned bidders at a Sotheby's auction / PA However, despite the piece being shredded, some speculated the piece's value might have increased due to the destruction's place in art history. Andrew Tetley, an art dealer who has bought and sold Banksy work for the last nine years, said this speculation was "debatable". Speaking to the Standard, he said: "I think the shredded piece now occupies a unique place in the Banksy story, how much its specific value has increased is debatable. "What I have seen is that enquiries to buy for Banksys work have increased noticeably since Friday night." And yet, somehow, American teachers unlike anyone else in the top ranks of that list have actually seen their wages drop over the last decade. That's a long way from similarly wealthy European nations like Germany, for example, where teachers are among the nation's top earners and can make more money than web developers or sometimes even entry-level doctors. Besides the United States, no other developed country has such a large gap between salaries paid to teachers and to professionals with similar degrees. In fact, according to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, teachers' salaries have increased almost everywhere else since 2005. M elania Trump is set to bare all in a rare interview covering topics from her husband's alleged infidelity to her past fashion faux pas. The First Lady of the USA will face questions on what it is like to be married to Donald Trump and how she has coped through allegations of infidelity. She will also face down the criticism over a slogan 'I don't care' jacket she wore on a trip to visit migrant children at the Texas-Mexico border. ABC's chief national affairs correspondent and "World News Tonight" anchor Tom Llamas sat down with Mrs Trump during her African tour as she promoted her "Be Best" initiative in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt. Melania Trump in Kenya - In pictures 1 /28 Melania Trump in Kenya - In pictures U.S. first lady Melania Trump holds a child during her visit to The Nest Children's Home near Nairobi, Kenya Reuters First lady Melania Trump holds a baby as she visits the Nest Orphanage in Limuru, Kenya AP U.S. first lady Melania Trump lifts a child during her visit to The Nest Children's Home near Nairobi, Kenya Reuters Children rehearse ahead of U.S. first lady Melania Trump arrival to watch a play at the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters First lady Melania Trump is handed a baby as she visits the Nest Orphanage in Limuru, Kenya AP First Lady of Kenya Margaret Kenyatta (R) and US First Lady Melania Trump stand alongside prior to their meeting at the State House in Nairob AFP/Getty Images US First Lady Melania Trump (L) and the First Lady of Kenya Margaret Kenyatta greet children as they arrive to attend a performance at the Kenyan National Theater in Nairobi AFP/Getty Images First lady Melania Trump visits the Nest Orphanage in Limuru, Kenya, Friday, Oct. 5, 2018. Melania Trump has fed baby elephants as she visits a national park in Kenya to highlight conservation efforts. The U.S. first lady also went on a quick safari. Mrs. Trump is on her first-ever visit to Africa and her first extended solo international trip as first lady AP US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images US First Lady Melania Trump feeds a baby elephant at The David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi on October 5, 2018, as she pays a one day visit to the country during her solo tour of Africa promoting her children's welfare programme. AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images US First Lady Melania Trump (L) holds a baby as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest childrens home orphanage, which primarily cares for children who's parents have been incarcerated, in Nairob AFP/Getty Images US First Lady Melania Trump uses a smartphone as she travels in a vehicle while on a safari at The Nairobi National Park in Nairob AFP/Getty Images United States First Lady Melania Trump (C, top) drops a bottle of milk as she feeds a baby elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya EPA A Secret Service agent (L) steps forward to protect US first lady Melania Trump as she steps backwards after being nudged by a baby elephant she petted, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya AFP/Getty Images A Secret Service agent, left, holds U.S. first lady Melania Trump to protect her as she steps backwards after being nudged by a baby elephant she petted, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya AP U.S. first lady Melania Trump, accompanied by CEO Angela Sheldrick, looks at the ear of a baby elephant, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images US First Lady Melania Trump travels in a vehicle while on a safari at The Nairobi National Park in Nairobi AFP/Getty Images US first lady Melania Trump laughs after she was nudged by a baby elephant she petted, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya AFP/Getty Images U.S. first lady Melania Trump pats a baby elephant, accompanied by CEO Angela Sheldrick (C), and Kenya's first lady Margaret Kenyatta (R), at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters U.S. first lady Melania Trump shoes are seen as she stands next to Angela Sheldrick, Executive Director of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust during her visit to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters Elephant keepers prepare to receive U.S. first lady Melania Trump during her visit to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters U.S. first lady Melania Trump feeds a baby elephant milk with a bottle, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters Hype around the interview is building as the channel prepares to air the frank conversation on Friday only hinting at how Mrs Trump is to open up to viewers. What few words she did say came when the reporter probed: "Let's talk about the Jacket," referring to a parka Mrs Trump wore on an official visit to a child immigration centre, emblazoned with the words "I really don't care. Do U?" First Lady promises to get personal in interview In ABC's preview of the "Being Melania" programme, the first lady isn't shown to answer any questions, but there are hints as the interviewer asked the following: Finish this sentence for me: 'Melania Trump is...' Can women in the #MeToo movement call you a supporter? You're not the first first lady to have to deal with her husband's alleged infidelities. Has this put a strain on your marriage? Let's talk about the jacket ... Why did you wear it? What's the biggest misconception about you? She nodded in response and repeated "The jacket..." But the preview does not reveal her full answer or whether she bats away the question as she has before. Melania Trump wears 'I really don't care' jacket to visit migrant children The sit-down follows an off-the-cuff interview during a visit to ancient sites in Egypt where she said: "I think (Judge Kavanaugh) is highly qualified for the Supreme Court. "I'm glad Dr Ford was heard. FBI investigation was done, is completed, and Senate voted. When asked "Did you believe Christine Ford?" she said: "I will move on that." "I don't always agree with what he tweets," she went on to tell reporters on her disagreements with the President. First lady Melania Trump looks out over Nairobi National Park in Nairobi, Kenya, Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, during a safari guided by Nelly Palmeris, She was criticised for wearing a colonial-style pith hat for one of a number of early 20th-century inspired outfits during her tour of Africa. / AP/Carolyn Kaster "I give him my honest opinion. Sometimes he listens and sometimes he doesn't, but I have my own opinions and my own voice. "I'm not elected, so, he's the president, but I give him my opinion." She responded to questions about wearing an "iconically colonial pith hat" on the trip. "I want to to talk about my trip, and not what I wear. What we're doing with US aid and our initiatives... I wish people would focus on what I do, not what I wear." The tour came shortly after her husband made "disparaging remarks" about African nations, so her appearance was seen by some as a way of re-building bridges. She visited hospitals, schools, rural tribes-people to shine a light on children's development and conservation efforts. Her selection of outfits during the trip was acutely analysed by the press, with some saying it had "Colonialist" connotations, and others claiming it showed her more "Trump-like" side. Life-threatening storm surge is likely along portions of the coasts of the Florida Panhandle, Big Bend and Nature Coast, and a storm surge warning is in effect for these areas. Residents in these areas should follow all advice given by their local officials. A hurricane warning has been issued for portions of the Florida Gulf Coast, and everyone in these areas should prepare for life-threatening winds associated with the core of Michael. Damaging winds will also extend inland across portions of the Florida Panhandle, southern Georgia and south-east Alabama as Michael moves inland. Heavy rainfall from Michael could produce life-threatening flash flooding from the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend region into portions of Georgia and South Carolina. A British couple were killed when biblical flash floods swamped the taxi they were travelling in on the holiday island of Majorca. The couple, reportedly tourists, are among at least eight people killed in the deluge in and around Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, where television show Love Island is filmed. A further nine people are still missing after the overnight downpours, according to newspaper Diario de Mallorca. A spokeswoman for a local emergency services coordinator said earlier: Five people including two British nationals have died. Flash floods affecting the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca / EPA "The British victims were travelling in a taxi that was swept away by flash floods. Their bodies were found inside the vehicle. Our work now is focused on searching for missing people. Flash flooding in Majorca has left at least five people dead, including a British couple The British couple are thought to have died in the town of SIllot at just after 8pm yesterday, when a small river burst its banks. Shocking images circulating on social media showed cars being swept through streets and homes submerged as residents clung to rooftops. Fatal Flash Flooding in Majorca - In pictures 1 /34 Fatal Flash Flooding in Majorca - In pictures Residents help in the cleaing up work in a street in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca island EPA A policeman searches for victims near of the beach of Sillot, in Mallorca island, eastern Spain EPA Vehicles destroyed by flash floods near of Sant Llorenc, in Mallorca island EPA Residents remove mud from their home in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca EPA People walk through a mud-covered street in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca island EPA EPA EPA EPA EPA EPA People walk among several destroyed vehicles in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorc EPA Several civil guards search for victims off the beach of Sillot, in Mallorca island EPA A general view of the coastline after a storm on the island of Mallorca Reuters Mud and debris covers the ground after a storm on the island of Mallorca, Spain Reuters Two local policemen look at a vehicle destroyed by the floods in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorc EPA A general view of the downtown area in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca EPA People walk along the damaged waterfront after a storm on the island of Mallorc Reuters View of several vehicles affected by floods in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca island, eastern Spain EPA A general view of one of the streets in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca island EPA Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Mallorca TRES / SplashNews.com EPA Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com EPA Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com A thunder strikes over the Dragonera island in Mallorca, Balearic islands, eastern Spai EPA People prepare to spend the night at the Manacor's Miguel Angel Nadal sports centre after they have been evacuated because a torrent overflows causing three people dead at Sant Llorenc des Cardassar in Mallorca EPA People prepare to spend the night at the Manacor's Miguel Angel Nadal sports centre after they have been evacuated because a torrent overflows causing three people dead at Sant Llorenc des Cardassar in Mallorca EPA Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Mallorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: We are in contact with the Spanish authorities responding to flooding in Majorca, and seeking updates. Cars were submerged in the devastating floods / EPA The taxi driver is understood to have been working for a cab firm called Radio Taxi Cala Millor. A receptionist confirmed a foreign couples bodies had been found inside the vehicle and rescuers were still searching for the driver. Two of the deaths occurred in Sant Llorenc, a fifth person died in the town of Arta, and the sixth was found in a stream in SIllot, Diario de Mallorca reported. Flash floods in Majorca have killed five people Former mayor of Arta, 71-year-old Rafel Gili - father of the towns current mayor - was today named as one of the six fatalities. It is thought he was trapped in a car mechanics workshop in Sant Llorenc when floodwaters hit. Two police officers search for victims in the beach of Sillot, in Mallorca / EPA Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez was visiting the disaster zone today and pledged his support for the victims friends and family. He said: My solidarity and support goes out to the families and friends of victims and all those affected by these tragic floods. Two Brits were among those killed as devastating flooding swept cars away / EPA A military emergency response unit, including three helicopters and a military Hercules plane, has been sent from its base in Valencia on the mainland to help with the crisis, along with 80 soldiers joining more than 100 emergency workers with sniffer dogs. The Foreign Office said it was "urgently seeking updates" from Spanish authorities about the deaths of the British couple. Video shows aftermath of devastating flash flooding in Majorca Spanish weather forecasters said eight inches of rain fell in four hours, while locals today said Sant Llorenc remained virtually cut off and could only be reached by foot. One resident told Diario de Majorca she had to climb out of a window to escape her home due to the speed of the rising floodwaters. Schools in the area suspended classes because of power cuts, while around 100 people spent the night at a council-run sports centre in the nearby city of Manacor. Catalina Cladera, in charge of public administration for the regional government, described the situation as Dantesque. She said: We werent expecting it. The alert went from yellow to orange in a very short space of time. A massive amount of rain has fallen in very little time. Heavy rain also brought chaos to other parts of Spain including Barcelona, where parts of the Tube service were temporarily suspended. Rescue workers at the scene in Majorca on Tuesday night / EPA T his shocking footage captures the devastation left in the aftermath of the killer flash flooding in Majorca. At least nine people are believed to have died when torrential rainstorms deluged the town of Sant Llorenc, about 40 miles east of the capital, Palma, on Tuesday evening. The deputy mayor of the town, Antonia Bauza, confirmed that two victims were British, while two others were locals. An elderly woman's body was found in the basement of her house. As Spain comes to terms with Tuesdays torrential rainstorms, shocking video footage and images have emerged revealing the devastation left behind by the floodwaters in Majorca. Cars were submerged in the devastating floods / EPA One picture shows a wrecked car overturned near the beach in Sillot as a policeman searches for any victims nearby, while another shows 10 wrecked cars submerged in murky water. Debris can also be seen strewn across the roads as residents try to remove mud from their homes, a number of which had to be evacuated due to the floods. Fatal Flash Flooding in Majorca - In pictures 1 /34 Fatal Flash Flooding in Majorca - In pictures Residents help in the cleaing up work in a street in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca island EPA A policeman searches for victims near of the beach of Sillot, in Mallorca island, eastern Spain EPA Vehicles destroyed by flash floods near of Sant Llorenc, in Mallorca island EPA Residents remove mud from their home in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca EPA People walk through a mud-covered street in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca island EPA EPA EPA EPA EPA EPA People walk among several destroyed vehicles in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorc EPA Several civil guards search for victims off the beach of Sillot, in Mallorca island EPA A general view of the coastline after a storm on the island of Mallorca Reuters Mud and debris covers the ground after a storm on the island of Mallorca, Spain Reuters Two local policemen look at a vehicle destroyed by the floods in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorc EPA A general view of the downtown area in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca EPA People walk along the damaged waterfront after a storm on the island of Mallorc Reuters View of several vehicles affected by floods in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca island, eastern Spain EPA A general view of one of the streets in the village of Sant Llorenc des Cardasar, in Mallorca island EPA Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Mallorca TRES / SplashNews.com EPA Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com EPA Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com A thunder strikes over the Dragonera island in Mallorca, Balearic islands, eastern Spai EPA People prepare to spend the night at the Manacor's Miguel Angel Nadal sports centre after they have been evacuated because a torrent overflows causing three people dead at Sant Llorenc des Cardassar in Mallorca EPA People prepare to spend the night at the Manacor's Miguel Angel Nadal sports centre after they have been evacuated because a torrent overflows causing three people dead at Sant Llorenc des Cardassar in Mallorca EPA Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Mallorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Aftermath of a storm with extreme rain and landslides on Majorca TRES / SplashNews.com Shocking footage circulating on social media shows damaged cars deserted on banks by the roadside near Sant Llorenc after they were swept up in the rising water levels. At least three towns closed schools and hundreds of people were given shelter in sport facilities. The flooding also affected phone communications and forced the closure of at least seven major roads. The devastation left behind by the floodwater / EPA The floods happened in less than 10 minutes, a witness told Spanish TV, telling the station we had to swim to try to survive. Witnesses said a dry creek overflowed, creating a strong current of water and mud that buried cars. Less than 24 hours after the flood hit, the Foreign Office said it was "urgently seeking updates" from their Spanish counterparts about the fate of any British people stranded in the area. The two British victims, believed to be a couple, were reportedly in a taxi when they were caught in a flash flood. The Foreign Office said in a statement: "We are in contact with the Spanish authorities responding to flooding in Majorca, and urgently seeking updates from them." Two British nationals are among the victims of a devastating flood / EPA Authorities said 80 soldiers and seven vehicles from the military's emergency unit joined more than 100 rescuers who had been working in the area overnight. Some parts of the island received up to 23cm of rainfall in around four hours on Tuesday. At least nine people are believed to have died when torrential rainstorms deluged the town of Sant Llorenc / EPA The Spanish weather agency said more heavy rainfall is expected on Wednesday in eastern and southern parts of the Iberian peninsula. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called news of the flooding "devastating". He will be flying to the area later on Wednesday. He added: "My solidarity and support goes out to the families and friends of victims and all the affected by these tragic floods." A Navy veteran has told of his shock after his "wacky" mother made a "misguided" attempt to ignite the #HimToo movement and get him a date. Pieter Hanson, 32, inadvertently became the face of the movement when his mother claimed he was too scared to date in the current #MeToo environment. He ended up being mocked and turned into a meme after his mother posted his picture on the internet in Navy uniform and said he was too scared to go on a solo date in the current climate of "false" sex allegations and cited the #HimToo movement. The tweet has now been deleted but Mr Hanson has spoken out, distancing himself from his mother's views and saying he does indeed go on dates. In a telephone interview with the BBC he told how the situation "blew up". He said: "Shes a wacky one, we all have interesting family members but she has great intentions and I love her to death. "I think she was misguided on this one. Im a little upset with her but at the end of the day shes my mother and I love her. "Anyone who knows me knows Im a positive person, I have so much love and Im just trying to champion positivity, and cat pictures." Mr Hanson has gathered tens of thousands of new social media followers and has tried to use it for good by spreading positive messages on social media. "The real people who deserve the adoration," he added. "I have a little brother who had non-Hodgkin Lymphoma when he was a child. Hes a survivor now and been cancer-free for a few years. In no small part to the leukaemia and lymphoma societies and Make-a-Wish Foundation. "Anything I can do to at least raise some money for these incredibly foundations, Ill use my fifteen minutes for fame for that." The original tweet from Mr Hanson's mother read: "This is my son. He graduated #1 in boot camp. He was awarded the USO award. The since deleted tweet sparked a row on Twitter between Trump and Kavanaugh supporters and those who backed the MeToo movement - and quickly became a meme with tens of thousands of retweets. / Twitter "He is a gentleman who respects women but he won't go on solo dates due to the current climate of false accusations by radical feminists with an axe to grind. I vote #HimToo". The use of the hashtag prompted a backlash on Twitter and was also spun into a reel of jokes and "this is my son" memes. Some were political, including Adolf Hitler and Supreme court Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Others were just intended for comedy, such as Jesus, Johnny from the Shining, the Hulk, and the actual Sun. Mr Hanson and his brother Jon jumped to debunk their mother's comments and the navy veteran quickly swept up 77,000 new followers with his Twitter handle @Thatwasmymom. Mrs Reynolds's Facebook page shows she posted the original photo of her son several times since 2013 and citing how proud she is of his military career. It was believed her initial tweet was in support of Brett Kavanaugh who was sworn in as a Supreme court Judge this week. Mr Kavanaugh faced a Senate probe into Christine Blasey Ford's accusation of sexual misconduct against him, which found in his favour. Two other women made allegations against him. He denies them all. The online row follows comments by Donald Trump last week that "it's a very scary time for young men in America." The President also claimed on Tuesday that the accusations against Mr Kavanaugh were "a hoax set up by the Democrats." Mr Hanson said on Twitter: "I respect and #BelieveWomen. Sometimes the people we love do things that hurt us without realising it. I never have and never will support #HimToo. Im a proud Navy vet. Also, Twitter, your meme game is on point." His brother Jon Hanson told Huffpost his mother had "good intentions". "But she wasn't trying to be a proxy," he said. "She's posted on Facebook about her eligible sons and tried to get them dates many times over the years. "But she never spoke to my brother nor did he make any of those statements regarding sexual allegations. He added that his brother was "at first very upset but is now taking it in stride and laughing about how mom went viral. "He is single. He does go on solo dates. And hes not afraid of the current climate or sexual allegations." The meme spurred dozens, if not hundreds of variations, including famously troubled sons from the movies, like Michael Myers in Halloween and Darth Vader's grandson, Kylo Ren. T he Democratic candidate for Florida governor has lashed out at Donald Trump after the US president suggested the city in which he is mayor has "tremendous corruption, tremendous crime". Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum suspended his campaign for governor on Sunday to return to the city as it prepared for Hurricane Michael, which was on Wednesday upgraded to a dangerous Category 4 storm due to lash the Florida Panhandle. Endorsing Republican candidate Ron DeSantis in Orlando on Monday, Mr Trump told WFTV that his "opponent runs a place that has a lot of problems and I know it very well, but it's got a lot of problems, tremendous corruption, tremendous crime". Mr Gillum responded in a tweet: "Hey @realDonaldTrump don't come to my state and talk trash about my city while we are preparing for a Category 3 hurricane. We need a partner right now, not a partisan." The president had said: "[DeSantis'] opponent runs an area and a city that's got among the worst statistics in the country and certainly in the state. "If his [DeSantis'] opponent gets elected, you'll have Venezuela -- Florida will become another Venezuela, and that is not good." US President Donald Trump suggested Tallahassee was a city with 'tremendous corruption, tremendous crime' / AFP/Getty Images Mr Trump was visiting the state less than a month before the US mid-term elections on November 6. He attended the event with Florida governor Rick Scott, who is running for US Senate, to endorse Mr DeSantis. "Ron DeSantis is a winner. He's been with me the whole way," Mr Trump said. Mr Gillum helps local residents fill up sandbags in Tallahassee / AP The US National Hurricane Centre said the eye of Michael was about 180 miles south-south-west of Panama City, Florida, at 2am local time (7am BST) on Wednesday. Michael is expected to become one of the Florida Panhandle's worst hurricanes in memory with a life-threatening storm surge of up to 13ft. Tallahassee, Florida's state capital, is the largest city in the Panhandle. Waves crash against a home seawall as the surge starts pushing the tide higher as Hurricane Michael approaches Florida / Getty Images The storm is projected to directly impact the city, Mr Gillum has warned. In a tweet on Tuesday, the mayor wrote: "Our #1 priority is your safety. Do NOT risk your lives. If you are in an evacuation zone or a modular home in the path of #HurricaneMichael, the time to leave is now. We will find a safe place for you to shelter." Florida officials said roughly 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast had been urged or ordered to evacuate. Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Florida Panhandle into north central Florida. Fears remain that some people failed to heed the calls to get out of Michael's way as the storm began speeding north over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It is projected to make landfall later on Wednesday. A woman has been accused of racial profiling after she called the police on a black man who was babysitting two white children in the US. The Georgia woman, who has not be named by authorities, followed Corey Lewis, the babysitter, home before calling the police on him. Mr Lewis said he was met by officers as he reached his home. Mr Lewis accused the woman of following him and harassing him on Sunday afternoon, before she drove up alongside his car to ask the two children if they were ok. Replying to the woman, Mr Lewis said he asked: Why wouldnt they be ok?. After driving away from the woman, Mr Lewis claims she returned to ask to speak to the eldest child, who was told not to speak to strangers. He said: The lady got upset and she said, OK, Im going to take your license plate number. Parts of the exchange was filmed by Mr Lewis in a series of Facebook Live videos, which have since gone viral. Mr Lewis, who runs a local community group, told NBC News: It never occurred to me that someone would see us and decide to take such judgment that she took. In 2018, prejudiced people exist. We are still being judged, we are still being discriminated against. The mother of the two children added: It doesn't make sense in light of what happened. They weren't crying, they weren't distressed. "There was only one thing that she saw that was out of place and that was kids of a different race than the person they were with. D wayne Johnson is facing a backlash over his casting as African-American folk hero John Henry in an upcoming Netflix film. The Baywatch actor, who is mixed race his father is black and mother Samoan - took to social media to share the news that he will play his childhood hero. Sharing a snippet of the film, Johnson wrote: When the man comes around.. Honored to play a childhood hero of mine, JOHN HENRY & his disruptive band of fellow folklore legends from around the world. Netflix are the perfect partners and platform to build. Directed by Jake Kasdan (JUMANJI). JOHN HENRY & THE STATESMEN. While many congratulated the 46-year-old on landing the role, others raised queries over Johnsons casting, blasting the actor over the fact that folklore depicted Henry as a dark-skinned black man. One user wrote: H*ll freaking no. John Henry is a large muscular dark skinned black man and his love is a black woman. Terry Crews? Michael Jai White? Winston Duke...They need to stop the madness before it even begins. Woe betide them if they put him in a tanning bed and add makeup. Another added: Representation matters. I love @TheRock but I hope you consider darker skinned actors. Dwayne Johnson does the rock, paper, scissor meme This is major Black American folklore and these were people who worked in the sun all day. Dark like my mom or grandmom. Celebrity is fine but our history is getting lightened by the sec. A third commented: Hmmmm I have always thought of John Henry as a post-slavery dark skinned black man The Rock is awesome, but this is a weird casting choice for a classic story. S tephen Kings Pet Sematary is set to get a creepy new 2018 remake, nearly 30 years after the original cult classic. The updated cult classic sees a family who move from Boston to a rural area in Maine and discover their house has the ability to bring back the dead. The official synopsis teases: Based on the seminal horror novel by Stephen King, Pet Sematary follows Dr. Louis Creed, who, after relocating with his wife Rachel and their two young children from Boston to rural Maine, discovers a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods near the familys new home. When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to his unusual neighbor, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), setting off a perilous chain reaction that unleashes an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences. It is set to star The Crown actor John Lithgow, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes star Jason Clarke and The Killing actress Amy Seimetz. Starry Eyes filmmakers Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer are expected to direct the latest remake and previously told Dread Central that the film will be Kings scariest adaptation ever. The film marks one of many recent remakes delving into Kings catalogue of material. Last year the prolific writers It was brought back to life with a horrifying revamp by Andres Muschietti. S eann Walsh has been accused of flirting with Inbetweeners actress Emily Atack two years before he shared a kiss with his married Strictly Come Dancing co-star Katya Jones. Walsh, 32, was pictured holding Atacks hand at a London pub in 2016 while he was dating actress and playwright Rebecca Humphries. The comedian was this week dumped by Humphries after she discovered he passionately kissed Jones on her birthday while she sat at home alone. Humphries, who starred in ITV series Cockroaches, called time on their five year relationship in a blistering Twitter statement in which she accused Walsh of being controlling and calling her a psycho whenever she voiced her concerns over his relationship with Jones. 'Flirting': Inbetweeners actress Emily Atack / Dave Benett She insisted she is not a victim but a strong ,capable person and finished by announcing she is taking full custody of their pet cat. She wrote: I hope he gets what he wants from this. Im not sorry I took the cat though. Walsh and Jones, who is married to fellow Strictly pro Neil Jones, both released apologies in the wake of their kiss. Piers Morgan DEFENDS Seann Walsh after Katya Jones kiss Walsh apologised for his actions, branding it a one-off drunken mistake, but he was criticised for failing to acknowledge Humphries in the statement. Katya insisted she is very happy with Neil and that the kiss is not a reflection on [their] relationship. Strictly fans called for the pair to be axed from the show in the wake of the scandal, with some calling for recent evictee Lee Ryan and his partner Nadiya Bychkova to replace them. Passionate Paso Doble: Seann Walsh and Katya Jones dancing on last weekend's episode / BBC But show bosses confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that Walsh and Katya will perform the Charleston to Bills by Lunchmoney Lewis. It is unclear if the 1920s dance was the original choice for week four as it was reported they had changed the routine to be less sexy. Standard Online has contacted representatives for Atack and Walsh for comment. This week we heard some opposite talk from President Donald Trump, whos not an expert on Chicago or policing. Hes had it in his head for a long time that the way to reduce violence is to give police on the street wide latitude to stop and frisk. That is, to encourage aggressive policing, which inevitably leads to more innocent citizens treated as criminal suspects. In 2013, a federal appeals court found that New York Citys stop-and-frisk practices violated the constitutional rights of citizens. Chicago altered its practice in 2015 under an agreement with ACLU. But Trump still thinks he knows how to help straighten out Chicago. His administration went further this week, saying it would oppose the consent decree now in front of a federal judge. O n a Spanish dance floor, Rupert Grint is throwing some shapes. Theyre not the most graceful of shapes, nor are his movements the most rhythmic. But you cant fault the actors gusto filming a scene as toff hustler Charlie Cavendish-Scott in the TV series Snatch, a spin-off from Guy Ritchies 2000 film. Watched by his fellow geezer crims on the run on the Costa del Crime, Charlie is dancing and gobbling ecstasy by the fistful. Then he has to snort a line of the drug, crushed under the heel of the closeted local councillor hes trying to seduce. Its a scam to secure a liquor licence for the beachside bar the Londoners-on-the-run are opening in an attempt to go legit. I havent had this many beans in my bloodstream since the rave at Stonehenge, Grints Charlie puffs, before collapsing in a sweaty heap. The politician suitably duped and hustled away, Charlie jolts back to life. Barely touched the sides, he boasts of his class-A intake. Its hardly Gryffindor House-worthy behaviour. But when the shadow cast by your role in historys greatest fantasy film franchise is as deathly hallowing as that of Ron Weasley, you have to throw yourself into any new character. No matter how Slytherinesque. Breakout: Rupert Grint found fame alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in Harry Potter / Warner Bros I always dread scenes like that, he says later, grimacing. I just dont dance, so I literally had to look up on YouTube how young guys dance. It didnt really help! But once youre on set you just go with it. He shrugs, 20 years of acting trumping Grints understated persona. We Muggles are in Malaga, where series two of the comedy-caper series is filming. Sheltering from the baking heat in a hillside finca 30 minutes outside town, Grint is dressed in character as Charlie white suit, neckerchief and Panama hat. The Essex-born actor who was cast in 2000, aged 11, alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson for the film series based on J K Rowlings bestsellers is also a producer on Snatch. But Grint is sufficiently down-to-earth and ego-free to admit that thats pretty much an honorific. Fame: Rupert Grint as a teen Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Em, yeah, kind of quite relaxed! he says of his behind-the-camera obligations. I havent really made any major decisions. That said, his producer heft is probably all front-loaded. A starring role as one of the three leads of the blockbuster eight-film franchise that grossed $7.7 billion between 2001 and 2011 no doubt helped green-light Snatch. Post-Potter, Radcliffe has purposefully ploughed an indie-leaning film career, and Watson has twinned activism with mainstream roles (Beauty and the Beast, Greta Gerwigs upcoming Little Women). Grint, meanwhile, has largely pursued the kind of comic acting that was his forte as kindly Ron. Absolutely, he agrees. We got to work with amazing people, and when youre that young you soak up everything you can. On the first one, he says of 2001s Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, we were on set with Rik Mayall. He got cut from the [finished] film, but those kind of actors always inspired me. Slightly self-deprecating comedy is my comfort zone. Moving away from that and being a hero-type character, thats where I struggle. The physicality of that, whenever there are scenes with guns or you have to look cool, is a challenge for me, Grint freely admits. Radcliffe had very different challenges. I interviewed him a few times during the 10-year run of Harry Potter. As he transitioned from the responsibility of being The Boy Wizard, he buried himself in a Broadway musical (How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) to distance himself from the media frenzy and his boozy youth. But Grint seems to have walked an easier path as he and his co-stars graduated from the most famous child-actors in the world to the most famous young adults with a topspin of Gringotts Wizarding Bank-busting riches. Grint is estimated to be worth approximately 28 million. Snatch - series 2 1 /10 Snatch - series 2 Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television He thinks growing up the eldest of five in Hertfordshire grounded him. Theres also the fact that we didnt film in Hollywood we were just in Watford, he says of the Potter studio base at Leavesden. It only felt overwhelming when we were at premieres, that red-carpet world. Since completing Snatch he has shot The ABC Murders, a BBC Agatha Christie adaptation for Christmas, in which he stars alongside John Malkovichs Poirot. He also turned 30, meaning he has been acting for two-thirds of his young life. He and Radcliffe occasionally cross paths, and its always great to see him. But we dont spend a lot of time texting we dont really have that relationship any more. His connection with Watson is even vaguer. Were all just busy in different parts of the world. One day well have a reunion. Well always have a special relationship. New role: Rupert Grint in Snatch / Sony Pictures Television Mostly Grint keeps himself to himself, hanging out with his girlfriend of seven years, actress Georgia Groome; drawing (Id like to do a graphic novel or animation one day); and, still, occasionally buying stupid things. The vehicle-mad kid has gone electric, purchasing a Tesla. And a lifesize costume of Noddy from when they did Noddy On Ice. So I have this massive papier mache head in my living room. Its a cool thing. Everyone loves Noddy. They also love the freckly ginger junior wizard who was Harrys wingman and Hermiones everlasting love. How would he describe his relationship now with Ron? We became the same person. He was me. And I think I can live with that duality. Im not desperate to change that. I think Id be delusional if I thought I was ever going to, he says, happy with his lot. No expelliarmus charm required. A paralysed athlete has been helped to walk again with the help of powered exoskeleton trousers. Young scientists in the Netherlands say they hope their invention can give hope for increased mobility to other injured and disabled people. The systems first pilot, Sjaan Quirijns, who was paralysed from the waist down in an accident 18 years ago, can now walk for 30 minutes at a time. The aluminium and 3D-printed plastic exoskeleton, called Project March, was created by a 20-strong team of electrical engineers, technical engineers and industrial designers from Delft University of Technology. Ms Quirijns in their suit recently won the Cybathlon Experience European assistive tech design competition, a timed obstacle run which mimics daily challenges. She completed the seven tests including a slope, stairs and getting up from a chair unaided in under 10 minutes. Power on: Sjaan Quirijns in the exoskeleton at Cybathon, with Marina Krijgsman, left / PR handout The suits pilot uses smart crutches to balance and to tell the system where they want to go. They carry a master computer in a back-pack, which acts as the suits brain, sending electronic pulses to piston-powered knee joints. An abdominal plate and back support were also built for Ms Quirijns, 43, who has no feeling from below the chest. She and the design team will demonstrate the suit at Mansion House as part of the UK state visit of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima this month. Next year, a new generation of students will take over to progress the design to its fourth stage. Team public relations manager Magali Ponds said the inventors hope the suit could be useful for people with long-term degenerative illnesses affecting strength, such as muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis. She said: Weve built an exoskeleton for people with a spinal cord injury and were giving people back mobility who are not able to walk themselves. Sjaan loved walking again, she was able to walk for 24 years, and then she couldnt and now she can again. It was a really special experience. She said its like extreme sports, we trained for two to three times a week for three months, and now she can walk for 30 minutes. The structure follows the legs of the pilot and so its really important that the joints of the exoskeleton suit are aligned to the joints of the pilot. The suit carries its own weight and is powered by a battery, which also supplies the energy so Sjaan really doesnt feel anything of the weight of the suit, but she does have to keep balance with the crutches, which is the weight that she feels. There are several U.S. House races in Illinois in which the Republican incumbent is being pressured by a Democrat. One is in the 13th Congressional District, where Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville is battling Betsy Dirksen Londrigan of Springfield, a first-time candidate who worked as a fundraiser for Sen. Dick Durbin. Davis squeaked to victory in 2012 but coasted to re-election in 2014 and 2016. Hes an infrastructure wonk who knows a key Downstate issue is job creation, which is why he supported Trumps platform of tax reform and deregulation. Were with Davis: The country needs to break consistently from its pattern of sluggish 2 percent growth, and tax reform is helping. Dirksen Londrigan said in her Tribune survey that tax reform is disastrous for middle-class and struggling families because they dont reap enough of the benefits. We think putting people to work is a primary consideration. Davis is endorsed. I too was raised in the Catholic Church, and I know I stayed way too long. I ignored similar issues for years. But since I found my new Presbyterian church, I have been overjoyed at how welcoming we are to everyone no matter who they are. And we confront real social problems like homelessness and hunger (just to name a few) in our community and the world. We have respected female pastors. We discuss current issues of the day in groups and hear everyones voices not just the Catholic viewpoint, which I found to be the case when I was a Catholic. On the heels of the report we shared with you Monday, we came upon more potential details about this rumored shooting location for Star Wars: Episode IX in Jordan and some other potential bits about the films production. We spoke with someone, requesting anonymity, who shared this information with us telling us that not only is the report accurate, but that it is 100% for Episode IX and painted a picture as to what type of location it is for. In addition to this they told us a few other bits about the films production. This is not blowing a lid off of anything spoiler-wise so fear not, but these are certainly some interesting bits of information about the production. I will then sprinkle in my speculation using this information towards the end of the piece if youll entertain me. But first, lets go over what we were told. As with anything, if it doesnt comes from Disney or Lucasfilm it cant be considered anything more than a rumor until otherwise confirmed, though we are confident in this information. Our source was confident in saying the report of this rumored filming location for Episode IX in Jordan is indeed correct. Being closely tied to the area, they went on to say that extensive filming is taking place there. In addition to the structures there are a lot of props there for a market scene. They have been filming there for some time now. There are strange looking baskets and unusual materials and fabrics. Based on what they have seen and heard through set dressings and props they surmise Abrams has incorporated a significant amount of callbacks to previous episodes in Episode IX as a way of closing out the entire nine-episode saga. What is interesting about this is the source was not aware of the Neimoidian-looking stand-ins, as they were not on location when those were put up. So the combination of their statement mixed with what we saw here from the previous report makes it all the more curious. Other Potential Locations and an Update on the Filming Schedule Beyond filming in Jordan, they went on to say that while it has not happened yet, filming could potentially occur in Ireland, Italy, and California, which instantly makes me think its possible we see Ahch-To once more (Ireland), revisit Naboo for the first time since Revenge of the Sith (Italy), and could a shoot in California mean a return to the Redwoods for Endor? Will we see the return of Wicket and the Ewoks? In addition to the Redwoods for Endor, California was also used for parts of Tatooine in A New Hope. Admittedly those Star Wars planets (and an Ewok return) are purely joyful speculation on my end, though the source confirms those filming locations are indeed currently on the table and have been requested. As with any film production, things can change, the source made it clear that while those locations have been requested for filming, nothing has been agreed upon, and things can change. We have heard several whispers of rewrites (which are completely normal for any films production). Our source explained that filming will continue into next year, including one Pinewood set in particular being specifically extended for that reason. They said: Filming is happening in Jordan and at Pinewood. Pinewood sets are filming into next year with one of the sets having been extended to film for an additional two months due to a rewrite. Our source got the feeling that part of Episode IXs story could be the last of the allies reaching out to previous planets and species we are familiar with to rally the troops for the final stand for the galaxy. Many fans have wondered will we return to a planet we saw in the original or prequel trilogy? We have yet to do so in the sequel trilogy, in addition to the lack of old familiar alien species we grew to love in the first six episodes of the saga. Perhaps its time to let the past thrive with locations and creatures (much to Kylo Rens dismay)? Okay back to the Jordan shoot. So a desert planet in Star Warsreal original! I dont think this is a new desert planet, because frankly, enough already. Tatooine, Jedha, Jakku, if they make another I will join Anakin and begin hating sand. So, are we going back to nowhere, I mean Jakku? Is the saga tapping into more Jedi-lore by tying in Jedha for some reason? Or could it be we are going back to where it all started for Luke Skywalker on Tatooine? If I had to make an educated guess about what this environment is in Episode IX, I would put the probability in this order: JAKKU: This Reys story now, she is our main protagonist, so returning to her home planet makes much more sense to close out her story than would revisiting Tatooine. JEDHA: It was left borderline uninhabitable, further showcased in the comics in The Ashes of Jedha, so I doubt they revisit that, as the planet doesnt exactly look like the place to go for a market anymore. Though those mountains in those shots scream Jedha to me, and Rey could be in the market for some new kyber! TATOOINE: I think weve all had enough of Tatooine, and it doesnt fit this trilogy at all. Now if they make Solo 2 happen and bring in Jabba well talk! A NEW PLANET: As I said before, enough with new desert locations. I cant see Abrams closing out the trilogy by giving us another new desert location. But enough speculation. lets summarize what our source has told us in neat little bullets for you: The report of the location is accurate, that they are filming in Jordan and have been for some time and that it is 100% for Episode IX. One set for the Jordan shoot in particular is likely for a market of some kind. Filming could additionally take place in Italy, Ireland, and California. Pinewood sets are filming into next year with one of the sets having been extended to film for an additional two months due to a rewrite. Now again, because none of this is confirmed by Disney or Lucasfilm, it must all be taken as a rumor until otherwise confirmed by affiliated parties. With that said, whatever it is, and whatever theyre filming there for Episode IX, it is always exciting to hear about a tangible active Star Wars set, a pleasant reminder that another Star Wars film is being created as we speak! Countries & Areas Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe To my pleasant surprise, Trump has also kept the promises that he has made to the American people. Thanks to the GOP tax cuts, our economy has exploded with a 4.2 percent GDP growth rate. Unemployment is at a 49-year low with the lowest unemployment for blacks and Hispanics in recorded history. He has successfully renegotiated the very bad trade deals with South Korea, Mexico, Canada and the European Union. He started real talks with North Korea. He has severely punished Russia for its inhumane activity around the world. He has kept Americas promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and moved our embassy there. He has finally taken on Chinas massive cheating and stealing, which has cost millions of Americans their jobs. And he has also exposed corruption at the top levels of our FBI and Department of Justice that is a major threat to our democracy. The Tribune asked the governor a series of questions about his offshore holdings, and the campaign responded with the same answer to several of them. Gov. Rauner has never personally set up offshore accounts and he has always paid all of his taxes, Allison, the campaign spokesman, wrote in an email. He has placed his investments in blind trust procedures and does not control investment strategy. A reform of the the public bodies' employees is 'mandatory and commonsensical' in the next period, since we all want an efficient administration, on Tuesday told the Public Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici a public television TVR1 broadcast. 'We all want an efficient central and local administration. What does this mean? To have not that many people, but exactly the number needed, better paid they are already, the law exists and to be more efficient. I repeat, as many as we need. Not one works and three stand around him and do nothing,' Teodorovici asserted. Asked how this reform of the state employees will be carried out, Teodorovici answered: 'It is a one by one discussion, we cannot enforce a percentage on all the horizontal.''Bilateral talks will be when the wrapping up of the budget on 2019 is due, we'll talk to each ministry at a time. We'll talk with the largest areas where the public money is being spent: Transports, Health care, I am talking in particular of the Health Insurance Houses, but of other areas of the economy, other ministries that are covering a lot of companies under their umbrella. Economy, Energy, there are a lot, very many companies which if analysed and discussed in turn, what role they have and if their presence in today's Romania is justified, you'll see we'll find no pros and cons, but only cons (...) Unfortunately, in all of the ministries, year after year, these structures have been burdened and I believe it is high time we said halt and not only halt, but on the reverse sense, we resume the process,' the Finance minister explained.He reiterated that he will start with the evaluation of the personnel working with the public money spending ministries, namely 'not only the ministry as such and its own structure, but with the subordinate one, too,' and bilateral talks will be completed by November.'The ministries had a deadline yesterday [Monday, ed. n.], to hand me their budget proposals for 2019 within the limits we have drafted for the next year, and then will come the bilateral talk with each ministry. The minister are due to come with their state secretaries, their Finance head, whatever they've got there and we talk the bilateral. We spend a night, two nights, it doesn't matter, three days. (...) I want from them what the whole country wants: efficiency,' Teodorovici underlined.As for the way in which the body of state employees can be shrunk, a measure otherwise unpopular, especially if it has no political support, the minister stressed: 'I have this dream for many years, I keep saying it and I won't give it up. (...) The Pension Law I guarantee and assume, which is why I have signed it, on condition that the economy begins to move in the direction and with the speed we want,' the minister concluded. The bill amends and supplements Government Emergency Ordinance 194/2002 and the Government Ordinance 25/2014 to translate to Romania's national legislation Directive (EU) 2016/801 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, training, voluntary service, pupil exchange schemes or educational projects and au pairing. "Foreigners entering Romania for employment are granted an extension to the right to stay temporarily for work if they submit a full-time individual employment contract registered with the General Registry of Employees showing that the salary is at least at the level of the guaranteed gross minimum wage. In the case of highly qualified workers, the wage must be at least twice the gross average earnings," according to the bill.Under the bill, the payment of foreign employees has to be at least at the level of the gross average earnings, and in the case of highly qualified workers, the salary should be at least four times the gross average earnings nationwide.Foreigners who are appointed at the head of a foreign-based subsidiary, representation office or branch operating in Romania under a proxy agreement or other document with the same legal value will have their right to stay temporarily for work extended without the need to produce an employment contract, if they prove they have the means of support derived from the activity performed in this capacity at least at the level of the guaranteed gross minimum wage, according to the bill.Also, aliens entering Romania to work as an au pair worker will have their their temporary work-related right extended if they can produce an individual part-time employment contract registered with the General Registry of Employees showing that work time hours do not exceed 25 hours per week and the amount of the salary is at least equal to the guaranteed minimum gross wage nationwide computed against the time worked.According to other adopted provisions, the bodies of the border police may not allow foreigners to enter Romania if they have intentionally committed on Romania's soil or abroad crimes for which they are subjected to a custodial sentence in excess of three years.The long-stay visa for studies may be issued on request to foreigners who apply for entry to Romania as a student, trainee, pupil, exchange students or students under educational projects.The Chamber of Deputies is the decision-making body for this bill. AGERPRES The East -West collision is currently less intense although it hasn't yet fully died out, and this is the effect of action by international institutions, Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu on Wednesday told the seventh edition of the Bucharest Forum. He said that one of the most important actors in this respect is the UN, thanks to its encompassing practically the entire international society. It's not just accidental that the latest efforts of the UN are about the reform of the Security Council and creating a committee tasked with strengthening global peace, said Romania's top diplomat. As for the current situation, it's again no mere coincidence that Romania has taken up the chairmanship of both structures, the Committee on the reform of the Security Council, and the Peacebuilding Commission. This is one of the key organizations playing a special role in maintaining international security, said the Foreign Minister. Melescanu added that other highly important actors in the process are NATO and the EU and that the major change in terms of the East - West confrontation is the massive shift in war-related concepts.There is a very clear international tendency, under the effect of NATO Article 5, of keeping actions below the level that would trigger this article. This also shapes a certain vision we call hybrid war, which builds on particular elements such as fake news, the use of cybernetic systems, involvement in another country's elections. As a result of all this, the confrontation's character is different than strictly military, said the ForMin.As to one of the subjects under debate in the forum - 'The rise of (Eur)Asia and the West: Collision, Collusion or Cooperation?', Melescanu underscored that in his view the concept of conciliation and cooperation is the only solution to everything currently going on.The Foreign Minister said that the term at the Presidency of the Council of the EU as of January 1, 2019 is a particular opportunity for Romania, and brought to mind that ensuring EU's internal and external security and expanding the Union's international role are among Romania's priorities for this term. The philosopher and essayist Mihai Sora said on Tuesday at the European Parliament, where he officially received the European Citizen's 2018 Award, that he had always known "that the generous and the genius side of Europe will be right." Mihai Sora's speech, in French, was read by his wife, Luiza. "I saw Europe shattered, I saw Europe silent in front of barbarity, powerless, tired, heroic or bent. I saw Europe starting to dance to a strange music: fanatical dictators and sick populists, but I always knew, with some sort of serene and unshakable confidence, that the generous and genius side of Europe will be right in the face of the beastly and ferocious side, that the intelligent Europe - the one of ancient times, of the time of old Socrates - is looking for ?the why' of things. This Europe will always find the means to go seek the answers," transmitted Mihai Sora, who on November 7 will be 102 years old.He then referred to the condition of the Romanian intellectual during the dictatorship."There were times, in Romania, in the darkest years of the dictatorship, when many intellectuals were taken out of the citadel, they were living in isolation or were thrown into prisons. What saved us then, in those gloomy times, were neither the weapons or the chancelleries, but exactly the European spirit: 'The Iliad and the Odyssey', 'Don Quixote' and 'Phaedra', 'In Search of Lost Time', 'The Magic Mountain', 'Hamlet' and 'Divine Comedy' , 'A Season in Hell,' 'Zeno's Conscience, 'The Memoirs of Hadrian, ' 'Faustus,' 'War and Peace," confessed Mihai Sora.According to the philosopher, "all the burning sap of these books, as well as of others, the fortifying blow of Europe could penetrate, despite dictatorship, censorship, fear, hunger and cold, between the covers of a collection named: 'The Library for All' ".Mihai Sora was nominated for the 2018 European Citizen's Award by the European MEPs Monica Macovei and Cristian Preda. The representatives of the associations and federations of pensioners request Prime Minister Viorica Dancila to allow them to take part in the Government sitting in which the pension draft law will be debated. "A delegation of pensioners will go to the Government to request a meeting with Prime Minister Viorica Dancila. We want to be received in the Government sitting, where the Pension Law will be discussed. We want to present in the Government the proposals that we have made so far," the president of the National Pensioners Federation "Unirea" Dumitru Cojanu said on Wednesday. A few hundred pensioners are taking part on Wednesday in an organized meeting by the Unirea Federation in front of the Government, the main claim being raising the pension point to 45 percent of the average gross salary, as of 2021.Dumitru Cojanu declared on Wednesday for AGERPRES that the PSD (Social Democratic Party) governing program was voted in 2016 by the pensioners because it included raising the pension point to 45 percent of the average gross salary, but now the Government officials have reconsidered.Representatives of pensioners, from within the country and from Bucharest, from all our branches, have gathered and will keep in coming because they are displeased and disappointed in the way the ruling class are applying their own governing program, in terms of living standards. In 2016, pensioners voted that as of 2021, the pension point to represent 45 percent of the gross average monthly salary, as a share. Unfortunately, under the pretext of transferring the contributions from the employer to the employee, they say that they can no longer apply this provision from the governing program, which is not real. Many of us have voted for PSD but we want PSD to respect us all and to not be trampled," Cojanu said.He also mentioned that the pensioners' representatives came with proposals for the Government but they were not taken into account. "Fighting and preventing African swine fever, as well as supporting the animal breeders whose farms were affected by this virus are always on the Government's agenda, the Minister of Agriculture and the ANSVSA (National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority). Mr. Minister Petre Daea has just returned from Brussels with good news, after meeting the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan. By using European funds, namely from the European Fund for Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as from the national budget, we will allot 43 million euros. This is money that will go directly to the swine breeders, first of all to the small and medium-sized farms, but also, indirectly, to the public services working to fight and prevent African swine flu from further spreading," stated Dancila, in the opening of the Government meeting. AGERPRES "In the Centennial Year, Romania had to pass an important test and social peace was affected by a period of tensions which affected the referendum for the amendment of the Constitution. When social peace is disturbed, the entire society suffers. The debate around this referendum has been dominated by serious misinformation campaigns, in which hate speeches and even some with extremist accents have prevailed. Culture and education are the main ways through which we can protect ourselves against the virulent manipulation attempts. Only through education and appealing to culture we can become more tolerant in order to surpass, with wisdom and maturity, the attempts to divide the society," President Klaus Iohannis stated at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, where it was held the decoration ceremony of employees of the State Jewish Theater, film director Catalina Buzoianu and head of the Swiss Foundation for Pipe Organs of Romania Ernst Leonhardt. The head of state underscored that in 2018 Romania is celebrating 100 years of unity, and art has always been and will continue to be one of the main voices of the unity, which matures throughout generations in the conscience of a nation.In this context, the President added that the theater has certainly an important say when we are to reflect what being together means, passing on a valuable legacy and building, in its spirit, for the future."The Jewish Theater, one of the most known and appreciated theaters of Romania celebrated 70 years of activity as a state-owned institution, on 1 August 2018. The Jewish Theater, a cultivator of the Yiddish language and culture has a much older tradition of over 142 years and it is tied to the name of the one who founded the first professional Jewish theater around the world, namely Avram Goldfaden. Romania cherishes the values of this culture, a proof being also the fact that under the law, 30 May became the Day of Yiddish Language and Theater. The decorations that I have bestowed upon you today on behalf of the Romanian state are a sign of appreciation for the history of the institution that you represent and which you dedicate to, with generosity and perseverance, your art and talent. I wish a long life to the State Jewish Theater, its remarkable actors and all those who serve it, by offering the audience some admirable pages of Jewish, classic and contemporary dramaturgy," Klaus Iohannis added.He then addressed director Catalina Buzoianu: "You gave a particularly special profile to the Romanian theater, as a director and professor. You have guided generations of young actors, encouraging them to find their vocation and pursue it, with faithfulness and professionalism. The force of imagination, the permanent search of authenticity, as well as you creative energy, doubled by a permanent exigency regarding your own theater are present in the special performances that you have given us throughout the years. I congratulate you for your entire career! It's not by chance that this years' National Theater Festival, which I awarded to the High Patronage is particularly honoring you."The decoration awarded by President Klaus Iohannis to Ernst Leonhardt, namely the Order of Cultural Merits, in rank of Officer marks 15 years of activity of Romania's Swiss Foundation for Pipe Organs."Through your activity, carried out throughout almost 20 years in Romania, you stimulated the area of building and restoring pipe organs of Romania, an area that requires special training. Romania's Swiss Foundation for Pipe Organs, that you chair, has essentially contributed to the revival of this area, which has an essential role in preserving a cultural heritage of inestimable value," Klaus Iohannis stated.According to the President, the ceremony held at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace depicts Romania's involvement in the events of the European Year of Cultural Heritage."I congratulate and wish you to serve with passion, many years from now, Romania's culture and the European cultural heritage! Art has a major contribution to a healthy social life, being the space for the free expression of the deepest and most authentic experiences. Through art, we can understand better that we can become more spiritually rich when accepting diversity," the head of state added. AGERPRES The state should make efforts to return, by the end of the year, the sums paid for the vehicle taxes to those entitled, Minister of Finance Eugen Teodorovici considers. "31 August was the deadline for submitting the refund requests. I think that since we allocated money at the rectification, about 500 million extra lei for this payment, we could make an effort to pay, by the end of the year, everything we have to pay," Eugen Teodorovici told public TV station TVR1 on Tuesday. Eugen Teodorovici also said that he had discussed with Gratiela Gavrilescu, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Environment, a proposal on "a very good option" in terms of environmental tax.The auto charge for first-registration vehicles was introduced for the first time on 1 January, 2007, immediately after Romania's accession to the European Union. It underwent numerous changes until 2012 when the charge was suspended until the end of the same year, and the people who had already paid were to get the money back.Environment Minister Gratiela Gavrilescu recently said that the final form of a new pollution tax would be found by the end of 2018, and from the beginning of next year they will know exactly what needs to be done, maybe with a transitional period until 31 March, 2019. The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed as inadmissible an appeal filed by national leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea against the National Anti-Corruption Directorate's lien on his personal assets in the Tel Drum court case file. Some of that is done at Ugland House, the Grand Cayman building thats the listed address for about 18,000 companies and investment funds. None of the companies registered there are physically housed in the building. Maple and Calder, an international law firm with clients around the world, is the buildings sole tenant. The firm has said Ugland House has been unfairly criticized by the media and politicians who do not fully understand offshore investing. "In respect to the status of the "Taras Shevcenko" High School in Sighet, it currently functions more on a technical level than one an educational one. And what is disturbing is that the auctions have been delayed so much and essential time is lost with challenges and other procedures," said Oleksandr Bankov, during a meeting he had with the President of the Maramures County Council, Gabriel Zetea. On the same occasion, the President of the County Council explained to the Ukrainian diplomat that the auctions, as required by law, for the rehabilitation of the building hosting the high school teaching in Ukrainian in Sighetu Marmatiei will be finished in due time."We can offer consultancy to those who come to us, but we cannot intervene in the legal proceedings. In what concerns the Ukrainian High School "Taras Shevcenko" in Sighetu Marmatiei, we are proud of this unique educational institution in our area and I am certain that the auctions will be completed and the works will start in the shortest while. We are going to keep in touch with the Sighetu Marmatiei Town Hall and the Maramures School Inspectorate and I am positive that, once with the rehabilitation of the high school, the attractiveness of this educational unit will increase too," said Gabriel Zetea.The two officials also discussed about the reopening of the Maramures International Airport, the recreational camps organised in Maramures for the children affected by the war in Ukraine and also about the bridge over the Tisa River, with Gabriel Zetea insisting on the need to achieve this latter objective of an equal importance for Ukraine and Romania.On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Ambassador in Romania visited the Sighetu Marmatiei Municipality, where he had meetings with the leadership of the Town Hall and members of the Ukrainian community. Moreover, Ambassador Oleksandr Bankov inaugurated an exhibition dedicated to the commemoration of the Holocaust in Ukraine, in 1932-1933, and visited the Ukrainian High School "Taras Shevcenko," and also other schools in the same area attended by Ukrainian students.The meeting between the two parties took place in the context of the development of the bilateral relations between Ukraine and Romania, the maintaining of direct and sustainable contacts with the county authorities, so as to stimulate and promote cooperation between Ukraine and Romania including at local level, reads the same press release. AGERPRES Perhaps the citys most singular cinema offering, the Music Box Theatre feels like a celebration of film come to life. The theater was founded in 1929 as an alternative to burgeoning cineplexes, opting instead for modest capacities and distinctive architecture. Music Box billed its single screening area as atmospheric, with a dark blue, cove-lit ceiling with twinkling stars and moving cloud formations that were meant to elicit the feeling of a screening under the stars. For several years in the 70s, the use of the theater changed, but in 1983, management reopened for good as a traditional cinema, also welcoming the addition of a theater organ and, in 1991, a second screen. The organ continues to be used for special events, including seasonal movie singalongs and silent movie screenings. Beyond its infrastructure, Music Boxs special events are what really set it apart. Throughout the year, music festivals, premieres, special screenings, guest speakers and all kinds of other film-friendly activities occur at Music Box. Be sure to check out its monthly calendar to see the full scope of options. And, if all of that wasnt enough, the Music Box even has a house ghost known as Whitey, who was the original manager of the theater until he passed away in his sleep on a theater couch. According to the website, his ghost continues to serve as Manager Emeritus to this day. The warm-weather festival season is over, paving the way for us all to get down and explore Chicagos bars and clubs. What do you want to know about the party scene in Chicago? Donald Trump has reached back to the early 19th century to help reformulate his proto-neoconservative foreign policy. Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, Trump invoked the arcane and disreputable Monroe Doctrine of 1824. He stated, "It has been the formal policy of our country since President James Monroe that we reject the interference of foreign nations in this hemisphere and in our own affairs." The target for Trump's words was clear it was China. On October 4, Vice President Mike Pence followed Trumps anti-Chinese bombast by issuing a warning to China. In remarks Pence made before the neo-conservative Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, he accused China of using "covert actors, front groups, and propaganda outlets to shift Americans' perception of Chinese policies." Now under the influence of the war-mongering neocon National Security Adviser, John Bolton, the Trump administration is rattling sabers at anyone it and its major string puller, Israel, see fit to challenge: Iran, Venezuela, Syria, China, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, and others that stand up to the United States. The Trump administration has become what modern Chinas revolutionary founder, Mao Zedong, was fond of calling a paper tiger. While Trump and Pence, the latter having made his third trip to Latin America in June of this year, are pushing discredited gunboat diplomacy mantras inherent in the Monroe Doctrine, in Latin America, China is signing up Western Hemisphere partners for its Belt and Road Initiative, which is championed by President Xi Jinping. Chinese investments in Latin American and Caribbean infrastructures prompted three Latin American nations Panama, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador to switch relations from Taiwan to China. The Trump administration, in a childish and undiplomatic move, recalled its ambassadors to the Dominican Republic and El Salvador and charge daffaires to Panama to Washington for consultation. The Trump administration has warned Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua against recognizing China, a warning also directed at Paraguay and a few Caribbean island nations having links with Taiwan. Considering the fact that the Trump administration neocons are applying financial and U.S. visa sanctions on the Nicaraguan government, it is only a matter of time before Nicaragua is forced to abandon its ties with Taiwan. China is investing $50 billion in the Nicaragua Interoceanic Canal, which will provide a sea level connection between the Pacific and Caribbean and is championed by China is a key part of its Belt and Road Initiative and an alternative to the lock-dependent Panama Canal. Nicaragua and St. Lucia formerly maintained diplomatic relations with China, but they switched back to Taiwan during the competition between Beijing and Taipei for diplomatic allies, the so-called checkbook diplomacy. Washington is trying to ensure that Nicaragua, Paraguay, St. Lucia, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and St. Vincent continue their ties with Taiwan, but Chinas Belt and Road Initiative investments are more than what the Trump administration, which is slashing foreign aid, can match or exceed. Moreover, Chinese students by the thousands are studying Spanish and Portuguese, a clear indication that China is planning for a major move into the Western Hemisphere and its plans to stay in the region. In January 2018, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi invited the 33 members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), meeting in Santiago, to join the One Belt, One Road initiative, the former name for the Belt and Road Initiative. CELAC was established by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as an alternative to the U.S.-dominated Organization of American States (OAS), a leftover from Americas gunboat diplomacy era of ensuring that Latin American countries were governed by banana republic dictators subservient to Washingtons whims. Panama was the first to sign up for the Belt and Road and it was soon followed by Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bolivia. The Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Suriname followed a few months later. Venezuela, which supports the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, began trading its oil in Chinese yuan, a clear rebuke of the Trump administration, which has threatened a military invasion of Venezuela. Following the CELAC-China Summit in Santiago, the foreign ministers of Barbados, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and Jamaica announced they were interested in the Belt and Road program. At the CELAC-China Summit, China outlined its Five Principles governing its relations with the Western Hemisphere. Chinas Five Principles were originally spelled out in the 1950s by Premier Zhou Enlai and served as the basis for Chinas relations with the Nonaligned Movement. The principles are: 1) Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty; 2) Mutual non-aggression; 3) Mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs; 4) Equality and mutual benefit; 5) Peaceful co-existence. When these principles are compared to the bellicosity of Yanqui imperialism inherent in the Monroe Doctrine, hemispheric nations recognize that the OAS, the Inter-American Development Bank, and other contrivances based in Washington that are used to mask American, and, increasingly, Canadian paternalism over Western Hemisphere affairs are threats to their sovereignty and independence. And China brings to the table infrastructure projects that Washington is not prepared to offer without massive political, economic, and military strings attached. Sino-Latin American ties have a strong historical basis. Chinese and Latin American anthropologists and archaeologists are continually discovering ancient links between China and pre-Columbian civilizations in South and Central America. Artifacts discovered from the ancient Peruvian Chavin culture that began around 1000 BC suggest strong links to the Shang Dynasty of China, which existed between 1600 and 1046 BC. Other anthropologists are uncovering clues that point to possible Shang and Ming Dynasty contact with the Aztecs and Olmec civilizations of Mesoamerica. Chinese DNA has also been discovered among the indigenous people who live in the Mexican state of Nayarit, on the Pacific. Ancient Chinese maps also point to Chinas early knowledge of the great landmass to the east, now known as the Americas. China is playing up these possible ancient links to the peoples and nations of the Western Hemisphere. Compared to the post-Columbian contributions of Europeans to the hemisphere: genocide, conquest, destruction of culture and religion, and the introduction of venereal disease, smallpox, and other imported pathogens, China has an advantage over the United States, which is known for its own genocide of its own Native American population and wars of imperialism in Central and South America and the Caribbean. After Mr. Trumps invocation of the Monroe Doctrine before the UN General Assembly, his policy of separating parents and their children from Central America at the southern U.S. border and sending them to separate concentration camps, and his repeated threats to invade Venezuela, there should be little surprise that China is being welcomed with open arms throughout the hemisphere. Latin America is also filling a trade vacuum left by Trumps tariffs on China. One-third of Brazils trade surplus is thanks to exports to China. China has provided lifeline loans to Venezuela, which has suffered from crippling sanctions and Central Intelligence Agency-financed destabilization by the United States. The Chinese-Chilean free trade agreement of 2006 stands in sharp contrast to Trumps trade war with China. From January to August 2017, Chinese-Latin American trade exceeded $166 billion, an increase of 18 percent from the same period in 2016. As Mr. Trump expanded his trade war and returned the United States to its old paternalistic policy toward the hemisphere, China was willing and eager to pick up the slack. Chinas Maritime and Land Silk Roads are being extended from Greenland above the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego in the sub-Antarctic. These Silk Roads are bypassing the United States, as Mr. Trump and his lethargic and outdated policies make the United States even more irrelevant in a modernizing world. How effective is the S-300 PMU-2 "Favorit" that Russia has just delivered to Syria? Especially when employed against the F-35 stealth fighters that Israel intends to make more use of when attacking targets in Syria? Who has the edge? This is truly a hot topic for the press right now. It would be better, of course, to avoid the military hostilities and leave this as a theoretical, unanswered question, because no definite answer is possible until a real shootout takes place. Stealth technology includes both active and passive measures that reduce visibility and the chance of detection. Some of those are classified, as are the specifications and capabilities of the S-300. This makes it much more complicated to offer predictions or conclusions. But the known facts can be considered impartially and objectively. Israeli officials play down the significance of the shipment of the S-300 to Syrian government forces. The operational abilities of the air force are such that those (S-300) batteries really do not constrain the air forces abilities to act, said Tzachi Hanegbi, Israels regional cooperation minister. You know that we have stealth fighters, the best planes in the world. These batteries are not even able to detect them. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in April that if anyone attacks us, we will retaliate, regardless of S-300, S-700 or any anything elses presence there. The Pentagon has also cast doubt on the S-300s effectiveness. Lets give the devil his due. The F-35 is a fine example of low observable aircraft with extraordinary capabilities. Its a formidable weapon, but so is the S-300. If the worst happens, Israels high-end F-35I Adir aircraft will be checkmated by this Russian-made, state-of-the-art air-defense system. A stealth aircraft is not invincible. It has its strengths and weaknesses. In Syria, Israeli F-35s will be up against a tight, integrated air-defense network with multiple radars trying to detect and track the target from different directions. Excessive use of stealth technology restricts the combat capabilities of an aircraft like the F-35. A plane based on stealth technology does not perform exceptionally well in combat. It cannot carry many weapons because everything is hidden inside the body. Its ability to remain invisible is reduced as soon as the radar is turned on. Low frequencies can detect a stealth aircraft. A bomb bay that has been opened to launch weapons will also give the plane away. The S-300s 48N6E2 missiles boast single-shot kill probability of 80% to 93% for an aerial target, 40% to 85% for cruise missiles. and 50% to 77% for theater ballistic missiles. The Russian system uses the 96L6 all-altitude detector and acquisition radar, which works in L-band. It has a 300 km range and enhanced resolution. The S-300 PMU-2 version can detect and track 100 targets. The radar is said to be able to detect stealth targets. Large wavelength radiations are reflected by invisible aircraft. Radar that operates in the VHF, UHF, L and S bands can detect and even track the F-35 without transmitting weapons-quality track. It is true that no accurate targeting is possible, but at least you can tell where the plane is. The S-300s vertically launched missiles can be re-targeted during flight. The explosion is so powerful that no kinetic kill is needed. Multiple killing elements will strike targets throughout the vicinity. The IAF F-35s still need to be integrated with other assets in order to enhance their chances of carrying out missions. Just to be on the safe side, they will probably be escorted by electronic warfare aircraft, which are not stealth, thus giving away their position and providing the enemy with enough time to take countermeasures. Israel has only 12 F-35s, with 50 more arriving by 2024. The price tag for each is about $100 million. Itll be a long time before they are in place and integrated into the Air Force. And twelve are simply not enough. Besides, the aircraft still needs to be upgraded with the full operational capability of Block 3F and subsequent Block 4 software and hardware configurations. Once the S-300s are operational, all other Israeli non-stealth planes will face huge risks any time they fly an offensive mission into Syria. It should also be taken into account that Russia will jam the radar, navigation, and communications systems on any aircraft attacking targets in Syria via the Mediterranean Sea, as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned on Sept. 24, 2018. Israel boasts a broad repertoire of standoff weapons, along with highly advanced electronic warfare systems and enhanced cyber capabilities. It also has very experienced and well trained personnel. Nevertheless, the S-300 in Syria is a deterrent to be reckoned with. Hopefully, the peace process in that war-torn country will move forward and there will be no escalation to provoke an S-300 vs. F-35 fight. Iranian military leaders admit that their air force, despite remarkable efforts to improvise, is in sad shape. There are about fifty modern fighters capable of flying and fighting. Half of these are American F-14s from the 1970s. Although frequently refurbished none have been upgraded much although Iran claims two F-14s have received some modern equipment. Iran has about 30 flyable MiG-29s, all built in the late 1980s and none have received the upgrades most other MiG-29s of that period have received. Russia helped supply components to keep most of the 36 MiG-29s Iran received by 1991 flying. The only notable upgrade was to enable these aircraft to use Iranian made anti-ship missiles. With Chinese help, Iran has kept about fifty of its 1960s vintage F-4 fighter-bombers operational, but as reconnaissance aircraft and bombers. Iran has about fifty of its nearly fifty year old F-5 fighter-bombers flyable. These, like the F-4s, are considered dangerous to fly given their age and improvised maintenance and repairs over the years. The pilots dont get a lot of time in the air and are this much less capable than the Arab fighter pilots they face, who have modern, well maintained Western warplanes that are regularly upgraded and flown a lot. Iran also has about 60 elderly Russian ground attack aircraft; mainly Su-24s and Su-22s plus a few Su-25s. Iran has tried to create new aircraft by heavily modifying F-5s but this has not produced any significant results other than ten aircraft that are flyable but not very capable. After arch-enemy Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003 (by a U.S.-British invasion) Iran felt free to concentrate on refurbishing more of its elderly warplanes. With more money and manpower diverted to this program a lot of the older aircraft were made operational once more. In 2013 Iran announced that ground crews and other technical personnel at an air force base had spent 45,000 manhours to get two Mirage F1 fighters back into flying condition. Iran received 24 of these aircraft from Iraq in 1991, when Saddam ordered most of his combat aircraft to fly to Iran and surrender (rather than be bombed by coalition aircraft). Iran kept all these aircraft but found it difficult to operate them, especially if none were already in the Iranian Air Force. The aircraft did not come with any support or maintenance equipment and especially no spare parts. Over the years, some parts and maintenance equipment were obtained, but in two decades these older aircraft, left outside most of that time, deteriorated. The two Mirages restored did not remain flyable for long. That made it clear that many of these refurbs just were not the effort. Meanwhile, China proved willing and able to supply some parts and electronics that could be used in the American warplanes. Refurbishing older warplanes meant taking them apart, obtaining (via China, smugglers or local manufacture) new or used parts, replacing the defective ones and then reassembling it all. The two refurbished Mirage F1s managed to fly, but since then little has been heard or seen of them. This sort of thing seems like a useful way to keep ground crews busy when the air force cant get enough money to let even the flyable aircraft fly much. Fuel and spares cost money, money that Iran does not have. Earlier news stories have mentioned similar refurbishing projects for F-14s, F-5s, F-4s, and MiG-29s which have been more successful, up to a point. The Iranian problem is that three decades of sanctions have made it impossible to replace obsolete and worn out gear or even maintain the elderly systems they have to rely on. For example, Iran has been having increasing problems keeping its 1970s era F-5s operational. The ones that are still flying tend to crash a lot or not be available for use because of maintenance problems (including spare parts shortages). Spare parts for all U.S. aircraft Iran still uses have been hard to come by. Iran has managed, sort of. Nevertheless, the Iranian Air Force is largely a fraud. It has lots of aircraft that, for the most part, sit there but can't fly because of age and lack of replacement parts. Those that can fly would likely provide target practice for enemy fighters. The Iranian Air Force is still recovering from the effects of the 1979 revolution, which led to an embargo on spare parts and new aircraft. Despite that, many Iranian warplanes remain flyable but only for short periods. The main reason for even that is an extensive smuggling operation that obtains spare parts. Two of their aircraft, the U.S. F-4D and F-5E Tiger, were widely used around the world. Somewhere, someone had parts for these planes that Iran could buy. That was the main reason so many of these are still flying for the Iranian air force, although only about half of those declared flyable are capable of doing so at any time. This was less the case with Iran's most expensive warplane, the U.S. F-14 Tomcat. Iran was the only export customer of this aircraft. Some F-14s have been kept flyable, despite the rumored sabotage of Iran's AIM-54 Phoenix missiles by U.S. technicians as they were leaving. To demonstrate this, they sent 25 F-14s on a fly-over of Tehran in 1985. Today, Iran can still put at least 20 F-14s into the air on short notice. The manhours spent on keeping these aircraft flyable is far greater than any other user had to devote to that. Iranian pilots are not very experienced but their aircraft maintainers are, which would be an asset if Iran could obtain modern aircraft. Iran has sought to buy new foreign aircraft. In the 1990s, with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, they sought to buy from Russia. Despite the low prices, a combination of Western pressure (to not sell) and the lack of Iranian money for high-ticket items, not too many aircraft were obtained. One unforeseen opportunity was the 1991 Gulf War. Many Iraqi aircraft (most of them Russian-built) fled to Iran to avoid the American attack. The Iranians never returned them. Iran ended up with up to 60 MiG-29s. There were also 18 Su-24s, a force that was expanded by more purchases from Russia. Black market spare parts have been available, but the MiG-29 is a notoriously difficult aircraft to maintain, even when you have all the parts you need. Iran currently has about two hundred fighters and fighter-bombers that are flyable but most of these are good for only about one sortie a day. All of these are subject o breakdowns that can keep them on the ground for days or weeks. The chronic shortage of spare parts limits the number of hours the aircraft can be flown. This means pilots lack good flying skills. The poor maintenance and untrained pilots leads to more accidents. Finally, there is an ideological problem. The IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps), a special force staffed by men loyal to the clerical dictatorship, exist mainly to ensure that the armed forces, especially the air force, remain loyal to the religious dictatorship. The IRGC has blocked Iranian Air Force plans to obtain modern warplanes (as a result of the 2015 treaty that lifted most sanctions) until they had assurances that IRGC personnel would be integrated into the squadrons operating these new aircraft. The air force leaders pointed out that such a policy would interfere with training and combat use of the new aircraft. With the Americans reviving the sanctions and Russia burdened by another set of sanctions imposed after Russian attacked Ukraine in 2014 and threatened other East European nations, it would be very difficult to obtain new warplanes from Russia. China will supply aircraft components but not new aircraft in part because most modern aircraft China builds are illegal copies of Russian designs. China and Russia are still at odds over that but one thing China has apparently agreed to is not exporting the disputed designs. Thus Iran is stuck with the oldest, least capable fleet of warplanes in the Middle East. No wonder Iran has put so much effort into building ballistic missiles and, eventually, nuclear weapons. President Dutertes war on drugs had a secret component which is now becoming visible. Early on Duterte ordered unpublicized investigations of senior police officials because it was widely believed that there were many senior police commanders who worked for the drug gangs and were discrete enough to avoid any of the usual anti-corruption screening efforts. Duterte had detected the presence of high-level untouchables during the 22 years he was the mayor of Davao City in the southeast. The latest revelations include the arrest of four police colonels and two majors as well as going public with details of how corrupt officials tried to frame a Marine Corps colonel who was secretly working undercover to gather evidence on high-level corruption. This secret and persistent approach to revealing and eliminating corruption, especially crooked senior police and civilian officials is making Duterte a lot of enemies in the government. It is anti-corruption efforts like this mean that Duterte remains popular. His current approval rating is 78 percent. That is down from 84 percent shortly after he took office in 2016. Approval peaked at 85 percent in late 2016 and hit a low of 75 percent earlier this year. There are many foreign critics of the Duterte war on drugs but for the people most affected by it there is approval. President Duterte seems to agree with the growing number of Filipinos who believe that trying to work out a deal with China over Chinese claims on Filipino territory is not working. China talks a lot about economic benefits for the Philippines but has made it clear so far that this is mostly talk and very little action. Worse, China has demonstrated that it is relentless in going after what it wants. And when China gets what it wants, it soon wants more. October 8, 2018: In the south (Maguindanao province), soldiers encountered a group of armed BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) Islamic terrorists. There was a brief gun battle and then the BIFF men fled, leaving four rifles and some other gear behind. This indicates that some of the BIFF men were wounded. BIFF survived a three month effort (that ended in early September) to eliminate their presence in Mindanao (where most BIFF members are). Over a hundred BIFF men were known dead and it is not yet known how many died of wounds or deserted. The army has found several BIFF camps including one with a bomb workshop. Also found were ammo and weapons supplies as well as military equipment and documents. When the army planned this offensive they believed there were as many as 400 BIFF members in the area of operations and have set no end date on the current campaign. The 6th Infantry Division, which is supplying most of the troops, were able to rotate units in and out of the area for months. The object was to destroy BIFF presence on Mindanao Island (including Maguindanao province) and captured documents and prisoner interrogations indicate that this was a possibility. But the reality is the BIFF are hardcore and consider themselves a branch of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). BIFF has become a magnet for many Filipino Moslems who are unhappy with the Bangsamoro agreement and believe it does not go far enough (ISIL believes that all Filipinos should be Moslems). October 6, 2018: U.S., Filipino and Japanese marines conducted a joint training exercise in the Philippines. Japan recently revived its special naval infantry force, which disappeared at the end of World War II. The new version is based on the American model as is that of the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea. The Filipino army declared an end to its war with MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front). Actually, there was a peace deal with MILF in 2012 that ended fifteen years of fighting with MILF. That violence left over 120,000 dead (mostly Moslems in the south). In 2012 MILF had about 10,000 armed followers and now has somewhat fewer. This is not the first time a peace deal was made. An earlier one, in 1989, was signed and many Islamic separatists disarmed. But many more radical separatists did not, formed MILF and kept fighting. Now even many MILF members are tired with all the fighting and few results. September 15, 2018: In the south (Sulu province) Abu Sayyaf released three Indonesian fishermen they had kidnapped in January 2017. Two Indonesian sailors (taken four days ago) are still being held by Abu Sayyaf, the last of 36 Indonesians kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf since 2016. Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have set up a joint anti-piracy operation in the Sulu Sea where most of these kidnappings take place. This has reduced the number of successful kidnappings, which has hurt Abu Sayyaf financially because the Islamic terror group has come to depend on ransoms to finance its operations. At least one Abu Sayyaf leader is known to be forming a new kidnapping operation. There has not been a lot of Abu Sayyaf kidnapping success in the last two years because the Filipino military and the joint anti-piracy patrol have made difficult for inexperienced kidnappers to succeed. But the new group, led by Indang Susukan, is considered a serious threat. Susukan was thought to be dead, but his body was never found and now we know why. In the south (Sultan Kudarat province) marines clashed with NPA rebels after responding to a tip from locals. One marine was killed and one wounded before the NPA men fled. The NPA continues to lose popular support, sources of income and active members. Apparently, NPA loses more armed members to combat and desertion than it can replace by recruitment. NPA is a creation of the Filipino Communist Party which is still active in urban areas and academic circles. That does not provide many new recruits or much financial aid. Meanwhile support from the people continues to dwindle as the rural Filipinos NPA gunmen operate near see the communist rebels as gangsters not liberators. September 14, 2018: In the south (Sulu province) an army patrol encountered about a hundred Abu Sayyaf men and during a brief battle seven Islamic terrorists were killed and six wounded and captured. The army suffered seventeen wounded, many by grenade fragments. More of the Abu Sayyaf men may have been wounded before they broke into smaller groups and fled into the bush. One of the dead Islamic terrorists was a known Abu Sayyaf leader. September 13, 2018: In the south (Davao Oriental province) two separate clashes with NPA rebels left two rebels and one soldier dead. Four soldiers were wounded. Clashes like this disrupt NPA operations and often lead to the discovery of remote NPA camps that can be destroyed (by ground troops, artillery or airstrikes). September 12, 2018: The Philippines is negotiating a treaty that could allow China to share, with the Philippines, oil and natural gas revenue from portions of the South China Sea where China claims control of areas that are Filipino according to current international agreements. This deal is unpopular with a lot of Filipinos as well as with neighboring countries also being pressured by China. Malaysian leaders warn that Chinese offers of massive investments come with too many strings and have proved to be more about enriching China and not the country receiving these investments. Any agreement with China on who gets what in Filipino parts of the South China Sea will have to be approved by the Filipino legislature and that is where the Chinese will probably encounter the most opposition. These negotiations ultimately failed. PHOTOS How to save yourself from buying fake products on the internet According to the Global Brand Counterfeiting, global sales on counterfeit items reached $1.8 trillion by the end of 2020. An increasing number of people are shopping online every year and more fake products are being sold to consumers every day. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau and the U.S. Government Office of Accountability, here is how to avoid buying these counterfeit goods when shopping online. (Noah McGee, The Active Times) Bardwell Principal Twila Garza said Formas was well known in the school, as she taught all 850 students and staff how to use computers, tablets and related software. She also formed an after-school technology club in her time at Bardwell, teaching students coding and robotics. About a dozen students were participating in the club this school year. A near-average Southwest Pacific Tropical Cyclone season is forecast this year, meaning any number from seven to 11 named cyclones occurring between November and April. Three or four of these are expected to be severe, of Category Three or higher. New Zealand, however, is typically only affected by one ex-tropical cyclone on average over this period and the coming season is expected to be normal. Every year MetService, New Zealands official Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre (TCWC), works alongside NIWA, Australias Bureau of Meteorology and national meteorological services from other Pacific nations to produce a Tropical Cyclone Outlook for the coming season. The average number of named tropical cyclones in the Southwest Pacific (including the Coral Sea) is about 10 per season. TCWC Manager and severe weather expert Chris Noble says cyclone activity started particularly early this year with the development of Tropical Cyclone Liua in September. Despite the early start, we expect a near average number of cyclones to form in the coming season between November 2018 and April 2019, he says. MetService will begin to issue its daily Tropical Cyclone Potential Bulletin from 1 November, or earlier if considered necessary. The bulletin is issued on the Metservice website at https://www.metservice.com/warnings/tropical-cyclone-activity This year, with the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle tending to El Nino conditions, tropical cyclone activity is expected to be higher than normal to the east of the International Date Line, and lower further west, says Chris. Although the tropical cyclone season typically runs from the start of November until the end of April, cyclone development doesnt always follow the calendar and cyclones can form outside the season, such as TC Liua. All communities throughout the South Pacific, including New Zealand, are encouraged to prepare for the coming cyclone season and remain vigilant for developing cyclones or other severe weather. It does not take a direct hit or a severe cyclone to cause significant damage or life-threatening weather. If severe weather is forecast, we urge the public to follow official advice from national meteorological services, disaster management offices or local civil defence. Around the globe, the role of monitoring and warning for tropical cyclones is performed by a WMO designated Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) or a Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre (TCWC), depending on the location of the cyclone. TCWC Wellington, based at MetService, has warning responsibility for the area that extends from 160E to 120W between 25S and 40S. Although it is very rare for a tropical cyclone to form in the TCWC Wellington area of responsibility, intense tropical cyclones do arrive from the neighbouring Brisbane or Nadi areas and they often retain their named cyclone status until near 30S. Sometimes an ex-tropical cyclone will approach and may even cross New Zealand as was the case last season when former cyclones Fehi and Gita brought severe weather along with storm surge and coastal inundation to parts of the country. If cyclones are expected to impact New Zealand with severe weather, official advice will be provided via Severe Weather Outlooks, Watches and Warnings issued by MetService. Even if land areas are not affected, warnings are still issued for vessels over the open sea. For more information on Tropical Cyclones including Category ratings, visit https://about.metservice.com/our-company/national-weather-services/tropical-cyclones/ 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 The first lot of earth works will be starting on Wednesday October 10 on the new Papamoa War Memorial. The earth works will be taking place at the Stella Place carpark where come November 11, the memorial will stand. Councillor for Tauranga City Council Steve Morris says that there are more additions planned to go with the memorial. Due to the generosity of Mike Burrows from Burrows Concrete, he is putting in the foundation and the plinths and weve got the granite spire which is going on top of the plinths. The granite is currently being engraved at the moment. In addition to that, Sean Cowan from J. A. Russell Electrical in Mount Maunganui are going to be lighting the memorial up. So we are getting the wiring in to light it up and itll be lit up before ANZAC Day next year. A flagstaff will also be going up at the memorial site, with a flag being donated from the local iwi Nga Potiki. A flag staff is a bit more sophisticated than just a flag. It is also a smaller version than the one you would find at Waitangi. The New Zealand Flag, donated by the local iwi, will be going on top. Its got some brilliant symbolism as well. The flagstaff will be lit up at night as well, and that will be going up there and will be ready hopefully by ANZAC Day next year. The priority is to get the memorial in by November 11 and then we will light it up and do some landscaping, and then put the flagstaff up which can fly three flags on ANZAC Day. Steve says that they are really dedicating the space to the memorial. We are also thinning out the trees from behind so that it is really visible from the road, and it will be lit up beautifully, and it will just be awesome. Im just so grateful to the Papamoa community because this is their memorial and they have fundraised for it totally. We have totally done it ourselves as a community and its going to be a place thats suitably high profile up there and its going to be a place for that. Its going to be a place of a suitable size and scale and position thats going to reflect those who have given our lives so that we can live the way we do today. Man on the left is where the flagstaff will be and on the right is where the memorial will be. Image: Steve Morris. Despite the Bay of Plentys nippy, wet winter conditions, one of New Zealands biggest commercial tamarillo crops is tucked away up a winding driveway, growing along hill slopes, at Pongakawa. And its become a family affair with Andy and Rachel Fowlers three young sons Tom, 11, Mac, 9, and Hugh, 7 all playing a part in the business. Only 10 years ago Andy and Rachel bought 8ha of bare land, which was grazing drystock, with no plans for tamarillos. Today, they have 3000 trees producing roughly 50 tonne per season, making it one of the largest producers of the fruit for the domestic retail market. Their property is aptly called Ngapuke orchards. Andy says Ngapuke means the hills which their property has and is a name tied to his familys old farm at Port Waikato. So it has a special meaning for us. Bare land Weve had this piece of land since 2008. When we got here there was not one single tree on it, says Andy. Today, large trees, shelterbelts and a family orchard engulf nearly every corner, making a shaded haven for the crop. And there were no plans for tamarillos. No way, says Andy. I just did a bit of a trial with one block about eight years ago and wondered how it would go. It went quite well so I put in another block and another blocknext thing I knew wed got everything we had in tamarillos. Andy got the idea for tamarillos from his father Bill. He had some in about 100 plants. I thought it would probably go quite well here so I gave it a crack. The operation has also helped the family create the lifestyle they want. Being a winter crop is ideal for the Fowlers leaving the summer free for play. We do a lot of boating in summer so this crop suits our family lifestyle. Its about creating the life we want, says Andy, who works full-time on-orchard. Hes the first admit tamarillos are a hard crop to grow. Mainly this is due to pests and diseases, wind and frosts. And rain, chirps in Tom. Andy agrees. Hmm. Andy says their biggest challenge is the psyllid pest insect, which sneaked past NZs biosecurity radar in 2006. Wind-borne, the 2mm psyllid, which looks like a small cicada carries the bacterial pathogen liberibacter that causes rapid dieback of tamarillo trees. It just kills the plant, says Andy, who undertakes a control programme using pesticide to maintain his crop. But lately I dont know if the psyllid population in NZ has dropped, or weve just got better at management were getting less and less damage. Good quality fruit Andy says they have to use insecticides to curb damage from psyllids, which he concedes isnt ideal but you wouldnt be able to grow a viable commercial crop without using them. And while fungicide application combats the common problem of mildew, tamarillos also get white fly, and aphids. To prevent frost curbing crop growth Andy has two windmills. But the propertys 8ha of hills and slopes is fairly frost and wind-free. Andy says while tamarillos are hard to grow, more difficult is producing good quality fruit. Thats the hard part growing fruit that is not second grade. So how do you achieve this? Lots of shelter, more shelter and good management. My orchard is really sheltered compared to most. Like overly sheltered. We have less trees per ha than other tamarillo growers but the fruit is good quality so I think this makes up for it. Im one of the higher producers in the NZ per ha, at around 25/tonne per canopy ha. Andys tamarillo season goes from June-November. Last year oldest son Tom wanted to buy a new motorbike, after discovering a love for motocross. I suggested he could pick up tamarillos off the orchard floor and sell them at Tauranga Farmers Market. And thats what he did. Tom picks up the fruit that is waste product to us. Toms Tams Tom worked hard last season and was able to get his new bike a Honda CRF125. This season hes back. We went dollar for dollar. If he earned half I promised to pay the other half of the bike, says Andy, who believes Tom has learnt about financial goals and responsibility with money. We havent just given it to them. Motocross is an expensive hobby so they have to earn their bikes so they appreciate the value of money. Andy says market-goers love Tom. I think Tom is one of the youngest stallholders and they love seeing him there. Tom, who goes Pongakawa School with his brothers, fits in his tamarillo collecting around a busy schedule of school, fishing and motocross. When I first started motocross I had a Honda CRF125. Then I did a few races and really enjoyed it, so I raced a KTM85. Thats what I bought from my tamarillo money from last season, says the Year 7 pupil. Im still trying to pay it off, says Tom, who reckons he learnt quite a lot about growing tamarillos. Now Tom has instigated paper bags for his fruit sales, to be environmentally-friendly. And younger brothers Mac and Hugh are getting involved. Mac spent last school holidays picking up reject fruit to sell to a chutney lady, while Hugh is supplying tamarillos to Depot celebrity chef Al Browns restaurant in Auckland. Oddly enough, Tom doesnt like tamarillos unlike the rest of the family. Rachel, a keen cook, is always experimenting with recipes and has just mastered a nice tamarillo sorbet recipe, while Andy says theyre really nice in a crumble or dehydrated. With six current Blackcaps in their lineup they were expected to give Otago a torrid time, and that looked to be duly coming to pass as they rolled the visitors' inexperienced batting lineup for just 108 inside the first session. But they wouldn't have been expecting to have to rely on a swashbuckling 50 from Trent Boult to give them a first innings lead. Earlier the world class Blackcaps pace bowler had started the demolition job on Otago, taking the wicket of former international opener Hamish Rutherford with just one run on the total, after skipper Daniel Flynn had won the toss and decided to bowl first on a lively-looking pitch with a green tinge about it. A regular procession of wickets followed, with Boult and his Blackcaps teammates Neil Wagner and Colin de Grandhomme sharing eight of them, but leaving two for the only non-international frontline bowler in the team, James Baker. Trent Boult took three Otago wickets before smashing his best ever first class score Otago's Josh Finnie departs having been bowled by Neil Wagner Northern Districts were unable to capitalise on their morning's efforts though, as the steady stream of wickets continued. Included in that collapse were Kane Williamson, who was looking forward to some good time in the middle before rejoining the international team for their trip to the United Arab Emirates to take on Pakistan. He faced just six balls for a single run. Other notable failures came from BJ Watling and de Grandhomme, who both failed to score. Captain Flynn and Daryl Mitchell, with 27 and 23 respectively, were the only recognised batsmen to show any resistance. When Boult arrived at the crease, batting at 10, they were eight wickets down with just 59 on the board, and looking odds on to give Otago a handy first innings lead. Crazy things often happen on the opening day of the season though, and before he was the last wicket to fall he'd hit six fours and five sixes, reached his highest ever first class score of 61, and bludgeoned his team through to 136, a lead of 28. The game drew a breath after that, and Otago settled down to some sensible batting in their second innings. They will resume on the second day tomorrow having reached 88 for just the loss of former ND player Brad Wilson's wicket. With both teams having rattled through their first innings on the opening day a result in the game looks odds on, even if the dodgy weather forecast for late tomorrow and Friday comes true. Chances are the match will be decided on Saturday, when the sun is expected to return. ND's slip cordon, including Kane Williamson, Trent Boult and wicketkeeper BJ Watling, appeals for an LBW decision Watling and Boult chase down an edge through the slips Otago's Jacob Duffy hits Neil Wagner for six Henry Cooper takes the catch to dismiss Duffy and end the Otago innings Bay of Plenty residents living with a rare form of cancer, where a chromosomal rearrangement causes the disease to mutate and spread throughout the body, are set to benefit from the Medsafe registration of a new medicine. According to the latest annual figures from the Ministry of Health 142 Bay of Plenty residents were diagnosed with lung cancer, which represents around seven percent of all Kiwis diagnosed with this disease. The data also shows that lung cancer makes up 10 percent of all new cancer cases in Bay of Plenty. Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common form of the disease and makes up about 85 percent of all lung cancers. An estimated four-five percent of people with NSCLC or, two out of every 100,000 Kiwis, have a change in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene. This type of lung cancer is called ALK positive non-small cell lung cancer and can result in an abnormal protein causing the cancer to grow and spread to other parts of the body. Unlike other forms of lung cancer, ALK+ NSCLC is most commonly diagnosed in people with a light or non-smoking history. Women are also more likely to be diagnosed with this form of the disease than men. Lung cancer patients with the ALK gene rearrangement also tend to be younger than most other NSCLC patients, with a median age of approximately 52. Philip Hope, CEO of Lung Foundation New Zealand says lung cancer kills five Kiwis every day in New Zealand, which is more than four times the national road toll. For far too long lung cancer has been a silent and hidden disease. It's crucial for people to understand the risk factors, recognise the symptoms and get their lungs checked without delay. Lung cancer symptoms can include a persistent, unexplained cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, noisy breathing coughing blood, excess phlegm and weight loss. "The earlier the detection, the more treatment options there are, he says. Philip says the treatment pathway for lung cancer is informed by molecular testing which can establish whether a patient is suited to one of the number of targeted therapies or immunotherapy. Philip further adds that currently Kiwis do not have the same access to innovative treatments like targeted therapies and immunotherapy as lung cancer patients in the majority of OECD countries - unless they fund it themselves. In New Zealand we dont reimburse the same number of innovative treatments as Australia, so chemotherapy is still the standard treatment for patients with advanced lung cancer in New Zealand, which can be considered an inferior treatment. We know that more than 7,300 people have donated money to help a friend or colleague with lung cancer fund treatment, says Philip. Patients are desperate, they are telling us they want to live longer, to have more time with their families and not be stigmatised or disadvantaged. They also want to have input with the reimbursement process, to see transparency with how individual treatments are evaluated and to have access to treatments that are readily available in other countries, when they need them, says Hope. Associate Professor Chris Atkinson and medical director of the Lung Foundation NZ says the first step in addressing lung cancer is to acknowledge that the disease kills more Kiwis than any other cancer. There are a multiplicity of drugs available to treat lung cancer, other than chemotherapy but we just dont have them available to New Zealanders unless they fund their own treatment and its exacerbating an inequity. It also introduces a new toxicity of lung cancer care - financial toxicity. For Maori and Pasifika people the inequity is greater in lung cancer than any other cancer, as they present late and therefore have fewer options and the chance of them self-funding is basically zero, he says. Philip says registration by Medsafe of a new medicine alectanib (Alecensa) which is a third generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is welcome news and an important step in the right direction. Trial data of Alecensa has shown it to stop patients lung cancer progressing for a median time of almost three years which is more than three times longer than the previous standard of care for patients with ALK+ NSCLC, crizotinib. The new medicine has also shown a complete or partial response in 83 percent of patients and decrease the risk of progression or death by 53 percent. Unlike current treatments, Alecensa is also able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, which is important as this type of cancer can spread to the brain if left untreated. Bay of Plenty If you love working out doors and in a small team then we have the role for you. We are needing someone who has either maintenance... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz LINCOLN EducationQuest Foundation reminds students and parents that the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) opened Oct. 1 for students planning to attend college during the 2019-20 academic year. The FAFSA is the application for federal, state, and college-based financial aid. You can complete the form at fafsa.gov on or after Oct. 1 using 2017 income tax data. Before starting the FAFSA, students should create a Federal Student Aid ID (FSA ID) at fsaid.ed.gov. Parents of dependent students must also create one. The IDs are needed to retrieve tax information and electronically sign the FAFSA. Colleges will use the results of the FAFSA to determine the types and amount of financial aid they will award. This could be a combination of scholarships, grants, work-study, and student loans. EducationQuest Foundation provides free FAFSA Tools at EducationQuest.org to help families through the process. For free personal help, call the EducationQuest location nearest you to set up an appointment: Omaha 888.357.6300, Lincoln 800.303.3745, Kearney 800.666.3721, or Scottsbluff 800.303.3745, ext. 6654. Student discipline, Internet and computer access and student bullying policies were discussed in Mondays Sidney Public School Board of Education meeting. The student discipline policy defines that students who violate school rules will face disciplinary consequences that may include expulsion from school. The policy further states that the school board will not consider an appeal of discipline unless the student and his or her family have first complied with procedures defined in the student handbook. Students who are short-term suspended will be given the opportunity to complete class work. Changes made to the policy include consequences for inappropriate classroom behavior not limited to cheating or plagiarism. In the Student Internet and Computer Access policy, most of the policy was kept intact. The change is in the definition of using email, chat rooms, instant messaging or other forms of direct electronic communication on school computers for any unauthorized or unlawful purpose or in violation of any school policy or directive. The policy clarifies that the District monitors all internet communication, Internet usage and patterns of Internet use. Students have no right of privacy when using school computers, Internet communications or other electronic files. The policy says any electronic files on the District system are subject to search and inspection at any time. Violation of the policy can result in loss of computer privileges, short-term suspension, long-term suspension or expulsion or other disciplinary measures as the school administration and school board deem necessary. Student bullying was also addressed. The policy defines bullying according to the Centers for Disease Control as any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths who are not siblings or current dating partners that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be physical, verbal or electronic abuse. The board discussed why there is an apparent exemption for siblings and dating partners. Sidney High School Principal Chris Arndt said school already has a policy addressing conduct between dating partners. The board also approved an overnight travel request for the Danz Team to compete at the State Danz competition. In Grand island Feb. 14-16. The board also discussed an Early Graduation request. Syracuse, N.Y. -- A $5 million state grant that was targeted for a nanotech center in Salina that never got off the ground is instead being used to promote the creation of drone industry jobs in Central New York and the Mohawk Valley. Five companies in the unmanned aerial systems, or drone, industry have already been awarded up to $3.4 million from the fund in exchange for commitments to create 181 jobs. Grants from the UAS Central Job Fund can be used to reimburse an employer up to $55,000 per job in order to increase the number of employees in the drone industry, as well as the autonomous vehicle and aerospace sectors, in Central New York and the Mohawk Valley. The money can be used for salaries, equipment, training, rent or purchase of space or other business expenses required to support the additional staff. Costs incurred for jobs filled prior to the grant approval are not eligible for reimbursement. In 2010, state officials announced plans to spend up to $28 million to redevelop the 74,000-square-foot building former General Electric Co. Electronics Laboratory building in Salina into a nanotechnology research and development center. The state spent $1.7 million of the $28 million in 2012 and 2013 to gut the building and remove asbestos and lead paint. However, no further development occurred because no nanotech industry tenant -- or any other tech industry tenant, for that matter -- took an interest in the building. Assemblyman Al Stirpe, D-Cicero, who helped to arrange the state funding for the failed nanotech center in Salina, said he and officials at CenterState CEO, which managed that project for the state, came up with the idea to use some of the unspent money to create the UAS job fund. "The main objective is to get a headquarters location in Central New York," he said. "That's where I think you get the big advantages." The state and CenterState CEO, an economic planning and development organization based in Syracuse, have been promoting Central New York and the Mohawk Valley as a place for drone industry research and development and manufacturing. The administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo has committed $30 million to developing the nation's first-of-its-kind 50-mile drone air corridor between Syracuse and Griffiss International Airport in Rome. The Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance, or Nuair, launched the first part of the corridor in 2017. The five companies that have been awarded grants from the job fund are: * AutoModality Inc., which has developed navigation technology that allows drones to automatically conduct close-up inspections of bridges, buildings, power lines and other structures, has committed to creating up to 59 jobs in Syracuse over the next seven years. Total project cost: $16 Million. Total state investment: $2 Million ($500,000 in Central New York Rising Upstate Revitalization Initiative funding, $1 Million from Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit Program and $500,000 the UAS Central Job Fund). * Northeast Information Discovery Inc., a cyber security research and development business that plans to build a facility in Canastota, has committed to creating up to 45 jobs over the next five years. Total capital cost: $1 million. Total state investment: $974,000. ($200,000 in Regional Council Capital Fund funding, $90,000 in Excelsior tax credits and $684,000 from the UAS Central Job Fund). * Thales USA Inc. has committed to creating up to 26 jobs in Central New York as it brings its air traffic management system to the 50-mile drone air corridor. Total project cost: $4.6 Million. Total state investment: $1.5 ($1 million in Excelsior tax credits and $500,000 from the UAS Central Job Fund). * Assured Information Security Inc. has committed to creating up to 12 new jobs in Syracuse and Rome as it launches a division focused on the cybersecurity of unmanned systems. Total project cost: $900,000. Total state investment: $240,000 from the UAS Central Job Fund. * Unifly, a Belgium-based company, will create up to 39 jobs as it establishes its North American headquarters in Central New York to deploy its software platform and support traffic management testing. Total project cost: $10 million in salaries over five years. Total state investment: $1.5 million from the UAS Central Job Fund). In addition, drone manufacturer Microdrones committed to creating four jobs but has already created seven in the region. It is not receiving money from the UAS Central Job Fund but is receiving benefits under the START-UP NY program. Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 SRC Inc., one of Central New York's fastest-growing companies, has boosted its expansion and hiring plans amid a surge in sales to U.S. military and international customers. The Cicero-based company plans to hire more than 300 employees within the next year while opening offices in Canada and the United Kingdom, said Paul Tremont, SRC's president and chief executive officer. About 200 of the new employees will be based in Central New York, while other new hires will fill openings in SRC regional offices in Dayton, Ohio; San Antonio; Charlottesville, Va., and Chantilly, Va., he said. Tremont said SRC's growth has produced a pleasant problem: It's running out of space at its corporate headquarters in Cicero and SRCTec manufacturing facility in North Syracuse. SRC has temporarily leased space in an office building at Pioneer Business Park in East Syracuse to accommodate an additional 50 employees in its growing workforce, Tremont said. The company is exploring options that include building or renovating facilities in Central New York to keep up with the growth. SRC increased its hiring projections for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, after initially planning to hire 200 new technicians, engineers and computer scientists. The engineering jobs start at $60,000 a year, and pay more depending on experience. The not-for-profit research and development firm announced last year that it planned to double its workforce by hiring about 1,000 new employees over five years. SRC now employs about 900 people at its corporate headquarters and manufacturing plant in Central New York, and about 1,300 nationwide. The company's sales have been fueled by growth in three core areas -- its radar, counter-drone systems and electronic warfare data analysis, Tremont said. He credited the company's decision to diversify and grow its international sales from zero in 2015 to "tens of millions" in fiscal 2018. Tremont declined to disclose specific revenue figures. He said the company's international customers include Canada and the United Kingdom. At the same time, SRC has diversified its U.S. customer base beyond the Army and Air Force. The Marine Corps last month awarded SRC a contract worth up to $93 million for the company's lightweight counter mortar radars, a mobile system that can detect incoming fire from any direction. In April, the Air Force awarded a contract worth $57.7 million to SRC for systems that can detect, identify and defeat enemy drones. Tremont spoke with Syracuse.com on Tuesday in between meetings with military brass visiting the SRC Inc. exhibit at the Association of the U.S. Army meeting and exposition in Washington, D.C. About 30,000 people and 700 exhibitors are at the annual meeting this week, including senior Army leaders and the world's largest defense contractors. At SRC's exhibit, visitors could pick up business cards that said. "We're hiring. Digital engineers. Software engineers. Systems engineers, Test engineers. More." The cards touted the company's benefits, a 10 percent employer contribution toward retirement and 100 percent tuition support. Tremont said the company has been able to fill its positions by recruiting locally and nationwide, often attracting new residents to Central New York who help boost the economy by buying homes and settling in the region. "I was at a new employee social last month and I met new hires from Seattle, two from California and one from Alaska," said Tremont, a Syracuse native. "That made me feel good because it's good for the community." Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 Syracuse, NY -- A DeWitt man rejected a plea offer today that would have sent him to prison for 25 years to life for murdering an acquaintance. Lester Shaffer, 37, is facing a first-degree murder charge, accused of killing Lyle Lyons during a drug robbery in December 2017 in the Midler Meadows mobile home park. Shaffer faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted of murder. Today, he turned down a prosecutor's offer for the 25-years-to-life sentence. A complicated web of phone calls, texts and other evidence links Shaffer to Lyons' murder, Chief Assistant District Attorney Melinda McGunnigle has said. Police first identified Shaffer as a suspect after finding hundreds of "contacts" between the two men prior to the murder. An item missing from Lyons' residence after the murder had Shaffer's DNA on it, police have said. Defense lawyer Ken Christopher said there's too much evidence to go over to be ready for the scheduled trial later this month. In August, Christoper said he'd already spent 100 hours reviewing the evidence and had hardly made a dent. He warned the judge then he needed more time. Today, County Court Judge Thomas J. Miller rescheduled Shaffer's trial date to Dec. 3. I am deeply humbled that I assume this extraordinary honor and privilege of continued leadership service, Rondeau said in a prepared statement. I have so much respect, affection and affinity for our College of DuPage community and our District 502 residents. We are a remarkable place and we have remarkable people working with dedication in the honorable and diligent mission of teaching and learning. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- An 18-year-old has been arrested in an early morning Sunday stabbing that killed a 19-year-old in Syracuse, according to Syracuse police. Keenan L. Davis, 18, of 134 Center St. in Cleveland in Oswego County was arrested Tuesday for stabbing Christopher Hickey, 19, at 1104 N. State St., police said Tuesday night. He faces charges of manslaughter and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, police said. "The difference between this and any open homicide investigation is witness cooperation," Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler said at a news conference. "If we get witness cooperation ... we can do a lot with a little. It's just a matter of getting folks to come forward." Fowler said they made the arrest by interviewing witnesses, canvassing the neighborhood and collecting physical evidence. Wynonna Hill, a neighbor, awoke to loud arguing around 12:50 a.m. Sunday, she said. She heard shouts and stepped outside, where she saw the aftermath of the stabbing, she said. Hill said she heard a woman recount how the stabbing happened to police. She said a woman and her boyfriend were arguing when the woman threw her boyfriend's phone on the ground. During a fight, a front-door window was smashed and shards of glass spilled to the ground. Hill said the victim, later identified as Hickey, was trying to protect his sister from her boyfriend when he was stabbed. The boyfriend was choking his girlfriend, Hill said. "When they were screaming at each other, they were like, 'Why would you choke her?'" Hill told Syracuse.com. "He said, 'I don't give a f**k. She threw my phone.'" Police say that at some point during the fight, Davis stabbed Hickey in the latter's torso with a knife. In an interview with Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard before an announcement of Davis' arrest on Tuesday, Davis' mother, Bobbijo Delamater, said Davis had been questioned by police. "He's not running," Delamater said of her son. "But he's not going to come in for something that he didn't do." Police arrested Davis in Cleveland at 5 p.m. Tuesday, but he has extensive ties in Syracuse, Fowler said. "He has a long, storied history here," Fowler said. When officers searched for Davis, they didn't find him where they initially looked, Fowler said. Delamater said her son has an attorney, who she declined to identify. The mother and son had been the target of Facebook posts from Hickey's family claiming Davis had stabbed Hickey and that Davis' family harbored their relative. "I don't know what happened. For everybody to sit there and call my son a murderer...," she said before police announced Davis' arrest. "Until the truth comes out, everybody needs to mind their own business." Davis is being held at the Onondaga County Justice Center and is set to be arraigned on Wednesday morning. Reporting contributed by Patrick Lohmann. SYRACUSE, N.Y. - We're searching for the steak in Central New York that's a cut above the rest. We asked you, the reader, to nominate your favorite place for steak in the area. We tallied all the nominations for steakhouses and other restaurants across Onondaga, Oneida, Oswego, Cayuga, Seneca, Cortland, Tompkins and Madison counties. The six places that received the most nominations have advanced to the finals. The final poll is open until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25. You can vote once per day. While the public votes on the readers' choice winner, our judges will visit the six finalists and taste the best they have to offer. The judging panel includes Best of CNY and Upstate New York writer and critic Jacob Pucci; managing producer Charlie Miller and beef farmers Mike and Lynda Foster, owners of Shepard Settlement Farm in Marcellus. Here's the criteria for our search: Taste: Texture/Tenderness: Appearance/Presentation: Our judges will visit the six finalists and taste the best they have to offer. Be sure to follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #BestOfCNY as the judges travel the region. You can also follow the judges' tour on Instagram at username syracusedotcom. On Oct. Tuesday, Oct. 30, once all the steaks have been tasted, we'll announce two winners--the judges' choice and readers' choice. Vote in our poll to decide the winner! Can't see the poll? CLICK HERE Note: Only votes originating from the United States will be counted. Fifteen miles of the Erie Canal runs through Madison County, and though the body of water was once central to New York state commerce, it now sits unused by many of its surrounding towns. That could all change, thanks to a $1.5 million state grant to develop the canalfront in the village of Canastota. Last week, the state announced the winners of the Reimagine the Canals competition, a project that accepted proposals to "enable the Canal System to become an engine for economic growth and world-class tourism." The Madison County Planning Department was one of two winners chosen from 145 entries to receive $1.5 million to make their proposal a reality. The team's winning idea is to develop a canal-side pocket neighborhood in the Village of Canastota. If successful, the new neighborhood would serve as a model for future developments elsewhere along the Erie Canal. Planners focused on Canastota because the Erie Canal runs right through the heart of its downtown, said Jamie Kowalczk, assistant director of the county's planning department. In Canastota, many new business have popped up along Main Street, which intersects with the canal. But just beyond these downtown businesses are old industrial buildings and vacant properties. The site location of the proposed pocket neighborhood in Canastota. But the Madison County Planning Department sees much greater potential for the land surrounding the canal. On a 2.5 acre parcel, a new community will emerge from the Reimagine the Canal competition. This pocket neighborhood, designed by the planning department in partnership with STREAM Collaborative and Camoin Associates, will fit the changing needs of people settling in Canastota, Kowalczk said. Suited for millennials, families and empty nesters alike, the canal-side pocket neighborhood will facilitate community and walkability. The idea is encourage businesses to open shop in the same neighborhood where people live, allowing for short commutes. The project includes 25 new housing units for different styles of living. The pocket neighborhood will also incorporate new shops and restaurants as well as green, public spaces with access to the water and canal trail to promote foot traffic. According to Kowalczk, heavy foot traffic, community-oriented living and close-to-home businesses will draw people to settle in Canastota. The project will make the canal front an "activated space" that appeals not only to locals but to tourists seeking a scenic, natural experience. Madison County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Becker thanked Cuomo for providing the funding to jump-start the canal projects which will boost New York's economy and shape the use of the canal for future generations. "The Reimagine the Canals Competition is an imaginative way to bring the very best ideas together to transform our canals and reinvigorate local economies," said Becker. "With the winners now selected, it is exciting to know that underutilized canal-side spaces will get new life with these innovative proposals." A Syracuse cop has been suspended with pay after state police arrested him twice in one day nearly 200 miles apart last month. New York State Troopers charged Ahmad H. Mims, 34, with assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon on Saturday, Sept. 15. The department suspended him the following Monday. Mims, of North Syracuse, was arrested by troopers in the Town of Clay and charged with second-degree menacing and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, both misdemeanors. The arrest stemmed from two domestic incidents involving a woman in July and August, according to Trooper Jack Keller. Mims was arraigned at centralized arraignment at 5 p.m. and released on his own recognizance. The same day, troopers arrested Mims in Lake George and charged him with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor. According to court records, he assaulted and injured a woman that he knew. He was arraigned the next day in Glens Falls City Court and released on either $1,000 cash bail or $2,000 bond. The judge granted the woman an order of protection, which means Mims can't go near her. Mims is due back in Glens Falls City Court on Dec. 13. The Syracuse Police Department suspended Mims on Sept. 17. He is on paid administrative leave pending the results of those arrests, according to Sgt. Richard Helterline, a police spokesman. Mims has been with the Syracuse Police Department since 2011. He made $106,710 last year. Mims is a member of the department's Crime Reduction Team, a high-profile, aggressive unit that deals with the city's worst criminals. He was promoted to that unit last year, according to a story in The Stand, a south side newspaper. Last year, he was one of two officers injured in a traffic stop during which the officers claimed a driver hit them with his van. Mims fired his weapon at the van -- which had the driver and three children inside -- as it fled. He did not hit anyone. He was placed on paid leave while the incident was investigated. EAST SYRACUSE, NY -- Though there were a few skeptics, the majority of speakers at Tuesday night's Central New York hearing into how the state should regulate recreational use of marijuana favor the idea of legalization. That fits with the agenda for the hearing: A state Health Department-led report commissioned by Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this year found that the positives of legal pot use outweigh the negatives. This hearing at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel near Carrier Circle -- one of 17 being held across the state -- was aimed at gathering public input into how to write the rules for recreational use. Many of the dozens of speakers used the phrase "when, not if" to describe New York's move to legalize -- and tax -- marijuana for more than medical purposes. "At last the powers that be seem to have accepted the idea ... it's not the devil's weed that government propaganda always told us it was," said Nicholas Eyle, a longtime Central New York advocate for legal, regulated drugs. There was some disagreement within the pro-legalization contingent about the best way to proceed. Some for example, support tight regulation. Dr. Brian Johnson, chairman of the Onondaga County Medical Society, favors state-controlled stores and outlets, arguing that is the best way to avoid unnecessary costs to taxpayers and control the distribution. "It's like alcohol -- the people who use it first thing in the morning get addicted," Johnson said. If the state is going to legalize it, he said, "... let the state get into the business of selling it." Others argued against tight state control. They contend New York's current controlled controlled medical marijuana program, which began in 2016, has led to state dispensaries that limit access and drive up costs to consumers. "I want to grown my own," said David Clifford, who has lived in states where marijuana use has been legalized. "I can do it better that anybody." Sarah Stenuf of Auburn, right, speaks on behalf of legalizing marijuana at a state hearing Tuesday on the issue at a hotel in East Syracuse. Other speakers also cited weaknesses in New York's current medical marijuana program as a reason for pushing ahead with legal use for all adults. Sarah Stenuf of Auburn is a U.S. combat veteran, who suffered a brain injury during a mortar attack in Afghanistan. New York's medical program doesn't go far enough is providing marijuana for those with seizures or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, she said. "I know what it's like to come home hopeless," said Stenuf, whio has founded Veteran's Ananda, a retreat for injured vets. "Cannabis saved my life." She argues that legalizing recreational marijuana would end "the stigmas and norms of our society" that hinder the drug's use for those in need. Many other pro-marijuana speakers cited the criminal prosecution for drug crimes that disproportionately affects low income and minority communities. "Marijuana prohibition has devastated communities across New York state," said Howie Hawkins of Syracuse, the Green Party candidate for governor in the upcoming election. He called drug enforcement "biased," leading to "mass incarceration of low income people of color." But other speakers urged the state to consider the dangers of legal pot use. Larry Carp, who said he has taught at Cornell and Syracuse universities, cited in particular the dangers of smoke. "It's poison -- it has the same toxins as tobacco smoke," Carp said. "Marijuana smoke is not racist -- it will go after anyone, anytime." Several doctors and pediatricians urged the state to consider the dangers of marijuana use on children. Dr. Cynthia Bright, a Camillus pediatrician, said legalizing marijuana could send a message to teens that the drug may not really be harmful. "The feeling that it is a benign thing" would make it difficult to convince teens not to try it, she said. "It (marijuana use) is proven to cause huge problems for children," Bright said. Tuesday's hearing was conducted by Sandra Houston, a consultant to Cuomo on marijuana legislation, with the assistance of state Department of Health staff. The results of the statewide "listening" sessions will be used to help determine how to proceed on marijuana laws, Houston said. Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook. Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His latest book is "The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World." By Robert Kagan | The Washington Post Sometimes a particular event, the fate of a particular individual, becomes a symbol of a global, historical trend. The reported murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, in a consulate in Istanbul is one of those moments. It symbolizes the departure of the United States as a restraining force against evil actors in the world. Saudi Arabia is a small nation that cannot defend itself without the support of the United States, and therefore no Saudi leader would have made such a brazen move without confidence that Washington, once the leader of the liberal world order, would do nothing. There have been many other similar warning signs: China's arrest of the head of Interpol; Myanmar's military campaign of genocide against the Rohingya; the systematic and deliberate slaughter of civilians in Syria, including by outlawed chemical weapons; the Russian invasion of Ukraine and seizure of Crimea. Nor are the rise of right-wing nationalist forces in Europe and elsewhere unrelated to the loss of strength and vitality among the democratic nations. Doubts about America have been reverberating across the globe for more than a decade, and others have been responding accordingly. When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban spoke out to celebrate the "illiberal state" a few years ago, he claimed he was only responding to new realities: "the great redistribution of global financial, economic, commercial, political and military power that became obvious in 2008." So welcome to the breakdown of the liberal world order the United States once upheld. You're seeing just the beginning. World order is one of those things people don't think about until it is gone. That's what Americans learned in the 1930s, as what had remained of the old European order collapsed and the United States refused to step in either to prop it up or to replace it. That's when Americans discovered that there are always dangerous people out there, lacking only the power and opportunity to achieve their destiny. They can be suppressed by a reasonably stable international order, whether of a Rome, a united Christendom, a European concert of powers, or whatever might pass for "civilization" at a given time and place. During such times, they live under the rocks, but they are never gone. When the prevailing order breaks down, when the rocks are overturned, the things living beneath them, the darkest elements of the human spirit, crawl out. That was what happened in the first half of the 20th century. The circumstances in which Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini rose to power -- a world in which no nation was willing or able to sustain any kind of international order -- gave them ample opportunity to show what they were capable of. Had there been an order in place to blunt those ambitions, we might never have come to know them as tyrants, aggressors and mass killers. Today the rocks are being overturned again. Those who have been arguing that we should pull back from the world and show greater restraint tell us we need to accept the world "as it is." But they have no idea what the world "as it is" really looks like. They grew up inside the bubble of protection provided by U.S. power and the liberal world order it sustained, a world in which other nations were forced to adjust their behavior to those realities of power. Russian behavior was shaped by what Russian leaders believed the United States would or had to tolerate, as well as by their sense of the liberal order's strength and cohesion. The same was true of China's behavior, and Iran's, and Saudi Arabia's, and that of every other nation or nonstate actor that might seek to disrupt or topple the existing order. All would have behaved differently if America had behaved differently, and so would America's allies and the rest of the world. We want to believe that Hitler and Stalin were bizarre products of another era. But the Hitlers and Stalins are all around us, waiting to reveal themselves if given half a chance. Today we know a Vladimir Putin who has grand ambitions but not yet the capacity to realize them. He reveres Stalin, but he is not Stalin. But what would a less constrained Putin be? Today a more powerful China is abandoning the cautious foreign policies of Deng Xiaoping's weaker China. What will an even less constrained China be like? Who can say whether either of these powers might in time become a threat on a par with those we faced in the past if they are allowed to expand their regional and global influence by military means? And how quickly might this happen? Quicker than we think. A character in Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises," asked how he went bankrupt, responds, "Gradually and then suddenly." That is a fair description of how the world order collapsed before the two world wars, and of how it likely will collapse in our own time. Welcome to the jungle. Steve LaPan, head of the DEC's Great Lakes Fisheries section. The state Department of Environmental Conservation's recently announced decision to cut back on the stocking of Chinook salmon in Lake Ontario during 2019 by 20 percent is getting some negative blowback from some charter boat captains and others. DEC officials, though, stand behind their research results and the decision to carry out the cuts. They emphasize their main priority is to responsibly manage and maintain a world -class fishery on the lake. According to a 2007 study, the lake's fishery provides the state with economic benefits totaling more than $113 million annually. The decision, comes on top of stocking cuts in 2017 and 2018 that had already reduced the number of Chinook put in the lake by 20 percent. Compared to 2016, the newest reduction will reduce the total number of Chinooks stocked in the lake by 40 percent. The criticism is surfacing at public meetings the DEC scheduled to discuss the plan and seek public input. Meetings were held last week in Lockport and Tuesday night in Rochester. A final meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Pulaski High School auditorium, 4624 Salina St., in Pulaski. Chinook salmon are the most sought after game fish on Lake Ontario. In this picture, Rich Maxwell, of Camillus, N.Y., with a nice Chinook salmon he caught on Lake Ontario fishing out of Oswego with Capt. Tony Buffa. The DEC's decision, which would involve stocking only 1.05 million Chinooks in the lake next year, is based on the status of the lake' alewife population. Chinooks feed almost exclusively on alewife, a type of herring native to the Atlantic Ocean that invaded the Great Lakes more than 100 years ago. DEC and U.S. Geological Survey bottom trawling studies this spring and other data collected indicate the lake is missing two, year classes of adult alewife - the result of severe winters in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015. The missing 2013 and 2014 year classes of alewife have created a hole in the baitfish's population. Given the current situation, Steve LaPan, head of the DEC's Great Lakes Fisheries section, told those at Tuesday's meeting in Rochester that there's no doubt Lake Ontario "is headed for some kind of event" in the next couple of years concerning the numbers of alewive in the lake. The result would be a situation where there would not be enough alewife to feed the stocked and wild chinooks in the lake. Large numbers of the baitfish are needed to support the voracious appetite that allows a salmon to grow over 30 pounds in four years. "(The two missing year classes of alewives are) creating a pothole down the road. We don't know how big or deep it will be. That's why we're starting the cuts now to shorten that duration of time," LaPan said, adding it would be irresponsible to just sit back, do nothing and "just roll the dice." Chinook salmon are the top choice of anglers who come from far and wide to fish Lake Ontario, in addition to those who come to fish the fall spawning runs up the lake's tributaries such as the Salmon River. The DEC's main concern is whether they'll be enough alewife to feed the lake's Chinook salmon. Critics question the science behind the decision and what they say is a lack of input from charter boat captains and others who this past year experienced a record-setting year for fish caught on the lake. Some charter boat captains have said they often saw ample numbers of baitfish on their fishfinders while out on the water and question the DEC's data-collection methods and data. LaPan answered that the charter boat captains should have seen large number of baitfish this year, but quickly added that beginning next year things will most likely be different. Capt. Vince Pierleoni, of Thrillseeker Sportsfishing Charters out of Olcott, said he and others "don't believe in the science" the DEC is pitching. He said there are no indications that the Chinook population is under stress or that there's a shortage of baitfish in the lake. "We expect to have good fishing the next year or two. We're riding on the coattails of a huge natural hatch. There are so many young fish out there. However, when we get the full effect of the 40 percent cut - and specifically if they decide to continue with it (for several years) - that's when the Chinook fishing in the lake will fall off the table," he said. "At the very least, they're being ridiculously conservative." Capt. Brian Garrett, of Tall Tails Sportfishing Charters in Oswego, and president of the Eastern Lake Ontario Salmon & Trout Association (ELOSTA), said the group's board is unanimously against the cuts. The Fairhaven Fisherman's Association is also against them, he said. In addition, some charter boat captains and others have started a letter-writing campaign to convince the DEC and state lawmakers that this is a bad idea. The crowd at Tuesday night's meeting at Braddock Bay Park in Rochester listens to DEC officials explain why the stocking cuts must be made. The anticipated DEC stocking numbers for 2019 are: Chinook salmon (1,056,960); lake trout (400,000), rainbow trout (615,700), brown trout (400,000), Atlantic salmon (50,000) and coho salmon (158,000). "On average, approximately 50 percent of the Chinook salmon originate from natural reproduction (wild fish)," LaPan said. "Approximately 50 percent of (stocked) Chinook salmon will be raised by sportsmen in net pen (spread along the lake' shore), which increases fish survival on average by two times." As for other fish, LaPan noted lake trout stocking in 2019 will remain at the 20 percent reduced level carried out in 2016 and 2017. LaPan noted the last time there was an alewife shortage and poor fishing was in the 1990s, when stocking cutbacks were implemented. He noted they worked and the fishery came back. The DEC is hopeful that a "relatively strong 2018 alewife year class will be detected in 2019," but that it's too early to tell for sure. LaPan said the DEC's counterparts in Canada are supportive of the DEC's decision and will soon be announcing steps they will be taking to address the issue. Currently, the DEC stocks around 75 percent of the lake's Chinooks. How long will the DEC's stocking cutbacks continue? "It depends on a robust distribution of adult alewife (in the lake) that have resiliency and stability," LaPan said. Steve Hurst, the DEC's chief of the Bureau of Fisheries, emphasized at the Rochester meeting that the overall 40 percent cutback in the Chinooks stocked is a "conservative" adjustment in the management of the fishery, noting some DEC staff proposed a 50 percent cut - and that one Canadian official advocated a complete halt to stocking, DEC officials noted the number of wild fish in the lake - estimated at 50 percent or more - could lessen the impact of the 2019 stocking cuts. "Given favorable wind and water temperature patterns, excellent fishing should continue in 2019," LaPan said. WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Tuesday that he would not allow a Supreme Court vacancy to be filled in 2020, a position that puts him at odds with the Senate's top Republican on an issue that has inflamed partisan tensions for more than two years. In an interview with Fox News Channel's Martha McCallum, Grassley was asked whether he believes the Senate should take up a hypothetical Supreme Court nomination during 2020, when President Trump will be up for reelection. "If I'm chairman, they won't take it up," said Grassley, whose committee is charged with holding hearings on Supreme Court nominees. "No, because I pledged that in 2016, that if the ball's the same as it is. Now, if somebody else is the chairman of the committee, they'll have to decide for themselves. But that's a decision I made a long time ago." In 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blocked the consideration of President Barack Obama's third nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. At the time, McConnell said that he was blocking Garland because voters "should have a say in the court's direction" on Election Day. The move infuriated Democrats, who accused Republicans of abandoning their constitutional duty to advise and consent. But on Monday, McConnell cited a different calculus, telling reporters in Louisville that opposition parties in control of the Senate do not traditionally confirm high court nominees during presidential election years. McConnell's remarks were viewed as a signal that he would be open to filling a potential Supreme Court vacancy in 2020. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Grassley would play a key role in the confirmation process. Yet the Iowa Republican has notably declined to shut the door to a potential switch to the Finance Committee next year. If Grassley does become chairman of the finance panel, his successor on the Judiciary Committee would likely be Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. For his part, Graham said last week that if an opening arises during the final year of Trump's term and the presidential primary is already underway, "we'll wait until the next election." Rep. John Katko is staking his bid for a third term in Congress on a promise to break through gridlock in Washington, a remarkable theme for a Republican whose party controls the House, Senate and White House. Katko's message: He's a moderate Republican trying to push his party into acting on the toughest issues of the day by working with Democrats in a hyper-partisan Congress. It may turn out to be a shrewd strategy in a Central New York congressional district that leans Democratic, but where Katko has demonstrated his cross-party appeal. He won by 20 percentage points over his Democratic opponents in both of his previous campaigns. In the 2016 election, Katko was one of only 23 House Republicans to win a congressional district carried by Hillary Clinton. Asked if his anti-gridlock message condemns his own party, Katko doesn't hesitate. He blames his fellow Republicans -- specifically hard-right conservatives -- for preventing Congress from acting on key issues such as immigration, infrastructure and healthcare reforms. He's especially frustrated by the reluctance of GOP leaders - who have a 42-seat House majority -- to reach across the aisle and compromise with Democrats on the biggest issues over the past two years. "Look at all of the legislation we got done," Katko said in an interview. "We got a lot done. But it was all Republicans without Democratic support. We've got to get back to the point where we think Democrats are as important as moderate Republicans." Dana Balter, the Syracuse Democrat challenging Katko in the 24th Congressional District election, doesn't believe Katko is sincere about wanting to work with Democrats. She said he talks a lot about bipartisanship and ending gridlock. But in the end, Katko is a reliable Republican vote on big issues who does little to push back against his party, Balter said. Katko said the House Freedom Caucus, about three dozen of the GOP's most conservative members, blocked Republicans from making bipartisan deals on some of the biggest issues before Congress over the past two years. He said the caucus represents the "extreme" wing of the party. "Yes, we have control of the House," Katko said. "Yes, we have control of the Senate. And we have a Republican president. But we still have the gridlock of not being able to move things that could be more bipartisan because of the extreme elements." Nathan Gonzales, a political analyst in Washington, D.C., said he hasn't seen other Republicans in Congress adopt a similar campaign message. Gonzales, who tracks House races as editor of the Inside Elections newsletter, said it's probably a good campaign theme for a candidate like Katko. "It sounds like the right message when you represent a district that Hillary Clinton carried, and that Barack Obama carried twice," Gonzales said. "It's not a typical Republican message because there aren't a lot of Republicans that represent districts like this." He said it's possible Katko will alienate some of his GOP base, but it's unlikely to hurt him because conservative Republicans won't vote for a Democrat. "It's better to brand yourself as part of the solution than being tied to being part of the problem," Gonzales said. Katko said the House Freedom Caucus chaired by Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., is a big part of the problem leading to gridlock. Meadows and his caucus wield disproportionate power within the GOP because of House rules that allow any single member to force a vote to oust the House Speaker, Katko said. Meadows followed through with that threat in the fall of 2015 when he authored a motion to oust former House Speaker John Boehner, ultimately leading to Boehner's downfall. The Freedom Caucus used that same threat of a no-confidence vote to keep House Speaker Paul Ryan from advancing bills where mainstream Republicans and Democrats are likely to compromise, Katko said. Katko, R-Camillus, co-chairs the 50-member Tuesday Group of moderate House Republicans who call themselves the "governing wing" of the GOP. And he increasingly has tried to use that post to push back against the hard-right of his party. Ryan, aware of Katko's growing influence among moderates, gave him a seat this year in his weekly leadership meetings with about 12 House Republicans who represent a cross-section of the party, Katko said. Last month, Katko announced he will not support his party's candidate for House Speaker (assuming the GOP can hold its majority) unless he or she promises to change the rules and make it easier for bipartisan bills to pass. Katko was among 19 House members to make the pledge (nine Republicans and 10 Democrats) as part of the Problem Solvers Caucus. The caucus is a group of 48 House members evenly divided among both parties who have promised to "break the gridlock" in Washington. One of the group's proposed rule changes would require one-third of the House to sign a public petition to force any vote to oust the House Speaker. The caucus also wants to fast-track any legislation co-sponsored by at least two-thirds of the House. The group says its agenda is to "weaken the extremists in both parties and give bipartisan ideas a fighting chance to become law in the next Congress." Balter, the Democrat attempting to unseat Katko in the Nov. 6 election, said the congressman's focus on bipartisanship amounts to an empty promise. "Everything that comes out of him is one big political calculation to make him look good to his voters and stay safe instead of doing the hard work that needs to be done," Balter said. Balter, who helped lead a Syracuse coalition that formed to fight President Donald Trump's agenda, notes that Katko welcomed Vice President Mike Pence to Syracuse, where he headlined a fundraiser for the congressman. Ivanka Trump also visited Syracuse for a joint appearance with Katko to tout a job training program. Balter said the proof of Katko's loyalty to party is that he votes with Republicans about 90 percent of the time in the House. Katko split with Republicans on key votes such the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and a Farm Bill that would scale back the federal food stamp program, but Balter said she views those votes as a political calculation. She points to Katko's vote to pass the Republican tax overhaul last year that included a repeal of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate that requires individuals to buy and maintain health insurance. Balter said the permanent repeal, fully effective in 2019, essentially dooms the Affordable Care Act -- a bill Katko promised not to repeal without a viable replacement. In a sign of how partisan Congress has become, Katko's voting record still makes him one of the most independent members of the House, according to an analysis by ProPublica an independent nonprofit newsroom. Katko ranked as the most independent of all 26 sitting House members from New York state through July 24, according to figures ProPublica compiled for Syracuse.com. He ranked 14th among all House Republicans for voting against a majority of the party on contested votes on legislation, and 25th among the 430 sitting House members, ProPublica found. In perhaps his highest-profile effort to bridge the partisan divide, Katko helped lead a group of 20 Republican moderates who tried to negotiate a compromise on immigration reform that could gain the support of Trump, Republican moderates and Democrats. The GOP moderates pressured Ryan into allowing a vote on their bill, but in the end the legislation was overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of 301-121 on June 27. Katko was among 121 Republicans who voted to pass the bill, but the House Freedom Caucus helped rally 112 GOP House members against the measure. In the end, no Democrats voted for the bill. Katko said the legislation's failure marked perhaps his biggest regret of the 115th Congress that began in 2017. The former federal prosecutor has also pushed through a wide range of legislation as the House passed 33 of his bills. Katko refers to one of those bills in a recent TV ad about cutting through gridlock in Congress. He touted a bipartisan effort he pushed to secure more money to fight algae blooms in freshwater lakes such as Skaneateles Lake. The Freedom Caucus opposed the spending, Katko said, prompting him to work with Democrats to help push through extra funding. While Katko spreads his gridlock-busting message on TV, a group that supports bipartisanship in Congress has launched its own independent campaign in Central New York to tout the congressman's record on bipartisanship. No Labels Action plans to spend more than $200,000 on five direct mail pieces and digital ads supporting Katko, according to Ryan Clancy, an adviser for the super PAC. The No Labels group, which helped inspire the House Problem Solvers Caucus, chose Katko as one of only 16 candidates nationwide (eight Democrats and eight Republicans) that it's supporting this year. "If you look at Republicans today, it's pretty hard to get something through that the Freedom Caucus does not sign off on," Clancy said. "Our view is there are 435 people in Congress, but on any given day they are not the ones with the influence. It's a really small minority group that controls everything." Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) -- Chants of "Lock her up!" rang once again throughout an Iowa arena as President Donald Trump rallied supporters Tuesday night. But this time, the staple of Trump's 2016 campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton had a new target: California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Trump, who was in the state boosting Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, claimed that Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had leaked a letter written by California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleging Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. Feinstein has denied her office was the source of the leak. "Can you believe that?" Trump said, as his supporters turned the chant once deployed against the former secretary of state on another Democratic woman. "Did she leak that? 100 percent," Trump said, adding: "I don't want to get sued, so 99 percent." Crowd breaks into cheers of Lock her up as Pres. Trump rails against Sen. Dianne Feinstein at Iowa rally, mocking her denial of leaking Christine Blasey Fords letter. https://t.co/JdoY7807Al pic.twitter.com/e7ihZYR2vn ABC News (@ABC) October 10, 2018 In a statement, Feinstein called Trump's remarks "ridiculous and an embarrassment." Ford had sought to remain anonymous when she brought the allegation against Kavanaugh to Feinstein's attention. She later went public after reporters started trying to contact her. Kavanaugh staunchly denied Ford's accusation. "Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence, she and her lawyers said so repeatedly," Feinstein said. "Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasn't me or my staff." The rally in Council Bluffs, across the Missouri river from Omaha, Nebraska, was Trump's latest stop on a busy tour campaigning for Republican candidates in the lead-up to midterms that will determine control of Congress. And it comes as the president is on a high wave following a series of wins, including Kavanaugh's confirmation. It's the second appointment Trump has made to the Supreme Court. Indeed, Trump's loudest applause came as he continued his victory lap, which has included bashing Democrats for attempting to sink the nomination. Trump and other GOP leaders say the effort energized Republican voters, who had long been considered less energized than Democrats. "This is truly an historic week for America," said Trump, praising Republican senators for standing up to what he called "the Democrats' shameful campaign of political and personal destruction" against his nominee. "They wanted to destroy that man," Trump said. "What the Democrats did to Brett and his family is a national embarrassment, a national disgrace." Trump also rolled out new fuel standards that will be a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater ethanol sales. The long-expected change will lift the federal ban on summer sales of gasoline with high-ethanol blends and allow them year-round. The EPA currently bans the high-ethanol blend, called E15, during the summer because of concerns that it contributes to smog on hot days. Ethanol industry advocates say that fear is unfounded. Speaking to a crowd of thousands, Trump said he was delivering a promise he'd made to Iowa voters years ago when he campaigned ahead of the state's caucuses. "Promises made, promises kept," he said. He charged without offering evidence that if Democrats take control of Congress next month, they will seek to roll back his efforts. The move was also seen as a reward for Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who led Kavanaugh's contentious but successful confirmation fight. Trump praised Grassley on Tuesday night as a "tough cookie" as he applauded local leaders including Iowa's Republican Rep. David Young and Gov. Kim Reynolds, who face tough re-election fights. Trump also boosted Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who face voters next month. The pair received loud applause from the heavily Nebraskan crowd. Early voting in Iowa began on Monday, and Trump urged those gathered to cast their ballots now. "Go! Just vote. Get it over with," he urged. Early voting accounted for 41 percent of the Iowa vote in 2016, according to the White House. The 1,000-acre airport in Romeoville is owned and operated by the Joliet Regional Port District, and handles more than 100,000 arrivals and departures annually, according to Lipinski. It is designated as a reliever airport for OHare and Midway, and is one of the top five busiest airports in the state, according to officials. With a 7-inch widescreen display, youd think the Google Home Hub wouldnt fit on your nightstand. It will. And itll leave plenty of room for a Pixel Stand, too. I dont usually start off hands-on stories with price, but its worth mentioning right at the top: The Google Home Hub, with its 7-inch touchscreen display, is just $149. Thats $50 less than the Facebook Portal, and $80 less than Amazons second-generation Echo Show. And its only $19 more than the 2.5-inch Echo Spot. Granted, these arent apples-to-apples comparisonsthe screen size is three inches bigger on the Show, for examplebut when people are shopping for a smart speaker with a screen, a few inches here and there won't matter. And the price tag will make the Google Home Hub hard to pass up. Adam Patrick Murray/IDG The Google Home Hub comes in four colors. Amazon just redesigned its Echo Show with a sleeker design and fabric-wrapped body, but it still looks like a behemoth compared to the Google Home Hub. Google's smart display has something of a G4 iMac aesthetic, with a thin all-white display attached to a cloth-wrapped base (though sadly theres no adjustable arm). Weighing just 480 grams, its startlingly light, so much so that I nearly dropped it when I picked it up for the first time. Consider that the Google Home is 477 grams and you can get an idea of just how light it is. And its really small. The display is obviously the widest element, but elsewhere its only 67mm deep and 118mm high versus 96mm deep and 143mm high on the Home. It comes in four colors: chalk (white), charcoal (black), sand (pink), and green (aqua). But when looking at the Hub from straight on, youll see only a tiny bit of it below the screen. That's how small it is. I can only think of one adjective to accurately sum up its looks: adorable. Home is where the Hub is The Google Home Hub doesnt just look different than any Assistant-powered smart speaker that came before, it acts differently, too. It does all the same things that the Google Home and Home Mini do with its built-in speaker, of course, but on the Home Hub, Google Assistant comes to life, with animated actions, full-screen responses, and bright, vivid images. Anything you ask it to do is broadcast in full color on the display, and it gives Assistant a character it never had before. Adam Patrick Murray/IDG You can see how bright your smart lights are on the Google Home Hub's screen. Google calls its new device a hub for the thoughtful home, and as you might guess, its deeply integrated with Nest devices, but it's also compatible with some 5,000 smart devices from more than 400 other brands. And theyll all be able to take advantage of the Home Hubs coolest new feature: the Home View dashboard. Available on both the Home Hub and the Home app on smartphones, its a new interface for controlling your smart devices. Similar to Apples Home app, Home View collects all your smart devices and lets you see and control them all in one place, without needing to jump to different apps and actions. Google played up the integration with Nest devices in the demo I saw, but it also works with August smart locks, Philips Hue lights, and a variety of smart TVs. Its very slick and intuitive, and it could be the jump-start the smart home needs to really take off. Also prominent on the Home Hub are videos, namely ones from YouTube. That's a distinct advantage over the Echo Show, which is locked out of YouTube's library (the Echo Show must launch a web browser to access the service, and you can't search for videos with voice commands). To pad its lead, Google has optimized thousands of videos for the Home Hub's screen, so things like recipes and how-to's are easy to see and follow. Adam Patrick Murray/IDG Home View lets you see all your connected devices right on the Google Home Hub's screen. There are also YouTube filters built in, so you can block restricted content, and it uses Voice Match to personalize content to the person who's speaking. So if your friend is talking to Google Home Hub, she wont be able to access your calendar. Thats not new to Google Home, but the level of personalization is: Just say Good morning to the Google Home Hub, and youll see a personalized routine, with events, commute info, reminders, and anything else that might be relevant. I didn't get to try this myself, but in Google's demo, Assistant answered properly every time. But theres one thing the Google Home Hub doesnt have: a camera. Google says thats part of its hyper-focus on privacy. The comfort of knowing your Home Hub isnt spying at you, however, comes at a price: You cant make video calls on the Home Hub or use it as a video baby monitor. In the spot where a camera would be, there are are three new lighting sensors that come together to form Ambient EQ, a feature that works kind of like True Tone on the iPhone. Not only will the display dim as the surrounding light does, but it will also adjust to the decor and lighting of its surroundings to naturally blend in with the room. That ambiance is more visible when the Home Hub isnt actively being used. Thats when the display turns into a photo frame with some cool AI and machine-learning tricks to keep your slideshows looking their best. Just pick one of the people in your Google Photos albums and the Home Hub will create a live album that automatically update as new photos are taken. Plus, itll filter out any blurry or underexposed photos as it decides which ones to present on the screen. Adam Patrick Murray/IDG The back of the Google Home Hub is where the color is. And when its time to call it a day, Google Home Hub will wind down with you. Just turn on Downtime and the device will mute, dim, and turn into one of the best-looking alarm clocks youve ever owned. Did you know that Microsoft doesn't back up your 365 data? Avoid data loss. Back up your company's Office 365 mailboxes, Teams, and files stored within OneDrive and Sharepoint. Get your free trial of Altaro Office 365 Backup. It should be pretty clear by now that the level of effort devoted to manipulating our opinions is unprecedented at the moment. Granted, a lot of this has to do with the fact that most of the free online services we use arent free at all. They are trading our ability to make measured opinions for advertisers money, and some of these advertisers are foreign governments. With all of these attempts to manipulate us into doing things we otherwise dont want to do many of which are surprisingly successful there is one question we should be asking of any inflammatory story: Why? We focus on the what, where, and when almost exclusively, but its become increasingly important for us to know the motive behind the news. Last weeks op-ed in The New York Times is a good example, because the why is likely far more interesting than what is said in the piece. Ill close with my product of the week: Cinego, an impressive head-mounted streaming video system. Understanding Manipulation Sales, marketing and politics in governments, companies and a lot of family dynamics are all about manipulation. Understanding the need to manipulate and being able to identify it are critical skills to becoming successful in most any field. Both confirmation bias and argumentative theory have at their cores an inbred programmed foundation of needing to manipulate others, which often overcomes good sense and even self-preservation. The ability to manipulate is a form of power and status, and it currently revolves around an ever-changing but still growing group of people we call influencers, which is just a nice way to say manipulators at scale. You can profit handsomely from this, particularly if you are good at it, but if you allow yourself to be manipulated by someone who doesnt have your best interests at heart, the results can be personally damaging. One of the painful trends now is the ramped-up activity of folks who attempt to manipulate you a less kind term is defraud you into sending them money. Facebook seems to be up to its armpits in folks like this at the moment. It has a reporting structure in place. Email and, particularly, the age-old scam phone calls are variants of this game. The defense is to simply ask why they are calling you. In most cases, they want your money or your information. For instance, you get a note on Facebook from someone youve never met who wants a relationship. The person doesnt know you, probably hasnt even read your profile, and really doesnt care what you look like. Chances are the why is they want you to send them money. Knowing this you dont engage. The Trump Resistance Op-Ed The op-ed The New York Times published last week spotlights a presidency in crisis so much so that apparently there is an internal resistance trying to make sure the president doesnt screw up. Ive worked in a lot of companies and the idea of having a group of executives and assistants working to keep the CEO from doing something stupid isnt as unusual as you might think. This is likely something Elon Musk should have in place before he gets himself fired. The new Bob Woodward book does suggest the White House is a bit of a mess. That shouldnt be a huge surprise, even if you only look at the unprecedented turnover rate of cabinet members. The book is pretty damning, and it appears to be well written and well researched but it doesnt really cover that much new ground. The New York Times op-ed doesnt really add much to the book, or to other recent books, except for the idea of an organized resistance. A D V E R T I S E M E N T The result of an op-ed like this typically would not be a change in behavior. Rather, it would trigger an all-out effort to find and fire the writer, not to mention pretty much render the resistance moot. Can you imagine an op-ed in a French newspaper during the Second World War talking about how the French Resistance was secretly blocking German efforts to govern France? The person who wrote it likely would be shot by the French Resistance. If your effectiveness as a group is predicated on your secrecy, why would you break secrecy, unless you wanted to torpedo the group or someone in it? We are a few months from a critical election. If you could get one party to go on a witch hunt inside itself, you likely could distract it enough so that it would be far more likely to lose. This would be an important question for The New York Times, because these things tend to come out, and the Times trying to manipulate an election would be problematic for that publication, regardless of whether it knew this or not. Another answer to the why question might involve a disgruntled employee who was passed over for a promised raise. (Money is a lousy motivator when you add it, according to Maslow, but if you take it away it works incredibly well at motivating employees against you.) The president effectively just took raises off the table for all federal workers (which should result in a huge number of them wanting him gone). The op-ed could be a play to tarnish someone else with Mike Pence the seemingly obvious target, given some unusual wording. (But why target Pence?) A scarier thought is that the Times op-ed was designed specifically to do what it is doing. However, instead of influencing the upcoming mid-term elections, its purpose might be to eliminate the effort to keep the president from doing something massively stupid. In other words, the op-eds goal might be to render ineffective any effort to prevent a catastrophic presidential decision. Now whether that is the intention or not, that is the likely outcome. That doesnt bode well for the United States, if the presidents judgment is massively compromised, as Woodwards book and the op-ed suggest. The actual why behind this op-ed may be far more important than what it says. Wrapping Up We are under an almost constant barrage of companies and people who are trying to get us to do things we otherwise wouldnt do. From scamming us for money or information to scamming us to vote against our own best interests, the level of effort going into manipulating us is unprecedented. A D V E R T I S E M E N T What concerns me about The New York Times op-ed is that, regardless of whether it is true or not, it will disable efforts to prevent a presidential mistake. In the future, anyone who should attempt to play that role likely would be fired. The why is always important. In this case, the answer to why may be that someone wants to do the country harm. I doubt this will end well at all. In any case, to protect ourselves from the increasing waves of manipulation, we need to channel our inner 3-year-olds and ask why far more often. I get really bored when I have my teeth cleaned. I have to sit in the chair for up to an hour (my tartar likely could be used in building construction, it is so hard), and I get really bored watching the ceiling fan and waiting for surprise pains. My last appointment wasnt so bad, however, as I brought my Goovis G2 Cinego headset with me. Rather than watch the fan, I watched the sci-fi movie Serenity, and I was disappointed the appointment didnt last longer. Goovis Cinego VR Headset What makes the difference with Cinego is the combination of high resolution displays for each eye. You can adjust for the distance between your pupils and for focus individually. This result is a crystal-clear high-resolution image that is impressive in use. I ordered my Goovis G2 Cinego through Indiegogo when the product was first launched and got a decent deal under US$500. Currently they are on Amazon for close to $800, but for those of us who like to enjoy high-quality personal video in tight places, this is still a decent product for the money. Cinego isnt without issues. For instance, I cant seem to raise support to save my life. The software update function currently is not working, and I cant log into Google or Amazon from the device at the moment. (Issues such as these often arise with the initial run of a product.) When Cinego does work, mostly with Netflix, it is brilliant. Navigation is pretty easy, as is streaming content. Viewing downloaded content is a bit more difficult. Both the picture and sound are wonderful. Battery life is about two movies, suggesting that youll want a charging cable (micros USB) or a portable battery backup product for long trips. Except for poor support and the inability to use Amazon or sign into Google, I really am impressed with the performance of this product. As a result, the Goovis G2 Cinego headset is my product of the week. Ill add this cautionary advice, though: Before you buy one, I suggest you send a note to Goovis to see if you get a response. The lack of support is troubling. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network. We take the best rates, look at the banks health and make sure we dont have too many eggs in one basket, said Weber, who also raises chickens. This process also takes him out of the picture of awarding the bids, he said, adding that the county invests with over 40 banks. A hot potato: Despite the pushback its received over the project, Google hopes to launch its heavily censored Chinese search engine within the next six to nine months. The company has been reluctant to reveal any details about Project Dragonfly, but a leaked transcript from a private internal meeting has revealed how close to completion the project really is. Googles head of search, Ben Gomes, told the BBC that the search engine was at the exploration stage, and there were no plans to launch something. CEO Sundar Pichai has been just as vague, claiming Google was exploring many options and not close to launching a search product in Chinastatements echoed by Googles chief privacy officer, Kieth Enright. But, as reported by The Intercept, a leaked transcript from a meeting between Gomes and Google staff last month reveals Project Dragonfly to be deep into development. The search engine blocks links to sites that focus on democracy, religion, human rights, and protests, as well as social networks and western news sources. Speaking to those working on Project Dragonfly, Gomes said, While we are saying its going to be six and nine months [to launch], the world is a very dynamic place. He added that people in China were missing out on Google. "It's clearly the biggest opportunity to serve more people that we have," he told staff. In the meeting, which took place on July 18, Gomes acknowledged the controversy surrounding the project. We are working with you to make sure your careers are not affected by this, he assured employees. It's been reported that a Dragonfly prototype linked users searches to their personal phone numbers, allowing Chinas government to monitor its citizens queries. At least five Google employees have quit over the project, and 1400 workers have signed a letter demanding more information. Last week saw Vice President Mike Pence criticize the company, warning that the search engine would strengthen Communist Party censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers. One has to wonder whether the millions of new Chinese customers are worth the PR hammering Google is taking for Project Dragonfly. A hot potato: Sony's president has confirmed that the PS4 has a replacement currently under development. Presumably called the PlayStation 5, the next console will help keep pace with advances made over the last few years. President of Sony Kenichiro Yoshida has confirmed that the next generation of PlayStation consoles is under development. If history is anything to go by, it would be logical to infer that a PlayStation 5 is coming. During an interview with the Financial Times, Yoshida was asked how Sony is going to tap into the $70 billion mobile gaming market. As esports also continue to grow, Sony has some ground to make up there as well given that the PS4 is hardly a serious contender for competitive gaming compared to other platforms. In response, Yoshida said, "At this point, what I can say is its necessary to have a next-generation hardware." It makes sense why he declines to use an official name for an unannounced console, but it does leave the question of whether Sony is going to put out a portable console or a more traditional iteration. Sony is no stranger to mobile gaming having reasonable success with the PSP and PS Vita. Now that these devices have gone by the wayside and there are newer toys available from the competition, Sony just might get back into mobile gaming with a proper portable device. Previous rumors have pointed to Sony building a tablet that could connect to multiple devices for game streaming and also integrating in Sony's movie division. This could also be Sony's push to get into mobile gaming instead of a true portable console. Considering that the PlayStation 4 has been highly successful for Sony, my own predication is that a PlayStation 5 will arrive as a direct replacement to the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There also may be additional offerings coming from Sony, but the captive audience that Sony already has should be attended to before beginning new ventures. Why it matters: There's been plenty of friction between Microsoft and the open source advocates regarding patents over the years. By joining the Open Invention Network, Microsoft is taking a big step in improving relations with the community. Microsoft is open-sourcing its vast patent portfolio. On Wednesday, it was announced that the Redmond-based technology giant had joined the Open Invention Network (OIN), the largest patent non-aggression community in the world with more than 2,650 members. Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Erich Andersen said Microsoft brings more than 60,000 issued patents to OIN. According to ZDNet, Microsofts entire patent portfolio is on offer with the legacy exception of its Windows and desktop application code. The patents, as well as those on offer from other members including Google, IBM, Sony and Philips, are available to license royalty-free to anyone that joins the OIN community. Microsoft is pledging our massive patent portfolio over 60,000 patents to Linux and open source by joining OIN this morning. If you're looking for signs that we are serious about being the world's largest open source company, look no further. https://t.co/JiUimL4NRa Nat Friedman (@natfriedman) October 10, 2018 This isnt Microsofts first step towards being more open. Programs like Azure IP Advantage, for example, extended patent protection to Azure service users more than two years ago. Still, its big news. OIN CEO Keith Bergelt said it covers everything related to older open-source technologies such as Android, the Linux kernel, and OpenStack; newer technologies such as LF Energy and HyperLedger, and their predecessor and successor versions. In 2013, Microsoft collected $3.4 billion in licensing fees related to its Android patents. What sort of impact will the OIN development have on revenue from licensing deals? Earlier this month, Microsoft released the source code for MS-DOS on GitHub, the code repository it purchased earlier this year for $7.5 billion. It had previously been available through the Computer History Museum although it wasnt quite as easy to find through that source. Microsoft knows there isnt a profitable future maintaining a proprietary OS. Thats why Windows was moved under Azure in the company hierarchy & is rapidly embracing open source. They will transition their user base to a Linux distro they control & profit from online services https://t.co/TnbMlXRyJD Barnacules (@Barnacules) October 10, 2018 A rising tide, raises all ships. It's amazing to see Microsoft put it's money where it's mouth is. This is one of those moments where we see a company that is not merely a leader because of financials, but is instead is leading through action. https://t.co/2UoKmxZuYd Dan Siegel (@DanJSiegel) October 10, 2018 In her Scarlett Curtiss' new book, Keira Knightley criticized Kate Middleton for looking perfect shortly after she gave birth to Princess Charlotte. The multi-awarded actress wrote about the Duchess of Cambridge in her piece titled "The Weaker Sex" that was published in Curtis' "Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies)." In the piece, she wrote a letter to Edie, her daughter with her husband, James Righton. Middleton's Perfect Apearance After Childbirth The 33-year-old actress compared how she looked postpartum with Middleton's appearance after the royal welcomed her second child. Notably, the duchess gave birth to her daughter a day after Knightley delivered her baby girl. When the 36-year-old royal exited the hospital the morning after her birth, she wore a vibrant yellow dress. She was even sporting heels and make up. Additionally, her hair was styled appropriately. Videos of the royal couple stepping out of the hospital became viral all over the world. Knightley's Attack To Middleton "She was out of hospital seven hours later with her face made up and high heels on," said Knightley. "The face the world wants to see. Hide. Hide our pain, our bodies splitting, our breasts leaking, our hormones raging. Look beautiful, look stylish, don't show your battleground, Kate," she added. Moreover, the Duchess also looked impeccable when she was photographed shortly after Prince George, their firstborn, was delivered in 2013. She was wearing a blue polka dot dress then. When Prince Louis, their third child, was delivered, she wore a red dress with a white collar designed by Jenny Packham. Her outfit is similar to the one Princess Diana wore when she delivered Prince Harry. Before the couple went back to Kensington Palace following their child's birth, Prince William said that they were very happy. The couple shares the same home with Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. In the essay, the Pirates of the Caribbean actress also recalled her experience with childbirth. According to her, women are expected to hide the pain that they are feeling. They are encouraged to appear stylish and immaculate, and to hide their battles. "Don't tell. Stand there with your girl and be shot by a pack of male photographers," she penned. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Scientists say they might have figured out why the geological process of rocks rising and sinking in the Earth's molten core has suddenly stopped. Using computer simulations, researchers examined the stagnant slabs of rocky tectonic plate in the Pacific Ocean and discovered a layer of obstructive material that is causing the phenomenon. The findings were published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Stagnant Slabs The existence of stagnant slabs has been puzzling scientists for about a decade now. A system called mantle convection in which hotter rocks rise up while colder rocks sink down in the planet's molten core has been in place for millions of billions of years. However, about a decade ago, scientists discovered that the process inexplicably and without warning stopped. Giant slabs of subducted oceanic plates in the process of a slow descent into the molten core somehow got stuck. University of Colorado Boulder researchers Wei Mao and Shijie Zhong think they know why. In the study, the researchers suggested the existence of a thin layer of less-viscous rock positioned in between of two halves of the mantle. They arrived at this conclusion by observing the stagnant slabs in the western Pacific Ocean, specifically off the east coast of Japan and below the Mariana Trench near the Philippines. The slabs in Asia, according to the researchers, do not go down as normal. Instead, they spread out horizontally between the upper and lower mantle of the Earth. "If you introduce a weak layer at that depth, somehow the reduced viscosity helps lubricate the region," explained Zhong. "The slabs get deflected and can keep going for a long distance horizontally." This only happens in the slabs in Asia. Similar slabs in North and South America go about their normal process: they dive into the lower mantle where the core heats them up again. Zhong explains that there is more room in Asia for the chunks of rocks to slide, but not in the Americas. Going Back To Normal The researchers, however, assured that the stagnant slabs will not cause any issues. However, it completely changes the way scientists study volcanism and tectonics on the surface of the Earth. The researchers also think that the stagnant slab phenomenon is not permanent. Things will eventually go back to normal when the slabs break through and continue their descent to the planet's core. When it will happen, no one knows for now. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Startup in Residence Program (STiR) is now open for applications from private-sector entrepreneurs.As such, STiRs website has posted its annual list of civic challenges, which this year includes more than 80 potential use cases from 28 government partners, including cities, counties, states and even regional transit organizations many in California.Among the California jurisdictions offering opportunities for vendors are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, Long Beach, Glendale and Walnut Creek.Organizers say a major goal for this years class is to reach 100 percent for the rate of entrepreneurs that ultimately receive government contracts. Jay Nath, who is co-executive director of the organization that oversees STiR, said that historically that rate is 40 percent, noting that forthcoming information about the most recent STiR class will likely provide a boost.STiR's focus is government needs private-sector ideas to help it overcome complex and widespread problems. And entrepreneurs see government as a vast and relatively untapped market. STiR seeks to function as an introduction mechanism between the public and private sectors.Its structure is built to facilitate this. This year, for example, the application phase for entrepreneurs will remain open until Nov. 7. After it closes, the 28 government partners will sift through the applications and select potential vendors with which to collaborate. Then, starting in January, the government entities will partner with the companies on a project to be built over the course of four months, or they will tweak an existing product to be more in line with the needs of government.The best-case scenario for the private companies is that they will be able to build a product capable of addressing a common and widespread governmental need, enabling them to not only sell it to the agency they partnered with but also to thousands of other governments nation- or worldwide.You can put a challenge out there and rapidly create a solution in four months and go into contract, Nath said. Our cities are prepared in total to spend $5 million on these challenges and solutions. Theres a big readiness, a big commitment, and theyre ready to really roll up their sleeves and work with these startups to develop solutions.STiR first launched as a program limited to San Francisco in 2014. It subsequently expanded to be a regional California program, before going nationwide last year. This year marks the broadest class of STiR government partners yet, with new members including other states and Canada.For private-sector partners, STiR continues to be a viable way of breaking into the sometimes tricky arena of gov tech contracts. One noted example is Binti, which developed a more efficient way for San Francisco residents to apply to be foster parents as well as for city employees to manage their applications. Binti has continued to expand the solution it developed for STiR into increasingly more governmental jurisdictions.Binti, however, is far from the only success story. This past year saw the Danish company Nordsense work with San Francisco to build trash can sensors that can alert the city as soon as a public waste bin gets too full. A St. Charles Parish man convicted of robbing a Gramercy convenience store of $89 while armed with a BB gun has been sentenced to 40 years in state prison but could face as much as 80 years, prosecutors said Wednesday. Nearly five months after a unanimous St. James Parish jury found Maurice Honor guilty of 1st degree robbery, Judge Jessie LeBlanc handed down the maximum prison time Tuesday. Prosecutors with the 23rd Judicial District said they have also billed Honor, 32, 1447 Old Spanish Trail, Paradis, as a multiple offender for several prior felony convictions, potentially doubling his sentence if LeBlanc grants it. Even if the multiple offender bill isn't granted, Honor's sentence for the Jan. 17, 2016, robbery must be served without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. After robbing convenience store for $89, St. Charles man faces up to 80 years CONVENT Prosecutors in St. James Parish plan to seek up to an 80-year state prison sentence for a St. Charles Parish man recently convicted In a statement, St. James Parish prosecutors said Honor, wearing a black hoodie and a mask, robbed the Big River store manager at gunpoint, forcing her to bring him to the cash register where he scooped up the money and fled. 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 The manager believed at the time the gun was real, prosecutors said, but sheriff's detectives later found the mask and the BB gun used in the robbery under a house a short distance from the store. Detectives working with the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab were able to establish Honor's DNA was on the gun and mask, prosecutors said. In addition to the DNA evidence, jurors at Honor's trial in May also heard from his accomplice, Renee Shrake. Shrake, 41, also of St. Charles, had been seen entering the store, going into the bathroom and then leaving moments before Honor went inside the store, prosecutors said. She testified that she had driven Honor to the store, cased it for him and was supposed to drive him away after the robbery but fled when she saw a St. James Parish sheriff's deputy nearby, prosecutors said. Before Honor's trial, Shrake had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit 1st-degree robbery and received a suspended four-year prison sentence with three years probation. Honor did not testify on his own behalf at trial, said Tyler Cavalier, a spokesman for the 23rd Judicial District Attorney Ricky Babin. The state board that supervises public defenders has entered a $1 million contract with a children's rights group to represent more than 80 juvenile offenders awaiting resentencing hearings after district attorneys filed to retain their life without parole prison terms sentences deemed unconstitutional except in rare cases by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016. The Louisiana Public Defender Board last week made final its partnership with the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights, which will provide defense work for all of Louisiana's juvenile lifer cases still pending, in which prosecutors oppose new sentences that include a chance at parole. These are very, very focused cases, and it needs a particular expertise which the folks at LCCR have," said Jay Dixon, the state public defender. "You need folks that have experience in juvenile cases but also in (this specific) litigation." About 300 inmates in Louisiana were impacted by the 2016 Supreme Court ruling that found mandatory life without parole sentences for youth offenders unconstitutional, even in prior cases. A state law later provided two-thirds of those prisoners, all convicted of murders committed at 17 or younger, new sentences that included a chance at release. The remaining cases, nearly 100 of them, need a court hearing to determine a new sentence due to the prosecutors' opposition. Since that law passed, 11 of those resentencing hearings have been held, according to LCCR numbers. In all but one, a judge granted the juvenile offender a new sentence of life with the opportunity of parole. That leaves more than 80 other cases that still require such a hearing, which state law mandates should include both the prosecution and defense introducing any "aggravating and mitigating evidence" relevant to the crime, the character of offender, mitigating circumstances, criminal history or the offender's upbringing, as well as expert testimony. The Supreme Court said (only) the rare and uncommon child deserved to be sentenced to death in prison," said Aaron Clark-Rizzio, the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights' executive director. "Many of these individuals have been in prison for decades at this point, so theres a tremendous amount of information and were reaching back in time. You can imagine how much time and effort that expense that process takes." And that's quite a burden for many cash-strapped public defender offices to bear, Dixon said, likening the preparation needed to a death sentence case. Clark-Rizzio said his team of attorneys will provide that statewide, able to streamline the process and become the few experts for what should be one-time resentencing hearings. "Were humbled by this opportunity," Clark-Rizzio said. "We would like to do this well and give them the representation that they deserve. After Supreme Court mandate: How is Louisiana giving juvenile lifers their shot at freedom? Since the Supreme Court in early 2016 once again ruled that Louisiana was and had been for decades unconstitutionally sentencing juveniles The Louisiana Center for Children's Rights will also partner with local public defenders to assist in the defense of the almost 20 juveniles, not yet convicted or sentenced, who are facing a potential life without parole sentence, Clark-Rizzio said. He said in these cases, their attorneys will partner directly with local public defenders, who will inevitably be involved in future cases as they come up. They will take entire responsibility for the already-sentenced juvenile cases, which are finite. The contract includes the majority of the $1.34 million earmarked in the state budget for the defense of juvenile lifer in the resentencing hearings, but reserves about $300,000 for a common fund for expert witnesses or alternate counsel if a conflict with LCCR arises, Dixon said. All but one district defender, David Wallace in Beauregard Parish, signed onto the agreement to pull the state's resources for the centralized defense in these cases. 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 Wallace said he didn't sign on only because his parish already addressed their sole such case, where the district attorney opposed a new sentence that include the opportunity for parole for a juvenile offender. My lawyer already did the work, we got some experts on our own, weve done a good job with it," Wallace said. He said the hearing was held in July, but the judge has yet to rule on a new sentence. And while Clark-Rizzio said he is glad the organization will provide the defense for these juvenile lifers, he said he still wishes the money could have been spent elsewhere had the legislation just granted all such offenders a new sentence that included parole. The Supreme Court has ruled multiple times in the last decades that children are inherently different from adults, their judgment and reasoning still developing, and therefore cannot be sentenced as harshly as adults, even for the most grievous crimes. The legislators and DAs who have created this situation have created a pretty laborious process," Clark-Rizzio said. "We have a parole board that is set up to make this type of determination, and instead of relying on them to do that job, in a lot of cases we're now going to have a hearing in the court of law. ... Were really left with a situation of doing a lot of work, when we know only in a handful of cases should this sentence be handed down." +22 'Believe in Redemption': A 17-year-old murderer's 2nd chance, and the team helping him succeed Less than 36 hours after his release from prison, Steve Perkins sat in front of a class of law students, giving them advice. But state Senator Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, who sponsored the bill in 2017 that created the guidelines to resentence juvenile lifers, said that discredits the original discretion from prosecutors. "The majority of the DAs were diligent in their work in the first place," Claitor said. He said he believes most prosecutors initially reserved murder charges only for the worst cases, which makes them more likely to oppose a new sentence now on the back end. And he said while many juvenile justice advocates point to the money spent on the resentencing hearings, they don't note the amount saved on the more than 200 juvenile lifer cases granted automatic new sentences without prosecutors. All of these things would have been potentially litigated," Claitor said. "Did we not save money on the (almost 70 percent) that werent?" And while Dixon admits the process could have gone worse, he said it is hard to not think how that money could have been better spent, helping improve defense in other cases or address their waitlist for capital defense. We are spending $1.3 million to determine whether someone gets a hearing. Period. It's not whether or not somebody gets out, gets released from jail," Dixon said. "Thats a lot of money for a hearing, ... it could have been done more efficiently. HUD and the Veterans Administration have been working to reduce veteran homelessness, and have seen some success, Galvan said. The number of homeless vets across the country has been cut in half since 2010, he said, and Illinois has seen a 24 percent drop. Voters will decide Nov. 6 whether to ban the use of state road and bridge funds to finance traffic control by Louisiana State Police. The measure, Amendment 4, is aimed in part at answering complaints that Louisiana spends too much of its transportation fund on non-transportation expenses. Road spending scrutiny needed before any push for new dollars, Edwards advisory panel says Tackling Louisianas road and bridge crisis first requires that the state plug leaks in the key fund used for improvements, according to Gov.- At issue is how officials use the chief source of of funding for highways, called the Transportation Trust Fund, or TTF. The fund, which totals about $600 million, was set up in 1990. Under current rules, the revenue can be used for a wide range of purposes, including traffic control by State Police. A total of $679 million was diverted from the TTF to State Police from 1991-2015. A state law that breezed through the Legislature in 2015 gradually limited those annual transfers to $10 million. The amendment would end it entirely. Gov. John Bel Edwards halted the practice in 2016, which means no such diversions have taken place for the past two years. But Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Page Cortez, R-Lafayette and sponsor of the bill that spelled out the amendment, wants the ban enshrined in the state Constitution. "My contention was just because this governor did not use it did not mean other governors would not supplant general revenue dollars for State Police from the TTF," Cortez said Tuesday. "Until we removed it from the constitutional provision that allowed for it it might still be used," Cortez said. He said his constituents believe TTF funds should be limited mostly to road and bridge construction and maintenance. Voters will decide the issue against the backdrop of a Legislature unable to come up with long-term transportation answers. Louisiana roads called 'axle-breaking insults' as state struggles to meet basic transportation needs Louisianas roads and bridges are beset by dwindling dollars, pressing needs and the lack of any sweeping solutions on the horizon. The state has a $14 billion backlog of road and bridge needs. A bid last year by the Edwards administration to boost the state gas tax by 17 cents per gallon, and raise $510 million more per year, died without a vote on the House or Senate floors. Controversial, long-shot bid to raise Louisiana's gasoline tax dies The five-month campaign to upgrade Louisiana's jammed roads and bridges by raising the state gasoline tax died Wednesday with little fanfare i Critics argued that voters are leery of how the state is using its current road and bridge revenue. 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 Cortez said approval of his amendment would address one of those concerns. "I think it would give voters more confidence that the tax dollars they pay at the pump would be directed to construction purposes, whether it is roads or bridges or maintenance," he said. The governor's $600 million highway spending plan, including $360 million to widen Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge, is being financed by borrowing federal dollars. +2 Unlike past battles, a wider I-10 in Baton Rouge could happen if these key questions are answered In a huge change from previous efforts, the latest push to widen Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge enjoys bipartisan political support, a source of Motorists pay 38.4 cents per gallon today, including 20 cents in state taxes. No legislative debate on whether to increase the state levy is expected before 2021. Shawn Wilson, secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development, is mostly staying out of any debate on the amendment. "We are not taking a position on it," Wilson said, in part because it would affect another agency State Police. However, Wilson said there has been lots of concern historically about using the TTF to finance State Police operations. The fund is also used for flood control, ports, airports and transit. In addition, more than 1 cent per year of gas tax revenue about $30 million goes for parish transportation projects. The ballot measure won lopsided approval in the Legislature. The Senate passed it 38-0. The House did so 88-0. The 2015 law that curbed the transfer of TTF money to State Police was sponsored by House Transportation Committee Chairman Terry Landry, D-Lafayette. Landry is also former superintendent of State Police. That measure cleared the House 90-0 and the Senate 36-0. Cortez said he has been asked about the need for State Police traffic control around construction sites. He said those costs are the responsibility of the contractor, and that the issue is usually addressed in the contractor's bid for the work. The measure is one of six constitutional amendments and another proposal on the Nov. 6 ballot. Constitutional amendments have to win the support of a majority of voters to take effect. Less than a month after deploying to North Carolina ahead of Hurricane Florence, first responders and volunteers from Louisiana packed up and headed to the Florida Panhandle to assist with rescue operations as Hurricane Michael made landfall and moved inland Wednesday. The storm gained force with unexpected speed over the weekend and grew swiftly into the worst hurricane in recorded history for the northwestern Florida coast, leaving emergency crews there and elsewhere little time to organize before their services would be needed. Around 200 Louisiana first responders deployed from agencies across the state, including 35 from Baton Rouge, according to the Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Response. A helicopter and support team from the Louisiana National Guard is on standby. "Louisiana has already deployed emergency response teams and equipment and stands ready to supply any additional assistance that may be needed," Gov. John Bel Edwards said. "The people of Florida have certainly been there for Louisiana during our time of responding to disasters, and we will certainly be there to provide whatever help we can." Louisiana State Fire Marshal Butch Browning said high winds mean that building collapses could occur, so responders are bringing equipment that will allow them to "open doors, lift walls, breach minor collapses as well as do water rescues." He said his crews are expecting to spend a week in Florida. "It's just a testament to what Louisiana stands for," Browning said before the deployment Wednesday morning. "In the end, we bring about humanity. They appreciate our spirit as caring Louisiana people. And we'll leave there with a lot more friends than we had." The New Orleans Fire Department said that 26 members of the LA Task Force-1 Urban Search and Rescue Team were dispatched to Florida to assist with expected rescue operations. Coordinated through Browning's office, LA-TF1 is composed of members of the New Orleans Fire Department, Jefferson Parish East Bank Consolidated Fire Department and New Orleans Emergency Medical Services. Their deployment is scheduled to last 14 days. Volunteers with the United Cajun Navy the organization's Baton Rouge branch also ramped up plans to help their neighbors in Florida as forecasters continued issuing more serious predictions about the storm's size and strength. The group's president, Todd Terrell, was still in North Carolina assisting with ongoing recovery efforts in the aftermath of Florence. But he and others started driving south Wednesday with plans to join more than 100 volunteers from the Baton Rouge area who have set up camp in Milton, Florida, just west of Panama City. The group was "hunkered down there for now" with about 50 boats, waiting until the storm passed and calls started coming in for rescues, volunteer Brien McGlynn said Wednesday afternoon. 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 McGlynn himself recently returned from North Carolina, where he said the struggle persists for many people displaced by Florence who are now bracing for Michael, which is set to pass through the Carolinas as it heads up the coast. He said some Cajun Navy volunteers are staying in that region in anticipation of even more damage. Entergy said Wednesday that the company sent a team of 170 employees and contractors to northwest Florida to help restore power once the storm moves through. Can't see video below? Click here. Michael swirled onto the Florida Panhandle as a Category 4 hurricane early Wednesday afternoon, pushing a storm surge onto the coast's white sand beaches and lashing the region with high winds and heavy rain in its final hours before making landfall. The storm quickly grew from a weekend tropical depression and swelled into a massive storm. "We are in new territory," National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. "The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida Panhandle." Advocate staff writer Emma Discher and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12 5:30 - 6:45 p.m. Little Freddie King 7 - 8:30 p.m. Samantha Fish SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13 St. Charles Avenue Stage: Noon - 1 p.m. Washboard Chaz Blues Trio 2 -3:15 p.m. John Papa Gros 4:30 - 5:45 p.m. Shemekia Copeland 7 - 8:30 p.m. Jimmie Vaughan Camp Street Stage: 11 a.m. - noon Ed Wills & Blues 4 Sale 1 - 2 p.m. Mem Shannon & the Membership 3:15 - 4:30 p.m. Rev. John Wilkins 5:45 - 7 p.m. Walter "Wolfman" Washington SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 St. Charles Avenue Stage: Noon - 1 p.m. Uncle Nef 2 - 3:15 p.m. Papa Mali 4:30 - 5:45 p.m. Henry Gray with Terrance Simien and Li'l Buck Sinegal 7 - 8:30 p.m. Don Bryant and Percy Wiggins with the Bo-Keys Camp Street Stage: 11 a.m. - noon The Wanting 1 - 2 p.m. Kenny Brown 3:15 - 4:30 p.m. Keeshea Pratt Band 5:45 - 7 p.m. Cookie McGee The appeal of the Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival is, as the name implies, based on two factors that complement one another as naturally as peanut butter and jelly: barbecue and the blues. For the 13th edition of the free festival, which opens Friday evening downtown in Lafayette Square and continues through Sunday, the blues component is especially strong and diverse, starting with headliners Jimmie Vaughan, Shemekia Copeland and Samantha Fish. The Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival is one of several free annual festivals produced by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit that owns Jazz Fest. Proceeds from Jazz Fest are used to fund other, smaller festivals, including Blues and BBQ. And just as Jazz Fest features much more than jazz, the Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival offers more than straight-ahead blues and barbecue. With a total of only 18 performance slots for the entire weekend, Blues and BBQ is relatively small. But its tidy, well-curated music roster showcases a variety of styles from New Orleans and beyond. The festival eases into the long weekend with only two acts on Friday evening: veteran roadhouse blues guitarist Little Freddie King, followed by Samantha Fish. Fish, who is from Missouri but now calls the Crescent City home, is one of the blues' most buzzed-about artists. As a young woman with blonde curls, she is something of an anomaly within the community of blues guitarists. But her tour de force performance at Jazz Fests jam-packed Blues Tent this spring confirmed that she is the real deal. In a short, rainbow-colored sequined dress with boots up to her knees, Fish, who moved to New Orleans in early 2017, fronted her band with confidence to burn. That band included both a violinist and a two-piece horn section. Her burnished voice at times recalled Bonnie Raitt and Amy Winehouse. Her ringing slide guitar evoked Traveling Riverside Blues-era Jimmy Page. She wailed as her band stomped behind her. Given the strength of that show, Fishs ascendant national profile the Blues Music Awards named her contemporary blues female artist of the year and her powerful set at last year's Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival, she more than earned her headlining slot this year. Saturday's schedule concludes with a pair of formidable national artists in Vaughan and Copeland. Vaughan co-founded the Fabulous Thunderbirds in Austin in the 1970s. He has remained a driving force in Texas blues ever since, recording solo albums, collaborating with younger brother Stevie Ray Vaughan on the 1990 album Family Style, and sharing stages with the likes of Eric Clapton. On Saturday, Vaughan is preceded on the main stage by Copeland. Twenty years after her first album, she released Americas Child via Alligator Records. On it, she varies her approach while showcasing the versatility of her voice, delving deep into Americana and soul territory while remaining firmly rooted in the blues. Rounding out the festival bill is a diverse cross section of local talent, from the Washboard Chaz Blues Trio to keyboardist John Papa Gros to Baton Rouge blues pianist Henry Gray, backed by southwest Louisiana stalwarts Lil Buck Sinegal and Terrance Simien. As the events name implies, barbecue is served up in equal portion to the blues. Area restaurants will peddle an assortment of regional barbecue styles on the festival grounds. Food vendors, including some that offer vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, include the Joint, Bratz Yall, Blue Oak BBQ, Central City BBQ, Vaucresson Sausage Company and Walkers BBQ, among others. The festival is free, but it is not a free-for-all. Certain ground rules apply, even in an otherwise public space. No chairs are permitted within 75 feet of the stages. No outside food and beverages or ice chests are allowed on the grounds. With the exception of service animals, no pets are allowed. And city ordinances prohibit smoking and vaping within Lafayette Square. All Blues and BBQ Festival VIP passes amenities include reserved viewing areas, complimentary bar and access to a deluxe indoor hospitality suite are sold out. Even if you cant physically attend the festival, you can still listen: Community radio station WWOZ (90.7 FM) will broadcast most of the music live, both on air and as streaming video at www.wwoz.org. Proceeds from the sale of the festivals official souvenir poster benefit another of the Jazz and Heritage Foundation's endeavors, the Heritage School of Music. This years poster is a reprint of the 2015 poster featuring Walter Wolfman Washington. Hes part of Saturdays lineup. ***** CRESCENT CITY BLUES & BBQ FEST SCHEDULE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12 5:30 - 6:45 p.m. Little Freddie King 7 - 8:30 p.m. Samantha Fish SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13 St. Charles Avenue stage: Noon - 1 p.m. Washboard Chaz Blues Trio 2 -3:15 p.m. John Papa Gros 4:30 - 5:45 p.m. Shemekia Copeland 7 - 8:30 p.m. Jimmie Vaughan Camp Street stage: 11 a.m. - noon Ed Wills & Blues 4 Sale 1 - 2 p.m. Mem Shannon & the Membership 3:15 - 4:30 p.m. Rev. John Wilkins 5:45 - 7 p.m. Walter "Wolfman" Washington SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 St. Charles Avenue Stage: Noon - 1 p.m. Uncle Nef 2 - 3:15 p.m. Papa Mali 4:30 - 5:45 p.m. Henry Gray with Terrance Simien and Li'l Buck Sinegal 7 - 8:30 p.m. Don Bryant and Percy Wiggins with the Bo-Keys Camp Street stage: 11 a.m. - noon The Wanting 1 - 2 p.m. Kenny Brown 3:15 - 4:30 p.m. Keeshea Pratt Band 5:45 - 7 p.m. Cookie McGee As Hurricane Michael churned northward Tuesday on its way to a projected landfall Wednesday afternoon on the Florida Panhandle, strong winds from the east were pushing water into low-lying areas in Louisiana, creating headaches in some coastal communities. A coastal flood advisory is in effect for parishes throughout the New Orleans metro area through 7 a.m. Thursday, with an expected peak in some areas Tuesday night at high tide. In Grand Isle, Mayor David Camardelle declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon, citing potential rainfall and continued flooding. Town Supervisor Chris Hernandez said a southeasterly wind pushing water into the coastal side of the barrier island for four or five hours had caused some flooding in low-lying areas. Areas that have seen as much as 6 inches of water pile up could see 18 inches by Wednesday as Hurricane Michael passes to the east, he said. Asked whether the wind, the tide or the hurricane was causing the high water, Hernandez replied, "All of the above." "As long as a storm is in the Gulf, you have the east wind shoving tidal waters onto the island and the lower parts of the parish, said Parish Councilman Ricky Templet, whose district includes Grand Isle and Lafitte. Until it makes landfall and stops pushing water, well have tidal issues and low-area flooding. Templet said another concern with Hurricane Michael, a Category 3 storm with winds as high as 120 mph as of 4 p.m. Tuesday, would be if it should stall and remain longer in the Gulf. Even though its not hitting us directly, if it slows down it will keep shoving water into those low-lying areas, he said. Hernandez said Grand Isle put four emergency pumps out at 1 a.m. Tuesday and was getting ready to put out two more. Templet said the parish was sending Drainage Director Mitch Theriot and some additional back-up pumps down to Grand Isle. Hernandez said he had 2 inches of water Monday in the ground level of his home on Oak Lane. The floor is concrete, and the family knew to pick everything up off the floor beforehand. 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 water receded early Tuesday morning and Hernandez's first-floor "man cave" was dry, but with high tide in Grand Isle due at 12:47 p.m., the water was already coming back up. "The tide is coming in with a vengeance, he said at about 11 a.m. Tuesday. Hernandez said the pumps could take about three days to get all the water out of the flooded areas of Grand Isle. In Lafitte, Mayor Tim Kerner said the worst was over, and it amounted to only about 3 inches of water on several local roadways. Lafitte is 30 miles north of Grand Isle, and Hurricane Michael's passage to the east early Wednesday will have the opposite effect expected in Grand Isle. "Once it passes the mouth of the river it should start drawing the water out of here, Kerner said. Templet said additional pumps are still in place in Lafitte from the last storm. The parish shut down public libraries there and in Grand Isle at 2 p.m. Tuesday as a precaution. In Plaquemines Parish, President Amos Cormier said officials are monitoring the situation, especially at Pointe a la Hache, where high water was expected to peak Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. St. Bernard Parish employees built a rock dam Tuesday morning on Florissant Highway to slow rising tidal water. On the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, Fairview-Riverside State Park was closed as water rose in the nearby Tchefuncte River. In Madisonville, the state closed La. 1077 (Lake Road), historically one of the first St. Tammany Parish roads to close when a storm approaches. Bayou Liberty Road near Slidell was also closed. In St. Charles Parish, the Des Allemands boat launch and the Wetland Watchers Park in Norco were closed due to high water. The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East announced Tuesday afternoon that it would be closing floodgates near Lake Marina Drive in anticipation of high water Tuesday evening. GOLDEN JUBILEE: The board of directors of St. Mary's Dominican High School recently honored Sister Suzanne Brauer, O.P., who is observing her Golden Jubilee. Much of Sister Suzannes 50 years as a Dominican Sister of Peace has been serving New Orleans, where she was born and raised. She holds a bachelor of arts in religious studies from Loyola University New Orleans, a master of science in administration in not-for-profit business from the University of Notre Dame, and a master of arts in theology with a concentration in black spirituality from the Institute of Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University. WOMEN'S MORNING OF REFLECTION: St. Dominic Mothers' Club will hold a Women's Morning of Reflection with Stephanie Clouatre Davis. Coffee and breakfast start the day at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Oct.12, at 6323 Memphis St., New Orleans. For more information, see www.stdominicnola.org. LIVING ROSARY: St. Rita Home and School Association will host a living rosary at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, at the gym, 194 Ravan Ave., Harahan. Seventh-graders will light candles to represent the decades. For information, call (504) 737-0744. YOUTH PRAYER BREAKFAST: Gloryland Mount Gillion Baptist Church will hold its annual Youth Prayer Breakfast at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at 1515 O.C. Haley Blvd., New Orleans. The donation is $10. ROSARY WALK: A rosary will be said at noon Saturday, Oct. 13, at Our Lady of Prompt Succor, 146 Fourth St., Westwego. Chairs are encouraged. For information, call (504) 606-6503. ST. PHILIP NERI: The St. Philip Neri Grandparents Club has started its 12th year of school and parish service. Officers for the 2018-19 school year are Fran Vicknair and Bonnie Theriot, co-presidents; Karen Lambert, vice president; Donna Langevin, treasurer; and Carolyn Calcagno, secretary. CATHOLIC DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAS: Court Madonna #1626 of the Catholic Daughters of America will hold its monthly meeting at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, in the LaRose room at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, 1908 Short St., Kenner. The meeting is open to all Catholic women 18 and older who want to participate in religious, charitable and educational events as supporters of the Catholic Church. For information, call (504) 450-4345. 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 LIGHT THE NIGHT: Families grieving pregnancy and infant loss will find support during a Light the Night service from 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, at Trinity Church, 1329 Jackson Ave., New Orleans. The service will be facilitated by Mother Jane-Allison Wiggin-Nettles, associate rector at Trinity Church. A short reception will follow in the parish hall. For information, contact Ashley Eastham at (504) 670-2526 or aeastham@trinitynola.com. SCALLON MEMORIAL: A Mass in memory of the Rev. Kevin Scallon will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17, at St. Benilde Catholic Church, 1901 Division St., Metairie, hosted by the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of New Orleans. For information, see www.ccrno.org or call (504) 828-1368. SCHOOL BOARD FORUM: The Social Justice Ministry of St. Joseph Missionary Baptist Church will host a public forum for Jefferson Parish School Board candidates at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 22, at 236 Robinson Ave., Marrero. For information, call (504) 341-4858. FALL FESTIVAL: The Women's and Men's Clubs of St. Pius X will be holding a fall festival in conjunction with a haunted house, hayride and pumpkin patch from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. Games, activities and food will be available at the school, 6600 Spanish Fort Blvd., New Orleans. For information, call (504) 282-2811 or visit www.stpiusxnola.org. RECOVERY FELLOWSHIP: Christian Fellowship and Celebrate Recovery will host testimonies by Geraro Hidalgo and Chris O'Baugh at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at Christian Fellowship, 5049 Ehret Road, Marrero. Christian Rapper Lyrical Minister will perform. For information, call (504) 347-4875. RECOVERY PROGRAM: Christian Fellowship hosts Celebrate Recovery at 7 p.m. Fridays at 5049 Ehret Road, Marrero. The faith-based 12-step program deals with all life issues and may be joined at any time. For more information, call (504) 347-4875. RITE OF INITIATION: The St. Cletus of Rome Catholic Church Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults will be at 7 p.m. Tuesdays at the Parish Annex Building, 3600 Claire Ave., Gretna, for non-Catholics interested in joining the church or those who did not complete the three initiation sacraments. For information, call (504) 367-7951. A St. Tammany Parish jury has found a Slidell man guilty of video recording a consensual sex act between him and another person without consent. Sean T. Bass, 42, was found guilty Tuesday of video voyeurism of sexual intercourse. Bass faces one to five years in jail. Bass is accused of videotaping himself engaged in consensual sex with the victim at a residence in Mandeville in early 2017. The victim did not know about or consent to the recording. Bass then posted the video on a pornographic website without the victims knowledge or consent. Months later, a friend of the victim encountered the video online and notified the victim, who then filed a report. The victim, who has since moved out of state because of this incident, gave emotional testimony. The jury deliberated about 20 minutes before returning a guilty verdict. Bass also has an open warrant and is pending extradition out of South Carolina for the same type of conduct. The St. Tammany Parish Sheriffs Office investigated the local case. Assistant District Attorneys Blair Alford and Whitney Germany were prosecutors. The Plaquemines Parish Council on Thursday will consider whether to withdraw for the second time from lawsuits filed against oil and gas companies for damages related to coastal land loss. The council resolution, sponsored by Councilman Irvin Juneau, would order attorneys working the case to "cease and desist from performing any work associated with the legal action currently pending under the Coastal Zone Management Act," according to a draft of the meeting agenda. The potential vote marks the latest shift in sentiment among council members who voted to suspend action on the lawsuit in 2015 only to reverse course the next year. And with an election for parish president and several council seats coming next month, some critics of the move see it as political gamesmanship ahead of the vote. "I don't know what my decision is going to be but I am leaning toward staying at the table," said councilman and former parish president Benny Rousselle. The resolution, he said, was "an orchestrated effort ... to make a last-ditch effort prior to the election to derail settlement negotiations." Irvin Juneau and all but one of the other members of the council did not respond to requests for comment. Councilman Beau Black said he would recuse himself from voting because he works for an oil company. Plaquemines is one of six parishes that has filed suit against oil and gas companies for land loss they attribute to drilling activities. Specifically, they point to the canals the companies dug as contributing to saltwater intrusion, which leads to marsh converting to open water. The suits have been controversial from the start when they were first filed in 2013, then-Governor Bobby Jindal publicly denounced them as job-killers. But Governor John Bel Edwards has supported the lawsuits, intervening on behalf of the parishes. 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 Plaquemines suit was expected to be the first to go to trial, perhaps as early as next spring. Plaintiffs attorneys have worked hard to keep it in state court, where they feel they are more likely to get a favorable ruling. The oil companies have repeatedly tried to move it to federal court. Parish President Amos Cormier said the lawsuits could provide a needed source of revenue to help the parish rebuild land it has lost over the last several decades. But with an election next month, he declined to say whether he was against the resolution, reflecting the ambiguity many residents of the parish feel when forced to weigh potential settlements that could fund coastal restoration against the jobs provided by the oil and gas industry. "My goal is coastal restoration through dredging," Cormier said. "The lawsuits would be another potential source of revenue for dredging." Marc Ehrhardt, executive director of the Grow Louisiana Coalition, an advocacy group for the oil and gas industry, said he is in favor of withdrawing from the lawsuit. Doing so, he said, would help bring more energy-industry jobs back to the parish. Still, John Carmouche, the attorney whose firm has taken the lead on the Plaquemines Parish lawsuits, said the resolution's timing is suspect. The parties are due in federal court on Oct. 17 for a hearing, he said. "It really stinks," he said, adding that he believes opponents of the suit are putting pressure on council members to suspend the legal action. "It's really disturbing for Louisiana to go back to the way politics have done forever." Facing growing complaints that many students are unable to gain admission to public schools near their homes, the Orleans Parish School Board is set to consider tweaking its geographic preference policy to increase seats for students who live within a half-mile of its elementary and middle schools. Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr., who called a news conference Tuesday to discuss changes in the school system since almost all New Orleans public schools returned to local control on July 1, said the board is likely to pass the measure. This is the very beginning of a new system, but the commitment from this board and my administration is that were going to continue to hear from our families and implement policies and procedures that are very responsive to each and every one of them, Lewis said. The OPSB now oversees 78 public schools, including 75 largely autonomous charter schools. With increased demand for seats in the schools, only 67 percent of families received their first, second or third school choice this year. The match rate was the lowest in seven years and caused consternation among many parents concerned about sending their children on long bus rides to schools far across town. The proposed policy change, scheduled for a board vote Thursday, would change the geographic priority algorithm for OneApp, the computerized enrollment lottery system used to assign seats in most of the citys public schools based on families' choices and other priorities. The basic goal of the system is to give families citywide a shot at getting their kids into highly rated schools, not simply the closest school. Currently, most elementary and middle school students participating in OneApp get some kind of geographic priority. That priority, however, is given to those who live within a school's ZIP code, a much larger area than a single neighborhood. The geographic preference also applies to only half of the open seats at a given school, so as not to defeat the purpose of school choice and to shut out families in other parts of town who might want to attend. The preference does not apply to most high schools. Other priorities, like a preference for siblings of children already in a school, may also trump the geographic one in some circumstances. 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 Under the proposed changes, 25 percent of all available seats at schools offering a geographic priority would be reserved for students living within a half-mile of the school. Another 25 percent would go to other students living in the same ZIP code. The OPSB also is considering a policy that would set the earliest bus pick-up time for 6:05 a.m. Before Hurricane Katrina, most students attended neighborhood schools close to their homes. According to the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, they traveled an average of 1.9 miles to school in 2004. This year, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office found that only 46.2 percent of Orleans students live in the same area as their school despite the fact that about half of the time families' first-choice schools are those within their neighborhood. If passed, the changes will be in effect for the first round of OneAPP, which begins Nov. 5 for the following school year. According to the Education Research Alliance, the changes could dramatically impact travel times for students. The organization conducted a study, published last month by the Urban Institute, that examined data from 17 New Orleans schools for 2015-17 and found that the average trip from a child's neighborhood bus stop to those schools lasted 35 minutes. Round trip, in other words, a typical student taking the bus to school could spend six hours per week on a school bus. Worse, about 25 percent of public school students ride the bus every morning for more than 50 minutes, the study found, and some have bus rides lasting as long as an hour and a half. A small number of those students have to get to their stops by 5 a.m. to catch the ride. Of course, one way to reduce commute times would be to give families more desirable school options near their homes, wherever they may live, said Jon Valant, a research fellow and one of the publications authors. Wild weather has put on a spectacular show overnight with thunderstorms, hail and heavy rain grounding flights at Perth Airport. The storm grounded several flights at Perth Airport, with no planes taking off during the peak of the downpour between 5.15pm and 7.30pm. The storm rolls in over Perth Credit:Kirsty Stevens, Perth Weather Live Three Qantas flights due to arrive in Perth from Adelaide and Solomon around 6.15pm were diverted to Geraldton and Kalgoorlie while several other WA regional flights from the Midwest and Pilbara appeared to be cancelled. Photos were taken by Western Australian residents of the clouds rolling in from the Indian Ocean. I think the person who has talked about (the reimbursement issue) the loudest and who is pushing the issue most, who is a very smart guy and understands finances and costs, had every opportunity to include something like that in the original bill, and he chose not to, McMahon said. Now for him to complain about the impact of legislation he supported. I dont know what his motivation is. Finland's model works for them, I and some brave academics argue because they have a unique cluster of characteristics including a high-quality early childcare system, and a largely culturally homogenous society with a small population. Indeed, holes are being punched into the Finnish miracle, with the Program for International Student Assessment showing that Finland's status is slipping (if you're going to judge things by standardised tests, that is). In 2012 the latest scores available Finland fell out of the international top 10, with top PISA performers all hailing from Asia. Australia, meanwhile, is a dog's breakfast of starting ages. In NSW, children can start kindergarten if they turn five by July 31 but by law they must be in school by their sixth birthday. In Victoria, by contrast, children need to turn five by April 30. NSW parents are increasingly holding their children back. NSW Department of Education data revealed that in 2006, 19 per cent of children were six when they started school. Last year that figure was 22 per cent. Six! No wonder my children, now in Year Five, share a classroom with boys with beards and girls with breasts bigger than mine. For us, the stigma is heightened by the fact that in our neighbourhood, it seems, some parents would gladly hold back their spawn until puberty. At the local Rudolf Steiner pre-school, I see children taller than I was at 12. Ok, I'm shortish, but still. I can't help thinking as I go by: "why aren't you in school?" So why did we send our twins at four? (specifically, it was four years and seven months; they turned five in June of their kindy year). Lack of quality long day care, for one. I needed childcare until at least 6pm; like most working mothers, the option of pre-school with its laughingly anachronistic nine to three format was the stuff of dreams. I felt like I had won the lottery when I found a centre that was nurturing and multicultural, but a few years down the track, it descended into Fawlty Towers-style anarchy after being taken over by another operator. For me, the last straw was when I dropped in one day to find a room of bored kids watching Dora The Explorer on a sunny day. Dora, as every parent knows, is unimaginably bad there is really no excuse to watch it ever, even on rainy days. Why were we paying $30,000 a year (pre-childcare rebate) to have our children watch TV and play with glue sticks? And the twins were curious, maddeningly so, always asking questions, wanting to learn. What are shooting stars, where do jellyfish come from, how do rockets fly, why are some people ticklish they needed to be fed intellectually, not sedated and patronised in the modern-day holding pens that is bad (note, as opposed to good) childcare. Perhaps if I had access to better long day care, I wouldn't have sent them. Who knows? In any case, off they went to kindy the next year. Obviously a sucker for punishment, I also split them up ("don't twins have a special bond?," was the chorus this time). My son's teacher approached us in the first two weeks, saying he was too young take him out, she advised. I still feel the sting of guilt when I met the child who had already turned six in his class a spread of over 15 months from youngest to oldest. But my son was happy and keen to be there. And if I pulled him out, where would that have left his twin sister, equally thirsty to learn? A body of research points to boys faring better if they start school later, but how does this help us parents of boy/girl twins? How does this apply on an individual level? In any case, my children have remained in the NSW school system. They started their second last year of primary school this year (gulp) age nine, and yes, they share a classroom with 11-year olds with stubble. They enjoy learning (mostly), are in the middle of their cohort academically, have a good social group, do coding and debating, and play lots of sport. Loading A man carrying a large kitchen knife robbed a Dickson petrol station at knifepoint on Friday, police say. ACT Policing said the man threatened staff just after 4am. The man, who police described as caucasian, tall with a slim build and wearing a distinctive top, stole a sum of cash before fleeing on foot. A man carrying a large kitchen knife robbed a Dickson petrol station. Credit:CCTV screengrab Police ask anyone with information that could help them to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or at the Crime Stoppers ACT website. He said he then witnessed a man come across to crash tackle John Marshall to the ground as John Marshall was about to king-hit me. Loading Mr Marshall denies this, claiming through his lawyer Grant Brady, SC, that he acted in self-defence as Mr Higgins charged at him. The reason he used his head is because his hands were by his side, because he wasnt expecting it, he told magistrate Jennifer Giles. In cross-examination, Mr Brady put to Mr Higgins that he tried to influence dairy mogul and fellow polo player Jeremy Bayard against giving evidence for the defence. He also put to Mr Higgins he had his assistant covertly record an August 20 viewing of the field in preparation for the case in which Mr Bayard, CEO of Ace Farming, could be overheard discussing some of what happened. Jeremy Bayard, Ace Farming CEO. Mr Higgins denied instructing his assistant to record the viewing. The court heard Mr Higgins texted Mr Bayard after the viewing, asking for a character reference in return for one previously given to him, which Mr Bayard declined, saying he wanted to remain Swiss neutral. The court heard Mr Higgins told Mr Bayard he had been recorded earlier. Im very upset mate that you went beyond your brief. I suggest you rethink your position, Mr Higgins texted. In court he said Mr Bayard was conflicted as he employed Mr Marshalls son-in-law, Sam Hopkinson, who was also at the tournament that afternoon. Mr Brady said Mr Higgins was trying to stop Mr Bayard being further involved in the case. The Sydney Polo Club in Richmond as it appeared in The Great Gatsby. What youre trying to do is this: stop him helping the defence, he said. Mr Higgins said he didnt know Mr Bayard was a defence witness and his aim was to stop Mr Bayard spreading false information about the incident. Peter Higgins after the alleged assault. I also think of him being a gossip bag in the polo community, thats what Im concerned about, he said. Ms Giles provided Mr Higgins with a certificate to allow him to answer the questions without fear of self-incrimination. Mr Brady also raised text messages Mr Higgins sent to Mr Hopkinson, another defence witness, a few days before Wednesdays hearing, including one saying: Dave [Mr Marshalls son] says to everybody you are a weak prick. Mr Higgins said the messages were to do with something entirely different". Witness Noel Vincent, who gave evidence via audiovisual link, said he saw the confrontation unfold from a distance. They were swinging punches and carrying on just like a pair of school kids. It was pathetic, Mr Vincent said. Mr Marshall aggressively got out of the car and I think Mr Higgins came back at him after the initial aggression from Mr Marshall. Id say definitely the person pushing closer into the fracas was Mr Marshall. He said he then stood between the pair to break up the stoush, and agreed under cross-examination that he had described Mr Higgins and Mr Marshall as a pair of halfwits. Mr Vincent said Mr Higgins son, Riley, turned up shirtless and agitated. He was mouthing off to Mr Marshall in a pretty threatening manner, he said. He wasnt doing anyone any favours. Riley Higgins, son of Peter Higgins. Credit:Facebook Mr Brady said the altercation stemmed from proceedings in the Land and Environment Court over unlicensed events at Mr Higgins property. He said that, as a result of the court action, Mr Higgins attitude towards Mr Marshall changed markedly. He said at one stage Mr Higgins had banned Mr Marshalls polo team from playing on his field. The court heard the NSW Polo Association board members told Mr Higgins he couldnt ban members from licensed events on his property for personal reasons. They were swinging punches and carrying on just like a pair of school kids. It was pathetic. Noel Vincent, witness Mr Higgins alleged Mr Marshall had been harassing his family for several years and was legally prohibited from entering his property. Parramatta's Female Factory is among convict-era buildings that would be transformed under a plan to turn a historic site in Sydney's west into a lively hub for artists, creative industries and start-ups. A cluster of former institutions in North Parramatta's heritage core would be revived as museums, businesses and cafes in a Carriageworks-like precinct designed to capitalise on the city's arts boom. Bonnie Djuric, director of the female factory precinct memory project, supports the latest proposal. Credit:Wolter Peeters The idea for the western Sydney cultural and creative industries hub is outlined in a Sydney Business Chamber discussion paper launched at the site on Thursday. David Borger, who is the chamber's western Sydney director, said the plan would invite artists and businesses to repurpose buildings on the site that had largely been off-limits to the public for years. The first paramedic on the scene of the Dreamworld fatalities in 2016 has told an inquest he initially thought there were only three victims in the chest-deep water of the ride until the level dropped and revealed a fourth. Sydney-based mother Cindy Low, siblings Kate Goodchild and Luke Dorsett and Mr Dorsetts partner Roozi Araghi were all killed when the raft they were riding on the Thunder River Rapids Ride collided with another raft and flipped over. Two of the first emergency responders to the tragedy detailed their efforts to save the victims of the Thunder River Rapids Ride malfunction. John Clark was the safety officer on duty at Dreamworld the day of the tragedy, the coronial inquest into the tragedy heard, while Shane Green was the first aid manager stationed at WhiteWater World. Question 3: Are you attracted to Tony Abbott in his budgie smugglers? And how will students who fail the "hetero-test" be ejected from their school? Perhaps ritual stoning by their fellow students in the playground? Surely we have a duty of care over all young people. Mike Stambrey, Malmsbury Jesus Christ accepted and welcomed all those he met The Australian community, as a whole, gave heartfelt acceptance to the LGBTI community in the marriage-equality vote. Anyone who skims the Christian gospels gains an overwhelming impression of a leader who not only accepted all he met, but gave a special place to society's minorities and outcasts as moral arbiters in his stories. I cannot speak for Jewish or Islamic schools, but do Christian schools no longer follow Jesus Christ? Anna Summerfield, Bendigo Acceptance of difference in Catholic schools I have taught in Catholic schools for more than 30years and held senior positions of leadership. LGBTIQ kids are not ostracised any more or less than at any other school. On the whole, young people are incredibly accepting of difference, and staff rooms and administrations in Catholic schools around the country have people who are same-sex attracted, many in leadership positions. This agenda that all Catholics are homophobic is puerile and a little tiresome, to be honest. Brendan Douglas, Alphington This is payback for the same-sex marriage vote If I were to adopt a valid religion that believed educating young girls was counter to its values and convictions, would the Liberal Party legislate to protect this religious freedom? Of course not. This anti-gay review is payback aimed at disadvantaging LGBTI children after the conservatives lost the same-sex marriage debate. Mike Fajdiga, Beaumaris Discrimination, yet "rights" will be protected. How? This review has zero intellectual integrity in arguing that it is possible to maintain "appropriate safeguards for the rights and mental health" of LGBTI students, whilst permitting religious schools to discriminate against them. Geoff Feren, St Kilda East THE FORUM Put vulnerable kids first Special Minister of State Alex Hawke says "you have a choice of schooling" to justify his stance that it is "absolutely" acceptable for religious schools to discriminate against LGBTIQ students. However, he misses the point. More often than not, parents choose their child's school. Furthermore, the school years are when, for most young people, their sexuality becomes clear. I was fortunate to attend a private school, chosen by my parents, that was relatively accommodating of my coming out as gay in year 12. However, I had friends at religious schools, and a boyfriend in a Catholic school, who were less fortunate. They experienced discrimination and felt pressured to suppress their sexuality for the good of the school's image. To Alex Hawke and other ministers who support the right to discriminate against LGBTIQ students: You are giving priority to large, powerful religious institutions over under-age, ,highly vulnerable and pressured LGBTIQ Australians who often do not have a choice when it comes to their education. James Simondson, Fitzroy Discrimination hurts Is it really OK to say to lesbian, gay or transgender people that they are not allowed in school? But we need to practise our religion with freedom, say those who want to discriminate. There are things that originated in some religions, such as female genital mutilation and polygamy, that are against the law. These are extreme examples but they illustrate that religious practices change over time. I am a teacher and while I engage professionally with religious schools through sharing reports about students or attending conferences together, I know that I could not get a job in some of them. Now it is being recommended that students can also be discriminated against. This means you are excluded and not welcomed. It makes you feel sad and marginalised. Is that what we want? Ange Mackie, Coburg Elation, then despair What? On the front page, there is an advertisement from the Victorian government promoting "Public School. Our School" (The Age, 8/10). Then, on page 6, there is an article about a "$400million carrot for private schools" from the Andrews government. Hearts and minds wooed and then trampled in six easy pages. Emma Vagg, Warrnambool Bedrock of our country It is with some grief that I note the passing of John Deeble, the "father of Medicare" (The Age, 10/10). I am unashamedly a child of the Whitlam era and, as such, an idealist. But the idea of universal health insurance for everyone remains a core, moral essential of a thriving society. There is much hot air given to trivial issues such as strawberries and bullying shock jocks that sometimes we forget the important things which make Australia great. Universal health insurance is just one of them. Sally Creasey, Scone, NSW Where's the leadership? According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world has just 12years to avoid climate change catastrophe. Environment Minister Melissa Price, who is not a scientist, dismissed the seriousness of these warnings and said the government's policies were "adequate". What arrogance. We are being urged by scientists to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible and embrace renewable energy. It is ignorant and foolish not to do whatever we can to reduce emissions. Failing to do so puts our children, grandchildren and other forms of life at great risk. According to a recent survey, most Australians are very concerned about climate change. Why are the two major parties so lacking in strong leadership on this issue? Beatrice Naylor, Ocean Grove People before coal lobby Our latest Coalition prime minister would rather focus on the rising cost of electricity than the looming, immeasurable cost of a destroyed Great Barrier Reef, rising sea levels, and increased frequency and ferocity of storms caused by climate change, driven out of control by unchecked burning of fossil fuels. Our prime minister would rather protect the vested interests of the fossil fuel lobby than the Australian people he purports to represent. Robin Godfrey, Riddells Creek Desperate measures In 2015, a group of nearly 900 citizens of the Netherlands successfully sued their government for not taking adequate, effective action on climate change. Is that what we have to do here in Australia to get our culpable government to take this perilous climate crisis seriously? Sign me up. Gillian Upton, Balaclava Pariah on the world stage With all Australia's natural, financial and intellectual advantages, we should be world leaders in alternative energy solutions and cajoling other nations to do better. Instead we are a pariah for our lack of effort and poor attitude. This government has had its head buried in the sand on so many issues impacting its citizens, but this is the big one. We cannot just let the news cycle move on again and forget what world science is telling us. This government deserve to go so that others can start making up for the time lost. Peter Thomson, Brunswick Listen, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, rejecting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report will not make the issue go away. The planet is on a trajectory towards becoming uninhabitable. Unless we act now, it will be too late for future generations. Do you care? Irene Zalstein, East Doncaster A very critical omission We have just received a Liberal Party flyer in our letterbox for the federal seat of Macnamara. The glaring deficiency in it was under "The Issues" listed, where we were invited to tick the four that concerned us most. Climate change did not rate a mention. How can a party that purports to govern for all Australians ignore the most pressing issue of our generation? Mandy Anderson, Elwood A 'benefit' of gambling The people who carped on about the harmless light show illuminating the sails of the Opera House, based on the grounds that it promoted gambling, seem to have forgotten that the funding to build the opera house was raised by a series of lotteries. May the best horse win. Bill Haines, Strathbogie Now don't be hypocrites So a horse race was advertised on the sails of the Opera House. Oh my god, no. Is the sky falling in as well? In a few weeks, the Melbourne members of the Department of Moral Outrage will have the opportunity to demonstrate their displeasure at this encroachment of mass culture on an icon of the elites. They can boycott the Melbourne Cup public holiday and refuse to place any bets during the Spring Racing Carnival. Andrew Powell, Caulfield Aurally obnoxious ads Melbourne is not innocent of inflicting unwanted advertising on its residents. Every day I pass through Flagstaff Station at 5.30am, where I have to endure mandatory, brain-liquefying drivel produced by MTV being pumped from the large televisions on all platforms. Instead of beginning my day with a peaceful, early morning train ride, I must endure an update on the latest "drama" in Hollywood. Please, Metro Trains, for the sake of Melbourne's sanity make it stop. Tom Garry, West Melbourne Visually obnoxious ads While they are not as dramatic as advertising on the Sydney Opera House, I find the sight of real estate agents' billboards spruiking all sorts of events to be a blot on the suburban landscape. Joanna Wriedt, Eaglemont Try a dose of laughter When a person behaves like a rude and arrogant clown (no names needed), then the best treatment is to laugh. Reacting with anger, or caving in to demands, only fuels that person's sense of importance. Laughter is the best medicine. It punctures all ridiculous pomposity and shows up any belated apology as worthless. Lee Palmer, Albert Park The courage of Samuel How lion hearted was Elly Symons when she introduced this week's Australian Story, a tribute to her and Red's precious son Samuel. I watched, in tears, as the program traced the family's heart wrenching journey with Samuel's cancer from such a young age. His indomitable, stoic outlook was an inspiration. He conquered the odds so many times but finally succumbed, leaving a legacy of strength, humour and service to young people with cancer. May his family know no more sorrow. Anna Gdanski, Monbulk Eliminating plastic waste While riding through Melbourne's wonderful parklands, I notice that some people have dumped trailer loads of rubbish. They expect other people (us) to bear the cost of cleaning up their trash. Ross Gittins would call this a "negative externality".While it is commendable that, at last, some measures are being proposed (The Age, 9/10), little is being done to minimise the creation and distribution of plastic waste in the first place. Plastic manufacturers and distributors need to be made to pay for their externalities via tax. This would signal the true cost of plastic and compensate the government for the costs of removing it from the environment. Allan Dowsett, Preston Betrayed by empty words I was astounded by recent communications from the Commonwealth Bank and AMP, following the revelations at the royal commission. The bank's new CEO wrote: "I'm sorry for the mistakes we've made". AMP's chairman noted: "AMP has let customers down", with no apology. Are these institutions and their senior executives remorseful for being "found out" for their errors so far, and will they change their culture and focus? I very much doubt it. Michael Keenan, Dareton AND ANOTHER THING Climate change So the world's top scientists are "drawing a long bow". Well, shoot Australia down, Minister Price. Jean Andrews, Cheltenham I didn't know Price was the minister for electricity prices. Ron Slamowicz, Caulfield North Climate change sceptics need to accept that Mother Nature does not have a sense of humour. Andrew Remington, Travancore Year 12 science should be a prerequisite for an energy minister. Ralph Frank, Malvern East Scientific conclusions about climate change are not ideology. Coalition policy which ignores science is ideology. Mike Francis, Fitzroy The simplest way to deal with climate change is to pray for forgiveness. Just ask Morrison. Paul Drakeford, Kew Opera House "Doing an Alan Jones" will become part of the vernacular for behaving like a crass bully. Marie Martin, East Malvern Alan Jones apologies to Louise Herron, but he's not sorry. Layla Godfrey, Mount Eliza It's easy to apologise, Alan. Changing your behaviour is better. Keith Gove, Hawthorn What a surprise. Morrison, the beneficiary of Jones's intrusions into federal politics, supports his stance. Geoff Feren, St Kilda East Exquisitely Sydney, all class, right up there with "where in the hell are you?" Jim McEwen, Croydon Furthermore Go, Waleed Aly. I wish you were our prime minister. Ann Young, Chirnside Park Let's celebrate Australia Day by walking into someone's home and declaring that we live there now. Steve Melzer, Hughesdale Thank you for the opportunity to learn new words. I eagerly await conversations into which I can drop "bupkis" (8/10). If the Hearts and Minds Investments charity was needing for any more rich-lister cash before, they should be about right by now. Gulfstream G650ER owner Paul Little and his wife Jane Hansen have dipped into their bank account and made an investment. Paul Little, former Toll Holdings boss, has moved into the VIP jet business and put money into Hearts and Minds Investments. Credit:Eddie Jim The investment fund, which came out of the Hearts and Minds stockpicking forum, raises money for a number of charities and is being organised by UBS boss Matthew Grounds (among others). The mystery of which of the Packer siblings is investing in the vehicle, as queried by CBD, can also be answered. Its both James and Gretel! Part of The Alfred hospitals back-up power system failed during a chaotic electricity outage that saw emergency patients diverted. The leading trauma centre, which hosts some of the states sickest patients, was hit with a mains electricity outage for more than four hours on Monday afternoon and evening. Staff told The Age that emergency patients were unable to receive CT, MRI and X-ray scans and some wards did not have working emergency or patient buzzers. Staff at The Alfred said some services were paralysed by Monday's power outage. Credit:Jason South The hospital was also put on bypass for trauma cases, taking only emergency walk-ins, while appointments at the Alfred Centre, which specialises in outpatients and elective surgery, were reportedly cancelled. Fast, electric buses with Wi-Fi running every 10 minutes would service Melbourne's east under a $1.6 billion bus plan announced by the Greens in a pre-election pitch. The Greens will go to Novembers election promising to fund a new rapid bus network, which the party claims would alleviate much of the need for the $15.8 billion North East Link. Eleven new routes covering the area between Eltham, Kew, Clayton and Croydon would be available for use by 2020, under the policy released on Thursday. Buses would arrive every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 minutes on the weekend, stopping at major train stations, tram stops and universities. The bridge is one part of the Longmeadow Parkway Corridor, a 5.6-mile roadway being built in northern Kane that starts in Huntley, crosses through Algonquin, Carpentersville and Barrington Hills and ends at Route 62. The total project is expected to cost about $115 million, with $14.5 million coming from federal funds and $39.4 million from the state of Illinois, according to the countys website. The federal government's religious freedom review has rejected concerns that same-sex marriage could undermine religious freedom, saying there was scant evidence to support such claims. Members of the public had presented very few original examples of perceived infringements on religious freedom during the investigation, according to the review panel's final report. The finding is a direct rebuke of the "No" campaign's central claim that legalising same-sex marriage would unleash a chain of consequences for religious organisations and people of faith. The Ruddock review was commissioned last year amid the debate over same-sex marriage. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "The panel received limited evidence that the fears of religious groups expressed during [the same-sex marriage] debate had come to pass in Australia, although it was also noted that the change had only recently been introduced," the review concluded. A group of MPs has blasted NSW's independent pricing regulator for suggesting that electricity prices had dropped over the past five years, with one member saying it was "on another planet". At a parliamentary committee hearing on the state's electricity market on Wednesday, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) said the average electricity bill had decreased by 1 per cent in metropolitan areas and 13 per cent in regional areas, in real terms, since prices were deregulated in July 2014. However, earlier in the day, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) gave evidence that since 2007-08, electricity prices in NSW had jumped by 52 per cent, in real terms. When committee member Labor MP Adam Searle asked IPART why its findings, contained in a draft report released last week, were at such variance with the ACCC's report and the lived experience, it explained different time frames were used. The firefighters' union's battle to keep Victorian Labor MP Jane Garrett out of Parliament will go to trial in the Supreme Court next week. United Firefighter Union member Geoffrey Barker is challenging the validity of Ms Garretts preselection for the upper house, arguing it breached party rules. Jane Garrett outside State Parliament. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui Mr Barkers lawyers argue the Labor Party did not follow the proper party processes in preselecting Ms Garrett and the timing denied him a chance to nominate for the seat while he was working night shifts. Mr Barker is a full-time firefighter who lives in Frankston. Labor and the Coalition joined forces to defeat a Greens bill two years ago that would have revoked the right of religious schools in Victoria to target students for being gay. The Greens sought in 2016 to strip Victorias Equal Opportunity Act of three exemptions that allow faith-based schools to discriminate against students based on their sex, sexual orientation, lawful sexual activity or gender identity. Religious schools in Victoria have the right to discriminate against gay students, under an exemption to equal opportunity laws. Credit:Fairfax Media But the private member's bill was voted down by the major parties, with Sex Party MP Fiona Patten the only MP willing to vote with the Greens in the upper house. The Andrews government opposed the bill while pursuing its own reforms to the states equal opportunity laws, which would have wound back the right of religious schools to turn teachers away due to their sexuality or gender. After lengthy talks with Apple, the state government rammed through the demolition plans at the public square without public consultation, and without Melbourne City Councils knowledge beyond a letter sent to Mr Doyle a week before the announcement. This was done to protect Apples interests, the documents reveal. Credit:Matt Golding Due to the commercial-in-confidence status of this project, Melbourne City Council was not engaged, one report to Mr Wynne says. Under Apples plans for Federation Square, the existing Yarra building, constructed as part of the original project and opened in 2002, will be knocked down. The prime Yarra River frontage will then be leased to Apple for 21 years, and the company will spend hundreds of millions of dollars over two years building its new store. The officer reports to Mr Wynne make clear the many benefits the government believes will be brought by demolishing the existing Yarra building and moving the Koorie Heritage Trust. The new store will be one of only five 'global Apple flagship stores'. Others are either already open or being built in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington and Milan. In contrast to the secrecy surrounding Apples new store, Federation Square was built as the result of lengthy public debate about its symbolism as Melbournes civic and cultural square. Loading The documents released under freedom of information state that predictions of a massive increase in visitor numbers to the square, which currently attracts 10 million people annually, were supplied solely by Apple to the Victorian government. Apple anticipates 1.8 to 2.1 million visitors per annum to the Fed Square store (based on visitation to existing Melbourne, Sydney and other stores), with typically 50 per cent local, 20 per cent outside of Victoria and 30 per cent international visitors, one document says. The Age revealed in January that Apples plan was given a green light by the state government despite three senior ministers including Mr Wynne arguing against it in a heated Cabinet debate. Having lost that argument in cabinet, Mr Wynne approved the project. Since then, designs for the store have been reworked to further reduce its footprint so that it gives back more public open space and allows better sight lines of the Yarra River than are available now. While the stores physical footprint has been reduced, however, the documents released by Mr Wynnes office show that Apple still intends to monopolise public space as part of its 21-year tenancy at Federation Square. An artist's impression of the Apple store at Federation Square. "At times, the events [will ]extend from the store into the public realm, the planning reports state. The government argues that the Yarra building, which is to be replaced by Apples new store, was originally designed and built as a late addition to Federation Square. The Yarra building itself has always presented a visual and physical barrier between Federation Square and the Yarra riverside with access between them limited and exposure to the square from the riverside effectively non-existent, a government statement listing the project's benefits says. Other benefits include more than 250 jobs during the stores construction and more than 200 new ongoing jobs once the project is complete. A spokeswoman for Mr Wynne said the "revamp" of Federation Square would create more than 500 square metres of new public space and open the square up to the river. Asked what attempts had been made to verify Apple's prediction of 2 million new visitors a year, she said the estimate was based on visitor numbers to Apples other global flagship stores. Tania Davidge, the president of Citizens for Melbourne, a group campaigning against demolition of the Yarra building for Apple, said there was no evidence the government had "independently assessed the community, cultural or civic impact of building an Apple store in the heart of Fed Square". "Our public places should be shaped by people not brands," Ms Davidge said. London: A bakery in Belfast has won the right to refuse to make a cake featuring Sesame Streets Bert and Ernie under the slogan Support Gay Marriage. The long running case over what has been dubbed the most expensive cake in UK history, was supported by Northern Irelands Equality Commission, which argued that refusing to bake the cake was an unlawful act of discrimination against the customer, a gay man who supports a campaign for Northern Ireland to end its ban on same-sex marriage. The UK's highest court ruled unanimously on Wednesday, however, that the bakers a husband-and-wife team who held conservative Christian views on same-sex marriage - were not obliged to supply a cake iced with a message with which they profoundly disagreed. They had a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and to freedom of expression, the Supreme Court said. Washington: In a rare feat, US federal agents lured a Chinese government spy to Belgium, where authorities transferred him this week to the United States for prosecution on economic espionage charges, officials said on Wednesday. China's J-20 stealth fighter made its public debut at Airshow China last year in the latest sign of the growing sophistication of the country's military technology - some based on secrets stolen from the US. Credit:AP Yanjun Xu, a senior officer with the Ministry of State Security, is accused of seeking to steal trade secrets from leading defence aviation firms, top Justice Department officials said. His capture helps vindicate US law enforcement officials who have faced criticism in recent years that indictments of foreign operatives are not likely to result in the defendants setting foot in a courtroom. Officials and former officials said it is apparently the first time that a Chinese government spy has been brought to the United States to face charges. Rather than overturning Roe, the conservative majority on the court could chose to chip away at it by banning abortion after 20 weeks or, more dramatically, after a heartbeat is detected. Presidential immunity In the 1990s Kavanaugh was a key figure in special counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation into the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair that recommended impeaching the president for lying under oath in a civil suit. After serving as staff secretary to George W Bush, however, Kavanaugh's view shifted. "Having seen first-hand how complex and difficult that job is, I believe it vital that the President be able to focus on the never-ending tasks with as few distractions as possible," he wrote in a 2009 law review article. Kavanaugh argued sitting presidents should not be burdened with civil litigation, criminal investigations, or criminal prosecutions an unusually expansive view of presidential immunity. This stance has led to questions about how Kavanaugh would rule if special counsel Robert Mueller issues an indictment against Trump or if the White House refuses a request to subpoena documents. Gay rights The Obama White House welcomes the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2015. Credit:AP Kennedy provided the crucial fifth vote in the 2015 case of Obergefell v Hodges, which legalised same-sex marriage across America. Given how recent this decision was and how there is now majority support for same-sex marriage in almost all US states it is seen as extremely unlikely that the court would overturn it. But the court could cut back on gay rights by denying other privileges that usually accompany marriage. Gay couples, for example, could be denied the right to be identified as parents on their child's birth certificate. The death penalty The death penalty still remains legal in 31 of the 50 US states. But, thanks largely to Kennedy, there are limitations on how states may apply it. Kennedy was primary architect of the courts "proportionality doctrine" that led to exemptions from the death penalty for offenders with intellectual disability and juveniles. In 2008 he provided the tiebreak vote in a decision that found the death penalty could not be given to those only convicted of rape. There is little evidence of Kavanaugh's views on the death penalty from his previous judicial experience. But if he votes in line with the other Republican appointees on the bench, the states will likely have more freedom in the future to apply the death penalty as they see fit. Affirmative action Forty years ago, in a tight and controversial decision known as Regents of the University of California v Bakke, the Supreme Court found that it was lawful for universities to take proactive measures to ensure that racial minorities had access to higher education. Race could be one factor among many when making decisions about who they enrol. This ability has long been opposed by conservatives, and in a crucial 2016 decision, decided 4-3, Kennedy upheld a University of Texas admissions system which takes race into account when admitting students. Gerrymandering involves local officials making tortured shapes of their electorates to benefit their own party. Credit:New York Times "If Kennedy is replaced by a justice who shares the less nuanced views of the four remaining conservatives on the court, the 40-year conservative campaign to overturn Bakke may come to completion" University of North Carolina law professor Theodore Shaw wrote earlier this year. Partisan gerrymandering One of the most unusual features of America's political system is that politicians themselves, not an independent body like the Australian Electoral Commission, usually design election boundaries. This has led to the widespread practice of partisan gerrymandering, in which members of the ruling party manipulate district lines to give themselves a maximum number of seats. Kennedy gave hope to anti-gerrymandering reformers by saying he would like to see a standard developed that could measure when lawmakers had gone overboard in rigging the system. He also provided the crucial vote in a decision upholding Arizona's experiment with an independent restricting commission. Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a University of Chicago law professor who has helped lead an anti-gerrymandering case in Wisconsin, said he believed the odds of success had "plummeted" as a result of Kennedys retirement. Gun control Gun shop owner Tiffany Teasdale-Causer poses for a photo with a Ruger AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, in 2017. The same model had been used by the shooter in a Texas church massacre two days earlier. Credit:AP In 2008 Kennedy provided the crucial fifth vote in District of Columbia v Heller, a decision which found there is an individual constitutional right to have a handgun in one's home for self-protection. This overturned the conventional wisdom that the right to bear arms was not an individual right, but rather a right for those called to military service. There were caveats, however: that the right to bear arms doesn't stop the government from regulating firearms, and that governments can ban guns for criminals or the mentally-ill and restrict their use in schools and government buildings. The court also found that "particularly dangerous and unusual weapons," such as military-style assault weapons, could be prohibited. Loading Given Kavanaugh's appointment, it is possible those caveats may be removed. In a strongly-worded dissent in 2011 Kavanaugh argued against a ruling that allowed a ban on assault weapons in Washington, DC. "Kavanaugh believes in a very vigorous Second Amendment right to bear arms and he thinks there is little room for constitutionally permissible gun control," UCLA law professor Adam Winkler said earlier this year. 2019 Nissan Altima Review by Larry Nutson - It's E15 Approved +VIDEO 2019 Nissan Altima 25 Years Later By Larry Nutson Senior Editor and Bureau Chief Chicago Bureau The Auto Channel You might be scratching your head as to why a car maker would invest a lot of money to bring out a new sedan considering the current significant interest in SUVs by new vehicle buyers. First off, a very good reason is sales volume, or opportunity. Six million carssedans, coupes and convertibles are sold each year. The mid-size segment accounts for about two million sales, and thats where the Nissan Altima fits in. Secondly, Nissan has done some research and it turns out that many young people are interested in sedans. By the numbers. 44-percent of Gen Z buyers and 30-percent of Gen Y buyers are interested in sedans. Why? Price, fuel efficiency and I dont want daddys car are three main reasons. Nissan has sold 5.7 million Altimas over the last 25 years and now the sixth generation, entirely new 2019 Altima has arrived. Nissan has made a significant investment in the new Altima that now rides on an all new platform. Three key new features of the Altima are 1) it has two all-new engines, 2) it is the first Nissan sedan to offer all-wheel drive, and 3) the inclusion of a high level of driver assistance safety features with Nissans Intelligent Mobility and Safety Shield 360 including Pro-Pilot Assist. The front-wheel drive 2019 Altima is available in S, SR, SV, SL and Platinum trims with base prices ranging from $23,750 to $34,780. All-wheel drive (AWD), offered in response to the desires of buyers in northern U.S. markets, is available on all trims for an additional $1,350. Like many vehicle redesigns these days, the new Altima is longer, lower and wider. Its also a bit lighter and has a somewhat stronger platform coming from the extensive use off high strength steel. The standard engine across all trims is a 188-HP, direct injected 2.5-liter four-cylinder. Its mated to a CVT-continuously variable automatic transmission and is the only engine offered with AWD. EPA test-cycle fuel economy ratings for front-drive models are 32 mpg combined with 28 city mpg and 39 highway mpg. All-wheel drive models are rated at 30 mpg combined with 26 city mpg and 36 mpg highway. Following a common industry trend there is no longer a V6 engine. SR and Platinum models have an optional 248-HP 2.0-L variable compression turbocharged engine thats mated to a CVT and only available with front-wheel drive. Its the first ever variable compression engine. A unique piston to crankshaft mechanism changes the engine from 8:1 for performance to 14:1 for fuel efficiency. EPA test-cycle ratings are 29 mpg combined with 25 city mpg and 34 highway mpg. The SR trim with this engine is $4,050 additional and the Platinum trim is $3,000. At the recent Altima national media introduction I drove models equipped with both engines. Both deliver good overall performance, with the VC-T 2.0-L and its increased horsepower certainly more responsive. Nissan does a better job than most in making its CVT perform smoothly with low overall powertrain noise. On our test drive, my driving partner and I averaged 30 mpg over some twisty and hilly roads with the 2.5-L engine and 34 mpg over more flat and level terrain while driving the VC-T 2.0-L engine. As usual, fuel economy varies with terrain, driving speed and vehicle load. Also note that the VC-T 2.0-L engine requires premium fuel. Nissan is ramping up with more driver-assistance safety equipment being made standard across the board. Automatic emergency braking, driver alertness warning and forward collision warning are standard. On SV trims and above a Safety Shield 360 package is optional, adding Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection, High Beam Assist, Rear Automatic Braking, Lane Departure Warning, Blind Spot Warning, and Rear Cross Traffic Alert. The Altima SV, SL and Platinum trims come standard with Nissans ProPIlot Assist. Its not a self-driving feature but one that keeps the Altima centered in the driving lane using cameras and sensors working together with the cruise control. Altima is Nissans brand ambassador and is very well appointed both in and out to hold that position. Nissan designers focused on creating an expressive design. On the outside the Altima is both stylish and refined with interesting body surfacing. Inside, the instrument panel sits lower providing a more open cockpit. Premium materials and contemporary style, colors and details provide a highly comfortable and modern feeling. With seating for five, an 8-inch touchscreen, Apple CarPay, Android Auto, USB ports plus available premium comfort features all make for a pleasant driving experience. More information, details and specifications on the 2019 Nissan Altima can be found at www.nissanusa.com. A limited-production launch edition of the new 2019 Altima, the Edition One, will be based on the Platinum trim with the VC-T engine and equipped with unique wheel finish, floor mats and badging. A spoiler, ground lighting and illuminated kick plates with scarlet, black or pearl white exterior color choices will round things out. Only 3,900 will be built priced at $35,750 plus $895 for shipping. 2018 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy This report comes from an invitation-only Nissan launch event that allowed special access to the vehicle and executives. Nissan provided my overnight accommodations, meals, and transportation. Discover More Unbiased "Tell-Not-Sell" Nissan Vehicle Research Information Than Anywhere! SAN DIEGO--German manufacturers have always known how to create high-quality vehicles, and this year is no exception. The Mercedes-Benz SL-Class comes in on top this year, beating out runner-up (and last years winner) the Porsche Macan, according to the results of Strategic Visions 2018 Total Quality Impact (TQI) measure. TQI looks at quality as not only the drivers rational evaluation of quality, but also looks at how perceived quality has influenced drivers on an emotional level. TQI shows how people feel about their vehicles in their own words, which reveal valuable recommendations for future products, says Chris Chaney, Senior Vice President at Strategic Vision. From how customers are advocating about their products, automotive manufacturers can know where the future of the U.S. market is going. With the SL and Macan battling it out for the top spot, other notable high-scoring models include the Tesla Model X, BMW 7-Series, and the Cadillac Escalade. Although they are very different vehicles and are appealing to drivers for various segment-specific reasons, commonalities do pop up. Versatility, robust Power and Pickup, and an overall emotional sense of Ease are seen among these winners. MERCEDES SL-CLASS Mercedes-Benz is in a Renaissance period for the brand, explains Strategic Vision President, Alexander Edwards. With current innovative features and performance styling, Mercedes has clearly focused on answering the challenge of being a brand for our current generation of luxury buyers. Based on the voice of the consumers, Mercedes has unquestionably answered. The Mercedes SL-Class is described as making dreams come true. It is the quintessential convertible roadster, scoring highly in comfort and performance. Drivers strongly feel that their vehicles come together in premium finishes and power, and that the vehicle is a complete package that matches their desires. This car represents how these drivers have made it, in a sense. In addition to coming in as the highest-scoring Total Quality winner, the SL-Class also made waves in its respective Premium Roadster segment. The SL has always been a top contender in the segment, and this year the SL surpassed the Corvette which has previously won the segment title from 2015-2017. The SL performed particularly well in the segment for a comfortable and quiet ride. With the SLs impressive quality both in segment and industry, the SL has truly earned this years recognition as the overall Total Quality winner. As evidenced by our top two quality winners, European brands are making a comeback this year. In 2018, there are five European TQI winners, where only two scored top marks last year. However, this is nothing compared to the Domestic brand empires, who have a large volume of quality models for buyers to choose from. This year, we see 14 winning Domestic brand models. It is interesting to note that Asian brands have not been scoring as highly in the Truck segments as they did in 2017. The TQI score is comprised of a combination of things gone wrong and right in a vehicle, as well as delivery of emotional aspects of quality, such as elements of Security, Freedom, Esteem, and Harmony. Below is the full list of the 2018 Total Quality Award winners and scores: Small Car Honda Civic Si Sedan 674 Small Hatchback Honda Civic Hatchback 623 Small Alternate Powertrain (APT) Car Ford C-MAX Hybrid 548 Mid-Size Car Honda Accord Sedan 687 Mid-Size Hatchback Subaru Outback 598 Mid-Size APT Honda Accord Hybrid 578 Near-Luxury Car Genesis G80 725 Near-Luxury APT Car Lincoln MKZ Hybrid 709 Luxury Car BMW 7-Series 774 Luxury Hatchback Audi A5 Sportback 702 Specialty Coupe Chevrolet Camaro Coupe 756 Premium Coupe Chevrolet Corvette Coupe 748 Standard Convertible Ford Mustang Convertible 766 Premium Convertible/Roadster Mercedes SL-Class 805 Standard Pickup Chevrolet Colorado 574 Full-Size Pickup Ford F-150 665 Heavy Duty Pickup Ram 2500/3500 670 Entry SUV Jeep Renegade 615 Entry CUV Subaru Crosstrek 649 Mid-Size SUV Dodge Durango 703 Mid-Size CUV Chevrolet Traverse 709 Full-Size Utility Chevrolet Tahoe 698 Near-Luxury Utility BMW X3 716 Luxury SUV Cadillac Escalade 762 Luxury CUV Porsche Macan 788 Premium APT Utility Tesla Model X 786 Minivan Kia Sedona 552 Brands Under $26,000 Volkswagen 554 Mass-Market Brand Dodge 612 Luxury Brand BMW 667 Full-Line Corporation Volkswagen Group of America 610 Strategic Visions 24th annual Total Quality Impact (TQI) report is based on results from the New Vehicle Experience Study (NVES) surveying over 44,000 Jul.- Dec. new vehicle buyers after the first 90 days of ownership. It incorporates the impact of problems with the vehicle as well as the drivers analytical and emotional evaluations of quality. A: I actually planned on going to graduate school for children's book illustration. But after a mishap in the bursar's office the Art Institute would not release my transcripts. Meanwhile artist Bernard Williams spoke in a class I was taking, "The History of Mural Painting." While headed to see some of his murals on a class field trip, I pulled out my portfolio and showed it to him. It was then he told me he would need an assistant for his next project, which was also my first project with the Chicago Public Art Group. Melania Trump. Photo: Courtesy of ABC World News Tonight. Melania Trump was on a solo trip to Africa last week as Brett Kavanaughs nomination process to the Supreme Court wrapped up. There, the First Lady sat down with ABC World News Tonight for an interview (airing Friday at 10 p.m.), in which she was asked about the sexual-assault allegations against Kavanaugh, as well as the #MeToo movement. Melania responded that survivors should only report their assaults if theres evidence. Anchor Tom Llamas joined the First Lady during her four-country tour in Africa, during which they sat down for an exclusive interview. In a clip released on Wednesday, Melania talks about how its sad to see that organizations and foundations she wants to work with, choose not to get involved with her because of the administration. She was then asked directly whether she supports the #MeToo movement. WATCH: One-on-one with First Lady @MelaniaTrump. She's opening up for the first time about her life and her time in the White House to @TomLlamasABC. "Being Melania - The First Lady" airs THIS Friday at 10|9c on @ABC: https://t.co/BFuO7gPBkP pic.twitter.com/MqXC5NuVMn Good Morning America (@GMA) October 10, 2018 In response, Melania told ABC, I support the women, and they need to be heard. We need to support them, and also men, not just women. The First Lady was also asked if she feels that the men who have been publicly accused of assault have been treated unfairly. We need to have a really hard evidence that, you know, if youre accused of something, show the evidence, Melania said in the interview. I do stand with women, but we need to show the evidence. You cannot just say to somebody, you know, I was sexually assaulted or You did that to me, because sometimes the media goes too far and the way they portray some stories, its not correct, its not right. Recent high-profile cases including the fact an accused abuser now has a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court have highlighted the fact that evidence and speaking out arent always a given. Two out of every three sexual assaults go unreported often out of fear of retaliation or a belief that theres little the police can actually do to help and false rape accusations are incredibly rare. And people who do end up going to the hospital for rape are often stuck with hefty medical bills (even with private insurance, people end up paying around $1,000). In the case of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the FBI didnt speak with a number of people identified as potentially having crucial information regarding allegations of abuse. His accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, faced death threats, had her entire life upended, and had to move her family out of their home. The prototype classrooms were implemented in March, and administrators have since surveyed students who used the spaces to gather feedback, Williamson said. According to the survey, students reported an increase in their ability to be creative in the classroom, as well as an increase in motivation, connections with classmates, collaboration, problem-solving skills and communication, she said. 3 Arrested After Grandfather Tied Up in House Doused in Gas and Set Alight Three suspected kidnappers are in custody after allegedly committing an assault, abduction, and arson at a property in New South Wales, Australia. New South Wales police released video on Oct. 10 showing the dramatic pursuit and subsequent arrest of two suspects in connection with a terrifying home invasion in Ootha, near Condobolin, on Oct. 9, news.com.au reported. Three armed suspects allegedly beat and bound a 68-year-old man in the incident, before setting the house on fire and leaving the victim confined inside. The suspects also allegedly kidnapped a woman, 41, her two sons, aged 13 and 14, and their grandmother, 71, from the same property. Police said they later found all the abductees unharmed. Two men, aged 29 and 23, have been arrested over the alleged incident, and a third man, 44, was expected to be charged on Oct. 10, 9News reported, citing a police source. Two men charged after a home invasion and alleged kidnapping in Ootha. @jessicaridleytv #Ootha #7News pic.twitter.com/whZ6liOTTF 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) October 10, 2018 Police said three men armed with a shotgun, knife, and an ax assaulted the 68-year-old, identified as the grandfather in the family, and knocked him out. The suspects reportedly tied the man up and gagged him, before dousing the home with gas and setting it alight. The man managed to set himself free and flee before the house burned to the ground. Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith told news.com.au that the man made an extraordinary escape and was found by a neighbour. He fell in and out of consciousness a number of times throughout the four-hour ordeal, Smith said, according to the report. He received head injuries through the assault. I think hats off to him, obviously, his bravery in terms of what he did next, which was, he thought of the others and alerted neighbors. He is very lucky, as they all are, that we have been able to resolve this matter without the loss of life, Smith said. When I got near him thats when I saw he had blood all over him, and called for help, said neighbor Jason Hocking, according to the news.com.au report. Hed been bashed and tied up and gagged, he added. He couldnt remember too much or anything, so I just kept talking to him because he was falling in and out of consciousness. Footage of the dramatic arrest of the 23- and 29-year-old suspects was released by police, which appears to show them shaking hands and hugging before giving themselves up. The two suspects were later identified as Adam McKay of Cardiff South and Samuel Towney from Mayfield, according to 9News. The third suspect, 44-year-old Jason McKay, was later arrested in a separate locationBlaxlands Ridge. The two younger men have been charged with a string of offences, including kidnapping, aggravated bodily harm, attempted murder by arson, and use of a weapon, according to the 9News report. The older suspect has been charged with a range of offences, including special aggravated break and enter, and destroy/damage building by fire with intent to murder. Will from Wisconsin waves a giant, handmade flag outside the Mayo Civic Center before a Make America Great Again rally in Rochester, Minn., on Oct. 4, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) A Labor of Love to Support the President ROCHESTER, Minn.A mechanical engineer named Will traveled four hours from Wisconsin to share his handmade signs with Minnesotans who were lining up for the Make America Great Again rally on Oct. 4. He said he did it to show support for President Donald Trump, who he says is, the best president ever. I just love Trump. Hes the best president of my lifetimemaybe history, he said. I think its providential that hes in the White House to begin with. I have special thankfulness for that. Will, 67, had a selection of signs with him, including ones about Hillary Clinton and TV network CNN. Its too bad whats happening with the media, he said. Theyre about as evil as you can get. The rally is a new venture for him. Usually, he goes to overpass bridges on the freeways in Wisconsin to share his signs with the masses. It depends on the weather and the windbut if the weather is good, I could go out almost any time, he said. Will, who declined to share his surname, said he gets a lot of honks when people see his signs, Oh yeah, they love it. Its really fun, I can tell ya. The sign he was holding at the rally was one of his first and took him about three days to hand-paint, he said. Earlier, he was holding his God Bless America sign. Im getting better at it, he said. Ive got a small collection now. Ive got a couple Hillary ones, you know. He said Trump is great for Christian conservatives. I figured almighty God had something to do with Trump getting in here. And Im just so thankful of that, he said. I do this because I know hes not going to be around forever. I want to enjoy it, every minute while I can. Thats how I feel, I feel really strong about that. Children Among 50 Dead in Kenya Bus Crash Overloading may have been a factor NAIROBI, KenyaAn official said 50 people have died, including 7 children, after the bus they were traveling in left the road, rolled down a slope and crashed in the western Kenyan town of Kericho. Rift Valley regional police boss Francis Munyambu said survivors from the bus that was headed from Nairobi to the western town of Kakamega were receiving treatment at local hospitals. The accident happened around 4 a.m. on Oct. 10. Local reports gave varying casualty counts. Early morning accident at Fort Tenan, Kericho County claims 42 lives. The Western Express bus was from Nairobi and heading to Kakamega. It had 52 passengers on board, reads a tweet from Standard Digital, a Kenyan news service. JUST IN: Early morning accident at Fort Tenan, Kericho County claims 42 lives. The Western Express bus was from Nairobi and heading to Kakamega. It had 52 passengers on board. pic.twitter.com/KdOfZJMpti The Standard Digital (@StandardKenya) October 10, 2018 Citizen TV Kenya corroborated the figure of 50 dead, including 7 children. UPDATE: Fort Ternan road crash. 31 men, 12 women and 7 children dead totaling to 50 deaths from the crash, the news service tweeted. UPDATE: Fort Ternan road crash 31 men, 12 women and 7 children dead totaling to 50 deaths from the crash pic.twitter.com/wZCtxCLKG5 Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) October 10, 2018 A survivor of the road accident revealed details of the moments leading up to the accident, according to a report by the Standard. Survivor of the Fort Ternan road crash narrates how it all happened Overloading https://t.co/trB8Vq3oYo via @UreportKe The Standard Digital (@StandardKenya) October 10, 2018 According to the unnamed passenger, the bus had just left the Kenyan capital Nairobi for its destination, but then turned around to pick up more people. The man told Citizen TV Kenya that there had been a heated confrontation between the conductor and passengers amidst objections to overloading the bus. The additional passengers were seated on the bus floor since all the seats were taken, according to the report. Witnesses said the bus swerved off the road while driving down a steep slope, the Daily Nation newspaper reported, according to Reuters. At least seven survivors were rushed to Fort Ternan dispensary and Muhoroni Sub County Hospital. Kericho police boss James Mugera said the bus belonged to Western Cross Express Co. Limited, with the operational name of Home Boyz. The owner of the bus will face legal action, Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said, Citizen TV Kenya reported. President Uhuru Kenyatta said authorities were investigating what he called a catastrophic incident. As authorities investigate the cause of the accident with a view of taking action, I would like to remind drivers to always exercise caution to avoid such catastrophic incident, Kenyatta said on Twitter. My heartfelt condolences to the families of fellow Kenyans who lost their lives in a tragic road accident at Fort Ternan in Kericho County this morning and wish those in hospital quick recovery. As authorities investigate the cause of the accident with a view of taking action, I would like to remind drivers to always exercise caution to avoid such catastrophic incident. Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) October 10, 2018 The nation is united in grief following the tragic road crash involving a bus at Fort Ternan, Kericho County. We condole with the affected families and wish quick recovery to the injured, wrote the Deputy President. The nation is united in grief following the tragic road crash involving a bus at Fort Ternan, Kericho County. We condole with the affected families and wish quick recovery to the injured. William Samoei Ruto (@WilliamsRuto) October 10, 2018 PSV companies must adhere to road safety rules; ensure their drivers are not fatigued and administer refresher driving courses to staff. PSV companies must adhere to road safety rules; ensure their drivers are not fatigued and administer refresher driving courses to staff. William Samoei Ruto (@WilliamsRuto) October 10, 2018 Kenya has struggled to reduce the rising number of road accidents as more people acquire vehicles in the countrys growing middle class. In 2013, the government re-introduced breathalyzers, but had to remove them again after court orders barred police from charging drivers using readings from the devices as evidence. According to government statistics, around 3,000 Kenyans die every year in road accidents. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Columbus Day: Eliminate or Celebrate? Commentary Oct. 12 is the traditional date on which Americans celebrate Columbus Day. It commemorates the anniversary of Christopher Columbuss arrival in the Americas in 1492. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison marked the 400th anniversary of that date with a general holiday for the people of the United States. Colorado Gov. Jesse F. McDonald proclaimed the first annual Columbus Day in 1907. Two years later, the New York state legislature followed suit. By 1910, 15 states had officially adopted the holiday, and it was made a federal holiday in 1934 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1971, it was moved to the second Monday in October so that workers could enjoy a long weekend. The recognition of Columbus Day as a federal holiday was due, in part, to support from Italian-Americans and the Catholic mens organization Knights of Columbus. At a time when much of society considered immigrants and Catholics to be outsiders, these groups sought to make clear the role that their forebears had played in American history. Protestant America looked at Catholics with suspicion. In the mid-1800s, the Know-Nothing Party (so named because when asked about the group, members professed to know nothing) strongly opposed Catholic immigration. This was at a time when the pope controlled the Papal States. Some feared a Romanist conspiracy that would involve Catholics taking over the nation and putting it under the Popes rule. The Know-Nothings largely disappeared with the Civil War, but by the 1920s, the anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant banner was being held high by the Ku Klux Klan. KKK members saw Columbus as a logical target because he was Catholic, Italian, and sailed under the Spanish flag. They mobilized to stop the erecting of statues, burned crosses to threaten Catholics, and wrote in their newspaper, The American Standard, that establishing a holiday in his honor was a papal plot. The 1934 recognition of Columbus Day was a loss for the Klan but served as recognition of the important contributions made not only by Italians and Spaniards, but the Irish, Greeks, Eastern Europeans, and others. They were Americans, too. For the next 50 years or so, Americans celebrated Columbus Day with parades and events in schools and elsewhere without much controversy. Eventually, however, the criticism came. Criticizing Columbus The first and most obvious criticism: He did not actually discover America. Viking Leif Eriksson is believed to have landed in present-day Newfoundland around 1000 A.D. Of course, people already were living on the continent even before the Vikings arrived. The importance of Columbus is that he located the New World for most Europeans, and he made three more trips after returning the first time. That was a big deal. It was important, and he was courageous. The next criticism was that Columbus actually failed. His plan was to chart a western sea route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. Of course, he did not make it there. There was a continentactually twoin his way. Alexander the Great famously ordered his troops to march off the mapin other words, to explore the unknown. Columbus sailed off the map with his men, boldly going where no one had gone before. Surely, he cant be criticized for that. There is also the argument that he never actually set foot in North America. During the four separate trips that started in 1492, Columbus landed on various Caribbean islands now known as the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola. Is that a significant criticism? Was it important to the Europeans of his day? It doesnt seem so. That leaves the real question being Columbuss treatment of the natives he encountered. He has been blamed for the spread of slavery, infectious disease, and forced conversion to Christianity. The historical evidence shows him to be a much better man than these arguments suggest. As for spreading diseases, anytime a new element is introduced to an existing culture, there is a risk of spreading infectious diseases. In Hispaniola, the native Taino population had no immunity to smallpox, measles, or influenza. So, when Europeans showed up, the results were devastating. Some historians have compared it to the impact of the Black Death in medieval Europe. This cant, however, be used as a reason to condemn Columbuss exploration. It was an unintended result. The explorers themselves contracted and suffered from a number of new diseases, and they inadvertently took them back to Europe. They also encountered tobacco for the first time, and they took it back to Europe from the New World. No one can honestly blame the natives for unleashing all of the harm that has caused. Slavery was practiced in Spain at the time Columbus sailed. In fact, during this time, Spain probably had the highest concentration of African slaves in all of Europe. Columbus was a man of his era, and he didnt attempt to change that. His relations with the natives, however, like his intentions toward them, were generally good. There are many examples in his writings where he gave instructions to his men not to maraud or rape and instead to treat natives with respect. Columbus felt that Almighty God had directly brought about his journey. He wrote: With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible and he opened my will to desire to accomplish that project. The Lord purposed that there should be something miraculous in this matter of the voyage to the Indies. As was typical of most Spanish crews, Columbuss men recited the Our Father daily, but his faith went well beyond that. His son, Ferdinand, reported that he was so strict in matters of religion that for fasting and saying prayers he might have been taken for a member of a religious order. A contemporary of Columbus, Bishop Bartolome de Las Casas, recognized the injustice of slavery. He wrote an eyewitness history of the early years in which he strongly criticized many fellow Spaniards, but he didnt condemn Columbus. In fact, he wrote: He was calm and serious, friendly to strangers, gentle and kind to his family. In nearly everything he undertook to plan or to accomplish, he would begin with, In the name of the Holy Trinity, I will do this or look to that. Columbus yearned for the evangelization of the natives because he saw the humanity in them. They should be good and intelligent servants, he wrote, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time of my departure I will take six of them from here to Your Highnesses in order that they may learn to speak. The modern concept of separating church and state didnt enter into Columbuss thinking, but that is more a reflection of his time than his character. His sovereigns were Christian princes; to extend their nations borders was to extend Christianity. To conquer new lands was to spread the gospel. He was fulfilling a divine destiny for himself, the kingdom, and for the Church. Communist Disinformation Recent polls show that a majority of Americans support celebrating Columbus and his role in the nations history. Last year, however, the Los Angeles City Council voted to rename the holiday Indigenous Peoples Day. More than 30 U.S. towns and cities, including San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Seattle, and Minneapolis, as well as the states of South Dakota, Hawaii, Alaska, and Oregon have done the same. Columbus is on a growing list of targeted historical figures, with calls to eliminate or rename Columbus Day, remove his statues, and halt any celebration of his life. The anti-Columbus campaign prompted a civic organization, the National Christopher Columbus Association, to create a new website last year, TruthAboutColumbus.com. The organization said in a statement that the site was designed to expose the Marxist roots of todays anti-Columbus movement and draw attention to the long history of bigotry behind the rhetoric, including anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic language still used today. The Marxist roots? Well, maybe. The campaign against Columbus isnt truly about history. Ultimately, it isnt even about Columbus. The case against him is actually part of a larger campaign to undermine Western values and Western heroes and to shift the power balance of the nation. Making Americans distrust their own history and their heroes have long been a focus of communist disinformation. My friend and frequent collaborator, Ion Mihai Pacepa, spent much of his life trying to sow that type of doubt on behalf of the Kremlin (until they pushed him too far and he became the highest-ranking officer ever to defect from the Soviet bloc). The Soviet Union devoted massive resources to raising questions about Western icons, and Russia seems to be continuing right where the USSR left off. Writing last year in National Review, Jennifer C. Braceras explained: Not surprisingly, revisionist accounts of Columbus as evil were common in Soviet textbooks in the 1970s and 80s. And modern-day Marxists still view Columbus a man driven by a lust for profit and condemn the holiday that bears his name as a celebration of the violent and bloody accumulation of capital for the ruling classes. That type of thinking, of course, has spread beyond Russian borders. Braceras concluded that in a world where slavery and barbarism were commonplace, Columbuss goal remained trade and evangelization of the natives, not conquest or elimination, and he punished (even executed) those who abused natives against his express orders. In other words, early-20th-century Americans basically got it right. His life is worth celebrating and his legacy worth remembering. So, aware that the man wasnt perfect, but also in recognition of his bravery, the importance of his discovery, and the contributions of those Americans who themselves were seen as outsiders before Columbus was so honored, I wish you all a very Happy Columbus Day. Ronald J. Rychlak is the Jamie L. Whitten chair in law and government at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of several books, including Hitler, the War, and the Pope, Disinformation (co-authored with Ion Mihai Pacepa), and The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East (co-edited with Jane Adolphe). Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. (L-R) Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, Deputy District Attorney Irene Lee, Jenny Unger, and Veronica Gonzalez at the Courageous Citizen Awards in Los Angeles, on Oct. 5, 2018. (Sarah Le/The Epoch Times) Courageous Southern Californians Awarded for Helping Children A woman distracted a gunman with a taco, saving her own life and that of her children. Three women stopped on a busy freeway on-ramp to save a 3-year-old boy. An employee found disturbing images on a co-workers phone and risked his life to take it to police. Each of these residents from the Los Angeles area was recently presented with a Courageous Citizen Award from Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey. The ceremony was hosted by the Rotary Club in downtown Los Angeles, on Oct. 5. The Courageous Citizen Award has been presented several times a year since 1986 to congratulate those who have risked their own safety to help a victim of a crime, help capture a suspect, or testify amid overwhelming pressure. Lacey said it was the first time the ceremony had a theme: helping small children. Little Boy on the Freeway I was super honored, said Jenny Unger to The Epoch Times at the ceremony. I honestly wouldnt expect an award for this, because I just felt like as a human being, its something that I feel anybody should do. Unger was the first of three women to immediately pull over on a freeway on-ramp in Echo Park on Oct. 5, 2017, when she saw a little boy, naked except for a dirty diaper, who was about to walk onto the freeway. Alexandra Plasencia and Veronica Gonzalez also stopped and ran out of the car. The women safely moved the toddler out of harms way, wrapped him in a blanket, and gave him water and snacks until police arrived. Such a sweet little boy, said Gonzalez. He came to us really easily, very comfortable, and he didnt speak he was really thankful for it. Lacey praised the women, calling them absolutely amazing. Think about how many people probably drove by and didnt notice this 3-year-old on the street, said Lacey. I can only imagine the horror. The mother of the child was later located and convicted of felony child abuse. Shes involved in a womens re-entry program and drug treatment. Distracted by a Taco Sylvia Reyna was on her way home from the Raging Waters water park on June 10 with her children, when they pulled over to buy some tacos at a food truck. As they were eating, a man on a bike approached them and showed them what he claimed was a police badge. He had a gun with him, and he kept trying to distract us, talking to us, but he kept showing us the gun, Reyna said. The man told the family that he was taking care of the streets, and not to be afraid. But then he said, Eat, then Ill take care of you guys after. That was when I got scared, Reyna said. She offered the man a taco, and as he was eating, she made her way to the taco truck, where a group of people were waiting. She told them the man had a gun, and a bystander called the police. Reyna said later that all she had been thinking about were her children, and she wasnt sure how she had been so brave. A Co-workers Phone Joshua Anderson, 25, was at a co-workers house in Palmdale on Feb. 7, 2016. He asked to borrow the mans phone and happened to see some videos with child pornography on it. Anderson quickly left the house with the phone, but the man confronted him and threatened him with physical violence. However, Anderson refused and brought the phone to authorities. Not long after, the man and a woman who provided him with the videos were both arrested and sentenced to prison, and an abused child was saved. Anderson was unable to attend the award ceremony, so his grandfather came and accepted the Courageous Citizen Award on his behalf. Organizers of the ceremony hope that this kind of public recognition will inspire others to do the right thing when the time comes. You have certainly restored our faith and inspired us today, said Lacey. Detroit School Bus Hit by Van A Detroit school bus carrying students to class Monday morning, Oct. 8, was rear-ended by a mini-van in a collision. Detroit Deputy Fire Commissioner Dave Fornell told Fox News that there were eight children under the age of 14 on the bus when the accident occurred. All the students were taken to Childrens Hospital of Michigan as a precaution, the Free Press reported. The minivan held an adult driver and a 15-year-old passenger. Both were taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital for evaluation, Deputy Commissioner Fornell told the Free Press. The bus driver did not need medical attention. The bus was carrying students to Marcus Garvey Elementary School. The driver had just stopped at an apartment complex, she told Fox News. She was headed east on East Lafayette Street when she stopped to make a left turn. When she did, the minivan rear-ended the bus, the driver said, hitting the bus behind the left rear wheel. The minivans right front fender was crushed, the bumper torn off, and the windshield was smashed. The bus driver told Fox News she wasnt sure why the minivan driver didnt stop. The collision happened at around 8:30 a.m. when streets were full of workers headed to their jobs and parents taking their children to school. It was a foggy morning, but the fog was not so dense that the minivan driver would have had any trouble seeing the school bus. Neither the Detroit Police Department nor the Detroit Public Schools Community District has yet made any statements about the collision. AP reported that the accident is under investigation. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident. From NTD.tv Watch Next: First Lady Melania Trump wraps up Africa tour First Lady Melania Trump concluded her Africa trip on Oct. 7. She visited Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, and Egypt. This was her first major solo trip as first lady. Far-left Antifa protesters wear bandanas over their faces during a protest in downtown Portland, Ore., on Sept. 10, 2017. (NATALIE BEHRING/AFP/Getty Images) Driver Swipes Protester Amongst Chaos in Downtown Portland Police stood on standby Hundreds of people protesting the death of Patrick K. Kimmons, who was shot by Portland police, were causing traffic and noise disturbance in downtown Portland on Oct. 6, Oregon Live reported. In the chaos that resulted from protesters taking charge of the roads and directing traffic while police stood on standby, numerous altercations erupted between protesters and locals, local media reported. One such altercation between a driver and protesters was captured by local videographer Brandon Farley, who shoots and edits videos of disruptive events in Portland. Farley captured the moment a driver struck a protester as he attempted to push his way through the crowd to continue his journey. The video shows the driver of the silver Lexus trying to make a right-hand turn at a green light amongst a crowd of protesters. One protester was pushed by the car as it made the turn. Protesters were also hitting the car. Fortunately, no one was injured. Portland's Day of Mourning and Protest pt. 3 Leaders at the frontline move ahead to block off traffic for the protest. A Mob of Protesters bombard an Old Man with Weapons and cause destruction to his vehicle. #PatrickKimmons #Antifa #BLM #pdxtraffic #Downtown pic.twitter.com/fNw3hW6yqO Brandon Farley (@FarleyFilms) October 10, 2018 Protesters then chased the car down as the driver stopped to check for damage. KOIN 6 news reported that police didnt intervene even through protesters were affecting traffic. Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Chris Burley said that the police were taking into account the protesters First Amendment rights of free speech and free assembly, as well as the impact the protests had on the Portland community. My interview on @TuckerCarlson: We discuss why demonstrators were allowed to threaten drivers with impunity on an illegally occupied street in downtown Portland, Ore. Still no comment from the Mayor. https://t.co/NGea5rcTam pic.twitter.com/P6zYCxiXk2 Andy C. Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 10, 2018 Damage to Car The driver later reported to the police that a total of $3,000 of damage was made to his car, KATU reported. Police said that they received a 911 call from the driver after the confrontation and have opened an investigation into the incident. Updates via KOIN news: The elderly man called police & filed a report after the incident. The person who made contact with the front of the car has not. And police basically said they didnt get involved to protect first amendment rights. https://t.co/C4HoXjVK6e Andy C. Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 9, 2018 Police said that the protesters did not have a permit for the protest, KATU reported, adding that the incidents on the day demonstrated how important permits are to ensure that police are prepared to maintain a safe separation between protesters and road users. It can be dangerous not only for marchers in a group, but also for drivers as well, said Burley, KATU reported. Watch Next: The Origins of Antifa Mourners gather during a candlelight vigil for the victims of a limousine accident in Amsterdam, N.Y., on Oct. 9, 2018. REUTERS/Cindy Schultz Finger Pointing Begins in Search for Cause of New York Limo Crash NEW YORKLawyers for the family of a limousine driver who died along with 19 others in an upstate New York accident and the owner of the vehicle are clashing over the cause of the deadliest U.S. transport accident in nearly a decade. New York State police said the driver, 53-year-old Scott Lisinicchia, did not have the proper license to operate the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine that crashed in Schoharie, New York, late on Oct 6 and that the vehicle had failed inspection last month. A lawyer for Prestige Limousine, which owned the vehicle, said the safety violations that led it to fail inspection last month were largely minor and did not cause the crash. I dont think that these infractions were what led to the tragedy, attorney Lee Kindlon told CBS News in an interview. Reuters was not able to reach Prestige Limousine for comment and the companys listed phone number was disconnected. But a lawyer for the drivers family said the limo had problems. The family believes that unbeknownst to him he was provided with a vehicle that was neither roadworthy nor safe for any of its occupants, the lawyer, George Longworth, said in a statement. Lisinicchias twin brother Keith said Scott was an experienced and conscientious driver who was properly licensed. I know that he always kept his license up. I mean it was a CDL (commercial driver license) license, Keith Lisinicchia told WRGB TV in Albany, New York. Before the limousine crashed on the way to a birthday party, one of the victims, Erin McGowan, texted a friend that the limousine appeared to have engine trouble, the New York Times reported. McGowans aunt, Valerie Abeling, told CNN her niece had texted a friend saying the company had sent the stretch limousine to replace a vehicle that had broken down. All three vehicles owned by Prestige Limousine, which is based in Gansevoort, New York, had violations when they were inspected last month, U.S. Department of Transportation records show. The inspection of the limousine that crashed had turned up several violations, including some involving anti-lock brake malfunction indicators and inoperative or defective windshield wipers. Those killed in the crash included two pairs of newlyweds, four sisters from one family, and two brothers from another. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered flags in the state lowered to half-staff, adding on Twitter that It is hard to fathom the extent of this tragedy. At the Oct 8 Columbus Day Parade in New York City, Cuomo told reporters that Prestige Limousine was being sent a cease-and-desist order to halt operations until authorities investigated the accident. State police and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which are investigating the cause of the crash, will look at safety regulations for limousines, whose passengers are not required to wear seatbelts. The vehicle ran a stop sign at a highway intersection in Schoharie, about 40 miles west of Albany, police and the NTSB said. It crashed into an unoccupied parked car and two pedestrians before coming to a rest in a shallow ravine, officials said, killing the driver, all 17 passengers, and the two pedestrians. By Peter Szekely Scott Kelly poses for a picture near a Soyuz flight simulator during an examination session at the Star City space centre outside Moscow, on Sept. 15, 2010. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images) Former NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly Lands in Hot Water After Quoting Winston Churchill Scott Kelly, the 54-year-old former astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Captain, found himself sandwiched between two of this Twitter posts about Winston Churchill. Kelly is a veteran of four space flights and commanded the International Space Station on three expeditions. His first spaceflight was as a pilot of space shuttle Discovery in Dec. 1999. In an Oct. 7 tweet, likely referring to the situation after the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Kelly wrote: One of the greatest leaders of modern times, Sir Winston Churchill said, in victory, magnanimity. I guess those days are over. The tweet got more than 700 comments. One of the greatest leaders of modern times, Sir Winston Churchill said, in victory, magnanimity. I guess those days are over. Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) October 7, 2018 Churchill wrote in victory, magnanimity in his book on World War II, indicating the winners of a conflict need to show grace. Some of his left-leaning followers apparently didnt like Kellys praise of Churchill, whom they try to label as racist. They linked Churchill to the Bengal famine in India which killed at least three million people in 1943. Merely seven hours later, Kelly apologized to his Twitter followers without delay. Did not mean to offend by quoting Churchill. My apologies, he said, I will go and educate myself further on his atrocities, racist views which I do not support. My point was we need to come together as one nation. We are all Americans. That should transcend partisan politics, he added. Did not mean to offend by quoting Churchill. My apologies. I will go and educate myself further on his atrocities, racist views which I do not support. My point was we need to come together as one nation. We are all Americans. That should transcend partisan politics. Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) October 7, 2018 However, the apology didnt help to calm down the issue. It caused even more, fiercer backlashes. Numerous fans thought the apology was unnecessary and inappropriate. More than 13,000 comments were posted after his apology tweet and 1,400 people retweeted it. There was no need to apologize, Winston Ginwho identifies himself as a retired police officercommented. Winston Churchill was a great man & a magnificent leader. Do not bend to pressure from the ignorant left. How the left beats weak people into submission. What you need is some training in resolution and courage. You could learn THIS from Winston Churchill https://t.co/86AMqJjOAA Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) October 8, 2018 Dinesh DSouza, the Indian-born commentator and influential director of the documentary movie Death of a Nation, thinks what Kelly needs is courage. How the left beats weak people into submission, DSouza said in a Twitter post, What you need is some training in resolution and courage. You could learn THIS from Winston Churchill. Stop Apologizing for Our History Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro also joined in with his opinion: All the whiny brats ripping on Kelly for quoting Churchill would be speaking German without Churchill, he tweeted. All the whiny brats ripping on Kelly for quoting Churchill would be speaking German without Churchill https://t.co/uul2O7O5Ub Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 8, 2018 In his op-ed published in the National Review, Shapiro wrote: we cannot come together as one nation so long as we engage in the foolish exercise of savaging our civilizational history. Shapiro brought up more examples from American history: The fact that George Washington was a slaveholder does not render his status as father of the country moot, he said, Human beings are products of their time. But the process of civilizational development requires us to separate the wheat from the chaffand to celebrate the wheat, he added. From NTD.tv Watch Next: The Origins of Antifa South Africa's Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene looks on ahead of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry probing state capture in Johannesburg, South Africa Oct. 3, 2018. (Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko) Former South African Central Bank Governor Mboweni Takes Over as Finance Minister CAPE TOWNSouth African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Oct. 9 that he had accepted the resignation of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and appointed former central bank governor Tito Mboweni as his replacement. Nene faced calls to resign after he admitted visiting the Gupta brothers, friends of scandal-plagued former president Jacob Zuma who have been accused of high-level influence-peddling, and failing to disclose the meetings earlier. Zuma and the Guptas have denied any wrongdoing. The rand firmed moments before Mboweni was announced finance minister at a ceremony in Cape Town. Ramaphosa said he had received a resignation letter from Nene and had decided to accept it. Its a measure of his character and commitment to the country that he has decided to resign despite not being implicated in any wrongdoing, the president said. I am confident that Mr Mboweni will bring the leadership that is needed now, Ramaphosa said. As former governor of the Reserve bank and before that as minister of labor Mr. Mboweni brings with him vast experience in areas of finance, economic policy as well as governance. Nene became a divisive figure in the scandal after acknowledging in a hearing that he had visited the Gupta brothers at their homes in Johannesburg, a confession his opponents said tarnished his credentials. He publicly apologized on Oct. 5. The Gupta brothersAjay, Atul, and Rajeshhave been accused of using their friendship with Zuma, Ramaphosas predecessor, to siphon off billions of rand in state funds and of inappropriately influencing cabinet appointments. The crisis over the finance minister had thrown a spotlight on Ramaphosas promise to crack down on corruption and boost economic growth. By Wendell Roelf Gulf Coast in Last Minute Preparations as Hurricane Michael Approaches Hurricane Michael is coming, and it looks like it will slam the states along the eastern Gulf of Mexico with a mighty blow. Florida, Georgia, and Alabama have already declared emergencies as the hurricane continues to strengthen and make its way north across the Gulf. More than 120,000 people have been advised to evacuate some Florida Panhandle cities. Airports are shut down, and cruise ships have been diverted, according to Weather.com. Florida Disaster.org has a complete list of evacuation alerts and warnings. Pensacola International Airport will be closed until the storms effects have passed, while Tallahassee International Airport will be closed all of Oct. 10 and until 8 a.m. Oct. 11, Weather.com reported. Carnival Cruises has rescheduled six of its liners which were due to enter the storms zone of impact. Norwegian Cruise Lines has also rerouted one ship. A monstrous storm Florida Governor Rick Scott told a news conference on Oct. 9, Hurricane Michael is a monstrous storm and the forecast just keeps getting more dangerous, we are now just hours from seeing impacts. If you are in an evacuation order, leave. Dont wait. If you are on the fence, dont think about it. Do it. This storm can kill you. Governor Scott put a moratorium on all bridge tolls to make evacuating a bit more budget-friendly. The governor also called up 2,500 Florida National Guard, with another 300 on stand-by, to help out anywhere they might be needed. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan warned residents at a press conference on Oct. 8: If you decide to stay in your home and a tree falls on your house or the storm surge catches you and youre now calling for help, theres no one that can respond to help you. Quite busy at Costco in Tallahassee this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/sHeOtNTfpl Cameron Young (@wx_cam) October 7, 2018 Panhandle residents have been stocking up on food, fuel, water, and storm necessities ahead of time. Costco has limited shoppers to two cases of bottled water, while lines are forming outside gas stations, recalling the fuel shortages of the early 1970s. One Tallahassee gas station ran out of gas, Storyful reported. Military Bases, Oil Rigs Preparing for Disaster The military is preparing for Hurricane Michael as much as the civilian population is. Tyndall Air Force Base lies just 12 miles east of Panama City, while Eglin Air Force base and Hurlburt Field are right in Fort Walton Beach, just a mile from the ocean. All three bases are evacuating aircraft northward, to Little Rock Air Force Base. Meanwhile, oil companies have cut production form Gulf offshore wells, and have evacuated personnel from 13 offshore rigs. According to Reuters, oil companies including Anadarko Petroleum Corp, BHP Billiton, BP, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron Corp, and Norwegian state oil company Equinor and have decided to shut down some offshore rigs rather than risk having the workers stay on the rigs. John Tharp, operations supervisor at Weather Decision Technologies, told Reuters that Hurricane Michael could bring 15- to 20-foot waves. According to Reuters, Michael is expected to be a near Category 4 hurricane when it makes landfall anytime from the early hours of Oct. 10, with winds topping 120 mph and a storm surge of as much as 13 feet. Michael is expected to hit the Florida Gulf coast somewhere between Fort Walton Beach and Panama City, but the storm could head in any direction. Alabama is just west of the target area, and Georgia just north. With the storm expected to bring as much as a foot of rain, even inland communities could be at risk for flooding. From NTD.tv Watch Next: I Was a Communist Slave A story of tragedy, faith, and resistance in the face of brutal totalitarianism, Memoir of a Communist Slave is one mans journey to uncover what he believes has held him and his people hostage for too long. Hurricane Michael Is Potentially Catastrophic Category 4 Storm Hours Before Landfall Hurricane Michael is a Category 4 storm as it approaches landfall along the Florida Panhandle, where it could become the strongest storm to hit the United States this year. Michaels leading edge careened onto northwest Floridas white-sand beaches Wednesday, Oct. 10, lashing the coast with tropical storm-force winds and rain and pushing a storm surge that could cause catastrophic damage well inland once it makes landfall. National Hurricane Center (NHC) meteorologist Dennis Feltgen predicted ground zero for landfall would be Bay County (Panama City) on Wednesday afternoon. Feltgen urged people in the Panama City area, as well as surrounding area in Crawfordville and Tallahassee need to be in a safe place within the next hour or two, and then stay there for the duration. The sheriff in Panama Citys Bay County issued a shelter-in-place order before dawn Wednesday, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted that for people in the hurricanes path, The time to evacuate has come and gone SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY. The NHC described Michael as extremely dangerous, saying it will bring life-threatening storm surge, hurricane force winds, and heavy rainfall along the northeastern Gulf Coast. Potentially catastrophic Hurricane Michael heading toward the Florida Panhandle. Life-threatening storm surge Hurricane force winds and heavy rainfall imminent, the NHC stated in Hurricane Michael Intermediate Advisory Number 15A, dated 7:00 a.m CDT, Oct. 10, 2018. If Michael makes landfall as a Category 4, it will be the strongest hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle in recorded history, according to CNN meteorologist Michael Guy. The NHC said Michael had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph early Wednesday, and clocked the pace of present movement at 13 mph. We are in new territory, Feltgen wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida Panhandle. Life-Threatening Surf and Rip Currents Observers at the Apalachicola Tide Station reported water levels rising to 4.83 feet, and said significant impacts beginning to affect Apalachicola, Indian Pass, and Eastpoint, according to NWS Tallahassee. Latest observation at the Apalachicola Tide Station has water levels rising to 4.83 ft NAVD88 (3.98 ft MHHW). Significant impacts beginning to affect Apalachicola, Indian Pass, and Eastpoint. pic.twitter.com/TjwmMQBwoG NWS Tallahassee (@NWSTallahassee) October 10, 2018 NHC warned that swells generated by Michael will affect the coasts of the eastern, northern, and western Gulf of Mexico during the next day or so, and are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. Tornado Watch Warning in Effect The News Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center has issued a tornado watch for parts of North Florida and Peninsula Southwest Georgia coastal waters. A few tornadoes will be possible across parts of the Florida Panhandle and the northern Florida Peninsula through this afternoon. This risk will spread into parts of central and southern Georgia and southern South Carolina this afternoon and tonight, the NHC wrote. NWS Tallahassee published a peak winds chart showing maximum sustained winds over the last 12 hours. Values will only increase over the next few hours as #HurricaneMichael moves ashore late this morning or early this afternoon. If you havent left the coast its too late, its time to hunker down! the weather service wrote. Peak winds over the last 12 hours. Values will only increase over the next few hours as #HurricaneMichael moves ashore late this morning or early this afternoon. If you haven't left the coast it's too late, its time to hunker down! #FLwx #Michael pic.twitter.com/rY5W1pAxKZ NWS Tallahassee (@NWSTallahassee) October 10, 2018 Evacuation Orders In Effect Florida officials said more than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast had been urged or ordered to evacuate. Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Florida Panhandle into north central Florida. Authorities feared many residents may have failed to heed calls to get out of the way as the hard-charging storm intensified. I guess its the worst-case scenario. I dont think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle, meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com told The Associated Press. This is going to have structure-damaging winds along the coast and hurricane force winds inland. Residents can search by address or check the map to see whether they are in a designated evacuation zone, according to the Florida Disaster website. If youre in an evacuation zone, I am urging you to leave RIGHT NOW. Do not risk your life or the lives of your loved ones- get out now. Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) October 10, 2018 The Florida Disaster website on Oct. 9 said that parts or all of Bay County, Citrus County, Franklin County, Dixie County, Gulf County, Jackson County, Levy County, Okaloosa County, Taylor County, Wakulla County, and Walton County have been issued mandatory evacuation orders. #HurricaneMichael will be the strongest storm to impact portions of Florida in more than 100 years. DO NOT IGNORE #EVACUATION ORDERS #alert Florida SERT (@FLSERT) October 9, 2018 Escambia County, Santa Rosa County, Pasco County, Madison County, Liberty County Leon County, Hernando County, Gadsden County, and Calhoun County are under voluntary or phased evacuation orders. Hurricane Michael: Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City Evacuated Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida, was evacuated ahead of Hurricane Michael. According to WEAR-TV, storm surge from Hurricane Michael is slated to hit the base. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that between 9 and 13 feet of storm surge is slated to hit Panama City. All base residents told ordered to leave when Tyndall was placed under HURCON 1 status, the station reported. The base is home to about 600 families and is on an island 12 miles to the east of Panama City. Tyndall is home to the 325th Fighter Wing of the U.S. Air Force. Its important to know that this order applies to all Tyndall assigned military personnel regardless if they live on base or not, Col. Jefferson Hawkins, who is the vice-commander of the 325th Fighter Wing, told Military.com. People are our most important resource, and were committed to protecting them. U.S. military aircraft were moved from Tyndall to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, as a precaution. Tyndall houses F-22 Raptors, T-38 Talons, QF-16s/F-16 Fighting Falcons converted into unmanned aircraft. Its not clear any aircraft were moved ahead of the storm, according to Military.com. F-35A Joint Strike Fighters were also moved from Eglin Air Force Base, the Pensacola News Journal reported, and ABC News reported the expensive planes were sent to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The NHC in its latest update said Michael has 145 mph winds, making it a Category 4. Additional strengthening is expected. NHC Director Ken Graham is warning that a Category 4 hurricane like Michael can destroy entire houses, warning that the Florida Panhandle faces catastrophic damage, The Associated Press reported. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Brock Long said his agency has nearly 3,000 people in the field and are ready to assist with Hurricane Michael, The Associated Press reported. Long said that teams and aircraft are ready to support any search and rescue missions in Florida or anywhere else. Long also said Oct. 10, that residents who stick around and experience storm surge unfortunately dont usually live to tell about it. Hurricane Michael Update: Live Streams, TV, Webcams, Storm Chaser Videos Hurricane Michael is set to hit Florida Panhandle on Wednesday, Oct. 10. There are live streams available. At 11 a.m., the NHC said that the storm has 145 mph winds and is forecast to hit in the afternoon. Michael is an extremely impressive hurricane in visible and infrared satellite imagery this morning. The eye has continued to warm and become even more distinct, while remaining embedded within an area of very cold cloud tops. Data from NOAA and U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that the pressure has continued to fall this morning and is now around 928 mb, reads a discussion from the NHC. Panama City Beach Webcam Hurricane Storm Chaser in Panama City Tallahassee Webcam Webcam at Destin Beach Webcam Near Port St. Joe, Panama City Beach Hurricane Michael Webcam from The Sun Four Webcams Panama City Beach Stream WJHG-TV Live Coverage "> ABC33/40 Live Coverage The storm is slated to make landfall on Wednesday afternoon along the Florida Panhandle, the Weather Channel reported. Conditions will begin to deteriorate in the area starting in the morning. Reports from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 145 mph with higher gusts. Michael is an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Some additional strengthening is still possible before landfall. After landfall, Michael should weaken as it crosses the southeastern United States, the NHC wrote. The storm has an estimated minimum central pressure of 928 millibars. The storm is about 80 miles south-southwest of Panama City and around 85 miles west-southwest of Apalachicola. The storm has 145 mph winds, enough to make it a Category 4 storm. In a previous advisory at 8 a.m., the agency said there is a storm surge warning for Okaloosa/Walton County Line in Florida to Anclote River in Florida. A storm surge watch is in effect for Anclote River in Florida to Anna Maria Island in Florida, including Tampa Bay. A hurricane warning is in effect for Alabama/Florida border to Suwannee River in Florida. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Alabama/Florida border to the Mississippi/Alabama border, Suwanee River in Florida to Chassahowitzka in Florida, and North of Fernandina Beach in Florida to Surf City in North Carolina. An estimated storm surge of 9 to 14 feet can be expected in some places, including Tyndall Air Force Base to the Aucilla River, which are both in Florida. Weather forecasters noted that on Oct. 9, Michael appeared to strengthen rapidly, going from a Category 2 storm to a Category 4 storm. Some have predicted that the storm could reach Category 5 strength before landfall. Intensifying Hurricane Michael Aiming for Floridas Panhandle Hurricane Michael is intensifying as it races toward Florida, with winds forecast to exceed 120 miles an hour and a life-threatening ocean surge expected to cause as much as $15 billion in damage. Homeowners in Michaels path have been advised to evacuate by late Oct. 9, before it makes landfall Oct. 10 near Panama City. The storm has already cut oil production in the Gulf of Mexico by 40 percent and natural gas output by 28 percent. Michael is set to be the second hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. in a month. It has been upgraded to a Category 3 storm at latest report, according to the National Hurricane Center, and it is expected to drop 4-8 inches of rain on the region, with some areas getting as much as 12 inches. Additional strengthening is expected, and Michael is forecast to be a major hurricane at landfall, said Dan Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, in a forecast analysis. Michael is arriving after Florence hit North Carolina on Sept. 14, causing devastating floods, killing at least 39, and causing about $45 billion in estimated damages. While Michael will land with stronger winds, it wont linger after it comes on shore the way Florence did, inundating the Carolinas with rain for days and days. It will be a different monster than Florence, Brett Rathbun, a meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pa., said by telephone. Rather than lingering, Michael is expected to race off across Georgia on Oct. 11, and settle off the coast of Massachusetts by this weekend, he said. Duke Energy Corp. which saw about 1.5 million customers in the Carolinas lose power from Florence, is warning its 1.8 million Florida customers to prepare for extended power outages. The company is moving utility crews and resources into the area to help restore power as soon as its safe to do so. The impending storm also drew multiple tweets from President Donald Trump on Oct. 9. Good news is, the folks in the Pan Handle can take care of anything, one of the tweets noted, @FEMA and First Responders are readybe prepared! Damages from the storm could reach between $5 billion and $15 billion, depending on its intensity after landfall and how quickly it moves through the region, analysts said. AccuWeather forecasts total damage and economic impact will be close to $15 billion, while Chuck Watson, of Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia, suggests it will cause $7 billion to $10 billion in damage, with Panama City, Florida, taking the hardest hit. Michael is definitely shaping up to be a classic hurricane, Watson said by telephone. So the estimates are a bit more stable since you dont have the stall and wander problem that made Hurricane Florence hard to calculate. While the panhandle is more sparsely populated than many other areas of Florida, it includes the capital city of Tallahassee, Pensacola and Panama City. After making landfall in the Panhandle region, the storm is forecast to bend back across Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina later in the week, ending up back in the Atlantic. Heres the latest on the storms effects: Hurricane warnings are in effect from Suwannee River, Florida, to the Florida-Alabama border, and a hurricane watch is in effect for the entire coast of Alabama. The Coast Guard on Oct. 9 closed ports at Gulfport and Pascagoula in Mississippi, Mobile in Alabama, and Panama City, and Pensacola in Florida, and restricted vessel traffic on the Intracoastal Waterway. Energy companies pulled crews off 75 production platforms of the 687 currently in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. The Atlantic has produced 14 named storms this year. They include Hurricane Florence, the most powerful one so far this year, and Tropical Storm Gordon, which made landfall on the Alabama-Mississippi border last month. The panhandle region has suffered significant storm damage in the past, hit by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Dennis in 2005. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill hit Pensacola Beach, hurting the fishing and tourism industries. The area is also home to a number of military bases, including the Naval Air Station at Pensacola and Eglin Air Force Base. By Brian K. Sullivan & Brian Eckhouse Syrian forces of President Bashar al Assad are seen in the Nassib border crossing with Jordan in Deraa, Syria July 6, 2018. (Hezbollah Media/Handout via Reuters) Jordan Says Reopening Crucial Syria Trade Route Needs More Talks AMMANJordan said on Oct. 9 more talks with Syria were needed before an important border crossing shut for three years as a result of its neighbors war could reopen to serve regional trade. The closure of the Nassib crossing in 2015 cut a crucial transit route for hundreds of trucks a day transporting goods between Turkey and the Gulf, and Lebanon and the Gulf, in multi-billion dollar annual trade. Damascus, which retook the crossing from the opposition last July, hopes to reopen the Nassib route because it is vital to its hopes of reviving Syrias shattered economy and rebuilding in territory under its control. But Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said technical committees between the two countries which began talks in the middle of September were still working out the practical arrangements. The border will open after the technical committees end all the necessary arrangements and measures needed to guarantee opening the borders serves the common interests of the two countries, Safadi said after talks with his Lebanese counterpart. Western diplomatic sources say staunch U.S. ally Amman is resisting Russian pressure to open the crossing as this would help Damascus show the war is ending and hand President Bashar al-Assad another major gain. Backed by Iran and Russia, Assads army has retaken control of most of Syria. Jordan supports Washington and its Arab Gulf state allies in their tough stance toward Iran, a country Jordanian officials are wary of because of its growing military presence in Syria. Jordan has denied it agreed on a date to reopen the crossing after Syria announced on Sept. 29 that movement of traffic and goods had begun. Syria retracted that announcement later that day, saying it would reopen on October 10. Diplomats and officials have privately said the move appeared to signal mounting pressure by Damascus on Amman to speed up the opening of the crossing. Earlier, the Syrian authorities had said they had rehabilitated the crossing and it was ready to receive Syrian refugees. Lebanons Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil in his visit to Amman lobbied Safadi for a speedy reopening, saying it would be a step toward stability in the war-torn country. There is big hope that Nassib opens soon so that traffic goes back to its former strength, Bassil told reporters. Lebanons economy minister told Reuters in July the crossing was a vital artery for the Lebanese economy where it is a conduit for millions of dollars of exports of fresh produce to lucrative Gulf markets. By Suleiman Al-Khalidi Latest Updates on Tropical Storms Sergio, Nadine, and Leslie Video shows Hurricane Michael's effects on cruise ship The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) is issuing advisories for Tropical Storm Nadine, Tropical Storm Leslie, and Hurricane Sergio. Hurricane Michael, meanwhile, is continuing to strengthen. Nadine Tropical Storm Nadine formed on Oct. 9, and it is located 495 miles west-southwest of the southernmost Cabo Verde Islands near West Africa. The storm is moving 8 mph to the west-northwest. No coastal watches or warnings are in effect. Nadine is moving toward the west-northwest near 8 mph (13 kph), and a motion generally toward the northwest is anticipated over the next few days, the NHC said. Maximum sustained winds remain near 40 mph (65 kph) with higher gusts. Some strengthening is possible over the next day or so, with weakening anticipated on Thursday, Oct. 11. Leslie Tropical Storm Leslie is continuing to move east in the Atlantic Ocean, and the NHC said that the storm is likely going to become a hurricane. No coastal warnings or watches are in effect. Leslie is moving toward the south-southeast near 12 mph (19 kph), and this general motion is expected to continue for the next day or so. A slower motion and a turn toward the east-northeast or northeast is expected by Wednesday, said the agency. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 70 mph (110 kph) with higher gusts. Additional strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days and Leslie will likely become a hurricane tonight or tomorrow. The storms forecasted path could take it back to near the west coast of Africa. Sergio Tropical Storm Sergio is located in the Pacific Ocean about 1,155 miles west-southwest of Baja California, Mexico. Interests in Baja California should monitor the progress of Sergio, said the NHC, adding that there are no warnings or watches in effect for the storm. The storm is moving to the east-northeast at 8 mph. Over the coming days, the storm will likely weaken, the NHC said. A forecast model shows the storm hitting southern Baja California before making its way into northwestern Mexico before hitting West Texas by the weekend. Michael Hurricane Michael is now a Category 3 major storm and is 295 miles south of Panama City, Florida, the NHC said at 5 p.m. on Oct. 9. The storm is still forecast to hit the Florida Panhandle on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 10. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 120 mph (195 kph) with higher gusts. Michael is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Some additional strengthening is expected, and Michael is forecast to be a major hurricane at landfall in Florida. Weakening is expected after landfall as Michael moves through the southeastern United States, the agency warned. Man Accused of Stealing Rare Wine From Goldman Sachs CEO Falls to Death A man accused of stealing over $1.2 million worth of wine from Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon fell to his death from a hotel in New York. Nicolas De-Meyer, 41, was expected to plead guilty in a Manhattan court on Oct. 9, but fell from a window on the 33rd floor of the Carlyle Hotel in New York. De-Meyer was Solomons personal assistant for eight years from 2008 to 2016 but was caught stealing hundreds of bottles of rare wine from the CEO and then selling them to a North Carolina dealer under an alias. He had been helping to move the wine from Manhattan to Solomons cellar in East Hampton and had stolen the wine to resell under the alias Mark Miller. Investigators said De-Meyer had used the money he made to embark on a 14-month trip around the world. Solomon was made Goldman Sachs chief executive in July and is known for collecting vintage wine. According to court papers, some of the bottles of the stolen wine were from the French estate Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, which is widely regarded as producing some of the rarest and most expensive wines in the world. Indeed, their rarity was De-Meyers undoing, because a Napa Valley art dealer recognized the bottles and tipped off Solomon. He Was Scared He Couldnt Go to Prison After confessing to the Solomons at a hotel in 2016, De-Meyer boarded a plane to Rome, but was eventually apprehended at Los Angeles International Airport in January 2018. He said he was scared, and he couldnt go to prison, thats why he left, prosecutor Justin Rodriguez told the judge following his arrest last year, according to the New York Post. It was unclear exactly how long he would have spent in prison under a plea deal, but he was facing up to 10 years for the charge of interstate transportation of stolen property. De-Meyer had been living at his mothers house in Findlay, Ohio, recently and traveled to New York ahead of his hearing on Oct. 9. Staff at the Carlyle Hotel were alerted by De-Meyers sister who received text messages from him saying he might kill himself, police said. Security staff forced open his door, according to police, but were unable to intervene before he fell. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are investigating the case as a suicide. Solomon said in a statement that he and his wife were deeply saddened to hear that Nicolas took his own life. He was close to our family for several years, and we are all heartbroken to hear of his tragic end. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. John Corigliano's Elegy, which is at times mournful and at times hopeful, is based on material originally written to accompany a love scene in an off-Broadway play about the aging Helen of Troy but was re-imagined and further developed by the composer as a concert work, Dee said. Aaron Copland's Quiet City is an introspective piece that has had much more success on its own than the play for which it was written ever had Irwin Shaw's play of the same name only had three preview performances before closing. The Microsoft logo at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on April 29, 2015. Stephen Lam/Getty Images Microsoft Boasts of a Security Win Ahead of Pentagon Cloud Bids Microsoft Corp. is on track to catch up with Amazon.com Inc. by obtaining top federal security authorizations early next year, bolstering the companys position in the Pentagons winner-take-all competition for a multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal. The software company said Oct. 9 that it will earn the certification required to host the governments most sensitive and classified informationa distinction previously held only by Amazon Web Servicesby the end of the first quarter of 2019. Microsofts announcement comes just four days before tech companies submit bids for the Defense Departments cloud contract, which is widely seen to favor Amazon. The project, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, or JEDI, involves transitioning massive amounts of Defense Department data to a commercially operated cloud system. Bids for the project, which could last as long as 10 years and be valued at as much as $10 billion, are due on Oct. 12. Alphabet Inc.s Google, which is far behind its peers in obtaining government cloud-security authorizations, said Oct. 8 it has decided not to compete for the JEDI project, in part because of a potential conflict with its corporate values on uses of artificial intelligence. Microsoft had said in June that it was making progress toward winning top-level security clearance for the cloud. I dont think anyone was doubting that Microsoft would be able to get its security up to snuff before the JEDI contract, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Bach. I dont think this rises beyond the level of a PR win. Amazon Web Services is widely seen as the front-runner for the JEDI project because it already won a $600 million cloud contract from the Central Intelligence Agency in 2013. In recent months, Microsoft has been seen as a competitive alternative as it expands its work with the intelligence community. The long and costly process to gain authorization to sell cloud services to federal agencies can give technology companies a boost when they compete for government contracts. Commercial cloud providers for the federal government must seek certification from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), which awards approval based on the sensitivity of data the service is hosting. A low-level certification might be sufficient for cloud-based services used to support public websites, while a high level would be needed to host secret government information. Additionally, those working for the Defense Department typically need clearance from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA.) It issues security authorizations from IL-2, for hosting unclassified material, to IL-6, for highly classified data such as national security information. The JEDI contract requires cloud companies to be authorized to host data of all classification levels, though it gives vendors some time to obtain the necessary certifications. Amazon Web Services is currently the only company to have achieved an IL-6 security authorization, besting other competitors including Microsoft, Oracle Corp., and International Business Machines Corp. Microsoft has already obtained FedRAMPs highest rating for its Microsoft Azure Government business and an IL-5 through DISA. In October, the company announced it was developing Microsoft Azure Government Secret, which would help it obtain the IL-6 authorization. Even if Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft doesnt win the JEDI contract, earning the IL-6 authorization next year will give the company an advantage as it competes for other government business. Its a demonstration of our continued investment around cloud security, said Julia White, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure. By Naomi Nix President Donald Trump talks to the media before leaving to Bedminster, N.J., at the White House in Washington on Aug. 17, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Network Coverage of Trump 92 Percent Negative, Lacks Diversity, Report Says President Donald Trump has received 92 percent negative evening news coverage from the main broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC. Over the summer, the broadcast networks have continued to pound Donald Trump and his team with the most hostile coverage of a President in TV news history, Rich Noyes of the Media Research Center (MRC) said in an Oct. 9 article. The MRC, with a stated goal of exposing liberal media bias, scoured nearly 2,000 minutes of the networks evening news on the Trump administration from June 1 to Sept. 30 and judged as positive or negative all evaluative comments made by anchors, reporters, and non-partisan sources (such as voters or experts). Not only did the MRC find the coverage overwhelmingly negative toward the president, but it also highlighted a lack of diversity among its topics. Over the past four months, nearly two-thirds of evening news coverage of the Trump presidency has been focused on just five main topics: the Russia investigation; immigration policy; the Kavanaugh nomination; North Korea diplomacy; and U.S. relations with Russia, Noyes wrote. Russia Rules The mainstay of news was the Russia collusion story, focusing on the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller is probing reports of Russian interference in the 2016 election and collusion by the Trump campaign. While Mueller has indicted some two dozen Russians for election meddling, any Trump campaign involvement remains unsubstantiated more than two years after the FBI probe first started. Last year, CNN producer John Bonifield was caught on camera calling the Russia story mostly bull[expletive], while CNN political commentator Van Jones was caught calling it a big nothing burger. That didnt stop the networks from dedicating almost 33 hours of evening news to the story since Trumps inauguration, including 342 minutes this summer, of which 97 percent was negative toward Trump. Almost none of it has focused on any of the controversies involving Mueller or his investigative team, Noyes noted. Trump has called the investigation an illegal witch hunt led by 17 angry Democrats. Most on the Mueller team are veterans of the Obama administration and the majority are donors to the Democrats. Congressional Republicans are meanwhile investigating whether the Obama administration used the Russia collusion narrative as a pretext for its large-scale spying operation against the Trump campaign. The Justice Departments inspector general is expected to release the results of his probe on the matter later this year. Forgotten Border The networks second-most favored story was Trumps immigration policy, with 308 minutes of 94 percent negative coverage. Most of it was, however, concentrated in June. After the administration called for all adult illegal border crossers to be prosecuted, around 2,000 children were temporarily separated from their parents while the parents awaited prosecution. The networks responded with 250 minutes of seemingly endless coverage, but when the administration decided to keep detained families together where possible, Trumps immigration policy nearly vanished from the news, with 35 minutes in July, 18 minutes in August, and just five minutes in September. Kavanaugh What came instead were 291 minutes of reports on the Senate confirmation of Trumps second addition to the Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Most of the coverage was negative, with 83 percent against Kavanaugh and 82 percent against the Trump administrations handling of the nomination. Trump announced the nomination on July 9, but the networks largely ignored the ensuing Senate confirmation hearings, offering just 32 minutes of coverage by Sept. 6. That changed on Sept. 13, when the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford surfaced. Ford said Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 32 years ago when both were in high school. There was no corroborating evidence to her accusation, and multiple inconsistencies emerged in her eventual Senate testimony. But the networks offered hours of coverage to her claims, also repeating other unsubstantiated accusations, such as a claim that Kavanaugh abetted gang rapes of high-schoolers in 1980s that nobody ever reported or discussed despite dozens of alleged witnesses. It is impossible to recall the networks ever giving publicity to a more damning accusation that had not either originated from law enforcement or at least been corroborated by journalistic investigation, Noyes said. As it turned out, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was aware of Fords accusations for months, but withheld the information until after Kavanaughs confirmation hearings, apparently to delay the nomination. Right after Kavanaughs confirmation, Fords lawyer said she doesnt plan to pursue the allegations any further. Kim Summit Lower on the list of priorities for the networks was Trumps breakthrough in relations with North Korea. After Trumps historic meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June, both countries agreed to work toward a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. After some relatively positive coverage of the summit, the networks switched to criticizing Trump for not resolving the decades-old conflict fast enough, resulting in 179 minutes of coverage that leaned 90 percent negative. Trump said hes giving the issue as much time as needed, pointing out that the communist dictatorship has meanwhile stopped nuclear and missile tests, and instead regularly talks to his administration. Putin Summit The media churned out 151 minutes of coverage on U.S. relations with Russia, 99 percent of which was negative. The majority of the coverage was centered around Trumps July 16 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The media asserted that Trump didnt confront Putin sufficiently on the election meddling. Economy Peppered over the four months was 14 minutes0.7 percentof coverage for the booming economy under Trumps tax cuts and deregulation, which was 89 percent positive. The networks gave more time (80 minutes) to Trumps push for better trade deals through tariffs, but focused on the downsides, like potential higher costs to consumers or harm to industries that rely on imports, instead of the potential for job growth or higher wages for American workers. The resulting coverage was 88 percent negative. Watch Next: Awan IT Scandal: All the Facts MSM Wont Bring Up For over a year now a scandal has been quietly brewing in Congress (L-R) Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and Elizabeth Banks pose at the after party for 'Pitch Perfect' at Lure in Los Angeles on Sept. 24, 2012. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images) Rebel Wilson Suggests Pitch Perfect 4 Is Coming Soon After three popular comedy/musical films, Pitch Perfect actress Rebel Wilson recently suggested that there might be a fourth movie planned. Theres some things in the works. Im sure Universal is going to hate me for saying this, Wilson said at the ninth annual Los Angeles Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic on Oct. 6, according to Vanity Fair. All us Bellas love each other. We just want to work with each other. The girls are just awesome. The four main Pitch Perfect actresses Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, and Chrissie Fit also got together to celebrate Camps and her husbands joint birthday. Camps husband, Skylar Austin, also starred in Pitch Perfect 1 and 2. Then, both Wilson and Camp shared a photo of the group holding up four fingers on Sept. 30. Fans immediately began to wonder if the cast was hinting at an upcoming Pitch Perfect 4. I think all of us would be game for it. We have the best time filming those movies, Snow also told Extra in late September. We made some of our best friends during that franchise part of us knows that chapter might be closed and is okay with that, but we are still incredibly close and we will probably make them if they want us to until the end of time. Universal Pictures did not respond to the news, however the last three Pitch Perfect has made a total of $587 million, making it a profitable franchise. Pitch Perfect 3 hit the big screen in December 2017 and made about $185 million. The original made $115 million in 2012, and the first sequel make $287 million in 2015, according to People. If you enjoyed reading this article, please continue to read more stories here. Sign up for our free newsletters here. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (C) (D-Wis.) speaks with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (L) (D-Minn.) Sen. Mark Warner (2L) (D-Va.) Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (2R) (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (R) (D-Mass.)by her side during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on March 14, 2017. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Senate Democrats May Force Vote on Rule Expanding Trumps Short-Term Health Insurance Plans Senate Democrats are trying to force a vote on a resolution to overturn a Trump administration rule, which went into effect at the beginning of this month, allowing for the expansion of short-term health insurance plans. The joint resolution would invalidate the rule that the Trump administration finalized at the end of August to expand short-term health care plans to a year from under three months, with the option to renew twice. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) wrote in a tweet on Oct. 9 that she had introduced a resolution that would require only 30 senators to discharge it from committee, where normally it would go before coming to the Senate floor. There are 45 co-sponsors on the resolution, 43 Democrats and two independents, but so far no Republicans, who hold a majority in the Senate. With a total of 49 Democrats and independents on board, shell need the backing of at least two Republicans to send the measure to the House. If the resolution passes in both chambers, it would invalidate the rule expanding short-term health care plans. Baldwins office expects the vote to take place on Oct. 10. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Ala.), Susan Collins (Maine), and Rand Paul (Ky.), along with the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have all broken with their party in the past on health care reform. Last year, they effectively scuttled Republican efforts to partly repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. None of those GOP senators replied to requests by The Epoch Times for comment by the time of publication about the resolution. According to Baldwins office, no commitments from Murkowski and Collins have been received. Short-term plans are meant to cover people who are facing a temporary loss of health insurance, such as with a job change or a loss of insurance for other reasons. Shortly before President Barack Obama left office, he constricted the time frame of the plans to less than three months, with no option to renew. The Trump administration expanded the plans to up to one year, with the possibility to renew twice for a total of up to three years, to give people without health-care subsidies who are facing skyrocketing premiums an alternative. The plans dont qualify as coverage in terms of the individual mandate, which requires U.S. citizens to have health insurance or to pay a penalty at the end of the year. These short-term plans cost on average 80 percent less because they dont cover as wide a variety of services as ACA-compliant plans. Critics argue that while these plans have lower premiums, they often have higher deductibles, cover only bare essentials, and dont cover people with pre-existing conditions, who are still covered under the ACA-compliant plans. Proponents of Obamacare also fear that the types of people who will flock to these plans are the healthiest, which the ACA relies on to offset the cost of sick people. Anyone who says they support coverage for people with pre-existing conditions should support this resolution to overturn the Trump administrations expansion of junk insurance plans, Baldwin said in a statement. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar argues that these plans are for people who must choose between spending a large portion of their income on health insurance or having no health insurance at all. These short-term plans can be a good option for many Americans priced out of Obamacares regulationsespecially small-business owners, independent contractors in todays gig economy and younger Americans transitioning between school and employment, he wrote in an op-ed. The administration has gone to significant lengths, he said, to ensure that customers are aware of the plans limitations before they sign up and to get the word out that they are not the right choice for everyone. In fact, we require more robust warnings about the limits of these plans than President Barack Obamas administration did, he said. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2023, 2 million more people who are currently uninsured will gain coverage through these short-term plans. Society restaurant, Bell Tower Shops in Fort Myers, the location of a shooting on Oct. 9, 2018. (Screenshot/Google Maps) Shooting That Killed 2 at Florida Restaurant Not Random, Says Sheriff Two people were killed and two injured in a shooting at a shopping plaza and restaurant in Florida late on Tuesday, Oct. 9. The shooting was swiftly dubbed a mass shooting, as eyewitness reports of multiple gunshots began to surface. But local law enforcement later emphasized that the shooting at Bell Towers did not appear to be an act of random violence. One eyewitness claimed to have heard at least 20-30 shots. According to one local media report, the shooter had targeted a family as they ate in a restaurant, shooting dead the husband in front of his wife, and then killing their son as he fled. Lee County Sheriff released few details of the incident in a press conference just before midnight, confirming that a shooting had occurred at around 9:30 p.m. at the Bell Towers Shops in Fort Myers in southwest Florida. It appears to not be an act of random violence, Sheriff Carmine Marceno told reporters. Two people succumbed to their injuries, and two have been taken to a local area hospital. Their injuries are unknown. Police completely shut the shopping plaza as they started a massive investigation. We are hiding in the bathroom The identities of the victims have not been released at the time of writing. According to NBC2, an unnamed woman told them that her husband and son had been killed. She was paying for dinner at the Society restaurant when someone approached her family, shooting her husband. She said that her son tried to run off, but was also shot. One eyewitness wrote on Twitter, Multiple shots fired in the parking lot of Bell Tower in Ft Myers. We hear screaming and sirens. We are hiding in the bathroom. Multiple shots fired in the parking lot of Bell Tower in Ft Myers. We hear screaming and sirens. We are hiding in the bathroom. &rea (@arbharrisonjr) October 10, 2018 She later added, This is terrible. So many police and rescue. At least 20-30 shots fired. Ft Myers Bell Tower. I cant even tell how many people are down in the parking lot. I thought I couldnt get any more scared than the night I performed CPR on my husband by myself but I was wrong. I now know that there are many more levels to fear, she tweeted. Other media reports say witnesses heard several shots from nearby bars and restaurants. This is terrible. So many police and rescue. At least 20-30 shots fired. Ft Myers Bell Tower. I can't even tell how many people are down in the parking lot. &rea (@arbharrisonjr) October 10, 2018 It was really scary. There were a couple of dead bodies. They had covered them up already and there were like 10 police cars and EMTs, witness Denise Mazzitti told NBC. A yellow tarp covered a body in the grass just outside the shops, according to Fort-Myers News Press. The shopping plaza is on a 4.6-acre site, described as a Mediterranean open-air lifestyle center, currently undergoing renovations. The incident sparked some debate on social media about whether it was appropriate to define it as a mass shooting. A Hilton sign remains at the site of the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country that was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire one year earlier in Santa Rosa, California, on Oct. 8, 2018. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Somber Ceremony on Anniversary of North Bay Wildfires in Santa Rosa Sonoma County residents gathered in Courthouse Square on Oct. 8, to observe the first anniversary of the Sonoma Complex fires that killed 24 county residents and 20 more in Napa and Mendocino counties. Adults and children made drawings and wrote words in chalk on the sidewalk and the paved center of the square that recalled the horror of the firestorm the night of Oct. 8-9 and the grief of losing homes and loved ones and the hope of healing and recovery. Among the artwork were the words, Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged, Hold On, Pain Ends, Water is Life, and Enjoy the Little Things. Everyone went to work a year ago tonight, KSRO news radio reporter and host Pat Kerrigan said. She told the crowd of about 200 that the first responders are ingrained in our cellular beings. So many uncounted lives were saved. The Press Democrat columnist Chris Smith said, It was a year that went quickly, but for many it was the slowest year ever. He asked everyone to observe a moment of silence on Oct. 9. Elected officials from Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, and the state stood silently on a stage, choosing to let the moment speak for itself. California Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci told the crowd the loss of lives and homes left an enormous emotional and physical scar. Im deeply impressed with the response and the amazing determination and action of nurses, teachers, students, and emergency personnel, Ghilarducci said. The first days were critically important to our community and the healing process. Tonight we remember those we lost and the lives that have been changed, he said. Sonoma County Poet Laureate Maya Khosla read three short poems inspired by those who were lost and those who after the fires thrived and gained strength. One of the poems, Blue Oak was based on scenes from Pepperwood Preserve in Santa Rosa that sustained extensive fire damage. Sebastopol resident Nicole Barden said Khoslas words reflected the heart of the community and the tenor of the event itself. The whole vibe was art and poetry. It wasnt just talking, Barden said. Santa Rosa resident Celeste Dodge said, For me it was like a salve to get the community together. The ceremony ended with the Santa Rosa Fire Departments Honor Guard ringing a silver bell 44 times in memory of the residents in the North Bay that died in the fires. By James Lanaras Son of Owner in NY Limo Crash Taken Into Police Custody: Reports The son of the owner of the limousine that crashed over the weekend, killing 20 people in Upstate New York, was taken into police custody. The Albany Times-Union newspaper reported that Prestige Limo owner Shahed Hussains son, Nauman Hussain, was taken into custody on Oct. 10. Its not clear yet what charges Nauman Hussain might face. The elder Hussain is not in the United States. JUST IN: Son of owner in deadly upstate New York limo crash taken into custody by New York State Police, CBS News confirms; charges are pending. https://t.co/RaUB1ZnFnP CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) October 10, 2018 Lee Kindlon, a lawyer, said New York State Police were preparing to book his client, the paper reported. The firm owned a 2001 Ford Excursion that crashed near Route 30 and Route 30A before 2 p.m. on Oct. 6. The limo had 18 people on board and crashed into a country store, killing two in a parking lot. Reports have emerged that the limo failed inspections twice this year, and a March inspection revealed the vehicles brakes were not functioning properly. The wife of the limo driver involved in the crash and who died had complained about the companys vehicles. Kim Lisinicchia said her husband, Scott Lisinicchia, told her: Im not going to drive this, like this. You need to get me another car. But then he trusted in what the limo company said, that the cars were all right, CBS News reported. The New York State Police are carrying out a criminal investigation of the crash while the National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating. Sisters, a teacher, newlyweds: A look at limo crash victims https://t.co/38ZxUKruX4 pic.twitter.com/Q9dz4C7dJy # # (@anayemeni_net) October 9, 2018 Scott Lisinicchia also got a notice of violation for driving without the right license to operate a limo just weeks before the crash. A state trooper pulled him over in Saratoga Springs after he made a stop, the Times-Union reported. The trooper also said the Ford Excursion should be taken out of service immediately. He was in excellent health. He was an excellent driver. For over 20-plus years he drove a tractor trailer, Kim Lisinicchia was quoted by Time magazine as saying. I feel for these victims, she added. I am in no way trying to make it seem like its about me or my husband. I just want my husband to be vindicated. I have to stand for him, cause nobody else will. The Prime Minister of Lu State, Ji Wenzi, was known for his thriftiness and strict conduct, and was deeply respected by his people. Stories From the Students Rules: Live Neatly and Treasure Your Time The Standards for Being a Good Student and Child (Di Zi Gui) is a traditional Chinese textbook for children that teaches children morals and proper etiquette. It was written by Li Yuxiu in the Qing Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Kang Xi (1661-1722). In this series, we present some ancient Chinese stories that exemplify the valuable lessons taught in the third chapter of Di Zi GuiCaution in Daily Life. It is said in the Di Zi Gui: Rise early in the morning, And sleep late at night. Age comes quickly, So treasure this hour. When we realize that time is passing us by and cannot be turned back, we should especially treasure the present moment. A good example of treasuring time in your youth is Che Yin (), who served as a military general and later the Minister of Personnel (one of the nine ministries under the emperor in ancient China) during the Jin Dynasty. Che Yin Studies Under the Light of Fireflies Che Yin was one of the best-known scholars of the Eastern Jin dynasty, being remarkably wellread in various fields. He also had great character and strong language abilities, often making sharp observations and witty comments. As such, he was well-respected in the academic field, and also extremely popular. Che was often the life of the party, and people would lament his absence in any gathering. Ches knowledge and language abilities werent acquired overnight; as a young boy, he studied with complete dedication from day to night. Here is the story of how he studied under the light of fireflies, to extend his study time well into the night. Che was born in Nanping, Fujian Province to a family of noble background. His grandfather had been the Prefect of Huiji, and his father served as secretary to one of the princesses. From the young age of three, Che already showed himself to be thoughtful and polite, earning the praise of relatives who visited the family. When Che turned five, his father taught him to read and write. Che was not only smart but extremely hardworking. He would be so absorbed in his studies that he would forget to eat or sleep, and not a day passed where he was not buried in a book. He would even stay up till midnight to study. Che, of course, needed a light to study at night, but after his father resigned from his job, the family lapsed into poverty and could no longer afford to buy oil for their lamps. Although his father worked as secretary for the princess, he was a very honest man and did not earn very much. So when night fell, Che would feel sad that he couldnt continue studying. But despite his young age, Che was also quite wise. He realized that he could maximize his learning by reading more books in the day, and reciting the books from memory at night. One night, Che was sitting in the backyard feeling sorry that he could not study, when he noticed many fireflies around him. As the fireflies twinkled and glowed in the darkness, Ches heavy heart immediately brightened as he struck upon an idea. He constructed a makeshift net from a piece of old cloth and a bamboo pole, and began catching fireflies. But there were only a few fireflies in the backyard, which was hardly enough to create enough light. He caught a few more in the front yard, but there still werent enough. Although it was already pitch dark, Che walked to a grass field outside his village, which was dotted with fireflies. Che had no difficulty catching a lot of them in a short time. When he got home, Che placed all his fireflies into a makeshift bag of silk netting, and hung it from the ceiling. The light from the fireflies penetrated the holes in the bag, illuminating the entire room. It was even brighter than an oil lamp! Che happily continued with his studying. As his family was too poor to afford lamp oil, Che Yin caught fireflies to make a makeshift lamp, so that he could study at night. In this way, Che studied well into the night every day, and became an extremely learned scholar. Since then, Ches story of using fireflies to study at night has become a well-known Chinese tale, and gave rise to the Chinese idiom , which describe someone who studies very hard. Cleanliness Over Luxury When referring to how one should behave in everyday life, Di Zi Gui emphasizes that tidiness and simplicity in ones dressing is far more important than how branded ones clothes look. It is stated in the Di Zi Gui: Clothes are valued for neatness Not for extravagance First follow your station Second suit your familys finances The ancients always regarded frugality as one of the most noble virtues in daily life. Tidiness was meanwhile considered a reflection of ones character, and a mark of respect for others. Such exemplars liked Zi Lu, a student of Confucius, and Prime Minister Ji Wenzi would explain why cleanliness and thrift were so important in their lives. Zi Lu Reattaches his Hat Tassel Before Facing Death Zi Lu () was a student of Confucius and an official of the State of Wei. Despite his hot temper, he was a very upright person and was very careful about his appearance. One year, internal chaos erupted in Wei State as rebels gained power and began conducting raids against those in the state administration. Upon hearing the news, many officials packed and fled overnight. Despite being out of the country during the rebellion, Zi Lu chose to rush back to aid his country. His peers tried to dissuade him from going back, saying that the situation was very dangerous and he would likely be killed if he did. But Zi Lu replied I receive a salary for serving my country. I cannot bring myself to run away at such a time. Zi Lu fought against the rebels with all his might, but was far outnumbered. He was eventually injured by the rebels and his hat tassel was cut off. Knowing that death was imminent, Zi Lu roared loudly, Stop! Stunned by the loudness of his shout, his attackers stopped. Zi Lu then said, If I am going to die, I should at least die in a dignified manner! Calmly, he retied his hat tassel to his hat, and faced his death heroically and with honor. The story of Zi Lus inspiring courage in the face of death has been passed down to this day in Chinese history. The Thrifty Prime Minister Prime Minister Ji Wenzi () was born to a family of three generations of ministers. He was a nobleman and famous diplomat of the State of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period, serving his country for more than 30 years. Ji Wenzi led a very simple and frugal life. He considered thrift to be the fundamental guiding rule for his conduct, and required his family to be as frugal as him. He dressed very simply but neatly, and besides the formal robes he wore in court, he did not have any other fancy clothes. Whenever he traveled for work, he would use a very plain-looking horse carriage. Ji Wenzi dressed very simply but neatly. One of his ministers, Zhongsun Ta, tried to persuade Ji: You are the highest-ranking official, and command great respect. But I heard that you dont allow your family to wear silk clothes at home, and you dont feed your horses with good grain. You also dont pay attention to the quality of your clothes. Wouldnt this make you look shabby, and be a source of ridicule by our neighboring countries? The Prime Minister of Lu State, Ji Wenzi, was known for his thriftiness and strict conduct, and was deeply respected by his people. This would also be detrimental to our countrys image, and people will gossip about how the Prime Minister of the Lu State lives in such a manner. Why doesnt Your Honor change this way of life? Wouldnt that be better for you and the country? Ji responded in a serious tone: I, too, want my home to be decorated luxuriously and elegantly. But look at the people in our country. Many of them are still eating food that is too coarse to swallow, and are wearing clothes that are torn and shabby. There are also others who are cold and starving. When I think about these people, how can I still bear to indulge in material wealth? If I dress up my family and feed my horse on good grainwhile my people can only afford to drink coarse tea and wear shabby clotheshow can I still have the conscience to serve my country?! Moreover, I have heard that a countrys strength and glory is defined by the moral character of its civilians and officials, and not by how glamorous their wives look or how fine their horses are. How can I accept your suggestion? After hearing Jis words, Zhongsun was ashamed of his previous comments, but also had even more respect for Ji. From then on, Zhongsun also followed Jis example in leading a simple life. He asked his family to wear clothes of ordinary cloth, and fed his horses with rough chaff and weeds. When Ji Wenzi learned of Zhongsuns change, he praised Zhongsun for being a moral person who could amend his mistakes immediately. Storms Slam Oklahoma, Flipping Cars and Cutting Power Powerful storms swept across eastern Oklahoma in the morning hours of Oct. 9, flipping cars and knocking out electricity. Accuweather reported that numerous tornadoes touched down near Oklahoma City. One passed through Midwest City, leaving overturned cars in its wake. No major injuries were reported following the morning storms. On Tuesday morning, severe thunderstorms were tracked across central Oklahoma, with the strongest storms spawning tornadoes near Oklahoma City. Firefighters have been on the scene in SE OKC near SE 149th and Edwin Rd. checking damage from this mornings storm. 3 or 4 houses in the area have sustained damage. No injuries reported. DM 10:20 a.m. pic.twitter.com/TeR6UvTSp5 Oklahoma City Fire (@OKCFD) October 9, 2018 The National Weather Service issued multiple Tornado Warnings for several counties in the Oklahoma City metro area, all expiring by 2 p.m. local time. The storms continued to move northward through the day, continuing to batter the area with wind and rain, but no more tornadoes formed. Some of the greatest danger was caused by downed power lines. One homeowner suffered an unusual situation. The trampoline in their backyard broke free and was lifted by the swirling winds right into some nearby power lines. Storm damage in the 2400 Block of SW 81st. Some residents are without power. One neighbor heard a big boom in her backyard and found this @kfor pic.twitter.com/vThBQvN8mW Kelly Roliard (@kelly_roliard) October 9, 2018 Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency due to the severe weather across the state since late last week. From NTD.tv Girls who have taken refuge at the Samburu Girls Foundation drink water from a river near Loosuk, Samburu County, in north-central Kenya on June 6, 2018. (Dominic Kirui/Special to The Epoch Times) Surviving Brutal Tribal Traditions, Girls in Northern Kenya Find New Home Survivor and activist Josephine Kulea has helped close to 1,200 girls LOOSUK, KenyaWhen Doris Nailashu took her primary school certificate exams three years ago, she was only 13 and had ambitions of completing secondary school and even university. She had the full support of her mother, who wanted her to pursue higher education. But among the Samburu community in north-central Kenya, a womans voice is not to be heard. Since Nailashu had lost her father, her family was now under the care of her uncleher fathers brotherand he was the one calling the shots. In fact, he already had a plan set in place for Nailashu: She was to be married off. My mother didnt want me to get married because she said I had performed well and [it] was best that I joined high school. But because her voice couldnt be heard by anyone, she had to accept and painfully watch as I was put for marriage, said Nailashu, 16, who has since fled the community and is studying at a girls school in the neighboring Laikipia County, thanks to efforts by the Samburu Girls Foundation. Before this, Nailashu had also been lucky not to have been beaded by a Samburu warrior. Beading is a practice among the Samburu community in Kenya when a warrior, or a moran as they are called, puts red-colored beads around a girls neck when she is young, sometimes as young as six, and can have sexual relations with her. The moran should be a relative from the girls clan. Since the girl is not circumciseda practice common in some tribespregnancy or marriage is forbidden. If the girl becomes pregnant, older women help her abort the baby, and if the baby survives, the baby is poisoned to death or simply abandoned for animals to maul. Even though Kenyan law forbids early marriage and female genital mutilation, in many pastoralist communitiesamong them the Samburu who lead the same lifestyle as the Maasai and even speak the same languagegirls arent supposed to study, but just be married off once they hit adolescence. Many communities also continue the tradition of female circumcision. The Escape In Nailashus case, her suitor had already made an offer for her dowry and her uncle was happy. He was 67-years-old and had four wives, I was going to be his fifth wife. He was known to be wealthy in our village and that is why my uncle wanted to marry me off to him since he knew he would have control over the dowry. Here, the dowry is just 10,000 shillings cash ($100), two bed sheets, two Maasai shukas, two 50-kilogram bags of sugar, and a few packets of tea leaves, Nailashu said, turning away as she recalled what her fate would have been if she had not left. A month before her wedding, Nailashu secretly planned her escape. In executing her plan, she said she couldnt trust anyone. I only told my mother that I wanted to go to my grandmothers and she gave me permission. I changed routes and walked for three days, sleeping two nights on the way until I arrived at Maralal town. I had heard from friends at school about the rescue center and how they helped girls get an education and not be married off, she said. When I arrived in Maralal, I saw a sign post that said Samburu Girls Foundation and an arrow pointing at a direction. I followed it and came to the offices where Mom Josphine took me in. Josephine Kulea, a Kenyan child-rights, activist rose to the limelight when she survived a curse from the elders of the Samburu community for her activism. In her tribe, if someone goes against the traditions, the elders cast a spell on the person, which they claim results in the persons untimely death, although no deliberate physical harm is perpetuated. Having survived beading and early marriage, Kulea was working as a nurse in her village, and couldnt sit by and watch other girls going through abuse. She secretly worked with friends and a local church to rescue the young girls, and helped found the Samburu Girls Foundation in 2011. To date, Kulea has helped close to 1,200 girls, with over 300 of them sponsored to continue their education. Kuleas rescue work covers four counties in northern Kenya including Isiolo, Laikipia, Samburu, and Marsabit. Access to Water One of the risks the girls at the center continue to face is access to clean water during the dry season. They have to walk several miles to the river to fetch water for drinking and cleaning. This not only puts the girls in danger of getting sick from the dirty water, but also at risk of being taken back by their community members. Thanks to technology from an American company that harvests water from the atmosphere by tapping moisture, the girls now have access to clean water at their site. I grew up in Arizona, which is a desert. But then I have been in places where there is too much water and nothing to drink and I thought to myself that solar and renewable energy is going to win, so what next? said Cody Friesen, an engineering professor at the Arizona State University, and founder of Zero Mass Water. His company donated 40 panels to the girls foundation, helping the girls get 160-400 liters (42-105 gallons) of water on a daily basis using the technology. This means a lot for the girls, because they now have more time to study and not have to go to the river to fetch water. They will also have clean drinking water and not fall sick with waterborne diseases and as well, the girls will maintain cleanliness at the school, Kulea said. As for Nailashu, having been rescued and now going on with her studies, she is determined to be a lawyer after she completes school. I want to be a lawyer so I can fight for my fellow girls, she said. He never wants to go to sleep early, and then I struggle to wake him up to go to school, she said, but last night he went right to bed, and this morning he was hurrying me out the door. President Donald Trump at a Make America Great Again rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Oct. 9, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Trump Boosts Ethanol Shift at Iowa Rally, Urges Base to Vote COUNCIL BLUFFS, IowaPresident Donald Trump announced ending the summertime ban of E15 salesa higher ethanol blend of gasoline at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Trumps Oct. 9 trip to the Hawkeye Statethe largest ethanol producer in the United Statescomes after a whirlwind lineup of campaign stops last week where he rallied for Republicans in Minnesota, Mississippi, Kansas, and Tennessee. The lifting of the ethanol restrictions would allow for year-round sale of E15, which contains up to 15 percent ethanol. The fuel is currently available 8 months a year. Trump has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to begin rule-making. The new rule, once ready, will become effective after a public comment period. We are going with E15 year around. I made that promise to you during the campaign, I made that promise to you during the primaries, Trump told the crowd inside the Mid-America Center. Promises made, promises kept. The move would benefit corn farmers in the statethe ethanol industry supports about 43,000 jobs throughout the Iowa economy. It comes after corn farmers and politicians pressed for it, believing it would help stabilize the farming industry. The shift in the ethanol policy could also help two republicans Trump endorsed at the rallyRep. David Young and Gov. Kim Reynolds, who are both running for re-election. Trump won the state by about 10 percentage points in the 2016 elections. The rally comes a day after the White House held another swearing-in ceremony for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was initially sworn in on Oct. 6 in a ceremony at the Supreme Court. This is truly a historic week for America, Trump said in his opening remarks at the rally. Yesterday at the White House we proudly swore in the newest member of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Trump made special mention of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, for his work during the confirmation hearings. He called Grassley an Iowa legend and thanked him for his backbone and leadership that helped the Republicans with the nomination victory. Trump, as in his previous rallies, again blamed the Democrats for their shameful campaign of political and personal destruction during the hearings. He said the policies from the Democrats are increasingly shifting far-left and called them dangerous. You dont hand matches to an arsonist, Trump said. The president repeatedly touted the lifting of the ethanol restrictions during his hour-long rally and reiterated his support for the farmers of Iowa. Many in the audience wore bright green caps with the phrase Make Farmers Great Again stamped on it. My administration is protecting ethanol. Today we are unleashing the power of E15 to fuel our country all year long, not 8 months he said. The Dems will end ethanol, they will take it away. They will find a way to take it away. Weve also achieved another historic victory for Iowa farmers by replacing the job killing NAFTA deal with the USMCA, he said. USMCA stands for the United StatesMexicoCanada Agreement. Trump invited both Rep. David Young and Gov. Kim Reynolds up to the stage to speak as he called on his supporters to vote for them. Thank you for USMCA and Mr. President thank you for the year-round E15, our farmers thank you, our Iowans thank you, Reynolds told the crowd during her remarks. Reynolds will face off with Democrat candidate Fred Hubbell in November. Trump called Hubbell weak on crime, weak on borders and said he only wants to raise the taxes of Iowans and to take away ethanol. A recent poll by RealClearPolitics found the pair in a tight race with Hubbell leading by 3 points. Meanwhile, Young will face off against Democrat candidate Cindy Axne, where he is 16 percentage points down, according to a recent poll. On Nov. 6 you have the chance to stop the radical democrats We have done nothing wrongexcept create one of the greatest economies, Trump told his supporters. Trumps New Global Trade Order Aims at Ramping Up Pressure on China Presidents 'playbook on trade' requires 'poison pills' to isolate Beijing WASHINGTONThe Trump administration is set to flex its muscles by convincing trading partners to pressure China. The revamped deal with Canada and Mexico is a clear sign that Washington is willing to isolate Beijing in a new global trade order by edging China out of trade deals with allies. The new United StatesMexicoCanada Agreement (USMCA) contains a clause that aims to contain Beijing. The provision, which has attracted a lot of attention and praise, essentially blocks any trade flirtation with China. I thought that was a brilliant provision to put in the agreement, because that changes the whole parameters, said Patrick Mulloy, a former member of the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission and a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce. According to the agreement, entry by any Party into a free-trade agreement with a non-market country, shall allow the other Parties to terminate this Agreement on six-month notice. The use of the phrase non-market country is a clear reference to China, since the United States last year reaffirmed it was a non-market economy. The European Union also opposes Chinas recognition as a market economy. If you have a country thats not a market economy, as China is, and its able to subsidize [its companies] and force technology transfers, I think its very important that they have a provision in the new agreement that covers that, Mulloy said. With a precedent now set, this provision could be replicated in other trade agreements, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Its logical, its a kind of a poison pill, Ross told Reuters. People can come to understand that this is one of your prerequisites to make a deal. The United States is now in the early stages of negotiations for bilateral free trade with both Japan and the EU. Washington can gain further leverage over Beijing if it convinces partners to sign on to the same type of poison pill that aims at China. It would signal that trading partners are fully aligned with Washington in its efforts to end the unfair economic and trade policies of Beijing. In an op-ed for The Epoch Times, David Kilgour, former Canadian secretary of state for Asia-Pacific, says that the poison pill clause effectively provides the United States a veto over any free trade deal the other partners wish to negotiate with China. Tariff Strategy After more than a year of negotiations, the United States, Canada, and Mexico agreed on Sept. 30 to sign a new trade accord to terminate and replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The deal is the first major trade win for President Donald Trump, and it comes just before the midterm elections. Trump also signed a new agreement last month that overhauled the old U.S.Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). Since his election in 2016, Trump has made trade renegotiations and reducing the trade deficit priorities of his administration. To meet his objectives, he started imposing tariffs on steel, aluminum, and Chinese goods. His measures targeting autos and auto parts are still under consideration. This year, the Trump administration has chosen to take a tougher stance on Chinas decades-long protectionist and trade-distorting policies, and instituted a tariff campaign. According to some trade experts, the tariffs and threatsno matter how confrontational and sometimes ugly they can getare bearing fruit. I think it certainly has gotten Chinas attention that weve got a problem, Mulloy said. We had all these dialogues that went on for 15 to 16 years, and nothing was accomplished. The administrations way in addressing these issues has certainly gotten people to think that weve got to resolve this matter. Revamping WTO Beijing has been resorting to various tactics, including currency manipulation, industrial espionage, cybertheft, forced joint ventures in exchange for market access, and acquisition of foreign companies to attain sensitive technologies. To tackle these problems, trade chiefs of the United States, Japan, and the EU met last month in New York and agreed to push for new rules and enforcement tools to end practices that undermine the global trade system. The trilateral partners also agreed to reform World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that are no longer effective. The Trump administration has been frustrated by the organization, calling its rules outdated and insufficient to constrain Chinas market-distorting behavior. In 2000, President Bill Clinton permanently granted most favored nation status to China, which became a member of the WTO a year later. The U.S. trade deficit with China has more than quadrupled since then, rising to $375 billion last year from $83 billion in 2000. Due to the trade deficit with China, more than 3 million jobs were lost between 2001 and 2015, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Trump has warned that he could withdraw the United States from the WTO. If they dont shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO, he said in an interview on Aug. 30. Turkish Media Identifies 15 Saudis Allegedly Involved in Journalists Disappearance A pro-government newspaper in Turkey said they have identified a 15-member intelligence team allegedly involved in the mysterious disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Daily Sabah published images and security video of the so-called assassination squad as they entered the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul where Khashoggia prominent Saudi journalist and regime criticwas last seen entering on Oct. 2. Turkish officials believed that 59-year-old Khashoggi, also a Washington Post contributor, was murdered inside the consulate. Saudi Arabia has strongly denied all such reports. As of writing, they have not commented on the 15 nationals. An unnamed source told the Washington Post that before Khashoggi disappeared, U.S. intelligence had already intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture Khashoggi. The Saudis planned to lure Khashoggi back to their country, per the source, who said it was not clear why they wanted to, according to the Post. Previously, the kingdoms ambassador to the United States, Prince Khalid bin Salman, said reports suggesting Khashoggi went missing in the Istanbul consulate or that Saudi Arabia had killed him are absolutely false and baseless and a product of malicious leaks and grim rumors. [Khashoggi] is a Saudi citizen who went missing after leaving the Consulate, the ambassador said in a statement. Saudi Arabia has sent a team of investigators to work with Turkish authorities and chase every lead to uncover the truth behind his disappearance. The Turkish newspaper also published the names, faces, and years of birth of each of the 15 intelligence team members. They did not disclose how they were obtained. No evidence has yet surfaced to show if Khashoggi is dead or alive, but it has been over a week since his disappearance. Sabah reported that 12 of the members arrived early on the day of the disappearance, based on photos captured at passport control. The 15 departed at four different times. The images themselves do not offer proof of Khashoggis alleged fate but it puts additional pressure on the kingdom to disprove them amid growing international concern over an apparent crackdown on dissent. Khashoggi had entered the consulate at the time to get documents for his upcoming marriage. The Saudi government said Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed, but his fiancee, who was waiting outside, said he never appeared. United States Concerned President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Oct. 10 that he has spoken with Saudi Arabia officials and said he was concerned over the reports. A day earlier, the state department called for Saudi Arabia to conduct a thorough probe into the case. Khashoggi had first left Saudi Arabia last year, saying he feared retribution for his criticism of Saudi policy in the Yemen war and its crackdown on dissent. Its a very sad situation, its a very bad situation and we want to get to the bottom of it, Trump said. We are going to take a very serious look. Trump also said that the White House would be meeting with Khashoggis fiancee, though at the time, he referred to her as his wife. His wife wrote us a letter, addressed to my wife and myself and we are in contact with her now. We want to bring her to the White House, Trump told reporters. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Trumps comments about the ongoing talks between the two countries over the issue. White House National Security Adviser, Ambassador John Bolton, and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, spoke to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman yesterday about the missing Washington Post journalist, she said on Oct. 10. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then had a follow-up call with the Crown Prince to reiterate the United States request for information. In both calls, they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process. We will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates as available, Sanders added. An image of the opposition lawmaker Fernando Alban and Jesus Christ is seen over his coffin during a ceremony at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on Oct. 9, 2018. (Reuters/Marco Bello) US Says Venezuela Involved in Opposition Politicians Death WASHINGTONThe White House on Oct. 10 condemned the death of an opposition politician in Venezuela and accused President Nicolas Maduros government of involvement in the death. The United States condemns the Maduro regimes involvement in the death of Venezuelan opposition councilman Fernando Alban, it said in a statement. The statement also called for the release of all Venezuelan political prisoners and for Maduros government to to re-establish democracy in Venezuela and to prevent further suffering and bloodshed, adding that President Donald Trumps administration would continue to increase pressure over the issue. Authorities in Caracas have said the municipal politician killed himself by jumping out a window, while his Opposition First Justice party has said he was murdered. Alban, 56, was jailed on Friday for alleged involvement in the explosion of two drones during an August military parade led by Maduro, according to Interior Minister Nestor Reverol. Venezuelan officials have given differing accounts of where he jumped, and on Oct. 9 the U.N. human rights office called for an independent investigation. On Oct. 10, the White House noted that Alban died while in the custody of Venezuelas intelligence service. The United States imposed new sanctions on several of Maduros top allies last week as President Donald Trump urged UN members to support a restoration of democracy in Venezuela. The opposition and rights groups have said that Maduros administration is holding hundreds of political prisoners on trumped-up charges intended to stifle dissent. The United Nations has said detainees are often subjected to ill treatment, including some documented cases that amount to torture. Maduros government has denied that it holds political prisoners and has said those who have been imprisoned sought to destabilize the government. Authorities have arrested at least 30 people linked to the Aug. 2 drone explosions, which injured seven soldiers. By Susan Heavey Koh Ho-jun shows photos of the engagement of his brother, Koh Ho-seok, to his wife in North Korea which Koh Ho-jun received during an inter-Korean family reunion, in his home in Cheongju, South Korea, on Oct. 2, 2018. (Seungmock Oh/Special to The Epoch Times) Separated Korean Families Hope for Reunion Amid Thawing NorthSouth Relations CHEONGJU, South KoreaThe last time Koh Ho-jun saw his brother was six decades ago. Then 19 years old, his brother had high hopes for his future, wanting to pursue an education, but their family was poor and couldnt afford it. North Koreans told him that he would be able to study however many years he wanted, and lead a wealthy life. Thats why he followed the North Koreans, said Koh, 76, from his home in Cheongju in central South Korea. We never heard from him since then. It was during the Korean War. The war, between the North, backed by China and the Soviet Union, and the South, supported by the United States and other allies, divided the Korean Peninsula, leaving many families like Kohs permanently split, as people in the North couldnt freely leave the borders of the communist-ruled country. Koh is hoping the renewed relations between the North and the South would make it possible for him to visit his relatives in the North frequently. In the future, I hope that more efforts are made for the separated families, so that we can come and go freely. The armed conflict, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, ended with an armistice, but no formal end to the war has been declared so far. Although relations between the South and the North have recently warmed, thanks to renewed talks between the United States, South Korea, and North Korea, the Trump administration wants to see real progress on denuclearization in the North before considering an end-of-war declaration. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this month, later tweeting that the two sides continue to make progress on agreements made at Singapore summit. During the summit, held in June, U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim signed a joint statement, agreeing to pursue peaceful relations and to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. Long-Lost Relatives Koh only recently learned that his brother passed away in 1974 in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, from abdominal cancer at the age of 42. In August, Koh and his wife met his sister-in-law and her children in the North for the first time, due to a reunion event that the two Koreas occasionally organize for separated families. The last such reunion was held three years ago. I felt like as if I owned the world, Koh explained, after seeing his relatives in the North for the first time. While going to the meeting place, we could move fast through South Koreas well-paved roads. In the North, it took time, as the roads were not well-paved. I couldnt wait to see them. It was Kohs nephew, 49, and his niece, 60, who recognized Koh once he arrived. They said I looked just like their father. My brother had five daughters and one son. He died when his youngest child, the son, was 5 years old, Koh said. My brothers wife has had a hard life, raising the several children by herself. At 86, shes very healthy, and raised the nephew and nieces very well. I am very grateful to her. Koh said he was told that his brother also often missed his family and hometown in the South. He saved money for our parents, but he could not give it to them and died early, Koh said. It was heartbreaking. A Family Split Back home, Kohs mother never gave up on the dream of one day seeing her son again. Whenever she prepared meals, my mother always prepared food for my brother using a separate kettle, waiting for him, Koh said. She would say, The food is for your brother, so he can have a meal anytime he returns.' Koh had applied for the reunion program about a decade ago. His parents were hopeful that they could see their son again through the program, but they passed away a few years ago. They waited, but could not meet my brother. Koh says his mother came to him in a dream one night, just before he was told about the family reunion. My mother vividly appeared in my dream one night, putting a gold ring on my fourth finger. As of August, more 130,000 people in South Korea have applied to reconnect with their relatives in the North. Of those, only around 57,000 are still alive; 60 percent of them are over the age of 80. Since 1985, when the family reunion initiatives first started, only 4,200 applicants have so far been reunited in the 21 events since then, according to South Koreas Ministry of Unification. The reunions could be years apart, depending on relations between the two Koreas; family members only get one chance to attend a reunion. Following the 1985 event, the next reunion wasnt held until 2000. Plans are in place for further North-South talks to evaluate initiatives, such as creating a reunion center that operates year-round, as well as video talk and video-message exchanges for separated family members. I only wish North and South Koreans can come and go [between the two sides] as soon as possible, Koh said. Watch: Hurricane Michaels Storm Surge Hits Destin Beach, Florida Storm surge from Hurricane Michael, forecast to hit the Florida Panhandle, began to hit beaches, including one in Destin. Footage uploaded by Instagram user Cheryl Law shows the waves are approaching beachside buildings. Michael is not even here yet in Destin! Wind is really picking up! she wrote on Oct. 10. The storm is slated to make landfall on the afternoon of Oct. 10. U.S. weather forecasters say the storm will bring 145 mph winds, enough to make it a Category 4 storm, and more than 10 feet of storm surge in some areas. In its 11 a.m. ET update, the National Hurricane Center said the core of extremely dangerous Hurricane Michael is closing in on the Florida Panhandle, warning that winds, heavy rains, and storm surge are anticipated by the end of the day. Some strengthening is still possible before landfall. After landfall, Michael should weaken as it crosses the southeastern United States. Michael is forecast to become a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, and strengthening is forecast as the system moves over the western Atlantic, the NHC said. The NHC also warned that the storm could spawn tornadoes across northern Florida, Florida Panhandle, southern Georgia, and southern South Carolina. The agency said there is a storm surge warning for Okaloosa/Walton County Line in Florida to Anclote River in Florida. A storm surge watch is in effect for Anclote River in Florida to Anna Maria Island in Florida, including Tampa Bay. A hurricane warning is in effect for Alabama-Florida border to Suwannee River in Florida. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Alabama-Florida border to the Mississippi-Alabama border, Suwanee River in Florida to Chassahowitzka in Florida, and North of Fernandina Beach in Florida to Surf City in North Carolina. A tropical storm warning is now in effect for the North Carolina coast from Surf City to Duck. A storm surge watch is now in effect for the coast of North Carolina from Ocracoke Inlet to Duck. STAMFORD Pencils? Check. Paper? Check. Bulletproof backpack? Check? Although a recent study from Northeastern University showed schools are safer than ever, more parents are considering sending their children to school with equipment made to shield them from a shooters bullets. Stamfords Board of Education is showing skepticism the idea. We dont believe in sending teachers to schools with guns and I dont believe in sending students to school with armor, said board chair David Mannis. Joe Curran founded his Massachusetts-based company, Bullet Blocker, in 2007 because he believed the opposite. Curran, who previously worked in law enforcement, had two children in middle school when there was a shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people. Dissatisfaction with the schools protocol for an active shooter cut the lights and wait it out led to an idea. Curran made his first backpack with a cut-up bulletproof vest. His business started with two types of backpacks and expanded to briefcases, notebooks and inserts as more schools banned bags or only allowed clear backpacks. The backpacks especially have grown in popularity in the last year, Curran said. In the past six to eight months, he said hes added 50 dealers to his otherwise online business. We see an uptick in sales anytime theres violence worldwide and not just gun violence - any violence, Curran said. With Parkland and Newtown, we saw a very large upswing. Weve consistently had growth over the years and we always get a [sic] growth at back to school, but this year is larger than the past. Stamford Public Schools has no current policy prohibiting students from using bulletproof backpacks, though Mannis said the district is working on a policy to further bolster school security. Many parents already feel their students are safe at city schools. Shira Tarantino, who has two children at Stark Elementary, described bulletproof backpacks as a Band-Aid. If parents want to buy their kids those items, thats their prerogative, said Tarantino, who is the project director for the Stamford Pediatric Gun Safety Project and a board member for the Enough Campaign. I dont think it changes the safety any way in the schools. Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, said the organization has no position on the products, but hes glad that people are engaged over the issue. Its nice to see some of the mindset changing that there are things that should be done to protect kids other than statutorily deciding what a gun-free zone is, because we obviously know gun-free zones arent working, he said. Its good to see theyre looking for other policies. Parents who are interested in the product should know bulletproof backpacks are considered body armor in the state of Connecticut, which means they cannot be shipped directly to consumers. Once purchased online, the backpacks can be shipped to an authorized gun store. Curran says he works with the Blue Line Firearms and Tactical in Trumbull. As of the start of school last week, Blue Line hadnt sold any of the backpacks this year. Neither had Stamford Tactical, the citys only local gun shop. According to Curran, the inserts cost upwards of $100 and can protect from most shotguns, but not rifles. However, 93 percent of school shootings are executed with shotguns. This is the same, if not higher level protection as police body armor, Curran said. The coverage area is the same, if not a little more in terms of the ability of it to work. I think its absolutely critical. I like the idea of them having something where they can take care of themselves. erin.kayata@stamfordadvocate.com; (203) 964-2265; @erin_kayata NORWALK The Common Council has given its blessing to Eversource Energys plan to relocate two high-voltage electric lines from atop the Walk Bridge to underneath Norwalk Harbor and through the newly rebuilt Visitors Docks at Veterans Memorial Park. The council this week authorized Mayor Harry Rilling to send a letter on behalf of the city, indicating no objections to Eversource applying to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to perform the work. The action comes a week after the councils Public Works Committee, after hearing concerns from the Norwalk Harbor Management Commission, Norwalk Shellfish Commission and others about the proposed cable route, tabled action on the letter pending receipt of additional information. There were questions that needed to be answered and during the period between the joint meeting and the council meeting Eversource provided information, Rilling said Wednesday. The council approved the letter on a 9-3 vote with Democrats Travis Simms, Chris Yerinides and Gregory Burnett voting No. Democrat Michael Corsello abstained from the vote. The two 115-kilovolt cables provide electricity to the Third Taxing District and southwestern Connecticut. Eversource must remove them from the Walk Bridge by 2020 as part of the Connecticut Department of Transportations replacement of the bridge. The letter the mayor is providing helps begin the Army Corps of Engineers review of the route under Norwalk Harbor, Eversource spokesman Frank J. Poirot said Wednesday. We will likely file for this permit by November. The preferred route remains our first choice. The (Connecticut) Siting Council will ultimately decide how our cable connects to the grid in Southwest Connecticut. The rerouted lines would go underground at the Norwalk Police Department headquarters parking lot at 1 Monroe St., run below Elizabeth Street, go under the harbor from 90 Water St. and emerge at the north end of the visitors docks parking lot. Under the harbor, the cables would be placed 8 feet below the bottom of the pilings of the newly built Visitors Docks at the park, according to city engineers. John T. Pinto, chairman of the harbor commissions Application Review Committee, described the power companys willingness to go below the pilings as a noble gesture, but added that the power cables would still go through a public facility. They need to get the Army Corps permit to go under the federal channel and thats fine, Pinto said Wednesday. We appreciate that, but where under the federal (navigation) channel is what were concerned about. The Visitors Docks, thats a problem. What this (letter) does is basically empowers them to go along with their current plan, and that plans not only goes under the harbor but right through the Visitors Docks. In late May, new gangways were installed as part of the final phases of the $1.5 million dock replacement project at the David S. Dunavan Boating Center. The dock replacement project was paid partly with a $908,250 grant through the Connecticut Port Authoritys Small Harbor Improvement Projects Program. Harbor commissioners fear routing the electric cable below the docks, regardless of how deep, will limit future modifications or improvements to the visitors docks. The council authorized Rilling to send the letter after adding language that makes the authorization subject to an affidavit confirming the contents of the letter sent by Eversource on October 4, 2018. In that letter, Eversource Project Manager Evan Piacente outlined to Norwalk Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola areas of Veterans Memorial Park which the utility company would need to temporarily and permanently occupy as part of the cable project. The permanent occupation area would be approximately 15,000 square feet, primarily on the northwest corner of Veterans Park, beginning at the edge of the river extending into Veterans Park and running adjacent to Fort Point Street. The affected area would be about 30 feet wide at the rivers edge and increase to about 55 feet wide at the vault locations. The area to be temporarily used would be roughly 130,000 square feet and is primarily on the north side of Veterans Park. The affected area would be used mostly for the cable conduit, cable pulling, and vault installation, according to Piacente. He described the area within the river as a public right-of-way, similar to a city street. To maintain reliable electric power and to ensure the safe operation of the transmission cables, any entity or person who is contemplating a project that could impact the safe operation of the cables, should discuss the design of the project with Eversource to confirm that the proposed project would not have any adverse impacts to the electric system facilities, Piacente wrote. If the project would have, or risk, an adverse impact on Eversources facilities, then Eversource and the project developer would work to identify possible project modifications that would avoid such adverse impacts. This review process would be the same if the transmission facility were located in the street or across private land, he continued. Having a dedicated staff member to search out grants and write the applications will allow the district to bring in extra dollars, which, if done correctly, should mean the position should more than pay for itself, said Nick Alajakis, a district spokesman and the superintendents chief of staff. The once-unthinkable nearly became reality Sunday. Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician sometimes likened to President Trump, nearly won an outright majority of the vote in the first round of Brazil's presidential election. Had he succeeded, he would have clinched the presidency. Instead, he is the clear favorite in the runoff scheduled for Oct. 28. It wasn't long ago that the bruising and divisive Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old ex-paratrooper, was a fringe figure with little hope of winning power in Brasilia. Even in the weeks running up to Sunday's vote, experts suggested that the country's political process would curb his ascent. A second round would see voters rally behind a more mainstream challenger; a national legislature stacked with opponents would force Bolsonaro to moderate his hard-line positions. But a surge in support for Bolsonaro's angry, anti-establishment politics also upended Brazil's Congress, with his once-obscure Social Liberal Party running a close second to the leftist Workers' Party of jailed former president Lula Inacio da Silva. A host of veteran politicians - two-thirds of incumbents - were swept out, while a new, upstart generation that includes celebrity YouTubers is poised to enter the country's lower house. Lula's anointed successor, former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, will struggle to close the yawning gap between him and Bolsonaro ahead of the second round. Supporters of the front-runner envision him taking the reins with solid backing from a host of centrist and right-wing parties and plenty of legislative support. "What comes out from this election is a Congress more favorable to pass Bolsonaro's reforms," Juliano Griebeler, a political analyst at Barral M Jorge, a business consultancy, said to Bloomberg News. Bolsonaro got to this moment on the back of years of incendiary politicking. As we've already detailed, he is notorious for his outbursts of bigotry, launching diatribes against minorities, immigrants, women and LGBT Brazilians. He cast himself as the law-and-order candidate, declaring that he would give police greater license to kill criminals with impunity and make it easier for ordinary Brazilians to acquire their own firearms. As an evangelical Christian, he courted religious voters and pandered to conservative culture warriors. And he benefited from widespread anger at the country's political class, which is engulfed in a vast corruption scandal. "I voted for Bolsonaro because I'm tired of politicians being the same," Maria Aparecida de Oliveira, a 63-year-old housekeeper casting her ballot in an upper-middle-class district of Sao Paulo, said to my colleagues. "Even if he is a little crazy, someone needs to bring change." "Brazil 2018 is an epic tale of an establishment that failed to listen, ignored the issues that engaged voters most (namely crime & corruption), and didn't take the insurgent seriously," tweeted Brian Winter, the editor in chief of Americas Quarterly. "It's a global story, but especially pronounced here." The implications of Bolsonaro's success are huge - and, to many observers, grim. Bolsonaro has talked nostalgically of the decades when Brazil was ruled by a murderous right-wing dictatorship and hailed former military officers implicated in the torture of leftist political prisoners. He once said that the dictatorship's greatest failing was not killing more of them. That a critical mass of Brazilians backs Bolsonaro anyway is a sign of how polarized and venomous the country's political climate has become - a phenomenon increasingly apparent in democracies throughout the world. "It is an event of global significance, the latest chapter in an unfolding story about the destruction of liberal norms and the rise of populism," wrote Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman. "If we are to take seriously the things that Bolsonaro has said in the campaign, in my opinion Brazil's democracy is in grave peril," Lilia Schwarcz, a prominent Brazilian historian, said to the New York Times. She added: "We used to think that rights that have been conquered were rights that had been consolidated. I've concluded that we were being foolish. We must continue fighting for them." To many Brazilians, Haddad, Bolsonaro's opponent, seems unlikely to lead that fight. His left-wing Workers' Party, particularly under Lula's wildly popular administration, presided over a huge economic boom that lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty. But key figures in its leadership were later implicated, alongside most of Brazil's establishment, in the country's endemic graft. "I think Bolsonaro will carry on doing what he's doing. I don't think he has to change much," Glauco Peres, a political scientist at the University of Sao Paolo, said to the Guardian. "He'll keep hammering away at this idea of fear . . . that the [Workers' Party] represents a step backwards into corruption scandals and having criminals in government." Unlike the larger-than-life Lula, who is still a left-wing icon, Haddad "is a shy, pragmatic economist," wrote my colleagues Anthony Faiola and Marina Lopes. They noted that "he has tried to reassure investors that he would not pursue radical leftist policies, but many still worry he would not pass the tough reforms seen as necessary to avoid another economic crisis here." There is no such doubt about his opposite number. "Bolsonaro is a strange phenomenon," Lucas de Aragao, director of Arko Advice, a political risk company in Brasilia, told The Post. "It doesn't have any precedent in Brazil. Even some Lula voters are turning to him. It's happened because Brazil loves this idea of a savior, of a hero. And Bolsonaro now represents this image of a savior as much as Lula does." But his critics warn that such an image is only a mirage. "Brazilians can embrace the politics of division and the seductive appeal of simplistic solutions, following the path of populist authoritarians in Hungary, Poland and the Philippines," wrote Robert Muggah, co-founder of a Rio de Janeiro-based think tank. "Alternatively, they can preserve and renew their young democracy." - - - 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. I think I speak for many Norwalkers when I say the results of the November election will have drastic consequences for my future in Connecticut as well as for my friends and families futures. Because the stakes of this election involve Connecticuts ongoing fiscal crisis, the specter of more tax increases, and the availability of good jobs in this state, I decided I couldnt sit on the sidelines as the incumbent representative of Norwalks 137th House district seeks reelection. Connecticut is in desperate need of new ideas and new leadership, which is why I put myself forward as a candidate for state representative in order to offer Norwalkers a viable alternative way forward. I am a Norwalk native who cares deeply for this community, and my campaign is about hope for the future, creative ideas to reform state government, and fighting for the prioritization of education funding and transportation funding. Voters who pay attention have learned in the past two years that the preferred solution of Connecticut Democrats remains the same as it has been the past eight years: to tax our way into prosperity while reducing the services we rely on. In both the 2017 and 2018 legislative sessions, Democratic budgets proposed to solve our persistent budget deficit with sales tax hikes, new taxes on cell phones, new restaurant taxes, taxes on seasonal homes, taxes on home heating oil, and establishing highways tolls throughout our state with no plan in place (among other new taxes and fees). All of this while slashing Norwalks education funding, transportation, and other core government services. If there is one message I want to convey to Norwalk voters, it is that this does not need to be the way forward to our state. We do not and can not tax and toll our way back to prosperity. Connecticut needs to first focus on paying down its unfunded retirement liabilities that are strangling its budget. Then, serious structural reforms need to occur, such as switching new state employees over to defined contribution retirement plans that look more like private sector pensions. At this point, taxpayers cannot afford the government we have. Finally, phasing out or reducing burdensome taxes is the key to offering Connecticut residents hope for their future and the future of their children here. As election season enters full swing here in Norwalk, I hope to continue having conversations with Norwalk families about what needs to be done to make Connecticut more affordable and to bring jobs back. Frank Page is the Republican and Independent candidate for Connecticuts 137th House District, which covers East Norwalk, Central Norwalk, Shorefront Park, and a portion of Cranbury. He is challenging Democrat Chris Perone, who is seeking an eighth term in office. The sudden resignation Tuesday of U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is still a mystery. Her departure after less than two years on the job, just weeks before the midterms, and her lack of any evident next step all raise the question of why she is going, and why now. We have no idea if her abrupt decision was somehow connected to her ethics woes. But they are substantial, and she departs with her once-spotless reputation badly tarnished. As our watchdog group has documented, Haley has, over the course of her tenure in the Trump administration, exemplified the ethical problems that have afflicted it from the president on down. Indeed, her resignation became public a day after we filed our latest of several complaints against her, this one to the inspector general of the State Department. Her resignation letter was officially dated Oct. 3, though, several days before the complaint was filed. And we have no reason beyond proximity to wonder if her announcement was related to our complaint. Whatever the explanation of the timing, her resignation exemplifies how President Trump's own disrespect for government ethics has spread throughout his administration. Like Scott Pruitt at the Environmental Protection Agency, Tom Price at the Department of Health and Human Services and David Shulkin at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Haley did not live up to the ethical standards her powerful, highly visible position requires. Instead, her conduct reveals a disregard for our most basic ethics laws - in her case, ethics regulations governing gifts to officials and the Hatch Act limiting her political activity. These are not mere technicalities: They were put in place to curb the ability of special interests to influence policy through gratuities and to prevent the abuse of government positions for partisan politics. As the U.N. ambassador - as anyone holding public office should do - Haley should have held herself to a higher ethical standard and avoided any semblance of impropriety. She did not. Haley accepted flights on private planes likely worth tens of thousands of dollars from several businesspeople who had supported her past campaigns, which could violate ethics rules and standards. In doing so, she risked creating at least the appearance that she sold access to the highest level of American foreign policy to businesses that had donated to her campaign for governor. Like Pruitt's notorious luxury condo rental that he priced at $50 a night, far below market rates, Haley reported the value of her flights on these private jets at only hundreds of dollars apiece. That strains credulity when flights on private jets routinely cost far more. Haley could argue that these flights were given to her exclusively because of her personal friendship with each businessperson. That is, indeed, one of the exemptions to the federal ethics regulations. But there are significant reasons to doubt that argument. These were no mere social friends who gave her these flights. They were businesspeople who had donated, in total, around $40,000 to her gubernatorial campaign. Moreover, many of her flights were on aircraft owned by the donors' companies, and it is unclear whether the executives repaid the companies for the full value of the flights. The failure to do so would make the flight cost directly attributable to the businesses, rendering the personal gift exemption void. It hardly seems that Haley chose to respect the principle (enshrined in our ethics rules) that those in positions of power should, for the good of the country's institutions, avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Haley was also among the first of many Trump appointees to misuse their official authority to advance a partisan candidate in an ongoing election. That conduct is expressly prohibited by the Hatch Act, enacted by Congress to prevent the use of government office for political gain. She was eventually reprimanded by the Office of Special Counsel for using her official Twitter account to advocate for a political candidate. The Hatch Act is an important tool in protecting our democratic institutions from being unduly politicized - though, admittedly, protecting democratic institutions has not been high on this administration's list of priorities. By virtue of her position, Haley should have been particularly aware of the damage these kinds of transgressions can do internationally. Officials who ignore basic ethical principles harm the country's ability to model democracy to the rest of the world. Haley's obsequious performance during her resignation announcement underscored this president's complete personal sway over his administration. She entered the job as a former adversary of Trump's, and she showed an independent streak while serving. That was not in evidence as she praised the president, sang the unseen "genius" of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and declared that "the U.S. is respected." The president's disdain for ethical values, which Haley has regrettably emulated, has helped make the opposite true. While Haley may be departing the Cabinet, the miasma of corruption remains. It has become endemic, seeping out from the president himself and spreading throughout his political appointees. Not even Haley, with her once-sterling credentials, could avoid it. There are very few who can. - Bookbinder is executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a former federal corruption prosecutor. Eisen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic and author of "The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House." ALTON A retired Alton priest facing removal to his native England is changing his earlier plans to leave voluntarily for having mistakenly voted once in a U.S. election. At a preliminary hearing in Kansas City immigration court Tuesday, the Rev. David Boase and his attorney told a judge via phone that they will seek a cancellation of Boases removal. If granted, the action would allow Boase to reside permanently in the United States. However, he may never attain citizenship, his lawyer said a fact that Boase has accepted. Allowing Boase time to submit the necessary papers, Judge Glen R. Baker scheduled an April 23 teleconference to further discuss the matter. After Tuesdays session, Baker said he usually grants such applications, known as a 42A, for persons who meet the requirements of having no criminal convictions and at least five years of legal permanent residency status. He better not vote again, Baker told The Star. Boase legally migrated in 2004 to serve Episcopal churches in America. While taking the final administrative steps earlier this year for attaining U.S. citizenship, he acknowledged having voted in 2006. Boase said that when obtaining his drivers license, an Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles worker had encouraged him to register, so he thought it was OK. Boase later learned that only citizens are allowed to cast ballots in federal elections. A green-card holder since 2007, he never voted again. Still, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said his misstep not only barred Boase from citizenship, but required him to return to England because it was against the law. Voting when not a U.S. citizen is like a capital offense in the eyes of federal authorities, explained a Kansas City immigration lawyer. In news stories, social media and an online video that last month drew national attention, Boase, 69, said his deportation was inevitable and that he would not fight the USCIS decision. His lawyer, David T. Cox, suggested voluntary departure, which would allow the priest to return to the U.S. earlier than if he were ordered removed. But that option was withdrawn after Boases story reached other lawyers, who contacted Cox. They urged him to apply for a 42A cancellation of removal based on Boases good moral character and clean criminal record. Cox acknowledge having misinterpreted immigration laws. Thats very encouraging, said Jane Weingartner, a parishioner at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Edwardsville, where Boase has served the past several months. Were all very hopeful things will work out. As of Tuesday, a GoFundMe account to help fund Boases legal expenses had raised $8,200, surpassing its $5,000 goal. EDWARDSVILLE SIUEs Arts and Issues series brings Fred Gray, the first attorney for iconic civil rights figures Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to the SIUE campus to speak at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5 in the Morris University Centers Meridian Ballroom. Gray, a Montgomery, Ala., native and nationally recognized civil rights attorney, helped to change history when just a year out of law school, at the age of 24, he represented Parks, who was charged with disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. In 1955, Gray took Parks case which sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott that Gray helped to organize. The boycott brought global attention to King and civil rights issues. Gray would go on to serve as Kings first civil rights attorney. Gray has spent his life in the forefront of creating change in the areas of desegregation, integration, constitutional law, racial discrimination in voting, housing, education, jury service, farm subsidies, medicine and ethics and generally in improving the national judicial system. In addition to the case that integrated the city buses in the city of Montgomery in 1956, Gray is also known for a case that returned African-Americans to the city limits of the city of Tuskegee as well as Pollard v. USA, where rural black males in and around Macon County, Ala., were induced into what has become known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The latter case was settled and the government was ordered to discontinue its treatment program. In 1997, at the encouragement of Gray, President Clinton officially apologized to the participants of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Gray was also a major force in the establishment of the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center in Tuskegee. Now 88 years old, Gray will be presenting his speech, Bus Ride to Justice the Montgomery Bus Boycott, on Nov. 5 at SIUE. His presentation is based, in part, on his autobiography, Bus Ride to Justice: The Life and Works of Fred Gray. Were excited to have one of the most significant figures in the civil rights movement on our campus. Dr. Timothy Lewis, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, is a personal friend of Mr. Grays and brought the idea to me of presenting him in our series, Grant Andre, Director of the Arts & Issues series said in an SIUE news release. Grays legal career has spanned more than 50 years, and as an attorney, he fought to destroy segregation and fight for human rights. He won multiple landmark civil rights cases, including the $10 million settlement for the Tuskegee Institute study of untreated syphilis in African American men. He later served as a state representative in Alabama the first since reconstruction. Tickets for the Grays presentation can be ordered online at artsandissues.com or in-person at the Morris University Center (MUC) Welcome Desk. The MUC Welcome Desk is open 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on Fridays. The Welcome Desk is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. The presentation is sponsored by the Madison County Regional Office of Education, SIUE Office of the Provost and SIUE Department of Political Science. This program is also partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. For the Telegraph EAST ALTON Olin Corporation announced Wednesday that it will be partnering with the Salvation Army and Convoy of Hope to distribute more than 16,000 gallons of bleach to residents affected by Hurricane Florence. Having a supply of bleach on hand is critical to clean and disinfect impacted areas after flood-related disasters, said Scott Abel, Vice President, Olin. This is the best way we can help these communities recover, and were happy to partner with KIK Custom Products, the Salvation Army and Convoy of Hope to help distribute the bleach to people who need it. Gaining fury with every passing hour, Hurricane Michael closed in Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic winds of 150 mph, the most powerful storm on record ever to menace the stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches. With more than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast warned to evacuate, the hurricanes leading edge began lashing the white-sand shoreline with tropical storm-force winds, rain and rising seas before daybreak, hours before Michaels center was expected to blow ashore. I really fear for what things are going to look like there tomorrow at this time, Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach said in an email. The supercharged brute quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression, reaching a furious Category 4 early Wednesday as it drew energy from the Gulf of Mexicos warm waters, an unseasonably high 84 degrees. Less than a day earlier, Michael was a Category 2. The time to evacuate has come and gone SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY, Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted, while the sheriff in Panama Citys Bay County issued a shelter-in-place order before dawn. In St. Marks, John Hargan and his family gathered up their pets and evacuated to a raised building constructed to withstand a Category 5 after water from the St. Marks River began surrounding their home. His 11-year-old son, Jayden, carried one of the familys dogs in a laundry basket in one arm and held a skateboard in the other as he waded through calf-high water. Hargan, a bartender at a riverfront restaurant, feared he would lose his home and his job to the storm. We basically just walked away from everything and said goodbye to it, he said, tears welling up. Im freakin scared Im going to lose everything I own, man. As of 11:30 a.m. EDT, Michael was centered about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Panama City, its winds at 150 mph (240 kmh). It was moving at 14 mph (22 kph). Hurricane-force winds extended up to 45 miles (75 kilometers) from its center. Rainfall could reach up to a foot (30 centimeters), and the life-threatening storm surge could swell to 14 feet (4 meters). The storm appeared to be so powerful that it is expected to remain a hurricane as it moves over Georgia early Thursday. Forecasters said it will unleash damaging wind and rain all the way into the Carolinas, still recovering from Hurricane Florences epic flooding. We are in new territory, National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle. With Election Day less than a month away, the crisis was seen as a test of leadership for Scott, a Republican running for the Senate, and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for governor. Just as Northern politicians are judged on how they handle snowstorms, their Southern counterparts are watched closely for how they deal with hurricanes. Several hours ahead of landfall, seawater was already lapping over the docks at Massalina Bayou near downtown Panama City, and knee-deep water was rising against buildings in St. Marks, which sits on an inlet south of Tallahassee. Huge waves pounded the white sands of Panama City Beach, shooting frothy water all the way to the base of wooden stairs that lead to the beach. More than 5,000 evacuees sought shelter in the capital city, which is about 25 miles from the coast but is covered by live oak and pine trees that can fall and cause power outages even in smaller storms. Only a skeleton staff remained at Tyndall Air Force Base, situated on a peninsula just south of Panama City. The home of the 325th Fighter Wing and some 600 military families appeared squarely targeted for the worst of the storms fury, and leaders declared HURCON 1 status, ordering out all but essential personnel. The bases aircraft, which include F-22 Raptors, were flown hundreds of miles away as a precaution. The National Hurricane Center predicted 9 to 14 feet of inundation at Tyndall. Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Panhandle into north-central Florida. But civilians dont have to follow orders, and authorities feared many failed to heed their warnings to get out. Weve told those who stayed to have their life jackets on when the storm comes, Tress Dameron, Franklin County emergency management coordinator, told The News Herald in Panama City. Meteorologists watched in real time as a new government satellite showed the hurricanes eye tightening, surrounded by lightning that lit it up like a Christmas tree. I guess its the worst-case scenario. I dont think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle, meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com said. This is going to have structure-damaging winds along the coast and hurricane-force winds inland. The University of Georgias Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society, called it a life-altering event, writing on Facebook that he watched the storms growth on satellite images with a pit in his stomach. Nathan Papes | Springfield News-Leader (AP) Vice President Mike Pence will be in Springfield on Friday to take part in a fundraiser for 13th District Congressman Rodney Davis. Pence will be a guest at Panther Creek Country Club, according to the State Journal-Register. Ticket prices range from $500 to $12,700. DAndrea: Yes, I was actually 13 when I started. It was one of my first jobs in my town. I was serving and didnt like it and went straight to the back of the kitchen. I saw the guy was making pizza and I said, can I try it? After one week, I was making 140 pizzas by myself just 13 years old wow.